Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters (except the OC's) Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Heroes Of Olympus, or Trials Of Apollo. All of that belongs to Rick Riordan.

Now then, on with the tenth chapter. My personal favorite so far.

10. We Stay At The Ultimate Hotel

Don't even ask me how we got in, I could barely tell you.

All I registered was Talon poking around the buildings in front of us and murmuring some ancient Greek phrases.

He stepped back, and the unthinkable happened, the two buildings began to separate.

It was like someone was pushing them apart, they literally slid away from each other on the ground, not causing any damage, uprooting any dirt or asphalt, they just moved perfectly, revealing another larger, nicer building in between more and more the farther away they got.

At first it was transparent, then it began to take form, eventually materializing in front of us. The Paradise Inn.

It was huge, like a royal palace had been poofed into existence right in front of me. My mouth fell open, Harper's eyes widened so much I thought that the left one would fall out, and Annabeth was gushing at the architecture, nearly forgetting about Percy leaning on her. The building was so tall it reached up to the sky, way taller than the empire state building, or for that matter, any building in the world. It seemed to have no end.

Talon exhaled and turned to us, "See what I told you, just wait until you get inside."

I couldn't even imagine it. The outside looked perfect enough. Imagine the White House, then combine it with a Chinese palace, then combine it with the Greek Parthenon, then combine it with a Roman fortress, then a medieval castle, and you've got this place. It seemed to accommodate every culture, every design, it radiated a warm energy, like a cozy campfire, or a hearth, the hearth of Olympus in fact. I had heard that there was one up there. I wondered if there was one inside, created by Hestia herself.

We mindlessly followed the assassin up a dozen pure white steps before he opened the regal gold plated doors. He didn't hold it open for us of course, and let it nearly slam in Annabeth's face, which it almost did, because she was still sputtering something about pillars and door designs. She caught it though, let Percy through, and the door then closed on me and Harper.

We looked each other in the eye at the same time, shrugged, then entered Paradise.

And yeah, it was paradise.

I can't even accurately describe it. That's how amazing it is. I can't even comprehend the serenity, yet the sense of fun and awesomeness that fills this place, but I'll try. It was larger than the Plaza first of all. The ceiling went up about the length of a football field, chandeliers and fancy accessories dangling from it. The carpet was red and gold, filled with engravings and beautiful designs. Most of them depicting the gods, I didn't know if they were accurate or not, but they looked really cool. Some of the other sketches included some heroes. I saw to my far right on the floor what I guessed to be a depiction of my father wrestling the three headed Cerberus, the guard dog of the Underworld. Yet another beast I'll have to fight. I glanced in front of me and saw what had to be Theseus fighting the Minotaur in the labyrinth. Jason and the Argonauts, Odysseus, then a particular one caught my eye. It couldn't be...

"Uh, Percy, Annabeth..." I pointed to the image I spotted.

On the carpet where I pointed lay a depiction of Percy Jackson and a tall figure with what appeared to be horns and a scythe, locked in a fierce battle. I knew only one major big bad that carried a scythe, and it was Kronos, the King of the Titans, and the Lord of Time.

Their eyes widened, and Percy lazily smiled, "Sweet."

Annabeth lightly swatted his arm, "It is not sweet! How do they know who you are?"

Harper chuckled, "Look around the floor. All of the greats are here, so whoever runs this place recognized that Kelp head should be acknowledged."

I couldn't disagree. Percy's resume was really good, and I couldn't think of a more worthy demigod. But as I looked at Annabeth, I could've swore I saw a hint of jealousy on her face. And I realized, she had been with him during pretty much all of his exploits, and helped him. I would be jealous too if I was left out of the glory to be honest. And I heard that children of Athena's biggest weakness was their pride, so I guess that didn't make it easier.

We took another minute just to take in everything. There were a dozen giant white desks around us in lines, getting customers booked in rooms left and right. There were hundreds of people walking around, lined up, but there was more than enough space. This hotel could fit the entire population of New York and it wouldn't matter, it was that big. And I hadn't even seen the whole thing yet.

The rest of the lobby looked like the Grand Opera. Giant stairs and hallways leading different directions, wide pillars as tall as skyscrapers holding up the ceiling. There were demigods and mortals walking and milling about happily, all of their auras warm and content. I could read them, and to me, it was a feeling of overwhelming peace and excitement.

At the center of the massive lobby was what appeared to be a giant totem pole. Only it was an owl at the top. Chiseled with extreme concentration, and it seemed to be alive, staring through my soul, reading my thoughts, gauging my intelligence. Something told me that Athena had been here a couple of times.

The pole had signs on them, they were directions. They were shaped like rectangles and had arrows at the end, pointing to a different direction. They pointed side to side, up and down, diagonal, and every which way. I could barely make out the words, due to my dyslexia, but I caught a few. I saw Swimming pool, directed to the right, I saw weightroom to the left, shooting range upstairs, golf course upstairs, basketball court downstairs, arcade in front of us, training arena to the left, just to name a few. There were literally like a hundred others pointing all over the place.

Talon beamed, "This place is awesome huh? Oh man, I'm gonna be spending a lot of time in the shooting range. Gotta beat my record from last time! Two hundred rounds directly to the head! Never even moving an inch away!"

I frowned, "How do you beat that? If you don't move?"

He snorted like the answer was obvious, "Shoot three hundred rounds instead of two hundred, duh."

Silly me.

Percy seemed to be doing better, because he wasn't leaning on Annabeth anymore, and was smiling, "Oh, they have a swimming pool! I'm there all day!"

"Hot tub would do me some great favors." I agreed.

"I bet they have a huge library!" Annabeth wondered happily. Oh-kay, not something I would be excited about, but daughter of wisdom and smartness, she's into that stuff.

Percy shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose, "All this awesome stuff, and you want to read?"

She looked offended, "Of course. If this place is as big as it seems, imagine what kind of knowledge they have!"

Talon raised an eyebrow, "Uh, you know hotels don't have libraries, right?"

Annabeth pointed at the pole, "It says Huge Awesome Library right there. I know where I'm going as soon as we get our rooms set up."

Percy nudged her and put on a strange pouting face. I was a little weirded out. I had never seen the Son of Poseidon like that, or even thought he could convey a...baby seal? Seriously, the dude looked like a baby sea animal with those eyes. I realized this look had to only be reserved for Annabeth.

"But I thought that you could come to the pool with me. We could have a water gun fight or something?" He said pleadingly.

I saw Annabeth melt at the look, trying to fight it, but gave in after a few seconds, "Okay, fine. I'll go, but not for too long."

Percy beamed in victory and pecked her on the lips. Talon groaned and pretended to vomit.

Harper was looking at the pole intensely, and then all of a sudden she squealed and jumped up and down, startling all of us. I never in a million years thought I would hear Harper squeal like a normal giddy girl.

"They have a soundproof room filled with electric guitars! How the heck have I not heard of this place sooner?!"

I turned to her, "You play electric guitar?"

She nodded, smiling, "Oh yeah. I'm not too bad."

"Why didn't you have one at camp?"

"Too loud. Chiron said it would...disturb the pegasi and the lake spirits. Whatever that means."

I nodded, liking the fact that yet again, I had found out something else about her. I really hoped that we got the opportunity to talk about things later. And with Talon as well, we needed an explanation on Nikandreos and the Malachi Island thing.

But for now, I was still in awe. This place seemed too good to be true. There had to be a catch. I mean, I know Talon said that if you stay too long you explode from the godly energy, but that's not so bad. There had to be something else, because this was literal heaven right now.

"Why thank you." A new voice said.

We all turned and saw the source of the words. A tall man in a nice white business suit stood there. He looked like a doctor and lawyer mixed, with neatly combed black hair, trimmed beard, and a friendly smile. His teeth were blinding white, he surged warmth and comfort, like the greatest hospitality in the world, this guy was the hotel, the spirit of weary travelers at rest.

"And what can I do for you fine young adults on this equally fine evening?" He said, the smile only widening. But it wasn't creepy or forced, it was natural. Like this guy's number one priority was our comfort and satisfaction.

Talon stepped forward, "Yo, Paradus, it's me. Remember? Talon, the Hitman guy?"

Paradus nodded, "Ah, yes. Talon! Welcome back my friend. Glad you stopped by for another visit! And with friends!"

