A Coast Guard boat picked us up, but they were too busy to keep us for long, or to wonder how three kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. There was a disaster to mop up. Their radios were jammed with distress calls.

"Lucky for you. More mortal attention would've just made things worse," Ariadne said absently, leaning forward a little as if that would help her find out what was going on sooner.

They dropped us off at the Santa Monica Pier with towels around our shoulders and water bottles that said I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! and sped off to save more people.

Our clothes were sopping wet, even mine. When the Coast Guard boat had appeared, I'd silently prayed they wouldn't pick me out of the water and find me perfectly dry, which might've raised some eyebrows. So I'd willed myself to get soaked. Sure enough, my usual waterproof magic had abandoned me. I was also barefoot, because I'd given my shoes to Grover. Better the Coast Guard wonder why one of us was barefoot than wonder why one of us had hooves.

"The Mist might have covered it," Thalia said but even she sounded unsure.

"Better safe than sorry," Jason countered, agreeing with Percy's actions.

After reaching dry land, we stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise. I felt as if I'd just come back from the dead—which I had. My backpack was heavy with Zeus's master bolt. My heart was even heavier from seeing my mother.

Demeter felt her heart go out for Percy. He was so close to having his mother back and then she was taken away all over again.

"I don't believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way—"

"It was a trick," I said. "A strategy worthy of Athena."

Athena had to admit. It really was, which was why she was certain it couldn't have been Ares' own.

"Hey," she warned.

"You get it, don't you?"

She dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "Yeah. I get it."

"Well, I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody—"

Hermes could only muster a half smile. The implications...the bolt. All of the gods were still reeling from that revelation and they still didn't understand why it had happened to begin with. Or how.

"Percy..." Annabeth said. "I'm sorry about your mother. I'm so sorry..."

I pretended not to hear her. If I talked about my mother, I was going to start crying like a little kid.

Dionysus refused to admit that he had been wrong about Percy but Artemis was watching him carefully. He was proving himself to be like his namesake more and more, quite different from any of his brothers. She doubted even Orion was that selfless.

"The prophecy was right," I said. "You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades' helm, and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three-way war. And I'll have caused it."

"The bloodiest war in history," Ares whispered in awe. Aphrodite and Hera both glared at him, now was not the time.

Grover shook his head, mystified. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?"

I stopped in my tracks, looking down the beach. "Gee, let me think."

They all turned to look at Ares in disbelief.

Ares shrugged. "Don't ask me! Hasn't happened yet. Nor will it," he assured his father who was glaring at him.

There he was, waiting for us, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.

"Hey, kid," Ares said, seeming genuinely pleased to see me. "You were supposed to die."

"You tricked me," I said. "You stole the helm and the master bolt."

"You know I couldn't have done that. Gods can't steal other gods' symbols of power," he spread his hands as if he were being logical. "Something is just wrong here."

"I agree. Ares doesn't have the brain capacity to pull this off," Athena added. Ares' bright look at Athena's support quickly turned into a dirty sneer. Aphrodite pinched him before he could retaliate.

Ares grinned. "Well, now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power—that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."

"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice."

"Clarisse would never," Thalia shook her head. Percy, Nico and Jason all agreed with her.

"I didn't know Clarisse very well back then," Percy shrugged.

"That doesn't explain how," Zeus hissed. Collectively they all pointed at the book.

The idea seemed to amuse him. "Doesn't matter. The point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus's master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this..."

From his pocket he took out a ski cap—the kind bank robbers wear—and placed it between the handlebars of his bike. Immediately, the cap transformed into an elaborate bronze war helmet.

Hades shot Ares a poisonous glare. Persephone patted his arm, "future honey. Besides, there's something else going on." Hades sighed and nodded.

"The helm of darkness," Grover gasped.

"Exactly," Ares said. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon, because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."

Ares' eyes glazed over at the thought of such a magnificent war. The Big Three collectively frowned. They weren't that easy to predict, were they?

