First Person: Audrey

I stood in a vast gloomy space like an underground parking garage. Rows of stone pillars marched off in every direction, holding up the ceiling about twenty feet above. Freestanding braziers cast a dim red glow over the floor. I couldn't see very far in the shadows, but hanging from the ceiling were pulley systems, sandbags, and rows of dark theater lights. Piled around the chamber, wooden crates were labeled PROPS, WEAPONS, and COSTUMES. One read: ASSORTED ROCKET LAUNCHERS. There was machinery creaking in the darkness, huge gears turning, and water rushing through pipes.

Then I saw the giant, or at least, I think it was a giant. He was about twelve feet tall - a respectable height for a Cyclops, but only half as tall as the other giants we'd dealt with. He also looked more human than a typical giant, without the dragon-like legs of his larger kin. Nevertheless, his long purple hair was braided in a ponytail of dreadlocks, woven with gold and silver coins, which struck me as a giant-ish hairstyle. He had a ten-foot spear strapped to his back - a giant-ish weapon. He wore the largest black turtleneck I'd ever seen, black pants, and black leather shoes with points so long and curly, they might have been jester slippers. He paced back and forth in from of a raised platform, examining a bronze jar. That was the bronze jar Nico was in, I just knew it, and that mean this must've been…

"No, no, no," The giant muttered to himself. "Where's the splash? Where's the value? Otis!" There was some shuffling in the distance before another giant appeared out of the gloom. He wore exactly the same black outfit, right down to the curly shoes. The only difference between the two giants was that the second one's hair was green rather than purple. They were definitely twins, their faces also identical along with their wardrobe. The first giant, who had to be Ephialtes since the second was Otis, cursed. "Otis, why do you do this to me every day? I told you I was wearing the black turtleneck today. You could wear anything but the black turtleneck!" Otis blinked as if he'd just woken up.

"I thought you were wearing the yellow toga today."

"That was yesterday! When you showed up in the yellow toga!"

"Oh. Right. Sorry, Ephie." He brother snarled.

"And don't call me Ephie," Ephie demanded. "Call me Ephialtes. That's my name. Or you can use my stage name: The BIG F!" I snickered and hoped they couldn't hear me. Otis grimaced.

"I'm still not sure about that stage name."

"Nonsense! It's perfect. Now, how are the preparations coming along?"

"Fine," Otis said, not sounding very enthusiastic. "The man-eating tigers, the spinning blades…but I still think a few ballerinas would be nice."

"No ballerinas! And this thing." He waved at the bronze jar in disgust. "What does it do? It's not exciting."

"But that's the whole point of the show. He dies unless the others rescue him. And if they arrive on schedule-"

"Oh, they'd better! July first, the Kalends of July, sacred to Juno. That's when mother wants to destroy those stupid demigods and really rub it on Juno's face. Besides, I'm not paying overtime for those gladiator ghosts!"

"Well, then, they all die, and we start the destruction of Rome. Just like mother wants. It'll be perfect. The crowd will love it. Roman ghosts adore this sort of thing." Ephialtes looked unconvinced.

"But the jar just stands there. Couldn't we suspend it above a fire, or dissolve it in a pool of acid or something?"

"We need him alive for a few more days. Otherwise, the seven won't rush to save him."

"Hmm. I suppose. I'd still like a little more screaming. This slow death is boring. Ah, well, what about our talented friend? Is she ready to receive her visitor?" Otis made a sour face.

"I really don't like talking to her. She makes me nervous."

"But is she ready?"

"Yes," Otis said reluctantly. "She's been ready for centuries. No one will be removing that statue."

"Excellent." Ephialtes rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "This is our big chance, my brother."

"That's what you said about our last stunt," Otis mumbled. "I was hanging in that block of ice suspended over the River Lethe for six months, and we didn't even get any media attention."

"This is different!" Ephialtes insisted. "We will set a new standard for entertainment! If mother is pleased, we can write our own ticket to fame and fortune!"

"If you say so," Otis sighed. "Though I still think those ballerina costumes from Swan Lake would look lovely-"

"No ballet!"

