Awesome chapter! It was really sad when Jane died :( I'm just wondering why Leo is learning all this stuff... Makes me think that two people on the ship are the reincarnates of Cedric and Jane... Hmmm
Can't wait until the next chapter :)

Ooo I didn't think of that ninjagirl77 that's actually a really good point....

Hola guys! Comment reviewing is not my point-fort right now because time is of the essence! (I live with hogs of computer. Laptop, I miss thee)

Anyways:
Rainshodow- Oops. Yeah, they were polishing their swords. How does one polish their soul? Save orphans from flaming animal shelters? Also no, I don't lose tracks. I know mah posting days :D
DMLIME- Know how I learned that story? Burdge-bug :D
gege109- Welcome to the site! I'm not on the HoO club, but here's your welcoming muffin basket anyways.
Others- thanks for the comments!

XXXXI
Cate
She woke up. Sun was shining, birds were chirping, Joan was ruling… Hmm, it had at least half of the potential to be a nice day.
She was shuffling her feet to the bathroom to try and comb her hair into decency when the first ‘Happy birthday!’ came to her. She turned and saw Britt, the new Centurion since the last one had decided to bolt from Joan and retire. She thanked Britt as everyone asked ‘is it your birthday?’
“No, we’re practising.” Britt said. She was Brady’s sister, a daughter of Mercury. By the way.
“Yes,” Cate said.
“Fifteen, hmm?” Paula said. “Wow, Caty-Cat’s all grown up.”
“Isn’t it exciting?” Cate grinned.
When she walked out of the barrack- one of the last, as per usual- the cohort was there, as well as the fifth cohort, both of which had now basically merged into what was possibly the Fifty-Third Cohort anyways. When she took two steps everyone started bellowing out ‘Happy Birthday’.
If you knew the third cohort, you’d know that the singing is not pretty, but to Cate it was like a symphony. This was home. Bad singers who sung anyways and serious romans acting like idiots for the sake of sakes.
“Thanks guys,” she said smiling and brushing her hair over one shoulder.
Colin showed up panting, as if he’d been running. “Wait, did I miss something?”
“It’s Cate’s birthday, bro.” Brady said. Brady called everybody bro, but in this case it worked out.
“Oh sweet- we should sing Happy Birthday!” He said.
“Dude where where you, we just did.” Britt said.
“Oh. Poo. I missed that.”
“It’s okay, we can do it again!” Dakota said.
“Oh Good gods,” Cate said, rolling her eyes.
“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to-”
That’s when the fourth cohort ganged up on them.
“Go to breakfast now,” one big guy who was acting as Centurion while Joan stunk up the praetor villas said. “No disruptions allowed.”
“This isn’t a disruption, this is praise to Cate Amjad.” Colin said. “I seriously think you should, like, incorporate it into a Roman festival.”
Most of the Fifty-third cohort laughed, but the fourth cohort didn’t find it funny.
“Break it up,” he said.
“Miles-” Gwen tried saying.
“I said break it up, Holly, or else we’re sending you back to the New Rome infirmary wing where you belong.” Miles snapped.
There was the sound of flesh on flesh and everyone nearly died because Gwendolyn Holly had just physically hurt someone outside training or battlefields. Even Colin seemed to get it.
“You do not in any way say that I am not meant to be in this legion Miles, we have Jane Stone for that. I am not a nurse unless I decide I’m a nurse, I can be a soldier as much as you can and I will say it to your face because I don’t care what your snotty thief-praetor said; I am a Roman Soldier and I have seniority on you in ways that you can’t even comprehend with that battle-bruised brain of yours.” She hissed.
Everyone was too shocked to reply. Nobody even yelled out ‘Seize her’.
“Fifth cohort, move out.” Gwen said in a cold voice before marching off. The cohort walked after her and a few of the girls stopped and slapped Miles on the same cheek as Gwen had. Cate did her due diligence and hit him too when Brady and Britt brought them out. Josh and Jedediah insisted that Cate had her own slap technique and that Quinn should examine it and make a chart for it. She wasn’t sure about that last part, but she knew that she slapped a mean slap.
“It’s my birthday, you can’t punish me.” Cate said.
She sat at the usual table where Josh would soon join her and Colin: and in better times so would Quinn and Jedediah.
“Umm, I get that the Miles dude is a smurfing smurf, but what was that about?”
“Gwen was studying to be a doctor in New Rome before the Argo II left,” Cate said. “She’d retired. The only reason she was here was because Frank, the other Fifth Cohort Centurion, was off to Greece.”
“So he told her to leave the fort?” Colin asked.
“Hmm, it goes deeper than that.” Cate said as food landed in front of her and Colin. Colin had fish and chips –yesterday he’d explained that he didn’t respect the rules of food association with meals- and Cate had a slice of vanilla confetti cake because she felt like it and it was her birthday. An aurae had even put a candle on top and she blew it out before it was considered a disturbance. “Way back when New Rome was run by testosterone, women didn’t fight in the army.” She said as she picked the candle off the cake and licked the icing off the bottom.
“Oh gods, what did they do all day?”
“Well, we worked in stores and the infirmary and even sometimes in the stables or forges.” Cate said.
“No, I mean, the dudes in the army. What the heck did they do without girls?” Colin asked. Cate smiled a bit.
“I don’t know. Regardless, we were often nurses. Jane Stone changed that; she hopped into place during the Civil War and said that if Rome wanted to win it needed more manpower- and I only say manpower because it is the only term I can find, really they needed girls to fight. So we did, and Jane was the first praetor without a ball of crud and dried grass for a brain. But saying to a girl ‘go back to the hospital wing’…” Cate shook her head. “It’s sexist. It’s sexist, and rude, and sexist and not something I want to hear on my birthday.”
“Oh. Yeah, it’s like saying ‘don’t fight in the legion’. How rude. Screw Miles, man.” Colin said.
Josh swung into his seat. He was a legacy of Mercury on Dad’s side, and his mother was a nebulae which was funny because Josh Ayano’s head was ‘always in the clouds’ so to speak. “Happy birthday to a certain so-called beautiful person at this table,” he said.
“Why thank you,” Colin said putting his hands behind his head like a supermodel. Cate snickered.
“Okay, magical and so-called beautiful person.” Josh corrected.
“That doesn’t work either. Cate is beautiful.” Colin said. Cate smiled at him.
“See, Josh? He knows how to pick up girls.” She said. “Thank you Colin.”
“Is that confetti cake for breakfast?”
“Yeah,” Cate said.
“Are you serious?” Josh asked.
“I know, I’m missing the vanilla ice cream, but I thought that that’d be overkill.” Cate said.
“Confetti cake was outgrown at the age of five.” Josh said.
“Leave me alone,” she said her mouth half-full. “You’re just jealous because you’re eating Frosted Flakes.”
Brady sat down next to Josh.
“So Cohort Fifty-Three is planning on bellowing ‘Happy Birthday’ during muster, except we’re not using Cate’s name, just go with it.” He said.
“Cool.” Colin said.
“Sweet, yo.” Josh said. Josh was in the fifth cohort, which meant that often he was out with them before he got to the table.
“I’m so inspired. My fifteen years of breathing is striking rebellions. I like it.” Cate said.
“Eat your cake, don’t get big-headed.” Josh said. Cate smashed her finger into her cake and dotted his nose with icing.
“My nose!” Josh yelled just as Colin let out a loud, “Don’t waste icing it kills whales!”
“True that,” Cate said. “My bad.”
She had about two more slices of cake (food was delicious, health was regardless) before Josh talked.
“Hey, did your dad send you a card?”
“Card? Dad?” Colin asked.
“Remember Colin, we went through the fact that a baby has a mommy and a daddy, and that when they love each other very much, or get very drunk…”
“Never mind then. Just- card?”
“Yeah, my dad sends me a card every year for my birthday.” She said. She turned onto her back on the dining sofas. “But I don’t know about this year. New Rome is off-limits, remember? Can’t even sneak away during the War Games, and since that fifth cohort newbie got spotted while sneaking out to get medical treatment, they have guards, like, everywhere. I don’t think I could pull off a heist like that. Not without Quinn’s master planning, anyways.” Cate said. She blew her bangs out of her eyes and when she saw Colin looking at her, concerned, she turned back towards the table.
“But that’s alright, I’ve got cake.” She said.

XXXXII
Percy
Tommy and Jason came down the stairs of the Argo II.
“Yeah man,” Leo said. Tommy looked away from Leo’s hyper face and Frank, Percy and even Jason clapped that painfully slow clap.
“What Leo means to say,” Percy said, “Was nice.”
“Nice what?” Tommy said.
“That you kissed Piper. Man, everybody knows.” Frank said. “I’m sorry, but when Josie talks, she talks.”
Tommy looked away.
“Don’t worry, everyone here except Leo’s kissed a girl. Most of them on this ship.” Frank said. Jason’s face hardened as if he remembered that the only girl not on this ship was Reyna.
“We just wanted to see how easily you blushed,” Jason said. “Not easily, it appears.”
“You’re all idiots,” Tommy said, shaking his head, looking away from them all.
“That’s fine with us,” Percy said.

Leo
Leo pulled Hazel aside.
“I feel like I am being pulled apart fibre by fibre.” He said to her.
“I think you need a medic for that.” She said.
“No, not literally. This is how you’re making me feel.” He said. She looked at him clueless. “Hazel, everyone is noticing how not-well it’s going with your general health! Frank is noticing and when he asked me if there was something wrong and I knew but I’d promised to you that I wouldn’t say, do you know what I was stuck saying?”
“What.” He asked.
“Stress. Freaking stress! I had to lie to Frank! That is so not cool on so many levels. Haze, I know you don’t want to hurt him, but you don’t get to pick if you get hurt in this world. Trust me. And you can’t always pick who you hurt either, so please be honest with him.”
She looked at him, eyebrows furrowed.
“Oh gods, Leo,” she said.
“Was that too theatrical? Deep?”
“No, but… Josie gives me these looks every now and then too so she knows, and Quinn’s getting suspicious, and Jason thinks something’s going on and there’s so much going on, so much to do, so much to live for, so many things that I’m supposed to do in this prophecy and o on top of that…” Hazel buried her face in her hands and broke into sobs right in front of Leo.
“I don’t want to tell people I’m dying.” She said between sobs.
He blinked and pulled her into a hug hoping like heck that Frank was really busy right now. She cried for a while and said it again.
“I don’t want to die.”
Jason
It was his patrol duty and he forced Quinn back to sleep since she didn’t seem very agitated or troubled at that point in the night. She’d tried to insist but a) Jason was a bit firmer than she was and b) she was exhausted. Jason wondered how it felt like to always be exhausted. To never feel good and up to whatever the day promised. To spend every second wondering and planning how you were going to get through the day or achieve something without burning all your energy. Quinn was freaking amazing because right now, Jason felt exhausted himself and he slept perfectly.
Percy and Annabeth had calmed down and stopped jumping at each other’s throats at every given moment. That was good, but the crew was still unsettled.
Josie’s attitude had taken some getting used to and now they were about as used to it as people could get, but she was still so stubborn sometimes… Jason couldn’t help but think of Octavian and Rachel. All three of them acted like they had answers that they weren’t going to share- except he actually believed that Josie had some. She frustrated him. Jason got frustrated at people who didn’t show respect to others around them, not just their superiors. The way Josie talked about the gods sometimes… Apollo especially, but she had some colorful adjectives and colour-commentating during most myths Annabeth told her.
Then there was Piper and Tommy, who’d finally kissed yesterday. Jason was happy for Piper, and Tommy of course. He just hoped that there would be no awkwardness because that could throw everyone off balance.
Hazel’s blackouts didn’t come in the bucket loads that they’d come in before, but there were times where she’d go very still and breathe so quietly Jason wondered if sometimes she just wasn’t breathing at all. She looked as sick as Quinn was tired sometimes. She didn’t say anything, and she hadn’t stopped being Hazel, but it got Jason worried that everything about her was interconnected and it would all go down eventually. Plus, Leo kept looking at her funny. Not a funny that Frank should be worried about, but a funny that everyone should be worried about. Jason was worried that soon it would blow up and everyone would get hurt. He had a feeling that Frank, Leo and Hazel would be the ones taking the biggest hits.
Leo was being Leo. Thank the gods for Leo, Ella and Tyson because they were the three people on the boat who weren’t worrying Jason.
And sometimes he felt a little guilty because he worried about things that shouldn’t be his number one priority. His number one priority, according to the roman rules he’d grown up with, would be the crew of the Argo II and the Greeks and Romans back in the camps. Really, Jason worried about Thalia.
His sister was trapped in the earth somewhere just because he was a prophecy child. It frustrated him. He couldn’t see her, touch her, talk to her, make sure she was okay, ask her for help… She was his last family, and even if family shouldn’t bother him after all these years of not having one at Camp Jupiter, he didn’t want her to get hurt. Especially not because of him.
He kept seeing the same faces held captive by Gaia, one for each of the half-bloods on the ship. Frank’s grandmother, Quinn’s friend Jedediah Adams, Sammy Valdez, Nico di Angelo, and of course Thalia.
Sometimes they looked better than other times. He’d seen Thalia and Nico, stubborn Big Three Greek half-bloods that they were, parading around with black eyes and cuts and bruises. Jedediah’s wrist was crooked now. Sammy Valdez was a ghost so he didn’t count, and Mrs. Zhang seemed content with waiting it out for some reason. He worried that one day his dreams would show him a cage without Thalia, without Nico, without Jedediah…
But what worried him more than that?
Reyna.
He remembered all the nights where she’d wake him up and tell her she couldn’t sleep. She didn’t say it, but Jason had figured it out; she felt like the walls were closing in on her, a phobia she’d developed in Blackbeard’s ship. It’d never let go of her. It was bad enough to be blindsided and trapped in the tiny cells under the Principia, it would creep out anyone. Jason hated those cells. He always made a point to make legionnaires do something stupid, like push-ups, instead of actually spending a night in there. But for Reyna it would be twelve times worst.
He remembered sleeping in the grassy area between the two villas, wrapped in his blanket, she wrapped in hers. For a while that hadn’t meant anything –except in Jason’s brain and heart- but the last few nights he’d spent in Rome sleeping under the stars with her, it had. She’d been his girlfriend. He should be the one standing next to her in that cell. He should be the one telling her that the walls weren’t going to close in around her. He should be the one saving her.
He knew that it was what she’d asked of him, but he didn’t want that from himself. He didn’t want to be sailing away from her when she needed help. Duty and the heart was never, ever the same thing.
“Jason?” Someone asked. He looked and saw Percy and Tyson.
“Hey,” Jason said, straightening his face so he looked more serious and steady and calm.
“Our turn,” Percy said. “You can go sleep now.”
“Carry?” Tyson said. His injury was still too bad to walk and Quinn looked at him with murderous eyes whenever he mentioned that he might try. Usually he stayed on deck, but the rest of the time he relied on someone for support to walk around the Argo II. Annoying? Yes. Mildly embarrassing? That too.
“No thanks, I’ll just chill here.” Jason said. “Maybe even sleep under the stars.”
He thought of Reyna. Not a bad way to fall asleep, when fatigue and his cousins’ conversation blocked out the worried thoughts.

