Authors Note: sorry its been so long since I updated, been busy. I don't own any characters from the PJO or HoO series. I'll try to update more often if I can.

Casper's POV ~

Annabeth, Ella, and I met up with the others for lunch at a little cafe at noon. We had spent all morning exploring downtown Seattle. Annabeth had dragged us all the way around a huge brightly colored metal building called the EMP museum. But after Annabeth spent a half hour talking about

and different materials and whatever, we dragged her away.

Annabeth dragged us through a bunch of other buildings until Ella and I pointed out that there wasn't going to be a bridge in an art museum, and we hit the streets again. We met up with the others.

"Nothing in the University District." Percy sighed. "No trolls or otherwise." He drew a big red X over an entire neighborhood on a map of Seattle we had bought.

"Nothing in this area too." I said, marking off the places we had checked.

"Or Capitol hill. Did a flyby, and nothing." Jason sighed. "How can it be this hard to find a statue of a troll?"

"Why don't we just ask someone?" Frank sighed. "Troll statue has to be pretty well known, right? The locals would know."

"Brilliant!" Ella said excitedly. "Lets start with the lady at the counter."

The woman at the counter was a cheerful blonde woman, no older then twenty five. She smiled pleasantly at Ella and I as we approached.

"Troll statue? Of course!" She laughed. "Any local could tell you that. It's down in Fremont. I can show you on a map if you want."

"That'd be great." I smiled politely and showed her our map. "Thank you." We walked back to our table. "It's here. In Fremont." I grinned.

A half hour later we were standing in front of a huge statue of a troll underneath a bridge. There was a bunch of people around, taking pictures with the troll and climbing on him and stuff. Personally, I was pretty creeped out by the huge thing, but the tourists seemed to like it.

And right at the base of the statue was a black door with no handle, leading right into the ground.

"How do we open it?" Leo asked, running one hand along the door. "I can't sense any locks or anything. It doesn't even have any hinges."

"It doesn't work that way." Hazel said. "I'm not entirely sure how it does work though."

"I could probably knock it down." Frank speculated.

"That isn't how it works. A fleet of bulldozers couldn't push that door down." Hazel sighed. "But theres one person who can tell us how to get it open. I'm going to IM Nico." We walked over to a fire hydrant and pulled off one bolt, sending a spray across the sidewalk.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept this offering. Show us Nico di Angelo!" Percy tossed a golden drachma into the spray, and the rainbow changed to an image of a scrawny boy with black hair and an aviator's jacket, sparring in the sword arena with a blonde boy that I recognized as Will Solace from the Apollo cabin.

"Nico!" Hazel called through, once, they were done. "Over here!" The boy turned, and when he spotted Hazel he rushed over.

"Hi guys. Whats going on?" Will Solace had come with him, and the two crowded in front of the mist.

"We're in Seattle." Hazel said. "Oh, hi Will."

"Hi guys." He said cheerfully, waving. "Whatcha doin in Seattle?"

"There's a door into the underworld here." Hazel explained, turning back to Nico. "I was wondering if you could tell me how to open it." Nico nodded.

"You have to…." He looked embarrassed. "I'm not really supposed to tell anyone but Pluto and Hades kids…." He trailed off. Will's face disappeared from the image, and we all stepped back. Nico whispered something to Hazel, and she nodded. They said a quick goodbye, and she swiped her hand through the mist.

"I know how to open it." Hazel said. "But it only works at midnight, according to Nico. We have to wait."

"Then I guess we should find a place to crash until then." Percy sighed. "Any ideas, other than the cleanest alley we can find?"

"Motel?" Leo suggested hopefully.

"Not enough money." Piper pointed out. "A park is better then an alley though."

"Can't you just, you know, hot wire us another ride?" Jason asked Ella. "It's worked the last few times." Ella looked like she was considering it for a second, but then she shook her head.

"Adults ignore you until you start stealing. I think we should go easy on the five-finger discount. Besides, we don't all fit in most of these cars. I don't think we'll stumble across another school bus. We're not that lucky, and its not worth it for just one night."

"You're right." Percy sighed. "No where near that lucky. Park it is, then." We glanced quickly at the map and found a park. We walked over and hunkered down behind a brick wall, in front of a row of hedges.

Annabeth and Percy were off to one side, whispering. They looked scared about something.

"Are they okay?" I asked Piper worriedly. Ella sat on my other side, listening too. "They've looked anxious about something all day."

"There alright… I think." Piper said. "They've been to Tartarus before, and something tells me they're not eager to revisit it."

"Oh." I fidgeted with my sword handle. "I had a feeling it was something like that. Did they say what it was like there?"

"No. I don't think they like to talk about it."

"I think something is going to happen." I blurted out, and it was true. All day, I'd been having an apprehensive feeling like something big was about to happen, but I couldn't quite put my finger on what it would be.

"What do you mean by that?" Ella asked. "What something?"

"I'm not sure." I said, wishing I had never said anything. "I just have this feeling."

