CONGRATULATIONS! If you made it past the description, I applaud you! I know that some of you might be angry with me considering what I did to one of my beloved characters, but I promise you, it WILL get better! We can get through this.

But welcome back! This story will alternate between Alex and Lam's POVs. Please don't hate me.

Liam

The day started out just like any other.

Liam groaned as his alarm went off. It was eight in the morning; why had he insisted on waking up so early? On a Saturday, no less.

The memory hit him like a cold splash of water. This wasn't just any Saturday—it was the Saturday.

Liam rolled out of bed—literally—and hit the floor with a soft thud. Below him, on the first floor, he heard his mother protest, saying that the floor was "too old" for him to be flopping onto it every morning. Liam ignored her. The floor had held up for ten years; it could survive a little more punishment.

Liam grabbed his teak cane from off his bedside and stumbled to his feet. Sometimes his foot still pained him, but it wasn't too bad this morning. Quickly, he dressed himself in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and checked his reflection in the mirror.

His brown hair was a mess—it usually was in the mornings. He quickly combed it neatly, making sure that none of the strands fell in front of his green eyes. When that was done, he appraised himself critically in the mirror.

He wasn't exactly handsome—Liam preferred the term average. Still, Alex insisted that he was indeed handsome, even if he didn't believe it himself. He told her the same thing about how beautiful she was, and she usually rolled her eyes at him.

At that thought, Liam was reminded of what day it was again. Quickly, he rushed to the bathroom and brushed his teeth before sprinting downstairs.

His mother was waiting for him, her arms crossed. "Where are you rushing off to?"

In Liam's opinion, he had the best mother in the world. She had red hair, just like his little sister Jasmine, but it was starting to turn gray at the roots. She may have had lines around her blue eyes, but other than that her age didn't show. She was smiling at him, and Liam couldn't help but smile back. In the kitchen, he could smell pancakes cooking. His mother knew that Liam loved pancakes. On a bad day, she would slather pancakes in chocolate sauce to cheer him up.

"Mom, you know what day it is," Liam said with a smile as he grabbed a pancake and ate it with his hands.

His mother slapped his arm and handed him a plate and fork. "You'd think I raised you in a barn."

"Only Nashville."

She laughed and straightened his t-shirt. "Really? You're wearing this?"

Liam rolled his eyes and cut his pancake into smaller pieces. "She doesn't care what I wear, mom."

He scooped up the last of the pancake into his mouth and slipped his sneakers onto his feet. He also grabbed an orange zip-up hoodie. Even though it was warm outside, the way he usually traveled typically left him freezing.

"Stay safe!" his mother called after him as he pushed open the front door. "Watch out for airplanes!"

Liam chuckled to himself and said, "I'll be back this afternoon!"

Then he was outside. It was April, which meant that the weather was warmer, maybe sixty, seventy degrees out. On the street, cars rushed past, on their way to important business meetings of some sort. Other people passed on foot, typically sipping coffee as they played a game on their phones.

Liam circled around to the back of his house as he shrugged on his hoodie, zipping it up all the way. He didn't bother placing his hood over his head. It would just get knocked down again. He hooked his cane into his belt, giving himself a moment to balance.

Looking around to make sure that nobody was watching, Liam jumped into the sky.

For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of rushing wind as he sped upwards, and then silence as he righted himself and hung a thousand feet in the air.

Contrary to popular belief, what Liam did wasn't really flying, persay. It was more like he was falling, but continuously catching himself by manipulating the winds. Hovering in place, like he was doing now, was perhaps the hardest. When he had first discovered what he could do, he had just flown into things. One time, he had almost knocked out one of the walls in the school with his head.

Staying in one place required him to manipulate the winds so that he was pressed on them by all sides. Otherwise, he'd go shooting off in another direction.

Liam took a moment to look at the city. Compared to some of the skyscrapers in New York, he wasn't really that high in the air. But for his purposes that morning, his height was ideal.

He checked his pockets for his goggles, and his hand brushed against the small box in his pocket as he did. He made sure that it was secure before strapping on his goggles. He had learned the hard way that traveling in the air without proper eye protection usually either made his eyes water so bad it looked like he had been sobbing, or he ended up with bugs in his eyes. Luckily he was wearing his contacts, otherwise he would have had to fly blind because his goggles didn't fit over his glasses. He was blind without his glasses. One time he had ended up in New Jersey before he realized his mistake.

Liam checked the date on his watch as he flew, compensating for the difference in aerodynamics as he brought his arm up from his side. February 13th, it read. It also told him that it was now 8:34. He was late.

He cursed in Greek and picked up speed. Alex was going to kill him.

Today was their two-year anniversary of dating, and last year, Liam had been an hour late. He was determined to be better this year. Besides, he had a pretty amazing gift. Even if he was late, that should make up for it, right?