"But they're your family!" Annabeth protested.

Ares shrugged. "Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say."

"Tell me about it," Hermes rolled his eyes. Hephaestus chuckled at that.

"You gave me the backpack in Denver," I said. "The master bolt was in there the whole time."

"Yes and no," Ares said. "It's probably too complicated for your little mortal brain to follow, but the backpack is the master bolt's sheath, just morphed a bit. The bolt is connected to it, sort of like that sword you got, kid. It always returns to your pocket, right?"

I wasn't sure how Ares knew about that, but I guess a god of war had to make it his business to know about weapons.

"Of course I do. What sort of war can be fought without the proper weapons?" Ares demanded to know.

"Anyway," Ares continued, "I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the bolt would only return to the sheath once you reached the Underworld. You get close to Hades... Bingo, you got mail. If you died along the way—no loss. I still had the weapon."

"But why not just keep the master bolt for yourself?" I said. "Why send it to Hades?"

"Because it wasn't his plan," Hera shook her head.

Ares got a twitch in his jaw. For a moment, it was almost as if he were listening to another voice, deep inside his head. "Why didn't I...yeah...with that kind of firepower..."

He held the trance for one second...two seconds...

"Zeus!" Hades pointed at the book as proof. "He's manipulating us now!"

"He is doing no such thing! It's just a trick!" Zeus insisted, eyes stormy and his hands clenched in fists.

I exchanged nervous looks with Annabeth.

Ares's face cleared. "I didn't want the trouble. Better to have you caught redhanded, holding the thing."

"You're lying," I said. "Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn't your idea, was it?"

"It was, of course it was. There is no one else," Zeus looked at his siblings warningly. There would be no discussion on this.

"Of course it was!" Smoke drifted up from his sunglasses, as if they were about to catch fire.

"You didn't order the theft," I guessed. "Someone else sent a hero to steal the two items. Then, when Zeus sent you to hunt him down, you caught the thief. But you didn't turn him over to Zeus. Something convinced you to let him go. You kept the items until another hero could come along and complete the delivery. That thing in the pit is ordering you around."

"He is not! He doesn't have the power!"

"I think it's time to consider that after two millennia he gained some," Poseidon said grimly.

"Well then that's all the power he gained. He can only make suggestions, he can't do anything!" Zeus refused to consider the idea.

"I am the god of war! I take orders from no one! I don't have dreams!"

"Dreams?" Hestia asked in dismay. Gods didn't have dreams. Things were sounding worse and worse.

I hesitated. "Who said anything about dreams?"

"Zeus," Demeter said forcefully. He glared back. Hera shook her head at Demeter, they would make Zeus listen later. Now wasn't the time.

Ares looked agitated, but he tried to cover it with a smirk.

"Let's get back to the problem at hand, kid. You're alive. I can't have you taking that bolt to Olympus. You just might get those hardheaded idiots to listen to you. So I've got to kill you. Nothing personal."

He snapped his fingers. The sand exploded at his feet and out charged a wild boar, even larger and uglier than the one whose head hung above the door of cabin seven at Camp Half-Blood. The beast pawed the sand, glaring at me with beady eyes as it lowered its razor-sharp tusks and waited for the command to kill.

Ares frowned. Him trying to kill the kid was a natural response, but the kid was still alive. Did he end up changing his mind?

I stepped into the surf. "Fight me yourself, Ares."

"You're in the ocean!" Orion cried out in delight. Theseus smirked as well, at least now they knew how Percy managed to survive.

He laughed, but I heard a little edge to his laughter...an uneasiness. "You've only got one talent, kid, running away. You ran from the Chimera. You ran from the Underworld. You don't have what it takes."

"Are you comparing yourself to me?" Hades demanded.

"It's all the same for an untrained hero isn't it?" Ares shrugged. Hades glowered. "Don't think I've forgotten about you and my helm," he said, a dangerous undertone to his voice. Ares winced at that.

