Hey guys! So I'm back from my vacation! I had lots of fun! Hope you are all having fun on your vacations! The weather's beautiful here (finally) and I'm spending LOADS of great time with my horse!

Anyways, that's off topic. I wrote most of this while I was away and it is a LASTING chapter. I think you guys will be pleased to hear that this is definitely the longest chapter I've written for this story! It's almost double the length of the longest chapter so far! So hope you guys enjoy it!

I'm getting lots of comments about how they should be going to Rome soon, and I definitely agree that I'm lagging behind a little bit. It's coming, don't worry! A chapter or two more and then they'll be gone. I'm thinking they'll leave on chapter 20 ish.

****PLEASE READ******** Reminder! Percy DID lose his Achilles Curse in the book but I changed that for this story!

Anyways, enjoy the chapter! Lots of good old Percabeth! Hope you love it!

Chapter 18 – Percy

After the battle, Percy was pretty worn out. It had been a long day. First he had seen his mom and left her. Then he had a water balloon fight with the Hermes cabin, Demeter's and Annabeth. After that had been a very enjoyable picnic with Annabeth which was interrupted by a big fight against a bunch of monsters. Percy couldn't decide if this day was good or bad.

He couldn't figure out how the monsters had gotten into the camp. Annabeth had a guess but she told him that they'd talk about it as a camp at dinner. Of course Annabeth was the one with the plan. Typical Athena kid.

Percy really wanted to go to sleep after the battle but he figured that he'd be needed at dinner so he decided to go to bed after dinner.

When dinner came, he went to sit at Poseidon's table with his baby, Cyclops half-brother, Tyson.

"Percy!" Tyson greeted.

"Hey, big guy, how's it going?"

"Good! We hurt monsters! Disintegrated monsters into dust," Tyson exclaimed proudly.

"That's great, Tyson, glad you were there to help," Percy thanked him.

"My big brother looks tired," Tyson frowned, "You worked hard killing the monsters. I think you should go sleep in the cabin."

"Yeah, I'm real tired, it's been a long day," Percy admitted, "They're going to need me for announcements today though, and then I can go to bed after dinner.

Tyson nodded his approval, then his single big brown eye got sad as he frowned, "I miss Ella. She's my friend at the Roman camp. Ella is nice and she's pretty. Will I see her again?"

"After the trip to Rome, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter are going to unite in Greece to fight together. You'll see her then."

"When will that be?" Tyson asked impatiently, "How many sleeps?"

Percy smiled, "I'm not sure, Big Guy, I'm not sure."

Tyson frowned, upset, making Percy feel bad. "It shouldn't take too long. I expect we'll be leaving for Rome soon. After that there'll hopefully only be a week or two." Hopefully. Meaning if they survive and succeed on the mission.

This seemed to satisfy Tyson enough to stop his pouting. Percy went to get their dinner. Traditionally, after everyone got their plateful of dinner, they walked to the fire and scraped some of the food into it. Instead of a burning smell, the burning food smelt of beautiful things. Percy's smelled like a tropical ocean breeze since it was Poseidon that he was offering it to.

After the offerings, everyone sat back down and ate. The conversations at the tables weren't loud or quiet, but it seemed like everyone was trying to figure out how the monsters got into Camp.

Half way through dinner, Annabeth walked to the front of the room to explain her brilliant idea of how the monsters got in.

"Hey everyone, could I get your attention here please?" Annabeth called.

Man she looked beautiful. As always with her long blonde hair curled like a princess's and her grey eyes shining with a certain glint in them that could mean many different things, but the first thing you think of is that you are about to get your butt kicked.

