I don't know how I managed to sleep for so long, surprised that no one had come to try to find me seeing as I'd been gone for about seven hours now. The sun had set a while ago, leaving the moon to cast a soft glow over the camp, which severely failed to make me feel more relaxed as I could still hear people outside my cabin, shouting for Percy's name.

Instead of going back outside, I rummaged through my bag and pulled out my phone, selecting Patrick's phone number. If I remembered correctly, today was the annual holiday party at Chris Santiago's house, and all my friends would be there. And by be there, I mean that they'll all show up, grab a drink, and stand awkwardly in the corner of the most deserted room while they tried to talk to each other over the booming bass from Chris's massive speakers.

I sighed softly as I pressed the call button, lifting my phone up to my ear as I heard the familiar ring, ring as I waited for Patrick to pick up. It took me five times, but on the sixth try, Patrick finally picked up, practically yelling at me as the bass was about ten times louder than his own voice.

"HI, ANDY!" he greeted, and I winced, having to pull my phone away from my ear unless I wanted to go deaf.

"Hi, Patrick," I said. "How are you doing?"

"WHAT?"

"How are you doing?" I repeated, slightly raising my voice.

"I'M SORRY, WHAT?"

Knowing that this wasn't going to get better any time soon, I hung up and sent Patrick a text to call me back when he could. I then got out of bed and threw on a sweatshirt, the air outside much colder than it had been earlier during the day.

I walked over towards the cabin's only window, which faced the west, where the beach was if you walked in a straight line from here. But there was the forest between the cabin and the ocean, so I couldn't look out towards the waves, instead watching the leaves and branches from various trees sway with the breeze.

So this was what a fruitless search felt like, I thought to myself, my breath fogging up the glass. I wiped away the condensation and pried open the window, shivering as a blast of winter air hit me. Though the camp's barrier kept the worst of the bad weather out, it did nothing to stop the cold.

But even though I was freezing, I enjoyed the frigid air. I was about to pull over a chair to sit down and sketch the forest when I heard a loud roar deep within the trees, causing for birds to screech as they flew upwards, trying to evade danger.

I shoved on my sneakers before jumping out of the window and running into the forest, heading towards the noise. As an added bonus, from the way that the dryads and nymphs were fleeing, I could pinpoint the location of the disturbance a lot easier than had they stayed in their homes.

When I found what was going on, I stopped dead in my tracks, my body thrumming with the sense that I could have no part in this. Instead, I climbed up the nearest tree, settling onto the lowest branch that could support my weight.

I found Leo furiously wiping at a golden disk covered with wires while the large bronze dragon, who had yet to be named Festus, hung upside down in one of the golden nets that the Hephaestus cabin had set up in the hopes of capturing him.

A moment later, once Leo was sure that the disk was as clean as he could make it, he reinserted it into Festus's head, his ruby red eyes glowing once the last wire was reattached. Then came the task of getting Festus out of the trap without alerting anyone else, which Leo did by scrambling around the net like a monkey until he finally found the release clamps, lowering Festus to the ground.

It wasn't long until Festus bounded off towards Bunker 9 with Leo trailing behind him. I decided to tag along as well, seeing as I'd never visited Bunker 9 in my ten years here despite the fact that I knew exactly where it was. Looking back on it, maybe I should've gone down there ages ago. Who knows what kind of revolutionary inventions were down there?

And seeing that that familiar feeling that told me to back off had disappeared, I figured the least I could do is help Leo attach Festus's wings for his quest. And, who knows, maybe I could take a look at the control disk to give Festus a little more, much needed power to keep them from spiraling to the ground.

"Hey, wait up!" I called out to Leo as Festus stopped in front of a huge limestone cliff, easily a hundred feet tall.

Leo jumped so violently that he nearly fell off the side of the cliff. "My God, a warning next time, please!" he exclaimed amongst a myriad of other curses. "You could've given me a heart attack!"

I waved off his concern. "You're too young to have a heart attack. What is this place?" I asked, gesturing towards the huge rock.

"Don't know." Leo shrugged. "Festus here is pointing at it, so unless…" Leo stepped forward and placed his hand against the stone, fiery lines spreading from his fingertips until the outline of a door the size of a small elephant appeared before giving way, revealing the inside of Bunker 9.

"Ladies first," Leo said, and I walked inside, the tip of my index finger burning like a candle amongst all the darkness. Festus and Leo trailed behind me.

The doors then abruptly shut with a loud bang! causing for Leo to inhale sharply, the darkness absolutely consuming despite my little light. Just as I was about to move my flames from my finger to my palm, there was a sudden whir as the lights flicked on, flooding the room in a bright white light.

