AN: So, I am back! That was shorter than I expected. Still, updates might not be weekly again for a while. Maybe every 10 days or so.

Disclaimer: Thanks to one of the guest reviewers for suggesting this disclaimer! (::)(::)(::) Gnithyna nwo ton od I : uoy ot evif hgih ,sith daer nac uoy fI

Piper's POV:

I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. All around me, I was surrounded by enough pink lace to blind a person for life. In other words, I knew I was in Cabin 10. Wait- Cabin 10?

I climbed out of my bunk and headed to grab my clothes for the day. Suddenly, the door opened and, instinctively, I turned around. It was very rare that someone left the cabin this early in the morning. It was even more rare for someone else to come in. I had learned that bad things tended to happen to campers who walked in on my sisters without their makeup on.

Lacy and Mitchell came in, disappointed looks on both their faces.

"Any sign of her?" I immediately recognized Drew's voice, saying the word her the way one would say moldy sandwich.

"Like you would care, Drew." Mitchell glared at her.

"I do. I care very much about poor little Piper." I would have snapped at her, but I was too confused. I was right here, they were talking as if I were missing.

"You care about becoming head counselor again and stealing Jason from her." I was this close to attacking the miserable brat with Katoptris.

"That's not true, hon!"

Lacy gave her an annoyed look. "Whatever. But, no. Still no sign of her or any of them. Just the holograms."

Holograms?

"What a shame." Drew cooed in mock sympathy.

Lacy sighed, walking over to my bunk and staring at it, as if it were some big mystery.

"Where are you, Piper?"

I woke up to the smell of coffee. Once my eyes adjusted to the light streaming into the room, I saw that I must have fallen asleep on one of the couches. At the dining table, Jason, Leo, Haymitch, Gale, the Mellarks, and various other tributes practically inhaling breakfast.

"Rise and shine, Beauty Queen." I just barely managed to make out what Leo said, his mouth stuffed with chewed up muffin.

"Chew with your mouth closed, Repair Boy."

He swallowed. "You too."

"That doesn't make any sense, Leo." Jason commented.

"It doesn't have to!"

I rolled my eyes. "Where are all the others?"

"They left about an hour ago. We would've too, but we were waiting for you to wake up. Besides, it gave us more time to eat breakfast." Rye replied before biting into a bread roll.

I got up and took a seat between Jason and Leo, grabbing the last blueberry muffin on the table.

"Sausage?" Mr. Mellark offered.

"I don't eat meat, thanks though."

Half the table stared at me in shock. With a jolt, I realized that for these people, especially the ones who were alive during the rebellion, nobody ever turned down any sort of food. They were lucky to get a hold of a few pieces of bread. Meat? That was a luxury.

I cleared my throat, trying to change the subject. "So, what's the plan for us?"

"Well, leave here as soon as possible. It's only a matter of time before someone finds us. We'll have to take the avoxes with us, who knows what Sonork would do to them? Then, I guess, we stay alive."

"I like this one." Haymitch, who was sitting on the other side of Leo, gave him a half-sober slap on the back.

"Right. Well, um, what did you learn about the pods?"

"They're hard to defeat, for sure. We just have to be safe, or clear them the way the rebels did. And most of them aren't very pleasant. Some kill you in a torturous way, some just plain out torture you. Then, there are a few that are designed to- what was the word? Hijack your brain with terrifying holograms and some sort of serum."

At this, the blood drained from my face. Holograms. That just reminded me of my dream. However, that was nothing compared to the look on Willow and Rye's father's face. He looked like it was taking all of his willpower to stay sane, to not break down. His eyes were wild, knuckles almost white from gripping the arms of his chair so tightly.

"Dad?" I could hear the worry and concern in Willow's voice.

"Peeta- it's okay. We're all okay. Can you hear me? Come back to me, Peeta. We're safe." Willow and Rye's mom knelt next to him, gripping his arm, her tone gentle, but scared, as if she was calming a child during a war. Gale took a sudden interest in his plate.

Peeta's expression returned to somewhat normal. "Sorry. I'm fine. Where were we?"

"What about you, Piper? You look like you've seen a ghost." Jason wrapped his arm around me, his face an expression of genuine concern.

I told them about the dream- of course, leaving out most of Drew's unpleasantness.

"They're looking for us." I finished.

"You just realized that, Pipes?" Leo asked, giving me a look that clearly meant duh.

"I mean, I did, but it didn't seem real until now. I guess I was so focused on the present- er- future. But what did they mean about holograms?"

"Maybe we're still back home, just as some sort of sleeping hologram. Don't worry, nothing's going to happen back home." Jason assured me.

