I'd like to thank Mythomagic-and-takeanap for her beautiful fanart of Cesare! Here's the link.

post/120822174495/change-the-world-cesare-jackson-from-the

Nico was already looking into teaching jobs for Art History at local colleges. He seemed excited about actually using his degree to teach, so much so that one job just wasn't enough. Chiron called in a favor and Nico landed an interview for his old Latin position. Percy was less sure. He was thinking about becoming a counselor at the camp but that would take him away from Nico for long periods of time. Cesare was trying not to point out how being a new kid at camp was bad enough without having your famous father as one of the counselor. He hesitated because he didn't think he should be acting so selfish when his parents just uprooted their lives for him.

As they walked up the hill to the camp he could almost feel the good vibes coming off of Percy. He didn't radiate his mood in energy the way Nico –and sometimes Cesare—did but he had a distinctive aura about him and it dimmed and brightened at times. Anyone standing within five feet of him would be able to tell that Percy was happy to be back at Camp Half-Blood and there was no way Cesare would punch a hole in that by being a brat. He already felt like he didn't deserve that week-long trip in Venice after basically scrubbing out at Camp Jupiter. And then there was the lying…

For the rest of their trip Cesare didn't touch the sword. The last vision was too intense. He wasn't able to sleep after it happened and he could still hear the screams echoing in the quiet of his mind, so the sword stayed in the bottom of his duffle bag and he tried to focus on enjoying Venice. He never saw Favonius again, but he wondered if the god would come and ask for the sword to be returned since he wasn't even attempting to master it. It nagged at the back of his mind and he still didn't tell his parents about it. He just laughed, ate gelato, and kept quiet about it. Now it was slung over his shoulder in the same duffle bag that felt three times as heavy because of its presence.

They crested the hill and he was standing right in front of a pine tree with a huge dragon twined around it. In the branches something sparkled so brightly that he had to squint to look at it.

"Hey Peleus," said Nico. He walked up to the dragon as it uncoiled to look at them.

"So that's the dragon? And that's the Fleece?" Cesare asked Percy, almost like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He'd lived around unicorns and giant flying eagles at Camp Jupiter but a dragon was another thing entirely. Standing next to him in a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, Percy just nodded as he watched Nico pet Peleus' snout.

"He was always better with Peleus," Percy said.

"It's kind of cool," said Cesare.

Cesare looked at his Dad wondering if he heard him, but Percy was looking at Nico with that struck-dumb-by-love expression so he just shrugged and walked over to the dragon. Peleus examined him for a moment before lowering his serpentine head to allow Cesare to pet him. From the top of the hill they had a panoramic view of the camp below. His parents had brought him here when he was very little and he didn't remember a thing. The only reason why he recognized some of the sights were because of all the stories he'd heard over the years.

The camp wasn't as structured as Camp Jupiter. Everything seemed to be in its natural spot instead of being methodically placed for efficiency. The Romans built everything so they could easily tear it all down and move if necessary but he could tell that wasn't even a thought here. The grassy hill rolled down into a lush green valley. The was a big blue house ahead of them, a little further away he could see a court and but he didn't know if it was for tennis or volleyball. He could smell strawberries in the air and it was making his mouth water for fruit salad.

"We'd better go to the big house," said Nico, turning toward them as Peleus returned to his perch.

They followed him down the hill and as they walked noises started to filter in. Cesare could hear kids shouting and the distant ring of metal on metal. Something drifted past the corner of his eye and disappeared when he turned his head to look. He thought he saw it on the other side and spun around but it was gone again. He kept looking around until he heard Percy chuckle.

"What is it?" he asked in confusion, still surveying the area.

"Nymphs," his father said simply. "They probably spotted us and it made them curious."

"You just remember to stay away from the water nymphs," Nico said to Percy in a very pointed tone. Percy just waved it away with a nervous laugh.

