Well here is the next chapter. To be completely honest, I forgot this website even existed. I still don't own PJO, HoO, or any of the other demigod stories. I own this plot line, Pallas, and the raptors at this point, but as this is a public domain site, I really don't own anything.

Percy walked out into the forest from what appeared to be the middle of a tree. He flashed away, and somebody stepped out from behind a tree. Travis Stoll looked on confused before he was tackled to the ground by his brother.

"I win!" Connor yelled

"We have to find Annabeth."

The Stolls ran through the trees as fast as they could, ignoring onlooking Hermes children, until they got back to camp.

"I'll check the cabins."

Connor ran off toward the original 12 cabins while Travis ran toward the big house. Travis burst through the front door, ran through every room, and darted back out the door, leaving very confused campers in his wake. Connor returned from the cabins with Clarisse and some other head campers in tow, but nobody could find Annabeth.

"She wasn't in the big house."

"She's not by Percy's memorial."

"She wasn't in our cabin."

"She's not in the arena."

"ANNABETH!" Travis yelled.

They continued searching high and low before arriving at the beach.

"Why didn't we check here sooner?" Connor asked.

"I thought you already had." Travis replied.

"You're both stupid." A black haired boy walked in between them.

"Hey!"

"Rude!"

Annabeth was staring off across the water, absently stroking the hippocampus by her side. Nico walked out to her and tapped her arm.

"What is it Nico?"

"I don't know, but the Stolls have been looking for you for a while now."

Annabeth looked over her shoulder at the group assembled on the beach. She patted the hippocampus one last time before walking to them.

"Annabeth! We have some news for you." Connor began.

"Well for everyone really, but it's about Percy." Travis continued.

"What about him?" Annabeth asked.

Nico glared at the twins, silently warning them it had better not be a prank. Travis gulped before speaking again.

"I saw him. In the woods."

Everybody began shouting at once, arguments about if it was a prank, why he was there, why he didn't tell them. It was deafening and scared away the naiads that had gathered to watch them.

"QUIET!" Annabeth screamed.

A silence fell immediately as they all turned to look at her.

"Nico, go tell Jason. He'll want to hear this too. The rest of us will take shifts to see if he comes back. That will tell us if he was actually there or not. The gods know I saw Percy countless times when he wasn't actually there."

The councilors just nodded in agreement and Nico shadowtravelled away.

"Travis and Connor can take first watch, but first, lead us to where you saw him."

Travis and Connor led the group back through the woods toward the tree Percy had popped out of. At one point, the forest seemed to radiate light, but it quickly subsided as they continued the journey.

"He walked straight out of this tree." Travis pointed at the tree in front of them.

"Or was it that one?" Connor asked pointing at a different tree.

Everybody just glared at the Stoll brothers. Clarisse walked over and picked them both up by the throat.

"If this was a joke the whole time, nobody will find your bodies." she said surprisingly calm.

"Put them down Clarisse." Annabeth said.

Everybody quickly turn to look at her, except the Stolls who were too busy falling to the ground.

"The Hephaestus kids used to have hidden bunkers all over Camp Half-Blood. This might just be one of them." she said.

Annabeth pressed her hand against the trunk of the first tree Travis pointed at. She scanned every inch on the tree that she could reach until her hand came upon a small panel. She quickly called over the Hephaestus kids that had come with them.

(New Rome)

Jason was pacing back and forth when a trio of soldiers walked in.

"Khloe, what happened?" Jason asked.

"We found him, the guy in the picture. He was at Yellowstone." Khloe answered.

"So where is he?"

"That's the bad news." Jordan started. "He sort of disappeared."

Jason's javalin impaled itself in the door behind the trio. Summer reached up, pulled the javalin out and rested it against the wall.

"At least we know he is alive."

"That's not all." Nico stepped out of the shadows. "We know where he is staying. This morning he was seen leaving the forest around Camp Half-Blood."

"Why won't he talk to us though. We fought wars together, and now that he is back, he wanders around like we aren't here anymore."

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Khloe yelled. Everybody turned to look at the girl before she continued. "Thank you. So the guy you sent us after is Percy, the hero that disappeared after the war? Why didn't you tell us that? We might've been able to convince him to stay if we had known who he was."

Jason and Nico shared a look of amusement before either spoke.

"Khloe, was it? Nico asked. "The problem with that would be that you appear to know nothing about Percy. Nobody can convince him of anything."

"Except maybe Annabeth." Jason chuckled.

"If she tried hard enough."

Jason turned back toward a desk in the corner of the room. Sitting in the middle was a single picture of the crew of the Argo II.

"At this point, all we can do is hope that he remembers that he has us. He's been gone for over a year, so the fact that he's still here is good news."

"I should probably return to Annabeth." Nico said as he turned around.

"Wait! Take me with you. I want to see where he's been all this time."

"Grab on."

Jason grabbed Nico's shoulder as they both stepped through the shadows. They arrived in at the edge of the woods. A couple dryads vanished out of fear as they appeared.

"Somebody guide me to Annabeth!" Nico yelled into the otherwise silent trees.

A dryad emerged from her tree after realizing it was only two demigods.

"She went that way."

She pointed down a small trail.

I hope you enjoyed chapter 8. Chapter 9 will follow soon. As always, PM me or leave reviews.

-Corsair