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]

16. A Titan Nearly Kills Me

Chapter sixteen, boys! We made it to the Citizen Kane of the Percy Jackson books, the Titan's Curse. Or that's at least what my sister says. Get ready for all the romantic drama, as Zane is now no longer too young for that shit. No lemons yet, you sick fucks, since Zane is still like 14 but he's going to be getting very...er, I'm not going to say. Anyway, let's get into some reviews.

Jay: "Ugh, I remember my promise and it's not that I don't have enough time either but my fuck. I procrastinate everytime I think of counting those Hunter fics.

I swear like there's seven more of them updated in a span of a week. Not to mention all those betrayed Percy fics or edgy Chaos fics or God forbid both of them.

Not gay personally but fuck, I wanna read Zane shagging Nico within 20 chapters."

Response: I think the betrayed chaos Percy joins the Hunt is probably the worst archetype for fanfiction to ever exist. Get counting boy. Also, you're not gay but you want to see them fuck? Idk bro that sounds kinda gay to me. Lol jk, anyway hope you enjoy the chapter.

Echoxenvy: "Wow what a chapter. It was refreshing to see a chill chapter for a change from the fighting. Not that the fighting is bad at all but you need character focused chapters too. I was so shocked at Arthur and Taylor, like wow I had no expectations of them actually kissing. Also, I love that Zane cried, it truly shows his emotions and the fact that he is indeed half human. I also don't know if you had any intention on this, but Zane destroying Saturn, does that represent him destroying Kronos? Since KronosSaturn? If so, brilliant use of representation, if not, then it was unintentionally good lol. Lastly, I absolutely love Zane and Thalia's relationship. I can't wait to see them in Titans Curse.

P.S. One more thing, how long do you plan on Annabeth liking Luke? I always found that strange, insiders considering she admitted in Heroes of Olympus that she liked Percy from the start. I get that you can like two ppl at the same time and be conflicted...but come on, the guy is eight years older than her, give it a rest. I understand though since she's still young, and if you have her like him and Percy at the same until the last book then I'm fine with that. Just let my boy get the girl in the end, all I ask lol.

P.P.S. Poor Zane had to get rid of his King Size. As someone with a King Size himself in real life, I can't imagine the pain of giving it up."

Response: So yeah, last chapter wasn't much of a fight chapter since it was during the peace time, but it was a nice change of pace. And Arthur and Taylor was honestly a little improvised, as I planned for Taylor to say he didn't like Arthur anymore when Zane asked him about it earlier last chapter, but I realized Zane would just ask him out immediately right after and we couldn't have any romantic drama or anything. And yes, Zane does have his emotions, and in this book he's going to be suppressing his violent and murderous nature while trying to be a better person. And I already answered this over Snapchat, but Annabeth doesn't like Luke anymore. Zane just thinks that because he's a fucking idiot. Also, rip king sized bed for Zane. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter.

Ozilla: "Like this chapter

Though I have to disagree with Bianca joining the Hunt. First of Bianca joined the hunt because she wanted to be free of the responsibilities of taking care of Nico. Since Nico was kinda annoying before her death. Anyway after 2 years away of her brother not knowing where he is or if he's hurt would make her not want to lose Nico again. But if you are planning to have Bianca join the Hunt I suggest you do it later. Like near the end of the Titan's Curse or in the Maze book.

Has for Hestia being stronger then Zeus that's a matter of the myths and the what type of power system Rick used for the Gods. In ancient Greek every time people made a sacrificed to one of the Gods they always include a tribute to Hestia. Hell Hestia monkier Chief of the Gods or something like that. Anyway since we haven't actually seen a God to God/Titan/Giant face off (not counting Lester/Apollo since he was human) we can't actually have definite understanding on the Gods powersystem.

In my opinion I think Hestia is the strongest. Since we know that the Gods are directly tied to their domains Pan vanishing because there's no more wild anymore is proof of that. Hestia is the Goddess of Home so anything that could be consider a home increases her power.

Fun Fact: In some myths Apollo defeated Kampe and is hinted at that he's the 2nd or strongest Olympian in Myths."

Response: So about Bianca joining the Hunt, it hasn't been nearly as long for her as it has been for Nico. It's maybe been a couple of months for Bianca, max. For Nico it's been two years, and that's why it will piss him off once Bianca joins the Hunt. Hestia, is absolutely not the strongest Olympian, however. Back then, they only gave Hestia a portion of sacrifices once the full pantheon was compiled, and that took quite a while as different regions worshiped different gods. In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, it straight up says Hestia is the weakest out of the Olympians, so that's what we're going with. Also, I'm pretty sure we have seen Olympian on Titan action, as Poseidon fought Oceanus sometime in Last Olympian, although I could be wrong. Also, don't know about that Apollo one, since he has stalemated Poseidon in myths as well, although not to sure what myth that was. And if we really get into myths, we can't forget about Orphic Zeus, who is ridiculous. Orphic Zeus literally absorbed both Gaia and Chaos, iirc. And Orphic Dionysus was a far more important god that he was in Hellenistic myths. And we can't forget about Zagrius, who was described as 'greatest of all gods.' The strength and importance of the gods varies on telling to telling, so I could literally go on all day about this.

Shadowhunter2077: "Ok I not even sad about the fact that you are going to make the Titan's Curse already, because like I said the Kanes Chornicles was a very far fatched idea that even I was not very sure that it would work.

And about the demigods from other pantheons is more to give a reason to Zane and Co. to go, because to me Bianca is not that powerful, I think even Thalia is way more powerful Bianca, so demigods from others pantheons would be more like a excuse to make sure they go there, also to me makes sense that Bianca would go to the Hunters because to her nico at best only disappeared for at least two days for her, so she would probably go join the Hunt to be "free of her responsibilities".

Also will Nico have a more powerful form like Zane and Percy have, you could make his form be a shadow form like his father have, his form could be like Dormin form Shadow of Colossus, if you are curious search google to see the images.

And about Hestia and to maybe help the reviewer Ozilla, Hestia was considered Chief amog GODDESSES never from all Gods like Zeus is, and she only receives a portion of the sacrifices because Zeus ordered, and Percy Jackson Greek Gods it was confirmed that Hestia was the weakest among her sibilings, so much that the moment Demeter was born she was stated to be more powerful than Hestia, and about her domain of home, well is not that powerful when compared to Zeus domain that is the Sky which is around the entire planet so yeah Zeus is the strongest olympian."

Response: So no to the other pantheons for right now, since I'm bringing six different people on this quest. It's going to be hard enough to juggle all them into a believable narrative, so the other pantheon demigods will have to be pushed to the back of my mind for a least a little bit. Also, Bianca really didn't understand what joining the Hunt really meant when she did so, further cementing to me it will be believable when she joins later in this chapter. And yeah, I agree with you entirely, Zeus is absolutely the strongest Olympian, no doubt. Also, to answer your PM from earlier, I'm not sure how strong a child of Shiva would be, but considering I put the Hindu gods over the Greeks, probably stronger than you average Big Three demigod. Anyway, enjoy this chapter.

KingsleyComan: "huh this started good but some things made this a turn off, like the unnecessary cursing, u twat u just ruined it also the chapters maybe add some space between paras and the punctuation is bs, also that Echoxenvy guy and you promote each others story desperate af, at least Echoxevny's story is good and has an actual plot but this is trash"

Response: Alright, damn, my first bit of criticism besides rampant homophobia and as I expected, it's just as garbage as those. Okay, first off, You don't like the unnecessary cursing? Bro you can go suck a giant, fat, huge motherfucking shit covered cock you sorry sack of cum covered shit. Anyway, along with the other shit. So I just 'ruined it?' How exactly? You don't really say why the cursing really ruins it. Bro, trust me, this is me when I tone my cursing down. The only thing I might give you is the big paragraphs, but I already have split those up, they were way bigger to begin with. If you can't read a paragraph that's only about ten lines, maybe you just need to work on your focusing bro. And how exactly are me and Echoxenvy desperate? If we were desperate we'd be like those low life scum in YouTube comment sections giving everyone a link to their shitty video. And it's kind of funny that you say my punctuation is bullshit, considering you have one giant sentence with like seven commas, no capitalization except for Echoxenvy's name and no period. So I'd say that little bit of criticism is null and void, wouldn't you agree? Anyway, how does this story have no plot? It's literally almost the exact same as the original PJO story with some alterations. Are you saying that the original books had no plot and is also trash? Look, I'm fine with criticism, as it helps people become better writers, but stupid flaming with no actual legitimate points helps no one, least of all yourself. Don't embarrass yourself, bro.

Guest: " Cool story. Zane a badass name for a MC"

Response: Thanks, bro. My favorite name ever.