Piper

She was getting pretty ticked off at the universe. Particularly at the all-mighty strength she most commonly referred to as ‘mom’.
First boy she’d kissed, like, really kissed because she liked him and he liked her and it was wonderful: it ended up being not real.
Okay, cool. After a few months of being really mad about it, she could handle and brush it away.
Second boy she’d kissed because she liked him and he liked her and it was wonderful: now not talking to her.
She could deal with the little look Leo gave her all the time, the look he gave her just to get on her most fragile nerves. She could handle Josie calling her out for it on deck; whatever, Josie did weird things and knew all. She could even handle both of them tag-teaming and telling Piper that their children would be adorable, asking her to describe his tongue with three different adjectives or something crazy like that. But something told her that Tommy couldn’t and she wasn’t sure why. Her sneaking suspicion was that this was the shyest boy she’d ever met. Not in the oral presentation oh-my-god-I’m-going-to-pretend-I’m-sic­k-o­r-f­ake­-an­-ep­ile­pti­c-s­eiz­ure­-to­-ge­t-o­ut-­of-­thi­s way. After all, he spoke a thousand languages and he was the unofficial leader of a camp. But in another more subtle way; like how he’d kept the ring secret from even Dani, or how he’d only told her about his father and the cancer, how he didn’t ask questions openly, how he didn’t talk about his feelings (though that was just a trait of the male race and/or female too). He didn’t like talking about things that made him feel something big.
Her fingers reached to the ring on the chain. It rested against her chest and she looked down at it once more. She was half tempted to put the ring on, jump into the sea, yell a million curses, and climb back onboard, but the ring didn’t cover sound.
She sat down next to Annabeth and looked her friend over. This was the only person who could answer her question properly, but it was such a sore subject…
Annabeth looked up at Piper and closed her book, the calm face she wore while reading now gone.
“What Josie said the other day,” Annabeth started, “Was she right?”
“The prophetic can-kill-on-sight daughter of Apollo who can also dance like a trained professional, you mean? Of course she was right.”
Annabeth smiled, but it looked a little sad, as if the reason for smiling was painful. Piper didn’t want to rub-it-in, but at this point she was thinking primarily of Tommy, and her and Tommy’s possible future as an item and kind-of considering Annabeth’s not-dating issue as a hole she’d dug herself into. Not that Piper wasn’t still trying to navigate exactly where-what-when-how the so-called ‘Percabeth ship’ had gone down (or how she was going to break it to Lacy), but Piper just didn’t get it for now.
“I thought so. You’ve kind of been skirting around from one another.” Annabeth said.
“So it’s, like, that obvious.” Piper asked.
“When Josie yelled at you to name your first child Oliver, then was kind-of obvious. This is just painful.” Annabeth said. She was clearly trying not to laugh at Piper, which was not cool.
Maybe that was what Tommy was shy about. Freaking Josie’s blunt comments… God, if that was the root of the problem she would force Josie to return to sword fighting lessons with the use of charmspeak.
That was when Percy, Leo and Josie appeared followed by Jason who seemed to be blowing in the air. That was when Piper saw that Jason –shouldered by Tommy and Percy- seemed to be pushing and Iris Message through the air with his wind powers, which Piper hadn’t thought possible.
“Greek conference,” Leo announced. “Yeay! We just needed Jason to drag the IM down. Thanks Jason. You can go now.”
“You can do that?” Piper asked.
“I just found out.” Jason said. “Malcolm made, like, an equation to figure it out and tell me how to do it…”
“Priorities!” Piper recognised the voice of Annabeth’s little brother. Malcolm was sixteen with puff in the place of hair, and it got even puffier when he got stressed or agitated. It must be about a foot long right now.
Frank and Tommy helped Jason back up to the Argo II’s deck.
“Malcolm,” Annabeth smiled, and then it faded. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
“He wouldn’t say because he wanted our unbiased opinion about something and he wanted to talk at all Greeks at once.” Percy said.
“Well, technically the opinion will be biased.” Malcolm said. “It’s about Camp Half-Blood.”
“Where in Camp Half-Blood are you?” Annabeth asked. “I don’t recognise that tent and- wait, are those Reyna’s dogs?”
They barked and Piper recognised the sound.
“Nyssa, keep them out of the tent, this is serious!” Malcolm called over his shoulder.
“Plus they haven’t peed in, like, twelve hours and I’m not sure if they pee acid. Either way Malcolm would have an aneurysm if they peed in the tent.” The voice was clearly Travis.
“I’m pretty sure they’re better trained than that,” Clarisse grunted. “If their owner’s a daughter of Bellona…”
“Trained? They don’t need to be trained, they are state-of-the-art mechanical feats! What I wouldn’t give to have the blueprints and make, like, cavalry horses or elephants of these…” Nyssa’s voice protested.
“Oh my Gods- I am so with you!” Leo replied loud enough for his sister to hear.
“Nyssa, can you please take them out. And take Travis with you. Will, can you check on Drew through another IM?”
“Drew?” Piper asked.
“Malcolm, details.” Annabeth asked again. Malcolm turned back towards the IM.
“Right, we, well, apparently I have a big decision to make because things have taken this crooked and wild and unsafe turn.” Malcolm said. “The thing is I don’t want to make it without your advice.”
“Okay, we’ll help, just explain.” Percy said.
Malcolm filled them in on Reyna’s message –Annabeth and Piper grinned at each other; Reyna was the smartest child of pure war and bloodshed the world had seen in millennia- and on how they were actually in Rome, and Khione was freezing Thalia’s tree so it stopped working, and camp was being attacked.
“So we, like, have to make a choice here.” Malcolm said. He sounded about as comfortable with that as he would if you trusted him with the last panda in the world and said ‘take care of it, don’t let it die’.
“Allies to save the world, or Camp Half-Blood,” Annabeth said.
“Don’t lay it out like that, it’s not that simple.” Percy said.
“I’m not,” she said. “Camp Half-Blood is one of the two only places safe for demigods. If they leave to go to San Francisco right now, what are they going to do? All the monsters will zero-in on that little tent.”
“Okay,” Piper said to calm both of them down. “Annabeth’s got a point. Reyna’s trapped in there. According to the maps we’ve got, we’ll be landing very soon. After that, the world goes to war. Can we do that without the Romans?”
“No.” Leo said.
“Why am I here?” Josie asked.
“Because we’re betting that you’re too snarky to be Roman,” Piper said. “I’m sorry, but it’s looking like…” She thought of her first view of camp. She’d never felt magic like that, or seen something that beautiful. She thought of afternoons spent lounging around the basketball courts with her sisters who’d point out the hottest or sweetest children of Apollo, meals pretending to listen to gossip she didn’t care about. She thought of Chiron’s office and all those pictures (and suddenly realised that Chiron would have to put that picture of Percy and Annabeth through the shredder). She thought of the cabins and how weird and unorganised their architecture was and how much she loved it and how familiar and normal it felt to her. She recalled Capture-the-Flag and having conversations with Leo while he was, like, dangling from a harness to nail the boat’s hull together or something. Archery lessons, meals, the legends at the camp fire… It was all too fabulous and dreamlike to loose. Some –most- demigods had nothing if not those summers.
But the world was kind-of important too.
“Dude, I hate to say this, but… yeah.” Leo said. “That sucks. It’s like ‘would you rather fajitas stop existing, or would you rather have a puppy-sized elephant.”
“Malcolm, you have to ask the troops to join you in Rome.” Annabeth said ignoring Leo.
“What?” Percy said. “There’s got to be a second solution! One that saves everything. This is Camp Half-Blood, there always is.”
“Percy, we’re not in some video game designed to have exits and choices.” Annabeth said.
“You can always come up with something,” he encouraged. “What are we going to do after the apocalypse? Without a camp, we’ll just have two hundred or so half-bloods run amuck the United States which is a) bad for the country and the economy and whatever, and b) bad for all those half-bloods.”
“The romans would take us in Percy, it’s…” Piper said trying to calm him down.
“We can’t give up on Camp Half-Blood.” Percy said. “That’s like giving up on being Greek.”
“This camp is a place. Places get destroyed and rebuilt all the time and though it hosts magical children, this one is no different.” Josie said, suddenly calm and wise.
“This place is all two hundred and seventy three half-bloods have,” Percy said.
“And the world is all seven billion and a hundred something people and animals and living organisms have, too.” Annabeth said.
“Well I don’t know, kill the world, you kill cancer and, like, malaria.” Leo said trying to lighten the atmosphere.
“True. But it’s the only place Chiron has.” Percy said.
Everybody shut up. Even Josie seemed like she’d gotten punched in the stomach.
“If he really is dying- he’s still dying, right Malcolm?”
“Right.” Malcolm said uncomfortably.
“Then how is he going to get out of there? Last time we got an update, back in Rome he couldn’t move without his wheelchair. Nobody can save him. Nobody can fly him out. Nobody can wheel him out without getting chomped, and he can’t stand his own ground.” Percy said. “If we lose Chiron, we might as well all start saying we’re Roman, because there is no way we can pass down or recreate all that past and knowledge and history; all that Chiron gives us.”
Nobody contradicted him. It was true. Piper realised that this was why Malcolm was asking for help.
“I don’t have Chiron with me,” Josie said. “Nor have I ever met him. But I’d think that he would say something like this: He is an old man who has fought old wars and read old books and counselled old, but great, people. He is a centaur, and centaurs are born, they party –though I don’t think he really has-, and then they die. He will say that perhaps, it is his time to die, and that if it is; he would rather die under the shadow of his Greek students allying themselves with Lupa’s Romans, thus ending a great tragic and violent past, and of the world becoming safer.
Also, he would rather die at home.”
Nobody said anything. Nobody acknowledged that that was exactly what Chiron would say. Not even Malcolm looked that surprised that this random girl knew all of this.
“You’re right.” Percy said. “That’s what he would say. But Chiron also once told me that I would die at the age of sixteen, and I’m turning seventeen in a month. Chiron is wise and smart, but not always right.”
“In this case he is.” Annabeth said. “We have no choice Percy, and if it weren’t for your freaking fatal flaw, you would see this like the rest of us and a million things would be a million times easier.”
Percy got up. “If I have such a ‘freaking fatal flaw’, Miss Hubris, then I suppose I’m too bad off for this conversation and that my opinion that everything important should be saved doesn’t matter.”
“Fine.” Annabeth said getting up as well. They both walked off.
“By the way Malcolm, your sister is single.” Leo said, although it didn’t sound like much of a joke.
“Got that. What do I do?” He asked.
Leo and Piper looked at each other.
“What Percy and Annabeth both said, although they don’t know they did.” Josie said. Piper looked at Josie and said it in clearer terms for Malcolm to understand. “Abandon Camp. Go help the Romans. Prepare the troops. Save the world.”

O_O

OMG.........
.....well this is about to get VERY VERY interesting......... OOOOOOOOOOO:

WHAT!?!?!?!?! What about connor in camp Jupiter and the tunnels and getting reyna out of prison and everything else!!!!!!! That seriously can't be the answer!!!!!!! Please tell me Connor just then IM's and is all hey guess what were getting reyna out of prison to night and we can go help camp half-blood and everything will be okay!!!!!! *starts to cry* that can't be the end of CHB!!!! HoO without camp half blood is like......peanut with out butter....star without burst.....it just doesn't work!!!!! You had better make this right Hecate or your gonna have yourself one anger popper on your hands!!!!!!!

