Leo's POV

We walked into the mess hall, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the wind spirits-aurae- bringing an endless amount of breakfast foods soaring through the air. The scent of biscuits and bacon filled the air along with the sounds of talking and plates clattering. My stomach growled ferociously as a platter of pancakes whizzed by my face. My mouth started watering.

I fucking love pancakes!

"See anybody?" Piper asked, scanning the crowd.

I quickly searched the Roman faces until I spotted Annabeth talking animatedly with Percy.

I pointed at their table. "There they are!"

We carefully maneuvered over, Peri almost taking some grits to the face on the way.

When we reached the table, I saw Percy, Jason, and that big Asian guy Frank stuffing their faces. Shockingly, Reyna and Octavian had joined our table, however Reyna's hostility was replaced with hospitality.

Octavian. . .? Well, Octavian looked annoyed just to be sitting in our presence. He was watching Frank, Percy, and Jason eat with a disgusted look on his face. When he saw us approaching, his frown deepened.

Well fuck you too!

Percy came up from his plate for air and spotted us. "Hey, guys!"

"G' morning!" Peri said to everyone cheerily before plopping down on the sofa next to him. I slid in next to her, and we all ordered our food from the aurae. I ordered a plate of breakfast tacos, and they all came wrapped in neat little foil packages.

Peri picked up her silverware in her fists and pounded them back down onto the table. "I'm starved!"

I watched flabbergasted, as Peri ordered a stack of pancakes so tall you couldn't even see her face behind them. Hungrily, she poured maple syrup all over the heaping mound.

"Peri, what the fuck are you doing?!" Annabeth cried. "You can't eat all those pancakes!"

She pointed her fork at Annabeth, challenging. "Fuck you I can't eat all these pancakes!"

"Bet!" Percy exclaimed, quickly gaining interest.

"Let's go!" They shook hands, and Percy stared at his watch.

"Ready. . . seeeeet. . . GO!"

If it weren't so awesome, I'd probably think it was gross.

But Peri handled those pancakes.

She shoveled them down, and I wondered if she could even taste the pancakes. The tower was slowly decreasing, and our whole table stared in amazement.

"Go! Go! Go! Go!" I egged her on, grinning wildly.

Octavian touched his temple. "That is utterly disgusting."

I only laughed.

Five minutes and ten glasses of milk later, Peri inhaled her last pancake.

I grabbed her wrist and raised her hand high in the air like a wrestling champ. "We have a winner!"

Peri smirked at Annabeth. "What was that you were saying?"

Annabeth only chuckled and rolled her eyes. "You can eat even more than Percy. I'm shocked that's even possible."

Peri grinned and shot out of her seat, pumping her fist. "Never bet against Peri Storm! I'm the best! The greatest! The-!"

Octavian snorted impossibly loudly, and Peri glared daggers at him.

I glanced from Peri to Octavian, wondering if she would retaliate. Surprisingly, she slowly slid down in her seat, deciding to let this one slide.

Reyna coughed loudly, trying to draw the little bit of tension out of the air.

She called a toast of friendship, which was probably the best plan of action. No wonder she was praetor. After introductions, everyone started exchanging stories, bringing everyone completely up to speed.

Jason told his story of arriving at Camp Half-Blood and how he'd gone on a quest with Piper and I to rescue Hera/Juno from imprisonment in the Wolf House.

"Impossible!" Octavian cut in. "That's our most sacred place. If the giants had imprisoned a goddess there-"

"They would've destroyed her," Piper said. "And blamed it on the Greeks, and started a war between the camps. Now shut the fuck up and let Jason finish."

Octavian opened and closed his mouth like a fish, but no sound came out. Gotta love charmspeak.

I noticed Reyna looking back and forth between Piper and Jason, her brow creased, as if she were just realizing they were a couple.

"So," Jason continued, "that's how we found out about Gaea. She's still half asleep, but she's the one freeing the monsters from Tartarus and raising the giants. Porphyrion, the big leader dude we fought at the Wolf House: he said he was retreating to the ancient lands-Greece itself. He plans on awakening Gaea and destroying the gods by. . . what did he call it? Pulling up their roots."

I already knew all this info, so while Jason was talking I made a pinwheel from the leftover taco foil. I kept sticking the pinwheels in the aurae, making them spin like crazy. Peri seemed to find this especially amusing, burying her face in her hands to strangle her laughter down.

Percy recounted his side of the story. He talked about waking up at the Wolf House with no memories except for one name- Annabeth.

Oh, gag me!

Percy also talked about how he, Hazel, and Frank had traveled to Alaska to defeat the giant Alcyoneus, free the death god Thanatos, and returned with the golden eagle standard of the Roman camp to repel an attack by the giants' army.

It was pretty badass.

When Percy finished, Jason whistled appreciatively. "No wonder they made you praetor."

Octavian snorted again."Which means we now have three praetors! The rules clearly state we can only have two!"

"On the bright side," Percy smirked, "both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up."

Octavian turned as purple as a Roman T-shirt. Jason gave Percy a fist bump, and I could see Peri snickering behind her glass of milk. Even Reyna managed a smile, though her eyes were stormy.

"We'll have to figure out the extra praetor problem later," Reyna said. "Right now we have more serious issues to deal with."

"I'll step aside for Jason," Percy said easily, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "It's no biggie."

"No biggie?" Octavian almost choked on his orange juice. "The praetorship of Rome is no biggie?"

Percy ignored him and turned to Jason. "You're Thalia Grace's brother, huh? Wow. You guys look nothing alike."

"Yeah, I noticed," Jason replied. "Anyway, thanks for helping protect my camp while I was gone. You did an awesome job."

Percy grinned. "Back at you."

Annabeth kicked his shin forcefully, interrupting a budding bromance. "Peri's got something big to tell us, don't you?"

