Annabeth:

Doing a little research into the past (with some unexpected help)

Yes, I had requested an interview with Gabriel in private but I was surprised at how quick he was to respond to it. "I'm sorry to have made the request, from the look of it you had a rough past," I said when he sat down. "That's why I accepted your request, so that the demigods of Camp Half-Blood could understand my position as servant of Olympus a bit better," Gabriel said. I got out a pen and some paper from my notebook and told him to proceed whenever he was ready but to go slow so I could catch it all.

After the interview, I gathered the information that he had given me and that encompassed eighteen pages of my notebook. He was born in Duarte, Los Angeles to a woman who he only remembered as "Mary" and his father Kronos. His uncle was an alcoholic, which made life as his foster son a tragic beginning for Gabriel. When he was nine, his aunt introduced him to his paternal family and he had nearly fainted from finding out that they were the gods of Olympus and the preceding Titans.

He lived amongst them for two years since even when he was sober, Gabriel's uncle still tended to be abusive. When he returned, his uncle accepted him with open arms and called him his son like he had hoped would happen. He needed son badly since he already had two younger daughters by his wife and they were a handful. Gabriel's maternal family (when they didn't die of old age or disease first) were amongst the first mortal casualties of the Titans king Kronos' return to power and his uncle found himself having to pay for the funerals of his family almost every other month.

His uncle, cousins, and aunt were the last of his maternal family to die and they had died right in front of his eyes, a year after he had been accepted. The day of their deaths was a day where they tried to be happy in spite of all the damage had been done by the Titans. On that day, it was cloudy with little chance of rain and Oceanus had started an uprising in the waters below. So the seas and oceans were a little against them as they sailed their yacht on one of their pleasure cruises that they took whenever they could.

The oceans were not the problem so much as what was above them on that day. Gabriel's uncle had gone down below deck to get some soda for Gabriel and his cousins when something fell from the sky toward them. As it turned out, it appeared to be a meteor but it turned out to be a Titan that was coming down in the form of a meteor. They saw nothing of the immortal himself before he crash into the yacht and bent it completely in half.

The rear half exploded since it was the engine side and the gasoline had been ignited. Meanwhile, the front half was sinking with Gabriel's uncle, aunt, and his eldest cousin trapped in it after he saved the youngest. One of the leftover boards of wood from the rear half was big enough for both Gabriel and his youngest cousin to lie down on it and safely float across the southeastern Pacific for as long as they needed to. For four days, the two of them floated safely across the ocean before his cousin succumbed to a heat stroke and died.

The Titan who had attacked them three days before watched as Gabriel pushed his cousin's body off his platform of wood. Below, sharks had waited since the beginning until some food had dropped in and Gabriel looked up to that Titan just to avoid watching his sister become lunch to them. The only thing that kept Gabriel from thinking that it was the Titan Iapetus was the fact that this Titan had a scar that looked like he had been bitten by some predatory bird along his chest and stomach. For several long moments, the two of them exchanged eye contact and Gabriel knew that this Titan would be his enemy for as long as he lived.

After the exchange of eye contact, the Titan vanished and left Gabriel floating for another week before he was found by a fisherman. Though barely alive at that point, Gabriel's anger and hatred of the Titan kept him alive long enough for him to reach a hospital in San Diego and recover. When he got out of the hospital, Hestia returned to him and made him a proposition: he would be given the power to take revenge against the Titans, especially that one, in exchange for serving five gods of his choice for a year each. From what I can gather, he is in the late part of his final year in service to the gods and from what he has said, he hopes for an early chance to avenge his family and live the rest of his days in peace.

His service to the gods has been one of the best things that has happened to him in spite of the high prices he has had to pay for it. First, he would often suffer flashbacks of the day when his uncle, aunt, and cousins were killed by the Titans. Next, he would suffer a fit of madness in which he would be only satisfied if he bedded a woman within the next few hours. Finally, he would fall asleep feeling ashamed of what he had done and hope for a better day.

But since these were not prices that the gods made him pay, he was perfectly content with serving them in spite of his own personal pain. He told me that he knew for certain that it would all go away on the day he caught up with that Titan and killed him. And this Titan, he said, was the bringer of fire and the benefactor of mankind and that made it even more thrilling for him. This brought alarm in me because then I knew who he wanted revenge against more than anyone: Prometheus himself.

Gabriel vowed to kill Prometheus before he died as well as any other Titans, monsters, or mortals who got in his way. I thanked him for relaying the information over to me before I saw him leave the Athena table and (unbelievably) walk over to the Aphrodite table. But not before he went to get seconds on food since he apparently had a bigger appetite than most people. He also knocked himself out on infinite amounts (thanks to the magic grails) of RC Cola.

Drew Beauregard, leader of the Aphrodite cabin, made the first moves on him and he accepted her advances. That led me to guess that he was on the verge of going into a fit of madness unless he found a woman to sleep with. The good thing was that I was not his target but the bad thing was that his target was a masochist for pleasure (so to speak). With research in hand, I went to Chiron and asked him how much he already knew about his half-brother Gabriel.

"I know everything Annabeth because I was one of the immortal beings who raised him. Fortunately, I was also one of the doctors who saw to his recovery by smuggling in nectar and ambrosia from Camp Half-Blood," Chiron said to me. I had to admit that it was an impressive feat for Chiron to pass as a doctor but with his magical wheelchair and his ability to manipulate the Mist, anything was possible. "Does he… remember you from when you helped him recover from his near-death experience?" I asked.

"He does because he has a natural ability to see through the Mist, more natural than any demigod here. It would make even the keenest of demigods look blind," Chiron said. That really surprised me then I asked Chiron if it was really necessary for him to play out his earthly pleasures upon the daughters of Aphrodite. "His heart is one full of grief that is only temporarily covered up by those pleasures and it's much better than having him smuggle alcohol for certain," Chiron answered, his face filled with sadness as he said it.

