PERCY HAD SEEN FRANK…you've been here all night?"

"Whoaa. Where's your mind at, Zhang?" Clarisse laughed. Frank turned bright red.

"They literally told me that they'd be here all night. What else do you think would come into my head." He protested.

"Something innocent!" Percy supplied.

"That ain't happening, Jackson. Its physically impossible for any teenager's mind to think of anything innocent when somebody tells them that they'd been here all night and had snuck out and stayed there with a blanket." Frank told him with raised eyebrows.

"When you put it like that-" Percy snorted.

"How did Frank turn so un-innocent?" Jason raised an eyebrow.

"I'm friends with you guys. Its impossible." Frank smirked.

"Touché."

"Frank!" Annabeth's ears were…"Kissed a couple of times," Percy said.

"Not helping." Silena snickered.

Annabeth glared at him…—I mean didn't do?

Everybody burst out laughing and Percy and Annabeth face palmed.

"You still thought they slept together?" Nico laughed. Frank's ears turned red.

"Again, can't blame me." He said.

I mean… I really don't want…wouldn't meet Percy's eyes.

Everybody roared with laughter especially Percy and Annabeth.

"I cannot believe that all of you have such unholy minds." Percy snickered.

"Excuse me? You can't?" Leo said with mock offense, making Percy snicker even more.

"Also, Hazel…there is this…process." Nico started as he smirked at Hazel who shoved a cushion in his face.

"Hey now. You're too young to give her the talk. Hazel, do you know how babies are made? There's nothing to be shy about." Thalia started with a smirk as well.

"Oh shut up, both of you." Hazel complained.

"I agree. I believe you're going to end up traumatizing even me." Hades agreed, making Thalia chortle.

"That's the goal." She said. Artemis snorted in amusement at her uncle's reaction that followed. Poor guy looked like he was staring his doom in the face and would have been ready to eat all the cereal he could in order to prevent that conversation.

Naturally, Coach Hedge went ballistic…—I'll terminus you, buddy!"

Everybody snickered.

"I appreciate the comeback effort at least." Hermes sighed with a small smile.

Percy tried not to laugh…so Percy felt right at home.

The Greek campers chuckled fondly.

"Well, it's the best distraction from the grimmest piece of shit news we get." Clarisse shrugged.

"Always works." Percy nodded in agreement.

"Which reminds me, Perce, I've been meaning to tell you something." Castor said as a thought hit him. Percy furrowed his eyebrows and nodded.

"Shoot." He said.

"I think you might want to call a war council. There's something I need to talk about related to the war." The son of Dionysus swallowed. Percy frowned in worry but nodded.

"Same. There's been a…change." Rachel said nervously. Apollo's gaze snapped to hers and his expression turned grim.

"I'll call one when we take a break." Percy nodded. "And I need everybody in attendance please." He said but there was enough authority in his voice to ensure that everybody knew that it wasn't a war council to be missed.

He told them about his dream…Oh gods, the seeds."

Nico wrapped an arm comfortingly around Hazel's shoulders.

"Hey, its all right. I was just a little stuffy." He said with a small smile and Hazel smacked his other arm lightly.

"Not funny." She protested.

"You know what they are…bloodred and ghost white.

Percy's eyes widened as he looked nervously at Persephone who raised an eyebrow but gave a small smile.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to turn you into a dandelion or something." She assured him. Percy sighed in relief.

"That particular honor is reserved for Nico." She smirked at Nico teasingly who stuck his tongue out at her. "For you I'll think of something else." She then said to Percy who swallowed and hid behind Amphitrite and Poseidon who chuckled lightly.

"The seeds are a last-resort food…"Won't we?"

"They better." Hades growled and looked at Percy who nodded.

"Of course we will." He said. Jason froze as he remembered what was coming next and closed his eyes. Leo looked equally tense about the next few minutes of conversation that would be taking place. He looked away from Hazel who was glaring at Leo and Jason.

"Yes!" Coach Hedge yelled…"That doesn't sound fun."

"It isn't." Persephone scowled.

"But it keeps you from consuming all your air, yes?" Hephaestus asked Nico who nodded.

"It does but its not very comfortable, per say." The demigod grimaced slightly. "It kind of feels like you have a limited supply of air and that's all that your body's getting and furthermore, there was a lack of water as well so the only function that my body was able to perform was breathing." He explained. Hades' grip on Nico's shoulder tightened not even wanting to think about his son in a death trance let alone the jar that he'd never seen his nephew recover completely from. Somehow, his son had had the strength to leave it behind him but Hades wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to leave the fact that his son had been on the verge of dying painfully and ending up in his realm the hard way, behind him.

