Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Fifteen

What Was Percy Thinking?!

I barely made it a few feet before I had to hide in-between some buildings to hide away from everything. I punched one of the walls in frustration, but I barely felt it. Nothing could compare to what I just had to do to Andee.

Of course I remembered her. When I woke up and couldn't remember anything else – not even my own name – I remembered hers. I remembered her name and her face and how she made me feel, even if I didn't know why or have any context behind it.

So now let me set the record straight – you're all probably thinking, "Percy! How could you be such a terrible person? This girl loves you and as far as we know, you love her too although we're starting to question it!" And I know! And I do love her. I really, really do.

I didn't want to pretend that I didn't know her – all I wanted was to run up and kiss her and hold her in my arms for the rest of our lives. It had been so long. But I had to do this to keep her safe.

The night before the Argo II arrived, the night after Camp Jupiter was attacked by Polybotes, I needed to sleep. I was exhausted and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out cold. I immediately started having a dream about one of my least favorite people in the world – Juno/Hera. In the dream, I was carrying her across the Little Tiber again. She was dressed like her alter ego, the crazy bag lady named June – so clever – and was singing an Ancient Greek lullaby that Andee used to sing all the time to Dimka as she kept her hands wrapped firmly around my neck.

"Do you still want to hit me, my dear?" she asked. I dropped her in the river, hoping to give her a clear indication of how I felt about her. Right before she hit the water, she vanished and reappeared on the shore. "Now, now, Perseus, that wasn't very heroic, was it?"

All the anger inside of me came to a boil. "A YEAR!" I shouted. "You stole an entire year of my life for a quest that barely took a week. Why?"

"You mortals and your short lives. A year is nothing, my dear. I lost eight centuries once. Oh…that was so sad. I missed all the fun parts of the Byzantine Empire." I started summoning the water around me, making it swirl in a tornado that I was going to unleash on her in a few seconds. "Oh, don't you get testy with me, Perseus. If we are going to defeat Gaea, our plans have to be timed perfectly. I needed Jason first, so he and his friends could free me from my prison –"

"Your prison?" I asked. "You were in prison and someone actually let you out?"

"Don't sound so surprised! I'm a sweet old woman," she said, batting her eyelashes for added effect.

"Not even in a dream," I spat.

She ignored me and continued, "As I was saying, you weren't needed at Camp Jupiter until now, to save the Romans in the midst of their greatest crisis – the year in between, well, I do have other plans in the works, of course. Opposing Gaea, working behind Jupiter's back, protecting your friends – it's a full-time job! If I had to guard you from Gaea's monsters and schemes and hide you from your friends at Camp Half-Blood…oh no, it was much better for you to take a safe nap."

I started swirling the water faster and harder as I got angrier. That was no excuse. She could have easily gotten us to go on our own free will, or given us the quests at the proper times and made our paths intersect. There were a million ways she could have gone about this that didn't involve taking a year from me.

I sent a tidal wave at her but she just disappeared and reappeared farther down the shore.

"Aren't you cranky?" she asked, rolling her eyes at me. "You know I'm right. You're a hero of Rome now, which means that they trust you. And while you were asleep, Jason Grace became a hero of Greece, and now they trust him. It also gave them time to build the Argo II. Now you and Jason can reunite the camps."

"Why me? Why on Earth would you choose me to reunite the camps? We have never, and you know I mean never, gotten along," I said.

"Because whether you believe me or not, I know you, Perseus Jackson, and while you do have a tendency to be impulsive, when it comes to your friends, you are unswervingly loyal and you inspire that same loyalty in return. You are the glue that will unite the Nine."

Of course, because who doesn't want to be glue?

"The Heroes of Olympus must unite!" Juno said urgently and quite dramatically. "After you defeated Kronos in Manhattan, you more than proved yourself worthy of fighting side-by-side with the gods. But you must prove yourself to Jupiter once more, and sail to the Ancient Lands close the Doors of Death."

"So what happens if we fail? What if we can't make the Romans and Greeks get along?" I asked. "If you haven't noticed, we don't have a history of getting along."