"Sorry."

"Come, let's examine the tigers. I want to be sure they're hungry!" The giants lumbered off into the gloom, and I looked to the jar. Nico's in there. I walked forward and walked through the surface of the jar. The air in the jar smelled of stale breath and tarnished metal. The only light came from the dim purple glow of a dark sword, its Stygian iron blade set against one side of the container. Huddled next to it was a dejected-looking boy in tattered jeans, a black shirt, and an old aviator jacket. On his hand, a silver skull ring glittered. The container was completely sealed, and the air was poisonous. Nico's eyes were closed, his breathing shallow. He appeared to be meditating, his face pale and thinner than I remembered. Zytaveon was next to him, though he looked more transparent, like a ghost. He grabbed Nico's Stygian iron sword and scratched a mark on the inner wall of the jar, making a third hash mark.

"Ve?" I asked. He turned to me, surprised, but his eyes darted around like he didn't see me. Nico suddenly grunted, and Veon looked to his brother.

"Nico? We're coming for you. Just hold on." He reached for a small collection of glistening objects no bigger than baby teeth between Nico's feet. Seeds, pomegranate seeds like Emily had told me. He grabbed one and popped it into Nico's mouth. The younger boy quickly chewed and ate it before spitting it out. Three that made three of the pomegranate seeds eaten, while five more were still encased in dark red pulp. Nico went into his trance once more and Ve sighed. Suddenly he was pulled backwards by some invisible force. It surprised him, but he didn't even have time to shout before he disappeared.

"Veon!" But the scene dissolved for me and I was suddenly underwater. I opened my eyes and realized I was in my room on the Argo II, inside the water of my waterbed (Coolest thing ever, by the way). I quickly swam to the edge and jumped out completely dry, the water barely shifting, and transformed myself to water. I sank through the floor and then crawled under until I arrived in Veon's room. I reformed and found that, of course, his room was practically all black. I found him thrashing around on his bed, the covers thrown away. He was screaming in some other language that I couldn't understand.

"Ve? Ve! Veon wake up!" I ran over and tried to shake him, but he smacked me away harshly, screaming in that other language. It wasn't Ancient Greek, and it wasn't Latin, so I had no idea what it was, only that he was screaming a million syllables at the top of his lungs at like 500 beats per minute. He suddenly disappeared into the shadows and then reappeared on the other side of the room, collapsing against the wall before he was pulled backwards and fell into the shadow of his dresser. He reappeared to my left in the shadow of his nightstand and then fell back onto his bed, gripping the sheets so tightly I was worried he was going to rip them. I ran out to the hall and hurried to Zy's room, knocking on the door frantically. She opened the door after a few moments, looking annoyed, but I grabbed her hand and dragged her to Veon's room.

"I don't know what's happening," I said. "Some kind of nightmare. Do something!" She walked inside and we found Veon when he came out of the shadow of a lamp and fell off the nightstand in a face-plant. Zy grabbed him and slipped something out of her pocket. I realized it was a syringe when she stabbed it into his arm and pushed down the plunger. Veon stopped screaming with a tired moan and then went limp.

"That should sedate him for the rest of the night. It's made for demigods." She lugged his large frame back onto his bed and threw the covers over him. "If that's all. Good night."

"You have a syringe with sedative in your pajama pants?" I asked.

"Yes, and I have a gun under my pillow and a dagger on my nightstand. Seriously people, how many times have you woken up with a monster in your bedroom?"

"Well what was the language he was speaking? What was he dreaming about?"

"I don't know. Something bad. The language is some kind of ancient language known only by the Primordial gods. Now I'm dead tired so good night. See you in the morning." She walked out and back to her room.

"Some girlfriend you are," I muttered. Shouldn't she be more concerned about him? Like, trying to stay over in his bedroom to look after him or something? Well, now I was up and wasn't gonna get to sleep any time soon. I headed to the mess hall and got some chocolate. Maybe raising my blood sugar would make me more tired. Plus I have an excuse to eat chocolate. I wolfed down a large Hershey bar (don't tell me you've never done that before in your life or dream of doing so) and then headed back to my room. I managed to fall asleep in the calming water where the any sound was muffled, when I woke once again to someone poking my waterbed.

