Zane Williams and The Gods of Olympus

by thesuperone342

Ever felt like Jason Grace is a complete disappointment and a failure to what a son of Zeus should be? Ever feel like Thalia was a waste and was thrown away too quickly? Well, this is the fanfiction for you. Join Zane Williams on his quest to be the strongest. Current Arc: The Last Olympian. Yaoi. (Anime Elements/AU) [Bad First Chapter, Needs Rewrite]

10. We Win A Race (And A Quest, Too)

Alright, boys, chapter ten is here! The start of the quest is now and I hope you enjoy this chapter. But first, reviews!

Echoxenvy: "Great beginning to the arc. I loved your original writing towards the beginning, Zane doing schoolwork was hilarious. Tantalus is a real dick, glad Zane and Percy stood up to him good, unlike Percy's couple of retorts in the book, they full on made the bastard piss himself in this chapter lol. For the Quest, I guess we'll find out who's going next chapter. In my opinion, it should be Zane, Percy, Annabeth, Tyson and Taylor. With Nico being focused on more in Titans Curse. That's just my thought, whatever you decide I'm cool with. All in all, great chapter and can't wait for the tenth.

P.S. You know I write super quick. Chapter Twenty of mine should be out in a couple of days.

P.P.S. Thanks for the shoutout."

Response: I'm glad you enjoyed it, man. The first scene was inspired by the vine of that dude in the library going, 'Fuck school!' I decided to do that with Zane for some comedy. Yeah, I hate Tantalus, so he's going to get shit on by basically everyone in this arc. As for who's going on the quest, you'll have to read to find out. Also, can't wait for chapter nineteen from you, and by the time this goes up, probably chapter twenty as well.

Jay: "Will Zane sacrifice the Ophiotaurus from the Titan's Curse? He seems like the type to do it if it means a power boost."

Response: He may seem like the type right now, but he's going to get some character development by that point. If you follow the story until then, you'll see what I mean.

Born In The Second Generation: "The gay chicken part between Nico and Zane is so cute. Hope we see more fluff between them."

Response: Oh, it's you. I thought you may have dropped the story after the whole Hades chapter. Glad to see that you're back. Anyway, if you like what was in last chapter, you'll love what's in this one.

Anyway, enough with reviews, let's blow this pop-stand.

(Disclaimer: I don't own anything here (Except the OCs). If the fact that this is on a fanficition site didn't tip you off, you're fucking retarded.)

(000)

(June 15th, 2007)

The next few days were utter dogshit, as expected. The camp was basically chaos. No one did any of their chores, in preparation for the whole chariot race. Not even the border patrols were being done, except by me and Clarisse, which was kind of weird and a little awkward. I hadn't spoken much to Clarisse ever since I threatened her after she tried to dump my head in water after my arrival, so pretty much hanging around her for almost six hours a day was a little weird if I'm being honest.

If the past few days sucked for me, then imagine how much they sucked for Percy. He was irritable and angry at almost every passing moment. He didn't take it out on us, his friends, but he did have very little patience with anyone else. No one dared make any comment to his face, but they tried to talk behind his back.

Random tremors around the camp were almost common place now, Percy's rage manifesting itself in real form in the place of earthquakes. I didn't really get a chance to speak with him alone like I had promised earlier when he arrived, mainly since he always returned to his cabin at the soonest possible moment. Everyone in our friend group was worried about the son of Poseidon, including me.

Tantalus had said earlier that you could only partner with one person at the dinner, but that didn't stop me from registering both Nico and Taylor as my partners. The child of Demeter who was the one responsible for registering teams had told me that I could do that, with a nervous look and an audible gulp of course.

I glared at her and told her to tell Tantalus about it and he could take it up with me. I didn't hear anything from Tantalus. Percy and Annabeth had teamed up, as was natural for the two of them. Or, at least, they did for a while, until they had an argument that broke their little team up. Annabeth hadn't sat at our table since, returning to her normal seat. I wasn't sure what the source of the argument was, probably Tyson.

Speaking of Tyson, he had sat with us at my table as well. At first, I wasn't sure of what to think of the cyclops, considering he was a cyclops and all. But after hanging around him for a couple of days, I found he wasn't actually so bad. He was like a little kid, innocent and kind. I didn't really understand why people didn't bother to get to know him before judging him.

Nico and Taylor also thought he was alright as well. It was probably just xenophobia or racism, whatever the correct term was there. The only guy who had no problem with the cyclops was Charles Beckendorf, the son of Hephaestus I mentioned earlier. He often took Tyson down to the forges within the Hephaestus cabin, getting up to gods know what.

Other than the whole nonchalantness about camp duties and such, the day mostly went as usual. Classes with the Athena cabin, most dreadfully: math. Archery classes with the Apollo cabin, combat classes with the Hermes cabin. Even some people actually joined me and Clarisse on border patrol, one of them being Percy. I didn't talk with him alone during it, mainly cause he looked so pissed at the time. Also, during combat classes, one person really caught my eye in a particular class. His name was Arthur Wayne, a son of Helios and the counselor for the Helios cabin.

Arthur was around fifteen looking, but he could easily be younger since Percy also looked to be about that age as well. He had medium length auburn blonde hair that fell down his neck. He was handsome, as most demigods were, except for the Ares kids.

He wore the signature Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and a pair of white washed blue jeans. He had a grin that showed his pure white, almost shining teeth. Although, he could actually just be using his Helios powers to brighten his teeth like that. He carried a celestial bronze spear he called Illiakikilida, or Sunspot. It was a celestial bronze tipped spear, but the handle and shaft of the weapon was an obsidian black. The name of the weapon was rather fitting, then.

I personally didn't know Arthur too much, mainly because he's rather new at the camp. He'd only been here for a solid two months, so it is pretty weird that he is already the counselor of the Helios cabin. It probably had something to do with the fact that he's probably the strongest son of Helios to ever live.

His powers over light were extraordinary, far more so than other other Helios children. Arthur was still rather inexperienced his his spear, so Taylor would often help him to brush up his skills. The two seemed to know each other, as they would talk whenever they ran into another.

Speaking of Taylor, me, him and Nico had finished our chariot just in time for the race. It wasn't exactly anything special, and it looked ugly as sin. It was painted three different colors, electric blue for Zeus, pitch black for Hades and blood red for Ares. It looked rather makeshift and made on the fly, since none of us were really all that skill at building things.

I wasn't sure whether the chariot would actually make it through the race or fall apart during it, but we would see. We weren't really in it to win it and had a lot of fun building the damn thing. Seriously, we laughed for almost ten minutes straight looking at how dumb this thing was. We didn't care, since we had a good time and hopefully would have a good time at the race.

If it does break apart, I'm going to summon a thunderstorm to mess around with the other charioteers, though. We had chosen a horse named Pebbles, a grey robust stallion who looked fairly decent and a horse name Granger, a black solid horse who looked in good health. Maybe we wouldn't do so terrible in the race.

The day of the race was hot and humid, as most summer days are. Me, Taylor and Nico basically hauled our crappy chariot to the new race track that had been built by the Hephaestus cabin, only to find Percy and Tyson waiting at the starting line for us. one the way over to the track, we noted that the trees around the forest were filled with some kind of bird.

There were tens of thousands of them. Their screeching sounded like metal scraping together, creating a really fucking annoying sound. We found Tyson and Percy by the starting line with their chariot, the line in front of a marble stair-like structure that would serve as a seating arrangement. Percy and Tyson's chariot was awesome, with it being half metal and half wood. The chariot was painted blue and white and looked high class. Well, maybe since Tyson is a cyclops and they're really good at smithing and building, that's why it looks so good?

Apparently not, since after we arrived, everyone else decided to show up. Their chariots were also incredibly well made. Both the Helios and Apollo cabins had chariots made of pure gold, mirroring the sun chariot that flew across the sky. The Ares cabin had built a chariot that looked ripped straight out of Mad Max, with it being blood red and covered in spikes and shit.

The Hermes cabin showed up with a chariot that looked rather old and dinky, like it had been pulled from a shed. But I knew it was a million times better than the piece of shit my team had put together. The greatest chariot was the Hephaestus cabin, as they had a chariot that seemed to be made entirely out of bronze and machinery, including the horses. The metal moved and looked like it was alive. My jaw dropped as we looked at the other cabin's chariots. We were so fucked.

Taylor, to my left giggled at the sight of the chariots. "We're so fucked." Taylor took out a hairbrush and walked over to Nico, whose hair was nightmarishly tangled from working on the chariot almost all last night. Nico yelped in protest as Taylor ruthlessly tried to straighten his hair. "Stay still, Nico! Otherwise you're hair will rip out." Nico whined about his hair being brushed in front of the entire camp, but otherwise did nothing more. A blush made it's way on his face as he say me looking at his torture.

