Well, happy winter solstice, I guess. Funny, its actually my parents' anniversary today...weird. Anyway, one of you brought up a good point last chapter. Ahem, quote: "what happened to all the other characters like Zoë (Perish)?" I've answered via PM, but I think you guys should all know.

I think we can all agree my previous stories are basically crap. I mean, as a critic looking in, it's choppy. I just don't want to wade through all of it to clean it up. Too much effort. Initially, I thought characters like Peter Montgomery, Mariah Evans, and Zoë Perish were a good idea. I came to realize they clashed with the real characters. The name Zoë had already been used, Mariah being sister to Thalia is just messed up, and as for Peter, I began to neglect him until he disappeared entirely. I know it's all really bad and I'll probably get flames for it, but, I'm better now, at least.

And honestly, I don't think you'll be disappointed when you see what I've got in store for the sequel to Percy Jackson and the New Era. Wink wink.

8/

Percy's POV

I was glad when Tony offered to switch spots with me. Now Annabeth and I were in the backseat, her completely out, me halfway to sleep.

"Percy."

"Mmph," I grumbled.

"Percy."

"Go away."

"PERCY."

My eyes snapped open. I sat up so fast Annabeth's head slid off my shoulder, waking her up. "Thalia?" I asked.

Thalia Grace smiled inside the mist. "Yeah. Listen, I got a message for you—NICO, SHUT UP AND GO AWAY!" The pounding at the door of the Zeus cabin stopped.

"What's going on?" I said.

"What?" she snapped. "Nothing. Um, right, message: Alice says you have an hour to get to D.C.—"

"We're five minutes out," Tony called.

"—and Nico sends you another message: 'Take care of the hole'. He said you would know what that meant."

I paled. "Crap." I realized Thalia was looking at me questioningly. "Um, thanks, Thalia. See ya!" I swiped my hand through the mist.

"She'll be pissed at you later," Annabeth warned, rubbing her eyes.

"I know," I said. "Tony, how—"

"We're here." Our eyes immediately went to the window. We were finally here.

"Look, the Washington Monument," I pointed out the window.

Annabeth shook her head. "We're not allowed near there. Let's just take care of this."

Tony stepped on it. Annabeth pointed out and explained every building with architectural value to the point of brain-explosion. Tony and I just pretended to listen, until finally—

"Yes!" Tony interrupted Annabeth's speech on the Smithsonian museum of something. "Finally!"

We were parked just across the street from the White House. "Thank the gods," I muttered.

"Okay, game plan: Tony, you're diversion coordinator," Annabeth began when Tony's hand shot up. "What?"

"What does diversion coordinator mean?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You get to create a distraction." Tony grinned. She went on, "Percy and I will break into the White House and do the job. Then we do Ares's stupid favor, and it's off to L.A."

"But Thalia said we only have a day," Tony protested. "How're we going to all that in one day?"

"We'd have to be superheroes or something," I remarked.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "We're demigods, right? We are superheroes." She got out of the car before Tony or me could say anything.

"Someone's getting cocky," Tony sighed, opening the door.

"Dude, she's right," I muttered, but I got out too.

"Okay," Annabeth began, "if I remember right, the best way to get inside the building is through the east side of the west wing."

"What?" Tony and I said.

"Tony, go be chaos."

He snapped a mock salute. "Diversion coordinator, at your service." He ran off.

"What now?" I asked Annabeth. Hey, I'm Percy Jackson. I kill monsters, not make up plans. I found out it's better to rely on Wise Girl for that, anyway.

She was thinking. "I'll go in the front door. Just follow the west colonnade to the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Office. When I open the window, get inside. Got it?"

"Um, yes?"

"Good." She stuffed her cap on her head. "Remember: west colonnade, Rose Garden, window," her voice reminded me.

"Got it," I confirmed. Then I felt her leave. "What the hell's a colonnade?" I muttered to myself.

Tony's POV

Ring. Ring.

"Hello?"

Hang up.

Dial.

Ring. Ri—

"Yo."

Hang up.

Dial.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

"Beckett."

Hang up.

I guessed around five to six phone calls should be enough. I sat on a park bench, sword hidden and ready, waiting for something to—

Scream.

"Guess that's my cue," I muttered to myself. I followed the sounds of crashing and screaming. "HEY!"

The monster whirled on me. Crap. Really? I thought. Sea monster? On LAND? It looked at me for a second, puzzled, before deciding to mutilate me with razor-sharp teeth the size of my arm. I dived out of the way, rolling, and brandished my sword.

