The war god was waiting for us in the diner parking lot.

"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."

"You sound pleased," Hera noted with displeasure. Ares just smirked at her in return.

"You knew it was a trap," I said.

Ares gave me a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."

"See! I told you, you wouldn't look like fools!" Apollo chimed in.

I shoved his shield at him. "You're a jerk."

"Here we go," Thalia muttered.

Annabeth and Grover caught their breath.

Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting wio a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.

Ares smiled, his eyes glowing in anticipation for the new toys he would be able to play with.

"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

Nico looked over at Percy. "Vegas? Bad stop?"

"Bad stop," Percy agreed.

The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

Artemis and Zoë both winced. They had a feeling the transport was anything but humane.

I said, "You're kidding."

Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."

He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to me.

Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.

"Wow. That was nice of you," Aphrodite looked at him, fluttering her eyelashes. Ares leaned towards her and shrugged. "It's what I do."

Hephaestus rolled his eyes in disgust.

I said, "I don't want your lousy—"

"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving me his best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot."

"That be a smart satyr," Dionysus said in amusement, holding back his laughs.

I gritted my teeth. It was probably a deadly insult to refuse something from a god, but I didn't want anything that Ares had touched. Reluctantly, I slung the backpack over my shoulder. I knew my anger was being caused by the war god's presence, but I was still itching to punch him in the nose. He reminded me of every bully I'd ever faced: Nancy Bobofit, Clarisse, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers—every jerk who'd called me stupid in school or laughed at me when I'd gotten expelled.

"The Ares effect," Hephaestus said gruffly.

Dionysus nodded. "He's really good at killing the good mood at a party." Ares radiated irritation and smugness simultaneously.

I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.

Great, I thought. We'll make the papers again tomorrow.

"You really can't catch a break," Jason marveled. "How are you still alive?"

"Good question. I imagine myself collapsing from exhaustion nearly every day," Percy quipped.

I imagined the headline: TWELVE-YEAR-OLD OUTLAW BEATS UP DEFENSELESS BIKER.

"You owe me one more thing," I told Ares, trying to keep my voice level. "You promised me information about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

"I already knew that," Alecto complained quietly.

"We all did. Percy didn't," Tisiphone pointed out to her sister.

The ground seemed to spin beneath me. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

At some of the other gods' shocked faces, Ares rose a brow. "What none of you realized that?"

"We did," Persephone shot back.

"The question is why bother," Hades finished. At that Ares shrugged.

"Kept. Why?"

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."

"Nobody's controlling me."

"He's right. Nobody is controlling him," Zeus insisted.

"Looks like Zeus still hates admitting when something is going wrong huh?" Jason asked sardonically.

"He really never changes," Nico agreed.

He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."

I balled up my fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."

Hephaestus began to laugh. The kid was good.

Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. I felt a hot wind in my hair. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."

"Did you just curse him?" Apollo asked in dismay. Percy seemed too interesting to die now.

"Nah, if I cursed him, he'd know for sure," Ares dismissed.

He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.

Annabeth said, "That was not smart, Percy."

"Well no one ever accused me of being smart," Percy shrugged.

"No, that would be scandalous," Thalia agreed sarcastically. Percy grinned in agreement making her groan.

"I don't care."

"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god."

"Ahem," All the gods cleared their throats, each believing they were superior. The demigods all inwardly sighed.

"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but ..."

He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.

"Well if they're keeping animals in such a cramped place, at least they're kind," Artemis smiled. Percy winced, remembering what was coming.

"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."

I didn't like it, but we had no better option. Besides, I'd seen enough of Denver.

"I think we're all a little done with Denver," Thalia snorted.

We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter.

They all gagged at the imagery.

The trailer was dark inside until I uncapped Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for.

Several of the gods, the future demigods, Perseus and Zoë growled in anger.

Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum, like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!

Artemis was shaking in fury, and some of the others were no better. "I'm going to curse them," she declared. "Just tell my future self about these scumbags."

"Will do, Lady Artemis. I'll tell Grover too. I bet he has a ton of people like that for you to curse," Percy agreed wholeheartedly. Artemis nodded at him.

Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.

Zoë looked murderous. "This is what they call kindness?"

"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"

He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and I would've helped him,

"You're a good human," Hermes told Percy. Percy frowned unsure if he was being treated like a dog or if that was a compliment from the god.

but just then the trucks engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.

We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Annabeth was in favor of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but I pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips.

Several gods gave Percy incredulous looks. "Hey, it's easy for you guys to judge. You're immortal. We aren't," Percy defended himself. Zoë sniffed at him disdainfully but said nothing.

I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then used Anaklusmos to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. I gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.

"At least you actually fed them," Hermes grumbled.

Grover calmed the antelope down, while Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. She wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around.