Once, everyone had made it to the starting line, I noticed Percy was talking with Annabeth about something. "I'll be right back, guys." I said to my teammates. Taylor nodded to me and continued to slide his brush through Nico's hair. I inched closer, leaving Nico to Taylor's mercy. I heard a couple things about 'Grover' and an 'Empathy Link.'

Grover? The satyr who had brought Percy to camp? I hadn't seen much of him in well...ever. He basically disappeared after the talk with Chiron about the quest. Since he had failed to bring in Percy himself, his request for a searcher's license was denied by the Council of Cloven Elders. I had briefly seen him talk to Percy after the quest, but after the summer ended he had practically vanished from the camp. What had happened to him?

Once I got close enough to hear everything clearly, I realized I had came upon the end of the conversation. "Look..." Annabeth said. "We'll talk about this later. After I win." She climbed up into her chariot and didn't say another word. Percy rolled his eyes and walked back over to his chariot, where Tyson was making some last minute adjustments to it. I walked over to his chariot and tapped the son of Poseidon on the shoulder.

Percy turned to me. "What was that about exactly?" Me and Percy hadn't talked much in the last three days. We had been busy and Percy had constantly been in a really bad move, so I kept some distance to let him cool off a bit. He looked to be better now. Percy hesitated a little bit, before looking around at the rest of the camp. I leaned in and whispered into his ear. "I heard something about Grover and an empathy link. What does that mean exactly?"

Percy sighed. "I'll tell you after the race, okay? In return, you tell me about that thing you had mentioned back at the Big House." I nodded at his terms and he turned and looked over at our chariot. He cringed at the sight and I laughed a bit. "Is that really your chariot?"

"Yup." I said, popping the 'p.' "I know it doesn't really look all that great. To be honest it looks really fucking terrible." I muttered. "But we had a lot of fun building it, even though it sucks. We basically slept over at my place for the past three days." The image of all three of us huddled in my bed came into my mind. Yeah, we stayed up till around three in the morning each night putting that piece of shit together, we didn't care where we slept.

I saw the small marble seats start to fill up with people to the side of the racing track. I saw that bastard Tantalus take his place at a little podium that had been constructed. "Anyway, it looks like the race is about to start, so I'll see you whenever it's over. Good luck!" I jogged away from his chariot and rejoined my team. Nico had straight hair again and a pout on his face. Taylor had a sinister smirk on his face as he put his hairbrush back into his pocket. Man, these two were weird.

Tantalus cleared his throat, which I imagined had to have hurt considering how dry it had to be. "Right! You all know the rules." Tantalus was holding a platter of chocolate snacks and trying to grab the candies. The chocolate was jumping around like a bunch of fleas, avoiding Tantalus' hand. "A quarter-mile track. Two laps to win. Two horses per chariot. Each team will consist of a driver and a fighter."

He looked over at my team and glared. "Or two fighters, if you're as special as the son of Zeus." The sky rumbled and Tantalus quickly shut up. "Anyway, weapons are allowed, dirty tricks are expected. But try not to kill anybody!" Tantalus smiled at us like we were pieces of meat. "Any killing will result in harsh punishment! No s'mores at the campfire for a week!" Yeah, very harsh punishment, huh? "Now, be on your mark!"

I stepped into my chariot, behind Taylor, who was the driver. "You sure you can handle the reins, Taylor?" Taylor turned back and looked almost offended at my question.

"Are you kidding me, Zane? I built this baby with my bare hands. I'm letting nobody but me take this thing for a spin." Taylor had done the majority of the work with the chariot. Me and Nico tried to help, but both of us were too brain dead to even try the attempt. "Besides, I need you and Nico to be the fighters. Your lightning and Nico's shadows will make the other team's lives hell. Plus, if the thing falls apart, you can use your wind to help us keep going." I nodded at Taylor's answer.

I withdrew Keravnos from my back and stood beside the son of Hades. "You ready for this one, Nico?" The son of Hades nodded and unsheathed his Stygian Iron sword from his waist. "Remember your training with your shadow powers, okay? Try to mold them into physical spikes to pierce the enemie's chariots."

Nico smiled at me. "Don't worry, Zane. I'm ready for this." I nodded and we got ready for the race to begin. Nico looked at the ground of the chariot and made an unsure face. "Uh, guys?" We looked at the son of Hades. "On a scale of one to ten, how sure are you that this is going to hold together?" Me and Taylor looked at each other, an unsure look on our faces.

"Seven" "Four." Me and Taylor said, respectively. I looked at the son of Ares in horror. "Four!? Taylor, where did you learn your chariot building skills from?" Taylor gave me a grin and shrugged. I groaned and facepalmed. "Well, let's at least try to not be last in this thing, got it?" My friends nodded and we got ready.

As we waited for Tantalus to blow the conch horn to signal our start, I noticed the birds in the trees were really starting to pile up. They were screeching like crazy, making the entire forest rustle. The beaks of the birds seemed rather shiny compared to a normal bird and the screeching sounded like metal sliding against itself. Those birds put me on edge. Everyone at the starting line prepared to bolt at a seconds notice, waiting for the horn. We are so fucking screwed.

Tantalus shouted out with his raspy and dry voice, "Charioteers! Attend your mark!" The horn blasted and we all bolted our horses from the starting line. I created a burst of wind that rattled the other chariots and made the horses got into a mini frenzy. The other charioteers tried to regain control over their horses as we sped past everyone. The Hermes' chariot, led by the Stoll twins, crashed into the Apollo chariot. Both chariot's flipped over and their horse ripped free from the fallen chariots. The Stoll twins and the Apollo riders were quickly left behind. Well, I didn't expect for that to happen from a small burst of wind.

The other charioteers quickly regained control over their horses and caught up with us in no time. Damn this shitty chariot. In a matter of ten seconds we were passed by literally everyone still left in the race. I felt the floor of our chariot break apart as we pushed our ride to the very limit to try and keep up.

I charged a bunch of lightning into my fingers and shot it at the cracks in our chariot. The lightning fused the chariot back together, saving our ride from being toasted within the first minute. "Let's kick this thing up a notch!" I manipulated the wind and propelled our chariot wheels to go faster. In only five seconds we caught up with everyone, trailing behind Percy's chariot.

Tyson had in his hands a big metal pole, which he used to try and push us back. Nico created a shadow spike from the ground and knocked the pole from Tyson's hands. Tyson yelped as he lost the pole, which somehow slowed the horses down, probably startling them.

We passed Percy's chariot and I tried to permanently disable them with a lightning bolt. Percy held up a hand and molded his arm into a water shield, absorbing the lightning. My bolt still had a desired effect, as it terrified the horses and forced Percy to focus on my lightning rather than calming his rides. Percy's chariot quickly disappeared from view as we caught up with the other chariots.

The Hephaestus chariot was the one currently in front of us. Charles Beckendorf noticed us from a rear view mirror he had implemented and pressed a button on his chariot. "Sorry, Zane!" Three large bronze sphere burst from the side of his bronze chariot and tried to smash into our chariot. It would have been our end, if not for the shadow wave Nico had made to deflect the spheres right back at Beckendorf.

The spheres slammed into the side of his chariot and he grunted. Three large dents were now clearly visible from our side view. I charged a bolt of lightning and shot the chariot with it. The lightning must of short circuited his chariot, as his bronze, robot horse stopped moving instantly and the chariot flipped over on it's side.

We were now neck and neck with both the Athena and Ares' cabin as we completed our first lap. Suddenly, the birds that had been pilling in the trees of the forest around the camp all flew out of them. The sky darkened with birds, pigeons from the looks of it. There had to be hundreds of thousands of them. I tried to ignore the birds, focusing on the race instead.

To my left, I saw the fighter of the Athena cabin throw a javelin right at Taylor's head. My eyes widened and I caught the javelin mid flight. I turned a furious gaze to the son of Athena who just tried to murder Taylor and returned the javelin to sender. The javelin broke the sound barrier and went right through the son of Athena's leg, creating a spear sized hole. The fighter blinked and held his leg, before yelling in pain and collapsing in a heap right beside Annabeth.

Before Annabeth could even react, the pigeons dive bombed the area. They swarmed the marble stands and the track, trying to peck away the skin of the campers. I now had a better look at the birds. Their beaks didn't look like they were shiny, they were shiny. They were made of some kind of metal. The birds uselessly pecked at my skin, their metal beaks bending and breaking on my skin.

