First Person: Lucy

"What did you see?" I asked. As Ella had recited her prophecy, Veon had begun to see some kind of vision. He hid it well without even thinking about it, but he'd broken his cup when it had happened. It seemed to have begun when Ella had said, "Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death."

"A jar," He said. "He's in a jar. Gods…he's dying. Only his pomegranate seeds from Persephone's garden are keeping him alive. I gave him mine, giving him maybe eight in all." He dug through his pockets. "They're gone. I hope that means he got them. Zy…I could feel the poisonous air, the panic as he barely got one of the seeds into his mouth. "Twins snuff out the angel's breath, Who holds the key to endless death"…it's Nico. We need to save him. We have to. If we don't…it feels like a part of me is going to die too."

"That's only natural. You have a soul bond. Do either of you know where he is?"

"No. Only that he woke in that jar. He's bait, we both know it. We were stupid for going to Tartarus and thinking we could find the Doors of Death all on our own and now…" He buried his face in his hands and I instinctively wrapped my arms around him.

"Shh…it's okay. We will find him, Ve, I promise."

"Gods, it's just so frustrating! I don't know where he is, but I know that he's dying!"

"Look, I understand. That feeling twisting your gut and weight in your chest like you've just been punched. The pain won't go away, and there's nothing you can do about it. I understand; I hear you. But right now, we need to focus. We need to get moving on the quest and get to Rome and Greece. He's bait, and whether we're walking into a trap or not, we will do it if it means saving your brother. I promise on the River Styx, I will do everything in my power to save Nico di Angelo. But we need to keep our heads on straight. The worst is yet to come, and it's going to be a long journey." He stared at me for a moment before nodding.

"Right."

"Okay. Let's get back out there, okay?" He nodded again and we walked out of the Senate House. Jason and Piper were heading off on a tour of New Rome, while Reyna was talking with Annabeth at the Garden of Bacchus.

"Oh, that reminds me that I need to go and get something."

"What?"

"Can't tell. Be right back." He kissed me on the cheek before hurrying away. It was still weird to think that we were dating. I'm not sure how I should feel. Should I be more loving to him? Should we just act like normal and just occasionally kiss here and there? How did people do this? The goddess's knowledge wasn't helpful considering she was loyal only to her husband and they already had things worked out between them. They were practically incapable of messing up when it came to their relationship since they were Primordials and apparently bonded for life. No matter how much they argued or disagreed, they couldn't ever get mad at each other, and even if they did in a light way, they always made up within 24 hours. Maybe I should watch the other demigods in their relationships and see how that went.

My senses suddenly went on high alert before I held up my arm in instinct and summoned a large barrier above the forum. Just in time, too, as an explosion hit the barrier, having nearly blasted a crater in the forum. Panic broke loose, the peaceful mood shattered in an instant. I blocked a second attack that was going for the Senate House and realized the attacks were coming from the Argo II. Dammit. I knew it was coming, but it was still infuriating. We were just beginning to work our peace between Greeks and Romans. And that's why Gaea had to intervene. Crowds began pushing and shoving, the Greeks were instantly singled out, including Jason, and most people were running around in panic. Despite my blocking the majority of the damage, the ground still rumbled from the force of the attacks on my barrier.

The Roman demigods in the forum had coalesced into an angry mob. Some threw plates, food, and rocks at the Argo II, which was pointless, as most of the stuff fell back into the crowd. Several dozen Romans had surrounded Piper, Jason and Emily, who were trying to calm them with little luck. Even Piper's charm speak wasn't working against so many screaming, angry demigods. Emily was protecting them from any projectiles thrown their way, and she was singing as loudly as she could over the chaos, managing to calm a few people, but only aggravating others because they were thinking it was a part of the attack. Jason was pleading that he was on the Roman's side, but his orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt didn't help much, nor did the warship overhead, firing flaming spears into my barrier that was shimmering and pulsing under the assault.

