/Author's Note - As with the last chapter I borrowed a good amount of dialogue from TLH. All rights are RR's. This one is a long one.

Chapter 5 - Rachel May Have Killed Somebody

I was taking Piper on a tour of the cabins, seeing if maybe she felt something at any of them. She seemed like someone I could become good friends with, so I was hoping she was one of my siblings. But she didn't seem to feel anything at any of the cabins. Piper did seem to be settling in, at least a little. She seemed to be hiding something, but talked to be fairly naturally.

We had made the rounds to every cabin, but Piper seemed pretty upset about something. I wasn't sure what, but I was fairly certain it wasn't just finding out she was a demigod. I explained how we had started adding more cabins in August, trying to have places for all the minor gods' children.

"What are the two big ones at the end?" Piper interrupted.

"Zeus and Hera. King and Queen of the gods." I explained.

Piper went towards them and I followed behind her. I would have to explain to her that Hera was not the goddess you would want as your mom - EVER - even if she did have demigod children.

The two cabins were sealed and silent, as they almost always were.

"Are they empty?" Piper asked, confused.

I nodded. "Zeus went a long time without having any children. Well, mostly." I amended, thinking of Thalia. "Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, the eldest brothers among the gods, they're called the Big Three. They're kids are really powerful, really dangerous. For the last 70 years or so they tried to avoid having demigod children."

"Tried to avoid it?" Piper inquired.

I shrugged. "Well, sometimes, they um, cheated. I have a friend, Thalia Grace, whose a daughter of Zeus. But she gave up camp life and became a Hunter of Artemis. My boyfriend, Percy, he's the son of Poseidon. And there's a kid that shows up sometimes, Nico, the son of Hades. Except for them, there are no demigod children of the Big Three gods. At least," I amended, "not that we know of."

"And Hera?" Piper asked innocently.

I scowled. I had never liked Hera after the quest into the Labyrinth and the battle with the Titans when I was fairly sure she purposefully made a statue fall that would have crushed me had Thalia not taken the hit instead. And then there was the whole business with sending her magic cows to leave "cow presents" wherever she thought I'd step. But I hated her even more now.

I took a breath and tried to keep my voice level. "The goddess of marriage. She doesn't have kids with anyone but Zeus. So, yea. No demigods. The cabin's just honorary." Because she'd probably kill us all if she didn't have one.

"You don't like her." Piper guessed.

"We have a long history." That's putting it lightly. "I thought we had made peace, but when Percy disappeared, I got this weird dream vision from her."

"Telling you to come get us." Piper said. "But you thought Percy would be there." She concluded.

"It's probably better that I don't talk about it. I've got nothing good to say about Hera right now."

"So who goes in there now?"

"No one. The cabin's just honorary, like I said. No one goes in."

"Someone does." Piper insisted, pointing out footprints on the entryway. She opened the doors.

"Um, Piper, I don't think we should -"

"We're supposed to do dangerous stuff, right?" She walked inside. I followed, reluctant, but I also didn't want Piper to get hurt by whatever or whoever was inside. I shivered but I couldn't tell if it was from the cold, stale air in the cabin or because of the general feeling of Hera inside.

I looked around and spotted someone covered in a shawl, chanting in Ancient Greek. I knew instantly who it was.

"Rachel?" I called out to her.

Rachel turned towards me and lowered her shawl.

"Hey!" She ran at me and we hugged close and tight. I needed that. "I'm so sorry, I came as fast as I could." We caught each other up about how the search was going for Percy, until I remembered that Piper was standing there clearly feeling awkward.

"I'm being rude. Rachel, this is Piper, one of the half-bloods we rescued today. Piper, this is Racehl Elizabeth Dare, our Oracle."

"The friend who lives in the cave?" Piper asked.

