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]

11. I Kill A Seven Headed Snake Thing

Alright, boys, chapter eleven. We've officially passed 150,000 words now, so I can now die happy knowing I'll show up on the 150,000 words section. But I'm not done yet, as you can see with this chapter. Before we start, I want to get through with some reviews.

Echoxenvy: "This was really good. Gonna be a long review so get ready.

Dude this is the funniest chapter so far lol. Zane has so many funny lines. The one i cracked up at the most was when he said "Hey buddy, fuck you. I know it's a piece of shit chariot, but It's my piece of shit chariot." I seriously laughed at that. Was pleasantly surprised at the quest arrangements, like how you did that. Also, Arthur Wayne sounds cool, especially his first name. Everytime I hear it or read it I think of Arthur Morgan from Rdr2, my favorite character in all of fiction, besides Percy of course. Another thing, Zane is really, really, really dense, huh? Cuddling in the same bed together and not knowing what the fucks up? Come on, my boy Matt wasn't even that dense. Okay, maybe he was lol but still. The only thing that kinda bugs me is how much Zane doesn't like Annabeth. Idk why but him calling her wise bitch was a little extreme to me. Another thing was when he said Percy wasn't the best, he was. I know it's part of his character and I still like him, just those two things are flaws of his in his personality as a good person imo. All in all, great chapter man, really good, and I can't wait for the next."

Response: I've answered this one in a PM, but for people who want to know my reasoning for Echoxenvy's questions, here my thinking. Zane was mad at Annabeth since Annabeth was being racist towards Tyson for being a cyclops without any reason, at least to Zane, since he doesn't know why Annabeth hates them exactly. Any other time he was being mean, it's simply cause he's an asshole lol. Also, about him saying he's better than Percy, it's just his arrogance showing as he's been riding off his past victories over Ares and Hyperion. Anyway, besides that, I honestly didn't try to be all that funny in the last chapter lol. I guess I just have a really wack sense of humor. I'll write this one the same way.

firefrog600: "Not big on reading gay stuff. But, I don't mind I have nothing against it. I really like percy jackson fics though so gonna read this. Hope yaoi isn't a huge focus but if it is thats fine"

firefrog600 2: "not that you need to include them. But, other mythologies than greek/roman, egyptian, and norse exist in the riordanverse some just as cameos or most really and some have some small books and the equivalent of short stories. But, hindus exist, moses is mentioned to beat egyptian sorcerers once, the aztecs are mentioned by apollo, the yoruba gods apollo mentioned, babylonians apollo mentioned, samnite apollo mentioned, celtics are mentioned by apollo, gonna be honest apollo really really gets around like god damn, the chinese gods exist, hindus got a full book basically detailing their gods and how they acted in the riordanverse,aztecs and mayans are even getting their own books soon. So essentially the riordanverse has yes pantheons."

firefrog600 3: "my bad on noting previous chapter and now you mention all these gods in this one.

Response: If the gay stuff bothers you, just ignore it. We're not really at a point in the story where it's a massive focus, so it should be rather easy to do so.

Born In The Second Generation: "I love how angry Zane is at Luke. I always dislike Annabeth's hesitation to hate Luke in the originals. Even more so the last minute redemption Luke has in the Last Olympian. Luke was a murderous traitor who killed numerous campers and the fact how Percy easily forgiven after he talk-no-jutsu him to killing himself was terrible writing on Rick's part. I hope you don't make the same mistakes here. Zane's anger is justified, and I hope Luke doesn't get redeem by some Talk-no-jutsu BS (I swear naruto got ruined because of that) If your going to redeem Luke, make it a long sub-story to your main story, not something that is pull out in the last minute as an Deus Ex Machina for the heros to win"

Response: Zane is absolutely very pissed at Luke right now, and he's not exactly the only one at the moment. Annabeth at the moment is conflicted, but by the time we get to Last Olympian, she probably won't have any thoughts of love lol. Also, no talk-no-jutsu in this fic, at least no last minute asspulls to save the day. I hated them in Naruto and Attack on Titan (Seriously, fuck you, Armin.), and I hate them in PJO as well. If I decided to redeem Luke, it's going to be overtime, not with a single Speech 100 skill check option. No Deus Ex Machina's here. The only way the heroes are winning is through sheer power and violence.

NiHaR OP: "hey just wanted to correct you he got killed by caligula also and interesting side of dionysus revealed. Percy's water blade is cool as hell tho."

Response: I did not know he got killed by Caligula, lol. I don't even know Caligula's importance to the story since I haven't read Trials of Apollo. Whatever, it's still a lame ass death and you know it lol. Also, yeah, Percy's new powers are cool as hell. I'm going to spend a bit of time in this arc exploring them all.

Ozilla: "Um dude you are really hitting the romance flag way to much. Isn't Zane, Taylor and Nico 12 or 13? I suggest you wait until the 3rd book before having them blush and wondering why they are blushing."

Response: So, about this one, if you read the first book, you see Percy and Annabeth kind of acting a similar way with each other. Especially during the tunnel of Love scene, which I kinda cut out of this story lol. Even myself around that age did the whole blush and freak out thing over my crushes, since I hit puberty at around that age. I don't think it's too out of the ordinary. But you're probably right in the fact I should probably tone it down at least a little bit, so it's not in every scene. So, yeah, not going to have as many of those scenes moving forwards, at least until a little later on.

Shadowhunter2077: "Dude the more I read this story the more I wished that Zane was canon, also I hope that Arthur don't turn to be a traitor I see so much potencial in him, because to me in terms of being a sun god Helios is way superior to Apollo (to me he is most a god of Light and other things than god of the Sun) , so his most powerful son must be a powerhouse, and for least it would be cool to see in this book Zane warm up to Annabeth, and show her that she can be also a powerhouse in their group because at this point they have: Mini-Versions of the Big Three (Zane, Percy and Nico), one of the festest and deadlist demigod (Taylor), maybe a demigod who can blast light (Arthur) and maybe a demigod who can build almost anything and possibly have fire powers (if you want), so Annabeth could feel like she is the most not important of the group and Zane could show her that she can be a powerful demigoddess without having to much destructive power.

Sorry to ask this, but will Zane have problem with Thalia and Jason when they appear, because I feel like Thalia would try to boss Zane around only to realize that's a bad idea and she also could be jealso of Zane power and involuntarily become a problem by trying to show superiority to Zane.

And for last to me Zane is what a Son of Zeus should be, keep up with the good work."

Response: Thanks for the review, man. So Arthur is not going to be a traitor, so you can rest easy about that. I wouldn't make a new OC just to make them a traitor and die to Zane's axe later down the line. Zane will probably warm up to Annabeth in this, at least a little bit. He actually already has, since she's in his friend group. He was only a little pissy with her last chapter cause of the whole thing with Tyson. He is cool with her normally. Also, Annabeth is a powerful demigoddess already, since she is able to hold up the sky for brief periods in Titan's Curse. She isn't as strong at the moment, but she's not too far off the mark right now. Also, suggestion for Arthur's powers is really cool, as I was having trouble with that. I'll make sure he can blast light lol. Also, Zane and Thalia, also Jason, will have some tense moments, with Thalia and Jason both being jealous and feeling inferior at Zane's power, and Zane not feeling as special since he isn't the only son of Zeus anymore that still around. Anyway, you definitely won't be disappointed when we get to that point. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.

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 fanfiction site didn't tip you off, you're fucking retarded.)

(000)

Before I could enact my ultimate vengeance on the son of Hermes, a watery arm placed on my bicep stopped me in my tracks. I looked back and saw Percy holding my arm. I grit my teethe and my rage showed clearly on my face. "Let go of me, Percy." Percy's watery arm, looking around twice the size of his normal arm, still held on to my bicep. "I said. Let. Go. Of. Me." No one in the room could tell, but the sky above the Princess Andromeda darkened with a storm. Whatever in the room could absolutely tell, was the flaring of my aura.

Percy held fast, however, a look of steely determination on his face. "No, Zane." My eye twitched at his answer. No? You know, I had always wondered who was stronger between me and Percy after he gained his Earthshaker form. I guess we were about to find out right now. Before I could punch Percy in the face with a lightning encased fist, Percy opened his mouth. "You can't let your anger cloud your judgement, Zane. If you go out there and try to kill Luke, every single monster on this ship will instantly be alerted to our presence, and there must be a lot of monsters out there if you said the entire ship felt like them last night."

