[PERCY JACKSON & THE OLYMPIANS] Annabeth Chase is a demigod, the daughter of Frederick Chase and Athena, goddess of wisdom and warfare. She was dropped on her father's doorstep after he graduated from Stanford, a brainchild of Athena, and her father promptly tried to have Athena take her back and raise her on Olympus. This was only the beginning of Annabeth's strained home-life, and it only got worse from there.
"Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued." (The Lightning Thief)
When she was five, her father got married and had two sons with his new wife, and if step-family relationships weren't complicated enough...yes. Annabeth was still a demigod. Which meant that she attracted monsters. Often. The strain of having to fight for her life, coupled with her already fairly abrasive personality, meant that Annabeth did not get along with her family. It didn't help that because her step-mother and brothers were mortal, the mist would cover their senses to the very things that plagued her as a child - spiders sent by Arachne, monsters on the walk to school - obviously she was just overreacting, and for a young girl not being believed by your parents is one of the worst fates imaginable.
Having convinced herself that her entire family hated her, Annabeth, at the age of seven, ran away from home. For a few months she survived, most likely with a little help from her godly mother and a hammer, until she was found by Luke Castellan and Thalia Grace. As are most first impressions with Annabeth, it was a bit of a rocky one, thanks to the fact she assumed them both to be monsters and tried to attack them when they found her hiding place. But as all good misfits do, the three of them teamed up, demigods to the end. And it was this trio that gave Annabeth what she hadn't realized she had been looking for: a home. Much of younger Annabeth's life was clinging to the relationship the three of them built while making it up the East Coast, fighting monsters and trying to survive. Luke gave her her first weapon, a bronze knife, saying that only a clever girl could use knives like it. For months they survived in little hide-aways on river-banks, until one day Grover managed to find them and bring them back to camp.
But, due to the very nature of their trip - a bunch of demigods trying to make a long trip to get to safety? - something went wrong. Of course something went wrong. One wrong turn here, one wrong road there, and suddenly Grover, Luke and Thalia were hanging over a pot to become Cyclops stew. For Annabeth, it wasn't just a matter of saving her friends, but saving her family, her real family. The family who actually loved her. She is able to avoid being tricked by Cyclops who disguises his voice to sound like her father and is able to cut Thalia free.
As they finally make it to camp, a large hoard of monsters manages to catch up with them before they could make it past the barrier to safety. Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, ends up sacrificing herself to save Grover, Annabeth and Luke, and dies on the large hill outside of the camp, where she was turned into a tree by her father after being mortally wounded. This tree acts as the barrier to camp that keeps out all other monsters and mortals unless they are specifically invited inside.
PERCY JACKSON & THE LIGHTNING THIEF:
When we first meet Annabeth, it is in Percy Jackson's half-conscious state of healing. He mentioned a girl, feeding him something that tasted like liquid popcorn, and interrogating him about the summer solstice. The truth behind it, though, is how very Annabeth that is. A boy appears at Camp Half-Blood, passes out from exhaustion, and while she may nurse him back to health - feed him, care for him, make sure he doesn't die - it came down to her own motives, in the end. She needed someone new to come to camp, someone to take her on a quest and get her out in the world. As a year-rounder, or a camper who stayed through the fall, winter and spring months, Annabeth had been at Camp Half-blood longer than most of the counselors. But she was convinced she wasn't too young for a quest. For a chance to prove herself, to make her mother proud.
It was just her luck that Percy Jackson was that person, son of Poseidon and all.
Most of the beginning of the novel focuses on Percy - his introduction into demigod life, the existence of Camp Half-Blood, getting his first quest - and Annabeth is there, for sure. As the girl that takes him on a tour of camp, as the girl who watches him fight Clarisse, as the girl who wants him on her team for Capture the Flag. As far as Percy's concerned, she's confusing. Always thinking, always planning, and always right, which drives him up the wall when it feels like no one will tell him what is really going on. Annabeth's the one with the plan to use Percy as bait, and who correctly figures out his godly parent even before he's claimed. Not that she's very happy about it, Posiedon and Athena? Not exactly on the best of terms. Which meant that as their children, they should be rivals. Enemies.
But she wasn't about to let that keep her from the quest, her first quest, and her chance to prove herself and get out there.
"...but if you're going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you from messing up." (The Lightning Thief)
As it turns out, Annabeth was pretty right (she tends to be) and it wasn't even a couple of hours later that she, Percy and Grover were met with their first on-quest issue: a bunch of Furies after Percy's head. Thanks to some Annabeth's invisibile Yankees cap, some fancy driving, and a big ole lightning bolt the trio was out on the road in the middle of New Jersey, bus-less, with nothing but the clothes on their back and the shoes on their feet. Which eventually led them to Aunty Em's Gnome Emporium, a place that had looked pretty okay from the outside. What's not to like about an old lady giving out free food at some creepy garden statue store? Grover and Percy didn't think it was anything to be suspicious of, but thanks to Annabeth's reluctance to trust just about anyone, she was able to figure out that Aunty Em was actually Medusa, and that the statues in her store used to be people. And demigods. And some satyrs.
Push led to shove and they managed to kill Medusa and send her back to Tartarus, with her head in a box to Mount Olympus, and they got on their way. They had to camp their way across state lines but eventually Grover found a lost dog they could return for money, and with that money get on a train to St. Louis, MO, where Annabeth forced Percy and Grover to the top of the Gateway Arch (becoming an architect was her dream, and she wouldn't let them pass by without seeing it). It was around this time that Annabeth began to question the theories they had been sent off with - Zeus' Lightning Bolt had been stolen and he blamed Poseidon while everyone else seemed to think it was Hades - and began to question other gods' motives for wanting to start a war amongst the Gods. When they get to St. Louis, though, she's distracted by the arch, and it's at the Gateway Arch that Percy is attacked by another monster and ends up falling into the river below. When Grover and her reach Percy, Annabeth's pissed, but is genuinely relieved when she finds he's unharmed thanks to his son-of-Poseidon powers.
They get on a train to Denver, and once in Colorado Annabeth teaches Percy how to Iris message and checks in with camp. It's Luke who answers the call, and they find out that Camp is dividing along the same lines as the Gods at Olympus, but the connection is cut soon after the call. At a Diner in Denver they meet up with the god Ares and are sent on a mission for a ride westward, and end up having to retrieve an item from the Thrill Ride O' Love. It turns out to be a trap (duh) and thanks to Percy's powers and Annabeth's quick thinking they're just barely able to make it out alive. All for a ride in the back of an animal transport truck.
"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?" (The Lightning Thief)
Much of the Lightning Thief involves Annabeth trying to keep up the image that she doesn't like Percy - he's a dumb boy and a son of Poseidon to boot - but as they continue on with their travels to California to get into the Underworld, it's fairly obvious that she starts to care about him. On the truck drive westward, Percy asks Annabeth on which side of the war she would fight seeing as her mom would most likely fight against her dad, to which she explained she would fight with him. Because of her complicated family life, Annabeth replaced those attachments with those of her friends, and after just half of the quest Percy had already won her trust.
