"Yes, Annabeth, welcome to the Heroes of Olympus. Okay guys, anyone volunteering to be her mentor?" Reyna said, first looking at me and then the others. Percy stepped forward after it was clear nobody else was going to. I smiled shyly at him, but he simply shrugged and turned to Reyna in turn.

"Where do you want me to take her next?"

"Show her around, and then get her settled in." RARA replied simply.

"Come on then, let's get going." He started jogging away from me, and then started flapping his wings slowly, picking up speed until he was sprinting, his wings a blur and then he was airborne, hovering to wait for me. Surely, this was another initiation test, and I didn't want to fail when I had only just begun.

I started jogging, relishing the feel of the wind and the rhythmic thumping of my feet, and suddenly I was airborne, not even breaking a sweat. I angled myself forwards and soared up to Percy, my wings easily catching the drifts of winds and using them to my advantage.

"Hm, you seem like a natural flier. We'll soon see, though." He said gruffly, flapping his wings and disappearing in a flurry of feathers. I waited until I had stopped flapping desperately to right myself, and zoomed after him, picking up speed as I neared him. He looked behind, obviously not expecting me to be so close, because his wings missed a beat and he started plummeting. I quickly tried to grab something of his, and then I started falling too, his weight being too much for my wings to keep us both aloft. Try as I might, I couldn't gain altitude, and we were nearing the ground. My hand was in a death grip- I couldn't let go of him, and we were two metres from the ground when-

SPLASH!

We landed in water, uninjured, as the water slowly dispersed and was absorbed into the ground. We caught our breath and then got up, and I tried to wring the water out of my shirt, but to no avail.

"Backstory- you were showing off and started falling in the canyon. I tried to stop you, but you were flailing too much and we both fell in."

"No," I said, crossing my arms over my chest in a feeble attempt to sound decisive. "We say what actually happened. I am not looking like a prissy idiot on my first day."

"Well, you're gonna have to." By this point I was semi-dry and he was almost dry.

"No, I'm not."

Yes, you are."

"We're wasting time. If someone asks, I'll come up with a backstory."

"Fine, but if you stuff up, it's on your head. We better get heading, or people will start wondering."

I flapped my wings and made my way into the atmosphere, leaving Percy to do his run-up. He took the lead and we flew up in silence, the occasional word muttered when a wind took one of us off guard. We eventually reached a ship, floating mid-air, with a mechanical dragon as the masthead, battering ram at the front, ballistae and crossbows on deck, ten metres wide and sixty metres long.

We flew up on deck and he gave me a quick demo of how each thing worked, and how Leo controlled the ship. I spotted Nico flying up to the top of the eighteen metre mast, which was positioned by a twelve metre mast.

"Wii controllers? Really?"

"Works just as well." He replied, shrugging as we made our way downstairs. He showed me the galley, where some girls were preparing vegetables, making them appear to grow out of nowhere. The mess hall, were Leo and some other kids also covered in grease were talking and fiddling with metal and wires absentmindedly. Cabins, where there was obviously a stereotype for each, but they were all mixed up and I couldn't see any pattern except friend groups. We went down one more level and he showed me the sickbay, where there were a few kids with blood, bandages, wounds and one big buff guy with his finger caught in a clamp, more kids with blonde hair and suntanned skin moving around, obviously healing them, the armoury/storeroom, full of supplies, engine room, with more grease-laden kids were doing who knows what, and the arena/rec area, where there were kids doing things from growing plants to fighting to archery to drinking and eating, building things, sleeping, talking and even twins pinching everyone's stuff.

He declared we had finished the tour and that I had yet to get 'settled in', though he claimed he knew exactly where I went and what I needed to be. He disappeared soon after, leaving me to fend for myself in a room full of people who I didn't know. I shuffled over to a guy in the corner, bent over something and occasionally looking up and chewing.

"Hey," I said, giving a small wave and stepping into his field of vision. "I'm Annabeth, new here."

"Oh hey!" he said, turning around with a mouth full of something red "I'm Grover!" Well, I assumed it would have been Grover, but with a mouthful of something it came out sounding like "I'm Grother!"

"What are you eating?" I queried, ever on the lookout for knowledge.

"Oh, um, thith? Oh, it'th jutht thith tablecloth." He said, holding up a red checked cloth with bite marks all over it.

"Oh," I said, lost for words. "Is it good?"

"Yeah, betht quality you'll get on the Argo II."

I nodded serenely, acting completely normal about the whole thing. Maybe that's what they do here? I took a good look at Grover, he had a reggae beanie over a mess of curly brown hair, a goatee, and pimples all over his face, along with green wings looking like they were made out of leaves.

