Annabeth

"This is totally crazy" Leo said as he paced around the room

"What?" Frank asked

"All of this stuff" Leo answered. "Wizards, elastic demons that can fire lasers, energy that makes people go bye bye"

"Just calm down Leo" I said

To be fair, Leo had only know he was a demigod for just over two months now, so I couldn't really blame him for going crazy about all of this. For me and Percy, it was a lot easier to handle.

"So what's the situation with the ship?" I inquired

"We need some Celestial bronze" Leo muttered and Festus whirred. "Perfect"

"What's perfect? I need some of that right now"

"Everything we need is one place. Frank, if you could turn into a bird or something, that would be great" Leo said

While I waited on Frank and Leo to collect supplies for the ship, I read a book on my room. I would rather be spending time with Percy to make up for the past couple of months, but he was currently learning that dangerous spell.

Or so I thought. My door opened and Percy stumbled in, looking broken. I quickly dropped my book, not bothering to place a bookmark, and jogged over.

"Percy? What happened?" I asked but he just shook his head

"I can't do it. I'm sorry" He replied

"Sorry for what? Percy, what did you do?"

Percy explained to me the process he had to go through in order to get even just the small amount of energy to form. Looking at him now and then at how much energy was needed, I wasn't so sure about this anymore.

We sat down on my bed and he sat in front of me with his head facing down. It hurt me to see him like this.

"It's ok Percy. We'll find another way" I assured as I put my hand through his hair

"There's no other way" He mumbled

I ran a quick rundown of the tale of Majin Kai again, and then it hit me. There was another way.

"I have an idea" I said and he looked up at me. "We know that we can seal him using the lamp. But what makes it permanent was the storm. If you and Jason can do that, then it's possible to win!"

Percy half-smiled. "That's right! We have to tell Jason"

We all gathered in the mess hall around the dining table as if we were in some kind of important business conference. Then again, we pretty much were.

"Hard to believe we didn't think about that" Hazel scratched her cheek

"Only problem is we don't know how to make the storm, but we could try" Layton said

"Anything but the spell" Percy begged

"So about the ship, what do we need again?" I asked

"The easiest thing we can get is tar. There should be a place in the city with supplies. And for Celestial bronze and lime, we can find those on an island in the lake just west of here" Leo explained

"We should hurry," Hazel suggested, "knowing Octavian, he'll be searching for us with his auguries, and the Romans will send a strike force out for us"

"Look, I'm sorry" Leo said

"It's fine Leo" I replied. "It wasn't your fault"

"How can we be sure it won't happen again though?" Frank pointed out

"It's unlikely to happen. If there's a next time, Xander will choose someone else" Layton denied

"Ok, anyway, I was thinking we could use some kind of buddy system. No one goes anywhere alone, and we can just leave Piper and Coach Hedge here with Jason" Leo said

"Nothing like a couple of demigods stoping by Home Depot to fix a warship" Layton muttered

"Yeah I don't know about that" Percy said. "Splitting up sounds like a bad idea"

"It'll be quicker," Hazel argued," besides, there has to be a reason why there's a limit of three demigods per quest, right?"

"You're right" I agreed. "Eight demigods, three beings children of the big three, will attract way to many monsters"

Percy took my hand. "As long as you're my buddy, we should be good"

"I could turn into a dragon to get Annabeth and Percy to town for some tar" Frank added

"I'll ride Arion with Leo then" Hazel said. "We can get the bronze and the lime and be back here by dark"

"You guys do that, I need to try and find away to make that storm for the lamp" Layton said

"Then it's settled" I announced. "Leo, when we get the supplies, how long will it take to fix the ship?"

"It should only take a few hours"

Piper

After sitting around for a bit, the temptation of looking into my dagger was getting to me. It was as if the blade was calling out to me. I unsheathed Katoptris and gazed at the bronze blade.

At first, only my reflection showed, but the light rippled across the blade and I could see a crowd of Roman demigods gathered in the forum. Octavian was speaking to the crowd, and I couldn't hear but he definitely had a we should kill them! look on his face.

Reyna stood by his side as well, a tight and suppressed look on her face. I had been prepared to hate her, but I couldn't bring myself to. It also kind of made me guilty about being Jason's girlfriend, even if it sounded silly.

Maybe Reyna wasn't so bad, but that didn't really matter now. We had already missed up our chance for peace, and my charmspeak hadn't helped.

The scene shifted and I was looking at a room that had plenty of bookshelves lined up with one singular desk at the back of the room, and a window behind it. I gasped when I saw the figure sitting at the desk, rubbing a lamp.

For once, the vision was audible.

"Soon, my creation, we will attack those filthy Romans, and Gaea will reward us with the blood of those who imprisoned you"

The light rippled again until I was just staring at my reflection again. Xander planned on attacking Camp Jupiter...

I opened the door to my room and explored around the ship until I found the person I was looking for. He was experimenting on a glass cup with his wristbands spinning. A miniature storm formed around the cup but it shattered to pieces after a couple of seconds.

"Hey loser" I said

He turned around. "Piper? Need something?"

I opened my mouth to speak but it closed because Caeruleum was giving me an odd look and Rubrum seemed confused.

"Oh uh, do you know anything about this?" I held up my dagger

"Not really, looks like an ordinary dagger to me"

"Katopris, the looking glass dagger" Rubrum said with interest. "Why, I haven't seen that in centuries"

"Right. It allows me to see visions and stuff" I informed. "And I might've seen one about Xander just now"

"Tell me about it"

"He said something about attacking filthy Romans and Gaea rewarding them with revenge" I explained. "I think they're going to attack Camp Jupiter"

"Not Camp Jupiter," Layton shook his head, "The actual Rome. Majin Kai prays off genocide so that he can gain power and eventually challenge the gods"

"Rome... we have to stop him then" I said

"The others should be back soon. We can decide what to do from there"

I waited around for a bit just talking with Jason until Leo came back with Hazel.

