Percy POV

As this mental case Triopas sailed his ship towards ours at 40 knots, I came to a stunning realization.

Rhode lied to me.

This is one of her sons…one of Helios' sons. She told me that they had killed each other, but now I know that they're still alive. Or at least this guy.

Rhode trembled behind me. I looked at her with a dark shadow on my face. "You lied to me."

Her face dropped as her mouth opened in a small o as she tried to come up with an explanation. I shook my head in disappointment as I looked back to Triopas. I heard in my ear, "Percy! This guy is one of the Heliadae! He is Triopas, and he is one of the brothers that banded together and killed his brother out of spite of the brother's superior intelligence! Don't forget…he's a son of the girl standing next to you, and Helios. So he probably has some tricks up his sleeve."

I nodded as I clicked my pen, revealing Riptide. Triopas grinned wickedly as his ship sailed towards ours; he was anticipating a fight. Hoping for one.

Triopas yelled, "GIVE IT UP, SON OF POSEIDON! YOU CAN'T WIN! THAT GIRL THAT'S WITH YOU, IS MY MOTHER! SHE LIED TO YOU. SHE'S A LIAR! GIVE HER TO ME, SO I CAN GIVE HER TO MY FATHER!"

Rhode coughed as she started to shake. She tried to put on a brave front as a mother, "TRIOPAS! YOU SIT DOWN RIGHT NOW-"

"YOU THINK I'M GOING TO TAKE ORDERS FROM A TEENAGE GIRL?!"

Triopas slammed his sword on the mast of the ship, and the seven demigods gathered around me. Thalia grinned as she looked at the other sailors that were on the ship with Triopas. "Just like old times, Kelp Brain?"

I smiled at the memories of me and Thalia fighting together. "Like old times. Nico, get to that ship wheel and turn it as far as you can to the right, so they won't crash into the boat. Jason and Thalia, to me and Rhode. Rhode-"

I tossed her an old, silver sword that I found on the deck of the ship. "This sword belonged to the original Perseus himself. It came with the ship. Impress me."

Rhode nodded, took the sword and shifted her clothes into battle gear. Jason flipped his coin and his double edged sword landed in his hand. I winced at the vision of Rhode stabbing the camper with Jason's sword, but quickly pushed it out my mind.

"TEAM, MOVE OUT!"

I sprinted towards the edge of the deck, grabbing Rhode's wrist and pulling her with me. She was tense, as if expecting me to throw her off the edge for lying to me. The six other demigods ran with me, the wind whipping at our faces reminded me of Hermes' bottle of the winds of the earth.

Triopas grinned as he raised his sword in anticipation, watching us sprint to our deaths.

I leapt as far as I could, and realized that I had undershot it. I was going to fall.

Jason and Thalia hovered a little bit to get to the other ship, Nico and Hazel stuck with me and Rhode as I created a water wave to run on so we could reach the ship.

The two children of Zeus landed on the ship, and the sailors attacked them, each of them smelling like old rotten dirt and human flesh. Jason sliced and fought to stun, while Thalia fought to knock out. She pushed sailors back with Aegis, and blasted some with low-energy blasts of lightning. Jason stabbed, rolled, sliced, disarmed, and kicked sailors into kingdom come. They were unstoppable together.

Nico landed on the ship with Rhode and I, and instantly ran towards the wheel. About six large sailors stood in his way, but Hazel screamed his name, throwing a gold coin on the deck. Nico jumped all around the coin so he wouldn't touch it. The sailors, them being pirates at heart, lunged for the coin, and as soon as they touched it, a white silvery light erupted and the sailors were gone.

One of the sailors yelled, "Captain! These kids fight like demons!"

Triopas sniffed. "Then purge the demon out of them."

Nico reached the wheel, and cut it to the right as far as he could, as if he was parallel parking. The ship started to turn, forcing the sailors to lose their balance.

Rhode was doing well. She was fighting just as brutally as when she was fighting the Ares cabin, maiming and slicing off valuable body parts. She avoided a sword swipe, and cut off the guy's hand, kicking him in the ankle at the same time. She closed her eyes and columns burst out of the water and crashed into the sailors, knocking them out. I saw Triopas in the midst of the sailors, creeping towards her with a look of pure hate.

"Percy, behind you."

