They Looked Happy

They spent two days on the Amtrak train, heading west through hills, over rivers, past amber waves of grain.

They weren't attacked once, but didn't feel like relaxing either. It felt like they were traveling around in a display case, being watched from above and maybe from below, that something was waiting for the right opportunity.

Percy tried to keep a low profile because his name and picture were splattered over the front pages of several East Coast newspapers. The Trenton Register-News showed a photo taken by a tourist as he got off the Greyhound bus. He had a wild look in his eyes. His sword was a metallic blur in his hands. It might've been a baseball bat or a lacrosse stick.

The picture's caption read:

Fourteen-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for questioning in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the scene. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. His stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.

"Don't worry," Annabeth told him. "Mortal police could never find us." But she didn't sound so sure.

"Yeah sure," Y/N muttered, "Just because they're mortals doesn't mean they're stupid."

"Hey, I know. I'm just trying to calm him down?" Annabeth said defensively, "Why are you saying this when you know how much tensed he is?"

"Because it's better to be cautious about it than giving false hopes Annabeth," Y/N said.

"It's like both of you switched roles," Percy chuckled nervously.

"When we are out on such an important quest, I don't think assumptions gonna make everything better. We need to think about it practically," Y/N said.

The rest of the day was spent by alternately pacing the length of the train or looking out the windows.

Once, they spotted a family of centaurs galloping across a wheat field, bows at the ready, as they hunted lunch. The little boy centaur, who was the size of a second-grader on a pony, caught Percy's eye and waved. He looked around the passenger car, but nobody else had noticed. The adult riders all had their faces buried in laptops or magazines.

Their reward money for returning Gladiola the poodle had only been enough to purchase tickets as far as Denver. They couldn't get berths in the sleeper car, so they dozed off on the seats. Percy tried not to drool in his sleep, since Annabeth was sitting right next to him.

Y/N sat on the opposite side of them and rested her head on the windows, sometimes looking at her friends sitting like...a couple. It felt like Percy was being cautious and trying to impress Annabeth. She decided to look away because it made her feel more uncomfortable than she realized. Grover kept snoring and bleating and waking up. Once, he shuffled around and his fake foot fell off. Annabeth had to stick it back on before any of the other passengers noticed.

"So," Annabeth asked Percy, once she'd gotten Grover's sneaker readjusted. "Who wants your help?"

"What do you mean?"

"When you were asleep just now, you mumbled, 'I won't help you.' Who were you dreaming about?"

Percy was reluctant to say anything. It was the second time he'd dreamed about the evil voice from the pit. But it bothered him so much he finally told her.

Annabeth was quiet for a long time. "That doesn't sound like Hades. He always appears on a black throne, and he never laughs."

"He offered my mother in trade. Who else could do that?"

"I guess...if he meant, 'Help me rise from the Underworld.' If he wants war with the Olympians. But why ask you to bring him the master bolt if he already has it?"

Percy shook his head, wishing he knew the answer. He thought about what Grover had told him, that the Furies on the bus seemed to have been looking for something.

"I don't think it's him," Y/N said, "I'm not sure though. But, why would Hades want a war? He's not as evil as represented, I'm sure. He's supposed to maintain relative balance and quite frankly, that's a hard job to do when you've to deal with dead people everyday and have multiple responsibilities on your shoulders too."

Annabeth stayed quiet for a moment and said, "....you're just too nice Y/N."

"No just...I think he's too busy to make plans so that there's a war," Y/N said readjusting Grover's cap so it covered his horns. She decided to stop telling her opinion since both of them were convinced that Hades was the ultimate evil god ever because of being associated with death. And so far, none of them really cared enough about her opinion anyway.

"Percy, you can't barter with Hades. You know that, right? He's deceitful, heartless, and greedy. I don't care if his Kindly Ones weren't as aggressive this time-"

"This time?" Percy asked. "You mean you've run into them before?"

Her hand crept up to her necklace. She fingered a glazed white bead painted with the image of a pine tree, one of her clay end-of-summer tokens. "Let's just say I've got no love for the Lord of the Dead. You can't be tempted to make a deal for your mom."

"What would you do if it was your dad?"

