I'm posting on Tuesdays! Woohoo!

Actually, it's 'cause I have a theory article I want to post, but I don't want that theory to ruin this story, so I'm trying to get this out faster. How selfish of me.

Plus I realise that the last one is short, and I've got not one, but two very mean cliffhangers here that I rather you guys wait until Friday for than waiting from Friday to Friday.

Another thing: I shouldn't be posting fanfiction right now (or watching YouTube book reviews [even if they're about HoO and even if they diss Dylan], or sitting at a computer), so not sure if I'll get to the Fanpop version of this (which means adding the [i]-[/i] for bolding) so I'm sorry if I don't get to that tonight. Maybe I'll just drop the [i][/i] this one chapter.

Enjoy!

VIV

Percy

July 10th

Seth smiled at them like he'd heard it before. Definitely a son of Zeus.

"I see you've heard of him already."

"Oh yeah, we've heard plenty about Chiron." Leo said. Piper elbowed him to be more discreet.

"I'll go tell him we have four new students," Seth said. "Wait here. Don't wander in or… Or touch anything."

"Alright," Percy said. Seth eclipsed himself from the room and we all turned to Annabeth.

"And you had an idea that this was happening?" Leo asked. "Umm… How?"

"Things that haven't been around for years are coming back. Things that are supposed to be dead are alive. This is just one of them." She said, uneasy.

"Yeah, but we can't kill it!" Leo said. "I mean… It's camp!"

"I don't think so," Piper said. "Seth called us what, students?"

"Yeah," Percy said. "What, you don't think it's a camp?"

"Summer Camps are more… Modern… Annabeth, what did you say camp started as? You told me at camp." Piper said.

"You're right," Annabeth said. "It started as Chiron, simply living in the mountain. Heroes started coming for help, and eventually, he took in all the half-bloods. Like a routine; someone would come, he'd take them in. And then the buildings expanded from Chiron's house to a camp. It was called a school until it went into a military phase. Then they called it 'camp' like 'military camp', and then when kids only went for the summer because of school, it became 'camp' like we think of a summer camp."

"Okay, Annabeth, that's great. But that doesn't solve the problem of 'why is it here'? They're demigods. They'd be on our sides, wouldn't they? Why would Gaia bring them back?" Percy asked.

"Well…" Annabeth hesitated. "Gaia said she was keeping you safe. And you're on our side."

Percy froze and thought about that. He still didn't know what that meant; he just knew it was really bad. Then again, most plans immortals made for him ended up to be really badly.

"It doesn't matter; let's just get out of here." Leo said. "I don't like this."

"We're here for a reason," Piper said. "We might as well figure it out. Maybe Chiron here knows something that could help us."

"Yeah, or he'll call us lunatics." Leo offered.

"No, it's Chiron. He believes half-bloods. He knows we don't lie about weird stuff happening to us, because we don't have to lie about-"

The door opened again and they all spun around and tried to look casual as a centaur trotted in. Percy shut up and his jaw dropped. Seth wasn't kidding, it was Chiron. Except instead of one of his t-shirts he wore a chest plate, his hair was longer than Percy's ever seen it. He had a quiver over his shoulder, as if Seth had dragged him away from the archery range. But the one thing that stroke Percy as different from the teacher he remembered were his eyes. Chiron always looked in his thirties or so, but right now, his eyes looked young as well.

"Hello," Chiron said. "You must be the newest half-bloods. Perseus, Penelope, Athene and Leonidas if I am not mistaken from what Seth told me."

"Can we pretend my name is Leo? I like Leo much more." Valdez spoke up. Percy was going to hit him, but he decided against it.

Chiron ignored Leo's little comment.

"Welcome," Chiron said. "Come in, take a seat. If you came here on foot, I assume you're tired." Chiron said. He said it as if he didn't know Camp was a jungle trek and climb from the ocean. As if he expected more…

They sat down on some Ancient chairs that weren't too comfortable. Percy was about to put his arm around Annabeth and then he remembered what Annabeth had said about not dating. He didn't want Chiron to think he was married, that would be most extraordinarily awkward.

"As Seth might have told you my name is Chiron." He said.

"We know," Annabeth said. "We heard all about it, and we figured out the mist, scents, and so forth on our way. We connected the dots by exchanging puzzle pieces with each other." Percy was thankful. He wasn't sure how much he'd have really tolerated hearing the 'welcome to our world' speech again.

"I see," Chiron said. "Do you know your immortal parents as well? Where are you from?"

"Sparta," Leo and Piper said at once. It was probably the only Greek city-state they knew.

"I mean, he's from Sparta, I'm from… Athens." Piper said. Chiron nodded and turned to Percy and Annabeth.

"Crete." Percy said, to be original.

"Sicyon," Annabeth said. Percy looked at her and frowned. Where the Hades was Sicyon? She looked at him like 'really? You forgot that?' Well, didn't everybody?

"Oldest village in Ancient Greece," she muttered to him.

"Oh, right!" Percy said even if he really didn't remember at all.

"I see," Chiron said. "But I don't believe you."

They all froze and looked over at them.

Chiron pointed towards Percy's sword.

"That sword… Is an exact copy of what Seth uses, and he only has it because he descends from Heracles." Chiron said. "And he was raised inland, nowhere near the sea, or where Crete would be. So I have no idea how you'd have gotten your hands on it. And you," he said turning towards Leo, "Would be in the army right now if you were from Sparta."

"I… Ran away?" Leo offered.

But Chiron wasn't done.

"And you, if you were an Athenian young lady, would be married." Chiron said looking at Piper. "It's why we always ask for demigoddesses to come here at a young age."

