Leo POV

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I groaned and rubbed my head. The pounding would not stop. It felt like the FBI were trying to break into my brain. Does that sound comfy? No… Was it comfy? No…

The setting sun looked beautiful and I thought I saw Apollo waving good bye to the Argo II. I wished the Gods could help us. We were having so many problems, the Gods should be able to at least give us some headache medicine.

Annabeth would agree with that. She was rubbing her head and listening to Percy, who was talking to her. It must have hurt just to have someone talking to her. She had a major headache, or in other words, a migraine. She had refused to go below deck. We were whacked up in some weird way. I was starting to get a headache, but the worse was my lightheadedness. I felt like a helium balloon that was getting higher and higher into the sky. It was getting harder for me to breathe and even just stand up. My legs were so wobbly, I had to lean on the control console.

Jason wasn’t much better. Piper had insisted he go and lay down on his bed to rest. He was pale, shaky, and wasn’t much better than how I was. His hair was almost looked like it was turning white. He looked like he was going to pass out only an hour ago.

I pounded my hand on the console, making Festus creak at me with a slight bit of attitude. “Sorry buddy... Just having a hard time...” I apologized to the metal dragon, who was now officially awake. After Piper had done her charmspeak to him, he was now officially alive and real.

Percy looked over at me, a face of concern definitely dominant. His eyes were still crossed, which made the look sort of funny. I waved him away, and he turned his attention back to Annabeth.

“Festus,” I said sadly. “We’re never going to defeat Dirt Face like this… We’ll die before we even go into battle…” He creaked sadly in return.

Piper came stumbling onto the deck. She was probably the best out of everyone. She had lost her voice and she had a bit of problems walking, but nothing too big. Hazel was down in her cabin, like she normally was when they were on the sea. She wasn't feeling well, and she couldn't find her way around. The way she had described was like she was looking through four to five different realities at once.

Frank was down with her, since he didn't want Hazel to accidentally walk off the ship.

Okay, I just have to say, Frank looked scary. If I told him that, he would think I was crazy. But seriously! His face, arms, and legs kept morphing into different animals. When he had been on patrol, his face was twitching like crazy, and with every twitch, his face would change into some other animal's. An eagle, then a bear, then a fish. It was creepy to watch.

Festus creaked at me, but I was so zoned out, I couldn't respond. He creaked at me louder, but I could already see my vision narrowing. Percy glanced back again, but instead of ignoring me like last time, he paled.

"Leo!" he called and starting to rush toward me. "Wake up!"

I collapsed.

Clover POV

I carefully surveyed the Roman’s base, which happened to be the cabins. I was walking around in my disguise, hoping no one would recognize me. The Imperial gold armor was clanking every time I took a step. If I needed to get away quickly, this wouldn’t be the best stealth outfit. Oh how I wished I could have a ninja costume.

Roman campers walked from the burnt cabins to the other destroyed cabins, apparently searching for valuables. Once and a while, they would yell for assistance. Once the other romans came to help, they would move wood, rock and all kinds of destroyed building materials to remove someone who was trapped. Some the romans welcomed them and helped them to safety. Most of the time though, it was one of our campers, who had been hiding. The romans would save them, snatch them up, then take them away.

Where was Chiron? I thought. He had to be here somewhere. Was he in the cabins? I hesitated as I watched a group of Romans shuffle off with a girl I knew from the Demeter cabin. This was horrible. This was evil. This wasn't diplomatic at all. It was war, and I knew what that was like. I barely survived the war to protect Manhattan. But compared to this? This was making that war seem more like someone bullying a kid at school.

"Gwen!" Someone called behind me. I tensed, then turned around as casually as I could. A soldier was waving me over to a pile of rubble that had once been the Poseidon cabin. "We need some assistance here!" I took a deep breath and walked over. The closer I got, the more worried I became.

The Romans were trying to lift a heavy piece of sea stone. Underneath, I could hear someone breathing harshly, as if trying to keep down a scream. I climbed over some of the burnt wood and accidentally kicked a piece of metal. When I looked down, it was part of the hippocampus that had hung from the ceiling that Tyson had made. I held back a scream if outrage. I looked away sadly and continued to climb.

"So," one of the soldiers said. "The rock is right above someone who we think is a prisoner. We can't seem to lift it." The soldier put his hands under the sea stone, along with a half a dozen others, and tried to lift it. It got a few centimeters off the ground before the Romans dropped it. All of them were breathing heavily. I surveyed the problem.

The sea stone seemed too heavy to lift by just the soldiers. A few boards stuck out the sides, which sort of have the sea stone a meter type look, as if it crashed their from space. The boards looked sturdy, and I had an idea.

"Instead of lifting the stone, each of you stand on a board. The leverage will be enough to lift the sea stone."

