Hello, internet.

I typed this out pretty fast and only edited it a couple times (not my normal standards AT ALL), so if there are spelling errors that annoy you, please tell me. I'm sure it's gonna bother me too at some point.

Enjoy.

Things were not really working out in the Demigods favor.

The incident at the fountain was the first in a long day of issues, one after another without a break, and Piper was obviously getting wiped from charmspeaking half of Athens before lunch.

They passed a forge and Leo picked up a sword ("It was beautiful guys! Excellent workmanship, I need to get that guy to teach me a few tricks, or at least his autograph!") and no one but the crowd of mortals on the street noticed the blade had been white hot and in the flames a second before "It was an honest mistake, I just don't take notice of stuff like that at home!"). Then they tried to go swimming and quite a few people noticed Percy and Annabeth didn't seem to surface for twenty minutes, and were perfectly dry when they got out. After that they almost got run over by a bunch of guys on horses riding through a field, and only after Jason flew himself and Piper out of the way did he remember the mortals could see him flying. All day people kept trying to pick up the diamonds and rubies and other gems seeming to follow Hazel around, and a few almost got away with it before she and Frank practically beat it out of their hands. That caused quite a scene multiple times.

And all bloody day Nico was going off on people.

"Dude, seriously? I knew you were annoying, but this is an entirely other level!" Nico just glared at his cousins as Percy and Thalia tried to put him in a better mood after he started screaming at a man who'd knocked him over as he ran down the street.

"I don't know what it is!" He exploded, throwing his hands up in the air. "Something… something happened right before we got sent here, and I just… I can't remember, but I have a feeling it was bad, 'cause I'm just…" He struggled for words.

"PMS-ing?" Travis supplied, and immediately dove out of the way as a stygian iron sword whistled by where his head was a moment ago. "Woah! Where's you get that!?" Noting the sudden appearance of Nico's sword in his hand.

"Stoll…!" Nico hissed and darted after him as the twins took off down the street, away from the angry son of Hades.

"Piper?!" Jason's voice came suddenly, sounding worried as he caught his girlfriend, who'd apparently fallen asleep while they were walking.

"Is she ok?" Annabeth asked, jogging back to them to inspect what had happened.

"She's exhausted. She's already charm spoken at least a thousand people today, I don't think she can keep this up." He replied, worriedly brushing the hair from her face.

Annabeth nodded. "We need to figure out our quest and then get home as soon as possible before we have another-"

"WITCHCRAFT!"

"Dear gods, not again!" Annabeth face-palmed, standing swiftly to inspect what had happened. Down the street a large crowd had formed, but around what, they could see. "Can't we go twenty minutes withoutcausing a scene!? I swear, the minute we get back, I'm giving an offering to whoever thought of the Mist, because they're a genius!"

"Annabeth! Jason, Percy, Piper—woah is she ok?" Travis said as he and Connor came running up to them.

"She'll be fine, what happened?" Annabeth demanded.

"Nico was chasing us and his sword hit the ground-" Connor panted

"Uh oh," Percy mumbled.

"And there was a ghost-"

"And the people flipped-"

"And he got all angry-!"

"Where is he?" Thalia interrupted.

"They have him!" The chorused in a panic.

"They took him up to the Parthenon!" Connor finished.

Grover whimpered while Hazel gave a strangled noise.

"Isn't the Parthenon where they used to judge crimes?" Rachel said uncertainly. (A/N I have no clue if that's true, just go with it)

"One of its uses," Annabeth said, looking worried now. "We don't have Piper, we need to go in there and get him…"

"What's with him and getting captured? Isn't this, like, the third time it's happened?" Percy said indignantly and Grover shook his head at his friend's off-topic-ness.

"Uh, guys? Maybe we should go…?" Frank suggested, pointing at the crowd moving up the hill to the Parthenon.

"Alright! Let's go crash a court session!" Leo punched the air and took off, leading the charge as they raced after the crowd.

0000000000000

The Parthenon looked nothing like what people had been depicting it to look like in its heyday. Annabeth and Leo had agreed that it must've gone through many renovations in its lifetime, for the thousands of years it stood before crumbling apart when Greece was invaded by Rome. They'd popped back in time probably early in its life, because the structure was all there, but the decoration and the purposes seemed to be different.

