Daughter of the Sea

Fandom: Percy Jackson/Riordanverse

This fic will be continued!

Chapter 1: I Spontaneously Turn Into a Girl

Hi, my name is Perseus Jackson.

Or, at least, it was. This is the story of how that changed, among other things.

It all started when I got turned into a guinea pig by a spa owner.

Why as this spa owner turning me into a guinea pig? No clue, something about men being pigs. Looking back, I can kind of see where she was coming from. Doesn’t change the fact that most people would take issue, rightfully so, from being turned into a guinea pig. I know I did.

So here I was, Annabeth and I having gotten off a beat-up Civil War era confederate lifeboat. We were in the middle of the Sea of Monsters, AKA the Bermuda Triangle. Makes sense, right? Inexplicably, in the middle of all of this was this spa, C C’s Spa and Resort. It was massive, and some of the boats at the docks were downright weird, such as the old sailing ship, or the literal German U-Boat. I had assumed they were replicas. We were led into the spa by this lady with a clipboard. Lounging around pools were a whole bunch of girls, seeming to range from around our own age (about 13 or so) up to their 40s. There were even tigers lounging about. There were, however, no men.

And yes, I do not consider myself to be a man. I hadn’t accepted that at the time though.

“Where are all the guys?” I asked.

“You’ll meet them soon,” the lady said.

And with that, we continued in silence.

The lady led us to a large room. One wall was made entirely of windows, the opposite covered in mirrors, giving the room a feeling as if it went on forever.

What really got my attention was the woman in the room. She sat at a loom, weaving an elegant design. She was singing, this beautiful, but also somewhat sad, song. It made me feel almost weightless. She seemed almost ageless, and she was seriously pretty. I felt this weird feeling in my gut, but at the time I had no idea what it was. I know now.

It was jealousy. I wanted to be that pretty.

Of course, I would not have realised this then. It’s a funny thing, being this deep in the closet.

She immediately focused on Annabeth. “You, my dear, have the makings of a sorceress.” And she was led out of the room by the lady with the clipboard, Hylla, according to the woman who I assumed was C C.

And then she focused on me. The look on her face seemed disdainful. As if I was simply something she scraped off her shoe.

And honestly? I felt like it under her gaze. I felt inadequate.

And then she directed my attention to my reflection. Without really saying much, she was so easily able to direct my full attention to the various minor imperfections of myself.

And then she dropped a curtain over the mirrors. I was confused, briefly, before the curtain shimmered, showing a reflection of me. Except it wasn’t really a reflection. It was me, but not me. All those minor faults were gone… and yet… I wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but something about the image felt off. It felt fake.

And still, she had me nodding along. Had me saying that ‘yes, this is what I want.’ Meanwhile, in the back of my head, there was a voice screaming that no, that was not what I wanted. But C C’s words silenced this voice.

She handed me a glass of water and mixed in some powder, changing the liquid to bright red.

“Drink this.”

“Will this,” I pointed at the not-reflection, “do that.”

She nodded. “Simply drink this every day. Simple diet. A bit of exercise. You’ll see results in no time.”

I clamped down on that voice, which had started back up, screaming at me to not drink it. That that version of me was not only not what I wanted, it was straight up wrong. A step in the complete opposite direction of what I wanted.

I drank.

Immediately, I felt a burning sensation in my gut. I doubled over in pain.

“See Percy,” C C said, dropping the curtain, “you’re turning into your true self.”

But something was wrong. Fur was sprouting all over my body, my hands shriveled into small claws, and I got smaller and smaller. And then darkness.

No, I didn’t die. I was simply buried in my own clothes.

And then I felt giant hands grabbing me, lifting me up, and I found myself staring into the giant face of C C. Except, of course, her face wasn’t what was giant. I was just tiny. She faced me towards the mirrors.

In the mirror, I saw C C, beautiful as ever, and in her hands was a small, furry rodent. I twisted. The rodent twisted. I was…

“A guinea pig,” C C said. “You see, Percy? Men are pigs. I used to turn them into real pigs, but this is much better. They were so big and smelly and difficult, much like they were before. This way is much better.”

I squirmed and tried to call for help, but all the came out was squealing noises.

“None of that, Percy.”

And that’s how I found myself in a cage with a bunch of very mean looking guinea pigs.

And that’s when Annabeth arrived.

“C C?”

C C cursed and kicked my clothes under her loom.

Annabeth came in through the door.

“Where’ Percy?” she asked.

“He’s undergoing one of our treatments.”

Annabeth saw right through her, however. Of course, she did. She immediately deduced who C C was. Circe, the sorceress. She requested some privacy to say good-bye.

As soon as C C left the room, she knelt by the cage. “Alright, which one of you is it?”

I started squealing my little head off, but so did all the others.

Annabeth swore under her breath and stood up. She quickly looked around the room, and easily spotted my jeans poking out from under the loom. She went to search the pockets.

Yes! I thought. Just grab Riptide.

But she did not, in fact, grab Riptide. Instead, she pulled out the bottle of Hermes’ multivitamins and popped one into her mouth.

Just then, C C returned, flanked by a couple of attendants. “Alright, what’s your decision?”

“This.” Annabeth brandished her knife at them.

C C laughed. “A knife against my magic?” She and her attendants raised their hands towards her. “What should we turn you into? Something small and ill-tempered? A shrew!”

Magic blasted out of their palms, covering Annabeth. When it receded, however, Annabeth was still Annabeth, only angrier.

She lunged at C C, holding her knife up to her throat. “How about a tiger? With her claws at your throat?”

C C looked shocked. “How?”

Annabeth held up the bottle.

“Curse Hermes and his multivitamins! Those are such a fad! They do nothing for you!”

Annabeth dragged C C over to the cage and knocked the top off.

“No, wait!”

But Annabeth had already emptied the bottle into the cage.

I was the first to get to a vitamin, but the others quickly joined me to check out this new treat.

Instantly, I started feeling a warm feeling in my gut, significantly more pleasant than my previous transformation. The vitamin was getting smaller in my hands, or really, I was getting larger. And then – BANG! The cage exploded. I was human again, thankfully back in my clothes somehow. I didn’t question it.

And that is when it happened. The transformation continued. My hair would grow until it reached my shoulders, and while I couldn’t exactly see what was going on, I could feel my body shifting, changing. Once the feeling stopped, I chanced a glance in the mirrors.

Staring back at me, along with a bunch of rather dirty looking men, one with a very impressive beard, was a girl who was sprawled on the floor exactly where I should have been. When I turned my head, so did she. I raised my hand to brush some of my now much longer hair out of my face, and so did the girl.

This girl was me.

I was the girl.

I didn’t have time to think about this.

Annabeth had rushed over to me, dragging me up to my feet. She did a double take.

“What the…” she trailed off, then looked at the other former guinea pigs. “I know you. You’re Edward Teach, son of Ares.”

“Aye, lass!” The man with the beard said. “But most just call me Blackbeard.”

Annabeth frowned. “But didn’t you get beheaded?”

The man, Blackbeard, apparently, laughed. “That I did! But I got better. And now I mean to find meself a big stick a celery! Aaarrgh!”

Annabeth turned back to me.

“Time to go,” I said, my voice coming out slightly higher than I was used to, though whether that was from nerves or my spontaneous transformation into a girl, I did not know (although it was a bit of both, as it turns out).

We sprinted down the stairs that had led to C C’s room and through the spa, bursting back out onto the docks. We wondered what to do, we could not just take the beat-up lifeboat we had been in earlier.

“There!” I said, pointing at the old sailing ship. I had no idea why, but somehow, I knew an old sailing ship was perfect for me. We sprinted towards it, up the gangplank, and onboard.

“Aaargh! Those scallywags are a-boardin’ me vessel! Get ‘em lads!”

Annabeth looked at me in panic.

I concentrated, feeling the subtle sway of the deck beneath me, smelling the salty see air.

Suddenly the word came to me. “Mizzenmast!” I shouted.

Annabeth looked at me like I was insane, but the ship instantly sprung into action under my command. The gangplank was brought up, the sails unfurled, the mooring undone, and within seconds, the ship, with us on board, was underway. Very soon, the spa was just a spec in the distance.

Once the adrenaline from our escape had worn off, Annabeth stumbled over to where I was, looking queasy. Her eyes, however, made it clear that she wanted to talk.

“Thanks,” I said.

She pursed her lips. “Percy, I-“ She cut herself off.

“I don’t know,” I said.

Annabeth frowned. “Neither do I… you just… turned into a girl. Didn’t even know those vitamins could do that. Spontaneous gender change, that is.”

I shrugged. “They didn’t change you. Or those pirates.”

Annabeth sighed. “That’s the most baffling part. If maybe it turned all those pirates into women, sure. It would still make sense why it didn’t change me, since I’m already a girl. But no, it just did that to you.”

“Maybe I just got the odd pill out?”

“Maybe…”

We sailed in silence for a little while, Annabeth staring resolutely at the horizon.

I patted my pockets, sighing in relief when I felt Riptide still in there. Alongside it, however, was the vitamin bottle. I pulled it out. “Maybe if you looked at the ingredients you could figure it out.” I handed it to Annabeth.

She looked at it, reading over the label. “Everything you need to feel like yourself again,” she read. “Huh.” She turned it over to look at the ingredients and nutritional facts. “100% your daily requirements of… all vitamins. Well that makes sense, actually.” She continued reading. “Damn, these ingredients are no joke. I don’t even recognize some of these. Let’s see… we have Nectar and Ambrosia. Uh, there’s some powdered unicorn horn mixed in, not sure what that’s supposed to be doing. And… di immortales.” She sucked in a breath. “Gorgon’s blood?!” She looked up from the bottle at me. “That’s… super hard to get. And insanely effective.”

“What does Gorgon blood do?” I asked.

Annabeth turned back to watch the horizon, likely wanting to alleviate seasickness. “Well, Gorgon’s blood is rather risky. It depends. From one side of the body, left, if I recall, it is a deadly poison and will cause an excruciatingly painful death. From the other side, it can heal basically anything. And I do mean anything. Blind since birth? Not anymore. Missing a limb? Regrown. Seconds from death? Not a chance. And Hermes just gave these to you with nothing but a request to talk to Luke for him. That’s… wow.”

“But nothing in there would turn me into a girl?”

Annabeth shook her head. “Not that I know of. I know that according to some legends, unicorns prefer girls, so maybe the unicorn horn, but that’s just pure guesswork.”

“Maybe we could ask Chiron,” I said.

Annabeth grimaced, “if he ever is able to return to camp.”

I sighed. “Right. Yeah. That. Well, we could Iris Message him.”

“We could, yeah.” Annabeth grimaced and stood up. “Do that later, I need to go lie down.”

And with that, she went below decks, leaving me alone.

I continued to sail the ship in silence.

Chapter 2: I Hang on to Annabeth for Dear Life

The sun had long since set.

I continued piloting the Revenge, knowing instinctively what to do. The ship obeyed my every command. I could feel where it is we were, I could tell exactly which way to sail to reach our destination. I could sense every obstacle on our path. Sailing this ship was, for once, something I was good at.

As I continued to sail, my mind wandered. I thought about Tyson, my brother. I missed him terribly. I missed Grover as well. I was worried about him. We only had so much time before he became cyclops food.

And, of course, I thought about myself. More specifically, the changes from our brief visit to the spa. I remembered the image I had seen back in the mirrors in C C’s room. My hair had lengthened to my shoulders, although it was now very tangled. My face as well had softened slightly, and the little peach fuzz on my upper lip had vanished. I was also shorter. My jeans, while feeling slightly tighter, now touched the top of my feet. My shirt also reached farther down my legs. Before, Annabeth and I had been close in height, now she was a few inches taller. There was of course something missing from before, but I found that I did not care it was gone, on some level preferred it being gone. Just as I also preferred the extra weight I could feel on my chest.

Bras were uncomfortable though. Oh yeah, when I transformed back to human, along with all my old, now too large clothes, a bra had also somehow magically appeared on me. It was probably about the only thing I was wearing that even fit me now.

I honestly didn’t mind the changes. In fact, I welcomed them. Once I had gotten over my initial shock and had time to really think about it, I found that I really liked the fact that I was now a girl.

I told Annabeth as much when she came back up on deck.

“If you say so, Seaweed Brain.”

And that was that. I was now a girl.

We were passing a volcanic island, the sea bubbling and steaming near the shore.

“That’s one of Hephaestus’s forges,” Annabeth said, grimacing. “Where he makes his bronze monsters.”

“Like the bulls?” I asked.

She nodded. “Sail around. Far around.”

She didn’t need to tell me twice. I directed the ship around the island, and soon it was nothing more than some red haze behind us.

I turned to look at Annabeth. “The reason you hate Cyclopes so much… the story about how Thalia really died. What happened?”

It was too dark to see her expression.

Finally, she said, “I guess you deserve to know.” She took a breath. “The night Grover was escorting us to camp, he got confused, took some wrong turns. You remember that I told you that once before?”

I nodded.

“Well, the worst wrong turn was into a Cyclops’s lair in Brooklyn.”

“They have Cyclopes in Brooklyn?” I asked.

“You wouldn’t believe just how many, but that isn’t the point. This Cyclops, he tricked us, got us to split up inside this maze of hallways in an old house in Flatbush. And he could sound like anyone, Percy. Just like Tyson did aboard the Princess Andromeda. He lured us, one at a time. Thalia thought she was running to save Luke. Luke thought he heard me screaming for help. And as for me… I was alone in the dark. I was seven years old. I couldn’t even find the exit.” She brushed her hair out of her face. “I remember finding the main room. There were bones all over the floor. And there were Thalia and Luke and Grover, all tied up and gagged, hanging from the ceiling... The Cyclops was starting a fire in the middle of the floor. I drew my knife, but he heard me. He turned to me and smiled. He spoke, and somehow, he knew my dad’s voice. I don’t know how, I guess he just plucked it out of my head. He said…” she trailed off, wrapping a lock of her hair around her finger. “He said, ‘Now, Annabeth, don’t you worry. I love you. You can stay here with me. You can stay forever.”

I shivered. The way she told it – even 6 years later – it freaked me out more than any ghost story I had ever heard. “What did you do?”

“I stabbed him in the foot.”

I stared at her. “You… stabbed… are you kidding? You were literally seven, and you just stabbed a fully grown Cyclops in the foot?”

“Oh, he would have killed me. But I had surprised him. It gave me enough time to cut the ropes on Thalia, and she could take it from there.”

“Yeah, but still…. That was pretty brave, Annabeth.”

She shook her head. “We barely got out alive. I still have nightmares, Percy. The way that Cyclops just spoke in my father’s voice. It was his fault that we took so long getting to camp. All the monsters that had been chasing us had time to catch up. That’s really why Thalia died. If it hadn’t been for that Cyclops… she would still be alive today.”

We continued to sit in silence.

“You really mean it, when you say that you prefer being a girl?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I feel… I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels nice. Feels right.”

“I haven’t, you know, experienced what being a guy is like. But I think I would also prefer being a girl. There’s just… nothing appealing about being a guy.”

I nodded excitedly. “Exactly!”

We sat in silence a little while longer. I spotted Hercules in the sky.

“Go below,” Annabeth said at last. “You should probably get some rest.”

I couldn’t argue with that. I was exhausted. But when I went below and dropped down into a hammock, I had a hard time falling asleep. I kept thinking about Annabeth’s story. I wondered, if I was her, would I have enough courage to sail into the lair of another Cyclops?

I did eventually manage to fall asleep, fortunately. When I did, I found myself once again back in the cave with Grover. He was focused on his weaving.

“Hey, Grover?”

He yelped and looked up from his weaving. “Percy?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“What are you… I didn’t call you here.”

I shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to tell you something. Subconsciously. So uh… I ended up bringing myself here.”

Grover nodded. “That can happen, the link does go both ways. Does this have anything to do with the feeling I felt from you earlier? You felt… almost relieved, sort of?”

I nodded. “Probably, yeah. I uh… I turned into a girl.”

“Oh.”

“And uh… I kinda like it?” I was feeling kind of awkward now.

Grover nodded. “Oh, that would make sense then.”

“It does?”

“Well if you like it, then maybe it’s better this way.”

“This is better,” I said. “I don’t wanna go back.”

Grover nodded thoughtfully. “And no one is gonna make you go back.”

“Good.” I looked around the cave awkwardly. “Uh, how do I-“

I was about to ask how I ended the dream vision, but I was interrupted by the dream vision ending. Only to be replaced by a different scene.

Now I was back abroad the Princess Andromeda, back in the stateroom where Kronos’ sarcophagus was.

The room was empty. It was night out, and the curtains were open. All around me, voices whispered. The spirits of the dead.

Beware. Traps. Trickery!

The sarcophagus glowed, the only source of light in the room.

A cold laugh. You don’t have the courage, young one. You cannot stop me. The voice seemed to come from miles under the ship. It made the hairs on my arms stand on end.

I knew that I had to open that coffin, destroy whatever thing was inside it.

I uncapped Riptide.

But I couldn’t move.

“Well, Seaweed Brain?” a voice said from my left.

I looked over, expecting to see Annabeth, but the girl standing there wasn’t Annabeth. She wore punk style clothes, silver chains on her wrists, and a LOT of eyeliner. She had spiky black hair, stormy blue eyes, and a sprinkling of freckles over her nose. I couldn’t help but think she looked familiar.

“Well, are we gonna stop him or not?”

I couldn’t answer, and I couldn’t move.

She rolled her eyes. “Whatever, leave it to me and Aegis.”

She tapped the chains on her wrist, and they transformed, flattening and expanding into a large round disc – a shield. It was silver and bronze, and had the terrifying face of Medusa on the front, as if her actual head had been pressed into the metal. I didn’t know if the was the case, or if the shield could actually petrify me, but I averted my eyes anyway. I knew, somehow, that in battle, whoever possessed this shield would be nearly unbeatable. Anyone sane would turn and run away.

The girl pulled something out of her pocket, and it expanded until she was holding a long spear. She advanced on the sarcophagus, the shades parted in front of her, scattering out of her way.

I tried to warn her. “No, don’t.”

But she didn’t listen. She marched right up to the sarcophagus, and shoved the lid off.

She stood, transfixed by what she saw.

“No. No, it can’t be!”

From the depths below, Kronos’ voice laughed. So loud, the whole ship shook.

“No!”

The sarcophagus engulfed the girl in a golden light as she screamed.

I sat upright, waking up… then immediately fell out of the hammock I was sleeping in.

“Ow.”

I felt hands grabbing me to help me up.

“You ok, Percy? It seemed like you were having a nightmare.”

I nodded.

“You should come up on deck. There’s land,” she said. “We’re approaching the island of the sirens.”

I had heard stories about the sirens. How their singing was so enchanting it had lured many sailors to their deaths.

“I want you to do me a favour. Were gonna be in range of their singing soon…”

“Not a problem. There’s a big tub of candle wax. We can just plug up our ears-“

“I want to hear them,” Annabeth said.

I blinked. “What? Why?”

“The legends say the sirens sing about what you desire. They tell you things about yourself you never even realized. That’s why their singing is so enchanting. If you survive… it’s said you would become wiser. I want to hear them, and I don’t think I’ll get another chance.”

Coming from out anyone else, this would have seemed completely nuts. Coming from Annabeth… well, she could get through big ancient Greek architecture books or long documentaries. I figured the sirens would appeal a lot to her as well.

She told me her plan. Reluctantly, I agreed to help her.

As we approached the island, I ordered a rope to wrap around her waist, tying her to the foremost.

“Don’t untie me. Whatever happens, no matter how much I beg or plead, do not untie me. I will want to go right over the edge and drown myself.”

“Are you trying to tempt me?”

“Oh, ha-ha.”

I promised that I would not let her go until we were well out of range of the singing. Then I grabbed two globs of wax, shaped them into ear plugs, and stuck them in my ears.

Annabeth nodded sarcastically, letting me know that the ear plugs were a wonderful fashion statement.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

The silence was disturbing. I could hear nothing but the sound of my own blood rushing through my head. As we approached the rocks, I told the boat to skirt around them.

