Chapter 17: SpongeHead NoPants

"What do we do?" I asked, looking from Annabeth to Nico and back again.

"I don't suppose there's any chance Thalia is secretly best friends with your mom?" Nico asked me. "And answering this call when we aren't the intended recipient would be very rude of us?"

I thought about it. "…It's not a zero chance?"

"I'll take those odds."

Next to the laptop, my mom's cell phone buzzed with a new text message. I picked it up and checked the message preview, though the text was murder on my dyslexia.

Unknown number: I know you're there flipper quit being a wimp and answer the godsforsaken […]

"Maybe she wants us to answer the godsforsaken door?" I ventured.

"Answer the godsforsaken call of nature?" suggested Nico.

"Or answer the godsforsaken Skype call," Annabeth said, resigned. "I don't know how she knew we were here, but…"

"Hermes," I said suddenly. "It has to be. When I ran into him outside Central Park—"

Annabeth held up a hand. "Wait, wait, wait, you ran into Hermes, the immortal messenger god, outside Central Park?"

"Yeah, long story."

"Give us the short version."

"Persephone's rose transported me back to Central Park, and Hermes was there."

They blinked at me for a second.

"Okay, the slightly longer version," Annabeth said, exasperated.

"Well, Persephone let me go, but I had to promise to make sure Nico lived an extremely boring, unremarkable life that no one would remember—"

"She does know I got displaced in time by eighty years and grew up with Mussolini, right?" Nico muttered. "That tends to stick in people's brains."

"Not as much as you might think, given I legitimately don't know if 'Mussolini' is a person or a type of pasta or some old-timey dance craze," I assured him. "But anyway, she sent me back to New York using this rose thing, and I ended up in Central Park again. Everyone was asleep. As I was trying to decide where to go next, Hermes showed up with a message from Athena, and I gave George some wonderful tips on New York rat hot spots."

"Who's George?" asked Nico, which was obviously the important part of my recap.

"A staff-snake," I told him, "who really likes rats. Anyway, Hermes knew where you were. He sent me here. It wouldn't surprise me if he stopped off to tell Thalia too."

"And give her the means to contact us," mused Annabeth. She stared at the laptop, her finger hovering over the "accept" button as Thalia initiated another Skype call after the first request timed out.

Meanwhile my mom's phone was blowing up with message after message. Luckily they were smart enough to avoid making any calls. No one but demigods here to answer, and that always sent up a neon "DEMIGOD BUFFET" sign to the monsters in the area. I had to wonder how Thalia was even sending the messages in the first place. Wasn't it risky to use a cell phone on her end too?

"My dad," said Annabeth, reading my mind. She gestured to the cell phone. "That's my dad's number, I think. She must be asking him to send the text messages. I guess they officially made it to SF."

"Great. She can chew us out in front of everyone this way," said Nico.

I grabbed the laptop from Annabeth and turned it to focus on me, leaving Annabeth and Nico out of the frame. "You guys stay there. I'll answer it and say I went back to NYC to check on my mom. How mad can she be about that?"

Annabeth didn't look convinced. "I don't know, but maybe you should—"

"Relax, I got this," I said confidently.

"Yeah, but if you're going to do video—"

"I'll just do audio."

"Okay, but either way, just in case, it might not be a bad idea—"

"No time. She's only getting more impatient. Guys, seriously, I got this."

Annabeth and Nico didn't look convinced, but they stepped back and let me answer. True to my word, I opted for audio only.

"Hey, Thalia," I said, trying to convey through voice alone that I was totally prepared for this and absolutely didn't have anything to hide. "How's the west coast?"

"Missing a few people," she growled. "Turn on video, Flipper."

"Uh, something seems to be wrong with my mom's laptop—"

"Turn. On. Video," Thalia said, clearly enunciating every syllable.

"Fine."

Ignoring Annabeth's frantic gestures and Nico's sudden gleeful grin, I reached for the button to switch on video. Suddenly Thalia's angry face filled the screen. And just as suddenly, Thalia's angry face turned away from the screen.

"Flipper!" she yelled.

"What?" I asked, looking over to Annabeth and Nico despite my promises to keep them out of it.

Annabeth had her hands covering her face, so I couldn't tell what she was thinking. Nico on the other hand was trying and completely failing to hold in his laughter.

Somewhere behind Thalia, I heard the Stoll brothers.

"Are ya ready kids?"

"Aye-aye, captain!"

