We have no plan.

Grover hadn't moved from the Washington Monument by the time we returned. Jules managed to find parking in front of the monument. As if I needed any more proof that the life I was living was completely unrealistic. Parking in front of the Empire State Building and the Washington Monument all in one week. And my dad was the sea god. And Gods were real. Yikes.

Grover came sprinting down the moment that he saw the car. "Nico Di Angelo!" he shouted. "Where did you take them?"

I got out of the car, partially blocking the doorway in case Grover tried to dash for it. The polias and yarn were stashed inside. "I'm here, Grover," I said. "We need to talk."

Grover slowed down, huffing. "You ran off!" he said.

"You told Piper McClean to steal the yarn," I replied.

Grover's shoulders fell. He didn't deny it. And down the hill behind him, Piper was coming. She was still dressed in brown, but her head scarf was gone. No denying who she was anymore. Before she could reach us and try her charmspeak, I focused on Grover. "And you were going to take the Polias as well."

Grover exhaled. "Yeah, okay. That was the idea. But you don't understand!"

"You're angry about Percy and Annabeth being stuck on the bottom of the ocean," I said. "And I am too. It's not fair."

Grover deflated.

"Look," I said, "We think… we have a hunch that the yarn stays where it's used. But on the off chance, let's see if we can figure out a way to use the yarn and the polias to do both things at once – fix the past and send Annabeth and I back to where we belong. We could use your help to figure things out. But you can't keep lying to us and putting us in danger."

At this point, Piper McClean made it all the way down the hill. "Percy," she said, and her voice was like attaching live wires to my brain, "where is the yarn and the polias?"

"Stop charmspeaking me," I said, focusing on the task at hand. "We're offering a truce. Otherwise, I'll get back into this car."

"How are you resisting me?" Piper asked, surprised. The magical quality behind her voice went away. "No one's been able to not listen to me for… years!"

"You don't feel like a Legend," I said. "Not like the bottom of the ocean."

Grover was nodding along. "He's right," he said. "I noticed it when you came into the museum today. You feel like a normal person again."

I wondered if Piper had been a real Legend for a moment, then answered that question myself. I'd felt her presence. The warm wind. The urge to comply with anything she were to say, before she said it. The way I'd almost knelt before her. Like she was some sort of God. Now she seemed like a regular person. As if she'd lost the Legend touch.

Maybe you, the reader, are faster than I, the ADHD demigod who's been at this for a week-and-a-half, at making connections. But I was starting to wonder what Piper had done to lose that touch… and if it could be replicated.

"So what are you thinking?" Grover asked. "Or does Annabeth have the plan, per usual?"

Behind me, Annabeth touched my shoulder. I didn't want to reveal her, but I did. She was the one with the weapon anyway. I stepped to the side and Annabeth got out of the car. "The thing is," she said, "We don't know how to get the yarn to work. We simply knocked it off the pedestal of the Athena Polias while we were at home. It rolled into a circle around us, and when we left the room, we were here."

"You didn't say anything?" Piper asked. "No voice commands?"

Annabeth thought. I shook my head. "No. Just… yelling."

"Yelling about what?" Piper asked.

"Not yelling with words," I said. I glanced at Annabeth. "There was… something that spooked us."

"Spiders," Piper sighed. "Completely understandable. Brilliant."

Apparently spider overreactions were normal for Annabeth?

Nico cleared his throat and got out of the car behind us, pushing Annabeth towards me and me farther from the entrance of the car. I hoped we wouldn't need a quick getaway for any reason. "If none of us know," he said, "I reckon there's someone who might, and she's only an Iris call away."

Piper and Grover looked pretty uncomfortable. I looked between them all. "Are we talking about Dr. Annabeth?"

Piper hummed. "That's a good way of distinguishing them."

"Yeah," Grover said, nodding to both what Piper and I had said. "Yeah. Can we not mention… the Smithsonian?"

"They already know," Annabeth said. "Percy and I called, and that's why Nico came for us."

I watched Grover become extremely uncomfortable. He squirmed, shut his eyes, and took deep breaths. "Right," he said. "Right."

