A/N A thousand mea culpas! I'm soo sorry for those of you who are still with me and have been excessively patient waiting for this. I'm afraid I've had this short bit for ages, but it was part of a longer chapter, the rest of which is not yet quite ready. As you can see for yourself, I've finally decided to just split this first bit off so I can at least finally give you something! Again, I'm sorry! I could give you the whole speech about why it's been soo long, but I'm sure you don't care about what's been going on in my personal life to keep me from providing you with this, soo, without farther ado!

Special thanks and welcome to my newest readers and people who have seen fit to fave and bookmark this humble story! Also special thanks to my readers Booksandbeachgirl and iscreamdrizzle. They were both a great deal of help to me in working out a few things as well as working out a few insecurities in regards to my writing! If you looking for something else, read iscreamdrizzle's Things To Be Resolved. It's quite good! Last thanks to "Ya know i dont have an account " for pointing out my mistake in regards to Clovis's father! Oops! It should have been Hypnos, not Morpheus. :-(

I hope you enjoy and you're still with me! It seems a few of you are on the same page as me!
Miette

**Disclaimer** I own nothing that you may suspect truthfully is the intellectual property of Rick Riordan**

Alouette rolled over and looked at her clock through half closed eyes. Five o'clock was too early by far, to her way of thinking, to be awake on a Sunday morning. She flopped over onto her back with a hard thump.

"Lutum!" She cursed quietly, afraid that the noise of her bed banging and scraping against the floor with her movement would wake her light sleeping sister. She then bit her lip realizing that if she had woken Bia, she was about to get a reprimand for her language, "Sorry, Bibi, I-" Lou began quietly, turning toward her sisters empty bed. "What?" Lou stared at the bed a moment, confused, still half asleep. It looked just as Bia had left it yesterday, neatly made piled with pillows and a worn old teddy bear, a book laying on her bedside table. Fear and concern as to her sister's whereabouts blew away the last fog of sleep from Lou's mind. As her feet hit the cold floor, missing her slippers, yesterday's events began to come back to her. "Of course," she whispered to herself, realizing the Bia must be still sound asleep in the front room where Lou had left her. She'd figured Bia would wake up at some point last night and make her way to the bedroom, waking Lou in the process to yell at her for dosing her. The dose must have been stronger than Lou realized. She made a mental note to tell Amie that her herbs and whatnot were getting stronger. Lou tied her robe about herself, and quietly made her way out of the bedroom on her now slippered feet.

The fire in the front room was banked low, Lou smiled thinking what a benefit being a daughter of Vesta and having their own little fire was in the winter and on cold mornings. However, when she realized that Bia was not laying where she'd left her, by said fire, Lou's smile slid into a frown. Quickly, Lou spun around the room, assessing if anything looked out of place or helpfully different. Lou padded into the kitchenette, absently smiled at the flowers and note the periculum triplex had dropped by yesterday before dinner. In the sink sat the mug in which Lou had given Bia the dosed tea, the kettle sat on the stove, as though Bia had recently made a fresh cup. 'Ok,' Lou thought to herself, 'Bi woke up, made tea, and…? Went to the rock.' Lou made her way outside to the pale, early morning light.

Lou ignored the niggling feeling in the back of her mind regarding Bia's location. Her sister would be in her favorite spot, far enough out of the way that no one found her unless they knew to look for her, but close enough that she knew what was going on around the Schola and was in the midst of everything. "O deis!" Lou breathed before letting out a string of nearly every profane word and expletive she knew in both Latin and English, forgetting all of her sisters admonishments to speak like a lady in reaction to the sight before her. Quickly, Lou turned her back on the rock where she'd expected to find her sister lounging and ran back to the middle of the Schola proper, sucking in a deep breath, getting ready to shout for someone to come help her before it occurred to her, just in time, that discretion may be better.

Alouette stood in the center of the cluster of tents that was the Schola, turning quickly around, trying to decide who she should wake. After a moment's hesitation Lou turned toward the Domum lovis, or House of Jupiter, Jason's tent and hoped he was there, alone.

