Percy POV:

We arrived on the outskirts of a little ski town nestled in the mountains. Th sign said WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT, NEW MEXICO. The air was cold and thin. The roofs of the cabins were heaped with snow, and dirty mounds of it were piled up on the sides of the streets. Tall pine trees loomed over the valley, casting pitch-black shadows, though the morning was sunny.

Thanks to my suit, I wasn't freezing by the time we got to Main Street, which was about half a mile from the train tracks. As we walked, I told the rest of my questmates about Apollo's advice, at least, the version the god had given me last time.

"Nereus?" Zoe looked at me skeptically, probably guessing that it was unnecessary, as I would know whatever was coming beforehand anyways. "Do we really need to go see him though?"

I shrugged. "It's just some advice. We don't have to follow it."

"It's godly advice though," Annabeth reasoned. "Wouldn't it be a good idea to take it?"

"We still have a while before we decide," I said. "San Francisco is still a little aways from here."

We stopped in the middle of town. You could pretty much see everything from there: a school, a bunch of tourist stores and cafes, some ski cabins, and a grocery store.

"Great," Thalia said, looking around. "No bus station, no taxis, no car rental. No way out."

"Something might come up," I joked. "We'll just have to wait and see."

"Theres's a coffee shop!" Atalanta cried. "I need me a frappuccino!"

"Yes," Zoe said. "Coffee is good."

"And pastries," Annabeth said dreamily. "Sweets and sugars."

I sighed. "Alright little ones, go get some snacks. Thalia, Bianca and I can go check the grocery store for directions."

We agreed to meet back in front of the grocery store in fifteen minutes. Bianca looked a little uncomfortable coming with us, but she did.

Inside the store, we found out a few valuable things about Cloudcroft: there wasn't enough snow for skiing, the grocery store sold rubber rats for a dollar each, and there was no easy way in or out of town unless you had your own car.

"You could call for a taxi from Alamogordo," the clerk said doubtfully. "That's down at the bottom of the mountains, but it would take at least an hour to get here. Cost several hundred dollars."

"Yah no." I sighed. "Thanks anyways." I bought a rubber rat just to make the clerk feel less lonely, then headed outside and stood on the porch with Bianca and Thalia.

"Wonderful," Thalia grumped. "I'm going to walk down the street, see if anybody in the other shops has suggestions."

"But the clerk said–"

"Let her go," I said, patting Bianca on the back. "Do whatever you need to do, Thalia." I figured that with the situation already being so stressful, Thalia, like any other half-blood, needed some time alone to release her pent up restlessness caused by our inborn battlefield reflexes. As demigods get older, we become more resistant to that restlessness, which in my case, is pretty much at total control.

After Thalia left, Bianca stared around semi-awkwardly. I guess that unlike last time, Bianca saw me more as a stranger than a friend.

"How do you like being a Hunter so far?" I asked.

She looked up at me and shrugged. "It's cool. I feel calmer most of the time, like everything seems to have slowed down around me. I guess it must be the immortality."

I glanced at her, almost sad for what was coming up next. In less than a few more hours, her death was written to occur in the strings of fate. It was really messed up to think of the future like that, I realized.

"Nico doesn't understand my decision," Bianca murmured. She looked at me like she wanted assurance that it was okay.

I sighed. Memories of Nico after Bianca's death cycled through my head like a movie film playing at times two speed. "Nico's only family is you, Bianca. Of course he would disagree with your choice to join the Hunters. He has no one to look up to but you."

"Sometimes, I wonder if choosing to be a Hunter was right for me." Bianca said. "It feels like I'm betraying him."

I gave a light-hearted smile. "Look, obviously, joining the Hunters was your choice. You could've said no at any time. But you didn't, which is alright. Nico will be able to grow with time, it's just that he wants you there to see him grow into his true potential."

"You sound like you've witnessed him like that already," Bianca noticed. "I thought it was strange for you to know so much, but after saying that you came from an alternate reality, I began to think a little deeper about that alternate reality."

I swallowed. I didn't notice her being so perceptive last time.

