Hello! I have had this chapter in mind since I first began writing this story and I am super excited to finally be posting it for you guys! I have so much in store from here on out and I can't wait to write it all! For the time being though, I hope you enjoy this update. I'll try to have the next one posted soon. :)


The next few weeks were surprisingly quiet. Ollie quickly settled into his new life with us and the kids absolutely adored him. They took turns each night having the dog sleep with each of them, though he seemed to prefer Carly's bed the most—probably because she was little and gave him the most room.

The three had been extremely responsible since we'd brought him home. They were completely on top of caring for him, and I didn't know how long that would last but for now, Annabeth was overjoyed.

School started back up a few days after the New Year and all three were doing well. Logan's transition into Northridge High had gone extremely smoothly, which had been no surprise to anyone but Logan. Nicky was doing better than ever in school. He and Hannah kept up something of a competition of grades between them, as both struggled with dyslexia and hadn't always had the easiest time. The added motivation seemed only to help. Carly was excelling so far in third grade, but she, for now at least, was as content as ever in her innocence. Work was busy for both Annabeth and me, but not overwhelmingly so. Overall, life was pretty good.

There was a lake right next to our neighborhood that froze solid in the winter months. It wasn't the smoothest surface ever, but the kids had made it an annual pastime to spend cold afternoons on the ice for makeshift hockey games. On a rare occasion, some others that lived nearby joined in, but they'd always been just as happy to play alone. Today, Hannah had tagged along and the four of us entertained ourselves half-running and half-slipping in a makeshift competition. It had started out as two on two, but had disintegrated somewhat into every man for himself. Logan had possession of the puck and moved across the slush-covered ice with Nicky trying to steal from one side and Hannah from the other. He provided his own commentary as he went.

"Jackson taking hits from all sides," he said dramatically, "Lawrence gets in a lucky swing. Can she steal the puck and take possession—No, she can't as Jackson fakes and evades, leaving Jackson and Lawrence in the dust. He's followed. They're gaining. They're gaining, is it enough? Can Jackson make the score—Yes! Amazing shot by Logan Jackson! The crowd goes wild." Caught up in his own mock celebration, Logan missed it when his brother bent low, scooped up a handful of loose snow from the lake's surface, and hurled it at him. He hit him square in the back of the head and the commentary broke off mid-sentence with an "—uguahhh!" as the cold registered with the back of his neck. He wiggled and flailed, struggling to get the melting snow out of his clothes. Nicholas was in stitches, watching.

I was laughing myself when my phone vibrated in my pocket. Stepping away from the kids and the noise, I read the caller ID and brought it to my ear. It was Annabeth. She was with Carly at a dentist appointment. "Hey," I answered.

"Hey," she replied.

"How's it going?"

"I don't know. We just went back a minute ago, but we're still waiting for someone to come in. I guess they're running behind today. It'll probably be a while."

"Alright, no problem." The kids, by now, were engaged in a full-blown snowball fight. Logan caught Hannah just under the chin and she yelled at the sudden cold. The sound carried far over the frozen lake.

"Where are you?"

"At the lake with the boys and Hannah," I told Annabeth, "They're having fun."

She gave a laugh. "Okay. Don't let them track snow through the house when you get back."

"Never."

"And find out if Hannah's staying for dinner, will you? I need to know how much food to defrost."

"She doesn't eat much either way, does she?"

"No, but the way our boys eat, the rest of us are lucky we get any at all."

I laughed. "That's a good point. I'll have her check with Sue when we head back."

"Thanks. I'm guessing we're looking at another hour here if they take x-rays and everything. If it's longer, you might have to start dinner for me."

"No problem. Just let me know. I'm sure we'll be back before then anyway. It's not exactly warm out here."

"You think?"

"Hey," I said, smirking. "We—" Hannah's piercing scream rose up now, a far different cry then the one the snowball to the face induced a minute earlier. Before my eyes, she dove out of the way of a ball of flame that flew toward her and landed on the ice where she'd been standing a second earlier. It melted right through the thick ice and left a hold the size of our coffee table in its wake. The source of the fireball: a massive Hydra that stalked onto the lake after her and the boys. All this happened in maybe a second. I still held the phone to my ear. "I gotta go," I said quickly and shoved it back in my pocket. Sprinting as quickly as possible on the slippery surface, I drew Riptide and tried to assess the situation.

Neither of my boys had ever faced something as serious as a Hydra before and I was positive from the wide-eyed expression on Hannah's face that she hadn't either. Logan was the first to react; he drew his sword, looking terrified. Nicholas followed suit, but clearly had no idea how to proceed further. Hannah had landed hard on her shoulder and favored it now, even as she got to her feet and produced a dagger from her boot. One summer at Camp Jupiter was all it took to teach a half-blood to never go unarmed. For that, I was grateful.

