Right. So, I've been seriously busy, writing a math paper and homework and concerts..,. Also I'm not the best at managing my time, as you've probably noticed. That said, I AM SO SORRY! Really, really, really sorry.

Chapter 4 : Busted

Percy shook me awake, with a weird look in his eyes. "You lied."

Still half asleep, I yawned, "What?"

"I had these dreams full of these people who I can't remember. One of them asked about you." He scrunched up his eyebrows. "She looked a bit like me."

Oh shit. Alex, why?

I tried to look confused. "I don't know what you're talking about. I swear, this is the first time I saw you."

He shook his head, not convinced. "No, I felt like I knew you when I first saw you. There's something wrong with this and I'm going to find out what." He stood up and exited, joining the others who were hurrying for the senate meeting.

I put my head in my hands. "Well, at least Alex is doing fine." I muttered.

Alex's POV

I was not doing fine. First, we finally got contact with Percy and he didn't even recognize me, which to be fair, I was expecting, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt. Then, Annabeth, overjoyed, hurried over to Sally to tell her the good news. Then, she came back and hauled me into the Big House.

And that brought me here, sitting uncomfortably across from Annabeth who was glaring a hole in my head.

I got up. "Look, if you have nothing to say, I'll just…" I scooted towards the door.

She growled. "Sit."

I sat.

Something very wrong was going on here.

Annabeth leaned forward. "You said that there were no other books. You said that you didn't know what was happening to Percy. You said that we just had to wait and see!" Her voice had been rising so by the end, she was shouting. "So what's this?" Rummaging around in her backpack, she took out a Barnes & Noble bag.

Oh no.

Taking the book out, she yelled. "I can't believe you didn't tell me!" She read off the cover. "The Son of Neptune. I was just in such a good mood and I saw a bookstore so I went in to buy my first book in a while and I see this! I had to buy it." She winded down, her face red.

I said cautiously. "So, did you read it?"

That was the wrong thing to say.

"Of course I read it!"

"So, you know that Percy and you get reunited at the end. Happy ending right?"

She looked at me, shocked. "He drinks gorgon's blood!"

"But he survives! Annabeth, why are you so mad over one book? I just didn't want you to change fate or something."

"It's not just one book!" She screamed, crying. She reached in the bag again and tossed The Mark of Athena at me.

Oh shit.

My reaction to Percabeth being pulled into Tartarus was bad enough. Annabeth's reaction was mine x 1000.

"I get pulled into Tartarus…" I tried to comfort her but she flinched. "Get away from me!"

I stood my ground. "Come on Annabeth, everything's going to be fine." Terrible thing to say when she just learned she was going to hell, but I wasn't that great at comforting people.

"You know what's happening to him right now. You know what's going to happen. I know what's going to happen and it's tearing me up inside. How come you don't feel anything?! Aren't you the least bit worried? He's your brother!"

"Yeah. That's exactly the reason why I'm not worried. Because I know him. And I know that he's going to make it. And I trust him to come back."

She gulped. "And Tartarus?"

"You'll survive."

"You suck, you know that? What about Bob and Damasen?" Don't you think about them? They died!"

I snapped. "You think I don't know that?! I'm worried too, you know. Things were the same for me in my quest and I could just follow the book, but how do I know that it's going to be the same for his? And Robbie's in that quest too…" I trailed off. "But I know that he'll be fine. If anything else, I believe that he'll be fine. So stop moping around and don't even think about changing the future."

Well that was a terrible way to handle the problem.

Robbie's POV

I followed Frank to breakfast and we joked around with Hazel and Percy. Well, Percy was still giving me the silent treatment and instead stared at me all the time. I cleared my throat. "Hey, Percy."

He stood up. "I'm getting another glass of orange juice."

Frank looked at me curiously. "What's going on between you two? It's like post rejection awkwardness."

I choked. "Not! Seriously, Frank, where do you get these ideas? He just thinks I'm hiding something."

Vitellius appeared behind me. "And if you were hiding something from the glorious Roman Empire, that is treason!" He stabbed me in the back a few times.

"Ouch." I said in the most deadpan voice I could possibly make. Frank snickered but Vitellius looked smug.

"Indeed. Hurry to the senate meeting." He sighed. "Rome used to be so great…" He went off, shaking his head and sighing.

Hazel pulled us along. "Come on, guys!"

As we neared the Senate House, I heard an annoying voice. "Ahem. Who are you?"

"Umm, I'm Robbie. Robbie Feldsman. Son of Apollo?"

"Ah yes, of course. Go on in."

I sighed with relief.

"No weapons though, young man! Rules are rules."

I grudgingly handed my bow and arrows to Julia, who smiled at me, then I went inside. It was the opposite of Camp Half Blood. If I was there, there would have been fights and yelling, but here, it was all order.

It was stifling.

Reyna took the stage. "Citizens of Rome. We are not here to debate the quest, however we are here to question Frank Zhang's choice in companions."

Octavian spoke up. "Excellent idea Reyna. I believe that Robbie Feldsman is not qualified for this quest. If I may make a suggestion…"

"He was ordered to go on this quest by Mars Ultor himself, along with Percy Jackson. He is part of this quest, no exceptions." Gwen fired back.

Reyna nodded her head. "That's true. Robbie must go on this quest."

Octavian opened his mouth to argue, but Reyna beat him to the spot. "No exceptions."

He closed his mouth and glared at me. I shot back a smug smile. We were in the middle of a staring contest when Octavian suddenly stood up.

"Our praetor is right. She is only following the rules set forth by our gracious protector, Mars Ultor. Frank Zhang must lead this quest and Robbie and Percy must accompany him. It is what our praetor has commanded and I wish them luck on this treacherous journey."

