It’s the middle of the night. I wake up with the feeling that I'm being watched.
I sit up in bed, (Will solace, a healer, and apparently the one whose been looking after me this entire time, gave me some more of those weird squares, apparently their called ‘ambrosia’ and they make you feel way better, but you can't have too many. I asked him why we don’t eat them all the time and he said they would make you burst into flames.) There's no one else in the room. I'm alone.
so why can I hear breathing? Why that weird sensation of being watched.
I look around at the posters covering the walls.
I can still read them in the dim light. They all say things like:

JOIN OUR CLUB!
  come and meet on Wednesday to celebrate the art of fighting!
COMBAT CLUB!

Or:
     An Apple A Day
     Keeps Apollo Away,
      (Not that you would want to!)

With a picture of a winking dude on a chariot.
Suddenly I freeze.
There is a dark shape near my feet.
Someone is sitting on the end of my bed.

I'm too frozen to scream, and if I did scream, I don’t think anyone would be able to hear me. The figure is bent over, hunched, like their reading a book, I can't see their face in the dark, but they look like a man, only because of their big scraggily beard.
The man turns towards me. He has dark, dark eyes, but they have a friendly twinkle in them. “Hello there.”
I think it's time to scream. SCREAM NOW!!!
The man's face comes into the light. Oh, wow. He looks hideous. He smiles.
“I've just come to visit. You’ve gotten yourself into a lot of trouble.”
“...Ur- yeah, thanks for the visit! B-bye.” I stammer.
He glances at me.
“I am Hephaestus.” he says, like that's supposed to make me feel better.
Oh. I think I recognize that name. Was it one of the names Annabeth told me about?
One of the monsters? -no- one of the gods.
I'm not quite sure what to do now. Do I like, bow or something?
“I... okay.” I say, which sounds lame.
“What...what are you doing? Here, I mean.”
he hesitates. “I wanted to see you.”
A thought comes to me. What if...
“You're not my dad, are you?”
He looks a bit awkward now. You wouldn’t think a god would ever look like that.
He doesn't say anything, but I can see the answer in his eyes.
Geez, this is so awkward.
“Okay, so...um...”
“I'll just go.” he sighs.
“Sure. I mean, um...if you have too.”
He smiles dryly and disappears. I'm left sitting in silence.

The next morning, I am completely healed. Annabeth says it’s a miracle, that the gods must have healed me, because there's no way injuries like that would just fade. 
She’s right of course. And I know exactly which god it was.
Me, Percy and Annabeth walk down to breakfast together. It's the first time I have seen the rest of the camp. I love it. This camp is awesome. In a normal summer camp, you might find activities like arts and craft, or kayaking, but at this camp you're more likely to find things like sword fighting, or rock climbing over a pit of lava. 
It’s full-on ancient Greek style, with a dragon, satyrs, sort of goat-people that I was really surprised to see at first, and insanely cool buildings and armour and it is just AMAZING.
On one of the hills there is a semi-circle of cabins for the campers, one for each god. I look up at the Hephaestus cabin. It looks like a mini factory, covered in gears and mechanisms and all sorts of things.
I remember that Hephaestus is the god of blacksmiths or machines or something.
Two unlit torches guard the entrance, and plumes of smoke are coming out of the windows and doorway.
Actually, I don’t think that is supposed to happen. Several Hephaestus kids run out coughing.
“Leo!!!” a girl with dark brown hair shouts. “Oh, hi.” she says turning to me. “I'm Nyssa. You’re our new camper, right?”
“Um...yeah. What happened here?”
Annabeth snorts. “That would be Leo.”
“Yeah. He may have started a fire or two.” the girl says.
“May have? I am on fire!” a voice called from cabin. A boy around my age with curly black hair is standing in the doorway, and, yes, he is literally on fire. Flames lick his feet and hands, but he doesn't seem to be burning at all.
He sees me looking.
“New kid?” without waiting for an answer he continues; “I'm a son of Hephaestus, god of fire and cool stuff.” The flames are magically extinguished, and I wonder if I have that power too.
“Most children of Hephaestus don’t have the power of fire though.”
Oh. Right then.
“Oh, yeah Leo's special.” the Hephaestus girl says sarcastically.
“Yeah, I'm just so HOT. Don't mess with me or you get burned!”
“You’re completely insane.” I point out.
“Well thank you!”
“Come on Billie, wait until you see my cabin.” Percy says, smirking at Leo.
“Leo might have fire, but I control the entire ocean! Watch out or the crabs will come after you! You might get splashed with water!”
“Stop being a show-off, Percy!” Annabeth calls after him as he skips happily down the path. She sounds annoyed, but she laughs. I'm beginning to like the two of them.