I looked back at Annabeth. At first, she seemed normal. Then she looked confused. Her eyes widened.

She started struggling against the ropes. She called my name – I could tell by reading her lips. The look on her face made it clear – for her, this was life or death. It was so hard to not cut her free.

She looked so miserable, I couldn’t help but look away. It was making me feel almost heartbroken in sympathy. How could I do this to her. She’s my friend.

I knew, of course, that this was still loads better than her being eaten.

I could see now, among the rocks around the island, fragments of wood and fiberglass and other materials, remnants of ships that had veered well off course and whose crews and passengers had fallen victim to the sirens.

How could music cause so many people to willingly go to their deaths? I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of songs that would immediately pull my attention, but still… what was it that the sirens were singing about?

I was almost tempted to pull out the ear plugs, just take a brief listen. Only my self-preservation instincts (and strong grip on the pilot’s wheel, my knuckles were white) kept me from doing so. I could feel the voices vibrating the hull of the Revenge.

I looked back to Annabeth. She was really straining against the ropes now. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. It hurt so damn much to look at her like this.

How could you? Her expression asked. I thought we were friends!

I glared at the island. I wanted to take out Riptide, but… how do you fight a song?

I tried not to look at Annabeth.

When I did look back, it was to see an empty mast. The ropes were cut and in a heap on the deck, her dagger next to them.

How could I be so stupid so as to not disarm her.

I saw her preparing to leap over the side.

“No!” I dove at her, bringing her down to the deck, but she fought back.

Her foot slammed into my shin, and she elbowed me in the head. Dazed, my grip loosened. She managed to slip free and climb over the rail.

I lunged at her again, but I was too late. She had jumped over the side.

I didn’t even hesitate; I followed.

Annabeth was a strong swimmer. In the seconds it took me to shake off my dazed state and follow her, she had already made it almost to the rocks.

Fortunately, she was a strong swimmer. The waves should have swept her up and dashed her to pieces against one of the rocks, but she slipped right between them. I hurried to follow, using my powers over water to propel myself forward.

The water was littered with barbed wire next and mines. One wrong move and I would be blown to bits. Or maybe I could protect myself, I wasn’t willing to test that.

I grabbed Annabeth's ankle.

Immediately, I was caught in a vision. I saw what Annabeth must have seen.

I saw Manhattan, but it wasn’t exactly Manhattan. The city was much grander than I had ever seen it. Immediately, I understood that Annabeth had designed it. We were in Central Park. Three people sat on a picnic blanket. I saw Annabeth’s dad, a woman who, even in this illusion, radiated power – she must have been Athena – and… Luke.

As I watched, they all perked up upon seeing Annabeth. Luke patted the blanket next to him, as if inviting Annabeth.

I knew what I was seeing. Manhattan, redesigned, entirely by Annabeth. Luke, good again. Her parents, together (never-mind how impossible that was). This was everything Annabeth had ever wanted.

I noticed other parts of the vision too. I saw the girl from my dream the night before. Thalia. I saw myself, as I am now (that is, as a girl, thankfully). I saw Grover. But they weren’t the focus of the vision. Thalia came close though.

I blinked and the vision was gone. But I still had a hold of Annabeth. I tightened my grip.

I pulled her back. She kicked and thrashed, but I held firm, the water enhancing my strength. I couldn’t hear, but I could tell she was screaming at me.

I willed the currents to pull us back out to the ship, boat she failed so much we nearly hit a mine. We’d never get back if she kept struggling, I had no idea what to do.

And then we went under.

Immediately, a confused look appeared on Annabeth’s face. She stopped fighting. Then our heads broke above the waves, and she went back to fighting me.

The water, I thought, sound doesn’t travel well underwater.

I willed us to be pushed down. Down down down. I had to be careful. I could withstand the pressure, but Annabeth could not. She struggled to breath, bubbles  rising around us.

Bubbles. I had to keep her alive, and she had to breathe. I imagined the bubbles, always rising. I willed the all towards us, collecting and forming them into a larger bubble, encompassing us so Annabeth could breathe.

My vision cleared and I saw a large bubble around us, our feet sticking out into the water.

Annabeth gasped and coughed, sucking in as much air as she could get. She shook, and when I looked in her eyes, I knew the spell had been broken.

She started to sob. Horrible, heartbroken sobbing. A part of me wanted to join her. She rested her head on my shoulder, and I held her.

Some fish gathered to look at us. A whole school of them.

Shoo, I told them. They fled, but I could feel their intentions. They were going to spread the word about the daughter of Poseidon and some crying girl at the bottom of Siren Bay.

“I’ll take us back to the ship,” I said to Annabeth. “Just hang on, it’ll be ok.”

Annabeth nodded, letting me know she was feeling better, and I willed the currents to carry us back to the Revenge.

The ship was maintained a course directly away from the island, thankfully. We climbed back aboard.

To be safe, I kept my earplugs in. Eventually, Annabeth looked at me and mouthed, safe. I took the earplugs out.

No singing. The afternoon was quiet, and I relaxed.

“You ok?” I felt stupid for asking.

She shook her head. “I didn’t realize just how strong the temptation would be….”

I didn’t want to admit what I saw, it felt… personal. But I felt I owed it to her to be honest.

“I saw how you rebuilt Manhattan.”

She flushed. “You did?”

I nodded. “When I grabbed you, I got pulled into your vision. I saw your parents, I saw…”

“You saw Luke?”

I nodded.

“What he said, back on the Princess Andromeda… that really got to you, huh? That whole thing about rebuilding the world from scratch.”

She pulled the blanket I had given her closer around herself. “It’s my fatal flaw.”

“What?”

“What the sirens showed me. My fatal flaw. It’s Hubris.”

I blinked. “That gross brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?”

She laughed, but the sound was still miserable sounding. “No, Seaweed Brain. That’s hummus. Hubris is much worse.”

“What could possibly be worse than hummus?” I made a face.

“Hubris means excessive pride. Deadly, even. You feel like you can do things better than anyone else… even the gods.”

“You feel like that?”

She nodded and looked down, tucking her chin into her chest. “You ever feel like, what if… what if the world really is fucked up? What if we could do it over again from scratch. No more war, no more disease, no more summer homework. That sort of thing.

I nodded. “The world is pretty fucked up, yeah.”

“Don’t get me wrong, The West represents the best things mankind has ever done-“

“Doesn’t it represent everything mankind has ever done?”

“-point is, that’s why the fire is still burning, why Olympus is still around. But sometimes… you just see only the bad stuff.”

“I get that way, yeah.”

“Right, and then you start thinking, ‘what if I could start again? What if I could tear it all down and start over?’ And then you start thinking about how much better it would be if you ran the world. You get that?”

I blanched. “Uh… no. Me running the world would be a total disaster, much more fucked up than it is already.”

“Then you’re lucky. Hubris isn’t your fatal flaw.”

“Then what is?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know, Percy. I just know… every hero has one. If you can’t find it and control it… well, it isn’t called ‘fatal’ for no reason.”

I thought about that. Not exactly a cheery thought.

I noticed Annabeth didn’t mention any of the more personal things she wanted to change. But, they were just that – personal. It was none of my business.

I understood, really. I can’t count how many times I’d idly thought about my own parents getting back together, even after realizing just how impossible it was.

I pictured my mom, alone in our apartment. I realized that she didn’t yet know about what had happened to me.

“Got any drachmas?”

“What?”

“I need to call my mom.”

She felt in her pockets. I did the same. She shook her head.

“Hopefully Grover has some.”

“What do you need to call your mom for.”

I gestured at my own body. “All of this.”

“Right.”

“So…”

“Yeah?”

“Was it worth it?” I asked. “Do you feel any wiser?”

She gazed out at the horizon. “I don’t know, Percy. But we need to save the camp. If we can’t stop Luke…”

She didn’t need to finish. If Luke’s way of thinking could even come close to tempting Annabeth, there’s no telling just how many other half-bloods would join him.

I thought about my dream. The one of the sarcophagus, not of Grover. I realized now that the girl was Thalia. I got the feeling I was missing something. Some crucial part of Kronos’ plan. Something horrible. What exactly had Thalia seen when she opened the lid?

“Percy,” Annabeth called.

I looked up. Ahead of us was another splotch of land – a saddle shaped island cleaved in two down the middle with lush green forests and meadows, and beautiful sandy beaches – exactly as I’d seen in my dreams.

My senses confirmed it: 30 degrees, 31 minutes north, 75 degrees, 12 minutes west.

We had arrived at the lair of Polyphemus.

Chapter 3: Nobody Bullies Polyphemus

Normally, when you think "monster island," you would think all dead vegetation, dark scary caves, and craggy rocks. This island was, for the majority, completely the opposite. It was, just like in my dreams, shaped like a saddle, with a chasm splitting it down the middle. Other than the single rope bridge, it looked like a perfect paradise. Lush green meadows, vibrant forests, sandy beaches. Even the water around it was clearer than normal.

Hanging in the branches of a tree not far from the chasm, was a glittering golden mass.

The fleece.

Even from this distance, I could feel its power. It energised me, just a little.

"So, do we just go and take it?"

Annabeth shook her head. "It's too easy. There's gotta be a guardian, or something."

Just then, a deer burst out of the woods on the fleece side of the island.

Collectively, all the sheep nearby bleated, and swarmed the deer. It was quickly obscured from view. Tufts of fur flew out of the mass of wool. When they dispersed, all that remained was a pristine white deer skeleton.

I gulped. "They're like piranhas. Piranhas with wool."

"Percy." Annabeth pointed to something by the shore. It was the other lifeboat from the CSS Birmingham.

We decided to disembark the Revenge on the far side of the island from the fleece. Once we were off, I ordered it around the cliffs and out of view.

"Rock climbing time," I said. "Hopefully there's no lava. Or carnivorous mountain goats."

Annabeth snorted, then started hauling herself up the cliff. I was quick to follow.

It was a treacherous climb. We only came close to dying 5 or 6 times, which was honestly not too bad. At one point, Annabeth slipped on a patch of moss. Fortunately, she managed to find something to put her foot on. Unfortunately, that something was my face.

"Oh, shit, sorry Percy."

"It's ok." Although I could have gone without tasting Annabeth's shoe (at least it was mostly just salt water and moss).

Eventually, we reached the top, hauling ourselves over the top and groaning.

"Catch our breaths," Annabeth said.

"ROOOAAARRR”

The sound was so startling, we almost fell right back off the cliff.

It turned out, the top of the cliff was a lot narrower than we expected. Barely 10 feet across, it dropped back down into a cave. We crept to the edge and looked over it.

The sight we saw was both horrible and slightly comical. The first thing to stand out was Polyphemus. He was wearing a garish outfit of baby blue, stitched together from dozens of tuxedos, as if the Cyclops had raided an entire wedding party. Next I spotted Grover, still in his wedding dress disguise. Finally, hanging over a pot of boiling water, was Clarisse.

"You're a feisty one," Polyphemus said.

"Challenge me!" Clarisse exclaimed. Give me back my sword and fight me."

"Hmmm…" Polyphemus thought out loud. "Eat loudmouth girl now or wait for wedding feast? What does my bride think?"

Grover stammered, "oh, uh, I don't know. I'm not hungry right now. Perhaps-"

"Wait, did you say bride?" Clarisse asked. "What, Grover-"

"Shut up," Annabeth said. "She needs to shut up."

Polyphemus glared at Clarisse. "What 'Grover?'"

"The satyr!"

"Oh!" Grover said. "The poor girl's brain is boiling. Pull her down, dear."

Polyphemus' eye narrowed. "What satyr? Satyrs good eating. You bring me satyr?"

Clarrise scoffed. "No, you idiot. That satyr! Grover! The one in the stupid wedding dress!"

I wanted to punch Clarisse out, but it was too late. Polyphemus turned on his bride-to-be, and ripped off the veil, revealing Grover's scruffy beard and little horns.

"I don't see well," Polyphemus said. "Not since many years ago, when other hero stabbed me in eye. But YOU'RE NO LADY CYCLOPS!"

He ripped away Grover's dress. Underneath, Grover appeared in his jeans and t-shirt, a bit worse for wear. He yelped and ducked as the enraged cyclops swiped over his head.

"No, stop!" Grover pleaded. "Don't eat me raw! I - I have a good recipe."

I reached for Riptide, but Annabeth grabbed my shoulder.

"Wait," she hissed.

Polyphemus stopped, a boulder hefted over his head, ready to smash my friend. "Recipe?"

"Oh y-yes. You don't want to eat me raw. You'll  get E coli and botulism and all sorts of nasty things. I'll taste much better grilled over a slow fire. With mango chutney! You could go get some mangoes right now, over in the woods. I'll just wait right here."

The monster pondered this. I figured I would die if I charged him right now, but I wasn't willing to just let Grover die.

"Grilled satyr with mango chutney…" he said. He looked at Clarisse. "You a satyr too?"

"No, you idiot. I'm a girl. The daughter of Ares. Now let me down so I can rip your arms off!"

"Rip my arms off," Polyphemus echoed.

"And stuff them down your throat!"

"You got spunk."

"Let me go!"

Polyphemus picked up Grover. "Have to go graze sheep. Wedding postponed until tonight. Then we'll eat satyr for the main course!"

"But… you're still getting married?" Grover said. "Who's the bride?"

Polyphemus looked towards the pot and Clarisse.

Clarisse made a strangled sound. "Oh fuck no!"

Before Annabeth or I could react, Polyphemus snatched Clarisse off the rope, and tossed her and Grover into his cave.

"Make yourself comfortable. I be back at sunset for big event!" Then he whistled, and a bunch of goats and sheep came trotting out of the cave. Once the last of them had left, he rolled the boulder back over the entrance.

"Well, shit," I said.

"We need a plan," Annabeth said.

"Well, duh."

"Mangoes," Polyphemus said. "What are mangoes?" And with that, he led his flock away from the cave, out to the meadows.

"Any ideas?"

"I'm thinking."

"We have until sundown. That's still a few hours out."

Annabeth nodded. She looked out at the sheep in the meadows. Polyphemus was very careful to keep his herbivorous and carnivorous livestock separate, going across the rope bridge to feed the monster sheep mystery meat from a big wicker basket.

Annabeth smirked. "How do you like sheep?"

The plan was simple. Annabeth explained to me how Odysseus had tricked Polyphemus millenia ago, calling himself 'Nobody.' Annabeth figured the Cyclops would still have a grudge over that name. So she intended to invisibly taunt the Cyclops, calling herself that name.

As for me? All I had to do was hang myself from the belly of a sheep and hope Polyphemus didn't notice.

If this all worked out, I made a promise to the gods to tell Annabeth she was a genius.

It worked. I was now in the cave, and Polyphemus, the big idiot he was, had decided that his best weapon was his own front door, which he immediately shattered into a million pieces, not even managing to hit Annabeth.

It didn't take me long to find Grover and Clarisse. Grover was busy trying to cut Clarisse's ropes with safety scissors.

Gorver spotted me first. "Percy!" He stood up to hug me.

Clarrise looked at me, her jaw hanging open slightly. "Jackson? What on earth happened to you?"

"No time to explain!" I said. "We gotta get out there to help Annabeth. And get the fleece."

Unfortunately, things started to go wrong at that point. When we reached the entrance, we saw Polyphemus standing outside, holding aloft some empty air.

"I caught Nobody!"

He would've looked comical if it wasn't for the fact that we all knew that he was actually holding up our i visible friend.

He shook his arm, and Annabeth's cap fluttered off her head to the ground.

"Ha! Nasty invisible girl! Already got feisty one for wife. Means you got to be grilled with mango chutney!"

I supressed my grimace.

"Hey ugly!" I shouted.

"What?" Polyphemus shouted. "Who said that?"

"Nobody."

Polyphemus growled. "You're Nobody?"

I started sprinting away from the cave. "I'm the one who insulted you, you smelly bucket of nose drool. I'm Nobody and I'm proud of it!"

Polyphemus dropped Annabeth then. Unfortunately, her head smacked hard in the ground. Grover ran over to her. He felt for a pulse, then looked to me. He had a worried look, but nodded.

I sighed in relief. She was alive.

Clarisse was gripping a ram's horn spear she'd picked up somewhere in the cave, and Grover had grabbed some sheep's thigh bone. He stood up, gripping it tightly, although he didn't look pleased with his improvised weapon.

"Right." I said. "Attack plan Macedonia."

They both nodded. We had taken the same training classes at Camp Half-Blood.

I hefted my sword as the Cyclops got ready to throw another boulder at me.

Where the heck does he keep finding these rocks?

"For Pan!" Grover exclaimed, chucking his thigh bone weapon at the Cyclops. It bounced off his head, barely phasing him. Clarisse set down her spear in his path, just in time for him to step on it, impaling his foot. He wailed in pain, and Clarisse dove out of the way.

Unfortunately, he just pulled out the spear like a giant splinter, then got ready to charge at me. Fortunately, he'd dropped the boulder, also fortunately not on Annabeth.

I yelled and charged, slashing my sword across his thigh.

I was hoping to see him disintegrate right then, but no luck. I guess he was too big and powerful.

"Grab Annabeth!" I yelled at Grover.

He nodded, and kicked off his shoes, clopping over to her. He knelt and picked up her cap before gathering her in his arms.

Meanwhile, Clarisse and I kept the Cyclops occupied. I have to admit, Clarisse was brave. She charged at the monster over and over, always managing to dodge out of the way. I would follow up her attacks by stabbing or slashing at any part of him I could reach.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Grover carrying Annabeth across the rope bridge. It didn't seem like the best idea, considering the man-eating sheep, but it seemed loads better than this side.

I had an idea.

"Fall back!" I called to Clarisse.

She rolled out of the way of his fist.

We sprinted to the bridge, Polyphemus on our tails. He was cut up and hobbling from his wounds, but we'd only slowed him down a little and made him mad.

"Grind you into sheep chow!" He growled. "A thousand curses on Nobody!"

"A little faster," I said to Clarisse.

We tore down the hill. The bridge was our best shot.

"Grover!" I called. "Grab Annabeth's knife!"

Thank the gods, Grover understood. His eyes widened when he saw the Cyclops chasing us, but he grabbed Annabeth's knife and started sawing at one of the ropes holding up the bridge.

Clarisse and I dashed across. The rope Grover was working on snapped.

Just as Clarisse and I lunged to the other side of the bridge, I swiped my sword at the other rope, and it snapped, causing the bridge to collapse.

Polyphemus howled… with delight. He had just made it across.

"Failed!" He cried. "Nobody failed!"

Clarisse and Grover tried to charge him, but he simply knocked them aside.

I got mad, then. I couldn't believe I had come this far, lost Tyson, nearly lost Annabeth, only to get foiled by some big stupid monster wearing several dozen baby blue tuxedos.

Nobody got to swat around my friends. I mean nobody, not Nobody. Oh, you get what I mean.

Strength surged through my limbs. Ignoring just how hopelessly outmatched I was, I charged.

I stabbed the Cyclops in the belly, and when he doubled over, I smacked him in the nose. I continued to smack and slash and stab.

Eventually, I had gotten him down to the ground, my sword hovering over his eye.

"Ugh." He groaned.

"Percy?" Grover shouted. "How did you?"

"Please, no," Polyphemus wailed. "M-my sheepies need me. Only trying to protect my sheep."

I had won. The Cyclops was an almost pitiful sight. All I had to do was stab.

"Kill him!" Clarisse shouted.

Polyphemus sobbed. He sounded so heartbroken. He sounded… sounded like Tyson.

"He's a Cyclops!" Grover shouted. "Don't trust him!"

I knew he was right. I knew Annabeth would have said the exact same thing.

But… I couldn't bring myself to do it. I realised he was a child of Poseidon too. Just like me… and Tyson.

"We only want the fleece," I told him. "Nothing else. Will you agree to let us take it?"

"No!" Clarisse yelled. "Just kill him!"

Polyphemus sniffled. "My beautiful fleece. Prize of my collection. Take it, cruel human. Take it and go in peace."

"I'm going to step back slowly," I said. "On move…"

He nodded in understanding.

