"Yes!" Alex cheered upon reading the new chapter title. She'd have called dibs and wrestled this one away from anyone who dared tried to read this anyways and began on such a remarkable journey before any of them could even begin to question what Percy got up to five minutes out of camp, even while Magnus cringed into his seat in disgust at the idea of the coming apocalypse nobody else seemed concerned with!

"Does it involve plants?" Nico tried to ask like he knew what he was talking about. Wasn't that a popular game? Better to pass off the idea of ignorance he probably had more practice at growing zombies than anyone in here would be comfortable with knowing.

Will gave him another of those encouraging smiles, but for once he gave just as confused a shrug as anyone.

"These books are really inconsistent with what the Mist does and doesn't hide from sight," Jason said with all the confused excitement of a kid on a road trip.

"The mortals would see something to make their day go weird," Thalia shrugged. "If you're lucky, just a helicopter, with Percy's luck, a hang glider in a kilt. It really just depends on that person."

"Knowing my luck, it would be a duck with a knife, and then a police helicopter would be chasing me," Percy sighed.

"This has gone unmentioned before now," Magnus and Alex both protested as if this were a great concern.

"I don't know why, they come in all sizes." Percy grinned. "I think the Stoll's tried to talk Chiron into wearing a pair."

"There aren't a lot of winter quests," Will gave a proper answer.

"But there's that," Percy sighed.

"My takeaway was don't trust anything the Stoll's have given you," Jason corrected, "I'd take them up on the rest of the store." He was eyeing Percy and Will's orange t-shirts with something like confusion as he imagined himself in one, and it wasn't because he was worried they wouldn't have one in his size.

"Neither do I," Jason once again rolled his eyes Percy seemed to constantly forget about the Mist.

"Maybe they'd see you in a Mustang," Will grinned.

"I don't think the Mist would make me look sixteen, the cop thing would still be an issue," Percy sighed.

"Definitely not," Thalia said with a twitching smile, confusing most of them. They'd expected her to get frazzled at the very least being in another bus so soon.

"It might have an infinity symbol next to it if Artemis gave her one," Rachel chuckled to help play off in hopes nobody would question her friend about it. Alex looked like she wanted to, but the draw of zombies had her keep going instead.

Percy squealed like a stuck pig and leaped out of his chair, sword drawn and slashing at the hem of his pants in remembered horror.

The others watched the show in vague concern how he'd left camp and was being attacked by the wine gods plant, especially Will shifting about in his own seat as if ants were in his pants making Nico bite his lip in amusement. It was a good thing Mr. D didn't go around using that on everybody who annoyed him.

"Damn," Alex drew out in fascination. "I didn't think he'd literally drag you back if you left without permission for a quest."

"He didn't last time," Jason agreed, "and I'd say a goddess missing is even higher stakes than saving the camp."

"But Dionysus left Camp!" Magnus recalled he could apparently do this to knock up mortals, hence his twins, but it was particularly strange now he'd exercise out for this. If he could when students made a break for it, he might be thrilled. Was that another reason for his horrible behavior? Was he actively trying to make them flee the camp so he could pull this?

"Anything to cause more trouble," Percy glowered at the book, clearly least impressed and already stewing over the next insult to a god.

"That threat doesn't dissuade the stereotype," Nico said critically.

"Ah, more like wouldn't care," Percy was still flexing his wrists in disgust and eyeing his seat in concern.

"Been there, done that," Alex waved off. "He just screamed and made a flaaboom noise."

"You're not the zombie, are you?" Magnus groaned.

"Even if he did crave brains, it wouldn't help his IQ," Thalia shrugged.

"Hardy har!" Percy rolled his eyes affectionately, "I could get rich with the amount of times all of you are in awe I'm alive."

"Not off of me," Magnus rolled his eyes right back.

"I was under the impression he just hated everybody at that camp," Rachel shrugged. Especially her, for adding to the count. As he so loved to remind her, at least the Oracle before her hadn't talked without the green smoke.

"Is it ironic that a god hates a hero? I feel like it is?" Magnus asked.