I opened my eyes to see Frank, who was looking at it in awe. He was dressed in running shoes, dark cargo pants, and a Vancouver Winter Olympics T-shirt with his Roman centurion badge pinned to the neck (which seemed either sad or hopeful, now that we were renegades and all). He looked a bit panicked about something.

"What's up?" I asked, sticking my head out of the wall of water.

"Have you seen Percy?" He asked frantically.

"No. Why? Is he missing?"

"We can't find him or Annabeth anywhere. They're not in their rooms, and no one can find them. We're worried that they've been kidnapped." I quickly hopped out and to the floor.

"Have you checked everywhere?"

"Everyone's looking. Mess hall, deck, infirmary-"

"Stables?"

"Uh…no, I don't think so."

"It's one of Annabeth's favorite places. Come on." We walked down past the engine room, the supply rooms and armory, to the stern of the ship. I opened the set of double doors that lead into a large stable. The room smelled of fresh hay and wool blankets. Lining the left wall were three empty horse stalls like the ones they used for pegasi back at camp and the right wall had two empty cages big enough for large zoo animals. In the center of the floor was a twenty-foot-square see-through panel. They were bay doors like a bomber Leo had installed to allow pegasi to come and go easily, though he made them before he realized pegasi prefer to roam free, so the stables are usually empty. On the glass doors were Annabeth and Percy, cuddling together on a blanket from one of the stables.

"Oh…you are in so much trouble," Frank muttered.

"What…?" Percy asked, rubbing his eyes. "Oh, we just fell asleep." Frank swallowed and averted his eyes, as if the sight of them together might burn him.

"Everyone thinks you've been kidnapped. We've been scouring the ship. When Coach Hedge finds out…oh gods, you've been here all night?"

"Frank!" Annabeth protested, her ears as red as strawberries. "We just came down here to talk. We fell asleep. Accidentally. That's it."

"Kissed a couple of times," Percy said.

"Not helping!" Annabeth said, glaring at him.

"We'd better…" Frank stuttered, pointing to the stable doors. "Uh, we're supposed to meet for breakfast. Would you explain what you did - I mean didn't do? I mean…I really don't want that faun - I mean satyr - to kill me." Frank ran.

"Uh, yeah," I said. "I just got up. See you in the mess hall, little bro."

When everyone finally gathered in the dining hall, it wasn't quite as bad as Frank had feared. Jason and Piper were mostly relieved, Leo couldn't stop grinning and muttering, "Classis. Classic." Veon was eating a bowl of Lucky Charms as though nothing was wrong, Emily was looking at Zy and him like "I wonder if those two will ever learn about this whole relationship thing," and Zy was humming a song to herself and staring at the view of Camp Half-Blood's sunrise uninterested. Only Hazel seemed scandalized, maybe because she was from the 1940s. She kept fanning her face and wouldn't meet Percy's eyes. I sat at the table and began playing with a bowl of water while Coach Hedge was going ballistic, though it was hard to take him seriously when he was barely five feet tall.

"Never in my life!" Coach bellowed, waving his bat and knocking over a plate of apples. "Against the rules! Irresponsible!"

"Coach," Annabeth said. "It was an accident. We were talking and we fell asleep."

"Besides," Percy said. "You're starting to sound like Terminus." Hedge narrowed his eyes.

"Is that an insult, Jackson? Cause I'll…I'll terminus you, buddy!" Percy barely suppressed a laugh.

"It won't happen again, Coach. I promise. Now, don't we have other things to discuss?" Hedge fumed.

"Fine! But I'm watching you, Jackson. And you, Annabeth Chase, I thought you had more sense-" Jason cleared his throat.

"So grab some food, everybody. Let's get started."

