Chapter twelve boys! I have actually made it this far, surprisingly lol. Anyway, here's some reviews

Jay: "Lol Zane is like I killed you Ares and soon I'll fuck your son."

Response: Lmao, that scene will be funny whenever Ares finds out about their future relationship.

Echoxenvy: "Good chapter, I didn't think it was bad at all man, I actually enjoyed it. So don't take what I am about to say as me not liking anything, this isn't me considering this a flaw either, just wanted to give my thoughts.

I gotta say, Zane wasn't my favorite in this chapter. I know it was intentional, and part of his character, so I don't see it as bad writing, but rather good. I liked the struggle between Zane and Annabeth, I think Annabeth was totally in the right. Zane was hypocritical in thinking Annabeth should chill when all she did was get mad at Luke, while he was thinking thoughts of torture at again, the age of thirteen! I mean, am I the only one that really notices how brutal his thoughts are for such a young age? The argument after the Hydra was great, Annabeth had a good point and I liked how she called Zane out on his behavior. He's a good character man, and I like what you're doing with him, so please don't take what I said as a negative. I think it's good writing to have him conflicted with his nature. Anyway, good chapter, can't wait for the twelfth.

P.S. Check out my new chapter, it should be up soon. It's Talon centered. So it should be better than the Aiden chapter, which in my opinion was a little lackluster lol."

Response: Thanks for the review. I answered this in a PM, but for people who want to know, here's the answer: He basically hit the nail on the head with what I was trying to convey lol. Zane's a total asshole and kind of a hypocrite at the moment. One of the main reasons his thoughts are so fucked up is he's kind of fucked up after seeing his mother get eaten right in front of him. So yeah, one of the main things about this arc is Zane's brutality being called into question.

firefrog660: "gay stuff doesn't really bother me so much as I don't really want to read sex scenes. Gay people finding love is still cute and adorable I liked nico in the original series. thanks for the chapter."

Response: Oh, okay. Whenever I do get to the whole sex scene thing, I'll put a warning up before so you can know when to expect and skip it. You can still read the story and just ignore the sex scenes. Whenever they come up, they won't be super plot relative.

Ozilla: "Honestly I don't understand why some people don't like Luke's redemption.

On the surface level it seems he had a sudden change of heart but it wasn't. His change of heart was subtle. This chapter has a scene which started Luke's redemption. Where Annabeth called him a monster for poisonings Thaila's tree which was the beginning of his resolve being destroyed. Then when Thaila refused to join him the person who Luke's known for almost his entire life. He started questioning himself then when in the labyrinth where Annabeth almost died to Kronos minions that's when Luke didn't want Kronos to win. The speech Percy gave Luke was enough for Luke to regain control over his body to kill himself alongside Kronos."

Response: I don't really know, since I haven't read Last Olympian just yet. If it goes the way you're describing it, then I guess it's not too bad. If I read it and think it's shit, I'll just try to convey the redemption part a little better than last time, if I can.

Shadowhunter2077: "I don't know if I'm being homophobic here if I'm sorry, but I also uncomfortable with the gay stuff but I will keep reading because this story is to good to not read, and while I don't think this will happen but I would like to see a relationship between Zane and Annabeth, if only to Zane see if there is a difference between a relationship with a girl rather than a boy.

Also will you include some girls in Zane group, like to give Annabeth some company because I can only imagine how frusteded she is with the boys shenanigan, also I think it would be good to see some real girl power rather than what the most of the media show us

And for last will we see Zeus showing off his power like he show to the council why he is the King of the Gods, and how is more powerful Helios or Apollo (I think is Helios, but that's my oppinion)"

Response: If the gayness bothers you, just ignore it. It won't really change the story all too much as the time goes on. For what I have planned in the story, I don't really think Annabeth and Zane will be compatible. You'll see why in the upcoming chapters, but they might hate each other for awhile. Perhaps Thalia and Rachel will probably join Zane's group, so you'll get your fill there. Annabeth will get her company, as she's probably at her wit's end trying to deal with all the men around her lol. And yes, Zeus will absolutely be very badass and show of his power in this fic. I thought he was too weak in the original series, and this fic seeks to change that. For the purpose of the story, Apollo and Helios will be the same level of strength, although I like Helios more.

Anyway, enough with reviews, let's blow this pop-stand.

(Disclaimer: I don't own anything shown here, except the OCs. If the fact that this is on a fanfiction site didn't tip you off, you're fucking retarded.)

(000)

Looking out onto the sea was rather terrifying. The realm of my father's mortal enemy was all around me in every direction. The safe area of land seemed like a far gone memory in the presence of these waters. The stupid Confederate zombies and the ugly iron boat didn't really help matters all that much. The day was just as ugly, as the sky was overcast and the sun had difficult shining through. At the moment, I was helping with some kind of rope tie on the stern of the boat.

I wasn't really interacting with my fellow demigods at the moment. Percy was currently helping steer the ship with his sea powers, Taylor was being the captain and directing everything, Annabeth was talking to the Confederate captain about strategy, Tyson and Beckendorf were working on machinery under the deck, Nico was doing...something. And that just left-

"Hey." A suave voice interrupted my train of though. I turned my head to the left away from my pathetic excuse for a rope knot and found Arthur Wayne, the son of Helios. The son of Helios looked to be about fifteen, around five foot eight and he had medium length blonde hair that brushed against his shoulders. He wore a orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt and blue gym shorts, an ugly outfit if you asked me. On Arthur's back was a pouch of Celestial Bronze tipped javelins, along with a small buckler style shield. "So you're Zane, right?"

I looked confused, but then nodded. "I am." How the hell did this guy not know me already? He can't be new, since he's older than I am by a couple of years. Was he just an idiot then?

Arthur nodded at my answer. "I thought so. Ever since you showed up at camp, you're all a lot of people talk about. Taylor talks about you a lot, too." My eyebrows shot up as he said those words. How often does Taylor talk about me? "It's honestly good you're coming with us on this quest, man. I've heard some nasty shit about the Sea of Monsters, like how horrifying both Scylla and Charybdis are. Now that you're here, you really can kick their asses for us. I was worried we wouldn't make it alone."

I stood up from my kneeling position from the awful knot. I stood tall, proud from the praise the son of Helios just gave me. I tried to be modest about it. "Don't worry about it, man. It's no big deal." I said with a smirk. "Just an average day for me. I'll help Taylor and you guys come home safe back to camp and save it in the process." I pointed at him. "You're Arthur, right?" The son of Helios nodded at my words. "Taylor's told me a bit about you, too. He told me how you can shoot light beams and shit out of your hands."

Arthur smirked at my words. He brought out his hand and created a small ball of light. It looked like a miniature sun in the palm of his hand. "Yep. Gift from my dad. Most children of Helios can only control light in simple ways, like absorbing nearby light or just glowing or something. I am able to make my light into an actual construct and use it as a weapon. Whenever I absorb light, I gain energy for my powers."

Arthur looked up at the sky and grimaced a bit. "But, my powers only really work on days when my father is in the sun chariot. Apollo is kind of a dick whenever he has the reins. And whenever I'm in a dark area or it's night time, my powers are weakened, even if Helios has the chariot in his possession. Kind of like now." Arthur motioned to the overcast sky, which blotted out the son slightly.

I whistled. "Those are some cool ass powers, Arthur. Kind of makes my abilities seem boring." I mean, I know super strength, speed, durability, lightning manipulation, wind manipulation, storm manipulation and a bunch of other shit is pretty cool, but it can get boring after a while.

He shook his head with a smile. "Nah, man. From what Taylor's told me what you can do, your powers are way cooler than mine." He smiled wider. "I mean, you've fought titans and gods before. That blows what I can do out of the park. And you can fly. That's cool as shit. I mean, how many people do you think would absolutely kill for that power? And to shoot lightning from your hands? Dude that's so sick!" Arthur freaked out like a fanboy right in front of me.

I waved him off goodnaturedly. "Get out of here. Your powers are cool, too." A question came to mind. "What other powers can you really do, Arthur?" I mean, light shooting is really cool, but can he do other things as well?

Arthur put a hand to his chin. "Well..." It took Arthur a minute to think about it, but he opened his mouth to explain it to me. "Like other children of Helios, I can control light on most levels, like glowing or absorbing light, but the whole blasting light is something only I can really do. I'm not really sure why, maybe my father gave me his blessing or something." That sounded really familiar if I was being honest. I don't know why I am so strong among children of Zeus, maybe for a similar reason that Arthur was so strong?

Before I could say anything in response, a calling over the entire ship interrupted me. It was Taylor. "Everyone, ready! We are approaching the Sea of Monsters! Captain, Percy! Full speed ahead!" Everyone on the ship, including the ghosts, tensed and prepared themselves. Off in the distance, I could see dark storm clouds building up. I could only assume that is the location of the Sea of Monsters.

