'Thalia.' Annabeth calls me as I walk into the oval room.

There's something strange about her, and not just in her down tone that can bring down an entire population of a skyscraper or her grim face that can darken everyone in a beach party, it's the way she reacted when Thalia and I entered the room. Empty, nothing cheerful or bright or anything loud actually. I half-expected them to run to each other and hug it out, and I could have swore that it's what this kind of girls do. I mean, based on what I've been observing anyway.

The sun has risen and it shines through the three windows behind the presidential chair. Annabeth is standing there with one hand on the resolute desk, and the sun lighting up her dark expression.

Annabeth just stands there, she looks clean and uninjured, and her weight seems to not have changed much. Yet there's just something about her, something that can tell everyone in the room that she's not okay. She's been through a lot, way more than what Thalia and I went through. I know because Annabeth is the strong one, I saw it the moment I first met her, the first time I saw her eyes. She must have seen something terrible.

I know Thalia wants to rush to her friend and give her a warm hug and smile, but Annabeth has a face that is repelling anyone from coming closer to her.

Thalia looks concerned, she can tell it too from Annabeth's face. 'Annabeth.' She almost whispers. 'Are you okay..?' She examines her from top to bottom.

Annabeth manages a weak smile, I recognize that look, she's forcing a smile to fend off more questions. 'I'm fine.' Is all that she says.

Thalia doesn't look like she's buying it, but she nods nevertheless, 'Alright then… If you say so.'

'So it's here then… Yukimura's army, I mean.' Annabeth mutters.

I nod, 'Yeah, and it's really an army. There are hundreds of them coming our way.'

Annabeth looks through the windows, scanning, searching for something. She turns to us. 'Is… Is Percy here..?' Her eyes glimmer with the faintest hope.

Thalia and I look to each other before facing her again, 'No, sorry… From the six of us that went for the journey, only two of us are here. We don't know where Lisa, Matt, and Percy are.' I say.

Lisa, I haven't seen her in a while. I hope she's fine… She's one of the first friends that I made when I first arrived in camp. I have to admit, I miss having her nagging behind my back, never thought that I would give a lot of things just to have her haunts my back and yells at me again.

Annabeth hardens her face, trying to look strong. 'Okay, then first thing that we have to—' Annabeth trails off and her stare is fixed to whatever that is right behind us.

'Annabeth?' Thalia asks.

Annabeth freezes and stiffens like a statue, her expression is a mixture of shocked, rage, and mild curiosity.

I look back slowly, Nathan is there with his arms crossed and his back against the wall. He watches us with a small smile; then again, I hardly ever see his face without at least a twitch of a smile.

'What are you doing here!?' Annabeth's voice is full of hostility, and it's directed to Nathan.

Nathan raises an eyebrow, 'Nothing much really, just wondering what you guys are planning to get through the night.'

Annabeth marches to Nathan. Without any warning, she grabs the collar of his shirt, pulls him and slams him against the wall. 'You're not supposed to be here.'

Nathan groans. 'Annabeth!' Thalia calls.

Annabeth turns to us with a murderous expression, 'Why is he here!?'

'He's here to help! Annabeth, relax!' I say to her, a bit worried what she's going to do next.

'They're right, Annabeth Chase. Relax, I'm here because I'm helping you all.' He assures her.

Annabeth turns back to him, her hands are still on his collar, she presses him harder. 'Yeah? Why would an enemy wants to help us?'

Nathan laughs dryly, 'Why is the correct question, but unfortunately, I don't have the right answer for you. Sorry, Annabeth.'

Annabeth grits her teeth in frustration, she glances back to us, 'He's a son of Poseidon!'

I sigh, 'We know.'

Annabeth stiffens, she looks to us with disbelief, 'You knew?' Is all she said, but her face is saying something like Then why didn't you do anything about it!?

'He told us…' Thalia answers. 'He's here to help us.'

'Di Immortales! Are you listening to yourself!? He's a SON OF POSEIDON!' Annabeth emphasizes with hostility.

'Percy is also a son of Poseidon. Does that make him an enemy too?' Nathan asks with a smirk.

Annabeth turns her glare back to Nathan, 'Don't you dare—'

'No? Alright, fine. What about Marcus then? You've met him, right?'

Annabeth looks speechless, from what I've heard, that doesn't happen often.

'Not all of us are like Jonathan, little wisdom daughter.' Nathan's tone is soft and gentle. 'And not all of us want revenge.' Sadness flash across Nathan's eyes, it disappears as quickly as it appears. 'I've heard about Cathy… And I'm sorry, I never wanted that to happen. I couldn't predict what Jonathan did, none of us could.'

Annabeth calms down a bit. She doesn't look murderous anymore, in fact, she looks a bit sad like she just remembered something bad.

I stand there, confused, looking to Thalia for some answers about what they're talking about. But Thalia looks as puzzled as I am, she doesn't have a single clue what they're talking about.

Annabeth lets go of Nathan. 'Then what is it that you want? I doubt you're here because you disagree with your brothers' method.'

'It's nothing complicated. My fate is bound to all of you, if you all die, I will die as well.' Nathan says it casually.