"LET'S GO, MOTHERF***ER!" I screamed, ignoring the shocked looks of mortals and old people. I could've easily killed that son of a whore, but I turned and ran.

You'd better be inside the godsdamn White House, Perce, I thought.

Annabeth's POV

It was easy to slip in with some lawyers. When I was in, I was glad that I knew the floor plan of the White House so well. I ducked past a couple senators and through a doorway. From the looks of it, I was in the lower dining room.

I quickly went out another door, through the Roosevelt Room, and past the inner hallway into the Oval Office. Luckily no one was inside. I opened one of the windows. "Seaweed Brain," I called. "Give me your hand."

"I can't see your hand."

Whoops. I took off my hat, grabbed Percy's arm, and dragged him inside. He just stood there, gaping at the Oval Office—which I have to admit is pretty amazing, when—

"Jordan, please make sure Malia practices the piano at 2:00, and that Sasha's at tennis at the same time. Oh, and Bo needs a haircut so if you could just…"

Crap! I jammed my hat on my head just as the door opened, and the president walked in. I stood frozen as he stopped right in front of me, looking around the room in confusion.

"Do you smell that?"

Oh, f***, I couldn't help thinking. The perfume. I'm no Aphrodite girl, it's just I literally ran into a woman who smelled like she took a bath in it. It must've rubbed off on me.

"No, sir," the man in black said.

The president shrugged, then went to sit at his desk and do president things. Jordan, the man, stood at his side, looking very Secret Service.

I crouched by Percy, who was hiding behind one of the couches. "How should we play this?" I whispered in his ear.

He jumped. "Gods, Wise Girl. Um, get rid of the Secret Service first."

"On it."

I got up, then studied the spoon at my side. I guessed breaking a window would be considered a breach. So I chucked it at the glass.

Secret Service immediately moved into action: three of them ran outside, while the other two moved to block the other windows. I tripped one, and turned to take care of the other one, but Percy threw a chair and knocked him out.

I laughed. "Annabeth, take off your hat," Percy said. "That disembodied laugh thing is really creepy."

"Sorry." I stuffed my hat in my pocket.

"Whoa." Percy pushed the president's hand away from the bottom of his desk. "No alarm, please."

"We're not here to kill you, sir," I added. "We just have to tell you something important."

"Oh?" The president's eyebrow shot up. He was surprisingly calm.

Percy nodded. "Sir, my name is—" I elbowed him "—um, better you don't know our names. Anyway, we're demigods. From Camp Half-Blood."

The president looked confused. "Demi what?"

"Gods," I said. "The Greek gods. They always liked to have kids with mortals, right? Well, Heracles, Jason, Theseus, they're all real people. The gods are real."

Thank the gods he was a smart man. "Ah. I see." He took it oddly well.

"My mother is Athena, goddess of wisdom," I explained. "Percy's father is Poseidon, god of the seas. He could prove it, but we don't have much time."

"Our point is: don't attack us," Percy told him. "We don't like hurting people. We don't like wars. The last thing we want is to fight you. We're actually on the verge of our own war right now."

"We just want to be normal," I said. "But that's never going to happen, so we try to keep things as safe for everyone as we can."

"We could stand here and explain everything for hours," Percy continued. "But we're kind of on a tight schedule. So—"

"Stay out of our way," I interrupted. "We've got to save your world and ours, and it'd be nice if we didn't have to fight you through it all."

"What she said," Percy agreed.

"ANNABETH! PERCY!" ROAR.

I closed my eyes. "Godsdammit, why does he have to go screaming our names whenever we do anything illegal?"

"Sorry, sir," Percy said. "We're going to have to break your window."

"Wha—?"

I ran and rammed into the window backwards, shifting from a cannonball to a dive, then rolling to my feet, ignoring the glass. "TONY, WHAT THE HELL?" I screamed. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" he yelled. "I KIND OF JUST CALLED A BUNCH OF RANDOM PEOPLE!"

"WHAT! YOU—" I dodged the huge tail coming my way, smashing into Percy. "Ow!" He pushed me out of the way of the hydra's rampage. We hit the grass with two thumps.

"Dammit," he growled, rolling off me. "What is the point of this distraction?"

"Nothing," I said, craning my neck to see how Tony was doing. "Creating a distraction was a distraction to make sure he didn't ruin everything."

"Great."

"GUYS? HELP?"

