Percy

Tonight I'm treated to a demigod dream.

Not surprising or uncommon in itself, but what really shakes me up is what- no- who's in it.

There's a giant, about twelve feet tall with purple dreadlocks. He has a ten foot spear strapped to his back. He has on a black turtleneck, black pants and black leather shoes.

A goth giant, wonderful.

The giant is examining a giant celestial bronze jar with annoyance.

"No, no no," the giant mutters. "Otis!"

Another giant stumbles into the light of the dark... stadium?

The giant wears the exact same clothes and looks exactly the same as the other except for one difference. This giant has green hair rather than purple.

"What are you wearing?" The first giant demands.

Otis blinks dumbly. "The black turtleneck."

"I know, idiot," the first giant growls. "Why are you wearing it?! I told you I was wearing the black turtleneck today! Why must you do this to me everyday?!"

There is no way in Hades that these two giants can't be twins. They look exactly the same and they treat each other in the not-so-affectionate way that siblings do.

"Sorry Ephialtes," Otis mumbles.

"Never mind!" Ephialtes says. "How are the preparations coming along?"

"Fine," Otis says grumpily. "The dragons, the lions, the hydras-"

"I know what there is, you fool!" Ephialtes says angrily.

"But this thing," Ephialtes continues, waving a hand towards the jar. "What does this do? What is it's purpose?! It just sits there!"

"But that's the whole point of this," Otis reminds Ephialtes. "The traitor dies unless the Eight arrive. And if they arrive on schedule-"

"They will be destroyed," Ephialtes finishes. "They'd better fall for the bait."

"Is she ready for her visitor?" Ephialtes asks.

Otis shudders, "Oh, I don't like talking to her. She makes me nervous."

"Yes, but is she ready?" Ephialtes asks impatiently.

"Yes, she has been ready for centuries. No one will be recovering that statue."

The Giants amble off into the darkness and black spots dance across my vision. Hastily, I will my dream state forward, towards the jar.

I need to see what's inside.

I pass through the jar just before my vision turns completely black. I manage to catch a glimpse of the inside of the jar just before I wake up.

I bolt upright in bed, sweating profusely.

It couldn't be, I think to myself.

Gone, I think, curling my hands into fists.

"Meeting," I say to the empty room. "I need to call a meeting."

Calypso

Why Percy woke us all up in the middle of the night, I do not know.

But here we all are, sitting at the dining table, watching Percy pace back and forth.

Leo's head lolls to the side in his chair and I look, unimpressed, at Percy. "If you're not going to give us a reason to be here, I'm going."

Percy looks up, panicked, "No! You can't go! We've got to have this meeting."

I raise an eyebrow at him and Annabeth coughs. "Calypso, wake Leo. This is obviously important."

I smirk. "With pleasure."

I stand up calmly, all eyes on me. I walk a few steps to my left, so I am behind Leo's chair. I grab Leo's chair back and pull it backwards. I step to the side as the chair tumbles over, taking Leo with it.

I sit back down.

Annabeth smiles at me, "Thank you, Calypso."

Annabeth then turns to Percy, "Explain."

Percy sits down heavily in his chair, "I was having a demigod dream. I was at this underground car park. There were two giants, Otis and Ephialtes, twins, I think. Ephialtes was looking at this giant celestial bronze jar, thing. They were talking about us. Something about 'taking the bait'. They were talking about the jar. What was inside it."

I roll my eyes. "Jackson. If you're not going to tell us what's in the jar, right now, I swear to all the gods-"

"It was Zoé," Percy says, looking at me with sorrow filled eyes. "Zoé Nightshade was in the jar. She's alive."

There's a long pause before anyone says anything. The room is filled with silence.

Silent tears begin falling down my face. "If this is a joke, Percy. I will send you to Hades, right now."

"I'm not lying," Percy says quietly. "Demigod dreams are never wrong. They show you things that you don't want to see and I hate them, but it's true. Zoé's alive, and in the hands of the enemy."

