AN: I am SO SO SO sorry for not updating but school's been hell. Anyway here's a new chapter. Also I updated my previous chapter, If this is the second, I dread the first. So go and read it again. Also updates will now be one every two weeks.


XV. What is this talk about gifts?

I'd love to tell you I had some deep revelation on my way down, that I came to terms with my own mortality, laughed in the face of death, etcetera.

"I think he laughed on occasions after one prank or the other at uncle Nico and maybe a few times when En was over when we were little, but not others with death aspect, even when he met Thanatos…though the first time was not funny." Luke said when his grandfather and uncle Theseus let out a noise like a strangled mouse while Orpheus groaned, he was slowly getting the other to calm down and now that was for a naught.

"Thanatos!" the two squeaked.

"Seventh book." he replied.

"Uhm…didn't you mention earlier that it were the happenings of that book inspiring the happenings of the second book of your grandmother?" Octavian asked nervously while his uncle gave him a pained look asking 'Why-do-you-need-to-also-make-it-worse?'.

"Yep." Luke replied.

"You know that he is a good person, right?" Hades asked with En nodding in agreement.

"We are sorry Lord Plu…I mean Lord Hades, it is only that most mortal-living beings don't feel comfortable in the presence of Death." Jay tried to explain.

"Poseidon, should I read anstead?" Amphitrite asked her husband who only shook his head in the negative.

"I can do this." he said, but his tone sounded unsure.

The truth? My only thought was: Aaaaggghhhhh!

"Yup, that sums it up perfectly." Travis told his siblings.

"I hate this summing up." Theseus grumbled, still clinging to Orpheus who was waiting when he would hear the first rib snap.

The river raced toward me at the speed of a truck. Wind ripped the breath from my lungs. Steeples and skyscrapers and bridges tumbled in and out of my vision.

And then: Flaaa-boooom!

"Good, this was not the sound of a body hitting solid ground." Apollo said while occasionally glancing over to his oldest son who was trying to get out of his cousin's deadly grasp, he will later take care about those bruises, the others meanwhile looked relived at the news.

A whiteout of bubbles.

"That is good." Jake said and if Lord Hades, Will and Enysswe were right, then the poison should be soon cleared from Percy's body.

I sank through the murk, sure that I was about to end up embedded in a hundred feet of mud and lost forever.

"That can't happen to my children." Poseidon said feeling glad that the poison will be soon useless, but as he read further his face darkened. "I'm feeling the others annoyance." he said before continuing.

But my impact with the water hadn't hurt.

I was falling slowly now, bubbles trickling up through my fingers. I settled on the river bottom soundlessly. A catfish the size of my stepfather

"That certainly is a big one." Malcolm said in a stunned tone.

lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags—swirled up all around me.

Everyone scowled again, but the water gods and spirits bristled the mot at the thought how the river looked.

"I'm resisting the urge to ask you to bring some of those responsible for this here so that I can trample them into the ground." Pan hissed in annoyance at the way nature gets destroyed.

"I can't do that even if asked, partly because it was not in our plans and also because my grandaunts have not given their permission for doing so." Enysswe replied, she knew how far she can go then even as their grandniece she was bound by certain rules she needs to follow.

"To bad." Triton said, he would have loved to give those mortals a piece of his mind, daring to destroy the waters like that.

"Poseidon, continue." Hera told her brother who nodded his face still in a scowl.

At that point, I realized a few things: first, I had not been flattened into a pancake.

There were some snickers at this, but mostly from relief because even this one sentence showed that he was not thinking about pain which meant that the poison was already weakening.

"How long till the poison is fully neutralized?" Bellerophon asked the blonde son of Apollo, he was mostly looking for this info because he had not long ago gotten the task to kill a Chimera and plus informations could always come into handy, mostly now that he knew that his father had given him a huge advantage against that type of beast.

"Looking at the fact that it was probably only two to three minutes after the bite and he didn't move around much, this means that he needs to stay there for roughly five minutes, but the pain should already not noticeable only if he should be concentrating on it." Will explained not even noticing the thoughtful look on Persephone's face.

"That is good to hear." Silena said as she looked over to a relieved looking Annabeth.

I had not been barbecued. I couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in my veins anymore.

"Yes, Will kind of gave us an update with both your cousin and uncle about that." Connor said grinning, he was glad that Percy was fine, he really would have not thought that such a bad poison could be cured by something so simple as staying for a while under water.

I was alive, which was good.

"Of course is it good Seaweed Brain." Annabeth said, she was so relieved that Percy was unhurt, if they should not be able to catch the thief before taking the Master Bolt she swore to herself that she would not drag him into this type of danger this time around.

Suddenly Poseidon snorted in amusement, this boy was really interesting and some of his antics reminded him on how Triton had been when he had been still only four decades old.

Second realization: I wasn't wet.

At this broke a good deal of people out laughing both in and outside of the palace giving Orpheus the chance to breath again when Theseus relaxed and let go of him while Perseus pouted as he remembered an incident in the past with his cousin.

"Nice realization." Chris laughed, he thought one would notice that faster.

I mean, I could feel the coolness of the water. I could see where the fire on my clothes had been quenched. But when I touched my own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.

"That is so cool." Trickster said.

"To be kind of honest it seems kind of that Percy already has more powers then most demigods." Malcolm said as the god nodded their heads.

"That is because the amount of powers a demigod can inherit depend on the number of power spheres of their godly parent and on the type of their domain." Athena explained to the demigods. "As you know most of my attributes are bound to knowledge and one to war and even then to strategicall warfare, this means that you inherit a great amount of knowledge and creative skills and it goes so on by other demigods also, but it depends on you how you harness your inheritance."

"That would explain some of the differences between the inherited skills of some demigods in Camp." Katie said while exchanging glances with Pollux and Castor, they had also noticed that there are differences in the amount of powers they had inherited from their parents even thought both have powers bound to nature and plant life.

"Though we still need to admit that when it comes to the knowledge about inherited powers and how to use them in the best ways is uncle Nico the best." Nathan said as everyone turned to him, the look on his grandfather's face looked pretty amusing.

"But doesn't Percy have more powers?" Beckendorf asked curiously.

"He does and those powers are strong, but dad had also said that uncle Nico is still more skilled with his powers then him and aunt Hazel is still the option that her brother and our dad are the two most powerful demigods she had ever meet." Sally put in which drew a smile to her grandfather's face as well to that of her granduncle who looked more then proud about this knowledge, though the same could not be said about Zeus who looked annoyed while Jay looked like someone who will be busy training the moment he gets home.

"I'm now really curious about your uncle." Odysseus said, he was truly curious about the father of the Fates lieutenant, he had already a good look at Orpheus's little brother and he had some guesses about the second 'mother' so now he only needed the father and already these few informations were interesting.

"He will only have a short appearance in the Titan's Curse" Odysseus and some of the others noticed the careful way Sally said the title and how she tried to not look at Enysswe "And then he will be in the books more often." she explained before turning to her grandfather. "Granddad, you can continue now."

"Of course Sally."

I looked at the garbage floating by and snatched an old cigarette lighter.

No way, I thought.

I flicked the lighter. It sparked. A tiny flame appeared, right there at the bottom of the Mississippi.

"This is brilliant, all those pranks we can pull with Percy's help." Travis whispered to Connor who nodded his head eagerly before both were wacked over the head by Katie as both Lance and Misty snickered at their dads.

I grabbed a soggy hamburger wrapper out of the current and immediately the paper turned dry.

I lit it with no problem. As soon as I let it go, the flames sputtered out. The wrapper turned back into a slimy rag. Weird.

There were more snickers at this, he knew that he was the child of Poseidon and found it weird how he could manipulate things in water.

But the strangest thought occurred to me only last:

Here Poseidon let out a breathy laugh, yes he really was reminded on Triton when he was sill little, though his son would of course deny it vehemently and by the amused look on Amphitrite's face was she also since Percy started listing the things he noticed reminded of their child.

"What is so funny uncle?" Hermes asked curiously if it made the sea god laugh then it is surely good, his uncle had a good sense of humour.

"It is only what Percy stated as last." he answered his nephew, eyes still dancing in mirth.

"Then don't keep us waiting uncle P." Apollo whined he also wanted to know and by the looks on the other's faces they wanted it to.

I was breathing. I was underwater, and I was breathing normally.

This really sent the listener over the edge and they broke out laughing with Apollo and Hermes almost falling from their thrones again while the demigods who were already on the ground were rolling on the floor from laughing. It was really good to be laughing after the fright of the last chapters, they all needed this.

After five minutes of amusement Poseidon could finally continue again, be the looks of it would this be a short chapter.

I stood up, thigh-deep in mud. My legs felt shaky. My hands trembled.

"This may be because of the adrenalin has gone back." Lee said in a thoughtful tone, well this would be perfectly understandable seeing what he had gone through a few minutes ago, but it seemed that Will had been right the poison had lost its effect. He will have to later corner his brother and talk with him then this knowledge was not coincidental, he was sure about that.

