WHOO! IT WAS PERSASSY'S BIRTHDAY YESTERDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm sorry I took my time... :( Please review they make me happy even the negative ones XD Enjoy

Mark (Flame) POV

I walk around the camp aimlessly, looking for some sort of amusement. As I look around, all I see are orange t-shirts, huddled in groups or jostling each other. Finally I notice two campers walking shoulder to shoulder, talking in hushed voices, heading for the Big House. I recognize them from the numerous training sessions. Jason and Piper, Percy's old friends. Interested, I creep up close behind them morphing my ears into bat ears, using the heightened hearing to listen in.

"Maybe he just wants to send us on a small quest or something."

"I seriously doubt it, Pipes. Chiron mentioned the others would be there. It's nothing small. Plus, I don't think any of us will be going on minor quests anytime soon… they need everyone here."

"You're probably right, Jason, but I just have this feeling we won't like it."

"Let's just get there and see, shall we?"

Keeping my distance, and interested, I follow them as they near the blue barn house. I get a few sideways looks for my big hairy ears, but people leave me alone. When they climb up the stairs and enter, I go to the porch, crouch down under a window, and wait. Unfortunately, all I hear are muffled voices, even when I strain my bat ears. They must be in another room. Possibly with music on. Nevertheless, I stay in my uncomfortable position and twenty minutes later Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Nico and a satyr, Grover, come out, followed by Chiron. Jason and Piper look rather disturbed, Grover just looks sad and doubtful, and scared, but Nico looks downright murderous. They don't notice me as they storm off, but Chiron sure does. As he clears his throat, I look up, face reddening. The centaur raises both eyebrows.

"Sunny afternoon, isn't it?" I decide to humor him. At least he's not yelling. If he were yelling I would probably reassert my authority, but I hate acting arrogant, as does Percy. I nod.

"Very." I catch myself before I say 'sir'. He smiles a little.

"Then what are you doing hiding under a windowsill? Go enjoy the sun, get tanned, do whatever kids do on a sunny day." I just look at him for a while. He keeps on smiling.

"Yes… sir." It seems fitting in this situation, and I wouldn't know how to say anything other than that. Then I stand, and with a quick backward glance, run back to where I came from. I feel his gaze on my back the entire time. It burns me more than the afternoon sun. Gosh, that dude has got to have some sort of x ray eyes or something. I've got to ask Percy if he's always like that. Speaking of Percy, I see him cross the boundaries and run towards the forest, biting his lip. I fight the urge to follow him. Finally I just walk back to the cabin. I've had enough stalking for one day.

Percy (Genesis) POV

Once I'm inside boundaries, once I'm in the woods, once I'm up my usual tree, the weight of what I'm about to do washes over me. For the first time in years, I feel absolutely terrified. I scold myself.

"Oh, come, on, Percy! You've defeated thousands of enemies and won thousands of battles and you're scared of talking to a girl?!" I groan and put my hand in my hands, chickening out then going back in again and again.

"Come on, Perce. You can do this, you can." Before I can chicken out again, though, I hear a rustle in under me. Quickly checking to see if my hood is up, I look down. I almost fall out of the tree in surprise. What. In. Hades. Not the person I was expecting to see, but still a pretty welcome sight. Ever since I came a year ago, I've avoided my old friends. Now here is Nico Di Angelo, the little brother I never had (well now I do have a brother but that's beside the point), leaning on a tree opposite mine, gazing up at me with unveiled anger. I panic for a moment, what have I done?

"Hello," I say as lightly as I can. He doesn't reply for a moment, only stares at me so intently I think I'll melt. Finally, after a few deep breaths, he calms down enough to utter the 5 words that make me lose my balance and topple over on the ground.

"Is it true you're Percy?" Of course, I land on my feet, my feet making barely a noise against the soft ground.

"What?" Nico sees my obvious discomfort, even though I try to hide it, and his face clears up (or gets even more clouded).

"You are! You are him!" And without giving me a chance to react, he shadow travels close to me and attempts to whip my hood back. But I do react, and catch his wrist, teleporting both of us to the lounge of the Chaos cabin. He doesn't look around; his eyes are riveted on me. His eyes go from anger to vulnerability, the same vulnerability he showed when I first met him.

