Chapter 36: Lots of things happen

[Annabeth's Pov]

Sometimes, I wish I could be a daughter of some less important divinity.

You know, like Demeter. Or perhaps Hermes…no, not Hermes. That would…never mind.

Ooh, maybe Hephaestus would be a perfect fit! Then I could still strive to be an architect without worrying my hairs off from the impending doom of the second Titanomachy.

I looked down at the piles and piles of notes and drawings of various ways to assault the Empire State Building. Last night, after we arrived at the camp via Bessie's water travel, I filled up Chiron with what happened at Hoover Dam.

He was most concerned about everything, especially Bessie, but he and I both agreed that we needed to prepare. If Luke said there was going to be a war, there is certainly going to be a war.

I'm not saying that because I trust everything he said, but because he said it before I switched sides. This means, that at the point where he revealed his plan, my opinion on the matter was of little to no significance.

War was already on its way.

And as much as I hoped we could avoid it, it would do us much better if we prepare beforehand.

Which was why I gave up sleeping last night to come up with sketches of a battle plan to secure the Empire State Building—or Olympus.

You need more than just words to convince others that something horrible would happen because they'd rather believe otherwise.

Even as I looked down at the piles and piles of notes I've written down, I had my own doubts: Could the second Titanomachy really happen in the next 2 years? Maybe we were just being paranoid. I'd happily settle for that answer any day.

But I also knew, this was exactly why I prepared everything.

I suppressed a yawn. It was just past 5 am—no, 6 am. When did the extra hour pass by? I'm already past curfew?

Eh, a walk could help, I suppose.

I collected the vast stacks of paper into one neat pile and shoved them under my bed. I shared the cabin with only Malcolm, and he knew better than to not look for anything under my bed.

The outside of the camp was chilly. The magic borders around the camp generally followed the seasons outside, so our biological clock didn't get too messed up. It was nothing a light jacket couldn't solve, nonetheless.

My feet took me to the lake. Maybe Percy was there. Not that, I'm specifically hoping to find him, or anything. He was a son of Poseidon, so if he was going to be anywhere out of his cabin, he would be at the lake.

But to my disappointment, there was no one at the lake. Disappointed, because my guess was wrong. Not because Percy wasn't—oh, you get the idea.

I kicked a pebble into the lake. One of the Naiads gurgled in protest and waved whatever she was knitting, but I wasn't too concerned.

Nature spirits tended to not get entangled with Cabin 6 if they could help it because our mother could get territorial, fast. And you did not want to make Pallas Athena, a goddess who skinned out her enemy Gigas and plastered it over her shield, your enemy.

I need more coffee. Or sleep, but I can't have that at the moment.

"Ow."

A pebble smacked my forehead. The Naiad giggled, waving her hand as she dissolved into the water. I let her go. I wasn't in for a pesky fight in the best of my moods, and currently, I was nearing rock bottom.

I tossed another pebble into the lake. This time a bit further into the lake to not bother any more Naiads. A small ripple swept across the smooth surface.

We used to play like this a lot; we, as in Luke, Thalia, and me, until that one time that accidentally angered a Krokódeilos that was resting in a swap. That safe house was where we escaped from the Princess Andromeda, Luke's ship full of soon-to-be armies of Kronos.

Luke…

I can't understand what he was thinking.

I wanted to grab him by the shirt collar and ask the exact question while violently shaking him, but I blew my own chance when I had it.

Why did he corrupt Thalia? Why did he get corrupt himself? What was he trying to achieve by setting up a war between two divine factions, when that spelled the end of the world more clearly than actually writing them down?

"Annabeth, you're a smart girl." Luke's voice echoed inside my head.

"Am I? Am I really?" I asked back. Of course, no one answered.

What did being smart even mean, when you can't even guess what your enemy was thinking?

I flopped back to the ground. The smell of grass made me take a deep breath, cleansing my lunges from all the dust I must've inhaled staying all night up, but it didn't do much in unclogging the vast clouds inside of my head.

Then, shuffling footsteps came near. A pair of bright blue eyes stared down at me from upside down.

"Good morning, though it is a bit cloudy, I suppose."