The reflecting pool wasn't a pool, just a lowered section of the floor where a long marble table stood with five old guys in the Greek garb sat with stern expressions—obviously some sort of judging panel. The Athena Pantheons (A/N yeah, I'm ignoring it's part in Mark of Athena for now) stood tall and beautiful front and center on the opposite end of the not-pool from where you walked in, but behind it was a sort of raised marble platform that definitely wasn't there in the 21st century. On the platform, ten or fifteen feet high or so, behind Athena sat an equally large stature of Zeus sitting on a throne. To his right was Poseidon, and to his left was Hades (similar to the real gods appearances, but not as good as Athena's, unfortunately). All along the sides were slightly smaller, but still massive statues of the remaining gods, and every one of them seemed to be looking judgmentally/angrily/fearfully at the not-pool area.

The crowd had gathered followers in its progress up the hill, so they were practically lining the walls, in between the pillars and statues, spectators all over the place to watch the court session. A group of a dozen or so men and women in the Greek clothing (uh, duh) stood in the lowered section of the floor of the not-pool area, Nico in front of them, facing the panel, his hands tied behind his back, looking half pissed, half bored and tired of this.

"He doesn't seem scared." Frank noted with a frown.

"He's just used to being captured by now," Percy commented, only to be cuffed over the head by Thalia and Annabeth at the same time.

"Tease him when he's here, not when he's in trouble, idiot!" Thalia hissed at him.

"Shhh!" Annabeth hushed them both. The twelve remaining demigods were trying to be inconspicuous in the crowd to the side, in between the statues of Hera and Artemis. It was noted that this was probably why quests were usually competed in groups of two or three: this many people was just plain awkward to move around easily.

"Is she going to be ok?" Hazel whispered to Jason, who was holding a still-unconscious Piper to his side in an attempt to keep her near the group and pretend she was still awake.

"She's coming around slowly, but even if she wakes all the way, there's no way she could charmspeak everyone here. We're on our own."

"Great. What could possibly go wrong?" Frank muttered, positively dripping with sarcasm.

"Real optimistic, aren't you?" Rachel noted, equally sarcastic.

"Ok, seriously guys, shut up!" Annabeth hissed as the panel began to talk.

"What charges have you brought against this child?" The man in the center of the table said, and—oh, look who it is—Ireneus, the man who'd accused them earlier stepped forward out of the crowd behind Nico.

"Witchcraft, my liege!" He cried and the crowd behind him nodded and muttered in agreement. "He attacked two boys in town, and summoned a Ghost before our very eyes!" The panel raised some skeptical eyebrows, but the crowd and quite a few spectators started shouting their agreement and fear.

"Wow, didn't know they cared! I'm touched!" Travis pretended to wipe a tear from his eye.

"They're not accusing him for attacking you," Thalia rolled her eyes.

"We're going to ignore that fact." Conner said simply.

"Sire, he doesn't even deny it! He refuses to speak when we question him!" Another man in the crowd said.

The judge frowned at Nico. "Disrespect of an elder is as grave an accusation as this supposed witchcraft, boy. Do you have nothing to say in your own defense?"

Nico glared at him until the man was fidgeting in his seat, but remained silent.

"See! This insolence must be dealt with!" Ireneus cried. "Lashes! Labor! We must put him to work!"Nico muttered something under his breath, glaring at the floor, Ireneus gripped him by the upper arm again and shook him. "What was that boy?!"

"Stai zitto! Stai zitto!" He exploded, wrenching his arm away and yelling at the top of his lungs to the man. "Ho detto zitto idiota imbecille, è dannatamente patetico pezzo di schiuma non si dovrebbe nemmeno essere a piedi questa terra si-!" He shot in rapid Italien, rambleing on.

"Woah, since when did he speak Italian?" Travis gaped.

"He is from Italy originally…" Percy allowed, but sounded unsure.

"His mom's from Italy, and he's not supposed to remember anything about her or his life before the Lotus Casino." Annabeth argued, frowning at the scene before them.

"Well, it's obviously coming back to him." Thalia noted.

"Do we even know what he's saying?" Grover wondered.