I nodded to Arthur, who returned the nod and walked away, probably to prepare himself. I walked over to the captain's deck, over to Taylor, Percy and Annabeth, who were by the wheel. The engine groaned as we increased speed. That didn't sound too good if I'm being honest, but what the fuck do I know about sea travel? We stood on the captain's deck for several minutes in silence.

After a few minutes of looking at the misty fog that covered the sea, a massive landmass with cliffs that were over a hundred feet in height broke from the water. The fog receded and I was able to get a clear view of the sky. The sky was horrifying looking. It looked like someone took chocolate and vanilla ice cream, put some peanut butter in, and mixed it all together. Why didn't I feel that earlier? Annabeth looked at the sky with an air of concern. "Hurricane?" It can't be, the wind isn't strong enough. But once I saw what she was really looking at, the sea that looked like a drain was at the bottom, I understand why she was so confused.

Taylor shook his head. "No. Charybdis." Taylor looked at the spurning water with a serious gaze.

Annabeth paled, her face being lined with fear. "Charybdis!? Are you insane!?" Annabeth stared directly at Taylor, who still looked at the sea with a grim look.

Taylor shook his head. "It's normally the only way into the Sea of Monsters, otherwise we have to go through Scylla." Taylor pointed at the high cliffs, where Scylla no doubt was currently living. I felt an ancient aura on top the rocks. I didn't really want to see what was up there, unless I wanting to kill something.

Percy looked confused. "What do you mean it's the only way? Can't we just sail around them? Isn't the sea wide open?" Percy asked, motioning to the open ocean all around us. I would normally agree with the son of Poseidon, but when it comes to myth and such, the obvious answer is never correct.

Taylor shook his head. "It's not that simple, unfortunately. If we tried to sail around them, they would just reappear in our path regardless. To get into the Sea of Monsters, we must go through Scylla and Charybdis." Taylor pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. "It's always something stupid when it comes to mythology. I hate it as much as you do but we're left with no choice."

Annabeth had something to say to that. "What about the Clashing Rocks? That's another way into the Sea of Monsters. Jason used it long ago." Good point, Annabeth.

Taylor shook his head. "We have a ship here and our cannons won't be able to blast through the rocks. But now that you're here..." Taylor looked at me and stared at me in contemplation. I knew exactly what he was thinking. He could use me to blow through the Clashing Rocks with my power. "Zane, you could power your way through the Clashing Rocks, correct?"

I nodded. "It would be a little odd if you couldn't considering what you did to Barnum Island last year while fighting Hyperion." Taylor looked at all of us. "I guess we had two options, now. Go through Charybdis and Scylla and risk our lives, or we could go through the Clashing Rocks and rish our surrounding with Zane's power." In my opinion, the choice was obvious.

I input my own opinion. "I think we should go through the Clashing Rocks, as it would be the least dangerous." I said, as everyone looked at me. "Whenever the rocks try to crush our ship by closing together, I can just destroy them, plain and simple. It risks the least amount of lives and if we're really concerned about environmental destruction, the Rocks will probably just reform eventually, right?"

Percy nodded at my opinion. "That's as good a reason as any to undertake the journey." Percy looked around at all of us. "All for going to the Rocks, raise their hand. Everyone rose their hand after Percy's words. Percy nodded. "All agreed then. We make for the Clashing Rocks and we'll leave both Charybdis and Scylla behind."

With Percy's words, me and Annabeth left the captain's deck while both him and Taylor stayed behind to navigate. Both me and Annabeth walked alongside each other in silence, the awkwardness of our argument resonating through our walk. Eventually, we split up and began to tell everyone else on the ship.

(000)

The next few hours were spent in boredom. I stopped doing tasks across the ship, the tediousness of them burning into my skull. I eventually sat down on a barrel in one of the corners of the ship and decided to wait until we reached the Clashing Rocks. Some of the undead Confederate soldiers gave me the evil eye as they sauntered on past, but I paid them no mind. They all knew I was best friends with the captain of the ship and it would be my word vs theirs.

The sun eventually reached the top of the sky, which meant it was around midday, probably one or two o' clock. I wanted to start practicing with my storm generation powers but that would probably terrify the Confederate soldiers, so no to that idea. Eventually my boredom was alleviated when Nico was able to sneak away from the soldiers ordering him around. The two of us sat in comfortable silence for a bit, until I decided to speak. "So what do you think of the quest so far, Nico?" I asked the son of Hades.

Nico leaned back against the metal railing of the ship. "Honestly, this whole quest thing is scarier than I thought it would be. That's not even to mention that we're surrounded by the ocean." As a child of the Big Three like me, Nico had to watch out for the domain of the other big three children.

"It's not the same as how you described your quest to the Underworld to me, the parts were I wasn't there. Our lives are constantly at risk and we could all die at any moment." Nico paused. "Except you and Percy, I guess, Zane. You two are strong enough to fight Titans. I'm glad you were there to fuck up the Hydra for us. We really would have been in a bad situation without the two of you."

I tried to not let a confident and proud smirk show. "Well, I would say a Hydra isn't exactly on the same level as Hyperion or Ares. But don't get yourself down, Nico. You probably would have been able to fuck up that Hydra all by yourself if I wasn't here. Even if you couldn't, Annabeth was there. She probably would have made a strategy for defeating it."

My smile fell as I thought of Annabeth's words to me earlier after I destroyed the Hydra. Nico noticed and prodded me on the shoulder, asking me what was wrong. I sighed before answering. "I've been thinking about what Annabeth said earlier. About how all those people died because I was being reckless."

Nico was silent for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to answer that, probably. "It's not your fault, Zane. The situations were tense and trying to figure out who were monsters and who were people. The whole Monster Donut thing could have been avoided, yeah, but you handled the situation the best you could. The only thing you can do now is move on and try to be better next time." Holy shit, that was some sound ass advice.

I smiled at the son of Hades. "Thanks, Nico. That actually really does help if I'm being honest." I was about to say more, but two absolutely massive landmass appeared off in the distance. The towering rocks that rose from the sea dwarfed whatever Scylla had sat upon. Hell, I think the landmasses actually touch the clouds. These had to be the Clashing Rocks. I sighed and stood up from my barrel. "Well, we better go get ready. Those have to be the Clashing Rocks." Nico nodded at my words and we walked together to the bow of the ship.

At the bow, everyone converged on the deck. Tyson and Beckendorf, both covered in ash and soot from working with the engine. Percy and Taylor, from directing the ship and navigating. And lastly and rather oddly, both Annabeth and Arthur, from...doing something, probably. Taylor gather everyone's attention with a finger snap. Jeez, Taylor, you don't have to be so extra.

"Alright everyone, the plan here is simple. We're going to approach the Clashing Rocks and sail through them. Whenever the Rocks start to surround us, Zane will fly up and deal with them. Any questions?" I feel like that last bit was directed only at me. No one said anything and Taylor nodded. "Okay, then. That's the plan." With that, we fell into silence as we sailed along the massive walls of the Clashing Rocks.

After nearly ten minutes, we found a opening in the landmass. It looked like someone had taken an absolutely titanic axe and chopped the massive landmass in two. The opening was large enough to fit an a cruise liner through, which mean there was plenty of room for us. Once we entered it, however, that wouldn't be the case for very long. I would have to act fast and deal with the Rocks effectively.

The entire boat was silent and tense. No one said a word as we went through the Clashing Rocks. Everyone, including the Confederate zombies, looked at the walls of the Rocks with apprehension. We entered the clearing and nothing happened. Everyone looked at each other in anticipation. We continued down the trench in between the two landmasses and reached the middle. The second we hit the halfway point, we heard the massive Rocks beside us shift. Taylor immediately shouted out, "Full speed ahead!" And the boat started to chug forwards. It didn't matter to me, I had a job to do.

As the Rocks started to surround us, I floated up into the air above the ship. The Rocks were getting closer and with the speed the boat was going at, it would crush the boat and everyone would die. Except Percy, you know since he's got his Earthshaker form and all. It was time to deal with this. I drew in the wind around me, intending to make good use of it. The wind around me whirled and intensified as I strengthen the power of it.

The wind strengthened to the point where I couldn't see outside of my little wind bubble I had formed around myself. The air began to crack and ripple with sheer wind pressure as my bubble expanded. Now it was time to add some lightning in the mix. I put my hands to my chest and generated lightning with them. Lightning bounced around in my ever expanding wind bubble. I don't know how this thing looked on the outside, but even from the inside, it looked cool as shit. I must have charged for nearly twenty seconds before it was time. Time to release this bad boy.

