Pointedly ignoring my Science project and writing this instead… yes, I am indeed a procrastinator.

Anyways, there was great feedback on the last chapter as always, and I'm running out of different ways to say how awesome you guys are! So I'm just going to settle for thanking you all: Rosario Central, Mila-is-a-bookworm-101, ConstantCutie, Burned Blue Cookie, Henrie Locker, and SomethingMoreCreative. Thank you all for your consistent support!

I'm actually pleased with this chapter- some important stuff that you should pay attention to at the beginning, pointless fluff and bonding the rest of the way through.

Warning: Underage drinking, but not really. You'll see what I mean.

Enjoy!

o-o-ac&pj-o-o

Annabeth

I know I'm dreaming before my feet even touch the ground.

Granted, the fact that I'm in a place where my feet weren't touching the ground gives me some indication that this isn't reality, but still. I've landed in a stereotypical dreamland- one where the grass is too green and the sun is too bright and I'm sitting on the ground dressed in a white sundress.

I clamber to my feet, marvelling at the fact that the dress is still spotless even though I was sitting in dirt a few seconds ago, and begin to explore my surroundings in further detail. A stream runs slowly to my left, splashing over rocks, and to my right lies a forest, swaying branches stretching tall above my head. It's a utopia, designed to look nothing but appealing to me, and I wonder briefly what's the catch- there is no way this is a normal dream, a figment of my imagination. Everything is too sharp, too real. This must be the type of dream Percy was talking about- the dream when he first met Poseidon.

I walk over to the stream, grass cool under my bare feet, hoping maybe some answers as to why I'm here lie there. No such luck- the only thing I see are a few ripples of water. There's not even any fish swimming, no murky plants growing. I step into the stream, pulling my dress up so it won't get wet, and wade around, looking for the source of the water.

And that's when the ground drops out beneath me, and a cruel voice whispers, "Open your eyes."

The air's cold now, dark and musty. It's the opposite of the world I was just in- now, instead of being free, I'm bolted into a metal chair, my white dress tattered and covered in blood. Everything on me aches, as if every single inch of my skin has been pressed on with a hot iron. It's hell, to put it simply.

Instead of being silent, the air around me is now filled with tortured screams. Big bursts of fire light up the darkness where I sit, and eventually I make out that I'm in a large cavern, or a cave of some sort. I struggle to escape from the bonds confining me, to no avail. My skin begins to blister and bleed where the chains are cutting into my flesh, and a trickle of blood rolls down my arm, dropping onto the ground below me. At once, the cavern falls silent.

A geyser of fire leaps up suddenly right beside me, right where the drop of blood landed. It burns my skin, covering me with flames, as my skin broils and burns until I'm screaming out because this is agony, pure agony, and I can't breathe or move or do anything…

And then it's all over, and the same voice whispers once again, "Open your eyes."

I do, and my mother is sitting across from me.

We're back in Mr. D's office, just like it was the first day of this whole mess again, and she's leaning against the desk, studying some papers intently. She looks a lot more rugged than she did the last time I saw her- she's dressed in hiking boots and a flannel button-up, her dark hair down and curly. I slink down to the floor, shakily feeling my limbs to make sure that the fire wasn't real, that my limbs aren't scorched, that I'm still in one piece.

My mom- Athena- glances over at me in surprise, as if just realizing I had gotten here. "Elysium and the Fields of Punishment." She says, straight faced, as she sets her papers down and turns to face me.

I'm confused. "What?" I manage to choke out, smoothing the damn sundress down over my knees.

Athena sighs, sitting down in Mr. D's thick leather chair. "Elysium was your first dream. Utopia. The perfect afterlife. The Fields of Punishment was the next. Agony. Torture for the rest of time. Tell me, which one did you prefer?"

"Elysium, obviously," I haul myself to my feet, walking over and sitting in the chair across from Athena. "But Mom… where am I? Why am I here? What's going on?"

Athena ignores me, looking around until she finds a large bottle balanced precariously on the corner of Mr. D's desk. I recognize it from my Dad's liquor cabinet as vodka, something I've heard classmates talk about multiple times but never actually tried. "Drink, Annabeth," My mother commands me, pushing the bottle of alcohol towards me. This feels bit backwards. Isn't my mom supposed to be the one preventing me from drinking?

I look at the bottle in disgust. "No way. Look Mom, I need some answers. Help me out, please. The quest- the quest is getting too scary, alright? It feels hopeless, and I don't even know what we're searching for anymore."

