Percy shot Annabeth a glare, before he rolled his eyes and wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm sorry about that." Annabeth apologized, and Percy grinned, "Well, as long as you don't treat all new recruits that way."

Hades coughed, interrupting their little "couple" session, and started reading.

The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur.

"That's pretty normal for you, all things considered." Nico shrugged.

Each morning I took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird.

"Yeah, understandable. Because thee thought they all died somehow." Zoe rolled her eyes, much to the amusement of the demigods.

I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English.

"I thought we were hardwired to Greek." Piper muttered, but Annabeth sighed, "I think it was more of the fact that he was still getting the hang of "I somehow know Greek. Why do I know Greek?" rather than having trouble actually reading it.

After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.

"Only a few lines?" Athena scoffed, but Percy sighed, "I just realized that I instinctually knew a whole different language!"

"And he thought his mom died and was planning to go get her back." Triton added, enjoying the fact that Athena was getting so upset over this, "Give him a few days to adjust."

The rest of the day, I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something I was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery,

Will and Michael snickered.

but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow.

"Children of the sea aren't compatible with archery." Amphitrite stated, "The resistance in water is terrible for arrows; throws our aim off completely, and slows the arrows down by so much that it can't do any damage."

He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail.

"His... tail?" Apollo asked uncertainly, as his two sons burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Apollo asked, "Being bad at archery isn't funny!"

"Nothing." Michael shook his head, still laughing, "It's just that... Chiron was directly behind Percy when that happened."

The two gods of archery just gaped at Percy's lack of archery skills, while the demigods all burst into laughter.

Except for Frank; he was slightly offended that Percy was just so bad at archery, but was also surprised that Percy still encouraged him to do well with a bow an arrow when he himself was so bad at it. Usually, if people were bad at something, they'd consider it trash, and try to pull other people down with them.

Foot racing? No good either. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust.

"They are really fast." Thalia admitted, "Thank goodness we don't have to go against them for Capture the Flag."

They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods.

Hera scoffed, and glared at all the male gods in the room.

But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree.

"Now that you put it like that..." Jake winced, "Yeah. It's pretty embarrassing."

"They've had tons of practice." Connor stated, "Like Percy said."

And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.

"Still think you can pulverize me now?" Percy asked, cracking his knuckles.

"Sure. Poseidon kids aren't known for being buff." Clarisse grinned, "As long as Prissy doesn't have his sword, or any water, he's a pretty fair fight."

"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.

The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.

"It's very heroic." Leo nodded, "You can use the oars to beat monsters up! And slice two monsters in half with both sides of the oar!"

"Idiot." Calypso shook her head, amused at his antics.

I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching me, trying to decide who my dad was, but they weren't having an easy time of it. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids,

"Definitely now." Ares growled, "As if I'd want you as a kid!"

"Well, I don't want you as a father either, so I'd say we call it even." Percy retorted.

The Romans held their breath, idly wondering if Ares would smite the teen for his disrespect, but Ares and Percy just shared a grin like they were used to this kind of banter.

or as good at archery as the Apollo kids.

"Far from it." Apollo threw his hands up, "I still don't understand how you managed to get an arrow stuck in Chiron's tail. While he was behind you!"

I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork

Hephaestus winced, "Yeah... best to not let Percy anywhere near my forges."

Annabeth and Percy shuddered at the memory of Mount Saint Helens.

or—gods forbid—Dionysus's way with vine plants.

"Thank goodness for that." Percy heaved a sigh of relief.

"What was that, Prata?" Dionysus growled, but Percy sighed, "You know my ex-stepfather. Would be kind of ironic, and frankly speaking, terrible for me if you were my dad, running away from one alcoholic only to be stuck with another."

Dionysus glared at Percy, but shrugged, and sank back into his couch, "Fair enough, Patrick."

Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

"Should I be offended, or not?" Hermes asked, but Aphrodite shrugged, "Well, we are all masters of our domains. And if we are masters of all of them, the comparatively, we are masters of none of them because we're equally good at everything."

"Wow, you can actually say something smart." Athena jeered, but Aphrodite smiled at her, "Of course I can, sweetie. I'm older than most of you, after all. Wisdom doesn't just come from smarts, but also experience."

"Honestly, as much as I like you, Percy, I wouldn't want you to be my kid." Hermes admitted, "You get into far too much trouble, and even as the God of Travelers, I'd probably lose track of you. You're too heart-attack inducing as well. I'd leave that honor to Uncle Poseidon."

Everyone laughed, as Poseidon groaned.

But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.

"How Clarisse and Annabeth didn't figure it out... I don't know." Thalia groaned.

"For all we know, he could have been the son of the God of Toilets." Annabeth sighed, and the demigods all roared with laughter.

Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon,

Connor shoved Travis, and winked at Katie.

Travis growled at him, but Hermes quickly broke up their mini fight.

even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night.

"It's pretty hard to get used to that." Leo sighed, but Thalia shrugged, "It's not that bad."

"Says you! You hunt monsters and stuff and you living in the forest." Nico grumbled.

I would eat dinner with Cabin Eleven, scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came.

Poseidon let out a small, sad whine, and Amphitrite sighed. She knew that her husband loved his demigod children, and Zeus was the one making everyone miserable.

Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back…

"Yes yes yes." Dionysus waved his hand, "We know little Pete goes to the Underworld, no need to keep mentioning it."

"I will continue, if you would just shut up." Hades growled.

I started to understand Luke's bitterness and how he seemed to resent his father, Hermes.

Everyone flinched. Percy was one of the most loyal demigods to Olympus, and even he sympathized with Luke. They knew they wouldn't turn against Olympus... but if things had gone a little differently... given a bit more time...

Luke was very charismatic. If he had more chances to interact with Percy, slowly influencing and twisting his mindset before Percy set out for his quest... would Percy have chosen a different "family" to give his unwavering support to?

It was a very real possibility, and it was scary to think about Percy being an enemy.

So okay, maybe gods had important things to do.

"It's not a maybe, child. We do have important things to do." Zeus grumbled, and Hera huffed angrily, "Like hooking up with mortal woman?"

But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something?

The gods all glared at Zeus pointedly.

Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?

Poseidon shook his head, "We really should. Percy has terrible ways of trying to contact me."

Grover and Annabeth both cringed, as the other gods and demigods wondered just what Percy had done in an attempt to contact the Sea God. Knowing Percy... it was probably reckless, stupid, and probably completely insane.

Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. Everybody from Cabin Eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.

"Finally! Some more fighting!" Ares cheered, "We need more action in this book!"

"Trust me, Ares, there's going to be a lot of fighting." Percy growled, "And I'm pretty sure you're the only god who I prefer the Roman form of."

Ares snorted in amusement, and Poseidon sighed, "I'm sure we all like Mars better than Ares. At least Mars fights for a proper cause. Ares just likes fighting for the sake of fighting."

"Oh. No wonder you asked Mars that question back at Camp Jupiter, even if you hadn't had your memories." Frank stated, and Reyna shook her head, "Honestly, mouthing off a Roman God of War in front of the entire legion... I'm surprised he didn't smite you there and then."

"That's Percy for you." Annabeth laughed, and Poseidon glared at Ares, "You wouldn't smite my son!"

"Of course I wouldn't." Ares sneered, "I wasn't going to mess with whatever Juno or Hera was up to. And I wasn't about to kill the only kid at camp who was powerful enough to help two newbies on a major quest, as insolent as he was, though his rudeness was helpful in the end."

"Wait..." Frank paused, "You waited until he came to claim me?"

"Well, duh. There was no way Zeus... or Jupiter in this case, would let me claim you, and the go down and visit when Old Seaweed's kid over there arrived. Nope; I had to wait for you to do something important, giving me an excuse to pop down there and issue your quest." Ares explained, "And then I was going to have to figure out some way to make Percy go with you so he could protect you, but he was annoying enough so I could order him to go."

"I feel like you're channeling your inner Mars now." Percy complained, "Why can't you do that all the time? You're much nicer like this! And even if you didn't order me to go, if Frank wanted, I would go alone with him anyways. He's nice. I wasn't going to just ditch him on a literal Death quest."

"I would have asked Percy anyways. He's awesome. And, you know... no land travel." Frank sighed, "If he didn't want to go, maybe I would have asked Reyna, but we couldn't leave Camp without any praetors; Octavian was annoying enough. But I definitely preferred to bring Hazel and Percy with me."

Suddenly, the Romans, as well as Percy, had an odd thought. What if Octavian was also a victim in all of this? Sure, that wasn't saying he wasn't free from fault at all, and he was still a massive pain in the podex, but if Triumvirate Holdings had the power to influence and fund two massive wars... surely one little power-hungry auger from an ancient, well-known Roman family would be easily to control.

For all they knew, his family was part of the Triumvirate and was manipulating Octavian the second he was born.

"I agree with the Sea Spawn." Athena nodded, looking sick as she said that statement, interrupting the Romans (and Percy's) line of thought, "You are much nicer when you actually make logical arguments instead of just bashing everything you see."

"Frank, my man, you're my favorite Mars child." Percy grinned, and Frank snorted, "You have no idea. The other Mars children hated your guts for arguing with our father. But then they kind of mellowed out when we came back with all our fancy, shiny gear."

We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.

Travis snorted, "Okay and good are both understatements. Percy was about as good as the newbies who had been training for maybe a month or two. Nowhere near as good as he is now, but pretty dang decent for scrawny twelve year old."

The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long.

"Picky, picky." Triton snorted in amusement. Children of the sea always had trouble finding suitable blades, since most blades that worked well on land never functioned properly in the sea, with all the water pressure and resistance and buoyancy and whatnots; they needed sword that had been forged in the sea, for that was the only time the weapon would function properly both on land and in the water.

Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.

Chris whistled, "Man. Even with all those problems..."

We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time.

"Why?" Demeter asked, "Why would the oldest, most experienced guy spar with the newbie? That makes no sense. He needs to eat more cereal!"

"Enough with the cereal already and let me read!" Hades hissed.

Apollo reached over to pat Hades' arm, "Don't worry. We feel your plight. This is much better than her bread phase."

"Good luck," one of the campers told me. "Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."

Hermes huffed in pride that one of his children was considered the best swordsman, and then sighed when he remembered that his son had gone down the wrong path and was now dead.

"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.

"He should." Poseidon grumbled, "You don't even have a weapon that works well for you, let alone having close to zero experience whatsoever."

The camper snorted.

"That was me." Chris laughed, "I'm always the one telling the newbies how good Luke was."

Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised.

"Isn't that a little harsh?" Hazel winced. As strict as Camp Jupiter was, they were always careful not to hurt the new kids too much until they actually got the hang of using their weapons properly.

"Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!

"Honestly, next time I go to the Underworld, I should thank Luke for pushing me so hard." Percy joked, but it was clear that all the Greeks were undeniably upset and angry at Luke's betrayal, even if they understood why he did it.

"How about you don't go the Underworld?" Poseidon asked weakly, "Please come visit my domain instead of my brother's, even though I know Hades wouldn't kill you."

If one good thing came out of the Second Titan War, it was that Hades was grateful to Percy for drilling into Zeus' head that Hades deserved recognition as well, and had a cabin built for Nico. There was no way Hades would destroy Percy, even if the demigod was supremely annoying and snarky.

Hades let out a small, silent snicker at the memory of Percy's conversation with Annabeth about playing with Cerberus, and continued reading.

By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.

"Ah. No wonder you managed to do... that." Travis nodded eagerly, his tone betraying how hungry he was to hear Luke getting beaten by a newbie.

Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward.

"Good. Hopefully it also healed up all the bruises." Jason nodded.

"Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo."

Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.

"Nope." Connor laughed, "We got something much better!"

The Greeks all grinned, having heard the story about Luke getting beaten by Percy on his first try, and they were all eager to hear that fight in full detail.

The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag.

"Yep." Chris nodded, "And if there weren't any new demigods, he'd just rotate through all the other campers in the Hermes Cabin so everyone gets beaten at some point."

He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarming technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.

Jason whistled, "That's a difficult technique, but definitely a good one to learn. You have no idea how many times I've had to use that."

"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."

The Greeks all smiled, but Percy frowned, "You know, I just got lucky. I didn't master it or anything."

"It still counts, Prissy." Clarisse snorted, "For most of us, even if we get lucky, it takes at least a few months to even get it remotely right for it to count as our first time."

He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.

"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

"Honestly, I need to question his judgement." Ares grumbled, "The kid hasn't even picked up a proper sword he can use. How can he ask to spar? He could just knock the sword out of his hand in seconds."

