Update Part 2 of 4

Yes four! Because I write too much mindless fluff and philosophizing and also it's been like three months…

Enjoy! :)

First Person: Kaze

Typical.

Just as Leo declared we were finished with his modifications, a big storm goddess came along and smacked the grommets right out of his ship.

After the encounter with Kymopoleia, the Argo II limped through the Aegean, too damaged to fly, too slow to outrun monsters. They fought hungry sea serpents about every hour. They attracted schools of curious fish. At one point, they got stuck on a rock and Percy and Jason had to get out and push.

It didn't help that Audrey was attempting to teach Percy how to freeze and boil water and together they both managed to cook a giant attacking squid alive and filled the ship's deck with the smell of cooked calamari and tentacle pieces from when the thing blew up - because yeah it blew up! Another time they froze one of the giant sea serpents while it was still wrapped around the ship, and it took both of them carefully melting certain parts (trying not to blow them up) and moving the thing a safe distance away before they boiled it to death.

"Gross," Rei muttered.

Veon held out a plate to her filled with a giant lump of squid meat. "Calamari?" he offered.

"Ew, it's like a blobfish was put in a microwave!" She stared down at the plate. "Get me some ketchup and let's try it."

"Yeet!" I tossed off the final large chunk of exploded squid.

Azrael muttered something along the lines of, 'What was that word? I don't think you used that word correctly.'

I internally sighed at how nice his German sounded. I wanted him to speak more. That was probably weird.

"Kaze?! Are you done yet?! I need your help!" Leo called.

I hurried down to assist Leo in repairs again. Even with my speed and expertise, there was only so much patching we could do without more supplies. I hadn't stored an entire ship's worth of wood in my pockets, after all.

Thanks to Veon's tar, the ship actually turned out better than it could have after the battering it took from Kymopoleia. We were able to temporarily replace parts with the Kako's help, but at random intervals the tar would somehow fail, melting away or changing into misshapen objects instead of what it was intended to be.

Rei assured me that Veon was just losing his concentration here and there, but that didn't exactly reassure me that he was in his right mind - nor her, for that matter.

At the very least, the two of them had amicable conversations and seemed like a regular enough couple, though sometimes it felt like they were speaking in code, mentioning things shared between the two of them that no eavesdropper would be able to make sense of.

The wheezing sound of the engine made Leo want to cry. He had dramatically broken down on multiple occasions, loudly complaining about complex engineering terms even to the crew who had no idea what he was talking about. I think the stress of losing Emily's emotional control was starting to grow worse and worse. Or that was just Leo.

Over the course of three long days, we finally got the ship more or less back to working order just as we made port at the island of Mykonos, which probably meant it was time for us to get bashed to pieces again.

Percy and Annabeth went ashore to scout while Leo stayed on the quarterdeck, fine-tuning the control console. I ended up teaching Kaze about how to play Trash the card game while we waited, avoiding any more repair duties. While I usually loved fixing things - and definitely had the time to do so - I was having fun taking the opportunity to do some more teaching with Azrael.

He seemed down ever since the incident with Kymopoleia, like he had lost his energy. I was trying my best to cheer him up, but even I could feel his weak energy. Was this how Emily usually felt? Or was it just because Azrael was the one helping me retain my soul and therefore I naturally felt what he was feeling?

"Gelato!" Percy called.

Instantly, the day got better. The whole crew sat on deck, without a storm or a monster attack to worry about for the first time in days, and ate ice cream. Well, except for Frank, who was lactose intolerant. He got an apple.

The day was hot and windy. The sea glittered with chop, but Leo had fixed the stabilizers well enough that Hazel didn't look too seasick. Curving off to their starboard side was the town of Mykonos - a collection of white stucco buildings with blue roofs, blue windows, and blue doors. Percy must have been in heaven.

"We saw these pelicans walking around town," Percy reported. "Like, just going through the shops, stopping at the bars."

Hazel frowned. "Monsters in disguise?"