OMG, that is so not how Camp Half-Bloodd will end! No way. I agree with you book-worm. ^
Yay, I am so glad you posted HecateA and this chapter was great, well most, the only saddening part was that Chiron and CHB is dying. Conner and Reyna must make it better. Also Annabeth must get with Percy again, I can't stay without Percabeth for so long. Ok, post again!

I Sooooooo agree with percysocool I'm glad you posted but I don't want Chiron and CHB to die!!!! And you have to get percabeth back together!!!!

Oh Annabeth I'm really starting to get angry at you...STOP PUTTING PERCY DOWN.

okay so I love Tommy and Piper but seriously I'm warning you...don't make it like your old forum Hazel and Leo and then BAM!! Hazel dies don't do that to Tommy (sorry i brought it up but come on what do you expect)

Oh Jason Jason Jason......
Malcom why? I hate dilemas

I really cant believe annabeth is acting like she is!!!!

completely freaking out while being happy while crying while completely wishing for a happy ending, while glaring at Annabeth, while feeling bad for her and percy and Hazel and everyone else on that ship in the middle of nowhere, and having my fingers crossed that somehow Chiron doesn't die and that at the end they just rebuild camp half blood and laughing at conner and travis, and running around in circles going crazy.

your chapter was really really good.

^I so agree!!!

^^Firestrike22 said it... but can you explain to me why they have to choose only one either camp or the romans as allies? I honestly don't see why they can't have both

soooo goood! you're an amazing writer!!!!!!!!! can't wait till friday!!!!! :)

Me either!!!!

*Begins writing eulogy for Camp Half Blood, Percabeth, Greeks, and Rachel E. Dare*
*sobs*
WHY CRUEL WORLD. WHY MUST EVERYTHING GOOD IN THIS SERIES BE FORCIBLY WRENCHED AWAY FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS?!
*overly dramatic dramatization*
but good chapter! and i take that back, we still have connor ;) hahaha you know im kidding... maybe... 0.o
(did i mention that as sad as that percabeth exchange at the end there was, it was also funny in a dark, twisted way? that takes skillXD GREATJOB!)

^haha nice!!!!

@universalpowa- You bet all your drachmas, it is ;)
@book-worm- Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, I’ll figure it out ;P
@Rainshadow156- Don’t worry. It won’t be a tragey, it’ll just look a lot, lot like it. Well, it’ll sort of be tragic… But not really. Like RR’s books- it looks worst than it is.

Yeah guys, they’re stuck. It really is either CHB or the world’s sake.


XXXXIII
Cate
Cate woke up, unsure why. She looked up and heard hitting against the window she slept right under. She spotted Colin, his face smashed against the glass. When their eyes met he went into stupid-Cheshire-cat-grin-mode and Cate’s only thought was –you better not have woken me up in the middle of the night just to be a retard.
Then he motioned for her to come outside. It was totally illegal to be outside your barracks at this hour under the Joan-rule, so she pulled on a Hogwarts hoody that’d been a joke-gift and skateboarding shoes that she wasn’t allowed to wear for training before tip-toeing out of the girls’ bunker.
“You must have a real good reason for-”
“Shh,” he interrupted her. He grabbed the fire escape ladder –whose exact use had always been a mystery to camp, and whose origin seemed to be a prank pulled by the fifth cohort eighty years ago- and pulled it down. He climbed up and she knew well enough to follow him.
He sat on the edge of the roof and he handed her a little grocery-store pack of nine miniature cupcakes with pink icing swirled on top, picture perfect like in movies, and topped off with huge round sprinkled.
“First, I apologise for missing the sing-along this morning and mocking the confetti cake at breakfast,” he said.
“A: wow, do I get cupcakes every time you mock me? And b, where did you get these, Co?”
“That information is useless for your pretty little mind,” Colin told her. “Two, here you go.” He handed her a brown envelope. Her jaw dropped when she saw the sender’s address and the stamps.
“You snuck into New Rome?”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Got friendly with Terminus, mentioned that I was a free soul protesting about anybody else but him putting restrictions on Rome, and presto. I’m invited back anytime if your dad happens to send you cards on, like, Hanukah.”
“I’m not Jewish, stupid, my dad’s Muslim. You troublemaker…” Cate said, turning the envelope in her hands before tearing through the top.
She slipped out the card inside and opened it, and it started playing music that sounded ten times as loud as it probably was because of how quiet the fort was. Colin grabbed her hands as she shut the card herself. They were both trying hard not to laugh, thus causing the other to fail. It would have been a really bad moment for Joan’s cohort to decide to get off its butt and patrol.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Cate said, more serious.
“Do what?”
“Sneak into New Rome’s post office. Get me cupcakes and my card.”
“No, but I do many things for fun.” Colin said. “And, you know…”
“I know what?”
“You know…”
“What?”
“Gosh dang it, woman, that you’re pretty- don’t you look at yourself in the mirror?” He got all self-conscious after blurting it out. “And catty, and funny, and tough, strong, you don’t take bull from anyone, your magic powers are cool as Pluto, you’re rebellious, you’re a nice person… Yeah.” He said.
Cate’s heart stopped. The joking flirt had taken on a life of its own. As much as for her than for him, she realised while holding the birthday present he’d gotten her.
“Colin, when’s your birthday?”
“Umm, April,” he said.
“Close enough,” Cate replied.
And then she kissed him.
His lips tasted like icing, so she guessed that he’d stolen himself a cupcake too. He put an arm around her waist and he held her tight enough to be safe, but loosely enough so he didn’t, like, break a rib. Cate felt more weightless than she ever had kissing anybody. She felt pretty and loved and wanted and rich in a million ways no bank could invest with. She hoped she did him justice, and she was nearly disappointed when the first cohort came marching by and they had to scramble back to their proper barracks.
A few minutes later, the buzz of energy and the bundle of smiles hadn’t faded yet, and she was just lying in bed, under her comforter. She heard tapping on the window. She looked up at Colin and smiled back. He put his hand to the glass and she put hers on top of his, although all she felt was the icy cold pane of glass. He smiled really sweetly at her and right then, he looked very nice. He wore a grey t-shirt and blue jeans, his hair was shaggy and wild and his bright blue eyes shone in the faint torchlight that always kept New Rome lit.
Then, just because he was Colin, he went into Cheshire grin mode.

1)AWESOME
2)Aw Colin...or Connor is SOOOO Sweet
3)Okay why did you say tragic now I'll probably hyperventilate every time something big happens in the story!!!
4)AAAAAW
5) I feel that you should post again but you won't I'm just rambling....okay bye


HAVE A NICE DAY
GREAT CHAPTER
PRETEND IM YELLING ON A PHONE TO YOU!!!!!!!!

Awesome....just pure awesome...

that was wonderful!!!!!!!!!!! im so happy!!!!! <3 ^_^
Tragic . . . . no tragicness . . . . :'(

Camp Half-blood!! no!!!!!
although I knew it would happen . . . I just want Chiron to live, and CHB to be rebuilt after the war . . . thats all . . . .

AAAAAWWWWWWA!!!!!!!!!! He is SSSSOOOOOOO adorable!!!!!! He is so sweet!!!!!!! AAAAAAWWWWWW!!!! I loved this chappie post soon!!!

OMG, that was just so sweet!!!!!! Conner/Colin and Cate make such a good couple. (Both their names even start with a C) I can't wait till Friday to see what happens to Chiron and CHB. Awesome chappie!!!!

Why does Friday have to be so far away?

Wow.... I've missed THREE chapters D:! Who knew that the summer would be more busy then the school year :P.
But anyway. So if Percy is going to be seventeen next month... OHMIGOSH; HE'S GONNA DIE TOMORROW. AND ANNABETH IS STILL GOING TO BE MEAN AND A JERK TO HIM; AND THEN HE'S GONNA DIE, AND THEN CAMP HALF-BLOOD IS GOING TO DIE!... Sorry; I went all "caps-lock" on you :P.
Bad Piper. You "broke a glass" XD. I started cracking up when Josie said that... Although Oliver?... I don't know. I think I'd prefer the name Tommy Jr. I don't really know why I said that either...
Is your sister older or younger?... But it's okay, 'cause you're not hurt or anything bad happened!
Poor Jane.
So yup, amazing chapter. Can't wait for you to post on Friday (which is in 2 days :D)!
~ percy4forever

*sniffsniff*
WELL AINT THAT ADORABLE? :3
but when cate finds out he lied about bein Roman... im thinkin STUFFS GONNA GO DOWN. AND IT SHALL BE AWESOME. >:)
oh i feel so evil sometimes ;)
greatttt CHAPTERR!! IT WAS GREAT! G! R! E! A! T! GOAT! no no, thats wrong..... i mean.... GREAT!!!!:D
--
oooh new page, aint i special. XP

Yay new page!!!!!!! And I agree^ stuff is going to go down and it will be AWESOME!!!!

this is a great fanfiction but dont let percabeth die!!!!!!!

^ if percabeth dies I will cry!!!

This is just a note to say that a chapter was posted last Tuesday so don’t read this before reading that. Kay, cool, comment replies.
@Rainshadow- As you should :P
@percy4forever- WHOA- who said anything about Percy dying? My sister’s younger. And no, not Tommy jr. Nuh-uh. Besides, Tommy’s real name is Thomas. There was just another guy called Thomas at Camp when he got there, and so he was called Tommy since. (no, this was never mentioned in the story. Well, maybe…)
@luvseaweedbrain- Cutting to the dramatic chase, are we?
Well, I got to see a neurologist this week (as everything is dying down… o_O) and there’s nothing he can physically see in the neurological examination that’s worrying to him (as per usual), but there are going to be a few tests done just to make sure.
In other news I can now use pictures to represent stories on fanfiction.net. If anybody has suggestions I'd like to know. Speaking of FF.net, I just posted a story starring Jason and Reyna.
Also my brother is unhappy because Italy beat Spain and got in the finals of Euro Soccer. Also my sister is meowing right now but don’t worry, it’s normal. Enjoy!