I backed away.

Immediately, he swiped at me, nearly sending me into the chasm.

"Foolish mortal! Take my fleece? I think not!" He bellowed. "I eat you first!"

He opened his mouth and I braced myself.

And then…

Something wooshed over my head, a boulder sailing right into the monster's mouth.

The Cyclops choked, trying to swallow the rock. He staggered backwards, but there was nowhere else to stagger. His foot slipped. His arms made chicken wing motions, and he plummeted into the chasm.

I turned around.

There, down the path, was Tyson, standing in the middle of the killer sheep.

"Bad Polyphemus! Not all Cyclops as nice as we look."

Tyson gave us the short version of his story: Rainbow the hippocampus had apparently been following us ever since Long Island sound, and had found Tyson in the water after the wreck of the CSS Birmingham. He and Tyson had been roaming the Sea of Monsters ever since, trying to find us. Then Tyson caught the scent of sheep, which led him to this island.

"Tyson! Thank the gods! Annabeth is hurt."

He frowned. "You thank the gods she is hurt?"

"No."

I knelt beside Annabeth. The gash on her forehead was concerning, as was the fact she was unconscious and had definitely gotten a concussion. Falling unconscious with a concussion was typically very very bad.

Grover glanced at me nervously.

I looked back up to Tyson. "Tyson, can you grab the fleece?"

"Which one?" He asked, looking around at the hundreds of sheep.

"The gold one! The one in the tree."

"Ooh. Yes. Pretty." He hobbled over to it, trying not to step on any sheep.

If any of us had tried to get the fleece, we would have been eaten, but I guess Tyson smelled like Polyphemus. They kept butting up to him, as if expecting treats from the wicker basket.

Tyson lifted the fleece off the branches, then started making his way over to us.

"No time," I said. "Toss it!"

He threw the fleece, and it glittered as it flew. I caught it, grunting as it nearly dislocated my shoulder. It was much heavier than I had expected.

I spread it over Annabeth.

"Please. Please work."

I prayed to all the gods I could think of.

Slowly, the colour returned to her face. The gash on her head closed up. Her eyes fluttered open.

She focused on Grover. "You're not… married?"

Grover laughed. "No. My friends talked me out of it."

"Annabeth," I said. "Lay still."

But she still sat up anyway. She was healing fast.

We quickly determined, however, she would not yet be up for walking, so Clarisse, who, other than Tyson, was the strongest out of all of us, volunteered to carry her.

Tyson was starting to get concerned about the sheep, who were getting restless. I told him they wanted people food and to lead them away.

We made our way to the beach, Tyson catching up to us, being chased by the sheep. Fortunately, they didn't follow us onto the sand.

"Hang on," I said. I mentally called to the Revenge. I felt it begin moving back towards us. "Ship will be here soon."

We started to relax, but that wasn't to last. Just as the ship rounded the cliffs, coming into view, we heard a loud growl from the chasm, and Polyphemus came storming out, a boulder in each hand. His outfit was in tatters, which just made it worse to look at.

I told Clarisse and Grover to swim for it. Tyson and I turned to fight the Cyclops.

"You'd think he'd run out of rocks," I muttered.

"YOU!" Polyphemus bellowed. "Young Cyclops. Traitor to your kind!"

"Don't listen to him." I tried to tug on his arm, but he wouldn't budge.

"I am not a traitor!"

"You serve humans! Filthy, cheating humans!"

Polyphemus threw one of the boulders, but Tyson swatted it aside, and it cracked in half.

"Not a traitor. And you are not my kind!"

"Death or victory!" Polyphemus bellowed.

Tyson and I looked at each other.

"Together."

Tyson nodded. "Together."

We charged the Cyclops.

Overall, defeating the Cyclops was easy, as it turned out. Sure I nearly got flattened. Twice. But the Cyclops was already badly wounded.

Unfortunately, he could still throw. He chucked the second boulder, and I dove to the side as Tyson swatted it out of the air.

I willed myself to rise on a wave. I kicked the larger Cyclops in the eye.

"I will destroy you! Fleece stealer!"

"But you stole the fleece!" I yelled back. "You've been using it to lure satyrs to their deaths!"

"So? Satyrs good eating."

"The fleece should be used to heal. It belongs to the children of the gods."

Polyphemus growled. "I am children of the gods! Father, Poseidon, curse this thief!"

He was blinking hard, and I realised he couldn't see. He was tracking me by the sound of my voice.

"He won't curse me. I'm his daughter. He's not going to play favourites."

Polyphemus roared and ripped an olive tree out of the ground, swatting at me with it.

I dodged before I could get flattened again, but the branched still scratched up my back something fierce.

"Ow."

Tyson charged at him again, knocking the elder Cyclops back.

"Humans not the same," Polyphemus said. "Nasty, tricking, lying."

He swung the tree at me again, but I dodged and grabbed onto a branch, ignoring the pain as I was sent skywards. I let go, falling directly onto his eye.

"AARRGHH!"

He bellowed, and I fell off into the surf. Tyson once again shoved Polyphemus back.

"Run!" I shouted.

Back at the ship, Clarisse, Grover and Annabeth were already on board.

We dove into the surf, Polyphemus already up to chase us again.

"Smash you!"

We kept swimming.

"Where are you?" He chucked his tree, but missed us by several yards.

I summoned the current to carry us faster to the ship.

From the ship, I could hear Clarisse yelling.

"Yeah, Jackson! In your face, Cyclops!"

I wanted to tell her to shut up, but I was exhausted.

Polyphemus bellowed and picked up another boulder, chucking it at the ship.

Fortunately, he missed. Unfortunately, Clarisse just had to taunt him about his aim, and the next boulder ripped clean through the hull.

Sorry, Blackbeard.

The ship sank fast. Before long, the masts were already going under.

"Shit." I willed the currents to push us faster, but it was no use.

My friends were sinking fast, and I was too exhausted to help.

They struggled against the suction force of the sinking ship. Grover was kicking furiously with his hooves, Annabeth was hampered by holding onto the fleece.

I willed myself towards them, but nearly got whacked in the head by a piece of timber.

We need help, I thought.

Yes. I heard Tyson' voice in my head. I looked to him, startled.

He was a child of Poseidon too. We could communicate.

Yes.

Rainbow, Tyson said.

I nodded, closing my eyes to concentrate.

RAINBOW! We need you!

Immediately, 3 hippocampi shimmered in the distance, getting closer rapidly.

We burst out onto the surface of the sea, Rainbow holding Tyson and Clarisse, and I riding another hippocampus behind Annabeth.

I could hear Polyphemus in the distance, celebrating. "I finally sank Nobody!"

I hoped he never found out how wrong he really was.

We continued skimming across the sea.

"We did it," Annabeth said. We…" she trailed off as she passed out.

I said a silent prayer of thanks to the gods.

Which reminded me…

"You a genius," I whispered to Annabeth.

I slumped forward, my head touching the fleece, and was soon fast asleep.

Chapter 4: I Find Out That I'm Trans

I awoke to Annabeth shaking my shoulder.

"Wha?"

"Land," she said. "Miami, I think. But the hippocampi are acting funny…"

Sure enough, the fish-horses had slowed down. They were whinnying and swimming in circles, sniffing at the water. They weren't happy.

I could tell what they were thinking, alright.

"This is as far as they'll go. The water is too polluted. We'll need to swim the rest of the way."

We weren't thrilled about that, but we said our goodbyes.

Tyson unfastened the makeshift saddlebag from Rainbow containing his toolkit and whatever else he had salvaged from the CSS Birmingham. He hugged Rainbow and fed him a soggy mango Tyson had picked up from the island.

Once the hippocampi had disappeared, we swam for shore. The waves pushed us ashore, and just like that, we were back in the mortal world.

We wandered the cruise docks, pushing through crowds of mortals who were here on vacation.

If any of them noticed us, a bunch of dripping wet kids who looked like they'd had the crap beat out of them, they didn't let on.

The mist had once obscured Tyson's eye, making it seem to any passing mortal as though he had two. Grover had put his cap and sneakers back on. The fleece had transformed into a red and gold high school letter jacket.

Annabeth ran over to the nearest newsstand and grabbed a copy of the Miami Herald.

"Well, fuck. June 18th. We've been away from Camp for 10 days!"

"That's impossible," Clarisse said.

But we all knew it wasn't time travelled differently in magical places.

"Thalia's tree must be almost dead," Grover moaned. "We need to get the fleece to Camp by tonight!"

Clarisse slumped down on the curb. "How are we gonna manage that?" She sounded despondent. "We're hundreds of miles away from Camp, with no money and no ride." She sighed. "It's just like the Oracle said, Jackson. It's your fault! If you hadn't butted in-"

"Percy's fault?" Annabeth growled. "Why you little sh-"

"Stop," I said.

I had forgotten, but this was Clarisse's quest. I tried to think about it from her perspective. What if I had been on my quest and two other demigods had just butted in? I grimaced.

I thought about when I'd overheard Clarisse talking with Ares. Ares couldn't give a single shit about Camp, but if Clarisse had made him look bad…

I had a brain wave.

"Clarisse," I said, "what did the Oracle say, exactly?"

She looked up, scowling. At first I thought she would just insult me, but when she opened her mouth, she instead recited her prophecy:

"You shall sail the iron ship with warriors of bone,

You shall find what you seek and make it your own,

But despair for your life entombed within stone,

And fail without friends, to fly home alone."

"Ouch," Grover said.

"No no, wait," I said. I dug around in my pockets, managing to pull a drachma from deep in my back pocket, but not cash. "Damnit, nothing. Does anyone have any cash?"

Annabeth and Grover shook their heads. Clarisse pulled a soggy confederate dollar out of her pocket and sighed.

"Cash?" Tyson said. "Like… green paper?"

I looked at him. "Uh… yeah."

"Like the kind in the duffle bags?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but we lost those days a-"

Tyson pulled a ziploc bag full of cash from his saddle pack.

"Tyson!" I exclaimed. "How? Where?"

"Thought it was a feed bag for Rainbow. Found it floating in the ocean, but only paper inside. Sorry."

I smiled. Tyson handed me the bag. It was filled with cash, it had to be at least 3 hundred dollars.

I ran to the curb and grabbed a taxi that was letting out a family of sunburnt tourists.

"Clarisse!" I yelled. "Come on, you're going to the airport. Annabeth, give her the fleece."

They looked at me, stunned, as I took the fleece jacket from Annabeth, tucked the cash in the pocket, and handed it to Clarisse.

Clarisse said, "you would let me-"

"It's your quest. Besides, I can't fly, and we only have enough for one ticket. That's what the Oracle meant. You would fail without friends, which meant you'd need help, but then you'd fly home alone. You need to get the fleece back safely right now."

She glanced at me, then at the fleece in her arms, then at the taxi. She smiled. She jumped into the cab. "You can count on me, Jackson. I won't fail."

"Not failing would be good, Clarisse."

The cab sped out, taking Clarisse, and the Camp's salvation, with it.

"Percy," Annabeth said. "That was incredibly-"

"Kind of you," Grover said.

"Insane," Annabeth said. "You're leaving the fate of the entire camp up to Clarisse?"

I nodded. "It's her quest. She should finish it."

"Percy is nice," Tyson said.

"She's too nice," Annabeth said, but I could tell she was a little impressed, or at least surprised, by my actions. I was proud of that.

"Come on," I said. We need to find another way home. Maybe I can call my mom or something."

I turned around to find a sword po8nt at my throat.

"Hey cuz," Luke said. "What's up with your hair?"

I scowled. "It grew."

He laughed.

The bear-men thugs appeared on either side. One grabbed Annabeth and Grover, the other tried to grab Tyson, but he knocked him back into a pile of luggage.

"Tell your giant to back down, Percy, or Oreius will bash your friends' heads in."

The bear grinned and lifted them up, kicking and screaming.

"What the fuck do you want, Luke?"

He smirked. "Why, I want to extend my hospitality, of course."

He gestured toward the end of the pier, where the largest cruise ship was the Princess Andromeda.

We were herded aboard. They threw us down onto the aft deck, near a swimming pool. A few dozen of Luke's goons, monsters and half-bloods, stood in a ring around us.

"So," Luke said, "the fleece. Where is it?"

He looked us over, prodding us with his sword, poking Grover's jeans.

"Hey! That's real goat fur under there!"

Luke grinned. "Sorry, old friend."

Grover bleated. "Some old friend."

"Maybe you can't hear me through your new head of hair, Jackson. Where is the fleece?"

"Not here, asshole," I said. I probably should have stayed quiet, but I wanted some satisfaction from running his plans. "We sent it ahead."

Luke's grin vanished. "How did you…" he scowled. "Clarisse! You would trust her-"

"Of course," I said. "She's a hundred times the hero you are."

Luke growled. "Agrius! Go below, get my steed. I need to get to the airport immediately."

"But boss-"

"Just do it."

The bear-twin gulped, but complied, lumbering down the stairs.

Luke scowled, and began pacing. Some of his goons shifted uncomfortably. I guess they hadn't seen him so unhinged before.

I began to think, maybe I could use his anger. Get him to talk, let everyone in on just how crazy his plans were.

I look at the pool. At one end, the one closest to us, was a fountain, spraying water into the air and making a fine mist.

Time for another brilliantly dumb Percy idea.

"You were playing with us all along, weren't you?"

Luke turned to look at me.

"You wanted us to bring you the fleece so you didn't have to go to the trouble of getting it yourself."

"Of course, you idiot. And just like last summer, you went and messed everything up!"

"Oh you fucking traitor," I said. I dug the drachma back out of my pocket, gripping it tightly in my hand. I chucked it at his head.

As expected, he dodged. It sailed cleanly past him into the spray from the fountain.

I hoped my prayer would be accepted in silence. Oh Iris, accept my offering.

"You tricked all of us, Luke. Even DIONYSUS at CAMP HALF-BLOOD!" I shouted.

Behind Luke, the fountain shimmered, but I needed everyone's attention on me, so I pulled out Riptide.

Luke sneered. "This is no time for mindless heroics, Percy. Put away your sword, or I'll have you killed sooner rather than later."

I scowled. "Who poisoned Thalia's tree, traitor?"

"I did, of course, you idiot. I told you days ago. I used elder python venom from the depths of Tartarus!"

"So Chiron had nothing to do with it, yeah?"

"Ha! Of course not! He wouldn't have the guts."

"You call that guts? Betraying your friends? Endangering Camp?"

Luke pointed his sword at me. "You don't know the half of it, Percy. I was planning on letting you have the fleece… once I was done with it, of course."

I hesitated. Why would he let us have the fleece? He must be lying, but I needed to keep his attention.

"You wanted to use it to heal Kronos," I said.

"Yes! The fleece would have sped up the healing process tenfold. But you haven't stopped us, Percy, just slowed us down."

"And so you poisoned Thalia's tree, betrayed all your friends, set us all up, all to help Kronos destroy the gods!"

Luke grit his teeth. "You already know this. Why do you keep asking me?"

I smirked. "Because I want everyone in our audience to hear."

Luke's eyes widened. "What audience?"

He turned around. His goons looked at the fountain. They let out a collective gasp.

Above the pool, shimmering in the mist from the fountain, was an image of Dionysus and the rest of Camp, all sitting to eat dinner.

"Well," Dionysus said. "Some unplanned, albeit mediocre, dinner entertainment."

"Mr. D, you heard him." I paused. "You all heard what he said. The poisoning wasn't Chrion's fault."

Mr. D sighed, "I suppose not."

"The message could be a trick," Tantalus suggested, but he was more focused on trying to catch a cheeseburger.

"I doubt it," Dionysus said. "I suppose I will have to reinstate the old horse as activities director. And besides, I do miss his pinochle games."

Tantalus finally managed to grab his cheeseburger.

"I got it," he croaked.

He stared at it in amazement as if it were the largest diamond ever.

"Your services are no longer required," Dionysus continued, ignoring what Tantalus said.

"What? But-"

"You may return to the Underworld, Tantalus. You are dismissed."

"What? Noooooo!" Tantalus tried to bring the burger to his mouth, but he dissolved into smoke, the burger falling back to his plate.

The Camp exploded in cheers.

Luke yelled in rage, slashing his sword through the message, cutting the connection.

But my plan was already done.

"Kronos was right, Perseus Jackson. You're an unreliable weapon, a loose cannon. You need to be replaced."

I had no idea what he meant.

One of his men blew a whistle, and several dozen more monsters and half-bloods burst onto the deck, surrounding us.

Luke smirked. "You won't be leaving this boat alive."

I shifted nervously. "One on one," I challenged. "What are you so afraid of?"

Luke scowled, his lips curling. The men who were about to kill us shifted, waiting for his order.

Just then, the bear-man, Agrius, burst onto the deck, holding the leash of a flying horse. It was the first time I'd ever seen a pure black pegasus. The beautiful stallion bucked, and I could understand his thoughts. He was thinking several unsavoury things about Agrius and Luke.

"Sir!" The bear called. "Your steed is ready!"

Luke kept his eyes trained on me.

"I told you last summer, Percy. You can't bait me into a fight like Ares."

"And you keep avoiding one with me. Afraid I'm gonna kick your ass in front of your men?"

He scowled. He knew I'd trapped him. If he backed down, he would look weak. If he fought me, he would lose valuable time going after Clarisse.

As for me? Best I could hope was to distract him, give Annabeth time to think of some plan to escape. Unfortunately, Luke was a very good sword-fighter.

"I'll kill you, nice and quick," he said. "No sense wasting time."

He whistled, and one of his men tossed him a shield. He grinned at me.

"Luke!" Annabeth called. "At least give her a shield."

"No can do, Annabeth. You bring your own equipment to this party."

That shield was going to be a problem. There were just more options when you had that sort of defence.

Like lunged and nearly skewered me immediately. It turned out, my new smaller size was a benefit. Less of me for him to hit.

I spun out of the way, before lunging at Luke with a strike, but he deflected with his shield.

"My my, Percy. You're out of practice."

I scowled. "A part of it is that I'm smaller than I'm used to."

That confused him enough for me to get another strike in, but he managed to dodge. He jabbed at me, but I leapt backwards.

He jabbed again, and I twirled out of the way, jumping into the pool.

I felt a large surge of strength. I summoned the water to me. I burst out the water, throwing as much as I could at Luke.

He was knocked backwards. He spat out some chlorinated water and glared at me. I tried to strike again, but he rolled away and quickly got to his feet.

"Putting us by the pool was a great idea, Luke."

He scowled, no doubt inwardly cursing that decision.

I attacked and sliced his shield, but it barely fazed him. He dropped and jabbed at my thigh. Only, he missed. He caught my jeans, cutting them open. I lunged backwards.

Luke continued to come at me. I feinted to the left, but Luke anticipated that. He managed to deflect my strike and jabbed me in my sword arm.

I dropped Riptide and fell to the ground. I rolled out of the way as he slashed at me again. My arm felt like it was on fire.

"One more thing, before you die, Percy." He looked at the bear twin, Oreius, who was holding Annabeth and Grover. "You may eat your dinner now, Oreius."

The bear twin laughed, lifting my friends up.

Then all Hades broke loose.

An arrow sprouted from Oreius' mouth. He crumpled to the deck, a look of shock adorning his face.

"Brother!" Agrius let go of the pegasus, who promptly kicked him in the head and flew away over Miami.

For a moment, everyone watched in shock as the bear twins dissolved into dust.

Then there was a loud thundering of hooves, and several dozen centaurs burst onto the deck.

"Yeah, baby! Party!"

"Ponies!" Tyson exclaimed with delight.

My mind was having trouble processing the new sight. Chiron was among the centaurs, but his relatives were wildly different from him. There were centaurs with bows, centaurs with paintball guns, centaurs with face paint, centaurs with full body paint. It was pure chaos.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, Chiron scooped up Grover and Annabeth, placing them on his back.

Another centaur trotted up to me. "Come on, girl. We gotta get moving."

I struggled to climb on his back, my injured arm hampering my movement. Another centaur helped me up.

"Yo, grab your friend."

I called Tyson over, who quickly jumped on the horse-man's back.

