Oh gods... I'm absolutely mortified by how long its been since I last updated... Feel free to throw things at me.

Disclaimer: Do I look like Rick Riordan? Nope.

Maybe Percy should have been surprised by the news, but so much had happened already these past couple of days that his ability to feel shock had kind of worn off.

"So… You've been seeing me as someone else?" he asked.

Chiron nodded. "Even now, it is hard to see past the mist to your true appearance."

"Wait," said Annabeth, "If the mist is so strong around him, then why can I see through it with no problem? Why am I unaffected?"

"That, Annabeth," Chiron replied, "is a very good question. One that I suspect the queen of the gods alone knows the answer to."

Percy groaned. "Hera again? Man, I've had enough of her screwing around with my life for a lifetime. And she's just gonna keep messing with it until her plan works out, isn't she?"

"It is likely, my boy. Queen Hera can be very set in her ways and hard to stop when she has her mind on something."

Percy indulged in another groan and turned to face Annabeth again. "I completely understand your irritation with that goddess. I knew she was awful before, but she just brought things to a whole other level."

Annabeth looked pleased to be proven right, but then her face turned more serious. "All the same, you need to be careful. Who knows what she's going to try to pull next."

"But back to the matter at hand," Chiron butted in. "Your false appearance…"

"What do we do about it?" Percy asked.

"For now, nothing. I will speak with Hera and find what her reasons are. I'll tell you about them tomorrow after the war council. But for now, don't let on anything to the other campers that the brown-haired boy is just an illusion. We need to know what Hera's reasons are for creating it first."

"Okay, Chiron." Annabeth promised. "We won't tell anyone. But this is only temporary, right? We can tell the others the truth soon?"

"I hope so. But it will depend on Hera's will…"

Annabeth looked like she was about to protest the keeping of the secret some more, but then closed her mouth and looked resigned. "Got it…"

"Good. Now, was there anything else you needed to talk about?"

"Well, I had a couple of questions." Percy answered. "But they can wait until tomorrow. You said you had a bunch of stuff that you had to get done today."

"Indeed I do. I will leave you then, and go finish my preparations."

"See you at dinner."

"Bye, Chiron."

The centaur walked off towards the woods again, both Annabeth and Percy watching him.

Annabeth suddenly turned to Percy. "Come on."

"What? Where are we going?"

Wearing an exasperated look, Annabeth said "We're following him, of course. What's so secretive about his preparations? I want to find out where he's been going. Are you coming or not?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess."

"Good. Then let's go, before he gets too far ahead to follow!"

The two followed Chiron for what seemed like forever. They were going east into the woods, deeper and deeper. Finally, Chiron stopped. Percy turned to Annabeth and was about to ask her if she knew where they were when he saw her troubled expression and decided to ask later.

This part of the woods seemed no different from any other part- what made Chiron single it out as a place to make preparations? And why did Annabeth look so worried?

Putting the questions out of his mind, Percy turned back to watch Chiron. He'd stopped by one of the trees and was running his fingers along its trunk, as if looking for something. He seemed to find whatever it was and pressed his forefinger into a tiny crevice in the dark brown bark. After he did, there was a groaning from the tree, and then it shifted.

Percy rubbed his eyes. Was he really seeing this? He'd known trees could shift and grow at a whim if they needed too, but he'd never seen one do it at the simple press of a hand in a certain spot… Looking at Annabeth, he saw that she was looking more and more disturbed with each passing moment. Opening his mouth, he whispered her name.

She whipped around and glared daggers at him, daring him to say anything more. Percy held up his hands in surrender and mouthed the word 'sorry' to her. After remaining under the pointed glare, he mimed zipping his mouth shut and gestured back towards Chiron. Slowly, she turned around to watch the scene unfolding with the tree.

