First Person: Lucy

We sailed out of the Colosseum and veered south over the rooftops of Rome. All around the Piazza del Colosseo, traffic had come to a standstill. A crowd of mortals had gathered, probably wondering about the strange lights and sounds that had come from the ruins. As far as we could see, none of the giants' spectacular plans for destruction had come off successfully. The city looked the same as before, and no one seemed to notice the huge Greek trireme rising into the sky. Not sure how the Mist pulled that one off, but I wasn't complaining. I was surprised that no one had tried to go in to investigate, but I guess Dionysus - Bacchus - had some kind of a brain in there and was able to keep them out. Perhaps he only liked a dead audience of Romans.

Everyone else was recovering from the fight, and Kaze was standing at the railing of the main deck. He hadn't said a word since we'd boarded the ship. I couldn't really blame him. We had just seen our parents after so many years, only to find them made into those…things. I was angry at Gaea for defiling him like that, daring to use him against me, but Kaze just looked sad. He didn't fight at his strongest against Tsuchi, I knew. Now, he was taking in all the shock of his mother and the aftermath of his betrayal of the crew as well as the giants just after when he sided with us against the reanimations.

"Kaze-kun?" I muttered quietly.

Kaze just sat there, staring off at the view of Rome blankly, and I was cautious as I approached. "Kaze?"

"I'm sorry," He said, without moving his head or changing his expression. "I didn't know you and Veon-san were in the jar. And…I'm sorry for putting his brother trouble. I thought maybe I could get him out once you'd arrived. The giants only wanted him for bait, and so once you'd arrived, there would've been no reason to keep him in there, and no reason to pay any attention to him."

"You know, if you wanted to speak with us, you didn't have to go to these lengths."

He huffed and turned to me. "Yes, I did. You…you're throwing your life away, again, all for the goddess that made you kill me in the first place, makes you do things you hate. Zeus ruined my life, Tsuchi's life…even that Bacchus guy, nearly got us all killed before he just tapped the giants away and somehow seemed to think we should be grateful. I hate the gods, I hate this life. I thought maybe…maybe if I could just get rid of the bad ones and keep the good ones…maybe no one would ever have to go through what we did ever again. Even if what Mother was doing seemed bad, if she could just give us a little corner of the world to live in undisturbed once she'd taken over then…that wouldn't be too much for her, but it would be all that we needed."

"You can't fix everything, Kaze. I'm sorry."

"Why do you have to do all of this?! Why do you have to…?"

"Because if I don't someone else will have to, or no one else will ever have the chance."

His head dropped with a deep sigh of frustration. "Why us? After everything we already had to go through, why did all of this have to be thrown onto us? There are all these other demigods that could handle this. They had homes, friends, even family before this quest. But us? All we ever had was each other, and before that, nothing. And don't say the 'orphanage' was a home of any kind. I found a way to survive there, but I would've left in an instant if I could survive on my own. If I'd had my speed, maybe. Yet here we are, stuck in this mess again, completely aware of it, and still going through with it, knowing all that we're losing in the end because of it. Why us?!"

He pounded the railing, his strength smashing in the wood just slightly, and lowered his head into his arms to sob. Neko was sitting on the railing, gently placing its paw on Kaze's arm.

"Kaze…this is something I have to do. If I don't, none of us knows what will happen. It's like trying to avoid a prophecy. No matter what I do, I'll end up fulfilling it. No one has ever avoided a prophecy before, big or small, and-"

"They all should've tried harder then! It would be easy for you to get out of this, just sit down and stay out of it all! But they always have to be dragged in, but it's not because someone's forcing them. It's because they just can't stay put and let things happen on their own."

"And if someone died because of that logic? If I just let dozens, if not hundreds die just for my own needs?"

"I know!" He snapped. "Just because I hate what you're doing doesn't mean I don't…understand why you're doing it. I think the fact that I understand is what makes it so hard to accept."

