Hi everyone. This is my fanfiction of The Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena. I hope you enjoy it, and I'll try to update it as soon as I can.

Please note: I do not own any portion of the The Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena, such as the characters and the setting. They are all property of Rick Riordan.

Chapter 1

Leo

The day was strange from the start. At five in the morning, Leo was already up and quietly making his way out of Cabin 9 past his sleeping siblings, to start another day of working on the Argo II: hopefully the last, if Gaea didn't blow it up again.

Leo had worked numerous sleepless nights on his best friend Jason's ship, but Annabeth, head counselor for had worked even more, so many that Piper had to charmspeak her to stop and rest for a little bit. It didn't help that she was one of the few people who weren't affected by charmspeaking that easily. It had taken Piper a lot of energy to convince her.

That's why Leo was up so early. Despite being the hyperactive, easily distracted boy who works hard to be annoying, he knew how much the ship meant to Annabeth. It was the only hope she had of finding her long-lost boyfriend, Percy Jackson.

Leo stepped outside of the cabin and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. He studied the cabin area, which consisted of the strangest set of buildings he'd ever seen. He located Jason and Piper sitting together on a bench by the basketball court.

Leo made his way through the commons towards them. The morning dew speckled his combat boots and the warm sun-light greeted his face welcomingly.

He slapped Jason on the back as he passed the bench. "Morning! Ready to get your hands dirty?"

Jason rubbed his back. "Ow, Leo. That hurt. And, hi."

Surprisingly, he looked wide awake. Leo didn't know if that was from his wake-up slap or something else, but that was fine with him.

Piper was a totally different story. Her eyes were still bleary from sleep and still had sleeping imprints on her face.

Leo smirked. Time to wake her up, he thought. "Piper, you look tired. Are you sure you don't need another ten hours of your beauty sleep?"

She scowled at him. "Leo, don't be smart. You don't look much better than I do. I'm still waking up!"

"Good morning to you too."

Piper sighed. "Fine, Leo. Good morning."

Jason stood up and swung his arms back and forth. "Want to go?"

The other two nodded, and the three of them walked to the construction site together.

When they got there, Leo climbed on board and made his way to the engine room to check on the previous day's progress, while the other two waited below for instructions. He nearly choked.

The engine was as good as new.

"That is not possible," he muttered to himself. He rubbed his eyes and looked at it again. Nothing changed.

He ran out of the room in a daze up to the main deck. When he reached the deck, he ran to the railing overseeing what's below and stopped so abruptly he nearly flipped over it.

Jason and Piper looked up at him as if he were crazy, which he probably was.

"Leo," Piper began, "What are you-"

"It's fixed," he said, interrupting her. He started bouncing up and down like a little kid opening a huge Christmas present.

"What?" Jason asked, his eyes widening.

"The engine. It looks as if nothing had happened to it. We're ready to sail." Leo's skipped several beats. He had been looking forward to saying that since the winter.

His two friends stared at him. "But, didn't you say last night that-"

"That I needed at least another full day to work on it? Yeah. It looked terrible! But, it- it's not! It looks brand new!"

Piper raised an eye brow. "So, you didn't realize it was fixed last night?" She spoke slowly, as if she were talking to a toddler.

"No! It was fixed over night, like magic."

Jason studied him. Leo thought that he would be as happy as he was about the Argo II's completion, but he seemed more concerned about how it was accomplished. "Leo, how?"

Piper peered around the side of the ship. Her eyes widened. "Why don't you ask Annabeth?"

"What?" Jason and Leo asked simultaneously. Piper pointed at what she was looking at.

Sure enough, Annabeth was zonked out on one of the work benches. She looked as if she had been rolling around in charcoal. Her orange t-shirt was streaked with greased and her hands were smeared with it. Her curly blonde hair was coming loose from its ponytail.

To Leo's opinion, she looked a lot less severe like that. He always found it hard to meet her intense gray eyes.

