(Sorry this took so long to update. Had three different projects to do these past few weeks in school. So, I decided to make this chapter longer than usual to compensate. Sorry again, and enjoy.)

-O-

Oliver jerked awake, confused and so disoriented that he almost fell off the soft cotton bed he was in. When he remembered where he was, he sighed and rubbed his forehead in an attempt to stave off the splitting headache that was forming behind his eyes. He didn't remember much of his dreams, but judging by the way his heart was pounding and his lungs were burning, they couldn't have been good. He vaguely recalled standing in a blood-red field, weapon in his hand, but the memory was slipping away even now.

With another sigh he rolled to the other side of the bed and looked out the window to gauge the time. It was early. Very early. The sky was a bluish-whitish color that Oliver acquainted more with snow than anything else, and he thought he heard the distinctive chirping of morning birds somewhere in the distance. He rose from the bed and pushed his now long, gray-white hair out of his eyes and behind his ears, before noticing something he hadn't the night before. Against the wall next to his bed was a series of three long, thin grooves carved into the marble, one above the other, with a bit of space in between them.

Seeing no other option and slightly annoyed at himself for not giving the room a full inspection the night before, he pressed his finger against one of the grooves. With a soft click, a small section of the wall just below the groove popped a few inches out of the marble. Touch activated drawer. Neat. With a tug Oliver glanced inside the container and ran his eyes across the rows of neat, folded clothing. A look inside the other drawers revealed much the same story, clothing. Two of them held comfortable, civilian attire. Lots of flannel shirts, jeans, tennis shoes, sweat pants and so on. But the third drawer piqued his interest. Inside were two sets of military uniforms, seemingly only different in color scheme, neither with any distinguishing marks or patches. The uniform consisted of an undershirt, an over-shirt, a pair of pants, gloves, combat boots and a black balaclava mask, all made out of a special blend of nylon that afforded retaliative durability and flexibility. One set was white, patterned with splotches of grays and dark blues to break up the human outline and trick the eyes. The other set was all black, special-forces style.

Oliver considered the two sets for a moment, before shutting the drawer with a click and choosing instead a plain white shirt and jeans, along with a fresh pair of boxers. He padded over to the large water feature in the center of his room and peeled off his day-old, sweaty clothes and stepped down into the steaming water, a groan escaping his lips. He shut his eyes and rested his head against the cool marble as the hot water eased the coiled tension in his body. After a short search he found another long, shallow groove carved into the rim of the bath/pool, which expanded upward, revealing a small rack of shampoo and soap.

After washing his hair and scrubbing himself raw he crawled out of the bath, and had just began slipping on his new attire when he heard a knock on his door. Oliver pulled on the jeans and shirt before calling out, "Come in!"

Kevin's dark haired head poked into the room with a grin, glancing around the room with a soft whistle, "Damn, boss. Nice room."

Oliver just grunted in acknowledgement, before asking him, "I assume you have something for me?"

Kevin nodded, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder, "Abe wants to talk to you in the War Room. Some kinda mission for us."

Oliver raised an inquisitive eyebrow before drily saying, "He knows I was dead about twenty-nine hours ago, right?"

The big man snorted and said, "It's nothing major. We're supposed to be capturing a couple Godlings, or something along those lines at least."

"Godlings can still be dangerous, Kevin," Oliver warned, "don't take them lightly."

Kevin raised his hands defensively, "I know, I'm just sayin' it shouldn't be that big a deal is all. C'mon, we shouldn't keep Abe waiting."

Oliver agreed, and the two of them exited Oliver's room, giving Heckler and Koch a rub on the head on their way out. As the two traversed the long hallways of Fort Ignis, Oliver asked, "So, where are we, exactly?"

Kevin absently rubbed the tattoo of Titus on his arm as he spoke, "San Francisco, California. Specifically Mt. Tamalpais. Well, technically it's Mount Othrys, the Titans' old headquarters."

"Bit of an obvious choice for a fort full of Titan supporters then, isn't it?"

Kevin shook his head, "Nah, but I don't blame you for thinkin' so. See, the Greeks and Romans think that the Titan threat is over and done with, what with the whole cyclical fate bullshit that I barely understand, so they ain't got no reason to look for us. On top of that, the Mist is thick as gravy around the top of the mountain, right where we're standing, so even if someone ran a magical search over us, they wouldn't turn up anything."

