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"Luke! Wake up! Gods, you just had to make today about you."

My eyes opened slowly, and everything came into focus after a couple of blinks. My sister was looming over me, fists clenched.

"..uh?" was all I could manage. Why couldn't I move my arms or legs?

"Today is my birthday. It's my friend that you got shot in the back, and it's…."

I interrupted her. "Jade, where's Mom and Dad."

She faltered. "Um, Chiron said not to say anything. You're supposed to be resting. Bye!"

And with that she left in a hurry. I laid back, trying to move. I couldn't feel any part of my body whatsoever.

"Good morning stupid," a voice grumbled from somewhere to my right. I managed to turn my head and saw that Vaz was in a bed right next to mine, her face screwed up in a grimace.

"I didn't get you killed!" I managed.

She stopped herself from smiling. "Good job. In the process, you also got yourself stuck by three arrows."

Oh yeah. I had nearly forgotten about that...

"Luke? Are you awake?" Chiron entered the room before I could respond to Vaz. He was in wheelchair form, which I appreciated. I always felt less intimidated by him when he wasn't towering over me,

"No," I said, wincing as some of the feeling was coming back into my body. "I'm really good at having a conversation when I'm sleeping."

"This is no time to joke around," he said, looking serious. "Percy and Annabeth are gone."

"What?!" I made a sudden movement in an attempt to get up. Pain sliced through my whole body, radiating from my arm. I fell back onto my pillow and tried not to throw up.

"Don't get too worked up. We really shouldn't have given you any ambrosia. Ah, as I was saying, your parents and Thalia have disappeared. About the time you went to look for Percy, I did as well. There were signs of a struggle where he was supposed to be patrolling, and the only thing there was...this," Chiron held up a Camp-Half Blood necklace. It was completely packed with beads from all of Dad's years here. Suddenly I had a huge lump in my throat.

"What happend to Annabeth?" Vaz asked from beside me, voice wavering. I knew what she was thinking: what could possibly get the best of Percy Jackson, the hero of Olympus and the person who saved the world about a million times?

"She went looking for Luke and never came back. We have a search party out, but I'm sorry to say that it is doubtful they will find her. I know Annabeth: she would have come back by now if something hadn't happened. It's the same story with Thalia."

"Do you think they're… alive?" I managed, choking on the words. If I hadn't been stupid and acted rashly, everyone would be eating birthday cake and laughing together.

"Of course they're alive," the centaur comforted me, but I could tell that his smile was forced. "Those three have survived much worse than a little kidnapping."

"So you think they were kidnapped?"

Chiron pressed his lips together and furrowed his eyebrows. It was obvious he hadn't wanted to voice his theory. "It is too early to tell," was all he would say. "You should get some rest. That arrow wound was really bad. The same goes for you, Miss Rickie."

Vaz groaned. "Oh, come on! I can't sleep now! What kind of bedtime story is that?"

I didn't speak. Instead, I made another effort to get up, this time ignoring the pain that shot through my body at the slightest movement of my arm. My feet hit the floor and I pushed my way past Chiron, biting my tongue when a yell of pain threatened to come out. Almost on cue, a scream came from outside the Big House.

Quickening my pace, I left the little recovery area and made it into the sunshine, where I stopped for a breather and looked for the source of the scream. The centaur was right behind me, transformed into his full half-horse, half-man state. He took an arrow out and latched it onto his bow's string, also trying to find out where the scream had come from.

It didn't take long to see the smoke. It was completely black, and looked thick enough to suffocate a person. Forgetting my arm for a moment, I started running. The fire was coming from the Hephaestus cabin. The burly mechanics were running around, getting water and yelling for help. I gaped, the flames were huge.

"Someone get Percy!" a girl from the Hecate cabin was screaming, waving her hands and running around in circles. My heart clenched even at the name.

"Make sure there are no dryads around," Chiron said loudly and calmly, returning his bow to his back. "Begin forming a line to the river!"

But even I could tell it was too late. The fire was consuming the cabin too fast; it was acting like a monster in itself, licking it's lips as it devoured the last bit of wood. Standing in the middle of the rubble was none other than Leo Valdez. I suppressed a laugh at the look on his face.

"It wasn't me?" he tried sheepishly, patting out a stray flame in his hair.

"Valdez, what happened?" Chiron asked grimly. I could tell he was trying not to get angry.

"It was my fault," another Hephaestus kid said, ducking his head and stepping forward. "I told him the news about Percy when he was...unprepared."

"Dude, you woke me up in the middle of the nap and told me one of my closest friends is in danger," Leo complained. "How did you think I was going to react?"

The kid blushed and ran off.

"I think you've scared him," Chiron noted, but I saw the corner of his mouth twitch.

"He'll get over it," Leo waved his hand, stepping towards us and then looking at me like he hadn't noticed me before. "Oh, Luke. Hi! I didn't know you knew…"

"…your sister's birthday was today," the centaur finished, giving the tinker a warning look that I caught easily.

"Oh, er, yeah. That. Um, Luke? You realize that you're swaying, right?"

I did, but I couldn't do anything about it. The pain from my arm had suddenly hit me full on. The world spun and suddenly I couldn't tell the difference from the sky and the grass below me.

Leo took two long steps and caught me. It took me a couple seconds before I realized that I had been falling.

"We'd better get him to an Apollo kid," he said. "What happened?"

"He got hit with a couple arrows in the arm. We haven't figured out exactly who or what was shooting at him and Vaz, but whatever it was managed to stick them both."

"Vaz is hurt?" Leo faltered, and I knew why. He always acted like Vaz was his own daughter, since she got abandoned by her father when she was little. Even though he hadn't personally raised her, they had formed a really special bond that everyone in the camp recognized.