The centaur buckled a little, but stayed standing. "Dude. Lay off the carbs!"

Luke tried to rally his warriors to chase us, but an arrow with a boxing glove hit him square in the face, and he went down. Before any of his warriors could do anything, the centaurs started to run to the edge of the boat, and jumped.

I braced for impact with the ground, but barely felt anything.

We started running through the streets of Miami, the party ponies yelling taunts at the cruise ship as we ran away.

Before long, the buildings began to blur. The centaurs picked up speed. It felt like space was warping and compacting. Within seconds, we had left the city behind.

We ran through marshy fields. Finally, we reached, of all things, a trailer park. The trailers were all horse trailers, kitted out with TVs and mini-fridges and mosquito netting. This was a centaur camp.

I dismounted, my legs shaky

"Dude!" One party pony said. "Did you see that bear guy? He was all 'whoa, I have an arrow in my mouth!'"

A centaur with googly-eye glasses laughed. "I know! It was awesome! Head slam!" The two centaurs smacked their heads together, sti.bling away dazedly.

Chiron trotted up to me, Grover and Annabeth still on his back. "I really wish my cousins would not slam their heads together. They do not have any spare brain cells."

"Chiron!" I gasped, trying not to black out from the pain in my arm. "You saved us!"

Chiron bowed his head. "Well I couldn't very well let you die after you so kindly cleared my name."

Grover and Annabeth dismounted.

Chiron then went on to explain how he found us. Apparently, everything strange washed up on Miami Beach. Or was washed up in Miami, it is Florida after all. After that, it was a simple matter of him getting Iris to alert him to any important messages in the area, then he would be able to come get us.

I looked over at the campfire to see some party ponies trying to teach Tyson to shoot a paintball gun.

"So what now, Chiron?" I asked. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos on that ship, or at least parts of him."

Chiron knelt next to me. He opened his medicine pouch and started to treat my arm wound. "I'm afraid, Percy - you still go by Percy, yes?"

I nodded. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Well, often when one decides to transition as you have, they tend to use a different name."

I frowned. "Transition."

Chiron nodded. "Mr. D could explain things better than I could. Well, it's to do with your transformation. Annabeth mentioned it to me. From what I understand about Hermes' multivitamins, any transformation they induce would be fully desired by the individual in question. Because of this, I am guessing that you are, in fact, a transgender girl."

"I'm not exactly sure what that means," I said.

"Transgender individuals are, to my understanding, and believe me, I imagine my understanding is better than most, countless students of mine have themselves been transgender. Transgender individuals are people who at birth, were believed to be one gender, when in reality they were another, be that the opposite gender or some other one that exists outside of this binary mortals insist on. Regardless, back to my original point. I'm afraid today was somewhat of a draw, Percy. We didn't have the strength in numbers to take that ship, and Luke's forces didn't have the organization to follow us. No one won."

"But we got the fleece," Annabeth said.

Chiron nodded. "You are all true heros. As soon as we get Percy all fixed up, you must return to Camp. The party ponies will take you."

"You're coming too," I said.

"Of course, Percy. I will be relieved to be home. My brethren simply don't appreciate Dean Martin's music. And besides… I'm curious about the fleece…" he trailed off, looking thoughtful as he finished dressing my wound.

I wasn't sure what he meant, but I was reminded about what Luke had said, about letting us have the fleece. I wasn't sure if he was telling the truth.

Before I could think about it further, we heard some loud cheering. We turned to see Tyson shooting a paintball at a centaur, knocking him into the lake.

"Annabeth," Chiron said. "Perhaps it would be best if you and Grover made sure that my cousins and Tyson don't teach each other too many bad habits."

Annabeth nodded. "Sure, Chiron. Come on, Goat Boy."

Grover yelped. "But I don't like paintball!"

Annabeth grabbed his arm and started dragging him away. "Yes you do."

Chiron sighed. "Percy, Annabeth also told me something else. About the prophecy."

Oh, shit.

"It's not her fault," I said. "I made her tell me!"

He looked irritated, but that quickly faded to weariness. "I suppose I should not have expected to keep it secret forever."

"So, is the prophecy about me?"

Chiron finished putting away his medical supplies. "I wish I knew for sure, Percy. You're not yet sixteen. For now, we must train you as best we can. Leave the future to the fates."

"That's what that meant, then."

"I beg your pardon?"

I explained to Chiron about that time when the fates appeared to me, over a year ago now.

"The death they showed. It's to do with the prophecy. It will happen when I turn 16."

Chiron shifted nervously. "My girl, you can't know that for sure."

"But it fits," I said.

"We don't even know for sure that the prophecy would be about you, yet."

"But there are no other children of the big three!"

"None that we know of."

"And Kronos is rising now. He will try to destroy Olympus."

Chiron nodded. "He will, and western civilization with it. But we will fight to stop him. You will not be alone."

But I would be, in the end. It all came down to one choice. One singular decision. And, if I survived another 2 years and 2 months, to the exact day, in fact, it would be down to me.

"But what can I do, Chiron? I'm just a kid!" I sounded miserable. "What good is one lousy hero against a titan?"

Chiron smiled. "’What good is one lousy hero?’ If I had a penny for everytime one of my students said that to me, I would be the richest man alive." He sighed. "Tell me, Percy. What would happen if I were to shoot any of my arrows, all tipped with celestial bronze, at a mortal?"

"Nothing, sir. It would pass right through them."

"Exactly. Humans don't exist on the same level as gods and monsters. They can't be hurt by our weapons. But you, Percy. You are a demigod. Part god, part human. You live in both worlds, and can affect both. That's what's so special about heros. You take the hopes of humanity into the realm of the eternal. And beneath it all… monsters, continually reforming from the chaos underneath all civilization, the very thing giving Kronos strength. As a hero, it is your struggle to fight that, keep it at bay, to fight the battles that keep humanity human. Do you understand that?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure, Chiron."

"You'll need to try. Because, even if you aren't the child.the prophecy refers to, Kronos thinks you might be. And so you must be prepared. And after today, he will give up turning you to his side. As soon as he is sure you will never work for him, he will destroy you."

I swallowed. "You talk as if you know him."

Chiron nodded. "Better than most."

"Is that why they thought you would poison the tree? Come on, they can't seriously believe you would betray Camp for Kronos."

Chiron sighed. "Remember your training, Percy. What was my relationship to Kronos?"

I searched my brain, but was coming up blank. "Uh… you owe him? He spared your life or something similar?"

Chiron sighed. "Percy… Kronos is my father."

Chapter 5: Our Quest Has An Unexpected Conclusion

It turned out, thanks to the speed of the centaurs, that we only arrived at camp a few minutes after Clarisse, so we got to watch as she hung it from the lowest branches on the tree. Several other campers had also come out to watch.

The changes were almost immediate; the remaining needles on the tree turned green again, new ones started to grow as well. Not only that, but the air suddenly felt a lot cleaner, as if the pollution which the barrier had been failing to keep out was now absent. The light from the sunset felt almost warmer, many of the scars and burns stretching over the hill, the results of several battles against monsters over the past few weeks, started to heal over. Many of the campers, some of whom were wounded, stood up straighter. I too felt slightly less exhausted.

Everybody present cheered, and I smiled. The tree was healing, along with the rest of the camp. We could finally begin to rebuild (apparently the arts and crafts cabin had burned down in an attack, as well as other more minor damage to other buildings).

Slowly, the campers began to head back towards camp. We all collected in the amphitheatre, where Chiron presented Clarisse with laurels for her successful quest.

No one mentioned Annabeth, Tyson, and I. If they did, they would have to acknowledge that we had run away. I found I didn’t mind it.

After the presentation, while the Stoll brothers were telling ghost stories to scare some of the younger campers, Clarisse came over to me.

“Look, Jackson. Just because you were cool one time, doesn’t mean you’re off the hook with Ares. I’m still going to try to pulverize you.”

I just smiled back at her.

“What, Jackson?” she demanded.

I shrugged. “Just good to be home, I guess.”

When Chiron stood to make his final announcements, there was the usual, capture the flag, tomorrow’s activities, and then there was the unusual but still expected, that we would need to start a guard rotation to guard the fleece until he could find a more permanent guard. Finally, a more surprising announcement: the chariot races would continue, at least for the next scheduled race. We had figured they were over with, but it was already on the schedule, and it just felt right to do one properly this time, without demon pigeons showing up to ruin everything (although, Clarisse still had a good shot at winning that race anyway).

Tyson wasn’t overly eager at getting back on a chariot with me, but he was more than happy for Annabeth and I to team up, manning (womanning?) the chariot together while he acted as our pit-crew.

While I prepped our team of horses, Tyson began repairing and modifying the Athena chariot, adding some fun surprises for the upcoming race.

We began to spend the next couple of days practicing. Annabeth and I agreed to split the prize of no chores if we won. Since Athena had more campers, they would get the bulk of the time off. Fine with me, I just wanted to win.

The night before the race, I was staying late at the stables. I was talking to our horses, brushing out their manes one more time.

Then I heard a throat clear behind me. “Fine animals, horses. I wish I had thought of them.”

I turned. A middle-aged man, wearing a mailman uniform, was leaning against the door. He was wearing a helmet adorned with wings.

“Hermes,” I said. I could only think of one reason why he’d be visiting me. “Look, about Luke…”

He raised his eyebrows.

“Uh, well, we saw him, alright,” I said, “but-”

“You weren’t able to make him see sense?”

I shook my head. “No, uh, we kinda tried to kill each other, actually.”

He nodded. “I see. You tried the diplomatic approach.”

“I’m so sorry. I mean, you gave us those gifts, they really helped a ton, and well,” I gestured at myself, “I think those multivitamins did a lot more for me than expected.”

He nodded. “They have been known to do that on rare occasions. I assume Chiron told you what all this means?”

I nodded. “But, uh, anyway. Luke.” I had to think a little to find the words. “I know you wanted him to come back, and everything, but… he’s turned bad. Really bad. He’s got Kronos is a sarcophagus, bringing him back piece by piece. And he said he feels like you abandoned him…” I trailed off.

I waited for Hermes to get mad at me. I figured he would turn me into some animal. If so, I would prefer not to be a rodent. I had spent enough time as one, thank you very much.

But instead, he just sighed. “Percy, do you ever feel like your dad abandoned you?”

“Oh, fuck,” I muttered.

I half expected Hermes to admonish me for my language, but he said nothing.

I thought about it. At first, I wanted to respond with, only a few thousand times a day. I hadn't even spoken to him since last summer. In fact, it had been nearly a year to the day since then. And then, with Tyson, there had been no warning. Just boom - you have a brother. You’d think he’d have given me a little heads up. An Iris Message, perhaps.

I realised that I did actually want recognition for the quest. Not necessarily from the campers, but from my dad? Absolutely. I wanted him to at least say something, a ‘good job.’

Hermes readjusted the strap of his bag sling over his shoulder. “Percy, the thing is, the hardest part about being a god is that you need to act indirectly most of the time. Especially in regards to your own children. If we intervened in every one of our children’s problems, that could only create more problems and more resentment. However, I think that if you really gave it some thought, you’d realise that Poseidon has answered your prayers. He was paying attention to you. I hope that someday, Luke might realise the same about me. You spoke to him, you reminded him who he was.”

“I tried to kill him,” I replied.

Hermes shrugged. “Families are messy; immortal families eternally so. Sometimes, the best we can do is to remind each other that we care. Also to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum.”

I figured that it didn’t sound like the recipe for a perfect family. Then again, as I thought about the quest, I realised all the ways my dad had helped me. He’d sent the hippocampi, and had granted me powers over the sea I’d never known before. And then Tyson… the big guy had saved my life so many times over the summer. Had Poseidon brought us together on purpose? Guided us together?

I heard, in the distance, the conch horn sounding, signalling curfew.

“You should get to bed,” Hermes said. “But, before I go, I need to make a delivery.”

“A delivery?”

“I am the messenger of the gods, Percy.” He pulled out an electronic signature pad. “Sign here, please.”

I picked up the stylus before I realized it was entwined with a pair of small snakes. I yelped and dropped the pad.

Ouch, said George.

Really, Percy, Martha scolded meWould you want to be dropped on the floor of a stable?

“Oh, sorry,” I said, bending down to pick the pad back up. As I held the stylus, George and Martha wriggled under my fingers, forming a sort of grip like my teacher had had me use back in second grade.

Did you bring me a rat? George asked.

“Uh, no,” I said. “We, uh, didn’t find any.”

What about a guinea pig?

George! Martha said. Don’t tease the poor girl.

I signed my name. “Uh, it’s alright. Being turned into a guinea pig might have been one of the best things to ever happen to me.”

Hermes laughed. “I think what came after is significantly better.”

I shrugged, handing the pad back. “I wouldn’t have taken any of the multivitamins if I hadn’t had to because of that. And, thank you, Hermes. Thank you so much for that.”

“You’re welcome, Percy,” He said as he took the pad back, stowing it in his bag. He then took out an envelope. A sea-blue envelope.

My fingers trembled as I took it. Even before I opened it, I could tell that it was from my father. I could sense his power in the paper, as if the envelope had been made out of a wave.

“Good luck tomorrow,” Hermes said. “That is a fine team of horses, though you’ll have to excuse me if I root for the Hermes cabin.”

Don’t be discouraged when you read it, Martha said. Lord Poseidon does have your best interests at heart.

“What do you mean?”

Don’t mind her, George said. And remember, for next time, snakes work for tips.

“Enough you two,” Hermes said, smirking. “Good-bye, Percy Jackson. At least for now.”

I averted my eyes as he began to glow, reverting to his true godly form. And then, with a bright flash, he was gone. I was alone with the horses once more.

I stared at the envelope. It was addressed in elegant handwriting I had seen once before, last summer, on a package my father had sent me.

Percy Jackson

℅ Camp Half-Blood

Farm Road 3.141

Long Island, New York 11954

An actual letter from my father. Maybe he would tell me ‘good job.’ Maybe he’d acknowledge the whole gender thing I had going on. Maybe he would explain about Tyson, or apologise for not talking to me sooner. There were so many different things I wanted to be on the letter.

I opened the envelope, pulling out and unfolding the paper inside.

There were only two short words printed on the paper, right in the middle of the page, in that same elegant handwriting:

Brace yourself

The next morning, everyone was super excited for the race, although plenty of them kept glancing nervously at the sky, as if expecting the return of the demon pigeons. Fortunately, the skies were clear. It was just another beautiful summer day. The sky was blue and largely clear of clouds, and the sun was bright and hot. The camp was back to looking as it should; the meadows were green and lush once more, the columns on the buildings gleamed in the sunlight, and dryads and other nymphs played happily in the woods.

But I still felt miserable. I had been awake almost the entire night thinking about my father’s warning.

Brace yourself.

What was that even meant to mean? Brace myself for what?

Maybe he didn’t know what it was, but just knew something big was about to happen. Something so strange and out of left field, he had wanted me to be prepared. It was difficult, but I forced my thoughts towards the race instead.

As Annabeth and I drove our chariot out to the track, I couldn’t help but admire Tyson’s workmanship on the chariot. It gleamed in the sunlight with new bronze reinforcements. The ride out to the track felt so smooth, and the horses turned with the slightest tug of the reins.

Tyson has also made two javelins, each with three buttons on the shaft. One button primed the javelin to explode on impact, releasing razor wires designed to shred through an opponent’s wheels. Another button caused the javelin to gain a blunt, but still painful, tip designed to knock a driver or fighter out of a carriage. The final button gave us a grappling hook that could be used to latch onto another chariot or to shove it away.

I figured we were plenty well prepared, but Tyson still told me to be careful. The other teams had plenty of tricks of their own to pull on us.

“Here,” he said, just before the start of the race. He handed me a wristwatch. There didn’t appear to be anything special about it, but as soon as I saw it, I knew; this was what he’d been working on all summer so far.

I usually wasn’t one to wear watches, but I couldn’t say no to Tyson.

“Thanks, Tyson,” I said, putting it on. It was surprisingly light, I hardly noticed I was wearing it.

“Didn’t finish in time for the trip,” he said. “Sorry sorry.”

“Hey, man, it’s ok,” I said.

“If you need protection in the race,” he said, “just hit the button.”

“Uh, ok,” I said. I wasn’t sure how using the stopwatch feature would help me, but I promised him I would remember. “And hey, Tyson…”

I wanted to apologize for how much of a jerk I’d acted like when he’d first been claimed, but I had trouble finding the words.

“I know,” Tyson said. “You’ll tell me that Poseidon did care for me after all.”

“Uh, well, Tyson-”

“He sent you to help me, just like I asked for.”

I blinked, my brain processing those words. “You asked Poseidon… for me?”

“For a friend,” Tyson corrected. “Young Cyclopes grow up alone on the streets, learn to make things out of scraps, learn to survive.”

“But that’s… so cruel!”

Tyson shook his head. “Makes us appreciate blessings, not be greedy and mean like Polyphemus. But I got scared, monsters chased me so much, clawed me sometimes-”

“The scars on your back?” I asked.

His eye teared up. “Sphinx on seventy-second street. I prayed to dad for help. Soon the Meriweather people found me. Then I met you. Best blessing ever. I’m sorry I said Poseidon was mean, he gave me a big sister.”

I stared at the watch that Tyson had made for me. Knowing all of that now, it felt even more special.

“Percy!” Annabeth called. “The race is starting.”

“Tyson…” I said. “I-”

“Go,” Tyson interrupted. “You will win!”

I nodded. “Yeah, ok. We’ll win it for you, big guy.” I gave him a quick hug then climbed on the chariot with Annabeth. I took the reins and we got in position just in time for Chiron to signal the start of the race.

We pulled ahead quickly, the horses knew what to do, and we rounded the first turn well ahead of Clarisse, who was bust fighting off the Stoll brothers.

I was quick to celebrate our early wins, but Annabeth shouted to look out, throwing our first javelin to knock away a net thrown by the Apollo team. Before Annabeth could prepare the second javelin, the fighter in the Apollo chariot threw a javelin, shattering several spokes in our wheel. Our chariot wobbled, and I was worried the wheel would collapse, but our chariot stabilized.

I urged our horses to keep going. We were neck and neck with Apollo, and Hephaestus was quickly gaining on us. Fortunately, Ares and Hermes had by now been left well behind.

“You’re mine!” The Apollo camper taunted.

“Yeah, right,” Annabeth shot back, before prepping the second javelin, a huge risk this early in the race, with an entire second lap to go, and throwing it right at the driver.

Her aim, luckily, was as good as ever, and with an OOF, the driver toppled out of the chariot, smacking into his teammate and sending them both to the ground. As soon as the reins went slack, the Apollo horses went nuts, veering off the track and into the stands. Several campers screamed as they scattered out of the way.

We took the second turn of the race, our damaged wheel groaning, and we drove right past the starting line, into the final lap.

The damaged wheel was starting to slow us down, and Hephaestus was still gaining.

Beckendorf pressed a button, and steel cables shot out of the front of his mechanical horses, attaching to our chariot. He pressed another button, and the cables started to retract, pulling our chariot closer together.

“Shit,” Annabeth said, trying to cut the cables, but they were too thick.

The Hephaestus horses were getting uncomfortably close to us.

“Switch with me!” I shouted.

“What?”

“Just trust me!”

She pulled herself up to me and grabbed the reins. I handed them off to her, before I turned around, pulling out Riptide. I uncapped the pen, and my sword grew to full size in my hand. I swiped at the cables, and they snapped. We lurched forwards, no longer weighed down by the Hephaestus chariot, but Beckendorf’s driver pulled up alongside us. Beckendorf drew his sword and slashed at Annabeth, but I parried.

We were coming up on the last turn, but we wouldn’t make it with Beckendorf harassing us like this.

“See ya later, Percy!” Beckendorf shouted over the sound of hooves. “Here’s a little parting gift!”

He tossed a small leather pouch into our chariot, where it quickly stuck to the floor and started billowing green smoke.

“Greek fire!” Annabeth yelled.

“Oh shit,” I said.

“Get rid of it!”

