AN/ No I haven't been dead. Just extremely busy with school. I would like to thank all of the people who reviewed and voted. Right now Artemis is kicking some ass. I will close off the poll by the end of today so vote before it's done. Okay now that I'm done, ON WITH THE SHOW! Oh and before I forget, this wasn't beta'd so all mistakes are my own.

Disclaimer: I own nothing so yeah

Chapter 8
Somewhere in North Arizona

I opened my eyes to see the dark landscape of the ever present Arizona desert. I look over to my left from my spot from the passengers seat to look at Thalia. She was focused on the rode, trying not to lose focus on other things. I looked back at the two hunters to see the passed out on the side of the doors. I scanned their faces to see dried tears that they silently mourned for their lost sister. I look down at the watch that I got for the price of her life.

Looking down onto to the watch I saw that it was a pretty fancy watch. Black leather bound it to my wrist. The black face of the watch was surrounded by a silver ring and clear glass covered it. Silver numbers were being pointed at by equally silver hands. As I was looking at the watch I could see words start to inscribe on the silver ring. I looked at it confusingly when it had finished. 'Use the powers you were born with, not the ones you were given? What the hell does is that going to do?' I was broken out of my musings when Thalia's voice came up.

"Hey, Percy. Where are we going?" Thalia asked from the drivers seat. I looked forward at the road and thought about what we said.'We are close to the Nevada border so maybe we should stop at the Hoover Dam and stretch from being stuck in this car for so long.' I turned back to her and answered.

"Let's stop at the Hoover Dam and stretch a bit."

She nods to me and goes back to focusing on the road. I lean my head on the window and I can feel my eye lids get heavy. My eyes slowly close and I'm pulled into the realm of Morpheus. What felt like a few seconds and I was being shaken awake by Thalia. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I look at the back seat to see the hunters were awake as well. Zoe looked me right in the eye.

"You drool in your sleep." Shocked at what I had just heard I quickly thought up a come back.

"Well, it isn't like this is the first time I've caught you watching me in my sleep, but I have to ask. Why do you watch me sleep? Does it tickle your fancy or something?" I grin at her when she scowled at me. I had won this battle but not the war. Pulling myself out of the car, I stretched and heard my bones crack.

"So what are we gonna do now. Just hang out a bit and stretch?" I asked after we got situated and I had put the car back where ever it goes. Looking around I could see families looking around and the occasional older sibling that obviously didn't want to be there.

"I want to go to the dam bathroom." Zoe spoke up from my right side. I held in my laughter and she seemed totally oblivious to what she had said.

"Yeah, and I want to go to the dam snack bar."

"And get a dam enchilada."

"Me too, I want to get a dam soda."

Finally, Zoe seemed to catch on. Instead of storming off, she laughed. Like actually laughed. And soon enough, so were we. People were walking by us and looking at us and probably thinking,'Damn bath salts.' But we honestly couldn't care.

After calming down, we walked off to where we said we were going to go. Waiting in line at the snack bar was super BORING. Why can't they have magic to make their food appear. Why can't they catch up with us. The only thing they have that I like are the cars and electronics.

After waiting for this huge family to order, Thalia and I finally got to order. As we said what we wanted, we heard a scream out side."God dammit!" I yelled out loud and turned around to see the spartas again." Why can't the universe just let me get a dam enchilada in peace? Well a hero's work is never done." I pushed through the people and got forward to face them. Looking around I couldn't see anyone from my quest group. Holding out my right hand, Hell appeared as the spartas lined in front of me about 15 yards away.

After a few moments at looking at their ugly faces, the one in the middle stepped forward and grabbed it's sword from behind it's back. I tensed my legs as it charged forward with it's sword held over it's head for an overhead swing. As the blade came down in the deadly arc. I side stepped and swung my sword towards it's head. The blade passed through the grayish flesh like a knife through butter. When it's head hit the ground the body burst into flames, taking it's sword and head with it. Looking up I saw that the group was back again and watching me with mouths agape. Well, Thalia's and the unknown huntress' was, but Zoe's eyes was calculating as she watched me fight the monstrosities.

" Well are you just going to stand there or are you going to help?" That seemed to snap them back to reality and they quickly jumped in to the action with their weapons in tow. I turned around and charged toward the weird gray things. As I charged, I held out my left hand and Heaven appeared in all of it's glory. As I reached the first sparta, I swung my swords parallel and diagonal across the front of my body.