"Annabeth," There is barely disguised rage in Athena's eyes. "Drink, and then we will talk."

I sigh, opening the bottle and taking a delicate sip. This is a dream, obviously- it's not like I'm actually gulping vodka from the bottle- but it still makes my stomach clench uncomfortably at the thought of drinking when I'm five years underage. I'm a good girl! This isn't my style.

The alcohol burns as it streams down my throat- someone once told me vodka doesn't taste good going down or up, and I must say I agree with them. Why the hell would people do this for pleasure? I finish another sip and Athena, apparently satisfied, motions me to put the bottle down. The room feels a bit hazy around the edges, but nothing too bad. "Alright, now you have to give me some answers." I demand, the vodka sitting uncomfortably in my stomach.

Athena purses her lips, tapping her fingers methodically on the desk. "I'm a big fan of metaphors, you know," She smiles, opening the bottle of vodka and taking a swig of it herself. "Tell me Annabeth, how did you feel when that alcohol went down your throat?"

I'm about to protest, to say that she still isn't giving me answers, when a piercing gaze from her silences my qualms. "It burnt," I admit, staring at the ground. "It made me wonder why people would voluntarily put themselves through that kind of pain."

"Mmmm," Athena grins, as if I had just given her the correct answer. "Very good. And what about in the Fields of Punishment?"

"That felt like hell," I answer quickly, beginning to feel like I know where this is going and not liking it one little bit. "To be put through eternal pain… to never be happy and always have to suffer… it sucked, to put it mildly."

Athena does that same proud parent smile for a second again, before it is gone, replaced with a look of pure malice. "So can you tell me why you're making all of the wrong choices, then?" She places her hands on her temples as if my very presence is giving her a headache. "I trusted you, my daughter, to make the right choices. The world depends on your decisions, otherwise all of their bodies will burn to ashes, all of them will be put in pain thanks to your stupid choices, all of them will be in eternal hell. The fate of the world rests in your hands, and you have failed me."

I gape at her, not able to believe what I'm hearing. I want to throw up, and not just because of the alcohol. "What… what do you mean?" I ask, throat tight. "We're heading towards Oregon. We've been following the coin, but it hasn't been giving us directions since Long Island…"

"Because you went off route!" Athena slams the vodka bottle down on the table, and I wince. "You had a mission, an objective. But you followed what the Jackson boy wanted you to do instead, and look where that got you all. Almost harmed twice! I wanted you to be safe by following the route the Mark of Athena picked. And you disobeyed me."

"Percy needed to find his brother!" I protest, angry now. "And you know, this would have been helpful information to tell me before we started this whole quest! A little heads up, maybe? You were the one who wanted Percy to come in the first place!"

"I thought he would make you work harder!" Athena's furious now as well, and I'm happy that this is all happening in my 'dream world', where she can't actually kill me. "I thought you would be so eager to distance yourself from him, to save yourself from the pain that comes with seeing him, that you would focus more on the quest. I didn't think it would have the opposite effect- I've been watching, you know. I saw your little rendezvous back on Virginia Beach. Annabeth, don't you remember that that boy broke your heart?"

I sigh, not believing I have to be the mature one in this situation. "This isn't about Percy, alright? I'll get us back to where the Mark of Athena wants us to go. I'll fix this, I promise."

Athena nods, decently satisfied. "Very well, then. You'll know what you have to do at your next stop. But until that point…" Her eyes narrow, and even dressed casually, swaying a little bit from the amount of alcohol she's just downed, she's never seemed more intimidating. "I expect to see no more flirtatious activity of any kind with Percy Jackson, you understand? Or there will be consequences."

Then she chucks the bottle at the wall, right behind my head, and I wake up in a cold sweat.

There's a bit of daylight peeking through the window of the car, the sun rising slowly in the sky. I'm curled up in the front seat of the car, legs pulled up to my chin. The digital clock on the dashboard shows me that it's still far too early- 5:30am, to be precise. Meaning I only got around 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Oh, the joy. I stretch, shoving my coat, which I had been using as a makeshift blanket, off my lap, and turn around to see where everyone else is. Luke's in the very back, practically the trunk, looking a lot healthier than the last time I saw him. Percy and Grover are in the middle row, Grover mainly on the ground and Percy on his side, face smushed against the window.

After driving like a maniac last night to get away from C.C.'s Resort, I finally had managed to find a little town about twenty miles away and parked in the near-empty lot of the 24-hour supermarket, everyone else fast asleep by that point. Now, in the morning light, I see that the supermarket's the corner of a shopping plaza, complete with a McDonalds, a couple clothing stores, and a few other specialty stops. My stomach growls at the thought of a McDonalds burger- the food last night was barely filling.