"How do you think I feel? I'm terrified. I know that I'll have to do terrible things, go through terrible things myself. I have to keep convincing myself that the ends justify the means, every second of every day. Everything that I've said to you to explain? I have to tell myself that too. A while back, with the goddess inside me, it became easier to accept everything, to push aside my emotions. But now that she's so weakened, now that she's left me to be more of myself…I have my doubts, I have my fears. But that doesn't change anything. I still have to do this. There is so much more than just me and my feelings on the line here."

"I know, I know. I won't try to stop you. But I will make you do this."

He looked up and turned to me.

"You are going to help this goddess, do whatever the hell you have to, but after everything is all said and done, once she's safe and her husband's safe, and whatever. After all this, you are coming back! Because you can't leave me alone…! You can't do that to me again…!"

He was crying harder, and I reached over to embrace him. As he fell against me, I lowered us to sit on the deck, laying against the railing. Neko hopped onto his shoulder as he cried against mine, gripping me tightly. I let him take his time, because I had a feeling that he hadn't had the chance to face all of his emotions in a long time. Soon, he was just sniffling and was simply relaxing against me, his grip loosening but not fully releasing. It hurt me to think that I was the one that had made him cry, that I was reminded of the fear that I'd made him face, and the abandonment.

He may have been in the body of a 15-year-old, but on the inside, he was still just that little nine-year-old I'd left behind all those years ago. But now, he was also broken and afraid. He wasn't an innocent kid anymore, but he was still just a kid. I didn't realize it, how happy and cheerful he was when he should've been scarred beyond repair. Maybe I didn't notice it because I didn't want to face any consequences of what I'd done. I didn't want to bring it up in case maybe it reminded him of what had happened. I wanted to see him happy like he had been, and since he was, since he acted as though nothing had happened, I…I went along with it.

"I remember what death was like," He muttered. "I remember my broken, shattered soul going to Hades. Because I was so damaged that they didn't dare try and erase my memories, for risk of completely destroying me. Not that it really mattered; I was too broken to pose any risk, and I might as well have been without memories. I didn't speak, I didn't listen, and I didn't care. I remember being thrown into Asphodel, just sitting under this tree, letting eternity pass by. Others wandered around me; I heard the parties of Elysium, the screams of the Fields of Punishment, the crying in the Fields of Mourning, but I didn't care. I had been torn down from the inside out, driven to insanity and back.

"And the only reason I was even still there, that my soul hadn't been completely destroyed during those trials, is because I held onto the fact that I needed to save you. The goddess that did that to me, the one that made you kill me to allow it…you were still with her. And then suddenly, Mother woke me up. She mended my soul, said I was strong, that she would help me become stronger to help save you. A god killed my mom, a goddess made you kill me. I didn't want one to make you kill yourself. I let her help me, I helped her, thought I could fight fire with fire. But even she only used me. I'm tired of the gods, I'm tired of all of this.

"I will let you do this, I will help you and your friends fight this war. But if you want to make up for what you did, all of this, whatever you do, whoever you hurt…to make all of this worth it, you need to come back in the end. And then, we leave this life, we leave the gods. We leave it all behind. We go on the run again, or we settle down somewhere once we're old enough to be accepted as adults, I don't care. But we have to leave this. All this life has brought us is pain. We can go and be normal, do whatever we want. We can fight monsters here and there, but no more quests, no more of the world resting on our shoulders - your shoulders. Just you, me, maybe Veon-san, but no more gods."

I sighed. "That sounds…really nice. But it's impossible to escape this life forever. The faster you run, the faster it tries to catch up to you. The harder it hits you when it does."

"Let the monsters come to us, but we won't go looking for them. Deal?"

"Deal."

He nodded. "Good. Cause if you don't come back…you'll leave Veon-san stuck with me. And he's not bad looking."

"Hey, I saw him first! And he is 17, Kaze, nearly 18."

He shrugged. "A Four year age gap becomes less important the older you get. And there's always Nico. He's cute too."

"Okay, okay. I get the hint. I'll make sure to survive this ordeal and return to make sure you never get a boyfriend."

He shoved me away. "Hey!"

"You asked for it, Ototo!"

