Zane Williams and The Gods of Olympus

by thesuperone342

Ever felt like Jason Grace is a complete disappointment and a failure to what a son of Zeus should be? Ever feel like Thalia was a waste and was thrown away too quickly? Well this is the fanfiction for you. Join Zane Williams on his quest for glory and power. Maybe a little bit of friendship and love on the side. Current Arc: Titan's Curse. Definitely Yaoi, very soon.

19. We Get Chased By A Bunch Of Grey Men

Alright, boys, chapter nineteen. I know you probably don't want to hear the same shit about how I'd never think I'd make it this far, but it's so true lol. Most ideas like this story I think up in my head never really get anywhere besides my imagination, so seeing this get so far is honestly mind blowing for me. Anyway, sorry for this being like ten or so days after the last chapter. Still typing on IPad and probably will for the next two to three months. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter and let's get on with some reviews!

Echoxenvy: "This is gonna be a long review, but here you go man.

Damn dude, that was even better than the last chapter. Holy shit I did NOT expect that at all. Taylor confessing now? Completely took me by surprise, especially him saying he loves Zane, just wow man. I'm really interested in how you'll handle this, because I have no idea how you'll drag this on for another three or so chapters without the characters addressing it. Anyway, Zane and Taylor making up was good and the reason for Taylor ghosting Zane was good. I honestly remember that bush thing and thought it was Taylor, glad to see I was right. The fight was great, and Zoe being able to hold her own for a bit made sense. Damn Zane vs Matt is gonna be something. We're not boosting my boy to make it "more entertaining" as Matt is probably as strong as Percy is in this story, so I think it would be legitimately close, with Zane still winning, which we will get to write soon I hope, I'm really excited on not just that but the character interactions. I feel bad for Percy man, plz let him get a big hug from Annabeth when they rescue her, plz man he's such a sad boi right now lol. And Arthur…damn, I feel bad for him too, really hope he and Zane have a amending moment together, cause he's not that bad of a guy really. All in all, amazing chapter, you underestimate yourself so much dude, it's annoying. You're a good writer, so take your time and don't get drained. I get it, you gotta space it out and that's fine. Quality beats speed man."

Response: Yeah, I thought I'd take it into another direction and have Taylor confess now, rather than at the end of this arc. I know it speeds things up, but I think we need a little speed right now with how slow these chapters are coming out lol. So you'll see how I deal with it this chapter, and I'm not going to have them not address it for three more chapters. Since most of the enemies besides Atlas are hilariously weak for our gang, that's basically going to be the main focus for a lot of the time. And I can't wait to write Zane vs. Matt. It's going to be absolutely god tier, like blow Koios and Luke vs Zane out of the water. Percy might just get a little bit more than a hug from Annabeth when the time comes around, just so you know. Hehe. And yeah, Arthur is the real biggest loser in this entire situation. He's basically been used this entire time just to make someone else jealous and he thought it was real. He and Zane might have a moment, if I can remember to write it lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

SaUvE ViPeR: "This was crazy, in a great way. I had no idea that Taylor would confess this chapter, and it was done so well and naturally, but I hated that the Oracle interrupted. The fight was good and Zoe being able to make Zane feel her attacks make sense, because she is a Demi Titan after all. Percy being an emo makes sense of course like it did in the book because it's just one bad thing after another for him, I can't wait how you'll handle the Percabeth reunion. Also interested in how Zane will handle the confession and his feelings for Nico, it's gonna be awkward and he can't run from it for long. Great chapter and can't wait for the next !"

Response: Yeah, the Oracle showed up and saved my ass from having to write a response to Taylor that would solidify their relationship going forward in the next chapter lmao. And yes, Zoe is way stronger in this because she's a Demi-Titan, and one of Atlas no less. Still, she's mostly nothing compared to Zane, but leagues stronger than someone like Nico or Thalia. And Percy being an Emo makes sense, because I felt it was a little glossed over in the original book. He's a lot more sad here. And Zane this chapter has a lot of thinking and inner monologuing to do, and he won't be able to run from the response to Taylor and his feelings for Nico for very long lol. Anyway, here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy it. P.S: As of the time I am writing this, I'm about to check out that Demi-Titan story. Is it any good? The authors like fifteen and he kinda sounds like a prick. Is mine better or do you like his more?

Shadowhunter2077: "Zoe got lucky here, if this was Zane from the past books he would probably punch Zoe with enough strength to shatter all of hher bones, but since Zane is trying to be a better person he calmed himself and spared her.

Also I have a suggestion to you about the Poseidon thing, why don't you make he fight Nug and Yeb (Cthulhu parents) they are High tier Old ones and I think they would be a nice excuse as to why Poseidon was losing the fight against Oceanus and was not helping the others Olympians against Typhon.

And while I'm not gay, it's nice to see gays finding love everyone deserves a chance to have love in life.

Ps: I also a great fan of VSBattle wiki, and I have a impossible dream that one day the Gods from the riordanverse would be as powerful as their Myths counterparts or at least as powerful in this story, but that's unlikely."

Response: Yeah, if this was Zane from the old books he definitely would have killed Zoe lol. Are Nug and Yeb water type Great Old Ones or something? If they are I might do that, but if not I'll bring in Pontus or something to fight Poseidon. And yes, love is going to basically be the main focus for this arc, at least until we get to The Atlas Boss Fight. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.

Zutama: "Hey I've been reading this story for a while now and one of the things I love about it is that it's realistic and brutal, like if Rick's original five books were targeted towards an older audience. But I've wondered, and I hope you don't mind the question, but how did you come up with all of this? What was the inspiration to start this story? And where do you get the brutality sense of it? Is it just your style of writing or do you draw inspiration from violent stuff like Game of Thrones, Invincible, etc?"

Response: Okay, so the inspiration was that my little sister started talking about Percy Jackson some day, and I remembered that Jason was a little bit of a chump when I read it, so I thought 'maybe I can make a son of Zeus character way better than Rick could' and then I did. While Invincible did help with the brutality, God of War was my original inspiration for the violence in this story, as the first kill Zane does in a Laestrygonian is ripped straight from God of War off a troll.

AVWPD5033B: "is Percy going to be gay?"

AVWPD5033B 2: "not homophobic btw, my sisters a lesbian"

Response: Echoxenvy asked me something like this way back in chapter two or three, and I'll answer it again. No, Percy won't be gay. He'll be with Annabeth, as their relationship is the stuff of legends. I've maybe alluded to it a couple of times in the first two or three chapters, but this is a solid answer. Maybe I'll do something in a future fic or a multiversal crossover chapter way done the line, but for right now, a definite no.

ReaperKurosaki: "ZAYLOR!

Seriously I can't believe it's happening. I didn't expect Taylor to confess like that. I just hope Zane can tell Taylor he feels the same way and not hurt Nico. Also the fight was good, I think that is your strongest writing point."

Response: Yes, Zaylor and both Zico are here boys. If you're confused about why I said Zico too, continue reading, you'll understand. And yeah, I'll admit, Taylor confessing was something I came up of on the spot. I initially planned to have this 'will they, won't they' thing the entire arc, and to have the confession after the Atlas fight, but I decided to move the romance up way earlier than I planned. It will make the rest of this arc very interesting. So Zane very much has quite the dilemma the decide, Taylor or Nico? That's something he absolutely can't decide lol, and we'll see his turmoil in this chapter about it. And thanks about the fight, they're the most enjoyable part to write, besides the romantic drama. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter and sorry it's super late.

Anyway, enough with reviews. Let's blow this pop-stand.

(Disclaimer: I don't own anything that is portrayed here (Except the OCs). If the fact that this is on a FanFiction site didn't tip you off, you're fucking retarded.)

(000)

As soon as the Oracle had sat down and went still, the entire camp basically went completely ballistic. Everyone started freaking out, not sure at all what to do or what had just happened. It was the perfect opportunity for me to get the fuck out of there and I quickly used my super speed to disappear from the crowd before anyone's attention could get back on me, most importantly Taylor's. I heard Chiron try to get the camp and the Hunters back under control, but I didn't stick around to see if he had any success. I quickly vanished into the woods, trying to get out of sight and processed what the fuck had just happened. Not the prophecy, no, I didn't give a fuck about that. Taylor's confession was what had my head utterly spinning. How the fuck could the son of Ares love me? I mean, I loved him but that was a given. Taylor was perfect. He was nice, kind, brave, fun, funny and just fucking amazing. It made perfect sense for me to love him, I mean, how could I not with all those qualities? It didn't hurt that he was probably the most beautiful person I knew, aside from maybe Nico and Dionysus. How could someone like Taylor be in love with someone like me? I was nothing like the son of Ares. I was cruel, dark, angry, murderous, possibly downright evil and I was a monster. How could he love me?