Talon shook his head, "Not friends. They're clients of mine. And we've been through a lot, so if we could just-"

But Paradus lit up, as if he'd just found Heavenly Diamond, "Forgive me, but are you Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase?"

The two nodded, a little suspicious. Couldn't blame them. Nothing was as it seemed in this world, and Paradus' friendly demeanor could be an act.

But he only grinned wider, if possible, and exclaimed, "Wow! Big fan. You guys are fantastic! I've enjoyed every tale of the mighty Percy Jackson and the Wise Annabeth Chase! Your parents must be so proud."

Annabeth blushed a little at the wise comment, and Percy beamed, "Wait, your a...fan?"

"Oh yes! In my opinion you trump the others by a mile! We respect heroes here, and honor them. So we can't be biased. But keeping it between us, you two are the crown jewel."

"Ah, I don't know about that..." Percy said, scratching his neck.

I was a little confused though, "Wait, how do you know about them?"

He turned to me, his eyes were like a warm cabin in the middle of a blizzard, nearly all of my worries left me, and he said, "Oh, people talk. Gossip and campfire stories. I also heard some things from Lord Hermes."

"Hermes comes here?"

"Oh yes. Quite a lot actually. Considering he's my father."

"Hermes is your dad?" Harper said before I could.

"Indeed. And my mother was an immortal nature spirit. She caught his eye, and I was the result. Paradus, a minor deity. The god of hotels, the god of the Paradise Inn, and assistant to Lord Hermes."

"You're a god?" I asked.

"Yes, a minor one. Bound to this place for eternity, all though I am fine with that. It is my life's passion to provide hospitality. Has been for about a thousand years. When I was born, I represented the side of father that covered inns and temporary rest. The comfort for weary wanderers, that is me."

Before we could respond, Talon said impatiently, "Yeah, and we're weary. So can we get our room keys or not?"

I thought that he was going to blast Talon into the giant totem pole thing, but he only chuckled and said, "Of course. I shouldn't hold you up any longer. I am very busy indeed. So how will it be...all of you in the same room?"

"You have rooms that big?" Harper said in awe.

He smiled at her, "Oh yes. We have suites that can fit one hundred people if needed. Although that is a bit pricey."

Talon said, "No, we aint gonna be in the same room. I ain't dealing with these people twenty-four seven. I need my space."

Annabeth snorted, "For what? So you can practice your gun spinning?"

Talon's ears turned a little red, "I'll have you know that gun trickery is an ancient art!"

I didn't even know if weapons were allowed in here. But judging by Paradus' face, he didn't have a problem with it. And if he did, he was a god, he could turn the weapon into a pencil or something.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and told Paradus, "A single room for our friend here. As far away as possible. And two separate rooms next to each other. One for Percy and Matt, the other for Harper and I. Suites would be preferred, if that's alright."

Harper quickly turned to Annabeth and said almost urgently, "Um, actually...I was wondering if Matt and I could room together?"

I don't know who was more shocked, Me or Annabeth. My heart immediately started running a marathon, and Annabeth looked like she'd just been shocked by one of Malachi's lightning bolts.

"W-what?" Annabeth said in disbelief.

Harper shifted uneasily, "We just...need to talk about some things. Things that could take all night." Then she blushed and quickly said, "And besides, don't you and Percy want a room to yourselves?"

It was Annabeth's turn to blush, "Well, that would be nice, but I can't just let you room with Matt without supervision. Not saying I don't trust him, but It's just...are you sure?"

"Positive. It would be easier."

Annabeth wasn't convinced, she probably felt responsible for Harper. Like an older sister. Who didn't want her younger sister rooming with some boy that most likely has a crush on her. I understood, I couldn't imagine the thought of sleeping in the same hotel room as Harper. Butterflies started having a party in my stomach after I thought that.

Percy stepped behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, "Hey, we can trust them. If they need to work some things out, let em' work it out. Besides, we'll be right next door if they need us."

Annabeth still didn't look one hundred percent certain, but Percy had definitely eased her nerves a little. "Okay" she said. "Just...be smart, and don't do anything foolish."

I knew what she meant by foolish, and my stomach butterflies multiplied in number.

"We won't" I promised.

Talon groaned, "Yay, honeymoon suites all around. Let's get our freakin' keys."

Paradus laughed, and in the next second, five white cards with the word Paradise engraved in gold materialized in his hands. He handed them to each of us, we took it, thanked him, and made our way to the elevator.

As soon as we turned the corner, we saw a thousand elevators, people lined up to get on, and they were moving quickly. The one in front of us was short, and by the time we got to it, the elevator was empty. The doors were white and gold of course, the buttons all either emerald or ruby. The interior was huge, and fit us perfectly. My guess was that it stretched to whatever size of the party.

We got in and saw a gajillion buttons to the left. A monitor screen showing a map, each buttons had numbers on them and reached all the way to nine hundred and ninety nine. Pointing in different directions, I wondered if this elevator could move in more ways than just up and down.

My question was answered as soon as Talon looked at our cards, saw the numbers two hundred and thirty eight, and then pressed the button with the same number.

We immediately shot upward, we all stayed in place though, it felt like a force was keeping us from falling and tumbling. Eventually we went sideways, then diagonal, all at a million miles an hour, nearly zooming through time. Elevator music played, some tune that didn't even get annoying, unlike most elevator songs. We finally came to an abrupt stop, and the elevator opened gently, we were faced with a line of people waiting to get on.

Talon shoved us off, and said, "If you need me, too bad. I'm taking a break from you guys. We'll meet in the dining area tomorrow morning. For now, I'm hitting up the shooting range!" After he said that, the line moved forward, a dozen people piling in, I saw the elevator expand to accommodate the new size, then the doors closed, and I heard a loud whizzing, then it became faint, and it was gone.

We all stood there in silence for a moment. Then Annabeth said, "Alright, come on. Let's go check out our homes for the night."

Best hotel room ever.

Both of them were right next to each other. First we all went in our room, I guess so Annabeth could give me a warning on not to do anything inappropriate. The room was amazing, the ceiling was ten feet high, a giant flat screen mounted on a wall, any kind of game system you wanted under it on a table, a full sized kitchen in sight, with granite countertops and a refrigerator the size of the Hydra. I saw the bathroom, it had a literal celestial bronze toilet. I'm not kidding, the toilet was made of celestial bronze. And I couldn't get a good look at the shower, but I had no doubt that it was massive too.

I looked around and caught sight of the closet, I opened it and to my surprise, it was filled with clothes that I liked. On one half there were my set of clothes, and on the other, were Harper's. My side was lined up with plain tees, jeans, red swimming trunks, pajamas with little Nemean Lion cartoons on them, and in a drawer, were a pair of extremely nice sneakers and Nike socks. I looked on Harper's side, and saw only black. Black leather jackets, black tank tops, black ripped jeans, black pajamas with crescent moons on them, black boots, and a black two-piece bikini. That last one made me look away quickly, the thought of Harper in that thing...woah, buddy.

I walked forward slowly, a grin on my face. I noticed two king sized beds a few feet away from each other, their own little nightstands with lamps on them.

Harper immediately plopped on the bed to the far end of the room, claiming it as hers. She spread herself out like a spider, and closed her eyes, groaning in stress relief.

"This is incredible. I think I'll just go to sleep..." She murmured. And within seconds, she was out.

Percy laughed, "Can't blame her, we've been through hell today."

I agreed. Looking at Harper sleeping, she was so peaceful and cute. Just like when she was passed out next to me in the infirmary, mouth parted slightly, chest going up and down in a pattern of breaths.

I mentally punched myself. Stop being so creepy, I thought.

Annabeth noticed my gaze and looked at me, her face serious. "Matt, I know that you like her."

I immediately recoiled, sputtering nonsense like, "Uh, nah! n-no way! nope, none of that here!"

She held her hand up for silence, and I shut up. My shoulders slumped in defeat, "Alright fine. I have a tiny crush on her, just don't announce it to the world, she might hear you!"

Percy walked over to Harper, "Doubt that." Then he snapped his fingers loudly in front of her face, after a dozen times, I saw her face scrunch in annoyance, and then to my greater surprise, she leaned up, eyes still closed, and bit his finger.

A laugh erupted from Annabeth and I, we tried to suppress it, but it was hilarious. Percy yelped and jumped back, nearly tumbling on the other bed. He held his finger, and turned to us wide eyed, "Holy Hephaestus! She could've took my finger off!"