Annabeth stares deep into Nathan's eyes, not the romantic kind of course, more something like digging through his soul to find his deepest secrets.

'I don't buy it.' Annabeth says. 'I've met with everyone else except you and the one called Matthew… But it's enough, I know that all of you are dead set in destroying the world. All of you are willing to die for your cause, even Marcus was willing to die for his brothers, so let's try this one more time, why are you here?'

Nathan looks impressed, 'They weren't kidding when they said that you're smart.' He sighs, he looks reluctant to share, 'I never believed in our cause. The whole revenge on the gods thing… Not that the others would listen to me, but waging war against Olympus is folly. If we lose, we'd all die, if we win… What then? We'll become the new gods?' Nathan snorts, 'Sorry, but I never wanted to be a god, never will too.'

'Wait—Hold on! Be a god?' I interrupt them. I don't know what he meant by that but I'm pretty sure that I won't like it.

'Willy said something similar. Care to explain?' Annabeth says.

Nathan takes a deep breath and a long pause before he says, 'Fine… I guess it doesn't matter anyway even if you know. You see… When we win, the primordial will make us into immortal beings, strong enough to wage war against the gods. They'll assist us of course, in an attempt to overthrow the Olympians, but really… What's the point?'

'When you win?' Thalia scowls, 'Having a lot of confidence now, are we?'

Nathan's expression remains still. 'Have you looked outside? I don't know if you counted correctly, but you people are clearly outnumbered. Not to mention, there's still the fact that you all have to kill Ophion, a god now in a serpent monster form.' Nathan grunts, 'No amount of numbers will make a difference in that.'

That information reminds me once more of what I saw back at Selene's place. The incredibly large scary looking slithering serpent beast, which obviously is poisonous, deadly poisonous, I don't need anyone explaining that to me, it's already blatantly obvious. I don't know why whenever there's a snake monster or anything that looks like a snake, they're always poisonous. Seriously, I mean is being larger than a school bus is not enough weapon already? I mean that thing could have swallowed five people whole with no trouble at all.

'Continue.' Annabeth orders.

Nathan sighs. He glances quickly to Thalia, 'IF we win, we become gods. But even then, we have to wage war against the Olympian gods. What do you expect them to do, really? That they'll just make way for us to the seats of power? By gods, no. They'll fight, and no matter how powerful do you think the primordials are, the gods are powerful too. They won't just sit back and hope for the best, they're going to fight back and it's going to be brutal! This war against you demigods is just a way so that no Ichor would be spilled, the peace way, but at the cost of us, pawns' life. Sure, once we become gods, the chances are, we're going to win with the primordials helping us, but how many must die in order for us to get there? Maybe there will be only one of us left, maybe in the war, we all died in the end. Even now alone, Matthew already gave his life away in this war. Sebastian, Cassandra, and Cornelius didn't even get the chance to fight, they died before all of this could even begin. There were nine of us when we started all of this, now there are only five of us!' Nathan looks sad for a moment, but it disappears quickly. 'I don't want more of us to die, not just my siblings but you all too, all the demigods, but I can't just pretend that the gods are almighty just, that we demigods don't deserve something better than the gods of Olympus.' Nathan heaves out another sigh, he looks to Annabeth. 'I'm here because I don't care anymore… Because I can't figure out which one is better than the other, your cause to protect the people that you love in the present, or my brothers' cause to protect the future of the people that they will love again someday. I don't know how to decide something like that, so here I am, the only one that the elder gods would be willing to send, the only one that they CAN send, to know that I will remain here because it is the fate that has been chosen for me, because I was too confused and couldn't make a decision, maybe even still is… Perhaps this is the best choice there is for me.' Now he looks to all of us. 'I was once like you too, a demigod proud to be a part of camp halfblood… Now I'm willing to be one of you once again. If I die as a demigod protecting my old belief, my faith in the demigods, the friends around me instead of the gods above… Then I suppose it is a death worth dying for. Believe it or not, that's all the reasons that I have and need. The question now is, are you still willing to fight for the Olympian gods, knowing that they hold so little regards of your lives.'

'They aren't just using us.' Thalia says, a hint of hostility in her tone. Artemis and Zeus have been treating her right, at least I think so.

'You know better than that, Thalia Grace.' He looks to me, 'Can you say the same, Matt Grey? Do you really believe that the fight is worth it?' Nathan shifts to Annabeth, 'If you surrender now, I'm sure that my brothers can work out some sort of a deal with the elder gods, the primordials won't be too happy about it, but they can have their fun when my brothers ransack Olympus. Marcus would be more than pleased to see no more blood spilled, he would work it out with the others, he won't let anything happen.'

He leaves the three of us a bit baffled, unsure of how to respond to him, what to say. I haven't been in camp that long but I know that the gods aren't exactly attentive to us. I lived for sixteen years and all I've ever gotten from my dad is a letter indicating that I am his son. But still… To think that the gods are just using us as their pawns, it occurred to me once but I brushed it aside thinking that the Olympians didn't have any choice but to leave their fate to us. Thinking about it one more time, is it really that? Or is it like what Nathan just said? That the gods don't want to fight their war that they're trying to avoid it by sacrificing us. We're acceptable loss, if we all die, I realize that now. Our lives are so small in the eyes of the gods. They might deny it but it's true, even after Percy's pact with them. They might live up to the promises they made but the significance of our lives won't change to them, we're still small, and perhaps he's right, we're insignificant for the gods. Yet something tells me that it isn't the whole story. Annabeth and Thalia don't seem to realize it, so I just brush it away, thinking that I'm probably wrong anyway.

