A/N: I don't have much to say in this Author's Note, just thank everyone for reviewing. Now on to the story.
Disclaimer: *No! Not Charlie the Unicorn! Leave him alone! Please just leave him alone! Alright, I'll say it, I'll say it* I *sniffle* don't own PJO or HoO.
Hazel I
Why couldn't Hazel's life stay uncomplicated? When she was in the Fields of Asphodel, nothing ever changed. In the seventy years she had spent the only change that had happened was some old guy started building highways through it a couple years ago.
Now though, her life was changing faster than she could process. She had been brought back from the Underworld a few months ago, and she had seen all the changes that had happened to the world, and while that all shocked her, when she made it to camp, things had been pretty stable, well except for the blackouts, but, otherwise it was okay. Now though it was like her life was a smoking volcano, and it wouldn't take much to make it all fall apart.
She had gone on a quest to free Death, succeeded, and had lived to talk about it, but she knew that it would've probably been better for her if Thanatos had taken her back to the Underworld. Then she wouldn't have to be worried about fighting Gaea, or figuring out how to deal with the new reminder of her old life.
And that may have been Hazel's biggest problem right now, Leo Valdez. He didn't just look like Sammy, he acted like him, he talked like him, and his eyes even had the same gleam that Sammy's had. Hazel might not have minded all of that if she could hate Leo, but she couldn't, because as weird as he was, Hazel found herself really liking Leo. Now even that wouldn't have been a problem, if it wasn't for Frank.
Hazel and Frank had talked the night after the fight with Polybotes, and they had decided that they would give dating a shot, but Hazel was now wondering if that had been a good decision.
She liked Frank, he still mad her heart skip a beat whenever she saw him, but when she had decided to try dating him, she hadn't expected Sammy's doppelganger to show up. Now every time she saw Leo, she had a pang in her heart because it made her feel like she was cheating on Sammy by dating Frank.
And to make things worse, she really wasn't getting any time to think over what to do about her whole Leo/Sammy-Frank problem, because they were going to leave on the Argo II in less than twenty-four hours, and she really wouldn't have any chance to get away from Frank or Leo when she was on the Argo II, so she didn't know if she'd have any chance to figure out this problem.
All of these thoughts ran through Hazel's head as she walked away from the barracks. She had just finished telling the campers about the plan that they had come up with, and the soldiers had had mixed reactions. Some had groaned, and flopped back on their beds, some had seemed completely unfazed, like they had expected as much, and some seemed genuinely excited by the idea of either mingling with more Greeks, or of a big fight coming, Hazel really couldn't tell which.
As Hazel walked, not really paying attention to where she was going, she felt herself run into something large and solid. She fell back, and landed hard on her butt.
"Ouch," she groaned, then she looked up to see what she had run into, and saw Frank standing over her, looking down at her.
"You okay, Hazel," he asked, offering her his hand.
Hazel took it, and after Frank pulled her to her feet she said, "Yeah, sorry, I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going."
Frank smiled at her sympathetically, and guessed, "Lost in thought?"
"Yeah, how did you know?" Hazel asked.
He chuckled, and said, "Well, it's a lot to process, meeting these Greeks and learning that we're going to have to work with them."
Hazel nodded, deciding that it would be easier to go along with what Frank had said than trying to come up with a new idea to explain why she had been lost in thought. Then she faked a yawn and said, "Hey, it's been an exciting morning, so I'm going to go take a nap, 'kay?"
Frank's smile disappeared, and his eyebrows knit together, but he answered, "Yeah, yeah, that's fine. I guess it has been pretty hectic, so enjoy your nap."
With that they both turned around, and went their separate ways. Hazel looked behind her about halfway back to the barracks, and when she saw that Frank was out of eyesight, she started walking the way she had before, this time knowing where she was going.
About five minutes later, Hazel reached the temples, and started walking toward the Pluto temple. When she got there she walked toward the altar, and taking a few of the gems from her pocket, placed them on top of it.
