While Frank and Hazel led Percy to the principia, flanking Reyna, I stayed on crowd control, ushering everyone back to their duties despite Reyna having ordered them to leave seconds ago. Once I was sure no one followed the group, I waited for the four of them inside the principia, shadow-traveling myself so that I sat atop the long, messy table, popping a few of the jellybeans from the bowl into my mouth.

Reyna swore in Latin when she saw me, flinching imperceptibly in fright. "Mars Almighty, I hate when you do that," she grumbled, taking a seat in one of the two high-backed chairs.

"Do what?" Percy asked. "She's just sitting there."

Hazel glanced at Percy like she couldn't believe that he'd just spoken out of turn. She went to explain, but at the sight of Reyna and her two metal greyhounds, Hazel kept her mouth shut.

"I shadow-traveled without telling Reyna," I explained, hopping down from the table, placing some of the fallen, discarded papers back where they belonged. "Most people don't like when I shadow-travel, but oh, well, it's a convenient form of travel."

"Must you be here?" Reyna asked wearily, her eyes flickering between me and Percy.

"Fine, I'll be with Octavian if you need me. Gods know I need to take that dagger away from him before he murders every last stuffed animal in California." I noticed the panda pillow jutting out of the bag on Percy's back. "If you value that panda," I told Percy, pointing to the pillow, "you'll keep it away from Octavian."

"Who's Octavian?"

"You'll meet him soon enough," Hazel grumbled, her expression darkening at the thought of the arrogant legacy of Apollo.

"Andy, please," Reyna said, her tone as cold as ice. "Not now."

"As you wish." I turned back to Percy and gave him a two-fingered salute. "Welcome to Camp Jupiter."

I took a few steps before shadow-traveling as far as the second floor, concealing myself behind one of the many marble pillars that lined the perimeter. And even though Aurum and Argentum were some of the best hunting dogs in all of existence, they couldn't detect non-mortal humans (aka gods), so I was free to eavesdrop without being caught.

"That," Reyna said, gesturing to where I'd been moments earlier, "is shadow-traveling. You can see why it would be unnerving to most people. You get used to it, or so I'm told."

"Who was that?" Percy asked. "She can't possibly be one of your-?"

"Legionnaires?" Reyna supplied. "No, she's not. Andy is our...well, let's just say that she's our resident goddess. She shows up in times of need or when she is particularly bored and wants to spend time with some of her friends here.

"However the subject at hand is not about Andy but the events that led you here under the blessing of two goddesses. I want to hear Hazel's version of the story first and then your own. But let me warn you that you shouldn't lie." Aurum and Argentum growled in response. "My dogs don't like liars."

After I thought that Percy would be fine on his own, I left the principia, and as I'd told Reyna, I landed on Temple Hill, right between Pluto's and Neptune's shrines. I cringed at the sight of Neptune's, cursing myself that I hadn't restored it ages ago.

I walked over to the oxidized, cobwebbed-covered trident, which had been nailed to a small blue building the size of a tool shed. The paint peeled away in places, mold grew in most of the corners, and a very heavy scent of mildew and dampness permeated through the air, making me scrunch my nose in disgust. On a little platter in the middle of the shed were three dried-up, moldy apples, which reeked something awful.

I tossed the rotten apples into the nearest trash can before setting to work to restore the shrine to its original state. By the time I was done, everything was coated with fading gold light, the sign of time magic having touched this place. Sure, the shrine was still minuscule compared to others, but at least it was something more respectable now. Before I left, I placed a fresh vase of flowers and some freshly picked apples onto the gleaming ceramic platter.

Satisfied with my handiwork, I walked towards the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, where I found Octavian hunched over a mountain of fluff. Discarded stuffed animal carcasses created their own piles. Octavian had a dagger in one hand and a stuffed lion in the other.

As he brutally murdered the lion, Octavian chanted in Latin, dark purple clouds swirling around the temple and the statue of Jupiter as a result. Despite how demented he was, I knew better than to try to interrupt this kind of ritual. No one wanted to be the one responsible for cleaning up after a failed seeing attempt.

