Chapter 5

Annabeth would admit to being reluctant to talking about the Pit with Nico while Jason was there listening. It wasn't that she didn't trust him despite all the tension which had grown between the two demigod Camps since Gaea's forced sleep at Piper's hands, but Jason simply couldn't understand the shared trauma between the two Greeks.

Still, she was pleasantly surprised. Jason listened intently, asking questions with his different perspective which neither Annabeth nor Nico had considered. As Annabeth had expected, it was in the early hours of the morning and several strong coffees later when the three of them finally stopped for the night and retired to their beds. Annabeth found herself quietly apologising to her cabin as she snuck in and inadvertently roused several of them from their slumber. Most stayed sleeping, but with a new war looming over their heads Annabeth wasn't sure how long it would be until they were all light sleepers waking screaming from nightmares which haunted them relentlessly every night.

Only a scant few hours later and limbs still heavy with tiredness, Annabeth was trudging to the pavilion for breakfast alongside her cabin. She'd slept little, tossing and turning with memories and fear over her return to the Pit. The storm also hadn't eased until after sunrise, the light of day revealing the valley drenched and large parts of the camp flooded under a foot or more of water.

Annabeth allowed no sign of her frustration at the pettiness of the gods to show as she seated herself at the Athena cabin's bench. Demigods around her were muttering about the presence of the three Romans at the table with Chiron, most theorising on whom they even were. Annabeth felt a pang of discontent at the realisation that the Romans were so separated from the Greeks now that most of the campers didn't even realise whom the Romans present were. If it weren't for the purple Camp Jupiter and SPQR shirts, Annabeth doubted they'd even realise they were Romans in the first place.

The three children of Poseidon had their heads together and looked to be actively plotting, which was never a good sign for anyone. Michael at least had noticed and was eying them with suspicion. Annabeth decided to ignore them, she knew that as much as they enjoyed causing problems, they weren't usually intending to harm others. Nico was absent from the Hades table, his mortal half-siblings looking worried with his absence.

Thalia had clearly been waiting for Annabeth to arrive, as she stood and made her way over to her, lingering at the edge of the table. "You were right, by the way," Thalia said quietly to Annabeth. Annabeth raised a questioning eyebrow, and Thalia smirked. "Poseidon's cabin tried," she said. "Better than that, they'd already flooded the upper floor and were trying to figure out how they might be able to stop it from flooding the bottom floor when they let it go." Thalia's smirk grew even wider. "Don't think they'd thought of that until after they'd snuck some of the ocean into their cabin."

Annabeth sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Thank you," she tiredly said. That was probably why Chiron looked even more tired than usual, despite their late-night meeting. Annabeth paused briefly. "You did sort it out, right?" That was one of the disadvantages of having so many more Campers now than they'd used to – wrangling that many young demigods at once was exhausting.

Thalia snickered. "Yes," she said. "Don't worry. I dealt with it." Annabeth decided she didn't want to know anymore, but Thalia continued on anyway with a smug smile. "Thought I'd leave them stuck there holding the water up, so I'm sure they had fun trying to deal with it themselves." That would also explain why the three Poseidon campers looked more tired than usual if they'd had to walk the water back to the ocean after taking it in the first place. Thalia tapped a finger onto the table, ignoring the stares of the others in the pavilion. Up at the head table, Jason was watching the two of them with a faint frown. Annabeth tried to not bring Thalia's attention to him.

"What's on your mind?" Annabeth asked somewhat uneasily.

Thalia sighed and looked like she were considering sitting on the table, before deciding otherwise. Annabeth was glad. Athena – like most of the gods these days – wasn't very fond of Thalia due to her disrespect. Artemis' blessing protected Thalia for now, and no one wanted to piss off Zeus by killing his oldest mortal child, but Annabeth still didn't want Thalia to push it too far too often. "How was Jason last night?"

Annabeth closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "What's happened between you two lately?"

Thalia shrugged slightly. "We have different priorities," she said, crossing her arms with a faint scowl. "He's got New Rome and the Legion to prioritise, protect and advise, and I still lead Artemis' Hunt." Thalia pressed her lips together. "And… he's still hung up over Percy." Thunder rumbled overhead as Thalia's scowl deepened.

That issue had also caused problems between Annabeth and Jason before. Even after Percy's disappearance, his stories and his adventures had been told and twisted into his own myths and legends. Then there was the near-worship of Percy between the two camps, which New Rome and the Legion had taken up after Camp Half-Blood had.

"And he's upset that you and the rest of us spent so much time looking for Percy," Annabeth quietly said. New Rome had searched for Percy too, with Percy having been raised on a shield and formerly being a Praetor of New Rome. Thalia had used the Hunt as a means of trying to get monsters to tell her about Percy and if he was alive or not, sometimes going to extremes which Annabeth hadn't been particularly upset with.