"Anyways," Bianca said, "I hope you're right. Nico is my only family too, so I hope this Hunter business won't take him away from me."

"You guys seem to be doing pretty well on your own," I said. "Have you guys always gone to school at Westover?" I knew it was a lie, but I needed to distract her from the whole alternate reality thoughts.

Bianca shook her head. "We used to go to a boarding school in DC. It seemed like so long ago."

"Parents? Well, your mortal parent?" I managed without wincing. If anyone's past was the most tragic in our group, Bianca and Zoe's would be tied for first.

The Hunter shook her head again. "We were told our parents were dead. There was a bank trust for us. A lot of money, I think. A lawyer would come by once in a while to check on us. Then Nico and I had to leave that school."

"Why?"

She knit her eyebrows. "We had to go somewhere. I remember it being important. We traveled a long way. And we stayed in this hotel for a few weeks. And then... I don't know. One day a different lawyer came to get us out. He said it was time for us to leave. He drove us back east, through DC. Then up into Maine. And we started going to Westover."

I nodded in understanding. Now that I knew Alecto the Fury had been ordered to wipe the twins' minds with a bit of Lethe water and brought to the Lotus Casino, Bianca's story didn't sound very filled with plot holes at all.

"Zoe seems to trust you a bunch," I said, still thinking it strange that Zoe of all people would place full trust on a newbie, even for a Hunter who just found out about her demigod roots no more than a day prior. "What were you guys talking about before I intervened?"

Her face darkened. "I shouldn't say... even though I know you're close with Zoe for some apparent reason."

I waved my hands in assurance. "Whatever you heard from Atalanta is a lie. I'm not going out with Zoe."

"Atalanta never said anything." Bianca frowned. "And what's this about you dating Zoe?"

"I uh..." I was saved from explaining when Zoe, Annabeth, and Atalanta arrived with drinks and pastries. "Oooh, are those cake pops?"

"Sure bro," Atalanta tossed me a paper bag. "They're my favorites, so I figured you would like them too."

I happily enjoyed my treat, ignoring Bianca's outraged look.

"Have you guys managed to figure out where to go?" Zoe asked, sipping her coffee.

"I wonder how you ordered that," I chuckled. "How on earth did the poor cashier understand a single one of your words?"

"Annabeth ordered," Zoe said sulkily, making me laugh even more.

"Of course. Cause no one knows what thy or thou means anymore." I said, earning myself a glare.

"Stop flirting," Atalanta smirked from behind her drink. "Riptide, what part of the Hunters' no boys policy do you not understand?"

"I'm just teasing her," I said, unblushing. "What's not to like about poking fun at Zoe?"

I checked my compass. "Well, we only really need to go one direction, and that's west. Hey Buford, map the fastest direction by foot to San Francisco, California."

My friends looked at me strangely, and even more so when a holographic projection of Leo's flying table Buford appeared right above my watch on the right wrist of my suit. Leo's hilarious happy go-lucky voice erupted aloud. "Activating mapping systems. Calculating fastest routes..." I blinked. "Oh right, can you guys stand still for a moment and not freak out?"

"Umm..."

I pointed my right wrist and shot out a beam of blue light that scanned each surprised girl from head to toe.

"Recognized: Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena."

"Recognized: Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus."

"Recognized: Atalanta Jackson, daughter of Poseiden."

"Recognized: Zoe Nightshade, daughter of–." I muted the sound here, not missing Zoe's shocked face.

"Recognized: Bianca di Angelo, daughter of–." Muted that too.

"Recalculating fastest route based on scanned physical attributes." Leo's voice continued. "Information included, height, weight, immortality level, immortal parent, and bust size."

I facepalmed at the last one. "Leo, are you fucking kidding me?" I glanced down at my watch and grinned. "Alright! Well that was easy." Only to look up and see 5 curious yet murderous glances staring back. "Uh... you guys alright?"

Atalanta spoke first. "So... what is that thing exactly? Who's Leo? Who's Buford? And why didn't we get to hear Zoe and Bianca's parentage?"

