Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.

The Ever Twisting Wind: Threshold Breakthrough

Chapter Fourteen: Arctic Kansas

Beta: ShadowofAxios

An average day at Camp Half-Blood found Andi and Dionysus, he wasn't Mr. D at the moment, having an intense stare down across the ping pong table in the Big House

"You've got a palace now, so go live in it. Stop squatting in my Camp." The Director of Camp Half-Blood hissed angrily, his eyes ablaze with purple fire.

"Can't I come help you? You'd still be in charge here because that is your right, but I do have friends here I care for. Plus helping demigods sounds kind of nice."

"Oh you sweet deluded child." Dionysus actually looked at her with pity. "Don't worry, in a century or two you'll see them as the little fools they are. You are one of the lucky ones."

"I'll take my chances. The Campers need all the help they can get."

"Ugh. Not the point. This is my domain! I might hate it but its mine! So unless Father punishes you like he did me, I'm not sharing." He grunted and yes, yes he was pouting.

"Fine," Andi conceded. "But my palace isn't quite livable just yet. So I'll need to crash here for at least a few more days. That good?"

"...So you're being lazy. I approve, but I wag my finger in shame at you as well." Dionysus clicked his tongue.

"Lord Dionysus, Andromeda!" A goddess wearing a sailor's uniform with a life preserver slung over her chest and fashionably curled brunette hair that Andi vaguely recognized from the meeting of the MGS suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh, um," Andi paused in thought. "Leukothea, right?"

"Yes that's me," she said with a distracted nod.

"Quest?" Dionsyus asked tiredly, his mood shifting and he changed back into Mr. D.

"Yes! And it's urgent! My little sister's life is at risk!"

"Which sister?" Mr. D said disinterestedly. "You're an Oceanid. You have almost as many sisters as we do."

"It's Clytie."

"Isn't she a sunflower now?" Andi blinked in question as she pinned the name to the appropriate legend. "For getting in the way of your romance with Apollo?"

"Yes! And the sunflower with her essence is about to be destroyed by the Titan Koios!" The ocean goddess said almost hysterically. "It was my fault she got punished like that, I ratted her out to Apollo for squealing on me to Father. I never thought he'd react like that! I've been watching over her essence as it moved from sunflower to sunflower ever since, to- you know- make it up to her, and now the Titan of the North is setting up his new base right on the farm where she's growing!"

I don't think I needed that history lesson.

You get used to it. Dionysus' exasperated sounding voice told her telepathically. The minor gods always want to feel important, so they go around oversharing every damned chance they get.

Oh. Hope I don't fall into that.

Oh, you will. Trust me. The god of madness warned her before trailing off with a malicious laugh.

"Bastard." Dionysus said, taking a long sip of his Diet Coke. Though whether he meant Koios or Apollo was up for debate.

"Yes, so we need a quest ASAP! Get me Jackson, get me that de Angelo girl! Get me an A-lister!"

"I second that," Lord Apollo said as he materialized out of nowhere, wearing a pair of sun themed swim trunks and a white tank top that showed his bronzed arms.

Mm, that's a really nice-no! Think of Will, not his Father! Ugh, what is wrong with you?! Andi scolded herself.

"Ah, speak of the devil and he darkens my doorstep." Dionysus dryly quipped.

"Bro, I'm the sun god. I brighten your doorstep every day!"

All three other gods present rolled their eyes at the terrible joke.

"Uh, stupid question but why would you second this quest Lord Apollo?" Andi asked the sun god. "I mean didn't you curse Clytie in the first place? Why do you care what happens to her now?"

"Duh! 'Cos no one gets to ruin my punishment of course." Apollo said with a roll of his eyes, a dazzling smile on his face all the while.

"Whatever," Mr. D said as he turned towards Chiron's office where the centaur had taken cover whilst Camp's resident gods had been busy arguing. "Chiron!"

"Yes, Mr. D?" The immortal said as he poked his head warily out of his door.

"Go get-" Mr. D turned back to the other gods. "Who is the lead Quester you guys want?"

"The A-team!" Leukothea insisted rather unhelpfully.

"That would mean Percy, but we need him for the upcoming mission to the Princess Andromeda-"

"Send Will," Apollo said, cutting Andi off. "He's A-team material."

"Eh, Wilfred's more a B-lister at the moment." Mr. D disagreed.

"And all you have is a C-lister. So my kid."

"Keep Pollux out of this." Dionsyus warned darkly, his eyes swirling pools of deep never ending purple. "I don't pop them out like its going out of style. So mind your tongue brother."

