AN: Hey guys! Ready for the next chapter? Well here it is! DFTBA!

Chapter 4

December 19th

Again, Jason dreamed. He was back in the body of the Arthur guy he'd been in last time. He stood next to a horse atop a hill, looking down at a grey stone castle. "Home at last," he said with a contented sigh.

"Sire?" another man asked. Jason, or Arthur, rather, turned to see the man he was standing with. Shorter and somewhat wider than Arthur, he nevertheless carried a longsword too. "Is everything alright?"

"I merely wonder how things have changed," Arthur said. "It has been far too long since I was last at Camelot." Jason felt a ping of recognition go off in his head. Camelot. Arthur climbed atop his horse, as did his companion. "Come, let us go."

Together they rode down the hill to the castle's drawbridge. Horns sounded as they approached. Two young boys ran out from the castle's gate and met them. "May we take your horses, milords?" one of them asked.

"Yes," Arthur said, jumping down from his horse. His companion did so as well. The boys took the horses inside the castle gate, and a well-groomed man came out. "Hello, Sir Galahad, Arthur Pendragon, welcome back to Camelot. King Lancelot is expecting you in the throne room."

Jason felt Arthur's eyebrows shoot up. "King Lancelot?"

The greeter looked uncomfortable, but he beckoned Arthur and Galahad onward. He led them through the castle's courtyard and into a large stone building in the back. Inside was a high room, filled with tapestries, an ornate red carpet covering the floor. At the end of the room were two chairs. One was slightly farther forward and to the right. That one was empty. The other chair was larger, and carved ornately. Sitting in that one, which could only be the throne, was Lancelot, a crown perched atop his head.

Arthur strode forward briskly. Lancelot smiled coldly. "Arthur, welcome back to England. Typically one bows before the King, but I suppose I'll make an exception in your case."

"What is this treachery?" Arthur spat, coming to a stop just ten feet away from Lancelot. "You were to rule England as its steward in my absence, not take the bloody throne from me!"

Lancelot laughed a high, cold laugh that reminded Jason of Octavian. "Treachery?" Lancelot said incredulously. "You are the traitor. You went gallivanting off to Judah in search of the ridiculous 'Holy Grail.' You betrayed our gods for the Christian one."

"I did not!" Arthur protested. "I left to give the peasants hope, to give them something to cheer for!"

Lancelot ignored Arthur and just kept ranting. "And you always treated your wife horribly. The way you treated her was no way to treat a daughter of Venus –"

"You took Guinevere from me, too?" Arthur asked. "Have you no shame?"

Again, Lancelot ignored him. "To think that a Graecus scum like you untied England has always disgusted me. But I am intelligent and very patient. I waited for my opening to take my true place on the throne."

"You are arrogant!" Arthur yelled. "I had finally brought peace to England, but more importantly, I had finally brought peace between Greek demigods and Roman demigods! You would throw all that away?"

"I am throwing nothing away," Lancelot spat. "You think you united the Greeks and Romans, but you are wrong. We Romans never truly accepted your rule."

"We're brothers, Lancelot," Arthur pleaded. "Please, do not do this."

"I've already done it," Lancelot growled. "And you are no brother of mine, Son of Zeus. You are a Graecus scum who has perverted the true nature of our father. I am the son of Jupiter, and the true King."

"If you are the true King, then why did Excalibur choose me?" Arthur asked quietly.

At this, Lancelot looked uncomfortable. "Surely once I kill you the blade will rightfully be mine."

Jason felt Arthur raise an eyebrow again. "You want a fight, Lancelot? A chance to kill me?" He drew his longsword and held it in front of him, pointed firmly at Lancelot. The blade itself was incredibly odd. Jason had never seen a sword like it before. The blade was two different shades. Half was bronze, half gold. The sword made a very faint humming sound, as if the two metals didn't get along.

Lancelot sneered and stood up, drawing a sword of his own. Suddenly, the dream faded.

