Ares was waiting for us in the diner parking lot. "So, you didn't die." He glanced curiously at the plushie I held tightly in my arms and gave me an amused smirk.

"You knew it was a trap," I growled. I felt anger bubbling up inside me but I knew it wasn't just because of Ares' aura.

Ares laughed. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was shocked to find he'd netted a couple of half-bloods. You looked good on TV."

"You're a jerk," I said, throwing his shield at him. I saw Annabeth nodding out of the corner of my eye and Grover crossed his arms next to me, offering me silent support.

Ares caught the shield and spun it in the air like a pizza. When he caught it again it had morphed into a bulletproof vest.

He pointed behind us at a lorry in the parking lot. "That's your ride West. Straight to LA with one short stop in Vegas."

The lorry was an eighteen-wheeler with words that I could only read because it was reverse-printed with black and white lettering; a good combination for dyslexia.

KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT

WARNING - LIVE WILD ANIMALS

I turned to Ares. "You're joking, right?"

"The lorry or nothing. Take it or leave it punk!"

I grumbled but didn't say anything else.

"Oh, and something else for completing the job." He swung a blue backpack of his handlebars and threw it to me.

I looked inside it. It had spare clothes, golden drachmas and double stuff Oreos.

"I don't want your lousy gift. We don't need it. We have our own backpacks," I told him, showing off the Seaworld backpack I had slung around my shoulder. Annabeth and Grover showed off their similar packs.

He glowered, seemingly stumped for a second. "You're turning down my generous gift?" He took out his hunting knife and began cleaning his nails, the same way he'd done it with the waitress earlier.

"I am." I threw the pack back to him.

He growled and threw it back but I let it drop to the floor. "You should know better than to refuse a gift from a god."

I nodded. "Once again, such generosity is shown by the god of war. Threatening me to take a gift. Is this really what you need to feel validated?"

His snarl was almost worse than the chimaera. I felt my skin begin to smoke. "Take. The. Gift."

We held each other's gaze. I didn't want to stand down but I was starting to feel feverish. My eyeballs felt like they were about to explode into mini-nuclear explosions like Ares'.

Annabeth bent down and picked up the pack quickly and instantly I stopped smoking. Ares grinned. "I knew one of you would see sense." Though I could almost hear Annabeth's silent cursing.

I gritted my teeth. I knew my anger was being heightened by the war god's presence but I was still itching to punch the guy in the face. He reminded me of every bully I'd ever faced: Nancy Bobofit, Mrs Dodds, Smelly Gabe, sarcastic teachers and every jerk who'd called me stupid at school or laughed at me when I got expelled.

I looked back at the diner, which only had a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us was watching us nervously through the window as if worried that Ares was gonna hurt us. She went and got the fry cook who nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture.

'Great,' I thought. 'We're gonna make the papers again.'

I wondered what the headline could be: 'Twelve-Year-old Outlaw Beats Up Defenceless Biker'

"You owe me one more thing: information about my mother."

"You sure you're ready for this? She's not dead."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean she was taken from the Fury before she could die. She disappeared into a shower of gold. That's metamorphosis, not death. She's being kept."

"Kept? Why?"

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. Take someone to control someone else."

"Nobody's controlling me," I told him.

He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around kid."

I balled up my fists. "Pretty smug, Lord Ares, for someone who runs from Cupid statues."

He glowered over his sunglasses, giving me a glance at the explosions filling his sockets. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."

His bike revved before driving out of the parking lot and speeding down the main road.

"That was not smart, Percy," Annabeth said.

I turned to her. "He deserved it."

She held her hands up. "I never said he didn't. You just don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that one."

I glared at where Ares had disappeared behind the diner. I didn't regret anything.

"Uh, guys." Grover pointed at the diner. "If we're taking zoo express, we should probably get on soon."

In the diner, the last two customers were paying for their meals. They wore matching uniforms that said, 'Kindness International' on their backs.

I held out my hand for the backpack Ares had given to Annabeth. She handed it over and I rummaged through it, grabbing the double stuff Oreos and the drachmas and handing them to Annabeth. I threw the pack as far as I could and we clambered onto the truck just as the men were about to leave.

The first thing that hit me was the smell. It was like the world's biggest pan of kitty litter.

The trailer was dark inside until I uncapped Anaklusmos. The blade cast a faint bronze light over a very sad scene. Sitting in a row of filthy metal cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals I'd ever beheld: a zebra, a male albino lion, and some weird antelope thing I didn't know the name for.

