"What will you do?"

"We will prepare for battle, of course." Reyna said it as though it should have been blatantly obvious. Jason realized that after the week's events, it was quite ridiculous of him to ask. He felt like a kid who had asked a silly question in class and his teacher was reprimanding him for it.

"You make sure Octavian doesn't skewer the Greek campers, alright?" He asked, eyes darting over to the camp's Augur, who was fighting with Michael Yew from the Apollo cabin on archery. The Greek demigod looked like he was about to pull out his own and use the Roman as a moving target practice. "They're really no different than us, I promise. Most of them are nice."

Reyna looked thoughtful for a moment, a slight smile forming on her lips. "If you bring everyone back safely to camp, including Percy's girlfriend, I will make sure neither Greek nor Roman blood is shed. Deal?" She held up an outstretched arm, to which he took.

"Deal." She pulled him into a tight hug, and then she turned her back and left.

Jason watched her leave, and his thoughts were interrupted by a low whistle. He turned to see a punk-rock style girl with her hands on her hips, eyebrows raised as she ventured a peek into their conversation. Her lips were pursed in a brooding expression, as though she had been given one of life's bigger mysteries; being a Hunter, this probably confused her to no end. For Jason, it wasn't much different.

"So," Thalia said, looking him straight in the eye, "looks like you've got a bit of a problem, little brother."

He nodded. "We have to get to Rome, save Annabeth and whoever else was in that prophecy, find the doors of death and somehow get this Nico di Angelo kid back. How are we supposed to do all that, Thal?"

Her eyes had widened in shock; then, as if she had been thrown into the crowd of a comedy show, she threw her head back and laughed like a hyena. She held her stomach, her laughter as genuine as a single red rose, and her brother would've laughed along with her if he hadn't been so confused.

"Oh my gods, Jason!" She giggled, wiping at her eyes as though she had tears in them. "Do you know who you remind me of?"

"Who?"

"Percy. You guys have two very different personalities; you're serious, mature, and like a roman, you're able to make the hard sacrifices. Percy is a complete moron and he's way too loyal to ever think about a quest before his friends, but he also gets the job done. Sometimes it takes him a couple of slip ups before he catches on that something's wrong with the current plan, but he'll get it eventually."

"So how are we alike at all?"

"You're both oblivious." Jason was about to ask her what she meant by that, but she cut him off with ease. "I've got to go now; the Hunters and I need to speak with lady Artemis about hiring new recruits. We're going to need everyone we can get if we want a chance against Gaia." She gave him a quick hug, and looked over to Percy, who was talking with Grover. She hesitated, before muttering under her breath something about not interrupting, and then turned on her heel and ran into the forest without looking back.

The son of Jupiter looked around, sighed, and then walked over to Grover and Percy. He was the last person he needed to say goodbye to, and he was sure he'd be reprimanded by Piper if her didn't. The satyr was good company anyhow, and he could tell by the way that Annabeth and him had looked for the son of Poseidon, the two were best friends.

As he got closer, he began hearing words float around, and he stopped short when he realized one was distressed, the other calm.

" – have to come, Grover!" Jason heard Percy say desperately. The new praetor was waving his arms around wildly, his face pale. "You can't just leave me! What about Annabeth? What about Nico? You can't honestly think that –"

"They don't want to see me?" Grover interrupted, smiling slightly. "Of course not; I knew both of them first, if you haven't remembered." At that, both of them started chuckling nostalgically. Jason wondered if, given the right amount of time, he and Leo would be like that.

"True enough, dude, but I still don't understand why you can't come!" Grover placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, and the son of Jupiter realized that the satyr was blinking wildly. Percy shoved his hands in his pocket, looking straight back into his best friend's eyes. If Jason hadn't known what he had been through, he would've thought the dark-haired demigod was always this moody.

"You don't think I want to? I've gone nine months without seeing my best friend, man! I've had to watch Annabeth panic and cry and lose sleep and body weight over your disappearance. I killed my poor hands helping build that boat, and now the stupid thing's destroyed. I gave myself migraines trying to reach you through the empathy link – and I already told you, satyrs don't get migraines! I did all that to find you, and you have to leave again."

"Grover, I –"

"No," he cut him off again. "Don't even, Perce. I wanted to do all that stuff; I wanted to find you again. You know what makes you leaving this time so different? I know where you are. I know I can contact you if something goes wrong, and vice versa. And especially if you've found Annabeth, I want to know about that.

"This isn't my quest, Percy; I'm not a part of the prophecy. I trust Leo, Piper and Jason to look after you. Hazel and Frank too, judging by what I've seen them do. I'll find something else to do, maybe train some of these sa – I mean fauns. Gods, they're dense. They remind me of you."

