A/N: I've posted a real update for the first time in weeks! I am so happy and now I am treating myself to chocolate:) Just because. Please read! Xx

Both girls seemed to be lost in their thoughts. As they walked towards the Senate House, they could've been stabbed and it would've taken them a while to notice. So when none other than Jason walked up behind them and cleared his throat, neither of them noticed. It was only when Annabeth tripped on something and looked back to see what it was that she realised he was there.

"Oh, you again. The guy who forcefully lead us here than caged us in. Real friendly. What do you want?" Annabeth wasn't going out of her way to be bitchy. She was actually being quite nice in her mind. In the middle of Annabeth's 'greeting' if you can call it that, Lacey had stopped and turned around, ahead of the others. But as soon as she saw Jason, she froze.

"I wanted to talk to her," he gestured over to Lacey. She was surprised. Not that he wanted to talk to her, but how he sounded. His voice was like steel. No emotion what-so-ever.

"Whatever man. Go ahead. Oh wait, by the way, why are you wearing armour? You look like a kid in the middle of his 'dress up' time," Annabeth said, jeering at him while still intrigued by how awesome it looked. Jason glanced at her like she was an idiot. Then he seemed to realise they really didn't know.

"I'm…uh…going out. Soon. After the meeting."

"Ah huh," sighed an unbelieving Annabeth.

Everyone waited. There was an awkward silence.

"So….." Annabeth left hanging in the air. "Talk."

"Alone," replied Jason.

Annabeth snorted. "You can't talk alone. That would be weird and psycho and a lot crazy."

Jason was looking impatient now. It took all of his will not to just kill Annabeth so he could talk to Lacy. It had taken ages for him just to come out of his cabin. He had to literally prepare himself. He practised putting on a cold voice in front of the mirror. He honestly wanted nothing more than solitude at the moment. But he had to do this. And he was strong. But then he suddenly didn't have to stab Annabeth. She was looking between Lacey and Jason like she had just seen a pig sprout golden wings and fly. She looked at Lacey accusingly, but Lacey didn't see. She was too busy staring at her beat up converse. Without a word, Annabeth stormed off and sat on the step leading up to the Senate.

Lacey's P.O.V

Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. She couldn't even look at him. She couldn't even look at his shoes. They were really shiny in the sun and it hurt her eyes.

"I thought you were someone else."

Her head jerked up. What? What did he mean? That made no sense. She looked him in the eyes now, looking for some sign of a joke or something. Nothing.

"Did you hear me? I thought you were someone else." Jason raised his voice. He almost never raised his voice at a girl. He sounded out every word of the second sentence like he was talking to a two year old. Lacey heard him alright. She was frozen though. She couldn't move. She wanted to nod, or reply, but it was like everything inside her froze.

"Gods of Olympus," Jason rolled his eyes and in a few steps he was right in front of her. Lacey actually thought he was going to kiss her. But he grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her softly. No matter how much Jason was pissed he wouldn't hurt a girl if it wasn't in battle.

"Lacey. I have a girlfriend."

Okay, she wasn't frozen anymore. She was still staring at him when her mouth fell open. Oh, so he was a cheater. If Lacey had known…oh she felt horrible. She punched him in the chest. It hurt, because of the armour, but it didn't matter. She was weak, and it didn't even hurt him, but she figured if she hit hard enough, for long enough, she might be able to get a bruise there. She hit him again. And again. And again. Until she was hitting him like a punching bag. Except the punching bag was made of rocks. He let her go on for a while. Then the rocks caught her wrists 'mid punch', and shoved her backwards. She stumbled, and then righted herself.

"Why…so…you cheated on her!" she choked out. Then she realised how whiny she sounded. So with more force she yelled, "You cheated on me!"

"NO I DIDN'T!" He was yelling now. "We had nothing! You hear? Nothing."

"You're wrong." Lacey whispered. "We had something."

Jason paused, unsure of what to say.

"But, but you broke it off. You're the one who said you didn't feel anything. You're the one who dumped me in the dirt." Jason shot back. "But it doesn't matter anymore. That's all I came to say. I really don't care anymore. I have a girlfriend, but I lost her. I'm going to find her as soon as this stupid meeting is over. I am devoted to her, okay? You…nothing. Nothing. To me. I look for her every chance I get. Every day. I found you in the middle of a search and for a second, from a distance, I thought you were her. I love Piper. And you are not Piper." His voice broke on her name. Lacey's heart was actually tearing apart. She never wanted a boyfriend. Ever. No matter how much love they could supposedly give you, it wasn't worth it for her. It hurt too much. And she knew pain. Jason turned and walked off, head high. Lacey stood there for a moment. What was she doing? Pretending. She was pretending she was cut out for all this boy-girl drama. When honestly she had no idea.