"No," Annabeth said, laughing, "just regular old pelicans. They're the two mascots or something. And there's a 'Little Italy' section of town. That's why the gelato is so good."

"Europe is messed up." Leo shook his head. "First we go to Rome for Spanish steps, then we go to Greece for Italian ice cream."

"America is a hodge-podge of dozens of cultures all at once," Rei pointed out. "You could order Mexican, Chinese, Thai, and American all within the same city."

"Can't argue with the gelato though," Veon said.

Azrael was eating the gelato with curiosity, finding it almost too sweet for his taste buds, but he insisted on finishing his portion. No food went to waste.

I tried to imagine that we were on vacation, just relaxing with friends in a foreign country like normal humans. I'd traveled Europe with Onesan before, but we were always alone and always on guard.

I wondered where the Wards were, if they were searching for us. Those other demigods appeared to be more than enough of a challenge, but they were leaving us alone for the time being. Still…if they were going to either join us or fight us in the battle to stop Gaea from rising, in a battle against the giants, we may not stand a chance if we could convince them to side with us. Somehow, I worried that the few interactions we'd had were tests - they were studying us without voicing that they were actually testing us. That was common in the Wards.

The idea of sitting with a group of friends made me want to take Azrael to new places. I knew how oppressive the Wards could be, and I had so much to show him. It made me wish the war was over and everybody was alive…which made me oddly sad. Though I suppose any sadness was a good sign when it came to me.

It was July 30th. Less than forty-eight hours until what Leo called 'G-Day, when Gaea, the Princess of Potty Sludge will awaken in all her dirt-faced glory.'

The strange thing was, the closer we got to August 1st, the more upbeat everyone acted. Or maybe upbeat wasn't the right word. They seemed to be pulling together for the final lap - aware that the next two days would make or break them. There was no point moping around when you faced imminent death. The end of the world made gelato taste a lot better.

"The final battle will begin soon," Rei had said, in one of her Khaos moods. It was sometimes hard to tell if Khaos was just influencing her or if Khaos had actually taken control, but either way I hated seeing her like that. "I wonder what will happen. How many trials the so-called forces of good may face?"

Veon had grumbled, in his Tartarus mood. "Yeah. Fun."

"Oh, darling, don't be so down. It will be fun, just you wait."

I sighed, setting down my finished gelato cup. Azrael had only half-eaten his.

Emily missing, the Primordials no doubt plotting, whatever was happening with those Ward demigods - whatever was happening with Tsuchi…it was all starting to blur together into the hectic chaotic storm of trials we had to face.

I wished I knew what to do, but beyond my speed and my habit to build things, I had no idea what to do. Rei used to always be in charge before I died, and somehow someone else was always in charge. But even the others seemed anxious right now, wondering how we were going to approach this situation.

The plan, in theory, was simple: stop the giants from waking Gaea. Stop the war between the camps and therefore the divide between the gods. And…well, on the second front, Ane and the others were delivering the Athena Parthenos that would somehow get all the Romans and Greeks to stop fighting each other. As for us? We had Leo's plan, and…charge in, weapons blazing, and do our best?

Piper set down her ice cream cup. "So, the island of Delos is right across the harbor. Artemis and Apollo's home turf. Who's going?"

"Me," Leo said immediately.

Everybody stared at him.

"What?" Leo demanded. "I'm diplomatic and stuff. Frank and Hazel volunteered to back me up."

"We did?" Frank lowered his half-eaten apple. "I mean…sure we did."

Hazel's gold eyes flashed in the sunlight. "Leo, did you have a dream about this or something?"

"Yes," Leo blurted. "Well…no. Not exactly. But…you gotta trust me on this, guys. I need to talk to Apollo and Artemis. I've got an idea I need to bounce off them."

"Then it's settled." Rei rose to her feet. "Kaze, Azrael, you will be accompanying me to visit Apollo and Artemis."

"We?" Azrael asked.