SuAvE ViPeR: "I binge read both this and "The Son of Hercules" in like two days and I have to say they are two of the best FanFictions I have ever read, and believe me I've read a lot of fanfictions. I honestly can't see why this and that story are so underrated. It seems the shitty stories get thousands of favorites and follows while yours has thirty one and forty eight? It blows my mind. This is a very well written story and I love it. I honestly think If it had more chapters it would be even better than Son of Hercules, not that it doesn't rival it already. If you don't mind me asking, do you and EchoxEnvy know each other in real life or something? Cause it seems these stories coincide with one another. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I'm curious. Overall, I absolutely love Zane and this story so far, and cannot wait for the Titans Curse!"

Response: Thanks, man. That's honestly really high praise. I do notice how people who have shitty fanfics like VFSNAKE gets a fuck-ton of reviews and follows. It's probably mostly because people like the ideas in those fanfics, which are not exactly bad per say, it's just that they are either done to death or they are done very poorly. So yeah, me and Echoxenvy don't know each other in real life exactly, but we talk on Snapchat a lot so we do know each other quite well. Our stories coincide with each other quite a bit because we talk to each other and give each other ideas a lot. Like did you know that I was the one who suggest Talon becomes the son of Nikandreos? He was originally the son of Ares, as Echoxenvy told me. Anyway, here's your first little chunk of Titan's Curse and I hope you enjoy it.

Enough with reviews. Let's blow this pop-stand.

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

(000)

*December 18th, 2007*

The cold, brisk air of the snowing Firday night brushed past my face as I flew through the sky. My free, non braided long black hair flowed in the nighttime wind as I flew through the snowing clouds, a bubble of wind around me to protect me from the snow as it fell from the sky. I didn't feel the cold, or at least the cold didn't really affect me all that much. I could very much tell that it was freezing, yet I was barely affected, as if I opened a refrigerator or something. I still wore warm clothing, though.

I wore a black hoodie over my classic Camp Half-Blood T-shit, along with dark red sweat pants and black combat boots. I didn't bother to put my hood up, as the wind would have just blown it away while I was flying. I was on my way to meet Percy, Annabeth and Thalia at this place called Westover Hall. Some kind of military school or something, as Grover called us all out here for some reason. Grover had went back on his quest to find Pan, but for some reason, out of nowhere, contacted all of us and told us to meet him here on this day. He was especially adamant that we bring Nico was well.

Speaking of the son of Hades, I had to carry him in my arms while I flew, bridal style. We hadn't said much to each other over the journey over here, which had only been a few minutes, as the sound of the roaring wind made it difficult to make conversation. Nico was wearing winter clothes, just like I was.

He wore his aviator jacket, plus a pair of black mittens with skulls on them, which I thought just looked super cute. He wore a pair of black jeans and grey snow boots. Nico also had this adorable black and white toboggan one that covered his long, beautiful black hair. The son of Hades was cold, as he snuggled into my chest as the freezing wind blew past us. Over the past five months, Nico had grown a little. He was now a solid five foot three, which was still very short, yet not actual midget size like he had been before. I could no longer make fun of him for being a midget, which he took great delight in.

I still made fun of him being shorter than me, which I for one, took great delight in. Growing in height was not the only thing Nico had done. The son of Hades was starting to go through puberty, which meant all sorts of things which I did not want to mention here. The main change I could notice with the son of Hades, was that he was no long skin and bones like he had been before. He was starting to fill out everywhere, most notably his lower body.

Speaking of changing, I had changed substantially over the past few months as well. For one, I was nearly five foot eleven, only a quarter of an inch away from the height. I towered over Nico, which he was a little bit bitter over. My frame was wider, more muscular. I had to weight probably at least one hundred and eighty pounds, almost all of it pure muscle.

My muscle now bulged and were clearly visible and impressive even through my winter clothing, something I was honestly really happy about. I had always been a little on the scrawny side, even after training a bunch, so to see some real muscle finally start to come in was a welcome sight and change. My face had lost virtually all body fat and looked very defined and clear, however not losing large amount of youthfulness from it. I was still fourteen, so I wasn't going to look like a super model just yet. My hair was also much longer, going down to my middle back. I didn't bother to put any braids in it, or even brush it to straightness.

The reason for this was rather sad If I was being honest. I no longer really talked to Taylor all that much, ever since the whole thing where I saw him kissing Arthur in the forest happened. Actually, I didn't talk to the son of Ares at all anymore. It wasn't like I just up and stopped talking to him out of nowhere all of a sudden, but more like we just slowly disconnected.

He hung out more and more with Arthur in his free time and since his camp duties never went away, he never had any time for us anymore. I initially tried to stay in contact with Taylor, but he was just so busy with Arthur and camp duties, it seemed like he didn't really have time for me anymore even when I would try to talk to him. After a couple of months of declining time with Taylor, I stopped trying to keep anything still going all together.

Taylor never asked me what was wrong or why I stopped talking to him after a couple of months. He seemed to caught up in his duties and with that piece of shit son of Helios. He even stopped sitting with us at my table, opting to sit at the Helios table with Arthur instead. That one stung, if I was being honest. I spent more than a couple of night with silent tears and angry thoughts about the son of Ares. I got mad that he stopped putting in effort to see me, I got mad he was with Arthur even though it was clear I liked him. I got mad that Taylor basically abandoned me.

I mean, I turned him into what he was today! Without me, he would have never have gotten strong enough to prove himself Clarisse's better and go on the quest for the Golden Fleece to gain the renown he has now. He didn't even have any confidence when I met him! I had to pressure him into training. He basically used me to become powerful and respected and when he didn't need me anymore he tossed me aside like a used napkin!

But, I knew I was oversimplifying things and perhaps even misinterpreting them. My anger eventually faded and I felt resigned at the whole situation. I threw myself into training, talking only with Thalia and Nico, as Percy and Annabeth returned to school after the summer ended. Nico quickly replaced Taylor's role as my best friend and Thalia became like an actual sister to me. Nico was someone I could talk to and tell all my problems.

Thalia was someone who looked up to me, despite being older and having a more commanding personality. I taught her almost everything she knows about her powers, as she was self taught before. The change in social group also brought something to my attention. I was very quickly losing relevance in the camp. The aura of fear and respect I had once brought to the camp had diminished immensely. I was no longer the guy who killed gods and titans because they fucked with people I cared about.

I was the guy who trained really shitty fighters in the arena because Nico and Thalia were better trainers than I was. I was no longer the 'Second Coming of Heracles.' I was just Thalia Grace's really strong brother who only talks to two people. My novelty in the camp had worn off and people no longer respected me and feared me.

I should be happy about that. I should be happy that people will start treating more me like a person rather than an all powerful nigh god-like figure who could wipe them all out in a second. I had worked on trying to change my personality to be more passive and easygoing, to be less dry and blunt with my words. I should be happy with this change, but I'm not.

I want them to fear and praise me. I want them to turn to me when they are in danger. I want them to cower after I destroy any threats, wondering if they are next. I know I shouldn't think like that, but it's in my nature apparently. My father was born to be a king, as his was his nature to command respect and fear from people around him. I saw it in Thalia and I saw it in my self a long time ago. But like my father, I have worked to change and try to be better for the sake of everyone around me. I want people to like me, not fear me. Yet I do want them to fear me. It's in my blood to want everyone to bow down before my greatness and cower in fear.

I have worked to suppress my nature, and by the fact that I'm less of a figure of legend in the camp, it has worked. But people like Thalia and Taylor have taken my place in the spotlight. Thalia due to her position as 'Child of The Prophecy', which was common knowledge by now, and Taylor thanks to his accomplishments like saving the camp by retrieving the Fleece and his position as a major leader in camp. I can see why the camp would put both of them on a pedestal, as they are both great fighters and leaders, something I think I really am not. But I have to admit, I'm jealous of their fame and recognition in the camp. It was something I once despised if I was being honest, now it's something I coveted.

A tap on my shoulder as I blasted through the wind broke me from my thoughts. I looked down at Nico, whose cute adorable face was a little red from the chill of the wind. "How much long do we have to go, Zane?" Nico had to speak a little on the louder side so I could hear him. I felt my gaze linger a little bit longer than necessary on the son of Hades' face. I felt the urge to press my lips against his flush through my body, but luckily I was able to push it down.

If I did something like that out of nowhere to Nico, he probably wouldn't be happy. He grew up during the 1930s, which wasn't a very accepting time in terms of sexuality. The fact really bit at me, since ever since I basically cut contact with Taylor, my feelings for Nico became far more apparent. I could barely do anything around the son of Hades without my heart starting to pound. I felt my face turn red just even thinking about holding him, which I was already doing, so my face was very red.

I realized I had been staring at Nico for a little too long without response, prompting me to cough and shake my head. "Hopefully not too much further, Nico. They said the place was in Bar Habor, Maine, so it shouldn't be anything more than a few minutes of flying at this speed in total." I felt the son of Hades shifted a little bit in my arms, probably trying to get a little bit more comfortable.