Percy looked me directly in the eye. "You probably wouldn't even be able to touch Luke. Remember what he was able to do last year, Zane?" Flashes of Luke instantly disappearing and reappearing in one spot came to my mind. How was he so fast? "Like I said, you attacking him now will alert every monster on this ship. We might be able to fight through them easily, but Annabeth, Taylor and Nico wouldn't be able to as easily. Do you really want to put them in danger for vengeance?"

My anger cooled and my resolve crumbled. The lightning that had built up around my right hand vanished and I sighed and looked down. "You're right." What was I thinking? Why did I think attack Percy right here in front of everyone in enemy territory would be smart? Why did I also nearly compromise our position and give away the element of surprise? Percy probably hated Luke nearly as much as I did, yet he was keeping his cool. "I'm sorry. I got too carried away." My flared aura calmed and the storm over head the ship dispersed. Everyone, including Percy, visibly relaxed as my rage ebbed away. "Well, what do you suppose we do, then?

Percy put a finger to his chin, seemingly in thought about how to proceed. Percy sighed. "We can't leave just yet. There's a reason Hermes sent us to this boat specifically. We need to find out what Luke is up to, give him the beating of his life and bring him back to Olympus in chains." Percy looked at the ground and sighed again. "If we can even touch him, that is. We have to figure out what that power he is using is." My anger flared at the mention of binding Luke into chains. Bind him in chains? No. We need to kill him. It seems my anger made itself known in the form of my aura, as Percy turned to me. "We can't kill him, Zane. I know you want to, and honestly, I want to as well, but we need to bring him back to Olympus for questioning, okay?"

I sighed myself and nodded to the son of Poseidon. "You still didn't really answer my question from earlier." Percy raised an eyebrow and I continued. "Like, what do we do right now? I can't imagine hiding in the women's bathroom is your idea of a productive plan."

Percy shook his head, not bothering to respond to my poor attempt at a joke. "No, it's not. We need to follow him, or should I say find him now?" Percy turned to Annabeth. "Annabeth, I need you to use your invisibility cap to scout us a route on this ship. We'll follow behind you once the coast is clear." Annabeth nodded, not even questioning Percy's decision. Huh, I guess Percy's become quite a leader in his time away from camp. Who would have thought?

We carried out Percy's plan and followed Annabeth after she scoped an area out. We used several 'YOU ARE HERE' signs to navigate our way through the ship, inching closer and closer towards the direction of the admiralty suite. I used my aura sensing to try and find out when monsters would come close to us, which helped us know when to hide. Regular passengers who were in a trance did not react to us whatsoever, so we didn't bother to hide when they came by us. Using my aura sense was hard at the moment, as there must be so many monsters on this ship since all I can sense was just monster everywhere. I could, however, tell whenever a monster got within the vicinity of us, though.

Eventually, we reached deck thirteen, which was where the map showed where the admiralty suite was. We sent Annabeth ahead to scout the area when we came out from the staircase. We only stood there for a few seconds, before I heard Annabeth's voice come from out in front of us saying, "Hide!" in a whisper yell. She herded all of us into a supply close which had been close to the stairs and shut the door. The closet was a bit cramped, which placed me in a bit of an awkward situation with a certain son of Hades. Like before in the stall, we came face to face only a few inches from each other, but this time I couldn't blush and apologize due to the situation. Outside the supply closet, I heard the voices of two dudes.

"You see that Aethiopian Drakon down in the cargo hold?" The voice kind of sounded like a stereotypical surfer dude, which was appropriate for the kind of ship we were on.

"Yeah, dude. It's awesome." The second voice sounded vaguely familiar. I wasn't sure where I heard it before, but I could have sworn I have heard it. The voice didn't sound like anyone over seventeen. "I heard they have two more coming in. If they keep arriving at this rate, it'll be no contest." The voices continued to speak, but their words were unintelligible as they walked out of earshot.

Annabeth took off her cap and became visible. "That was Chris Rodriguez!" Annabeth whisper yelled. Oh, so that's why the voice sounded familiar. Chris Rodriguez was one of the members of Cabin Eleven, one of the unclaimed. So this is why he wasn't at camp this summer. "You know, from Cabin Eleven." Annabeth jogged Percy's memories with her words.

Percy was confused. "Why is there another Half-Blood here?" Why do you think, Percy? Annabeth shook her head, clearly looking troubled. We didn't say any more about it and continued our way down the corridor. After a few minutes of writing, Annabeth pointed at a window wall overlooking the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom of the canyon was the Promenade, a mall full of stores, but that's not what caught Annabeth's attention.

What caught her attention was a large group of monsters that had gathered in front of a candy store. At least a dozen Laestrygonian giants, which made my blood boil. Two large hellhounds that dwarfed the one we had seen in that cafeteria earlier and two humanoid females with rather...risque outfits with snake tails instead of legs. Seriously, what was with female monsters with sexy outfits?

"Scythian Dracaenae. Dragon women." Annabeth named the monsters, which I would normally roast her for being captain obvious, but I didn't know these monsters so I held back my mental tongue in my head. Down below, the monsters formed a semi-circle around a teenage guy in full Greek battle armor hacking away at a straw dummy wearing a Camp Half-Blood T-shirt. The guy slid his sword into the dummy's stomach and pulled upwards, causing straw to be spewed everywhere. The monster cheered, which weirded me out. It was just a dummy, wasn't it? Why was that so impressive?

Annabeth stepped away from the mirror, her face ashen white. I was confused? Why was she so scared? If these bastards attacked us, we would just kill them. Nico, to my left, looked rather pale as well. Well, paler than normal. My eyes narrowed. I would kill everyone on this boat if it meant protecting Nico. Percy walked away from the mirror with a steely gaze. "Come on. The quicker we find Luke, the better." I couldn't argue with that logic.

Down at the end of the hallway, we found two oak wooden doors gilded with a golden trim. The doors looked important, and if the maps were correct, those were the doors for the admiralty suite. When we were around thirty feet from the doors, Tyson stopped in his tracks. "Voices inside." Tyson said simply. My eyes widened. How did Tyson hear that far? Percy had the same thoughts, as he verbally responded with the same question. Tyson closed his singular eye like he was concentrating very hard. He opened his mouth and spoke, his voice becoming exactly like Luke's. "-the prophecy ourselves." Tyson heard Luke speak, not hearing the start of the conversation. "The fools won't know which way to turn."

Tyson's voice then shifted, becoming like the deeper, angrier voice that had spoken to Luke earlier, the voice named Argrius. "You really think the old horseman is gone for good?" My eyes widened. How did they know that? That had only happened around three days ago, and for them to know is really jarring. The only conclusion is that there is a spy inside the camp.

Tyson laughed Luke's laugh, which was creepy since Luke's laughter came out of Tyson's expressionless face. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. Not with his relationship to our lord. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw for the Olympians." That confirms it. Luke was the one who poisoned Thalia's tree, or is at least responsible for the act.

Annabeth, whose face had gradually grown more horrified by Tyson's replication of Luke's words, finally smacked him on the shoulder. "Stop it, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy." Annabeth shivered as she finished those words. Why the hell would you tell him to stop, Annabeth? He can clearly hear through walls and could give us valuable information. Stop crippling our quest.

Tyson shrugged at Annabeth's words and looked puzzled. "Just listening."

I motioned towards the door. "Go back to listening then. What else are they saying?" Tyson nodded at my words and pressed his head up against the door and closed his eye once more. I looked at the ornate oak wooden doors and felt a cold sensation shiver down my spine. I reached out with my aura sense and pulled back instantly after feeling a biting cold power within the room. Whatever was going on inside was something I was not looking forward to seeing.

Tyson continued in the deep, angry voice of the one I would assume was Argrius. "Quiet!" Tyson's voice changed to Lukes, muttering, "Are you sure?" Tyson's voice went back to Argrius' and continued. "Yes. Right outside the door." Shit. Before I could do anything, Luke and two massive figures appeared right out of nowhere. The door that Tyson was standing in front of was wide open and Tyson was on the floor, right under the foot of one of the massive figures.

Luke was standing before us with his blade, Backbitter drawn. The weapon which was made of one half steel and one half celestial bronze. A weapon meant to kill both mortal and immortal. Behind Luke were two massive, eight foot tall bear men. Not like really big hairy dudes, but actual bears standing on their hind legs with humanoid bodies.

Their hands were like bear paws stretched into the shape of a human, along with their feet. Their faces were snouted like a bear and they wore dark blue business suits. One of the bear men, the one that looked kind of dumb, held Tyson underneath him with his foot. Tyson would have probably struggled, but he was somehow unconscious at the moment. How the fuck did Luke do that? Even Tyson was moved quicker than I could react. It's almost as if he stopped ti...impossible.

