Piper had to admit that when she imagined her day going forward, she didn't think it would involve all her worst nightmares coming to life. But then again, she also didn't expect Nero turning into a sword wielding super princess and falling in love with knights in shining armor. 

Annabeth's tour was brief but informative, as was her explanation about Demigods and Servants. 

So, she was the daughter of a goddess, the one lady that her dad never seemed to be keen on talking about, and also by the way, famous people from all over history and mythology happened to be summoned with super powers to fight over a stupid  cup that granted wishes! Oh joy!

But in spite of how NONE of these things seemed to relate to each other except for the fact that some of the Servants were Demigods in life, it all seemed to work seamlessly together in this  place. 

The Servants and Campers worked together pretty well here. Some of the Servants had even become assistant camp counselors for cabins even though they were technically part of Servant Cabin. Annabeth explained that many servants had their favorite cabin. 

"Tesla and Edison typically help out around Hephaestus.. Da'Vinci can be found in Athena, my mother's cabin." said Annabeth. "She's a child of Athena too.  Mordred likes to trade blows with the Ares cabin from time to time, but not often cause she and Clarisse, the Ares Counselor, have like a rivalry going. Nitocris likes to hide out at Aphrodite now and then, but Drew drives her crazy, so she tries to hide at my cabin.. poor girl.. she really can't handle Drew. Ozy keeps Drew off her back though, which is good.. Drew can't intimidate Ozy.. or Arturia for that matter, those two scare her.."

"Drew?" said Piper.

"Camp Counselor for Aphrodite." said Annabeth distastefully. "Nobody likes her very much. You'd best avoid her... oh speak of the Devil.."

A very beautiful looking girl with long black hair, and nails that were absolutely prettied up was walking over amidst a bunch of other giggling guys and girls who were similarly dolled up. Piper really didn't dig the looks much, but they stopped right in front of her and Annabeth. 

Drew, at least Piper thought it was Drew, she was definitely the leader, smirked as she looked Piper up and down. "Well well hon.. what have we here? Somebody call the homeless shelter, I think we've found their clothes... AND their wigs.. "

Drew looked at the girls and guys behind her, as if expecting them to laugh. There were a few half hearted chuckles, and Drew seemed satisfied by this. 

"So Annabeth? Whose choppy hair here?" said Drew. "Where did you find this sweetiepie? Liz's Music Festival?"

"Drreeeeewww.." growled what Piper recognized as the dragon girl in the school uniform who had come with Annabeth to pick them up at the Grand Canyon. 

The dragon girl passed by furiously, her tail in the air. "Not like I like Aphrodite anyways.. bunch of blow hards.. don't know music.. Drew is an asshole.. grr.."

"Oh I'm sorry Liz, what was that hon?" said Drew sweetly.

Liz froze and looked at Drew, sweating. "Er.. nothing um.. well.. "

"You can go clean off my bunk today sweetie. Don't worry I left everything there just for you." said Drew. 

"Liz.. stop." said Annabeth. "You can go.."

Drew glared at Annabeth. "Excuse me..?"

"When Saber gets back and hears you've been bullying the Servants again, she's going to go A-Wall on you.." said Annabeth with a very pointed glare. "You want to poke the bear? Your choice."

Drew smirked a little. "If she comes back I suppose.."

Drew gestured to her clique and they made to move off. But before they could, a knight came out of the Athena cabin.. 

Piper's breath was nearly blown away. 

The knight was really young looking, around Piper's Age.. his hair was white, tufty and soft like snow,  and his bangs went over one of his eyes so only one of his violet vibrant eyes were visible. He wore black and purple full body armor over his fit and slim body, and in one hand he held a MASSIVE looking shield.  Circular in shape with inscriptions around the edge, with a massive Cross shaped metal plate over it, the shield was taller than the boy himself.. 

Piper couldn't help but immediately feel smitten at the sight of him. It was the type of boy you only saw in dreams or fantasies.

"Annabeth." said the Knight. "I've finished feeding the Pegasi.. they seem rather.. lonely, without Medusa looking after them.. I hope she returns with Sakura soon."

"She should be back in 3 days. " said Annabeth. "Thanks Galahad, you're a life saver."

"Ohoo.. hey Shielder.." said Drew with the most disgustingly flirty voice imaginable. "What a coincidence! I was JUST looking for you.. I found a place in the woods which is just a MAGNIFICENT place for a romantic getaway.. I can cook up some food, bring a picnic basket and-.."