"That's what you get" Annabeth said, still snickering.

Percy shook his hand a couple of times, then said to us, "I'm gonna check out our room. And put this finger in ice..." He walked out, shutting the door behind him.

I was left with an intimidating Annabeth.

She looked at me with warning, not anger. It was like a mother, telling you to be careful at the party you convinced her you should go to, but she still didn't like the idea.

"I trust you, Matt. And I know you care about her, and would never do anything inappropriate."

I nodded.

"I hate being the bad cop. I'm starting to sound like a parent. But I just have to say, keep to yourselves, and if you..." Then she looked at Harper to make sure she was still asleep, and she was. Annabeth leaned in a little, and whispered, "Make a move...just don't get too carried away. Got it?"

My face turned bright red, I said, "Got it. But, Annabeth...I'm not gonna be making any moves. It would be way too awkward. I don't wanna ruin our friendship by confessing feelings that I know she won't reciprocate."

She raised an eyebrow, "You don't think she likes you back?"

I nodded, "Why would she. She already had a jerk boyfriend that abused her, and bad experiences with people in general. I just...don't see it. I need to get over this stupid crush."

She actually smiled, and sat on the other bed, motioning for me to sit next to her. I did, kind of nervous.

"The amount of times I thought that about Percy...gods, I can't even count. I had a crush on him from the start, but don't dare tell him that."

I nodded.

"Anyway, after a while of dropping hints, and flirting, giving him the idea that I was interested in more than friendship...nothing. He was so dense, it made me nuts. I thought a lot about it, that I was stupid for feeling that way, that I should just give up. And when Rachel came along. Well, those feelings amplified."

I thought about that name for a second, then remembered where I heard it from, "Rachel? As in the Camp's oracle? Percy and her?"

She nodded, "Yeah. Here she is, a mortal that he barely knows, writing her phone number on his arm, him saying that he'll call her, and then bringing her on our quest? It infuriated me. And I'll admit, I hated her. She wasn't mean or anything. A little annoying, but I was just so jealous. And then...the next summer, he starts hanging out with her. Planning on going to the beach with her and her family, not even giving me a second thought."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, Percy and another girl? I mean, of course when you're a teenager, you're gonna be attracted to different people and not stick with the same person. But I don't know. I always thought Percy and Annabeth's relationship was...perfect. No bumps in the road.

"It hurt didn't it." I said.

She nodded, "It hurt so bad. I kept wondering what she had that I didn't, I kept thinking about the moments proving that maybe...he cared about me in the same way, only to push those thoughts out of my head and remember her kissing his cheek at the end of that quest. Granted, I probably could have handled my hinting better, but I made it pretty clear at some points."

"Well, what happened?" I asked.

She smiled, "I can't really place the moment. There were so many parts of the Battle of Manhattan that I discovered how much he cared about me. He showed me his Achilles heel, he protected me from Hermes, he asked me to kiss him for luck. But...I'd have to say it was the aftermath, on Olympus. The gods offered him immortality-"

"Wait, what? Like becoming a god?" I said incredulously.

She nodded, "Yeah. They offered him one gift from the gods. And that includes the gift of godhood if he choosed. A gift that if I recall, was last presented to your father, Hercules, centuries ago."

I couldn't believe it. I had never heard that about Percy. That brought his level of awesomeness up in my book. But he obviously wasn't a god right now, so...

"He turned it down." Annabeth said. "Later he told me why. Partly because he wanted to use his wish for something else. And partly because he didn't want to leave me." She blushed a little at the last part.

Whoa. To turn down immortality, infinite power and durability, for a single person. That's not a crush, that's love.

"What did he use his gift for?"

"He told the gods to promise him that they would start claiming all of their children. And they've kept that promise fairly well so far. Before, we only had twelve cabins at camp. But because of Percy's deal, we have twenty to thirty now. Maybe more."

I couldn't even fathom being that selfless. Percy was the man. The dude had done literally what I would have done. Stuck it to the gods and telling them to get their crap together.

"So is that when you two got together?"

"Shortly after. At camp, we sat by the lake and eventually kissed. And the next day, we made it official."

I nodded, "So...what are you getting at by telling me this?"

She put a hand on my shoulder, "The point is, that it may seem hopeless, and that there's not a chance in the world. But you just have to give it time, and be bold. When you think the time is right, tell her how you feel. You might be surprised."

I thought for a moment. She sounded so sure, but I wasn't sold completely. To be nice though, I nodded and said, "Thanks. This...helped."

She smiled and got up, "You're welcome. We'll be in the next room if you need us."

I waved, but then a thought popped up and I quickly said, "Wait Annabeth, I have a question."

She turned, "Okay, go ahead."

"What if Percy accepted godhood?"

She was a little stunned, "Um, I don't know, Matt. I mean, he didn't-"

"But what if he did?" I interrupted.

She shrugged, "Then he would have become a minor god. Serving as his father's right hand for eternity. And my heart would've been shattered."

"There was always that possibility. There's always the possibility that it won't work out..."

"Matt, you have to be hopeful-"

"You're a daughter of Athena. Don't be illogical. There's always the chance of things not working out. And I'm not just talking about a relationship."

She was shocked at my words. "Yes, there's always that chance. But don't be pessimistic."

"Maybe it's not. Maybe it's realistic."

She thought on that, pursing her lips. Then said, "Sometimes it's good to be realistic. And sometimes it's good to have hope. Even if it means losing sight of reality."

I had to think on that. I couldn't come up with a response. Putting hope over what's real?

"I-I don't know. But, thanks for talking with me. It did help a little, really."

She nodded, "Don't mention it." Then she turned and just before she disappeared completely, she said, "Remember, right next door." Then she closed ours, leaving me alone, a sleeping Harper not six feet away.

I managed to get an hour of shut eye, and the vision that followed was every bit as frightening and confusing as the others.

I was back on the island, of course. The Man in the Cloak walking towards a cave entrance, a crow on his shoulder now. Which I thought was weird, crows don't live on tropical islands.

He walked, his cloak flapping lightly from the breeze, the crow turning its head occasionally, he passed a line of palm trees, and then finally arrived in front of the cave entrance. He looked around, like he was making sure no one was watching, then he entered the cave.

I followed behind him, he trekked through the cavern, and it was beautiful. Rock patterns etched like they had been designed by Hephaestus. Some were gray and some were emerald green, water was rushing in a stream to the side, and I could hear a heavy waterfall in the distance. He kept walking, the waterfall getting closer, and kept looking around, gripping the sword at his waist. What was he on the look out for?

Eventually he came on another entrance, except this one was a lot smaller. He had to squeeze his way through, and when he did, he entered a closed in circular cavern. White Ice crystals decorated the roof, a giant waterfall crashing into a pit below, and in the middle...was a girl trapped in ice.

There was ice jagged everywhere, and in the center of the mass stood a giant frozen clear cube, I could see a girl with white hair, pale skin, slim frame, wearing a dress, she had her arms in front of her separated slightly, her eyes were closed. She was stunning. She looked like a princess. But I was so confused by this, I had no idea why there would be a girl trapped in this cave. Was this part of the operation years ago?

The Man in the Cloak inched forward. He reached a gloved hand out and touched the cube with the tip of his finger, he was immediately thrown back. A shockwave erupted and sent him flying across the rocks, the crow cawing and leaving his shoulder, flapping wildly.

The Man looked up, from what I could see of his face, it was contorted in surprise, the X shaped scar taking a weird form at this. The crow started making a ton of noise, cawing desperately, but it was too late. The entrance burst open, and a gray mist filled the room, small volts of electricity crackled within it.

"What are you doing in here, fool?" The voice said, and stepped through the mist. It was Malachi. He looked...really pissed off.

The man stood up, "Discovering your secrets. I had a feeling something was in this cavern. The way that you told me not to go near it, the urgency in which you protected it. Well now here I am, to find a...girl trapped in ice? What the hell is going on? Explain to me!"

Malachi's face contorted with pure rage, his entire upper body flexed and strained, showing off veins in his muscles. "You will speak to me with respect! I do not take orders from you!"

But the man didn't back down. I'll admit, he was brave. "Please, Master. Tell me what the purpose is. As your most trusted soldier, I will not tell a soul."