"Great," I echoed. I jumped up, rolled to avoid the tail, and threw my knife into the hydra's heart. It erupted in gold dust.

"You couldn't just do that?" Percy said to Tony.

"Hey, it's my first day as diversion coordinator, all right?"

I blew my hair out of my eyes, sheathing my knife. "Who cares? Let's get out of here before we're arrested or something."

So we ran. We made it as far as the lawn when something caught my eye. I grabbed Percy's arm. "Wait."

He turned. "What?"

I pointed at a picnic table nearby. "Do you see what I see?"

He squinted. "Is that an apple?"

"I think it's Eris's," I confirmed. "Look at it, it's gold."

"Let's go get it then," Tony said, grinning. He went for it—

"Excuse me miss!"

I turned. Gods. It was a guy in a tux, standing near one of those giant weights. A crowd of people was surrounding him, oohing and ahhing.

"I am the Great Houdini II!" he yelled. "Allow me to guess your age, your weight!"

"No thanks," I said, giving him a weird look. "I'm kind of in the middle of some—"

"It'll only be a moment!" The guy seemed desperate. Guess he didn't get paid so much.

"Just let him do his thing, Annabeth," Tony chided, letting go of my elbow. Percy shrugged in agreement.

"Gods," I muttered. "Fine. Make it fast."

He pointed at me, closed his eyes, and shouted, "145 pounds!"

I stared at him for a second. "What? 145—are you CRAZY?"

Fear flashed across his face. "Um, was I too high or too low? There's a three pound margin error."

"I have a knife."

"Annabeth, let's go," Percy murmured. He and Tony grabbed my elbows and dragged me away from him, but when we turned around, he was there again.

"You can't leave," he said, but something about his voice changed.

"Gods, what now?" Tony grumbled.

"I'm guessing—" I was cut off by the Great Houdini II literally bubbling and smoking, shifting shapes until he was a… "—manticore," I finished.

"You've got to be kidding me," Percy groaned. He uncapped Riptide. Tony unsheathed his sword. I pulled my knife.

"Attack plan Persia," I said. They nodded. We'd been training at camp long enough to memorize each and every attack plan listed at the arena. We knew how to work as a team.

Percy and Tony split up, running at the manticore from two separate sides. I ducked past the volley of spikes and ran to the picnic table, where Eris's golden apple of discord was sitting unattended. I stripped off my jacket and reached for it when something slapped my arm.

"Ow!" I reeled, rubbing the red mark.

"What do you think you're doing?" The voice was sharp. I turned. A young woman was standing next to me, hands on her hips. She was dressed in a white evening gown that hugged her body, right down to the skirt, which had a slit in it to reveal her right leg. Her blonde hair was piled high, tied with what looked like a string of diamonds. Her eyes were gold slits, glaring at me.

"Eris?" I asked.

She straightened, one eyebrow going up. "Ah," her voice went pleasant suddenly. "You are a demigod."

"Yes," I answered cautiously.

Eris pursed her lips, sitting on the picnic bench and crossing her legs. "Who sent you now?"

"Ares," I said.

Eris's expression hardened. "I see." I knew she didn't like that. Eris was violent and, well, a cold bitch, if you wanted to get to the point. If I even touched her apple, she'd probably incinerate me.

"ANNABETH! YOU WANNA HELP US?" Eris's head snapped up to look at Percy and Tony, still fighting the manticore.

I figured I'd been in worse trouble. It was stupid. Probably the only stupid thing I've done. But I took advantage of her distraction. I shoved Eris to the ground, snatched up her apple with my jacket, and ran like Hades was chasing me.

Eris's scream of rage told me she would never forget this insult. But I couldn't focus on that now. Percy and Tony were losing ground. The manticore was winning over. I ran behind it, ran up its back, and plunged my knife into the back of its neck.

"145 pounds MY ASS!" I yelled.

Thalia's POV

I whistled as I stepped out of the arena, headed for my tree on Half-Blood Hill. I didn't know why I kept going back there. Well, I did. The whole getting turned into a tree thing made it a special spot for me. My thinking spot.

Everyone had a thinking spot. Percy's was the beach (duh), Nico's was the cemetery in New York City, mine was here. I think even Annabeth had a thinking spot, but I keep forgetting where it is.

Whoosh. "Thalia!"

"Ah!" I jumped at the sound of my name and someone grabbing my arm, out of nowhere. "Nico! What the hell?"

"Something's wrong."

I paused. I could hear in his voice that he was telling the truth. "What?"