"Then Gaea will have already won. Let me tell you something, Perseus Jackson – a warning, if you will. The one you are closest with is the one in the most danger."

It took me a moment to figure out what she was implying. "Wait – are you threatening my girlfriend?" I asked her. "I know you don't like Andee – her family is a product of your husband's unfaithfulness – but that doesn't give you any right to threaten her life if I don't do what you ask."

"I am not threatening her," Juno said. "I am warning you. You must stay away – she is in great danger from Gaea and if you and Andromeda are involved as this happens, she will die – for good this time. The farther she is from you emotionally, the safer she is."

I looked at her carefully, trying to see if there was any possible way she was deceiving me. "You're lying." She had to be. She hated Andee that much.

"Are you willing to take that chance?"

The dream ended and as much as it pained me, I knew there was no way I could ever possibly take that chance, however minute it may be. I had to pretend I didn't know her. I couldn't let anything happen to Andee – I loved her too much to let her die. So I would make this sacrifice and hope and pray with all my heart that when this was over, if we all survived, that she would forgive me.

I just didn't think it would be this hard.

"So…do you want to tell us what that was all about?" Hazel asked, giving me the same curious look Frank was. Hazel and Frank were the first two people I met when I woke up and they took me to Camp Jupiter, and ended becoming some of my best friends.

Frank Zhang was a big guy and a descendant of Poseidon, but a son of Mars, making him both Greek and Roman. He came from Vancouver like Andee did (which was something I had really wanted to tell her – she would have been so excited to meet another demigod from Canada, let alone her hometown), and he was an incredible fighter. He was one of the best people I had ever met at making plans, maybe even rivaling Annabeth. He also had the ability to change into any anima he had seen, which apparently was a gift from Poseidon (yeah, thanks Dad for that one. Still waiting to turn into a shark or something awesome like that).

Hazel Levesque was a daughter of Pluto who was actually alive in the 1940's, but was brought back by Nico, her half-brother and my favorite child of Hades, from the Fields of Asphodel. She was one of the sweetest people I had ever met, and extremely mature for her age (which happens, I guess, when you've been alive for as long as she has). Her and Frank recently admitted their feelings for each other at the end of our quest and were now dating, or at the very least, boyfriend and girlfriend (there hadn't been any time for them to go on a proper first date – I knew what that was like).

I sighed. "She can't know that I remember her." I launched into what Juno had told me, about how her life was in danger if we were involved. "This is the easiest way to do it, I think, and once this is over, we can be together again. I just, I can't let anything happen to her. Not again."

I would never tell Andee this because she would beat me to a bloody pulp for saying it, but I blamed myself for her getting taken by Kronos. I shouldn't have let her go anywhere near him – we knew it was going to happen, and I still thought it was fine for her to come on the boat he would be on. It was stupid and I should have known better. It would have saved her so much agony and hardship.

"So are the rest of your friends from Camp Half-Blood going to know that you remember them?" Frank asked.

"I don't know, maybe?" I said, running my hands through my hair frustratedly as I let out a sigh. "This is going to hurt her so much."

"If she loves you even a fraction of how much you love her, this isn't going to just hurt her – this will destroy her," Hazel said wisely. I didn't want to believe it but I knew it was true, and that killed me. I had to put it to the back of my mind – I was doing what I was doing to save her life. I had stupidly put her in danger before, and I wouldn't do that ever again. Even if she wanted nothing to do with me at the end of this, if she hated me with all of her being, that she would be alive and that has to be what gets me through this. Andee was going to live through this.

I walked with Hazel and Frank to the Coliseum, still somewhat able to hide myself amidst the rest of the Roman campers and citizens of New Rome that were heading the same way. When I arrived, I immediately noticed that all of the Greeks that weren't leading the group – everyone but Andee and Jason – were sitting in an isolated group in the stand, the Romans keeping their distance from them as if they could catch some disease from them. That made me a little mad.

I was happy to see that they had brought the senior counselor of each cabin, and noted how smart it was. The senior counselors at Camp Half-Blood were like the centurions at Camp Jupiter, also similar in the way that they were generally the strongest, smartest, and most experienced campers. Not only did it swell their meager numbers here while keeping the majority of the campers at home, but it also showed that we respected each god and goddess. The Romans were sure to appreciate this as well.

