This chapter is dedicated to 'BlueDecembers19' and 'Don't Touch My Seaweed Brain' for some great advice that helped me to write this chapter. Of course all of my readers deserve credit! I don't think that I have ever taken on a task like this before and without all of your support I probably would have given up long ago!

I was planning to take a week rest because I've been sick and smashed up my knee but upon reading about what happened to one of my favourite authors I think that things could be worse! So here's the new chapter and I hope you like it!

Let it commence!

IX

Frank

Franks nerves were shot.

His hands were shaking as he notched arrows in his bow, firing them into the Romans below. He felt bad hurting the people he had been training with at Camp Jupiter. His heart twisted into tight knots in his chest, making it hard for him to breathe. The only thing that kept him going was the knowledge that if he didn't do it they were going to kill innocent people. He stood on the bow looking out over the Greek camp.

It was breathtakingly beautiful.

As they landed he could see a magnificent archery field, a large sword fighting arena and a complex looking climbing wall with lava pouring down the side of it. He also saw an amphitheatre, stables, an armory and large sky-blue house. He could see why Percy had missed this place so much.

Did. Why Percy did miss this place so much. Percy was going to come back, he was going to see his friends again.

Hazel walked up to him as the Argo II landed with a jolt beside the big blue house. He slung his bow over his shoulder and she slipped her hand into his, smiling up at him. He looked into her eyes and saw the usual playful gleam that made his heart melt, but hidden behind the façade he saw fear. Anxiety.

They didn't know what to expect. Would the Greeks welcome them into their camp or would they be chased into the advancing Roman army with torches and pitchforks?

No.

Jason had Iris messaged the camp and warned them they were coming so there was no reason for hostility. Frank looked into Hazel's beautiful, kind, golden eyes and smiled weakly.

"It'll be okay. We'll get through this. Together" he said to her, squeezing her hand gently. Even as he said it he knew that he wasn't just talking about stopping the camps from ripping each other to shreds, he knew he meant the fight against Gaea and the giants. He also knew he was making a promise he wasn't entirely sure he would be able to keep.

Hazel's smile flattered for a moment, "I know" she whispered.

His heart ached when she looked at him. He knew that a girl her age should not have had to go through a tenth of what she had. She had been born under a horrible curse; her mother had been possessed by a psychotic earth goddess and had been made to sacrifice her own life for 'The Greater Good'.

The Greater good.

That was something that came up a lot being children of the gods.

But those horrible sacrifices were only from her first life.

In her second life she had found out that her ultimate sacrifice had only delayed the inevitable waking of the earth goddess and she had discovered she had a brother, only for him to be kidnapped. Not only that but Annabeth, a girl Hazel had grown quite fond of quite quickly, along with Percy, good friend to both of them, had fallen into Tartarus. Each and every crew member of the Argo II felt personally responsible for what happened to Percy and Annabeth and it was causing them to start seeing the negative side of things when they really couldn't afford to. And now Jason had been captured by the Romans, people they had, at one point, considered friends.

Hazel's stress and confusion showed in her eyes, but it was cleverly concealed, buried deep behind a façade of calm light heartedness.

Frank looked Hazel directly in the eyes, "I want you to know I will do everything in my power to keep you safe." Hazel looked deep into his eyes and her feature seamed to relax a little; she must have decided he was telling the truth. Or at least trying to.

"I-" she stammered. Frank stroked her cheek softly with his thumb, "I love you" she whispered. A smile played on Franks lips. Although they hadn't actually said it yet they both new it to be true.

"I love you too" he whispered back. She took his hand off her cheek so that both their hands where entwined, smiling happily. She stood on tip toe on one leg and just as she was about to kiss Frank on the cheek –

"Come on guys!" Leo yelled, breaking them apart and rushing around deck. Both Frank and Hazel were blushing profusely. Frank could swear that he saw Leo smirk at their awkward positions. Frank would deal with him latter…

Frank looked around the ship at the others after he managed to stop blushing and the urge to smack Leo up the side of the head faded. Leo and Coach Hedge were already making their way off the ship and Piper was helping Nico to stand with a faraway look in her eyes and a gloomy expression on her face.

Nico didn't look that great either. He still looked pale and he winced with each step he took. Although the skeleton warriors terrified Frank just like Grey had, he couldn't deny what Nico had done was seriously cool.

"Come on" Hazel said to him, taking his hand and dragging them over to Nico and Piper.

"Need some help?" Frank asked Piper who was barley supporting a half conscious Nico.

"Yes" she said, strain evident on her face.

Frank took Nico's arm and wrapped it around his shoulders. The boy was incredibly light for his size but he was still considerably heavy.

"Thanks" Nico whispered.

