[Hi everyone! Told you we'd update by the end of the week! Sorry the previous chapters have taken so long, it turns out reading fanfiction is much easier than writing it! So, anyway, we don't own PJO or HOO, please R and R, no flames!]

{You're one to talk 'Miss I have the next three chapters outlined in rough hand'.}

[When did I say that? Anyway while we have a discussion of time management, here's the chapter]

Hazel's P.O.V.

I still had no idea what to make of Percy. Nico seemed to trust him (and that in its self is an accomplishment). Still, something about him was off, he knew how to put on armor, something that few people outside off camp knew how to do. Annabeth seemed weary of him but still seemed to approve of him… Even if everyone else who knew my secret trusted him, I wasn't about to go spilling my biggest secrets to just anyone. I did vouch for him earlier though. I thought about this as we marched to the Mars field where the games were taking place. When we got there Annabeth pulled out her magic cap and put it on. I don't know why, but judging by Percy's shocked expression, Annabeth hadn't told him about her hat's power.

"It's magic" I told him. "It will makes her invisible while she has it on." As he nodded his head in understanding, Dakota and Gwen gave their hopeful speech that actually made me feel less hopeful. They needed to work on that. Annabeth, Frank and I explained the ruled to Percy. I didn't know what this capture the flag was (I'm sure Annabeth will tell me later), but he seemed to be really familiar with that and kept using it as a comparison. He probably played it a lot in school. As we finished our explanation, several horns went off signaling that the games were about to start. Fun. I could feel that another loss for the fifth would be imminent. To nobody's surprise, we got the honor of weakening the tower defenses. Then came more of Gwen's optimism, and promise for a Mural Crown if one of us got over the wall first. Percy looked at us peculiarly.

"Military award" Frank said tersely. "But no one in the fifth has one because we're just the cannon fodder."

Annabeth made a sound of agreement. "We're all usually wiped out by the scorpions or the flaming arrows, or drowni…That's it! Percy, do you think you could knock out the water cannons, similar to what you did with the river?" Percy glanced at the cannons on the wall

"Maybe, but I have no idea how I did it." He looked disappointed, like he wanted to help. "Don't worry "said Annabeth optimistically," when we get there your instincts will kick in and we'll be past those cannons in no time!" I caught Percy trying to grin optimistically toward Annabeth, forgetting that she was still invisible, once he noticed that, he looked toward me with a slightly more pained, embarrassed grin and tried to save some of his pride. I raised my eyebrows at him, mouthing "Really?" he shrugged in response. I heard someone talking and turned to look at the speaker.

"Let's go over there first; it's where the defense is weaker and they won't take three kids seriously, especially since everyone thinks we're the most useless in the legion" said Frank. He caught me staring at him, and we both looked away blushing. "Good idea" I said meekly. Good idea! That was so lame! Ugg! I never know what to say.

"I agree with Hazel, good idea lets go". I could hear Annabeth's smirk. I really regret telling her about my crush on Frank.

"Wait!" Frank stopped suddenly causing us to all stop quickly and trip over each other. "We need to keep the element of surprise." He turned toward me. I knew what he was about to say and I hated it. "Can you do that thing?" He asked, not remembering his promise. I punched him in the arm. "You promised you wouldn't tell!" I complained. He immediately looked regretful. "Never mind, its fine." I muttered and proceeded to explain the plan and my ability to Percy and Annabeth.

"Why didn't you tell me about that?" Annabeth exclaimed. "Ummmm… it never came up?" I said nervously, hoping she wasn't5 mad. An angry Annabeth was a very, very bad thing.

"Whatever" she muttered. I'm goanna pay for this later, aren't I?

"Soooooo, are we going? Percy said breaking all tension.

"Yeah, but first does Hazel have any more secrets to share with the group?" Annabeth said smirking devilishly. "No" I said shyly. At least she wasn't mad, just teasing. On that relieving note, I went to my job of finding a nice underground tunnel.

Frank's P.O.V

We were traversing through the tunnel that Hazel had formed with the light from Percy's sword. A great plan, an excellent team and a heavy confidence, not to mention, the heavy armor. What could possibly go wrong? As we crept forward, the activity upstairs was causing loads of damage and causing loose debris. I slipped my hand into my armor. Good. The wood was still safe and secure in my pocket. Although a clear shot from a scorpion could totally set my fate on fire. I flinched as the tunnel shook. 'Bad Frank' I chided myself 'Fire is the F-Word' It was best not to think about it. As they were nearing the mouth of the tunnel, Annabeth tripped over something and her hat fell onto the dirt .As Percy brought his sword down to examine it as Annabeth picked up her hat dusted it off contemplating over something for a minute and eventually shoving it into her pocket. It was a huge chunk of a silver colored substance.

