Once everyone had got off of the Argo II that they ate at the forum, Emily was siting at the same table with Jason, Piper, Leo, Frank, Hazel, Annabeth, Percy, Thalia and Persephone. Her uncle, Bucky and some of the others were sitting at other tables close by. Everyone started talking about the prophecy and Reyna had ask one of the children of apollos to recite it.
"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire the world must fall - "
"An oath to keep with a final breath, And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death." Emily smiled slightly, it was like the camps fire six months ago when Jason had first arrived at Camp Halfblood. Expect for the fact that Annabeth finished it in English and not in Latin and they were not at the campfire. Than Frank had sat forward and stared at Annabeth with fascination like he never seen her before or Annabeth had grew some extra things,
"Is it true you're a child of Min - I mean, Athena?"
"Yes, Why is that such a surprise?" The children elf Apollo that had spoke the prophecy had spoke up.
"If you're truly a child of the wisdom goddess - "
"Enough, Annabeth is what she says. She's here in peace. Besides... Percy has spoken highly of you."
"Uh, thanks. At any rate, some of the prophecy is becoming clear. Foes bearing arms to the Doors of Death...that means Romans and Greeks. We have to combine forces to find those doors." Emily had notice that Hazel had picked up a large ruby and slipped into her denim jacket.
"My brother, Nico, went looking for the doors," she said.
"Wait, Nico di Angelo? He's your brother?"
"Okay. You were saying?"
"He disappeared. I'm afraid...I'm not sure, but I think something's happened to him."
"We'll look for him. We have to find the Doors of Death anyway. Thanatos told us we'd find both answers in Rome - like, the original Rome. That's on the way to Greece, right?"
"Thanatos told you this? The death god?"
"Now that Death is free, monsters will disintegrate and return to Tartarus again like they used to. But as long as the Doors of Death are open, they'll just keep coming back."
"Like water leaking through a dam."
"Yeah. We've got a dam hole." Emily smiled when Percy had said that, she remembered that on her quest to save Artemis and when that joke has started on the dam that they had went to.
"So I guess we need a dam rock." Percy and Thalia had burst into laughter and Thalia had joined in.
"About we need to push that dam rock over that dame hole."
"We need dam tools in order to put that dam rock over that dam hole."
"While we are doing that we could go to the dam snack bar to get some dam cheeseburgers and dam fries."
"Than we can eat at the dam table."However before the three of them could go on that Piper had spoke.
"What?"
"Nothing, inside joke. The point is we'll have to find the doors and close them before we can head to Greece. It's the only way we'll stand a chance of defeating the giants and making sure they stay defeated."
"You propose an expedition to Greece in your warship. You do realize that the ancient lands - and the Mare Nostrum - are dangerous?"
"Mary who?"
"Mare Nostrum, our Sea. It's what the Ancient Romans called the Mediterranean."
"The territory that was once the Roman Empire is not only the birthplace of the gods. It's also the ancestral home of the monsters, Titans and giants...and worse things. As dangerous as travel is for demigods here in America, there it would be ten times worse."
"You said Alaska would be bad, we survived that."
"Percy, traveling in the Mediterranean is a different level of danger altogether. It's been off limits to Roman demigods for centuries. No hero in his right mind would go there."
"Then we're good! Because we're all crazy, right? Besides, the Argo II is a top-of-the-line warship. She'll get us through."
"We'll have to hurry. I don't know exactly what the giants are planning, but Gaea is growing more conscious all the time. She's invading dreams, appearing in weird places, summoning more and more powerful monsters. We have to stop the giants before they can wake her up fully."
"Ten half-bloods must answer the call. It needs to be a mix from both our camps. Jason, Piper, Leo, James and me. That's five."
"And me, along with Hazel and Frank. That's eight."
"As well as Persephone and myself. That makes it ten." The other first cohort centurion had stood up and spoke
"What? We're just supposed to accept that? Without a vote in the senate? Without a proper debate? Without - " Emily had stood and faced the centurion with a glare and the centurion had gulped. Emily had got up and walked toward him, the centurion had sat down as Emily moved toward him.
"Centurion, unless if you want the protection I provided taken from your and your family I would suggest you not say anything when say to who is to go on this quest. For in this quest it is not the senate to decide for to has already be decided a long topi me ago when the prophecy was made and written down. There is a reason of why it is those ten for Gaea is after the ten of us because she knows that if we work together that we would be able to stop her from rising. That is the ten's task, to stop Gaea from rising. The the if we have a senate meeting to deidce the ten that I a sure the wrong ten would be picked and they will fail just like when Michael Varus took the fifth cohort to start the prophecy of the ten. He failed because it was not the time left alone his prophecy."
Emily looked around at the Romans, daring them to counter her, the only ones who could were Reyna, Percy or Jason. But all three of them know, in different way, that Emily spoke the truth about the ten demigods. So Emily had went back to the tbsle and sat down. After a while of taking and Ella saying a prophecy, thankfully Annabeth and the others claimed that she read it from a book and Reyna and allowed Ella to leave wi Mrs. O'Leary and Tyson. It might be true that Ella had read it from a book but Emily figured of which book it was, at least Reyna had figured out that it was a prophecy of some kind. that Jason had took Piper to look around New Rome and Reyna had took Annabeth around the city instead of Percy. Emily had over to one of the cafés and and sat down and the waitress had brought over Emily's usual drink order of which was hot chocolate. As Emily was drinking it that Leo had entered the cafe and walked over to where she was and sat across from her.
