(A/N: Lots of skipping and junk but it'll be similar to the canon story. Enjoy!)
Turns out, I was right about Travis and Connor putting something in Phoebe's shirt. They put centaur blood on it, which is equivalent to acid. Now, my friend's on bed rest while I chase the brothers around with my blades.
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" I yelled as I chased them to the lake,
"She attacked us!"
"It was Capture the Flag; of course she attacked you!" I called out to them.
"Arina!" I turned and found my sister giving me an odd look while adjusting her bag.
"What? I'm trying to kill my cabinmates right now,"
"The quest?"
"Ugh... right, I'll meet you guys near Half-Blood Hill," I waved my hand while trying to locate the brothers.
"Don't forget to say goodbye to Nico, I think he's worried about us both going," Bianca stated before walking off.
Then I got an idea. No one was around and I saw the boys run towards the amphitheatre, so what if I just...
I focussed and melted into a shadow of a nearby tree before appearing near the entrance of the amphitheatre, giving the brothers both a heart attack before I latched my arms around both of their necks.
"Going somewhere, boys?"
"A-Arina, you're-"
"You guys are my cabinmates, I won't kill you, but it doesn't mean you guys will go unpunished. The hunters know that you two did it so I told them I'll deal with you instead of you guys getting attacked by ten angry, immortal hunters," I elaborated.
"U-uh, what are you-"
I grabbed both of them by the ear and marched them towards a bush that had been roped off by some Apollo campers and nymphs. Then, I pushed them both into the bushes before walking off.
"Wait, THIS IS POISON IVY!" I heard one of the boy's shrieks before I burst into a run before shadow travelling back to my cabin.
I filled my backpack with all the essentials, which was almost everything I owned. I still don't have a lot of stuff, just my clothes and my constellation pencil case.
I did get stuff for my birthday, but I recently relocated all that stuff to the Underworld out of fear of it getting stolen by the Hermes campers. Their father is the god of thieves so it makes total sense.
Once I packed my bags and said goodbye to Nico, I raced up the snowy hill to meet up with the rest of the girls. Unfortunately, Thalia and Zoë were arguing already.
"We should get another person to replace her! We need five!"
"This is a land without rain if the gods will it!" Zoë exclaimed.
"What's happening?" I asked Bianca.
"They're arguing about if we should get another hunter or camper to come along. Zoë doesn't want to risk any more lives while Thalia wants to follow the prophecy."
"Guys, shut up so we can save Artemis, this place could count as a land without rain," I agreed with Zoë. "The longer we stay here, the more time we waste, let's just head west,"
Then, we set off with Zoë driving us. However, I felt like we were being followed or watched the whole time.
Whenever I looked out of the window, I always see something black fly across the sky before disappearing. However, it vanished when we passed the Chrysler building in New York.
We stopped in a convenience store in Maine when I felt we were being followed again. I expressed my concerns, but that somehow caused an argument between Thalia and Zoë about where we should go next.
According to Thalia, Grover played a tracking song and said we should to D.C. before we left. However, Zoë said we should just head west now.
"Guys, let's just go to D.C. we might find something useful there," I stated, struggling to keep the peace with my sister.
We parked on a curb near the Washington Monument before heading into a museum near a mall. We headed up the stairs afterwards and started to discuss our next plan of action when a familiar boy ran into Thalia, literally.
"What are you doing here, boy?" Zoë spat, notching her bow in unison with Bianca when Percy found us.
Percy quickly explained what happened to him, finding Dr. Thorn and somebody named the 'General' wanting Thalia. As well, he mentioned Luke and how Annabeth is still, possibly, alive. Also, one of the soldiers summoned skeleton warriors, twelve to be exact.
When Bianca and I heard this, we turned to each other. We both knew skeleton warriors were unstoppable unless killed by a child of Hades, or they were pitted against each other.
"We have to get outta here, whatever scent Grover caught was clearly wrong, he must've sensed the monsters here that equalled the creature Artemis was hunting," I stated in worry.
"We must leave immediately," Zoë said before adding, "and that does not include thee, boy."