"I don't know." Hermes shrugged, "But I'm sure Luke had a good reason."

Travis, Chris and Connor shared a look. They knew why Luke had wanted to do that; he had been curious as to how Percy defeated the Minotaur.

I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword.

"... Somehow?" Reyna asked, "And your only experience with a sword was killing a Fury, and waving around an incompatible one?"

Percy nodded.

My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own.

"Dang, you could see all that in your first spar?" Clarisse whistled, "You're decent, Prissy."

"You're not too bad yourself, La Rue." Percy smirked.

Luke deflected it easily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.

"It was amazing to watch." Travis grinned, "Seriously. Best newbie fight we've ever seen."

The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?

I tried the disarming maneuver.

"You can't just "What the heck" the disarming maneuver." Jason stated.

My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.

Clang.

"Okay... I might be wrong." Jason corrected, turned to Percy, "First try? Seriously?"

"I got lucky." Percy answered weakly, "I'm sure Luke was underestimating me too, since I was new."

"No one just uses a maneuver that he just taught and throws it back at him so quickly." Annabeth laughed, "I would love to watch that fight in person."

Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest.

"Whooo! Go Percy!" Poseidon cheered, and Triton had to admit, he was slightly impressed at how quickly Percy had managed to use the move, even if it had been lucky and partially aided by water.

The other campers were silent.

I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."

"Bro... you don't just apologize for beating someone." Leo shook his head, and Percy winced slightly, "I don't know. Everyone was quiet. I thought I did something wrong?"

"You did nothing wrong." Chris stated, "We were just surprised that someone just put Luke on his ass like that."

"You're far too humble." Artemis grinned, and Zoe nodded in agreement.

For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak. "Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!"

"I hate to say it, but I have to agree with Luke." Katie nodded, "You shouldn't be sorry for beating anyone in spars. Someone has to win, and someone has to lose. It's just like that."

I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.

"I wished your power boost lasted longer." Connor complained, "Then we could see you whoop Luke's butt again!"

This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.

Ares grunted, "That's why you don't practice spar with newbies."

After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"

"You know... I think that was Ethan." Travis tilted his head, and Thalia hissed, "Ethan? The Nakamura kid?"

Some Greeks shuddered, and Chris sighed, "The kid that fell out of the sky and splattered to the ground. Wait, how did you know him? He left before you came back?"

Percy winced at that; he knew Kronos had killed him by opening up a fissure on Olympus, and while he knew that Ethan had been a particular pain on several occasions, part of him still felt bad he wasn't alive to see that his mother now had a cabin in Camp.

"Met him once." Thalia sighed, "It's a long story."

"Percy saved him, and then he stabbed us in the back." Rachel stated, and then grumbled under her breath, "I should have thrown my hairbrush at him instead of Kronos."

Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised me with an entirely new interest.

"You think he wanted to recruit you?" Annabeth asked, "He managed to bring quite a few of the undetermined kids with him."

Chiron winced at the memory of losing so many promising children, and Silena nodded, "Probably. Most undetermined campers joined up to get some recognition from their parents. I wouldn't put it past Luke to have tried to use Sally's "death" in order to try and manipulate Percy against the gods."

"Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword..."

The demigods all grinned, "A lot of good for us, and a lot of hurt for our enemies."

Percy smiled at his friends, "I love you guys so much."

"So sappy, Prissy." Clarisse stuck her tongue out, "Eww!"

Friday afternoon, I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat,

"He is partially a mountain goat." Piper pointed out, and Grover bleated, "Not the point!"

but the lava had almost gotten me.

Percy winced, the memory of Mount Saint Helens rushing through his mind. Lava hurts.

My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms.

"Happens to all of us." Jake grinned.

We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr D.

His face turned a sickly shade of yellow.

"Sickly shade of yellow?!" Hermes glared at Dionysus, "What did you do to him!?"

"Nothing." Dionysus snorted.

"Fine," he said. "Just great."

"I can see where Percy gets his sarcasm from." Leo snorted, and Grover shook his head, grinning, "Actually, I learnt my sarcasm from Percy."

Connor and Travis high-fived, "We were right to name Percy the King of Sassy Sarcasm!"

"Sassy... sarcasm?" Percy raised his eyebrow, "Seriously?"

"Our point exactly." Travis grinned.

"So your career's still on track?"

He glanced at me nervously. "Chiron t-told you I want a searcher's license?"

"Well…no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask.

"Percy has tact?! The world is ending!" Thalia screeched, "Hit the floor!"

"Uh... at that time... yes, the world was ending." Percy pointed out.

Thalia blinked, and nodded, "Fair enough."

"He just said you had big plans, you know… and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"

Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr D suspended judgment.

"At least you did that." Hermes glowered at Dionysus, "It wasn't Grover's fault that Father knocked him out."

He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and I went along to protect you, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"

"Considering how many dangerous stunts you pull." Reyna snorted, "It's pretty bad."

Leo sighed, "And, you know... you guys kind of saw the Fates go "snippety snappety, your thread's my property"."

"Yeah." Grover winced, "That too. And technically... the fate of our lives are their property."

"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty.

Percy grimaced, and grumbled, "I ended up with it anyways."

The chances of you getting a quest… and even if you did, why would you want me along?"

"Err... cause you were like, my only friend at camp?" Percy stated, unintentionally making the Greek campers feel bad at how they excluded Percy, and it only got worse when Poseidon claimed him.

"Of course I'd want you along!"

Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving… Must be nice to have a useful skill."

"If you needed a basket, and didn't have one... then sure." Demeter grumbled, "You can't kill monsters with baskets, and they can't hold cereal properly."

I tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable.

"You have a lot of talents." Juniper hugged her boyfriend, and Percy smirked, "Like whacking monsters with tree branches."

Annabeth, Percy and Grover grinned at the memory of the satyr whooping Medusa on the head several times. Ah, the good old days when all they had to do was kill a couple of monsters and trespass on Hades' domain, instead of having to fight wars against armies of monsters that just don't stay dead.

We talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods.

"Pros and cons?" Malcom asked, and Grover nodded, "Yeah. Like, who's most likely to be his parent based on what he's good and bad at, and you know... personal experience."

"Given how well he fights... he could have been an Ares kid." Pollux offered, "A very, very soft Ares kid. Like Frank."

"I'm a Mars kid, thank you very much." Frank corrected.