I felt Nico's body warmth and my face flushed even more. Luckily, I could blame the really red face on the cold if Nico asked about it, which thankfully he didn't. "What exactly do you think Grover found here that needed our attention?" I held Nico a little tighter, savoring the warmth I felt from his form. Nico opened his mouth to answer, but the form of a large, castle like building on the ground cut him off. The building looked like something Bowser would make to fight Mario in, only in the real world and more sinister looking.

Thalia told me that this school was a military school, so the scene made sense. "Well, I guess we're about to find out, huh?" Nico nodded at my statement and I surveyed the snowy ground, trying to spot my friends. I saw a car driving away from the castle on an old narrow road. I looked and spotted three figures on the snowy path towards the castle. I descended to the ground, Nico in my arms. I slammed against the ground, careful to not do any damage to the path. I set Nico down on the ground, who started to dust the snow off of his pants. I looked at my friends, who all seemed surprised my our entrance. "What's up, guys?" I asked the group of three, a smile etched on my face.

Percy grinned whenever he saw me. "Hey, Zane, Nico. What's up?" Percy had surprisingly changed a little bit in the past few months. For one, like everyone, he was taller. Percy stood at about five foot nine, only an inch or so shorter than me and taller than everyone else in the area. His hair was now even longer. It would have probably fell down to his collarbone if it was not pulled up into his signature manbun, which looked even better now than it did five months ago when I last saw Percy.

Percy's frame had also filled out a bit as well, as his was now considerably more athletic looking. I still had a slight bulk advantage on the son of Poseidon, but with in our winter clothes we looked very similar. Speaking of clothes, Percy wore a dark blue sweater over a dark grey T-shirt, along with black jeans and dark blue winter boots for the snow. Behind Percy, I could see my half-sister, Thalia Grace. Like Percy, over the past few months, she had changed a little bit. Her clothes were virtually the same, even in the extremely cold snowy weather.

Her hair was the same length, as she didn't follow my group's fashion choice of long hair, but it was somehow even spikier. Almost as if she was ripped out of an anime, like Naruto or something. On her back in a sheathe was a new Celestial Bronze spear, one that was enchanted by a child of Hecate at the camp to be able to amplify lightning. Thalia gave both me and Nico a little wave, despite the fact we had talked a couple of days ago before she left camp.

Before I or Nico could say anything to Percy's question, Annabeth interrupted us. "Guys, we'll have to save the reunions for later. We need to get inside, Grover will be waiting for us." Annabeth said as she pointed at the castle like structure that was Westover Hall. Annabeth herself had changed a little bit over the past few months as well. For one, she was of equal height to Thalia, who stood at around five foot seven.

She wore her own big, fluffy grey winter coat that almost looked comical. Annabeth also wore a pair of grey plaid pants that clung to her form, no doubt keeping her very warm in this cold weather. I caught a glint of silver coming from her ears and upon further inspection, I noticed she had earrings in the shape of silver owls. The symbol of her mother, Athena. None of us brokered any argument, as we knew the situation was likely drastic if Grover called all of us here and we also wanted to get out of the snow.

We walked up the path towards the doors of the school building, the path having clearly been shoveled by some students earlier today, and noticed the big old wooden doors at the entrance of the building. Fed up with the snow hitting me in the face, I walked up to the door and forced the door open, no doubt breaking the lock when I did so. I made sure I didn't rip the door of it's hinges, as to not cause suspicion if someone from the school were to check it out.

"Whoa." Annabeth let out once she took in the surroundings of the school. The decor of the building looked almost similar to a darker version of The Shining, with weapons and suits of armor lining the halls. Once everyone made it inside the school, I closed the door, the lock busted. "Alright, guys, we need to find Grover and see what he wants." Annabeth took charge of the mission almost on instinct, something I personally didn't have a problem with.

Percy, Thalia and Annabeth stashed their bags behind a pillar and we began to walk the halls of the school. As we walked across the stone floor, I could hear the ambiance of music somewhere in the building, no doubt playing very loudly. I felt some kind of aura nearby, one very similar to that of a monster. It didn't take very long for two people, a man and a woman, to walk in front of us from the shadows after that.

"Halt! Who are you and what are you doing here?" The man spoke to us as we came to a stop in front of the two. My entire group went tense as the man and the woman seemingly came from out of nowhere. We all nearly reached for our weapons, but when we realized that these were just regular people, we relaxed.

Well, except for me and Percy. We shared a look, our eyes bouncing back from the man to each other, a knowing expression on our face. We both felt the aura the man exuded and we weren't just going to let our guards down around him. After we all looked at each other and no one said a thing, the man continued. "No visitors will be permitted into the dance. You shall be ejected!"

The man's accent was odd, French if I had to decide. Both the man and woman wore black, sleek military uniforms and stood like they had sticks up their asses. The man was clean shaven and the woman has a weird, wispy mustache above her mouth. The French man's form was almost athletic and the woman looked plump and fat. Two very different builds.

Before either of the two could make a move to eject us, Thalia stepped out of our little huddle we made and snapped her fingers at the two. The air almost warped, not like how both of us could command the wind, but as if reality bent a little. The warp passed through the entire hallway we were presently in, ruffling our clothes and the banners on the wall beside us.

"But we're not visitors, sir. We go here to this school. I'm Thalia and behind me are Zane, Annabeth, Percy and Nico. We're all in the eighth grade, remember?" Thalia just manipulated the Mist. A technique Chiron taught her to warp and twist the minds of mortals when she needed to. He tried to teach the same technique to me, yet I was not all that good at it. After Thalia finished her sentence, the French 'man's eyes narrowed at her.

His eyes were almost like a cat's, with slits in them instead of round pupils. He was also heterochromic, with one eye being green and the other one being blue. The man's nostrils flared on his hawk-like face and he turned his head to the plump woman with the wispy mustache on her face.

"Mrs. Gottschalk, do you know these students?" The obvious monster in disguise asked the woman to his left. By his response alone, you could tell Thalia's technique didn't work on him at all. If it did, he would have simply said that he knew us and sent us on our way. I tensed, ready for a fight at a moment's notice.

To my right, I noticed Percy's lip curved upwards when the 'man' asked Ms. Gottschalk his question. I nearly deadpanned at the son of Poseidon. I know the woman's name is very dumb, but we're on an important mission right now, come on Percy. I also noticed to my left Nico had to cover his mouth with his jacket sleeve and he pretended to cough. Seriously, Nico? You too?

Mrs. Gottschalk's serious expression faltered a bit as she touched her hand to her hand, as if she was having a headache. "I...yes, Dr. Thorn. I believe I do know these children." Gottschalk's expression turned serious once more as her angry looking eyes bared down on us and she frowned. "Thalia. Zane. Percy. Annabeth. Nico. What are you all doing away from the gymnasium?"

It seems Thalia's technique did work on the woman, however. In her eyes, I saw familiarity. Thalia's technique was honestly kind of scary. With a wave of her hand, she can literally just alter the minds of people in an instant. That's like a Jedi Mind Trick or something. I've seen Chiron do the technique on people before, yet that was over three years ago. I didn't really give the technique a second thought at the time.

Before any of us could answer Gottschalk's question, a running sound interrupted all of us. Coming straight from down the hall was Grover, racing towards us like a bullet. The satyr reached our position, breathless with wide eyes and a tensed face. "You made it! You-!" Grover's words stopped coming from his mouth as he saw both Mrs. Gottschalk and the man both staring at him as if he was some kind of rodent.

Grover froze like a deer in a pair of headlights before continuing nervously. "Uh, Mrs. Gottschalk, Dr. Thorn. I...uh...er..." Grover trailed off, not having a great excuse for being here. The now identified Dr. Thorn's heterochromic eyes bared down on the satyr, venom clear in his sight. I felt the aggression and bloodlust radiate off of the disguised monster as he stared at Grover, a frown on his hawk-like face. This guy really hated Grover.

"What is it, Mr. Underwood?" Dr. Thorn said Grover's name as if he said the words 'dogshit' or 'cunt.' The disguised monster sneered at the satyr as he took a couple of steps forward to him, breaking his military stance. Dr. Thorn realized his mistake quickly and corrected his form. "What do you mean 'you made it?' These students already live here."

I guess Dr. Thorn was just going to go along with Mrs. Gottschalk's words earlier and try and keep his cover or something like that. Dr. Thorn's heterochromic eyes bared down on Grover as he called him out on his previous words, causing the satyr to gulp in fear. What sort of monster was this Dr. Thorn?

Grover struggled to come up with a reason to be here, before he shakily answered Dr. Thorn's question. "Uh...yes, sir. Of course, sir. I just meant, I'm so glad they made..." Grover trailed off, his mind probably screaming at him to find an answer for the disguised monster glaring down on him. "...the punch for the dance! The punch is great! And they were the ones who made it!"

