Chapter 1: Hockey Mask Guy

Rated T for violence and light swearing

Even as Annabeth started to gain consciousness she knew something was off.

First of all, she was sitting up. Second, it was cold, like she had gone from a warm bath and had now been dunked into ice water. Then, her body felt stiff and there was this noise, crackling from somewhere.

She definitely wasn't in bed anymore.

The overwhelming confusion and sudden rush of adrenaline she was feeling was probably a mix of tiredness and a demigod sense that this was more trouble than just some crazy dream.

Annabeth had experienced a lot of unexpected problems in her life. Waking up to find that she was tied up, was actually one of them. Back when she was about thirteen or fourteen after being kidnapped by someone she thought was her friend. Maybe in that case it wasn't so surprising to be kidnapped.

She was sitting in front of a granite wall that was covered in what she assumed was the flickering light of a campfire somewhere behind her. Annabeth's arms were pulled back and tied tightly together behind a rock, her legs were bound, and there was a gag stopping her from shouting for help.

Seeing as she had fallen asleep at her Dad's house in San Francisco last night and was not surrounded by all of her Architecture and Greek Myth books anymore she'd probably been kidnapped.

It wasn't something that she hadn't experienced before, but it confused and frustrated her. Normally, she knew about threats before they tried to take her hostage. She should have at least been woken up by her stepmother shouting for help or something before getting abducted.

The thought stopped Annabeth's heart.

What about her family? Annabeth couldn't see them anywhere. Did they get taken too? Or was this just demigod business?

Annabeth pulled against the ropes just to test them out. She could already feel her wrists turning red and maybe it was the 'just woke up' haze but she didn't have a single clue how to get out of ropes.

Annabeth didn't have anything vaguely useful on her. She was wearing some PJ pants and an old Camp Half-Blood shirt, that was so faded it was basically just an orange shirt but besides that, she had nothing. No knife, no sword, not that she'd be able to grab it if it was on her. She wasn't even wearing shoes, just a pair of Harry Potter Socks that she liked to wear when her feet got cold at night.

Suddenly a baritone voice came from somewhere behind her, "I'm sure you know that struggling will just hurt more."

Annabeth stopped wiggling. Where had she heard that voice? It rang through the back of her head like a voice she should recognize.

She then saw the shadow of someone appear on the wall and slowly walk in front of her. Revealing... a teenage boy? Really?

He was tall and covered in black clothing. He wore a dirty white hockey mask that covered his face except for his blonde well kept hair. Even his eyes were covered up. They should have been visible through the mask, but instead she could see the fire flickering behind her. They must have been covered up by some reflective material.

Even though his voice had been vaguely familiar, she still couldn't figure out who he was. Nothing particularly hinted that he was someone she knew. Though, Annabeth wasn't sure if knowing who he was would be better or worse for her. Familiar voice or not, part of her wishes this was a mortal. Mortals were pretty easy to deal with.

"I'm going to ask one thing to you," He pulled out a silver bladed knife and knelt to place it against her neck, "give me the wrong answer and I will slit your throat right here and now."

Annabeth struggled to think of a way out of this. But as she felt the blade almost touching her skin, any idea of escape was cleared from her mind.

He pulled the gag out of her mouth and threw it against the wall behind him.

"Are you a Roman or a Greek?"

Annabeth was at a loss for words.

Hopes for some stupid mortal were thrown out the window. Clearly this person was some sort of Demigod or Monster or God or something. But for some reason, they didn't recognize her. Which made even less sense.

Clearly this person, potentially a thing, was intelligent. And Annabeth might not be Percy Jackson or Jason Grace, but most creatures and Gods tied to the Greek and Roman world knew who she was.

As for his question. Of course the first thought that ran through Annabeth's brain was, why does that matter? It had been five months since the second giant war ended. A war that ended with peace between the Greeks and Romans. So peaceful that Annabeth, a daughter of Athena, had visited a couple days before and not a single person batted an eye or started an argument over her arrival.

This guy didn't look like a monster. So, if he was a demigod and a Roman he would have recognized her. If he was Greek? That was a whole other can of worms that made no sense to her. Before she could say anything he moves the knife just a nanometer closer to her neck.

Clearly, on edge, he asked her again, pronouncing each word precisely, "Are you a Roman or a Greek?"

Annabeth was about to answer truthfully until she noticed his hand shaking subtly. He was nervous.