Apollo had the grace to look chastised. "Sorry. That was out of line."

"Uh, newbie question again," Andi said into the thick tension between the two Olympians. "We expecting Campers to take on a Titan?"

"Lord Apollo, can't you assist them?" Leukothea begged. "For old time's sake?"

"Oof, would if I could but tossing an Olympian in the mix? Bad idea. Besides, Pops has me hunting down monsters by day while Arte is stalking 'em by night. I'm booked!"

"It is Koios we're talking about." Dionysus corrected. "I think he qualifies as enough of a threat to warrant it."

"Uh, I mean, sure? But he's my granddad! Mom would be upset if I fought him. Plus he kinda visited her already and tried to sway her to the Titans' cause but she told him no. Don't exactly want to give her a reason to change her mind, like, ya know, killing her dad."

"Please Lord Apollo," Leukothea said falling to her knees. "If Koios finds Clytie he'll drain her of her remaining essence! She'll die permanently if that happens!"

Apollo shifted uneasily at that, moved but still looking reluctant.

"If you're unwilling, Lord Apollo, I could go." Andi told the sun god.

Leukothea looked at her nervously, uncertainty on her face.

"Better a motivated warrior minor goddess than an unwilling Olympian." Dionysus told the Oceanid. "Or yourself for that matter. At least she'll fight to the best of her abilities unlike the former and have a chance at the win where you'd just get your ass kicked."

Leukothea winced at the blunt appraisal but nodded in acceptance.

"Right, so it's settled then!" Apollo declared brightly. "Andi will go with the Questers Will picks out to fight Koios!"

The Oceanid still looked uncertain but again nodded in mute agreement.

"I'll keep your sister safe," Andi tried to reassure her.

"Chiron!"

"Yes, Mr. D?" The centaur asked from where he'd been patiently waiting by his open office door as the gods deliberated.

"Go fetch Wallace. He's got a Quest to go do. Now while you all hash this out, I will be taking a nap."

"I've got the Monster Yellow Pages." Andi said as she placed the book on the table and Mr. D vanished.

"D-Do we need to add more pressure for the quest?" Leukothea asked, gulping. "We've got a Titan as opposition here."

"A Titan's got to have minions." Apollo reminded her.

"Fair point." Andi nodded. "So let's not make this Hardcore mode."

"Exactly." Apollo said with a nod. "So unlike normal Quests this time it's not so much picking out what they fight since Koios probably already has an army but checking to find out what he already has and making sure it's fair."

"Is that how it works?" Leukothea asked, looking confused.

"When attacking a god or other divinities' base? Yup." Apollo said with a grin. "Never done a Quest like this before?"

"No," Andi and Leukothea both chorused.

"Then let me show you how it's done." Apollo said as he tapped the Yellow Pages whose pages magically flipped themselves until stopping in the K section. "Ah, there's Koios' number. Let's give him a call shall we?"

"Won't that let him know we're coming? I mean, this is war."

"Yeah, but if we don't then there's nothing stopping Koios from sending his whole army against the Questers when they show up. After all, if we don't care about keeping it fair then it's only fair that we pay the price. Besides, it's also only fair that if he has to pull his punches that he gets something, like a head's up, out of it."

"Wow this is just weird." Leukothea knitted her brow.

"Yes, but it's also fun!"

Andi had a feeling her and Leukothea's idea of fun differed greatly from Apollo's.

"Let's just get this call done." The goddess of the wild said in resignation.

"A sunflower farm?" Bianca commented incredulously as she and her fellow Questers plus Andi and Wendy exited out of the dark portal she'd created with her Shadow Travel abilities in rural Kansas. "Why the hell would a Titan set up its base in a sunflower farm?"

To hunt down a long suffering nymph's last remaining essence to empower himself. Andi thought to herself. Or his allies.

The goddess of the wild had given it some thought and was now fairly sure that if Koios was after Clytie's essence it wasn't for himself. He did however have one set of allies that would stand to benefit from collecting her immortal essence and as their Bane, Andi wasn't about to allow the Technodjinn get what they wanted if she could help it.

"Maybe he's given up on the whole war with Olympus thing and decided to become a florist?" Connor Stoll joked.

Sadly, no one was in the mood for a laugh and the joke fell flat.

"Tough crowd." The son of Hermes said with a pout.

"Connor, just focus." Will commanded softly. "I'm nervous too and I know you're just trying to loosen us up, but save it for later. Okay?"

"Got it."

