AN: I don't own PJO or HoO. Thanks to limegreen124, Petesmurf, and Sally Stevens for being the first ones to review! I really appreciate it, especially since they were all really nice reviews. Thanks for reading, y'all. Also, Calypso died two years ago in this fic, just in case anybody missed that.

Esperanza woke up with a headache. It wasn't a small buzzing, but tendrils of nausea that started in her head and crept down her neck. It got worse when she sat up, and her vision momentarily swam with multicolor dots. She rubbed her eyes, and the spots went away, but the nausea remained. Esperanza wondered if this was a side effect of losing her memory.

She climbed out of bed. Her bedroom was amazing-full of machinery and tools, pistons and gears and circuits. It felt familiar and welcoming, like she was back where she belonged. But this couldn't be her home, could it? This couldn't be where she was from. She had to have a normal house and a family somewhere, didn't she?

Esperanza found the closet at the back of the bedroom. The clothes hanging in it all fit her perfectly, and were all her style. Jeans and cargo pants, dark shirts, and a clean bomber jacket. Esperanza showered in the bathroom attached to her bedroom and got dressed, then went downstairs.

Raiden was the only other person up. He stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter and nursing a mug of tea. Raiden stared off into space, his face blank.

"Morning," Esperanza called, leaning against the banister of the stairs. Raiden jolted, spilling tea on the counter. "Sorry,"

"Not you." Raiden told her, wiping up the mess. Esperanza helped, even though she got the sense she wasn't the type of person to voluntarily clean something. "I just totally spaced out."

"Do you have a headache, too?" Esperanza asked, rubbing the sides of her head. "It feels like someone hit my brain with a hammer."
"No, I don't." Raiden said, giving her a worried look. "Can I help?"

"Don't worry about it." Esperanza said, wishing she hadn't said anything. She really didn't know anything about this boy, though she thought he was a good person. And he seemed familiar. Not necessarily friendly, just like someone she knew. Like when you ran into someone you met at the grocery store and you weren't sure it was them, or whether you should say hi. Familiar but edged with uncertainty.

Esperanza realized she had been staring, and Raiden had an eyebrow raised. "Sorry," She said for the second time already that day, opening the fridge to hide her face. "I spaced out, too."

"It's fine." Raiden told her. They sank into an awkward silence, which was thankfully broken a few minutes later when Cassie came downstairs. Charles followed a few minutes later, and both of the twins had dressed in denim shorts and a white t-shirt. They had the same messy windswept black hair, friendly round faces and freckles, and intelligent blue-gray eyes. If they had been the same gender, they would've been identical.

"Morning!" Cassie chirped cheerfully, pouring herself a bowl of cereal. "I love my bedroom. I don't think I've ever slept better in my life. I mean, I probably haven't." She bit her lip, her face clouding.

"Yeah, my room is awesome, too." Raiden said to cheer her up. Cassie was three years younger then him, but he still liked her. She seemed honest, and Charles equally so (even if he couldn't talk). "It's the top of a huge marble platform that's floating above New York City, all surrounded by clouds and rain. It's perfect."

Esperanza shook her head. Then she wished she hadn't, when her headache got worse.

The rest of them filtered in one at a time, meaning August came down a few minutes later and Bianca was forcefully dragged out of bed after another hour. When they were all ready, they sat down around the card table to decide what to do.

"I think we should go outside the warehouse and explore." Cassie said, drumming a beat on the table with her fingernails. Charles moved his hands arounds in a few complicated motions, and it took Raiden a minute to realize he was using sign language. He figured it out soon enough to catch the last word of his speech; missing.

"Charles has a good idea." Cassie reported. Raiden was glad she did, since he had learned the alphabet in sign language back in kindergarten and not much more than that. From the look on Bianca and Esperanza's faces, they were glad for the translation as well. "He wants to check the news on the TV and his computer to see if he can find anything about six teenagers with our names and faces going missing."

"Hey, yeah," Esperanza said, perking up. "That's brilliant. We can see if we've been reported missing, and maybe figure out what's going on from there."

"The twins can do that." Raiden said, nodding. "I say we send another group out of the warehouse to find out where we are, see if we can find anyone who knows us. Anybody volunteer?"

Esperanza immediately said no. "I want to," She groaned, rubbing her head. "But I feel like my head's about to split in half. I'd slow you down."

"I can go," August offered. "Bianca can as well."

"Yup." Bianca said. She had been trying to build a house out of cards, but it kept falling down. She shoved the cards into a pile frustratedly. "Sounds good."

"Okay. Then does anyone have any weapons?" Raiden asked hopefully. "I've been thinking about this, and are any of us armed?"

"I have a wrench," Esperanza offered.

The rest of them just glanced at each other and shrugged. "Now that I think about it, that's true." Cassie said, tapping the rhythm faster on the table. "There are no knives in the kitchen. No swords or bows or even shields in the bedrooms. Unless you count Esperanza's tools and a couple of frying pans, whoever left us here left us unarmed."

Charles did two signs. One that looked like llamas kissing, and one that Raiden was pretty sure meant danger. Charles held out his left hand like a karate chop and pointed his thumb on his other hand at himself, moving it forward and back a couple times. Then he did a few more complicated movements Raiden didn't follow.

Cassie nodded. The rest of them were confused. "Charles says its a date with danger to go unarmed, but it's worth it. We need to figure out where we are."

