Chapter 1

Annabeth

All thoughts of finding Percy fled her conscious mind as Annabeth dashed through the doorway. Angling hard to the left, the daughter of Athena could hear Mr. D's pet leopard, Seymour, growling while Mitchell and Piper sprinted through the Big House anteroom. Silently, she cursed the seated position that had slowed her rush towards whatever trouble had befallen Jason Grace.

She blew through the vine-covered seating area, pushing herself to the limit to catch up to the other two demigods and eliciting a second bout of grumbling from the stuffed leopard head.

From ahead Annabeth heard Piper shout, "What happened?"

The daughter of Athena burst through the screen door just in time to see Mitchell shaking his head. The young man was obviously exhausted from his earlier sprint and wasn't able to do more than gulp down large amounts of air.

Reaching the worn dirt path that led up too and wrapped around the four story baby-blue farmhouse, Annabeth began to gain on the two children of the love goddess. The daughter of Athena pulled up alongside Piper just as the path veered parallel to the fields of freshly planted strawberries.

As they made their way toward the center of camp, and its ever increasing number of cabins, Annabeth was impressed to see how far Piper had come in only a few short months. When the young woman first arrived to camp. She was already fit, no doubt a result of her vegetarian diet, but the camp's training program had transformed the girl's naturally slim form into a graceful athletic build more suitable to the hardships her half-god nature would naturally force upon her.

Now instead of panting spasmodically, Piper drew in slow even breaths, and despite the growing sense of panic catching fire behind her friend's eyes, Annabeth could tell Piper wasn't over exerting herself. They were hurrying to be sure, but when they finally arrived at their destination, should the need arise, Piper would be fully capable of using her charm-speak.

Annabeth mentally chastised herself while she slowed her own ragged breathing, "Just one more thing I forgot to consider."

She had begun to recognize the potential for trouble weeks ago. Jason's personality had gradually began to change. He was becoming short, distant, and demanding. Now, he would spend almost every free moment either training himself or scrutinizing, what he would call, the camp's haphazard layout.

And then came the suggestions. At first, Jason politely suggested that the senior counselors beef-up their cabins' training menu; however after everyone, except Clarisse, just as politely, refused…the determined descendant of Rome went to Chiron. Surprisingly her old friend had actually agreed to, temporarily, allow Jason to implement and conduct his more strenuous morning regiment.

Mitchell stumbled, and fell to the ground. The two girls quickly moved to help him up, but the determined young man waved them back. He crawled over to the eternal pyre, set in the middle of the cabins' square. Mitchell rolled off of his knees and sat back against the marble structure, panting heavily.

Concerned for her younger half-brother, Piper asked, "Are you alright?"

Mitchell glared. "Of course not," barked the son of Aphrodite, between pants. "Just look at my clothes," he waved his hands over his khaki pants and loafers, "these grass stains will never come out, and look at my shoes. I know they're only Frye's, but it'll take me half the day to buff out those scuff marks."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. She wanted to lecture the kid about running in said footwear, but she knew that would only start an argument and cost them time.

So instead she pointed out, "At least your polo shirt survived the fall unscathed."

Mitchell craned his neck, surveying the pristine white fabric.

"Thank the gods, there's that at least," he said with a relieved sigh.

Seeing her brother was fine; Piper began looking around anxiously, "Annabeth…does something seem off to you?"

Prying her glaring eyes away from the downed Mitchell, Annabeth glanced around, "Where is everyone?"

Everywhere she looked the camp was eerily empty. Cabin doors stood ajar. The dining pavilion was vacant. A lonely basketball, blown by a slight breeze, rolled off the court and into the grass. The daughter of Athena stepped away, looking for a better vantage to peer between the assembled cabins. Down by the lake a half dozen canoes appeared hastily beached, their oars strewn across the shore.

"What's going on?" she thought.

She wasn't surprised by cabins Four and Nines apparent emptiness. Both hers and Leo's cabins had been spending most of their time at Bunker Nine working tirelessly to finish the Argo II. Cabin Seven and the children of Apollo were usually practicing their archery before lunch. That's probably where Chiron was too. Cabin Eleven was scheduled for one of Jason's hard marches; however that should have ended almost thirty minutes ago. That just left the other demigods which should have been scattered all over the place.

"The chariot stadium," answered Mitchell, rising. "All Tartarus has…"

A sound like thunder boomed, drowning out the last of Mitchell's words.

Together the three of them turned to the aforementioned stadium. Now that her ears were pointed in the right direction, Annabeth could just hear the tell-tell noises of battle. Without another word Piper took off, followed immediately by Annabeth, and this time Mitchell was the one to bring up the rear.


