"Well, this is a pretty picture," snarled Percy.

"Really? I thought we were here for tea," muttered Jason.

"Stop it, you two. If we're gonna get out of here, Juno said we would need the East Wind," ordered Hazel.

"Oh, joy," grumbled Reyna. "Help from old Eurus. Hardly help in my book."

Piper struggled with her chains, then said, "If we're going to get out of here, then we'll have to play by Eurus' rules. "

Suddenly a horrible wind rustled through the workshop, and took the place of a young man, about 20, who was leaning against a red E. The man smiled at all of them, with no warmth, and said, "Why, thank you, Ms. McLean. If you'd be as so kind to tell the rules of the game, and then begin our round."

Piper groaned, "Fine. Eurus plays Confession Time, where we have to reveal our greatest secret to everyone. That's the only way to get out of these shackles, and get his stupid E.

According to Hera/Juno, each wind god had to give them a letter, and the boys, Jason, Percy, Leo, and Frank, would carry it to Aeolus' palace, to force his help. They already had Boreas' blue B, courtesy of Piper, Notus' yellow N, thanks to Leo, and Zephyr's green Z, obtained by Jason. All they needed was Eurus' red E, the worst one of all to obtain. They had come in here to find him, but instead they had all gotten captured by Mimas, the bane of Hephaestus/Vulcan.

Piper started, "My secret that I have been hiding from you all is that, I saw Khione, the snow goddess, in my knife, and that she's here in the workshop. She deepfreezed our chains, which is why Leo can't burn through them." Piper felt ashamed. She could have prevented this by telling them what she saw. They wouldn't be here right now if she could open her mouth.

All eyes turned toward the son of Hephaestus, who was desperately trying to break his chains with his firey hands. Leo stopped, and gave an embarrassed, "I knew that." Everyone, especially Frank, was trying hard not to laugh. "What?" complained Leo. "If you had fire, and saw ice constraining you, wouldn't you try and melt this constricting contraption?"

Jason took the stand. "Alright, my secret that I've been hiding is that, I saw Gration and Tityus, the banes of Artemis and Apollo, standing at Mount Olympus waiting for us to awaken Gaea.

Silence fell after this statement. You could have heard a pin drop. "That's disturbing..." Percy trailed off. "Yup," agreed Jason. "Besides, we don't have a child of Apollo or a Hunter of Artemis here, so it's not a parental issue. Well, maybe if we give Octavian over, they might leave. It's a win-win." Laughter followed this statement.

Eurus stood suddenly and said, "Well, this is all nice, but I have a red E that you need, and you still have six secrets that I don't know of yet. Tick Tock!" Annabeth then faced the gang.

"My secret is that, when we were in Tartarus, we saw Damasen, the bane of Ares/Mars, and we let him die, a nice giant die, so we could escape." Annabeth broke down, sobbing. "And he healed me, he gave us sanctuary. And we left him with Bob to die at the heart of Tartarus."

There was an uncomfortable silence following Annabeth's secret. Percy then said, "Well, the good guys usually win, so maybe he and Bob got into the elevators and teleported away when Hazel cut the chains in the House of Hades." Frank added, "Yeah, Annabeth, it wasn't your fault."

Annabeth wiped her face, then shakily looked at her friends. "Yeah, maybe..." She didn't seem to want to say anymore. To save the group from another awkward silence, Percy spoke. "My secret is that when we were crossing Tartarus, I heard the voices of all the monsters I ever defeated, and I almost went and killed myself, just to make things right. I heard Kelli the empousa, Kampê the guard, the skeleton warriors, some dracanae, and so many others."

Percy didn't even want to face the others. He had totally destroyed their faith in him; the great Percy Jackson, savior of Manhattan, defeater of Kronos, (though technically that was Luke Castellan), the Lightning Bolt retriever, the Sea of Monsters survivor, the Titan's Curse withstander, the hero of the Battle of the Labyrinth, and the retriever of the legion's crown. And now, he couldn't even walk to a pair of doors without feeling remorse for defeating evil.