"He could have been a Hermes kid too." Rachel added, "But that seemed even less likely than Ares. And that's all the male Olympian gods, if you don't count the Big Three."

"Who did you want to be your dad?" Poseidon asked.

"I wasn't considering the Big Three at all, since Grover didn't bring it up." Percy frowned slightly, "If I wasn't so bad at archery and music, maybe Apollo. Hermes seemed cool too, but I'm terrible at stealing, and I didn't really want to end up as bitter as Luke. Lord Hephaestus is pretty awesome too, but you know... water and fire. I honestly didn't want to be related to Ares or Mr D, though."

"We don't want to be related to you, either." Ares and Dionysus both scoffed, while Apollo, Hermes, and Hephaestus seemed happy that Percy liked them enough that he might consider him as a father.

Finally, I asked him about the four empty cabins.

"Number Eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."

"And a place for my hunters when they have to stay at your camp." Artemis added, for the benefit of those who didn't live in Camp Half-Blood, or weren't at camp when the Hunters last stayed over.

"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"

"Fat chance." Persephone snorted, but Hades looked up from the book, "It's alright. I have a cabin now."

Nico let a small smile creep up onto his face, and Will hugged him.

Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number Two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the Goddess of Marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals.

"Did we really need a whole cabin for her?" Poseidon growled, "I get the "honorary" thing, but really, couldn't we have just gone with a statue or something? What's the point of building one of the largest cabins and no one being able to even step foot inside, let alone live there?"

Hera snorted at the disrespect, and Amphitrite nodded, "Yep. Especially with how crowded the Hermes Cabin was. She's the Goddess of Family too, so technically, any children of the gods should be considered family."

"Until she throws you off a mountain." Hephaestus complained.

"What about Aunt Hestia?" Percy asked, "Shouldn't she also get a honorary cabin or something."

Hestia smiled, "That isn't necessary. I'm happy with my hearth in Camp. And Hera shares her cabin with me, though she never told the others because my dear little brother."

The gods looked at Hera, surprised. They didn't know that Hera had been kind enough to share her cabin with Hestia.

That's her husband's job.

Zeus glared at Grover, but Hera snorted, "That's an understatement. That should have been his domain."

When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"I mean... it was a fair enough assumption." Hazel argued.

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."

"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"So... did you guys like... just take a hat, throw in three pieces of paper, shake the hat around and randomly picked out the paper with the three domains?" Leo asked.

"It pretty much went like that." Poseidon admitted.

"With a hat?" Percy looked intrigued.

"Yes." Hades grumbled, "My helm."

Nico had to bite back a snicker at just how funny it was that a symbol of power was being used to play the lottery.

"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."

"Uh-huh."

"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here."

"Now he does." Percy smiled.

"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here…" Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."

"Rude!" Nico complained, but Hades interjected, "Son... I did try to kill him and three demigods because I was mad at Thunder Butt. He has a fair reason to dislike me."

"Thunder Butt?!" Zeus growled, but Poseidon just burst out laughing, "That's the best nickname so far!"

"But still..." Nico sighed, and Grover bleated, "Sorry, Nico. We didn't really know what to expect from the God of the Underworld. Now, we all love you guys."

"But Zeus and Poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?"

Zeus and Poseidon both gave Percy a strange look, while half of the gods, as well as the demigods, burst out into fits uncontrollable laugher.

"Oh gods!" Thalia wiped some tears from her eye, "A bazillion kids? Really, Percy?!"

"Water Boy, really, my man, you're the best!" Leo chortled.

Persephone spared a glance at Hades. Even before the oath, Hades had really few demigod children, so she supposed she had gotten the better end of the deal, especially compared to Hera, who looked completely scandalized at the reminder of how many times Zeus had cheated on her.

Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful.

"Yep. Powerful." Everyone looked at Percy.

He shifted uncomfortable under all the attention, "I'm not that powerful."

"Sure. Keep telling yourself that, Kelp Head." Thalia snickered.

They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other.

"That doesn't sound very fair." Percy complained, "You guys were just ganging up on him!"

The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."

"And ironically, my husband is the only one who kept his promise, even though he had been forced into it." Persephone hissed with malice at Zeus; she didn't mind Poseidon too much, since while he did break his oath, he didn't go out of his way to murder children.

The god in question shifted uncomfortable in his chair.

Thunder boomed.

I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."

"Dang. You knew that?" Apollo asked, and Percy shook his head, "Nah. Chiron taught me Latin, remember? He taught us about Styx oaths... even though I didn't believe it was real."

Grover nodded.

"And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"

"Nope." Thalia, Jason and Percy groaned.

Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon.

"With how many times Zeus "falls off the wagon", he shouldn't have a face left." Hera grumbled.

The gods, and all the Greek demigods all burst into laughter as Zeus turned red, and while the Romans were equally amused, they tried their best to hide it.

There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo—he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia… well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

"Honestly, I don't think Styx did anything." Hades admitted, "That was just me being angry."

"For a good reason." Percy stated, and glanced at Thalia, "Not saying that chasing you is a good thing, just that Uncle had a good reason to be mad."

"Yeah, I get that." Thalia sighed.

"But that isn't fair! It wasn't the little girl's fault."

Grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath.

"That I wasn't." Hades grimaced, and turned to Thalia, "Once again, my apologies."

"Don't worry about it. It all worked out anyways." Thalia grinned.

Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia.

All the demigods shivered at the mention of the pit, though Nico, Percy and Annabeth shuddered the most violently.

A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."

"And then I died." Thalia proclaimed bluntly.

Annabeth, Zeus and Jason both winced, and Percy uneasily stated, "And you were telling me I lacked tact."

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where I'd fought the Minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters.

"You should have left the others and dragged her to camp." Zeus grumbled.

"Hey!" Hermes, Annabeth and Athena cried out.

She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others.

"Choosing between your assigned duty and honoring the last wish of a friend." Thalia shook her head, "Grover, you are the bravest satyr I've ever met. Most satyrs would have ditched Luke and Annabeth when they found out who my dad was."

So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

"That's just... sad." Piper sighed, but Thalia grinned, "Well... as painful as being torn apart by hellhounds was... I think it was worth it. We have a magical border that keeps monsters out now, and even though I'm not a tree anymore, the border still stands strong. I see that as an absolute win."

