The Forest of Athena

I lay down on my bed in the Argo II worriedly. After Leo had told us we were going to be at The Forest of Athena in an hour or so, I couldn't face anyone; not even Percy.

They all know my mother as the Goddess of Wisdom. Probably think of her as a bit of a bad mother since she told me what she had. 'You're no daughter of mine,' she'd said, after I told her we couldn't give her the Athena Parthenos yet.

"We had it," I recall myself saying. "But we need it to win this fight. It has to be at Camp Half-Blood for now. Not with you."

The rage in her voice still echoes through my mind. She was angry, sure, but I never thought she'd go as far as she did. Basically, she did a half-Hera, as we all like to call it. Hazel woke us all up, about a week ago, yelling that Frank was gone. We couldn't find him. Then, three days ago, I had a dream (I've had too many of those to last me a lifetime). Athena - Mom - told me she had Frank with some of her most loyal people at the Forest of Athena. If we really cared for him, we'd do a swap: the Parthenos for Frank. This split personality thing is seriously getting to her head.

There's no way we could give her it (literally no way, Hazel couldn't physically shadow-travel all of us to find Nico, Reyna and Coach Hedge and get the Parthenos off of them), but we can't just leave Frank with my psycopath of a mother. So I came up with a plan. Not my best plan, but a plan. We'd go in, kick butt, save Frank and get out. Alive. Through Hades knows what. Hey, if Percy and I could make it through Tartarus alone (almost), I'm pretty sure the six  of us could get out of the Forest Of Athena alive... Probably.

If, of course, I don't freak out in there. There's the small fact that most children of Athena go insane in there. And then the other small fact that I've been there before, eleven years ago, and still get nightmares about it.

I was six and had just run away. This was before Camp Half-Blood. Before Thalia and Luke. I didn't know where I was going, but something was pulling me toward a forest. My mom's forest. I don't even know what's in there, I had my eyes shut for all of it. I just remember the sounds, and the injuries I got. If I run my hand over my hip, I can still feel the scar.

Worst of all was the spiders, oh Gods, the spiders. As I remember them, I shiver and the tears begin to fall down my face. I roll over, laying my face into my pillow. My whole body shakes and I curl into a ball. There's a knock at the door, and a voice. Percy's.

"Annabeth?" he asks. He opens the door, and his eyes fall onto me. "Oh, Wise Girl."

He walks up to me and hugs me. I bury my face into his chest and gulp down my tears. Weak, spineless a voice in my head says. Athena's exact words to me. Tears start welling again.

Percy draws away from the hug and looks at me, "Whatever it is, it could be worse. It could be me gone again. Or you gone again. We're together."

He still puts that above our well-being. I smile through the tears, loving him more than ever.

"What's up, now?" he asks me, sitting on my bed. I sit next to him, and tell him everything.

He's about to reply, when Piper walks into the room.

"Leo says we should all get on deck. We're about to land," she tells us.

I wrap my hand through Percy's; about to relive one of my worst nightmares...