"Why?"

Those were the first words to leave Malcolm's mouth when Lou Ellen told him that Chiron was asking for him.

She shrugged. "I really don't know…maybe because your cabin members were injured, um, pretty badly in the three legged death race?"

He frowned, remembering the pretty bad camp activity that had taken place some four or so days ago. Percy had been right. It was a bad idea, and one look at the injured campers said enough. "If that was the case, he would've asked for every head counselor whose cabin member was injured."

Lou threw up her hands in exasperation. "Look, I don't know, okay? Don't bombard me with questions. You can ask whatever you want to Chiron. Maybe even go all Athena-ninja on him?"

Malcolm raised his eyebrows in amusement as the Hecate demigod walked away. Athena-ninja?

He made his way over to the Big House, wondering what the Hades the old centaur wanted to speak to him about. Entering the record room, he was pretty surprised to find two others already in the room.

"Hey." Alex waggled her fingers at him, smiling in mock shyness and girliness from her luxurious position in the huge armchair, her long, jean-clad legs crossed at the ankles, propped up on the round, wooden coffee table.

Percy looked at his sister in amusement. "What are you doing?"

She scowled at her twin. "It's called physical sarcasm, smart ass."

Malcolm held his hand up as if asking a teacher a question in a class room. Alex pointed a finger at him like, yes, you. "Why are we here?"

Percy stopped what he was doing abruptly, which was angrily pacing the length of the room, and threw his hands up in an annoyed gesture that reminded him vaguely of Lou Ellen. "Apparently the quest is on. Chiron's coming in a few, and we ADHD juveniles have been carelessly left in his sitting room. Now that's a problem that is eating up my brain. WHY is the quest on?"

The son of Athena sighed. "What does it have to do with me anyway? I mean, you two have to be going because of your swords and" –he lowered his voice—"your twin thing. But I—"

"I asked for you, genius." The daughter of Poseidon answered in a bored voice, casually studying her nails. "We couldn't have a better partner, as you are the only ones besides us, who knows about the 'twin thing'." She said, smirking lazily as she mimicked his earlier words.

Malcolm felt his cheeks heating up. "Shut up."

She mock gasped. "You wouldn't dare."

"Okay, that's enough, guys." Percy held up both his hands in a placating gesture, looking like he was barely holding back a smile. "You two have quenched the thirst of entertainment of this ADHD juvenile. Besides, there's enough romantic tension in the room."

They both scowled at the green eyed boy. Alex flipped him off.

Percy just laughed.

The door opened, and Malcolm's head snapped to the movement as Chiron entered in his wheelchair form. "Now, now, campers."

Alex straightened her posture and quickly withdrew her legs from the position of the top of the table. Percy stopped pacing and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at the old trainer expectantly. Malcolm simply leaned against the wall, wondering what the quest was going to be about. Chiron gave them a curt nod as he gestured for them to settle down. "You all know why I am here."

Percy sighed. "The quest. But you said—"

"—that we'll wait for a month, yes. But that was when we did not have a particular reason to execute it. And now we do."

The blond demigod blinked. "What?"

Chiron hesitated. Malcolm had rarely seen him hesitate, so this must be one hell of some news. "Some mortals are seeing the world. They're…noticing whatever is happening in the world of gods. Just yesterday a satyr reported a mortal girl screaming when she saw a Party Pony in Florida. A businessman fainted in central park after a demigod with a sword walked past him. This is becoming more common by day."

Alex leaned against the back of the armchair, her expression closed off, unreadable when Chiron spoke off central park, her face smoothed off and coolly calm. "Some mortals have the Sight. It's not that rare."

Chiron shook his head. "You don't understand, child. Mortals with the Sight don't walk by a satyr every day. This is too frequent to be a coincidence."

Malcolm's mind was moving at a thousand miles per hour. "Do you mean—"

He nodded, his face grave and ashy. "Yes. I'm afraid the Mist is failing."

There was a moment of utter silence in the room.

Percy gulped. "What?"

"That is right, Percy. We must execute a quest to find the source of this." The centaur said.

