Alright, boys, chapter eighteen. I know you have to hear this shit literally every time, but I honestly never thought I would make it this far. Seriously, look at my track record with my other, completely garbage stories. One chapter, then abandoned. I thought that would happen to this one as well. Anyway, enough bitching from me let's get into some reviews.

Echoxenvy: "This was very good, I'm surprised you managed to write with this quality on an IPad, I understand it sucks, but I want more dammit! I hope as you get used to it you get a little faster on the IPad, if not, then we'll just have to wait lol. On with the chapter review...this was great.

A feelings chapter I felt, and that's fine, because this added so much development for Zane, Percy and Nico. Percy almost killing Dionysus was my favorite scene in the chapter, the wine god was a massive prick and deserved it. Also, Bianca...damn that was sad, really shitty thing to do, but it's understandable in a way, she's just a kid after all and responsibilities can be overwhelming. Still, a bad decision. And Taylor, in this chapter, I found Zane going off on him completely justified, at least with the context we know. The next chapter I hope will cover Taylor's reasoning for ghosting Zane. And also Arthur, poor guy for real. Am I the only one that feels bad for him? I mean he's not a mean guy and it's not his fault that he and Taylor dated, just my opinion but I think there should be a scene where Zane and Arthur make amends or at least where Zane doesn't hate him anymore. You don't have to add that obviously but I just feel like it would say a lot about how far Zane has come, which you proved many times in this chapter, I just feel it would add on even more. All in all, 10/10 emotional chapter, the format was fine, I couldn't really tell the difference. Just try and speed it up man, we gotta do the crossover lol.

P.S. It hurt to read Chiron here, as I killed him last chapter. Rest In Peace you great centaur."

Response: Damn bro, thanks for the review. So hopefully I'll get faster on the iPad, as I did so throughout the week and a half it took me to write this, but it will still be slower than normal. Honestly, I thought the Dionysus scene was shit and handled poorly, but apparently it was fine. And Bianca leaving Nico makes sense, since she left him in canon even though he would have no one else, which is not the case here. And yeah, the reasoning for Taylor basically ghosting Zane will be revealed later in the next chapter. Remember, Zane was really emotional and angry, so it's not as clear cut as he believes in his head. It's kind of both their fault in a way, which you will see why in a little bit. Also, I will do something with Arthur in the next few chapters or so like the scene you suggested. Anyway, here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy it as much as you did the last one.

SaUvE ViPeR: "Wow this was amazing. I'm impresses at your writing range skills, you can do both action and emotional chapters well, unlike a lot of authors that are only good at one thing. I think that's why you and EchoxEnvy stand out, because your stories are good on all fronts, with literally the only criticism I can think of for this is a few misspelled words and that's it. Son of Hercules's would be a couple of inconsistencies in power but that's all I can think of, it's crazy how little flaws you guys have as writers. I felt Dionysus deserved Percy doing that to him, as he was being a jerk. And I really wasn't expecting Bianca to join the hunt, since you do things a bit different from Canon, but nah she left, and that's awful. I just hope Thalia doesn't do the same at the end, but you'll probably have that happen too. I'm so conflicted on if I like Zane x Nico or Zane x Taylor more, like both are so good ships and I don't know which is better lol. Also, I think EchoxEnvy said there will be a crossover, when will that happen? Because it sounds like it's gonna be awesome. It would be a great fight if that's what you plan on doing, I'm honestly not sure who would win between Zane or Matt. Anyway can't wait for the next I hope it comes out faster, I love this story."

Response: Thanks, bro. I personally think I do action scenes way better than I do emotional scenes, but I guess I'm wrong in that regard. The misspelled words mostly comes from the fact that I don't really edit these chapters. I just write and when I get done, I'm done. Yes, Dionysus was a jerk during that scene and Percy was about to give him what was coming, but Zane stopped him lol. And yes, Bianca joins the Hunt for the sake of Nico's character development. I currently don't have an answer about Thalia, so you'll have to see. The whole love triangle with Zane, Nico and Taylor will be resolved by the end of this book, and I have a primary goal in mind, and I hope people don't hate it lmao. So the crossover between me and Echoxenvy will happen when I'm done with Titan's Curse and when he's done with Storm Bringers. So maybe in a month or two, give or take a few weeks. So me and Echoxenvy have talked in length about who would win, and we've decided it would be Zane given his insane feats, but when we do the crossover they will have more or less an equal fight for the sake of entertainment. Anyway, here's the chapter and I hope you enjoy it.

Merrik69: "Okay so I reread this story and realize now that I was wrong. I apologize for coming off as a dick, I understand Zane better now, and think his development makes sense. You're actually quite a good writer and it's a good story, really. I guess I was just stressed in my other review or something. But the only thing that still seems unneccessary to me is his power, but at least I understand it now, and why it's superior to Thalia's. It doesn't ruin the story though. I've come to like it and actually look forward to the next chapter quite a lot. I'll be following along for as long as you plan on continuing this, which could be a while considering you are now writing on an Ipad. Ouch, that's gotta suck. But it's also impressive, I could never type that much in that position.

Overall, I was wrong about Zane, the story is really good. You've won me over"

Response: Don't worry about it, man. It's fine to have criticism for a story. I'm glad you have seen the character arc for Zane and have realized his douchebaggery was intentional and not just the product of some edgy self insert garbage like all those Naruto fanfics. The reason Zane is so powerful outside of lore, is simply from the idea of the story that is painted in the summary. He's pretty much a really overpowered version of Jason with his own personality that's not a clone of Percy. Basically he's a son of Zeus who actually has a unique character. Thalia has a unique character, but she's the daughter of Zeus, not the son. I just felt Jason was too weak power wise and character wise and thought I could do better, and boom, Zane was born. Also, I'm a huge fan of VsBattles and really like the higher level tiers on the site, so that has had an influence on me as well. Anyway, here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy it.

ReaperKurosaki: "Man i feel so bad for Zane, dude can't catch a break. Honestly Taylor came across as a jerk in this but I know that's not how he really is so I'm interested in that development for future chapters. Also Percy getting mad was a great scene, it shows that he can be just like Zane if he loses control, but it also shows how much he cares about Annabeth, and I think that's a good thing."

Response: Yep, Zane's life is pretty shit right now, and spoiler, it won't get too much better basically throughout the entire story lol. Taylor was supposed to be painted as a jerk last chapter, as this is all in Zane's POV and in his POV Taylor is completely in the wrong. I hope their make up in this chapter is believable and everything is resolved. And another person saying the whole Percy scene was great. I honestly thought that scene was a little lacking, with everyone besides Zane's reaction just being 'damn lol k'. But I guess it was fine. Anyway, here's chapter eighteen and I hope you enjoy it as much as the last one.

Shadowhunter2077: "I really want to see how will Zane beat Atlas, because this time he can't just overpower his enemie, he is the one being overpowered, and it would be very weird if Zane had Universal level of power already in the Third book, but in the Last Olympian maybe, it will be nice to see Zane using strategy instand of pure power.

Also it would be good if Zane started blame himself for the whole Annabeth being kidnaped, it would show that even though they had their problems he still care for her.

And dude in The Last Olympian, Poseidon fought Oceanus, and was implaid that he was losing, while here Percy is able to defeat him, are you going to give Oceanus back up or something?"

Response: Zane won't get universal during this book. Hell, he won't even be universal at full strength normally even in Last Olympian. Zane will have to use strategy to defeat Atlas, and the solution will not be apparent at first. I'll give you a clue. Go read Son of Hercules and watch out for a specific material in it. Also, Oceanus will probably either be amped in some way, or it'll be someone else entirely. Anyway, here's chapter eighteen and I hope you enjoy it.

MR. EXCLUSIV3: "Wow this is so gooooood bro, legit the best fanfic I've read on the PJO tab, keep going bro plz, I gotta see that mf Atlas get clapped"

Response: Well, don't worry, you'll see it happen eventually. Here's the next chapter.

Alright, enough with reviews. Let's blow this pop-stand.