I rubbed my head. "To be honest, that was the first time in a while that I've had to use that system. Since many demigods are solo hunters in my world, we're used to finding the fastest ways to calibrate journey time and whatnot, thank you Artemis. And while we're on that topic, let me clear something up, like right now."

"What?"

"The alternate universe that I'm from," I said. "Is an exact copy of this world, but with Atalanta being born a guy instead of a girl."

"..."

"So you're her." Annabeth said, pointing to me. "I think."

I nodded. "Always the kid of Athena to find out first. That's right. I've told Zoe and Atti already, and given Bianca's notice of my activities and behaviors, I'm sure the rest of you have had your suspicions for a while."

"That's how you know all of us so well," Thalia said. "So you know all our strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes?"

"Oo oo oo, what's the most shocking thing you know about us?" Atalanta piped up, earning herself several death glares.

I chuckled. "I'm not obligated to tell you those secrets. If I did, you guys would hack me to pieces without hesitation."

"That bad?" Bianca said. "Well, I suppose some of us have some dark secrets to hide." She glanced at Zoe, while Annabeth glanced at Thalia.

"Anyways, Leo is a Hephaestus kid that some of you will probably get a chance to meet in the future. Annabeth, you know that bronze dragon that Camp Half Blood made before Thals' tree?"

The daughter of Athena nodded. "No way... did he?"

I smirked. "I wasn't there to see it, cause uh... I got kidnapped by Hera and got my memory wiped, temporarily of course. But yah, Leo tamed that thing and named it Festus. He's also the one who founded this Tiber metal cyber suit."

"Must be a genius then," Annabeth murmured in awe.

"Oh yah, and he's dating your half-sister, Zoe." I chuckled.

"Which one?" The huntress stared confusedly.

"Calypso," I grinned. "He managed to return to her island by forcing himself to go into a near death state of unconsciousness to save her."

"WHAT?!"

"Yah, I know," I said. "Pretty impressive. See, guys can keep promises too."

Zoe huffed and looked away, though the pink on her cheeks were clearly visible.

"This was a massive secret," Thalia surmised. "Why did you decide to tell us now?"

I shrugged, though rubbed my hands together nervously. "To be honest, it was really hard to carry it around so carefully. There are still many things I can't tell you about, too many future events that may never happen in this reality. Me being here is already strange as it is. Plus, with every thing going on, I figured this was the best way to stop you guys from asking too many questions. And since, all of you were friends with me in my reality."

"Ah that reminds me," I said. "We should be ambushed any time now."

"Ambushed?" Zoe gripped her bow tightly, as if she were attempting to decide between shooting it at me or at whatever was coming.

Thalia nodded. "Thanks to Riptide over here distracting us, I forgot to warn y'all that we've got company."

"Let's move then," Zoe advised. "The less trouble we run into, the better."

We hurried to get out of the town, making it to the edge before the first two skeleton warriors appeared.

"Shit." Thalia cursed.

"Ooh, language." I muttered, before being tapped with a bit of static electricity. "Sorry."

Instead of the usual gray camouflage, the skeletons were decked out in blue New Mexico State Police uniforms. They drew their handguns and aimed them at us.

Thalia tapped her bracelet, making Aegis spiral to life on her arm. Her spear was out in her other hand, sparkling with electricity thankfully not aimed at me this time. Zoe and Bianca had both drawn their bows, Annabeth her knife, and Atalanta her sword. I whipped out Blaze and Shade, spinning the Tiber knives in my hands in excited anticipation.

"Back up," Thalia whispered, before halting after seeing two more skeletons appear behind us.

"Oooh, I hope they brought all of them," I chuckled. "Better we take them down here than elsewhere."

"Are thou crazy?" Zoe hissed. "Can thou even kill these?"

"Yep," I answered nonchalantly, making everyone stare at me. "Hey Annabeth, you want to give the Tiber knife another try?"

The blonde nodded giddily and sheathed her own bronze blade in favor of one I handed her. "It works against these guys?"

"It should turn them to dust like a normal monster would," I said. "We should attack while we have the chance. Right now, these guys are spread thin, but it won't be long until the reinforcements come."