Luke looked at the four of us with a crooked grin. "If it isn't my three favorite cousins." He looked at Nico. "And one of his boyfriends. Come right on in you four." My face heated up at Luke's remark but I paid no mind to his words. All I wanted to do was kill this bastard. Looking at Luke, I noticed he had changed over the summer. His previously medium length unruly hair had been cut shot, military style. He wore a button up vest, khaki pants and leather loafers. He looked like some kind of reject Bond villain. I didn't care about his fucking appearance. I wanted to skin him alive and put him in a freezer so he could freeze to death. Luke noticed my anger and smirked at me. "What's wrong, Zane? Not happy to see me?"

I didn't care about anything else at the moment and roared. I charged the son of Hermes, activating my Thunder Form as I did so. The ground cracked and the glass wall overlooking the canyon in the ship shattered. I tried to bisect the traitor with Keravnos but Luke, like always, disappeared from sight. I used my aura sense to track his location, only to be find it behind me. I turned as quick as possible, which was ridiculously fast given the form I was in, only to find Luke with his sword at Nico's throat. Luke stood behind the son of Hades and gave me his signature evil smirk. "I would behave if I were you, Zane. Otherwise, Nico here will ended up with a serious case of slit throat."

I saw the fear in Nico's eyes and him try to summon a shadow spike from the wall to impale the son of Hermes. Luke temporally blinked out of existence and reappeared, dodging the spike. He hit Nico in the head with the pommel of his sword, which made me see red. But the blade immediately returned to Nico's throat and I stopped in my tracks. I swallowed my pride and my rage and somehow ground out, "What do you want, Luke?" My Thunder Form dissipated, as I knew it wouldn't be useful in anyway here. I could probably kill those bear men in my normal form with ease and I couldn't even touch Luke at full speed, so I was out of options at the moment.

Luke's smirk kept up. "I see you're listening to reason, now. I just want to talk to all of you. Come into the admiralty suite with me." I hesitantly nodded and sheathed my axe. Luke motioned towards the door with Backbitter, still standing behind Nico with his blade at his throat. "No sudden movements, you hear me. You even think about trying something, Nico here dies. Now get in there." I glared at the traitor before reluctantly doing what he said. As I entered the admiralty suite, I heard Luke say to the bear men to his side, "Pick the cyclops and bring him in here as well." The bear men did just that and sat the unconscious cyclops down in a empty chair in the admiralty suite.

The admiralty suite was pretty amazing, I would have to admit. Massive windows curved along the back wall looked over the stern of the Princess Andromeda below, giving an amazing view. The exquisitely carpeted floor was covered up by an even more exquisite Persian rug. Two massive plushy sofa were in the middle of the room, with a canopied bed in one corner of the room and an expensive looking dinning table in the other corner. The table was absolutely loaded with food, covered in all kinds of pizza boxes, soda cans, and meat of every kind.

However, all the really awesome shit in the room was ruined by one feature in the back of the admiralty suite. A ten foot long golden sarcophagus that put anything that came from Ancient Egypt to shame. Depictions of burning cities and dying heroes were engraved along it's outside. Despite the shining sun blaring through the window, the coffin somehow made the room feel cold. I wonder which titan could that sarcophagus belong to?

Luke motioned around to the room. "Well, it's a little nicer than Cabin Eleven back at Camp Half-Blood, wouldn't you agree?" Luke plopped down on one of the sofas in the middle of the room, his bear men friends standing beside him. He waved his hand, and four chairs from the dinning table slid over to the middle of the room. "Sit." When none of us did, Luke's bear men friends growled at us. They were carrying spear with celestial bronze tips, no doubt supplied by Luke. Luke's eyes narrowed. "I said..." All of a sudden, everyone of us were seated in a chair. Luke looked like he hadn't even moved, still sitting on the sofa. "Sit." Luke smirked and laid back on the sofa.

My hands tightened into a grip and I shook in rage. I had never felt so powerless in my entire life. I could fight gods and kill titans, probably destroy the planet many times over, yet a traitor son of Hermes was completely controlling my movements like I was some kind of puppet. I tried to keep my rage under control, as I knew attacking him right now would be useless. I couldn't even touch him and if I provoked him any further, he could possibly kill Nico.

I looked at Luke's bear men, who were doing their best to look intimidating. To normal humans it probably would have worked, too. Luke noticed me looking at the two and smoothly smirked. "Where are my manners?" I don't know, you probably left them in camp with all of your morals and loyalty. "This one here is Agrius," Luke motioned to the one who had spoken to him earlier. "And this one here is Oreius." Oreius looked rather dumb, kind of like a hyperactive dog, but he copied his fellow bear man in trying to intimidate us.

When no looks of recognition came over our faces, Luke looked at us in mock surprise. "You don't know Agrius and Oreius' story?" The traitor asked us before shaking his head. "Their mother...well, it's kind of sad really. Aphrodite order the woman to fall in love, but the woman refused. She called out to Artemis and her hunters for help. Artemis took pity on the woman and let her become one of her maiden huntresses. Aphrodite, however, got her revenge. She bewitched the woman to fall in love with a bear and the next thing you know, well, you get my meaning."

I did not want to imagine that. Another reason for me to hate this motherfucker. "When Artemis found out, she abandoned the woman in disgust. Quite typical of the gods, wouldn't you say?" As much as I hate Luke, I kinda had to agree with him on that one. "The gods fight with one another and the poor humans get caught in the middle. The woman's sons here, Agrius and Oreius, have no love for Olympus. They seem to like Demigods well enough."

Agrius growled. "For lunch." His voice was the exact same as the one we had heard earlier, confirming my suspicions about it being his. His stupid looking brother to his right just started laughing, laughing as if he had just heard the best joke in the entire world. Whenever it seemed like the idiot was about to keel over and die of laughter, Agrius shouted at him. "Shut up, you idiot! Go punish yourself!"

Punish? I soon found out what that mean as Oreius whimped and walked over to the dining table in the corner of the room, slid onto a stool and starting banging his head onto the table, making the contents on top rattle. Luke and Agrius both acted like this was normal behavior and didn't make any comment. Maybe the reason the other brother was so stupid was because he kept banging his head on shit?

Luke looked in between both me and Percy. "So, Percy, Zane. We let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How was school, Percy? Did those Laestrygonians give you any trouble?" My fists tightened at the word 'Laestrygonian.' I hate Laestrygonians almost as much as I hate Luke. "And how is camp exactly, Zane? How is that old bastard Tantalus treating you?" Just fine you mangy piece of shit.

I answered Luke's earlier words. "I'm pretty sure you didn't quite let us survive another year, Luke. From what I remember we beat your ass after killing your titan cronies and made you run away with your tail in between your legs." Luke's face twitched and darkened after he heard my words. I smirked, knowing I got under his skin, and continued. "You were the one who poisoned my half-sister's tree, weren't you?"

Luke sighed, my earlier words forgotten. "Right to the point, eh? Yes, I poisoned the tree. So what?" Small bits of lightning curled off my fingers as he said those words. How fucking dare he just admit that so casually. I wanted to crush his head in between my skull. I tried to keep my anger under control, knowing Luke could punish me for the slightest slip up with a death to the friends.

Annabeth exploded on the son of Hermes. "How could you!?" Damn, Annabeth sounded real angry. "Thalia saved your life! Our lives! How could you dishonor her like that?!" Annabeth threw her hands up in the air as she yelled, expressing what I honestly thought. How dare this piece of shit betray everyone he's ever known for some titan fucktard?

Luke snapped back at the daughter of wisdom. "I didn't dishonor her!" Luke stood up from his chair faster than I could even blink. He must of used that odd power of his. "The gods dishonored her, Annabeth! If Thalia was still alive, she would be on my side!" I don't claim to know what my half-sister is like, but if she was stupid enough to join your insane ass, then maybe she deserved to get killed.

Also, I know the gods didn't exactly save her, my own father even being in the wrong there, but at least they used her death to protect others and make sure Thalia's fate never happened to anyone else. Maybe not what she would have wanted, or hell, what I would have wanted, but she gets to protect everyone in camp now. If I had to die to save the ones I cared for, I would do it in a heartbeat.

"Liar!" Annabeth thundered back at the son of Hermes, disbelief and rage clearly in her tone. "She would never join you, someone who wants to destroy our home! You're a monster! I hate you!" Damn, Annabeth, chill. But honestly, I had to agree with Annabeth. Luke was a traitor who would rather a psycho monster child eater like Kronos rule the world than the current gods. Everyone and their mother knows the gods aren't the best, but they sure as hell can't be nearly as bad as Kronos was.

