Percy

After lunch, we told the Egyptians the prophecy and they seemed to accept it pretty well, all things considered. They definitely have had some experiences before. Funny thing was, our worlds seem to be mixed even before the evil prince threw us together. The god Set acted a great deal like Ares. Setne's plants resembled that of dirt face. We were facing similar threats in another mythologies world.

Carter had taken us to their Great Library for some non-child friendly discussion and mythological speak.

(") Oh joy.(")

Frankly, I zoned out. I mean come on, one set of gods and myths is enough to make my head explode. Adding in another mythology with its own set of gods and stories was just too much to take. I looked over at Annabeth, who was studying Carter with interest, and occasionally jumping in with what Chiron had taught her over the last few weeks.

I glanced at Sadie who was twirling her chair, rolling her eyes at the discussion. At least one person here acted as thrilled as I was towards the history and myth lecture. Walt stood behind her and kept spinning her chair while keeping his attention focused on the problem at hand. Zia preferred pacing back and forth.

"Ok, so the prophecy takes place in Egypt. Setne's desire for power is the warning. We're supposed to wake the queen but." Carter started.

"But the queen won't wake. I gave her a healing potion when I brought her back , and Jaz has been on top of healing her since we've been here. She isn't even twitching. I'm not sure what else to do." Walt interjected.

"I can ask Isis about a healing spell. Maybe she'll answer me." Sadie answered. "If a potion won't help then a spell is our best bet."

"There is another problem though. The crown is missing, we need that to take down Serapis and of course , it's been stolen by the Romans. There's an endless possibility to where they have taken it, and you can bet that they have hidden it." Carter answered.

Annabeth nodded. "The Romans took a number of things from the places they conquered. They took the Athena Parthenos as a way of breaking the Greek's spirit. They sent it to Rome and buried it far beneath the earth. Every few hundred years, Athena sent her children around the world to retrieve the statue until finally it was freed and returned home. If the Romans have the crown then we'll simply have to ask for it back."

Carter frowned. "Doubt if they hid it in plain sight before they vanished from the earth."

Annabeth and I looked at each other for a moment. "The,uh, Romans are still very much around. Their Camp is in California and we're friends with a few of them ." I said.

"Friends with Romans? How is that possible? After everything they've done to both our empires?" Carter asked astonished.

"Yeah, they helped us with one of our wars. Our enemy could only be defeated through a combination of Greek and Roman godlings working together. They gave back the Athena Parthenos to help unite our camps and our gods. Most of the Romans seem to be pretty decent people in the modern world. A few are untrustworthy but some have become good friends with us." Annabeth supplied.

"Think they're friendly enough to return our stolen property?" Carter sighed.

"Worth an Iris message, I suppose."

"Who is Iris?" Sadie asked.

"Greek Goddess of Rainbows. She sometimes carries messages between Gods and demigods for payment. "

"Uh huh." Sadie answered unimpressed.

I looked at Annabeth and smirked. "What is it? You have your "I'm planning something " look."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't have a "I'm planning something look" ."

"Sure you do. You knit your eyebrows together and your face scrunches up."

"Percy!" She sighed. "Maybe Percy and I should try to contact the Romans about negotiating your crown, and you guys contact your gods about waking sleeping beauty."

Annabeth and I walked back onto the balcony, avoiding the crocodile pool that I had been eyeing earlier. She pulled Walt's glass of water and put it in direct sunlight, allowing the light to flow through it, transforming it into a prism. I smiled at her. Annabeth always came prepared. She took out a gold drachma and tossed it into the rainbow.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show us Reyna at Camp Jupiter."

Reyna's image shimmered into existence. She was sitting on her praetor throne beside Frank. Both were listening to Dakota giving a report, and they seemed to be quite bored or annoyed. Reyna's face was hard to judge though.

(")Sorry, Reyna!(")

Reyna looked about ready to toss him to her dogs before she noticed us. Her eyes widened, and she had a look of shock on her face which she quickly masked. "Annabeth." Her eyes tightened. "Percy."

"Hello, Reyna. We need a few moments to discuss something very important." Annabeth explained.

Reyna waved off Dakota and waited until he left the principia before she began.

"What do I owe the pleasure?"

Annabeth and I exchanged looks.