My tears keep falling and I cross my arms over the table, burying my face in them. Leo lays a comforting arm around my shoulders as I allow myself to slouch, and give up the proud posture I normally hold.

"What do we do?" Jason asks after a long silence.

"We rescue her," Leo says, and I hear him shift his chair closer to mine.

"But they know we're coming," Jason points out. "They're waiting for us."

"So?" Percy says, his voice slightly breaking. "Zoé died because of me, and I'm not letting her die again. This is her second chance."

"Percy," Frank says. "As much as I hate it, Jason has a point. We'll be walking into a trap."

At this point my head shoots up.

"Are you suggesting that we leave her?" I say furiously. "That's my sister! If you for even one second, think that we are going to leave my sister to die, then you've just lost your most powerful quest member!"

I rise from my seat to leave, but Hazel, from my right, lays a hand on my arm, "No, stay."

Hazel's soft eyes look into Frank's, "Frank, as Percy just said, this is Zoé's second chance. You know my opinion on second chances."

I sit down on the edge of my seat, ready to leave if need be, "What are you talking about, Hazel?"

Hazel scans everyone around the table, carefully, "You should all know my story. Percy, Annabeth and Frank already know, I told them on the quest."

"When I was younger, my mother moved us to Alaska. She didn't tell me why, we just moved. It was okay at first, the people weren't mean and they didn't know us."

"Back where we used to live. We were widely known. But not in a good way. When I was first born, Pluto was overjoyed, he offered my mother a wish."

"My mother had always been poor. So she wished that I would bring her riches and fortunes. Pluto warned her, but the wish was made. When a gem first appeared from the ground, my mother and I were unbelievably happy. We sold it for a few hundred dollars and bought a few luxuries. At first it was fine, precious jewels kept on appearing and my mother would keep on selling them. But then people started to notice something. Whoever bought the gems seemed to have horrible accidents, they would die, or be left in hospital. Soon, no one wanted my mother's business. Witches, they called us. Then we moved."

"At night, something happened to my mother. She would change, her voice wouldn't sound like her own. She would order me around like a slave and acted strangely. She brought me to an island. The locals could never see it, they denied it's existence. There was a cave on the island. And in the cave was a pit."

"That's where I would spend my nights, sitting by the pit and trying to raise the jewels of the earth from there. The Voice told me that I had to summon something special. At first, I got nowhere. I only summoned gems and trinkets. But then something else started to rise. A giant figure, made out of precious metals and gems."

"One night, when I got home. The house was ruined and my mother gone. A message was left behind, telling me to go to the island. So I rowed to the island and went into the cave. My mother was waiting there, my mother, not the Voice. She said that she was sorry. The thing that I had been summoning, it was nearly as high as us now. At least sixteen feet. And it was moving."

"My mother said she was sorry for making me do it. She said that she had failed me. That I had to get out of there, so I would live. The Voice- Gaia had been all around us, I could sense it. My mother said that she had to sacrifice herself, that Gaia just needed a willing life for her son to awaken."

"But I couldn't let her do it. I collapsed the cave that we were in, killing both of us, as well as Gaia's son, Alcyoneus. I reappeared in the Underworld, in front of the judges. They were arguing about where to send me. They said that it wasn't my fault, it was my mother's. That I would get Elysium and my mother would go to the Fields of Punishment. I couldn't let them send her to Punishment. So they sent us both to Asphodel."

"I don't know how long I was there, but one day I saw a boy. He wasn't like the other souls in Asphodel, he knew who he was, he was alive. My brother, Nico Di Angelo helped me sneak out of the Underworld and brought me to Camp Jupiter. I'm an escapee."

Hazel's soft gaze hardens. "My point is, this is my second chance at life, and if I get a second chance, I'm not spoiling anyone else's."

And with that, Hazel stands up and gently pulls me out of the room.

"Thank you, Hazel," I say sincerely.

