A/N: You should know that recognizable sections of this story have come from the Lost Hero, the Son of Neptune, and the Mark of Athena. So, yeah. I don't actually own those sections. Rick Riordan does. Yeah. Okay. On with the story.

They spent the next hours after defeating Chrysaor together. Jason didn't know if he wanted to protest some more or just carry on having a good time with his friends.

Annabeth seemed very nonchalant for a girl who was about to face down the queen of spiders in a few hours. Not to mention possibly fall to Tartarus for the second time.

Percy smiled and laughed along with Annabeth as they recounted some of their past quests.

Jason marveled at all they had done. Returning the master bolt to Zeus, finding the Golden Fleece, holding the weight of the sky, navigating the Labyrinth, gaining Achilles' Curse, and the Battle of Manhattan.

He shook his head. How the Greeks had managed to hold off a full scale invasion of the Titan army was amazing. Even the Romans had struggled with their attack in the West. If he had been in Percy's shoes… Jason no doubt would have been terrified. Which, Percy admitted he was scared the whole time, so Jason did feel a little better about that.

When they arrived in Rome, everyone fell silent.

"I guess this is it," Will was the first to speak.

Annabeth and Percy finally started to look unsure.

"You got this, Wise Girl," Percy assured her. He gave her a soft smile and held her hands. "You can outsmart her again. You're going to go and prove you're the greatest child of Athena. You are going to find the Athena Parthenos twice."

Annabeth laughed. "Second time is cheating."

"Second time is not cheating," Percy denied. "The first time was like… a trial run. The second time is the real one."

"Okay," Annabeth mumbled. She kissed Percy lightly. "Love you. Remember where you have to go?"

"Yeah," Percy answered. "Love you too."

Jason watched them with a pained look. They shouldn't have to go through this again. It wasn't fair.

Will gave Annabeth a med kit. "I tried to prepare for everything you said," he told her. "There should be more than enough for you in the cavern. Anything extra can be used if you… you know."

Annabeth took the kit with a grateful look. "Thanks, Will. I appreciate this." She put the kit in her bag. "Don't let Nico die on us, okay?"

"I don't plan on letting that happen anytime soon," Will promised.

"You're a really good friend to him," Annabeth said with a smile. "I'm glad you became friends much earlier this time."

Piper sniffled. "Annabeth, this sounds like a goodbye."

"I have to say it," Annabeth interrupted her. "Just in case. Please." She looked at Jason. "You be good to Nico too. You're like his big brother."

Percy grumbled something too lowly for Jason to hear, but Annabeth laughed. "Get over it, Percy."

Hazel hugged Annabeth tightly. "Good luck, Annabeth. We'll be waiting for you."

"I'll come back," Annabeth said, but Jason didn't think it sounded very convincing.

Finally, all the goodbyes had been said. Annabeth took a deep breath before walking out of the Argo II. She turned around to wave at her friends.

"Now what?" Jason asked Percy.

Percy frowned. "Uh, last time Frank, Hazel, and Leo left to like detect Nico or something. You guys should probably do that again. I dunno what you did, but whatever you did worked and stuff." He waved his hands at them. "Go on. Shoo shoo."

Hazel scowled at him. "We aren't dogs, Percy." She grabbed her spatha and looked at the two boys. "Ready?"

Percy shoved backpacks at them. "Take these. You might need them."

"I hate this plan," Frank mumbled as he followed Hazel and Leo off the Argo II.

Percy gave Jason, Piper, and Will a grim look. "Our journey is… complicated. There's a nymphaeum we have to go through to get to Nico."

Piper pointed in the direction the other three demigods had gone in. "Uh, Percy? Didn't you send Leo, Hazel, and Frank to find Nico?"

"No, I sent Hazel and Frank with Leo to find Archimedes stuff," Percy corrected. "I dunno, Leo can do, like, a ton of stuff with what he found." He shrugged. "It's useful in the future. Come on. Let's go meet these nasty nymphs."

Jason found himself siding with Frank. He hated this plan.

.

It really sucked. Percy was decidedly crazy, Jason determined.

After the nymphaeum started filling with poison water, Percy calmly asked Piper to bring out her cornucopia. He said they had to concentrate on filling the poison water with clean water. Easier said than done though.

Regardless, they managed to do it and the nymphs rewarded them with the entrance to the giants' lair. So a great reward of course.

Several hundred feet later, they reached a turn in the tunnel. Percy held up his hand, signaling Jason and Piper to wait. He peeked around the corner.

"What is it?" Piper whispered.

"We're here," was all Percy said.

Jason, Piper, and Will exchanged nervous looks as Percy gestured for his friends to come forward and take a look.

About twenty feet inside the doorway, a life-size wooden cutout of a gladiator popped up from the floor. It clicked and whirred along a conveyor belt, got hooked on a rope, and ascended through a slot in the roof.

Jason murmured, "What the heck?"

Percy winced. "Ah, right. The twins kinda have a flair for theatrics and stuff."

They stepped inside. About a hundred yards away, they spotted a raised dais with two empty oversized praetor chairs. Standing between them was a bronze jar big enough to hold a person.

"Look." Jason pointed it out to his friends.

Piper frowned. "That's too easy."

