At that moment, a blinding flash filled the room. When everyone could see again, a terrifying sight greeted their eyes.
Sadie gasped when she saw the twelve angry Olympians. Well, Nico realized, not all of the Olympians were angry. Apollo looked slightly confused. Hermes and Dionysus didn't look like they really cared. Aphrodite had a mischievous gleam in her eyes as she appraised Sadie and Zia. Then she looked meaningfully at Nico, who turned bright red. Artemis looked rather interested, also looking at the two girls as if trying to figure out how to make them join the Hunters. Athena looked worried. Hera had a slight smile on her lips, which surprised Nico, as Hera rarely smiled in the demigods' presence. Poseidon looked relieved as if he had heard that Percy had been located. Hephaestus was tinkering with little mechanical...thing. Nico wasn't really sure what it was. And Demeter and Ares were in the middle of an argument and hadn't seemed to notice where they were yet.
Zeus was the only one that looked angry, but that definitely make up for the lack of ire on the others' part. The sky had darkened and there was lightning flashing in the sky, along with the company of booming thunder. Nico guessed that the ban of the gods not talking had been lifted at last.
"Chiron." Zeus's voice boomed out over the group. "How dare you allow these Egyptians into this camp! There is no place for them here."
"Peace, brother," Poseidon said, trying to calm down the irate Zeus, but to no avail. The two started speaking rapidly in Ancient Greek. Soon, Hera joined in, adding her two cents worth and spending in a condescending tone to Zeus. Then, Athena joined in, too. The fight divided so that Zeus and Hera were yelling at each other, and Poseidon and Athena were trading insults. At least, everyone assumed that it was insults, because of the way one drew back offended before replying. Also, the little bits and pieces that the demigod could understand were definitely not compliments.
The other eight gods sighed and looked for their children in the group. Upon finding them, they went over to talk to them. Sadie, Zia, and Carter seemed to group more tightly together. While Carter and Zia openly looked on with astonishment at what was taking place around them, Sadie radiated an air of carelessness and turned on her black iPod. Nico sidles over to the group, trying to avoid Demeter. Whenever the goddess saw him, she either started ranting about his father being a cheater, or telling him that he had to eat more cereal.
"What are you listening to?" he asked Sadie.
"Bulletproof Heart, by My Chemical Romance," she replied. Nico was slightly surprised to hear that Sadie listened to the same music that he did. Looking at her, one would probably guess that she was a Taylor Swift fan or a Belieber. "Are they always like this?" Sadie asked, making a hand gesture so that Nico knew she was talking about the arguing gods.
"They're usually worse," Nico admitted. "It's always Zeus and Hera and Poseidon and Athena, but the others join in. There's Artemis and Apollo. Usually because he's been hitting one of her Hunters. Then Demeter and Hades because Hades 'stole' Demeter's daughter." The air quotes he put around stole showed exactly what he thought of that petty argument. "Then Aphrodite, Hephaestus, and Ares. That's because Aphrodite is always cheating on Hephaestus with Ares. And finally, Hermes and Dionysus. The argument is usually based on the fact that Hermes has the most kids, and Dionysus doesn't want to watch them all. Especially since Hermes's kids are the troublemakers at Camp Half-Blood. But most of us demigods suspect that they only argue so they're not left out."
"Wow," Sadie said. "They really are crazy." She was never one to mince words. Unfortunately, she had said it as there was a pause in the arguments. And they had all heard her. Zeus's face started to turn red again. Thunder rumbled ominously. All the demigods instantly became worried that Sadie would become a little pile of Kane ash.
"Crazy? Do you think we're crazy, Sadie Kane?" Zeus asked. Sadie had become the center of attention, not that it fazed her.
"She didn't mean it, sir," Carter said, trying to soothe Zeus's temper. But where Poseidon, Hera, and Athena had failed, there was no chance of Carter succeeding.
"I didn't ask you, boy," Zeus spat.
"Well," Sadie said, her temper rising at the treatment of the Egyptians. After all, the Egyptian gods had been around much longer than Zeus had. Not to mention the fact that she was the daughter of Osiris, and the chosen host of Isis, even if she had given that particular duty up. And a descendant of two of the greatest Pharaohs. "Of course I did," she declared. The gods all started muttering amongst themselves at the insolence of the girl. "No wonder everyone's worried about you losing the war against Gaea," she went on. "You can't even keep peace between yourselves. You're all arguing over a bunch of little things that you can't really do anything about. And if there is something to be done about it you're too lazy to make the change. It's a losing battle. Even the rebel Egyptian gods behave better. And all the ones who have united to fight against Apophis put their differences aside, even if it's a problem that's a millennia years old. You have to realize that if everyone's fighting then there's no way you can win." By the time she had finished, all the gods had to admit that she had a point, and Carter and Zia had to admit that Sadie wasn't as hopeless as she seemed, too.