Emerging from the tunnel leading to the sand-lined stadium floor, Annabeth became a witness to madness. Before her was a scene torn from the pages of Roman history. More than one-hundred demigods sat in the stands of the stadium cheering on roughly eighty demigods, turned gladiators. To the untrained eye the scene before her looked like nothing more than a battle royale, but in fact at the heart of the melee were two distinct sides. Through a narrow gap, the daughter of Athena could see Jason Grace, leading Clarisse and the Ares cabin, against Trevor and Connor Stoll and the Hermes cabin. While the rest of the combatants seemed to be waylaying one another for no discernible reason.

"The clap of thunder must have been, Jason."

Standing next to her Piper, speaking mostly to herself, said aloud, "How did this…" she paused, "Annabeth how are we supposed to stop...this?"

Turning her thoughts inward, the daughter of Athena considered the question. Piper's charm-speak was the most obvious solution, but Annabeth doubted even Piper's well developed lungs could raise her enchanted voice above the den of battle. What they needed was a way to increase the volume. She glanced up at the VIP box.

"If it's there," thought Annabeth, looking back at Piper, "would it work?"

The daughter of Aphrodite noticed Annabeth staring, "You've got an idea?"

She nodded, "Tantalus used to keep a loud-speaker in the press box. If it's there you might be able to use it to amplify your voice and stop this craziness."

"It's worth a try," agreed Piper. "But who's Tantalus?"

Annabeth ignored the question, and that's when Mitchell chimed in.

"What can I do?"

The two girls looked back. Annabeth gave the winded son of Aphrodite a once over. Without a weapon or any kind of combat experience he was next to useless here, and from talks she had had with Piper the young man, like most of the love goddesses children, didn't have a talent with words.

"That's probably why he came looking for Piper in the first place."

That left one reasonable option, "Go find Chiron," she ordered. "He's probably near the archery range with the Apollo kids."

Mitchell gave a quick nod and started back down the tunnel.

"Mitchell, move quickly," shouted Annabeth.

He turned and stared at her, seemingly insulted.

"And if you can't find Chiron, go find Argus. He should be feeding Peleus."

Another quick nod, then he took off.

"What are you going to do?" asked Piper.

Annabeth drew her knife. "I'm going to try and get to Jason, Trevor, or Connor. I don't know what sparked this, but those three and Clarisse are the ones that have the best chance of ending it, should the megaphone not work."

Piper's forehead furrowed. Annabeth watched as Piper's eyes moved from the blade up to the spot Jason had been standing when they saw him a moment ago. Annabeth recognized that worried expression. She seemed to be wearing the same one every time she looked at herself in the mirror.

The two friends exchanged one last look of understanding then separated, each moving toward their appointed goals.


Annabeth rushed headlong into the fray. The daughter of Athena, her battlefield reflexes enhanced by the unflappable calm that made her mother such a fierce warrior, moved like a phantom, deftly weaving her way amongst and through the individual skirmishes dotting the arena floor. It was an ability similar to Percy's Styx enhanced swordplay, but one that she could only direct towards a single, consciously chosen, purpose. In this case evasion. If she was suddenly forced to switch from evasion to offense; her mind would crash and she would wake up sometime later with a massive headache.

The smell of trampled earth, sweat, and hot metal filled her nose. The nerves of her skin registered the slightest fluctuations of the air. Her ears broke down the sound of each weapon as it collided with another, and her eyes scanned the entire scene taking in the most minute of details. With all the raw data received, processed, and wired directly to her instincts Annabeth dodged every errant swipe of a sword, thrust of a spear, and swing of a fist with minimal effort. The only time she paused was to move a downed camper out of harms way.

Approaching the center of the fighting Annabeth could see the son of Jupiter, flanked by a couple of Ares kids, still standing opposite the two senior counselors from Cabin Eleven, Trevor and Connor Stoll along with half-dozen children of Hermes. How the two pranksters were still actively fighting a warrior of Jason's caliber she didn't know, but standing they were, and pushing forward.

As she watched one of the Stoll twins brandished a silver arrow, obviously pilfered from some Apollo kid's quiver, and hurled it at the feet of the nearest Ares kid. The tip exploded, releasing a cloud of smoke or gas, she couldn't tell which, while the rest of their group rushed the other kid standing to Jason's right. Overwhelmed by numbers the kid, Mike Annabeth recalled, was knocked to ground, but not before his sword splintered a shield, breaking one of his attackers' arms.

