"Hazel! Wake up! Please!" Frank shouted, panicked. He shook her, trying to wake her up.

Percy laid unconscious next to her. Suddenly, he gasped awake. "Frank, man, she's gonna wake up, but give her some room. She's gonna need the air."

Frank obliged. True to what Percy said, Hazel woke up a couple of seconds later.

The first thing she noticed was that she was on solid ground. The rocking of the boat was gone. She sat up. She was lying in a meadow, with Frank in front of her and Percy getting up from next to her. The sea was about a hundred feet away, and a building stood in the distance. A lighthouse. The yacht was nowhere to be seen.

"Where are we?" She asked.

"Thank the gods you're awake!" Frank said, sounding very relieved.

"We're in Mendocino, roughly a hundred and fifty miles North from the Golden Gate Bridge." Percy said helpfully.

"I was out that long? For us to go a hundred and fifty miles?"

"You wouldn't wake up. We thought it was seasickness, so we brought you on land to-" Frank explained before being interrupted by Hazel.

"It wasn't seasickness. It was um- uh… well, I haven't been honest with you. That was a blackout. It happens sometimes." She explained.

"Yes. I believe it is a symptom of your… condition. It should fade soon." Percy said.

"You know?" Hazel asked.

"Yes. Ms. Levesque, I know a lot of things. The world is a book and some words jump off of the page. Look around, you might notice some things that you could only see if you were truly looking." Percy explained.

"Your condition?" Frank asked. "Percy, what is happening?!"

"It's not my place to say. If Hazel wishes to speak, she will. If she doesn't, don't push. I don't take well to those who don't respect the word 'No'. At least, when consent is the issue."

"No, no. I'll explain. Do you have any water?"

"Back at the boat. I'll go get it. Behave you two." Percy said before walking back to the sea. Where he was going exactly confused Hazel. She didn't see the boat anywhere.

"I.. I think I might know why you have blackouts." Frank said. "And where you come from."

"You do?"

"You're different from everyone else I've ever met. Not in a bad way, but in a way that says you don't belong here. Here in this time. You don't recognize anything relatively modern, and you talk about your childhood as if it was a long time ago. Which it was, wasn't it? You're back from the dead, aren't you?"

Hazel felt tears well up in her eyes. Not from sadness, but from the fact that she heard the facts coming from someone else. "Frank-"

"Don't worry. You're alive now, and we'll keep it that way."

The grass whistled as the cold wind stung Hazel's eyes. "I don't deserve a friend like you."

"Nonsense, you're great. Besides, you're not the only one with a secret." He looked like he was about to say more, but he stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"The wind stopped."

"And?"

"The grass is still moving."

Suddenly, she was grabbed from the foot and dragged through the grass quickly.

"HAZEL!" Frank shouted.

She flew through the grass, not touching the ground and not being able to get up. She was completely at the mercy of the grass. She tried to feel for any precious stones or metals beneath the ground but there was nothing. Finally, she passed over a large dark spot.

She pulled, and the ground exploded. She flew, feeling weightless. She started to fall. She remembered her training, so she hit the ground rolling, turning the impact into a somersault. She drew her spatha, holding it in front of her.

There was a large boulder the size of a garage sitting in the grass. She realized that she caused that to appear. The grass was still moving, but it avoided the rock. Desperately, she climbed to the top of the boulder.

"Can't grow on this, can you?!" Hazel yelled.

"Schist." A voice said.

"Excuse me?" Hazel asked.

She had once said a similar word back at St. Agnes, and instantly had to stick a bar of soap in her mouth.

The grass shifted and dozens of little angel-like creatures rose from the grass. They looked like a standard cherub, like cupid on valentine's day. Their wings were dry, shriveled like they were made of corn husks. Their faces were haggard, and they had mouths full of sharp teeth. They were only the size of toddlers, with lots of rolls of baby fat. Their skin was green, like they were filled with chlorophyll.