Luke's face flashed with a bit of hurt, before steeling and his eyes narrowing. "The gods have blinded you, Annabeth. Can't you imagine a world without them, Annabeth? What good is that ancient history you study? Three thousand years of baggage! The West is rotten to it's core! It has to be destroyed! Join me! Together we can start this world anew! We could certainly use your intelligence, Annabeth." Hanging out with Kronos must have lowered your speech skill, Luke. That attempt was poor at best and nightmarish at worst.

Annabeth had a good response. "Is it because you have none of your own? Is that why you're dumb enough to think that the Titans are going to win?" Damn, sick burn, Annabeth.

A look of irritation passed of the son of Hermes' face. "I know you, Annabeth. You deserve better than some hopeless quest to save the camp. Within a month, Half-Blood Hill will be overrun with monsters. The heroes who survive will have no choice but to join us or be hunted to extinction. You really want to be on the losing team with company...like this?" Luke motioned to Tyson, who had just woken up, prompting a indignant Percy to yell out, 'Hey!' Luke clicked his teeth together. "Travelling with a cyclops. Talk about dishonoring Thalia's memory!" Anger laced Luke's tone as he stared Annabeth in the eyes. I'm surprised, Annabeth. You of all people should-"

I cut Luke off with a bout of full blown laughter coming from my mouth. Luke turned to me, a vicious glare on his face. Agrius took a few steps closer, but Luke stopped him with a hand. I looked at Luke and put on an expression of false innocence. "Oh, I'm sorry. I couldn't keep myself together when you said that."

My face became dead serious. "You're a fucking hypocrite, you traitor. Imagine how many demigods those fucking furries behind you have eaten and you're in here scheming with them. I wonder what kind of words all your dead fellow demigods would say to you for your actions." Luke backhanded me across the face, and then grimaced a bit. I smirked at him. "I didn't even feel that. You probably only succeeded in hurting yourself with that one."

Luke withdrew a dagger made out of celestial bronze. "Any more lip from you, this right here goes into your little boyfriends neck, understand?" I immediately shut my mouth and didn't say another word. Luke smirked and ruffled my hair. "Good boy." It took everything I had to not attack him immediately. My teeth ground together and my hands shook with rage.

Percy glared at the traitor. "Leave them alone, and leave Tyson out of this."

Luke turned his gaze back onto Percy and hit us with his already annoying fucking smirk. "Oh yeah, I heard your father claimed him." Percy face shifted from seriousness to surprise in an instant. "Yes, Percy, I know all about that. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those coordinates again? Oh yeah, 30 31 75 12. I still have some friends in the camp who keep me posted on everything." He looked at me. "I even know how you, Taylor and Nico won the chariot race with the biggest disgrace of a chariot to ever grace the planet." Shut the fuck up.

"Spies, you mean." My brain racked itself to figure out who the spies were. Unfortunately, I didn't really personally know anyone in camp outside of my friend group, so I was totally in the dark.

Luke shrugged, not caring about the difference. "How many insult from your father can you stand, Percy? You think he's grateful to you?" He fucking better be, since we had to kill a war god to save his ass from my dad's anger. "You think he cares about you anymore than he cares about this monster?" Luke pointed to Tyson, who clenched his fist and let out a slight growl. Yeah, I feel you, man.

Luke chuckled at Tyson's reaction. "The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?" No, he actually hasn't. Luke is probably referring to the one that Chiron or Annabeth couldn't tell us, being forbidden by the gods for some fucking reason. But what was with the whole sixteenth birthday shit? I definitely didn't know about that one.

Percy shrugged, not caring. "I know what I need to know, like who my enemies are."

Luke scoffed and shook his head. "Then you're a fool." These words managed to finally make Tyson lose his cool, as he stood and and punched the nearest chair into splinters. His face was a clear picture of rage and his lone eye stared at Luke with anger.

"Percy is not a fool!" Tyson shouted, before charging directly at the traitor son of Hermes. He brought his hands up in a double axe handle. The blow most definitely would have turned Luke and almost anyone else into paste, but Luke blinked out of existence and reappeared behind the cyclops. Agrius and Oreius both came up and caught Tyson's fists with their own, straining at the young cyclops' power. But they both overpowered him and threw him to the floor, causing it to crack.

Luke shook his head at the broken floor and scoffed at the cyclops on the ground. "Too bad, cyclops. Looks like my grizzly friends here are the perfect match to your strength. Maybe I should just let them kill you here and now. I wonder if that would make poor little Percy cry." Oreius broke out into more stupid laughter, but Luke silenced him with a glare.

"Luke." Percy's sharp voice broke in. "Your father sent us here." Luke's face turned the color of Taylor's hair, and not in an embarrassed way. The son of Hermes literally shook in anger. "He told us to take this boat. I thought it was just a ride, but now I know he sent us here to find you. He told me he won't give up on you no matter how angry you are at him."

Luke appeared right in Percy's face with no warning. "Angry!? Give up on me!? Are you fucking serious!?" Luke roared in Percy's face. The son of Poseidon didn't even flinch, and just sat there calmly, taking the brunt of Luke's fury. "He abandoned me! I want Olympus destroyed, Percy! Every throne reduced to rubble! You tell Hermes it's going to happen, too! Every time a new Half-Blood joins us, Olympus gets weaker and we get stronger." Luke visibly calmed down and turned towards the golden sarcophagus. "He get's stronger."

At Luke's words, the room felt much, much colder all of a sudden. I could feel the power radiating of the coffin, and it felt like it was only scratching the surface of the iceberg of strength. Luke walked up to the box and rubbed his hand down the side of the golden ornate engravings. "Our lord is reforming. The lord of the titans, Kronos." The room felt like a freezer now, and everyone except for Luke and his brutes visibly looked uncomfortable. "Little by little. we are calling his life force from the Pit. With each new recruit, a small piece of him returns."

Annabeth looked visibly disturbed and blanched. "Disgusting." My eyes shifted to Nico, who looked like he was having a really, really bad time. He hadn't said a single word the entire time, but I knew he was absorbing everything just like we were. My hands clenched. I was going to kill Luke for threatening Nico.

Luke turned to Annabeth and sneered. "Shut up, Annabeth. Your own mother was born from Zeus' split skull. I don't want you talking any shit." Luke turned his attention back to the coffin. "Soon there will be enough of our lord to make him whole once more. We will piece together a new body for him, one that would make even Hephaestus look on in envy." Luke turned back to us, a false gentle smile on his face. "Join us and you will be rewarded. We have powerful friends and sponsors who are rich enough to buy this cruise ship dozens of times over. Percy, your mother will never have to work again. You could buy here a mansion, or hell, a castle if you wanted to. You can have power, fame, whatever you want."

Luke turned to Annabeth. "Annabeth, you could live out your dream as an architect. You could build a monument so great it will last for thousands of years. A temple to the lords of the next age." Luke moved on to me. "Zane, you could have anything you wish for. Power, fame, money, women, men. I don't judge. You could even have your mother back." My eyes widened at Luke's words. That's impossible. Luke smirked at me. "Once Lord Kronos takes over the universe once more, he will have power over life and death. For your service, he could give you your mother back."

I thought Luke's offer over. My mother deserved a second chance. She died because of me, because she was in my vicinity. She deserved better. But, would she even get better if Kronos became the king of the universe? Kronos was a vile, evil monster who deserved every bit of his torment. I wouldn't consign my mother to a fate of living in a world controlled by him. "Go fuck yourself, and while you're at it, go suck Agrius' cock."

Luke shook his head. "A shame." Luke turned to both Percy and Annabeth. Their answers were similar to mine, just less vulgar. Luke pulled some kind of remote from his pocket and pressed a big, obnoxious red button on it. Within seconds, the oak wooden ornate doors of the admiralty suite bust open to reveal two uniformed crew members carrying nightsticks, the same glazed look in their eye. "Ah, good, security. I'm afraid we have a few stowaways." The guards wordless nodded and Luke turned to Oreius. "Oreius, it's time to feed them to the Aethiopian Drakon. Take these fools down below and show them how it's done." Oreius grinned stupidly and laughed his retarded laugh.

Agrius growled. "Let me go with them. My brother is useless." Agrius motioned to Tyson, who was being pulled to his feet my Oreius. "The cyclops is-"

Luke held up a hand to silence him. "Not a threat." Luke glanced back at the casket of Kronos with a worried look on his face. "Stay here, Agrius. We have things to discuss." Agrius didn't like it, but he wordless nodded at Luke's words. "Don't fail me, Oreius. Stay in the hold to make sure the Drakon is properly fed." Oreius didn't responded and prodded us with his celestial bronze tipped spear.