Jason looked a little queasy at the idea too. The gods were volatile by nature and revered for their power. Hero's were blessed to have half their gifts, and yet Percy nor any of the campers really seemed very worshipful about it. No wonder the gods would loath them really.

"An almost literal jackass has more sense than you," Thalia frowned at him.

"Blackjack is a purebred thank you," Percy sniffed.

"Hybrid horse, the term still counts," Thalia said right back.

"That's a mule," Magnus corrected.

"This isn't about zombies!" Alex more than happily interrupted their squabble.

"The spiders?" Percy asked as he cautiously went back to his seat.

"That's Arachne," Will told him in exasperation. "Every Athena kid curses her name!"

"That's why it sounded familiar," Percy shrugged, though his heart panged at the idea of Annabeth scolding him for that instead. Gods he hoped there weren't any spiders in that cavern dream.

"Not this again!" Percy flopped properly into his seat in exhaustion. "Would everyone please stop comparing me to my dad and any past siblings I might have had!"

"I'm with you there buddy," Thalia nodded along while Nico kept his eyes on his boots and wished they'd stop thinking of his father first every time they looked at him too.

Alex swallowed her own agreement, not because she was hiding Loki being her mother, but because she actively denied her mother had any influence on any part of her life in the future. It was all in the past where it would stay.

Percy was glad he'd sat back down now as his skin crawled with stress, and he glanced at Rachel again. That was a name of something he instinctively knew he didn't like, but it meant nothing to Alex as any more than just another Greek myth she'd never heard of and so kept reading, and nobody else who winced was going to stop her for their memories of the event being perfectly intact.

"The fact that he's telling you a story is sort of disturbing," Jason informed. "Now where's the campfire and threats of murder?"

"I'm being threatened on the side of a building, the horror's plenty present," Percy assured.

"Jeez, your mom wasn't kidding about none of the old hero's getting happy endings," Magnus frowned.

"And that's not even the depressing ending," Thalia muttered.

If crickets could chirp at the bottom of the ocean, they would be, as the awkward silence settled in.

"Isn't he in trouble for-"

"Yep," Alex nodded before Magnus could finish.

"And he's accusing Percy-"

"Uhhu," Alex nodded while scrutinizing the words.

"I have a headache," Magnus grumbled. Why was the world of gods and monsters no better a place than the mortal world?

"I'm glad it's not just me!" Percy raised a commiserating high five. Magnus mock did so back without looking up from his scrunched eyes shut.

"Who invented the pot and the kettle?" Percy stage whispered.

"Most likely the original kettle and pot," Will sighed. You could look at anybody's life and find the good and the bad, the more famous and longer they were around, the more one was to outweigh the other.

"He has kids!" Magnus reiterated. "Didn't he say he was a young god, used to be mortal?"

"You are arguing with the original cast iron skillet," Percy waved at the book. "I don't think you're going to win here man."

"The gods are not all good or all bad," Will insisted. "They, exist, just like we do. Their choices have bigger consequences, they are slow to change, but it doesn't mean they're incapable of it." He wasn't very comfortable with how clearly angry Percy was growing of the gods of late, nor with an outsider who knew nothing of their life constantly questioning all of this making it worse. After her last fight with Percy, Thalia was being pretty quiet over there, but Will wasn't going to stop reminding Percy of the family he'd fought for. "Dionysus didn't kill you Percy."

"That's such a great thing to be happy about after all his careless jabs about Annabeth," Percy scowled back, "that he didn't kill me right then."

Will couldn't answer. He couldn't remind Percy of Mr. D's grief after he lost his son, how quiet Percy had become after his trip to Calypso's island, or that Percy would be struggling with this for quite some time before and after the Battle of Manhattan. Being stuck down here now was only a temporary setback, he believed that Poseidon meant his son no harm. Now it was just a matter of making sure Percy didn't wind up like Luke by the time they got out of here.

Luckily neither Percy nor Alex were waiting around for an answer, for now.

