I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters.

Unfair

I carefully scan the trees ahead of us. Thalia's leading the offense with half of the Archers of Apollo, and I'm leading the defense with the other half, along with the quarter of the Apollo Cabin that had decided not to join. I'm currently in the worst place I've ever been for archery, standing on the freshly flattened top of a tree with all of my half-siblings that had stayed behind forming a circle around our flag with fifty yards between each. From where I am, the wind is extremely strong, even a little bit of a tilt could make me fall off the tree, the tree itself is swaying in the wind, and I can see all the way around is for about five hundred meters.

I pull out an arrow and reflect the light of the moon onto the tree beside will, who flashes it back. Clear. I check with the rest and get a similar response. I narrow my eyes. Where are they?

Then, all of my half-siblings flash an arrow at me twice before opening fire. Contact. All the way around us. We're completely surrounded. I notch my arrow, transforming it into one that will shine blindingly, and fire it into the air. The light illuminates the forest like it's broad daylight and I swear. Almost the entire camp's worth of demigods are closing in on us. I open fire instantly, sending fart arrows and boxing glove arrows, and even instant cement arrows, down at the other team rapidly. For a few minutes, it works. At least, until Annabeth steps into view with a bow of her own and send a fart arrow at the tree below me. I swear and leap off, grabbing an arrow and forming a rope on it, sending it into a tree beside me, swinging to the ground. As son as I land, I release the rope and grab and fire three instant cement arrows at Clarisse, who gets out of the way of two, only for her legs to get pinned together by the third. Than, I spin, knocking another Ares kid's sword aside with my bow and drive a taser arrow into his breastplate, dropping him as I grab another arrow, making it another taser arrow and send it into Travis Stoll's back.

"Adam six!" Will shouts, and I drop, Charles swinging a sword over my head before I stand and deflect his next slash, catching his arm and twisting sharply before slamming a boxing glove arrow into his face.

He drops and I spin, sending the arrow into Connor Stoll's face. Then, the flagpole slams into my back and I get thrown to the ground, Annabeth sprinting past as Silena and every camper from camp except for half of the Ares cabin tie me and my siblings up. Then we all get carried to the creek where there's a battle raging. Thalia's using the other team's flag as a bo staff to fight Annabeth, who's doing the same with ours. Around them, the rest of Thalia's force is trying to fend off the Ares kids that were chasing them, and the forces that had caught us. While they fight, I pull my dagger out of the back of my belt carefully and cut myself free, jumping up and grabbing my bow back from Charles, taking care to knock him out with a taser arrow, then begin to free my other siblings quickly, all of them grabbing their bows and swords, beginning to rain arrows on the Ares kids. It's the break our team needs, and someone manages to distract Annabeth with a fart arrow just long enough for Thalia to cross the creek with the flag.

"Nice," I grin as she walks over, reeking of rotten eggs. "Except for having to tank that fart arrow."

"Oh shut up," Thalia grumbles. "At least we won."

"True," I nod. "On the downside, we're facing you next week."

"You bet you are," Thalia grins.

I sigh as Chiron walks over and declares us the winner, then hands me a box addressed from Olympus with a not attached.

"Adam, I finally got my sister to agree to let you guys have these. They block any harmful, poisonous, or unpleasant gases, so you can breath in a cloud of poison, or volcanic ash, or if you ever get the chance to go up against the Hunters and they use fart arrows you'll be protected. And look! I even got Sis, to make them gold. I'm so awesome."

And then instead of writing his name, Apollo had put a haiku about how awesome he is. I roll my eyes.

"That would have been helpful," I say, pulling out a gold handkerchief and looking at the box.

One for each of us. I tie mine around my neck and tuck it into my shirt and Thalia and the others all tie their on as well, Thalia pulling hers up instantly, complaining about fart arrows and the color gold, vowing to paint her bow and handkerchief as soon as we're out of the woods.

We all head back to camp and Thalia makes a beeline for her cabin. The rest of us all head back to our cabins as well, since curfew starts in about twenty minutes, but after everyone else falls asleep, I head to the beach, finding Thalia waiting for me for once. She holds out a bottle of coke and I chuckle, accepting it and sitting beside her.

"What do you think we should do about Quintus?" Thalia asks.

"Chiron says we should wait," I say. "Personally I want to turn him over to the gods and not run the risk of him being an enemy. I'm sure he's only here while Dionysus is away so that Dionysus doesn't recognize him."

"Probably," Thalia nods. "You think Apollo's going to give us a job ever? Or do you think he's actually leaving us to live our lives?"

"I'm willing to bet we're only going to be actually utilized as a last resort," I say.

"Probably," Thalia nods. "So whenever the war starts, then."

"Yeah," I nod. "Definitely."

Thalia nods and I stare out at the ocean. Somewhere out there is a beautiful white cruise ship with a terrifying figure head that has more monsters than I have hairs on my head. And that's only a very small portion of Kronos' army.

"Why don't we ever talk about anything nice?" Thalia asks.

"I dunno," I sigh, laying back and staring at the sky, finding the big dipper first, then Zoe second. though that's about it. "I wonder if there will ever be a way for us to be normal."

"I think normal went out the window after we became immortal," Thalia says.

"Well, once the Great Prophecy ends, we could retire as Archers," I say. "Go back to being mortal. Find a way to hide from monsters."

"Yeah right," Thalia says. "We're not normal. We should just accept it. Besides, as much as I'd love to be normal, I'd never give up a second of our life for it."

I smile and nod. "We should get a dog."

"What?" Thalia laughs.

"A dog," I say. "I want a dog. I love dogs."

"I'm not overly fond of them," Thalia says, mood darkening. "Bad enough that hellhound is allowed in camp."

I remain silent. I had totally forgotten that it was hellhounds that nearly killed her before she became a tree. "A cat then."

Thalia laughs. "Maybe. I'm not making any promises. Pets are a lot of responsibility."

"Cats are easy," I say. "You just put out some food and water and try not to step on them. If they let you, you can pet them when they lay in your lap."

Thalia laughs again, slipping her hand into mine. "I'll think about it, okay?"

"Deal," I smile.

We lay there a while longer before heading to bed, deciding not to temp fate to get us caught.

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