"What? I-" he was about to argue when we heard screaming from down below. We all looked over an saw a lion bound up the ramp as people ran away screaming
"The Nemean Lion," Percy stated in shock.
I was going to reply with something sarcastic, but I guess it wasn't the time for it.
I summoned my blades while everyone else began attacking it. Once the arrows hit it, they snapped, and when Percy and I tried swinging at it, our blades just bounced off its body.
"Got any ideas, guys?" Bianca yelled as she jumped off the Apollo capsule that the lion jumped on.
"Could you use your powers somehow?" I asked Percy just as I was about to slip off another plane. Fortunately, Percy grabbed my arm before I could fall off.
"I can't sense any water nearby,"
"Dammit,"
We jumped off the craft when I saw Percy's eyes light up as if he got an ingenious idea.
"Zoë, aim for the mouth!" He yelled before running off towards the gift shop.
"It's not the time to buy magnets and keychains!" I yelled at him, dodging a swipe from the lion and rolling over to the two hunters.
"Thou cannot hit its mouth," Zoë called back, hitting its forehead and face, but not the mouth.
At that moment, the monster flung Thalia like a ragdoll at a space shuttle. She hit it, making me cringe, before falling to the ground, increasing my anger.
"Just get ready!"
The Nemean lion roared ferociously, however, just as it opened its mouth, Percy threw several silver packets inside its mouth. The monster cringed it disgust, opening its mouth just wide enough for Zoë and my sister to shoot it in the throat.
The creature thrashed around violently, but then it froze before collapsing to the ground, dead. Not a moment later, its remains began to melt away into a glittery mess, leaving only a regular size lion's pelt.
"That was a peculiar strategy," Zoë stated as alarms were blaring around us.
"We should get outta here before they think we're terrorists, again," I said before turning my blades back into rings.
"Yeah, we should go, the Mist isn't strong enough to hide us fighting that thing," Bianca agreed.
"Take it," Zoë said to Percy, motioning towards the pelt.
"What? Isn't that like an animal rights violation?"
"You killed it, it is thine,"
"You shot it,"
Zoë smiled, "Thou believes the ice cream sandwich did most of the work. It is thy spoil of war," she grabbed the pelt and handed it to him.
Once Percy had the pelt in hand, it started to shimmer and morph into a large brownish trench coat.
"Cool," Percy stated before slipping it on as we snuck out of the museum.
Unfortunately for us, that was when the skeleton warriors started to show up. We managed to evade them a bit longer though.
"I'll distract them, they're after me, not you guys. I'll be able to-"
"No, you are apart of this quest whether I like it or not," Zoë said begrudgingly.
Hm... guess Percy managed to earn her respect.
"To that parking lot!" Bianca yelled.
"We'll be trapped!"
"Just do it!"
Bad luck struck again because we were demigods.
Zoë was driving us once more, but we were being followed by mortal mercenaries. I guess mortals can sometimes be worse than monsters.
"C'mon," Bianca ran ahead of us to an underground entrance. "It's the subway, we can go south to Alexandria."
"Anything,"
We quickly bought our tickets before slipping on to a train, finally able to relax when we didn't see anyone following us.
"Quick thinking," I nodded to my sister.
"Thanks, Nico and I use to take the subway when we use to live in D.C. This is pretty new though," her comment made me skeptical, but I knew she was from before the war so it all made sense. Of course, the others might have not known this.
"What do you mean?"
"I assure you, this wasn't around when my brother and I were kids," Percy. Thalia, and Zoë all gave each other confused looks while I remained calm.
"Geez, sis, you didn't tell them?" I gasped in mock shock.
"Tell us what?"
"Well, have you guys heard of the Lotus Casino?" She began to tell the others quietly about how she was trapped in the casino for like seventy years before being rescued by 'me'. For simplicity, we said I rescued her and Nico, that was why I wasn't on the quest for the Golden Fleece.
"Wowza," Percy seemed shocked while Thalia and Zoë took it better. Well, they were both older than how they looked. Zoë's been a hunter for centuries, and Thalia's been a tree for about seven years, she's practically seventeen or eighteen.
