Bianca tried not to be alone when at camp, which usually meant bothering Winona, since she was in charge of the medical station. Though, her staying at camp wouldn't last long, as she would also be the main on-field cleric. She'd be doing a regular Hacksaw Ridge routine pretty soon, but the daughter of Apollo tried to make the most out of the situation.

Anyway, the reason Bianca didn't want to be alone was because she was being plagued with these annoying visions, as if they were waking dreams. Sometimes, when she wasn't actively focused on something for long enough, she'd have them anyway.

"Bianca," Winona got her attention. "Hey, what's with you? You've been acting really weird, and that's saying something for you."

"…I've been seeing things…" Bianca returned.

Winona zeroed in on Bianca. It was common knowledge that nine times out of ten, when a demigod has a premonition, it'll come true. "What kinds of things?"

"…I think…Winona, do you believe in destiny?"

The girl put a hand on her hip. "Quit yanking my chain, Firefly. We're Greek; of course we do."

"…Then at least a few of the leaders at camp are destined to die before this is over," she said solemnly. For once, she didn't try and put a positive spin on things. Of course, then she shrugged. "Oh well; they'll be getting a good deal when they die."

"Bianca!"

"What?" she didn't think anything was wrong with that statement. "They'll all go to Elysium, right?"

"So? They'll be dead!"

"So? Elysium is great!"

"Bianca," Winona shot the girl the most serious glare she could muster. "You can't take death so lightly, or else everything we're doing is meaningless, you got that?"

"Kinda hard when you've talked to so many dead people," Bianca thought, but she refrained from saying it, for fear of Winona's wrath.

With the argument settled, Winona looked out towards the bay. "…Wonder how the others are doing…"

xxxXXXxxx

Connor and Travis led the way during the stealth mission. They made their way to the closest upper support to where the Titan Army had set up their base, where the Hunters came in and helped everyone up using their grappling hooks. "I think…I'll wait down here," Thalia said bashfully. Annabeth sighed quietly, and grabbed her hand, pulling her up.

"Just don't look down; look at me," the daughter of Athena offered. "That role is usually reserved for her life-partner Zoë," she imagined Riptide saying. "Huh…I should try and erase that thing's influence from my mind. Clearly it has tainted me."

Once they reached the top, the group made a temporary base. Thalia tried to keep her voice level. "Alright, keep your eyes out; monsters aren't limited to the ground. They'll have sentries, some very close."

"Come to think of it," Phoebe mentioned. "It's a good thing they didn't already have a sentry up here, right?"

"I doubt they have good enough eyesight," Connor claimed.

"Hm, wonder if they've ever tried glasses?" Travis added.

"Questions for later," they both agreed.

Thankfully, this gave them a great vantage point to survey the enemy camp. Annabeth brought out her binoculars and scanned it. It didn't take long to see a problem for the Olympians. "By the gods…"

"What?"

"So I may be delirious from low oxygen, but I'm seeing a force way bigger than we prepared for," she said wearily. "At least three times as big as we thought it'd be."

"Does that include those that escaped the destruction of the Princess Andromeda?" Thalia inquired. Annabeth shook her head.

"Not sure; I'm not seeing anything approaching, but they could be weaving through alleys to avoid aerial detection."

"Damn…I wish monsters were still mindless," a Hunter complained. "Back when things were easier."

"In any case, let me jot down what I see, so we can-"

"Get down!" Thalia shoved Annabeth's head low to the ground, and everyone else dropped as well, as a flock of Stymphalian Birds passed close pay. After a moment, the sounds of their wings faded. Thalia cautiously scanned the skies, but saw nothing. She really wished she had focused more on her aerokinetic powers, to maybe feel out if anything was flying nearby, rather than her lightning-based ones, at least at a time like this. Perhaps if she'd had those seven years when she was stuck as a stupid tree, she'd feel more prepared.

"Are we good?" Annabeth questioned, eager to get this done and get out.