Reyna stood regally in the middle of the Coliseum. When I had been made praetor, she had pulled me aside and made it clear that praetors usually dated one another. I immediately told her no, that I intended on marrying Andee and that nothing would ever change that. She was giving me a weird look as I approached to stand on the side of her farthest away from Andee.

Andee and the old praetor, Jason, stood so close together that their sides were touching. When I reached my spot beside Reyna, I glanced behind and saw Jason holding Andee's hand tightly.

That should have been me.

Andee looked so beautiful. Her hair had grown since I last saw her – it was back down past her chest, just like it had been before the war last year…I guess two years ago. She was still wearing the promise ring I gave her, which made me smile. Gods, I loved her so much.

My fellow Romans," Reyna said in a booming voice, addressing everyone in the Coliseum. "I would like you to welcome our visitors from Camp Half-Blood with as much respect and kindness as you would to one of our own."

As great of a public speaker as Reyna was, no one clapped or made any attempt to make them feel welcome.

"Most of you should remember me. I was Praetor of the First Legion when I disappeared from Camp Jupiter. Juno is the one who took me and helped me get to Camp Half-Blood. The Greeks there took me in without hesitation and as you may see by me standing her, having made me a strategos, the Greek equivalent to a Praetor," Jason said.

"And when Juno took Jason, she took me at the same time, helping me get here, to Camp Jupiter," I told the campers. "She did this so that Jason and I could reunite our two camps. I know we have a history of lots of bloody battles and that the gods have actually gone out of their way to make sure we didn't know of each other's existences, but that has to end now. We all know now that Greek and Roman demigods exist and if we're going to survive all that Gaea has in store for us and the rest of the world, we need to be on the same side."

Andee was the only one who hadn't spoken yet and she didn't look like she was going to. Please Andee, I thought, speak up. Let them know how incredibly strong you are.

Jason gave her a little nudge and she stepped forward. "I am Andee le Fay, daughter of Apollo, granddaughter of Zeus, occasional Oracle and strategos of Camp Half-Blood. I want to remind everyone that we are here in peace. We do not want to cause any problems, but if you try to attack us, we will defend ourselves and attack back." Andee gave a very pointed look at Octavian and his goonies. I was so glad she had kicked his ass, and kind of bummed I had to stop it. "We are here because of the Prophecy of Nine.

"Nine 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," Andee recited. "To recap, the Earth Mother wants everyone and everything dead. We have to combine forces to close the Doors of Death – it's the only way. And I think the best way for everyone to get on the same page is to find out what each camp has been doing since the switch."

Reyna and Jason both voiced their agreement before Jason started telling the Romans about his time at Camp Half-Blood, his quest to free Juno (which once again, I don't get – I would've left her there without a moment's hesitation). Then it was my turn, so I explained everything that happened to me – my time at the Wolf House, arriving at Camp Jupiter with no recollection of my life, our quest to Alaska to free Thanatos and fight Alcyoneus, getting the majority of my memory back (I had to make that very clear), then finding Camp Jupiter under attack when we got back, and fighting and defeating Polybotes with the help of Terminus. We had just been recovering from that barely successful battle when Leo contacted them to let us know that Camp Half-Blood was on their way.

"The giants we fought mentioned that the gods must be destroyed at their roots, which means that we are going to need to go to Greece and protect it," Jason said.

"But we will need to stop in Rome before we go to Greece," Andee added. Jason gave her a confused look, but she ignored him.

"And who are the Nine that are supposed to go on this quest?" one of the Romans asked.

"Well, from Camp Half-Blood, we figured out that it was Piper, Leo, Annabeth, Andee and myself," Jason said.

"And from ours it will be Hazel, Frank and me," I added.

"But that's only Eight," Lee said. He was glaring at me. Yup. He never liked me before but now he was out for blood.

Annabeth spoke up this time. "We were under the impression that there would be four from Camp Jupiter, but I guess since none of us know who the ninth is, we'll just have to trust that we'll find out their identity as we go."