I don't own any of the characters (those I do appear later on *muhaha*) so hail Rick Riordan! :D

Beta for this Chapter: Carter Lee Grace

A/N: Hehe, here I am again :) The new chapter jumps to Camp Half Blood and continues right after the end of "The lost Hero", taking in Jason's last sentence from it. I now got myself a beta-reader and she's really lovely! I thank Carter Lee Crace for beta reading this with so much effort, correcting all my mistakes and turning this into fluent English! *hug* I hope it's a little better now for you to read :) And don't worry, I still have some chapters to post but still much stress, no telling when the next one will come. Carter says she's also busy so let's see xD Just enjoy for now and again, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! I mean, I practically begged for it and only got one review? Oh please -_- (I don't count Carter's here, she's beta reading after all so I sent her a link to it and she was so nice to post a review :3). So just tell me, a simple "please continue" or "I like it" is enough, I even want to know what you don't like!

Just do it! :) I'd really be happy and it'd let me speed up the uploads ;P


Chapter II

Annabeth

"Exactly," Jason said, "Percy Jackson is at the other camp, and he probably doesn't remember who he is."

The entire room was silent after hearing Jason's words. All of the demigods in the rec room were staring at the young blond hero, except for Annabeth. She had buried her face in her hands, trying to pull herself together. She couldn't just burst out in tears right before the other counselors. The daughter of Athena had too much pride for that. She took a shaky breath to stop her sour thoughts. Annabeth wanted to continue the discussion as if nothing happened. But she winced when Clarisse banged her fist right on the ping-pong table with what seemed like full force, causing whatever was placed on the table to jump a few inches.

"That idiot! Letting himself be dragged into enemy territory by Hera!"

Yeah, that was pretty much what Annabeth expected Clarisse to say. But she knew that Clarisse didn't mean the idiot thing seriously though. Clarisse and Percy had been getting along just fine as of recently, despite the fact that they had been enemies since Percy came to camp, with Percy drenching her in toilet water, beating up her father, and all that stuff. Still, Annabeth lifted her face and forced her lips into a smile.

"Yeah, that's Seaweed Brain for you. Now, what do we do? To be honest, I wouldn't wait for the ship to finish. That'd be half a year and we don't know what Percy has to…go through in that camp." She hesitated, knowing that this sounded partly selfish. But what if she was right and they either turned Percy into some disciplined soldier –which he just wasn't!- or killed him because he was untrustworthy?

But she had to continue, neither of them objected, though some seemed unsure. "This is going to be dangerous though. But as Clarisse mentioned, arriving at the Roman camp with a warship would probably make them think they're being attacked. And we all know that the roman military is nothing to make fun of." She looked at Jason, who nodded slowly. He seemed to think about something.

"You're sure right with that. They wouldn't even think about listening to you. Maybe if we have a small group of strong demigods and arrive there on food…I should be able to find it, at least I could try…" he lost track of what he wanted to say further but Annabeth just nodded, facing the others again.

"He's right. We need a small group. But a group of three is too little, the thread of Gaia is too big for three people to handle. The last thing Gaia would want us to achieve is to unite the two camps and defeat her children together with the gods. She'll do everything she can to prevent us from reaching San Francisco." Her voice was serious and reasoning as ever. Why was she that good at pretending to be okay? Well, Chiron and Piper, strangely enough, didn't seem very convinced. She was met with two expressions of sorrow: Piper's, out of pity for losing her boyfriend, most likely, and Chiron's, as if he was sorry he couldn't have told her more before. Well, she appreciated the offer, but now wasn't the right time for her feelings...maybe later, when she was alone in her bed, like always. It was bad enough that she once broke down in front of Piper, and that was probably why she was getting that look from her now. Besides, that was okay with her, since Piper was the daughter of Aphrodite, and would be the first one to sense her feelings of longing towards Percy. But if she had a breakdown like that here in the rec room, her respect would be gone in a flash.

