A/N: I am not Rick Riordan who owns this story and the characters. I'm just playing on fanfiction with them.

Thanks to YeahI'mWeirdAndILoveIt, harryginny9, Shel12, Nika Nicolette, apple5475, Lemariz, and Guest who reviewed my last chapter. Your reviews inspired and motivated me to write this chapter.

Thankyou to all those readers who favored and followed my stories and me as an author.

Chapter 15: BAD BREATH

"We were making our way towards the Golden Gate Bridge, we had to hurry but we couldn't leave the Ophiotaurus. We had to arrive at the garden by sunset as you could only enter as day turned to night," said Percy.

"If we missed the sunset we were too late as by the next sunset the Olympic Council would be over," said Thalia.

"Wow you are asked a lot when on a quest," said Rachel.

"We needed to send the Ophiotaurus to a safe place, we decided to send him back to Long Island Sound and get Chiron to assist to get him to Olympus," said Thalia.

"How could you do that?" asked Hermes "He is following Percy across bodies of water."

"Grover offered to go with him, even though he is no fan of the water. Grover gave him the Blessing of the Wild and I asked Dad to grant them a safe passage through the seas," said Percy.

"A prayer like that needs a sacrifice," said Hera.

"Percy tossed the lion fur into the ocean," said Thalia. The big three all glanced towards Percy.

"If I was going to survive, it wasn't going to be because of a lion skin cloak. I'm not Hercules," said Percy with some vengeance. He couldn't believe that a hero he once admired had been the one to backstab Zoë.

"I can't believe a hero sacrificed the Nemean lion skin, and that it was to Kelp Head," grumbled Hades. Poseidon smirked.

"Once we had sorted out Grover and the Ophiotaurus safe passage, we realised we needed a car," said Percy.

"We didn't need the attraction that came with stealing one, but Thalia realised that there was someone who could help," said Percy.

"Who do you know in San Francisco?" asked Athena.

"Professor Chase," replied Thalia.

"He was not what I expected," said Percy.

"What were you expecting?" asked Nico.

"After hearing Annabeth's gripes…Devil horns and fangs, not an old-fashioned aviators cap and goggles," answered Percy who was punched by his girlfriend.

"He became concerned when we said we were friends of Annabeth and although we didn't say so he knew something had happened," said Thalia.

"We also got to meet Helen, Annabeth's step-mother who I expected to turn into a raving lunatic when Annabeth was mentioned but there was no uneasiness, just concern," said Percy.

"I was expecting the same, but she mentioned that she had heard a lot about Percy" said Thalia looking pointedly at Annabeth.

"Sounds like things were not as bad as it was," said Will. Annabeth blushed, maybe she had exaggerated a bit, but things become different when you mull over situations.

"We were directed to Mr Chase's study which was wall to wall full of books and war toys. In the room was a miniature battlefield with tanks, solders and planes," said Percy.

"He is a professor of military history," said Annabeth "But just to warn people – you don't PLAY with the toys."

"Mr Chase was shocked when Zoë told him that the German line was in a different place and that she was there," said Percy.

"I wanted to show the Hunters how horrible and foolish mortal men fight," explained Artemis.

"We explained the situation with Annabeth and requested transportation immediately to get to Mount Tamalpais," said Thalia.

"Mr Chase wanted to go with us, but with the help of Helen agreed to let us go alone," said Percy.

"Your father wanted Percy to remind you that you still had a home with them," said Thalia to Annabeth.

"I know, Percy told me," replied Annabeth.

"We drove towards the mountain, when I noticed that everything smelt like cough drops," said Percy.

"Cough drops?" asked Hermes.

"Eucalyptus, Monsters and dragons like to chew on the leaves, apparently it helps with bad breath," said Percy.

"I am never going to Australia, there must be a million of monsters in that country," said Katie.

"I wonder if that is why Koalas are endangered, do they have to compete with monsters for food?" pondered Rachel.

"We kept driving towards the mountain of Despair, where Kronos's right hand man was suppose to be imprisoned at the summit, just beyond the Garden of the Hesperides," said Percy.

"What do you mean suppose to be?" asked Ares.

"Haven't you been listening, the general was in Washington. A bit hard to still be imprisoned if he was seen across the country," said Athena rolling her eyes.

"We knew that we had to concentrate because the mist is really strong there," said Thalia.

"I happened to notice the ocean as we turned on a curve, I spied a large white ship docked near the beach," said Percy.

"The Princess Andromeda," gasped Demeter.

"Now we know why they sent the ship down to the Panama Canal," said Poseidon.

"They also now have to contend with Kronos's army," said Hades grumpily.

"Thalia suddenly shouted for Zoë to stop the car, and we all piled out before the car exploded in a flash of lightning," said Percy. Eyes turned and looked at Zeus

"You tried to kill your daughter, you are lucky your daughter is right in front of us," said Lady Hestia who looked the angriest that the god and goddesses had seen her in a long time.

"What, No, Why would I kill her? She is going to rescue my other daughter," said Zeus.

"I told Thalia that Zeus hadn't sent the lightning bolt. It was Kronos trying to manipulate her so she was angry at Zeus," said Percy.

"I didn't really believe him. He was just trying to make me feel better, we had a prophecy saying that one of us would die by the hand of our father," said Thalia.

