Seeing that I woke up at around four in the morning and had no desire to see my friends suffering, I hastily threw on some clothes and headed for the Big House, walking right into the library without sparing a glance to see if the coast was clear. I mean, Mr. D wasn't here at the moment, Chiron was most likely asleep, and Argus wasn't anywhere to be seen, so I figured I'd be alone for at least a few hours.

It's not like Seymour could rat me out anyways.

"Alright, you douchebag," I muttered as I flicked the lights to the library on, the single light bulb casting a small glow over a decrepit looking table. I brushed off some of the dust with the sleeve of my shirt. Then I found my pile of books and set them down on the table, coughing as the rest of the dust flew up into my face in a great big cloud. "You wanna play dirty? I say let's even out the score."

True to my word, I spent the next few hours poring through every single book, paragraph, and picture that had to do with Tartarus, ignoring the way my blood seemingly turned to ice as I learned more and more about the horrors he had accomplished when he was fully awake.

Like Gaea, Tartarus had taken to being asleep for the past few millennia, joining his wife in a semi-eternal slumber after their children, the giants, had been defeated by the gods. And though there was very little action from Tartarus the first time around, somehow I knew he was going to be a much bigger problem this time, as he already had some form of physical manifestation from what my nightmares were showing me.

There is no recollection of anyone who was able to subdue the primordial, I read in one of the books, scowling to myself as I kept reading the paragraph. Not even the mighty Hercules dared to challenge Tartarus, despite having ventured into the Underworld before. Furthermore, there is no known evidence that the Olympians themselves have entered Tartarus after freeing the Elder Cyclops and Hundred-Handed Ones during the first Titan War with the exception of Zeus's punishment of Hera by dangling her over the abyss of Chaos and Hephaestus saving his mother. No mortal or demigod hero has ever entered the pit and come back alive.

I already knew this, I thought to myself in frustration, grabbing another book, aggressively flipping through its pages. I found the subheading that I'd been looking for and started to read again:

Tartarus, the primordial of the pit, was the third sentient being that came out of Chaos. Like his skyward counterpart, Ouranous, Tartarus became a dome underneath the Earth, Gaea, where slain mythological beings go to be reborn, where the most terrible of beasts are imprisoned, and where darkness thrives.

The primordial himself is rarely found in a corporeal form – the last time this occurred, he married Gaea and had his children, the giants, twelve of the most terrifying creatures to ever be brought into existence, posing an even greater threat to the Olympians than the Titans. It is said that anything that brings Tartarus's attention towards itself will not survive the encounter, not even if it is one of the most powerful beings in existence.

"I don't care!" I exclaimed, slamming this book shut, waving away some more dust from my face. "Just tell me how to kill the arrogant idiot, please and thank you."

I opened another book.

Tartarus has never been defeated. Legend has it that there is no one short of Chaos themselves that can kill the primordial.

"Damn it all!" I shouted, sweeping all the books off the table, abruptly getting up.

My chest heaved as I tried to catch my breath, my pulse roaring in my ears. I dug my nails so roughly into my palms that I felt my blood start to trickle down my fingertips, something that I knew Will would complain about when he found out.

The thought of my friend sent a stabbing pain through my entire body, like somebody had stabbed me in the heart with a dagger and decided to wrench it just for fun. I screamed in frustration, picking up a discarded book and chucking it at the door, watching as it gave a satisfying thunk before falling back to the floor.

Chiron had been right in getting me to wait, but it didn't ease my mind any. I still wanted to chuck myself down into that hellish pit to save my friends, but what good are my intentions if I have no idea where they are or how to get out once I'm there?

Powers don't work the same way in magical places, something I've learned over the years. If Nico di Angelo couldn't shadow-travel out of Tartarus when he was first captured, I was massively screwed seeing as there would be no light to light-travel with and there was absolutely no form of water down there that wasn't viciously toxic, cutting mist-traveling out of the equation as well.