I should've been dead.

"A mortal would be, but not a demigod." Hades said, they had a better resistance for most things which was good, they were harder to get sorted with their paperwork regards their deeds during their life.

The fact that I wasn't seemed like ... well, a miracle. I imagined a woman's voice, a voice that sounded a bit like my mother: Percy, what do you say?

"Huh?" some asked in confusion, drained adrenalin doesn't carry hallucinations with it or does it?

"Good that he remembers his manners." Hestia said softly.

"Um ... thanks." Underwater, I sounded like I did on recordings, like a much older kid. "Thank you ... Father."

Poseidon smiled at him warmly, he tried to always listen to his children's prayers.

No response. Just the dark drift of garbage downriver, the enormous catfish gliding by, the flash of sunset on the water's surface far above, turning everything the color of butterscotch.

Why had Poseidon saved me?

"If it is possible to help out your demigod child, then the loopholes in the law forbidding the gods to directly interfere with their lives should be used." Hades said in a clam tone which made everyone look at him with wide eyes while the legacies exchanged small smiles, Hades had in the past used more then those look holes to try to be there for his children.

"That is true brother, they may need to grow up in the mortal world, but that does not lift the fact that you are their parents." Hestia told the divine members of her family as the demigods were still busy looking at the Lord of Death and Riches, he was really different then what they had thought.

"Both of you are right." Poseidon said while Hera kicked Zeus in the shin as he tried to turn away and ignore the whole thing.

The more I thought about it, the more ashamed I felt.

"He should not be, from what I we have read so far most demigods have a ground to be angry with their godly parent." Amphitrite said while the gods looked sadly at their children who were again avoiding their gazes.

"This is why we are doing this, to correct past mistakes long before they could happen or be started and escalate in the future." Sally said in a determined tone, the others nodding since the reading had started they were also starting to see this no matter if they wanted to admit it or not.

So I'd gotten lucky a few times before. Against a thing like the Chimera, I had never stood a chance.

"Modesty is good for a hero." Hestia said with a little smile on her lips.

"Beside that, now he can finish that fight easily." Ace said grinning.

Those poor people in the Arch were probably toast. I couldn't protect them. I was no hero. Maybe I should just stay down here with the catfish, join the bottom feeders.

"Though confidence problems are not." Ares said with a snort before he was dosed in cold water.

Fump-fump-fump. A riverboat's paddlewheel churned above me, swirling the silt around.

There, not five feet in front of me, was my sword, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.

I heard that woman's voice again: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you. This time, I knew the voice wasn't in my head. I wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.

"Where are you?" I called aloud.

"Ah, seems as if I have sent a messenger from court and before you open your mouth Zeus, there are no rules against that only that a messenger can only be sent one time per quest." Poseidon told his younger brother who looked annoyed about being told off, worse Poseidon was right he was playing by the rules and he could not reprimand him from doing so in the future if no more messengers appear from him.

"That info is good to know." Annabeth said to the others sitting around her.

Then, through the gloom, I saw her—a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like mine.

A lump formed in my throat. I said, "Mom?"

"The two look somewhat similar, but not fully though the water was at that time pretty murky from all that garbage." Luke said, she had sometimes babysitter them when they visited their grandfather and the adults needed to take care about something.

"This might be the ground why I sent her, in hope that he will listen to her more willingly." Poseidon mused before continuing.

No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hope less as you believe.

Knowing that she was alive in the future was this new not a big surprise.

Go to the beach in Santa Monica.

"What?"

It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.

"Tell me that I did take care about that river." Poseidon asked testily while looking at the legacies who nodded their heads. "Good."

"But ..." I was sure this woman was my mother, or a vision of her, anyway. "Who—how did you—"

There was so much I wanted to ask, the words jammed up in my throat.

I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and I felt the current brush my face like a caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, do not trust the gifts...

"How can gifts be bad?" Travis asked in confusion.

"Believe me gifts can be seen easily seen as both a blessing and a curse, it also depends on the intention one gives someone a gift." Henry said, he knew how his own mother had for long years seen her powers as a curse and there was also the thing with the gift Prometheus used to test Percy.

"That is true." Athena said nodding before looking over at Poseidon who got the message that he should continue so that the others may also understand this.

Her voice faded.

"Gifts?" I asked. "What gifts? Wait!"

"It will come up soon." Mich said when he saw some of the others opening their mouths to ask.

She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away. If it was my mother, I had lost her again.

Perseus could understand his cousin pretty well in this, he loved his mother and would do anything to protect her, he knew if he would be faced with this feeling of loosing her in such ways he would be stricken by grief.

I felt like drowning myself.

"He has the wrong father for that." Michael told his brothers.

The only problem: I was immune to drowning.

The legacies tried not to flinch as they remembered what will come in the eight book.

Your father believes in you, she had said.

She'd also called me brave ... unless she was talking to the catfish.

Cue more laughter.

I waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snaky, fat mother,

"And he is back to insulting monsters." Frank snickered.

waiting to finish me off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found me, they'd have some questions.

I capped my sword, stuck the ballpoint pen in my pocket. "Thank you, Father," I said again to the dark water.

Then I kicked up through the muck and swam for the surface.

I came ashore next to a floating McDonald's.

Again En threw an annoyed look at her relatives who were doing their best not to snicker, as said before it was not their fault that dead liked McDonalds products, they had once tried it with KFC, didn't work to well seems only the living liked those better.

A block away, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded me of Times Square on New Year's Eve.

A little girl said, "Mama! That boy walked out of the river."

"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.

"But he's dry!"

"That's nice, dear."

"Children can see through the mist because they are still open minded, as they grow most loose that ability though." Misty explained.

"I still don't know if this is good or sad." Mitchell said and the others agreed with him, it was hard to tell.

A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious.

There were a good number of flinches at this, but well a Chimera trashed the place of course the damage would be anything, but light.

We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of someone falling from the Arch."

Survivors. I felt a surge of relief.

The others were feeling the same, Echidna and her children could cause terrible carnage and didn't care about the loss of human lives so hearing that there were survivors was a more then welcome news.

Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. I hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.

Annabeth felt a new scourge of guilt, she had been the one to take him up there where he nearly died and he was still more worried about her and Grover, when Percy arrives at camp she really will need to give her best to be more different to him then in these books.

I tried to push through the crowd to see what was going on inside the police line.

"... an adolescent boy,"

And everyone was back to groaning.

"Come on, give that guy a break." Chris said while a bit farther Chiron was doing with Lupa an extreme training plan for the time he gets Percy under his wings.

another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities …"

"I'm not liking the first part, but the second part that the mortals were not hurt is good to hear." Katie said.

"We would not even need to worry bout that if a certain god didn't send Echidna from all monsters after him." Hara growled, during these readings she was really starting to see how ridiculous Zeus was with his assumptions not only towards Hades, but the way he ruled.

"Agreed." the rest of the council said while giving dark looks to the squirming god.

"Brother…" Zeus tried, if they keep reading will the others calm down, he didn't even do any of these things in their time.

"Only because the chapter is soon over." Poseidon said and continued reading, much to Zeus relief.

I backed away, trying to keep my head down. I had to go a long way around the police perimeter. Uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.

I'd almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated, "Perrr-cy!"

There were a few snickers at this from the more immature boys.

I turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug—or goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"

"Actually, that is the easier way." come it from Hades, Persephone, Enysswe, Henry and those gods who resided most of the time in the Underworld and were outside.

"Uh…nice to know of your option." Orion said carefully.

Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see me.

"I'm sure that I was." Annabeth said with a small smile, she only heard what had happened and was scarred for Percy, she could hardly imagine how she felt seeing the fire and a person falling out and not know what had happened.

"We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"

"This I mom's way to say how worried she was." Sally explained at which Ares started snickering before explaining himself as Poseidon readied himself to give him another shower.

"Athena would have reacted the same way." he said as the goddess blushed while glaring at him as the others relaxed, some even joining in with the snickers.

"I sort of fell."

"What a way to put it that he nearly died." Reyna said with a roll of her eyes as some of the boys started laughing, really now she was sure that this guy did not destroy her first home out of malice.

"At least we know now that he is really fine." Gwen told her praetor.

"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"

"I'm really worried with what he will top this or why he will top a jump from such a height." Jason whispered to Odysseus who needed to agree with the other.

Behind us, a cop shouted, "Gangway!" The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. I recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"

"Well, now we know how much mortals see if something happens really close to them." Lee said in a thoughtful tone.

"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."

"Seems that the mortals ignorance kicks in again." Clarisse said huffing.

"I'm not crazy! This boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw me. "There he is! That's the boy!"

I turned quickly and pulled Annabeth and Grover after me. We disappeared into the crowd.

"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"

"Yes, that and its mother his uncle sent after him." Demeter growled angrily while glaring at Zeus, she still did not forgive him for setting their daughter up with their oldest brother and as she now found out will she get a true garden meaning that she will be even more reluctant to leave that dreadfully dark place and with the stunts Zeus pulls will it be even more show her that she is in a better place down there.

