As Annabeth walked into Chiron's office in the Big House, she noticed the shimmering remnant of an Iris message. Behind the glimpses of rainbow that hung in the air, Chiron's face was grim.

"Another attack?" she asked.

Chiron nodded wearily. "A minor god in Texas, not far from Houston. Tyche, goddess of luck, destiny, and fortune."

"Did she see what attacked her?" Annabeth sat down on the edge of Chiron's desk.

He shook his head. "Same as the others. A sudden deluge of water, which got her off-guard as well as temporarily blinding her. But she swears whatever it was had a celestial bronze weapon."

"Maybe it's not a monster," Annabeth suggested, putting a pin in Houston on a map already covered in pins.

"What else would it be?" Chiron asked. "All the Titans were accounted for, as well as the other minor gods and goddesses. Besides, they would have been able to do a lot more damage. Tyche was shaken and a bit injured, but not severely. It is entirely possible that a monster happened to have a celestial bronze weapon that it got from a previous fight."

Annabeth stared at the map, unconvinced. There was something weird about this.

"With camp starting up again this week, we'll be able to send out a quest," Chiron said. "Then we will know more about this, and hopefully be done with it. The gods are growing impatient with our inaction."

Annabeth frowned. "And of course they can't do anything about it," she muttered.

Chiron looked at her reproachingly.

"I didn't mean that," she said quickly, then sighed. "So, who are you going to send?"

"Not you, Annabeth," Chiron said, kindly but firmly. "You know the gods wouldn't approve of you going, and besides, I need you here."

"Of course, I didn't mean me," Annabeth said. "I was just curious. If this thing can take on minor gods, we need to send someone who can handle it."

Chiron nodded. "I'll ask for volunteers and choose from them." He watched as Annabeth continued to look at the map. "Can I have your word that you'll focus on getting the camp up and running and not on this?"

Pulled out of her thoughts, Annabeth quickly turned away from the map. "Of course," and she quickly left the room.

Something about this was nagging at her though. There was something odd about this case.

Back in the Athena cabin, she pulled up the local news for Houston on her laptop. The main story was of a freak wave on the coast -- the attack on Tyche. But further down, there was a story about a large, burly man rampaging in a bar before being pulled out into an alley by someone no one saw and disappearing leaving signs of a struggle. The description was how Annabeth imagined mortals would see a minotaur through the Mist.

These two events happened not an hour apart, and Annabeth could not help but wonder if it was the same thing that was involved in both. But she had never heard of monsters attacking each other.

There was only one logical conclusion here, and as Annabeth investigated previous attacks, it became clearer and clearer, but she did not want to think about it.

The attacks on both minor deities and monsters, seemingly indiscriminately. The fact that it never pursued or even attacked demigods. The celestial bronze weapon.

Annabeth closed her laptop and leaned back in her chair and wondered if maybe she was reading too much into it.

The first week of camp was a flurry of activity. Campers arrived, old and new. Annabeth helped to show them around and did not have a lot of time for her own research.

Thalia arrived at the end of the first week. While Annabeth had decided to hold off on college for a year, Thalia had gone last year.

She hugged Annabeth tightly. When she pulled back, she smiled. "How have you been?"

Annabeth's relationship with Thalia was a bit odd. Although they were now kind of the same age, they had not always been. When they met, Thalia was five years older than Annabeth, but now, due to some magical shenanigans involving a pine tree and the Golden Fleece, they were basically the same age. Nonetheless, Thalia still felt the need to protect her.

"I'm alright," Annabeth said. "Keeping busy."

Thalia nodded. "Me too."

"I actually need your perspective on something. A... research project I've been working on."

Thalia rolled her eyes, smiling, "Of course you would do a research project for fun. I'm forced to do that shit for classes."

"Don't swear around the younger campers," Annabeth said absentmindedly as they headed to the Athena cabin.

In the cabin, campers were unpacking. They all nodded hello as she and Thalia entered. A few stole glances at Thalia in particular. In addition to having once been a tree, she was one of the only two children of the Big Three gods -- Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades.

She and Annabeth had also been close to Luke Castellan. Before.

As they approached Annabeth's bunk, Thalia spotted her bulletin board with a map of the US with the pins of the attacks. Thread connected them in chronological order and cut-out headlines pinned alongside them.

"Wow," Thalia said. "and I thought you didn't like conspiracy theories."

