So, my friends peer pressured me into feeding you guys...

I've had this chapter in the works for a few months and now it's finally finished, yay!

There is a brief mention of self-harm in this chapter (literally one sentence), but I just wanted to make y'all aware of it. Happy reading!

(Plz don't kill me)

For the next two weeks, I juggled helping Leo finish the Argo II alongside the rest of the Hephaestus kids during the day and sealing breaches into and out of the Underworld during the night, having to compensate for both Thanatos's and Nico's incapacitation.

With the little free time that I did have, which usually consisted of bathroom and snack breaks, I finally scrounged up a plan on how to get out of Tartarus without the use of my powers. It was tenuous at best and relied on a few things that were out of my control, but honestly, I knew that this was my best bet and that I had no other options left. My friends were counting on me; I couldn't let them down.

One day, towards the beginning of June, Leo told me to go check on Jason and Piper, promising that he and his siblings had the finishing of the Argo II taken care of. Knowing that he wouldn't send me away unless something was seriously wrong, I sought out the couple, finding them sitting on one of the hills that overlooked the strawberry fields.

"I don't understand," Piper was saying, angrily ripping out large clumps of grass. "The stupid knife isn't showing me anything useful. Why would it show me a girl in armor, sitting at her desk?"

Jason visibly flinched. "By any chance," he began, "was this girl wearing a purple cape and had her hair in one long braid?"

Piper whirled around to stare at Jason, her mouth slightly open in shock. "How'd you know what she looked like? I didn't tell you, did I?"

"That's Reyna," Jason explained. "She was my fellow praetor at Camp Jupiter. Between the two of us, we ran the Twelfth Legion."

"Oh." Piper didn't sound too thrilled about that. "But the camp can be run by one person, right?"

"It can, but it shouldn't." Jason raked a hand through his close cropped hair, mussing it up a bit. "Imagine trying to be in control of two hundred kids from nine-years-old to twenty-something as well as countless magical animals and Roman spirits. Even with two praetors there, it's not an easy job. Gods only know how Reyna's managing to keep afloat at the moment."

"With a little help from friends," I interjected, chuckling a bit as I watched both Jason and Piper jump.

"Leo's right," Piper exclaimed. "We need to put some bells on you."

I shrugged. "Eventually you'll get used to me popping up everywhere. But to answer your question, Jason, I've been helping Reyna with some of her more complicated praetor duties, and she also has help from two of her friends in the fifth cohort."

Jason smiled at the mention of his own cohort, no doubt remembering the good times that he had with his friends.

"Now is there any reason in particular Leo asked me to find you two, or…?"

Piper turned beet red, staring at her lap and ripping out another chunk of grass. After abusing the grass a few more times, she hesitantly unsheathed Katoptris, setting the blade flat on the ground. The sunlight shone of the bronze blade, but instead of reflecting the light, the blade took the light and shimmered, a picture etching itself onto the bronze.

I looked over Piper's shoulder, barely stifling a gasp as I stared into her knife.

There was Nico, battered, bloodied, and bruised, staggering through the acrid landscape of Tartarus, his grip relentless around his sword, one hand clutching what appeared to be a deep wound by his hip. His eyes were wide with fear, his head on a constant swivel as he kept glancing over his shoulder, careful to cling to the shadows as he followed the Phlegethon.

"Nico," I said softly, touching the surface of the blade. "No."

Nico suddenly whirled around, barely able to deflect the club of a rogue Cyclops as he rolled, the glass-like rocks that made up the ground digging into his flesh. But before we could see how he faired against the Cyclops, the image shimmered again, this time revealing Percy training with Lupa, his lips pulled back into a fierce snarl as he lunged forward with Riptide, managing to evade her claws and pushing her into the nearest tree.

Before Lupa could recover, Percy leapt towards the wolf goddess, pressing Riptide right against the underside of her muzzle, his chest heaving as he spoke to her.