"Looks like it," Thalia said, as the group let out a silent sigh of relief. Annabeth took out her binoculars again, and peered over the edge, only to have a bird beak in her face. Annabeth stumbled back and yelled in surprise, as a group of three gryphons climbed up to the group, surrounding them. "Shit!" Thalia drew her spear. "Hunters, arrows at the ready!"

The orders came too late, as the gryphons (and those Stymphalian birds from earlier) commenced their attack, scratching and clawing uncontrollably. Thalia did was she could, and eventually formed enough energy to blast back their attackers momentarily. "We need to get out of here!" Travis exclaimed.

"I know that!" Thalia said through gritted teeth, locked in combat with a deadly gryphon. Annabeth quickly recovered and tapped her bracelet, forming the Aegis shield on her arm, which warded off the gryphon long enough for Thalia to impale its heart and make it explode. "Everyone lock your hooks together and swing down! We must retreat!"

"But…if we do that, then someone has to stay up here and provide an anchor," one of the Hunters said.

"I'll do it," Thalia said, unconsciously trying to avoid jumping off herself; fear of heights and all.

"And I will too," Annabeth said, her Trident busy slashing up metal wings. "When you get down there, tie your hook to one of the support beams; we'll use that when you guys are down. Ready, break!"

In seconds, the Hunters' plan was ready, and they all clumped together, along with the campers, and jumped, with Thalia and Annabeth providing an anchor. In a miracle, the monsters were pushed back in such a way that it allowed the two to give maximum to support for their falling comrades. During the time it took for the Hunters to fall, Annabeth and Thalia had killed all of the monsters that had been attacking them at the top, albeit having suffered several cuts because of them.

They weren't out of the woods yet, though, as there was a whole horde of monsters from their camp that heard the commotion, and saw the group of Hunters falling from the sky like maniacs. They must've thought that they would've been easy kills to impress their commander, or perhaps they were just bored. Either way, the bridge was a non-option for Annabeth and Thalia.

Not only that, but Thalia looked to be shaking in her boots at the prospect of jumping from this high up. "Thalia, we need to go! Now!" Annabeth tightly gripped her shoulder, trying to snap her out of her stupor.

"I c-can't…"

"Listen to me," Annabeth forced Thalia to look at her. "You can do this," she assured the technically older girl. Thalia still shook her head.

"N-no, I can't," she repeated. "J-just…you go; I'll catch up."

"No, Thalia!" Annabeth insisted. "I'm not leaving without you! Look at me; if you stay up here, then I am going to die."

Annabeth will admit that it was a harsh thing to say to get her motivated, but at that moment, she didn't really have a choice; this was literally their lives that were on the line. In any case, it seemed to sober the Hunter up a bit, at least enough to get her to think straight.

Thalia nodded incessantly. "Oh gods, oh gods…oh gods…" she moaned as she stepped toward the edge. Annabeth looked down the tower and saw some monsters climbing up at an alarming rate. They'd be at the top any second. "Oh gods…" but Thalia definitely wasn't ready.

"Sorry about this," Annabeth thought, making sure the rope was tied around Thalia's wrist securely, before pushing the girl off, hanging onto her torso like her life depended on it…which it did. Thalia let out a scream so loud that she was surprised it didn't cause a visible shockwave of damage. Thankfully, the grappling hook ropes were magical, in that they changed elasticity as needed, making for a fairly smooth ride down.

The two swung far away from the bridge, as far as they could go and as low as they could go, before jumping off into the water. Again, thankfully, either Percy and Zoë were successful in warding off the aquatic monsters, or they hadn't made it to the camp yet at the very least.

Thalia was still so scared stiff that she could hardly keep herself afloat, so Annabeth had to help her keep her head above the water as she calmed down. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?" the daughter of Athena tried to act casual. She expected Thalia to curse at her or ignore her, but she nodded instead, and then pointed. When Annabeth looked to where she was pointing, she was a kind of distortion in the air, like the light was bending around the enormous pressure of whatever was going on over there, followed by a blinding flash of sea-green light exploding at the bay area. "…Percy…?" she wondered, and then thought that that would be ridiculous.