He sat down and smiled at me. Frank stepped forward and suddenly as Octavian did whatever it was that he did, a tattoo appeared on his arm. Seriously, I really wanted to know how that happened. Was there a god of tattoo burning or what?

Octavian asked Frank a question and as he was a bit preoccupied, I stood up. "Alaska. Duh."

"Yes, well how will you get there? And how do you plan on surviving long enough to free Thanatos?"

Good questions to which my answer was, "We'll improvise. Do it as we get there."

Octavian raised his eyebrows to the audience. "Yes, well you need some sort of plan."

Percy stood up. "We'll take a boat."

Octavian started laughing as did the rest of the Senate. "The son of Neptune asks for a boat! We Romans don't exactly like boats, but he's not much of a Roman, isn't he?"

The crowd responded with howls of laughter.

Which quickly stopped as Reyna's voice carried across the hall. "Enough. You will have access to the whole of Rome's navy. That should be enough."

Percy looked at me. "The whole navy, did you hear that?"

"The whole navy is one ship Percy" I sighed.

Percy looked down for a bit but then he perked up. "It's still a shi… Wait. I'm supposed to be mad at you." And he turned right around and crossed his arms.

The Senate was put to the vote and thankfully it passed. I sighed in relief. If things changed, I didn't know what to do.

As we left the Senate, Octavian caught up to us. "Hey, Jackson."

Percy turned around with a glare. "What?"

"So I'm your enemy now? Not the best choice. I'm loyal and a good soldier and…"

I interrupted. "And for a descendant of Apollo, you're pretty good at lying."

"Oh wow Feldsman. I didn't know you hated me that much." He clucked his tongue. "And all I was doing was sending you a message. Jackson. You can go meet Reyna with Feldsman over there. It'll be a nice private meeting. Without those two"

Percy hurried to the principia while Frank and Hazel after giving me a curious glance and walked away. As I followed Percy, Octavian called my name. "There's something weird about you, you know. Something not right. I can sense it. Oh, and Feldsman? It's not lying, it's more bending the truth."

Seriously? Everybody thinks I'm weird nowadays. I didn't even do anything!

"Great."

My gods, that was a terrible comeback.

With that, I ran to catch up to Percy at the principia.

When I got there I saw Percy sitting in one of the praetor chairs, studiously not making eye contact. "Hey, Percy. I get that you don't trust me right now but come on."

Silence.

I gave up and sat down.

Reyna stormed in, her cloak flying. Her eyes flashed as she grumbled, "Idiot. Stupid. Why did I even…"

Percy looked confused. "Am I not supposed to sit on this chair or something?"

"Percy. I don't think she's in the mood." I turned to Reyna. "Why'd you call us here?"

She looked at me. "I needed to talk to Percy about the camp but first, I need to ask you a few questions."

This is not my day, is it…

Percy perked up, probably wanting answers to whatever suspicions he had about me.

Reyna continued. "Octavian keeps on bugging me to interrogate you so this is just a formality. Did you know Percy from before he came to camp?"

My mind raced. "I met him a few times."

Percy leaped up. "Ha! I knew it!" At Reyna's glare, he shut up and sat down.

"Is that all?"

Damn, a yes or no question. I glanced at the dogs and flinched as they snarled at me. "Uh, no?"

"What else, Robbie?" Reyna looked stern.

"I might be dating his sister?" My voice trailed off as I saw Percy's face turn white then red.

"I have a sister?" Percy sounded wistful. Then he got mad. "And you're dating her? And you didn't even tell me I had a sister! What the hell, Robbie?"

"Maybe it's because I knew you'd react like this," I muttered. Percy got up, breathing heavily.

"Stop!" Reyna banged her hand on the table. "Robbie, what's going on?"

"I uhh…" Out with it, I guess. "I'm Greek?"

The reaction was immediate. A sword lay less than an inch away from my neck. Reyna hissed. "What?"

"Greek. Uhh, you know…"

"I know. What does that have to do with knowing Percy?"

"Yeah." Percy butt in. "What does that have to do with me?"

"He's Greek too…"

"And…"

"Camp and stuff."

Reyna's eyes widened. "There's a camp for you Greeks?"

I shrugged. "It's not like we're here to destroy you or something."

"Oh really. Two Greeks come into this camp at the exact same time and you're trying to…"

"Okay I know it looks bad but really I didn't come here to…"

Reyna lowered her sword. "Spill."

"Huh?"

"Tell me everything. Where you come from, what you're doing here, everything."

Percy shuffled his feet around. "Well, I'll have nothing to add, amnesia and all. But I want to hear this story."

Oh Alex, please don't kill me.

With that, I proceeded to tell them everything, knowing what was going to happen in the future and all. When I finished, Reyna and Percy looked at me like I was crazy.

"You expect me to believe that." Reyna drummed her fingers on the table.

"Yes?"

"Then tell me something that hasn't happened yet, or something that would prove that you know things."

I thought hard. "Your sister is Hylla and she's the queen of the Amazons. Before that, you worked for…" I paused. Who did she work for again?

Reyna leaned forward. "Yes?"

"Umm, Circe! You worked for Circe and then Percy and Annabeth came and released pirates." I finished with relief. I really needed to brush up on the books.

Reyna looked surprised. She started pacing around and finally stopped. "I'll keep your little secret Robbie. But Octavian's not going to stop digging. And I'll be keeping an eye on you." She turned to Percy. "Can we talk now? Privately?" She sent me a look and I got the hint.

Walking out the door, my whole body relaxed. And immediately tensed back up again when I wondered what Alex would think.

We got busted.

Christmas update!

I am really sorry though.