"Andi, any ideas on what we're expecting here?" Will asked, as they surveyed the farm and found nothing amiss. "Are we even in the right place? I mean, I know that Dracanae we interrogated in Kansas City said this was where Koios' base is but-"

"We're in the right place alright." Wendy declared as she pointed into the rows and rows of sunflowers that surrounded them and right at a squad of Empousai who were walking between the stalks waving what looked like metal detectors up and down the flowers.

"Looks like they're searching for something." Andi said with a grimace. And there was a detector to search for divine essence? She learned something new every day.

Bianca leaned low into the stalks, shadows licking her frame, "Want me to sneak up on them and snag a detector, Will?"

The son of the sun looked around carefully, seeing no other teams around. "We probably shouldn't. They'll have to report in some time right? If we take them out and they miss the call our cover could be blown."

"Better to just tail them and see if they can lead us to the entrance to their base." Connor suggested. "And see if they have more detectors. Steal one and wreck the rest, before using it to find whatever they're looking for and move it."

He looked to Andi at this, hoping for an answer.

"Why are you looking at me?" Andi asked with a raised eyebrow. "Will's the Quest leader."

"Right." Connor said with a frown. "So Will? What do you say?"

"We won't know how many detectors they have. Heck, we have no idea what they're looking for." Will pointed out. "It's too risky to try and take out their operations form the detector side of things. Our best bet is wrecking the whole thing."

"I was hoping you wouldn't say that." Connor said with a wince. "'Cos fighting a Titan? Not something I want to do if I can avoid it even with Lady Andi's help. No offense, Lady Andi."

"None taken," Andi replied easily. "I'm just as leery of picking a fight with a Titan as you are but needs must and with Typhon stirring, the Olympians are needed elsewhere."

And hadn't news of that put a fire under their collective asses. Dealing with the Titans were scary enough but adding Typhon into the mix just added Greek Fire to the already blazing inferno! So when the reports of Mount St. Helens erupting reached their ears over the news a couple of days ago when they'd been in Detroit following up leads on Koios' operations, everyone had barely avoided having a heart attack. Especially when the live images showed a massive swirling storm cloud of an arm punching its way out of the volcano. Sure it hadn't been why Andi was tagging along instead of an Olympian like say Lord Apollo but the Campers didn't need to know that.

"Uh, guys?" Bianca said, catching their attention. "The Empousai are almost out of sight. If we want to follow them, we need to move now."

Will looked at the other Questers and received nods in reply before leading them as they begun stalking their prey.

The Empousai spent about an hour scanning the flower fields with their detector before finally returning to their base which turned out to not be the farm's buildings as Will had suspected but instead what looked like an old storm cellar that was hidden amidst the rows of sunflowers.

Guess we were lucky that we chose to follow them rather than just charging into the farm buildings. Will thought as he and the other Questers watched the three Empousai enter the cellar that was, much to his annoyance, flanked by a pair of Hyperborean Giants acting as guards.

"Crap, from what I heard those guys are peaceful. Them siding with the Titans is a bad sign." Andi grimaced.

"We can worry about that later," Will reminded his girlfriend. "Not much we can do about it now. Better focus on the present. So guys, frontal assault or sneak in?"

"Our best bet is to sneak in." Conner offered and turned to Bianca, "Want to try that tunneling trick we did back at Camp during Capture the Flag a few weeks ago?"

"Sure, but we'll need to back away a bit." Bianca told the younger Stoll brother with a blush. "It's pretty obvious from this close. If I do it here, those Hyperboreans will be on us before I can get us anywhere near inside."

"Lead the way."

The group followed the lead of the daughter of Hades as she backtracked about twenty feet whereupon they were so hidden by the sunflowers that hopefully the Giant guards couldn't see them as she did whatever magic she was about to perform.

"Here goes," Bianca said as she closed her eyes and swept her arms to the side till they were perpendicular to her body, causing the ground in front of her to flow like water out of the way and a shallow ditch to appear. One that steadily grew deeper and deeper until it became a tunnel, all whilst the ground that had been shifted out of the way pressed itself into the sides of the tunnel with such force that they transformed into rock.

"Wow!" Wendy gasped in awe. "That's efficient."

"Thanks Wendy!" Bianca said with a grin. "And there! I've hit the roof of the tunnel network. Connor, go check if there's anyone in the tunnel below with your thief skills or whatever you do."

Connor rolled his eyes but complied, leading the way as the group descended the shaft until they hit a slab of concrete.

"This the roof?" Connor asked rhetorically even as he put his ear to the material and closed his eyes before continuing a few moments later. "The coast sounds clear."

"Then stand back," Will ordered.