"I thought your weapons only worked on monsters and such. Not mortal beings?" Ariadne questioned.

"I'm not entirely sure how these things work. I mean I can use Riptide as a pen so I guess Annabeth could use her knife for monster hunting and cutting up inanimate objects?" Percy shrugged.

"You can use the sword as a pen?" Zoë asked him sharply. Percy nodded, pulling Riptide out. He removed the cap and held it to the base of the sword. Riptide transformed into a pen with a shiny tip. He then took the cap off and recapped the sword turning it into it's hidden form. Zoë looked at it amazed, before she remembered herself.

We told Grover to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning, then we settled in for night.

Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened our bag of Double Stuf Oreos and nibbled on one halfheartedly; I tried to cheer myself up by concentrating on the fact that we were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to our destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first. We could make it in plenty of time.

"Too good to be true," Hercules said suspiciously. Percy nodded grimly.

On the other hand, I had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with me. At least Hephaestus had the decency to be honest about it—

Hephaestus looked up from his tinkering. "I was being decent to you?"

he'd put up cameras and advertised me as entertainment. But even when the cameras weren't rolling, I had a feeling my quest was being watched. I was a source of amusement for the gods.

"That's true," Aphrodite agreed, examining her nails. "We're never bored watching you."

"Actually we do get bored. That's why we go down to Earth, to join you guys," Apollo corrected. "Good thing too, otherwise you lot wouldn't be born!"

The demigods all said nothing.

"Hey," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy."

"That's okay."

"It's just..." She shuddered. "Spiders."

"Because of the Arachne story," I guessed. "She got turned into a spider for challenging your mom to a weaving contest, right?"

Athena winced. When she had turned Arachne into a spider, she had never thought there would be consequences for it.

Annabeth nodded. "Arachne's children have been taking revenge on the children of Athena ever since. If there's a spider within a mile of me, it'll find me.

Athena looked absolutely miserable. "How did I not anticipate this?"

"You did turn her into a spider after going into a fit of rage," Hestia pointed out mildly. "I mean the reason for your anger was fair but maybe a bit excessive?" She suggested. Athena turned thoughtful and nodded.

I hate the creepy little things. Anyway, I owe you."

"We're a team, remember?" I said. "Besides, Grover did the fancy flying."

Hermes smiled like a proud father.

I thought he was asleep, but he mumbled from the corner, "I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?"

The gods and demigods alike all smiled a little at that.

Annabeth and I laughed.

She pulled apart an Oreo, handed me half. "In the Iris message...did Luke really say nothing?"

Thalia growled at the memory, causing Jason to look at her in alarm.

I munched my cookie and thought about how to answer. The conversation via rainbow had bothered me all evening. "Luke said you and he go way back. He also said Grover wouldn't fail this time. Nobody would turn into a pine tree."

Thalia flinched in reminder. Jason and Percy looked over at her worriedly, but both decided to remain silent.

In the dim bronze light of the sword blade, it was hard to read their expressions.

Grover let out a mournful bray.

"I should've told you the truth from the beginning." His voice trembled. "I thought if you knew what a failure I was, you wouldn't want me along."

"You were the satyr who tried to rescue Thalia, the daughter of Zeus."

They all turned to stare at Thalia. She hesitated for a moment before lifting her head up high, daring anyone to meet her electric blue eyes.

He nodded glumly.

"And the other two half-bloods Thalia befriended, the ones who got safely to camp..." I looked at Annabeth. "That was you and Luke, wasn't it?"

"Grover is no ordinary satyr is he?" Hermes questioned. "I mean, you four seem like powerful demigods."

Percy, Thalia and Nico all grinned. "He's special," they agreed.

She put down her Oreo, uneaten. "Like you said, Percy, a seven-year-old half-blood wouldn't have made it very far alone. Athena guided me toward help. Thalia was twelve. Luke was fourteen. They'd both run away from home, like me. They were happy to take me with them. They were...amazing monster-fighters, even without training. We traveled north from Virginia without any real plans, fending off monsters for about two weeks before Grover found us."

Thalia smirked when she noticed Jason staring at her in awe. Percy and Nico rolled their eyes.

"I was supposed to escort Thalia to camp," he said, sniffling. "Only Thalia. I had strict orders from Chiron: don't do anything that would slow down the rescue. We knew Hades was after her, see, but I couldn't just leave Luke and Annabeth by themselves. I thought ... I thought I could lead all three of them to safety. It was my fault the Kindly Ones caught up with us. I froze. I got scared on the way back to camp and took some wrong turns. If I'd just been a little quicker..."

"Stop it," Annabeth said. "No one blames you. Thalia didn't blame you either."

"She sacrificed herself to save us," he said miserably, "Her death was my fault. The Council of Cloven Elders said so."