Jason opened his eyes, disoriented. Pink light was peeking through the branches above him, like the sun was just coming up. The air was chilly, but Jason felt plenty warm. He realized he was still using Piper as a pillow. He glanced up at her. She was reading the book she'd brought with her on the trip: Sally Jackson's first novel.

"How is it?" Jason asked.

Piper looked down at him in surprise. "You're up!" she observed. Jason sat up and turned to peck her on the lips. Then he scooted around so he was sitting next to her. "The book is really good," Piper said, in answer to his previous question. "Also, when I reached into my bag to pull it out, I found this." She handed him an envelope. Jason glanced inside. There were two bus tickets from a town called Chepstow to London, a hotel reservation, and two hundred pounds. Jason had never heard of a place called Chepstow, but he figured it was close by.

"Another gift from the person who summoned us?" he mused.

"It would appear so," Piper said. "No note this time, just the money, the tickets, and the reservation." Piper yawned widely, her breath coming out in a puff of mist.

Jason frowned. "You shouldn't have stayed up all night. You should've let me take a watch."

"After you stopped a freaking plane crash?" Piper said, cocking an eyebrow. "No, I was going to let you sleep as much as you needed to."

"I didn't stop the plane crash," Jason protested. "I just slowed the plane down."

"Oh shut up, Sparky," she teased. "You know what I meant." She kissed him again, and once again Jason's brain went fuzzy. Piper always managed to do that. "Speaking of the crash," Piper continued, "we should probably send Annabeth an Iris Message to let her know we're okay before the crash hits the news in America."

Jason nodded, pulling the prism they'd brought with them for just such occasions out of his backpack. After fiddling around with the angle for a couple minutes, they finally got a good rainbow going. Piper fished in her pocket and pulled out a golden Drachma. "Oh Iris, accept my offering," she said, tossing the coin into the rainbow. "Annabeth Chase, New York City."

The rainbow shimmered and the scene came into focus, a scene which made both Jason and Piper blush hard. They had totally forgotten the time difference. It was the middle of the night back in New York.

Through the rainbow they could see Percy's room. Annabeth lay on his bed, facing them through the rainbow, fast asleep. Percy lay next to her, his arm wrapped around her midsection. But perhaps the most embarrassing part was that the covers must've been pushed back in the night, revealing that Annabeth was wearing only a sports bra and athletic shorts, her hair loose and disheveled. Beyond her, Jason could tell that Percy was shirtless. He'd known that Annabeth had moved in with Percy and his family after camp had ended, but he wasn't aware that she'd moved into Percy's room as well.

"Um… maybe we should call back later," Jason whispered.

Unfortunately, even the quiet voice was loud enough to wake Annabeth. Her eyes fluttered open. She looked confused. "Jason? Piper? What's up?"

"We'll just call back later," Piper said quickly.

Annabeth shook her head. She pushed Percy's arm off her and sat up, rubbing her eyes. "No, it's fine. What's up? Why are you guys blushing?"

Piper and Jason could only respond with, "Uh…"

Annabeth looked at them quizzically, then looked down at herself. Her face lit up red. "Oh, no, it's uh… It's not what it… We didn't… It's not what it looks like," she stammered. "Percy and I, we can't… it's difficult…" She cleared her throat. "I'm just going to shut up now and let you tell me why you called."

Piper and Jason recounted what had happened on the plane, camping out in the woods, and discovering the envelope. The look on Annabeth's face went from embarrassed to thoughtful.

"You don't think it's all a trap, do you?" Jason asked. "You don't think that the person who knocked us out of the air is the same person who summoned us?"

Annabeth rubbed her chin. "Maybe, but I don't know. I feel like they're giving you too much help to want you dead. Whoever made that plane crash happen is someone different. I don't want to say any names, because you know how gods and monsters are with names, but I have an idea who might have knocked you out of the sky."