Once the truck landed in Las Vegas, the three of them distracted the truck driver enough to free the animals, before running out down Casino Boulevard and coming across the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Of course, the Lotus was just a trap that ends up eating time away from their countdown to the Summer Solstice, leaving them with just a couple of days to complete their quest and return the bolt to Mount Olympus.
With only a bump or two on the road to the Underworld - monsters, Cerebrus, and some cursed flying Converse - the three finally get an audience with Hades himself. While Annabeth was relatively respectful to the God, Percy jumps right into asking for the Masterbolt. Hades accused Percy of taking both the Master Bolt and Hades' Helm of Darkness, and in the confusion they find that the Master Bolt is actually in Percy's backpack. A trick, they assume, but their situation made it even worse - Percy only had three pearls, three escape hatches, and four people to save (himself, Annabeth, Grover, and his mom - the reason he accepted the quest in the first place). Both Annabeth and Grover start to fight, trying to be the one that Percy will leave behind to save his mom and get the bolt back to Olympus, only to have Percy save the three of them and leave his mother in the Underworld.
The three race back up to the surface, determined to make it back to Olympus with the bolt and to face the god who had tricked them all - Ares. As it turned out, Ares was waiting on the coast for them, a little pissed that "his" plan hadn't gone as it was supposed to. During their interaction, both Annabeth and Percy figure out that it hadn't, really, been Ares' plan, but that didn't stop the god from having a big final showdown with the son of Poseidon. With Annabeth's necklace for luck, Percy battled the god, only for something to happen and Ares to come to his sense. Pissed.
Because really, what's a good quest without Percy pissing off a god? But he did it, and with some keen political maneuvering the three of them hoped on a plane back to New York City to return the bolt - all in Zeus' good graces, of course. When they got back, Percy sent Annabeth and Grover back to Camp Half-Blood and went to Mount Olympus himself, or, as it's known by mortals, The Empire State Building. During the meeting it comes to light that Kronos, the Lord of Time, was behind the whole plot and was the one trying to create the war between the gods. He had manipulated Ares, tried to have the theft blamed on Percy, and was rising back up from Tartarus to take back over the world.
With everything returned to their rightful owners (Percy's mom included), things seemed to calm down. Percy went back to his apartment, turned his step-father into stone, made up with his mom, and returned to Camp Half Blood. Percy and Annabeth burned their burial shrouds for coming back alive, Grover received his searcher's licence and went off on his search for Pan, and things returned to normal. Up until the last day of summer camp. Percy had a last meeting with Luke, where Luke came out as a traitor and an enemy, and tried to kill Percy on the spot with a deadly scorpion.
The Lightning Thief book-ends with Annabeth nursing Percy back to health. Upon hearing the news about Luke, she didn't really want to believe it, but she knew better, knew that Luke had been changed on his quest, knew that he would have been easily convinced to join Kronos. It pained her to admit it, but it was the truth. But Chiron had been told not to speak of Percy's Great Prophecy, which meant the matter was closed. At the moment. Annabeth ended up going home for the year after that - taking Percy's advice and trying to fix things with her family - giving her family another chance. She did make Percy swear, though, not to do anything stupid (not without calling her first) until they got back next summer. They'd go on another quest, find Luke, and they'd do it together. But first they had to go back to the real world. Just for the year.
PERCY JACKSON & THE SEA OF MONSTERS:
He blinked at Annabeth, as if he dimly recognized her from my notebook picture. "That's he girl...that's the girl-" Annabeth punches him in the nose and knocked him flat. "And you," she told him, "lay off my friend." (Sea of Monsters)
Annabeth's introduction into the Sea of Monsters comes at a time when Percy is being attacked by cannibals during a deadly game of dodge ball. She knifes one through the back, and punches a bully in the face for picking on Percy, and then explains that they have to get out of there fast. As it turns out, Annabeth's been following Percy around basically all morning under her invisible cap, but hadn't been able to find a time to talk to them. So once Percy, and his friend Tyson, manage to evade the police as well as school officials and any other mortals who might be after them for trying to burn down the school, they meet up with Annabeth in a back alley in New York City.
After making it known that she did not like Tyson (bad history with cyclops, don't ask), the three of them head to camp by way of a crazy one-for-three eyed sister mobile. Once there, as a practical welcome-home party should be for a demigod camp, Percy and Annabeth had to go straight into battling a bunch of mechanical bulls which nearly killed them all. Thanks to Tyson's whole 'being a cyclops and them immune to fire' deal, and Annabeth allowing him across the camp borders, they were able to destroy the bulls and save everyone but still. Not exactly the best welcome home present you could ask for, especially not when they learn that Thalia's tree (the one that protects the camp) has been poisoned, Chiron has been replaced and Argus fired. Not exactly the best way to start the summer.
The first few weeks were rough on just about everyone - Tyson was claimed by Poseidon as his son, and therefore gave everyone at camp reason to make fun of Percy. Percy didn't necessarily like having a monster for a brother, and Annabeth. Well. Annabeth didn't like cyclopes, which meant she didn't really like Tyson, which meant Percy and her had difficulties getting along. It didn't help that Tantaulus, the new camp director, wasn't anyone's best friend, and made some changes to the camp that no one really agreed with. Chariot races to the death? Thanks. And to be honest, the races were almost successful, up until the Stymphalian birds attacked and Percy and Annabeth had to veer from the track to, you know, save everyone. Clarisse ended up winning the race, due to Annabeth and Percy's little side-agenda, and the two of them were blamed on disrupting the event. But their friendship was fixed, fight forgotten. Saving the camp can do that to a friendship, as it turns out, plus having kitchen duty. During kitchen duty Percy explained the dreams he'd been having about Grover, and the Fleece, and the two of them realized that the only way to save Camp was to go and save Grover and bring the Golden Fleece back with them, by going to the Sea of Monsters.
By putting Tantalus on the spot, the two were able to convince him to ask the Oracle for a quest, but because of the new camp director's distaste for our two heroes, he only allowed Clarisse to go and consult the Oracle for the quest, since she had won the chariot race. She ended up getting the official quest, and was the only one allowed to leave camp, but after a little meeting with the god Hermes, the three (Annabeth, Percy and Tyson) set off on the quest to save Grover. And the camp.
The first part of their quest led them to a monster cruise ship named Andromeda, which is on par with the way most quests work. Need a ship? Might as well use one currently run by Luke and the other followers of Kronos. Two birds one stone. Find Luke, beat him up and bind him in chains, take him back to Olympus. Easy. Right? Wrong. Things didn't exactly go according to plan. They found Luke, sure, and came to realize that he was part of the plan to raise Kronos from the depths of Tartarus, but when he had an entire cruise ship full of monsters and turned half-bloods on his side, the binding and beating up part was a little harder to manage. Instead, the three dropped off the side of the boat, used one of Hermes' many useful gifts, and made it to the Virginia coastline.
It was after a fight with a Hydra at a donut shop that they met up with Clarisse, you know, the one who was actually supposed to be on that quest? She was commanding an old Civil War boat driven by Confederate skeletons and weren't big fans of the two hopping on. But she couldn't leave them out of her sight - not when they could go off and finish the quest before her - so Annabeth, Percy and Tyson were left on board and hitched a free ride to the opening of The Sea of Monsters. The actual entrance into the Sea didn't go very smoothly; the boat was shattered, Tyson and Clarisse lost, and Percy and Annabeth left to float on a life raft in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.
