We were getting nowhere. The robots were really hard to defeat. Harry must have told the others that it was easy to make them explode if they at least exposed the motherboards, but these things were so well armored, that it was nearly impossible to do so. Even with the back up from the campers, we were losing. There were more wounded inside than fighting outside.

"Am I the only one to notice that this isn't working?" I asked. Most of the others were out or almost out of arrows. I kept firing, considering that I had unlimited.

"We need a decent plan," Manny said.

"I'm open for suggestions," Cole muttered, annoyed. Since he had his other half back at his side, he was somewhat back to being 'I hate you' to everyone else. Surprisingly, though, he was still fine with Manny and me.

"Sadly, I don't have any," I replied. I was scratched. A few of the robots were shooting arrows at us. I was lucky that none of them were really hitting me directly.

I was carefully watching Guy whenever I saw him. He'd stay low and keep his head down, but I wanted to be safe. I was backing him up now as he tried to get a camper from the Hermes cabin out of the battle zone. He was having a considerable amount of trouble just getting to the boy. Odius, Harry and Pollux helped out when they could, but they were usually up front trying to keep the enemy back.

For some reason, I had a bad feeling about how the battle was turning out. As I said, we had more injured than fighting. Richard had yet to move from where he had first parked his chariot. He merely watched the fight, occasionally glancing up at me with a smug look if someone of ours was hurt or killed. He was enjoying this, the bastard.

I continued with my backup of Guy as he finally managed to get the injured son of Hermes off the battlefield. Some of the boy's siblings had gone to help as well. Analyzing the situation, it looked grim. Very grim.

"I'm out," Manny sighed. His quiver was empty.

"I think some of the younger Hephestus kids are working on making more arrows," Cody said from my other side. He only had a few left. Cole was out. As were most of the hunters and many of our siblings.

"Can they make it in time is the question," Cole commented.

"Doubt it," I muttered. I kept my eye on Guy again as he and some satyrs came back out.

All of us on the balcony flinched when we heard the screech of the thing we had become familiar with since the start of this ridiculous quest.

"Didn't I kill that thing?" I asked.

"Not by the looks of it," Cole responded.

We all glanced up, and I swear I was about to scream out of pure annoyance. Sitting on the injured beast's back as if it were a Pegasus, was none other than the eldest wicked stepsister.

Bella looked different than I remembered. Her top of the line outfit was switched for a tight fitting armor dress. It bared her stomach and slit up both thighs which made the thought 'skank' come to mind. Her hair fell in curls over her shoulders, pushed back with a golden headband. She sat on a golden saddle that greatly clashed with the fur and skin of the creature and held the gold satin reigns in her manicured hand. She held her head up and her back was straight as she sneered down at me.

"I'll kill you for injuring my pet, Flare," she growled.

"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered.

Hearing Richard's cackle, I glanced back down at him. One of the robots was standing next to him, and on its shoulder was the third bane of my being. Kellie was wearing jogging shorts and a sports bra top, sitting with her legs gracefully together and her hand braced on the thing's head. Her hair was still pulled back into its usual high ponytail, and she was still wearing white jogging shoes. She would have looked no different if not for the fact she was sitting on an eight foot tall giant.

There was an off fact about her, though. Her eyes were glazed over as she stared ahead blankly. She gave no indication that she realized where she was or what was going on at all.

"Surprised?" Bella asked, swooping down so we got an unwanted whiff of the thing's death scent.

"To see you've gone bonkers?" I retorted. "Not really."

She growled. "Enough with the witty retorts, daughter of Apollo!"

"'Witty retorts'? That's some vocabulary there, princess," I commented. Some of my siblings, Cole and Manny included, snickered under their breaths. The ones that still had arrows had one trained on her and her thing.

She looked ready to maul me, "I said enough. Bow before us now, and we may or may not spare your lives."

"I'm just trying to figure out how the hell you two are involved," I snapped.

She flipped some of her hair over her shoulder with a proud 'hmph.' "You are gazing at the glorious daughter of Hecate," she stated. "Everything you see has been granted to us by my mother's powers."

"Yours?" I asked.

Bella frowned down to where Kellie was, "She had a chance to become a disciple of our mother, but she chose not to." She grinned, "Too bad for her I learned a spell to brainwash her with." She cackled.

I glared at her. I knew they weren't close, but for Bella to do that to her own little sister, and for Richard to allow that, it just. . . I can't even comprehend a word to describe how I feel about that.

My glare turned to a throb, and within seconds, the fur of the thing was on fire. It moved a lot quicker this time and soon engulfed the entire thing and its rider. Bella screamed, and the thing screeched, making the rest of us flinch again. Her high pitched scream caused the robots to stumble, the sound screwing up the perception their programs gave them. Harry and Odius took that chance to smash most of them together.

"Bet your magic can't get you out of that," I told her.

She growled at me, and tried to cast some kind of spell, but the smoke from the flames caught in her throat, causing her to choke on her words. Her beast's hardly existing wings faded and they fell in a heap near the front door.

"No!" Richard screamed.

I saw Kellie blink and shake her head, putting a hand against her forehead. Richard hit a button on his chariot and the robot Kellie was sitting on threw her off with a faint yelp. She rolled a few yards away from her father and didn't get up.

"What is this guy?" Manny asked.

"He's not even worth the thought," I replied, shooting an arrow aimed at him. It fell short.

"You're too far away," Cole said. "You can't hit him from here."

"Fine," I hissed. I whistled, jumping onto the ledge of the balcony. All my brothers reacted at once, trying to get me down. I jumped off anyway, with them yelling at me. Sunstreak zoomed beneath me before I got too far from the balcony and I steered him towards the chariot.

I could hear the twins, Manny, Thalia, Harry, and Odius yelling at me to not do anything stupid, but I was passed that point. All I knew was that Richard had crossed the line. I may not be as big into family as some of the others wanted me to be, but I still cared for them enough to protect them. Kellie didn't deserve that, especially not from her own father and sister. Richard had gone after and hurt two of my brothers and the guy I was in love with. I'd had enough of his crap, so it was time for him to join the underworld once and for all.

For anyone wondering about the stepsisters, there's your answer. How am I doing so far? Good? Bad?