Annabeth's grip tightened on the shield. Anxiety and anticipation gripped her chest with a frozen hand as adrenaline began to pump through her bloodstream. Her breathing became erratic as the ship began to descend towards a huge field of dirt in between what looked like a military camp and a city of beautiful - No, she thought, marvelous and awesome - architecture.

Annabeth glanced around to see how the others were doing. Droplets of sweat were forming above Leo's brow as he attempted to land the ship smoothly and neatly. He had stopped fussing about with the gauges and instead was focussing on the monitor before him, carefully pulling and pushing levers this way and that.

Piper was pacing even faster than before, but her pacing didn't carry her on her normal path; she strode from Jason to the mast instead of balistae to mast. She kept murmuring her lines over and over to herself, but quietly now so that Annabeth no longer felt compelled to obey the other girl.

Lastly, Jason was the same as earlier, except for the veins that were prominent in his pale and slightly unsteady hands as they clutched tighter around the hilt of his sword. His face was impassive, almost cold, as he stared out across the boundaries of his old home.

The trireme gave a sudden lurch for which none of them was prepared, snapping Annabeth out of her reverie. Annabeth toppled over and fell on top of Piper, who had just been pacing past her. "Oh, gods. Sorry, Piper," she apologized as she scrambled up.

"No problem." Piper sighed and sat up. Annabeth could hear a string of curses coming from Leo's general direction and a nervous laugh from Jason. She closed her eyes and fought down the urge to tell Leo to land faster. It wouldn't help anything besides her nerves to go any faster.

Annabeth went back looking over the edge of the ship, once again turning to her thoughts. What was it that could go wrong? Would Percy not remember her? Would the Romans attack when they came out? Would Jason turn on them?
NO, she told herself. NO, HE WON'T. STOP THINKING THAT. JASON IS A FRIEND.

A large thump rocked the boat, and Annabeth thought for a fleeting second that the Romans had begun to attack, but it wasn't that. The ship wasn't moving anymore, and Leo was grinning ear to ear in what seemed to be relief.
They had landed.

As Leo prepared for them to disembark, Jason stepped down from his platform, Piper began muttering her lines again, and Annabeth began searching for Percy. She couldn't see him in the crowd before them, but perhaps he was in the group that was just arriving, full of kids in togas, adults, and ... Ghosts? Annabeth scanned the cluster of people until her eyes rested on three heads, two of them had black hair and one had dark brown curls. And one mop of hair looked VERY familiar.

He had his arm around the other two, and the darker-skinned one with curls was definitely a girl. Annabeth couldn't see their faces, but she was quite sure the girl was very pretty. Annabeth's chest seemed to collapse in on itself and she found it hard to breathe. A hand was placed on her shoulder. Annabeth warily turned, a hand on her knife ready to whip it out at a moment's notice, but it was just Piper, who spoke only two words. "We're ready."

Annabeth inhaled and exhaled deeply before going to stand by the ladder as Jason and Piper lowered themselves, closely followed by Leo. Taking another deep breath to calm herself, she glanced back at the deck to make sure Gleeson was still inside and, after hearing a grunt of defeat from a fighter on TV and attempting to untangle the knot of nerves in her stomach, she descended to the ground below.

The Romans were definitely hostile, but a few words from Piper put them at ease.

"Please," she urged with her charmspeak, "lower your weapons. We just want to talk." With her voice above muttering tones, Annabeth wasn't able to prevent herself lfrom listening to the other girl. She unsheathed her knife and set it down on the ground, and she could see Jason doing the same with his sword and Leo untying his utility belt out of the corner of her eye. The Romans lowered their weapons, if somewhat hesitantly. But when the girl with the purple cape of a praetor dropped her dagger to the ground, the others followed suit, ridding themselves of daggers and knives, spears and lances, swords and glaci. Through the mass of bodies, Annabeth was pretty sure she could see a pen being set on the ground by a hand that was calloused by many battles and lots of training.

"Thank you," Piper continued. "You all know about the war coming with Gaia. Am I correct?" A few people nodded in response. "Good. And as you know, your praetor, Jason Grace, was swapped with the leader of our camp, Camp Half-Blood for Greek demigods, by Hera, or Juno for you.