"Scared?"

"In your adolescent dreams." But his sunglasses were starting to melt from the heat of his eyes. "No direct involvement. Sorry, kid. You're not at my level."

"Unless a hero challenges the god. Which Percy is," Hercules quietly muttered. They were watching Percy carefully trying to figure out how he got out of this situation.

Annabeth said, "Percy, run!"

The giant boar charged.

But I was done running from monsters. Or Hades, or Ares, or anybody.

Hestia smiled with approval. Ares and Hades both frowned.

As the boar rushed me, I uncapped my pen and sidestepped. Riptide appeared in my hands. I slashed upward. The boar's severed right tusk fell at my feet, while the disoriented animal charged into the sea.

I shouted, "Wave!"

Immediately, a wave surged up from nowhere and engulfed the boar, wrapping around it like a blanket. The beast squealed once in terror. Then it was gone, swallowed by the sea.

Ares was truly scowling now. Killing his sacred animal was no joke. Aphrodite interrupted his glaring by pointedly clearing her throat. He turned to her in annoyance as she flicked her eyes towards Zeus. Oh right, Zeus was still angry about his bolt.

I turned back to Ares. "Are you going to fight me now?" I asked. "Or are you going to hide behind another pet?"

"Why do you have to provoke them?" Theseus was asking, one hand massaging his temples.

Percy shrugged. "If they're going to try and kill me, I'm not going to just stand there."

Ares's face was purple with rage. "Watch it, kid. I could turn you into—"

"A cockroach," I said. "Or a tapeworm. Yeah, I'm sure. That'd save you from getting your godly hide whipped, wouldn't it?"

Flames danced along the top of his glasses. "Oh, man, you are really asking to be smashed into a grease spot."

"If I lose, turn me into anything you want. Take the bolt. If I win, the helm and the bolt are mine and you have to go away."

Zeus was glaring at both of them. The bolt was his.

Hera rolled her eyes. "If Percy got the bolt, he'd return it to you." Zeus conceded on that matter and shifted his glare to only Ares. Hera had plenty to say there too, but she understood that it would only fall on deaf ears.

Ares sneered.

He swung the baseball bat off his shoulder. "How would you like to get smashed: classic or modern?"

I showed him my sword.

"That's cool, dead boy," he said. "Classic it is."

"No, that's Nico. Ares has terrible nicknames," Thalia muttered, voice lower than a whisper. Percy cracked up while Nico and Jason looked at them curiously.

The baseball bat changed into a huge, two-handed sword. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth.

"Now you're stealing Hades' aesthetic too?" Jason shook his head.

Hades couldn't help but smirk as Ares' jaw dropped in outrage.

"Percy," Annabeth said. "Don't do this. He's a god."

"He's a coward," I told her.

"I'm the god of war!" Ares roared.

"Who tried to manipulate his father and uncles into starting a war," Artemis observed. Ares snarled at her but kept quiet.

She swallowed. "Wear this, at least. For luck."

She took off her necklace, with her five years' worth of camp beads and the ring from her father, and tied it around my neck.

"Reconciliation," she said. "Athena and Poseidon together."

Athena and Poseidon stared at one another in disgust.

"Not happening," Triton scoffed while Poseidon nodded in agreement.

My face felt a little warm, but I managed a smile. "Thanks."

"And take this," Grover said. He handed me a flattened tin can that he'd probably been saving in his pocket for a thousand miles. "The satyrs stand behind you."

"Agreed!" Hermes nodded fervently.

Dionysus simply rolled his eyes, not caring in the slightest. Ares getting his pride kicked down a notch or a son of Poseidon getting killed were equivalent situations as far as he was concerned.

"Grover...I don't know what to say."

He patted me on the shoulder. I stuffed the tin can in my back pocket.

"You all done saying good-bye?" Ares came toward me, his black leather duster trailing behind him, his sword glinting like fire in the sunrise. "I've been fighting for eternity, kid. My strength is unlimited and I cannot die. What have you got?"