Then it hit me. The memories of both a younger version of both me and Taylor sitting by the bonfire, talking to each other. Me encouraging him, trying to build up his confidence to train and better himself. Memories of both me and Taylor teaming up and fighting against Luke during training flashed in my mind, remembering the look Taylor would give me during and after training. One of adoration. I remembered the way Taylor reacted once Nico had arrived at camp, the look of slight annoyance on his face when I introduced the two. Something I now recognized as jealousy. Flashes of me, Taylor and Nico watching the 4th of July firework show came to me, and I remembered how Taylor nuzzled up against my shoulder. It became clear to me now, that Taylor did love me. The reasoning being that I was the first person to truly interact with him in a positive way. Taylor had practically been a joke before I arrived at camp, the girly son of Ares being a focal point for bullies, but I was one of the first two not ridicule him or look down upon him. That's why Taylor loved me.

But knowing the reason didn't make me feel more worthy of the son of Ares' love. Hell, it made me feel even less worthy if I was being honest. How could I, a mass murdering, egotistical, sadistic monster be worthy of the love of someone like Taylor? Why did the Fates have to be so cruel to him, to force him to love someone like me? Why couldn't he love someone who would treat him amazingly, someone who didn't have the blood of thousands of innocents on his hands, someone like Arthur? Why couldn't Taylor have an easier lot in life? Another thought occurred to me. If Taylor loved me, and all the memories I had of my experiences with him confirmed it, Nico probably did as well, or at least had very similar feelings for me. If the way he acted a lot like Taylor in that regard didn't tell me something, the way he still talked to me with familiarity after I kissed him probably did. How could I be so stupid as to not see that? Guilt filled me again. Nico was just as amazing as Taylor, in his own unique way. Nico was creative, understanding, smart, kind, playful and fun loving. My heart literally sped up just thinking about the son of Hades. I honestly loved him as well. The reason for the guilt was now I had two very amazing and kind boys both in love with me, someone who is vile and horrible.

Having both of them love me created a odd dilemma, if Nico truly did love me back that is, which was: What do I do? If I can get over this guilt of having these amazing and awesome people having strong emotional feelings for me, was I supposed to just chose between them or something? I love both of them equally, and could never chose between the two. Even if I could chose between them, it wouldn't be fair to the other one whatsoever. I couldn't just pick one and say "Sorry about that" to the other and never talk to them again out of principle. I love the both of them too much for that kind of thing. Confusion and dread filled my thoughts. What do I do? I also couldn't just try and make something work between both of them. I just know something like that would never work and end horribly. I sighed as I slumped against a tree, unsure of what to do. I had no clue how long I sat there in the forest thinking about my very confusing and very dramatic love life.

"Hey." A familiar voice called out from my side, prompting me to turn my head. I froze when I saw the speaker was Nico, and my heart started beating almost immediately. Dammit, I had to keep myself under control right now otherwise I could just mess everything up even more. "Chiron called all the camp counselors to the Big House to talk about the whole prophecy that just happened. That's both of us, so we're both needed." I stood up from the tree, not saying a word to Nico as I tried to not lose control of myself and do something I'll regret. Nico continued speaking. "The meetings already started, though. No one could find you after the prophecy, as Taylor said you just disappeared into the crowd afterwards. They sent me since I can shadow travel. Was only able to find you thanks to Percy's aura sense." I nodded, still wordlessly after the son of Hades spoke. A look of concern broke out onto his amazing features, which started to crack my self control. "Are you okay, Zane? You look like somethings bothering you. You need any help?" The concern in his voice made my heart quiver and I felt myself dip off into the deep end.

I turned my head to the son of Hades, which had originally been pointed completely straight ahead not looking at anything and stared him directly in the eyes. I felt my restraint start to strain as I looked into his beautiful onyx eyes. Nico didn't say anything and just returned my stare into my own eyes. I lost all control as I gently took his hand, pulling him closer. He looked perplexed, like he was confused about what was happening. His face was red, however, so maybe he had an idea. "Zane?" I put one hand on his waist, and held his left hand with my other. Nothing else was said as I gently closed the distance between our lips and they gently met. The scene was a repeat of what had happened at the Westover Hall dance, but this one was a few seconds longer. Nico didn't try and pull away, or even feel rigid in my arms this time. Once the kiss ended, I realized what I had done. I didn't entangle the two of us quickly and with vigor like I did last time, but instead gently disconnected from the son of Hades and sighed, lamentating about what I had just done.

I looked up from the ground to see Nico's face, which was completely red and somewhat confused, although the confusion was nowhere near as prominent as it was a few nights ago. My own face was red and I put my palm to my head. "Okay, I'm just going to say it and you probably already know where this is going to go." I took a deep breath and looked Nico in the eye, trying to say what I was about to say as confidently as I could. "I love you, Nico. I have been for probably over a year, but I didn't really realize it until about six months ago. I think you're amazing, awesome, kind, nice, fun, hilarious and beautiful. I don't know if you feel the same about me, and I am not expecting you to since you're from the 1930s, and it's okay if you don't." I sighed, feeling a headache come on. "The problem about this whole things stems from me loving both you and Taylor. I love both of you, a lot. I couldn't never choose between you two, and that makes this entire thing hard." I scratched the side of my face, trying to get the nervousness out of my system. "Just after the game needed a little while ago, Taylor told me that he himself loves me as well. I was shocked, but it helped me realize I have feelings for both you and him. I don't know your feelings about me and if you even reciprocate them whatsoever, but if you do, it makes this entire thing very complicated."

I looked at Nico's face, which was shocked and red at the very same time. He looked like he was trying to jumpstart his brain to response, but the gears were just not turning quick enough. Finally, Nico opened his mouth to respond to me. "Uh...um..." His face was completely beet red and his eyes were as wide as saucers. I stared intently into the son of Hades' eyes, waiting for his response. With my new knowledge on how people react if they are romantically interested in you, I knew he wasn't just gonna say 'disgusting' and walk away. He was blushing and stuttering too much for that to be a response. My staring into Nico's eyes seemed to do something, as he looked away and didn't meet them again, his face seemingly getting even redder. "Uh...I gotta go!" Nico said quickly right before he melded into the shadows, shadow traveling away from my sight. I felt his aura recede from the forest, leaving me in the woods standing alone like a dumbass.

I stood still for a few seconds, not saying or thinking anything. "Ah, dammit." Well, if I had to be honest, he took that rather well. He didn't freak out on me or anything, he didn't call me an abomination or disgusting, and he blushed up a storm and ran away from responding to me. I guess he has been around in the modern day long enough for the anti-gay brainwashing to be flushed from his mind. Under most circumstances, Nico's reaction would be good, as it was basically confirmation that he liked me back with the way he reacted. But as of now, it complicates things quite a bit. Now, I definitely knew I had two amazing guys like me and I knew for a fact I couldn't choose between them. A very small part of me wished that Nico had reacted negatively to my confession, simply so this entire situation could be simplified and not be so complicated. Now I had to talk to Taylor, tell him how I loved him back and tell him how I also loved Nico. I wanted something with both of them, but I knew that was unrealistic. I'll speak to both of them and hopefully figure something out. Sighing, I faintly remembered that Nico had said something about Chiron calling all camp counselors to the Big House, and then I super sped off to said location.