The girls nodded and charged, Thalia and the Hunters with the two behind us, and me and Atalanta and Annabeth on the front two. True to my word, Annabeth stepped in and took one slash at the skeleton, throwing gray rotting dust into the air. The skeleton stumbled backwards, as if it were surprised that it were even hurt at all.

"I thought you said it would kill them?" Atalanta shrieked as the critically hurt skeleton shot at her.

Annabeth charged in and deflected the bullet, before delivering another set of well-placed slashed on the skeleton's body, turning it into a pile of dust. Atalanta rushed her own skeletal target, slicing off its arms at the elbows. She then swung Riptide through its waist and cut it in half.

The bones unknit and clattered to the asphalt in a heap, making Atalanta huff. "You don't need something fancy to beat something that easy."

Immediately after she finished talking, the bones clacked together, reassembling themselves. Atalanta backed up, Riptide immediately up guard. Annabeth tried attacking the skeleton, who dodged her, learning to be wary of the daughter of Athena. However, he wasn't expecting another equally well equipped opponent, taking two lightning fast Tiber metal shurikens to the chest, a place intangible to any other weapon. The skeleton's eyes flickered for a moment, before dimming as its body vaporized as if Thanos snapped his existence away. The shurikens detached themselves from the disintegrating body and zoomed back into their compartments on my wrists.

Atalanta looked at me and Annabeth, who was examining my knife like a complicated blueprint of a skyscraper. "When can I get one of those Tiber things? They seem to work against just about anything."

I shrugged, holding a hand out for Shade, which Annabeth may have sort of reluctantly placed back into my palm. "Well, the only ones in existence as of this reality. They're all magically coded to my DNA, thus will return to me no matter the distance. If I die, unless I have connected another individual's DNA to my weapons voluntarily, meaning you can't just cut yourself and be done with it, all weapons and gear made of Tiber metal will vaporize into nothingness."

"That serious?" Annabeth asked. "I figured that it was really rare already in the first place, but to have such a high notch security system too..."

I chuckled. "I remember you on the first day of getting your gear. You went out and slayed monsters for hours just so that you could get a 'proper analysis'." I put finger quotations up when I said proper analysis, making Annabeth blush.

"Sounds like Annie," Atalanta grinned. "I swear, put her in a library and she won't even notice if the world around her got nuked."

"Don't call me Annie!" Annabeth pouted. "You know I hate nicknames!"

I smiled. "As fun as this is, we should help Zoe and the others. They don't have the necessary weapons like we did."

Exactly as I had said, Thalia, Zoe and Bianca were really just playing an advanced game of keep-away with the skeletons. They were doing an excellent job of dodging the bullets, but were tiring, as the skeletons had no problems with getting skewered or shot, as they were invincible to the Hunters' and Thalia's weapons.

Loud crashing sounds erupted from the forest to our left, but Annabeth and Atalanta were so concerned with helping the others that they didn't notice. When Bianca got too close to one of the skeletons, it lunged at her, prompting the girl to whip out her hunting knife and stab the warrior straight in the chest. The whole skeleton erupted into flames, leaving a little pile of ashes and a police badge.

Everyone looked at me with confusing gazes, safe Thalia, who was distracted by her own opponent. I shook my head, indicating that the reason Bianca was able to kill the skeleton was not because of Tiber metal.

The final skeleton managed one final oral clatter of bones into his walkie-talkie before I shot two shurikens past Thalia's shoulders and straight into its head and chest, turning it to ashes. The moment I summoned them back, everyone turned on Bianca.

"How did you do that?" Annabeth asked. "Is your knife different in any way?"

"It's the same as mine." Zoe said, before looking at me. "Perseus, what's going on?"

"Perseus?" Thalia asked. "Is that his real name?"

I rubbed my head embarrassingly. "Oh yah, I forgot to properly introduce myself. My real name is Perseus Achilles Jackson, son of Poseiden. I usually go by Percy, or as Annabeth and Thalia in my world called me, Seaweed Brain."

Atalanta blushed. "They call me that too!"

