"Well, well, well…" Leo's voice dripped saccharin and mockery as he greeted Percy and Annabeth. "It's nice of you two to join us again. I hope you two had fun in your absence."
"Shut up, Valdez." Percy said, the tips of his ears turning a bright red. "No one asked you to keep tabs on us."
"Which is precisely why I did it." Leo said loftily, smirking as Calypso smacked him.
"Ignore him," She advised. "It works for everyone else."
"Oh, trust me, we know." Annabeth told her sagely, her cheeks matching the color of Percy's ears. She gestured expansively to the surrounding camp and asked, "What's going on?"
Her question was in reference to the decorations that had seemingly sprung up out of nowhere. Lares were drifting through them, ghostly party hats affixed to their heads. Leo glanced around and shrugged. "The camp leaders, you two excluded since you were off-."
"Everyone decided that it would be good if we got out minds off of things for a bit." Calypso said, firmly placing her hand over Leo's mouth. "The leaders were thinking about a game of Capture the flag, but then Apollo stepped in and, well, you can see how things turned out from there."
"So Apollo demanded that we throw a party?" Percy asked incredulously. "With Tartarus still trying to kill us?"
"Actually he didn't call it a party, he called it a reverse-funeral." Leo corrected, removing Calypso's hand from his mouth.
"Of course he did."
"Actually, I agree with him." Annabeth told them, her lips pursed as she contemplated the idea. "Everyone has been so tense with all of... this going on. It would be good for morale if we had a party."
"Reverse-funeral."
"Not calling it that."
"What about Tartarus?" Percy argued. "If we throw this party we'll be leaving ourselves wide open."
"From what we can tell they aren't anywhere near us right now." Leo explained. "We've been sending out scouts and so far none of them have reported a thing. It looks like they just sort of packed up and left."
"That makes no sense." Annabeth said slowly. "What gives?"
"That is precisely the question that we have been asking as well." Chiron told them, walking up to them in his white stallion form. "And thus far our answers have been just as noncommittal."
"By 'we' I assume you mean the gods?" Annabeth guessed. When Chiron nodded she blew out a sigh. "I hate not knowing what the enemy is doing. Why can't Tartarus be more like Kronos or Gaea? We knew what their end goal was and how they were going to do it."
"Unfortunately it seems like Tartarus has learned from their mistakes." Chiron said. "But dwelling upon what we do not know will not bring us that knowledge. For now we may as well enjoy this evening's festivities. It would do well if you four would change into more appropriate clothing. As I understand it, since this is the first… reverse-funeral… Apollo wants it to be memorable."
Percy and Annabeth looked down at their Camp Half-Blood T-shirts and their shorts and then back to Chiron in confusion. "What kind of clothes are we supposed to wear?" Annabeth demanded.
"Apollo has decreed that it will be a formal affair." Chiron said with a sympathetic wince.
"Come on, Annabeth." Calypso said with a tired smile. "I'll help you find something to wear. I doubt you have any dresses."
"I have to wear a dress?" Annabeth asked, outraged. "What gives?"
Calypso consoled her as she led her away, presumably taking her to her tent. Percy waved at her and sent her a sympathetic smile while Leo fought valiantly to keep himself from tearing up as he laughed at her expression. "You know she is going to make you suffer for making light of her discontent." Chiron reminded Leo.
"Translation: she is going to kick your butt for laughing at her." Percy said, elbowing his friend in the ribs good-naturedly. "And I might help."
"Oh, it is so going to be worth it." Leo shrugged, managing to bring his laughter into a slight chuckle. "Besides, this reverse-funeral-."
"Still not calling it that."
"Will be awesome!" Leo finished, glaring at Percy reproachfully. "I mean, come on, we haven't had a break in weeks. The gods say that we are in the clear. There's no prophecies going around, no monsters anywhere near us, let's just enjoy ourselves man. It's one freaking night. We can afford to take it easy for one night, right?"
"I guess…." Percy said, unconvinced. "It might be good if we were just-."
"A bunch of the Hunters, the ones who don't want to go to a party with boys, are going to be patrolling the perimeter." Leo said immediately, cutting his friend off. He grabbed Percy by the arm and began to frog-march him away with a surprising amount of forcefulness. "You will have a good time at this shindig-."
"Did you just use the word shindig? What are you eighty?"
"Are you deliberately trying to make me lose my mind?" Leo wondered. "Come on, you can't say that you don't need to relax even a little bit. I saw how you got when Annabeth was… gone. You need to unwind just like everyone else."
"I guess." Percy said grudgingly. "So where is this all… Oh."
"Yeah." Leo agreed, ceasing his efforts to pull his friend along. "Oh."