When I arrived at the Big House, I found every in the room where the pinochle table was, standing in various places of the room. The only one seated was Dionysus, who was shuffling through a deck of pinochle cards, looking damn hot as he did so. I hope nothing comes from that thought, ever. Chiron turned his head and nodded at my arrival. "Ah, Zane. Good of you to finally arrive." Chiron turned his attention back to the rest of the room as I sat down in a free chair alongside Percy, who was still looking like he hated everything. "Now, what were we just speaking of?" Before anyone responded to the centaur, I surveyed the room to see who was here. There was me and Thalia, both who were of the Zeus cabin, Percy of Poseidon cabin, Silena Beauregard of the Aphrodite cabin, Beckendorf, Taylor, who I saw staring at me the moment I walked in and he had an intense and serious look on his face. I looked at the son of Ares quickly, mouthing 'we'll talk after this.' Taylor's intensity drastically diminished after my silent words and he looked like he was in a much better mood immediately. I continued to look through the room to see the inhabitants, finding Arthur Wayne, who looked like someone had kicked his puppy, The Apollo counselor, whose name I honestly didn't know, and basically all the Hunters. I also noticed Grover in the corner of the room eating Cheese Puffs. I finally noticed Nico, who was doing his absolute best to not look at me, his face completely red.

Zoe slammed her hands down on the pinochle table, shaking it and ruffling up Dionysus' cards. Zoe didn't care in the slightest. "I was speaking of the fact that this is pointless. That there is no time for talk. Artemis needs us and she needs us right now. The Hunt must leave immediately." Zoe's tone was serious, as was her expression. She clearly meant business, and my earlier ass kicking of her didn't do anything to dim her intensity.

Chiron stared at the Lieutenant of Artemis. "And go where exactly?" Chiron's voice just sounded tired and the stress was clearly leaking through his normally impassive mask. He was just done with this shit already and nothing had really begun yet.

Surprisingly, Zoe was not the one to respond to the legendary centaur. Bianca was. "West! You heard the prophecy. 'Seven shall go west to the goddess in chains.' We can get seven hunters and go." Over just the past few days, Bianca had changed rather drastically. For one, she no longer had her hair similar to Nico's. It was now pulled up and braided into one long ponytail, allowing the hair to be completely out of here face and get a good view of her. She had a splash of freckles across her nose, something that she did not share with her brother. Bianca also looked like she was in better shape, as if she had been training for years. Her skin also glowed like all the rest of the Hunters, which made her look even paler than Nico was. My eyes narrowed when I came across her, the fact she abandoned her brother not lost on me in the slightest. The rest of the Hunters agreed with Bianca, voicing their opinions as well.

Chiron shook his head. He crossed his arms in his wheelchair and stared at all the Hunters. "You seem to be forgetting something. 'Campers and Hunters combined shall prevail.' This is a quest that most be done in cooperation with each other, not alone." Zoe looked like she was about to argue, but then she appeared to remember something, some kind of memory or that. She then bit her tongue and said nothing in response to the centaur.

While Zoe was quiet and willing to listen to Chiron, Dionysus was apparently not. "Or does it?" Everyone turned to Dionysus, our attention now firmly on him. He held a wine glass full of Diet Coke, sipping it as if it was a fine beverage. Trust me, it's not. "'One shall perish.' That sounds rather nasty, doesn't it? What if you fail because you try to cooperate?" Dionysus had an innocent look on his face, as if he wasn't trying to drive a bigger wedge between the Campers and Hunter.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "Honestly, whose side are you on brother? Are you trying to have us fail?" Dionysus shrugged, a little smirk on his face as he sipped his Diet Coke. I continued, about to rip that little argument of his to shreds. "Even if one does die, the prophecy says we still succeed. 'Campers and Hunters combined shall PREVAIL.' Despite taking a loss, we will still win the entire thing overall." Most of the campers and Chiron nodded at my words, with the exception being Arthur, as I'm pretty sure he didn't like me right now. Dionysus rolled his eyes at my response, his smirk growing a little wider. I forced my face to not heat up through sheer willpower. No, I did not find my divine half-brother attractive. I did not.

Zoe looked like she had swallowed a lemon. "I suppose we must work together then, if the prophecy wills it." Zoe obviously did not like the idea of working with any of us, but I guess she was forced to at this point. "We must make hast then. The Solstice is in five days, this upcoming Friday. Our goddess must be present at the meeting. She is the most vocal of supporters arguing for action against the Titan Lords minions. Without her, there is no guarantee that the gods will get anything done. We will lose an entire six months worth of war preparations." Zoe had some good points in her argument, even though I personally didn't want to outwardly agree with her, you know, since she kicked me in the nuts earlier.

Dionysus looked up from his pinochle cards with a raised eyebrow and stared at Artemis' lieutenant. "Are you saying the gods have trouble acting together, young lady?" Everyone turned their gaze towards the wine god with a deadpan stare, which caused him to giggle slightly. "You're right, of course. Just checking. Carry on." Also, what did you mean by young lady, brother? I can feel both your auras and hers is clearly older than yours, which is something that intrigued me.

Chiron spoke up, pointy ignoring Dionysus' babbling. "I must agree with young Zoe." You see, Chiron had the right to call Zoe young. He's Kronos' son, one of the ones born before the Olympians. "Artemis' presence at the winter solstice is critical. We have less than a week to find her, and if Zoe's vision is true, retrieving her will be very difficult." What exactly did Zoe envision? I had assumed she had seen the exact same vision that Percy had seen, with only Annabeth being replaced by Artemis, but I was quite possibly wrong. "There is also the matter of what Artemis was hinting. It could very well be even more important. It must be located." Chiron turned his tired looking eyes to everyone in the room, surveying all of us. "However, now we must decide on who to send for this quest."

Zoe spoke up immediately, not letting anyone else speak before her. "I'll be the one leading this quest, as is natural. I was the one who received the prophecy." No one argued with her on that one. Zoe continued. "The first ones I volunteer forth are Phoebe and Bianca." Everyone in the room was surprised at Zoe words, and looked to her for elaboration. "Phoebe is our greatest tracker, and she will do immensely well in finding Artemis for us. Bianca, has immense potential due to her heritage. Throughout the quest, she will likely unlock a large portion of it." I wasn't so sure of her reasoning to take Bianca, as she literally did not even know about the Divine World until a few days ago. Bringing her along would be detrimental, as we need to bring the most powerful people as possible if Artemis really is in the grasp of who I'm thinking. Even Bianca was unsure of her choosing, though Zoe tried to assure her otherwise.

At first, no one said anything to Zoe's reasons, but I eventually spoke up. "That's not a good idea." I gained the attention of everyone in the room with just those words, except for Nico, who was obvious trying to not look at me directly. Zoe looked at me with a glare, as if daring me to challenge her. I would. "We need to bring our heaviest hitters on this quest. If your vision was anything like Percy's, Artemis is under the mercy of Luke. If Artemis truly is at Luke's mercy, it's likely he'll have Atlas with him as well. We all saw how powerful he was back at Westover Hall." Zoe looked like she was about to argue, yet I cut her off, knowing she was probably about to argue otherwise. "Who else besides Atlas or the Titan Lord could take out Artemis without so much as an aura spike? The Titan Lord is currently out of commission at the moment, and Atlas is very much not. He's the only one who could have taken her, especially if that 'Titan's Curse' line in the prophecy is truly significant." My words ended any argument that was about to come out of Zoe's mouth, which caused her to sit in silence. Without anymore interruptions, I continued. "I suggest we bring a squad very similar to the quest in the Sea of Monsters. Me and Percy as the heavy hitters, Grover for tracking and help with nature magic and such, Nico for support and teleporting with his shadow powers, Thalia as more support with her own lightning manipulation and flight, and Taylor for speed and fighting ability. You would be the lead, as it's your quest."

Zoe's face immediately turned stone at my suggestions. "No. I will not go on this quest with any boys." I looked at her confused, so she elaborated. "Hunters cannot travel in the company of a boy. It is forbidden and I will not have any of my sisters subjected to thee or any others." Zoe could not be serious. I know about the 'no boys' rule of the Hunt, but can they seriously not make any exceptions in a situation like this?

I stared at her, a look crossed with disbelief and deadpan on my face. "You cannot be fucking serious right now. You're willing to endanger the safety of your goddess for some stupid fucking code like that?" Zoe bristled at my casual dismissal of her way of life but I did not let up. I glared at the Lieutenant of Artemis, who returned my glare immediately. "Remember, this is bigger than just Artemis and the Hunt. If we don't rescue Artemis within the deadline, we'll miss six months of preparations for war, you said so yourself. Not to mention the thing Artemis was hunting. It's probably even more important than the entire solstice. You shouldn't let your sexism cloud your judgement and be a detriment to the quest."