"Can I try?" I asked, and he handed me a piece of tablecloth, looking genuinely surprised, yet happy at the same time. I gingerly took a bite, well, tried to take a bite, but I couldn't use my teeth to separate it.

"Annabeth!" A sweet, feminine voice called behind me, and I turned around, face going red with embarrassment and still a piece of checked cloth in my mouth. I hastily took the cloth out of my mouth and hid it behind my back, smiling bashfully.

"Yeah?"

"It's time for breakfast, and then your initiation ceremony and stuff." The girl I recognized as Hazel said, ignoring my embarrassment.

"Lead the way!"

We fell in step as she led me through the hallways and upstairs, entering the dining hall. It was quite noisy, and I spotted groups of people clustering around round tables, some even sitting on the tables, on other's laps and sharing seats. Hazel expertly navigated her way through the crowd, wings spreading to make a tunnel for us to go through. My wings, on the other hand, were jumpy and twitching, senses on red alert in a room full of people on a flying ship with weapons all over. We ended up in a line up for food, a cafeteria line, like the ones I had read about in books. We got trays and were served food, all sorts of things I had never experienced before.

She then lead me over to a table, where everyone I had met earlier was seated, Piper sitting on Jason's lap, Reyna sitting on the edge of the table and talking to Thalia, Percy in a conversation with Will, Leo sitting back-to-back with Calypso in the middle of the table, Nico attempting to hide in the background, not doing too good of a job with Frank talking in a deep, attention-seeking voice to him. Hazel grabbed my hand and dragged me over to where Percy was, squishing us in between Will and Percy, then flitting away and reappearing with Nico, who was forced to sit between Will and Hazel, which he didn't look totally down about. Hazel moved after a few minutes of silence and sat on the table top, next to Leo, striking up a conversation. I crossed my legs and sat down, putting my meal on my lap since the nearest spot on the table would be in between Hazel's legs. I started eating, savouring the flavour of everything on my plate as they slowly disappeared into my digestive system. As I finished my meal, I rested my fork and knife on my plate as I was taught, and looked over to Hazel, Calypso and Leo.

Oh. Hazel was astride Leo, tickling him everywhere and Leo screamed mercy, Calypso standing over them both with a bemused expression on her face. Most of the conversation at our table had stopped as everyone watched the wrestling match. Will was absent-mindedly humming music, and I went to talk to him but-oh. I noticed he had headphones in, no conversations over there. Frank was up and standing by the wall, practicing what looked to be-oh, battle moves. I turned my head to Nico, who was seated beside- oh. Nico had disappeared, leaving no sign he was ever there except from a few crumbs of something on the floor and a gap between Will and I. Thalia and Reyna were still debating on whether a sword or bow was a better weapon. Jason and Piper had disappeared, and it wasn't until I heard some scuffling under the table and I peered down to see-Oh. Okay. The two were in the middle of a make-out session, and that was enough to make me lose my appetite. The only person left and available to talk to was Percy, and I turned to see him looking at me with some kind of look on his face I couldn't quite discern, but it was quickly replaced by a mask of neutrality.

"Showing off, are we?" he said, looking at me with those eyes that made me just want to lie down and listen to the sound of the waves...

"What?" I replied, probably sounding panicked, looking at my plate. Had I been eating too quickly? Too slowly? Not right? Did I have something on my face? Was my hair doing something unpreceded? I checked all of these things swiftly, finding no issue with any of them.

After I had finished my hasty check-over session, Percy finally pointed to my legs. They were still crossed, and there was nothing on them, apart from pandas, I hadn't made a mess on the- Oh. I was hovering a good thirty centimetres off the ground, and had been for the entire duration of my meal.

"I-I hadn't really known, I mean, I didn't know… I thought… no, I wasn't thinking, I was just… uh-"

"Save it, I get the point. You're definitely cut out for either command or long missions." He said, which is the closest I had gotten to praise with him. I realised that at my house, he was a lot kinder and gentler than he had been around everyone else- I had to look deeper into that. Might be social anxiety, or something more.

"What are those?" {AN: I had to!} I asked, referring to the command and long missions.

"Just wait, you'll find out about… everything soon enough." He said cryptically, and broke off the conversation by walking over to Reyna.

The second he left I feel to the floor with a rather loud 'Oof' on my behalf. I tried not to look under the table as I righted myself and instantly I was hovering again, and I came to a new revelation- I hadn't been hovering since I had got here, unless I had wanted to. As I was about to ask Hazel where to put my plates, Reyna stood on our table and started yelling.

