Lucky the Almost-Seven-Headed Hydra was very fast. He was also incredibly uncomfortable.

The ride only took fifteen minutes, but they must have covered thirty miles of distance to reach the Amtrak station, and they had the bruises on their inner knees and thighs to show it. It was a good thing they would be taking the train for the next few days.

"Thanks, Lucky," Percy said as they dismounted a few hundred feet from the station, far enough that nobody would notice anything out of the ordinary. Who knows what the mist would show the mortals. Three kids riding on an acid-spitting tank?

Before you go, Lefty spoke up, Take this. You may find it useful.

Righty spat something in his direction. A tiny vial of red liquid.

Our blood. Highly toxic.

Percy thanked them, giving each head a scratch before sending them on their way, shouting to each other about who would be the first to find a tube of toothpaste to solve that defcon-2 halitosis.

"Maybe I should name them Travis and Connor," Percy mused.

"Where is it going?" Grover asked, watching as it plowed down the road, nearly driving an entire semi truck off the road despite its size, "You didn't send it to camp, did you? They'd slaughter it for getting near."

Percy shook his head. "I told him to go somewhere safe and said I'd summon him if I needed to. Still trying to figure out the logistics of that, but man… having a Hydra on call? That could be super useful."

Annabeth met them on the platform with three tickets to St. Louis. "I got us tickets as far as all three of us could go. We could have gotten to Denver, but Percy lost half our cash when he got struck by lightning."

"Hey!"

The first day on the Amtrak was relatively normal. No monster attacks, no freak rainstorms, no lightning strikes blasting the train to bits. It was quiet.

Too quiet. Percy couldn't sleep. Every time he got anywhere close to drifting off he would either snap awake or dream of the gods taking to war, burning the planet in their wake which would shock him up about as fast, if not faster.

It was approaching 3 A.M. the second day on the train. He hadn't slept a wink in the past six hours, which really sucked considering that they would be arriving at their destination in less than half a day. Annabeth and Grover seemed to be fast asleep, and he couldn't distract himself with scrolling on a phone or going to watch a movie in a different car, because apparently a demigod using technology was like shooting a flare straight up and screaming, ALL YOU CAN EAT DEMIGODS, RIGHT HERE! GET 'EM WHILE THEY'RE HOT!

He slowly stood from his seat, careful not to disturb his companions as he walked to one of the dining cars, thankfully empty and with less stale air. He ordered a ginger ale from the guy behind the desk and went to stare out the window. In the distance, a crowd of centaurs stampeded through a grain field. What they were doing out in the middle of the night, he had no earthly idea. Chiron was always dead asleep by this point. Percy knew because he snored like a passing freight train.

"It's bad to have sugar right before you go to bed," Annabeth said as she stepped into the car, but she grabbed a coke from the desk before taking the seat opposite him.

He eyed her drink. "Caffeine's even worse," he tried, but she had already gotten at least six hours of sleep. She would be fine.

"Grover's snore-bleating was getting to me," she said as she cracked her soda can open. She took a sip and sighed, "Wow. I haven't had a real soda in who knows how long. The stuff at camp is just… not the same."

"That's what I'm saying!"

"So," she took another sip, "why can't you sleep? Don't tell me you're worried about your new pet. The Hydra is so high up on the mythical food chain it's not even funny. Anything that manages to injure it dies because its blood is so toxic."

"So how did you cut its heads off without touching it?"

"Very carefully. Now, stop avoiding it. What's wrong with you?"

Percy laid his head down flat on the table and groaned. "Maybe it's because I'm new to all this, but I feel like I'm going to get jumped at any second. Or maybe I'm paranoid because I haven't slept in a while. How do you handle it?"

Annabeth looked down at him for a moment, then took another sip of coke, and said, "Well, I'm not in danger of getting struck by lightning, so-"

"Oh, come on! Right now?!"

"What do you want me to say? Do you want me to read you a bedtime story or something?"

