#was NOT worth killing Wes for. new Leo could’ve just stayed a friend. WES FOR LIFE

[deathsmallcaps]

I’m going to rewatch the original Charmed, but after should I watch

[greekgeek21]

Percy Jackson & The Avengers: Convergence - team-up time!!

Ok, so I'm a little off schedule, but who cares? Honestly, I've been getting a lot of good reviews/comments and I'm so grateful!!

My amazing beta reader, nightskywithrainbows, is so patient and I would not be able to do this without you. So, give them some love!

Anyway, I hope you like this! Stay safe and happy reading!

- your author

Ω ♆ Ω

"Wise Girl? Are you here?" Percy asked as he walked into his cabin.

He had just gotten back, and the first thing he did was ask where Annabeth was. Apparently, she had got into the Poseidon Cabin after their IM and hadn't come out since. It was sweet, really, but if she ever caught him saying that, he would be beheaded in an instant, so he kept it to himself.

He was not expecting what he saw when he walked into his home-away-from-home. Annabeth was asleep on top of his covers, a book laying beside her. The lights were still on, too. It looked like she had tried to stay awake for him, but it was reasonable for her to fall asleep. He HAD gotten back at 2 AM.

To anyone else, she would have looked peaceful, but he knew his girlfriend, and he saw that she was having a nightmare. Unlike him, who thrashed around and screamed, Annabeth was dead silent during her dreams. It had scared him more times than one. The only indication was her frown, the slight sheen of sweat, and the rare barely-there whimper.

He raced to her side, lying down next to her and pulling her into his side, "Shhh...you're okay. We're okay. We got out. We're safe now."

The Tartarus nightmares had gotten better, but they still had them every so often. They had learned to deal with them properly in a way that worked. They had even tried therapy once, but that was a disaster waiting to happen anyways. Annabeth and him don't talk about their feelings very well. Still, it was worrying to watch your loved ones suffer with nothing to offer for comfort other than your support.

Percy continued to whisper sweet nothings and reassurances in Annabeth's ear before her breathing eventually evened out and she slowly started to blink her eyes open. She seemed confused about his appearance for a second before she realized that he had come in while she was sleeping.

"Seaweed Brain? When did you get here?" She tried to sit up, but Percy held her tight, so she relaxed into him.

"Not long ago. But don't avoid the question. You know we need to talk about it. What happened this time?" he asked.

Annabeth sighed and answered, "It was the same one. You were controlling the poison 'down there' and I saw your eyes. They were a sickly green, Percy. Not anything like your usual sea green. They were almost grey, and they were glowing. I was terrified. This time, I couldn't stop you. I had to watch as y-you killed her."

By then, tears had started to escape her tight control over them. If it were anyone else, Annabeth would never have let them hear her sound so weak, let alone see her crying. She was the strong leader of Camp Half-blood, and that came with the responsibility to keep a confident front.

However, every leader needs time to release the stress. Her alone time with Percy was that time. He had been through almost everything with her, and she trusted him to the end of the universe. HE was HER rock just as much as SHE was HIS.

"I would never do that. You have to know that. It wasn't real. We're home, and we're together. We made it, Wise Girl," Percy reassured, kissing her on the head.

"Yeah, I know. They just get so real sometimes," Annabeth curled into his side.

"I know. It's late, though. Do you want to stay up talking or do you want to try to sleep again?" he asked, tucking them under the sheets.

Annabeth closed her eyes, wrapping Percy's arm around her tighter as she said, "Let's go to bed. I'm sure I'll be fine now that you're here."

Percy smiled his goofy smile, "Okay, Wise Girl. I love you."

"I love you, too, dork."

He chuckled, and Annabeth fell asleep in contentment to the sound of his heart beating. As long as that was happening, she would be fine.

Ω ♆ Ω

The next few weeks went by as smoothly as a demigod's life could. Percy never received any communication attempts from SHIELD, so he let himself fall back into his schedule. Him and Annabeth went to stay with Sally while also staying at camp on and off. There were no major problems for him to deal with, and he was soaking up every bit of it.