I needed to stock up on supplies, rope, water, nonperishable goods and the like, especially first aid things and nectar and ambrosia. Yes, that would be helpful in this suicidal endeavor I've made my mind up about.

But what I really needed was a map. Surely there had to be a map of Tartarus somewhere in this gods forsaken library, right?

I sighed, my anger nowhere as intense as it had been earlier. So I bent down, intending to start searching through the books for a map of Tartarus, when the door flew open, revealing a shocked looking Rachel, stilling the blue hairbrush that she'd been tapping against her navy plaited skirt, no doubt a part of her Clarion Academy uniform.

"You're the one causing all the ruckus, huh?" Rachel asked, a knowing smirk on her face as her shock melted away, returning to absentmindedly drumming her brush again. "Could've been worse, I guess. Could've been the Stoll brothers finding that book about forbidden pranks – not that I know anything about it, of course."

I raised my eyebrows at her. "And how long have you known about this place?"

She shrugged. "A couple days after I became the Oracle, so about four months, I suppose. But that's not the point. I was looking for you, anyways."

"Does Chiron need me?"

"Chiron summoned the council," Rachel explained. "We're just waiting on you and Jason."

"Let's go," I sighed, pulling the little chain that turned off the lights. "I suspect you and Annabeth have some news?"

"Not anything anyone wants to hear," Rachel muttered.

When we walked down into the rec room, it was about as organized as I knew these council meetings were, especially now that we had so many new head counselors.

One of the satyrs – Harold, I believe – served nachos and sodas for everyone. Someone had brought Seymour the leopard head in from the living room and hung him on the wall. Every once in a while, a counselor would toss him a Snausage.

Chiron sat at the head of the table, with Rachel sitting right next to him. Clarisse had her feet kicked up on the table, sitting precariously on her chair on the two hind legs, absentmindedly polishing one of her many, many knives. Clovis from the Hypnos cabin napped in the corner, and Butch from Iris experimented with how many pencils could fit in Clovis's nostrils. Travis Stoll held a lighter under a Ping-Pong ball to see if it would burn, and Kayla Knowles, who had become senior counselor of Apollo in Will's absence, wrapped and unwrapped an Ace bandage around her wrist. Lou Ellen played "got-your-nose" with Miranda Gardiner, floating the appendage around the room as the daughter of Demeter tried to get her nose back.

Annabeth wore her armor over her camp clothes, with her knife at her side and her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. She flipped through a notepad, mumbling to herself as she scribbled things down with a pencil, pausing every few seconds to look at the three empty seats at the end of the table.

I quickly took my seat across from Annabeth, fiddling anxiously with my bracelet.

Yet another reason that I'd been trying to distance myself from everyone today: I was about to be revealed as the biggest traitor in all of Camp Half-Blood history…well, second to Drew Tanaka, I guess.

I found myself unable to meet Annabeth's gaze, even as she looked at me expectedly for a few moments, only turning away when she noticed that Piper, Leo, and Jason had arrived, rounding out all the head counselors.

"Let's come to order," Chiron said. "Lou Ellen, please give Miranda her nose back. Travis, if you'd kindly extinguish the flaming Ping-Pong ball, and Butch, I think twenty pencils is really too much for any human nostril. Thank you. Now, as you can see, Jason, Piper, and Leo have returned successfully...more or less. Some of you have heard parts of their story, but I will let them fill you in."

Everyone looked at Jason. Piper and Leo chimed in from time to time, filling in the details he forgot. It only took a few minutes, but I could tell he was uncomfortable from the way he drummed his fingers on the Ping-Pong table as he spoke. Jason ended with Hera's visit right before the meeting.

"So Hera was here," Annabeth said. "Talking to you."

Jason nodded. "Look, I'm not saying I trust her-"

"That's smart," Annabeth said.

"-but she isn't making this up about another group of demigods. That's where I come from."

"Romans." Clarisse tossed Seymour a Snausage. "You expect us to believe there's another camp with demigods, but they follow the Roman forms of the gods. And we've never heard of them."