As we walked out of the room, I turned to Luke and stopped. "Luke." Luke turned back from the coffin at me. "I will kill you. I will torture you so much that I will make you beg for death. I don't know when, it may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but I will kill you." Luke didn't respond and he waved his hand. We were taken from the room by Oreius and the two security guards.

(000)

It took us around twenty minutes to find our way out of the thirteen floor and onto a deck, mainly because Oreius was too fucking stupid and the guards might as well be literally brain dead at the moment. Once we were outside on one of the decks and walking along the railing stacked with lifeboats. I saw a elevator that leads down into the ship only around thirty feet away. I had a guess that's where we were heading.

I turned faster than Oreius could react, pushing aside his celestial bronze spear that had been poking in my back and landed a punch right into his chest. Oreius' chest cavity exploded into a pile of gore, his arms and head landing on the ground along with the scattered meat of his body. Oreius' facial expression didn't even have time to change before he turned into a pile of golden dust.

The guards to our sides tried to apprehend us, but Percy punched one in the neck lightly, knocking the wide from him and sending him to the floor unconscious. The other guard I simply side chopped in the neck, beheading the crew member. His glazed eyes didn't change and didn't have any life to leave him, so I wasn't even sure when he was dead.

I felt the group look at me weirdly after I killed the guard, but I didn't have time to ask them about it. Before I could say anything, alarms blared from every alarm on the ship. I looked around, trying to see who could have spotted us, only to find another crew member on another floor with his hand on the alarm. "Get in the lifeboats!" Percy shouted, before moving over to the machinery holding the boats in place.

By the time Percy was able to get the lifeboat free, monsters and security guards swarmed the deck we were on, pushing aside tourists to get to us. Laestrygonians, Hellhounds, Scythian Dracaenae, and others I didn't recognize charged at us. There was even that teenager in the Greek armor hacking at the dummy here as well. He, like an idiot, slipped in spilled pina colada. I created a burst of wind mixed with lightning and sent it at the approaching mob of enemies. The wind blew them over, along with chairs and tourists as well. The lightning I mixed in the blast incinerated anything it touched, taking out a good quarter of the people on the deck, enemies and tourists alike.

Before I could do anything else, Laestrygonians with bows filled in on a deck above us and began firing down. I caught an arrow that nearly hit Nico in the chest and created a wind barrier around all of us. The arrows bounced off my shield as if it was a bouncy castle. "Get in!" Percy shouted to the whole group. I let my shield down and sent a blast of lightning to stun the Laestrygonians. The lightning hit the rails in front of them and created an explosion that knocked them off their feet. I jumped in the life boat alongside Nico and saw Tyson and Annabeth having no luck with the release hatch.

I could see monsters building up around the rails above us and the life boat was hanging high above the water. "Move!" I yelled, pushing them aside, gently as to not send them flying thousands of feet. I grabbed the release hatch and tore it in two, allowing our lifeboat to fall towards the ocean below. I grabbed hold of Nico, who nearly flew out of the boat. I quickly prayed to my father Poseidon wouldn't kill both me and him when we hit the water.

"THERMOS!" Percy shouted as we got closer to the water. What the fuck was he talking about? Thankfully, Tyson understood and opened one of Percy's duffel bags and handed it to Percy. Arrows, javelins and fire passed up as I made a shield out of wind to protect the lifeboat. "Everyone hand on, and drop your shield, Zane!" I made a confused face but did as he asked. Percy turned something on the Thermos, which looked like some kind of Axe body spray. We were propelled to the side by a massive burst of concentrated wind that turned our downward spiral into a diagonal slow fall.

The wind blew past my face, sending my long braided hair behind me in a wild style. We raced away from the Princess Andromeda as supersonic speeds. Our lifeboat smacked into the water, bouncing up and down like an intertube, but staying stable. Behind us on the Princess Andromeda, we heard wails and shouts of outrage and anger, but we were clearly out of weapon range. I turned to the ship and flipped it off. "Hahahaha! Eat my shit, motherfuckers!" I didn't get to hear a response, as the Thermos blasted us away quick enough for no response to be heard. The Princess Andromeda disappearing into the distance, looking like a toy boat in the water.

We raced for a few minutes, making sure we were outside the range of the ship, before Annabeth had the bright idea to try and contact Chiron via Iris Message. I knew it was important to make sure Chiron knew what happened over the past few days, but now might now be the best time. The wind of the Thermos knocked up enough water to create a nice sea spray good enough to use as a rainbow for Iris Messaging. Annabeth threw a golden drachmae at the mist, hilariously missing the first time. I chuckled and she glared at me before trying again, succeeding this time.

Whenever Chiron appeared in the rainbow, he looked like he was fine, but there was some kind of strobe, ambient lighting behind him and some kind of party music. We told the centaur about the quest, us sneaking away from camp, the Princess Andromeda, Luke and the golden coffin of Kronos. I didn't know how much he understood, since we were blasting as supersonic speed across the water, but I guess he got the message.

"Percy," Chiron started. "You'll have to watch out for-" Chiron was interrupted by some kind of loud shouting behind him. Like a football team after winning a game or getting hyped for one. Chiron grimaced. "Curse my relatives!" Chiron ducked under a plate and continued. Damn, that must have been some party. "Annabeth! You shouldn't have let Percy leave the camp! But if you do get the Fleece-" The music behind Chiron cranked up to eleven, and even starting vibrating our boat.

The screaming and shouting behind Chiron also got louder. "Miami!" Chiron was breaking up, the music being louder than he could speak over. "I'll try to keep watch for-" The Iris Message shattered, like someone had thrown a bottle at it. I guess they aren't coming up with some cure for the tree, huh?

(000)

We blasted down the open sea for nearly an hour, none of us trying to talk to each other due to the difficult of keeping up a conversation at the speeds we were going at. I had never had an hour that was so uncomfortable in my entire life. The domain of my father's greatest rival was all around me.

I was afraid at any moment Poseidon would just say 'fuck it' and send me to the shadow realm with a title wave, regardless whether his own children were also in the boat. By looking at Nico's facial expression and body language, I could tell he was having similar thoughts. If I didn't know any better, I could almost see the water pulling at the lifeboat as we bounced across it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, fuck you Poseidon.

Eventually, after a very uncomfortable hour of this shit, we could see a landmass in the distance. The land was a long stretch of beach with many high-rise hotels doting the landscape. The water eventually became crowded with tankers and boats. We even pasted a Coast Guard cruisers, which turned around once we passed it and it began to follow us. Ah, fuck. I hope this didn't end too badly for us. I wouldn't want to kill a bunch of military for no reason.

As we got closer and closer to the shoreline, Annabeth pointed at the beach. "That's Virginia Beach!" Wait, how the hell does she know that from a glance? "Oh my gods, how did the Princess Andromeda travel so far in one night? That's like-"

Percy cut her off. "Five hundred and thirty two nautical miles." Annabeth looked at the son of Poseidon, a stunned expression on her face. Percy shrugged. "Son of Poseidon thing. I can even tell where our position is. Thirty six degrees, Forty four minutes north, seventy six degrees, two minutes west." Annabeth looked even more stunned. I guessed he had a power like that. I mean, I can tell where every cloud in the sky in the immediate vicinity is and Nico can tell where exactly shadows are casted. It isn't exactly Earth shattering that Percy can tell sailor coordinates like a human GPS.

Tyson tapped on Percy's shoulder. "Other boat is coming." At Tyson's words, everyone turned and looked at the Coast Guard ship that had turned to follow us. I stood up from the seat I was in, using the wind to make sure I didn't fly out, and drew my axe Keravnos. I charged a bit of lightning in the weapon and pointed it at the ship, but was stopped by Annabeth.

"Are you out of your mind, Zane?!" The lightning on my weapon dispersed and I looked at her confused. "You're just going to kill them for following us?" I shrugged and she groaned. "By the gods, how do people deal with you? Sit down!" I sighed and followed Annabeth's instructions. She huffed and turned to Percy. "Anyway, we can't exactly let them catch us either. Keep going into Chesapeake Bay, I know of a place where we can hide." Percy nodded and directed the Thermos to propel us in the direction of the bay.