Problem was, I couldn’t if I tried to shove it off with my sword, Beckendorf would be able to slash at Annabeth. The Hephaestus chariot was still next to us, waiting for their gift to blow up in our faces. I tried kicking at it, but that didn’t work.

Then I remembered Tyson’s gift. I wasn’t sure how it was going to help, but I hit the button anyway. Immediately, the watch started to transform. It expanded, the metal rim spiralling outwards, a leather strapped wrapped around my arm until I was holding a large round bronze shield, around 4 feet wide. The outside was decorated with small designs I didn’t have time to examine.

I raised the shield, and Beckendorf’s sword shattered against it.

“What the-” he shouted.

But he didn’t have time to continue as I smacked him with my new shield, sending him tumbling out of his chariot. I was about to slash at the driver too, but Annabeth yelled, “Percy, the bomb!”

It was starting to shoot off small green sparks. I shoved the tip of my sword under it, and flicked it. Is dislodged easily, flying right into the Hephaestus chariot.

The driver took the smart option and dove out of his chariot before it blew up. Fortunately, it careened away from us before it exploded. The horses short-circuited and glitched, dragging the flaming remains of the chariot backwards along the track,  nearly crashing into Clarisse and the Stolls, who had to swerve, giving us just enough time to round the final corner and speed right across the finish line, winning the race.

The crowd roared, our friends ran over to us, the entire Athena cabin among them. They chanted our names.

“Listen!” Annabeth shouted, but they drowned her out. She shouted louder. “Listen! Hold up!”

The crowd quieted down. “We couldn’t have done it without someone else. We couldn’t have won the race, or retrieved the fleece or saved Grover! We owe our lives to Tyson, Percy’s…”

“My brother!” I shouted. “Tyson, my little brother!”

Tyson blushed in response. The crowd roared and swarmed him as well, dragging him with me and annabeth over to the winner’s circle, where Chiron was waiting to award the laurels.

Annabeth planted a kiss on my cheek, and I definitely did not blush at all.

The rest of that day was one of the best afternoons I’d ever spent at camp, which really goes to show you can never really know when things are about to go sideways really fast.

Grover announced that he’d be able to spend the rest of the summer with us at camp, since the Council of Cloven Elders was so impressed Grover hadn’t died, and had managed to clear the way for future searches that they had granted him two months before he needed to resume his quest. And they had also given him a new set of reed pipes, which Grover then insisted on playing all afternoon. Specifically, he played “YMCA,” which apparently drove the strawberry plants nuts.

Grover told me he could dissolve our empathy link now that we were back face to face.

“Nah, keep it. If you get in trouble again, I want to know. And if I need you, I want to be able to contact you easily.”

He agreed not to break it, then went back to playing YMCA for the plants.

Later, Chiron pulled me aside to tell me he’d fixed my problems with Meriweather, which I hadn’t even thought about, and had also pulled some strings with the government for me. Apparently, according to the government, I was a girl, and had always been one.

“How’d you manage all that?” I asked.

His eyes twinkled. “On the subject of the gymnasium, I merely suggested that the mortals had seen something different that day. A gas leak, specifically. As for what the government sees your gender as, that was a much simpler matter. Of course, should you decide to change your name, I can handle that for you as well.”

I nodded and thanked him, promising to let him know if I decided on a name. Although, I was quite happy with Percy.

“So, I can go back next year?”

Chiron chuckled. “Oh, no, they’ve still expelled you. Your Headmaster, Mr. Bonsai, said you had a - how did he put it? - an un-groovy karma that disrupted the school’s educational aura. But you aren’t in any legal trouble. Oh, and speaking of your mother…” He unclipped a cell phone from his quiver and handed it to me. “It’s about time you called her.”

My mom did try to act angry. She’s just bad at it. She managed to yell at me about running off and doing a quest for all of 5 seconds before catching her breath and saying, “oh, I’m so glad you’re safe, Percy!”

“I’m so sorry, mom,” I responded. “I won’t scare you like that again.”

“Don’t promise that, Percy. You know it will get worse.” She tried to sound casual, but I could tell she was shaken up. “Anyway, what’s this I heard about you apparently being a girl?”

I winced. “Well, you see, there was this sorceress, and she turned me into a guinea pig…” I told her the story.

“So you prefer this?”

I nodded, before I remembered she couldn’t see me. “Yeah, I like it like this.”

“Well, in that case, and since Chiron has already squared away everything on the government side of things, then that’s that. You’re my daughter.”

I smiled. “Really?”

“Of course, honey. It’s your life, you do what you want with it, I will always support you!”

“So uh, mom,” I said. “So Chiron mentioned he could also deal with my name too if I wanted to change that.”

“I know. Do you want to change your name?”

“Yes,” I said. “And also no. I like Percy, it’s just that Perseus…”

“I understand,” my mom said. “So like… a girl’s name that shortens to Percy, maybe?”

“That would be great, yeah.”

“How about… Persephone? That’s still based in Greek Mythology, and can be shortened to Percy.”

I smiled again. “That sounds perfect, mom.”

Persephone. I liked that.

“So, uh, what about school?”

A pause. “We’ll think of something, honey,” she said. “Somewhere they don’t know us yet.”

“That might be a little easier now.”

My mom laughed. “That’s probably true.”

“I love you, mom.”

“I love you too, Persephone.”

I smiled, blushing, as I hung up.

Chiron trotted over, and I handed the phone back.

“Alright, Percy?”

I nodded. “Yeah.” I turned to leave, then stopped. “Oh, uh. About the name thing, we decided on something.”

“Oh?”

I smiled. “Persephone. That’s my name now.”

Chiron nodded. “It works. Am I to assume you would still like to be called Percy?”

I nodded.

“Well in that case, I shall take care of the paperwork. Have a nice evening, Percy.”

I waved as I walked towards the beach to meet up with Tyson, Grover, and Annabeth.

Once there, Tyson waved me over. It turned out, he had a surprise announcement for us.

“Dream came from daddy last night. He wants me to visit.”

I wondered if he was kidding, but Tyson didn’t really kid. “Poseidon sent you a dream message?”

Tyson nodded. “Wants me to go learn to work at Cyclopes’ forges. He called it an inter… an intern…”

“An internship?” Annabeth asked.

“Yes.”

I had to let that sink in. I admit, I was a little bit jealous of him. Poseidon had sent him a dream message, but had only sent me two words in a letter. He had also certainly never invited me to visit him. But then, I thought, Tyson was leaving? Just like that?

“When do you leave, Tyson?” I asked.

“Now.”

“Now? Like… now now?”

“Now.”

Oh.

I stared out at the water, which was starting to shine red in the light of the sunset.

“I’m happy for you, big guy,” I said. “Really happy.”

“Hard to leave my big sister,” he said, his voice trembling. “But I want to make things; weapons for the camp, you will need them.”

Of course he was right. Not all of the Camp’s problems were solved yet. Just because our barriers were once again strong, didn’t mean Luke and his minions weren’t any less of a threat.

“You’ll make the best weapons ever, bro.” I indicated my watch. “I bet they’d tell good time too!”

Tyson sniffled. “Brothers and sisters help each other.”

“You’re my brother, no doubt,” I said.

He pulled me into a hug that nearly cracked a rib. When he let go he said, “use the shield well.”

I nodded, “I will, Tyson.”

“Save your life someday.” The way he said it, as if it were plainly obvious, made me wonder if he could see into the future a little. Or maybe he had just connected the dots and determined that with how much danger I got into on the regular, that was basically a guarantee.

He turned and headed towards the surf. He whistled, and Rainbow the hippocampus emerged from the waves. I watched as the two rode off, away from shore, sinking beneath the surface.

Once I could no longer see them, I looked at my new watch. I pressed the button to summon the shield again.

Hammered into the bronze were several pictures, in an ancient Greek style, depicting scenes from the summer. Annabeth, stabbing a Laistrygonian in the back, me fighting the bronze bulls on Half-Blood Hill, Tyson riding on Rainbow towards the Princess Andromeda, Clarisse ordering the CSS Birmingham to fire on Charybdis, and a picture of Tyson battling the hydra as he held a box of Monster Donuts.

I blinked away tears. I knew Tyson would have a great time under the ocean, learning to craft even better weapons. But, I would miss him. I’d miss everything about him, from the way he could crush metal with his bare hands, yet could easily work on delicate contraptions such as my shield, to the way he’d snore like an earthquake at night.

“Hey, Percy.”

I turned. Grover was trying to get my attention.

“He’ll be alright,” Annabeth said.

“I know,” I replied. “I’m just going to miss him a lot.”

Annabeth nodded, and held out her hand. “Come on, Seaweed Brain. It’s time for dinner.”

I took her hand, but Annabeth surprised me by pulling me into a hug.

“Did I ever tell you that I am so glad you aren’t a guinea pig?”

I blushed. “So am I.”

There was a storm that night, but it parted around the valley as usual, our magical barriers holding strong as they should.

My dreams were restless regardless. I could hear the voice of Kronos, taunting me. Polyphemus sits blindly in his cave, young hero, believing he has won a great victory over his oldest foe. Are you any less deluded?

The dream changed as his laughter sounded. I was now following Tyson as he made his may into Poseidon’s underwater palace. It was radiant, the floor made of pearls. And there, on a throne formed from coral, was my father. I looked at his face, into his eyes. He looked back to me, and said two words: Brace yourself.

I woke up to the sound of banging on my door. Grover flew inside. “Percy! Annabeth… on the hill… she…”

My blood ran cold. Annabeth had been on guard duty for the Fleece the night before. If something had happened to her…

I tore off the sheets, jumping out of bed, suddenly wide awake. Grover averted his eyes as I pulled on some clothes. He kept stammering, trying to explain, but what came out made little sense. “She’s just lying there…”

I sprinted out the door, Grover following. I raced across the yard, towards the hill. The sun was barely up, but the whole Camp was already beginning to wake up. Word was spreading fast that something had happened last night. Something big.

Chiron trotted up to us, looking grim. “Is it true?” he asked Grover.

Grover gulped and nodded.

I was about to ask what was going on, but Chiron grabbed my arm and effortlessly lifted me onto his back. Together, we raced to the top of the hill.

I was expecting the Fleece to be gone, but it was still there, glittering ever so slightly in the morning sun.

“Curse the Titan lord,” Chiron said. “He’s tricked us once again; he’s given himself another chance to control the prophecy.”

“What?” I said, my head spinning. “What do you mean?”

“The Fleece,” he said, starting to move forwards, the crowd parting for us. “The Fleece worked its magic too well.”

I had no idea what he meant by that.

When we reached the tree, what I saw made my heart skip a beat. A girl was lying at the base of the tree, unconscious, another girl kneeling next to her in armor.

Had Annabeth been attacked? But why was the Fleece still hanging on the tree? It didn’t make sense.

But then I realised that obviously the unconscious girl wasn’t Annabeth; her hair was black, not blonde, for one thing. The girl in armor was Annabeth.

Had another Half-Blood arrived at Camp during the night, passing out on the top of Half-Blood Hill? But why would the entire Camp be coming to see her, it wasn’t like that was out of the ordinary?

Annabeth looked up and saw us, and she ran over to Chiron as I climbed off his back.

“It… she… just suddenly there…”

There were tears streaming down her cheeks, but I was still confused. I ran over to the unconscious girl.

“Percy, wait!” Chiron called, but I ignored him.

I knelt next to the girl. She had short black hair and freckles over her nose. She was built like a runner, lithe and strong, and she wore clothes one with call somewhere between punk and Goth - a black t-shirt under a leather jacket, and a pair of ripped black jeans.

I didn’t recognize her from any of the cabins. Definitely a new camper. And yet, she felt somewhat familiar to me…

“It’s true!” Grover said, panting as he ran up the hill. “I can’t believe it’s…”

Nobody else was coming close to the girl.

I put my hand against her forehead. Her skin was cold, but my fingers tingled as if burning.

“She needs nectar and ambrosia!” I called. She was clearly a Half-Blood, I could tell just from that touch. But I couldn’t understand why everyone else was so nervous.

I grabbed the girl by the shoulders, lifting her to a sitting position.

“Come on! What’s wrong with you people? We need to get her to the Big House right now,” I said.

But no one moved, not even Chiron. They were all too stunned.

Then the girl took a breath, coughing and opening her eyes.

Her eyes were a startling blue color. Electric blue.

She stared at me, bewildered. “Who are-”

“I’m Percy Jackson,” I said. “You’re safe now, don’t worry.”

“I had the strangest dream…”

“It’s ok.”

“Dying?”

I shook my head. “No, you’re gonna be fine. What’s your name?”

Even before I finished asking, I knew. She didn’t even have to say it. She stared back into my eyes, and I finally understood exactly what this quest had been all about. The poisoning of the tree had been very intentional and calculated. Kronos had ordered it to bring another piece into play, another chance to control the prophecy.

Even Chiron, Grover, and Annabeth, who would otherwise have been celebrating, were instead simply shocked, their minds realizing the ramifications of what had happened. And here I was, holding someone who could either be a great friend, or a terrible enemy.

“I am Thalia,” she said. “Daughter of Zeus.”

Chapter 6: We Visit a Supervillain's Castle

The final night before Winter break started, my mom was driving me to a new boarding school. Not to attend, mind you.

I had received a distress call from Grover. He hadn’t told me exactly what was going on, but it seemed serious.

Along for the ride were Annabeth and Thalia. I was glad to have them along. Hopefully, between the three of us and Grover, we could handle any threat that came our way. Hopefully.

Luck could really screw with us sometimes.

Anyway, here we were, driving out to Maine, of all places, and the three of us didn’t particularly feel like talking. Annabeth was nervously patting her Yankees invisibility cap on her thigh, Thalia was absent-mindedly playing with the chains on her wrist, which were actually the disguised form of her shield, Aegis. As for me, I was fidgeting. We all knew a fight was coming.

My mom, on the other hand, tended to talk more when she was nervous. As a result, she regaled my friends with story after story of me as a toddler. Pretty embarrassing, right?

“She was so insistent that the horses were talking to her, and the teacher just kept explaining that horses can’t talk, but of course, as we all know, horses can talk to her, so she absolutely knew she was correct and wouldn’t back down.”

Ok, that story wasn’t nearly as embarrassing as any of the others.

Just as she was recounting for the fifth time just how adorable I was in the bathtub, we pulled up in front of the school – Westover Hall.

Thalia rubbed some fog off the window. “Looks… welcoming.”

Annabeth laughed nervously. “Thanks, Ms. Jackson.”

Thalia turned to face my mom. “Yeah, thanks so much Ms. Jackson.”

“It was no problem, dears. Also, you should definitely call me Sally, alright?”

Thalia nodded. “Of course, Sally.”

I reached across Thalia and opened the door. “Thanks mom. Come on, Annabeth, Thalia.” I practically pushed Thalia out the door.

Call it rude to be so desperate to get away from my mom, but, like I said, her stories of me as a toddler were very embarrassing.

We all climbed out of the car, walking around to the trunk to grab our overnight bags.

My mom rolled down the window as we started to make our way towards the school’s front door. “You girls be careful, ok? Don’t let those monsters hurt you.”

I nodded and smiled. “We’ll be alright, mom. We’re practically professionals by now.”

Thalia snorted. “Don’t worry, Sally. I’ll keep your daughter safe.”

I scowled at the older girl’s back. “I can keep myself safe quite well, thank you.”

“We’ll keep her safe,” Annabeth said.

My mom relaxed a little, but she was still tense. “You’ve got everything? You have my cell phone number?”

Annabeth nodded. “I have it, don’t worry.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to wait for you?”

I shook my head. “We’ll be fine. We’ll find a way to camp after, I’ll send you an Iris Message then.”

My mom pursed her lips. “Alright, sweetie. Please take care of yourselves.”

“We will.” I said.

Once she had driven away, Thalia said, “your mom is pretty cool, Percy.”

I shrugged. “She’s alright, I guess.”

“We gotta get inside,” Annabeth said. “Grover’s waiting for us.”

The school looked like a giant evil castle, with a whole bunch of towers and whatnot. It didn’t make me feel any better.

We pushed open the heavy oak doors, and stepped inside.

The inside was massive. The walls were covered with battle flags and weapon displays. I mean, Westover was a military school, but seriously? This was well and truly over the top.

Annabeth muttered, “where’s Gover?”

I shrugged.

The doors slammed shut behind us.

“Ooookay then,” I said. “Guess we’re here to stay, huh?”

I could hear music from the end of the hall - dance music, which seemed a bit out of place here.

We stashed our bags behind one of the pillars, and started walking down the hall. We made it a few feet before footsteps echoed in front of us, and a man and woman emerged from the gloom.

They both had short grey hair and were wearing military type uniforms. Seems about right. They walked stiffly, which I supposed also made sense considering how over the top the decor was.

“Well?” the woman demanded.” What are you doing here?”

“Uh…” I was stumped. I had been so focused on getting to Grover, I hadn’t figured that someone might find it odd that 3 kids were trying to sneak into a school. “Ma’am, we are, uh…”

“Ha!” the man shouted suddenly, startling me. “Visitors are not allowed at the dance! You shall be ejected!”

He was speaking in an accent - French, I think. The way he pronounced ejected, he said the J like I figured a French person might. The stranger thing were his eyes, which were two different colours. I think there’s a term for that. Heterchromium or something like that.

I figured he was about to throw us back outside into the snow, but Thalia stepped forward and snapped her fingers.

Oh. Duh.

The Mist. We could just use that to trick them. I had forgotten about that.

Chiron had tried to teach both of us one weekend when we had been visiting Camp Half-Blood, but I was lousy at it.

Fortunately, Thalia was a pro. “Oh, we aren’t visitors, sir. We go to school here, remember? I’m Thalia, this is Percy and Annabeth. We’re in eighth grade.”

The man narrowed his eyes, but hesitated. “Ms. Gottschalk, do you know these students?”

I had to bite back a laugh. A teacher named ‘Got Chalk?’ Seriously?

The woman blinked, as if waking up from a trance. “I… yes. I believe so.” She frowned at us. “Thalia, Percy, Annabeth. What are you doing outside the gymnasium? You’re supposed to be-”

But she was interrupted by, of all people, Grover. Just the goat we were here to see. “You made it! You-” he stopped short when he noticed the two teachers. “Oh, uh. Ms. Gottschalk, Dr. Thorn. I, um…”

“What is it, Mr. Underwood?” said the man - Dr. Thorn. “What do you mean ‘they made it?’ These students live here.”

Grover swallowed nervously. He glanced at us, then looked back to the teachers. “I, uh, just meant, that I’m so glad they made… uh… the punch for the dance! Really good punch. And they made it.” He glanced back at us.

Dr. Thorn glared at us. He looked almost murderous, but Ms. Gottschalk, her voice sounding as if she were half-asleep, “yes, the punch is really excellent. Now run along to the gym, you four. You are not to leave it again!”

We scrambled to follow her directions, leaving with a bunch of “yes ma’ams” and “yes sirs” and a couple of salutes since that felt like the right thing to do right then.

Grover hurried us down the hall towards the music - to a set of doors labelled “GYM” written in big bold letters.

“That was close!” Grover said. “Thank the gods you made it.”

“Is the punch really that good?” I joked.

Thalia snorted, but Grover continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “I found two.”

I blinked. “Two what? Half-Bloods?”

He nodded.

“Here?” Thalia asked. “As in, at the dance?”

Grover nodded again.

Wow. Finding one Half-Blood was rare. Two even rarer. Over the past few years, Kronos had either been recruiting most of them or otherwise having them killed.

“A brother and a sister,” Grover said. “Ten and twelve years old. I don’t know who their parent is, but they’re powerful, I can tell that much. We’re running out of time, though. I needed help.

“Any monsters?” Annabeth asked.”

“Just one,” Grover said. “You just met him, actually. Dr. Thorn.”

Oh. Well he definitely wasn’t fooled by the Mist. He had just been playing along. But why?

“He definitely suspects, but I don’t think he’s sure yet. But this is the last night of term. He won’t let them leave without being sure. This is our last chance. Every time I get close to them, he’s always there, preventing me from doing anything. I just don’t know what to do, so I called you.”