"She'll be fine, Luke here… we had to give him some ambrosia and it didn't sit well with him. He won't be perfectly fine for at least a couple of weeks. He's lucky he has demi-god genes in him; there could've been serious consequences."

"What? Like getting my parents kidnapped?" the pain had cleared up enough for me to focus my vision and talk. The ache from my arm was nothing to the one in my heart. "Like getting Jade's best friend shot in the back and ruining my sister's sixteenth birthday party? Gee, I'm sure glad we avoided that."

I tried to remove myself from Leo's grip, but he had gotten a lot stronger. Instead of the really weak, skinny looking boy he was in all of Mom and Dad's old photographs, he had bulked up a lot, even though he remained his wiry, lanky self. I hoped that would happen to me someday.

"You need to rest," the son of Hephaestus said firmly. "And take a chill pill. None of this is your fault?"

"Oh really?" my vision was going red, but whether it was from pain or anger I couldn't tell. "Tell me, would all of that had happened if I had just stayed in camp?"

Neither him or Chiron seemed to have an answer for that. This time I was able to tug myself from Leo's grasp and leave, getting a little shock when I jolted my arm. I was tired of everyone acting like I wasn't to blame, because it was completely obvious that it was. I just needed to find Mom and Dad. Then everything would be okay again…

I made it back to the Poseidon cabin without any problems. I shoved a couple of Dad's shirts and some other necessities into a bag and started towards the Big House. I could probably sneak out some provisions no problem. Before I could make it that far, I was stopped by none other than Jade.

"You're out of bed already?" she snapped, obviously still angry.

"Leave me alone," I muttered, trying to move around her. Looking at her green eyes made my eyes mist up at the corners… oh Dad, I'm sorry…

"No! And what in Hades do you think you're doing?" she asked, seeing the bag. "Are you going off on another thoughtless journey? Come on, Luke, look at what happened last time!"

"Leave me alone!" Maybe if I just said the same thing over and over, she would actually listen to me for once in her life. I got past her and started to walk away.

"Think: what would Mom and Dad do?" she yelled at my back.

"Judging from all the stories I've heard, the exact same thing," I said under my breath and continued to the Big House. When I got to where the provisions were kept, I found a strange sight. Shoving packages of bread and ham into a backpack of her own was none other than Vaz. She dropped the pack when she saw me.

"Look, it's not what it looks like…" she started.

"Calm down, I'm here for the same thing," I interrupted, going down to the steps.

"You're going to go after Percy and Annabeth?" Why did she sound so surprised?
"You mean, Mom and Dad? Duh. The question is: why are you going after them?"

She did the last thing I thought she would: Vaz Rickie actually started crying. And not just little tears, but wracking sobs that made me feel actually sorry for her.

"It's all my fault," she managed, wiping boogers all over her sweater. "I should have just stopped you."

I couldn't help but gape at her. "How can you say that? I'm the one to blame; I'm the one who went into the stupid woods stupidly. Ergo your nickname for me: stupid."

Vaz cocked her head, sniffles subsiding. "You are pretty stupid, aren't you," she said slowly, but with a smile.

That sounded like an insult, but her smile was contagious. "Yeah, I guess," I said, grinning.

The next few minutes were spent in silence as we both stocked up on food. I packed as much as I could possibly carry, but I knew that I would probably have to restock. Hopefully, I'll manage to figure it out as I go, like all the demi-god's in Mom and Dad's stories, including them.

"So, I guess we're off on a quest and we might not return alive," Vaz mused as she threw a container of peanut-butter in her bag. "How are you feeling?"

"What do you mean we?" I argued. "I'm doing this alone."

"You barely survived three minutes in the woods, do you seriously think I'm going to let you go alone on a quest? No, no, no. I owe it to Jade to get her parents back, and I don't think she would cope well with you dying."

"Like she would care," I muttered, but I don't think she heard me. Nevertheless, I let Vaz follow me when I left the building. It seemed odd that even though it was obvious I was about to leave, no one was stopping me. A small team of campers had started rebuilding the Hephaestus cabin, and others wandered here and there, all of them doing something or other and none of them meeting my eyes or even looking my way.

"Do you notice… something strange?" Vaz was looking just as uneasy as I felt.

"You mean besides the fact that it's like we're invisible? Nope. Everything is just normal."

It got even weirder when I tried to say hi to Leo, who was passing by. My greeting was met by him completely ignoring me… and then walking right through me.

"Okay, definitely something strange," I said. Judging how wide Vaz's eyes were, she had seen what had just happened.

Go, a woman's voice suddenly said in my head. I am watching you my child.

"What. Was. That." I was completely freaked out by now.

"That was my Mom," Vaz said in awe. "She's given us her blessing. I think that's what's going on here."

"Well, as long as we have her blessing," I scoffed. It startled me when I was stopped by a hand on my shoulder.

"A god's blessing is serious, Luke," Vaz's eyes pierced my own. "It's a sign."

"I hope it means we'll win," I said, adjusting the strap on my bag so it wasn't putting too much pressure on my bad shoulder. I had grabbed an entire case of ambrosia, but I wasn't planning on using it. It just comforted me to know that I had an emergency back-up plan… just in case.

"Me too, stupid."

And with that, we were on our way.

Soooooo, what do you guys think of Vaz? She's a charmer ;) Let me know what you guys think pweeezzzzzzzz *puppy dog face* I don't care if it's a one worded review or a paragraph, to hear your feedback really improves the fanfiction. I hope that I'm not making anyone OOC, but if I am let me know, okay? I can't stand it when people don't portray the characters right, and I'm sure you guys feel the same way :P ANYHOW the next chapter might not come as soon as this one did, but who knows… your reviews always boost my inspiration *cough*hint*cough*hint*cough* ;D Thanks everyone!