I threw my hands out to my side with a roar and let all my power I gathered out in one big burst in ever direction. The wind and lightning themselves effortlessly broke the sound barrier and easily shot into the hypersonic range. The wind and lightning expanded in every direction, above, the side and below me. The blast smashed into the Clashing Rocks and the sound it created sounded like the sound of a break breaking, just a million times louder.

The massive landmass of the Clashing Rocks turned to gravel in an instant. I looked on at my expanding shockwave in approval. The shockwave filled with lightning and pressurized wind continued to destroy everything in it's path. Soon enough, the Clashing Rocks were completely gone. Not bad for only just my base form. I smirked and began to float down back to the water. The water looked like a bowl someone filled with water and started shaking it. At least, currently it did. Like a toilet during an earthquake or something else like that. The water was filled with tiny pieces of rock no bigger than a piece of gravel.

A small bubble in the water, or at least from up here it looked small, caught my eye. I floated down to it's level, close to the actual water and realized it was actually the ship. It was covered in barrier of water, no doubt created by Percy. Whenever I got close, the barrier dropped and I landed on the deck. "Well, that went rather well I think." No one verbally responded to my quip, instead everyone just looked like they had just been on a really spinny fair ride. "Guys?" My fellow demigods gathered around the bow of the ship and stared at me.

Everyone of them looked like they had just jumped into a pool and then blow dried every part of their body, minus the drying part. They just looked crazy. The only ones at the moment I paid attention to was Annabeth and Percy. Percy was glaring at me, a small scowl on his face. Annabeth looked at me with a furious expression, one similar to the way she looked at me after I killed the Hydra. "What's wro-?" I started, before I was slapped in the face by the daughter of Athena.

I allowed my head to roll to the side so Annabeth wouldn't break her arm on my face. "What's wrong!?" She shouted in my face. Anger built up in my stomach and a thought flashed through my mind. I though about punching her in the chest and watching her torso explode into blood and gore and paint the deck. I shook the thought out of my mind.

That wouldn't go over so well. "What's wrong is that you put everyone in needless danger and almost got us all killed again! You are so reckless and you can't control your power! If Percy wasn't here, that little blast of yours would have turned us all into dust!" I looked at Percy, who's glare still held up. I wanted to shout back at the daughter of Athena, but she kind of had a point. Now that I think about it, I just nearly got everyone killed because I just really wanted to show off. I could have turned everyone I cared about into ashes.

I was silent for a bit, my shoulders slumping after Annabeth's words. "Y-You're right. I was reckless and I nearly got everyone here kill. I'm sorry." Annabeth scoffed and walked away. Everyone else was looking at me, which made me feel awkward. Percy's glare had faded away into an exasperated look. Beckendorf just had his neutral expression, although now his brows were a little bit tighter than normal. Arthur looked at me in utter fear, likely not believing I had just done that. Tyson looked at me in amazement, his jaw wide open and his eyes sparkling. Nico looked at me awkwardly, not meeting my eyes. And Taylor...well, I didn't even want to look at the disappointment that would probably be in his eyes.

Eventually, after a couple of awkward minutes of staring, Taylor called for everyone to get back to work and we would be seeking out Polyphemus' island. Everyone sauntered away and left me standing like a goon in the middle of the deck. I gripped my fists together and tightened them. Fuck being scared and anxious. I need to apologize to Taylor directly for almost getting him and everyone killed by my reckless antics. I walked over to the Captain's deck, every Confederate ghost stepping out of my way in fear of my presence. I found Taylor on the captain's deck, hunched over a table with a map on it. He was clearly sweating and his face had the telltale signs of stress on it.

I walked in front of the table and stood in silence. Taylor looked up at me and I braced myself for the disappointed look on his face and was surprised to see guilt in his eyes. Before I could even think anything else I blurted out, "I'm sorry!" "I'm sorry!" Both of us went silent at the words we both said at the same time and I raised my eyebrows in confusion. "Huh? What are you sorry for, Taylor? I'm the one who almost got everyone around me killed, you included. How is this possibly your fault?" Taylor looked down at the map again, face red from embarrassment.

Taylor was silent and he was averting my eyes. Eventually, the son of Ares spoke. "Well, it's kind of my fault that everyone almost got killed." I did a double take. What? What sort of shit was Taylor spouting? Taylor elaborated his answer. "I didn't specify how you should take out the Clashing Rocks. I should have told you not to direct your power down towards the water, or at least said only take out one side or something. Because I didn't clarify when I should have, the fault all goes to me."

I blinked before answering calmly, "Taylor that is the dumbest shit I've ever heard you say." Taylor was about to say something, probably to argue with me, but I held a hand up to silence him. "Taylor, you can't blame yourself for something that is obviously my fault. You shouldn't have to tell me to be careful with my own power. That's something I'm responsible for, and no one else. Understand?" Taylor was silent for a minute but then he nodded.

"Just so you know Zane, I still don't blame you." I was shocked. Even after I told Taylor to blame me and not himself, he still didn't. "You couldn't have known that was going to happen. I mean, have you ever used your wind powers on that scale before." I hesitated but shook my head. I had never let loose like that with my command over the win. "There you go. Not your fault then, since you didn't know it would be that catastrophic." I shook my head, not able to stop a small smile from forming on my face. Taylor was purposely trying to find a way to relieve me of any wrongdoings. It warmed my heart and showed me that he cared.

I moved over closer to Taylor and wrapped my arms around him, giving him a big hug. I nuzzled my face into the son of Ares' red hair and noted how good his hair smelled. "Thank you, Taylor. That means more to me that you can know." I felt Taylor's lithe, thin arms wrap around my torso. I smiled, not having the heart to explain that I was still in the wrong. I didn't want to ruin the moment, despite the frantic beating of my heart. I felt my face get a little red. What was this?

Eventually, I pulled away and bid Taylor farewell. Taylor nodded, his face probably just as red as mine. From want, I don't know. Maybe he has the same feeling in his chest when he's around me? I'll have to ask him about it after the quest. Don't want to rattle his thoughts while we sailed through the Sea of Monsters. Anyway, now I needed to apologize to Percy about the whole debacle. He was the one who had to correct my mistake, so he is also in need of a serious apologizing to.

I walked away from the captain's deck, leaving Taylor behind by himself and I searched the ship

for the son of Poseidon. I walked across the deck, ignoring the stares of fear and distrust from the Confederate soldiers working on the ship. I found Percy on the stern of the ship, talking to a certain son of Hades. I walked up to the two, hearing the last part of their conversation before I interrupted them. "-just didn't know he could be that careless and violent." Nico finished right before I walked in front of them. Both of them fell silent as I stood there looking at the two of them. Percy's gaze bored into my eyes while Nico tried to look elsewhere.

I stood in silence awkward while Percy's expectant gaze stared into my soul. "Uh..." I trailed off before quickly saying, "Look, I'm sorry!" Percy rose an eyebrow at my answer. "I'm sorry I nearly got everyone killed on the ship and you have to save everyone and clean up my mistakes." I paused, trying to find the right words. I sighed before continuing. "It's just...I've never really used my wind powers like that. I've never really let loose and put everything I had into something like that. I'm sorry about all the trouble I caused."

Percy's face was carved from stone for a few seconds, before his impassive look dropped and he smiled. He stood up from the barrel he was standing on and clapped me on the shoulder. "It's alright, dude. It happens, you know. Whenever I was getting the hang of my new water and earthquake powers, you wouldn't believe the damage I caused in my school and in New York City."

Percy looked at the midday sky and sighed. "It's just that everyone nearly died just because you let loose with one power, and you weren't even in your Thunder Form." Percy looked at me. "You've got to get a better grip on your powers, you hear me?" I nodded at his words. "Good. Well, now I have to go help Taylor with the navigation as best as I can. The Sea of Monsters is scrambling my senses." Percy walked away to the captain's deck, out of sight.

I turned to Nico, who had finally looked at me. His gaze was filled with fear, something that made me feel like complete shit. I stood in front of the son of Hades, trying to think of what to say to him. "Uh..." I sighed. "Look, I'm sorry about all that just happened Nico. Like what I just said to Percy, I didn't mean for any of that to happen. I would never do that on purpose or try to hurt any of you."

Nico didn't respond immediately, but he eventually did. "...I know, Zane. It's just..." The son of Hades trailed off. "I've never seen you let loose like that before and we all nearly suffered because you did. I was just...scared." My heart lurched as I saw the expression of concealed fear on Nico's face.

I moved closer to the son of Hades and put my hand on his should. Nico flinched but otherwise didn't try to move away or anything. I tried to hide the hurt on my face and spoke. "Look, Nico. I'll do everything within my power to make sure I never hurt you. I promise. I'll make sure you're always safe, no matter what, okay?" I gave the son of Hades a reassuring smile, which he awkwardly returned. I guess I had to prove it to him over time. I expected something like that. "Well, anyway, I just wanted to say I was sorry about everything that just happened, to both you and Percy. I am going to go help out on the ship to try and make it up to everyone else. See you later, okay?" Nico gave me a little wave, which I returned and I walked away from the stern. Well, that went a lot better than I honestly thought it would.