"Listen Dad, I know you may not be able to acknowledge me, but I really need some help," she swallowed, and continued. "My friends and I are about to start the Quest of the Seven, and if we don't get some help, it's gonna be a suicide mission, and I…I…I can't lose anymore of the people I love." She'd been looking at the ground as she spoke, but now Hazel looked at the statue of her father, and said, "Please Dad, I need your help, I need to find Nico, and I need a God to show me this fight isn't so hopeless." Hazel's fists clenched and she added, "Just give me a sign that we can win this fight, that we can stop Gaea, that I actually deserve a second chance to make things right!"
Nothing happened, and Hazel wondered if her dad had even heard her. She turned away then and walked farther into the temples. A short way in, she heard the sounds of someone else praying to their parent.
Hazel followed the noise until she came upon the temple of Venus.
"…just give us a chance!" Hazel heard someone exclaim. She saw a girl standing in front of the altar to Venus, her body shaking slightly from emotion, causing waves to go through her long brown hair.
Hazel walked forward and put a hand on Piper shoulder. Piper jumped and spun around, pulling out her knife as she did.
Hazel jumped back, raising her hands in front of her, "Whoa!" she exclaimed. "No need to freak out on me. I come in peace."
It seemed to take Piper a second to register that it was Hazel, but then she sighed and sheaved her knife. "Sorry Hazel, you just startled me. I didn't know anyone else was even here."
"Yeah, I didn't either," Hazel said, and then she looked Piper up and down, and noticed that something seemed to be bothering her. "You look like you've got something on your mind. You want to talk about it?"
Piper pursed her lips, then after a moment's hesitation she nodded, "Yeah, I'd like that. I really would."
Hazel and Piper walked away from Venus' temple then, and started walking away from all of the temples, Piper explaining what Reyna had told her the whole way.
Hazel walked beside Piper in silence for a second, contemplating what she had learned, but then sighed, "I think Reyna's right. I know both of them, and they're both really nice, but if you put a thunderstorm and a hurricane in a room together, and tell one of them to follow the other, things are gonna get bad." She looked at Piper for a second before adding quietly, "But if we can get them to work together, we may actually be able to pull this off, 'cause the rest of us may be strong, but Reyna wasn't wrong, those two are like nuclear bombs, and they may be the only one's strong enough to actually take on Porphyrion when we have to face him. And they may be the only people who can keep us together, 'cause I can tell that something is going to go wrong."
Piper looked at her, and asked, "How do you know something is going to go wrong on this quest?"
Hazel laughed bitterly, and answered, "Piper, I grew up with a curse, I've known about how much it sucks to be a demigod as long as anyone, and probably from a younger age than anyone else, and the one thing I know for sure about a demigods life is that, when something can go wrong, it usually goes as wrong as it possibly can. And this quest is full of so much that can go wrong, Gaea's gonna be lucky if she even gets the chance to destroy civilization, 'cause we could just as easily end up destroying it ourselves."
Piper looked at Hazel, gulped, then nodded her head sadly, "The worst part of that is that you're probably right, but we have to do this fight, 'cause if I've learned anything about being a demigod, it's that, no matter the challenge, we have to at least try to save the world."
Hazel smiled at her then, and said, "Yeah, I guess you're right, too, but how are we going to keep Percy and Jason from blowing everything up?"
Piper sighed and answered, "I think we're just going to have to wing it."
"Isn't that all any of us ever do?" hazel asked in reply.
Piper snorted and said, "That's what it seems like. Come on, we better go see how Percy and Jason did with the Terminus thing, and then check out the ship, 'cause I'm thinking we have to leave soon."
Hazel felt the same way, she didn't know how much longer they had before the Giants attacked the old Mount Olympus, but something in the air told her that they would be leaving very, very soon, whether they were ready to or not.
'Kay, that's the entire of this chapter, and don't worry, the action is going to start very soon, and I have an idea brewing for when they leave Camp Jupiter, so I hope you guys enjoyed this.