DISCLAIMER: I, OBVIOUSLY, DO NOT OWN ANY OF THESE CHARACTERS. THEY ALL BELONG TO RICK RIORDAN, THE GOD OF TROLLS AND UNNECESSARY DEATH.

"Ever since their friends Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus, Leo had been working almost nonstop. He'd been acting angrier and even more driven than usual.

"Hazel worried about him. But part of her was relieved by the change. Whenever Leo smiled and joked, he looked too much like Sammy, his great-grandfather…Hazel's first boyfriend, back in 1942. Ugh, why did her life have to be so complicated?"

"It is complicated," agreed Percy through a mouthful of blue pancakes. The Cabin Councillors were sitting around the long table in the Big House again, this time chewing on hearty breakfasts at 8:00 in the morning. Chiron had the thick book in hand again, continuing from the Tartarus part they left off at, his eyes wandering to the pile of syrup-covered waffles once in a while. Percy and Annabeth didn't look frightened anymore at this thought of their future, but only ignored it. After all, it was the future—if even it was true or not—and they didn't need to worry about it now.

"'Another way,' Leo muttered. 'Do you see one?' On his monitor glowed a map of Italy. The Apennine Mountains ran down the middle of the boot-shaped country. A green dot for the Argo II blinked on the western side of the range, a few hundred miles north of Rome. Their path should've been simple. They needed to get to a place called Epirus in Greece and find an old temple called the House of Hades (or Pluto, as the Romans called him; or as Hazel like to think of him: the World's Worst Absent Father)."

At this, about half of the campers chimed in understanding and argued that their own mother/father was more distant. But there were a few like Percy who were just good ol' chums with their godly parent.

"To reach Epirus, all they had to do was go straight east—over the Apennines and across the Adriatic Sea. But it hadn't worked out that way. Each time they tried to cross the spine of Italy, the mountain gods attacked."

"'The spine of Italy'?" echoed Grover, munching on some aluminum cans he'd stored in his jacket pocket. "That sounds gross."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at him.

"For the past two days they'd skirted north, hoping to find a safe pass, with no luck. The numina montanum were sons of Gaea, Hazel's least favorite goddess. That made them very determined enemies."

Percy blanched. "Wait, they're enemies of Gaea? Isn't she, like, basically the world itself? How the heck are they still alive if they have her as an enemy?"

"Gaea is asleep right now," Chiron explained. "She has been for many millennia. But perhaps she is rising, not yet at her strongest point."

"Seems kinda stupid to make the Earth your enemy to me."

Travis Stoll pointed his sticky fork at Percy and said, "You're the one who made Kronos your enemy, and this is basically the same thing, almost."

"Hey!" Percy exclaimed.

"And, plus, it says here that you're they're friends, so you're probably Gaea's enemy too, in the future—"

"Back to the book, then." Chiron proclaimed, swallowing his breakfast.

"The Argo II couldn't fly high enough to avoid their attacks, and even with all its defense, the ship couldn't make it across the range without being smashed to pieces.

'It's our fault,' Hazel said. 'Nico's and mine. The numina can sense us.' She glanced at her half-brother. Since—"

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Percy said, putting his palm up in the "stop" motion. "Did you just say 'half-brother'?"

Nico stared at him, and then Chiron. The cabin councillors around the table gaped and started speaking all at once:

"There's another child of the Big Three?"

"I guess they really just gave up on their oath not to have children, huh?'

"No they didn't, this Hazel is a zombie, remember? She was born way before the oath was made! And…zzz…"

"She's not a zombie, Clovis—and don't fall asleep, we're in the middle of the book!"

"Ah, Katie, you know once he's asleep he probably won't wake up for another century or two…"

"Can we please just not question the course of the future? And not discuss the details?" Chiron asked everyone loudly in a pleading voice.

The commotion died down, and Percy clapped Nico on the back. "Coo!" he said brightly. "You've got a half-sister! Well, I guess since that's in the future, she's dead now…" He trailed off when he remembered what happened to his first sister, Bianca. He quickly took his seat again, waiting guiltily for Nico to glare at him again at the memory of the trust Percy betrayed by not saving Bianca. But Nico only shrugged, ignoring the mention of Bianca.

