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Chapter Text

Annabeth’s day was going well until her mom showed up.

It was a good start to the morning. The quad of NRU was surprisingly full, considering the sun hadn’t even cleared the mountains yet and the frost on the ground hadn’t melted under the pre-dawn light.

But, NRU was a Roman campus, Annabeth supposed. The student body was made up of seasoned veterans, and soldiers of a great empire’s legacy tended to be very efficient with their time. That apparently included group tai chi and running laps at five thirty in the morning, regardless of how late they were up partying.

Annabeth was not enjoying the early morning. She was Greek through and through, and even the most disciplined Greek warriors refused to get out of bed before 7:00 am unless there was a damn good reason for it, like the threat of imminent doom or having to catch a train. Annabeth was no exception. All of her siblings were night owls (hah), and she normally didn’t go to bed until two or three am, but last night Percy was actually sleeping well for once, so she didn’t want to wake him up for his watch, and she had a new idea for a courtyard that needed to be sketched out before she lost the motivation, and then Nope started begging her for walkies with his big sad eyes, and well. She sort of actually hadn’t slept yet.

So, she made peace with her restless night, slapped a sticky note onto her boyfriend’s forehead so he didn’t freak out if he woke up alone, and went to go take her hellhound for a morning walk.

Ever since Hecate got bored of taking care of an actual dog instead of a Trojan queen shapeshifted into one, Nope had been her and Percy’s responsibility. Mostly hers, since Percy already had Mrs. O’Leary and she was a…free spirit.

So, he was registered as a DSA under her name. It turns out that Hellhounds being able to smell fear made them great emotional support when trained properly, which was hard to do, even with the knowledge of how Daedalus tamed Mrs. O’Leary, but it was absolutely worth it. Nope is a very good boy.

Annabeth turned the corner, merging onto the road into New Rome proper as Nope happily bounced alongside her, tongue lolling out of his mouth. They slowed down from a light jog to a walk as they approached the campus gates.

The two statues of Terminus (Terminuses? Termini) flanking the exit turned to glare at her with absolute unmitigated rage and disgust. The one on the left even made a spitting motion as she approached.

Annabeth sighed, unhooking the leash from Nope’s harness/vest. “Lord Terminus. I will be entering your borders, empty handed and unable to harm, respecting the rule of law as a guest under your hospitality.” She gave a respectful half bow, making sure not to stumble over the Latin words.

“Oh, will you?” The one on the right sneered sarcastically. “And I’m just expected to believe that an Argonaut will keep her word? A Graceus bastard from a broken vow?”

Annabeth pat her dog on the head and clicked her tongue twice, switching back to Greek. “Nope, go Home!”

Nope boofed at her and imploded into a shadowy nothingness as he bamfed back to the apartment, back to Percy. Annabeth stuffed his leash in her hoodie pocket and put her full attention on the statues.

“Lord Terminus. With all due respect, do we have to have this conversation every time? Surely a god of your might and responsibility has tasks far greater than manifesting in my unworthy presence.”

“I will not fall for your flattery, Athenspawn! Now stand with your feet shoulder width apart and put your hands against your head!”

Annabeth stifled her sigh and got into the default TSA pat-down pose. The eyes of both statues glowed a brilliant, blinding gold, a Divine presence thickening in the air and sweeping over her roughly as Terminus searched for weapons. She should have just went to the coffee shop on campus.

She and the statues stared at each other for a long moment. It took an incredible amount of willpower for her to not match Terminus’s glare.

Finally, finally, the light in his eyes dimmed as he turned his nose up at her. “You may enter the city, Annabeth Chase. But know that I will be watching you.”

She bowed her head again and walked through the gate, feeling the god’s eyes lingering on her back. Honestly, she respected Terminus for keeping the city safe, and knew that he was very important to New Rome, but that did not mean she liked getting the third degree every time she wanted to leave NRU. Hell, it would even be better if his boundary included campus, she wouldn’t have to ask for permission every time, but then all the eager Demigods and Legacies wouldn’t be able to study the blade.

She shook herself off, ignoring the slight pressure of Terminus’s regard. You bring a floating warship into the city one time.

Annabeth started walking downhill, towards Deary’s Diner. It was basically a knock off Denny’s, in the sense that it sold greasy American breakfast foods and was open all hours of the night and day. The owner, Deary, was a house Lare that apparently had just shown up one day in the 1950s and ever since was completely committed to serving breakfast to hungry students, young families, and tired senators. The place was always much less busy than Annabeth was expecting, considering the cinnamon rolls were to kill for.

