Chapter 20

When Percy and Annabeth finally made it back onto the mainland, Percy knew there was trouble brewing.

The Hunters were waiting on the beach for them after Annabeth had given Thalia an Iris-Message and told her exactly what went down on Proteus's island. Percy had the idea of also calling Jason and Piper, maybe they could explain what was truly going on but Annabeth had advised him not to do that, calling Jason could tell him exactly where they were. Right now, they were still ahead of him.

After gently beaching the boat this time, Percy hopped of the side and walked over to Thalia, who had two slips of paper in her hands.

"So, what's up?" He asked, "You said we needed to get here as fast as we could."

"Yeah, listen, Jason is in Chicago, chances are he's probably going to find out you guys went down here, you don't have time." Thalia handed him the pieces of paper, "Those are train tickets. They'll only get you as far as Arizona, we couldn't get any for California."

"We'll take what we can get." Percy said as he put the tickets in his pockets.

Annabeth walked over after making sure the boat wouldn't float away, "You said Jason is in Chicago, how does he know we were there?"

Thalia shook her head, "News reports, hounds, he's using anything he can to track you both down. Apparently, there's a news report of a guy with black hair and green eyes killing a girl in Chicago, they had a CCTV picture on there too." She looked straight at Percy, "They caught you on camera."

"So, I'm a fugitive now?" He asked, he wasn't too thrilled about being on the run from the law again.

"Sort of, Hermes bought some time for you but Jason saw it. There's nothing Hermes could do for you there." Thalia explained, "You gotta remember, not every god is your friend. Some of them are still following Zeus's orders so if they catch you, you'll either have to fight or run. If I were you, I wouldn't let them catch me, but you do you."

Percy wanted to curse, he had no idea who was on his side and who wasn't. Sure, he knew Athena, Artemis, Hermes, and his dad were on his side but that left pretty much everyone else in the pantheon. Not to mention the amount of minor gods Zeus had probably sent his way.

"We've been pretty good at not staying in one place for too long." Annabeth said, "We should keep moving."

Thalia nodded, "Good idea. Me and my girls can get you to the train station, then you're on your own." She turned and started to walk away but then she stopped. She turned and looked straight at Percy, "Oh, and please try to be careful, Kelp Head, don't go and get yourself kidnapped again. You gotta a lot of people gunning for you so watch out."

Percy glared daggers at her back as she turned and walked off, it wasn't like he walked up to Oizys and offered himself as her prisoner.

"She has a point." Annabeth said.

"Huh?" He turned to her with a look of disbelief.

"She's right, you need to be careful," Annabeth warned, "Everyone might be after us but I'm almost sure there's some who are after you in particular. I mean, Ares is looking for his shield and if he thinks you stole it, well, you two already hate each other, he'll do anything he can to get you."

"Right, that's super comforting, Annabeth." He said while walking towards the Hunters who had started moving.

"I'm glad that comforts you." Annabeth said, kissing him on the cheek.

Ω

Percy had to admit, the Hunters really came through for him and Annabeth. He dreaded thinking about what would've happened if Oizys had attacked and they weren't there. Sure, Annabeth probably would've thought of something to get them out of there but he doubted they'd escape unharmed.

With the Hunters and their help, he and Annabeth were now on a train headed east. The city of New Orleans faded into the background behind them, along with the possibility of being caught by Jason.

Percy sighed in his seat, now that they were back on a train, he felt like he could actually breathe. Aside from the obvious tension he felt in New Orleans, the southern heat and humidity in that city really sucked. Now he was on a train with air-conditioning.

He felt a little better about this train than the last one he took. The one in New York was pretty packed when it left, this train didn't have too many people. In his eyes, the less people on the train, the better. Any monster trying to get the jump on them would have a much harder time.

"So, Proteus was a fun guy, right?" He asked, looking over at Annabeth.

Annabeth glanced at him, "Right, fun. That's the right word."

A grin spread across Percy's face, "You know, I don't think I've ever heard you scream like that in a while."

"Shut up!" Annabeth buried her face in her hands, "That wasn't funny!"

Percy chuckled next to her. He did feel bad for her but the way she looked over and screamed like that was just too funny.

"Percy, he was a giant spider." Annabeth said after lowering her hands, "It's not my fault I was terrified."

Percy patted her on the shoulder, "It's fine. Just be glad that no one else was around."

"Oh gods." She groaned, "Can you imagine if Grover was here?"

Percy grinned, he could already imagine Grover laughing his ass off. He could tell from Annabeth's red face that she was clearly very embarrassed.

Percy stared out the window at the desert landscape they were passing through, he couldn't imagine having to travel through the desert without a car. Not to mention, the sun was starting to go down, traveling at night was always dangerous, some monsters liked to hunt at night, it made sneaking up on demigods easier, unless said demigod was a emo son of Hades called Nico Di Angelo, in that case, attacking at night was the worst thing a monster could do.

Percy appreciated Nico for not really getting involved in any of the incidents back at camp, he'd even taken over his sword lessons for him. At least now he only had one son of the Big Three to worry about.

"Hey, Annabeth." He said.

Annabeth looked over at him, "What's up?"

"You know how Thalia said Jason was tracking us?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Annabeth asked, "By the time he gets to New Orleans, we'll be long gone."

"I'm not worried about him catching us, I'm just wondering who you think would win if we had to fight." He said.