"Well, you're both doofuses a lot," Annabeth snickered. "It makes sense."

The thumping and crashing sounds got closer, and subsequently louder. "Percy..."

"Don't panic," I advised. "Last time when Grover was here, he did a much better job explaining than I going to right now. Then again, he was wailing and hugging trees, so I actually don't know about that."

"COULD YOU GET TO THE POINT?!" The girls yelled as a massive pig charged out of trees.

"Um that..." I pointed to the pig. "It's a gift from the Wild."

"REEEEEEEEEEEET!" The pig squealed. It was not like those cute cartoony piggies you saw on tv. Nah, this was a wild boar, at least thirty feet tall, with a snotty pink snout and tusks the size of canoes. Its back bristled with brown hair, and its eyes were wild and angry.

"SCATTER!" Annabeth yelped, making everyone take off into different directions.

"Ugh, so much for staying calm," I muttered, before getting yanked off my feet by Thalia.

"You wanna die, Seaweed Brain?" Thalia called.

"Whatever, Pinecone Face," I shot back. "I can take this pig any day of the week blindfolded with one arm tied behind my back."

"That's the Erymanthian Boar!" Zoe said, trying not to draw her bow in panic. "I don't think it's killable!"

"REEEEEEET!" The pig agreed, swinging its massive tusks and demolishing the WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT sign. Annabeth and Atalanta had to dive out of the way to avoid an involuntary ride aboard the Boar Tusk Express.

"That thing wants to kill us!" Thalia snarled. "Why can't I just barbecue it?"

"It's supposedly a wild blessing," I muttered, scratching my face thoughtfully. "Never really understood how though."

I have no clue how the pig heard that, but it was clearly offended. It turned on us and Thalia instinctively raised her shield, which both freaked and angered the shit out of the pig.

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!" The pig roared.

"Does Medusa look like one of its relatives or something?" I joked, as Thalia groaned. "I wouldn't blame it for being pissed."

"Shut up and haul ass!" Thalia yelled.

We managed to keep ahead of it because we ran uphill, though the boar just flattened every single bit of tree and undergrowth that we had to dodge past.

"Hey, Thalia, don't freak alright?"

"Huh?"

I jumped and grabbed the daughter of Zeus by the waist before activating my jetpack, boosting off the ground at a considerable height, before zooming through the trees to the other side of the hill where an old stretch of train tracks could be seen half buried in the snow.

"Exactly, as I remembered," I said thoughtfully. "Alright, Thals, you're gonna have to hold on a bit more."

"Percy, you dimwit, put me down!" The daughter of Zeus was frozen, yet her voice was fiery.

I chuckled. "You know how ironic it is for the daughter of the sky to be afraid of heights?"

"ARRRRRRGH!"

At that moment, the boar burst into view, trampling the last couple yards of trees into soil.

"Oh you're here," I said nonchalantly, ignoring the fact that I was holding Thalia in my arms while floating several feet in the air.

"PERCY!"

I continued ignoring the demigoddess, who had apparently gotten over her fear just enough to start wriggling.

"You want me to drop you?"

"..."

"That's right, be a good girl." I said, before I could stop myself. "Ah..."

The boar made up my mind for me. It roared and leapt off the cliff, making me jerk to the side and dive towards a gorge filled with snow a little ways away. Thalia had readjusted herself to be hugging me, her eyes shut as the air flew past her. The boar was doing a great job of slipping and sliding on the edges of the ravine as it chased us, following me straight to the 70 ft deep trap up ahead.

"Tell me when it's all over," Thalia managed, before she sealed her lips as well."

"Sure, Pinecone Face," I grinned. "No problem."

I wrapped my arms around her back and dived, zooming through the covered tunnel and out into an open air of space that dropped straight down. I flew a little further to entice the boar to jump as far as possible. It charged through the tunnel and leapt, obviously unable to reach me. It plummeted thanks to gravity down into the gorge, sinking fast into the snow like styrofoam packing.

I sighed. "Whew, that was rough."

