A/N Sorry for the long wait! I hope it proves worth it. After being thoroughly and appropriately chastised by AwesomeTori (who should not have worried about the copy past thing), I give you, the next chapter! My explanation (not to be misconstrued as an excuse) for the delay is two fold. The first is that I felt like things were getting more then a little cracked out and I was loosing my grasp on the story. Also, there are aspects of this chapter I'm quite pleased with, but there are aspects that I'm unsatisfied with. So, between trying to regain control of my plot and direction and trying to reconcile some of the aspects of this chapter that left me unsatisfied, we all had a very long wait. :-/
Thank yous to AwsomeTori, Ramzes, ShadowOfMyLight, Mangofishy, Assassins Stole My Pants, and Shoshoanna79 for your reviews! :-D Thankies to all of the new faves and alerts! ::sigh:: I hope I haven't lost or disappointed too many people who began this crazy ride of creativity of entertainment with me.
Without farther ado, enjoy! Questions, comments, opinions, and wonderful flowery compliments and not so flowery compliments are appreciated! Constructive criticism is also appreciated!
Enjoy!
Miette
**Discliamer** I do not own anything that comes from the actual, published novels by Rick Riordan, everything contained there is his intellectual property, or atleast not mine!
The great mother wolf paced back and forth at the head of the table. Her camp leaders sat, relatively calmly, all things considered, with the Greek outsiders interspersed with them.
"Lupa Mater-"
"Silence!" She growled at Bia, who quickly dropped her eyes to her hands and the yarn in them. "Is there any sign as to who the final hero fated to go on this quest is?"
"No, Lupa. Rach, I mean the Oracle of Delphi tried to see anything that would help us, but she was given no visions. They'll IM us if she does see anything, though." Jason said.
"They have an Orcale? Why don't-"
Lupa growled at Bobby's interruption, baring her teeth. "And if there is no indication before Monday? That's still when you intend to leave?"
"There will be." Annabeth spoke with certainty, her fingers clasped with Percy's under the table.
"You seem to be thinking with your feelings, not the facts, daughter of Athena." Lupa turned to Annabeth, she was still unsure of what to make of these Greek Heroes, coming to her Schola, putting her pups and legionaries in danger.
"I have learned over my quests and the war that there are times you must follow your feelings and gut as well as facts, however, I'm also looking at the facts. As difficult and unaware as the gods can be, they want as to succeed, need us to succeed; they will give us what we need. It is for their sake as well as ours."
"Well said. We Olympians do try to help when and where we can."
"Hera." Annabeth tried to keep the bitterness out of her voice as she and the four Greeks turned distrustful eyes on the goddess who had just entered the command tent. The Romans, on the other hand rose to their feet, unsure of how to react, the gods entered their lives even less frequently then they entered the lives of the Greeks. Juno's recent interference not withstanding. They'd also been taught to have great respect for Juno as one part of the Capitoline Triad.
"Watch your tone, Annabeth Chase. I am unhappy with you."
"That's nothing new," Percy muttered, and was ignored.
"We have to discuss the fact that your mother's new throne and temple are nicer than mine, Architect of Olympus. However that is not why I'm here."
"Juno Regina," Lupa bowed, "why have you honored us with your presence." Leo and Percy both had to contain snorts.
"I am here as the Moneta. I bear warning to you heroes and the promise that the last of your number will be revealed in due time."
"Due time?" Piper snapped, "We're supposed to set out on Monday, today is Friday. When is your 'due time' going to be?"
"You've become rather confident in yourself since I saw you last, daughter of Aphrodite. You think a small talent for Charm Speaking makes you a hero?"
Piper quickly dropped her eyes at Juno's rebuke.
"Juno Regina, you would not be with us, nor would I, if it weren't for Piper's 'small talent for Charm Speaking'." Jason defended Piper through clenched teeth.
"Besides, she hates Charm Speaking." Leo added, "Right, Beauty Queen?"
"Shut up," guys, Piper whispered, still looking down. Her brief moment of speaking up over, she didn't like the attention on her and did not want to go into any part of their quest, still a bit sensitive over her fathers abduction and her thoughts on betraying her friends.