In response he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me into the shadows, popping out fifteen feet from my tree.

"Gods, Nico!" I yelled, shoving him away. "You know I hate that!"

"Shut up and come on!"

Nico? Telling me to shut up? Brave, but now I was going to have to shock his eyebrows off. But before I could do anything, he grabbed my hand and dragged me toward Half-Blood Hill.

Something was lying near my tree. Even from far away, I recognized the person as Laura from Cabin Four. Why wasn't she moving? Did she fall asleep? Where was Peleus?

But what was more worrying was Rebecca Schweitzer from Apollo, heading toward Laura with her hand stretched out.

Nico and I yelled at the same time.

"REBECCA, DON'T—"

It was too late. Rebecca disappeared in a black hole as soon as her fingers touched Laura's arm, her scream lingering in the air behind her.

As Nico and I reached the top of the hill, we spotted a teenager in black armor standing on the highway, holding Rebecca with a tight grip on her hair, forcing her head back, exposing her neck. His knife hovered near her throat.

"FOR THE ORDER!" the kid shouted, and with one swipe, Rebecca dropped, her blood spilling everywhere. The air shimmered behind them. Next thing I knew, I was staring at an army of every monster in the book—marching right for us.

"SOUND THE ALARM!" I screamed. "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!" My spear extended and Aegis exploded into full form as a horn sounded in the distance: the camp alarm.

Nico pulled his sword; he was everywhere instantly, shadow-traveling all over the crowd of monsters, taking down as many as he could.

I barely saw my own moves. Monster dust was exploding everywhere I turned. Maybe it was me doing it. I don't remember. I didn't care

Pretty soon I found my spear blocking a sword from cutting my face in half. I snarled at the guy who killed Rebecca. Normally that made kids run for mommy, but this one just frowned down on me.

"Julius Night," I faintly heard him say over the sounds of the battle.

"Thalia Grace," I hissed. I sensed something behind me and kicked it without a second glance. My spear was holding strong, but the pressure was increasing with every second. If he breaks my spear I'm gonna cut his f***ing arms off, I thought sourly.

Another horn sounded in the distance, drawing my attention only for a second. That was all Julius needed. He moved so fast that when I think back I can't remember exactly what he did. All I know is I blinked, and I was on my knees, my own spear holding my arms behind my back.

"Too easy," Julius scoffed. I could tell he was ready to completely kill me. Then there was a thwacking sound, like cardboard. An arrow impaled Julius's arm. I took the opportunity to send every bit of electric power I had through him. "AH!"

I gave a momentary thank-you glance to Alice, standing on the hill with the other Hunters. "Retreat!" she shouted.

Nico suddenly appeared next to me. His arm was around me again, then we were both sucked into darkness again. When I opened my eyes, we were standing on Half-Blood Hill, the battle still raging below us.

"They're coming!" someone yelled.

"RETREAT!" someone else screamed.

Tatiana Taylor lurched forward. She threw her hand in the air and shouted, "Tin prostasia mas!"

I didn't recognize the words, but they seemed to do the trick. A wave of sheer force pushed the Order's army back three hills, leaving them dazed and confused. Tatiana collapsed.

Alice was pale. "Clarisse, set up a patrol of your strongest fighters now. Counselors: emergency meeting."

The room was unusually silent when Travis and Connor called the meeting to order. I slammed my palm on the table with a loud slap, making everyone jump. "Guys, they killed two of our own! I say this is war!"

Clarisse nodded appreciatively. "It hurts to say it, but I'm with Grace." Our eyes met, and for once we could agree on something: they attacked us, now it was time to kick their asses.

Katie Gardner looked like she was in a trance. "They killed Laura."

"They killed Rebecca too," Will Solace grimly put a hand on Katie's shoulder. "It's okay." He looked at Alice. "I can have some of my siblings collect the bodies now."

"Mine can take a head-count," Elizabeth Bentley volunteered.

"Go," Alice said. "Clarisse?"

"The borders are under control," she said.

Alice looked shaken, but sound. "Nico," she said. "Get Percy. Now."

Nico seemed sleepy, probably from all that shadow-traveling, but he melted away into the shadows at the command.

"Thalia," Alice said. "Give us some cover."

I nodded. I willed the clouds to pass over camp, mist to block the view from our enemy, some light rain to make them miserable.

If the Order wanted war, they sure as hell were going to get one.

That went well. So, two dead from the start, memories of an old battle, the Order stronger than ever-can the camp survive it all? Check back to find out...