"It's nothing" Frank replied, "I know it takes it out of me when I use my powers to" said Frank in a soothing voice, "When we get to the house you can nap"

A smile played on Nico's lips, "With great power comes great need to take a nap"

Frank snorted "What?"

Nico's face fell, "It was an inside joke"

Even though he didn't say it Frank new that Nico was talking about Percy.

"Okay, let's go!" said Piper, trying and fail to sound upbeat. Frank felt entirely responsible for what happened to Jason, if he had shot the Griffin sooner then Jason never would have fallen.

They made their way off the Argo II and up to the big blue house without being stopped but as soon as they stepped onto the veranda they were intercepted by a tall Asian girl with dark hair in ringlets; and despite the fact they were in the middle of a war not a single strand of hair was out of place. She wore plenty of jewellery, way too much makeup, designer label jeans and an orange camp half-blood T-shirt. Her nose was upturned as if she were examining a disgusting piece of rubbish.

"Welcome back Gleeson and head counsellors Leo, Piper and Nico" she said in a bored tone and an expression of clear disdain spread across her face.

"Who do we have here, Apollo's boy maybe?" she said squeezing Franks cheek and giving him a small wink.

"And oh my! Aren't you a cute one!" said the girl with a smirk on her face when she turned to face Hazel.

"A little makeup and we'll have an Aphrodite girl!" she said, a cruel glint in her eyes.

"Knock it off Drew" said Piper with a noticeable edge to her voice. "These are our friends Frank and Hazel from Camp Jupiter. Percy's friends." Piper growled.

"Well! Who are your parents?" Drew asked glaring at Piper but addressing Frank and Hazel.

Frank stepped forward, wrapping a protective arm around Hazel's waist, "I'm Frank Zhang son of Mars and descendent of Poseidon" he said with a stony expression on his face.

Hazel looked at him gratefully for going first and stepped closer to him. "I'm Hazel Levesque daughter of Pluto. I was born in 1928 but I'm 13"

Frank strained to hold back a laugh at the expression on Drew's face, "You are his sister!?" she asked incredulously, nodding toward Nico.

"Yeah" said Hazel with an amused sparkle in her eyes.

Drew counted on her fingers for a moment, "1928! Shouldn't you be like…" she paused for a moment in thought, "82?!"

"83 actually" Hazel contradicted, a smile curling the corners of her lips.

Piper rolled her eyes, "What do you want Drew?" she asked impatiently.

Drew harrumphed, "Chiron wants to see you" she said distastefully. "Don't ask me why though because I haven't got a clue."

"You haven't got a clue about most things" Piper mocked. Drew opened her mouth to retaliate but Piper cut her off, "Now are you going to take us to Chiron or do I have to put you on cleaning duty?"

Drew shot Piper a look of pure hatred and harrumphed "Fine" she mumbled, turning on her heal and stomping around the porch. "Come on!" she shouted back at them.

"What's her problem?" Hazel whispered as they walked along behind Drew.

"She was the head counsellor before me. She was really horrible to everyone and insisted that Aphrodite was all about breaking people's hearts. When Leo, Jason and I got back from our quest I challenged her and won. So now I'm counsellor and she hates me" Piper said shrugging her shoulders.

"Horrible girl that one" Growled Coach Hedge, "No respect at all."

"What did she do?" asked Leo curiously.

"You remember Mellie?" he asked.

"The wind spirit we met at Aeolus's floating palace? The one you're dating?" Leo asked bumping shoulders with the old Satyr.

"Yeah, right beauty that one" he said with a dreamy expression on his face, "When the Aphrodite girl found out about our… relationship, she told me that Mellie was just dating me for my money."

"How rude!" exclaimed Hazel.

"Exactly! I don't even have any money!" he replied in a huff.

They turned the corner and the battle came into view. They all fell silent at the scene of absolute chaos.

Frank recognised Tyson, Percy's half-brother standing in the middle of the battle. No. Tyson was his half- brother too. Tyson was surrounded by Romans with spears and nets, and even from where Frank was he could hear his voice booming across the valley.

"Bad purple Rome people" he said flicking away a spear like it was nothing. The Roman who had been holding the spear bell backwards and landed with a thud on his behind. "You no hurt Ella! Ella is pretty!" he yelled and Frank swore he saw the big guy blush.

Then he noticed Ella the harpy flying above Tyson's head. Were they trying to catch her? He figured with Octavian in control Ella would be on his 'To acquire list'.

Hazel stopped suddenly in front of him but he was too preoccupied watching Tyson sat away the Romans to take any notice of her.

Frank noticed her a moment too late and tripped on his own feet trying to stop himself from walking into her. He fell onto the deck with a loud thud, collecting Hazel on the way down.

