Why a year? Demigods have so many advantages, I need a reasonable amount of time to give my oc a fighting chance... even the weakest demigod starts off super strong, faster, durable and they all heal faster. Some more so than others, I needed a realistic time to develop.

I am sorry for the change, but the last story sucked bad. All tell and no show...

Everything about this story is superior...

They spent two days on the Amtrak train after Grover got a Poodle to help them get reward money, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain. To their collective shock, they weren't attacked once, but they didn't relax.

Their reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. We couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so they dozed in their seats. Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking them up. Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Rowan laughed as his fellow questers had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.

"So," Annabeth asked Percy, once they'd gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"

Percy told them then of his deam of a pit in the Underworld, of the voice that told him he could give him back his mother.

Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."

"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"

"I guess ... if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"

Annabeth readjusted his cap so it covered his horns. "Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't attacking us this time- "

"This time?" I asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"

Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."

"What would you do if it was your dad?"

"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."

"You're not serious?"

Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on Percy with shocking intensity. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."

"But how ... I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hos-pital..."

"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or some-thing. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regu-lar' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."

Rowan sighed. "Annabeth, your mother is a virgin goddess, it is likely she never told your dad. You were likely unexpected and a child on any level is stressful, let alone a monster attracting demigod. I am not saying it was fair, but give him a bit of grace in a really hard situation."

"He doesn't care about me," she said. "His wife-my stepmom-treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened-you know, something with monsters-they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put ourfamily at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."

"How old were you?"

"Same age as when I started camp. Seven."

"But ... you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."

"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway."

Toward the end of their second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, they passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch.

"I want to do that," she sighed.

"What?" I asked.

"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"

"Only in pictures."

"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."

Percy laughed. "You? An architect?"

Her cheeks flushed. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention. Sorry," Annabeth said. "That was mean."

"Can't we work together a little?" Percy pleaded. "I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?"

Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess ... the char-iot," she said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."

"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?"

They rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel.

"I suppose," she said at last.

We pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told them they'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver.

Grover stretched. Before he was even fully awake, he said, "Food."

"Come on, goat boy," Annabeth said. "Sightseeing."

"Sightseeing?"

"The Gateway Arch," she said. "This may be my only chance to ride to the top. Are you coming or not?"

Rowan sighed. "Annabeth, there is no time for it. It would be monster central with two powerful demigods and a Satyr. Stay where it's safe, this isn't the time for sightseeing."

She whipped around, angry. "This is my only chance to see it!"

Sighing, Rowan sat back. "I won't go, but if you get attacked by monsters, it's on you." Not even an hour later, as the three returned, covered in fear and sweat, he smirked. "I saw the news, you were attacked. Told you so."

They all glared at him, none more than Annabeth. "Yes you were right about everything, Happy?"

"Obviously, not my fault you aren't that bright." She looked ready to explode while Percy explained what happened, falling the river included... it was... hilarious but also scary. "Percy almost died because of your ego, lovely, Annabeth, lovely."

She growled at him more, but Percy just looked sort of uncomfortable at the realization that he was right.

Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.

This was fun. I am not a fan of early Annabeth, or most of her, she was irritating and caused a lot of harm...

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.