"That's easy," she said. "I'd leave him to rot."

"You're not serious?"

Annabeth's gray eyes fixed on him. She wore the same expression she'd worn in the woods at camp, the moment she drew her sword against the hellhound. "My dad's resented me since the day I was born, Percy," she said. "He never wanted a baby. When he got me, he asked Athena to take me back and raise me on Olympus because he was too busy with his work. She wasn't happy about that. She told him heroes had to be raised by their mortal parent."

"But how...I mean, I guess you weren't born in a hospital...."

"I appeared on my father's doorstep, in a golden cradle, carried down from Olympus by Zephyr the West Wind. You'd think my dad would remember that as a miracle, right? Like, maybe he'd take some digital photos or something. But he always talked about my arrival as if it were the most inconvenient thing that had ever happened to him. When I was five he got married and totally forgot about Athena. He got a 'regular' mortal wife, and had two 'regular' mortal kids, and tried to pretend I didn't exist."

Percy stared out the train window. The lights of a sleeping town were drifting by. He wanted to make Annabeth feel better, but didn't know how. He slowly slid his hand towards her and held her hand reassuringly.

"My mom married a really awful guy," he told her. "Grover said she did it to protect me, to hide me in the scent of a human family. Maybe that's what your dad was thinking."

Annabeth kept worrying at her necklace. She was pinching the gold college ring that hung with the beads. It occurred to him that the ring must be her father's.

"He doesn't care about me," she said and held his hand back, "His wife-my stepmom-treated me like a freak. She wouldn't let me play with her children. My dad went along with her. Whenever something dangerous happened-you know, something with monsters-they would both look at me resentfully, like, 'How dare you put our family at risk.' Finally, I took the hint. I wasn't wanted. I ran away."

"How old were you?"

"When I started camp? Nine."

"But...you couldn't have gotten all the way to Half-Blood Hill by yourself."

"Not alone, no. Athena watched over me, guided me toward help. I made a couple of unexpected friends who took care of me, for a short time, anyway," she said and looked away sadly. Y/N looked at their intertwined fingers and closed her eyes. She just wanted to drift off to sleep. It would replenish her energy and she wouldn't overthink about her place in this group. A group where she felt like an outsider.

Toward the end of their second day on the train, June 13, eight days before the summer solstice, they passed through some golden hills and over the Mississippi River into St. Louis. Annabeth craned her neck to see the Gateway Arch, which looked like a huge shopping bag handle stuck on the city.

"I want to do that," she sighed.

"What?" Percy asked.

"Build something like that. You ever see the Parthenon, Percy?"

"Only in pictures."

"Someday, I'm going to see it in person. I'm going to build the greatest monument to the gods, ever. Something that'll last a thousand years."

Percy laughed. "You? An architect?"

Just the idea of Annabeth trying to sit quietly and draw all day made him crack. Y/N smacked him lightly. She knew how sometimes he just didn't realize that his words were sharp and can actually hurt people. Well, she already felt a bit mad whenever he called Ares cabin members as big and ugly. He just didn't take their feelings into consideration. She absolutely hated this part of him - the ignorant one.

Annabeth's cheeks flushed. "Yes, an architect. Athena expects her children to create things, not just tear them down, like a certain god of earthquakes I could mention."

Percy got a perfect response for his mockery. He watched the churning brown water of the Mississippi below.

"Sorry," Annabeth said. "That was mean."

Y/N sighed, "This time, you started it Percy. Please, for the love of..." she hesitated saying god and decided to go with something else, "...chicken nuggets, stop your sassy commentary cause sometimes you really cross the limit."

"Oh, so you're gonna lecture me too?"

"You know I'm right though," Y/N shrugged, "you can deny if it hurts your ego."

"Can't we work together a little?" Percy pleaded. "I mean, didn't Athena and Poseidon ever cooperate?"

Annabeth had to think about it. "I guess...the chariot," she said tentatively. "My mom invented it, but Poseidon created horses out of the crests of waves. So they had to work together to make it complete."

"Then we can cooperate, too. Right?"

They rode into the city, Annabeth watching as the Arch disappeared behind a hotel. "I suppose," she said at last.