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

(000)

The blaring sound of my alarm woke me from my not so peaceful slumber, and was quickly smashed in an instant by my fist. Machine-like sparks sounded from the destroyed alarm clock as I rubbed my hands groggily over my eyes, trying to wake myself up from my sleep. If you remember what had happened last night, you'd know that I really didn't sleep all that well as the events kept continuously replaying in my head.

I opened up a drawer on the side of my nightstand and took a spare alarm clock from my large collection inside and primed it for tomorrow morning. Chiron had given me hundreds of different alarm clocks for my birthday this year, mainly because I kept smashing my previous ones and being late to class because of it. I had set my previous alarm clock for about ten minutes early, mainly so I didn't have to talk to Thalia while getting dressed. I hadn't talked to her sense our little debriefing with Dionysus and she was asleep in her bed by the time I had come back down from the sky to hide from Taylor.

Speaking of Taylor, even thinking about his name made my brow furrow and my hands clench up. How the fuck can he just ghost me for several months, then show up to talk to me again after 'he had time for it.'' again? While it definitely made me really angry, I was more heartbroken rather than anything else. I had liked the son of Ares, and probably still did on some level.

However, I knew I was probably either missing something or I was just looking at it at one point of view. What Taylor did hurt me and made me enraged, but some part of me, a rather large part, desperately wanted to believe Taylor had either a good reason to or …that I was just misinterpreting things. He was my first friend, and after thinking about it for some time, definitely my first crush and I truthfully wanted to absolve him of any wrongdoing and just forgive him.

But the other part of me, probably the one I inherited from my father's nature, really wanted to blame and curse the son of Ares for what he did. That part and my forgiving side were constantly clashing with one another and neither side would give any ground. One side said that it wasn't completely Taylor's fault we stopped talking, as I also stopped trying to reach out to Taylor as well.

But my other side, my more angry side, said that the fault was still Taylor's as he was the first one to stop going out of his way to interact with me. I wanted to listen to both sides and say they were both right, but I couldn't. I couldn't just say 'girls, girls, you're both pretty' to two sides of my mind. I shook these thoughts from my mind, or at least tried to as I got ready and walked off to the pavilion for breakfast.

I arrived before literally anyone else besides the nymphs and satyrs who were supposed to pass out food to everyone when breakfast started. A few months ago they would have probably looked at me with either apprehension or fear, but now they only looked at me with indifference. My luster had worn off to everyone at the camp and no one really cared all that much about my strength anymore. It annoyed me, that they no longer looked at me with any reverence or awe.

I cleaned out the under part of my nails, which were still painted black from last night. I was more than a little angry with Taylor for interrupting me before I could confess to Nico, but some part of me felt relieved he had shown up. I probably would have made an ass of myself in front of the whole bonfire. I would have been the butt of a joke for days with how bad Nico would have rejected me. I cleaned the water out from under my nails and whisked my hair back that had fallen in front of my face.

My hair no longer had the braids that I had put into them last night, but it was now brushed instead of left to hang with no style. I sighed, as if I was trying to Will time to go by faster. My wish was not granted and everything remained the same. Out of my view, someone had sat down at my table, being the first person to arrive after me. I looked up and my eyes narrowed, seeing the one person who had me in such a mess right now.

Taylor looked almost even better than he did last night, which I tried and failed to ignore. He had a serious glint in his eye and a focused look on his face, which I had to admit looked incredibly attractive. "What do you want?" I asked with a bitter tone, glaring at the son of Ares who sat down in front of me.

Taylor's face didn't change, but I could see the look in his eye soften significantly. "Look, I just want to talk." Taylor sighed and put a hand to his head. I was almost happy he had come to seek me out again. I was expecting him to just do what he did months ago and not talk to me ever, but him actually making another effort told me that he at least cared this time. "What I said last night, I didn't mean to say it like that. I would never think our friendship would be so worthless that I would end it just based on not enough enough time to hang out with you."

Taylor looked like he was about to say something else, but I spoke before he could. "Then why?" I leaned up from the bench I sat on and looked at the son of Ares directly in the eye, trying to ignore how beautiful he looked. "Why did you suddenly stop talking to me?" My tone was hard and angry, which wasn't exactly how I felt. I still felt almost heartbroken, as if the time thing wasn't why Taylor stopped talking to me then there was still a reason that he did.

Taylor was quiet for a second before he looked at the table. "I just thought you didn't care anymore." Wait, what? What the fuck does he mean by that? Taylor continued. "Back then, I really couldn't talk with you because I didn't have the time. I had my camp counselor duties which I had started to take a more direct role in, I had to organize camp events and the chariot races and I was with Arthur. Back then you still tried to talk to me when I had things to do, but all of a sudden you just stopped." Taylor's face was somber, and his aura felt similar to how Nico's did on the night of the whole Atlas debacle. "I thought you just didn't care about talking to me anymore and I didn't say anything. I thought you would brush me off or something else more drastic."

Hearing Taylor's reasoning, my anger ebbed and faded away. I wanted to be angry at him so bad but I couldn't find any good reason. I was silent for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to say. "That's the same reason I thought you stopped talking to me." I looked at the son of Ares, emotion starting to build up in me. "You stopped making an effort to talk to me outside of your work and your time with Arthur, so I just assumed you didn't care. But now you mean to tell me that the reason you stopped trying to see me was because you thought I didn't care?"

What the fucking hell? I had never felt so confused and stupid in my life. We both stopped talking to each other for the same thing we thought of the other. I was silent for a bit, trying to figure out my emotions. Yes, I was definitely happy know that Taylor didn't just abandon me because he though I didn't fit into his schedule, but I was still angry. I wanted to find at least some reason to be angry or at least cross with Taylor for. "But why did you only try and talk to me after you broke up with Arthur?"

This time, Taylor's response was quick. "Because I don't really have anyone else besides either him or you. All of the other friends I made were either part of your group or were just associates. I just...didn't want to go back to being alone like I was before you showed up." Taylor got somewhat quiet as he said the last part, but I could hear him clearly. "I watched you from afar while I was with Arthur and you looked like you were doing perfectly fine. Perfectly fine without me. It hurt, like my disappearance didn't really change anything."

All of the last of my fading anger disappeared hearing the words of the son of Ares. It hurt me just to hear him talk like that. "So whenever me and Arthur split, I just wanted to at least try to get back into your life, to see if you still cared enough about me to let me back in." Taylor put a hand to the back of his head and starting scratching his hair. "But it turns out I'm just as much at fault for this entire thing. I'm sorry I stopped making a constant effort to hang out with you back then. I just..." Taylor's voice trailed off and he looked at his lap.

My rage was long gone by now and I felt tears start to brim in my eyes. Not tears of sadness or heartbreak, but of happiness. I just felt overjoyed. Taylor truthfully didn't just cut me off out of nowhere like I had thought and really wanted to be back in my life. "Taylor...of course I care enough about you to let you back in. And you're not the one at fault whatsoever for this entire thing. I understand that you were busy and had a lot to do and I should have seen that. I should have seen that it should have been my part to keep trying to see you, to try and keep everything up."

I sighed, feeling a fresh wave of relief wash over me. "I'm sorry I snapped at you last night. While what you said might have not have been the best thing to start with, but I didn't let you explain yourself." I stood up from the table and walked over to the side where Taylor was sitting, standing over the son of Ares. "Can we just...you know, start over? Can we just go back to the way everything was before? Forget the past?" I held out my hand for Taylor to shake.

Taylor didn't shake my hand, but he did jump up from the table and bring me into a tight hug. I immediately returned the hug, wasting no time. I felt Taylor's head bury into my chest and I put my chin on top of his head. I felt a feeling of joy spark like lightning light up in my heart and a couple of tears flowed down my face. "Yeah, we can do that." I heard Taylor speak into my chest.

I tightened my hug at Taylor's words, careful to not crush the son of Ares in my arms. I had to physically stop myself from saying 'I love you' as I held him. I felt like I could face it now. I loved Taylor. He was the first person in the entire camp to truly talk to me and try to get to know me. He was the first person I had a crush on, ever.