I saw both Taylor and Nico try and fight them off, both of them getting cuts from the birds. My blood boiled and I released a burst of lightning all around us, incinerating the birds. I held up my arms and created a shield of wind and lightning around us, the birds unable to pierce it. I turned to Taylor. "Go, keep driving! Make our way back around to the stands and we'll help everyone out their. Taylor nodded and whipped the reins, prompting the horses to go faster. To my right, I saw the Ares chariot still driving away, a net over the hood protecting them from the birds.

I growled. We weren't going fast enough. "Taylor, unhook the horses!" Taylor looked at me like I was insane. "Just do it!" Taylor did as I said and unhooked the horses from our chariot, the horse running off and neighing as they were being pecked to death by the pigeons. Our chariot did not lose speed, however. I poured more wind into the wheels of our vehicle, drawing some power from my Thunder Form to propel us. We immediately boomed past the Ares chariot, the forces of our movement causing their chariot to flip on it's side.

We raced past the finish line and jumped out of the chariot in a flash. Taylor brandished his spear and shield and Nico had his sword ready in a fighting stance. The birds were attacking every one of the campers in sight, trying to peck at any exposed piece of skin, which was a lot cause it's summer and it's fucking hot outside.

I withdrew my axe, Keravnos and began to hack at the closest cluster of bird I could find. Nico, to my left, slashing at the birds with his blade and he used the shadows to skewer them. Taylor used his incredible speed to blitz the birds before they could even react. I cleaved through any bird that was dumb enough to get close to me. However, despite the ease of this, we weren't making any head way through the giant cloud of murder pigeons.

Tantalus, who was standing in the chaos among the stands, called out to the panicking campers. "Everything's under control, not to worry!" The motherfucker was chasing around some bread pastries while we were being pecked to pieces right here. I growled, deciding I was done with this shit. I lifted both of my hands in a underhanded fashion, focusing the wind in the sky above us. A dark storm built up, thundering across the sky.

"ENOUGH!" I shouted, and the birds froze in place. I had commanded the wind to trap them in place. The birds flapped their wings furiously, trying to escape my wind. I growled and commanded the wind to move the birds in the sky above us.

The birds were all mashed together in one big floating pile in the sky. There were so many birds, they literally blotted out the sun. My eyes flashed an electric blue and the thunderstorm above us shot a massive burst of lightning from the clouds into the crowd of birds. The birds screeched and cried as they were all turned into ash from my power.

The entire camp was silent for a second. The sky literally rained the ashes of hundreds of thousands of demon pigeon things. After the immediate shock was over, the Apollo children started to tend to the wounded of the camp. The wounds were rather nasty, with deep gashes and ripped skin almost on literally every camper.

I saw Percy and Tyson run up to the stands, Percy with his sword, Riptide, drawn and ready for battle. Annabeth's chariot finished the track, with Annabeth stopping as soon as she crossed the finish line and checking on her injured fighter, who had a hole in his leg. I turned to Taylor and Nico, who both had cuts and gashes on their forms. "Are you two alright?"

Taylor put away his bloody spear and nodded. "We're fine, Zane." He panted, tired from the fighting and the racing. I saw a particularly deep gash across his cheek which looked rather serious. I walked over to him and cupped his chin as I examined the cut. "Z-Zane. What are you doing?" Taylor's face turned red at the action.

"Hmm..." I looked at the gash, which was freely bleeding at the moment. "You need to go get that checked out, okay. It will leave a scar if you don't go and get it healed by the Apollo cabin quick, you hear me?" Taylor wordlessly nodded, his face as crimson as his hair. I released Taylor's face and walked over to Nico.

I saw a cut on his right hand, which I grabbed to examine. The cut was rather nasty, going down to the muscle. I released Nico's soft, delicate hand and looked him in the eye, a slight blush on his face, too. "You go do the same thing, Nico. This literally goes down to the muscle." Nico nodded and followed after Taylor, who had gone to an Apollo kid to get healed.

A dry, raspy voice broke out over the crowd. "Bravo!" Everyone at the stands turned to see Tantalus. He walked towards the finish line and tossed me a golden laurel. "We have our first winner. Enjoy it." Tantalus said through gritted teeth, obviously angry at my victory. Also, what the fuck?

How did I win? I literally just used wind to get here to help everyone as quick as possible, so that shouldn't have counted, right? He turned his cruel, malicious gaze over to Percy, Annabeth and Tyson, who were conversing over what had just happened. "Now to punish the troublemakers who disrupted this race." Huh?

"Huh?" Percy asked, his voice a complete mirror of my thoughts. Annabeth's expression turned into one of confusion and Tyson just looked completely lost. What the fuck was Tantalus talking about?

Tantalus smirked. "Those Stymphalian Birds were simply minding their own business outside of the borders of camp. Your awful chariot driving disturbed them and provoked them into attack."

He scoffed. "How else would Williams have won with that dreadful chariot he came here with?" Hey, buddy. Fuck you. I know it was an awful chariot, but it was my awful chariot. Only I could say it sucked. "I would say that is worthy of some due punishment."

Percy was silent, probably too stunned to say anything. After almost a full minute of silence, his face turned into one of anger. "Are you fucking serious? Those birds just tried to eat the whole camp alive and you're going to blame it on me because of bad chariot driving." Percy spat on the ground. "No wonder you were stupid enough to fee your own son to the gods." Percy turned around in disgust. "Go back to Tartarus where you belong, Tantalus. Do everyone here a favor."

Tantalus' eyes bugged out of his head. "Don't you turn your back on me, Percy Jackson!" Percy spun back around and the entire camp turned from their business to look upon the scene. "This entire event is your fault! If it wasn't for you, the tree wouldn't have been poisoned! If you didn't bring back that monster of a brother you have, those birds wouldn't have grown confident enough to come close to camp! Even though the injuries and plights of everyone in this camp is your fault, you have the nerve to disrespect me, your new activity director!?"

Tantalus' eyes took on an insane gaze. "You remind me of my son, Jackson! He was just as disrespectful and insubordinate as you are! If you do not start showing me proper respect, I will make sure you end up like hi-" Tantalus was interrupted by me shooting a burst of lightning from my hand.

Lightning struck Tantalus in the chest, stopping his insane ranting and raving. Tantalus couldn't get another word out as he was turned to ash by my lightning, joining the rest of the ash on the ground of the birds that tried to murder us. Everyone in the camp looked at me with wide eyes as I stood there with my outstretched hand.

I looked at everyone, false confusion on my face. "What? Did you expect me to not incinerate him after he threatened to turn my friend into a stew like he did his son?" No one in the camp said anything. "No? Ah, well then. Back to your business then, my fellow campers." Everyone turned away, most doing so uneasily. I walked up to Percy, Annabeth and Tyson, but before I could get a word out, a familiar voice spoke out.

"What in the name of Olympus happened out here?" I turned to see Dionysus, who was only wearing the bottom half of his purple toga, his upper athletic body on full display. He held a wine glass filled with diet coke and had the most confused expression on his face I'd ever seen from him.

That was weird, normally his facial expression were a dastardly smirk or complete utter boredom. He looked at the pile of ash that was once Tantalus, or still was Tantalus, since he couldn't actually die due to the fact of him already being dead. Dionysus looked at me. "Really, brother?"

I shrugged, not giving a damn. "He literally defended the murder birds after they attacked the entire camp and tried to eat everyone. He blamed Percy and Annabeth's bad chariot driving for the reason they attacked us." If Dionysus was going to defend Tantalus, I was going to let Percy cut his head off and I'll send it to Olympus as a message saying: 'We need a new camp director.'

Dionysus raised an eyebrow at the two demigods who stood behind me, plus one cyclops. "And did their bad chariot driving provoke the..." Dionysus trailed off, trying to find the right words. "..'murder birds?'" Dionysus shook his head saying the words. "And did his apparently unfair judgement really deserve you turning him into ashes?"

I looked at the wine god with the most deadpan look I could create. "Are you serious, right now?" Dionysus shrugged and sipped his diet coke. I held the bridge of my nose. "Of course not, brother. No matter how much Percy and Annabeth suck at chariot driving," I almost snickered at my words, as it got a indignant 'Hey!' out of both of them. "It couldn't have been bad enough to make those little fuckers try and eat us."

My face darkened and I spoke in a grim tone. "And you didn't hear what he said. He said Percy had reminded him of his son back when he was king of Sipylus. He said if Percy didn't start showing him respect, he'd make sure Percy ended up like his son. I'm sure you know how that ended, considering you were there at the time."