Y/N smiled hearing it and looked out of the window. From the corner of her eye, she can make out both of them blushing slightly. Atleast, something was going good in this quest. Well, not for her but watching her friends making an effort and being a blushing mess around each other was worth it. They looked kinda happy.

[TIME SKIP]

They pulled into the Amtrak station downtown. The intercom told they'd have a three-hour layover before departing for Denver. Annabeth suggested for sightseeing which everyone agreed to, since she was a big fan of architecture.

Big mistake.

They didn't take in account that the media was as much of a threat as the police. Ofcourse, as soon as they were in, a monster attacked Percy and ended up causing an explosion. He was the one getting blamed for it as usual, since after the disappearance of his mother, the police were searching for him. The media just added some fuel into the fire.

They made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind.

Next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, the train rolled into Denver. They hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas.

"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

"We can't use phones, right?"

"I'm not talking about phones."

They wandered through downtown for about half an hour, and found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. They veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping eyes open for patrol cars. Teenagers hanging out at a car wash without a car? Any cop worth his doughnuts would figure they were up to no good.

Annabeth set up an iris message and let Percy talk to Luke alone. He didn't reveal about their little chat but Y/N felt like he hid something. He always held something back. Only later does he finally feel the need to talk about it, which frankly does no good to team work. But she decided to let it go. He was doing what's best for all of them.

Y/N wanted to talk to Harris and tell him how everything was going fairly well until now. But, it wasn't really important enough to get caught by the police. She clutched the necklace that he gave her before the quest and put it under her shirt.

Besides, they were nowhere near finding who stole Zeus's lightening and it was getting worse at the camp, she knew for sure. This way, she won't even able to give a good news to him. The only way she can really talk to her godly parent was if they managed to give Zeus back his lightening.

A few minutes later, they were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around were families who were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas. But their peace didn't last long.

Ares came up with another quest for them. He had Aphrodite with him and something interrupted his date. He left the shield in a water park in the Tunnel of Love and wanted the four to fetch it for him. Ofcourse, they refused at first but he made a generous offer.

Unfortunately about Percy's mom.

So there they were, standing in front of an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.

Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!

Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look."

Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.

"This is too easy," Percy said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"

Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.

"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder..."

"Grover," Percy said, "you smell any monsters?"

He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."

Percy took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."

"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but he got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.

"No," Percy told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."

"...there has to be a catch," Y/N said squinting her eyes and looking around the pool, "If this was easy, Ares won't come up to us and assign us this job. He's the god of war, he's capable of doing this alone."

"She's right," Grover said, "maybe he's a god so it's humiliating to come back here?"

"Well, we don't have time to waste. Annabeth and I are going, Percy you can just stay and look out for us."

"Hold on," Percy stopped her, "I don't know. Just a feeling that something can go wrong. Annabeth, come with me-" Y/N stared at them for a moment, and looked away. Maybe, she shouldn't butt in. She was absolutely useless in this whole quest anyway. But it still stung a bit. Percy completely rejected her idea. Like, they weren't even giving her a chance to do something. It felt like they were all treating her as some kind of innocent kid, who can't defend herself. It made her feel a bit mad.

"Are you kidding?" Annabeth looked at him with a blush.

"What's the problem now?" Percy demanded.

"Me, go with you to the... the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"

"Who's going to see you?" But his face was burning now, too. He started down the side of the pool, and she followed him, muttering about how boys always messed things up.

They reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf.

Percy picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable-rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. He smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against his cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of his hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."

"What?"

"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."

Y/N looked unwillingly at the scene before her. Them, together in the stupid ride. But she had to look out for any kind of trap, which she was sure to be there. It has to be there.

She just wished it wasn't something really bad.

The moment Percy touched the shield, his hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, he thought, but then looked at a strand of it on his palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.

"Wait," Annabeth said.

"Too late."

"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."

Noise erupted all around them, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.

Grover yelled, "Guys!"

Y/N was ready to scream and use her voice as a weapon, to wipe those arrows away from them. It was worth the risk rather than watching her friends get shot at by so many of those arrows. Hades, felt like a bad guy to her all of a sudden. She didn't want him to take them away.