"One on one." Percy challenged Luke and Macaria felt her eyes widen as she looked over at Percy but he didn't look at her, his eyes focused only on Luke. "What are you afraid of?"

Luke curled his lip. The soldiers who were about to kill them hesitated, waiting for his order. Before he could say anything, Agrius, the bear-man, burst onto the deck leading a flying horse. It was the first pure-black pegasus she'd ever seen, with wings like a giant raven. The pegasus mare bucked and whinnied. Macaria felt a sharp pain in her head but tried to ignore it as she called Agrius and Like some very nasty names.

"Sir!" Agrius called, dodging a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"

Luke kept his eyes on Percy.

"I told you last summer, Percy," he said. "You can't bait me into a fight."

"And you keep avoiding one," Percy noticed. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?" Luke glanced at his men. If he backed down now, he would look weak. If he fought Percy, he'd lose valuable time chasing after Clarisse. It didn't take a genius to understand what he was going to choose.

"I'll kill you quickly," he decided, and raised his weapon. Backbiter was a foot longer than my own sword. Its blade glinted with an evil gray-and-gold light where the human steel had been melded with celestial bronze. Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him a round leather-and-bronze shield.

He grinned at Percy wickedly.

"Luke," Annabeth said, "at least give him a shield."

"Sorry, Annabeth," he said. "You bring your own equipment to this party."

The shield was a problem. Fighting two-handed with just a sword gives Luke more power, but fighting one-handed with a shield gives Percy better defense and versatility. There are more moves, more options, more ways to kill.

"Plus there's a prize I need to take." Luke's eyes darkened as he looked over at Macaria and she felt a deep chill go down her spine. Luke lunged and Macaria nearly got injured in the process, as she stood right next to Percy, if it wasn't for Percy pushing her out of the way as the sword went under her brother's arm and slashed through his shirt and gazed at his ribs.

Percy jumped back as Macaria cracked painfully onto the ground, she felt a sharp pain in her arm that made bile speed up her throat. She painfully swallowed and watched the fight. Percy counterattacked with the Riptide, but Luke slammed his blade away with his shield.

"My, Percy," Luke chided. "You're out of practice." He took a swipe towards Percy's head but he parried it and returned with a thrust, though Luke sidestepped easily. Macaria's eyes traced the cut on Percy's ribs but didn't dare to move, not wanting to distract Percy as his eyes focused clearly on Luke.

Her heart raced and nearly jumped as Luke lunged again. Percy jumped backward into the swimming pool and spun underwater and created a funnel cloud and blasted out of the deep end, straight at Luke's face. Macaria whistled as the force of the water knocked him down, spluttering and blinded. But before Percy could strike, he rolled aside and was on his feet again. Percy attacked from the slice off the edge of his shield, but it didn't faze him.

He dropped to a crouch and jabbed at her legs and her heart dropped as she saw the large cut on Percy's leg, the blood dripping down from the wood. Luke hacked downward and Percy rolled behind a deck chair. He tried to stand but his leg wouldn't take the weight.

"Perrrrrcy!" Grover bleated.

Percy rolled again as Luke's sword slashed the deck chair in half, metal pipes and all. Her brother clawed toward the swimming pull and Macaria pushed herself up and with all her might pushed Luke on the ground, he immediately slashed his sword at her in defense but Macaria grabbed onto the sword, impact making blood run down her hands in waterfalls.

Luke dropped his shield and gave a large yank onto her hair making her feel as though her head was going to split open. "Always getting in the way!" She heard Luke hiss and her ears began to ring as Luke aimed the sword closer to her face.

She was sure she heard someone yell as the sword tinged red. The air around them began to pick up at terrifying speeds and giant waves pushed off against the boat, the impact of the waves made them go flying towards the edge of the boats.

Macaria quickly grabbed onto the metal edge of the pipe as the boat groaned against the waves and grabbed Percy with her bloody hand as he nearly went flying overboard. Luke grabbed onto the ledge right by her with his left hand, his right still holding the sword. The clouds turned an ominous dark color as lightning flashed brightly over head and thunder shook the boat to its core.

The waves pushed back against the boat making them land painfully onto the deck of the boat and she released her hold on Percy who landed painfully onto his leg.

Macaria had nearly forgotten about Luke but she was too late, a hand latched itself painfully onto her neck, choking her. Macaria felt the ground shake dangerously under her as her lunges began to cut off the air.

Luke looked over at the bear-man Oreius, who still held Annabeth and Grover by the necks. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon appetit."

"He-he! He-he!" The bear-man lifted their friends and bared his teeth.

That's when all Hades broke loose.

Whish!

A red-feathered arrow sprouted from Oreius's mouth. With a surprised look on his hairy face, he
crumpled to the deck. "Brother!" Agrius wailed. He let the pegasus's reins go slack just long enough for the black steed to kick him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.