Someone had thrown the lion a sack of turnips, which he obviously didn't want to eat. The zebra and the antelope had each gotten a Styrofoam tray of hamburger meat. The zebra's mane was matted with chewing gum like somebody had been spitting on it in their spare time. The antelope had a stupid silver birthday balloon tied to one of his horns that read OVER THE HILL!

Apparently, nobody had wanted to get close enough to the lion to mess with him, but the poor thing was pacing around on soiled blankets, in a space way too small for him, panting from the stuffy heat of the trailer. He had flies buzzing around his pink eyes and his ribs showed through his white fur.

"This is kindness?" Grover yelled. "Humane zoo transport?"

He probably would've gone right back outside to beat up the truckers with his reed pipes, and I would've helped him, but just then the truck's engine roared to life, the trailer started shaking, and we were forced to sit down or fall down.

We huddled in the corner on some mildewed feed sacks, trying to ignore the smell and the heat and the flies. Grover talked to the animals in a series of goat bleats, but they just stared at him sadly. Annabeth was in favour of breaking the cages and freeing them on the spot, but I pointed out it wouldn't do much good until the truck stopped moving. Besides, I had a feeling we might look a lot better to the lion than those turnips.

I found a water jug and refilled their bowls, then used Anaklusmos to drag the mismatched food out of their cages. I gave the meat to the lion and the turnips to the zebra and the antelope.

Grover calmed the antelope down, while Annabeth used her knife to cut the balloon off his horn. She wanted to cut the gum out of the zebra's mane, too, but we decided that would be too risky with the truck bumping around. We told Grover to promise the animals we'd help them more in the morning and then we settled in for the night.

Grover curled up on a turnip sack; Annabeth opened our bag of Double Stuff Oreos and nibbled on one half-heartedly; I tried to cheer myself up by concentrating on the fact that we were halfway to Los Angeles. Halfway to our destination. It was only June fourteenth. The solstice wasn't until the twenty-first. We could make it in plenty of time.

On the other hand, I had no idea what to expect next. The gods kept toying with me. At least Hephaestus had the decency, to be honest about it- he'd put up cameras and advertised me as entertainment. But even when the cameras weren't rolling, I had a feeling my quest was being watched. I was a source of amusement for the gods.

"Hey," Annabeth said, "I'm sorry for freaking out back at the water park, Percy."

"It's fine," I told her, resting my hand on her forearm. I pulled the shark out of my backpack and stared at it, spinning it around absentmindedly.

"It's just…" she shuddered. "Spiders."

"Seriously, it's fine. I understand." I knew Annabeth hated spiders. I'd saved her from a fair few in our time together.

"I should have been more helpful. Maybe I could have-"

"Annabeth, stop. It's absolutely fine. We made it out ok; we got the shield. You can't help it."

"Thanks, Percy. Anyway, I owe you."

"We're a team, remember? Besides, Grover did. the fancy flying thing."

"I was pretty amazing, wasn't I?" Grover muttered next to us, despite me thinking he was asleep.

Annabeth and I laughed.

She pulled apart an Oreo and handed me half. "Did Luke really say nothing in the Iris message?"

I munched my cookie and thought about the message. "He said to tell you that it will be better this time. No one will get injured or turned- and then the message cut off. What did he mean?"

Annabeth was silent for a good while. "Before you came, a while before, it was just the three of us. Then, five years ago when Thalia was twelve-"

"Hold up, twelve?" I interrupted. "How's that possible? Thalia's fourteen now."

"I'm getting to that bit. Anyway, we were attacked by a horde of monsters. Hades had learned of Thalia's existence and wasn't happy that Zeus broke his oath."

"What happened? How did you all make it out alive?"

Annabeth was silent for a while before she answered. "We didn't. Thalia knew the monsters were after her. She told us to run whilst she held them off. When we got to the battlefield the next day, she had been turned into a pine tree by her father. She was surrounded by trophies of war. She'd killed at least ten monsters in her final battle."

I thought back to when I'd first battled the Minotaur. "Is that why you came back for me? Why you wouldn't let me face the Minotaur alone?"

She nodded. "I'd already lost one friend to that monster. I didn't want to lose another. I don't want to lose another."

"But how is Thalia here, now? Last time I checked, pine trees don't walk."

"No. They don't. Last year, a couple of weeks before the winter solstice, Thalia appeared in our camp. She was unconscious but she woke up in the morning. Luke told me that she'd been returned to us by a godly friend. He refused to explain who or how. At the time, I was just happy to have her back. And since then, well, we met you."

I nodded slowly. "So you think Luke made some kind of deal with a god to bring Thalia back?"