Once again, before the scene had finished, the image shimmered a third time, revealing a woman dressed in earthen tones, her eyes a swirling vortex of unimaginable power, wide open, a sadistic, almost psychotic laugh escaping her lips as her whole body shook with glee. Behind her, giants and Titans ran amok, the world burning into nothingness.

Not wanting to see any more images, I moved a shadow over Katoptris, prohibiting the blade from showing anything else.

Jason had his arms tightly wrapped around Piper, who had gone so pale that I was afraid she was going to pass out.

"I guess that's what Leo wanted me to see, huh?" I asked, gently picking up Piper's dagger and sheathing it before handing it back to her. "Well, I can tell you this. We won't let that last scene come true, not if we can help it, and we can. But we need to prepare. There isn't much time left."

"What do we have to do?" Jason asked, his eyes glimmering with curiosity. "We want to be ready for this quest."

"We train," I said. "From here on out, we train whenever we can. And not just our fighting skills, but in our powers as well."

"But no one else can manipulate lightning or fly here."

"And what about my charmspeak?" Piper asked.

"It just so happens that I have a solution to both of your problems." I gave the pair a knowing smile. "Piper, I'll set up lessons for you to work with Silena, a sibling of yours. She's the only other charmspeaker that I'm aware of, well, the only one who isn't in prison at the moment. And as for you, Jason, you'll work with me."

Piper's eyes widened. "You can control lightning, too? What other powers do you have?"

"Uh, let's see. I have total control over time, fire, shadows, water, lightning, plants, memories," I said out loud, ticking each one off on my fingers. "I can heal others, speak to snakes and wolves, create all sorts of charms, understand all spoken languages, offer my strength to others, and I think that's it. Oh, wait, I can also manipulate people's thoughts, kinda like charmspeak in a way, but using the body's own electrical impulses instead of using my voice."

"And the gods are okay with this?" Jason asked, his jaw practically on the floor.

"Yup. I mean, they trained me themselves for five years, so I'd hope that they're okay with it. Plus, Zeus himself turned me into a goddess, so I'm pretty sure they're fine with all my powers." I shrugged. "Not to mention that I'm friends with the Fates, and no one likes to argue with them."

Jason didn't seem too surprised. "Fair enough," he said, getting to his feet, offering Piper a hand up. "So, is there any other reason Leo sent you here?"

"I don't know, to be honest," I replied, sheepishly rubbing the back of my neck. "All Leo said was to find you two. Other than that, he didn't tell me anything else."

"Well, since you're here," Piper said, "might as well train. Gods knows I've wanted a proper spar."

Jason raised his eyebrows at her. "What's wrong with our lessons?"

"You always let me win." Piper merely sighed, tucking a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. "I appreciate the lessons, Jason, really, I do, but I need to spar with someone who won't purposely throw the match."

I shrugged in agreement. I'd trained dozens of kids beforehand. This wouldn't be anything new for me. "Okay, Piper, show me what you've got."

Piper got into her fighting stance, her hand incorrectly wrapped around the hilt of her dagger, her knees slightly bent and stance staggered. Before I could correct her grip, she made a wild lunge, which I easily sidestepped, watching as she struggled to catch her footing. Jason, who shook his head, flew up into the sky, refereeing from above.

When Piper lunged again, instead of letting her charge past, I summoned Epithymia, slashing downward at the dagger with enough force that Piper's wrist turned upward, almost dropping Katoptris in the process. Knowing that she would be upset if I held back, I quickly disarmed Piper, her dagger flying wildly out of control, thudding into the ground a few moments later.

I whistled lowly. "We've got some work to do."

Piper blushed. "I think you're right."

"No, Pete, I'm fine," I sighed, walking through the streets of New Rome, many of the newly retired legionnaires staring at the cellphone in my hand. "We found him a few days ago, so you can tell Leah to stop worrying."

"You'd think that Percy was her boyfriend from how much she talks about him," Pete laughed, but I could hear the relief in his voice.

"That's not true!" Leah screeched in the background, causing both Pete and me to laugh.

"Anyhow," Pete continued, "any leads about what happened to your boyfriend and other friend?"

