Okay, here's chapter seven! I know it's kind of short, but I hope to get chapter 8 posted some time tonight. (Well, tonight in my timezone) Suggestions, comments, complaints, or questions please leave me a review!


Leo

Nico came back shortly after the wind spirit attack.

Nobody asked where he had been, but Leo noticed that Jason had been avoiding him. Whatever sort of strange friendship that had stretched between the two had clearly vanished.

But really, he had bigger things to worry about. The Argo II was en route for Athens, but Annabeth had developed a really bad fever. The ambrosia and nectar that Hazel was regularly feeding her didn't seem to help, and they couldn't really get anything out of her as it seemed to be she was having fits of hysteria.

They had lost the strategic mind of their quest, and Percy was in pieces, too. He knew, as well as the others did, if something happened to Annabeth, he would fall apart, and there was nothing that they would be able to do to get him going again.

Piper

"There's something wrong down there," Nico announced the next morning at breakfast. "I don't know what it is, but it feels like there's something alive down there that shouldn't be." Hazel nodded absentmindedly to this.

"Something that shouldn't exist," she commented.

"Like, down on the ground?" Leo asked. " because I thought we were avoiding the ground."

"It might be a trap," Percy murmured. "To lure a few demigods down for Gaea to sacrifice." Piper had a feeling that would be all Percy offered to the conversation that morning.

"Then again, if it's one of Gaea's minions that reformed, we should go kill it," Jason advised.

Piper spoke up. "What if we send two guys? Gaea needs one girl and one boy so she can rise, and considering we are currently harboring over twice as many healthy males than females…" She trailed off. Considering that there are more boys on the ship, it wouldn't be as important if two of them died.

After a couple minutes of silence, Jason said, "Well, that sounds like a plan! Leo, you should probably stay up here, pilot the ship…"

"I'll go," Nico volunteered. "I can lead us to the, you know, supposed-to-be-nonexistent thing."

There was silence for a couple seconds, and then the ship suddenly lurched. Frank promptly stood up, his face looking slightly green, and left the room.

"Whoops, sorry, forgot to turn the stabilizers on," said Leo, and hurriedly ran down the hallway.

"Well, yeah, I guess I can go, then," Jason hesitantly offered. Piper could clearly see that he was uncomfortable with the notion of this, so she said, "Oh, no, that's alright. Percy will go, won't you Percy."

"What? Oh yeah. Yeah." Percy replied. Whoops. She hadn't meant to charmspeak. Oh well.

Nico visibly cringed at this change in partnership. Not for the first time, she wondered what Percy possibly could have done to make Nico hate him so much. She had heard about Bianca, but really? He had to be over that by now. Fortunately, Nico didn't put up a fight but proceeded, looking very nervous, off the ship with Percy as they set off on their quest.

Percy

"So where is this creature that we're dealing with?" Percy asked as he and Nico disembarked the Argo II.

"Should be somewhere down here, in this plaza," Nico replied bluntly.

Percy looked around the area in which they had landed. If the mortals noticed a large celestial bronze trireme floating above their heads, they didn't say anything. Well, most of them. Everybody seemed to be acting normal, milling around like normal tourists, except for one girl who was staring up at the Argo II with an incredulous expression on her face.


See! I told you it wouldn't be as depressing as the last chapter! Thank you guys for all the follows and favorites!