This is a first for this story, a chapter dedicated to Annabeths view of the last few days. This is kinda meant to clear things up as I've seen some people misinterpret some story beats, so expect more in the future to better elaborate on how other characters think and feel about this situation. Because largely the story is from Atreus and Kratos' POV and how they interpret was is going on. Anyways hope you enjoy.

San Francisco

"So, what's the plan?" There was always a plan when it came to his father, and as Atreus got to know the daughter of Athena more he realized that she always had a plan.

Currently, the three of them were on their scheduled bus leaving San Francisco. Atreus and Annabeth sat on one side while Freya sat on the other. Multiple times someone would try and sit next to Freya only to be given a death glare that sent them running the opposite direction.

Annabeth took out her map and tapped their location, "Airport idea is shot, and I don't want to try it again so soon. This bus is gonna take us a few states over," She dragged her finger across the map, occasionally noting some rest-stops along the way. "Do this a handful of times and we should be in New York in three days." Annabeth folded the map and put it back in her bag.

"It is remarkable mortals can span such a large landmass in such a short time." Freya noted.

"What about monsters? Can they still find us?" It wasn't really the monsters that Atreus was worried about, but the false Loki haunting his every step.

"Sure but it's gonna be difficult for them to catch up to us. We should be safe here for a bit. So just relax, it's been a rough few hours." She certainly wasn't wrong.

Atreus nodded, "Yeah, relax, I can do that." He leaned back into his seat, maybe he could get some sleep on this ride.

It wasn't long before Atreus fell asleep, the steady rise and fall of his chest indicated he was fast asleep. For Annabeth, it was a good time to start to compartmentalize everything that had happened in the last few days. She leaned back in her seat and reminisced.

Annabeth was no stranger to the outlandishness of life, she was a demigod afterall, but this one was a particularly strange situation. It started a couple days ago, when visiting the Roman camp that there was an emergency. A goddess and demigod were tearing up a street in a fight. Asking for her help, Reyna and Frank sent Annabeth and an infantry of soldiers to stop it, and that's when she met them.

The goddess Freya and demigod Atreus. From the moment they met Annabeth felt something was…wrong? That was the best way she could to put it. Call it a gut feeling or whatever but the two just did not sit right with her. She put on a nice face and spoke to them plainly, it became clear quickly what their beef was. Atreus had played a part in the death of Baldur, the son of Freya, along with his father. Alarm bells started ringing for Annabeth, she only had cursory knowledge of Nordic history but she was sure there was never any mention of Atreus and his father Kratos - another mystery.

Annabeth decided to deal with this situation with a deft touch, it was clear that whatever the history book wrote and what Freya and Atreus were saying were not the same. Which wasn't uncommon, but such a drastic change was notable.

Then there was the mystery of this Kratos, she had never heard of a god of war that went by that name. Sure there were minor gods of war, like Ares' children, but none named Kratos. When Annabeth spoke with Atreus about it he gave as much information he could (or was willing to). That opened up a whole other can of worms, according to Freya and Atreus the Olympians were all gone, Kratos was the sole survivor.

She turned her mind back to their meeting with Reyna and Frank, after having asked Atreus exactly how they killed Baldur.

"Something's not right," Annabeth said, the door behind her had just shut, indicating that Atreus was gone and can no longer hear them.

"Care to enlighten us Annabeth?" Reyna asked.

Annabeth described to the two praetors everything she knew up until then, what minuscule details she gathered, and what was told to her by Freya and Atreus. "And now apparently he and his father were the ones to strike Baldur with the mistletoe arrow? Either the history books got it way wrong or someone is lying, and I can't tell which."

"You're not wrong there, all this is very fishy." Frank rubbed his chin, "And neither of them dispute the events?" He asked.

Annabeth shook her head, "No."

Reyna leaned back into her seat, contemplating what she's been told, "Right now we're working with only a fraction of the details, we cannot make any hasty judgments."

"My thoughts exactly." Annabeth replied.

"For now stick to the plan, get Freya back to her Pantheon, whatever happens next is up to you."

Frank spoke up, "And Atreus? Do we just hope we can find his father?"

"It's the best we can hope for right now." Annabeth said.

Reyna nodded, "Send us a message when you land in New York."

