This is something I've been working on and it's completely AU, but bear with me! Most relationship will be canon. Percabeth for instance. I have a lot of OC running about this story. Ranging from a clear sighted mortal with a fiery vengeance to a son of Athena who can read minds. So those's are mine, but Rick's characters totally belong to him. Thanks for reading!

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Annabeth Chase had taken into account that demigods don't live very long and she moved on. She had other things to worry about like where she and her crew of forty, give or take a few demigods were going to be headed next. Lots of the demigods wanted to stay and Annabeth could certainly see why.

The abandoned candy factory in Chicago they had been staying in was perfect for them. There was space for training, the structure was sound and the place was like a fortress. Annabeth reckoned that they kept it locked up tight because even she knew of a great number of people who would break into a candy factory. Monsters would have a hard time getting in there, even without Leo Valdez's security system.

The other demigods must have thought that because of that reason, Leo was the perfect candidate to talk Annabeth into letting them stay in the factory.

"Annabeth, just hear me out, okay?" the son of Hephaestus said as he sharpened her bronze knife. She had seen this conversation coming. As a daughter of the wisdom goddess, she needed to be on her toes. Ready for anything. She wanted to stay, but she didn't find it wise. The neighborhood was a quiet one, sure, but sooner or later people would notice kids coming to and from the factory. If they called the police, they'd have a huge problem.

She nodded, signaling for Leo to continue. She respected Leo. Without him, the entire group would be lost. He supplied them with most of their armor and weapons, not to mention Festus, the automaton. The bronze dragon was handy when fighting a large amount of monsters. Annabeth had also thought that Leo had a higher calling, though. He was a fire user, a gift only rarely given to a child of Hephaestus.

"We should stay here." he suggested, proving her insinuation. He handed her knife back to her and pushed back the curly brown hair that had fallen into his line of vision. "We've got a sweet deal here and you know it. I think we should stay as long as we can. Make your plans, Beth and have them ready for when we absolutely have to leave."

Besides the use of that terrible nickname which she glared at him for, his words weren't hard to consider. But still... "Look, I know its safe here, but what about the demigods we haven't found yet?" she asked him. Her serious and intimidating grey eyes meeting his brown ones. He wasn't fazed by the look, he'd been on the receiving end of it dozens of times. "I can't leave them out there. We both know what its like."

His face fell because he knew she was right. It wasn't fair to leave demigods out in the world without a clue who they were up against. Annabeth was a little surprised when his expression brightened with an idea, just as quickly as it fell. "Search parties. We could send out search parties." Leo exclaimed, looking pleased with himself. "We could send Nora out ahead to find them and small group the escort them back."

She felt dumb she hadn't thought of that idea herself. Annabeth had to admit, Leo may have been goofy and a little more ADHD than the rest of them, but he was smart. She sometimes forgot how much he really was. "That's actually not a bad thought, Valdez." she admitted, giving him a small smile.

He grinned, "Thanks, I-." he started, but was cut off by the metal door of the armory bursting open with force. They didn't have to look to see who it was. There was only one person they knew that made that type of entrance. "Good afternoon, Snora." he greeted her without looking up from his tinkering.

The Hispanic daughter of Mercury rolled her brown eyes and sat in a chair in the corner of the room. "Back at you, Leotard."

"Anything new?" Annabeth questioned the girl. Honora Morales was a girl of many talents and being inhumanly fast on her feet was one of them. A gift from Mercury, Annabeth had guessed, but she couldn't be sure being as she never heard of such a thing. Because of her talents, Nora went off ahead of the crew and scouted new hideouts and more importantly, kept tabs on the two demigod camps.

Annabeth didn't bother with either because they were split between Roman and Greek which might be a good thing considering they didn't get along too well. In her crew, she had demigods of both sort and some were more hostile toward one another, but they coexisted, nonetheless.

Nora shrugged and propped her feet up on Leo's work table causing him to throw her an irritated look. "Went east to the Greeks first, they seem to be getting ready for a fight." she reported. "The air is literally stirring around Olympus and get this, I didn't run into one monster."

The daughter of Athena bit her lip in worry, but nodded to Nora to continue. "In the west, the Romans are up to the same gig, but you know, more orderly. I tried to get in close to hear what was going on, I got nada."

They were all quiet, as if processing the information. Annabeth was unsure of what to do. Obviously something big and bad was going on if both camps were preparing for war, unless... "Please tell me both camps are still unaware of each other." she muttered as quickly as the thought ran through her head. War between demigods would be messy and downright senseless.