After our conversation, we heard the helicopter again before switching trains. We continued doing this until we had no clue where we were.
We ended up at an old-looking freight yard with several abandoned-looking train cars. As well, it was freezing because of the snow. Lucky for us, there was an oddly familiar homeless man that let us share his fire.
We then began discussing our plan of action, trying not to mention anything explicitly secret about the Greek world for the sake of the homeless dude.
"Maybe we should contact camp, Chiron-" Bianca began.
"No, we're on our own now," Zoë interrupted as the general mood dropped.
"Y'know, you're never without friends." The homeless guy said, his body covered in grime and filth, "You need a train going west?"
"Yeah, know where we can find one?" Percy inquired somewhat hopefully.
The man pointed to a train we hadn't noticed before with 'SUN WEST LINE' written on its side. Huh, convenient.
"Thanks-" Thalia turned and saw the man was gone already.
We all then snuck aboard the train, which contained many luxurious cars like Lamborghinis and state-of-the-art Lexuses.
The hunters chose to sit in the Lexus while I slipped into the Lamborghini, wanting a small taste of the rich life while Thalia hot-wired one car and was talking to Percy in it.
Was I lonely? Not really, probably a child of Hades' thing. Well, I do question how I'm a child of Hades at times due to my fear of snakes and needles.
Snakes are creatures that live in the Underworld and are involved in many Greek myths, but I'm petrified of them, honestly. They just creep me out so much! They slither, have fangs, and could very well kill me.
The same goes for needles, which are just plain scary, okay? They're sharp, they jab into your skin merciless, and leave you sore for days. I'm not anti-vac though, my mother just loves jamming needles into my arms and other parts of my body.
When she use to leave the house, she would sometimes steal the doctors' vaccinations and use it for the heck of it. Seriously, she was the worst and I'm so glad I'm liberated of her constraints from now on.
"Mind if I join you?" I turned and realized Percy was standing awkwardly outside my car.
"Sure, hop in," I pushed opened the door and continued to recline in my seat.
"How's it going?"
"Bored, what about you?"
"Nearly got fried again by Thalia,"
"Ha, you pissed her off, again? Damn, new record," I joked lightheartedly.
He punched me in the shoulder playfully, "Haha," he replied sarcastically.
"What did you say to her?" I inquired, "Did you make fun of her clothes?"
"No, I just asked why she hates Zoë," Percy elaborated, leaning back in his seat as well. "It was because she got into an argument with her about Luke."
"Yeah, she was pretty close to him, so I heard,"
"But is she willing to fight him? Even if that means killing him?"
"What about you? You're also up next in the prophecy after Thalia," I questioned him curiously. I wonder how far he will go before killing someone.
"I'm-I'm not sure," he faltered, looking unsure.
"Hey," I put one of my arms around him, "you might not be a part of the prophecy at all! Thalia might be the chosen one, or, you have two years left." I reassured him.
"Um... you're talking-"
"Yes I'm talking about the prophecy everyone is refusing to tell us," I stated with a sigh.
He has barnacles for brains, I swear.
"I'm gonna get some sleep, try not to get killed by the others while I sleep, Bianca can only hold off Zoë and Thalia for so long," I joked before slipping into the backseats.
"I'll try,"
(Dream: Still Arina's P.O.V.)
I was running through tall grass, but it was too dark for me to tell where I was. However, somehow my body knew where to go.
"Hurry," my own voiced surprised me. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't place where. "He will find us!"
I realized I was pulling someone with me, they had a Nemean Lion pelt like Percy, but it looked just like a regular animal pelt. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch their face.
"I'm not afraid," the person, a male, said as I dragged him along.
"You should be!"
I dragged the boy further into an unfamiliar place. Eventually, we collapsed behind several bushes.
I felt odd running, and when I looked down, I realized my whole attire had seemed to change, so did my hair. I had long, dark hair, and tanned skin. As well, I was wearing sandals, which I should point out, never should be worn while running, and a dress that seemed to glow faintly.
"The is no need to run. I have bested thousands of beasts with my bare hands," the man said to me.
