Like last time, Annabeth was completely enamored with the architecture of new Rome. In contrast to last time, we were now able to fully focus on it and were occupied with neither our worries about Gaia nor the fact that we had just been reunited after so long. "Look at that house" Annabeth instructed me. "Now, imagine us, sitting on the porch, surrounded by our own children. There is nothing to worry about, no monsters, no quest, our biggest concern is whether the food in our fridge will last for the weekend because neither of us want to go to the store. We've been together for many years, but our love is strong as ever." I tried to imagine it. Given my current life, it wasn't easy, but I liked it. "Sounds great. And the only thing I have to do is get good enough grades" "You say that like it's going to be easy" she joked. "Hey, I'm not that dumb" I responded as I pushed her to the side with my shoulder. "Hey" she complained and pushed me to the other side. I pushed back, a bit harder this time. Annabeth laughed. "You asked for it, seaweed brain" She tried to hit me, not seriously of course, but I knew her too well. I blocked her hand before it could reach me. I tried to get revenge, but was blocked as well. After a few minutes, it became clear that we both knew each other way to well to get any sort of surprise attack in. "Percy, maybe we should stop trying to beat each other up. Even if it's not working." Only in that moment did I realize how far we had actually gone. "I'm sorry Annabeth. I just realized, I tried to hit my girlfriend." "Percy, chill. I don't care, I literally started it." "But I was the first to push you" "Again, I don't care." Then she said "Is it because of smelly Gabe?" I nodded. "At first, he was okay. But then it got worse. He started hitting me and mom. What if I'm becoming like him?" "Percy, listen, that's not the same thing. Gabe did that because he was mean against your will. I, on the other hand, essentially challenged you to a battle. Boxers also punch other people, but that doesn't make them bad. Also, we're demigods, violent fights are part of our lives. And I haven't had a good fight in a while. You did nothing wrong" I was relieved. Since my battle with Achlys, I had always had this feeling of being a bad person. But Annabeth was right, there was a big difference between domestic violence and a friendly battle. "However, we probably shouldn't and doing this where everyone can see us, or they'll see the same thing you just did: a boy hitting his girlfriend. Anyways, apart from the near impossible goal of you getting good grades there's one more obstacle in our way: my mom. And Hera" "Like I said, we'll just get Chione to kidnap her again. And for Athena, I'll also come up with something, probably. I can't really plan anything, because I could never make a strategy to trick the goddess of strategy." "She'll just outsmart your outsmarting"
"Hi Percy." I heard someone call. "And I assume you're Annabeth" "She is. Hi Gwen, I see closing the doors of death didn't kill you. But then again, Hazel is still alive, so why should you be different?" "I could have been. No one knows what might prompt the fates to kill you. Or would that be Thanatos? He's the one responsible for keeping the dead people dead, but I was already back to being alive when the doors closed, even when he was freed, so I'm probably not his responsibility. Anyways, I'm still no longer dead and I think that's pretty cool. Also, what are you doing here? Also also, regarding what you were just talking about, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a girlfriend that can beat you up. I'd like that. Well, in my case I'd be the girlfriend, not have one" "Are you sure that you wouldn't want a girlfriend?" "Now that you say it, not really. Anyways, what are you up to?"
"I'm just showing Annabeth the city. She's a sucker for architecture." "And I just like imagining a future here, where I'm safe. Because in my current life, not even my own sanity is safe." "So, is it really true that you went to" "Yes, we went there" I said, loudly enough to drown her out. "And talking about it is about as healthy, mentally speaking, as reaching into an open wound, so if you dare to do that in front of Annabeth, I will-" "Understood, don't mention it" She said, a bit intimidated. "Has anyone ever told you how scary you can be? For example, when you blew up those water cannons during the war games, that was pretty scary. we still haven't fixed them." Then, more to herself "That must have been the most awkward transition from a compliment to an accusation I've ever done. "Oh, can I see them?" Annabeth asked. "I bet I can help you with the repairs" "Sure, why not. You're a child of Min- Athena, right? I've heard they're good with machines. Isn't Daedalus your brother?" "People always think that, but he's actually my great great great grand nephew and the great great great grandson of Erichthonius, and that guy is my brother. Sort of, but Gaia was also involved, along with Hephaestus and a handkerchief. I will not elaborate further. Now, where are those water cannons?" She had a look in her eyes that told me we would not get her away from them easily.
