kaleidoscope gold ● jason grace

heart

At some point during their quest, Annabeth had ceded her position of the leader to Piper. After seeing her single handedly take down three immortals, she didn't regret it. They were all gathered in the Mess Hall, which had begun to feel a lot like the rec room in the Big House back at camp.

"Leo," Piper was saying. "How much longer until we touch down?"

The elfish boy smirked, something like pride shining in his eyes as Piper addressed the group. "A few hours?" He replied. "But we're landing right in Epirus; should only be a 5 minute walk to the House of Hades."

Nico leaned forward on the table. He sat on Percy's left, which Annabeth would've found extremely strange less than a week ago. But ultimately, she was glad. Someone needed to bring him out of his shell, and Percy and Piper had hearts of gold. "Do we even have a plan?" Ah, there was some of that comforting pessimism.

There was silence.

Percy leaned back in his chair. "I've always said that the best plan is winging it."

Annabeth and Nico shared a glance. "Yeah," Annabeth said dryly. "Because that tends to work out so well for you."

"We need to start with the barley," Hazel said. "That'll get us through the poison."

"And we've got the sceptre," Piper added. "I don't know when we'll need that but um, Nico, you should be the one to carry that for now." Nico dipped his head in acknowledgement.

"Mars told me something about an army," Frank spoke up. "But here's the strange part. He called it a legion, specifically, what do you think that means?"

Percy's eyes gleamed with interest. "Do you think it's like Alaska? The dead legionnaires?"

Annabeth looked at the trio. "Remind the rest of us what happened."

Hazel grimaced. "It wasn't much of a fight. There were thousands of old legion members-people who knew how to use a weapon. Daria and Percy are much stronger than most demigods I know, but still, the only reason they won was because-"

"-I drowned them," Percy finished. He shrugged, "it was pretty fun, though."

"Showoff," Leo grumbled.

"So assuming there's no ocean in the House of Hades," Piper said, ignoring both Leo and Percy who were intent on 'winging it'. "Nico, Hazel do you think you could...I don't know."

"Bury them?" Nico thought about it. "Maybe. The thing is, there's not really any ground to bury them under."

"At least we know what we're dealing with," Piper relented. "Let's just all make sure we stay together."

Frank made a 'time-out' signal. "Wait, no. Hazel's got her own thing, remember?"

"I'll be fine," Hazel said. There was something different about her after that fight with Frank (which they had all heard). Annabeth couldn't help but feel proud at her friends for finally growing into these strong women, as cheesy as it was. She had been doing this demigod thing for so long that she forgot how much time it took to get used to everything. So far, Piper and Hazel were exceeding expectations.

Leo looked at Frank, then seemed to think otherwise. "Haze, I can come with you. Just for extra help." Frank, surprisingly, didn't shift his expression, remaining unbothered.

"Sure," she said. "But I'll be fine."

"Okay fine," Piper said. "Leo and Hazel stick together. Frank, bring the barley. And-"

Whatever she was going to say got cut off as Coach Hedge stumbled into the room. "Hey, Valdez! You sure we're headed to the right place? Looks to me like we're walking into a trap!"