The dragons burst into flames. Literally. The smaller, purple and white dragon exploded into white-hot flames of its colours. The other dragon was just a large, thick smoke cloud.

When that all passed, standing there were two people- a casually dressed, mixed raced man in his late twenties with a tail… like a monkey's? Percy almost laughed. At his side was a female Lizardian, a taller version of Ronnie and a heck of a lot more powerful. Her hair was auburn-brown, thick and shoulder length and her brown-green eyes shone with malice. She was dressed similarly to her children- dark tracksuit bottoms and a long sleeved, white T-shirt.

Ronnie's older version stormed forward, glowing with power. Everyone watched, amazed, as she went straight up to Caksung, weaponless and two inches shorter than him.

"I thought I already told you, Samsung that you leave ma kids alone!"

"Yes, about a hundred times this month." Caksung sighed. "And it isn't Samsung." The Lizardian didn't say anything, clenching her fists and squaring up to Caksung.

Her accomplice had reached the mutant children at the same time the twins and Annabeth had.

"You two OK?" Annabeth asked.

"OK-ish. That count?" Alfie muttered before grimacing in pain as he tried to sit up.

"Keep still, kid. Your mom will be done in a minute and she'll be right over." Alfie massaged his ribs, sighing moodily. The mutants' friend looked up quizzically at the trio of demigods. "And you are?"

"Percy and Louisa Jackson." The twins said as if they had rehearsed their simultaneous introduction all their life.

"Annabeth Chase." The man studied them for a short while, his eyes betraying the fact that he was deciding whether or not to kill them.

"Jordan." He stuck his hand out. Percy grinned and shook it.

"Alfie, look!" Ronnie squealed. They all looked over at Caksung and his new opponent. She had got a ten foot long chain with weights on the end from… gods knows where. It lashed sharply through the air, Caksung trying his best to stay away from it.

In a split second the chain snapped around his neck. The older Lizardian jerked her arm back, forcing Caksung to stumble and stoop. She kneed him in the stomach, making him double up. Somehow, by sending a deadly snap through the chain, she managed to catapult Caksung into the air.

"Dude, that's your mom?" Louisa asked, looking at the mutants. They nodded. "You sure?"

"Yes." Alfie hissed, half in anger, half in pain.

"Yep, that's Violet. Be ideal to stay in her good books." Jordan said simply.

Caksung landed with a thud, his arm breaking beneath him, with a burning sensation around his neck. The end of Violet's chain collided with the ground a mere inch from his face.

"Ya gonna leave yet?"

"Ask a stupid question." Caksung snarled, getting to his feet steadily, his sword returning to his hand. Violet grinned evilly, the chain shimmering until she held two katana.

Caksung yelled angrily, bringing his sword down on her head. She moved with lightning reflexes, one sword held about her head and deflecting the blade while the other stabbed Caksung in the pelvis. He cried out, lowering his sword. He had been a bit pompous fighting Alfie and let that easy victory get to his head.

Violet was different.

She bought a blade down on his head, which he deflected at the same time she crouched slightly, bringing the other sword in a horizontal slash at his side. Caksung jumped back before running into battle again.

The demigods and mutants gazed in awe as the fighting Lizardians' blades were silver blurs; Violet's drawing more and more blood by the second. Her attacks were powerful, angry and lethal. She spun, slashed, deflected and maimed until Caksung was a bleeding, shivering heap at her feet.

"Get up." Violet ordered through gritted teeth. Caksung coughed and spat out blood. "I said get up!" One of her blood-stained swords vanished. She grabbed Caksung by the throat and lifted him clear off the ground, her sword aimed between his eyes. "Why are ya here?" Caksung laughed coldly. Violet's grip tightened on her sword as her eyes narrowed dangerously. She clenched at his throat with more force, making him choke.

"I'm only the beginning, Violet." Violet dropped him. Caksung landed on his feet, but before anything could happen, Violet roundhouse kicked him. Alfie almost laughed at how far Caksung went, smashing through the roof of the Hera cabin.