I spent the past three years here either unknowing of my own feelings or unsure how to face them, but now I felt like I truly could and was happy to. I had never even done anything with the son of Ares romantically, or even told him of my feelings, but I was certain I was in love with him. This had to be more than just some crush or something.

"Ahem." Both mine and Taylor's head turned to a familiar voice to our right. There stood Dionysus. The god of wine was wearing a little bit more than just his familiar purple toga as of the moment. He also had some kind of grapevine wreathed around his neck like some sort of necklace. He had a smug look on his face as he watched the two of us hug.

"As heartwarming as this little make up scene is, you too might want to separate before the rest of camp arrives. You two don't want to look suspect." Dionysus chuckled before putting a slender finger to his chin. "Well, more suspect than the two of you normally are." I tried to summon up a bit of anger from somewhere to make my glare that I have the wine god convincing, but after what had just happened I really couldn't. I just felt my face heat up and I tried my best to look angry.

To my left, Taylor pulled away from our hug, hopefully reluctantly, and stared the wine god down. Taylor's own face was now red and he glared at Dionysus with no real heat. "It's not like that, Mr. D! Zane is just a really good friend who..." Taylor's faux anger crumbled and his face became somber. "...who I haven't really down the best by as of late." His fake fierce look returned and he pointed at Dionysus. "So don't you go twisted things that don't need to be twisted!" My heart lurched a little bit in some form of slight hurt at being verbally friendzoned in front of the god of wine, but I ignored it and backed Taylor up.

I nodded. "What he said." I didn't bother saying it with any fake ferocity or anger, just a simple calm tone of voice. Maybe Taylor's apparent friendzoning of me hurt more than I cared to admit, even to myself. I had a blank mask etched on my features, which is definitely not what I was feeling at the moment. Damn, I really don't even know what I was feeling at the moment.

Joy from my making up with Taylor, irritation from Dionysus for interrupting our little moment, and hurt from Taylor not apparently feeling the same way about me as I felt about him. I was just going to shake the last one out of my mind and ignore it. "Besides, Taylor was recently just in a relationship that ended, and rebounding immediately right after it is over is not something that is Taylor's style, right Taylor?" I turned my head to the son of Ares, racing my eyebrow in questioning as I did so. Hopefully he wouldn't get mad at me for revealing to Dionysus that Taylor and Arthur had broken up, if the wine god and everyone else in camp didn't already know about it.

Taylor's eyes quickly looked back and forth from me and Dionysus for a couple of seconds before he nodded, his face even redder. "That's right, Zane. I wouldn't do sometime like that, I mean, come on." Taylor's words didn't really sound very convincing, even to himself and he looked around to try and find something to change the subject. My own eyebrow raised at Taylor's antics.

Who exactly would Taylor date immediately after Arthur and who else would Taylor even find in the entire camp who also likes males like he did. I'm pretty sure Taylor was gay, as I've never seen him attracted to any female at all and he's literally only had romantic involvement with another dude at the camp. Taylor noticed the pavilion was starting to fill up with campers and quickly pointed to them. "Look, the other campers are starting to show up. You better get to op your table and get ready to address everyone, Mr. D, or you'll be late." Taylor's tone was a little weird, something I couldn't really discern.

Dionysus chuckled and whisked his wine glass he was carrying around. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, Taylor. Now, be mindful you two don't start doing anything naughty in front of the rest of camp. You don't want to have Chiron notice, do you?" With that, Dionysus walked over towards his table, taking a massive gulp from his wine glass filled with Diet Coke. My face heated up at Dionysus' words and I sat down back at my table, determined to forget he said anything at all. Taylor, whose own face was still red, joined me once again at my table, this time sitting to my right instead of right in front of me.

Some kind of awkward silence set in for a few seconds, before I spoke, determined to break it. "Well, that was weird, wasn't it?" I felt the redness of my face disappear and my normal food mood returned, all forms of embarrassment leaving me.

Taylor giggled at my statement, which was something I dearly missed over the past few months and I felt my heart flutter at his voice. "You could say that again, Zane. It's not like we like each other in that sort of way." I felt my hands tighten slightly as I cringed and felt my heart strain under Taylor's words. If only he knew. Taylor looked around at all of the cabins starting to arrive at the pavilion for breakfast, which prompted the nymphs and satyrs to start handing out food early.

"Well, speaking of liking people, who in your life recently has been special to you, Zane? I don't really see you talk to people besides everyone in the group here and only two of them are girls. One of them is your sister and the other is...Annabeth." Taylor paused a bit before saying Annabeth's name, knowing she had been kidnapped a couple of nights prior. "And it's pretty obvious her and Percy have this thing for each other that neither one of them will admit to. Who do you have your eye on?"

I wanted to admit to everything right then and there, tell Taylor how I felt about him, but I knew from the way he had spoken earlier that I knew Taylor would reject me and it would probably make things weird between us. I then thought about Nico, who I had been about to confess to just moments prior to when Taylor had talked to me last night. If Taylor didn't have any feelings for me, maybe I could still make something with Nico work.

"Well, I have had my eye on one person for a little while, but I'm not too sure they exactly like me back. I mean, look at me, you think someone would like this." I referred to myself, pointing to both my face and my body. While my body had grown much more athletic and muscular over the past few months, my face had remained relatively the same. It gave me this weird look where I had an aesthetic body with an androgynous face. "The person is...well, it's..." I hesitated in telling the son of Ares, some part of me holding out hope that maybe, just maybe, Taylor actually does like me. "...it's Nico." I finally said, feeling some kind of weight come off my shoulders.

I turned my eyes to the right to gauge Taylor's reaction to my answer. His face was surprised, with his jaw slightly agape at my response. "Nico?" I nodded, hoping he wouldn't make fun of me or something for it. Taylor continued. "I...I didn't know you swung that way, Zane?" Something had changed in Taylor's tone and I couldn't really understand what it was.

"Well, how long exactly have you liked him and realized this about yourself?" Some kind of expression came over Taylor's face, something else I couldn't recognize. I felt like my entire face was being scanned and my response was about to be recorded or something.

Before I could actually even think to respond to Taylor's question, a very familiar voice spoke out. "Liked who and realized what about yourself?" Both me and Taylor turned our heads away from each other to find Nico standing to the side of my table, a hand on his hip and his brow furrowed. I nearly sputtered in surprise, but I managed to hold the reaction back. Nico looked just as jaw droppingly beautiful as Taylor, and the serious look on his face made me a little nervous, like he was scanning me as well.

Both Nico and Taylor had given me the same look in the past thirty seconds. What did it mean? Nico's gaze moved over towards Taylor, and his eyebrows rose in surprise. "Taylor? What the hell are you doing back over here? Don't you normally sit with Arthur now?" Nico's tone became less friendly once he addressed the son of Ares, something I knew wouldn't really bode very well.

Taylor answered Nico's question pretty quickly. "Arthur and I broke up very recently, so this was the only other place I could come sit." Nico's gaze hardened into a glare at Taylor's words, which caused Taylor to realized how his response had sounded to the son of Hades. "I didn't mean it like that, Nico, if that's what your thinking. Me and Zane have already talked about that."

Taylor looked to me to back him up, which I did in the form of a nod. "I haven't exactly been the best to Zane in the past few months, or to everyone else as well. I hope I can make it up to you and everyone else." Taylor's tone was sincere and his face was serious.

Nico's face surprisingly didn't soften whatsoever after Taylor's words, and he rolled his eyes. "Whatever. We'll see about that." Taylor's face fell in hurt a bit at Nico's response but he didn't say anything back to the son of Hades. I kind of wanted to say something in Taylor's defense, but I knew that there was really nothing I could say. He made his bed and now he has to lie in it.

But the fact that he came back to explain himself at all is a testament. Nico walked over to the seat on my left and plopped down in it. "So how have you been, Zane? I didn't really see you at the Bonfire after I kicked your ass at Myth-O-Magic." Nico's tone was a lot more light and warm when he spoke to me, which painted a clear picture how he felt about Taylor right now.