Both of them tried getting up but Hazel let out a small cry.

"Ow!" she cried, "My hair is caught on your bow!" she said.

Frank was absolutely mortified. This was not he first impression he had imagined. In the past five minutes he had almost kissed Hazel, tripped her over and now her hair was caught in his bow.

He fumbled with it for a moment before he got it loose. Her hair had gotten caught in the string groove.

He didn't even know that could happen for gods sake!

It was as though everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. At least it couldn't get any worse right?

Once he and Hazel had regained their composure and he had whispered an apology in her ear Frank realised why she had stopped.

About 5 feet in front of them stood a beautiful centaur.

The lower half of the man was a beautiful white stallion but from the waist up he was a middle-aged man with thinning brown hair, bushy eyebrows, intense brown eyes and a scruffy beard.

He had his back to them, firing arrows into the Romans. Frank could appreciate the old centaur's skills. Each shot hit its target but not a single arrow killed anyone. Each arrow hit its target in a leg or an arm. A place that would incapacitate the person, a place that could be healed without much lasting damage but a place that would stop them from fighting.

The girl, Drew, cleared her throat. The centaur turned around and his face brightened. "Thank you Drew. You are dismissed" he told Drew, who walked back the way they had come. She bumped shoulders with him as she left and shot a smirk at Hazel.

"Welcome!" said the centaur, his eyes scanned them, summing them up. "I'm Chiron and you are?" he asked gesturing to Hazel and Frank.

"These are our friends from Camp Jupiter" Piper said calmly, "Frank, son of Mars of Ares and Hazel daughter of Pluto or Hades."

Chiron's attention flicked to Hazel, "Daughter of Pluto?" he asked, obviously not wanting an answer. "Speaking of, where is Mr Di Angelo?" he asked.

Frank hadn't even noticed. When he had fallen Nico hadn't fallen with him. He had just disappeared. They all looked equally as confused which made Chiron smile slightly.

Nico stepped out of the shadows cast by the warm midday sun on the deck.

"I'm here" he said. A pained expression on his face.

Hazel stepped forward, "My brother needs rest" she said bluntly, "He raised some warriors to help you fight and he is quite exhausted"

Something shone in the old centaurs eyes, Frank wasn't sure what it was but he swore it was as if Chiron knew Hazel's secret. "Of course" he said, "Gleeson, could you escort Mr Di Angelo to the infirmary please?" he asked the satyr.

"Fine" Coach Hedge grunted. Taking Nico and helping him inside the house.

Once Nico and Coach had disappeared inside the house Chiron opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by a high speed fawn.

The fawn was tall with brown eyes, curly brown hair with horns producing from it. On his chin he had a wispy beard and he had hairy brown goat legs.

He skittered to a halt beside Chiron, breathing heavily.

"Where's Percy?" he asked excitedly as a middle aged woman rushed in behind them. She looked them over critically, peering behind each of them as if looking for someone.

The woman smelled of sugar, chocolate, and everything else you would find in a candy shop. She had a warm smile, and long brown hair with a few grey strands in it. Her eyes were a sparkly blue and she had laugh and smile lines around her eyes and mouth.

Her smile turned into a troubled frown and so did the fawn's.

"He's not here" the woman muttered to herself, "Where is he?" she asked them pleadingly.

"Sally" said Chiron, "I am sure that Percy is fine" he assured the woman.

"Hey!" exclaimed the satyr, "Where's Annabeth?" he asked them.

Frank was sure that they couldn't get any more awkward when a girl rushed onto the deck behind the woman named Sally.

The girl had shoulder-length spiky black hair, electric blue eyes, and freckles spread across her nose. She was incredibly pretty and had an aura of power. She was wearing black fishnet stockings beneath a pair of tattered denim shorts. Her t-shirt was black with the words 'Black Sabbath' written across it.

"Where's Jason" she panted.

The girl, the fawn and Sally all looked at them hopefully. As if they thought their friends were simply waiting back on the ship.

Frank took a deep breath and said, "You had better sit down".

Ta-Da! OK, so it wasn't a very eventful chapter but it did leave you on a cliffy! :D Muhahaha!

So how are they going to explain things to Grover, Thalia and Sally?

Did you like Frank's embarrassing trip up? :D It was fun to write!

And now I would like to tell you something… just to keep you on your toes! :D

Last night I had the same nightmare I have been having for weeks. It's awful, I wake in tears every time. It's a scene that is going to be in my book in a few chapters. I'm not going to tell you anything about it yet other than the fact that it involves my O/C. It's incredibly sad and I can't wait to write it down.

Anyway that's enough of a teaser, please leave a review because I love reading them!

Thanks for reading! :D