"I do. And I'm terrified to think what that might mean." I noticed her voice was starting to shake a little and her eyes looked a little wet. I looked at the shark plushie in my hands, staring sideways at me. Handing it to her, I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and she leaned into me giving the shark a small squeeze.

"I can't promise that it will be fine. I can't promise that everything will be ok. But we'll get through it. Together. Because we're a team."

We lapsed into silence and I realised Grover had fallen asleep this time.

We sat like that for a couple of miles. The zebra munched on a turnip and the lion licked up the last of the hamburger meat before looking at me, hopefully.

I noticed her twisting the College ring on her finger. "Is that your father's college ring?"

She looked like she hadn't realised what she was doing. "It's none of your-" she stopped herself. "Yeah, it is."

"You don't have to tell me. It's fine."

"No ... it's okay." She took a shaky breath. "My dad sent it to me folded up in a letter, two summers ago. The ring was, like, his main keepsake from Athena. He wouldn't have gotten through his doctoral program at Harvard without her... That's a long story. Anyway, he said he wanted me to have it. He apologised for being a jerk and said he loved me and missed me. He wanted me to come home and live with him."

"That doesn't sound so bad."

"Yeah, well... the problem was, I believed him. I tried to go home for that school year, with Luke staying close by just in case, but my stepmom was the same as ever. She didn't want her kids put in danger by living with a freak. Monsters attacked. We argued. Monsters attacked. We argued. I didn't even make it through winter break. I packed up and left with Luke.

"You think you'll ever try living with your dad again?"

She wouldn't meet my eyes. "Please. I'm not into self-inflicted pain."

"You shouldn't give up," I told her. "You should write him a letter or something."

"Thanks for the advice," she said coldly, "but my father's made his choice about who he wants to live with."

We passed another few miles of silence.

"So if the gods fight," I said, "will things line up the way they did with the Trojan War? Will it be Athena versus Poseidon?"

She rested her head against my chest and closed her eyes. "I don't know what my mom will do. I just know I'll fight next to you."

"Why?"

"Because you're my friend, Seaweed Brain. Any more stupid questions?"

I couldn't think of an answer to that. Fortunately, I didn't have to. Annabeth was asleep.

I had trouble following her example, with Grover snoring and an albino lion staring hungrily at me but, eventually, I closed my eyes.

My nightmare started as something I'd dreamed a million times before: I was being forced to take a standardised test while wearing a straitjacket. All the other kids were going out to recess, and the teacher kept saying, "Come on, Percy. You're not stupid, are you? Pick up your pencil."

Then the dream strayed from the usual.

I looked over at the next desk and saw Thalia there, also wearing a strait jacket.

She struggled against the straitjacket, glared at me in frustration, and snapped, "Well, Seaweed Brain? One of us has to get out of here."

'She's right,' my dream self thought. 'I'm going back to that cavern. I'm going to give Hades a piece of my mind.'

The straitjacket melted off me. I fell through the classroom floor. The teacher's voice changed until it was cold and evil, echoing from the depths of a great chasm.

"Percy Jackson," it said. "Yes, the exchange went well, 1 see."

I was back in the dark cavern, spirits of the dead drifting around me. Unseen in the pit, the monstrous thing was speaking, but this time it wasn't addressing me. The numbing power of its voice seemed directed somewhere else.

"And he suspects nothing?" it asked.

Another voice, one I was so close to recognising it was infuriating, answered at my shoulder. "Nothing, my lord. He is as ignorant as the rest."

I looked over, but no one was there. The speaker was invisible.

"Deception upon deception," the thing in the pit mused aloud. "Excellent."

"Truly, my lord, said the voice next to me, you are well-named the Crooked One. But was it really necessary? I could have brought you what I stole directly-"

"You?" the monster said in scorn. "You have already shown your limits. You would have failed me completely had I not intervened."

"But, my lord-"

"Peace, little servant. Our six months have bought us much. Zeus's anger has grown. Poseidon has played his most desperate card. Now we shall use it against him. Shortly you shall have the reward you wish, and your revenge. As soon as both items are delivered into my hands ... but wait. He is here."

"What?" The invisible servant suddenly sounded tense. "You summoned him, my lord?"

"No." The full force of the monster's attention was now pouring over me, freezing me in place. "Blast his father's blood-he is too changeable, too unpredictable. The boy brought himself hither."

"Impossible!" the servant cried.

"For a weakling such as you, perhaps," the voice snarled. Then its cold power turned back on me. "So ... you wish to dream of your quest, young half-blood? Then I will oblige."

The scene changed.

I was standing in a vast throne room with black marble walls and bronze floors. The empty, horrid throne was made from human bones fused together. Standing at the foot of the dais was my mother, frozen in shimmering golden light, her arms outstretched.