Hundreds of ghosts were drifting though the forum, passing straight through the demigods' bodies and wailing incoherently. The fauns had also taken advantage of the chaos, swarming the dining tables, grabbing food, plates, and cups. One trotted past me with his arms full of tacos and an entire pineapple between his teeth. Terminus exploded into being, yelling at Annabeth in Latin, calling her a liar and a rule breaker, etc, but she pushed the statue over and kept running. She ran over to Percy, Hazel, and Frank, who were standing in the middle of a fountain, keeping the Romans away with a barrier of water.

"Eidolons," I muttered. "It had to be eidolons!" Reyna ran up to me with her dogs, muttering many Latin curses. "Reyna, this is the work of eidolons. Look it up if you have to, but right now we need to act. Help calm the crowds. I must take the seven of the prophecy with me on the quest, along with my team." Aurum and Argentum snarled, but didn't attack, signaling I was truthful.

"We'll never be able to convince the Romans that this isn't the result of Greek trickery," Reyna said.

"We have no choice but to try. Blame it on us if you want, but we need to get out of here right now. Try suggesting that this is the work of Gaea so that the Greeks and Romans can never get along. This happened right amidst peace talks. It should provide a valiant argument. I'm sorry, Reyna, but we're going to have to leave this in your hands." There was a flash of light directly overhead, and I saw that one of the Roman catapults had fired, the Argo II groaning and tilting sideways, flames bubbling over the bronze-plated hull. I cursed under my breath and waved my hand, locking down that catapult so it couldn't fire again. I saw Octavian dangling from the rope ladder, trying to climb down. His robes were steaming and his face was black with soot. We needed to get the others out of here now. I hurried over to Percy, Frank, and Hazel, where Annabeth was joining up with them too.

"Annabeth, what-?" Percy called.

"I don't know!" She yelled.

"I'll tell you what!" Octavian called, having reached the bottom of the ladder. "The Greeks have fired on us! Your boy Leo has trained his weapons on Rome!"

"Silence!" I shouted. "This is the work of Gaea! She wants to make it so that Greeks and Romans never get along, and this is clearly her attempt at doing so! If anything, you did this!" I shouted loud enough to make sure plenty of Romans heard my announcement. "You've been talking of how the Romans shouldn't trust the Greeks from the beginning! You want a war between Greeks and Romans, so you did this to set them against each other! Maybe you're working for Gaea!" Suddenly the Argo II fired upon the catapults that were blasted to splinters. I shielded the legionnaires at the catapults and when the dust settled, they realized they were safe. I dropped them a safe distance away and then turned my attention to blocking the Argo II's attacks once more.

"We have to leave," Annabeth said.

"Agreed," I said. "Hazel, Frank, you have to make a choice. Are you coming?" Hazel looked terrified, but she donned her cavalry helmet.

"Of course we are," She declared. "But you'll never make it to the ship unless we buy you some time."

"How?" Annabeth asked. Hazel whistled and Arion suddenly shot across the forum to us. He reared, whinnying and scattering the mob. Hazel climbed on, grabbing her cavalry sword that was strapped to the horse's saddle.

"Send me a message when you're safely away and we'll rendezvous. Arion, ride!" The horse zipped through the crowd with incredible speed, pushing back Romans and causing even more panic.

"Romans, please!" Jason was shouting. He, Piper, and Emily were being pelted with plates and stones. Emily was working to block them with her invincibility, but then Jason tried to shield Piper from a brick that caught him above the eye. He crumpled and the crowd surged forward.

"Stop!" Emily shouted, now genuinely angry. Suddenly the crowd around them paused, some of them even collapsing wide-eyed. "You. Will. All. STOP!" Her words pulsed across the forum, and her influence caused everyone to slow down or freeze, as though they'd forgotten what was going on, or had suddenly seen the love of their lives. And that was why I'd chosen her for my team.