"What about when the jar was open?" Apollo asked. Nico shrugged lightly.

"I could move but barely. Seeing as no function in my body was performed properly, there was way too much weakness and starvation and dehydration didn't help matters." The son of Hades answered. Everybody swallowed thickly as they listened to Nico's description and Hades and Persephone just wanted to take Nico to Disneyland and see him be a kid again or something.

Apollo, Hermes, Artemis and Dionysus looked at each other and then at Ares whose hands had gone pale on the book but the god of war continued through his gritted teeth. There was no way that Ares was going to admit that it was hard for him to read or listen to about the jar.

"It keeps him from consuming…Angelo is Italian for 'angel.'"

Hades rubbed his temples and tried to loosen his grip on Nico's shoulder, figuring that if he got any more worried or angry, he'd end up hurting Nico who was alive and well as he kept reminding himself. He'd lost Bianca, he'd lost Maria, he didn't know what he'd do if even Nico was one of the souls roaming Elysium because he was suffocated in godsdamned jar by two hippie giants.

"Oh, gods," Hazel muttered…Percy had ended up in a cell.

"I thought grudges were my thing." Nico teased Percy who looked at him with a faux affronted expression.

"Dad, you think we could lock Nico up in one of the holding cells at Atlantis?" Percy said to Poseidon, making the sea god chuckle.

"He'd hold a grudge about that." He said.

"Exactly! Because grudges are my thing." Nico grinned. Percy flipped him off playfully.

"Flattering." Came the reply.

"Shut up."

But most of the time…sided with the good guys

"When did I not?" Nico complained.

"When you locked me in a cell." Percy said dryly.

"I also got you out!"

"That's why I said. Most of the times." Percy smirked.

"If I'd known that you're going to annoy me so much, I'd have left you there." Nico rolled his eyes playfully at his cousin. Percy flourished a dramatic hand to his chest.

"I love you too." He said.

He certainly didn't deserve…couldn't stand seeing Hazel in pain.

Hazel smiled at Percy who grinned at her.

"Thank you for being sad for me or I'd be dead." Nico told Hazel dramatically.

"Oh shut up, you idiot. We'd have saved you anyways." Percy snorted.

"We'll rescue him…key to endless death."

"Two birds with one stone, huh?" Nico nodded at Percy. "Say I was dead, what then?" Nico raised an amused eyebrow. Percy snorted.

"We were kind of counting on you to be alive seeing as otherwise it'd ruin the whole 'saving' part of it but if you were dead then we'd still come to get the body. No way we were gonna leave it with those jackasses." Percy said to Nico who chuckled. Percy then looked at away and sighed. There was no way he was going to let another one of the Di Angelo siblings not get a proper funeral.

"We'd give you a proper funeral and all that. Y'know with the drachma under the tongue and all." Percy teased and Nico laughed.

"Only rule you'd follow, huh?" he chuckled.

"You bet."

"That's right," Piper said… "and how to close them."

"It was so easy too." Percy said cheerily. Annabeth looked at him wryly and he grinned sheepishly.

"So not funny." Poseidon said to Percy whose expression sobered, remembering Poseidon's experience with Tartarus and nodded. He knew that his father knew about how he fell into Tartarus and why but one thing he was sure about was that he had no godsdamned idea about what had happened in the Pit and it was not going to be fun for him to hear.

Hazel took a deep breath…"We have no choice!"

"Hazel's right. You have to save Nico and that's the only way to do it. Its not like it's the first time that you're going to have to walk into a trap. Half the stuff we do ends with that." Katie said to Leo who swallowed.

"I didn't know that then." He said weakly.

"Well, then listen to the people who did." Katie scowled, knowing exactly what was coming and she'd had enough of her younger brother being suspected and thought of as an untrustworthy person.

"Don't get me wrong, Hazel…trust the guy. So am I."

"What?" Hades said quietly but it still rang out in the room as nobody else dared to say a word but most of the people were glaring at Jason and Leo.

"When you don't know anything about him then I would suggest that you refrain from talking about my son at all." The god snarled at Jason and Leo who looked terrified as shadow began to form around Hades. Zeus looked at Jason and sighed, remembering the exact thing that he'd done to Hades all those years ago. He knew that his brother wouldn't try to hurt Jason and so Zeus thought it important for Jason to hear what Hades had to say. Jason made to say something but Zeus stopped him and shook his head.