My next thought: Oh gods. This was a Hydra. The only way I knew to defeat a Hydra was to cut off all its heads and the only way to ensure it did not just sprout new ones was to burn the stumps before it could. We were on a frozen lake in the middle of a brutally cold February. We had no fire. "Don't cut the heads!" I yelled too late. Logan, who was closest and probably acting on reflex more than anything else, sliced the rightmost one clean off and slid nimbly under the monster's belly to its other side.

I knew the instant he realized his mistake. "Oh my gods!" he yelled while the creature sprouted two new heads to replace the first. His eyes widened even further and he just stared from the ground and then looked at me. "I'm so sorry. That was so stupid!"

"Get out of the way!" I yelled as the Hydra, angry now, charged Nicholas and Hannah, sending poison in every direction. They scattered. It sent another jet of flame toward them, but I was able to intercept it with my own jet of water. I was suddenly grateful for the gaping wound in the ice ten feet away that exposed the lake water underneath.

"What do we do?" Nicky yelled, already putting the pieces together, "We don't have fire!"

"Stay away, both of you!" I commanded him and Hannah, "Get off the ice!"

"I can help!" he protested.

"So can I," Hannah said, though her eyes betrayed just how scared she was.

"Right now, no one can help because I don't know what to do. The water is freezing and I don't want you to end up in it if the ice can't hold up!"

"Then tell us when you know!" he replied adamantly, completely ignoring the second half of my sentence. I didn't have time to argue. The Hydra was coming back. In a bit of quick thinking, I fell back on what I knew best: water. "Back up!" I yelled and then willed a liquid wall up through the ice before us and drove it into the charging monster. Of course, there was now a huge gash in the ice, which was spreading. The whole thing was compromised.

The water pressed the Hydra back though and as long as I kept it up, it lost ground rather than gained it. The problem, of course, was that I couldn't keep it up for long. I hadn't let loose with my powers like this in ages and I was expending a lot of energy controlling freshwater like this, but more importantly, there just wasn't enough water in the lake. If the level under the ice dropped too low, there'd be nothing left to hold it—and us—up.

"What if we stab but don't decapitate?" Logan asked over the noise, back on his feet and running, "Or aim for it's chest—does it have a heart?"

I was trying to think but I was coming up pretty empty. His guess was as good as mine at this point. "I have no idea," I said, "But we can try—we'll have to." I let go of control on the water and the ten-foot geyser shooting from the gouge vanished and receded, filling back in under us. The Hydra, nearly at the other end of the lake by now, was left spinning and stumbling on the wet ice, but it would regain it's footing soon enough. "Alright!" I shouted, looking at the three kids who stood behind me now and talking quickly, "We're going to have to work together. Logan, you need to watch the heads, especially the middle one. Douse any fire it throws and see if you can distract it. Use the water. Don't cut off any more heads." He nodded and I turned to Nicky and Hannah. They were here and they wanted to help, scared or not. I was in no position to deny them that. And anyway, Annabeth wasn't here and I did need help. Praying I would not live to regret the decision, I said, "If you can get behind it without it seeing you, do it. Be quick. Attack from the back. Watch the poison. Watch the ice. If it starts breaking, you need to get off fast. Are you absolutely sure you can handle this? Be honest with me." Nicholas nodded firmly with a look of determination that reminded me a lot of his mother. Hannah still looked terrified, but she nodded too. The Hydra was coming back. The ice crackled ominously under its weight. I was already moving. "Okay," I said, "Let's go!"

I turned fully and ran at the approaching monster, willing the water beneath us to support the still-breaking ice and hoping with everything in me that this ended better than it had the last time I'd fought a Hydra. That time, I very nearly died.

Logan kept pace a few steps behind me and sent a beautiful fountain of ice water at the face of the middle head before it could do much more than think about shooting more fire. "Nice!" I told him and then yelled at the imposing monster, hoping to keep the attention on myself and keep the kids, Hannah especially, out of the line of fire. "That's right, look at me, you overrated lizard. Eyes right here!" The Hydra seemed to realize I was its biggest threat at the moment and paid great attention. I dodged one jet of poison and then another, grateful for the winter jacket I wore, just in case.

I was surrounded by heads now—heads with mouths full of razor-sharp teeth. I avoided one and then another. Without really thinking, I stabbed one right through the eye, which blinded it but did not kill. A second later, I was doused with a couple gallons of water by a misplaced shot of Logan's. It was freezing and I had never been more grateful for the ability to remain dry. I heard his distant cry of "Sorry!" from somewhere to my southwest but didn't otherwise acknowledge it.

From the corner of my eye, I watched a stray head take notice of Nicky and Hannah and poise for attack. Hannah, moving faster than I'd ever seen her, whipped her dagger through the air in a perfect ark and speared the monster straight through the back of its throat. It screamed in pain, blood and poison spraying everywhere, and reared back into my own blade. That particular head was not doing well by the end of this.