That's when things began to get really dangerous. The former Praetor was backed into a corner, her heightened senses could feel the electricity beginning to circle the Roman demigod. Now that she was thinking about it, why had things gone this far? Jason was a child of the Big Three, if he was so inclined he should be able to blast a crater in the arena floor large enough to bury a Volkswagen Beetle. So why was he only now getting ready to redo the earlier lightshow?

A mechanical centaur figurine galloped by firing arrows randomly. The novelty of the sight nearly prevented the daughter of Athena from sensing the oncoming threat. Annabeth dropped to the ground and immediately rolled to her right. The mystery surrounding Jason and the little automaton would have to wait as Clarisse stalked forward brandishing her electric spear.

Rising to her feet and lifting her knife into a defensive position, Annabeth bellowed, "Clarisse, what in the name of Olympus…"

"Stow it Wise-girl," rebuffed the enraged daughter of Ares, "I'll not have you interfering. It's high time those thieving brothers learned their place!"

Clarisse dashed forward and delivered a quick thrust with Maimer. Annabeth, her mind still dedicated solely to dodging, side-stepped before pirouetting away from the larger girl. She tried to use her fancy footwork to move closer to the son of Jupiter, but the experienced and savvy war-god's daughter moved with her.

Clarisse shifted her grip from right to left, lifting the shaft upward in the process, before sliding back to the left and bringing the tip downward in a slicing action. Annabeth, analyzing all of this, planted her right foot, halting her on motion, just before the spear impaled the ground.

Clarisse roared, "You're not getting away!"

"Clarisse, you pigheaded…" Annabeth stopped herself, "we need to put an end to this!"

The daughter of Ares assumed another thrusting posture, "Oh, we will. Once Grace really gets going he and I will…"

Piper's voice boomed, "Stop!" The entire assemblage instantly obeyed. "Everyone lay down your weapons now!" Annabeth, Clarisse, and everyone, including the spectators, dropped any and all weapons they were carrying, creating a earsplitting melody of clattering metal and thumping wood.

From the opposite end of the stadium another voice rose, "Yes, I believe that will be quite enough."

Everyone turned.

"Thank you, Miss McLean, but I will take it from here," spoke Chiron, with Mitchell on his back.

As he rode toward where she stood, Annabeth couldn't help but notice the old centaur was the only person still carrying his weapon. Appearantly Chiron was capable of resisting Piper's charming voice.

"Now will someone mind telling me why my entire camp is out here trying to kill one another?" demanded the scraggily-bearded old teacher.

Though the question was directed toward everyone, Annabeth knew her old friend was waiting for her to explain what had happened. Although she didn't know the exact details her mind had already formed a reasonable conclusion.

One of the Stoll twins stepped forward.

"He started it!" accused Trevor or Connor, pointing toward Jason.

"If by starting, you mean giving you orders to form ranks," responded the son of Jupiter. "Then yes I did."

"You see, Chiron," sounded the second twin limping up to stand beside his brother. "He admits it."

Clarisse rebuffed, "Shut up, Stoll. If you and your brother had just done what you were told…"

"What we were told?" shouted the bothers in unison. "Since when do we have to do anything you or the Roman tells us?"

Clarisse picked up her spear, and a circle instantly began to form around the five of them, "You're really asking for it…"

Chiron fumed, "Blast it Clarisse, I said enough."

"But Chiron," began the daughter of Ares, before the old centaur's glare shut her up.

"How about we make this simple," suggested Chiron. "Let's start with this order Jason gave, and if anyone so much as raises their voice…I promise you that he or she," emphasized the Camp Counselor, looking at Clarisse, "will be spending the next month cleaning the pegasus stables using only their bare hands."

Faced with a threat of such magnitude everyone, Annabeth included, took half a step backwards. She had never seen her old friend so angry.

"I see we have an understanding," voiced Chiron. "Now Jason, if you would be so kind…the order?"

The son of Jupiter squared his shoulders, lifted his chin, and spoke calmly, "After I and the members of Cabin Eleven completed this mornings march, I asked them to follow me to the stadium, telling them I had a surprise waiting."

Behind her Annabeth heard some angry kid mumble, "Surprise he says."

Jason continued, not having heard the comment, "Yesterday I asked Clarisse and the members of Mar…Ares Cabin to assemble here in preparation for a mock battle. I thought it would be a good experience for the Hermes Cabin to face a fresh and prepared force while they were exhausted from this morning's training."

"No wonder the Hermes Cabin refused," thought Annabeth.

There's no way she would have consented to something like that…at least not without prior notice and maybe some charm-speak on top of that. No Senior Counselor would. Especially, not if the opponent was Cabin Four. Clarisse and her siblings weren't exactly known for playing nice when they sensed weakness. Of course, that really raised the question…

"After the fight started," wondered the daughter of Athena. "How did Trevor, Connor, and a bunch of tired Hermes kids manage to hold their own against Jason, Clarisse, and the entire Ares Cabin?"