Before I could figure out how to apologize for being such an idiot, she tackled me with a hug, then pulled away just as quickly. "I'm glad you're not a guinea pig." (The Sea of Monsters)
The island they found was very much like the Lotus Hotel and Casino from the year before - very helpful, for a night, until it tried to capture and keep the demigods for itself. This one was run by Circe, and she just so happened to prefer girls, turning Percy into a guinea pig and trying to convince Annabeth to stay and learn magic with her. It's not until Annabth figures out that it is indeed Circe who is trying to trick her that she springs her own plan, pretending to consider the offer to give herself enough time to turn the cage full of guinea pigs back into men and get the hell out of dodge.
The hell out of dodge ended up taking them right by the island of the Siren's. Which wouldn't have been an issue, not really, except for the fact that Annabeth wanted to listen to their song. Tempting, yes, but hearing the sirens' song would tell the person what their one true desire is, and it would leave them much wiser afterwards. So Annabeth convinces Percy to let her listen, tying her to the mast and filling his ears with wax. It almost worked, too, except for the fact he forgot to disarm her and she managed to cut herself free and try to swim to shore. If it hadn't been for Percy, and the fact he could create a bubble for them both to breathe in underwater, Annabeth would have been Siren-food. But she wasn't, and Percy was able to bring her back to the boat and steer them both out of harm's way. By touching her, though, Percy had been able to see the same sight that Annabeth had seen - a new world, rebuilt by her's truly, where her mom and dad were back together and Luke was back to his old self. All thanks to her.
Hubris. Her fatal flaw was hubris, and now she was aware of it.
"Don't you ever feel like, what if the world really is messed up? What if we could do it all over again from scratch?" (The Sea of Monsters)
It wasn't long after they left the Island of the Sirens that the two of them come across the Cyclops's Island, where Grover was currently pretending to be a female cyclops in order to avoid getting eaten. In order to save their friend, though, the two have to make it passed man-eating sheep. It took a lot of depending on the Cyclops' terrible eye-sight, quick thinking on just about everyone's part (including Clarisse - yeah, she made it to the island too) but they were able to get them out. Annabeth's distraction, a good ole "Who's there?" "Nobody!", was effective enough to get Percy in the cave and bring Clarisse and Grover back out. Then came a showdown, to which Percy fell victim to decent acting on Polyphermus' part, until Tyson came to the rescue.
Annabeth had fallen on her head during the scuffle - gravity works like that when you're being held upside down from your feet by a giant cyclops - but after everyone was able to get to safety and the fleece was put to good use, she came to her senses. They almost made it back to the ship, too, before Polyphermus came back for a round two and sunk their ship. The hippocampi saved them that time, and back to Miami they went. Once they were on shore they gave the Fleece to Clarisse, who had to fly back alone per the quest. Which meant that something had to go wrong. And that something was Luke. One sword-fight, that was the deal, and if Percy hadn't just spent the night before on a sea-horse's back holding Annabeth afloat he might have had a chance. Enter Chiron and the Party Ponies: South Florida Chapter.
With their help, Annabeth, Tyson and Percy made it back to camp without an issue. Welcome parties occurred, everyone cheered, and the tree got better. So much better, actually, that a couple days later everyone got a little surprise. Thalia.
PERCY JACKSON & THE TITAN'S CURSE:
She punched me in the gut. "Me, Seaweed Brain." (The Titans Curse)
The beginning of The Titans Curse started off innocent enough. Just a simple field trip with some friendly demigods in the back of Percy's Mom's car. Get to the boarding school, find Grover, get out. It was supposed to be quick, easy, and as un-dangerous as they could possibly make it. Which of course meant everything had to go wrong. As it turned out, Grover had found two demigods (two really important, really powerful and really underestimated until much later demigods), and they had to get them out. With a nice awkward school dance interlude, as well as an almost 'I'm going to join the Hunters and be maiden warrior my whole life!' talk, the demigods finally get some action. Because getting out ended up being a fight on a hilltop with a manticore named Dr. Thorn. Push led to shove and with a little intervention by Artemis and The Hunters (not a pop group), the manticore was shot off a cliff, with Annabeth on its back, and disappeared into the darkness. Artemis explained that she would track down Annabeth and sent her Hunters to Camp Half-Blood, but it didn't take long before they realized something was very wrong and a quest was given out.
Much of the novel recounts the trip that Percy, Thalia, Grover, Bianca di Angelo and the Huntress, Zoë Nightshade, went on to California to rescue Annabeth and Artemis. Through dreams, Percy finds out that Annabeth was taken to an undisclosed location in California and is tricked by Luke into taking on the weight of the world - well, sky. Literally. Later Percy has another dream about Artemis taking the sky from Annabeth when she realizes the young demigod would die from the weight, and he sees Annabeth being carried off by Luke to use as bait for the other demigods. Despite the fact Percy was not originally on the quest, Nico pleads for him to go and take care of his sister. Like Percy would have left Annabeth's fate up to anyone other than himself, anyways.
After the long trip across the United States, with many fun excursion such as meeting Aphrodite, running through the Junkyard of the Gods, and losing Bianca in the battle against a prototype of Talos made by Hephaestus himself, the group makes it to the ruins of the Titans' palace on Mount Othrys in San Francisco, CA. After a lot of fancy planning, learning of a few key backstories, and a couple (or not) of deaths, Annabeth was saved by Percy and the others. The others happened to include her father, who helped attack monsters using celestial bronze bullets that he made using bronze that Annabeth had left behind when she ran away from home. The ties between her family are fixed after her father's bout of heroism and a moment with her stepmother, but in the end they all go back to New York. California is not safe for Half-bloods. Not that the continental US will stop what is coming for them in the future.
PERCY JACKSON & THE BATTLE OF THE LABYRINTH:
The worst part of it was that The Battle of the Labyrinth didn't even start in Annabeth's favor. She was supposed to meet up with Percy, they were supposed to catch a movie, hang out for the afternoon, and then head to camp. The day was supposed to be a good one. But when you show up to find that your best friend blew up his new potential high-school and had some red-head trailing after him? Not exactly a day gone according to plan. What was even worse that Percy had no idea why it annoyed her so much. None at all. Add that on to her previous year trying to navigate the Labyrinth no absolutely no avail and the fact that Grover was going to lose his searcher's license? This was definitely up there on Annabeth's 'worst ways to start the summer' list.
But after that, things went back to relative normality. Sure, they were worried about Grover. Sure, there was a looming attack by Kronos' army. But they could spare a fun, nice game with their new camp co-director Quintus. The game was simple - there were some monsters in the woods. Find them, retrieve the package, don't die. Would've been easy, too, if all three of the gigantic scorpions hadn't decided to converge on both Annabeth and Percy at the same time. Thankfully they happened to be right where the secret entrance to Daedalus' Labyrinth was in camp, and managed to fall right in.