Annabeth frowned. "It's the attacks," she lowered her voice so that the other campers could not hear. "They've been happening all year, more frequently lately."

"I'm sure Chiron's got a handle on it," Thalia said. "Why do you need me?"

"Chiron thinks it's a monster and is going to send out a quest to kill it."

"But you're not so sure."

"Exactly." Annabeth pointed to one of the pins and the headlines pinned near it "April fourth, attack on a group of satyrs in Sacramento. Two days later, an empousa was killed in Concord, which is on the way to San Francisco, where to next attack happened."

"And monsters don't generally kill each other. They're attracted to demigods." Thalia sighed. "Annabeth, if Chiron thought it was a demigod, don't you think he'd be handling the situation differently?"

"I didn't tell him what I thought, because he wouldn't believe me."

Thalia studied to board again. "If it was a demigod -- and I'm not saying I think it is -- why would they be attacking minor gods and satyrs?"

Annabeth raised her eyebrows meaningfully and Thalia sighed again.

"Annabeth, this is why I thought you should go to college too, and not stay cooped up at camp. You need to move on, not try to find a second chance at saving Luke."

They had not said the name in months, but Annabeth never went a day without thinking about him. "It's not that --"

"Yes, it is," Thalia said. "We couldn't save him and now you think you see someone like him, someone you can try to save." She put her hands on Annabeth's shoulders. "We need to let him go." Annabeth could see the pain in Thalia's eyes. Luke had meant as much to Thalia as he had to her.

"Chiron's right," Thalia said. "It's just a monster." She smiled again. "I'll see you at the campfire."

When Thalia left the cabin, Annabeth noticed that a lot of her siblings were glancing at her cautiously. She quickly straightened her shoulders and took a breath. She was the head counsellor of the Athena cabin and basically Chiron's assistant, she had to at least look like she was keeping it together.

She looked back at the board. One thing she hated was feelings clouding judgement. It made plans and conclusions unsound and unreliable. She always tried to approach problems with an unbiased eye. Hadn't she done that here?

She had not suspected the attack was a demigod until she had looked into it. After that, every new piece of information seemed to fit into place. Nothing else made sense.

Because she had tried other explanations. Whatever Thalia thought, the last thing Annabeth wanted was a demigod attacking gods. She did not want to have t deal with that, much less try to save whoever it was.

If there was one thing Annabeth was confident in, it was her ability to research and come to logical conclusions. She knew she was right.

She just had to convince someone of it.

As the sun started to set, Annabeth made her way across the strawberry fields. At the far end, nestled between some trees, was a small cottage.

She knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" a voice called from inside.

"Grover, it's me, Annabeth!"

Annabeth heard the various locks click open before the door opened. Grover looked tired, as he always did these days. "Hey, Annabeth."

She smiled as she stepped inside. "How've you been, Grover?"

"I've been alright," he said. "It's nice to hear all the campers around again. It gets so quiet during the school year."

The cabin was small, just one room, with a bed in one corner and a couple of lazy chairs in the other. A cabinet of cans stood at the far wall.

Annabeth sank into a chair. "I saw Thalia earlier. Has she been by yet?"

Grover nodded. "Briefly."

"I'm sure we can all catch up at the campfire tonight," Annabeth said hopefully.

"Oh, I don't -- I wasn't planning on going," Grover said.

Even though she wanted to, Annabeth knew better than to pressure him. "Grover, I need your expertise on something."

"My expertise?" Grover asked incredulously.

"Yes, as a Searcher."

"And a great Searcher I was," Grover muttered.

"Come on, what do we keep saying about the negative self-talk." Annabeth sighed. "I think I may have found a demigod, but I'm not sure. You have the instincts for this."

Grover sighed. "Okay, how can I help?"

Annabeth pulled out her laptop and showed him the digitalized version of the bulletin board. It would be more efficient to have it digitalized and not physically, but Annabeth liked to think with her hands.

"These are the monster attacks," Grover said cautiously.

"Yeah, but not just on gods and nature spirits. I found attacks on monsters that fit into the timeline."

As Grover surveyed the connecting headlines, Annabeth saw the realization cross his face. He immediately stepped back. "No."

"What?"

"I am not getting involved in this."

"Come on, Grover, I just need your help to convince Chiron, so he doesn't send a quest to kill the person doing this."