I smirked and rolled my eyes. We played a bunch of games where Nico used his overpowered and completely unfair deck to tear me a new one in like three turns, which was normal at this point. "Yeah, yeah, you beat me at Myth-O-Magic, big surprise. As to where I was during last night's bonfire..." My eyes turned to Taylor as I trailed off, hopefully not lingering long enough to be suspicious.

"I had a few things to take care of. Sorry for not being there." More and more people started to fill up the pavilion, including Grover who was heading over to my table. "Anyway, how are you holding up, Nico? You feeling any better after..." I trailed off, not verbally speaking of Bianca's joining of the Hunt. Nico's face fell slightly and he turned his head away from me, looking somewhere else.

I followed Nico's line of sight to the normally empty table of cabin eight, which was filled with all of the Hunters, including Bianca. Unlike last night, they weren't really acting like one big family. Right now they were serious, and a couple of them looked like they had been crying. What was wrong with them? "Well, despite Bianca leaving me for a bunch of immortal Girl Scouts, I'm doing fine. It's basically the same as before, since Bianca wasn't at camp beforehand."

Nico moved his elbows that had been being used to prop him up for a nymph to put a plate of food down in front of him. "She's hasn't even tried to say a word to me ever since we arrived back at camp, which is my fault." Nico sighed before looking down at the food. "I told her to never talk to me again, and that going to rescue her from Thorn was completely useless since all it did was get Annabeth captured. So it's no surprise that she wouldn't try to talk to me after that." Nico picked up a fork off the table and started to eat into his food. "I just wish she would, you know, at least try again afterwards. I don't even know what I would do if she did, but I wish she would at least try to talk to me again."

I was silent for a few seconds after Nico's word, glancing at Taylor as if the ask 'what do I say here?' Taylor didn't give me anything and I turned back to Nico, deciding I would just wing it. "Well, I'm usually someone who says that people should say what they mean and mean what they say. If you truly didn't mean what you said and you want to talk to her again, you should."

Nico was quiet, mulling over my words. Before anyone could say anything else, Grover finally made it to my table and sat down at the bench opposite to us. I wordlessly nodded to the satyr, who did the same right back to me. "If you really aren't sure whether you meant your words to her or not, you need to think long and hard about if you did, okay?" Nico didn't say anything to me in response, just nodding and he continued to eat his food.

I finally got a plate from one of the nymphs and started to eat myself, as did Taylor. A somewhat comfortable silence fell over the table and we continued to eat in peace. We didn't listen to anything Dionysus had to say at the start of the 'official' meal and just kept eating. Our peace wasn't to last, as Percy came from out of nowhere and sat down at the table beside Grover.

He looked awful, almost downright miserable. I hadn't really talked to him ever since he went off on Dionysus and now he looked like he only slept for four hours, ran a marathon, killed three gods and had a victory orgy right at the end. "Damn, Percy. You look like hammered shit. Are you okay?"

Percy seemingly was rejuvenated somewhat at my words, as if he remembered his purpose for coming here. "Annabeth is in trouble." That got everyone's attention immediately and we all sat up to listen to the son of Poseidon. Percy began to tell us about a dream that he had last night about the daughter of Athena, how she was in captivity by Luke. She had been in some kind of dark cave, completely pitch black but seemingly lit up herself like she was a lightbulb.

Luke had came out of nowhere from the darkness and told Annabeth she was at his mercy now. He had somehow controlled the dark cave to collapse and cause thousands of tons of rock to fall on Annabeth. Annabeth held the rock in the dream, pleading for Luke to help her, but Luke simply left her to her own devices. He said that her help was on the way and it was all part of the plan. "Luke has her. Now it's confirmed that he's working for Atlas, since Annabeth was taken by Thorn and he is under Atlas' service."

Percy sighed and rubbed his face, somehow looking ten years older. "What does it all mean? Why had a ceiling collapsed on her and how did Luke control it?" It was a dream, a Demigod dream if I'm not mistaken. While those tell the future or what's happening in the present, they aren't completely literal all the time. The collapsing cave ceiling had to mean something.

Grover was the first one to speak out of all of us. "You said the ceiling of the cave collapsed on her, right? And that she held it up?" Percy nodded at Grover's words, which caused the satyr to put a finger to his chin. "Zoe had some kind of dream like that last night. I'm not really completely sure of the specifics of it, but she went to the Big House at three in the morning demanding to talk to Chiron. She looked really panicked." Everyone was silent at the table, and we all looked at each other with alarmed expressions.

"Argus wouldn't let her in at first, which was a really dangerous situation." Oh yeah, I might of forgot to mention that Argus had returned after Chiron was reinstated as camp director. I didn't really see why, since he had let the whole tree poisoning thing happen anyway, but he was back regardless. "Zoe talked about how Artemis was in trouble or something, which was really hard to understand. She talks all old fashioned when she gets really angry. Eventually Chiron came out in his pajamas and tail curlers and talked to her. Zoe asked for permission to leave camp from Chiron to go after Artemis, which Chiron refused. Chiron told them they were supposed to stay her in safety until they received orders from Artemis, to which Zoe said 'How are we supposed to get orders from Artemis if Artemis was lost. Like gone, or kidnapped."

The implications of Grover's words set in after a few seconds. Artemis was one of the Thirteen Olympians. Someone who could just make her gone or kidnap her would really be a force to be reckoned with. My mind flashed back to a certain Titan who nearly ended me with a flick. That was certainly someone who could kidnap a moon goddess no problem.

A thought occurred to my mind. "Uh, Grover, how do you know all this exactly?" Grover's direct and precise recounting of the events he spoke of irked me a bit. How the hell did Grover know all of this?

Grover didn't respond initially, and his expression changed from a serious one to a nervous and suspect one. My eyebrows rose in suspicion and everyone else at the table looked at the satyr in the same way. "Uh...I may or may not have been camping outside the Artemis Cabin last night and just happened to hear Zoe talk about her dream, and then may or may not of followed her to the Big House and hid in a bush to eavesdrop on her conversation with Chiron."

Everyone looked at dubiously, which caused Grover to flinch as if someone rose to struck him. "Possibly. Maybe." Our gazes at the satyr did not relent and he finally broke. "Ok, fine, I was camping outside of their cabin, heard Zoe and followed her to the Big House to eavesdrop." Grover looked almost defeated and like he was afraid of our reaction.

No one spoke for several seconds, almost unsure they actually heard the satyr correctly. I tried to stifle laughter that was threatening to rise from my throat, unfortunately failing. "You're a stalker with hoofs, Grover." My words caused everyone at my table to break down into laughter, except for Grover who just had an indignant 'hey!' to say in response and Percy who looked like he was doing his best to have a good time.

Once I and everyone else at the table calmed down, I spoke to the satyr. "I'm surprised you actually managed to follow Zoe undetected, Grover. She's what, like three thousand years old or something? She must of either been so distraught about her dream that she didn't notice you, or she did and she just decided to do nothing about you. She probably knew there was nothing in the whole world she could do besides killing you to get away."

Grover scoffed at my suggestions. "Maybe she didn't see me because I'm just that good at stealth?" All he got from his answer was silence and deadpan stares. Grover quickly deflated and his shoulders slumped. "Okay, maybe not. Anyway, if Artemis has been kidnapped, that begs the question of who could do so. I think we all know who comes to mind." Flashes of the Titan of Endurance entered my mind, sending me back a couple of days ago when I was nearly killed with a flick.

My brow furrowed and I felt anger starting to rise in my veins. I took a deep breath, trying my best to dispel the anger that I was currently feeling inside me. Grover turned back to Percy. "Regardless who it is, either Atlas or maybe even Luke, it's still pretty weird that you and Zoe had a very similar dream on the very same night. They have to be connected, in at least some sort of way."

Percy's expression of almost downright misery turned into one of consideration. "They probably are. It can't be a coincidence that we have a dream that's very similar in the same night, not even hours away from each other. I think I'll need to talk to Zoe, to at least get a better picture on what is happening. If Artemis and Annabeth are both kidnapped, possibly both in the possession of Luke, maybe we can work out some sort of team to go and find the." Reaching out with my aura sense, I could tell Percy's aura was fierce and angry, yet focused at the same time. He had to be eating himself up on the inside about how Annabeth had been kidnapped.