I stared at the satyr oddly as he found his stupid reason to come running down the halls to greet us. Really, Grover? We apparently made some kind of punch for some fucking dance we had no idea was taking place? Okay then. Honestly, I don't think I've ever made anything food wise in my entire life. I've always had either my mother or the harpies at camp make my food.

Dr. Thorn took his eyes away from Grover and glared at us instead. Now that I could see his eyes turned to us more clearly, I could see that one of his eyes clearly looked a little on the fake side. I couldn't tell which one it was, but I knew that his eyes couldn't be truly heterochromic. Dr. Thorn continued to stare at us, clearing not believing Grover's obvious bullshit.

"Yes, yes, the punch is excellent. Now run along, all of you! You are not to leave the gymnasium again!" Grover immediately broke out into a flurry of 'yes, sir's and 'yes, ma'am's and prompted us to do the same. I didn't like sucking up to anyone, much less an obviously disguised monster, but I knew being stubbornly prideful would risk our mission, so I copied everyone else and did the cringy salute to the man and Grover led us towards what I assumed was the gymnasium.

We continued to walk down the halls, feeling the eyes of the teacher and disguised monster on us from behind. I felt my nerves go a little wack, the nervous in hoping I didn't use my powers to accidentally hurt the ones I cared about intensifying slightly. I slipped my hand around Nico's, who was walking beside me to my left. Nico didn't pull away from me, in fact I felt the grip around my hand tighten once I grabbed the son of Hades' hand. Looks like I wasn't the only one who was nervous.

Once we were out of the sight of the two and close to the door that said 'Gym' in bold red letters on the front, Grover let out a sigh of relief. "That was close!" Grover wiped a trail of imaginary sweat of his forehead and turned back to us. A small grin came about his features. "Thank the gods you got here!"

We had a short reunion before we continued to talk. Both Thalia and Annabeth gave Grover a hug, one that reminded me of the same type of hugs a certain son of Ares gave me in the past. Percy and Nico both gave the satyr a big hive five, while I just gave Grover a fist-bump. Grover hadn't changed much over the past few months, which made sense, as satyrs aged at half the speed a human did. He had grown a couple of inches taller, now only being a inch or two shorter than I was.

He still had a patchy little beard, which had grown just a little bit thicker than it was back before he left camp under orders from Chiron to search for demigods due to the intensifying situation back at camp with the war and all. Grover was currently wearing a red beanie on his head that hid his small goat horns that protruded out of his skull, baggie jeans and fake shoes to hide his goat feet, and a plain black T-shirt that did nothing to hide his scrawny frame. After reunions were finished, Grover got straight down to business. "I found a Half-Blood here."

Thalia looked confused at Grover's words. Her eyebrow rose and she looked at Grover with an expectant expression. "That's what was so important, Grover? Shouldn't you have contacted Chiron instead of us? This is something that usually falls under his jurisdiction. Why did you bring us here then?"

Thalia had quite a point with her words. I for one, definitely agreed with her. I had to fly for several minutes through snow while carrying Nico the entire way, who probably hated that journey a lot more than I did. But the one's who were probably really annoyed were Thalia, Percy and Annabeth, who had a several hour car drive to this place instead of a three minute flight.

Grover shook his head and put up a hand. "I'm getting to that, Thalia." He took a deep breath and looked at us with a serious face. "I didn't just find any normal Half-Blood, guys. The Half-Blood I found is Bianca di Angelo." Grover pointed at Nico, who looked shocked at the words that came out of Grover's mouth. "Your sister. And everyone here knows what that means."

It meant that there was another child of the Big Three that was still alive. To my left, Nico went completely rigid. The grip around my hand became ironclad and probably would have crushed a steel bar. Nico's eyes flashed towards the Gym door, obviously wanting to bust it down and go chase after his sister immediately. Grover continued his words. "That's not the only reason I called you here. There's a monster here who I'm not able to get past. The man in the hall from earlier, Dr. Thorn. He's the one who keeps blocking my attempts to approach Bianca and lead her out of here and then to camp. So that's why I called you guys."

Grover's eyes then landed upon Nico. "And I'm pretty sure you would want to be the first person to know when your sister turned up, so I made sure you came as well." Grover knew about the whole 'Bianca still inside the Lotus Hotel' thing, as he was around to hear the report for the quest for the Master Bolt when we had returned afterwards.

"Now, we need to get in there and retrieve her, then get the hell out of here. I hopefully want to accomplish this without the school blowing up." With Grover words, everyone turned to me with a knowing look, except for Nico, who still looked at the door with a serious expression. I put my hands up in defense, before the rest turned back around and walked into the gymnasium.

Entering in the gymnasium, the lightning the the room was dark and disco light, with red lights being flashed on the walls and floor as music played in the background. There were balloons all over the floor, some of the students running around the gym kicking them like soccer balls. The females of the room all walked together in small huddles, as is regular among the behavior of women.

They wore makeup, cheap dresses and put any man they grabbed a hold of in a state of emotion torture by pulling up their hair in ridiculous ways and putting lipstick on their faces. In the corners of the room, there were some older looking students around my age looking very clearly uncomfortable with the entire dance, as I knew I probably would have if I continued to go to regular school. Grover pointed at the bleachers in the dim light of the room.

"There she is." Grover's finger led to a girl around the age of thirteen who sat on the bleachers of the gym by herself. This could only be Bianca di Angelo, as she looked like a female version of Nico. Black hair, older style clothes, pretty short. The only difference was that Bianca looked absolutely miserable. Likely because her brother vanished or something like that. As soon as Nico saw her, he made a beeline in her direction, but Grover caught the son of Hades by the arm.

Nico turned around to face the satyr, a clear glare on his face. Surprisingly, it didn't seem to bother Grover, as his face was just as serious. "You can't just approach her outright in the middle of everyone here. Look." Nico turn and I followed his gaze. Back where Bianca was sitting, Dr Thorn had stepped out of a doorway close to the bleachers and stood close by the daughter of Hades. The disguised monster stared in our direction, his blue eye seemingly glowing. Guess I know which eye was fake now.

Nico's face soured at the development but he still clearly wanted to go over towards his sister. He looked like he was about to materialized a spike made of shadow and impale it through Grover's torso, but luckily Thalia walked up to the plate to talk him down. "He's right, Nico. If you go out and approach Bianca right now, Dr. Thorn will absolutely know that we're here for her. We're trying to do this without having Zane blow up the building to kill Thorn, so we need to do this covert, okay?"

Hey! What was with everyone and roasting me all of a sudden? But back to the situation at hand, Nico nodded at Thalia's words, clearing still wanting to throw all caution to the wind and race towards Thalia. Thalia turned to all of us and began to speak. "Alright, everyone, we need to throw Dr. Thorn off our trail. We need to pretend we're not here for Bianca and that we're here for the dance instead. We need to mingle, act natural and do some kind of dancing or something. We all nodded at Thalia words, with Nico doing so reluctantly. Thalia's face twisted, as if she just realized something. "Ugh. Who chose Jesse McCarthy?"

Grover shifted a bit, which Thalia saw clearly thanks to her enhanced demigod reflexes. Thalia rolled her eyes. " Oh my gods, Grover, that's so fucking lame. You couldn't have chosen Green Day or anything?" When all she got was Grover's confused face, she shook her head. "Ugh, nevermind. Alright, come here, Goat boy!" Thalia suddenly grabbed Grover's hand and dragged him off towards the dance floor, with Grover kicking and screaming the entire way.

I nearly laughed aloud, the entire situation becoming comical. I noticed Nico had walked away from our little huddle and stood in the middle of the dance floor, not-so-subtly keeping an eye on Bianca who was still sitting on the bleachers being watched by Dr. Thorn. I sighed and walked up behind the son of Hades.

"You know, you're not exactly being subtle about keeping watch on her, you know?" Nico turned to me, his face not amused in the slightest. I sighed. For the past few months Nico had been getting a little moodier, as was common when you started to hit puberty, but it was very manageable and he was still the very same Nico everyone knew and played Myth-O-Magic with. My face became serious, all manner of joking now gone.

"Look, Nico, I know you're tense and worried. After no word for over a year and a half, you finally have found your sister and you want to see her as soon as possible. But the situation here is not so simple and you know it." Nico's furrowed brow lightened a bit at my words, but he still looked a little pissy. "I know more than most people that family can be tricky and they can cloud your judgement quite often, believe me." I finished, my face darkening as I remembered the Laestrygonians eating my mother over three years ago. Nico noticed how my face turned dark like his and his irritation faded.

Nico sighed as he looked down at the gym floor and he lazily kicked a balloon in the air. "I'm sorry. It's just that I haven't seen her in almost two years." Nico's eyes shifted over towards Bianca, who was still sitting on the bleachers. "That day at the Lotus Hotel was the day my entire life changed. I found out I was a demigod, as was my sister and then she was ripped away from me by monsters." Nico looked up from the floor, his face a little downcast.

