Leo Valdez was a machine.

He completed in four days what the Hephaestus cabin have been working on for eighteen years. He somehow made a giant cabin at the head of the boat for Fetus- and his head now stuck out in the front. He was a part of the boat but he could be unattached. Leo had somehow convinced the rest of Camp that he was just trying a few things but he was really fixing the Argo ll. We had almost the entire camp helping us, somehow keeping all of it a secret from Chiron. We had people getting supplies ready and people helping Leo and almost everybody else was planning, making weapons and self-defense or planning. The Hecate cabin was helping disguise the ship while the Hermes cabin was making it a high-power pranking machine. Not safe pranks. I mean grenades and traps disguised as water balloons.

Five days after Leo arrived back at Camp, I understood why Aunt Piper called him Repair Boy. He rounded up the entire second generation of the 7 and hauled us all to Bunker 9.

"Behold! The beauty of-,"

"Can it get us to Greece?" Casey interrupted. She was under a lot of stress. Adora had finally realized what was really going on and Casey was her designated shoulder to cry on. I could tell that the stress was weighing her down but I didn't know how to help, besides getting our parents back. Leo deflated, obviously not happy about having his speech interrupted.

"Yeah, it will get us to Greece." he looked like was going to start another speech but he was interrupted again,

"Better have room for 2 more."

The entire group spun around. Nico's arms were crossed and he was trying to look like an angry parent. Besides him, Will was doing the exact same thing. I had to laugh at the look on Leo's face. He looked like Annabeth had just caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. Terrified.

"Well come on, somebody speak. When will the ship be up and running?" Nico asked. I smiled Jonathan smiled and looked to Leo.

"Uh, it's ready," the son of Hephaestus stuttered. Nico smiled and nudged Will, who dropped the parent act.

"Go get your stuff together. Bring it to Nico's cabin so Chiron doesn't get suspicious; we'll transport it all from there," Will ordered. I don't think he realized the rest of the camp had already gotten our stuff prepared. He turned to leave but I stopped him.

"What about Adora and Oscar?" I asked.

"Camp isn't safe anymore. They already took six of the seven, we don't know if they'll try and get you kids or not," Nico answered doubtfully. I could see the worry in his eyes.

I looked at Kat, who was holding Oscar, and Adora who was latched to Max's hand. If whoever kidnapped our parents wanted to get us too, we won't let ourselves be easy targets.

"We'll take them with us. If Camp isn't safe, then it'll be safer for us to take them with us and protect them," I decided. I didn't really like the idea of taking my two little siblings with us on a quest to find monsters straight from Tartarus. I also didn't want to the leave them here to get picked off by whatever monster had gotten our parents. I'd rather have them by my side where I could protect them than at Camp by themselves. Well, they wouldn't be by themselves, but they'd be without me. Not that I could protect them, I just felt better when they were within reach. I had hoped to say goodbye to everybody at Camp but now all I wanted to do was get on board and leave as fast as we could. It hadn't even been a week yet. How had mom gone so long when Dad went missing the first time? I missed them so bad that it physically hurt. Will and Nico helped everybody get loaded while Leo began waving around what looked to be a Wii controller. Not even going to ask.

Large panels opened on the Bunker ceiling, revealing the blue sky above us.

"Maiden voyage of the Argo lll! Second generation, whoo hoo!"

(time skip)

At first, the voyage was exciting. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and I stood on the top of the deck at the very front of the deck. But by the end of the first day, I was in my cabin going through blueprints. Usually, I'd be watching the little kids but Nico and Will had basically taken over Oliver and Adora and I wasn't complaining. Don't get me wrong, I loved my siblings, but I had a lot on my mind. Alone time was something I didn't get very often anymore so I cherished it.

The blueprints weren't easy to concentrate on. I was too busy thinking about my parents and the rest of the seven. How would we find them? Would we get to them in time? What was happening to them? The blueprints weren't distracting me very well. I missed my family.

"Jase?"

I hadn't even noticed Max enter. It looked like he'd just woken up and his cheeks were red. I knew that his parents' disappearance was really getting to him more than the rest of us, but only I knew why. Max was going to be a big brother. The Zhang twins weren't due for another 9 months, but Max talked about them every day. The rest of the seven didn't know yet. I only knew because Max was dying of excitement and just had to tell somebody. He was worried about his parents but he was also worried about his unborn siblings. Will was the only other person who knew. He was the entire camp's doctor and it was impossible to keep baby secrets from him. When Mom was pregnant with Oscar, he knew before my parents did.

"Come on in," I finally replied. Max had already closed the door behind him and plopped down on the foot of my bed. I sharing my dad's old room with Oliver and Jonathan. Jonathan was off in the kitchen so we had some time to talk before he got back. We wanted to tell the others about Max being a big brother but we also knew it would only worry them even more.

"How are you doing?" I asked. I was worried about him. He was a strong kid but I knew that he needed to talk about it. He was the talky-feely type. His hair fell in his eyes and he didn't bother to fix it. Max had curly dark hair like Hazel but looked like his dad in most other aspects. When we were eight he was staying over one night and I woke up to a full grown python on the guest bed. So yeah, just like his dad.

"We need to find them, Jase. I know that demigods die almost every day, but why does it always have to be us? Haven't they lost enough already? I mean, my mom's already died once and you dad should have died hundreds of times. How come our family has gotten it so much worse than everybody else?" He looked down. The bed was in the corner of the room and he was leaning against the wall. He was a big guy but the helpless expression on his face somehow made him look small.

I sighed and did my best to help, "It's not just us, Max. Remember Zoe? Selena and Beckendorf? The stories about Luke and Ethan Nakamura? Think about Nico. He lost his mother when he was a kid then was stuck in a magical time stopping hotel for 80 years, then when he finally got out his sister, the only family he has left, leaves to join a group of immortal girls that despise boys. He's claimed by Hades, making him an outcast when he was still just a kid, then Bianca goes off on some quest with a prophecy of death, and she never comes home," I paused, taking a breath and thinking about my godfather. "He's an outcast for years, switching between roman and greek camps. Percy goes missing and appears in Camp Jupiter, forcing him to keep his oath about the secret of both camps and watching everybody suffer. Everybody is finally reunited, then one of his homes goes up in flames, but they go to war with each other. He willingly travels to Tartarus to find the doors of death and gets kidnapped. I'm going to stop there, but don't forget about everything that happened that. I mean, would you want to be turned into a corn plant? And somehow, after all these years, he's happy."

Max didn't have anything to say. He nodded slowly. I knew I made a good point, but I don't think I made him feel any better. I wasn't great at pep-talks.

"Max, listen. Our family is stronger than any other that I've ever heard of. If our parents can survive Tartarus and listening to Leo for hours on end, they'll be fine. We'll get them back," I promised. Max nodded again. His eyes were locked on his hands, which were rested neatly in his lap. Like Frank, Max wasn't ADHD. He's told me that he'd prefer to have ADHD than the lactose intolerance; he loved ice cream. He opened his mouth to speak but my door slammed opened before he got the chance. Kat stood in the doorway.

"We have good news and we have bad news."

Neither of us responded.

"Good news, we don't have to listen to Leo's bad jokes anymore. Bad news, Leo's gone and WHO THE HADES KNOWS HOW TO DRIVE A WARSHIP?"

(Yo! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading! I'm going to be publishing another chapter later tonight because I'm headed back to the hospital tomorrow and won't be able to publish until the day after. Confusing, right? Sorry. Have an awesome day!)