-Front steps of Big House, Camp Half-Blood; Before breakfast-

~Frank's Point of View~

The difference between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter is obvious once you experience both camps. Camp Jupiter is a strict safe haven with a Roman military structure, Camp Half-Blood is a summer camp with weapons. Coming here to visit for a part of the summer with Hazel was an experience we both looked forward to until Percy went missing.

This time Annabeth and the other camp leaders didn't wait around after we discovered him missing. The daughter of Athena called everyone who could know his whereabouts. When there were no leads, she led the other counselors to storm Olympus.

Annabeth Chase really is terrifying when angry.

That was when we met Chaos and then his army leaders. We also met his assassin, Kosmos. Last night, after some reservations towards the assassin, Kosmos was accused of attacking Kasey, a daughter of Ceres - Demeter.

And then the gods appeared.

"Are we just going to sit here? Or are we going to talk about what happened last night?" Leo spoke, breaking everyone from their thoughts. He was fiddling with a few odds and ends, not looking away from his small project. Was that a small blowtorch?

Jason sighed, running his hand through his hair. "I don't know." There were noticeable bags underneath his eyes. "Was that normal for Camp Half-Blood before the Giant War?" He asked Annabeth.

She pursed her lips, gray eyes narrowed. "No, the gods have visited us from time to time, but never all of the Olympians and not at once."

"Did they really come here out of parental love?" Hazel said as she held my hand. I gave it a quick squeeze and smiled. She smiled back.

Thalia huffed, frowning angrily into the distance. "It wasn't Zeus' idea to be here."

That was true. We didn't get much of an explanation on why the gods came here last night. They seemed to have a mental conversation after Chaos had left with Kosmos. Jupiter - or Zeus - had broken the tense silence that had fallen onto the camp. "We have decided on a solution to this new problem." He cleared his throat, looking slightly uncomfortable. "We, the Olympians, will stay and keep watch over the camp for the night."

There was protest from the campers, counselors, and a few unit leaders. It ended with Chiron sternly calling for lights out. There was little protest after that. Everyone slowly moved back to their cabins. Chiron was respected in Camp Half-Blood. His stern authority matched Reyna's anger.

"And I thought sleeping with the statue of Zeus in the cabin was unnerving." Jason said under his breath.

"The what?" Hazel asked.

"There's a statue of Zeus in Cabin 1." Piper explained. "It was weird having my mom in the cabin last night. She wasn't her usual over the top self. I don't think my younger siblings would have gone to bed if she was."

"I know what you mean. Jake had a hard time getting the others to stop presenting their projects to our dad." Leo made a face as if he wasn't used to saying those words.

"Why weren't you doing that?" Someone suddenly spoke up in the shadows of the big house.

Leo yelped and his project pieces scattered everywhere. "We need a bell on you!" He pointed to the son of Hades.

Nico rolled his eyes. "I didn't mean to sneak up on you."

Hazel perked up. "Did Will find anything?"

Her brother shook his head. "No, and neither did Apollo."

"What are you talking about?" Jason asked, looking between the two.

"Will was asked to check Kasey over." Hazel lowered her voice. "Because of what happened with Kosmos."

Nico nodded. "And even Demeter asked Apollo to do another check-up."

"So Kosmos didn't do anything to her?" Annabeth frowned, thinking out loud.

Before anyone could add more, raised voices could be heard in the big house. We all turned towards the door that Nico had exited from.

The door was pulled open and there stood the assassin of Chaos, Kosmos. Standing beside him beaming slightly was Kasey. "-right about not being a notorious breakfast."

"I used to eat them for breakfast all the time." Kosmos countered with his monotonous voice.

Kasey gaped. "How are you healthy?"

"Who said I was healthy?"

"Kosmos." Annabeth greeted, gray eyes as sharp as steel.

"Daughter of Athena." The assassin greeted back with a slight nod. "Son of Jupiter." To Jason. "Son of Hephaestus." To Leo. "Son of Hades." To Nico. "Son of Mars." To me. "Daughter of Pluto." To Hazel. "Daughter of Aphrodite." To Piper. And after a moment of staring at Thalia, he said. "Lieutenant of Artemis." The daughter of Zeus raised an eyebrow at the title.

He looked over towards the daughter of Demeter next to him. "I must go to the Chaos cabin now."

"You better be back for breakfast." Kasey huffed, her hands on her hips.

With one last acknowledging nod, the assassin moved away from the door, disappearing around the corner of the porch.

"Are you okay, Kasey?" Piper spoke up first.

Kasey smiled with a nod. "I was scared at first and I'm still a bit shaky, but with Kosmos here I don't think I have to worry."

There was a strangled sound coming from beyond the door. "Why do you trust him so much?" Demeter asked, coming up behind her daughter.

"Because he isn't a bad person. Kosmos is here to help us in this war. Why shouldn't we trust him like we trust the other leaders of Lord Chaos' Army?" She answered her mother, shrugging her shoulders.

The eight of us demigods on the steps shared a look. We didn't know if we could trust the leaders of the army.

Thalia stood up. "I should get the hunters ready for breakfast."

Annabeth nodded. "We should all go too."