The bell chimed as she pushed her way in and headed towards her and Percy’s usual table in the back. It was tucked a bit away in a dim corner, but had clear sightlines towards the exits. Great for people watching without being noticed as well.

A waitress approached with a menu, clearly nearing the end of her shift. “Hi. welcome to Deary’s, can I get you anything to drink.”

“Hi. I’m taking an order to go, so no thanks. I’ll just have an olive, mushroom and spinach omelette with sourdough toast, the double berry blueberry pancakes, bacon on the side, and a cinnamon roll.”

“Got it.” The waitress scratched something into her notepad. “I’ll get that right out for you, should be about 20 minutes.”

“Thanks.”

Annabeth watched her trudge back towards the kitchen and drummed her fingers on the table. Hopefully Percy wasn’t woken up by the dog. It would be nice to have breakfast in bed with him.

It would be…really nice. Since Percy took morning classes this semester with a barista gig in the evenings, and Annabeth was always busy between UC Berkeley, NRU, and her job as Architect, it was hard to make time for a meal together. Other than sparring in the gym and watching each other sleep, they hadn’t just gotten to…hang out, especially as midterms approached.

Annabeth’s ears popped as Terminus’s lingering presence was stripped away, replaced with a much weightier ethereal pressure. A much more familiar one, one that had the smell of old books and leather oil, the feel of starched thick fabric, the slight taste of blood.

The diner sharpened as Annabeth’s perception of everything was dialed up to eleven. The buzz of the electric lighting, the flickering of the bulb, the worn spring in the booth she was sitting on, the slight groaning as the buildings pipes were used, every detail she subconsciously tuned out competing for her attention. It was sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, the dried muddy footprint on the floor was a size 10, the table she was sitting at was 4’ by 5’ 3/4” and listed half a degree westward instead of being perfectly level. She was present and grounded in the very moment in an almost uncomfortably overwhelming way. Locked in.

Annabeth swallowed. “Lady Athena.”

And suddenly Athena had a physical form, sitting across from her in the booth. Her posture was perfectly unbent, unyielding, with her hands clasped on the table, fingers neatly threaded together. She had dark, wavy hair pulled up into a practical plait, a collared blouse, and polished steel grey eyes, gleaming under the lights of the diner.

Annabeth was always slightly surprised at how Athena looked. Of course, gods can look however they want, but Athena had a very consistent preferred form, considering she was still the spitting image of the Athena Parthenos.

And Annabeth was the spitting image of the statue. She had her father’s hair and eye bags, and her own scars. Everything else was a mirror of her mother, which had interesting implications considering Gods didn’t have DNA like mortals did.

“Annabeth Chase. My greatest daughter.” The goddess’s face remained as still and impassive as stone. She said it like it wasn’t a compliment, simply a fact, and Annabeth felt a thrill at the acknowledgement, some deep fractured part of her click back into place without her consent. daughter. Athena had Claimed her, she Recognized her, so the words she spat on the subway were meaningless. A child Annabeth could die happy knowing that she was given the bare minimum. Adult Annabeth held onto her anger with both hands.

“Mother. What is it that you request of me?” Annabeth folded her hands on the table, keeping her body language relaxed and disinterested.

Athena frowned ever so slightly. “I am here for several reasons, Annabeth.”

“Of course you are. But we both know the rules of engagement that Lord Zeus has set. You would never go against your parents in matters of family, as is expected of a dutiful daughter.” Annabeth kept all trace of contempt out of her tone by suffocating it with resignation.

“Of course not. I know better than to dishonor my father in any way, no matter how flagrantly Apollo and my uncles break the rules.” Her brow furrowed slightly. “And I hold my progeny to the same standard.”

Annabeth bowed her head, briefly debating if it was worth it to snark a little and possibly get smited on the spot. She could practically hear Percy’s voice in her head egging her on.

“I will happily follow the example you have set with your own mother if you ask it of me.”

Athena went stock still, shock and rage going to war on her face. Annabeth immediately, overwhelmingly regretted it, because now she was for sure going to die. Sorry, Percy.

The goddess took a deep, intentional breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Annabeth Chase. My greatest headache. The Jackson boy has been a horrible influence on you.”