Malachi must've been thinking for a minute, and the very likely suspicion that Ouranos was possessing his body only seemed truer and truer. As he looked at the girl, I could see his expression changing back and forth between who Talon perceived Malachi to be, and Ouranos inside.

"Sera is..." He started, his voice soft. Oh, so that was Sera? The girl Talon mentioned? "She is..."

The man waited patiently. Malachi was silent, before changing his face back to Ouranos. "Seraphina is a daughter of Khione, the snow goddess. She is Malachi's former lover. I trapped her in her own attack." He laughed, remembering the event fondly, "She's been frozen for a while now!"

The man's eyes widened, "You mean...but why? Why trap her?"

His smile faded to a scowl, "You fool!" He barked, "If he sees her, it could trigger a reaction, as it just did not moments ago! I must keep her here for now. I'll figure out what to do with her later on. Perhaps if her mind can be warped...she can be useful."

The man looked uneasy, "Who exactly was Malachi before all of this, my lord?"

"That is none of your concern. All you need to do is keep to yourself and worry about your own problems. How is the recruitment going?"

The man looked down and said nothing.

"Well?" Ouranos, I guess I should call him, demanded.

"Unsuccessful." He said, "But she will eventually join us. Her heart is swaying, and if we can get her, we can get the others."

"I don't know about Jackson and Chase. They actually respect their parents. And the boy...perhaps. He has no love for his father, or any of the gods."

"Yes!" The Man said, almost desperately. "And he's fond of her, so if she joins, he will follow her. And if we have him, we won't need to worry about Jackson. His powers are weaker than they once were."

"Indeed. My battle with him proved this. Even with aid from his father's domain, he could not bring out even a quarter of the my power. Yet, you believe that the Son of Hercules is more powerful than Jackson?"

The Man nodded, "Not currently, but he is rapidly gaining control, his latent power is immense. If he gains control, trains his rage, he could be a serious threat."

"And you have faith that you can persuade the girl to join. Along with the boy?"

"I am positive. I just need more time, my lord."

Ouranos considered, then said, "Fine. Continue with your invasion of dreams."

"Thank you, Master."

The split second I heard that, a thunderous boom shook the island, and a crack roared through my eardrums. I immediately sensed a very powerful aura, a goddesses' aura unleash.

The cloaked man stumbled, "What was that?!"

Malachi didn't move, he stood still and gauged the threat inwardly, as if sensing what was going on outside.

"Hera..." his eyes widened, "She's escaped!"

Both of them bolted out of the cavern and into the open. I was pushed outside behind them, as they both looked up. Hera had taken her true form, and in a flash of white light, she zoomed into the sky, leaving a giant crater in the sand.

I was silently rooting for her. I mean, if she escaped on her own, then there would be no more need for the quest, and we could just go back to Camp.

"No!" The man screamed, "We can't let her go!"

"I'll get her." Ouranos said. Just as I got my hopes up, he disappeared in a flash of lightning, reappearing out in the sea in front of Hera. What happened next, completely floored me.

Ouranos, in Malachi's body, transformed into the largest thing I'd ever seen. It's foot alone easily dwarfed a nearby dormant volcano. It was a combination of smoke, lightning, monster heads, scaly skin, fur, and all sorts of terrifying stuff meshed together in one, giant, immeasurable monster. It had to be ten times as tall as the Empire State Building. I mean, I'm talking tens of thousands of feet. I knew that this size could only be applicable to one monster, the father of all of them, Typhon.

But that made no sense. How could Ouranos just transform into Typhon like that? How could he do such a thing in Malachi's body? And...wasn't Typhon incapacitated a long time ago?

Hera in her true form, a giant white peacock, shining as bright as a star, soared upward at the speed of light, trying to avoid the titanic creature. I don't know how I kept up, because I was sure she was moving far faster than I ever could.

But when she went up, she was met with a colossal hand, it smacked her with a nuclear shockwave, sending her back to the Cursed Island. The peacock faded in midair, and she crashed in the water, splitting the observable sea in half.

She was sent into the depths, where she flew in a straight line across miles of sea, splitting the ground underneath, until it looked like the entire ocean had been cut in half. Miles of waves parted at three hundred feet high, creating an abyss, any piece of land caught in between was obliderated.

I then saw Typhon disappear in the storm clouds, and a large bolt of lightning crashed way into the distance, beyond the horizon where Hera lay.

The lightning bolt crashed in front of the cloaked man, and I saw Ouranos holding Hera by the neck on the ground. Her white dress in tatters, and she was bruised. Ouranos had water dripping from his body, his pants soaked and hair clinging to Malachi's face.

He wasn't even out of breath, "Where do you think you're going, Hera?"

She winced and seethed, coughing from being waterlogged, and from Ouranos choking her.

Ouranos looked at the man, "Gather our forces and tell them the next course of action." He craned his head to glare at Hera, "As for you...well, I'll deal with you."

"You'll both..." She coughed again, barely able to get the words out, "...pay for this. Zeus will show you no mercy!"

Ouranos chuckled, "He won't find out. And if he does, who's to say he'll come at all? By now, he's probably found a new woman to marry, considering his track record with such matters. Honestly woman, how do you put up with that brat? I almost feel sorry for you!"

"I don't," The cloaked man growled, "The Olympians are fools. The so-called king of the gods can't even keep his promise of marriage, and this wench just goes along with it."

Hera's eyes turned white; she directed a sudden surge of energy at the man. A white jet of light shot at him, taking the form of a small peacock, but he reacted with extreme speed, and morphed into a legion of crows. The peacock caught nothing, and the crows dove at it, pecking it relentlessly until it dispersed. Once killed, the crows reassembled themselves to form the man again, like nothing happened.

"You'll have to do better than that." He said, upon reassembling.

Ouranos smirked and began dragging Hera by the hair, "Come, little goddess. I think it's time we break your spirit even more..."

Seeing her get manhandled like that...made me feel bad, and scared for her, despite our history. Even she didn't deserve this.

Before leaving eyesight, Ouranos called over his shoulder, "If you're plan turns unsuccessful, the girl's life is mine!"

The man grit his teeth, but said nothing. Ouranos and Hera left vision as they passed the slope of sand, inciting silence.

The man shook his head and looked out over the sea for a moment, staring into the distance. Then he closed his eyes, lowered his head, and muttered, "Just a little more time." He quickly shrunk in size and turned into a single, large crow, flying off into another part of the island.

I woke up.

I just opened my eyes gently, like I knew that the vision was over. I wasn't in a puddle of sweat, I wasn't shaking, I had woken up like I actually got good rest.

But I didn't.

The events of the vision kept replaying in my head. The girl Talon talked about, Sera, trapped in an ice block, Ouranos supposedly using Malachi's body to turn into Typhon and smack Hera across the sea, the man continuing to coax Harper to join them, and what disturbed me most, was thinking about what Hera would have to go through now. Probably extensive torture in the worst ways imaginable.

My trance was broken when I heard a voice next to me say, "Well, well, the princess awakes."

I turned my head and saw Harper smirking at me. She must've taken a shower in the time I was asleep, because she changed her clothes. Getting out of the custom camp shirt and putting on another black tee, with a crescent moon design on the front. Her jeans hadn't changed, but that didn't mean much, considering they all looked the same in that closet I saw earlier.

She had taken off her combat boots though, and thrown them in the corner of the room, wearing comfortable black socks instead that stopped at her ankles. She looked completely relaxed, leaning against a pillow in front of the headboard and eating popcorn, watching some TV drama on the huge flat screen.

I rubbed my eyes, "When did you get up?"

"Twenty minutes ago. You've been out for a couple of hours. I was worried the volume might wake you up, but turns out you're a heavy dozer." She smiled, "I was tempted to put whipped cream on your hand and do the old tickle-the-nose trick."

I sat up on the edge of my bed, "Ha ha, very funny."

She snickered, the must've noticed the look on my face, and hers mirrored it. Confusion. "What's up? You have a nightmare? Or uh..." She looked out the window and saw sunlight through the curtains. "...a daymare?"

"Yeah." I told her everything from my vision, not holding anything back. The part that got her the most was when I mentioned the cloaked man's plans of conversion for us. It made her clench her fists and put down the popcorn bag.

"Those guys...their monsters. I mean, I'm not a fan of Hera, but...poor goddess."