I told them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, my high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.

Annabeth was sure that this must have frightened both her and Grover.

"Whoa," said Grover. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

Before Annabeth could respond, we passed another reporter doing a news break, and I almost froze in my tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson.

Cue groans.

That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."

"Granddad Hermes had a good deal of work to do so that those news never leave the states." Misty said while Hermes bit back a groan, more work that will be everything he needs while two of his sons bit their tongues to not groan from jealousy, mostly after catching Chiron's gaze which clearly told them that he will not allow them to blow up national monuments.

We ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley.

"First things first," I told Grover. "We've got to get out of town!"

Somehow, we made it back to the Amtrak station with out getting spotted.

"Which is good." Dakota said.

We got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind us.

"This was the end." Poseidon said, but before he could ask who wanted to read the next chapter, but Zeus had lunged forth and grabbed the book.

"I will read next." he said hurriedly and started reading to avoid more glares.

A God Buys us Cheeseburgers

Silence, then…

"WHO WAS THE GOD WHO DARED TO GO AGAINST THE LAWS AND PERSONALY INTERFERE WITH A QUEST!" Zeus screamed in anger while all other divinities looked througfully perplexed so they failed to notice Ace flinching or the looks the other legacies exchanged.

"I would say…"

"No Athena, only because I have sent a messenger doesn't mean that I will personally interfere with what the children do, I did what I could according to the ancient laws and noting more." Poseidon told his obnoxious niece who was looking at him calculatingly.

"I would not be so…" but a shadow swishing past his head made Zeus halt in his sentence, his eyes fixating on tri-colour ones as the others looked on in shock, well a few with pride.

"I thought you wanted to read this chapter and not play the accusing and blame-shifting game you seem so fond about Lord Zeus." En said coldly as the air started to fill with the smell of ozone making everyone shift and be ready to interfere. "Also to your information the third book will have the greatest track record of interfering gods in a quest since the Trojan War."

"Then all those who will interfere in that book will be punished for doing so." Zeus said firmly while the demigods were still looking perplexed about the fact that the gods will personally step into a quest.

"Erm…grandfather, maybe you should wait till the end of that book with the decision." Nathan said carefully as he tried to not give away who one of those interfering gods will be.

"Nonsense, I stay by my word those gods who interfere in any way will receive a punishment." Zeus said in his this-is-final tone while the legacies exchanged glances with each other.

"Oh boy." they all said before turning back to the others.

"Please read Lord Zeus." Mich said sighing, this will be interesting by the third book, but maybe the thing with Zeus getting a punishment will brighten Lord Hades a bit, at least he hoped so, but he felt bad for his grandfather, Lady Athena, Lord Dionysus and Lord Apollo, his grandmother on the other hand will be surely yelled on by some relatives, mostly En's second grandfather.

The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I was sure that was obvious.

Aphrodite and Sue wrinkled their noses at this, but the others, mostly the demigods keep silent they knew that that on a quest such luxuries would be hard to get, mostly with such a deadline.

"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

"Ah, I know what will soon come." Luke said with a dark look on is face as the legacies flinched which on the other hand confused the others except the two sons of wisdom and love who both looked nervous.

"What do you mean?" Katie asked.

"You will soon see." was the only reply she got from Luke.

"We can't use phones, right?"

"The Hecate and Hephaestus cabins are on that task." Mich and Misty said proudly while Hephaestus grinned at his grandson.

"I'm not talking about phones."

We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.

"I wonder, do all of you kids make comparisons to the element of your godly parent?" Apollo asked curiously while the children exchanged confused glances.

"We are not sure dad to be honest." Lee replied, he may on occasions make comparisons to the sun and music, but he was not sure how often that is.

"The books staring from the Lost Hero one will have more points of view in them from other characters so maybe then you will get an explanation for we are also not sure, then if you are right have En and her dad rather frightening and gloomy thoughts." Nathan said while said girl glared at him.

"Can you tell us whose thoughts we will read?" Annabeth asked curiously.

"Uhm…I think yours, dad's, Mich's parents and I'm not sure about the others." Nathan finished while Annabeth looked embarrassed at the thought of her inner thoughts being read out loud to not only her friends and brother, but to the whole council, not that Jay didn't look mortified by the thought and the amused look on Octavian's face made matters only worse.

"Now could I please continue." this had been not a question, but Zeus rarely asked those.

Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash.

"Is this some kind of place for washing chariots?" Odysseus asked remembering the talk about that thing called a 'bus'.

"That is correct." Sally said to the king who smiled back at her.

We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good.

The Jackson siblings exchanged knowing smiles at that, Blackjack still loved those as did Peppermint.

"What exactly are we doing?" I asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.

"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"

"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."

I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place.

"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."

"It seems that he still didn't try to use his powers over water intentionally." Poseidon said while his sons nodded.

"He will manage later on though at that time none of them come to the idea to make him try, he only did that in the next chapter." Sally said while scooting closer to her brother while Misty pushed Nathan that he should move closer to Henry to be safe while she did the same by Enysswe, something which didn't go unnoticed by some of the gods.

"What are you talking about?"

He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing."

"He didn't see the video." come it from the legacies while Chiron groaned.

"I really should have shown him or explained better about these things." he muttered to himself, he will surely need to do some things different in one and a half years time.

"Instant messaging?"

"To be fair, that is actually a fair conclusion from the shortening and what you want to do." Silena said while Annabeth needed to nod, hopefully she didn't reprimand him.

"Iris-messaging," Annabeth corrected.

"At least it was only a correcting." Annabeth whispered softly, she will need to make notes from all the wrong ways she acts around Percy to not repeat herself.

"She is a great help in the case of covering the messages and with her being connected to both the earth, sky and sea is she similarly to me a connector between the gods and mortals." Hermes explained to the demigods seeing how people tended even in their time to forget these things, he would have by now gone mad without Iris's help.

"The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."

"Well, her or Fleechy." Henry said in amusement.

"Huh?"

"You will know in the seventh book." He explained while the Romans looked thoughtful, they never thought about calling up on her, Reyna quickly made a new point on her list.

"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"

"Put like that does really sound silly." Connor pointed out, but was ignored as Zeus continued reading.

Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."

"He did, but you guys didn't ask hi to try." Triton said, he thought that it was obvious that Percy's powers were water based from the power spectres of their father.

Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors.

Annabeth held her palm out to me. "Drachma, please."

I handed it over.

She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."

She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.

"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.

"You should have been more specific." Chiron said as Lupa nodded her head in agreement.

"We agree on that, now you get him." Luke growled as the others looked confused well except Malcolm and Mitchell who wanted to groan.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance.

The Romans looked impressed, this was a really useful way to send a message.

We seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top.

Luke let out a soft growl while Annabeth frowned, just what was her son's problem with Luke? He was named after him was he not? Though there were the things he said during the reading, but she ignored those, Luke was a good guy and a great hero.

He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.

Now the other legacies also growled which made the others frown.

"Luke!" I called.

He turned, eyes wide. I could swear he was standing three feet in front of me through a screen of mist, except I could only see the part of him that appeared in the rainbow.

"Percy!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"

'Because you care.' Luke thought sarcastically that guy had technically sent four cabins at each others throats and didn't care that there was a chance that they could get hurt.

"We're ... uh ... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face.

Some of the demigods snickered at this while Annabeth blushed, the legacies only had a mix of scowls or annoyed looks on their faces, they knew what words will be falling in a few minutes.

"We thought—Chiron—I mean—"

"Then you should have said his name." Lupa pointed out, her instincts were telling her that this had been a mistake, but she didn't know why except if there was something not right with Mercury's son.

"He's down at the cabins."

Somehow Chiron didn't like this sentence and some of the other demigods seemed to be thinking the same way.

Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers.

"The only time I need to personally settle a fight between campers is if the issue is because someone had insulted the others godly parent and those are serious fights." Chiron said which made the others frown.

"Four cabins were irked against each other by a clever little scheme just like dad got that lovely newspaper." Luke growled in annoyance while the gods frown deepened even more.

"Which four cabins?" Athena asked.

"Yours, Ares, Apollo and Demeter." the four named gods looked angry at this while their present children exchanged uncomfortable glance with each other, no wonder Chiron needed to step in.

"I see, father please continue." Athena said in a tight tone, when she find out who set her children up against the other out of vile intent.

Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"

"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"

Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.

"Chiron had to—what's that noise?" Luke yelled.

"I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight.

"Which at that time had been good, but now there is no chance for that." Nathan said while Annabeth frowned, why was it good that she was not there when Percy and Luke talked.

"Grover, come on!"

"What?" Grover said. "But—"

"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.

Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed me the spray gun and followed Annabeth.

"Huh…after my knowledge, no matter her current state, my Oracle is also female." Apollo said in a perplexed tone, the others were also confused at this.