Dionysus' expectant facial expression darkened slightly as he heard my words. He didn't respond to me and he raised his hand. He whisked his fingers, and Tantalus reformed from the pile of ash. The ash transmuted from ash to bone which started to grow nerves and sinews, which muscle quickly formed over. The process finally ended with Tantalus' skin and hair returning, putting an end to a grisly visual.

Tantalus breathed heavily and he looked shaken up. He saw Dionysus standing beside me and his face twisted into one of pure hate. "My lord, you would not believe what your 'esteemed' brother did to me! He rose his hand and his powers against me, an extension of your will! You would do well to-!"

"You would do well to shut up, Tantalus." Dionysus' tone was firm and stern, something I had not heard before. He was normally either amused or bored, so a serious Dionysus was something not to be trifled with. "Listen here, my dear friend and listen well. I know that the campers here can be annoying, Percy Jackson especially." I noticed he didn't bother to call Percy by the name Peter, which he normally did. He really was serious.

"Actively putting them in danger is something I can look the other way about, since they need not be babied." Dionysus walked up to the activity director and looked him straight in the eye. "But threatening them with a fate similar to your son for a crime they did not commit because of something so trivial as disrespect is something I will not abide. You would do well to refrain from ever doing so again, lest you may find yourself back in the Fields of Punishment with your lake. Do I make myself clear, activity director?"

Tantalus looked miffed and nodded, not saying another word and he then looked down in what seemed to be shame. But I knew better. Judging from the tightening of his fists, he was really angry. Dionysus turned to me. "If he ever does something like that again, or actively puts the entire camp in danger for something so trivial such as a chariot race again, you are free to turn him to ashes. Just make sure to come to me afterwards and I'll send him back to his lake in Tartarus."

I nodded at the wine god. Dionysus looked at everyone who were just standing around gaping like a stuffed fish. "Anyway, apparently my brother and his little gaggle of boyfriends have won the race." My face burned as Dionysus said those words, and the most of the campers chuckled a bit. Dionysus smirked. "Oh, that's funny to you, isn't it? I have something even funnier. Anyone who did not directly take pare in the race now have to clean up this mess." Dionysus motioned to the track and the stands, which were covered in the ashes of those demon birds. "You have until sunset for it all to be clean. I would start immediately."

Dionysus sauntered away with his wine glass in hand and the rest of the camp groaned. I found this to be the perfect time to talk to Percy alone. I turned around to the son of Poseidon and motioned him to follow me. "Come one, Perce. This is the best time to talk. Take Annabeth and Tyson with us." I wasn't sure why I wanted Tyson to come, but I could feel he was just important to the situation.

I found both Taylor and Nico in the crowd, being treated by the Apollo cabin for their gashes. They were now patched up and I tapped both of them on the shoulder and told them to follow me. I led my group to my cabin, the best place to talk in private with no one to eavesdrop on us. Once everyone was inside of my cabin, which was a mess at the moment because of all the prep work for the race, I locked the door and turned to everyone. Also, speaking of the race, I threw the golden laurels on my bed, not really caring about them at the moment. I shook my head, not believing we had won with that piece of shit chariot.

"Okay, Percy. Tell me about that thing about Grover and an Empathy Link. I heard about it before the race." Percy was silent for a bit as everyone in my cabin looked at him in expectation. Percy then started to explain that Grover had left the camp on his own without a searcher's license to go look for Pan. I was confused. I didn't know Grover very well, but from what I have seen in passing and in small interactions, he's quite the stickler for the rules. "From what I know about Grover, that doesn't exactly sound like something he'd do. Why did he got out on his own?"

Percy had an answer for that. "He told me he didn't like breaking the rules, but he would do it if it meant going after and finding Pan. It's his dream and he'll do anything to achieve it." Percy then went on to explain he had went to Florida and had went to the Sea of Monsters, a place Percy and I had no clue about. He told us that Grover had been led there by a trap created by the elder cyclops, Polyphemus and had been captured.

Grover avoided being eaten by pretending to be a female cyclops and dressing up in a wedding gown. I would have laughed, but Percy's serious tone stopped me from doing so. Grover sent Percy an Empathy Link, which connected their minds. If Grover dies, Percy could die or at the least spend years in a vegetative state. Apparently, Grover also only had nine days left to finish this bridal thing, otherwise Polyphemus would probably eat him. "So that's what I've been worrying about for the past few days, so what have you been worrying about?"

I took a deep breath. "You know how you had dreams on the quest for the Master Bolt last year? Percy nodded at my question. "I've been having the same ones, the one with the dark pit and the titan lord." The entire cabin was silent at my words. "He's trying to contact me, turn me over to his side." I pointed at Percy. "For some reason, he wants me to kill you." Percy went rigid at that. "But I'm obviously not going to listen to a dude who ate his own kids because of a prophecy. Not even Tantalus ate his own child, despite murdering him. I'd have to be a psycho to do that. So, yeah, I'm not ever going to join him."

There wasn't much to add to my dreams, so we decided to talk about Percy's empathy link with Grover. "Guys...the thing Grover was talking about, the thing Polyphemus was using to draw in satyrs to him." Annabeth was silent for a moment. "I think he might have been talking about the golden fleece." While everyone else here believe her, Percy wasn't so sure.

He, despite everything we had been through, still was grounded a bit in normal reality. Annabeth looked at Percy dryly. "Percy, you remember the Grey Sisters?" Percy and Annabeth had told us about the Grey Sisters, the taxi service that had brought them to Camp Half-Blood in a supersonic taxi car. "They said they know the location of the thing you seek. And they mentioned Jason. Three thousand years ago, they told him the location of The Golden Fleece as well. You do know the story of the Jason and The Argonaunts, right?"

"You mean the one with the clay skeletons?" I looked at Percy weirdly, as did everyone in the cabin except for Tyson. What the fuck kind of movies does he watch?

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Oh my gods, Percy. You are hopeless." Percy shrugged in confusion while Annabeth just huffed. To my left, Taylor giggled and Nico smirked. Yep, Percy and Annabeth both totally like each other, no cap. "Anyway, just listen. The real story of the Golden Fleece is this: there were two children of Zeus, Cadmus and Europa."

Damn, how many fucking siblings do I have? Actually, I don't think I want to really know that number. "They were about to get offered up as human sacrifices, so they prayed to Zeus. So Zeus sent this magical flying ram with golden wool, which picked them up in Greece and carried them all the way to Colchis in Asia Minor. Actually, it carried Cadmus, since his sister Europa fell off and died along the way. But that's not important." I had to stifle a burst of laughter, which would have made me look weird.

Percy's deadpan response broke my resolve, thought. "It was probably important to her." I couldn't help it and let out a chuckle. Annabeth looked at me, sending me a look that said: 'Not Helping.' I smirked and motioned for her to continue.

Annabeth rolled her eyes at Percy's response and my antics. "The point is, when Cadmus got to Colchis, he sacrificed the golden ram to the gods and hung it's Fleece on a nearby tree." Wow, what an asshole. The ram saved your ass from death and you kill it immediately after lands. "The Fleece brought prosperity to the land. Animals stopped getting sick. Farmers had Bumper crops. The plants grew better. Plagues never visited. That's why Jason wanted the Fleece. It can revitalize any land it's places upon. It cures sickness, strengthens nature and cleans up pollution."

"Basically, it is the perfect thing to cure my half-sister's tree with." I finished for the daughter of Athena, who nodded at my statement.

"And it would totally strengthen the borders around Camp Half-Blood, too. But the Fleece has been missing for centuries. Tons of heroes have gone searching for it but with no luck." I smirked at Annabeth's words. Annabeth, do you know who you're talking to? You're talking to the two who found the Master Bolt. You're talking to the two who defeated Ares. You're talking to the two who killed Hyperion and Oceanus, respectively. Nothing is impossible for us.

Percy seemed to think so, too. "But Grover found it. He went looking for Pan and found the Fleece because they both radiate nature magic." Percy looked a little unsure. "Or at least I think Pan does, since Grover probably wouldn't have gone looking for him if he didn't. Anyway, I'm getting of topic. It just makes sense Annabeth. We can rescue Grover and get the Fleece as well. Two birds with one stone. It's perfect."

Annabeth nodded. "A little too perfect if you ask me, Percy." I don't think he asked you, Annabeth. "What if it's a trap? Chiron literally warned us of stuff like this right before he left." Annabeth kind of had a point, but we didn't really have a choice. If we didn't save Grover, Percy dies or at least goes brain dead. If we didn't get the Fleece, the whole camp dies.

"We don't really have a choice, Annabeth." Taylor said, finally speaking throughout the entire conversation. "We kind of have to do this, as the alternative is just as bad if not worse." Taylor was speaking some sense right there. Nico nodded at Taylor's side, backing the son of Ares up.