"Hey, Silena."

Silena Beauregard slid down next to me. She guided my head onto her lap, and I let her run her fingers through my hair and face.

"Oh my. Annabeth, you stayed up the entire night again, haven't you?"

"No," I suppressed a horribly timed yawn. "What gave you that idea?"

Silena huffed and puffed up her cheeks.

"Well, your eyes are swollen, your face skin is rough and your hairs are messy, and—"

I groaned loudly. Selena closed her mouth into a tender smile.

"You know there's a Council meeting in less than two hours, right?"

"Oh gods, don't remind me."

"Here, let me help you out a bit. You aren't going anywhere looking like a depressed panda."

"That's a bit harsh," I complained. Silena pressed a finger against my lips with a smile.

Then, she pulled out a hairbrush from nowhere (Everyone at the Aphrodite cabin could do that. No idea how, though) and started to comb my hair, while she hummed a piece of soft music that I couldn't recognize, but it slithered into my mind and soaked them into a slack sense of languor.

"What is that?" My voice sounded dull, but I was too immersed in the humming to care.

Somehow, Silena kept on humming the tune as she answered.

"Oh, it's just simple magic I've picked up. Turns out there are some interesting spells you can learn easily. It's more effective when you combine with…"

Silena trailed off from her own sentence. Now one of her hands rubbed some ointments over my rough skin. It reminded me of Circe's spa, in a way, but without the horrifying parts of it.

"Say, what was the cow thing that both of you came back with? It was named Bessie, wasn't it?"

"She's actually called the Ophiotaurus…She's, a special kind of monster."

I could barely make out Silena's frown. My eyelids were too heavy.

"A monster? It looked friendly."

"She is. I'll tell you more at the meeting."

Silena paused for a long time. Or maybe it was short, and I was drifting in and out of sleep.

"But if it's a monster, where are we keeping it? Chiron didn't let it free, did he?"

"No, I think Percy is keeping her safe. It feels safe around him…and me, I guess."

"Oh. Well, it's nice that there is a nice monster for once. Maybe I could take care of it."

"Yeah…maybe."

Silena was the caretaker of the pegasi in the camp. If anyone were to be in charge to take care of Bessie for a long time, Silena would definitely be fit for the duty.

After half an hour or so, Silena tapped my shoulders awake. Apparently, I had fallen asleep in the middle of her skincare routine. Although I had a sneaking suspicion that Silena intentionally put me to sleep to get me some rest.

She could be aggressive like that. But it's Silena; it's not like she would do anything harmful to anyone.

Either way, I thanked her for her help, and Silena smiled back with a wink.

[Line Break]

[Percy's Pov]

I did my best to convince you guys that being a demigod was not a good thing. It is gruesome, depressing, and mostly ends with "And then you and your friends died". Yeah, not a good thing.

But there is one, a relatively small benefit that came with being a demigod.

No one was really ugly.

Now, I'm not calling anyone ugly. I know that the definition of beauty differs from person to person, and no one has any right to judge others by their appearances.

But on a more general scale, you'd find it difficult to find anyone in camp 'unattractive'.

Even guys Cabin 5 had some charm (or so I've heard), in a way you'd find a boar charming, you get the idea.

By now you'd probably be thinking: "Wow, Percy. That sounds really neat. But why are we talking about this right now?"

Knock, Knock!

"Excuse me, Percy? Are you awake in there?"

We're talking about it because one of the prettiest girls in the entire camp came knocking at my cabin door at 6:20 in the morning.

Look, I'm not exactly the sharpest sword in the armory. Annabeth calls me a Seaweed Brain for a reason. But I was positive that it wasn't her turn for cabin inspections this week—nor was it time for cabin inspections.

I hastily shoved my dirty clothing, thank gods my boxers were kept somewhere else, under my bed as I stumbled over to the door and opened it. Immediately, I nearly slipped on a stray basketball and nearly knocked Silena over.

Silena quickly sidestepped, avoiding the collision, and caught me by the shoulder. For being one of the daughters of Aphrodite, she had a very strong grip on her hands.

"Ooph. You're in a hurry, Percy. Are you going somewhere this early?"