"Frank, go and help them!" I ordered. "Percy, Annabeth, make it for the ladder!" They nodded and rushed off. More people were rushing into the forum, snapping some of the others out of their dazes, and people were still running about in chaos. Octavian was still clinging to the bottom of the ladder, but Percy yanked him off and threw him to the crowds while he and Annabeth began to climb. Armed legionnaires flooded into the forum, and some tried to fire arrows at Percy and Annabeth. I created a shield around them, and I saw Veon climbing the ladder behind them with a bow and quiver slung across his back. Romans screamed and scattered as a full-sized dragon charged through the forum - a beast even scarier than Festus himself. It had rough gray skin like a Komodo lizard's and leathery bat wings. Arrows and rocks bounced harmlessly off its hide as it lumbered towards Piper, Jason and Emily. Emily quickly jumped on its back while it grabbed Piper and Jason with its front claws and vaulted into the air. Frank was certainly getting the hang of this.

I worked with Hazel to stop any archers and attackers from stopping Percy, Annabeth and Veon. The Argo II had stopped firing upon the city, and I remembered that Audrey had come along with Leo and must've stopped him. Once the others had made it on board, I flew up and then focused my barrier on protecting the Argo II, as the archers were preparing flaming arrows and Terminus's statues were glowing purple in preparation for an attack. Some aerial oars were broken, the rigging was on fire, the foresail was ripped down the middle, and the ship listed badly to starboard. There was no sign of Coach Hedge, who had stayed on the ship, but Audrey was wrestling Leo, trying to hold him down.

"Stop it Leo!"

"Destroy them…" He muttered. His eyes were glazed and he was pretty calm as he fought Audrey to reload the ballista. "Destroy them all." Percy tackled him, and Leo's head hit the deck hard, his eyes rolling up so that only the white showed. Eidolons, all right. Frank the dragon circled above deck before depositing Jason and Piper, who both collapsed. Emily hopped off and then went to the railing of the Argo II, seeing the chaos and focusing to slow down some of the attacking forces. I ran to the controls and frantically worked them. No time for proper routine. I grabbed the aviation throttle and yanked it straight back.

"Hold on!" The ship groaned and the bow tilted up at a horrifying angle. The mooring lines snapped, and the Argo II shot into the clouds.


First Person: Zytaveon

Well this day couldn't have gone better. Can you sense the sarcasm? I knew things between the Romans and the Greeks were gonna be tense, and I knew Gaea was going to interfere somehow. This was the perfect opportunity to frame the Greeks for attacking the Romans, after all. All around us, Leo's new ship was ruined. I had kinda hoped that we'd at least have it in mint condition for the beginning of this long and dangerous quest, but nope. The aft crossbows were piles of kindling, the foresail was tattered, and the satellite array that powered the onboard Internet and TV was blown to bits (which had really made Coach Hedge mad, as he had been watching something previously). Festus's bronze figurehead was coughing up smoke like he had a hairball, and the ship was groaning from some of the aerial oars having been knocked out of alignment or broken off completely. It also explained why the ship was listing and shuddering as it flew, the engine wheezing like an asthmatic steam train.

We were now interrogating Leo and Audrey (though mostly Leo), who were looking totally guilt ridden upon what happened.

"One more time," Annabeth demanded. "Exactly what happened?" Annabeth was giving a glare of hers that would've had the spirits in the Underworld running in terror.

"Annabeth, we shouldn't push them," Emily said, pretty wiped out from her stunts back at New Rome.

"I don't know," Leo said. "It's fuzzy." Annabeth crossed her arms.

"You mean you don't remember?"

"I…I remember, but it's like I was watching myself do things. I couldn't control it."

"He must've been influenced by something," I said. "Gaea's whispered into the ear of the Queen of the Gods before. At least, Khione did, and she's still at large. What are the odds she did some kind of manipulation on Leo too?"

"Consider that all Khione can do is whisper into one's ear," Zy said. "She can't necessarily control someone, not like this. However, I do agree that Gaea has some kind of controllers that took over you, Leo."

"Leo was just showing us around the ship with Octavian looking ticked every time he made a joke when suddenly Leo began firing the ballista," Audrey said. "Octavian went running off screaming while I tried to stop Leo. I should've been able to stop him, but I was worried I'd kill him by accident if I tried using my powers on his blood. I should've stopped him earlier, before so much damage had been done. Sorry."

