{This is the re-written version of chapter 2. The first version no longer exists, but why would you want to read that? This is much better}

Annabeth's POV

I've always hated the ocean. Being in California doesn't exactly help with that, even in September, with the stoned surfer dude stereotype. I suppose my disdain for the ocean stems from my mom, Athena. Not that I've been open to that information with anybody else here at Camp Jupiter. Why she chose to bring my here from Virginia where my dad lived before I left, I'll never know. Although, I can't complain too much, my friends here are great people, especially within the fifth cohort. Gwen and Dakota were some of my first friends here, Gwen even being my sponsor when I arrived as an anxious eight year old, put on probatio. After my year of probatio, I joined the legion's medics as an attempt to maintain a low profile and to pursue knowledge, while most of the other children my age went to fight in the legions. I stayed with the medics until Reyna showed up, when I was thirteen. Her war game strategies combined with my hubris no longer allow me to keep up my façade, for I had found a rival. I joined the Cohort's Militia a few months later. This last summer I was a part of the storming of Mount Orthys. We lost so many demigods and legacies, and I was almost overrun before Jason toppled Saturn's throne.

Jason. Where do I begin with him? Sure he's a nice enough guy, and sure, he's one of the Twelfth Legion's youngest praetor's but he's too perfect. He follows the rules to the letter, which isn't bad, necessarily, but gets annoying when you're trying to have a good time. My contemplations are interrupted from my scorn of the ocean which I've been staring at from a hill in camp, by a low pitched rumbling, coming from the Fields of Mars. I know immediately that this isn't an earthquake. I unsheathe my knife, which I've had for years, and head to the field to see what in Pluto's name is going on. As I approach, I see that the entire camp is converging on the source too. Good to know that I wasn't going crazy. Reyna, Jason and Octavian were near the front of the crowd of armed and half-dressed demigods and legacies. Octavian squints at me as I approach from the other side of the field

"Annabeth, was this your doing?" he demands "It's caused a great disturbance in the augury." I could tell he was trying to be nonchalant, but I knew he just wanted an excuse for me to be punished for not being claimed yet.

"Erre es korakas." I mutter to myself softly, while glaring daggers at him.

"That's enough Octavian," Reyna shot him down coldly. "You know Annabeth doesn't have—"

"No, Reyna I don't know she can't do this. Nobody knows her parentage, making this plausibly her doing" Octavian interrupts snidely. Reyna glares at him, matching ferocity to rival my own.

"Aren't you needed somewhere else?" Reyna asks, clearly annoyed "If not, I think the praetors can handle this alone." Upon hearing this, the crowd slowly began to disperse. I try joining them, but Reyna pulled me back. "Annabeth," Reyna says calmly "if it is something we can't handle, we'd appreciate your medical expertise, right Jason?" Jason looks up, slightly panicked for being put on the spot and nods carefully. Suddenly, as if by some cue, the ground began to split in front of us, just wide enough for a person to peek up from the crevice. Before we had time to react, the head of a girl, a couple years younger than me emerged. After Jason and I helped her out of the hole, another head popped out, a boy about the same age, maybe a little bit older, who looked weathered by a long life.

The boy squinted in the sunlight. "Is this Camp Jupiter?" he asked cautiously, but it seemed like he already knew the answer, based on the way he had moved on from looking around him, and onto assessing us. His eyes lingered on Jason for a moment, before quickly moving on to Reyna, and then stopping on me. He looked at me curiously, as if wondering what I was doing there, before deciding that it obviously wasn't his business.

Jason was the first to break out of the stunned silence caused by the arrival of the two strangers. "Yes, but how did you know that, but more to the point, who are you and why are you here?" Reyna had adopted her signature scowl, and was currently aiming it at the strangers, as if daring them to lie to her.

"My name is Nico di Angelo, son of H-Pluto, and this is my sister Hazel Levesque." he said trying to look bored, as if he popped out of cracks in the earth often, but instead managing to look both slightly nervous and exhausted, probably from creating a giant fissure to arrive in. I half wondered what he had been about to say. His sister, Hazel looked slightly uncomfortable at being called his sister, giving me the impression that demigods and monsters were a relatively new revelation for her. That or she wasn't a fan of new people. I somehow got the feeling it was a bit of both, and maybe a touch of something else I couldn't quite place.