I tried to step toward her, but my legs wouldn't move. I reached for her, only to realise that my hands were withering to bones. Grinning skeletons in Greek armour crowded around me, draping me with silk robes, wreathing my head with laurels that smoked with Chimera poison, burning into my scalp.

The evil voice began to laugh. "Hail, the conquering hero!"

I woke with a start.

Grover was shaking my shoulder. "The truck's stopped," he said, frantically. "We think they're coming to check on the animals."

"Hide," Annabeth hissed as she slipped her cap on. Grover and I had to dive behind feed sacks and hoped we looked like turnips.

Seconds later, the doors opened and one of the men walked in. He waved his hand in front of his face as if wafting away a smell. "Man! I wish we hauled appliances," he complained.

He picked up a jug and poured water into all the dishes.

He smirked at the lion. "You hot, big guy?" He splashed water onto the lion's face.

The lion roared indignantly.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the man muttered, waving his hand dismissively.

Next to me, under the turnip sacks, Grover tensed. For a peace-loving nature spirit, he was looking downright murderous. To be honest, I couldn't blame him. I was ten seconds away from choke-slamming this jerk into the ground before feeding him to the lion.

The trucker threw the antelope a squashed-looking Happy Meal bag. He smirked at the zebra. "How ya doin', Stripes? At least we'll be getting rid of you this stop. You like magic shows? You're gonna love this one. They're gonna saw you in half!"

The zebra, wild-eyed with fear, looked straight at me.

There was no sound, but as clear as day, I heard it say, "Free me, lord. Please."

I hadn't realised before but I guessed zebras were close enough to horses to count. My legs tensed as I prepared to attack the man.

There was a loud, 'knock, knock, knock,' on the side of the truck.

The trucker inside yelled, "What do you want, Eddie?"

"What'd you say, Maurice?" the trucker who must've been Eddie, yelled back.

Maurice moved towards the door. "What are you bangin' for?"

"What banging?"

Maurice sighed and muttered something about incompetence, walking out of the truck to Eddie. They immediately started arguing, their voices raising very quickly.

"This transport business can't be legal." I heard Annabeth's voice next to me and realised she must have been the one banging.

"No kidding," Grover said. He paused as if listening as the lion let out a low, guttural grumbling. "He says these guys are animal smugglers!"

"That's right," the zebra said in my mind.

"We've got to free them!" Grover said. He and Annabeth looked at me as if waiting for me to take the lead.

I walked up to the zebra's cage and pulled out Riptide, slashing off the lock.

The zebra walked out, timidly and bowed to me.

Grover held up his hands, muttering something in goat talk like a blessing, before stepping aside to let the zebra out.

Just as Maurice was about to come back into the truck, the zebra leapt out over him, shouting back his thanks to me, before charging down the wide boulevard lined with hotels. Bystanders gave way for the zebra and cars braked and honked their horns while the two truckers ran after it, yelling. A cop saw them and shouted, "Hey! You need a permit for that!" before chasing after them too, with more police joining her.

We watched the chaos for a second before turning to the other animals. "We should free these as well," I said.

I slashed at the padlocks on the cages, releasing the antelope first and then the lion. Grover blessed them both and they ran off into the distance.

"Will the animals be ok?" I asked Grover. "With the desert and all..."

"Don't worry," he reassured. "I placed a satyr's sanctuary on them."

"Meaning…"

"Meaning they'll reach the wild safely," he supplied. "They'll find food, water, shelter, everything they need until they reach a safe place."

"Why can't you put something like that on us?" I complained.

"It only works on wild animals," he told me.

"So it would only work on Percy then," Annabeth said.

"Hey!" I complained but I couldn't help the smirk on my face. Grover and Annabeth both laughed as I gave her a small shove. "We should get going," I said, swinging my backpack over my shoulder.

The other two nodded and we left the lorry. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed someone snapping a picture of us just as Grover was clambering out.

'Wonderful,' I thought. 'Three juvenile delinquents assist animal trafficking and wreak havoc through Vegas.' I was seriously considering a makeover with the number of photos being taken.

I threw my backpack over my shoulder and froze. "Guys, why do I have two backpacks? Is this one of yours?"

They both shook their heads and showed theirs off to me.

I looked at the two. One had the Waterland logo, the other was the one Ares had given to me. "What?" I threw it away again and watched it land in a tree.

AN: that's the last I'm gonna post on this story. If you want to adopt this story, please dm me so I know where I can read it. Thank you for all your support and I've really enjoyed writing this story but this is it.