Author's Note: Yes, I'm back! I apologize for the long wait, but thanks to all those who've stuck around. This one's a little on the shorter side, but it's better than nothing, and expect the next and final chapter within a month. The main reason for this unintentional hiatus was a lack of motivation on my parts (because the MoA and HoH have already come out, my interest waned somewhat). Enjoy, and I look forward to any feedback!

Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns the PJO and HOO series and the PJO and HOO characters, as well as the Mark of Athena book; I do not.

Chapter 33

JASON

"Annabeth?" Percy repeated, his confusion evident. He swiveled his head to look at Jason when Annabeth didn't reply. "Jason? What happened?"

"Um, you—well," Jason shot a look in Annabeth's direction. She still looked a little shocked by Percy's change in behavior, but that didn't seem to be the main thing troubling her. She was thinking about something else. Jason looked back to Percy, who was still waiting for an explanation. "You just, kind of… changed."

Percy's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean, 'changed'?"

"Well, you know how you were just talking about how you couldn't remember anything from a period of time after you visited Gaea? Well, after that, Annabeth was explaining something about selective memory loss—something she'd read about at camp—and you kind of just jumped up and started attacking me. I didn't want to, uh, attack back, really, but I'd rather not get skewered."

Percy waved it off. "That's fine. You had to defend yourself. But…" he trailed off, looking at Annabeth. An accusatory tone marked his next words: "You know something."

Annabeth bit her lip. "Maybe. I'm not sure."

"Just tell whatever you know," Piper said.

She stared at the floor. "Fine. So, what I read about in camp and what I tried to tell you guys earlier is about the curse of Achilles. There were some… lesser-known side-effects. Though a person would become invincible once dipped in the Styx, they would have a point grounding them to the mortal world, as you all know. A minor injury to that spot would probably kill them. They would be physically vulnerable there—very vulnerable. What most don't know is that when a person gets dipped in the Styx, they become vulnerable in three aspects: one, through their "Achilles" heel. Secondly, they can be mentally defenseless, and their powers also become more vulnerable when a person dips in the Styx."

"What do you mean by 'more vulnerable'?" Jason asked.

"I'm getting there—don't worry, I'll explain it all," Annabeth said. "Anyways, the powers would be just as strong as before, and overall, they would be practically just the same. They wouldn't really change, per say, but they could be taken away, just like Percy's were taken away. The book I found stashed in the Big House didn't have the details on how to do it exactly, and I just assumed no one had ever written it down, because the curse of Achilles isn't exactly common. Gaea seems to have figured it out, though, and she's taken Percy's powers for herself."

"So what you're saying is that Gaea now has a huge army, power over the entire earth, and some pretty major control over water?" Leo asked.

Annabeth shrugged. "Basically. But not just water, Leo. She has power over everything that Percy did. The only earth-related power that belonged to another Olympian or demigod as well as Gaea was power over earthquakes, and now she's taken that away from Percy, at least. She'll be able to control hurricanes and storms too. And maybe even heal using water, not that she really needs that."

"Because we really needed another disadvantage," Percy huffed, crossing his arms.

Annabeth gave him a side-hug. "It's not your fault. You did what was the best at the time."

Nico spoke up. "But how does that explain his little, uh, episode a few minutes ago?"

"I was getting to that," Annabeth muttered. "So, you know how I said that a bearer of the curse would also become pretty vulnerable mentally? Even though the curse has been washed away from Percy, he still has the side effects. His anchor to the world, I think, is more unstable than it was before he went to the Styx, so Gaea is able to control that connection, which in turn controls him. It's a bit confusing, but I think that's what's happening here. And the reason he seemed a little unsure and confused is because the curse was there, but it isn't anymore, so her control isn't as powerful as it could've been if Percy had not crossed the Little Tiber at Camp Jupiter."