The largest one came forward. He wore a yellow loincloth, and his hair was spikey, like bristles on a wheat stalk. He waddled back and forth so fast that Hazel was concerned that his loincloth would fall down. "Hate this schist! Wheat cannot grow on schist!" He complained.

"Sorghum cannot grow!" Another yelled.

"Barley!" Yelled a third. "Barley cannot grow. Curse this schist!"

Hazel almost felt like laughing. But the sharp teeth of the creatures made her not do that. They reminded her of piranhas.

"Are you talking about this rock?" Hazel asked.

"Yes, greenstone. Schist! Terrible rock!" The wheat demon said.

"It's precious isn't it? Valuable?"

The wheat snorted. "Natives made jewelry with it, sure. Valuable, maybe. Not as good as wheat."

"Or sorghum!"

"Or barley!"

More called out their types of grain that hey represented.

"You're Gaia's servants, aren't you guys?"

"We are the Karpoi, spirits of the grain! Children of Mother Earth, yes! We will be wild again, like we were before the pesky humans!"

The rest of the Karpoi cheered.

"Now, if you could come down from your schist, that would be just amazing. We need to take you to our mother's army?"

"And where is this army? Because I don't see it anywhere."

"It's just over the ridge over there!" Sorghum said. "Oh yes. Mother said 'Look for the daughter of Pluto who lives again. Find her! Bring her alive! I have many tortures planned for her.' The giant Polybotes will reward us for your life! Then we will march south to destroy the Romans. We can't be killed, you know, but you, you can!"

"That's great!" Hazel tried to sound enthusiastic. "So you can't be killed because Death has been captured, right?"

"Exactly."

"And he's chained in Alaska, at… let's see, what was the name of that place again? I swear I just knew what it was called, but it escapes me now."

Sorghum was about to help her out when Wheat stopped him. "Clever demigod. Trying to make us give you the location of Alcyoneus' lair. Won't work on us!"

"You will never find it! All of Alaska is the giant's home! He could be anywhere! It would take years to find him, but you only have a few days. So sad." Sorghum mocked.

"Now, give up." Wheat said.

"Never. I'll have to take you all on if I have to." Hazel said.

Suddenly, an arrow protruded from Wheat's torso.

Percy and Frank walked into the field. Percy had a look of confidence like they couldn't hurt him, while Frank flanked his left, looking considerably more nervous. A grin split the Devil's face, making him look insane.

A few karpoi charged at them, but frank shot two and Percy punched another so hard that it went flying. That instantly put every grain spirit on edge. "Move and I kill every plant here."

Rye laughed. "We can't die! We will reform from our ashes!"

Percy's smile widened even more. Hazel was genuinely feeling more scared of him than Gaia at the moment. She was glad that he was on their team, because she wouldn't want to face him.

"But if there aren't any ashes to remake you, what would happen?" Percy asked. He lit his hand on fire.

"We are karpoi, children of the Earth Mother! You dare threaten us!"

"You're angelic rejects. I will show you the true power of an angel, what you fail to replicate."

Percy spread his wings as Barley came up from behind him to stab him in the back. Before he could make contact, Percy's wings caught on fire. Percy's legs caught on fire too, and the fire caught on the grass.

The fire spread quickly, leaving anything but Frank, Percy, and the schist boulder burning. Wails of pain came from the karpoi as they burned. Percy just watched as they begged for his mercy.

He saw that the fire was starting to get out of control. He waved his hand and put out the fires. He willed the grass to grow back quickly, even healthier than before. He seeded the soil with many great nutrients, as payment for the torture it endured.

Hazel had turned around and was now staring at something over the ridge. Percy and Frank climbed onto the boulder. There was a ravine that they were on the edge of. Across the chasm was a road, with a convenience store that seemed to be closed.

In the small ravine was a large army marching through. There were earthborn, centaurs, cyclops, and countless other monsters. It was the army that was marching to Camp Jupiter. In the lead, was a giant, Polybotes.