"Oh gods, what happened to you?" I asked Leo

"Long story" he shrugged. "Are the others back yet?"

"No, not yet"

"Well then, I'll be in the engine room if you need me" He replied and walked off with a sheet of bronze

On the deck above us, there was a thump as if something had landed. Percy and Annabeth came running down the hall and they looked terrible. Black sticky stuff which I assumed was rooting tar was stuck in their hair and on their clothes.

"How'd that happened?" I inquired

"Just ran into some monsters" Annabeth said. "Where's Leo?"

"Down in the engine room"

Suddenly, the entire ship titled and we all stumbled with Percy almost spilling the bucket of tar.

"What was that?" Percy questioned

"Oh um..." Hazel looked away in embarrassment. "We may or may not have angered some of the nymphs who live in the lake... like... all of them"

"I'll take care of the water spirits, you guys help Leo" Percy said

Frank

Once everyone had done their tasks, Coach Hedge volunteered to take the helm as we gathered for dinner. There was some kind of odd tension though, like a storm was brewing - which was entirely possible.

In a totally awkward moment, Percy and Jason both had tried to sit at the same chair at the head of the table, and I swear to the gods I saw sparks fly off Jason's hands.

After a thankfully short and silent standoff, they just ended up sitting at opposite sides of the table with Annabeth taking the chair.

The others told the story of what had happened like with the nymphs and Salt Lake City. Leo even told his story about how he tricked Narcissus.

Piper then mentioned the vision she saw in her dagger, and it got us all thinking, but after a while, we couldn't come to an agreement.

"So where do we go now?" Leo asked. "I managed to do a quick repair job but there's still a lot of damage. We're going to need to stop and fix things before he head across the Atlantic"

"Fist, we should put distance between us and Camp Jupiter. Frank spotted eagles over the city so the Romans must not be that far behind" Percy said

"Those Romans are too stubborn for their own good" Layton said. "No offense"

"None taken" I dismissed. "But we really do need to get away from them"

"So there's no way we can go back there and try to reason with them? They know about Xander so we could just blame it on him. Maybe I could use charmspeak too" Piper suggested

"I suppose that'll work, but we'll have to wait until we're done with this entire thing" Annabeth said

"I still doubt Octavian would believe us even if we blamed it on Xander" Layton argued

"He's right" Jason agreed. "Going back could be bad until we defeat that Majin"

"Reyna might listen to us, but Octavian definitely won't" Hazel backed up. "The Romans have been attacked, and they need to uphold their honor. They shoot first, then ask questions"

"So we have to hurry" Piper summed up

Hazel nodded. "Nemesis said that we only had six days until Nico dies, and Rome is destroyed. I didn't know which one, but it should be clear now"

"And on top of that, we still have a prophecy to think about" I reminded

"Wisdom's daughter walks alone, The Mark of Athena burns through Rome" Percy recited. "It has to be you Annabeth. Juno told me you had a hard task ahead of you somewhere in Rome"

"Reyna said something about an old legend among the Roman praetors that had to do with Athena. She said it might be the cause of the rivalry between the Greeks and the Romans" Annabeth said

"Nemesis said that too. An old score that needed to be settled or something" Leo added

"One that might bring the two natures of the gods to harmony" Hazel recalled. "Something needs to be avenged"

"And the second half of the property?" I asked

"The pure one holds the risky key to victory, to defeat the foe out of history" Layton answered

Percy exhaled. "That can't mean what I think it does"

"What?" The rest of us questioned

"Percy is the pure one, the risky key is destruction energy, and the foe out of history is Majin Kai" Layton explained

"But that would mean the lamp and storm trick won't work. Why not?" Jason asked

"Because Xander's smarter than all of us" Layton said

Annabeth raised her eyebrow. "What are you getting at?"

"As soon as Majin Kai is out of that lamp, he's going to destroy it for good" Layton figured

"But... I can't learn that technique" Percy protested, getting a bit frustrated

"There might be a more simpler technique that could be considered risky..." Layton leaned back in his chair. "We might need to take a quick detour"

"A detour? Is destruction energy really that bad Percy?" Jason said

"Yes, it is" Percy snapped. "I'll take the detour, alone if I have to"

"Percy..." Annabeth said quietly

"We settle this later. For now, what's this about a Mark of Athena?" Layton asked

"Oh, you all don't know the full prophecy" Caeruleum said

"There's more?" Annabeth replied, almost annoyed

Rubrum cleared his throat. "Twins snuff out the angel's breath, who holds the key to endless death. Giants' bane stands gold and pale, won through pain from a woven jail"

"Giants' bane... not good" Leo said

"Where did you guys hear that?" Annabeth demanded

"Anything that has to do with Athena, we know" Caeruleum answered

"Right, forgot" Annabeth muttered

"We can't kill giants without a gods' help" Percy said

"I thought you guys killed Alcyoneus in Alaska without the help of a god?" Jason titled his head in confusion

"He was a special case. He was only immortal in the territory where he was reborn - Alaska. Not Canada though. We'll need the help of the gods" I said

"First things first then. We settle in the morning to finish up repairs" Leo said

"We should situate ourselves close to a city incase we're in need of supplies, but we also don't want the Romans to find us" Annabeth pointed out

"How about Kansas?" Piper suggested