Piper sat forward. "The gods have kept the two groups apart, because every time they see each other, they try to kill each other."

"I can respect that," Clarisse said. I grit my teeth as my left arm started to burn, right where my tattoo rested. "Still, why haven't we run across each other on quests?"

"Oh, yes," Chiron said sadly. "You have, many times. It's always a tragedy, and always the gods do their best to wipe clean the memories of those involved. The rivalry goes all the way back to the Trojan War, Clarisse. The Greeks invaded Troy and burned it to the ground. The Trojan hero Aeneas escaped, and eventually he made his way to Italy, where he founded he race that would someday become Rome. The Romans grew more and more powerful, worshipping the same gods but under different names, with slightly different personalities."

"More warlike," Jason said. "More united. More about expansion, conquest, discipline."

Ain't that the truth, I thought to myself, remembering the handful of times I've walked in on a Roman council. At least those were meetings I could sit through without too much of a headache.

"Yuck," Travis put in.

Several of the others looked equally uncomfortable, though Clarisse shrugged like it sounded okay to her. Note to self: introduce Clarisse to Reyna.

Annabeth twirled her knife on the table. "And the Romans hated the Greeks. They took revenge when they conquered the Greek isles, and made them a part of the Roman Empire."

"Not exactly hated them," Jason said. "The Romans admired Greek culture, and were a little jealous. In return, the Greeks thought the Romans were barbarians, but they respected their military power. So during Roman times, demigods started to divide – either Greek or Roman."

"And it's been that way ever since," Annabeth guessed. "But this is crazy. Chiron, where were the Romans during the Titan War? Didn't they want to help?"

Chiron tugged at his beard. "They did help, Annabeth. While you and Percy were leading the battle to save Manhattan, who do you think conquered Mount Othrys, the Titans' base in California?"

"Hold on," Travis said, making the time out sign with his hands. "Chiron, you said Mount Othrys just crumbled when we beat Kronos."

"No," Jason said. "It didn't just fall. We destroyed their palace. I defeated the Titan Krios myself."

"Good for you," I said. "Just wish I'd been able to burn my father's throne."

Piper's eyes widened. "Your dad's a Titan?"

"Was a Titan," I corrected. "And, yes, my father is Kronos, but he's dead for now."

"For now?"

"Don't worry about it. It'll be at least another thousand years, if there's even enough of him to become sentient again. Anyways, I think Annabeth figured something out."

Annabeth's eyes were as stormy as a ventus. "The Bay Area. We demigods were always told to stay away from it because Mount Othrys was there. But that wasn't the only reason, was it? The Roman camp – it's got to be somewhere near San Francisco. I bet it was put there to keep watch on the Titans' territory. Where is it?"

Chiron shifted in his wheelchair. "I cannot say. Honestly, even I have never been trusted with that information. My counterpart, Lupa, is not exactly the sharing type. Jason's memory, too, has been burned away."

"But we still know the location of the camp," Jason insisted. "My memory's still coming back, but I know for a fact that Andy knows where the Roman camp is. She's visited me there countless times over the years."

My arm gave another painful throb, burning like I'd pressed a hot iron against my flesh.

Annabeth turned to me, her eyes shining with a mixture of curiosity and anger. "You know where this camp is?"

Feeling everyone's eyes turn to me, I eventually nodded, pulling up my sleeve to reveal the tattoo Hecate had given me six years ago. There were several gasps, including one from Chiron, which made me pull my arm back down to my side, covering the omega and the lines with my sleeve.

"I've known where Camp Jupiter is ever since I was fifteen," I said, staring at my lap as I started to reveal my knowledge. "I've made friends there over the years, good friends. Sometimes, when I wasn't here, I was over there."

"You've known about Jason and Thalia being siblings the whole time, then," Piper said, her face a shade paler than it was a few moments before. "For more than ten years-"

"I'm well aware of the events that led to their separation," I snapped, hating the attention drawn on myself. "But like we were discussing previously and as Hera said, Greeks and Romans were supposed to be apart. I don't condone what happened at all, but I was forbidden by the Fates to tell either Thalia or Jason the truth about the other until now."

