This is sort of an experitmental chapter, since I am blending the series with my og works again, but only for a bit. He will not be going on this Quest...

So, look forward to what I write instead...

Hope you love it.

Aaron felt the bulls before they approached, their heat, their living presence echoing up the hill. He had noticed, since awakening with his own power, that his sensitivity to other forces had increased drastically. The enchantments woven from Hephaestus' power were all but palpable as they charged the Camp, struggling up the hill. They did not make it all the way up before they slammed into the barrier. It may have been weakened by the Tree's posioning, but the power of Persephone had still strengthened it enough that it would not fade for a little longer.

"We need a better formation, stop straggling." Aaron called out, frustrated with the poor performance of the Demigods that were walking up the hill in full armor. "We need to hit their joints, then hold them fast until Clarisse can hit them with her spear. That should short circut them." The demigods just grumbled, still mostly not respecting him enough to listen to his sound advice.

Clarisse, on the hand, growled out. "GET INTO FORMATION!" And they obeyed without question, most looking terrified and moving into a perfect phalanx. There shaking made their armor clang in the most amusing way.

Aaron sighed as grabbed his arrow out, it was coated in the icey potion and in theory should counter the firebreathing of the Bulls. His aim had gotten pretty good over the last year so he was sure he would be of value here, in this battle. Next Aaron, Meggy sighed and flexed in her armor, crafted by her own hand along side Charlie. She, as it turned out, lacked the raw fire immunity typical to Cyclopes. Sure she could withstand a lot of fire and pressure but with greater fire she was not perfectly immune, so she had to be careful. Hence the armor, spelled to withstand heat and give her more physcial resistance.

She was their best bet for survival, she was strong though not by Cyclops standards, another side effect of being Aphrodite's child. Still she could and would hold her own against the beasts and hopefully would smash them into nothing.

"Ready yourselves." Aaron called out before they moved out of the protective circle of the Camp Barrier and towards the Colchis Bulls. Aaron let his arrow fly immediately, pegging the one on the left, making it's metal body cave in as the cold overcame the heat temporarily. Meggy charged and jumped over it's horns, landing on it's back. With two careful hits she easily knocked the things head off, knocking it out.

The others were not so lucky, the bull breathed fire and them and half of the so called heroes ran away, screaming in shock and terror. Aaron wasn't amused... Clarisse was the only one that seemed capable in the group, dodging the wave of fire and jumping up to slam her spear into the beast's shoulder joint. The shocked should have disarmed it, but the Bull was only pissed and knocked her away.

Aaron fired off another arrow, another ice arrow... just in time for Percy's voice to call out. "What's happening?" Aaron didn't miss with his shot, pegging the beast in the face and caving it in. The metal warping from the sudden loss of heat. Meggy charged it and with a single punch shattered the damn thing...

The fight was over and the heroes did practically nothing.

Sighing, Aaron turned to Percy who was rushing up the hill alongside sweet Tyson and a very dirty looking Annabeth. A pissed, confused, looking Annabeth.

"Goody, your just in time. These useless heroes couldn't handle the bulls so I helped, as did Meggy and we took them down easily. Want to help us take care of their corpses, I think I get claim of them since no one else really did anything of merit."

Percy just blinked. "Is this why Mom didn't want me coming back to Camp?"

"What? Sorry I was in a coma for three days, I'll explain later, so I missed a lot... I am guessing it has to due with what hapened to Thalia's tree." He pointed to where a gaping, posion filled hole was oozing on the once proud pine. "Or that Chiron has been fired for not preventing or curing it... anyway, that's neither here or there. How are you, all of you." He smiled at Tyson who all but picked him up in a warm hug.

"AARON, I Missed you so much! Why is your hair white, it's pretty."

Laughing, Aaron settled himself on the ground. "I'll fill you in later... but first lets get these bulls to Camp, maybe you can help Charlie make something of their remains." He turned to Annabeth. "You okay, you look near dead girly."

Annabeth frowned. "You know he's a cyclops?"

"Course we do, we invited him here after Meggy, also a cyclops, figured he was cool. He's friendly, helpful and has been coming here for almost half a year. He's welcome here, any decent Cyclops is. Besides he's family, he's Percy's brother and I all but adopted him too. Just like I adopted Meggy."

Annabeth just looked confused, even as Tyson and Meggy and Percy grabbed the bulls remains and started to pull them towards Camp. "This is so strange..."

"I bet to you it is... so what happened, you look hurt."

She turned to him and sighed. "It all started when I left home..."

""

By the time they reached the Hepaestus cabin to deliver the bulls, Annabeth had filled Aaron in on what had happened. "So let me get this straight... after hiking it the distance from Virginia to New York on foot, you stalked Percy invisibly, saw he was being stalked by Laistrygonians, watched as he fought them off without Riptide and then killed the last one and then hiked it here on that Taxi of the Damned Will was telling me about... is that it?"