Hazel nods. "I would do anything if it was Nico there."

"Where are we going?" I ask, as Hazel leads me through the hallways and towards the rooms.

Hazel laughs. "To bed. Percy did get us up in the middle of the night. I'm sure they can do without us."

I laugh and bid her goodnight before heading back into my room.

The next day, I am woken by Jason.

Jason knocks loudly on the door before sticking his head in the room. "Can I come in?"

I sit up in bed and swing my legs over the side of it. "Sure?"

I grab a hairbrush and hair tie obtained from Piper and start brushing my hair into a ponytail. For the majority of the quest, I'd had my hair loose. But it was irritating and restricted my vision. Thank the gods Piper had noticed and lent me a few things.

Jason comes to sit down next to me. "I just wanted to say sorry. You helped me save my sister and I shouldn't have hesitated to do the same for you. Percy and Annabeth figured out that Zoé is being held in Rome, and we should be there in five days.."

I smile at him. "It's fine, Jason. We were all tired and irritable last night."

Jason smiles and stand up. "Annabeth has called for another meeting, be up there in five."

I nod to his back. "Okay."

I change into some less crumpled clothes from Piper and adjust my necklace. Before I go to the dining room, I head to the small infirmary.

I have a few bites of ambrosia and pour nectar over my side, healing the wound completely. I smile and throw the slightly bloody bandages in the bin. I carefully prod the newly regrown skin and am satisfied when I only feel a slight tinge.

I walk into the dining room to find everyone already there.

"Sorry," I say, sitting down in my chair. "I had to go to the infirmary."

"Okay," Annabeth says, once I am seated. "Last night, Percy and I pieced together a few things about his dream."

"Otis and Ephialtes are the twin Giants born to oppose Dionysus, or Bacchus. In Percy's dream, they were talking about a statue, but not any statue, the Athena Parthenos."

I gasp loudly, but Jason and I are the only ones who register what Annabeth has said.

"The Athena Parthenos? I thought it went missing?" Jason exclaims.

"It didn't go missing," I say for Annabeth. "The Romans stole it."

"What do you mean?" Hazel asks softly.

"The Athena Parthenos is the statue of Athena. When the Romans started seeing the gods in their Roman forms, they degraded Athena to Minerva, minor goddess of craft. The Romans had their own war gods and they changed her from a major goddess of war, to a minor goddess. To mock her even more, they stole the Athena Parthenos. Since then, Athena and her children have never forgiven the Romans," I say seriously.

Annabeth pales even further. "Before we went to Ogygia, I saw my mother. She was different, I think she was Minerva. She gave me a coin, and said that it would guide me. She said to follow the Mark of Athena."

"The Mark of Athena is a quest that only the strongest of Athena's children go on. Not one has come back alive yet, if Annabeth has been chosen to complete the quest-" I trail off.

"But Annabeth is the strongest child of Athena ever," Percy says fiercely. "If anyone can do it, it's Annabeth."

I nod and Piper speaks up, "I agree with Percy. Annabeth can do it. But where does the quest start? We don't even have a prophecy."

Annabeth shifts in her chair. "Actually, we do. Ella gave it to us."

"Twins snuff out the Hunter's breath,

Who holds the key to endless death.

The Giants' bane stands tall and pale,

Won through pain and a woven jail."

I clap my hands together to get everyone's attention, "Great, now we have to save Zoé. Couldn't you have brought up the prophecy last night?"

They all look at me in confusion.

"Twins snuff out the Hunter's breath," I quote. "Who holds the key to endless death. We need Zoé to make sure the monsters can't escape Tartarus."

"But she isn't part of the quest," Leo says in confusion.

I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. "She could be. The prophecy said the gifted of fire, it didn't say its one person. My sister and I were both blessed by Hestia. Zoé could be part of the prophecy."

"So, it's agreed then?" Percy asks. "When we get to Rome, we need to send Annabeth off on her quest and save Zoé."

-Stars