"Dad told me that he would take care of Bianca and have her retrieved from the hotel. For the last year or so I thought he either forgot about his promise or he just didn't care, but now that she's actually here, I can't do anything. I've just been waiting for this moment for this moment for almost two years and I'm being held back from seeing her for her own good. It just...sucks." Nico kicked another balloon in the air. "I'm sorry that I've been taking my irritation out on everyone else."

I shook my head at the son of Hades' words. "Nico, you haven't been taking your irritation out on us, don't beat yourself up about it, okay? And even if you had been taking your irritation out on us, I wouldn't blame you for it. We just found your sister after two years of no word on her and now you're being told you can't actually talk to her yet. Of course it's natural for you to be a little irritated."

I stood beside the son of Hades and picked up a balloon, throwing it up and down in the air like a baseball. "But you can't let your irritation cloud your judgement. It won't end well for you and more importantly, those around you. Believe me, I know." Flashes of the deaths of innocent people I caused flashed through my mind, before I shook them away.

"I hope that helps you in some way with your problem. Anyway, we are kind of standing here like a couple of goons. We need to blend in so Dr. Thorn doesn't suspect us of anything." I smirked and held out my hand to Nico. "May I have this dance? I asked jokingly to the son of Hades, not actually expecting more of an answer than a laugh or anything like that.

But to my surprise, Nico took my hand with a small smile. "Sure." I felt my eyes widen at Nico's answer, but I quickly composed myself hopefully before Nico noticed anything. I held Nico's right hand in my left and I put my other hand on his waist. I felt my heart start beating a little swiftly when Nico put his left hand on my shoulder and we began to dance. We moved over to the dance floor mid dance and continued to dance there.

I felt the entire room blur out of my sight as my only focus immediately came upon the son of Hades. I knew I needed to be watching out for his sister, Bianca, but my brain just acted on it's own. The music in the background started to slow down as I stared into the son of Hades eyes as we twisted around in circles on the dance floor, not caring about anything else at the moment. I could tell even Nico's focus was off his sister and completely on me, something I took much delight in if I'm being honest.

Despite the fact I had never danced before in my entire life, the perfect form and movement came to me naturally, as if the universe was on my side right now. I couldn't focus on anything else at the moment, not that I really wanted to. The only things I could perceive right now were how amazing the son of Hades' hair looked, how beautiful his face looked and how enrapturing his eyes were. I felt my hand slip to the side of Nico's head and I started to lean forwards.

I felt my breath on Nico's and I felt my mind start to go haywire. Before I knew it, I pressed my lips down on his, not really knowing what I was doing. I kissed Nico for a few seconds, before I realized what I had just done. I quickly pulled back and untangled my self from the son of Hades, a look of horror no doubt planted on my face. Nico looked utterly confused and almost shell shocked, which I'm pretty sure was justified.

I could barely find the words. "F-Fuck. I-I'm sorry, Nico. I..." Before I could come up with what was no doubt some garbage ass excuse to why I suddenly just violated the son of Hades' mouth, I could see Percy moving around the dance floor frantically, alone. He looked like he was looking for someone, and he suddenly stopped to reach down and pick something up. It was Bianca's green hat she was wearing earlier, which caused my eyes to widen and shift over to the bleachers were Bianca was sitting.

As I expected, Bianca was gone, along with Dr. Thorn. The door leading to the exit of the gym where Dr. Thorn was standing behind Bianca was wide open. I saw Percy pull out Riptide in it's pen form and march over towards the door. I turned back to Nico, whose face was still utterly shocked and red. I burned all of the awkwardness and hesitation out of my voice. "Nico, Bianca is gone." My voice was serious, which caused Nico's face to shift from it's original expression to one of alarm. He looked over to the bleachers and saw how Percy was about to walk out the door.

He was about to join the son of Poseidon, but I grabbed both of his shoulders. "No. I'll go help Percy. She's your sister and her being in danger will cause you to lose your focus and make drastic decisions. You find Thalia, Annabeth and Grover, alright?" Perhaps it was how grave and serious my tone was, but Nico didn't even argue with me and just nodded at my command, although his brows were a little furrowed. "Nico, I promise I won't let any harm to come to Bianca. I will save her, you hear me?"

I gave Nico a small smile and a squeeze on the shoulder to try and reassure him. I turned around and left before any awkwardness could arise from the situation. I quickly appeared beside Percy using my superhuman speed, closing the gap between me and him in an instant. Both me and Percy didn't say a word to each other, just a simple nod and we continued to search for Bianca di Angelo.

The door me and Percy walked through led to a dark hallway very similar to the hallway we had walked through to get into the school, but this hallway absolutely was flooded with auras. I could feel the presence of Bianca's aura and Dr. Thorn's aura as well. Both me and Percy jogged down the corridor, following the auras that permeated the hall. We made it to a door that when opened, led us straight back to the main room that my group had entered whenever we arrived here.

When both me and Percy entered the room, we couldn't see Dr. Thorn or even pinpoint the actual location of his aura but we could see Bianca on the other side of the main hall. She stood against the wall, a look of horror on her face. Percy approached the daughter of Hades slowly, lowering the tip of Riptide as he did so. "It's okay, we're not going to hurt you." Bianca didn't answer and just stared forwards. Why was she so scared? I tried to reach out with my aura sense to find Dr. Thorn, but the entire room was just too muddled with his aura in just about every corner.

Percy pointed to himself. "I'm Percy..." Percy pointed towards me. "...and that's Zane. We're going to get you out of here." Suddenly Bianca tensed and her hand went rigid at her side. I felt the air pressure shift behind me and I whirled around, easily faster than the speed of lightning. I saw a some kind of spike made from from some kind of black, sharp material was only about a few feet from me. I effortlessly caught the spike in it's arc, which created a slight air burst when I did so. Percy quickly turned around as well, just in time to see me catch the spike.

As soon as I caught the spike, it separated into dozens of smaller, even sharper spikes. I quickly jumped back just in time in front of Bianca to avoid being impaled and created a barrier of wind to protect both me and the daughter of Hades. Percy was unfortunately not so lucky, as before he could warp his arm into a shield of water to protect him, a couple of the spikes slammed into his shoulder, drawling both blood and a slight pained grunt from the son of Poseidon.

A cold laugh echoed throughout the entire room as both me and Percy stepped into defensive positions. I couldn't see or accurately feel Dr. Thorn, but judging from the laugh and what had just happened, he was clearly in the room. "Perseus Jackson and Zane Williams. Your exploits are legendary among us monsters." The shadows of the room seemed to morph as the monster's voice moved throughout it. "The two demigods who can defeat titans. Perseus Jackson, slayer of Oceanus, slayer of Krios. Zane Williams, Slayer of Ares, slayer of Hyperion, slayer of Koios."

Dr. Thorn stepped outside of the darkness and into the pale moonlight of the room. The monster still looked human, but something was off with his face. He almost looked ghoulish and even made Nico look tan. The monster smirked, showing off a row of perfect white teeth. "I must thank the two of you for coming outside of the gym. I hate middle school dances." Suddenly, from out of nowhere, another black spike shot out from the darkness, much faster this time.

Even with my incredible speed, the spike was almost a blur and shot past me. I tried to catch the spike mid-flight, yet it was too fast. The spike slammed into the side of the wall, inches away from Bianca's face. Dr. Thorn chuckled from my attempt to catch his spike. "My, my, you are even faster than I expected, Zane Williams." I brought up a hand surrounded by lightning and the monster froze. His smirk warped into a dark scowl and he glared directly at me. "I would put that down if I were you. I know you could destroy me in an instant and even if you allowed me to attack you, you will defend against anything I could throw at you."

Dr. Thorn smirked once more, an ugly sight. "But, no matter how fast you are, you won't be able to save Bianca di Angelo's face from being skewered from my mini-spikes." I looked back at the spike that was protruding from the wall beside Bianca's face, thinking back to how the first spike exploded into dozens of tiny ones. Dr. Thorn was right, I wouldn't be able to save her in time, especially if the mini-spikes were as fast as the second spike had been.

"So I would do as I requested if I were you. Put your hand down." I glared at the monster, before dispersing the lightning and allowing my hand to fall to my side. Dr. Thorn smirked at my following of his orders and walked up beside Bianca, passing me and Percy as he did so. I felt the urge to tear him in two as he walked by, but I knew he would detonate the spike beside Bianca's face if I tried anything. Dr. Thorn broke off a piece of his spike and forcefully shoved it down one of Bianca's pockets.

"Now, the three of you will come with me, quietly and obediently. If you do not, I will detonate the spike within Bianca's pocket. The poison of the spikes are not strong enough to kill you or Perseus Jackson, but Bianca's constitution is not so hardy." I grit my teeth, hating the entire situation, but I knew if I did anything, Bianca would die and I would have failed Nico. I nodded in understanding at Dr. Thorn's orders, no doubt looking like I was swallowing a lemon. Dr. Thorn smirked once more. "Now, get moving."