"Oui," she nodded. "That's, uh, yes, in French."

Azrael frowned. "I speak through the Veil. I understand French."

"Rei…" Veon muttered.

She pointed at him. "You stay here. Got it?"

He looked ready to protest, opening his mouth to speak, but the words got caught in his throat. As if he was being purposefully silenced. As if Khaos were speaking to Tartarus. "Yes, ma'am," he finally sighed.

Annabeth frowned, glancing between Leo and Rei. I wondered if this had something to do with the visits to the victory goddess Nike Leo had been having the past few days, heading down into the stables while leaving me in charge of looking after the ship. Annabeth looked ready to speak up and voice her concerns, but Jason spoke up.

"You guys have an idea?"

Leo nodded. "I got a plan." He gave a confident thumbs-up with his charming, impish grin.

"Then we need to trust him," Jason said firmly.

Leo almost looked guilty about Jason's faith in him, as if he were abusing it. That worried me even further. "Thanks man," Leo said, mustering a smile for his friend.

Percy shrugged. "Okay. But a word of advice: when you see Apollo, don't mention haiku."

Hazel knit her eyebrows. "Why not? Isn't he the god of poetry?"

"Just trust me."

"Haikus are stupid," Rei said. "They don't make a bit of sense. Refrigerator."

I held up my fingers and began counting her syllables.

"This is a sentence," Audrey said. "Here is yet another one. Why am I here now?"

"Oh gods, please no," Percy muttered. He sounded like a man having post-traumatic flashbacks.

"To be honest, they're doing better than most of what Apollo managed," Annabeth sighed.

"Was it really that bad?" Frank asked.

"Yes," Percy replied immediately.

"Got it, no haikus!" Leo rose to his feet. "And guys, if they have a souvenir shop on Delos, I'm totally bringing you back some Apollo and Artemis bobbleheads!"

Apollo didn't seem to be in the mood for haiku. He wasn't selling bobbleheads, either.

Frank had turned into a giant eagle to fly to Delos, but Leo hitched a ride with Hazel on Arion's back. No offense to Frank, but after the fiasco at Fort Sumter, Leo had become a conscientious objector to riding giant eagles. He had a one hundred percent failure rate.

Rei said she would meet them there and disappeared in a flash of light. Veon gave a worried glance and stepped towards me. "Be careful," he said. "And watch over her."

"Why can not you come?" I wondered aloud.

He sighed. "Khaos and Tartarus are…confusing. It's not easy interpreting things when you've got beings of such power in your heads. A lot of the time, neither of us are fully aware of ourselves when they take over - we're just left with the lingering feelings that the Primordials felt. In Rei's case, she seems overly eager, excited, and mellowed out. Tartarus, meanwhile, feels nothing but dread and anger and other such unhappy feelings. It could just be Tartarus unhappy with basically being Khaos's pet at the moment, but…I can't help thinking that it's much more than that. My head…" He ran his hand through his dark hair. "Just be careful," he repeated.

I nodded. "Veon-san…"

"What?"

"I…I want to save Onesan."

"Me too, kid. But without Emily, we are seriously unstable. I'm gonna try looking for her, try bringing her back."

"Azrael can use the Veil to search."

"I know, but bringing non-dead people into the Veil is risky, and not a good mode of transportation if we want to bring Emily back that way. Rei ordered I stay here, but that doesn't mean I can't look for Emily. Meanwhile, I need you looking after Rei."

"And who will restrain you?"

He shrugged, glancing over at Audrey. "I think I can manage with what I have."

I nodded. "Good luck."

Azrael said that he could meet us there by traveling through the Veil, but even though he'd gotten a better sense of how to avoid the time dilation, there was still every chance he could end up arriving hours later. The Veil tended to lull Azrael into a sense of peace, the same way that one could zone out into their own thoughts while their body was on auto-pilot.

"Do you not want to come with me?" I asked.

"I…if it is not trouble," he said lightly. He seemed to have grown more shy recently. Had something happened?