Zoe looked like she was about to argue, but Chiron raised his hand, silencing the Hunter. "Enough. Zoe, Zane is right. This is bigger than all of us and the rules may need to bend in certain situations, this being one of them. Zane is the most powerful demigod in the entire world. He would make the journey and the quest a lot easier on yourself and make the entire experience quicker, too. As would Percy, Nico and Taylor. You would only be shooting yourself in the foot if you denied their help." Zoe didn't like it one bit, but she slowly nodded at Chiron's words as she looked like she swallowed a lemon with ten ulcers in her mouth. Chiron sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. Damn, he needs a vacation or something. "Great. Zoe, your companions on this quest will be Zane, Thalia, Percy, Nico, Taylor and Grover. They will help you west to save your goddess."

Zoe's eyes hardened after she heard Chiron's words. "I specifically recommended both Bianca and Phoebe. I thought I could choose mine companions on the quest?" To Zoe's right, Phoebe's face darkened as she looked at Chiron with a glare, while Bianca just looked like she was a little relieved. Why exactly had Zoe even recommended her on the quest at all? Yeah, she was a daughter of Hades, but she had very little training and was nowhere near ready enough for a quest. She would just die if she went, especially considering who we're probably going to face off against.

Chiron had the response immediately ready to go as soon as Zoe said her question, like he was expecting from the Lieutenant of Artemis. "I know you recommended Phoebe and Bianca, and normally you would have control over who you could take with you on your quest, but this is a special situation. If this quest fails, the Titan's will have the preparation advantage in the upcoming war and Artemis herself could be compromised. You will need the best team possible." Chiron then started to go into detail about why her choices were not good ones. "Phoebe might be the best tracker in the Hunt, but she doesn't have the nature magical tracking abilities that Grover has, making him a better choice. As for Bianca, she simply isn't ready for a quest of this magnitude, at least not yet. She hasn't even known of the existence of the divine world for a week. Nico has the same abilities she would likely possess, but more trained and refined." Even Bianca nodded at Chiron's words, pointing not looking at Nico while she did so. What was it with di Angelos and not looking at people when it could be awkward? Zoe was quiet for a few seconds after hearing Chiron's reasoning, but eventually she nodded and conceded to his logic. Chiron then continued. "It's settled then. Zoe, you and your party will leave at first light tomorrow morning. I suggest you get packed and get a good rest. Argus will take you into the city and then you will be on your own." With Chiron's words, the meeting was adjourned. the counselors started to pour out the Big House, and I sat on one of the pinochle tables outside, waiting for Taylor to leave the building.

It didn't take very long for the son of Ares to sit on the other end of the table, an expectant look on his face. I took a deep breath, hoping that this wouldn't go bad and I could explain myself perfectly. "Okay, Taylor. I'm just going to start." Taylor nodded, waiting for my next words. "Alright. Well to start, sorry for running away like I did after the game. Your...confession surprised me. I didn't have any idea that you had those feelings for me." I took a deep breath of my own, psyching myself up. "To be completely honest, I love you too, Taylor. I have known since the Sea of Monsters, but I'm pretty sure I have from the start as well." I sighed, putting my hand to my head. "Buts it's never really simple. I love Nico as well. I told him about five minutes ago before the meeting, and he ran away like I did to you. I'm not certain about his feelings, but I'm certain about mine. I love you, Taylor." I looked up from the table, my face red and burning. "I'm just not sure what to do. I love both you and Nico, and I know I can't be with both of you. I just need some time to think right now, and maybe talk to Nico again. I'm sorry if that's not the answer you wanted."

I looked at Taylor, expecting to find the expression of heartbreak and hurt on his face, but all I saw was a smile. Gods, he was so beautiful. Taylor stood up from the table, took me by both my hands and pulled me up from the table as well. "Zane, I understand. Feelings are not so clear cut and dry. They're not simple and never will be. And I can't fault you for loving Nico, he's so cute!" I blushed, thinking about the son of Hades. "You take all the time you need to think about what to do, okay? I'll love you no matter what you decide." Taylor paused, as if he was think about something. "Just...let me have this right now." Taylor then leaned forward, pushing his lips against mine. I didn't pull away at all, surprised by Taylor's action. My surprise quickly faded and I returned the kiss. My arms moved to Taylor's hips while his moved around my shoulders. It quickly became apparent that we had no idea what we were doing, but that didn't stop us. I didn't bother to try and kiss with any tongue, as I knew I would completely fail if I even made the attempt. Taylor must have had similar thoughts, as he didn't try either. Eventually, we broke the kiss, both of us taking in a heated breath of air. Taylor smiled at me, his face red. "I need to go and get ready for the quest. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Zane. Goodnight." Taylor separated from me and walked down the stairs of the Big House, looking back and waving as he did. I waved back, hopefully not awkwardly. I took a deep breath, barely even able to process that had even happened.

"Holy shit." I whispered to myself, my face no doubt blood red. Did that shit even just happen? I pinched myself with the force to shatter almost any metal in the universe and felt it, barely. I guess it wasn't a dream then. My heart was beating quickly as my mind went over what had just happened again and again. It wasn't my first kiss but it definitely was my best one. I knew I had to have been so terrible at kissing, but I didn't care. It felt amazing and Taylor looked like he enjoyed himself, so it was alright with me as well. I forced my brain to focus, as I knew I needed to think long and hard about my current choice. Taylor or Nico? I thought for only three seconds, before I gave up, knowing I'd never be able to choose between the two, and I hated it. If I didn't choose, I could lose both of them. First things first, I needed to find Nico and find out what his feelings were. I didn't have to look very far, as I turned my head and found himself standing in the doorway of the Big House, his face red and his jaw agape. He must have seen mine and Taylor's kiss. "Nico, I-" Nico immediately dematerialized into a wave of shadows and morphed into the ground, shadow traveling away. I felt his aura rapidly zoom away and I took off the ground to follow it. "Ah, shit." I said as Nico started to move away. I chased Nico's aura into the woods, not able to see his direct shadow due to the darkness. After maybe a minute or so, Nico came out of nowhere, panting with sweat dripping down his face and he laid back against a tree. He must of thought he got away from me, but I appeared from behind him and stood in from of his downed form. Nico looked up, his face reddened and his looked at the ground away from my face. I sighed. "Nico, just stand up and talk to me. You can tell me what you're feeling right now."

Nico stood up from the tree, slowly, and still didn't look me in the eye. Damn, 1930s must have made Nico into a massive prude. "I-I don't know what I'm feeling right now, Zane!" Nico put his hands to his head, clutching at his adorable hair. Nico then went on to explain exactly how he felt. "My hearts beating fast, my thoughts are completely scrambled, my face is hot and I'm freaking the fuck out!" Nico's aura was starting to go haywire. The shadows around us started to shift, and the earth started to shake a little. I guess Percy wasn't the only one who had earth manipulation abilities.

I looked at Nico with sympathy and alarm. Sympathy from knowing how it feels to not understand your own feelings and alarm from Nico aura starting to spike. I needed to get him to calm down and talk about things without yelling. "Nico!" I said with a firm, authoritative tone, drawing from my fathers leadership qualities within me that I didn't use all that often. Nico's aura immediately dimmed and he looked at me in the eye, his own eyes wide with surprise. I continued, although with a much softer tone. "You need to calm down. You'll start to affect everything around you with your powers, and trust me, you don't want that to happen." Whatever was left of Nico's ferocity in his aura vanished at my calm voice. I sighed, looking at the ways the roots turned in the dirt. "Nico, I know exactly what it feels like to not understand your own feelings. I didn't even understand I loved both you and Taylor. It took me almost a year to actually realize it, and another six months to actually come to turns with it." I pulled one of my braids out of my face, which had fallen there at some point. "Just, take a little bit of time to think about your feelings. You'll understand them eventually."

Nico was quiet for a minute, not initially responding to my question. "Zane, you make my heart beat super fast. It only happens when I'm around you. Whenever I am around you I can't think straight, like my mind loses all its inhibitions and just does a lot of things on impulse. And whenever you do something like touch my hands, or my face or something like that, my faces gets all red and I get all bothered down...there." Nico insinuated, making both mine and his face red at just the words. While my heat from my face faded after a couple of seconds, the blaring red on Nico's did not. He was silent for a few seconds, before he put his head in his hands. "I think I'm in love with you." My heart starting beating quickly as Nico said those words, and I was not sure I heard him correctly. "But I shouldn't be! You're my best friend, Zane, I shouldn't like you like that. Not to mention we're both guys. Everyone from back then always said that was..." Nico trailed off, not wanting to say the word I knew he was thinking of. Wrong, gross, abomination, etc. Damn, the 1930s must of sucked. Nico slumped back down against the tree, not saying anything else.

