The moment Macaria opened her eyes, she was met with sea-green eyes and Annabeth holding onto Percy. "Percy? Annabeth?" She whispered, unable to believe it, it felt as though she hadn't seen them in such a long time. She thought they had died. Percy had tears down his eyes and he hugged her tightly towards his chest. "Where are we?"

"You're awake." Percy cried, his hug almost hurt. "You didn't wake u p no matter how hard I tried to wake you up. The Sirens were all surrounding you, I thought that… t-that…"

"I missed you too." Macaria old him and returned his hug. Annabeth had tears running down her face but it wasn't just about her being alive. Something else… "Annabeth are you alright?" Obviously she wasn't. Annabeth murmured something Macaria couldn't hear and seemed to zone out.

"The Sirens… they…" Annabeth's grip on Percy tightened and he stopped.

"Nevermind, you don't have to tell me." Macaria told them and Annabeth seemed to have relaxed. She heard some rumors around the sea about the son of Poseidon, some crying girl and the Princess at the bottom of the Siren Bay. "Princess…" Macaria looked over at a fish and they all flew away. "Just another mystery to add to the bucket."

"I'll get us back to the ship," Percy told them. "It's okay. Just hang on." Annabeth nodded and murmured something again, but Macaria couldn't hear her again. Percy made the current steer the little air submarine through the rocks and barbed wire and back toward the hull of a giant boat which was maintaining a slow and steady course away from the island. "The Queen Anne's Revenge." Percy explained to her.

They stayed underwater and followed the ship until Percy judged that they had moved out of the earshot of the Siren. "Goodbye…" Macaria heard her whisper. "Good luck…" Just then they reached the surface and the air bubble popped. Percy ordered a rope ladder to drop over the side of the ship and they climbed abroad.

Percy kept his earplugs in his ears and they sailed until the island was completely out of sight. Annabeth sat huddled in a blanket on the forward deck. Then she looked up, dazed and sad, and mouthed, safe. Percy took out his earplugs and the sound of the waves against the hull was the only thing sound left in that afternoon. The fog had burned away to a blue sky, as if the island of the Siren had never existed.

"You okay?" Percy asked to Annabeth, though he kept a firm hold on Macaria, that she returned.

"I didn't realize," she murmured.

"What?" Her eyes were the same color of the mist over the Siren's island.

"How powerful the temptation would be."

Percy looked over at Macaria. "What did you see?"

"I don't understand what you mean…" Macaria said and thought back to the Siren. "She just spoke normally to me."

"She? Normally? You didn't hear her singing?"

"The Siren, she's just a single one, there's not multiple. It's just an affect of the water." Macaria explained. "She spoke to me, about her background, but… I didn't wake up until I saw you." Percy and Annabeth paused and tension seemed in the air. "Do you need me to leave? I can just go over there." She pointed some ways away from them.

"You're not going to…" Percy started.

"Disappear?" Macaria finished and he looked down, embarrassed and shameful. Macaria sent him a small smile. "I'm not going anywhere."

"No it's fine." Annabeth said quietly and looked over at Percy.

"I saw the way you rebuilt Manhattan," Percy told her. "And Luke and your parents."

She blushed. "You saw that?"

"What Luke told you back on the Princess Andromeda, about starting the world from scratch …
that really got to you, huh?" Percy asked and Annabeth pulled her blanket around her.

"My fatal flaw. That's what the Sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris." Percy blinked.

"That brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, Seaweed Brain. That's hummus. Hubris is worse."

"What could be worse than hummus?"

"Hubris means deadly pride, Percy. Thinking you can do things better than anyone else … even
the gods."

"You feel that way?"

She looked down. "Don't you ever feel like, what if the world really is messed up? What if we
could do it all over again from scratch? No more war. Nobody homeless. No more summer reading homework."

"I'm listening."

"I mean, the West represents a lot of the best things mankind ever did-that's why the fire is still
burning. That's why Olympus is still around. But sometimes you just see the bad stuff, you know? And you start thinking the way Luke does: 'If I could tear this all down, I would do it better.' Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job if you ran the world?"

"Um … no. Me running the world would kind of be a nightmare."

"Then you're lucky. Hubris isn't your fatal flaw."

"What is?"

"I don't know, Percy, but every hero has one. If you don't find it and learn to control it … well,
they don't call it 'fatal' for nothing."

Percy paused and he looked over at Macaria. "Do you know what yours is?"

"No. I'm not sure…" Macaria said with a frown.

"Do you miss.. Your real parents?" Percy asked and Macaria turned down and she felt the wind pick up.

"No. Not my mother." She told them. "My father… we're fine now… but I'd never want to see my mother."

Percy paused noticing her change in mood and looked over to Annabeth. "So was it worth it?" Percy asked Annabeth. "Do you feel … wiser?"

She gazed into the distance. "I'm not sure. But we have to save the camp. If we don't stop Luke
…" She didn't need to finish. Percy paused for a moment, lost in thought.

Suddenly Annabeth's eyes widened. "Percy. Macaria."
They turned. Up ahead was another blotch of land-a saddle-shaped island with forested hills and white beaches and green meadows.

"30 degrees, 31 minutes north, 75 degrees, 12 minutes west. We have reached the home of the Cyclops."