"PERCY!" Hermione screamed, as Percy was swallowed by the huge wave.

They were on day number four, out of their five-day training period. So far, she had only managed to make minor earthquakes. It was hard, to let something loose, that she had kept a lid on, for years

The training was grueling, but there was little, Nico could do to help, other than take care of her, and stop her from over taxing herself. He knew first hand, how dangerous that could be.

She was getting better at it. This time though, she had almost lost complete control, which was dangerous.

She had made an earthquake, so large it cracked the earth, and created a tsunami. Her worst-case scenario had come true as well. The tsunami had rebounded on the magical barrier, to turn around and hit them in their faces.

Percy was trying to do, what he was supposed to do. He had stood on the beach, trying to push back the wave, but instead it had slammed into him. Normal people would not have been able to survive that, but Nico knew, that Percy was not, what you would call normal.

Sure enough, the wave was slowing down, and Percy emerged, standing on it, laughing and screaming like a maniac.

"WOOOHOOO! That was awesome!"

Hermione sat staring at him in complete disbelief. She looked tired, but not completely drained of energy, which was promising. That meant, that her magic was building to be able to sustain her.

Every time she created earthquakes and spent her energy, her magic from Hecate was building, to compensate.

Soon she should have enough reserve to be able to hold down Zeus long enough, for Apollo to remove his immortality. It would be taxing and extremely dangerous. Nico hated it, but he knew she was the only one, who could do it. Besides, he had his own little side project going on.

"PERSEUS JACKSON!" Hermione screamed, returning from her stupor. "You scared me!" She yelled, wandless and wordlessly sending two dozen of yellow canaries to attack Percy, who screamed and tried to outrun them.

Leo was coming up behind them, laughing uncontrollably, as he saw Percy running back and forth across the beach, in a flurry of yellow wings.

Eventually Hermione took pity on her brother, vanishing the birds with a wave of her hand.

Percy started to walk towards them, a grumpy expression on his face.

"Looking good, Milkshake" Leo said, finally getting himself under a bit of control. He lost it again though, when Percy reached them, covered in bright yellow feathers.

"Was that really necessary?" He ground out.

"Probably not, but it made me feel better." Nico smirked, high-fiving Leo.

"If anyone's interested, I have dinner ready." Leo chuckled. They moved further into the island, where they had set up tents. It was too dangerous to be near anything else.

On the second day, the cave had collapsed, much to Leo's consternation. Luckily, he had managed to rescue some things.

When they reached the meadow, where they had made camp, a lot of their things had fallen to the ground, due to the earthquake At least their tacos were intact. So much for small favors.

"I think we might be ready to go back soon. How's it coming with the plants?" Nico asked, as they sat down on blankets around the campfire, Leo had built.

"I'm almost done. I had a couple of setbacks, but I think it's going okay. I just need to rig them for transportation." Leo responded, glancing at Nico.

Nico had tried to help the day before, accidentally killing a lot of rare plants. Leo was still a little sore about it.

The tacos were brilliant, in the way, that only Leo could make them. After their dinner, Hermione had dug out a bag of marshmallows, which they were sitting, toasting around the fire. Percy was busy, trying to figure out, exactly how many marshmallows he could cram onto his stick, Hermione was sitting between Nico's legs, leaning back on his chest, and Leo was sitting cross-legged, drumming his fingers on his knee.

"A calypso rhythm, Leo. Really?" Nico smirked at him.

"It's a great beat!" Leo defended, throwing a marshmallow at him, accidentally hitting Hermione in the face.

Leo's eyes widened, and he ducked his head, expecting his own flock of canaries to hit at any moment. Hermione laughed out loud, and instead threw a marshmallow right back at him. In a matter of seconds, they were having a marshmallow war, except for Percy, who victoriously waved his stick with five whole marshmallows in the air.

"New record!"

Hermione fell to the ground, with a happy sigh. She had new friends, a boyfriend, and a silly, stupid brother. Even if they had only known each other a few weeks, she felt close to him, and they had the same teasing relationship, a brother and sister were supposed to have.