Annabeth sighed and looked down. "Look, guys." Annabeth trailed off before continuing. "The Sea of Monsters is no joke. We'll have to fight Polyphemus, the absolute worst and most powerful Cyclops. Not to mention that his island is in the Sea of Monsters, where the modern day Bermuda Triangle is. It'll be difficult and dangerous."

I waved her off with a cocky grin. "No sweat, Annabeth. Last year we literally went to the Underworld and fought Hades and then fought Ares right after. Should be a piece of cake." A thought came to me, about the Sea of Monsters. "Wait..,isn't the Sea of Monsters in the Mediterranean, where all the heroes like Jason and Odysseus sailed at?"

Annabeth was about to go off on a exposition rant before I held up a hand to stop here. "The Sea carried over when the gods moved over here as well, right? And the mortals call it the Bermuda Triangle cause of all the disappearances caused by monsters?" Annabeth stopped with her mouth wide open before she slowly shut it. "Just making sure."

Annabeth thought the entire thing over. "We'll have to talk to Tantalus about it. He'll obviously say no, especially after you turned him to dust a few minutes ago." Bitch, do you think I care about a single thing that dry old fuck said? No.

I scoffed. "Fuck Tantalus and whatever he'd say. We'll go regardless and he'll do nothing to stop us, unless he wants to get turned to ash again." Both Taylor and Annabeth sent me the same disapproving mock glare that shot that down. "Ugh, fine. We can just tell him about it in front of everyone at the campfire tonight. Everyone's obviously going to be mad about the whole demon bird thing and if he says no, the campers will tear him apart. If that really doesn't work, we can go to Dionysus about it, and he'll more reasonable that our esteemed activity director."

I looked around at everyone in the room. "Is that a plan?" Everyone nodded, with Annabeth taking longer than everyone else. "Good." I walked over to a table I had in my cabin, one I had installed a couple of months ago and picked a magazine up off of it. "Now I'm going to read magazines and comics until then. I'll see all of your later tonight, unless any of you care to join me?" I said as I plopped down on my bed.

Nico didn't hesitate and jumped on the bed beside me, eager to check out the Myth-O-Magic section. Taylor joined me soon after, not before taking off his shoes before joining me on my right side. Annabeth rolled her eyes and said, "Boys." before leaving my cabin. I flipped her off on her way out, a gesture she returned. Tyson tried to jump on the bed with the three of us, but luckily for my bed's health, Percy pulled him back, easily restraining the cyclops with a water arm and dragged him out. Percy gave me a salute and left my cabin.

As Nico and I surveyed the Myth-O-Magic section of the magazine, I felt Taylor drift away on my left shoulder off to sleep. Me and Nico then started to read comics, but I could swear I saw him get closer to me every so often. Soon enough, he was pressed up against my right shoulder as we flipped through comic book pages. I felt my face heat up slightly, but I didn't tell him to move or anything. Eventually, we stopped reading and all three of us were soon asleep, cuddling together on my queen sized bed.

Well, except me for a bit. I lied in between my two best friends, a weird feeling in my chest. I couldn't discern what I was feeling at the moment, only that it made me feel light headed and a little hot. Eventually, I shook these thoughts and feeling away and drifted off to sleep.

(000)

Getting ready for the bonfire was a lot better than actually going to the bonfire. We all took showers at my cabin, each of us changing into a spare change of clothes we had over here. After our showers, Taylor made sure both of me and Nico's hair was brushed and in my case, curled. I made sure my braids were in place, and then Taylor painted both of our nails. He painted Nico's black, a color that suited him well. My nails were painted a dark blue, as per my request from the son of Ares. While back when Taylor first started painting my nails, I didn't really like it all that much, after two and a half years, I'll certainly admit, it's grown on me.

We were almost late to dinner, which proceeds the bonfire, thanks to Taylor changing the color of his nails from black to a blood red. He said, in his own words: "Nico's nails are black now and we can't have his being the same as mine. I have to paint them a different color. Now give me five more minutes and then we can go!" Ugh, why does he have to be the way he is? Just kidding, I wouldn't trade him for the world

After dinner, the bonfire we had rather sucked. You see, the bonfire's strength and high were completely dependent on how loud you sang. Currently, the bonfire didn't even reach five feet high and it's flames burned about as brightly as an ember. The Apollo cabin was trying to lead our usual songs, but no one's heart was simply into it, not after the Stymphalian Bird tried to eat us earlier today. The entire thing even managed to make Dionysus leave the bonfire early.

While Dionysus pretended he hated the bonfire, I believe the whole thing secretly reminded him of the crazy parties that had been thrown in his honor over two thousand years ago. Seeing something as pathetic as this, it made Dionysus disgusted. He gave Tantalus a look of distaste and disgust and stood up from his director's chair to leave to the Big House. He must blame Tantalus for the poor atmosphere.

Whenever the final, pathetic song had been finished, Tantalus stood up and walked in front of the bonfire with a marshmallow on a stick. "Well, that was lovely!" Tantalus tried to pull the marshmallow off the stick, but it flew away from him right into the fire. "Shit!" Tantalus cursed and growled.

He turned back to us and pretended nothing happened. "Now, then. Some announcements about tomorrow's schedule." Wait, we actually had a schedule under this fucker? For the past three days he just kind of let us do whatever we wanted. Percy interrupted Tantalus' rant before it could even start with a raise of his hand. "What do you want, Jackson?"

Percy stood from our table. "I have an idea to save the camp." The bonfire behind Percy turned yellow, signalling that we had gotten everyone's interest in the camp. Good sign. Tantalus started to say some stupid shit about Chariots, but Percy interrupted him once more. "The Golden Fleece, we know where it is." The flames behind Percy turned orange, everyone in the camp intrigued now.

Percy started to tell everyone his dream about Grover, Polyphemus and the island. Annabeth stepped in to help the son of Poseidon, her words being more convincing that Percy's own. "The Fleece can save the camp. We're certain of it." Percy finished, motioning around our table. Everyone there, including me nodded at Percy's words, backing him up.

Tantalus shook his head. "Nonsense. We don't need saving." Everyone in the entire camp looked at the activity director with either bewildered looks that said: 'Are you fucking stupid?' or with an angry glare. Tantalus looked rather uncomfortable, but he coughed and continued. "Besides, The Sea of Monsters is hardly a concrete location. We wouldn't even know where to look." Well, it has to be in the Bermuda Triangle, as it carried over when the gods did. It's a better start than absolutely nothing.

Percy, however, had the perfect retort for that. "30, 31, 75, 12." Percy said, as if that answered every question. At everyone's confused look, the son of Poseidon elaborated. "They're sailing coordinates. Longitude and Latitude. The Grey Sisters gave us those numbers when they brought me, Tyson and Annabeth to camp." I looked at Percy, intrigued. He didn't mention anything about this earlier.

Annabeth's eyes widened. "Thirty degrees, thirty one minutes north, seventy five degrees, twelve minutes west. He's right! That would lead us somewhere close to off the coast of Florida. The Sea of Monsters. We need a quest!" Annabeth's words started to get everyone riled up.

I stood from my chair and addressed the crowd. "It sounds like we need a quest to save the camp, huh? Does everyone here think we need a quest?" Everyone in the audience nodded at my words. "We need a quest! We need a quest! We need a quest!" Everyone jumped on the bandwagon of chanting as soon as I started it. The flames of the bonfire turned purple and rose above ten feet in height.

Tantalus tried to calm us down. "Wait just a minute." But none of us were going to listen to him anymore. We continued to chant the words, the bonfire rising in height behind us. "It isn't necessary!" We continued to chant, shouting now. The fire rose to almost twenty feet tall and it's heat radiated the entire area. "Fine! You brats want me to assign a quest?" Tantalus' eyes brimmed with anger, annoyed by our chanting. Everyone in the camp responded with one big 'YES!' "Very well. I shall authorize a champion to undertake this perilous journey. To retrieve the Golden Fleece, or die trying."

My heat brimmed with anticipation. I hadn't been on a quest since the whole Hyperion fiasco last year and I was dying to go on another one. "I shall allow a champion to consult the Oracle! And I shall choose two companions for them for this journey. And I think the choice of champion is quite obvious." I thought we were supposed to be allowed to choose our own companions for a quest?

I guess Tantalus was abusing his authority here. "This champion has earned the camp's respect, has proven resourceful and courageous throughout the chariot races and and in defense of this camp. You shall lead this quest...Taylor Smyth!" Taylor looked stunned, as did the rest of the camp. However, quickly enough they broke in cheers, chanting Taylor's name.