"A brain?" Apollo suggested innocently, making Hephaestus turn to hide a laugh. Ares tried to get up to retaliate but Aphrodite held him down.

A smaller ego, I thought, but I said nothing. I kept my feet in the surf, backing into the water up to my ankles. I thought back to what Annabeth had said at the Denver diner, so long ago: Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to how to wisdom sometimes.

Athena smiled smugly at that while Ares glared at her.

"She's not wrong," Aphrodite cut in, making Ares gape at her betrayal. She rolled her eyes, "more important things happening here Ares. Pay attention."

He cleaved downward at my head, but I wasn't there.

My body thought for me. The water seemed to push me into the air and I catapulted over him, slashing as I came down. But Ares was just as quick. He twisted, and the strike that should've caught him directly in the spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.

"He's the war god. All he does is fight and train," Zoë remarked. "This can't end well for you."

He grinned. "Not bad, not bad."

He slashed again and I was forced to jump onto dry land. I tried to sidestep, to get back to the water, but Ares seemed to know what I wanted. He outmaneuvered me, pressing so hard I had to put all my concentration on not getting sliced into pieces. I kept backing away from the surf. I couldn't find any openings to attack. His sword had a reach several feet longer than Anaklusmos.

Jason stared at Percy in awe. Percy leaned towards Jason to whisper to him. "You better tell Frank all of these details. I don't think he believed me when I said I beat his dad." Jason grinned back. "You got it!"

Nico and Thalia rolled their eyes at the duo's conversation.

Get in close, Luke had told me once, back in our sword class. When you've got the shorter blade, get in close.

Nico and Thalia glowered. They couldn't believe it was Luke's advice that was helping Percy here.

"He was a really good swordsman. A good teacher too," Percy was telling Jason, ignoring Nico and Thalia.

I stepped inside with a thrust, but Ares was waiting for that. He knocked my blade out of my hands and kicked me in the chest.

"Now you're weaponless, how did you get out of that?" Hercules spoke up, eyes wide in wonder.

I went airborne—twenty, maybe thirty feet. I would've broken my back if I hadn't crashed into the soft sand of a dune.

All the demigods winced at that. Fighting and healing took forever.

"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "Cops!"

I was seeing double. My chest felt like it had just been hit with a battering ram, but I managed to get to my feet.

I couldn't look away from Ares for fear he'd slice me in half, but out of the corner of my eye I saw red lights flashing on the shoreline boulevard. Car doors were slamming.

"Not more mortal interference," Megaera sighed. "They're such a nuisance."

"There, officer!" somebody yelled. "See?"

A gruff cop voice: "Looks like that kid on TV... what the heck..."

"That guy's armed," another cop said. "Call for backup."

I rolled to one side as Ares's blade slashed the sand.

I ran for my sword, scooped it up, and launched a swipe at Ares's face, only to find my blade deflected again.

"It looks like the mortals ended up providing enough of a distraction that Percy was able to get his weapon back," Ariadne pointed out quietly.

Ares seemed to know exactly what I was going to do the moment before I did it.

"The training you got, who do you think invented it?" Hephaestus sighed.

I stepped back toward the surf, forcing him to follow.

"Use your surroundings to your advantage," Ares was impressed despite himself. "That's rule number one, not bad kid."

Percy blinked in surprise, not having expected Ares would praise him here. Then he realized, Ares thought he was the winner.

"Admit it, kid," Ares said. "You got no hope. I'm just toying with you."

My senses were working overtime. I now understood what Annabeth had said about ADHD keeping you alive in battle. I was wide awake, noticing every little detail.

They were all on the edge of their seats. None of them had expected Percy to last so long in a fight against Ares.