She looked back towards Annabeth, but instead of the rage of wounded Pride she expected to find in her eyes, there was an ancient, unfathomable sadness. “I understand that you are upset over Minerva’s” there was a brief flicker of someone else before Athena clenched her fist. “words. I realize that. But you must understand this: I am going to ignore that comment as part of my boon for retrieving my Parthenos. But if you ever speak of such matters again you will be dead before you can close your mouth.”

The pressure of Athena’s presence magnified, so much so that Annabeth felt her nose begin to bleed. In her hyper aware state, she knew that she wasn’t being subjected to Athena’s full divine form; but from the way that the air stilled and the temperature rose and Athena’s mouth twitched she knew it was more than she had ever felt from Athena before.

But not more than she had ever felt before. Tartarus taught her how to grit her teeth even as they were turning to sand in her mouth.

Annabeth didn’t break eye contact.

Athena dimmed, going from nearly supernova to a mask of stoic indifference within a millisecond. “You are very much like your father.”

Annabeth bit the inside of her cheek. They both knew she didn’t get her stubborn streak from Fredrick Chase.

“Mother. What is it that you request of me?”

“Two things.” Athena tapped two fingers on the table. “First, I would…apologize.”

Annabeth nearly choked on her own spit. “What??”

“You heard me. My quest took you to a horrible place. I feel remorse in my part leading you there. No child of mine should ever have had to suffer the indignities of the Pit. I will ensure that you never will have to again.”

Annabeth took her own deep breath, keeping her face as impassive as possible. She didn’t quite succeed at keeping her eyes from watering, but no tears managed to fall. That would have been mortifying. “I…thank you. That means a lot.”

Athena nodded awkwardly, like she was incredibly uncomfortable with the energy and the emotions Annabeth was trying to swallow down. It was very reminiscent of her father, actually. She could see how they became friends.

It wasn’t enough. It could never be enough, not in the way that Annabeth needed. But she was making her peace with it. Had made her peace with it, before she realized she was worthy of something better.

Annabeth blinked a few times, bracing herself for the second part. Athena was here officially, after all, she would never contact Annabeth outside of the standard rules of engagement between demigods and gods. It wasn’t in her nature.

“Alright. If we’ve gotten personal matters out of the way, then let’s move on to business.”

“Of course. A few thousand years ago, I entrusted my sword with the Themiscyrian Amazons, under the agreement that if it were ever to leave the island it would be rightfully returned to me.”

Annabeth nodded. “I’m assuming it hasn’t.”

“It has not. Currently one of Zeus’s demigods, a woman by the name Diana of Themiscyra, has possession of it and is using it inappropriately. You must take it back from her and return it to me.”

“Is there a date you need to have it back by?”

“Preferably as soon as possible. Barring another prophecy or world-ending event, I expect this to be your main priority.”

“Of course, mother.”

Annabeth blinked, and Athena was gone. The cushions of the booth weren’t even indented to show that any being had been occupying it. Annabeth let out a shaky breath and tried to untense her shoulders, even as Terminus’s much weaker presence curled back around her in the sudden absence. He was probably going to be pissed that a Greek goddess dared to enter his city because of Annabeth’s presence.

There was a deliberate scuffling noise from the kitchen area as the waitress popped back up. Not that Annabeth needed it. She was still feeling her brain kicked into overdrive, the uniquely awful combination of hyper vigilant and overstimulated smashed against demigod adrenaline that would leave her with a migraine by the end of the day. The lack of sleep last night definitely wasn’t going to help in that department, either.

She grabbed a few of the diner napkins and rolled them into crude plugs to help with her nosebleed. It was impolite to drip all over the table, after all. This was still a restaurant.

The waitress approached her slowly, a little bit like she was expecting Annabeth to start flipping tables and a little bit like she might start sobbing uncontrollably. If that conversation had lasted for much longer, Annabeth would probably have done both.

“Uh, ma’am?” The waitress shifted on her feet nervously. She slightly favored her left side, but the slight callouses on her right hand suggested it wasn’t out of preference but rather injury. Her nose was also bleeding from the divine presence, as well as her ears, and several blood vessels had burst in her sclera. Her pupils were dilated slightly more than the lighting in the diner would suggest; it was definitely a fear response. She had 172 freckles visible on her face.

Annabeth took a deep, deep breath. “I’m sorry about that.”

“It happens more than you would think. In fact!” The waitress - her name tag said either Lacey or Lucy, it was handwritten and hard to discern - set down two large takeout boxes crammed into a plastic bag. “Restaurant policy is that if you get issued a quest during the meal you get to eat free. So. At least there’s that?”