"Couldn't we have a border without, I don't know, anyone dying?" Percy asked, glaring at Zeus, "He only erected the border because he was directly impacted by it. Otherwise, he wouldn't have cared if other demigods were being mauled and killed every other day. What's the point of having a safe place of demigods if it could be overrun with monsters all the time?!"

The demigods all held their tongues at Percy's cold, harsh words, but couldn't find it within themselves to argue with him, because he was right. Before Thalia's tree, there had been monster attacks almost everyday, and they needed border patrol 24/7 in order to keep the camp safe; Clarisse and Malcolm had dug up old records regarding the old border patrol while Thalia's tree had been poisoned, and when Chiron came back from his "banishment", he had explained everything to them.

Heck, as much as Zoe and the Hunters hated the male campers, even they volunteered for border patrol whenever they had to stop by camp. The Romans even got a god to protect their borders and keep monsters out, but the Greeks? They had been left at the mercy of monsters until Zeus was the one to feel the effects of their lack of protection.

"The boy's right." Zoe nodded, "Perhaps if there was a barrier protecting camp, Thalia wouldn't have died in the first place."

I stared at the pine in the distance.

The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too.

"Really? You even felt guilty over that?!" Beckendorf raised an eyebrow at Percy in confusion.

"You feel guilty over the weirdest things, Kelp Head." Thalia groaned, "You weren't even involved in this. What are you even guilty about?"

A girl my age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, my victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much.

"It was much." Thalia reinforced, "I knew what I was getting into. I had experience, knowledge, weapons, a shield, and even friends to back me up. You had absolutely no idea what was going on. Defeating the Minotaur at any age is considered "much"."

I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?

"Personal loyalty." Grover bleated, "Of course that would have made you feel guilty."

"You couldn't have helped her." Hades shook his head, "Even if you had killed the Minotaur in time, I would have sent another monster to retrieve her. As long as there she couldn't enter camp, I would have taken her sooner or later."

"You better not hurt her." Percy grumbled.

"I wouldn't." Hades promised, "Once I captured her, I pretty much left her alone to do whatever she liked. I only kept her in stasis that one time to threaten you. She quite liked Persephone's garden, though the statues did creep her out a little."

Persephone smiled, glad that someone appreciated her garden.

"Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"

"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."

"Houdini? He was a demigod?" Frank asked, surprised.

Annabeth nodded, "Hermes child, but also a legacy of Hecate."

"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"

"No. Never. Orpheus came close... Percy, you're not seriously thinking —"

"Of course he was thinking of saving his mother." Annabeth laughed, and Grover groaned, "I know that now. Up until then, Percy had never even mentioned his home life before!"

"No," I lied. "I was just wondering. So… a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"

"Not the best subject change." Hermes commented, "But not the worst thing I've heard."

Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea.

"You have no idea." Grover sighed, "Even if I couldn't sense your emotions, "I want to go to the Underworld to get my mom back" was practically written all over your face."

Leo snickered, and pulled out a piece of paper from his notebook. He hastily scribbled something on it, walked over to Percy, and slapped it onto his face, before bolting back to Calypso, snickering.

"Hey! What was that for!?" Percy complained, but everyone could see that Leo had written "I want to go to the Underworld to get my mom back." on the piece of paper, and they all burst into laughter.

Percy crumpled the paper up, and threw it at Leo with perfect aim, "I'm so going to get back at you for that, Valdez!"

"Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."

"Totally feel the love, Grover." Thalia sarcastically sighed.

"And you found me. Chiron said you thought I might be something special."

Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't… Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"

Hazel frowned, "Isn't Nemesis a goddess?"

Leo growled at the mention of Nemesis, as Grover bleated, "It was a slip of the tongue! Plus, I meant "god" as in, like, gods in general!"

"Yeah, but you've met Aunt Sally!" Annabeth stated, and Grover sighed, "Just forget it! I was nervous, okay?"

I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.

That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

At last, it was time for Capture the Flag.

"Yeah... I think you mentioned before that you think you liked Capture the Flag." Hazel laughed teasingly.

"Ohhh! Percy's first Capture the Flag!" Thalia cheered, "I can't wait to see how it goes!"

"I couldn't have been worse that mine." Nico grumbled.

"Actually... that's pretty debatable." Percy sweatdropped, remembering the hellhound.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening grey, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree.

Athena grinned at the mention of her banner.

From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

"Aw yeah!" Ares cheered, "My children rule!"

I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"

"No duh. What else would they be?" Athena scowled.

"Uh... banners? Decorations? A very fancy-looking spear?" Percy offered, "I was kind of expecting generic flags that we use in school for football or something."

"Next time, I'll just spear you with the flags." Clarisse grumbled, "Seriously!"

"No maiming." Chiron reminded her.

"Yeah."

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always," he said. "But often."

"We can never put Ares and Athena together. Otherwise, they'd always win." Jake complained.

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do—repaint the flag?"

"Magic?" Hazel assumed, and Annabeth nodded, "Yep. Lady Hecate and Lady Aphrodite."

He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?"

He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't.

Annabeth winced, "Yeah. I told him the plan."

The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.

"Dang. You really are perceptive." Connor winced, "We were all looking on as he explained things to you, and we couldn't tell."

"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."

"I'm glad I helped. But I'm not glad at how I helped." Percy sighed, wrapping his arms around Annabeth.

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins.

"Whoooo! Go us!" Apollo cheered, but Hermes frowned, "I don't have that many kids."

"Yeah, but all the undetermined kids counted as the Hermes cabin. So it was basically Athena, Apollo, Hermes... and a bunch of others." Annabeth explained.

Percy let out a bark of laughter, "So that means other cabins had siblings playing against them!"

"Pretty much, yeah." Chris snickered, as the other cabins looked horrified at the though of their half0siblings playing against them.

Apparently, privileges had been traded —shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support.

"Bribery! I love it!" Hermes grinned.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them.

Pollux wasn't sure whether to be proud that Percy said they were strong, or to cry at the memory of all the fun times he had with Castor. He decided to be proud, and tried his best to hide his tears.

Dionysus conjured up some Diet Coke for his son.

Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff, but they weren't very aggressive.

Demeter grinned, and Katie laughed, "We can be plenty aggressive if we want to. But most of us function better in the sun."

Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about.

"Should I be offended?" Piper asked.

They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped.

"Yeah..." Silena sighed, "I think I was the only one who actually tried during Capture the Flag."

"That just reminds me of Narcissus." Leo grumbled.

Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem.

Beckendorf, Jake, and Leo grinned proudly.

That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.

"Yeah! Go my cabin!" Ares cheered, but Poseidon decided to dump more water on Ares.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed.

"What about powers?" Reyna asked.

"Powers weren't really allowed, but we didn't need to explicitly state that rule until Percy came alone." Chiron explained, "The Ares cabin are physically stronger than other demigods, and the Hephaestus cabin didn't have any kids that could control fire. The Dionysus and Demeter kids know not to use their powers, since it's practically their territory, and the Hermes, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Athena kids don't have powers that can destroy the entire forest."

The centaur turned to Artemis, "Now, if the Hunters were visiting, that's another matter entirely."

The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed.

"Yeah, Clarisse. No maiming!" Percy teased.

"Shut up. It wasn't me anyways, that was Sherman. And it's not like I told him to do that." Clarisse groaned.

I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"

"No, you're supposed to hang them up as decorations." Calypso stated sarcastically.

Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in Cabin Five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."

My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine,

"There's no power steering." Percy commented, but no one had any idea what he was talking about.

Thalia glared at Percy, "So that's where the idea to use Aegis as a sled came from."

"Well, it was either use it to snowboard, or we die. You choose." Percy retorted.

but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast.

"Yeah. Percy never did well with shields." Annabeth admitted, "He's one of our fastest fighters, taking out opponents before they can hit him back. Shields never really fitted into his fighting style."

My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.

Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"

We cheered and shook our swords

"Shook our swords?" Jason laughed, and Percy sighed, "More like everyone else raised their swords above their heads and I couldn't because my sword didn't feel good in my hand."

and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.

I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."

She kept marching.

"Ouch. Someone gave you the cold shoulder." Leo snickered.

Annabeth grimaced, "Honestly, all that equipment was pretty heavy for twelve year old me. I was also trying not to lose my balance."

"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"

Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.

"Thought he would be a Hermes kid?" Thalia asked.

"Yep." Annabeth glared at Connor and Travis, "I keep telling them they can't borrow my cap for pranks, and they just keep trying to steal it."

"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"

"Border patrol, whatever that means."

"It means patrolling the border." Leo stated unhelpfully, only for Percy to throw a pillow at him.

"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."

She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.

"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."

"The King of Sassy Sarcasm strikes again!" The Stoll Brothers cheered.

It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

"That... doesn't sound too bad. Seems peaceful." Piper commented.

"Nope." Clarisse shook her head, "Annabeth had brutally effective plans as a twelve year old, even by my standards."

Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.

Annabeth winced. She knew that Percy had beaten Clarisse and her siblings, but if he wasn't a son of Poseidon, he would have been destroyed. He didn't even stand a chance against them, if he couldn't even use his equipment properly.

There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?

Thalia gritted her teeth, "If we had liability issues, it wouldn't take me dying for us to get a protective border around camp."

Everyone glared at Zeus.

Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Apollo lit up, "Which kid was that? Will? Austin? Kayla? Michael? Lee?"

The demigods all winced at the mention of Lee Fletcher, and Michael broke the silence, "That was me. I was scouting the location of the flag for Annabeth."

Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.

"You wish." Grover snorted, "You're always in the middle of all the fun."

Poseidon looked like he wanted to pass out, and for once, Triton looked at his half-brother sympathetically.

Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.

"It was there already!?" The older campers all froze, and Annabeth asked, "He already summoned it?"

Percy shrugged nonchalantly.

"What was there?!" Poseidon asked worriedly, "What was summoned? Who summoned what?"

"I understand your worry, brother. But I'm sure you'd find out if you let me continue." Hades sighed.

I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.

"Because it was stalking you." Annabeth whispered.

Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.

"That's good." Artemis muttered, but she had a feeling it wasn't the opposing campers that had been growling at Percy.

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.

"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.

"Man." Clarisse sighed, "I was terrible!"

"It's alright. You mellowed out eventually." Chris smiled, and Percy nodded.

Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet.

"Really?" Clarisse groaned, and Percy let out a sheepish laugh, "Sorry."

She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.

"Go! Cream him! Destroy him!" Ares cheered, still soaking wet, and Poseidon doused him with water from the Arctic.

They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.

"So, obviously you run." Piper pointed out.

I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing,

"It's Percy." Frank groaned, "The last thing he would do is to run away."

but these guys were not as stupid as the Minotaur.

"I hope not. They are still demigods, not monsters." Athena sighed.

They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.

"Really? An electric spear?" Poseidon complained, as Zeus grinned as his one of his elements was being used against Percy.

Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.

Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.

"Man, you guys really hated his guts." Jake winced, as Ares cheered his children on despite being drenched with freezing cold water.

They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.

"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."

"Don't do that! Percy would look weird with short hair!" Leo yelled.

I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.

"Great. Now he can't even use his sword or shield." Triton grumbled, glaring at Ares, who was laughing his head off.

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."

"The flag is that way," I told her.

"You told here where the flag was!?" Athena asked incredulously, "What kind of idiot gives away the position of their flag!?"

"For one, both my arms were numb, so I couldn't even point out the flag even if I wanted to." Percy groaned.

"He also didn't know where the flag was." Chris added, "Very few people on our team knows where the flag is placed. Only the Athena cabin, and maybe one or two of the Apollo and Hermes kids."

"He tried to nod his head in the direction of the flag." Clarisse finished, absolutely unimpressed, "And he was nodding at our side of the creek."

I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.

"Honestly, nope. You sounded like a whiny kid throwing a tantrum." Clarisse laughed.

"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."

"You do that without his help." Triton grumbled, glaring at Ares who was laughing stupidly.

"You do that without my help," I told them.

Amphitrite smiled in amusement, "Good to see you two getting along so well."

It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.

"Gee, you think!?" Frank asked incredulously.

Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs.

Poseidon squeaked in worry.

If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-kebabbed.

The Sea God glared at Clarisse, who just shook her head, "Nope. I know my own strength. Even without the amour, all it would be is a light poke, like a cactus."

"What if he just like, tripped and fell on your spear?" Frank demanded, and Clarisse turned pale, "I... didn't really think about that..."

As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.

"No maiming!" Everyone yelled at Ares and Clarisse.

Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.

"How about now?" Will asked, and Percy shrugged, "I don't know. Happens so often that I'm pretty used to it, though being able to heal in water helps."