"I can't heeeeear you."

"AYE-AYE, CAPTAIN!"

"Ohhhhh—"

"Oh gods." My face felt like it was on fire. I jumped behind the couch and turned on Annabeth and Nico. "Why didn't you say anything?!"

"I tried!" Annabeth protested through her hands.

"I didn't want to," Nico said honestly.

"This is why you wouldn't even look at me in my mom's bedroom!" I accused Annabeth. Nico literally fell to the floor gasping for air, and I realized how that sounded. "No, you know it wasn't like that, SHUT UP NICO—"

"Go put on pants, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth ordered wearily. She still hadn't taken her hands away from her face. "Also, a shirt. Two shirts, maybe, just in case."

"Yeah, uh, layers. Layers are good. Seriously, Nico, shut up," I hissed as I hastily made my escape. I carefully picked a route that did not put me in view of the laptop screen again. How had I not noticed that Persephone had sent me back to New York without my clothes? In October?!

I knew I had some resistance to cold thanks to my dad, but this was a whole new level. I guessed the whole blind panic thing had helped with that. Also, thanks for mentioning it, Hermes. You didn't think it was weird that I was wandering around New York without a shirt on?

…Okay, granted, the guy spent most of his time hanging out with snakes. He might not have been the best judge of "normal." But still.

By the time I'd grabbed jeans and a reasonably clean t-shirt from my room (plus a sweatshirt, just to be safe) and gotten back to the Skype call, Nico had himself under control. Both he and Annabeth had taken my place in front of the laptop. I joined them.

"And you thought taking potentially the most important asset we have to the Underworld was solid battle strategy?" Thalia was demanding.

Annabeth flinched. "I needed to know, Thals. There are so many different versions of the Achilles myth. Too much conflicting information. You can't take that risk with the Styx. If I have someone who can control water, I'm going to use him!"

"And we all made it back just fine, see?" I added. "No harm, no foul. Though we do need to talk about putting Nico in a padded room for the rest of eternity."

"That's what you do for crazy people," Nico said.

"And people who laugh at my pain."

"There are not enough padded rooms in the world."

"Boys, please." Thalia rubbed her forehead. "Fine. You confirmed Luke has taken on the Curse. How does that help us?"

We all looked at Annabeth. "I…don't exactly know," she admitted. We groaned. "Look, we know he has a weakness, right? We just have to find it. He isn't fully hosting Kronos yet, so the sooner we find that weakness, the better. We need to move the timetable up. Bring the battle to him before he has time to prepare."

Thalia mulled this over. "So what, we muster all our forces here and attack Tam as soon as possible?"

"No!" I said, surprising even myself. Now all eyes were on me. "New York and San Francisco. Olympus and Tam both. Morpheus put everyone in the city to sleep. It had to be on Kronos' orders. We don't know the battle will be in the west, do we? His target might be here."

"Or it's a distraction," Thalia argued. "He's trying to divide our forces. We don't have enough troops as it is. If we split everyone up, there's no way we can win. We have to pick a site, and everything we have indicates Tamalpais is his base."

"But if you're wrong—"

"If I'm wrong, yes, the world burns," Thalia snapped. "But at least this gives us a chance! We have no hope if we move half our resources to New York!"

I set my jaw. "Fine, then. I'll stay by myself."

Thalia sighed. "Look, Percy, I know it's your home, but—"

"I get it. You don't want to risk sending people back here on a wild goose chase. Fine, you can keep everyone else out west. But you can't stop me from staying here. I'm not leaving."

"You can't do that. If you're right, it's suicide. If you're wrong, you could very well cost us the battle. What if this is the call that decides Olympus' fate? Halfway through the battle we need you, and you're three thousand miles away. Annabeth, talk some sense into him, please," Thalia instructed.

But Annabeth was eyeing me shrewdly, considering me as I fought not to squirm. Finally she said slowly, "When we were held hostage by Luke, it was personal for him. Kronos is using him, yes, but it's working because they both want the same thing: revenge on the gods. To do that, they need Olympus. What better time than when everyone is distracted, fighting on the opposite side of the country? Even the gods have abandoned Olympus. Morpheus has ensured no mortals will interfere, and Luke attacked Camp Alpha just a few days ago. We assumed it was to capture Percy, but…"

Annabeth considered me a second longer, and then she turned back to face Thalia. "Alpha must be disbanded by now. Chiron would have ordered the evacuation of any of the campers too young to fight, and everyone old enough will be convening in the Bay Area. There isn't even a base of demigods to oppose him near Olympus anymore. Luke isn't stupid. He'll know this as well as we do. There's no one to stand against him in New York. He doesn't even need an army. They can stay and guard Tam, ensuring his base is safe while he takes his prize. Kronos can just walk down Fifth Avenue without so much as a bodyguard.