When we reached the cannons, Annabeth looked at them for a few minutes, occasionally instructing me to make the water move a certain way. "Okay, I think I figured it out now." She picked up a piece of pipe and spoke into it, magnifying her voice greatly. "Hazel, we need you here. And Leo, if you just so happen to be around, that would help as well." After a few minutes, Hazel appeared. Leo, unsurprisingly, didn't. "So, what do you need me for?" "I found out how to repair the water cannons that someone broke, but we need to bend this metal part like this, and I thought you'd be best suited for that job." "Already working on it" After just five more minutes, the cannons were operational again. "Well, looks like the 5th is back to loosing now"
Once that was done, we went to find Reyna. We found her working in her house, but she was thankful for the distraction. "Percy, Annabeth, I hope your arrival here doesn't mean bad news." "No, we were just in the area, my father lives in San Francisco." "Good, can I offer you something to eat?" She got a bowl of salad seemingly out of thin air and gave it to me. "Very funny Reyna" "What's funny?" She asked, fake-obliviously. "A salad is a perfectly reasonable thing to give someone like you." Then, we all started laughing. We talked for a while longer before I suddenly realized that it was already two, so five in New York, and we needed to get home soon. Even using two oceans creek, it would take a while. We said goodbye to Reyna and everyone else, promising to visit soonish, given that no higher power prevented us from doing so. "One more question" Reyna said as we were leaving. "Annabeth, what is that black ring for?" "It represents my asexuality." "I never heard of that. Alexa, add black rings to my shopping list." A voice came from her room "Okay, adding 'the ring' to your watch list" "What's Alexa?" I asked. "Just something my sister asked me to try out. And when I say asked, I mean knife-to-the-throat-forced. It's supposed to do the things you tell it to do, which obviously isn't working very well. So, you're ace? Tell me more" "I would, but we unfortunately don't have the time for that. Maybe next time"
After that, we went back to Terminus to collect our weapons and made our way back to the exit, where Thalia had already been waiting for a few minutes. "So, any ideas where the hunters currently are?" "Well, I know the general direction, they're somewhere in the south east, but I'll know more once we get there and it's on our route anyways. I'll figure it out if we just follow the river." We walked back through the tunnel and back to my boat. When we had climbed in, I summoned new water to get us down to San Francisco bay.
From there on, we followed the route that Frederick had shown us. After a few hours of travel, we reached the point where the Ohio River met the Mississippi and decided to go back up, both because going around Florida would bring us dangerously close to the sea of monsters and because Thalia claimed the other hunters were upstream. She led us up into smaller rivers before deciding that she could walk the remaining distance. She said goodbye to me, Annabeth and everyone else who was close to front.
Only when Thalia opened the door did we notice how late it had gotten, the sun was close to setting. We decided to go look for a safe place to spend the night or, if we didn't find one, go back to camp now, before continuing our journey. Just as the sun set, we crossed below a large bridge. Below that bridge was what appeared to be some sort of homeless camp. But it wasn't like any other homeless camp I'd seen before. It had a fence surrounding an area of maybe fifty square meters. Within this area were a few tents, but also a small building made from scrap materials. There even was a large barrier reached into the river and funneling the current towards a water wheel. There was also a lot of other stuff way too complex for me to understand. There were a lot of aluminum cans and other trash piled up in one area. "Why don't we spend the night here?" Annabeth suggested. "I don't know, maybe because I don't want to sleep under a bridge with a bunch of hobos." "You do realize that you spent the last two nights with two former 'hobos'? I have experience with where you should and should not spend the night and this place looks nice. At least give it a try" I gave in and steered the boat to shore. Before going onto land, I tied it to the pier (No, I don't know why a bunch of homeless people had their own pier, but they had one.) and entered the camp.
Sorry for the short chapter. And the delayed chapter. Again, I was a bit busy. Btw, that's not an excuse for the short chapter, I just felt like ending it here.
Also, Reyna might not have had the time to find out Annabeth's ace backstory but you might. If you want, I could write a chapter on that.