"Why me?" asked Zeus "Why not Poseidon?" Thalia and Percy just shrugged.

"We followed Zoë through the mist. When we came out of the mist there was the beautiful garden of twilight, just like in my dreams," said Percy.

"It would have been a really nice garden, if the enormous dragon hadn't been in the middle of it," said Thalia rolling her eyes.

"The dragon is guarding my wedding gift from Zeus," said Hera. Athena sighed noticing the confusion on some of the demi-gods faces.

"The apples of immortality," Athena said. "The dragon is trained to protect the tree."

"The dragon appeared to be asleep. Its body was as thick as a booster rocket and it had more heads than I could count," said Percy before he was interrupted by Clarisse,

"So more than five," she said with a smirk.

"I can count more than that, One, two, three, four FIVE, six, seven, eight, nine, ten," said Percy counting on his fingers.

"Wow Percy," said Thalia seriously "that's very good, but you forgot what I taught you." Thalia counted to ten on her fingers she then kicked off her shoes, and continued counting "Eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen and twenty,"

"I always forget about my toes," said Percy before both he and Thalia grinned and laughed. The rest of the room just rolled their eyes.

"Back to the story," said Hera.

"Four figures shimmered into existence, for young women who looked very much like Zoë," said Percy.

"The Hesperides. They are Zoë's sisters," said a shocked Connor.

"They didn't register Zoë as their sister they saw two demi-gods and a Hunter all who would soon die," said Percy.

"Well they were wrong there," said Chris.

"They couldn't see why Percy was a threat," said Thalia.

"Who said Percy was a threat?" asked Zeus.

"The people at the top of the mountain feared me. They were also unhappy that Thalia hadn't killed me yet," answered Percy.

"Tempting as it is Kelp head, I would miss your friendship," admitted Thalia punching Percy in the shoulder but wished she remembered that her friend now had Achilles curse.

"The Hesperid told Zoë that he would kill her, that she was no match for him, but Zoë insisted that we pass to free Artemis," said Percy looking into the eyes of Artemis, as tear slid down her cheek.

"The Hesperid threatened to wake Landon (the dragon), but Zoë beat her to it," said Thalia.

"Is she MAD?" asked Katie.

"She has courage," said Ares impressed.

"Zoë told us to skirt around the edges of the garden. She approached Landon to be the bigger threat so he would ignore us," said Thalia.

"What no attack on the dragon," said a disappointed Ares.

"I remembered from my dream that Hercules had failed on a head on assault, so we trusted Zoë's judgement," said Percy. "I did get a smell of Landon's breath, and Zoë was right, it was really bad. The stench was like a rat that died in the wall in the middle of summer but a hundred times stronger and mixed with chewed eucalyptus," said Percy.

"Yuck," shouted Aphrodite turning green, she wasn't the only one.

"Is that why you refuse cough drops?" asked Will.

"Zoë was talking to Landon about how she had come back, I think it confused him for a while, however his mood shifted and he lunged at her," said Percy.

"Two thousand years of training kept her alive. She dodged and weaved through the heads. The dragon snapped at her side, and Zoë cried out, but she managed to get by him," said Thalia.

"Landon is a very well-trained Dragon. The chance of tasty heroes to eat didn't even lure him from guarding that tree," said Percy.

"Dad can I have a pet dragon?" asked Nico.

"NO," shouted Hades "Are you going to ask for a pet for every animal mentioned?" Nico just shrugged his shoulders. "I WANT a PET."

"We made it to the top of the mountain, where we found the ruins of Mount Othrys," said Percy.

"The mountain fortress of the Titans was there. That is bad," said Athena with the gods and goddesses agreeing with her.

"The ruins always exist on the edge of civilization. The fact it was on that mountain was bad as it was Atlas's mountain," said Thalia.

"Where Atlas holds up the sky?" asked Rachel.

"Where he use to hold up the sky," said a disgruntled Thalia.

"The sky instead rested on the shoulders of a twelve year old girl with auburn and a tattered silver dress," said Percy as the room gasped. "Artemis was chained to a rock with celestial bronze chains. That was when I finally realised that it wasn't a cavern roof that she was holding as I thought from my dreams. It was the roof of the world."

"Artemis tried to warn as that it was a trap," said Thalia.

"The General and Luke were there with a dozen dracaenae bearing the golden sarcophagus of Kronos," said Percy.

"That Sarcophagus goes everywhere," said Travis.

"Well it does contain an important item of Kronos," said Percy.

"Annabeth was also with Luke," said Thalia.

"Yes my hands were bound behind my back and I was gagged," Annabeth informed the group.

"Luke was also holding a sword to her throat," said Thalia.

"Luke smile was weak and pale, he looked worse than when I saw him in DC," said Percy.

"What is wrong with him?" asked Hermes. He didn't get an answer.

That was when we found out that Atlas was Zoë's father," said Thalia.

"Now that is worse than having Kronos as our grandfather," said Nico.

A/N: I had to put the part about Australia and Eucalyptus. I am Australian but now my dream of meeting the gang is gone. No Demi-god would visit a country full of monsters favourite chewing gum.

Four more chapters to go before I begin Maze AKA Battle of the Labyrinth.

Please review. Motivate me to write, therefore quicker updates (Hopefully).