"Percy's right," Annabeth concluded, and I didn't even gloat. So much personal growth this week. "We need to stay here. It isn't worth the risk."

"Annabeth." Thalia took a deep breath. "I think we're all a little tired right now, especially since some of us chose to spend their night exploring the Underworld. Just come back, and we can discuss this rationally. Nico, can you shadow travel everyone back here?"

"Probably," Nico said amiably.

"Okay, then—"

"But I won't."

Thalia made a noise that sounded an awful lot like the one my brother Tyson made when I stole his peanut butter sandwich. "Because?"

Nico shrugged. "I'm a rebel."

"You own, like, every Mythomagic card in existence! You are a dork, not a rebel!"

"I can be both," Nico told her. "Don't put me in a box."

"So all of you are staying in New York?" demanded Thalia.

We looked at each other.

"It looks like it," I said with a nod. "We'll go to camp. See if anyone is left there. Luke said Alpha was still standing, and Mr. D confirmed it, so it's at least worth a look. Then we head for Olympus. We'll try to make it as secure as possible. Get people in the city out of harm's way as much as we can."

"We could use some help," Annabeth said. "I know you don't want to divide our forces, but it's a big city. We need to keep people safe."

Thalia sighed. "Dividing our forces is absolutely not an option. I'm sorry, but that's final. I won't make anyone fly back across the country for this."

"Just a couple people, then," Annabeth suggested. "Travis or Conner, if one of them is willing. They're Luke's brothers, and they know the back alleys of New York better than anyone. Grover, maybe, so he can rally the nature spirits to our cause."

"Will," Nico said suddenly. He flushed. "I mean, people might be hurt. We could use a healer."

"So could we," Thalia said sharply, before she relented and added, "but we have plenty of Hunters trained in first aid, including a daughter of Apollo or two, and any other children of Apollo will be heading our way as well. I'll ask him if he's willing to come back. If we can figure out a way to get everyone safely back to you, of course."

"You could use Jason," I suggested. Thalia glanced at someone off-screen, which I took to mean Jason was there listening. "Just put everyone on a flight to Newark and send Jason with them. It sounds like the air spirits are hanging out here in New York anyway, so you shouldn't have much trouble on the way. Newark should be far enough outside NYC not to attract attention, especially since any flight into JFK or LaGuardia is currently…uh…"

"A red-eye?" suggested Annabeth.

"Yeah, that's a good way to put it. So the path here should be relatively clear. Could Jason keep any rogue spirits at bay for a few hours?"

Thalia looked back off-screen again, and we heard some hushed whispering. Finally Jason himself ducked into frame next to his sister.

"I think I should be fine, yeah. But I'm going to try to catch a ride back to the Bay Area afterwards. I really don't want to sound like a jerk, since I know what it's like to have your home threatened, but I'm with Thalia. I think they're going to attack here."

"Arion," someone said behind Jason, and Thalia nodded.

"Three thousand miles to New York. That's just under four hours at Arion's speed. If he's willing to carry Jason, it's possible."

"I'm coming too," Rachel announced, pushing Jason off camera.

"That is a terrible idea!" I heard Octavian shout, again from somewhere off-screen. Our conversation had clearly attracted more people. "Putting the Oracle in danger is the worst decision you could possibly make—"

"Oh, please, you don't know me at all. I have made way worse decisions," Rachel said, waving a hand. "By my standards, this is positively levelheaded. Stop worrying. It'll be fine."

"You can't possibly know that—"

"Sure, I can. I'm psychic. In fact, I had a vision last night. I went to New York, and things happened, and I was totally okay during all of them. Tell him, Will."

Another voice off-screen. "Why would I know—"

"Because I told you! All about my mystical totally real New York vision! Right, Will? Son of Apollo who's supposed to do my bidding?"

"Uh, that's not how this works. Did my dad tell you that's how this works? Because that's really not how this works."

"Ugh. I am so telling your father about this if he's not overthrown by Titans in the next week."

"Oh my gods," said Thalia, pinching her nose. "That's it. I don't care if New York is in danger or not. They're free to go. Take them. Take them all."