Percy wouldn't want her to be so desperate. He just would want her to search for him, and believe in his strength to survive until they meet again. At least, that's what she would've wanted him to do if she went missing. So Annabeth had to concentrate on setting this straight first; her fears would have to wait to be pondered over later.

Again, the room fell silent for a while until Chiron raised his voice. "Well, Jason already agreed on leading, right?" He looked at Jason who immediately nodded.

"Yeah, definitely. I bet when I'm with you they won't try to kill us the second we step inside the boundaries." Jason grinned at Annabeth, as if he wanted her to smile back, and she managed to lift the corners of her lips a little.

"Thanks, Jason," she said, relieved. Jason was a very strong demigod after all.

Chiron continued, and everyone turned back to the centaur. "I must agree with Annabeth that this isn't going to be an easy task at all. Especially without the finished ship. Gaia will try everything to make the two camps hate each other again and you have to be immune to it. Try not to draw attention to yourself, so they don't assume you're coming to attack their Castra. Plus-"

"Castra?" It came from Miranda Gardiner, and she appeared really confused by all of this. Annabeth opened her mouth to answer, but it was Jason who beat her to it, like a shotgun.

"That's the Latin word for camp." He blinked, totally confused about what he just said and where it came from. The other counselors looked at him, and all of a sudden Piper started to laugh. Jason however, seemed the most surprised, turning to face the girl next to him.

"W-what?" he asked, blushing slightly.

"Um, it's just kinda cu- I mean, uh, funny when you do that." Jason didn't look very pleased with that answer and his face became even redder. The rest of the demigods all had to suppress a laugh, even Annabeth.

Chiron cleared his throat, quickly quieting everyone down. "Very well, now that that's settled, who else is going to accompany Jason and Annabeth?" He looked at the blonde girl with a certain glint in his eyes, and she nodded in return. She knew what Chiron meant. They needed power and wisdom, but in this case, there were a few others they really needed…

"Well, Piper will you come with us, right? We'll need your charmspeaking. And Leo, your skills could be helpful too. Besides, you three did well together in the last quest, and a good team is better than 10 valuable fighters."

They weren't surprised. After all, they already agreed of coming with Jason again. Thogh Leo's face turned a little grm. Piper was the first to answer.

"Oh yeah, I'd really like to…come along." She bit her lip, her colorful eyes glancing over at Jason.

Annabeth immediately understood Piper's reaction, and she had to smile. Then, she turned and fixed her stormy gray eyes at Leo. Surprisingly, he shook his head.

"I'd really like to," said the son of Hephaestus, "But the Argo II isn't going to be finished in half a year if I'm not here helping my cabin. I thought we were going to wait for the finish. But this…is going to be difficult. You'll have to go without the awesome me and my many talents." He shrugged and leaned back in his seat, arms crossed. But to the shock of many of the campers at the table, Annabeth grinned.

"Oh, don't worry, that should be okay. I know some really good mechanics who can help you out. Old friends…they're definitely going to speed up the building rate." All eyes were directed at her again. Well, except for Clovis, who was asleep like he usually was.

Clarisse seemed to understand who Annabeth was talking about. "Oh, you mean…?" Annabeth gave her an affirmative look. Chiron nodded slowly thinking over the possibility.

"Yes…that should be doable. He'd want to help, since he can't come with you because he'd draw too much attention to himself. Also, how do you plan to get there? We can't really trust the winds, and especially not the earth. Any form of ground or air transport would be too dangerous."

He fixed his eyes back on to Annabeth, knowing that she was the best when it came to ideas. The blonde thought about it: no air and no ground…so no plane, train, bus, car or helicopter-

"What about a ship?"Jason asked, also looking at Annabeth, his eyebrows raised. "That's not earth or air-"

"I'm not going on any ship without Percy!" Annabeth snapped abruptly. Right away, she slapped her hand over her mouth, mentally cursing in ancient Greek. Hades, she didn't mean to say that out loud! Why didn't her tongue listen to her anymore! She really needed to get out of here for now.

"S-sorry, Jason. I…I'm going to message a few people now just so we can be sure…yeah." With this, she jumped off her chair and ran out of the room, followed by some confused stares, but some pitying glances as well.