The next couple of hours were rather awkward to say the least. The only people I didn't have any awkward or tense interaction with were Percy and Taylor, and they were on the captain's deck the entire time, so I didn't see them much. Everyone else, however, acted much more different around me. All the ghost Confederates were either distrustful or even downright terrified of my very presence, so they didn't talk to me unless there was no other option. Annabeth, whenever I did see her, kept throwing me sideways glares, which I would admit were justified.

I still haven't apologized to her directly, but I had nothing to prove to her, so I wouldn't. Arthur, the son of Helios, avoided me the entire time. Whenever he did see me, he would either freeze or his eyes would widen, then he would do his best to subtly move away from me. That's fair, if I'm being honest. I'm sure most of the camp would have the same reaction if they saw me obliterate dozens of miles of giant rocks in an instant with just the fucking wind. I didn't interact with Tyson or Beckendorf, as they were under the deck working on the ship. I did interact with Nico working on the ship. He tried to pretend nothing was amiss and everything was the same, but there was some underlying tension and I didn't like it.

After those two awkward hours, in the distance on the horizon around what I would assume was about 3 o' clock, land was spotted. It wasn't any typical island we thought we would find in a place called the Sea of Monsters, no, it looked like paradise incarnate. Hell, it actually looked quite a lot like Elysium, just without the suburbs and mansions. From the distance, I could tell it looked like some kind of resort, but I couldn't make out too many details from this far away. A bell from the captain's deck ringed out, signaling everyone important to gather there.

Once all of us demigods gathered at the captain's deck, we watched Taylor pull out a stereotypical one-eyed telescope and look at the tropical paradise in front of us. Taylor's brows furrowed as he scanned the island from a distance. "There's a dock along whatever is on the island, a resort or something. It's got every kind of boat or ship there. Several yachts, a submarine, some canoes and even some kind of pirate ship."

Taylor lowered the telescope. "I don't think this is the place, guys." Taylor looked to Percy, who was at the wheel. "Percy, from what your dreams have been telling you, you said Grover only has about a day left before Polyphemus probably kills him, right?" Percy nodded at Taylor's words, not taking his eyes of of the island as he steered. Taylor nodded, "Right, then we need to get going." Not so fast. We can't just not check this place out, it would be the perfect place for a cyclops to hide, since no one would expect a resort.

Annabeth had similar thoughts, and probably would have vomited if she knew I had them. "We can't just write this place off, Taylor. It could have some sort of clue to where Polyphemus' island is, or it could be the island itself. It would be the perfect place to lure people in and eat them, wouldn't it? I mean, it is a resort." As much as I really didn't want to admit it at the moment, Annabeth kind of had a point with her words.

Taylor thought Annabeth's words over. "You're might be on to something, Annabeth. But if it's not Polyphemus' island or doesn't have a clue to lead us there, we could lose valuable time over nothing. I don't think we can risk that." Taylor had a good response, but there's an even easier counter argument for that answer.

Annabeth shook her head. "We also can't risk passing this island up and having it end up being the island we're looking for. We need to check it out, and if it's not the place, we can keep looking." Annabeth's logic was sound.

Taylor sighed, knowing Annabeth was right, as she usually always is. "Alright, fine. You've made your point. Dock at the island in front of us, Percy." Percy, with a serious look, nodded at Taylor's words. He definitely didn't want to waste anytime, so he knew checking this place out would be worth it if Polyphemus was here of all places.

Taylor turned back to Annabeth. "Well, Annabeth, I am going to ask you to lead the search party on the island, since you wanted us to go there and you'd probably recognize any clues quicker than we would. Me, Percy, and Zane will go with you to support you." Annabeth shot me a quick but fierce glare and nodded to Taylor. "Meeting adjured, people." The group of demigods dispersed, leaving only me, Percy and Taylor on the captain's deck.

Taylor looked at me while he put a hand to his forehead and closed his eyes. "What is it, Zane?" Taylor sounded incredibly stressed and already totally done with this quest already.

I noted Taylor tone, and made a quick note to talk about it with him later. "Quick question. Are you sure it's wise to put both me and Annabeth on the same team right now with everything being all..." I trailed off, trying to find the right word that wouldn't sound so offensive. I saw Percy looking at me with an unreadable look out of the corner of my eye. "...tense...between us right now? My past two interactions with her have been her yelling at me for my mistakes, which is justified. But are you sure I should go?"

Taylor closed his eyes and breathed in and out. "Yes. I know Annabeth is angry at you right now, and so is almost everyone else, but we need to get finished with that island quick and effectively. No one is as quick and effective as you and Percy, especially if you two are together. Your strong enough to bulldoze through any opposition that isn't a god or a titan with ease, so you two are the perfect pick for the job." Taylor put both his hands on the table with the map on it and sighed. "Just try not to do anything that will have her screaming at you again, okay?" I nodded at Taylor's words and walked off of the deck back to the bow of the ship.

About three minutes later, the four of us, me, Taylor, Annabeth and Percy, were all sitting in a metal rowing boat. Taylor's ship was sitting in the ocean a few hundred meters behind us, anchored to the ocean floor. We weren't dumb enough to actually dock our real ship on an unknown dock that could possibly lead to Polyphemus, so we were going to show up in a rowing boat just in case we were attacked by anything.

Once we pulled up to the dock, I found dozens of ships docked at the resort. Like Taylor had said earlier, there were plenty of yachts, a submarine, several canoes and an old pirate ship. All of them looked to be in pristine condition, which was rather weird if I'm being honest. The submarine looked right out of World War 2 and the pirate ship looked ripped right out of a Pirates of The Caribbean. I rowed out boat to an empty dock and attached our boat to it. We grabbed our bags and stepped foot onto the dock of this resort.

Out of nowhere and in a instant, a woman appeared on the dock. "Welcome!" The woman said. The woman looked like some kind of flight attendant. She wore a blue business suit, had perfect makeup and had her hair pulled back into a ponytail. She carried a clipboard in one hand and shook our hands with her other.

I thought about turning her into ash when she shook my hand, as this was obviously a trap, but I refrained from doing so. Annabeth would probably try to slice my neck open if I did that. Behind the woman, I saw a helipad, complete with helicopters. This place was almost like the Lotus Casino. "Is this your first time with us?" The lady with the clipboard inquired.

The four of us looked at each other, confused. I tried to not look at Annabeth. "I see. First time at the spa then." The woman said, writing something down on her clipboard. "Hmmm. A herbal wrap for the young ladies and complete makeover for the young gentlemen." What the fuck? This place was a spa? The giant and marvelous buildings in the background behind the woman painted a different picture, at least in my opinion.

Also, she seemed to not notice that Taylor was a guy, but that literally always happened upon first meeting him. Percy tried to ask the woman what was up, but the lady was too focused on writing down notes for her clipboard. The woman looked up from the clipboard with a big, shining smile. "Right, all done! I'm sure C.C. will want to speak with the four of you personally before the luau. Come with me please." The woman walked up the dock and towards the resort behind her. The four of us shrugged and made our way to follow the woman.

As we walked through the resort, I had to admit, this place was really, really cool. While the Lotus Hotel had awesome video games and other attractions, it didn't have the gorgeous and amazing view and feel of this island. There were high rise apartments in every direction, complete with swimming pools and waterfalls flowing down from their balconies. The water flowed into massive fountains on the ground, which created shapes like horses and eagles in them. If I thought about it too much, I would say that this place is pretty wack, but it looked really damn cool.

The people we passed, which were only young women, looked at us rather weirdly. Or at least, they looked at me and Percy rather weirdly. What? Never seen two really good looking dudes before? Alongside the guest at the pools and other stuff like fountains and deck chairs were literal animals. Animals like turtles, dogs, cats and even a cheetah could be seen alongside the resort guests. Okay, I changed my mind, this place was really wack.

We finally arrived at what seemed to be the main building, a large Greek style house with a large marble staircase leading up to it. Whenever we stepped inside the doors, I could hear some kind of singing. The singing was something I could only describe as magical. The beautiful voice sung in a language I could only describe as similar to Ancient Greek, but something even...older. Possibly Mycenaean or Minoan or something like that. I could still understand what the voice was singing about, however. Something to do with an olive grove, colors, and magic. The voice was almost enchanting and seemed to drawn me into the building.