Liam wasn't sure why he was worried. Alex was a pretty laid-back girlfriend. Still, he liked to impress her. No sense to stop now.

The trip itself wasn't that long, not when he was flying this fast. Liam hadn't tested how fast he could fly, but he knew he could go over a hundred miles per hour. He'd raced a sports car from overhead once.

He came to a stop in mid-air, peering out of the clouds like some bizarre peeking-tom. Below him was Alex's house. It was two stories and big enough to fit a family of seven, with granite bricks and a white picket fence. And of course, a battle was raging next to it.

Even this high in the air, he could see the small army of monsters marching on the Clayton household. There had to be at least thirty monsters, each of them different. Beginning to lower himself, Liam could see hellhounds, draconae, cyclopes, and even a single empousa. It was enough to make even a well-versed half-blood like him gulp. But, of course, the Claytons were pulverizing them.

There were only three (four if one counted the dog) of them, but they were making the small army look like a group of stuffed animals. Outside the house in a small semi-circle, the three Claytons ripped into the monsters courageously. Bobby wielded his sword bravely, cutting down monsters left and right. His celestial bronze chainmail was coated in a thick layer of monster dust. As his tutor, Liam felt a flash of pride. Clearly, all the hours spent helping Bobby learn to fight with a sword had paid off. Lawrence was engaged in the fight too, using his celestial bronze bullets to turn monsters into dust. Even Cooper, their half-dog-half-wolf pet was pitching in, barking to keep the monsters further away. But, of course, Alex was doing most of the work—which made sense, since all of the monsters were focused on her.

She had her fearsome silver and gold bow drawn, and was firing as many as five arrows at a time at the enemy. She had her red hair drawn back in a ponytail and was dressed casually for a battle—jeans, a hoodie, and Converse sneakers. Yet Liam knew that the dark brown leather jacket she wore over her hoodie was actually a Nemean Lion's pelt—a gift from her mother two years previous. Around her neck, a shining white necklace sat. It used to be a part of the Aetherium Crown—an artifact that they had retrieved from Atlantis—but the Crown had "given" the necklace to her to restore her powers after she had lost them saving Liam's life. He still wasn't sure how that worked.

Alex was the daughter of Artemis, the goddess of the moon, the hunt, and virginity. How Alex had came to be still boggled Liam's mind, so he preferred not to think about it. Two years ago, his father Zeus had discovered Alex's existence, believed that Artemis had broken her vow of eternal maidenship, and had ordered Alex's death—in fact, the Lord of the Sky had demanded that Liam be her executioner.

That plan hadn't exactly panned out. As it always did when he saw her, his heart did a little impromptu river dance in his chest. She hadn't spotted him yet, hovering hundreds of feet above her family in the sky, probably because she was too busy vaporizing monsters with her bow and arrow (thanks to her mother's gifts, she never missed).

Good. Time to make an entrance.

Liam pressed a button on the ring on his index finger. When he had first discovered that he was the son of Zeus two years ago, it had been a gift from his father. Immediately, the ring grew and transformed into a leaf-shaped sword sharp enough to cleave through a monster's neck. Katamennos—Stormborn.

Liam took a deep breath and released his hold on the winds. Instantly, he began to drop like a stone, diving face-first towards the pavement. He concentrated, feeling an intense buzzing sensation at the base of his skull as his body crackled with lightning.

He loved doing this trick. It always scared monsters.

Liam slammed into the pavement with enough force to break every bone in a regular mortal's body. Lightning followed after him, arcing from his body in a massive storm, sending every monster in a three-foot radius back to Tartarus. His clothes were steaming, but he knew from experience that they wouldn't burn up—not unless he did something really spectacular.

Liam straightened, grinning, as the other monsters stopped what they were doing to stare at him.

"Hi, guys!" he exclaimed gleefully, turning a hellhound to dust with a snap of his fingers that sent thunder racing for it.

The monsters reacted all at once. Some of them turned and ran, but Lawrence and Alex quickly took them out before they could run too far. Most of them lunged for him.

Liam ducked a claw from a draconae and slashed into it at the hip, cutting the snake-woman in half. Less than a second later, two hellhounds dived towards him, but he batted one away with his cane and dodged the other. A moment later, they faded into shadows as silver arrows took them both in the neck. Liam grinned as he gathered the winds around himself and pushed. Any monster nearby went flying—some of them hit buildings, others hit mailboxes and one draconae completely demolished a porta-potty down the street. Just like that, the street was cleared of anything except monster dust.

Liam turned Stormborn back into a ring by pressing a button on the hilt, turning to face the Claytons. Bobby was grinning, wiping monster dust off of his sword. Cooper was shaking the yellow sand out of his fur and wagging his tail. Lawrence was reloading his gun—and looking cool while he did it—but Alex was already approaching Liam.