"Percy?" His voice is soft, hurt, and so vulnerable. That's what breaks me, what makes me crack, what makes me desperate enough to tear my hood off, exposing my face to him. He just stands there for a moment in shock. I see numerous expressions flash across his face. First, shock, then disbelief, then that vulnerability again, then unmistakable grief, and finally, waves and waves of rage. When the fury calms down, what is left was a mix of those 5. I lick my lips nervously, wanting with all my heart to look away, but unable to do so, no matter how hard I try.

Finally, after what seems like an eternity, he clamps his mouth shut and reaches out, and for a moment I think he's going to punch me, but he doesn't. All he does is touch my arm with a ghost-like touch, as if he fears I'll evaporate if he tries to grab me, or that his fingers will pass through me, like a spirit's. When I don't evaporate or get transpierced by his fingers, Nico drops his hand back to his side. We go back into the silence we were in before.

But then Nico regains his composure scowls at me.

"You know I'll tell, right?" I look at him calmly, although inside I'm screaming and panicking.

"I don't think you'd do that, Nico."

"Watch me." He says, his voice trembling ever so slightly. He retreats into a shadow. I wait. Ten seconds later, he reappears.

"Why can't I shadow travel?"

"This whole building is enchanted. You can't shadow-travel, or vapor-travel, in or out of here. Kind of like Hogwarts." Nico ignores my attempt at a lame joke.

"But you teleported us here."

"Well, I did create this place. I think I get some rights." Nico sighs and moves towards the door, but we had both forgotten we were surrounded by soldiers; half a dozen of them, including Mark, bar his way. Nico snarls.

"Move. Or you'll be sorry." But it sounds half-hearted. Mark shrugs nonchalantly.

"No can do, mate." Nico huffs and turns back to me.

"What do you want?"

"For you to promise not to tell."

"I'll promise not to tell… if you promise to answer my questions. I'm very, very confused here." I nod. I've been expecting questions. A little relieved to be getting somewhere, I agreed.

"Alright. You've got yourself a deal."

Nico POV

Stunned. Shocked. Disbelieving. Astounded. And happy, unbelievably happy. These are all words that describe me right now as I stay frozen on the spot, staring at my old friend. But I'm also furious and grief-stricken. When he promises to answer my questions, excitement joins my flood of emotions. He beckons at me, and I follow him to the flight of stairs. I finally start looking around. It's even better on the inside. I notice we're being followed by Flame, but I don't give it too much thought. Percy leads us to the room at the far end. His room, I assume. It's big and simple enough. And blue. Very, very blue. He slumps on his bed and I just stand there awkwardly. He looks at me.

"You might as well sit, we'll be here awhile." So I do. He speaks again.

"So… what do you want to know?" I stare, still shell-shocked, but manage to say coldly,

"Why didn't you tell me you weren't dead?" My voice breaks slightly. "I thought you were dead…" Percy looks down. I hope he's feeling at least slightly repentant about this. After taking a long breath, he licks his lips and opens his mouth to answer.

"I…I couldn't. After I left, I was taken almost immediately to the palace and got swept up in my duties as Commander. And… I guess… I tried not to even think about Earth."

The moment he utters the last sentence, my face goes pink in anger and hurt. He sees it and bites his lip.

"Did you succeed?" I say softly.

"No. I tried, and failed." I nod internally at his answer. Good. On to the next question.

"What happened to your face…and body?!" He smiles slightly as I look at his ever changing eyes, longer windswept hair, leaner and more muscular body, and wide wings.

"Comes with the powers." He runs a hand through his hair. "Although, I could cut my hair." I nod, outwardly this time. I feel a slight pull at my lips as I think of the female campers' reactions if they saw him underneath the hood.

"When are you going to, like, reveal yourself and schist?" He shrugs helplessly.

"I have absolutely no idea… I don't even know if I'm going to."

"What? Of course you will! At least to your friends! And if you don't, they'll figure it our like I did." He doesn't reply. I sigh.