Once we entered the large, ancient style doors, we came into a large, well lit room. Or at least, it looked well lit because the entire front wall of the room was made out of windows. What made the room incredibly head spinning, was that the back wall was made out of mirrors, so the room looked like it was being stretched infinitely. The room was filled with expensive looking white furniture.

In the corner of the room on a table was a large pet wire cage filled to the brim with some kind of rodent animal. In the middle of the room was a woman, likely the one who had been singing, sitting in front of a loom the size of a big screen TV. Her hands blurred back and fourth, weaving the loom with masterful skill. The tapestry she made almost seemed third dimensional, as the image of a waterfall looked so real it seemed to move. Annabeth, to my left beside Percy breathed in, almost at a slight gasp. "I-It's beautiful!" Annabeth exclaimed.

The woman turned from her tapestry, and I had to admit, she was absolutely jaw dropping, probably even better looking than her tapestry. "You appreciate my weaving, dear?" The woman had long dark hair that was braided with strips of gold, giving her an exotic look. She had piercing green eyes, like that of a snake's skin. She wore a silky black dress with shapes etched into it that seemed to move. Animal shadows, black on black, like deer running through the forest at midnight. Her dress didn't exactly do very much to hide her figure either.

She didn't look a day over twenty five, but the wisdom and experience in her eyes told me she was much older. There was some kind of aura in the air, trying to dull my senses and drop my guard. I wasn't going to do that, as I could feel this woman's aura. She was incredibly powerful and her aura was ancient. The only auras more ancient that her's were gods and titans. I was going to make sure I was on guard and I would cut her head from her shoulders at the slightest sign of her attacking.

Annabeth nodded at the woman's words excitedly. "Oh, yes, ma'am! You know, my mother is-" Annabeth stopped herself. She almost revealed that her mother was Athena, the goddess of wisdom and the one who invented the loom. Normally, I would applaud her for not revealing her identity, but come on, Annabeth. We're in the Sea of Monsters of all places. And just by sensing this woman's aura, she definitely knows about demigods. Hell, she is old enough to probably have met Athena back in Ancient Greece. And the fact she was singing in Mycenaean or Minoan or whatever shows she's not just some random chick.

The woman, probably our hostess and the one called C.C, just chuckled at Annabeth's answer. "You have good taste, my dear. Welcome. My name is C.C. and I am so glad you have come." At C.C.'s answer, the animals in the cage in the corner starting squealing like their live depended on it. Paying them no mind, we introduced ourselves to C.C. At our introduction, C.C. looked at me and Percy with disapproval, like we had flipped her off or something. Keep looking at me like that bitch, and I'll actually flip you off.

After she looked at us two, she sighed. "Oh, dear. You certainly do need help." What is that supposed to mean? We just told you our names. C.C. turned to the woman with the clipboard. "Hylla, take Annabeth and Taylor on a tour, will you? Show them what we have available. Their clothing will need changing, as will their hair. Although, young Taylor has kept hers in good shape." Taylor wisely didn't mention that he wasn't a female. "We will do the full body consultation after I have spoken with these young gentlemen here."

Annabeth sounded rather hurt at C.C.'s words. "But...what's wrong with my hair?" Damn, she sounded so sad, like someone had kicked her dog or something. Honestly, the only thing wrong in my opinion was that Annabeth didn't brush it enough, so it looked kind of like a bush at times, so she kind of looked like Hermione from Harry Potter.

C.C. smiled benevolently. Normally I would probably be alarmed at such a reaction, but something in me told me it was fine. I didn't like whatever told me that. "My dear, you are lovely, really! But you and Taylor are not showing yourselves of the the fullest! Such wasted potential." Annabeth looked confused, while Taylor looked a little miffed. Taylor put a lot of work into how he looked, so for someone to come along and say he didn't look like he could have, that had to mess with him. "You two can't truly be happy with the way that you are. No one is! But don't worry, here at the spa, it's our job to help with that. Hylla will show you what I mean. You two, my dears, need to unlock your true selves!"

C.C.'s words were having quite a bit of effect on Annabeth. She looked over at Percy and hesitated. "But...what about Percy?" I coughed loudly, earning a glare from the daughter of Athena. "And...Zane." She grumbled, grounding the words out after rolling her eyes. Wasn't so hard, was it, Annabeth?

C.C. smirked at our antics. "Oh, definitely." C.C. gave us a look that could almost be described as sad. "These two will require my personal attention. They need much more work that the two of you." Percy's shoulders and head slumped and my eyes twitched. Excuse me, bitch? My hair, viking braids and all, look badass as hell. You can go fuck yourself with whatever shit ass haircut or something you come up with. After C.C. said this, the rodents in the cage in the corner squealed like someone had lit the floor under them on fire. What was up with them?

Annabeth looked at Hylla with expectation and Taylor just shrugged. Hylla led them away into another room, one where the environment of it could only be described as a spa-garden combinations of sorts. C.C. gently took me and Percy by the arms and led us to the mirrored wall of the room. "You see, Percy, Zane, to unlock your true potential, you two will need serious help. The first step is admitting your not happy with the way that you are." I resisted the urge to cleave her in two with my axe after she said that one.

I looked at myself in the mirror, and had to admit, I looked good. My hair was rather clean, which was something since I haven't taken a shower in a couple of days. My face was smooth and somewhat androgynous. If you looked closely, you could tell I was a guy, but at first glance I looked like I could possibly pass for both sexes. The orange Camp Half-Blood T-shirt looked a little unruly, and it was covered in a bit of Hydra blood, but other than that, I would say I looked fine.

But then I took a bit of a closer look. Mostly at my body, not my face. My body was still a little scrawny, despite me building muscle in the past year. That was the one thing I was kind of sensitive about. It was kind of weird, being scrawny and being so strong. I guess it would help to blend in, but I wanted to look huge and defined. The long I looked, the more imperfections I noticed. The ends of my hair were a bit frizzy, my arms were just a little bit too long for my frame, shit like that.

To my right, Percy was looking at his reflection with a sad look on his face. I guess he thought he didn't look too hot either. In my opinion, not trying to sound gay here, Percy was really good looking. His black hair that glowed sea green was long and smooth, looking better than mine in my opinion. His skin had a nearly perfect tan, which contrasted with my somewhat pale complexion. C.C. moved behind Percy and patted him on the shoulder. "There, there, now." C.C. sounded like a mother trying to console a child that was crying. "How about we try...this." C.C. snapped her fingers, and a blue curtain from out of nowhere rolled down in front of the mirrored wall. "What do you see?"

I didn't really know what she was talking about, as there was a blue curtain in front of the mirror. But I looked at the curtain and saw...myself. In the blue curtain, there was a different version of me, a perfect version. Despite the curtain being blue, I could see the alternate version of myself clearly.

I had on a outfit that perfectly complimented my looks. My hair was still long and braided, but there was no frizz and the hair was perfect brushed and looked smooth as silk. My face was more or less the same, just somehow even better looking. I looked almost exotically beautiful. The biggest difference was my physique. I was no longer even a little bit scrawny in the reflection. I was now completely jacked, muscle bulging everywhere in sight. I wasn't huge by any means, due to my age, but I looked like I was chiseled from marble in the reflection. Okay, maybe I can admit I'm not happy with myself. "Whoa." Both me and Percy said at the same time. I looked over at his reflection, only to find nothing. Okay, that was weird.

C.C. looked in between the two of us. "Do you two want that? Or shall I try a different image?" I wanted to look like that so bad, I'd blow up an island for it.

Percy nodded for the two of us. "No. They're...amazing." I assumed he was only guessing that mine looked awesome, which he was correct in his guesses then. I did not try to stop his next words. "Can you really make us look like that?"

C.C. nodded, a gentle smile on her face. "I can give you a full makeover." C.C. promised to us.

I had some reservations. "How exactly? The version of me in the mirror looked like he was fifty pounds heavier than I was. How are you going to make me larger like that? Do I have to eat a special diet or something? What's the catch here?" I wanted to look like that, but how could it be done? The version of me looked like I had been working out for at least several years with probably planets as weights.

C.C. turned her smile to me. It was kind of creepy, but I was willing to disregard the creepy for that appearance. "It's quite easy, actually. Plenty of fresh fruit and meat. An exercise program and of course...this." C.C. motioned towards her wet bar and picked up a philter of water. She filled a glass with the water and ripped open a drink-mix packet and poured some red powder into the water.

For a split second, the mixture she made glowed. I blinked and it then looked like some ordinary strawberry smoothie like drink. C.C. mixed up the drink and handed it to Percy. She turned around and made another one for me. "One of these, substituted for a regular meal should do the trick. I guarantee you'll see results immediately." Huh?

Percy's expression was a mirror of my thoughts at the moment. "How is that possible?" The son of Poseidon asked. How was it possible exactly? How did some kind of glowing strawberry mixture make me gain muscle quick enough to put steroids to shame.

