A/N: Hey remember two years ago when I got jelly beans for Christmas and got all wacky when I wrote? Guess whose father picked up jellybeans! Just to set the tone for my day. It's been insane.

Anyway, I apologize for the wait. I've had some seriously crazy days in the past week such as my friend's 21st and 3 days in Boston, so I'm finally getting some writing time!

I hope you guys like the chapter – love you all!

Reyna flailed and drew her clip, snapping it into a sword.

No one was there.

Sure someone had been threatening her, she sat up and stared around the room, her heart beating rapidly as she tried to calm herself, to no avail.

"Hello?" she called. "I'll have you know, I'm armed and sleep deprived. I don't know about you but in my book that's a horrible combination."

The silence and emptiness of the room did not reply.

Reyna turned and stood, looking back at the bed. She would have sworn someone had been attempting to kill her. She knew that feeling. She knew the sharp bite of cold metal on sensitive skin. She knew the fear of the impermanence of life brought about by that kind of vulnerability. In that moment she decided she hated sleeping.

"Who are you?" she demanded of the room.

You'll find out soon enough.

Reyna jumped about eight feet. No one was supposed have responded.

"Answer me," said Reyna, breathing deeply, "or you'll regret it."

You can't threaten a voice in your head, replied the voice that, apparently, was in Reyna's head. When you hear me the second time, you'll be less likely to jump like that. More like you'll be scared stiff. Your girlfriend's going to try and fight me though. It'll be great. The voice laughed coldly, and Reyna began spinning to try to see where it was coming from, even though she knew it was in her own head, had settled in her bones like a frost on a winter day.

"Why can't I just see you now?"

It's not time yet, but you will come see me – and you will regret it.

With a feeling like being pulled out of a lake, Reyna felt the presence leave her room and her mind, and she tried to keep herself from shaking with just how horrible it had felt.

Trying to calm herself, Reyna lowered herself back into her bed. With a glance out of the window, she saw that it was still dark out. At least she would have a few more hours of sleep before going off on the quest.

She also, strangely enough, saw that Piper's cabin had a few lights on. The night before, she had attempted to ignore the fact that she had easy visibility toward the Aphrodite cabin, as it very unfortunately reminded her of the awkward conversation they had had right after Reyna had called Piper stunning and she had acted like an all around idiot.

After she saw Leo leave and the entire campsite had devolved into random chatter in the outskirts of the fire, Reyna walked over to Piper, who was still absent mindedly brushing at her arms and hair, as if it would just go away.

Reyna waved and Piper waved back, albeit slightly more angrily than one would expect, as Reyna walked over.

"I just wanted to formally ask you to join us on the quest, said Reyna. "I think you're the person we want. No, I know you're the person we want." Reyna scoffed. "Especially since Drew? So much no. I'm almost positive you'd never use your charmspeak to influence other people, like a certain sister of yours."

Piper shuddered in a way that reminded Reyna of the way a dog would shake off water. Dogs – she'd had dogs before.

Blinking a bit, she returned herself to reality. "What was that?" Reyna asked.

"I said I can't believe I'm related to…to that wench," said Piper.

"Yeah," said Reyna, "daughter of Aphrodite, huh?" There was an awkward wall between the two girls, something that had been there since Reyna had, stupidly, proclaimed that Piper was not only gorgeous, but also stunning in front of the entire camp.

"Yeah," grumbled Piper, fiddling with her hair. "Look at this," she said, tugging on the long, thick, perfect hair that fell over her shoulder and framed her face. "I look pretty."

Reyna fought back a small laugh. "What's wrong with looking pretty?"

Piper sighed. "It's not just looking pretty – it looks like I tried to look pretty. It's not even real. I just look like some absolute goofball who spends ninety percent of her day in front of a mirror." She rubbed her lips with the back of her hand. "Like someone whose entire life is based on their appearance. It's despicable."

"Aw, come on," said Reyna, "you look – more than pretty. You look beautiful." With the last word, Reyna, reached out and settled an arm on Piper's bare shoulder.

It was like a jolt went through her, and she and Piper both leapt apart.

"I – thanks," Piper said, sounding a bit shaken. "I just – can't I have been the daughter of Athena?" She frowned, and tilted her gaze to the ground. "Or at least somebody cooler. Like you. You're the daughter of a warrior goddess. You're – you're brave." She glared at a tree that had either offended her or she had claimed as the scapegoat for her irritation. "I love people and talk funny. Whoo-hoo."