Through careful slicing and stabbing, I managed to hack my way through the throng of heads and teeth without decapitating any of them, though it was definitely about as furious as possible by now. In a more desperate than calculated leap, I somehow found myself aligned with the monster's gigantic chest, right where the heart of any other mythological menace would be. With some effort, I stabbed Riptide into it, almost down to the hilt, and would undoubtedly have hit the heart if it had one. The bad news: it didn't have one. At least, not there.

I slid down and hit the ice beneath the tangle of poison-spewing heads with a sound of annoyance. It had been a good plan—maybe our only one—but it had not worked. Though the gaping hole in the Hydra's chest did seem to slow it down a little. I hoped it wasn't just wishful thinking. "Watch out!" came Logan's cry of warning then. I felt the fire before I saw it and, driving my sword into the ice at my feet, put the flame out before it could do more than singe my eyebrows. Just in time.

I rolled out of the entanglement and came out just left of the monster. The sound of water drew my attention then and I glanced over to see Logan, sword at his feet and both arms raised above his head, constructing a dome of water around the middle Hydra's head. He strained to hold it, but the encased head jerked and choked within the liquid, not able even to breathe, much less produce a spark. "Yes!" I yelled, sending a wave at the other six heads and washing away poison spray aimed at the both of us. "Yes, Logan, keep doing that!"

His arms were shaking now, but he held firm and as I watched—and dealt with the other heads as needed, the middle head appeared to be drowning. The Hydra knew this too. It's whole body flailed as it struggled to keep its prized weapon alive. It stomped and slid atop the frozen surface. Unfortunately, with the ice as structurally compromised as it was, the weight was just too much and as the monster brought it's hind leg down again, its foot hit the ice and kept going, straight through. Its whole body stumbled now, off balance, and Logan lost hold of the middle head. The water rained down all around us.

The ice was still cracking and another leg fell through. It's tail swinging powerfully back and forth, the new angle put it right in line with Nicky and Hannah and before either of them could move out of the way, it made contact. Nicholas was sent flying fifty feet across the lake. Hannah's cry sounded after him. I couldn't see if he got up again. My heart was in my throat, choking me, but I couldn't focus on Nicky right now, much as I longed to. I had two more kids in danger right here.

The Hydra was closer to the ground now and so were its heads. All six of them: alive and mostly well. It's flailing was not helping the ice. The cracks were spider-webbing now, separating into great chunks that floated free in the water. "Whoa!" Logan yelled, standing on one as it broke free. He was knocked off his feet.

A huge slab of ice, fifteen feet across, broke free and flipped up like a seesaw under the monster's weight. Hannah, at the other end of that seesaw, was sent flying vertically up. I stood on the end of it and slipped off the ice, right onto the water's surface. With a flick of the wrist, I sent pillow of water up after her and lowered her to safety closer to the shore.

Logan sat atop his ice raft, exhausted but unharmed. "My sword's gone!" he cried, panting. He looked to be trying to maneuver the slab of ice in the water, but wasn't making much progress. He'd worn himself out trying to drown the monster head.

The Hydra, up until this point, had been focused on survival after it had landed in the freezing water to the left of us. A few minutes earlier, several hundred square feet of solid ice had spread out there. It was open water now, with frozen chunks floating here and there like ice cubes in a cold drink. The monster hauled itself up onto a solid section, but struggled as parts of it broke further. Finally, it gained some ground and dragged itself to freedom. It was disheartening to see it come back for more after all of that. The thing just didn't know when to quit.

Unfortunately, its new position also put it much closer to Hannah than to us, and it set it's sights on her now. She turned and leapt out of the way, but the jet of poison spray came at her too fast. Her left side was doused in the acid and she let loose a cry of agony. I was already running, but even helped by the lake, I worried I wouldn't make it. I shoved a wall of water between Hannah and the Hydra, but I was tired myself and I couldn't keep it up for long. Still, with a great shove, I sent the monster back ten feet as I reached the solid ice. Before I got the chance to do anything more, a massive wave rose up from nowhere and swallowed the monster whole. As I watched, the Hydra was washed forcefully into the drink and shoved down to the very bottom. It struggled to free itself, to get back to the open air, but there was nothing tangible holding it down.

And at the edge of the ice on the other side of the sea of cold water, arms outstretched and looking angrier than I'd ever seen him as tears streamed down his red face, stood Nicholas.


To be continued.

Thanks for reading!

As a side note, I've written so much stuff for PJO by now that I have run out of new monsters to use. I had to recycle the Hydra for this chapter because I could not find a single monster online that hasn't been used between the books and my other fanfics. And that's fine, but if anyone has any suggestions of any monsters that haven't been used yet, maybe some more obscure ones, and you'd like to share them, I would really appreciate it.

Until next time!