"Annabeth," Grover said. "This is a demigod attacking minor gods. If the gods got wind of this…? It's the last thing we need; repairing our reputation is hard enough as it is without there being a demigod fighting gods." His voice rose to a bleat at the end.

Annabeth put a hand on Grover's arm. "I know this brings up a lot for you, it does for me too, but maybe we can help this person -- it's just one person."

"Luke was just one person too, and he led hundreds of demigods against Olympus."

They were both quiet for a good moment. Annabeth closed her laptop and stood up slowly. "I'll see you later, then," she said, smiling softly.

"Yeah," Grover said, grabbing a can and nibbling it nervously. "Later."

As Annabeth closed the door behind her, she sighed. She had known that Grover would not be happy to hear it, but at least he did believe her. Maybe with more time, he would back her up to Chiron.

But she didn´t have time. She suspected that Chiron would call for volunteers at the campfire tonight.

Annabeth made her way down to the campfire early that evening, hoping to talk to Chiron before too many campers got there.

Chiron stood talking to a few satyrs who had recently brought in new campers, probably asking if their changes seemed particularly promising. He saw her coming down the earthen steps that doubled as seats around the fire pit and quickly finished his conversation.

"Annabeth," he said. "I actually wanted to talk to you about the attacks."

"Don't worry, I'm sending out a quest, they'll be on their way by morning."

"But that's exactly what I'm worried about." Annabeth took a breath. "I don't think it's a monster. I think it's a demigod."

"What?"

"I did research -- in my free time -- that I can show you." She could see that Chiron was wholly unconvinced. "Grover thinks so too."

"Grover is hardly a reliable source." There was an exasperated edge to his voice.

Annabeth huffed. "Grover was one of our best Searchers."

"Exactly: was. He has not left the camp in over a year and a half! I care about Grover, but I couldn't be surprised if his instincts have dulled a bit."

"Come on, Chiron. Surely you see there's something weird going on." Annabeth looked at him imploringly, but he did not budge.

"I'm sending out a quest. That's final." Chiron turned and made his way to his regular spot on the far end of the fire pit.

Annabeth sighed. This was really not going how she had planned. She had hoped that this summer would be the one everything would go back to normal. The camp had been her home since she was seven and she hated how it had changed.

There were still traces of the battle that had taken place two years ago. Burn marks on buildings that Annabeth had been working to slowly get fixed. New scars on basically every camper. And so many empty bunks. The missing kids were not all reflected on the Wall either.

The Wall of Valor was in the Big House and was engraved with all the names of the demigods who died in battle. But only those fighting for the gods -- rebels did not count, so they were left off and did not receive pyre burnings.

Annabeth had tried to argue for their names being included, of course, but had not been successful. She had argued unsuccessfully for a lot of things in the aftermath.

She remembered standing in the throne room of Olympus, the gods and goddesses towering above her. Trying to stand tall, she spoke as loudly and confidently as she could muster. "We request that the gods and goddesses claim their children within a reasonable time -- at thirteen or fourteen, for example. Many of the rebels --"

"Traitors," Hera spat.

"Traitors," Annabeth amended quickly. "Many of the traitors were unclaimed and felt forgotten and neglected. Claiming them could prevent this from happening again."

"So, you're blaming us for this?" Zeus asked.

"No, of course not, Lord Zeus," Annabeth said. "I'm just saying, there were contributing factors that could be eliminated to lessen the chance of this happening again."

"This is absurd," Hera said. "Your camp rises up against us and now you are making demands?"

"Not our whole camp," Annabeth said, trying to keep her voice calm. "We fought against them -- for you."

"You were a close friend of this Luke fellow, weren't you?" Demeter asked.

Annabeth turned to her. "Yes, we were close."

"Why didn't you stop him?"

She blinked. "I -- I didn't know until it was too late."

Annabeth pulled herself out of the memory and sat down shakily. It had been a lie. She had known -- at least that something was going on.

Other campers had started to filter in, and Annabeth quickly turned Thalia and they sat together. She did not pay much attention as the Hephaestus kids started the fire and the Apollo kids started up the sing-along.

Food was served and Annabeth ate silently, staring into the fire. She could see no way to convince Chiron or anyone of authority. And she could not go to any god with her theory, they would strike the rogue half-blood dead first and ask questions later. Annabeth wanted to help them.

Maybe Thalia was right. Maybe this was just a second chance for her. But that did not mean that it was not true. Whatever her motivations were, she wanted to help.