I turned to Jason, who was staring straight ahead, completely ignoring me. "Jason, one day I hope you'll forgive me for not telling you about Thalia, but you've got to understand that I was sworn to secrecy. I swore on the River Styx to keep quiet until the time was right."

"Well, if the time's right now," Annabeth said, "where is the camp?"

I was saved from answering as there was a loud pop behind me. I didn't even have to turn around to know that the Fates had appeared, the sound of scissors and spinning of thread enough to give them away.

People around the room paled, backing away from the three old ladies. I simply turned around and said, "You have no idea how thankful I am that you've shown up."

Lachesis sent me a crooked smile. "You're dreadful at explanations, you know that? You were positively drowning. So here we are, to help."

"You weren't kidding about being friends with the Fates, huh?" Travis asked, his face as white as Clovis's pajamas.

"Nah, the Fates and I go way back."

Clotho raised an eyebrow at me. "Nine years is 'way back'?"

I blushed. "I'm only twenty-three. Nine years is a good chunk of my life."

"According to your string, that's correct."

I rolled my eyes and said, "Gee, thanks for that comment. I feel so at peace now." I turned only once I saw that Pollux looked like he was about to be sick and Travis had actually fainted, slumped over the Ping-Pong table.

"Anyhow," Atropos continued, smiling slightly at the sight of an unconscious Travis, "Andromeda here has been granted much more information about the world that we live in compared to any of you, except only for Chiron. As keeper of such knowledge, she has sworn to keep much secret until we allow her to reveal what she knows."

"Like what?" Jason asked.

"The Roman camp, for example," Atropos said with that unnerving smile of hers. "For those of you present in the years prior to the Titan War, Andromeda knew about how to properly navigate the Labyrinth, that Perseus Jackson was a son of Poseidon long before he was ever claimed, and that Leo Valdez was a pyrokinetic long before they ever met for the first time."

"Her knowledge is carefully protected by us," Lachesis continued. "Therefore you have no reason to be upset with Andromeda. If there was even the slightest chance that she might've let something slip, we physically make her unable to speak." The Fate turned to me. "Go ahead, and show them."

I paused for a moment, then finally decided to say, "Percy and Annabeth fall into Tartarus." At least, that's what I tried to say. I couldn't even choke out the first syllable of Percy's name, sounding like I'd inhaled my own saliva.

"See?" Clotho said. "For all you know, she could've been trying to reveal the location of the Roman camp. No, we're afraid that that's something that you have to figure out on your own, Jason Grace."

Everyone in the room, except me, inhaled sharply at the sight of Atropos cutting a bright green string, holding it for a brief moment before tossing it into a waste basket at her side. She sheathed her scissors, grinning back at the terrified looks on the faces of the senior counselors.

"Oh, calm down, you lot," she chastised. "That wasn't any of you…this time." Poor Harold passed out, dumping a pot of nacho cheese on himself. The three Fates howled with laughter as they disappeared with another pop.

There was a collective sigh of relief as the three old ladies were no longer threatening to cut anyone's string in front of them.

"But how are we going to find the Roman camp if Jason can't remember and Andy can't tell us?" Miranda asked, keeping a hand over her nose as she noticed Lou Ellen's fingers twitch.

"The camp's heavily guarded with magic," Jason said. "And heavily guarded by people. We could search for years and never find it."

Rachel Dare laced her fingers. Of all the people in the room, she was the least nervous about everything that was going on. "But you'll try, won't you? You'll build Leo's boat, the Argo II. And before you make for Greece, you'll sail for the Roman camp. You'll need their help to confront the giants."

"Bad plan," Clarisse warned. "If those Romans see a warship coming, they'll assume we're attacking."