Percy's cabin smells like the ocean. It's not the fanciest cabin, but it's pretty cool.
Percy shows me the shield his little brother Tyson made; I have to say it's really good for a son of the sea god. I had just assumed only the Hephaestus kids did that sort of thing.
Then I meet Percy’s little brother. He's not really little, more like large, and he only has one eye, right in the middle of his head. Yep, a cyclops.
Tyson is not at all like he looks. He's really gentle, and nice, but talented too.
As we walk back, I see a man riding a horse over near the Zeus cabin.
“You have horses here?”
“What?” Percy says, then notices the direction of my glance. “Oh, that’s Chiron. He's a centaur, not a horse. He's also the camp director.”
Now I can see him properly, what I thought was a middle-aged man riding a horse I now see that he’s actually a horse with the head and torso of a middle-aged man.
“Oh.”
“But we do have horses here, if you're interested. I can talk to them.”
“What?”
“Yeah, like Poseidon created them, or something, and so I can talk to horses.”
“They’re the only ones who can understand your nonsense.” Annabeth says.
“I speak English just as well as I speak horse!”
“Maybe they can't understand you then.” I tease. 
“Geez...you guys...” he sighs.
Me and Annabeth high-five.
“Why don’t we go meet Chiron? He meets all the other campers.” Annabeth says.
“Sure...why not.” I say.
“Come on then!” Percy is already halfway there.
Chiron turns as we come towards him.

“Ah, the new camper." He says. “Welcome to camp half-blood. I hope you're enjoying it here. What is your name?”
“I... Billie.”
He nods and smiles “You remind me of someone... but that’s not important. Have you been claimed by your parent yet?”
I shake my head.  “No...”
“Tonight, at the feast your parent should claim you in front of the rest of camp. Then you will move into your new cabin.”
Yay. That sounds great. Humiliating myself in front of everyone. Awesome.
“Um...okay.”
He smiles gently. “You will find new family here, don’t worry.” he turns to one of the other campers.
I walk away. I think about who my own new stepsiblings are. I've just gained a massive crazy family. Honestly, I think I'll fit in fine.

I used to have a brother. He's the only thing from my past that I remember. (My entire family died in a house fire when I was young.) He was my twin, I think, but I only have one memory of him. A small smiling kid, with black hair like me. I remember drawing together with crayons. There was an older woman in that memory, but somehow, I know she wasn't my mother. I still have one of the pictures that we drew, scribbled and messy, and a little damaged, but I kept it, because it’s the only thing I have from my family.
Once Percy and Annabeth walk away, chatting and laughing, I pull it out of my pocket, where it always is. It's kept in a plastic bag ever since I got it wet in the rain.
A picture of a ship. An old-style sailing ship with a gold figure head, and my name scribbled in messy child's writing. Half of it has been damaged by the water, but my last name is still visible on the tattered paper;
Valdez.

Later that night I join in at the feast. I sit at the Poseidon table with Percy and Tyson, because I haven't been claimed yet, and I'm not going to tell anyone I met with my father last night. Don’t ask me why, but it feels like a private thing.  I wonder where all the food is, until Percy tells me that the gold plates are magic, and you just have to think of something, and it’ll appear there. So, I thought of a nice big hamburger, with all my favourite fillings, and a cup of lemonade to go with it.
Best. Camp. EVER.
 I see several other kids walking up to the bonfire in the middle of the tables and push a portion of their food into it as a sacrifice to the gods.
I don’t see how the gods like burnt potatoes and steak, but I guess they like their food crunchy. I go up to put part of my hamburger into the flames, for Hephaestus, and ask him why on earth he likes burgers that have been turned to ashes.
I go and sit back down to finish my meal with Percy

I'm about to ask if the plates only supply food, or if I could maybe ask for a pure gold donkey, or like a man-eating cactus, when Chiron comes up and calls me to the center to introduce me to the camp, and hopefully get claimed by my godly parent, i.e., Hephaestus.
I walk up nervously, aware that everyone has their eyes on me, and that if I do one thing wrong, they’ll be on me like mosquitos to a nice juicy blood-filled limb.
I don’t much like being a juicy blood-filled limb.