I could see where Ares was tensing. I could tell which way he would strike. At the same time, I was aware of Annabeth and Grover, thirty feet to my left. I saw a second cop car pulling up, siren wailing. Spectators, people who had been wandering the streets because of the earthquake, were starting to gather. Among the crowd, I thought I saw a few who were walking with the strange, trotting gait of disguised satyrs. There were shimmering forms of spirits, too, as if the dead had risen from Hades to watch the battle. I heard the flap of leathery wings circling somewhere above.

"Distractions. All of them, you should only be focused on the battle," Hercules chided. He blinked in surprise when everyone's gaze was turned on him and shrugged in response.

More sirens.

I stepped farther into the water, but Ares was fast. The tip of his blade ripped my sleeve and grazed my forearm.

A police voice on a megaphone said, "Drop the guns.' Set them on the ground. Now!"

"Guns?" Jason scrunched up his face in confusion.

Guns?

I looked at Ares's weapon, and it seemed to be flickering; sometimes it looked like a shotgun, sometimes a two-handed sword. I didn't know what the humans were seeing in my hands, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't make them like me.

"The power of the Mist," Thalia explained, a little smirk on her face.

"I don't think it would make them dislike you. You're a child after all," Hestia said thoughtfully, looking at the grin Percy was trying so hard to hide.

Ares turned to glare at our spectators, which gave me a moment to breathe. There were five police cars now, and a line of officers crouching behind them, pistols trained on us.

"Mortals aren't so annoying now, now are they?" Ariadne muttered, a little smug. Dionysus gave a fond, amused look to which she rolled her eyes.

"This is a private matter!" Ares bellowed. "Be gone.'"

He swept his hand, and a wall of red flame rolled across the patrol cars. The police barely had time to dive for cover before their vehicles exploded. The crowd behind them scattered, screaming.

"Ares!" Hera scolded.

"I haven't done anything! This is a future remember? I'm not going to do it!" Ares defended himself. Aphrodite patted his arm in response while Hephaestus rolled his eyes.

Ares roared with laughter. "Now, little hero. Let's add you to the barbecue."

"Barbeque?" Hephaestus asked dryly making everyone either begin laughing or look at Ares in disgust.

His face turned purple from his anger but he kept his mouth shut.

He slashed. I deflected his blade. I got close enough to strike, tried to fake him out with a feint, but my blow was knocked aside. The waves were hitting me in the back now. Ares was up to his thighs, wading in after me.

"He's going easy on you," Theseus despaired.

"He's underestimating him," Nico quietly corrected.

I felt the rhythm of the sea, the waves growing larger as the tide rolled in, and suddenly I had an idea.

"Percy has an idea? Hit the floor!" Thalia joked, the smirk on her face transforming into a grin.

Percy grinned back. "Good idea. It's going to get messy."

Little waves, I thought. And the water behind me seemed to recede. I was holding back the tide by force of will, but tension was building, like carbonation behind a cork.

Ares came toward, grinning confidently.

"There is no greater danger than underestimating your enemy," Athena quoted. "Isn't that your favourite line Ares?"

"Future!" He snarled at her.

I lowered my blade, as if I were too exhausted to go on. Wait for it, I told the sea. The pressure now was almost lifting me off my feet. Ares raised his sword. I released the tide and jumped, rocketing straight over Ares on a wave.

Orion and Apollo let out a cheer. Apollo blinked in realization that he'd done the same thing as Orion and immediately scowled. Meanwhile Orion smiled cheerfully at Percy having gained a little more confidence in his brother.

A six-foot wall of water smashed him full in the face, leaving him cursing and sputtering with a mouth full of seaweed.

The gods all blinked in surprise. Ares turned in disbelief towards Percy.

I landed behind him with a splash and feinted toward his head, as I'd done before. He turned in time to raise his sword, but this time he was disoriented, he didn't anticipate the trick.

They awaited the next line with bated breath.

I changed direction, lunged to the side, and stabbed Riptide straight down into the water, sending the point through the god's heel.

Everyone's jaw dropped as they swiveled towards Percy. Then at Ares who looked like a fish out of water. Then back at Percy.