It was then that the glowing fish guy appeared. There was a big flash of light, and a glowing ten-foot-tall merman appeared, hovering a few inches above the ground. He was dressed in a Hawaiian flower t-shirt, and was holding a trident.

"Ah!" I squeaked. "What the Hades!"

"What is it?" Hazel asked, drawing her sword. Frank twisted and changed into a boar. Jason and Percy stood up, so did I.

"You can't see him?" I asked, pulling out my own, too heavy sword. "He's right there."

"Who's right there?" Jason asked.

"Woah!" Percy exclaimed suddenly, stumbling backwards. "I see him too!"

"Why can't the rest of us see him?" Annabeth said, holding her dagger out in front of her protectively.

"He's here for us." I said. I didn't know how I knew, but I just did. "He has a message for us. We need to follow him." Piper grabbed one of my arms.

"That's a really bad idea…" Ella said nervously.

"No, she's right." Percy said. "I can feel it."

It took a while, but eventually, we convinced the others to let us go. As soon as we started forward, the merman turned and floated away. We followed him for a while, right to the harbor. He started into the water, and we followed.

Percy started into the water, and after a moments hesitation I found that I wasn't wet, even though I was knee deep in the freezing water. I dove under after Percy, and could breath easily under the water.

When we were about twenty feet under, the merman stopped. He turned, and raised one finger, as if to say just a sec. Then he disappeared.

"What the-" I started, but before anything happened, another man appeared. He looked like a surfer, with a Hawaiian shirt, and a fishing pole in one hand. His hair was dark like Percy and I's, and he had the same sea green eyes.

"Dad?" Percy asked.

"Dad?" I asked, taking a step back as well as I could underwater.

"Hello, my children." The man said. "Hello, Caspian."

"You." I stared at him. "You're my, my…. dad?"

"I am indeed." He said, maybe a little apprehensively. "I have something that I need to-"

"Woah woah woah!" I put my hands up in front of me in a stop everything gesture. "I have questions buddy. Number one: who was my mom? Number two- what kind of dad gives a girl a name like 'Caspian'? And number three-"

"Please." Poseidon seemed to have aged ten years while I had been talking. "One day, I will answer all of those questions. But for now, I do not have much time to talk." Percy put one hand on my shoulder as if to say, not now. "I have something for you, Caspian." He held out one hand, and the fishing pole morphed into a small box wrapped in shiny green paper, and tied up with pearl colored ribbon.

I reached out and took it with shaky hands. "That may come in handy. Unwrap it later, we haven't much time." He turned to Percy. "And for you." He pulled a pearl out of one pocket and handed it to him. "Just in case." He turned to both of us with a sly smile. "Good luck."

Then he disappeared.

Percy took gently took my arm and pulled me towards the shore. "We have to go." I followed him, my head swirling. My dad had given me a present. But he hadn't ever been there. One present couldn't change that, but I was still a little excited to see what it was.

"You should wait to open it." Percy told me on the walk back. "So the others can see." I nodded.

"What was that pearl, though? You looked like you knew what it meant." He looked grim.

"One of Persephone's pearls. It's a shortcut out of the underworld. Crush the pearl, reappear up here in the mortal world. It's not a good sign that dad thought I would need it." We walked back to where the others were waiting nervously. We had been gone way longer then it seemed, and the sun was starting to go down.

"What happened? What took so long? What's that box?" Ella yelled, rushing forward.

"I don't….I don't know." I felt numb. "My dad gave it to me."

Then Percy told them everything that happened. They all crowded around as I opened the box. I used Piper's knife to cut off the ribbon, and pulled off the paper. It was a small black jewelry box, and I lifted the lid with trembling fingers. Inside, resting on a cushion, was a bronze necklace. there was three charms on it, shaped like a shield, a spear, a dagger, and a sword. I picked it up.

"Its beautiful." Hazel gasped.

"What's with those charms?" Annabeth asked. "They look like more then decoration." I pulled on the shield charm, and instantly I was holding a full sized bronze shield, with a strange symbol on it. It was a trident, crossed sideways with a sword. Underneath that was the words FEMINAM BELLATOR engraved underneath. Along the top was the words PROTECTOR INFIRMA. Symbols were carved all around the edges.

"Wow!" Jason whooped. "Thats as good as my coin, or riptide."

"What do these words mean?" I asked.

"Feminam bellator means female warrior, and protector infirma means protector of the weak." Frank said. "Its Latin. And all these symbols mean victory in one language or another. I recognize the one in Chinese."

"How do you turn it back?" Piper asked. "And take out the others so we can see." I pressed the shield against the chain, and it shrank again. I pulled on the dagger, and a six inch bronze dagger with gold carvings in the shape of waves down the knife. The sword was perfectly weighted, as long as my old one with a perfect leather grip and gold and blue waves down the edges. The spear was similarly pretty, with a bronze and gold tip.

Piper helped me put the gold chain necklace on. It was ten that night already, so we sat down to sleep. Hazel took first watch, promising to wake us up so we could go with her to open the door. I drifted off into sleep, one hand resting on my neck, holding the golden necklace.