"Be that as it may…" Juno looked around the group of demigods before her, "Among you, who are to go on this quest, you have cleverness, in abundance and different forms, you have charm, loyalty, the abilities to bend various elements to your will, determination, you have already successfully completed great feats that will cause your names to be remembered for the ages. Among you, you have the blessings and curses of nearly all of the Olympians. What are you missing? Think on that, godlings, and," a smile that did not reach Juno's eyes or warm her face curled her lips, "think on the fact that you must be open minded about what you're up against, you do not see half of it. If this is gone about wrongly, you will not be successful. Just beware, for the Catulus." With that, Juno was gone, no chance for the stunned group to ask her what in the name of all of the occupants of Olympus she'd been talking about.
"Catulus?" Bobby asked looking around at the others to see if they were any less confused.
"Catalyst?" Reyna replied offhandedly, feeling equally confused.
"Is it just me," Leo asked, "or did something about what she said sound real similar to the basilisk from earlier?"
"Maybe. I feel as though we're missing so much!" Annabeth put her head in her hands, exasperation clear in her voice.
"We are. There is no question of that." Dakota shook her head slowly, "Ok, seven half-bloods in the prophecy." She began ticking off on her fingers, "Percy, Jason, Annabeth, Piper, Leo, Bia."
Hazel began picking up on Dakota's train of thought, "Juno Regina said something about, the qualities the group has and the qualities they lack." Hazel said slowly, looking at the 6 they were nearly positive were supposed to go on the quest. "Cleverness, that's you, Annabeth, as a daughter of Miner-Athena." Hazel corrected herself, she wasn't sure she'd ever get used to the strange Greek names.
"Probably, Leo, too." Piper spoke up, "Hera mentioned cleverness in abundance and different forms. Annabeth is smart, but Leo's good on the fly, and on fixing and building stuff, like that."
"Piper's right." Annabeth agreed, "That's definitely a type of cleverness."
"Maybe we should be focusing on what we don't have?" Bia asked looking at the others for opinions.
"Yes, but we need to be sure of what we do have before we can see that." Annabeth replied, thinking. "Control over various elements, Jason over the air and lightning, Percy over water, Leo and Bia over fire..."
"That's also two of the three Big Three, there." Percy put in, "Me and Jason. Maybe it's you, Dakota? That would be children of all three Big Three."
"Big Three?" The girl in question asked.
"That's what they call the three ruling brothers," Jason explained, "Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto."
"Oh, cool. So, sort of like the Archaic Triad? O di! Deos meos! Of course." She snapped her fingers. "The Archaic Triad." She turned to the two Children of Mars sitting beside her, "I bet it's one of you guys."
"Of course!" Gwen said, "both the Archaic Triad and the Capitoline Triad would be represented." She turned to the Greeks, "We don't recognize the 'Big Three', but we have the two Triads. The original, the Archaic Triad, Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus."
"That's probably the closest equivalent we have to your Big Three," Jason said, realizing where Dakota's and Bia's thought process was going. "Here, Mars is far more respected then you guys respect Ares."
Annabeth shuddered, "Care to meet Ares?" She remembered the god of wars part in her and Percy's first quest. "It fits, though. What are we missing that would be particularly beneficial in a likely battle and possible war?"
"The god of war," Reyna turned to her brother as she spoke, "but which of us?"
Bobby shrugged, "well, we have a few days until Juno Regina's due time needs to come." He cracked his knuckles as he spoke, both brother and sister looked ready to take on whatever was headed their way.
"I suppose that is somewhat settled then," Lupa stated grudgingly. She was still far from happy about this situation, though, like her pups, she understood and accepted that sometimes sacrifices and decisions you don't necessarily like have to be made in order to be victorious.
"Ok, can we go through this one more time? I feel like you guys lost me."
Annabeth rolled her eyes at her Seaweed Brain, slowly she said "The theory is that the last person for the quest is either Reyna or Bobby. Apparently as Mars Ares isn't as…" she tried to think of a non-offensive way to say immature, annoying, and arrogant, she didn't think she could afford to offend anymore gods at the moment.
"Ares-ish?" Percy supplied.
"Sure. Anyway, Mars is a lot more respected around here and important than Ares is at home. OK?"
"Think we could send Clarisse here?"
"Oh come on, she's gotten better."