"But…why can't the gods do something?! Every god has power to fix the Mist! It's not like they don't have any say in the matter!"

Chiron looked at Percy sadly, as if imagining his fate. "But every god's ability to change something in an element can only go so far. The god of the element is the one who holds the power of the gods' ability in the element in his hands."

Alex tensed her shoulders. "So they can do something about it. They still have some power over it!"

The trainer looked at the fireplace, where a log of wood was slowly being consumed by gold and red flames, licking the ashy surface. "But only some. That works only when the god of the element is capable, or in power."

Alex's eyes narrowed and he noticed her fingers clutching the armrest, her knuckles turning white. Percy looked at Chiron disbelief written all over his face as his arms lowered to his side ever so slowly.

"And I'm afraid we've lost the god who holds the title of a lord of the Mist."

Malcolm felt a cold feeling in the pt of his stomach. "You don't mean—"

"Yes, son of Athena. I do." Chiron looked him dead in the eye, his own brown ones clouded with anxiousness and worry. "The goddess of magic is gone, as if wiped off the face of gaea.

"Hecate has been taken."

Percy felt vaguely uncomfortable as he eyed the various dangerous-looking things hanging off the room's walls. Torches lit with violet and rose and silvery cobalt flames proudly decorated the corners of the room, in intricate bronze and gold stands. Braziers and blades hung about the place, as if the demigods in the Morpheus cabin tore apart visions every day before breakfast.

They probably did too.

The only reason they were here was to consult the head counselor of the cabin to divine any traces of elemental or dark magic that might be sensed across the North American subcontinent, as Hecate had been taken from where she used to reside in Las Vegas, the new mythological home of magic, serving as a home to the Lotus Hotel And Casino and all.

Cameron Gray, the head counselor for Morpheus, gestured for them to sit as they entered, himself taking a seat on the couch next to the heavenly (read: pagan) fireplace. The fire itself blazed in a million different colors as if encompassing all the vividness of the domain of Morpheus; all the colors of the domain of dreams.

Cameron's ashy blond hair fell into his eyes, which were another flabbergasting violet and crimson color, the vibrantly enigmatic irises that only children of magic seemed to possess. He rested his forearms on his knees, leaning forward enthusiastically, his hands clasping to form a cage of slender fingers. "What do you need to know?"

Alex looked disturbed. "Well…we were wondering if you could…divine any traces of dark magic around Las Vegas? Maybe even the rest of the continent?"

He raised a slender eyebrow, and Percy noticed idly that his hair was shot through with occasional streaks of gray, his eyes containing bits of cobalt. "Of course I can. The Hecate cabin would be helpful too, but I doubt they would be very helpful if—"

"Their mother's incapacitated." Malcolm finished in a frustrated manner, waving a hand in a gesture telling him to get on with it.

The news could not be kept from the campers, as it was necessary to warn them of the dangers and tell them to carry concealed weapons, just in case they encountered a mortal. It wasn't easy telling them to calm down, though, as the Mist failing was pretty explosive news. The Hecate cabin was still chaos, and had even offered the three, ah, extreme magical assistance, to put it calmly.

"Yes." Cameron nodded. "I wagered you guys would need help in sensing at least the goddess's whereabouts, so I tried looking for magic. However," he gestured helplessly to a brazier, "we couldn't find dark magic, but we did find some traces of worn off enchantments. The imprisonment chant, the subduing spell. Leftovers. Like worn enchantments."

Percy looked at him in sudden interest. "Like the sort Hecate and her children use? Incantare?"

"Yeah. It was around Seattle, moving upwards. I guess, if you will follow the trail, it will probably lead you to the Alexander Archipelago. But still, try to be aware. They might be trying to take her to Alaska, as the gods won't be able to aid the goddess there, much less Hecate be able to help herself. Just…be aware." His tone was worried.

Percy glanced at the clock. It was almost afternoon. "Anything else?"

He nodded again. "And I have reason to believe that those weren't used by the goddess herself. These spells had traces of olden magic, so it was someone else who used these spells."