"Hey!" Percy protested, face going beet red. "I am not dense. And I do not need people to look after me!" Grover must have shown him something in his mind, because Jason watched as the son of Poseidon's face went blank for a moment. Then, as though a wind had whistled through his head, it was replaced by a sheepish grin, one a girly-girl would wear if she had burped without covering her mouth. "Alright, let's not tell anyone else about that, got it?"

Grover threw his head back and laughed heartily, a sound that had gotten deeper in the nine months Jason had known him. The group was silent for a moment, and then the best friends embraced each other, a tight, meaningful hug that meant I'll see you soon.

"Jason! Percy! Guys! Oh my gods!"

The other two broke apart, and Jason spun around wildly. Leo and Piper were speeding down the hill at top speed. They wore expressions of shock and excitement, and they're feet were a blur as they skidded to a halt in front of the trio, their eyes gleaming like a polished diamond.

"Boat – appeared – where did it – holy Hephaestus!" Piper was breathing loudly as though she had just finished a marathon, and Leo was forming his usual incoherent babbling.

"Deep breaths, Valdez! What is it?" Leo went to answer, but the only girl in the group cut him off. "The Argo II, it's…" She ran a hand through her hair, shaking her head in amazement. "Come look."

Jason turned around and glanced at Percy nervously. His face was grave, but when he met the blonde-haired teen's eyes Percy seemed to understand. They both began sprinting back towards the hill, and upon reaching the peak, scanned the Field of Mars like a sailor surveying the waters.

Percy gasped, stumbling back a bit. "What? That's not possible…" Jason ignored him, his jaw going slack. The remains of the Argo II were gone; there were no burning boards, no smoking scrap metal and certainly no smouldering pile of debris.

There was, however, a golden dragon's head perched atop a dark wood boat. It sparkled in the sunlight, freshly waxed and looking like an exact, if not better, replica of another boat. There were silver bars rimming the deck as safety guards, and parachutes as well as lifeboats and buoys fastened onto them like saddles every five meters. A crow's nest and navigations room stuck out on deck like mountains lining a horizon. Windows were positioned on a level that was neither too high nor short enough that water pressure would shatter them when it cut through the waves like a powerboat. A white mast was rustling in the slight breeze, gleaming like the foam on the edge of the surf in summer.

Whether he and his friends were all hallucinating the same thing – which would have been unnatural and disturbing – Jason was sure of one thing; the Argo II hadn't been there yesterday, and it was today.

There was a long pause, as though they were all holding their breaths. After what seemed like the Greek and Roman empires had come and gone, Grover finally said, "Well, that takes care of transportation."

Piper spun on him wildly, her face shocked. "What; we didn't have transportation before?" The satyr shook his head sheepishly. The group groaned, and Jason smacked the palm of his hand to his face, feeling a headache coming on. Rolling his eyes upward, he heard incoherent stuttering coming from his best friend. Gods only knew how hard Leo had worked on that boat; he had been so devastated that all the extra time they had put into it was wasted the moment they touched – well, crashed – into the Roman camp. Jason put his hand on Leo's shoulder, giving him a reassuring shake as if to say, at least it's back.

"Wait a minute," Percy protested, eyeing it suspiciously. "I'm pretty sure I wasn't dreaming when this boat crashed. How is it…" His voice wavered and trailed off, his eyes catching something on the boat. Jason followed his gaze, his eyes no doubt deceiving him. There, on the pure white mast was a symbol that hadn't been there earlier.

It was a pounding table, the one Cyclopes pound swords into shape on in the forges. A horse was perched atop of it, two hooves on the table and two up in a running position. To the left of the table, there was a spear with a skeletal hand grabbing it from the very Earth, dirt spilling at the foot of the arm to emphasize the return from the grave. To the right, a helmet that was almost transparent, visible because the sun shone down on it in gracefully. Three different birds were airborne on the mast; an eagle, a dove, and an owl. When the mast rippled, the animals all looked as though they were animated, the wings on the aviators and the hooves on the steed moving gracefully like a ballerina on stage.

"No way!" Leo gasped just loud enough for everyone to hear him. "Our parents, cooperating on something for once? That's like… Harry Potter and Voldemort working together. It just doesn't happen!"

The group nodded in agreement, something that rarely, if ever, happened – there was always at least one person who would disagree. Jason stared at it in awe. No one else moved; he could relate to the feeling. Gods weren't supposed to interfere, but on the rare occasion they did, they tended to make it worth while. Jason had realized that last year during their quest to save Hera.

The son of Jupiter shouldered his backpack, trudging off down the hill toward the boat. "Wait, Jason!" Piper called after him. "Where are you going?"

He hardly looked back as he replied, "We can't just sit around doing nothing, can we? We have to save Annabeth!"

He could hear nothing but the howl of the wind; then, simultaneously, footsteps resounded in the fresh air.