The tree was still shifting, seeming to split right down the middle. The hole continued to grow until it was centaur-sized, forming a gateway to... where? Chiron stepped through it without hesitation. Annabeth was about to jump and follow him through, but Percy grabbed her arm and pulled her back. When she glared at him again, he shook his head, refusing to back down this time. They had no idea where that gateway would lead, or if they could even get in safely. And would Chiron really not notice them if they went through? They were sneaky, but who knew what circumstances they'd be facing if entered.

Accepting that she wasn't going to win this one, Annabeth shook her arm out of Percy's grasp and twisted her head around to face the tree again. The gateway was already gone.

"What the Hades was he doing there? And where was he going? Why would he hide something from me?" Annabeth was furious, pacing back and forth at the edge of the woods.

After seeing Chiron enter the weird tree and disappear to who knows where, Percy and Annabeth had trekked their way back to Camp. They hadn't talked on the way- Annabeth had been too busy with her thoughts, and Percy was too scared to interrupt them. But now, she was letting them all out.

"He tells me everything! Everything! He's never hidden something from me before. What was so important that only he could know about it?"

Trying to pacify her, Percy said "I'm sure he's got a really good reason for not telling. Remember, he looked terrified when you brought it up earlier."

"Yes, but-"

"Annabeth, he promised he was going to tell us everything tomorrow morning at the meeting."

"That may be true, but why couldn't he tell us when I asked? If he's going to tell everyone anyway…"

"He said he wasn't 'at liberty' to 'discuss his actions of the morning'. Maybe he couldn't tell anyone then, but he's going to get permission to tell us or something. If he swore something on the River Styx, then he would've been stuck."

Only slightly mollified, Annabeth muttered "I guess… But why? So many secrets… What are they?"

Percy said firmly "We'll find out tomorrow."

"Tomorrow…" she sighed. "Tomorrow will be very interesting."

That night at dinner, Percy scraped the best part of his brisket off his plate into the fire and prayed to both Poseidon and Hera. He wasn't expecting to get much of answer, if he got an answer at all, but he had to try. The entire situation was beyond him. Another universe with a turned version of him, a ridiculously powerful goddess back home, the beginning of the second Great Prophecy, something with Rome… He could go on and on, and it was all too much. He needed a push in the right direction if he was going to be able to do anything helpful.

Returning to his empty table, he glanced over at Annabeth, who had already reseated herself. She was doing a remarkable job of hiding her anger and frustration from earlier, laughing with the rest of her cabin.

Once everyone was reseated, Chiron ran through his announcements. There was nothing out of the ordinary- he was probably trying to get the tense atmosphere of the recent days to relax a bit. Percy was glad to hear that capture-the-flag would be going on as usual.

Chiron's attempts to relieve the stress seemed to be working, for the most part. The rest of the evening passed pleasantly.

His dreams that night were a blur. Evil Percy was speeding along to wherever the border situation was in a black car. The Rome replica had smoke rising from its buildings, looking like it had recently seen battle. The blonde dude from earlier was arguing with an intense looking black-haired girl. Then he turned around and asked a guy behind him a question. The other guy looked like blonde dude's twin. Kronos was sitting on his throne, looking conflicted about something. He suddenly raised his head, eyes flashing gold.

Percy awoke sweating, his sheets hopelessly tangled. He sat up and somehow managed to kick them off, and then wiped his brow. He collapsed back on the bed and lay there, thinking about his dreams. Obviously, the replica of Rome had survived, if a bit damaged, from whatever had threatened it. He wondered who those three people had been… And how one of the blonde dudes had known something was going to happen. Maybe Hera had done something…

Catching himself, Percy put a stop to that line of thinking. If he started it, he wouldn't be able to stop, and he'd never get any sleep- and then he wouldn't be able to stay awake the next day- or was it today?- at the meeting.

He closed his eyes and managed to drift off again.

At breakfast the next morning, Percy tried to catch Annabeth's eye. He wanted her to know that he had some more information. When he succeeded, she seemed to understand and nodded at him, but mouthed 'wait until the meeting'. He nodded back at her.