Connor nodded and jumped back just in time to avoid as Bianca made a clawing motion with her right hand and a whole chunk of the concrete literally ripped open like a Giant had cut into it with a massive blade.

"Goddesses first," Will said with a playful bow to Andi.

Andi giggled at her boyfriend even as the others rolled the eyes before obligingly jumping down the opening Bianca made whilst Wendy wrapped her in their Storm Mail as a precaution.

"Flirt later man." Conner grumbled.

"It's clear." Andi shouted up at the Questers from below which turned out to be some kind of stereotypical fallout shelter from the Cold War nuclear scare era. One that was thankfully empty of threats. "Come on down."

"Anyone else finding it creepy that we haven't run into a single monster since we got inside here?" Connor asked with a frown. "I mean even if Bianca covered our entry perfectly, which I'm sure she did, this is suspiciously lucky for a bunch of demigods much less a bunch of Questers."

"Connor, if you've jinxed us-"

"I don't think he did." Bianca chimed in. "I mean he's right. Where are the monsters?"

"Waiting for you to come to them of course!" A wise if somewhat arrogant sounding voice said as they rounded a corner and found themselves looking down a short corridor leading into a large chamber. The room looked like a planetarium thanks to a large projector that shot the scene of the night sky on the room's domed roof. Though that wasn't what caught the bulk of their attention, that honor went to the monsters that literally filled the room to the brim and most especially the twenty foot tall Titan standing at its centre in elaborate black Stygian Iron armor with a single diamond blazing in his breastplate that wielded a massive sword the size of a surfboard which radiated intense cold.

Wow, are all Titans tall like that? Andi thought as she eyed the room, seeing the stars coming from the projector. The beautiful sight of the stars unaffected by man's light polluted stirred a melancholy feeling in Andi that she quickly suppressed. Now wasn't the time for that, she had a Titan to fight.

"Should we run?" Connor asked. "I really think we should run now."

"I think not, godlings." Koios said with a bloodthirsty smirk. "Get over here!"

There was a sudden rush of frigid wind that sucked all the demigods further into the room. Only Andi and Wendy managing to stand their ground as the winds twisted around them.

Shit! Andi cursed as she raced after her friends who were already being sat upon by the many monsters inside the planetarium as Wendy did her duty and clothed her in their Storm Mail. Thankfully, Koios seemed content to stay out of it in lieu of slowly putting his bear's head shaped helmet over his head and swinging down its visor, hiding his handsome but battle scarred face.

"Ah, Zeus' latest spawn." The Titan chuckled darkly as he lifted his massive blade and pointed it at Andi threateningly. "I'll have your ruined body tied to my chariot after I let my army ravage you so your father can see what will happen to the rest of his daughters for his crime against my own!"

"You'll need to beat me first." Andi taunted back, unaffected by his dire threats. She'd heard worse from a drunk Clarisse that one time. That girl had a very, very dirty mouth. She was certain Ares approved.

"Ha! Big words! Have a taste of my northern winds!" Koios replied as he swung his blade through the air in a wide arc and unleashing a blast of frigid winds in the process.

"Let's see what's stronger? Your northern winds or a living storm!?" Andi shouted over the howling winds as she punched her palm, causing screeching winds of her own to erupt and slam into Koios' icy blast.

"Well, aren't you eager to die. I'll enjoy freezing and then shattering you." Koios laughed as the two wind gusts cancelled each other out and he suddenly disappeared.

He reappeared directly behind Andi, his sword already mid swing to bisect her but thanks to Wendy's fancy flying she was able to evade that fate by a hair's breadth and even manage to spin around to shoot a trio of wind bomb arrows at the Titan.

The wind bombs detonated against his Stygian Iron armor without so much as scratching it.

"Cute. Try something a little higher up on the power scale!" He roared as he created hundreds of icicles that ripped into his own monsters as he shot them at her.

She evaded the barrage easily enough but her eyes widened as she saw him punch an icicle the size of a semi truck into existence with his free hand that he fired her way. Yes, the beast of a Titan was wielding his massive sword with one hand!

"Hey, I'm a daughter of Zeus! If I don't go bold, I might as well go home!" Andi finally threw back at the Titan as she evaded the huge lance of frozen water and retaliated with a blast of fiery southern winds.

"Bah! The winds of Notus? Pathetic!" Koios scoffed as he literally cut the flaming wind blast apart with a swing of his sword.

"Says the guy piggybacking off Boreas!"

"He is piggybacking off of me!" Koios thundered with fury. "Let me show you what I mean!"