As Kevin explained, the pair descended further into the Fort, through a door in the Great Hall that Oliver hadn't seen the previous night, down flights of stairs carved into black rock lit by LEDs set into the wall. Eventually they came upon a small antechamber, with a steel door covered in magical symbols and green hieroglyphics that seemed to glow. Oliver frowned and opened his mouth to ask, but Kevin answered first, "Check it out."

He extended his hand, took a deep breath, made a strange gesture with his fingers, and then pushed outward. The symbols and wards glowed green for a moment before, in utter silence, the steel door swung open. Oliver whistled lowly, clearly impressed, "Very neat. I'm guessing the gesture's some kind of key?"

Kevin nodded, "Exactly. I'll ask Nina to show you how to do it later."

"Why can't you?"

The big man grinned at the question, "That's the beauty of it; you can only use it properly if the creator of the key shows you themselves."

Oliver nodded in approval, "Better than a fingerprint scanner, that. And what if you do it wrong or the creator didn't show you themself?"

Kevin just shrugged, "No idea. Nina put about a dozen curses on the thing, Roman, Greek, Egyptian, you name it. Hell, I think Amal got in on it too, and that guy knows some shit, let me tell you."

Oliver thought about it for a second, "So, you'd pretty much just explode from all of that magic?"

"If you're lucky."

Oliver had to agree.

The door lead into a large, open room, with one massive window overlooking the mountains replacing the far wall. A few doors lead farther into the mountain, with the same green symbols covering it as the one before, with words above them in green with one in particular catching Oliver's eye; Armory. In the center was a long, low table rimmed by comfortable looking chairs. On top of the table was some kind of electric blue cover, stopping a few inches in from the edge, and it took Oliver a moment to realize that it was a single, enormous screen of some kind. At the far end of the table, lounging in the chair directly to the right of the one at the head, reading a red paperback book.

At the sound of footsteps the German clasped it shut and rose, tucking it away into his long, dark coat, giving Oliver a crisp salute, touching his fingertips to his brow, "Good morning, sir. How did you sleep?"

Oliver returned the gesture, though not nearly with the same mechanical precision as the older man, "Fine, thank you for asking. At ease," he walked to the table and leaned against it as Abe's hand dropped behind his back, "what do you have for me?"

"A simple assignment from our Mistress, sir. To get you back into the shape of things, as it were," Abe answered, pressing a few barely-noticeable buttons in the rim of the table. The blue screen that encompassed most of the surface area of the piece flared to life, and suddenly the wire-frame image of a compound appeared a few inches above it. It was a mansion, surrounded by a wall with a large gate, like something out of Beverly Hills.

Oliver whistled and ran his hand through the image, watching the compound spin at the motion before slowly settling back, "Magical ID locks, interactive holographic displays... I'm liking this place more and more."

Abe just nodded, "It is quite impressive, isn't it?" he gestured at Kevin, who was leaning against the wall watching the two of them, Titus curled around his shoulders, "I assume Kevin has at least mentioned what we are to do?"

"He did, but fill me in on the rest."

Abelard nodded and pressed a few more buttons at his end, and the hologram shifted to an image of three teenagers, two males and one female. Abe cleared his throat and explained, "Last night, I received a message from our Mistress. She wants us to capture these three Godlings; Jason Grace, Leo Valdez and Piper McLean," as he listed off the names Abe pointed at each Demigod in succession, "she didn't mention why these three in particular, but I decided not to press."

Oliver frowned and asked, "And she didn't come to me with this because...?"

Abelard coughed into his fist, "Because, sir, you've been asleep for the better part of twenty four hours. I only received the message last night, and our Mistress deemed it more important that I make the preparations right away instead of waiting for you to wake. Sorry, sir."

Oliver blinked, surprised for a moment that he had slept for a day, but waved his hand, "It's fine, Abe. Continue, please. Do we know where these Godlings are?"

Abe shook his head, "No sir, but we know where they will be." he pressed a few buttons, and the image of the mansion from before flickered to life, "Our Mistress has informed us that they will be flying over this compound. Luckily it belongs to one of our allies, Midas, so we shouldn't have any trouble setting up an ambush."