Chiron cleared his throat.

"She glanced at her half-brother. Since they'd rescued him from the giants—"

"What—?" the pale boy yelped.

"—he'd started to regain his strength, but he was still painfully thin. His black shirt and jeans hung off his skeletal frame. Long, dark hair framed his sunken eyes. His olive complexion had turned a sickly greenish white, like the color of tree sap."

"Sounds like him all the time," Will Solace, the Apollo Cabin counsellor, said. When Nico shot him a sullen look, the blond boy shot him a bright smile. "Kidding, by the way."

"In human years, he was fourteen, just a year older than Hazel, but that didn't tell the whole story."

"'Human years'," Grover laughed. "Why does that sound so funny?"

"Like Hazel, Nico di Angelo was from another era. He radiated a kind of old energy—a melancholy that came from knowing he didn't belong in the modern world. Hazel hadn't known him for very long—"

"How long is this going to go on and on about Death Boy?" Clarisse groaned—

"—but she understood, even shared, his sadness. The children of Hades (Pluto—whatever) rarely had happy lives. And judging from what Nico had told her from the night before, their biggest challenge was yet to come when they reached the House of Hades—a challenge he'd implored her to keep secret from the others.

"Nico gripped the hilt of his Stygian silver sword. 'Earth spirits don't like the children of the Underworld. That's true. We get under their skin—literally. But I think the numina could sense this ship anyway. We're carrying the Athena Parthenos. That thing is like a magical beacon."

This time, it was Chiron who looked shocked at the book. "The Athena Parthenos? But it can't be—"

"It's lost, isn't it?" Annabeth said in wonder. "Did they really find my mother's statue, after such a long time—?"

"Hazel shivered, thinking of the massive statue that took up most of the hold. They'd sacrificed so much saving it from the cavern under Rome; but they had no idea what to do with it. So far the only thing it seemed to be good for was alerting more monsters to their presence.

"Leo traced his finger down the map of Italy. 'So crossing the mountains is out. Thing is, they go a long way in either direction.'

"'We could go by sea," Hazel suggested. 'Sail around the southern tip of Italy.'

"'That's a long way," Nico said. 'Plus we don't have…' His voice cracked. 'You know…our sea expert, Percy.' The name hung in the air like a pending storm."

Present-time Percy's face darkened, and he looked down at his empty plate like he were wishing there were more pancakes for him to distract himself on.

"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon…probably the demigod Hazel admired most. He'd saved her life so many times on their quest to Alaska; but when he had needed Hazel's help in Rome, she'd failed him. She'd watched, powerless, as he and Annabeth had plunged into the pit."

Many of the others, including Chiron, had grave looks on their faces.

"Hazel took a deep breath. Percy and Annabeth were still alive. She knew that in her heart. She could still help them if she could get to the House of Hades, if she could survive the challenge Nico had warned her about…

"'What about continuing north?" she asked. "There has to be a break in the mountains, or something.'

"Leo fiddled with the bronze Archimedes sphere that he'd installed on the console—his newest and most dangerous toy."

The Counselor from the Hephaestus cabin's jaw dropped. "Is that referring to—?" Jake Mason started to say in mechanical wonder, but Chiron put a hand up as if to remind him about the whole "not thinking into the details".

"Every time Hazel looked at the thing, her mouth went dry. She worried that Leo would turn the wrong combination on the sphere and accidentally eject them all from the deck, or turn the Argo II into a giant toaster."

"I want that," Connor Stoll said, his brain cooking up ways that this Archimedes sphere could be used for pranks and such.

"Fortunately, they got lucky. The sphere grew a camera lens and projected a 3-D image of the Apennine Mountains above the console.

"'I dunno." Leo examined the hologram. 'I don't see any good passes to the north. But I like that idea better than backtracking south. I'm done with Rome.' No one argued with that. Rome had not been a good experience.

"'Whatever we do," Nico said, "we have to hurry. Every day that Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus…'" He didn't need to finish."

"Ever the morbid one, aren't you?"