XXXXIV
Malcolm
It was early in the morning, but they were all gathered at the table.
Malcolm was furiously moving rocks with sharpie writing on them across a map. He’d thought that his plan was fail proof, but he’d woken up last night realising that no way it was not fail proof in any way and he’d have gotten up to fix it, but Nyssa threw him a shoe and had hissed ‘gods dang it, sleep, child’ in Greek.
To him, all those rocks had meaning. Like the one labeled ‘Phoenix Group’ was the children of Hecate, who were good at controlling big things for short periods of time, or working small to cause big effects. ‘Tank Phalanx’ was the children of Mars, who could be put anywhere a lot of forces would be concentrated, and ‘Butterfly Troop’ were the Aphrodite cabin who were good at appearing and disappearing in and out of places, hiding and causing distractions- not to mention the charmspeak; ‘Dragonfly Troop’ was the children of Hermes who worked similarly but had bigger numbers; ‘Automaton Formation’ was the Hephaestus cabin who should be placed near machinery or where they could work with something manual…
All these names were like a second language in the Athena cabin and he could have entire conversations with Annabeth without saying the name of a god or the word ‘cabin’. He wished his big sister would be here now. He’d never admit it, but although being a leader was new and exciting, he was pretty sure he liked playing second-in-command better. How Annabeth handled all this pressure, especially since she was so high on the totem pole, was a mystery to him.
To the other people in the ten, the rocks were like algebra and computer language put together. They just nodded and said ‘that’s a great idea’ even if ten seconds later Malcolm would go ‘NO! The Bat Squad is the children of Dionysus and it would be so much better if we had someone with bigger numbers there!’
Nyssa tried to be helpful. But Malcolm had to repeat stuff like ‘No, you can’t do that, ‘Sunshine Battalion’ is the children of Apollo and they need to be placed in high up places so we can use the archery as an advantage’. And then she got mad at him like ‘You’re not a one-man army, Malcolm, accept help, make it easier to understand’ and he’d be like ‘You guys don’t know how to do this, let me do this!’ and then she’d say ‘Gosh, you’re impossible, to which she’d reply ‘gosh no, you’re impossible’ and then they’d be kissing somehow.
That last part confused Malcolm, but he couldn’t say he wasn’t enjoying it. His experience with kissing wasn’t big. It involved, like, a few girls who’d kissed him only because they’d been playing spin-the-bottle when he was still in school, some daughter of Aphrodite behind the Demeter cabin a year ago. But he was pretty sure that Nyssa was a good kisser. And was this light-headedness part of the whole kissing business? It felt really weird, but really good…
Then Nyssa backed off and Clarisse, Travis and Will starred at them.
“So, strategy wise…” Malcolm muttered.
“Dude, a girl just kissed you.” Will said.
“Yes, and I’m surprised,” Malcolm said looking at Nyssa who held his stare with a glare that would make Godzilla pee himself. She wasn’t blushing nearly as much as he was sure that he was.
Connor Stoll saved him –which was always embarrassing to admit. He was standing in one of the showers, rubbing shampoo through his hair, wearing shorts.
“Ewe, put a shirt on Connor, spare us.” Nyssa said.
“You just kissed Malcolm Abramson; you have nothing to say on that subject.” Travis said.
“You kissed Malcolm?” Connor asked. “Geez, I leave, and then demigod babies are made.”
“What?” Both Malcolm and Nyssa snapped.
“Yeah. Demigod babies are made through lip contact, didn’t you guys know? Oh, Styx, I’m screwed.” Connor said.
“You kissed a Roman girl!” Will said. “Dude, are Roman girls hotter than Greek girls?”
Nyssa actually removed her shoe and physically inflicted pain on Will by throwing it.
“I did no such thing,” Connor said. “But yes, they are.”
“Whoo, that’s my little brother, you guys!” Travis said. “Fist-pump through IM bro, not only is he still alive after five days, but he is also taken. That’s my man.”
“Your brother gets girls quicker than you, Stoll.” Clarisse said. “Has Katie punched you lately?”
“Connor!” Malcolm said. “You can’t just side-track like this!”
“Dude, I didn’t side-track, it just kind of happened.” Connor said.
“Connor, if she finds out that…”
“You kissed Nyssa, I get to kiss Cate.” Connor said. “Strategy wise it is oh-so-totally fair.”
“Okay, that’s all regardless.” Malcolm said. “Congrats on kissing, just don’t let it screw up our plan. If you are discovered, they will throw you in prison, and there is a very minimal amount of things we can do about it. And then you lose your girlfriend anyways.”
“Speaking of you guys going things; did you contact Percy and Annabeth?”
“Yes,” Malcolm said.
“They are no longer an item,” Travis said.
“Le gasp!”
“Moving along,” Malcolm urged. He closed his eyes and sighed. “We’re still going to fly everyone in through Pegasus and even a few of them through airplane via the generous donations of certain demigod parents.”
“Who?”
“Mom, Drew’s dad, Clarisse’s mom, Chris’ college fund, Sally Jackson,” Travis said. “She must’ve saved, like, a million dollars since she hasn’t had to feed Jackson for six months.”
“And mostly everyone got at least five dollars in,” Malcolm said. “They have a plan to get people to the airport, and we have friends in the airport that pass bronze through security.”
“Awesome,” Connor said. “’Cause, they’re going to figure out whom I am eventually.”
“We’re working on it. Malcolm’s got this plan all laid out.” Nyssa said.
“I thought you guys were just playing rock poker,” Connor said.
“Turn off the shower,” Nyssa said.
“I can’t, or else I’m filthy and they wonder what the freak I’m doing in the shower all the time,” Connor said. “Also, I have to whisper, and also I have about three drachmas left, and a minute of shower time, so talk to me.”
“Keep going through the schedule and socialising with your Roman friends and Roman girlfriend. Keep obeying, don’t cause trouble.” Malcolm said. “We’ll contact you when the Greeks get here; and then again when we’re ready to attack. Basically, we’re going to have a message for you to pass to your Centurion as well as the other non-corrupt Centurion.”
“I can do that,” Connor said, washing his armpits. “But, uh, guys?”
“Yeah?”
“If everyone comes here… That’s, like, abandoning Camp Half-Blood, right?”
“Right,” Malcolm said uncomfortably. Connor looked uncomfortable.
“I don’t like that.”
“Well, nobody does, and the guys on the ship had a fight about it.” Malcolm said.
“No, Percy and Annabeth had a fight about it.” Travis said. “Piper and Leo were kind of just terrified to be there.”
Malcolm shot him a look.
“Okay Connor, take care.” Malcolm wished him good luck in Greek. The others repeated it, and so did Connor. It felt good to speak Greek to him, and Malcolm assumed that it provided some comfort at this point in time and space.
When the IM faded and the others left to go watch the dogs take down Travis again after he ‘stole’ something from Clarisse, Malcolm turned to Nyssa.
“Really?” He asked.
“Oh, come on.” She said. “You have had a crush on me for eight months.”
“That doesn’t mean that that was the right time,” he said. Suddenly he felt brave, watching her scowling at him with her usual Nyssa-ness scowl, and her dark hair looking really soft over her shoulder (though if he’d touch it, he was sure that she would kill him). “Now is, though.”
He took her hands, pulled her forwards, and kissed her.

Piper
Annabeth’s wise words (none of her siblings would ever forgive her for asking a daughter of Athena for advice on boys) had been ‘talk to him’.
She was starting to get how hard she’d been on Jason; it was hard to talk to someone who was working really hard to avoid you. Tommy was surprisingly good at it; even if the Argo II didn’t have that much floor space, and it drove Piper nuts.
That night mostly everyone was out watching the stars except for the trio of younger girls, who had retreated downstairs in what Piper assumed was a Quinn-related moment.
Jason and Percy were having one of their friendly I’m-only-arguing-and-threatening-you-bec­aus­e-y­ou’­re-­my-­cou­sin­-an­d-I­-lo­ve-­you­-in­-a-­cou­sin­-br­oma­nce­-wa­y arguments about whether the Big Dipper was a pot or a bear. Frank had just added the idea that it might be a bear’s pot and Leo was calling him stupid for it and insisting that it was a bear trapped in a pot. Ella was furiously mumbling about the stars in the Big Dipper, which was her code for: idiots, Ursa Major is the astrological representation of the hunter of Artemis Callista turned into a bear by the goddess when Lord Zeus fell in love with her and they had a child, and the constellation is this many billion light years away from the earth and composed with these stars. Being in Ella’s mind would be fascinating and scary, like being surrounded and looking up bookshelves the size of the Chrysler building.
Annabeth and Piper’s eyes crossed and rolled in synchronisation. Boys were boys; but at the same time they were total idiots. Piper managed to play football without having to sacrifice so many brain cells.
Tommy walked up the ladder. He’d gone down when Jason had offered that someone should go check on the younger girls. He couldn’t go himself because his whole leg was still immobilised in layers of ace bandages and Quinn would scream if she saw him walking on it.
Tommy had gotten up quicker than anybody else. He didn’t like sitting down and he liked work, keeping himself busy, moving around. Part of Piper’s mind kept thinking that he wanted to be back in a wide and open forest. The other part of her was slightly mad at him for ignoring her. He’d kissed her, after all.
“All is good?” Jason asked.
“They are fine,” Tommy said. “Playing some kind of game.”
“They are thirteen-to-fourteen year old girls.” Piper said.
“Speaking of which, it’s Quinn’s birthday tomorrow which makes her fifteen.” Annabeth said.
“Really?”
“Splendid, let’s make a cake.” Leo said.
“With what? Tofu, tomato sauce icing, and fifteen heavy-duty candles on top?”
“Don’t be silly Piper, one heavy-duty candle counts for five regular swirly pastel candles,” Leo said.
Everyone laughed and Tommy was no exception. His brown eyes flickered to her for a second and she tried for a smile, and then he went to sit down next to Leo and Piper lost it.
“Oh my gods why aren’t you talking to me?” She said, just getting up.
“What?” He asked.
“You can’t just- just do that. You can’t just kiss me, then not talk to me, then ignore me, then just- gah!” She said.
“What?” His German accent got pretty thick. “Piper,” he got up and walked up to her. He was close again and Piper’s skin tingled. “I thought you weren’t… I thought that…”
“Thought what? That I wouldn’t like you? My God, Tommy, you’re the sweetest and nicest and most interesting person I’ve met! I wasn’t protesting much when you kissed me, now was I? I really, really do like you!”
“Look, Piper… I’m… I’m awkward at this. I’ve been living in a camp since I’m nine. I had no idea what to do, I never told you I liked you before I kissed you, and after Josie just yelled it out-”
“Oh yeah, name your first child Oliver, lovely name. I think it’d go well with ‘Leo’ as a middle name.” Leo said. Piper’s eyes were fixed on Tommy but she heard Annabeth smack him.
“-I thought you weren’t happy with me.” Tommy said.
“You couldn’t have been more wrong,” Piper said. She put her arms around his neck and he hugged her back.
“I’m sorry.” He said. Piper kissed him.
“Well, I officially forgive you.” she said.
And the next morning, she found out that there was something undeniably awesome about waking up and realising that you’d fallen asleep and slept while holding someone’s hands and that he’d held onto yours the whole night.
Cate
She sat down on the couch and laid back a bit. The plate of chocolate-chip scones was quick to land in front of her today. A second aurae put down a mug of smoking hot chocolate. Colin’s usual plate of fish and chips appeared next to the table, and for a second the spirit appeared for a second, an elfish face that was either really young or really old or somewhere awkward in the middle, and she giggled. Cate made a rude hand gesture at her and she disappeared after leaving a plate of waffles with fruit and whipped cream and chocolate syrup for Josh-who did not need the whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Cate waved her hand and focused- a feeling like warm oil sapped through her fingers and she replaced the whipped cream by butter and the chocolate by maple syrup. She even did him a favour and made it be the good stuff- the natural stuff that dripped out of maple trees, not that simulated Aunt Jemima.
The two boys appeared and Colin sat down on the same couch as Cate, facing her.
“Hola, Amjad.” He said. “How goes it? Had a good night?”
“The best,” Cate said with a smile, picking up a scone.
“Can you make room on that couch for three people? I’m just so lonely.” Josh asked.
“No Josh, get your own.” Colin said.
“Get your own what? Couch or giiiiiiiiiiiirlfriend?” Josh said.
“You told him?” Cate said, hitting Colin on the knee.
“Please, hellhound, I’m not as stupid as I look.” Josh said. “And don’t you say anything about not being her boyfriend, Roberson. There is no such thing as ‘kissing buddies’, and if there is, then you two are insane.”
Cate liked being in the legion, she honestly did. It provided her with great joy and amusement and social opportunities- although she denied them more often than one would think, mostly because of Quinn’s eternal shyness. (Speaking of which, she really hopped that that girl was okay on the big ship with all the monsters and strangers. Not sure which one would upset her friend more, though…? At least Hazel Levesque had the reputation of being nice –albeit, secretive-, and Quinn seemed to get along with anybody who could pronounce words of more than nineteen syllables that had some relation to science, so she’d be fine with her sister.)
But her day in the legion got a lot better with Colin.
So, they could’ve tried to be discreet about it. But what the Pluto, man. YOLO had been invented by legionnaires; and although she hated how people always used it, Cate was fifteen and about to head off to this major blood-bath-like war, and things were about to get screwed up; so there it was.
It took about ten seconds for Brady to notice that the first time that Colin landed an eagle landing after yelling the lyrics to ‘I’m like a bird’ the whole way down until he tucked it into a roll and did not kill himself (thank the gods, Cate would have killed him), he took her hand. Then another split second for him to scream it out for the rest of the cohort to know (thank you Brady) and then they laughed. Colin said something along the lines of “If you knew how good of a kisser she was, you’d wish you were her boyfriend.”
Then Cate punched him.
“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I just can’t make a list of why they wish they were your boyfriend right now because a) you already know it, b) they’d make fun of me and c) I lost flecks of my brain when they fell out of my ears on the way down from the eagle-thing.”
Okay, cute enough. Cate kissed him on the cheeks figuring that the whole world knew already, so really.
Eventually he and Josh went off to do their own random thing in the streets of New Rome and Cate wandered alone. Two months ago it would have been Josh and Jedediah off to do some random thing together, and she and Quinn would’ve done some other random thing. Obviously she was glad that Colin was there now, but that didn’t stop that she was upset that Jedediah had disappeared, and also worried about Quinn. Times had changed, man. Times had changed… Which made her sound like her grandfather who kept saying that when something was freakishly different from how things were back in Lebanon.
She sat down at a coffee shop that she had no money for. She just wanted to sit at a little round table with matching black chairs under a flap roof, around chattering legionnaires who were happy and joking now that the training day was over.
And she nearly got it- but no one dared make jokes and laugh too loudly with Joan’s patrols coming through, and the Centurions of the Fifth Cohort were sitting at a table together, hunched close together and talking in hushed and worried voices, Dakota drawing something that looked like a map on the table with his finger.
Bah- it was close enough. What was she in, Paris? Fairy tale land?
She looked all over. A few days ago she’d have pulled up a chair with Dakota and Gwen and wanted in on their plan, and they’d have kicked her out and said ‘Centurions only’. Now, she wasn’t that angry at Joan. She’d still pull that prank. She’d still come up with her own. But there was something about having Colin be chill and easy-going and hilarious and adorable in every possibly aspect that calmed her down. Maybe he was shedding optimism. And she wanted to avoid the stupid risks to keep him out of trouble, and herself too (because if they both were out of trouble, they were together in the land of no troubles- yeay, yeay, yeay).
She leaned back in her chair. Yeah. Life was good.
She told him so when he sat down at the usual dinner table.
“Yeah,” he said. “Life’s real good. Come here.”
She got up from her own couch and sat down next to him, their feet intertwined. She rested her head on his shoulder and didn’t care when people pointed or whispered. She just closed her eyes. Maybe that was how she knew that she hadn’t screwed up and that she actually had something going with Colin.
“Food,” he said.
“I don’t want to move,” she said.
“Careful, plate’s hot.” He said. She opened her eyes and realised that he was passing her a plate of bowtie pasta with pesto sauce.
“I didn’t want you to move either.” He said.
Cate put the plate on her lap. He was a wimp, it wasn’t that hot. Or maybe he just really didn’t want her to get burned. Hmm…
“Where’s Josh?” She asked after a while of quiet eating.
“Huh?”
“I thought you guys were together.”
“No, I’m with you,” he said.
“Ha, ha.” She said. “I mean, weren’t you two chilling before supper?”
“Oh. Yeah, umm… I don’t know where he is.”
Cate raised an eyebrow suspiciously. What the heck had he been doing? Did she want to know what the heck he’d been doing?
She decided that if she must find out, she’d find out. But not now. He had dinosaur shaped nuggets and he was mimicking the fall of the dinosaurs with one of her sandwich halves as the asteroid. She was not missing that for wisdom or answers of any kind (except maybe the cure for cancer). 