"Why?" Poseidon sighed in exasperation, "Please stop getting hurt! I don't like it!"

"No maiming," I managed to say.

"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

"Just dessert privileges?!" Dakota asked incredulously.

"It's a good enough deterrent." Silena sighed, "Dessert is awesome! And they might not look like it, but the Ares kids have a sweet tooth, especially Sherman. Even they won't break the rules unless it was, in their opinion, something really serious."

He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash.

"You're so screwed now!" Leo cheered.

They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.

Clarisse sighed; now everyone would get to watch her get humiliated by a newbie.

Ares groaned, and Nico turned to Percy, "Do you have any of those jelly beans on you?"

"Sadly, nope. I want jelly beans now." Percy sighed.

Apollo was going to summon some jelly beans for the kids, but Hera stopped him, "No candy after dinner, especially not caffeinated ones! If you want to give them candy, do it tomorrow!"

Clarisse and her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off.

"Nice hit!" Hermes cheered.

I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.

"Knocked out Sherman for half a day." Will sighed.

Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me.

"Jeez, really! Stop calling us ugly!" Clarisse groaned.

I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick.

"Good! Leave my son alone!" Poseidon exhaled worriedly.

Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack,

"Mark is one of the more troublesome kids, but he's also the one who thinks the most while fighting." Clarisse scratched the back of her neck, "He knows not to pick a fight that he can't win."

but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.

"You broke it?" Piper asked, and Chris explained, "I think she got a new one. As good as the Hephaestus cabin are at fixing weapons, wooden spear shafts are hard to fix."

"You broke my gift!" Ares growled, but Percy glared back at him, "Well, they ganged up on me first!"

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"

"That's still Nico." Thalia snickered, but Nico puffed a cheek out, "But I'm not a worm!"

She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.

"That was a very hard hit." Clarisse grumbled, "I had a headache for days!"

"So that's what you wanted the aspirin for!" Will exclaimed.

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them,

"Go us!" Hermes cheered, and Artemis snorted, "A few Apollos? I can hardly stand one, let alone a few!"

"You wound me, little sister!" Apollo whined, but Artemis threw a pillow at him, "I'm not your little sister! I'm older than you!"

fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

"Uh... no. You just wanted to beat Percy up." Reyna pointed out, "No tricks involved there."

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers.

"Whooooop!" Hermes and Apollo high-fived. They turned to Athena, who immediately scowled, "Don't involve me in your childish antics."

The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of Cabin Eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders.

"You know, everybody but me and the kid who's stuck in the river." Annabeth snickered.

Percy shrugged, "I was scrawny anyways. And water is nice."

Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."

"OH NO! Annebeth's a ghost!" Leo cried out, "Call in the ghost busters!"

Annabeth sighed, "Calypso, please do me a favor, and smack him."

"My pleasure." Calypso let out a small grin, and whacked him on the arm.

I looked, but she wasn't there.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

"Because she had just taken it off her head." Athena deadpanned.

I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Thalia whistled, "Dang. You sure figured that out quick."

"Bait. I'm always the bait." Percy complained, "And the plan wasn't really that complex."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get me pulverized."

Poseidon glared at Annabeth, but she just sighed, "Not really. After I sent Luke to get the flag, I was planning on backing Percy up."

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but…" She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"

"... Sherman." Reyna stated.

"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"

"Maybe you were so clumsy that you tripped and fell on your own sword, but you managed to move in time so that instead of getting skewered, you only got a cut on the arm." Nico offered.

"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."

The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.

"Why don't we heal when we breath in air?" Thalia frowned.

"Err... actually... you guys do heal faster than most campers. I can't do a comparison with Percy, since we'd just toss him into the lake if he's injured. But compared to the rest of us, you guys definitely heal much faster." Will stated, "But I'm not sure if it's because you're a Big Three child, or because of the fresh air."

"It's a good thing Percy can heal without nectar and ambrosia." Michael grumbled, "At the rate he gets into trouble, we'd run out of nectar and ambrosia in a heartbeat. Or Percy would die anyways because he'd either die from his injuries, or burn up from taking more godly food.

"I—I don't get it," I said.

Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."

"Finally!" Zoe sighed.

"What—"

"Just do it."

I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.

"That is some serious recoil." Jason winced, "At least we don't get that tired."

"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want… I assumed it would be Zeus..."

Zeus glared at Annabeth, but Hera smacked him, "You already broke the oath once. Of course she would assumed you'd break it again."

"And apparently, he did." Triton eyed Jason.

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.

Poseidon groaned, "What now?!"

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"

Annabeth drew her sword.

"What is it?!" Poseidon nearly screeched, and Hades nearly threw the book at his brother in annoyance, "Shut up and let me read!"

"Your father needs to take a chill pill." Nico snorted, as Amphitrite doused Poseidon with water. The god immediately dried himself off, as Hades continued.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

Poseidon let out a pathetic sounding whimper, "A hellhound?"

It was looking straight at me.

"Of course it was." Piper muttered worriedly.

All the Greek campers tensed up, although they knew that Percy had gotten out alive, but still, it had been chilling when they saw the hellhound inside their camp that had been safe since Thalia's sacrifice.

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"

She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor,

Clarisse winced, as she remembered that she had originally accused Percy of summoning the hellhound. One, the kid probably didn't even know how to summon one, and two, why on Gaea would he summon a monster to kill himself? She had no idea what she had been thinking at that point of time that could have possibly resulted in that accusation.

there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hound's neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.

By some miracle, I was still alive.

"Thank the gods, Apollo archers, and Chiron." Thalia exhaled; she knew just how bad injuries from hellhounds could get, "Their claws hurt!"

I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into fifty kilograms of delicatessen meat.

"Stop being so pessimistic and haul your butt into the water!" Leo yelled. For once, everyone agreed with Leo's interruption.

Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't… they're not supposed to…"

Everyone growled angrily that Luke had nearly gotten Percy killed.

They were even more upset at the fact that none of them had realized was injured until Annabeth mentioned it; they had all thought that the hellhound had only knocked him into a daze, or had given him a few light scratches, not nearly tearing him to shreds!

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

"Oh gee! I wonder why!" Travis mocked, and Connor jeered, "Kick a man while he's down, why don't you!?"

"I bet he was wondering why Percy wasn't dead yet." Beckendorf grumbled, and Michael added, "They didn't even know who his dad was! Leave him alone!"

