Grover, Annabeth and I all started talking at once. We probably sounded like a bunch of chickens clucking rather than three rational beings that had saved the world on at least several occasions. Nico and Chrion tried to jump in and explain but we kept arguing and asking questions. Mr. D's yell of frustration finally quieted us down. Well, more like scared us senseless.

"Gods, you three would drive a god insane! I would know!" he yelled at us. Mr. D had experience in madness. He pushed himself from his chair and left the room, grumbling something about demigods that I won't repeat.

"Nico, how is that possible? Persephone isn't allowed to leave the Underworld except for in the spring when she goes to visit her mother," Annabeth asked. Always the logical one. Nico shrugged and looked helpless.

"I don't know. That's what I thought but she's gone. She and Dad had a fight a few weeks ago and he thought maybe she was just somewhere sulking so he didn't pay any attention to her being gone. But then after a while he started getting worried. We turned the place upside down; no Persephone. I was finally able to convince him to go to Olympus and see if he could find out anything. We went there but he sent me back to the Underworld to keep an eye on things. I figured maybe I should make a pit stop here and let you guys know," Nico explained.

"But that still doesn't make any sense. How can she just leave the Underworld?" Annabeth asked. I could tell she was getting frustrated. She liked things to be logical and this was probably driving her insane.

"Well, she is the Queen of the Underworld. Hades leaves. Hermes leaves. Even she leaves, although not until the spring during her allotted time. Maybe she decided to take an early vacation," I suggested hoping to calm her down.

"No, she can't do that. She's bound to the Underworld except for her allotted time above," Chiron said calmly. Nico cleared his throat and when I looked at him I saw he was scuffling his foot.

"I left out a small detail," he sheepishly admitted.

"What are you saying?" Chiron asked.

"Well, when I was searching for her I found a note laying on a dinner table." Nico reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of crumpled paper. He handed it to Chiron who read,

"To whoever finds this letter:

Do not come searching for the Queen of the Underworld. She is in better hands now and I would hate to risk her life should you come searching. Hope you are well.

Sincerely yours,

The Iron Queen."

"The Iron Queen? Who's that?" I asked Nico. He shook his head and shrugged.

"Why didn't you tell your father about this?" Chiron asked. Nico's face crumbled.

"I didn't want to make him any madder and risk starting a war with this Iron Queen because she took Persephone. You know how his temper is and I thought maybe if I came here and told you about it I could go on a quest to search for Persephone," he admitted.

Chiron scratched his chin thoughtfully. I could almost see the wheels spinning in his head as he considered what Nico had said. I glanced at Annabeth and was pretty sure her mind cogs were spinning too. Grover was staring hungrily at the Diet Coke can Mr. D had left on the end table. No surprise there, I thought.

"Perhaps a quest is needed to search for Persephone, but I think we need to tell the gods about this note. I think they would be most interested in hearing of her abduction if she truly was taken. Fortunately, the Oracle has come to camp; she arrived last night and is in the attic now," Chiron said, his eyes shooting towards the ceiling as if he could see the attic through it.

I gulped nervously and looked at Annabeth. Her face hadn't changed much but her eyes had narrowed a little bit. Hearing that the Oracle was at camp probably wasn't the happiest news she had heard today. The Oracle is actually our – well, my – friend Rachel.

At one time Rachel had a crush on me (the jury's still out on what my feelings towards her were) but when she accepted the Oracle she dumped me. Luckily I didn't take it too hard. I couldn't understand why she was in the attic though. The former Oracle lived up there, but she was a mummy who didn't move much. Or at all, unless you count that one time she graced us with her presence and nearly scared the pants off half the camp.

"You don't mean I have to go up there, do you?" Nico asked nervously.

"Well who else would go up there?" Annabeth asked. "It's your quest." Nico shook his head and waved his hands in front of him.

"It's creepy up there." Annabeth rolled her eyes. I think we all rolled our eyes actually, including Chiron.

"Nico, in case you forgot, you're the son of Hades. You sometimes live in the Underworld. I don't think you get much creepier than that," I pointed out.

"For time's sake, why don't you three all go up there?" Chiron suggested. I could tell his patience was running thin.

"What about Grover?" I asked. I didn't want him left out of the quest.

"I'm with Nico on this one. It's way too creepy up there. Also, I've got a lot of traveling to do. Winter is our least busy season and I've still got to try to convince the other nature spirits to take up the work of Pan," he explained after swallowing a piece of the Diet Coke can.

Annabeth, Nico and I slowly walked up the stairs to the attic. I remembered the first time I had ever come up here. It still gave me chills thinking about the first time I had seen the previous Oracle. Even though I'd never admit it to Annabeth, I was glad Rachel was now the Oracle. She was much easier to look at. Of course, anything's much easier to look at than a mummified hippie.

We pushed open the door to the attic and walked in. The room hadn't changed much since I last came in here. Souvenirs from various quests still littered the room. A knife caught my eye. I picked it up and read the tag.

'Celestial bronze knife that defeated Kronos as used by Luke Castellan. Formerly belonging to Annabeth Chase.'

I quickly put it down, worried that Annabeth might see it. I didn't want her upset. Even though she had told me that she didn't feel anything other than brotherly love for Luke, I knew it still bothered her that he was gone. She had refused to touch the knife after he had used it on himself to defeat Kronos. I wasn't sure what had happened to the knife. I guess now I know.

