My thoughts are a whirlwind of questions as I ride back to the base. What exactly is going on? I mean, my mom could id Hannah as a demigod. Okay, but why didn't she show up in my notebook? And why was the military after her? They called her a 'meta-human' so does that mean they know about demigods? Is something like that even possible? Unfortunately, I don't have an answer to any of those questions {When does he ever have the answer? ~R.R.}. Perhaps Athena will. She is the goddess of wisdom after all. With these thoughts racing through my head, I pull into the garage and take off my helmet.

"Percy, what's going on? What happened?" Katie comes running up to me, "We saw something on the news. It looked like the US Army!"

"I'll explain once I know the answers." I reply, rubbing my temples, "Where's Athena?"

"Emergency meeting on Olympus. She left about an hour ago. But-." Katie looks scared, and I don't blame her. Michael and Reyna had just come bursting through the penthouse with an entire entourage of people. Athena was gone for an emergency meeting on Olympus. They don't have those often, which means that this is big. Probably bigger than I originally thought.

"I don't have the answers yet Katie. Once I do, the team will be the first people to know." I glance quickly around the garage, "Is everyone upstairs now?"

Katie shakes her head, "Bobby and Amelia went up to Connecticut. A son of Mercury. They should be back sometime today or tomorrow. Everyone else is in the building. Your family is up in the penthouse with Reyna and Azrael. Mike is filing a report on the retrieval."

"Great, thanks." I start walking , "Let's get up there as well."

Katie nods and together the two of us walk through the Big Room and up to the penthouse. The gears in my head turn at break-neck pace. I can't figure out any possibilities for how and why the millitary would target a demigod. I enter the living space of the penthouse and gaze around at everyone. Everyone is crowded around the couches except for Mike, who is sitting at the table, muttering to himself as he fills out the report.

"Percy! Are you alright?" My mother notices me and races over, grabbing my shoulders and hugging me tightly.

"Yeah mom, I'm fine." I smile slightly, "I'm more worried about you, Paul and Lily."

"A little shaken up, but otherwise okay." Paul replies, "And Lily is still sleeping."

"Amazing." I shake my head, impressed, "And Hannah?"

"Reyna is explaining the whole demigod thing to her." Mike calls from the table, then continues to write. I can hear him grumbling his way through the dyslexia.

"On the note of explaining." My mom glares at me, "Perhaps you could offer one?"

"Yeah..." I rub the back of my head, "None of us know what is going on. I'm still waiting for an explaination."

I don't even know why everyone is looking to me for answers. I was never the 'answer person.' That was always Annabeth, at least until she... No, I'm not going to think about that, about her now. That's a bad idea and I need to focus on this problem. I look around the room until I notice Azrael sitting off to the side on his own. He had his eyes closed and earbuds in so it looked like he wasn;t paying attention to anything, but I knew otherwise. That kid had a sixth sese or something.

"Hey Azrael?"

He opens one eye.

"Can you come over here for a sec? I'd like to pick your brain."

The son of Thanatos shrugs and follows me out onto the balcony and out of earshot of everyone else. We were goung to be discussing some really crazy ideas, and I did not want anyone, especially my mom, freaking out just yet. Of course, until Athena gets back, these are just theories, but until then, we need at least some possible reasons.

I lean against the balcony railing and gaze out over the city. There is a nice wind blowing through. It reminds me of the Argo II on a nice day. One of the days where there were no monsters or storms and I could almost trick myself into believing that I was just out with a bunch of friends on a sailing trip.

Azrael clears his throat, "I'm assuming this is about the mission today?"

"Yup." I say, forcefully repressing the memories of the Argo II, "I wanted your opinion on it. Why do you think that the military would go after demigods? How do they know about us?"

I glance over at my young teammate. He seems to be having an internal debate of some kind. At first it confuses me, then I remember that Azrael is also scizophrenic, so he is actually debating himself. I decide to let him work out the details with himself. This might take some time.

I turn back to the New York skyline. The city has always been my home. I've lived here, almost died here, and found out the most important revelations of my life here. The city has always been a familiar safe zone for me, but today it feels alien. I've been the subject of manhunts before, but this doesn't feel like a manhunt. It feels like an extermination. I think back to my dream. A number of the guys standing around the map were dressed in military uniforms. Maybe they were military.

I hear Azrael shift next to me, "Anything yet?" I ask.

He shakes his head, "I considered that maybe a general is clear-sighted, but one general wouldn't be enough to attack American citizens."

I nod in agreement, "There is something big going on." I say, "I don't know if we'll be able to handle it..."

Azrael shrugs and heads back inside, leaving me alone on the balcony. Just as I was about to sink back into my thoughts, I felt something small clamber up my back and onto my shoulders.

"You look sad big brother." Kat says in that endearing seven-year-old voice that you can't help but love and despise at the same time.

"I'm just thinking." I reply, "There is a lot of big stuff going on today."