C.C. just shrugged and chuckled. "Why even ask? Do you not want to look like that right away?" Percy stood in silence for a second, before asking why there were no other guys at the resort. That's a good point, Percy. I didn't see any when we walked into here. "Oh, but there are, my dear. You'll see them soon enough. Now try the mixture, you'll see."

What the hell did that mean? C.C. handed me the mixture and I looked down at the cup skeptically. Did I really want to drink this? "Now, Percy, Zane, the hardest part of the makeover process is giving up control. Do you want to trust your judgement on how you should be, or my judgement?" I wanted to say to C.C. 'Go fuck yourself' but I really wanted to look how I did in the mirror.

I shrugged and downed the drink in one gulp. The taste was pleasant, like that of a strawberry smoothie. A few seconds passed and nothing changed. I looked at my arms, expecting them to be significantly larger and more defined, only to be disappointed by them looking the exact same. "I thought you said I would see results immediately, in fact you guaranteed it. What's up with that?" C.C.'s face was awestruck and started to get a little pale. "Uh, you okay, miss?" I looked at Percy, who looked the exact same and just as confused as I did.

C.C. had an agape jaw and looked at us like we had grown two heads. "How!? You two were supposed to turn into gui-!" She caught her words in her throat and composed herself. "I mean, uh, the mixture can sometimes have some...odd effects, like not working and such. I'll whip you two up another batch." Okay, so that was the reason.

I looked over in the corner at the squealing rodents in the cage and looked closer inside the cage were guinea pigs, the same animal C.C. was probably about to say. I reached out with my aura sense and felt one of the guinea pigs actually have a powerful aura, very similar to a child of Ares. C.C was trying to turn us into those things, I just knew it.

I pointed a finger at the wet bar and blasted it to splinters with a bolt of lightning. C.C. jumped back quickly, hovering over the ground a bit. "Nice try." I said, a cocky smirk on my face. "It's not really that hard to deduce you were trying to turn us into guinea pigs like the ones in the corner." C.C.'s face paled and she was about to say something in defense of herself, but I held up a hand to silence her. "Don't even bother trying to lie. I can feel the aura of one of the guinea pigs. They have an aura similar to a child of Ares." C.C.'s face turned into an expression of stone and she glared at us. "Now, who are you really, bitch? And why are you trying to turn us into guinea pigs?"

C.C. glared at us with her normal gorgeous face, which now was spoiled by the raw anger and hatred in her eyes. "I guess there's no point in continuing this charade for any longer." C.C. levitated off the ground and floated in the air. "I am Circe, daughter of Hecate. You might have heard of me from a certain story." Fucking hell, I should have seen it earlier. I mean, C.C.? How did I not catch that? It's even worse that we're in the Sea of Monsters and that shit still slipped by me. "As for why I was trying to turn you into guinea pigs, well..."

She trailed off and giggled, which caused her breasts to jiggle. Seriously, what was with Greek women and being sexy? "Men like you and Percy are pigs, and deserve to understand your true potential of being one. I used to turn men into actual pigs, but they're smelly and create...er, messes everywhere. So turning you two into guinea pigs would suffice." Her gaze hardened and her angry eyes bared down on us from up in the air. "Which reminds me, how did you resist my mixture? No one has ever be able to do so before!"

I didn't answer Circe, and allowed her to come to her own conclusions. I had a different goal at mind. "Where are Taylor and Annabeth? What have you done with them?" If Circe sent them away to be turned into different shit like us, I was going to pop her head like a watermelon and bathe in her blood.

Circe smirked at my words. "Nothing, my dear. Unlike the two of you, the ladies actually have potential to be something. I will train them to become sorceresses and they will serve under me." She opened her hands and two different types of fire manifested from nowhere. One of the flames was blue and coiled like snakes around her arm, the other flame was purple and raged like a wildfire in the palm of her hand.

"But first, I have to be rid of you before they come back. I planned on turning you two in guinea pigs and letting them say goodbye before shipping you two off to the mainland to become classroom pets, but...unforeseen complications have nixed that idea." She floated towards us. "I will have to kill you two now. Do not worry, I will do my best to make sure it is painless." Yeah, like killing us with fucking fire is painless.

I rolled my eyes, not scared of the threat closing in on me. "You know Taylor is a guy, right?" Circe's face morphed into one of confusion and I blasted her with a powerful gust of wind. She was unprepared for my attack and was sent flying backwards. She crashed into the mirror wall, shattering part of it before slumping to the ground. Before she could stand up I sent a blast of lightning her way. Circe, however, was able to jump up in time to create a magical barrier to absorb my lightning. My eyes widened. How strong is she to be able to do that? I know I'm in my base form, but my lightning bolts can obliterate islands. I guess being alive for three thousand or so years allows you to become quite powerful, huh?

Percy wasn't idle during this situation either. He morphed his arm into a blue, fluorescent rocky version of his normal arm and punched the ground. Percy created an earthquake across the entire room, shattering the ground and cracking the entire mirror wall, also shattering the windows on the other side of the room as well.

Circe, however, morphed her magical barrier around her entire body, protecting herself from the earthquake. Circe lifted herself off the ground and created a burst of green fire. She sent the fire straight at me. I dodged the flames, the fire passing by me like some kind of Chinese dragon and going straight out the completely open space where the windows had been not moments prior. Circe created dozens of small, yellow flames with her hands at rapid speed, before sending them flying at both me and Percy.

I jumped and turned and twisted to avoid the fire. I wasn't sure it could actually hurt me, but considering Circe was strong enough to absorb my lightning with her magical barriers with no real trouble, I wasn't going to take any chances. Percy, instead, had a different idea to defend against the yellow flame balls.

Percy threw out both his arms and created a water barrier, seemingly morphing the water out of the air itself. I didn't know he could do that, but now was not the time to admire his power and skills. Knowing Percy was now safe from whatever I was about to do, I threw out my own arms, and with a slight yell, I send a powerful burst of wind out in every directions around me.

The wind cracked the ground around me, more so than it was already shattered from Percy's earthquake earlier. The wind expanded throughout the entire room, dispersing Circe's flames and knocking Circe to the floor. With the fire gone, Percy dropped his water barrier, nodding his thanks to me, which I returned.

Circe recovered from my wind and stood from the ground. Her dress was disheveled and and a little tattered from both mine and Percy's assaults, but she didn't really look to worse for wear. Time to change that. I threw out both my hands, summoning the power of my father from my body. Lightning shot out my outstretched hands like some kind of supercharged Tesla coil at the sorceress, creating a blinding light to everyone around me.

Circe threw her own hands up and created a magical barrier around herself. My lightning met her shield and crackled like a million firecrackers. Circe held steadfast against my lightning, which was getting really annoying. I put more power into my blast, yelling loudly as I did so. Circe couldn't keep up with the increased strength and was being overpowered.

Eventually, Circe's shield broke and the lightning made contact with her. She yelled in pain and was sent flying backwards into the shattered mirror wall, completely shattering what was left of it. Odd, normally most people would have been incinerated after that much lightning to the face. Circe was just on the ground, not even unconscious, only breathing heavily. How strong was this bitch?

The door of the room, or what was left of it, was thrown open. Out of the doorway came both Taylor and Annabeth, weapons drawn and ready for a fight. Behind the two of them were Circe's attendants. One of them was the woman from earlier, Hylla, and the other was a woman who looked very similar to her, only a few years younger than Hylla was.

All four of them looked at the room in shock and then to Circe and then to me and Percy. "What?" I shrugged. "It turns out she's an immortal sorceress who tried to turn me and Percy into guinea pigs. What was I supposed to do, let her?" Everyone in the whole room was silence, not saying a word. "Oh, yeah, by the way, 'C.C' is Circe, the witch who tried to turn Odysseus and his men into pigs in the Odyssey. Her attendants, the one behind you guys, are probably sorceresses as well, along with probably all the women in the resort. Might want to get around to dealing with them." Taylor and Annabeth turned faster than light and put their weapons to Circe's attendant's necks.

Circe summoned fire in both of her hands, one yellow and the other blood red like Taylor's hair. "It seems the truth is out. Well, Annabeth, I was going to offer you teachings in sorcery like both Hylla and Reyna, but I seem to have your answer." Circe motioned towards the dagger that was currently at Hylla's throat.

Circe pointed her hands, and in turn her flames, at my friends. "I now must be rid of you. Quite a shame really." Circe launched both the flames at Taylor and Annabeth, who braced themselves. I appeared in front of the path of the fire and threw my own hands up, creating a wind barrier to shield the daughter of Athena and the son of Ares.