I sighed, a dumb little smile on my face. Time to hit Nico with some facts and logic. I squatted down to the level of the son of Hades and took one of his hands. He tensed and looked up to meet my eyes. My heart nearly broke when I saw tear streaks down the side of his face. "Nico, it's not wrong or disgusting to be gay. It's not against nature or some other dumb shit that people back then would spout. I mean, have you seen animals in the wild, or even just dogs? They do gay shit all the time and no one says a damn thing. People who are ignorant and stupid always hate what they can't understand and that's why they will be left behind." I intertwined mine and Nico's fingers, feeling the warmth that he exuded. "Don't let the words of some dumb, ignorant homophobic assholes who have been dead for eighty years define who you are Nico. Only you can do that. Only you can choose who you want to be." I felt a change in Nico's aura, one I didn't really know how to describe. I let go of Nico's hand and stood up from the ground. "I'm not expecting any sort of answer or anything from you, Nico. I just want you to think about what you feel and how to move forward, okay? Get back to me whenever you're completely sure about what you feel." I didn't wait for Nico's response and turned from the tree, leaving the son of Hades in the forest with his thoughts.

The walk back to my cabin was quick, as it was less of a walk and more of an immediate super sped dash towards it. I looked at at the sky before I entered my home, noting it probably had to be around twelve in the morning. I groaned, realizing I wasn't going to get much sleep before tomorrow's quest. I entered my cabin, noting Thalia was already packed and asleep and I quickly made to do the same thing. I super sped around the cabin, gathering everything essential and shoving it into a little back pack. Once I was done packing, I raced into the shower, took one at super speed and then jumped into bed. My brain was tired, yet content with the day. While today's events opened a box of things that would no doubt bring complications down the line, knowing that both Nico and Taylor loved me brought a wide smile to my face.

(000)

I quickly smashed the alarm clock as the ringing rung out from my night table beside my bed and pulled myself out of the covers, bags no doubt under my eyes. I turned my head to find Thalia was getting up and getting at it, finishing with the last of her preparations. I knew I didn't have much time, so I super sped all of my morning prep like teeth brushing, hair calming and braiding and putting on my clothes faster than Thalia could even react. I returned to my bed, sitting on it with my legs crossed with a smirk on my face, before cheekily whistling to her. She turned her head and I spoke. "Damn, what took you so long to get ready? I've been waiting for you forever."

Thalia rolled her eyes and smirked as she put her backpack on. "Yeah right. I know you're fast enough to get ready in a blink of an eye and I know for sure you were asleep three seconds ago. Now come on, we gotta get to the Big House to meet up with everyone." I smiled at Thalia's answer to my retarded snark and put on my own backpack. When the two of us arrived at the Big House, we found the rest of our fellow demigods that were about to take this quest with us currently stuffing all of their shit inside the van that the camp owned. Everyone looked rather tired, as if they hadn't really gotten all that much sleep last night. I would help energize people.

" Well, everyone? Ready to get this party started?" Everyone turned their eyes towards me, a deadpan gaze on their face. My energy faded and my shoulders slumped comically. "Okay, I'll shut the hell up now." I saw both Thalia and Taylor smirk at my words and they continued to put the last of their things into the van. With that, we jumped in the van and left the camp, not before saying good bye with Chiron. As we headed down the dirt path that led to the main road close by camp where I had been attacked by the Nemean Lion and the Elder Cyclops three years back, I realized that Argus was not in the car and Zoe was driving. My eyes widened as I sat in the back seat, with Taylor to my left and Percy to my right. "What the fuck? Why are you driving? And where's Argus at?" How the hell did I not notice that as we pulled out of the camp? It was then explained to me that Zoe was the only one who knew how to drive out of all of us, and somehow she was able to convince Chiron to let us go without Argus escorting us to the main city. Zoe wouldn't tell us how she had swindled Chiron into that little deal, but she did tell us that our destination was Washington, D.C. We had a four hour drive ahead of us, and I was looking to catch up on some sleep that I had missed.

The car drive was mostly quiet, as I was unconscious for about three or so hours. I was awoken when we stopped at some convenience store, which I didn't really even get out of the car for. Everyone except for me, Taylor and Grover went inside the store to do something, either get food or use the bathroom. Taylor was asleep on my shoulder, as the seats in the back of the van were cramped. Taylor had not yet awoken from his sleep even when we stopped at the convenience store, so I made sure I didn't make too many movements to wake him up. I did move my arm around his torso, which caused him to unconsciously snuggle into me, which no doubt made my face red and definitely made my heart feel fuzzy. I didn't say anything the entire rest of the ride and simply fell back to sleep.

I was awoken by a shake on my shoulder, and I opened my eyes to find Percy, a serious and gloomy look on his face. "It's time to wake up. We're at the Smithsonian." I rubbed my eyes with my left arm, not wanting to let go of Taylor with my other. I knew I had to wake him as as well, so I shook the son of Ares awake. He groaned as he left Morpheus' realm, tossing and turning a little. I realized that Percy had said the word 'Smithsonian' and I turned back to him with a confused look. Percy shrugged. "Zoe said it has some old and ancient artifacts from the ancient world here. She said that's it's worth a shot to check at least one of them for clues of Artemis' whereabouts." Percy shrugged and motioned to Taylor. "Now get him up, we have to get going before some monster finds us." I nodded at Percy's words, and shook Taylor awake.

It took us a couple of minutes to grab our essentials and our gear out of the van, mainly because it took so long to wake Taylor completely, but we eventually did it. Zoe led us closer to the Smithsonian, which was absolutely gargantuan now that I have really seen it. As we approached the legendary museum, Zoe had us walk with crowds so that we could blend in and not be seen by just some random monsters that could be lurking about, not like they could even take us anyway. Zoe had a good plan, I'll give her that, despite my dislike for her. As we weaved through crowds of people we didn't know, I felt a shift in the nearby auras I could sense. You see, mortals, despite their basically lack of any strength or power, still gave off some level of aura, so I could still sense them. About thirty feet behind us, I could sense the aura of something very much not mortal. If anything, it actually felt very familiar. I whipped my head back faster than almost anyone could even react to, only to find a very familiar looking French man with a hawk-like face following us, also trying to blend in with a crowd. Thorn. Of course we would run into him again. I quickly, but discreetly moved closer to Zoe, who was leading us through the large crowd of people. "The manticore we ran into at Westover Hall, Thorn, is following us." I saw the expression of alarm come up on her face very briefly, before disappearing into an impassive, calm look of determination. I continued, doing my best to seem casual. "What do we do?" I didn't really like it, and I know Thalia didn't like it at all, but Zoe was the leader on this quest and I had to listen to her.

Zoe's expression didn't change. She kept walking forward and looking at the doors to the Smithsonian. "Nothing, at the moment. We need to get in a safer place to discuss what to do, and that is something that can only be done not out in the open." We reached the door to the Smithsonian, and Thalia used the Mist to allow us to walk in completely undeterred. As we walked in the building, she continued to speak. "We will decide our next course of action on whether he will follow us. Now, back away from me a bit, thy is drawing attention to us." I nodded at her words and fell back a few paces, looking normal as possible. We arrived in the main hall of the building, which was fucking huge. We moved off to a little corner in the side of the room, trying to get out of the main view of things. Once we were all accounted for and out of view, Zoe turned to me. "Now, what is the manticore doing and can you sense where he is?" I reached out with my aura sense, looking for Thorn. Thanks to my familiarity with his aura, I found him rather quickly, standing close to the main doors. He was just sitting outside the building, doing nothing.

