'I made you some sandwiches for on the way,' Percy said, while walking into his cabin, where Annabeth was dressing up to go to Siberia (The Athena cabin was full of her curious siblings. Not a very peaceful place to change clothes). She pulled her sweater over her head and turned around. 'Thanks. My backpack is next to the shelf.' She stretched. 'Man...'

'You'd rather be doing anything else?' Percy finished the sentence for her.

'I'd rather be doing anything else than go to Siberia and help some magicians fight something I don't know anything about,' Annabeth agreed. She reached for her coat and put it on. 'Also, these clothes are way to warm for the Long Island weather.' She took a deep breath.

Percy put every sandwich, except for one, into Annabeths' bag. He took a bite out of the last one. Annabeth was staring into her own soul in the mirror on the wall. 'He knows, you know,' She mumbeld.

'What?'

'Amos. He knows I would rather be doing anything else than help out with another pantheons' magical issues.'

'I think everyone knows that, but that he also knows there is no other way. We're all in the same boat, after all.'

'The gods seem to be blissfully ignorant.'

'The gods, the gods,' Percy mused. 'Don't worry about them.'

Annabeth turned her head around. 'I'll be technically traveling with one of them - Carter comes along,' she muttered. She put her hands on her hips. 'I'll see how it goes...'

'Like usual.'

Annabeth turned around and kissed him on his cheek. 'Like usual, but with more people this time.'

'Annabeth, keep your hands in your pockets!' Zia scream-whispered, while the whole group was crowding around the dinner table in the nome in Siberia. Dimitri was giving people tea and coffee. Annabeth gave Zia a weird look, but she listened to her.

Which was the wise thing to do, because a few seconds later someone threw a cloth over the table. 'Oh, sorry, guys,' One of Dimitri's magicians muttered. 'I forgot to put a cloth over the table.'

'Why was there burning dust on the table in the first place?' Somebody else asked, while putting her tea cup down. Annabeth made a weird noise. 'That's why you told me to keep my hands away?' She whispered to Zia. Zia nodded.

'Yeah. Be careful, everything can be dangerous in the magic world.' Zia patted her on the shoulder. Annabeth grinned. 'Now that is something that isn't alien to me.'

Dimitri slammed his hands onto the table, getting everyone's attention at once. 'Magicians, Annabeth. We have a goal and that is finding out who is causing the explosions, poisonings and other magical maladies around the area.' He paused for a second, with his expression completely serious. 'I have invited the Mongolian and other Russian nomes over to help us out, but I do not know how many of those will actually arrive here. They might have issues, they might have forgotten the message, they might just not want to come.' Dimitri shrugged. 'Those things happen.'

Dimitri got his hands of the table. 'We will leave in twelve hours. That gives you all enough time to eat, sleep, shower and whatever else you need to do.' He tugged on his sleeve. 'I see you all tomorrow in the middle of the living room, with all your stuff ready and nothing that still needs to be done.' Everyone around the table nodded in agreement. Dimitri gave them all a weak smile. 'I would start preparing if I were you.'

Exactly twelve hours later, the doors of the nome opened and twelve magicians and one Annabeth walked out into the cold and barren land. Three magicians stayed behind in the nome, behind the computers, to monitor the land and their actions for as far as that was possible.

Annabeth looked around. Her demigod senses were alarming her, but she did not know what to focus on - Egyptian magic was too different from greek magic for that. Yet, the magicians seemed to understand what was going on. Or at least Dimitri and Anaïs did.

Dimitri stopped walking when they reached a small river. Slowly, he sunk to one knee. He got his wand out of his pocket and murmured something to himself. One of the magicians from his nome pulled out her wand as well, aiding him. Annabeth looked over to Zia, who took a step closer to her.

'I am pretty sure they are trying tracing magic. I don't know why Zelma needs to help Dimitri, though.' Annabeth swallowed. She slowly shook her head.

'Already hoping you didn't apply?'

'Maybe.' In front of them, Dimitri scrapped his throat. A trail of footprints appeared in the snow.

'It is not really that someone walked here, but the footprints are a recogniseble way of marking it. Also, the spell makes magic stronger, so that you might be able to feel it too,' Zia whispered to Annabeth. Annabeth gave a quick nod, before they all continued to walk.

An hour? Two hours? Later, they found a slope in the taiga. Dimitri turned around.