"Tell me everything."

He does. He tells me about how he caught Annabeth cheating on him (although I knew that already), how he tried to kill himself (my breath hitches at that one), how Chaos saved him, how he met the commanders, how he had to train to unlock his powers, and how he was forced to come to Earth. He also tells me some of his more exciting (his words, not mine; I would call them suicidal, but then again, it's Percy) missions. When he finally finishes his story, I tell him what happened while he was gone: the seven and I were made head councilors of the whole camp, even Annabeth, making them all sort of immortal. Zeus tried to convince the council to do the same with Eric, but it didn't pass (thankfully). But there are suspicions that he did it anyway. Everyone is basically shunning Annabeth.

By the time we're both done with our stories, it is already getting dark. Percy leads me out.

"You won't tell anyone?" I roll my eyes at him.

"Yeah. Don't worry. Bye, Perce." I give him an awkward hug. He grins. I glare at him.

"You do not talk of it." He laughs and lets me out after pulling up his hood, just in case. I wave at him one last time and walk to my cabin. I suddenly stop. Oh, no. I forgot to tell Percy about the Big House meeting! How in Hades could I forget that? I run as hard as I can in the direction of the place I just came from, when my path is interrupted. "Nico! Where are you running to?" Annabeth. For once, without Eric and his goons. She says my name like we're still friends.

"None of your business." She frowns.

"Just tell me one thing." I sigh.

"Shoot."

"Why were you in the Chaos cabin?"

Alex (Quicksand) POV

After Nico leaves, I notice Mark isn't talking as much as he usually does. Percy notices it too.

"Mark? What's wrong?" He looks at us.

"I overheard a conversation between Jason and Piper. They were talking about some meeting at the Big House. I followed them to the Big House but I couldn't hear anything. They came out with Frank, Hazel, Nico and Grover, and Chiron. Chiron saw me so I ran."

"Any idea what it could be on?"

"Nope…" I step in.

"We should probably be careful about what we do. The gods are very prying." Percy nods in agreement.

"Tell me about it…" I glance at Mark. He nods at me, grinning.

"Hey…Perce? We have to tell you something…" Our friend looks up.

"Yeah?" The other stream inside the lounge, some carrying packages and others blowing on party horns, all of them shouting in unison.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY PERCY!" We rush to his side. His face lights up and he laughs as we tackle him. He actually looks touched.

"Thank you guys! I had forgotten it was my birthday… One forgets after 5001 years." I roll my eyes.

"Only 6 years here, dummy." Mark, unable to contain his energy, shoves the blue cake in Percy's face.

"I made it myself!" Percy doesn't know if he should laugh or not. He does.

"I can see that. You've gotten better." He surveys the disfigured cake, amused.

"Thank you! Who wants first slice?" The room suddenly gets eerily quiet. I chuckle softly. Jyma seems to take pity on him.
"I will…" Mark grins at her and whoops, cutting her a piece and offering it to her. She looks at it skeptically before taking a bite. We wait for her judgment.

"Not half bad." Mark looks proud at what he counts as praise and looks around at us.

"Alright, who's next?" Percy takes a piece, and soon the others do too. We hoot and make jokes, presenting our gifts to Percy. Most of them are weapons. At the end of the party, the lounge has a pile of neatly stacked weapons of all sorts in its corner. I whistle.

"This is enough to furnish an army." Percy agrees.

"I think that's the point." Mark claps him on the back.

"Happy birthday, mate!" Percy raises and eyebrow at him.

"You did not just call me mate."

"I did! Deal with it." We exchange a few more jokes and pokes, when someone knocks on the door. Percy pulls his hood up, and so do I, and he opens the door. One of Jyma's soldiers stands in the doorstep.

"Oh! Hey, Rios! You missed the party! What held you?" Rios steps inside and hands Percy a piece of paper. He unrolls it and reads it quickly.

"Summoning at the Big House. Apparently they have news on who the enemy is."

I know, I know, weak ending, I just ugh! I need to update. So from now on my chapters might be shorter but more frequent. Please review :)