"But I've never heard of anything like that," Nico said. "When I was trying to convince Percy to do it, I asked around in the Underworld for anything that could go wrong, and I heard a lot, but nothing like this."

"I don't know that it's true either, but based on what we've seen and what Gaea's done, it seems pretty convincing. And the book in the Big House where I found all this stuff—it was locked away in a back corner of the attic. I had to pick the lock and use my invisibility cap, and I still think that Chiron suspects I read it."

"Only you would pick a lock and do all that for a book," Leo muttered.

"Well, it helped!" Annabeth retorted.

"So, we can't stop this?" Piper asked, ending the argument effectively before it really got going.

"Not that I know of, at least," Annabeth shrugged.

"Should we start moving?" Piper asked.

Something tingled in the air around Jason, just like it had before… "SHUT YOUR EYES!" Jason yelled.

He squeezed his own eyes closed and could only hope that everyone else did as well.

Several silent seconds later, he cracked one eye open, ready to shut it again at a moment's notice, and in front of him was a very exasperated-looking goddess. "You may open your eyes now," the goddess, who Jason had now identified to be Hera/Juno, snapped.

Those who still had their eyes closed opened them warily, except for Leo, who had his hands clamped over his face, muttering "Too young to die, too young to die, too young to die… I really didn't mean to touch it, I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!"

Hera turned around to face the son of Hephaestus, who was the only source of noise in the room, but before she could open her mouth, Piper elbowed Leo roughly, causing him to rip away his hands and glare at her. She merely jerked her head towards the new arrival, who was, at the moment, looking disapprovingly at both of them.

"As I was about to say," Hera surveyed the rest of the demigods before resuming speaking, a sneer making its way onto her face when her eyes landed on Jason, and then Annabeth. "I have some information regarding your quest. Daughter of Athena, this pertains mostly to you."

Hera regarded Annabeth distastefully, and much to Jason's surprise, Annabeth was doing the same. From what he knew, Percy was the one who tended to piss of gods, and Annabeth was usually the one who tried to get him to stop so he wouldn't get killed.

"That monster you killed earlier when you were making your way toward this building was more than a regular monster, daughter of Athena. As some of you may know, when Kronos was rising to power in the Second Titan War, he used a mortal body—a demigod's body actually—as a host, before assuming his true, powerful form. Gaea did something similar. She placed a part of her essence into an everyday monster, and when you killed it, you destroyed part of her, making her much weaker."

After Hera's pause, Annabeth waited a couple of seconds so as not to interrupt her, and then spoke up. "How, exactly, did I do that—you know, the killing the monster? I mean, I didn't even touch it… I barely even looked at the monster before it just disappeared."
Hera smiled grimly. "That would be your Mark of Athena, I believe. Even I do not know the exact workings of that. Athena is the only one who knows how it functions, and she has always kept it as a very well guarded secret.

"What I do know, however, is that Gaea's lack of guards and attacks is no trick: she is hurting, and she is not nearly as powerful as she was several days ago. This has been a major setback for them. I must… congratulate you, regretfully. There will still be a fight here—I can guarantee you that, but it most likely will not be as big as it would've been if Gaea had been as powerful as she was previously."

She nodded at Annabeth and disappeared before another word was said.

Thump. Thump. Th-thump. Jason turned towards the wall where the noise was coming from. "Uh, does anyone hear that?"

Annabeth seemed to have noticed it as well. "Yeah, it sounds like footsteps. And the only thing that could make footsteps that loud…"

Percy groaned. "Fantastic. Another giant."

"It can't get in…can it?" Leo asked. "I mean, unless it breaks through the wall. How thick is that wall, Hazel?"

She closed her eyes. "Um, a couple of feet. I'm surprised we have enough air in here. Anyways, it's pretty solid. I could break through it, and a giant probably could too."

The footsteps came closer. Annabeth made a shushing gesture at Jason, who looked like he was about to speak up again.