I straightened up, hoping to Aphrodite that my face wasn't as hot as it felt.

"I, uh, no. I was just…trying to get the door."

I winced as soon as I finished my sentence. Silena grew the smallest tinge of blush over her cheeks as she fiddled with the edge of her curly black hair.

"Well, I'd be lying if I wasn't flattered. May I come in?"

My brain froze up for a full 10 seconds as it tried to process her words.

In the meantime, my ADHD picked up a bunch of unimportant details.

Such as: the grape-shaped cloud in the sky, a blond-haired somebody just lying on the grass nearby the lake, and that one patch of golden strawberries that the Demeter cabin started growing for who knows why.

"…Why?" I managed to ask.

Silena moved ever so slightly to the right, and the lake got blocked out of my view.

"Oh, is that not ok? I just thought that you'd have the cow-serpent thing with you from last night. I was hoping to see her."

I managed to pull myself out of my subconscious daze at the mention of the Oph—Bessie. Chiron firmly warned me to keep her away from anyone as possible, as Luke had hinted that there could be a spy in the camp.

By the way, I'm still slightly ticked off that Annabeth held the fact that she met Luke until she had no other choice than to reveal it. I'm not sure why. It feels like she is trying to protect him, in a way, which I was against.

A small, firm snap brought me back to earth. Silena was looking at me intently, waiting for my answer.

"Oh, right. You mean Bessie, right? Yeah, she is in here. But, why do you want to see her?"

"You know, just morbid curiosity. I do have a soft spot for these mythical animals, so to say. Why do you think I tend to the stables?"

It was a fine enough reason in my book, but I doubted Chiron would be too happy if he ever heard I let another camper see the Ophiotaurus just because they were curious.

"I'm sorry, but Chiron said to keep it away from everyone, so…"

"Oh, come on! Pretty please~?"

The faint melodic vibration in her voice made it irresistible to say no. Before I knew it, I was moving aside to make way for her entrance. Silena smiled, and with a quickly whispered "Thanks", she stepped inside. For some reason, closing the door behind her as well.

"Lights on."

As soon as I said, the lights in the cabin turned on. Silena let a small interjection escape her lips as the walls sparked in various colors of coral and oceans, and it let out the faintest humming noise that eased your mind.

"It's amazing! And that's a nice fountain too!"

"Thanks."

I tried not to be too proud of myself. Originally, Cabin 3 wasn't too fancy in the interior department. Most of the improvements were made by Tyson last summer. I hope he was doing well at the underwater forges.

As Silena spun around the cabin, admiring the designs, a very angry Annabeth in my head was saying something about it being definitely against the rules to invite another camper into your cabin when you were alone or something.

Now, I never bothered with rules too much, mainly because neither my ADHD nor my personality mixed well with them, but that made me curious enough to ask Silena about it.

"Oh no, not really." She assured me. "I mean, Chiron doesn't like it when he catches something like this; since it had led to some complicating issues in the past."

"Complicating issues?" I asked.

Silena became oddly quiet and rubbed the backside of her neck. A more apparent blush started to spread across her cheeks.

I blinked for another three seconds before I caught on.

"Oh."

A very awkward silence settled down between us, as the temperature inside the cabin seemed to jump up significantly like a hot summer day instead of mid-winter.

Finally, Silena cleared her throat loudly.

"So, um, where's Ms. Bessie? Is she in the tub or something?"

"Yeah. Let me just—"

I made the mistake of opening the bathroom door. A huge blunder on my part, because that's where I lay out my other laundry to dry. You guessed it; my boxers.

Silena made a noise somewhere between a scream and a yelp, covered her eyes with both of her hands, and quickly seated herself on the bed.

"I'll —wait, here." She stammered, her gaze now fixated on the entrance as her face resembled a ripe tomato.

Then again, I doubted my face was any better. I could hear my heart thumping around my earlobes as if I had a serious fever or something.

"I'll just, go tidy up the inside real quick."

"Great." Silena's voice was one and a half octaves higher than usual.

She drummed her feet to distract herself from the situation, which caught on one of the shirts I quickly stashed under the bed. She leaned forward and reach out for the dirty fabric until I stopped her hand.