“So they’re at the dance, you said?”

Grover nodded.

“Then let’s dance. And keep an eye out for Dr. Thorn.”

The thing with military schools: the kids go absolutely berserk when there is ever any sort of event and they get to be out of uniform. I guess it’s because the rest of the time everything is so strict, they feel like they need to overcompensate for lost time or something.

There were black and red balloons all over the floor, and a bunch of guys were kicking them at each other, or trying to strangle each other with the paper streamers taped to the walls. A bunch of girls wandered around the gym, huddled together, wearing way more makeup than I figured would be even close to comfortable. Every so often, they’d surround some guy, descending on him to the sound of shrieks and giggles, and when they moved on his face was plastered with makeup. Real classy, I know. Some of the older students seemed more uncomfortable - hanging out on the edge of the gym, trying to avoid being noticed by anyone else. I understood the feeling.

“They’re over there,” Grover said, nodding towards the edge of the bleachers, where a couple of younger kids were arguing. “Bianca and Nico di Angelo.”

The girl was wearing a big floppy green cap, as if trying to hide her face (mood). The boy was obviously her younger brother. They both had dark hair and olive skin. The boy was shuffling some sort of trading cards. His sister seemed to be scolding him. She kept glancing around nervously, as if she knew something was wrong.”

“Do they know?” Annabeth asked. “I mean, have you told them yet?”

Grover shook his head. “Haven’t had a chance to talk with them, and you know how it is. Once they know, then their scents become stronger. It’s safer if they don’t know yet.”

“Ok, so we grab them and get out,” I said.

I started walking towards them, but Thalia held me back. Dr. Thorn had walked through a doorway near the bleachers, and was now standing between us and the di Angleos. Shit. He nodded in our direction.

“Looks like he wasn’t fooled,” I said.

“No shit, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth said. “He wants to know why we’re here.”

“Don’t look at the kids,” Thalia said. “We need to wait.Try to distract him in the meantime.”

“How?” I asked.

“We’re three really powerful Half-Bloods. Two of us are children of the big three. Our scents might be able to confuse him. Just mingle and act natural. Dance a little. But definitely keep an eye on those kids.”

“Dancing?” Annabeth asked.

Thalia nodded. She paused to listen to the music. “Oh fuck me. Who picked Jesse Mcartney?”

Grover looked hurt. “I did!”

“Oh my gods Grover. That is so fucking lame. Couldn’t you play like, Green Day or something?”

“Green what?”

“Oh whatever. Let’s dance.”

“But I can’t dance!” Grover exclaimed.

“You can if I’m leading, Goat Boy. Come on.” Thalia grabbed him and dragged him off to dance.

Annabeth smiled.

“What?” I asked.

Annabeth shrugged. “Just cool to have Thalia back, is all.”

I snorted. “So you say every few days or so.”

Ever since I had transformed back in June, Annabeth had grown taller than me, which was totally not messing with my brain in any way. She used to wear no jewellery except for her camp necklace, but now she wore a pair of small silver earrings shaped like owls. She had been gifted them by her dad earlier in the school year. She pulled off her ski cap, and her long blonde hair fell down onto her shoulders. I was definitely not mesmerised by her hair.

“So…” I was having trouble finding something to say. ‘Act natural.’ What the heck is natural? “Um, uh… what do we talk about?”

Annabeth laughed. “Anything. We could catch up with each other.”

“The last time we saw each other was yesterday,” I deadpanned. We had been attending the same boarding school last semester, and I for once was not the main one to be getting in trouble. That would be Thalia.

“Ok, so how was your day today?”

“We spent most of it together in the same car. The spending time with friends part was nice. The being cramped up in a car for several hours part was not fun.”

Annabeth laughed. “Agreed.”

I smiled. “Oh, uh. Anything new about that project of yours? The one you wanted to build at Ground Zero?”

Annabeth’s eyes lit up like they always did when she talked about architecture. She began to explain all the new updates from the past week or so since I last asked her about it. It wasn’t like I understood everything she was saying - a lot of it went over my head - but it was nice to hear her so excited about something.

“Cool cool. So you’re gonna finish it up next term then?”

Her face darkened. “Well, maybe. If I don’t move to California.”

I was confused. “California?”

She nodded. “About a week ago, my dad called me.”

“Is this what made you so upset?”

She sighed and nodded. “Yeah. He decided to move, basically right as I was getting settled in New York, he had to accept a new job, over in San Francisco.” She said the city’s name like one might say ‘Fields of Punishment’ or ‘Hades’ gym shorts.’

“So, he wants you to move there with him?”

She nodded. “Other side of the country,” she said miserably. “And Half-Bloods can’t live there, he should know that.”

“Why not?”

She rolled her eyes. “You know why.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t.”

“It’s right there. That stupid mountain.

“Oh.” I had no idea what mountain she meant.

“So… what. Will you go back to camp or will you stay?” Please stay.

“It’s a bit more serious than that, Percy. I… there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you-”

“Hey!” Thalia called out to us. She was still dancing with Grover, who was indeed as bad a dancer as he had claimed. I winced in sympathy. “Dance you guys! You’re looking stupid just standing there!”

I glanced at Annabeth.

“Well?” Annabeth said.

“Um, with who?”

She rolled her eyes. “Me, Seaweed Brain!”

Wait, what?

“Huh?”

“You dance with me.”

My brain grinded to a halt. “With… you? But aren’t we both girls?”

Annabeth scowled. “So?”

I stuttered, “isn’t that, uh, a little weird?”

“What on Earth could possibly make you think that?”

I opened my mouth to respond.

“You know what, forget it,” she said, before turning and stalking off in the direction of Thalia and Grover.

“Annabeth!” I called, but she didn’t respond.

I huffed, and turned to make towards the edge of the gym. “What the fuck is up with her?” I muttered under my breath.

“Not your thing either?” I heard as I leaned against the wall. I looked in the direction the voice came from. Leaning on the wall, turned to face me, was another girl. She was probably around my age, maybe an inch taller (seriously, what was it with every girl I meet being taller than me - it really messes with a girl’s brain). She was still wearing what I assumed were the uniform pants and shirt, but it was unbuttoned, revealing a slightly ripped rock band t-shirt. The features that stood out most to me were her hair, which was cut choppy and uneven (it seemed deliberate to me), and her eyes, which appeared to shift in colour constantly, almost kaleidoscopic. I found myself mesmerised by those eyes.

“Hello?” she said.

I blinked. “Oh. sorry.”

“It’s ok.”

“What did you say?” I asked.

She gestured to the group of girls in heavy makeup near the middle of the gym. “Not your thing either?”

I shook my head. “Oh. Nah. I mean I don’t dislike it, I just don’t care much for it.”

“Same.”

We stood in silence. I spotted Annabeth, who was now dancing with Thalia (and anyone who gave them a funny look immediately backed off from Thalia’s death glare). I sighed. Really should have taken up Annabeth’s offer to dance.

“My name’s Piper, by the way. What’s yours?”

I turned back to the other girl. “Percy.”

“That short for something?”

I shrugged. I don’t normally tell people my full first name. But that was back when it was still ‘Perseus.’ Now though…

“Persephone.”

“Pretty name. Greek goddess.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m named after her.”

“Cool.”

“You like Greek mythology then?”

She nodded, looking actually excited. “Quite a bit, actually. A couple years ago, my dad and I did a lot of research on them. I really enjoyed it. You?”

“I guess I could say they’re kinda my life.”

“That into them, huh?”

“You could say that.”

We stood in silence for a bit longer. I searched for Annabeth again, and spotted her walking towards us, a worried look on her face.

“They’re gone.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, she interrupted.

“Who’s this?”

“I glanced at Piper. “Oh. Annabeth, meet Piper. We just met. Piper, this is my friend, Annabeth.” Annabeth eyed the girl wearily. “Ok. Well, Thalia is looking for Grover. The di Angelos are gone.”

I stood up straight to try and look at where they had been, but couldn’t see the spot past all the people. Being short really sucks.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Just trust me on this. Come on.”

She turned to walk back the way she came, but then Piper spoke up. “Can I come?”

We both turned to her.

“What? You’re looking for those two di Angelo kids, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, them.”

“Well I can help.”

Annabeth and I looked at each other.

Annabeth started to say, “I don’t think that-”

“Let me help,” Piper interrupted.

For whatever reason, I felt compelled to agree. Something about the way she said it; I was convinced that she was right. She could help.

Annabeth agreed. “Alright. Come on, you two.”

She turned and started walking away. Piper and I scrambled to keep up, but she was quickly lost in the crowd.

“Oh, for Zeus’ sake,” I muttered.

“Zeus?”

I turned back to Piper. “I uh…” I noticed something behind her. The two di Angelo kids were being ushered out of the gymnasium door by Dr. Thorn. My blood ran cold.

“Come on.”

“What?”

“I found them, come on.” I grabbed Piper’s hand and started pulling her towards the door.

“Wait, shouldn’t we find Annabeth?”

“We don’t have time. Come on.” I pulled Riptide out of my pocket.

“What’s the pen for?”

I didn’t answer her.

The door led out to a dark hallway. I heard some sounds up ahead, followed by a pained grunt. I uncapped Riptide.

“What the hell?” Piper whispered.

I turned back to her. “Oh, uh…”

“You have a sword. A sword that’s also a pen. A pen-sword. How…?”

“You can see it?”

“Yeah, of course I can see it.” She glared at me.

Right. Ok. Definitely wasn’t expecting that. It did make part of me question whyI’d brought her along, but…”

“Well, let’s go. We gotta help them.”

Immediately, that small part of me shut up, and I turned to go towards where the noises had come from.

When we got to the other end of the corridor, no one was there. I pushed open a door, and found myself in the entry hall once again. Piper followed me. I couldn’t see Dr. Thorn anywhere, but on the other side of the room were the di Angelo kids. They were frozen in horror, staring directly at us.

I walked towards them slowly, lowering Riptide. “It’s alright. We won’t hurt you.”

They didn’t answer me, their eyes full of fear. What was wrong? Where was Dr. Thorn? Maybe he’d sensed my sword and fled. Monsters hated celestial bronze weapons.

“My name is Percy,” I said, trying to keep an even voice. “This is Piper. We’re here to help. Try to get you two to safety.”

Bianca’s eyes widened. Her fists clenched.

“Percy!” Piper exclaimed.

I whirled around and something went WHIIISH! Pain erupted in my left shoulder. A force yanked me backwards and slammed me into the wall. I slashed with my sword, but there was nothing to hit but Piper, who just managed to leap out of the way.

A cold laugh echoed through the hall. “Yes, Perseus Jackon,” Dr. Thorn said. His accent mangled the J in my last name. “I know who you are.”

“Well you need to update your sources, because that is not my name anymore.” I tried to free my shoulder. My coat and shirt were pinned with some sort of spike - a long black projectile. It had grazed my skin as it passed through my clothes, and the cut burned. I’d felt this before. It was poison.

I forced myself to concentrate. I felt faint, but I was determined not to pass out.

A dark silhouette moved towards us. Dr. Thorn stepped out into the low light. He still looked human, but his face was ghoulish. He had perfect white teeth and his eyes reflected the light of my sword.

“Is that so?” He laughed again. “Care to enlighten me, Mr. Jackson?”

“It’s Persephone now. And it’s Ms. for your information.”

He laughed once again. “Well then, Ms. Persephone Jackson. Thank you for coming out of the gym. I hate middle school dances.”

Just then, Piper shouted and tried to tackle Dr. Thorn, but a seemingly invisible force smacked her out of the air, and she landed at my feet. She seemed more dazed than hurt. I was actually kinda impressed at her resilience. It was demigod levels.

“All four of you will come with me,” Dr. Thorn said. “Quietly, obediently. If you make a single noise, if any of you call out for help or try to fight, I will show you just how accurately I can throw.”

Chapter 7: We Meet the Pre-Teen Goddess

Dr. Thorn was fast. Sure, maybe I could use my shield to defend against those spikes, but I wasn’t too confident about also being able to protect three other people. Plus, odds are I would just manage to dislocate my shoulder.

We needed backup. I closed my eyes.

Grover and I had been practising communicating using our empathy link. I had gotten better, but still needed to really focus.

“Keep moving, Jackson. What are you doing?” Thorn hissed at me.

I opened my eyes. “It’s just my shoulder. It burns.”

Thorn scowled. “My poison is supposed to cause pain. It will not kill you. Now, walk!”

I continued to  shuffle forward, following Thorn. I tried to concentrate again, picturing Grover’s face.

Grover! Thorn’s kidnapping us! He’s a spike throwing maniac. He’s taking us outside! Please help now!

Thorn marched us into the woods. We took a snow-covered path dimly lit by some old-fashioned looking lamps.

My shoulder ached. The wind was cold enough that I was worried I might get hypothermia.

“There is a clearing ahead,” Thorn said. “There we will summon your ride.”

“What ride?” Bianca demanded. “Where are you taking us?”

Thorn growled. “Silence, you insufferable girl!”

“Hey! Don’t talk to my sister that way!” Nico said. His voice quivered, but I was impressed he had the guts to say anything.

I looked towards Piper. She gave me a determined look. I tried to give her a reassuring one in return. I’m not sure it showed through my grimace of pain.

Percy?

Grover!

Where are you?

Thorn took us into the woods. He’s taking us to a clearing.

We emerged out into the aforementioned clearing. We were at a cliff overlooking the sea.

Ok well, I couldn’t see the sea, but I could sense it, at least.

By the cliffs. I can sense the sea.

I think we can find you. Just hang on!

Thorn pushed us towards the cliff. I stumbled, and Piper caught me.

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“How do we fight him?” Bianca asked.

“I’m working on it.”

“I’m scared,” Nico said. He was fiddling with something resembling a small toy soldier.

“I don’t blame you,” Piper said.

“Stop talking!” Thorn barked at us. “Face me.”

We turned towards him.

His eyes glittered in the moonlight. He reached into his pocket and pulled out something. Switchblade. No, not a switchblade, a mobile phone. He pressed the side button and said into it, “The package is ready to be delivered.”

There was a reply I couldn’t make out. This was just weird - a monster using modern technology.

I glanced behind me, wondering how far the fall would be.

“By all means, Son - sorry - Daughter of Poseidon. Jump! There is the sea, you can save yourself.

“What did he call you?” Bianca asked.

“I’ll explain later.”

Bianca looked confused. “Son, but you’re a girl?”

“He’s being rude.”

“You have a plan, right?” Piper asked, glancing over the cliff nervously, as if scared Thorn was about to throw us over the edge.

“The plan’s on its way,” I muttered, hoping Thorn didn’t hear me.

Maybe I could manage to protect the other 3 if they jumped with me. Maybe. I’ve done much stranger things with water in the past (don’t ever mention the bathroom incident in front of Clarisse).

“I would kill you before you even reached the water,” Thorn said, as if reading my mind. “You do not realise what, exactly, I am.”

There was a flicker of movement behind him, and another spike flew past me, barely missing my head. Something had appeared behind the monster, like a catapult, but more flexible. Like a tail.

“Unfortunately, you are wanted alive.” Thorn looked a bit disappointed. “Otherwise you would already be dead.”

“Who wants us?” Bianca demanded. “Because if you’re expecting some sort of ransom, you’re wrong. We don’t have any family. Nico and I-” Her voice broke. “It’s just the two of us. We only have each other.”

“Aww, how sweet,” Thorn said. “Do not worry, little brats. You will soon be meeting my employer. And then, you will have a new family.”

“Luke,” I said. “Your employer. You work for Luke.”

Thorn’s face morphed into a look of utter distaste at the sound of that name. “You have no idea what is coming, Perseus Jackson.”

I growled. “My name is Persephone.”

Thorn waved his hand dismissively. “It hardly matters. Soon, the general will enlighten you. You will do him a great service tonight. He is looking forward to meeting you?”

Somehow I felt like I did not want to meet this general.

Thorn looked out towards the horizon. “Ah, here we are. Your transportation.”

I turned and saw a light in the distance. A searchlight. Then I heard the sounds of a helicopter. What the hell?

This was getting too weird.

“Where are you taking us?” Nico said.

“You should be honoured, boy. You will soon have the opportunity to join a grand army! Just like that silly game you play with cards and dolls.”

“They’re not dolls! They’re figurines! And you can take you stupid army and shove it up your-”

“Now now,” Thorn chided him. “You will change your mind. And if you do not… well, there are other uses for half-bloods such as yourself. We have many mouths to feed. The Great Stirring is underway.”

“The Great what?” Piper and I asked at the same time.

“The stirring of monsters.” Thorn had a nasty smirk on his face. “The worst, the most powerful. They are waking. Monsters the likes of which have not been seen in millenia. They will cause death and destruction the likes of which mortals have never known. And soon, we shall have the most important monster of them all - the one to bring the fall of Olympus!”

“Okay,” Bianca said. “He’s clearly crazy.”

“We have to jump off the cliff,” I said. “Into the water. I can protect us then. In the sea.”

“You’re crazy too!”

I never got the chance to argue my point, because right then an invisible force slammed into the 4 of us, bringing us to the ground.

Annabeth’s move was brilliant. Wearing her cap, she was able to plough right into us, knocking us to the ground, avoiding Thorn’s first volley of spikes, which flew harmlessly over us. This moment of distraction was all Thalia and Grover needed to advance on the monster from behind.

If you’ve never seen Thalia march into battle, count yourself lucky. The sight is terrifying. She uses this spear that collapses into a small mace canister when not using it, but that’s nothing next to her shield. It’s modelled after one her dad, Zeus, uses, which goes by the same name of Aegis. The scary part was the bronze mould of the head of the gorgon, Medusa. The shield won’t turn you to stone, but it’s so terrifying regardless, any sane enemy would turn and run.

Thorn winced and growled at the sight.

Thalia charged right in. “For Zeus!”

She jabbed at Thorn’s head, but he just snarled and swatted away the spear, his hand morphing, turning into an orange paw with large claws. Those same claws scraped against Thalia’s shield. If it hadn’t been for Aegis, Thalia would have been sliced up.

The helicopter was getting louder, but I didn’t dare turn around to look.

Thorn launched more spikes towards Thalia, and I could finally see how he did it. He had a tail, almost like a scorpion’s tail bristling with spikes at the tip that glinted in the moonlight. The spikes impact Thalia’s shield, knocking her to the ground.

Grover charged in, bringing his reed pipes to his mouth. He started playing - a frantic jig. Grass started breaking through the snow, wrapping around Thorn’s legs.

Thorn roared and started changing. He grew larger. His face remained human, but his body changed to that of a large lion, his tail launching spikes in multiple directions.

“A manticore!” Annabeth said, now visible, her Yankees cap having fallen off after knocking us over. “Not good.”

“Who are you people?” Bianca asked. “And what is that thing?”

“A manticore,” Piper said, breathless. “But how-”

“A manticore?” Nico interrupted excitedly. “He’s got 3000 attack power, and a plus five to saving throws!”

What?!

The manticore clawed Grover’s grass to shreds, breaking free. He turned to face us.

“Get down!” Annabeth said, grabbing Nico and Piper and pulling them down to the snow, and Bianca quickly followed suit.

At the last second, I remembered my own shield, and I smacked the button on my watch. Metal plating spiralled out, forming into my bronze shield. Barely a second later, the spikes impacted with enough force, it dented the bronze plating. Great, first ever time using it outside of training at camp, and it was already ruined. I got the feeling it wouldn’t be stopping any more spikes.

I heard a loud smack and a yelp, and Grover landed in the snow next to me.

“Yield!” the monster shouted.

“Never!” Thalia called from across the clearing, readying her spear and shield to charge again.

I thought she would run him through, but then there was a loud noise and a blaze of light from behind us. The helicopter had appeared out of the fog, hovering just beyond the cliff. It was a sleek black military model, with gun attachments on the sides that looked suspiciously like guided missiles.

It had to be piloted by mortals, but what were mortals doing working with a monster?

The searchlights blinded Thalia, and Thorn was able to smack her aside with his tail. Her shield and spear flew away from her, and she landed hard in the snow.