"Don't touch that!" Hazel exclaimed fearfully "It should go away in a minute." After it went away and Hazel promised to explain later, we journeyed onward. There was another explosion as we arrived at our pre-designated spot, just in front of the east wall. There was a throb as the rest of our legion was hit with a blast of the water cannons. Percy whistled an impressed trill.

"That is a LOT of pressure." I saw Annabeth look back at our other allies in the third and fourth cohort laughs at our feeble attempts to advance.

"We'll get through that wall" she muttered stubbornly. "Who'll be laughing then?" She looked mad. I saw the first and second cohorts yelling insults at the rest of the fifth. We were a joke. I was getting mad. My vision went red. Who were they to laugh at us? They were just standing there! They didn't know what it was to fight just to be acknowledged. I could feel the rest of us come to the same resolve, they were going down.

Annabeth's P.O.V.

I had no panic as the rest of the fifth cohort was wiped out with the water cannons. Why should I? They told us to do whatever we wanted. We wanted to get over that wall, so technically we were just following orders. This went through my mind as Frank said some (probably very macho) catchphrase and got a hydra arrow ready to shoot into the wall. It took a lot of force to shoot that into the wall and my ADHD mind momentarily started to calculate it. By the time I finished, Frank had shot the arrow and Percy had made the cannon explode. It seemed that Percy had caused quite the state of panic on our side of the wall.

"Nice job Seaweed Brain" I told him.

"Thanks?" he said not sure if I had just given him a complement or not. At this I laughed, despite the levity of our situation. From the tip of Frank's arrow a ladder was starting to take shape.

"Go" he said firmly, but Percy just shook his head.

"Nah. This is your party. It's only fitting you go first."

Frank hesitated for a second and looked at me. I nodded, it was his turn to finally get some, and then started up the makeshift ladder with Hazel, me and Percy right after him. As we reached the summit of the fortress, everyone was watching us, even the people who were supposed to be defending the fort, all dumbfounded until I screamed "Well, what are you waiting for? An invitation?! ATTACK!

Gwen was the first to unfreeze and parroted me. As the fifth sprang into action, so did the third and fourth. 'Gee, I thanks' I thought bitterly.

"We can't let them get the banners" Frank elaborated Percy nodded in agreement, and we headed off to destroy people's reputation.

We were dominating. We all stood in a circle facing out fighting like we had been training together for years, not like it was our first battle together. Percy was probably doing the most damage, with me in second and Hazel and Frank tied for third. I had never seen anyone fight like Percy was, except in my dreams. I often saw the Greek demigods fighting in a similar fashion. It was very different from roman fighting, but it was throwing all of our enemies off. I had the years gotten very handy with a dagger. It wasn't like anybody else's. It was bronze for one thing. It looked to be the same material as Percy's sword. It was also a Greek design. Octavian had freaked out when he saw it, but after I explained that it was in my bed and I had no idea where it came from, the predators decided I was to keep it, it was obviously a gift from my godly parent and those things usually were better off with whomever they were given to. After a while I heard Octavian screaming about something or another, and was extremely grateful when Percy shut him up by hitting him in the head with his sword, knocking him out. After a while we split up. I put on my hat and darted, invisible around knocking one camper after another down. Hazel climbed onto Hannibal the elephant that was apparently fighting with us. She rode him into battle charging him into the center of the base, knocking down the doors and scaring the helmets off of the guards who had underestimated us and were playing Mythomagic. I started to dash in, when I was stabbed by someone lifting their sword in anger at us making it this far.

I gasped for air as my vision went faint. I barely heard the horns go off again as Frank grabbed the banner. It felt like an eternity until the medics noticed me, bleeding out. Everything around me was growing dull. Slowly, despite the best efforts of the legion's medics, I slipped into unconsciousness. Knowing what was expected in death, I prepared for the worse, but despite my various descriptions, the underworld looked like a crowded lobby. The man behind the counter asked for a coin, but I was in too much of a stupor to comprehend what was going on. I turned around and saw the door was still open. Scanning my pockets I realized I had no change on me and went out the door to get some. As I left the building, everyone at camp was standing around me, and they gasped.