A resounding crash echoed through the laptop speakers. Arguments over who'd knocked over what and who was going to curse whom filled the air.

Thalia just closed her eyes. "Look for them in a couple hours. I'm booking them direct to Newark."

"That's, like, a five-hour flight. Minimum," I pointed out.

"Not when you have a son of Jupiter who's properly motivated," said Thalia.

Right on cue, we heard Jason yell, "I don't care how old you are. I'll always be your uncle!", and someone else yelled back, "Half-uncle at best, you Roman charlatan!", and suddenly getting reinforcements didn't seem like such a win for Team Jackson.

"It's just…gone," I said, staring in horror at Camp Alpha. Or at least where Camp Alpha used to be.

I'd only been at camp for a grand total of, like, an hour, but it was still impossible somehow to reconcile the devastation in front of us with the vibrant camp site I'd seen only a couple days ago. The beach was wrecked. In some places the sand had literally turned to glass. I'd heard about that happening at nuclear bomb sites, but I hoped to Hades Luke hadn't been launching nukes at camp. Even if he hadn't, though, the tents had clearly been firebombed. From the inside. Somehow they'd breached camp defenses—or they'd had someone on the Camp Alpha payroll all along. One of the tents miraculously still stood, which might have pointed to the traitor. I couldn't remember which tent it was, though. Had Nico told me which tent was which? It wasn't the boys' tent, but maybe the girls'. Or the Ares kids? Hermes?

As bad as the rest of it was, though, the worst of it was Thalia's tree. It was split straight down the middle, rotting on the ground in two almost perfect halves. The strawberry fields I'd only seen in the distance were trampled, like Luke had happened to have a herd of elephants to stampede through them. There was no sign of anyone anywhere, either living or…otherwise.

"I guess that's a good sign? No, um, bodies?" I suggested, trying to stay positive for Annabeth and Nico's sake. They both looked shell-shocked. Even Nico didn't seem to have an appropriately depressing comment to make this time.

Annabeth didn't seem to hear me at all. She knelt on the ground, absently running her fingers through the ashes that were all that remained of the old farmhouse. Her attention was fixed on the horizon, over the hill where Thalia's tree had stood. When she finally spoke, her voice shook. "We were with Luke barely a day ago. He said Alpha was still in one piece then. I didn't expect to find anyone here, because Chiron definitely would have evacuated, but I thought camp would still be useable. Or they would have packed everything up to take with them. That's the whole point of the mobile tents. Even if they left in a hurry and couldn't save anything, why would Kronos' army raze it to the ground? What was the point? Luke wasn't even here to get any secondhand satisfaction from destroying it."

"They didn't destroy everything," I pointed out. "They left one tent standing. Is that one the Hermes kids' tent? Maybe it's some sort of message Luke left for his dad?"

"If Luke were going to send a message to his dad, he wouldn't have left it standing," said Nico dryly. "He would have blown it up twice."

"It's the girls' tent," said Annabeth. She frowned. "That doesn't make sense. Why…"

She trailed off at the sound of rustling in the trees behind us. We assumed battle stances, our weapons at the ready. Luckily my sword had reappeared in my pocket as soon as I'd put on a pair of pants with pockets again. I really hadn't wanted to explain "lost your magic sword because my underwear didn't have pockets" to my dad.

"Who's there?" demanded Annabeth. "Show yourself!"

"Annabeth?" asked a voice, shocked, and a beautiful girl with long dark hair stepped out of the trees. She looked familiar, but it took me a moment to remember where I'd last seen her: glued at the lips to Charles Beckendorf.

"Silena!" Annabeth shouted, dropping her knife and racing over to give the girl a hug. "We thought everyone—but thank the gods, you're here! How did you escape Luke's army? Why aren't you with everyone else, on your way to San Francisco? Everyone else is okay, right?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down!" Silena laughed. "It is so good to see a friendly face around here again. As far as I know, everyone got away safely. I put the little kids on pegasi and led them to a safe house in Brooklyn, somewhere the gods shouldn't be able to touch. By the time I got back, camp was a mess, and everyone was gone. I couldn't reach anyone, so I thought I'd wait here in case anyone made it back."

"Why would anyone come here?" I asked, puzzled. "Isn't this where, you know, the murdering, rampaging army was attacking?"

"I suppose so." Silena gave an awkward laugh. "I didn't think of it that way. I mean, I came back here, didn't I? I guess that wasn't very smart. So why did you guys come back, then?"