"I'm hungry," A little voice sounds from beside me, and I jerk back in surprise for a second, wondering if my subconscious has suddenly decided to speak aloud. However, I realize that it's only Tyson, sitting plaintively in the passenger seat and doodling with some markers we managed to find when grabbing the car seat yesterday.

I smile at the little boy, grabbing my backpack from the ground. "Really? Let's go and grab some groceries, then." Screw it- everyone else is fast asleep, and I can just lock the car and leave them a note. No harm done. Besides, we can pick up some new clothes and food for the road- Gods know we all need them badly.

Tyson's face lights up, and he eagerly clambers out of the car, ignoring my protests to be quiet. I grab his sticky hand as we cross the parking lot, smoothing down my ridiculously wrinkled t-shirt with the other and wishing I had a mint or something to disguise my bad breath. Tyson hums under his breath as we walk through the doors, and a sudden pang runs through me as I think of my own brothers, probably worried sick and having no clue where I am. However, pretty soon I'm being pulled off to look at the 'coolest car jammies ever' by Tyson, and my primary concern becomes keeping an eye on him.

The cart loads up fast- I need clothes for all of us, some hygiene necessities, and most importantly, food. I also grab medicine, a couple toys for Tyson, several large packs of water, and a few walkie-talkies in case we need to access one another. It's leisurely shopping, in a way- I have Athena's unlimited credit card, we have a couple hours until anyone else wakes up, and the store is practically empty. Hey, if I want to please Athena we need to get to Oregon fast, and the more shopping we do now, the less rest stops we'll have to take.

I walk up to the cash, quickly paying while the woman behind the counter eyes me warily. I probably look like some teen mom runaway or something, shopping with a stolen credit card. Luckily, she doesn't say anything, and neither do I as I grab Tyson and all of our bags and walk back to the car.

Once arriving there, unloading as quietly as humanly possible, about to leave to go to McDonalds when Percy stretches out in the backseat, pushing a hand messily through his black hair. The resemblance between him and Tyson is shocking, really, as he opens his bright green eyes and looks around blearily. I wave from the open trunk, where I'm putting in the last bag of groceries in, and his face registers puzzlement, obviously wondering what the hell's going on.

"Brother!" Tyson clambers over the still-sleeping Luke, launching himself into Percy's arms. "Me an' Annabeth went shopping! And I got a new toy, an' Kool-Aid, and race car pajamas…" He continues blathering on as Percy raises an eyebrow, looking at me curiously.

I shrug, a faint blush covering my cheeks. "You were all still sleeping, and we needed to restock on supplies. It's no big deal, honestly."

Percy nods as if this makes sense, although his eyes still look confused. "So I take it we got away from C.C.'s Resort okay?" He gently pushes Tyson off his lap, opening the passenger door and climbing over Grover to get out, letting his little brother follow behind him. At my grin and nod, he continues to speak, "So now what? I'm hungry."

I bite my lip, pulling a pile of new jeans, underwear, and t-shirts out for both boys from the trunk, shoving it into a shopping bag with some toothpaste. "Well, first off, we're going to hit McDonalds and get cleaned up in their bathrooms. We'll eat, get some stuff for Grover and Luke, hit a gas station, and then head for Portland. That sound ok?"

"What about the play place?" Tyson looks at me hopefully, and I sigh, relenting to both his and Percy's puppy dog faces.

"Fine," I grab some of my new clothes from the trunk and lock the minivan before heading across the parking lot to the McDonalds. "But Percy, you're not allowed in. I heard some 16-year-olds broke a tunnel in there once."

Once in, I make a beeline for the washroom, pretty sure I smell like shit. Luckily, it's empty, and toss the shopping bag containing my clothes into a stall, debating the best way to do this, before finally settling on wetting paper towels and putting store-bought soap on them to clean myself. It's not a glamorous approach, sure, but screw it, I needed to get clean, and after last night's mess, I don't think we'll be stopping at another hotel anytime soon.

My hair's a disaster, but since I'm not going to risk trying to wash it in here, I just throw it up in a messy ponytail as I squirm into the slightly too-loose sweatpants and t-shirt I grabbed from the clearance rack back at the department store. Makeup seems like a distant dream right now, so I simply brush my teeth before heading back out into the main area of the restaurant, considerably cleaner than when I had first walked in.