"He was twelve," Hercules whispered, catching everyone's attention. They were mind blown, unable to digest what they had heard.

Perseus himself was blinking, rereading the line trying to make sense of it. Then he continued reading, his voice shaky.

The roar that followed made Hades' earthquake look like a minor event. The very sea was blasted back from Ares, leaving a wet circle of sand fifty feet wide.

Theseus shook himself from his stupor and paled. Ares was going to kill Percy for this.

Ichor, the golden blood of the gods, flowed from a gash in the war god's boot. The expression on his face was beyond hatred. It was pain, shock, complete disbelief that he'd been wounded.

The shock and complete disbelief were well reflected on the faces of everyone there.

"I will tell Frank every word," Jason promised Percy with a clap on his shoulder. Percy beamed back at him, making Jason blink a little. Nico ignored them and looked away.

He limped toward me, muttering ancient Greek curses.

Something stopped him.

The shock of Percy beating Ares fell away and dread washed over the gods.

It was as if a cloud covered the sun, but worse. Light faded. Sound and color drained away. A cold, heavy presence passed over the beach, slowing time, dropping the temperature to freezing, and making me feel like life was hopeless, fighting was useless.

Hades opened his mouth and then closed it again. "He's able to do that now?"

Zeus was shaking his head in denial while his siblings looked at each other; their concern was growing.

The darkness lifted.

Ares looked stunned.

Police cars were burning behind us. The crowd of spectators had fled. Annabeth and Grover stood on the beach, in shock, watching the water flood back around Ares's feet, his glowing golden ichor dissipating in the tide.

Ares shot a vicious glare at Percy which only intensified when Percy didn't react. Thalia jabbed him in the side making Percy look up in annoyance. She subtly nodded towards Ares, where Percy noticed his glare for the first time. He pretended to cower causing Ares to be satisfied.

"How did you not notice?" Jason asked, leaning towards Percy.

"I'm used to Ares glaring at me. It's actually weird when he isn't, though Mars is a different story. I much prefer Mars," Percy confided. Jason nodded in understanding.

Ares lowered his sword.

"You have made an enemy, godling," he told me. "You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware."

"Really? A curse?" Aphrodite asked him in dismay. Ares shrugged being self aware enough to know that he would react the same way now or later.

His body began to glow.

'''Percy!" Annabeth shouted. "Don't watch!"

Demeter gave Ares an annoyed look which he brushed off. He wasn't about to actually get reprimanded for some mortal. When Zeus shot him an annoyed look, Ares reconsidered. There was still that bolt thing but his father couldn't punish him for something that hadn't happened, could he?

I turned away as the god Ares revealed his true immortal form. I somehow knew that if I looked, I would disintegrate into ashes.

"Good instincts," Amphitrite complimented quietly. Percy blinked in surprise before giving her a nod in thanks.

The light died.

I looked back. Ares was gone. The tide rolled out to reveal Hades's bronze helm of darkness.

Hades sighed in relief. He had been worried but he didn't want to sound like Zeus by worrying about it every minute.

Zeus gave Hades a nasty look as if he knew what Hades had been thinking. Hera and Persephone rolled their eyes.

I picked it up and walked toward my friends.

But before I got there, I heard the flapping of leathery wings. Three evil-looking grandmothers with lace hats and fiery whips drifted down from the sky and landed in front of me.

The Furies straightened at the announcement of their arrival much to Hades' amusement.

The middle Fury, the one who had been Mrs. Dodds, stepped forward. Her fangs were bared, but for once she didn't look threatening. She looked more disappointed, as if she'd been planning to have me for supper, but had decided I might give her indigestion.

"There's always next time," Alecto shrugged, a devious smile on her face. Percy just shook his head,

"So long as she doesn't call me honey," he whispered in Nico's ear, making the younger boy stifle a laugh.

"We saw the whole thing," she hissed. "So...it truly was not you?"