Soon, she realized that they were sitting ducks, and needed to get back to camp; while she didn't get a full analysis, Annabeth did jot down a good amount of info, and memorized much more. They began swimming back to Manhattan.

xxxXXXxxx

Percy and Zoë, along with Clarisse and a few others, arrived where that kid specified in record time, seeing several gigantic shadows beneath the waves. Percy wasn't sure if it was just because he had an affinity for water, or if that kid's vision was obscured by like clouds or panic or something, but Percy saw clearly that they had an army down there, with a massive shadow leading the charge.

"Oh, shit…" Percy cursed. "…I think we're gonna-"

"Do not make a 'Jaws' reference," Zoë warned.

"How do you even know what that is?" Riptide wondered.

"I am taking us lower. You need to do what you can to ward them away, and-"

"Uh, guys," Clarisse pointed to the horizon.

"Not now; we've got some big problems to deal with here. I don't know if I can even-" Percy tried to ignore her.

"Hey!" Clarisse shouted. Percy finally looked at where he was pointing and saw a glowing sea green light on the horizon, growing bigger, and radiating with power in a way all too familiar to Percy.

"Oh gods…" it suddenly dawned on Percy what was coming their way. "Everyone fly up!" he yelled, even as he leapt off of Artemis' chariot and into the sea. Once underwater, he saw clearly this huge army of aquatic creatures which would surely eat Percy alive should they be given the chance; far too many to name or count. It at least doubled the size of Kronos' ground forces, according to Zoë.

Percy saw the glowing light even more clearly underwater, because that's where it was located as well; the energy the object released was just so intense as to be visible above water from that far away. "Hey! It's your old man!" Riptide acted like this was a usual occurrence.

"Yes, Riptide; I noticed!" Percy returned. The power of Poseidon's Trident, which had been thrown directly at both Percy and, in turn, the monsters between him and it, and at a much faster speed than when Percy barely managed to block it. "Damn it, why now?!" he screamed in his head, gathering power within himself to try and stop the attack. However, before the trident reached either the monsters or Percy, it veered off, running parallel to the bulk of the monster horde, and then swiped across Percy's vision. It took a moment for the actual attack to catch up to the trident, as it passed by in a literal flash, but when it did…just wow.

It was as if the water around the monsters instantly turned against them, shredding them up and catching them in whirlpools of razor-sharp currents, with most of them exploding into dust immediately. Just the energy of the trident was enough to stop the biggest monsters in their tracks and make them explode.

It took all Percy had to stop the waves that were created from the attack, as they could've done serious damage upriver. Percy couldn't even process what had happened until Poseidon himself actually showed up.

"And that is why I didn't throw my trident at you with my full-power," he said as he appeared.

"I never asked for your help," Percy lowered his eyes into a scowl. "This is my fight."

"Without my help, you would've lost 'your fight'. I'm sure the goddess of the hunt would agree," the sea god retorted.

"…Why even come?"

"Because it suited my interests; those beasts had been harassing my servants since they reformed at Kronos' will. It was only natural that I eliminate them here, when they'd all foolishly grouped up."

"So you used me, again."

"You had nothing to do with it; I would've eradicated them whether you came or not," Poseidon said. "Though, since you did come, I left one for you," he pointed behind him, where Percy saw a massive form. "Slower than the others; couldn't catch it in the blast."

"And let me guess; you're too tired to throw again?"

"No," Poseidon wasn't kidding. "But if I'm to defeat Oceanus, whose forces gather as we speak, then I will need all I can muster."

"…And after that?"

"After that, my part is done," he claimed.

"What about Typhon?"

"What about Typhon? He is my brother's problem, not mine," Poseidon said.

"So? He's your family."

"And there's a reason I don't associate with him unless necessary. I do not need a lecture from a mortal."

"Okay, fine. Then let me offer an idea," Percy said. "Push that thing back, will you?"