As she said that, the Titan slammed his oversized sword into the ground and unleashed an arctic storm that filled the room full of deadly icicles that tore apart everything they touched even as pillars of ice shot out of the ground to skewer things at random.

Andi! This is a blasted blizzard! Wendy cried out in alarm and as she jinked and weaved to prevent the airborne icicles from impaling them through the whiteout conditions that Koios had created. And it's so bloody cold that even I'm feeling it! Me! A Southern Aura!

Hang in there, Wendy! Andi sent back to her partner as she tried to line up a shot with Skyline at the Titan, which was practically impossible in the blizzard conditions that had taken over the room.

"Andi! Watch out!" Will's voice sounded from Andi's right and she turned to see her boyfriend jumping off an ice pillar at her. "I can hear something coming!"

"Wha-!" As Will slammed into her and pushed her out of the way as the nearly invisible shape of Koios' sword suddenly shot out of the snowstorm to run her through. Her boyfriend was not so lucky though, as while he avoided getting impaled on the blade he still got a nasty gash along his back.

"Will!" Andi cried out in dismay even as she pulled on her godly power to heal her badly injured boyfriend, trusting Wendy to keep all three of them safe even as Koios launched a blindly fast series of thrusts with his sword at them. "Why won't he wake up!?"

"He's been touched by my chill." Koios' voice said with the gravity of the frigid North that he personified from wherever he was hiding in the impenetrable white of his storm. "He won't wake unless you defeat me, little goddess."

"Koios!" Andi roared out angrily, her powers building in response and surrounding her in an aura of raw power even as she sent a screeching squall of it blasting out from her.

He won't wake till we beat him? Isn't that a bit cliche? Though I guess he is old fashioned enough to go for something like this… Andi heard Wendy muse in a distant corner of her mind.

The nova of magically infused wind and raw untamed energies of the Wild swept Koios' blizzard aside, revealing the Titan using his sword as a shield and blocking Andi's power from pressing down on him. Spotting her enemy, she redirected her power into a beam that shot at Koios. The change forcing him to skid back a few feet even as his blizzard returned and consumed the rest of the room.

"Bianca, Connor!" Andi shouted as she gently let the unconscious Will float to the ground in front of the two other Questers who had rushed to their position. "Get Will out of here!"

"But-"

"No 'buts'!" Andi roared. "That's an order!"

Bianca still looked ready to argue but Connor just picked Will up in a fireman's carry and raced out of the room.

"Bianca come on!" The son of Hermes shouted, finally spurring the daughter of Hades into action as she followed after him.

Time to cut loose. Andi thought. You ready Wendy?

As ready as you are! The Aura replied confidently.

The winds hissed and spat as mist escaped with every breath taken for those who remained. The winds spun at her call, twisting to and fro as the air pressure grew heavy. Each breath the goddess took, the wind grew in intensity.

"Eat this, Koios!" Andi shouted as she poured all her fury and power into a massive twister that she sent straight at the Titan. It easily picked Koios up and spun him around like a ragdoll.

"You're not the only one who can use their full power now that the mortals are gone, goddess." Koios shouted defiantly. "Feel the full fury of the North!"

With that Koios exploded into a nova of raw power. Cold unlike anything Andi even thought possible filled the room along with wild lances of raw violent energy stabbing out in every direction. The literal forces of deepest cold and the barbarians of the North unleashed upon her. It tore her tornado apart like it was tissue paper and slammed into Andi with such force that she slammed into the wall of the chamber so hard that she found herself imprinted inside it!

"Ah, ah," Andi gasped out as she tried to pull herself out of the indent her body had made, as she felt numb down to her very bones.

Andi! Wendy screamed as she jinked them out of the way of Koios' massive sword that was now glowing and at least twice as long. Heck, the Titan's entire body was glowing now! In fact, his body seemed to have transformed into a vaguely humanoid being of raw white energy dressed in his armor. Oh! And he'd also grown at least three times taller and only fit inside the room thanks to whatever divine shenanigans he was using.

Shit! Is that his divine form!?

That certainly drained her courage, but she took a fortifying breath and gave herself a minor pep talk. Okay, if we're doing this… okay! All in!

"No divine form of your own?" Koios spat.

"Sorry if I haven't had the time to pick up how to assume it yet." Andi shot back with a scowl. "Dunno about you Titans but there isn't a 'How to Goddess for Dummies' out there. Didn't have mommy to hold my hand either."

The Titan of Intellect had the grace to laugh at Andi's joke, even as he raised his sword into a ready position.