"It wasn't his fault!" Thalia bit out. "Those Cloven Elders..." she trailed off angrily.

"Because you wouldn't leave two other half-bloods behind?" I said. "That's not fair."

"Exactly!" Thalia gestured towards the book. "You get it. Grover has a big heart and that's why Pan-," Percy grabbed her arm. "That's why he'll be the one to find Pan," he finished shooting Thalia a look. Thalia didn't argue.

"Percy's right," Annabeth said. "I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for you, Grover. Neither would Luke. We don't care what the council says."

Grover kept sniffling in the dark. "It's just my luck. I'm the lamest satyr ever, and I find the two most powerful half-bloods of the century, Thalia and Percy."

"I doubt a lame satyr could find the two most powerful demigods," Artemis spoke wryly, causing the future Greek demigods to beam at her.

"You're not lame," Annabeth insisted. "You've got more courage than any satyr I've ever met. Name one other who would dare go to the Underworld. I bet Percy is really glad you're here right now."

"Duh. Where would I be without G-man?"

"Dead," Thalia and Nico both said frankly. Percy scowled then grinned. "Yeah, true. So long as you know it's the same for the both of you." They shrugged.

She kicked me in the shin.

"Yeah," I said, which I would've done even without the kick. "It's not luck that you found Thalia and me, Grover. You've got the biggest heart of any satyr ever. You're a natural searcher. That's why you'll be the one who finds Pan."

"You still believe that about him!" Hermes said excitedly. "Maybe he really will find Pan," his eyes shone with hope.

Percy nodded, a little uncomfortable.

I heard a deep, satisfied sigh. I waited for Grover to say something, but his breathing only got heavier. When the sound turned to snoring, I realized he'd fallen sleep.

"How does he do that?" I marveled.

"it's a gift. And by gift, I mean annoyance," Dionysus rolled his eyes. The satyrs would always listen to him yell and fall asleep as soon as he was done talking. Dionysus always felt as if they just weren't taking him seriously.

"I don't know," Annabeth said. "But that was really a nice thing you told him."

"I meant it."

We rode in silence for a few miles, bumping around on the feed sacks. The zebra munched a turnip. The lion licked the last of the hamburger meat off his lips and looked at me hopefully.

"Let me eat you, kid. I'm really hungry and you seem nice," Apollo joked. The demigods all cracked up. It would be the nicest way, someone had ever tried to eat them. Then gods, excluding Hades and Artemis all looked puzzled, not understanding why it was so funny.

Annabeth rubbed her necklace like she was thinking deep, strategic thoughts.

"That pine-tree bead," I said. "Is that from your first year?"

Thalia rolled her eyes, feeling glances at her.

She looked. She hadn't realized what she was doing.

"Yeah," she said. "Every August, the counselors pick the most important event of the summer, and they paint it on that year's beads. I've got Thalia's pine tree, a Greek trireme on fire, a centaur in a prom dress—now that was a weird summer..."

"Hold up, centaur in a prom dress?" Nico questioned.

"Chiron?" Hercules asked incredulously, eyes wide.

Percy shrugged. "It happened before I was at camp. Ask Annabeth when we get back." Nico shrugged non-committedly.

"And the college ring is your father's?"

"That's none of your—" She stopped herself. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"She's opening up to you," Thalia smiled.

"And so it begins," Jason joked. Percy rolled his eyes at them, but he couldn't help but smile.

"You don't have to tell me."

"No...it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her...That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologized for being a jerk, said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."

"That doesn't sound like a bad thing," Athena frowned. "But they still seem to be having problems."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"Yeah, well...the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I called Chiron and came right back to Camp Half-Blood."

"She isn't a freak," Athena said stonily.

"No demigod is," Hestia responded. "Besides, I think it was the mortal woman who said it. Not Annabeth, calling herself a freak."

"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?"

She wouldn't meet my eyes. "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."

"You shouldn't give up," I told her. "You should write him a letter or something."

"Pushy much?" Thalia questioned.

"Hey, you know how it turned out," Percy responded. Thalia shrugged, didn't make Percy any less pushy.

Thanks for the advice," she said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with."

We passed another few miles of silence.

"So if the gods fight," I said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"

Athena glanced at the gods of the sea. Poseidon refused to stop reading or even look at her. Not when Triton was sitting next to him.

She put her head against the backpack Ares had given us, and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."

Aphrodite laughed softly. She was going to have so much fun playing with their love lives.

"Why?"

"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"

"A daughter of Athena and a son of Poseidon, friends. Who would've thought?" Persephone murmured, knowing the rivalry and anger that existed between them. Particularly because of a former friendship that was broken.

I couldn't think of an answer for that. Fortunately I didn't have to. Annabeth was asleep.