The awkward silence that followed was once again broken by Jason, who saw fit to introduce them. "I'm Jason Grace, and this is Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, and we are the praetors of Camp Jupiter, and this is Annabeth Chase, one of the members of the fifth cohort. She's also a former medic" he informed them, trying to break the tension. Luckily for everyone involved, theses awkward attempts were stopped by Reyna, who insisted that they finish this conversation in private. As the group headed to the principia I split off to go prepare for roll call, and then dinner with the rest of my cohort, I recalled Nico. He looked like he was hiding something. Both he and Hazel were more than they seemed, and I very highly doubted I was going to get any information right away without giving up a secret of my own. Nico just gave off this vibe, that was familiar, but one I couldn't place. His near slip up from earlier was tickling something in the recesses of my mind. Before I could ponder much further on this, the horns blew for roll call, and I was marched with the rest of the fifth cohort to join the legion assemble.

Roll call was a little bit more chaotic due to the events of this afternoon, and their impatience for a response from the praetors. Of course "chaotic" in the roman legion was a bit more shuffling than usual, and a few whispers echoing around the group. After all the names had been called, Reyna and Jason stepped up in front of the crowd. Behind them stood Nico and Hazel, the former successfully pulling off his bored look, and the latter looking like she had never seen so many people in her life, and was about to turn around and head right back to the barracks where she came from. Before she could, Nico grabbed her hand, which seemed to calm her down.

Reyna began speaking drawing all attention away from the children of Pluto, and to her. "Romans!" she announces bringing anyone who dared zone out on her back to attention. "I'm sure you all felt the small tremors that shook the camp this afternoon. That tremor brought Nico di Angelo, son and ambassador of Pluto, and Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto to our camp. The ambassador of Pluto will be here temporarily, and will visit occasionally to report to his father. Hazel Levesque seeks to join the legion! What do the auguries have to say?"

She looked at Octavian who held the stuffing of another murdered stuffed toy, this one looking like a medium sized yellow duck, with a pink bow around the neck, or I imagined that was what the pink string dangling from it dejectedly was. "I have read the entrails!" He announced dramatically, as if he didn't say the words every time, and most of the people here knew them by heart. "The auguries are favorable. She is qualified to serve". It might have been my imagination, but he looked a touch nervous, as he took a step back, I swear I saw him give a fearful glance toward the children of Pluto. I smirked. I knew I liked those two. After I joined the legion in the customary "Ave!" Hazel was asked for credentials, which she gave none, to which Octavian smirked his favorite I'm-better-than-you smirk. He then called out the million dollar question "Who will stand for her?"

Everyone looked around sheepishly; no one in their right mind would stand for a daughter of Pluto, powerful or not. Feeling as if I had nothing to lose, I stepped out of line, and called, "I will stand for Hazel Levesque". Seeing as I was well respected by my cohort, they began to bang their shields against the ground. Our centurions, looked hesitant to join in, but probably figured I had some sort of reason for standing for Hazel, after all, I had never stood for anyone before, even though I'd been here long enough to have ample opportunity. As Gwen called out the cohorts acceptance of Hazel, a few of the other legionnaires who weren't gaping like a fish at Annabeth Chase, the weird unclaimed demigod medic/warrior and former senator of the fifth cohort who had arrived at Camp Jupiter at age 8, and had been here longer than a lot of them, standing for a daughter of Pluto that she'd just met, were smirking at her and the rest of the fifth in triumph, because no matter how powerful she could be, the fifth had once again, accepted a looser into their ranks. Nico gave his thumbs up in approval of my decision, which made me more curious about his past.

Jason, on the other hand, was grinning ear to ear seeing as we had welcomed another to the cohort he had worked hard to restore the honor to. "Congratulations, Hazel Levesque. You stand on probatio and will be given a tablet with your name and cohort. In a year's time, or as soon as you complete an act of valor, you will become a full member of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. Serve Rome, obey the rules of our legion and defend the camp with your honor. Senatus Populusque Romanus!" Jason finished delivering the speech we had all received at one point, more excited than I had seen him in weeks. "Centurions, our regularly scheduled war games have been postponed because of the large fissure in the middle of the field, apologies for any inconveniences, you and your troops have two hours for dinner until curfew. And I don't think I need to remind you what happens if you are out past curfew." A couple of campers chuckled lightly at this, but Hazel just looked terrified.