"Never," I insisted.

I turned and knelt slightly. He wrapped his arms over my shoulders and then jumped onto my back. I wrapped my arms under his knees and allowed him to seat himself, clasping his hands in place and resting his head against my shoulder.

"Hold tight," I warned.

"Ja."

We blasted away, and Azrael's grip tightened further. Luckily, speed-mode had a bit of magic enhancements to it, putting a layer of protection around anything that I wanted when at such high speeds. Though the ride was far faster, it wasn't much worse than your average motorcycle ride in terms of the wind, and it barely lasted half a second.

I knew we were in the right place when I saw Onesan already there, writing something down in a journal. Her bow and quiver were clipped to her belt behind her and on her hip respectively, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail. She hadn't been out on a mission in so long that it felt mildly disconcerting - though it honestly hadn't been that long, in real-time. Maybe that was just the time-dilation getting to me.

Leo and Hazel arrived next on Arion with Frank coming down last and transforming back into human form.

We found the island deserted, maybe because the seas were too choppy for the tourist boats. The windswept hills were barren except for rocks, grass, and wildflowers - and, of course, a bunch of crumbling temples. The rubble was probably very impressive, but ever since Olympia, Leo had been on ancient ruins overload.

"I am so done with white marble columns," he announced. "I want to get back to the U.S., where the oldest buildings are the public schools and Ye Olde McDonald's."

"McDonald's sounds good," Rei sighed. She sounded very normal in that moment. I wondered how long it would last.

We walked down an avenue lined with white stone lions, the faces weathered almost featureless.

"It's eerie," Hazel said.

"You sense any ghosts?" Frank asked.

She shook her head. "The lack of ghosts is eerie. Back in ancient times, Delos was sacred ground. No mortal was allowed to be born here or die here. There are literally no mortal spirits on this whole island."

"The Veil is weak here," Azrael announced. He held his hand out, and I assumed he was trying to reach into the Veil. He shook his head and dropped it. "I will be of no use."

"You are useful," I insisted.

He shook his head, but didn't protest further.

"Does that mean nobody's allowed to kill us here?" Leo asked hopefully.

"No one said anything about that," Rei grumbled. "This way." She led the charge and stopped at the summit of a low hill. "Down there."

Below us, the hillside had been carved into an amphitheater. Scrubby plants sprouted between the rows of stone benches, so it looked like a concert for thorn bushes. Down at the bottom, sitting on a block of stone in the middle of the stage, the god Apollo hunched over a ukulele, plucking out a mournful tune.

At least, I assumed it was Apollo. The dude looked about seventeen, with curly blond hair and a perfect tan. He wore tattered jeans, a black T-shirt, and a white linen jacket with glittering rhinestone lapels, like he was trying for an Elvis/Ramones/Beach Boys hybrid look. I didn't usually think of the ukulele as a sad instrument (pathetic, sure, but not sad), yet the tune Apollo strummed was so melancholy, it was making me feel sad.

There were certain times that I marveled at how different it was to be emotionless and to feel again. There was so much sadness to being human, I realized. It appeared that even with the gods there was so much sadness - especially during war.

Sitting in the front row was a young girl of about thirteen, wearing black leggings and a silver tunic, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was whittling on a long piece of wood - making a bow.

"Those are the gods?" Frank asked. "They don't look like twins."

"Well, think about it," Hazel said. "If you're a god, you can look like whatever you want. If you had a twin-"

"I'd choose to look like anything but my sibling," Frank agreed. "So what's the plan?"

"We can just-" Rei began, but Leo was already on the move.

"Don't shoot!" he yelled. It seemed like a good opening line, facing two archery gods. He raised his arms and headed down to the stage.

Rei sighed. "Well, that's one way to go about it," she admitted.

The rest of us followed after Leo. Neither god looked surprised to see us.

Apollo sighed and went back to playing his ukulele.

When we got to the front row, Artemis muttered, "There you are. We were beginning to wonder."