"LEGION! ATTENTION! I-" She was cut off by the loud voices of the twins yelling in sync;{AN: Sorry for interrupting the story so much, but my twin friends will yell at me if I don't let you know this isn't magic, it's just spending your whole life living with someone who you do everything with, also they have the same response/answer. This is for you, Celestialite and NamesAreFutile !}

"WE ARE NOT A LEIGON!"

"YES, YES! Anyway, now that I have everyone's attention, we are going to have a campfire down in the Rec Area. Leo, can you please handle the fire?"

To which there was a rather long reply from the boy "If only- hahahaha Hazel hah- stops!"

Reyna sent a death glare Hazel's way, but before she could look Nico appeared in the middle of the line of fire, looking bewildered, then getting a quick grasp on the situation he had appeared into and simultaneously blushing furiously and sending a death glare outdoing Reyna's by a thousand-fold, made slightly less intimidating by the redness on his normally pale cheeks but still terrifying. There was a silent but tangible war between them as the tension in the room rose. Nico and Reyna started flapping closer to each other, both of them rattling their leather and making faces that supposedly meant something that they could understand. I realised they were legitimately nose-to-nose, and I could actually see the war, Nico's line was black and Reyna's was a royal purple, and it was going forward and backward as the argument went back and forth. Their faces eventually got less angry, and the argument-line between them simultaneously combusted, leaving them in a silent nodded agreement. Will came over as soon as Reyna looked away, muttering soothing things to Nico who looked a little distressed.

"Right, everyone be down there in five minutes," Reyna peered under the table and everyone else did too, seeing the ignorance of the couple. "THAT INCLUDES YOU TWO TOO!" Reyna screamed with an apparent anger and unnatural projection, with an undertone of something like jealousy or heart-break, a flash of red quickly appearing and disappearing. They broke apart immediately, and like the rest of us, clutched their ears. That was some unnatural shouting, but it got everyone's attention and they were all rushing out of there like water out of a holey bucket.

I walked over to Reyna, who was quietly and urgently talking with none other than Seaweed Brain.

"Reyna?" I asked, feeling like a child asking my parents something

She turned away from Percy quickly, intensely denying there was anything going on. "Yes, Annabeth?"

"Um, is there anywhere I can get clothes? I'm still in my pyjamas." I said, looking abashedly at my purple panda pyjamas, fuzzy long pants and a t-shirt with 'Beauty Sleeping' and a sleeping panda on it.

"You shall have some after the ceremony, when you'll know everything."

"Uh-huh." I said, not convinced, but Reyna had already shut me down and talking with Percy again, so I wandered successfully down to the Rec room, where Leo was stoking a fire with his hands, Calypso looking on with awe in her eyes, at the fire or Repair Boy I wasn't sure. I took a seat beside Calypso, smiling at her before watching the fire with awe in my eyes. It danced, changing constantly like Leo's wings, making pictures, orange like nothing I'd ever seen before. I watched the fire for a few more minutes, until Calypso gently touched my shoulder and broke me out of my stupor, guiding me to where Grover was sitting, then turning and walking back to where what I was beginning to think as of the leaders here. They were all different, definitely, but they were all leaders in their own way. Eleven of them, standing in front of me, it finally felt something like home.

Reyna spoke first, getting everyone's attention. "Everyone, there is an initiate in our ranks today. Annabeth, would you step forward?"

I was deer-in-headlights as I stepped forward, keeping my back to everyone else and my face to the eleven.

"You are clearly cut out to be one of us. You have recited the pledge, and have proven your worth." Hazel said, smiling at me.

"Annabeth, kneel before us." Leo commanded, looking excited at the prospect of bossing someone around.

I knelt, bowing my head, watching the flames from under my eyelashes.

"I, Jason, hereby initiate you into the Heroes of Olympus. You have shown us great potential, and we wish to welcome you into our community."

"We have seen you in action, and have decided that you are a member of the Athena cabin, for your smarts, and ability to understand language." Piper said, and I looked up, beaming.

"Your weapon here defines what rank and style of fighting. Please, step forward and select yours." Thalia said, gesturing to Frank who noisily drops a bunch of weapons. I rise and walk over, looking at them. There is a sword, bow and quiver, spear, shield, gladius, hammer, trident, net, dart gun, throwing knives and ninja stars. I picked each up, the balance being off and not feeling right in my hand.

"Is there anything else?" I asked, after I had held everything in that pile.

"Well, there is one more thing…" Nico said cryptically, looking at Will who nodded and ran off.

He returned quickly, holding a dagger by the very tips like it was going to bite. He dropped it and stepped back, pressing his shoulder against Nico's, whose head was buried in Will, looking at me worriedly. I picked up the dagger and instantly felt its power, it belonged in my hand.

"This is the one." I said, and I picked up a strip of leather left in the pile and tied it around my waist, and I discovered it had the perfect sheath for my dagger, which I slipped in.