Thalia's jaw clenched. "Can you blame us? Can Jason really blame us for that?"

Annabeth shrugged. "He lost his memories and so did Percy, when Hera took them -" both demigods ignored the crash of warning thunder overhead at their casual mention of the Queen of the gods, "- but New Rome didn't look for him the way we looked for Percy. Then when he gets back to New Rome, he finds out that he's been replaced?" She didn't bring it up, but it hadn't helped either that Thalia had only just met him for the first time since they were separated as children and had immediately demanded information about Percy.

"It's been centuries now," Thalia said, looking extremely unamused.

"Yes," Annabeth said patiently. "And despite those centuries passing, we're still talking about going into… the Pit after Percy again."

Thalia scowled. "But shouldn't he be happy about it?" She demanded.

"Gods, Thalia," Annabeth said. "This is really something you need to talk to him about," she pointed out. Thalia's scowl deepened. She opened her mouth, but Annabeth was quick to speak first. "We're about to go down into the Pit with him and the other Romans, Thals," Annabeth pointed out wearily. "We can't afford to be squabbling between ourselves down there. Please, promise me you'll go and speak to him before we have to leave?"

Thalia's eyes flashed in Annabeth's direction. "He's the one who's angry about it," she grumbled, taking a step back from Annabeth and storming back over to the Artemis table as her fingers cracked with tendrils of lightning.

Annabeth groaned and rubbed at her eyes, already tired and breakfast wasn't even over yet. She knew some of what Jason had told Thalia over the years, though mostly from Thalia's own mouth. Annabeth thought it was natural that Jason would be a little upset over Percy's treatment considering all that had happened, particularly how Thalia had been excessively searching for Percy in the first century after Percy's disappearance and had mostly completely ignored Jason's existence. Her younger brother was understandably upset over it since they'd only just been reunited at the time.

When Athena cabin sacrificed some of their breakfasts to the gods, Annabeth wasn't surprised to hear some of her own cabin trying to sacrifice some of their own food to Percy. She uttered a quiet attempt at it too, to let him know they were coming for him. Even if she knew nothing would reach him since he wasn't a god, she wouldn't stop herself from trying.

Following breakfast, Annabeth made her way back to the Athena cabin after sending her half-siblings onto their first activities. She grabbed the placement laptop for Daedalus' Laptop that had been given to her by Hephaestus in the years following the Gigantomachy then headed in the direction of Bunker Nine. The members of the Hephaestus cabin would likely be playing with anything they could get their hands on under Leo's uneasy and watchful gaze. That morning, Leo hadn't been at breakfast and most of his cabin was missing too. He was carefully crafting a series of arrows with different coloured bands over their shafts close to the fletching at a workstation in Bunker Nine when Annabeth arrived, his cabinmates all working at forging the arrows themselves. He glanced up when Annabeth entered, raising an eyebrow at her and beckoning her over.

Annabeth carefully picked her way across the floor towards him, having to avoid spinning tables with knives attached to them and one particular mahogany one which was walking yelled, "Cut that out!" at another table. Buford spotted Annabeth and she smiled. "Put some clothes on!" Buford barked at her.

Annabeth laughed as the Hephaestus campers grinned widely, some of them cracking up. Buford returned to attempting to wrangle his fellow moving tables once Annabeth had moved on.

Leo smirked slightly at Annabeth when she paused next to him on a smaller but no less impressive platform slightly above and behind the main floor where the rest of Hephaestus cabin worked at their own projects. "Thought you were gonna come by here today," he said.

Annabeth smiled. "We've known each other for a long time now. I'd be insulted if you didn't."

Leo's smirk faltered a little. "That's true," he said quietly, pausing briefly as he stared down at the arrow he was carefully sharpening. There was a red band around it's celestial bronze shaft. "What do you think?" He asked Annabeth, holding it up for her to inspect. "Careful," he added. "Don't touch the tip."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, taking it in her hands and carefully turning it around. "What's this one?" She questioned.

Leo grinned. "Exploding Greek fire arrow," he said.

Annabeth warily handed it back to him, making his grin widen as he took it. "I hope you're not just letting anyone handle them?" Annabeth didn't think she needed to remind him what happened the last time he handed Greek fire to one of the Hephaestus campers.

"No, just you," Leo said as he returned to carefully sharpening the arrowhead. "Thought Thalia and Frank would appreciate something a little more than basic arrows for this. I don't feel comfortable going through the Pit without some added help. I've made some sonic arrows for them too."

Annabeth nodded slightly. "Good call," she agreed. "The balance felt a little off, is that…?"

Leo grimaced. "Best I could do with it," he said. "Can't get Greek fire into it without offsetting the balance a little. I'm thinking I'll try and smelt a small ring of bronze around the tails and file it down to fix that, but then they'll have fewer arrows."