I nodded, "Yeah, it was pretty bad. I mean, what's up with that Typhon thing? And why did the cloaked guy say your heart was swaying?" I leaned forward, "It's not, right?"

She shook her head, "Hell no. I don't know what that bastard's talking about. I wouldn't believe a single word that comes out of his mouth."

It sounded a little fast, like she was trying to cover up the sneaking truth, but I believed her. It wouldn't make sense for her to be swayed by that guy, unless...it had something to do with finding her brother. That might get her.

I wanted to push on it, but decided not to. She mentioned to Annabeth earlier that we would talk about some stuff tonight. Now, I don't know what that entails, but I'm hoping some more information on her past. The whole necklace thing's been bugging me ever since I caught on to her glancing at it.

Stretching my arms out, I pushed those thoughts away and tried to lighten the mood. "Well, I'm gonna go browse around a bit. Maybe hit the weightroom, hang out with Percy, try out the arcade," I got up and walked over to the closet, opening it and pulling out the red swimming trunks. "And I'm definitely hitting up that hot tub downstairs."

That seemed to break her own negative thoughts a little, because she nodded at me, the corner of her lips lifting a fraction. "Cool. I'm probably gonna check out that guitar room, maybe stay there a bit." She looked up at the ceiling in thought, then decided, "And I'll probably just come back up here."

I was taken back, "What? No way. You're gonna have some more fun than that."

She shrugged, "Nah, I'm good. I'm not really into weightrooms and pool stuff."

My entire demeanor probably looked like a golden retriever puppy, begging its owner to come play with them. "Harper, you've gotta be kidding me. This is like, the craziest, nicest hotel ever, and you're not even going to swim? You can at least come to the arcade with me."

She considered it, then shook her head uneasily, "I don't know, Matt, I haven't done that sort of thing in a while...I wouldn't want to embarrass myself."

I don't know what came over me, but I decided to make it my mission to get her to have some fun and let loose. She deserves at least one night of something other than fighting monsters and thinking about revenge.

"Oh, come on!" I exclaimed, "I'm awful with people too! It'll be fun, trust me. I bet you could beat me at any of those games down there."

The idea was starting to tempt her, I could see her uneasiness shifting to wonder and curiosity. "I mean...I guess I could play a few of those stupid games."

I beamed, "Okay, great. See, now we've got everything planned out. I'm gonna hang with Percy, then you meet me in the arcade, we'll go to the pool-"

She stopped me, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, Shark Boy. I never agreed to the pool."

I slumped, "Please, Harper. It'll be awesome!" I pointed to her side of the closet, the black bikini sitting there, "Paradus or whoever knew that you would go, and put that there for you!"

She blushed, "Me? In that thing? Have you lost your mind?"

Maybe I had. It was kind of ridiculous, picturing her ever contemplating wearing a two piece and splashing around in the water for fun. But I was in such a good mood, that I remained annoyingly persistent. I guess having a taste of luxury brought out a happy go lucky side of me that rarely shows itself.

Besides, this was an opportunity to get away from our problems for once and relax. When you're presented with a hotel like this, and when you live the rough demigod life, you don't take it for granted.

"You'll be fine, and we'll all be with you, nothing to worry about!"

She shifted nervously, "I-I don't know, Matt. I'll think about it."

I nodded, calming my energy drink induced fit down to a normal speed, knowing that I might've gone overboard with the activities. "Okay. And hey, you don't have to do anything you don't want to. I just...wanted to hang out with you, that's all. Just for one night, pretending we're normal people and forgetting about all this quest stuff."

Her eyes widened a little at my forwardness. Oh crap, I just admitted I wanted to hang out with her, didn't I? Great, now she's going to see through me and know about my growing feelings. Then get weirded out, change rooms, probably never speak to me again, and then-

"You know...you're right." She said, smiling at me, the same kind that she gave me in Percy's car. "This place is way too cool and nice to be thinking about some creep on a weird island." She stood up from her bed and came over to me, punching my arm in a playful manner. "I'm down, Shark Boy. Hope you like getting your ass kicked at Street Fighter."

I grinned challengingly at her, about to make some counter remark when I realized just how close she was standing. Not far at all, and her face...If she sighed, I would be able to feel her breath, just like when she hugged me.

Suddenly, the butterfly invasion resumed in my stomach, and I knew I had to get out of there before she noticed how red my face was getting. So I blurted out that I was going to take a shower and scurried to the bathroom. Yep, real smooth, Matt.

Upon entering, I groaned and lightly punched myself on the head. Crushes are hard. And yeah, I finally established that I for sure have a crush on Harper, and I was clueless on what to do.

After the shower, I smelled awesome. Which sounds weird, but seriously, the shampoo was insanely fresh and smooth.

I exited the bathroom, change of new clothes now on, and was greeted to an empty room.

Harper had been here a few minutes ago, where was she?

I looked around until I spotted a note with her handwriting, it read-

Gone to guitar room. Meet you at arcade in two hours. -H

I smiled, placing the note on the countertop. I slid on the sneakers in the closet, grabbed the red swimming trunks, and headed out the door, locking it behind me.

I walked a few steps to Percy and Annabeth's room, knocked on the door, and after a few seconds, a smiling Percy opened it, beckoning me inside.

I went in, their room was the exact same. It was awesome, and the only striking differences were the clothes in the closet, and the fact that there was only one bed.

Annabeth wasn't here right now, so I raised my eyebrow at him and said slyly, "One bed?"

His ears turned a little red and he scratched his neck, "Yeah, we don't mind. We've slept together before." Then his eyes widened, "N-not like that! Just sleeping. Like literally sleeping, not the other thing."

I held my hands up, "You're business man. You ready?"

He held up his swimming trunks. They were blue, with little trident designs on them. "Oh yeah." He said.

We walked out of the room, and I told him, "I was thinking we could go to the weightroom first, being the Son of Hercules, and having never lifted weights before, I kinda wanna try it."

Percy nodded, "Whatever's cool with me, man."

I continued, "And then, maybe we could try out some things on the roof, and then I'm supposed to meet Harper at the arcade-"

He interrupted me with a loud whistle.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up." I grumbled half heartedly.

He laughed, "Is she coming to the pool?"

"Is Annabeth?"

"Yeah."

I shrugged, "Not sure, she said she'd think about it. Hope she does though."

He nodded and we walked down the hallway, chatting idly about the hotel and how crazy big it was, making a few jokes about Talon, who hadn't been in contact with us ever since he dipped on the elevator. Either way, it was fun talking with Percy.

Eventually after a single quick elevator ride, we came to the floor where the weightroom was at. We followed the wrong directions, got confused, had to ask somebody, turned around, and then finally arrived where we wanted to be.

It was huge. I had never been to a real weightroom before, but I doubted it was this big. On one side of the wall were a row of mirrors, in front of them stood a thousand foot rack of every dumbbell imaginable, some small and some the size of me. I looked around, there were bench presses, squat racks, all kinds of machines varying in sizes, a number of beefheads and fit demigods working out, holding water bottles, and occasionally screaming after lifting a heavy weight.

I thought it was incredible, I was finally in a place where I could test my strength, maybe find out a limit. Percy and I walked forward to the dumbbell rack first, I noticed they had a number on top, telling you how much it weighed. I looked at a few different ones and saw that they ranged from one hundred pounds, with the letters lbs engraved next to the number, and another said ten tons, with a t next to the number.

I picked up the ten ton dumbbell, it wasn't big, it was just the size of the one hundred pound one. But when I held it, I knew the difference. I put about half of my strength in it, and curled it with ease, putting it back down.

I turned and saw Percy with the one hundred pound one, lifting it with relative ease. He had some level of enhanced strength, that much I knew, but what was his limit? What was mine?

My thoughts were interrupted by a shove to my back, I turned and saw a big buff college aged guy, with buzzed blonde hair. He was about six foot three, and had a sleeveless shirt on, showing off his juiced up biceps. He had a smug look on his face, and a couple of weird tattoos. He was backed up by a few equally buff and stupid looking goons.

"What's up, newbie?" he said.

I stayed calm, "Nothing. Just wanted to try out the weightroom."

They laughed, Percy had put down his dumbbell and stood at my side, the idiots howled, "Look, little shrimp. Only the strong should be allowed in here. And...you don't cut it."

Percy glared at them, "Alright, Jay Cutler. Just back off. Anyone can use the weight room if they want."

