Sephie and Ares continued to fight. Sephie used her powers to her advantage. Each time Sephie hit Ares with her sword the god muttered a pretty nasty curse in Ancient Greek which all three demigods understood. Ichor flowed from a gash on his leg into his boot.
As Ares was limping to Sephie, something stopped him. It was as if a cloud covered sun, but worse. Light had faded while sound and color drained away. A cold and heavy presence passed over the beach.
The time slowed, the temperature dropped to below freezing which was odd for California. This made Clarisse, Sephie and Luke feel like life was hopeless and that their fighting was useless. The darkness had lifted with Ares looking stunned.
The police cars were still burning by them on the road. The surroundings looked like something that came from the apocalypse, sci-fi, horror movies that Sephie had watched with Jason, Frank, Hazel and all their friends at Camp Jupiter in Sally's apartment in New Rome.
The movie marathons only happened during the summer and winter break. This was a time when Sally did not really care what her daughter did as long she checked in.
When Sephie focused again she saw that the crowd had fully fled from the sand around them. Clarisse and Luke were on the beach with their eye going between her and Ares. The three demigods had noticed that sea water had flooded back around Ares's feet, his golden blood had dispersed into the tide.
Ares lowered his sword. The gods body then began to glow. Sephie, Clarisse and Luke turned away and closed their eyes so they wouldn't die. When Ares was gone, Luke and Clarisse ran to their friend.
"That fight was…" Clarisse started
"Terrifying." Luke interrupt with a suggested word that he would have used to describe the situation.
"I was going to say that Sephie's fight with my father was cool. But also terrifying like you said." Clarisse finished as she looked to her mischievous semi thieving friend
Hades's three furies flew down and congratulated the daughter of Poseidon on winning her fight against Ares. Then they gave the three demigods airline tickets knowing Zeus did not really care about the fact a child of his older brother was in the sky. Even if it was with his prized weapon with the power of a nuclear bomb.
The train ride was just made sure they spaced their time out. At the airport, the three demigods saw that the news report showed that a crazy man was trying to kidnap a renown author's daughter, Sephie, for a ransom. And that was after the fact that Sephie was only trying to visit her godfather in Los Angeles after a cross country trip with her friends.
And the report said that Sephie was going to New York to meet up with her mother and stepfather. Which was false because both Sally and her husband were still up north in San Francisco.
Before the flight, Sephie changed into a plaid pleated skirt and her flowery puffy blouse, with the front of the shirt was tucked into her skirt, and combat boots on. This was bought when she and Gwendolyn Addams aka Gwen, the daughter of Venus, went on shopping trip a few months ago. Sephie also put a bit of natural looking makeup on.
Sephie, Luke and Clarisse flew to New York, ran to a train when they got there and took it the Empire State Building. The guard at the desk knew who Sephie was and just gave her the key to the floor.
When to the 600th floor Sephie just bolted from the elevator to the throne room on Olympus with Clarisse and Luke following her. Hebe and Nike, who were hanging out by the elevator talking, had both said that all twelve Olympian council members, minus Ares, were all in there. That they have been meeting up in the throne room every day to find the master lightening bolt and to find a culprit. And once inside the room, Sephie dropped to her knees.
She slid a little bit from how fast she was running. Sephie was taught at a very young age that when a demigod enters the throne room of the Olympian gods, they bow or drop to their knees. Clarisse and Luke noticed that the gods were going back and forth between their Greek forms and their Roman forms.
"Rise Sephie Jackson." Zeus/Jupiter said with a smile
Sephie rose to her feet at the command of her boyfriend's father. And Sephie smiled back to the king of the gods. Zeus/Jupiter and Sephie had a good relationship with each other. Zeus/Jupiter thought that Sephie was a good choice for his son.
And Sephie made him a better father. Because before Sephie, all Zeus/Jupiter did was claim them, give them powers and leave it at that. The demigod children of Zeus/Jupiter had to rely on other gods and demigods for help.
"Sephie, you're a few days early. Ahead of what we expected. We expected you closer to the solstice. Or on the solstice." Zeus/Jupiter said
"Well, I didn't go to Los Vegas and the Lotus Casino were the lotus eaters and their layer is. I know how dangerous they are." Sephie said
All the gods understood that. The lotus eaters layer had a weird time warping spell on it. And just one hour in there would be several days in the real world. The Di Angelo siblings, Hades's children, had been in there for seventy years, even if they thought it was only seven weeks.
Sephie had been there once before with Jason, Frank and Hazel. They were bored last spring break a couple months back and decided to spend it there. They wanted to see what it was like. They all had a watches to tell when to leave.
In the casino the week and two days felt like an hour and 45 minutes, maybe it was two hours, Sephie didn't know. Sephie spent it playing a game with Nico Di Angelo who had been in there a long time. When Sephie got back to California, she went to Pluto and asked if Nico was his son.