"Morpheus has put everyone in Manhattan to sleep," I said darkly. "We think Kronos is making a play for Olympus. We're trying to stop him."

Silena's eyes widened. "Is everyone coming back here? I thought you were all heading west. Is Charlie coming back?"

"I don't know," Annabeth admitted. "Probably not. I think most people are staying out in San Francisco to attack Mount Tam."

Silena relaxed slightly. "Good."

"Why is that good?" I asked. "You like the idea of your boyfriend attacking a Titan's stronghold?"

"Of course not!" Silena said, horrified, as Annabeth whacked me on the arm. Ow. "I only meant it's good he's going to be where he's most needed!"

"So you don't believe us, that Kronos is attacking here?"

"No, I didn't mean…" Silena trailed off, flustered.

That prompted Annabeth to whack me even harder in the arm, hissing, "Percy! Lay off!"

"It just doesn't make a lot of sense—"

"Silena, did you reconstruct the girls' tent?" Nico broke in, speaking for the first time since we'd arrived at camp.

She shook her head. "It was like that when I got back."

"Is there anyone else staying here with you?"

Again, Silena shook her head. "I haven't seen anyone but the three of you. Why?"

"Because there is something moving inside that tent," Nico said ominously. He drew his sword, slowly advancing on the entrance. Annabeth and Silena quickly followed, but when I went to do the same, I caught an image of the little girl with a scarf on her head sitting next to the fire pit. She shook her head and mouthed, No.

Hestia. I opened my mouth to stop everyone else, but again Hestia shook her head. The message was clear: just you.

"I'll, uh, stay out here. In case they run away," I whispered, wincing at how lame it sounded even to me.

Annabeth and Nico obviously thought so too, because they did not look impressed. Silena, though…Silena almost seemed relieved, somehow. Probably glad to have fewer guys rummaging around in the girls' tent.

They crept silently closer, flinging open the flap and rushing in. It closed behind them, and a sound like a zipper echoed through camp. But there was no zipper on the tent.

I rushed forward, but Hestia stopped me.

"No! You must not interfere!" She rose from her place by the fire, facing me. Though she only came to my chest, somehow her words were more compelling than they had any right to be. I stopped in my tracks.

"But they're trapped!"

"They are perfectly safe," Hestia assured me. "They are merely…detained. An old friend of humanity would like to have a word with them."

That sounded kind of ominous to me, despite the whole friend-of-humanity thing. "So you know what's in there with them?" I demanded.

"I do," she said, tilting her head. "But it's more of a who than a what. Well, depending on your perspective, I suppose. It is not someone I would suggest you…what is the phrase you humans use…'mess with.'"

"But if it's a friend—"

Hestia sighed. "I do not claim he is a friend of yours. Once, perhaps, he would have been. A long time ago. He is all the more dangerous because he was once a friend. He is going to offer a gift. If you join your friends in the tent, he will offer the gift to you."

"You might not know this about me, but I'm actually a huge fan of presents," I told her.

Hestia smiled, but it was sad. "This one is a burden. A choice disguised as a gift, and believe me when I say it is a choice you will not want to make. In another world, in another time, you would resist it easily. In this world, in this time, the son of Hades will bear the burden. Haste does not become the Titan of Forethought."

Whoever that was, I thought. I didn't say it, though, because I didn't want to look dumb in front of a goddess, and I was learning just how much people foolishly expected me to know about my big fat Greek family.

It was clear I wasn't getting into the tent, though. It was sealed tight. Aside from trying to rip the canvas with my sword—which I was definitely going to do the minute I heard any sort of screaming from that tent—I was literally shut out. I wondered if I was right to trust Hestia like I had. Because I did trust Hestia. I wasn't sure why, but I did. It should have been hard to take a little girl in a scarf seriously. She managed it.

I watched the tent like a hawk, just waiting for things to go bad like they always did. In the meantime, I had a few questions for Hestia now that she was here.

"Can I ask you something, uh, ma'am?"

Hestia startled. She looked like she had been about to fade away before the tent could open, but she recovered quickly. "Of course, young hero."

"My dream. Um, I mean, I thought it was a dream, but it wasn't, was it? You were showing me a scene from Luke's life."

She nodded. "We gods have always had our failures. Many years ago, when there were so many demigods, the failures seemed rooted in neglect. The gods did not pay attention to their children as they should have. Now, though, I fear our failures stem from exactly the opposite. We meddle in mortal affairs too often."