"She's not going to like that." Annabeth mumbled. Then she shrugged. "Diddums." The twins laughed.

Violet was suddenly just there, standing over her children, her sword gone. Percy looked at her and then at where she had been, twenty feet away, two seconds ago.

"I see you two managed to get inta trouble again." They smiled sweetly. Violet sighed, her expression softening into something more motherly. She knelt next to her kids, one arm around Ronnie and her other hand on Alfie's ribs.

Percy noticed she still had that glow about her, a soft golden yellow. It spread to her children. Ronnie perked up, with her energy back. Alfie slowly healed thanks to help from the four elements he and his mother alone controlled. "Right, better now?" They nodded, Ronnie hugging her mother. "Missed ya too, Ron."

"I knew you'd come! But Alfie didn't!" Violet looked mildly surprised, before looking at her son.

"Alfie?" He was looking down at the ground, ashamed. "Fine, Ron, what happened?" Ronnie told her:

Ronnie walked out onto the porch where her brother was sulking. She found him leaning against the railing.

"Alfie, you OK?"

"Brilliant. Just brilliant." He muttered darkly.

"Well, that's 'no' then." Ronnie leant on the railing, facing in the opposite direction to her brother. "There's something bothering you. What's the matter?"

"Nothin'."

"Yeah sure." Ronnie waited for him to speak, but he didn't. "You're missing home, aren't you?" Alfie tensed but didn't answer. "Yeah, I thought you were." She sighed. "Alfie, we'll be home soon. Mom'll come for us and-"

"She ain't comin'."

"What?"

"Mom. She ain't comin'."

"How- yes she is!"

"No, she ain't."

"Why are you saying that?" Ronnie was near tears, but her brother wouldn't look up at her or notice anything. "Alfie, why wouldn't Mom come?"

"Why would she come?" Alfie corrected moodily.

"She will come! This is Mom we're talking about! She never lets us down!" Alfie sighed, balling his fists.

"It ain't that, Ron. It's just…" He trailed off.

"Just what?" Ronnie asked carefully, tears sliding down her cheeks.

"I mean, why would she?" Alfie was talking to himself more than his sister. "I'm Darkness. I cause too many problems." Alfie looked at his sister out of the corner of his eye. "I don't think ya've seen her have a rant, Ron."

"No." Ronnie admitted quietly.

"Yeah, well. She wrecked the trainin' room and that was how fed up she was with this Darkness creut."

"Alfie, she is coming! This is our mother! She wouldn't abandon us and you know that!"

"Yeah? Then where she is?" Alfie argued, restraining himself from shouting. Ronnie seemed surprised that he was angry at her, but that surprise quickly faded into hurt. Alfie seemed to realise how upset he had made her. "Ron, I-" But she turned tail, tears streaming down her cheeks and disappeared into the Big House. Alfie didn't go after her, but instead smacked his fist against a beam, yelling in frustration.

"And that was two days ago." Ronnie finished, absent-mindedly plating her mother's hair.

"Alfie? Got anything to say?" He mumbled something, not looking up. "Didn't catch that." Violet waited patiently.

"I'm… sorry for… doubtin' you, Mom." Alfie still hadn't looked up.

"Thanks, kid. And I'm sorry for being late. You have no idea how many dimensions there are."

"Whoa, you can go from dimension to dimension?" Leo had turned up. Violet shot him a bemused look.

"Yeah."

"That's so cool! How'd you do it? Is there any machinery involved? Does there have to be biodiverse material in the transport window to be able to transport beings safely? And, what about the subtonic stabilisers and the biomass of beings and their molecular structure and-" Violet groaned. "What's the matter?" (Leo's ramble I made up. I'm not sure any of that stuff even exists).

"What's 'biodiverse' and 'subtonic stabilisers'?" She asked. Leo started to explain. "Ugh, forget that I asked."

"Sorry." Leo went a light shade of pink.

"Use small words, will ya?" Violet smiled kindly and got to her feet, unravelling the plat Ronnie had done. Violet looked around at all the demigods and the camp. "What is this place?"