I stand in front of all the campers as Chiron introduces me.
“This is our new camper, Billie. She will hopefully be claimed by her god parent tonight.”
he gestures for me to talk.
I give him a terrified look, but he ignores me.
“Ur… hi. I’m, um, Billie…”
“Billie! Someone from the Ares cabin sneers, “Billie who? That isn’t even a proper name!”
“Yeah, get out of our camp, half-brain!” Another says.
I've been told about the Ares cabin. I've also been told to ignore bullies, like that’s going to happen.
“Billie Valdez!” I yell. “That's my name! And what even is your name? Let me guess, Uglyface? Bad Temper?”
There's a few laughs, but mostly from kids in the Ares cabin, who laugh at anyone getting humiliated, except themselves.
but I notice that Percy and several others are staring at me weirdly. I worry that I might’ve done something wrong when someone from the Hephaestus table stands up. It's that boy, Leo.
“Valdez?” he says, his voice horse. “You’re not...she’s not from our cabin, is she?”
Another kid stands up, a girl from the Hephaestus cabin. “Leo, sit down”
“Is she?” Leo says.
Percy looks around worriedly. Actually, everyone looks worried now. “Chiron, what's...?” I mutter.
“Do you have any other family?” he asks.
“No, they died in a fire.”
Suddenly a bright Fiery hammer glows above my head. Everyone stares at the mark of Hephaestus. “Fire...” Leo is whispering, barely audible over the noise the crowd makes.
I feel slightly hotter than before, either all this commotion or...
I look down at myself. Leo is right, I am on fire. Literally.
The white-hot flames burn from inside me, never burning me. I don’t believe it.
It feels kind of nice. Cosy. 
Although my clothes are getting a bit singed.
The light, hammer and fire fades, everyone is still looking at me though.
“Campers,” Chiron wheezes, “we have a new placement into cabin 6. please welcome our newest camp member.”

It was fine until the crazed red head showed up. I mean, I was getting a few dirty glances and confused looks, but they would get used to me. And maybe I could figure out what was going on, sometime, eventually, but she ruined it for me.
A girl Percy's age with frizzled red hair, who I had seen during dinner on the main table, came up beside me. I thought maybe she would have a speech to say, or an insult perhaps, then she grabbed my arm and said in a weird voice that did not match her face at all;

                             
                                  Out of dreams, a secret’s made,
                                  unclear memories, begin to fade.
                                  Seven of those who once went forth,
                                  come and help those in the north,
                                       Sibling born of fire, burn,
                                       or the path will not turn.
                                            which one will it be?
                                   Death to earth, or death to thee?

The girl collapses, her green eyes rolling.
“Okay, that was creepy...” I say into the silence.
Everyone starts talking at once. Several people and satyrs help the red-haired girl.
“Unclear memories...?” Annabeth mutters under her breath. “Seven of those...I mean obviously, but...”
“What does that mean? Born of fire?” someone from the Demeter table says. 
“Lili, you are not born of fire, you are born of wheat.”
“Dreams? How vague is that? We all have dreams! Especially us demigods!” Percy said from beside me. I didn’t even know he was there.
“Don’t worry Billie, newcomers are barely ever chosen to go on a quest.” he sighs
“And by ‘barely ever’ I mean ‘almost always.’” he mutters.
“Gee, that’s helpful. Thanks.” I mutter back sarcastically.
“So, you’re a Valdez?” he says. “We have already had many Valdez-es. There was hazel’s old friend, who is actually from the past and Leo's grandfather or something, and then there's, well, Leo.”
“Leo?”
“Um, yeah. Leo Valdez. Your brother, apparently.”
“Oh.” My brother? Full brother? I guess he does look like me, kinda... I already have a million questions to ask him. Like, who is our mother? Did he even know he had a sister?
I sense another massively awkward conversation.
Percy looks over at Annabeth. “The seven, I bet that means us, we never get a break.”
“The Seven?” I ask
“Long story, but there was another prophesy a while back, and me, Annabeth, Leo, hazel, frank, Jason and piper; the seven, had to go on a quest together.”
He points to all the people I don’t know as he says their name. All of them have grouped together in the middle and seem to be arguing over something. The girl with coffee brown hair, piper I think, seems to be winning.
“So that was a prophesy?”
“Yep.”
“Do you get them often?”
“Yes, and they are very, very annoying.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“We do the god’s dirty work and try and save the world. Again.”

The campers go back to their normal activities, wondering and worrying about the prophesy, and who will complete it. There's lots of talk about the seven, who, apparently, are very famous for saving the world a while back. Everyone's saying they’ll help again.
I'm certain the prophesy will have something to do with me. It would be just my luck.
Lots of the campers ask Chiron who’s going to go on the quest, but he just says to sleep on it.