XXXXV
Leo
Leo had learned one thing in life.
You never read anything that there wasn’t going to be a test on.
Novels, short stories, textbooks, required reading, newspaper articles… There would either be a test on the subject, a pop quiz on the subject, or a project to do on that subject.
So in the mythological world, Leo did not understand why the Hades he’d read the Symposium and seen these Jane and Cedric dreams. And he was still getting them. Everything from the silks of the Middle Ages, to Native Americans before the explorers settled in, to Mayas, to the first gay couple married in [someplace Leo couldn’t remember]…
In a disturbing new string of these dreams, he’d gotten two short scenes with little kids last night.
In one of them, a girl and a boy who were about seven years old each were sitting in front of each other, under an oak tree.
“I’m going to miss you when you move away.” The boy said.
The girl nodded. “I bet there won’t be anybody who can climb trees as fast as you where I’m going.”
“There’s nobody who can climb trees as fast as me in the universe,” he said.
Somebody yelled ‘Virginia, darling’.
The little girl got up. “I’ve got to go.”
“Yeah,” he said getting up too.
“Have… Have fun in California.”
“Okay,” the little girl said. She spat on her hand and held it out, the little boy spat on his and they shook hands. Then the little girl scrambled back to the chariot where her parents were waiting for her, with the big white tops like in the pioneer ages.
And in another one, it was like a picture show.
A little girl and a little boy, each five years old were playing outside with sticks, duelling each other. Then the little boy fell on no apparent surface and the girl gasped.
“Mrs. Bertrand, Mrs. Bertrand!” She called panicking.
He saw the little boy in a hospital bed with no hair and an IV in his hand, his mother sitting in the chair next to him and reading. The little girl knocked on the door, her tall mother behind her. Then they walked in. The mothers talked and the little girl went on her tip toes to talk to her friend, stretching her neck above the bars of the bed. They chatted and chatted. At some point he pointed from the IV to the side of his head, and the little girl put a teddy bear on the side table. The little boy grabbed it and hugged it and said thank you.
Then the kid had no hair, but he had colour in his cheeks and enough energy to run around after the girl now. Leo’s stomach tightened and a second later he fell against the grass. The little girl screamed and knelt next to him and shook him, but he didn’t wake up.
“Mrs. Bertrand!” She yelled again, her voice panicking and her eyes teary. “He has it again!”
Leo saw them in the hospital again, but he looked in terrible shape. Pale and tired and frail and sick.
Leo saw the little boy in his own bed at home, with an IV set up next to him. The little girl walked into his bedroom and sat next to him on the bed. They talked for a bit, but nothing happened. The boy’s mother appeared in the doorframe.
“Darling, your Mama said that you were eating at 5:00? It’s time to go home.” She said. Her eyes looked glassy and tired, like the rest of her face. New lines had appeared.
The girl nodded and said goodbye. She kissed him on the cheek. The little boy pulled the teddy bear from under the covers.
“You should have your teddy bear back. I’m not gonna need it.”
Leo knocked himself out of his thoughts and looked around the deck. Percy and Jason were talking (arguing) about something. Hazel, Quinn and Josie were playing a game of cards that included yelling out swear words when someone was bluffing, which Josie was too pleased to do. Annabeth was reading some required reading for her advanced graduate program. Piper and Tommy were hanging out at the front of the ship. Piper sat on the railing and Tommy kept touching her waist because he was afraid she’d fall. They were enjoying their I’ve-been-in-a-romantic-relationship-for­-a-­wee­k daze. Everyone was leaving them alone for the time being- except for Leo and Josie who refused.
He felt kind of solitarily awesome, standing there at his control station with a whole ship and nine million volts of awesome at his control. Awesome did indeed come in volts.
He also felt trapped by the dreams. Like, how did you throw something like that into a conversation? ‘By the way, Jane Stone gave up her life to try and stop the demigod civil war and try to be reborn with this Greek she fell in love with and they keep being reborn in other forms ever since, boy it’s hot today’.
No thanks.
Besides; Jason probably wouldn’t believe him because of how glorified Jane was in the legion and because he’d grown up with it for years. And Quinn would hit Leo for saying it- thus once more proving to the world that she could yell and not be shy for bursts at a time.
He had to figure out what it meant and then share with the world.
Suddenly he froze.
Holly Styx.
The day that Josie had yelled out that Piper and Tommy had finally kissed each other… That had been the night after he had the first dreams about the Symposium and co. Holly smokes. Holly freaking smokes. He’d missed it completely.
“Valdez, you okay?” Jason asked. He turned back towards Piper and Tommy, feeling stupid just as he watched Tommy push a strand of Piper’s hair behind her ear. She smiled shyly at the ground but rested her head on his shoulder.
“You’re Jane and Cedric!” He said.
Cate
She loaded her slingshot with a really nice rock and took aim at one of the empty cans lined on the low fence around the third cohort’s barracks. It was another one of those ‘why does my cohort have this?’ things, but today it proved useful- which, she assumed, so had the fire escape.
“Gessunteit,” Colin coughed.
“Screw you, Roberson!” She said. Cate took another deep breath, pulled the slingshot further back and…
“Bull’s eye!” Colin cheered. “That’s my girl!”
“So what would I have been if I’d have missed?” Cate asked.
“My loser girlfriend,” he said. “I’m kidding, I love you Cate.”
The words were said lightly, but their soft touch was enough to send off a trolley of butterflies in her stomach. She was going to reply –she wasn’t sure what, but she’d reply something-, but she didn’t have a chance to.
“What are you two doing?”
It was everyone’s favourite backstabber, ridding Reyna’s poor Pegasus.
“Umm, slingshot contest.” Colin said.
“There are more important things to be done,” Joan said.
“No there aren’t,” Cate said. The training day was over for the third cohort, some kid had, like, twisted his leg and snapped it at seven places. Way the go Ray.
Joan glared at Cate.
“Roberson, I want you doing inventory.” Joan said.
Colin nodded, stuffed the slingshot in his pocket and walked off. Cate followed and he held out his hand to her when they heard; “Amjad, I want you picking trash off the Via Principia, the fauns are unruly again.” Yeah, because they’re always unruly, they just like Jason and Reyna, whereas nobody likes you, Cate thought.
Then she realised that those two places were at opposite ends of the fort and that Joan had totally done it on purpose by the look on her face.
“Hellhound,” she swore at Joan.
“Pardon, Amjad?” Joan said menacingly.
“Hellhound, you are. Gosh.” Cate said, too ticked off to realise that she’d just called the praetor a really bad name.
“That’s enough.” Joan said. “I don’t care what Brady lets you get away with, I don’t want any of it.”
Joan snapped her fingers and like a merry band of well-trained pets, guards from the fourth cohort came, took Cate by the arms, pushed her away from Colin who hissed but didn’t move (like he should! Both the protective hiss and the not-moving, Cate approved entirely), and had her still.
“You, to the armoury.” Joan ordered. Helplessly he left, looking at Cate with worried eyes that made her want to pinky swear that she’d be okay.
In the center of the Via Principia, Joan’s guards cleared the way. They forced Cate to kneel in the middle of it.
“I’m giving you the maximum penalty for foul language seeing as I can’t prove any challenge or insult to authority, considering your skinny boyfriend would vouch for you.”
Insult to authority? You can get it, no problem. Just make me kneel for ten seconds more…
People were gathering.
The guards let her go.
“One hundred and fifty push-ups.” Joan told Cate. “On your toes, not your knees. With the armour on your back.”
Cate was going to swear some more. Thankfully she could manage push-ups on her knees whereas many people couldn’t.
People watched as she got on her toes and positioned her hands. She lowered herself to the ground. One hundred and forty nine more to go.
It wasn’t the excessively hard work that was bad –despite what her screeching arms said.
It was the people watching that made it worst, which she knew was the purpose of this. Like, each one took a sliver of Cate’s dignity and honour; and the Fourth and Second cohort weren’t shy on the comments. She tried to listen to the Third and Fifth Cohort’s cheering more, but through the screeching part of her brain that yelled ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO YOUR ARMS?’ she heard the insults.
Witch’s daughter.
Poisoned.
Not fit for Rome.
Underworld spawn.
She had enough friends in the legion that by now, she didn’t mind those petty insults to either Trivia or her ichor that much, although now she was excessively hard and ticked off. See, she didn’t believe in getting insulted for what you were. And insult was about what you did.
But what got her while she was at 120 was;
Terrorist, at that.
Cate lost it. She lost it, she lost it, she lost it. Because gods damn it, she was Arabic and that wasn’t anybody’s business but hers. And it was business she was proud of; she was proud of being Lebanese-American. But when the crud about terrorism came up and got flung at her, Cate lost it.
She got up and charged the legionnaire who’d said it, the second cohort’s current Centurion, Dwain. She grabbed his armour and swung him around, stronger than she’d normally be in a fight against a guy with Dwain’s build.
“You want mean, well guess what jahech, I can give you mean.” She growled at him, shaking his armour.
She felt a punch to the eye from someone other than Dwain, and Dwain himself got her lip. She didn’t let go and Joan’s guards pulled her from behind.
“Assault of a senior officer,” Joan said. She sounded almost happy about it and that made Cate rage more. “The penalty for that-”
“Is cancelled.”
Brady walked out of the crowd, pushing the people who didn’t move over out of his way.
“Centurion Curtis, this is not the time-”
“It is. Cate’s in my cohort and part of her discipline automatically goes to me.”
She was glad that the son of Mercury was serious this once, although she couldn’t acknowledge it through her own anger and the pain in her lip and the fuzzy vision from her punched eye. It’d be black for sure.
“And the penalties should be cancelled. She was provoked quite clearly and publically. The charges should actually go to Centurion Dwaine Milson for racism and insult to a legionnaire’s heritage- an offence which, it seems, Rome is letting off easy now.”
The Greeks. Even Cate registered that he was talking about the Greeks. The crowd went silent and Gwen and Dakota quickly emerged from the crowd to stand behind Brady. Cohort Fifty Three were all making sure that they were armed.
Turning her head from Joan, to Joan’s flaring nostrils, to the Loyal Centurions, Cate saw Colin in the crowd with her not-fuzzy eye. He must have gone to get them. Bless him, bless him bless him, bless him, she loved him too.
For a second, Cate thought that a fight would break out right there and then she realised how poorly armed she was.
“No charges. Amjad, get out of here. Disperse, there’s nothing to see here, Romans.” Joan said, breaking the staring.
The guards let her go rather harshly and stomped off, and Cate fell.
Brady walked over and slipped an arm under her spaghetti-like shoulders and arm, which ached so bad.
“C’mon Cate, let’s go get you cleaned up.” He said bringing her up. Then quitter he added. “You’re lucky to have him looking out for you.”
Cate looked up and saw an anxious Colin, waiting. She nodded softly. “Yeah I am.”
Quinn
Leo had lost it.
“Leo, I’m Piper and this is Tommy.” Piper said. “You’ve known at least me for, like, a year. What are you talking about?”
Dots connected in Quinn’s head. All his random and often stupid questions over the last little while… The Symposium too, but that was insane to add to the equation just yet. “Leo, are you talking about Jane Stone?”
Leo looked like he’d just had an epiphany. His eyes darted everywhere, which was the Leo Valdez was of thinking intensely.
“Yeah,” Leo said. “Sort of. Oh my gods I am so stupid.”
“If you think Piper’s name is Jane, then yes.” Frank said.
“Leo- Quinn- somebody?” Hazel, poor and visibly confused Hazel, asked.
“Okay, this is insane.” Leo said. “But it’s so cool!”
“Talk Valdez, they don’t have all day.” Josie said, leaning back against the railing and crossing her arms. Quinn had an awkward feeling that her friend knew exactly what was going on, and that she’d known for a while.
“I have these insane dreams that the Roman praetor Jane Stone fell in love with a Greek prisoner and they plotted to stop the Civil War by ruining each other’s armies. And eventually he died and she tried to stop the civil war by giving up her life, but that also meant that she was reincarnated in another life with the dude -Cedric by the way, he’s kind of chill- because they’re, like, bonded or something.”
“That’s great, albeit tragic.” Piper said. “I don’t understand, though.”
“Leo, is that why you kept asking Quinn and I about the Symposium?” Annabeth asked.
“They mentioned it a million times. The dream-dudes.” Leo nodded.
“The Symposium?” Tommy asked. His hand tightened around Piper’s as everyone wandered closer, them included.
“Yeah. It was written by Plutarch.”
“Plato.” Quinn corrected.
“Doesn’t matter, they were probably cousins anyways.” Leo said.
“What’s the Symposium?” Percy asked.
“According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other half” –Plato’s The Symposium.” Piper recited.
Everyone looked at her, frowning.
“What? Destiny and fluff and love. It’s programmed inside me, it’s not my fault.” She said, backing up against Tommy’s chest.
“I’m a genius,” Leo said.
“Leo, that’s kind-of far-fetched.” Hazel said.
“Yeah. There’s no such thing as, like, true love or whatever.” Percy said.
Quinn looked at Annabeth. She looked like she’d just died inside.