I had trouble following her example, with Grover snoring and an albino lion staring hungrily at me, but eventually I closed my eyes.

My nightmare started out as something I'd dreamed a million times before: I was being forced to take a standardized test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, Come on, Percy. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil.

"That is no way to learn," Athena seemed aghast. Theseus didn't look much better.

"It's the dyslexia. 'Normal' people don't always care or understand. They'd rather think you were stupid than spend time helping," Percy shrugged, being the only one of them who regularly went to mortal school.

Then the dream strayed from the usual.

I looked over at the next desk and saw a girl sitting there, also wearing a straitjacket. She was my age, with unruly black, punk-style hair, dark eyeliner around her stormy green eyes, and freckles across her nose. Somehow, I knew who she was. She was Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

"I have blue eyes," Thalia informed him, struggling to hide her shock. "You dreamt about me?"

Percy shrugged. "I guess? Demigod dreams are strange, you know." Zeus and Poseidon were sharing a look of their own. They could see that their children were close, but dreams were a different matter.

She struggled against the straitjacket, glared at me in frustration, and snapped, Well, Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here.

She's right, my dream-self thought. I'm going back to that cavern. I'm going to give Hades a piece of my mind.

Hades gave Percy an irritated look. The demigod could only smile sheepishly back.

The straitjacket melted off me. I fell through the classroom floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was cold and evil, echoing from the depths of a great chasm.

Poseidon kept reading but there was a noticeable strain in his voice. The other gods all leaned forward, curious as to what was affecting him this way.

Percy Jackson, it said. Yes, the exchange went well, I see.

I was back in the dark cavern, spirits of the dead drifting around me. Unseen in the pit, the monstrous thing was speaking, but this time it wasn't addressing me. The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else.

And he suspects nothing? it asked.

Another voice, one I almost recognized, answered at my shoulder.

Thalia and Nico growled. Jason looked at Percy questioningly but the other demigod looked lost in his memories.

"Nothing, my lord. He is as ignorant as the rest."

I looked over, but no one was there. The speaker was invisible.

Deception upon deception, the thing in the pit mused aloud. Excellent.

"Truly, my lord", said the voice next to me, "you are well-named the Crooked One."

"No. NO!" Zeus bellowed. The other gods all looked horrified.

"But was it really necessary? I could have brought you what I stole directly —"

You? the monster said in scorn. You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened.

"WHO IS THIS?" Zeus asked angrily.

"Peace brother. We will find out at the end of this book presumably. Just wait," Poseidon lowered the book to say. Zeus wanted to argue but had to concede when Hera, Hestia, Hades and Demeter all agreed with Poseidon.

"But, my lord—"

Peace, little servant. Our six months have bought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Poseidon has played his most desperate card. Now we shall use it against him. Shortly you shall have the reward you wish, and your revenge. As soon as both items are delivered into my hands ... but wait. He is here.

"He hadn't known you were there?" Megaera questioned.

Percy seemed almost startled at being addressed. "Uh...No. He didn't."

Megaera and the other Furies shared a look before they stared at Percy in wonder. He shifted uncomfortably before nudging Nico questioningly. Nico could only shrug.

"What?" The invisible servant suddenly sounded tense. "You summoned him, my lord?"

No. The full force of the monsters attention was now pouring over me, freezing me in place. Blast his father's blood—he is too changeable, too unpredictable. The boy brought himself hither.

Poseidon and his children shared a smile. Zeus glared but stopped when Hera threw him a warning look.

"Impossible!" the servant cried.

For a weakling such as you, perhaps, the voice snarled. Then its cold power turned back on me. So...you wish to dream of your quest, young half-blood? Then I will oblige.

The scene changed.

I was standing in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The empty, horrid throne was made from human bones fused together. Standing at the foot of the dais was my mother, frozen in shimmering golden light, her arms outstretched.

Persephone glanced at her husband, an idea forming in her mind. The voice had said both items. Hades had no enimity with Poseidon. There was only one reason for this attack on Poseidon's son that she could think of.

I tried to step toward her, but my legs wouldn't move. I reached for her, only to realize that my hands were withering to bones. Grinning skeletons in Greek armor crowded around me, draping me with silk robes, wreathing my head with laurels that smoked with Chimera poison, burning into my scalp.

The evil voice began to laugh. Hail, the conquering hero!

Theseus and Perseus looked worried sick. Orion too seemed quite upset but there was nothing any of them could do or say. The very idea of who was in that pit was too frightening to fathom.

I woke with a start.

Grover was shaking my shoulder. "The truck's stopped," he said. "We think they're coming to check on the animals."

It took everyone a moment to adjust from the terrible dream Percy had to remember what had been going on before then.

"Hide!" Annabeth hissed.

She had it easy. She just put on her magic cap and disappeared. Grover and I had to dive behind feed sacks and hope we looked like turnips.