"Um, best if you don't look under."

"Oh." Silena recoiled back into her stiff sitting position and muttered "Sorry." Under her breath.

Can I please wake up from this nightmare? Right now, maybe?

But no such luck.

I gathered all the boxers that I'd rather burn right about now and put them inside of the small locker where I kept my toiletries.

I made sure nothing else embarrassing was on display before peering outside of the door.

"You can come in now."

Bessie was gently floating inside the tub. Her eyes were closed, which made it look like she was dead, but you could also hear her breathing, and her ears would twitch slightly from side to side.

"Wow, this is a big tub."

"It's here because of Tyson, so…"

"That makes sense."

It was a notorious fact that Tyson was not good at public shower stalls. The Stoll brothers learned that the hard way when they tried to prank him by putting some dye in the water supply, and ended up having to patch up the entire side of the wall that got smashed down by my panicking baby brother.

Silena leaned over the large tub and gently put her palm over Bessie's…shoulder, I guess? It's really hard to determine how to address some monsters' body parts when they had such differentiating physiques from normal animals at the zoo.

Right as she trimmed her finger across the cow skin, Bessie's eyes fluttered open.

"Moo!"

And she instantly started to panic at the stranger before her.

Silena yelped in surprise as Bessie wildly splashed about, which only made Bessie more scared.

I quickly willed the splashing waters to keep in one place, as to prevent Bessie from running away to somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and tried to talk her down.

"Hey, hey girl! It's fine! It's fine."

"Moo?"

"Yeah, yeah. It's fine. She's a friend of mine. This is Silena. She is not a bad person."

I introduced her again. Silena waved her hand.

Bessie flickered her eyes between me and her several times before easing in her tub. Silena tentatively stepped forward, reached forward, and pet her snout. A small squeal of excitement escaped her mouth, which made Bessie twitch her ears and look around nervously.

"Sorry, sorry. Didn't mean that. It's just…I've never met anything like you."

Silena went on to talk about various subjects as if Bessie was her best friend. And for a half cow, half serpent monster from the ancient times, Bessie was a good companion.

Once or twice, Silena would whisper something in Bessie's ear and she'd swim around the pond in some way after returning to her new friend.

"I think she would do better in the lake, honestly," Silena said, combing the mane that treaded to the halfway mark of Bessie's back for obvious reasons. "I'm not saying you're being cruel to her, Percy, but this tub is too small for her to do…anything."

"I'd agree, but there are Naiads in there, so…"

"Oh, that's a good point. What about the creek?"

"The flow rate is too fast. I might lose her. Besides, I'd have to stay in the forest 24/7 to keep an eye on her in that case. And she can change her size if she wants to, anyway."

"Wow, you're a magician, aren't you, Bessie?"

"Moo~"

Bessie leaned forward and licked across Silena's face, making her giggle. She had to lean to one side to avoid getting squashed by Bessie, and her shirt collar shifted in the same direction.

For a split second, I caught something silver glinting underneath.

Then, Silena quickly covered up her neck with a stern look.

"No peeking, Mr. Jackson. Annabeth would have your eyes for that."

"Oh, no. I didn't—I wasn't—"

I started to splutter, only for her to break her rigid expression with a mischievous giggle.

"I'm just joking. I know you weren't."

After that, Silena whispered in Bessie's ear again. This time, to my amazement, Bessie did a small flip in the tub. Silena nodded with satisfaction and stood up, claiming that she'd spent enough time.

"Well then, I hope you have a fantastic day, Percy. And do please close the door quickly, it's a bit chilly outside."

Before I can answer back, Silena left the cabin.

I closed the door as soon as she did, just like she asked.

[Line Break]

[David's Pov]

"Charmspeak?" I asked at the top of my voice. Through the rearview mirror, I saw Zoë scoff in disgust.

"Yes, it's a rare type of hypnotism that some children of Aphrodite can use. Thou wouldn't believe how much trouble it can cause in the wrong tongue."

"And that's why you don't trust them?"

"That would be one of many. I'd refrain from calling all children of Lady Aphrodite untrustworthy, but my experiences with them had seldom been pleasant."