^ AWWWWW!!!!! I don't know weather to cry or scream or....what!!!!!! Its so cute they're each others other halves!!! But poor annabeth that has to be awful!!! Do you think Connor and cate are each others other halves too? That would be awesome!!!! Oh holy Hannah you have to post and SOON!!!!

why yes, i quite enjoy dramatic chases :D haha.. ha.. PERCABETHH D: nooooooooooooo...
but cate 'n' colin!!!!!! cutecutecute:3
oh, and leo. leo, leo, leo. so random and awesome :D
awesomeee chapter! :D
and am i the only one who doesnt watch soccer here?' yes? oh... awk.

We need a couple name for cate and Connor......this is gonna be hard....

Leo's going crazy. Hecate have you forgot that Nico is missing?

AWWWWW...so sweet!
This chappie was full of sweet and romantic moments!
Tommy and Piper...Tiper? Pommy? So sweet! Cedric and Jane.
Leo's randomness!!!!! :D
Conner and Cate....hard to find name. But their relationship is so sweet!!!
NOOOOOOO!!!!!! Why is Percabeth falling apart?????? That's my favourite couple!

If we use Colin for Connor we could do like, Calin for they're couple name......

Um correction Italy beat Germany which I am so happy about!!!! I want Italy to win so badly BALOTELLI!!!! I really want Spain to lose

1) I love how Piper just confronts him in front of everyone
2) I LOVE TOMMY AND PIPER
3) Wait what's all this about symposium? I'll read over the last chapters I guess
4) AAAAAW Cate and Collin/Connor are so CUTE
5) Seriously I was hoping for a battle between the Cohorts I was like FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT KILL JOAN (gosh I'm turning into Ares)
6) Malcolm and Nyssa huh? I can see that:)
7) So they're flying all the demi-gods at CHB to California? To help battle or like what's with the plane then?
8) GREAT CHAPTER!!!!!
9)p.s. OMG Jane and CEDRIC are PIPER and Tommy!!!!! So wait does that mean Tommy will die first cause the boy in all of Leo's dreams died first.....don't do that or I will strangle your fanpoppiness missy
I love Tommy sooo much you're making me lose sight that I like Jason and Piper...sTOP it cause when I read MOA I'll be like Tommy is better....oh but HE IS stop stop stop

jason and Piper
Tommy is a not real character to Rick.
Tommy is HecateA's

NOT REAL
JASON AND PIPER
okay I'm fine now
Great chapter
TA TA
but for now while you write I'll like Tommy

Please post soon!!!

^I know!!!!! Aren't tommy and piper SOOOOOOOOO cute?!?!?!?!?

mmm muffins!
Wow just realized that I missed the most recent chapters... AND THEY ARE AWESOME!!!!
But POOR PERCY!!!! *sob* And poor Annabeth too!! I don't know how she can stand all that....Okay since I'm behind I better go read the newest chapters......

^muffins are amazing!!!!

@Rainshadow Nuh-uh, Italy whupped Spain and THEN they dealt with Germany. Anyways, they piss me off too.
AHA! Hazel, Josie, and Quinn were playing Bull***t, one of my favorite card games.
Anyways, awesome chap!
So, Tommy and Piper are Cedric and Jane, eh? Interesting.
That probably killed Annabeth at the end there.
So, Cate and Connor finally kissed!
And, Brady saves the day again! Man, I just want to shoot Joan!
Anyways, what's happening with Reyna? We need an update on Reyna!
Overall, awesome chapter! Can't wait for Tuesday or Friday!

YOLO! My sister gets so annoyed whenever I say that around her XD... But oh! Yay for having semi-annoying-but-still-amazing younger sisters (I have younger sisters too) :P!
Wait so does this mean Percy's not going to die an icy-death :D?! Because Chiron said that Percy was going to die when he's 16... And he turns 17 in a month; meaning that Percy will die sometime "this" month. But you're saying that he's NOT going to die :D. Yay for no death :D.
Okay; this was me in the chapter:
Aw, Nyssa and Malcolm.
Aw, Jason and Percy make a cute bromance ;).
Awww, Piper and Tommy.
Awwww, Cate and Conner.
Aw crap; no Percy! Love Annabeth!
So basically I said "Aw" alot :P.
Aw, that was cute (except for the end; thanks alot Percy).Can't wait for next week (hopefully sometime sooner ;)?)
~percy4forever

ohh. I feel soo bad for annabeth. but anyways that chapter was amazing!!!!!!!!!! :)

@luvseaweedbrain- My brother watches it. I don’t really care for soccer ‘cause it’s not Quidditch.
@tracytracy- No I haven’t! Jason gets the dreams about what’s going on, ‘cause Gaia’s going after the loved ones of everyone on the boat. So Mrs. Zhang, Sammy (just to rub it into Hazel), Thalia and Jedediah are there too. Yeay!
@Rainshadow156- To help with the plan (‘cause they need manpower), they’re flying in the rest of CHB. Some by Pegasus, some by plane. I didn’t actually notice that I always kill the Cedric part of it first tee-hee.
@TheUltimateBoss- Yeah it did.
@percy4forever- YOLO bugs me too.

ICY DEATH IS FOR LATER!

Happy Canada Day! Oh, and also happy Spain-dealt-with-Italy day.

XXXXV
Piper
Pretty soon, everybody was up to speed on Leo’s insane and cacophonic theory, and ideas were flying off. Piper felt slightly like a freak, and slightly dizzy. She clung on to Tommy’s arm because her head spun.
“Why did you find out, out of all people?” Frank asked. “It seems pretty random.”
“Why did you find out?” Hazel asked. They chattered for ten seconds when there was a wolf-whistle. Everybody turned to Jason, who had two fingers in his mouth.
“I don’t mean to sound controlling here, but I don’t think any of us have a thing to tell.” Jason said. He turned to Piper and Tommy. Tommy’s hand tightened around Piper’s and she swore that she could nearly feel his heartbeat.
“Tommy, Piper,” he said really calmly. “I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but what do you two have to say about all this?”
She tilted her head up to look at Tommy. He was so much taller than her that he looked down. She could nearly read in his eyes. He didn’t know about this anymore than she did. He was confused. The flash mob of destiny and myth and true fluffy love was coming right now, so that vaguely alarmed him as much as it totally alarmed her.
“I don’t know,” he said quietly in French. Only Frank and Hazel spoke French.
“That’s a huge question.” Piper said, her fingers twiddling with the ring at her neck. “I don’t know what to answer.”
“This is a matter of the heart,” Tommy said. “I know it sounds sappy and terrible, but answer with what’s there.”
She looked at him. She’d known him for a little over a week, but sometimes she felt like she knew him better than she thought she knew Annabeth or Leo, Jason or Drew, Lacy or Mitch. Like, she knew when he was feeling something, or why he was feeling it. She could start feeling like she was going to get kissed but still be surprised when he’d kiss her cheek. She could wake up every morning knowing that he was asleep next to her but still smile when she saw that he looked just as calm sleeping as he did awake. Maybe everyone was like that. Maybe it was insane. It probably was. But Piper was an insane being with the half-god/half-mortal concept, the charm speaking, the Argo II and the monsters. Maybe, just maybe she was meant for insane things.
“I can’t say for sure.”
“Me neither, but Piper, I really think that maybe… I know this make me sound crazy-”
“Yeah,” Piper said. “I know. If there’s anybody in the world, even if I’m not in the skin of every single person that’s in love but… I think that it could be. Me too.”
He squeezed her hand. “It’s a bit scary,” she said.
Tommy didn’t say anything about that. “Do you want to tell the others?”
“Je ne sais vraiment pas. Josie’s gonna love that.” Piper said.
“She looks serious enough.” Tommy said. “Right now.”
“Looks don’t matter.”
“But they aren’t deceptive. I saw a beautiful girl and I ended up meeting a beautiful person.”
“Stop flirting with me,” Piper said, pushing his chest. She had to smile anyways and he smiled back at her. Gods, that shy smile always reeled her in.
“Maybe,” Piper said to the crew, in English this time. “Maybe.” Of course this means I’ll have to contact my delightfully confusing mother of a goddess to figure out this and that, and who knows how to do that.
Tommy touched her elbow and knocked her out of her thoughts.
“It doesn’t matter. About the Symposium.” He said. “I still love you.”

Annabeth
She’d excused herself on the pretext of reading after the group discussion, and she’d went and hidden herself in the engine room, in the corner behind the boilers.
She leaned her head against the wall and tried not to cry.
She was tired. She was hurt. It was like the bullet she’d aimed at Percy had ricochet and hit her through the heart. Every day there was something to make her regret it. Yesterday it was how he and Jason were boasting about how may long trips they’d taken and he’d mentioned Siren Bay and the Sea of Monsters. The day before that it was just seeing his face- those were the worst days. A while ago it’d been when Jason was hurt, and he’d told them that he knew First Aid because he was training to be a lifeguard.
Annabeth fed the community center’s machine a dollar bill and someone grabbed her by the waist.
She nearly screamed and realised a second later who it was. She turned around and saw his laughing face. His jet black hair was still wet and he was looking about as gorgeous as he got.
“Gotcha, Wise Girl.” He said his green eyes playful and happy.
“Oh my gods Seaweed Brain, I’m going to kill you one day.” She said. She kissed him, because that was something stupid to do.
“Hey Annabeth,” a girl named Nicky said walking out of the girl’s changing room, her wet hair down her back. “Thank God someone’s taking him off our hands. He’s all yours.”
“Ditcher! Wait up,” Lilian said running after Nicky. She spotted Annabeth and Percy together. “He’s insane tonight, Annabeth, good luck.”
“I was actually perfectly sane as I was pushing you into the pool,” Percy said. “That was an enlightened choice.”
“Oh my god, do you know what enlightened means?” Lilian asked.
“It was hilarious, though.” Nicky said. Lilian smacked her arm.
Annabeth loved listening to the lifeguard trainees talking to each other.
A few seconds later Chad came out.
“Oh yeah, the girl Jackson pays to show up and impress up,” Chad said. “Hey Annabeth.”
“Hello Chad,” she said. “Did you get pushed into the pool tonight?”
“No, I pushed Nicky in after Lilian,” Chad said. “I’ll see you later guys, I didn’t lock my bike in and if it gets stolen I’m screwed.”
“Genius,” Percy said.
Lilian and Nicky followed him out, bickering and picking at each other the whole time.
“Please tell me you actually did push her into the pool and you didn’t use water powers,” Annabeth said when it was just them.
“No, I pushed her. Doritos?”
Annabeth nodded, and he pushed the button on the machine for her. He bent down and grabbed her bag of chips from the bottom drawer of the machine.
“Thanks,” Annabeth said. “And no, you may not have one, I’m starving.”
“So am I.”
“Your mother will feed you when you get home, whereas my cafeteria is closed and my roommate steals my food. I need these more.” Annabeth said, opening the top.
“And you think that my mom would let you starve? Remind me to introduce you to her,” Percy said.
“Fair point,” Annabeth said holding out the bag to him.
With his arm around her waist, they walked out of the community center. His hair was wet since he was surrounded by mortals and had to put the anti-water barriers down.
“You stink like chlorine,” Annabeth said.
“And usually I smell delightful of chlorine?”
“Shut up, Seaweed Brain.” Annabeth said. “Can we walk faster? There’s somewhere I’ve got to go before going to your place, and it closes at nine.”
“Where?” Percy asked.
“A library that-”
He groaned.
“Oh, come on,” Annabeth said. “I come find you at the community pool every night.”
“That’s because you love me.”
“And you don’t love me?” Annabeth asked pointedly.
“Of course I do.” Percy said. “But… libraries…”
“You haven’t even heard what it specialises in,” Annabeth said.
“What does it specialise in?”
“Ancient history and texts from the era,” she said.
He groaned again.
“It’s for Camp Half-Blood.” She said. “You can appreciate that.”
“Can’t we just hang out tonight? Since your birthday’s during exams my mom’s making your favourite tonight. Don’t tell her I said it in advance.”
“That’s really sweet Seaweed brain, from you and your mom. And I won’t tell her, but this is important.”
“You’ve had nightmares about something?” He asked.
“Yes,” Annabeth said surprised that he could see that far in. “Well, preoccupations. Since Rachel went prophetic, actually.”
“And visiting a library would make you feel a lot better about it?”
“Yes. I know that you don’t get it personally-”
“No, no, it’s like when I go to the beach. Okay, let’s do it, let’s go to this library.” He said kissing her cheek. She couldn’t believe that she’d just gotten him to come to a library for reasons other than hiding from some monster. Holly smokes. “But fast because I’m starving too.”
A few seconds later Quinn came too. She sat down next to Annabeth and hugged her.
Annabeth’s eyes were tearing up. She felt numb and her mind was empty.
He’d said it. He’d finally said it- what she’d always wanted to hear from him. He’d basically confirmed that her plan was worthy of Athena. That she’d broken him to the point where it hurt so much that he couldn’t forgive her of find good in what she’d once been- in what they’d once been. Her plan had worked- her whole life had always been about making plans and making them work and fail-proofing them. She loved it- she always had. But she felt so bad that second.
“You can cry,” Quinn promised. “They’re all busy. Josie’s being loud.”
She’d barely stopped talking before she burst into tears.
The idea that even if he survived this and she survived this and the world lived through this, that those simple moments when she snuck away from her schoolwork or that he got to come on campus or when they were both at camp wouldn’t happen anymore… Because of deliberate efforts to ruin it on her behalf… Because of unforgivable things that she’d said… She buried her face in her knees. She’d wanted to build something permanent and now she’d become some demolition ball. She hated Juno, she hated the fates, she wanted to punch Aphrodite’s face in, she hated Juno.
“Gods,” Annabeth said. “I hate this. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. I should’ve stayed in Rome. I should have stayed behind in Rome, gone back to Camp Half-Blood earlier. I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be the wildcard that could throw him off his game. I don’t want to be the sacrifice that he won’t be able to make. I don’t want to have to cover that up.”
“But you are, Ann.” Quinn said. “And you have to do it. And you are because you’re a beautiful person, and if you’re the person that has to be his wildcard and his number one, then it’s because you can do it. We’re all matched up to the fate we can handle.”
“Do you really believe that?” Annabeth asked. “Really Quinn? Because I can’t do this anymore. I can’t stand seeing his face that way over and over, time and time again. I’m losing it, I can’t handle it.”
Quinn looked at Annabeth for a second. She took off her glasses and whipped them on the bottom of her shirt. Her eyes had even bigger pockets than Annabeth remembered, and the grey irises were dulling.
“That’s how I get through my days.” She said. “And they’re not easy either.”

