At some point along the journey, Annabeth had dozed off on the uncomfortable floor. How she did it must have been a miracle considering her position on the floor. When she woke up, she looked around to get her bearings. When she remembered all that had taken place since the morning, she peeked her head around the side of the seat again. She could see Nico in the copilot seat, but the pilot seat was empty. When she looked at the seats where Leo and Frank had been for takeoff, she saw that those seats were vacant too. She looked back and was met with a high tech workstation.

She thought back to what was on the side of the jet. A2. That was the name of the radio system that Will, Percy, Frank, Leo, and Nico were a part of. Now that she thought about it some more, A2 might stand for a certain ship that was built for the Giant War. The Argo II was the ship that Leo built. The A would be for Argo and the number 2 would be replacing the Roman numeral II making A2 actually Argo II. She felt slight pride come for figuring that code out.

Then she was brought back to the present by turbulence. That reminded her that she was on a jet and jets experience turbulence. The turbulence reminded her of the workstation. She looked back again. Leo, Frank, and Percy were in swivel chairs that were nailed to the floor of the aircraft. They were speaking in low voices. Annabeth assumed they could hear each other over their radio system, A2. There were multiple monitors, keyboards, and other controls that Annabeth couldn't identify.

Annabeth briefly wondered how the remaining eight rows of seats had turned into high tech equipment, but the thought passed when another round of turbulence time when the turbulence came, Annabeth slipped out of her space on the floor into the aisle. The thump that she made wasn't loud enough for Nico to hear, but Leo, whose workstation was the closest to where she fell, was able to barely hear it. He turned, startled, towards her. She looked back at him with wide eyes. He ceased speaking. He just sat there, staring at her as if he couldn't quite process her presence on the aircraft.

After a few seconds, Percy and Frank turned to Leo with confused and slightly annoyed looks on their faces. Neither of them fully turned their eyes away from what they were doing, but their bodies were turned slightly. Frank said in a loud voice, "Yo! Leo! Why aren't you answering?"

When Leo still said nothing, both Frank and Percy turned completely towards him. This action gave both of them a view of Annabeth sitting in an uncomfortable position on the floor of the aisle. When they turned Leo finally broke out of his dreamlike state and turned to them. He didn't know what to do or say. Frank just looked at her strangely. She couldn't quite identify what look was present in his eyes.

Percy then stood from his chair and walked over to Annabeth. He knelt in front of her with a questioning look, but she could see slight anger in his sea green eyes. She made eye contact. He said lowly, "What are you doing here?"

Annabeth finally looked down. She didn't have a plan. She didn't know how to answer the simple question that she knew would come once they discovered her.

Annabeth finally answered, "I felt like I needed to come."

Percy dropped the slight questioning look and it was replaced with a disapproving one. He said bluntly, "You shouldn't have come. I also assume that feeling like you needed to come is not the only or real reason you are here."

With that, Percy stood and stepped around her walking to the cockpit. He crawled into the pilot seat and put on a headset. He spoke to Nico in a low voice. At one point Nico turned and looked back at Annabeth who had adjusted herself into a more comfortable position. She was still sitting on the ground, but now she was leaning against the seat she had been hiding behind.

When the Percy and Nico finished conversing, Nico removed his headset and climbed out of the cockpit. He walked over to Annabeth and said, "Get up."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow indignantly. She was not accustomed to being given orders by Nico di Angelo of all people.

"Get up." He repeated. "Listen." He said, "You shouldn't be here. This is a dangerous mortal mission. It doesn't involve you. You aren't in the business involved. It's best if you just ride the rest of the way in a seat and we'll get you on the first flight home once we land. Just stay out of the way." On that note he stood up and went back up to the cockpit.

For the remaining duration of the flight Annabeth sat in the second seat on the right side. She could tell from Percy's occasional glances over to her that she was only creating more stress by her presence on the aircraft. She did her best to slip under the radar as she just ate the food offered by Frank and sat staring at the seatback in front of her the rest of the time.

Eventually she was able to doze off sitting in a very uncomfortable position. Since there was nothing else for her to do, seeing as she didn't know how to use any of the equipment in the workstation in the back, she fell asleep from boredom. When she was awakened, it was by Leo instead of turbulence. He was shaking her shoulder. When he saw that she was awake he slipped something into her hand. It was her NY Yankees cap! The one that rendered her invisible! She didn't know whether to be thankful that he gave it to her or angry and accusatory for the way he got it in the first place.

He said quietly, "Frank and Percy are piloting and Nico's asleep in the front row, so I figured I'd give this to you. Don't ask how I got it. It turned up in one of my compartments at my workstation so…."

Annabeth nodded. Any annoyance she previously had dissipated with his explanation. She thanked him quietly. She wondered why he was helping her. She was also slightly curious as to what this big mission actually was.

She voiced her questions to Leo. He just shook his head and said, "Can't tell. Just this once, I gotta listen to Percy and Nico over you. Sorry, but in this case they override you. I bet once Perce cools down, he'll explain as much as he can to you."

Again she nodded. Then she asked, "Can you at least tell me where we're going?"

He grinned and said, "Nope. This has to be a surprise."