An old plan from years ago began to reform in her mind. Back before she went on her quest two years ago, she had been very impatient to leave camp. At one point, she had gotten the idea in her head that Chiron would never let her go and that she would have to do it herself. The main tenets of that plan could still work.

Annabeth looked around. If she left tonight, she would have a head start. And besides, she knew about this person's movements and habits. For one thing, they tended to travel up to New York every couple of months and were due for another visit soon.

Across the fire pit, Chiron rose. "Good evening everyone. I trust you have all had a good week back. A special welcome to all the newcomers. We hope you come to see this place as a home away from home, as many here do." He smiled warmly. "Now, as I am sure many of you have heard, there have been a large number of monster attacks all over the country over the past year. We believe they are all the work of one creature. These attacks have escalated in recent months and therefore, I am sending out a quest."

Whispers erupted among the campers and the enchanted flames jumped green and yellow, reflecting their excitement. There had not been any quests last year.

"We do not know what kind of creature this is, so this quest is not for the faint of heart. However, I believe there is a candidate for the job." Chiron turned to a group of Aphrodite kids. "Olivia Marcelin, daughter of Aphrodite." He inclined his head slightly to her. "Will you undertake this labour?"

Olivia, petite but muscular, had arrived at camp just before the rebellion. She was thrust into battle situations at fifteen and handled herself well. She was a good fighter, skilled in multiple weapons, and benefitted from being underestimated. Annabeth would have to be smart if she was going to beat her.

Olivia, although first taken off her guard, quickly straightened and smiled. "I would be honoured."

"And who will you choose as your companions?" Chiron asked.

She looked around. "Adam Flavius." Her brother, another son of Aphrodite. Unassuming, but had wickedly good aim with throwing knives. "and Sabine Stentz." No surprise there. Sabine, daughter of Demeter, was Olivia's girlfriend. Like all children of Demeter, she had power over plants, but she specialized in the art of offensive plants. Annabeth had seen her in action and would hate to have to tangle with her.

"Very well," Chiron said. "Tonight you will go to the Oracle and prepare, for you leave at first light tomorrow morning."

"But first," said Michal -- a child of Apollo. "More sing-along."

As they strummed the opening chords of 'She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain,' Annabeth turned to Thalia. "I think I'm gonna turn in for the night," she said quietly.

Thalia looked at her with a little suspicion but nodded. "Sleep well."

Annabeth slipped away quietly. In her cabin, she quickly packed the essentials in her backpack: ambrosia, nectar, change of clothes, a few drachmae, and everything else needed for a last-minute quest. Before she hurried out, she stuffed a pillow and extra blanket under her sheets, so it looked like she was asleep. The longer head-start she could get before people noticed she was missing, the better.

Even though it had been a solo plan, Annabeth found herself knocking on Grover's door.

"What is it?" he asked when he opened the door, looking like he had been sleeping. Then he saw her backpack and the sword that joined her dagger that was normally on her hip. "Whatever you're doing, I do not want to be involved."

"Grover, I need your help."

"I am not going on your redemption quest, especially not if it's a non-sanctioned one."

"I have a better chance if you come along, you know that. You can track demigods."

"I also know that I haven't left camp since… you know, and I'm out of practice."

"If we don't do this, there's a pretty good chance the demigod will be killed."

"So what? Maybe it's better that way."

"Better that way? Are you hearing yourself?" Annabeth tried not to lose her cool. "This is a demigod who needs our help. Finding and protecting demigods is supposed to be your job, as a Searcher."

Grover just shook his head.

"Look, I know that you feel like you failed Luke, like what happened was your fault, but that was on all of us, okay? But maybe we can make it right, by helping this person." She squared her shoulders. "But whether you decide to come or not, I'm going."

Grover sighed and closed his eyes. "Fine," he said through gritted teeth.

Annabeth sighed a breath of relief. While she had been ready to go along, she hadn't like the idea. She hadn't had to survive alone since before she met Luke and Thalia after running away from home.

"I thought you said this wasn't to make up for what happened to Luke," said a voice behind her.

Annabeth jumped and spun around to see Thalia standing behind her.

"Thalia, I -- we --"

"I can't let you two dumbasses go alone, and you seem pretty hell-bent." She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fuck it -- we're all going on this unsanctioned quest -- which I still don't entirely approve of."

♥ epicalliope ♥