"How could they have trusted you? You were a Roman weren't you? That too a former Praetor? You honestly have no right to even say that Nico can't be trusted and if you're too worried about walking into traps then maybe you shouldn't have even been part of the seven." Hades growled at Jason who swallowed thickly. Persephone was also glaring viciously at Jason and Leo and the only reason why she wasn't saying anything was because Nico was already holding Hades back and was looking pleadingly at Persephone to not say anything but obviously that didn't apply for the rest of the people in the room.

"Leo, what the actual fuck?" Travis looked at the son of Hephaestus, disappointment written in his eyes and Leo swallowed, bracing himself but the anger never came.

"I thought you'd be better. I thought you'd have understood what it was like to not be trusted after your teammates didn't trust you at the moment but you didn't hesitate for even a second before levelling those accusations at somebody half the people in the crew trusted. I thought you'd be better." The son of Hermes said and Leo felt as if somebody had splashed freezing water in his face. He'd never looked at it that way and that hurt him more than anything else.

"Jason, you were leader. It was your duty to trust your crew and when they said that Nico could be trusted it was your job to make sure that nothing happened to him." Thalia looked at Jason with a mixture of disappointment and horror on her face and Jason winced.

"I was a leader and that's why I had to make sure that the rest of our crew didn't die and this was clearly walking into a trap and facing two giants." Jason defended, sending Nico an apologetic look but the son of Hades looked indifferent. At this point, he'd stopped being surprised.

"It wasn't your choice to make, nephew. You were in a team and it doesn't matter whether or not you're a leader there." Poseidon frowned. Hades looked at Poseidon in surprise but gave him a grateful look nonetheless.

"I agree. It wasn't a choice that was up for debate in the first place and nor was it a vote. Sometimes we have to take risks and most of us trusted Nico and even when you didn't, you can't tell me that you weren't prepared to take risks on the whole quest." Percy said quietly to Jason.

"Why didn't you say that then then?" Jason said.

"We were already trying to stop a war. There wasn't a need for a second one taking place on our only means of transport." Percy smiled dryly.

"For a minute, lets keep the fact that it was Nico in that jar out of the equation and it was somebody you didn't know at all. Like it had been for me. You're telling me that you still would have taken that risk?" Jason countered.

"Yes. You know why? Because there are times when you have to believe rather than be rational and this was a time when you had to believe. You might think that being rational would get you out of everything but the truth is that if you're rational in the wrong situation then sometimes it gets you knee deep in some shit and makes things worse off than they were before. Say we'd been rational right now and left Nico. We'd be without a son of Hades and so would the rest of the entire quest have been jeopardized and why? Because it was the easy way out." Percy said. "That's the thing, Jason. You can't always be rational and you can't always have a militarized thinking. Sometimes you got to have faith and plan that way. Who says that that isn't just as effective?" he said with a small smile, looking Jason in the eye.

"We can't always leave everything up to 'belief' either." Jason said.

"No." Percy admitted. "You need to think both ways." He said with a sad smile. This was the exact reason that he had not chosen Jason as his number 2 and now it looked like the son of Jupiter realized that as well.

"Is that why you didn't choose me as your number 2?" he asked, his voice hoarse and Percy sighed.

"Jason…we'll talk about that later?" he asked.

"Look, its fine. I just want to know and neither of us are going to be able to find the mood or the time to have this conversation again." Jason sighed. Percy looked at Jason for a few seconds while everybody else looked at him, wanting to hear his reply.

"Yes." Percy said finally. He might as well tell Jason the truth while they were on the subject of it now. "I wanted somebody that could take the risks when they were needed and yet be rational when that was required. While I trust you, Jase, I didn't want that my number 2 be somebody who bases everything on facts and reason because sometimes that just doesn't work out. Risks have to be taken in the situations that we face. The important thing that both Nico and I know is that nothing priceless comes without a price. And sometimes, that price has to be paid. And knowing you, you wouldn't be ready to pay it if it meant winging it." He said.

"I wanted somebody who wouldn't let something go just because it was a risk to go for it. That's what happened in our past and the thing about history is that we're supposed to learn from it." Percy said. Everybody looked at Percy in sheer amazement and awe while the sea gang looked beyond proud as did a couple of other gods like Apollo and Hades.