"Oh man," Annabeth slapped her forehead, she totally forgot.

"Something wrong?" Frank asked.

"I almost forgot to message Percy," Annabeth quickly got up, "I'll speak to you two tomorrow." The two praetors nodded, waving goodbye.

Annabeth exited the building and found a nearby restroom. Luckily no one was inside so she was free to create an iris message, "Show me Percy Jackson." The rainbow mist shifted, blurred, until it showed the face of her boyfriend…who was currently face down on his bed snoring in his sleep.

"Hey Percy," No response, "Percy," Annabeth spoke a little louder, still asleep. "Seaweed Brain!" She shouted, that was enough to jerk the Son of Poseidon up from his bed.

"Oh, hey Annabeth, what's up?" Percy gave his typical warm smile, she smiled back.

"What are you doing sleeping still?" She asked.

"Don't have any morning duties, thought I'd sleep in a little." The boy yawned, stretching his arms and shoulders she could hear the pops of air between his bones. He sighed contently.

Annabeth looked at him, his hair was messy, he was still wearing a shirt he likely wore the day before, and those beautiful eyes shone in his darkened cabin, "Hey, I'll be heading back up tomorrow."

Percy furrowed his brow, "So soon?"

"Somethings come up, a wayward goddess and demigod." That was the simplest way she could describe the situation she was in now.

"You alright, need me to get down there?" She chuckled, she loved the way he cared.

"I'll be fine, nothing I'm not used to."

"What's the issue then?" Percy asked.

"Why would you think there's an issue?" Annabeth wondered if it was something on her face that gave it away or if Percy was just that good at reading her now.

"Call it a hunch, so what is it?" Annabeth sighed and relented.

"Something about their stories doesn't add up." Annabeth crossed her arms, she explained in detail the story she was given by Freya and Atreus, how it didn't align with history, and most of all Atreus' story about his father.

"That's…a lot."

"You see what I'm dealing with?" Annabeth asked, rhetorical but nonetheless.

"Yeah, I don't envy you." Silence hung between them for a moment before Percy continued, "Alright, I'm gonna get Mrs. O'Leary and head on down there to meet you." Percy started to get up from bed.

Annabeth raised her brow, "And why would you do that?"

Percy stopped, obviously confused, "Uh, to help you?" He said it like it wasn't clear what his intentions were, she found it cute.

Annabeth chuckled again, "It's okay Percy, I got this. I'm gonna call my dad and have him book me a flight up to New York tomorrow."

"You sure?" Percy asked.

"You're right, I should also get some bus tickets as a backup." Annabeth nodded, it can't hurt to have a backup.

"No I mean me not coming down there and meeting you with Mrs. O'Leary."

"Oh. No, I can handle this fine. You worry too much." Percy looked at her with his signature worried look.

"It's just, after what happened last year…" He rubbed the back of his neck.

Annabeth remembered their hellish experience - quite literally - walking through Tartarus together. She was eager to forget those times, but she would still occasionally wake up in her bed drenched in sweat from nightmares of that time. Her only saving grace in that horrid place was that she was with the boy she loved the most.

Annabeth looked Percy directly in the eyes, "It's alright, nothing like that won't happen I promise." If only she could reach for him, but unfortunately Iris Messages didn't work like that.

"Okay, if you're sure." Percy looked a little dejected, but he didn't argue.

"I'll message you before I get on the flight, and whenever we land afterwards. I promise." Outside she heard people walking towards the restrooms, it seemed like she was gonna end their conversation here.

"I'll let you go, I'll message you when I can. Love you."

Percy smiled, "Love you too."

Annabeth dissolved the message and left, the rest of that day was talking to her father in getting tickets and packing her things. Then going to bed.

And then the next day happened.

She wasn't sure when it happened, one moment she was guiding Atreus and Freya through airport security, making sure their stuff was secure, and the next all hell broke loose. Seidr, they were called, practitioners of wayward Vanir magic. It was like if someone threw a shoe in Olympus, magic was hurled over her head, shouting and screaming was all she could really hear.

"What in the Nine Realms?!" Freya stood up immediately with her sword ready, Annabeth went for her knife as well.