"Huh."

I never knew that the children of Aphrodite could have such an ability. I mean, the goddess herself has a fair sense of justice; she risked a lot to tell me about the secret of my sword, and anyone who speaks highly of my ma is at least decent in my book.

That made me wonder, what kind of—and how many abilities did a demigod have?

I know Percy has control over water because his father is the almighty Poseidon. And everyone at Cabin 5 has an unnaturally high aptitude in combat. Even though we all lost against Percy…

Does the power of the demigod depend on how powerful their godly parent is? If so, that'd be straight-up depressing.

But in the OG mythologies, the children of Zeus tended to be the prime heroes. The best of humankind, because their father was the best of the gods, despite what recent images of Zeus would make you think.

The thought bothered me more I thought about it. I asked Zoë the same question, but all the answer that came back was, "I never questioned it myself."

All the while, my motorcycle was easily topping over 200 miles per hour. I'd dip into 300s if I were alone, but Zoë was already gripping my waist like she was trying to crush my lungs, so I held back just a bit.

By the time the sun slowly dipped west, the deserts were far behind, and the small gaggle of towns zipped by as well. From afar, a cluster of green hills clouded with fogs started to approach.

"San Francisco," Zoë shouted. "I must say, this vehicle is fast."

"I know, right?"

"That does not mean I like it!"

Zoë said we needed to park at the beach. I wondered if the Sky was placed underwater or something, but when I asked that the huntress frowned through the mirror.

"Don't ask idiotic questions." She said.

Either way, we parked at the beach.

The flaming bike didn't seem to alarm anyone. To be fair, it was already past the closing time judging by the tourist placket at the parking lot.

I chirped the key without thinking, and the very large, and very loud roar of flames engulfed the bike.

I looked around, fully expecting a crowd of people either screaming or cheering about the randomly combusting/disappearing bike. But nobody gave us more than a single glance of pity.

"How are they ignoring this?"

"The Mist, David. Thou should be used to this."

Zoë rolled her eyes.

I was about to argue how could anything hide a 10ft tall fire roaring out of thin air, but Zoë jogged down to the beach before I could say a word.

After I had a mound of sand in my socks, Zoë decided to tell me what we had to do next.

"We need to find Nereus."

Nereus. I knew that name. After a few seconds of struggle, I snapped my fingers.

"The old sea god who knows everything."

"Exactly."

"But why? To get information on where the Sky is?"

Zoë grimaced. She took a deep breath, which wasn't exactly a good thing to do on the trash-infested beach, but Zoë was serious.

"Close enough. I need to know where my sister's garden is. The garden of the Hesperides."

Hesperides.

As far as I remembered, they only appeared once in the grand archive of Greek Mythology. But that one story was one of the most famous stories of all time; Hercules's 12 great labors.

In the 11th task, Hercules was ordered to get the golden apple tree that was guarded by the Hesperides.

Now, the names of the Hesperides were differentiated by the variation of stories. Heck, the number of Hesperides changed from edit to edit. Some said three, while others said 7.

Even their parentage was uncertain. It went from Atlas, to Phorcys and Keto, and even Nyx.

In summary, nothing was certain about their origin.

That's partly because they had a very little factor in the story they appeared in. They were only mentioned as the guardian of the tree, and even then, the hundred-headed dragon Ladon did the actual 'guarding' by going up against Hercules.

So when Zoë just dropped the fact that she was a Hesperide, especially when no Hesperide ever had a name 'Zoë', I had nothing to say out of confusion more than anything.

"But, your, you, what—?"

Zoë waited patiently as I tried to grasp the concept. Funnily enough, my confusion seemed to calm her down as time went by.

"Who did thee thought I would be?" She asked out of mild curiosity.

I paused and looked at the girl in front of my eyes.

She was tall, graceful, and gorgeously beautiful. She had coffee brown eyes, a slightly upturned nose, and copper-colored skin. She also developed a slight softness around the edge of her eyes that I never noticed before.

She was Zoë Nightshade.

"I never thought about it. You're Zoë Nightshade. That's all I care."