"That's me." Rachel confirmed with a grin. Rachel explained how her future-vision episodes typically went, and Piper seemed pretty alarmed. I'd have to assure Piper later that it wasn't something all demigods had to deal with. I thought about how close Rachel and I had become since the war. She had agreed to go to the finishing school her dad had picked, fulfilling her promise to him, so she and I couldn't meet up in person. But she was always available to chat via Iris message and had helped me many times in designing stuff on Mount Olympus. She was awesome at helping me decide when I had two good choices which one I should pick. She and I often would discuss art, the gods, school. She had a hard time making friends at her new place, which made sense, because Rachel wasn't exactly the finishing school type. Whenever she had a hard day she'd often Iris message me so we could talk. She had recently confided that I was one of her best friends, and I felt touched. She had been a rival of mine for quite some time, but I felt honored now to call her a good friend.

I tuned back in to the conversation when I heard Piper ask a question I had meant to ask.

"Then why are you -?" She gestured at the cabin.

"Just a hunch." Rachel explained. "Something about this cabin and Percy's disappearance -" my breath hitched in my throat. Did Rachel know something. "They're connected somehow." She continued. "I learned to follow my hunches, especially last month since the gods went silent."

Piper's eyes widened and Rachel and I explained about the gods closing themselves off. We also caught Rachel up on the events of this morning on the Grand Canyon skywalk.

Piper looked scared and began to say something when suddenly, Rachel went stiff and grabbed her shoulders. Rachel's eyes began to glow and she said in a strange voice "Free me." I was terrified. I've seen Rachel spout prophecy but this was not that. Rachel clearly had Piper in a death grip and wasn't about to let go.

"Free me, Piper McLean, or the Earth shall swallow us. It must be by the solstice." Rachel continued in that voice. It was the voice of a middle-aged woman, but as if it were coming from very far away. I grabbed Rachel's hands and tried to pry her off Piper. Green smoke billowed off of Rachel and engulfed all three of us. I had never been so scared of Rachel before. "Our enemies stur. Bow to his will, and the king shall rise, dooming us all. FREE ME."

Piper's knees buckled and she collapsed. As soon as whatever had taken hold of Rachel let go, Piper fell to the floor with a hard Ka-Thunk. I didn't even try to catch her, I was just too stunned by what I had seen. Rachel screamed.

"Oh my gods did I kill her?"

I bent down and grabbed Piper. I checked her pulse. It was present, but light. "Not dead yet. Let's get her to Chiron." I grabbed Piper's arms and Rachel grabbed her legs. I could tell Rachel was in tears. Unlike most of us, Rachel hadn't actually had to kill anyone yet. Not a monster or anybody else. Nor had she really been friends with anyone who had died in the Titan War. This was probably her first encounter with death, and well, it wasn't really a gentle encounter.

"It'll be ok. We'll get her to Chiron and he can heal her. We'll get her some nectar and she'll be fine by the campfire."

I kept muttering words of encouragement to Rachel. I knew this was hard for her, that I should do more to comfort her, but right now my priority was getting Piper to the Big House as fast as we could. We burst into the Big House, where Chiron appeared to be having a very serious conversation with Jason. I tried to explain what happened in Hera's cabin, but I think only a few words were really audible. That is, until Rachel burst out with

"I think …. I think I may have killed her!"

Jason ran forward and grabbed Piper and helped Rachel get her to the couch while I ran to grab a demigod first aid kit. I ran back and quickly explained to Chiron that this was most certainly not Rachel's prophetess-of-Apollo thing going on. Something else was happening here and I had no idea what it was. Have I mentioned that I don't like it when something happens that I don't have any ideas about?

Jason explained that something similar happened to him. A vision of a woman claiming to be his patron, insisting that he needed to bust her out of a cage. Ok, alarm bells Annabeth. Two godly things happening at the same time when there hasn't been anything in a month? Something big was going down and I had a sinking feeling that it had to do with Percy. Jason mentioned a king rising and I had a sudden panic. I whirled to Chiron.

"Not Kronos. Please tell me it's not that." Anything but that. If it was… oh gods, that would explain who had taken Percy. Luke's sacrifice would have been in vain. I felt the world spinning around me.

Chiron assured me that Kronos was well and truly defeated. Chiron attempted to close the issue, despite Jason's and my protests.

"You can't possibly mean something worse than an army of Titans, right?" Jason pleaded.