That took the pressure out of Leo's pistons. He'd been ready to introduce himself, explain how we'd come in peace, maybe tell a few jokes, and offer breath mints. I suppose it took a lot of effort to muster such courage in front of gods. Or maybe Leo simply chose to treat it as a game to ease his nerves as he did anything. Either way, he was derailed within seconds by Artemis.

"So you were expecting us then," Leo sighed. "I can tell, because you're both so excited."

Apollo plucked a tune that sounded like the funeral version of 'Camptown Races.' "We were expecting to be found, bothered, and tormented. We didn't know by whom. Can you not leave us in our misery?"

"You know they can't, brother," Artemis chided. "They require our help with their quest, even if the odds are hopeless."

"You two are full of good cheer," Leo said. "Why are you hiding out here anyway? Shouldn't you be…I dunno, fighting giants or something?"

"Leo, don't be insensitive," Rei chided.

Artemis's pale eyes made Leo feel like he was a deer carcass about to be gutted. Trust Leo to be the one to instantly get two immortally powerful deitific women to death-glare him within the span of two sentences.

"Delos is our birthplace," Artemis said. "Here, we are unaffected by the Greek-Roman schism. Believe me, Leo Valdez, if I could, I would be with my Hunters, facing our old enemy Orion. Unfortunately, if I stepped off this island, I would become incapacitated with pain. All I can do is watch helplessly while Orion slaughters my followers. Many gave their lives to protect your friends and that accursed Athena statue."

Hazel made a strangled sound. "You mean Nico? Is he all right?"

"Ane!" I exclaimed.

"All right?" Apollo sobbed over his ukulele. "None of us are all right, girl! Gaea is rising!"

"Dramatic as ever." Rei shook her head, but she was smiling.

Azrael quickly grabbed my arm. "Ane lives. I will sense her presence disrupting the Veil until she perishes."

I sucked in a deep breath, though it did nothing to calm my nerves - in fact, I barely felt it. Probably because I didn't actually need to breathe. Regardless, the motion was reflexive in a moment of distress.

It wasn't anything I could do that relaxed me; it was just Azrael being so quick to reassure me as he did. Something about that calmed me more than the information itself.

Artemis glared at Apollo. "Hazel Levesque, your brother is still alive. He is a brave fighter, like you. I wish I could say the same for my brother."

"You wrong me!" Apollo wailed. "I was misled by Gaea and that horrible Roman child!"

Frank cleared his throat. "Uh, Lord Apollo, you mean Octavian?"

"Do not speak his name!" Apollo strummed a minor chord. "Oh, Frank Zhang, if only you were my child. I heard your prayers, you know, all those weeks you wanted to be claimed. But alas! Mars gets all the good ones. I get…that creature as my descendant. He filled my head with compliments. He told me of the great temples he would build in my honor."

Artemis snorted. "You are easily flattered, brother."

"Because I have so many amazing qualities to praise! Octavian said he wanted to make the Romans strong again. I said fine! I gave him my blessing."

"As I recall, he also promised to make you the most important god of the legion, above even Zeus."

"Well, who was I to argue with an offer like that? Does Zeus have a perfect tan? Can he play the ukulele? I think not! But I never thought Octavian would start a war! Gaea must have been clouding my thoughts, whispering in my ear."

"Well, that did happen with Aeolus too," Rei muttered.

"Ah, yes, Rei! Your father was a good descendant of mine! It's not my fault bad things happen to my bloodline; we're just so amazing that evil forces can't help but wish to corrupt us!"

Rei sighed and shook her head. "Right, yes, amazing."

"Why don't you fix it?" Leo said. "Tell Octavian to stand down. Or, you know, shoot him with one of your arrows. That would be fine too."

"I cannot!" Apollo wailed. "Look!"

His ukulele turned into a bow. He aimed at the sky and shot. The golden arrow sailed about two hundred feet, then disintegrated into smoke.