"Festus, where did you bring us?" Leo asked, his eyes wide with amazement.

"Bunker Nine, apparently," I said, pointing out to the Greek writing scrawled out on a tattered banner hanging from chains above the platform where Festus had curled up onto.

The cave was the size of an airplane hangar, with endless worktables and storage cages, rows of garage-sized doors along either wall, and staircases that led up to a network of catwalks high above. Equipment was everywhere – hydraulic lifts, wielding torches, hazard suits, air-spades, forklifts, plus something that looked suspiciously like a nuclear reaction chamber. Bulletin boards were covered with tattered, faded blueprints. And weapons, armor, and shields – war supplies – were all over the place, most of them only partially finished.

"Do the other kids know about this place?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm just finding out about this place, and I've been here longer than most people." I walked over to the nearest bulletin board, my fingers hovering over the thin, worn blueprints. "I wonder what these blueprints are of."

Leo stood next to me, his eyes scanning over the dust covered paper. "I have no clue," he admitted, his gaze shifting to the other blueprints. "I think if we so much as touch them, they'll crumble."

"Not necessarily. Actually, I think I could get this place back to the way it's supposed to be."

"And how are we supposed to do that in one night?"

"With magic?"

"You're a wizard?!"

I laughed at Leo's expression, which made it seem like his jaw was about to hit the floor. "No, silly. After all, this isn't Harry Potter. I mean, I have the power to manipulate time."

"Oh," Leo said, flushed from embarrassment. "That makes a lot more sense."

I waved my hands over the general direction of the rest of Bunker 9, waiting until everything was inside my golden time bubble. Then I moved my hands in counterclockwise circles, watching as the signs of wear and tear and age disappeared from equipment and materials until everything was practically brand spanking new, including the blueprints.

Once I was done, I leaned against the wall to prevent from falling over, my legs wobbling underneath me. While my chronokinesis was much less draining now that I was a goddess – if I was still a demigod, I would've passed out once I tried to reverse anything past a week old – it still took a lot out of me.

"Are you alright?" Leo asked, gently lowering me to the ground. "You look like you're about to faint, and I seriously doubt I'll be able to get any help if you do."

"I'm fine, Leo," I said, wiping away beads of sweat with the sleeve of my sweatshirt. I tugged the charm for my bag and rummaged through it, finding my baggie full of ambrosia and pulled out a small square of the godly food. Once I finished off the square, I could stand up again without feeling like my legs were about to give out.

"Do you just casually carry around pieces of granola bars in your bag, Andy? Speaking of which, how did you get that bag? I didn't see it earlier."

"Firstly, that was ambrosia, the food of the gods," I gently explained. "Too much of it can cause a demigod to burn up, and it'll instantly kill mortals. But it works for demigods when we're hurt or our powers have drained us too much and we need an energy boost. Secondly, my bag is enchanted to collapse into a charm on my bracelet when I don't need it, so if I need something from my bag, I just tug on the charm and it'll appear."

"So cool! Now, come on. I want your help attaching Festus's wings." Leo gave me a sideways glance. "Wait, are you any good at mechanical stuff?"

"I'd hope so, seeing that your own father taught me for five years." I reached into my bag and pulled out my own set of tools, setting it down onto the nearest worktable. "Let's get to work."

I'd tried talking Leo out of swooping down into the camp on Festus's back, reminding him that the majority of campers still thought Festus would burn them down if they looked at him the wrong way, but no, we had to give Festus an entrance that nobody would ever forget.

Truth be told, he was right, because the second the first satyr saw us and passed out, the entire camp went on high alert. Younger campers and newbies from various cabins raced the other way, screaming their heads off, while the older campers, like Butch, Luke, Will, and Nyssa ran towards Festus, their weapons drawn.

As for me, I had my fingers digging into the plates of Festus's back, not wanting to get bucked off onto the ground from thirty feet in the air. Leo, on the other hand, had a grand old time maneuvering Festus to the ground, shouting, "Don't kill me! It's cool! Don't shoot!" as he lowered us into the middle of a green clearing.

Once Festus firmly landed on the ground, I slid off, numbly patting the dragon's flank as I moved to stand next to Leo, my legs feeling like jelly again. I don't recommend riding the back of a mechanical dragon without a good saddle, not unless you want to learn what it's like to feel your bones vibrating inside of your body.