“That’s - how many people get issued quests here?”

“Since we opened? I think you’re the eleventh or twelfth one. According to the boss it’s picked up in frequency the last few years, but still mostly, uh, minor stuff.”

“Well. That’s really thoughtful. Thanks.” Annabeth grabbed her and Percy’s breakfast. It was 632 grams. That was absolutely critical to know, obviously, great job brain.

“No problem.”

Annabeth threw three Denarii on the table, because even if her food was free the waitress still deserved a tip, and headed out the door as fast as was reasonable. It wasn’t a full sprint, since no one was dying for once, but she was definitely picking up the pace a little. Percy needed to know that they apparently had to plan a heist against Wonder Woman.

Chapter Text

Annabeth found her partner standing in their cramped apartment kitchen, wearing nothing but his pajama bottoms and staring groggily into a mug of tea. He obviously hadn’t been awake for long. The old burn scars on his chest still had a few streaks of lotion that weren’t completely rubbed in and his bed head was untamed, save for one of Annabeth’s headbands that he had commandeered to keep his bangs pushed back.

He looked up at her as she walked in, shoulders untensing minutely at her presence even as she shut the door a little harder than was strictly necessary.

“I got us breakfast.”

He padded over and pulled her into a tight hug, complete with a little kiss on her forehead. “Gods, I love you.”

“I love you. She hummed and leaned into his embrace, dumping the takeout bag on the kitchen table before clinging back just as tight. They stood there for a decent amount of time, just clinging to each other with white knuckle intensity.

“What happened?” Percy asked into her hairline.

“Nothing apocalyptic, at least.”

He snorted. “I hate that that’s the bar. Alright, what are we doing?”

Annabeth pulled back just enough to look at him. “Fetch quest. There’s a sword that Athena wants back and she obviously can’t go get it herself.”

Percy’s breath hitched. “Athena? Oof.”

“Yeah. It was.” Annabeth bit her lip. “It was. A lot better than the last time we talked, a lot better, actually, but. She’s Athena.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Later. After the stupid quest is done.” Annabeth kissed him and, with great reluctance, pulled herself away. She ran a hand through her curls, wishing their apartment was big enough to properly pace in.

“On a scale of Parthenos to chalice, how likely are we to die?”

“Chalice. Hopefully. The sword is currently being used by Diana of Themiscyra, and from what I’ve heard of her she seems to be level headed. Reasonable. Luckily, we don’t have a hard deadline, so I can come up with a workable plan to approach her and find out what she might want in exchange.”

“That’s good, I love diplomacy! Would love to actually succeed at it someday.” Percy went for the bag on the table and started pulling out to go boxes. “Uh, I’m guessing this lady isn’t Artemis’s Diana. What myth is she from?”

“She’s Wonder Woman.”

Percy’s eyes widened. “Wonder Woman? Shit. Wait, she’s actually Greek?”

Annabeth blinked, confused. “…yes? She’s literally a Greek demigod???””

“Wonder Woman’s a demigod??? Wow. I mean, nice to see representation, but how the fuck did I not know this?”

“To be fair, the whole alien invasion thing happened when you were kidnapped and in a coma, and we’ve been kind of busy since then.”

“Still!” Percy threw his hands up dramatically. “It’s so obvious when you point it out, her sword is literally a Mycenaean xiphos!”

“Technically it’s my mom’s sword.”

“I need to pay more attention to current events.” He slumped onto the table. “I thought that she was an alien or something. Why wouldn’t the mist cover up her involvement?”

“That’s…actually a great question. Why didn’t the mist cover up her involvement?” Annabeth pulled a lock of hair into her mouth, slowing down the pace of her pace. “So far every pantheon we’ve encountered has had systems in place to keep their communities hidden from the mortal world. Superman claims to be an alien. So does the Martian Manhunter, and they are both familiar enough with Earth to want to fight for it. Superman much more so than Manhunter; he’s aware of and receptive to human body language, he’s got a slight midwestern accent. If he’s been here a while and the world is only just now learning about it, it implies that whatever extraterrestrials are living on Earth have also been successfully hiding themselves.”

Percy handed her a plastic fork and her omelette. “It wouldn’t surprise me if there was a whole Men in Black thing going on. Considering how often we have to deal with stuff, my guess is that the thing two years ago wasn’t even the world’s first ever alien attack. Maybe the heroes involved just. Really dropped the ball on keeping it a secret?”