He grabbed Neko and transformed him into a sphere, dropping him into his pocket before zooming away. I surged after him - even if the race was completely unfair without the goddess assisting my speed. I heard him giggling as he ran, and I managed to corner him into the mess hall. As he tried to zoom past me, I tackled him, catching him and then squeezing my arms around his waist to prevent him from slipping out of my grip, but his forward momentum and sudden stop caused us to topple over. I released him and we rolled apart, trying to catch out breaths from having the wind knocked out of us, but we stayed together on the floor.

All the while, we were laughing hysterically. We hadn't laughed like that in a long time. I once believed we never would again. I would come back for that laugh. I would come back to show my brother what it meant to be…okay. Things would never be perfect, but…okay was a lot. Okay was good enough. And I would come back for him, for that life he dreamed of.

Yes.

I would come back for that laugh.


The demigods gathered around the helm. Audrey was lying in a miniature version of her waterbed - more like a watercoffin, really - and was healing herself up quickly, along with a little ambrosia. I deemed Piper's shoulder merely sprained, ordering Jason to bandage it, while then taking a diagnosis of Nico. He was extremely weakened, malnourished, as well as mentally unstable from the traumatic experience. Hazel fed him some ambrosia, while Veon sat beside him trying to explain the whole soul bond situation, how he had been able to travel to Tartarus with Nico in spirit and that's how he'd gotten there but then disappeared, and how he'd given Nico his pomegranate seeds to give him more time. Nico could barely lift his head and his voice was so quiet Veon had to lean in whenever he spoke. He and Hazel looked very relieved yet also scared for Nico after finding him alive but so weakened. I tried to assist in recovering his mental state, but there was only so much I could do on short notice.

Frank, Emily, and Leo recounted what had happened in the room with the Archimedes spheres, and the visions Gaea had showed them in the bronze mirror (Kaze just sitting at the table playing with Neko since he couldn't understand). I checked them out for any injuries, but it seemed that Emily's new healing fire abilities were spot on, all of them having been healed, and at the worst, Emily was drained from her new usage of her power - nothing a little ambrosia wasn't able to fix during their trip to rescue us from the Colosseum match. We quickly decided that their best lead for finding Annabeth was the cryptic advice Bacchus had provided: the Emmanuel Building, whatever that was. Frank started typing at the helm's computer while Leo tapped furiously at his controls, muttering "Emmanuel Building. Emmanuel Building." Coach Hedge tried to help by wrestling with an upside-down street map of Rome - which Emily eventually had to confiscate because he was getting pretty upset with it.

I eventually offered up some help, as my Curse seemed to still be alive, even if her signal was significantly weakened. "I sent in a Curse with my new powers from Styx to aid Annabeth in her quest, or at the very least look out for her. She has the ability to work around prophecies, and through technicalities keep them on track even with her intervention. She's assisted in Annabeth's mission just a small bit, but most of it relies on Annabeth, as my Curse has very little power. I'm working on improving the technique as a skill to aid Camp Half-Blood in the war. I should be able to track her signal and find the easiest way to get to them."

Percy knelt next to Jason and Piper. "How's the shoulder?"

Piper smiled. "It'll heal. All of you did great."

Jason elbowed Percy. "Not a bad team, you and me."

"Better than jousting in a Kansas cornfield," Percy agreed.

"Although I say I outrank both of you," Audrey popped in. "Considering I held them both back at the same time."

"And we handled the evil undead immortal reanimations," Veon added. "We took down a hydra and Kaze, not to mention doing our fair share against the giants. So I think Zy and I outrank all y'all."

"There it is!" Leo cried, pointing to his monitor. "You guys are amazing! I'm setting course."

Frank hunched his shoulders. "I just read the name off the screen. Some Chinese tourist marked it on Google Maps."

"And they went into detail, huh?" I muttered.

Leo grinned at the others. "They read Chinese."

"Just a tiny bit," Frank said.

"Not that it's very fun," I added. "Imagine learning English letters and Japanese kanji for the first few years of your life, and then having to learn Russian weirdness and Chinese kanji at the next part of your life! I can read Russian better than I can speak it, but Chinese was just a pain considering my Japanese is technically my second language and learning both of those languages from scratch, from no matter how young an age, is hard."