Thalia winced, but Rachel gazed on without surprise, only concern. It made sense after all, girls didn't usually join the Hunt because they already had happy, fulfilling lives.

"Thank the gods he didn't chuck you off the side of the building with the horse so you could figure that out," Jason muttered.

Nico's olive skin went sallow at the reminder the same amount of campers had come back who had left, exchanging Thalia for Annabeth. The prophecy had taken away two of Artemis's. Dionysus hadn't gotten his wish any more than he had for the champions that day.

"I hope you marked his words with washable markers," Rachel said proudly.

Percy's heart was spiraling without direction as he tried to smile at her. Annabeth, the gods, his mom, being trapped down here...

"You would have burned down the strawberry fields," Thalia told him confidently.

"I said less worried, not less angry," Percy agreed.

"There's the upside," Will said with a weak smile.

"No more jokes from you today Solace," Thalia scoffed.

"Such lies and sacrilege to the poor innocent pegasus," Alex said disparagingly.

"I'll be sure to feed him extra when I see him again," Percy promised, and there was just the slightest upbeat to his voice again he at least seemed confident of that. He had the horse to come back to.

"Can verify," Thalia sighed, but again to their confusion she still just sounded exasperated. Not even slightly out of breath or stressed, like the time she'd nearly burned a city down had never happened.

"How many horsepower is that bus?" Magnus asked in concern. "I don't think he can canter nonstop in the air?"

Percy felt a pang of unease for yet another friend he was letting down. He couldn't answer that, but he knew he'd been running Blackjack hard keeping up with them and was starting to wish he'd used this opportunity to sneak inside the bus.

"Annabeth makes everything look so easy," Percy grinned.

"Or she just trips them and blames it on ice, anyone's guess," Thalia snickered.

"It would vanish," Thalia gave him a strange look for not knowing that. "You don't see your clothes or her backpack just floating along do you?"

"Right yeah," he agreed, pushing away the urge to scowl at her for the obvious answer. Somehow whenever she said stuff like that, it always made him feel stupid, sound more grating than if Annabeth had.

"That's still a passing grade," Jason said enthusiastically.

"I'll pass along how eager you are to see one of these tracking songs yourself," Nico chuckled. Jason looked delighted, and Will repressed the urge to roll his eyes.

"That is the bottom of the barrel in weird," Magnus promised.

"Poor girl is on her first quest," Alex reminded, "she hasn't even gotten started on weird."

Nico once again received many a strange look for that, but he brushed it all away again with a heavy swallow. His shadow flickered behind him as if caught in a strobe, but everybody already turned eyes back to the book by the time it started and settled back. Almost everybody.

"The one who cleans the chamber pots," Alex pitifully informed.

"A servant to a maid," Magnus offered, "the lowest of the low chain."

"Thanks, got that," Thalia assured.

"Why do you know that?" Percy muttered, but he knew the answer he'd get again. Readers.

"I'm just beginning to wonder if this is always how you make friends?" Jason asked with one of those smiles that made the scar on his lip dimple and stand out.

Thalia's heart squeezed too tight for her to respond. She'd never gotten the chance to grow up and argue with her baby brother. Alex was still impatiently reading to get to the walking dead to hear it.

"That was scary. And impressive." Percy looked about as confused as somebody explaining the gods to him again. Like he still had trouble realizing things existed that long ago. Before the internet.

"I still trust Artemis on the whole Zoe never kids thing," Will assured.

"You mean when phones were plugged into the walls and people sent letters with stamps? I've never even seen a stamp," Magnus seemed just as baffled.

"You just made history museum top of our list when we get out of this," Alex chuckled at that dopey look on full display. Her reward was getting to watch those grey eyes land on her again, and a faint blush in his cheeks as he tried to guess what that meant. She wasn't quite sure herself anymore if she was just making fun of him either.

Nico twitched at the bitter thought it was no wonder Bianca liked Zoe better, they had more in common, being stuck out of time. He'd tried to readily adapt to this time with his love of games and always smiling like an idiot at the bright lights. The television had only just been constructed a few years prior of when he was born, Percy would probably think he went to Catholic school on a pteranodon as soon as he would a horse-buggy.