I readjusted the hose so I could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.

Aphrodite shivered and closed her mouth by the glares she got from Poseidon and the legacies.

"Chiron had to break up a fight,"

Said centaur flinched from the knowledge what type of fight he needed to stop while the parents of the four fighting cabins returned to their frowning.

Luke shouted to me over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out

"More like was spilled." Enysswe growled as Luke glared at the ground.

"Someone is really wishing to put everyone against the other." Amphitrite said, she didn't like this one bit.

"And it worked pretty well." Ace said, he was still angry how his grandfather got used by that bastard.

about the Zeus—Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how—probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound.

"He knows himself so well." Misty whispered bitterly to Lance who gave her a similar sardonic smile.

Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again.

Cue groans from all those who have been in that.

"That damned apple." growled the female goddesses at which En gave them a sweet smile.

"Did you know that my grandaunt Eris did that to take revenge on Zeus for his attack on her sister and that she did not know that Helena was her niece?" she asked while the sons of Zeus, well mostly Perseus and Jay flinched while the goddesses who had competated against each other and the gods who had lost children in that war glared at Zeus.

"Really?" they asked as the King of Gods started to hurriedly read on, he was not scarred of them, just wanted to finish this chapter.

Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus."

"So nice to know that three of my children get mentioned and two of them are backing my brother." Zeus mumbled to himself, but read on when he noticed that the glares were still going on in his direction. Really, they are acting as if the whole breaking out of the Trojan War had been his fault.

I shuddered to think that Clarisse's cabin would ever be on my dad's side for anything.

Said girl huffed angrily while Ace held back a snicker.

In the next stall, I heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.

"What did you do?" Travis asked curiously.

"This hasn't happened till now so how should I know?" Annabeth retorted then turned to the legacies.

"You never told us." Sally replied with a shrug.

"So what's your status?" Luke asked me. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."

"Why do I have a strange feeling by the last sentence?" Lupa asked quietly so that only Chiron could hear her.

"I also have a strange feeling and I don't like it." he replied, he only hoped that he was mistaken.

"Do you also have the feeling that Chiron will not know about this call till they get back?" Malcolm whispered to Mitchell gravely.

"Yes I do, we are getting sadly even more clues here that our past assumptions are correct." this was the answer Malcolm dreaded because there was no way he could explain this to Annabeth in a soft way.

I told him pretty much everything, including my dreams. It felt so good to see him,

Cue glares at Aphrodite that she should not dare.

to feel like I was back at camp even for a few minutes,

The demigods and legacies smiled at this, they loved their camps.

that I didn't realize how long I had talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized I only had one more minute before the water shut off.

"I wish I could be there," Luke told me.

Luke gave a soft snort at this.

"We can't help much from here, I'm afraid, but listen ... it had to be Hades who took the master bolt.

"Oh really, that is rich." Enysswe hissed out dangerously while Henry, Hades and Persephone had similar looks on their faces though the later two looked at a squirming Hermes and a pale Pan who was contemplating if sitting in Dionysus's lap would be less dangerous.

Outside meanwhile were the other gods busy holding back Hades's three children.

He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him."

"Because it is the only day my husband is even allowed to set foot up here." Persephone growled as her eyes flashed at her brother who flinched from her gaze, he never wanted to tell her, but that look was pretty similar to Demeter's. "Is your son daring to imply my husband of thievery."

"Well, he is pretty accomplished at rape." Demeter said before Hermes could defend himself, but everyone turned to their side when they heard some shocked noised form the pale demigods, the mortals looked also uncomfortable.

"Sorry, you see as time went on some words lost their old meanings and gained new ones with said actual meaning getting lost. So while 'rape' in your time means kidnapping or abducting someone in our time it kind of means forced sexual assault, though by the current stand of things people still deny that such an assault can also be committed against males and not only females." Malcolm explained to the gods.

"What! Hades would never…" Persephone was outraged, sure he had kidnapped her against her will, but after arriving in the Underworld had he been so nice, gentle and understanding with her, they even slept for the first few days in separated parts of the castle and he never entered her rooms without her permission. Apollo looked also appealed at the idea of his uncle ever forcing someone into his bed, any god who knew the other would agree on that with him.

"Even I need to agree that he is one of the few gods who would not do that." Demeter said in a disgusted tone, at least was there this positive fact about their marriage.

"I agree with Demeter on that." Hera said as her sons sent a glare at their father who decided to stop this topic with his continued reading, these books were really not in his favour.

"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly."

Hades nodded while gently rubbing his wife's hand to calm her down though on the inside he felt stunned that Demeter had given him in her own way a word of approval regards his marriage with Persephone.

"That's true," Luke said, looking troubled. "Still ... Hades has the helm of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt?

"Why that…" Hades growled as Zeus continued, but he was sure that the next line would not help calm things down.

You'd have to be invisible."

Athena did a quick counting in her head and then bristled in anger.

"Is he implying my daughter?" she asked in a cold tone as Mitchell grabbed Malcolm's hand as the blonde looked ready to attack.

"Mom, I'm sure that this is not what Luke meant." Annabeth defended the other while the legacies shook their heads, it had in the original time taken a long time for her to accept how he had been lost and could not return anymore to them.

Athena only huffed, but a dreadful feeling started spreading in her stomach while Hermes gave Annabeth a thankful look.

We were both silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said.

"Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never ... I mean, she's like a little sister to me."

"Wow, great brother." Misty whispered sarcastically.

I wondered if Annabeth would like that description.

Annabeth was not sure how she would feel, yes she admitted that she had a crush on Luke for some years now, but there was also a fact that she would end up married to another guy so this kind of threw her out of the loop.

"In her own words, she is fine with that." Luke and Sally replied in unison.

In the stall next to us, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.

"We are so asking aunt Annabeth what she did." Lance and Ace said together while said aunt blushed by the looks her mother and brother were giving her.

"You'd better go see what that was," Luke said. "Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good."

And the frowns returned.

"Wait, why would a son of granduncle Poseidon use flying shoes, that is suicide." Pan pointed out in confusion.

"Your brother who is talking here seems to have forgotten that and thus Prissy gave the shoes to Grover." Clarisse took over-explaining and with the usage of her favored nickname for the son of Poseidon some could not help themselves by the legacies, they needed to snicker at this.

"I see," Pan said thoughtfully, which was still strange to him while Odysseus was also looking at the book with calculating eyes.

"Oh ... uh, yeah!" I tried not to sound like a guilty liar. "Yeah, they've come in handy."

"Technically he was not laying, they had come in handy it was just not him who used them." Beckendorf pointed out.

"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"

Malcolm felt Mitchell's hand tightening around his, he didn't even notice till now that they were still holding hands.

The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate.

"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just—"


"That little good for nothing had just not dared to bring up something like that!" Iris yelled outraged.

"I agree that this was a cruel thing to say." Hecate nodded her head while she noted the dark looks some of the other gods had also on their faces, she should not even mention the satyrs.

"Why do I have the strange feeling that the boy is calling on my powers regards strife," Eris said in a thoughtful tone as she leaned against her elder sister, she had a few minutes ago the feeling as if people would have been talking about her, but it could be that she had only imagined that. A little side effect from babysitting Morpheus for Hypnos so often and playing games with her brother Phantasos when they both had been little.


But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. I was alone in a wet, empty car wash stall.

Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face. Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?"

"Not much," I lied, my stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three cabin.

"It was probably for the better that he didn't tell them," Psyche said gently from her spot beside Eros.

"I need to agree, those things would have not helped them if they are to truly descend into the Underworld then they should not let their souls be already weighted down by doubts and guilt," he said while pulling Psyche closer, he hated thinking about the fact that his own mother had asked his wife when she had still been mortal to go down there to prove her feelings for him.

"Come on, let's find some dinner."

A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner.

All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas.

Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?"

I said, "We, um, want to order dinner."

"You kids have money to pay for it?"

"They didn't exactly look convincing," Lance said.

Grover's lower lip quivered. I was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum.

"Agreed, that would be worse," Jason said, he had no clue what linoleum was, but something told him that it would definitely freak a mortal out if someone started eating it.

Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger.

I was trying to think up a sob story for the waitress when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb.

Clarisse tensed, she had heard about a bike that size from her mother a former army officer and firearm specialist, turning around she looked at her son who nodded. Great, she knew who was coming.

All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather—but leather that looked like ... well, Caucasian human skin.

"Ace…" Lance started.

"Never asked, but something tells me that the answer would be 'yes'." the legacy of Ares replied to his shuddering cousin while most of the demigods looked pale.

The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for Mama.

Those who knew who it was needed to agree with that statement, though he had some kids in the wrestling branch Enysswe certainly preferred Mark Calaway who was better known as The Undertaker, he was a great guy and his half-brother could see through the mist and knew about their world. Strangely as they had found out had Hermes also a kid taking part in the Wrestling world though the relationship between Undertaker and Punk was still pretty tense and the legacies were told that during the marriage between Ace's parents were those two seated so that they had not only ten-ten guests between them but also their fathers to stay put if they should decide to start something.