"Oh, man, a bedtime story actually sounds kinda awesome-"

"Forget it, Percy."

He sighed and tried to take a drink from his ginger ale, but suddenly found himself not thirsty. "You know, back on the bus, when Mrs. Dodds and her sisters showed up. That was weird, wasn't it?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, like he was realizing something she hadn't expected him to. "How so?"

"Like how they sat in the front of the bus and didn't say anything? And don't say anything about there being witnesses, I see you opening your mouth. I didn't forget. I still think it's weird that they didn't… I don't know, sit closer to us? If they really wanted us dead, why wouldn't they have taken the seats right next to us and trapped us? It was like they didn't want us to know they were there. If you hadn't seen them, I would have never even noticed."

She put one of her elbows on the table and leaned her head against her knuckles. "I hope you're not going to start looking at every monster and thinking they can be tamed. The Kindly Ones would tear you to pieces for even trying. But yes, I see what you mean. What did they say to you?"

"One of her sisters said I was making things harder than it needed to be, which I guess meant that I wasn't dying quickly enough. The other one told me to surrender if I didn't want to give Zeus the satisfaction."

"And then you got hit with lightning immediately after. So they're basically competing to see who can kill you first."

"Yeah. Thanks."

He deflated against the table as hard as he could. Maybe if he could merge with it then no gods could find him. He could be content sitting on an Amtrak forever. He'd get to see lots of things. Survive off the crumbs that people leave behind.

"You said you've seen a daughter of Zeus, haven't you?" he asked, and her fist clenched around the Coke can. "What was she like? Was she as much of a mess as me?"

"It's not fair to compare yourself to Thalia," Annabeth said stiffly. "By the time we met she had already been on the run for two years. She was a survivor. She may have been your age, but you've got a lot of training to do before you should even consider thinking like that."

That made Percy feel a little better. That it hadn't been her first day as a demigod in his dream where she vaporized a whole legion of demon dogs. "I had this dream about who I can only assume was her-"

"What? What did you see?"

He tried his best to explain the dream, but it was so short that his details were few in number. He described the pursuers, the subject, and the power she had unleashed. The unseen companions in the distance.

Annabeth sat silent for a few minutes after he finished his description before saying, "It sounds like the day she died."

Percy's ginger ale exploded as he involuntarily squeezed the bottle like a stress ball. "Oh… fuck. I'm so sorry to bring it up-"

"It's fine. You asked about the pine tree when we left camp, right?"

He nodded.

"That's her. She gave her life so Luke and I could make it to camp safely. Her father, Zeus, took pity on her as she died and turned her into a pine tree. That tree is what powers the barrier that keeps monsters out. So nobody else ever has to go through that again."

Percy felt like an asshole as he watched Annabeth slowly clench and unclench her fists around her soda can. No way was he about to bring up that he had almost died outside camp like she had. He was dumb, not a douchebag.

"It's strange that you would have a dream about her," Annabeth finally said, breaking the tortuous silence. "Maybe because you're both forbidden children. You, maybe a tad more than her, but forbidden nonetheless."

Percy stared at his hands. "Yeah… we don't have to keep talking about it if you don't want to."

She gave a small, almost imperceptible shake of the head. "It's okay." Then, a slight shift in her expression to something softer. She glanced at him. "Now, your turn. Tell me something about you."

Percy blinked. He hadn't expected that. But maybe this was Annabeth's way of leveling the field. Letting him share, the way she just had. He exhaled, pressing a napkin to the spilled soda. "Alright. Something about me…"

Percy wished that his life had been eventful enough to warrant stories like Thalia, but the best thing that he could muster was, "I accidentally shot my school bus with a revolutionary war cannon when I was at the Saratoga battlefield in fourth grade."

For a moment, Annabeth just stared at him. Then, to his absolute shock, she burst out laughing. Not just a small chuckle. A full-on, genuine laugh.

It took him about a tenth of a second to decide that he wanted to hear it a lot more often.

"You-" she gasped, wiping at her eyes, "You what?"