"I was going to ask the same thing." Jordan mumbled.

"But as usual-"

"You beat me to it." He sighed, smiling slightly.

"So, let me get this straight," Violet thought for a minute. "The Greek, Roman and Egypt gods are still alive?"

"They're immortal, Mom. They don't die."

"You know what I mean, Alfie. Shut it." Alfie grinned slyly. "Anyway, the kids at this camp are their children?"

"This camp, yeah. Camp Jupiter accepts anyone descended from the gods." Reyna smiled kindly. Alfie and Ronnie looked like they were trying not to laugh.

"Twins, no!" Something smashed. "Twins!" Annabeth scolded. Sadie pulled out her wand.

"Hi-nehm." The fallen chinaware repaired itself. This chinaware was one of Chiron's new collections- chinaware with Ancient Greek related subjects.

"Twins, stop fighting!"

"He started it." Annabeth quickly jumped between the two and split them up. They had been fighting because neither of them wanted to do anything that day, but one of them had to.

"Did not." Percy muttered.

"Children, shut up." Annabeth spoke as if she were talking to three year olds.

"Hoooollllllllddddd it!" Violet sat up, suddenly interested.

"What's the matter?" They were in the conference room, sitting around the ping pong table.

"A giant snake is gonna attack the camp?"

"That's if we're right." Carter reminded her.

"Hopefully you aren't." Louisa mumbled. Carter curiously regarded her for a minute. Louisa smiled sweetly, but her eyes were anxious.

"We've been fighting Apophis for quite a long time now. He doesn't take 'bog off and no' for an answer."

"How big is this snake then?" Jordan asked. Sadie and Carter looked at each.

"Erm… I reckon he could use this valley to curl up in and to have nice destructive dreams in." Sadie said. Louisa paled. "Are you OK?"

"Mm-hm." She had her hands in her lap. Percy had a hunch that his sister's hands were shaking. He and Annabeth were watching her worriedly. The rest of the cabin leaders were watching her, half-curious, half-amused. Louisa had never been like this. Ever.

"Um… anyway, how good are your camp's protection charms?" Violet asked.

"You mean the magic that hides us from the mortal world and keeps out most demons." Chiron smiled.

"Err… think so. Speaking of, what's with the tree, the weird dragon and the golden blanket?" A few of the cabin leaders laughed.

"I will explain later. We have more important matters to discus. Travis, Connor?" The Stoll brothers perked up. "Do you mind getting the aerial map of camp please?" The brothers jumped up and left. They returned a minute later carrying a metre and a half long scroll. They set it at one end of the table and pushed it along. Unravelled, this map was as big as the table. "Sadie, Carter. Where do you think that this Apophis will strike?"

"Erm… he won't come straight away-"

"Thank the gods." Louisa breathed, making her twin and his girlfriend laugh. Even Alfie cracked a smile.

"But there will be hundreds, maybe thousands of demons." Clarisse scoffed. Carter frowned at her. "Ares?" He guessed. Clarisse nodded, glaring at him. "Mmm…"

"Got a problem with that, punk?"

"You all fight with celestial bronze or…"

"Imperial gold." Jason added helpfully, his magic coin in hand.

"Or that. They're not going to work. You saw earlier how they reacted earlier. Not even a scratch."

"How do we stop them then?" Carter made to answer, but Violet threw something onto the table. It was a red and silver blur as it spun like a top across the map, but when it stopped in the centre they saw what it was. It was a silver handled hunting knife with a deadly sharp, blood red blade.

"What metal is that?" Leo asked. Piper gingerly picked it up and examined it closely.

"That metal don't actually have a name. I just call it BloodBlade."

"Will it work against all the demons? Greek, Roman, Egyptian, mutant?"

"Works on any demon."

"Are you sure? We can't afford mistakes." Reyna said, accepting the knife from Piper. Despite their feud over Jason, they got along civilly. The blade glinted maliciously in the light.