"Nah, nah. I think we need to have a little weight lifting competition. Show these chumps whose boss."

"Chumps?" I said. "Really, that's the best you can do? I'm not interested. Just leave us alone."

He shoved me back again, now I was getting angry. I wasn't interested in a stupid competition, why wouldn't the roid freak leave it alone?

"No way. You accept the challenge now punk."

"No."

"Then we'll have to teach you a lesson." As soon as the punch came at my face, I blocked it. Sending his hand sideways, I grabbed him by the throat and lifted him a few inches off the ground. The other idiots tried jumping at Percy, but he drew Riptide and flashed it at them, stopping them dead in their tracks.

"Listen here." I said in a mock friendly voice. "We've been through a lot recently, and we wanna let loose, have a little fun. So I'm not gonna let you guys ruin that. So leave us the hell alone."

He choked and nodded, "O-okay man, whatever you say. Just let me down!"

I threw him on his butt, he scrambled away, along with the other meat heads.

Percy capped Riptide, "Nicely handled."

I nodded. Seems like there's always a jerk trying to ruin your day somewhere. But I brushed it off, I wasn't about to let that idiot ruin my good mood.

We checked out some stations, Percy used the treadmill, we bench pressed a little. Percy doing almost a couple tons of weight, which was impressive for a demigod that supposedly didn't have super strength.

I went up little by little, starting off with five hundred pounds, repping that fifty times with no effort, then moving up ton by ton, still no pressure. Each time I would add a weight and it would reach the end of the bar, the bar itself would extend to accommodate my preferred weight. It was pretty cool.

At ten tons, I had to put in a little strength, but even that was almost effortless. I went up to twenty tons, and that was it.

I looked around the racks, "Where's the rest?"

Percy looked too, "That's as far as it goes."

"What? But I'm not even trying yet."

He snorted, "Dude, you just benched twenty tons with ease. I think that's good enough."

I shook my head, "No. I wanna find out my limit. I may never get this opportunity again."

He considered, the nodded, and we looked around for a set of weights higher than twenty tons.

Finally, after a few minutes of walking around, we saw the most royal and large weight set of all time in the back room.

Through a window, into the room, sat a celestial bronze bench press, with all kinds of weights next to it. I knew that was where the big boys went.

Percy pointed, "I might be wrong, but does that say, reserved for gods only?"

I looked at the door of the room, and on it said something. I squinted and due to my dyslexia, the words appeared as Reverdes: Dogs Only. Then I looked harder and it appeared as Reserved: Gods only.

I knew that was where I needed to go.

Percy and I walked to the door, did a double take to make sure security wasn't watching or something, and entered the room.

As soon as we stepped in, I felt a powerful pressure, I realized it was godly energy. I was feeling the after presence of any god that had been in this room.

I stared in awe, the bench was huge, the plates were celestial bronze, and weighed a lot more than twenty tons.

I looked at the rack, and saw that the lowest weight was one hundred tons, half the weight of a blue whale.

I imagined it appearing on the bar, and it materialized on either side, two hundred tons in total, now just shy of blue whale weight.

I sat down, put my hands on the bar, breathed in and out. Percy looked at me nervously and said, "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"I mean, if it's too much...you know I won't be able to help you, right?"

"I'll be alright, bro."

He looked unconvinced, but nodded anyway. I focused, concentrated, and lifted off. I put about a quarter of my strength in it, and benched it once with ease. I got up, heart racing and grinning.

Percy stood in disbelief, "Wh-what the-"

"I know right? That was nothing! What's next?!"

I imagined more weight each time, benching with ease still, adding small amounts of strength in each time I went up, going past three hundred tons, four hundred, five hundred, all the way to a thousand. In which I had only used half of my strength.

I looked at my hands, "This is insane! I never knew I was this strong!"

Percy laughed, "Keep going man!"

And I did. We were like little kids in a playroom. I was benching like crazy and he was hyping me up. I kept adding strength, going past a thousand tons, two thousand, three thousand, it never seemed to end, and I was getting really confident and big headed.

I mean it was nuts. I was lifting the equivalent of a family of blue whales, a cargo ship, and all kinds of heavy stuff. I was on a roll, and I hadn't hit my limit yet.

"Dude, I've gotta find a really heavy one. I need to stop going up little by little. I need to do a hundred thousand."

Percy's jaw dropped, "No way, man. Not even you-"

"Never know until you find out." I said. I searched for the number, and eventually found a pair. The same size as the rest of them, but weighing a lot more. Even still, I spotted some in the millions, so this was still light weight compared to the Olympians.

I imagined the pair on the bar, and they appeared. I prepared myself, I breathed hard, and lay down on the bench, placing my hands on the bar.

I could already feel the pressure. I was going to have to try on this. This would be my biggest feat of strength by far. One hundred thousand tons, that's like lifting a dozen Eiffel towers, a small town, even a small mountain.

I pushed up, and had to use full base strength. It was like I was being pushed through the floor, I strained and held it, the force was immense, and I was trying my best not to let it crush me. I slowly put it on my chest, my muscles burning and throbbing, I pushed up with a primitive yell, and it went, I immediately racked it, and felt a huge relief on my arms.

I lay there for a minute, sweating. That was crazy. It took all of my effort not to get crushed by that. I looked up lazily at Percy, who looked like he'd just seen a miracle.

"Matt, that was...insane."

I had to catch my breath, I managed, "Yeah, no doubt. I think I'm done for today."

He nodded, eyes wide. The door burst open and two big guys rumbled through, they had security uniforms on. They shouted after us, and we narrowly escaped, dodging people and weight sets before eventually leaving the entire weightroom. When we were out of sight and the yelling faded, we panted and leaned against the walls of the hallway.

"Dude, that was nuts."

"No kidding."

He laughed, "I can't believe you benched a hundred thousand freaking tons."

"Me either. It was like the weight of the world. Lucky I didn't get crushed."

He nodded, and looked at a clock on the wall in the distance, "Hey, it's thirty minutes before you gotta be at the arcade. We should go to the roof. If you still wanna do that?"

Dang, had it been that long already? Time flies. "Yeah" I said.

We spent a few minutes at every thing on the roof. There weren't a lot of people, which I thought was great. Percy and I messed around with the putt putt course, not really trying, just goofing around. Percy kept whacking his ball in the pond, and summoning it back to his hand. While I chose to hit my ball into the other holes to see if I could make it on the first try. I didn't of course, but it was still pretty fun.

We played a little basketball, which I discovered I suck at. I kept shooting too hard and It would send the ball flying off the roof top completely. Eventually, we ran out of balls, and went on to something else.

After a few more activities, time ran out and I rushed down to the arcade. Percy said he was gonna check out what Annabeth was up to, I told him I'd see him at the pool, and we parted ways after the elevator.

I walked down the hallway leading to the arcade, a few kids passed with prizes, running around and laughing. I followed where they had come out at until I reached two glass double doors. I couldn't see through them, but I could hear the faint noises of games and dubstep music. I opened it and walked in.

Like everything else in this place, the arcade was no exception, it was enormous.

First of all the place was as big as a Catholic church. The ceiling went up a couple of hundred feet, revealing ziplines and bungee cords, walkways everywhere. In front of me were thousands of games all lined up, most of them occupied, buzzing and making wacky noises. To my right was the concessions bar, in the distance stood a giant obstacle course, next to that stood a trampoline park, and to my left was a desk and a door that said Laser tag.

Basically, if you could imagine it, they had it in here.

I walked forward, dubstep music playing in the background, lights flashing everywhere, it was kind of dark, so I had to focus to avoid bumping into people. I searched around the room, until I eventually found her. Harper was playing one of those zombie survival games, where you have a plastic gun and you aim at the screen to kill the zombies. She was doing really good, any zombie that came at her was mowed down immediately. I looked to her right and saw another gun, I walked over to her.

I decided to mess with her, I snuck up, got really close to her neck, and said loudly, "Whatcha up to?"

She yelped, turned quickly and accidentally smacked me in the face with the fake gun. I didn't feel a thing, but the surprise of it made me jump back in recoil.

She thought that it had hurt me, and said with concern, "Oh, gods! I'm so sorry!" she tried to touch my face to see if there was any blood, but I just moved my hand to show that I was fine, and started cracking up.