"Time's against us here," Annabeth muttered.

"Nico come back yet?" Leo asked, glancing up from his sharpening slightly as he turned the arrow over.

"Not yet." Annabeth sighed. "Jason muttered something about helping to get supplies together – food, water, nectar and ambrosia."

Leo pressed his lips together, nodding slightly. The friendly relationship between Leo and Jason had quickly turned stale over the centuries. "So we're just waiting for supplies?" He asked. "I mean, we're all here, but no one's actually said when we're leaving yet."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Eager?"

Leo snorted. "No. Definitely not." He rubbed at his cheek, smearing streaks of dust from his work. "Just want to be prepared. Get a bit of a warning."

Annabeth sighed, leaning against Leo's workbench. Down below them slightly and closer to the door, some of the other Hephaestus campers were glancing towards the two half-immortal demigods. Annabeth's gaze lingered on them slightly. "If we fail," she murmured. "They won't have anyone aside from Chiron again."

"Not all of us are going," Leo pointed out. "There's still Will, and the Stoll twins. That's not even mentioning the others from the other cabins… and Reyna's staying in New Rome too." Minor god cabins, he meant.

"Still," Annabeth said quietly. Leo knew what she meant. All of the remaining Seven were going on this. "I don't like quests with more than three," she said grimly. "They're bad luck."

"Three threes," Leo suggested. "That's got to be more lucky than just one three, right?"

"I don't really think that's how it works," Annabeth said, her lips twitching slightly. Though she was certainly hoping it would work out like that.

"Won't know until we find out," Leo said helpfully. "So what's your plan? What did you and Nico decide last night?"

Annabeth sighed. "We'll have to hope we can hear something about where Percy is when we're down there, probably from monsters," she said. "We'll try to find familiar landmarks we know about, but honestly? We're mostly going in blind," Annabeth admitted. "I think Nico's asking his father about getting down there, so we'll wait to see what they come up with."

Leo nodded slightly. "I can't decide if this sounds better or worse than the Prophecy of the Seven," he said. The arrow lay forgotten on the bench until then as Leo picked it up again, sighing as he eyed the point.

It was more than sharp enough now and Leo seemed to agree, carefully placing it down next to several others.

"At least there's nine of us," Annabeth quietly said. "And not just two." She swallowed, fear bubbling up through her throat and threatening to choke her. Tartarus. She'd have to go into Tartarus again, the Pit that even the gods feared. Naturally, she was terrified of the days – maybe even weeks – to come. It was some comfort that there would be more allies to trust down there this time, but that also ran the risk of attracting more monsters to them. "But we won't know for sure until we're actually down there," Annabeth added, looking back up to Leo.

There was a knowing look in his eyes. It was practically impossible to hide anything from the others anymore. Leo turned and hopped up onto his workbench, sitting next to her. They were attracting the attention of the younger Hephaestus campers, but Annabeth watched them back in turn. Leo lapsed into an uncharacteristic and heavy silence next to her. "We'll be fine," he finally said after a few minutes of watching the younger campers. "We're the best ones to go," Leo added. "When we're actually down there, we'll be able to put our differences aside. Just like what happened with Dirtface."

Annabeth's lips twitched slightly and she shook her head with Leo's mention of Gaea, but she hoped he was right. "I hope we've trained them well enough," she said, her eyes still on the younger Hephaestus campers. Three of them were gathered around one of the mechanical hologram tables and laughing between themselves, entirely oblivious to the conversation shifting and now regarding them.

Leo followed her gaze, and a frown formed on his face. "Me too," he quietly admitted to Annabeth. His frown deepened and he picked up an arrow that he hadn't yet got around to sharpening. "Is this all it is?" Leo asked her. She wasn't surprised with the bitterness in his voice. "Training kids to die in a war for gods that we know will only mourn them for a week, if that? How many wars are there going to be? One was enough for me. How many of them will die?"

Annabeth let out a sharp breath. The worst thing was Annabeth felt much the same, even if she'd fought in two wars and not just the one. Three hundred years of dealing with the callousness of the gods and their reluctance to acknowledge their children had left many of them bitter – except for the Romans, whom seemed to have kept their faith in the gods despite it all.

If Kronos had risen now, after knowing what Annabeth knew and if Luke had joined him now, then Annabeth couldn't see herself trying to stop Luke anymore. She might even join Luke. "We train them to live," Annabeth said, her words sounding hollow even to herself. "In the hope that they'll survive. For themselves, not for the gods."

"But they'll have to fight for the gods anyway," Leo murmured.

Annabeth nodded slightly. "Yes," she said. "But at least they can go into it with more training, more experience than we did when we were as young as them. At least that means they all have a better chance at getting through it than we did." Annabeth's eyes drifted to the entrance of Bunker Nine, currently propped open to let some more natural air inside other than the constant stale ventilation built into the Bunker. "We had three hundred years of peace at least," Annabeth quietly said.