Of course, he should have never said anything. That was an invitation to the Fates.

He was driving with Annabeth when he learned about it. A news broadcaster came over the radio and was retelling an active event happening in Los Angeles.

"There has been another suicide bombing in downtown LA. There appears to be GREEN FIRE coming from the explosion. Officials are attempting to get the flames under control, but their tactics seem to be failing thus far. This is another in a string of connected bombings around the US. So far, there are no suspects, but we are told there has been progress made in the investigation. What is the purpose of these attacks and who..."

Annabeth turned the volume down. She turned to Percy with a grave expression. Green fire could only mean one thing: the divine were involved. The mortals had somehow gotten into contact with Greek fire, and they were using it for terrible acts of violence. And of course nobody could put the fire out, it was impossible unless dealt with by someone who knew what they were dealing with. Like Leo, for example.

"Percy, at the Brooklyn Bridge, was the fire green?" Annabeth asked cautiously, already dreading the answer.

"I can't remember. I was too focused on making sure the bridge didn't collapse that I didn't bother to check what the explosion looked like. Oh gods, what if I could've done something if I had seen it earlier? What if I could have stopped this bombing in LA? This is all my fault!" he exclaimed.

Annabeth laced her fingers with his, "Perce, you did more than anyone could've asked. You saved so many people that day. This is not your fault, okay?"

He still looked disbelieving, but he reluctantly nodded. He didn't have time to debate his guilt with Annabeth, he had somewhere to be. Percy wasn't exactly sure where that location was, but he was needed somewhere, and so was Annabeth.

"SHIELD's on this case already. I need to get in contact with them, and then we need to meet with them. I'm not letting anyone else get hurt," he told Annabeth, driving towards Camp Half-Blood.

The gears were turning in Annabeth;s head, and he knew the exact moment she figured out what his plan was. Surprisingly, she didn't argue. She just nodded and grabbed her phone from her backpack, flipping it open and turning it on. She only used it in emergencies, and this felt like an emergency.

She called one of the few numbers she had on there: Camp Half-blood's. Camp had only one phone in the Big House, and it was scarcely used. It was an old landline, too, in hopes that it attracted less monsters. Nowadays, it was impossible to not attract them, with technology all around them.

It rang for a long time, almost to the point that she was just going to give up, but right as she was going to press the 'end call' button, Jason's voice came over the phone, "Hello? Who is this?"

Annabeth let out a sigh of relief, "It's Annabeth. I'm with Percy. We need you to gather the Seven quickly. We'll be there soon."

"What? Annabeth, what's going on? Why do you sound so worried?" Jason asked.

Annabeth's patience was waning, "Jason! This is important! Secret of the gods important! Prepare for a fight and wait for us to get to camp. We'll explain there."

Jason sighed, clearly wanting more information than that, "Alright. See you soon."

"Bye," Annabeth hung up the phone as soon as possible.

They had probably already been on for too long, but it was worth a shot. And besides, none of the monsters would dare come near them once they realized who was on the call. That's what she was counting on, anyway.

She looked up at Percy and instantly noticed the tension all throughout his body. He still believed it was his fault, obviously. There wasn't much she could do about that. It was his fatal flaw!

"We're going to figure this out," she consoled.

"Yeah," Percy whispered as he pulled over at the bottom of the hill leading up to Camp.

They were both out of the car and running already, so it didn't take them long to reach Peleus and Thalia's tree. He didn't even pay them a thought as they ran through the border and towards the Big House, where they could see a group of armored demigods congregated on the porch.

As they ran closer, they saw it was the Seven on the porch, talking with Chiron. They were all in their basic armor: a chestplate, greaves, vambraces, and helmets resting under their arms. Piper had her dagger hanging on a belt, Jason had his gladius, Frank had his bow and arrows slung over back, and Hazel was carrying her imperial gold spatha. Leo was, of course, wearing his toolbelt. They all were in various states of confusion and agitation from being left in the dark about whatever they were dealing with, and they all seemed relieved when Annabeth and Percy came running up.