"You banter well, spawn. A pity it does you little." Koios said with genuine regret in his voice. "For I am not quite honorable enough to give up the advantage your lacking education has given me. Die, daughter of Zeus!"

With that final declaration he stabbed out at her with his sword which seemed to transform into a beam of deadly power as it shot towards her.

Wendy! Shake this thing! Andi shouted urgently as they weaved through the air but the beam snaked after her relentlessly, gaining ground with every second!

I'm trying! It isn't working! Wendy sent back frantically. We need to try something else!

I think I might have just the thing!

Putting thoughts into action, Andi opened her mouth and let out an ear bleeding Canary Cry, the sound filling the room and drowning out the still raging blizzard.

It was so intense that Koios winced, causing his attack to cut out and his sword to return to normal. That is if a small sword shaped glacier counted as normal.

It was enough however to give the goddess just enough time to dive right into Koios' face and thrust Skyline into his helm's eye slit. Andi knew she had one chance at this. The Titan was many, many times more powerful than her. If she didn't take advantage of this chance, he'd squish her like a bug once he recovered. So she pressed the opening she'd gained hard!

"DIE!" She screamed and unleashed as much power as she could as she plunged Skyline first right through the remnants of Koios' eye and into the rest of his head. Her wild charge culminating in her bursting out the other side of the Titan's head, carving a hole straight through his fancy helmet in the process.

In an instant, the cold snap in the room died as the Titan of the North's body fell with a thud and shrunk back down to his regular twenty feet.

"Ah! Just like I predicted it would end." The Titanic Oracle said with resignation as his body began to disintegrate into a gold dust even as his sword began to crack apart. "With a hole through my head."

With those last words, he died and returned to the depths of Tartarus leaving behind a pile of gold dust and the shattered remains of his icy sword.

Panting, Andi let her winds that were still swirling around the room die down. Her heart was pounding as the chill in her veins slowly faded.

"Wendy." She said aloud to her Aura partner. "We're heading out. Gotta make sure Will's okay."

Right! The tiny Aura acknowledged and they flew out of the planetarium leaving it and the sea of gold dust that carpeted its floor behind.

"This is what we were sent here to save?" Bianca asked incredulously as she pointed her Stygian Iron spear at a particularly beautiful looking sunflower hidden amidst the flower farm's vast fields. "A flower?

"Not a what, a who." Andi tutted as her fingers gently brushed the blooming sunflower. "Her name is Clytie. Long story, but we can save that for later. All you guys need to know is that she was an Oceanid and got cursed by Lord Apollo."

"Dad?" Will asked with a grimace, who had healed himself the rest of the way to peak health the moment he could.

"Lord Apollo." Andi nodded.

"...Sounds legit." Conner agreed. "So the Titans were what? Trying to convince her to join them? What's she gonna do? I mean she's not even a dryad!"

"But she has immortal essence," Andi said with a dark frown. "And some of the Titans' allies are harvesting that wherever they can."

"Who?" Bianca asked, a look of distaste on her face even as she mumbled about fools defying death.

"Oh shit, the Technodjinn right?" Conner said with a snap of his fingers. "Sneaky."

"Yup. Them." Wendy said with a shrug, even as she walked around Clytie with an appraising look on her face. "Uh, Andi? How are you gonna handle this? Should we just kill her? That would send her essence to another sunflower right? Would that be safe enough?"

"I don't think Leukothea would like us killing her sister." Andi told her partner with a shake of her head. "But Connor did give me an idea earlier. I can turn her into a dryad. Just let me do a quick check with Lord Apollo if that's okay. Clytie is still being punished by him after all."

"And as the goddess of the Wild she'd be under your purview now right?" Bianca asked with a mischievous smirk. "Sneaky."

Ignoring the daughter of Hades and her insinations, Andi reached out telepathically to Apollo.

Lord Apollo, you have a moment?

Andi? Give me a sec. I'm in the middle of sending a quiverfull into one of Typhon's eyes. Apollo sent back, sounding distracted. Okay! Done! It's Arte's turn with the fire support. Whatcha want?

So, I have Clytie secured and Koios is dead-

He is? Damn! Lil Sis has game! Congratz!

Yeah, thanks. Anyways, I was wondering if I could turn Clytie into a dryad. That way she'd be a lot safer from the Technodjinn since she'd be more mobile and active and what not.

There was a notable pause from the sun god and he replied, Uh… Mind giving me a quick refresher. Who's Clytie again?

Andi winced. Was the former Oceanid so forgettable to Apollo that he couldn't even recall who she was!? Even after what he did to her?