Turning back to Annabeth and Nico I saw that they were frozen, shocked looks on their faces. I followed their gaze and nearly yelped. Sitting on a stool in front of the window was a girl wearing a long flowing shirt, the kind hippies might have worn. Her red hair was pulled back in a ponytail so I could see that she had on several necklaces. It was Rachel; I was sure of it. But she didn't move.

"You don't think she's… you know… like the other Oracle," Annabeth whispered. I felt her hand move into mine. I gave it a tight squeeze.

"If it's the Oracle you seek to find, she needs some quiet, if you don't mind," the girl said.

"Huh?" I quietly said. It probably sounded more like a confused grunt.

"Does she normally make weird prophecies like that?" Nico whispered. The girl turned around on the stool and rolled her eyes before grinning at us. Yep, it was Rachel.

"Hi guys, long time no see!" she said cheerfully as she hopped off the stool.

"What were you doing?" Annabeth asked irritably. She found Rachel's quirks ridiculous. The first time they had met Rachel had been painted gold doing some statue moves. Rachel's pretty artsy so it didn't surprise me that much.

"I felt some pull to come to camp the other day and thought I'd come up here to look around, see what kind of neat stuff was up here. Then I thought I'd see how the previous Oracle felt, sitting motionless in front of the window. I've been sitting here for probably an hour. It was pretty uncomfortable," she explained. She started to stretch her arms, swinging them across her chest. "So what brings you three up here?" I nudged Nico.

"Tell her." Nico hesitantly stepped forward.

"We, um, need a quest," he asked nervously. Rachel smiled at him. I'm sure that just made Nico more nervous.

"Well ask a question little hero," she said. Nico looked back helplessly at us. Annabeth waved him forward as if she were encouraging him to ask.

"We need to find Persephone. Where, um, do we… look?" Nico asked. Rachel closed her eyes. We waited patiently for the prophecy to come. I'd seen her give a prophecy before. Her eyes turned green – well, glowed green actually – and she spoke in this voice that wasn't quite her voice. Her eyes popped open and I jumped. Hey, it's kind of disturbing looking. She scrunched her eyebrows together and let out a "Huh."

"That's funny," she said. "Nothing's coming." We all let out sighs of disappointments as if we had all been holding our breath together. Usually when a prophecy was given it just came automatically.

"Maybe it'll come later. They're unpredictable sometimes," Rachel said, shrugging her shoulders.

"What do we do now?" Nico asked, a scowl forming on his face.

"Let's go get some hot chocolate," Rachel suggested. She took two steps towards the attic door before suddenly crumpling to the floor.

"Rachel!" I yelled. Nico and I hurried towards her and knelt beside her.

"Whoa," she said, putting her hand to her head. "Head rush." We helped her up and held on to her in case she fell again.

"What happened?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know. One minute I was fine and the next… floor!"

"Odd," Annabeth said. She looked concerned. Rachel suddenly let out a small whimper and closed her eyes. When they opened they were glowing green. Great, the prophecy was finally here.

For those who seek the missing queen,

you must first pay tribute to the city that gleams.

Beware the one who wants to maim,

and find the lost soul whom the Iron Queen claims.

Rachel slumped forward when she finished, her eyes returning to their normal color.

"Did I give it?" she asked hopefully. Annabeth, Nico and I exchanged looks.

"Yeah, you gave it alright," I said as I helped her to stand.

Later that evening during dinner I played with my bowl of stew that sat in front of me. Maybe it was childish but who cares? No one else was sitting at my table to see me. Each of the different cabins had their own table where the campers sat with their half-siblings. Being the son of one of the Big Three I was alone; I guessed my dad, Zeus and Hades had decided to keep up their agreement after all.

I looked around the dining pavilion. Annabeth sat with a few of her siblings who had come back (or never left) at the Athena table and Nico sat at the newly built Hades table. There were several new tables with a few kids at them. Kids of lesser gods that had finally been recognized and came to camp.

"Are you not enjoying your dinner?" I looked up and saw a little girl sitting across from me.

"Lady Hestia," I said, recognizing her.

"Hi, Percy. You have an important quest coming up," she said. I nodded, unsure how to answer that question. What was I supposed to say? 'We do Lady Hestia. Care to come along? Any words of wisdom you'd like to share?' Her face broke into a grin.

"Do you know what I love most about my job of keeping the hearth? It gives people something warm to come home to. When that fire goes out, when it's extinguished, people don't want to return to their home. They don't want to return to coldness," she said, pulling my bowl of stew away from me and taking a small bite. "This is good. You should eat." She pushed it back to me and stood.

"Don't worry about this quest. You're a true hero." With a wink she skipped back to the hearth where she once again blended into the background. I looked around at the other tables. No one seemed to have noticed the small goddess who had sat at my table.

Without thinking I stood and picked up my bowl. I had already given some to the gods, sacrificed some of my meal to Poseidon, but I scraped out more into the fire.

"For Hestia," I murmured. "Thank you for what you do." The smell of warm stew filled the air around me. I smiled. The air smelled like what I imagined a warm happy home might smell like at the end of the day. It might have been my imagination but I heard a small giggle in the distance.

AN: Yeah, Hestia doesn't really have a huge role in this story, but she was my favorite (well, besides Apollo) of the gods from the Percy Jackson series and I wanted her to have at least some role in here. Although, looking at her words, she may just play a bigger role than we think!