Despite themselves, everyone in the room couldn't help but snicker at that statement.

The trailer doors creaked open. Sunlight and heat poured in.

"Man!" one of the truckers said, waving his hand in front of his ugly nose. "I wish I hauled appliances." He climbed inside and poured some water from a jug into the animals' dishes.

"You hot, big boy?" he asked the lion, then splashed the rest of the bucket right in the lion's face.

Artemis and Zoë looked ready to commit murder. That idiotic man disrespecting a wild animal was more than they could handle. Especially right now after what they had just heard.

The lion roared in indignation.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man said.

Next to me, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving herbivore, he looked downright murderous.

Artemis and Zoë seemed to approve of Grover's sentiment. Zoë glanced at Percy, "I hope you taught those men a lesson." She said the word men as if it were the diriest insult she could think of.

Percy shrugged and gestured towards the book.

The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? Least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"

Hermes growled angrily. No wonder Pan went missing if this was how people were treating wild animals.

The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at me.

There was no sound, but as clear as day, I heard it say: Free me, lord. Please.

"You speak zebra?" Jason asked in surprise. Percy nodded.

"It called you lord. Are you lord of the zebras?" Orion looked confused.

Thesues rolled his eyes. "They must be related to horses." Percy agreed with Theseus, causing Orion to pout.

I was too stunned to react.

There was a loud knock, knock, knock on the side of the trailer.

The trucker inside with us yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"

A voice outside—it must've been Eddie's—shouted back, "Maurice? What'd ya say?"

"What are you banging for?"

Knock, knock, knock.

Outside, Eddie yelled, "What banging?"

"It must be Annabeth, with her magic hat," Ariadne realized.

Our guy Maurice rolled his eyes and went back outside, cursing at Eddie for being an idiot.

A second later, Annabeth appeared next to me. She must've done the banging to get Maurice out of the trailer. She said, "This transport business can't be legal."

"Meaning they should be punished for this treatment of the animals," Artemis concluded, her voice low and deadly.

"No kidding," Grover said. He paused, as if listening. "The lion says these guys are animal smugglers!"

That's right, the zebra's voice said in my mind.

"We've got to free them!" Grover said. He and Annabeth both looked at me, waiting for my lead.

I'd heard the zebra talk, but not the lion. Why? Maybe it was another learning disability...

"A learning disability where you can only speak to zebras?" Thalia questioned incredulously.

"I was having a crazy summer. Anything was possible," Percy defended himself.

I could only understand zebras? Then I thought: horses. What had Annabeth said about Poseidon creating horses? Was a zebra close enough to a horse? Was that why I could understand it?

"Yes," Theseus intoned, "like I said."

"Past Percy remember," Perseus raised an eyebrow, causing Theseus to flush. "I know that!"

The zebra said, Open my cage, lord. Please. I'll be fine after that.

Outside, Eddie and Maurice were still yelling at each other, but I knew they'd be coming inside to torment the animals again any minute. I grabbed Riptide and slashed the lock off the zebra's cage.

The zebra burst out. It turned to me and bowed. Thank you, lord.

"It was the only thing I could do," Percy said. "Grover was the real hero there."

Grover held up his hands and said something to the zebra in goat talk, like a blessing.

Just as Maurice was poking his head back inside to check out the noise, the zebra leaped over him and into the street. There was yelling and screaming and cars honking. We rushed to the doors of the trailer in time to see the zebra galloping down a wide boulevard lined with hotels and casinos and neon signs. We'd just released a zebra in Las Vegas.

Maurice and Eddie ran after it, with a few policemen running after them, shouting, "Hey! You need a permit for that!"

"They will be punished by the law," Thalia smiled viciously, turning to assure both Artemis and Zoë.

"Now would be a good time to leave," Annabeth said.

"The other animals first," Grover said.

I cut the locks with my sword. Grover raised his hands and spoke the same goat-blessing he'd used for the zebra.

"Good luck," I told the animals. The antelope and the lion burst out of their cages and went off together into the streets.

"That must be a weird sight for the mortals," Nico noted.

"Very odd," Jason agreed.

Some tourists screamed. Most just backed off and took pictures, probably thinking it was some kind of stunt by one of the casinos.

"Will the animals be okay?" I asked Grover. "I mean, the desert and all—"

"Don't worry," he said. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."

"Grover is a good satyr," Hermes announced, approval in his voice. "Pan will love him."

Thalia and Percy nodded wholeheartedly. As did most of the other gods.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he said. "They'll find water, food, shade, whatever they need until they find a safe place to live."

"Why can't you place a blessing like that on us?" I asked.

"If only it worked like that," Apollo joked.

"It only works on wild animals."

"So it would only affect Percy," Annabeth reasoned.