"I guess three hundred more is too much to hope for," Leo said.

Annabeth's lips twitched up. "Probably," she agreed. Annabeth eyed the dozen red-banded arrows that Leo had made so far, enough to be split for six each between Thalia and Frank – hopefully enough to be used in emergencies. "How many of them are you going to make?" She asked, nodding her head to them.

Leo grimaced. "As many as I could," he admitted. "Wasn't sure how long it would be until we were heading out and wanted to keep myself busy."

"Do you want something else to do?" Annabeth asked, finally setting the laptop in its case on the workbench next to her. "I had an idea."

Leo perked up. "Tell me," he said eagerly, eyes flicking to the laptop as Annabeth pulled it out of the case and opened it up. "Anything to keep me occupied at this point. I hate all this waiting."

"You remember the project we've talked about before? We could give it another try while we wait to head out. It'll be useful to have down in the Pit."

Leo raised an eyebrow as he scratched at the back of his neck, peering down at the designs that Annabeth pulled up. "What about the problem of no sunlight down there?" He asked. "Will it even be able to work without sunlight?"

"That was the original design Beckendorf made," Annabeth agreed as she projected the blueprint above the laptop. "But I've been working at a way to get around that. I think if we incorporate it into the spells woven into it as it's being forged, we can get it working with just light and not sunlight. Down there, hopefully there will be enough light that the shield can bend along the rays and follow them… not just requiring sunlight."

Leo pressed his lips together. He turned the hologram of the blueprint back and forth as he inspected it. "Could always ask Will if he wants to come along too," he suggested with a faint frown. "He'll probably be able to give off enough sunlight to make it work."

"I don't want to swap out any of the others for Will and ten is even worse than nine on a quest," Annabeth said. "Besides, I don't think Nico would want him joining us," she added.

Leo nodded slightly, lost in thought at his eyes flicked over the hologram. "You said there's a river of fire down there too, right? That'll definitely be some light... that might work. Alright," he finally said. "I can give it a go." Leo scribbled a quick message down on a loose sheet of paper on the workbench, scrunched it up into a ball and chucked it up into the air to one of Hephaestus cabin's small helicopters. "Get that to Piper," Leo said to the helicopter. Annabeth watched as its rotor blades whirred and the little motorised helicopter buzzed off out of Bunker Nine to deliver the message.

"I thought they were still a work in progress," Annabeth asked, raising an eyebrow at Leo.

He grinned. "Yeah, but I'm sure I've got there with them now."

Annabeth watched as the helicopter abruptly jerked sideways and flew itself right into one of the internal railings of Bunker Nine, damaging all of its rotor blades as it continued to fly whilst scraping down the railing to the ground with a shower of sparks.

Leo's eyes were wide with horror. "No!" He exclaimed. The helicopter crash landed, bending its tail at a right angle. It buzzed angrily on the ground, uselessly spinning bent and shattered blades. Leo swore.

"Better luck next time?" Annabeth offered to him. "I'll go and see if I can find Piper and a Hecate camper," she calmly suggested as she put down the laptop and patted a disappointed Leo on the shoulder, hopping down from her seat on the workbench. "Just to avoid anymore fatalities," she added as she watched the younger Hephaestus campers rush to the fallen helicopter in horror. "I'm sure you don't want to lose another."

Leo sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea," he agreed, looking a little sheepish and annoyed as he frowned down at the failed helicopter on the larger floor beneath them in disappointment. His eyes flicked back to the blueprint again, leaning back towards it intently as he returned to inspecting it. "I'll get everything together ready for making this when they're here."

Thanks for reading!

If you want further updates and more info about when chapters are going to be posted / how writing them is going, along with the chance to chat with others, please consider joining my discord with the server code:

stJvYshE9t

Reviews:

Jsmine Lucas: Thanks!

Ardwyr: yup, this is the new version. More up to date with my current writing style etc, more world building and fleshing out more characters and the story itself :) It's gonna make the deaths hit a lot harder when they start happening.

TatsuyaShiva4: He might have met some, but I can't say he'll really befriend any of them aha. Primordials are probably not even aware he exists ngl. Aside from Tartarus... Tartarus and Gaea definitely know lol.

FinleyGlenanne: XD thanks! Figured the gods would like poking fun at each other aha.

Guest: Thanks! That's honestly nice to hear XD. I tend to forget that some people actually like... follow my stories and it's nice to get reminders of that sometimes :), reminds me people are waiting for updates and keeps me writing sometimes aha. Ohhhh yeah, those divisions between Camps are not going to make anything easy for the demigods and Olympus XD - besides, the groups are natural rivals and that kind of instinct won't go away... likely ever.