Poseidon held his hand out, and blasted the remaining monster back enough to where they could continue speaking for a brief moment.

"If you help Zeus defeat Typhon, he'll owe you big time."

"I realize this. There is nothing he has that I desire."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Dude, you guys are gods; you think there won't be sometime in your immortal lives that he'll have something that you don't?"

Poseidon blinked; he'd never been referred to as 'dude' before. "I…" he shook his head. "I'll take it under advisement. For now, I wish you luck in your war. Farewell."

It was Percy's turn to act confused as Poseidon disappeared, even with a gigantic serpentine shark/whale thing was making its way toward him. "…He's never acted that nice toward me before," he muttered.

"Yeah, it's almost like he likes you or something," Riptide sounded equally bewildered. "Nah, that can't be it; he's probably drunk or something."

Percy chose to accept that answer (ignoring the fact that gods couldn't get intoxicated without a particularly strong, godly drink), and faced the matter at hand. The monster was right up on him at this point, and he was immediately forced to react. He did so by blasting the creature back, and then forcing the water for push it above water, letting whoever was above to pelt it was arrows and javelins.

What Percy didn't expect was having the creature writhe out of his water, to slam down onto him, shooting him to the floor of the body of water. The impact, even while Percy was empowered by the river, was breathtaking, and he didn't get the chance to recover either.

Whatever it was, the monster shot down into the ground, teeth first. Percy just barely avoided their razor-sharp edge, and shot through the water to the surface, shooting himself up and landing on the ground. When he landed, Percy felt the pressure of the blow in his chest, still resonating.

"What was that light?" Clarisse demanded. "Another enemy?"

"Forget that; what the hell is that thing?" Percy said, looking to Zoë for an answer.

"It looks like a Cetus."

"Gesundheit," Percy said.

"It is a lesser-known monster, but it is not to be underestimated. It may not have the regrowing heads of the Hydra or the stone-gaze of Medusa, but that does not mean it is not dangerous," she expounded. "What it lacks in gimmicks, it makes up for in raw power; kind of like Atlas…and Polybotes, now that I think about it. He might even be stronger than Zeus or Poseidon…" she got distracted. "Well, no use worrying about the Sleeping Giants."

"Can we get back on topic, please?" Percy requested, seeing the shadow of the Cetus drawing toward the shore where the camper team was located.

"Why? It's a sea monster," Clarisse said. "We have a plan; you lift it up, and we kill it while it's-"

She was interrupted, the Cetus breached out of the river, and then lifted itself onto the shore…with its legs…and arms…

"Oh, I forgot to mention that it can change its appearance," Zoë said.

"Scatter!" Percy yelled as the Cetus lifted its foot and slammed it down where they were conversing. The ground beneath its foot cracked under the weight, threatening to give into whatever sewer system happened to be under this area. The Ares and Apollo kids unloaded everything they could, with the Ares cabin charging directly and trying to topple the beast, while the Apollo cabin bombarded it with arrows. Neither strategy worked; the creature's hide was too thick.

Zoë, meanwhile, attempted to get to higher ground, to be able to shoot where it might be more vulnerable, it's face. Percy and Clarisse had the same idea, but with the opposite approach, they headed toward its backside to try and sever some fins to limit its mobility, should they push it back into the water.

Thankfully, the cabins did accomplish the task of drawing its attention, with the Cetus trying to squash and swipe at the campers; thankfully, their training had given them enough stamina and speed to avoid its attacks.

Once around the backside of the monster, Percy propelled himself up onto its hide, managing to hang on, before reaching back and pulling Clarisse up with her Maimer spear, which could channel electricity. "Hey, I've got an idea," Percy said as they climbed up a bit further.

"Oh, of course you do," she growled, both of them straining to hang on with its writhing in trying to kill the campers. "Is it stupid?"

"Very," the son of Poseidon claimed.

Clarisse grinned, getting pumped with adrenaline. "Good, let's do it."