"Reyna, the Athena Parthenos was stolen by the Romans when they conquered Greece. They of course hid it, and kept the secret limited only to the Praetors which they passed down through the years."

"Get to the point, please."

"Is it possible that during the Greco-Roman period, the Romans did something very similar with Egypt?"

Frank frowned confused and looked over to Reyna.

She had an excellent poker face.

"What is this in regards to?"

I took over. "Reyna, Annabeth and I found some Egyptian godlings not long after the war against the giants. One of their dead has been trying to combine Greek and Egyptian magic. He's managed to resurrect one of the Egyptian gods that the Greeks had claimed in a way. The god is trying to destroy the Greek and Egyptian gods to rule alone."

She studied her dogs to detect a hint of deception but since they had not made a move to lie, she turned her attention back to us. "What does this have to do with Rome's stolen treasures?"

Annabeth locked her eyes with her. "The god Serapis can be defeated by the crown of Egypt. When the line of the pharaohs ended the crown passed to the Greek king, Ptolemy. Cleopatra the seventh was the last keeper of the crown before Rome…"

"And now you believe that Rome is in the possession of the crown?" Reyna asked.

"Rome invaded Egypt and annexed it for the purpose of funding their empire. Their legions took away thousands of Egyptian treasures. Why not take away the symbol of Egypt's rightful rulers? According to the Egyptian godlings, they merge with a god when they are crowned pharaoh. If Rome took the crown than not only did they show symbolic control of Egypt but they would prevent the Egyptians from attaining a substantial power to threaten the Romans with."

Reyna's temper flared. "You are accusing us?

(") Not good!(")

"No!" Annabeth shouted. "No, not accusing, it's just that the praetors have these old myths and legends being passed down. Since they did know about the statue and they were the ones that hid our sacred symbol I thought…."

Reyna held her hand up to silence Annabeth. "These are matters to be discussed in person. " Her expression turned sour. "I will be at Camp Half-Blood by morning." She slashed her hand through the image and disconnected the call.

I took a deep breath and looked at Annabeth. Looks like we were spending the night.

We made our way to the infirmary to meet the zombie queen. She looked alive enough. Frankly, Annabeth was much more interested in her than me. She seemed to react with fascination, as if the zombie queen was some beautiful building or an interesting book. I was partially surprised she didn't put on a set of gloves and test the waters as an anthropologist. A piece of living history just lying there to be inspected. Carter and Annabeth shared the same intense look of amazement, letting their inner history buff take over.

(") I'm sorry, Wise-girl, but it is a cute look. Your eyes light up and you purse your lips together... Sorry, guys. (")

Walt waited patiently until the history buffs had backed away from the body then; he placed his hands on the woman's temples and chanted in English.

"Hail, Osiris, son of Nut,

Whose awe Atum set in the heart of human beings, Gods, spirits and the dead.

King of the Gods, Great Power of Heaven,

Ruler of the living, King of those beyond. "

Then he did something even weirder. He began chanting in another language.

"Moster Aset, hör oss. befria henne från odödliga sömn. låt henne vakna och delta på vår strävan. vi behöver hennes hjälp i vårt sökande efter kronan."

The zombie queen's body light up gold, and the bed she was laid on shook violently. I looked up at Walt and he smiled at me. Then his face changed . His skin lightened to the shade of Carter's. The eyes changed from black to a warm brown and his short cropped hair became a short wave of messy black hair.

He looked like someone I knew and that smile... I blinked. He reminded me of Nico but where Nico was cold and unapproachable, this guy was warm and friendly. It was an odd moment. It was like I was seeing two sides of the kid. One that I knew and the potential one that he could be if he'd only open up.

(")Woah, that was deep.(")

I tried to remember the guy's name. Waldo? Wolfred? No, no. It's Walt. Walt's ears seem to grow taller like a dog's. I looked at Annabeth and the others in the room to see if they were noticing the strange metamorphisis that I was seeing. Sadly no, everyone else watched the now golden zombie queen, as if she was some interesting movie. I thought of something clever to say.

"Why do you look like a dog?" I blurted out.

Walt dropped the smile and glared at me. Now he looked just like Nico, only tanner.

"I am NOT a dog!" He growled. The room went silent.