Sunflower. Kinda tattled to you to Oceanus about your affair with Leukothea way back when.

Leukothea? Apollo said as he clearly struggled with his memories. Is that why she called for this quest in the first place? Sorry, I really don't remember. So, sure do whatevs.

Andi winced, ouch, that stung even if it wasn't aimed at her. Did all gods get so callous after a while? She sure hoped not.

T-Thanks. I'll get to it.

Sure thing, okay break's over. Back to battle!

"Yeah, but that's not the point. Even if that's a loophole, which it isn't, you never want to upset other gods by getting in the way of their punishments." Wendy explained instead in the second or two that the telepathic conversation lasted.

"Okay, so Lord Apollo gave his okay." Andi said, barely hiding her wince at the whole thing.

"He forgot Clytie even existed didn't he?" Will asked with a frown.

"He what!?" Bianca asked incredulously. "He cursed a poor girl to be a flower and he forgot about it!?"

"Dad can be, uh, forgetful at times." Will said carefully.

"You mean he's a ca-"

"Not another word Bianca." Andi said sternly. "Not unless you want Lord Apollo to get pissed off and trust me you want to avoid that. Or did you forget poor Clytie here?"

"...Fine, but that's just-!" The daughter of Hades bit her lip and looked genuinely upset.

"The gods aren't the good guys, Bianca." Wendy told the girl seriously. "Just the better side. Thought you'd learned that already."

"I know. It's just-"

"Ease off on her okay?" Connor asked, walking over to Bianca and giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze. "She's the newest to this life among us all. It'll take a while for her to really get it."

Wendy rolled her eyes but piped down.

"Andi, what are you waiting for?" Will asked, gesturing at Clytie.

"Thinking up Clytie's new form." Andi lied, she wasn't exactly gonna admit she got distracted with thinking of the pros and cons of smiting Bianca to teach her the lesson she desperately needed to learn. "Clytie, time to wake up."

At her seemingly mundane words, the sunflower that was Clytie's current form suddenly transformed. Where was once a plant, now stood a beautiful woman with green skin, yellow hair with scattered petals growing out of it, and freckles that looked like sunflower seeds. Most problematically, at least in the mortals' opinion as they frantically looked away, was that she was naked.

She's been a flower for millennia! What did they expect?

"Hi there!" She said with a beautiful voice and a radiant smile. As expected of a sunflower dryad. Without losing the smile, her viney brows knitted together. "Um, where am I?"

"Kansas." Andi replied, "Your, uh, punishment was lifted and I turned you into a dryad. I am Andromeda Aurae, goddess of the Wild, breezes and Champion of Magic."

"Oh! Pan's successor? I heard about you from the dray- I guess it's the other dryads now." Clytie said excitedly. "It's so nice to meet you!"

"They talked to you?" Wendy asked curiously.

"Yup! Plenty of them pitied me so they tried to make up for it as much as they could." Clytie told them with a smile. "Oh, and because we're all big gossipy gossips at heart. You would not believe what Dandelions have to say!"

"They're the biggest gossips, I know." Andi said with a groan. "They take advantage of how they get around so much to spy on things and then overshare about all of it."

"Oh, right! Goddess of the wild, you would know!"

"Yeah." Andi agreed. "So anyways, me and the demigods here are heading back to Camp Half-Blood and you can either join us or-."

"Can I not?" Clytie asked. "I've heard about Camp over the years. A summer camp, really? Not my style. Is there anyone, I dunno, quieter?"

"Do you want to head to my palace? It's not one hundred percent yet but it's getting there."

"It's got a garden I can plant myself in?"

"It's got a whole forest." Wendy told her with a smile. "You'll like it."

"Yay! New friends!" Crytle cheered and looked like she wanted to hug Andi, but held herself back.

Andi sighed, "Go ahead."

The dryad scooped her up into a big hug, "Thank you very much Lady Andromeda!"

"Don't mention it," Andi told her with a smile as the dryad let her go. "So you ready to go?"

"Sure."

Andi snapped her fingers and Clytie was gone, leaving behind a small hole in the ground where her flower self had been planted.

"Is she gone?" Will asked from a short distance away where he and the other mortals had retreated in the face of Clytie's nudity. "Or at least dressed?"

"Gone and no, she is not dressed. Why would she need to be?" Andi looked confused. "Heck, I'm starting to forget about getting dressed if Ida didn't remind me at times."

"Same." Wendy agreed. "Though that's your fault I think Andi. Bleed over and all that. Not that I blame you. Getting dressed is a chore!"