Percy loosened the Thermos a little and the lifeboat boomed ahead. We rocketed towards the northern peak of Virginia Beach, to apparently where Chesapeake Bay was. The Coast Guard ship disappeared in the distance and we entered the bay. We didn't slow down until the shores of the bay narrowed on each side and we entered the mouth of a river. As soon as we pulled into the river, Percy slumped and looked rather tired. Annabeth didn't pay much mind and continued to direct him. "Past that sandbar. Over there." We veered of into a swampy marsh area with tall green grass. We came up onto the shore and beached the lifeboat by a cypress tree.

Vine covered trees dotted the area around us, with insect flying and buzzing in every conceivable direction. The air was hot and humid, a very different feeling than Manhattan. It felt very similar to New Orleans, which sent some memories flashing through my mind. Memories of my mother than I would rather now remember.

I shook the memories from my mind as Annabeth spoke. "Come on. It's just down this bank." Percy, rightfully confused, asked her what's up. "Just follow me. And we'd better cover the boat. We don't want to draw any attention." I raised my hand and turned the lifeboat to ash with a bolt of lightning. The burst caused everyone to jump and Annabeth looked at me with a deadpan gaze. "Really?" I shrugged and smirked all at once and she just huffed. "Whatever. Let's just go."

I walked alongside Nico as we followed both Percy and Annabeth along the shoreline of the marshland. The mud we were walking though was literally red and I just saw a snake slither past Percy's foot. I turned to Nico, who looked like he was burning up in his black clothing. "Not exactly the best area to go walking through, huh?" Nico wiped a bit of sweat from his brow and rolled up the sleeves of his black skull shirt.

Nico nodded, his face turned a little red from the heat of the swamp. "Yeah. I wish I had packed a change of clothes now that we're here." Nico pulled the collar of his shirt, trying to let some of the heat escape.

I scoffed playfully. "Like you have any other shirts besides black ones, Nico. Seriously, I gotta get Taylor to take you shopping or something, your sense of style is atrocious." Nico looked a bit hurt at my words and looked away a little. Shit, I didn't actually mean that. "Hey, I'm just kidding Nico. I think your shirts look cool, honestly." Nico smiled at me and was about to say something before words from Annabeth ahead cut him off.

"Here!" Annabeth called out, bringing our little party to a stop. We were standing in front of a small hut that looked entirely made out of branches and brambles. She pulled away a pile of branches that were woven into a circle and stepped into the hut. When we followed her into the hut, I took in the appearance of it. The hut was about the size of a couple of cars, which with all five of us inside was pretty cramped now that I about it.

The walls looked like they were crafted from some kind of plant material, like a Indian hut. In the corner of the hut, there was a pile of anything you needed for a camp out. Firewood, sleeping bags, a lantern, blankets and more. There were also demigod weapons as well. Bronze tipped javelins, a quiver of arrows, a sword and even a box of ambrosia. The place smelled like wet grass and looked like no one had touched it in years.

I nodded at the place. "A hideout. A Half-Blood hideout at that. I looked at Annabeth. "Did you make this place?" At my words, Annabeth's face fell. I looked at her in confusion. What did I say exactly?

Annabeth was silent for a bit, not saying anything. Eventually, she spoke. "Thalia and I." Oh, that's what I said, then. She lowered her voice and then added, "And Luke." My face darkened at the mention of the son of Hermes' name. I hate that bastard with my entire being. I didn't exactly voice those thoughts, since I'm pretty sure Annabeth still had a crush on Luke to some extent.

Percy didn't exactly look too happy at the mention of the traitor's name either. He sat down on a log beside Annabeth, who was looking through her duffel bag. "So...you don't think Luke will find us here?"

Annabeth stood up from the log and threw her duffel bag down. She brought out some blankets and laid down on them, clearly not wanting to talk. Ouch, Percy. She moved away from you after you sat down beside her. That one had to hurt. "We made a dozen safe houses like this. I doubt Luke even remembers where they are. Or even cares." She sounded like an eight grader who just got dumped by their boyfriend.

Percy looked around the room and spotted Tyson, who was looking at the plant like walls in awe. "Hey, Tyson." Percy asked, gaining the cyclops' attention. "Would you mind scouting around outside? Like, look for a wilderness convenience store or something?" Wow, Percy. Trying to use a scouting trick to get Tyson out of here. Dude, come on at least try to hide your intentions. What kind of convenience store would be out here in the fucking wild?

"A convenience store?" Tyson asked. Percy went on to explain it's a store for snacks, like powdered donuts. Tyson nodded earnestly, not seeing what Percy was trying to do. "Powdered donuts. I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness." Tyson stepped outside the hut and called out to the wild, "Here, donuts!" I cannot believe that actually worked.

I nodded towards the door to Nico, and muttered to him, "Let's give these two some room to talk, okay?" Nico nodded and we both headed out the hut. I saw Percy shoot me a thankful look and I gave him a wink. Stepping outside with the son of Hades, I saw Tyson retreat into the shrubbery of the trees, no doubt looking for powdered donuts. I motioned to the hut. "Those two are made for each other, right?" Nico laughed at my joke but then went silent right after, looking off into the distance. I followed his gaze, thinking that there might be a monster of some kind that found us, but I found nothing. I nudged him on the shoulder. "You okay, dude?"

Nico jumped, but then nodded at my words. "Yeah, I'm fine." He was silent for a second as he stared into the trees. "It's just...Luke...terrified me. When he was at camp when I first arrived, I didn't really even interact with him all that much. From what I did see, he was caring and kind and a decent guy. But when I saw him on the ship...it was like a whole different person." I knew what Nico was saying here. I got the same feeling from the traitor as well. Seeing him with a dastardly smirk on his face and a evil look in his eye honestly kind of freaked me out. What kind of influence and power did Kronos have to change someone so drastically like that?

I nodded at the son of Hades' words. "I know what you mean, Nico. The entire experience was freaky. He seemed even more evil and corrupted than he did a year ago when he left camp." My fist tightened and my eyes narrowed. "I'm still going to kill him, though. I don't even want to imagine the horrors and atrocities he's probably committed in the name of the titan lord in the past year."

I was about to say something else, but Tyson bursting through the trees and yelling 'I found the powdered donuts!' interrupted me. Hold on, what? Tyson actually found donuts? Out here in a swamp marshland. That had to be impossible. Tyson ran by both me and Nico and into the hut. I gestured to Nico to follow me and I stuck my head into the hut to hear Tyson's next words.

Inside the hut, both Annabeth and Percy stared at the cyclops in disbelief, who was currently displaying the box of powdered donuts proudly. "Where the hell did you even get those!? We're in the middle of the wilderness! There's nothing around for-"

Tyson interrupted the daughter of Athena. "Fifty feet!" Percy and Annabeth couldn't have looked more confused. Tyson elaborated. "Monster Donut shop just right over the hill." What? I peaked my head outside of the hut to confirm Tyson's claim, and sure enough, there was a pristine, new building sitting in the middle of the woods. My eyes widened at the development. How the fuck did that get there? I didn't even sense a change in anything around us.

We scrambled together, grabbing all of our shit and we walked over to check on the Monster Donut. Like I said, the building was brand new, with the windows being completely clean, a whole new parking lot despite there not being any roads, Inside the store, the only person we could see was a teenager at the register reading a magazine. Other than that, the place was completely deserted.

I looked at the store as me and my friends hid behind a nearby tree. Above the doors, was the words 'MONSTER DONUT' in bold. The M had a little chunk bitten out of it by some cartoony monster with one eye. The place smelled like a Dunkin' Donuts, and freshly baked chocolate. "This is bad." Annabeth muttered from behind the tree. She continued in a whisper. "This shouldn't be here. It's wrong." No shit.

Percy looked at her, confused. "Why not? It's just a donut shop." Annabeth hushed him, as he was speaking in his normal, not quiet voice. Percy rolled his eyes and brought his voice down to a whisper like Annabeth's. "Why are we whispering? Tyson just went in there and bought a dozen donuts and nothing bad happened to him."

Annabeth looked at him like he was an idiot, which he kind of was. "That's because he's a monster." Annabeth said the word, 'monster' like it was a KKK member saying the n word. Maybe she had a reason to hate Tyson, but until I hear the reason, I'm still going to judge her for it.

Percy rolled his eyes once more. "Oh, come on, Annabeth. Monster Donut doesn't mean monsters. We have dozens of them in Manhattan. It's a chain of stores." I can attest to Percy's words. When me and him went to Percy's house, I saw at least three.

Annabeth nodded at Percy's words. "A chain. Don't you think it's strange that one appeared immediately after you told Tyson to go find some powdered donuts? Right here in the middle of the woods." Percy's face went stone cold hearing Annabeth's words. She kinda has a point there, Perce. Annabeth continued. "It could be a nest." Tyson whimpered at Annabeth's tone, donut powder on his face. Nico's expression darkened at Annabeth's words and his hand fell to his sword as he watched the Monster Donut shop.

