So here's the fifth chapter!

Happy Reading!

Clarisse

I was in the ancient Greek class, when Malcolm, the director of the Athena cabin, knocked on the classroom's door. He asked me to come to a camp directors emergency meeting. I Lowered my feet from my desk and grinned at the rest of our group. Have a nice lesson, losers!

As we got out of the classroom, I noticed Malcolm's expression. I came to the conclusion, that he already knew something. Or well, of course everybody knew, that the conference was about the ongoing quest. But what everybody didn't know, was what actually happened on the quest. Well, we would probably find it out pretty soon.

"Chiron got an Iris message from Argo II", Malcolm said suddenly, as he tightened his stride. "They are not doing really well."

"Don't you say they're imprisoned", I said with a sigh.

"No, they're not. They were able to escape."

"Escape? So they escaped even thought they had a heavily armed battleship and a surprise advantage on their side?"

"Just to point out: their intent wasn't to attack the Romans, but to make allies with them." Malcolm sighed in frustration.

I narrowed my eyes. "Well, if they had to escape, doesn't that mean the Romans attacked them? But obviously they didn't have the spunk to fight back," I said with sarcasm.

Malcolm stopped suddenly. His hand grasped the hilt of his sword, but then he controlled himself. I snorted contemptuously. Wise move, boy.

"Don't you dare question Annabeth's courage", he snarled between his teeth.

"Well, if defending her honor is what you want to do as your last act, I accept your challenge." I pulled my sword from it's sheath.

Malcolm glared at me, then rolled his eyes. "We have more important things to do. The meeting starts in a few minutes."

I shrugged. "Any way you want."

We finally reached the Big House's rec room, where were always had our council meetings. Malcolm gave me a one last glare, then took his seat around the ping-pong table. The children of Athena always thought they were so awesome. And it was only because their mother was the goddess of wisdom. Oh wow. Really, put me against him in a close combat anytime. It would be my pleasure. However, I also took a seat - as far from Malcolm as possible - and turned towards Chiron, who was already waiting for us at the head of the table. All the counselors were present, except for Annabeth, who was placed by Malcolm, and in place of Lou Ellen, there was this violet-haired kid, Cara.

"I have called you here for an emergency meeting, and I guess you all know already, what it's about." Chiron said, looking at us. "I got an Iris message from the Argo II a moment ago."
Everyone around the table had their eyes glued at Chiron. Finally, he sighed and started to tell, what had happened to the crew of Argo II in New Rome. He told us everything he'd heard from Annabeth in the Iris message. How they'd found Percy, who had became the second praetor of Camp Jupiter. How they'd bargained with the Romans. How Leo had went to Argo II with this dude, Octavian, and how the war ship soon started firing the Roman city. How they'd escaped and how Leo had admitted, that he had fired the city, but he didn't know why. Annabeth had also told, that now the Romans were after them, and that their ship was damaged. It was pretty sealed version, but Annabeth hadn't have much time to explain. And this all was just like in my dream. (A/N: Chapter one) I wandered, if also the other images were going to come true...

Instantly after Chiron ended, the counselors started asking questions all in the same time. "What's wrong with Leo?" Will Solace asked. "If the Romans didn't attack them, then why did Leo-..." Malcolm started. "Well, he'd said that he didn't do it in purpose", Miranda from the Demeter cabin interrupted. "And how could somebody destroy a half of a Roman city accidentally?" Malcolm pointed out. "Maybe he was under a spell", Cara suggested. "And who do you think enchanted him?" I asked the Hecate's kid over the noise. "If there was only that Roman dude in the ship with Leo, then why would he enchant someone to ruin his own city?" Travis Stoll asked loudly. Good point.

Finally, Chiron raised his voice and told everyone to shut up. Or as he said it, to be silent. "I'm afraid I can't answer any of your questions, because I don't know any more than you do. And why this happened, isn't the matter we're discussing here. Instead, we have to decide, what to do in our situation. And to be mentioned, the Romans are going to attack our camp. We have to plan our defense.

When I heared that, I immediately got up from my chair and banged my fist on the table to get everyone's attention. Everyone around the table fell silent and looked at me, expectantly. "Chiron, how soon are they going to reach us? And how are they suppose to find this camp?" I demanded first.

"Unfortunately, Annabeth mentioned our exact location to their other praetor. She did it as a gesture of trust, before Argo II started firing."

"What?" I exclaimed, completely thunderstruck. "Is she a complete idiot? Who in the name of Zeus goes to inform her camp's location to a likely enemy?"

"I can see your point", Chiron said in a calm tone, which just irritated me more. "But she did it just to show them credit, so that they could also trust us. Most of them probably don't want to make allies with us any more than you want with them. Annabeth took a risk by revealing our location, but she did it only because we really need allies."

"And now our allies will come here and try to kill us. Great", I muttered, but sat down on my chair.

Chiron sighed. "Annabeth decided to take the risk, and we can't change that fact. It will take probably weeks from the Romans to march here. To be sure, the legion has the man superior and their fighting style is pretty different than ours, so we really have to prepare properly."

We discussed the defence of the camp for a several hours, and we even achieved to invent something reasonable. Chiron told us not to tell about any of this to any of the other campers. He wanted to explain things to them by himself at the campfire. Of course, that was futile. It was obvious, that all of us just couldn't hold their tongues. Some of the counselors would tell it to their roommates, who would tell it to their other friends, and in the end everybody would know more or less about what had happened before the campfire. For me, it was all the same. The situation was what it was. Who told about it to who, didn't change the things to one way or another. We would fight the Romans. And that was all I'd expected. I mean, who would've even expected anything else? Had someone really thought, that the plan could work? It didn't make any difference to me, if Percy was now their praetor, and if Jason had been their praetor before. They could swap sides whenever they wanted to.

What had Hera really imagined? Well, what she had imagined, didn't matter. But it was pretty obvious, what she had done. She had egged on the Romans against the Greeks. I don't know, if it had been her actual intent. We had saved the gods of Olympus in the Titan war. Piper, Jason and Leo had saved her own useless ass from that cage in Wolf House. If you ask me, the queen of Olympus should show us some gratitude.

Hope you liked it! And reviews would really make me happy ;)