Annabeth's hand slipped into mine. Under different circumstances I would've been embarrassed, but here in the dark I was glad to know where she was. It was about the only thing I was sure of. (The Battle of the Labyrinth)
After a war council with all the other heads of the cabin, the matter was settled. Annabeth was going to lead the quest, all she needed was approval by the Oracle. Which she got, of course. You shall delve in the darkness of the endless maze. The dead, the traitor and the lost one raise. You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand, the child of Athena's final stand. There were a couple more lines, a hero's final breath and then something possibly ending in death, but it didn't really matter at the time. It was a real good one, that quest. Especially when it involved not only Annabeth, but Pan, an at-the-moment unnamed ghost king, and a possible other child of Athena. But Annabeth made her decision, and against all rules set by the camp, invited Percy, Grover and Tyson to come along with her. She sounded confident enough at the meeting, when everyone heard the quest and watched as she went directly against Chiron's orders, but it was only Percy who went to go find her afterwards, obsessing in the Athena cabin over maps and scrolls. She called it last minute research, but to be honest, it was her freaking out. Since she was seven years old Annabeth Chase had wanted to lead a quest, and now that she finally got one, she was having her doubts. Not only did her quest explicitly state that someone had to die, the only people she could take, would take, were her friends. People she couldn't let die. Not under her watch.
It didn't help that the very nature of the Labyrinth meant that every single moment Annabeth had spent studying and preparing for the quest had been for nothing. It was magical architecture, which meant that it changed, grew, worked to confuse and harm whoever was lost inside. Annabeth had plenty of logical ways to approach the maze - follow the left wall, look for older tunnels - but the truth of the matter was, she had no idea what she was doing. Absolutely none. And she hated it. This was her one chance to not only prove it to the camp, but prove to her mother that she was a worthy demigod. A worthy child of Athena. The Labyrinth was built by Daedalus, the greatest inventor of all time, which meant that another child of Athena had to be able to figure it out. There had to be a simple explanation. But there wasn't.
After a lot of walking (it would have been nice if there way any way to tell time or distance while they were walking, but time and space worked differently in the maze, and there was no good way to keep track) they ran into Janus, the God of Doorwayss and Choices. After a moment where Annabeth nearly had a mental breakdown ("One bad choice can ruin your whole life. It can kill you and all your friends. But no pressure, Annabeth. Choose!"), who decided to show up and save the day? Hera. Every hero's favorite goddess. But for some reason, she actually wanted to help. She got rid of Janus, gave them all sandwiches, and sat them down for a nice little talk. Even offerred to give Annabeth one wish - which Annabeth used to ask to navigate the Labyrinth, nevermind the fact she already could. Percy had the answer. That's all she got.
Hera left without much help, and they went back on their way. Right on their way into the monster-infested Labyrinth, right into Kampe's jail. There they saved Briares, the Hundred-Handed One, fought Kampe, found out some great new things like how Kampe was working for Kronos to build up a crazy monster army, and then it was right back into the crazy-house maze! Of course, as many things work out, Briares wasn't everything the legends made him out to be. Tyson worshiped the ground he walked on, only to be let down when Briares showed his true, beaten, depressed colors. There's only so much an immortal can take, and being imprisoned by Kampe had apparently been too much for Briares. So he ran off, left the other demigods to go back to the search. To find Daedalus, Pan, and get them on their side for the upcoming war. Easy enough.
The next leg of their journey was to Triple G Ranch. And to Nico di Angelo, who happened to be a really big part of this whole quest. After finding out that his sister had died on the quest Percy had gone on the winter before to save Annabeth and Artemis, Nico had gone rogue. Literally. Split the earth beneath their feet and disappeared completely. Percy had tried to find him, to keep him secret from the rest of camp (another child of the Big Three? Yeah. Hades would love that.). But what good would an angry son of Hades be if he didn't have a trusty King of Ghosts - Minos himself - following him around, trying to convince him to raise the dead? He still blamed Percy, too, for Bianca's death, and wanted revenge. So while Percy and Annabeth were trying to find him, they didn't really have a heartwarming reunion. Honestly, Nico tried to kill them, and was only stopped by Geryon, the ranch owner. Nico had originally come to the ranch to make a deal, but like most monsters, Geryon wasn't someone he could trust. And it ended up being up to Percy to save Nico and the rest of them from being sold to Luke as half-blood meat. But this is Percy Jackson we're talking about. Of course he saved them. Cleaned out the stables of the flesh-eating horses without an issue for anyone, except for maybe Geryon. But there was only so much he could do when his ranch hand turned against him. They killed the monster and convinced Eurytion to change the way things were run - be nice to the animals, don't sell them for meat, etc etc.
"I'm a child of Athena," she insisted. "And this is an insult to my intelligence. I won't answer these questions." (The Battle of the Labyrinth)
Nico took a little convincing, though, when it came to siding with Percy. But a talk with his dead sister cleared that up quickly - or as quickly as it could for a boy who had been spending months and months trying to do something Percy did with a single try. Eurytion promised to look after him, though, so Annabeth and the rest could go back to their quest. With a little help from a mechanical spider (Annabeth wasn't too happy about that one) they went on their way to find Hephaestus. But like every quest, they had a few challenges to get through, one of which was the Sphinx. Yes, the actual Sphinx, the beat the riddle and move on kind of one. But as the years went on, the Sphinx apparently upgraded to scan trons, and merely asked for Annabeth to answer a few very basic trivia questions. This didn't sit well with Annabeth. At all. She challenged the Sphinx because of that, wanted to truly test her intelligence, but that merely angered the monster and caused even more problems. They got passed it in one piece, but it was a close call.
The spider does eventually lead them to Hephaestus, and their talk with him doesn't really go according to plan. For one, he obviously prefers Tyson to the rest of the crew, and when Annabeth asks for the way to Daedalus' workshop Haphaestus asks for a favor first. Go check out his old favorite workshop underneath Mount St. Helens and report back. Easy enough. Except for the fact that on the way to this side-quest, Grover is stopped by the overpowering sensation of Pan, the God of the Wilderness. They decide to split up, with Grover and Tyson going in one direction and Annabeth and Percy going in another. It was agreed upon on all sides that splitting up was a bad idea, but there wasn't much else they could do. So Annabeth and Percy continued on to Mount St. Helens. Which didn't really end well for any of them - not only did they find out that the forges had been overrun with telekhines, but they were also trying to build the ultimate weapon of Kronos for when he was brought back completely.
Annabeth glared at me like she was going to punch me. And then she did something that surprised me even more. She kissed me. "Be careful, Seaweed Brain." (The Battle of the Labyrinth)
The son of the Earthshaker ends up causing the entire volcano to explode and disappears for two weeks, leaving Annabeth alone to not only navigate the Labyrinth to get back to Hephaestus and explain to him the whole story, but then go back to camp and set up a funeral in Percy's honor. The brat. He does show back up, though,right as she's giving the 'bravest friend I ever knew' speech. It would have been great, having Percy back. By this point Annabeth had already started having feeling for the boy, and thinking him dead...well. It wasn't easy. And now he was back! Happy day! Right? Wrong. Percy found out how to navigate the Labyrinth alright. But they needed a little help from their mortal, red-headed not-friend, Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Annabeth was pissed. Not only was it her quest to lead, but Percy had just spent weeks marooned on Calypso's Island (not that hard to figure it out) and now he wanted to ask for a mortal's help? On a quest that she was supposed to figure out?
