The night was peaceful. The moonlight reflected off the sea, making the water glimmer. The stars shone brilliantly in the sky, lighting up the world. The crew of the Argo II was relaxing on the deck, snuggling up on the couches with blankets and gazing at the stars. They made casual conversation, though each of them was thinking about what lay ahead of them on their quest. When a silence passed over them it was hazel who spoke first.

"Hey Percy what's up with you? You've been oddly quiet."

"Huh?" Percy was gazing intently at the stars but looked over at Hazel in surprise.

"Yeah man you've been acting all weird" Jason said. Percy went back to staring at the sky and was quiet for a few moments. Without looking at any of them he pointed at a constellation in the sky. "What does that look like to you guys?" he asked.

"It looks like a girl running across the sky" Leo said.

"Is she holding a bow in her hands?" Frank asked.

"Her name was Zoe" Percy said. His face was a mixture of sadness and pain and something else that his friends couldn't place. His voice was soft and low. "Zoe Nightshade". Annabeth, who was snuggled against Percy, sat up and looked at him with a sad and concerned look on her face. Percy noticed the confused looks on his friends' faces and continued speaking.

"She was lieutenant of the hunters of Artemis. She was brave and loyal and had a good heart. She led the hunt for over 2,000 years."

"Wait" Jason said. "So she was the lieutenant before my sister? What happened to her? And why is she a constellation now?"

Everyone was looking at Percy expectantly, wanting to know more about the huntress. "Well it's kind of a long story"

"Well we've got all night" Piper said, scooching closer to Jason and laying her head on his shoulder. Percy sighed. "Well then I guess I better tell you guys the story. I'm going to need Annabeth's help for it, because she was there, at least for a short time." Annabeth grimaced. "Yeah, it wasn't exactly the best time in our lives." "When is it ever?" Percy agreed.

"So anyway, we were 14 at the time. It was the winter after our quest for the golden fleece that healed Thalia's tree and brought her back to life."

"Wait, Jason, your sister was a tree?" Leo asked.

"That's a story for another time" Annabeth said.

Percy continued."So Annabeth, Thalia, and I were on a mission. Grover had called us to go to this school called Westover Hall because he found two powerful half-bloods, who turned out to be Bianca and Nico Di Angelo. So fast forward a bit a manticore disguised as the vice principle, Dr. Thorn, tried to kidnap them, so the four of us went to go save them."

"And that's when things started to go wrong" Annabeth said. "The manticore was about to kill Thalia and Percy when the hunters arrived."

"Zoe was one of the oldest hunters. She had long black hair, copper skin, and a silver circlet braided into her hair that only the lieutenant wore. She absolutely hated me when we first met."

"Hmm I wonder why." Annabeth mused.

"Ha-ha" Percy said. "So the manticore lunged at me and Thalia because he knew we were weak. Annabeth jumped on its back and stabbed him."

Leo whistled. "Remind me never to mess with Annabeth"

"The hunters fired their arrows at the manticore and he jumped off the edge of the cliff with Annabeth still on his back."

"What happened? Were you captured?" Piper asked Annabeth.

"Yeah, well you'll find out what happened." Annabeth said.

"So it turns out that Zoe and Thalia knew each other because Zoe tried to recruit her for the hunt a few years back. They hated each other's guts. I also found out that this 12 year old girl turned out to be Artemis. I guess she likes to look like her hunter's or something like that. So Artemis calls me into her tent to find out what happened with the manticore, who said that some monster was going to bring about the downfall of Olympus. He also said something about a general who you'll find out about later."

"She offered Bianca a chance to join the hunt and she accepted. Meanwhile, Artemis left to go hunt this dangerous monster. She called Apollo to give us and the hunters a ride to camp. By the way, if Apollo ever asks you if you want to hear one of his haiku's say no."

"Why do we have to...?" Hazel started.

"Just say no" Percy said. "So Apollo picks us up in his sun chariot, and changes it to bus mode. Then he makes Thalia drive it..."

"Thalia got to drive the sun chariot? Not fair!" Jason exclaimed.

"Yeah but the thing is, Thalia is afraid of heights." Percy said.

"The daughter of Zeus scared of heights?" Piper shook her head.

"Yeah, weird huh? So Thalia is driving this bus in the air and is totally freaking out. She's catching random buildings and trees on fire. Then we crash-land into the Camp Half-Blood canoe lake. The next day we played capture the flag against the hunters. Me and Thalia got to their flag and I grabbed it, but Zoe was too quick and got across the creek before me, and the hunters won for the 56th time in a row."

"Thalia got pissed at me because I got the flag when she was going to. We started arguing and then a fight broke out. She blasted me with lightning."

"Hey, kind of like Jason." Leo said.

"Whatever" Percy rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I was about to throw all of the water in the creek at Thalia, when the weirdest thing happened. The oracle, the withered mummy herself, came out of the attic and issued a prophecy for Zoe."

"Wait" Piper said. "The oracle is a mummy? I thought Rachel Dare was the oracle."