He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face I'd ever seen— handsome, I guess, but wicked—with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, I felt like I'd seen his face somewhere before.

Slowly the gods' gazes were traveling over to Ares who had his eyebrow raised before his eyes widened.

"You have to be kidding me," he said in shock.

"I agree with him." comes from his siblings.

"Besides that, I fear now I know what I will be constantly fixing in a few thousand years," Hephaestus mumbled to himself as he remembered the description about his brother's new type of chariot.

As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again.

"What would have happened if Lord Mars would not have done that?" Dakota asked curiously.

"They would have gone battling, all war gods have this nature to them if they appear in front of a large group of mortals, demigods can resist it a small bit better." Reyna answered, her mother was also a war goddess so she knew about these things.

"Then good that he stopped them," Jay said.

Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"

The biker said, "It's on me."

There was suddenly a loud thud as Ares's throne toppled backward when Athena and Apollo threw themselves at the startled god while outside Hecate conjured up a few fans over the fainted sons of the war god.

"What the fuck has gotten into you two!" the war god yelled outraged not even guessing that outside all of his children were held back from rushing inside to make sure that he was fine, well besides the twins, they were still out cold.

"Shut up, Apollo check if there are some lasting side effects from all of his crashes," Athena demanded while pinning her brother to the ground partly with Apollo's help.

"You know that this will be in millennia!" Ares tried getting out from their grasp as the demigods stared at the scene perplexed.

"Athena, Apollo you heard him this will happen far in the future and we don't know why Ares ignores the law of not interfering directly." Hera suddenly spoke up in a gentle tone as she walked over to the three gods and placed both of her hands on the shoulder of her two stepchildren who looked up at her in shock. Hephaestus seemed to be right that Hera seemed to try getting better with them so they stood up and went back to their thrones, still a bit mystified, while Ares looked at his mother in shock, he will really need to talk with his mother after this book was over.

He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.

Athena gave her brother a sharp kick to the leg while Annabeth didn't look pleased about the seating arrangements.

He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?"

"At least your manners will be improving towards people you are not interested in," Aphrodite told her boyfriend while some of the demigods looked nervous about how he acted in this time if this was an improvement.

"Unfortunately not in the case of his father," Hera whispered to Demeter who nodded her head in agreement with her sister.

He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen.

The biker looked at me. I couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in my stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness.

"Yes, that is my aura and the feelings which usually get transferred to those in my presence and are not gods, in that case, our auras block out that of the other to the extent we wish," Ares said with a shrug of his shoulders, he had been never good at controlling his aura which was understandable regards what he represents and the only ground the demigods and the mortals were not feeling it was because the aura of the other gods, mostly his aunt Hestia's neutralized it.

I wanted to hit a wall. I wanted to pick a fight with somebody. Who did this guy think he was?

Ares has a small grin on his lips, he always wanted to know what people felt when affected by his power, and his little cousin was giving him nice info.

He gave me a wicked grin. "So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?"

Poseidon scowled at his nephew as Athena looked amused.

"At least is this nickname close to your son's," Amphitrite told her husband who rolled his eyes at her.

I should've been surprised, or scared, but instead I felt like I was looking at my stepdad, Gabe.

"Uhuh…so this is who he is the angriest at that time," Apollo said before turning to the demigods to explain it to them. "This is another aspect of the godly aura like when you look at Aphrodite you see her similar to the one you actually like or the type of person you would not mind getting together with and so on." as he finished Aphrodite scowled at his then suddenly the demigods did their best to not look at her, their faces flushed and as she guessed the same went for Nathan, Lance, Ace and surprisingly also Luke.

I wanted to rip this guy's head off. "What's it to you?"

Poseidon and his sons bit back groans while the demigods shook their heads, that guy really had it not easy.

Annabeth's eyes flashed me a warning. "Percy, this is—"

The biker raised his hand.

"S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"

"You know, this is kind of amusing." Henry suddenly spoke up which made everyone turn in his direction.

"What do you mean?" Castor asked the other.

"Most of the time uncle Percy is meeting a god or some of their not demigod children a good deal of them point out their relationship with him which is most of the time with the term 'cousin'," Henry explained while the others blinked at him, the demigods from the future were the most confused because they could not remember something like this happening that it is a god who points out to the demigod how they are related.

"Who were the other gods who did that?" Jay asked.

"You will soon read about it in the other books," Henry replied before looking at Zeus.

Then it struck me why this guy looked familiar. He had the same vicious sneer as some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood, the ones from cabin five.

Clarisse looked proud at the fact that she had something in common with her father when Zeus raised an eyebrow as he spotted the next line, that was a first he had heard a god introduced like that when they come face to face with them.

"You're Clarisse's dad," I said."Ares, god of war."

"Yep, this is again a first," Hermes said as the demigod's facepalmed.

"Gods don't get introduced with the name of their demigod child first." Annabeth groaned, her future husband was truly a Seaweed Brain.

"Don't dare hurt him, Ares," Poseidon warned.

"Don't worry grandfather, in our time is Lord Ares in a way fond of dad along the lines of a favorite opponent to fight against," Luke explained at which Poseidon groaned while Orpheus sighed in despair while Perseus flinched as Theseus his them both by accident as he whirled around to stare at his nephew.

"Opponent?" he squeaked out.

"Mom, he looks just as pale as Lord Hades," Perses told his mother who was looking worriedly at her husband's cousin.

"He sure is," Luke answered as his grandfather shook his head, Percy seemed to not only manage to infuriate divine beings and monsters, but he also had strange relationships with his immortal relatives. It was really hard to fully understand that boy or to form a full picture of him.

Ares grinned and took off his shades.

"You are not insulted?" Athena asked in shock while Ares shrugged.

"I don't know what I think in the future, but that punk sounds interesting so I can see why I like to fight him in the future even though I will need to hold back with him being a demigod and all." Ares said while the legacies exchanged smirks with each other, hopefully will the time they had invested for months bear fruit.

Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."

"She was asking for it."

Clarisse huffed in annoyance while making a mental note to not have that guy near water, though she agreed with her father, he would make a fun opponent.

"Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for—I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."

"It would be an insult to their pride if I interfered and it turns out that they could have won." Ares said when Clarisse also spoke up.

"Beside that, if we lose a fight this means simply that we used the wrong weapon, battle plan or the opponent was strong and if they are a demigod then we can fight them again and again till we are stronger then them." she explained while her father nodded in approval, it seemed that his daughter had perfectly got his way of teaching his kids, most of his sons had on occasions trouble grasping this easy little fact. He may not be the god of strategicall battle, that was Athena, but he had also battle plans, Sparta was a good proof regards this.

"I never knew that." Athena said in a stunned tone.

"Well, you are in most cases when we fight more busy with outwitting me then to pay attention to what my children and followers do." Ares told her and Athena needed to agree with him, it slowly seemed that this reading will not only make them face family problems and make them talk about those, but also kind of give them insight into the others, she will need to grab Enyo after the books are over and have a three way talk with her sister and Ares.

When it was silent again Zeus continued reading the book.

The waitress came back with heaping trays of food—cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes.

Ares motioned to his father that he should continue when he noticed everyone staring at him strangely again.

Ares handed her a few gold drachmas.

She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these aren't..."

Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. "Problem, sweetheart?"

"What is wrong with drachmas?" Jason asked curiously, gold was a favoured paying method.

"Well you see the currency is different and most people rarely see gold in anything other then jewellery, leave alone meet people who pay with them." Pollux explained to those from the antique.

The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold.

"You can't do that," I told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."

"He has guts." Ares stated as the father of said boy massaged his forehead.

Ares laughed.

"Your dad had always a strange impact on the godly side of his family." Misty whispered to Sally who nodded, in the past years it become somewhat clear that no matter how some of the gods seem to be annoyed by her dad and would like to blast him to pieces a part of them still liked him. Hermes had kind of secretly taped those confessions on a meeting and shown it to her unbelieving dad.

"Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta.

"That is already a positive aspect for me." Ares said while some of his relatives wanted to groan at this knowledge so Zeus continued before an argument could break out.

Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favour."

The past heroes tried to not flinch, it never ended easily for them if a god asks for a favour, mostly not if it is the war god asking you for this.

"What favour could I do for a god?"

"It is not unusual." Demeter stated while the past heroes nodded again, still feeling uneasy because of their past memories.

"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little ... date with my girl friend.

Hera did her best to not glare at Aphrodite and anstead kicked the source of her son's problems to keep his hands away from someone who is already married. Zeus flinched from the new kick, he didn't even know what Hera's problem was now, she was acting strangely since the reading started while Aphrodite looked apologetically at both her husband and grandson.

We were interrupted.

"Seems you got me again." Ares whispered to his brother who looked amused, Ares had some amusing reactions when falling into his traps.

I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."

"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?"

The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter.

"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it.