"You're amazing," Veon said.

"How cool is that?" Leo mused.

"Guys," Hazel broke in. "I hate to interrupt your admiration session, but you should hear this."

She helped Nico to his feet. He'd always been pale, but now his skin looked like powdered milk. His dark sunken eyes reminded me of photos I'd seen of liberated prisoners-of-war, which I guess Nico basically was. I reached to put my hand to his forehead and sent my healing energy through, but the damage was more than I could take in my weakened state. After all, I'd already gone through one of my desperation power boost sessions and had only had a few quick heals of ambrosia - nothing that would instantly restore me to full health. At the very least, I put a dent in his pain, and with a small gasp he flinched and began to take deep breaths, his mind and body cleared if just slightly. I pulled my hand away, and he nodded in thanks before facing the group, his eyes darting around nervously, clearly not comfortable with so many eyes on him.

"Thank you," Nico rasped. "I'd given up hope."

"You knew about the two camps all along," Percy said, much more gently than previously expected. With Nico looking so frail and sad, I'd imagine that he didn't have it in him to say the scathing words he'd had planned previously. "You could have told me who I was the first day I arrived at Camp Jupiter, but you didn't."

"All of us could have," Veon stepped in. "We were sent specifically to look after you in your memory loss while you were at the Roman camp, but we knew we couldn't reveal the truth, at least not instantly."

"We apologize for that, once more," Emily said, her guilt for the event far more than the normal person would be expected to have in an apology. It made Emily very hard to hold any anger towards, and it made you want to comfort her or at the very least tell her to not be so serious about things.

Nico slumped against the helm. "Percy, I'm sorry. I discovered Camp Jupiter last year. My dad led me there, though I wasn't sure why. He told me the gods had kept the camps separate for centuries and that I couldn't tell anyone. When Zyanya ordered me to take the others there and informed me of this plan, I understood that the time wasn't right. But he said it would be important for me to know…"

Nico was interrupted as he doubled over in a fit of coughing. Veon and Hazel held his shoulders, and I reached forward to send some soothing energy to his throat. It was much easier than healing all of his wounds and pain, and so it only took a few moments for his coughs to die down and for him to stand on his own again.

"I - I thought Dad meant because of Hazel," Nico continued. "I'd need a safe place to take her. But now…I think he wanted me to know about both camps so I'd understand how important your quest was, and so I'd search for the Doors of Death."

The air turned electric - literally, as Jason started throwing off sparks. I put my hand on his shoulder to absorb the electricity for power as well as calm Jason's tension.

"Did you find the doors?" Percy asked.

Veon nodded. "Thanks to the weird soul bond that happened between us, I helped Nico search and we managed to find them."

"When was that?" Audrey asked.

"In my dreams. At first, I didn't think it was real. But I had multiple dreams in a row that stayed with proper continuity. To Nico, it seemed that no time had passed, or maybe we had taken a break and I woke up just at the end of it so that we could keep going."

"I was a fool," Nico spat. "I thought I could go anywhere in the Underworld, but I walked right into Gaea's trap, and nearly dragged Veon along with me, even though he warned me that maybe we should be careful about things. We might as well have tried running from a black hole. The only reason Veon wasn't in that jar with me too was because his spirit managed to return to his body before it was too late."

Frank chewed his lip. "Um…what kind of black hole are you talking about?"

Nico started to speak, but whatever he needed to say must've been too terrifying.

Veon put his hand on Nico's shoulder. "Let's just say that it's really bad. Really…really bad. But the important thing is that the Doors of Death have two sides - one in the mortal world, one in the Underworld. The mortal side of the portal is in Greece, heavily guarded by Gaea's forces. That's where they brought Nico back into the upper world before they transported him to Rome."

Piper must've been nervous, because her cornucopia spit out a cheeseburger. "Where exactly in Greece is this doorway?"