"Jason?" Lou spoke just above a whisper as she stepped into the tent, "Hello?" She saw Jason fast asleep, one thin sheet partially covering his boxer clad body. A faint blush warmed Lou's checks as she walked toward the sleeping leader of the Schola. "Jason, please help me!" She tentatively shook his shoulder, hoping he would be easy to wake. He simply turned away from her touch, remaining in a deep sleep. The image of what had greeted Lou at the boulder crossed her mind and in a moment of courage brought on by her stress, Lou yanked off Jason's sheet, loudly calling his name, "Jason Grace! Wake up this instant!"

"Wh-what?" Jason fell out of bed dazed and confused, though quickly coming to. In a moment he was on his feet, Ivlivs in his hand in gladius form, pointed at Lou.

"Put that down." Lou tilted her head inquisitively, "Is that Ivlivs? I thought it got destroyed when you and Piper and Leo were rescuing Piper's Daddy."

"Bia told you that story?" Jason turned the weapon in question back into a coin and placed it on his side table.

"Part of it."

Jason moved over to his footlocker and took out a pair of jeans, pulling them over his boxers. "It did get destroyed. Yesterday morning when I woke up here, that was sitting on my side table with a note from Queen Juno saying I would need it and not to blow it up this time. Evidently Vulcan fixed it; I think that was more of a favor to Jupiter than Queen Juno."

"Well, Queen Juno is right. You need a weapon, and one as powerful as Ivlivs will be helpful on your quest. You shouldn't have blown it up in the first place."

"You're as bad as your sister, the two of you, little mothering things. Next are you going to ask if I was eating right while at Camp Half Blood? Or if I have clean socks and what not for the trip to Greece?"

"Were you? Do you?" Lou's smile slipped, though, as mention of her and her sister's similar traits reminded her why she was there. "I take that comparison as a compliment, that is one of Bia's better traits. However, I'm here because I need help, Jason, not just for the pleasant early," Lou glanced out the door at the still pale light, "very early morning banter. Put on a shirt, come on." She turned and walked out of the tent, leaving Jason to finish dressing and follow her.

As the young girl left Jason realized how early it actually was. Still pulling his sneakers into place, Jason went outside to meet Lou, noticing what he hadn't before. The girl looked disheveled, her face was paler than usual, her hair a mess, and she still wore her pajamas, robe and slippers. Not to mention the fact that, now that Jason was completely awake and not startled by being unceremoniously dumped on the floor, it wasn't exactly common occurrence to be woken up at any time by Lou, let alone so early on a Sunday. "What's wrong, Loulou?"

"I'm sorry Jason, I figured you were the best one to go to first. I work up early and Bia wasn't in her bed, it looked like she hadn't even slept in into, so I got really worried, then I remembered that I'd dosed her with a ton of Amie's sleep herbs yesterday before I came to talk to you guys,-"

"That's why she wasn't at dinner. Reyna was going on about her being too scared to show her face."

"No, that's why. Anyway, I figured she hadn't woken up yet and was still asleep in the front room of the Nidus. So, I went to check on her." As Lou spoke she led Jason back through the slowly waking tents. "She wasn't in the front room, so I got really worried."

"Lou, she probably woke up and went to sit in her spot. You know she likes-"

Lou held up her hand as they reached the Nidus, she gestured for Jason to walk around to the back, where Bia liked to sit.

Jason gave Lou a look, then walked around to Bia's boulder, what he found was not what he expected. There was clear evidence of a struggle. The shattered remains of a mug littered the large rock and the ground around it. There were drag marks, as though from a pair of feet, going from the rock into the woods. There were spots of blood among the ceramic shards, not a lot of blood, but enough. He turned heatedly on Lou, "do you know what she's done or where she's gone? Lou, if you're-"

"Jason! Really? She hasn't done anything or gone anywhere. I probably wouldn't tell you if I were helping her! You know her better than that, though. She wouldn't just up and disappear after yesterday. That's not her way. Before when she just up and disappeared, both times, she had a reason. Leaving to help Andy wasn't a good one, but it was a reason. She didn't just run away, if she left now, she would have just been running away and you know it. Even Reyna and Bobby will see that."