Before either of them could get a word out, Piper spoke, "Let me guess: this has something to do with Percy and the bombings, and now we need to go clean up his mess."

"Words hurt, Pipes," Percy sarcastically held a hand over his heart.

She rolled her eyes, "You'll survive."

Annabeth smiled in the direction of her friend. She had really started to become comfortable as a demigod in the past year. Plus, she had picked up on some of Annabeth's habits. Like picking on Percy, for example.

"What's this about Annabeth?" Jason asked, stopping the playful mood in its tracks.

Annabeth exchanged a look with her boyfriend before responding, "Piper was right. This is about the bombings. They're using Greek fire. But it's still mortals doing it. That means somebody from out world is supplying the mortals with our weapons, and that is a recipe for disaster. We need to stop it before it gets too out of hand."

"Why us, though?" Hazel asked.

"We're the Heroes of Olympus, and we're the best to represent our kind in the fight. Plus, I trust you guys the most. In case it is a mole in the camps, we need to keep this between us," Annabeth answered.

The mood got even more serious at the realization of where her thoughts were headed. Somebody still inside the camp could be taking the fire to the mortals, and they didn't know who it was yet.

But then Piper noticed something in Annabeth's wording, "What do you mean 'represent our kind?' Who are we meeting?"

Percy answered her this time, "SHIELD. They're already working on this, and I have a deal with their director to help with stuff from our world. We only need to figure out how to contact them."

"I've got that covered!" Annabeth interrupted, "I have a plan."

"Of course you do," Jason said, "What is it?"

"We're going to Stark Towers, and we're going to meet with Tony Stark. He's Iron Man, and he no doubt works with SHIELD, so we'll use him to get to them. It's not my best plan, but it's the best we got," she answered.

"It's better than what I was going to do," Percy remarked.

Annabeth didn't even want to ask what his plan was going to be. That was a road she did not want to go down.

"When do you leave?" Chiron asked, finally speaking for the first time.

"Percy and I will get ready and then we'll head out right after. We need to get a handle on this ASAP," Annabeth answered, already heading towards the armor shed.

Percy ran down to meet her there, and they got dressed in the same gear as the others before heading towards their separate cabins. As a precaution, all campers had been required to make an emergency quest backpack in case they had to leave quickly. They had the demigod essentials like toothbrushes and paste, deodorant, a couple spare changes of clothes, nectar and ambrosia, and a prism with some drachmas for IMing.

Percy and Annabeth both grabbed their kits, along with a few other personal items that they suspected would be needed for this specific quest, if you could even call it that. They still had to meet with Rachel, but she was staying with her dad in New York. That would have to wait for later.

They were geared-up and ready in less than twenty minutes, and then they were standing on the edge of Half-blood hill with the others, saying goodbye to Chiron.

"Be careful. I have a feeling the path you are about to take will lead you through hard times," Chiron warned.

"We'll be fine, Chiron. It's nothing we can't handle," Annabeth assured.

He gave a tight smile in return. His reaction to their quest was disconcerting, but the demigods didn't have time to ponder on it. They had to get to Stark Towers as soon as possible.

So, they gave one last wave and started towards the Delphi Strawberries van Argus had pulled up. He would be driving them to the tower, but they would be on their own from there. There wasn't any reason to be worried, though. They had traveled across the world on a floating boat; this would be a piece of cake.

The drive there was tense and silence-filled. Or it was until Leo ruined it.

"So I get to meet Tony Stark?" he asked, an excited grin forming on his face.

Piper groaned, realizing what was bound to happen. She had met Mr. Stark at a gala her father had dragged her to before. He was a self-centered jerk who had too much money to know what to do with it. Plus, his ego was the size of a planet. Leo and Tony Stark together in one room was going to be crazy.

"Don't do anything nuts, Leo. We need him to trust us, and it's hard enough doing that without telling him what we are," Percy said.

Leo gasped, "I am hurt that you would ever think I would do such a thing! Uncle Leo just wanted to chat about some design flaws in his suit! And maybe some possible ideas that all that money could help put into action..."