"It's not your fault, Audrey," Zy said. "I don't believe its Leo's fault either. This is the work of Gaea. Consider how perfect the timing was. We were trying to make peace talks between the Greeks and Romans, the very thing that will allow us to defeat Mrs. Dirt Face. Now there's little to no chance of the Greeks and Romans getting along, therefore defeating Gaea becomes ten times harder." Coach Hedge tapped his bat against the deck. In his gym clothes with his cap pulled over his horns, he almost looked like a normal P.E. teacher. The way he was glowering at Leo, I wondered if he was going to order him to do push-ups.

"Look, kid," Hedge said. "You blew up some stuff. You attacked some Romans. Awesome! Excellent! But did you have to knock out the satellite channels? I was right in the middle of watching a cage match."

"Coach, why don't you make sure all the fires are out?" Annabeth suggested.

"But I already did that."

"Do it again." The satyr trudged off, muttering under his breath. Even Hedge wasn't crazy enough to defy an angry Annabeth. She knelt next to Leo, her gray eyes as steely as ball bearings. I don't know where the stereotype of dumb giggly blondes came from. Annabeth was a bad-ass, tough, smart, and dangerous girl, one I could totally appreciate.

"Leo," She said calmly. "Did Octavian trick you somehow? Did he frame you, or-?"

"No," Leo said. "The guy was a jerk, but he didn't fire on the camp. I did." Frank scowled.

"On purpose?"

"No!" Leo squeezed his eyes shut. "Well, yes…I mean, I didn't want to. But at the same time, I felt like I wanted to. Something was making me do it. There was this cold feeling inside me-"

"Cold feeling?" Annabeth asked, her tone almost…scared.

"Like a chill down your spine?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah," Leo said. "Why?"

"Annabeth, we need you," Percy called from below deck. Jason, I remembered. As soon as they'd gotten on board, Piper had taken Jason below. The cut on his head looked pretty bad, and Emily looked guilty for not being able to block such a big hit from him. She was just one person trying to protect two from an angry mob, one of them being a good deal taller than her. It wasn't her fault.

"He'll be fine," Zy said. "I'll go down and see if I can work some Apollo magic on him. Annabeth?" The two women left, leaving Frank, Audrey, Emily and I to watch over Leo. Frank looked pretty odd in his toga, with his gray pullover hoodie and jeans, and a bow and quiver from the ship's armory slung over his shoulder.

"So, your name isn't Sammy?" Frank asked. Leo scowled in confusion.

"What kind of question is that?"

"Nothing," Frank said quickly. "I just…nothing. About firing on the camp…Octavian could be behind it, like magically or something. He didn't want the Romans getting along with you guys. Maybe he really is working for Gaea."

"Give him the benefit of the doubt," Emily said. "He does want to protect Rome. He just wants to be some kind of leader in the process. He's a bit of an extremist, but in the end, he might just be a victim of circumstance. I think Octavian does have a very aggressive way of thinking, and I'd say Reyna is much wiser in leading, but I also believe that he wants the best for Rome, even if he's a bit mistaken in his path to protecting it. He may not know that he's working for Gaea if he is. Leo said there was something making him do things without his consent, and even though he was conscious during the event in question, he couldn't stop himself. Maybe the same thing is happening to Octavian. He would make a good servant if her goal was to divide the Greeks and Romans."

"True," Audrey said. "When you put it that way, you can kinda feel bad for the guy. He's just caught in the middle of Gaea's plans. She's pushing his drive to protect Rome to an extreme extent or something like that." I noticed Leo's hands fidgeting and his foot tapping. Right, he was a mechanic demigod. His ADHD must not help with the fact that he always needed to keep his hands busy. Considering the state of the ship, it might be best to get Leo's mind off what happened. Kill two birds with one stone.

"Leo, do you think Festus could give us a damage report?" I asked.

"Sure."

"Who is Festus?" Frank asked.

"My friend," Leo said. "His name isn't Sammy either, in case you're wondering. Come on; I'll introduce you." Thankfully, the bronze dragon wasn't damaged (aside from the fact that last winter he'd lost everything except his head, but that didn't count). When we reached the bow of the ship, the figurehead turned 180 degrees to look at us. Frank yelped and backed away.