The door locked behind her, and she heard lots of footsteps inside the Big House, Annabeth broke out into a run; she didn't want anyone to chase after her and see the tears that had welled up in her gray eyes. With a desperate attempt to calm herself before actually sending some Iris messages, she ran across the whole camp and ended up at the beach. She only realized where she had ended up after she was already staring at the ocean. The blue-green ocean, just as…Styx! Why did she come here? Annabeth dropped on to the cold sand, one hand, sinking onto the half frozen ground, while the other one shielded her eyes, as if that could stop the tears from falling. They had come here so often…her and Percy.

It was so amazing how he could sit here at the sea and be so calm, as if he was home, and as soon as he stood up he was his ADHD self again, unable to stand still, making fun of everything even if it wasn't funny at all. Annabeth would still laugh, eventually punching him for being so stupid, calling him Seaweed Brain. But he could also be so sweet. They had watched the fireworks here together on July 4th… The memory was so clear, hurt her so much, that she was now ready to punch herself for being stupid enough to come here. She had avoided the ocean ever since he had gone missing. Its color reminded her of his eyes, and the waves were just as unpredictable as his temper. But at least she was alone here…besides her and Percy, people rarely ever came to the beach, except when it was summer, when you could go surfing or do other stuff in the sand

For Percy, it was always his favorite place, even during winter when the lake was frozen, the ocean ice cold, and snow covered everything, just like now. Annabeth sat at a spot where the waves must have been splashing at a few hours ago, as the sand was ice cold, but without a trace of snow. Still, the air was freaking cold! The wind was strong, but she had left her jacket in the Big House. So she sat here in jeans and her orange camp sweater, plus some armor and her knife at her side. Great, just great, really. What was she thinking? She, a daughter of Athena…Well, that was the problem. She wasn't thinking at all right now. Her mother wouldn't like this, but she didn't even care. Had she really been that happy with Percy, only realizing now about how much she loved him? And just because he was missing? Well, he wasn't just missing. She knew where he was now, but that didn't really raise her hopes.

Roman camp…Jason said that they were more disciplined. Percy and discipline? Not really a good combination, to say the least. She liked him the way he was – unpredictable and stubborn - even if most of the things he did in combat were too risky for logical fighters – like her- to think of. Then again, that was what made him win pretty much all of his battles. But…what if the Roman campers found out about who Percy really was and just killed him? As Jason said, they weren't as friendly as the demigods at Camp Half-Blood. Percy being in that much danger - she just couldn't stand it. Not that he hadn't been in life-threatening situations before, but he…he had lost his memory. That meant he couldn't remember his friends, his home, his family… or her. And he was handsome, that was for sure.

Annabeth knew that most Aphrodite girls were just waiting for her to break up with Percy so they could have him. They would probably be flirting with him if Annabeth wasn't known for her defensiveness when it comes to her boyfriend. But at Roman camp…what if the girls took the advantage of his lost memories? What if he didn't know a thing about her, and when she arrived at the Roman camp he was with some other girl? Just like…just like Jason? He found Piper here, but who said he didn't have someone waiting for him at the Roman camp? Jason was the Roman camp's leader and all, and Percy was just that at Camp Half-Blood, their leader. And with him missing, it was as if a big hole had opened up right in the middle of the camp, just like the one that had opened up right inside her own heart. As if the Underworld had just opened up right beside the lake.

Ha. Annabeth laughed bitterly at the irony of her thoughts. The Underworld was practically wide open right now. That's why it was so difficult to reach Nico. Annabeth had tried many times, but had only managed to reach him once, and that was the day after Percy disappeared. She had asked him to look for Percy, but ever since then she hadn't seen a sign of the 12 year old son of Hades. And, now of all times, Hera had to come up with this crazy and totally not foolproof plan. Both camps without a leader, and she actually thought that it would somehow unite them? Annabeth sighed and pulled her knees to her chest for warmth. It was then that she heard light footsteps behind her.


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