Jason
Gaia’s earth prison was fuller than usual.
Of course his eyes darted for Thalia first. She was sitting on a rock and examining a nail in the way most people examined their weapons.
Mrs. Zhang was sitting a wall, unmoving- but alive. The silvery ghost of Sammy Valdez floated a short distance away.
Nico was pacing back and forth, about half-driven to insanity. Like those animals who were kept in cruel zoos where the cage was too small.
Jedediah Adams was standing in the corner, leaning against the walls, arms crossed. They all looked tired now. Not the usual feisty that Jason was used to. Even his sister dropped her nail and leaned back.
There were three new people there, and Jason recognised them straight away. Grover. Percy’s best friend at camp. And Mitchell; Piper’s closest sibling. Then there was a little boy, he must be around eight, with sandy blond hair and blue eyes that Jason did not recognise. Shoot, that was nearly everyone on the Argo II covered. Piper, Percy, and then whoever knew that little boy.
He was pacing on the spot, his hooves clicking against the ground.
“Stop it, goat boy.” Thalia said. “I’m going to lose it.”
“Like you didn’t lose it a long time ago, Thals.” Nico said.
“He’s a goat?” The little boy asked. He was mortal, then.
“Please don’t start again,” Jedediah said.
“And what exactly is that supposed to mean, Zombie Lad?” Thalia snapped.
“He said please!” The little boy said.
“Stop arguing like children,” Mrs. Zhang said. “Thalia, how old are you?”
She made a face. “That’s complicated. Are we talking about bone age, mental age or physical age?”
“Nico- are you a baby?” Mrs. Zhang continued.
“No.” He sighed.
“Then stop acting like one,” Mrs. Zhang said. “The only one with an excuse is Matthew, here.” She said pointing to the little boy. Matthew… it was at the tip of Jason’s tongue, he knew who that kid was.
“No offence,” Grover said, “But Mrs. Zhang, why are you so zen all the time?”
“Because I trust my grandson.”
“Frank,” Jedediah told Matthew.
Chase! That was who he was, Annabeth’s younger half-brother. Matthew Chase.
“Yes. Call me crazy and maybe I am, but the seven half-bloods are doing their job. Until then, I will not waste my energy either bickering with you children, or trying to break out. That would anger the earth goddess.”
“She’s already plenty mad,” Thalia muttered. She got up and stretched her legs. “How many days has it been since food?”
“Two,” Nico said.
“Good, there should be something tonight.” Thalia said. “See Matthew, it’ll be okay.”
“You jinxed it,” Nico said.
“No she didn’t. Gaia wants us alive. Well, she wants you lot alive. Too late for me.” Sammy said.
Right then Jedediah took a running start and sent a flying kick towards the earth bars.
“Jed!” Thalia said.
“I’m sick of it!” He said. “Gods damn, I’m sick of this whole thing! She plucked Mrs. Zhang out of flight, you out of the hunters, me out of the fort, Grover and Mitchell from Camp, Matthew from San Francisco- gods, she’s just going to get to the seven, now!”
“Jedediah, don’t say that.” Thalia said. “They’re going to be fine.”
“How can you say that, Thalia? If she got me, then she knows… She can get…”
“Get who?” Grover asked.
“Your girlfriend?” Matthew asked nagging, as official eight year old.
“She’s not,” Jedediah said. HURT was written as clearly on his face as I WISH SHE WERE.
“I know what you mean,” Mitchell said. “I mean, about the others not being safe. But… Really, Jedediah, we can’t do anything. And freaking out is just bad.”
Jason knew the secret layer of Jedediah- he was a child of Virtus. The god of military prowess. He didn’t like, usually wasn’t, and never should be caged in. Like Reyna, Jason thought.
“Hey,” Thalia said softly. “I know, it’s stressing us all out. But if there’s something I’ve learned, being here since December and all, it’s that you have to be like Mrs. Zhang. Trust the people who are out there.”
Jason woke up feeling about twenty times more pressure.
He also felt like a total jerk when he had to go talk to Piper, Percy and Annabeth.

Frank
Since Leo’s outburst of ancient myths and dreams and revelations, two whole days had passed with nothing more dramatic than a sea monster that looked so much like a kraken, Frank was starting to think that all movie makers were demigods. (Leo had loved that. He was like; ‘Gaia released the kraken on us. Get it? Released a kraken?’)
He was reading The Art of War again. He’d never told anybody, but the reason he liked the book so much was partially the content, partially the little notes his mom had left in it. He tried to figure out what she’d been thinking when she highlighted a passage, and read the scrawls in the margins of the pages. Some of these things he wanted to highlight himself. It felt like a piece of Mom was always with him, stuck under his pillow. He realised how much he missed her when all he had were these scraps of her.
That’s when Hazel sat down in front of him. He looked up. The boat was always bustling with activity and with people having to be here and there that he hadn’t kissed her since the Feast of Fortune. He’d really hoped that something would happen between both of them, but that was impossible now. Besides, saving the world was now a priority and she was way too stressed (according to Leo, that was) as it was. Frank didn’t want to confuse her furthermore. Just as he looked up to her, Frank saw how sick she looked. Sunken eyes tinged with an unhealthy yellow, her nails were nervously chewed, her shoulders were slumped, and she looked stick-thin.
“Hey,” Frank said. “’What’s up?”
“The sky,” she said without enthusiasm.
“What’s wrong?” Frank asked immediately. She looked tired.
“I need to talk to you,” she said. “Like; really talk to you.”
“Okay,” he said. They were alone. “What about?”
She closed her eyes. “Leo put me up to it. He says sorry that he lied but that I made him do it, and I did.”
“Lied? What?” Frank asked. He trusted Leo at this point, was he wrong to?
“You sent him to figure out what was wrong with me, right?”
Was she mad? He couldn’t tell. “I’m sorry, you just didn’t tell me, and I didn’t think you would.”
Hazel sighed. “I was mad. Quinn talked me out of it. You were right, I wouldn’t have told you.”
“But you told Leo,” Frank said.
“He annoyed it out of me,” Hazel said. “I didn’t want not to tell you.”
“So… there is something not-right going on?”
“Yes,” Hazel said. “Big time. I’m not stressed, well, not primordially.”
She scooted closer to him and took his hand.
“Frank, I’m… I’m not doing so well, and it’s not because of, like, fatigue or stress.”
He got a bad feeling in his stomach.
“Are you sick?”
“Sort-of.”
He listened, but he could barely manage to sit down and not stand up and yell at her that she was wrong, that she would be okay, that she shouldn’t say Styx like that. Maybe because… he kind-of believed it?
She observed him with glittering gold eyes. “You’re not mad? Frank? Frank? Please, say something.”
“No,” he said. “I mean, no I’m not mad at you. It’s not your fault.”
“You still look mad.”
Frank looked at the cover of The Art of War. He knew that on the inside, there was a scrawled note that said ‘To Em from M’ which must’ve been an inside joke. An inside joke long forgotten because the world had changed and thwarted and moved forwards from someone good. That idea made Frank’s stomach tighten when he thought of Hazel. Maybe she’d be one of those forgotten inside jokes in ten, twenty, thirty years. He knew that you couldn’t stop people from evaluating and growing and getting over things, but he knew that he didn’t want that. He didn’t want Hazel to die. He didn’t want the world to be Hazel-free.
“I’m not mad,” he said. Not at you at least. I don’t know who to be mad at.
“Really?” Hazel asked.
“I’m sad,” he said. “But I’m not mad. Chin up, though. You’re not dead, and you might not die, and you probably won’t die. I mean, the good die young, but it never said anything about the perfect.” She blushed, and when Frank caught on with what he said, and he blushed too.
“That’s sweet,” he said. “But…”
“No buts. Just face the world.” Frank said. “No pun intended.”
She laughed. “I should’ve told you earlier. I could use more people than Leo and Josie making me laugh.”
“I’ll try to keep up with los espagnoles humour.” Frank said. He opened his arms and she burrowed herself against him. She breathed evenly and wheezily, but Frank suspected that she had to concentrate hard to make it happen. There was something comforting about being able to make someone feel better when you felt like total and utter Pegasus dung.

AWWWWW cute!!!! Frank is so sweet!!!!!! Poor annabeth!!!!!!!! That would be eating at me to!!!! I love how piper and tommy talk in french(: it's sooooooooooo cute(: I CAN'T BELIEVE GAEA GOT ANNABETHS LITTLE HALF BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!! That's so awful!!!!!): please post soon!!!!! I need to know if you fix things or not!!!!!

Gea=Gaia
right? So... How do u pronounce them cuz I was reading a book and there was this girl names Gaia and that it was pronounced like the word guy so... Ya, funny name.

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My cutest couple at the moment= tommy and piper= tiper or toper or permy
^ but this is like Percy and Tommy tho...

So was tommy and piper, Romeo and Juliette?

I seriously thought Jane stone and Cedric were percabeth but the world is full of other couples right? Still tho that was a twist :D

Also they should have their own secret language like German cuz no one else knows German, right?

Ur definitely making me like piper and tommy better than liper or jiper or whatever.
Hopefully rr uses ur tommy :D

< wow!!! I wrote sooooooooooo much about tiper!!
^ I like this better cuz...
1. Its the only one that sounds good
2. Maybe Oliver will be an author! * tehee - crazy maniac grin*

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( me) "PERCY AND ANNABETHHHHHHH!!!!! U TWOOOO —"
( thumpers mom) " u shouldn't say that trivia —"
( me) " I know, I know, if u don't have anything good to say, dont say anything at all. Haven't we heard u say that enough times on Bambi?!"
( thumpers mom) " TRIVIA!!"
( me) " oops I forgot! I really need to spend time away from Leo for a while...
... Oh, frappuccinos as an after thought... Hmmm..."

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POST SOOOOOON!!!
///// have a cake for bieng a really good author!! /////

AWESOME!!!1

!)Aw Tommy loves Piper
2)I actually teared up with annabeth and Percy I hope they get back together i hate Juno
3)Haha Jason... pressure
4) LIFE GUARDING
5)I love how Frank is just so confused with himself
6)I love Hazel and Frank
7) I LOVE TOMMY AND pIPER

this chapter was really good, but I couldnt focus because I was sobbing about Annabeth DX
but on a happier note, I JUST GOT POWER BACK WOT.
and tommy and piper are cute :3
but i missed connor...;)

So Percy IS going to die an icy death :(? That's awesome :/...
I don't say YOLO at all... Unless my sister's around; and then I say it to bug her ;).
And Happy Late Canada Day... Even if I'm not Canadian :P.
Anywho... Crap, crap, crap. Poor Annabeth! That is so sad what happened :(. A cute story; but sad when she realized it will never happen. And plus they have Matthew D:!
Poor Hazel; but it was cute how Frank gave her a hug and said a really nice thing.
Hm... Idk what else to say... I covered pretty much everything...
Can't wait for Friday :D
~ percy4forever

@Trivia101- No they’re not, for the very good reason that Romeo and Juliet don’t actually exist outside of Shakespearean literature. Also, they didn’t love each other; it was mostly lust and rebellious-teenager-hormones.
Also, they speak French, which is close enough since both of them have got the French-from-France-French.
@luvseaweedbrain- POWER!
@percy4forever- MWA! (‘Cause I feel like your comment deserves a reply but I don’t know what to say)

Hello! So I forgot that today was Tuesday because yesterday everything was closed because Canada day was the day before (which made sense to somebody in the government) so in my head it was the Sunday of Canada day for 48 hours straight- but then I remembered that not everybody lives in my head so I edited this chapter for you! Ta-dah!
Recently I’ve spent a worrying amount of time on YouTube watching charlieissocoollike, vlogbrothers, Chameleon Circuit, Hank Green's music, and this:link which is very cool and somewhat makes me want to figure out how to include it in a story.
And because of Charlie, when I was editing the chapter and reading it out loud to myself to try and find the typos (they’re a breed of ninjas I tell you) I was reading it in a British accent. Also because of Charlotte Moore- who you don’t know yet because she’s not on the Internet yet, and I’m still not sure if she will be!


