I grabbed Annabeth by the shoulders and threw her and myself to the ground.

"Percy what the fu-" Annabeth stopped herself when she saw the blast of flame cook the air right where we'd just been. I jumped to my feet and drew Riptide, the celestial bronze glowing faintly in the dark. The dragon charged head on and took a bite at me, but I rolled left, came up and slashed, my blade cutting deeply into the side of the dragons head. The monster roared and turned on me, I doubted I'd be able to dodge an attack a third time... But then Annabeth was there, and she leaped at the huge dragons head from the other side, plunging her knife into its right eye. The Dragon screeched and shook its head, Annabeth was thrown into a wall and hit with a sickening crack. I started running to her but she called out that she was okay and staggered to her feet. She needs time to recover I realized, and I assaulted the dragon, hacking and slashing, "We cant fight him here!" I called out.

"I know!"

"Well daughter of Athena?" I called as riptide sliced another gash in the dragons head. I had it bleeding heavily now, but I knew it would be a matter of seconds before I miscalculated something and ended up either burnt or chewed on. I mean, sure, I was invulnerable and all, but this bastard was big enough to swallow me whole, and if I got engulfed in flames something would find my Achilles heel.

Annabeth was thinking feverishly, "On the other side of the DQ there's a gas station!"

"You want to blow up a gas station!?"

"Have you got a better idea?"

I had to agree, I had encountered Dragons before, but this thing was huge. No, not huge, Massive. It almost made me wonder at first if it was a Drakon. But then Drakon's don't breath fire, so it had to be just a huge Dragon.

"Okay!" I called, "I'll keep him distracted a few more seconds you make a run for it I'll be right behind you!"

She did as I rolled out of the way of another fire ball, I was vaguely aware that the dragon was closer that time and my shoe had been burnt off. Quick as I could I slashed the dragon on e more good one across his face, then turned and ran after Annabeth.

"How do we blow the station?" I called after her.

"I have a small bottle of Greek fire, if we can get him to stand close..."

"We'll have to be pretty damn close to y'know!"

"I know Percy but its all we've got!"

Annabeth is the daughter of Athena, she always has a plan and it never fails, well, almost never. We didn't think the Dragon would fly over us and stop right beside the gas station, cutting us off from it.

I cursed, "Annabeth throw your Greek fire."

"I cant Percy, It's too far away and we've only got one shot at this."

That's when the Dragon started spewing fire triumphantly into the air. Apparently, this was a massive, fire breathing, terrifying, Demigod Hunting dragon, that was insanely stupid. It blew fire onto the pumps of the gas station, lighting everything in it's range into a blaze. A horrified cashier ran from the building, while I didn't know what he saw through the mist, it couldn't have been good. Needless to say, the gas station blew up a few seconds later, completely vaporizing the dragon. I was a good two hundred yards away, but the blast almost knocked me over, heat seared my face as the mushroom, cloud rose high, illuminating the night sky. Again, I didn't know what the mortals saw through the mist, but there was mass confusion in the streets.

I stood there, charred, bruised, and cut up, but I was alive. Relief washed over me like a wave. I chuckled a little, hunched over coughed up a bit of blood, then straightened and said, "Damn Annabeth, that was a little sketchy hu? Oh well, nothing like a good Dragon-slaying to get the blood pumping. Annabeth?"

I looked over and all the blood drained from my face. Annabeth was kneeling on the cracked pavement, clutching her side as blood spilled out over her shirt. The explosion had sent shards of steel from the gas station everywhere, but I thought we'd been spared, I was wrong. A twelve inch piece of shrapnel stuck out of Annabeth's ribs, the gods only knew how deep it was.

"No..." I ran to her, just as she fell back and I caught her in my arms. "No.." I repeated the word, I couldn't wrap my mind around what was happening, "No... no no no, please no, oh gods, Annabeth, hold on, please, you cant leave me... Hold on. Just hold on, I'll go find some ambrosia or nectar-"

"Hey, Seaweed brain..."