Annabeth's P.O.V

Well that was emotional. And dramatic. Jeez, if I was in Lacey's position, I would have just punched the guy. Violence solves everything. But yet I felt bad for her. Her first boyfriend, sort of, and she was dumped, sort of. Which of course, was inevitable. Boys are idiots. They were untrustworthy and just caused pain. Sure, they pretended to love you, causing an illusion. Granted, it was a strong illusion, so I could see how naïve, little Lacey would have been fooled. I figured I should just wait for a while for her to recover. Since she was standing there like a statue. Ow, my bum was really starting to ache. These steps were killing me. I stood, and sort of ambled over, and stopped to study a flower coming through the paving stones, to give Lacey some time. I hated flowers. Too flawless, too perfect. I eventually stood behind Lace, and tapped her on the shoulder. She slowly turned around, and I was suddenly struck with surprise. She seemed to have aged five years in the past two minutes. Literally. I mean, when I first saw her she was like a little sister, and now she seemed my age. Huh, weird. Anyway, I studied her for signs of heartbreak. No tears, good. Puffy eyes, not so good. Slumped figure, bad. Narrowed eyes like she needs revenge, oh, perfect. It almost brings a tear to my eye how much she has learnt from me.

"Well? Finished you're analysis? And I too your liking?" She spits. Oh. Maybe the narrowed eyes were at me. That would make more sense.

"Oh. Yeah, I just…you okay?"

"Fine!" She screeches, obviously annoyed. "It's not like I'm going to explode any second! I. AM. FINE!"

Well, I thought, she evidently wasn't, because next thing I know she's in tears. I didn't really know what to do, so I looked on while she apparently went through the 11 stages of heartbreak.

Tears

Screaming and tears

Collapsing and screaming and tears

Silence

Staring off in the distance

Punching the ground

More crying because now hands hurt from punching the ground (not very clever)

Punching me

Determination/Revenge (walks off in the direction of Jason. Trips over)

Kicking stone on which she tripped on

Hugging

Well this went on for a while. She hugged me for about two minutes then stepped back and nodded. I had no idea how she wasn't asleep yet. I was still in awe about how she managed to punch numerous things with a cast on. She was bloody superwoman. Plus a broken nose and everything else.

"Okay. You know what you need?" I asked.

"Food."

"Good answer, but no. You need to let your anger out. Let's barge in on this meeting thingo, and give 'em hell. You up for it?"

She nodded, determined.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

She was not up for it. As soon as we entered and saw everyone sitting like they were actually electing the next president, she froze up. I looked around, trying to define the leader. There was a woman, well, girl. She looked about 24. She wore a purple dress (kind of) which was decorated with so many medals she was probably a lightning attractor. She radiated power and leadership, and I knew straight-away she was the leader. There was also a boy sitting next to her. He looked kind, but man, you did not want to get on his bad side. He looked like he could pummel an elephant. He was huge. They were obviously discussing something important, and as soon as we entered there was silence. I stared them all defiantly in the eye and moved to sit down on two empty seats.

"You may not be here." warned the girl with the medals.

"Bullshit," I snickered. "You brought us here, you can deal with our shitty attitudes."

She looked taken aback. Good. I bet it wasn't often someone stood up to her. They continued their meeting. I tried to pay attention, but they could have been talking jitterish and I wouldn't have noticed. They were talking about…nope, I couldn't even remember. Lacey was still frozen, slumped in her seat staring at her hands. I got really, really bored. I analysed everyone in this room, over and over. I noticed they were all around my age, all in their twenties. Some teenagers. I was halfway through wondering why they all had funny tattoos on their arms when I noticed no one was talking. They were staring. At me.

"Listen, I know I'm amazing but guys, don't all stare at me at once. It's flattering but I can't share my awesomeness with everybody. I only have a limited supply."

Only the big guy and an African-American girl laughed. Then, their 'leader' spoke up.

"My name is Reyna, and I am praetor of the twelfth legion. I lead with Frank Zhang, also praetor." She narrowed her eyes. "And to be frank, oh, ah, sorry Frank, I don't trust you."

"Cheers." I replied drily. Then all humour gone. "I know you don't like me. I don't care. But what I want to know, is why we are trapped. Why are we here?"

"I swore an oath to help and protect all demigods. To take you in. You are a demigod. And Jason (she gestured to him, Lacey choked on her own spit) found you therefore he took you in."