Oliver frowned, "You said they were flying? Do we have any Anti-Aircraft weapons?"

Abe gave the Keeper a shallow grin, "I never said anything about aircraft, sir."

The next image he pulled up made Oliver mutter a curse. A dragon, covered in metal plating and scales, with two giant gems for eyes and a set of wings like a small plane, and it had to weigh at least fifty tons if it was solid all the way through. Oliver glanced at Kevin, "We got anything big enough to take this thing down?"

Kevin nodded at him, "A few things come to mind."

"Such as?"

Kevin scratched Titus's head as he thought, "We got a few RPGs and LAWs in the armory, a couple towed AA guns in the garage," then a grin split his face, "then, of course, there's Schrödinger."

Oliver thought he misheard him, "Who?"

"Not who; what." Kevin corrected, "Schrödinger is the name of the Tiger Two that my Grandaddy sto- I mean misplaced, during World War Two."

Oliver stared at him, "You mean to tell me that we have a fully functional, armed and loaded, Tiger Two in our garage?"

"I am."

"How long will it take you to get it ready to move?"

Kevin didn't hesitate, "Five to ten minutes."

Oliver nodded, "Good. Can you drive it? Operate the gun?"

Kevin nodded back in return, "I come from a line of Tankers, boss. My great-granddad served with General Pershing himself in World War One, and my granddad with Patton after him. Tankin's in my blood."

"Good. Then we'll take Schrödinger with us to... where is this compound, Abe?"

"Omaha, Nebraska, sir," Abe responded, "a bit of a drive, but nothing too bad."

Oliver nodded, studying the dragon's intimidating form floating above the table, "Alright, we'll leave after breakfast. Tell everyone what's going on, Kevin. I wanna discuss a few things with Abe first."

Kevin nodded, "You got it boss. We'll be waiting for you in the Great Hall," with that he turned on his heel and exited the room, shutting the door behind him.

Oliver turned to Abe, "How dangerous are these Godlings, Abe?"

"Decently," Abelard admitted, pulling up a small profile of each of them on the table, "Jason Grace seems to be the leader of them. Son of Jupiter. Wind manipulation, lightning summoning, exactly what you'd expect. Ironically, he was the one who lead the Roman Legion in the attack on this very mountain last year. Defeated the Titan Krios in single combat."

Oliver scowled. Just his luck he had to capture a Roman war hero, "Of course Gaea wants a Son of Jupiter. What about the other two?"

Abe glanced at the two profiles, "Son of Hephaestus and daughter of Aphrodite, respectively, not really too much to worry about. We think the girl can Charmspeak though, so keep a watch out for that."

Oliver nodded and then raised an eyebrow, "A Roman leading two Greeks? How'd that come about?"

"Gaea thinks that either Juno or Hera is attempting to reunite the two camps somehow. Though our spies haven't discovered the exact reason why, or how, yet."

Oliver blinked at him, "We have spies?"

Abelard just laughed, a booming sound resonating from his frame, "Of course, sir. Wind spirits, mostly, a few shadows, that kind of thing. Why do you ask?"

Oliver felt the skin on his neck flush at the sudden laughter for a moment before he composed himself, "You receive information from them directly?"

Abe nodded, "I do."

"Could you start making a report of the most important or interesting bits, and bring it to me first thing."

The German man raised his eyebrow at Oliver for a moment, before nodding, "I can, sir. I'll begin writing it after you leave and have it ready for you tomorrow morning."

"Thank you, Abe. Now, let's go eat."

After a huge breakfast of bacon, toast and eggs, along with two cups of black coffee, the team assembled in the armory to prepare. The armory was almost like a locker room in design, and practice; two long benches ran through the room, while racks of weapons, ammunition and equipment rested against both walls. Rosa and Kevin were arm-wrestling, Nina rummaged through a large wooden box with painted green hieroglyphics, and Denali read a book on the other end of the bench. The rest of the Keepers, Maja, Amal and Abe, all declined for the mission, which made sense to Oliver, what with them not really being front line fighters in the first place.