Percy wished that someone would scowl and call him a jackass. Just because Blackjack had volunteered for this didn't make this okay, and he felt lower than horse dung for doing this to his friend!

"Luke wouldn't have cared enough to ask Percy," Will gently reminded.

Percy startled, but then smiled and relaxed. He was right, Luke would have run Blackjack into the ground and called another pegasus without a second thought.

"Yeah he might not forgive you for that one without a donut," Thalia snickered.

"A blueberry one at that," Percy smiled hopefully along that was all a joke and she didn't use him as a human shield if those missiles were deployed.

"Nowhere in the world they could meet such a fella outside of camp," Rachel all but crooned with a sly look Percy didn't get. When would a mortal have been to camp? When did she meet Blackjack?

"And here I was beginning to wonder if Zoe had been around to invent all the best tracking and evading techniques too," Alex raised a surprised brow.

"We should have been expecting we were being followed," Thalia grimly agreed. She tried to play it off by giving Percy a light shove, as if she knew it was him all along, but the truth was they had been foolish not to expect this. Monsters had been after Nico and Bianca specifically, Thorn had been working with mortals. They'd been careless and shortsighted not looking for a tail.

"It's a good thing I followed you then," Percy puffed up his chest and swept away his hair with all the posturing of a bird. "You can thank me any time."

Thalia really did try to shove him then, causing the two to snicker that was all the thanks he was going to get, and he knew it.

All joking vanished from Percy as he leaned forward in his seat, bending Riptide so hard in his hand he might be in danger of snapping the pen as he concentrated again as well as he could. This beast was alive. He knew where Annabeth was.

"I couldn't even wish your dreams were wrong," Magnus agreed with dread. Her only options were to be held as prisoner, or dead. A nightmare in any reality.

The surprise of Thorn showing up had mostly distracted anybody from asking why they stopped, but even Percy and Alex looked up from their laser focus to stare at Thalia with big question mark faces.

"What's a quest without sightseeing?" She, as usual, was no help with an answer. She even felt bad for this one, what would it hurt Percy just to assure it was Grover's tracking song leading them here, Jason might even get a kick out of it.

She didn't want to risk hurting him again though, since he soon got to witness his best friend doing a jig himself later and even hinting at details could make it worse right now.

Percy groaned and Alex couldn't blame him for constantly being frustrated his friend didn't have many helpful answers that wouldn't get them killed in here.

"Those impulses of yours are going to save the world," Alex told him with admiration. Why follow his friends when he could get the drop on the enemy.

Nico's delighted snort of laughter was the loudest of all, but he was distracted from imagining guinea pig Percy in a plastic hamster ball running around one of those by Will smiling at him like he'd been sucker punched. "I'm sure that's a real event somewhere, everything is lately," he told him instantly.

Nico still looked at him strangely, like he was still waiting for Will to start mocking him now that he realized the Son of Apollo knew of more of his interests, but Will was just smiling same as ever.

"That dyslexia stuff must make for some awesome confusion," Alex said not unkindly.

"Because the Mist and monsters didn't do that enough," Percy shrugged.

"Please tell me they're zombies like a strange Jurassic Park spin-off," Magnus's frown was hopefully cautious. Only Will noticed Nico mouthing Jurassic Park spin-off with a blank look.

"I could live with that," Alex nodded along.

"Nobody questioning how and why Percy's mere presence is going to bring prehistoric animals to life?" Jason chuckled enthusiastically.

"Well I don't think Thorn's poison is going to do the trick," Percy said without a hint of thrill at the idea as well as he rubbed his shoulder in remembrance.

"Of all the things you've done to nearly get yourself killed," Rachel winced. "Let's hope you don't sneeze."

Percy gave her a strange look and winced a bit, and she smiled guiltily, having forgotten for a moment he wouldn't get the joke.