Nora nodded, quickly in reply. "As clueless as newborns, I felt like I wanted to give them a heads up." she chuckled.

"That would be bloodshed." Annabeth said shaking her head. "They aren't ready for that."

All three of them seemed to agree on that. "What do we do?" Leo asked, still twisting his wires.

"Head east and defend Olympus." Nora offered, pulling the strands of her curly light brown hair. "If Olympus goes down, I don't think anything else would matter. We'd all end up being demigods on a platter."

Annabeth agreed that that would be the best option, she just didn't like the idea of not knowing what they were facing. What if she were leading her crew to their death? "Call for a group meeting." she decided, quickly. "We'll call a vote."

Leo nodded and did as she asked as she leaves the room, Nora and soon after, Leo in tow.

They all reach what they called the sparring room which was in the front of the factory. It was a big empty area with cement floors right by the main entrance. The walls were wrought iron, perfect for ricocheting weapons and keeping monsters at bay. They used it for various things, this time it would serve as a meeting room.

Everyone was gathered in a circle when they arrived, Annabeth stepped into the center of it while Leo and Nora join their friends off to the side. "There's a problem." Annabeth announced loudly, catching everyone's attention. Once all eyes were on her, she continued, "I'm not sure it's our problem. Hades, I'm not even sure what the problem is... What I do know is that both camps are preparing for war and Olympus might be in danger."

She let that settle in. "Now, I think it would be best to head out and defend Olympus, but I'm not going to make you guys do anything. We don't work that way around here." A few of them were nodding, others looked determined. "So, we'll vote. Should we go and defend Olympus or move on with our lives here?"

Then there was a tremendous amount of chatter. Demigods talking to their friends and their siblings. She could hear their whispers, most of those seemed to want to stay here. She understood why, most of her crew were teens. They weren't meant for war, nor did they need to engage in one. Annabeth's friends approached her.

"What are you thinking?" Ariadne Clark, daughter of Poseidon asked her. She was Annabeth's closest friend. They started the crew together, but Aria preferred it when Annabeth handled most of the serious decisions and plans. Aria led the food and supply runs. Anything having to do with leaving their hideout, really. It was like the black haired girl enjoyed being on the run from monsters, there was no doubt in her mind that Aria wanted to head into a fight.

Annabeth untensed her shoulders. "I think we shouldn't risk the fate of Olympus." she told her, honestly. "If there's no danger, we took a trip to New York for some awesome pizza. If there is danger, we'll make sure it doesn't reach Olympus."

"I didn't even think of the pizza!" Leo exclaimed from behind Aria. "I vote yes."

Elsa Temple, the only mortal in their midst spoke, "You know that I'm with you, right?"

Annabeth did know. Elsa was the only clear sighted mortal that she had met that had a personal vendetta against all monsters. She didn't know the reason why Elsa was so dead set on killing monsters, but she did it quite well leaving Annabeth little reason to object. "Of course." Annabeth said with soft smile to her blonde friend.

"You know me..." Nora began, a smirk playing on her lips. "I'm quick to head into a fight."

All of them groaned, except Leo who gave her a high five. "That was a terrible pun." claimed Nico di Angelo, son of Hades as he approached them. The kid was always decked out in black and usually kept to himself, though he and Aria were close. They liked to spar since they offered each other a challenge being children of the Big Three.

Aria throws an arm over the kid's shoulder, "What do you think, di Angelo? Fancy going to New York?"

He shrugged off her shoulder. "My dad doesn't have a throne in Olympus, why should I help them?"

"Because New York's the one place we haven't been and what if Bianca's there?" Aria told him. They had found Nico in Vegas where he had been separated from his sister. Being a son of Hades, he knew she wasn't dead, so he's been looking for her ever since.

His lips formed a straight line. "Fine." he muttered and stomped off.

"Sweet guy, he is." Leo mumbled as Annabeth called everyone to her attention once again. She had her friends at her side and that was all she needed to protect Olympus.

"I've decided that I'm going to New York, regardless." she declared, "If you want to come then come, if you don't then stay here and hold down the fort and watch the younger ones. I'm not leading anyone under twelve into a potential battle. "

Annabeth swallowed and was surprised to see so many demigods satisfied. "We leave tomorrow in the vans." she finished and her crew sprang into action.

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Decent? Slightly okay? Terrible? Let me know! Thanks for reading!

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