The Mark of Athena,Heroes of Olympus, Book 3

Leo XVII


Leo had never fallen out of a boat, nearly killed a guy, been scared out of his mind by an angry son of Poseidon with a half-melted sword, fought a sea monster, and met a dead baddie gone good and alive, all in the same day.

"What do you want? Why are you here? Why-" Percy began.

"Let me answer the first two questions first: to help you," answered the guy who must have been Luke, although Annabeth's whisper had been barely audible.

"We don't want your help!" growled Percy. "I know Gaea wants to tell me, 'Come to the dark side or die a very painful death.' Um, no thanks. I'm good with this side."

"Gaea thought I would be on her side. That's why she brought me back. I've actually got some good information for you-"

"First, why does Percy hate you?" Leo asked.

"You want to hear the whole story? Fine. It started when I was seven, and Luke and Thalia found me in an alley in Richmond. They promised they would be my family, but, OOPS! Luke lied. He joined Kronos five years later. He gave Percy some flying shoes-" Annabeth began.

"Those would have been handy just now," Leo said. It was impulsive, but he had to say it.

"No, they wouldn't have. Percy gave the shoes to Grover and they almost dragged Grover to Tartarus. I thought it was all a big mistake. But then, Luke tried to kill Percy with a pit scorpion and nearly succeeded."

"Bet you were mad after that," mumbled Leo.

"Shut up!" she hissed. "The next summer-and Jason, please hold all comments and electrical shocks to the end of the story-Luke poisoned Thalia's tree. Plus, Grover was trapped on Polyphemus' island. We had to go there to save Grover and get the Golden Fleece to save camp. But, on our way back to camp, we met up with I-think-you-know-who on the Princess Andromeda. He tried to kill us, but Percy got us out my sending an Iris Message to camp. No, Jason, I'm not done yet. The Golden Fleece brought Thalia back to life. Still not done, there's, like, three years of this story left."

When Annabeth had finally finished, a good fifteen minutes later, Jason said, "He poisoned my sister's tree?"

"Yes," murmured Luke. He obviously didn't like Annabeth's retelling of his five year long betrayal.

"Hmm." Piper stood up, walked over to Luke, and punched him hard in the face.

"What was that for?" Luke exclaimed, his voice muffled by his hands.

"What do you think it was for, hypocrite?"

"Okay, okay. I don't think you broke my nose-"

"Should I try again?"

"NO!" Luke backed away from Piper. "Anyway. Yeesh, girl. You can punch hard! Okay. Gaea brought me back because she thought I would be on her side, blah, blah, blah, about a month ago. Then, about two weeks ago, one of her demigod servants came and told her that Percy Jackson had showed up at Camp Jupiter. Now, I didn't know about the seven month nap and him losing his memory and all that, but I did know something was up. Anyway-"

"Who was the servant?"

"Oh, yeah. Real creepy blonde kid. Needs to put on a few pounds."

"Who was the servant?" repeated Jason.

"Dude named Octavian."
Leo XVIII


"Octavian?" Annabeth yelled. "That Romaios ilithios!"

"I know, right?" Luke said.

"I knew something was up with him! You know the way he's always smiling like, 'Oh, hi! How are you?' and then he's all 'GRAECUS!'" Annabeth ranted. She stomped her foot on the floor.

"And worse, he knows where we're going." Jason looked worried.

"Hang on. Octavian wants to be Praetor. But, if Camp Jupiter's destroyed, he can't be Praetor," Percy interjected.

"But did you see the way he wanted to kill Annabeth?" Leo asked. "He wanted to kill all of us to begin with, but then the prophecy gave him a reason to just knock one of us out-the one he hated the most!"

"He doesn't hate Annabeth as much as he hates me," said Percy.

"We'll never know, because as soon as we see him again, I'm going to murder that kid!" promised Annabeth.

"Um, Annabeth? Octavian's older than you," Leo said.

"So?"

"Me, too. I never liked him," said Jason. "He tried to lead Rome to Mt. Orthrys, when everyone had already agreed it was my job."

"Very true," agreed Hazel. "But Octavian's just a little creep. Gaea wants powerful people, like me, Jason, or Percy. Octavian isn't even a demigod. He's a legacy."

"What's a legacy?" asked Luke.

"A descendant of the gods," answered Percy. "Gaea may want powerful people, but Octavian's got a lot of sway in the Senate. If Annabeth wasn't there during the last Senate meeting, she'd be dead."

"Why?" asked Luke.

Man, he has a lot of questions, Leo thought.

"Prophecy presumed to be about me," muttered Annabeth.

"What's the prophecy?"

"Seven shall go and rescue an eighth

To find and close death's wide opened gates

Seven of them shall not come to harm

One will walk into death's arms

Wisdom's daughter walks alone

The mark of Athena burns through Rome," recited Annabeth. "Octavian thought I was going to destroy Rome."

"Well, you'd be the most likely out of these people."