Dr. Thorn herded us all up like a bunch of sheep, driving us through the hall and threatening one of us when we stopped or did anything else suspicious. Percy was uncharacteristically quiet, his face completely focused as we walked. That's odd, usually he can't shut up when we were in mortal danger. Bianca looked like she was about to faint from sheer fear any second, only the threat of death keeping her going. She looked like Nico so much that is was weird. No doubt that's what people thought about Thalia and me.

Thorn drove us outside into the snow and towards the forest. I felt the biting, freezing wind touch my skin and I was instantly annoyed. I couldn't really be affected by cold, but I didn't exactly like it. Thorn marched us through the woods like a drill sergeant, seemingly as if he was on a strict time table. We walked through the woods upon an old, snowy barely visible path. "There is a clearing ahead. We will summon your ride." Thorn spoke to us after a couple of minutes of hiking through the forest. Bianca tried to question him about the ride, but Thorn immediately told her to shut the fuck up.

Eventually, we reached said clearing. "Halt." Thorn commanded as we arrived to where the forest opened up. At the clearing there was a cliff overlooking the sea. The dark waters smashed against the rocky walls of the cliff, sending shivers down my spine. I hated the ocean. Thorn herded us towards the edge of the cliff, nearly pushing Bianca off the side. I caught the daughter of Hades by her arm, saving her from certain death to the waters below. "Face me. Now!"

Thorn's voice commanded, clearly agitated by something. Thorn tore his military jacket open and pulled some kind of object from it. It was a flip-phone, which he opened and dialed some kind of number on. "The Package. It is ready to deliver." Thorn spoke into the phone after he put it up to his ear. All he got was a garbled response, like that of a walkie talkie but Thorn could understand what the response was as he closed the phone right after. "It seems your luck has come to an end, Zane Williams."

I noticed the positioning I was in. I was at the edge of a cliff with both Percy and Bianca behind me standing in front of Dr. Thorn. This guy was an idiot. "You're a fool, Thorn." As quick as I could, I turned around and shot a small lightning bolt at the spike in Bianca's pocket. The lightning connected with the spike and incinerated it in an instant, not harming Bianca in the slightest. I threw my arm up just in time to create a wind barrier to stop the barrage of black spikes about to impale us. "A complete fool."

I morphed the barrier into a blast of wind and launched it at Thorn. The blast collided with the monster and sent him flying back. I turned back to the son of Poseidon as Dr. Thorn struggled to stand up from the ground. "Keep Bianca out of danger. I'll deal with this bastard." Percy nodded at my request and I turned to face Thorn with my axe, Keravnos, drawn and ready to fight. Thorn quickly started to turn as non-human as possible. Firstly, a massive scorpion tail with black spikes on it sprouted from his back waist, ripping through his human body like paper.

The rest of his body disgustingly morphed into that of a massive lion's, ripping and tearing through what was left of Thorn's normal body. The only thing that remained constant was his head, which was human enough, except for a pair of lion fangs jutting from his mouth. "A manticore. I haven't actually come in contact with any of those before." The manticore charged me, sending flying black spikes in arcs to impale me. I deflected them like a Jedi deflects blaster bolts with their lightsaber and quickly slid under the manticore. I gave the monster a soft punch to the gut, sending him flying several dozen feet away into a tree.

The tree shattered in two and Thorn crashed painfully in the dirt. I lazily walked up to the monster, my axe leaning up against my shoulder. "You said yourself that I've literally defeated titans. Why would you just charge me like that?" Thorn stood up on all fours off the ground, slowly but surely. He grunted as he did so and prepared to charge again.

I rolled my eyes and prepared to fight, but the auras of my fellow demigods could be felt racing through the forest to our location. I wasn't sure how they found us, but they were definitely approaching lightning fast. It didn't take too long before a spike made from shadow slammed into Thorn's side, causing a black bile to ooze from his shoulder. Surprisingly, the first of my friends to arrive was Nico, who had his sword drawn and a dark look on his face.

He noticed me and his face turned slightly red, before he turned his attention back onto Thorn. Damn, it really must be cold out here if Nico's face turned that red that quickly, huh? Thorn roared in pain as the spike dematerialized from his shoulder and he quickly started to backstep as he realized he was starting to get severely outnumbered. After Nico arrived and attacked the monsterized Thorn, Thalia, Annabeth and Grover quickly arrived with their weapons drawn and ready to fight. I turned to Thalia, a slight smile on my face. "Took you guys long enough to get here. How exactly did you find us?"

Thalia smiled back in response as she brandished her new Aegis shield. Her previous one had been destroyed in our sparing match we had a few months ago back in the arena, so she had the Hephaestus cabin create a new one for her. "Percy used his empathy link with Grover to bring us here."

I glanced at Percy, who had created a water barrier around both him and Bianca as protection. I guess he was taking my request to keep her safe very seriously. "You mind if we deal with this guy? From what I've heard you usually steal all the fun when you go on quests." Now that I think about it, I kind of do to be honest. I've fought all the major monsters and threats over the past couple of quests I've gone on so maybe it's time to let someone else take the reins for just a bit. I looked to where Thorn was to see that he was fighting both Nico and Annabeth at once. Nico was using his own shadow spikes to counteract Thorn's black tail spikes and weaving around Thorn's attack like a cheetah around an obstacle course.

Annabeth was providing Nico with support by using her invisibility cap to sneak attack Thorn whenever his attention was being occupied by Nico. Even Grover was helping, as he was playing his reed pipes in order to control the vines and trees around us to attack and distract Thorn. I could feel Thorn's irritation and rage even from all the way over here.

I shrugged with a smirk. "Go ahead. Knock yourself out. I'll go help Percy with filling in Bianca about everything that is going on." Thalia nodded and brought out her mace canister, the one that served as a mini-pocket dimension for her spear. Thalia pulled her spear from the can and charged into battle. The fight for Thorn would be going a hell of a lot worse for him now. I chuckled as Thalia charged and walked over to where Percy and Bianca were, sheathing my axe as I did so. "Everything alright over here?"

Percy was currently surround by a spherical water barrier that he crafted, containing both him and Bianca behind a layer of water than none of Thorn's spikes were going to be able to pierce through. Percy nodded at my words, still keeping the barrier up to make sure Bianca was safe. I turned my attention to Bianca. "Are you alright, Bianca? Is everything okay?" I asked the daughter of Hades, trying and probably failing to not look threatening.

Bianca, even though she wasn't about to pass out from fear now, her eyes were wild and her face was completely lost. "Am I okay?" She asked me incredulously. "Am I okay? I just got herded by my school's vice principal to some snowy cliff with two guys I've never met and then one of them can shoot lightning and control wind, the other one can control water and then my vice principal turns into some kind of giant lion thing, and I'm absolutely freaking out!" Bianca finished yelling, becoming slightly breathless afterwards.

She calmed down a bit and looked me dead in the eye. "Who are you? And who is he?" Bianca pointed at Percy, who still held the barrier up with a raised eyebrow. Bianca pointed at my other friends who were in the process of kicking the shit out of Dr. Thorn. "And who are they!? And what is that!?" Bianca started to freak out again, but I held up a hand to calm her down.

I gave the daughter of Hades a slight smile. "Hey, calm down. Don't worry, everything is going to be okay. You don't have to freak out." I sighed, now having to be the one to explain the divine world to a demigod who had no clue about it's existence. I guess it's best to start simple and blunt. I pointed my thumb to my chest. "I'm Zane Williams, son of Zeus."

I sparked a little bit of lightning from my finger and made the wind around me burst a little for dramatic effect. I pointed towards Percy. "That's Percy. He's the son of Poseidon. The water kind of gives it away." Percy grinned at my explanation of him while Bianca just looked dumbfounded. I pointed over towards Thalia, who just dropkicked Dr. Thorn in the face. "That's my half-sister, Thalia. She's also the daughter of Zeus." Thalia then shot a blast of powerful lightning from her spear, immobilizing Thorn in place and the manticore shoke in pain. I pointed over to Annabeth, who was currently not wearing her invisibility cap and on Thorn's back like a bull-rider, stabbing her knife down into it. "That's Annabeth, she's the daughter of Athena."

Thorn tried to shake Annabeth off, but roots and vines from the ground sprouted and pinned his limbs to the ground, confining Thorn in place once more. "The guy over there playing those pipes is Grover. He's a satyr. You know, half human, half goat." Bianca looked utterly lost and looked at me like I was a crazy person. My eyes panned over to Nico, who had formed some kind of shadow whip constructs and was whipping Thorn's side, drawing the black bile blood from him. I sighed, knowing this part was about to be hard to explain. "And that right there is Nico di Angelo, your brother and the son of Hades." Bianca went utterly silent after my roll call of our entire squad, probably thinking she was in some kind of fever dream.