I move into the Hephaestus cabin. I don’t know what to expect as I grab my only belongings, a pack of toiletries and clothes Chiron sent me. I trudge over to cabin 9 and go inside for the first time.
It is insane in there. Stuff is everywhere, spare metal lying on benches and on the floor, pictures, photos, and plans are pinned up all over the walls, half-finished inventions and weapons are scattered on every other free surface. A fireman's pole is in the corner beside a set of spiral stairs, which makes no sense, because I thought the cabins where only one story high, but that’s not what surprises me most. The place feels alive. Even though there's no one here, the whole room is buzzing with energy, and I can actually sense the machines working. It's amazing.
I love it. I put my stuff down on a bench and take a look at some of the machines, one of the ones nearby has several broken wires on it, and I pick it up to take a look. Its sort off shaped like a helmet, but with no room for a head inside. All the wires are jumbled up, but I can tell from the small metal disc imbedded in a circuit bord with several wires stuck into it, that it's supposed to be an automaton. A sort of ai robot. It could be fixed easily if I just tweaked the wires here... I pick up a tool from the table and use it to fix the copper wires in place. Perfect! The head moves a bit and comes to life.
“Hay!” a voice calls from the staircase. “what’re you doing!”
I hastily put down the head. “Nothing.” I say quickly, turning towards the stairs, so that the helmet is behind me.
“Hello, I am-” the automaton says from behind me.
“Shut up!” I hiss.
The person gasps.
I panic. “Um...I haven't broken it, right?”
“Who is my target? I will bite them, master. Just show me where they are.” the head says.
“Oh. It's you. No, it's fine. I think you fixed it.”
Finally, I notice who is standing at the stairs.
“Leo?”
“You mean; ‘It's Leo! My new brother! He's the best!’ So, liking your new home?”
He holds out a microphone that he pulled from nowhere.
“The place is nice. But the company could be better. Am I allowed to buy replacement brothers?” I smile.
“Do you want me to kill him?” the head says.
“No.” I say, “Only kill him after I've integrated him.”
“I really hope you’re joking.” Leo says.
“I am a very serious person.”
“Yeah right.”
“I can see you are too.” I say with a raised eyebrow.
He laughs. “Totally.”
He looks at me, suddenly actually serious. “So, how come I never knew you?”
“I lived on the streets for most of my life. I was told my house had burned down when I was five...with you and my mother inside.”
I see a flicker of regret and sadness on his face.
“Yeah. But it burned when I was eight, and we’re the same age...maybe twins in fact.”
Somehow that makes me feel closer to him. My twin brother. Wow.
“I must be wrong. I can’t remember a lot of my childhood.”
“Or maybe Hera was training you to be one of the seven, then took all your memories. She does that. but...I don’t know. Do you remember anything? Like, do you remember my-our mum? Or anything...with me?”
“When we were drawing with crayons?” I asked.
“Huh?”
“So...um I drew this ship. With crayons. When I was three. You where there. And this lady, but I don’t think she was...our mum.” I'm not used to sharing anything with other people. I normally keep myself to myself.
“At a park bench?”
“I think...maybe?”
“What ship? The Argo II?”
“The what?” I ask, “I drew this.” I say and pulled the scribbled drawing out of my pocket.
“The- Yeah. That’s the Argo II. Come on, I'll show you. I can explain on the way.”
I follow him down the stairs, below is a massive underground workshop full of furnaces, forges, welding guns and scrap metal. Also, the inhabitants of cabin 9 are all there, fixing and building and inventing. Smoke and sparks fill the air.
I stop and stare, itching to get my hands on some of the equipment. I have so many ideas.
One of the kids at the forges sees me staring. He smiles at me, waves, and gets back to working on the sword he’s making.
“Billie!” Leo calls, “I'll give you the tour when we have time. Now come on.”
I follow, twisting my head to look at the inventions as we go past them.
“I am so looking forward to living here.” I muttered.

The Argo II was like the best ship I had ever seen. It was Greek style, of course, with a bronze dragon figure head, a copy of the ship I had drawn, and about a million controls, including several gaming controllers, and cool special features, such as holographic deck, to make the ship invisible to enemies, and secret passages and rooms, in case it was ever invaded. It had everything.
I was impressed. Leo was showing off, and Festus the dragon figure head could actually talk. Sorta. He was cool.
after showing me every single part of the Argo II, Leo finally took me on a tour of the Hephaestus cabin, and told me about his adventures. I didn’t tell him about mine though. He didn’t need to know everything about me.
After that it was pretty late, so I settled into my new bunk, drew the curtains across and went to sleep, exhausted after the action-packed day.