Annabeth's voice came out raspy, and far too quiet, I swore under my breath and said, "Hey wise girl... Your not gonna' die on me alright? I'm gonna' go find some ambrosia and-"

"No."

"What do you mean?"

"Percy... It's too deep, no amount of ambrosia is going to fix it... Just stay with me okay? Please, Seaweed brain? Just hold me a while longer..."

Part of me knew she was right, the wound was far too deep, she'd already lost so much blood, there was nothing I could do now, she was dying right in front of me, and I was helpless. But another part of me refused to accept this, it knew I couldn't live without her, but she held my hand like it was all that mattered to her, and I knew I had to stay in theses last few moments. That's when I started shaking, my whole body vibrated, I was shaking so badly I dropped riptide, the blade clattering on the ground.

"Annabeth, I love you." I said it. I'd wanted to say it for so long now, but I was so scared I'd put to much pressure on her and scare her off, and now I regretted so badly that I hadn't told her before. Annabeth was to weak to reply now, but she smiled, and I knew those three words had made her happy.

Then I heard it, an engine howling down the street behind me. I turned and looked, and there was a red convertible Maserati Spyder driving down the street. I'd seen that car before, that was the sun chariot, and, sure enough, there was Apollo in the driver seat. He didn't seem to notice me, so I stood up and waved my arms. Still nothing. He was about to pass me, and I couldn't let that happen, this was my one chance, I couldn't lose Annabeth. I just couldn't. I picked up Rip tide and threw it at the car. Okay, so maybe throwing a sword at the God of archery isn't the greatest idea, but I was desperate. No, I was more than desperate, I was hysterical, not processing thoughts right. Anyways, my blade flew threw the air, and impaled itself in the passenger seat. Apollo yelped and his expression turned angry. Well, I thought, that's it, now Apollo is going to blast me before I get a chance to explain and me and Annabeth are both as good as dead. However, much to my relief, The God roared into the parking lot and drifted to a stop beside me. He got out, his expression enraged, he growled; "Jackson what in Hades name is this-" He stopped when he saw Annabeth and his expression changed to horror, his voice went quiet and there was a tone of concern and sadness in it as he breathed; "Oh, not good. Not good at all."

"Apollo please, your the God of medicine to, please tell me you can help her."

"I don't know Perseus, she's fading fast, but I swear I'll do my best."

Apollo knelt beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder, immediately the blood stopped leaking, the piece of shrapnel lodged in her slid out and fell to the ground, and the gash healed closed, leaving only a thin scar. She was still horribly pale though, and she seemed to lapsing in and out of consciousness.

"Is she- I mean, is she going to live?" I asked, my eyes stinging.

"I don't know, she was almost on her way to Charon when I showed up. What happened?"

"We were on a date and.. a dragon attacked us-"

"A Dragon?"

"Yeah, Big one, huge, actually. We blew it up in the gas station, but it sent shrapnel and- and-" I started choking on my words.

"She is a very strong one, that daughter of Athena. I think she will be okay. Take this." Apollo handed me a package of ambrosia squares.

"Thank you, Apollo, I don't have anything to pay you back with-"

Don't worry about that, is there a safe place you can take her to rest up?"

I thought about it, we were only a quarter mile from her Dorm room.

"Yeah, yeah there is."

"Good," Apollo started making his way back to his car, "And Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"For a powerful dragon to attack you out in the open like this.. I don't like it. It's like someone sent it after you, meet me at this DQ tomorrow at noon." Apollo got into his car before adding, "And Percy, Come alone." The car left.

For a half a second, I wondered why Apollo was driving around New York. Then Annabeth came to behind me, "Percy?" Her voice sounded healthier now.

"Hey, hey, here before you try moving eat this." I gave her some ambrosia.

"Percy what- what happened?"

"Apollo came and fixed you up." I heard sirens in the distance and I helped Annabeth to her feat. "C'mon, we gotta' get you to your Dorm.