“No!” I ran to help her, parrying a spike that nearly impaled her chest. I raised my shield, but I knew it would not be enough.

Thorn laughed. “Now do you see? How hopeless it all is? Yield, and you will be spared.”

We were trapped between Thorn and the helicopter. We had no chance. But I wasn’t ready to give up.

Then I heard the piercing sound of a hunting horn. The manticore froze. For a moment, nobody made a move or sound, save for the whistling of the wind and the helicopter.

“No!” Thorn said. “It cannot be-”

He was cut short when something shot past me - a silver arrow like a streak moonlight, now sprouting from Thorn’s furry shoulder.

He staggered backward, yelling in pain.

“Curse you!” He sent a volley of spikes into the woods where the arrow had come from, but more silvery arrows shot back to him in reply, as if they had intersected the spikes in midair and sliced them in two, but that wasn’t possible, right? No one could shoot that well.

The manticore yanked the arrow out of his shoulder with a howl of pain. He was breathing heavily, and I tried to swipe at him with my sword, but he just dodged out of the way. It probably didn’t help that my shoulder was still aching something fierce. Thorn slammed his tail against my shield, sending me flying.

Then the archers emerged from the woods. They were all girls, around a dozen. The youngest was probably around ten, and the oldest around my age, fourteen. They all wore silver parkas and silvery jeans. They were all armed with bows, all with another silvery arrow ready to fire, more sitting in quivers slung over their backs. They advanced on the Manticore, determined expressions on their faces.

“The Hunters!” Annabeth exclaimed.

“Oh, wonderful,” Thalia muttered.

I didn’t have time to ask what she meant.

One of the older archers stepped forward. She was tall and had coppery skin. One thing that made her stand out from the other girls was a silver circlet braided into the top of her hair, making her look like a princess. “Permission to kill, my lady?”

I couldn’t tell who she had addressed since she kept her eyes on the monster.

Thorn wailed. “This is not fair! Direct interference is against the divine laws!”

“Not so,” another girl said. This one was a little younger than the girl with the circlet, maybe around 12. She had auburn hair in a ponytail. Her eyes were silvery-yellow, like the moon. Her face was beautiful, with a stern expression. “The hunting of all wild beasts falls within my domain, and you, foul creature, are a wild beast.” She looked to circlet girl. “Permission granted, Zoë.”

Thorn growled. “If i cannot have these half-bloods alive, I will have them dead!” He lunged towards Thalia and me, knowing we would be unable to fight back.

“No!” Annabeth yelled, and she charged.

“Get back, Half-Blood!” Zoë yelled. “Get out of the line of fire!”

But Annabeth jumped onto the monster’s back, plunging her knife into its mane. The manticore howled, turning in circles, his tail flailing as Annabeth hung on for dear life.

“Fire!” Zoë yelled.

“No!” Thalia and I yelled.

But the hunters let their arrows fly. One hit Thorn in the neck. Another in his chest. He staggered back, closer to the edge of the cliff. “This is not the end, Huntress. You will pay!”

And before anyone could do anything, he leaped over the edge, Annabeth still clinging to his back, the two of them tumbling into the darkness.

“Annabeth!” I yelled. I started to run to the cliff, intending to jump after her, but I had forgotten about the helicopter.

There was a sound of gunfire, and the Hunters scattered, dodging away from the bullets as they impacted the snow, but the auburn haired girl stood her ground.

“Mortals are not allowed to witness my hunt,” she announced, waving her hand.

The helicopter exploded, dissolving into a flock of birds - ravens.

The Hunter re-grouped and turned towards us, advancing.

Zoë stopped short when she saw Thalia. “You,” she said with distaste.

“Zoë Nightshade.” Thalia sounded angry. “Perfect timing, as usual.”

Zoë looked over the rest of us. “Five half-bloods and a satyr, my lady.”

The auburn haired girl stepped up to us. “Yes, some of Chiron’s campers.”

“Annabeth! We have to save her!” I yelled.

The girl turned to me. “I’m sorry, Persephone Jackson, but your friend is beyond help right now.”

I tried to get to my feet, but one of the other girls held me down.

“You are in no condition to be throwing yourself off cliffs,” the auburn haired girl said.

“Let me go!” I shouted. “I need to save her!”

Zoë shot me a pitying look.

“Who do you think you are?” I said.

The girl smiled softly.

Zoë turned to the girl.

“I sense no disrespect, Zoë. She is distraught, of course.”

She turned to me, looking me in the eyes. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t - those silvery eyes were too captivating. “I am Artemis. Goddess of the hunt.”

Chapter 8: I Join the Eternal Sisterhood

You’d think I’d be used to people just up and announcing they were some super-powerful ancient deity, but when this apparently 12-year-old girl told me she was Artemis, I was still a bit shocked.

I mean, sure, the power radiating off this girl wasn’t exactly subtle, but you typically don’t picture literal goddesses as pre-teens.

My reaction was about as intelligent as you might be expecting from me. All I could think to say was, “um… ok.”

Grover, on the other hand, immediately fell over himself, grovelling at her feet.

Thalia growled. “Oh, get up, goat boy. We have other things to worry about. Specifically, Annabeth is gone.”

“Hang on,” Piper called.

We all turned to face her, and she shrunk back, but she still continued speaking.

“W-what exactly is going on? Like, all I know is somehow that idiot,” she pointed at me, “let me tag along for no reason, all I did was ask. And then, there’s this big monster shooting spikes or something, and then he walks us out here, then you lot show up, and start shooting at him, and then he jumps off the cliff with that same idiot’s girlfriend.”

“Wait, what? She’s not my-”

“Also, you’re Artemis? Like, the Artemis? Goddess of the hunt and whatnot?”

Artemis smiled. “Yes, I am.”

Piper sat down in the snow. “That is so cool. And the others… they’re your hunters?”

“Also yes. You seem to be well studied, young half-blood.”

Piper bristled at that. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Artemis raised an eyebrow. “Half-blood. Half human, half god.”

Piper growled. “Really? ‘Cause normally when people call me that, they mean something very different.”

Artemis’ eyes widened. “Oh, I see. My apologies, I did not mean to offend.”

Piper nodded. “I just don’t like the term.”

“Is anyone going to answer what is going on, because I don’t know either,” Bianca asked. “Who are… any of you people?”

Artemis turned her gaze on Bianca. “I think a better question might be, who are you? Who are your parents?”

Bianca glanced at her younger brother, who was still staring at the goddess in awe. “They’re dead,” she said. “We’re orphans. There’s some sort of bank trust paying for school, but that’s… it.”

She trailed off at the end. I guess she could tell we weren’t believing her.

“What? I’m telling the truth!” She exclaimed.

“You are a half-blood,” Zoë said.

“Can we please not use that word?” Piper interjected.

“Demigod, then,” Zoë corrected herself. “One of thy parents was mortal, the other an Olympian.”

“An Olympian… athlete?”

“No,” Zoë said. “Olympian god.”

“Cool!” Nico said.

“Not cool!” Bianca said, her voice shaky. “That is not cool, Nico.”

Nico danced around like he really needed to pee. “Does Zeus really have lightning bolts that do six-hundred damage? Does he get extra movement points for-”

“Nico, shut up!” Bianca said. “This is not your stupid game, ok? There are no gods!”

As anxious as I was about Annabeth and all my weird feelings surrounding her, I couldn’t help but sympathise. I had said much the same thing the first time I was told about this.

Thalia must’ve been of the same mind, because the anger in her eyes died down a little. “Bianca, I know it’s hard to believe. But the gods are real. They’re still around. They still go around sleeping with any mortal that catches their eye and having kids. Kids like me… and you. And well… our lives… are often dangerous.”

“Dangerous… like the girl who fell?”

I felt a twinge at the mention of Annabeth.

Thalia turned away, but I could still see her face. Even Artemis looked a little pained.

“Do not despair for Annabeth. She was a brave maiden. If she is to be found, I will find her.”

“Then why won’t you let us go look for her?” I asked.

“She is gone. Can’t you sense it, daughter of Poseidon? Some magic is at work here. I do not know how or for what reason, but your friend has vanished.”

I still wanted to jump off the cliff to look for her, but I had a feeling Artemis was right. Annabeth was gone. If she had been down in the sea… I would be able to sense her.

“Oh! What about Dr. Thorn?” Nico raised his hand and waved it around excitedly. “That was awesome, how you shot him with your arrows! Is he dead?”

“He was a manticore,” Artemis said. “Hopefully he has been destroyed, but monsters do not truly die. They will re-form over and over again, and they must be hunted whenever they do.”

“Or they’ll hunt us instead,” Thalia muttered.

Bianca and Nico shivered.

“That explains… a lot, actually. Nico, you remember last summer, those guys in the alley who tried to attack us?”

Nico nodded. “Or that bus driver with the ram’s horns. I told you that was real.”

“That’s why Grover was watching you. So he could keep you safe, just in case you turned out to be half-” I glanced at Piper, who shot me a glare. “-Demigods.”

“Grover?” Bianca turned to him. “You’re a demigod?”

“Well, actually, I’m a satyr.” He kicked off his shoes, revealing his hooves. I thought Bianca was about to faint.

“Grover, put your shoes back on, you’re freaking her out.”

“Hey, my hooves are clean!”

“Bianca,” I said, ignoring Thalia and Grover’s back-and-forth. “We came here to help you. You and Nico need training so you can survive. Dr. Thorn won’t be the last monster who goes after you. You need to come back to camp with us.”

“Camp?” she asked, looking bewildered, which she probably (definitely) was.

“Camp Half-Blood,” I said.

“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Piper said. Bianca glared at her for her language.

“It’s where demigods like us learn to survive. You can join, stay year-round if you want.”

“Sweet! Let’s go!” Nico said.

“Wait, but…” Bianca shook her head. “I don’t know…”

“There is another option,” Zoë said.

“No there fu- frikkin isn’t!” Thalia shot back.

Thalia and Zoë glared at each other. I backed away, hoping to not get caught in the middle of whatever it was going on between them.

“We have burdened them enough,” Artemis said. “Zoë, we will rest here for a few hours. Raise the tents. Treat the wounded. Retrieve our guests' belongings.”

“Yes, my lady.”

“And Bianca, I would like for you to come with me. I have a few things I wish to discuss with you.”

“What about me?” Nico asked.

Artemis regarded him. “Perhaps you can show Grover how to play your card game. I’m sure Grover would be happy to entertain you as a favour to me.”

At that, Grover just about tripped over himself, eager to comply. “You bet! Come on, Nico!” They walked off.

The Hunters began unpacking, Zoë giving Thalia one more glare before stalking off to follow the goddess and Bianca.

Once she was gone, Thalia kicked at a pile of snow. “The nerve of those hunters! They think… fuck!”

I didn’t say anything.

“And you!”

I flinched.

“What on earth were you thinking, back in the gym. ‘Oh, I’ll just take on Dr. Thorn all by myself.’”

“I was with her.” Piper said.

“You don’t count, you have no training.” She sighed. “If you hadn’t gone off on your own, Percy, we could have taken Dr. Thorn ourselves. The hunters would never have needed to get involved. Annabeth might still be here. Did you think about that?”

I clenched my jaw. I tried to think of some comeback, but I looked down. Lying in the snow at my feet was a navy blue baseball cap. Annabeth’s Yankees cap.

Thalia didn’t say anything else. She wiped a tear from her face, turned, and stomped off, leaving me alone with the cap.

The hunters camp was set up within minutes. Seven large tents, all silver in colour, arranged in a crescent around a central campfire. One of the girls, who looked about Nico’s age, blew a silver whistle, and a dozen white wolves came out of the woods. They circled the camp, like guard dogs, which I guess they were. The hunters walked among them, feeding them treats, but I decided I was good not hanging out with some apex predators. There were falcons in the trees, watching us. I figured they were probably on guard duty too. Even the weather seemed to bend to Artemis’ will. It was still cold, but the wind died down, and it was almost comfortable.

Well, except for the pain in my shoulder and the guilt over Annabeth.

She’s not dead, just gone, I thought.

You don’t know that for sure, my brain shot back at me.

Shut up, I responded.

I had a sinking feeling Thalia was right. Annabeth falling off the cliff was my fault.

Annabeth had wanted to tell me something, back in the gym. It sounded important. Now I guess I would never know. I thought about how she had offered to dance with me. I was starting to regret refusing. Yeah, sure, I am a girl now. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t dance with her, right?

I glanced over at Thalia. She was also walking among the wolves without any fear. I felt jealous of her. Jealous that she got to dance with Annabeth. Jealous that she could be so… so confident.

A hunter handed me my bag. I took it, then winced as I jarred my injured shoulder.

Grover and Nico finally came back. Grover started helping me fix my wound.

“It’s green!” Nico exclaimed, sounding delighted for some absurd reason.

“Hold still,” Grover said. “Here, eat some ambrosia.”

I winced as he started dressing the wound, but the ambrosia did help. It tasted like homemade brownies, like my mom would make.

Between that and the salve Grover was applying, I felt better almost immediately.

Nico rummaged through his own bag, which another hunter had handed to him. I had no clue how they had managed to sneak into Westover unseen. Or maybe they hadn’t been unseen and had just used that same mist trick Thalia had used.

Nico started laying out a bunch of small figurines in the snow. They were small replicas of Greek gods and heroes. I saw Zeus with his bolt, Hercules, his muscles exaggerated in size, and Hephaestus, a large blacksmith’s hammer in his hand.

“Quite the collection,” I said.

Nico grinned at me. “I’ve got almost all of them, plus their cards. Well, except for some really rare ones.”

“You’ve been playing a long time?”

Nico shook his head. “Just this year. Before that, I…” He furrowed his eyebrows.

“What?”

“I forget. Weird.” He looked unsettled, but that went away quickly. “Hey, can I see that sword you were using?”

I showed him Riptide, and explained the whole pen thing.

“Cool! Does it ever run out of ink?”

I blinked. “I, uh… I never thought of that.”

“Are you really the daughter of Poseidon?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Can you surf really well then.”

I glanced at Grover, who was trying not to laugh.

“I’ve never tried,” I said.

“I’m pretty good,” Piper said. “I used to do it with my dad every summer.”

Well, that indicated her mom was probably the godly parent.

Nico kept asking questions.

“Do you fight a lot with Thalia, since her dad is Zeus?”

“Uh…” I didn’t want to answer that. Fortunately, Nico just kept going.

“If that blonde girl’s mother was Athena, goddess of wisdom, why didn’t she know better than to fall off a cliff?”

I had to try really hard not to strangle the kid. “I don’t think she really could have prevented that, Nico.”

“Is she your girlfriend?”

I groaned. “Why? Why the hell does everyone think she’s my girlfriend?”

“It’s pretty obvious you have feelings for her,” Piper said.

“Persephone Jackson.”

Zoë was calling me. She studied me, a strange look in her eyes I couldn’t quite place.

“Come with me,” she finally said. “Lady Artemis wishes to speak with thee. And you as well, Piper McLean.”

Zoë led us to the last tent, which looked identical to all the others, and waved us inside.

Inside, Bianca di Angelo was seated next to the young girl who was apparently Artemis.

It was warm inside the tent. Silk rugs and pillows lay about the floor. In the centre, a golden brazier of fire was burning, seemingly without any fuel or smoke. Magical.

Behind the goddess, on display, was her bow. The walls were covered with various hunting trophies, some of more mundane animals, some of monsters. I thought she might have had another pelt laying over her lap, but then it moved. It was a dear, with glittering fur. Her sacred animal, I realised.

“Join us, Persephone,” Artemis said.

I sat across from her on the floor. She studied me, a strange look in her disconcertingly old eyes.

“Are you surprised at my age?”

I nodded. “A little.”

“I could appear as a grown woman, a blazing fire, or anything else I wish to appear as. But this form I prefer. This is the average age of my hunters, and all young maidens for whom I am patron, before they go astray.”

“Astray?”

“Grow up. Become obsessed with boys. Become silly and preoccupied. Before they forget themselves.”

“Oh,” I said.

Zoë sat on the goddess’ right. She glanced at me, that strange look in her eyes still present.

“It is rare we have our boy in our midst,” Artemis said. “Even rarer still for them to be much older than Nico is.”

I swallowed.

“Don’t be nervous, Persephone,” she said. “I do not hold the circumstances of your birth against you. What matters is who you are inside. You are no more a boy than any of my hunters.”

I nodded. “Thank you, my lady.”

Artemis smirked. “At any rate, Persephone, I have asked you here for two reasons. One is so that you may tell me more about the manticore. The other we shall get to after, and it is also relevant to young Piper.”

“What do you want to know?” I asked.

“Bianca has reported on some of the more, ah, disturbing things the monster said to you. But I feel she may not have fully understood them. I’d like to here your perspective.”

So I told her everything Thorn had said.

When I was done, Artemis rested her hand on her bow, a thoughtful look on her face. “I feared this would be the answer.”

Zoë leaned forward. “The scent, my lady?”

Artemis nodded. “Yes.”

“Wait? What scent?” I asked.

“Scent?” Piper echoed.

“Things are stirring. Things that have not stirred in many years.” Artemis murmured. “Prey so old, I have almost forgotten about them.”

She stared at me, looking me directly in the eyes. I squirmed uncomfortably.

“We came here tonight, sensing the manticore. But he was not the one we seek. Tell me, again, exactly what he said.”

“Uh… ‘I hate middle school dances.’”

Piper snorted. “I hardly think that’s something Lady Artemis cares about, although I imagine she, like every other sane person on earth, would agree with that sentiment.”

“You are right on both accounts, PIper,” Artemis responded. “What did he say after that?”

“He, uh, he said that someone called The General was going to explain things to me.”

Zoë’s face paled.

“And then, uh, he said something about the great stir pot-”

“Stirring,” Piper and Bianca interrupted.

“Right, stirring. And then he said, ‘soon we shall have the greatest monster of all, the one that shall bring down Olympus.’”

Artemis was so still she could have been a statue.

“Maybe he was lying?” I said.

Artemis shook her head. “I do not think so. I’ve been too slow to see the signs. I must hunt this monster, immediately.”

Zoë looked slightly afraid, but she nodded determinedly. “We will leave right away, my lady.”

Artemis sighed. “No, Zoë. I must go alone.”

“But-”

“This task is much too dangerous, even for the hunters. You know where I must start. You cannot go with me.”

“As… as you wish, my lady.” Zoë bowed her head.

“I will find this monster. I shall bring it back to Olympus by the solstice. Maybe then the other gods will finally see sense.”

“You know what the monster is?” I asked.

“Let us pray I am wrong.” Artemis gripped her bow, pulling it off its display.

“Can a goddess pray?” I asked.

Artemis smiled. “Before I go, Persephone, Piper, Bianca, I must ask something of the three of you. I also must ask something of Grover and Thalia.”

“What do you wanna ask them?”

“To escort my hunters to Camp. You can stay there until I return.”

You?

“What?” Zoë exclaimed. “But, my lady, we hate that place. The last time we stayed-”

“Yes yes, I know.” Artemis said, a grimace on her face. “But I’m sure Dionysus will not hold a grudge just because of that little, ah, misunderstanding. It is your right to use cabin 8 whenever you need to. Besides, I heard they rebuilt the cabins you burnt down.”

Zoë muttered something about foolish campers.

“And now, of course, the thing I must ask the three of you.” She turned to Bianca. “Have you made up your mind, Bianca?”

Bianca hesitated. “I- I’m not sure.”

“Wait,” I said. “Thinking about what? What are you asking us, Lady Artemis?”

“She… invited me to join the hunt.” Bianca said.

“Wait…” I trailed off. “Oh.” I looked at Artemis.

She nodded. “I wish also to extend that same invite to the both of you.”

“But- Camp. Bianca, you have to go to camp, to learn from Chiron. It’s the only way to survive.”

“It is not the only way, at least for a girl,” Zoë said.

“What do we even get for joining the hunters?”

“Well, to begin with, immortality,” Zoë said, looking smug.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Zoë rarely kids about anything,” Artemis said. “My hunters follow me on my adventures. They are my companions, my sisters-in-arms. Once they swear loyalty to me, they are immortal… unless they fall in battle, which is unlikely. Or they break their oath.”