"I am sorry Drew Tanaka.. " said Galahad solemnly. "As I have told you many times before, I am sworn only to she whom I find to be my true love. I must apologize that I do not find us compatible M'Lady Drew..  if you would please leave me alone.. "

Drew scowled. "You.. WILL take me on a date Galahad.."

This time Piper felt it. A strange compelling power behind Drew's voice.. like a compulsion.. willing Galahad to obey, but Galahad merely smiled. "I'm afraid your mother's gift does not affect me much.. I have told you this before-.."

Galahad stopped mid sentence, he stared at Piper. "Your eyes.. such.. mesmerizing eyes.."

Right there, much to Piper's somewhat embarrassment and amazement, and to Drew's complete shock, Galahad knelt before Piper, taking her hand. "My lady.. I apologize for being so.. abrupt.. but.. I must ask.. what is your name?"

"Er.. Piper.. "said  Piper uncertainly. 

"Piper.. Lady Piper.. your eyes shimmer like the colors of the sky and earth.. I must ask a woman of such incredible beauty, are you already spoken for?"

"H.. HOLD ON A SECOND!" Drew said angrily. "HER!? Beautiful!? Have you SEEN her hair!?"

"Lady Piper could be bald and her beauty would still be comparable to that of her Majesty Arturia.." said Galahad stiffly, glaring slightly at Drew. "I must ask that you refrain from casting such careless insults.."

Annabeth looked like she was close to laughing. "Uh.. hey.. Galahad, I was just thinking of bringing Piper to look at some weapons.. wanna help?"

"Of course, it would be my honor." said Galahad, standing up. "Again.. apologies for my abruptness Lady Piper, I know the question was abrupt, rude probably, but I couldn't help and notice-.."

"I.. I'm not spoken for.." said Piper quickly. "I.. I don't have a boyfriend I mean.."

Drew's face filled with anger as Galahad's took the opposite turn and lit up.  "Well.. then come Lady Piper.. let us see what armaments suit you most.."

As they left Drew behind, Annabeth patted Galahad on the shoulder. "Thanks for that Galahad, was getting tired of her."

Galahad chuckled. "No problem.. she is a snake in the grass that one."

"Wh.. what just happened!?" said Piper, sensing things were not as they seemed.

"My apologies Piper. Drew has a tendency to bully new girls in camp.. strangely enough she is quite smitten with me, so I use it to my advantage to try and keep her off of other people." said Galahad. "I apologize for using you in such a manner. "

"Er no.. don't.. that was good.." said Piper, blushing deep red. "N.. Not like I was actually attracted to you or.. yeah.. no problem.. none.."

Galahad smiled. "But your eyes are beautiful.."

Piper smiled slightly at that. It was true, her eyes had a kaleidoscope effect, where they would shimmer from blue, to green to brown depending on how you looked at them. 

"Annabeth, I will take my leave." said Galahad. "Mordred forgot to lock the Camelot Cabin again, and I would rather not have any campers playing around with a few overly powerful Noble Phantasms.."

"Yeah, thanks again." said Annabeth as Galahad walked off.

"There's a Camelot Cabin?" asked Piper. 

"Nobody lives there.. it's not for people to dwell in." said Annabeth. "It's made to house some of Saber and Servant Cabin's most dangerous Noble Phantasms, ones that they wouldn't use regularly."

"Noble Phantasm.." muttered Piper.

"A Servant's most powerful ability..their last resort.. " said Annabeth. "Sometimes Noble Phantasms are just techniques or spells. But more often than not, they turn up to be an item or weapon that represents or defines them, something that personifies what their legend is. Like Excalibur is a Noble Phantasm that defined Arturia's legend as King Arthur.. "

"Wait..so Excalibur is in-..?"

"No no.." said Annabeth. "Arturia carries Excalibur with her all the time.  It's SUPER powerful.. but Camelot Cabin houses Anti-World Noble Phantasms.. aka.. Noble Phantasms capable of destroying the world.. "

"E.. Excuse me!?" stammered Piper. "You have doomsday devices and you just KEEP them here!?"

"Only the worthy can possess the biggest weapon there." said Annabeth quickly. "And normally only the servants with whom the weapons were summoned can use the Noble Phantasms normally.  But there's only a few items and they're useless in the wrong hands, especially Rhongomyniad."