"That and Percy didn't seem confused that Tyson was a Cyclops. It was kind of scary to see a Cyclops using our battle tactics to beat giants. It wasn't really a contest, he destroyed them easily. Percy seemed so much faster and stronger then last year, I was worried he would slack off at his Mom's."

"I imagine so... and he would have and was until I sort of called him out for it. Got him training and being better, but enough of that, You might want to see Chiron before he goes off. He leaves in like an hour..."

Annabeth paled but nodded and they all rushed towards the Big House, with Meggy and Tyson staying behind to help with the Bulls. That seemed to confuse Annabeth even more. When they got to the Big House, they found Chiron in his apartment, listening to his favorite 1960s lounge music while he packed his saddlebags.

Annabeth ran up and hugged him. "Chiron, what's happening? You're not … leaving?" Her voice was shaky. Chiron was like a second father to her.

Chiron ruffled her hair and gave her a kindly smile. "Hello, child. And Percy." He turned to Aaron and gave him a solemn smile, Aaron's promise from the night before clear in his mind.

Percy gulped. " Aaron said you were... were..."

"Fired." Chiron's eyes glinted with dark humor. "Ah, well, someone had to take the blame. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his daughter, poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."

"Besides himself, you mean," Percy growled.

"But this is crazy!" Annabeth cried. "Chiron, you couldn't have had anything to do with poisoning Thalia's tree!"

"Nevertheless," Chiron sighed, "some in Olympus do not trust me now, under the circumstances."

"What circumstances?" Percy asked. Chiron's face darkened. He stuffed a Latin-English dictionary into his saddlebag while the Frank Sinatra music oozed from his boom box. "Chiron," Percy said. "What about the tree? What happened?"

He shook his head sadly. "The poison used on Thalia's pine is something from the Underworld, Percy. Some venom even I have never seen. It must have come from a monster quite deep in the pits of Tartarus."

"Then we know who's responsible. Kro-"

Aaron stopped him with a glare. "Percy, now is not the time to invoke your Grandfather's name, not with the barrier so weak. If I hadn't built the shrine to Persephone and Hades, the barrier would have fallen almost entirely by this point."

"But last summer he tried to cause a civil war in Olympus! This has to be his idea. He'd get Luke to do it, that traitor." Percy growled.

"Perhaps," Chiron said. "But I fear I am being held responsible because I did not prevent it and Icannot cure it. The tree has only a few weeks of life left unless …"

"Unless what?" Annabeth asked, then turned to Aaron. "You have Thalia's spirt, she was still alive?"

"No," Chiron said. "A foolish thought. The whole valley is feeling the shock of the poison. The magical borders are deteriorating. The camp itself is dying. Only one source of magic would be strong enough to reverse the poison, and it was lost centuries ago."

"What is it?" Percy asked. "We'll go find it!"

Chiron closed his saddlebag. He pressed the stop button on his boom box. Then he turned and rested his hand on my shoulder, looking me straight in the eyes. "Percy, you must promise me that you will not act rashly. I told your mother I did not want you to come here at all this summer. It's much too dangerous. But now that you are here, stay here. Train hard. Learn to fight. But do not leave."

"Why?" Percy asked. "I want to do something! I can't just let the borders fail. The whole camp will be-"

"Overrun by monsters," Chiron said. "Yes, I fear so. But you must not let yourself be baited into hasty action! This could be a trap of the titan lord. Remember last summer! He almost took your life."

Annabeth was trying hard not to cry. Chiron brushed a tear from her cheek. "Stay with Percy, child," he told her. "Keep him safe. The prophecy-remember it!"

"I-I will."

"Um …" Percy said. "Would this be the super-dangerous prophecy that has me in it, but the gods have forbidden you to tell me about?", Nobody answered. "Right," He muttered. "Just checking."

"Chiron …" Annabeth said. "You told me the gods made you immortal only so long as you were needed to train heroes. If they dismiss you from camp-"

"Swear you will do your best to keep Percy from danger," he insisted. "Swear upon the River Styx."

"I-I swear it upon the River Styx," Annabeth said.

Thunder rumbled outside.

"Very well," Chiron said. He seemed to relax just a little. "Perhaps my name will be cleared and I shall return. Until then, I go to visit my wild kinsmen in the Everglades. It's possible they know of some cure for the poisoned tree that I have forgotten. In any event, I will stay in exile until this matter is resolved … one way or another." Annabeth stifled a sob. Chiron patted her shoulder awkwardly. "There, now, child. I must entrust your safety to Mr. D and the new activities director. We must hope … well, perhaps they won't destroy the camp quite as quickly as I fear."

"Who is this Tantalus guy, anyway?" Percy demanded. "Where does he get off taking your job?"