As we were heading off to the Mess Pavilion, one of the guards handed Hazel her probatio tablet. She nodded in appreciation, and turn to me. "Thank you, Annabeth," she said softly "but what does it mean that you're standing for me?"

I grin "It means that I'm responsible for your behavior, teaching you the rules, answering any questions that you may have, and basically making sure you don't disgrace the legion."

"But what if I do something wrong on accident?" Hazel's question is a faint whisper

"Then I get sewn in the same sack of badgers with you and thrown in the Little Tiber." I say darkly. "Let's make a Roman out of you yet."

As Hazel and I filed into the mess pavilion, I pointed people out for Hazel. Who was in our cohort, who was worth avoiding, and who she should be civil to avoid the previously mentioned punishments. We walked toward the tables filled with the other members of the fifth, which was, of course in the back of the dining pavilion where we could be easily mocked. We began to attract whispers and stares as we walked around tables filled with people. I decided against sitting with my regular table with Gwen and Dakota near the front of our section, in favor of the one Nico was sitting at in the very back corner, alone and also subject to said stares. Hazel sat down next to him, as I moved to sit on the other side of the table. The wind nymphs, called aurae, as I informed Hazel, brought us our food. I got a Panini and a goblet of fizzy water, while Hazel got what looked like gumbo. For some reason Nico had got a cheeseburger that looked suspiciously like it had come from the golden arches of hell, McDonalds, and Coke.

Hazel looked confused "How did they know I'd missed this?"

I just shrugged and took a sip from my goblet. "Magic probably. It's best not to think about what one couldn't possibly understand." I stared at Nico, still confused at what he was doing. "Are you feeding the lares, with a cheeseburger?"

Nico put the burger back on his plate and shook his head. "No, sorry," he said calmly "They just remind me of the time I accidentally summoned Theseus." He seemed to realize what he had said and muttered a curse under his breath. We finish dinner with a little more conversation between us, although Don, the Faun, did harass Hazel, like he does with all the new campers. Hazel stifles a yawn and I could sympathize with her. First days are exhausting. We began heading to the barracks early so that Hazel could get some decent sleep before the rest of the girls showed up, (and in my experience, that leads to getting less sleep than if you were surrounded by wolves, which I have been. And I was fine in the morning.) Anyway, Nico told Hazel goodbye, and that he'd be leaving before morning to do stuff for their father, but that he'd be back soon. I took a step or two away to give them some privacy when Nico leaned in to whisper something in Hazel's ear. She tensed, then relaxed, grabbing him into a hug that he'd obviously not been expecting. They left Nico at the door of the barracks while I showed Hazel her bunk. She didn't have much except for the clothes on her back, so I promised to show her around New Rome tomorrow, and that we could buy her some of the necessities. By the time I walked out of the barracks, I expected to see Nico long gone, but he was waiting in the shadow of the building, seemingly waiting for me.

"I need you to promise me that Hazel will be as safe as a demigod can be. I've already lost one sister, I can't lose another." He looked as if he was about to break down from the memory, and I got the impression that Nico di Angelo was not someone who wanted their emotions seen.

I nodded and Nico nodded back gratefully. As he turned to leave I caught his shoulder. "Hey Nico," I started carefully, not wanting to test his temper more than I had to, "As you introduced yourself this afternoon, you started to say something. And then again at dinner, you said that you spoke to Theseus's spirit. But the thing is that Theseus was a Greek hero, not Roman."

Nico turned white, whiter than a kid who played with the dead should be. "What are you implying? That my dad isn't Pluto?"

I grinned, knowing that my tactic had worked. "I wasn't implying anything. But you just confirmed my theory that you're in a similar situation to my own." Nico just stared at me unable to process what I had done. "Your dad is Hades right?"

Nico got a look in his eye stating that he'd reached the only possible conclusion "But that means… no it can't, it shouldn't… Only a child of Athena could figure it out." I grin and begin walking him back to the fissure. "I uh, don't actually use that for travel. I'll close it, but I only use it for the occasional dramatic effect." I laugh as he closes it carefully and then proceeds to disappear into the night.

{Two chapters redone, who knows how many more?}

[We own nothing except for the plot and the rare OC. Constructive criticism is welcome. Also, I know that there are many canon deviations, such as Dakota standing for Hazel, but I simply do not care.]

{Savage OfOlympus}