"Hey!" I protested.

The room burst into laughter, the tension decreasing for a few moments.

"Kidding," she said. "Come on. Let's get out of this filthy truck."

We stumbled out into the desert afternoon. It was a hundred and ten degrees, easy, and we must've looked like deep-fried vagrants, but everybody was too interested in the wild animals to pay us much attention.

"About time you had some luck," Perseus shook his head.

"That's right. You fugitive," Apollo teased.

We passed the Monte Carlo and the MGM. We passed pyramids, a pirate ship, and the Statue of Liberty, which was a pretty small replica, but still made me homesick.

I wasn't sure what we were looking for. Maybe just a place to get out of the heat for a few minutes, find a sandwich and a glass of lemonade, make a new plan for getting west.

We must have taken a wrong turn, because we found ourselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino.

"Why does that sound a little familiar?" Amphitrite mused.

Percy and Nico shared a glance but said nothing.

The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers—lotus blossom, maybe. I'd never smelled one, so I wasn't sure.

Athena straightened. "You smelled lotus flowers?"

The doorman smiled at us. "Hey, kids. You look tired. You want to come in and sit down?"

I'd learned to be suspicious, the last week or so. I figured anybody might be a monster or a god. You just couldn't tell. But this guy was normal. One look at him, and I could see. Besides, I was so relieved to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that I nodded and said we'd love to come in.

"Definitely a monster of sorts. Anyone who's sympathetic to you on a quest is a monster," Hercules said solemnly. The other demigods couldn't disagree.

Inside, we took one look around, and Grover said, "Whoa."

The whole lobby was a giant game room. And I'm not talking about cheesy old Pac-Man games or slot machines. There was an indoor waterslide snaking around the glass elevator, which went straight up at least forty floors. There was a climbing wall on the side of one building, and an indoor bungee-jumping bridge. There were virtual-reality suits with working laser guns. And hundreds of video games, each one the size of a widescreen TV. Basically, you name it, this place had it. There were a few other kids playing, but not that many. No waiting for any of the games. There were waitresses and snack bars all around, serving every kind of food you can imagine.

"Seems like paradise," Nico said quietly. Thalia and Percy both looked at Nico sadly.

"Hey!" a bellhop said. At least I guessed he was a bellhop. He wore a white-and-yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs, shorts, and flip-flops. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key."

"You didn't take it did you?" Hestia questioned worriedly. Percy only had a sheepish expression on his face.

I stammered, "Um, but..."

"No, no," he said, laughing. "The bill's taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go on up to the top floor, room 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards. They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."

He handed us each a green plastic credit card.

"You idiot," Triton exclaimed. The future demigods seemed surprised. "Those are clearly the Lotus Eaters! What were you thinking?!"

"How'd you figure it out so fast?"

Triton rolled his eyes. "You're three kids who've been on the streets for awhile. What normal person would invite you into a high-class place? Not to mention the insane amount of lotuses in the place. It's obvious if you think about it."

They had to concede that point.

I knew there must be some mistake. Obviously he thought we were some millionaire's kids.

"Nah, you're better," Hermes joked trying to make the air lighter, though everyone was wondering only one thing. How did they escape the Lotus Eaters?

But I took the card and said, "How much is on here?"

His eyebrows knit together. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when does it run out of cash?"

He laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay."

Percy leaned in close to Nico, making the younger boy shiver. "Do you still have your cards by any chance?" Nico shook his head. "Why?"

"Annabeth figured out we could use them outside the casino. It would've been nice to be rich for a bit."

Nico bit his lip, then shook his head again. "Bianca and I tossed our cards when we got to school."

We took the elevator upstairs and checked out our room. It was a suite with three separate bedrooms and a bar stocked with candy, sodas, and chips. A hotline to room service. Fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A big-screen television with satellite and high-speed Internet. The balcony had its own hot tub, and sure enough, there was a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun, so you could launch clay pigeons right out over the Las Vegas skyline and plug them with your gun. I didn't see how that could be legal, but I thought it was pretty cool. The view over the Strip and the desert was amazing, though I doubted we'd ever find time to look at the view with a room like this.

"Oh, goodness," Annabeth said. "This place is ..."

"Sweet," Grover said. "Absolutely sweet."

There were clothes in the closet, and they fit me. I frowned, thinking that this was a little strange.

I threw Ares's backpack in the trash can. Wouldn't need that anymore.

"Hey!" Ares glared angrily. You didn't just throw away a gift from a god...even if you were being drugged by Lotus Eaters. When Aphrodite gave him a look, he stopped glaring. It just wasn't worth it.

When we left, I could just charge a new one at the hotel store.