Will blushed scarlet at that and even the others' cheeks pinked.

"Too much information, Lady Andi, Wendy."

"Is it?" Andi asked, blinking in confusion to Bianca's question and exchanging a look with Wendy who just shrugged.

"Sorta kinda." Bianca stiffly nodded, her pink cheeks darkening.

"Uh, why don't we shelve this and just, um, head back to Camp?" Will suggested as normally as he could while he was sporting an atomic red blush and a small tent grew in his pants.

"You have my vote," Connor said with a hasty nod. "Bianca? Shadow portal?"

"I think that's a good idea." The daughter of Hades agreed, creating a portal with her powers as she did her best to ignore the two boys. "Let's go home. And never speak of this again. Please."

"Uh, sure?" Andi said uncertainly, still unsure why the mortals were all upset even as she ushered them through Bianca's portal and along with Wendy followed them through it.

They stepped out of the daughter of Hades' shadow portal to find Camp having a somber celebration. The camp's hearth fire a deep black in color.

"So I guess the Princess Andromeda raid was a success." Will observed. "But it didn't all go as planned."

Andi used her divine insight and pulled the knowledge of what happened into her mind from thin air.

"Oh, yeah," She said with a frown. "Beckendorf didn't make it."

The Questers gasped.

"I need to find Silena," Andi said as she began searching the crowds of Campers around the central hearth a short distance from where they'd exited the shadows. "Guys, you go report to Chiron okay?"

"We've got this." Wendy reassured her. "You go check on Silena."

Without waiting for a reply, Andi transformed into a gust of wind and swirled quickly through Camp to hunt the daughter of love down. She found her sitting in a tree by what looked like a makeshift forge set up in the forest and looking at the setting sun whilst tears ran down her face uncontrollably.

"Silena," Andi greeted as she retook her human form seated next to the other girl.

Her mortal friend offered a teary eyed smile, "Hi there L-Lady Andi."

The goddess wrapped her friend in her arms in an instant, squeezing her tightly in comfort.

"I'm so sorry."

"Could you have done something?" Silena asked in a surprisingly steady voice despite her clear grief.

"If I had been there? Maybe?" Andi said with uncertainty. "But I don't think so. It was Beckendorf's time. Atropos had already cut his string."

"It's not fair… I suffered through so much, I was so close to my happy ending…" Silena sniffled as more tears spilled down her cheeks.

"The world isn't fair." Andi told her sadly. "Not everyone gets a happy ending."

Silena just sobbed into Andi's shoulder for a good long while at that before finally calming.

"Do you know who did it?" Silena asked, her voice simmering with rage. "Which monster did the deed?"

"Beckendorf blew himself up to sink the ship." Andi told her, pulling the knowledge from the aether with her powers. "Don't think there's any one monster who counts as doing the deed. But-"

"But what?" Silena demanded.

"He was being confronted by Luke when he set off the charges."

"Luke!?" Silena asked. "Not Kronos?"

Andi nodded.

"Then Luke will die." Silena swore. "I dunno how I'll do it, but I'll be the one to kill him and have him hang by his entrails. I swear it."

Thankfully she did not make the Oath on the Styx so it wasn't exactly magically binding but Andi wasn't sure that mattered. Not when Silena was so obviously determined to see it carried out. She just hoped it didn't end up getting her killed.

Done and done! Thanks to Nameless and Axios as always!

Whoo, Titan fight! Hope it was good for you guys, we tried building it up as something interesting so we have our fingers crossed that we delivered. Saving the essence of a divine being was a neat spin to work with and there are so many things that were polymorphed in Greek mythos. So we had a lot of choices.

Nameless: So anyone recognized the Clytie myth? It's kinda obscure, which as you guys should know by now are exactly the kind we love to use. On that note, we know the original myth has Clytie involved with Helios and not Apollo. But it was rewritten to be Apollo later in history so for simplicity's sake we went with that version. That it let us showcase the kind of callousness that he was famous for as a god in the PJOverse, see the Trails of Apollo series for details, was just a bonus.

Now onto the fight itself, Andi of course did not have the raw power as a newly minted minor goddess to tackle a full blown Titan, but she could outsmart him or outmaneuver him in this case.

Nameless: Yup. Koios might be an Oracle and have Foresight as his domain but he's not perfect. So having him overlook one of Andi's less often used powers just made sense.

And so, the Last Olympian has begun. Who will live and who shall die? You'll see.

Nameless: And will Silena get to kill Luke as gruesomely as she's dreaming of doing at the moment? Well, like E4E said, wait and see.

You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!