"Rhonknomebiad.." said Piper. "Wait.. Smon bone illiad.. or no.. er.. "

"Yeah it's a mouthful. We just call it the Big Hax Pointy Stick for short." said Annabeth. "It's King Arthur's most powerful weapon.. a lance that is the very personification of the massive tower of the same name in Avalon.. the island on the other side of the world.. the very force that keeps the world from collapsing in on itself..  Wield it too long, and you become an Elder Goddess, losing your humanity..  you can see why she wouldn't want to wield it too often.."

"That's big." said Piper, feeling very small now. Wielding that kind of weapon at all would give her the biggest heebeejeebies.. 

And it frightened her that anything like this was here, where SHE was. If the one from her dreams knew.. no.. he DEFINITELY knew she was here now..  she was terrified of what he might do with something like this.. 

Piper felt her heart drop into her stomach. If Annabeth knew what she was, if she ever found out.. no doubt they would have to get rid of her quick..  

Piper knew that He only wanted Leo and Nero.. but..  if he knew that she was so close to something like THIS..

"Piper?" Annabeth patted Piper's back. "Hey, you okay?"

"Er.." Piper tried to speak, but her voice got stuck in her throat. 

"Listen, I could tell when we got here, you've been having a rough time. I know it isn't easy finding out Nero was never actually your friend or anything.." said Annabeth. 

"Oh yeah.." Piper said, her heart sinking even farther down now. 

Nero, Piper's memories of her had always been fond. Nero might've been quite vain, but she was also generous, kind, and generally loving, and one of the few people who accepted Leo and Piper..

But now.. 

Now Piper just didn't know what to think of Nero.

"She seems like a good person." said Annabeth. "She really does. I'm sure you two could still be friends, just try to relax..."

Piper knew why Annabeth had brought her weapon shopping.. To get her mind off Nero for a moment. But Annabeth was wrong. Nero wasn't the reason Piper had been preoccupied or fearful. 

She was a traitor.. a traitor in plain sight..  a wolf among sheep. 

Annabeth brought Piper over to a shed, and opened it. Inside were tons of different weapons.

"No way.." Piper muttered as Annabeth took out a revolver. 

"Modified to shoot celestial bronze bullets." said Annabeth. "We've got a few M16s too.. even a Hecate Sniper.."

"Don't think those are exactly my style." said Piper.

"Yeah,  it's all about finding the right fit.." Annabeth muttered as she put the guns up. "We deal in two types of weapons here. Celestial Bronze and Camelot Steel. Celestial Bronze is made with godly metal, so it only harms monsters and immortals, ordinary mortals aren't important enough to kill for it.. but Camelot Steel is a bit more inclusive, they're just as hard as Celestial Bronze and they'll slash up anything.. "

"I think I'd prefer the Celestial Bronze option thanks." said Piper. 

"Yeah, you're right." said Annabeth. "We got some long swords..  ugh.. Sir Tristan really stocked us up with nothing but bows.."

Piper immediately choked at the sound of the name 'Tristan'.

"You okay?" said Annabeth.

"N.. Nothing.. spit went down the wrong pipe is all!" said Piper quickly. "Uh.. you mentioned a Tristan?"

"Yeah, Knight of the Round Table.. real Sleepy guy.. kind of gloomy too.." muttered Annabeth. 

"Hey.. " Piper muttered. "What about that weapon right there..?"

Annabeth drew out a long slender knife. It's celestial bronze surface was shiny and perfectly reflective, like a beautiful and deadly mirror. 

"Interesting pick." Annabeth said. "Very interesting actually. This is Katoptris, the knife that once belonged to Helen of Troy."

"Wait.. the Helen? Like the Trojan War thing!?" said Piper. 

"Yeah, you know your stuff." said Annabeth. 

"I studied Greek history a bit with my... my dad.." said Piper. "It's beautiful, like brand new."

"Well yes.. blood hasn't ever stained it's blade. It's more ceremonial than anything." said Annabeth. "But even ceremonial blades can be deadly.. I've seen Caliburn in action. In any case, this weapon's never seen battle. "

Piper looked at Katoptris sadly. Figures this weapon would suit her. All bark and no bite.. all pretty and no show.. that was her. 

