Chapter Text
Percy POV
I am never, ever going to make things easy for you, Seaweed Brain. Get used to it.
That was all Percy could hear, that and the sound of the ocean in his ears, building and roaring and—
“Uh, Percy…?”
Percy blinked away from Annabeth’s empty bed and realized maybe the ocean hadn’t just been in his ears. Books and blueprints and photos littered the floor now from when the wind had been picking up a moment ago— the beginnings of an indoor hurricane. Percy’s jaw tightened, but he couldn’t make himself apologize to Malcolm. It was taking every ounce of his self control not to wreak havoc with his powers and if the new mess around them was any indication, Percy wasn’t 1000% nailing even that.
He couldn’t even look at the few Athena kids who were brave enough to stick around after Percy came storming into their cabin. He couldn’t handle the way Malcolm was not so subtly watching him, waiting for him to break. He couldn’t stomach—
Gods, the look on Malcolm's face when he knocked on Percy’s cabin door. Percy had slept in , which wasn’t too strange for Percy even before the curse of Achilles, and some dumb part of Percy couldn’t help but think things might’ve been different if he hadn’t slept in, even if they had no idea of knowing when Annabeth had—Left? Been taken?—disappeared in the night. Hades, when Malcolm knocked on Percy’s door while Percy was sitting on his bed and tying his shoes, Percy had laughed. “I’m alive and fully dressed, Annabeth, and if there is a muffin in your hands right now, I swear that I will—”
Malcolm stepped inside, his expression something way past grim and Percy stood, already terrified. “What happened?”
“I… We don’t know, Percy. She’s just— she’s gone.”
Percy stomped forward. Riptide was still in pen form but Percy white knuckled it in his fist. “Gone? What do you mean gone? Where is Annabeth? ”
Malcolm stuttered out something about her bed looking used, almost all of her belongings left behind — save for her knife. That was missing. “Maybe she’s after a monster?” Malcolm offered weakly, but without her cap? They both knew that was unlikely and Percy rushed past him and sprinted over to Cabin Six.
Percy hadn’t said anything since. One of his shoes was still untied. The photo of Percy and Annabeth winning the chariot race his second summer was the lone photo to survive Percy’s hurricane, still tacked onto the bulletin board by her bed.
“Chiron—?” Percy asked, his voice cracking.
“Someone should be telling him now. We also… we’re organizing a search party into the woods. Just in case.”
Percy looked down, catching sight of Annabeth’s Yankee cap that had landed by his feet. He grabbed it. “She’s not in the woods.”
Malcolm didn’t seem to disagree, but— “We have to check the obvious places first.”
It was an annoyingly Athenian response and a poke to the wound. Percy walked over to the chest at the end of Annabeth’s bunk and went digging for the cell phone she kept hidden in there before heading out of the cabin. “Whoah, Percy, wait—” Malcolm called after him but Percy was already dialing the number he had memorized last year.
“I already know,” Rachel answered as her greeting, her voice rough with grief. She’d been sobbing, and recently. “And I don’t know, Percy. I don’t know. I’m so sorry.”
Chiron was walking up to Percy, looking at Percy with that same concerned and hesitant expression Malcolm had. If Percy had eaten he probably would throw up.
“I’m coming to—” Rachel started saying, but Chiron was approaching and Percy had already determined Rachel to be a dead end so he muttered a quick thanks on habit, interrupting her, before hanging up.
“Tell me you know something,” Percy said. He would love to say that it came out demanding but he’s fairly certain it came out more like a beg.
“Demeter and Ares cabins are searching the woods. Hermes cabin is searching the border, looking for any signs of something, or someone, coming or going. I’m sure the Athena cabin will tear apart their cabin for more clues. This is what we can do right now.”
“Rachel is coming. Maybe this is a quest… ?” A quest . Now Percy really wanted to throw up. Four months. Four months . They had gotten four months off of being at war, of thinking they were done with quests. It was stupidly, ridiculously, childishly unfair to think they only got four months, but at the moment a quest seemed like the least scary option of what was happening.
Chiron’s lips twisted. “It’s possible.” He didn’t seem convinced. Percy had seen that face on him before plenty of times, worried but not wanting to admit why. And he’d even seen it recently—
“Do you think this has something to do with the gods and Olympus being closed?” Their first day of winter break at camp a few days ago, Annabeth had told Percy first things first and said that she needed to talk to Chiron about Olympus. Last time she had tried to go up to check on her designs and construction process, her access had been barred— a first. Ever since becoming Olympus’s architect, Annabeth had even gotten her own elevator key card. No grumpy front desk attendant for her.
Annabeth didn’t come out of her meeting with Chiron looking assured. “Well?” he had asked.
Annabeth played with her necklace, a nervous tick. “Mr. D was recalled to Olympus.”
Percy’s eyebrows raised. “Merry Christmas to us.”
She gave him a dry look. “Olympus is closed and Mr. D got recalled in the middle of his punishment? I don’t like it. Chiron seemed…”
“Like he knew more but wouldn’t say? Welcome to the last four years of my life.”
Annabeth’s lips twitched like she wanted to smile but couldn’t. “I’m worried.”