Finally, I got a good look at the man and realized he looked oddly familiar. He had black hair and blue eyes, reminding me instantly of Percy. However, while Percy's eyes were sea green and held childish mirth, this man had a hardened look that showed he lived a tough life. Also, there was something else in his eyes I couldn't name, but I had a sinking feeling it wasn't anything good.
"Not this one," I began, "Ladon is a powerful creature, you must go around and up the mountain to my father. That is the only way,"
"I do not trust your father,"
"And that is a good choice, but you must deceive him! You cannot take the prize directly, or else you will die!" I heard worry creep into my voice as I warned this man.
"Then why don't you help me, pretty one?" I felt myself blush as he chuckled.
"I... I am afraid of Ladon, my sisters will disown me if they found out I helped you." I admitted nervously.
"Then there's nothing for it," he rubbed his hands together, preparing to stand up.
"Wait!" I wavered slightly before pulling a white brooch from my hair and handing it to him carefully.
"If you must fight, take this. My mother, Pleione, gave it to me. She was the daughter of the ocean, the ocean's power is within it. My immortal powers," I added, breathing on it, giving it an ominous glow.
"Take it, and make it a weapon,"
"A hairpin? How will this defeat Landon, pretty one?" The way he said 'pretty one' sounded condescending in so many ways.
"It is all I can offer, it might not help if you insist on being stubborn,"
He accepted the hairpin. The moment it touched his hand, it grew into a long, bronze blade that I vaguely recognized.
"Well balance, what shall I call it?"
"Anaklusmos," I supplied sadly, "the current that takes one by surprise. Once you realize it, you are adrift at sea."
Then, a loud hissing noise was heard around us.
"He found us!"
(Dream Over)
I sat up from my dream, realization striking me instantly as I stared at Percy's sleeping form in the front seats.
Anaklusmos, aka Riptide, was Percy's sword. However, the first owner was none other than Zoë Nightshade.
Our train eventually arrived in a snowy location. We decided to head to a ski village before planning further.
Along the way there, Percy told me about his conversation with Apollo, or 'Fred', as he dubbed himself. Apparently, the sun god told us to head to San Francisco to talk to a god named Nereus for information.
Later on, we tried to figure out how to get out of the town but it turns out, there were no bus stations, taxis, or anything of the sort in the small secluded town. We managed to get some food, coffee, and hot chocolate though, courtesy of Zoë and I.
Unfortunately, all good things come to an end.
For some reason, a rubber rat Percy got came to life and so did the drawings of birds on our cups. Afterwards, an unnaturally warm breeze blew passed before Thalia came back with her spear out, saying there was trouble.
Turns out, we were found by the skeleton warriors, or more specifically, Percy.
We were on the outskirts when they came, two in front, and two behind us. They were all clad in blue New Mexico State police uniforms with shotguns to boot.
"We're surrounded," I heard someone say as I summoned my blades.
After that, Percy ran towards a skeleton, managing to dodge a bullet and strike it through with his sword. Unfortunately, once the whole thing was disassembled, it began to rebuild itself. That's when the rest of us strung into action.
"Percy!" I turned and saw a warrior shoot Percy in the back, the latter collapsing on the ground before I swung my blades at the skeleton, it burst into flames.
"How did thy do that?" Zoë eyed my in surprise, firing more arrows.
"Lucky hit?" I replied, dodging another bullet.
I saw Percy get up from the ground, shocking me before I realized the pelt must've been bulletproof.
Not long after, we heard loud rustling from the forest near us. At first, I thought it was reinforcements for the skeletons but it turns out, it was a thirty-foot boar that shattered them all.
"The Erymanthain Boar!" Zoë exclaimed in shock as the boar swung its tusks at us.
Then, we all scattered, confusing the beast. I saw Thalia and Percy get chased by it, and I knew instantly Percy had a stupid idea when he led it uphill.
"What is he doing?" Bianca questioned as they disappeared.
"Well, this is definitely not a place without rain so we're good," I said, trying to ease the discomfort.
Zoë then trudged up the hill several minutes after. We followed the footprints and hoofprints of the others before getting to a sketchy bridge that half-collapsed.
"Guys?" I yelled out.