Zoë blinked at me for the longest second, then slowly melted into a smile.

"Of course, thou would say that," she said. She muttered the follow-up sentence in Ancient Greek: "I was a fool to be afraid."

I asked what was she talking about, but Zoë flicked my nose and turned back.

"Anyway, we need to find Nereus. My sister's garden cannot be located otherwise."

"But if you're a Hesperide—"

"I'm not anymore. They disowned me. For a good reason."

And Zoë didn't say anything after that.

I never thought finding a prehistoric god would ever include digging through trash. It was even more surprising to me that Zoë was rather skilled on picked up the 'items' for my 'disguise'.

"Have you done this before?"

Zoë slapped a worn-out straw hat in my face as an answer.

In the end, I was dressed up as your friendly neighborhood homeless person you'd find at a subway station, a marketplace, or a beach.

"Excellent. Thee would blend in without any suspect."

Zoë nodded with satisfaction, all the while trying not to bust out laughing.

She led the way back down to the waterfront. After scanning over some docks, Zoë finally stopped in her tracks and pointed down a pier. A bunch of homeless guys were huddled together in blankets nearby a soup store.

"Why would I need to blend in with them?"

"Because Nereus would be down there somewhere," Zoë explained. "He doesn't move far from his source of power. But, he also enjoys sunning himself while the sun is out."

"He sounds like a crocodile."

Zoë nodded in agreement.

"Yes, they inherited that trait from their creator."

My Greek nerd brain quickly took the memo that Nereus was the one who created the crocodiles. Zoë added that when I find someone that smells 'Ocean Bad', I'd have to jump on him and never let go.

I grumbled about what on earth 'Ocean Bad' meant, but Zoë assured me that I'd be able to tell when I smell it.

With that joyful info, I waddled over to the dock. It was hard to walk properly when the pants were three times my waist. I had to keep them in place with one hand.

A bunch of homeless people glared at me. They reminded me of some of the kids at Westover Hall. Not the rich ones with an attention disorder, but the ones who had to steal for food, or do some crime because their 'boss' told them to.

The thought made me solemn. Because, unlike what many people thought, not all of them came from poor families.

Some kids used to have a normal life, with a normal family. But then some accident happened—the stock market screwed them over, or someone rigged their business. And in a matter of mere days, they were forced to live on the streets.

One of the grimy dudes didn't appreciate the look in my eyes. He threw a tin can at my straw hat, knocking it sideways.

"What are you looking at, you little scrub?!" He yelled.

Something about him rubbed me the wrong way.

I tried to scurry away, but my pants were not fit for a quick escape.

The man stomped over and pushed me down, hard.

"Do you think I'm pathetic, huh? Do you?"

"N-No?"

That was apparently not the right answer. The man raised his arm, and for a moment—I flinched.

I didn't expect to recoil like that.

Then, I realized this dude resembled my worst stepfather ever. He reminds me of him a lot. More than I was comfortable with.

Unfortunately, by the time I processed that, his first was 2 inches away from knocking my teeth away. Before I could take any measures necessary, however, a hand shot from the side and grabbed his wrist.

"That's enough."

The man grunted furiously and tried to yank away his hand.

It didn't budge.

The man grunted again, pulling harder. The intruder let their hand go, and the man toppled backward a few steps.

"And who are you supposed to be—eh?"

The man looked the intruder up and down in bewilderment. I did as well; because I didn't expect to see a 13-ish-year-old girl step into a scene like that.

She had a pair of piercing black eyes, glossy black hair, and brown skin. She resembled Zoë a lot, but I immediately noticed a crucial difference.

Zoë, being a hunter, was built to be nimble and flexible, if you know what I mean. This girl, on the other hand, reminded me of a soldier. A bit sluggish, but more well-grounded and powerful.

The man grunted again, this time out of frustration.

"What kind of Frisky Powder did your mother gobble up to—"

Clearly, the girl didn't appreciate a back-handed comment about her mother. Before the man could reach the end of his words, she stepped forward with a hefty straight punch to the nose.

I heard a nasty crack as the man's nose caved in. He fell backward, knocked out cold with his nose bleeding out red blobs. He didn't even have time to scream in pain.