Rachel had a sudden realization hit her. "Oooh. Oh dear. The woman was Hera. Of Course, her cabin. Her voice. She showed herself to Jason at that same moment."

I was almost consumed with rage. Let's just say its a good thing Hera didn't try to appear to me right then or I seriously would consider strangling a goddess. "Hera? She took you over? She did this to Piper?"

"I think Rachel's right." Jason commented. "The woman did seem like a goddess." Jason explained how the woman was wearing symbols of Juno, the Roman version of Hera. I didn't know much about Hera's symbols because quite frankly, I just didn't care about her enough to learn. I didn't figure I'd like her any more as a Roman goddess than as a Greek one.

"So," Rachel said, confused. "Hera is imprisoned? Who would do that to the Queen of the Gods?"

I would. I thought it fiercely, but let's face it. Hera doesn't have a lot of friends here at camp. I would totally try and imprison that goddess.

"Well, whoever they are, maybe we should thank them. If they can shut up Hera -"

"Annabeth." Chiron interrupted. I knew he didn't really want Percy or I to make more immortal enemies, but at this moment, I really didn't care. "She is still one of the Olympians." He continued, "In many ways, she is the glue that holds the gods' family together. If she has truly been imprisoned, and is in danger of destruction, then this could shake the foundations of the world. This could unravel the stability of Olympus, which is never great, even in the best of times. And if Hera asked Jason for help -"

"Fine." I huffed. What I really wanted to do was go into town and pick up a nice Christmas card to send to whatever had managed to capture Hera. "Dear immortal, Thanks for catching the world's worst goddess. Have your fun with her. Please do not send her back. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, Annabeth Chase."

"Well, we know Titans can capture a god, right? Atlas captured Artemis a few years ago, and in the old stories, the gods captured each other in traps all the time. But something worse than a Titan?"

"Hera said she had been trying to break through her prison bonds for months." Jason commented.

"Which is how long Olympus has been closed." I realized. So that was the trigger that had closed Olympus. "So the gods must know something bad is going on."

"But, why use her energy to send me here? She wiped my memory, plopped me into the Wilderness School field trip, and sent you a dream vision to come pick me up. Why am I so important? Why not just send an emergency flare to the other gods, let them know where she is so they can bust her out?" Jason wondered it aloud.

I wanted to say, "Because the Queen of the Gods is an eternal annoyance and will never, ever do something in a sane way if she can think of some crazy, kill-the-demigods way." But I didn't think it would be helpful.

"The gods need heroes to do their will here down on Earth." Rachel explained. It was something I had said to her during one of our sessions this semester, when Rachel had wanted me to explain more about Percy and I's adventures. "That's right, isn't it? Their fates are always intertwined with the demigods."

"That's true." I said, slowly. "But Jason's got a point. Why him? Why take his memory?"

"And Piper is involved somehow." Rachel mused. "Hera sent her the same message - Free Me. And, Annabeth, this must have something to do with Percy disappearing."

I looked to Chiron, who seemed unwilling to join our conversation. "Why are you so quiet, Chiron? What is it we're facing?"

Chiron looked old and fragile. "My dear, in this, I can not help you. I'm so sorry."

I felt like someone had punched me between the eyes. Chiron had never kept anything from me. I was basically his daughter. "You've…. You've never kept information from me." I said it, but I couldn't tell if I was more stunned, hurt, or angry. "Even the last Great Prophecy."

"I will be in my office." Chiron said it and turned his wheelchair back to his office. I was stunned. I couldn't think of anything to say.

Jason started apologizing for coming to camp. I felt bad about that. I was angry with him, but it wasn't justified. I was really angry with Hera, but it's hard to take out your anger on an ageless immortal being who wasn't even in the same room. I tried to get more information from Jason, but he still didn't know anything. That made me mad, but I took a deep breath.

Calm yourself, Annabeth. If this is bad for you, its worse for him. Jason has no memory at all. Try to be gentle.

I decided to take Jason to the Hypnos cabin to see if maybe they could recover some of his memory.