Annabeth gave him her death glare, and he sank away, "You are forbidden from speaking until I say so."

He hurriedly nodded his head. She was scary!

Percy smirked at his girlfriend, knowing that she was fully aware of the effect she had on the poor demigod. Of course, Percy was whipped, too, but it was still amusing to see Annabeth go all 'powerful daughter of Athena' on people that weren't him.

"We're almost there, guys," Piper said, pointing up ahead, where they could see the tall outline of Stark Towers.

Annabeth had to admit, the architecture was impressive, even if she would've gone less futuristic. But the sustainable energy system was remarkable.

She snapped herself out of her daze. She was not there to admire the architecture, she was there to do her job: saving the mortals. And with the amount of stupid stuff they did, they would never get a vacation.

"So what's so important about this Stark guy?" Hazel asked, finally giving in to her curiosity.

"Oh! I always forget you aren't all caught up on modern pop culture," Piper exclaimed, "Tony Stark is a rich, playboy, engineer who doubles as an Avenger. The Avengers saved the world from aliens when we were saving it from itself. He's Iron Man, which is basically just a suit he invented."

"Sounds like someone Leo would like," Hazel remarked.

Percy laughed as Argus pulled over, "Exactly."

The demigods all climbed out, standing in a line before the entrance. It seemed they were all waiting for one of them to make the first move, but nobody wanted to be that person. Of course, Annabeth wasn't one to back down from anything, so she stepped forward and pushed the glass doors open, striding through with confidence only a daughter of Athena could command.

The rest of the group trailed behind, tensed for anything. They were literally surrounded on all sides by technology, and it was unnerving for them all. Well, for almost all of them. Leo was practically vibrating with energy and excitement. He was about to meet his idol AND get the chance to explore all of the toys there.

"Remember: professional," Annabeth warned one last time before turning to address the front desk lady.

"Yes, mom," Piper whispered to Leo, who muffled a snicker in response.

Percy just prayed that this all went well. He wanted this whole ordeal to be over quickly. He didn't want to be brought into another situation where he had to use his powers. They were still too unreliable, even after a year. The bridge incident was hopefully a one-time thing.

"Hello. We're here to meet Tony Stark," Annabeth said.

They knew the Mist was covering their weapons and armor, especially with Hazel there. People wanted to see some regular teenagers, so that's what they were seeing. Not seven, well-trained demigods in full armor, prepared for battle.

The receptionist looked her up and down, "Do you have an appointment?"

Annabeth tried for a smile, but it turned into more of a grimace, "No, but it's important. I'm sure Mr. Stark would understand once we talk to him."

Sometimes being young can come in handy, but a lot of the time, it sucks.

"I'm sorry, but Mr. Stark only accepts scheduled meetings. If you want to make one of those, you can contact his secretary. But for now, I would ask that you please leave," the woman responded.

Annabeth glared, and was about to start yelling, but Percy stepped up and placed a calming hand on her shoulder before he spoke, "Actually, this is urgent. And I'm sure that if you called Mr. Stark, he would send us up, considering that we're friends from work, and I'm not talking about his day job."

He said everything so calmly, that you would have thought he was having a civil conversation if not for his icy words.

"Fine," the woman ripped the phone up and dialled a number, "Yes, there are seven teenagers here to see Mr. Stark. They say it's urgent. And that it's about his OTHER work."

She nodded a few times before hanging up, "Mr. Stark will see you now."

Ω ♆ Ω

45 minutes earlier...

Fury was not having a good day. First, an idiot dressed-up as a spider ruins his morning, and then another bombing happens in LA, and finally, he has to deal with the Avengers now. He had been hoping to deal with this case without them, but he was pushed into the decision when he got a message from the terrorists responsible for the bombs. They threatened to bomb things much more important than the Brooklyn Bridge, and that they had the means to do worse.

None of his regular agents could figure it out, so he had to bring in the big guns. Besides, the heroes had had much too long of a break already.