"To shoot my bow, I would have to step off Delos," Apollo cried. "Then I would be incapacitated, or Zeus would strike me down. Father never liked me. He hasn't trusted me for millennia!"

"Well," Artemis said, "to be fair, there was that time you conspired with Hera to overthrow him."

"That was a misunderstanding!"

"And you killed some of Zeus's Cyclopes."

"I had a good reason for that! At any rate, now Zeus blames me for everything - Octavian's schemes, the fall of Delphi-"

"Wait." Hazel made a time-out sign. "The fall of Delphi?"

Apollo's bow turned back into a ukulele. He plucked a dramatic chord. "When the schism began between Greek and Roman, while I struggled with confusion, Gaea took advantage! She raised my old enemy Python, the great serpent, to repossess the Delphi Oracle. That horrible creature is now coiled in the ancient caverns, blocking the magic of prophecy. I am stuck here, so I can't even fight him."

"Bummer," Leo said, though secretly he thought that no more prophecies might be a good thing. His to-do list was already pretty full.

"Bummer indeed!" Apollo sighed. "Zeus was already angry with me for appointing that new girl, Rachel Dare, as my Oracle. Zeus seems to think I hastened the war with Gaea by doing so, since Rachel issued the Prophecy of Seven as soon as I blessed her."

Rei shook her head. "That man adds ever more to his penance…" she muttered darkly. I could feel the Primordial aura attempting to leak through to the surface.

"But prophecy doesn't work that way!" Apollo went on. "Father just needed someone to blame. So of course he picked the handsomest, most talented, hopelessly awesome god."

Artemis made a gagging gesture.

"Oh, stop it, sister!" Apollo said. "You're in trouble too!"

"Only because I stayed in touch with my Hunters against Zeus's wishes," Artemis said. "But I can always charm Father into forgiving me. He's never been able to stay mad at me."

"He loves his daughters," Rei agreed. "Athena and Poseidon also participated in that attempt to overthrow Zeus. Hera got the worst punishment, Poseidon and Apollo were forced into servitude as humans, and Athena managed to merely talk her way out of punishment. I still remember Hera's screams…" She shook her head. "In any case, I believe Apollo is most at risk. He has always been one of my favorites."

"As much as I hate to admit it, it's you I'm worried about," Artemis said. "Communing with my Hunters is hardly compared to all the transgressions he blames you for."

"I'm worried about me too!" Apollo wailed. "We have to do something. We can't kill Octavian. Hmm. Perhaps we should kill these demigods."

"Whoa there, Music Man." Leo resisted the urge to hide behind Frank and yell, 'Take the big Canadian dude!' "We're on your side, remember? Why would you kill us?"

"It might make me feel better!" Apollo said. "I have to do something!"

"Killing some random demigods attempting to stop the very people you wish to kill will not make you feel better," Rei sighed.

"You could always try the other option - helping us," Leo said. "See, we've got this plan…"

He told them how Hera had directed us to Delos, and how Nike had described the ingredients for the physician's cure.

"The physician's cure?" Apollo stood and smashed his ukulele on the stones. "That's your plan?"

Leo raised his hands. "Hey, um, usually I'm all for smashing ukuleles, but-"

"I cannot help you!" Apollo cried. "If I told you the secret of the physician's cure, Zeus would never forgive me!"

"You're already in trouble," Leo pointed out. "How could it get worse?"

Apollo glared at him. "If you knew what my father is capable of, mortal, you would not ask. It would be simpler if I just smote you all. That might please Zeus-"

"Brother…" Artemis interjected.

The twins locked eyes and had a silent argument. Apparently Artemis won. Apollo heaved a sigh and kicked his broken ukulele across the stage.

Artemis rose. "Hazel Levesque, Frank Zhang, come with me. There are things you should know about the Twelfth Legion. As for you, Leo Valdez-" The goddess turned those cold silver eyes on him. "Apollo will hear you out. See if you can strike a deal. My brother always likes a good bargain."