"Yeah. Turns out, when they tell you not to touch the cannon they mean it."

Her laughter bubbled up again. "I suppose weird things like that make more sense now that you know who you are… though, why in Hades would a primed and loaded cannon just be sitting out in the open?"

"You're telling me. Needless to say, that was my last day at that school. Got kicked out of a lot."

Annabeth's eyes softened, then clouded over. "Did you enjoy going to school?"

"Not really. Maybe as a child of Athena it's easier, but the Dyslexia and ADHD make most classes a fucking nightmare. Don't go telling the other Athena kids, but I averaged a D on my last report card. Heavily weighted by Chiron's Latin class."

"You would think so, wouldn't you? We do love to learn, but we aren't immune to the effects of being a demigod. I can't read English either."

"What? Then what's that book you've been carrying with you since we left camp?"

"It's about architecture. It's in Ancient Greek."

"Wait, seriously? You have to lend that to me!"

A grin tugged at the corners of her mouth before she sobered up. "Goddess of the home. It all makes sense now. Sure, you can read it when I'm finished." Then, just as quickly, her expression turned more serious. She set her soda down carefully, turning it between her fingers. "The reason I asked about school… I have another question. A really personal one. And I want you to know, you don't have to answer. If you want to change the subject just say so and I'll drop it."

That made Percy nervous. Children of Athena didn't seem the type to hold back when they wanted answers, and that's not even mentioning how much he knew it would drive her insane to leave said question unanswered.

"…Alright," he said warily. "Hit me."

She hesitated. "Your stepdad. Foster father. Whatever he was to you. Gabe. Did he… hurt you?"

Percy's ginger ale suddenly didn't feel so sweet in his stomach. He gripped the edge of the table so hard he thought he might snap off a piece of linoleum to take home as a souvenir. The Linoleum Thief.

For a moment, he just stared at her. Then, quietly, he said, "No."

Annabeth didn't react, didn't press. She just waited.

"He pushed me around and found plenty of other ways to make my life suck, but no. He never hit me. Not for a lack of trying, but… he was always too drunk to aim straight."

She didn't respond right away, and Percy wasn't about to complain. Until then it had felt like Gabe wasn't a part of his life anymore. In fact, that was the first time he had even crossed Percy's mind since his first day at camp.

"There's no way a person like that could get approved to be a foster parent," Annabeth eventually said.

"Oh, you were thinking that whole time? Not giving me a moment of silence?"

"Who says I can't do both? Also, shut up for a minute. Let me say this. Have you ever considered that your mom may have put you there to protect you?"

Percy opened his mouth to protest, but she wasn't done.

"Grover told me what he smelled like. I know that you called him Smelly Gabe as a childish insult but it was also true. Grover smells things like monsters do, and I'm sure you saw how he reacted when he was in that place."

"He had to leave. Almost threw up," Percy confirmed, and Annabeth snapped her fingers.

Annabeth snapped her fingers. "Exactly. Not even a trace of demigod scent. Pure, unadulterated mortal stink. No monster would ever even think to go there. So maybe, just maybe, your mom stuck you there to cover your scent, and then gave the guy enough money to send you off to school so you wouldn't have to be under that roof all the time. The mortal smell sticks differently than other stenches. It doesn't go away easily, meaning that you got both some freedom from Gabe and protection from monsters, all without her directly interfering in your life. Not a single rule was broken."

"Annabeth-"

"And," she pressed on, "maybe she's the reason that Gabe wasn't able to hit you. That you didn't get instantly vaporized by Zeus's lightning the other day. What if-"

Percy shoved himself out of the seat with a huff, and Annabeth's mouth snapped shut. "Look, Annabeth, I appreciate it. I really do, but surely there was a better option to protect me from monsters than to put me with another one."

He could feel her eyes on the back of his head the whole walk to the edge of the car before she finally said, "Sometimes there are no better options."

He couldn't bring himself to look at her as he slammed the door shut and returned to his seat.