I bit my lip, contemplating how much I should tell him. But if I couldn't trust my mortal friends after everything I've put them through, I couldn't trust anyone. I told Pete to hold on for a few seconds while I added everyone else onto the call until all six of us were able to hear each other.

"Andy, what's going on?" Patrick asked, equally as concerned about all the disappearances of my demigod friends as Pete and Leah were.

And I told them every last horrifying detail of what I had to do to get my friends back, hearing their collective gasps and protests as I explained the intricacies of my plan. I swear, I could've thought I heard Joe crying, but I wasn't sure.

"No, you can't do that," Pete protested. "Listen to yourself, A! This is a suicide mission, you said so yourself!"

"Don't you dare take a step into that place, or so help me God I will jump right in after you," Leah threatened, her voice as cold as ice.

"You'll do no such thing," I said sternly, shooting a disdainful look at the sneers I was getting from some of the older couples nearby. I headed for the Garden of Bacchus. At least I'd be alone there. "Plus, there's only one entrance to Tartarus through the mortal world, and I'd never tell you where it is."

"Please, don't do this," Joe begged, his voice thick and hoarse. Now I was certain that he'd been crying. "I can't lose another friend."

I winced, remembering the night I'd found Joe sobbing in the janitor's closet in one of the school's gyms. He'd been a right mess, but after he told me that his childhood friend had been murdered in cold blood over something as trivial as a watch and his shoes, I understood completely. Then Joe lost two more friends that same year, one to a drug overdose and the other to organ failure after getting sick. Since then, he'd clung to our group as tightly as possible, reminding us that he never wanted anything to ever happen to any of us.

To say I felt guilty at the moment was an understatement.

"You won't lose me, Joe," I assured him, sounding more confident than I felt. "I might be gone for a while, but I'll come back someday."

"You better," Andy said, speaking up for the first time. "Because if anyone hurts you, we'll take them out."

"Yeah!" Joe, Pete, and Leah cheered, rallying around Andy's suggestion. But no matter how hard I tried to convince them otherwise, they wouldn't listen to me, swearing that they'd plow through anything that meant to do me harm.

On top of all this, I was concerned about Patrick, who hadn't so much as breathed into his phone since the beginning of the call. After coming up with a lame excuse ("Reyna needs my help"), I hung up on everyone except for Patrick, wanting to make sure that the most sensitive of our friend group was alright. Well, as alright as possible given the circumstances.

It took a few minutes, but I finally coaxed a response out of Patrick, although my heart clenched painfully in my chest as I heard him cry even harder than Joe, something which should've been physically impossible.

"This isn't f-fair," Patrick hiccupped through short gasps. I could imagine him curled into a ball, clutching the phone so tightly that his fingers would ache afterwards. "A-after everything you've d-done for me, and I c-can't do a damn thing."

"Patrick, I'm not asking you to do anything," I said softly, replaying those nights in the bathroom where I took care of him after he'd carved his skin up so badly that it was a wonder he was still able to physically function properly. "This is my choice."

He continued gasping, trying to regain control of his breathing. "That d-doesn't make coming to terms with that any easier."

"I know. But I needed you all to know, just in case…"

"No, don't talk like that," Patrick pleaded. "Please, don't talk like that."

"I'm sorry," I said, running a tired hand through my hair. "I'll try my best, really, I will. I can promise you that much, 'Trick."

"Thank you."

Then he hung up.

Once the finishing touches were put on the Argo II, I said goodbye to Camp Half-Blood for the next few weeks, devoting all of my time and energy into closing as many breaches between the mortal world and the Underworld as possible, leaving me in a constant state of lethargy.

Take today, for example. I'd been out for seventeen hours, forty-two minutes, and eight seconds when I finally got to return to Hades' palace, making it as far as three feet into the throne room before I plopped into the over-sized bean bag chair I had Hades conjure up for me.

He hadn't even batted an eye at my sudden arrival, continuing to sift through the unending amount of paperwork, saying, "That bad, huh?"

I groaned in response, wishing that I could've suffocated myself in the fabric right then and there.