She playfully hit me, a half hearted angry look on her face, "You idiot! You're lucky it wasn't a real gun!"

I kept laughing until it got to be too much, and I stopped, catching my breath and said, "How long have you been in here?"

She pointed at the screen, I had caused her to die in the game, "Only long enough to get past the third wave."

"Sorry I made you die."

She shrugged, "It's alright. You can pick up the other gun and help me if you want?"

I smirked, "Alright. But I gotta warn you, I'm pretty good."

She scoffed, "We're on the same team! And besides, you're the one I'm worried about! Don't slow me down, Shark Boy."

I laughed, "Wouldn't dream of it."

The next three hours were some of the best of my life. We played that Zombie game for half of the time, accumulating spectators as we climbed the waves of zombies. By the final wave, wave thirty, we had a dozen kids watching us with awe as we destroyed the walking dead. After we beat the game, everyone cheered and Harper even hugged me in celebration, causing me to blush, but luckily the darkness hid it. After that, we ate some snacks at the concessions bar, nachos and drinks and all that stuff. We played a bunch of other games, usually once or twice, before moving on to the next one. At one point I convinced her to do the zipline, which she attempted four times before ever actually leaving the platform, and afterwards she was so stoked she wanted to do it again and again.

Eventually, we decided to do laser tag, and were standing in line, laughing about something stupid, when I saw a guy, a demigod, that caught my eye.

He was leaning on the wall next to the entrance, a hood over his head, I could barely make out a set of eyes staring at us intently, for who knows how long. Maybe the whole time we've been in here.

Harper was laughing, "No way! I'm telling you, a Laestrygonian has the dumbest look! All of that drool and-" she stopped herself when she saw my faraway look, and searched for what I was staring at.

"What's the matter?"

I nodded my head at the guy.

She looked and spotted him, us both staring at him now, I figured he would back off, now that we had caught him.

But he just stood there, not breaking contact.

Harper looked up at me, "Matt, who is that?"

"I don't know, but I think he's trouble."

"Of course he is, but...what do we do?"

"We need to stick together. We don't know what he's capable of."

She nodded, and by the time we turned back to his direction, he had left his spot, and was walking directly towards us.

We tensed and got ready for a fight. The guy came closer and closer, until eventually just walking by Harper, and moving on to another section of the arcade. Harper's eyes were wide though.

I turned, and the man was gone.

I looked at her, "What happened?"

"He slipped a note in my hand." She showed it to me, and I motioned for her to open it. She did, and what was written on it said, "Follow me if you want to know where your brother is."

Both of our eyes went wide, I knew she was half tempted to look for the man, but I also knew that another part of her thought that was foolish. I didn't want the first part to win, so I said.

"It's like that guy in the ring, he just wants to kill you, first chance he gets."

She wasn't sure, "I-I don't know, Maybe I should-"

I caught her, "Hey, you know what. I'll find him, and I'll talk to him. He's probably just one of Ouranos' henchmen." I then took a long shot and grabbed my necklace, "Remember? I don't know what this has to do with it but...I'm the way, right?"

She looked at it, then shook her head, "Uh, yeah. Okay, I'll just wait here."

I nodded, and followed the direction of the man. Frantically looking and searching without causing too much attention. After a minute, I thought I had lost him, but then I saw a hooded man go into the men's bathroom.

I chased after him and threw open the door, walking in the bathroom. He was the only one in there, standing in the middle, sneering at me.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Someone that knows where Levi is being kept."

"Kept? Like prisoner?"

"In a way. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to talk to the girl, and you need to let her make her own decisions."

"I won't let her walk into a trap."

"Not a trap. I will lead her to her brother, and they will be set free together."

"Do you work for Ouranos?"

He only grinned wider, in an ugly way, "I am an associate, yes."

I clenched my fists, "That's all I needed to know." I grabbed him and threw him against the wall, threatening to punch him.

"You stay away from us. And tell your boss that we'll see him soon."

He held his hands up, "Fine, fine. Message received, I shall go. But you will regret this, Matthias Beckett."

I cringed a little, and let him go, he walked out of the bathroom, chuckling eerily.

I made it back to Harper, who was standing near the laser tag room, biting her fingernail nervously.

I walked up to her and said, "He left. Won't be bothering us again."

"Does he work for Ouranos?"

I nodded grimly.

She cursed under her breath, "I knew it. Why do they keep coming at me? Why do they keep saying they know where my brother is?"

I shook my head, "I don't know. But the way those guys carry themselves, it would've been a trap for sure."

She shifted uneasily, "Yeah, you're probably right."

I hated that had happened. We were having so much fun, but of course, our outside problems never leave us. I wasn't about to let it be ruined though, I tried to bring back the spirit from earlier.

"Ready for some laser tag? You better hope you're on my team."

She lit up a little, partially forgetting the hooded guy, "Please. Did you not see me on that Zombie game? I could outshoot Talon."

I laughed, we walked in and got our vests and laser guns, putting them on. I said, "Speaking of, where is he?"

She shrugged, "Who cares? He wanted to be left alone, he's left alone."

I agreed. Talon wanted to get away from us, that was his deal. I bet he was in a personal hot tub right now, personal waitresses bringing him smoothies and such, forgetting all about the quest.

But then again, it could be for another reason...

I turned to Harper, "Hey, you don't think he's avoiding us because of the Nikandreos thing?"

She furrowed her eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"Well, we found out his godly parent. Nikandreos. I've never heard of that god, and I was planning on asking him about it. I might be wrong...but I think he's avoiding me because he doesn't want to talk about it."

She nodded, "Maybe. I've never heard of Nikandreos either. Is he a minor god?"

I shrugged, "No idea."

Before we could say anything else, our vests and guns lit up, everyone in the waiting room rushed in and the game started. We ran around, trying to stay quiet, but not taking it too seriously. We were getting on some of the "pros" nerves, and they were glaring at us, but we didn't care. Harper and I were too busy running around shooting each other.

We ended up losing, but it was a blast. Our laughs could be heard from the zipline above. The professional laser tag players muttered insults at us. And by professionals, I mean overweight neckbeards that consider laser tag a sport, and religiously watch those inappropriate Japanese cartoons.

There weren't many things left to do, it was nighttime now, and I decided I really wanted to go to the pool, and soak in the hot tub. I turned to Harper, who was slurping down an ICEE.

"Alright, I'm gonna grab my red swimming trunks from the cubby, and I'm checking out the pool. Have you thought about coming with me?"

She swallowed her ICEE sip and nodded.

I felt my heart start racing a little, "Really? Well, are you coming?"

She shook her head and said, "No. I'm sorry Matt but, I'm tired. And I'm just not in the mood for it."

My heart immediately fell to my stomach, I tried to stay as indifferent as I could on the outside, keeping my face calm. But on the inside, I was disappointed.

"Oh, okay. Well, If you change your mind, you know where to find me. Otherwise, I'll be up in a little while."

She nodded, and waved. I jogged off, grabbing my red swimming trunks out of the cubby in the front, and trudging off to the swimming pool, not nearly as excited as before.

I found the swimming pool. One word to describe it...massive.

The room itself was huge, the pool itself was the size of a high school football field. Kids and teenagers playing and doing all kinds of stuff. I saw long chairs with adults occupying them, resting. The hot tubs were scattered all over the place, at least twenty in my line of sight, and only a few of them were full, about half completely empty.

I inwardly shouted in victory, and was about to throw myself in one, when I heard a voice say, "Matt!"

I turned and saw Percy and Annabeth in one of the hot tubs to my right, they were in it with another couple, a red haired girl and a blonde headed athlete looking guy.

I waved at them and walked over. Percy had on his trident swimming trunks, barely visible through the jets in the hot tub, and Annabeth wore a gray bikini that matched her eyes. Percy had his arm around her, and she was leaning into him.

I stopped next to them, "Wow, you guys beat me to it."

They grinned and Percy said, "Matt, this is Lucas, a Son of Apollo, and Rose, Daughter of Demeter."

I waved at them, they waved back. I said to the red headed girl, "A daughter of Demeter named Rose? Sorry, but that's neat."

She smiled, "Yeah, it's pretty ironic."

Percy laughed, "These guys are great! We've been talking for an hour!"

Annabeth looked at me in confusion, "Where's Harper?"

I felt the disappointment rise again, my heart sinking. "She uh, got tired. Went back to our room."