"Well."
"Well what?"
"When do you think we would be heading over to Rome?"
"Soon enough, Leo, soon enough." Emily looked out the window knowing that within a day or two that they would be leaving Camp Jupiter to go to Rome and cross over Mare Nostrum.
The next day that the ten had got ready to leave on the Argo II while the hunters had went to help a Camp Halfblood with their defense as well as the Howling commandos, before Emily had boarded that her uncle had hugged her and wished her luck on the quest and to come back alive. Bucky and a few other howling commandos had done the same thing, seriously being part of the howling commandos was like have 200 fathers and another mother. For Emily already has her mother alive as week as having Hestia and Artemis as adopted mothers. Seriously, Emily had a messed up family when she thinks about, but it was too much to think about. Emily had looked down and watched as the hunters and the howling commandos ran after the ship and waved goodbye at them. When New Rome was out of sight that Emily wondered if she would ever see it again, even though she hadn't spend as much time there at Camp Jupiter as she had at Camp Halfblood or even the hunt, Camp Jupiter was one of her many homes.
The next few days were not pleasant for Emily and the others, but it couldn't been worse, for a civil war could be happening. Shortly after leaving New Rome that they learned that Nico was trapped and they had till July 1st to get to Rome before Nico and Rome were destroyed. When Piper, Percy and Jason had went to the one place to task to one of the gods that Emily felt something was going to happen, something had. Sure enough Piper had come back riding on Blackjack and she had explained of what happen, while Piper had spoke that Jason and Percy had woke up and said sorry to each other for trying to kill each other. Than they had a meeting to talk about what had happen and than they had reached the topic of the Mare Nostrum. However, Emily, James and Persephone were hardly talking, Emily didn't say anything because so much was going though her mind and it wasn't just the dreams from Gaea either. She was sure James and similar reasons of not talking, but with Persephone, Emily had no idea of what was going though her mind.
"You heard Reyna talking about the ancient lands. They're much too dangerous. Roman demigods have been forbidden to go there for generations. Even Octavian couldn't get around that rule."
"But Octavian is gone now." Jason looked over at her with an eyebrow raised but Frank had than spoke.
"So, if we go there..."
"We'll be outlaws as well as traitors. Any Roman demigod would have the right to kill us on sight. But I wouldn't worry about that. If we get across the Atlantic, they'll give up on chasing us. They'll assume that we'll die in the Mediterranean - the Mare Nostrum."
"You, sir, are a ray of sunshine." All of the demigods, but Percy, stare at their plates but Percy kept eating his pizza. Emily wondered what kind of food he had grew up on and that if Percy had any satyr in him, "So let's plan ahead and make sure we don't die. Mr. D - Bacchus - Ugh, do I have to call him Mr. B now? Anyway, he mentioned the twins in Ella's prophecy. Two giants. Otis and, uh, something that started with an F?"
"Ephialtes."
"Twin giants, like Piper saw in her blade... I remember a story about twin giants. They tried to reach Mount Olympus by piling up a bunch of mountains."
"Well, that's great. Giants who can use mountains like building blocks. And you say Bacchus killed these guys with a pinecone on a stick?"
"Something like that, I don't think we should count on his help this time. He wanted a tribute, and he made it pretty clear it would be a tribute we couldn't handle." Silence had fell over the table, not even Percy was eating any more. But after a while that Piper had broke the silence.
"She wants two of us, Today on the highway, Gaea told me that she needed the blood of only two demigods - one female, one male. She - she asked me to choose which boy would die."
"But neither of us died. You saved us."
"I know. It's just...Why would she want that?"
"Guys, remember at the Wolf House? Our favorite ice princess, Khione? She talked about spilling Jason's blood, how it would taint the place for generations. Maybe demigod blood has some kind of power."
"Oh..."
"Percy?"
"Oh, bad. Bad. Bad. You guys remember Polybotes?"
"The giant who invaded Camp Jupiter. The anti-Poseidon you whacked in the head with a Terminus statue. Yes, I think I remember."
"I had a dream, when we were flying to Alaska. Polybotes was talking to the gorgons, and he said - he said he wanted me taken prisoner, not killed. He said: 'I want that one chained at my feet, so I can kill him when the time is ripe. His blood shall water the stones of Mount Olympus and wake Earth Mother!'"
"You think the giants would use our blood...the blood of two of us - "
"I don't know. But until we figure it out, I suggest we all try to avoid getting captured."
"That I agree with."
"But how do we figure it out? The Mark of Athena, the twins, Ella's prophecy...how does it all fit together?"
"Piper, you told Leo to set our course for Atlanta."
"Right, Bacchus told us we should seek out...what was his name?"
"Phorcys."
"You know him?"
"I didn't recognize the name at first. Then Bacchus mentioned salt water, and it rang a bell. Phorcys is an old sea god from before my dad's time. Never met him, but supposedly he's a son of Gaea. I still don't understand what a sea god would be doing in Atlanta."
"What's a wine god doing in Kansas? Gods are weird. Anyway, we should reach Atlanta by noon tomorrow, unless something else goes wrong."
"Don't even say that. It's getting late. We should all get some sleep." At those words that everyone had got up and went to their room. Emily's room looked a little like the inside of her tent expect it had wooden walls instead of being a tent. Emily didn't bother to change her clothes, she just laid down on the bed and fell asleep.