Eventually, Octavian threw the lion aside as well, its contents adding to the ever-growing pile of stuffing. Instead of reaching for another stuffed animal, Octavian got to his feet and turned to face me, a wicked smile resting on his face.

"I knew you'd be here," he said, calmly tossing his dagger up and down, catching it by the hilt every time.

"What do you want, some kind of prize?" I scoffed, crossing my arms over my chest. "So you saw me in your fluff, whoop-dee-doo. You don't know why I'm here."

"Are you sure that graecus has nothing to do with this?" Octavian asked, carefully measuring my reaction. Oh, no way was I going to let this little weasel unnerve me like that.

"Of course not. It was high time I stopped to check in on Camp Jupiter, especially with the mounting attacks in the area."

"So it's just a coincidence you reappeared on the same day as Juno?"

"For your information, Juno sent me here ahead of time. Until further notice, the gods have tasked me with helping protect Camp Jupiter whenever I'm around."

"Then what will you do when you're not?"

"That's highly classified."

Octavian snorted. "One day, the rest of the camp will see you for what you really are – a traitor. A pitiful, worthless, sniveling little traitor!"

I raised my eyebrows at him, clenching my jaw in irritation. "Be careful about what you say next, or you won't like what I do."

He laughed even harder. "What would Reyna do if she saw you now, threatening an augur? I can have you tried for murder in a heartbeat in a second if I so desire. Are you really looking to pick a fight with me?"

Having reached my capacity for annoyance for the day, I waved a hand towards Octavian, watching as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell to the ground, snoring the second he was in the fetal position. Gods of Olympus, how no one has attempted to strangle his little chicken neck is beyond me.

I realized I'd put Octavian to sleep (just normal sleep, not euthanasia, sadly) just in time, as I could hear Hazel and Percy's voices growing louder as they approached Jupiter's temple. When they finally arrived, they stared at the sleeping Octavian for a few seconds before shrugging it off, like this was a common occurrence.

"But then who will read Percy's auguries?" Hazel asked, stifling a giggle as Octavian snored loudly, cuddling with one of the hundreds of mutilated stuffed animals.

"I can try to give it a go," I said.

"Uh, you're not going to kill my panda pillow, are you?" Percy laughed nervously, his hand moving towards his bag like he was ready to pitch it out of the temple if it meant keeping his panda intact.

"Nah. I don't know why Octavian thinks that the gods commune through stuffed animal entrails, but oh well." I sighed, moving Octavian's dagger aside so that he didn't accidentally stab himself while he slept. "Come here, Percy. I promise I don't bite."

Percy took a tentative step forward after an encouraging smile from Hazel. "Andy's amazing," she'd whispered. "She wouldn't hurt a fly, so long as it didn't threaten her friends."

"So, what do you need?" Percy asked. "My palms, a crystal ball, some tarot cards...?"

I laughed. "No, no, that won't be necessary. All I have to do is look into your mind. With your permission, of course."

Percy looked at me suspiciously, his hand drifting towards his pocket. He relented at the sight of Hazel's softened expression. He sighed deeply and said, "Do it."

I pressed my index finger to the center of his forehead, gasping when I opened my eyes, peering into the inside of Percy's memories.

Remember how I explained how a person's memories are supposed to stay on a timeline if there's no interference? Well, Percy didn't even have a timeline anymore, something that was way worse than insanity, in which memories were haphazardly scattered about (as in the case of Chris Rodriguez about two years ago).

All that Percy had left was the image of Annabeth.

I pulled my hand away, gasping for breath as I severed the connection, trying my hardest not to reveal anything.

I took Percy's hands in my own, swallowing the lump of emotions in my throat. "I swear to you on my life that you will see her again," I told Percy, watching the scared look in his eyes. "You will get her back."

Percy nodded numbly, tugging his hands away, properly frightened out of his wits.

I turned to Hazel. "Tell Reyna that he can join the legion. And, uh, tell her that I need to be alone for a little bit. She'll know what I mean by that."