That's how he found himself in another blacked-out SUV, on his way to Stark Towers after calling a meeting of the Avengers there. He had no way of contacting Thor, so it was just Stark, Rogers, Widow, Banner, and Barton. He had another person in mind, but Fury didn't want to call him in just yet. It was still a new alliance after all.

When he got there, he went straight up the elevator to the penthouse. From there, he went to the meeting room and found everyone but Stark already there, which was no surprise. Without a word, he strode up to the head of the table and slipped the flash drive into the slot, automatically turning on the holo-projector in the center of the table. The flash drive had all of the details of the case, along with whatever notes his agents had made.

He opened up the photo gallery, flicking to each bombing site, "The Brooklyn Bridge, Portland, LA, Long Island, San Francisco. What do all of these have in common?"

Just as Steve was about to answer, Tony burst in the door, taking a seat without an apology, as per usual.

Steve cleared his throat before continuing, "They all had a bombing happen recently."

"That's right. And it's gotten out of hand. Your job is to stop them," Fury cut right to the point, "Everything you'll need is in this folder. I want this done discreetly. That means no flashy spectacles, Stark."

Tony mock-gasped, "I would never!"

Banner shifted nervously, "Will the 'other guy' be needed for this?"

"Possibly, but as a last resort. You'll be needed for tracking more than anything," Fury answered.

Bruce nodded his head, seemingly finding comfort in that.

One look at Clint and Natasha, and you could see that they had gone into SHIELD agent mode. They were both studying the file information with rapt attention. They, at least, Fury could count on.

"This needs to be done as quickly as possible, got it?" he ordered.

"Yes, sir!" Tony sarcastically saluted.

Fury held back a growl. If anyone could make him lose his composure, it would be Tony Stark.

"I expect results the next time I see you," he said, turning to walk out of the room, but he was interrupted by J.A.R.V.I.S.

"Sir, there is a group of teenagers asking to see you. They say it is urgent," the AI said.

Tony sighed, "J.A.R.V.I.S., I thought I programmed you better than this. I don't want to see them."

"But sir, I am told it has something to do with your Avengers work. They are very adamant," J.A.R.V.I.S. pressed.

"Pull up the camera feeds," Tony ordered.

For some reason, Fury felt compelled to see who had wanted to see Stark, and he understood why as soon as he saw the footage. There, with six other teens, was Percy Jackson.

Before Tony could turn them down again, Fury said, "Let them up. Now."

"Right away, Director," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied, listening to his SHIELD reprogramming.

Tony threw his hands up in defeat and grumbled "Whatever. It's not like I own the building."

"Direct them here, J.A.R.V.I.S.," Fury ordered, going back to his previous position at the head of the table.

Steve sat up in confusion, "What are you doing, Fury?"

The man in question ignored him.

Before any more objections could be made, the Seven were standing before the Avengers, everyone confused.

Percy was the one who broke the silence, "Well, this makes our job a whole lot easier."

Ω ♆ Ω

Don't forget to like, comment, follow me, and reblog! Stay safe and happy reading!

- your author

other chapters :)

[tamaramalara13]

Chaos’s Assassin 9

Half an hour after successfully retrieving the information from Rose Song we were all sat around a table in a little coffee/tea shop a couple of streets down from the Agent's house. The tea shop itself was nice; small, with tables lining the windows and a cute little bar by the door. The tea's they sold were even cuter, they were little bubble tea's of different colours and flavours. Not exactly my style, but it would do.

“So, what's the plan?” Piper asked, tugging at the feathers braided into her choppy chestnut hair. There seemed to be some kind of unspoken agreement between the six of us, the two quests were meant to come together. And seeing as the prophecy had mentioned that we would “travel with six” we were pretty sure that we were on the right track.

“I guess we need to find a way to get down to the Whitehouse today.” Annabeth answered, her grey eyes deep in thought.

“We could always get a bus.” Jason contributed, sipping quietly on his strawberry bubble tea. It was an odd choice, but one we all accepted readily.

