Chapter 5

Once again I was awoken by the inescapable sun beam. And once again I found myself wrapped in Nico's arms. Suddenly the door whipped open and Percy strode in babbling about the quest when he stopped short. Nico had woken up during the commotion and we all just awkwardly said nothing. Then all at once well all started explaining ourselves. Nico saying Percy kicks too much, Percy apologizing for just barging in and me agreeing with Nico.

Nico was basically beat red the whole time it took us to get ready. Once we all ready we made our way to the car waiting downstairs. Nico had regained his normal pale skin color and we all talked about what ever came to mind. Percy and I never really talked at camp other than 'Hey whats up's' so he asked about my life and then started pestering me about my sex life. Like who at camp I slept with, things like that.

I really, really wanted to say Annabeth, just to piss him off even though I never had. We chit chatted some more until we were in the Meadowlands. We all looked out the window and saw the lights of the fair just outside Giants stadium. When we turned back around Aphrodite was sitting on the other end of the limo staring at us.

Percy was angry and Nico looked uncomfortable. "Hello grandmother." She smiled and asked Percy about Annabeth. He answered her questions through grit teeth.

"So you three are going to the fair."

"What why?" I asked genuinely curious.

"Because you'll find a clue as to where you need to go. Have fun." She burst into a bunch of rose petals and strawberries. I plucked a strawberry up and bit into. Percy muttered under his breath about her and her drama. I quickly instructed the driver to turn around and we went back to fair.

Sadly the fair didn't open for another four hours and sneaking in would only get us caught since three teens wandering about a fair before its open is highly suspicious. I took them a couple towns over to my home town where we set up main head quarters. I showed them around town and both were getting irritated by the waiting.

"Look I want to catch this guy just as much as you two but there's not much we can do. Aphrodite said to go to the fair, we go to the fair. We only have to wait like two more hours."

"Nico can shadow travel us in." Percy chimed in.

"And then what? We walk around a bit until they figure out we don't belong then kick us out."

"What if the person we need to find is there right now and leaves before we get there?" Percy said raising his voice.

"Then we're screwed aren't we? Is that what you want to hear? Huh?"

"No it's not but it's a possibility and we need to make sure that it doesn't happen." Percy screamed as we descended into a shouting match.

"Will both of you shut up?" Nico yelled over us. Both of us quieted and turned toward him. "We're going back to the fair and we are going to wait for the fair to open." Nico marched back over to the limo and slid over. We joined him but he turned and stared out the window, completely ignoring us.

Stupid Percy. Now Nico's pissed at me. Bright side is he is also mad at Tuna. We drove to the fair and waited outside the gates until the place opened. Nico had never been to a fair so I bought the three of us tickets that let us ride as many rides as we wanted. On the account that we had absolutely no idea what so ever what or who we were looking for we decided to enjoy the night as well.

We all rode every ride, Nico sitting between us most of the time. He had completely forgotten about being mad at us and was truly enjoying himself. He didn't really have a childhood, at least one he could remember, so I was happy that he was happy. He made us ride the Scrambler and Gravitron at least ten times each. The dip in the River Styx didn't help motion sickness, and Percy puked after the third ride.

We then started going from booth to booth playing games. We went to a booth where you had to shoot the star out of the center of a piece of paper. Since I was the best out of the three of us at accuracy I played. Nico wanted the large Medusa hat. The woman manning the booth, an old blonde woman with a scared face, handed me the rifle. I grabbed the gun and took a few practice shots.

The bb's flew to left of the target so I repositioned and fired again. This time the bb's veered up and to the right. Every time I repositioned the gun the bb's flew in different directions. I had us leave that booth but now her face was everywhere. I pointed this out and we all decided that was who we need to see what we were dealing with before we confronted her but we couldn't get away from her.

Finally we saw the one place that her face didn't show up. It was a helicopter ride the helicopter was the Bat-copter from that stupid old Batman show. I made a move toward it but, Percy grabbed me.

"I can't go up in that." He said.

"Percy we need to get away from her for a minute."

"Zeus will blast me out of the sky." His eyes flashed up to the cloudless sky.

"Percy there's not a cloud in the sky. I doubt he'll kill you if you hop in the helicopter for fifteen minutes. Plus you kind saved the world." Thunder suddenly boomed. "Never mind you should stay down here."

Nico and I hopped into the Bat-copter and it took off into the sky flying over the Meadowlands. Nico thought the woman was Apate, a spirit that was the personification of deceit and deception. Figures they would love fairs and carnivals. Nico looked out of the window staring at the lights of the carnival and absorbed in thought so I let him be, content to just look at him. Realizing this made me look like a creepy stalker I averted my eyes and we both just looked out at the carnival.

The Bat-copter flew in a big circle around the fair and as it descended the helicopter shook. Nico grabbed onto me as we slammed into the door of the helicopter. We looked to the front at the driver and saw Apate at the helm. She laughed as aimed the helicopter toward the ground and did a nose dive. Nico shadow traveled us out just before the helicopter hit Giants stadium.

We went whipping through the darkness and tumbled out onto the ground, bowling a few people over in the process. People were screaming and running around, Nico looked tired and I had to drag him out of the way to avoid being trampled. Percy was nowhere to seen and despite the loud screams I could hear the maniacal laughter of the spirits.

A portion of the stadium was on fire. Suddenly a body came flying into the game booth we were standing at. It was Percy, even though I knew he couldn't get hurt I couldn't stop myself from worrying about him. I went to go check on him when I was slammed to the side by what felt like a truck.

I flew into another booth and for the first time I knocked over all the milk bottles. Yay me. I struggled to get up. I knew I had at least a couple broken ribs. I had to get to Nico and Percy. When I could finally stand my vision swam. I looked toward where Percy and Nico where and saw a hulking figure lifting Percy up. His arms where pinned to his sides stopping him from reaching his sword.

I know the giant can't really hurt him, but I didn't want to know what would happen if it swallowed him whole. I snapped my necklace apart and the bow grew in my hands. I let three arrows fly at once; all of them buried themselves deep into the creatures back. He dropped Percy and turned toward me. Now facing me I could see it was a cyclops, who was now bearing down on me.

I dove out of the way seconds before it slammed into the booth demolishing it. Most of the people had run away now. Percy was now next to me brandishing his sword. Nico was groggily stood with us holding his stygian sword. I notched another arrow and waited for him to turn around. Once I could see his ugly yellow eye I let the arrow fly. Lucky for us it found its mark and he flailed around stumbling and tripping over all the booths.

Percy had an odd look on his face and was holding Nico up. Nico was leaning heavily on him. I saw a quick flash of blonde and let another arrow fly into the blonde's shoulder. The creature was pinned to the wall of a fun house. She was hissing at me as I approached. I shot another arrow into her other shoulder.

Her legs were flailing around. She was cursing at me in Ancient Greece. It took another arrow to get the location of the other demigod. She told us he was going to the shore. The Cyclops was calling out to his brethren and we could hear them respond. Nico walked over and plunged his sword into Apate's chest and she disintegrated into golden dust. The three of us ran to the car and twenty minutes later we were in my house and lying down exhausted.

Nico stuffed his face and then passed out. He was incredibly tired. Normally shadow traveling such a short distance wouldn't wear him out so much but we were moving too fast and it took more energy to get us out. Percy brought me some nectar and wrapped my ribs tightly. We all knocked out quickly and at least I slept without nightmares.