Frank and Hazel both glanced at him like, 'Please don't die.'

"Ah, and Kaze Grigora, Azrael von Allem, I have something I wish to impart upon you both as well." Her eyes moved to Rei. "We shall speak later, my lady." She glanced at Apollo. "Mind your behavior for our guest, brother."

With that, she headed up the steps of the amphitheater and we followed her over the crest of the hill, leaving Leo at the mercy of Apollo - and more importantly, my sister who had the unrestricted power of two Primordials raging within her.

And Khaos now had before her a victim of Zeus's foolish wrath. It wasn't new that Zeus had wronged many, both mortal and immortal alike. I hated the god myself for what he forced both of my parents to go through - preventing Hermes from contacting my mother or I, driving Tsuchi to madness and me to become…this.

It was then that I truly began to worry about why Khaos had come here - and without Veon/Tartarus as well. And I began to really consider the possibility that Khaos wanted Zeus's downfall. A part of me also worried that I would agree with them, that I would let them have it.

First Person: Audrey

"How about this?"

I raised my hands and transformed the ocean beneath me, raising up a column of water to freeze it into a mini-ice castle. It was like a sandcastle, but with…ya know, ice.

Percy and I stood atop the water not far from the Argo II. Annabeth and Piper were officially on duty, with Veon and Jason below deck sleeping after their night shift fighting the last wave of monsters as we approached Mykonos. Percy and I had been taking day and night shifts, but even though I'd been up all night, I was still wide awake.

Oddly enough, ever since that encounter with Kymopoleia where that powerful and yet angry force had taken hold of me, I'd been filled to the brim with energy while also more exhausted than I'd been in ages. During the first few hours afterwards, I'd been trembling - though I wasn't able to tell whether or not that was from fatigue or from a sugar-rush-like energy spike.

Over the past few days, I'd managed to calm myself and stop the light tremor that constantly threatened to break free, but I still felt like I was in between a sugar high and a sugar crash all at once.

That whole incident with boiling a squid to the point of blowing it up actually hadn't been Percy's fault. Well, not Percy entirely. I had been training him to boil water at the time, and the goal had just been to scare the thing away. Instead, both Percy and I had given a little too much effort. Percy had aimed for the tentacles surrounding the ship in order to free it. I had aimed for the body. And the body had accidentally exploded a bit.

Percy easily flicked his hand and formed a little water castle sitting on the sea, but beyond that, all he managed to do was give the little castle a death glare. We'd cleared out a small arena amongst the rolling waves.

"You need to…slow the water down, you know?" I suggested. I tried to think back to the first time that I'd managed to freeze water before, but that was so long ago. After all the training I'd done, such things just came naturally. And besides, it was hard to train an ADHD demigod to actually control their perception of time outside of the heat of battle.

Percy sighed, his shoulders drooping and the water castle plopping back into the sea to join the rest of the saltwater around us. "Maybe we should go find another squid monster and see if it can scare me into managing this technique too."

Percy hadn't been making much progress on boiling water before the squid had arrived. The closest thing that he'd managed was causing the water to maybe boil from his frustration - although that could've easily just been him kinetically moving the water to mimic boiling just because that was what he thought it would look like.

"We can go back to heating water," I suggested. "You can boil it, but now you should try instantly turning it to steam."

He nodded. Percy's hydrokinesis was so strong that he could use it unconsciously at this point; if he sneezed too hard it could cause all the water in the area to sneeze with him. Metaphorically speaking. I think. Even I had to concentrate whenever I manipulated water, but Percy could do it without even directing his thoughts to move something with purpose.

It still amazed me that Percy Jackson had done all the adventures that Annabeth and the others at Camp Half-Blood had spoken of. This Percy Jackson before me had fought in a Titan war, bathed in the River Styx, gotten turned into a hamster. He'd defeated countless monsters, met countless gods of good and evil natures, named an Ophiotaurus Bessie.