She nodded in sympathy, I felt stupid. I didn't need Harper with me to have fun all the time.

I said, "Well, it was nice to meet you guys, I'll be in one of the hot tubs over there." They nodded and I quickly made my way to one.

I didn't even ease my way into it, I just got right in. The immediate warmth and relief spread throughout my body, It felt amazing. I sat there, my eyes closed, leaning back into the seat, letting the water take away the worries, the jets massaging my back, I felt like I was in a magical healing chamber.

I soon lost sight and feeling of the world. Every noise around me seemed to fade, until it was only my breathing, the sound of the jets, and my thoughts.

Every muscle was relaxed, every worry left from my brain, all I knew was this moment, this time of peace.

I couldn't help but reflect on the events so far. Everything that's already happened, and still to come, it was a lot. And where we would go, I had no idea.

But for now that didn't matter.

I stayed like that, breathing in and out, eyes closed, but not asleep, letting the jets and water buzz over me soothingly. This went on for about ten minutes, when finally, I felt a hand tap my bare shoulder.

I knew it would happen.

I knew my peace would be short lived. Percy would want to swim or play with water guns or something, unable to resist asking me to join.

I opened my eyes and turned to the source, groaning, "Percy, I'll play in a second, right now I just want-" then I saw who it really was, and I stopped immediately.

It was Harper.

She smiled sheepishly at me. I thought my heart was gonna explode and my face about to burn off from the blushing. She wore the black bikini, showing off her perfect pale figure, slim but strong arms, curvy lower body, toned stomach, raven black hair flowing down her shoulder, out of its braid, still dry and soft, sitting comfortably behind her head.

I stared like an idiot, mouth open, eyes wide, my face as red as a fire truck. She looked absolutely stunning. I had never met Aphrodite, but I imagined this had to be the same kind of beauty. Heck, I doubted the goddess of love had anything on the girl standing above me. She could smite me if she wanted to for thinking that, but that was just how I felt.

She noticed me staring and looked down nervously, trying to fix her hair, "What? D-does it not look good?"

She had to be kidding. I was sitting here flustered and tongue tied, and she wasn't sure if she looked good? Every dude in here knew it. Some were actually staring at her with interest, some smirking and nodding like yeah, that girl is smoking hot. I couldn't really blame them, but a twinge of jealousy broke my trance.

"No, n-not at all. You look...amazing." I managed.

Her eyes widened and her face turned red. She smiled nervously and said, "Oh, um...th-thanks."

We both stayed there awkwardly for a moment, until I pinched myself, and made my mouth say the right thing.

"Wanna get in? Water is crazy comfortable."

She nodded, and got in, sitting next to me. We relaxed and talked about random things, like the pool size, the couple hanging out with Percy and Annabeth, the arcade experience. And it was...nice. It felt so natural and easy talking to her, there were no weird pauses, I didn't need to scramble to think of what to say next, I just...said it.

Every time I told a joke, she would laugh, and occasionally grab my arm to steady herself, causing the butterflies to go crazy again. This was really getting out of hand, my feelings for her were getting stronger, and I wasn't sure if I could get over this crush. Maybe I should embrace it.

Eventually, Percy and Annabeth called us over, and Percy ended up surprising me with a water gun blast to the face, he dove into the pool and swam at super sonic speed. I chased him and began a huge water fight. Soon the entire pool got involved. Everybody in the room grabbed a gun, and we went to war. Gallons of water splashed and sprayed, we had a great time. Eventually some got tired and declared a truce, leaving us to play volley ball with some of the other teens. We ended up winning most games. Turns out, when you have a super smart daughter of Athena, and the literal son of the sea, you're odds increase.

After a while, it got late, and most of the people were leaving to go back to their rooms. We decided to do the same, we dried off and went back into the elevator, it slung us in all kinds of directions until we landed on our floor.

We got off, waving goodbye to some of the people we met at the pool, and stepped down the hallway.

Eventually we got to our rooms, and before they entered, they said goodnight and that if we needed them, to just knock. We agreed and said goodnight, leaving them to their rooms.

We walked into ours, shutting the door behind us. My trunks were still damp, and I desperately needed to put on some PJ's. Harper had the same idea.

I looked at her, "I take the bathroom, you stay in here?"

She agreed, and I went into the bathroom with the pajamas. I put on a red t-shirt, and the long fluffy Nemean Lion pajama pants. By the time I was done she had let me know she was as well, so I exited and threw my damp trunks in the basket next to the door.

"Are those little Nemean Lions?" She asked.

I looked up, she was laying comfortably on her bed. She had on a black tank top and black pajama pants like mine, except hers had crescent moons on them.

"Are those moons?" I countered.

She looked down and nodded, "Yeah, it's a Nemesis thing."

I chuckled and got on my bed, sitting comfortably, leaning against the headboard. I looked at the clock, and it read five minutes after midnight. It was getting late for us, so I figured if she wanted to talk about things, she would.

The TV played for a little while, then she finally shut it off, put the remote on her nightstand, turned her head to me, and said, "I'm gonna be honest, Matt. I'm exhausted." Then she laughed lazily, "I haven't been that active in a while."

"What are you talking about? You fight. Isn't that being active?"

She shrugged, "I meant fun active. That was fun by the way. Thank you for insisting on it. At first...I wasn't sure, but I'm glad we hung out. I had a great time."

"Same here."

Then she turned away slightly, "And you wanted to know about my past. We got interrupted at the fight club. So...I guess now's as good a time as ever, don't you think?"

"Only if you want to." I said gently.

She closed her eyes and sighed, "Yeah, Matt, I do. I trust you."

I smiled.

Her eyes opened again, "But there's a lot to say. Too much in fact, and I think it would be better to show it to you."

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, "Show me?"

"Yeah. No matter how much I talk, you'll never truly know the details, I'm just not that good of a storyteller. So...I think I can make this work."

"I'm sorry, but how the heck will I be able to see your past? If it already happened, how can I witness it? Or, uh, rewitness it?"

She raised an eyebrow, "This is the same world in which a multi headed dragon was sleeping in a zoo, and a demigod fight club just sitting there in public view. And you're gonna question watching events from the past?"

I couldn't argue. Rewitnessing history seemed downright logical compared to the wacky stuff we'd seen.

"Can't disagree" I said.

"So with a little mist magic...well, actually a lot of mist magic, we should be able to watch my past. Every part that's important to now."

I was a little nervous, but I said, "Alright, I'm ready."

She nodded, "Take my hands."

I grabbed her hands with mine.

She widened her eyes, I found myself looking directly into the left one, the pure white orb capturing me, and eventually, pulling me in, until all I saw was white.

The bright white shined for a few seconds, I closed my eyes, but that didn't shut it out at all, it was blinding, and right at the point of I can't take this anymore, it stopped, and I was thrown on a solid surface.

I felt grass in my face, all over my body, I was laying on the ground. The smell of plants and summer filling my nostrils. I looked up, and to my surprise, saw myself in a different place completely than the hotel. It was a countryside.

I was next to a garden of all sorts of crops. Tomatoes, corn, beans, and all kinds of stuff sprouting from the ground, almost ripe. In the distance stood a good sized white farmhouse. Next to that was a classic red barn, hay coming out of it, and what looked like a tractor.

Behind the house was a pond. Cattails grew halfway around it, ducks frequented the center, flapping and making happy duck noises.

It was...peaceful.

I then got to one knee, and saw a figure standing to my right, it was Harper. She wore the same clothes as when I last saw her. A black tank top and crescent moon pajamas, but now, instead of in color like our surroundings, she was black and white. Like those old TV shows in the fifties.

I looked at my hand, and was surprised to see that I was also black and white. I looked up at her. She was staring at the farmhouse with longing, with a silent pain, and sadness.

That was when I realized that this was her home growing up. The farm in the Georgia countryside that she had mentioned.

I got up to my feet, and stood directly next to her. I was in awe at Harper's old home. It was amazing. So cozy and tranquil.

But something told me that the events I were about to witness were anything but tranquil.

I kept my eyes on the farmhouse, "This is...no way. Are we actually..."

She nodded sadly, "Yeah, Matt. We're here. Welcome to my past."

(000)

Beyond glad with how that turned out. Loved writing this chapter.

Sorry for the lack of Talon! I know he's awesome, but my man needed a break!

Until Next Time.