"Our oracle at Camp also produced a prophecy last summer after the Titan war. We understand that you have had it here for many centuries, but we just wanted to make sure. It goes:

Seven half-bloods will 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.

"We know that the first line refers to Jason, Percy, three more from our camp, and two more from yours. We are unsure about what the second and thrid lines refer to, but we do know that the final line refers to Gaia opening the doors of death. If you know more, we would appreciate your knowledge."

Reyna nodded thoughtfully. "We do not know much more than you, only that Thanatos was recently freed by Frank Zhang, Percy Jackson, and Hazel Levesque. We also know that the Ambassador of Pluto has been taken by Gaia's forces and is currently being held at the doors of death."

As Annabeth processed the information, something occurred to her. "You have children of the Big Three at your camp? we only have a son of Hades, Percy, and we used to have a daughter of Zeus."

"We only have Jason and Hazel, but we used to also somewhat have the Ambassador of Pluto - Nico di Angelo."

"Nico?" Annabeth almost shouted.

"Yes," Reyna calmly replied. "Why?"

"Because Percy and I, along with another demigod and a satyr, found Nico and Bianca di Angelo two-" Annabeth was cut off by Gleeson Hedge running off the ship and yelling, "Die, cupcakes! Die!"

Utter chaos broke out. The Romans picked their weapons up and the centurions broke up into five groups of two each. Piper futilely tried to calm them down, but to no avail. Reyna joined the group against Jason; Hazel against Piper; and Percy, with his green eyes filled with anger and sorrow, accompanied the girl and boy who were fighting Annabeth.

The next ten minutes were a blur to her. She fought the two Romans desperately, and eventually took them out, only to find herself facing HIM - Percy. He was actually FIGHTING her, and not just verbally about some stupid thing or for practice, but really, REALLY fighting her. What she remembered most vividly about the moment was his eyes: the fury in them, and the tenderness; how she thought, IT'S JUST LIKE PRACTICE, and almost smiled; how he raised his sword and she raised her knife.

And they fought. Annabeth, who knew Percy's style better than anyone, hado problem dodging, blocking, and parrying every one of his blows. And he did the same with her strikes. She was just beginning to enjoy herself when her knife got through Percy's defense and got a slice at his skin. She braced for the sudden, sharp stinging which occurred after contact was made, however light, with his curse of Achilles by a weapon, but instead scarlet blood welled up quickly at the lip of the fresh wound. Annabeth stopped what she was doing and stared at it, then looked up into Percy's face. He smiled, and she attacked. Percy hurriedly brought his sword back up again.

"You - STUPID - Seaweed - Brain!" she grunted out with each strike. "You get kidnapped by Hera, come here and don't contact me for SIX MONTHS, and then you loose your mark of Achilles!" After saying that and fighting at the same time, Annabeth was out of breath.

"Actually," Percy interjected, "I've only been here about a wee-"

"And then you don't even remember me or camp, so you probably don't even know what I'm talking about or who I am besides an architect and a daughter of Athena. You DAMN Seaweed Brain." She said the last part quietly so as not to let her voice break and show weakness. She could feel tears stinging the backs of her eyes as she held them back, fighting for the freedom she wanted her soul to have. Suddenly a strike brought them face to face with each other, knife and sword crossed in an x, barring the little distance between their chests.

"Hey!" Percy exclaimed softly. His eyes looked hard as celestial bronze. "Don't you dare-" OH, GODS. I'M IN FOR IT NOW. Annabeth prepared herself to block a blow, but she was completely unready for what happened. Percy leaned in and closed the mere centimeters that lay between them and put his lips against hers. It was a sweet, simple kiss which filled Annabeth so completely that she almost dropped her knife. When they broke apart, Percy continued his sentence. "-ever think that I would forget you."

"But Hera. Didn't she-"

"You were the only thing I remembered until a few days ago. You were what kept me going."

Annabeth blushed and smiled, then, suddenly remembering their situation, glanced about to see almost every face on the field staring at them. Annabeth could imagine their thoughts. LOVE ON THE BATTLEFIELD BETWEEN THE GREAT AND MIGHTY PRAETOR AND THE LOW AND UNWORTHY GRAECUS! WHAT NEXT? A Pegasus and a UNICORN GETTING TOGETHER?