Percy stepped forward and took both of her hands. “Hey, this is supposed to be a fun break without homework or school or dangerous deadly quests, right? Just the two of us. For once. Whatever is wrong, well. I feel very strongly that that can be someone else’s problem.”
Annabeth’s eyes sparkled as she looked at him and only let go of his hands so she could gently grab his face to kiss him. Percy wondered if he would ever stop getting dizzy from her kisses. She pulled away and while Percy was still reorienting himself to reality, she said, “Race you to the arena,” and then left him in the dust.
“Cheater!” Percy called after her.
“Strategy!” she called back.
Only now did Percy realize she hadn’t agreed with his someone else’s problem sentiment.
Chiron sighed. “It’s hard to say without more information.”
Another bullshit nonanswer. Percy did his best to take a deep breath, count to ten, control his anger, but the curse of Achilles hadn’t exactly made him calmer and Annabeth housed roughly 80% of his self control. “Thalia and Grover,” he spit out. “They can help with tracking if she’s not at camp. I can… the ocean. I can get eyes looking for her in the ocean.”
Why would Annabeth be in the ocean? It was an almost insane concept except they’d dealt with evil cruise ships so it wasn’t entirely unfeasible.
Chiron just nodded. “Those are all good ideas.”
Percy shook his head, Chiron’s calm demeanor carving away at the last of his self control. “What could take her out of camp? Because she didn’t leave, Chiron. She left her cap. She wouldn’t leave without it and— and Daedalus’s laptop is here too. And she’s not here, at camp. That’s obvious. She wouldn’t be gone this long if she was still at camp. And she wouldn’t just leave so— Camp is protected. Camp is meant to be safe for us, we were meant to be safe. I don’t understand how something could take her if we were safe here—”
“Percy.” Chiron’s voice was as firm as the hand on his shoulder.
For one, terrifying second, Percy felt his thumb start moving to uncap his sword, but he didn’t. He looked away, ashamed. If Chiron noticed, he didn’t comment on it.
“Why don’t you start the search in your father’s realm. I’ll reach out to Thalia and Grover.”
A blatant attempt to send Percy off into the sea. He’s trying to be helpful, Percy had to tell himself, not dismissive. The water would likely help Percy calm down. That or 1000 monsters to beat up or Annabeth at his side rubbing her thumb against the crease in his eyebrows— You’re cute when you're worried.
###
Things didn’t get better. No one had answers. Grover IM-ed Percy, his eyes watery and his voice shaky and relayed that he had every Satyr he could looking for her, even telling all the active ones to notify him if anything particularly weird happened. He even said that he was coordinating with the Hunters to cast the widest net possible.
Maybe Percy should have felt assured. He didn’t.
His next talk with Rachel didn’t help. She was working as hard as she could to get to camp but she was running into some difficulties, namely her father, but she would be there soon she assured. However, “I haven’t had any visions for a month.”
“A month? ”
“Annabeth didn’t tell you? She reached out when she couldn’t get on Olympus. I told her I’d try to trigger a vision or prophecy or something if I could but… It’s been radio silence ever since. The dream I had the other night of you learning Annabeth is missing, that was the first break in the silence I’ve had.”
Why hadn’t Annabeth told him?
“She probably just didn’t want to worry you,” Rachel said after Percy didn’t respond. “You two went through enough last summer.”
“Right,” Percy said, his voice hard. “I’ll see you soon.” He swatted away the IM before Rachel could respond.
###
Percy’s had more than his share of demigod dreams at this point. He’s pretty sure this was the dumbest one yet, but it’s his first real lead towards Annabeth and Percy is mentally reaching out for Blackjack in his mind before he’s even out of bed.
He’s almost out the door when— “Perrrrcy!” Grover, in a shimmering IM message.
Percy doesn’t want to delay, not for anything, and shifts his feet uncomfortably. “Look, Grover, I can’t talk right now.”
“I’ll be quick. A protector satyr reached out to me. He said… he thinks something weird is going on, but he found at least two demigods. Old demigods. Teens who hadn’t been claimed.”
And that does make Percy stop. “But the oath?”
Grover sighed. “I know. I don’t know if it has anything to do with Annabeth, but if we’re just looking for anything out of the—”
“I have a lead on Annabeth.” Percy quickly recounted his dream from Hera of all gods— go to the Grand Canyon and find the demigod with one shoe .
Grover’s eyes managed to widen further. “That’s where Gleeson is!”
“Gleeson?”
“Gleeson Hedge, the protector who reached out to me. He works at a school around there and… and they have a field trip to the Grand Canyon today.”
Percy was sprinting out of his cabin before Grover finished his sentence. It’s more luck than anything that Percy saw Butch and had the wherewithal to remember that his Annabeth mission had just also become a demigod extraction mission maybe. Butch was a big dude but when Percy shouted his name he flinched. “I need your help. Possible new demigods. Get the chariot.”
Butch rubbed the back of his neck. The chariot was a hot topic that Percy lost all interest in after Annabeth. “But—”
Percy didn’t care to hear any arguments, already annoyed by the realization that he should probably add tell Chiron to his list of stops before leaving. “If Will doesn’t let you take it, tell him he won’t be able to heal what I do!”
“I might not tell him that…” Butch muttered as Percy moved past him.