"Uh, not nice things I wouldn't be repeating to children." Jason hedged.

"You speak Italian?" Leo asked, surprised.

Hazel answered, "Rome was in Italy. We may not be fluent, but Italian is based heavily on Latin, and we know enough."

"And the curse words are what you learn first." Jason added, making the Stolls and Leo snicker.

"So, yeah, we know what he's saying." Frank bit his lip to keep from smiling. "I just can't believe he's actually saying it to them."

"He's having an off day." Percy shrugged, defending him.

"Thank the gods they don't speak Italian," Thalia sighed, "He'd be dead on sight."

"Are we going to sit here discussing this, or are we going to help him? Just because they don't speak Italian, doesn't mean they don't still know he's yelling at them." Rachel huffed.

"SILENCE!" One of the judges roared, cutting off Nico's yells. Said boy simply glared at him. "Does he even understand what we are saying to him?"

"He spoke Greek earlier, he understands." Ireneus maintained. "He is simply being insolent."

"Gee, thanks, I try." Nico quipped.

Annabeth face-palmed.

"He's really not helping his case, is he?" Rachel sighed.

"Come on Nico, work with them, please!" Hazel pinched the bridge of her nose again.

"What's the matter with him?" Frank frowned. "Does he not know his life's in the balance here?"

"I'm gonna maintain my theory about him being used to being captured by now." Percy supplied, and Thalia hit him again.

"We control your fate, boy." A judge threatened darkly. "you should be afraid, and show some respect. We could end your life easily, and your words are digging your grave the longer you speak."

Nico actually laughed at that.

"Please! You are not the scariest panel I've ever seen, and you are most certainly not as scary or as threatening as being grounded by my father, so you're going to have to do better than that." He laughed in their faces while their eyebrows shot up, some looking shocked, others looking angered.

"I wonder what Hades does to ground his kids?" Leo wondered.

"You know what, I'm pretty sure we don't want to know." Thalia decided.

"No, you don't. You really don't." Hazel sighed and those around her exchanged worried glances.

"Enough! Enough of this!" Said the center judge, raising one arm and gesturing to someone in the back of the crowd, who all shifted excitedly at that motion. "Even if this accusation of witchcraft weren't true, I've seen enough."

"Agreed." Said the judge to his right.

"This boy is disrespectful to an unacceptable degree, we cannot allow it." Said another.

"We are in agreement then?" A fourth said, and the fifth nodded along with the first three. The crowd parted and two soldiers in full Greek armor holding large spears came up behind Nico and each gripped one of his arms firmly. Nico looked surprised and a bit confused at this.

"Your sentencing is final; insolence is not tolerated in the courts… and justice is swift." The center judge said, frowning at the boy before him. The group of accusers backed out of the way and the crowd leaned forward in anticipation.

"What's happening?" Connor whispered, but the demigods looked confused as well.

"I'm… not sure. There should be a further trial and investigation, then a sentencing committee and a public debate…" Annabeth murmured, more to herself than anything, looking more and more panicked. "This isn't how history says it happens…"

The crowd fell silent and the demigods gasped as one as a third solider came through the crowd, following the first two, a sword drawn and braced in both hands as he approached where Nico was being held still, looking in confusion at the judges in front of him, unaware of the man raising his sword behind him.

"NO!" Percy and Thalia didn't even realize they'd screamed out at the same time until both were suddenly in the lowered area, Riptide suddenly in Percy's hand, a great silver bow with an arrow locked and loaded in Thalia's arms, pointing at the man with the sword behind Nico. Percy swiftly used the hilt of his sword to knock Nico's guards out of the way and slice through the bindings around his wrists. The son of Hades seemed surprised and a bit alarmed to turn and see the man ready to kill him a few feet away, frozen as Thalia aimed at him, her eyes blazing in fury.

Everyone was utterly shocked at the new arrivals, who grouped together and looked out at the crowd in defensive positions. Nico flexed his wrist and his stygian iron sword materialized back in his hand as he slipped into a defensive position as well.

Everyone was frozen in shock, staring as the three prepared to fight.

Sorry, crappy ending, but it had to end somewhere and I like to keep my chapters around 2,500 words or so.

Plus, I love some good suspense.

:P