"Well, that would kind of give Percy the chance to still attack and defend himself." Misty said, she was an expert in these cases.

"In other words, he left him go with a warning like D did when they had meet." Apollo noted stunned, the Fates really must like this boy in some sense.

"I would still feel better if even those threats would be left out, but that is too much to ask for." Poseidon said while waiting for his younger brother to continue.

"I swear he is the most unlucky and still the luckiest demigod." Jay said to his fellow Romans so that some of the Greeks could also hear him, knowing that they would also agree with him.

A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."

"Knowing this family's temper and hearing about the effects of Ares's aura I think this perfectly got him to accept the request." Persephone said while looking over at her family if someone should dare to deny that they have a temper to their natures.

No one spoke up.

I wanted to punch this guy, but somehow, I knew he was waiting for that.

"Damn, he is attempting to fight it." Ares grumbled, not that he would ever admit it that he found those who could get out of his power more interesting then those who blindly followed it till he decides that he is bored or they on their way to his uncle.

"Which is good." Theseus mumbled to himself, hoping that Percy will come out with only little harm of this.

Ares's power was causing my anger. He'd love it if I attacked. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

"Good son, fight against the aura." Poseidon said, this was good that Percy was not giving into Ares's powers, not many heroes managed that he had seen enough such examples.

"We're not interested," I said. "We've already got a quest."

Ares's fiery eyes made me see things I didn't want to see—

"Wow, you got even more patient in the future." Hermes said in a stunned tone.

"That is a nice surprise." Aphrodite whispered to Ares who was not sure if this was a compliment or seeing Athena's nod an insult.

blood and smoke and corpses on the battlefield.

"My grandaunts the Keres are pretty busy on such days." En said thoughtfully while Luke and Sally tried not to flinch at the memory how their dad got bitten by one of them, at least was uncle Will making pretty good progress with making a fast working antidote for that poison, the perks to be married to the Prince of the Underworld and living down there with him.

"I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and me, naturally.

"In other words all of my siblings who are part of the council and are not busy making sometimes pointless deliveries…" Hermes started.

"…or punished to be babysitters." Dionysus finished as both him and Hermes looked at their father pointedly who hurried on to read to avoid the answer.

If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful ..."

"Ares, you are not a dog, but I need to agree that you had always the ability to find weapons even as a baby" Hera said before looking amused as she added "much to your father's misfortune." she finished with a giggle while Zeus blushed.

"Oh, I remember you got your hands once on the Master Bolt and activated it when your father had gotten out of the shower and given him a nice shock which blasted him through the wall where he lost his towel in the process." Demeter said remembering the incident while Zeus blushed as his brothers broke out laughing, Ares only looked slightly embarrassed.

"That certainly should have teached him to not let that Bolt out of sight in a place where it can be even found by a baby." En whispered to Henry while Nathan and Ace tried to hold in their laughter.

"Nice job bro." Apollo said laughing while his father started to read again more louder to drone them out.

He licked his lips, as if the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry.

"He certainly found it funny what had happened to his father." Hera giggled.

"Well ... if I couldn't find it, you got no hope.

The legacies exchanged dark looks, he did find it, but Kronos's manipulation and Luke's knowledge about manipulation was it easy to sway him and to manipulate his mind and actions.

Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back.

"I was his babysitter whenever Hera was gone and the Drama Queen here had no clue how to deal with a screaming child." Poseidon said smirking.

"So, this was why I smelled saltwater in the crib whenever I left the two of you alone for more then two hours." Hera said musing while Ares blushed again as the demigods stared at the gods in shock.

This was also why Zeus decided to hurry on reading again.

After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."

Ares flinched from the looks he was getting form the Underworld pair and their grandchildren, beside that was Apollo also glaring at him? At the same time outside needed three siblings to be held back again.

"You told him Hades stole the bolt?"

"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately.

"Why do I have the unwelcome feeling that this has a lot more meaning to it then we are currently seeing." Athena said while the legacies exchanged dark looks with each other.

In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest."

"Thanks," I grumbled.

"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends."

"Ares, stop interfering personally." Zeus warned.

"And you continue to read." Hera snapped at her husband while her son looked at her still surprised by the way she was now behaving.

"We're doing fine on our own."

"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."

"Ugh…that will get his attention." Malcolm groaned.

"Anyone with enough knowledge about war knows how to manipulate their opponents after finding out their weak points, which in Percy's case is his mother." Reyna said as the others groaned, if Percy managed to fight the war aura he still would not be able to say no when his mother gets mentioned.

"My mom?"

He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."

"What!" some yelled as Annabeth flushed crimson as she hoped that she would leave that ride out.

"What interrupted your date?" I asked. "Something scare you off?"

Ares glanced at his brother who looked pleased, he was pretty good with anything mechanical.

Ares bared his teeth, but I'd seen his threatening look before on Clarisse.

Said girl felt pleased again, it was not easy being the head of her cabin and to keep that so with most of your brothers trying to take control so hearing even more things that she had in common with her dad was good.

There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous.

"He has some pretty good traps." Ares said while pointing at this brother.

"I try to make them challenging and on occasions destructive enough so that I can give Ares in check, it may be that for that some harsh comments fall, but that is part of the fun." Hephaestus said nonchalantly, he was used to some hard insults from his brother because of those type of traps, not that he didn't have some similarly harsh names for Ares to.

"It is certainly strange to hear about our fathers relationship." Beckendorf whispered to Clarisse.

"It definitely is." she replied back.

"You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am.

"Till now he managed to annoy the whole council on different levels, but everyone left it by threats." En said as Poseidon paled. "Fifth book and it was more to get your attention due to an important happening." she explained.

I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."

The past heroes groaned, they hated that sentence.

After that I must have fainted, or fallen into a trance, because when I opened my eyes again, Ares was gone.

"Gods can depart in different ways." Sally said, the Egyptians had also a different way.

I might've thought the conversation had been a dream, but Annabeth and Grover's expressions told me otherwise.

"Not good," Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good."

"One gets used to it." replied the Jackson siblings while Annabeth bit back a groan.

I stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared.

Did Ares really know something about my mom, or was he just playing with me?

"The later." come it from everyone in and outside of the palace.

Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me. I realized Ares must love to mess with people's emotions. That was his power—cranking up the passions so badly, they clouded your ability to think.

"Well noted." Athena said while glancing over at Poseidon, she could not decide if the boy got his knack for noticing such little things from hi mother who proved to be a rather intelligent woman or was it possible that it was from his father whom they say he greatly resembles.

"It's probably some kind of trick," I said. "Forget Ares. Let's just go."

"We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."

"Dad has an aversion towards hamsters." Sally said before waving her hand to Zeus that he should continue while the others still looked confused.

I looked down at my cheeseburger, which suddenly didn't seem so appetizing. "Why does he need us?"

"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has.

"Your mother's daughter." Ares growled to the squirming girl, but didn't do anything more regards the matter, he was more for violence and she was more logic.

Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."

"War has more then one aspect to it." Ares replied shrugging.

"But this water park ... he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"

"I have some tricky traps." Hephaestus stated while both Ares and Aphrodite nodded shuddering as Athena frowned something told her that she would not like what is to come.

Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other.

It seemed that her daughter would share her bad feelings.

Annabeth said, "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."

The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.

"I think this sounds better." Connor grinned in amusement with his brothers.

The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.

"I agree with Percy." Silena said, she had been with her dad at some water parks and she had liked it, but this sounded nothing like those she had been at.

"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."

"Excuse me?" Aphrodite asked offended while her children were frowning.

"To his defence, he didn't remember the myths regards you two at that moment." Sally called in which made all four relax.

"Then it is fine, I can live with that." Aphrodite said, something told her that she will have much fun with the love life of that young man from what she had heard about him.

"Percy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."

"Why? I thought you hated Ares."

"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."

"I am not," Aphrodite said, but then she caught the looks from both her husband and boyfriend she sighed. "Fine, I may be somewhat temperamental." she admitted finally.

"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.

"Who is she? Echidna?"

"WHAT! I would never date that thing!" Ares yelled in horror. "I would sooner be suicidal and ask Artemis out for a date then to go anywhere with her!" he ignored the look on Artemis's face or the glare he got from Apollo and Orion who on the other had got glared on by Apollo's children and grandson.

"Wow, he is lucky that he didn't get cursed right there." Chris said in shock, he had seen his siblings becoming victims to the Aphrodite cabin's wrath due to a prank so he didn't wish to find out how it looks if their mother is in full rage.

"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."

Aphordite giggled, mostly after she noticed Pan nodding his head vehemently in agreement with the young satyr.

"I thought she was married to somebody," I said. "Hephaestus."

Mitch looked at his squirming aunts and uncles and then to his grandparents who shifted in their thrones before they looked at their children.

"Things are not without complications in godly marriages and to break that bond there needs to be a deep ground for that and you also need the allowance of the at that time ruling god or an older powerful god." Aphrodite tried to explain.

