❦𝓕𝓪𝓿𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮 𝓒𝓻𝓲𝓶𝓮❦ - 𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓬𝔂 𝓙𝓪𝓬𝓴𝓼𝓸𝓷

𝒳𝐼. 𝒵𝑜𝑒 𝐻𝒶𝓈 𝒜 𝒟𝑒𝓂𝒾𝑔𝑜𝒹 𝒟𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓂

𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓎 were pretty miserable that night. They camped in the woods, a hundred yards from the main road, in a marshy clearing that local kids had obviously been using for parties. The ground was littered with flattened soda cans and fast-food wrappers.

They had taken some food and blankets from Aunty Em's, but they didn't dare light a fire to dry their damp clothes. The Furies and Medusa had provided enough excitement for one day. They did not want to attract anything else.

They decided to sleep in shifts and Percy volunteered to take the first watch. Annabeth curled up on the blankets and was snoring as soon as her head hit the ground. Zoe just layed there, her head in the clouds. She was vaguely aware of Percy and Grover talking, but she wasn't focused on them.

Her mind drifted to Happy, Pepper, Obadiah. Her dad. She really hoped she made it home to him. Zoe was gonna try and make her own AI this fall. She was gonna surprise her dad and JARVIS with it when she was finished.

Zoe heard reed pipes playing Beethoven and she drifted off to sleep, thinking of her family.

When Zoe opened her eyes, she was not in the clearing in the woods she had fallen asleep in. She was back home, on the couch with her dad, watching movies. But the movies were just blurs of color. They started to focus in on the browns of a desert and the blues of the sky. Then, an explosion rocked the scene on the tv. It seemed to short-circuit, and Zoe was confused until a voice that felt ancient, cold, and heavy floated around the room

"You can stop this, Daughter of Doves. No one you care for needs to get hurt."

"Who are you?" Zoe called, standing up.

Then, her entire surroundings changed. An older version of her dad was getting out of a car, heading to what looked like a press conference. He had his right arm in a sling, a cut on his right cheek, above his left eye was another cut, with a third one right below that. He looked malnourished even with the cheeseburger wrapper he had in his left hand. An older, thin, disheveled, exhausted, confused, and yet ecstatic looking Zoe stepped out after him.

The scene changed again and Zoe suddenly felt like she was falling. She slammed into the ground and woke up with a gasp. It was still dark out, Grover and Percy were asleep, but it looked like Annabeth was on watch.

"Hey, is everything ok?" Annabeth called softly.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm-I'm fine." Zoe shook her head to clear it of the evil voice from her dream and the vision of her dad so broken. "Bad dream. I'm all good."

"Okay..." Annabeth didn't look convinced but let it drop, scanning their surroundings. They sat in silence for a while, keeping an eye out for trouble. A little while later, Grover jumped out of his tree, Landing on his hooves. He sat next to Annabeth, and they conversing quietly.

Zoe was getting bored and stood up, about to leave and scout around, when a pink poodle came out from behind a bush.

"Aww, hey little one," Zoe cooed, crouching in front of it. "Do you have a name?" Zoe reached her hand out, palm up, to let the dog come to her. It took a tentative step forward and sniffed her hand. After deeming she was an ok person, the dog let her pet them.

Zoe checked the collar, and saw the dog was a male named Gladiola. Grover talked to him a bit, as he curled up in Zoe's lap. They learned about the $200 reward for Gladiola's return and the west-bound Amtrak train leaving at noon.

Not even an hour later, Annabeth shook Percy awake. "Well, the zombie lives."

Zoe noticed Percy was shaking and tried to send calming emotions towards him. It seemed to work as he calmed down enough to stop shaking. "How long was I asleep?" Percy questioned.

"Long enough for me to cook breakfast." Zoe tossed him a bag of nacho flavored corn chips from Aunty Em's snack bar. "And a ride west stumbled upon us. We got a friend."

Gladiola yapped at Percy suspiciously. "No, he's not."

Percy looked dumbfounded. It took all Zoe's willpower not to burst out laughing.

"Are you... talking to that thing?"

"This thing is our ticket west. Be nice to him." Grover warned.

"You can talk to animals?"

Grover ignored the question. "Percy, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, Percy."

Percy glanced between the dog, Zoe, Annabeth, and Grover. "I'm not saying hello to a pink poodle. Forget it."

"Percy," Annabeth said. "I said hello to the poodle. Zoe said hello to the poodle. You say hello to the poodle."

The poodle growled.

Percy said hello to the poodle.

Grover recounted what they had learned, about the reward and the train. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover and Zoe (who Gladiola had also taken a liking to).

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."

"Of course, silly me." Percy said.

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, "we get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

"Not another bus," Percy said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, towards train tracks they hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the westbound train leaves at noon."

A/N Sorry it's short, hope you enjoy!

Thoughts?

Questions?

Suggestions?

Headcannons?