XXXXVII
Percy
He paced back and forth and back and forth. He wanted to jump into the ocean and just get as far away from the stupid ship as possible.
Grover.
Wow. Just, wow. It wasn’t enough for Gaia that her waking up had basically led to Annabeth being taken away from him. The girlfriend wasn’t enough, it wasn’t enough that he hadn’t seen home in months and that it was about to get destroyed so he wouldn’t see it ever again, or that Chiron was going to die, it wasn’t enough that his mom was worried out of her mind and the last he’d heard of her was a message on the home phone, no. Of course not, she had to take away Grover, his best freaking friend in the whole freaking world.
He punched the mast. Leo didn’t even say anything.
What was she doing to him? Was he safe? Was he hurt? Was he getting hurt? Were they going to force-feed him meat or poke him with a stick or what?
Percy punched the mast again and kicked it. He wanted to kick actual live things that would scream and were shaped like Gaia.
Annabeth and Piper were both livid. Annabeth was hugging her knees and her face was buried in them. This was a time when he’d go sit next to her and hug her and tell her everything was okay. He’d brush her hair off of her cheek and kiss her. But could he do that? No. Because Gaia had ruined everything and she was stubborn…
Like Tommy was doing with Piper, lucky guy. The universe wasn’t trying to rip them apart.
He kicked the mast again.
“They’re safe,” Jason said. “If Thalia and Nico have been kept alive that long, they’re fine. Gaia’s not trying to hurt anyone, I heard them say it.”
“He’s eight,” Annabeth snapped. “He’s eight and he’s mortal and he’s my little-”
She just closed her eyes and got up.
“I’ll be in the engine room,” she said. Which was Argo II code for ‘the rest of you should stay out’ because locking yourself in the bathroom was just rude considering there were more than 10 of them and there was only one bathroom. Hiding in the engine room was the socially acceptable alternative.
Piper got up shakily.
“Jason’s right,” she said. Her voice was sweet and it felt like a hug, even if her charmspeak was relatively weak. “Gaia isn’t in the business of hurting those we love. We shouldn’t worry about them. The only thing we should worry about is us keeping going and not stopping. We’ll rescue them. It’s how we’ll save the world.”
Percy found himself nodding.
“Let’s calm down. I’ll make lunch,” she offered. “That’ll make everyone feel better.”
“I’ll help,” Tommy said.
Piper’s words made her some sort of Mother Teresa right then.

Leo
He leaned onto the control station and looked at her.
“I feel your eyes burning a hole in the back of my neck, Valdez,” Josie said. “You can either look away or face my destructive wrath.”
“I’m kind of tempted to check out what the whole ‘wrath’ thing is about,” he said.
“I don’t believe you do,” she said. She was reading a book called ‘Bird watching for Dummies’. “You know, I don’t understand why I’m reading this, when will I ever need to watch birds and why am I harming my own teenager-weak self-esteem by calling myself a dummy?” Josie said, tossing the book.
“Annabeth and Quinn would kill for that.”
“But Annabeth is slowly falling apart, Quinn is sick with worry and love, and I have a destructive wrath, I am unstoppable,” she said.
“True enough.” Leo said wondering where ‘Quinn is sick with love’ came from.
They’d taken the first guard of the night. It was supposed to be Annabeth and Piper, but both of them had gone into shock after Jason had told them about Mitchell and Matthew. The thought of an eight year old boy trapped by Gaia made Leo want to jump off the ship and swim towards wherever the prison was. He could only imagine how scared the poor kid was… no, he knew how scared the poor kid was.
And of course hearing about everyone else had brought the rest of the crew down, so there went morale. But oh well, it had to be said. Anyways, he and Josie were taking over.
She had barely talked. He’d even offered to play her favourite card game because she was bored but she’d said ‘no’ and kept staring into the sky. That was a post-tragedy, nostalgia-engulfing, long-hard-life adult thing to do. Leo had done it.
Anyways, he knew that someone needed to talk to her.
“You know, you and me aren’t that different Josie.” Leo said.
“One could argue that I am more attractive,” Josie said half-mindedly.
“That depends if one is blind or not. Anyways, it’s true.” Leo said. “We’re both out here covering for everyone because… well, because Gaia didn’t find anyone to take from us.”
“Hmm. I thought you were the funny one, now you’re just getting kind of depressing.” Josie said. She still didn’t look at him.
“It’s true,” Leo said.
“The truth isn’t funny.” Josie said.
“You’re mad, aren’t you?”
“Valdez, the thing you need to know about me is that I am very often angry.” She said, switching to Spanish.
“What do you mean?” Leo said. “Never mind.” He said when he saw her shoulders tense. “You know it’s cool right? Not to have anyone. I mean, it’s not cool. Not really. But it’s not… not your fault. Right? And like… It’s not like we’re the only ones in the universe who don’t have anyone. Someone’s gotta be that one kid for social services to toss around, to make them feel better and more accomplished.”
“There’s someone for everything,” Josie said.
“And if it happens to be you…” Leo said. He wasn’t good at making people okay with their situations. That’s when you’d ask Piper and her sweet voice, Annabeth’s logic, Jason’s leadership, or Percy’s charisma, Frank’s honesty, Hazel’s listening ear, Quinn’s sweetness, Tommy’s calming presence, whatever. Not him. He was the repair boy and cook. If he was going to fix something, he was going to need a bucket of nails and a tool belt, not words. “Well, it could technically still be worst.”
“Right.” Josie said.
“And it’s not like it’s your fault,” Leo said. “It’s the universe doing its thing. Old powers and mystical forces awakening and all. Not us.”
“The other difference between you and me Valdez, she took everything away from you, whereas I kind of just got everything taken away from me by life.” Josie said.
She got up and brushed off her jeans nonchalantly. “You’re a big boy, and I’m a growing child. I need sleep while you can handle your toy.” She said before heading downstairs.

Malcolm
“Hello Greeks and Geeks,” Connor said like a broadcaster. “I am inside the bathroom of the Third Cohort’s barrack and you have no idea what I had to do to the toilet to make it give me Iris messages.”
“Yeah, nor do I want to know.” Nyssa said. Malcolm was curious, but now was not the time. Was it some form of chemistry or..?
“Hey Connor, how is everything?” Travis asked.
“Good,” Connor said.
“You’re calling early, we didn’t expect you.” Malcolm said.
“Yeah, well, there’s a game of Death ball tonight, so everyone’s going to be in the baths and all. They’re all at a prayer-gathering-thing in the fort. It’s cool. I faked having stomach aches so I wouldn’t have to go. I was all like ‘yeah, but if I throw up on Joan…’ and Brady let me stay here because he’s already in the doghouse. They totally believed it because a) I am supreme and b) I had a hotdog eating contest with Josh yesterday.”
“Is Josh this Roman you’re seeing?” Travis asked.
“Shut up Travis, she’s way prettier.” Connor said.
“What’s new?” Will asked to stop the Stolls from wasting their minutes.
“Nothing much. Praetor is getting more ticked off at the population and at the Loyal Cohorts by the minute.”
“Connor, we’ve been debating this back from here,” Malcolm said. “Do you think that it’d be time to alert the Loyal Cohorts that we are here?”
Connor stopped and thought. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t just yet. Wait until you know when you’ll infiltrate this place. You don’t want anything to go wrong. I mean, I haven’t found many people from cohorts three and five that I don’t like, but just in case.”
“See? He agrees,” Malcolm told Clarisse. She’d been all for telling them now and charging into Rome. Malcolm was of the opinion that you couldn’t wing an operation like that. “What about Reyna? Any news?”
“No. Sometimes we see guards go down, and a while back Joan went down and then five guards had to run down. She came back with a cut on her cheek and she was even more ticked off towards the legionnaires making out on the streets.”
“So you?” Travis asked.
“Funny. No, Gwen and Dakota. The rumours were funny, but from what I can tell she’s still alive. And fighting.”
“’Course she is,” Clarisse huffed.
“Is there any way that you can contact her?” Malcolm asked. “We need a Roman on our side, someone who knows how the legion will react.” This frustrated him.
“You do,” Nyssa said, touching his arm. His stomach tingled.
“I guess from history books, but this hasn’t happened in history.” Malcolm shook his head.
“What about all the other dudes from camp? Are they there?” Connor asked.
“Yes. We’re all here now.” Malcolm said. His stomach tightened. “The nature spirits are protecting camp.” He didn’t want to mention to Connor that they’d gotten the distressing news from a very distressed group of nymphs that he hadn’t been around that morning. He didn’t want to add to Connor’s worries. Especially considering that Gleeson Hedge had been the only one to regain his calm and step up. Malcolm wasn’t entirely sure if the satyr was senile or not, but he definitely had the spirit, and he was more confident than Malcolm was by a longshot, so hopefully things would do okay.
“For how long?” Connor asked.
“For as long as they can.”
“And after that?”
“Connor, do I really need to describe destruction and death to a survivor of the Titan War?” Malcolm asked.
“No.” Connor asked. “No, I’m cool thanks. Is anybody still at camp? Apart from the satyrs and all that?”
Nobody said anything until Clarisse finally made her mouth and jaw move and said; “Chiron.”
Malcolm closed his eyes. He hated himself for making that call. Everyone told him that it was logically the best decision, but logic wasn’t what made people feel guilty and horrible and destructive. Emotions did that. And right now, Malcolm couldn’t believe he’d let Chiron there. The old centaur had talked to him. His hair and beard were completely white now. His eyes had an unhealthy yellow tinge. Dark blue veins snaked around his arms and neck. Wrinkles were folding his skin on itself. He looked scrawny and weak for the first time in… ever, actually. He was permanently settled in his wheelchair now.
Malcolm remembered the last conversation he’d had with his old teacher on IM, perhaps the last conversation any demigod would have with him.
“I will only stand as long as Camp Half-Blood one way or another. That has always been my destiny. Free the Romans before it’s too late, Malcolm, or Camp Half-Blood will completely fall.”
“The camp will be destroyed.”
“Camp Half-Blood is far more than just a place, Malcolm.” The old man had said, with a glint in his eyes, as if he were talking about his favourite thing in the world. “Talk to Percy, talk to Annabeth. Talk to Percy and Annabeth. Grover, Leo, Jason, Piper, Drew, Travis, Connor, Will, any of my old pupils. It won’t be destroyed.”
And then before Malcolm could protest or argue or inquire or even so much as blink, Chiron had cut the IM.
“Ah,” Connor said.
“Yeah,” Malcolm said. “Ah.”
“Any other questions?” Clarisse growled.
“Yeah, I have two drachmas left, this operation is harder and taking more time than we thought.”
“Find denarii, we were told it works now.” Malcolm said.
That’s when he heard a door unlock and open and he followed Connor’s panicked gaze towards the front door. Damn it, if a Roman uncovered them now and attacked they were so screwed and-
“Colin?” The girl at the door asked. She was a very pretty Arabic girl; Malcolm had to admit that she was actually kind-of gorgeous. Her eyes were a strong chocolate brown, and her hair was lush black waves. She was armed and wore pieces of her armour, but under it she was wearing a purple t-shirt tucked into skinny jeans.
“Cate,” he said. “I-”
“I thought you’d passed out in here or something.” She said, wondering inside, her eyes as if she were the first explorer to see something wonderful. “But I heard you talking.”
Connor tried to cut in front of the IM but Cate slapped his arm away and she could see it anyways. She looked at Malcolm and the others, who didn’t speak.
“The writing on the back wall,” she said.
Travis jumped in the air to try and cover it.
“Those weird letters… that’s an omega-3 or whatever… it’s Greek isn’t it?”
Cate turned around and looked at Connor with shocked eyes. She’d put two and two together.
“You’re- you’re with them. You’re- they’re- you’re Greek and you… you…”
“Cate, I can really explain, you’ll probably-”
Cate smacked him, a good ‘9’ on the flesh-hits-flesh scale.
“Jerk!” she said. She hit him again, an ‘8’. “Liar at that!”
“Cate, I’m sorry, it’s because-”
She took a knife from her side and Connor had to jump back to avoid getting chish-ka-bobbed. Her words were cold and scary; “Don’t talk to me, don’t touch me.”
She sprinted out and Connor looked suddenly really lost and crushed.
“Run after her, man!” Will yelled out. “She’s a pretty girl!”
“And you quite obviously like her!” Drew added, elbowing Will.
Connor ran.

PS- I apologise to whoever tried to PM me at around 4:55- I can’t seem to find the PM menu and bar on my screen because this is the kind of thing I do… D:

Wow... I had missed like 5 chapters. They were all EPIC. All my reactions:
Tommy and Piper <3
Poor Annabeth :((((
Poor Hazel :((((
Leo has to do a lot of serious discussion talking lately.... I feel sorry for him. But that conversation between him and Josie was very interesting. Can't wait for the followup!
RUN CONNOR RUN! (forrest gump! :D)
Post soon!