"It is and was and ever will be,

It's our past present and future

all rolled into one. It waits for

no one and is under no man's

command. It's our hope for

tomorrow and the reality of

yesterday. It can be our best ally

or our worst enemy. It is Time."

Chapter 1:

It all started when my hell hound, Mrs. O'Leary shadow traveled into my backyard. Up until then every thing had been ( or as normal as it can get when you're a half-blood ) my mom and Paul had gotten married and moved to a house on the out skirts of New York, I had survived another year at the same school ( miracle ). So far no more big-end-of-the-world prophecies, so I thought things might settle down for a while and we would get some peace. Boy was I wrong.

"Mrs. O'Leary why are you...oh." I started then stopped when I saw who was on her back, a boy in full Greek battle armor grinning through the face guard of his skull shaped helmet, a Stygian iron sword at his side.

"Hey Percy," Nico said as if this was an every day occurrence.

"Hi Nico, what are you doing here?" I stared at them like they had just appeared out-of-nowhere ( which they had ).

"Come on, Percy. We have to get to Camp, fast." Nico looked worried. Something was definitely wrong.

"Why? What's going on?" After giving me the old sniff over, Mrs. O'Leary let me climb on.

"I think..." Nico started. Thunder sounded in the distance cutting him off.

"Sorry!"

"Let me guess. You can't tell me?"

"Well no. Not exactly." Nico admitted and with that Mrs. O'Leary took off and we shadow traveled to Camp Half-Blood.

When we arrived everything look normal Thalia's pine stood even taller than before with the Golden Fleece glittering on bottom branch, Peleus the "guard" dragon was sleeping next to the tree, campers and satyrs were playing volley ball in the sand pit, the cabins were mostly the same but there were more, about a dozen more then I remembered. Canoes were gliding over the lake and campers were riding pegasus' , everything look normal , yet something was off. Everyone looked tense, like they were waiting for something big to happen.

"So? What's the big deal?" I asked Nico, sliding off Mrs. O'Leary unto the grass of the commons area.

Nico glanced around as if to make sure no one was listening. "i really shouldn't say but something big is supposed to happen in..." he trailed off as a huge clap of thunder broke the quiet.

"Fine!" he yelled at the sky rolling his eyes, "Come on, Percy. Chiron's waiting."

When we got to the Big House everything looked just as normal as everywhere else, except Mr. D and Chiron were no where to be seen.

"Where is everybody?" I asked the unusually quiet Nico.

"Upstairs. In Rachel's room."

"Wait a minute 'Rachel's room'? She has a room?"

"Well where did you think they were going to put her? The attic?" He was trying hard not to laugh. And pretty much failing. With that we started up the stairs to the second floor.

At the top of the stairs we could hear I could hear Mr. D, Chiron, and Rachel talking. Okay more like arguing. Nico turnod to me and put a finger to his lips. Silently we moved to stand in front of a door that Nico mouthed was ' Rachel's room ' .

"We can't tell him! It's not the right time." Mr. D was saying.

"You mean you don't trust him." Chiron was saying bitterly, " besides look how trying to keep Percy's prophecy a secret worked. He still found out!"

I glanced at Nico, confused. "What are they talking about?" I whispered.

"I think it's the..." he stopped as the talking on the other side of the door continued.

"It might not even be about Nico and Perry." Mr. D was saying.

"We shouldn't be listening. Let's get out of here before they catch us." I whispered to Nico. He nodded and we started down the stairs, but we didn't get far before.

"Nico! Percy! Come up here a moment." Chiron's voice stopped us. He was in his magic wheelchair sitting at the top of the stairs. How he got up there is beyond me. We went up and said 'hi' to Rachel.

"Hey guys! How are..." she started then winced like she'd been stabbed when her eyes opened again they were glowing green. "It shall be them. They are the heroes!" the Spirit of Delphi hissed. Then she started to repeat a prophecy that would cost me more then I ever would have thought at the time:

Seven Half-Bloods shall answer the call.

To storm or fire the world must fall,

An oath to keep with a final breath,

and foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

At the last word Rachel shook her head looking confused, a What just happened? look on her face. Chiron was watching us with a sad almost pitying expression, but Mr. D was the first to talk.

"Well this is just great! I must go and alert Zeus of this new development." With that he disappeared in a flash of purple light leaving nothing but the sour smell of wine that dispersed quickly in the warm spring-early-summer breeze.

I forced my mind back to reality. "So what happened?"

Chiron looked at me grimly, "There been some trouble on Olympus."