Prologue for the Mark of Athena (Link:Son of Zeus)

The Roman army of Camp Jupiter, the Twelfth Legion Fulminata, was fully armed and ready for battle when they surrounded the flying Greek warship that landed directly in the forum of New Rome.

Jason Grace, son of Jupiter and former Praetor of Camp Jupiter was the first one to walk off the flying Greek trireme, the Argo II. He looked around and smiled at the ever so familiar, yet somewhat damaged surroundings of the city of New Rome and took a deep breath in, smelling the various old and familiar scents of the city. After all these months away, he was home at last.

The moment Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, saw his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase emerge from the boat, he left his new friends Frank and Hazel in the dust as he ran towards her, the one person that he remembered before regaining his whole memory, the one thing that kept him going and led him through his long journey. They flung their arms around each other and kissed, locked in a tight embrace for several minutes. Finally, Percy was reunited with his family from Camp Half-Blood.

Piper McLean was angry when she saw Jason hugging another girl. Reyna, Praetor of Camp Jupiter, was over the moon when she saw her former co-praetor Jason alive and well enough. Jason himself felt a little awkward, for he knew that he and Reyna had been extremely close and on the brink of a relationship before he had disappeared, but he also really liked Piper ever since he came to Camp Half-Blood seven months previously, so he felt very confused and did not want to break either girl’s heart if he started a relationship with either of them.

The entire forum of New Rome was filled with a little apprehension between the Greeks and Romans, but mostly cries of greeting, even tears of happiness as Percy and Jason were reunited with there friends from Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter respectively. They were both taken in with open arms, all anxious to see the faces of their leaders that had vanished so long ago. Percy walked around hand-in-hand with Annabeth, taking in all of his old friends’ faces, and starting to make introductions with his new ones.

“Frank, Hazel, this is Annabeth,” Percy said when the two couples had run into each other. “These two were with me on our last quest,” he explained, and it suddenly struck him how short of a time it had been since they were in Alaska, and when he had defeated the giant Polybotes right here at camp, for which he earned the rank of praetor. It hadn’t even been twenty four hours since he had killed the giant with a god’s marble statue head.

Jason tried to make introductions between his old and new friends, but it wasn’t going very well.

“Piper, this is Reyna, my… um… old colleague,” he said, but Piper didn’t seem interested, her little smile looking forced, like she was trying not to look angry. Reyna herself looked a little miffed by Piper’s reaction, so Jason moved onto his best friend Leo, who stood with his mouth wide open. “Leo, um, mouth,” Jason whispered, rather embarrassed.

“Oh, right, sorry dude. Well, uh, Leo Valdez at your service, your beautiful-ness” he bowed low in front of Reyna, his fingers letting off little flames, just to show off his unique powers in hopes of making a good impression. Finally, Percy, Annabeth, Frank, and Hazel came up to the awkward atmosphere over the group to break some of the tension.

“Sorry I kinda took your job,” Percy apologized to Jason shyly, as the day before, the camp had proclaimed him praetor, taking over Jason’s position. He felt rather uncomfortable with the prospect of taking over someone else’s job, especially a position of power as important as this.

“I think the post is in good hands,” complimented Jason sticking out his hand, which Percy took and shook, and they were suddenly smiling like they had known each other forever. The eight demigods toured New Rome together, Jason taking back in all of the familiar buildings and structures, and even some old faces, and he had to smile as he heard the whiny voice Terminus, the Roman god of boundaries yelling himself hoarse about weapons and other war equipment inside the Pomerian Line. Percy was pointing various wonderful things about the city out to Annabeth, but not yet daring to tell her about the idea that had been brewing in the back of his mind, about a possible future for the couple in the city.

“Hey, I know that we’re all happy and reunited and stuff, but don’t you think we should be planning our next move? The giants aren’t going to wait for us to get there,” chimed in Piper, still looking cross with Jason and Reyna.

“She’s right, we do have to set sail to Greece as soon as possible, and confront the giants before they’re too strong. We have to go while the wind gods are at their weakest, which is now, and we’ve already missed the summer solstice, which isn’t the best thing we could have hoped for,” Annabeth said.

“No, we can’t go to Greece first,” Hazel looked worried as she said it with precious gems popping up at her feet to prove this point. It was like she knew a dangerous fact that could lead to something more dangerous and life-threatening than deadly giants ready to destroy the gods at their roots.

“But that’s where the giants are going, isn’t it? Why not go meet them and be rid of them as soon as possible? If they’re getting more powerful by the day, then we don’t have any time to lose,” Jason pointed out.

“It’s something Thanatos said after we freed him, about the Doors of Death being somewhere in Rome, and Gaea said that she has my brother, Nico captured there. We have to close the doors before we confront the giants in Greece,” Hazel explained.

“Whoa, we have to go to Rome?” Leo asked in astonishment. “Dude, this was seriously not in my job description.”

“But we have to close the Doors of Death before facing the giants, or else we don’t stand a chance. The monsters and mortal enemies will come through non-stop, and we’ll be overrun,” Frank insisted, being able to stand up to people thanks to his new-found confidence in himself.

“Frank’s right,” Percy said. “With the Doors of Death open, even with Thanatos guarding them, he doesn’t stand a chance against Gaea. She’ll bring the monsters through,” he paused, and then turned to his co-praetor. “Reyna, you and I should gather the best of the best from here, and then we need to set sail to Rome.”

Link:Son of Zeus "Calm Before the Storm"