"Take the case of Nico itself. Somebody once told me that you can't give up on family no matter how tough they make it and sometimes that calls for taking a risk and most of the times that's worth it." He said. Hermes gave Percy a smile as he remembered their conversation what seemed like a hundred years ago. After that statement, he'd joined Apollo, Hades and the sea gang in looking proud of Percy. Zeus looked at Percy and couldn't help but feel impressed of the demigod as well. He knew the pressure and responsibility that came with being a leader and damn, was Percy handling it well.

"Right." Jason said and sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. "That makes sense." He said. Percy sighed, not liking this conversation that he'd had to have with his brother. He hated hurting somebody like that. Poseidon kept a reassuring hand on Percy's shoulder.

"You did well, son." He said to him quietly and Percy gave him a grateful look.

"All right guys. There's a bit more of this whole trust business but can we please try to not kill anybody?" Annabeth said and everybody nodded although Hades seemed reluctant. Even Ares didn't seem to happy about it. He remembered staying in that jar without any of his family members coming to rescue him until Hermes finally did and the torture of that jar still haunted him.

Hazel shot to her feet…where his loyalties lie?

"Clearly not with Gaia or you'd be dead by now." Nico said with raised eyebrows "And I wouldn't be on the risk of asphyxiation." He said.

"We just have to be careful"…I'm just being cautious!"

"That is the single-most bullshit defense that I have ever heard." Castor declared.

"What do you say, Mr. Mike Ross?" Thalia grinned at Percy whose eyes widened.

"Haven't even started training yet. Ask your dad or Apollo." He said, holding his hands in a surrender gesture.

"Honestly, there's no need to. It was a pretty shitty defense." Jason said sheepishly. "I am so sorry, Nico. Really." He said to Nico who gave him a small smile.

"Its fine. Don't worry about it." He said.

"He should worry about it." Persephone grumbled. Jason's eyes widened.

"Don't worry. You're not going to get killed." Nico assured him with a chuckle. Nico wasn't fond of what he found out about this whole decision that was taken but he wasn't going to blame anybody anymore. They'd gone through enough shit and were going to be going through much more for him to hold a grudge about what Jason said. Yeah, it hurt but they'd gotten over it and he knew that Jason had his back now and there was no point on dwelling on the fact that he had been ready to let him die at one point.

"Her brother is dying…Any ideas from the expert?

"Seriously?" Thalia raised an eyebrow at Jason.

"We're going to sort this out once and for all once we're done with the war council." Percy said to Jason with a grin.

"Definitely." Came the reply.

Was that resentment in his voice…wonder who was stronger.

"Yeah, well you knew you would have lost." Percy teased.

"I will taser you right now itself and not wait for the fight." Jason warned.

"You could try, Sparky." Percy snorted.

"This better not lead to world war III. We've had enough of similar fights between these two." Demeter said, gesturing to Zeus and Poseidon who gave her matching faux affronted expressions but she just gave her the 'elder sister look' and their expressions turned sheepish.

"I'm not sure," he admitted…"Young lady, you are grounded."

Everybody burst out laughing.

"I love coach, man. He's my new hero." Grover snickered.

"Traitor." Annabeth and Percy pouted at him and he smirked.

"You should meet Delphin. I have a feeling that that's going to be the start of a very chaotic and long-lasting friendship." Triton told Grover amusedly.

"Funnily enough, Percy said the same thing to me after his visit to Atlantis." Grover chuckled. Triton and Percy high fived. "I'd love to meet him." Grover said.

"Great. Their friendship is going to be made on the grounds of bitching about how exhausting it is dealing with us." Poseidon chuckled.

"It's the best kind." Grover grinned, making the sea god laugh.

Annabeth stared at him... "Excuse me?"

"I really should pick up some tips from Gleeson." Chiron chuckled and Annabeth stuck her tongue out at the centaur and he grinned at her.

"You terrify me when I try to punish you. He seems to have some trick. Might as well learn it and use it whenever you all create some chaos like setting the big house on fire or maiming each other." Chiron said and all the Greek campers grinned sheepishly.

"You and Jackson are not…Mr. Sneaky Jackson.

"I'm so using that." Thalia cackled.

"Don't you da-" Percy started.

"Shut up, Mr. Sneaky Jackson." Thalia said and Percy chucked a cushion at her which hit her squarely on the nose.

"I might not be able to fire an arrow but I am a certified cushion thrower." Percy warned her and Thalia flipped Percy off with both hands and the son of Poseidon winked at her.

The rest of you guard… "Is going to be so much fun."

"Chapter's done." Ares said, relief coloring his voice.

"I'll read." Dionysus said.