'Here. We all feel it, right?' The people in the group looked at each other. Yes, they all felt it. Even Annabeth felt the strong magic radiating off of the slope. Dimitri pulled out his wand again. 'Alright, the tracing magic is doing it's job. Zarah?'

The other woman of Dimitri's nome pulled out her wand as well. She whispered a spell, which made the Egyptian hieroglyph meaning something along the lines of 'Levitate' appear. The whole group went a bit of the ground. Annabeth stretched out her arms in a reflex. Zia quickly grabbed her hand, to try and keep Annabeths' body straight.

Together, they slowly descended down into the slope. Zia held onto Annabeth, who had to admit she was a little nervous about levitating on magic she didn't understand. Yet, they all reached the bottom of the slope in one piece.

Dimitri took a look around. 'Right,' Anaïs said firmly. Like one unit, everyone turned to the right. Annabeth put her hands into her pockets. She didn't trust anything in the icy slope. She made eye contact with Carter for a moment. He didn't look like he was feeling much better than she was. Zia, on the other hand, looked like she was sure of the case, and that made both of them feel better.

After four minutes of investigating, Carter made a sound. 'Hey! That light over there!' He pointing slightly further into the ravine. And, indeed, there was a weak green light shining from deeper into the cave. Dimitri pointed his wand toward it and muttered something again. A blue hieroglyph lit up. When it disappeared, he turned around and nodded towards his group.

'We are going that way,' He announced. Nobody complained.

Annabeth believed they had to be a kilometre or three away from where they had descended into the cave when Dimitri held his hand up to stop them. 'Wait.' He looked at Anaïs, who didn't even bother to get out her wand. Instead, she made small circles with her hands, until a part of the wall turned see-through. She put her hands on her hips. 'If there is anybody there, they won't be able to see us,' She told the crew. The crew was mesmerised. Behind the wall stood a huge black machine, which looked like someone merged a telescope and an MRI-scanner.

'It radiates magic,' Carter whispered. He shivered. Annabeth felt it very weakly, but imagined it must be worse for the magicians.

Dimitri's facial expression got even more serious than it had already been. 'I have never seen anything like that. I didn't even know there were people that use this type of heavy machinery combined with magic.' Annabeth stepped closer to the window in the slope.

'It looks like it is a cannon. To blast magic somewhere, maybe?' She suggested. Anaïs took a long look at the machine. 'Could be. Although that is not something we magicians usually do. Magic does not work like Greek fire.' Annabeth shrugged.

'Why not? There is probably a spell that when combined with this machines can create something like Greek Fire.' Dimitri's eyes narrowed.

'Now, she's saying something...' he muttered. He looked at the machine for a second, before shaking his head. 'We need to go on. Reach the machine. Figure out what it is.' He looked at Anaïs, who put her hands close to each other. The window in the ice became slimmer. Yet, when Anaïs walked further down the hallway, the window followed her, so that they could keep a close eye on what happened with the machine.

Anaïs held halt after fifteen something minutes. She made the window bigger. 'Look. There is something in there.' Zelma straightened her back.

'I see them too. We need to move on - otherwise they'll do who knows what.'

'Besides, now we can catch them in the act!' Carter commented. A few people nodded. Dimitri shrugged. 'We'll see. But yes, we need to walk on.'

Annabeth leaned closer to Zia, while the whole crew walked further, quicker than before. 'Is it a one-way window?'

'Yes, of course. Otherwise they could see us. Anaïs isn't stupid,' Zia answered. Annabeth looked at the floor. 'Yeah, you are right. Just checking.'

'Sounds like a greek thing.'

'Untrue. The norse check everything everyone does too.'

Annabeth, just like the others, kept a very keen eye on the person behind the window (Which had gotten slimmer again, as Anaïs had continued walking). She could see very little, as the person stood half behind the machine. Yet, it was clear they were trying to do something there. Something that Annabeth assumed she didn't like and something that would probably be dangerous for the rest of the world.

The person tapped their feet on the floor a few times. Annabeth narrowed her eyes. 'Hm. If they have the time and focus to tap their feet, they probably did whatever they are doing before' she mentioned. Dimitri slowly nodded his head up and down and started to walk slower for a second. 'Could be. Could be a nervous habit. We must go, quickly!' He answered, while he sped up again.

'Wait, no!' Zelma pointed at the wall. 'Over there.'

'What...' some other guy began. He was interrupted by Carter pulling out his wand and performing a unlocking spell. A hidden door in the ice flew open.