"Okay," Hazel said, appearing a little spooked as well. She placed a hand on Percy's arm and gently led him out of the temple.

Once I was sure that the duo was long gone, I ran from Temple Hill to the Garden of Bacchus, making it as far as the fountain before I was clutching onto the stone, the sound of the water trickling down into the basin masking my strangled breathing.

I found myself crying for more than Percy's hurting and my guilt. I cried over the loss of my friends, of my complete incompetence in doing my sole purpose in this world. I cried until I had no tears left to cry, my throat burning from how raw it felt. I wiped my nose with the sleeve of my jacket as I got to my feet, drying the remaining wetness from my cheeks.

No more of this, I told myself, walking away from the Garden. No more feeling miserable for myself. No more tears about the past. My job is to fix the future and damn it, that meant getting stuff done without crying every time I felt guilty.

I sniffled one last time as I stepped into the shadows, reappearing onto the Field of Mars, right in the middle of war games.

Oh, fun.

Nothing is worse than stepping into what can technically be considered a warzone while being unprepared.

All around me, legionnaires from the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cohorts stormed the fort, trying to climb up the stone precipice in order to be the person to claim the Mural Crown and steal the banners that the First and Second Cohorts were tasked with protecting.

War games were basically just a much more violent, much more difficult version of the capture the flag.

I almost got run over by Hannibal the war elephant, instinctively dive rolling out of the way as I heard him trumpet, his rider cheering in delight as some of the guards from the Second Cohort scattered.

Overhead, Reyna surveyed the game on Scipio's back, tending to hover right above the middle of the field, where most of the fighting took place. Above the drawbridge of the fort was a large digital clock, with red numbers marking the amount of time the offense had to take the fortress if they had any hopes of winning the game.

After almost being stabbed, burned, and poisoned a handful of times, I eventually shrugged and summoned my armor and weapons, choosing to play alongside the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cohorts. Although I'll admit, I'm extremely biased towards helping the Fifth.

I sensed Hazel, Frank, and Percy moving underground, trying to get to the fort to blow up the water cannons, so instead of helping them, I turned to the guards peeking over the brick walls, the ones who were making offensive gestures and snide remarks about every other cohort.

There was the generic "loser" and "wimp" alongside some vulgar language that I don't want to repeat, but know that it involved ideas about where we should shove our spathas.

I got to about twenty feet in front of the fortress, where I incapacitated the remaining four guards, left them tied up in front of the drawbridge, and stripped them of their weapons. That seemed to catch the attention of the guards at the top of the fort, who pointed and signaled me out. Some of them had arrows pointed at me, while others gripped tightly onto their blades, probably bemoaning the fact that swords didn't come flying back like boomerangs.

One particularly ill-tempered boy smirked down at me, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted, "Open wide, loser!"

KA-BOOM!

The cannon exploded in a starburst of blue, green, and white. Defenders screamed as a watery shockwave flattened them against the battlements. Kids toppled over the walls but were snatched up by giant eagles and carried to safety. Then the entire eastern wall shuddered as the explosion backed up through the pipelines. One after another, the water cannons on the battlements' exploded. The scorpions' fire was doused. Defenders scattered in confusion or were tossed through the air, giving the rescue eagles quite a workout. At the main gates, the Fifth Cohort forgot about their formation. Mystified, they lowered their shields and stared at the chaos.

I watched as Frank shot his arrow, a glittering rope streaking upwards. When it reached the top, the metal point fractured into a dozen lines that lashed out and wrapped around anything they could find – parts of the wall, a scorpion, a broken water cannon, and a couple of defending campers, who yelped and found themselves slammed against the battlements as anchors (Ow, that's gotta leave a mark). From the main rope, handholds extended at two-foot intervals, making a ladder.

"Go!" Frank said, looking at Percy.

Percy just grinned. "You first, Frank. This is your party."

Frank hesitated. Then he slung his bow on his back and began to climb. He was halfway up before the defenders recovered their senses enough to sound the alarm.