"I'm as sure as my name's Violet." She said simply. "Worded that wrong, but ya know what I mean." Most of them smiled. Something clicked in her mind. "Hold on a sec…" She held out her hand and a small, dark grey metal box appeared in her palm. She ducked under the table and placed it on the underside, right in the middle.

"Mom? What are you doing?" Ronnie asked cautiously.

"Michael's latest invention. Worth a try."

"Remember how to use it?" Jordan asked, trying to stop himself from smiling.

"Sort of." Violet drummed her fingers on the table and a thin line of pale blue light shot up from the table, directly above Michael's invention. It spread out across the map, becoming a 3D hologram of the aerial camp map.

"I want one." The twins said in unison. The present demigods stared at the map in awe, seeing the climbing wall spill blue lava at unsuspecting climbers. The lake glistened, its calm surface broken by a few blue kayaking demigods. The cabins were the size of gingerbread houses with miniature demigods milling around. The Big House stood as big as regular Tupperware tub.

"Can I look at that afterwards?" Leo asked.

"Yup." Violet said.

"Mom, give him somethin' cool 'n' you want get it back." Alfie told her.

"Meh. If Michael asks it got broken in a dimension jump." She examined the 3D map, before flicking her hand to the left. The whole thing spun round until the miniature Thalia's tree was in front of her. "Main entrance to camp?" She asked, looking up at Chiron.

"More or less."

"Right," She said uncertainly. "Mark it." Thalia's tree turned purple. Violet spun the map the other way. She peered over the sapphire blue treetops. "Don't really like this- feel like a giant." She muttered. "OK, so what's here?"

"We have a hoard of various monsters in there. Our Capture-the-flag games are held in there, the creek being the boundary line."

"Creek?" Chiron nodded. "Uh… show me all major and minor water bodies." The creek and the lake rippled a deep blue. "What's the protection like down at the lake?"

"Well, our camp's magic borders travel down past the lake." Violet nodded and turned the map again. "What are you trying to do?"

"Figure out what battlegrounds we're fightin' in." Violet bit her lip, a sudden cheeky gleam in her eyes.

"Mom, leave the map the right way up." Ronnie warned.

"Damn it…" Violet cursed under her breath. Her children smiled. "Fine." She sighed, flicking the map back round, so that the top of Thalia's purple tree tickled Chiron's chin. "OK, big red snake." Louisa whimpered, but only Percy heard her.

Sadie and Carter held their breath as a snake slithered out of the woods. It was as long as the ground that the whole of the woods covered. Violet narrowed her eyes at them and their minds went blank. "Na, it's OK. This ain't any of that sympathetic magic or whatever." Alfie and Ronnie stared at their mother in amazement. "What do Egyptian demons look like?"

"Anything." Sadie said simply. Violet stared blankly at her.

"Mom, she means those weird demons that have things like corkscrews and knives and stuff for heads."

"Oh," Violet said quietly, relaxing, even smiling. "Those were weird. Yeah, anyway- weird Egyptian demons." An army of Egyptian demons swarmed the camp, but stopped at the borders. "So the snake got in, but those things didn't? That's demonist."

"Is this going somewhere?" Clarisse asked impatiently.

"Yeah, gimme a minute. I'm still learnin' how to use this stupid thing." Clarisse scowled at her and Violet glared back. Like the twins and Annabeth, she was ace at giving death stares. "Err… show me future plans for enemy attacks. If you can." She added quickly. The snake suddenly appeared, coiling around the Big House, his armies marching straight through the magic boundary without delay. Thalia's tree was now a smoking stump with a tattered Golden Fleece at the base. Peleus's empty shell was smouldering two feet away. Demigods were running about in panic, a few trying to take order. Red lines arced from the serpent, snaking across the camp grounds, sending violent shudders through anything in its path.

Those at the table stared at the scaled destruction in front of them. "Nice." Violet said, with horror in her brown-green eyes. Even Caksung wasn't that bad. "Show me how we can protect this camp." A blinding flash of white engulfed the room.

When that died, there was just a blue landscape where the camp had been.

Those at the table looked in absolute terror at the hologram as it flickered and vanished.

"Oh gods…"