I was honestly surprised, as I knew Taylor was incredibly strong and skilled and powerful, but their were better options for this quest, like me and Percy. Percy also seemed to think so. "Wait! Grover is my friend. The dream came to me. I should be the one going on this quest." Percy, however, was quick to add, "No offense, Taylor." Taylor nodded, showing he had taken no offense from Percy's protests.

Jeers and boos rang out from the crowd of campers, each one claiming something untrue, like Percy was just wanting to hog the spotlight or was wanting to be the best and let no one try and take his spot. Excuse me, I was the best, not Percy. After a few seconds, Taylor silenced all of them. "I accept the quest!" The entire camp went silent at Taylor' authoritative tone. "I, Taylor Smyth, son of Ares, accept this quest to save camp!" Tantalus smirked, specifically at me. My eyes narrowed. He wanted to put Taylor in harms way to strike back at me, huh? That wasn't going to happen. I was going to protect Taylor with everything I had.

Tantalus' evil smirk kept up. "Taylor Smyth, the campers that will accompany you on your quest will be..." Tantalus trailed off for dramatic effect. "Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus!" The Hephaestus cabin cheered at the name of their counselor, as said counselor stood from the table with a serious look on his face. "And..." Tantalus repeated his trailing for dramatic effect. "Arthur Wayne, son of Helios."

The handsome son of Helios stood up with a smirk. Of course Tantalus wouldn't put me on the quest to go with Taylor. He wanted Taylor to die so it could hurt me. Whatever, I planned to go with them regardless. Tantalus was not going to stop me. "The Champion and his companions will go to the Big House and The Champion will receive his prophecy from the Oracle. Then, they will prepare for their journey and leave tomorrow morning." Taylor, Arthur and Beckendorf walked away from their tables towards the Big House, Taylor looked back at me with one last look. I gave him a smile and nodded, which he returned. My heart fluttered a little bit and I promised I would protect him with my life.

As the three walked off, the crowd cheered even louder, causing the campfire to grow larger than I have ever seen it before. A look of rage on Tantalus' face appeared and he whirled around on us. "Silence your little shits!" Everyone in the camp stopped cheering all at once. "Sit down, now!" Everyone in the camp followed his commands, all except me and Percy.

Tantalus sneered at us but decided it was best to ignore us. "I am going to tell all of you a little ghost story. Once upon a time, their was a mortal king who was beloved, even by the gods!" Fuck, he was going to talk about himself, wasn't he?

"This king was even allowed to feast upon Mount Olympus itself. But when he tried to take some Ambrosia and Nectar back down to the earth, just one little doggy bag mind you, the gods punished him! They barred him from their halls forever. His own people mocked him! His own children scolded him!" Tantalus looked at everyone with an insane grin. "Oh yes, campers, he had horrible children. Children just like yo-!"

"Oh my gods, will you just shut the fuck up, man?" I spoke out, interrupting our activity director. A flash of rage appeared on Tantalus' face, but he didn't say anything. "We all know where this is going, so let's just skip to the end. You killed your son and served him to the gods as food because you're a sensitive little bitch, right?" Tantalus shook in rage, but his own sense of self preservation stopped him from exploding.

I had a feeling he didn't want to be turned into ash again. "Now, shut up and end the bonfire. Or I'll tell Dionysus you threatened to turn us into human stew. Now I'm fairly certain everyone will back me up on that." Everyone at the bonfire nodded. Tantalus growled but did as I said.

As everyone walked away from the now empty bonfire, I met up with Nico on the way back. "Want to go on a walk on the coast? I could use a walk myself."

Nico looked unsure. "What about the harpies, Zane? Curfew's been enforced earlier ever since Tantalus took over." Nico was right about that. Ever since Tantalus took over as the activity director, He's been enforcing curfew more often recently. Also, the harpies basically had all their restrictions taken off. When Chiron was in power, the harpies still enforced curfew but they couldn't do anything more to us than just rough us up a bit and throw us back into our cabin. Now, since Tantalus doesn't care, the harpies will eat us if they catch us.

I chuckled. "Don't worry, Nico. I'll protect you. If any of those harpies even comes close to us, I'll turn them into a pile of ash." I said in my best errant knight voice. Plus, the harpies don't really go that far outside the camp borders anyway. Maybe once in a blue moon, but not enough for there to really be any danger. Like I said to Nico, I'll just turn them into a pile of ashes if they try to eat me, so we were good.

Nico faux swooned. "Ah, my hero!" Nico said in a lovey dovey voice before giggling. I couldn't keep my own laughter down. "Oh, alright, fine. We have to talk about this whole quest thing anyways." We bypassed our cabins and walked straight towards the coast line. We stood in silence for a bit as we looked out on the waves. Both of us were children of the other two Big Three gods besides Poseidon, so we didn't really fuck with water all that much. Nico spoke after a bit of silence. "Is Taylor going to be okay?"

I nodded. "Of course he is going to be fine. He's one of the strongest demigods in the entire camp and the counselor of the Ares cabin. He'll do fine." I hesitated a bit before continuing. "At least I hope. We don't really know what they are getting into besides Polyphemus, so it still could be really dangerous." Nico didn't looked an reassured after my own hesitation and the reasons I just gave. "Uh..." Shit! "Don't worry, though Nico. He's got both Beckendorf and that Arthur guy looking out for him. He should be just fine." I hope, I wisely added in my head this time.

Nico sighed. "You're probably right, Zane." Nico looked at the constellations above us. "Still, I'm worried. Taylor is going off to one of the most dangerous places on earth, and neither of us is going to be there with him to make sure he's alright. I wish I could do something." Nico, what the fuck? You're actually going to listen to Tantalus and his stupid rules?

I looked at him weirdly. "What are you talking about, Nico? Of course I'm going to be there to make sure he's not going to get hurt." Nico looked up at me in confusion. "When they leave for the quest tomorrow, I'm going to join them. You can come too if you like." Nico opened his mouth, probably to protest, but I silenced him with a hand. "Yes, Nico. I know the rules and I know Tantalus chose Taylor's companions, but I don't give a shit about the rules or what Tantalus fucking says. If one of my best friends is going to go to one of the most dangerous places on earth, I'll be damned if I don't go with him. You hear me?"

Nico was silent for a second, but resolve made it's way onto his face. "Yeah, I hear you! Fuck Tantalus and whatever he says!" Nico looked worried after he said that. "But won't the increased presence of demigods attract more monsters?" Nico, are you serious?

I scoffed. "Nico, do you know who you're talking to? I killed both Ares and Hyperion, one of them singlehandedly, and that was a year ago when I was weaker. Any monster we fight on the quest will be absolutely nothing, even Polyphemus. I killed an elder cyclops like him when I was eleven and had zero training whatsoever. I'm not worried at all." I knew that probably sounded arrogant and conceited, but every word of it was true. This quest would be a piece of cake.

Nico smiled and placed his hand on his forehead. "Yeah, you're right. What am I even talking about? We'll be fine." I raised an eyebrow when he said 'we'll.' Nico noticed and rolled his eyes.

"I'm not going to get left behind again, alright? You and Taylor can't have all the fun around here. Plus, I haven't actually gone on a quest just yet, and I need to soon. This is the perfect chance! Don't you agree?" Ah, dammit, I can't argue with him when he makes those fucking puppy eyes. He held both my hands in his and jumped up and down. "Ah, I'm so excited!" My heart fluttered a little when he did that.

I recovered, pretending I didn't state at him for longer than was necessary. I smiled at the son of Hades. "Yeah, I agree. This is the perfect time for you to show off what you can do to the entire camp." Suddenly, off in the distance, I heard a voice call for help. Both me and Nico turned our heads quickly to the source of the sound. The call for help called out again.

The sound was louder this time, sounding exactly like Percy. I turned to Nico, a seriously look on my face. "Did you hear that?" The cry came again, calling to both of us. It was coming from a few hundred feet away, also on the shoreline. "That sounds like Percy." Whatever could make the son of Poseidon call for help was seriously business.

I let go off Nico's hands and bolted off in the direction of the voice. I arrived at the source in an instant, unfortunately leaving Nico behind. What I saw was definitely not what I was expecting. Percy was standing on the coast line looking at a ship of in the distance on the water. The ship was not just any old dainty ship, it was a massive cruise liner with blaring lights and a white, shining hull. I taped Percy, on the shoulder, who jumped at the sudden touch. I realized he was carrying five yellow duffel bags, a thermos and a bottle of pills. "I heard you were calling for help."

