Heyy! I know that this chapter isn't as long as I promised, but in my defense, I have been really busy, and am currently suffering from writers block. *Sigh*

Anywho... Once again, I hope you enjoy, I really luv nice comments, I don't own any characters, places, etc...

ENJOY!!!

I had to wake up at a very ungodly hour the next day. Artemis and I were supposed to head out for the quest before most of the campers woke up.

I groaned as my alarm went off. It was way too early to be getting out of bed. The sun wasn't even up yet! I glanced over at Tyson who was snoring peacefully in his overly tiny bed. I sighed, and pulled on my Camp Half-Blood sweatshirt, and a pair of fresh jeans, grabbed my supply bag and Riptide, and headed out towards the Big House.

When I reached the Big House, Artemis and Chiron were already there.

Artemis was pacing anxiously. She, as opposed to me, looked wide awake. Her auburn hair was neatly pulled up into a ponytail, and her backpack, which lay on the steps of the Big House, looked as if it had been packed neatly whereas with mine, I had just stuffed a few tee shirts, a pair of jeans, a hoodie, a bit of old ambrosia I found in my sweatshirt from who knows when, and a canteen of nectar.

Artemis looked up when she saw me coming. She looked annoyed that I was slightly late.

"Ahh, Percy you're here, now we can get going." Chiron said.

"Yea, sorry for being late." I yawned.

"Oh, it's no problem." Chiron said, kind of anxiously.

"What's wrong?" I asked, picking up on his anxiety.

Artemis answered, "The gods have already begun to fight."

"What?"

Chiron nodded grimly, "Apollo overheard Aphrodite talking to Ares about how he…um…" Chiron shifted uncomfortably.

Artemis sighed, "Let's just say that Aphrodite is convinced that I stole the master bolt, and my brother took it out on Ares." Artemis grinned mischievously.

"Oh." I said. I remembered what Apollo had told me a few years ago when Artemis had gone missing; nobody messes with my baby sister. Nobody.

I guess he wasn't kidding. I thought to myself.

"So where is Rachel?" I asked.

"She should be spending the winter with her parents." Chiron replied, "Argus will drive you to the bus station. From there on, you two will be on your own."

"Goody" Artemis muttered sarcastically.

Our ride to the bus station was very quiet. Naturally, Argus didn't say anything, Artemis was lost in her own thoughts, and I was too tired to come up with anything to say.

When we reached the bus stop, we said our 'good-byes' to Argus, and sat down to wait for the bus. I won't lie; waiting with Artemis was a little awkward. It didn't help that just last night, she implied that I stole the master bolt.

Artemis broke the awkward silence, "About last night, I knew that you didn't steal the master bolt. I was just frustrated that I am being blamed 'again' for a crime I did not commit." I remained silent.

Fortunately, before things could get any more awkward, the bus came rumbling down the street.

On the bus, we didn't have to worry much about talking. Even though it was a near hour long ride to Rachel's neighborhood, we each had our own iPod to listen to. At first I found it a little strange that a goddess would have an iPod, but I guess since she was the sister of the god of music, she liked music a lot too.

We reached Rachel's street, and I led the way to her house. When we got there, we both instantly realized that something was wrong.

The large house, which was usually perfectly manicured, had long green ivy tendrils wrapping around the windows. The mailbox was overstuffed with letters, and the large front door was hanging by a hinge.

Artemis pulled out her bow, and I unsheathed Riptide, and we ran into the house.

"Look on the main floor," Artemis instructed, "I'll check the top floor." I nodded my head in agreement, and Artemis bolted up the stairs.

I ran into the kitchen, and on the counter I noticed a note. It was addressed to me, written by Rachel.

percy- i hope you get this note very sooN

it is hard to write this note for i find i hAve

a very hard time missing a friend . haVe

a wonderful christmas. i hope that joY

finds you this season. for you see my Percy

i miss you a lot. hopefully you soon wIll

find me at camp half-blood this summEr.

please remember to write to me, youR

friend, rachel.

That's odd. I thought. "Artemis, I found something." I called upstairs.

She ran down and looked at the note. She was silent for a moment.

"It doesn't make any sense." I said.

Artemis's eyes scanned the note, then slowly, she said, "Don't you find it… odd, that when she addresses the note to you, the first letter in your name isn't capitalized, yet later in the note, she capitalizes it?"

I shrugged.

"Also, look how far the last word in every line is. It has it so the capital letters line up." Artemis's eyes widened, "That's it." She breathed.

"What is?" I asked.

She grabbed a pen off of the table and flipped the note over, so she had a clean space to write on. She wrote down some of the letters, then showed it to me.

NAVY PIER

"What?" I asked, still confused.

Artemis rolled her eyes at me, "Navy Pier. In Chicago." I still didn't understand.

Artemis sighed, "Don't you get it? It's a clue. Rachel must have been in trouble, and now she's at Navy Pier."

"oh." I said. Rachel couldn't be in trouble. Why would anyone try to kidnap her? "So what do we do now?" I asked.

Artemis smiled. "Now, we book the next flight to Illinois."

Uh oh…

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