"Better doesn't mean good," Percy grumbled but dropped the discussion.
"All caught up now?" Kota seemed to be holding in a laugh as she watched the interaction between Percy and Annabeth.
"I suppose," Percy gave his girlfriend a long suffering look.
"Fine then." Lupa sounded distracted, "I believe you all have something to occupy yourselves this evening?"
"What-?" Jason began to question, but was silenced by a quelling glare from Reyna until Lupa had left the tent.
"Don't tell me you've forgotten!" Hazel said happily, receiving confused looks from the Greeks, Percy included and Bia and Jason.
"Contraband Night?"
"Is tonight?" Bia tried to go over her mental calendar, realizing it was indeed Contraband Night. 'Good,' she thought to herself, maybe her new Greek friends would get to see her old Roman friends relaxed and happy, as the so rarely are. Bia was concerned about the opinions the Greeks were forming of the less then friendly Roman Schola, not that it was unjustified. Though, they were far more relaxed and opened then she'd dared to hope they would be, she suspected it was more from resignation to the necessity of the situation and a bit forced, but she'd take it.
"What's Contraband Night? You guys haven't talked about that before." Percy asked, confused as to how he could have missed something seemingly important all of the time he's been at the Schola.
"It's one of the few nights we get to relax a bit." Bobby actually allowed a small smile, "Come on, we'll show you guys." The anticipation caused even Bobby to relax a bit, he decided these Greeks didn't seem so bad, at least right now.
Mica, Drew, and Kiki, scrambled back from the hiding spot behind the command tent as quietly as they could when they realized Lupa was leaving. They knew they would be in a world of trouble if they got caught spying again so soon.
"They should let us come, instead of Rey or Bobby!" Drew grumbled, once they'd made it over to Nidus.
"Don't hold your breath," Kiki said, though she wished just as much as her brother that they were allowed to help. She sat down under a tree, her brother and friend dropping beside her.
"It's just like the war, we get to stay here and practice declensions and learn about the old heroes and worry about the worry about the current heroes." Mica sighed, she and her two best friends were impatient for their chance to help. She kicked a stone, "maybe something will happen and they'll need us."
"Right, and maybe we'll wake up tomorrow all grown up and 13." Kiki replied.
"I wish we could have seen Queen Juno!" Drew said, thinking back on the conversation they just 'overheard', "I wonder what a she looks like."
"She didn't sound very nice. I didn't like her voice." Mica said thoughtfully.
"I bet they've all gotten to meet all of the gods and goddesses." Kiki jumped to her feet and mimed shooting a bow and arrow, "When we're heroes, we'll meet all of the gods and goddesses and they'll love us. They'll think we're the best heroes ever!"
"We will be the best heroes ever!" Mica stated, day dreaming a bit about the monsters they could fight and the people they could save. She knew her mother would be proud of her.
"Promitto!" Drew stood beside his sister, pulling Mica to her feet. "We'll be the best heroes ever! The three of us, together."
The girls looked at eachother, not even considering the promise he was asking of them, of course that was how it would be! "Promitto!"
"And what is it, my dear periculum triplex, that you are letting go forward?" Lou stepped out of the tent, scrunching her eyes against the setting sun.
"Nothing!" The three looked far too innocent to be up to nothing.
"If you say so. Go, wash for dinner guys, and please stay out of trouble! For the evening?"
Upon leaving the command tent where they'd all been meeting with Lupa, Dakota lead the way into the woods. "Contraband Night is one of those things Lupa pretends that she doesn't know about, but of course, she does."
"She knows everything that goes on." Reyna added, "You can't keep anything from her, but sometimes she'll over look things. This is one of them."
"I guess she realizes we need some sort of moral booster in order to be in top shape." Bobby said as they became completely surrounded by trees.
"Besides, we only get to do this every six months, so, Lupa lets it slide." Gwen said, ducking around a low hanging tree branch.
"Yes, except for that time we went off of the Schola! Do you remember how livid she was?" Bia laughed at the memory.
"Oh yea! For your birthday, Hazel!" Dakota gave Hazel a one armed hug as they walked.
"What?"
"When we went dancing?"
"Oh yea! Lupa had us on KP for ever! She reamed us out in front of the whole legion!" Hazel laughed, "We're still living that down!"