Nico took a rattling breath. "The House of Hades. It's an underground temple in Epirus. I can mark it on a map, but…but the mortal side of the portal isn't the problem. In the Underworld, the Doors of Death are in…in…"

Emily put her hand on Nico's forehead, forcing him to close his eyes and take a deep breath. "Take it easy, Nico. We understand. You're safe now, okay? Just breathe. It's in the past. Don't let it hurt you anymore."

He nodded, allowing Emily to help keep his emotions under control.

"It's in Tartarus," Veon finished. "The deepest part of the Underworld."

Nico nodded. "They pulled me into the pit. The things I saw down there…"

His voice broke, and he shook the thought away, Emily helping him suppress the bad feelings.

Hazel pursed her lips. "No mortal has ever been to Tartarus. At least, no one has ever gone in and returned alive. It's the maximum-security prison of Hades, where the old Titans and the other enemies of the gods are bound. It's where all monsters go when they die on the earth. It's…well, no one knows exactly what it's like."

Her eyes drifted to her brother. The rest of her thought didn't need to be spoken: No one except Nico.

"It's…it's terrible," Veon muttered. "The only reason Nico made it back here is because Gaea wanted him to."

Hazel handed Nico his black sword, and he leaned on it like it was an old man's cane. "Now I understand why Hades hasn't been able to close the doors. Even the gods don't go into Tartarus. Even the god of death, Thanatos himself, wouldn't go near that place."

Leo glanced over from the wheel. "So let me guess. We'll have to go down there."

Nico shook his head. "It's impossible. I'm the son of Hades, and even I barely survived. Gaea's forces overwhelmed me instantly. They're so powerful down there…no demigod would stand a chance. I almost went insane."

Nico's eyes looked like shattered glass, and Emily winced in pain, Audrey instantly at her side. I knew that Nico would never be the same, and even time wouldn't be able to heal him completely. Something inside him had broken completely beyond repair.

"Then we'll sail for Epirus," Percy said. "We'll just close the gates on this side."

"I wish it were that easy," I said. "The doors would have to be controlled on both sides to be closed."

"Maybe, just maybe, all 12 of you working together could defeat Gaea's forces on the mortal side, at the House of Hades," Nico continued. "But unless you had a team fighting simultaneously on the Tartarus side, a team powerful enough to defeat a legion of monsters in their home territory-"

"There has to be a way," Jason said.

"I can do it," I declared, and everyone's eyes turned to me (except Kaze's since he was dealing with Neko trying to climb up his sleeve).

"You?" Frank asked.

"On your own?" Audrey added.

"Not alone," I corrected. "Zyanya will be with me."

"Look, I know she's powerful, but she's still just one goddess," Hazel said.

"Zyanya is merely the name I gave her. As she travels from host to host, she changes her name to accommodate her host's desires. I named her Zyanya. Her true name, however, is Primordial Order."

Everyone seemed to do a double take.

"Wait, like Order?" Leo repeated. "Like with a capital O? The ancient being that came before all the gods and their messed up family?"

"Yes."

"Well why didn't you say so before?! With a powerhouse like that on our side, this war should be no problem!"

"If it were that simple, there wouldn't be a war in the first place. Order has a husband - Chaos, naturally - but Gaea and Tartarus worked long ago to disable him, in turn unbalancing the scales and causing Order to be affected as well."

"Wouldn't killing Chaos be, like, shooting themselves in the foot?" Percy asked. "Shouldn't Chaos be on their side?"

I shook my head. "Chaos and Order aren't that clear-cut. They didn't care what happened on earth, whether the Titans were ruling, or the gods, or the humans. They wouldn't have even participated in this war had they not been directly attacked as a result of it. With Chaos out of commission, things are very unstable, Order in particular. Gaea started this war and began waking for a reason. Tartarus began his plan by taking Chaos by surprise, in turn stirring Gaea and affecting Order. She's weakening, fading. At the moment, Order's life is sustaining Chaos's by a thread - as long as she's alive, he's alive. But they've been torturing and draining Chaos ever since he was beaten and taken down, sucking down Order's life force as well. At that rate, she wouldn't be to sustain the both of them, and eventually, she'd be taken down as well, and nothing would be able to keep them from being killed.