Annabeth bit her lip as her eyes got that analytical look that she always got when she was thinking deep into something.

"Well, assuming this is a one-on-one fight," She said, "It would be rough but I think you'd win. It really depends on a bunch of other things like who strikes first and where you two are fighting. If you're both near water, you'll probably win every single time."

Percy knew that, he'd sparred Jason a bunch of times, they were on about the same skill level. Jason had the training but he was naturally talented, Jason wouldn't be able to win very easily.

"Regardless, I doubt it'll end up just you and him fighting, I'm not letting you fight alone." Annabeth said, "I'm not letting anyone take you away from me, not again."

Percy glanced at her uneasily, he hoped she wasn't starting to get attachment issues.

"Who do you think is running with him? He asked, hoping to get her mind thinking of something else.

"Leo is a guarantee." Annabeth said, "Those two are like you and Grover, I'd be surprised if he didn't go with Jason. I would've said Piper but after what you told me, I doubt she wants anything to do with him right now."

"What about Clarisse?"

She shrugged, "Maybe. Clarisse never really cared for Jason. I mean, when you were gone, she complained almost every week that Jason was no fun. Honestly, I think she missed you a little bit."

The idea of Clarisse missing him shook Percy to his core. They weren't exactly the shining example of friends.

"Okay, so let's just say we run into Leo and Jason, how are we going to take them down?" He asked.

"Well, Jason is the main threat." Annabeth started to explain, "Leo is more support than anything. Sure, he can use his fire to try to help but Jason is the one who's going to be doing all the fighting. If he has to fight you and me at the same time, he's going to lose. You could take Leo on by yourself and win, you just need to watch out for any of his tricks."

Percy figured she was right, he wasn't too worried about Leo if he was being honest. He'd sparred with plenty Hephaestus campers, they weren't pushovers but they didn't pose as much of a threat as an Ares camper.

"Still, I doubt we'll have to fight Jason, he's far from catching us. Unless he somehow manages to find out that we're headed towards California and cuts us off there, the chance of us fighting him is a big fat zero." Annabeth said, "What we need to worry about is figuring out how we're going to get Ares's shield back from Zena, I doubt she'll give it back just because we asked her nicely."

"Who knows?" Percy asked hopefully, "Maybe she'll be scared off when she sees both of us."

"I doubt it." Annabeth said, "Whatever you do, don't fight her alone."

"Alright." He said.

Annabeth gave him a smile, "Get some rest, we'll need it."

Ω

Percy woke up to Annabeth shaking his shoulder frantically. His eyes struggled to stay open as he was pulled out of what would've been a peaceful rest. He could barely make out Annabeth's concerned face as she continuously shook him.

"W-what?" He said groggily as he wiped his eyes.

"Percy, you need to wake up." She said, "There's trouble."

Percy groaned before he started looking around. At first, he didn't see what the big deal was, he didn't see any monsters around. When he looked out the window, all he saw was darkness, which meant it was obviously still nighttime.

"What happened?" He asked, looking back at Annabeth.

"Someone called the cops on us." She said, "There was this lady walking by, right? Well, she kept looking at me and you, so I decided to follow her. She told the conductor that she saw us on the news and that we're wanted for murder."

"Why didn't you just use the mist?" He asked.

"Because the conductor already radioed it in." Annabeth said, "We need to find out how we're going to get off this train."

Percy sighed, this was the last thing he wanted to wake up to. They were already so close to where they needed to be, if they got arrested now, there was no telling what would happen.

Annabeth stood up and shouldered her backpack before motioning for him to follow her. Percy followed her, passing sleeping passengers as he did so. He had no idea where they were going but he wasn't about to go off on his own.

"Where are we going?" He whispered.

"To the back of the train," She said, "We might not have to get off. If we can find a storage carriage or something, maybe we can hide in it and wait until the police back off."

Now that made sense to Percy, it was way more sensible than jumping off a moving train in the middle of the night in the middle of who knows where. If they got off the train, that'd give Jason plenty of time to catch up to them, not to mention they'd be exposed for any monsters who happened to be passing by.

Percy followed Annabeth through train cart after train cart, some of them were completely empty. Eventually, they did end up finding the storage cart after Annabeth opened a door to reveal a cart full of luggage.

"So, we're just going to sit in there and wait?" He asked, peering into the cart.

"We'll have to." She said, "Come on."

Percy walked into the cart after her. There were no windows so he couldn't see what was going on outside. A line of white light strips bathed the inside of the cart with harsh white light. Unless he buried his face into someone's luggage, he doubted he'd fall asleep in here.

He turned and shut the door, "Well, this sucks."

"Yeah, it does." Annabeth said as she sat next to a few duffle bags, "I didn't even get to sleep. I was too worried something like this would happen."

Percy looked at her and realized just how bad she looked. There were dark bags under her eyes, her hair was all sorts of messy, and her eyes themselves were red with exhaustion. She needed rest, he was no son of Apollo but even he knew she needed rest.

"You can sleep, I'll take watch." He said as he sat down next to her, "I think I've gotten enough sleep."

Annabeth looked like she wanted to protest but she eventually did scooch closer to him before balling up and laying against him. He moved a little bit so she could bury her face against his side, at least then she could try to get some sleep.

Percy sighed, just a few more days and hopefully this would all be over.