A/N: Please Read and Review.

Chapter 4: A Fragment of the Past

The meditation practices of the Roman army had done wonders for his ADHD. It did not help an army if they had hyperactive warriors. Every day everybody at camp sat still for four hours. Now, a summer after he had arrived, it was like he had a switch that he could use to flip his ADHD on or off. It was amazing.

Michael rubbed the new brand on his arm. It was a single line, representing his first year at camp. It was hard to concentrate this morning, however. A few days ago, Jason, the camp leader, had simply vanished. Search parties had been sent, but they had not found him yet. To add to their problems, Olympus had been closed. Even the food on the altar simply burned in the fire.

"Hello Michael," a voice said behind him.

What in Hades! He jumped. With his training, no normal person could sneak up on him.

He turned. Oh, it's only Salacia.

"It's nice to see you as well."

"Is there a reason?" Michael asked.

"Can't a goddess simply visit her champion?" She asked. He just gave her a look. He wasn't falling for it. "Oh, alright, I am not simply here for a visit. As you may know Olympus is on lockdown. Neptune and Pluto are trying to stall the best they can. What you may not know is that Juno is missing. "

"Juno's missing!" Michael yelled. He had to tell Lupa immediately.

"No. That problem's being taken care of. I'm here to tell you that the search may go better if you look around Niagara Falls. "

"Is that where we'll find Jason?" he asked.

"Perhaps." She said. Michael turned away as the goddess transformed into a supernova and disappeared.

Before he knew it, it was getting dark. Why Salacia had to take so long, I'll never know, he thought.

Okay, Michael, you can do this, he thought to himself as he walked into the main building. You just have to explain to the whole camp and an angry wolf that Jason might be at Niagara Falls. Yea, that should be easy. Or, at least he hoped.

It was dark out by now, and the moon hung lazily in the sky where it almost always was. Diana must really like that spot for some reason. The cabin lights were on, probably since it wasn't exactly lights out, but everyone was getting ready to sleep. Michael could hear their voices floating through the windows, but even with that, everything seemed relatively quiet as he made her way to the Big Tent.

He knocked on the door, hoping that Lupa wouldn't be in a bad mood that she was in normally to deal with Mr. B. She could be a lot worse if she had to deal with him.

After a second, the door swung open to reveal Lupa, her wolf fur in curlers. Michael tried to stifle his laughter, but it came out anyways. Lupa growled.

"Sorry."

"Michael, where have you been?" she demanded, "No one saw you since you since this morning" Lupa suddenly fell silent and looked around, as if expecting someone to be standing next to him "Is something wrong?" Lupa finally asked.

Michael swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, and somehow managed to find his voice: "I think I might know where Jason is," she murmured, "I was meditating, and Salacia came to visit me, and she kinda told me where to look..." For the first time in a while, Michael was at a loss for words. "I think Jason might be at Niagara Falls."

There was a silence, and Michael thought for a moment that he hadn't said anything at all. It was then that Lupa cleared her throat.

"Well, I believe that you want to go and find him," he said. It was probably meant to be a question, but it came out as a statement instead.

Michael nodded in reply, hoping that it would be approved. He could go and save Jason! Why would the goddess visit him if it wasn't in some way important.

Lupa sighed. "Can you do me a favor and take a new camper with you?" he asked, "She needs some experience, and this might be the best time for that."

Michael furrowed his brow in confusion. "Who did you have in mind, Lupa?"

The old she-wolf held up her paw. "We can discuss that in the morning," he said, "Right now, you need to go and get some sleep."

Michael opened his mouth to argue, but Lupa gave him a stern look, as if trying to say 'Go to bed before I eat you. It would be pretty hard to listen to Chiron though, since he was just stubborn enough to not care. It meant helping his friend, he'd do anything. Even though he really wanted to, Michael didn't argue. He didn't want to get eaten.

With a heavy sigh, Michael turned around on his heel and made his way to the familiar cabin of Apollo. He opened the door and quietly went inside, hoping that he wouldn't alert any of his siblings to hs presence. Unfortunately, he had never did have the best luck. He had fallen off a bridge, for Jove's sake.

"Where were you?" Mary, a ten-year-old asked worriedly, "We thought Lupa might have eaten you."

"I'm fine," He said quietly, trying to sound calm.

Marcia, one of the eldest daughters of Apollo, saw right through him. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Michael shook her head, and then headed over to his bunk. "Not right now," he murmured, "We'll discuss it in the morning."

Marcia looked like she doubted that it was only 'nothing' bothering Michael, but she didn't say anything else or prompt him to go on. She just watched him as he trailed over to his bunk, looking slightly down, as if he were angry or upset. Michael was incredibly strong son of Apollo, one of the strongest that she'd ever met, so it was unusual for him to act that way. Even if he was just tired, she would walk with his head high, ready to defeat anything.

The next morning, Lupa was outside the tent with Reyna.

"Wait," I said. "You want me to take her?" I asked Lupa.

The she-wolf nodded.

"But she's the Sibyl! She's practically a mortal!"

Reyna spat on the ground, and glared at Michael angrily. "I am not a mortal, son of Apollo. I am the daughter of Roma, the great goddess of Rome."

"She needs the experience." Lupa said.

"Oh, alright, she can come along. We'll leave immediately. Get ready and meet me at the pegasi stables."

By the end of the first day flying, Michael could tell that the two of them were just passed the Mississippi. The plains slowly gave way to hill country, and the ground became patch-like, sort of looking like a quilt. It was about five-thirty, and they would have to stop soon. Flying in the dark is not the best. You can go by the moonlight to see where you are going, but one minute you could be squinting to visualize, and the next, a giant airplane is soaring next to you. Or you could keep on getting blown off track, and later you realize that you have been traveling in circles for two days.