Reyna then spoke. "Well, Percy, that's what Tartarus does to you. According to Nico on the ride back over the Atlantic, he almost went insane. He heard voices that broke him. So I'll tell you my secret. When we went to Keysplan to find Notus again, Leo and I had to prove ourselves to him, so we looked in a mirror and saw what Invidia and Juno and Venus were trying to tell us: our fates, me and Leo's are intertwined. So we...kissed and have been dating in secret ever since."

Talk about total humiliation! Reyna thought she would die of embarrassment. She was the praetor of New Rome, the hard stone behind the legion. She wasn't supposed to date a Greek, let alone the boy who fired on her camp and sparked the new civil war. But she felt happy with Leo, and their secret sneakings were kinda fun. She didn't regret it, but she still didn't want to talk about it.

To her surprise, no one laughed. Instead Frank just said the last thing she expected to hear right then: 'OK.' Reyna was shocked. "Aren't you guys gonna say something? Anything? Piper just grinned and said, "Well, we expected it. You and Leo have always been the third wheels behind the rest of us, you both hate Octavian, you both love building stuff, because you built Aurum and Argentum from scratch four years ago, right?"

Reyna nodded, and Eurus stood up. The gang had almost forgotten he was there. "Fascinating. Just wonderful. I owe Notus 20 drachma, as does everyone else on Olympus, for getting you two to see the truth, but there's still three secrets left...I'm waiting."

Leo decided to go. "My secret is when Khione threw me off the Argo II, I landed on Ogygia, Calypso's Island." Percy inhaled sharply beside him, but Leo forged on. "Calyspo helped me build my boat, she...she kissed me and she actually helped me use my video shield to see Reyna fly across the Atlantic." He looked kind of sheepish. "She actually asked if you were my girlfriend, but this was way before we went to Keysplan."

Hazel said simply, "You know, Leo, you were desperate to get off that island, so you said and did things you wouldn't have normally done. You and Reyna were made for each other, the way you guys have gotten to this point, it's scary how much the stories are alike."

Hazel then decided to reveal her secret. "When I got to the cave with Hecate, she told me Percy and Annabeth would die if we went any way but north. I knew Leo and I weren't going to be enough if Clytius became immune to Leo's flames, so I trained Piper in swordplay. I should have had more faith, but it took all of us, Leo, me, Frank, Piper, Jason, Percy, and Annabeth to defeat Clytius. If it took all of us to defeat one giant, how on Earth are we going to protect Mount Olympus?"

Frank knew it was his turn. But first he had to comfort his girlfriend. "Hazel, we can do this. We've gotten this far, and Clytius was a special case. Hecate didn't even jump in the fight till the final end. So, we can do this. Now, to get this stupid E, here's my secret."

Ever since Leo's eidolon fired on New Rome, I started hearing the voices of the Roman Mars and Greek Ares fighting in my head. Then I heard Neptune and Poseidon, Minerva and Athena, Juno and Hera, Jupiter and Zeus, Vulcan and Hephaestus, and so many more. My decisions are being influenced, and I don't like it. I wish someone would press the mute button in my head and shut them up.

Eurus clapped silently. "Well done, Heroes of Olympus. You've earned my red E, and now you can enter Aeolus' ancient court, located on Mount Smolikas. Simply have the males press the letters into the four cardinal directions, and you're in. As for your escape...

The god of the East Wind snapped his fingers, and the chains melted into a pool of grayish sludge. He cocked his hand to his ear. "Oh dear, here comes Mimas and Khione. Would you like the express package back to your ship?"

"YES!" everyone screamed as they found their weapons. Eurus snapped his fingers again just as the doors of the workshop burst open. "There!" yelled Mimas. "Destroy the Heroes of Olympus and capture Eurus!" The monster army behind Mimas, led by Khione charged, but Leo set the workshop ablaze, Frank fired some arrows at the ceiling which rouletted their way down on the monsters. Jason called a massive wind that surrounded the crew, and Percy broke the icy spears held by the army be turning them into water.

Just then, Eurus delivered on his offer. The workshop disappeared, and the Heroes of Olympus dropped onto the deck of the Argo II.