“The bus station just got shut down,” Hazel said, “apparently there was some robbery in the corner store right next door to it so they shut it down for the investigation.”

“How do you know that?” Leo asked, edging to see what she was looking at in her hands. It was a newspaper, and front page was a photo of the corner store.  

“That may have been us,” Piper said, raising her hand slightly, “does it say if they have any leads?”

“No, luckily none of the witnesses pegged you guys as the robbers, so they have all just got different descriptions for the monster you were fighting. ”

“Lamia.” Piper contributed.

“Nice…” Jason complimented, high fiving Leo across the table.

“Well I wish the detectives good luck with that case,” I said, looking up from my black coffee, “What are you guys doing in Boston anyway?”

I had to ask, it had been on my mind all day.

“Same reason as you.” Annabeth answered with a cold glare in my direction.

“Well, not exactly,” Jason offered with a slightly nicer attitude, “Octavian is from our Camp, so he's our responsibility. It's only natural that we have to go get him before this gets too far.”

“Rose Song called both camps.” Hazel clarified.

“How does she know about us anyway?” Leo asked, his decaffeinated green tea and croissant left untouched (because we all know what happens when he has too much caffeine).

“I think Chiron said something about a younger brother who was a half blood during the Battle of the Labyrinth or something… and with all the ruckus during the Giant War, I would be surprised if she didn't know about the Roman Camp.” Piper piped up.

“There were apparently a lot of unregistered deaths during the Labyrinth’s Battle.” Leo said, nodding matter of factly.

“It was practically slaughter,” Annabeth muttered, the air getting tense. Then, with new vigour, she asked, “How old was he?”

“He died at 15.”

No one spoke for a long time, Annabeth's eyes stared into the distance, and I couldn't help but feel guilty. It was a time when people were disappearing all over the place, many just not returning to camp. People were going on quests without prophecies and deaths were not taken into account. But still, I felt as if I was once again carrying the sky on my shoulders, and this time it was permanent. I had to live with my mistakes, so many deaths, the least I could've done was remember their names… but I didn't. I guess I was just selfish.

“Okay,” Hazel said, having not known about the Camps at the time. The others, apart from Annabeth and I, snapped out of it quickly, “So where do we go from here?”

“We could just hitch a ride,” Jason suggested, “It's not uncommon, a lot of the time there are many tourists that are willing to take a couple of people along. We might be lucky and find someone heading for Washington.”

“I would be surprised if we don't,” Piper said, agreeing with her boyfriend and sipping on her camomile tea, “That's tourist destination number 1.”

“Okay, and how long will it take us to get there? Does anyone know?”

Leo smirked slightly, before saying in a bad robotic voice, “I estimate, around 7 and a half hours.”

“Well it's almost 9 o'clock,” Annabeth said, beginning to put things in her bag, “so if we leave now we could get there before 8, and that would give us time to quickly catch a bite and then kick some ass. Remember, we have to get Omega’s friends out before sunrise tomorrow. So let's do this quick.”

 It had been surprisingly easy to find a family to allow us to crash their little road trip. After we mentioned chipping in on gas money, they were happy to bring us along. Due to this, 2 hours after the discussion at the tea place we were already on our way to Washington in a large black and grey camper van with a family of four. Hazel had very kindly spun the mist so the people that were helping us saw a random person’s face, instead of a shady hood. However, in the end it didn't seem like it was really needed, seeing as I mostly stayed in the back where the ‘living room’ area was. If you'd ever seen ‘We're The Millers’, it was basically that truck.

Piper and Jason stayed upfront, talking to the parents and Hazel and Leo stuck close to the main door, having a conversation with the two teenage kids about the “New Era of Electronics”, whatever that was supposed to be. At first Annabeth stuck with Jason and Piper, but after a while, upfront seemed to be a bit too cramped for her. So she then decided to join me on the couches at the back of the bus, the furthest away from the commotion. I wanted to complain, but honestly, I had missed her so much, I was kind of craving her company…

“So what's your deal?” she asked bluntly, her face betraying her badly hidden curiosity.

“My… deal?” I replied cautiously.

