Saving Time - A Caleo Story

Past Ghosts

"I wanna meet her."

Leo wasn't surprised those were Annabeth's first words after crying her eyes out. She still looked like she was about to cry again, with red-trimmed eyes and marks of tears on her cheeks, but she also looked completely determined to do what she said. And, like Leo, no one looked surprised by Annabeth's petition.

"I'm not saying no..." All eyes went to Jason who was frowning slightly. "...but how do we found her? Is not like we can ask people..."

"Gotta admit it, Jason does have a point." Nico agreed with him, nodding. "Except for you eight-" And here Nico pointed at the original six plus Ian and Annabeth. "-we normally search for people asking and just the words 'woman that looks like me and talks about the end of the world' is not a good way to start..."

"How do you guys search for people?" Hazel wondered to the eight who shared a look with each other before answering. The bad part was that they answered at the same time.

"Social media"

"DNA searcher."

"Wait." Annabeth looked at the group frowning. "You search people using their DNA??" The statement could have been understood as a complain but Leo saw the gleam in her eyes. She was excited.

"What's a social media?" Calypso whispered between the group, not understanding.

"Better yet... What's a DNA?" Lang asked back to no one, but it was Rachel who answered.

"DNA are the initials for 'deoxyribonucleic acid'." No needed to be a genius to see no one understood what she just said. "Fancy name for 'blood'." Everyone gasped and nodded.

"The problem with this-" Leo rushed to interfere before someone asked how it worked. "-is that we don't know if it'll work, as your mother could very well be someone from this time and we don't have her sequence in record."

"Or... we could use both searches." Percy proposed. Leo raised an eyebrow at him but only got a frown in reply. "What do we have to lose, really?"

"A bit of time, honestly..." Reyna was on board with the suggestion and Leo kept his mouth shut. It didn't concern him. In the end, Leo decided that work in the open was dangerous so he un-shrunk the machine, allowing everyone to work from inside. Ian taught Leo what a search engine was and how to use it in one's favor. It took Leo less than five minutes to actually understand and write a code to find the person.

"Call me Italian and give me some pasta!" Leo praised himself, earning a frown from Nico, the only Italian in the room.

"Is that a joke?"

"No." Piper nudged Leo's ribs, smriking. "Just one if his way to praise himself- pay him no attention."

"Anyway..." he drawled back on purpose after poking his tongue at Piper. "We found several people who answer to the picture of Annabeth or that look similar to the picture- we cannot search for names as we're not sure which one she used, she could have used a fake one." Annabeth's nod meant she understood. "I also modified the searcher to act like a tracker, so... where do we go from here?"

"We hit the streets." No one argued with that suggestion and Annabeth was determined to lead, almost taking the tracker from Leo's hands. However- or luckily or unluckily, you decide when you have more information -they didn't need to track for a long time. As soon as they were out of the suburbs and near the first big building, a woman walked right by them and no one had a doubt of who she was.

It was Annabeth's mother.

Instead of calling her attention- shouting a name would have been useless if it wasn't the right name -they decided to follow her inside the building.

"Is it me or this looks a little careless." Lang pointed out, using his training. Many nodded- especially the men -and Leo was sure that if Annabeth had been thinking, she would have said something similar. But the vision of seeing your absent mother was too much for the young woman. Unconsciously, his hammer was in his hand, ready for everything.

The chase wasn't long but the upcoming shock would be bigger than anything. The blonde woman they were following stopped her elevator at the highest floor- 30th floor. They rode the elevator with anticipation and a bit of concern. Leo could see Jason and Nico frowning and ready to jump in action if needed.

Annabeth's emotions were jumping around. She had been excited but now her face showed nervousness and dread. It seemed like only Percy's arm was supporting her, Leo assumed she was about to faint. When the door finally opened and they stepped outside, they saw a big crystal door but Annabeth had paralyzed in front of it.

"Annabeth...?" Percy called her. She shook her head and nodded, showing she was fine, before yanking the door open. No one managed to place a step inside the room when the majority of their jaws came down in recognition, even Leo's. (Later on, the rest would admit they couldn't recognize the people without little help.)

Right in front of them there was a long wooden table, enough to sit thirty people. Though, not all the seats were occupied in that moment, wth only eighteen seats empty. The rest were occupied with different people- women to the left of the door, men to the right plus the head -all in different degrees of age. Their clothes showed different professions but that was not what the travelers were watching.

It was obvious they were in a meeting but the surprise and shock was equal in some of their faces as the intrudors. Soon words were flying around but only two- in different degrees of surprise and indignation -were heard above everything.

"Mum?!"

"Dad??"

----

Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone!

I have no excuse but to say I was lazy, procrastinating and frankly... I had lost my muse temporarily! Luckily, I found it just in time to write today's updates and I think you'll like them...

So, here we go!

Between Two Worlds - A Solangelo Story: 1 chapter! Is short in comparison with the others, but it's important on its own... also #LoveIsLove !

Saving Time - A Caleo Story: 2 chapters! This was mostly where I lost my muse, I just hope I got it back...

Love you all!
xoxo, SilverHuntresses