Oliver, along with the other members of the team present, had changed into his winter camouflaged uniform and was currently loading up a G36c one hundred round drum magazine. Normally Oliver would've preferred a more powerful round than the 5.56 that the G36c fired, but his team's goal was to capture, not kill. A tactical vest was strapped to his chest with a few standard magazines filling the pockets, and a camouflaged helmet with a pair of thermal-vision goggles sat on the bench next to him. He chose a replacement .45 caliber handgun for his USP Match, an HK45 slid into his chest holster, as well as a smaller backup, a Beretta Px4 Storm in his hip holster, also a .45.

After loading the hundred round magazine into his compact rifle and stuffing his balaclava into one of his pockets, Oliver stood up and slung his rifle over his shoulder, helmet under arm. He called out, "Alright people, let's move. Kevin, get Schrödinger ready."

At his order, the team rose to their feet and slung their respective weapons across their shoulders, helmet under their arms. Kevin ran ahead, struggling slightly with the bulky M249 SAW machine gun in his arms, and disappeared up the stairs while the rest of them followed at a slower pace. Once they exited the front door of the Great Hall, Oliver inhaled the cold December air with a sigh. The wind chilled his face and neck, but he welcomed the feeling, like a blast straight from Vermont. The sun was now high in the sky, late morning, and Oliver had to shield his eyes with his hand from the brightness of it before his eyes adjusted to it. The courtyard of Fort Ignis was the size of a football field, with a twenty foot wall of black stone surrounding it, capped with tall towers at seven points and a wrought iron gate set in the middle. The garage was the size of an aircraft hanger, also made of black stone, with a huge driveway leading to the gate.

They entered the garage through a backdoor, and Oliver let out a whistle at the sight of the interior. It was just as large as it looked outside, packed with vehicles. He saw at least half a dozen Humvees, four with .50 caliber machine guns on top, various motorcycles, and more that Oliver couldn't list, along with a few pieces of light artillery. But in the center of the massive room, sitting directly underneath the fifty foot industrial light that illuminated the entire room, was Schrödinger. The Tiger Two was ten feet tall, with winter camouflaged armor and a massive cannon barrel sticking out of the semi-rectangular turret. It took Oliver a few seconds to realize that the engine was running, humming gently in the chassis of the tank, like the purring of a massive cat.

The hatch leading down into the main compartment of the vehicle popped open, and Kevin's grinning face rose out like a groundhog, "Well? We goin'?"

Oliver nodded in return, pointing at the tank and telling Rosa, "Make sure he doesn't break anything, will you?"

"I can hear you!"

Rosa's lip curled up, the scar on her face twisting around her eye, "Alright, but he won't like it," she warned.

"That's not the point, Rosa. I don't want that thing to break down just as we're about to face down that metal dragon. An extra set of eyes to make sure our biggest gun doesn't break down just makes sense."

She thought about it for a seconds before adjusting the Spas-12 shotgun around her shoulder and giving him a quick salute, "Yes sir," she said, marching towards the tank and yelling at Kevin to move over.

Oliver climbed into the driver seat of a Humvee with a .50 caliber gun mounted on the top, putting his G36c into the enlarged opening in place of a center console. Denali lie in the backseat, putting his P90 sub-machine gun on the floor and promptly falling asleep while Nina took shotgun, laying her weird box in her lap. Oliver raised an eyebrow and jerked his chin at it, "What is that, anyway?"

Nina grinned and patted the wood fondly, "My magic box," she said matter-of-factly.

Oliver blinked at her, "Ah, of course. How could I have not known?"

The magician snorted and raised her hand, making the gesture from before. At the same time, the enormous double doors leading out of the garage swung open silently. Oliver revved the engine of the Humvee and pulled forward and out of the building, Schrödinger lumbering right at his heels, it's massive gears grinding against each other. Nina opened the gate leading down the mountain, and Oliver asked her as they were driving down the snowy road, "Hey, Nina."

She turned to him, "Yeah?"

"You mind showing me how to do that gesture properly? It's a long ride, and I really don't wanna learn firsthand what kinda curses you and Amal loaded those locks with." He asked her, looking at her through the corner of his eye.

She smiled at him and nodded, "Of course," and she shifted in her seat to get a touch closer, spreading her fingers apart in the air, "So, the first thing you wanna do is..."

(That was... slightly longer than I expected. Ah well, sorry for taking so long to update. In fact I might upload again this weekend if I got nothing else to do. Also, I decided to do away with the whole 'Act' thing that I had going on in the last book. Just thought you would want to know, I guess.)