"Go," Chiron said. "You will meet him at the pavilion. I will contact your mother, Percy, and let her know you're safe. No doubt she'll be worried by now. Just remember my warning! You are in grave danger. Do not think for a moment that the titan lord has forgotten you!"

Annabeth stomped her foot. "What about Aaron." She turned to Aaron, frowning. "You could heal her with your magic. Percy said you were a lot more powerful now, I can feel magic oozing off of you now."

"I tried, but the best I could do was remove Thalia's soul, sealing it in my Talisman so she is not affected by the Tree's death." He held out his talisman. "I aim to speak to her tonight, if you want to offer some kind words to your old friend."

Annabeth shivered. "I... I might... thank you."

"Not a problem..."

Chiron sighed. "I have to leave, less I am destroyed. I wish you all well and remember your promises..." He hurried away, leaving Annabeth a blubbering mess, Aaron sighing sadly and Percy just looking lost.

Aaron realized that it was time. "It is time we met Tantalus. I haven't met him either, I just woke up yesterday and Will was keeping me hostage in the Infirmary until those bulls showed up. Let's go."

'''

The sun was setting behind the dining pavilion as the campers came up from their cabins. They stood in the shadow of a marble column and watched them file in. Annabeth was still pretty shaken up, but she promised she'd talk to Percy later. Then she went off to join her siblings from the Athena cabin-a dozen boys and girls with blond hair and gray eyes like hers. Annabeth wasn't the oldest, but she'd been at camp more summers than just about anybody. You could tell that by looking at her camp necklace-one bead for every summer, and Annabeth had six. No one questioned her right to lead the line.

Next came Clarisse, leading the Ares cabin. Someone had taped a piece of paper to her back that said, YOU MOO, GIRL! But nobody in her cabin was bothering to tell her about it.

After the Ares kids came the Hephaestus cabin-six guys led by Charlie Beckendorf, Aaron's best demigod friend.

The other cabins filed in: Demeter, Apollo, Aphrodite, Dionysus. Naiads came up from the canoe lake. Dryads melted out of the trees. From the meadow came a dozen satyrs.

After the satyrs filed in to dinner, the Hermes cabin brought up the rear. They were always the biggest cabin, led by Travis and Connor Stoll. They weren't twins, but they looked so much alike it didn't matter. They were both tall and skinny, with mops of brown hair that hung in their eyes. They wore orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD Tshirts untucked over baggy shorts, and they had those elfish features all Hermes's kids had: upturned eyebrows, sarcastic smiles, a gleam in their eyes whenever they looked at you-like they were about to drop a firecracker down your shirt.

Aaron saw and smiled at Bryce, the only child that he had saved that was still in Hermes' cabin. The boy smiled back at him, his handsome face a welcome sight for the mortal Witch. Aaron walked over to the Head table with Percy at his side.

"Well, well, if it isn't Peter Johnson. My millennium is complete." Mr. D said, before cringing at Aaron's look. "Sorry, Percy Jackson. My bad, trying to turn over a new leaf and all." He was wearing his usual leopard-pattern Hawaiian shirt, walking shorts, and tennis shoes with black socks. With his pudgy belly and his blotchy red face, he looked like a Las Vegas tourist who'd stayed up too late in the casinos.

Behind him, a nervous-looking satyr was peeling the skins off grapes and handing them to Mr. D one at a time.

Next to him, where Chiron usually sat (or stood, in centaur form), was someone that even Aaron had never seen before-a pale, horribly thin man in a threadbare orange prisoner's jumpsuit. The number over his pocket read 0001. He had blue shadows under his eyes, dirty fingernails, and badly cut gray hair, like his last haircut had been done with a weed whacker. He stared at me; his eyes made me nervous. He looked … fractured. Angry and frustrated and hungry all at the same time.

"I am Tantalus," the prisoner said, smiling coldly. "On special assignment here until, well, until my Lord Dionysus decides otherwise. And you, Perseus Jackson, I do expect you to refrain from causing any more trouble."

"Trouble?" Percy foolishly demanded.

Dionysus snapped his fingers. A newspaper appeared on the table-the front page of today's New York Post, There was Percy's yearbook picture from Meriwether Prep. Aaron sighed. "Your dead, I knew it... I could feel your spirit, your deadness from a mile away but to think they pulled you of all beings... can I at least ask why? He murdered one of his kids?"

Dionysius sighed. "Father's choice, a chance at redemption."

"Oh... wonderful." Aaron leaned over to Tantalus and smiled. " If even on hair on anyone's head is harmed because of you, I will shove you back to The Fields of Punishment myself and give Lord Hades an even better suggestion for your eternal suffering. Are we clear?"

Tantalus shivered, a look of terror in his eyes. "You don't have the power."

"Try me." Aaron oozed his magic, enjoying the look of utter terror that the man reeked of.