She had the same with Harry, except that she was always the one protecting Harry. Percy was protecting her. It seemed he had finally embraced the idea of having a baby sister, and she enjoyed it fully.

Even if he was an idiot.

Will was in agony. He wasn't normally so dramatic, but Joseph's betrayal had hit him harder than he had wanted to admit.

He wanted to say, that it didn't matter, that he didn't care. But it did matter, and he did care.

More than anything though, he blamed himself. He was supposed to be smart, he was supposed to be able to see things like that. Now he just felt stupid.

He hated to generalize because of heritage, but he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised.

Son of Mercury – The god of trickery.

Annabeth had tried to make him feel better. They talked about what happened with Luke, years back. That betrayal still hurt, even though he came through in the end.

He wondered if this would still hurt for years to come.

Granted, Joseph and him, hadn't been that close, when he thought about it. They had been together for almost a year, had just moved into a little flat, near the Valetudinarium. He was grateful to be able to stay in the House. He didn't think he would be able to return.

Had it been Nico, who had betrayed them, he was sure it would hurt more. Even though they were no longer together, Nico was still his best friend, and he still trusted Nico with his life. More than that, he trusted Nico with the world.

Which was why he was standing, in the meadow near the Temple Hill, trying to put on a brave face, for when his father would show.

Which was now.

For once, the sun chariot was actually in the shape of a chariot, horses and all. It was shining so brightly, that Will had to cover his eyes. It landed on the ground, and the sun god himself stepped out.

After his trials, and return to god-hood, Apollo had become slightly more mature. Just slightly.

He got his appearance back, which had been a joy to everyone. No more Lester. Back to golden hair and eight-pack abs. Apollo had been ready to cry.

Today he was wearing simple flip-flops, shorts, a black tank top, and a pair of Ray Ban shades.

"Hey Kiddo."

His bright winning smile, turned in to a concerned frown, when he saw Will's red eyes and trembling fake smile. He walked over fast, drawing his son into an embrace. Will instantly felt warmer, and a little better, but then Apollo asked;

"What happened?" And Will broke down in sobs.

Previously, their father-son-moments had been rather awkward, and more friend like, but that day, Will needed his dad, and Apollo obliged, rubbing soothing circles on his son's back.

Eventually they sat down in the meadow, and when Will had calmed down enough, he gave Apollo a little piece of paper with directions to New Rome, which Apollo hadn't been able to find, much to his confusion. After all, Apollo sees all. It's hard to hide from the god of the sun.

Apollo gasped, when suddenly it seemed as if New Rome appeared out of the ground, that had been bare before.

"Neat trick!" he exclaimed, wide-eyed.

"Wait till you meet the girl who did it" Will grinned, still sniffling.

"One of Hecate's?"

"In a way." Will said mysteriously, as they got back in the chariot and slowly glided down towards the large house on the edge of enclave.

"You'll meet her soon enough. They should come back in a couple of hours."

"Back from where? Is it wise for you to go anywhere these days?" Apollo asked worriedly. An emotion he hadn't been very used to.

"They went to Ogygia for training. Believe me, it wouldn't be wise to do that here. You'll understand. I just want to get within the borders before we can speak more."

"That's cool, just hang tight then." Apollo urged the chariot faster, and they were at the House with the speed of light. They parked near Leo's workshop, and walked up to the House, where Rachel Dare waited for them.

Rachel greeted Apollo with a big hug, that would have probably bruised regular people. Will often wondered about those two. Sometimes it seemed to be a lot more, than a god/oracle relationship between the two of them. Especially after the Trials. He tried not to think about it though. After all, he and Rachel were about the same age. For his dad to go there, was just awkward. But then again, it was already awkward, when his dad had been the same age as himself.

Man, being a demigod could be confusing.

He decided to let the two get reacquainted, and went in the kitchen, to get some drinks and snacks together. They would need them for their meeting later.