Disclaimer: I do not own HoO

Anyway, thank you SO much Agent of Chaos for your constructive criticism. I appreciate it, and I will do my best to improve my writing. So, (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)

Piper

"So what's the game plan?" Piper asked, lying flat on her stomach in the sand and resting her head in her hands.

"Yes. The plan," said Leo. "The plan is an excellent one that is completely fool-proof. The plan is ingenious and magnificent." He rubbed his hands together eagerly. "So, what's the plan?"

Piper sighed wearily and turned to the younger girl. "Hazel," she started, "would you mind telling us the Romans' weak spot? So we at least know where to start?"

"Hmm... Our pride?" Hazel wondered, tiredly turning sideways onto her back and closing her eyes in thought. "I don't really know. Being asked to list our weak points is sort of embarrassing and extremely demeaning, to be completely honest."

Piper nodded as if she understood. "Alright, fine," she said, stretching backwards so that she now knelt on her legs. "Never mind." Suddenly, Piper snapped her fingers, an idea having occurred to her. "What if we destroyed the ships they are going to use to get here? That way we they won't have any way of arriving for war at all!"

"Yeah!" Leo exclaimed, getting excited. "And I can totally burn the whole fleet down with fire, and watch it burn from a distance on some random cliff. Then turn, walk away, put on some random back-pocket sunglasses, and let the Romans explode behind me."

"First of all, the part with the exploding Romans kind of hurt me," Hazel told him. "Second, where on earth will you get fire?"

Leo grinned, opening his palm for her. "Check this out," he said, and a small flame erupted.

Hazel was impressed. "Wow," she said. "So, is that like a Greek thing or something? Is it on sale somewhere?"

"It's more of a Hephaestus thing," Leo replied with s self-satisfied smirk, shaking out his hand.

"Well, I can do some cool tricks as well," Hazel replied. She gingerly scooped her fingers into the sand and came out with a small diamond the size of a fingernail. She frowned.

"Usually I can find larger," she commented. Leo didn't really care. He took the diamond and inspected it, holding it close to his eye.

"I'm so keeping this," he decided, slipping it into his pocket. "But your power still isn't as cool as mine."

"It's so better," Hazel told him, rolling her eyes at him.

"And what about mine?" Piper asked, not wanting to be left out. "Persuasion is pretty awesome. Like, I can order you guys to jump off a cliff or something and you'd do it."

"But you wouldn't, that's the thing," Leo explained. "You're Piper. A pacifist. Most of the time."

"Well, my powers have nothing to do with violence," Hazel said. "Unlike yours, Leo."

Leo summoned a small flame and pretended to throw it at Hazel. She expertly rolled out of the way and got to her feet, much too casually to be a fumble or mistake.

"Missed," she informed him.

"Bluff," Leo told her with a shrug.

"Guys, can we not argue now?" Piper realized, snapping back to the present. "We need to focus. We need a plan."

"We have one," Leo replied, tossing his fire from hand to hand before it died out mid-air. "Destroy the ships. Simple."

"That won't work," said a voice coming from the woods. Hazel grabbed her sword, Leo summoned a small flame, and Piper assumed a karate stance she hoped didn't look ridiculous. Chime flew up into the forest and the three of them heard something pecking another.

Percy Jackson stumbled into view, an automaton bird biting at his head. He was desperately trying to shoo it off, Annabeth helping but keeping her distance at the same time. She glanced around worriedly, as if she were afraid more of them would pop out of the wood.

Hazel, Leo and Piper watched them awkwardly stumble out of the forest for a while (Piper hated to find it slightly amusing) until Leo called—smiling a bit as well—"Chime! They're okay! You can stop trying to kill them now."

Chime rapped Percy on the head one last time for good measure before flying back onto Piper's outstretched hand. "What on earth are you doing here?" she demanded, trying to make herself look more irritated and intimidating by placing her other hand on her hip.

"We were just about to ask you the same thing," Percy replied, trying to untangle his now-messy black hair. "Dang it, that thing pecks hard."

Annabeth took a step forward. "What were you just talking about?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips (and Piper found she pulled the intimidating/irritated look a whole lot better than she did). "Romans? Weak-spots? Destroying? It sounds like you were mentioning a—"

"War?" Hazel finished. She put away her weapon, taking a few steps forward "What? No! Of course not! We're all friends here. Good friends! All friends! Good old… friends!" She smiled a cheesy smile.

Piper could tell she didn't like the way that sentence was finished.

Piper sighed. "There's no point trying to lie to a daughter of Athena," she said. "Annabeth, Percy—you might want to sit down. This is a long story."

"What? No way," Leo objected, slicing his open palms through the air as if he could cut off Piper's sentence by doing so. "We can't just go around telling people about this! The more know the better the chance someone will let something slip!"

"They can help us," Piper countered slowly, trying to make her voice hushed so that no one else could overhear their argument (though the others were standing right beside them). "Have you heard of their stories? These 'people' legendary."

"We are," Percy added with a self-satisfied grin.

"They're like walking/talking history books."