Did I mention this girl was like a soldier?

The girl wiped off the blood on her hand and offered it to help me up.

"Are you ok?"

I took the hand. Her grip reminded me of Clarisse. Especially when she smashed an apple with one hand.

"Yeah. I, uh, I usually fight better than this."

The girl looked me up and down. I saw a curious glint light up in her eyes. She must've noticed that I was not the average homeless child.

"I suppose so." She said, letting go of my hand.

"Then do me a favor and stand your ground next time. Romans do not let others fight for them."

"Roman?"

"Never mind."

She waved me away. I walked away after thanking her again, as the girl went over to a nearby payphone to call for an ambulance. Strange that she didn't have a phone.

No time for traumatic flashbacks or weird encounters.

I had an old sea god to find.

I circled the dock, carefully weaving through gaggles of people without gaining too much attention. But no sign or smell of Nereus. Perhaps he'd already gone back into the ocean.

I was more than ready to go back and tell Zoë the unfortunate news when someone caught my eye.

At the end of the pier, a guy who looked about a million years old was passed out in a patch of sunlight. I'd describe his appearance further if his smell didn't make my eyes burn.

Imagine a whale carcass that had been out in the sun for 50 years, filled up to the brim with oils and toxic wastes

Yeah, that was 'Ocean Bad' if I ever smelled one.

I hobbled over to him. The old man lifted his sunglass, giving me a wary look. Just then, my foot caught on the hem of one of the pants legs and I tripped face first into the sand. Again.

The old geezer snorted once and put back his sunglass. I spat sand out of my mouth and made it over to him.

"I don't have any change, brat. Scram! Before you regret something else in your life." He muttered.

"Yeah, I'm not actually in need of any change."

He lifted his sunglass once more.

"Pardon?"

"You're Nereus, right?"

The old man blinked. His eyes were emerald green, just like a shallow sea in the sun. For a moment, a tense breeze seemed to blow past between us.

Then, Nereus lurched sideways. He scrambled towards the sea like a crab a desperate need of salt water, but he stopped mid-way and turned around.

"Aren't you going to chase me?" He asked.

"Am I supposed to?"

I vaguely remembered from both the myth and Zoë's advice, saying something about grabbing on to Nereus. But I was too tired both mentally and physically to do something drastic like that.

Nereus blinked. He squinted his eyes and scanned around.

"This is a trap." He said. "You're trying to lure me into a false sense of security."

"Why would I try to trap you?"

Nereus frowned. He looked confused as much as I was.

"You're a hero, aren't you? You're looking for me to get an answer."

"Yes."

The old man clapped and stomped around in one place. If I wasn't so tired, I would've found the scene hilarious.

"Ah-ha! I knew it! I'm fed up with you heroes trying to wrestle with me. I am done!"

"I'm sorry, but do I have to grab you to get an answer?"

Nereus stopped dead in the middle of his weird dance moves.

"What?"

I suppressed the urge to just give up everything.

"Do I have to grab you to get an answer to my question?"

The old sea god slowly lowered his arm and leg. A deep frown was etched on his face. He huddled into a small ball and dragged a finger across the wet sand, mumbling with a language that I can't nor bothered to understand.

"Well, no…" He concluded.

"But that's what you heroes do all the time!"

"Well, I just need an answer to a question. Can I get one?"

Nereus frowned even deeper. It was as if the question I'm asking was something world-breaking from his perspective. Honestly, it made me wonder if gods could get dementia because Nereus was showing symptoms of it.

"I, I suppose…I guess. No one has ever come up to ask me ever since that Heracles punk. But only because you are the most pathetic demigod I've ever seen."

Scratch that. Maybe I should've just tackled him immediately. But I wasn't going to ruin everything when I just got the confirmation.

Zoë ran over to us.

"Did you…catch him?" She asked, frowning as well.

Nereus grunted.

"No, I'm feeling sorry for this brat. And…and I guess I could try being a bit nicer to your kind." He nodded in my direction for some reason. "But only a bit! One question, and that's it."

"I need to go change my clothes. Zoë, You ask the question."