A group of Seidr approached their port, when the Seidr spotted them they stopped and pointed at Freya speaking in a language she did not understand. Whatever they said must have been offensive to Freya as she let out a growl.

"You dare!?" She said, whatever relations there were broke down as the Seidr attacked.

Freya rushed forward and clashed steel against one of them, Annabeth slipped around her and plunged her knife into its side. The blow was enough to falter its guard, allowing Freya to push away the Seidr sword and cut its head off.

"Go, find Atreus, I shall deal with the rest." The rest of the group hesitantly surrounded the two of them, now was the time to get moving.

Annabeth nodded, a goddess like Freya could handle it, but Atreus could very well be taken by surprise. She put her hat on and disappeared. The Seidr couldn't tell where she was as she slipped by them.

Finding Atreus wasn't hard - just look where all the commotion was coming from - but getting out the airport was. By the time they had regrouped, mortal police and SWAT teams had already started entering the airport. They exited from an employee side entrance, and sure enough the entire front of the airport was littered with police cars and cops.

Annabeth was stunned, the Seidr hadn't arrived that much long ago. Seeing a whole fleet of cars and a small army of cops parked in front of the airport so fast didn't sit right with her. She put that aside for later, now she had to get out of here without being caught.

The plan was simple, Freya would guide Atreus out while Annabeth used her cap to go invisible and create a distraction for them. Splitting up, Annabeth walked in between the cops, listening in as she passed by.

As she waded in the sea of police, a new cop joined the fray, "Yo Bernhall," One of them said, "Find anything?"

Bernhall shook his head, "Nope, my sector is clear." Bernhall walked up to his buddy and stood facing the airport, right in front of Annabeth.

"So, what exactly is the situation?" Bernhall asked, his buddy - Paul as she read on his patch - shook his head.

"Didn't you listen? We got a call that there was an active shooting." Paul looked annoyed at Bernhall, who shrugged.

"I don't remember hearing no call." He tapped his walkie-talkie to emphasize, "Sure didn't hear it on dispatch."

Paul looked at him confused, "You had to, we were all there."

Bernhall looked at him with equal confusion, "All where? I was getting some food."

"We were all at the station when the call came in, you were there…right?" Paul messaged his head, looking more confused by the second.

Something was definitely sketchy now, as she walked and listened, she heard other conflicting reports. Some said a criminal took everyone hostage, some said a bomb threat, others said gangs. But the same thing they all said was the perpetrator. A boy, who just happened to sound like Atreus. Was this what Freya was talking about? That Atreus was more likely to bring down Odins wrath? So many questions, not enough answers.

She focused back onto her task, she had to get attention, and the best kind for cops is a suspect.

She made her way to the otherside of the airport, making sure not to bump into anyone on the way there. Now in a clearing, well within sight of many cops she took her hat off. It wasn't long before someone spotted her, she wasn't exactly being stealthy.

"Hey, you, stop right there!" The cop shouted, drawing more attention.

Annabeth didn't bother to respond, instead running away. That was met with a wave of shouting.

"We got a suspect! Get her!" One of them shouted, and about a dozen sets of feet ran after her.

Annabeth sprinted, going for the nearest corner to mask her escape. Thankfully a nearby parked car was enough to break their line of sight, allowing Annabeth to put her cap on. She hugged the side of the car and watched as a swarm of cops came running around the corner.

"Where did she go?"

"Find her!"

"She couldn't have gotten far!"

The police scattered, enough so that Annabeth could safely get away and back to Atreus and Freya. It was unfortunate, however, that the cops were not only inspecting Annabeth's rental but also that they spotted them. She hoped she wouldn't be charged extra for it.

The next couple hours were spent running from the police, and eventually making their way to the bus where she was now; sat down and contemplating the information she had gathered.

In times like these, she thought of a cork board, with pictures on it with strands of rope tying one piece to another. Like those conspiracy nuts trying to tie everything together. Connections to places, peoples, and events formed in her mind, trying to make sense of it all seemed daunting. But she wouldn't back down. She was going to untangle these strings and make sense of it all.

She opened her eyes and looked at Atreus, still sleeping next to her, and at Freya in the seat across from her. She didn't know what kind of situation she stepped in, but there was one thing she was sure of. She was going to get to the bottom of this.