We broke off into groups, walking back to the cabins. Hazel slipped her hand back into mine. "Nico thinks the gods' decision to stay at camp last night was because of Percy's disappearance."

I blinked, not expecting her quiet words. "Lord Neptune, uh, I mean, Lord Poseidon seemed..."

Hazel nodded sadly. "Yeah." She laughed a little. "Percy looks a lot like him."

"Like a spitting image." We both shared a small laugh, thinking back to when we first met the son of Poseidon.

The rest of the way was spent in silence. We soon went to our separate cabins to get ready for breakfast.

I quickly met up with the Ares Cabin to head to the dining pavilion. Cabin 5 wasn't much different than my other half-siblings at Camp Jupiter. I still felt a little out of place. I may have proved myself as a child of Mars, I don't think I belong among these demigods. It makes me wonder what Cabin 3 is like. I am a descendant of Poseidon afterall.

I followed Clarisse towards the Ares table. Sitting at the table was Ares himself. Looking around, the other Olympians were also seated at their tables. Poseidon sat alone staring at the table deep in thought.

My heart ached thinking about Percy. If the gods don't know where he disappeared to, does that mean we will never see him again?

That thought brought my heart to my throat.

As I sat down furthest away from Ares, I saw the unit leaders walk in followed by Nyke and Kosmos. Noticing movement from Demeter's table, I look over to see Kasey smile and wave to the assassin. He dipped his head in silent greeting, following after the head commander towards their table.

A sharp gasp brought everyone's attention towards Athena's table. Annabeth was shakily standing up, looking like she saw a ghost.

"Annabeth?" Athena asked, moving to stand up.

Her daughter ignored her. Instead on the verge of tears, her voice breaks. "Percy?"

"Wise Girl." Everyone froze.

(I am so tempted to end this chapter here. I will not be doing that as this chapter hasn't covered everything I want it to. You got lucky...)

Standing at the entrance closest to Half-Blood Hill was Percy Jackson, the missing son of Poseidon.

"Percy?" The sea god asked quietly, his face brightening up at the presence of his only demigod son.

"Dad?" Suddenly Percy's body shuddered and started to falter. I moved as fast as I could. Before he hit the ground, Jason and I were there to catch him.

"We should move him to the infirmary." Will, a son of Apollo, spoke. He came up to our huddle, Apollo lingering behind with Poseidon.

"Then let's go." Annabeth demanded, staring Jason and I down.

Jason and I shared a look, readjusting our holds on the clearly injured demigod. We started the trek to the big house's infirmary with a small group of demigods and gods following behind.

-Dining Pavilion, Camp Half-Blood; A few seconds before the missing son of one of the big three appeared-

~Kasey's Point of View~

Sitting down for breakfast finally meant that things can go back to normal. After the near interrogation of what happened last night, and Mom and Lord Apollo questioning Kos- Xander about his side of the story, I was released from the infirmary. I was free to go back to regular activities as there was nothing wrong with me. Only the lingering feeling of that bad place, which was fading with time.

'Or,' I thought, watching the assassin of Chaos sit at the Chaos' table. 'It was fading because I felt safe with Xander. The amount of trust he placed in me, I will gladly return.'

Studying Xander as he interacted, or lack of interaction, with the other leaders made me think of how lonely he must be.

I don't know why he opened up to me the way he did, I was being pushy, but maybe he saw something in me. Maybe he went so long without someone that the first time someone showed interest he lost composure. Maybe.

I sighed, looking down at my plate.

The sudden noise brought my attention up again. Annabeth Chase, the counselor for Cabin 6, was staring at something.

I quickly looked and saw the missing son of Poseidon! I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned back to the Chaos' table where each unit leader and head commander seemed to be in shock at his reappearance.

Xander, on the other hand, was tense. He seemed to be fading in the background. My eyes widened, he was fading!

I stood up, ignoring everything else around me. I just needed to get to the assassin.

The assassin seemed to realize what was happening to him, stood up as well, and walked away without anyone noticing. I quickly followed, not caring about the calls from my mother and half-siblings.

 Well, I finished chapter 12 before publishing this, but I have bad news. The next chapter will be shorter than the last few. I tried adding more to the chapter, however, I didn't want to disturb the flow of the chapter or get stuck and procrastinate finishing this book even more. 

I will start writing chapter 13 today so I can try to finish it before next Saturday. I was thinking this past Sunday that I could potentially be doing a double update today as I was making really good progress with chapter 12. 

I want to say sorry for no double update today and to give an explanation on why it didn't happen. 

I ran into some issues on Wednesday when I barely wrote 150 words for the chapter. Then on Thursday, when I wanted to finish it, I got home for work, ate food, and by 4PM I was getting irritated for no reason. Work was fine, I ate, I slept pretty well, there was no reason for how I was feeling. 

I ended up writing less than 10 words, calling it quits, and fell asleep at 7PM. I was even irritated the following morning until about an hour into work when I finally felt normal again. I have no idea what was wrong, but I got almost 9 hours of sleep which is far more than what I have been getting. 

Sorry for the long author's note. I will be back again next Saturday (this updating schedule is working really well) with chapter 12. I want to thank everyone who has been reading this book. It means a lot. 

See you next Saturday!

~MsPenguingirl1234.

Published: April 1, 2023.