"Beside that, I'm not exactly good with living things and love and war are closely bound just like love and death tend to be. I may be annoyed on occasions with these two, but I never thought about separating seeing how love is also like fire as the term 'scorching love' indicates and thus those two do what they want on their dates and I set traps to annoy them. I know that this might not sound right to most, but we are already used to this and on the bright side till now I had never the feeling as if Ares would try to get me out of the picture." Hephaestus continued for his wife.

"And that will not come, as said getting away or destroying those traps is also a type of battle and I like those." Ares added in.

"Do you children understand it now, I don't do this out of malice I…"

"It is fine mom, you are following your nature which is not easy to control." Silena said with a soft smile, she was slowly starting to understand better and it seemed that the others did the same.

"Also, if you think that they have a hard time controlling their nature, our allies have it sometimes worse." Mich pointed out.

"Who are they actually?" Annabeth asked.

"The Egyptians you will meet them in a few years and as you know their gods can take up a hybrid form between animal and human thus they kind of are even if in fully human form plagued by the instincts of their animal side." Mich explained to the gapping groups.

"The Egyptian gods are also in America?" Frederic found himself asking.

"Of course, the are just as strongly bound to the Flame of Western Civilization like the Greeks, the Twenty-First Nome is in Brooklyn, mum was the one who designed their camp in Memphis after they made the decision to have also demigod children who can help the magicians who follow them." Sally finished and then held up her hand. "As said you will met them in a few years, but first you should busy yourselves with your own future." she finished in a similar tone like her mother when she saw a conversation ended.

"What's your point?" he asked.

"Oh." I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"

"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.

He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"

Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.

"Such a gentleman." Gwen said smiling though she was partly still musing about what her mother and Lord Vulcan had talked about as well as Lord Mars's words.

The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?

"If those were the ride names, then no wonder that it went bankrupt." Mitchell noted with a strange look on his face, this was actually the same time he noticed his mother's gaze on him or better a part of him. Following her gaze he noticed that his hand was still entwirled with Malcolm's, flushing he pulled it immediately away much to the blonde's confusion who also forgot that they were still holding hands, then he also noticed Aphrodite looking at them and he also flushed as she gave them a sly smile.

"What are you grinning at?" Athena asked as she leaned over Ares.

"Nothing much Thena." Aphrodite replied happily while watching how the other demigods gave the still blushing pair curious looks.

No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise.

We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of—

"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes."

"Yeah," I said. "But you can't just—"

"Watch me."

"Finally!" the Stolls yelled as Chris and Trickster grinned at the gaping girl.

"Good girl." Hermes stated before covering from the look Athena was sending him.

She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room.

The Hermes kids grinned even wider.

A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.

"What the heck." Grover shrugged.

There were some snickers at the reaction.

"Poor dad." Luke said grinning.

Soon, all three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.

Cue more snickers.

We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love.

I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"

"Yes." the gods said in union.

"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth told me. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."

"What about Aphrodite's husband?"

"I already said my reasons." Hephaestus said shrugging while Zeus looked annoyed at the next lines, great he will fail to get that idiotic lie removed form the mortals tales about them.

"Well, you know," she said. "Hephaestus. The black smith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus.

"That was in truth me, I don't even know when the mortals started seeing Zeus as the one who did it and he had already been born the way he looks." Hera said sadly as the demigod looked at her wide eyed.

"It is fine mother, we have talked about it and you told me the ground for what you have done." Hephaestus said in a gentle tone.

"You have talked about it?" Zeus asked in shock.

"Yes father, I have now a better understanding for the ground why I had been born like this and what had lead my mother to become depressed enough to throw her own child form Olymphus." the god told his father coldly.

"There are a good deal of myths which get disgustingly changed by different philosophers over the years." Enysswe replied in an annoyed tone.

"Like?" Persephone asked.

"That both my uncle Zagreus and aunt Melinoe are actually Zeus children who took up grandfathers form to trick you." she said to her outraged looking grandmother.

"Zeus would beg to move in with father if he would ever dare." Hades growled coldly as his wife leaned against him and even Demeter seemed to agree with that.

"It is sometimes not easy to guess which myth is true and which not." Sally said while gesturing to Zeus who was more willing again to read before he can be pulled down even more though he was curious about what Hera had told their son, she never told him why he was born so deformed, only threw a vase at his head before going to put the children to bed.

So he isn't exactly handsome.

"I'm sorry." Annabeth said hurriedly.

"Is fine." Hephaestus reassured her.

Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"

"Sorry also for this."

"Sweetie, this will be in the future so no need to apologize." Aphrodite told her and then kicked Ares that he should nod.

"She likes bikers."

"Whatever."

"Hephaestus knows?"

"Yes." the gods replied again, some with amusement and the pair with blushes on their faces.

"Oh sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net,

The caught pair groaned at the memory, that had been the worst experience.

and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them.

Said invited gods grinned while the demigods looked slightly uncomfortable.

Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like ..."

"And he still finds us." Ares grumbled.

She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."

In front of us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.

Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire.

"Huh, that sounds familiar." Aphrodite said in a thoughtful tone.

"He is the Roman form of your son Eros." Reyna explained to the goddess who was suddenly beaming at the information.

On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!

"Ugh…they certainly failed with that name." Michael said as the others nodded their heads in agreement.

Grover crept toward the edge. "Guys, look."

Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.

"This sounds too easy." Octavian said worriedly while giving his uncle an apologetic smile for making him again take care about a panicked Theseus.

"This is too easy," I said.

"Percy seems to agree with you." Dakota told the blonde augur.

"So we just walk down there and get it?"

Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.

"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder ..."

Hephaestus looked thoughtful, that was the starting letter of his name so could this mean…

"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?"

He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."

"Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"

"Please not." Theseus whined.

Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."

"You still need to be careful." Pan said sighing, their noses were a satyr's greatest weapon for survival.

"Okay, I'm sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."

"I'll go with you." Groverdidn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.

"On the love ride with a satyr." Travis said snickering before Katie hit him over the head.

"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."

The legacies snorted at this, they had seen the video which will be soon recorded in this book.

Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"

Cue more snorts.

"Zeus continue." Poseidon told his brother.

"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me—"

The demigods broke out laughing at this while Annabeth flushed crimson, Athena and Frederic on the other had frowned a bit.

"Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.

"What's the problem now?" I demanded.

And the laughter only increased and now even the gods looked amused, well outside the laughing had already broken out since Percy asked the girl to go with him.

"Me, go with you to the ... the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"

"Who would see you?" Clarisse asked with a raised eyebrow, even she saw the ridiculousness of this comment.

Annabeth didn't answer, her blush only worsened and could only hope that Zeus would read soon, luckily he did.

"Who's going to see you?" But my face was burning now, too. Leave it to a girl to make everything complicated.

"Only you make it seem complicated." said all the females smirking at the pouting males.

"Some of you look even really adorable when frustrated, this is the other ground." Aphrodite said happily which made the guys blush.

"Fine," I told her. "I'll do it myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.

Now it were the boys who smirked while the girls rolled their eyes at them.

We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf.

Aphrodite looked thoughtful, that sounded like one of hers.

I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride.

"It definitely doesn't sound all too romantic." Silena said.

"As said, he is good in finding us." Ares said, there are only so much places one would find romantic and not be found.

Why? Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.

Said pair blushed again while Aphrodite's children needed to admit that mirrors were a nice addition to bedrooms.

"My parents are not exactly narcistic thought they still have a large mirror in their room." En whispered to Henry who nodded in agreement.

I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable—rose, or mountain laurel.

"Yes, that is one of mine." Aphrodite said recogrinaising it now.

Something good. I smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."

Annabeth flushed deep crimson at this when the others started snickering again.

"So cute, you are already possessive about him." Silena said beaming to the blushing girl.

"What?"

"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."

The moment I touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble.

And the snickers become groans.

My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard.

"I'm sorry for whatever my trap will do." Hephaestus said.

"It is fine, our parents say that it was mostly a scare, but they are fine with what had happened." Sally told the god who nodded his head and the others relaxed slightly at this.

A cobweb,

Again shudder from Athena and her children though the former did not know that her deed she will soon commit after seeing the result of her rivals work will greatly torment her children.

I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.

Everyone leaned further forward in their seats to hear what the trap was.

"Wait," Annabeth said.

"Too late."

"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."

Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.

Grover yelled, "Guys!"

Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.

"We have to get out," I said.

"Duh!" Annabeth said.

I grabbed the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.

"Come on!" Grover shouted.

He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.

"This is actually pretty neat if you think about it." Hermes said, that net sounded interesting.

The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight ..."

"Don't tell me…" Annabeth was too horrified by the thought of her mother and the whole of Olymphus seeing her on a love ride with her future husband.

"It is actually a pretty good video." Lance said to the pale looking girl.

"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid.' Eta is H.' He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"

Annabeth made a mental note to not enter that love ride.

We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things poured out.

Annabeth screamed.