Even just remembering the scared tremble on her voice as she'd told that to him tugged on his heart. She should be here in that memory, beside him to keep an eye on their friends as they went to rescue Artemis; though she would have just been invited on the quest and he still would have snuck along. She should be here beside him now hearing his crazy adventure without her. She should be here with her arm around him to chase that scared tremble in her voice away from his memory.

'Traitor,' the caution hissed through Jason's mind. There was a traitor at camp from Luke, but no one in this quest could possibly be it. Grover wasn't around to sell them out last summer, unless Luke had more than one around Camp?

He'd bet his memories being gone for good it wasn't Thalia. A rash swear on the Styx he'd still commit to.

It couldn't be a Huntress...but there was literally no other explanation why this could possibly be a meeting place for Thorn. Was it Zoe? She'd been so committed to Artemis, or possibly a really good actress? It couldn't be Bianca, unless she'd somehow managed to fake during that first meeting she had no clue what was going on.

Luke being there was just too huge a coincidence he couldn't help but vow to keep his suspicions open Luke may have acquired more spies than whomever the undiscovered one at camp was.

Perhaps Magnus's previous theory about punishments and displeasing Kronos weren't so far off track. This was a far cry from the boy in his lavish sweet on a cruise liner bragging to Percy and Annabeth about his great choices.

There was no true sympathy in his heart though after leaving Annabeth in that trap for an untold time like there was in Will though, as he leaned forward in his seat. Will couldn't begin to imagine what all Luke had been through, but some part of him still hoped if Luke had just talked to someone instead of going so long silently resenting the gods he would have stopped this in its tracks. Had the Son of Hermes ever confided in any of the other half-bloods he recruited except to give nasty speeches about toppling thrones? Some part of Will still wished he could have lent an ear to Luke while offering him an ambrosia square to help, even if he had to handcuff this traitor and drag him back to camp kicking and screaming to do it.

Percy repressed the urge to shiver at the memory of that and regretted himself all the cracks he'd made in the floor, grateful as everyone no voice had come from them.

Nico shivered right along with him as he imagined the same from something even more powerful than a Titan, the mother of them.

Will made his own pained grimace as he whispered, "you all would have loved the time we took a field trip there."

Nobody felt the need to ask further questions, it clearly wasn't a happy memory for him. Perhaps because Annabeth had once corrected anybody who dared miss phrase the place while she'd been running around there. Thalia even smiled again for a brief moment as she imagined Chiron in his wheelchair trying to keep up with her, Annabeth smiling so brightly as Luke patiently listened to everything she had to say between the entrance and the gift shop, Clarisse and Salina being forced into the buddy system on the trip.

It was all in a bleak discerption of a memory from Chiron over a whispered game of cards as she'd hidden away from the harpies and he'd taken pity on her rather than sending her to bed. All the grand trips that were as close to quests as they'd come before Luke's failed fruit mission.

Thalia grimaced, she hated having something in common with that monster, even a common enemy.

Thalia's eyes sparked with anger he pretended to care enough to make sure they got her name right as she vividly imagined shoving his head in a rocket and turning one on.

"Why do I feel like they didn't bring blocks and toy swords?" Jason muttered.

"Where are the zombies?" Ales was pouting they'd gone practically this whole chapter without brain-eating corpses. "It didn't mean Luke did it?"

Thalia once again swallowed without answer it might as well mean him. He was a shell of himself, having already sold his soul to Kronos.

"Luke loved that by the way," Percy informed them, his sneer had nothing on Luke's venomous look that could have rivaled Thorn's spikes. The baffling implication left them much more confused what Thorn could mean by that, though Magnus at least tried to tell himself it was just bad guy, in house, squabbling.

Thalia's eyes glimmered with somehow yet more hatred, a truly frightening expression that nearly rivaled Aegis none of them thought could top her scowl for Luke moments ago.

She would have struck him without hesitation and much more for whatever he'd done to her.

There was a ripple of unease around the room that came from no one demigod. Such a powerful leader that struck Percy left those not in the know just how much worse Kronos himself could possibly be. Yet Thalia alone who had seen his mortal form still only saw this atrocity of a Titan as a warmup for the pain she expected to feel fresh and sharp as ever. She swore vengeance on Zoe's killer even trapped in his imprisonment again, and it was nothing compared to the twisted root of pain lodged in her every time Luke's name was said.