Grover nodded, but then looked like he just remembered something. "Uh, before you do that, remember how you said it was weird that the Hunters had shown up at Westover Hall and that you didn't buy the story about them following Thorn's aura?" Grover reached into his pocket, rummaged around for something and pulled out some kind of brochure. Grover handed Percy the brochure, who had immediately started to scan over it.

From what I could see, it was some kind of Hunter advertisement or something, as it said shit about immortality and 'a boy-free tomorrow.' "I think they were probably scouting us. I found that in Annabeth's backpack when the Hunters got our stuff from Westover Hall for us. I think Annabeth was thinking about joining them." Everyone was silent at Grover's words, processing what he had just said. Why the fuck would Annabeth join the Hunt?

It didn't have anything to offer her besides immortality, which probably sucked if you thought about it, and she didn't really seem like the type to throw away responsibility or anything, like Bianca was. Percy's aura immediately became volatile but the son of Poseidon was rather good at hiding it. His appearance didn't change on the outside, but I could tell her was completely furious. Grover didn't stop there. "It's also possible that they made have known about Bianca in advance as well, and it was their plan to have her join them rather than just some twist of fate. I don't really have anything to back that up, though."

Nico's face tightened at Grover's words and I felt his aura spike as well. It was nowhere near as potent as Percy's, but it was still very powerful. I quickly grabbed Nico's hand and held it tightly, trying to do my best to calm him down. Nico immediately relaxed, but he didn't outwardly show anything was different. Through his hand, I felt all of his tension melt away and he calmed down, yet I could tell he was in a bad mood.

Speaking of bad moods, Percy probably had the worst mood I've ever seen on the son of Poseidon not counting yesterday against Dionysus. He was already in a shitty mood before, and this revelation definitely didn't help. A few seconds after Grover's words, Percy wordlessly stood up and walked away, tension and rage clearly being seen in his body language. His hand crumpled the brochure in an instant, and he left the pavilion.

As he left, he walked past Thalia, who had been jogging towards the pavilion, clearly late for breakfast. Percy didn't even turn to say hi to my half-sister and walked on past like she didn't even exist. Thalia looked confused at Percy's behavior, before shrugging it off and racing over towards the table. She quickly sat down on the bench to the left of Grover and pretended like she was there the entire time.

"Sorry I'm late, guys. I stayed up a little too late last night training and slept in. Have any idea what is up with Percy? He didn't even say anything to me when I went past him? Is he alright?" Thalia's eyes landed on Taylor and widened in surprise. "Taylor? What are you doing back over here?" I sighed at her questions. She missed a lot while she was sleeping in.

It took a few minutes, but I was able to fill Thalia in on everything. Taylor's reappearance and our talk, which caused Nico to look at the son of Hades with a dark look. I didn't really pay too much attention to Nico's look that he gave Taylor and continued to explain what happened to Thalia. I told her about what Percy had dreamed about, how Annabeth was crushed by a cave due to Luke. Thalia had grown angry once she heard that particular piece of info, but I calmed her down quickly in order to tell her about the next thing.

I told Thalia how Zoe had a similar dream to Percy's at about the same time, how Artemis was mixed up in all of it and how the goddess could be in danger. I finally explained the reason for Percy's bad mood, how Grover found a Hunter brochure in Annabeth's backpack. That one really sent Thalia off the edge.

Thalia anger was interrupted by her realizing she had not eaten yet, and she called a nymph over to give her a plate of food. I noticed that everyone was starting to leave the pavilion, no doubt to get out of the snow and back to their warm cabins. "Well, everyone. It looks like it's time for me to return to my cabin. I'll see you all at Capture the Flag with the Hunt tonight, unless any of you care to join me?"

Thalia didn't even bother responding, as she was currently stuffing her face with the breakfast given to her by the nymphs. Taylor opened his mouth and looked like he was about to stand up and say something, but Nico spoke before the son of Ares. His face was serious, and I could tell he was not in a good mood. It wasn't anything like yesterday where he had been depressed when his sister left him, no, this time he seemed angry. "Maybe later, Zane. Right now, me and Taylor have something we need to talk about." Nico turned his gaze over towards Taylor, who paled slightly under Nico's dark look. "I'll come by your cabin later." I nodded at Nico's words and began to walk back to my cabin.

The rest of the day went by rather slowly, as I had nothing to do in my cabin and Nico didn't come by like he said he would. Neither did Thalia or Taylor, which was weird. I assumed Thalia would probably spend the entire day training, but I wasn't sure why Nico and Taylor had never shown up. I didn't really have anything to do in my cabin, which is something I really needed to fix someday.

I decided that I would go to my backyard gym I had made with the enchanted weights Chiron had ordered me from Olympus. The yard was covered in snow, something that annoyed me. I reached out an open hand and allowed lightning to burst from my form, incinerating the snow where it laid and clearing a space for me to workout.

I worked my entire body, doing the workout at super speeds so I could get as much work in as possible. I didn't really know how much the weights actually weighed, but considering how my muscles actually burned after doing a few dozen reps, I would say they probably weigh a fucking lot.

After working out for a few hours, I finally made my way towards the pavilion again for dinner. I was surprised I had worked out for as long as I did, as I had been at it for almost twelve hours. I was a little bit late for dinner, as most of the cabins were already there besides the Hermès cabin, who were always late. My table was already filled with my friends, but something at the table felt a bit amiss. Everyone at the table didn't really seem all that normal, except Grover who was as spirited as ever.

Percy, besides looking miserable as he had for the past couple of days, looked a little on the angry and irritated side as well. I assumed it was from him finding out about Annabeth's Hunt brochure we had found in her backpack, but his anger felt more recent. Something had happened that pissed him off. Taylor seemed a bit miffed, as if he had someone go off on him for something. Nico, to Taylor's left and beside my open seat, looked a little angry and irritated, but not as much as Percy did.

What had Nico and Taylor talked about while I was gone? By the way they were acting around each other, they both probably had some kind of argument or something. Another thing that added to this was how Thalia looked. My half-sister looked awkward, like she had walked in on someone making out with their significant other or something. She was around when Nico had talked to Taylor, so maybe her demeanor had something to do with that?

I walked over to my seat, sitting down and hopefully not looking as awkward as Thalia did. "Sorry I'm late guys, got a little caught up working out earlier. What did I miss?" Apparently not all that much. There was no real conversation going on before I arrived, which I was thankfully here to end. Thalia told me that Chiron had announced that right after dinner we were to get ready for Capture the Flag with the Hunt, and I was among one of the chosen that Thalia and Percy had gathered for the game.

After Thalia's answer, I thought I would have to sit in awkward silence while I was eating, but conversation picked up very quickly after my arrival. Both Taylor and Nico, who were both silent with Nico occasionally giving the son of Ares the evil eye, started to converse with me. Taylor asked me about the braids I had put up in my hair, which I had redone after I was done with my workout earlier. Nico asked me if I was going to get a new weapon, which sent some sort of phantom pain across my back due to a serious lack of Keravnos.

Taylor asked me about how my workout was, which made my brain recount all of the dozens of sets I had done in the past dozen hours. Nico asked me about this new deck he was building for Myth-O-Magic, which made me scoff at the fact that Nico was going to build another unbeatable overpowered deck to destroy me with. Both of them seemed like they were competing for my attention, both only talking to me and trying to get my attention of the other. What was going on with these two?

Because of all of this, dinner went by very quickly. I had spent the entire time talking with both the son of Ares and the son of Hades and only those two. Grover and Thalia only talked amongst themselves throughout dinner, seemingly going through some plans to defeat the Hunters in Capture the Flag. Percy didn't talk to anyone, spending the time in his own head thinking. I would normally at least try to include the son of Poseidon, but he clearly wanted to be left alone.

After dinner was over, everyone at my table stood up and gathered in one of the corners of the pavilion. A group of Hunters did the same, mirroring the actions of my own group. We were handed armor and weapons, which we began to put on. I didn't bother to put more than a simple, cool looking breastplate on and wore my Nemean Lion clock over my shoulder, something I hadn't done in a long while. I didn't bother welding a weapon, knowing none of the axes we were given could ever replace Keravnos.