I dispersed the fire and turned back to my friends. "Go. I'll deal with Circe. Get back to the ship and get ready to get out of here. I'll catch up with you guys, okay?" Annabeth and Taylor nodded, but were hesitant to remove their weapons from the throats of Circe's attendants. "Don't worry, I'll deal with them. Just go."

I nodded at Percy. "You two, Percy. If any of the resort guests, who are likely sorceresses as well, I need you to deal with them to make the retreat easier. Understand?" Percy obviously didn't like it, but he bit his tongue and nodded at my command. I walked towards the middle of the nearly destroyed room and summoned a cloud of wind in one hand and a bolt of lightning in the other.

My friends ran out the door, their weapons out so Hylla and who I would assume is Reyna, couldn't stop them. Once they were out the door, Circe shouted at the attendants, "After them! Make sure they die!" Hylla and Reyna ran out the door after my friends, which I took offense to.

I tried to go after them, but Circe created a magical barrier in front of the door. "I think not, young Zane. After all, we have a score to settle." Circe's eyes turned wild with anger. "You ruined my dress! Do you even know how long it took me to weave it!? I can bet it took longer than anything you've ever done in your stupid life!" I ignored Circe's words and prepared myself. I knew I could blow through her barrier with enough effort, or just blow the building to shreds, but I knew my friends could handle themselves, especially if Percy was there.

I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "If you really want to die so bad, I have no choice but to oblige you." Before Circe could react, I disappeared from view and appeared behind her. Circe's reaction time was one point, as she quickly turned around and raised her hands in time to create a magic barrier and block my punch that would have skewered her. I raised my eyebrow at the event.

Circe was incredibly powerful with her magic if she could block my punches with her shields. Before I could do anything else, Circe expanded her magical barrier, pushing me back several meters. She waved her hands around in a circling movements and created a giant green dragon made of flames. My eyes widened. That was so cool! The dragon was almost half the size of the entire room, which was fucking humongous. Before the dragon reached me and scorched my clothes, I slammed my hands together in a mighty thunderclap, dispersing the dragon in an instant.

It turns out the massive dragon was just a distraction, as Circe was gone and out of sight after the dragon disappeared. I surveyed the room with my eyes and my aura sense both, only to find nothing. Hm, it seems she know how to hide her aura. I felt movement to my left and reached out lightning fast to grab whatever it was, only to find Circe with a knife in her hand trying to stab me.

I smirked, "Not the brightest idea." I grabbed her arm and tore it clean from her body, causing her to scream in pain. I grabbed her neck and forced it to the side with my thumb, causing her neck to snap and Circe's body to go limp. I then pull up with a lot of force and removed her head from her body, along with her spine. I smirked at my handiwork and blood covered my hands, only for Circe's corpse to burst into blue flames. I grunted and jumped back and watched the dead body of Circe dissolve into embers of fire. What the hell?

I heard a roar behind me and turned back as quick as possible. I saw Circe on the other side of the room with her hands outstretched. Before I could do anything, an absolutely gust of flames the color of the rain burst from her hands and came spiraling right towards me. I threw my arms up and created a huge wind barrier around my entire form.

The rainbow flames smashed into my barrier with more force than I anticipated, causing me to grunt in a bit of exertion. I held steadfast against her flames, only for them to not let up in the slightest. I guess Circe created that illusion or whatever to distract me so she could make a huge Kamehameha blast that even I would have trouble deflecting.

I had enough and with a yell, threw my arms out and put a massive amount of power into my wind, pushing it outwards in every direction. Rather than let loose like I did a few hours prior, I made sure the radius of my wind wouldn't go too far. Unfortunately, I didn't seem to have the best control over my powers.

The massive burst of wind literally obliterated the ruined building I was standing in. My wind completely dispersed the flaming attack sent my way and did gods know what to Circe. The buildings in a several hundred meter radius were completely destroyed and my wind blast damaged everything on the entire island in some conceivable way.

I looked around me once the ringing in my ear caused by the blast stopped, only finding destruction. I couldn't sense Circe anywhere, meaning she either died or escape from my blast. I could, however, sense my friends. They were okay, just fighting against a large number of hostile aura several hundred meters away from my position, so I left the absolute carnage that my wind blast created in the immediate area around me.

After jogging a few hundred meters, I came upon a fight scene that would have made 300 seem tame. The first person I saw was Annabeth. She was dodging and twisting around a sword that Hylla was trying to stick on her neck. Hylla shot a burst of flame from her hand, one that Annabeth ducked under and rolled a good few feet away.

To Annabeth's behind, a random sorceress tried to stick her with a summoned knife she created, only for Annabeth to judo-flip her and slam her knife into the sorceresses' forehead. Another sorceress, enraged by the death of her friends, tried to tackle Annabeth to the ground, forgoing the use of any magic. Annabeth dodged to the side and slammed her knife into the rib of the sorceress several times, before pulling her weapon out and shoving it in the bottom of their head, killing them instantly.

Annabeth pulled back, just barely avoiding becoming an amputee courtesy of Hylla's sword, and deflect several attacking blows from Circe's attendant. Annabeth blocked, parried and deflected almost twenty strikes, before kicking Hylla in the gut and sending her through a window of a nearby building that was barely standing. Annabeth left the scene looking for another opponent.

The next person I caught eye of was Tyson. Tyson was currently being dogpiled by several resort sorceresses, all of them conjuring up spells to inflict pain and/or death on the cyclops. Tyson did not find these attempts amusing, and threw all of them off him in one movement with a yell. Tyson then quickly found the nearest sorceress and threw a mighty blow, turning their torso and head into a burst of gore in an instant.

Tyson raced around the crowd of stunned sorceresses, crushing them under one singular blow, or turning them into a pile of blood with another. Tyson effortlessly walking through any of the flames that the sorceresses created and punched through their pathetic magical barriers with ease. Tyson ran up to the last surviving sorceress, who was desperately and futily launching blasts of fire at the cyclops in an attempt to stop him in his tracks. I guess no one gave this bitch the memo that cyclopes are immune to fire. Tyson grabbed the sorceress when he reached her and tore her in two, blood and gore caking the ground with a familiar stench.

The next person I saw was Taylor, who was locked in a fierce battle with the other attendant, Reyna. Reyna was wielding two twin Roman gladius' and was slamming them against the shield of the son of Ares. At the moment, Taylor was also fighting off nearly ten other sorceresses, dodging through their flames, so blocking Reyna's attack were getting annoying to him.

Taylor pushed out his shield, allowing a powerful concussive force to blow Reyna back into a nearby building and knock her unconscious. Taylor then avoided a combined blast from nearly ten different sorceresses and disappeared from normal human view to deal with them. Taylor shoved his spear through the neck of the first sorceress he reach and continued to deal with the other.

The second one was dealt with via swift decapitation, the third a spear through the gut, the fourth had their neck broken with a shield bash, the fifth was impaled between the eyes, the sixth was skewered all the way through, the seventh was impaled in the bottom of the head, the eighth had their neck slit, the ninth was stabbed in the heart, and the final one was sliced in two with a powerful swipe. All this happened with three seconds, and by the end of it, Taylor was absolutely covered in blood, dripping head to toe.

The next one I saw was Nico, who like Tyson, was surprisingly off the ship. Nico was battling nearly twenty of the sorceresses at once. Nico was almost playing with them, as he easily weaved through their spells and dodged an attack from a cheetah under the control of the sorceresses.

Nico was also shadow traveling in between the sorceresses, causing them to accidentally attack themselves. Nico appeared behind one from the shadows and bisected them in two with his Stygian Iron sword, which I now noticed didn't actually have a name. Sorceresses angrily sent powerful spells at the son of Hades, who only smirked and vanished from their view. The sorceresses looked around in a panic, only for several pairs of skeletal arms to burst from the dirt, immobilizing all of them.

Nico jumped from the shadows, skewering the cheetah with a grin on his face, and sent a massive blast of shadow spikes to all the sorceresses, impaling them all in incredibly gruesome ways. I'm surprised Nico didn't look so disgusted from all the carnage. I mean, yeah, I've killed a lot of things around the son of Hades, but I didn't know he was so adjusted to death like I was. I would have to talk to him about that after this.

I then saw Charles Beckendorf fighting several sorceresses himself as well. Beckendorf avoided the flames of the sorceresses narrowly, not bothered by the heat of the fire thanks to the years he has spent at the forge. One of the sorceresses charged him, conjuring some kind of whip made from purple fire.

Beckendorf dodged the whip and pulled out his crossbow, a work of beauty which could fire many shot in a repeated fashion. Beckendorf popped two bolts right into one sorceresses face, causing blood to spew on his form. Beckendorf whipped out a staff made from metal and pressed a button on the shaft of it. The staff transformed into some kind of giant technological hammer, one which was just as big as him. Beckendorf wielded it like it was some kind of feather and smashed it down on one of the sorceresses.