I took a shower, which felt awesome after a week of grimy travel. I changed clothes, ate a bag of chips, drank three Cokes, and came out feeling better than I had in a long time. In the back of my mind, some small problem kept nagging me. I'd had a dream or something ... I needed to talk to my friends. But I was sure it could wait.

Remembering his dream they all groaned. They couldn't blame him either, it was the power of the Lotus Eaters.

I came out of the bedroom and found that Annabeth and Grover had also showered and changed clothes. Grover was eating potato chips to his heart's content, while Annabeth cranked up the National Geographic Channel.

"All those stations," I told her, "and you turn on National Geographic. Are you insane?"

"It's like you didn't know Annabeth at all," Thalia shook her head in mock-dismay.

"Probably because I really didn't at the time," Percy laughed. "How things change."

"It's interesting."

"I feel good," Grover said. "I love this place."

Without his even realizing it, the wings sprouted out of his shoes and lifted him a foot off the ground, then back down again.

"So what now?" Annabeth asked. "Sleep?"

Grover and I looked at each other and grinned. We both held up our green plastic LotusCash cards.

"Play time," I said.

I couldn't remember the last time I had so much fun. I came from a relatively poor family. Our idea of a splurge was eating out at Burger King and renting a video.

"That sounds really nice," Jason said quietly. The other demigods all agreed. Even Zoë.

"You're all welcome to join us. Mom would love to have you guys," Percy told Thalia, Nico and Jason seriously. They smiled at Percy in thanks.

A five-star Vegas hotel? Forget it.

I bungee-jumped the lobby five or six times, did the waterslide, snowboarded the artificial ski slope, and played virtual-reality laser tag and FBI sharpshooter.

"That had been fun," Nico whispered, remembering his time in the casino. Percy put an arm around his shoulders. "Better now though?" Nico nodded quickly, moving out of Percy's grasp.

I saw Grover a few times, going from game to game. He really liked the reverse hunter thing—where the deer go out and shoot the rednecks. I saw Annabeth playing trivia games and other brainiac stuff. They had this huge 3-D sim game where you build your own city, and you could actually see the holographic buildings rise on the display board. I didn't think much of it, but Annabeth loved it.

I'm not sure when I first realized something was wrong.

"You figured it out? How?" Demeter questioned. Percy was offended before she continued. "The Lotus Eaters powers prevent people from being suspicious. You three managed to escape on your own?"

Percy only gestured towards the book.

Probably, it was when I noticed the guy standing next to me at VR sharpshooters. He was about thirteen, I guess, but his clothes were weird. I thought he was some Elvis impersonator's son. He wore bell-bottom jeans and a red T-shirt with black piping, and his hair was permed and gelled like a New Jersey girl's on homecoming night.

We played a game of sharpshooters together and he said, "Groovy, man. Been here two weeks, and the games keep getting better and better."

Groovy?

"That's what tipped you off?" Jason asked incredulously.

"Language is very important," Percy defended. "Groovy is outdated slang."

Later, while we were talking, I said something was "sick," and he looked at me kind of startled, as if he'd never heard the word used that way before.

"You're a language nut," Thalia marveled.

"My step-dad is an English teacher," Percy tried to use an excuse but Nico cut him off with a simple "Not then."

Percy pouted. Word choice mattered!

He said his name was Darrin, but as soon as I started asking him questions he got bored with me and started to go back to the computer screen.

I said, "Hey, Darrin?"

"What?"

"What year is it?"

He frowned at me. "In the game?"

"No. In real life."

He had to think about it. "1977."

Nico scoffed quietly, "that's nothing." Jason who overheard him, gave him a strange look.

"No," I said, getting a little scared. "Really."

"Hey, man. Bad vibes. I got a game happening."

After that he totally ignored me.

I started talking to people, and I found it wasn't easy.

"You two could have talked," Thalia realized. Percy and Nico gave her a questioning look before gesturing between them. She nodded. "Or to Bianca," she added even more quietly this time. Percy gave a sad smile. "Maybe. It would be nice, if it's true."

They were glued to the TV screen, or the video game, or their food, or whatever. I found a guy who told me it was 1985. Another guy told me it was 1993. They all claimed they hadn't been in here very long, a few days, a few weeks at most. They didn't really know and they didn't care.

Then it occurred to me: how long had I been here? It seemed like only a couple of hours, but was it?

I tried to remember why we were here. We were going to Los Angeles. We were supposed to find the entrance to the Underworld. My mother…for a scary second, I had trouble remembering her name.

"If anything was to going to motivate you to realize things were wrong, it had to be your mother," Hera said warmly. She was really liking this young demigod.

Percy shrugged. "My mom's the best." Thalia and Nico agreed.

Sally. Sally Jackson. I had to find her. I had to stop Hades from causing World War III.

Hades gave Percy another dirty look.

I found Annabeth still building her city.

