a/n: I just came back from cammping!! Sorry abt the wait, but the next wait will be much shorter! Enjoy!

Third person pov:

Half an hour after the child of Aphrodite and Apollo had run out the woods the immediate meeting alarm was called.

Despite some debating all the heads of cabins showed up after around 15 minutes in the big house. Even Clovis had managed to stay up for 2 minutes to walk over!! Crazy right?

After Piper and Will had explained there was a sense of tension in the room.

However, there was a feeling in the air that normally wasn't there when it came to each other... Suspicion. No one knew why, but suddenly everyone was glancing at each other like they had not known each other for that long.

Everyone shook it off a few seconds later and started coming up with their own explanations for it. It had only lasted for a few seconds but they all know that they felt it. (Except for Clovis, he was asleep).

Piper pov.

We all felt it. For a moment no one trusted each other.

That was for sure, what I don't know is why.

I leaned back in my chair crossed my arms, and searched the room for clues. No shady figure, no godly presence (besides Mr. D, I think), and everything looks normal, except the people...

Percy was pacing biting his knuckle, Miranda was always touching something on her nervously, Clarisse hadn't moved once, she just sat there staring at the table intensely as if interrogating it. Annabeth had a hand resting on Percy's shoulder but she had a hard look at anyone, Will had sat back down and seemed to be doing the same thing as me but was fiddling with the bandage on his wrist. Leo was lost in thought while fiddling with some parts, Travis was just looking at his lap, and Pollux was giving a new diet coke to his father not meeting anyone's eyes. Butch from the Iris cabin had left to make a call to the Roman camp, Damien White had also left with him, and Lou Ellen had an arm around Will but her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. Chiron was pacing back and forth stroking his beard. A few people were chatting but it was very little.

The one thing weird thing was how Jason kept his mouth shut the entire time and hardly moved. Not a single muscle..

I caught eyes with Dionysus and it was definitely one of those moments when you remembered that he is a god. He narrowed his eyes as a question and it felt like he saw through my soul. Please stop seeing everything I've donee! I sucked in a breath and tried keeping emotion off my face. I must've succeeded since he broke contact and went back to his Coke.

Chiron stopped his pacing and cleared his throat for everyone's attention, everyone's heads snapped to him.

"Thank you for letting us know. However, I don't believe we can do a lot from here-"

OH COME ON! Wait... no. That kinda makes sense.

That sentence was immediately met with backlash. He held up his hand for silence.

"I know, I know. I said from here. There is only one place he can be, the casino. Now who is comfortable with reading the message on the card?"

There was silence until Clarisse swallowed hard and stood up. "I will."

I was slightly stunned. "You sure?" She nodded back. She got up and picked up the card and began to read.

"You all can guess where he is, but we kinda need him. You can try to get him but he will be well over to our sister location by the time you arrive... I can't read the rest. It's too smudged... But, if you come before 5 days are over we WILL kill him. -Love, the Lotus Eaters." She angrily threw it back on the table.

I could hardly think right. What can we even do about this? Come too soon and he'll die, come too late and he'll be gone?!

"So where's our oracle?" Dionysus asked.

"What?! It's too dangerous to go there!" Annabeth blurted. Oh? And I'm the one who doesn't care about our friends? Ugh. I thought. I hope Nico is doing ok..

"We can't just leave him there! Don't you care about him?" Will shouted. Damm, thank you! I thought. 

 What? Someone needed to say it!

"And don't you know how to get out of there? I mean you have already been there." I asked, standing up.

"Yes, but it's either he dies or goes to some other location! Use your logic! Also, I hardly made it out then, that's why it's too dangerous!" She scoffed.

"Oh because 11-year-old Annie couldn't get out of a place by herself it's too dangerous for highly trained 17 and 18-year-olds? Hades, aren't you almost 19?" I gave back then sat down closing the debate.

It seemed Leo had enough, "Well..."

"What is it?" Percy asked curiously.

"I don't know. But isn't there an island where some lotus-eaters lived?"

That caught my attention, maybe he was onto something. "Yes! There is one!"

"Well, maybe we can compare maps? The original, the updated myth ones, and regular mortal maps? See if anything lines up, at least an area?"

Finally, an idea that might work."Maybe see if Homer said anything about it?" I added. Leo gave his impish smile. He had started to get better recently after Calypso left to continue traveling. I wasn't told much about it and he tried to play it cool but clearly there was a bit of hurt. I think he tried traveling with her but it exhausted him and he wanted to continue working at a forge but she wanted to see the world? I don't know, that's just my professional guess. My... Aphrodite eXpErTiSe.

-time skip brought to u by: a story about not needing a god to make you powerful to be evil🥰 so empowering! -

"There it is!" Leo shouted pointing to a spot on our map.

"Whoooooo!" I dropped into a newly made MUS chair. They. Were. COMFY.

I was so relieved that after hours upon hours of reading, comparing, 2 pots of coffee, and almost giving up we finally found it!

I looked around and just noticed how big of a mess that was made of the bunker. Scrolls were splayed everywhere, every table had a version of a map (but categorized), the floor was a mess of books, there was a path on the floor which was more like the floor is lava reversed, and if there was a small gap on a table it had a used mug.

Will's head collapsed on a table and he gave a happy, tired groan despite all the papers on the table. Percy threw his hands in the air and then ran them through his hair, smiling. "Yessss!"

Clovis who had been our dream/vision man gave a thumbs up and then started snoring.

I leaned forward and saw where Leo was pointing, it was a random island between the US and Europe. I zoomed in on the holograph. It was an uninhabited island that was very small and seemed to not exist on a mortal map. However, Mcshizzle tech could somehow break through the mist.

We were finally closer to finding Nico. I looked over to Percy who was doing a little victory dance out of tiredness. 

And it's about time too... I thought while observing Percy's dance.

Jason gave an expressionless nod then got up from the table he was at and left the bunker without a word. You know what? This isn't even about just me anymore, Nico is his friend. I thought.

"Jason!" I called after him. He stopped at the door and tilted his head. He clearly wasn't tired, just uninterested.

"What." He snapped back. 'Oh? I am so done with this from him!' I thought.

I started to rise from my chair but Percy put a hand on my shoulder stopping me. Never mind, now's not the time. We need to focus on Nico. I can leave my personal problems behind until we get him back. But maybe a little something...

I took a deep breath and sat back down crossing my arms. "Close the door on your way out."

Jason Grace then turned and gave a cold, hard glare right at me.

You want to play this game? I crossed my legs and raised an eyebrow back as a challenge.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

10 whole seconds of a staring contest of tension. Everyone was looking back and forth not interrupting the moment, waiting.

Finally, he broke contact. "Fine, Piper." Then he sharply turned and slammed the door. Immature much?

After a moment I let loose of the tension and let my head fall into my hands, elbows resting on my knees. 'He actually hates me. Not just annoyed, oblivious, or anything. Hate.' I thought to myself.

—------------

We all ended up falling asleep in the bunker since it was past hours and we were all too tired to move. Luckily they had some emergency rooms, the rest just used the couches or extendable chairs.

Little did we know that someone had joined us while we were asleep and decided to... make changes.

a/n: HEAR ME OUT!!!!! I have ze next chapter ready so if this chapter does well I'll post it sooner!

a la question: smores, ice cream, or brownies?

Comments, questions, suggestions?

Oki, love ya, butterflies! <3