Reyna shrugged. "Maybe the charmspeak will come in handy in the future. Like you'll have to tell someone to run away instead of fight us."

Piper scoffed. "Yeah, I'll talk evil to death." She put on a goofy voice, sticking her hip out and waving her hands around dramatically. "Yeah, like, so, I'm a vapid narcissist with an inability to relate to people beyond the discussion of makeup, appearance, and celebrity subculture!" She frowned even harder. "This is ridiculous."

Reyna wasn't quite sure what to say. "Look, Piper, it's okay. You're supposed to be part of this quest, you know?"

"But what if I mess it up?" Piper said quietly, as if she wasn't saying it to anyone but herself. "I'm – I'm convinced I'll ruin it for everyone."

Reyna wanted to do something to help, but she knew nothing she did would be quite right. Her heart felt agonized when Piper looked at her. It was as if that was a moment Reyna used to pull her in for a hug, or tell her some platitude that would half help, or kiss her to distract from the problem, but that was back when memories were a given. Now they're not, and Piper's probably weren't even real.

"You're going to kick evil goddess lady butt," said Reyna.

Piper went to smile but instead shivered violently, her teeth chattering so hard Reyna actually winced. It had to have been painful.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Piper shrugged. "Mom took my jacket. Like cold is supposed to be haute couture or something. All I want is a damned coat."

Reyna grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around Piper. "There," she said, "not a coat, really, but close."

"It must be coat couture if my mom isn't magically poofing it off of me," grumbled Piper.

Reyna laughed. "Do you usually make random puns or is that a gift from your mother too?"

"I've always been snarky," replied Piper. "I don't think my mom's attempt to make me girly will ever make me enjoy being nice to everyone on the planet."

Reyna grinned. "I hear you."

A silence overtook them, and Reyna would have bet her funky new weapon that Piper's mind was reeling with the same things Reyna's was: would they survive, how would they survive, and would they ever get back.

Piper took a deep breath and shrugged. "Whatever," she said with a forced grin. "I'm warm now and I'm not feeling the need to kick Drew anymore. We'll figure everything out, won't we, Reyna?" She stuck out her hand to shake Reyna's, and even with all the memory loss and loss of familiarity it felt formal enough to feel goofy.

Reyna shook Piper's hand with exaggeration and laughed. "Yes we will."

The next time Reyna woke, the only thing she felt was a strange sort of longing as she realized she'd fallen asleep to thoughts of herself and Piper going on the quest together. It had created some bizarre dreams that were half the two of them running around beating people up and being fantastic fighters, and half dreams involved Piper and Leo doing the polka while Reyna conducted a symphony of kittens with violins to play an instrumental version of La Cucaracha.

Something told her that last part was not one of those prophetic demigod dreams Percy had mentioned offhandedly after dinner.

She rolled over, only to see Rachel standing there with a pile of clothes and the biggest grin on her face Reyna had ever seen.

"Oh my GODS!" screeched Reyna, having half of a heart attack as she lost her balance and rolled off of the bed. "Why did you – how did you…?" She spluttered for a few moments. "DID YOUR PARENTS FORGET TO TEACH YOU HOW TO KNOCK?!"

"My parents taught me how to hail a cab when I was six after they forgot me at a benefit for homeless children once," said Rachel, still looking cheery, "but I do not recall being specifically taught to knock." She shrugged. "Blame my upbringing. Raised by wolves and all that."

Reyna suddenly was shot back to the dream she had had the night before. The wolf Lupa and her cryptic messages –

She was a daughter of Bellona.

…Whatever that meant.

"Right, wolves, of course. Do you know where Chiron is?"

Rachel nodded. "He's making sure breakfast is ready. Also you might want to think about putting on clothes and showering before anything happens. I don't think Chiron would be too pleased to see you running out in that."

Reyna looked down. The night before Rachel had loaned her a pair of pajama pants and a tank top that said "New York Associaton of Young Artists," but it appeared Reyna's sleeping mind rejected the idea of pants.

"Oh," she said, blushing red. "That. Right. I'll just…"

Rachel put the outfit down on the chair and walked out of the room. Reyna, on the other hand, just began wondering when her life became this confusing and realized the answer to that question was "yesterday around twelve pm."