When the time came for the meeting, Percy could barely wait. He wanted to find out what Chiron had been up to. And he could only imagine how badly Annabeth wanted to know.

Once the counselors were all seated, Annabeth called them to attention. "Listen up, everyone. Chiron isn't here yet, but he will be in about 15 minutes. He said he had to go investigate the disappearance of some of the camp store goods. Apparently, something important got taken." She looked pointedly at the Stoll brothers, who ignored her dirty look and put on an innocent face. "So anyway, I thought in the meantime that Percy could tell us about his dreams from last night."

Everyone turned and looked expectantly at Percy, who cleared his throat and said "So… Well, I had more dreams about Rome 2- it looked like it had been damaged by a battle or something. There was a lot of black smoke. And then I saw the blonde dude arguing with a black-haired girl, and then he asked his twin something."

Annabeth interrupted. "The blonde guy has a twin?"

"Uh, yeah- unless there's something really weird going on over there too."

Narrowing her eyes, Annabeth nodded. "Go on, then."

"Well, after that, I saw Kronos sitting on his throne. He almost looked like he was having second thoughts, but then his eyes flashed gold. And then I woke up."

For a moment, all was silent. Clarisse was the first to speak up. "Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I still don't like knowing about Rome 2."

Silena added in "Yeah. It's just… A place like that… How could we not know about it? And are they on our side in this war, or are they fighting with Kronos, or are they totally unrelated?"

"Chiron will be answering that when he gets here." Annabeth said. Under her breath, Percy heard her add "Which better be soon."

"Okay. So all of those questions are gonna get answered as soon as he arrives. But what about Kronos? Was he really having second thoughts?" Michael asked.

Annabeth said hopefully "I bet he was. Maybe Luke was fighting him."

"Maybe…" Michael trailed off.

Thankfully, Chiron chose that moment to walk in. "I am sorry that I was unable to arrive on time. There was a matter to deal with at the camp store. Travis and Connor, I would like to have a talk with your cabin later today. Perhaps after your archery session?"

The twins nodded, but put confused looks on their faces. "Sure, Chiron. But why do we need to have a talk?" Travis asked.

"I'm sure you will be able to come up with the reason." Chiron replied. "In the meantime, I believe there is a rather urgent meeting taking place now."

"So tell us, Chiron. What do you know about the border situation? And what is going on with that replica of Rome?" Silena asked.

Grimacing, Chiron answered. "The border situation… It is very complicated. The border being spoken of is the border of the Rome replica. The city has been under attack from Kronos, and has had success at fending off his troops recently. Kronos is not happy with this, which is no doubt why he sent Percy to… deal… with it. He wants the city to be more vulnerable."

"Okay," Annabeth said. "Why does he want the city to be vulnerable so badly?"

"Because the city could pose a serious threat to him."

Katie entered the conversation. "Chiron, why does the city look like Rome? And if Kronos hates it so much, then why haven't we heard of it?"

Chiron was silent.

"Chiron, what's the big deal with the city? Why are you so reluctant to tell us?" Beckendorf questioned.

"The city… It is another safe place for demigods."

"What do you mean?" Annabeth demanded. "Another safe place, but we've never heard of it?"

"You've never heard of it because the gods have done their best to hide you from each other."

"Why would they do that?" asked Pollux.

Sighing, Chiron spoke. "Because in the past, meeting between the two of you have had devastating results. So much bloodshed… The gods were horrified by it. They ensured that such devastation would never come about again."

Percy spoke up. "But why would we fight them? We're both against Kronos now. What made us enemies?"

"Many things."

"Chiron, who are they?" Katie asked tentatively.

"…They are Roman demigods."

Thank-you to sillycrazy123, PercyJacksonsLittleSister, Quite Beautiful Tonight LG, human not, and PJOHPHGlove for reviewing! I am sooo extremely sorry at how long you've had to wait...

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