"Come on," I told her. "We've got to get out of here."

No response.

"Annabeth loves architecture," Thalia said worriedly. She knew that they all made it out, but hearing it like this still made her worry.

I shook her. "Annabeth?"

She looked up, annoyed. "What?

"We need to leave."

"Leave? What are you talking about? I've just got the towers—"

"Not the towers," Hermes gasped dramatically.

Everyone else groaned at his theatrics.

"This place is a trap."

She didn't respond until I shook her again. "What?"

"Listen. The Underworld. Our quest!"

"Oh, come on, Percy. Just a few more minutes."

"I still can't believe it was you who figured it out and not Annabeth," Jason said. Percy shot Jason a betrayed look.

"Annabeth, there are people here from 1977. Kids who have never aged. You check in, and you stay forever."

"So?" she asked. "Can you imagine a better place?"

I grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the game.

"Hey!" She screamed and hit me, but nobody else even bothered looking at us. They were too busy.

"That's terrible," Zoë said aghast.

"That's the power the Lotus Eaters have," Artemis replied grimly.

I made her look directly in my eyes. I said, "Spiders. Large, hairy spiders."

That jarred her. Her vision cleared. "Oh my gods," she said. "How long have we—"

"The fear of Arachne's children helped! That's something," Hestia said feeling relieved. Athena frowned, but this almost made the previous scene worth it.

"I don't know, but we've got to find Grover."

We went searching, and found him still playing Virtual Deer Hunter.

"Grover!" we both shouted.

He said, "Die, human! Die, silly polluting nasty person!"

Artemis let out a laugh. The satyrs weren't all that pure after all. He was right though, it wasn't just the men that were the problem when it came to polluting. Those unable to join her Hunters, contributed to the diminishing wild as well.

"Grover!"

He turned the plastic gun on me and started clicking, as if I were just another image from the screen.

That made some laugh.

"Yeah, it was pretty funny," Percy admitted.

I looked at Annabeth, and together we took Grover by the arms and dragged him away. His flying shoes sprang to life and started tugging his legs in the other direction as he shouted, "No! I just got to a new level! No!"

The Lotus bellhop hurried up to us. "Well, now, are you ready for your platinum cards?"

"No!" Half the room shouted at Percy. He put his hand up in surrender.

"We're leaving," I told him.

"Such a shame," he said, and I got the feeling that he really meant it, that we'd be breaking his heart if we went. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members."

"He's trying to get you to stay," Triton said, eyes narrowed.

He held out the cards, and I wanted one. I knew that if I took one, I'd never leave. I'd stay here, happy forever, playing games forever, and soon I'd forget my mom, and my quest, and maybe even my own name. I'd be playing virtual rifleman with groovy Disco Darrin forever.

Poseidon was clenching the book so tightly as he read, Amphitrite was surprised it hadn't been torn.

Grover reached for the card, but Annabeth yanked back his arm and said, "No, thanks."

We walked toward the door, and as we did, the smell of the food and the sounds of the games seemed to get more and more inviting. I thought about our room upstairs. We could just stay the night, sleep in a real bed for once...

"Their powers of persuasion can be as strong as my charm speak," Aphrodite told them, seeming horrified at the thought of them stuck there forever.

Then we burst through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk.

Collectively, the room let out a sigh of relief. They'd all made it out.

It felt like afternoon, about the same time of day we'd gone into the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had completely changed. It was stormy, with heat lightning flashing out in the desert.

They glanced at Zeus and Poseidon, knowing it was because of them the weather was like that.

Ares's backpack was slung over my shoulder, which was odd, because I was sure I had thrown it in the trash can in room 4001, but at the moment I had other problems to worry about.

"That's weird. It's a gift from a god, I would say it's a pretty big problem," Perseus wondered. They all looked towards Ares who only had to mention how it was a future event for them to stop.

I ran to the nearest newspaper stand and read the year first. Thank the gods, it was the same year it had been when we went in. Then I noticed the date: June twentieth.

We had been in the Lotus Casino for five days.

"Oh no."

We had only one day left until the summer solstice. One day to complete our quest.

"Oh no," the sentiment was repeated by several people.

"That's the end of this chapter," Poseidon closed the book. "Who wants to read now?"

"I will, Lord Poseidon," Jason volunteered. Poseidon passed the book over and Jason began immediately...We Shop For Waterbeds.


Hi everyone! Long time huh. Definitely not giving up on this fic though I guess it took isolation to get me back into writing it. Fairly certain the word thing Percy has comes from Uncle Rick's time as an English teacher, but I made it a quirk of Percy's. It's going to be a thing.

Honestly, I had fallen out of the PJO fandom for awhile, but I'm back in it now! And will try to get more chapters out. You can also find me on tumblr as celestialtitania, so feel free to come talk there!