I do not own PJO. Enjoy ;)

Prologue: The Gathering.

The ship was ready. The Mistress smiled warmly. Finally, after so long, the gods had actually listened and approved of her idea. She had sent one of her most faithful demigods to select the honoured few, who would be vital for her plan. In a quick poof! she was on board, gently stroking the smooth, polished wood banister of the grand staircase.

Her bare feet were silently moved across the floor, and she suddenly realised how quiet it was, almost deathly still the whole place was. And how, within a few hours, the whole place would be full of life, teenagers who had been chosen to work hard, to fulfil their destiny.

The Mistress took out a folded piece of paper. which her demigod had sent her. Twelve names were careful written down, as if she had though well and hard before making her decision.

Jackson Harris

Lewis Thomson

Charles Harte

Bruno Potts

Anastasia Flame

Annika Siram

Sophia McClain

Tara Minett

Annabel Cherwell

Victoria Williams

Michaela O'Donnell

Lusheeta Amin

The Mistress had no idea who these people were, or even if they were capable or doing the greatness that were expected of them, but she trusted her demigod's choice. Making her way to the main steering wheel, she saw that one of her good friends was there.

Nico di Angelo looked out of the massive windows, hands behind his back, and The Mistress thought he looked about twenty years older than thirteen, like she always did. His eyes were dark and terrifying as usual, his hair was sloppy and messy as usual, his hand was touching his short sword, as usual. He was exactly as she remembered him a few weeks ago except...

"You've got a new scar," the Mistress said, making him jump and spin around. "On your cheek."

Nico smiled softly, and touched his new scar, almost self-consciously.

"Yeah. I saw Luke the other day, and he wasn't happy that I said 'No'."

The Mistress's eyes went dark.

"So he's still recruiting?"

"That's what it looked like. We're running out of time before he declares war."

"How much time do we have?"

"Not much, hopefully until next summer, but he's getting stronger each day. It doesn't look good."

Until next summer. That was a good six months away (A/n it's set in the beginning of November), but the Mistress was getting doubtful.

"Do you think that we can train them in time?" The Mistress asked worriedly.

Nico shrugged.

"Depends if they give up a good fight or not."

"I'd rather not think about the 'or not' part."

"Me too."

The pair stared out of the window in silence for a few seconds, before taking out the note she was looking at, and pressed it into Nico's hand.

"I'll go fire up the machine. Will you put these names into the computer?"

Nico nodded, and as The Mistress turned to leave, he asked,

"Do you know when Claudine's getting back?"

She paused, then shook her head.

"I just hope she's alright," the Mistress sighed, before leaving the room, to turn on the machine that would hopefully transport the mortals to the ship.

Jack woke upon a hard bed, feeling that he wasn't in his room, seeing that he wasn't and freaking out. All the walls were padded, like the ones that insane people were put into to hide them away in, and that fact didn't make him feel any better.

What if his parent's had secretly thought he was mental, and organised that he would be removed from his home? For good?

Jack desperately tried to think of a different explanation. There were eleven other beds in the room, which must of meant something. Right?

One by one, more people started to appear on the beds, each of them demanding answers for the people already in the room. The Mistress watched, interested from a camera hidden carefully put into one of the furthest corners of the room.

When the last one arrived, The Mistress turned on the microphone, and spoke into it.

"Please stay calm. A door is going to open, and if you want to know why have been taken here, I would advise you to go through it. That is all."

Jack frowned. "Did anyone else think that we just received orders from a seven year old?"

Nobody answered. Just as she has promised, a door popped open out of one of the walls, and revealed another chamber, that resembled what seemed to be a board room, with a high ceiling, and a raised desk at the front with a white board behind it for sharing ideas.

Jack wasn't eager to go through the doorway and into the board room and neither did anyone else. It was like they were all afraid to, because they didn't know what was awaiting them there. The seven year old was on speaker phone again.

"Well?" she asked, like a teacher asking for homework, which sounded weird coming from someone in year three (A/N that's the second grade, for all those Americans out there ;), and then with a sigh, she said,

"Look, if you don't leave soon, the chamber you are currently located in will seal itself off, and we can't get you out after that."

After that, everyone seemed to be very keen to get into the board room, pushing and shoving. Luckily, everyone knew each other as they were in the same year, so there wasn't much violence, and soon they seated themselves on the twelve seats around the big, oak table. Twelve… there was something about that number. There were twelve people, twelve beds in the padded room, and now twelve seats in the board room. And the big, gilded horseshoe shape on the centre of the table… Jack knew he had seen that somewhere before. Anastasia and Annika obviously did, as they looked a bit shocked, so Jack guessed it wasn't normal to see the shape on tables. Annika mouthed something to Ana, and she nodded grimly. What did she mouth? Sleek dogs? Leek bogs? And that was when the giant, double doors opened…

The Mistress walked in to the shaken up, nervous teenagers, all dressed in all sorts of this and that. Nightclothes, The Mistress assumed, but they were a bit…odd. Never mind.

Smiling warmly, she notice two of the chosen twelve do a slight bow or curtsey to her, as if knowing who she really was. Interesting. The other ten must have thought they were mad, and honestly, The Mistress couldn't blame them. She was in the form of a seven year old, dressed in a simple brown dress, with a chestnut coloured head scarf over her mousey hair, and her feet were bear.

"Greetings, chosen ones," she announced, her voice ringing loud and clear. The twelve mortals stayed eerily silent.

"I am pleased to welcome you aboard, the finest ship of the seas, the Thloio, (A/N I think that's Greek for boat :S) were you have been chosen to save mankind."

"Excuse me?" one of the bossier looking girls said.

"Save mankind, what type of mutant super heroes do you take us for! We're just kids, not some highly trained warriors!"

The Mistress smiled gently at her. "What is your name, child?"

The girl looked a bit hesitant, before answering, "Tara, Tara Minett."

"Well, Tara, you have been chosen by someone who has been watching you closely for a while now, all of you, and has picked you to be blessed with great power and responsibility."

All of the chosen ones had stopped listening after she had mentioned that someone was watching for a while. Questions started buzzing the air, and the once deathly quite room, became almost deafening.

"Hush, please!" The Mistress shouted, and it went still again.

"The person who I had pick twelve mortals, is a daughter of Hecate, blessed by me, is currently…"

The doors creaked open, and The Mistress's voice trailed off. For standing in the doorway, right in the doorway, was someone she hadn't seen for ages.

Claudine Ainsworth walked in, hands on hips, sunglasses on head, and a grin stretched across her face. The presented her arms in a Voila! sort of way and said,

"Oh, hey guys! Fancy seeing you here."

That's the prologue up! Stay tuned, as chapter 1 is on it's way…