“What’s the oath?” I asked.

“To forswear romantic love forever,” Artemis began. “To never grow up, never get married. To be a maiden eternally.”

“Like you?”

Artemis nodded.

I tried to imagine it. Being immortal, roaming across the country with a bunch of middle-school girls forever. Never getting sick, getting older. Never attaching oneself to a boy.

Actually, I think I could get on board with this.

“So you go around recruiting demigods-”

“Not just demigods,” Zoë said. “Lady Artemis is not picky. Any maiden, demigod, mortal, nymph, or otherwise. All who honour her may join.”

“Oh.”

I turned to Bianca. “What about Nico? He can’t be a hunter.”

Artemis shrugged. “Unless he is like you, of course.”

“Right.”

“Otherwise… he can go to Camp. Unfortunately, that is the best option for boys. You can see him from time to time, whenever the hunters visit camp.” Artemis assured Bianca. “But you will be free of responsibility. The counsellors will take care of him. And you will have a new family. Us.”

“A new family? No responsibility?” Bianca looked hopeful.

Artemis nodded.

Bianca turned to Zoë. “Is it worth it?”

Zoë nodded. “It is worth it, Bianca.”

Bianca took a deep breath. “What do I need to do?”

“You say this,” Zoë said. “‘I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis.’”

Bianca took another breath. “I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis.”

“‘I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the hunt.’”

Bianca finished the oath. “Is that it?”

Zoë nodded. “If Lady Artemis accepts thy pledge, then it is binding.”

“I accept,” Artemis said.

The flames in the brazier burned brighter, casting the tent in a silvery glow. Bianca looked no different.

She took a breath. “I feel… stronger.”

“Welcome, sister,” Zoë said.

“Remember your pledge, Bianca. It is now your life.” She turned to me. I sat up straighter. “And now, Persephone, it is your turn to choose.”

I thought about it. I really did. Everything they were offering was great. Really great. Immortality, no boys, ever.

That settled it.

“I… I pledge myself to the goddess Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt.”

A brief moment, and then.

“I accept your pledge, Persephone.”

The flames burned brighter once again. I took a breath. I felt a newfound power in my limbs, subtle, but unmistakable. My eyesight sharpened, I could suddenly discern sounds of different animals roaming around in the woods, I could hear the heartbeats of everyone else in the room.

I looked at Zoë. She was smiling warmly at me. “Welcome, sister.”

Chapter 9: Thalia Drives to Camp: Worst Mistake Ever

Artemis then asked Piper if she wanted to join. She declined.

I wasn't sure why she wouldn't want to join. I felt amazing. All my exhaustion from barely a minute ago was now completely gone. I felt super energized. My skin tingled; it felt pleasantly warm. My shoulder, which had still been aching before I took my oath, now felt good as new.

I couldn't help it, I shot Piper an incredulous look. Why would she not want this?

I forced my mind off of my confusion. "So, my lady, how will we get to Camp?" I asked Artemis. Don't ask why I referred to her as ‘my lady’, it just seemed the thing to do, being one of her hunters now.

Artemis closed her eyes. "Dawn is approaching. Zoë, take Bianca and Persephone with you. Break camp and prepare to leave for Long Island quickly. I will summon my brother for a ride."

Zoë didn't look happy, but she stood up.

"Follow me," she told Bianca and I.

We quickly got up to follow.

"So," I said to Zoë, "Atermis' brother?"

She scowled. "Apollo. God of the sun. For whatever bizarre reason, the insufferable man has the gall to flirt with us hunters every time we see him. It is ridiculous."

I couldn't help but agree. He should definitely know we were very much off limits.

"You two should retrieve your things," Zoë told us.

Bianca and I broke off from her to go get our bags, while Zoë started directing the other hunters to start taking down the tents.

"This feels amazing," Bianca said.

I nodded, "yeah. I don't even feel cold! And my shoulder feels great."

Bianca laughed. "I feel like I could run a mile!"

"Me too."

We got back to where Nico was still rambling to Thalia and Grover about his card game. Thalia noticed us first.

"What did she want to talk to you about?"

"She wanted to know what Dr. Thorn told us," I said.

Thalia glanced between me and Bianca. "And she needed all three of you for that?"

I shuffled my feet. I could feel the hostility in her voice. She had guessed what happened and didn't like it. "She invited us to join the Hunt."

Thalia let out a loud sigh. "And did you?"

I nodded. "And I feel great! My shoulder doesn't even hurt anymore."

Thalia stood up. The look on her face was hard to read, but she definitely wasn't happy.

"And just why would you want to do that?"

"Well, immortality. Oh, and no boys!"

Thalia sighed again. "You could also go without boys without having to join the Hunt, Percy."

I sighed. "You wouldn't get it."

Thalia scowled. That had been the wrong thing to say. "I wouldn't, huh? Well let me ask you something, Persephone. How do you think Annabeth would feel about this? Huh? Did you even think she might have an issue with her- with her best friend going off and joining some club without her?"

I scowled back. "Bold of you to assume Artemis wouldn’t have also invited her to join had she still been here. Also, come to think of it, why didn't she extend an invitation to you?"

Thalia scoffed. "Maybe she just doesn't want a girl like me."

I blinked. "A girl like- what are you talking about?"

Thalia marched right up to me. "We can't all be lucky like you were, Jackson. Magical transformation bullshit. Some of us have to take medications to transition."

I took a step back. "Wait wait wait- you're trans?!"

Thalia stopped short, her eyes going wide. "I didn't say that!"

"No but you very strongly implied it."

Thalia turned away from me. "Shut up, Percy."

I sighed, but did just that. No need to make her more angry.

"Uh, Artemis says we're going to be going soon," Bianca said. "Nico, clean up your cards."

Nico grumbled about how he hadn't finished explaining everything yet, but complied.

Artemis assured us the dawn was definitely approaching, but you could never have been able to tell by the sky. It was still dark as ever. Probably still extremely cold, but between whatever resistance I had gained from being a Hunter and my new silvery parka, I could barely feel it.

I had been given a bunch of Hunter gear - that silvery parka, a couple hunting knives, a magical water bottle that would continually refill over time, and, of course, a bow and quiver full of silver arrows. I wasn't entirely sure about the bow since I had never been a very good archer (understatement). But as I held it in my hand for the first time, I felt sure of myself - a new confidence I would never have had with a bow before.

The other Hunters had broken camp so quickly, I was only able to help with putting away the last tent. I had never gone camping before, but somehow my hands knew what to do. I chalked it up to more of Artemis' blessing.

I saw Bianca quietly discussing something with Nico. I could tell from his expression he wasn't too happy about her decision to join the Hunt. Maybe it was a bit selfish of her, but at the same time I couldn't entirely blame her for joining. I'd be a hypocrite if I did.

Grover walked up next to me. "I don't blame you at all, Percy. I mean, an eternity with Artemis?" A dreamy expression made its way onto his face.

Thalia scoffed. "You satyrs. You're all completely in love with Artemis. You do know she won't ever love you back, right?"

Grover sighed. "But she's so… into nature."

I nodded. "Yeah, it's actually pretty… It's a nice feeling."

Thalia turned to me, a strange expression on her face. "Oh really? And this justifies making this choice without your best friend… how?" She shouldered Annabeth's bag alongside her own.

"Oh, not this again." Grover groaned. "Thalia, Percy made her choice, she can do what she wants."

Thalia snorted. "Sure she can." She turned and walked away towards Piper, who was standing off to one side of the former campsite, looking uncomfortable.

Finally, the sky started getting lighter.

"About time," Artemis muttered with an annoyed tone. "He is sooo lazy in the Winter."

"You're waiting for the sunrise?" Piper said.

"Yes," Artemis responded. "For my brother."

Piper frowned. "But isn't Helios the sun god?"

Artemis was about to respond, but was interrupted by a sudden burst of light.

"Don't look," she said. "Not until he parks."

"Parks?" Piper said.

I averted my eyes. I saw everyone else doing the same. The light and warmth intensified, but strangely, I didn't feel at all uncomfortable despite my new jacket. Then the light died, and the warmth receded, but it was still present.

I turned to look. Right in front of us, sitting in a perfect ring of grass that seemed completely untouched by snow was a bright red Maserati convertible. I was a little envious, I kinda wanted a car like that (not that I would be able to drive it, being eternally forteen, although the government doesn't need to know that). The metal glowed still, but it fortunately didn't hurt to look at. The driver's door opened, and a man, around seventeen or eighteen, stepped out. He kind of reminded me of Luke, but he was taller, with no scar, and a much more easy-going smile.

"Whoa," Piper said. "Apollo is hot."

"He's the sun god," I replied.

She snorted. "Point. Guess it's on brand."

"Little sister!" Apollo shouted. His teeth were so white that they were almost blinding. I inched away from him, not really wanting to be any closer to him. "What's up? I haven't heard from you in months, no calls, you never write. I was getting worried.

Artemis looked annoyed. "I'm fine, Apollo. And I am not your little sister."

"I was born first-"

"No, you weren't. I distinctly remember you were born after me. How many times do I need to remind-"

"So what's up?" He interrupted. "I see you've got the girls with you. Need any archery tips, girls?"

Artemis grit her teeth. "I need a favor. I have some hunting to do, alone. I need you to take my Hunters to Camp Half-Blood."

Piper scowled but didn't say anything.

"Sure sis!" He raised his hands up in a gesture that said to stop everything. "I feel a Haiku coming on."

The other Hunters all groaned. I got the feeling this was a normal occurrence.

He cleared his throat and held a hand in the air dramatically.

"Green grass breaks through snow

Artemis pleads for my help

I am so cool."

I frowned. A bit egotistical of him.

Apollo grinned as if expecting applause. None came.

"That last line was only four syllables."

Apollo's smile disappeared. "Was it?"

Artemis smirked. "Yes. How about 'I am so big-headed.'"

"No, that's six syllables. Hang on…" he started muttering to himself.

Zoë spoke up, "Lord Apollo has been going through this Haiku phase ever since he visited Japan. 'Tis not as bad as the time he visited Limerick. If I'd had to listen to one more poem that started with 'There once was a goddess from Sparta-'"

"Got it!" Apollo announced. "I am so awesome. That's five."

I rolled my eyes.

"So, transportation for the Hunters to Camp, sis? Good timing, I was just about to head off."

"These demigods will also need a ride too. Some of Chiron's campers." She pointed to Thalia, Piper, Nico, and Grover.

"No problem! Let's see… Thalia, right? He stepped in front of Thalia. "Zeus' kid, yes? I've heard all about you."

Thalia blushed. "Hi, Lord Apollo."

You used to be a tree, right? Glad you're back, I hate it when pretty girls turn into trees. I remember one time-"

"Brother," Artemis interrupted him. "You better get going."

"Oh, right." Then he noticed me. "Percy Jackson." He looked at me, an odd look on his face. I stepped closer to Artemis.

"Uh, yes sir." It felt weird to call someone who looked like a teenager sir, but I figured I should be safe.

"Unexpected," he said, without elaborating, and moved on. What the heck was that about?

"Well!" he said, clapping his hands. "We'd better load up, huh? Ride only goes one way - west. And if you miss it, gotta wait a day."

I looked at the car in confusion. It could seat two people, max. Maybe three if we squeezed in, but that would probably be not terribly safe, especially if the car flew. There were around twenty of us.

"Cool car," Piper said.

"Thanks!" Apollo said.

"How are we going to fit?"

"Oh." Apollo finally noticed the issue. "Right. Well, I hate to change out of sports-car mode, but needs must."

He fished his car keys out of his pocket and hit a button, making a loud chirp chirp noise.

The car glowed bright again for a brief moment. Afterwards, the car was replaced by a bright red shuttle bus similar to ones used for volleyball games back at school. I hoped it didn't smell like it too.

"Right," Apollo said. "Everyone get in!"

Zoë directed us to start loading our bags. She picked up her own, and Apollo said, "here, sweetheart. Let me get that."

Zoë's eyes flashed murderously. I was half-tempted to gut him with my new hunting knife. Who does he think he is? We're off limits.

"Brother," Artemis said, scowling. "You do not help my Hunters. You do not look at, talk to, or especially flirt with them. You most definite do not call any of them 'sweetheart.'"

Apollo held up his hands, backing up. "Sorry, sis. I forgot."

I mentally scoffed. Doubt that.

"Where you off to anyway, sis?"

"Hunting," Artemis said. "None of your business, anyway."

"I'll find out. I see all. I know all."

Ok, pervert.

Artemis snorted. "Just drop them off at Camp. And no messing around. I'll hear about it if you do."

"Oh no! I never mess around."

Artemis rolled her eyes then turned to us. "I will see you by the solstice. Zoë, you are in charge of the Hunters. Do as I would do. Make sure Persephone and Bianca get a proper introduction."

Zoë straightened. "Yes, my lady."

Artemis knelt and touched the ground. I could tell what she was doing - she was attempting to sense which direction her prey was in. When she rose, she looked troubled. "So much danger. The beast must be found."

She sprinted into the woods, melting into the trees and shadow.

Apollo turned back to us, grinning. "So," he said, jangling his car keys on his finger. "Who wants to drive?"

The other Hunters and I quickly piled into the back of the van. None of us wanted to get any closer to Apollo than necessary. I ended up sitting between two other Hunters - a smaller girl who was probably nine at most and had elfen features similar to dryads I had met before, and a buff girl with red hair who was closer to my age.

"New girl, yeah?" The buff one said. "My name's Phoebe."

I smiled. "Hi, Phoebe."

She smiled back. "Don't stress too much. Be a Hunter's great. I joined… five thousand years ago, I think. I have no regrets."

The other girl said confidently, "my name's Aspen. I joined about a century ago."

It struck me that these girls were so much older than me, despite looking my age or younger.

"Uh, I'm Percy. Short for Persephone, but just call me Percy,” I said.

“Your dad’s Poseidon, yeah?” Aspen asked.

I nodded. “Um, yeah. How’d you know?”

“You smell like salt,” she said.

Another Hunter sitting in front of us turned around to talk to me as well. “You’re trans, right?”

I nodded.

“Cool, another one. I’m Camille, I’m trans too. This here-” she dragged the Hunter sitting next to her up to talk as well. “-is Heidi. She’s trans too.”

Camille was probably around thirteen years old, which could mean she was anywhere from thirteen to three million. She had darker patches of skin on her face, dark brown eyes, and light brown hair. Heidi was younger,maybe eleven or twelve, and was wearing a pair of gold-framed glasses. She had blue eyes and black hair, similar to my own.

“Um, hi,” I said. “Why are you telling me you’re trans?”

Heidi smirked. “So you know you aren’t the only one. There are actually another three trans Hunters. There’s Hunter - please don’t say anything about her name,she knows. She’s the one with the silver hair.” She pointed to a girl sitting behind me, and I turned to look. Her hair was indeed silver, and she was sitting with Bianca having an animated discussion. “Then there’s Anastasia and Celyn. They’re both non-binary. Celyn uses she/her and they/them, and Anastasia uses fae/faer.”

“That’s… a lot more than I expected,” I said.

Heidi shrugged. “Lady Artemis has no problems with more diverse genders, just as long as they aren’t boys.”

“Well, there was that Hippolytus guy a couple millenia ago Phoebe mentioned,” Camille said.

Phoebe nodded. “Yeah. He was with us for a bit. But he’s more of an exception than anything.”

“Daughter of Zeus,” I heard Apollo saying, “Lord of the Sky. Perfect!”

Perfect for what?

“Oh no,” Thalia said. “No thanks.”

“C’mon,” Apollo replied. “How old are you?”

There was a pause. “I don’t know,” Thalia said.

It was a bit sad, but true. She’d been turned into a tree when she was twelve, and remained that way for seven years, so she should have been nineteen. But she still felt like she was twelve, but she looked to be somewhere in between. Chiron’s theory was that she had continued aging in tree form, but more slowly.

“You’re fifteen, almost sixteen,” Apollo said.”

“How did you know that?” Thalia asked.

“Hey, I’m the god of prophecy. I know stuff. You’ll turn sixteen in about a week.”

“That’s my birthday! December twenty-second.”

“That means you’re old enough to drive with a learner’s permit.”

I craned my neck to get a view of what was happening up front of the bus.

Thalia looked nervous. “Uh, I don’t-”

“I know what you’re gonna say,” Apollo interrupted her. “You don’t deserve an honor like driving the sun chariot.”

“That’s not what I was going to say,” Thalia said.

“Don’t worry about it! Maine to Long Island is a really short trip, and don’t worry about what happened to the last kid I trained. You’re Zeus’ daughter, he won’t blast you out of the sky.”

Apollo laughed as if what he just said wasn’t completely terrifying.

Thalia tried to suppress some more. He got her to sit in the driver’s seat.

“Take it away! You’re gonna be a natural!”

I wasn’t sure why Apollo was so insistent on having someone else drive, but I didn’t want to question it.

“Speed equals heat,” Apollo said. “So you should start slow, then wait until you have enough altitude before you really open her up.”

Thalia sat stiffly in the driver’s seat.

“Are you ok?” Piper asked her.

“I’m fine,” Thalia said, although she definitely didn’t sound fine. Then she pulled back on the wheel. It tilted and the bus suddenly pitched upwards.

I was immediately slammed back against my seat, and Heidi and Camille, who had still been up on their knees in their seat, fell over the back of it landing on me, Aspen, and Phoebe.

“Ow,” Heidi said, rubbing her head where it had smacked against my knee.

Camille groaned and twisted, sitting on Phoebe’s lap. “What the hell is up with her?”

“I think she’s nervous,” I said.

Aspen giggled. “Obviously she is.”

Phoebe glanced out the window, “oh, damn.”

“What?” I said, trying to look around Camille and out the window. I saw a smoking ring of trees near the clearing where we had been just moments ago. “Oh.”

“Maybe you should lighten up on the accelerator,” I heard Piper say.

“I’ve got this, Piper,” she said. But the bus did not slow down.

“We need to head south for Long Island,” Apollo said. “Turn left.”

Thalia jerked the wheel, and Aspen Heidi and I tumbled out of our seat.

“The other left,” Apollo said.

I groaned as I sat up. Aspen quickly got back on the seat next to Camille and Phoebe, and Heidi and I sat on the seat in front of them.

“A little lower, sweetheart,” Apollo said. “Cape Cod is freezing over.”

Thalia jerked the wheel forward. The bus pitched forward, picking up speed, slamming Heidi and I against our seat.

Apollo tumbled past us on the floor. He groaned as he stood up, and started carefully making his way back to the front of the bus.

“Take the wheel,” I heard Grover beg.

“No worries,” Apollo responded. “She just needs to- WHOA.”

I glanced out the window and saw what he had noticed. Below us was a small New England town covered in snow. Or at least it had been until the snow melted away. I saw the tops of buildings start to smolder. The top of a church actually caught fire.

“Pull up!” I yelled at Thalia.

She yanked back on the wheel again, and we sped back upwards. Behind us, through the back window of the bus, I could see the fires going out, thankfully.

“There!” Apollo shouted. “Long Island, dead ahead. Let’s slow down dear.”

Thalia did not slow down. We were fast approaching the coastline of northern Long Island. I could see the valley of Camp Half-Blood through the windshield. I could make out individual cabins. We were only a few hundred yards away by now.

“Brake,” Apollo said.”

Thalia muttered something I couldn’t hear.

“BRAKE!” Apollo shouted at her.

She slammed her foot on the brake.

The bus pitched forward at a forty-five degree angle, slamming in the Camp’s canoe lake with a loud splashing noise. Steam billowed up around the bus as the water started boiling. Several frightened naiads scrambled out of the water holding onto half-finished baskets and other projects.

The bus bobbed to the surface of the lake alongside some half-melted canoes.

“Well,” said Apollo, sounding relieved that it was finally over. “You were right, my dear, you had everything under control. Now, shall we see if we boiled anyone important?”

I rested my head against the seat in front of me, letting out a sigh.

“Well,” Heidi said, “glad that’s over.”