"My mother took her in as a host to keep her going, because if Order falls, both her and Chaos will be able to be killed by Gaea and Tartarus. But…my mom…she only lasted until about…about five years ago. Nearly six. And then…Order was passed on to me. And she tasked me with finding a host for Chaos, to rescue him with."

I turned to look at Veon.

"And I found him," I finished, trying to keep the sadness out of my voice and make it sound more like a surprising miracle.

"So you're saying that if you guys can get Chaos back, you'll be able to close the Doors of Death on the Tartarus side?" Jason summed up.

I nodded. "We'd have to go down to Tartarus to rescue Chaos, but if we can manage that, we should be able to pull it off. We restore Chaos, and he won't be taken by surprise if Tartarus attempts to take him down again. I'd imagine he'd be mega pissed and eager to ruin his and Gaea's plans, starting with closing the Doors of Death."

"Are you sure you guys should go alone?" Emily asked. "You built our team for a reason, right? We should come with as backup."

"No. You have to stay up here and help the crew get to the House of Hades and close the doors on this side. It's going to be just as hard, if not harder, especially with those reanimations on the loose as well. You know my Curses that I told you about? I'll keep some of them with you to assist as well, and help with the war between the Camps. Getting to Chaos isn't like getting to the Doors of Death. There's no way to guard him or to contain him in some cage. The moment we enter Tartarus we should be able to find him with little effort. His essence has been spread thin across Tartarus to weaken him and make him more fragile. After that, taking back the Doors should be easy."

"Then I'll do it," Veon said.

"Veon, taking Primordial Chaos will be worse than anything you can imagine. Not to mention Tartarus is going to be fighting for custody of you in place of Chaos."

Child of Hades, beware the Pit. Should you fall, you will be one with it.

He took a deep breath. "If I gave up just because I was afraid, then that would just be shameful. We're all afraid, here. We've all got important roles to play, and we're all going to have to go through our own trials to do it. I'll play my part; I'll fight my hardest. And I'll go through things that I…really might not want to, just like everyone else."

I cringed inside, hearing him say that. He had no idea what he was facing, what kind of trials that he would have to go through. Kaze was nearly destroyed by the trials - not just in body, but in soul and mind. Just because Veon was supposedly worthy didn't comfort me, as Zyanya had once told me that Kaze was worthy too. Sure, Zyanya had told me that Veon's soul and will were stronger than most, but he seemed too…innocent. And contrary to Kaze, he was also confident in himself and his abilities. Perhaps that would make him even more unprepared for what was to happen.

"Then…uh…it's decided," I mustered.

At first, I thought my stomach was sinking from dread, but then I realized the entire ship was descending towards a big building like a palace. Annabeth, that's right. Back to the matter at hand. I could sense my Curse was close, meaning so was Annabeth, but they still seemed to be underground.

"Is that the Emmanuel Building?" Percy asked.

Leo nodded. "Bacchus said something about the parking lot in back? Well, there it is. What now?"

It wasn't hard to figure out that Annabeth was trapped down there with the mother of all spiders - quite literally - and for hours with her broken leg couldn't be good. Even my Curse was low on power. I'd need to resolve that issue and make them self-generating. Percy seemed to have figured out the same conclusion about Annabeth, and didn't seem to care whether the quest was solo or not at this point.

In all honesty, the Athena Parthenos was very easy to find. had someone just known about this parking lot. Come to think of it, why did Bacchus know about this place? If the statue was just under there, that should've been much easier to locate had Athena done her research. Instead, she unconsciously made the Mark of Athena, forced tons of her kids to go on a stupid scavenger hunt and die from it, when it really was circumstantially simple to retrieve.

"Athena, when you get your head in gear, you better go kick that wine god in the-"

"We have to get her out," Percy interrupted.

"Well, yeah," Leo agreed. "But, uh…"

He looked like he wanted to say, 'What if we're too late?'

Wisely, he changed tack. "There's a parking lot in the way."

Audrey looked to Coach Hedge. "Didn't Bacchus say something about breaking through? Coach, you still have ammo for those ballistae?"

The satyr grinned like a wild goat. "I thought you'd never ask."