"They had to hope that Percy and Annabeth could survive long enough to get to the Doors of Death. Then, assuming the Argo II could reach the House of Hades, they might be able to open the doors on the mortal side, save their friends, and seal the entrance, stopping Gaea's forces from being reincarnated in the mortal world over and over."

Clarisse whistled. "Not your typical Camp Half-blood quest, is it?"

"Yes…nothing could go wrong with that plan.

"Nico scowled at the Italian countryside below them. 'Maybe we should wake the others. This decision affects us all.'

"'No,' Hazel said. 'We can find a solution.' She wasn't sure why she felt so strongly about it, but since leaving Rome, the crew had started to lose its cohesion. They'd been learning to work as a team. Then bam…their two most important members fell into Tartarus."

"Why does she keep bringing that up…?" Annabeth asked with a wince.

"At least they called us 'important'," Percy grinned.

She grinned back. "Are you sure she wasn't just referring to me?"

"Percy had been their backbone. He had given them confidence as they sailed across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. As for Annabeth—she had been the de facto leader of the quest. She'd recovered the Athena Parthenos single-handedly."

Annabeth's jaw dropped. "I did what?"

"She was the smartest of the seven, the one with the answers. If Hazel woke up the rest of the crew, they'd just start arguing again, feeling more and more hopeless. She had to make Percy and Annabeth proud of her. She had to take initiative. She couldn't believe her only role in this quest would be what Nico warned her of—removing the obstacle waiting for them at the House of Hades. She pushed the thought aside.

"'We need some creative thinking,' she said. 'Another way to cross those mountains, or a way to hide ourselves from the numina.'

"'Nico sighed. 'If I was on my own, I could shadow-travel. But that won't work for an entire ship. And honestly, I'm not sure I have enough strength to even transport myself anymore.'

"'I could maybe rig some camouflage,' Leo said, 'like a smoke screen to hide us in the clouds.' He didn't sound very enthusiastic.

"'Hazel stared at the rolling farmland, thinking about what lay beneath it—the realm of her father, lord of the Underworld. She'd only met Pluto once, and she hadn't even realized who he was. She certainly had never expected help from him—not when she was alive the first time, not during her time as a spirit in the Underworld, not since Nico had brought her back to the world of the living. Her dad's servant, Thanatos, god of death, had suggested that Pluto might be doing Hazel a favor by ignoring her."

"Isn't Hades the god of death?" Drew Tanaka of the Aphrodite cabin asked boredly, snapping a mint gum.

"Nah, there's another god for that. Thanatos."

"Well, aren't you extremely helpful?"

"After all, she wasn't supposed to be alive. If Pluto took notice of her, he might have to return her to the land of the dead. Which meant calling on Pluto would be a very bad idea. And yet…

"Please, dad, she found herself praying. I have to find a way to your temple in Greece—the House of Hades. If you're down there, show me what to do.

"At the edge of the horizon, a flicker of movement caught her eye—something small and beige racing across the fields at incredible speed, leaving a vapor trail like a plane's. Hazel couldn't believe it. She didn't dare hope, but it had to be… 'Arion.'

"'What?' Nico asked."

"What?" said about half the room at the same time.

"Leo let out a happy whoop as the dust cloud got closer. 'It's her horse, man! You missed that whole part. We haven't seen him since Kansas!'

"Hazel laughed—the first time she'd laughed in days. It felt so good to see her old friend. About a mile to the north, the small beige dot circled a hill and stopped at the summit. He was difficult to make out, but when the horse reared and whinnied, the sound carried all the way to the Argo II. Hazel had no doubt—it was Arion.

"'We have to meet him,' she said. 'He's here to help.'

"'Yeah, okay.' Leo scratched his head. 'But, uh, we talked about not landing the ship on the ground anymore, remember? You know, with Gaea wanting to destroy us and all.'

"'Just get me close, and I'll use the rope ladder.' Hazel's heart was pounding. 'I think Arion wants to tell me something.'"

"And that," Chiron said as he closed the book, "is the end of the chapter."

Everyone started to protest, wanting to read more, but eventually trailed off to their afternoon activities after Chiron didn't budge. The reading was done for the day.