But even Annabeth couldn't deny the fact that Rachel was their only hope. So the next morning, still pissed at Percy, the two of them got in the van and drove to New York City. They made a quick stop at Percy's mom's place to let her know he was alive. She picked up on the tension immediately, but hey. That's what moms are for. And then they got on their way to Rachel, who (infuriatingly) was a huge help. Not only did she know where all the entrances into the maze were, but she could navigate them without a problem. But soon enough they met up with some nice monsters, working for Kronos, who captured them and brought them to Luke. Who was, at the moment, trying to convince Antaeus (son of Poseidon and Gaea) to let them pass through his part of the Labyrinth. Luke, the pal that he was, decided to let Percy fight for him in the arena, to provide entertainment enough to let them pass. The fights weren't up to par, though, so eventually Antaeus decided to step in himself. It took a little more time, but Percy did kill him, which meant that Luke and his army stepped in to kill them all. Except Annabeth - he wanted to try and convince her to join him, try to get her to understand. But thanks to a little gift from Quintus, and a little help from Mrs. O'Leary the hellhound, they managed to escape. They tried to pick up a straggler - Ethan - but when they finally got to safety he ran off on his own.
The three of them made camp there, and things were a little tense. Annabeth was worried about Luke - he had wanted to spare her, to tell her something - and Percy wasn't happy about it. Luke was a tense subject between the two of them; Percy was willing to accept the fact he was simply evil. Black and white. He betrayed his trust and the trust of Olympus, but Annabeth wasn't so sure. For a long time, Luke had been one of the few people who had cared about her. One of the few people she could trust. And once Annabeth trusts someone, it's hard for her to write them off. Luke was a prime example of this, and because of her disagreement with how to treat him, her and Percy were on rocky terms. And it didn't help that Percy was so ready to trust Rachel, a mortal girl who Annabeth didn't know at all who had led them straight into the liar of a monster that had tried to kill them all. It wasn't easy on anyone, really, but the tension in the air just continued to grow. But they continued on with their quest, and they did find Daedalus' workshop.
To say it was disappointing would be somewhat of an understatement. Not only was Quintus Daedalus, but he had already given the string over to Luke. He wouldn't listen to reason, wouldn't listen to them, and seemed only to be concerned with himself. It was hard on Annabeth, as it would be for anyone, to watch your hero disappoint you like that (Tyson had gone through the same thing). But things got complicated fast - Nico showed up with Minos and a few monsters, trying to settle an old score, and after a nasty battle in the workshop the three demigods and mortal had to fly out of there. Once they got to safety, and thanks to Rachel's dad being a really rich land developer, they found a way back into the Labyrinth to try and get back to camp. They had to make a quick pit-stop, though, when they passed right by the entrance to Mount Othrys, in California. The headquarters of Kronos' army.
Percy just wanted to check it out, see what Luke was up to, but it wasn't that easy. Not only did he find Luke, but he watched as Kronos took over Luke's body, and was finally brought back to the mortal world. He would have died right then and there if it wasn't for Annabeth and Rachel finally agreeing on one thing, and that thing was to return and save his butt. Nico came along, ended up saving everyone, but the damage had been done. Annabeth had seen what Luke had become, seen him as Kronos and him fight off Kronos for control, and it all but destroyed her. Her reluctance to give up on Luke was hard for Percy to understand (honestly, it was hard for her to understand) but she just couldn't do it. He was in there somewhere, in that head of his. They just had to save him.
The group started back on their trek to Camp Half-Blood, stopping only once more to witness the death of the god Pan and find Grover and Tyson, but they didn't have much time to waste. After some traveling and saying goodbye to Rachel in New York City, they all finally did make it back to Camp. With very little time to spare. Nico hadn't wanted to come, not really, but Annabeth managed to convince him to stay with them. Just for a little while longer. She was worried about him, they all were, but he only conceded to coming to camp with them when Annabeth talked to him.
Once they got back, it was right into battle. And the battle was rough. Even with all the preparations the campers had made, there was only so much they could do against an army. They tried, though. They fought and fought and fought, and Annabeth and Percy ended up having to team up to fight Kampe, and it worked. Together, the two demigods were able to destroy Kampe - with the help from Mrs. O'Leary and some last minute reinforcements - and soon the battle was over. The army had been defeated, and Camp Half-Blood was saved. Not without some sacrifices, of course. But they'd done it. Daedalus also came to his senses, decided to give himself over to the Underworld after cheating death for thousands of years, and gave Annabeth one of her most prized possessions. A laptop with his notes, plans and scrawlings. She carried that laptop with her all the way to the most recent novel, too, until she lost it when she fell into Tartarus. But that was that.
The rest of the summer went by without anything major. Annabeth and Percy were still on rocky terms and kind to skirted around each other for the remainder of camp, despite neither of them really wanting to. When Percy was about to leave for home, she did come to see him off, but it was still awkward. There was always something on her mind, and Percy. Well. Percy needed to know the rest of the prophecy. Which, as he found out, was And lose a love to worse than death. Meaning Luke. Before Annabeth could really explain herself, Hera decided to butt in.
She looked just the way she had when she'd faced the Sphinx - like she wasn't going to accept an easy answer, even if it got her in serious trouble. (The Battle of the Labyrinth)
Again, just like every other quest that involves Percy, the book couldn't end without offending a god. This one just happened to be Hera, goddess of Heaven. A very powerful, very spiteful, very dangerous one. This offense would come to bite the two of them in the butt in the second series, but for now the two of them felt better. But then Percy had to leave, and Annabeth. Well. She had a lot to think about. Especially with the prophecy looming - Percy's sixteenth birthday, one year away, and he was told that he would either destroy Olympus or save it. No big.
PERCY JACKSON & THE LAST OLYMPIAN:
By the time Annabeth is introduced in The Last Olympian, a lot has already happened. Percy, for once, had been spending the summer with Rachel Dare. And then he was picked up by Beckendorf, head counselor of the Hephaestus cabin, to go and sneak-attack the Princess Andromeda in an attempt to stop Kronos' army before it even had a chance to get to New York. The mission goes wrong, of course, and Beckendorf doesn't make it, but what's worse is that Percy was let in on a little piece of information. For example, his father saved him, which meant that it was time for him to hear the Prophecy. You know, the one that had to do about him? Around his sixteenth birthday? Yeah that one. The prophecy ended up being just about what you'd expect - the fate of the world is supposedly on Percy's shoulder, the hero will get killed by a cursed blade, etc, etc. Great fun, exactly how you want to start off the summer. Even more so when Percy is so oblivious that Annabeth ends up yelling at him for being a coward. People were dying all around them, friends, fellow campers, and he couldn't figure out she liked him? Sure, he was a teenage boy. But really.