A satyr, probably out of fear, inched forward nervously and set a plate of barbecue in front of Tantalus. The new activities director licked his lips. He looked at his empty goblet and said, "Root beer. Barq's special stock. 1967." The glass filled itself with foamy soda. Tantalus stretched out his hand hesitantly, as if he were afraid the goblet was hot.

"Go on, then, old fellow," Dionysus said, a strange sparkle in his eyes. "Perhaps now it will work."

Tantalus grabbed for the glass, but it scooted away before he could touch it. A few drops of root beer spilled, and Tantalus tried to dab them up with his fingers, but the drops rolled away like quicksilver before he could touch them. He growled and turned toward the plate of barbecue. He picked up a fork and tried to stab a piece of brisket, but the plate skittered down the table and flew off the end, straight into the coals of the brazier.

"Blast!" Tantalus muttered.

"Ah, well," Dionysus said, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "Perhaps a few more days. Believe me, old chap, working at this camp will be torture enough. I'm sure your old curse will fade eventually."

"Eventually," muttered Tantalus, staring at Dionysus's Diet Coke. "Do you have any idea how dry one's throat gets after three thousand years?"

"You're that spirit from the Fields of Punishment," Percy said. "The one who stands in the lake with the fruit tree hanging over you, but you can't eat or drink."

Tantalus sneered at me. "A real scholar, aren't you, boy?"

Aaron grabbed the man's face, tightening his grip when Tantalus tried to pull away. "I expect your best behavior that means being nice. Now, nod to Percy and be quiet. Percy go to your table, I know your starving."

Aaron sat next to Dionysius and, after sacrificing a sliver of his food, dug into his meal. It was lovely pizza smothered in peppers and onions, just like he liked it.

Absently, he listened into a whispered conversation between Mr. D and Tantalus. " Your just going to let him disrepsect you like that, overcome your authority to threaten me."

Dionysius laughed. "The boy is not an offical camper, but he has my blessing. Artemis likes him too. I would be careful, he is skilled at making allies and is a skilled sorcer. He can and will banish you as he said and I will not stop him. Behave yourself or I will sic him on you for the fun of it."

Aaron winked at the man when he turned hatefully towards him, just to make a point,

About twenty minutes passed, and Tantalus had a Satyr blow a conch shell to make an announcement,

"Yes, well," Tantalus said, once the talking had died down. "Another fine meal! Or so I am told." As he spoke, he inched his hand toward his refilled dinner plate, as if maybe the food wouldn't notice what he was doing, but it did. It shot away down the table as soon as he got within six inches. "And here on my first day of authority," he continued, "I'd like to say what a pleasant form of punishment it is to be here. Over the course of the summer, I hope to torture, er, interact with each and every one of you children. You all look good enough to eat." Dionysus clapped politely, leading to some halfhearted applause from the satyrs. "And now some changes!" Tantalus gave the campers a crooked smile. "We are reinstituting the chariot races!" Murmuring broke out at all the tables-excitement, fear, disbelief. "Now I know," Tantalus continued, raising his voice, "that these races were discontinued some years ago due to, ah, technical problems."

"Three deaths and twenty-six mutilations," someone at the Apollo table called.

"Yes, yes!" Tantalus said. "But I know that you will all join me in welcoming the return of this camp tradition. Golden laurels will go to the winning charioteers each month. Teams may register in the morning! The first race will be held in three days time. We will release you from most of your regular activities to prepare your chariots and choose your horses. Oh, and did I mention, the victorious team's cabin will have no chores for the month in which they win?"

An explosion of excited conversation.

Then the last person Aaron expected to object did so.

"But, sir!" Clarisse said. She looked nervous, but she stood up to speak from the Ares table. Some of the campers snickered when they saw the YOU MOO, GIRL! sign on her back. "What about patrol duty? I mean, if we drop everything to ready our chariots-"

"Ah, the hero of the day," Tantalus exclaimed. "Brave Clarisse, who single-handedly bested the bronze bulls!"

Clarisse blinked, then blushed. "Um, I didn't-"

"And modest, too." Tantalus grinned. "Not to worry, my dear! This is a summer camp. We are here to enjoy ourselves, yes?"

"But the tree-"

Aaron slammed his cup down. " I defeated the bulls, with Meggy's help. I am sure Clarisse could have managed, she is a rarely gifted Demigoddess but seriously she did not beat them. We did, with logic and magic and raw power. Stop messing with people's perception of shit."

Tantalus gulped. " I think it is time to go to your bonfire... enjoy."

Everyone that knew of Aaron's power and skill, that was to say just over twenty people who had been with him throughout the year, all smirked but those that were unfamilar with it just frowned at him for his perceived disrespect. Aaron knew they would learn or get over themselves, that was all that mattered...

Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.

This was so much fun, and I am going to have fun with this story.

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.