The nature spirits continued to slip in and out of his sight but he resisted the urge to look even though he really wanted too. They were teasing him. They didn't have nymphs at Camp Jupiter but he'd read and heard enough about them to know that they could be real trouble when they wanted.

The front door of the big house was open so they walked right in and heard someone talking in a very stern voice. In the living room they walked in on his godfather glaring down at two kids. He hadn't seen Jason since last Christmas and he'd never seen him like this. His blond hair was kind of all over the place and he looked exhausted. He was wearing an orange camp t-shirt like Percy and there was a string of beads around his neck.

But standing next to Jason was another big blond dude covered in eyes. Cesare almost yelped and jumped back but he somehow stayed calm. This guy was glowering at the kids with all his eyes, which was probably why the little ones were avoiding looking at him, their heads bowed in chagrin. They looked to be around eleven-years-old, both with tangled brown hair, but he could only see their backs.

"I want you two to give them all back and apologize. And you're going to apologize to Argus first. He's been wasting his time with this," said Jason.

"Well, I mean he did catch us so it wasn't a complete waste," the little boy replied in an annoyed tone.

"Now," Jason said firmly.

"We're sorry, Argus," said the girl in a sweet voice. She was holding something Cesare couldn't see but she shifted her hands and there was a clinking sound. She held something out to the many-eyed guy. "Here, this one's yours." It was a wrist watch.

"Yeah, sorry Argus," said the boy.

"Argus, will you make sure they return them to their proper owners?" asked Jason.

Argus nodded and ushered the kids toward the door where they were standing. The kids looked at them and Cesare finally saw that they were both holding a bunch of watches, at least a dozen each. They looked at Cesare and his Dads, their elf-like features bright with curiosity.

"Hey, Argus," said Percy. The guy smiled and tipped his head to them as he left.

Jason's stern expression melted and he came over hug each of them.

"Bad day on the job?" asked Nico.

"Gods! Numerous complaints of missing wrist watches for almost a month! And when Argus finally catches up to the thieves, it's the Davis twins. Children of Hermes."

"The Stoll brothers must be proud," Percy said with a grin.

"They'll probably throw the little crumb snatchers a party tonight," muttered Jason. "I can't wait for Chiron to come back from vacation!"

"How are Piper and Madison?" asked Percy.

"Good. They'll be back from visiting Piper's dad in a few days."

"Where's Mr. D?" asked Nico.

"He's holding Pinochle tournaments for the satyrs to find someone good enough to play against until Chiron comes back."

"Nothing changes," laughed Nico.

"Not true. I'm close to pulling my hair out," Jason said with a sigh.

"Looks like you already tried," Teased Percy. "I think Piper would object to a bald husband."

"That's the only thing stopping me," Jason agreed. "But we can discuss my biggest problem later. So, you ready for the tour, Cesare?" He came over and threw an arm around Cesare's shoulders and led him back to the door.

"Yeah, I guess," he said with a shrug.

The campers trained for combat but they made it look fun and effortless. Even the satyrs were different here. They didn't laze around like the fawns of Camp Jupiter. He saw them helping in the strawberry fields, and working with the campers on various projects. Jason said most of the satyrs were out finding other demi-gods. That also meant he wouldn't get to see Grover until he came back. Cesare had never met his Dad's best friend in person. They got random phone calls from him over the years, from whatever pay-phone he was near, but Percy said it was hard to keep in touch. When he wasn't searching for undiscovered demi-gods, Grover was busy heading up the protection of the wild places still left on Earth.

They took him to see the Armory and stables where he met the pegasi. The black stallion was particularly excited to see Percy. His Dad could talk to horses but it was different with Cesare. He didn't really hear their voices like Percy did, it more like he understood exactly what they were feeling. It turned out that Blackjack had kids too. His son was solid black like him except for a patch of white between his eyes. His name was Ace and he and Cesare hit it off right away. The daughter, Roulette, was a shy, chestnut colored mare with the same white mark as her brother. A buff guy named Butch was in charge of the stables and he promised to teach Cesare how to ride Ace.

