The night feels wrong — thick, pressing down on them as they walk. Exhaustion drags at their steps, the weight of failure sitting heavy between them. They’d given up an hour ago.

Not emotionally — never that — but strategically. The trail was dead. No signs, no magic residue, nothing Grover could sense anymore. Olympus was the only option left, even if it meant admitting they were outmatched. The city hums quietly around them, streetlights buzzing, traffic long gone. Then red and blue lights flare ahead.

Grover stiffens first. Annabeth notices the pattern second. Percy feels it last — a tug deep in his chest he can’t explain.

You’re standing beside a police car, shoulders tense, eyes tired, another person beside you being questioned more intensely than you are. You look… normal. Too normal. Like you belong there.

Annabeth’s breath goes shallow. Grover’s knees almost buckle. Percy stops dead in the middle of the sidewalk.

The monster they’ve been hunting. The demigod powerful enough to scare Olympus.

Right there. Unaware. Unarmed. Unfound — until now.