"Down here!" I looked over and saw Percy and Thalia at the bottom of the hill, the boar nowhere in sight, thankfully.
Once down there, we all watched the boar struggle in the snow under the broken bridge, collectively deciding it was our ride to the west.
Thalia, Bianca, and I hopped on it first. I looked over and saw Zoë and Percy talking about something before coming over to us. From the looks of it, Percy said something unintelligible, but not stupid enough to get killed by the hunter.
The boar soon freed itself from the snow and we all had to hold on extremely tight or else we would fall off. It was like bull riding, but with a boar instead.
We rode for hours, stopping only when the sun began to set.
I had no clue how far we've travelled, possibly across the whole country by the looks of it. We ended up in a desert, giving me an uneasy feeling in my stomach.
The boar stopped near a creek, drinking its muddy water and eating a cactus.
We all slipped off the boar, creeping around it before deciding our next plan of action for our quest. I had a feeling we only had a few days left before the solstice, and we needed to find Artemis by then.
We kept on walking until we arrived at an abandoned town with boarded-up windows in practically every building. As well as a surprisingly large junkyard.
Soon we set up a makeshift camp, the hunters producing sleeping bags while Thalia made a fire from lightning.
"Woah, the stars," we all looked up and I gasped at the sight above us.
The sky was so clear, with no light pollution or planes in sight, causing the stars to be seen so clearly. Thousands, possibly millions of stars glittered in the sky above us, taking my breath away.
"This is nothing, back in the old days, there were more constellations. Over time, human light pollution caused them to fade away," Zoë said.
Shortly after, Zoë and Thalia had a short argument about the words 'thee', 'thy', and 'you'. I didn't really pay attention though, I was just trying to get a mental picture of all the stars above.
"Arina, how did you defeat that skeleton warrior earlier?" All eyes were on me after Thalia asked her question.
"I don't know," I lied.
"Your blades?"
"They're just plain old blades,"
"Bianca also made one burst into flames too," Percy pointed-out, causing me to internally glare at him.
"Zoë and I have the same blades,"
"Maybe it was a certain spot?" Thalia suggested.
Bianca and I grew increasingly uncomfortable with the attention, but fortunately enough, Zoë cut in and devised our next step.
"We need to get through this junkyard before we head to Las Vegas," she said.
Before we could continue our conversation, a car showed up in front of us, the headlights nearly blinding us.
I knew something bad was going to happen when the sword went to Percy's throat. To make matters worse, it was Ares' blade, the god who currently hates Percy and I.
"Why don't you guys get some tacos while you wait? Percy and Arina will only take a few minutes," Ares stated.
"The place-" he snapped his fingers and the taco place nearby lights turned on.
The others didn't seem comfortably leaving us both with the war god.
"We'll be fine, I'll keep Percy out of trouble," I joked, urging them to go on without us.
The trio reluctantly obliged and went inside the taco place. I prayed Zoë and Thalia wouldn't kill each other while in there. If they do, hopefully, Bianca can hold them off long enough for us to get back.
Ares gave us a look of complete abhor before opening the door of the car, which was a limousine, like a chauffer.
"Mind your manners, she isn't as forgiving as I am," I slipped into the car after Percy.
The moment we entered the car, I saw Percy's look of shock and admiration towards the female in front of us. She emanated love and was beautiful.
I knew who she was by the warnings from my step-mom instantly.
"Nice to meet you, finally," I nodded my head as Percy made some idiotic noises to the goddess.
Ugh... Barnacle Boy needs to keep his head screwed on properly.
Aphrodite was mainly talking to Percy the whole time, ignoring all my questions as Ares scoffed outside.
She talked about how he was really on the quest to save Annabeth, and I for once agreed with the love goddess. He clearly likes Annabeth.
Of course, the other things I heard her say were useless and somewhat frightening. She said Percy and Annabeth's love story was going to be tragic, so that freaked me out. Also, she said he was going to have many more hardships in his love life before dismissing him and warning him about the junkyard, which coincidentally belonged to Hephaestus.
I was about to leave when she beckoned me to stay.