Then I saw a sight that I didn't think I would be seeing: a tear dropping from Chiron's eye. "You love your brother don't you?" I asked. Chiron nodded but showed only slight surprise that I had figured that out. "That's why I hope he's granted an early victory in his quest for revenge or an early death," Chiron added.

"How do you know an early death will spare him misery? Hades may choose to put him in Tartarus," I asked. "Hades can try but Hestia will not let that happen to him without a fight," Chiron answered. "So that's who he presently serves!" I shouted, having figured it out at last. "Actually he serves Hera but does answer to Hestia, Helios, Selene, and Eos," Chiron told me after shaking his head.

All five of those names surprised me but Hera was the one who sparked the most old memories. For a whole year, her sacred cows dropped nice little presents on my dad's lawn without us being able to stop them. And that was only for a small case of truth I put on her in the Labyrinth last year. "Well Chiron, I wish you good night and I think I'll make a prayer that when he-has fun- he doesn't shake the whole campground," I said.

Chiron chuckled and assured me that he would not be doing that. I sighed in relief but I was not entirely sure I wanted to be relieved by that. Nonetheless, I walked to my cabin in content with myself and the fact that there was good chance I would still be having a peaceful sleep. Malcolm agreed with me on that and asked if it might be possible for me to lend him Daedalus' laptop for a project he was doing. I gave him the laptop then went to the bunk I slept in and quietly put myself to sleep for the night.

While Malcolm worked on his project with the instructions on the laptop, I slept and dreamed dreams that I have never had before. In the dream, my vision was narrowed by a helmet of ancient design and I had a spear pointing in front of me towards an (as yet) unknown enemy. But then, the enemy came into my line of sight in the form of an unidentified soldier with a strange design that I had never seen before. He kept attacking me then shouted something strange: "For the Titans!" and insisted on his attack.

I was very lucky to have been able to kill him but as it turned out, it was an undead soldier. Endless hordes of undead soldiers attacked from every angle and I noticed that I was surrounded by soldiers who were not even Greek. One of them shouted "For Troy!" and I knew instantly that I was fighting with Trojans. I faded into the background because I noticed that I was carrying a sack with something of value inside it.

It had the weight of a massive jewel and one of the Trojan soldiers told me to escape the ruins of Troy before it was too late. But that did not make sense: the ruins of Troy? Was I in modern time or was I in the ancient days. As fate would have it, I was in the modern time and I was carrying a suit of armor out of the ruins of Troy. I ran for the ancient ruins of the Trojan gate, dodging undead enemies serving the Titans and occasionally being saved by Trojan soldiers.

I escaped with minimal casualties to my person but by the end of that same week, the Trojans had been wiped out. After running far enough away, I undid the bag and donned on the armor. I was curious to see what it felt like and whether it fit me or not. It not only fit me perfectly but also gave me a surge of power unlike anything that I have ever felt before.

It truly was a jewel in its own right and I wielded the armor alongside unbeatable martial arts and equally powerful skills in swordplay. It felt good until I came across a woman and she was crying for a reason I could not quite understand. Then she surprised me and said that she loved me but she did not want to see me leave. "I will never leave you," I said but in a man's voice rather than my own.

Without any control over myself, I placed a hand (not my own but the hand of a man) on her face and attempted to sooth her. Then I turned, lacking control over this man's body but apparently seeing what he was seeing. A woman, no doubt a goddess of Olympus from her aura, appeared in the doorway with a menacing intent in her voice. "You have two choices hero: return to service, your crime will be forgiven and she will be spared from my wrath.

"But choose to stay with her and your crime will not be forgiven. It will follow you even in death, giving you no peace and carrying you to Tartarus right next to the Titans' place of punishment! As for the girl, she will be amusement in beginning the end of what little peace you ever had," the goddess explained. I knew I couldn't let it happen and apparently, this body knew he couldn't let it happen either.

So the man took the steps toward the goddess and he was redeemed for his sin against the gods. I woke up, sweating and my heart thumping harder than it usually did. In fact, it was thumping so hard that I could literally hear it beating in my ears. "You okay Annabeth?" Malcolm asked.

"I just had a bad dream that's all," I said. "Annabeth, you are my half-sister and the leader of the Athena cabin. I want no secrets from you please tell me what's going on," he replied. I told him the dream and he grimaced, guessing that it somehow applied to Gabriel and I knew I had to find him or Percy tomorrow.

The next day…

"There's a disturbance in the oceans and Poseidon wishes for four demigods from our camp. I have selected Gabriel as one of them to initiate him into the Camp and I have selected Percy Jackson since he would guarantee everyone else protection in his father's domain," Chiron explained. "If it's not too much to ask Chiron, I too would like to go on this mission. Gabriel and I were only acquainted in the sense of reporter and subject of interview yesterday," I said.

"Annabeth Chase, take your place beside Percy if you wish to go and the next one to step up may take his or her place beside Gabriel," Chiron said. To my surprise, Thalia decided that she would join but not for anything related to Gabriel. "While my Hunters are recovering, I will be in need of something to do now that my arm has healed," she explained. She also added that she would be amongst friends if she went on this mission with me, Percy, and Gabriel.

"Then it is decided that Perseus Jackson of the Poseidon Cabin, Thalia Grace of the Zeus and Artemis cabins, Annabeth Chase of the Athena Cabin, and Gabriel Johnson of the Hera Cabin shall go to visit Poseidon. I sadly fear the worst for the domain of the seas but that is what you four are assigned to confirm," Chiron declared. "My dear brother, I love you but I love it even more when you try to revive the Greek theatrical style of speaking," Gabriel said. Everyone chuckled but we were soon on our way.