I chose to ignore the fact that I have no idea what a demigod is and focused on the task at hand.

"And do you normally take the people you want to 'protect' and threaten to forcefully take them away? Or were we just a special case?"

Reyna shared an uneasy look with Jason and Frank.

"Just you."

"Why?"

"Because you were different. Both of you. You were both strongly encased in the mist and that is not normal. We weren't sure where you're loyalties lay, so we…took some precautions."

"Yeah, so you trapped us. Ha. About that, I don't like it. I want to leave."

"You are not leaving until we know who you are. We have a warning from the oracle. A messenger from Camp Half Blood told us yesterday. She says you are not who you seem. And to me, that translates to 'not to be trusted'. And don't try and argue with me, child, I will always win. In due time you can leave. Only then."

I was fuming. I hated her. And I wanted to punch her. Ugh. But I had to play my cards right. I couldn't get more on her bad side, she might never let me leave.

"I want to know why you were trying to leave. Both of you. In the same night. On opposite sides of the camp." Reyna a leaned forward on her knees, apparently interested.

Oh no. How do I explain I wanted to sneak out and stab someone to death without seeming dangerous?

"I wanted to meet someone," I said in my most convincing voice. I think it worked. "And my friend here, Lac – "

"I think; it would be better if she could tell us herself, yes?"

Oh damn. I nudged her, and she looked up, only to find everyone staring at her. Probably not the best way to get someone with more or less stage-fright to talk. She glanced at me. Funnily enough, she didn't seem scared, just unsure.

"The barrier," I whispered.

She nodded and cleared her throat.

"There is a barrier around the camp, and I want to know why," she said, sounding like she knew exactly what she was doing. I swear, everyone groaned or sighed, or rolled their eyes. Including me. Actually the only person who didn't move was Jason. He was staring at Lacey like he'd known her for her whole life.

Jason's P.O.V

I was staring at Lacey, ridden with guilt. I had kissed her. I had kissed her while I had a girlfriend. An amazing girlfriend I loved. But I swear, I remembered kissing Piper up in that tree. In my head, she was the one I found in the desert wandering around telling her life story. Which is crazy, absolutely bonkers, because I hadn't seen her in six years. My eyes were focused on Lacey, her kaleidoscope eyes. I could look in them all day and...Lacey had blue eyes. Those were Pipers' eyes. Then she changed. I was staring into the eyes of my girlfriend.

I stood up suddenly, knocking over my chair. I heard another chair fall over, and I saw in the corner of my eye Hazel, staring at Piper. Piper, who was sitting across the table from me. Piper, my girlfriend who I've been searching for. For six years. Everyone was looking at me now, but I didn't care. She was looking at me strangely, but I didn't care. I walked around and stopped behind her. I spun her chair around, and looked her in the eyes. Strange, I thought she would be happy to see me. No. Crazy to see me. She was probably just in shock. Six years. Six years I've waited to hold her. Six years I've waited to kiss her. I leant in and she…leant back.

"Jason. Jason stop. What are you doing?" She whispered. I stared at her. She…what? I stepped back and stumbled, hitting the wall. There was a bookcase filled with scrolls next to me, and I held on for support. It was the only thing keeping me upright.

"Lacey?" I asked, unsure.

"Um. Yeah?"

I looked up. Everyone was staring at me as though I'd sprouted a third ear. Everyone except Hazel, who was still standing, and still staring.

"Hazel. Did you…see that?" I stuttered, still barely standing. Hazel shifted her gaze to me. She simply nodded. But that was all I needed. All I needed to prove I wasn't crazy. Well, not alone anyway.

"Air. I need some air." And with that I walked out. As soon as the fresh air hit I staggered and tripped, falling on the stones. I punched the ground. What the hell. She was there. Piper was here in Rome. I saw her. I punched the ground again. And I just kept going. Tears were streaming down my face now. I kept hitting the stones. I think my hands were bleeding, but I didn't care. I wanted to hit them harder. I was sobbing.

Six fucking years.

I wanted my Piper back. I wanted to hold her in my arms. Eventually I think I stopped hitting the ground. Eventually I brought my knees up to my chest, and buried my head against them, rocking back and forth. Eventually the meeting was disbanded, and no one paid me any attention, thinking I was mad. Except Hazel. She sat down next to me and cried. We cried for hours.

But, eventually, I stopped crying too.

A/N: I cried while I was writing this. I swear I cried. I cried like a baby :( Thank you for reading: ) Xx