For a lot of different reasons (one of which was Annabeth calling him a coward), Percy leaves and goes down to the Underworld to get the Blessing of Achilles. Granted, he gets intercepted by Hades who wants Nico to be the child of the prophecy, but they do make it and he does bathe in the river Styx. While she wasn't there, exactly, the whole reason Percy survives the dip is by thinking of Annabeth, using her as his link to the mortal world. He was just able to send off a message to Camp Half-Blood before heading back up top-side, and Annabeth was able to intercept him and meet him with just over half the camp with her in New York City.
The war had begun.
Once in New York, everyone went to work. Preparations were made, battalions set up, basically everything you could imagine forty two teenage half-bloods doing to prepare for a war, they were doing it. They got reinforcements from the hunters, but they were extremely outnumbered and out-powered. But since when had that ever stopped them before? Through the preparations they end up meeting Hermes, who came along to play the messenger. He wanted to let them know that the Gods were a little preoccupied with Typhon, who was still moving across the central US, and that they were on their own. The interaction would have been fine if it hadn't been for Annabeth trying to apologize about Luke, and having Hermes turn on her and nearly blast her to pieces claiming that it was all her fault, that she could have saved him. The fact that Percy had the Blessing of Achilles came out then, when he intervened and Hermes couldn't blast him (even though he wanted to).
The fighting began not much later than that, and even with the Blessing of Achilles, Percy couldn't do everything on his own. Even with the help of Plan 23: Operation Automan. Percy and Annabeth, like always, ended up fighting together through much of it, up until the actual showdown with Kronos' cavalry on the bridge. It was going just fine, with Percy and Annabeth fighting back to back, until Ethan (the same Ethan they'd saved in the Labyrinth, mind you) tried to go for Percy's weak spot and Annabeth took the dagger for him. Literally. Right in the arm. Percy flew into a frenzy after that, protecting Annabeth like it was the last thing he ever needed to do, until a pegasus flew down and took her to safety. Percy was able to stop the cavalry by destroying the bridge, but it took some time before he was able to go find Annabeth, and when he did she wasn't doing very well. The dagger had been poisoned, and she. Well. She'd saved his life.
"You're cute when you're worried," she muttered. "Your eyebrows get all scrunched together." (The Last Olympian)
Annabeth told Percy about what Hermes had been talking about when he'd gotten mad at them. About how Luke had come to her the year before, about how he had tried to convince her to run away with him. Leave it all behind. She'd turned him down, but with everything that was happening, she was wondering if maybe if she had said yes, if she'd gone with him, she could have avoided all of this. If she could have stopped the war. Percy is pulled away soon after that because of the war, but Annabeth is left wondering. The next day she was up, ready to fight, because there was no way she was going to let a knife wound slow her down. Even if it continued to bother her through the rest of the fight - protecting her friends, her family, would always be more important than healing up completely. And besides, who would look after Percy? She would. Percy didn't even try and argue with her, knowing she wouldn't listen to him even if he tried.
The battle continued, with Titans, demigods and monsters alike attacking them from every direction. Kronos wasn't a passive player either, coming out to fight on the front line as often as he could, seeing as Luke's body did restrain him a bit. Annabeth played a commanding role through most of the battles, as a child of Athena she was the best strategist from camp, and she did as much as she could to help. Percy and Annabeth end up having a talk once Chiron and his fellow party ponies arrive as back-up about Luke. About how she still thought there was hope, still thought she could save him. And while Percy didn't agree with her, he also knew he couldn't change her mind. He was learning more and more about Luke as time went on - it would be important, later, for him to know about Luke's mother, about his life - and it was getting hard for him to see the connection Annabeth still had to the, who he assumed to be, traitor.
That, of course, is when Rachel decided to show up. And not only show up, but drop in. By helicopter. Annabeth ends up not only getting into the crashing helicopter, but manages to land the vehicle and walk off. Because of course Percy got Rachel to come. Of course. But there wasn't much time for her to be mad, not when the battle was still raging. They fight a drakon, lose another friend, and manage to bring the Ares cabin into the battle. With the drakon dead they went back to Olympus to set up the final defenses and Percy convinced his father to join the battle against Typhon. They fall back into battle again, get more reinforcements from Nico and his father, Hades, and things seem to go relatively well until Kronos makes it past their defenses and up to Mount Olympus. Percy, Annabeth, Thalia and Grover follow, and almost didn't make it when the bridge connecting the mountain to the mortal world collapsed. Thankfully Percy pulls Annabeth up from falling, with a little help from his friends, and they run to the throne room. Thalia isn't able to follow them in when she got caught under falling rubble, leaving us to our original three protagonists from the very first book: Percy, Annabeth and Grover.
You'd think, judging by the way most of Percy's final show-downs had gone, that it would come down to him and Kronos. One and one. And then he'd use some magic ability of his to overpower him at a key moment and BAM, world saved. That is not at all how this fight went down. While Percy had tried to fight Kronos, and had tried to do it all himself, it was most Annabeth, and Luke, who did the heavy work. By heavy work, of course, I mean that Annabeth believed Luke was still inside Kronos and could still take control. It took her getting hurt, at the hands of Kronos himself, for that to happen, but it did. Because Annabeth had her own thoughts about the prophecy, about who the hero was supposed to be, who would die at the hands of a cursed blade. The cursed blade was her own, a dagger given to her by Luke when she was young, and the hero. Well. The hero was Luke Castellan, son of Hermes. When Kronos attacked Annabeth, it brought Luke back to his senses, brought him back to the reality of the situation, and it let him realize what he had to do. And while Percy would have loved to have stabbed Luke right through the heart, their matching Blessings of Achilles wouldn't have let that happen. Instead, Luke had to do it, and he did. He stabbed himself right through his Achilles spot, and ended Kronos for now. In his last moments, he asked Annabeth if she had loved him, to which she answered that at one point...yes. But she loved him like a brother. He was her family. She had been looking at Percy when she said that, and Luke look like he understood. With his dying breath he asked Percy to make sure that all the unclaimed were taken care of, that there were no chances for him or for Ethan to happen again.
As rewards for saving Olympus, and the gods, and basically the world, Luke's wish is granted when Percy declines immortality (it's always for a girl, isn't it?). Annabeth was appointed Architect of Olympus, and everything went back to relative normality. When they returned to Camp Half-Blood, they honored the lives lost - all of them - and tended to the wounded. Rachel became the new Oracle and things...well. Things went on.
Then she laughed for real, and she put her hands around my neck. "I am never, ever going to make things easy for you, Seaweed Brain. Get used to it." (The Last Olympian)
Until Percy's sixteenth birthday, of course. Because that was when things got better. Annabeth slid into the seat next to Percy at his dinner table, handing him a blue cupcake she apparently made herself, and wishing him a happy birthday. Percy tried to tell her his feelings - about how she was the reason he was able to survive the Blessing of Achilles, that she was why he declined immortality - and she laughed. Laughed, and kissed him. Even with the looming prophecy and the supposed 'Seven Half-Bloods', they were able to enjoy the remaining weeks of their summer, all the way into the new school year as well, thanks to the fact Annabeth was going to boarding school in New York City. She had to oversee the rebuilding of Olympus, after all, and it wasn't like she was going to let Percy out of her sight ever again.