Annabeth raised her eyebrows, but didn't say anything. She was never one for surprises because, for it to be a surprise, she couldn't know about it, and she hated not knowing. The way he said surprise also didn't make it sound like something bad which made her want to know about it so much more. So, for the remainder of the flight she sat in her seat pondering the possibilities of where they might land.

When they finally did touch down smoothly, she was shocked, to say the least, that none of her guesses had been remotely close. When she looked out the window she saw the unmistakable Chinese flag. They were at the Beijing airport. She began to tap her NY Yankees cap against her leg. It had become a habit whenever she had a hat to tap it against her leg whenever she became nervous. She wasn't so nervous about being in China, but the business that the boys might have in China. What would be so important to have to actually go to China in a jet airplane instead of some sort of video call? With the high tech workstation that was in the back, Annabeth was sure that they could do that.

This meant that the mission involved something that had to be hands on stuff. She assumed it involved some sort of transportation of some kind of goods. All the wondering she was doing was creating even more worry for her. She didn't need to be more worried. She didn't want to be sent back from this airport. For one she didn't know how she would be considering the fact that she didn't have a passport or any other way to use regular mortal airport methods of transportation.

Leo approached her seat again from the back. He came up and said, "Percy is deciding to let Frank take over the taxiing deal and he's coming back to help me pack up the workstation back here. Don't look at him or anything. I know for a fact that he's still upset about you being a stowaway. Sorry that I kinda blew your hiding spot and stuff. I should've reacted faster."

Annabeth gave an understanding smile and said, "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. I mean, the sooner I got found, the sooner we get the problem solved and move on with whatever business you guys were originally coming here for."

Leo smiled gratefully. No matter how much he had grown and succeeded as an adult, he would probably always have at least a little fear of Annabeth. Then a question came to him. "Hey Annabeth?"

"Yeah?" She answered.

"Who was that woman with the little kid? The one that you were with when we landed back in the states?" Leo asked.

"Oh…. that was actually Athena." Annabeth responded somewhat nervously.

"Athena had a kid!" Leo exclaimed.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and Leo then corrected himself saying, "A kid that she's raising."

Annabeth quickly said, "Shut up, Leo. It's not her kid. It's mine."

Leo's jaw dropped. "How did you have a kid?" He said quietly, but in a shocked voice.

"Well Leo, if a woman so chooses to reproduce, they first need a sperm to fertilize their-"

"Alright! Alright!" Leo exclaimed having heard enough. "I meant have you been cheating on Percy or what?"

"No I have not been cheating on anyone. He and I conceived the, ah, night before he was called out on the operation. Think about how long he's been gone. It's been more than a year. He is about five months old. He looks like an exact replica of Percy except for the size and certain other qualities…." She trailed off, looking out the window instead of at Leo.

Leo suddenly felt like he was intruding on a somewhat private moment. He stood and said, "Oh. Okay. Well….." He was saved in a way by Percy crawling out of the cockpit to come and help Leo change the back of the plane into rows of seats again.

Leo retreated to the back just as the plane finished taxiing and was parked outside an entrance. Frank crawled out of the cockpit and opened the main hatch. He then proceeded over to Nico and shook him awake. Nico sat up groggily and looked around. Finally his eyes settled on Annabeth. He stood up and stretched his arms over his head then said something to Frank. Annabeth, not knowing what to do, just sat in her seat and unbuckled her seat belt so as to be prepared if she needed to move at a moment's notice.

Nico then said in a loud voice, "Annabeth! C'mon. We're getting out of this cursed thing!"

Annabeth laughed a little at his choice of words as she stood from her seat and went over to Nico. She noticed that Frank had the stairs lined up with the doorway. She stuffed her Yankees cap into her back pocket and took a glance back to where Percy and Leo looked like they were standing in the middle of the aisle at the back. They seemed to be talking, so not wanting to interrupt, Annabeth descended the steps.

Nico was standing by a door that looked like it led into the airport. She went over to him. As she approached, he looked apprehensively back towards the airplane then gestured for Annabeth to hurry. She broke into a run and reached him relatively quick. He pointed inside, but he had dropped his harsh look and it was replaced by a look of understanding. She easily walked inside and took a seat on one of the chairs. Not too long after she had gotten herself situated, the rest of the men came in.

All the men took seats scattered throughout the room. There was surprisingly no one in the room with them. This was completely unexpected seeing as how they were sitting in China's capital, Beijing, and there weren't even staff members around. All the men were looking toward the hallway that led to the rest of the airport. From that hallway, two men seemed to be approaching. When they came closer, Annabeth was able to identify them as Connor and Travis Stoll.

The men with Annabeth all stood when Travis and Connor stepped into the room. Percy approached them and asked, "We all set to leave?"

"Yeah," Travis answered. "Not to be rude or anything, but what's Annabeth doing here?"

"I didn't invite her. Don't worry about it for now. We'll have enough room, so we're fine. Let's get going. We should have at least three safe days before they figure it out." Percy said grimly.

"Yeah, okay," Travis said. "Alright guys. Let's get going." With that, Travis turned and exited out a different door, while Connor went out the door Annabeth and those boys had come from. Percy followed Travis and the other men minus Connor gestured for Annabeth to follow him.

Again delving into the unknown, Annabeth still trusted those around her. If only she knew what was ahead of her.

Hope you enjoyed.