Thalia's eyes were still closed, her face leaned all the way up against the surface of my suit. "Is it over?"

I chuckled contently. "Yah, the pig is all done and nicely packaged.

"HELLOOOOOOOOO?" Annabeth's voice called.

"Over here!" I said, waving a free hand from our floating position. I noticed Zoe's gaze as she stared at us. Was she...? Nope, impossible.

Moments later, Thalia and I had joined our friends atop the cliff, the daughter of Zeus laying flat on the ground as if attempting to reabsorb the ground's existence into her body.

"What's up with her?" Atalanta asked, poking Thalia in the leg before retreating hastily after Thalia hissed at her.

I shrugged. "Thalia couldn't take all my coolness as I defeated the beast, so she's taking a chill pill break."

"Shut up, Percy!"

"Whatever."

"Thou said this was a blessing, wasn't it?" Zoe said. "We must use it then."

"Tru dat." I said.

Minutes later, we somehow managed to all get on the boar without falling off. I injected the boar with a neurotransmitter that would dissolve in six hours. It was enough to lead the boar west though. We ended up riding the boar until sunset, which was about as much as my back end could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar-riding was.

I had a general idea of the mileage we covered, but was more concerned about the flat dry landscape that was approaching. The grass and scrub brush got sparser and were replaced by mountains and dunes of sand. As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking the muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of the ground and chewed it, needles and all.

"Let's get off this thing while it's distracted," I said. "I dunno about y'all, but my buttcheeks are pretty much shredded at this point."

Atalanta and Annabeth giggled, while Thalia rolled her eyes. "Must you make a joke out of everything?"

I smiled. "Laughing lightens up the mood, even if it's half-hearted. It's just how I roll."

After the boar's third helping of saguaro, it squealed, belched, and farted, then whirled around and galloped back toward the east.

"It likes the mountains better," Atalanta guessed.

"Can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."

Ahead of us was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings way too small to be a town: a boarded up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoe was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said Gila Claw, Arizona hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills, which were way too chunky to be the sand dunes we had passed. I knew what they were, my eyes becoming shadowed like the night sky. The Junkyard of the Gods.

"Whoa," Atalanta said.

"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at me. "You don't got another travel surprise up your sleeve?"

I shook my head. "Nah, the next challenge we got is in that junkyard. I don't know about you, but I'm dead tired."

"Agreed." Annabeth said. "Could we dumpster dive tomorrow morning?"

Zoe nodded, and she and Bianca pulled six sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. While they set up those, I collected boards from the boarded house to make a fire pit, before promptly setting them on fire with a dash of Greek fire. The green flame danced merrily in the night, creating enough warmth to make me wanna strip off my shirt. I had deactivated the outermost layer of my suit, leaving me in the flexible Tiber fibers usually used during training. Riptide was back in pen form, and Blaze and Shade were tucked on opposite ends of my belt. My helmet came off, allowing me to breathe the cool night air.

"Now that you've told us," Thalia said. "I wonder how I didn't notice how eerily similar you two look."

Bianca nodded. "Yah, just imagine Percy with long hair, and boom, he'll look just like Atalanta."

I flashed a peace sign and wrapped an arm around Atti. "We could pass as twins if I was younger."

"Impossibly identical twins," Annabeth chuckled. "If you weren't different genders, it would be impossible to tell you apart."

Zoe stared up at the sky, her obsidian orbs lost in the stars above. "The stars are out."

She was right. Millions of them dotted the sky, a rare view even for me who traveled into the wilderness very often, away from civilizations and such.

"Amazing," Bianca said. "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."

"This is nothing," Zoe said. "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."

"Well, can you blame us humans for developing?" I asked her. "We don't just live life eternally like you do, you know? Each generation seeks to improve and do better than the previous, it's like that for all animals."

Zoe sighed. "Thou is making me sound evil again."

I chuckled. "You're not evil. You're just... not seeing the big picture."

When Zoe didn't retaliate, Thalia gasped. "A Hunter not smacking a boy for subtlely insulting her? That's shocking."

"Ahahaha," I deadpanned. "Shocking huh?"

