The next morning, Leo and co. were ready to set off for their quest. Chiron said he consulted the Oracle and they were to travel by ship to the Swamp. There, they would have to stop the awakening of 'Ebony of Rosewood', whoever that was.

Once everyone had said their goodbyes to their families (except for Leo, who had none) they embarked on their quest. It was a rather luxurious boat, with a room for each quest member along with an extra room, a dining room and a recreation area. The boat also had an autopilot feature. It could even fly!

As soon as the boat left the dock, everyone reported to the dining room to consult their next plan of action.

The dining room consisted of a round table with seven chairs surrounding it. Each chair had a symbol engraved on the top.

A flame, A trident, A diamond, An owl, A lightning bolt, a lion's head, a dove and… an axe?! "Wait, an eight chair?!" exclaimed Percy. "Who's that for!"

"ME, CUPCAKES!" yelled Coach Hedge, who had suddenly appeared from who-knows-where. "Surprise! I've been on the boat this whole time, and I've gotta stick around to babysit you! Didn't think a bunch of kids could go on some major quest alone, did you?"

Everyone groaned, but they realised an adult supervisor was necessary.

"Anyway, these chairs are cool." said Leo," I call the fire chair".

"Interesting! These symbols probably represent each of us! I think the owl chair is for me, while the trident chair is for Percy."

Everyone nodded their heads and proceeded to plant their bottoms on the chair that bared the symbols that best represented them. Leo sat in the flame chair, Percy sat in the trident chair, Annabeth in the owl, Jason in the lightning bolt, Piper in the dove, Frank in the lion head, Hazel in the diamond and even Coach Hedge in the axe.

And with that, they decided to begin their discussion on the Prophecy.

"Where did Chiron say we have to go?" asked Percy.

Hedge shrugged.

"Some place called The Swamp. I've read about it. It was some spiritual place that was only active a few hundred years ago when Avatar Aang was still alive. Now, a bunch of waterbenders live there." said Annabeth matter-of-factly.

"Alright so...how do we get there?" Asked Leo

Everyone looked down as they tried to think of an answer, but Chiron had forced them on their quest with so little information.

Jason looked up and noticed some sort of control panel at the front of the room.

"Hey, what's that over there?"

Frank got up and made his way over to the table.

"Looks like a control panel. Why on earth would we need this? This thing practically runs on autopilot."

"If it's a control panel, I bet it's got a map programmed in." suggested Piper.

"That's true! Don't worry comrades, hunk muffin is good with machines. I'll have this map up and running in no time, then we can all celebrate with tofu tacos!"

The group watched intensely as Leo began experimenting with the machine, pressing all sorts of buttons, adjusting holographic images, typing on the keyboard...he really was a mechanical genius.

After mere minutes of touching, tapping and talking, the symbols on the chairs started to glow. Several beams of light erupted from each. Aligning themselves and forming a multi-coloured laser pointing at a sensor on the control panel. With that, the table spoke it's first words.

"Hello, I am Cortana. Your own personal flying boat for all of your flying boat needs! Currently serving: Leo. Please prove your identity by bending this element."

A white platform was pushed out from the control panel, sorry, Cortana. On it, was some hot coals.

A camera also protruded from the table, possibly another security measure used to monitor Leo to make sure he wasn't using other benders.

Leo prepared his hands and began twisting and turning them in different directions, moving the flames along with him.

Leo finished and extinguished the flames.

"Thank you" said Cortana. "Leo now registered. What would you like me to do for you?"

"Uh...you got a map?"

"Absolutely"

A hologram appeared above the table, displaying a rotating sphere-like map of the globe.

"Gah! Magic! Let me hit it with my axe!" shouted Coach Hedge.

"Not magic, science." corrected Annabeth.

"Hey here's The Swamp!"

Leo zoomed in on this murky-green section of the map labelled "The Swamp".

"It's pretty far away...we'll have to make a few rest-stops to gather supplies. Thank you Cortana, that's all for now."