For a split second, Luke's guards were too stunned to do anything except watch the bear twins'
bodies dissolve into smoke, it gave her enough time to turn invisible and kick Luke where the sun didn't shine, though it was much weaker than she hoped and he collapsed releasing a bunch of angry curses that would've made what the black pegasus say look like child's play.

"Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.

Macaria looked over and felt her mind go blank, whether it was the lack of air or the amount of pain from her hands, she just wasn't able to process it.

Then there was a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal. A dozen centaurs charged out of the main stairwell. Chiron was among the crowd, but his relatives were almost nothing like him. There were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly colored T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER. Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a Comanche warrior and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand making a big Number I. Another was bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can-and-straw attachments on either side.

They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and color that for a moment even Luke was stunned.

As Luke was raising his sword to rally his troops, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke in the face and sent him crashing into the swimming pool.

His warriors scattered, she couldn't blame them. Facing the hooves of a rearing stallion is scary enough, but when it's a centaur, armed with a bow and whooping it up in a soda-drinking hat, even the bravest warrior would retreat.

"Come get some!" yelled one of the party ponies.

They let loose with their paintball guns. A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke's warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall. Chiron galloped toward Annabeth and Grover, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on his back.

Luke was crawling out of the pool.

"Attack, you fools.'" he ordered his troops. Somewhere down below deck, a large alarm bell thrummed.. Already, Luke's warriors were getting over their surprise, coming at the centaurs with swords and spears drawn. Tyson slapped half a dozen of them aside, knocking them over the guardrail into Miami Bay. But more warriors were coming up the stairs.

"Withdraw, brethren!" Chiron said.

"You won't get away with this, horse man!" Luke shouted. He raised his sword, but got smacked in the face with another boxing glove arrow, and sat down hard in a deck chair.

A palomino centaur hoisted Percy onto his back. "Dude, get your big friend!"

"Tyson!" Percy yelled. "Come on!"

Tyson dropped the two warriors he was about to tie into a knot and jogged after us. He jumped on the centaur's back.

"Dude!" the centaur groaned, almost buckling under Tyson's weight. "Do the words 'low-carb
diet' mean anything to you?"

Macaria felt herself pulled up and in someone's arms

Luke's warriors were organizing themselves into a phalanx. But by the time they were ready to advance, the centaurs had galloped to the edge of the deck and fearlessly jumped the guardrail, as if it were a steeplechase and not ten stories above the ground.

They plummeted toward the docks, but the centaurs hit the asphalt with hardly a jolt and galloped off, whooping and yelling taunts at the Princess Andromeda as we raced into the streets of downtown Miami.

Macaria had no idea what the Miamians thought as they galloped by. Macaria took a bunch of deep but painful breaths as the wind around her seemed to only grow wilder. The centaur that carried her muttered something but she was too tired to even hear it.

Streets and buildings began to blur as the centaurs picked up speed. It felt as if space were compacting-as if each centaur step took us miles and miles. In no time, they'd left the city behind and raced through marshy fields of high grass and ponds and stunted trees. Finally, they found ourselves in a trailer park at the edge of a lake. The trailers were all horse trailers, tricked out with televisions and mini-refrigerators and mosquito netting.

They were in a centaur camp.

"Dude!" said a party pony as he unloaded his gear. "Did you see that bear guy? He was all like:
'Whoa, I have an arrow in my mouth!'"

The centaur with the googly-eye glasses laughed. "That was awesome! Head slam!"

The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in different directions with crazy grins on their faces.

One of the centaurs, dark and the biggest one she'd ever seen placed her down on the blanket and roughly rubbed her head with a crazy grin on his face. "Didn't know you had a special one of these kids Chiron."

Chiron sent him a dark look that she didn't understand and the centaur shrugged and went with one of his friends.

After a moment Chiron sighed and set Annabeth and Grover down on a picnic blanket next to Percy. "I really wish my cousins wouldn't slam their heads together. They don't have the brain cells to spare."

"Chiron," Percy said, still stunned by the fact that he was here. "You saved us."

He gave him a dry smile. "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my name."

"But how did you know where we were?" Annabeth asked.

"Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."

"Gee, thanks," Grover mumbled.

"No, no," Chiron said. "I didn't mean … Oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."

Percy looked over at the campfire, where three party ponies were teaching Tyson to operate a paintball gun.

"So what now?" Percy asked Chiron and Macaria leaned over on Percy who had an arm wrapped around her, a very tired look on her face. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway."

Chiron knelt, carefully folding his front legs underneath him. He opened the medicine pouch on his belt and started to treat Their wounds. "I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody won."

"But we got the Fleece!" Annabeth said. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."

Chiron nodded, though he still looked uneasy. "You are all true heroes. And as soon as we get Percy fixed up, you must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you."

"You're coming, too?" Percy asked.

"Oh yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin's music. Besides, I must have some words with Mr. D. There's the rest of the summer to plan. So much training to do. And I want to see … I'm curious about the Fleece."

Macaria looked over at Chiron confused, not understanding.