"Luke..." Everyone glared at Annabeth for mentioning the name of the son of Hermes, "He wasn't trying to kill Percy... I think the book would explain it..."

Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

"Okay, I was stupid." Clarisse sighed, "And I didn't know he was that badly injured. I swear on the Styx. I'm really sorry, Percy."

"It's fine. I know you were just mad that I embarrassed your cabin twice." Percy replied, though he looked a little pale at remembering his close shave with death.

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."

"If he doesn't do it himself, I'm going to personally pick you up and dump you into the creek." Thalia threatened.

"This was like, six years ago, Pinecone Face." Percy sighed.

"I'm okay."

"In Percy's definition of the word, he's okay." Michael grumbled, "In our definition of the word, he's the furthest thing from okay."

Annabeth shook with anger. Percy was probably used to saying he was fine and okay when he wasn't, and she was very sure it was because of his past abuse from Gabe. She really wanted to stomp down to the Underworld and strangle that vile man.

"I didn't want you guys to worry about me. And really... it didn't hurt that much..." Percy argued weakly, but Jason groaned, "Seriously, bro. It's perfectly fine for us to worry about you! It's not a bad thing!"

"It doesn't matter if it hurt a little or hurt like Tartar Sauce!" Will sighed, "An injury's still an injury, and you shouldn't think that you shouldn't be treated!"

"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."

I was too tired to argue.

"Good!" All the demigods nearly screamed.

I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me.

Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.

"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."

There was absolute silence.

"Why in Hades were you trying to apologize?! What were you even apologizing for!?" Triton asked incredulously, being the first one to find his voice, "You were injured and nearly killed by a hellhound! Whoever summoned it should have been the one apologizing!"

Hades was too stunned by what he read to be mad that Triton had used his realm as a curse, and just reread the sentence mentally. Persephone leaned against him, reading the lines in the book, equally confused.

Percy sank further into the bean bag, "I thought I did something wrong or made a mistake..."

"I mean, your existence is a huge mistake -" Poseidon, Amphitrite, Artemis and Apollo glared Dionysus, who hastily corrected, "But that's Uncle Poseidon's fault, not yours."

Chiron frowned. He loved Percy, but he always tried to distance himself from the demigod ever since he found out he was a child of Poseidon, expecting him to be child of the Great Prophecy, and most likely the one to die.

And now, actually reading through Percy's thoughts and his interpretation of events... he was starting to realize that he didn't know anything about Percy at all. He hadn't taken note of Percy's mental state, and he had to shoulder the weight of two Gaea-changing prophecies...

"Didn't you guys find it weird when he apologized?" Reyna asked.

But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.

"That's probably why we weren't asking for the reason for Percy's constant apologizing." Pollux deadpanned.

"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um…"

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

Percy let out a weak smile, "Thank you for claiming me, Dad."

Poseidon sighed, "I would have preferred to give you more time to integrate yourself into camp... but after that display, I don't think I had a choice."

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."

"Excuse me?" Poseidon asked, offended, but Annabeth muttered, "Prophecy."

Poseidon sank back into his throne, understanding that to the demigods, Percy's presence at camp most likely meant that something major was going to happen.

Chiron was the only one who knew the prophecy of something that could make or break Olympus was going to occur when a demigod from the Big Three turned sixteen, but he was fairly sure that the other campers would be wondering why the Zeus and Poseidon Cabins had been empty since they had, to quote Percy's own words, "a bazillion kids in the myths".

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.

"That must have been a pretty funny sight. Everyone's just kneeling for a twelve year old." Piper snickered.

"You have no idea." Reyna sighed, "Everyone did the same for Jason when he was officially being accepted into the Legion and got his first tattoos."

"I was nine. You weren't even around for that. " Jason frowned slightly, and Reyna shrugged, "I heard about it from the past praetors."

"What did they say? I'm curious." Jason enquired.

"Well, they told me you came in when you were around two, but not even we are harsh enough to burn lines onto a two year old. They kind of bumped you around the five cohorts so everyone took turns taking care of you until you sort-of started training at four."

"Four!?" Hermes choked.

"I don't know the details, but I don't think they let you touch weapons let. More of just the marching stuff, maybe studies." Reyna shrugged, "You officially joined the legion when you were nine, got five stripes and your Jupiter tattoo, and then you were allowed to choose with cohort you wanted to join."

"That... sounds about right." Jason nodded.

"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

"Honestly, that kind of entrance sounds epic, compared to mine." Leo grinned, and Piper groaned, "At least your dad didn't force you to wear a dress and magic make-up for hours!"

"Well, Jason was all like "Oh, that's Vulcan" when I got claimed, and I was wondering why he was talking about Star Trek." Leo argued.

"Star Trek?" Beckendorf looked offended, and Hephaestus shrugged, "At least they used my Roman name. I'd be much more offended if they used my Greek name."

"Really?" Jake asked curiously.

"The ancient Romans warped me from a God used fire mostly to build and create, to a God that used fire to destroy." Hephaestus huffed, "Then the Romans only prayed to me when they wanted to avert fires. What they were thinking at that time, turning me into something neither of us were happy with, I don't know. As for this "Star Trek" thing... go ahead; warp the name of something that's already so badly warped. It's not like I'd smite the mortals for insulting me anyways; it's not like they know any better."

The Romans winced; they hadn't really thought about it from the god's point of view. Sure, they weren't the ones that twisted Hephaestus' domain, but they were the ones that kept up the tradition of praying to Vulcan whenever somewhere ran the risk being set on fire.

"Apologies, Lord Hephaestus." Frank and Hazel stood up, and bowed to the God of Fire, but Hephaestus waved them off, "Don't worry about it. You children were only following tradition. Perhaps let that Blaise go with the Greeks to do some blacksmithing or something; I'm sure he'd like the company, maybe picked up some new techniques."

"Absolutely." Frank nodded, "We're already working with Chiron to swap Greek and Roman campers so that we can pick up new skills and help each other out. We'd definitely work something out with Blaise."

Hades sighed, unsure of what to do with the book, and Persephone gently slipped the book out of her husband's grasp, "I'll read next."

She flipped the page over, and blinked, "Well... that's fast."

"What is?" Hades asked, and read the title, "Oh... yeah. He's only been there for a few days. I'm surprised Chiron let him go."

"What is it? What's going on?" Apollo asked curiously, and Persephone read the title out.