Chiron covered his face with his right hand and said aloud, "I should have known this would happen."

"Sir," asked Jason.

Chiron shook his head, "Never mind. Jason you and I are going to talk about this. As for the rest of you." Chiron looked at everyone else, "You will return to your cabins until the conch horn sounds for lunch. Afterwards, the Senior Counselors and I will meet to discuss the consequences of today's little outburst."

A collective, "Awww," issued forth from the gathered campers.

For the first time since Mitchell burst into the office Annabeth thought about Percy.

Once more impatient to follow her lead she implored, "But Chiron, I need to…"

He cut her off, "Annabeth please, do as I ask. Whatever it is you are going to request…I'm sure it can wait for the next few hours."

She looked down, before another thought popped into her head, "What about everyone that's injured?"

"I have already dispatched Cabin Seven to the Big House," explained the old centaur. "They will be ready to receive any that have been hurt during the course of this foolishness. In the meantime," he said a little more loudly, "the rest of you will do as I say, or it's the stables for the next month."

Upon hearing that, no one felt the need to stick around. They all started filing out in mass, headed for either their bunks or the Big House.

By that point Piper had made her way back down to the stadium floor, and was moving toward Jason.

"Ah, Miss McLean," said Chiron in his more casual tone. "Thank you again for the assistance." The centaur paused, looking as though he was only just remembering something he forgot, "And thank you Annabeth. Now that things are calming down I recall Mitchell telling me it was your quick thinking that led Piper to use Tantalus's old megaphone."

Piper gave Chiron a quick nod before turning her glare on Jason, "Mind telling me what you were doing starting a second war before we've finished fighting the first one?"

"Piper…I," Jason rubbed his face, looking very confused in the process.

"I'm afraid, Piper, that will have to wait until after Jason and I have had a long overdue chat. If you would Mr. Grace, please head to the sword's grounds. You are already long overdue for our regular private lesson." said Chiron.

Jason looked both dejected and sorry when he said, just before walking away, "I'm sorry, Piper."

Annabeth tried to read Piper's expression, but couldn't discern anything beyond the expected worry. She wasn't the first person to be interested a guy that could turn the entire camp on its ear. Although, at the time Annabeth hadn't been aware of how she would come to think of Percy, but Piper was saddled with a different animal altogether. Jason came from a different world, and despite Hera returning his memories, he would often describe what he remembered as if he were viewing the sum of his life through eyes other than his own.

"Now, Mitchell if you would don't mind."

The son of Aphrodite's face grew red with embarrassment, before he climbed off the centaur's back, "Sorry, Chiron."

"Think nothing of it," assured the old teacher. "But Mitchell, next time you witness the beginnings of a civil war…please come and find me before you run around looking for Piper and alerting the entire camp."

The young man, abashed, looked down, "Yes, Sir."

"Good. Now Annabeth...Piper," added Chiron, looking back and forth between the two of them, before glancing toward the last few stragglers making their way up the stadium tunnel. "Please see to it that everyone does as instructed."

It took a second before Annabeth understood, "So we're not going back to our cabins. Are we?"

Chiron flashed a weary smile, "No. I'm afraid a dust-up like this tends to revive old rivalries and reopens far more recent wounds. I doubt it will be long before someone is angry enough or bold enough to disregard my warning. When that happens I would like the two of you there to intervene."

They nodded.

"Excellent, now if the two of you would excuse me," said Chiron making his exit.

Piper watched Jason's back disappear while asking, "What do you think's happening to him?"

With anyone else the daughter of Athena would have tried to sound strong and reassuring, but Piper had a way of reading people that could only be described as preternatural.

"I'm not sure," replied Annabeth. "But I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." She smiled, "Come on, Chiron's probably right. It's only a matter of time before the camp tries to tear itself apart again."

Piper nodded, "Alright."

Annabeth turned to Mitchell, "So how is it you knew what was going on before anyone else?"

He smiled sheepishly, "I was kind of following Drew."

"Following Drew?" questioned Piper.

Mitchell shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah."

"Why?" asked Annabeth.

"She was sort of following Jason and carrying a suspicious looking canteen."

It took Piper less than a second to form a theory, "I'm going to kill her."

Annabeth, really wanted to get back to Chiron's office, but she didn't hesitate, "Mind if I help?"

Piper grinned wolfishly, and then the two started walking away, an evil gleam in their eyes.

From behind, Mitchell shouted, "But aren't we supposed to stop the killing?"