I opened my eyes, still focused on Thorn's aura and relayed the information to everyone. "Thorn is just standing outside the museum, watching the doors. He clearly saw us earlier, as that's why he was following. I not too sure if he knows we spotted him, however." Thorn's aura suddenly started moving, not inside the doors we went into, but he had somehow entered the museum. "Wait, he inside the building now. He didn't go in through the doors. He must have some sort of secret entrance or something." Mine and everyone's elses eyes shifted to the right, as we saw the wall move apart about a hundred meters away or so. Thorn, in all his military styled glory walked out and moved throughout the museum. The wall closed up beside him as nobody even batted an eye and Thorn moved away from our direction. Thorn moved up the nearby steps to the Museum of Natural History, which had signs on nearby pillars saying 'Closed for Pirate Event.' Wait, Pirate? I looked closer, and the words shifted into private instead of pirate. Fucking dyslexia. I turned to everyone, who had been watching Thorn's movements as I had. "Well, what do we do know? We know where he is and we also know who he is working for. This could be our clue to where Artemis and Annabeth are." To my left, I saw a look of steely determination come up on Percy's face.

Zoe's eyes lingered to where Thorn had gone and she nodded. "Someone must follow him. It is no coincidence that the manticore that is the servant of Atlas is here in the west. This must lead to the clue, as you said." Zoe's eyes darted between all of us, as if she was studying our group. "The questions is, however, who?" Our group was silent for a few seconds, looking at each and everyone of each other.

"I'll go." "I'll go." Both me and Percy said at once. Normally such a event would have both me and Percy chuckling at the odds of it, but right now Percy's face was serious and not playing around. "I need to be the one to do this, Zane." Percy pulled out Annabeth's invisible cap, which he has had since the night she was kidnapped by Thorn. "I have the cap, and I'll be able to sneak in undetected." Percy's eyes told me he wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Too bad he was going to have to. I shook my head, which caused Percy to glare at me and his grip around the cap tightened. Uh oh, he was mad. "Percy, that's not a good idea. Even if you go there with the cap and are invisible, you can't hide your aura like I can. Luke, if he can sense auras, and Atlas have a chance of being where Thorn is going, and if they spot you, it's game over. If you give me the cap, I'll be invisible both visibly and invisible to both Atlas and Luke." Percy knew I was right, but I could see in his eyes and his facial expression that he simply did not want to admit it. I sighed. "Percy, I understand what you want to do. You want to go in there, kill Thorn, Luke and Atlas and save Annabeth. Annabeth might not even be here, and if she is, Atlas is still possibly in there. He'll kill you before you can even blink if he doesn't feel like playing with you. Not to mention Luke and his time abilities." I put one of my hands up, trying to reason with Percy. "This little operation needs to be a stealth one. We need to get in, observe and report. No rescue attempts right now, and no big giant fights." Percy looked like he was being forced to drink a piss slushy, but he eventually gave to my logic.

Percy, slowly and reluctantly handed me the invisible cap. He sighed, the anger leaving his face. "You're right. You're the best one for the job right now. Just make sure you take care of the hat, and if you see an opportunity to save Annabeth if she's there, take it, okay?" I nodded in affirmation at Percy's request and took the cap from him without a word. I looked around everyone in the group, before I finally spotted who I was looking for. Nico, who was leaning up against a column, trying to stay out of the main spotlight.

"Nico." I called out, gaining the son of Hades' attention. He turned to me, finally looking me in the eyes for once. He had a small blush on his face, and I tried and failed to ignore how cute it was. "I'll need you to come with me." Everyone in the group immediately looked surprised, and Percy started to look a little angry again. I quickly turned to Percy and put my hands up in an attempt to calm him down. "Before you get mad and proclaim about the unfairness of my request, let me explain first." Percy's mouth opened, then closed as he was about to say something. "Nico will basically be my way out in case they are able to detect me. His shadow traveling will allow him to get us both out of there in an instant. We both won't be able to use Annabeth's hat, but we won't need to. Nico has his shadow shifting ability, which will keep him undetected." I haven't mentioned before, but Nico can literally cloak himself in shadow itself. It's an illusionary technique that not only hides his form and allows himself to blend in the shadows, it also hides his aura perfectly. Percy remained irritated for a couple of seconds while he thought of my logic, before he begrudgingly nodded and conceded to my reasoning.

Zoe nodded in affirmation after Percy folded. "Alright. Now, go. Thy must find out our next step. When thy obtain the information, report back here. We'll be waiting for thy here." I nodded at Zoe's words, before walking off in the direction of the stairs that Thorn had climbed up. I motioned for Nico to follow me, which he immediately.

As both me and Nico approached the steps, he spoke. "Why exactly did you challenge Percy like that? I know you gave good reasoning, but it kind of reminded me of you a couple of months ago. Back when you liked to hog all the glory and blow shit up all the time." Nico was the one to actually initiate a conversation with me this time, so it was definitely progress from where we last were. I looked at Nico, about to explain my reasoning, but he put up a hand. "Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely know you've changed. You wouldn't do that anymore for some petty glory or something else just as stupid now. It just strikes me as out of character for you recently. You've more or less taken a side role in a lot of stuff. What changed?"

I sighed as we walked up the steps. "Yeah, that sounds like something I would have done six months ago. Probably would have insulted Percy or something as well. But the reason I wanted to be the one to do this was because right now, I don't really trust Percy's judgement. He's been a little unstable lately, ever since Annabeth was captured by Thorn. He's been itching for blood for awhile now, and now that Thorn is right here, he may try and outright get it." I looked at the signs on the columns as we walked up the stairs, still not believing I read private as 'pirate.' "And if Luke or Atlas is anywhere around where Thorn is going, Percy wouldn't stand a chance if they attacked him, Earthshaker Form or not. I'm doing this to protect him and everyone else." I turned to the son of Hades, a slight blush and smile on my face. "Also, I kind of wanted to spend some time with you. You sat in a different row in that stupid van and I didn't really get to talk to you the entire time."

Nico blushed and looked away, although I saw a bit of a smile come up on his face. "Uh...well this is hardly the time right now, Zane. We really need to follow Thorn and find out what he's doing here." Nico walked up the stairs quicker than normal, taking the lead. I chuckled at Nico getting flustered, finding it irresistibly cute. As we reached the top of the stairs, I put on the cap and Nico shifted into shadow itself and we looked in front of us. We saw Thorn walking through a set of double wooden doors, with two mortal guards on the outside. The doors were already in the process of closing, so I grabbed Nico by his Aviator jacket, which could be clearly felt through the shadow he was apart of, and I super sped through the doors. I stopped directly behind the monster, careful to not make any noise as the doors closed all the way. Thorn didn't react at all, and continued walking into the room.

I got a good look at the room, and what I found was absolutely not good. We were not in a massive room with balconies overhead on a second story. The room itself was filled with different kinds of displays, which there were different kinds of monsters by each one. Scythian Dracanae, Laestrygonians, Hellhounds, all different kinds of monsters. I even spotted Agrius, the monster from the Princess Andromeda. On the back wall of the room under a balcony, stood two people I dreaded finding. Standing beside a dozen mortal guards, was a ten foot tall man who put bodybuilders to shame. Atlas. His aura was suppressed and calm, yet I knew for a fact it could become literally overwhelming in an instant. Atlas had a scowl on his face, paired with crossed arms that made every muscle in them bulge out. On the wall, sitting in some kind of gilded throne was someone who sent phantom pains throughout my entire torso. Luke Castellan. He wore some kind of Greek armor, along with a brown hood with a cloak that draped over the black and gold throne he sat on. His sword, Backbitter, seemed different. Stronger, somehow. Luke had also changed in other ways, most notably his physique and his eyes. Luke, as a son of Hermès, hadn't exactly been the bulkiest demigod at camp, despite being very defined and lean. Hell, I think I was more muscular than Luke was when I first met him now. Now, Luke looked like he could compete in the Classic Bodybuilding league at Mr. Olympia. He was overly muscular like Atlas, but he was now much larger. His eyes were also different. I couldn't see any of his features as his hood covered his face, yet I could see the yellow eyes underneath the hood clearly. He looked like a Sith Lord or something.

Luke looked at Thorn, who bowed at the son of Hermès. By the quick and precise way the monster bowed, I got the feeling he feared Luke very much. "Report." Luke's voice was also different. I couldn't exactly put my finger on it, but it almost sounded like there were two people speaking when he talked. There was his normal voice, which was at normal volume, but there was also this quiet, smooth voice underneath his normal words. It was weird and I didn't like it in the slightest. To Luke's left, Atlas looked down on the manticore, who cringed at his master's glare.