Hades merely chuckled and shook his head.

Despite Nico being in Tartarus, Hades desperately tried to put up a front that said that he was fine and fully capable of running the Underworld by himself. Honestly, I don't know why he tried so hard. It's not like he had to impress anyone, seeing that I was just as grief-stricken as he was, and Persephone was spending her third of the year with Demeter at the moment.

"I'll go after him," I volunteered one night, a night on which Hades was a little more agitated than normal, quite literally creating a ditch in the ground from how much he'd paced during the day.

"And lose my only other lieutenant?" he'd retorted caustically, staring at me like I'd grown a second head. "I thought I taught you to be more sensible than this. In matters of life and death, a single life does not matter, not even that of my own son."

I'm not going to try to justify what Hades said, but I knew that this anger was a mask that hid all of his sadness. If there's anything I learned about Hades over the years is that if he can't control his grief, he'd just lash out, finding more solace in scathing words than wearing his heart on his sleeve.

But despite Hades wanting me to stay as far away from Tartarus as humanly possible, I snuck out of the palace every night and walked down the rough path that led to the gaping entrance of Hell. I stayed far enough away so that the wind couldn't suck me in but close enough to hear screams permeating through the air, feeling slightly dizzy at the sheer blackness of it all.

I'd been scared of this place ever since I was fourteen, when Kronos first hijacked my mind and threatened to pull me down with him. Even now as a twenty-four-year-old (in an eighteen-year-old's body at the moment, mind you), I was just, if not more, terrified of Tartarus.

I knew I had to push my own fears aside, though. In the grand scheme of things, my job was to help my friends, even if it meant sacrificing myself. It was a price I'd been willing to pay ever since Salina brought me here, but now peering out into the great abyss, I began to question whether the price had gotten too high.

No, how could I think that? Luke and Will and Nico were counting on me. If the Fates wanted me to stay in Tartarus for the rest of my life in order to keep my friends safe, then that's exactly what I'd do, my choices and feelings be damned.

A few days later, I returned to Camp Jupiter, sketching at the banks of the Little Tiber when Percy came running in from the Caldecott Tunnel, an old, dumpy looking Juno in his arms. Hazel wadded forward through the water while Frank shot arrow after arrow at the two gorgons.

"The Little Tiber," Juno told Percy sympathetically when he paused in front of the running water. "It flows with the power of the original Tiber, river of the empire. This is your last chance to back out, child. The mark of Achilles is a Greek blessing. You can't retain it if you cross into Roman territory. The Tiber will wash it away."

Percy breathed heavily. "If I cross it, I won't have iron skin anymore?"

"So what will it be? Safety, or a future of pain and possibility?"

"Ignore her," I said, wading into the water myself. I lifted my hands upward and then pushed them outwards, holding the water back, clearing a dry path to the other side of the river. "Come on and cross. You won't lose your blessing."

Percy, who looked like he was about to drop in exhaustion, ran across the dry riverbed, stumbling a few times but regaining his balance with Hazel's help. Hazel looked over her shoulder, her reassuring smile quickly melting into one of pure terror as she saw the gorgons swoop downward, grabbing Frank by either arm, digging their talons into him.

Behind us, the sentries all yelled, aiming their crossbows, but none of them took the shot for fear of hurting Frank.

"The water," Percy mumbled in a daze. "I can use the water."

"No, you cross!" I demanded. "I'll take care of them."

Making sure to continue obstructing the flow of the Little Tiber, I waved my hands towards the gorgons, giant, watery hands taking shape and ripping the gorgons off of Frank. With the help of another rush of water, I lowered Frank to the ground while slamming the gorgons repeatedly against the sandy riverbank, watching as they broke apart into gold dust like piñatas.

I continued smashing the reforming dust piles until I was sure no one was standing in the river before releasing the water, feeling it rush forward, soaking me up to my knees as the Little Tiber washed away all traces of gorgons essence downstream.

At this moment, I knew for certain my own mark of Achilles had faded away, the water not having any effect on me. There wasn't any new sense of vulnerability, and if my previous injuries were anything to go by, the mark had been fading for some time now.

