Thanks for the reviews, Happy Thanksgiving. Y'all are just so freaking amazing, I hope you know! I'm chilling with my awesome cousin, Kimmie G914!

Sorry for typos or OOCness.

Happy Reading!

Chapter 8

Jason

Jason awoke when he heard the banging on his door. His eyes cracked open when he saw Leo poke his head inside, a wicked smile on his face.

"What do you want?" asked Jason groggily.

"We're descending into Greece now!" Leo said excitedly, still knocking on the door as if he weren't already awake.

Jason threw a pillow at him, which Leo threw back. "And how much coffee did you have this morning?" wondered Jason, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"Just a cup," justified Leo. Jason cocked his head to the side, raising his eyebrow even farther. Leo shrugged helplessly. "Okay, maybe two… or three… But that's not the point. The point is that you need to get out of bed and take a shower and put on clean clothes. We've got some friends to save!"

Leo left Jason to collect his thoughts. They were already in Greece? Only yesterday had they been fighting monsters in Rome. Only yesterday had Percy and Annabeth disappeared. Time flies when you're trying to stay alive, thought Jason as he sat up and walked to his bathroom.

After a five minute wake-up shower and putting on some jeans and his purple Camp Jupiter shirt, Jason went to the lounge. He found Piper sitting at the table, by herself, staring a small bagel.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked from behind her. She jerked up, startled. Then she turned around and looked Jason in the eye. She sniffled a little. Her eyes were watery. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" She didn't sound that fine. Her voice was thick with emotion, and Jason didn't know whether it was best to ask her or let the subject drop. Girls were confusing.

He decided to drop it; he didn't want to pry her with anything she probably didn't want to talk about (though Jason could already guess why). He summoned his own plate of eggs and bacon and dug into them. Piper gave him a weird look, but otherwise did nothing but pick at her bagel.

A few minutes later, Frank and Hazel walked in, holding hands. Frank was wearing the same pair of pants that he had been wearing for the past few days, since his clothes were gone. Hazel had her hair back in a bushy bun. She was twiddling with a topaz the size of her fist.

"Where're Leo, Coach, and Nico?" asked Frank, taking a seat next to them.

Piper shrugged. Jason shook his head. "I'm not sure," he admitted, but as he was saying that, Coach and Leo walked in. Leo had used some grease to slick back his hair (truth be told, it looked weird on him), and Coach was munching happily on a can of already drunk Coke.

"Where's the death kid?" asked the satyr, swallowing a mouthful of aluminum. Hazel glared at him and Coach looked a little surprised by this reaction from her. "What? What did I say that was oh so wrong?"

"Just because Nico is the son of Hades doesn't make him the death kid," she shot at him, and Leo whistled in satisfaction. Frank had a grin on his face and patted his girlfriend's shoulder.

Hedge threw up his hands. "Uh, yeah it kind of does, kid," he answered, exasperated.

"No. I'm the daughter of Pluto, and people don't go around calling me the 'death girl'."

"Well, at least, not to your face," murmured Leo. Jason knew he was just trying to be funny, but right then was not the appropriate him. Hazel glared at him too. With a huff, she stalked upstairs to the deck. Frank was on her heels, trying to calm her down, and they were all left there, silent.

"I still don't see what I did wrong," Coach said.

"Give her some space, guys," mumbled Piper, throwing away her uneaten bagel.

"Well, we don't have time for space right now. We are hovering over Greece and we need a game plan before we can do anything."

So they all went up to the deck, where they found Hazel and Nico talking to each other quietly. Nico looked terrible. The bags under his eyes were way worse than Jason's, and the poor kid looked like he was going to collapse at any moment. He noticed Jason looking at him and said, "I'm fine. Now quit staring."

So Jason obliged.

"Okay folks, listen up!" called Leo. "We're in Greece, which means we're in Giant/Gaea territory now, so keep your eyes and ear open." Leo turned to Gleeson. "Sorry, Coach, but I think you're going to have to stay and watch the ship."

Rage burned in Coach's eyes, and he stood up on his tiptoes so that he was eye to eye with Leo. "Now you listen here, Mr. Admiral. I haven't watched all of these Jackie Chan movies just to sit around. I've been trained to protect demigods, and I'm good at my job."

"But Coach," Jason intervened. "We need you to watch the ship so that the monsters don't hijack it. That would be really bad, and I'm almost positive that you'll have to put up fight against them."

Coach Hedge started contemplating this. Jason hating giving little white lies, but they really didn't need an overprotective satyr with them when they came face to sleeping face with Gaea. None of his friends said anything either. Maybe they were grateful that he had said something, or maybe they were just too mad at him. Their expressions were unreadable.

Finally, Coach Hedge said, "Fine, but if I hear about any funny business from the nature spirits- and yes, I will have them watching you guys- you'll be up to your elbows in chores and work. And don't think I'll let you off the hook for any reasons."

Jason was filled with relief. That was one thing taken care of.

"Okay, thanks," said Leo. "Now, this is the end, my friends. This is the grand finale. We've been training for this for a while. All that we've done had led up to this. Plus, two of our friends are stuck somewhere, way below us. They're fighting for their lives, and they need our help. So get your killing faces on. We've got some earth goddesses and giants to put back to sleep."

"Nice monologue." Nico rolled his eyes. "But I've got some important news for all of us."

Everyone was silent for a minute, and then Hedge said, "Well, spit it out, boy."

Nico was asleep.