Annabeth glared at me and then looked at Walt. "Excuse him, he didn't mean that you look like a dog. It's just that some of your features are canine. I'm assuming that it's due to you hosting. You channel the god and his power and for a short time, you fully become him. Am I right?"

Walt's demeanor changed again. The scowl vanished and the growling stopped. Slowly, the new Nico like face shimmered beneath the Walt's original face. He looked back at the queen, the confrontation forgotten.

(")Crisis adverted.(")

"Maybe we should check back in the morning?" Sadie spoke up. We glanced at the setting sun through the windows. Probably not such a bad idea to start fresh in the morning. Carter nodded like it was a great idea to him as well. Then he whistled like he was calling a dog, and I resisted the need to look at Walt to see if he had partially turned back into the Wolfman. A shriek answered him and we looked up to see this huge monkey in a t-shirt. Every time I think I've seen it all, I'm proven wrong. Again.

"This is Khufu." Carter explained. "He helps out around the House, he can show you to your rooms for the night."

"You have a monkey butler?" I asked. Khufu chucked a vase at my head and I ducked to avoid it. "He's a Baboon and a lil sensitive about it." Carter quipped.

"I noticed."

Anyway, the monkey, sorry , baboon led us up the stairs to the second floor. Annabeth and I got adjoining rooms to each other, which was cool but our rooms… Our rooms reminded me of our stay at the Lotus Casino and Hotel. King size bed, plush pillows, balcony, private bathroom. The works. Even the nightstand doubled as a mini-fridge filled with candy from Sweet on America where my mom used to work. The candy was even blue, my favorite color. Annabeth tapped me on the shoulder and kissed me goodnight. "Remember, don't eat the flowers."

I wish as could say that I slept as well as I should have in my palace room. Truth be told, Carter woke us all up at sunrise, screaming excitedly. He ushered us to the infirmary and then he made us wait. I was about to ask the monkey for a cup of coffee, when Carter ran into the room and asked us to follow him to where the queen was laying. Wiping my mouth of any trace of drool, I shuffled along and waited for the show. At exactly sunrise, the entire room light up with a warm, orange glow.

(") Forget the coffee, I'm up.(")

"Provide sunglasses next time please."

The girl named Zia glanced at me and smirked. "The Egyptians believe in the power of the sunrise. They believe that each new morning begins not just a new day, but a new world. It also has healing powers." She nodded at the zombie queen.

"So, the sunrises and she wakes up?" I asked.

"Not exactly. " Zia took her necklace off and placed it at the queen's throat. The golden bug became as bright as the sun. My face felt uncomfortably warm like it was melting off then light faded away and I heard a gasp. I thought it was Annabeth until I looked down into a pair of big brown eyes. They were a warm chocolate brown with flakes of gold. They reminded me of my friend Hazel.

Walt pressed a hand against her shoulder as if to stop her from sitting up too quickly. Annabeth and I looked at each other before glancing out in the direction of Long Island Sound.

"We should go. Reyna will be waiting and I have a feeling this will be an interesting meeting. Hopefully nothing gets blown up this time around. "

Author's Note: First off, let me apologize for the tardiness of the update. Though it is technically still Friday in some parts of the U.S .I have been dealing with some personal issues yesterday and my beta tester has not been feeling so well lately. I again apologize.

Welcome to any new readers.

Guest: Thank You very much for your review.

Howtobook101: LOL!I know Percy can be a pig sometimes. Lots of other demigods laugh at him for it and so do I. Poor Perce, he can't help that he eats like a goat. Though Grover might be offended at that. I'm sure if I chased after monsters and did what he does that I would stuff my face for your review.

Alrighty, guys. Next Week should be another update back on the Friday schedule. Fingers crossed. Have not decided yet on whose POV the next chapter is in. Thinking of switching up the rotation to even it all out. Egyptian/Greek but also Boys/Girls and the queen now unbalances things.

Also, feel free to add in idea or suggestions. A couple of people have already done that in reviews and so far I have added in the requester character(s) or scene. Can't promise that I can add anything in but of course, it never hurts to ask.

As usual, favorites/ follows are appreciated and we all know that I love reviews. It truly is the best part of my weekend to wake up and find some notifications of the new reviews. Again, I am truly sorry for the lateness of this update. Thank You for your understanding.