The Found Hero: What if the Lost Hero was the end?

Chapter One

Annabeth's Point of View

"Look, Pipes, I just don't see this going anywhere. Even without your charmspeak, people like you more. You're a people pleaser, the face of the company. Please don't let me do this, you have skill at getting clients. They trust you." My voice carries through the street, earning some glares from pedestrians.

"I have faith in you. You can sign this deal. Your designs are phenomenal, they'll be idiots not to want you. I couldn't do any better then you. Besides, you're in New York. I'm boarding a flight to Oklahoma."

"Fine, I suppose your right. I'm meeting with one of the committee heads for dinner, I'll talk to you afterwords. Don't get blown away on your trip," I respond. Piper says her goodbyes, reassuring me about the deal. My boots slap the pavement, a prominent sound without my phone. Thoughts intermingle with them. Without Piper, my company wouldn't be where it is now. Two years ago, it was a few rough sketches and a job designing the bar in a dingy bowling alley. Piper offered help, working on deals and creating a real company. Soon, we were partners and founders of CM Architect. Before then, Piper stood by me through challenging times, helping me through the obstacles placed before me. The days I spent crying, nights I woke up screaming, even the slightly uncomfortable social settings- she held my hand through it all. A never-wavering support.

'Highway to Hell' blasts from my phone, interrupting my thoughts.

"Go for Annabeth Chase."

"Go for Leo Valdez." Leo says, mocking my business voice.

"What's up, Repair Boy."

"First Piper, now you? Now I'm going to have to think up an embarrassing name for you. How about Owl Power, or-"

"I really don't have time for this. I need to mentally prepare for the meeting with the MET." My hands tap at my side in anxiety.

"Okay, okay. I'm just calling to see if you want to get drinks afterwards since Piper isn't here to celebrate."

"Let me get the job first, then we can celebrate. I'll call you after the meeting." I say hanging up. In the past years, Leo became closer to me then I thought. He had his fair share of screwed up pasts, so nothing really phased him. It was refreshing to have someone lighthearted and joking, who chose to laugh in the bad situations.

Piper and Jason were curled up together, asleep by the fire in the sewage drain. Leo kept staring at me, as I read about amnesic curses and charms.

"Look, you are probably expecting us to end up together by the end of this quest, because Jason and Piper are becoming a couple. But I can tell you right now it's not going to happen!" I snapped, my voice razor thin. It wasn't sharp in anger, but sadness.

"I wasn't going to-" Leo said before I interrupted.

"Unless, we travel across the country to the underworld, unexperienced, on a quest to deal with the devil. Proceed by sneaking out of camp a year later-to hijack someone else's quest- save our friend while surprisingly defeating a Cyclopes, and return to camp with the Golden Fleece. Come winter, you save me from captivity, though I was fine on my own. Through battling with the titans and holding up the sky with me, we gain grey streaks in our hair to bond us together. You're sickened at the thought of me becoming a hunter of Artemis, though at the time clueless to why. Then, in a state that must have been insanity, you agree to follow me in a wild goose chase to find the center of an animate maze. He came back for me, abandoning a beautiful girl stranded on an island, knowing he would get an earful from me when he came home. When he bathed in the River Styx, I was connecting him to the mortal world," by then, my voice was cracking. "Then he trusted me enough to tell me where his Achilles Mark is. He gave up being a goddamn God for me!" I pause for a moment, taking a breath. "I can count the exact amount of minutes I have spent looking for him, (8 days, 13 hours, 3 minutes and about 28 seconds), because of all the people in the world, I chose that wonderful moron. Unless you are Percy Jackson, you should give up on any chance with me and count your blessings that I don't snap your arm in two."

"There's a beautiful girl on an island? Any chance I'm her type?"

I laughed, for the first time in 8 days, then the laughs morphed to sobs.

A crunch of leaves draws my attention back to my surroundings. My eyes skim through the coffee shop I'm passing, landing on the back of a head, one that is all too familiar. I blink. As I decide it must be a trick of my mind, a slight turn of the head freezes me in my step. I see the piercing, sea green eyes. Eyes that I haven't seen in fifteen years.