The sparta held it's sword up to meet my sword but he never did. Stopping my blades, I kicked the back of it's left knee. Dropping it on to it's right knee. Crossing my swords, I swung them down creating the scissor effect and chopping the sparta's head off and making it combust. Looking over at the others to see how they were doing, I never saw on of the spartas we hadn't gotten to yet. It had a knife I guess because the next thing I know, I feel a lot of pain coming from my right side. Falling to my knees holding my gushing wound, I look up to see the sparta holding a bloody knife above it's head preparing to strike. As the knife came down i heard someone scream behind me.

"Nooo!"

A lightning bolt shot over my head and connected with the sparta's chest and blasting it off of the canyon. Looking around I see that the others were taken care with and were probably at the bottom of the canyon with their friend since I was the only one there that could send them back to the Underworld. Thalia rushed over to me and I noticed that her spear was smoking as I fell in unconsciousness.

LINE BREAK=====

I woke up to the smell of the ocean. Not what I had expected in Nevada. I opened up my eyes to see seagulls flying over head. Lifted up I was immediately pounced on by a spiky and black haired bullet. Looking down I saw that she was crying. So I said the first thing that came to my mind.

"Soooooooooo, what did I miss?" Apparently that was the wrong thing to say because the next thing I know, I'm 6 feet back from where I was.

"What did I miss, What did I miss! You almost died and that's all you have to say?" Knowing that I was probably screwed with my answer but I wanted to be difficult so I said it.

"Yep, so that's how it feels to die. Man that was really boring. It just faded into black. No life flashes before your eyes. Man that was disappointing." Looking up I saw Thalia trying to look mad but her resolve was breaking at an alarming rate and soon enough she was laughing and I was joining her."Okay, so where are we exactly?" That began the explanation about the giant angels and flying here when the spartas had come back. God did that feel bad. When the group needed me the most I get taken out by some stupid dead guy. She must of seen the look on my face because she put a comforting hand on my shoulder.

"It's okay, we aren't mad at you or anything and it's not your fault. You were looking after the group like a quest leader is supposed to do. Unlike that stupid son of Poseidon. Could he be any mor useless?" Stifling my laugh I looked up at her face to see clear annoyance on her face. Standing up I swayed a bit and Thalia shot up and gave me a worrisome look. Waving her off I started to walk and my body seemed to wake up and I was fine.

"So where are the two hunters?"

"They went over to the pier for food. With money that they took from you." Sure enough, my mortal money was gone. And so was my last stick of gum. Looking towards the pier to my right, I could see the people up there bustling around and shoving there way through each other.

10 minutes of waiting and Zoe and the hunter I have yet to ask of her name walked up with pretzels. Zoe smacked on her gum obnoxiously as they walked. She looked at me smugly when she noticed that I was up. Oh I can't have her thinking she was going to get away with that.

"I'm surprised that your a huntress since you seem to watch me sleep and reach your hands into my pockets. Are you thinking about quitting or something." I leaned my head to the side with a fake innocent look on my face. Thalia was on her side laughing while the unknown huntress was looking livid. Smiling at them, I grabbed a pretzel from the shocked Zoe and changed the subject. "So what do you guys want to do?"

"I don't know but maybe we should start with finding where Artemis is." Thalia answered after a few moments of silence. I nodded and looked back out to the sea. I felt this urge to walk out to it and let the cool ocean surround my feet with the sand under them. I stood up and the others looked at me confusingly. I took one step after another, as if my body was on auto pilot, toward the ocean. And I didn't stop until it was up to my arm pits. When it got there I dove down into the water and started to swim. I didn't know when I had stopped but when I did I was in the middle of nowhere. Looking around I couldn't see anything but I could feel something coming towards me from my right. I turned as a woman with black hair and blue skin with a pretty face and green eyes. She was wearing a pink bikini top but instead of legs she had a bright green and blue tail like a fish.

" So my calls got to you I presume?" the woman said and I guessed she was the one that made me have the urge to go to the ocean. I nodded to her and she continued. "Well I bet your wondering about why I called you here?"I nodded again."Well I only have one thing, find the old man of the sea." With that she turned around and started to swim away.