"Well the oracle being a mummy is a whole other story in itself, something I didn't even learn about until the titan war, which is also when Rachel became the oracle." Percy said "I'll tell you about it some other time."

"So the prophecy went like this."

"Five shall go west to the goddess in chains, One shall be lost in the land without rain, The bane of Olympus shows the trail, Campers and Hunters combined prevail, The Titan's curse must one withstand, And one shall perish by a parent's hand."

Everyone was quiet for a few moments.

"So... that sounds like fun." Leo said.

"Whose parent would kill them? That's horrible!" Hazel cried.

"So two people were destined to die on this quest?" Frank asked.

"Why do goddesses keep getting chained?" Jason asked.

"What's the Titan's curse?" Piper asked.

Percy and Annabeth shared a knowing look. "All of your questions will be answered soon." Annabeth assured them.

Percy continued. "So me and Grover got the super fun job of taking the oracle back to the attic. After that, we had a war counsel to see who would go on the quest to save Artemis before the winter solstice. It was decided that Zoe, Thalia, Grover, Bianca, and this hunter named Phoebe would go. Then I realized that I wasn't one of the people on the quest, and I tried to complain but they wouldn't let me go."

"Aww" Annabeth teased. "Seaweed brain can't be the hero for once."

"Shut up" Percy said. "You know I was just going to save you." They shared a kiss.

"Aww" Piper exclaimed.

"Get a room!" Leo said.

"I Iris messaged my mom and she basically told me to go on the quest anyway. That night I had a dream that Annabeth was holding the weight of some dark mass. It was almost crushing her. Luke had tricked her into holding it for him. Then some man in the shadows brought out Artemis. She had cuts in different places and was bleeding golden ichor. Her hands and feet were in chains. She took the dark mass from Annabeth before she could die."

"Oh gods... Annabeth" Jason said.

"It's fine" Annabeth said. "I'm fine. I mean, Percy probably had it as bad as me. He went through the same thing."

"So what was the mysterious black mass?" Leo asked.

"I can't say that yet, because then you'll find out who the general is" Percy said. "You'll see later."

"I woke up to blackjack banging on my cabin door. It was still the middle of the night. He took me to the sea because another sea creature needed my help."

"What do they need your help with?" Hazel asked.

"Just about everything thing from rescuing to hangnails. So this particular sea creature was tangled in an old fishing net. It was a weird creature with the front half of a calf and the back half of a serpent. Me and these hippocampi got the net untangled and he was free. I named her Bessie. I didn't know it at the time, but Bessie was going to play a huge part in the quest."

"On my way back to my cabin I saw Nico spying on Bianca and Zoe, who were arguing at the pavilion. I put Annabeth's invisible cap on and spied on them too. It turns out that the Stolls had pranked Phoebe, and she was too hurt to go on the quest, but Zoe didn't want to replace her."

"They left and I made myself visible to Nico and found out that he was going to try to go on the quest with them. I told him that I was gonna go and I promised to do my best to keep his sister safe. I..." Percy faltered.

"It was not your fault Percy" Annabeth said softly.

"I know. It's just..." Percy struggled to find the words.

"What happened?" Hazel asked.

"I'll just continue" Percy said. "Blackjack picked me up, and we followed the camp van into Manhattan. We stopped on a building and just as we were leaving, grape vines wrapped around us so we couldn't leave. Mr. D caught us."

"Who's Mr. D?" Hazel and Frank asked.

"Dionysus" Annabeth answered. "He runs our camp"

"A god runs you camp?" Frank asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh trust me; Camp Jupiter is lucky that they have praetors." Percy said. "It's better than having someone mispronounce your name all the time and threaten to turn you into a dolphin daily"

"Agreed" Annabeth said.

"I thought he was going to send me back to camp or kill me, but instead he told me the story of Ariadne and Theseus and how he broke her heart. Then Dionysus married her."

"Dionysus has a wife?" Annabeth exclaimed.

"I know right!" Percy said.

"So he tells me that the reason he doesn't like demigods is because they are selfish, ungrateful, and they use people. He told me to ask Zoe Nightshade about that, but I didn't know what he meant at the time. Then he said I could go."

"He let you go just like that?" Jason asked.

"Not before telling me that he hoped I would be one of the people that died" Percy said.

"That's horrible!" Piper exclaimed.

"Yeah well, that's Mr. D for you. He told me that live or die, I wouldn't prove any better than all of the other heroes. Then Blackjack and I continued to follow them."

"So he basically thought you were going to die anyway" Leo said.

"Yeah pretty much" Percy agreed.

"Well on that happy note I gotta use the little mechanics room. See ya in a bit peeps!"

Everyone groaned. "Hurry up repair boy!" Piper yelled.

"I guess all start back up again when Leo comes back" Percy said.

A/N: Thanks for reading my story! It was getting pretty long, so I'm gonna separate this story into two or three chapters. Feel free to review if you have any suggetions. Also, if the story is too descriptive and long I'll shorten the next chapter.