If there was one thing to say about why Percy and Clarisse could tolerate each other, it would be their equal sense of insanity in trying out ideas to win. Well, that, and they both gloated when they beat the other with their respective main weapons, sword and spear respectively.

"Just have your spear aimed at the thing and charged; I'll do the rest," Percy said, summoning water in his hand and shooting it around Clarisse's waist like a rope. "Oh, and brace yourself; we kind of need you later."

"As if I'd-" she didn't get to finish, as Percy leapt off the monster's back with as much force as he could muster, before tugging on the water rope, pulling Clarisse with him. He swung her around in the circle, before letting go and sending her flying toward the Cetus' back. The creature was still distracted by the campers.

With the force of the impact and the added power of electricity, the Cetus wasn't having a very good day. The force alone was enough to knock it clean over, with the campers avoiding the fall of course, and it made a giant hole in its back, revealing its vulnerable fleshy mass beneath the hide.

"Attack!" Clarisse ordered as soon as she landed, not wanting to waste the opportunity. The Apollo campers let off a volley of arrows into the exposed flesh, which made the beast stir, while the Ares campers leapt onto its back and repeatedly stabbed it with their spears and slashed it with their swords. This got it up and moving again.

Within a few seconds, the Cetus was back on its feet and pissed the hell off. Now, it went straight for Clarisse, as she was the one who injured it…well, technically it was Percy, but it didn't know that. "Uh oh," it quickly dawned on the daughter of Ares that she was its main target now, and turned tail.

"Wolf!" Percy heard from higher up. It was Zoë, standing on top of a four-story building.

"How the hell did she get up there?"

"Is she talking to you?" Riptide wondered.

"Uh…yeah?" he called out to test that question. It appeared that the sword was correct.

"Draw the beast towards me!" she called down to him.

"On it!" Percy agreed without hesitation. "Clarisse!" she glanced back to see him pointing to the building that Zoë was on. She seemed to understand, and veered off, trying to outpace the Cetus.

Unfortunately, the thing was as tall as the building that Zoë was standing on, so it was understandably faster. Percy did what he could to slow it down, but the creature eventually caught up. Clarisse dove out of the way of one stomp, but that left her vulnerable for another.

This was when Zoë made her play, letting loose a blinding spray of arrows, shooting its stomach, then its chest, then its head, to test their vulnerability, and one of the arrows that shot its face went straight into its eye.

While the volley didn't seem to do much damage, it was enough to daze the beast, make it rear back. "Clarisse, again!" Percy said, not taking no for an answer, wrapping his water rope thing around the girl and swinging her into the beast's chest this time.

The broken-off part was smaller this time, not even two feet wide, but it was something. The impact wasn't enough to knock it over either, though it did writhe in pain for a while.

Zoë leapt down from her perch, seeing that her arrows didn't do jack against its thicker stomach and chest. "Well, ranged attacks seem ineffectual," she noted.

"Even from your moonlight arrows," Percy commented. Zoë nodded, and snapped her bow a bit. The motion caused the bowstring to retract into the bow itself, and caused it to form a sharp edge, like a blade.

"I normally do not prefer the direct approach, but perhaps it is necessary in this instance," she said. Percy stared at her new weapon.

"…What?" Riptide wondered.

"Nothing," Percy returned.

"What?" the sword repeated.

"It's just…why can't you turn into something cool?"

"Hey, a pen is much more practical in everyday life than whatever else I could be."

"Excuses," Percy returned.

"Now isn't the time for banter," Zoë claimed. "I have a plan. It's going to take all of us. Draw it back towards the river."

With that, the creature appeared to recover enough to attack, despite still having the arrow lodged in its eye socket. The campers scattered around its stomping and swiping, and ran behind it, dashing back toward the water. The creature quickly turned and gave chase. As it was about to stomp on some Apollo campers, Percy turned back and blasted the thing with everything he had to stun it long enough for the campers to flee.

Soon enough, the campers made it to the river, but Zoë kept going, diving into the river. Percy followed, and so did most of the campers. The Cetus followed closely, with Zoë keeping its razor-sharp teeth away from the campers.