The Senate chambers had been completely redecorated by someone. The stone pillars had been adorned with rows and rows of flowers of every shape and color. Each pillar sported different color schemes and flowers, no two stones looking even remotely the same. The colors were so varied yet they still managed to go well together. In the center of the Senate Chamber was, much to Percy's delight and embarrassment, a stone fountain of Poseidon. The water spouted from the three prongs of his trident and from the god of the sea's mouth. For all intents and purposes it looked like Poseidon was spitting out a nonstop stream of water. Where the leaders of Camp Jupiter usually sat was now a massive table that had the biggest speakers Percy had ever seen on either side. A familiar looking golden haired god stood in the center of the table, frowning as he messed with something electronic. He glanced up and his gaze immediately fell upon Leo and Percy. "Aah! Leo Valdez!" Apollo called happily, clapping his hands and releasing a shower of golden sparks over his head.
"Yeah, I see you Apollo." Leo called, blinking as the impromptu light show temporarily blinded him. "The sparks weren't really necessary."
"Oh, you think they might be going a bit overboard?" Apollo asked fervently, switching his gaze back to the electronic disc-jockey table he had before him. "I think it might be too. Every time I do it in full-."
"What, that wasn't in full?" Percy asked incredulously.
"Oh, not even remotely!" Apollo said, his voice bordering on horrified. "That paltry performance was simply me flexing a bit. Oh no, the real performance is far more impressive! But the issue is that, whenever I try, my table bursts into flame!"
"It does WHAT?!" Leo demanded, shoving Apollo aside as he began to run his hands over the table and frowning. "You set my baby on fire? Why would you do that?!"
"It was certainly not on purpose!" Apollo seemed even more outraged, though Percy wasn't sure if that was because Leo had pushed him aside or if the god took offense to the idea of setting things on fire without meaning to. Maybe some combination of both. "If I were to set this on fire it would be a grand fire!"
"Well, don't!" Leo snapped, his hands reaching into his magical tool belt as he ducked beneath the table. "HOW DID YOU SET THE ADAPTER ON FIRE?!"
"I'm going to go…" Percy said slowly.
"Percy, your suit is on your bed." Leo called. "You know, the one in the Neptune temple. The one that you haven't slept in for days because-."
"I get it, I get it." Percy snapped, his ears turning crimson again. "Give it a rest already, would you?"
"Aah, Mr. Jackson!" Apollo said, sweeping down from where he had been standing at the table. "It has been quite a while since you and I spoke! I will walk with you to your father's temple so that we may reminisce."
Leo peeked out from behind the table and watched them go, shaking his head slightly before ducking back below and attempting to fix the damage that Apollo had managed to wrought in the thirty minutes Leo had left him alone with the table. "Gods." He muttered, taking a pair of wire snips out of his tool belt. "Can't trust any of them with a delicate machine like this."
On the other side of camp a very strange argument was taking place. Unfortunately for Ryker, he was a part of it. "I'm not wearing that." He said with finality, though he had been repeating the statement for the better part of half an hour.
"Oh, yes you are." Thalia argued, pointing at the suit that had been laid out specifically for Ryker. It was jet black with a forest green and silver vest, a nod to his part in the Hunt and to his mother. "You are going to wear that and you are going to like it."
"I am not going to wear it, and even if I do I am certainly not going to like it." He growled, the reverberations in his chest causing him to wince as they pained his still-tender wounds. "I still do not understand the point of this."
"The party?" Thalia asked tiredly, throwing up her hands in the air. "We've gone over this, it's just a way to blow off some steam."
"We could be using this time to ready ourselves for Tartarus's next move." Ryker pointed out, crossing his arms and leaning carefully against one of the poles that supported the center of the tent. Their argument had started in his quarters but had since spilled out onto the main section as other Hunters put in their opinions.
"Can't do that since we don't know what it is." Thalia reminded him.
"She's right." One of the Hunters said, poking her head out of her quarters though the curtains remained drawn. "We can only prepare so far before we run out of things to do. And we sorta reached that point when you were sleeping."
"Then finding out the next step of Tartarus and his Corrupted should be our focus." Ryker snapped.
"Oh, yes, I forgot. We know exactly where they are and have been keeping that information from you this entire time." The Hunter, Ryker vaguely remembered her name as Trish or something along those lines, disappeared back into her quarters. She reappeared a few seconds later and added, "That was sarcasm by the way. In case you couldn't tell. We still have no idea where he is at." She then disappeared back inside her quarters.
"I knew it was sarcasm." Ryker said moodily, scratching absentmindedly at his chest. He glared at Thalia suspiciously. "Why the keen interest on making me join in on these festivities?"
"Oh, you know, Artemis wanted us to go." Thalia said evasively. "No other reason."
Ryker's answering stare was even more suspicious than his glare had been. "You are lying." He said clearly. "Why?"
"Come to the party." Thalia said simply. "Someone wants to see you."