"Of course," Percy said.

"But we have no choice," Jason said. "We've got to save Nico."

"Yeah, but maybe without getting caught and stuff," Percy said as he started across the room.

They had made it about halfway to the bronze jar when the ceiling opened over them. A platform lowered. Standing on it like an actor, with one hand raised and his head high, was the purple-haired giant Ephialtes.

Ephialtes smiled at the demigods like he was really, really pleased to see them. "At last!" he bellowed. "So very happy! Honestly, I didn't think you'd make it past the nymphs, but it's so much better that you did. Much more entertaining. You're just in time for the main event!"

Jason and Piper closed ranks on either side of Percy. Will notched an arrow and aimed it at the giant. Ephialtes' eyes danced with a crazy light.

"We're here," Percy said, which sounded kind of obvious once he had said it. "Let our friend go."

"Of course!" Ephialtes said. "Though I fear he's a bit past his expiration date. Otis, where are you?" A stone's throw away, the floor opened, and the other giant rose on a platform. "Otis, finally!" his brother cried with glee. "You're not dressed the same as me! You're…" Ephialtes' expression turned to horror. "What are you wearing?"

Otis looked like the world's largest, grumpiest ballet dancer. He wore a skin-tight baby-blue leotard that Jason really wished left more to the imagination. The toes of his massive dancing slippers were cut away so that his snakes could protrude. A diamond tiara was nestled in his green, firecracker-braided hair. He looked glum and miserably uncomfortable, but he managed a dancer's bow, which couldn't have been easy with snake feet and a huge spear on his back.

"Gods and Titans!" Ephialtes yelled. "It's showtime! What are you thinking?"

"I didn't want to wear the gladiator outfit," Otis complained. "I still think a ballet would be perfect, you know, while Armageddon is going on." He raised his eyebrows hopefully at the demigods. "I have some extra costumes—"

"No!" Ephialtes snapped. The purple-haired giant faced Percy. He grinned so painfully, he looked like he was being electrocuted. "Please excuse my brother," he said. "His stage presence is awful, and he has no sense of style."

"Okay," Percy agreed. "Now, about our friend…"

"Oh, him," Ephialtes sneered. "We were going to let him finish dying in public, but he has no entertainment value. He's spent days curled up sleeping. What sort of spectacle is that? Otis, tip over the jar."

Otis trudged over to the dais, stopping occasionally to do a plié. He knocked over the jar, the lid popped off, and Nico di Angelo spilled out. The sight of his deathly pale face and too skinny frame was terrifying.

"Nico!" Will shouted. He rushed over despite the other's warnings.

"Let us go," Piper said firmly, and Jason could hear the charmspeak in her voice. "That would be an incredible twist. And the entertainment value! You want that, right? And we could do dance moves as we escape."

Piper almost pulled it off, Jason decided as he watched the two twins contemplate her idea.

At last Ephialtes shook his head. "No…no, I'm afraid not. You see, my girl, I am the anti-Dionysus. I have a reputation to uphold. Dionysus thinks he knows parties? He's wrong! His revels are tame compared to what I can do. That old stunt we pulled, for instance, when we piled up mountains to reach Olympus—"

"I told you that would never work," Otis muttered.

"And the time my brother covered himself with meat and ran through an obstacle course of drakons—"

"You said Hephaestus-TV would show it during prime time," Otis said. "No one even saw me."

"Well, this spectacle will be even better," Ephialtes promised. "The Romans always wanted bread and circuses—food and entertainment! As we destroy their city, I will offer them both. Behold, a sample!"

Something dropped from the ceiling: a loaf of sandwich bread in a white plastic wrapper with red and yellow dots.

Percy picked it up. "Wonder bread?"

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Ephialtes' eyes danced with crazy excitement. "You can keep that loaf. I plan on distributing millions to the people of Rome as I obliterate them."

"Wonder bread is good," Otis admitted. "Though the Romans should dance for it."

Out of the corner of his eyes, Jason could see Will helping Nico crawl out of the way. That was good at least.

"Maybe," Percy ventured, "you should bring our other friends here. You know, spectacular deaths…the more the merrier, right?"

"Hmm." Ephialtes fiddled with a button on his Hawaiian shirt. "No. It's really too late to change the choreography. But never fear. The circuses will be marvelous! Ah…not the modern sort of circus, mind you. That would require clowns, and I hate clowns."

"Everyone hates clowns," Otis said. "Even other clowns hate clowns."

"Exactly," his brother agreed. "But we have much better entertainment planned! The three of you will die in agony, up above, where all the gods and mortals can watch. But that's just the opening ceremony! In the old days, games went on for days or weeks. Our spectacle—the destruction of Rome—will go on for one full month until Gaea awakens."

"Wait," Jason said. "One month, and Gaea wakes up?" He cast an alarmed look at Percy who just looked cool as a cucumber with this revelation. Somehow, Percy and Annabeth failed to mention this tiny detail.

When Ephialtes confirmed this, Jason fought the urge to go over and strangle his two time traveling friends for leaving out such a crucial detail.

A/N: Yes, what Percy muttered was something along the lines of "not his type". I'm sorry, but in my mind, Percy will always hold that over Nico's head.

And so it begins! What will happen next?