Chapter Two

"Um…Sky?" Sammi whispered as she stared wide eyed at the group of people staring down at her.

"Yes Sammi?"

"You see them too, right?"

"Yes Sammi."

Without moving her gaze an inch from who were obviously the gods of Olympus, Sammi slowly stood up and took a step towards Skylar. "…Is that a good thing?" She asked hesitantly.

"Gimme a second to figure that out..." She finally glanced over at Skylar to see that even though her best friend's face was void of emotion, her eyes revealed all of the different thoughts running through her head – confusion, anger, maybe even hope?

Sammi herself wasn't sure how to react. After everything that had happened just in the past years that she could remember, she'd always resented the gods for not being there to help them. But now that they were actually standing right in front of her, looking just as confused as she felt, if not more, it was surprisingly hard for her to be angry with them. For now at least; there was always the chance that it would reappear once the shock and confusion wore off.

"Hey!" Sammi jumped as Skylar yelled loudly beside her. Her shock had obviously dissolved much faster than Sammi's had. She watched as Skylar marched up to the gods, her cheeks reddening and her hazel eyes sparking with anger.

"How dare you!" Sky exclaimed, her voice rising slightly in pitch as she glared at them.

For a moment everything was silent as both gods and legacies stared at her in shock. The woman Sammi recognized from the stories as Hera looked at Sky as if she'd lost her mind, which actually might've been possible considering these were people who could kill her with a flick of their hand if they wanted to.

"Excuse me?" Another one of the women finally spoke, folding her arms over her chest with her eyebrows raised. This one was most likely Athena considering she had the same scary gray eyes as Aunt Annabeth and Marissa.

"Don't. Even." Sky snapped. "How could you abandon us all out there? We thought something bad had happened to you! Do you even know how many people, how many of your children, have died because you guys decided to go on a little vacation or something? How could you just sit there and let that happen?"

Sammi winced slightly at how close to her heart those words hit. She watched anxiously as Sky swiped angrily at the tears pooling in her eyes, a side effect of getting this upset.

Athena frowned at Skylar, her eyebrows knitting together. "What are you talking about child? We haven't been anywhere."

"Don't play dumb with me!" Skylar said a bit quieter this time. "For years and years you've been gone! Over half of Camp Half-Blood is either dead or missing because you left us!"

"Child, I don't know who you are or what you're talking about," Athena replied with a shake of her head, "but I assure you, we've been here for quite some time."

Huh? Sammi thought as she listened to the conversation between Athena and Skylar. Instead of anything making sense, it was just growing more and more confusing by the second. If they'd been here, didn't that mean they would already know about the attacks and had just ignored them? She couldn't believe anyone, not even gods, could ignore that much. Somebody was wrong, and she really hoped it was them.

For a moment, nobody said anything. Athena looked over the group of legacies before settling her piercing gray gaze back on Skylar.

"How about we start over?" The goddess suggested. "What are you names?"

Skylar glanced back at the others, Sammi meeting her eyes questioningly. With the mood her best friend was in, Sammi wasn't too sure if Sky would be willing to just accept the change in subject and answer the woman's questions. She couldn't believe it when Skylar turned back around with a small huff of annoyance and folded her arms over her chest before speaking.

"My name's Skylar Grace," she began reluctantly. She unfolded her arms to point at each of the others as she named them off. "These are my friends Sammi Valdez, Marissa and Connor Jackson, Kirsten Rodriguez, and Zelena Solace."

Sammi noticed that Athena's gaze lingered on Marissa and Connor, and for a moment it looked as if she was about to say something before obviously changing her mind and refocusing on Skylar again.

"Now what did you mean about over half of the campers being killed or missing?" She asked Skylar, a frown creasing her face once again.

Sammi blinked, realizing that they really seemed to have no idea about what had happened over the past twenty years. How is that even possible? She wondered looking at the whole group standing in front of her. According to her dad, these people were supposed to be immortal, and almost no one could stop them as long as they had demigods on their side. She couldn't understand how someone so powerful could've just not noticed a whole camp being destroyed practically right under their noses.

She snapped back into reality as Skylar took a deep breath and shoved her hands in her jean pockets.

"Twenty years ago, the camp was attacked," she began, her voice still conveying her anger. "There were so many monsters that the camp couldn't handle it all and a lot of campers were killed."

The gods' faces grew more and more confused with each word as Skylar explained impatiently about the fact that monsters had attacked so many times to the point of a twenty four-seven watch being set up so that the camp could at least be more prepared for the attacks.

"Eventually, we got so good at fending them off that everybody was able to survive," Sky finished, glancing back at her friends. "Though, not always… I know a lot of people at camp who have lost one or both of their parents because you weren't there to help us."

Wincing at her best friend's words, Sammi saw Athena shaking her head. "But that's not possible. The camp is protected by a magical barrier that's designed to keep all monsters out. It can't just fall like you described."

"Well, it did!" Skylar argued, her voice going back up in volume.

"Perhaps it would be better if we could see for ourselves?" suggested a girl who didn't look as if she could be more than thirteen. She certainly didn't look like she could be one of the Olympians.

Realizing that Skylar's hands were beginning to shake from the anger that she'd kept pent up, Sammi hurried to her side.

"Sky," she said quietly, gaining her friend's attention enough for her to glance over. "Calm down… there's no point getting so worked up."

Skylar turned to face her, completely ignoring the gods now as she looked at Sammi in disbelief. "You're kidding, right? After everything that's happened, you want me to calm down?"

Sammi closed her eyes and took a deep breath before meeting best friend's gaze seriously. "Letting your temper get the best of you isn't going to do anything. It won't fix anything. It won't change what's already happened. All it's going to do is get a bunch of supposedly all-powerful immortals annoyed with you." She forced herself to give Sky a small crooked grin before punching her lightly in the arm. "And trust me, the last thing I need is to lose my best friend."

Skylar watched her for a moment before turning back to the gods with a sigh. "If you wanna come back to camp with us, come on. If not, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, trust me."

Sammi rolled her eyes with a smirk as she turned to walk back outside, to The Set of Never-ending Stairs as she had decided to call them. Without even glancing over at Kirsten she knew that the eighteen year old was internally groaning over having to deal with the stairs so soon after making it up. In fact, it was a miracle that she wasn't groaning out loud too.