"Deos meos, was she angry, raging at us for being poor examples of leaders. I think she would have demoted us if she could have manged to demote all of her senior officers in one go." Reyna paused, remembering, "it was worth it, though. I think that was the first time I'd been out in the real world, the first time any of us had been out in," she shook her head, "ages."
The group walked for about 15 minutes, before they came to a clearing with a rude cabin. "Welcome, to our getaway." Dakota greeted as she held the door open for everyone.
What they found in the cabin was not what the Greeks were expecting, though truth to tell they weren't really sure what to expect. The inside of the cabin was bright and welcoming, around the room were an assortment of comfortable seating options as well as a sound system, two computers, a couple of tvs, dvds, audio cds, video and computer games, board games, and what smelled like-
"Deos meos! Buffalo chicken pizza! This is all for me!" Hazle grabbed one of the hot pizza pies sitting on the counter.
"Don't be greedy, Hazle. I'll bet you anything Chad and Alexis got that because they knew Jason would be back."
"Yea, yea yea," Hazel handed Jason a slice of their shared favorite pizza before taking one for herself.
"If you know that right children of Mercury, in this case Chad Davenport and Alexis Klein, and for the right price you can get anything." Bobby said, starting to set up the Wii that was by one of the tv's.
"So, we get a party twice a year." Dakota said walking over to a stack of DVDs laid by one of the televisions.
"Shotty the stereo!" Gwen nearly ran toward it.
"Gods! Please no country this time!"
"Hey! For your information, some of my favorite older brothers and sisters are fabulous country artists!" The irritated daughter of Apollo said, her hand pausing over a stack of CDs. Bobby didn't even answer, knowing it was a losing battle.
"Veg, right?" Reyna held up one box containing a salad pizza and another box containing a plain cheese to Piper.
"Thanks," Piper grabbed a slice of the salad pizza, awkwardly looking around. Leo shrugged grabbing a slice of pepperoni.
"Salad pizza? I'm soo getting a slice of that next!" Hazel sighed, from where she was laying on a chaise.
"I have no idea how you stay so thin." Gwen shook her head.
"High activity and infrequency of junk food consumption, Miss Def ate a whole pizza by herself last time."
"It was Hawaiian pizza!" Gwen haughtily defended herself as though that some how made it better, settling beside Leo with a smile for the son of Hephaestus.
Bia laughed, "Oh, it was Hawaiian pizza, in that case it's totally ok for you to eat the whole thing."
"Ok, that? I did not miss." Gwen shuddered, "you still have the most ridiculous laugh ever."
"Oh, shut up!" Bia threw a pillow, ducking the return volley Gwen sent her way.
"Ok!" Once everyone had settled down with pizza and soda, and Gwen had gotten her way with a couple of country songs, Dakota grabbed everyones attention. "What should we watch tonight?"
"Clash of the Titans!" Bobby said, through a mouthful of pepperoni pizza.
"NO!" Reyna, Kota, Hazel, Gwen and Bia shouted in unison at Bobby, following up their rejection with several pillows aimed at him, or in Hazel's case, smacking him from her spot beside him.
Gwen rolled her eyes, "He's been trying to get us to watch that for ages!" She explained to the Greeks.
"Yes, he seems to think we would want to watch a poorly done, fictional version, of a story we've had drummed into our heads." Hazel put in.
"Forget the fact that there are no actual titans in the movie…" Reyna added.
"Though, there is Liam Neeson, that has to count for something." Hazel said considering.
"Yes, and it is a sad, sad blight on his wondrous career and wondrousness." Bia said, bowing her head as though in a moment of silence, the other girls followed her example.
"Right, actual options!" Dakota raised her head and said, after the girls' moment.
"Are they always like this?" Piper whispered to Jason, surprised at the change in the Romans. As they got closer to the cabin they had become much less uptight and more amusing, now they seemed to have regressed to their actual teenage ages, instead of the grave intense side they'd been trying and only partially succeeding to hide since the Greeks arrived.
"Mostly only on Contraband Night. It really is one of the few times we can just let go."
"Though, they do all really have a thing for Liam Neeson." Bobby shook his head, "Even Rey. I think we've watched every movie he's done."