Annabeth's voice sounded in my ear, and I turned around and punched a sailor in the face. I stabbed and rolled, concluding that these sailors were either monsters, dead, or demigods if Riptide had an effect on them. Three sailors came to me with their large swords, and attacked at once, looking to slice me up from three different angles.

I parried one, and hooked it out of his hand so it flew and stabbed the other sailor. I sliced the last sailor in the knee, and he buckled from the loss of use of his knee. I kicked him in the face, then held out my hand.

The entire ship tilted as a huge wave flew up, threatening everyone on board. Nico and Hazel looked up and I could've sworn I heard an "Oh, no" from one of them. Rhode looked up and knocked one of the sailors out brutally as all of us looked at the wave.

It flew down and crashed on the boat, cracking the wood and breaking a hole into the ship. Sailors drowned, and I inhaled as the sea water surrounded me. The ship was overflowed with water. With new found strength, I attacked every sailor who was swimming; one of them, I kicked in the face so he lost consciousness and drowned. Another person, I went underwater and held him there until he stopped thrashing. I swam up to the 'surface' and saw Triopas' face; he was standing on top of the water.

"PERCY! He's a son of Rhode, a grandson of Poseidon. He might have hydrokinesis also. You have to improvise." Annabeth sounded scared for my life.

He shook his head. "You think you're better than me, Perseus. Think again! Rhodos will not be your Andromeda. Not today."

I gave him my wolf stare, and his words faltered. I waded towards him, concentrated, then burst into the air from a rocket propellant of water. I flew in the air towards him and hacked down with Riptide. He parried it with his sword, then kicked me in the chest.

"I am Triopas! I have killed men mightier than you!"

I saw stars; he was strong. He punched me in the face as I flew towards the still-overflowing deck. I hit the water and immediately didn't feel any more pain. I burst back out and sent a quick column of water to his face. It hit his forehead and he cried out as he fell off his little platform and onto the deck.

The water had emptied, and the sailors were dead; except for Triopas.

I looked around and saw Thalia coming out from her force-field created by Aegis. Jason, Nico, Thalia, Hazel, and Rhode were all underneath her shielding.

"Way to go, Seaweed Brain. Muuahhh."

I grinned as I heard Annabeth in my ear again.

They gathered around me as I pointed Riptide towards him. "Give it up, Triopas."

We heard Annabeth's voice; "Is everyone okay? My signal went out after the little…bath that my boyfriend gave all of you. Nico was starting to smell anyway."

Everyone laughed; a tired laugh with traces of victory in it. Triopas sneered. "It burns you, doesn't it, Jackson? To come so close to having peace after beating Gaea. You're the big shot of Olympus…but you can never get a break. No peace. It has cost you all your strength; as you can see, you barely stunned me."

I stared at him as Thalia pointed Aegis towards him. "Shut up."

"The daughter of Zeus! The virgin! You're going to die like Rhodos' only daughter…alone! A VIRGIN! No man will ever want you! Look at you."

Thalia scowled. "I said…"

"SHUT UP!" She smacked him with Aegis, and he fell to the ground hard. He recovered, but she held the shield in his face.

He winced under the power of Aegis, but he looked back at me with a craze in his eye. "Helios is back, Jackson. He is back for our mother Rhodos. And he will stop at nothing before he gets her back. My brothers are coming. Everyone is coming. They will stop you, Jackson. Ochimus will find you, Jackson. He is the oldest and the strongest out of all of us, and when he comes, I hope that you fight better than you did."

The last word he said was accompanied with a comforting spray of saliva. He looked at Rhode. "Rhodos, your time has come. Stop running; Helios has taken us from the dead. He has that power now."

Rhode shook her head as a tear fell from her eye. I realized with a start that this was her son; a man that she gave birth to and that she still loves. "Triopas, I did my best with you. I tried to raise you to the best of my ability, but Helios corrupted you."

Annabeth muttered, "This is so weird. She's like, 12."

"HELIOS did not corrupt me, mother! You did! How do you expect to raise seven sons and a daughter if you're not able to lay down rules and protect yourself? We walked all over you and as soon as we could leave that pathetic island, we did. Because you were on it, you made it pathetic. I am awakened by my loyal father, and do you know what I see? In the United States of America? Is a state. Named after you and your island. WHERE IS THE STATE NAMED FOR ME! FOR THE HELIADAE! You will die, Rhodos. You will die painfully. Intimately. And when you die, we will all rejoice in gladness, and take advantage of your corpse-"

Rhode screamed and held out her hand. Triopas faltered and his body started to freeze up. I looked at Rhode. "What are you doing?"