Bianca keep her silence up for a few moments, meaning the only sound we could hear was Thorn getting his ass beat in the background. However, this silence was not to last, oh hell no. "...WHAT!?" Bianca yelled at the top of her lungs, making Percy's water shift a little and the earth around us start to shake. I guess her demigod powers were already starting to activate. Before she could really start to yell at me again, I held up an arm to silence her.

I began to explain what was going on. That Dr. Thorn was a monster and that everyone else here were demigods, including her. I explained that the gods were real and so were monsters and demigods as well. She actually believed me rather easily, as four teenagers were currently fighting a giant lion thing with a human face, two of the teenagers controlling shadows and lightning as they did so. The only thing she really didn't believe was about Nico. "That can't be my brother! My brother is gone! He disappeared over two months ago! And that kid looks as old as I am! How can he be my brother?" Bianca's questions and logic were rather sound, yet I had an answer for every one of her questions.

"You stayed in this place called the Lotus Hotel with your brother, correct?" Bianca went silent for a second, which caused me to smirk. "I would take that as a yes. A year and a half ago, me, Percy and Annabeth came across the same Hotel during a quest to save the world." Bianca looked confused at my words. I shook my head, a smile on her face. "Don't worry about that, long story. Anyway, we came across the Hotel during our quest and stayed there for a few days. But we believed we stayed there for only a few hours."

Bianca looked confused again, but I waved her confusion off. "I'll explain that later. Do you remember the day in the Lotus Hotel were there was a bunch of unexplained destruction?" Bianca's face morphed into a expression of recognition. "Now we're getting somewhere. I was the one who caused that, due to a bunch of monsters figuring out we had broken out of the spell that kept us there. I'll explain that in a little bit, too. But basically, I ran into Nico during our stay there and he left with us after the whole destruction thing. We tried to go back for you, but the Hotel disappeared right after I left the Hotel. So he's been with us for over a year and a half."

I went on to explain about how the Lotus Hotel traps people within it's walls and stops them from aging, which is why Bianca and Nico were the same age now. "If you have any questions, ask them later, please. We have some business to attend to at the moment. When we get back to camp, Chiron, our activities director, will explain everything when we arrive." As I said those words, Dr. Thorn was slammed on the ground about ten feet away from us by Thalia, using her demigod strength to do so. Annabeth then jumped on the back of Thorn while he was on the ground, stabbing him in the back with her dagger.

Thorn cried out in pain, before turning his grotesque head to the sky and spoke. "My lord! Help me! Help your faithful servant! Save me!" Nothing happened for a few seconds, causing a bit of awkward silence. Thalia coughed awkwardly as the silence continued. Annabeth shrugged and began to plunge her dagger down into Thorn's throat. Before Annabeth's dagger could meet Thorn's jugular, a portal opened up, very similar to the kind of portal Luke himself would use to escape from my grasp.

The portal encased both Thorn and Annabeth before anyone could do anything, which cause Percy to drop his water shield and sprint forwards with incredible speed, shouting 'No!' as he did so. Silence reigned again, as everyone processed what had just happened. Before anyone could say anything, another portal quickly opened up, this one much larger than the one before. A massive, ten foot tall figure walked out of the portal, having to bend down slightly to do so.

I felt an absolutely titanic aura surround the entire area, making me freeze up a little bit. The features of the massive figure came into light, allowing me to paint a picture of what he looked like. His frame was absolutely gargantuan, making bodybuilders look tiny and all the muscle striations were clearly visible. He wore a simple light blue Greek toga, which did nothing to hide his absolutely giant frame. His hair was short, cut back military style and was a simple brown. His facial hair was very thick and built a very prominent beard on his face. Just from his size and his aura, I knew he had to be a Titan.

His power put the combined strength of Hyperion, Koios, Oceanus and Krios to utter shame. Despite his massive strength, he looked the most normal out of the Titans I've seen. Hyperion was a bipedal flame man, Oceanus was a half snake dude with horns, Koios was literally purple space and Krios was yellow space. This guy just looked like a really big dude.

The Titan looked up from the ground and stared at all of us, his brown eyes shining darkly. His perpetual smirk shifted into a frown for a few seconds. "This is what you needed saving from, Thorn? You continue to fail to meet even my lowest expectations." His eyes fell on both me and Percy and his smirk returned.

"Although, if you had been battling these two, I would understand why you needed to call me here." The Titan hung his arms out wide, as if he was about to embrace someone. "Zane Williams and Perseus Jackson. Murderer of my brothers." The Titan took a few steps forward in our direction. "I'm glad you two have slain them. You just proved to me how weak and utterly useless they truly were." Percy looked at the approaching Titan, rage clear on his face.

Shit. He wasn't thinking clearly at the moment, thanks to Annabeth being taken off somewhere we didn't know by a portal alongside Dr. Thorn. The Titan could see the anger on Percy's face, causing his smirk to widen. "Aw, is someone angry? Do not worry, your friend will be taken good care of. My lord will see to that." Of course Kronos would have to be dragged into this whole mess.

The ground shook as Percy's skin shifted into water and his arms and legs turned to stone. Percy charged at the Titan, Riptide drawn and rage clear on his face. "Where have you taken her!?" Percy didn't wait for an answer as he tried to cleave the Titan in two with a powerful slash from his blade. But before he cut even touch the Titan, the unthinkable happened.

Riptide stopped in it's arc as if it slammed into Universal Titanium. My eyes widened as I realized the Titan had stopped the blade with his finger, like Goku had done with Trunk in Dragon Ball Z. Percy's jaw dropped, as did everyone else's jaws as they saw the weapon do absolutely no damage. The Titan smirked and looked like he was about to drawn his hand back to attack, so I shifted into my Thunder Form, careful to not accidentally destroy Bianca with the sheer powerful of the transformation.

The Titan's face smirked once more, as if he was ecstatic that I would try to attack him. I charged at the Titan with my full speed, much quicker than the speed of light. I drew Keravnos back in a powerful swing, surrounding the axehead in lightning and I slammed the weapon down towards the Titan with everything I had. But like Percy's attack before, my weapon was stopped as if it hit an unmovable object.

The Titan's hand surrounding my axehand while his other stopped Percy's sword with it's finger. Both me and Percy struggled in our own way, with me trying to free Keravnos from the Titan's grip and Percy trying to power through his finger. Percy's face twisted in rage as he tried to slice of the Titan's finger to no avail. "Who are you!?"

The Titan smirked as Percy uselessly tried to amputate his finger with Riptide. "You truthfully do not recognize me? I am insulted." The Titan instantly overpowered Percy with just his finger, knocking Riptide out of his grasp with a touch. "I am Atlas, the Titan of Endurance and Strength." Said Titan of Endurance poked Percy in the gut, causing him to fly away violent with a massive burst of air. Blood spewed from Percy's mouth as his flew back into a tree, splitting the thing in two in an instant and sprawling on the ground, unmoving.

My eyes widened in shock at the surprising feat of power and Atlas grinned at me. "You seem shocked, son of Zeus." Atlas tightened his grip on Keravnos' axehead, causing it to crumble into shards of Celestial Bronze in almost an instant. My eyes widened even further, if that was even possible. Atlas just broke my axe in to pieces as if it was made out of sand. Atlas held out a hand at my chest. "You really shouldn't be." Atlas' finger flicked me right into the sternum, sending me flying back where Percy was.

As soon as Atlas flicked me, incredible pained spiked up in my entire body, everything went blurry and I could only hear the sound of ringing. When I stopped moving and came to a stop, I tried to move my arms but incredible pain shot through, no doubt causing me to gasp, unable to scream due to the pain. I couldn't see anything clearly as the blurry sight dragged on for what had to be a couple of minutes.

I tried to stand up and fight through the pain, but every time I tried to make a move, pain shot through my very being and forced me to stop moving. Eventually, I felt something being forced down my throat and the taste of fried chicken permeated through my mouth. The pain suddenly stopped and I felt better instantly. Ambrosia. I shot up lightning fast, the lightning off my form sparking everything around me and I searched around for that Atlas bastard. All of my senses came back to me in a rush.

"Calm down, boy!" Was the first thing I heard once my hearing returned and the ringing stopped. I whipped around to see a large group of girls around the ages of ten to fourteen all with their bows drawn with the arrows pointing towards me. The girl in the front was the only one without her arrow knocked and ready to fire. She looked to be around the age of twelve and had some kind of exotic look to her, as if she wasn't natural.

She and all of the other girls wore jeans and silver ski parkas. I say girls, but I really mean 'women'. The age and wisdom in their eyes clearly painted that picture. The Hunt. Followers of Artemis who hunt monsters and shit with her. The one in front of me was Artemis, as I could clearly sense the power that she gave off. She was incredibly strong, although in my Thunder Form I clearly dwarfed her power. She had auburn hair pulled back into a ponytail and a serious gaze in her silver eyes. I was just about to ask where the hell Atlas was, as I could no longer sense his immense, suffocating aura in the area.