"Hey, she wants you to restrain it," Riptide claimed.

"What? How do you know?"

"I got a feeling," it returned, and then started singing. "That tonight's gonna be a good night."

"You're insufferable," Percy thought in response. He willed the water to push both him and the Cetus to the surface, where Percy stood on it, allowing the other campers to do so temporarily as well. "Hey! You big bastard!" he yelled at the monster. As the creature turned to him, he shot two whips to lash onto its wrists. The Cetus didn't take kindly to that, violently swinging around its arms and whipping Percy back and forth through the air.

The other campers soon caught on, and used whatever they could to help. Clarisse and a few other Ares campers latched onto Percy as he was swung behind the monster, while some Apollo campers used specially made rope arrows (they took a page out of the Hunters' book when designing new arrow types) to further restrain the beast, all while Zoë was underwater, mentally preparing herself and waiting for the perfect opportunity.

"Poseidon grant me swiftness…Zeus grant me strength," she prayed, seeing the monster rear back, momentarily exposing the soft spot on its chest. She took her chance, and it felt like the waves were propelling her upward like a torpedo. She wasn't sure if it was Percy's doing (she doubted it, given how he was a bit busy at the time) or Poseidon, but either way, she went with it.

She breached the surface, flying high into the air from the momentum, at the perfect angle to nail the bastard, even if it wouldn't be enough to kill it. Just then, however, a lightning bolt struck down onto Zoë. Instead of harming her, however, it cloaked her bow-blade with the aura of Zeus, adding to its strength as she drove it into the Cetus' fleshy chest wound. The force caused a ripple through the air, and was enough to make the monster explode into dust, with Zoë falling through where it was, her momentum acting as if nothing was there in the first place.

She landed on the shore, where she met with the campers. Most were staring at her in awe. Percy wasn't one of them. "You know, I really wish they wouldn't help us. We don't need it," he commented, noting how Zeus' aided their battle at the end. "It's insulting."

Zoë frowned as the others started making their way back to the base camp, satisfied with a job well-done. "You should be thankful," she retorted. "Do you have any idea how preoccupied the gods are at this very moment."

"I know; they're stopping Typhon. They did it once, and they'll do it again," Percy returned.

"Yes, and it requires all of their strength. They did not have to help, and some of your campers might have perished if they hadn't."

"I wouldn't let that happen," the son of Poseidon claimed, pushing past the Huntress. "I can't let that happen."

Zoë stopped momentarily, seeing a kind of unyielding determination in the boy's step which…unnerved her. It was the same thing she saw in young Annabeth when she had dismissed the possibility of turning Luke back to the side of the gods. No, it wasn't determination…it was desperation.

"You had best stop thinking yourself a god, Perseus Jackson," Zoë called after him.

Percy stopped at that. She was expecting him to question her, to ask her to elaborate or to gloat or try and reason with himself. Instead, he turned back to her with a dangerous look in his eye. This was no longer desperation either, but a quiet rage. "Don't even think about comparing me to the gods."

To Percy, he felt that he usually kept this kind of feeling hidden away, locked up tight to give a stalwart attitude toward any and all opponents he may come across. He wouldn't even show this raw of a reaction to his father, except for that one instance after the original Artemis died, who even knew Percy's true feelings toward the Greek deities. But here, when he knew these emotions weren't observed to be manipulated, he wasn't afraid to show them, to make sure he wouldn't have to in a more dire circumstance.

Zoë wasn't intimidated by this obvious threat, though, only saddened. It was a shame he didn't channel this raw emotion into something useful. Perhaps a hard lesson was needed, one Zoë couldn't provide. She might have said something to cool him off, but he walked away, leaving her to ponder what she should do.

Author's Note:

Hey all! Extra battle hype! Why don't you guys let me know what you think in a review?

Oh, and if you aren't exactly feeling Percy's new mindset...just stick with me for a few more chapters. Anyway, thanks so much for reading and tune in tomorrow for chapter 54!