Nobody wasted any time. Dimitri and Anaïs were the first ones to run inside, followed by Zelma and Zarah, after which everyone else followed. Annabeth entered last, in order to try and not stand in the way.

The person behind the machine looked around. They looked horrified. 'Who are you!?'

'I could better ask that to you!' Dimitri asked, with his wand at the ready. 'You have entered my nome.' The person got a grim look on their face.

'So you must be Dimitri.' The person whipped out their wand. 'Too little, too late,' they whispered. 'We are almost done. It cannot be reversed!'

Anaïs looked at the machine. 'You have put a time hex on it.'

The person narrowed their eyes. Within seconds, he send a curse Anaïs way. With little to no problem, Anaïs blocked it. Moments after that, she send a spell towards the machine.

Zarah was the first one to notice. She quickly send her own the spell in the machines' way - a weak magic blocking spell. Zelma joined in with something else Annabeth did not even recognise.

It all went so quickly. The machine got destroyed in front of the opposite Magicians' face. Their mouth fell open, before he slammed a button on the little desk he was working on.

You didn't need to be a genius or an Egyptian magician in order to realise what was going to happen next. A magician came running through the door, wand out. Without hesitation, he pointed his wand at Annabeth and casted a spell.

Annabeth ducked into the group of magicians. She fell to the floor. Around her, the magicians started to fire at the incoming troupes.

Only when the sounds around her dumbed down a bit, she put her head up. Bad idea. It just got quieter because someone cast a deafness spell. Annabeth pulled her knife out. She looked around, seeing if there was literally anything she could do without getting hit or standing in the way.

Not in battle. A magical Melée was no place to be in for someone who had no access to Magic. Yet, she did notice something behind the now broken machine that could be of use to her. That thing being a frame for a portal, a device with which even a regular person could open a doorway from one place to another, as long as there was another portal frame on the other side. As soon as they were out of the room where the fight was, they could make a portal to the nomes' hideout, from which they could go on with destroying the machinery and the base that must be around it.

Slowly, she crawled over the floor, towards the portal frame. She had to admit, she did not really know how it worked, but right now was not the time to think about what she did. She slammed a few buttons until the portal lit up. She said a little prayer to Athena, hoping it was the right button.

She turned her head around. Zia saw what she was doing. Low to the ground, she ran towards the portal, pulling Carter and the other person next to her along. Slowly, the whole group started to notice.

Sadly, so did the opposition. While the magicians (and Annabeth) started to climb through the portal, a few of them tried to come along. Anaïs was able to get a few of them of their backs, before she climbed through the portal as well.

As soon as she was through, Annabeth hit the reset button, which made the portal stop working immediately. She turned around. 'Good thinking, Annabeth,' Dimitri said hastily. He sounded like he was almost out of breath. He looked afraid. His eyes shot around the room, trying to locate where they were. Within a few seconds, he regained his confidence.

'Alright. Zelma, Zarah, Marina, try to make another portal, so you all can go back. Anaïs and I will locate the other people and try to capture them, after which we contact Amos.' The group grunted a little, while everyone gave their consent to the idea.

Annabeth sunk into the couch. Zia sat down next to her. 'Good idea, that with the portal.' Annabeth shrugged. 'It was a little unwise. Yet, it seems to have worked.' They heard a beep a few metres away. One of the magicians who had stayed behind the monitors picked up a Phone. 'Hello, fifty-second nome here, phoning first nome, can I speak to Amos?... Yes, they have captured them... Yes, please be quick, Anaïs isn't feeling very good.'

Annabeth took a deep, deep breath. 'Guess I was right,' she whispered, while knocking on the couch three times. Zia grinned when she saw it. Annabeth smiled back, but her smile swiftly got smaller. 'I hope Anaïs is doing alright. I can imagine she feels uncomfortable back under the ground.' Zia slowly nodded.

'Probably. I also hope they have a way of getting that monstrous machine out from under the floor.'

'I wonder how they did not notice it was there for so long,' Annabeth said, while someone gave her a cup of tea.

'It wasn't very long,' Zia muttered. 'The problem was there for three weeks when we arrived, and it took them four weeks to find the place the katalysator somewhat was.' Annabeth just nodded, while she took a sip of tea. She was tired and the problem was difficult. If she had to be honest, the only thing she wanted right now was to go back to Camp half-blood and give Percy a good, big hug, as a sign that everything was truly over.