"Even Narnia, and you couldn't actually see him." Jason added.
"No," Gwen sighed, "but you could hear his gorgeous voice!"
"Right," Bobby looked at the girl like she'd grown two extra heads.
A consensus, which in this case means the girls pick three movies and the guys picked the lesser of the evils, was finally reached on a movie. The evening went too quickly, though the Romans having only this and one other night in a whole year to themselves, they knew how to make the most of it. Pizza and a movie were followed by a series of games, icecream, music with Gwen and Bobby fighting over the genre of music, dancing, and talking and relaxing.
"So," Dakota dropped onto the couch beside Bia who was currently sitting alone watching everyone. Gwen had dragged Leo to his feet and was trying to get him to dance with her, Percy and Annabeth were sitting, their heads together, not talking, just being content in their reunion. Bobby, Reyna, Jason and Piper seemed to be in the midst of an intense game of Wii Golf, Hazel acting as cheerleader for whoevers turn it was.
"So?"
"I want to hear about this son of Hades of yours."
"Nico isn't 'mine'. No nagging!"
Kota rolled her eyes, "As Hazel would say, he's technically my brother, so I'm simply interested in my brother. Spill!"
"There is nothing to spill." Bia sighed, "He's totally damaged."
"Well, he is a demi-god, that sort of comes with the territory with our types."
"Thank you, I had no idea." Bia rolled her eyes.
"Seriously, though, you as well as any of us know, we've all got a little bit of damaged in us. Even the least powerful child, with the weakest attraction for monsters with the most stable mortal family is a little damaged. It's part of the package, battle reflexes, hard wired for Latin, and damaged. And you think you can fix us all."
"I don't think I can fix everyone."
"It doesn't stop you from trying!" Reyna called from the other side of the room, Bia hadn't even realized she'd been listening.
"When did this become a group conversation?" Bia asked, looking around and realizing everyone was listening to her and Dakota.
"Pretty much as soon as everyone realized Kota was asking you about Nico," Piper responded, not bothering to suppress her smile.
"You are good for him." Annabeth said, turning to Percy she added, "you should have seen him, he was almost his old self. It was nice."
"Mythomagic?"
"Minus the Mythomagic."
"Good."
"Seaweed Brain." She shoved him lightly.
"Oh, look!" Bia looked at her wrist as though checking the time on a watch she didn't wear. "It's time to go back, darn." She got up and began bustling around straightening up the cabin.
"Oh come on, Bibi!" Gwen took a stack of empty pizza boxes from Bia's hands, pouting.
"That face works much better when your sister employees it."
"Maybe, but who do you think Kiki learned it from?"
Bia looked at each person in the room in turn as she spoke, enunciating each word, "There is nothing to tell! We've become friends. He's sweet."
"Yes, and since he met you, for the first time since he lost his sister, he actually stayed at camp for more than a day or two at a time." Annabeth stated.
"Not to mention that my mother and yours were completely conspiring to get you two to hangout." Piper added.
"Proh!" Bia throw up her hands in exasperation, "Dogs with a bone! The lot of you! That's what you are, like dogs with a bone or children and a new toy!"
"Whatever. We just need you to find someone that's going to make you relax and take care of you instead of you running around taking care of everyone." Everyone stared at Bobby, shocked that something so close to deep and sensitive came out of his mouth, "What? I've got feelings."
"Sure," Reyna knocked on his head, "somewhere in there."
Bobby's response was to flip Reyna onto the floor, resulting in a fight between the two children of Mars.
By the time everything was straightened up, Reyna and Bobby had stopped trying to kill eachother, no one was sure who actually won the wrestling match.
The walk out of the woods back to the main area of the Schola seemed to take far less time than the walk to the cabin.
"Percy?" Annabeth squeezed Percy's fingers in her hand as she paused and stepped to the side so they ended up at the back of the procession.
"What's up, Wise Girl?"
She laid her head on his shoulder as they continued walking, "I've just missed you, I feel like I've missed so much of your life now. I guess it's only been a few weeks, but it feels like so much, and I'm not sure how to ask, I feel like there are probably parts I may not want to know."
"I never cheated on you, if you're worried about that. I mean, I did think a couple of the girls were sweet or cute, but even before my memory started to come back I had a feeling I had someone even better waiting for me."