Frank glanced back at the Fifth Cohort's main group. They were staring up at him, dumbfounded.

"Well?" Frank screamed. "Attack!"

Gwen was the first to unfreeze. She grinned and repeated the order. A cheer went up from the battlefield. Hannibal the elephant trumpeted with happiness while Frank continued to climb the rope ladder, Hazel quickly following suit, and Percy taking the rear, the rope beginning to swing violently as defenders tried to hack down all the anchors.

Knowing that the three would be fine, I threw myself into the fray alongside the Fifth Cohort, ending up back to back with Gwen, the both of us knocking out and incapacitating any First or Second Cohort legionnaire that tried to attack.

It was only five minutes later when Hazel, Percy, and Frank rode Hannibal across the boundary line, carrying the enemy banners in their hands. Cheers from the Fifth Cohort blocked out every other sound up until the point where Reyna said, "The game is won! Assemble for honors!"

That's when I heard the sickening sound of a body crumpling to the ground.

I whirled around, feeling the blood rush from my face as I saw Gwen lying motionless on the field, a six-foot harpoon jutting out of her chest in between the pieces of her breastplate. "Medic, we need a medic!" some of the nearby legionnaires shouted, but I was already frantically working, praying to every single god that a breach had opened since last night.

Octavian stood off to the side, polite concern on his face, but when I gave him a hard glare and he flinched, I knew that he knew he'd been caught by me. As much as the First Cohort was usually a bunch of snobs, the majority of them were honorable enough to not murder someone in cold blood over something as insignificant as an evening activity.

Octavian was not one of those honorable legionnaires.

Other medics joined me a few seconds later. One of the boys placed two fingers onto the side of Gwen's neck, pressing down in multiple areas and waiting for a bit, only to retract his hand and shake his head. Gwen's face, which had been so lively and fierce minutes earlier, was already a shade of ashy gray, her limbs stiff in the face of death.

Reyna parted the crowd, her eyes gleaming dangerously as she saw the fallen centurion, her gaze reading the marking on the shaft of the pilum that murdered Gwen. "There will be in an investigation," she said, her voice rippling across the otherwise quiet field. "Whoever did this, you cost the legion a good officer. Honorable death is one thing, but this..."

Reyna had just finished her sentence when Gwen suddenly gasped, her eyes flying open, completely unaware of the weapon still protruding from her ribcage. "Wh-what is it? What's everyone staring at?" Gwen asked, noticing the crowd that had formed around her.

Behind Frank, one of the medics whispered, "There's no way. She was dead. She has to be dead."

Gwen tried to sit up, but couldn't. "There was a river, and a man asking...for a coin? I turned around and the exit door was open. So I just...I just left. I don't understand. What happened?"

Everyone stared at her in horror. Nobody tried to help, though I did keep the harpoon steady, preventing it from possibly killing her again.

"Gwen." Frank knelt next to her. "Don't try to get up. Just close your eyes for a second, okay?"

"Why? What-"

"Just trust me."

Gwen did what he asked.

As I kept the harpoon stable, Frank grabbed the pilum below its tip, his hands trembling violently. I made sure to extend my aura of the hearth, instilling feelings of peace and strength into anyone close to me. Frank's hands stilled, but he still said, "Percy, Hazel – help me."

One of the medics realized what he was planning. "Don't!" he said. "You might-"

"What?" Hazel snapped. "Make it worse?"

"I'm here supervising," I reminded the medic. "And doing this is the best course of action."

Frank took a deep breath. "Hold her steady. One, two three!"

He pulled the pilum out from the front. Gwen didn't even wince. The blood stopped quickly.

Hazel bent down to examine the wound. "It's closing on its own," she said. "I don't know how, but-"

"I feel fine," Gwen protested. "What's everyone worried about?"

With Frank and Percy's help, she got to her feet. I kept glaring at Octavian, watching him squirm under my gaze, making a mental note to interrogate the crud out of him later. He's so freaking lucky I know self-control, or I would've put him in a coma ages ago.