Percy stepped forward, a grave expression on his face. "That was Rachel's dagger, before her Octavian, before him Luke, before him Bianca. We consider it cursed, but if you chose it, we hope you break this curse." He said solemnly, dipping his head. "Now, let us take a moment to respect our flightless, the ones who have given all to keep us alive. This, Annabeth, will be your responsibility too, now." He said, bowing his head like everyone else in the room.

They all looked up after a moment, a tear shining in Seaweed Brain's eye.

Hazel stepped forward, and began to peak in a soft, eerie voice.

"We are different, yes, but that is nothing wrong. Everyone in this world is, so it doesn't make sense why they kill us. We used to be two ground-based operations, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter, but they found us, the scientists, the murderers, and it was a slaughter. Hundreds of us fell that day, so Leo brought us this boat he had been working on and we all climbed aboard, who was left. It was the eleven of us who took charge, and we have been travelling ever since. That was two years ago. Our operation here is to protect our kind, the Sky-Soarers, as we call ourselves, from being killed. Thirteen, you are? If you had stayed one day later, you would have been taken. Your real parents are dead, the people you called your parents were merely holograms. Your house was one of many, raising the Sky-Soarers, to thirteen, and then they- they… they-" Hazel started shaking violently, and Frank came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, murmuring words of comfort and slowly walking them back, into the shadows.

Nico stepped forward, eyes glimmering from unshed tears. "They took us to a place, and they would slowly kill you. Not intentionally, unless you didn't perform, in which case you were dead by morning. There were tablets, courses, starvation, and dehydration, anything to see what made you stop flying. Days on end, flying, confinement, drowning, choking, crushing, anything and everything. If the Heroes got you before you died, your wings, they were never the same. Never, ever, ever harm your wings, it tears your soul. It kills you." He finished, stretching his wings wide. They were covered in scars, bruises, disfigured and maimed. He couldn't fly anymore, his wings simply would collapse.

He closed them, wincing as they hid themselves from view once more. "I nearly died. Glass jar, only my own wings keeping me alive. The pain was what got me through. I owe my lives to everyone here, and so do you. We all have stories, we have all been through that. You are the only one who hasn't. You were the trial, we had finally found the facilities where the Sky-Soarers were raised, like pigs for slaughter." He said with a dark finality, stepping back.

Percy's head tilted up as he began to speak, voice reminding me of waves crashing. I sunk slowly to the ground, but I didn't notice, the only thing I saw was him. "As Nico said, you were the test. We have figured out now how each house defences work, or at least ones like yours. The wall had signals, so when I broke in the robots were activated. There was a cupboard you were told never to open?" I nodded in response "That was where the droids were kept. The scientists are protecting the Sky-Soarers even more now, we had another operation at night but they failed. We lost contact with a member, Luke Castellan, but he was strong, we're hoping he'll come through. He'll be alright though, he has to." He sounded like he was convincing himself more than anyone else as his head dropped.

Will stepped forward next, wings fluttering with anxiety. "You can see things, can't you? Auras, when especially when someone has high feelings." I nodded, and told him what I could do. "Colours appear around you when you have extreme emotions. Now, Will, you have gold streaks toward Nico, accentuated with purple-grey, showing you're protective and worried about him. I think I can understand any language, including body, so be careful." I said, half-smiling.

"You see, we are sort of classed by abilities. I am light, music, healing, Nico is darkness and death, Percy is water." My wings fluttered briefly for no apparent reason.

"We have never had anyone like this. Like you. But, luckily enough, nobody sleeps in their cabin anyway. We all sleep in our friend groups, so you'll be alright."

Reyna beat her wings and moved forward, toes touching the ground. "I would like to invite you to join the Leaders, Annabeth. We need brains and understanding, and you seem to have both. Do you accept?"

"Yes. We are the Twelve Olympians now." I declared, flitting over the fire and landing beside Percy, my wings tips tingling.

Oh no, anyone, anyone but him.

{AN: Annnnnddd... cue cliffhanger! I hope this answered any questions. Any particular characters that want to be met, added, anything, I'll put them in. Quick shoutout to NoTearsFalling and pjolavera ! Thanks guys! Sorry, the first bit of this is sort of a filler, but the rest is hopefully alright. Also, I'm adding slight changes to Chapter Two, adding in Will and taking out Rachel. That's literally the only thing I changed. Also, shout-out to anyone who actually reads my ANs! Question Time! Any couple moments? Any ships are accepted, although Percy is sort of out of bounds with anyone but Annabeth. I'll put in any of them if you request it! Goodbye my cutie-kats!

~myaw}

~myaw}