It was the dead of morning. Night still hovered in the air. But Audrey was one of the few now up and about, practicing on top of the kip bar.

Every day and morning she got up early to train her body and out stand the roughest obstacles. There was little anyone understood about her and her gymnastics in this obscene army of Kronos's. But their misunderstanding gave her the strongest advantage as the most feared warrior standing. Besides the dracaena, she was probably the most flexible person on board. Add a sword to her hand and she was unstoppable. Day by day she addressed minor weaknesses such as pulling a handspring with a sword intact.

She was finally even touching on Luke's notion about the whole environment issue. Last week she battled a fellow crewmember and used the stair railings to her advantage. It was a lot like walking along a bar, but thinner. In the end, her strong balance and coordination won her fight when he fell from four stories down.

He's still trying to recover.

Swinging her body on top of the taller bar, she stood straight as a board both hands positioned and her eyes locked forward. She never looked down. Tucking in her firm abdomen, she took a deep breath then finally sprung.

The point was to make a back aerial and land on the smaller bar on both hands. That didn't happen.

The moment she released into midair, the door opened. Loudly. At this time of day, Audrey heard only as much as snoring and the occasional footsteps to a bathroom. No one ever opened these doors except her.

So instead of landing on her hands like she had done a thousand times before, the young demigod clashed the small of her back against the cold piece of metal. In order to avoid a nasty ten feet fall of humiliation, Audrey quickly latched her flour coated feet onto the bar as firm as possible and swung her body back on top the apparatus.

Safely on top of the bar, Audrey crouched down, feeling the sting in her back. Holding on to the side railings for support, she glanced down at the insolent person who dared disrupt her.

"You!" She snarled.

Selena Beauregard stepped forward, none too pleased to be there herself it seemed. Her arms were crossed. "Nice save." She said coolly.

Both she and Beauregard here never really got along. From the start, those blue eyes and blond hair told Audrey this demigod was bad news. After all she was a spy, a traitor. And from the look of her face, the feeling was mutual.

Swallowing the roaring pain behind her, Audrey straightened up and walked swiftly across the bar approaching her. She said, "No one comes down here at this time. What do I owe the pleasure?"

"Kronos wants to see you. Now."

"Where is he?" She expected a straight answer.

"Where he's been for the last week." She said.

She was expecting a lot.

Before leaving, Audrey stopped a foot from the door and gazed straight ahead as she mentioned casually, "Oh and if you ever interrupt me during my routine again, I'll have you hanging from the ceiling here by the end of those lovely blond locks of yours."

It took a while for the green-eyed demigod to distinguish the difference between Luke and Kronos. Even after her spontaneous recovery, she used to think it was just some silly dissociative identity disorder or something.

He pushed the standing ghouls out of the room leaving them two alone. She suddenly realized the eeriness inside when empty of ten to twenty bodies.

"This had better be good. Your Barbie Doll just nearly cost me a concussion."

"Your skills in that area do not concern me right now." He studied her momentarily with those sullen golden eyes. They told her this was serious. "Let me put this nicely for you – how has your relationship with the water been going on lately?"

She gritted her teeth. "The usual."

He nodded. "I see."

"Look, I'm working on it and am –"

"still avoiding it," he finished. He walked on over to the round table separating them. On top lay a black box like the ones she had seen hanging from the wall in her old cell. He pressed a button and they suddenly heard the same voices belonging to those who just stood here.

Three voices gathered together in a busy area. Their tones told her the matter was repulsive. At some point she realized they were talking about their new leader.

They were talking about her.

"A monkey, that one is."

"She's a freak. I bet you she came out of the Looney bin."

"Yeah it's now wonder. I still remember seeing her drink that Cyclops blood.

"Hahaha good one!"

"And you want to know one other thing that begs an answer," he said. "Where is that fascination of the water? I've been living on this blasted boat now for seven months and haven't seen her even once look at it. She keeps indoors. Always! Unless it's night out."

"Maybe she gets seasick?"

"Or maybe she's not a true daughter of Poseidon."

"Yeah! After all where is the black hair?"

One answered, "She dyed it white, remember?"

"Ughh, the point is that insolent girl is a fraud! Sure, she tries to make up for it by showing off those little tricks and kicks. But we're not stupid!"'

The crowd grew louder.

One asked, "Why doesn't the Lord do anything about it?"

"Because he wants to fool us too. He knows that with a child of the Big 3 we stand a chance against our rivals. This is his way of securing our loyalty and confidence in his army. He wants us to believe that child is our only hope and weapon. I don't know about you all, but I don't want a deceiver leading my platoon!"