But at least I could both boil and freeze water better than him. Oh, and transform my body into water too, I guess.

I kept thinking back to when we were in Venice, when Triton had pulled me aside saying that Poseidon had wanted to talk to me through his madness - that he wanted to warn me about my fate. I thought that he had meant maybe what had happened in Tartarus? But now, I wasn't so sure.

I ran my finger along the creases in my palm, feeling my heartbeat through the veins within my hand.

What if it was that…that power? What if that was what Dad had been warning me about?

In the recent Titan war, it had been Poseidon ripping a portal to Tartarus that had managed to defeat Typhon. I mean, it was one thing to rip a portal to Tartarus; it was another thing to be able to host his consciousness!

"Ha! In record time," Percy was saying. He had a cylinder of water hovering above his hands, bubbling and steaming as he concentrated. It looked like he was trying to scare the water into boiling away by giving it a constipated face. "Now I can…boil noodles menacingly."

"Boil noodles without blowing them up," I corrected.

"Noodles across the land shall fear my power!"

"Great. Now cool it down, quick as you can."

He dropped the ball of boiling water into the sea again. He waved his hands as though showing off a magic trick. "Ta-da!"

I sighed. "Not what I meant, but I guess it works. Still, cooling down boiling water is the first step to freezing it. You don't wanna get caught with boiling water and nowhere to put it."

He stared down at the water in thought. "The water doesn't wanna cool. Besides, I don't like cold water."

"The ocean is pretty cold," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but like…not that cold."

I shrugged. "Maybe that's the problem. You aren't affected much by the ocean's colder temperatures, so it's harder for you to summon the power of cooling down water. What if…what if you imagine taking away heat rather than trying to add cold?"

He nodded. "Okay."

I held up a bubbling orb of boiling water for him to work with, but before we could get into it, there was a disturbance in the sea beneath us. Both Percy and I instantly stopped from the enormous object rising at high speeds, trying to discern what it was. It wasn't like anything that I'd encountered before; it didn't seem to be something swimming through the water, but it was pushing upwards without a hydrodynamic shape like a giant battering ram. Was the earth trying to attack us through the sea? Was that something Gaea could do?

"That's…big."

"A monster?"

"If it is, it's the size of an island!"

Percy groaned. "Not another one of those turtle things from with Sciron!"

"I don't think that's it-!"

An enormous island shot out of the sea beneath us. Percy and I each wrapped some seawater beneath us as a shield to help us hover above the earth, back-to-back looking for an enemy.

While I had expected the landmass to have been covered in silt or seaweed of some kind, it ended up being a completely dry and clean stone platform; the water disappeared from it without Percy or I doing anything. The earth wasn't flat, but it was certainly deliberately carved as some sort of large battle arena.

"The others!"

The Argo II was raising an alarm, but rocks began rising from the ocean and trapping the ship from moving - not that it really could do much moving at the moment even without being trapped. Veon had begun working on fixing the ship, but without Leo, Kaze, or even Emily, the best he could do was patch up the ship so that it didn't just collapse in on itself. The earth shot out of the sea around them and formed an enormous dome that wrapped even above the masts, completely encasing the ship from all sides.

"Annabeth!" Percy instantly shouted.

"Come on!" I urged.

We used our water shields and glided back towards the ocean and towards the entombed ship, but just as we passed over the remaining ocean, jagged spikes of earth began shooting through the water towards us. Percy and I were forced to split up, using the ocean to sense where the rock spikes were coming from and throwing ourselves up and away to dodge.

"Your friends will be safe."

Percy pulled the water of the sea upwards in a water spout to hold himself above the rocky trap. He had drawn Riptide, and so it looked like he was trying to imitate a Naga.

A boy who I recognized from the party that had captured Hera back in Ithaca was now standing in the center of the large arena-like island that had formed beneath us before. He was the one that had been able to manipulate the marble and stone - Quake.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Percy asked.

"I am Quake, LK-2. And I am here to kill you, Perseus Jackson."