Happy Memorial Day! If you don't live in America, then happy Monday!

Nico:

"It has to be, my Lord," said a man who was bowing down to someone.

"It is impossible Tom," said the person who 'Tom' was speaking to, although I still couldn't see him.

"It has to be true," Tom said. "All evidence…"

"You have no definitive proof," responded the mysterious figure, who stepped forwards out of a shadow. We were in a room, which was very dark, and torches were lit every so often but there were many long, ominous shadows. The mysterious figure was hooded, and Tom was still kneeling.

"I sent an army there," Tom said. "They disappeared. Area 51, where might I remind you Hecate was being held, exploded a few days earlier. It can't be a coincidence."

"Your army never reported making it to the silly little Camp," the hooded figure said. "We have reports of faulty weapons at Area 51. A jar of Greek Fire at Area 51 near the water tanks randomly exploded, killing twenty men. I agree that something's up, but I do not wish to take action until I am sure. Besides, what would you do, send another army? I am not willing to risk it."

"But the army I sent," Tom protested. "They couldn't have just disappeared."

"No, you're right about that," replied the hooded figure. "Something's up. But it could be a trick."

"My spy at the Camp-"

"You mean your useless teenage mortal?"

"Has provided information that there is a presence at their camp," Tom continued as if he didn't ever hear the hooded figure.

"Don't worry," said the hooded figure. "We just need your spies to confirm that there actually is an enemy presence there, and then we will send an army to crush them. But if there isn't anyone there, I am not willing to risk an army for what could very well be a trap."

Then there was a silence for a few minutes. "You can go now Tom," said the hooded man.

"Yes but I've been wondering something," said Tom.

"Yes?"

"Do you think Hecate was blown up in the blast?"

"Possibly," said the hooded figure. "For a goddess, she is weak. It is possible that she was killed because of this. It was a powerful explosion that must have ignited the rest of the C-4 in the base. Now go. I have matters to attend to." Then everything disappeared.

. . .

My eyes opened to a dark room. Actually, that shouldn't be surprising considering that I kept my cabin dark most of the time. I looked at the clock. 6:45 A.M. I never wake up that early. I like to sleep in, but I couldn't fall back asleep so I went outside, and almost ran into Mac who was running around camp.

"Someone's up early," he said. "Don't you like to sleep in?"

"I couldn't sleep for some reason," I replied.

"Huh. That's odd," he said. "I've been worried about you."

"Why?" I asked as a response to what I thought was an odd statement.

"Well," he began, "you've kept to yourself a lot lately. We all think of you as the most powerful of all of us, but all you do is stay isolated. You're like a leader, but you are just hiding from the rest of us. Why?"

I thought for a moment. Or maybe a while. "I don't know. It's just that children of Hades are always outcasts, you know? We're never been respected ever, and I was always a loner back at camp before."

"Well this is your chance to change that," he said. "You can make a name for Hades' children, make yourselves noticed."

"Now since when did you come up with such smart advice?"

"Oh shut up already, before I regret giving you advice in the first place," he said and I laughed. It felt good to laugh, I hadn't really laughed since… well since a long time ago. We walked and talked for a little while when he suddenly asked, "Why couldn't you sleep?"

"Well," I began, "I had these dreams." He nodded. All demigods had these dreams that are unfortunately often real, so he should understand. "I'm not sure what they meant, but I think there spies in the camp."

"One of us?" he asked, referring to the demigods.

"No, one of the mortals."

"Not the Special Forces guys," he said.

"No, I meant one of the ones here at camp with us," I replied. "I think it might be that new girl; Lena or whatever her name is."

"Leah?"

"Yeah, her."

"She was definitely hiding something when we met her during our capture the flag game," he said. "Plus, she never did provide a reason as to why she was spying on us."

"I think we should keep an eye on her," I said.

"The only thing is, she hasn't done anything suspicious since we found her," he noted. It was true. She had been here for two weeks now, and nothing would have possibly lead me to believe she was a spy. "Still," he continued, "you're right. We have to keep an eye on her."

"There was something else in my dream," I said with an unfortunate realization entering my mind. "I think they may have discovered us. They are unsure, but…"

"We should prepare," he finished.

"You never know when the next attack will come," I said darkly.

After a few minutes, Mac put up a suggestion that I liked. "You wanna spar?"

"Spar?" I asked, not sure if I heard him right. Most people didn't want to spar me, because, not trying to be super arrogant, I always win, and most of the time it is easy.

"Yeah," he replied. "Think about it. We're eventually going to be going against the Titans anyways, so I may as well start fighting the strongest one here to practice."

"Alright, sure," I was excited. Nobody ever wanted to spar me, so I hadn't done this against real people for a while. We got to the arena and nobody was there. Then again, it was like seven o'clock in the morning. Mac drew two swords, while I took out my Stygian Iron one.

"You ready?" he asked.

"Yup. Let's go," I replied and started off charging him. He back at me, and I realized it would be hard to defend against two swords, so I went on the offensive, trying to do the one technique Percy taught me, which was disarming your opponent. Mac was at camp when Percy himself learned this move, so I expected him to be prepared, but I was able to knock one of his swords away quickly and kick it so he wouldn't be able to get it back. Then we slashed, dodged, parried, slashed again, until I got him in a headlock. He was tired, but I still had a lot of energy.

"I – guess – I'm – not – ready – to – fight – the – best – yet," he said between breaths.

"No I guess not," I said teasingly. "Let's eat breakfast."

After breakfast, I returned to my cabin, where I was surprised to find a pigeon sitting there waiting for me. Then I realized it was an automaton, and that it had a letter attached to its leg. I picked up the letter, which was titled:

To Nico. From Ian.

Ian, Ian, who was Ian? I thought. Then I remembered. Outside of Camp Jupiter, the guy I found who said he hated the Titans, yet was a great general for them anyways. I opened up the letter to read, and it said this:

To Nico,

I hope that you are not stationed at Camp Half-Blood, because that is a suspected base of rebel operations. However, now seems like a time when I should remind you of my offer to help your cause. I can give you the locations of many of the major and minor gods if you wish to free them, for I assumed, although the Titans have not, that you rescued Hecate and blew up Area 51. I must say that was very clever.

From,

Ian

I finished reading the letter, and I had no idea what to do. It could be a trap, although I didn't think so. After all, I had a dream earlier that day telling me the same thing as the beginning of the letter. After a long time of consideration, I decided to write back to him, telling him that we wanted his help.

That's it. I hope you liked it. Now I only have one request. REVIEW