Our group was only thirteen in all, consisting of me, Thalia, Percy, Nico, Taylor, Beckendorf, Arthur, Silena Beligard, the Stoll Twins, an Ares kid, an Aphrodite kid and one final Hephaestus kid. The reason for our small team was to not be unfair to the Hunt, which didn't matter because our team line up was insane. I pity the Hunt in this Capture The Flag game.

Speaking of the Hunters, they didn't exactly look like they wanted to play the game at all. Some of them looked distracted, while others looked clearly distraught, like they had been crying. I could at least sympathize with their plight, as their leader had likely been kidnapped by someone and they couldn't do a thing about it, due to them being forced to play a fucking Capture The Flag game instead.

Chiron then did his announcements and his going over the rules like he usually does, saying something how this game was a tradition when the Hunters were at camp or something. I don't think the Hunt really gave much of a shit, but Chiron was forcing them to play. Besides the very possible kidnapping of Artemis, the Hunters were probably just bored with Capture The Flag, since they've won the past sixty six games we've played with them when they have shown up. Unfortunately for them, this was the first time I would be playing while the Hunt was here, so it was time to break their streak.

As we entered the forest and searched around for Zeus' Fist to place our flag on, Thalia called us around her and begun to explain the game plan. "Alright everyone, once the game begins, we're going to split into two different groups. I'll be the leader of the attacking group. Percy, you're the leader of the defense. Zane, Taylor, Nico, Arthur and Charles. You're all with me. We'll be on the offensive against the Hunt. Zane and Nico, you two will be our vanguard. You'll try to rush the Hunt's flag once the game starts and try to bulldoze through their defense."

Thalia continued with her plan. "Me, Taylor, Arthur and Charles will all split up and try to grab the flag from different directions. Zane, Nico, we're basically relying on you two to deal with whatever the Hunt has in store for us as Plan A. They shouldn't be able to stop even you, Nico, much less both you and Zane at once. If they are somehow able to hold you two off for longer than a few minutes, the rest of us will get the flag." Thalia turned over to Percy. "Percy, you organize the defense of the flag, okay? I don't want any of the Hunters getting within twenty feet of it without getting smashed by water." Percy nodded, and our groups split up to commence the plan.

Before the game began, I turned my head to Thalia as our group made its way through the forest. "Why exactly do you have Percy for defense? Me and him are both the strongest, so wouldn't it make more sense to send us two in the vanguard?" Percy was the second strongest in the entire camp, behind me. The son of Poseidon would probably be my equal if he trained more, but since he still goes to school in the mortal world, he doesn't have as much time for training. I literally do it everyday, for several hours a day. While the power gap between us two isn't exactly massive, but it's pretty substantial.

Thalia shook her head. "It's better to have him protect the flag from the Hunters. Like you said, you two are the strongest, so only one for each group is clearly enough for just some simple Hunters. If we sent both of you, it would just be overkill. And I'm not exactly confident in the rest of our defensive groups ability to defend the flag on their own."

Thalia paused for a bit, before answering once more. "Also, I'm not exactly certain on Percy's mental state at the moment. After we found the Hunter brochure in Annabeth's backpack, he'd probably kill them if he went up against the Hunters. It's just better in every way for him to stay back with the defense team and make sure no Hunter gets anywhere near the flag."

Thalia's logic was sound, so I'll concede to her point. A horn sounded off into the distance, signaling the start of the game. "That's our cue. I'd say good luck, Zane, but you really don't need it." I only smiled in response as me and Nico broke away from the group, jogging towards where the Hunter's flag was.

The Hunt had selected the riverbank to place their flag, so that's the direction where Nico and I were headed. Me and the son of Hades weren't moving too fast, as to give the rest of our group some time to get into position for plan B. I struggled to think of a topic of conversation to bring up to Nico to pass the time until we either made it to the flag or ran into some Hunters. "So...what did you and Taylor talk about earlier? Everything seemed a little tense at the table before I showed up." I know I was probably prying at something that wasn't really my business, but I was honestly dying to know.

Nico didn't respond immediately, but his response wasn't too slow either. "Well, I wasn't exactly sure of his intentions." I turned my head to the son of Hades, not understanding what he meant. Luckily, it didn't take long for Nico to elaborate. "I didn't really exactly buy his story at first. I didn't think he would just stop talking to you one day because he didn't think you cared about him more when you stopped making an effort to see him because he was always either busy or with his boyfriend. I thought he was just shallow, like he only came back because Arthur dumped him or something, and he had no one else to talk to so he just went back to his old friend he abandoned."

Nico's stern gaze softened slightly, but still remained hard. "I was wrong about that, but the reasoning I found out wasn't exactly entirely innocent either." I looked at Nico, intrigued by his response. Was Taylor not honest in his reasoning for our friendship being basically cut? I wanted to pry Nico for the real reason, but he spoke before I could. "He asked me to not tell you exactly why, but just to tell you he wasn't exactly lying. He did think you stopped caring about him, which is why he stopped trying to talk to you, but he didn't tell you the whole truth on why he had started to talk to you again." Nico blushed a little bit, before coughing a bit. "If you really want to know, ask him yourself when we're down with the Hunt." What was that blushing about exactly?

Before I could respond, eight figure broke out from the trees and rushed us. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Eight Hunters, all wearing the same silver winters coats came from different hiding places in the trees from all around us. The Hunters surrounded us, pulling out daggers, blades and bows. Both me and Nico immediately tense and the son of Hades drew his Stygian Iron Sword from the belt of the Greek armor he was wearing. My weapon, Keravnos, had been destroyed by Atlas, so I just got in a fighting stance with just my fists, I really missed that axe.

The Hunters split into two groups, four attacking each of us at once. I didn't really recognize any of the Hunters besides Zoe, who was leading the attack against me. I wasn't able to pay attention to Nico's fighting, as I was preoccupied with dodging through the blade attacks and melee strikes from the Hunters. I felt like Neo or something, fighting of multiple opponents with ease and looking quite badass as I did so. One of the Hunters tried to hit me with a spinning heel kick, which I blocked with a simple raised arm. Yep, definitely like Neo.

The fight maybe lasted a couple of minutes, with me easily fending off the four Hunters and catching glimpses of Nico doing the exact same, only more violently. I could feel the Hunters getting angry, as their attacks started to get less refined and more sloppy. I pretend-yawned, trying to draw even more anger from the Hunters. One of them let out an irritated yell and went berserk on me, trying to use her knives to carve me a new face. Instead of dodging, I allowed the knife to make contact with my face, stopping the knife as if it hit stone.

The Hunter's face who had attacked me, which had been Zoe, went pale and her jaw dropped slightly. I grinned at her amazement. Time to end this fight, as I was getting bored and wanted to go to the Bonfire as quick as possible after this game. The Hunters didn't seem to intimidated by my apparent invulnerability and continued to attack me.

"Enough." I threw out both of my arms in an outstretched manner, creating a burst of powerful wind in a ten meter radius around me. The wind smashed into the Hunters and sent them sprawling on the ground, knocking them unconscious. I nodded at my handiwork and was about to go and tell Nico to hurry up and finish the Hunters off and stop playing with them, but one of the Hunters I had sent to the ground was still conscious. It was Zoe, Artemis' lieutenant.

Despite the fact I hit her with enough force to knock out all of the other Hunters, she seemed relatively fine, if a little bewildered. I nodded at her, impressed by her durability. "You're stronger than you appear to be, Hunter. Why is that exactly?" The fact that she looked like Atlas and her aura was similar to his was now incredibly suspicious. Those two had to be related in some way.

Zoe glared at me and spit a little wad of saliva on the ground. "That is none of thy concern!" Zoe's tone was angry and defensive, but considering that's how she sounded when she talked to every male, I couldn't really tie it to anything. Zoe reassumed a fighting stance and her aura powered up dramatically. She even created a burst in the wind with her power, something that surprised me. "Ready for round two?"