I dream, of course.
I'm in a shed of some sort, or a workshop, peeking out from behind a large machine. Tools and stuff are everywhere, a bit like in the Hephaestus cabin. A woman is working on welding a lever onto a little bronze box, (I don’t know what it is), and a little boy around eight is standing next to her, wearing overalls and gloves that are way too big for him. They work together, laughing and telling corny jokes. In my dream I smile.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” a voice demanded from behind me.
“You’re supposed to set the shed on fire, you know, like we taught you!!” a different voice says. I turn, surprised. The speakers are a man and a woman, they both look similar to me, and immediately dream me knows they are my parents, and that, yes, they have taught me how to set houses on fire. Real me panics in the back of my mind, but I don’t listen.
“Okay. Here goes.” dream me hesitates, looks at the happy family in a mixture of guilt and jealousy. “a-are you sure about this?”
“It's okay darling,” my mother says. “Remember, they are really gods in disguise as mortals. The army of Gaia would never harm innocent mortals. That’s why we joined her forces.” while she was talking, I saw the people leave, then the woman came back to grab something from the table. I opened my mouth to tell my parents, but my father interrupts.
“Yes, the gods are evil, the gods were planning to kill you from birth. Never trust them.” he says.
I nodded. This was for the good of the people. They started the war first. They killed all those dead mortals we saw in the park. They deserved this.
I created a small flame on my figure and set fire to an oil covered cloth.
“Perfect.” my mother says. “Now watch very closely.”
I stand back and watch the flames engulf the kind-looking woman.
she’s actually an evil goddess. A goddess who killed those people for fun. Who wreaked the world just for her amusement. Who tried to break the universe and create total destruction. She deserved it. I tell myself as I watched her burn.
She deserved it.

I wake up with a start. Shaken.
This is one of my real memories. I can feel it.
And it's not the best.
I lie there for a moment, thinking.
I'm sure that boy was Leo...so the woman was my real mother. And I killed her.
I was a part of Gaia’s plan, I don’t know exactly how, but I definitely contributed to it.
I decide I won’t tell anyone. They don’t need to know about this.
“Wake uuuuupp!!!” I hear Leo shout,
“Aw, seriously Leo...” another camper grumbles.
“Go away!”
I'm going to have to get used to this.

We walk down to breakfast as a cabin, laughing and talking on the way. I chat to several of my other siblings, and they tell me about their favourite tools, forging technics, and they have a heated discussion about who out of the entire cabin deserves to be thrown in the lake (Leo, of course).

When we get there Chiron looks at us sternly, surrounded by Percy, Annabeth, and the seven. The rest of the camp is digging into their toast or cereal. He beckons me and Leo over, and we go and stand with him and the others.
“We have had some...news last night” he says, “the questers have been decided.” he gestures to the red-haired girl who delivered the prophesy.
“I had a dream last night, it showed me who would go, the seven of you, and you, Billie. You need to go to North Dakota, but the dream also warned...you will watch one burn there.”
A shiver goes down my spine.
“What else did it say, Rachel?” Percy asked
“Nothing.”
“Well that clears things up then. We go to North Dakota.”
“But why?” I ask
“Who knows? I expect we’ll find out.”
I go to pack for the mission, without eating any breakfast. My arms are trembling. I know the prophesy is about me.
Sibling born of fire, burn... is that me, or Leo?
Out of dreams a secret’s made... my dreams? The secret that I worked for Gaia?
But it’s the last line that scares me most.
Which one shall it be?
Death to earth or death to thee?

We’re going to leave for North Dakota tomorrow morning.
Will Solace gives us some first-aid kits with nectar and ambrosia, godly food, and drink.
Annabeth brings me some spare camp half-blood t-shirts and denim shorts, and one of the other cabin 6 kids gives me a tool belt stoked with about a million things, but still really light, he tells me it might save my life, and I strap it around my waist.
I go to the armory and test out some of the weapons, eventually deciding on a complicated looking crossbow, which I could've sworn appeared just after I walked in the door.
I figure it out in about two seconds, and soon I'm a master. The crossbow has a little compartment for storing the arrows when I'm not using them, and several different mechanisms on the side, and I discover pretty quickly that the different colored tips on the arrows stand for regular, explosive, grappling hook and mechanical laser-shooting rubber-duck swarm.
There are heaps more colors, but I think I've ruined the arena enough.

I head back to the mess hall at lunch, and on the way, I run into Percy and Annabeth talking to a worried looking satyr.
“Hi,” Percy says, “this is Grover. Grover, this is Billie Valdez.”
As soon as the satyr sees me, he turns pale, his eyes widen in shock.
“Grover...what's wrong?” Annabeth asks.
“I... it’s...nothing.” Grover stammers. I can tell it’s something though. He won’t meet my gaze, and he twitches nervously.
“Hi, Grover.” I say, putting as much kindness in my voice as possible.
“H-Hi.” Grover mutters.
I walk off to lunch, slightly more worried than before.