Something shifted in the air, and clouds covered the sun outside, turning the room under shadows. It was almost as if…there was another presence in the cabin. The air suddenly seemed chill.

Alex whirled on him. Her eyes turned dark with fury, narrowed in mocking as the corners of her lips turned down in a disapproving manner. "Of course, O gios ton oneíron. A kidnapped goddess is…of not much use in the ager magicae."

Her voice was colder, more lyrical, soft, almost. Definitely not Alex's.

Malcolm's eyes were wide as he slowly turned to her. "What are you saying?"

Alex blinked and looked at him. The strange expression was gone from her face. One look at Malcolm's wide-eyed, concerned expression, she paled. "I did it again, didn't I?"

The son of Athena nodded as he searched her face worriedly, Cameron looking at her with a hint of confusion and fear in his face. "She did that in the meeting as well. It disturbs me…well; I have heard those words before. Like a…a prediction."

Malcolm calmly pressed Alex's forearm in a soothing gesture as he turned to the son of Poseidon. "She called him a son of dreams…and said stuff about the field of magic, but the latter was Latin. Does she do this normally, like in the cabin…Percy? Are you all right?"

Percy felt as if her behavior had snapped something inside him. His throat closed up in a welling of emotions he couldn't describe, and his mind felt millennia old, feeling as though he was watching what he was doing on a screen, as if he couldn't control it.

The foggy feeling seeped into his soul, his bones…and he started feeling suffocated, like there was another soul in his body and there was not enough space for one. Like a freaking parasite. And it felt like he was floating away, wrenched from his physical form, being separated from his mind and body. In pain.

It felt eerily similar to being possessed by an eidolon, except…he felt as if he'd sensed this power before, and it incinerated him.

And then there was the helpless feeling of a shallow consciousness, like his soul was starting to slumber, and the other presence inside him was feeding off the remains, the shattered pieces where his soul was harshly cut off from his own body, his own mind.

He felt his lips pulling up in a challenging and lazy smirk. "Demigods. Δεν κοροϊδεύει την αδελφή μου."

Percy's own voice sounded harsher, deeper. Not his own.

Cameron's gaze was wide eyed, gripping the head of his armrests as his knuckles turned white with disbelief and clenching the wooden jut too hard. "Did he just—"

"Talk in another language? I'm afraid so." Malcolm swallowed as his gaze flitted between Percy and a blank Alex. "'Do not mock my sister.'"

Alex shuddered, looking at Percy with a surprised and unpleased gaze. "Protective brothers. Bad."

The son of Morpheus looked at the siblings in fearful scrutiny. "It's like eidolons. Manifestation."

Percy, still not in control of his actions, snarled at the demigod. "There are more important matters in the world. The quest, as such."

"Yes." Cameron shook his head, looking at Percy in anxious study. "But something is wrong." He looked deeply perturbed. "A possession this intense…I'm sorry, Percy. You may have a headache when you wake up."

Before Percy could ask him what he meant, feeling his soul settle back in his body, the son of Morpheus leaned forward. He passed his hand over Percy's face, and he felt himself falling into slumber, his mind consumed with dreams.

Alex shook her head as they studied the lines of weapons decorating the walls of the room. It was certainly a prettier sight then the Morpheus cabin, with its runes and spells and torches and whatnot. Blades had always been more her thing than magic.

It definitely wasn't as good as the armory back in her training centre with Athena, but it provided for a camp full of demigods, so it must be saying something.

An entire array of swords lined the left wall. Longswords, shortswords, backswords, katanas, gladius, leaf blades, maqaries, you name it. They'd been advised to carry concealed weapons as they'd be travelling in the mortal world, so here they were, in the armory, choosing weapons they could at least hide.

Malcolm picked up a pair of knuckledusters and examined them, running his thumb over the metal's flat side. "We should take some of these."

"Like slugging monsters, son of Athena?" she responded as she looked through a line of crossbows. "'Wow, look, what a fist sized bruise that blondie left on my face.' It won't kill, Gray Eyes."