They got close to the lake and the Naiads that were swimming around started calling out to Percy. It looked like they were going to swim over to them but Nico pushed Percy onward and gave the nymphs a death glare that sent them shrieking. Cesare and Jason were laughing so hard that they drew curious glances from nearby campers. By the time they took him to look at the cabins he already had a list of things he wanted to do, including a serious itch to climb the lava wall.

"Each cabin is dedicated to a god and that god's children live in them with their siblings, as I'm sure you know," Jason said. They were walking on the Greens, a large area of grass in the center of all the cabins where the campers hung out. It also seemed to be the unofficial Ultimate Frisbee ground.

"So, which cabin would you put me in?" asked Cesare as he looked around. "We didn't think of this, but I'm not a child of any god."

"Your circumstances are special," Jason said smiling. "You get to pick. Poseidon cabin or Hades?"

They went to the Hades cabin first since it was closer. His Dad told him how he'd had it built after his other Dad saved the world and got Olympus to acknowledge Hades and the minor gods. It was made from solid black obsidian walls with a skull over the door and torches that burned with green fire twenty-four hours a day. The inside of the cabin was dark but the walls were decorated with mid-relief depictions of the underworld done in black granite and contrasting white ivory. The floor was made of shiny black marble tiles and covered with shaggy black rugs. Candelabras on the wall used black wax candles that burned with netherworld fire, though these were mostly for show since the cabin was wired for electric lights also.

"I like it," he said to his Dad.

As they walked to Poseidon's cabin he thought he saw a nymph run from cabin two but shrugged it off. Percy led them to the third cabin. It had a giant door with a large bronze trident over it. The outer walls are rough gray stone with pieces of seashell and coral and look like the bottom of the ocean floor. Percy opened the door and Cesare smiled as he looked around. On the inside the walls glowed like they were made from abalone. A breeze blew through the room from nowhere and smelled like salty sea air. There was a fountain in one of the corners too.

"Hey, it's still here," Percy said. He pulled a rectangular piece of wall away and out slid a flat screen tv.

"Oh yeah," Nico said with recognition in his voice. "Good times." He winked at Percy but luckily no one else saw it.

"Sweet!" Cesare whooped and walked over to look at it.

"Where did that come from?" Jason asked in confusion.

"Oh," Percy said, looking slightly embarrassed. "It was a gift for Nico, from Annabeth and Jake, for me…"

Jason gave him a perplexed looked before shaking his head. "I don't even want to know."

"The camp doesn't get satellite," Jason said to Cesare.

"Yeah, it has a built in DVD player though so we'll just bring you some movies," said Nico.

"This is great!" said Cesare beaming.

"I think he's picked his cabin," laughed Jason as Cesare dropped his bags on the nearest bed.

"I haven't decided yet," he heard Percy say to Jason as he lagged behind them. He wasn't really paying attention to anything but he did notice two girls sitting in the grass on their own. One had blond, pixie cut hair and the other had light brown hair in a ponytail. They were reading magazines but looked bored and kept glancing around like they were watching for something.

Jason stopped on the Green a few yards away from the front door of cabin two.

"What is it?" asked Nico. "Thinking about all the problems Hera caused you?"

"No, this is that big problem I mentioned earlier," Jason said with a sigh as he stared at the building.

Hera's cabin was a more feminine, graceful version of Zeus'. It had slimmer columns with pomegranates and flowers around them. There were images of peacocks craved in the walls and on the doors where Jason was staring.

"Is Hera up to something? Don't tell me she had a demi-god kid!" Percy blurted in shock.

"No, for once, Hera isn't the problem. It's Aphrodite," said Jason.

"What?" They asked in a collective chorus.

Suddenly there was loud bang on the doors in front of them and Cesare saw the bronze rattle. Then they heard an angry voice yell.

"Let me out!"

"Umm Jason?" asked Percy. Jason sighed again and ran a hand through his already messy hair and turned his back to the cabin to face them.