Zoe didn't wait for an answer and charged forward as soon as the words left her mouth. She was much faster than I expected. She didn't have a dagger or weapon on her, as it laid on the ground after I sent her team to it with a blast of wind, so she just attacked me with her fists only. I blocked her first strike, which packed more of a punch than I expected. Damn, she was strong. Her second punch was a hook, which went around my raised arm to block and struck me in the side of the face.

My vision went blurry for a little bit, before returning to normal. I actually felt that. That actually hurt a little! I looked at Artemis' lieutenant in amazement and we started to encircle one another. "What? Thy can dish punishment about but thou cannot take it thyself?" Zoe asked me with her fists raised, a smirk on her face.

I returned the smirk, rubbing the spot where she had punched me. "I wouldn't exactly say that, Hunter. I'm just surprised a punch from you did more that annoy or tickle me." Zoe growled at my response and I lurched forward. I struck out with a strike off my own, which Zoe tried to block. My punch overpowered her defense almost immediately and she was forced back, sent off the ground a few feet and landing back down with a roll. I didn't give her anytime to recover, jumping in the air and slamming my foot down where her form was.

She quickly moved out of the way as my foot smashed into the forest ground, creating a five foot wide crater in the earth. I raced forwards again, giving her no time for rest. I threw my foot out in a super kick maneuver, trying to hit Zoe directly in the chest. This time, the Hunter tried to use both her arms to block my attack instead of one, but once more she was sent flying back, breaking the sound barrier as she did so.

She smashed into a tree, breaking it in two and slamming into the ground, causing a crater to formed where she landed. She stood up from the dent in the ground, rubbing her forearms where she had blocked my attack. I smirked at the Hunter, trying to get a ride from her. "Is that all you got?" She didn't respond with more than a roar and charged me once more. She was even faster this time, but I was prepared and would not let her get the advantage over me once again.

She tried to attack me with a double axe handle, but I easily pushed her hands to the side with only one of mine. Despite how strong she was, I still had the advantage over her quite easily. I quickly hit her with a light jab in the abdomen, which sent her flying back a few feet and nearly caused her to fall over. I frowned, not satisfied with what I was facing. She had to be stronger than this. The fact that she could even hurt me at all excited me, as only Percy could do so and we've sparred a thousand times before. I needed to bring more power out of her and I knew of the perfect way to do it. "Come on, you fight like a girl."

That did it. Zoe charged at me once again, cracking the ground as she did so. An absolutely murderous expression came upon her features and she looked at me in rage. Once she reached me, I struck out with her fist, expecting for her to try and defend once more only to be overpowered. But unlike the last two times, Zoe dodged the attack instead, knowing she probably did not have the strength to block it directly.

As soon as she dodged my attack, she attacked me with a flurry of targeted punches, which forced me to quickly block and deflect them at high speeds. "Thou will pay for thy insult against me!" To any outside observer, even ones that would be demigods, we probably looked like we were blurs, not able to be properly tracked. To mortals, we definitely could not even be seen at all. Zoe struck out with a punch towards my temple, which I caught in my hand.

Zoe tried for a quick chop to my trap muscle, but I caught her other arm as well. Not really a smart plan. I wasn't exactly sure what she was thinking there. But then I felt a horrific pain spike from my neather regions, and I looked down to see Zoe's foot planted firmly into the spot where my testicles hung. I gritted my teeth as I fell to my knees, my hands quickly moving towards my damaged goods. Zoe didn't let this opportunity go to waste, as she kicked me across my face, knocking my head to the side and she continued to assault me.

She let loose on me, hit me with punches, kicks, elbows, knees, anything to could think of to my face, head, and torso. Before the pain in my balls finally went away, she picked me up from the ground and threw me in the direction of a tree. I smashed through the tree as if it was made out of paper, and then smashed through several more trees. I eventually slammed into the ground, dragging up dirt before I finally came to a stop. My fists tightened as anger filled my veins and I slowly stood up from the ground onto one knee. Zoe approached me, a hand on her hip and a smirk on her face. "Hast thou had enough yet?" I stood up from the ground, the last of the phantom pains leaving my nuts.

I glared at Artemis' lieutenant. Her assault after her attack on my sacred area hadn't really done any real damage, or even any damage any all. All she did was succeed in hurting my balls, breaking a few trees, dirtying my clothes and pissing me the fuck off. "Big mistake." I said simply as I unleashed my full strength of my base form. My aura burst from my form, causing the wind all around me to pick up and the sky to darken with storm clouds. Lighting danced off my finger tips as I looked at Zoe with a dark glare. The Lieutenant of Artemis' eyes widened as she no doubt feel and saw the change in my aura, knowing how utterly screwed she was.

Before I could enact my righteous vengeance upon the Hunter, a horn in the distance blew. The horn of in the distance was the victory horn for our team, which meant we won. I growled in annoyance, angry I wasn't able to get some rightful payback against Zoe, but I suppressed my strength once again and the clouds above disappeared. I glared at the Hunter. "You got lucky." I walked away from Artemis' Lieutenant, who just stood in shock where she stood.

After walking for a few dozen feet, I saw Nico standing above four unconscious Hunters with his sword drawn. His aura, a black shadowy mist leaked off of him and I could clearly feel his anger. I noticed one of the unconscious Hunters was Nico's sister Bianca, the one who had practically abandoned him a couple days prior. Nico was standing direct over her unconscious body, as if he was contemplating something. I walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Nico jumped and nearly reared his sword back to stab me, but he paused when he saw it was me. I shook my head and motioned to Bianca. "It's not worth it, Nico. Don't do something you'll regret." Nico's angered look faded slowly before disappearing entirely, being replaced by the somber expression that has been usually present there for the past few days. Both me and Nico were silent as we walked towards the river, where the sound of the horn had come from. "I take it we've won, right?"

Nico nodded at my question, his earlier actions clearly bothering him. "Yeah, Thalia's plan went off without a hitch. I'm surprised they actually attacked the flag without us. I guess they got tired of waiting for us to stop playing with the Hunters and went to get the flags themselves." Nico turned to me, a questioning look on his face. "What exactly took you so long with the Hunters? I took a while because..." Nico trailed off, glancing back to where his sister was. "...you know. But why did you take so long? You don't play with weaker enemies like that very often. And the sky went dark for a few moments. You only do that when you get angry or go full power. What happened?"

I sighed, my anger at Zoe kicking me in the nuts not completely faded. "Well, it went fine first. I did kind of play with the Hunters a bit, only for a couple of minutes. I wanted to get a feel on how powerful they were, if they really were as good as they were cracked up to be. They weren't, and I decided to end it when I got bored. I took them all out with only a blast of wind, but Zoe wasn't knocked unconscious by it. She's way stronger than she looks. She even managed to make me feel her attacks, which is something that is really surprising. She might even be as strong as Percy's base form."

Nico looked surprised, wondering how some random Hunter could keep up with me like that. I decided to answer his unasked question. "I think she's related to Atlas somehow. She kind of looks like him, her hair and eye color is the same as his, and her aura feels very similar. They have to be related or something."

Nico look perplexed. "Is she his daughter or something? If she is, why is she with the Hunt and not the Titans?" Good question, Nico and one I probably don't have the answer to.

I shook my head. "Probably not. Atlas had been holding up the sky for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years. There's just absolutely no way that Zoe is that old." A thought occurred to me, making the idea of Zoe being Atlas' daughter plausible. "Actually, maybe she is. Chiron is Kronos' son, and Kronos was killed around that long ago as well. Chiron's older than the Olympians themselves, and he's still her. Maybe Zoe really is that old."

My speculations were interrupted by us two coming across my team at the river celebrating with the rest of the camp. Thalia was being lifted up by a few campers while most of the rest of the camp were cheering to her. Thalia had a grin on her face as she basked in her moment of glory, which put a proud smile on my face. She had gotten significantly stronger over the past few months training under me so no matter what she does, I'll be proud of her. Chiron announced that the campers had won the games, which put the Hunters that were nearby the group in an even worse mood.