Alex and Magnus exchanged uneasy glances. They'd thought Bianca was the true goal that day, they needed a girl to capture Artemis, Percy was just a bonus when he showed up. Now they realized the Di Angelo kids were just bait...but how had Thorn known who would come to fetch them? Was it possible Thorn through Luke knew who Grover was and would call for help?

"Scrawny!" Was the only word Percy seemed to hear as bubbles flumed from his ears in anger once more.

Jason studied Thalia with a pit of concern, the untold prophecy nagging in his mind. It wasn't the only reason he could imagine them singling her out, Zeus surely had many enemies, a likely one possibly whoever this mystery man was. Thalia getting a choice to save the gods though would be a more comforting answer, because he was confident of that outcome, what she'd do. Anything else, he found himself nearly freezing up in concern what they could have done to her, what monster could this be?

"My liking for Zoe just went up tenfold," Rachel said darkly. Anything that upset this guy could only be used for their advantage, even the Persian princess.

"Do we have a botanist handy?" Will asked blearily, wishing Katie was around to turn to. He had no clue what was coming.

"I'll do you half of one," Nico muttered in disgust. He knew of a fair few from listening to the Demeter kids and Persephone threatening to poison him. He also knew of every ritual to summon the dead due to his own practicing, though he needed no aid like these mortals were doing, performing this ancient act.

Will gave him a curious, hopeful look, the exact opposite of what he'd expect expressing knowledge of zombies. The guy really was weirdly happy about everything.

Cursed blood, enchanted and stolen from the enemies. Nico swallowed and didn't offer that information, he had a feeling it would wipe Will's smile away when he realized who may have been sacrificed to fill that daisy watering can.

Percy studied the book in Alex's hands and swallowed vomit, knowing he felt sick enough already before a zombie popped up now. That. That was something he should have a memory about, and should possibly for the first time thank whoever took them away to save him from whatever it was.

Magnus was leaning all the way back in his seat and bracing himself for horrible descriptions that hit to close to home, having seen the dead on the streets, most citizens walking right past and not even realizing it. Of desiccated skin and jaws that wreaked of human flesh, with shuffling gates and soulless eyes in a forbidden human face-

"Kitten?" Magnus leaned excitedly over Alex's shoulder, a silly cartoon book coming back to him he hadn't thought of in years as his mom laughed with him about Freya loving cats.

"Well I didn't say moo," Alex grinned in agreement.

"These are the cutest killing machines we will ever experience," Will beamed.

"Have you already forgotten Annabeth?" But Percy was smiling along in confused surprise just as much what the heck was going on. Maybe he could steal one for Annabeth when she got back, cats loved to chase spiders, right?

"Honestly, that guy got off easy," Jason said with a raised brow. No remorse at all for the mortal who had passively stood around and been okay dishing out previous orders to kidnap and shoot kids. "How do you even swap those two?"

"Maybe somebody went around and played with a few placards?" Will said with a chuckle as he vividly remembered what Travis and Connor had gotten up to while there, but even then, it was really hard to imagine somebody couldn't look at the skeleton and get the wrong carcass so badly.

"Somebody has to," Percy muttered, though he didn't look happy of all the things to imagine Grover and this guy would agree on. His eyes were on Rachel again though, that inexplicable feeling of knowing she was mortal...and yet associated none of that with her like he did Gabe. He didn't hate mortals on principle, but his time with most of them wasn't good memories...except her for some reason...when he couldn't reach those memories!

"Is that supposed to be a hint of who he is," Jason asked a little breathlessly, and he just knew the answer was buried somewhere in his mind...

Percy shrugged without much care though, fidgeting as restlessly in his seat as ever like everything but hearing about Annabeth caused him.

"Damn, sucks to have a go-getter leader," Alex frowned for having always admired anybody willing to do what they dish out, even watering zombies.

