"I don't… I don't understand…" stammered Annabeth, pacing outside the Big House, "Where could they have gone? Why would Zeus do something like this?"

Percy sat on the grass, twirling Riptide in his hands. He sighed heavily. "What if it wasn't Zeus?"

"Well who could it be Percy?" She turned and snapped at him, gray eyes blazing. "They were my friends. My family." She whimpered, looking at him with tear filled eyes.

"They are mine too." He said to her softly as he got up and wrapped her in a hug. She sobbed quietly into his shoulder while he rubbed her back making soothing noises. "They just need to be found, Annabeth. The other Gods wouldn't allow that to happen."

He dug a Drachmae out of his pocket and pulled away from Annabeth heading over to the hose on the side of the House.

"Oh Iris, accept my offering!" Percy said as he threw the coin into the spray of water, "Show me Chiron!"

The mist shimmered as the picture changed to Chiron taking care of wounded Campers.

"Chiron!" Annabeth screamed in excitement.

His sad eyes turned to look at the two young demigods who had already seen so much death and destruction.

"Chiron," Percy said quietly, "What happened?"

"We had to evacuate…" Their teacher's voice was barely a whisper. "We've never seen anything like this before. I can't talk right now there's so much…" he trailed off.

"Where are you?" Annabeth questioned desperately.

"New Rome" was all he said as the picture shimmered and the water returned to normal.

The couple shared a look. They knew that this was going to take a little longer than a weekend.

"Hey," said a new voice, "Chiron sent me, said you guys might need some help."

"Oh my gods! Nico!" Annabeth tackled the poor boy in a hug. Mrs. O' Leary wagged her tail wildly, as she covered Percy in slobbery kisses.

"We have to get to New Rome as soon as possible…" Nico said as Percy pulled him into a bro hug.

"Wait," Percy and Annabeth said together, "What happened?"

"About that, I think it's best if I just let Chiron explain…"

"Let's get going then!" Annabeth said impatiently as she began climbing on Mrs. O'Leary. The two boys followed her lead and Nico brought them to New Rome.

Unlike Camp Half Blood, New Rome was a beehive of activity. Demigods young and old were running around carrying bandages and other first aid essentials.

"I'll go get Reyna…" Nico said running off, "You guys stay right there!"

The pair waited impatiently, feeling absolutely useless because they didn't know how to help the people around them. After about five minutes, Nico came sprinting back to them.

"Follow me," he motioned them to go to where he came from. "Reyna's inside. Frank's in the infirmary trying to get people organized. She's a little wiped out, I don't think she's slept much these past couple days…" He opened the door to her office. Reyna was in a heated discussion with Chiron. She was telling him what wasn't done and how they didn't have the man power to do it all while Chiron took her arm and lead her to the infirmary to sleep. The trio sat in eerie silence as they waited for Chiron to return to explain what had happened.

"Percy… Annabeth," the old centaur sighed, "Too much has happened…"

The young demigods looked at him with eager, pleading eyes.

The centaur rubbed his temples, "You know how some Gods have feuds?"

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other knowingly.

"Do you remember how Zeus was upset with Apollo and Artemis tried to smooth it over?" Chiron questioned, "Well it didn't work."

"But Chiron," Annabeth interrupted, "How does that affect the Camp?" Percy's face was filled with confusion.

"Camp Half Blood is a haven for young demigods. We teach you how to protect yourself," the old teacher stopped and swallowed, talking a breath, "The Hunters came and visited us," Annabeth rolled her eyes, knowing all too well the attitude of the Hunters towards the Campers. "They weren't very happy with Artemis getting punished for something that was, and I quote, "our fault". And you can only imagine how that went over with a lot of the camp…" He paused letting the young demigods envision what went down at the Camp. "We teach you to protect yourselves against monsters. The Camp had turned into a civil war battleground."

"How does that make the Camp disappear though?" Percy questioned.

"A house divided will not stand," Annabeth stated simply, while staring off blankly through a window in Reyna's praetor office.

Chiron gave her a sad, small nod, "It seems as though Zeus thought it was better to not have a Camp at all. All we have left is New Rome."

"When did the battle happen?" Annabeth asked, turning to look at her teacher and her best friend.

"It happened last week, a day after you two sent me the iris message."

Percy shook his head and looked at Chiron, "But how could this be what Artemis wants? That doesn't make sense."

"That's what we're trying to figure out. The punishment that was inflicted on the Twins is not personally what I would have done…" A low rumble of thunder growled in the background and Chiron looked up to the sky, "But I do not think that what the Hunters did was what Artemis would have wanted. She wouldn't have wanted blood spilled over this."

"How many are dead?" Annabeth's voice was small and strained. Her arms were crossed and she wouldn't meet the eyes of the other two.

"We were lucky. Only six campers dead, but many were wounded. The Apollo campers are the most hurt but we need them for healing. Will and three others have been frantically working at healing the fatally wounded campers but Will has a broken wrist and he can't call on Apollo for help while the others have stitches themselves. I've been doing everything I can with healing campers but a few of us doing it isn't enough. We have other campers changing bandages and distributing ambrosia and nectar to those in pain. For the new Camp, a basic healing course is going to have to be required." He let out an exasperated sigh and chuckled through his nose.

They sat in silence for a while, not looking at each other. Just pondering the effects the Gods had on their children and the cause and effects of actions that seem harmless that end up snowballing out of control until that snowball has almost destroyed everything in its path.

"What can we do to help," Percy broke the silence. Annabeth stared at Chiron expectantly.

"Before Apollo was punished, the Oracle gave us another prophecy."

Author's Note:

Thank you everybody for your awesome reviews and favorites/follows! Sorry it took me so long to update, however with summer right around the corner updates should be much more frequent.

What'd y'all think of this chapter? Anything you want to see?

Unofficial Beta: impossiblesociety (y'all should really check her out her writing is prime)

Thank you for reading!

Zoetat