"You're being cheesy."
"It's part of my charm."
Annabeth just laughed, but didn't deny it. As much as she wasn't a girl for a lot of over the top romantic gestures or cheesiness, a little bit of cheese was cute coming from Percy.
"I spent most of my time with the officers, these guys," he gestured to the demigods walking in front of them, "and even most of that with Bia and the kids. Bia was trying to help me get my memory back, and no one else really helps her and Lou with the Nati, Gwen and Kota try, but they get frustrated with them and they have other responsibilities. It's sort of odd because they're all very protective of the kids, everyone here has a very strong sense of duty and responsibility and that includes teaching and protecting the kids. Not that we don't have duty and responsibility at Camp, but it's like a specific thing here. I like kids." Percy added the last bit almost as an offhanded revelation.
"That's because you're an overgrown kid." Annabeth smiled though, she had a feeling if the time ever came Percy would be a good father. "Bia said when you first got here, Bobby attacked you?"
"Attacked seems strong, but yea. I mean, wouldn't you be suspicious if some stranger just appeared at Camp?"
"One did, her name was Bia McCarthy."
"Ok, point taken, but by that time you guys had already decided you could trust Jason and I'm guessing by the time she showed up Jason remembered her? Besides, Camp Half-Blood is much more willing to accept nearly any and all half-bloods as they come. Here it's more shot first, then maybe ask questions if Lupa is in a good mood or Gwen or Bia is around to be the voice of moderation. You guys have only seem a minuscule-"
"Minuscule?"
"Yes, minuscule, are you impressed?"
"Very." Annabeth stepped in front of Percy, leaning up to kiss him.
"I need to use big words more often. Anyway, you've only seen a small piece of that. They've been trying to be very open and on good behavior with you guys coming, but yes I woke up on the beach a ways up. I walked all morning, it felt like a couple of hours, and then I saw some people in the distance. Bia was sitting on the dunes with some of the six and seven yearolds going over a couple of the old stories. Anyway, I figured going toward people was a good plan, being as I was walking on the beach with no idea where I was or who I was. Bobby was leading a small patrol and saw me. I would have kicked his butt of Mica and Bia hadn't come over."
"Uh-huh."
"I would have, anyway. I was really confused then, but somehow I knew I had riptide in my pocket, and I knew it was a sword, and the whole fight just came naturally. Then when Mica fell, I was afraid she was going to get hurt. So I grabbed her, and I was trying to think of how to keep Bobby away somehow, I didn't want to keep fighting with this little girl there, and all of a sudden, the wave just came over. It was pretty awesome. There were a rough couple of days when Bobby was convinced I was some sort of dangerous spy. He thought I was left over from the halfbloods who fought with the titans, and he thought I was full of crap about not being able to remember anything. He kept me under guard. For a few days, but well, then I'm not sure what finally gave, but he realized I wasn't playing him. It was uphill from there. Bia had been having dreams that I was involved in for a few weeks, and she was convinced something big was going on and that my showing up had to do with Jason disappearing. After that, nothing very exciting, trying to get my memories back, trying to fit in here. Then Bia decided she was going to try to get to this place I vaguely sort of remembered, Camp Half-blood and find you and find Jason, and as we know that plan seems to have worked pretty well."
"Yes, nice for a plan to go right for once." She gave him another kiss as they reached the cluster of tents that made up the main part of the Schola.
A/N Sry again for the delay! I'm hoping the story is going to improve from it, it was def headed far far far down the road of cracked out and I had to bring it back at least a little bit! (However, if you feel like giving some crackedoutness a try, join my on the journey of crazy my other story is so far. It's even rougher then this! lol)
Anything you feel soo moved as to say, please feel free to review! Compliments are always welcome, they def help encourage me, I appreciate those as much as more 'constructive' reviews! There will not be such a delay until the next chapter! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. This was a lot of getting to kno charcterness, I hope it didn't feel pointless, I was concerned about how my point in writing it was translating. Do you guys see what I was saying about aspects of this chapter I was less satisfied with? There were some things that I wanted shown and said, but I didn't want a silly pointless slow filler to be the vehicle for those things. If it was atleast entertaining, that's all I can ask.
Thanks for reading!
Miette