Artemis seemed to know what I was about to ask, however, as she answered before I could even get a word out. "The Titan of Strength is gone. He left after we arrived." As Artemis said her words, I looked at the area we had fought. Each one of my friends were being tended to by a group of Huntresses. Grover was standing by a group looking down at one of his reed pipes that had been destroyed. Thalia was standing by a few hunters, glaring at one in particular and having quite the argument.

Percy was standing on the area Annabeth had be teleported away on with Dr. Thorn. Over by the cliff were Bianca and Nico, hugging and clearly having a heartfeat reunion that I needed to not interrupt. But apparently, Artemis had other ideas. "Gather everyone around. I must speak with everyone." Artemis said to her huntresses behind her, who stopped drawing their bows and went to go carry out their ladies' will. Artemis turned back to me as I released my Thunder Form and breathed a sigh of relief. "What exactly are you and your group doing here, brother?"

I looked down at the remains of my axe, Keravnos, which I still held in my hand. The only thing left was the handle and shaft of the weapon, the axehead completely obliterated. "We came here because Grover summoned us here. He found Bianca di Angelo, Nico's sister. You know what that means." Artemis was silent, absorbing my information. "That manticore called Thorn summoned Atlas here after Annabeth nearly killed it. The manticore was taken into some kind of portal alongside Annabeth. I guess we can only assume that she's with the Titans right now."

I saw the Huntresses gather up my friends and herd them all together towards Artemis. Everyone's moral was very low, on account of getting completely destroyed by Atlas and Annabeth disappearing with Thorn. Nico and Bianca certainly looked happy enough, as the two were catching up with each. Nico was clearing explaining what he had been up to for the past year and a half, hopefully talking about me as well. I sighed. "We need to save her. Find her somehow."

I looked at Percy, whose expression was dark and serious. Well, he liked Annabeth in a romantic sort of way, so I can believe he would be really pissed off right now. I could only imagine how I would be if Nico had gotten captured instead of Annabeth. "But first, we need to get Bianca to Camp Half-Blood. That's the only place she'll be safe."

Artemis looked at the daughter of Hades intently. "Not the only place." I looked at her in confusion, before the pieces clicked together in my mind. Was she going to ask Bianca to join the Hunt? Every time the Hunt visits Camp and stays there for a few days, Artemis asks literally every female in the camp to join them as long as they don't have a mortal parent. Thalia told me a story how Artemis tried to recruit her into the Hunt as well back when her and Luke, plus Annabeth were traveling to Camp.

Thalia has hated the Hunt ever since, on account of them trying to steal her away from Luke and Annabeth. I didn't try and argue with the Goddess of the Moon, as I knew Bianca would say no on account of literally just getting her brother back after he disappeared for what seemed like a couple of months to her.

Once the Huntresses had gathered everyone up into a group, Artemis addressed everyone. She made sure everyone had been healed from their injuries, answered some questions from Bianca about the gods and the divine world and told some Huntresses to go get our belongings from the school.

The topic of the 'other' option for Bianca had come up during the conversation, which cause Thalia and Zoe, Artemis' lieutenant, to almost start to argue. Artemis intervened before the two could go at each other throats. "Calm yourselves." Artemis spoke in a tone that resonated authority, shutting both Thalia and Zoe up. "We have burdened these children for long enough. Zoe, we will rest here for a few hours. Raise the tents, treat the wounded. And Bianca, come with me. I wish to speak with you." Bianca looked a little confused and even a bit unnerved, but she followed Artemis off into the woods.

As the Hunt set up the camp, I sat on a log that was once part of a tree that got split in a half probably from Atlas poking Percy through. I sighed a breath of exhaustion, just completely done with today. First, I had to fly through a fuck-ton of snow to get over here, then I kissed Nico on impulse during the dance, then I got Annabeth kidnapped by letting her, Nico and Thalia fight Thorn by themselves. This day was just not my day. In a matter of minutes, the huntresses had erected a camp in no time at all. The tents were all made of silver silk, which coincided with their silver outfits.

The tents were even curved into a crescent like the moon, which I thought was a little dorky. One of the huntresses blew a silver dog whistle, which summoned almost a dozen large, white wolves that started to prowl around the camp like a bunch of guard dogs. I sat on the log, seething about how easily Atlas had defeated me. I literally nearly died with a casual flick from the Titan. Even Hyperion, the strongest opponent I think I have ever fought upfront besides Luke with that weird aura thing, had only beaten me once with a lot of effort on his part. Atlas treated me like a complete joke.

I felt the same bloodlust and sadism that had ruled my personality a few months ago still under the surface, just begging to be released upon everything around me. I forced the anger and rage down and felt like even more shit. This whole situation was terrible. Percy was angry because Annabeth was gone, and I could see him pacing in the snow with a serious expression on his face. Thalia was agitated from just being around the Hunt, and I could see her glaring at Zoe Nightshade from across the camp.

Grover was down in the dumps because of his damaged reed pipe and I was angry because Atlas nearly killed me and this whole day was just a massive shitshow. "Are you okay?" I turned my head to the left and spotted Nico, who had an expression of concern written on his features. I was surprised Nico actually was talking to me, considering what happened during the dance. My face went red just imagining what I did and I nodded my head, not meeting the son of Hades' eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Nico." I answered rather quickly, hopefully not drawing suspicion to my blushing face. I tried to redirect attention back on him as quick as possible. "What about you, Nico. You just got your sister back, right? How did your reunion go with her?" I could feel the blush on my face not go anyway and my heart was starting to pound slightly. Dammit, hopefully this wasn't going to become a permanent thing.

Nico's face instantly brightened up at the mention of Bianca. "Yeah, it was awesome! I'm so happy to see her after so long! She doesn't one hundred percent remember everything from our past, like all the stuff in Italy and running away from monsters there, but hopefully I can get dad to fix that and restore all her memories." Nico's face dimmed a little bit. "She was so sad without me. She told me that day you found me in the Lotus Hotel that I just disappeared without a trace. For her it had only been a couple of months." Nico's words made me feel even worse, as I realized I kind of ripped Nico away from his sister at the time, the only person he knew during that period.

I tried to not think about that, or say it as it would give Nico another reason to hate me. I was still surprised he was talking to me after I kissed him at the dance. When I saw his face fall a bit when he describe how miserable Bianca had been without him, I felt the urge to grab his hands and just hold them to try and make him feel better. The thought just made me feel worse, as I knew that was going to be impossible. I tried to change the subject a little. "Your sister is talking to Artemis as we speak, Nico. Aren't you at least a little bit afraid that Artemis is going to recruit her into the Hunt?" I personally wasn't, as Bianca would have to be a huge idiot to join and abandon Nico after they just reunited. But that didn't mean Nico's thoughts had to mirror mine.

But turns out, they did. "I'm not too worried." Nico said as he shook his head at my words. A gleeful smile came upon his face, something that made my heart skip a beat. "She would have no reason to join them. She would probably say she had no one, but that's not true. She has me. I'll always be there for her. She would never leave me alone and go run off with a bunch of thousand year old girls to kill monsters for eternity." Nico spoke with full confidence. I hope he was correct, as it would be real shitty of Bianca to go off and leave Nico alone.

Before I could say anything in response, the sound of the movement of the snow pierced my ears and my head shifted to the right. I saw Zoe Nightshade walking towards us with a fierce expression on her face. "Zane Williams, Nico di Angelo." Zoe Nightshade looked to be about Nico and Bianca's age, a solid thirteen years old. She had dark brown eyes and dark brown hair, both similar in color and shade to Atlas. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. That couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

Zoe was wearing the silver ski parka along with a pair of jeans, like every other huntress in the Hunt. The only difference was that she also wore a silver circlet on the top of her head, making her look like a very angry princess. I hadn't really talked to Zoe all that much when she had been with the Hunt while they were visiting camp, for good reason. She really didn't like me in the slightest, either for being a dude or for being related for Thalia. "Lady Artemis wants to speak with you two, as well as your friends. Follow me."

I stood up off the log with a sigh, wondering what the hell I've gotten myself into now. Nico gave me an unsure glance about the whole situation, which I could only give him a shrug in return. I walked behind Zoe, wishing I could hold the son of Hades hand without it being awkward. We gathered up the rest of my fellow demigods, who were in shitty moods just like me. We walked into Artemis' tent, ready to face what the Goddess of The Moon had in store for us.

(000)

Chapter sixteen is in the books. Sorry if this counts as a cliffhanger ending for the chapter, but this is already getting really long and opening up the next scene would probably add five thousand words to this chapter and I really want it out tonight. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed and leave a review to tell me how I did. Later y'all!