"Our names will be spoken throughout all nations for all of thy ages," Percy continued, staring off into the distance as if he could already see it coming.

"Leo, if we have to tell anyone else about all of this it has to be them. They're demigod famous, with monsters fearing their very name—"

"—Ahem," interrupted Annabeth, clearing her throat purposefully. "You may now stop. It's not good for his ego." She jabbed her thumb toward Percy, who was trying to explain his entire life's story to a very uninterested Hazel, and paused. "Although it is all very true," she added.

"Plus," Piper continued to Leo, dropping the hush-hush tone, "they're a lot more skilled at sword-play than we are. If we refuse to explain we might as well already become sliced up demigod-kebab."

Percy and Annabeth grinned at each other knowingly. "I'm so proud of myself," Percy decided, placing a hand over his heart.

Leo glanced at them, then back at Piper. "Alright," he decided. "We'll tell them." Then he turned to Annabeth and Percy. "But just for the record, you wouldn't actually attack us... would you?"

Percy pretended to think about it. "Actually, the demigod-kebab incident is a pretty funny story," he started. "It all started on a day that was not considered well for many people—including my opponent. We were dueling very hardcore to the death, when—"

"Not now, Perce," Annabeth interrupted, laying a hand on his shoulder. "We need to listen to them right now, not you."

They sat down on the sand while the other three tried to explain what was going on to them. Percy just sat there looking worried and Annabeth was thinking the entire time.

"Huh," she said once the story was finished. "Well, I should have seen this coming." She got up to her feet, dusting off her jeans. "We can't warn camp, can we?"

Hazel, Leo and Piper shook their heads in unison.

"But when you first showed up, you said something about destroying the warships not working," Piper remembered. "Why was that?"

"Destroying the warships could be taken the wrong way and seen as another declaration of war," Annabeth explained. "We have to be cautious. The only way we can prevent this whole thing—how I see it anyway—is by convincing the leaders to abort."

"There's a problem," said Hazel, drawing pictures in the sand with her foot. "There's absolutely no way we can convince Octavian to abandon this mission."

"Of course there is," Annabeth said, glancing at Piper. "She's got charmspeak."

Piper kicked the sand sullenly, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "And I didn't even have the pleasure of bringing it up by surprise," she muttered to herself. "I was actually looking forward to that." She adopted a fake voice. "'Hey, everyone, guess what powers I have? Charm-freaking-flipping-speak!'"

"But there's another problem," Percy mentioned, raising a finger as if now were his turn to speak and was not having anyone interrupt. "We have no way of getting to California. Remember how the flying chariot is being fixed because of the crash?"

Annabeth nodded, deep in thought. Then she snapped her fingers, an idea overcoming her. "I've got it," she announced, smiling triumphantly. "And it's good."

-o-O-o-

They found the boy sitting in the Hades cabin sullenly, reading a thick textbook about Romans.

"Hello," Nico greeted them as they walked in. "How may I help you?"

Piper looked around and instantly got the creeps. It was all dark and spooky and... small. Green fire illuminated the room, casting a dim light that made everything look ominous. She shivered unintentionally and was pretty sure Leo did as well, although the others seemed fine—especially Hazel.

"We need help," Annabeth announced, stopping halfway across the room.

Nico scanned his eyes over the other visitors. "Oh, look," he said, his gaze falling upon Hazel as if he were not at all surprised. "A Roman. Hello, Hazel. Do you happen to be planning a war against the Greeks any time soon?"

Hazel crossed her arms. "What are you doing here, Nico?" she demanded.

The boy sighed and got to his feet. "The first month I was away visiting my dad in the Underworld," he explained. "I didn't know about the Romans' deceleration of war until both Marcy and Lucas arrived, and by that point it was too late. I stayed at Camp Jupiter, for I knew if the Romans spotted me here they'd wonder what was going on. Now that they're coming I saw no reason to remain incognito and came. Obviously if Marcy, Lucas, Thomas, Christine or you caught sight of me you'd assume I was sent here to check things out. Nobody would ask questions because of my 'dark' personality, which actually really hurt my feelings when Octavian said it."

"But how did you get here?" Percy asked. "This... Camp Jupiter place is across the country. Not half-way, like they say in the movies, but all the way. Like, fifty states away away—"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Nico interrupted, waving him away. "I shadow-traveled here." He adopted a fake smirk. "What, you thought I just hopped on the next flight here and twiddled my thumbs on the plane, hoping I wouldn't be struck by lightning?" He laughed softly, shaking his head sadly as if he wished it were that simple. "I don't think so."

There was a pause, and then he and Percy shivered unintentionally, muttering in unison, "Planes... blech."

"But you could have told me, Nico," Hazel protested, sounding hurt. "I'm your sister."

"Woah," said Percy. "Hold the phone. Nico, you have another sister? Are you guys, like, twins or something? You don't look a lot alike. First of all, Nico's deathly white and Hazel's deathly black... wow I just sounded so racist."

Annabeth nudged him. "She's a daughter of Pluto, Percy, it became obvious after a while," she muttered to him.