She needed to get her mind off of this. Shaking herself a little as Annabeth handed her the sheathe she tried to smile. "I.. It suits me. Thanks."

"Take care of it. Arturia gave it a pretty good review. The blade's strong and firm, but it's also thin enough to slice through vitals and armor with ease." said Annabeth. "You should always try for a slashing motion but never NEAR the wrist.. it's like an exacto knife.. be too careless and you'll cut yourself without even knowing it."

As Annabeth helped Piper get used to holding the knife, showing her the different ways to hold it, Piper asked about Galahad. 

"Oh him? He's one of the more recent editions.. showed up after the end of the Titan War after Arturia made the gods agree to remove the curse from the servants and send them here. He's unique cause he's a rare class called a Shielder, no other servant like him."

"Servants come in categories?" asked Piper.

"Usually the main 7 are Berserker, Assassin, Lancer, Saber, Caster, Archer, and Rider." said Annabeth. "There are other odd classes out there but basically a Servant's abilities vary based on each class, and in the case of Berserkers, sometimes their personalities are altered by class too. 

"Only certain types of people can be summoned into each class, and some Heroic Spirits have more than one type of class they can be possibly summoned as. Arturia for example is a Saber because of Excalibur. However, thanks to Rhongomyniad, she could have been summoned as a Lancer as well. Archers are a little weird cause plenty of them don't actually have bows and arrows.. all you really need to be able to qualify as an Archer is to be associated with Projectile based abilities.

" Like Billy The Kid was a famous gunman, so he got summoned as an Archer. And Gilgamesh is an Archer cause he can fire a bunch of weapons like projectiles using his Gate of Babylon..  and it isn't just Archers that can be weird. Lancer Tamamo is a Lancer simply cause she wields a Parasol. But yeah. Servants have various Skills, Attributes.. stuff like that."

"Sounds like a video game." said Piper.

"More than you know." said Annabeth. "Their attributes even affect which servant is strong against which.. type matchups, if you can believe it, are a thing.  Archers are powerful against Sabers, Sabers are strong against Lancers, Assassins are weak against Casters... and Berserkers are generally strong against all classes, but they also take more damage from every other class."

"Leo would think this is Pokemon and try to 'collect them all..'" said Piper.

"Sometimes it feels like Pokemon." said Annabeth. "So back to Galahad. He's a special class, Shielder, the only one of his kind.. but there's always been something else about him.. "

"Really?" said Piper.

"Well.." Annabeth looked like she was struggling to put something into words. "Y.. you ever just look at somebody, a complete stranger, and suddenly feel like you've met them before..?"

"Yeah." said Piper.

"Well imagine that only 10 times more intense." said Annabeth. "All the campers except for the ones that have just turned up over a year ago, get the same immense deja vu feeling when we look at Galahad..  like.. we've known somebody with the same shield.. it's a mystery, but Arturia always told us not to worry about it too much..  always feels like she knows something about it.. weird.."

Piper nodded.. that was rather strange. Though she didn't feel anything like that when she saw Galahad. 

"Hey.. Annabeth." The red headed boy from before.. Piper recognized him.. Shirou.. had just run over. "Have you seen Rachel? I've been looking everywhere for her but.."

"Honestly, I haven't seen her for a good solid day either." said Annabeth. "Oh, Piper, this is Shirou Emiya, he's Arturia's Master. Shirou, this is Piper."

"Nice to meet you." said Shirou with a good natured grin. 

"Shirou's pretty much the best cook in camp, so if you ever want to learn to make anything at the kitchens, go find him." said Annabeth.  "And that aside.. Shirou did you check her place at least?"

"Cave's empty except for some wet paint still drying on one of those canvas paintings she was working on." said Shirou. "So I know she's around.. I heard from Euryale that she was sighted near Hera's Cabin, then spotted going to Camelot Cabin.."

"Camelot Cabin?" Muttered Annabeth. "Whatever would she be doing there? Come on Piper, it might be good for you to see Rachel.. she's our camp Oracle."

They headed in the direction of the cabins. 

Piper couldn't help but feel her eyes pop just looking at the various cabins.. One looked like it was made of strange magic runic stones.. another looked like it was made out of seabed rock and luminescent abalone.  

There was one massive golden cabin with what appeared to be a statue of a golden armored man sitting on a throne right on top of the entrance.