Respectively, the campers quieted down. "So I understand that you're all probably wondering how the monsters got into the camp this afternoon," She started. There were nods of agreement from the campers. "I think I may have an idea as to how this happened. I can't guarantee that this theory is correct, however, I feel that it would make sense to be true. So those monsters must work for Gaea – You've all more than likely figured that one out – and Gaea's the goddess of the earth so she has the power to control the ground. Now we all know that Thalia's tree protects the camp and keeps the boarders still running. We know that the boarders protect us around the perimeter and the skies around Camp. However, do we know about underground? Four years ago, we found an entrance to the Labyrinth inside Camp. Monsters got in through the Labyrinth without problems and there didn't seem to be a boarder there to keep them out. My point is what if Gaea made a tunnel into Camp? With her in charge, monsters would have full access to Camp. I assume that her goal is not to destroy our camp, however. She has bigger problems right now, but we need to be on guard. There were no deaths earlier today but there were many close calls. When travelling around Camp, always carry a weapon with you and don't walk alone.

"On that happy note, we have another matter to discuss: The quest to Rome. Would the other six campers come up please?" Annabeth asked.

Percy and the other five of the Seven walked to the front of the dining hall to Annabeth. Piper had her arm bandaged up and put in a sling and there were many cuts and bruises on the campers but nothing too serious.

"So we need to figure out when we're leaving for Rome," Annabeth stated.

"Soon," Hazel said, "My brother, Nico was captured and we need to find him before…" She trailed off but she didn't need to say more. Everyone knew that he had been captured by Gaea.

The campers whispered amongst themselves and Annabeth looked at Percy questionably. No one knew that Nico had been at the Roman camp.

"Oh yeah, Nico, by the way, visits Camp Jupiter regularly, as well as Camp Half-Blood," Percy explained, "Which explains why he doesn't spend as much time here as the rest of us do. I saw him at Camp Jupiter the first day I came when I didn't remember anything. I recognized him right away but when I asked him if we had met before he claimed that he didn't know me."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow and Percy knew that if Nico was here right now she'd kill him.

"So," He continued, "As much as I'd love to kill him right now, Hazel's right. We've got to leave soon to find and rescue him."

"I'd say we could leave tomorrow," Jason suggested, "The sooner the better right?"

Percy's face fell. Tomorrow was too soon. He had only been here a couple days. Not even a couple.

"I agree, this is a really nice camp and I'd love to get to know more of you better and learn about your style, but we need to find Nico. I'm worried about him," Hazel agreed.

Percy didn't want to leave. This place was his home, his family was here. Annabeth looked at him and saw the sadness in his eyes. She took his hand in hers and gently squeezed it.

"I say we stay one more day then we leave on Sunday," She said. "That way we can spend tomorrow packing and saying goodbye to everyone instead of rushing it all in tonight. We'd get a couple good nights' sleeps in as well before we head off on our long journey.

Percy squeezed her hand in thanks, "I agree with Annabeth. Of course we have to find Nico quickly before Gaea does anything to him, but I think it'd make more sense if we relax one more day instead of stressing to rush out of here. I'm sure we'll have plenty of stress travelling to Rome anyway."

"I say we wait another day," Piper agreed.

Leo nodded, "I have a few more things to do on the ship. It'd be nice to get those done tomorrow, I'm not sure if I'd get them done tonight."

"I don't really care, I think both options are good," Frank shrugged.

Chiron cleared his throat near by, "Well, I guess it's settled then. You seven will leave on Sunday morning. 9:00 a.m. would be a good time I suppose."

That concluded the meeting and the Seven walked back to their tables to finish eating.

That evening there was a campfire, as always.

Percy just wanted to go to bed and sleep, but Annabeth insisted on him coming since he didn't come the night before.

He and Annabeth sat at the very back of the amphitheater together. The Apollo cabin led everyone in song – goofy campfire songs that made everyone laugh and yell out the lyrics. No one cared if they were good or bad singers, everyone had a good time.

After the music came the spooky stories. Today it was the Ares cabin's turn to tell them. They told one that they had told before…something about an ax-murderer who wanted to kill his wife or something?

Partway through the story, Percy felt himself nodding off. He immediately snapped back awake. His eyes started to close again and he found it really hard to keep them open. Before he knew it, he fell asleep, his head leaning against the back of the amphitheater.

