The Mark of Athena

Wisdom's daughter walks alone, and the Mark of Athena burns through Rome.

I ANNABETH

ANNABETH CHASE was waiting for the Argo II to land in Camp Jupiter. She was extremely worried. What if Percy didn't remember her? What if he has a new girlfriend at camp? What if he isn't at camp at all? What if he's dead?

Piper seemed to sense her worries. Then again, she was a daughter of Aphrodite. She was good at guessing other people's feelings. All children of Aphrodite were.

"It'll be okay," she said.

Annabeth instantly felt better. She didn't know if Piper was charmspeaking her or not, but she felt better at this support.

"I can't wait to land. I wonder if they have a new prætor?" said Jason.

"Well," said his older sister and Annabeth's old friend, Thalia, putting her arm around him, "you said Hera sent Percy to Camp Jupiter as an exchange of leaders; maybe he is the new prætor."

They landed just outside the Senate House. A stream of people went outside. Then she heard a familiar voice saying, "Come on. Let me introduce you to my other family."

And there, with his arm around a dark-skinned girl and an Asian boy, was Seaweed Brain himself.

"PERCY JACKSON!" Annabeth yelled.

"Ow, no need to yell, Wise Girl," said Percy. "Thalia, you're not supposed to have a boyfriend."

Thalia made a face. "Good to see you too, Percy."

"No, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth laughed. It was so good to see Percy again. And it seemed that he mostly regained his memory. "Jason is Thalia's little Roman brother."

"Jason – Jason Grace?" Percy asked.

"Yep," said Jason, "that's me. Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, destroyer of Krios and Enceladus. You must be Percy Jackson."

"Yes," said Percy as they shook hands. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, co-prætor of the Twelfth Legion."

The dark-skinned girl laughed. "He's being way too modest. He also destroyed Polybotes and from what I heard, Saturn – I mean Kronos. Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto – Hades to you guys. You must be Annabeth."

Annabeth shook hands with Hazel. Then Hazel noticed Jason. "Jason!" she yelled.

"Hi, Hazel," Jason grinned. "And who are you?" he asked the Asian boy.

"That's Frank Zhang, son of Mars – I mean, Ares – and a part-time elephant," said Seaweed Brain.

"Shut up, Jackson," said Frank.

Clarisse went off the ship and when she saw Percy, she rolled her eyes as if she couldn't believe he had the nerve to have his memory back and then shook hands with Frank. "I hear you're my brother," she said. "I hope Seaweed Brain isn't annoying you too much."

"Nice to see you too, Clarisse," said Percy.

"So, Percy," said Jason, "who helped you with Polybotes?"

"Terminus," said Percy.

"How did you get him to do that?"

"Bullfighting techniques. I made Polybotes think I was going to go into the city, but slipped aside at the last moment. That made Terminus extremely mad – you know how he is when people bring weapons into the city."

Jason rolled his eyes.

Annabeth hugged Percy. "I missed you so much, Seaweed Brain."

"Me too, Wise Girl. I can see why you hate Hera so much," he said.

"So…" Annabeth said. "How much do you remember?"

"Everything," said Percy. "From killing the minotaur after it abducted Mom to giving Luke the knife so that he could kill Kronos."