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Jason wondered how many more monsters there actually were in Greece. The had only managed to sail about halfway down the Gulf of Corinth. Leo and Annabeth had decided upon the route after the meeting. It was shorter than going around the entire Peloponnesian Island, but apparently Gaia had expected them to come this way. It had made a one day trip to get halfway through the channel nearly four days, and Jason feared the worst had yet to come.

They were being attacked constantly. Everyone had started taking the night shift in groups of three instead of two because of the amount of attacks. And the amount of time for each shift had lessened too, so now it was only an hour and a half. This left everybody exhausted and irritable.

Jason himself had just come off watch with Hazel and Frank. He had taken a nasty blow to the head and he tried to steady himself as he walked down the corridor to his room. His hand trailed along the wall to keep himself steady. Jason made it to his door after what felt like way more than the 30 seconds it had actually been. He jiggled the handle, swung the door open, closed it behind him, and all but collapsed onto the bed.

For the first time in a long time, Jason didn't have any demigod dreams. He slept peacefully for the hour and a half between shifts before he was woken by Piper.

"Jason!" Piper practically shouted. He shot out of bed and stumbled to his feet, trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes.

"I'm up! I'm up!" He said quickly, blinking to bring his girlfriend's face into focus. "My shift?" He asked.

Piper nodded tiredly. "Yeah. Have fun. I'm going to bed." She gave him a quick kiss before leaving him to get ready.

Jason started looking for his shoes before realizing they were still on his feet from his last shift. He had been so tired he had forgotten to take them off. He ran a hand down his face and sighed. At this rate they would all collapse from exhaustion before they reached the dagger.

He blearily looked around his room. What did he need? Oh, right! His sword! Jason quickly picked up the golden coin from its place on his desk. He exited his room and made it to the stairs just as Hazel and Frank appeared from their respective cabins.

"Hey." He mumbled in greeting. Hazel managed a soft reply while Frank only nodded in acknowledgment, immersed in trying to get his bow strung. They stepped out onto the deck a second later and we're immediately made busy fighting for their lives.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"We need a plan." Annabeth said bluntly. "Since we're only a couple miles out from Corinth, we need to be on our guard. Somehow we have to find the cave, get the dagger from Enceladus, and avoid being killed." She sighed deeply and rubbed her temples. "Speed seems to be the best way to do this. If we can somehow sneak up on him and get at least close to the dagger before he realizes we're there, it would be a serious advantage. Unfortunately we can't really afford to take him on considering we don't have a God on our side. Unless Hecate takes it upon herself to help." Annabeth glared at the ceiling and sat back in her chair.

"I would usually use the mist to help us get in unnoticed, but until we actually get the dagger I can't do that. I should be able to help us get out though." Hazel volunteered.

Annabeth nodded in her direction. "You're going because we need you to sense the dagger, Hazel. That means two other people need to accompany her."

"I think you should go." Hazel said, "you'll have the best idea on how to defeat him."

"And if it comes down to it, I can distract him the longest." Annabeth said grimly.

Leo pipped up, "As much as I would love to have a reunion with our big pal, I think Piper should go because she can use charmspeak. Together, you two could manipulate Enceladus to no end."

Piper nodded eagerly, "I agree with Leo on that."

"Hold up," Jason started. "Gaia already has Percy. All she needs is a female demigod and doing this would give her three chances." He pointed out reasonably.

"We don't really have a choice. At least one of us would need to go." Piper said, "And Hazel is the only one who can sense the dagger."

Jason sat back frowning. He didn't like this at all. "I could always go and you could stay back to help Leo with-" he stopped abruptly at the look Piper sent him. "Never mind." He mumbled sheepishly. Piper nodded confidently.

"It's settled then." Annabeth announced. She stood up and began walking out to the deck. "Leo and I will figure out the location of this cave." At that Leo scrambled to his feet, made a mocking salute to the rest of the seven, and followed Annabeth out.

That left Piper, Jason, Hazel, and Frank at the mess table discussing the mission.

"Hazel, is it possible for you to able to call on Hecate? Like Annabeth said, we can't afford to get caught in a fight, but we might not have a choice. If it comes down to it, do you think she'll come if you called?"

Hazel bit her lip anxiously. "I don't know. I never know with Hecate. She's completely unpredictable."

"She should." Frank said. "I mean, it's her dagger. You would think she'd want to ensure that it was actually recovered."

"Yeah but when have gods and goddesses ever actually followed a reliable patter of behavior?" Piper asked. "The problem is we don't know any of the layout," she continued, "hell we don't even know where we're going exactly yet."

Jason sighed, trying to think of something that would help even the odds a bit. They girls needed to see the layout of the cave to get any sort of plan, but to do that, they would have to enter the cave. He rubbed his temples as Frank, Piper, and Hazel discussed options.

"Birds-eye view?"

"No...inside not out."

"...Katropis?"

"Maybe... Need an image."

His brain filtered the conversation until he came to a realization. Jason gasped and sprinted out of the room. He ignored the stares he got from the other demigods as he fled the mess hall and raced towards his room. He reached and sorted quickly through his small collection of personal items. Jason prides himself on having the neatest room of the seven, but he could remember where he put the blasted things now.

"Come on..." He muttered to himself as he searched. Finally he found what he was looking for pushed to the back of his desk drawer and under several pictures of him, Piper, and Leo over the last several months. He gave them a sparing glance before he rushed back to the mess hall.

Annabeth and Leo had arrived back and everyone watched as he entered quickly and sat back down in his chair. Jason dropped the golden drachmas on the table. Annabeth, who he assumed had been caught up with the discussion, immediately caught on to his idea.

"Iris message?" She asked.

"Yep. We get a vague layout of the room. We might loose some of the element of surprise, but we also use it back here on the ship when you guys go down there. You take a couple drachmas and a spray bottle and put up an Iris message whenever you need a distraction."

Annabeth bit her lip and frowned  in concentration. "It could work..." She muttered. "It might be a bit hard to get an iris message set up in the middle of a fight though."

Jason shrugged, "It's not ideal but..."

"It's better than nothing." Frank finished.

Jason nodded towards him. "Exactly."

"And I'm not complaining if we have a back up plan." Hazel said.

"Alright. Leo could you get three spray bottles put together quickly?" Annabeth asked, looking to the curly haired mechanic.

"Yes ma'am." He left again to do as Annabeth requested.

"Okay, so we're pretty sure we've found the cave. It's a couple miles East of our current position, just a mile and a half outside of Corinth. From the outside it doesn't look like much, but we don't know how deep it is, or anything besides the fact that from the surface it appears to be a relatively small cave. But looks can be deceiving. That's where we'll use the Iris massage to get a better look." Annabeth rattled off the facts.

"The sooner the better." Piper said. "As soon as Leo gets back we'll get this done with and be on our way."

Hazel and Annabeth nodded their agreement, leaving everyone to wonder how the girls would fare on their mission.

Hey... Please don't kill me?? *dodges knives* Yeah... It's been a while, huh? Finishing up middle school was tough. With high school just around the corner, I'm honestly completely in the dark about my schedule and how much I'll be able to update. No matter what, I'm not abandoning this story though. Updates might just be a bit... Sporadic. *nervous laugh* Thank you to anybody who is actually still reading this and specifically to @AlphaoftheWolves91 who guilt tripped me into finishing this chapter. Till next time!

-RangerLizzyTreaty48