XII. Piper McLean

I am sooo soo sorry for leaving you guys hanging. It was just that I was busy with watching YouTube, Netflix, Tumblr, other fanfics, moving, homework, moving, pretending to do homework while on , sleeping, eating, new schedule that I despise, reading, blah, blah, blah. So once again I am super sorry, and I will at least post something each month. I swear on the River Styx

PIPER WAS CONFUSED. Seeing Percy's reaction to the empousai made her respect him even more, but also made her more nervous around him. She knew that he wasn't intentionally trying to look scary, but he must have had some bad luck with them before.

"YOU PEOPLE! MEETING IN THE MESS HALL IN 10 MINUTES! PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!" Hearing Buford's common line was enough to snap her out of it. Down the hall, she heard Jason shriek, probably since he was taking a shower, and there was a problem with the water temperature lately. Sighing, Piper turned to the wall where she had hung up some of her favorite moments with Jason. Following the line of photos, she stopped at one she never noticed before. Curious, she pulled the picture off of the string it was attached to.

It was a rough sketch of Jason and her holding hands that one night on the rooftop of her old school. Smiling, she flipped it over. Seeing that Jason made this for her was so very romantic in her opinion. But then again, there was no such definition for romantic. Heck, the guy could even forget to bring money, or spill food, or use the bathroom half of the time, and she would still find the date romantic.

"MEETING IN THE MESS HALL IN 5 MINUTES!" Buford said over the intercom, startling Piper, causing her to fall and land on the drawing, folding the corner. Groaning, she picked it up, noticing that there was a handwritten note.

Piper,

So how are you doing? I figured that since it was your birthday a few days ago, I decided to make this for you. Since this moment was a trick of the Mist, I figured that something like this would help you realize that it wasn't. It will always be us together, and even though it won't always exactly look like this, I want you to know that I love you forever and always.

Love, Jason

Smiling, she straightened out the bent corner and hung it back up. Sighing, she grabbed her monster-proof phone. Thank the gods for them. She could enjoy having a cellphone, that wouldn't attract any monsters at all. Heading out of the door, the ship suddenly shifted, sending her straight into Jason.

"Sorry," she muttered. Jason was smiling at her.

"Did you get it?" he asked.

"Of course I did," she replied, standing back up. She gave him a quick peck on his cheek, and grabbed his hand. "Come on, the others are waiting for us."

Surprisingly, Captain Leo was not there yet, even though he was the one to call the mandatory meetings. Grinning, she grabbed an apple from the mini snack bar and sat down.

Approximately, 30 seconds later, Leo arrived. "Whoa! You're all here already!" he exclaimed .

Jason scoffed. "Dude, of course we are. I burnt myself in the shower because of this meeting that Buford conveniently shouted through that stupid intercom."

"Hey, don't forget, that intercom saved our butts a few hours ago. And-"

"And I don't really have a lot of time, so lets get to why we're all gathered here," Annabeth interrupted their brief argument. Piper sent her a silent thank you.

"Right." Leo stood up straight and tapped the holographic walls of the mess hall. The quiet scene of Camp Half-Blood was replaced with a harsh image of darkness, sorrow and misery.

Annabeth looked frightened. "Um, Leo? Why are you showing us this? Especially us?" glancing at Percy. "Don't you remember anything of the last time we went down there? You guys were lucky. All you have to do was drink the poison. We had to endure every single freaking monster, Titan, and giant ever created."

"That, my friends is exactly why I showed you. I think I almost figured out the prophecy."