That night, I can’t sleep. I'm scared of what will happen on our quest. I'm scared of whatever my dreams will show me. I'm scared of whatever Grover thought when he saw me.
I get up and creep out of the cabin, into the cool night air. The moon casting silver light over the unusually quiet camp. I sneak around the canoeing lake, over to the big house, not sure what I'm hoping to achieve, really, just trying to keep my mind off of the quest.
I go over to the verandah and look out over the camp.
Suddenly I hear voices from inside. I dart around the corner and out of sight as a centaur and three campers walk out of the big house into the moonlight.
“What is it, Grover?”
“About that girl...the new camper...” I flinch. He mutters something I can't hear.
“Are you sure it was her?” I recognize Annabeth's voice.
“Absolutely sure.”
“It couldn’t have been! She wouldn’t-”
“How well do you really know her, Percy? How can you be sure it's not all just an act?”
“How do you know Grover didn’t just mistake her for someone? Sorry, man.”
“Eh. It's fine.”
“Percy's right. For once. She seemed so nice, not like she was acting, and I just can’t believe she would have ever worked for Gaia...”  I drew in my breath.
“Well, you should really get to bed. You two have a big day tomorrow.”
I hear several pairs of footsteps advancing. Before I have time to run back to my cabin, Percy and Annabeth turn the corner and run straight into me.
Uh oh.
“Billie! Ur- how long where you standing there?” Percy asked, surprised.
“Long enough.” I say, trying to be casual.
“...how much did you hear?” Annabeth asked. I gulped.
“Too much.”
“Look, we don’t think you’d...”
“We trust you- Grover was mistaken, that’s all.”
“Sure.”
“Billie...”
But I was gone.

I tried to sleep after that. I tossed and turned in my bunk.
Eventually, I drifted into a light sleep.
 I dreamed I was trudging through a wild forest, brushing away vines, stepping over shrubs.
“We’re getting close.” a voice says from behind me.
It's my fake mum from last time.
“Close to what?” Dream me askes.
“Close to the god's servant's den.”
“Servants? I thought you said only gods!”
“Yes, but they work for the gods, they do all their dirty work.”
“...alright.”
We come to a place with tents and huts. The glade is filled with nymphs and goat-legged people going about their daily business. Their evil daily business. I tell myself.
“Go on then, do your thing.” I nod. My hand lights up, flames dance from my palm to my fingertips. I set a tent on fire, and the creatures go crazy, trying, and failing, to put out the flames.
I smile as the rest of the monsters and heroes on our side swarm over and attack the evil creatures. I join the fight, spurting white-hot fire at a group of the goat-legged people, they stare at me in horror, and I caught them in a net of fire.
I recognize one of them, a satyr with curly hair and a goatee. Wait, a satyr?
...what am I doing! Satyrs are good, they’re on our side!
But what is our side?
I wake up.

A mechanical rubber duck is waddling through our cabin.
“Okay, who made that?” Nyssa askes in a bored tone, “Leo?”
“Why do you always assume it was me?”
“Because it always is you!”
“Not always, Nyssa. Remember when Jake made that miniature flying unicorn robot?”
“Yes, but Leo-”
 I sit up. “It was me, I found this cool crossbow, and apparently it shot mechanical ducks.”
Nyssa is silent.
“Good job sis, me and you will get along just fine.”
“Mmhmm. Right.”

We get dressed, and me and Leo grab our bags, packed full of stuff we might need.
I open the door and discover ultimate madness.
The rubber ducks have taken over.
They’re waddling around everywhere, bumping into things, shooting lasers, and basically destroying the place.
Oops.

“Well, I've got to go on a quest, so bye!!” I say, sliding out of the way.
“Wait for me!” Leo calls, chasing after me.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Nyssa grabs us both by the collars.
“Worth a try.” Leo grumbles.

We have to clean up the ducks. The Athena, Apollo and Hephaestus cabins all work together to round them up. Me and Leo burn them into scrap metal and transport the melted lumps of iron back to cabin 6, I ask why we don’t just throw them away, but Leo says that our father once said that not every machine can be saved, but everything can be used again.
 I realize Leo might seem like just a smiling, joking repair boy, but he hides things deep inside. Kind of like me. I decide I’ll tell him about my dreams sometime. When we’re alone.

Eventually, we go on our quest. It’s a bit anti-climactic. We gather our belongings and get into the Argo II. Then Leo starts up the engine and we rise up into the sky, I help Leo fix up a few tangled mechanics, he teaches me the basics and I get really into it.
Who knew engines where so interesting? He helps me with creating a new feature on the Argo II, a medic robot that he’s been planning for I while and teases me when I mess up.
Brothers are awesome.
“I’m thinking we go by Michigan, its quicker, and we go over the ocean, so we can sail for a while, then fly.” Annabeth was saying, spread over a map of the USA.
“Mm… then it’ll probably take a day or so…” Leo agreed.
“That’s okay… you know, we’ve always had a deadline and some idea of what we’re doing…”
“Weird isn’t it, Wise Girl. I prefer no deadline though. Gives us time to prepare.” Percy says, slurping a blue coke and munching on a cookie. I need Leo to show me where the
kitchen is sometime.