Seeing as Sephie was the only one to know about the Greeks and Jason, Frank and Hazel didn't. Pluto told the daughter of his middle brother that Nico was the child of his Greek side of Hades. Sephie made Pluto promise that if he got his children out in her lifetime that she or her mother would be the ones to take care of them. He agreed.
"Father, I think Sephie should get a reward for what she has done for you." Athena/Minerva said to her father
"I agree whole heartedly with you my daughter that she should. But not just her. Both Mr. Castellan and Ms. La Rue should each get a reward as well." Zeus/Jupiter said
The gods all agreed. They all loved giving Sephie things. Especially Hephaestus who had given his granddaughter the most.
Sephie got three new charms for her bracelet from her grandfather. They turned into two daggers, a shield and a battle axe. Sephie loved each of them. She kissed her grandfather on the check when she received them.
And then Sephie became the champion of Aphrodite/Venus, Hera/Juno and Hestia/Vesta and that was on top of already being the champion of Artemis/Dina. Luke received a new phone, a new iPod with his favorite music already on it and new flying shoes, to replace the ones that he lost to Tartarus, from his father. And Clarisse got an electrically charged bow staff from her aunt Athena and grandfather.
"Do you have a culprit?" Zeus/Jupiter asked when everyone settled down
"Yes I do in fact have a culprit. It was a son of Nemesis, by the name of Ethan Nakamura. He feels that you all don't care about the demigods that are down on earth. Especially the demigods of minor gods who don't have cabins of their own and are stuck in cabin 11." Sephie said
But that wasn't the case at Camp Jupiter. At Camp Jupiter the demigods aren't separated by godly parents, but by skill. It made sure no demigod feel as if they were lesser to any other. There are good fighters in each cohort and poor fighters in each cohort.
Sephie knew of some Apollo and Vejovis kids that got into all of the cohorts just to be their medics. Some of them were able to fight with bows and daggers. It was a whole lot better system than the one Camp Half Blood has up.
At Camp Half Blood, there isn't even a separate cabin in the "U" for all the non Hermes kids. All of the gods started murmuring to each other in sorrow. Sephie was right, they were treating the minor gods children worse then theirs. They intended to fix it as soon as they were able too.
"Was he working with anyone?" Zeus/Jupiter asked
"For a moment he was working with Mars on hiding both the master lightening bolt and the helm of darkness. But Ethan is ultimately working with Saturn for the long run." Sephie said
The information shocked both Zeus/Jupiter and Poseidon/Neptune. They both knew their father constantly stirred down in Tartarus, Hades/Pluto constantly told them so. But this was the first time that he got a demigod to work with him and to help him. All of the gods started murmuring to each other again.
Sephie, Luke and Clarisse were dismissed so Zeus could meet up with his brothers and sisters so they could figure out what to do with their father this time. It took all of them with all of their power to take down their father the first time around
"You should find your grandmother in your mother's house if you want go back there to see her. The lord of the dead always pays his debts. Even more so for the people he really likes." Zeus/Jupiter said before turning his back to his future daughter-in-law
Zeus knew Jason was going to propose to Sephie sometime in the future. Apollo and the fates both declared it last week. And all of it was in Latin with the Roman names.
The prophecy went,
"The Prince of the Sky and The Princess of the Sea. Together in yellow. Under Juno's holy matrimony."
The gods had all left the throne room. Well, Poseidon/Neptune had stayed behind. He just wanted to talk to his daughter for a second. Hephaestus diverted his route so he could hug Sephie and give her a quick kiss before leaving the throne room himself. Clarisse and Luke left as well, they didn't need to see this.
Sephie stood awkwardly as she looked to her father. Poseidon changed into Neptune for his daughters comfort. Neptune saw Sephie much as his daughter as she was Poseidon's.
"Hello sir." Sephie said
"Hello Sephie. It's been a long time." Neptune said
"I don't even remember meeting you. I only remember meeting with your wife and son." Sephie said
"The last time we saw each other was when you were still in the hospital being born." Neptune said
"How am I to remember that?" Sephie snapped
Sephie turned her back to the god of the sea and horses. She didn't like where this was going. She didn't really want to talk to Neptune anymore. And Sephie certainly wanted to be anywhere else but here.
"I know you won't remember that like you remember visits from your grandfather. But I did not want Jupiter to be on my backside like before. Last time I defied him, I was punished to be a mortal." Neptune said
Sephie remembered those stories from her youth. Sally would tell these stories to her and Jason growing up. And in those stories Neptune and Apollo had defied Jupiter to make him a better ruler, father and person or to have him step down to either Apollo, Mars or Mercury.
And Jupiter did not take well to that. All the others who were in on the Jupiter debacle were only given house arrest for four months while Neptune and Apollo got their punishments for a whole year.