"It's beautiful," Piper murmured, earning her weird looks, especially from Ares campers, who really wanted to kill something. They'd gone a little stir crazy after the Titan War…yeah, capture the flag games had grown increasingly violent to say the least, if the infirmary count was anything to go by.

Then Festus shot a stream of fire into the air, causing more campers to either scramble away and panic or tighten their grips on their weapons, waiting for someone to take the lead against the dragon.

"Festus, no," I admonished, causing for the dragon's ruby eyes to stare down at me like a kicked puppy.

"People of Earth, I come in peace!" Leo shouted. "Festus is just saying hello!"

"That thing is dangerous!" June, an Ares girl, shouted, brandishing her spear. "Kill it now!"

"Stand down!" Jason ordered, jostling his way to the front of the crowd. He took a moment to look at Leo and me, which I completely understood.

After all, the both of us were covered from head to toe in grease and oil and soot. Not to mention that Leo had nabbed that magical tool belt from Bunker 9 and was proudly wearing it around his waist, the thing a startlingly bright orange in comparison to the blackness that covered our clothes.

"Leo, what have you done?" Jason asked in amazement, staring at Festus with a mixture of worry and awe.

"And what are you covered in?" asked Luke, who had made his way through the crowd as well, eying the oil suspiciously. "Where were you two last night?"

"The woods," I answered tersely.

"And I found us a ride!" Leo beamed. "You said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride. Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere!"

"It – it has wings," Nyssa stammered. Her jaw looked like it might drop off her face.

"Yeah!" Leo said. "I found them and reattached them, with a little help from Andy, of course."

"But it never had wings. Where did you find them?"

"In…the woods," Leo answered, continuing with my line of answers. "Repaired his circuits, too, mostly, so no problems with him going haywire."

"Mostly?" Nyssa asked.

The dragon's head twitched. It tilted its head to the side and a stream of black liquid – oil – poured out of its ear, all over Leo.

"Just a few kinks to work out," Leo said, trying to wipe the oil out of his eyes. But all he ended up doing was smearing it around his face even more.

I took pity on him and reversed time on his clothing, leaving him standing in perfectly clean clothes, the same way they'd been when he arrived yesterday. Some of the newer campers, who didn't know I could control time, stared at me like I'd grown a second head, but Leo just smiled in gratitude.

"But how did you survive…?" Nyssa continued staring at Festus in awe. "I mean, the fire breath…"

"I was there," I said, shooting Leo a look that told him to be quiet. "I heard a trap go off and found Leo there, so when the dragon, Festus, tried to shoot fire at him, I absorbed the impact."

"You can control fire, too?" Piper asked in amazement.

I cracked a smile. "There's a lot you don't know about me, Piper. But yeah, fire and time are two things that I can control."

"So, am I on this quest or not?" Leo asked, stepping aside before Festus could dump more oil on his head.

Jason scratched his head. "You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, 'festus' means 'happy'? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?"

Festus twitched and shuddered and flapped his wings.

"That's a yes, bro!" Leo said. "Now, um, I'd really like to get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the – um, in the woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous."

Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned anything yet. We can't just-"

"Go," Annabeth said. She was the only other camper who didn't look nervous at all. Her expression was sad and wistful, probably remembering the similarities between this and the time she and Percy and Tyson fled camp on the back of hippocampi to save Grover from the Sea of Monsters.

"Jason, you've only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting," she continued. "This is certainly a good omen. Go!"

Jason nodded. Then he smiled at Piper. "You ready, partner?"

"You bet," she said.

"Wait, just a second before you go," I said, cleaning myself off before pulling out my bag. "If I'm right about where you're going, you'll need these, you three."

I handed each of the questers warm winter jackets as well as baggies of ambrosia. Leo tied his jacket around his waist, Piper tugged hers on, and Jason hesitantly accepted it, staring at my bag.

"I know you," Jason said as he took the jacket from my hand, wincing from trying to access a memory that was no longer there. "Please, tell me how I know you."

Before I could say anything, Leo saved me by saying, "Come on, Jason. The world isn't going to save itself!"

Jason, knowing that he couldn't put off his quest any longer, sent me one last meaningful look before accepting Leo's help onto Festus's back. Leo then tightened his grip on the reigns and took off, the trio heading north towards Quebec.

"To your normal activities," I exclaimed, ignoring the groans of campers as they headed back to their cabins, complaining about not getting to ride the "cool metal dragon" as I heard some people call Festus.

Eventually, it was just Luke, Annabeth, and me in the clearing.

