"I hope you two had fun," Annabeth said as she hugged her brothers tightly. Both of them hugged her back at the same time, squeezing her just as hard. A wince left Annabeth, but she hid it. Then, she kissed both of their foreheads.

"Ew!"

"Gross!"

A laugh left Annabeth. She let go of her brothers, "You two didn't forget anything, did you?"

"No," both of her brothers said at the same time.

"If you did, just text me. I'll mail it to you," Annabeth promised. She hugged both of them again. "I'm going to miss you two."

"We'll miss you too," Bobby said with a dramatic sigh.

"I had a lot of fun," Matthew said. Annabeth led her brothers to the gate and gave them one last hug.

"Here's some money for food," Annabeth said as she handed each of them a twenty. "Text me when your plane lands and let me know when you get back home."

"We will," Bobby promised.

"Thank you for a great vacation," Matthew added. Annabeth smiled at them and watched them go to the gate. When they were out of sight, she turned away and carefully limped back to the entrance. The visit had gone great, and she was ecstatic that her brothers enjoyed it so much.

A tired sigh left Annabeth. They had stayed up late the night before celebrating their victories. Annabeth didn't get much sleep, but she would just go to bed early that night. Annabeth stepped outside and got in the passenger's seat of Thalia's car.

"Miss them already?" Thalia asked.

"A little bit," Annabeth admitted. She sighed and stretched out. "How are you doing?"

"Better," Thalia replied. She shrugged and started to drive. "Being off work has been nice. What about you? How are you feeling after you kicked ass and defended your title?"

"Sore," Annabeth answered. "I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to get my finger and ankle looked at."

"You think it's worse than broken fingers and a sprained ankle?" Thalia questioned.

"I don't think so," Annabeth replied. "I still need to get a doctor to clear it."

"And, um, what about Reyna? Is she okay?" Thalia questioned, shifting in her seat. Annabeth studied her.

"You didn't ask her when the two of you were sitting next to each other at the restaurant," Annabeth teased. Thalia glared. It had been an unfortunate turn of events that the two sat next to each other, and both of them were too awkward to say anything to try and fix it.

"You're an ass," Thalia decided. Annabeth smirked. "Look, there was a lot of blood."

"Thalia, are you catching feelings again?" Annabeth asked as she lost the smirk and grew serious.

"No!" Thalia said quickly. She sighed and averted her gaze. "Look, I care about Reyna. Alright? I'll be honest. I don't think I could date her again, but that doesn't change the fact that I do care about her. And kind of want to be friends. It's just..."

"I'm not going to make fun of you for caring about Reyna as a friend," Annabeth stated.

"I know how much fighting means to Reyna, but I know how serious multiple concussions in a row are," Thalia said. Annabeth nodded her agreement.

"I was worried about that too," Annabeth admitted. "Reyna said she didn't think she was concussed, but it can't be good to be busted open like that."

A sigh left Annabeth as she rested her head against the window, "Want to get lunch?"

"Hell yeah," Thalia replied. She sighed. "Am I being ridiculous thinking that Reyna and I could be friends? We said a lot of hurtful things to each other."

"I think it's something you need to talk to Reyna about, and with how both of you are with feelings..."

"Yeah," Thalia huffed. She laid her head back against the seat and kept her gaze on the road. "Maybe we'll be trapped together on the plane to Rome and can find time to talk then."

"Are you going to be okay on a plane?" Annabeth questioned.

"Not at all," Thalia replied dejectedly. Her knuckles tightened on the steering wheel like she was already imagining being thousands of feet in the air. "But, Lupa said it's impossible to ride our motorcycles there, so I don't really have a choice."

Annabeth rubbed her shoulder. Thalia shook her head and focused on the road, "I think I will try to talk to Reyna. Really sit down and talk."

"Don't get drunk and sleep with her," Annabeth half-warned and half-joked. Thalia remained silent. Annabeth glanced at her and then turned up the radio. Thalia tapped a single button, and it turned to one of the stations that Annabeth would listen to.

"Can we talk about those fights last night?" the host asked. He shook his head. "Henry, can we talk about those fights!?"

"Oh, I think we can talk about those fights, Don. We can certainly talk about it," Henry, his co host said. "Annabeth Chase finally proved just how good she is. I've been telling everyone since day one."

"He has folks! I know because he would say it every single day. He still says it!" Don complained. "But, it's true. Annabeth Chase went against the number one ranked fighter in the Olympic League and came out on top. On top of that, she really stood across the best grappler we have and beat her at her own game."

"Now, we have Annabeth ready to face off against her teammate in the Wolves," Henry added. He sighed deeply. "That is going to be a violent fight."

"It's going to be vicious," Don agreed. "But, I don't know if Annabeth is going to beat Reyna."

"Oh, come on. You keep saying that. You said that when Annabeth first started in the Delian League, and when she became champion of it. And when the Olympic League absorbed the Delian League. And when she joined the Wolves. Plus her first title defense and this last match with Arachne. When are you going to stop doubting her?"

"Henry, I do not doubt Annabeth anymore. She made a believer of me last night. She really did, but I also watched the main event. Here's the thing: if I was Annabeth Chase, I would be scared shitless. Her next challenger went through one of the most brutal fights we have seen, and after that war, she smiled," Don stated.

"Bloodied and battered, the first thing Reyna did was look at her opponent and smile. We saw Clarisse and Reyna beat the absolute hell out of each other, and after that, Reyna smiles? Wouldn't that scare you? Because that means what is going to stop her? Losing more blood than any fighter should didn't stop her. Neither did that shoulder injury."

"What is Annabeth going to have to do to stop Reyna?" Don finished. "Because if that was me, I would be scared shitless."

"I would be too," Henry stated. "I think the other big factor here is Lupa. One of the greatest fighters ever has two brilliant proteges. One that she has trained since the beginning of her career and the other that she handpicked to join her team. Which one is she rooting for?"

"Come on. We all know Lupa. She wants the strongest to win. She is going to train these two the best she can. I know what is going to happen. Lupa is going to tell Reyna every single one of Annabeth's weaknesses. Then, she is going to turn around and tell Annabeth everything she said and how to fix it before telling her all of Reyna's secrets."

"The back and forth is going to continue until both fights are at their peak. Until they are perfect. Then, they will go to war," Don declared. "And, my prediction is that this fight will go all five rounds and come down to the score, only there will not be a winner. The decision will be split."

"Are you suggesting a sixth round?"

"I'm predicting it," Don replied.

"Oh, going six rounds with Reyna?" Thalia asked with a suggestive grin. Annabeth hit her arm. "What is that anyway? I thought there weren't any ties."

"There isn't," Annabeth explained as she turned down the volume on the radio. "I don't think the sixth round has ever been enacted, but it's pretty simple. A new round starts, and it does not stop until a fighter is unable to continue."

"You don't think it would go that far, do you?" Thalia questioned.

"I don't know," Annabeth admitted. "It's not likely for us to tie unless we have an evenly split fight, which is possible. But, I don't know who would win that sixth round."

Annabeth sat back in her seat and felt a pit form in her gut. Despite those words, she knew who would win. After watching Reyna's fight, the woman seemed to have an unbelievable if not infinite amount of stamina. Annabeth didn't think she could outlast that, and she hoped their fight wouldn't come down to that fabled sixth round.