Maybe I could die, she thought, or maybe I could get out of this. Annabeth's weighed her odds, and then she took leap.

She stayed as still as possible and tried to match the edge to his voice best she could, "Maybe you could tell me why you kidnapped me, and where my family is before you start asking questions."

She threw the fiercest glare she could at him. The Gods must have finally decided to do her a favor because he lowered the knife.

"What do you mean, kidnap?"

Annabeth laughed in disbelief, and the guy's knife dropped to his side in confusion.

"Are you stupid?," she struggled against the bonds slightly, "I am literally tied up right now. I was sleeping in my bed at home and now I'm tied up with you holding that knife at my neck."

She couldn't see his face but it must have been some mix of angry and confused because he put his knife back in its sheath and crossed his arms, "Look, lady, I found you here, taking a nap. In my hideout. I don't know how you found me or why you were stupid enough to fall asleep when someone else has clearly been sleeping here. I found this cave first."

And then silence. Both of them just watch each other trying to figure out what in Hades was happening right now.

After a couple of seconds, however, Hockey Mask seemed to come to a conclusion because he calmly sat down across from her and took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Look, I don't think you're lying, but I'm not either. Even if you aren't I still can't set you free until you answer my question. Are you a Roman or a Greek?"

"Well, I'm assuming you're a demigod. And you seem to know I'm one too. So, maybe first you could tell me which one you are." Annabeth replied.

"If I told you that would be cheating."

Annabeth squinted her eyes but nodded slowly, "Ok, granted... But what are you gonna do if I give you an answer you don't like?"

There was a pause, and she could see some nervousness in his posture but his answer was calm and clear.

"I would have to kill you," but as an afterthought, he added, "nothing personal, it's mostly Protocol."

Protocol. For what? Annabeth felt like she had all the wrong pieces to a puzzle. Nothing about this situation made sense.

Hockey Mask guy seemed almost… nice. It was like he didn't want to kill her with any hard feelings. And he did seem to be telling the truth about just finding her here. Maybe she should just tell the truth. Maybe he'd take pity and she could find a way to break out. But maybe she should lie.

She went with her gut, "Greek. I'm a greek demigod."

He tensed more, but stood and let his arms drop to his sides, "If you're lying, I'll kill you."

His voice did not waver. Annabeth stuck to her guns, "I'm not lying."

Just like that, Hockey Mask's shoulders dropped. His stance became less guarded. He took out his knife again and cut the rope around her feet. Then as he walked behind her she saw him pull off the mask and drop it on the floor next to her.

"Thank Zeus, this makes my life much easier."

She still couldn't see his face, but she could feel him starting to cut the ropes tying her hands together.

"You're lucky I didn't just keep you hostage till I got back to base. But I'm pretty good at reading people's voices and I think you're telling the truth."

Annabeth felt the ropes fall from her wrists and pulled them in to rub away some of the red.

Before turning she tried to get a better look at everything in front of her and then saw it.

A bronze dagger, it had been just out of her view before, but maybe she could grab it really fast and get out of here.

Annabeth took a deep breath and lunged for it. The handle was uncomfortable in her hand as she grabbed it but it would have to do. She faced Hockey Mask guy with her body in a fighting stance.

She froze immediately. Annabeth barely noticed the knife dropping to the ground as she stared at his face.

What in Hades?

No wonder his voice was familiar. In the firelight, she could see a familiar guarded sort of confused expression on his annoyingly perfect looking face. It was the same Roman Statue face, but instead of the tiny scar on his lip, there was an even bigger knife scar going from the corner of the right side of his mouth to just below his ear. Like someone had tried to forcefully make him smile wider.

He didn't seem to have seen the look on her face because even though he had been startled by the knife dropping he walked over to a rock near the fire that had been behind her and sat down with a 'trying hard to be' welcoming look on his face.

He started to sharpen his knife and gave her a small smile, "My name's Jason, what's your name?"

A/N: Hey! Thanks for reading! This is an idea I've had for a while, but I never really had the time to put more than a chapter of it together. This is a work in progress so I'll edit and update old chapters (and hopefully new chapters a lot). For example, Jason was going to be a blind character, and I scrapped it. Or maybe I read it over and found a better word for something. So bare with me. Help me out, let me know if I make mistakes. That's all thanks.

Important Note: I have not read any Trials of Apollo or Magnus Chase. Anything that happened in those books either has not happened yet or did not happen at all.