Percy looked confused, but then he looked behind me. Nico, Annabeth and Tyson were all three running over to us, converging right in front of us. All three of them said very similar things, like they heard Percy calling for help. "I didn't call for any of you." Cue to all of us being confused about the whole situation and Annabeth pointing at both the ship and the things Percy was carrying.

Percy sighed and shook his head. "There isn't much time, so you need to listen." Percy went on to explain how he had talked with Hermes, the god of speed, thieves, travelers and a bunch of other shit no one cares about. He told us that we basically had permission from the gods to go on the quest and that we basically had to leave now if we wanted to go. By the time Percy was done, we heard screeching off in the distance. The harpies had somehow tracked our scent and were closing in.

"So basically, Hermes showed up and gave me permission to go on the quest along with all of these supplies. He also apparently sent that cruise ship over there for us to ride on." Percy pointed at the cruise ship on the water, the words 'Princess Andromeda' clearly visible on the side. "Zane, Annabeth, I would ask that you two come with me on this quest." Both me and Annabeth agreed, while Percy looked to both Nico and Tyson. "I'll ask both of you to come as well, but I won't force you to join us." Both nodded at Percy's words.

Annabeth interjected at Tyson's nodding. "No!" Everyone looked at her weirdly while Tyson just looked hurt. "Uh, I mean...Percy, you know that is impossible, come on." Okay, I guess Annabeth is going to be weirdly racist to Tyson the entire time, then. I know he's a monster, but from my limited interaction with the cyclops, he's not exactly a bad person. Better than most demigods in the camp, really.

Percy's gaze turned stony. "Why not, Annabeth? What do you have against Tyson?" Annabeth didn't answer and Percy rolled his eyes at her silence. "Whatever, we can't just leave him. Tantalus will punish him while we are gone and I won't allow that to happen." Annabeth didn't really looked to moved by Percy's logic, but I could see the reasoning. Nico looked at Annabeth in distaste at her apparent racism.

Annabeth started to freak out a little bit, even starting to sweat and shake a little. Okay, this isn't just so regular old racism. Something is up. "Percy, we're going to Polyphemus' island. Polyphemus is a S-I-K..." Annabeth's face twisted in irritation as she struggled with her dyslexia. "C-Y-K..." Annabeth stomped her foot in frustration and growled. "You know what I mean. We can't afford to take him."

Percy glared at the daughter of Athena. I spoke for the son of Poseidon. "I'm disappointed that you would even think that way, Annabeth." I looked to Tyson. "Besides, it's not up to you. It's up to Tyson. He can go if he wants to." Tyson responded with a very loud, 'Want to!'

I nodded as his words, as did Percy. "It's settled then. We're all going, Annabeth and that's final. You can go back to camp if you want, but then you will have to deal with the harpies and explain to them why you were out this late." Wait a minute, why was she out this late? Me and Nico were out walking the shoreline and I assume Tyson must have been in the Poseidon cabin, which was close by.

Annabeth didn't say anything as she glared at both of us. We didn't have time to argue at the moment, so she backed off. "Fine. But how do you suppose we get to that ship?" At Annabeth's words, Percy walked up to the shoreline and his arms turned into the blue fluorescent stone of his Earthshaker Form. He quickly punched the ground outside the water for a few seconds, small shockwaves and vibrations being sent out.

After a few seconds of punching, he stood aside to reveal a blue rocky boat. The same kind of boat he made to ferry both Taylor and I to Barnum Island last year. Annabeth deadpanned at the ridiculous boat and sighed. "Let's get going then."

We all jumped into the boat, the water actually pulling us in the ocean when we got settled. Percy looked to me. "Zane, can you get us going with some wind?" I nodded at the son of Poseidon and lifted my arms in the air. The wind picked up around us and sent us flying off at rapid speeds towards the Princess Andromeda, leaving the screeching harpies behind on the shoreline. I laughed and flipped the harpies off, Nico mirroring my action. Percy smirked while Annabeth rolled her eyes and me and Nico's antics.

When we got close to the Princess Andromeda, I just noticed how fucking giant it was. It had to at least be over a hundred feet tall in height, and that was just the hull. There was another dozen floors of balconies and portholes that were brightly lit up. To the bow of the ship was a massive figurehead, one of Greek design. The figurehead was a thirty foot tall statue of a beautiful woman made entirely out of marble.

Her hair was black, which contrasted from the normal marble of her statue, and her face was one of complete terror on her expression. I looked at the figurehead in confusion. Who the fuck would want a figurehead of that? I racked my brain on who the statue could be. If it was Andromeda from the myths, or should I say history, then it makes sense why she would be screaming in terror. She was chained to a rock by her parents and sacrificed to a sea monster, only being saved by my half-brother Perseus when he showed up and turned the monster to stone with Medusa's head. What a chad.

Annabeth's mind was on the immediate situation. "How do we get aboard?" There was no visible dock or loading bay of any kind in sight, so I figured I would just improvise. I told Percy to stop the boat and I levitated of the blue stone. I wondered if I dropped in the water right now, Poseidon would tear me apart. I shook my head to get rid of these thoughts and held out a hand.

"I'll just fly everyone on the deck, I guess." I looked up on the deck of the ship, not seeing or hearing any people on board. That was weird. "Alright, who's first?" Tyson grabbed one of my hands and I lifted the large boy like he was nothing. "You next, Percy."

Percy held on to my left hand, probably hoping that my father didn't strike him out of the sky. "Annabeth, you climb on my back." Annabeth huffed and jumped on my back, basically piggy riding me. I turned to Nico. "Nico, I'll come back to get you in a bit. Percy, make sure the boat doesn't collapse while he's down there. I don't want Poseidon trying to drown him." Percy rolled his eyes but promised he would keep the boat afloat.

I flew up to the deck of the ship, carrying everyone except the son of Hades. I plopped everyone down on the ship's deck and surveyed the area. There was no sign of life in clear sight on the entire deck, which was obviously super fucking suspicious. I reached out with my aura sense, and recoiled when I felt the aura of monsters all around the ship.

I turned to my friends, still floating above the deck. "Guys, I feel the aura of monsters everywhere on this ship. But it's not like there's any individual aura, thought. Like the entire place got dipped in monster sludge or something." I started to float back down to the boat where Nico was waiting. "Keep watch up here and yell if you need anything or something attacks you." My friends nodded and I descended to the boat.

I floated back down to Nico, who was still sitting in the blue fluorescent boat. He was tense and watching the water with a keen eye. I couldn't blame him, water gives me the fucking creeps. I landed beside him and tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped and almost pulled his Stygian Iron sword out, but he saw that it was me and sheathed it. "Argh, don't do that, Zane. You scared the shit out of me." I laughed as the son of Hades pouted at me.

I held my hand out. "Come on, there's something weird going on up there on the deck and we need to get up there. Let's go." The son of Hades grabbed my hand, but all of sudden, I swept him off his feet and held him bridal style.

Nico went rigid and I chuckled. "Don't be so uptight, man." I flew from the boat, which crumbled as soon as my foot went into the air. Damn, it seems Poseidon had it out for me and Nico, huh? He better not complain, since he broke his fucking oath, too.

I touched back down on the deck and set Nico down. Nico's face was a little red, probably from the experience of flying, which he had probably never done before (AN: Zane, you dense fuck!). I found all of my other friends staring around the boat uncomfortably, probably seaching for monsters or any sign of attack. "Alright, We're back." I said, announcing me and Nico's presence to the rest of the gang.

Percy turned and nodded to me. "Alright, let's go then. Keep close everyone." We all nodded and followed Percy's lead. We searched every single floor and area in sight. Every room was empty, as was every other place. Every restaurant, every pool area, and every room was empty. Eventually we gave up trying to find people and just decided to lie low for the night. We fought some rooms on the ninth floor that suited us well.

Three rooms, all with only one bed. Percy and Tyson took a room, Me and Nico took one and Annabeth had one to herself. Made sense, since she was a girl. Before we split up for the rest of the night, we opened our duffel bags that Hermes had given us and found a gold mine. Extra clothes, food, toiletries, money and even drachmae. Hermes had even managed to stuff in Tyson's tools and oilcloth and also Annabeth's invisibility cap. He also put in my Nemean Lion pelt, which I had left in my cabin before dinner earlier.

"Don't eat or drink anything here, alright everyone?" I looked at her confused. I was kinda hungry, so why was she saying to not eat anything? She, however, clarified why. "Something isn't quite right here."

Yeah, no shit, wise bitch. Of course something was wrong here. It's like that one scene in Stardust Crusaders where they come across the stand Strength and that pedophile orangutan. "Be careful, everyone. Good night." She walked into her room and closed the door. I grit my teeth, irritated that I couldn't eat anything more tonight. Fine, I won't eat anything if it makes your feel better, Annabeth. Besides, maybe she had a point about the place not being safe for eating anyway.