The meeting was like a war council with donuts. Then again, back at Camp Half-Blood, they used to have their most serious discussions around the Ping-Pong table in the rec room with crackers and Cheez Whiz, so we felt right at home. Percy explained that he'd had a dream similar to mine - the twin giants planning a reception for them in an underground parking lot with rocket launchers, and Nico di Angelo trapped in a bronze jar, slowly dying from asphyxiation with pomegranate seeds at his feet.

"They're from our step-mother's garden," Veon said.

"Your step…oh," Percy said. "You mean Persephone." He nodded.

"The seeds are a last-resort food. Only children of Hades can eat them. Nico and I always keep some in case we get stuck somewhere. I gave Nico mine, and since they're not with me, I can only hope that he got them. I had four on me, and I'm pretty sure Nico had four on him too. Each seed can last him a day at most, barely. It puts him in a sort of death trance, keeping him from consuming all his air. Like hibernation, or a coma. That gives him a total of eight days at most, and he's been captured for three already?"

"Five seeds left," Percy agreed. "We have until July first. The giants planned it that way, counting on Veon to give his seeds as well. Assuming Nico is hidden somewhere in Rome-"

"That's not a lot of time," I concluded.

"The giants are trying to lure us," Annabeth said. "They're assuming we'll try to rescue him."

"Well, they're right!" Hazel declared, looking around the table and her confidence apparently crumbling. "Won't we?"

"Yes!" Coach Hedge yelled with a mouthful of napkins. "It'll involve fighting, right?"

"Of course we're going to try and rescue him," Veon said. "Trap be damned, I'm not gonna just sit by and let my brother die! I promised him we were coming…!" Emily put her hand on his shoulder.

"We'll find him, Ve," She promised.

"At least we know for sure what the lines of the prophecy mean now," Piper said. "'Twins snuff out the angel's breath, who holds the key to endless death.' Your brother's last name, di Angelo, is Italian for angel."

"Oh gods," Hazel muttered. "Nico…"

"We'll rescue him," Percy promised. "We have to. The prophecy says he holds the key to endless death."

"That's right," Emily said encouragingly. "Your brother went searching for the Doors of Death in the Underworld, right? He must've found them."

"He can tell us where the doors are," I said. "And how to close them."

"But Nico and I share a soul bond," Ve said. "Nico and I went looking for the doors together in one of my dreams, resulting in his capture. The only reason I'm not in that jar too was because I was able to return to my body. Dammit, I could've stopped this…"

"There's nothing you could've done," Zy said. "Both you and Nico were overwhelmed by Gaea's forces, right? No doubt that the doors are flooded with monsters wanting to escape and guarding them. Two boys, sons of Hades or not, couldn't have closed the Doors of Death on their own against such a force."

"But if I concentrate hard enough I might be able to get the location and how to close them from here. That means it's entirely possible that the giants could actually…and we'd still be able to move on, so what the prophecy said…"

"Zytaveon, I made a promise that I would do everything in my power to save Nico di Angelo and I will not break that oath. The prophecy says the giants "snuff out the angel's breath," and Nico can't breathe, right? Thanks to his pomegranate seeds, his breath has technically already been "snuffed out," but that doesn't mean he's dead. It just means he can't breathe. We will find him, and we will save him."

"Uh, one thing?" Leo said, shifting nervously in his chair. "The giants are expecting us to do this, right? So we're walking into a trap?" Hazel looked at Leo like he'd made a rude gesture.

"We have no choice!"

"We're going!" Veon agreed.

"Easy," Emily said.

"Don't get me wrong," Leo said carefully. "It's just that your brother, Nico…he knew about both camps, right?"

"Well, yes," Hazel said.

"He's been going back and forth, and he didn't tell either side." Jason sat forward.

"You're wondering if we can trust the guy. So am I." Hazel and Veon both shot to their feet.

"Of course we can trust him!" Veon said.

"I don't believe this!" Hazel agreed. "He's my brother! He brought me back from the Underworld, and you don't want to help him?!"

"Nobody's saying that," Frank insisted before glaring at Leo. "Nobody had better be saying that." Leo blinked.