"They're married!" Leo said pointing at Percy, who hit him.

"Leo, give it up," Annabeth said looking at Chiron. "That was a mess of a lie. We should have known better, it's Chiron."

"I can spot a lie in teenagers like a hound," Chiron said. "Call it practise. And I didn't even get to your clothes yet. Where do you really come from?"

Everyone was looking at him.

"We're… On a quest." Percy said. Chiron waited for them to add something, for it to make sense… So he asked questions instead.

"I see. Who sent you, exactly?"

"This'll sound crazy," Percy said, "But you did." Chiron looked at Percy and tried not to look at him like he was insane.

"I did?" He said calmly.

"Yeah. You. But… From the future…"

"Percy you are creating time paradoxes," Annabeth warned him like it was an emergency. "Then he'll only send us on the quest because he'll know he has to in the future which means that we won't be equipped the same way to-"

"Okay fine, you explain this." Percy told her. Annabeth's grey eyes calculated for a few seconds.

"The doors of death are being opened," she said, "And a lot of things exist when they shouldn't, when they should be dead or gone or moved. This is one of them."

Percy didn't really see the difference, but he guessed that that one was more gently and loose.

"What are you saying? This camp shouldn't exist?" Chiron asked.

"This island shouldn't exist," Annabeth said. Chiron frowned.

"What island?"

"This island," Piper said.

"What do you mean? We aren't on an island, Camp is inland." He said.

"Oh snap- this is Dirt lady freaking up our lives!" Leo said jumping to his feet.

"This is a diversion! The others… On the ship…" Annabeth said. Percy froze. He'd seen Jason, Hazel and Frank fight, and he had no doubt Quinn could hold her own, but if something big came out… On the boat, while both he and Leo were away… Jason and Hazel couldn't swim, Quinn might be able to steer a bit but…

"We have to go!" Percy said.

And right that second everything around them faded like the illusion it'd probably been all along and they just fell into nothingness.

Jason

Frank had no idea how the others were doing, but he was hoping it was better than them.

It'd started out okay. Frank had suggested he go up to the crow's nest just because they were already on a pretty dangerous set of scales considering half the crew was gone. But Jason had said he'd go patrol the skies, and that he'd actually feel better up in the air when Percy wasn't around the ship.

But eventually Jason spotted something and he had to land to actually get someone to look at this right. He landed and grabbed Frank's arm and they'd looked over the side of the railing. Jason felt like his eyes were going to pop out of his head and he'd throw up. He wasn't seasick like Hazel was; he had even bigger problems with water because Jupiter and Neptune's rivalry was bigger than what either of them had going on with Pluto (Pluto was sort of just there, minding his own business and laughing at his brothers destroying each other).

But man, were they in trouble.

Frank

Tyson and Ella were hanging out downstairs, Quinn had fallen asleep at one end of the ship (she didn't sleep well on a boat, did she?), and he and Hazel were sitting around the deck.

"Did you ask Leo yet?" Frank asked. He knew it was insensitive, but the silence was killing him. And he was always so scared of saying something she wouldn't want to hear. What if it was Sammy and he was more important than Frank was? He wouldn't be mad, they had so much history, and Hazel was just struggling with all of it lately…

"No," she admitted, bowing her head. "I don't get a thing about this and I… I don't want to nearly… Nearly die…"

She bit her lips and looked so troubled now… He put an arm around her.

"It's okay," he said. "You're still here. And for what it's worth, so am I. Okay? You're not alone in this. Do you want me to tell him?"

Her eyes flared.

"No!" She said. "No, no, please don't, please don't."

"Alright," he said putting his hands up like she was holding a gun. She sighed.

"Sorry but… I'm still confused, and I don't get to think about it a lot…"

"You might want to stop now," Frank suggested. "Hey, were you on deck when Percy did that water thing this morning? With the shapes?"

She smiled and started talking about a horse made out of water Percy had made, and it'd even galloped around deck until it'd suddenly broken apart right over Piper. Percy had laughed, but Piper had nearly gutted him with her dagger.

That's when Jason landed. Frank knew right away this was bad, even if Jason's face was about as revealing as a mask.

"Swords!" He said. Quinn shot up in her sleep.

"What- what's coming?" She asked, getting to her feet and drawing her gladus, readjusting her glasses on her nose.

"Another ship," Jason said uneasily.

Just as our residential Son of Poseidon is out of here… Frank thought. Great.

"Okay- umm- another ship?" Hazel asked. "How is that possible?"

"I don't know, but I saw a ship wandering around." He said. "A trireme- like this one. It looked pretty well armed."

"By who?" Frank asked.

"There it is!" Quinn said, pointing at a dot appearing over the horizon.

"Ship, ship, ship." Ella said, perching next to him. "Enemy ship. Means trouble. Quest is trouble. Double, double toil and trouble, William Shakespeare. Trouble is good. Bad for friends. Ella will leave now."

"Where are you going?" Jason asked.

"She will go be safe. Ella will come back when it's safe." Tyson said. "Need to make it safe."

"Trust her; she will get out of the line of fire," Frank said. He squinted to look back out at the sea. The ship that was coming… Was it really..?

"Guys," Quinn said suddenly. "D-d-do you know who the-the scourge of the seven seas was back in the-the Mediterranean? W-when Ella said trouble was good, she meant they were good navigators… T-that's a Greek ship coming at us!"

"Coming at a ship full of Romans," Jason said looking at the kids around them. "And at Tyson."

That was the most unfair fight Frank had ever heard of; but they were going to have to fight it.