"Bigger than the Big Room?" I feel Kat place her head on top of mine.

"A lot bigger." I reply, "This stuff is as big as the world."

"The world..." Kat repeats, amazed, "That's like...seven Big Rooms."

I laugh, "Yup. seven Big Rooms. It is a very big problem. A giant problem."

"I wanna help!" Kat says suddenly, "I can help Big Brother!"

I gently lift Kat off of my shoulders and put her down on the balcony next to me. She stands on her tip-toes to see over the ledge.

"You're a little to small right now." I say gently, "You need to train and become big and strong first."

"But I wanna help now." Kat whines slightly.

The little daughter of Apollo really has no idea what she is getting herself into. Frankly, I don't know what I'm getting myself into, but I do know I'm not dragging a seven-year-old into whatever mess I probably accidentaly caused. I look down at these big pleading brown eyes and I realize instantly that I've lost.

I sigh, "Alright, how about we make a deal?"

Kat blinks.

"You see that antenna all the way out there?" I ask, pointing out into the skyline. Kat nods,.

"Alright, now I'll let you help when you can hit that with an arrow from right here on this balcony. Until then, you have to stay put and train very hard, okay?"

"Okay." Kat doesn't seem to mind that my challenge could take years of training to complete.

I look behind me when I hear the door open again, "Now why don't you head along Kat? I'm sure you're going to want to train very hard."

Kat nods vigorously and runs back inside, probably straight down to the Big Room to begin her archery training.

"You would've made a great older brother for Lily." My mom.

"I know." I sigh, " But I couldn't drag all of you back into this world. My world. You were just beginning to escape this, but now I'm worried that you'll never get out."

"I don't care about that! The mythological world has led to the greatest thing in my entire life."

"Really?" I didn't believe her. There is nothing good about my world. It leads to nothing but death and destruction.

She smiles, "It led to you Percy. And I'm certain that whatever happens, you'l be able to take care of it." My mom kisses me on the cheek and heads back inside.

I don't know how long I sat outside on my own, absorbed in my own thoughts. It felt like forever. The sun was setting behind the Empire State Building when a voice calls from inside.

"Percy!" Reyna calls out, "Athena is back. Get in here."

I push off the ledge, happy to finally have a distraction from my own thoughts. After one last glance at Apollo ending his route across the sky, I head inside.

***

"I believe the best thing to do would be to build up to the most extreme news." Athena says, careful to make sure we are all paying attention.

My mom and Paul had taken Lily gone to bed in a guest room that appeared out of nowhere. Kat was also asleep, leaving just the seven of us on the PSU, Hannah, and a goddess of wisdom as the only ones awake in the room.

I glance around Katie had a concerned look on her face and sat next to Reyna, who like her boyfriend, Michael, was completely emotionless. Azrael looked like he really didn't care what was discussed one way or another. I knew he is really paying very close attention. Athena did not want to explain everything twice so I created a rainbow and got Amelia and Bobby on the line, so to speak. Both wore matching concerned faces and looked tired.

"We'll start with the matter of young Hannah's mother." Athena begins.

At that moment, a floating holographic image appears over Hannah's head. An image of a snowflake.

"Her mother" Athena continues unnecessarily, "is Khione, goddess of snow."

"Well, that also explains why she wasn't marked in my journal." I mutter.

"It does?" Bobby looks confused.

Athena picks up the explaination from here, "Perseus' journal is a gift from the council which he has been useing to locate demigods around the country and has recently been linked to the penthouse's control center. The council issued a decree that all gods must pass information on unclaimed children into the journal and most did. The only one who didn't was Khione."

"The gods warned me about this when I got the journal, but in all honesty, I'd forgotten about it." I sit up and rub the back of my neck, "I think you know what the next question is going to be."

Athena nods, "The Olympian Council was summoned into an emergency meeting. The first since the end of World War II. At this meeting, Hecate, as guardian and maintainer of the Mist, was called forward."

"And?" Michael leans forward.

"Well, considering the recent monster attacks and the change in monster attack patterns, this has actually been a gradual event over the past eighteen months. Hecate is doing everything she possibly can to rectify this problem."

"A problem you have yet to actually name." I note.

Athena looks over at me and for the first time ever, I saw fear in her gray eyes (granted I haven't looked at them often, but still you get the idea). At that moment, I realize we should be much more worried about this than we currently are.

"This is the first time this has ever happened." She whispers, "The second Titanomachy and Gigantomachy were far too close together. The strain has been too much. The council doesn't know what to do. I dont know what to do."

"Lady Athena, with all due respect, pull yourself together!" I'm about to jump off of the couch, "This isn't like you. What. Is. Going. On?"

Athena stares at me, "The Mist is breaking down. In about one month, there will be nothing shielding our world from the eyes of mortals."

***

Well, how's that for cliffhanger? Now see you in a few months as you chew on this! Just kidding, I'll be back as soon as I can.
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