chapter 28-I Thought This Would Be A Quiet Day

It's been a day since the fight with Ares, and we have three days to get the bolt to Zeus. This is a better time than the original, so in my opinion, that's pretty good. It could have been better, not like I would be able to redo everything.

During this time Annabeth still hasn't woken up. The working theory is her brain is exhausted, or she's in a coma. They might just be the same thing, I don't know.

If she's in a coma then I'm going back to the underworld to yell at Hades and say hi to Cerberus. Even if yelling at Hades is a bad idea and may kill me I... now that I think this through it's a dumb idea, not the Cerberus part, the Hades part.

Yelling at Hades wouldn't solve much, I would just be escalating everything. Maybe just a talk, with a little bit of huge hostility. Ahh, who cares I'll just run in, run out, and not come back till I'm dead. Wait now that plan is stupid because if I never come back then I can't play with Cerberus. I'll get back to this topic... eventually. Anyway yeah, I hope Annabeth wakes up soon.

Grover and I are on better terms... I think. I mean he's still frustrated but he can never stay mad with me for too long. I just need to bring him his favorite foods for a week, not cause trouble, and be an even better friend.

You know what's crazy, it feels like I've been on this quest for months but it's only been a week. That means I have an entire summer of relaxing and training of course.

I've been thinking over the whole armor scenario. I'm going to need to make sure that it allows for movement and doesn't slow me down much. With my spider physiology, I'll be fine but I'm going to need the agility for the big fights.

I also want to see if I can make it small enough to fit in my backpack. I get one of the Hephaestus kids, or even better Hephaestus, and ask them for a favor or I do a quest for them.

Now earlier Mom called me with the supernatural form of a phone call, Iris's message. My ears are still ringing from the scolding she gave me. In the background of the Iris message, I saw Chiron and Dionysus looking tired as ever. Seems I wasn't the only one who got a scolding.

After her saying her peace and then our goodbyes I talked to Chiron. This was the perfect time to talk about Luke. I told him about how I had a dream about Luke, over how he has been working with Kronos.

He then exclaimed how this was the first time he'd heard of this. That's when I remembered that Annabeth said she talked to Luke, alone, not with Chiron. My brain had autocorrected itself to Luke and Chiron. I then spent a few moments arguing with myself over if that's how autocorrect works.

I told him how Annabeth told Luke about the recent findings. That's when he started galloping away. The Iris message immediately ended after that. I just hoped that he was going to essentially arrest Luke before he disappeared.

*SLAM*

I looked to my left and saw Grover panting, trying to catch his breath. I had a serious sense of deja vu. Aha, this is like when he entered the cabin. This wasn't the time to remember that I needed to make sure Grover was okay.

"Grover what's wrong, are you okay," I said worriedly

"Annabeth *huff* is *huff* awake," he said.

"Okay do you want me to carry you or leave you here because I'm going to run to her room right now," I said.

He just waved me off and I was gone, like the wind.

Reaching the door I immediately entered and ran straight to her bed. That was a bad idea as she was just drinking water, so she spewed it all over me.

"Di immortales Percy, don't scare me like that," she yelped.

"Right uh sorry," I said sheepishly. I looked around for a moment and dried myself off.

"Anyway, how are you feeling?" I asked.

"I'm fine," she said bluntly.

There was an awkward silence that filled the room after that. I almost wished Grover would just start running into the room. Since he didn't I attempted to lighten up the mood.

"So I'm doing fine, I got scolded but it felt kind of lighthearted, I saw Mr.D more exhausted than I've seen him, I'm pretty sure my Mom also gave him a scolding, sadly Chiron was also scolded. Which helped lighten the load of harshness in her voice. I also stubbed my toe earlier, it's weird that it hurt more than a stab wound. The doctors said I got a clean bill of health." After saying all that I just droned on for a minute. She was smiling throughout it. Once I stopped talking she spoke.

"You're such a seaweed head," with a fond smile on her face.

Her face then went back to seriousness.

"Did you know the entire time that Kronos was in my head, and you chose not to tell any of us?"

I took a deep breath in and told her the truth.

"Yes, yes I did," I then prepared myself for some even more scolding. Instead, something completely different happened.

"Good, it would have been dumb of you to tell me or Grover. Kronos would have known that you knew which would mean Grover would know and 'I would know'. So good job."

I was left stunned, completely out of left field.

"So you're not mad at me?" I asked.

"Not at you, I'm mad at myself. I was too weak-willed to stop him from entering my mind," she said frustratedly

"How could you stop him, he's a titan. We're just demigods," I said in defense of her.

"You resisted him while I couldn't. He did horrors to you, you may even be sparing us a few details of what he did to you."

I couldn't argue with that, but I was different. I wasn't normal.

"As we both can agree I'm not normal, I'm abnormal," I said.

"I guess you're right, but I was still too weak," She said.

"Come on, you're a daughter of Athena. You can't be defeated by something like this. You're smart, you'll beat him next time at his own game," I said.

She then gained a confident look.

"You know what, you're right I'm a daughter of Athena and I will not be defeated like this."

She then decided to stand up but instead, she tripped on her blanket and fell on me.

There was dead silence in the room. Just two people staring into each other's eyes.

At least till Grover entered the room. The moment he looked at us he had an impish look on his face.

She immediately pulled away and went back to her bed, I moved away to the wall.

"Grover it's not what it looks like," exclaimed Annabeth.

"Oh, I'm sure this isn't what it looks like," he said while his eyebrows were moving up and down. He sure was enjoying this. It was also kind of fun seeing Annabeth so flustered.

"Well I guess I'll leave you two alone," he pauses for a few seconds. Looking as if he was holding his tongue from saying a word but with Annabeth starting to glare at him he just left.

"So uh that happened," I said.

"Yeah, uh I'm just going to... sleep some more," she said.

"Right, good idea I'll leave you alone. Bye, have a good sleep," I said.

A few hours later I finally got some plane tickets for both of them, I didn't need them as I would just swim there. I mean I could go on the plane but it seems more fun this way, just appearing on shore. I also want to see if I'll beat them there. I want to push myself to the limit farther than before, nonstop.

Oh and one of us needed to get the bolt to Zeus before the summer solstice, almost forgot about it. Wait no the three hags I forgot about them, how far would they go if I paid them a few drachmas? At the same time having Annabeth who seems dizzy and Grover who gets nauseous in cars, it would be a bad idea for them to be in there for too long. So it's better this way.

Now who would be holding the bolt, me or them? It would probably be safer with them than with me in the water. Now I feel dumb, I guess I can't torpedo my way back to New York.

So I got the plane tickets, and since I have the bolt he won't crash our plane so we're all good.

What a tiring day.

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