Peri looked up quickly. Apparently, she had been only half listening as well. There were multiple little origami creations made from napkins scattered around her. From what I could make out, there was a crane, a turtle, some complex looking pointy box, and even a horse.

"Oh yeah!" She snapped her fingers and proceeded to tell us of her ambush this morning.

"I don't believe that!" Octavian scoffed, folding his arms. "Weapons can't just appear out of nowhere!"

"For a child of Anastasios they can!" Peri quipped back.

"And how would you know?" He narrowed his eyes. "You know as little as any of us!"

"I know because my pops dropped by to wish me a happy birthday last night." She told us of her dream in great detail, holding out her hand to show us her ring.

"I knew I sensed some powerful metals this morning," Hazel mused. "I guess I just thought Piper had put on lots of jewelry."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Piper cried.

Hazel stammered for an apology. "No! I didn't mean. . ."

I tuned Hazel out and instead turned to Peri. "So it's your birthday?"

She grinned. "Yeah! Anastasios must have came into my dreams at sometime past midnight, 'cause today's the day!"

"So how old are you now?"

"Fifteen," She fiddled with another napkin, folding it halfheartedly. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen, same as you." I replied, and I swear I saw her sigh in relief.

"Oh, cool."

I heard the word "death", and immediately joined the main conversation once again.

The group was talking about how we have to join forces with the Romans to find some Doors of Death, like in the prophecy. I glanced at Octavian, who looked like he was glaring at every one of us.

Yeaaah, that's not gonna happen.

Reyna plucked an apple from a passing fruit tray, turning it over in her fingers. "You propose am expedition to Greece in your warship. You do realize that the ancient lands-and the Mare Nostrum-are dangerous?"

"Mary who?" I asked.

"Mare Nostrum," Jason explained. "Our sea. It's what the Ancient Romans called the Mediterranean."

They continued, going on and on about how dangerous it was to go there.

"Percy, traveling in the Mediterranean is a different level of danger altogether." Reyna said, shaking her head. "It's been off limits to Roman demigods for centuries. No hero in his right mind would ever go there."

"Then we're good!" I grinned over the top of my pinwheel. "Because we're all crazy, right? Besides, the Argo II is a hot spanking war machine! She'll get us through no problem."

"What's an Argo II?" Peri asked.

A light lit up in my eyes eagerly. I opened my mouth wide, ready to tell her every single little bitty detail about my most precious baby.

But Annabeth interrupted, deciding instead to start quoting the prophecy.

"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call," she said. "It needs to be a mix from both our camps. "Jason, Piper, Leo, and me. That's four."

"And me," Percy said. "Along with Hazel and Frank."

Peri hopped out of her seat. "What about me?!"

"Right." Annabeth said, nodding. "The prophecy of the Omega-Blood clearly states that you're needed. You're coming along as well."

She pumped her fist in the air excitedly. "YES! YES!"

"What?!" Octavian shot to his feet. "Peri's only been conscious for, like, 24 hours! We're just supposed to accept that? Without a vote in the senate? Without a proper debate? Without-"

"PERCY!" Tyson the Cyclops bounded towards us with Mrs. O'Leary at his heels. On the hellhound's back sat the skinniest harpy I've ever seen-a sickly looking girl with stringy red hair, a sackcloth dress. and red-feathered wings.

Now, I've been at Camp Half-Blood for a while, so I'm familiar with these friendly creatures.

Peri?

Not so much.

"Monsters!" She cried.

In one fluid motion, she had leaped onto the table, her feet landing in Octavian's oatmeal. Her arms outstretched towards Tyson and Mrs. O'Leary. Her hair looked like there was some static charge going on, as it started slowly lifting up. Three Imperial Gold knives appeared, trained directly on what she thought were enemies.

"PERI, NO!" Percy screamed, jumping in between Tyson and the dangerous girl without a second thought.

I hopped to my feet and grabbed Peri by the waist, yanking her down from the table swiftly. The force of me pulling her down sent us both back down onto the sofa, her in my lap with my arms still wrapped around her tightly.

The knives. . . dissolved in the air.

Tyson was shaking in his giant Cyclops boots. "P-p-percy! B-b-b-brother!"

"Brother?" Peri squeaked.

Percy nodded, chest heaving at the adrenaline rush he probably just endured. "Yes. . . Tyson the Cyclopes. . . is my brother."

Peri started to say something, but then looked down and stiffened. My face started to grow hot as I realized our position. I quickly let go of Peri's waist, and she stood.

She walked slowly over to Tyson. He was shrinking away from her, hiding behind Percy as much as the big guy could.

Peri stood in front of him doing nothing for awhile making me wonder what was going to happen. Then, to my surprise, she bowed. Like, hands together, bowing.

Her head down, she spoke with her eyes closed. "Tyson the Cyclopes! I hereby apologize for trying to kill you and your other monster friends! But I mean, you're a monster, and I was all like, 'Kill!' But you're family to my friend, and therefore you're my friend as well. And I don't hurt my friends. Please forgive me."

OK, so we had to work on the apology part, but the message there was clear.

She stayed bowed until Tyson awkwardly said, "Uh, it's okay. Honest mistake."

Her head came up so fast, Tyson jumped. "Awesome!" She grabbed his hand and shook it furiously. "I'm Peri, nice to meetcha!"

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Author:

SOOOO, I just wanted to CLARIFYYYY!
Peri is incredibly loyal to her friends, i.e. not wanting to hurt any of them. This is because of her father's influence. Anastasios, even though initially treated unfairly by his father Jupiter, would never hurt his family. He is loyal to the end, therefore Peri is as well. I like to think of Anastasios as an Apollo-ed up version of Ares and Poseidon! Awesome!