I walked with Nico inside our suite room and I tossed my bag in the corner of the room. The entire events of today weighed rather heavily on my mind. While I was rather nonchalant with Nico about it earlier, I was truthfully worried about Taylor if I'm not going to lie. The responsibility of saving camp could quite possibly be up to him and I wasn't there at the moment to protect him. That's why I was going on this quest, to make sure Taylor is alright and save the camp. With these thoughts on my mind, I plopped right down on the bed without a care in the world.

Despite there being a couch in the room, Nico laid down right beside me on the bed. He cuddled up on my shoulder and my face heated up a little bit. We didn't say anything for awhile, the weight of the day and the feeling of this place keeping me awake. I could tell he was awake as well due to his breathing, which wasn't the steady breathing of a sleeping person. Eventually, I spoke aloud. "Well, today was eventful now, wasn't it?"

Nico snorted beside me on the bed. "You think?" He said sarcastically. I felt him relax beside me, not being as rigid as he had been before. "I still can't believe we won the race in that piece of shit chariot." I chuckled at his words. We mostly cheated thanks to my wind power at the end, but we somehow still won. Nico continued to speak. "It was also cool that we basically forced Tantalus to give us a quest. I hate that guy."

I nodded. "Yeah, I hate him, too Nico, but who doesn't?" I felt the exhaustion of the day start to leave me. My face darkened. "I can tell he only sent Taylor on the quest to get back at me for turning to him to ash after he exploded on Percy. I want to tear him to pieces slowly and try to make him drink his own blood just so I can see it jump away from him." I could see the visual in my head right now. It brought a smirk to my face.

Nico chuckled. "A little brutal don't you think?" He shook his head. "Ah, but not anything less than he deserves, huh? I mean, he did kill his son after all." Nico pressed his face in my shoulder. "It was so funny when you told him to shut up when he was about to go off on a rant at the bonfire." His voice was muffled as he said those words, as his face was in the shirt of my shoulder. "You're so cool, Zane." My heart jumped a bit when he said those words and my face heated up. What was this feeling?

I tried not to say anything too quickly, possibly succeeding. "About earlier, when Annabeth freaked out about Tyson going on this quest, do you have any idea at all about why Annabeth was acting like that?" Nico didn't say anything, quiet at my side. I frowned. "Nico?" I noticed his steady breath on my arm and realized he was asleep. I smiled and decided to go to sleep myself. When I closed my eyes, I saw flashes of the void of Kronos in Tartarus, but I forced the visions away. I was going to have some peace tonight, thank you very much.

(000)

Several hours later, both me and the son of Hades were awoken by a voice on an intercom of sorts. "Good morning, passengers! We'll be at sea all day today. Excellent weather for the pool side mambo party. Don't forget about Million dollar bingo in the Kraken Lounge at one, and for our special guests, disembowelment practice on the Promenade!" The voice was spoken in an Australian from some guy who sounded way too happy to be here.

I slowly sat up in the bed, sleepiness still present. "Huh?" My movements woke Nico, who groaned from having his beauty sleep interrupted. Before he or I could say anything more, knocking on our door stopped us. Once I opened the door, I saw Percy standing there with both Tyson and Annabeth. Hilariously, Annabeth's hair looked like a rat's nest. "Did that dude just say disembowelment practice?" I asked the son of Poseidon, who nodded at my question.

After we grabbed our shit, our gang ventured out into the hallways of the ship, surprisingly find the ship full of people. Elder people walked through the halls in groups, several families in pool attires walked carrying beach bags in their hands, crew members in stereotypical sailor outfits walked the halls. The entire thing put me on edge immediately, as the ship was a ghost town not eight hours ago. None of the people nor crew members asked us who we were or even paid much attention to us.

But as always, something was wrong. A family of swimmers carrying a pool bag passed us, with the father saying, "We are on a cruise. We are having fun." I stared at the father and his kids with a weirded out look. The father continued, with a blank look on his face. "Yes, we are having a blast. We will swim the pool." The children behind him nodded and the entire family scurried away like they had stolen from the cookie jar. I looked at my friends with a dumbfounded expression, one which they mirrored. Things only got weirder when a crew member in one of the stereotypical outfits walked up to us.

The crew member stared at his with his glazed, cold, dead eyes and spoke in a monotone voice. "Good morning." His voiced kind of sounded like Kermit The Frog's. "We are all having a good time on the Princess Andromeda. Have a nice day." The crew member said no more and walked off, absolutely nothing human in his movement. Okay, maybe the Andromeda figurehead had a good reason to be terrified if these were the kind of people that sailed on her ship.

Annabeth whispered to all of us at once. "This is weird, guys. They're all in some kind of trance." I looked at her with my best 'No shit' look. Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Captain Obvious. I didn't choose to comment out loud what I thought and we continued to traverse the ship. Eventually, we walked into an area with a little dinky cafeteria and we saw our first monster.

A hellhound, one only the size of a Grizzly Bear, which was rather small for a hellhound. The hellhound was standing in line, oddly, right in front of a middle aged couple. To my right, Percy stiffened at the sight of the demonic dog. Oh yeah, I'd forgotten, he had been gutted by one of those things before. He had nothing to worry about naturally, as he was far more powerful at the moment, but the impact of the event still remained.

Before anyone could say anything about the weird sight, a leathery, snake-like voice came from down the corridor of the hall. Before we could be caught and busted, Annabeth gestured towards a women's bathroom frantically. We all followed her in and broke into two groups to hide in the stalls. I grabbed Nico and tossed him in one of the stalls and before entering myself, I made sure the coast was clear before closing the door behind me.

As I closed the door and turned, I came face to face with Nico, literally barely inches away. Both Nico and I turned away, our faces red from embarrassment from the closeness of the event and I was flustered enough to not register the second comment from another snake-like voice outside of the door. "S-Sorry." I apologized to the son of Hades, but he just smiled and waved me off, his face a little red.

To our left, I heard both Percy and Annabeth arguing in hushed whispers about something. Or at least, Percy was being dumb or some shit like that. I even heard Tyson chime in and say something after Annabeth. Before I could listen in on the conversation with my friends, I heard a voice outside the bathroom that chilled my very existence to the bone. "It's only a matter of time. Don't push me, Argrius!"

Luke. The one who betrayed all of us. The one who stole the lightning bolt and allied with Kronos. The one who sic'd that bastard Ares and that motherfucker Hyperion on me and Percy. The one who I previously looked up to and was my role model to be a hero.

Rage boiled in my veins and I gripped my fists in a attempt to not blow up everything in a ten mile radius around me in a massive explosion of wind and lightning. Outside the door, another voice, both angrier and deeper than Luke's, spoke. "I'm not pushing you! I'm just saying, if this gamble doesn't pay off-"

Luke interrupted the other voice, who I could only presume was Argrius, with a growl. "It'll pay off!" Luke snapped, silencing Argrius. Lightning danced off my hands. I wanted to rip Luke's spine out and shove it up his ass. "They'll take the bait. Now, come one. We've got to get to the admiralty suite and check on our lord's casket." Luke and the other voice both walked away and couldn't be heard anymore.

We all came out of the stalls and looked at each other in disbelief. "You heard that, right?" Percy asked me. I nodded, too angry to even speak. All of us stood in the bathroom, not saying a word for a little bit. Like I just said, I was too angry. Percy was probably either in the same boat or he was troubled in some other way. Annabeth was quite, too. She probably had some sort of conflict going on inside her, as she had known Luke for five years before he betrayed us.

Not to mention her crush, too, but as I said, not to mention. Nico probably didn't know what to feel, since he barely even knew Luke. He had only seen him in passing at camp last year and hadn't spoken a word to him. Tyson was even newer than Nico, so I bet he was confused to why we were all silent.

I shook in rage, barely able to contain my anger. I was going to kill Luke. I was going to make his death so painful and brutal they would write an entirely new Greek myth about it and it would be in tapestries on Olympus itself. I would make him beg for mercy for hours on end until his vocal chords couldn't speak any long and then, and only then, would I allow him the sweet release of death. And I was going to do this now. I walked over to the door to throw it open and enact my plan, the call of vengeance on my mind.

(000)

Jesus, this one was pretty hard to write lol. So yeah, Taylor went on the quest rather than Clarisse, since Tantalus wants to get back at Zane for turning him to ash by putting Taylor in harms way. And Taylor was the driver during the race, which they technically won lol. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed chapter ten and I'll be back within a few days with chapter eleven. Make sure you leave a review to tell me how I did. Later.