Sorry for the long wait! Anyways, I'm leaving on an RV trip to Oregon on Friday for a week, so I won't be able to update. I'll try to get one more chapter in before I leave. But anyways, enjoy!

Chapter 22: Annabeth

"All right, is everyone on board?" Leo called. He and the Vulcan cabin had finished fixing the Argo II, with metal reinforcements.

Piper, Leo, Annabeth, Jason, Reyna, Bobby, and Percy waved to the campers on the ground as they took off. Annabeth hoped that the trip back to Camp Half-Blood would be safer that it had coming here. It probably wouldn't be.

When Legion Camp was out of sight, hidden in the trees, Annabeth walked over to the side of the ship. From this height she could see the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Mount Tam. That place brought back bad memories.

Percy walked over to her and took her hand. "You know we won't have to go back there ever again, right?" he asked her. Annabeth smiled and nodded, so happy that she was back with Percy again.

About an hour later, as it was starting to get dark, Bobby said nervously, "Um, guys?"

Annabeth followed his gaze and saw a group of harpies, demon women with talons and feathery wings. They were following the boat, and there were at least 20. Usually, harpies weren't too aggressive, but a lot of them at once would be difficult to fight off.

Everybody drew their weapons. Leo put on the speed. It didn't do much good, though, the harpies were almost caught up to the Argo II.

"We could use an archer now." Annabeth heard Piper mutter. Annabeth agreed with her. She was also sure that Piper would have liked Hazel along rather than Reyna.

"Time to do some fancy flying!" Leo yelled. "Everybody hold on!" Annabeth grabbed the rail that ran along the inside of the ship just as Leo tipped the ship forward into an almost vertical dive. When he pulled up again, Annabeth looked behind them and saw that he had confused the harpies a little bit, but they were still coming after them, pretty close to the ship.

"They're still on our tail!" Reyna yelled at Leo.

"Hold on I've got a few tricks!" Leo shouted back. He pressed a huge button on the control panel next to the wheel and a chain net flew out of the back of the boat, spinning as it went. A few unfortunate harpies got tangled in it and went down, but the rest were still in pursuit.

The harpies where now flying along the length of the ship. Leo pulled up, again almost throwing everyone out of the boat. But this time, the harpies had been expecting it, and they went up with the ship. Annabeth slashed at one that was flying right next to her. It dodged and hissed, "Die!" then lunged. Annabeth whipped out her knife and stabbed it in the stomach.

She looked around at everyone else. They each had at least two harpies on them, except for Leo. She saw a harpy that was flying down towards Leo, trying to hurt him with her claws.

"Leo look out!" Annabeth shouted. She was too far away to help, but thankfully Leo got a hammer out his tool belt and brained the harpy. Annabeth let go of her handrail and finished it off before it could recover.

"Leo, keep your mind on driving, I'll keep them away." Annabeth told him. He nodded and put on another burst of speed. Five harpies swooped down on her, and Annabeth tried to keep them away with her dagger in one hand and her sword in the other. But they were attacking her from all directions. The only thing on her mind was to keep them away from Leo, because otherwise the whole ship would go down.

"Annabeth!" she heard somebody scream her name, Percy, maybe? She couldn't see anything through the feathery wings that kept flapping around her. Behind her, she felt Leo vanish. Quickly she turned around and saw him battling with a harpy, talons against a hammer. The wheel and the controls had been left without anybody to manage them. Even now, Annabeth could feel the ship starting to tip forwards.

"Somebody grab the wheel!" Leo yelled. Annabeth saw Jason half-run and half-fly past her and fend off a harpy that had been trying to get a hold of the wheel.

She continued to keep away the harpies that were surrounding her. Another one had joined the ones surrounding her, and they were smart enough to make sure the Celestial bronze didn't touch them. Annabeth managed to disintegrate one of them, but the others just kept cutting her arms and face with their talons. Annabeth knew she couldn't keep this up much longer, she was getting tired, and everybody else was battling their own harpies, so there would be no help.

I need to protect my friends. Annabeth thought. I will not let these demons beat us. That would be a stupid way to die. The world seemed to slow down around Annabeth. She stabbed, hacked, and slashed, and eventually she only had one more harpy to deal with.

But Annabeth was really worn out now. And this harpy seemed the smartest of them all. The harpy swooped away and pointed her talons straight at Annabeth. Annabeth would've rolled out of the way, except that Leo was at the wheel again and if the harpy hit him, then they would lose one of their seven demigods too early, and the ship would probably crash.