"Are you sure?" I asked dubiously. "Luke doesn't exactly scream too much parental involvement to me."

"True," she acknowledged. "But he is a symptom of a disease we have allowed to fester. Gods do not change their own nature. Sometimes our worshippers change it for us, but even that is no guarantee of improvement. Rarely do humans change their gods for the better. It is not wise to rely on us, and our ancient children understood such things. There were no weekly training sessions, no scheduled appointments. Our demigods were bitter, resentful, but they were self-reliant. Too self-reliant, perhaps, but now…"

Hestia poked at the ashes on the ground, staring at something only she could see. "They know our power now. They overestimate it. They expect help when we are incapable of giving it. All children think their parents gods at first. What if you were never disabused of such notions?

"And so the result is children like Luke Castellan. On the surface, Luke appears very much like a child crying out for his parents' attention."

Crying out seemed like a pretty tame description. "He's trying to destroy the world," I pointed out.

Hestia inclined her head. "He is crying very loudly."

"I think Hermes fell asleep at the baby monitor."

Hestia considered that. "Perhaps it would be more accurate to say Hermes panicked when awoken by the baby monitor. Hermes is much more like his son than either would care to admit, I fear, and that causes its own problems. Neither can bear the thought of staying idle if they see a course of action to pursue, even when wisdom and prudence would counsel otherwise. Both father and son excel at doing the wrong things for the right reasons."

"I don't know if you've met the guy," I said dubiously, "but Luke is super intent on murdering a bunch of people. I'm not sure 'right reasons' really applies here. I don't remember a lot of Hermes myths where he's running around, planning global war."

"But you do remember a lot of myths of Hermes running around," she said pointedly.

I thought back through what I knew of Hermes from the myths. I'd always liked Hermes stories as a kid, because Hermes was quick and lied a lot but always got away with it. That was the dream in a house where your mom somehow seemed to know everything you did before you did it.

As I'd gotten older, though, the myths had gotten a little more questionable. Hermes was still clever, but he wasn't using it for good most of the time. I remembered him seducing women by tricking them—now that I thought about it, there was way too much of that in general in the Greek myths; my dad and his family needed a serious HR lecture on consent—and yeah, Hermes even killed people when he felt they deserved it. And "deserved" was a definite matter of opinion in a lot of those stories.

And then I thought about the catalyst for Luke running away, the scene Hestia had shown me as a dream. Hermes had been training with Luke when two of his other children had died. Luke's half-siblings. For a guy who liked to be everywhere at once, Hermes sure wasn't great at multitasking. I finally understood why my mom didn't believe me when I said I could listen to her and the TV at the same time.

Hestia seemed to read my mind. Was that just a thing all women could do? "Hermes, like all immortal parents, lives his life on a different scale. Some things seem inconsequential to mortals, and yet we gods know the true potential. Others seem catastrophic to humans, and yet we gods barely pause. And sometimes when faced with tasks that seem insurmountable—conclusions that seem definitively forgone—mortals refuse to surrender, and gods refuse to fight."

As if on cue, the tent flap swung open, and Nico came marching directly toward us. Annabeth and Silena followed in his wake, but no one else left the tent. Whoever was in there giving Nico a gift wasn't interested in talking to me.

A little tiny part of me was offended by this, but a bigger part of me was wondering when Nico had had time to visit Giant Pottery Barn. He was carrying a huge Greek-looking vase, covered in black-and-white designs. The thing was over half his height, and it had a ceramic lid held on by a leather harness.

"Hey, man, trick-or-treating isn't for another couple weeks," I joked, but Nico didn't seem to hear me.

"Here," he said, thrusting the jar at Hestia.

She seemed surprised, but not unwilling. "Hope survives best at the hearth?" she asked knowingly.

Nico scowled. "I have no idea. I just know it doesn't survive long with me."

I exchanged a look with Annabeth that I hoped clearly conveyed just how impressed I was with Nico's level of emo commitment.

"Keep it safe for me, please," he continued. "I trust you."

The "more than I trust myself" seemed to be implied, but none of us called him out on it.

Hestia nodded, though she looked troubled, and without another word took the vase and vanished.

"She'll take good care of it," Nico said defensively, even though we still hadn't said anything. "She helped me through some tough times. She deserves to have hope."

"Yeah, dude. We all deserve hope," I said, hoping I sounded smart and philosophical.