To anyone else, the sight of the Daughter of Artemis marching towards them might have been intimidating, but Liam could sense the smile that Alex was hiding as she transformed her bow back into a silver watch.

"You're late," she said, crossing her arms as she stopped in front of him.

"Come on," Liam said, brushing monster dust off his shoulder with a goofy grin. "If I wasn't fashionably late, you would be terribly bored."

Alex rolled her eyes—one green, one brown—but she was smiling. Liam loved that he could make her do that.

"Every time you drop out of the sky," she said, gesturing to the large pothole that he had made in the pavement, "I think you're going to break your neck."

"You'd be devastated," Liam said, taking a step towards her.

"You wish." But she kissed him all the same. Every time she did, it felt like Liam's brain was on fire—but in a good way.

"Gross!" Bobby shouted. "Get a room!"

"Oh, no you don't!" Lawrence protested as Liam and Alex broke apart.

Liam took a moment to observe Alex's family. Lawrence was actually her father, and they shared the same eye shape and cheekbones, though Alex mostly resembled her mother. Lawrence was only forty-two, but he looked like he was in his early thirties. It was surprising that no gray had begun to set into his blonde hair yet, especially considering that he had been promoted to a detective in the police force recently. Despite his age, his hazel eyes were very alert—no doubt the son of Athena was already calculating a dozen ways to better defend his home.

Bobby, on the other hand, was fifteen, scrappy, and very much a demigod. He had ADHD and dyslexia, and it was obvious—already the young boy was distracted by a squirrel climbing a tree. Bobby's curly blonde hair resembled his father, Dionysus's, in curliness alone. Liam had never met the boy's mother, and neither had Bobby (she had died in a car crash when he was young), but Liam suspected that he took after her. Bobby's blue eyes certainly didn't look like Mr. D's. Bobby and Alex had grown up in foster care together, and Lawrence had adopted the kid after Alex had defeated the Titan Phoebe two summers ago.

And somehow, these three half-bloods lived together. Liam was no longer surprised whenever he found monsters attacking the Claytons. With three of them clustered in one house, things were bound to get hairy. But all three of them could handle themselves, especially Alex.

Alex turned to her father and adopted brother, a defiant expression on her face. "Don't you two have something to be working on?"

Bobby and Lawrence sighed in unison and retreated inside the house, though Liam did hear Lawrence mutter something about "teenage hormones." Cooper followed them, barking once at Liam in greeting before disappearing inside the house.

"What are they working on?" Liam asked Alex as they closed the front door.

She shrugged. "Bobby has some science project for school."

"How is he adjusting to high school?"

"Oh, he's fine—he's got better grades than I do. Did you really come here just to talk about my brother?"

Liam flashed another grin at her, reaching into his pocket for her anniversary gift. "Happy anniversary."

Alex was smiling. "I love you, flyb—"

THUNK!

Something slammed into her chest from behind, making a horrific squishing sound. For a moment, they both just stared at the black crossbow bolt that protruded from her chest. Blood began to dribble out of the wound.

Alex coughed suddenly, and blood leaked out of her mouth. Slowly, she began to topple forward. Liam caught her clumsily, feeling a terrible mixture of shock and soul-shaking fear as he set her on the ground.

"No," he muttered, taking a canteen of nectar from her belt. "No, no, no..."

Liam wasn't sure what exactly he was supposed to do, but he knew that he couldn't use nectar on it while the crossbow bolt was still in her chest. Feeling like he wanted to vomit and panic at the same time, he wrapped his hands around the arrow and pulled.

It came free of her chest with a horrible squelching sound, and then she gasped as blood began to fill her lungs. Desperately, Liam poured as much nectar as he could into the wound, but it was too late—none of the godly drink had any affect.

"No!" Liam screamed, not caring that his voice cracked as he grabbed Alex's shoulders. She couldn't die!

Suddenly, she gripped his hands with such power that he could feel his fingers turning purple.

"Liam," she gasped, her voice a whisper of what it had been. "The...the...bounty hunters..." She trailed off, her eyes beginning to close.

"Stay awake!" Liam told her, his voice trembling as he shook her to make her eyes open again. "Help is coming, you just..." He couldn't finish the sentence. The nectar hadn't worked. Alex's grip on his hand was fading, becoming slack. "I love you, Alex." He repeated it over and over again, holding her hand tighter as she gripped his looser.

"You...too..." Then she gasped, a horrible, gut-wrenching sound, and was still, her mismatched eyes staring at nothing.

Sitting back on his haunches, Liam placed his face in his hands and began to cry.

PLEASE DON'T HATE ME.

So I'm going to try something that I liked with one of my other stories. Dumb jokes! So here goes:

Why did the elephants get kicked out of the public swimming pool?

They kept dropping their trunks!

PLEASE. REVIEW.