"I actually did almost destroy Rome," said Percy.

"What? How?" laughed Luke.

"I fought Polybotes. Broke a couple aqueducts."

"Oh, yeah! Octavian and Gaea were so freaking mad-but for different reasons.

"We should IM Reyna. Come on, Luke." Annabeth grabbed his wrist and pressed hard on a pressure point before dragging him along.

"Ow," Luke muttered.

A few minutes later, Leo heard a girl shriek, "WHAT?"

But then, Luke and Annabeth returned.

"Octavian ended the message. Sounds suspicious if you ask me," said Annabeth. "But Reyna knows! I guess that's a good thing. Now, Luke, that you have warned us about upcoming danger-"

"I'm not leaving."

"What? No, you're leaving one way or another-out the door, or my knife."

"Ah, stubborn as ever. It's good to be back. Are we going to be looking for the doors of death today?"

"No. We're all tired. And there's no we. Only me, Percy, Piper, Jason, Leo, Frank, and Hazel. Not you."

"Whatever. You'll be wishing I hadn't left in an instant if I did go. So, no. I'm staying. But, I'm going to need a weapon."

"Try your voice," muttered Annabeth. Luke sighed with a smirk and Leo stood up.

"What kind of weapon?" Leo asked.

"A sword, preferably."

"Right this way!"

"Leo!" growled Annabeth.

All Leo knew was that he liked Luke. A lot.
Annabeth XIX


As she watched Luke and Leo descend down the stairs, dread crept through Annabeth. What if Luke hadn't changed? What if he was still the person who had betrayed her five years ago?

"You alright?" asked Percy, sitting down beside her. Annabeth nodded, then rested her head on his shoulder. Too much had happened today-almost all of it bad.

But there was a part of her that was jumping up and down with joy at Luke's return. However, ninety-nine percent of her was forcing that down. She was furious.

All Annabeth wanted to do was lie down and cry until she ran out of tears. All his return brought was that one sliver of happiness, and a huge hunk of painful memories.

Annabeth felt a tear forming at the corner of her eye. She brushed it away before anyone could notice.

"Got a sword!" announced Luke as he bounded up the stairs and into the hall with the bedrooms. He entered the living room, wielding a three foot long Celestial Bronze sword with an ancient Greek engraving on it. Leo pointed to the engraving.

"That says, 'the Argo II.' Every weapon I made has that on it, because every weapon I made is on this boat. Watch this. Annabeth told me about Percy's sword, and I got an idea."

"It turns into a pen? Now that's just not right," said Percy.

"No. It turns into an iPod. It has a little screen right here-" Leo tapped on the hilt. "-that tells you what you should do to fight the monster."

"So you have a database of every single monster?" Piper asked.

"Yeah! Didn't take very long. I found some cool stuff in Bunker 9. Check this out."

The group took a closer look. There seemed to be an iPod embedded into the hilt. Leo pressed the button and it shrank into an iPod.

"Luke, to get it back to a sword, just tap the app with the picture of the sword."

"iMonsterDestroyer?" Luke said incredulously.

"I wasn't feeling creative when I made the app." Leo shrugged. "Doesn't even need to be charged."

"What if the screen cracks, or he loses it?" asked Frank. Hazel was really confused.

"In the nineteen-forties, my idea of high-tech was a radio as tall as I am." Hazel shook her head.

"Anyway, it's like Percy's sword. He can't lose it. However, I don't know how reliable the magic on it is, but if you make sure you don't lose it, you'll be fine. The screen can't crack. It's infused with celestial bronze. Awesome, right?"

"I have to admit, that's pretty cool," Percy said. "But me and electronics don't really mix."

"I know, I only had one of them. I'm trying other stuff out, too. I'm trying to make a spatha that'll harness my fire powers. It's pretty awesome. There's also gonna be another iPod, but it's gonna have apps for a bow, a spear, a sword, a knife, stuff like that."

"I have to see this stuff," Annabeth muttered, pushing past Leo and down the stairs to Leo's workshop.

"Hey, authorized personnel only. Oh, what the heck." Annabeth pushed the door open and caught her breath.

"Whoa..." she murmured. Just like Leo said, there was a spatha hanging up on the wall. It was glowing as if it were red hot. "That's cool."

"Right?" Leo walked in. Annabeth picked the spatha up, but it was searing hot.

"Ow!" Annabeth dropped the blade. "Oops, sorry."

"It's okay. It won't break no matter what I do." Annabeth picked up the sword gingerly and hung it up on the wall again.

"What's this?" Percy asked, picking up a pocket knife.

"Pull on of the blades out, then press the button," Leo said mischievously. Percy did so, and out of the pocket knife sprung Piper's knife.

"Whoa!"

"It's got some glitches. Warning: don't take out Frank's bow. It will fall right off the handle." Percy nodded and put it down.

"Most of this stuff has a couple problems. Especially that pocket knife. That pocket knife is supposed to have replicas of all our weapons, my sword included, but it's not really working out."