"Yeah. I don't even know why you were acting so nervous before anyways."

I shrugged. "I guess it just hurt to see home again."

"I can get that. I already miss home, even though we've only been gone a week." Rye nodded.

"C'mon. I don't know about you, but I think we should get moving. Kronos could find out where we are any time n-" Leo was interrupted by a loud hissing noise.

We all turned towards the entrance to the roof, but the figure(s) hadn't come in yet. I strained my ears and managed to make out faint voices, presumably from the stairs.

"I don't want to have to fight!" One voice complained. "Can't we just have some Cheese 'n' Wieners?"

"You idiot, Stheno! Even a thousand years later, you still can't stop with the Bargain Mart act!"

Bargain Mart? Cheese 'n' Wieners? Where had I heard that before?

"Are you sure they're here?" The first voice, Stheno, asked.

"Positive. I can smell fresh demigod." A third voice hissed.

Non-human footsteps and the hissing drew closer. We all had our weapons now, waiting for our attackers to come into our sight. However, at the last minute, it all fit together. Percy had told us about fighting Medusa's sisters, one who kept offering snacks to him. But- there were two sisters and three voices. Than that meant that the third voice must be-

"EVERYBODY LOOK AWAY!" I yelled with as much charmspeak as I could.

They all obeyed, although most had confused expressions on their faces.

"Leo, can you summon a mirror from your belt?"

"Why would we want-?"

"Hello, half bloods!" The third voice was overly sweet, like a kidnapper trying to trick small kids with candy. "Why are you all looking away? Don't you want to say hello to your dear Auntie Em?"

I looked at the reflection in Katoptris. Sure enough, three gorgons stood not too far behind us. Leo looked over at it and realization dawned on his face. He reached into his toolbelt and after about ten seconds, he had a small mirror.

"Oh, so you're using mirrors now, are you? We don't want to have to kill you, just come and we can have a nice chat."

"We have snacks! Buy one get one free, only at Bargain Mart!"

I remembered something that Percy and the rest of us had laughed over when he was telling the story. "We have beauty pageants, I guess monsters have ugly pageants." His tone turned to a bad imitation of Stheno's voice. "But mother said I was the most hideous!"

"Why hello, Medusa. How thoughtful of you to stop by. You look absolutely hideous today. Who are the others with you? They can't possibly be your sisters, they're too- not ugly."

Medusa beamed with pride. "Why thank you, dear. You seem nicer than the others, why don't you turn around and say hello to us?"

"Hold up, Medusa!" Euryale protested. "I'm so sick of you getting to do all the killing! It's not fair!"

"Yeah. And you're always getting all the compliments. 'Oh, Medusa you're so hideous' 'Oh, Medusa, I've never seen anyone so ugly'. Well, I'm sick of it too!"

"You fools! Kronos sent us to find and kill them, not argue!"

"I don't care about Kronos anymore! Not until we get this settled once and for all!"

I winced as the scene turned into a variety of unpleasant screeching. Finally, when the noise stopped, I risked a look at the scene in front of me: Two gorgons, neither one turning me to stone, and a pile of yellow dust.

"Now that that's out of the way, we can- "

I looked to my left to see what Euryale was looking at. Katniss and Gale had two arrows ready to fire from their bows. By the looks of the tips, they were celestial bronze, probably one of Leo's thirty second creations.

"No- you can't- Medusa will kill us when we go to Tartarus!" Euryale started to move back, Stheno doing the same.

"STAY!" I ordered, right as the arrows pierced them. One on the left, the other on the right.

Euryale was the first to start disintegrating. "NOOOOOOO!"

Leo headed over with two cups from the dining table. After a few seconds, I realized what he was doing.

"Lie still."

They obeyed for about ten seconds, allowing Leo to get their blood, one in each glass. Then, they were brought out of their trance.

"YOU FILTHY APHRODITE SPAWN!" Were the last words Euryale said.

"NO CHEESE 'N' WIENERS FOR YO-" Stheno dissolved into yellow dust identical to the two piles next to her.

"Do you know which one's which?" Jason asked Leo.

"Yeah. Deadly in my left hand, healing on my right. That is how it goes- right? Deadly on the left, magic on the right?"

"Yeah."

Several of the mortals looked horrified. For those who had been in the arena with us, it had been their first monster- er- monsters.

Haymitch looked at the dust warily. "Well, I definitely drank too much last night."

Leo summoned two containers and some masking tape. He poured the blood into the containers and stuck labels on the lids.

"You guys ready to leave?" I asked the rest of the tributes. They nodded.

"Then let's go." Jason flipped Ivlivs back to a coin. "The next batch of monsters could show up any minute."