"What are we going to do about it?" One asked.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do. By sunset of Friday if all goes right and we've set course for New York, we'll surround her. We'll drag her on deck and toss her sorry rear off board. Then we'll see for sure if this 'daughter of Poseidon' sinks or swims."

Kronos pressed the second button, turning it off.

"That was late last night. I thought you should know."

She balled both her fists. "I'll kill them."

"You can't kill them all," he put the box away. "I won't allow it."

"So you want them to throw me off board," she muttered.

"I want you get your matters in order." He and Audrey locked eyes. "And soon." He had warned her beforehand that this would happen. "They can learn to fear Audrey Corleone, the tenacious leader and cold warrior that she is. But they will never respect her if they do not see the Daughter of Poseidon first. Show them that they're wrong."

She studied him closely. It had only been since six months now that she lived by that title. It was still rubbing on her like sandpaper. When Luke handed her the body of gods names, his name struck her most. She can still remember her intoxicated body pitching the illustrated book out into the fire crackles after recognizing his picture. It was from that moment on that she went through the trouble of erasing whichever traits connected him to her - starting with the hair.

She blinked. How would it mean anything, she wanted to ask him. How would he help her? A part of her wanted to lash out at Kronos for not even considering punishing those imbeciles. But she remained standing there aghast, her green eyes blazing.

The way he saw, the sooner she learned to swim the sooner she would gain their respect and end the inevitable dirty looks that are to come. The sooner she learned to swim the sooner they could move on to more productive matters.

She was about to step out when he added, "I still want you to come to our meetings. Like the one you just missed. But you will not be leading my troops again until you fulfill my one last requirement."

"To swim?"

It was as if she could hear him sneering. "Precisely."

She had managed to uncover the unworn blue bathing suit Luke had purchased for her. It was a good nine months ago when she was just adjusting to this new world. At that time, she swore she would never wear it.

Sucking down every painful gulp that tempered with her motive, she reluctantly put on the outfit and a robe before making her way into the empty pool room. Thankfully, no eyes found her along the way by the time she closed and locked the room. She had suffered enough icy looks today.

Meanwhile her heartbeat failed to stop pumping so tenaciously. Frequently having to swallow her fears, she avoided the sight of the grand body of water that watched her. It was always watching her, sometimes even frantically screaming at her as if she had done something wrong. The moment her bare feet reached the front of the pool, she closed her eyes. The waters were soundly picking up in a windless room. She took deeper breaths while removing her robe. It was so cold. Again the waters attracted her attention. The sound of waves crashed against the surrounding concrete perimeter. Even the ship felt as if it was just barely holding on.

Keeping her eyes closed, she took her first step in. The water instantly rushed up against her feet like a jolt of lightning. Something exhilarating about it stimulated the opening of her eyes.

The waves had suddenly erupted alive and wild, crashing about the entire pool room leaping as high as her height. The undulating anger of it raced through her veins as she remained frozen in position watching the scene.

Without taking any regard into it, her eyes suddenly dropped to the snake-like waters wrapping about her legs ready to consume her. Her instincts told her to jump, pounce, something! And she did so she thought. But then the arms of the water hauled her in.

In a state of panic, she tried with all her strength to escape. The mighty warrior tried holding on to every step in the pool that escaped her and flapped about like a wounded bird in the hopes of reaching freedom. As she feared, the water was angry with her, dragging her down to the very bottom of the pool floor like it had done so many years ago.

Suddenly, just when her hopes of survival dwindled to near nothing, she felt another arm wrap about her. Its warmth assured her that it belonged to someone. The string of water was also no longer curling about her leg and dragging her. Something fairly calm reached the air.

In a matter of seconds, fresh air bursts into her lungs again. She reopened her eyes to find the waves suddenly ceasing their action. In fact, the only bit of movement she saw now was the blue moisture returning from the concrete back into its habitat. The arm of her savior remarkably turned out to be the blond-haired young man who ran the whole show. He threw her from the inside of the pool to along the side. To his surprise, she rolled onto her knees where she suddenly began coughing the profuse amounts of water clogging her system. While vomiting, she then felt a piece of cloth draping over her shivering figure only to find it to be her strangely dry robe.

Crouching down and avoiding the sight of the water at all cost, she tediously began rubbing at her temples.

"Are you okay?" The soft, sympathetic voice of Luke asked her. She could feel him trying to see her face.

But she didn't want him to see. "I'm fine," she lied, real tears fighting to surface. While trying to hide them behind her eyelids, she was harmed again by the last few images of the violent waters from the pool. Dark memories emerged by the splashing of these waves. They plagued her more ferociously now than ever before. And until his arms wrapped about her, she failed to realize she was severely sobbing.