"This stuff is awesome!" exclaimed Piper, picking up a model of her knife. In the model was a small button, which she pressed. The knife crackled with electricity.

"I recommend putting that down," advised Leo. "Only this stuff is working. However, not everything's done. It's just not going to kill me while I work on it." Leo pointed to a rack of weapons on the far right of the room. Annabeth ventured over. There was a copy of her knife. She picked it up, and immediately a shield strapped to her arm.

"Wow," she mouthed.

"There's a little gym sort of thing downstairs and I've been testing stuff out down there. I've been making some crazy arrows. They explode, turn things to ice, cause things to spontaneously combust, and do all sorts of other crazy stuff."

"This place is really cool," Jason said, picking up a coin.

"I'm trying to fix that. The coin, I mean."

"Really? Thanks... I'm not good with other swords." Jason grinned.

"Nice spatha," Hazel commented. Leo shrugged. Annabeth examined the knife she just picked up. Again, the Argo II was engraved in the blade.

"You better not tell Octavian this is down here. He will raid the place."

"Yeah... I probably won't tell him."
Annabeth XX


After dinner, which had been pretty quiet, Annabeth left the table and went to her room to lie down.

This day was complete crap.

Annabeth picked her journal up from behind her pillow. She was afraid to write in it when Piper was there. She wrote everything in that journal-everything. What she didn't want anyone seeing was what she wrote when Percy had first gone missing.

December 14th, 2010

Congratulations, Seaweed Brain. You have succeeded in possibly getting yourself killed and ruining the best mood I'd been in since the end of the summer.

Oh, who am I kidding. I can't be angry with him if my life depended on it! I love the boy, for gods' sakes! Why must my love life be so... weird?

December 17th, 2010

Well, Hera lied. Again. She told me I would find my answer at the grand canyon, and look what I get for listening. An amnesiac son of Zeus, a very suspicious daughter of Aphrodite, and a psychotic son of Hephaestus! A psychotic son of Poseidon I'd be okay with, but this? No. Hera has gone too far this time.

Where are you, Seaweed Brain?

December 22nd, 2010

Roman camp? There's a Roman camp, apparently, and Jason used to be part of it! Well, now, Percy is at that dang camp and there's nothing I can do about it until the summer solstice-SIX MONTHS FROM NOW! And I forgot to mention: Percy might not even remember me.

My life stinks.

Annabeth sighed after re-reading those entries. She looked at the tearstains that covered those pages, and felt like crying again. She dug around for her pen.

July 1st, 2011

Well, my life was partially okay-until today. Right when we were about to leave, Leo tripped on the gangplank, and screamed, "What? That's how I get out of my boat! You don't 'cause you're a loser!" Have I mentioned I hate that kid?

Then, at lunch today, I learned that Frank's life depends on a piece of wood. If that stick burns, he's dead. Hazel was from the 1940s. I'm learning all sorts of stuff about my fellow quest members today!

Anyway, Leo was ticking Percy off, so Percy kind of jumped at him, and Leo got mad. It triggered this thing called Roman Rivalry, which got Percy and Leo into this huge fight. It only stopped because Hazel melted Percy's sword and was able to calm them down.

Then, we figured out that it was Roman Rivalry causing it, but then my computer got completely wiped! That's right. The laptop that Daedalus gave me is completely useless now. At least until Malcolm get's those flash drives to me. I kind of called him without thinking.

Then we got attacked by this crazy flying sea serpent! The one that Perseus (the original one) defeated. Luckily, no one died. Oh, and Frank can change into animals! Wow!

Compared to this, everything I just wrote seems like a birthday party with extra ice cream and cake.

Then, Frank just so happened to walk in with LUKE CASTEL-

The pen snapped in Annabeth's hand, getting the bottom portion of the page covered in ink. Unfortunately, what she had just written wasn't touched by the black ink. Annabeth stuffed her journal underneath the pillow.

Annabeth heard footsteps coming down the hall and she silently prayed it was Percy.

Sadly, no. It was Leo, about to return to his wonder workshop. Annabeth sighed and pulled on her pajamas.

"Annabeth?" Percy looked in the doorway. Annabeth looked up and realized she'd been sitting on the floor with her head in her hands. "You okay?" Annabeth shrugged. She just didn't even know anymore.

I guess I was wrong! Annabeth Chase doesn't know everything! I guess I have a shot at not being the most idiotic guy in the world!

Annabeth didn't know why, but the comment stung. Okay, maybe she did tease him from time to time, but it was all in good nature, or at least that's how she intended it.

Percy sat down on the floor next to her. She leaned into him and he wrapped his arms around her. Annabeth blinked and her tears fell.

Of all the people from her past that were dead, why was it Luke who had to come back? Why couldn't it be Beckendorf, or Silena, or Zoe, or...

The Fates hate me. They wouldn't be so easy on me.

Feeling completely miserable, Annabeth drifted off to sleep.