"No. Hope. With a capital 'H,'" he elaborated.

"Yes. We all deserve Hope with a capital 'H,'" I repeated, still trying for the Worldly Intellectual merit badge.

Annabeth stifled a giggle, but not very well. Silena looked like she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Nico gave what had to be one of the top ten best teenage disaffected eye rolls since mankind emerged from the clay.

"Either way," I continued valiantly, "Hestia is definitely the person I'd pick to guard my ceramics class projects. If I had any ceramics class projects. Or any ceramics classes. Or any classes at all, come to think of it."

Annabeth stopped even trying to stifle her giggles, and Nico's eye roll flew right past the other contenders to easily claim first place on the list.

I rolled my own eyes just to show him I could do it too. "Oh, forget it. She'll take good care of your stupid jug."

"It's a pithos," Annabeth offered, still smiling.

"It's a pithos we don't have time to learn what a pithos is, because we're such busy people. Don't we have a world to save or something?"

"You're really staying here to fight?" asked Silena. She still wasn't laughing at me. I decided I liked her best so far.

"We have to," I insisted. "They put the entire city to sleep. Something's going down here. Athena thinks it's a prelude to invasion, and she's kind of the one to ask about these things. Oh, that reminds me." I snapped my fingers and turned to Annabeth. "Hermes had a message from your mom. Something about plan twenty-three?"

Annabeth's eyes widened. "I know what she's talking about, but I'm not sure…we need a son of Hephaestus. Leo will probably stay out west, but Beckendorf—"

"No!" shouted Silena, and we all jumped. "It's too dangerous. He promised—"

She cut herself off, and we shared some significant glances. "Beckendorf promised what?" Annabeth prompted, but Silena just shook her head.

"Nothing," she said miserably. "Just please. Can't you figure out this plan by yourself, whatever it is? There's no need to drag Charlie into it."

I was confused. Didn't Silena say earlier that she thought nothing was going down in New York? How was it suddenly too dangerous for her boyfriend? Was he going to get attacked by a sleepwalking hot dog vendor?

Annabeth also seemed bothered by it, but she nodded anyway. "Yeah, of course. It's fine. If Beckendorf stays with the west coast group, I can just consult with him through Skype if I need to. No problem."

She looked around camp. "I should do a perimeter sweep, just in case. The group is coming in from Newark, and this makes as good a place as any to meet up—"

Annabeth interrupted herself with a massive yawn, and that's when I realized she was going on three days without any sleep. We'd been in the Underworld last night, and she'd stayed up at the barracks when we'd been captured by Luke the night before. (Gods, was it seriously only two days ago that we'd been captured by Luke? It seemed like years.)

"I'll do the perimeter sweep," I said firmly. "You go take a nap."

"Don't be ridiculous," Annabeth scoffed. "I'm fine."

"No one's saying you aren't. But if we're getting through this, we're going to need our best strategist, and we all know I'm much better at filling in for a perimeter sweep than a strategy planning session."

Annabeth opened her mouth to object again, but Nico cut her off. "Would you feel better if I did the perimeter sweep?"

"Hey!"

"It never hurts to ask."

"I'll have you know I've swept a ton of perimeters before! I could be a professional perimeter janitor with all the sweeping I've done!"

"Whoever did your vocational unit at home school really let you down on explaining real careers in the real world, didn't they?"

"Ha! Shows what you know, because I never even considered a career!"

Something whacked me in the face.

"Use your words, Nico—"

"That wasn't me, fishbrain—"

"It was Annabeth," Silena informed us, which was necessary because Annabeth herself was already disappearing into the girls' tent.

I looked down at my feet to see what had hit me. A Yankees cap.

I smiled, wide and sharp like I'd learned from the great whites outside my dad's palace. Oh, the possibilities…

"Gods help us," Nico muttered.

"Too bad they're a little preoccupied, huh?" I said, twirling the cap around my finger. I misjudged the spin, and the cap went flying off towards the trees. "…Uh, pretend you didn't see that."

As I took off after the cap, I decided Nico really should be more careful. His eyes were totally going to get stuck that way someday.

A/N: It's an update! It's an update in the middle of the trash can fire that is 2020, so here's to hoping it's indicative of better things to come, I suppose?

Also, a huge, HUGE thank you to everyone for all their support. Obviously this story is down on the priority list thanks to general life and adult-ing, but it's still on the priority list, and that's thanks to all of you. So please accept my genuine appreciation for reading!