"You're probably right," Jason agreed. "But we have to try. I was sent here to learn about Camp Half-Blood, to try to convince you the two camps don't have to be enemies. A peace offering."

"Hmm," Rachel said. "Because Hera is convinced we need both camps to win the war with the giants. Seven heroes of Olympus – some Greek, some Roman."

Annabeth nodded. "Your Great Prophecy – what's the last line?"

"And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death."

"Ga-" I cleared my throat, and Annabeth amended, "Mother Earth has opened the Doors of Death. She's letting out the worst villains of the Underworld to fight us. Medea, Midas – there'll be more, I'm sure. Maybe the line means that Roman and Greek demigods will unite, and find the Doors, and close them."

"Or it could mean that they fight each other at the Doors of Death," Clarisse pointed out. "It doesn't say we'll cooperate."

"You're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you?" I said, ignoring Clarisse's eye roll.

"I'm going," Annabeth said. "Jason, when you get this ship built, let me go with you."

"You already know I'm coming, too." Everyone looked at me apprehensively. "What now?"

"But if you go, that means Percy won't be able to go," Butch said. "Hear me out. We've already got Piper, Leo, and Annabeth as Greeks, so say that we do four Greeks and three Romans, that'll make Andy the fourth Greek. I don't think only having two Romans constitutes as foes bearing arms, now does it?"

"You bring up an excellent point, Butch," I said, "but there's a slight flaw in your logic. See, I'm not a half-blood."

Chiron winced in his seat. "Are you sure this is the best way to go about this, Andy?"

I shrugged. "Probably not, but there's no time like the present. So, as I was saying, I'm a goddess, not a half-blood, so I'm not a part of the seven. That way Percy still has a spot on the quest, and I can still tag along."

"Speaking of Percy," Jason said, interrupting any side conversations before they began, "Hera said that I was a part of an exchange of leadership. An exchange goes two ways. When I got here, my memory was wiped. I didn't know who I was or where I belonged. Fortunately, you guys took me in and I found a new home. I know you're not my enemy. The Roman camp – they're not so friendly. You prove your worth quickly, or you don't survive. They may not be so nice to him, and if they learn where he comes from, he's going to be in serious trouble."

"Percy?" Leo said. "Who is he?"

"My boyfriend," Annabeth said grimly. "He disappeared around the same time Jason appeared. If Jason camp to Camp Half-Blood-"

"Exactly," Jason agreed. "Percy Jackson is at the other camp, and he probably doesn't even remember who he is."

"Oh, he's not there yet," I said off-handedly, drawing with the condensation on the outside of my soda can. "Hera's keeping him safe until she's strong enough to move him."

"Do you know where he is?" Annabeth asked, sounding like she'd punch my lights out if I answered anything other than, "No."

"No, Hera never told me. However, she entrusted me with something of Percy's, but all anyone needs to know is that it's safe with me."

"What is it?"

"I can't say."

Annabeth reached across the table quick as lightning, my shirt bunched up in one fist and her knife pressing against my throat in the other hand. "Tell me right now, or I won't hesitate to cut you."

"Go ahead," I said, not struggling against the daughter of Athena. "You'd do me a favor by sending me to Tartarus. It'd get me closer to saving Luke and Will in any case."

Chiron, Kayla, and Travis all winced at the reminder of the kidnapped boys – Chiron especially. He was about to speak up, too, probably to ask Annabeth to take her dagger away from my neck, but Annabeth did that herself by dropping her dagger, her eyes shining.

"Tell me you're lying," she demanded. She turned to Kayla and Travis. "Tell me she's lying!"

"Annabeth-" Kayla began, only to get cut off as Annabeth muttered, "Not again," shoving her knife into its sheath and running out of the Big House.

"I've got her," Rachel said, pocketing her brush and running after the daughter of Athena.

Everyone else was still staring at me, causing me to stare in my lap. Chiron, noticing my discomfort, gave one last resigned sigh and said, "Council dismissed."

This chapter is a little birthday present from me to you!

As always, love you all, and please wear your masks!