"No problem Leo, whenever you need to activate me again, simply say 'Okay Cortana'." And with that, the panel shut down.

"Great. Well I don't know about the rest of you, but I better get to sleep. See you all tomorrow." Leo said.

Everyone nodded their heads tiredly, and proceeded to their barracks.

As soon as Leo woke up, he lost control of his body; he felt himself leave his room and walk toward the edge of the boat. Leo's stomach felt like lead as he realised someone was bloodbending him. As he grew dizzy, he managed to catch a glimpse of the person who was bloodbending him.

It was Nico.

Before he could cry out to the others, his vision faded to black and his senses went numb.

Leo slowly felt his senses come back to him, but he still couldn't see anything. He tried to get up, but found he couldn't. He was unable to move his arms, either… one would think he was being kidnapped and tied to a chair or something… but then he remembered what had just happened before he woke up. He probably was tied up to a chair right now. He was about to burn off the ropes binding his hands together until he felt cold hands slap his face.

"Listen," said a voice, that could only belong to Nico, "don't try anything funny, or I'll snap your neck." Leo's head jerked up at Nico's command. "You can barely waterbend, but you can definitely bloodbend… what do you want from me, anyway?" said Leo.

"Gaea says the gods require us to sacrifice all who are unworthy in order to cleanse the world from the disasters upon it. This way, there will be no crimes or suffering. My sister Bianca can finally be freed from prison… and your dear friend Percy will pay the price for landing her in there." said Nico spitefully.

Leo furrowed his brow at this. "Wait, whaaat? Hold it. First, who's Gaea? Second, what's all this about gods and sacrifice? Man, you remind me of that weird cult lady…" said Leo.

Nico ignored Leo's comments. "It doesn't matter. I've told your friends what's going on. If they don't show up soon, I'm afraid I'll have to add some scars to that pretty face of yours."

Leo shivered and hoped this would all be over soon.

Hazel and Frank were sitting in the latter's bedroom watching movies, when Hazel received a text message on her phone.

"Hm? Oh, it's from Nico! He hasn't texted me since he stopped talking to me four years ago…"

Hazel's eyes widened as she read the message. She held her hands to her mouth in shock.

"Hm? What's wrong?" asked Frank, concerned.

Hazel's voice was shaky. "This… this must be a joke, right?..."

Frank read the text, and soon enough, his expression morphed to imitate Hazel's.

9:42 PM

NICO: If you ever want to see Leo again, show your face at my house. I've got a bone to pick with you.

NICO: Bring all the other quest members. If you report this, your friend will be gone before they show up. And don't act like you don't know where I live. I know you remember.

NICO: You'd better show up soon. One slash at his face for every hour you're not here.

"This must be some kind of sick prank." said Frank. "C'mon, let's go check his room, he's probably there." They checked his room, but found no one. They alerted everyone else on the boat, and they searched the whole ship, but they never found Leo.

"Guys, I don't think he's joking…" began Jason, fear evident in his eyes.

Piper spoke up at this. "Definitely doesn't look like it, which means we've got to get moving. Hazel, lead us there. Let's hope we get there within a couple of hours and spare Leo's face…"

And with that, Hazel drove the ship to where she knew Nico would be waiting for them.

A/N Ayy sorry for the long chapter and my writing quality (my first fanfic!) and thanks to everyone who read, favorited, followed, and to Matt for reviews/comments (which I don't know how to reply to cuz I'm too noob lol.)

Anyway, I'll clarify everyone's powers:

Jason: Airbender (Eastern Air Temple)

Piper: Nonbender (Fire Nation)

Leo: Avatar (Fire Nation)

Hazel: Earthbender (Earth Kingdom)

Frank: Nonbender (Earth Kingdom)

Percy: Waterbender (Southern Water Tribe)

Annabeth: Nonbender (Eastern Air Temple)

Nico: Waterbender (lacks skill in waterbending, but a very powerful bloodbender, Southern Water Tribe)

That's all for now. See ya next chapter!