Triopas started to convulse, his screams were muffled by him not being able to open his mouth. Jason got nervous, "RHODE! What are you doing?!"

Annabeth added, "PERCY! DO SOMETHING! She's killing him!"

Triopas was shaking now, as water flowed out of his mouth, ears, and nose. Pure water flowed right out, and Triopas started looking dry. Like a colored statue. Dust started to fall from his lips as all the water went out of him.

Rhode yelled and cast the water into the ocean, leaving a stony and dusty husk of what Triopas used to be. I bent down and touched him; his body crumbled into the dust of human skin.

I looked at Rhode. "What the hades was that?"

Rhode was still breathing heavily. "I took the water out his body. The only thing in there now is dry solid organs, effectively killing him."

Nico swallowed. "Yeah, he's dead all right. He's still shouting curses at Rhode even as he's on his way to Tartarus. Kind of sad."

Thalia looked at me. "You okay?"

I just looked out to the sea. Some more people were coming. More of the Heliadae."

Annabeth laughed in my ear. "Um, Percy? Yeah, the ship is still sinking."

I then felt a sinking movement; I forgot that the ship was sinking. She was right, of course.

I looked behind me, and half the boat was submerged. I realized that Triopas was trying to get our attention so we wouldn't notice that we were in danger until we were submerged. Then he could become active again and work to drown all of us. But Rhode took care of that.

She killed him.

Her own son.

Hazel touched my arm. "You okay, Percy?"

I shook my head. "Yeah."

I was about to form another water bridge, but I heard something. I stopped and looked behind me, concentrating on my advanced hearing that Lupa gave me. I heard the word, 'help'.

"Percy, someone is in the brig!"

I looked around the sinking boat, and I ran towards the brig. I sprinted to the lower level of the ship, and I heard much more vividly, "HELP!"

I sprinted to the right of the hall and saw a cell with a guy in it, maybe like 20 years old. He had black hair and ocean blue eyes; he looked like a relative of Triopas. He had ripped robes on, and he had several gashes on his head as if he had gotten beaten badly. He had large, intelligent eyes that observed everything and recorded everything.

Annabeth muttered, "Woah…it can't be him…"

I didn't know who this guy was, but I just sliced the bars in half and grabbed his arm, pulling him up to the main level.

The problem was that we were underwater already.

Jason and Thalia had already flew the others to the Princess Andromeda, but Triopas' ship was underwater. I looked down at the guy I just saved, and he shrugged, taking a deep breath and exhaling. He said underwater, "I can breath underwater. I get it from my mother."

I nodded and made a not bad face as I grabbed his wrist, swimming him up to the surface. The ship's anchor flew towards me, and I narrowly avoided it cutting off my head.

But we didn't avoid the chain.

The chain, just as heavy as the anchor in a way, reached around us and pulled us down to the sea floor. The ship was floating down towards us, and if we stayed there, we were going to be destroyed. The guy that I had saved pointed his fingers and was talking to himself as if he was making a calculation.

Then, he used one finger and sliced down at one chink in the chain, destroying the entire anchor chain by disassembling it. The chain fell apart, and we were free.

We swam up and burst out the water and onto the boat, met by the other seven demigods.

The dude was soaking wet, and collapsed on the wall of the ship. He grinned tiredly towards us. "There's…there's a lot of power on this ship. Demigods, I presume. Of the Ancient Three, most likely. This one here, who saved me, is probably a son of Poseidon."

He pointed at Jason. "He, by his aura and his eyes, and his simple weapon is most likely a son of Zeus, along with the one with the black hair and shield of Medusa. The two younger ones are probably children of Hades, judging by their antisocial posture-"

"Hey! We are not antisocial!"

"Actually, I am."

"Well I'm not!"

"-and the beautiful girl there with the tanned skin and the eyes like mine happens to be my mother."

Rhode looked at him and inhaled sharply. She grabbed onto Thalia for support, which made Thalia reach for her sword. Everyone turned to Rhode, then turned to the dude, nodding as if they could see the resemblance.

The dude looked at all of us. "Pleasure to meet all of you demigods. I am the demigod that they chained and killed because they were jealous of my intelligence. I was also the only one who didn't hate my own mother, in fact, I was her favorite. I am one of the Heliadae, the pride and joy of the team that was celebrated throughout the seas. I am Tenages."