“Maybe.” Annabeth spat out her hair and took a bite of her food. “But Diana was there too. The general public doesn’t know that she’s a demigod, but they know she’s something. The whole group that fought off the aliens have been the source of public speculation and scrutiny for a while, and I don’t see that going away anytime soon. It’s only a matter of time before the wrong person puts the right pieces together about her!”

“Whoa, whoa.” Percy grabbed her hand gently. “It’s been, what, two years? And Wonder Woman has only been seen once or twice since. I think everyone is more focused on Superman and the Gotham vampire guy. The fact that nothing’s happened since then means that it probably won’t by now.”

“That sounds like a logical fallacy.” Annabeth allowed him to tug her onto his lap.

“We’re safe. My guess is that she slipped through the Mist because of the Giant war, and the war’s over now. The gods want to stay hidden, then they’ll stay hidden. Which means people won’t bother us either.”

“Maybe.” Annabeth was still going to worry about it in her free time. Camp had already been through so much, the past few years. She wasn’t sure how much more everyone could take.

“Sort of related, how did you know this stuff about Wonder Woman? I thought that whole group had ‘secret identities’.” Percy made air quotes around the phrase.

“Partly for work, partly through a research rabbit hole. Do you remember that memorial I designed for the sacking of Othrys?”

“Yeah?”

“The Amazons fought with New Rome during that battle, both the isolationist Themiscyrians and the Imperials. It was apparently a big deal, the groups had split a few hundred years ago due to one group of the Amazons getting exiled from their home island in the Sea of Monsters, and the Imperials were bitter because they were stripped of the immortality Ares granted to them. Sources are debated as to why, but when the exiled started following the Roman pantheon, there was a lot of bad blood that didn’t get resolved until Krios attacked both of them.”

“Huh. Why didn’t we get any Amazons? They really could have helped.” Percy grumbled.

“On one hand…” Annabeth trailed off, trying not to think too hard about the Battle of Manhattan, and all the bloody, brutal fighting that led up to it. “…But we had the Hunters, and the Romans didn’t. Given the choice between the two, I’d pick Thalia every time.”

“Do you think there was a meeting about that? Like, each camp got assigned an army of immortal warrior women, based on our mutual likes and interests?” Percy mused.

Annabeth snorted. “I wouldn’t put it past the Fates.”

Percy hummed thoughtfully, shoving half a pancake into his mouth.

“But what’s interesting about that is that Diana of Themiscyria didn’t fight with either group. She left the island herself about a hundred years ago, and the Themiscyrians assumed that she had joined the Imperials, which she didn’t. There was a whole skirmish about where she went and why she disappeared.”

“Huh.”

“She was a big deal, apparently. The first and only demigod that the Themiscyrians had that was born on the island. The Imperials were pissed when she showed up on the news with a bunch of artifacts the Themiscyrians accused them of stealing. Keep in mind, this is all third hand knowledge from what Reyna’s told me, so I don’t know the entire story, but I’ve heard her name a few times by now.”

“Actually,” Annabeth sat up, swallowing another bite of her breakfast. “Reyna might know more. If she can tell us anything that might help track her down that would be phenomenal.”

Annabeth got up, running to the bedroom and scooping up a handful of drachmae. By the time she had gotten back to the kitchen, Percy had already turned on the kitchen sink and was cupping his hands under the faucet, turning the stream of water into a thick cloud of fog. She cracked a window, letting the light hit the diffuse droplets and creating a rainbow instantly.

“oh, Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, with the Hunters of Artemis.” Annabeth tossed a coin into the mist.

The rainbow flickered, twisting and swirling in on itself to become a projection of a wooded forest. Somewhere in the northwest? Reyna snapped into frame, a stony, solemn frown visible on her face even with the hood of her cloak pulled up. Whatever trace of surprise she had at being rung up was quickly smoothed back out.

”Chase?”

“And Jackson!” Percy leaned into frame with a little wave. “Don’t worry, New Rome is still standing.”

”Still resisting your wild influence, I see.” Reyna deadpanned. ”What’s happening?”

“What makes you think something’s happening? Maybe we just wanted to say hi?”

”You only call me if something’s already on fire. Otherwise you would have called Thalia to help you set one.”

“Nothing that’s a danger to you or yours,” Annabeth said. “I was hoping you could give us a little more information about Diana of Themiscyra.”

Reyna nodded, frowning a little more. ”She’s the Amazon daughter of Jupiter, right? The one that… the one that went missing for a while?”