"I'm a Hunter." Zoe said. "I care about what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?"

"For you," Thalia corrected. "Not thee."

"But thou use you for the beginning of a sentence."

"And for the end," Thalia said. "No thou. No thee. Just you."

Zoe threw up her hands in exasperation. "I hate this language. It changes too often!"

I wrapped an arm around the huntress. "Nah, it's not that bad. You're just super stubborn, and refuse to do learn something so trivial despite having infinite time."

The Hunter made no move to move my arm off her and instead leaned into my shoulder, ignoring the looks everyone else was giving us.

"As for your previous question," I said. "There are mortals who care about the environment. But you must remember, our time on Earth is short. Even shorter if we are a half-blood, since the chances of us surviving to adulthood at the moment isn't very high. Battles and wars are inevitable, as are quests and missions. We are exposed to harm and possibility of death every day. Mortals are even more fragile, plagued by every imperfection that you immortals never have to care about." I continued, noting how each girl was listening intently now.

"Pain, rejection, sickness, stress, exhaustion," I explained, my head tilted up at the sky. "The blessing of Artemis erases all those experiences from you, removing most of the normal problems you face during life. Now, I'm not saying being immortal is completely flawless." I said. "Have you ever been hurt by one you trust? Have you ever not gotten a job you've worked your ass off for? Have you ever experienced heartbreak? Have you ever had a family member contract an incurable disease? These are things you don't have to worry about, because you're immortal. You're going to live forever as generations of humans die and die again, and soon, you'll forget about those troubling times. Zoe, you're 2000 plus years old! The oldest of us all, you've seen countless rises and downfalls of humankind. Surely you must see that not all mortals are as crass as you believe they are. Like I told you before, the blueprint of a man was not created to rape and hurt a woman. If that were the case, males would've been eradicated since the dawn of mankind."

"You've obviously put a lot of thought into that speech," Atalanta commented after a couple of seconds.

I sighed and leaned backwards onto the mattress. "Growing up as a demigod has taught me a lot of things, that's all. Opened my eyes a bit to see the corruption in this world a bit clearer. And training under Artemis definitely helped too."

"You trained under Artemis?" Annabeth asked. "Like personally?"

I nodded. "In return, I taught her how to respect males as much as she did women. She beat me up instensely for it, but it turned out alright in the end. She ended up bringing Apollo to an amusement park I believe."

Thalia gaped. "Wow... you're really something."

I smirked. "I'm awesome and I know it."

Annabeth chuckled. "Yah yah Seaweed Brain."

I blushed, thankful for the darkness. It had been so long since I had heard Annabeth call me that that I had actually missed it badly. Calm down, I berated myself. You're not in love with her anymore.

"Could I ask something?" Thalia began. "Since you know so much Percy, what's the deal with Bianca?"

My breath hitched as I sat back up, unnoticed by all except for Zoe, who had returned to leaning up against me. "What about her?"

"I'm curious too," Bianca said, her voice strangely strong. "I understand why you blocked out Zoe's parentage, but why mine? Who's my godly parent?"

I sighed. "It's not my place to say. I can't say the exact name of this deity, in fact, it's better you find out yourself. In terms of tragic-ness, your history is as bad as Zoe's. In terms of oh-shit-this-is-really-bad-especially-now, your history is more along the lines of Atalanta, Thalia, and technically myself."

Annabeth took my rambling with a grain of salt. "Does her parent have anything to do with her being able to kill those skeletons with a celestial bronze knife?"

"As intelligent as ever, Ms. Chase," I complimented her dryly. "Yes it does."

"It doesn't matter right now," Zoe said, her breath warm on my neck. "We will find out sooner or later. In the meantime, we should plan out next move. When we get through this junkyard, we must continue west. If we can find a road, we can hitchhike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas."

Atalanta, Annabeth, and I were about to protest about that decision as we all had pretty bad experiences there, but Bianca beat us to it.

"No!" she said frantically. "Not there!"

She looked freaked out, like Thalia if you had dropped the daughter of Zeus off the edge of a cliff.