Annabeth raised her sword in front of her face, but those talons were awfully huge. She was pretty sure the harpies at camp weren't this vicious. Just as the harpy coming at her was about to slice her face open, she felt the boat deck disappear from beneath her feet and felt something holding the back of her shirt. She felt herself rushing upwards, and she watched as the harpy wailed in dismay of losing her prey, falling behind the vertically ascending boat. But the hand that was holding on to her shirt let go a little to early. She thought she heard somebody shout her name. Annabeth barely had time to register the huge pole that was about to hit her in the face. Then everything went black.

Percy

"Annabeth?" he said, shaking her shoulder. They had gotten rid of the harpies when Leo had pulled the vertical ship trick. Leo had told them that Annabeth had been right behind him, keeping harpies away while he steered, and he grabbed her when he pulled the ship up. Percy had been holding onto a side rail, and he saw Leo lose his grip on Annabeth a moment too early, while the ship was still straightening out, and then she had crashed into the mast and blacked out.

They were still on the deck. "Quick, get some nectar and ambrosia." Percy tried to stay calm, but Annabeth's forehead was bleeding, hard, and her breath was shallow, as if something was blocking the air flow.

Piper got some nectar out of her bag, which she had smartly kept in her cabin, so it hadn't fallen out during Leo's crazy tricks. As Percy dribbled some nectar into Annabeth's mouth, Reyna felt her chest.

"She has a few broken ribs." Reyna announced. "She probably hit that mast face first."

Percy tried to stay calm, but Annabeth wasn't stirring. He dribbled some more nectar into her mouth. Nothing. Percy didn't want to risk any more. He was about to try and wake her up, but then she coughed violently and tried to sit up.

"No, no, Annabeth you need rest." Percy said, dizzy with relief. She tried to say something, but it seemed to be hard for her to breathe. She lay back down and looked up at him weakly.

"Wh- what ha- happ- ppened?" she managed to choke out.

"You- you slammed into the mast and broke- broke a few ribs." Percy answered quietly, squeezing her hand. Her return was weak.

Annabeth tried again to say something and sit up, but Reyna pushed her back down and fed her another spoonful of nectar. She even had trouble swallowing it, maybe it had something to do with her ribs?

She closed her eyes and tried to take a deep breath. Percy took Annabeth's hand and squeezed it again, trying to comfort her. He had just got her back, so he didn't want anything happening to her. She squeezed back, but again, it was very weak.

"I think you should rest." Percy said to her softly, as everybody else went back inside, and Leo took the wheel again. He tried to pick her up, but she shook her head and tried to stand.

"Annabeth," Percy started, "You're already hurt. You don't need to hurt yourself more." Annabeth just sighed and let Percy pick her up and carry her into her room. Once he put her down, she closed her eyes and seemed to fall asleep immediately.

"Good night, Annabeth." Percy said softly, and left the room. On the deck he found everybody else tending to their own wounds, mostly just cuts from the harpies' talons.

"Hey Percy." Jason looked up, then frowned. "I thought you were all immortal and stuff." he said. "They shouldn't have been able to scratch you."

Percy looked down at the cuts on his arms. They were small and faint, but they were there. "I- I don't understand." he said. He had bathed in the River Styx, and he was pretty sure that the curse of Achilles didn't fade.

"I think I do." Reyna said smugly, coming up to him. "If monsters really do reform right after we kill them, like Leo and Piper and Jason told me, then maybe your immortality is also breaking the rules and leaving you." she paused. "Plus, people coming back from the dead would definitely confirm that."

Percy tried not to worry about it too much, he would just have to fight like he did before the Titan War, and try and remember that he wasn't invulnerable anymore.

On the opposite side of the deck, Bobby was wrapping his arm in a bandage. Leo didn't seem to have too many injuries, he had been driving and Annabeth had been keeping the harpies busy. Piper and Jason just had a lot scratches, but none of them were very deep. Reyna didn't seem to have too many injuries either.

Thankfully, there were no more monster attacks that day. Every once in a while, Percy would go down to check on Annabeth, but she was asleep every time. He brushed the hair out her face, and headed back up to the deck.

Leo had set the Argo II on autopilot, and everyone was sitting around the table (which they had put back into place) eating a gourmet dinner of to-go chicken chow mien.

"Sup?" Leo asked as Percy sat down.

Percy shrugged. He was about to ask where they were when suddenly Jason tensed. "Something's com-"

He never got to finish his statement, though, because suddenly there was a blinding white light, and then pitch black.

Ooh… cliffhanger! I love making those. Review, I'll read the reviews when I get back.