The two bored girls ran over to them with anxious expressions. They both looked to be around Cesare's age.

"It's okay girls," Jason said to them. "These two are former camp Counselors and this is their son, Cesare. He's a new camper and I was just informing them about the situation."

"Okay, but don't get any closer, please," said the girl with the pixie cut. They backed off after that but now he was really curious.

"About the same time as your vacation in Venice started Aphrodite popped up here…with a request," Jason began.

"A request?" repeated Nico.

"Honestly, it sounded more like an order and she seemed a bit nervous."

"I said let me out!" Another bang rattled the doors of Hera's cabin.

"It's a girl," Cesare said dumbly as he stared at the doors.

"Yeah, it's Aphrodite's daughter," said Jason.

"Are you serious?" asked Percy.

"Why is she in there? Why isn't she with Aphrodite's other kids in cabin ten?" asked Nico.

"She's not a demi-god, that's why."

"Dude, you gotta explain this," said Percy.

"I'm trying-"

The banging on the doors increased and Jason looked back and groaned.

"We need to leave. She'll do that all day when someone gets near." Jason ushered them away and explained as they walked.

"Like I said, Aphrodite came here with a request. She wanted us to keep her daughter here for a little while. She didn't explain why but she did have Hera's permission to lock her up in cabin two."

"Okay, that's weird," said Percy, glancing back.

"No, that's not even the weirdest part," said Jason. "You know that Zeus was angry at Hera after the last war."

"Yeah, he blamed her for everything. Said her interpretation of the great prophecy and working behind his back set it all in motion," answered Percy.

"And ever since then, from what Mr. D has hinted at, Hera's basically been under house arrest. Zeus didn't like her getting involved before but now she can't do anything. So, her giving permission to Aphrodite to use her cabin as a jail cell…"

"She either did it behind Zeus' back or got his permission and that spells trouble either way," finished Nico.

"Or Aphrodite was lying when she said she had Hera's permission," said Percy.

"Exactly," said Jason. "That's what I thought but Aphrodite put her in there and nothing's happened. No matter how angry my father is at Hera, he'd never allow her to be insulted. Using her cabin without her permission would be an insult."

"Jeez, what did this girl do?" asked Cesare.

"No idea," said Jason. "We were instructed to leave her locked in there and stay away. Aphrodite mentioned that Apollo did something to help keep the girl contained."

"She's got three gods keeping her locked up? Whatever she did, it must have been bad," Nico said, shaking his head.

"Cabin ten is taking this very seriously. Even Piper. They've been policing the area, keeping curious campers away from the doors. Apparently my wife left standing orders to charmspeak campers away if necessary."

"Does Piper know what her 'sister' did?" asked Percy.

"Not a clue," said Jason flatly. "But she was adamant that those doors stayed shut. The nymphs check on her and report back to Aphrodite as far as I know."

"But she's a goddess?" asked Cesare.

"Yeah, minor goddess, possibly something like a nymph. Good thing too. We can't bring her food, not even nectar and ambrosia because we can't open the doors. A normal girl would have died of starvation by now."

"That's terrible," Cesare said in near disgust. Jason looked sorry but shrugged.

"We don't know what else to do. And Aphrodite didn't have a time frame for how long she was keeping her in there. On top of that, we've got weird reports coming from Camp Jupiter."

"We've only been gone a week and everything was fine," said Cesare.

"Well, Frank is saying one of the Praetors, Stacy, has deserted her post. Blaine Kennedy is running the camp on his own until they find her or appoint a new Praetor. He must be struggling because some of the legionnaires are acting out."

Cesare had no response for that. Was it even his problem anymore? He felt bad for Blaine and shocked that Stacy would just leave. She loved being Praetor.

"Hey, it's time for dinner. You guys are staying here tonight, right?"

"Yeah, just tonight though. We have to start apartment hunting in the city," said Nico.

Cesare followed behind them with guilty thoughts of Blaine churning in his head.