"I'll see you out there," I said to Percy after he left the car.
Aphrodite sat in front of me, her lips pursed as she tapped her chin before shaking her head in disappointment.
"I almost feel bad for what's gonna happen in your love life," she stated.
"You're controlling my love life, change it then if you feel bad for me," I didn't like how she said that. She was excited about Percy's love troubles, how bad is mine in comparison?
"I said almost," she pointed-out, "and it's for the Fates to decide."
Oh, who knew I could feel worse when she said that. When the Fates are involved, nothing good ever happens. Take, for example, all our lives.
"Okay, that's all then?" I prepared to leave the car.
"Uh uh," she grabbed me by the arm and stared at me. I had to restrain myself from yelling 'what' at her.
"You'll face many trials that's for sure, but I guarantee you will have a happy ending." She stated before pushing me out of the limo.
Once outside, I saw a flash of red before I was lying on the ground beside Percy, feeling a bit disoriented.
I looked around and realized all the buildings were gone, we were all in the junkyard.
From there, the others interrogated us on our meeting with the love goddess.
"She just said be careful in the junkyard; don't pick up anything," Percy said, probably not wanting to talk about Annabeth.
"Doesn't seem like something Aphrodite would say." Thalia stated, "What about you? Did she say anything to you?" she turned to me.
"Nothing important, just a bunch of love mumbo jumbo," it was true. The only thing that worried me was how she said she felt bad for me. What exactly is going to happen to me? What were the Fates planning?
"Anyway," Percy began, wanting to change the subject, "where to next? How do we get out?"
"We head that way," Zoë pointed in one direction.
I looked up and saw Ursa Major in the sky, confirming that was west because the constellation was north. Therefore, the left of it was west.
I might be sorta an astronomy geek.
As we went through the junkyard, it was hard to resist the urge to touch anything. I touched like two things, but the others, not including Zoë and Thalia, touched practically everything they saw. Something about the whole situation felt wrong though.
Eventually, we came across giant toes, causing us to take a long way around it. We finally arrived at the highway afterwards.
"We made it out, thank the gods," Zoë exclaimed once outside.
Unfortunately, she spoke too soon.
We heard loud crashing noises behind us, prompting us to turn. Behind us was this giant robot, which the toes were for, who rose from the ground. It looked intimidating and got even scarier when Thalia indirectly insulted it.
"Who took something?" Thalia looked directly at Percy when she asked this.
"I do a lot of things, but I didn't take anything from the junkyard," Percy retorted, seeming somewhat offended by the accusation.
I caught Bianca's eye and saw a guilty look on her face. I knew it was too late to do anything so I decided not to press further.
We split up as we did at the museum, Thalia ran towards the highway, Bianca and Percy went towards the junkyard, Zoë was firing to one side with me beside her.
"Hey, ugly, over here!" I distracted Talos from the arguing figures of Bianca and Percy.
I rolled away from the foot that came down above me, running into a pile of junk.
"Keep in distracted!" I heard someone yell.
I turned towards the noise, seeing Bianca run straight towards Talos with Percy coming up behind her, stabbing one of the many toes of the automaton.
"Arina!" I faced the monster and was sent flying back by its foot, crashing into an Olympic Air refrigerator.
I tried to gain my bearings, feelings dazed from the blow. I faintly heard someone calling out my name before Zoë appeared in my blurry vision.
"Are you okay?" she offered her hand as my vision focussed itself.
I nodded my head before accepting her hand.
I stared at the machine in confusion as it started attacking itself and doing a weird dance, reminding me of the Funky Chicken.
"Yes, Bianca!" Percy cheered much to my horror.
"She's in there?" I gasped.
Zoë grabbed my arm and pulled me away as the machine attacked itself, running towards the highway with Percy and Thalia coming up behind us. I started to hear a loud ringing noise in my ears as the automaton ran into the electrical wires, blue electricity lighting up its whole body before it froze, beginning to crumble to the ground afterwards.
We all ran towards it, avoiding the falling debris as the ringing got louder and louder for me. I knew what had happened, and I had no clue how to tell Nico.
How were you supposed to tell someone their sister died?