'It doesn't matter.' Annabeth mutters, and we all turn our attention to her. 'We need to fight this fight because we want to stay alive, we're fighting this war not because we want to defend the gods, we're done with that. We're fighting this war because we want to save the world, we have to, it has always been the reason that I fought. So that I can return back home and once again, be with my friends, be with my family, with all the people that I care about.' She looks to us, as if trying to convince us rather than answering Nathan.

'But if you surr—' Nathan says.

Annabeth cuts him off, 'We're not giving up. Sure, the gods can be selfish, they can be arrogant and pompous jerks, but I've seen their soft sides, their kind and nurturing side. The Olympian gods are still our parents, and I want to protect them. I love my mother, Athena, and I will never be willing to give her up without a fight. And no offense, but I know enough that even if we surrender, there's no guaranteeing our lives. Jonathan killed someone innocent in front of me, and I won't let him become a god just so that he can have more power at his disposal. He's just as twisted as the primordials are, and I won't let them win.' Her eyes burn up once more, the cold stare that she was throwing earlier is now completely gone. Now they're back to the eyes that I saw once back in camp. Strange how what Annabeth needed to get her spirits back is not to get lectures, but to give one.

She's right though, raising the white flag is not an option. Thalia and I give each other an assuring look and nod to Annabeth in agreement.

'She's right.' Thalia mutters.

'You got your answer.' I say to Nathan.

Nathan sighs, but Annabeth gets in front of him, 'What about you? You really think that you can go up against your own brother?'

Nathan raises a brow, 'You still don't trust me, do you?'

'Not by a long shot.'

He shrugs casually like he was expecting that. 'Fair enough. But you'll just have to trust me enough to watch your back this time.'

'That's kinda contradictory, isn't it? I mean you said that we don't have to trust you but we have to trust you with our lives—' I say.

His hand appears almost instantly, his open palm is up against my face, 'Shut it, I'm in the middle of an inspirational speech.'

'Skip it, I have a war to plan.' Annabeth says. 'Now would be a good time to tell us everything you know about the army.'

Nathan shakes his head, 'As I've told your friends here, I never lead this army before, I don't know their strength, or their weakness, not that there would be one. I know Yukimura, he's one heck of a strategist. If there's a hole in his army, he would have fixed it by now. But I do know one thing that is certain.'

'Don't keep us waiting.' Thalia crosses her arms, she looks impatient.

'We need Percy, we need him really bad.' Nathan shakes his head, 'If you want a chance of beating his army and Ophion, I suggest you DON'T fight his army and Ophion. You challenge him to a duel, mano e mano. Winner gets to do what they want, loser has to abide the winner's wishes.'

'What makes you think he would agree with all his advantages?' Thalia asks. 'And why do we even need Percy?'

'Because that's his way of fighting, Yukimura is a warrior, one that lives by the code of honor. If someone demands a duel, he won't refuse. Problem is there's no one else here that can beat Yukimura, trust me, I know because I've checked. Not even you, princess.' He quickly adds the last part to Thalia. 'I know that you think you're an equal match to Percy, but that was weeks ago, now you don't even hold a candle against him anymore.'

Thalia is about to protest, but I start before her, 'Then what about you?'

Nathan raises an eyebrow. 'What about me?'

'Can't you fight him?'

Nathan grunts, 'I can't.'

'Why not?' My tone becomes much more insisting.

'Wow, you ask a lot of questions.' Nathan sighs, 'If you really must know, I can't fight him because I know that I can't win against him. We may be equal in terms of physical prowess and fighting skills, but our reasons for fighting are different, and no matter how wrong his reasons seem, he still fighting for his beliefs… I on the other hand, am fighting for reasons nowhere close to the strength of his reasons. That one small difference in us would mean the world in combat.'

'Well then we're out of luck because Percy isn't here.' I say.

Nathan shrugs, 'Not too late to surrender.'

Annabeth ignores him, 'We have until sunset to prepare. I assume they're going to march again once darkness returns. Monsters never did like sunlight. But we're going to have to figure out how to take on so many monsters. I saw the army, there are way more of them than us.'

'So what are we going to do?' Thalia asks.

Annabeth fiddles with her hair, 'I'm still working on that, but I need you to fill me in on the details of everything that has happened so far.'

'We do know where they are, and the routes that they're going to take.' I mutter.

Thalia raises an eyebrow, 'What's your point, Grey?'

I shrug, 'Why don't we just set traps? You know, like fire blazing up from the ground and trapping them as they pass! Or like boulders rolling down the road and grinding them all to dusts!' Both Annabeth and Thalia stare at me.

'I know I know, bad idea. I'll shut up now.'

Thalia and Annabeth give each other a quick look before mischievously grinning to me.