One of the guards tilted his head. "How did you know it was sea stone?" My heart stopped. How was I supposed to answer that?

"I... uh..." I looked at the rock, then came up with and idea. "There are sea shells in the rock." I pointed to them and the soldier made his mouth into the shape of an O.

"Anyway," the soldier who had called me over said. "I like your idea Gwen. Everyone on a board." The Roman soldiers all stood on a board.

"I'll grab the prisoner," I said. It sort of hurt calling the person a prisoner, but I had to stay in character. The lead soldier nodded and climbed onto the last board. The rock lifted, but not very high.

"Move closer to the fulcrum," I said. The soldiers all took one to two steps closer to the rock. The rock lifted higher. I looked down into the hole and saw a boy that looked very similar to me. I almost had to hold back my cry of relief. It was Anthony. I had had many sword fights with him, and I was surprised to see him trapped in the rubble. I held out my hand. He looked up at me with scared eyes, pleading for me to leave him alone.

"It's okay," I whispered. "It's me." Anthony looked confused. I bit my lip, trying to figure out a way to reveal my identity. I had an idea. "Anthony, you need to work on your guard." I said. He tilted his head and I smiled at him through my helmet. That's when the realization come. Anthony's eyes widened and was about to say something, but I shushed him.

"Shhh... I'm in disguise. I'm sorry, but I need to save you and the rest is my family and friends." I turned back to the lead soldier.

"He's not coming." The soldier rolled his eyes.

"Of course he's not! I thought you were tough Gwen." I scowled at him then turned back to Anthony. I sent him a pleading look with my eyes. Play along.

"Come here you little graecus!" I said forcefully. Anthony scrambled back, but I gripped his arm and pulled him out. As I lifted him, I quietly whispered, "I'll cause a distraction. You run into the woods. You should find help." Anthony gave a slight nod. I dumped him like a sack of flour and looked at the other soldiers.

“Not one of ours. Do you think we could turn him?” I asked. The soldiers looked at each other.

“What do you mean?” One asked. I smiled.

“Right now, turn him. I bet you could.” The soldiers gave each other nervous looks. I stood there, arms crossed, waiting for someone to speak up. One soldier sighed.

"I bet I could." He stepped toward Anthony, but another soldier stepped toward the soldier.

"You won't be able to Kevin. I'm better at turning people than you are." The soldier, Kevin, scowled.

"Yeah right Hank. I bet I could do it before you."

"You two are both wrong," said another soldier, and this time, it was a girl. "I could turn him before you two could stop arguing." Hank and Kevin both protested. Sooner or later, all the soldiers started fighting each other, claiming who could turn Anthony first. I nudged Anthony and he looked up at me.

"Go," I murmured. Anthony nodded and stood up. He took off full sprint toward the woods. The other soldiers didn't notice. I slowly backed down from the pile and started to walk away. I got at least fifty yards away then I ducked behind a pile of wood. That's when the soldiers noticed Anthony was gone, along with me.

"Hey," the girl cried out. "The prisoner is gone, along with Gwen."

"Buh! She probably left with the prisoner. Come on. Lets keep searching." I started to hear the soldiers dig through the pile. I exhaled with relief and ducked into the woods. I took off my helmet as carefully as I could. My cut on my neck stung like crazy. I winced and touched it. I had been able to wrap it up with gauze before I started looking. It felt as if it were sapping my strength. Tyler was right. I would die from the cut, not anything else if I lived through the experience.

I flicked my hair out of my face and surveyed the camp. The Romans had put up tents around the perimeter and especially on Half Blood Hill. How I was going to survive this, I had no idea.

A few trees away, a Roman soldier nailed a piece of paper to it. I could almost hear the tree nymph screaming in pain. The roman didn't seem to hear anything. He just kept whistling a song that sounded like 'We Are the Champions' by Queen and hammering the paper to the tree. When he finished, he walked away, swinging the hammer in one hand while carrying papers and nails in the other.

I quickly shuffled over to the tree and ripped the paper down. Just to be nice, I took the nail out of the tree in my head, I heard a clear voice.

Thank you.

I smiled and tossed the nail into the woods, then looked down at the paper. My smile melted.

At the top, the word WANTED was printed in big bold letters. A picture of me was drawn in the middle, but what made my smile come back was the classic problem.

They had drawn my nose wrong.

It was so pointed, it reminded me of a witches nose, and what helped was the wart the put on the very end. I looked down at the reward. 100,000 drachmas. I whistled. That was a lot. Then, I began to get angry. The anger became so intense, I felt light headed.

Octavian! Really?! You see my nose like that?!

I almost cursed. I put my hand underneath the paper and lit it ablaze. About halfway through, I got a splitting pain behind my eyes. I winced and the flame sputtered out in my hand. The paper was now ashes, so they slipped between my fingers. I put my hand to my right temple.