Zoe frowned. "Why?"

Bianca took a shaky breath. "I... I think we stayed there for a while. Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember..."

I placed a careful hand on the girl's shoulder. "Bianca, I need you to try to remember this. Did you and Nico stay at a place known as the Lotus Hotel and Casino?

Her eyes widened. "How could you know that?"

"I knew it." I said. "In my timeline, I thought Bianca was completely insane. After hearing her story again, everything made sense."

Atalanta and Annabeth nodded in agreement. "Gosh, that place was messed up," Atalanta shuddered.

"Why? What is this Lotus Casino?" Thalia asked.

"A couple years ago," Atalanta said, "Grover, Annabeth, and I got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. We stayed for about an hour. When we came out, five days had passed. It makes time speed up."

"No," Bianca said worriedly. "No, that's not possible."

"Unfortunately, it is." I grimaced. "I had a mission there once, the monster being some sort of hybrid beast. It was last seen in Vegas and somehow got trapped in the Casino. I was in there for a full 24 hours based on my watch, but when I got out, a definite week or two had passed. There are guys and girls in there from the 17 and 1800s. Like, they talk like Zoe and stuff."

Said girl huffed, making my chuckle softly.

"There's a reason why you were placed there," I said. "But unfortunately, I can't tell you that either. Knowing Annabeth though, she's probably going to figure it out soon. You can ask her then."

"How are you so confident in Annabeth?" Atalanta asked. "I mean, were you lovers or something in your reality?"

I faltered and buried my face into my hands, which was enough of an answer for everyone.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Atalanta burst into a fit of giggles while Annabeth blushed hard. "You were?!"

I sighed. "Annabeth was the first half-blood I saw and quested with. Though, of course she never noticed cause she was crushing on well... you know."

"Right," Thalia smirked. "Who knew a kid like you would fall for such a smart girl?"

I laughed. "I know, it was actually really funny. The idea of a son of Poseiden dating a daughter of Athena was so strange, Athena actually got into a pretty brutal argument with Dad. It was hilarious."

"What's the best thing you ever did for her?" Atalanta grinned cheekily, elbowing Annabeth's side. "C'mon girl, stop pretending you don't like this."

Annabeth stopped trying to control her blush. "How did I fall for a moron like you?"

I shrugged. "Honestly, you asked me that question all the time whenever I did something stupid, which was like, all the time. As to the best thing, I wouldn't say the best, but I fell into Tartarus for you."

"..."

"Tartarus?" Thalia gaped. Zoe wasn't that far behind.

"Like, the Pit right?" Atalanta was floored. "You..."

I nodded, wincing a bit from the little flashbacks. "Not exaggerating. I'm serious."

"..."

"Wow." Zoe managed. "To do what thou did... for a girl..."

"Impressive ain't it?" I asked. "I'm speaking calmly about it right now, but I was traumatized by flashbacks for two years afterwards. Annabeth was about the same, but we're both fine now."

"So are you still together?" Atalanta squealed.

I shook my head. "Annabeth got invited to join her mother as this architect goddess or something. We broke it off because I wanted her to fulfill her dream of rebuilding a new world. I became single again and joined as a solo monster hunter. Then I came here."

"Architecture goddess?" Annabeth looked like she was going to combust at any second.

I laughed. "I told Annabeth once that I swore she loved bricks, stone, and concrete more than her own boyfriend and earned a nice set of punches from that. Worth it though, when she got that opportunity of a lifetime."

We ended up talking a bit more about my past, me not revealing anything important that would effect the future. We were interrupted when a blazing light erupted from down the road. The headlights of a car appeared out of nowhere. I activated my suit and unsheathed my knives.

"Percy, what's wrong?!"

"We've got some company," I spat with distaste.

"Who is it?" Zoe asked, her hand around her bow.

The deathly white limousine slid to a stop right in front of us, and out stepped a brutal man wearing fiery shades, a blade pointed straight at my chest.

"Ares," I snarled. "What the fuck do you want?"

A/N:

Mmmmmmhmmmm Mmmmmhmmmm, mmmmmm...