Thorn finally spoke after a few seconds of silence and groveling, his French accented voice quivering. "They are here, L-Lord. All seven of them, as we planned. The satyr, Grover Underwood. The daughter of Zeus, the one in the punk clothing. One of the sons of Ares, a particularly peculiar looking one. The son of Hades. A Hunter, one with a silver circlet." Atlas audibly growled at Thorn's words. There definitely was some sort of relativity or history between Atlas and Zoe. "Zane Williams and Perseus Jackson are with them. They are currently in the rocket museum section." Luke bared down on the manticore as he finished his report, causing said monster to cringe and rear back slightly.

Luke shifted his cloaked head. "Leave us." Thorn look surprised, and then looked like he wanted to argue, but Luke immediately flexed his aura, scaring the monster into submission. "Now. Before I finished what Atlas had started days ago. Trust me, I know of ways to make it even more painful." Thorn didn't say anything else, he just awkwardly bowed and immediately scurried off out of the room. Damn, Luke was way stronger than he used to be. Luke stood up from the throne he was seated upon, and started pacing the floor. "Now, my good friend Atlas, we need to start to work on isolating Thalia. The bane of Olympus will show itself once we do." Luke put a hand to his chin, as if he was thinking about something. "Zane and Percy are with her, so regular monsters are going to be out of the picture. What are our options, Atlas?" Luke asked, turning his covered head to the Titan of Endurance.

Atlas smirked, and uncrossed his arms. "You could just send me, Lord. I've been looking forward to meeting those two again. They are so powerful for demigods. Especially Williams. He's likely still more powerful than even you after your ascension." Atlas grinned. "I can only imagine how powerful he will grow if he is allowed to live. He could likely even challenge me eventually." Atlas looked to Luke, as if he was a kid begging their mother for candy. "Is is certain that we must kill him? I would love to keep him around as a pet. I could make him into a powerful warrior that even his father would fear if given enough time. Not to mention how attractive he looks for one so young." I feel a million different chills go down my spine as Atlas said those words, and I stiffened up like a marble statue. Okay, that was just fucking weird.

Luke's demeanor did not change, as if he was used to Atlas' antics. "Yes, he must die. If not, he will be used for my future plans. You can't have him." Atlas seemed almost disappointed, but he accepted Luke's decision. Luke continued, answering Atlas' first question. "As for sending you, no, that won't do. We were lucky enough that Westover Hall was remote enough to temporarily escape the notice of the gods for a little while for you to show up in person. If you killed or captured Zane right in the heart of the nation's capital, Zeus would be sure to notice." Atlas stiffened at Luke's answer, and seemed to almost start to pale. "You're immensely powerful, Atlas. But we both know that Zeus would absolutely destroy you with no effort, especially if he's enraged at the death of his son. No, we must do this a little more covertly. Bring me shards of Syberius' teeth." Atlas nodded, and immediately motioned for some of the mortal guards to bring him something. Luke crouched down at the floor and tore some of the tiles off as if they were made of paper. Once a guard brought him a piece of bone that looked like a tooth shard, he planted it into the ground as if it was a seed. "This shall service at least as a good vanguard."

With Luke's words, the ground started to shift slightly. The shaking was slight at first, but over the course of a few seconds, the speed of the shaking picked up very quickly. Before anything else could happen, several skeletal arms burst from the ground, clawing their way up to the surface. Seven skeletons ripped their way out of the ground, as if they were some kind of zombies. The skeletons did not stay as they were, because as soon as they were all above ground, veins, muscle, sinews, flesh, the works all started to grow on them. It was rather disgusting to watch, and that's saying something if you've seen and done what I have. Once the growing stopped, the seven skeletons were now men. Not regular men, however. They were grey, as if they were some kind of Frankenstein monster or something, along with being heavily muscled and stark naked. Luke looked at the grey men with a expression of approval, and then turned to a Scythian Dracanae. "Do you have the scent?" The Dracanae nodded, clearly afraid of Luke. The monster pulled some kind of silver scarf made from some kind of cloth, something I recognized the Hunters of Artemis wearing. Luke nodded in approval and took the scarf from the Dracanae. "Good. Once my warriors get a scent of this, they will stop at nothing to destroy the campers. While they are nothing to Percy and Zane, even they can be overwhelmed with enough ants. Quickly, gather more of Syberius' teeth and head down to the botanical gardens. I want hundreds of warriors after them within the hour, understand?" Luke spoke to a group of mortal guards, who quickly nodded and bowed at Luke's order, marching off like men on a mission. "Now, my warriors, search for this scent." Luke pushed the scarf up against one of the grey men's nose, and they immediately jumped into action. However, the grey men did not try and leave the room. They immediately rushed for men and Nico like a pack of zombies, which promoted me to release a wind barrier blast in every directions to knock both the monsters in the room and the grey men away. The only ones in the room who were completely unaffected were Luke and Atlas. Luke's stance tensed and he turned his head to Atlas. "It seems there is an intruder. And by the looks of that wind, it seems to be Zane. Atlas, find and apprehend him."

Before Atlas could use his unbeatable power and speed to find me in a instant, I yelled out, "Nico, get us out of here right now!" I felt the son of Hades grab my hand, and we instantly were surrounded in black shadowy tendrils that coated us completely. I felt...wrong, I guess would be the term for it. It made sense, because I was traveling through shadow, through Hades' realm. Hades definitely fucking hated me after I blew his arm off with the Master Bolt a year and a half ago, so I knew his domain would not be kind to me. The odd sensation passed as quickly as it came, and I found myself and Nico standing in front of our questing party, who looked bewildered at our sudden appearance. I shook my head, trying to get the echoes of whatever that odd feeling was traveling with Nico's shadows. I turned to my fellow demigods, who still looked confused and now a little alarmed. They knew what us shadow traveling back to them meant. "Okay, short version is that Atlas and Luke are here in the museum, they created a bunch of grey evil looking dues to hunt us down, and they spotted us. So I'd say it would be a good idea to get the fuck out of here."

Zoe rolled her eyes at my words. "Whilst I would not have put it so vulgar as thou did, I'm inclined to agree." Zoe turned her head, addressing the entire group. "We're leaving right now. Come." Everyone in the group nodded in affirmation, although Percy looked a little irritated. He probably wanted to kill Luke and Atlas even more than I did. Everyone immediately followed Zoe, who was starting towards the exit of the museum, but a massive roar that sounded like a thunderbolt rung out from behind us. We all turned our heads, only to find something we really did not want to see. A massive golden Lion was perched on the stairs, ready to pounce at any second. The Nemean Lion. The monster glared at me in particular, as if it had some sort of grudge. I noted that I was wearing my own Nemean Lion cloak, which the beast was staring at. I guess he's still not exactly over that, huh? Zoe held her hand up, as if to shield us all. "The Nemean Lion. Do not move. On my mark, split up and keep it distracted while I think of a way to kill it. Read-" That was all she could get out before Percy vanished into a burst of speed before anyone could do anything, and punched the Lion directly in the nose. Percy created a powerful vibration in his fist, turning the Nemean Lion's head to mush in an instant. The monster didn't even have time to scream in pain or anything, it just died.

The Nemean Lion's body turned to dust, only leaving behind a full length golden duster jacket. Percy picked it up and looked at the Nemean Lion logo on the back and looked to my own cloak of the monster. I guess we both had pieces of it now. "Alright, now that is taken care of, we really need to get out of here, right?" Percy said legitimately innocently, as if he didn't really notice he just instantly one shotted a legendary monster like the Nemean Lion.

An expression of anger came up on Zoe's face, and she marched up to Percy and forcefully tapped him in the chest. "Why did thou do that!? You directly charged the beast against my orders. I had a plan ready to go immediately!"

Percy glared at the Lieutenant of Artemis, crossing his arms as he held his new Nemean Lion jacket. "We didn't need your plan in the slightest. I had that monster handled. Hell, Zane was eleven years old when he beat the Nemean Lion, and he didn't have any training when he did so. Why are you so angry?"