[THE HEROES OF OLYMPUS] THE LOST HERO:
Annabeth's introduction in The Lost Hero was, while a little dramatic, very on par. She jumps out of a flying chariot before it's done landing and advances on the three protagonists of the story with her knife drawn, demanding to know where he is. When no one can answer her, she storms away, leaving quite the first impression. Her fellow camper stuck up for her, though.
"She's going out of her mind with worry. She hoped he'd be here." "Who?" Jason asked. "Her boyfriend," Butch said. "A guy named Percy Jackson." (The Lost Hero)
Yes. Percy Jackson, our hero from the last series, was missing. And Annabeth, his girlfriend, was going crazy trying to find him. She'd been given a vision that she had to find a guy with one shoe, and that he'd be the answer she was looking for. When they come across Jason, Piper and Leo, Jason was only wearing one show. Reason to be happy, you'd think, but instead Annabeth was furious. As much as she was the leader of camp, as much as she wanted to bring every demigod to safety, what she really wanted was Percy, and no matter what she did, she couldn't seem to find him. And that, right there, was what she couldn't handle. While the three stayed at camp, for however long that took, Annabeth showed Piper around camp. Gave her the tour, helped her pick out her weapon, even explained the mist. Which was hard for Piper, sure, but Annabeth was used to giving out information like that. Used to explaining the ways of the demigods. Piper took it hard, sure, but that wasn't anything new. You try and take it easy when you find out your relationship with your boyfriend and the past six months were all a lie.
But they got settled. And Annabeth went on. The three got a quest, but Annabeth declined joining them. For one, it was a quest to save Hera, Annabeth's least favorite goddess, and two, she was going off on her on quest to save Percy. The novel follows Jason, Piper and Leo as they go to save Hero and break her free of her cage, and Annabeth. Well. She's not really involved. It's not until they return from their quest with all the answers that she finally puts it together - Gaea is rising to take back the Earth, Jason and Percy were used in an 'exchange' program to unite the Greek and Roman camps, and Percy is on the other side of the country. Not for long, though, for Jason, Piper and Leo have plans to sail across the country to find Camp Jupiter, and she's going with them.
THE SON OF NEPTUNE:
The role that Annabeth played in The Son of Neptune was even smaller than in The Lost Hero, for this novel follows Percy's adventures in New Rome and his quest to Canada. When Percy wakes up, he has no memory of his life; who he is, how he got there? Nope. Nothing. The only thing he does remember is Annabeth, a faint memory, and the fact that he knows he needs to get back to her. Throughout the novel he has vague memories of Annabeth - in a library he realized she loved architecture, in San Francisco he remembered she's from there - that kind of thing. He has dreams of her, where she tells him to stay put (he doesn't) and that they're on their way to pick him up (they are), but Percy first has to go up on his new quest, kill a giant, and make friends with Frank and Hazel.
He was successful in his quest, and learned of the same thing that Greeks found out during Jason, Piper and Leo's quest. Gaea was rising, Zeus' ego was bruised and didn't want to ask the demigods for help, and Hera (also known as Juno) was behind the whole thing. She came to him before the landing of the Argo II in a dream, letting him know that had quite a quest in front of them. How he played into her plan, and how Annabeth was going to complicated his life. Everyone's life.
"Annabeth?" Percy felt his anger rising again. "You never liked her. Now you're calling her a troublemaker? You don't know her at all. She's the person I most want watching my back." (The Son of Neptune)
But it didn't matter, because Annabeth was going to arrive in the next couple of days and he would finally see her. Get back to his Greek roots. If only he knew what was ahead of him.
THE MARK OF ATHENA:
The very first chapter of The Mark of Athena started off with Annabeth's perspective, as the Argo II descended upon New Rome. She'd made plans, sent messages, done everything in her power to make sure that her meeting the Romans - the first attempt at peaceful contact between the two camps in years - would go smoothly. But, being Annabeth, she was worried at all the things that would go wrong. What if they didn't get their message? What if they just shot them out of the sky? But most importantly, where was Percy? Because yes, the goal of the mission was to unite the two camps, something that was necessary for the Great Prophecy. Something that had to do. But really, what Annabeth was most concerned about was finding her boyfriend, Percy Jackson, who had been sent to the Roman camp in a Hera-Exchange-Program. During his disappearance, she'd become reckless, obsessed, with finding him and getting him back. She was even aware of it. But now that she was so close...well. She was suspicious. Something had to go wrong.
But they did it. Even with a little set-back in the form of a very territorial bust, the Argo II hovered over New Rome and the Greeks entered. The collected Romans were more interested in Jason, one of their own, but Annabeth had other plans. And when she finally found those plans, well...there was a reunion. A clichéd run-and-kiss moment when she was finally reunited before she flipped the son of Poseidon on his back in the middle of the gathering, threatening him to never leave her again.
"And this is Annabeth," Jason said. "Uh, normally she doesn't judo-flip people." (The Mark of Athena)
The rest of the meeting went relatively smoothly. Reyna, the head of the Roman camp, was surprisingly inviting and interested in peaceful dealings. She and Annabeth hit it off relatively well, for two HBIC, and Reyna was just about to explain things regarding Annabeth's particular quest when. Well. They were peaceful at the start. And things would have stayed peaceful, too, if it hadn't been for a sudden attack by the Argo and most of New Rome going up in flames. Percy, Hazel and Frank joined Annabeth, Jason, Leo and Piper on the Argo II and set out for Rome, the destination of their quest, now with the Romans on their tails. Go to make friends, end up making enemies. That's how that usually goes. However, because of the battle and the effeciency of the Romans on their own soil, the Argo II had to stop at the great Salt Lake in Utah to get some supplies before they can continue across the US. Once that's done, they also make a quick stop in Kansas to check out a vision Piper had in her knife and let the boys (Percy and Jason) duke it out while under the influence of two evil Gaea-allied spirits called eidolons. Piper is able to get rid of them from the ship - including the one that possessed Leo to attack New Rome - and they're back on their way again.
Later that night Annabeth snuck into Percy's room to wake him up and take him to the stables, where she reminisces with him about how they first met and how far they've come since then. They talked about their dreams, too, as well as Annabeth's quest to find the Mark of Athena, and after a while the two of them fall asleep together in the hull. They get found out, of course, and get grounded from going out together on the next quest when they land in Atlanta, but as far as Annabeth was concerned, it was worth it for some alone time with her boyfriend. After all those months of going insane trying to find him...well. She deserved it. They go to Charleston in order for Percy to find Phorcys, and while he had wanted to take Annabeth, their grounding got in the way, and Annabeth goes with the girls to a fort to try and find something about the Mark of Athena.
