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9

—"Now that Jason is here. He has a quest to fulfil which means he needs his own prophecy" Rachel said. 

She closed her eyes and swooned. Two campers rushed forward and caught her. A third ran to the side of the amphitheatre and grabbed a bronze three-legged stool, like they'd been trained for this duty. They eased Rachel onto the stool in front of the ruined hearth. Without the fire, the night was dark, but green mist started swirling around Rachel's feet. When she opened her eyes, they were glowing. Emerald smoke issued from her mouth. The voice that came out was raspy and ancient-the sound a snake would make if it could talk:

"Child of lightning, beware the earth, 

The giants' revenge the eight shall birth, 

The forge and dove shall break the cage, 

And death of the sea through Hera's rage."

On the last word, Rachel collapsed, but her helpers were waiting to catch her. They carried her away from the hearth and laid her in the corner to rest.

Oh great, Alex thought. My first day at camp and now according to a prophecy I'm gonna die. 

"Is that normal?" Piper asked. Then she realized she'd spoken into the silence, and everyone was looking at her. "I mean... does she spew green smoke a lot?"

"Gods, you're dense!" Drew sneered. "She just issued a prophecy-Jason's prophecy to save Hera! Why don't you just-"

"Jesus Christ are you always like this? Shut up Drew!" Alex snapped. Then she continued a little less louder, "Or wait, is Jesus Christ even appropriate now? Should I say for 'For Poseidon's sake' or something?" 

Annabeth shook her head as if she was just done with Alex, but it was a fond sort of headshake, and spoke too, "Piper asked a fair question. Something about that prophecy definitely isn't normal. If breaking Hera's cage unleashes her rage and causes the sea's or Alex's death... why would we free her? It might be a trap, or-or maybe Hera will turn on her rescuers. She's never been kind to heroes."

Jason rose. "I don't have much choice. Hera took my memory. I need it back. Besides, we can't just not help the queen of the heavens if she's in trouble."

"I think you missed the part where she said I was gonna die" Alex spoke up. 

"I won't let that happen J-er Wilde" Jason corrected himself. Alex smiled to herself that Jason had already gone back to calling her by her last name like he used to in her fake memories. 

Nyssa stood up "Maybe. But you should listen to Annabeth. Hera can be vengeful. She threw her own son-our dad-down a mountain just because he was ugly."

"Real ugly," snickered someone from Aphrodite.

"Shut up!" Nyssa growled. "Anyway, we've also got to think— why beware the earth? And what's the giants' revenge? What are we dealing with here that's powerful enough to kidnap the queen of the heavens?"

No one answered, but Alex noticed Annabeth and Chiron having a silent exchange

Annabeth took a deep breath. "It's Jason's quest," she announced, "so it's Jason's choice. Obviously, he's the child of lightning. According to tradition, he may choose any two companions. But the prophecy specifies four, so by all means choose two.. no matter what happens Alex will go with you"

Someone from the Hermes cabin yelled, "Well, you, obviously, Annabeth. You've got the most experience."

"No, Travis," Annabeth said. "First off, I'm not helping Hera. Every time I've tried, she's deceived me, or it's come back to bite me later. Forget it. No way. Secondly, I'm leaving first thing in the morning to find Percy."