"Look, guys. All I mean is-"

"Leo is raising a fair point," Jason said. "I remember Nico from Camp Jupiter. Now I find out he also visited Camp Half-Blood. That does strike me as…well, a little shady. Do we really know where his loyalties lie? And if Veon can get the information needed out of him…" Hazel's arms shook. A silver plate zoomed toward her and hit the wall to the left, splattering scrambled eggs.

"You…" She choked out. "The great Jason Grace…the praetor I looked up to. You were supposed to be so fair, such a good leader. And now you…" Hazel stomped her foot and stormed out of the mess hall.

"Hazel!" Leo called after her. "Ah, jeez. I should-"

"You've done enough," Frank growled.

"Nico didn't want the Romans and the Greeks to start a war if they knew about each other," Veon said. "Our father was the one who showed him Camp Jupiter and told him to go there and keep things a secret." He scoffed. "Wait, I get it. All children of Hades are "shady." But that doesn't mean we shouldn't help someone who's in trouble. Besides…" He gripped the table, his jaw clenched in barely-contained fury. "No matter who he is or what he's done…no one deserves to die slowly suffocating in a freaking bronze jar!" He stormed off as well.

"Veon!" Zy called. "Don't go doing something stupid!"

"Like what?!" He shouted in challenge, continuing down the hall.

"Like-!" She sighed. "Like that. Great. He's gone. I should-"

"Let them cool down," Emily advised.

"You guys, that was pretty cold," Piper said. Jason looked shocked.

"Cold? I'm just being cautious!"

"Their brother is dying," I reasoned.

"I'll go talk to her," Frank suggested.

"And I should get Veon," Zy agreed.

"No," Emily insisted. "Let both of them cool down. Trust me on this one. Piper and I will check on them in a few minutes."

"But…" Frank huffed like an irritated bear. "Fine. I'll wait." Zy sighed and slumped in her seat, crossing her arms. From up above came a whirring sound like a large drill.

"That's Festus," Leo said. "I've got him on autopilot, but we must be nearing Atlanta. I'll have to get up there…uh, assuming we know where to land." Everyone turned to me and Percy.

"You're Captain Salt Water," Jason said to Percy. "Any ideas from the experts?" Was that resentment in his voice? Was Jason secretly miffed about the duel in Kansas? I guess they both must've harbored a little grudge. You can't put two demigod boys in a fight and not have them wonder who was stronger.

"I'm not sure," Percy admitted.

"We need to get a look at the place first," I said. "Land us somewhere central, high up so we can get a good view of the city. Maybe a park with some woods? We don't want to land a warship in the middle of downtown. I doubt even the Mist could cover up something that huge." Leo nodded.

"On it." He raced for the stairs. Frank settled back in his chair uneasily. I felt bad for the guy. On the trip to Alaska, I'd seen him and Hazel grow close, and I knew how protective Frank felt toward her. He was giving Leo a baleful look, and clearly those three had some issues. We honestly needed to just sort this out. Percy and I looked to each other and seemed to be thinking the same thing. Maybe Frank could use some time off the ship.

"When we land, we'll scout around in Atlanta," Percy said. "Frank, we could use your help."

"You mean turn into a dragon again? Honestly, Percy, I don't want to spend the whole quest being everyone's flying taxi."

"No," I said. "We want you because you've got the blood of Poseidon. Maybe you could help us figure out where to find salt water. Besides, you're good in a fight. And Veon is our shadow travelling taxi." That seemed to make Frank feel a little better.

"Sure. I guess."

"Great," Percy said. "We should take one more. Annabeth-"

"Oh no!" Coach Hedge barked. "Young lady, you are grounded." Annabeth stared at him like he was speaking a foreign language.

"Excuse me?"

"You and Jackson are not going anywhere together!" He glared at Percy, daring him to mouth off. "I'll go with Frank, Audrey and Mr. Sneaky Jackson. The rest of you guard the ship and make sure Annabeth doesn't break any more rules!" Wow, he was starting to sound like Terminus. Percy sighed.

"This is going to be so much fun," He said with heavy sarcasm.