And that's why, a half-hour later, August, Bianca, and Raiden stood carrying butter knives and screwdrivers at the front door of the warehouse. Raiden felt pretty stupid wielding a welding mallet like it was a ray gun, but they didn't have anything better. At least his weapon was pointy. August held one of those big wooden spoons.

They left the warehouse, into a square yard inside the tall stone wall that went all the way around. The grass was somehow both overgrown and dead, and weeds sprung up everywhere. The air wasn't quite cold, but the wind was fast enough to make it seem that way. The sky was pale blue but it wasn't sunny.

After circling the entire warehouse, they realized there was no gate or break in the wall, so they had to climb it. This was harder then it sounds, since the wall was over teen feet tall and three feet thick, made of solid stone.

"So, what?" Bianca asked, staring at the top of the wall nervously. "I don't like heights."

"I think I can get us over." August said. He squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists like he was concentrating, and a moment later he was shrinking. His arms spread out and grew flatter, his head shrank and his eyes migrated to the sides of it, and he sprouted feathers. A moment later he was a large eagle sitting on the ground and looking dazed.

Bianca was the first to be carried over by eagle August. She squeaked when he lifted her up by her shoulders, and shouted several colorful swear words when she landed on the other side.

"Are you okay?" Raiden yelled over.

"%&*! #$!"

"You're okay."

August carried Raiden next, his claws digging into Raiden's shoulders painfully. August let go when Raiden was still five feet off the ground, so he landed on his back. Raiden laid there for a moment until Bianca's face appeared in his field of vision.

"You dead, or what?"

Raiden pulled himself up. August landed lightly and changed back to his human form, looking tired.

"How do you do that?" Bianca asked her cousin immediately. August frowned, uncertainly.

"I'm not sure. I just concentrate, and focus on the animal I want to be, and I change. I can't really explain it."

"I wonder who you're a legacy of to have powers like that." Raiden said, shielding his eyes from the light with one hand as he scanned their surroundings.

Grass and rolling hills stretched out around them. The grass was overgrown and yellowing, but not quite yellow yet. There was no sign of any other structure, as the wind whipped quickly across the emptiness, grabbing at Raiden's hair and clothes. Tightening his grip on his welding mallet, Raiden led the way up the hill.

They reached the top, panting and sweating. Even from here, there wasn't much to see. The fields went out in all directions, and in the distance Raiden could see where they stopped at a cliff and gave way to the sea.

"Are we on an island?" August guessed. Raiden turned full-circle, and in every direction he could see where the island ended. Past that, the black sea went to the horizon, haltered by just a few green dots that were too far away to help.

"We are." Raiden realized. "We're in the middle of the ocean."

"Guys," Bianca said softly. She wasn't looking outward, but up at the sky. Her face was blank, but her eyes gave away fear.

"What is it?" August asked worriedly, glancing up. He caught his cousin's arm, but she didn't look at him. "Bianca, what's wrong?"

"The sun." Bianca said, without looking away from the sky. She gulped. "It's gone."

Raiden looked up as well. Bianca was right. The sun was gone.

New Rome

Meanwhile

Nobody could relax. Nico paced back and forth on the porch, glaring at everything he saw. Hazel's hands trembled on her glass, and she stared off into space. Percy twirled riptide in it's pen form between his fingers, looking angry, and Annabeth watched nervously like it might turn into a sword at any moment and accidentally decapitate someone. Leo twisted wires and pipe cleaners into a complicated toy car, which he kept smashing and starting over again. Will kept rubbing his arms like he was cold, even though it was a bright day. The sun was on the other side of the building, so maybe that was it.

The seven, Nico, and Will were all waiting. Rachel wasn't there yet, and they had to hear what she had to say. They needed a prophecy.

The red-haired woman came around the house, finally, with her suitcase still pulled along behind her. "I came straight here," She said right away. "What's going on?"

"The kids are missing." Jason said. "We need a prophecy."

Rachel paled. "Alright." She took a deep breath, and then her eyelids fluttered and green smoke poured out of her mouth.

"Travel south to face the beast,

dark secrets did the children keep.

Searching for the reminders of what they lost,

remembering only what it cost.

Hidden below and below once more,

they shouldn't have opened up the door.

And finding not what they seek,

but fates truly bleak.

For though they searched they did not see,

conspiring with the enemy."

Rachel gasped and collapsed, the green smoke dissipating. Percy and Jason caught her and lowered her onto a chair.

"That didn't sound good. And it was longer then normal." Frank said nervously.

"Yes, that's because this writer really needs to work on their prophecy writing." Annabeth explained.

Frank looked confused. "Huh?"

"Nothing." Annabeth said, shaking her head. "I think the first line tells us what we need to do. We have to travel south."

"'to face the beast'." Percy quoted. "What beast?"

"I'm more worried about 'dark secrets did the children keep'." Nico scowled, starting to pace again. "What weren't they telling us?"

"It doesn't matter." Leo said, slamming his tools onto the table. Everyone jumped. Normally, Leo was the happiest one among them. "We go south. We find them. Then we can figure out whatever they were hiding from us. Alright?"

Nobody argued.

"Great." Piper said, standing up. There was a determined look on her face. "Then everyone pack only what you can carry. We leave as soon as we can."

AN: thanks for reading! Sorry the prophecy is longer then it's supposed to be, but I couldn't shorten it without leaving out important things. Though I think it turned out pretty well *insert self-satisfied smirk here*.