He wasn't ready to risk any of those delaying problems to cross our path, so he told Reyna that now would be a good time to rest and get some sleep. They found a nice clearing south of St. Louis, and settled down along the edge of it. After eating, both of them went right to sleep.

Michael was moving faster now, faster, and faster. He was screaming, I could hear myself now. Someone had their hands on his shoulders, pinning him down to the ground. He grabbed at them, trying to release the strong, dangerous hold that was not letting him move an inch. Michael scraped harder, clawing at air and not able to grab at his attacker's face. The attacker was saying something to him now, talking, and yelling his name over and over. What was Michael's plan? And then he gasped awake, looking into the hard, red face of Reyna. She had her hands on Michael's shoulders and called his name again.

"What-what happened?" he asked.

She laughed. "Bad dream? Or was it your vision. Although I don't recall you trying to kill someone the last time it happened."

"Sorry, I thought you were-it was a bad dream, and I guess I thought you were trying to hurt me."

She sat back down on her sleeping back, and brought her knees up to her chest. "So it wasn't your dad or Salacia then? No new news?"

Michael shook his head twice. "None. Sorry I woke you up."

"It's alright. What time do you want to start up tomorrow?"

All he could think about was finishing this little job and finding Jason, then everything would be right again.

"Same time as today, is that okay?"

"Sure thing," she said while she was yawning.

Both of them had a little trouble falling back to sleep that night. Michael guessed was that we had about a day and a half left of flying to do yet, which meant that the more sleep they got, the easier it would be.

They woke up right on schedule, and were in the air just as the sun shone over the fields below them. They flew straight that day, trying to avoid any major cities with major any airports, stopping to eat lunch and rest for an hour, and then return to their rides. The rest of the afternoon past by in a blur, as the flat lands of the hills continued on for what felt like forever. Mile after mile, the monotony continued. Finally, when the sun had set, and they couldn't see more than ten feet in front of them, they had no choice but to land and spend the night. They were somewhere in Ohio, Michael guess

"It doesn't seem like we are getting anywhere," Michael said tying up the Pegasi.

Reyna grabbed the tent and started to connect the poles a few yards away.

"Well, we know we are getting closer to Niagara. We can't be that far away now," she reassured me.

They ate what was left of their main course meals. It looked like from that point until they arrived back at camp, they would be living off of granola bars and pudding cups. Michael's yawn signaled to him that it was time to get some rest. He announced that he was turning in for the night, and Reyna agreed. They climbed into the tent without any words and lay down quietly.

They woke up later the next morning, and could hear birds chirping around them, and the faint glow of the rising sun illuminated their tent. They were late. They hastily shoved down a couple of granola bars before loading up their gear, and taking off. They were only flying for fifteen minutes when they started to see the landscape change. Hills turned to mountains. They were getting close. Michael could smell the water. Reyna noticed this too, and squinted ahead, and pointed.

He squint his eyes and looked as far as they would allow him. He still couldn't make anything out. Then Reyna shook his head and pointed a little upward from where she was looking. A storm, an enormous one, was forming over the Falls. You could see the swirling winds, but what caught Michael's eye most was that the clouds didn't span away from it either. It was one giant thunder cloud, surrounding only one targeted area. This was not normal, which meant that it was not good either.

Something was very wrong. The clouds swept around the rocks in a motion that could send anyone flying feet into the air. Michael looked over at Reyna, whose face was equally filled with worry, and confusion. He told my pegasus to fly downward, and faster. There was no way they were going to fly into that cloud. That was literally asking for for a one way ticket to Hades. Besides, whatever was happening in that area was not looking good. As they approached closer and closer, Michael could now see that it was not just any ordinary storm. Far below was a whirlpool at the base of the Falls. The ship had run aground on some rocks.

In his gut, Michael knew that this was the place Silicia was talking about. There were three demigods down there in danger, and in a fight, a fight that they now were going to have to join. They dove faster and faster. And then suddenly, one figure vanished. All that remained in his place was a watery vapor. Michael flew as fast as he could, but it was only getting worse down there.

A moment later, a high-pitched scream came and a girl and she fell off the side of the Falls. Oh, no, Michael thought. What if that was one of the demigods, one of the ones I was supposed to keep safe? He saw another person, a boy, leap of the edge into the water. This was turning completely ugly. Well, uglier. Michael turned to look at Reyna. She was shaking her head with astonishment.

"We have to get down there. Now!" And as she said the words, she ordered her Pegasi to dive more.

Michael looked back up. It was harder to see as they got closer to the storm. Raindrops stung his eyes and the wind didn't help either. But regardless, he still found myself flying into the cloud.

Then, the rain lightened. The wind had died down, and the whirlpool had reduced in size. The cloud parted in front of us, and I could see three people, two boys and a girl, on the platform below us.

They gazed up and stared as if we were an illusion. We landed right away, and Michael jumped off his Pegasus so fast it made him dizzy. He saw them then. He saw them up close. They were bruised, and hurt. Michael looked at one of the boys. Hs clothes were dry as a bone, his hair sparkling with the sunlight hitting the rain in it. The most important thing though.

"Percy? Percy Jackson?" he said.

"Do I know you?" the boy replied.

THE END (for now)

A/N: Well, how did you like it? Michael was sent to the Roman camp so they would be prepared to trust Percy, and wouldn't kill him on sight. If I continue, I'll probably make Michael one of the seven of the prophecy.