Annabeth remembered, there, about her meeting with her mother. About how, because of the merging of Greek and Roman worlds the gods, the gods have been switching between personalities. But not all the gods were equivalent between the two worlds, and her mother had lost a lot of her honor in the switch. For that reason, Annabeth was selected to go on the quest to search for the Mark of Athena. To return what was lost, to restore her mother's honor. That would be fine, too, if Minerva hadn't been so...scary. Because of the switch, because she was Minerva and not Athena, Annabeth felt not only alone, but responsible. If she didn't succeed in this quest...no. She had to. Her mother was depending on her. In Charleston she met with Aphrodite to spead not only about her quest (the Mark of Athena would lead her to a statue, a giant statue) but about the overall quest in general and her part in it. But of course, their trip to Charleston wouldn't be in vain. Not only did the Roman soldiers (centurions, is what they're called) catch up with them, but the all converged on the one place Annabeth had to go. Fort Sumter. With some mad maneouvering skills and a secret meeting with Reyna, Annabeth was able to find the map to Rome, but that didn't mean their quest was any easier.
"Just an average day." Annabeth kissed him. "Whatever you do, don't let them take the ship!" (The Mark of Athena)
The map led them to Rome, and as they go out over the Atlantic, things calm down. Frank came to ask her about Chinese finger traps, which normally wouldn't be that big of a deal if it didn't end up saving her life further down the line. Then, once they got the Mediterranean, they have a run in with Hercules before finally making it to Rome and start of their quest. While the other five went off to find the twin giants and save Nico - and in turn, Rome - Annabeth left to go off on her own quest to find the Mark of Athena. She and Percy have time and end up running around the city for the day before she as picked up by Tibernias, but it was nice. For a bit. As morbid as the thoughts were, she was glad to have a day with Percy, if she never came back that would be her last good memory, and then it was all her quest. All on her own. Which, normally, she wouldn't have minded, except for the fact that this was the first time she was on her own since before she was picked up by Luke and Thalia, and simply being alone was enough to put her on edge. But she trekked on, for her mother, and for herself.
Her first leg of her quest started out on a pair of steps. Underground. In fact, the entirety of her quest occurs under the streets of Rome, in various underground sewer systems, tombs, etc. But just like Athena, the strategist, Annabeth's role occurred behind the scenes, literally underneath the streets of the city, with the entire world going on above her. The beginning few parts of the quest weren't anything more than she expected - she followed the glowing red owl under the city, found a trap door in a basement that led to an underground river-way, and had to build a ladder in order to reach it. She wasn't about to jump and break something that early in the quest. She followed the owl, the Mark of Athena, down the waterway until it led straight through a brick wall. After finding a way through the wall, Annabeth came to what looks like a tomb. She remembered when Tibernias had warned her about finding the alter to the foreign god, and what she found. Well. It looked just like that. Once she made it inside the wall closed up behind her (magic tended to do that) and she was surprised to find that she was surrounded by ghosts. Not the friendly kind. Rather, these ghosts were followers of Mithras, a Roman god of warriors, who hadn't actually been Roman. The room is full of skeletons, most of whom she assumes are children of Athena, and the walls are painted with the origin story of Mithras. The ghosts weren't exactly the smartest, and with some quick thinking, Annabeth is able to convince them that she is much more powerful and dangerous than she really was. The test, however, gave her some difficulty - she would have to decide between fire or dagger, both of which would kill her immediately. From the paintings on the walls and the skeletons of other children of Athena, Annabeth is able to find a third option, a way out, and brings down the ceiling on top of them all. She was just able to kick out a hole in the direction she needed to go before the entire thing collapsed in on itself, and she fell.
Oh, in case you forgot - because really, with how crazy powerful these kids are? I forget sometimes - but Annabeth is human. Half human, but still human, which meant that when he fell, she had to land. And when she had to land, she landed hard. Broke her ankle with that land, too, and spent a good chunk of time simply trying to stand up again. Thankfully for her, she had just a bit of ambrosia in her backpack, the magic healing food of the gods. And while it helped, it didn't heal her completely, and she had to use her brains to build herself a cast out of broken boxes, bubble wrap, and leather string. Pulling herself up, she continued on to the rest of her quest, having to complete the rest of it with a broken ankle. The next leg ended up being more about craftiness than quick thinking, though the looming threat of hoards of spiders coming after her did speed up her thought-process a bit. Because the tunnel she'd been taking, well, the floor stopped. Completely. In it's place was a lot of thread and two wooden poles going along each side, a kind of loom. She was able to thread a half-bridge that allowed her to cross, and she continued on down the tunnels.
And then, finally, she came upon an open room. A giant, open, high-ceilinged room covered in the most beautiful weavings that Annabeth had ever seen, depicting great battles, great devastation, and her and Percy. The floor of the room was made of what looked like glass, and on closer inspection Annabeth found it to be a very thin veiling of web, and off in the distance was the giant, thirty-foot statue of Athena. The Athena Parthenon. The home of Arachne. Arachne showed herself after a while, advancing on Annabeth with every intent to kill her, and she would have, too, if Annabeth's I've-been-too-scared-for-too-long plan-making skills hadn't come into play. Instead of even trying to fight back, she immediately started to play into Arachne's ego - a woman who'd been cursed by Athena because she was, supposedly, the better weaver? - and explained to her that she was the new architect of Olympus, and that Arachne's weaving would look wonderful in the temples dedicated to each of the gods. Because of her pride, Arachne played into it, and Annabeth was able to convince her that before she could be officially accepted as the weaver of Olympus, she had to complete a challenge. If she could replicate something that Annabeth had plans for, perfectly, she would be allowed to put her things in Olympus. The challenge that Annabeth gave her was the Chinese Finger Trap, the same one that Frank had asked her about earlier on the quest. Arachne, having lived underground in that same cave since the Roman Empire, had no idea what was about to happen, and went about weaving. When she finished, Annabeth tricked her into climbing inside and the trap did its work, trapping Arachne in her own cage. Annabeth quickly went about trying to find a way to not only get the Athena Parthenon out of the throne room, but also avoid breaking the floor when she walked over it, right as the sky started falling. Literally. The ceiling collapsed, in fell the parking garage that was situated above them, and down came the Argo II. The cars dropped down onto the floor and opened it up, dropping Arachne straight into Tartarus, and out came Percy. For once, in what seemed liked forever, everything seemed to be okay.
"It's okay," he said. "We're together." He didn't say you're okay or we're alive. After all they'd been through over the last year, he knew the most important thing was that they were together. She loved him for saying that. (The Mark of Athena)
For a few moments, everything was fine. She had Percy, she found the Athena Parthenon and it was going back to Greece, and they'd saved Nico. Everything would be fine. Except, of course, it would never be easy. Not for them. Right as they start to head back to the Argo II, something happened. Annabeth, rather than moving forward, was jerked back, right off her own feet and right into the pit to Tartarus. Percy, off instinct, grabbed her hand and tried to pull her up, but the two of them were both so exhausted and so not in a good place for that to happen, and Annabeth was attached. Arachne had shot a web up and had it wrapped around her broken ankle, pulling her down to Tartarus with her. Percy, upon realizing that he wasn't going to be able to pull her up, he explained to her that he had just gotten her back, and he wasn't about to lose her again. Then he looked up, told Nico to look for them at the Doors of Death (which could only be closed from both sides), and let go. The novel ended with Percy and Annabeth falling into Tartarus, and Jason, Piper, Nico, Leo, Frank and Hazel heading to Athens to complete the quest.
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