He was thirty feet tall, at the very least, with scaly legs like a dragon from the waist down, and green-blue armor from the waist up. His chestplate was shaped like rows of hungry monstrous faces, mouths open like they were demanding food. His face was human-like, but his hair was green, like a mop of seaweed. When he turned his head, snakes dropped from his dreadlocks. He was armed with a massive trident and a weighted net.

Some of the monsters held torches, which lit the monsters. They all had one thing in common. Their weapon. They all held a blade that was a length in between a knife and a sword, the blade blood red. Each one was razor sharp. The handles were bound on black leather. Where the blade met the grip, was dried blood.

Percy narrowed his eyes as he recognized the blades. His hands curled into fists. Fire started to spark in his hands. The fire grew, spreading up his forearms.

He unfurled his wings, and before either Frank or Hazel could stop him, he flew up in the air, before turning abruptly and diving down into the monsters. The fire grew on him as he dived down, making him look like a meteorite crashing through the atmosphere.

He crashed into the army, turning those that were within a fifty foot radius to dust. He uncapped Riptide and got to massacring. He would slash a monster, decapitate another, and stab a third through the chest. He jumped off of an earthborn, using its head as a jump pad. He flew through the air, raining down fire on the cyclops below.

He spread his wings and crashed into the giant's face, giving him a nosebleed. He brought his sword to Polybotes' face, stabbing out his left eye. He brought the sword up, carving through the giant's skull. He turned the blade and pulled it out, causing more pain.

"You like that, huh!" Percy screamed. "Feel what it's like to have something pulled out of you!"

He stabbed Polybotes in the shoulder, making him drop the trident. He pulled the sword out roughly. Ichor flowed from every wound.

Percy was lost in anger, only focusing on causing as much pain to the giant as they must've caused to his daughter when they pulled out her feathers to use as weapons. He was so lost in his stabbing and slashing that he didn't realize that a centaur had galloped up next to him when Percy was harming the giant's legs and stabbed him through the side.

Percy finished with the legs and felt a sting in his side. He looked down at it to see the blade buried up to its handle in his flesh. He decapitated the centaur and turned to Polybotes. The giant had fallen down, living on a thread of life, pain consuming him.

He walked up to the giant's face. He lit his hand on fire and placed it on Polybotes' cheek. It burned a handprint into his skin, branding him.

"Just kill me." Polybotes murmured.

"I'm not gonna kill you. I'm going to leave you here. You're going to suffer in pain, just like my daughter. You will lay here, wishing to end your existence, but you can't. This is my punishment to you."

Polybotes wailed as Percy walked away. Before he got far he turned around. "And tell your mother, if she or her minions harm another hair on Aurora's head, I will burn her alive, cooking her inside with burning ichor."

He turned around again, and walked up to the boulder of schist.

"Percy, you're bleeding." Hazel said.

Percy looked down. He pulled back his suit jacket. Sure enough, blood was soaking through the white dress shirt, staining it. He pulled out the blade and more blood started to gush out of the wound.

Percy collapsed on the ground, falling unconscious.

A/N. Wow, two chapters in two days. Incredible.

So, I want to address Percy's actions in this chapter. I mentioned last chapter Percy's anger, and now we see it in action. Taking on the whole army, and dealing out torture like the Devil he is. But also, I want to prove a point I brought up back in PtDA. About Zoë being his 'impulse control'. She calms him down a lot, just by being with him. With her gone, there's no one to control his anger, and here we see the effects of it. A little experimentation I wanted to try.

I also raised the stakes in this chapter. Something I feel about PtDA and a lot of my other stories is that I feel like Percy has plot armor. You always know that he's gonna be fine. So I wanted to bring in an element of danger. Percy isn't untouchable anymore guys. The enemies have ways of hurting and even potentially killing him.

Anyways, I have no school tomorrow due to potential weather conditions, so I might be able to get another chapter out tomorrow, no promises though.

Thoughts?