Zoe looked like she was about to explode on the son of Poseidon, but I interrupted both of them. "Guys!" Both of their heads turned to me, glaring at me as if I was the problem here. "You two can do this later, okay? Right now, we have a bunch of grey warrior things after us, and Luke and Atlas are not going to be too far behind. Not to mention Luke is planning to make hundreds of those guys." Both Percy and Zoe looked alarmed, as I had left that detail out of the short version of events I reported to the whole group. "Now, you guys can rip each other's throats out all you want after we get out of this. We need to go, right now." Both Zoe and Percy gave each other one last glare, but both of them conceded to my logic. Nobody said another word as we high tailed it out of the museum, careful to watch our backs for any grey warrior guys about to sneak up on us, or if Luke or Atlas was nearby. Surprisingly, we got out of the museum without any problems. It was almost too easy, as if Luke was letting us escape. Once we made it back to the van, we pilled all of our shit into the back, and started on the road through D.C. like a bat out of hell.

We didn't make it too long without a helicopter coming out the roof of the museum, which started to to follow us. The helicopter that followed us was sleek and black, like one the President or a U.S. Senator would use to arrive at a party or something. The chopper was following right behind us in the air as we swerved through traffic, Zoe driving like a madwoman. As we nearly smashed into a crowd of people, narrowly avoiding them, I spoke up. "They know the van, as Thorn was following us earlier. We need to find someway to ditch it and continue on differently."

Zoe pulled into the fast lane, nearly rear ending a car that we passed. "That, I know. But we can't exactly while we are being followed in plain line of sight. We have to find a way to escape the helicopters sight." We nearly ran into an old lady with a shopping cart as we swerved around a curve. However, we actually hit a random dude once Zoe tried to slow down to turn nice more, causing him to slid across the pavement with a painful yell. Zoe cringed before she tried to rev the engine. "Sorry!" She called out the window. Due to us slamming into that man and slowing down, the helicopter caught up to us. The side doors of the chopper opened, revealing the grey men controlling mounting machine guns. I heard the guns start to fire and Zoe tried to maneuver the car out of the way as quickly as possible. "Shit!" The Hunter of Artemis called out as the bullets started to rain fire down upon us. While we avoided the brunt of the bullets, the pedestrians on the side of the road did not. I quickly looked out the window at them, only to see the civilians being torn to shreds by the gunfire, blood and gore being splattered on the pavement. I felt anger at the senseless death course through my veins, and the sky darkened slightly. The gunfire was about to collide with our van, but Percy ripped water molecules straight from the air and covered the hood of the car in a coat of nearly impenetrable water.

Zoe hit the pedal to the metal and we moved across the street as quickly as the van would allow us. However, the chopper was still right on our tail, and several of the grey men jumped out the helicopter doors like zombies straight out of World War Z. The grey men caught up to the car in an instant, moving far quicker than the speed of sound. The grey men jumped on the car like bugs, trying to rip into the water covered hull. I was getting annoyed, and I was already angry at the death these monsters had caused. "I'm getting tired of this! Grover, open the back door!" The satyr, who was sitting in the back by the two doors, opened both of them without a word, a determined and serious expression on his face. I put my hand directly into Percy's water coat, confident his control over water wouldn't allow the water to try and rip my hand to pieces. I charged my fist with lighting for a half second, then allowed the electricity to flow throughout the water sheet over the van. The vehicle probably looked weird, being covered in a coat of water that grey monster men were trying to rip into, along with said water conducting immense amount of electricity. The grey men were turned to ash within seconds, which was longer than it really should have taken. These motherfuckers were tough then. Zoe suddenly moved the van to the side abruptly, barely avoiding a missile launched from the helicopter that slammed into the road, destroying several cars and no doubt killing everyone inside them. My teeth ground together in rage and I turned my head back to Percy. "Percy, created a hole in the shield right in front of me! It's time to give these monsters some payback." Percy nodded, and a three foot wide hole was created in the water barrier right in front of me. I put my hand in the hole and pointed right at the helicopter piloted by grey men. "Go back to the dirt from whence you came!" I unleashed a powerful bolt of lightning from my hand, which collided with the helicopter and caused it to explode in a burst of fire and lightning in an instant. There was no debris left from the helicopter thanks to my lightning, so no damage caused to the road or anyone on it. I moved back into the front seat as Percy dropped the water shield entirely since we were safe and I turned my head to Zoe. "Well, we're safe for right now." My eyes spotted the entrance to the subway system under D.C. out of the corner of my eye, and I pointed over towards it. "There. That's where we'll go to avoid any further detection. We'll ditch the van once we get out." Zoe, obviously didn't like being told what to do, especially by me, didn't really want to but she saw no better alternative.

We grabbed everything essential from the van and parked it on the side of the road beside the subway entrance. Zoe led everyone into the subway and addressed all of us. "We need to get on one of the trains, and we don't exactly have any money for tickets. Everyone split up and try to gather some tickets from the pockets of the mortals. We'll gather here in ten minutes. Once we get on the train, we'll continuously hop on others to make it difficult for the grey warriors to track us. Now, split up!" We all did as Zoe said, and split off into groups, trying to covertly pickpocket nearby passing bystanders for train tickets and/or money, not having a massive amount of success initially. Eventually, I ended up with Nico, trying to find tickets in the pockets of nearby bystanders with my super speed. Nico used his shadow shifting to covertly take things from people pockets. We both gathered two tickets for each of us, and we started to slowly walk back with each other to the main meeting spot.

I looked at my ticket, and made sure it matched with Nico's. The son of Hades blushed when I gently grabbed his wrist so I could compare our tickets side by side, something I clearly planned without any doubt. If our friends tickets didn't match up to ours, I would just have Thalia manipulate the most on the train workers to let us through. "It's good that this subway was here for us to get into. Rather confident if I'm being honest. I'm not too sure how we would have escaped constant fighting with those grey dudes without all that destruction." Nico didn't say anything in return, probably from not really being able to say much to my words, although maybe the blush on his face told me a different story. Maybe me grabbing his wrist like that had worked a little too well. I decided to turn the direction of the conversation. "So, you and Bianca used to live here in D.C., right? How much has it changed over the past seventy years?" After I saw the look on Nico's face, I realized maybe I shouldn't have said that. Nico hadn't been in a very great mood very recently, mainly thanks to Bianca abandoning him. "Hey, I really shouldn't have mentioned that. I'm sorry."

Nico held up a hand, and shook his head. "No, it's alright. I can't be hung up on her decision forever." Nico sighed as the meeting spot came into view, only Grover and Percy being in sight. "When we lived here back when we escaped from Italy, it was definitely way different. For one, there was no subway system at all, only regular trains." Sometime I forget how old Nico really is, but I honestly don't care how old he is, I still love him. Nico's face darkened quite a bit. "I doubt Bianca really even remembers everything we went through together, since my dad probably hasn't restored her memories yet like he did for me."

I didn't like the gloomy look on his face one bit, and decided to say something that would hopefully cheer him up. "That might be why she left you so easily, Nico. She probably doesn't remember the hard aches and hardships you went through together with your mother." I said, referring to when Nico told me about their journey through Italy all the way back before World War 2. My father and Poseidon were trying to kill him, on account for him being Hades' son. "Maybe you can ask Artemis to allow you to bring Bianca to the underworld to your father, get her memories restored." Nico's face shifted from gloomy to thoughtful, as if he was considering it. "She'll probably never truly be able to leave the Hunt, if it's like how I'm expecting, but she'll hopefully be able to connect with you more, to understand you. Maybe you guys can have something like your old relationship back?"

As we approached the meeting spot, where Thalia and Taylor were now starting to come into view, Nico turned to me and smiled, a divine sight. "You know, that actually sounds pretty nice. Thanks for the idea, Zane. I'll try that once we get back from this mission." Once we arrived to where our friends were, we showed them our tickets, which of course didn't even come close to matching any of theirs, but I told Thalia she can just use the mist to get us on the train or something, which she agreed to. Zoe was the last one to arrive, having a ticket of her own and hundreds of dollars of pickpocketed money. Once everything was accounted for, we boarded the nearest train, using the mist to Jedi mind trick the worker into thinking we had the right tickets. As the train pulled away from the subway station, I could feel the auras of more grey warriors approaching very quickly. I sighed, hoping that this wouldn't become an issue.

(000)

Bit of an abrupt end, I know, but this chapter would have been a lot longer if I didn't end it right here. And I just have to say right now, I'm sorry this is a whole week and a day late. I've just been working two jobs, so I don't often have a lot of energy to write, much less on an Ipad. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, I hope I handled the confessions well and they were actually realistic, and I hope to get the next chapter out a whole lot sooner. Later dudes, make sure to review and give me your thoughts.