Malcolm looked visibly offended. "Naming people after their physical characteristics is racist, my friend!"

Alex laughed as she held up a shuriken, like ninja throwing stars, and ran her fingertips along the blade's edge. "You're the one to talk."

He shook his head, but there was a tiny smile on his face as he ducked to examine the underside of a canon. "Ha ha. I just hope Percy's going to be all right."

The smile faded from her face. Percy had passed out after Cameron did his weird magic thing with him, and they had left him back in Cabin three, snoring as he lay on his bunk. "Yeah."

Malcolm looked at her curiously. "You do that…thing with more clarity, and you don't even pass out. What is that, anyway?"

"I don't. Maybe I'm mentally more capable than my brother, if you know what I mean? And I really have no idea what the Hades it is."

He frowned. "DO you understand it or something? I mean, it does happen to you."

She shrugged, strapping a bronze breastplate over her chest. "When I get it, I'll get back to you."

Malcolm's brow furrowed in concentration. When he turned back to find her fastening on a pair of arm guards, he noticed something as a fond smile tugged at his lips. After getting over himself, he pushed back his shoulders and turned to Alex.

He smirked and leaned over to her, tugging back a strap of armor over her shoulder. "After all these years of training with Athena, even the mighty daughter of Poseidon can't tie her armor on properly."

Alex blinked and looked at the armor piece. She scowled. "I was getting there, dumb ass. I even have a feeling you just wanted to lean close to me on purpose." A smirk had climbed on to her face at the last statement.

He blushed immediately, averting his gaze to the sword he was examining, and frowned in indignation. "I was not. I merely assumed that you had not tied it properly."

Alex smiled teasingly. "Haven't you heard? A daughter of Poseidon, who's trained with Athena all these years, can fasten her armor to herself properly."

He rolled his eyes at her mocking tone. "Just choose your weapons, Jackson."

It was only fortunate that there was no one else in the vicinity but them, so they could refer to Alex's true past. She wasn't amused, though, as the 'last name basis' brought to her mind Adonis Lane and the unexpected kiss. She hadn't told anyone about it though, and was pretty confused herself, not having the time to talk to the son of Eros in the week's time that followed.

"Yeah, yeah." She grabbed a weapons belt and fixed some shurikens to it.

He smiled as she stuck out her tongue at him, which seemed quite petulant by the standards of a champion of Athena. Picking off three pairs of kakutes, which were basically finger rings with a single spike protruding from their front,for each of the three quest members, he slipped them into a bag and turned in time to see Alex admire a Japanese knife and fan contraption and slip t into her weapons belt.

She grinned at him, and in a lightning movement, threw something. He caught it reflexively and held up a weapon, which was a weapon with a hilt with blades protruding from its either side. Good for one handed killing.

"A haladie," she explained. "Eastern ancient weapon."

Malcolm nodded and passed her one of his choices, a weapon with an H shaped handle and a singly blade. She pressed a hidden button on the handle and the blade split into three. "And that's a medieval Katar." She smirked at him, like, I know all of these weapons, and you can't beat me at this thing. "Impressive. We should keep one."

Show off, he thought as he smiled inwardly, but dismissed the idea of voicing his opinion out loud. The daughter of Poseidon probably wouldn't be amused at his choice of words, and Malcolm had to be at least a little careful, her being the sister of the most powerful (not to mention protective) demigod of the generation, and the child of one of the Big Three, and all.

He slipped a pair of sai into his own belt. They were sort of smaller versions of tridents with a shorter staff, ancient 'Athena-ninja' style, to quote Lou Ellen. He intended to stab a monster with this pair. "Let's get going, then." Malcolm grinned at his quest partner.

Alex gave him a feral smile, a calculated one, worthy of the Tritonian nymphs she'd trained under. Holstering a compact Medusa (not very aptly named) revolver into her thigh holster, she cracked her knuckles. "Let's."

A/N: Yeah, I know. You guys will have to wait until the next chapter for the quest to start. And if you don't understand the appearances of any of the weapons I've introduced here, Google 'em. Always works.

Reviews would be much appreciated!