"Anyway," Nico continued, "my guess is that you need me to shadow-travel all five of you across America to California." He considered it, scanning their faces and running a hand through his thick black hair. "I guess I could do it if we went in groups. But you'd have to get back another way. I'd have to take a real long power-nap afterwards, or at least some cool-down time before shadow-traveling again."

"Thank you so much, Nico," said Annabeth. "Your help is really appreciated."

The group stood there awkwardly.

"So, are we going now, or are we waiting until a certain time?" Nico wondered.

"I guess we could go now," said Piper.

"The sooner the better, as they say," added Percy.

"I suppose," replied Annabeth. She and Percy volunteered to stay behind as the second group while the others shadow-traveled first.

Nico grabbed Hazel's hand, and she recoiled slightly at his touch, but didn't make a move to walk away. She was obviously still upset with his secrecy. Leo grabbed Piper's and Hazel's hand, Chime perched on Hazel's shoulder. She twittered nervously, having no idea what was going on.

"You might feel the impulse to throw up afterwards," Nico warned his passengers. "This is completely natural."

Piper swallowed. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea—"

The shadows peeled off the wall and rushed in toward them, swallowing the group whole. Piper shrieked and tried to pull away, but Leo held her hand tightly and she couldn't. The next thing she knew she was falling to the ground, puking her lungs out. She stayed there for what felt like the longest time, until she had nothing else to throw up. She stood. They were standing on the top of a hill, overlooking some camp in the distance. Nico was already gone, left to fetch Percy and Annabeth.

"Camp Jupiter," Hazel introduced them, Chime fluttering down to the grass and pecking at the ground. "We're on the Oakland hills right now. Over there are the Barracks, then Via Principala, and over there is Temple Hill, and—"

Leo interrupted by retching, and Hazel decided to stop.

Nico reappeared with Percy and Annabeth in tow. They both looked slightly sick, but neither of them threw up as if they'd shadow-traveled before.

"Now we have to find Reyna, Jason and Octavian," Hazel said. "We have tons of campers and there's a lot of confusion right now so as long as you don't do anything to attract attention to yourself you should be okay. C'mon."

Hazel bounded down the hill and the Greeks followed her, walking straight into enemy territory and possibly toward their impending deaths.

Yeah, sorry if the jokes at the beginning sucked. I was in a bad-joke mood.

Also, I apologize if Annabeth was being OOC at the beginning. It was for the greater good of the trying-to-be-funny-but-not-actually god, What's-His/Her-Name. Nico was some sort of depressed freak in the first draft of this chapter, so I tried to change that and make it slightly more Nico-ish. Did it work?

Anyway, I'm SUPER excited because this story is four reviews away from reaching my other story's reviews (MODP; and doing this while seven chapters behind it as well!), and thirty-one reviews away from 300.

Okay, so if you have not yet seen the final episode of Gravity Falls and plan to do so, skip this next paragraph because it's just my furious spoiler rant (I watched it yesterday). If you have never seen Gravity Falls and do not really care for the show, you may skip it as well and go directly to the review box below. But if you have and are just as mad/angry/furious as I am, you may read this.

Warning: Major spoilers for the last episode of Gravity Falls.

-o-O-o-

ARGH! What? How could they do this to us? I thought the Dreamscapers cliffhanger was bad but this is just HORRIBLE! Who would do this to a human being? This is torture! This should be against the law! (Of course, I have my experience with cliffhangers from Rick, but this is still pretty bad.) I HATE YOU, ALEX, I HATE YOU! WHY WOULD YOU MAKE US WAIT UNTIL SEASON TWO TO FIGURE OUT WHAT THE BLEEPING HECK GRUNKLE STAN WAS DOING!? I mean, I had read theories that Old Man McGucket had written the THREE journals—but I had never really believed them—and stories where Stan wrote them, which I thought was possible, and I guess it still is. Maybe he wrote them when he was young and they got lost, and now he's trying to recollect them again. It works! Or maybe they'll introduce who actually wrote the books in season two. Maybe there's a book four. OMG MAYBE THERE'S A BOOK FOUR! And then there's another question; WHAT ABOUT BILL!? And what power does Stan want to unlock? WHY DOES HE WANT TO UNLOCK THE POWER!? And Dipper and Mable... OH, I THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO BE GONE FOREVER! I WAS SO SAD! (I HATE YOU ALEX!) I thought the episode would end with Stan entering the vending machine and then cliffhanger! But this is much better because we have one minute's worth of knowledge more. Like STAN HAS ALL THREE BOOKS WHAT WILL HE DO WITH THE POWER!? And we all knew Stan was not to be trusted (the backwards message in the theme song; any Faller would know this info!), but why? WHY THIS? I CAN NO LONGER TRUST YOU, STAN! And the end... oh, the end... "Here we go" then blackness!? WHAT? WHATWHATWHATWHATWHAT!

AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

-o-O-o-

I'm sorry, but I needed to do that.

So review! And RAGE if you saw the episode and was RAGED as well.