"There's something we have in common," Jason nodded along with the same perplexed look.

Thalia popped the collar of her jacket and cleared her throat with a malevolent smile. "I thank you for the kind words."

"Anytime girlie," Alex nodded.

"Do I even want to know?" Magnus looked a little hopeful though they wouldn't be human zombies, which was like point one percent better.

"Sybaris was like a Scythian dracaenae, but worse," Nico supplied without concern. "Snake with feet, but a rooster head, mountain-sized," he concluded mildly. A Persian myth, making it slightly ironic why Percy had earlier mistaken Zoe of looking of that decent if Atlas had any association there. "It's odd though, because that's not what these guys turn out to be." Perhaps the resurrection process had to be performed by a priest of Hades to actually bring back the exact dragon, and these minions had been invoked from the process done by Atlas not performing the ceremony correctly.*

Will was looking for it now, and pressed his lips together unhappily to watch Nico's shadow flicker as he kept himself uptight and disconnected while explaining that, and Magnus was to busy making faces at dragons and zombies existing in the same sentence to notice.

How could Will possibly guess Nico was trying his hardest to suppress the memory of these things showing up on the worst day of his life, Percy saying nonsense, she was dead, he could hear their ghostly promises of more death on his hero and, and he just couldn't let him die, but he couldn't stand to look at him either...so he ran- stop! Moving on!

Magnus's mood had been dragged down with every word Nico used to describe them, and Percy looked no more thrilled what was actually going to come out of the dirt. To Nico's bemusement, but for once not surprise as he got used to Will, the guy gave him a smile and once again asked, "is she in Mythomagic?"

"You guessed it," Nico agreed without hesitating to smile back.

Magnus groaned in disgust and now knew the next time he sensed the dying ember of life leaving a mortal's body wrapped in trash bags, he'd get another horrible memory on top.

Alex met his eyes, licked her lips, but then turned back to the book. He sat stunned as he realized she wasn't hollering in pleasure at finally getting her reward of live zombies, she wasn't laughing and begging anybody to teach her how to do this.

Maybe, maybe his guess was right and the strained, hint of recognition of seeing her in a kitchen out of the corner of his eye was real. That she'd seen the gruesome side of humanity too, and this was just her way of dealing with it, smiling grimly through to laugh in the face of danger.

"Percy..." Thalia couldn't begin to find words to thank him for what he'd done. Artemis would have grieved and sworn revenge for them, if they'd even made it through this quest at all, but there was no telling if their goddess would have even continued the hunt at all with her maidens after a decimation like that. She was struck with awe she could go back and tell her crew a male hero had saved the legacy of them all, if not in spirit, than literally.

"Thalia," Percy bobbed his head and turned back to the book. That was that, all that was needed as he watched the gratitude in her eyes.

"That was presumptuous," Percy looked almost pleased though he was so high on the list of people Luke suspected.

"You get a cookie for the big kid word," Thalia patted his shoulder and grinned at him swatting her away.

Rachel shivered in particular disgust as Alex declared she was done. When she'd asked Percy where those skeletons chasing him had come from, he'd been pretty vague about the answer. He spent those weeks with her talking of anything but his father's side of the family, basking in what could have possibly been his last mortal, normal summer.

She watched Percy now as he got to his feet and cautiously went for the book, an expression more similar to fear twitching across his face than she ever would have believed possible was there. The last time he'd had his memories in hand, Annabeth had gone over a cliff. He took it now and looked from it to her, something strange still trying to wage with the memories of his girlfriend as he slowly went back to his seat beside her.

She'd thought she had a crush on him, and maybe there for a time he'd looked at her and wondered what life would be like if he could have a simple life with her too.

But just like she'd always known he would from the second she saw him and Annabeth together, he turned away with only slight hesitation and kept reading to find his way back to her, and she smiled and declared excitedly, "are we taking a lunch soon, I'm starving?"

PJOPJOPJO

*Why did dragon teeth create human skeletons? No clue, but I don't think my explanation makes it make less sense.