Annabeth felt grief and guilt poke at her heart, trying to slip a knife in. She shoved it down. “Wonder Woman, yeah. I just received a minor quest about her and I need to know more about the situation.”

”I don’t really have anything to tell you. I’ve never met her, so I wouldn’t be a good judge of character, and I haven’t heard any stories about her that you wouldn’t already know. I would say to ask Hylla, but…”

“She would try to kill me on sight?”

“She would try to kill you on sight.” Both Reyna and Percy confirmed.

”Who are we murdering?” a familiar voice asked, out of focus from the image before shoving herself against Reyna. ”Annie! What’s up?”

Thalia grinned, looking not a day over sixteen. A day under it, to be exact. Most people would probably find it weird, that someone they had trauma bonded with as a kid hadn’t aged at all since Annabeth last saw her, but to Annabeth, it was comforting. Thalia was alive and reliable and just a message away, distant but still there, able to be talked to and to actually hear her respond. Thalia wouldn’t change again. She wouldn’t change. Not like Luke did.

“Thalia!” Annabeth could feel a smile creep up. “We aren’t planning on killing anyone yet, but I’ll call you first if that changes.”

“Do you think you could beat Wonder Woman in a fight?” Percy asked. “I mean, if you had to. We might need a third for this quest and Grover’s in Costa Rica right now.”

“We are not planning on fighting Wonder Woman.” Annabeth stressed, hoping that if she said it enough times it wouldn’t happen. “We just need to get her sword back to Athena.”

Thalia grimaced. “Athena, huh?”

“I’m fine.” Annabeth insisted. “We don’t have time to unpack all that over IM.”

“Better throw away the whole suitcase.” Percy mumbled. She ignored him.

“But we do need to get the sword from her before Athena gets impatient and she gets smited.”

“I thought it was smote?”

“No, it’s smited.” Reyna nudged Thalia off of her and dusted off her cloak.

“It’s smote.” Percy chimed in confidently.

”What about smitten?”

“Only if Aphrodite does it.”

“It doesn’t matter. She will get smited, and then she will have gotten smote. And I probably will be too, unless the sword gets back to Olympus.”

”Right, right. Well, I can’t help you fight Wonder Woman, we’re busy tracking down a drakon and that’s a pretty big priority at the moment.”

“I get it. The town destroying threat comes first.” Annabeth sighed.

”Sorry.”

“What about the Themyscirian Amazons in general? Reyna, you fought alongside them. Any strengths, weaknesses, general habits?”

”Hmm. They were very experienced warriors, but not as cohesive fighting in a group as they were as individuals. Not just old, but old fashioned, I remember a few being fascinated by the war machines and more modern conveniences. And the blessings of Mars and Ceres they have meant that they were a lot stronger than the standard legionare.”

“How much stronger?”

”One of them managed to pick up Hannibal on a dare, it threw the stables into chaos.”

Percy whistled. “Dang. With or without his armor on?”

”With. And those were the warriors with no or extremely diluted divine blood. Wonder Woman is a child of the Big Three on top of that.”

Annabeth hummed. “Physical strength isn’t everything.”

”The Themiscyrians didn’t give any hints at weaknesses when they were stationed with my Cohort during the war, but…”

“But?” Percy prompted.

”Hylla’s Amazons claim that chains will negate the blessings, if you manage to trap them. I don’t know how true that is though, so don’t bet on it.”

“I mean.” Percy shuddered. “Roman Amazons are really into bondage.”

Annabeth chewed her lip. “It’s something. Thanks, guys.”

”Of course. Let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help! I’ll ask around with the older Hunters, too, see if they have any ideas.” Thalia made a heart with her hands at Annabeth, then turned to Percy and flipped him the bird.

”Call if my city gets attacked again. Tell the praetors I said hi.”

“Will do. Good luck on your hunt.”

“Bye!” Percy swiped his hand through the image, ending the call.

“Now what?” He turned to Annabeth. “I mean, could we just call her too? Explain the situation?”

Annabeth thought it over for a minute. If they could just call her…

“Sure. Doesn’t hurt to try.”

Percy threw another coin into the rainbow, saying the prayer under his breath. Nothing happened, and the coin landed with a clink on the vinyl of the kitchen floor.

She slumped her shoulders. Well, that was about what she expected. Looks like she needed to scrub through video footage and break out the corkboard. It was time to do this the hard way.