After about an hour and a half of smooth sailing, we hit some turbulence. And by that, I mean monsters.
A dozen winged creatures fly towards the ship, screeching and howling. They look like lions crossed with seagulls, with a beak, wings, paws, claws, and fury pelt. Terrifying.
everyone immediately crowds onto the deck, drawing weapons. I get my cross bow ready with a regular arrow, I found I was quite good at archery and practiced all afternoon yesterday.
The monsters close in on us, Jason strikes several with lightning, Percy uses water to suffocate another, frank shoots down a couple off them, piper lobes hamburgers and peaches from her cornucopia, Leo fires them with the ship’s weaponry, and by the time I load and aim my cross bow, there are none left to kill.
Woah. This is one epic team.  

Apparently, piper got injured in the fight. I didn’t see much of the fight, it went too fast, so don’t ask me how. Our medic-bot doesn’t seem up to the job yet, it’s having an identity crisis, it keeps throwing bandages and yelling at the top of its voice: ‘WHO AM I?’ Poor bot. So, Annabeth bandages her cuts, and gives her some ambrosia.
She’s alright in about twenty mins, and over the next several hours the sky is quiet.
The quiet seems to worry me more than the monsters, so I stay on deck and keep watch while everyone else chills or does whatever. After a while, hazel joins me, I haven’t talked to her much, I haven’t talked to most of the seven much.
“Hay.” I say
“Hello.”
“you’re from Camp Jupiter, right?”
“Yeah.”
“…um, so who’s your godly parent?” she stiffens.
“Pluto.”
“God of the underworld?”
“Yes.”
“So you have magic zombie powers? Or is that the other one?”
“That’s Nico, I have magic gem powers.”
“Cool.”
“Not really.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so we stay silent.
for most of the trip I try to get to know people more, which I don’t feel like doing, but it’s sort of essential if we’re going to all fight together.
we eat lunch together in the dining room, we sit around the table, munching on Leo’s tofu tacos.
“Leo, these are actually good!”
“Of course! What? Didn’t you think I could cook?”
“Oh, don’t get him started!” Frank groans,
“Do not underestimate me! Leo McShizzle Bad Boy Supreme Valdez is the best taco chef in the world!”
“Is that really what you call yourself?” I smile
“Unfortunately, yes.” Piper says.
“Make that Leo McShizzle, Tofu Taco King, Bad Boy Supreme Valdez!”
“Then mine name is Billie McLeo-Is-An-Idiot, Awesomeness, Fire Queen, Valdez.”
“Mines better.”
“Yeah right.” I roll my eyes.
“The McShizzle man is always right.” Leo smirks.
“I doubt that.”
“You literally named yourself ‘Awesomeness.’”
“And you literally named yourself ‘Bad Boy Supreme.’” He grinned at me and I rolled my eyes at him.
“You two are great siblings.” Percy says, taking a big bite out of a taco, “Really kind and considerate, you know.”
“Well, you try having him as a brother!”
“No thank you.”
“I’ve been wondering…” frank says, “Who’s the eldest out of you both?”
Me and Leo look at each other.
“Me probably.” We say in unison.
“Oh no. Frank you’ve started a war!”
“Well, we’re twins, and we don’t really know, but I would say me.” I say
“Me!” Leo yells, “I must be. It makes sense.”
“Because you’re so much more mature than me!”
“Guys! There’s something coming!” Annabeth suddenly shouts from the doorway.
We rush up to the stern and spy a flying golden chariot.
Riding on it are two people, a handsome young man with shining blond hair and a winning smile, and a girl with an annoyed expression, grey hunting clothes and a silver tiara.
They look very similar, despite being complete opposites.
“Styx!” Percy curses under his breath, “More gods. Yay.”
The chariot draws up to the ship, and the gods hop onto the deck.
“Apollo. Artemis.” Percy greets them.
So that’s Apollo! I recognized him from the poster back at camp half blood.
“Hey demigods! My sister says needs your help.”
“I do not! You are the one who suggested coming here, and I would like their assistance.”
“Right, sis. Anyway, since you’re going to North Dakota, you can help my sisters’ hunters, they’re chasing after the-”
“The Hunters don’t need you to help them.” Artemis says, annoyed “Do not listen to my brother. The hunters need me, but I am unable to reach them there. Something there is blocking our powers in that district, if any of the gods go there, we will fade into nothing. My Hunters are in trouble, Percy Jackson, I believe you know my lieutenant, Thalia. I need you to go and disable the magic that is blocking the gods so we can roam free again, and I can save my hunters”
“You said it, sis.”
“I did.”
“I would have been more poetic, but you did okay. I mean, you could have been a bit more dramatic…”
“Let’s go.” She said and hopped into the chariot with her brother.
“Ohhh… I feel a haiku coming! My sister th- mHhmMmohhm” Artemis quickly covered Apollos’s mouth with her hand.
“Good luck heroes and thank you.” Artemis says and the chariot drives off.