The sun was beginning to approach the horizon. "Right," I repeated, hoping to move on from the awkward moment, "What's an Iris message?"

Annabeth wrinkled her nose at me. "We've just made two of them, Drool Boy."

"Oh. The rainbow call?" I felt foolish. But no one had told me what they were called! "You all remember that I've been at this less than two weeks, right?"

"Who's got a rainbow?" Piper asked.

"I have," Nico said. He climbed back into the car and got his humidifier and flashlight out. Then he shut the door of the car and placed them on the top of the car. As he did, I thought I heard some clopping in the distance. But it was far off. It might have just been the distant beat of a helicopter. Air Force One and Two had free range of D.C. skies. I hoped it was a helicopter.

Nico flipped the flashlight and humidifier on and a rainbow arched over the side of the car. Annabeth had a drachma ready from her pocket. "Oh Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please accept this offering," she whispered, and tossed it in. "Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, Mariana Trench."

The rainbow was surprisingly sizeable for something coming out of a flashlight, so I caught a glimpse of Percy and Dr. Annabeth's living room as well as the couch they sat on together, waiting for news. Dr. Annabeth sighed in relief when she saw us. "Everyone there?" she asked.

"We're all here," Annabeth replied, arms crossed over her chest like a makeshift shield.

"Four powerful demigods all together in one area," Dr. Annabeth said, frowning. "Let's make this quick."

"We don't know how to use the yarn," Annabeth explained. "And we've come to the conclusion that if we can, we want to do something to get you off the bottom of the ocean."

"Absolutely not," Percy said immediately. "The most important thing is getting you home."

"Just so we can be stuck by the time we get to your age?" I demanded.

"You don't know you're us!"

"I know I have the potential to be you! Plus, what happened wasn't right! We can't leave you behind!"

"Annabeth and I are fine," Percy said. "We are okay. You need to-"

"No one needs to do anything," Piper said, thinking out loud. "Our lives aren't in danger. But this Percy and Annabeth should return to their home, and you and Percy should be able to have the lives you want up here. Without fear of the Gods smiting you." I noticed that her voice was starting to get some of that impressive quality back.

"Do you have any ideas, Annabeth?" Grover asked. "Any way we can do this?"

"You're not doing it!" Percy said. "You're focusing on getting home! Grover, we never asked you to get us out!"

"We're going to try!" I shot back.

Dr. Annabeth put a hand over Percy's mouth for a moment. "Look at you, dealing with you." She rolled her eyes. "Grover, Piper, you don't even know what you're planning on doing! When do you want to go back to? What will you do? How will you get back?"

"I don't care about getting back so long as you can get out," Grover said savagely.

"We care!" Percy's voice rose to a shout. "Annabeth's right – how are you going to get from place to place? Are you honestly going to go back to the day we were banished and argue in our favor?"

"Shush!" Dr. Annabeth said. "You're so self-sacrificing! Both of you!" She pointed between Percy and I. "Grover, what's your plan?" We don't even know if this is time travel. Going back could do nothing for Percy and I!

Grover was stressed beyond belief. He was wringing his hands and kept snorting here and there. I was stressed too – but about something else. The clopping was still there.

"Can you hear that?" I demanded. "Grover, do you smell any monsters?"

Grover paused and took a deep inhale through the nose. His eyes went wide. "Oh no," he said. "Yes, I smell monsters."

"Percy, where's your sword?" Percy demanded, through the Iris message.

"Grover, Piper, where's my sword?" I asked. Neither of them were holding it. Percy let out a baffled cry in the Iris message.

"You had a sword?" Piper said, blankly.

"In the museum!" I shouted. "I left it behind with the polias!"

Grover shook his head. "We didn't grab a sword. I think it blended in with the exhibit."

"It was imperial gold!" Percy yelled. "Not celestial bronze!"

"Oh, Percy Jackson!" Someone called in a sugary-sweet tone, not too far away. "Annabeth Chase!"

3/29's chapter will be called "I violate the terms of my stay."