Everyone in the small earthen room stilled as the footsteps approached even closer. Time seemed to stand still as Jason heard the faint echoes of a conversation on the other side. They must've been talking pretty loud for Jason to be able to hear it on the other side of two feet of solid earth.

The footsteps continued on.

The entire room seemed to let out a collective breath.

"What do we do now?" Piper asked Annabeth, who was becoming more and more like the leader of the quest. That was definitely fine by Jason; she seemed to know more about this than anyone else.

Annabeth glanced at the wall that the giant had just walked by before directing her gaze back to Piper. "Now, we fight."

Ten minutes later, the eight demigods were standing outside of their little cave—in the hallway the giant had been in just minutes previously.

They would've been out sooner, but Percy had another little episode, and had tried to kill Piper.

They travelled through the building as quietly as possible for a group of ADHD teenage demigods. Leo probably made the most noise, and only shut up when Annabeth threatened to duct tape his mouth shut until they reached Camp Half-Blood again (whenever that would be). Jason had started cracking up at that, only to be silenced by Annabeth's glare.

Annabeth rounded a corner and stopped dead in her tracks, causing Jason to bump into her.

He stepped back and got a good look at the room. It put the training ground at Camp Half-Blood to shame, definitely.

That wasn't the important thing, though.

What really caught Jason's attention was the fact that it was jam-packed with a bunch of angry monsters. And the fact that there were two huge giants standing in the center of the sea of monsters, and they didn't look too friendly.

Annabeth cursed under her breath. "I was hoping for just one."

"Who are they?" Jason squinted to get a better look at their faces.

"The one on the right is Mimas, bane of Hephaestus. The other one is Pelorus, bane of Ares."

Mimas, the twenty-foot tall giant with a hammer in his belt, fire in his hair, and a sword in his hand, cackled. "Ah, Pelorus, we have visitors. Isn't that sweet? Came all the way here to see us."

The giant next to him grinned, showing his gruesome blood red teeth. "Now, let's kill them."

The fighting was a blur. The demigods stayed close to where they entered, and slashed and hacked at monsters as they approached. If one of the half-bloods were to get surrounded, they'd be dead in a minute.

Jason was fighting with his back to a wall, swinging his sword in an arc in front of him. He couldn't summon down any lightning, since he had no clue where any of his friends were at the moment, and in no way was he going to risk getting any of them killed.

A knife grazed his arm and something smacked his forehead. Jason had to fight to stay conscious. He made a few quick arcs in front of him, effectively killing the two monsters that'd injured him.

Hazel, Nico, and Frank were working together in a corner. Hazel would cover for both boys, killing any monsters that strayed to close, and Frank shot arrows farther into the crowd, toward any monster that looked like it was about to injure one of their friends. Nico was summoning up an army of skeletons, one by some, something which needed his undivided attention and was probably quickly sapping his strength.

Piper was just a few feet away from Jason, but Jason couldn't see Leo, Percy, or Annabeth.

The demigods were severely outnumbered, probably fifteen or twenty to one, and if any of them got pushed away from the wall and surrounded, they'd be dead. As it was now, if Jason focused on one monster, another would injure or kill him from the other side. His sword just killed any monsters stupid enough to get within a three or four radius of his spot against the wall.

From what he could see, Jason's friends were more or less using the same defensive strategy as he.

What infuriated him was that the giants were sitting and watching and waiting, probably not wanting to get their hands dirty unless absolutely necessary. They could've and, though Jason by no means wanted this to happen, should've killed the demigods already. It would've been the smart move, to finish them off while they were distracted by monsters, and thus save time and monsters. Luckily, these giants seemed to be more cocky and proud than smart, something Jason was very grateful for at the moment.

But, alas, he had much more pressing matters at hand—specifically all the monsters trying to kill him.

So Jason refocused on staying alive, and the fighting continued.

(My penname's changed from smileyface9 to The Athena Cabin, by the way),

The Athena Cabin :D