Percy knelt down by the river, his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion as he bent down, his hands reaching for the water.

"Percy, no!" I exclaimed, swatting his hand away. "Don't touch the water of the Little Tiber if you want to continue having the mark of Achilles."

Juno glared at me, which didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the legionnaires, but she eventually said, "Well, that was a lovely trip. Thank you, Percy Jackson, for bringing me to Camp Jupiter."

Reyna made a choking sound, as if someone had sucker punched her. "Percy…Jackson?"

Juno laughed at the frightened look on Reyna's face. "Oh, yes. You'll have such fun together!"

Then she began to shed her mortal disguise, revealing herself as a shining, seven-foot-tall goddess in a blue dress, with a cloak that looked like a goat's skin over her shoulders. Her face was stern and stately, like usual. In her hand was a staff topped with a lotus flower, though I don't know why she summoned it seeing as she rarely, if ever, actually used the staff as the weapon it was supposed to be.

The rest of the legionnaires were absolutely stunned, unsure of what to do until they saw Reyna kneel. One kid got down so hastily he almost impaled himself on his sword.

Hazel was the first to speak. "Juno."

She and Frank also fell to her knees, leaving Percy and me the only ones standing.

"Hello, Juno," I said, biting back a smirk at the annoyance written all over the goddess's face. "So nice to see you again."

"Andromeda, not now," she hissed under her breath.

"Okay, then I'll schedule you in for four-thirty. How's that sound?"

"Juno, huh?" Percy said, preventing Juno from retorting. "If I passed your test, can I have my memory and my life back?"

The goddess smiled. "In time, Percy Jackson, if you succeed here at camp. You've done well today, even if Andy stole some of your thunder."

I shrugged. "Guilty as charged."

"In any case," Juno continued, ignoring my comment, "it's a good start. Perhaps there's hope for you yet." She turned to the rest of the camp. "Romans, I present to you the son of Neptune. For months he has been slumbering, but now he is awake. His fate is in your hands. The Feast of Fortune comes quickly, and Death must be unleashed if you are to stand any hope in the battle. Do not fail me!"

Juno shimmered and disappeared. I rolled my eyes. Gods, she must've been taking some drama lessons from Jupiter, what with how dramatic that exit was.

Percy looked at Hazel and Frank for some kind of explanation, but they seemed just as confused as he was. Then Hazel and Frank turned to me, which caused Percy to stare at me long enough so that I felt uncomfortable despite him being one of my oldest friends. It was unnerving to have those penetrating sea green eyes of his scrutinize you.

After Frank quickly stashed the clay flasks containing the gorgon blood into his jacket, Reyna stepped forward, eying Percy warily. "So," she said coldly, "a son of Neptune, who comes to us with the blessing of Juno."

"And my blessing, too!" I added, shooting Percy a smile. He just seemed even more lost.

"Thank you for that, Andy," Reyna added wryly, rolling her eyes.

"No problem."

"Look," Percy said, "my memory's a little fuzzy. Um, it's gone, actually. Do I know you?"

Reyna hesitated. "I'm Reyna, praetor of the Twelfth Legion. And…no, I don't know you." She paused for a moment. "Hazel, bring him inside. I want to question him at the principia. Then we'll send him to Octavian. We must consult the auguries before we decide what to do with him."

"What do you mean," Percy asked, "'decide what to do with' me?"

Reyna's hand tightened on her dagger, revealing just how tense she was, always expecting someone to lash out at her for every decision she'd made ever since Jason had disappeared. Percy noticed the movement, and his hand subconsciously reached towards his pocket, stopping right at his waist.

"Before we accept anyone into camp," Reyna explained, "we must interrogate them and read their auguries. Juno said your fate is in our hands. We have to know whether the goddess has brought us a new recruit, or if she's brought us an enemy to kill."

And with that, Reyna barked at the campers to disperse, her purple cape swishing behind her as she stalked off towards the principia.

Huh, maybe she'd been taking acting lessons from Jupiter, too.