Percy's face of confusion prompted Annabeth to elaborate. "Haven't you ever wondered how franchise stores pop up so fast? One day, there's nothing and then the next, boom, there's a new burger place or coffee shop or whatever? First a single store, then two, then four, and then dozens of exact replicas all across the country." I just assumed it was used for money laundering, kind of like Mattress Firm.

Percy looked like he was out of his element, which he very much was. "Uh, not really. I've never really thought about it."

Annabeth didn't look so surprised by Percy's answer. "Percy, the reason the chains can spread so fast is because all of their locations is linked to a lifeforce of a monster. Some children of Hermes figured out how to do it back in the 1950s. They breed..." Annabeth trailed off, before freezing. Before me or Percy could do anything, she slowly pointed behind us. "No. Sudden. Moves." Fear was entrenched into her voice. "Turn around, very slowly." Both of us followed Annabeth's orders and found something that we really didn't want to find.

We saw a massive, rhino sized monster dragging it's belly through the swamp. It's body was long and snake-like and split into seven different snakes at one point at it's torso. At the neck of each of the seven, leathery necks, was a bib that said, 'I'M A MONSTER DONUT KID.' If I didn't explain it very well, it was the Hydra. The beast my half-brother Heracles killed all those years ago.

I grinned, finally having some action readily available. I withdrew Keravnos from it's sheathe and began to walk over to the monster. Annabeth tried to stop me, a look on her face that clearly said, 'Not yet!' But I don't take order from anyone. I'm bored, tired, and sweaty and I want to kill something right now. I walked out from behind the tree without a care in the world.

The Hydra, which had been messing with some kind of shrubbery by another tree, noticed me and instantly put it's guard up. The seven, diamond shaped snake head stared down at me like I was an alpha predator. I opened both my arms and stood in front of the Hydra. "I'll let you take the first hit, you ugly motherfucker." That set the monster off, and it tried to swipe down on me with it's tail. Big mistake.

I caught the Hydra by the tail and flipped it over my shoulder at the Monster Donut. The massive seven headed snake smashed into the walls, bursting through them and ruining the new look of the store. The Hydra smashed the worker inside into pulp before the guy could even react. The Hydra tried to scramble back upright, which was hard with seven snake heads and only one snake body.

I laughed as the monster tried to right itself, causing more destruction to the shop. When the beast finally recovered, I charged my axe with a little bit of lightning and threw it right at the torso of the snake. The axe collided with it's body, piercing right through the snake-like skin and causing a gust of wind that obliterated the remains of the shop.

Without thinking, I appeared right into the Hydra's face. The Hydra head jumped back and all of them converged for a single blast of fire on my form. I smirked and threw up my hands, creating a single wind barrier in front of me. When the fire died down, I grabbed my axe from it's body and pulled it out. Black, bile-like blood shot from the wound and the Hydra roared in pain.

I swung my axe, Keravnos, back and cut on of the beast's heads clean off. However, before I could do the same to all the other heads, the stump that was created by my axe regrew two new ones. The heads looked incredibly angry and tried to chomp down on my torso, but my arms grabbing the beast by the necks stopped them from moving. I saw the other heads try and move onto me, so I knew I had to act now.

The heads all tried to take a very large bite out of my body, but I jumped high in the air. I allowed the wind to carry me a little longer than gravity would like, so the head were all in position. The Hydra head were all grouped up together in one space, which would allow for easy killing.

I commanded the wind to propel me down and I charged my axe above my head. I slammed Keravnos down on their necks, decapitating all of them in one fell swoop. I finally remembered that my brother Heracles had stopped the Hydra heads from regrowing by burning the stumps where the head used to be. I couldn't manipulate fire, but I could control the next best thing.

I summoned a handful of lighting in my left hand and pointed down at the stumps. I let the lightning burst out of my hand like Emperor Palpatine and I fried the stumps of the Hydra. The Hydra's body twitched and turned at the power of my lightning and eventually went still and limp. After a few seconds of it just lying there, the Hydra's body eventually turned into golden dust.

I smirked at the dust on the ground. Another monster my brother struggled with that I defeated with incredible ease. I walked over to one of the Hydra heads and picked it up. I seemed to just be a master of decapitation. The other seven heads turned to dust after I picked one of them up. I guess I could only take one of them then.

Before I could have the opportunity to boast of my victory, Annabeth came storming up from behind the tree with a furious expression on her face. "Are you fucking kidding me!?" Annabeth got in my face and I inched back in fear. What did I do? "You gods damn, blockheaded, stubborn fucking idiot!" I looked at her in bewilderment.

"What?" I held up the Hydra head. "I just beat the Hydra like it was nothing. No one got killed, no one got put in danger, all too easy." She took her bag off her shoulder and hit me over the head with it, which I didn't feel, but was still annoying nonetheless.

"No one got killed!? No one got put in danger!?" She motioned to the destroyed Monster Donut behind me. "WIll you look for a second for once, Zane!? That worker in there died because you wanted to kill a big scary monster! If you had just listened to me and stayed quiet and hid with the rest of us, they would still be alive!" Oh, so that's what she's so pissed about. She continued, her face twisted into one of rage. "You killed all those people on the Princess Andromeda, too! Despite the fact they were obviously being controlled!"

I scoffed. "That worker was just a regular mortal, Annabeth. And so were those tourists and guards on the Princess Andromeda. I'm not going to limit myself and play by their rules just for the sake of a few mortals."

Annabeth looked at me with a expression of disgust. "I can't even believe you would ever say anything like that, Zane. Wasn't your mother a mortal? What do you think your mother would say about you talking about her people like that?" Anger bubbled up in my veins. How dare she bring up my mother in this? But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. My mom would be disappointed in me for being so careless. But that doesn't mean I was going to let Annabeth win this.

I nodded at Annabeth's words, not looking her in the eye. "You may have a point there, Annabeth. My mother wouldn't have good things to say." I glared at her, my expression filled with anger. "But don't think that makes you completely in the right, Annabeth! How dare you fucking lecture me about looking down on mortals after your treatment of Tyson? You look at him like he's a monster." Annabeth opened her mouth to say something, but I interrupted her. "I know he is a monster! But does that give you the right to treat him like trash?"

Before the argument could devolve into more screaming and shouting, Percy appeared quicker than almost anyone could react in between us. I saw him coming, though. "Guys, look, this is not the time or place to be doing this right now! We can't let ourselves become divided. That's exactly what Luke wants right now. You can deal with your problems and differences later. Right now, we need to figure out our next move and not try to killed each other!" Percy's words shut both of us up where we stood.

I knew the son of Poseidon was right. I sighed and looked at Annabeth. "Look, I'm sorry about being careless and not caring about mortals, okay. Percy is right, we need to put this all behind us right now and deal with the situation at hand." Before Annabeth could respond, a familiar voice called out from the river.

"Well, well, well. I never thought I would see you actually trying to make up and be the bigger person, Zane." I turned my head in the direction of the familiar voice, only to see a large, metal looking ship floating in the river. The ship was some kind of steamship, looking like an older version of a German U-Boat.

The only weird parts were that the middle of the ship above the deck was a trapezium shaped casemate with slits on each side for some kind of canon. On top of the middle thing was a flags flowing in the wind, colored blood red. Also, the crew members on the ship were wearing grey uniforms, similar to the members of the Confederacy back on the day. The crew members also only had shimmering illusions of a face over their skull. On the side of the ship were the words, 'CSS Birmingham.'

On the closest side of the deck to us was the son of Ares and my best friend, Taylor Smyth. He was wearing full Greek battle armor, something that I had not seen him in ever. He had forgone a helmet and honestly looked really awesome. To his right and left respectively was Charles Beckendorf and Arthur Wayne. Beckendorf looked at us with his normal, neutral expression and Arthur had a slight smirk on his face as he messed with his celestial bronze tipped javelins. Taylor waved and us and grinned. "Hey, guys! Did you miss me?"

(000)

"Well, you guys are in so much trouble." Taylor said after we finished the tour of the ship. We had been taken through the coal bunker, the boilers and even saw the engine, which looked like it was made from a bunch of vomit combined with metal. We were also taken through the pilothouse, the gunnery deck and examined the powder magazine. The ship was cramped and uncomfortable, which wasn't helped by all the Confederate zombie ghosts everywhere. Also, the fact that we were in a metal box hovering through water didn't help my conscience one bit.