When I return in my good old regular clothing, Zoë was standing by the staring blankly into the sea. The moon was on its way, and the old sea god was nowhere to be found.

"Where's Nereus?" I asked.

"He left." She answered in a hollow voice. "As an Orca."

I wondered if she was joking or had gone mad. Then I remembered; Nereus had the power to shapeshift into any sea creature he wanted. That's why Zoë told me to grab on to him when I find him.

Well, I guess things worked out, weirdly enough.

"Did he tell you how to get to the garden?"

"He, he just gave me this."

Zoë showed what she had in her hand. It was a small flower with five purple petals.

"What is that?"

"It's a Nightshade."

I looked up at her. She was looking down at the nightshade as if it was the most difficult riddle on the earth.

Normally, I'd guess it would be a magic flower. You know the kind, where it would face in the direction of the place you seek, or the petal would fall off as you get closer, etc.

But I could tell, that this was nothing special. It was just a flower of a Nightshade. And Zoë knew that better than I would.

"Zoë, I think Nereus means—"

"No." Zoë shook her head.

"No. It can't mean that. I can't find the garden—I'm not a Hesperide. I have been disowned. I—"

"Zoë."

Zoë stopped in the middle of her rant. She looked like the entire world was falling around her. I've never seen her this shocked after Niobe's castle.

"Zoë, Family is something you can't just disown."

At least, the family in a moral sense. I'd never classify machete as my family, even if he was my stepfather by law. You know what I mean.

Zoë clutched her hand. The Nightshade getting crumpled in her hand, as she hugged her shoulder more tightly than ever before.

"But that—they wouldn't have, forgiven me—"

Whatever Zoë was about to say, I had to cut short.

I tackled us both into the sea as multiple whizzing sounds of flaming projectiles came from behind. With a splash, we submerged underwater. And not a second too late.

Boom! Boom, Boom!

Several explosions destroyed the pier we were standing on. Flaming shrapnel of woods rained down into the water as pedestrians screamed from above.

But I was more concerned about Zoë. All the things that just suddenly happened before her eyes, and she was still in her shocked state. She didn't even blink in the seawater.

Then, something whipped around my neck and yanked me upwards.

My face broke the surface, and I managed one huge gulp of air before I was thrust sideways onto the sand.

As I coughed and spluttered, a huge shadow loomed over my head. A shadow, nearing 20 feet tall with a muscular, quadruped feature like a lion, yet standing on two hind legs.

And most importantly, those odd-colored eyes that used to haunt me every day at Westover Hall.

"Good evening, Mr. Lee." A thickly French-accented voice said.

"It's time for your permanent detention."

The Manticore—Dr. Thorn growled.

Oh boy, this was a mouthful.

I don't think it's a spoiler for anyone that Silena is a mole, right?

The Last Olympian came out in 2009; if you had gotten spoiled just now, I'd say it's more your fault than mine. Go read the book anyway before you read further in this fanfic. It would be a better one to read, that's for sure.

I intended this chapter to be fully focused on Camp Half-Blood as a setup for afterward, but then I thought I had way too many setups for the last 4 or 5 chapters, so I thought "What could go wrong?" and pushed forward the main story of this arc as fast as I dared.

As always, I leave the decision up to you guys.

Except for the Silena part. Because I like her, and I wanted to see her act as a mole.

I don't care if I overdid the part or not. I regret nothing. Bite me.

And, I didn't realize how many secrets Zoe had until I had to reveal them one by one.

On one hand, she lived (in this story, at least) far longer than most of the gods, so naturally, she'd have a lot to hide. But then again, I think I used that trope to its limit by this point. Luckily, this would be the last secret Zoe had kept hidden if all goes to plan. I'd say it would get revealed by the next chapter, the next-next one if I get too talky again.

Let's hope that doesn't happen because I am very excited to get to the end of this storyline.

Not because I am tired of it, but because I've started to think of this whole story for the climax moment of this arc.

It's the original spark, so to say. A lot has changed since my first depiction, but I am pumped nonetheless.

Now, enough of baiting the climax; I hope you had fun reading, and I'll see you next chapter.

Ta ta~