Now, just because the gods realized that Sadie had a point didn't mean that they had to like it. Which was especially true in Zeus's case.
"So, Miss Kane, what do you suggest we do?" he asked, laying the sarcasm on thick.
"Oh, I thought you'd never ask." Zeus's face paled as he realized that there was no way to escape. "I propose that the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians unite. Us magicians and demigods have already proven that it can work. So, we can help you and vice versa. Also, if we unite, the Egyptians may be able to slow Gaea down, because we could get Geb on our side. I'm not sure how it would work, but maybe Geb could like cancel Gaea out or something. Then, since me, Carter, Zia, and Uncle Amos are the most powerful magicians, me, Carter, and Zia could go with you. Uncle Amos can't because he's the Head Lector, but he could encourage other magicians to help you guys. Then we help you defeat Gaea and the giants, and you'd help us defeat Apophis."
Carter and Zia were surprised by Sadie's plan. It was surprisingly well thought out. Not all of the kinks were out of it yet, but still, for Sadie it was a good plan.
"When did you come up with that?" Carter demanded of his sister.
"Last night. I couldn't fall asleep so I thought about what would happen now that demigods and magicians had met. Then I thought why we couldn't just help each other." All the gods and demigods looked surprised that she came up with a plan. Sadie hadn't exactly given off the (for lack of better word) aura of one who could come up with plans. She seemed more like the rush-in-get-what-she's-after-and-destroy-all-the-enemies-then-leave type of girl.
"Why would we want to unite with Egyptians?" Zeus asked Sadie.
"Can you really fight off 40 feet tall giants that were made to defeat each one of you so soon after the war with the Titans? And on top of that, what makes you think that all your kids are content again? If it was that easy for Kronos to manipulate them not even a year ago, why couldn't the giants also do it? No offense, but you're going to need all the help you can get."
Sadie's reasonable arguments blew everyone away. What no one knew was that Thoth was in her mind, telling her what to say. Osiris and Isis had both instructed-sorry-asked him to keep an eye on her and to save her if she did anything stupid. Like, calling the Greek gods crazy to their faces while on their territory, just for example. What Thoth hadn't realized was that Zeus was in no mood for a reasonable argument. As Zeus's face got redder and redder, Thoth was trying to get enough power together to save Sadie from being incinerated. Luckily for the young magician, Athena stepped in.
"Father, the girl has a point. Her plan does have some flaw, but I believe that I could work them out into a very good battle plan." Athena spoke with a calming voice. Thalia and Jason both looked at their father and purposefully did puppy dog eyes, which Jason was able to pull off with his baby blues. Since Thalia had dark eyeliner on and a punk outfit, it looked pretty out of place on her. Meanwhile, Sadie was trying to contain Thoth, who was very angry over Athena's insult of his battle plan. Granted, he thought that it wasn't very good and he had been trying to make it sound like it came from a thirteen year old girl, but that was not the point.
"Oh, very well," Zeus said. As his body started to glow, he added, "And, you, Miss Kane, should learn to watch that tongue of yours." All the mortals present shielded their eyes, and Zeus disappeared, taking Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, Ares, Hephaestus and Demeter, and Aphrodite (who winked mischievously at Nico) with him. Artemis, Athena, Hera and Poseidon stayed behind.
Hera murmured to Chiron, "This is working out much better than I had planned." Chiron nodded gravely. Then the goddess turned to Jason. "Now, my hero, you have acquired more responsibility on your shoulders, for you will be the leader, but I trust in you. Though your memory will not be granted back to you just yet, I assure you that it's for the best."
Finally, she turned to Sadie. "You are very brave, young Miss Kane. You resemble your mother." Hera held up a hand for silence as Sadie started to speak. "You will play a great part in the upcoming war. You will discover sad truths, and also have to make a hard decision. But in spite of all this, you will still prevail, my champion." Hera left in a glow of gold, leaving a speechless group of demigod and magicians.