"It's alive!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah," Leo said, looking down. I knew he would've laughed and cracked some joke, but even he wasn't in the mood at the moment. "Frank, this is Festus. He used to be a full bronze dragon, but we had an accident."

"You have a lot of accidents."

"Well, some of us can't turn into dragons, so we have to build our own."

"In the life of a demigod, Frank, accidents are the new normal," I said.

"Anyway, I revived him as a figurehead. He's kind of the ship's main interface now. How are things looking, Festus?" Festus snorted smoke and made a series of squeaking and whirring sounds. Apparently Festus and Leo had some kind of made of machine language between them. Other demigods could understand Latin and Greek. Leo could speak Creak and Squeak. It was a kind of dialect, so my language abilities were still trying to interpret them. The more experience I had with a language, the faster my powers seemed to adjust, and from what I could tell, there were a lot of problems with the ship.

"Ugh," Leo muttered. "Could be worse, but the hull is compromised in several places. The port aerial oars have to be fixed before we can go full speed again. We'll need some repair materials: Celestial bronze, tar, lime-"

"What do you need limes for?" Frank asked.

"Dude, lime. Calcium carbonate, used in cement and a bunch of other - Ah, nevermind. The point is, this ship isn't going far unless we can fix it." There was suddenly a crash of thunder and we turned to see Zoltan on the ship.

"Oh, hey, boy." I walked over and petted him.

"Arion and his rider are following behind across the water. I am hungry. You have food?" I pulled a gold nugget out of my pocket and let him eat it.

"Hazel's following behind us," I translated.

"Hazel? That's the girl with the curly hair, right?" Leo asked.

"Is she okay?" Frank asked.

"She's fine," I said. "It's just that Zoltan can teleport and Arion can't."

"Then we've got to land." Leo studied him.

"She's your girlfriend?" Frank chewed his lip.

"Yes."

"You don't sound sure."

"Yes. Yes, definitely. I'm sure." Leo raised his hands.

"Okay, fine. The problem is we can only manage one landing. The way the hull and the oars are, we won't be able to lift off again until we repair, so we'll have to make sure we land somewhere with all the right supplies."

"So where are we supposed to get Celestial bronze?" Audrey asked. "You can't just stock up at Home Depot."

"Festus, do a scan."

"He can scan for magic bronze?" Frank marveled. "Is there anything he can't do?"

"Hephaestus kids can work magic," Emily said. I looked over the ship's bow. The Central California valley was passing below. It was unlikely that we'd find all we needed in one place, but if we could find some Celestial bronze, then maybe Hazel and I could take Arion and Zoltan to the nearest hardware store for some lime and tar. We needed to put as much distance between us and New Rome as possible, since I had no doubt that they had some method of traveling and catching up to us. Granted, Hazel did say that the Roman legionnaires preferred to travel on foot as opposed to on horseback, but who knows? Behind us, the stairs creaked as Percy, Annabeth and Zy climbed up.

"Is Jason-?" Leo began.

"He's resting," Zy said. "Piper's keeping an eye on him, but he should be fine." Percy gave Leo a hard look.

"Annabeth says you did fire the ballista?"

"Man, I - I don't understand how it happened," Leo stuttered. "I'm so sorry-"

"Sorry?" Percy growled. He was giving a look that contradicted his normal upbeat self. I didn't know it was possible for Percy to look so ticked off, but then again, a couple months ago, I wouldn't have been able to believe that Emily could be violent in any way either.

"We shall deal with that later," Zy said. "Right now, we have to regroup and make a plan. What's the situation with the ship?" Leo explained the damage and the supplies we needed. He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.

"Did I just interpret that right?" I asked. "That's perfect!"

"What's perfect?" Annabeth asked. "I could use some perfect right about now." Leo managed a smile.

"Everything we need in one place." I jumped onto Zoltan.

"I'll go tell Hazel. We'll meet you at the Great Salt Lake in Utah."