Sorry, this one is a little small. But I've already written the next chapter. I'll publish it as soon as possible.

Also, I was wondering if I should do a Leo POV at the end, during the war. I know it's probably not fair to the other characters but I think, well, Leo deserves it. I don't know. What do you think?

ANNABETH:

Annabeth paced the deck with her eyes closed.

She wished the sea water would spray on the deck, and on Annabeth. She found it comforting. Reminded her of Percy.

But of course there was no sea water. They were travelling by air, over cities. The sea wasn't that close. Just like Percy.

She and Piper were on guard duty.

Piper was in the control room, keeping track of everything like Leo had taught her to.

Annabeth guessed it was because Piper wanted to stay away from her.

Today morning when Piper had told her about her vision about Frank spontaneously combusting, Annabeth had blinked and walked away, without saying anything at all.

And she blamed Luke for it all.

The night before Luke had been in her dreams, yet again. His plan was slowly unravelling to her. She was beginning to understand what Luke was suggesting.

It was impossible, she knew. She could never do that. There was too much to lose. Why would she risk everything she had for something Luke said?

But Luke had seemed confident. As if he knew she would agree sooner or later.

She wondered what it was that he knew and she didn't.

Her stomach churned and it wasn't air sickness.

Luke had even told her a bit of what would happen when they reached Athens. In bits and pieces of course but he had. He was helping them win a second war. Was she supposed to make a personal sacrifice for him as a token of thanks?

Surely not. It was too much.

But then again, it was Luke.

He had taken her off to show Thalia again. She seemed better but not that good. Artemis was hardly there with the hunters. Zeus still probably kept her away as much as possible. So naturally all responsibility fell to Thalia, who seemed to crumble under the weight. She tried to be brave for the other hunters and Annabeth could see herself in Thalia.

Annabeth could see the pain in Luke's eyes too. He had loved Thalia and the only reason Thalia had joined the hunters was because Luke had betrayed her. And also because of Zoe Nightshade.

Now Thalia had found a new family but was virtually detached from the rest of the world.

The image of Thalia seemed to drain his energy even though he barely existed anymore.

So Luke changed the topic and started about the war against Gaia.

He told her what the world would fall to. But it still was a shock when Annabeth was told Frank would be at the heart of an inferno.

Frank Zhang.

The boy she had taught about Chinese Handcuffs was now a totally different guy. Tall, tough, hard and strong. Also a praetor. And alot more confident. His father's blessing seemed to be more visible in him.

Before they had reached Rome, Frank had told Annabeth about another problem he had. She had begun to suspect what it was but till Piper told her about her vision, she hadn't been sure.

She was sure she had read about a great hero who could do anything but to all his vast power, there was a catch. His life was dependent on a piece of wood.

Now deep in her gut, she knew something would go horribly wrong with Frank in the battle.

But would it be better or for the worse, to the war?, asked the analytical side of her brain.

Shut up, he's your friend. Friend burning is bad, the mortal part of her brain replied.

BUT LUKE, another part of her brain screamed.

Annabeth really hated when her brain split into various parts.

She hated it even more when the parts contradicted each other.

Perks of being a daughter of Athena, she guessed.

Suddenly, she was angry. Her mother hadn't even thanked her for saving the Athena Parthenos. She hadn't heard from her mother after coming back from Tartarus. What kind of ungrateful woman was Athena?

She promised herself that she would have a word with her mother next time she saw her. It was all her fault that Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus.

Athena had broken something deep inside them and she hated her mom for it. And she always would.

She would make Athena pay for it...once the war was over.

On the contrary, her Yankees cap had started working again. She could become invisible again.

She sighed and decided to go talk to Piper. She didn't deserve this moody treatment. Piper had been very helpful lately and Annabeth appreciated her company since Hazel was mostly sick and had to remain in her cabin.

Also, Piper understood how it felt to lose your boyfriend.

She went into the control room and plopped into one of the chairs.

"I'm sorry if I just jumped the news on to you", Piper said apologetically.

"No, I understand how it is to know things that will probably scare everybody else. You did right in telling me", Annabeth replied, her own form of apology.

She contemplated telling Piper about Luke and her dreams.

Tell her, she's your friend, a part of her urged.

NO! This is distressing news, you can't burden others with it!, another part scolded.

Well, you have to tell somebody, the first part replied.

No, it's nobody's business. It's yours. Nobody has to know, another part piped in.

She almost growled out loud again.

Instead she asked Piper if she would come with her while she Iris messaged Reyna about how things were back in Camp Halfblood and what the Romans were doing.

She thought Piper was going to decline but then she sighed and nodded.

She wanted rush back to Long Island and defend her camp against whatever Gaia might send against them but she knew if they didn't continue on this journey there would be nothing anymore. Everything she loved would be gone.

They got up and walked below deck, to Annabeth's room which looked quite bare without Dedalus's laptop. Her head hurt over all the data that had been lost. But she had been glad to see the scrolls and the Archimedes Sphere Leo had found. Those were the next most valuable thing Annabeth had had the pleasure of seeing.

But she couldn't go ask Leo for them because they were Leo's, unlike Dedalus' laptop which had been hers and hers only. She would've been very reluctant to give Leo her laptop, she couldn't possibly ask for the scrolls. They belonged to a son of Hephaestus. She could only hope Leo would be kind enough to let her see some of the stuff. He was lately very obsessed with the sphere and Annabeth though she had seen a flash of a crystal in his hands too. It was hard to say because his crafty hands worked at the speed of sound.

"Shouldn't we wake Leo up since we left the engine room?", Piper asked Annabeth, "We should get him to man the ship"

"Should we wake him up, though?", Annabeth asked, "He needs rest too"

"I think the ship means more to him than sleep", Piper answered earnestly.

Annabeth knocked on Leo's door and waited while a groan sounded from inside.

A couple of minutes later, Leo opened the door and looked at Annabeth groggily.

"Time to get up already?", he mumbled sleepily.

Yes, Annabeth hated pulling people out of their sleeps since she herself didn't get sleep often.

"Gotta check on Reyna and Camp Halfblood", she told him, and he must've understood because his eye lids opened all the way up and his face hardened. He nodded.

Annabeth wondered if he was still beating himself up over New Rome.

She turned and joined Piper who had been looking at sketches of buildings and streets Annabeth had drawn casually. She hoped she'd get to use them someday.

"They're beautiful", Piper murmured examining one. "You have so much going on for you"

Annabeth smiled grudgingly. You have no idea.

Just then the ship lurched. Piper unsheathed Katoptris in a second and Annabeth groaned. This couldn't be happening again.

They rushed on to the deck to find Leo in utter chaos. He was screaming at Buford the table and at Festus. He clicked gears in his Archimedes Sphere and pressed various buttons and pulled different levers.

"Leo, what's going on?", Piper asked as the ship tilted to the left side. And they almost flew over board.

"Crazy plants", Leo screamed but that made no sense at all.

Until she looked down to see that they had been moving over a forest.

Until she saw that the top of the trees were growing and that the bottom of their ship was covered in the creepers. The plants creeped up and grew over the vents of the ship, hooked themselves on the shelves for the oars and tried to seep through the floorboard.

Until she saw that only two of the pegasi remained and the remaining ones struggling to fight off the demonic plants.

Until a plant made a grab for her and plucked her off the ship.