As me and Nico walked towards the crowd, I noticed that the other Hunters me and Nico had defeated were starting to follow where we had walked, trying to get back to the rest of the camp. On the outskirts of the celebration, I saw Taylor talking to some one I really didn't like. Arthur Wayne, the bastard. The two of them looked like they were arguing about something, which caused my brow to furrow. "I'll be right back, Nico. I have something I need to take care of." I didn't wait for Nico's response and walked over towards the son of Ares and the son of Helios.

"-ou cannot be serious!" Arthur's words reached me as I came within range of the two. He sounded like someone had just pulled an Exodia out of their pocket during a Yu-Gi-Oh duel. Now that I got a better look at the son of Helios, I saw how he had changed a little bit over the past few months. His hair, which had been on the longer side and brushed against the edges of his neck, was now cut on the short side. It looked a little bit too much like Luke than I was comfortable. He hadn't grown any taller or muscular, but his face looked a little less young and more mature. I wasn't too sure how old Arthur was, but from here he looked to be about sixteen.

"That's gotta be the dumbest reason I've ever heard for someone breaking up with another person! How can you do this to me!? What do you see in him? He's nothing but a murdering psychopath! You've literally seen it! And now you broke up with me because you're afraid to lose him to the Hades kid? Did you even like me at all!?" What the fuck was he talking about?

Taylor's face was stone cold, glaring at the son of Helios with an intensity that could freeze the sun. "I told you, Zane has changed, Arthur. He's not that guy anymore. He wouldn't even do a tenth of what he did then right now." Taylor looked away at the trees by the river and huffed. "As for what I see in him, he's literally the first friend I've ever had. He's the guy who made me what I am today. Without him, I never would have gotten his strong or become the counselor for the Ares cabin. He pushed me to become the best version of myself possible."

Taylor blushed and smiled a little. "Besides, have you seen how hot he is now? He's tall, really good looking, and his muscles look like a marble statue." Taylor looked back at Arthur, his smile faded and his cold look now returned. "After what I overheard, I can't continue our relationship any further, Arthur. You were nice, kind and caring, but there is someone else for me."

Taylor paused a bit, contemplating what he should say. "As for if I ever liked you...well, I'll be honest, Arthur. I kind of only got with you to see if I could make Zane jealous. But all it did was drive him away and drive a wedge between us. I'm sorry for manipulating you like that." Taylor finished, with Arthur looking absolutely devastated.

Arthur had tears trailing down his cheeks, which made Taylor cringe in guilt. "You can't be serious, Taylor. I fucking loved you. I-" Arthur immediately paused, his eyes trailing towards me as I stood behind the son of Ares. I had walked up in the middle of the conversation and had said nothing the entire time. My eyes were wide and my jaw was slightly agape, as I could not believe what I was hearing.

Taylor noticed Arthur had gone silent, and he turned around to find me standing behind him. Taylor didn't say anything for a couple of seconds, before he just sighed and put a hand to his forehead. I could already tell his face was red from behind his hand. Arthur started to walk away, anguish on his face. "I'll leave the two of you to talk." Arthur walked away without another word, disappearing into the celebrating crowd.

Neither me or Taylor said anything for a few seconds, and we stood in complete awkward silence. Eventually, Taylor decided to break the ice. "...How much of that did you hear, Zane?" Taylor sounded like he had just got back from a 15 hour work shift and was just done with everything.

I didn't respond immediately, still basically shell shocked by what I just heard. Taylor actually liked me? Like, romantically? That just could not be true. I grew irritated. Why hadn't Taylor ever said anything about it? I then realized I never had said anything either, which immediately curbed my irritation. It didn't get rid of my confusion, though, as I still wondered why Taylor had done what he did.

He got with Arthur to make me jealous? That's like a fourth grader level plan. Yeah, it worked and made me very jealous, jealous enough to blow up a planet. But I didn't make me go all 1950s macho man and make me try to fight Arthur for Taylor's hand or anything. It just pushed me away. What was he thinking? I finally responded. "Enough."

Taylor sighed again, his hand not leaving his head. "Look, before you get angry or anything, let me explain." I nodded, not angry in the slightest anymore, just confused and lost at the moment. "Alright, I'll give it to you straight up. I've liked you since the very beginning, Zane. You were the first person to really talk to me, to get to know me. You motivated me to train, to better myself. Without you, I have no idea what would have happened to me. I liked you, but I just didn't really know how to show it."

Taylor looked at the ground, as if he was embarrassed with himself. "I was too afraid to tell you, as I thought you would hate me or something for being gay. Pretty ironic now that I think about it." Taylor said, obviously referring to how I told him I liked Nico. "Once I realized you wouldn't hate me for it, I tried to get with someone that would make you jealous. That being Arthur. Me and him weren't originally supposed to be serious. It was just supposed to be something that would pull you towards me. But it spiraled out of control and became more serious than I thought. Eventually I thought you didn't care about me anymore, and I was just going to live with what I had. But then I overheard you talking to Thalia a couple of nights ago."

My mind flashed back to when I heard a bush ruffle after I had told Thalia how I kissed Nico at Westover Hall. "I originally eavesdropped on you two so I could see how you were doing, like what was going on in your life, but when I heard you kissed Nico on your last mission, something in me snapped. I felt like I was going to lose you forever, and I hade to try and do something. So I quickly broke up with Arthur, and tried to talk to you that night at the bonfire before you could confess to Nico. And you know the rest." Taylor took i deep breath, trying to psych himself up for something. "So long story short, I love you, Zane. Will you please go out with me?"

I was in complete utter shock. Not just with the story, but with Taylor last words as well. I had no idea what to say. What could I say to that. Taylor liked me this entire time? How? The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. The constant blushing, the literally sleeping in the same bed with me, the passive aggressive attitude towards Nico at some points, Taylor's reaction to when I got stabbed, his patience with me when I was an asshole and mass murdering psycho, everything.

How the fuck did I not see all that sooner? I am such a fucking idiot! Looking at all that from this perspective also made me realize that Nico liked me as well, as there were a lot of similar interactions with him. I didn't really know what to say with this knowledge, as I now had two different people that liked me. "Taylor, I-"

Before I could really say anything, an ancient and strong aura from out of nowhere could be felt throughout the forest. However, literally everyone could sense this aura. At the edge of the trees, a misty green light could be seen. It was a mummified corpse literally walking through the forest, like some kind of Egyptian zombie. I recognized it as the Oracle of Delphi, remembering when I had seed the Oracle when I first arrived. The Oracle had given me some kind of prophecy, one I don't even remember in the slightest.

The Oracle moved into the crowd, which parted as it walked closer to them. The Oracle didn't care in the slightest, and continued on trekking. The Oracle stopped in front of Zoe, who had rejoined with her fellow Hunters while I had been talking to Taylor. Finally, the Oracle stopped directly in front of her, and spoke. Well, not really spoke but everyone could hear her voice in the back of her mind. "I am the spirit of Delphi. Speaker of the propheciesof Phoebus Apollo, Slayer of The Mighty Python. Approachseeker, and ask." Zoe, with a grim look on her face, approached the Oracle and asked what she must do to save her goddess.

The Oracle didn't respond right away, but the words eventually materialized into our minds. "Seven shall go to the goddess in chains, they shall face the guardian of the land without rain, the bane of Olympus shows the trail, Campers and Hunters combined prevail, The Titan's Curse one must withstand, and one shall perish by a parents hand." With those words, the Oracle walked up to the bank of the river and sat down on a rock, the green mist leaving the body. The Oracle then went completely still, as if was part of the rock it sat upon.

Nobody said a word, too shell shocked at what had just happened. Finally, I was the first one to say something. "Fuck."

(000)

Alright boys, chapter eighteen in the books. So if this chapter was a little wack, sorry about that, I've been a little drained lately. The romance is building and will definitely be there when this whole arc is over, so hold on. I'm so sorry that this took so long to come out. I have literally two jobs now, and while I write every night, I can't write too much without feeling drained. Again, this was written all on Ipad, so if there is any weird formatting issues, that's the reason why. Anyway, I'll be back probably in another week and a half with chapter nineteen. I'll see you guys then. Later!