"Oh, for the love of the gods," groaned Leo. He walked up to Nico and shook him. Nico shot to his feet, arms flailing. He hit Leo in the face. Leo grabbed his nose and cried out, "What's your problem?" It looked like Jason wasn't the only one who had some Nico issues. Leo didn't act like his normal, crazy self around the kid. He was high-strung. No one was used to this side of Leo. Especially Jason and Piper.

Nico blushed, "Sorry, I'm just a bit tired, but I'll be fine. For the past few days, I've been dreaming about the House of Hades. In my dreams, I've actually been there. It's this huge, vast cavern with giant gates guarding the house. It's so dark down there that you can only use Greek Fire to see around you."

"Well, that's just great," sighed Frank.

"Anyway," he continued. "Last night, or this morning, whenever it was, I had another dream about the House. On the ceiling, they showed visions, and I saw Percy and Annabeth."

Jason gaped at him; why hadn't he told Jason before? He dismissed the thought. "So… they're alive, right?" he asked, almost not wanting to here the answer for fear of what it was.

Nico nodded. "That last I saw they were, but they were in trouble. Which is why we need to get there as soon as possible."

"Anything else?" asked Hazel.

"Yeah. That gate, it's called a Porta Nouita Reditum."

"Gate of No Return," Jason automatically translated. "Is that supposed to scare us or something?"

"I'm not sure, but it doesn't sound that great. What if once we cross over it, we can never get out? There are so many different ways this gate can be interpreted that I'm not sure which way to go. But the Doors of Death are most definitely on the other side."

"Anything else?" Hazel asked again.

Nico looked a little freaked out, but he said, "There's another giant out there, I think?"

For a second, everyone was silent, absorbing the information. Then, Piper said, "How can you be sure?"

"I can't."

"If it is a giant, do you have any idea which one it is?" Frank asked, his hands balled into tight fists.

"No idea." Nico sighed greatly, like he couldn't wait for the conversation to be over. Another shot of anger coursed through Jason, but he remained calm. Years of living at a Roman Camp had taught him that it was never good to go insane unless you had already talked to the person before about what you didn't like. He would have to have a one on one conversation with Nico, but he could do that after the war.

"Well, let's get ready for a war, you guys."

"But, Leo, we don't even know where the House of Hades is in Epirus. How're we supposed to get there?"

"You expect me to know that?" Leo barked laughter. "I'm just giving orders. Maybe Nico or Hazel can help with that. Or maybe we'll just play the guessing game. We already know that it's underground and that it's a large cavern, so that's a start."

It was actually a pretty good start. They all got ready for their landing. Jason put some squares of ambrosia that would no doubt get smashed by the time they returned, but smashed ambrosia was better than none at all.

He made sure that he had his sword with him and a small back up knife. It was nothing more than a switchblade, just small enough to fit in his back pocket.

When he was finished, he went back up to the deck, where Nico still sat. He looked confused and misplaced. His clothes were dirty, he was still tired, and he no weapons to defend himself with.

Jason wanted to be the better man, even if he didn't trust Nico. He waved the son of Hades over. "What do you want?" asked Nico.

"Dude, go and get yourself a pastry or something. You've got to be hungry after living off of pomegranate seeds. There are more weapons stored downstairs. Go find Leo and get a change of clothes. No offense, but you look pretty bad."

Nico cracked a smile. "Thanks." He left Jason, and Jason felt sort of happy that he'd help the Goth kid.

A few minutes later, Leo came up. "Seriously, why'd you tell him to come take my clothes?"

"But you are closest in size to him."

"Wow, thanks." Leo went back down below deck, probably to the engine room.

All of the others came back up, looking ready. Nico came back up too, and he looked kind of ridiculous in Leo's clothes. The orange shirt looked really weird on him. Apparently, Nico felt Jason's eyes, because he shrugged on his jacket and walked across the deck.

"Okay you guys, prepare for landing!" Leo was back upstairs, holding the Archimedes Sphere, the small Athena Parthenos, and a set of Wii remotes. He shoved the Sphere and action figure in Jason's arms. "Hold this," he said afterwards.

"Um, okay." Jason noticed Nessie crawling around on Leo's head, and he laughed a little bit. Leo stared at him. "What's so funny?" His hands flew to his face, patting it and checking his fingers. "Is there something on me?"

Jason started to answer, but then he just shook his head. "Just forget it."

Leo did. He moved the controllers around, and Jason and the other walked over to the edge of the ship. They were in Greece, but Jason couldn't see any ancient buildings or monuments. It was kind of disappointing.

They were landing in a large forest. There was a clearing only just big enough for the ship. Coach Hedge grinned in satisfaction. "Even better: a forest. There should be plenty of nymphs to stalk- uh, I mean watch over you guys while I'm here."

With a thud and a lurch, the ship was landed. Leo took the Athena Parthenos from Jason and put it in his tool belt. Then he took the Sphere and said, "Watch this." He set his hands on the sides and put in a code. The Sphere shrunk until it was the size of a jaw breaker. "Cool right?"

"How to you make it bigger?" asked Piper.

"I don't know. I'll worry about that later." Leo set down the gangplank and saluted to them. "Well, all ashore that's going ashore."

I know what you all must be thinking: "If they're already in Greece, then isn't the story gonna end soon?" Let me assure you, this story is far from being over...

Reviews and ideas are loved! Do you think we could get to 400? Maybe, maybe not?

-BBH