6:30 in the morning means that it's pretty damn deserted in here, the only other occupants being the people working behind the counter and, of course, Percy and Tyson. They're eating already, Percy wolfing down some ridiculously large BLT, and Tyson gleefully pouring a mountain of syrup onto his pancakes. I slide into the seat across from them, grabbing the Egg McMuffin and strawberry smoothie Percy picked up for me and grinning. Food is exactly what I need right now.

After a while, Tyson finishes his pancakes and promptly races over to the play place, climbing up to the very top. Percy and I remain seated, him wolfing down a hashbrown and me slowly drinking my smoothie.

"So," Percy speaks in between bites. "What was up with you taking Tyson shopping?"

I sigh, running my fingers through the end of my ponytail, twisting the blonde strands around my hand. "I just needed to get out of the car. I had a… um, bad dream before, and Tyson was awake, and besides, you were all starting to smell."

Percy nods as if this makes sense, hashbrown now gone save for a few crumbs. "Tyson said you looked scared when you woke up. If, um, you don't mind me asking… what was your dream about?"

I try to appear nonchalant. "Just my mom."

"Oh," Percy falls silent at that, drumming his fingers on the table. "Did she say anything helpful about the quest? Like, maybe where we're supposed to go? I know Oregon's our final destination, but somehow I feel like it'll be a while before we get there."

I think back to the dream- the Fields of Punishment, the vodka, Athena screaming at me to stay away from Percy. "No," I gulp, blinking those thoughts away. It was just a dream, after all. "She just wanted to remind us to hurry up and get to Portland, how the fate of the whole world is resting on our shoulders, etcetera, etcetera."

Percy smirks, as if he's gotten me all figured out. "Then why was it a nightmare?"

I bite my lip, a thousand responses coming into my head but none of them feeling right. "Because it just was, okay?" I snap, leaning back in my seat. "Gods, why does everything have to always be so complicated around you?" Seeing his wounded baby seal face, I relent slightly. "Sorry, sorry. Let's change the topic. How are you feeling?"

Percy looks surprised, as if last night at C.C.'s has already faded from his mind. "Alright, I guess. A little queasy, but that's probably because of all the food I just ate."

I smile, finishing off my smoothie. "Probably," There's a comfortable silence between us, and I decide it's time to broach bigger concepts. "So are you… okay with everything? With Luke being on the quest and Tyson being your brother and all? Honest answer, no bluffing."

Percy rubs the back of his neck, deep in thought. "Tyson and I talked when you were in the washroom. He's a good kid, I guess. Gonna take some getting used to, but I like having him around. And, um, Luke…" -here Percy looks conflicted- "…Luke and I talked last night and um, we're cool now. Like, there's nothing going on there anymore."

I blink, taken aback. I thought for sure they would have fought last night. "Really? Nothing happened?"

"Nah," Percy stands up and stretches, and I follow his lead. "We were pretty chill, before the whole puking thing. It was normal, really." I smile. This wasn't something I was expecting to happen, but I'm glad it did. Luke and Percy are both really important people in my life, and to not have to constantly be watching them to make sure no fights happen is a relief.

We're both on our feet now, grinning like idiots and not speaking, when suddenly I pull him into another hug. It's a lot shorter than last time, but the feeling's still there, those ridiculous butterflies beating up a storm in my stomach. I know I should obey Athena and stay away from him, but hey- this is a friendly hug. She only said no flirting, right? "So, um, are we okay?" I ask, my face buried in his chest. I want him desperately to say yes, but I don't blame him if he doesn't. God knows I've been a cold- hearted bitch to him these past couple months.

I although I can't see him, I can almost feel him grinning as his arms tighten around my waist. "We are now."

o-o-ac&pj-o-o

Yay for pointless Percabeth(ish) fluff and cheesy dialogue!

Except it wasn't really pointless, was it? Because Percy didn't tell Annabeth about what happened with Luke.. and Annabeth didn't tell Percy about her dream. But now they're getting along, and only I know what will happen next! (insert evil laugh here)

Also, I dunno- I felt like Tyson and Annabeth needed to bond, plus, I love writing little kids. And I also have this weird affinity for writing Percabeth at a McDonalds. Speaking of which, there is a TBAL reference in this chapter- can you catch it?

I love all of the amazing support on this story, so leave a review on your way out, please! I really want to hear what you guys have to say, even if you thought it sucked. Which I hope it didn't, because I like this chapter, but if you thought it sucked, then tell me (nicely).

Whew, long Author's Notes in this. Sorry!

Thanks for reading,

-Jace ;)