Chapter XIX ANNABETH

Annabeth had some really strange dreams in the past. Some were mysterious, some were funny, and others were downright terrifying. A particularly memorable one was that Camp Half Blood had somehow become a circus clown training facility. There had been the Stoll brothers with their faces painted in rainbow colors, Grover jumping out of a burning building only to be caught in a sheet by some nymphs, and Mr. D standing on Chiron's back in a show girl costume, twirling ribbons in the air. (Where in Zeus' name that came from, Annabeth had no idea.)

But the dream she had that night took the cake. Annabeth saw a vision of all the Greek gods and goddesses cooped up on Mount. Olympus. Zeus had closed the doors, so they were not permitted to leave, unless for something incredibly important. They sat in the thrones lazily, knocking back ambrosia spiked with Aspirin to get rid of their headaches.

"Are we ever going to get out of here?" Apollo asked.

Artemis rolled her eyes at her twin brother and said,

"Eventually, Apollo. Have patience."

"At least I can work on my haikus!" he said brightly.

Everyone groaned and Mr. D muttered,

"Can I please turn him into a dolphin for a little while?"

On the other side of the room, Aphrodite was quietly sobbing her heart out, wiping her eyes with scraps of silk.

"They were the greatest love story since Helen and Paris!" she wailed broken-heartedly.

Athena sighed.

"Aphrodite, it would be fantastic if you used the present tense."

"I agree." Poseidon said.

"They aren't dead. Please calm down."

"Percabeth is in Tartarus and you want me to calm down?!" the goddess of love screeched.

"Do you have no hearts at all?"

Poseidon and Athena shared an uncomfortable glance.

"Um- what is a Percabeth?" Athena asked.

Aphrodite put her head in her hands.

"Do you know nothing? It's your children's couple name, of course! I invented it myself."

"They have a- couple name?" Poseidon said.

"You are hopeless!" Aphrodite cried, flouncing out of her throne and striding away.

Athena and Poseidon glanced at each other and shrugged. Athena stood up and then murmured, so only the sea god could hear,

"She'll take care of him, you do know that, correct?"

"And he'll take care of her. I know my son; he never lets bad things happen to people he cares about. And if there is one thing I'm certain of, he loves your daughter."

Annabeth saw Hestia sitting in the corner, tending the fire. She was discreetly listening to conversation between Zeus, Mr. D. and an Iris-Message with Hades.

"Is there no way you could remove Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase from Tartarus, brother?" Zeus asked.

Hades shook his head.

"Tartarus is beyond my control; you know that." he replied.

Mr. D looked up from the solitaire game he was playing and said,

"I don't see why we can't just leave them there. They're nothing special, really."

"Would you care to repeat that, Dionysus?" Poseidon called loudly from the other side of the throne room.

Mr. D shook his head and looked back down at the card game.

"Besides," Hades said,

"I have my own son to worry about. He's missing once again."

Annabeth was surprised by the sudden rush of fatherly protect towards Nico. Hades never seemed to care about his son much; Hades didn't really seem to care about anyone but himself, really. But maybe they were wrong about him.

It was here that Hestia looked up from the fire.

"I know where Nico is, Hades."

"Will you come into view, Hestia, so i can speak with you?"

Hestia nodded and walked over to the Iris- Message.

"He was being kidnapped by a dragon, so I sent him somewhere safe."

"Where?" Hades said desperately.

"In the middle of the ocean." Hestia continued calmly.

"WHAT?" Hades roared.

"Where did you send my son, Hestia?"

"He's on an island, but it was enchanted by the gods so people on it couldn't leave. We need to go and remove the enchantment."

Hades nodded thoughtfully and Hestia said,

"Since I am the only one truly unaffected by our Roman side, I can go release the island from its spell, if you wish."

"Well, we all know how you feel about Nico di Angelo, Hestia." Mr. D drawled lazily, examining his nails.

Hestia whitened and turned to look at the wine god.

"I am sure I don't know what you mean. Dionysus."

"I am sure you do. It's funny how a virgin goddess can fall in-"

Hestia whirled around, grabbed the poker from the fire place and held it level with Mr. D's chest. He blinked in alarm and then laughed nervously.

"You can't kill me."

"No, but I could hurt you very, very much." Hestia growled.

"And I did not give up my throne on Olympus so a sniveling, whiny old drunk like you could take my place. I won't be mocked by you. So keep your ridiculous comments to yourself from now on."

Mr. D looked down at the white-hot poker pointed at his heart, gulped and then nodded.

"Thank you." Hestia said.

She suddenly disappeared, probably off to free whatever island Nico was on.

And with that Annabeth woke up. She chuckled to herself and Percy glanced at her,

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"You will not believe where Nico di Angelo is right now."

*Hey, guys from now on, if you have a criticism about this story, could you please tell me what you didn't like about the chapter so I could learn and get better from that? Thank you :)

Irishchic1234*