"Gwen," Hazel said gently, "there's no easy way to say this. You were dead. Somehow you came back."

"I...what?" She stumbled against Frank, pressing a hand against the ragged hole in her armor. "How-how?"

"Good question." Reyna turned to me, who'd started fading away amongst the rest of the crowd. "Is this some power of Pluto?"

I shook my head solemnly. "Pluto never lets people return from the dead." I glanced at Hazel, hoping my eyes conveyed the warning I was trying to give her. She gave a brief nod before turning back to face Reyna.

A thunderous voice rolled across the field: "Death loses its hold. This is only the beginning."

Campers drew weapons. Hannibal trumpeted nervously. Scipio reared, almost throwing Reyna.

In the midst of the sudden panic, I just took off my armor, returning back into my casual clothes: an Army Strong t-shirt, a pair of well-worn jeans, and my sneakers. Reyna stared at me quizzically, noticing my clothing change, to which I replied, "You'll see."

"I know that voice," Percy said, frowning up at the sky. He drummed his fingers against his thigh, waiting for the speaker to approach.

In the midst of the legion, a column of fire blasted into the air. While campers scrambled over each other to get out of the explosion, I walked towards the fire, relishing in the intense heat and dry air. Plus, I knew the soldier stepping out of the explosion, so I wasn't too concerned anyway.

Mars decided to show up in his ten-foot-tall form, dressed in Canadian Forces desert camouflage. He radiated confidence and power. His black hair was cut in a flat-topped wedge. His face was angular and brutal, marked with old knife scars. His eyes were covered with infrared goggles that glowed from inside. He wore a utility belt with a sidearm, a knife holster, and several grenades. In his hands was an oversized M16 rifle.

Frank took a few steps forward, and almost like he was in a daze, he kneeled. The rest of the legion quickly followed until once again, Percy and I were the only ones left standing.

"That's good," Mars said. "Kneeling is good. It's been a long time since I've visited Camp Jupiter."

"Oh, 274 years if I'm remembering correctly, but who's keeping track?" I said, a slight grin making its way onto my face.

Mars smiled viciously. "Well, well, well. If it isn't my favorite training partner. Good to see that your first day as a guardian has already left a girl dead."

I shrugged. "I'm responsible for two hundred legionnaires, plus gods know how many retirees and legacies in New Rome, so forgive me if I can't be in a million places at once. I'm not that powerful."

"Yeah, and Jupiter will stop cheating on Juno," he snorted, slinging the M16 over his shoulder. "We'll work on that once this whole ordeal is over, barring the end of the world, of course."

"I know you – you're Ares," Percy said, catching Mars's attention. "What do you want?"

This resulted in a collective gasp of horror going up from campers and Hannibal. People probably thought that Percy was going to get squashed like a gnat, but Mars instead bared his brilliant white teeth.

"You've got spunk, demigod," he said. "Ares is my Greek form. But to these followers, to the children of Rome, I am Mars – patron of the empire, divine father of Romulus and Remus."

"We've met," Percy said. "We...we had a fight..."

The god scratched his chin. as if trying to recall. "I fight a lot of people. But I assure you – you've never fought me as Mars. If you had, you'd be dead. Now, kneel, as befits a child of Rome, before you try my patience."

"You know," I said, "you inherited those drama genes from your parents. Seriously, take it down a notch. The poor kid's had his memories stolen by Juno."

That didn't seem to placate Mars, as the ground boiled in a circle of flames around him.

"Percy," Frank said, "please."

Percy clearly didn't like it, but he knelt.

Mars scanned the crowd. "Romans, lend me your ears!"

"At least let them stand up now," I said. "They've been kneeling for two minutes now, in full body armor."

The god scowled at me, heat radiating off of him like a furnace trying to liquefy steel. "One of these days, I'm going to kick you to the other side of the country."

"I'd like to see you try," I smirked, crossing my arms across my chest, watching Mars's eyes twitch in irritation.

"You are the bane of my existence."

This time, I gave a wide smile. "That's my job."