Jason took a step back. "Should I go get help?"

Piper looked at him and then back at Annabeth. "No," she said. "Let's see if we can wake her first."

She looked up at Leo, who was still on the main deck. "Are you going to come down?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Hold on a second." He ran to the ladder, climbed down and walked up to them. "Now you can wake her."

Piper stepped forward and shook Annabeth's arm. "Annabeth," she said gently and softly. "Hey, wake up."

Annabeth stirred. She mumbled something that Leo couldn't make out, sat up and rubbed them. She squinted at Piper. "Piper? What are you-? Wait, where am I?" She stared accusingly at the three of them? "What am I doing here?"

Jason explained about how they had came to the site to work on the engine, which had miraculously been fixed during the night, and how they found her asleep on the bench. Annabeth listened calmly the whole time, but Leo swore he saw the faintest flicker of panic in her eyes when the engine's fixture was mentioned.

When Jason finished, her eyes fell on the Argo II. For the first time in the six months he had been at camp, her eyes seemed to sparkle. Even though she kept a straight face, she actually seemed happy and relaxed.

"So, it's finished," she said. "We can finally go."

Leo nodded. "If we rouse the camp now, we can leave within a few hours." He smiled at Jason. "You can finally introduce us to your Roman buddies."

Jason shifted his feet. "Don't say it as if it were that simple."

Piper studied him with concern. "Why do you seem so nervous?"

Jason refused to meet anyone's eyes. He stared at the ship. "I don't remember everything, but I know that I wasn't exactly the most popular kid there. Everyone always seemed nervous around me. I'm not sure why, but I think it was because my dad was Jupiter… I mean Zeus. There was this kid, I don't remember his name exactly, something with an O, I think. Anyways, he was always trying to get rid of me. He was an important figure, and he had many powerful allies. Everyone else was afraid of him. The thing is, if I come back in a warship with a bunch of Greek demigods, how do you think he'll react?"

Piper grabbed her boyfriend's hand. "We'll figure it out," she promised. "But let's take care of things one at a time."

Annabeth walked up to the Argo II and traced the edge of a wood plank with a finger. "Last I heard was that Tyson's at the other camp, probably with Percy," she said. "All we have to do is locate him, and we'll know where the Roman camp is." She turned to Piper. "Do you think Mellie can…?"

"Yes," Piper answered immediately. "She's a wind spirit. She'll be able to do it easily."

"Great. Jason, can you wake Chiron for me? I really need to change." She tugged at her greasy shirt. "Just tell him that the Argo II's ready. We can finally go to Camp Jupiter, and then to Greece." She smiled, as if to herself and fingered the nine beads on her camp necklace. "I can finally see Seaweed Brain again."

"What?"

"Nothing. Just, can you?"

"Sure." Jason turned and jogged toward the Big House.

Annabeth turned to Piper. "You may want to go with him. Chiron's a heavy sleeper. It takes forever to wake him up. You may want to charmspeak him."

Piper looked stunned for a moment. "Centaurs like to sleep? I find that hard to believe. But, sure, I'll go help." She sprinted after Jason.

Then it was only Annabeth and Leo left. Annabeth studied the ship for a long moment, then faced Leo. "I just want to say thanks. I know that you didn't build this ship just for me, but now, I can finally find my boyfriend. I- I've really missed him." She smiled kindly at Leo, as if he were an old friend. "I think he'll be pleased to meet you and impressed by the ship. Now, come on. Let's wake up everyone." She ran towards the cabin area.

For a moment Leo was surprised. Now that the ship was built, Annabeth seemed different. She was more relaxed, more open. The Annabeth he'd known since the winter was serious and restless. She hardly took any jokes or smiled.

All at once, Leo couldn't wait to meet the famous Percy Jackson. Everyone(except the Ares kids) spoke fondly of him. He seemed to be likeable.

Leo smiled raced towards the cabins to start the voyage.