Annabeth was completely dressed, prepared to continue in her search for Percy, wearing a gray winter coat with her dagger strapped to her side, a backpack slung over her shoulder. Luke, on the other hand, had hastily thrown on a breast plate over his pajamas, barefoot in the middle of the camp, clearly acting first and thinking second in the midst of all the chaos.

"Where are you going now?" I asked, cleaning up the remaining oil from the clearing before any of the nature spirits pelted us with acorns.

Annabeth sighed, running her hand through her messy blonde hair. "Honestly, I don't even know at this point. I guess…maybe it's time to visit Sally. Gods knows how she's taking this."

"Not well, I imagine. It's her worst nightmare come true."

"Exactly," Annabeth agreed. "After that, I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

Luke shook his head bitterly. "First, Olympus closes without any warning, and now Percy's been kidnapped by the least helpful goddess alive. What's next, Andy's used as a human sacrifice?"

I flinched, remembering my nightmare with Gaea a few months ago. "Don't say that, Luke, not even as a joke." I turned to Annabeth and pulled her into a side hug. "I'll go meet up with Nico to see if there's any news on the Underworld side of things. And have you tried reaching out to the Party Ponies yet?"

Annabeth's eyes lit up slightly. "That's as good a start as any. Thanks, Andy."

"No problem, kiddo."

"Wait," Luke said. "Annabeth, who's your buddy?"

"I don't have one."

"Unacceptable," Luke declared before linking arms with Annabeth, hiding a grimace as his forearm bumped into her elbow. "I am now your buddy."

"What about Andy?" Annabeth asked, raising her eyebrows at the son of Hermes. "Who will be her buddy?"

"That's not necessary," I said. "Goddess, remember? I can only be kidnapped with Celestial bronze chains."

"That's what Hera thought before she got herself kidnapped," Annabeth snapped.

I pinched the bridge of my nose in exasperation. "But I'm not Hera. I always act like my life's in constant danger, because let's be honest, it is most of the time. If I think something's about to go wrong, I'll get out of there as fast as I can."

"I sure hope so." Annabeth gave me one last hug. "I can't bear to lose you, too."

"You can't get rid of me that easily, Annabeth. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Be careful," Luke said, giving me a quick peck on the lips before walking back towards his cabin with Annabeth, wanting to be properly dressed if he was going to leave Camp Half-Blood for the day.

I waited for a few moments after my friends had left before I faded away into my own shadow, reappearing in the middle of Hades' throne room. The god of the Underworld was nowhere to be found, neither was his wife, but I could tell that he was either on his way or he'd recently left from the way that the torches were still brightly burning, and the guards were still on high alert.

"Father, I've been-" someone began before stopping abruptly. "Andy?" Nico asked, pushing his shaggy hair out of his face. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," I answered truthfully, giving Nico a once over. "What happened?"

"None of your business," he snapped, pulling his shredded aviator's jacket tightly around his skeletal frame.

Dark circles hung under Nico's eyes, much darker than they should be for any thirteen-year-old boy. His black jeans were shredded at the knees, like he'd fallen on the side of the road and then got dragged behind a car. Blood stained his shoes, the sleeves of his jacket, and a nasty gash ran the length of his eyebrow. Bluish-black bruises surrounded Nico's knuckles, like he'd just punched someone's lights out. Red scratches covered the left side of Nico's face, almost like he'd lost a fight to a feral cat, but judging from the way the blood oozed, a cat's claws couldn't have caused those scratches.

I took a step forward, and he flinched, as if he was expecting to be hit.

"Can I please help you?" I asked, holding my hands up in a placating manner. "I won't ask any questions about how this happened, but I want to make sure you're physically okay."

"Someone said I had internal bleeding," he muttered, wincing as he pressed a hand against his ribs.

I about choked on my own spit. "I'm sorry, what?"

"But that's fine," he shrugged. "My blood's supposed to stay in my body, anyways."

"Internal bleeding is not good! Please, Nico, let me help you."

"Yeah, okay," he agreed before pitching forward, having completely blacked out before he even hit the floor.

I swore violently as I scooped Nico's limp body into my arms, shadow-traveling us to the palace's infirmary and setting him down on the first table I saw. My mind stopped thinking as I pulled on a pair of latex gloves, muscle memory guiding my actions as the first thing I did was force a square of ambrosia down Nico's throat while I prepared for emergency surgery if it came to that.

Pushing all thoughts of Percy aside, there were only two things I wondered right now: What happened to Nico, and who did I have to kill for doing this?

Everyone, we've made it to over 41,000 views on this story!

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Thank you all so much! Love you all!