"Me too," Piper said.

Jason felt like he'd figured it out, too, but he could hardly believe that anyone, even a goddess, would be so freaking persistent.

"Well, thanks, Annabeth," Piper said. "We really just wanted to let you know we hadn't died before the plane crash ended up on the news. We'll let you get back to sleep."

"Wait a second," Jason said, thinking about his dreams. He knew they were important to the quest. "What can you tell me about the legend of King Arthur?"

Both Piper and Annabeth glanced at Jason, confused. Nevertheless, Annabeth answered. "It depends on what version of the legend you look at. In the most popular version of the story he's the son of a man called Uther Pendragon. He claims the legendary sword, Excalibur, when he grows up, then unites all of England. He gathers together a bunch of knights who join his court at Camelot. In some versions of the story, he goes on a quest to retrieve the Holy Grail. While he's gone he leaves his friend Lancelot in charge of the kingdom. But Lancelot betrays him, proclaims himself king, and steals Arthur's wife. When Arthur returns, they go to war and kill each other in the final battle."

"Was King Arthur real?" Jason asked.

"Hard to say," Annabeth said slowly. "Most historians don't think so, but some people think he might've been real, just because all myth has a basis in reality. Why the sudden interest in King Arthur?"

"I think I've been having dreams about him," Jason said.

"Really?" Annabeth and Piper asked at once.

"Yeah, I only just started having them," Jason explained. "I had my first one on the plane before the crash, and another one just now before I woke up."

"What are the dreams like?" Annabeth asked. "What happens in them?"

"In the dreams I'm inside Arthur's body," Jason explained. "It seems like my dreams have followed pretty much the version of the story you just told us. Arthur goes on a quest for the Holy Grail, Lancelot betrays him while he's gone, and so forth. The only difference is, in the dreams, both Arthur and Lancelot are demigods. Arthur is a son of Zeus, and Lancelot is a son of Jupiter. I guess Arthur not only united England, but also tried to unite the Greeks and Romans. But it didn't work out very well. I guess Lancelot and the other Romans in Arthur's kingdom never really accepted his rule."

"No, a long term peace would've been impossible before I retrieved the Athena Parthenos," Annabeth mused, a well-deserved look of pride crossing her face. "Well Arthur must've been real, then. And I would bet you anything that the 'True King's Sword' mentioned in that note you got is Excalibur."

"But who summoned us?" Piper asked.

"And why do we need to retrieve Excalibur?" Jason added.

"Hard to say," Annabeth said. "It could be –" She cut off as Percy screamed next to her. He started shaking violently. Annabeth turned white as a sheet and turned to Percy, who was thrashing wildly. "Wake up," she said. "Seaweed Brain, wake up, it's just a dream!"

The glass of water on the nightstand shattered as the water in it surged outward. Jason and Piper looked at each other in horror. This explained why Percy and Annabeth had been sleeping together. Percy was having what could only be a night terror.

There was a crash nearby where Jason and Piper were. Jason glanced towards the noise, and saw in-between the trees a small creek. The creek was rising out of its bed, thrashing in unison with Percy. Jason's jaw dropped. Percy was controlling water thousands of miles away through an Iris Message. In his sleep.

Percy screamed again. Annabeth kept pleading for him to wake up, but with no luck. She turned back to the Iris Message, fear etched on her face. "I've got to go," she said urgently. She swiped her hand through the image and it disappeared. The creek fell back into place.

Jason and Piper glanced at each other, scared. "I knew that Tartarus had an effect on both of them," Piper said quietly, "but I didn't know…"

"I know," Jason agreed. "That was… scary."

Piper nodded. They sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking about what had just happened. Finally, Piper said, "We should probably get going. We've got to find this Chepstow place so we can catch our bus."

"You won't be catching any bus," an unfamiliar voice said. "Not if we have anything to say about it."

AN: Gasp! See you guys tomorrow!