"She will be fine." Sally reassured everyone, in their time her mom could laugh about this memory which said how much she was over it, she even asked for a copy of the video.

It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.

"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp—sp—aaaah!"

Said girl let out a panicked yelp again as Luke went over to her and hugged his mother while an also panicked Malcolm was consoled by Mitchell who was rubbing his back while holding the blonde.

"What is with them?" Trickster asked in confusion while Athena looked worriedly at her children.

"Did you competate against a weaver?" Sally asked her grandmother who gave a slight nod.

"Last week I gave a quest for a contest to a mortal named Arachne, though till now I have not seen the result of her work, but there is still time." she said.

"Well…then please think reasonable then what you will do then it will for forever torment your children and in the end you will regret that deed more then the case with Medusa." Sally told her while looking over her mother and aunt before turning to her cousin. "En, if I remember right there should be a song kind of being about this one which would be really fitting in my option and sum up the whole thing perfectly."

"Which one?" Enysswe asked in confusion when Misty jumped up and got closer to her.

"A band from some of my siblings under the name Spiral Dance." she told her.

"Fine." she replied as her eyes become blue again and the air filled with the sound of guitars, drums and something that sounded like a flute.

Arachnea weaves and she weaves so well
she weaves a passage where the God's will fly
Athena laughs as she casts her spell
while she watches from her loom on high

Athena raised her eyebrow, but did not interrupt because she saw the way her children had reacted to the spiders and she still remembered painfully the whole Medusa incident.

"The tune is pretty catchy, it is kind of like a song from our time." Apollo told Hermes who needed to agree.

"Though I think it is also partly because of the one performing it." he added in to his brother who looked proud at the comment regards his granddaughter.

Athena, Athena, Goddess born lady you're a jealous one
and Arachea knows that you are watching her
waiting for her work to be undone
Athena, have you set the quest
will you take the weave and will you break the weft
or will you let this lady spin her tapestry
of a tale untold and then set her free

Athena didn't know why, but the last for made her feel uneasy.

Arachne, Arachnea the Goddess Athena has a quest for you
and you must weave a story of the God's that rule
in all their mystery and you must tell it true

The goddess nodded her head, this was what she had asked for knowing that it would be impossible for her to do.

so Arachnea's woven for seven moons
she's spun with silver thread upon an apple wood loom
and she's told the story of the God's that rule
in all their mystery and yes she's told it true

This stunned the goddess and by the nods she received from the legacies was it hard to deny, the other gods looked also surprised.

so Athena came to earth disguised as a crone
to gaze upon the tapestry this mortal woman's sewn

"That would certainly be something you would do." Artemis told her sister, she was not good with keeping her curiosity for long in check.

and in and out the fabric that was stretched across the loom
the sins and secrets of the God's were shows

"Ugh…pretty big tapestry then." Apollo said flinching while the other gods looked uncomfortable, they were starting to get why Sally asked her grandmother to be reasonable, she wanted the truth weaved, she got it. Apollo also didn't like the flash of a black form and something like webs around a statue, but again he didn't see the picture clearly.

Athena, Athena, Goddess born lady you're an angry one
and as you spin your spell around Arachnea
to shift her shape into a weaving one

Athena gasped, she started to understand what she had done and how it was bound to the reaction of her children.

and as Arachnea sits and weaves upon her web

And this confirmed it.

she casts her mind back and she remembers when
she told the story of the God's that rule
in all their mystery and how she told it true

Enysswe finished singing, her eyes becoming three colours again before she looked up at the goddess.

"I hope when the times comes will you do the right thing this time around, but if you need more proof, one of these books will give you more reasons." she said at which both Annabeth and Malcolm clung closer to the ones holding them.

"We should now continue, the chapter is soon done." Sally told them as everyone nodded, but reluctantly though Athena was still looking at her children as her father continued.

I'd never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat.

No matter how even hearing about those spider automatons scarred her had Annabeth a small smile on her lips that Percy had done this for her.

The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.

"They would hurt more, but not kill." Hephaestus said, he didn't like it how scarred that girl looked because of his creations no matter if she would be fine later on.

Annabeth and I climbed into the boat.

I started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.

Annabeth felt useless about hering that, but her son gently whispered to her that it was not her fault and it seemed to calm her. She even wondered if this was like how she felt with Percy, protected and without doubts because he doesn't let her think like that.

"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.

The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.

"Lord Hephaestus, you can say that again that it would hurt more." Connor said wide eyed, that ride sounded more like a nightmare then fun.

Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.

Think, I told myself. Think.

The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.

"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.

Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?

Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.

"Grover!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"

"But—"

"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. I had to get us out of there.

"So this is what you meant about him intentionally using his powers." Triton said as he looked at his niece seeing how his nephew was still busy.

"Yes." come the reply.

Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.

"Five, four—"

Grover looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.

I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.

"Why do I have the feeling that this will be a bit overboard." Triton said, but then he heard the legacies snorting.

"Fourth book." they told him and he really didn't like hearing that.

"Two, one, zero!"

Water exploded out of the pipes.

"And the show starts." Travis whispered to Connor and Chris.

It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt

Annabeth smiled again at this, he was really a nice guy and even Athena and Frederic looked thankful that Percy was taking care of Annabeth when she was not able to do that for herself.

just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.

The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.

Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.

"It kind of made everyone stop and stare at the screens, I think grandmother even fainted while grandaunt Athena and granduncle Poseidon who were in the middle of an argument were frozen down for at least twenty minutes after the cameras shut down." Mich told the others who all nodded their heads, they could see that happening.

But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat.

"Good son." Poseidon said as Jason nodded, the power controlling boats was a good gift which had helped them often with the Argo.

I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond.

"Not technically, dad can control boats." Sally said while the demigods looked interested at this, no wonder that he was good at canoeing.

At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.

Annabeth and I held tight, both of us screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff.

"Again that kills all romance." Gwen added in, she liked Romeo and Juliet, she had read it like ten times, but still she would not feel like looking at those pictures in that type of situation.

Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.

If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade—one submerged, the other cracked in half.

This drew again groans from everyone.

"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Annabeth.

"Are you crazy?"

"Yup!" the legacies said.

"Unless you want to get smashed to death." I strapped Ares's shield to my arm. "We're going to have to jump for it." My idea was simple and insane.

"Though it could work if the jump's timing is right." Athena said in a thoughtful tone.

As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool.

"Then let Annabeth do the timing." the Greek demigods, beside the two children of Athena, at the same time.

Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped my hand as the gates got closer.

"On my mark," I said.

"No! On my mark!"

"Good then they will manage to land in the pool." Theseus said in relief, he wanted this chapter to end, but he had not many hopes regards the other books.

"The chapter is also over soon." Zeus stated to the room before turning his gaze back to the book.

"What?"

"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle—"

"Annabeth, not the time." Silena told her friend who gave her a small smile, she was slowly getting better and Malcolm seemed to also get over his fright.

"Fine.'" I shouted. "On your mark!"

There were some weak snickers at this.

She hesitated ... hesitated ... then yelled, "Now!"

Crack!

Annabeth was right. If we'd jumped when I thought we should've, we would've crashed into the gates. She got us maximum lift.

Athena smiled proudly at her daughter, but her actuall realief was because her children seemed to slowly get better.

Unfortunately, that was a little more than we needed.

And the smiles disappeared…

Our boat smashed into the pileup and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.

…and worry took their place.

Something grabbed me from behind.

Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"

Grover!

"Thank the gods that Grover was there." Lee sighed in relief, if they would have crashed on the asphalt with that lift it would have caused serious broken bones and could even end with internal bleedings which were even with ambrosia and nectar hard to cure and they didn't even have any of those.

In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and I had all the momentum.

"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"

"Just try to put them down carefully." Orpheus said while prying Theseus off of himself.

We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.

We smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale.

Katie glared that the Stolls that they should not dare laughing at the situation.

Annabeth and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive.

"Which is a good thing." replied their parents.

Ares's shield was still on my arm.

Once we caught our breath, Annabeth and I got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.

"At least you're alright," Chiron said in relief.

A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming.

The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.

"Show's over!" I yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"

Now though everyone who knew these phrases started laughing at Percy's antics even after such an experience.

"I love how he can keep his good humour up." Chris said.

"Yep, dad may have been in his youth a pessimist, but he also has a good humour." Luke said when his mother signalled to him that she was fine now, Malcolm also pulled away from Mitchell after thanking him.

The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good.

"They had some of the highest ones in the history of Olymphos." Nathan told them, he had also seen the video.

I hated being teased.

The legacies nodded their heads in confirmation.

I hated being tricked.

More nods.

And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me. I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."

"This was the end of the chapter." Zeus said as Hera took the book from his hands and started reading.

"The new chapter is called We Take a Zebra to Vegas" she read as Henry scooted closer to Enysswe, he knew that his cousin would need him, his uncle still hated that hotel, yes he accepted why he needed to stay there for so long, but he still hated that place.

To be continued…