Over by the campfire, Tyson let loose with his paintball gun. A blue projectile splattered against one of the centaurs, hurling him backward into the lake. The centaur came up grinning, covered in swamp muck and blue paint, and gave Tyson two thumbs up.

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "perhaps you, Macaria and Grover would go supervise Tyson and my cousins before they, ah, teach each other too many bad habits?"

Annabeth met his eyes. Some kind of understanding passed between them.

"Sure, Chiron," Annabeth said. "Come on, goat boy."

"But I don't like paintball."

"Yes, you do." She hoisted Grover to his hooves and led him off toward the campfire.

"I'm not moving." Macaria said tensely. The ground cracked around them and the sky darkened. "In case you haven't noticed Chiron, I'm in a very bad mood."

Chiron looked at her evenly. Accessing something she couldn't understand.

"I'm guessing you must've caused that mess on the boat." Chiron said his shoulders tense for some reason. "Your powers seem to be… more destructive than usual."

"What're you talking about?" Macaria asked tiredly. "Why would I cause a tsunami…? Destructive..?"

Chiron pursed his lips as though he was fighting telling her something. He dropped his eye contact from her and waved Grover and Annabeth off who promptly left. Chiron finished the bandaging.

"Percy, I had a talk with Annabeth on the way here. A talk about the prophecy."

"It wasn't her fault," Percy said. "I made her tell me."

"What prophecy?" Macaria asked and his eyes flickered to her.

"It doesn't mention you." Chiron said, his eyes clouded. "It mentions a Half-Blood, which you're not—"

"Wait what—" Percy and Macaria started.

"I thought that was just a joke— " Percy said.

"I was right?!" Macaria yelled but her throat constricted and she let out a painful cough.

Chiron held up his hand which signaled 'later' and Macaria pouted annoyed.

His eyes flickered with irritation as he looked over at Percy. "I suppose I could not expect to keep it secret forever."

"So am I the one in the prophecy?"

Chiron tucked his bandages back into his pouch. "I wish I knew, Percy. You're not yet sixteen. For now we must simply train you as best we can, and leave the future to the Fates."

The Fates. Macaria thought they were weird.

"That's what it meant," Percy said.

Chiron frowned. "That's what what meant?"

"Last summer. The omen from the Fates, when I saw them snip somebody's life string. I thought it meant I was going to die right away, but it's worse than that. It's got something to do with your prophecy. The death they foretold-it's going to happen when I'm sixteen."

Chiron's tail whisked nervously in the grass. "My boy, you can't be sure of that. We don't even know if the prophecy is about you."

"But there isn't any other half-blood child of the Big Three!"

"That we know of."

"And Kronos is rising. He's going to destroy Mount Olympus!"

"He will try," Chiron agreed. "And Western Civilization along with it, if we don't stop him. But we will stop him. You will not be alone in that fight."

Macaria looked over at Percy confused and the look in his eye told me he would tell me later. Macaria really didn't like secrets, not one bit.

"I'm just a kid, Chiron," Percy said miserably. "What good is one lousy hero against something like Kronos?"

Chiron managed a smile. '"What good is one lousy hero'? Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain said something like that to me once, just before he single-handedly changed the course of your Civil War."

It made her smile for a moment until he pulled an arrow from his quiver and turned the razor-sharp tip so it glinted in the firelight.

"Celestial bronze, Percy. An immortal weapon. What would happen if you shot this at a human?"

"Nothing," Percy said. "It would pass right through."

"That's right," he said. "Humans don't exist on the same level as the immortals. They can't even be hurt by our weapons. But you, Percy-you are part god, part human. You live in both worlds. You can be harmed by both, and you can affect both. That's what makes heroes so special. You carry the hopes of humanity into the realm of the eternal. Monsters never die. They are reborn from the chaos and barbarism that is always bubbling underneath civilization, the very stuff that makes Kronos stronger. They must be defeated again and again, kept at bay. Heroes embody that struggle. You fight the battles humanity must win, every generation, in order to stay human. Do you understand?"

"I … I don't know."

"You must try, Percy. Because whether or not you are the child of the prophecy, Kronos thinks you might be. And after today, he will finally despair of turning you to his side. That is the only reason he hasn't killed you yet, you know. As soon as he's sure he can't use you, he will destroy you."

"You talk like you know him."

Macaria was about to say something but Chiron pursed his lips, she forgot how bad her brother was at Greek Mythology. "I do know him."

"Is that why Mr. D blamed you when the tree was poisoned? Why you said some people don't trust you?"

"Indeed."

"But, Chiron … I mean, come on! Why would they think you'd ever betray the camp for Kronos?"

Chiron's eyes were deep brown, full of thousands of years of sadness. "Percy, remember your training. Remember your study of mythology. What is my connection to the titan lord?"

"You, uh, owe Kronos a favor or something? He spared your life?"

Macaria facepalmed.

"Percy," Chiron said, his voice impossibly soft. "The titan Kronos is my father."

A/N: Did you miss me? Classes you know, make me busy :P

I have webtoons if you care:

JOKER | WEBTOON ( )

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