Once she was dressed and showered and all in all presentable (not necessarily in that order,) Reyna made her way out the room she had slept in and walked into the kitchen.

"Ah, Reyna," said Chiron. "Nice to see –"

"Chiron, Travis stuck a shoe in the vat of soup at the Demeter table and now Katie's shouting something about poison ivy in a 'place where the sun don't shine' and –" Percy looked over at Reyna. "Oh, hi, Reyna. What's up?"

Chiron sighed. "I'll go settle the poison ivy problem," he said, sounding exhausted.

Percy turned to Reyna. "So how did you sleep?"

"Pretty sure some sort of evil something tried to scare me while I was sleeping, and succeeded. Then I woke up to Rachel standing over me with a pile of clothes. I can't be sure, but I'm going to say well considering the circumstances."

Percy chuckled. "Sounds like a typical night here, really. Figured out anything about who you are yet, or were the dreams not that useful."

She shrugged. "Well, wolves came to me in one of my dreams, but my next dream involved kittens and La Cucaracha so I'm not sure I can trust my dreams. And I'm apparently not supposed to be alive, so that's still up in the air."

Percy frowned. "Not alive? Who said that?"

"Chiron."

Percy frowned even deeper. "Well, my best guess is that he just meant that you're old enough that, usually, a demigod on their own would have been killed by a monster by now. You beat the odds."

Before she really knew if it was a good choice, Reyna pulled up the sleeve of her jacket and showed Percy the sword tattoo and the marks on her arm. "But this. I think it has something to do with who I really am. The sword, I think, is the sign of Bel – Enyo. Of her. And then the marks…"

"Well are they for every, what, few years or so?" asked Percy. "Or maybe they have to do with achievements?" Percy suddenly began to look concerned. "You haven't killed that many people, have you? Because I'm going to be a little uncomfortable if you're part of some sort of killer clique thing."

Reyna groaned. "First of all, I doubt I've killed any humans. Second of all, even if I had, what makes you think I'd remember that of all things?"

Percy tilted his head to the side. "Fair point. And when it comes to SPQR, I've got no idea what that means. Again, Annabeth could tell you, but she's MIA right now."

Reyna pushed her coat back in place and sighed. "Got any ideas of your own?"

"Not about that ink you've got," said Percy. "But I did talk to Malcolm the other night – that's Annabeth's brother, the redhead – and according to him you might have some luck looking for one of the wind gods. You got attacked by wind spirits, and his theory is that the person who is controlling them might have some explanations for you."

Reyna allowed herself to smile a little bit. That was way farther than she had gotten on her own. "Wow, that's actually helpful."

"I know," said Percy, "shocker, right?"

"Could you take me to this Malcolm kid?" Reyna asked. "He might be able to help me."

Percy nodded. "Give me a sec." Reyna expected Percy to leave and go get the kid, but instead Percy leaned out the window, his body half falling out with one knee nearly in the kitchen sink. "Yo, Malcolm!" he shouted. "Come to the kitchen, Reyna's got a few questions."

A few seconds later, a kid with incredibly red hair came barreling in through the door. "Hi!" he said. "What do you need to know?"

Reyna tried not to look at Percy, who had gotten the heel of his sneaker stuck between the water faucet and one of the racks of dishes. "I was wondering where I should go to find the wind god you told Percy about."

"I'd try Quebec," suggested Malcolm. "Northern most development, this side of the world, if you think of it. He should be there."

"And I've got until the solstice to do this," said Reyna. "Four days. Great. Fantastic. This isn't going to kill me at all."

As Reyna was about to ask Malcolm if anyone at the camp had made any progress via the idea of teleportation, some huge guy with a rainbow tattoo on his shoulder burst through the door, looking as if there was something seriously distressing happening outside.

"Jackson!" he shouted. "The dragon's back."

"Dragon?" asked Reyna. "I'm taking that's not a good thing."

Percy groaned, looking like he was recalling a truly painful memory. "Not good," he said, "not good at all."

A/N2: If anyone wants to guess who the voice was before the chapter where it is revealed, throw your guess in my askbox on tumblr and I'll tell you whether or not you're right. If you're correct, I'll write you a teeny 250-500 word PJO/HoO drabble of your choosing – any pairing, genre, plot, character, and rating you'd like. Good luck!