When we get to North Dakota, nothing really seems wrong.
We sail around, going from city to city and sending out scouting trips at every stop, looking for monsters or anything out of the ordinary.
Nothing. 
Then we realize our powers don’t work here, when Percy dives into the ocean, and comes back up spluttering, having almost drowned.
So if we do get attacked by monsters or whatever, we have no magic to defend us. Great.
That night, I dream.

I dreamt I was in a tunnel, surrounded by walls of earth. My mother and father where there, again, the fake ones. We were in an army camp. Gaea’s army of monsters and giants, and people raised from the dead.
I was practicing with my fire, plumes of flames lighting up the cavern. I created a firebird, a flaming phoenix that soared joyously over my head.
“Billie, we’re ready for you.” A man says from behind me.
I turn to face him. The phoenix flatters and disappears.
“Ready?”
“You’ve got a private meeting with Gaea. You finally get to meet her.”
I nod. “And it is an honor to do so.”
“Go then, fire kid.” He says, and shoos me away.
I walk over to the other end of the tunnel and down a staircase of dirt.
My footfalls echoing down into the depth of the earth.
A creepy wailing sounds from below.
I hesitate on the steps. Then I continue. I’m not really sure if I trust Gaea, but the gods are worse. Much worse. And this is the only way to help the mortals.
At the bottom of the staircase there is a great pit with a tiny ledge to stand on.
The place radiates creepy.
“hello, child.” A woman’s voice says. “I have been waiting to meet you.”
“Gaea.” I say bluntly, a bit like how Percy said ‘Apollo. Artemis.’
Who’s Percy?
“I have great things planed for you…”
“I’m sure you do.”
“When you get to North Dakota, there are some instructions you need to follow.”
North Dakota? Half my brain questions while ‘North Dakota!!!!!” the other half screams.
“Why…why North Dakota?”
“Once you find out there is nothing there, you must dispose of them.”
“Who? No! You won’t hurt… who?” I’m confused.
“Poor girl, stuck between your past and these false friends of yours. Once they find out you work for me, they will hate you.”
“They defeated you!”
“The gods defeated me, by using these slaves of theirs. The gods are evil, I will create a world without them. A world that is safe for demigods and mortals.”
“You can’t make me follow you… you’re lying!”
“We’ll see, child.”
“You can’t…”
“I will make them safe, child. Your brother will be safe, your mother will be granted to you again. Your other friends will be safe, only bring two to the mountain, sacrifice them to me, and I will rise to create a better world.”
A pause
“But what if I refuse?” I blurt out.
“Your newfound brother and you would make a nice sacrifice…” Gaia says softly
“Okay. Fine. I’ll do it.”

I wake up, trembling.
I pick up my crossbow, and load it with a net arrow.
I put down my crossbow.
I sigh. I flop back onto my bed. I curl up in a ball under my blankets.
Someone knocks on the door.
“Are you awake? I’ve made pancakes!”
I get up reluctantly.
“I’m coming, Leo.”
“Okay, but Percy’s eating them all, so hurry.”
“wait…Leo?”
“yeah?” he pokes his head in the doorway.
“I um… I had this dream…”
“LEO!! Festus is acting up again!!” Jason yells.
“I’m coming!!!!” Leo yells back, “sorry.” He says to me, “Everyone wants me, I’m just so awesome. Talk to you later.” and races away.
Great.

I spend most of breakfast silent. I barely touch my pancakes.
I can hear Gaea’s words replaying in my mind; ‘bring two to the mountain, sacrifice them…I will create a better world…safe for mortals and demigods…’
Yes, Gaea.

We do actually find something useful, other that powerless-ness or evil dreams from Gaea, one of the old factory’s there has something weird about it, and when me, Jason, Hazel, Percy, and Annabeth go investigate, we discover that the place has been trampled by something. Or at least it looks like that.
Papers and tools are scattered everywhere, and several bits of furniture, machinery, and stuff I don’t recognize is flattened or torn apart.
It looks like the Hephaestus cabin actually.
We trudge through the mess, I pick up several scraps and wires and begin unconsciously twisting them into something.
round the back of the factory, it looks like there’s been a fight.
There’s blood and scrapes and a decent sized hole in the brick wall.
Hazel finds several arrowheads imbedded in the wall, and Annabeth says that the hunt of Artemis must have been here.
From what I’ve heard, the hunt of Artemis is pretty cool. A team of immortal huntresses, led by the goddess Artemis, who we met earlier.
I stumble over a pile of bricks, expecting to catch myself on the ground and instead, I step out into nothing.

TO BE CONTINUED...