"Gilgamesh Cabin.. another cabin that has nobody living in it." said Annabeth. "Gilgamesh helped out during the Titan war, so when the gods asked what he wanted as a reward, he requested his own cabin in Camp.. it's pretty much filled with nothing but statues of himself which laugh like him when you pass by. 

As they walked near, Piper frowned as she heard a dozen "FUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"s echoing from inside, along with several cries of "MONGRELS!"

"Well isn't he humble..?" Piper muttered. But then again she could just imagine Nero doing the same thing, only she'd want to actually put beds in the  cabin so she could show her love to others at the same time..  the Nero she knew anyways.

She still remembered what Nero said once. 

"Beautiful Men are wonderful.. Beautiful women.. even BETTER.."

False memories or not.. you just didn't dream up that kind of person, especially one who was so blatantly bisexual and proud of it.  Piper dug that about her actually. She never swung that way of course, but the Nero boldly declaring that Piper join her in a bath or a romantic dinner seemed weirdly refreshing in a way. 

From anybody else's lips, what Nero would say would sound scary and creepy.. from Nero's mouth, they sounded merely innocent, honest, and eager, because that's simply what she was. 

And Piper had no doubt in her mind that false memories or not, the Nero she knew was the one here at camp. The false memories she had were most definitely Accurate Falacies... accurate What Ifs.. 

At that moment, Piper swore she would stand by Nero's side as she unraveled her memory..

"Bring them to me in 3 days time.." growled the dark beastly man in his gruff voice.. "Or your father's blood shall dry upon the tip of my cursed spear.."

Who was she kidding? Stand by Nero's side when she was supposed to betray her?

They stopped near what looked like a large chained up door on what appeared to be a large miniature castle made of stone. 

It looked more to Piper like a Lock up facility than a camp cabin of any sort.  There were everything from magical pentagram seals, to even a few keypad security locks and thumb print scanners. 

"We thought about making some sort of bridge of doom where an old guy asks three questions to check if you're pure enough to cross." said Shirou. "But then we realized it was a Monty Python Reference..  and Saber always hated Monty Python cause of how they ridiculed the whole quest for the Grail.. she hates Soul Eater too now that I think on it.."

At the front of the building, a girl with frizzy red hair could be seen crouched, kneeling before it. 

"Rachel?" said Annabeth.

"Oh!!! Annabeth!" said Rachel. "Sorry I was like.. er.. I don't even know, communing with the Universe or something cheesy like that?"

"What were you doing here?" asked Shirou. "I've been looking for you cause, well.. we agreed to meet and everything."

"So sorry." said Rachel. "Completely slipped my mind."

Shirou frowned. 

"Okay, right I know, helping you find Saber isn't exactly something that SHOULD slip my mind in the first place.." Rachel said. "Urgh.. it's just.."

Rachel looked over in the direction of Hera's cabin. "I.. had some sort of premonition to go.. a large one. Next thing I know is after I go in, I suddenly feel like I need to be HERE, where Rhongomyniad is.. where both spears are.."

"Both spears?" said Piper. "Wait a minute. You guys keep TWO giant world destroying spears here!?"

"They both are personifications of the same tower.. like a power strip.. power is all coming from the same source and they are technically one even though they operate separately." said Annabeth.  "So the two spears are technically just one Rhongomyniad.."

"The tower speaks through them.. a Balancer of the Universe as a whole." Rachel said. "So sometimes I get better visions when I'm near the lances.. but sometimes I get nothing, and so far, I've got squa-.."

Suddenly there was an intense glow of light from Rachel's eyes. Her voice changed as she grabbed Piper's arm and rasped. "Free me!.... FREEEE MEEE.. !! " 

Piper barely managed to wrench Rachel's fingers off of her, her eyes going wide with panic as she staggered back fearfully. 

Rachel shook herself, immediately returning to normal. "Wh.. what was..?"

At that moment the vault that looked so secure and chained suddenly fell open.. the chains falling off the door, having only been propped there to look secure.. 

When the door opened.. it revealed different strange weapons hanging on the walls within.. Swords, and Spears that looked to be of legendary make.. 

However, the two pedestals in the center of the collection had a problem.

While one pedestal held a massive silvery lance with wrapped metal ribbons that glowed orange, with red jewels encrusted in certain areas of the hilt..  the pedestal right next to it was empty.. completely empty..

Somebody had stolen the Lance to the End of the World.