"But what does he look like," I called out to her and was surprised that I could speak under water. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at me.

"You'll know when you see him." And with that she was gone and I was alone again. A cloud passed over the sun and when the shadow passed I was gone. I emerged out of Thalia's shadow, surprising her before she got pissed.

"Where did y-"

"We need to find the old man of the sea," I interrupted her. I looked around and everyone was confused."Hey, some mermaid told me that so don't ask me." They nodded Zoe spoke up.

"You need to catch him and he will tell you whatever you want to know." I nod to her and start to walk off towards the streets. The others race after after a couple of moments. As we arrive we could see the homeless there and they smelled bad but that was normal. I could tell that none of them were who I wanted. As I continued to walk passed them, one guy's scent caught my nose. He smelled like all of the trash of the sea. He smelled bad like the rest of the people there but a different type of bad. My eyes narrows as his eyes catch me.

All of sudden he got up off of his tattered blanket he was sitting on and took off down the street. I took off after him while the others tried to keep up with me. We raced around people and carts until eventually we ended up on the beach. We raced around people and over blankets with people laying out and over all pissed off a bunch of people. We got to a secluded part of the beach with a huge cliff next to it, making a shadow cover up half of the beach. I knew that this was going to be my chance. I focused on the shadows and created four arms and shot them at the old, noisome man. They wrapped around his ankles and wrist, holding him in the air facing me.

"Now that I caught you. You can tell me what I want to know." I told him, catching my breath.

"Well now that I'm caught I will answer one of your questions."

"What is my destiny?"

He paused, like he didn't know what to say. He looked me in the eyes, searching for something. But he just shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea actually. It's too jumbled up that I can't tell which one is going to happen. How about I let you ask another question since I couldn't answer your first one." I nod my head, not trusting my voice at the moment.

"What was it that Artemis was hunting?"

He looked thoughtful for a second before laughing. He laughed and kept laughing and it was really annoying me."Ha ha, that's an easy one. It was the Ophiantaurus. Well todoloo." I hadn't noticed that the tide had risen until he turned into a gold fish and was swept out to sea. I looked out to the sea before letting the shadows swallow me and taking me to where I wanted to go.

LINE BREAK======

I parked the car in front of the mountain. We all got out and I looked over at Thalia who nodded to me. I looked back at Zoe to see that she was a little pale. She is probably nervous to go back to her old home. As the sun lowered down from the sky and the moon started to take over, a path began to appear through the mist. This was our chance we raced through and made it on the trail.

I looked back before starting up on the steep mountain path. After about 10 minutes we started to smell acid which must have been from Ladon. 5 minutes later we arrived at the garden. I could see the golden apples as the sun reflected off of them. I also could see the 100 headed monster wrapped around it. As we got closer 4 teenage looking girls appeared.

"Hello sisters." Zoe spoke up. There faces contorted to disgust as the looked at us.

"We do not see a sister her." They said in unison."Only 2 hunters, a daughter of Zeus, and the lost son of Poseidon." My teeth clenched while my hands were turning white on the grip on Heaven that had materialized when they appeared.

"Back off and let us passed and no one will get hurt." I spoke up but all they answered with were evil grins.

"Oh someone is going to get hurt and it's going to be you. Ladon awaken!" They screamed out. All of a sudden the sound of hundreds of snakes hissing filled the air and we all turned to see that Ladon was awake, and extremely pissed. Zoe walked forward and seemed to take charge.

"Remember me Ladon? I used to feed you we you were just a baby." She motioned us to start scooting around the outside and passed the tree. The sisters screamed something and Ladon's heads snapped towards us and we took off. I turned around to see Zoe running towards me with a slight limp. I reached my hand out and she latched on to it as I pulled her away from Ladon's reach.

Without anything being said, we continued on towards the top of the mountain. We walked in silence the whole time. As we reached the top, Zoe ran forward and dropped to her knee's next to Artemis. A dark chuckle rang through the small area we were in. Atlas stepped out of the shadow that he was in.

"Well it looks like you arrived just on time. Good, I hate it when people are late." Atlas said, giving us an evil grin. So that's where the sisters got it. "Well welcome to your end."

AN: Boom, another chapter done. Yes I know it took awhile but I am trying and school is a pain. I will try to update faster but no promises. So that's all. Bye. And remember, stay classy