The final place we visited was the captain quarters, which wasn't exactly too big, no bigger than a New York apartment. There was a small table filled over with chips, sandwiches, bacon and more. Taylor sat down in the nearest chair and beckoned us to do the same. "Tantalus has banished you for eternity. Mr. D. told me if any of you tried to come back, he'd turn you into squirrels and run you over with his RV."

I scoffed at Taylor's warning. "I'd like to see Dionysus try. And Tantalus can go fuck himself, too." I sat down in a chair beside Taylor. "So...this ship. Very cozy. Did Dionysus or Tantalus give it to you?"

Taylor shook his head. "No, it was not them. It was my dad." I looked at Taylor in shock, as did all my other companions. Ares had been relatively quiet ever since me and Percy kicked his ass and I cut his head off. I guess this quest was worthy of his attention, or that because me and Percy were 'banished' from camp, he thought he could come out of hiding or something.

Taylor noticed all of our bewilderment and elaborated. "He gave it to me to congratulate me for getting my first quest as the leader and as a gift to help me on the way." He looked uncomfortable. "I don't really like it all that much, but it's passage to the Sea of Monsters and it's got a bunch of Confederate zombies spirits to help fight any monsters if need be."

"Taylor," Annabeth started. "We think Luke might be after the Fleece as well. We ran into him on his ship, The Princess Andromeda." Taylor's face darkened and eyes narrowed at the mention of Luke. He looked angry and I don't think the angry look suits him. I guess he's still reeling from his defeat from Luke back on the whole Barnum Island quest.

"He has the coordinates for the Fleece and he's heading south to the Sea of Monsters. His ship is filled with monsters and we need to join forces to defeat him and save the camp." Annabeth's voice grew quiet. "That's not all. He had the lord of the titan's coffin. With every new recruit that joins him, he reforms a piece of himself.

Taylor nodded at Annabeth's words. "You're right, Annabeth. If Luke really has an entire ship filled with monsters and has the titan lord's coffin, we're going to have to team up to take him down." Taylor looked at everyone in the room and smirked. "I don't think a quest has had some many demigods on it before. There's five people here, plus me, Arthur and Beckendorf, that makes eight."

Taylor turned to the Captain of the ship, a Confederate ghost who had been silently standing at the side watching the whole affair. "Captain, take everyone to the berth deck and assign them hammocks." He turned back to me and my friends. "When you're done down there, go to the deck and meet up with either Beckendorf or Arthur. They'll tell you what to do." Everyone nodded and stood up and began to follow the captain, but as I walked out of the room, Taylor took me aside and said, "Not you, Zane." I looked confused, but waited until everyone was gone alongside Taylor.

After everyone had left, Taylor wrapped me in a bone crunching hug. Well, it would have been bone crunching to most people, but I'm not most people. "I've been waiting to do that the entire time you've been here." Taylor said, snuggling his head into my chest. I felt my face heat up, but I kept my embarrassment down. I returned Taylor's hug and we stood there for a couple of minutes. When we separated, Taylor motioned down to the armor he was wearing. "Well, how do I look? I know it's not my best look if I'm being honest. It feels so weird!" Taylor, even during Capture The Flag, had never worn any armor, saying it would inhibit his speed.

I shook my head before replying a little too quickly. "Nah, it's looks really good on you." I honestly liked his normal look more, but that didn't mean I hated this whole armor getup he was wearing. "It's a nice change of pace from what you've been wearing normally. I like it." Taylor's face heated up a bit.

He slapped me on the shoulder playfully. "Aw, you don't mean that." I smiled and felt my heart beat a little bit quicker than normal. What was this feeling? I only got it whenever I would interact with either Taylor or Nico, and only them. "Anyway, we can't have you sleeping in a hammock down in the berth deck with all the zombies."

He shook his head, playfully cringing. "Ugh, those zombies give me the creeps. They act like complete slaves and do anything I say. I hate it." Taylor shook his head once more. "Anyway, what I was saying was, you can just stay in here with me during the quest, okay?" He motioned to his bed, which was quite a bit smaller than the bed back at the Zeus cabin.

I tried to not look too flustered, which had been happening a lot more lately. "Are you sure, Taylor? Wouldn't that be kind of unfair to the others?" Taylor shrugged with a playful smile on his face and I rolled my eyes. "Alright, fine. I'll stay in here with you." Taylor opened his mouth to say something, but a shimmer in the air from nothing interrupted him.

Taylor groaned. "Not now." The shimmer turned into a mirror floating in the air, the outside made out of rainbows. Taylor turned to the portal in the middle of the captain's quarters. "What do you want, dad?" I looked into the portal, only to find the war god himself. He looked the exact same as he did one year ago. Red, flaming long hair and beard, glasses over his burning eye sockets, the whole biker outfit, yeah he looked the same.

Ares growled through the Iris Message. "You dare show me disrespect, boy?" Taylor rolled his eyes and Ares' brow furrowed even more than normal. "Why are you not in the Sea of Monsters yet? This ship clearly has enough speed to take you there within a day. You better not be slacking off, not on your own personal quest!"

Taylor stared Ares directly into his red tinted sunglasses. "Well, if you must know, we ran into some...familiar faces on the way. Sorry about that." Taylor smirked and gave me a playful wink, which nearly caused me to laugh.

Ares sunglasses burned brighter. "I don't want to hear your excuses, boy!" Ares walked closer to the Iris Messaging portal and put his ugly mug right into view. "You do not want to see me angry, do you boy?" Taylor didn't respond and just stared at his father coolly. I noticed behind Taylor's back, Taylor had made a hand that had been copying Ares' words. I put my hand over my mouth, trying to keep my laughter back. It wasn't really working.

"No response to your father, boy? You are pathetic. I should have let one of my other son's take this quest. At least they're real men." Taylor copied Ares' words behind his back with his talking hand movement, which made me unable to hold my laughter anymore. Ares' face twisted into one of outrage and he looked around the room through the Iris Message. "Who is that!? Who is laughing and making fun of the god of war!?" His eyes fell on me, as I was almost doubling over laughing. Ares growled. "Brother." He spoke in a hateful voice.

I smirked at the god of war after I finally stopped laughing. "Oh, hey Ares. How the neck been treating you?" Ares nearly blew a gasket at my answer but I continued. "I wonder how long you probably spent on the gates of Olympus with a pike in your head? Well, not long enough to be out of my hair forever." I threw my arm around Taylor's shoulder and conjured up a little bit of wind. "Anyway, Taylor doesn't want to talk to you right now. I'll catch you later, bro." I sent the wind at the Iris Message cloud and dispersed it, Ares screaming the entire time.

Cue Taylor giggling as he saw his father being humiliated. "Thanks. He's such a pain on the ass. He expects me to worship him just because he gave me a ship for this quest." Taylor motioned around us. "An ugly ship. Seriously, it could not be more ugly even if the entire ship was neon colors."

I smirked. "I don't know, maybe if the whole thing was blood red like the Ares cabin." I know the color of his cabin really got on Taylor's nerves. He's been itching to repaint the damn thing since he became counselor, but he could never get the Ares cabin members to listen to him.

Taylor groaned. "You know how I hate the color of our cabin so much. At least when it comes to decorating shit. It looks fine on clothes..." Taylor looked at his blood red nails. "...and fingernail polish. But when it comes to painting the entire cabin a single color, it's so ugly."

Taylor sighed before giving me a smile. "Seriously, thanks for pissing off my dad like that. I'm surprised he hasn't cursed me or tried to get me killed because of my disrespect to him. Maybe it's something to do with his punishment from your dad, Zane." Taylor began to undo his Greek cuirass that he was wearing, revealing his red overshirt underneath. "Anyway, it's getting late. We'll be in the Sea of Monster by tomorrow morning. We should get some sleep." Taylor threw the last of his armor off and and plopped down on the bed. "Care to join me?"

I smiled and laid down on the cot beside Taylor. This whole thing just keeps getting more and more interesting. My face burned a little red at I laid beside the son of Ares. I really, really need to find out what this feeling in my chest is.

(000)

Chapter Eleven in the books. Personally, I don't think this chapter is my best work to be honest. I felt like sometimes I was all over the place and the writing could be a little better. Well, I hope to improve as the story goes on. That's my goal. Also, about what that guy said about how I might be hitting the romance flag a little much, do you think I am? I tried to tone it down a little in this chapter, so I hope this is a more acceptable level. Anyway, I'll see you next time for chapter twelve. Writing may slow down a little bit due to me getting a summer job, but I will endeavor to always keep updating.