At their frightful stares, I realized I should be dead. Hundreds of concerned glances were exchanged. As I started to stand, shaking I heard a thunderous roar

"Death loses its hold. This is only the beginning." I looked around everyone drew their weapons to face the intruder. I searched the ground around me for my dagger only to find someone *(cough Octavian cough)* had put it in their pocket assuming that I was dead and thought it would be ok to take it. He thought wrong. I took several steps backwards to where Octavian was standing took his prize carefully out of his pocket and put it into mine. I silently walked back to my original spot, thinking up plans for revenge. Maybe I could…I mentally trailed off. Above me, standing about 10 feet tall above me was a man who I could only assume to be the god Mars. He looked ready for war, with Camouflage, goggles, a military cut just like Frank's, and a M16 rifle. The entire roman army knelt, well, except for Percy, who wasn't happy to see him. Ii zoned out only half listening, waiting for the important part. I heard something about Percy fighting Ares, Mars' Greek form and tuned in. Mars, of course responded with a huge ego.

"No, I don't think so." He said." If we had, you'd be dead, now stop talking before you try my patience" or something like that. Mars tried to show his power by erupting flames around him in a circle. I don't know what Frank said, but Percy knelt with the rest of us. Mars scanned the crowd. His eyes stopped on me and he smirked at me. I saw the laughter in his eyes. He thought the fact that I was here, where I could be killed any second was hilarious.

"Romans lend me your ears" he said with a deep, powerful laugh." I've always wanted to say that! I come from Olympus with a message." He seemed very happy to be here, watching us cower. "Normally I'm not supposed to speak to mortals directly, especially now a days but, because you're my special people, Jupiter has allowed me a few minutes, so listen carefully." His ego was growing by the second.

"Here's the deal" Mars bellowed. "Pluto's lieutenant, Thanatos, the god of Death has been chained, making the Doors of Death accessible to our enemies. With Thanatos chained, monsters are already harder to dispatch and some demigods are finding their way back from the underworld, like your friend here, Legionnaire Shish-Kabab"

I winced at the reference.

"Even mortals would find it beneficial, if left unchecked. Imagine the endless slaughter, the pointless carnage."

Percy looked up challengingly "You're the god of war. Wouldn't endless carnage be a plus for you?"

"I don't fight without reason, boy. Therefore I order a quest!"

Octavian looked around and nervously asked "My Lord? Don't quests usually have prophecies?" Mars grumbled something I'd rather not listen to again and asked "Anyone got a pen?" Everyone gave him a blank stare. "Two hundred Romans, not a single pen." He strapped his M16 to his back and pulled out a hand grenade. Several people screamed, until it morphed into a ballpoint pen. I saw Frank mouth something to Percy and Percy respond.

"There! A prophecy. Do whatever you please with it."

Octavian read the prophecy out loud "Go to Alaska. Find Thanatos and free him. Come back before sundown on June twenty-fourth or die."

"Yes. Is that not clear?"

"Well you see prophecies are usually unclear and…" Octavian screamed as Mars popped another grenade of his belt. "Yes. It's clear." I grinned at his obvious fear and discomfort. I loved seeing Octavian squirm. Apparently so did Mars because he gave a smile that looked like an attempt not to burst out laughing. I don't think anyone noticed.

"Now what else, there was something else…" he mused going into deep thought. I off handedly wondered how much that hurt. "Oh ya, come here kid" he said to Frank who looked like he just wanted to disappear. Frank walked forward. Mars started talking about how it was his son (Poor Frank; suck being a son of Mars) first over the wall, and a little about his mom. Then out of nowhere Mars announced "It's time you had a man's weapon." He threw his rifle at Frank and for a second, I think the entire twelfth legion accepted that Frank Zhang was going to die. Luckily for Hazel, the M16 turned into a spear at the last second. I couldn't see too well from here, but from what Mars said it was dragon tooth tipped. He also said something about Frank's mom having a "gift"? This is why Mars is my least favorite Olympian. Mars then announced that Frank was to lead a quest and was to take Percy and one other person with him. I felt a pang. I knew he'd choose Hazel, and I had a feeling that I needed to go on that quest, that it'd help me find answers to why a greek was here, with the romans. I'd figure out a plan, after all, Athena always has a plan.

{Well that was great! And I suppose this is the end of the allotted week we promised you, although it's later than originally planned….}

[Hey! New Year's is busy! (and Happy New Year to everyone by the way) besides, this is our longest chapter…so far….]

{We're currently not quite sure when we'll write next, but I promise it should be ready before May. And if I happen to be writing it again, I promise not to leave it at school again..}

[If he does, we'll just rewrite it. See you before May!]