My vision went black for a second. I blinked hard and my vision to normal.

What was going on?

Rachel POV

We stumbled through the woods, careful not to let the Romans hear us. Sure they were pretty far away, but you couldn't be too cautious. Will helped Tyler through the brush. Tyler was tripping over the roots and stumbling over the bushes. He looked pretty beaten up, but he insisted that he could walk. Even though he was leaning pretty heavily on Will, I was surprised how far he had come.

Clover's siblings were in front of Tyler, Will and I. They were chasing each other and trying to stay happy. I could tell, though, that they seemed to be carrying a heavy burden. I guessed it was hard to let their sister go.

Tyler winced as he accidentally slammed his arm into a tree. "Ugh," he groaned. "Where did that come from?" Will smirked.

"It was there the whole time."

"Come on you two," I scolded. "We've got to get to safety." The two boys shut up and I turned my attention back to the younger kids. I wondered how long they had been at the camp. They seemed to be familiar with everything. I hesitated. Wait... They hadn't been here very long... A month, maybe longer. That thought sort of hurt. These kids had adapted to their heritage so quickly.

Clover's siblings ran into the field full of the blast marks. The bunker was in view, it's door leaning sideways and the contents burnt. I looked back at the boys, who were both staring at the bunker as well.

"Let's go," Will said, adjusting his grip on Tyler. "Clover said someone would be there waiting." I nodded and started over to the cliff. Zoe, Amanda and Carl had stopped playing with each other. They were staring at the building as they followed Tyler, Will and I into the bunker.

I took a step inside and some wood under my feet crumbled. The place seemed deserted. I continued inside, tucking my red frizzy hair behind my ear. Will assisted Tyler over to a piece of metal that looked like a pretty good resting spot. Then, I heard something shuffle in the darkness.

"Hello?" I called. Out of the dark, a girl stepped out. I didn't recognize her, so I guessed that she was a roman. "Um... Hi. Who are you?" I asked. The girl flinched and backed up slightly. She looked to be in her older teens or young twenties, a few years older than me probably.

"My name is Gwen. Clover sent me here... What is this place? Who are you people?"

"I'm Rachel," I said, putting a hand on my chest. "Clover sent us here too. We're her friends and the younger ones are her siblings. Are you a roman?" Gwen crinkled her nose.

"What's that suppose to mean? I'm not like Octavian. That jerk needs to be killed." Tyler laughed.

"Now you know how we Greeks feel!" Will smirked, and I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway," I continued. "We need to work together. Clover said she would send more people to help us. Were you the first one here?" Gwen nodded and stepped closer to our group.

"Yeah. When I found this place, I was unsure if I was at the right place." She looked around and kicked a board. "It's burnt to the ground."

I nodded sadly, "one of our campers burnt it down. Clover was devastated. I know she'll never get over it..." Gwen bowed her head.

"I'm really sorry... You guys are already fighting yourselves. I knew I should have stopped Octavian when I did." Gwen looked down at her chest and rubbed a spot right above herd to belly button. "Octavian tried to kill me. He succeeded."

Will raised his hand with a clearly confused face, "but how are you here?"

Gwen sighed. "I was brought back from the dead. I heard stories from the other campers that I was impaled from behind with Octavian's spear. I don't think-" Gwen was cut off by someone running toward the bunker. I turned and saw a boy with blond hair and shredded clothes come sprinting toward us. His face was full of relief and fear.  

I quickly rushed over to him. He must have been a few years younger than Clover, but older than any of her siblings. Fourteen maybe. He hugged me then looked back at the forest. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright?" The boy nodded, gripping my arm like a lifeline.

"I-I just g-got away f-from the R-Romans..." He panted, trying to catch his breath. "C-Clover told m-me to r-run." I looked back at the others and nodded, then looked back at the boy.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"A-Anthony," he stated, taking in as much air as he could.

"Nice to meet you, Anthony. Here, come over here and sit." He followed me inside the bunker and collapsed on the floor, breathing hard.

"So," Will said. "Do you mind telling us what happened?" Anthony shook his head and began to tell us his story. He told us about how he had been trapped in the Posiden cabin and Romans found him. While they were trying to pull the rock up, Anthony said he was scared until he felt a feeling of peace. That, he said, was when Clover was helping.

"She helped them lift the rock," Anthony said. "Then, when she was pulling me up, she told me she would distract them as I ran." He sighed sadly. "The Romans got in a fight and I took off running. I never stopped until I found this place. I was really scared..." Everyone was quiet. We didn't know what to say.

"So, Clover is still there?" Tyler asked. Anthony nodded. Tyler looked depressed, but hid it well. I knew something was going on between Tyler and Clover, but I couldn't place it. "Lets hope she wasn't caught..."