Jason sighed, "Ok." He took another deep breath, "as of right now, you're First Legion in your sister's place. If anyone questions your rank or where Bia is, you're stepping up because we're maintaining the First Legion here during the quest, Bia is running around getting things finalized and taken care of for us leaving tomorrow. We're not even telling Lupa that Bia is missing right now."

Lou nodded silently.

"Wake Gwen, tell her I need her, then go take care of whatever you have to, just go about the morning as you would. If someone can watch the Nati, can you get away before lunch?"

Again Lou responded with only a nod.

"Ok," Jason squeezed Bia's shoulddder. "We'll sort this."

Lou gave a Jason a faint smile before running toward the Domo Apollo to wake Gwen.

Nico sat up in bed suddenly. He glanced at his clock, realizing first that it was a bit after six o'clock, an hour before his alarm would have woken him. Then, he realized that it was in fact still the weekend, meaning it was actually two hours early that he'd woken up. Falling back into bed Nico replayed the dream he'd just had, hoping that would contain the clue as to why he'd woken so suddenly. Bia, she'd been in his dream. She'd walked outside with some sort of hot drink. It looked like some sort of permanent tent, she'd walked out of. Bia walked around to the back and sat down on large boulder. It was early where Bia was. Something in Nico's mind told him that it was around 3 in the morning, making it now, based on the time difference. As Nico watched, the girl seemed to be sitting, deep in thought. Something in the forest beside which she was sitting startled her. Standing, she turned toward the trees, evidently deciding there was nothing there, Bia turned her back on the trees. That was when things went downhill. Out of the trees came three figures. One of the figures, a boy around 16 or so, came up behind Bia, wrapping one arm tightly around her waist, in his other hand he held a cloth with which he covered her mouth and nose. Bia struggled, forcefully against the boy, but she was caught off guard and he appeared both bigger and stronger than the petit girl. She kicked at the boy, and threw her head around, managing to hit him in the nose, causing it to bleed. It happened quickly, within seconds, Bia was collapsing in the boys arms, dropping her mug to the shatter on the boulder, coating her lower legs in hot tea. As Bia's struggles gradually subsided, the boy dragged Bia into the woods where a Dracaena and an Earthborn were waiting.

"Lutum…" Nico muttered quietly, not even noticing that he'd picked up the curse in latin that often crossed Bia's lips. Swiftly, Nico rose and dressed. Less than five minutes later, he was running into the woods towards Rache's cave. No Percy, Thalia, or Annabeth ment that Rachel was the person at the very top of Nico' very short list of people he would go to when in need of help.

Over the rim of her coffee mug, Rachel glared at the Nico. Her hair in a messy bun, wearing bunny slippers and a fluffy robe over her threadbare pajama pants and over sized t-shirt, she was in no mood to deal with the young demigod.

"Now that I have my 'nectar', why am I awake at the moment?"

Nico ignored Rachel's cranky mood, "Bia's been kidnapped."

"It's even earlier in California than this ungodly hour here!" Rachel sighed, seeing the genuine concern on Nico's face, "Nico, she's probably safe and sound and warm in bed. Why don't you IM her later this morning?"

"Don't be dumb, Rachel! You've been around enough at this point! You know when demigods have dreams they're real! I had a dream about her sitting outside in the middle of the night, it must have been at the Schola and this guy grabbing her. She passed out, and he dragged her away."

"Ok, Bia's been kidnapped. IM Percy and Annabeth and ask them what's going on. What are you going to do? Go running off to California? It will take you forever to get there, you don't know where the Schola is once you get to California, and Chiron will never let you leave Camp."

"I'm not going to ask Chiron,

"So, you're just going to go?"

"If I have to. Got any rhymes for me?"

"Nico-"

"Rhymes, Red?"

With a sigh, Rachel tried to relax herself, tried to force some sort of prophecy out to help her friend. "No divine insight, I'm sorry, Nico. As your-"

"Fine." Nico cut Rachel off turning on his heel and heading back out of her cave.

"Freaking Demi Gods!" Rachel muttered under her breath, hurrying after the son of Hades.

A/N Constructive Criticism and gratuitous compliments are greatly appreciated! I also love to simply talk to you guys and see what you're thinking or suspect and what not! Please comment, review, message as you see fit!

Thanks!
Miette