The sorceress turned into a pile of gore and limbs in a split second, but the hammer send rock flying up in the air unnaturally. It was like some kind of Gravity Hammer from Halo, which I played before the whole Laestrygonian incident. Using a combination of his crossbow and his hammer, Beckendorf carved through almost a dozen sorceresses like they were nothing by crushing and shooting them.

I then saw Arthur Wayne, the son of Helios fight some of the sorceresses as well. The son of Helios was fighting them with a combination of his celestial bronze javelins and his light beam things that he could fire. Arthur dodged a giant hellhound that tried to devour him and he scrapped his javelin past it's torso, causing the large beast to turn into dust.

He blocked a burst of fire with his buckler and threw a javelin straight into a sorceresses throat, causing blood to go everywhere. He bashed one sorceress with his buckler, who had tried to stab him with a flaming katana, and shoved a javelin into their heart. He narrowly avoided a bolt of flame that nearly hit him right in the face.

In response, he outstretched his hand and shot a beam of pure light out of his hand at the offending party. It looked like something straight out of Dragon Ball Z. The sorceress who nearly burned Arthur's face formed a magical barrier, but the light beam went straight through as if it didn't even have physical form. the light beam pierced through the sorceresses' chest and killed her immediately.

The final person I saw, and definitely the most impressive, was Percy. He was easily destroying at least fifty all at once. The flames the sorceresses were summoning were completely useless, as Percy was the son of Poseidon for crying out loud, and not to mention Percy was almost beside the ocean as well, as the docks were only a couple dozen meters away.

Percy was moving through the sorceresses like a blade through glass. He was eviscerating them with Riptide, he was drowning them with water and cutting them to bits with his water blade arms, he was crushing them like watermelons with his earthquake powers, and he was even easily killing them with his bare hands. Like me, Percy was extremely strong, although he didn't really show it as much due to how he fought.

Once Percy had killed the last of the sorceresses, which had been a quick decapitation, I ran up to him amidst the carnage of the fighting. The rest of my friends had either finished off their opponents or they were on the cusp of victory regardless. Percy had a grim, somber expression on his face, which was caked with the blood of his enemies. I ran up and tapped him in the shoulder, only for his sword to shoot straight at my neck. I dodged the blow and smirked. "Now this is quite a party, huh?"

Percy, whose nerves had calmed from the fight, looked at me with a deadpan expression, not even apologizing for almost skewering me with his sword, Riptide. I cringed at my own bad joke. "Sorry. Not the time or place for any of that. Anyway, why is everyone here in the resort and not back on the ship?"

Percy sighed. "Yeah, about that..." Percy gestured to the ocean with his blood covered sword. In the harbor, not quite at the dock, was Taylor's ship gifted to him by his father, burning and sinking. My eyes widened and Percy sighed again at my expression. "Apparently, whenever we went into Circe's house, the resort guests who are sorceresses attack the boat with their weird fire magic. Only all of us demigods survived, and the Confederate are sleeping with the fishes right now. So basically, we're stuck here right now. Did you kill Circe?"

I shrugged. "I think so. I didn't see her body after the whole wind burst, which I'm pretty sure you saw..." Percy nodded, his eyes twitching in annoyance. I guess there is a reason he's not only caked in blood and also soot. "I couldn't feel her aura afterwards, so if she's not dead, she's definitely waiting for the perfect time to strike."

I surveyed the other boats in the dock, the ones that had not taken a large amount of damage at the very least. The only ones I could tell were still sea worthy were a few of the canoes and the pirate ship. I looked back to Percy. "Anyway, we need to get out of here regardless." I looked around at the carnage, noticing that we had finished off all of the sorceresses. "Gather everyone up and get them on the pirate ship. I guess it's our only option of this island right now, unless we want to go rowing in canoes."

Percy nodded and began to round everyone up and tell them the plan. The plan being that we would continue to travel the Sea of Monsters, now only with a different ride instead. Before we could get all situated, A cloud of burning white flames came out of nowhere, to try and turn us into ash. I threw up my hands and created a wind barrier around all of us, protecting us from the fire.

When the flames stopped and I dropped the barrier, I saw someone who I knew probably was dead. Circe floated above us in the sky, flames of every color surrounding her. She looked rather worse for wear, as her outfit was tattered, she was covered in concrete powder and she was bleeding and cut almost everywhere. "Do you really think you can come onto my island, kill all of my apprentices and just leave like that!? I will destroy you and make your deaths so painful, that even Hades himself will shudder just thinking about it!" If I had a nickel for every time someone promised our deaths will be painful in some horrible way, I'd have three nickels, but I'm already annoyed it's been said that much.

I floated up in the air, lighting and condensed wind forming beside me. "Percy, get everyone aboard the ship. I'll deal with witch bitch right here." Circe's eye flickered to the ships at the dock and she tried to send gusts of fire at each one of them. I created a wind barrier across the entire dock, my concentration being strained.

"Don't even think about it!" I yelled at Circe, dispelling the wind barrier around the ships and sending the wind towards her. She was send flying away further in the sky, before she righted herself in the air. I flew closer to her, noting we were hundreds of feet up right now. I charged lightning in my hand and sent it flying at her. Instead of created a barrier made of magic like I thought she would, she dodged out of the way just in time.

Circe glared at me, rage clear on her face. "Not of this was supposed to happen! If you had just turned into a guinea pig like you were supposed to, everything would be fine! But a pig like you had to go and ruin everything!" The fire around her intensified, looking like small supernovae. She combined all the fire into one, creating the rainbow fire that she had tried to cook me with earlier. She sent it flying towards me, the burning flames roaring as they approached.

I scoffed, having enough of this. If I held up a wind barrier like I did last time, it would just be a stalemate that would require me to amp up my strength to escape just like last time. I have had enough of this shit. I immediately went to my full base power, done with any shenanigans.

I moved through the fire so fast the flames didn't even have time to try and burn me and the rainbow fire blast went past me harmlessly. Circe's eyes widened in fear and she brought up a magical barrier in an attempt to protect herself. I knew she could probably block at least a few hits from me at my full power with her shield, so I was going to amp it up a bit. I drew power from my Thunder Form into my fist, the hand being surrounded by surging lightning. I slammed my fist into her shield, instantly destroying it and sending her flying backwards, screaming.

I didn't allow her to get more than five feet away. I created a barrier of wind that she slammed into, stopping mid flight. Determined to end this, I swung my arm at her torso in a chopping motion. My arm connected and her torso cleaved in two immediately. Circe gasped as her bottom half fell to the island below, along with her entrails that were falling out plus a lot of blood, too.

I grabbed her by the neck before she could also fall down to the island and pulled upwards, tearing her head clean from her body. Circe's mouth fell open agape as the life started to leave her eyes. She wasn't going out that easy. I slammed both hands into the sides of her head, popping her head like a water melon. Her smashed head and brains trickled from my hands and fell back to her cursed island.

Smirking sadistically at my handiwork, I looked from my bloodied hands to the pirate ship that was several hundred meters away from the island by now. I knew they were now safe from what I was about to do. Above the island, I charged a bolt of lightning in my hand. The lightning curled and crackled in the palm of my hand, almost begging to be let free.

I obliged the lightning's wish and opened my hand towards the island. The lightning traveled down towards the resort, which was already almost completely in ruins from my wind burst from earlier. The lightning hit the soil and nothing happened for a couple of seconds, Then, the island exploded in a storm of intense lighting, obliterating the entire landmass in an instant.

The waves the explosion caused flowed outwards, but luckily for me, didn't reach the pirate ship my friends were all on now. I dusted off my hands, which were no longer covered in blood from account of the lightning atomizing it. "All too easy." I said, a satisfied smirk on my face.

I tracked the pirate ship with my eyes, and began flying over towards it. I hope that Annabeth wouldn't yell at me fore blowing the damn thing up. Oh, who am I kidding, she probably will. But at least now, I could argue I made sure I wasn't going to hurt anybody with the explosion. I smiled at the way the wind blew on my face as I flew towards the ship. I wonder if I can take Taylor flying up here sometime?

(000)

Chapter twelve in the books. The second part of the fight against Circe was originally intended to be longer, but I'm running out of time to write this, so I had to cut that second part disappointingly short. Also, with both Percy and Zane being able to resist the magic potion form Circe, they are able to resist it for the same reason Zane and Percy are able to resist personification and being turned into animals by gods. They're just too damn strong lol. I originally thought about it actually working on them and Zane killing Circe as a guinea pig, but I feel awesome fight scene was a lot better and longer in my opinion. Anyway, time to post this and play video games. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and leave a review telling me how I did if you want. Also, I'll be in Georgia for a couple of days, so the next chapter may be a couple of days late. See you next time!