When he awoke, his head was leaning against Annabeth's shoulder. Annabeth seemed to have been the one to wake him; her arm was around his shoulder but he assumed that what had woken him was her lips on his forehead.

"Hey sleepyhead," She greeted to him. "You really were tired weren't you?"

Percy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, "Mmhm."

"The battle must've worn you out."

Everyone had left the campfire by now and left Annabeth and Percy sitting alone, side by side.

"Percy?"

"Mm?"

"You were serious? About Nico being at Camp Jupiter? He really lied to you about knowing you?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes, yes and yes," Percy nodded.

"When we find him I swear I will kill him," She growled through gritted teeth.

"I promised myself the same thing," Percy agreed.

They were silent for a while, breathing in the cool night air.

"Annabeth, do you know Hazel's story?"

Annabeth shook her head, "No, but I have a feeling I'm about to find out."

Percy smiled, then got more serious, "She's over 70 years old, Annabeth. She was sent to the Underworld when she died and the judges said that she should be sent to Elysium. Her mother was going to the Fields of Punishment. Hazel obviously didn't agree with the decision, she didn't think that her mom deserved that big of a punishment and she herself had done bad things as well as good so she convinced the judges to send her and her mother to the Fields of Asphodel instead and the judges agreed.

"Then Nico came along. He was searching for Bianca but found out that Bianca had chosen to be reborn. Instead, he found Hazel and knew she was a daughter of Pluto. AKA Hades. So he smuggled her out of the Underworld and brought her to Camp Jupiter."

"Wow," Annabeth said in amazement. "That's crazy. So when Thanatos was release…"

"He let Hazel live because she had helped save him."

"Hm. And Frank? What's his story?" Asked Annabeth.

"A long story," Percy replied. "He's a descendant of a lot of people. Mars – Ares – is his father, and somehow he's related to Neptune – or Poseidon – his great grandfather was Poseidon's grandson or something? Anyway that makes him my, like, million times great nephew…" He made a strange face. "Anyway, he was born with too many gifts or something so when he was a baby, Juno/Hera pointed to a stick in their fire and told his mother that it was his lifeline," Percy explained.

"So if the stick burned…"

"He'd die," Percy finished. "He's carried the burden of the stick in his pocket since just before he came to Camp Jupiter. On our quest he gave it to Hazel to hold for him," Percy explained.

"And Hazel still has it now?"

Percy nodded, "Last I heard."

"Wow. And I thought knowing where your Achilles Point is was a big deal, much less carrying your boyfriend's lifeline in your pocket."

"Well, don't start thinking about it like it's nothing. You do know my weak point, where someone could kill me. If I took a blow there-"

Annabeth quickly shushed him with a kiss on the lips before he could finish. "But you aren't going to take a blow there are you?"

"No," Percy whispered looking deep into her beautiful grey eyes.

"Good," Annabeth said. Her hand moved from Percy's shoulder to the small of his back where his Achilles spot was located. Percy felt her fingers lightly brush it and it sent a bit of a jolt up his spine. He shivered and Annabeth smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder.

The couple sat there for a few peaceful minutes until Percy yawned.

"Want to go to bed?" Annabeth asked, her head lifting from his shoulder.

He nodded and the two of them walked to the cabins with their arms around each other.

When they got to the cabins, Percy leaned down and kissed Annabeth. She kissed him back and they stood there like that for a little while.

After a few seconds, they broke apart.

"See you in the morning," Annabeth said.

Percy nodded, "Goodnight."

"Night."

And they walked to their cabins to sleep. Immediately when Percy got into his cabin he flopped onto his bed, without getting changed, and fell asleep.

Well guys, hope you liked that chapter! I'm doing Frank's POV next chapter for all you Frank fans! The chapter'll come faster if you review so pleeeaasseee review! Thanks a lot for reading guys!

Again, YES Percy lost his Achilles Curse but I changed that for this story. That's the ONE thing I changed...My authors notes at the top say any changes that I'm making.

Thanks for reading, please review!