I tossed her the helmet, which she caught in surprise.

"A good hero, there are so few of you that would return something so powerful without asking for anything in return," Hestia said, carefully watching Percy.

"Didn't even occur to me," he shrugged.

"That's what makes you a good hero," Apollo pointed out.

"Return that to Lord Hades," I said. "Tell him the truth. Tell him to call off the war."

She hesitated, then ran a forked tongue over her green, leathery lips. "Live well, Percy Jackson. Become a true hero. Because if you do not, if you ever come into my clutches again..."

Alecto laughed with her sisters. None of them thought they would actually get the chance but the idea was delicious.

She cackled, savoring the idea. Then she and her sisters rose on their bats' wings, fluttered into the smoke-filled sky, and disappeared.

I joined Grover and Annabeth, who were staring at me in amazement.

"Amazement, shock, disbelief, all the same emotion really," Jason shook his head. Thalia nodded in agreement.

"Percy..." Grover said. "That was so incredibly..."

"Terrifying," said Annabeth.

"Cool!" Grover corrected.

"Annabeth is right/Grover is right," Artemis and Hermes said simultaneously.

"I'm sure it was quite terrifying to watch. We were all rather shocked ourselves," Artemis pointed out.

"Which is why it was so freaking cool," Hermes corrected. They would've kept arguing but Hera cleared her throat making them both quiet.

I didn't feel terrified. I certainly didn't feel cool. I was tired and sore and completely drained of energy.

"You fought a god. The god of war to be precise. It'd be incredible if you weren't," Zoë raised an eyebrow. Percy and Thalia looked at her curiously making her roll her eyes and look away.

"Did you guys feel that... whatever it was?" I asked.

They both nodded uneasily.

"Must've been the Furies overhead," Grover said.

"We don't have such a presence," Megaera dispelled the notion, a little sadly. Things would be much better if it had just been them.

But I wasn't so sure. Something had stopped Ares from killing me, and whatever could do that was a lot stronger than the Furies.

I looked at Annabeth, and an understanding passed between us. I knew now what was in that pit, what had spoken from the entrance of Tartarus.

"You know nothing!" Zeus insisted. Hera silently told everyone to be patient, as she stared at her husband trying to figure out the best way to overcome his stubbornness.

I reclaimed my backpack from Grover and looked inside. The master bolt was still there. Such a small thing to almost cause World War III.

Zeus seemed to choke on thin air. "Small thing?!" He cried out in disbelief.

"Yes," Hera hissed, glaring daggers at him. "Very small." Zeus stared at her baffled.

"We have to get back to New York," I said. "By tonight."

"That's impossible," Annabeth said, "unless we—"

"Fly," I agreed.

"You went in the sky? In Zeus' domain?" Orion stared at Percy as if he were mad.

"With Zeus' master bolt," Percy pointed out.

"True, Dad would never risk harming his precious bolt," Hermes agreed, much to Zeus' annoyance.

She stared at me. "Fly, like, in an airplane, which you were warned never to do lest Zeus strike you out of the sky, and carrying a weapon that has more destructive power than a nuclear bomb?"

"Yeah," I said. "Pretty much exactly like that. Come on."

"Cheeky," Apollo complimented.

"That's the end of the chapter," Perseus announced.

"Here, I'll read next. It's going to be about a special delivery and that is what I do best," Hermes joked as he summoned the book to himself. He cleared his throat before beginning...I Settle My Tab

Yay! I'm done quicker than expected though that was probably because this was a shorter chapter. Again I hope everyone is staying safe and inside as much as possible. Please wear masks and continue social distancing to protect yourself and others!

So, Zeus is clearly in denial. Hera is not impressed and neither is anyone else. Don't worry, Zeus will have to accept and start planning once he sees the proof. Can't bury your head in the sand this time!

Feel free to come talk to me about anything PJO related or not. You can also find me on tumblr under celestialtitania. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Leave a review to let me know what you thought!