“Yeah, your story. Tell me how you are connected to Chaos.”

I looked at her, it wasn't as if she was giving me puppy dog eyes or anything. It was nothing like that in fact. Her stare was one of a warriors, and she was not backing down. That alone reminded me of the good old days, stuck in trucks similar to the one we were caged in at the moment.

“How about this, I'll tell you what you want to know. In return, you tell me what I want to know.” I said, coming up with a compromise.

“Alright, deal.” she said smirking slightly.

Upon feeling her curiosity, I paused for a second, thinking about how to explain my situation without giving too much away, “You know how there's that one person in the whole wide universe that you would sacrifice everything and everyone for, just to keep them safe. You would even give your life for this person. You know?”

She looked at me for a moment before leaning back slightly and ducking her head to her lap.

“Yeah” she said.

“Well, I almost lost that person. I’m not the kind of person to let someone I love suffer, so, as payment for their safety, I gave up my life and joined Chaos’s Army.”

Sensing the fragility of my confession she chose to move the subject along, “So you were recruited then? For the Army.”

“Yeah, but I had to go through the same procedure as the others.”

“Wait, I don't understand, what  ‘procedure’?” It hit me that she probably thought it was some kind of operation. I couldn't help but released a short, quiet laugh at her shock, before clarifying.

“We spend 385 days training in the school they have there.”

“Okay, then how come you aren't the regular soldier? How come you're a-”

“An assassin?”

“Yeah...”

“I was given the choice after I graduated, either join the army like the other recruits and start from the bottom working my way up, or just become his Assassin. That was about 11,615 years ago.”

“So, you just kill people in cold blood?” As she said that her eyes glazed over with a frozen kind of hatred, one that I knew wasn't caused by my character, but rather by what she assumed were my actions.

“Not really, I do what the Army can't. I take care of the threats to the universe, the army takes care of threats to specific planets that could eventually grow to something more. Like this planet and Octavian. Basically I have smaller, more skillful targets. Assassin is just a title. I mean, I guess in some sense it's accurate… look, the people I kill are killers, they’re criminals in the eyes of Chaos. So I get rid of them.”

“Does that not have an effect on you?” She asked, her eyes turning from icy to troubled, “You’re from earth right? Humans aren’t born killers.”

“No species’s are born killers, but, depending on the circumstances, they can be taught to be, even if that's not what you thought you were doing. Anyway, if by killing these people I’m saving an innocent person's life? Then, It’s worth it.”

She looked at me for a couple more moments, her legs crossed from where she sat on the beige seats across from me. All of a sudden her stone faced expression crumbled and another Annabeth emerged, the Annabeth I was in love with. Then, without any warning, she started to giggle.

“What’s so funny?” I couldn't help but ask, the infectious laughter threatening to spill from myself as well.

“This situation just reminded me of a very similar scene from a couple of years ago, it was on my first ever quest. I had gone with my two bestfriend’s, although I hadn’t known that at the time, to go retrieve a stupid lightning bolt and somehow ended up in the back of a van slightly different from this one (if you count goats and hay stacks as different), driving halfway across the country, filled to the brim with barnyard animals. It stunk. But ironically our friend Grover blended right in. I remember sitting there with Percy and just talking about anything and everything, it was the first time we had really even clicked, you know? Right now, I can't help but miss him.”

Throughout her speech she had subconsciously ended up with a peaceful expression on her normally anxious face. She had been in her own world, I could see that much, but when she was brought back to the terrible, harsh reality that is life, the only thing in the whole universe that I wanted to do, was hug her. Hug her and tell her everything was okay. I would crack a terrible joke, get her to laugh, get her to feel the same peace, the same happiness, she had felt when she told her story.

Reality didn't feel the same anymore. I had left everything, just for it to end, but now she was all alone, suffering, and I was the cause. I didn't really regret leaving, if it meant all was well, then perhaps it was for the best. But what about her? What had she wanted? What had my family wanted? I hadn't even taken that into consideration. What did she think happened? Where did she think I had gone?