"Hello, Sally Jackson," Smelly Gabe slurred, but the cruelty in his voice was still there. "You thought you could leave little old me without any consequences, did you? That's not how it works!"

"Mommy?" Percy asked, his voice trembling in fear.

"Mommy's right here, Percy," Sally said, doing a good job at hiding the fear in her voice, but not on her face. "Don't hurt him, Gabriel. Do what you will with me, but leave my son out of this."

"Sally, I need you to trust me on this," I said, my voice no louder than a whisper. "When I say run, you run, understand? Don't worry about Percy. I'll protect him."

I summoned my sword, and even though the blade wouldn't harm Smelly Gabe, it was enough to have him scared of me, and that's all I needed. I walked out from behind the counter and stood directly across from Smelly Gabe, causing him to shift the barrel of the gun from Percy's head to my chest.

"Stay out of this, little girl, and I'll let you live," he promised, though I knew he was lying. There was no way he would leave any witnesses that could rat him out.

"Back away from Percy," I said coolly, not afraid of the gun. Salina had taught me in every form of weapon, including guns. That meant I knew exactly how much time I had to take him out between shots.

"One last chance," Smelly Gabe said, lowering the barrel of the gun back down to Percy's head. "Or the boy gets it." Percy flinched as Smelly Gabe pressed the cold metal of the gun directly against his temple, a fatal shot.

"Close your eyes, little one," I told Percy, backing up to where the water line was. "You won't want to see this. Sally, now!"

I turned around and slashed at the water line, much to Smelly Gabe's confusion. Sally listened to me and took off for the back room, barely missing being shot in the shoulder by Smelly Gabe. Percy was now freely crying, clapping his hands over his ears after hearing the sound of the gun shot.

I waved my hand towards Percy, and like magic, the water that had started to flood the room made a protective dome over him. Now that I was positive that Percy was safe, I lifted my hands on either side of me, the water raising up like a shield.

"W-What are you?" Smelly Gabe shouted, firing off two more shots at me, but my water shield stopped the bullets dead in their tracks.

"Your worst nightmare," I answered, my voice sounding like the earth was rumbling beneath me.

I pushed my hands forward, and the water instantly wrapped around Smelly Gabe like a cocoon for a very, very ugly butterfly. I forced the water to rip the gun out of Smelly Gabe's hand, and I kicked it away from him and to the corner of the store, far out of his reach.

"Percy," I said, "please close your eyes and cover your ears. I don't want you to see this."

I checked that he had done what I asked and saw Percy curled up into a tight ball, his hands clapped tightly over his ears while his head was buried in his chest.

Then, I squeezed the water by constricting my hands, causing for Smelly Gabe's eyes to bulge out of his head as if he were one of those squishy toys. As he began to scream, I forced the water down his throat, making him thrash and scream even more, his face quickly going from red to purple. With one final wave of my hands, I encased him completely in a sphere of water, waiting until he no longer moved.

After making sure he was dead, I dropped Smelly Gabe's body to the floor, every muscle in my body aching from over exertion. The protective dome around Percy collapsed, soaking him completely.

Percy jolted up after being soaked, and ran over to me, pressing his face into my leg. "Is he dead?" he asked me, looking up at me with those big sea green eyes of him.

"Yes," I said solemnly. "And he's never going to hurt you again."

Although I was already exhausted from controlling the water for so long, I allowed for a flame to form in my hands, and I dried the floor and Smelly Gabe's body. I didn't want the Jackson's to be blamed for his death, and seeing that there were no security cameras anywhere inside or outside the candy shop, I doubted anyone would learn the truth.

I kicked the gun next to Smelly Gabe's hand and picked up Percy, carrying him like a toddler as I exited the candy shop from the back entrance. There I found Sally, who was on her knees in prayer, tear streaks on her face. Laying next to her was her cell phone, and since the cops had yet to arrive, I figured the battery had died and she didn't have her charger with her.

"Mommy!" Percy exclaimed, launching himself at Sally with such force I was surprised he didn't crack her ribs.

"Oh, Percy!" she said happily, peppering his face with kisses. "My beautiful baby boy. I love you so much."

While they hugged, I pulled some coins out of my bag and walked to the corner, where I knew there was a payphone. Technically, monsters only tracked cell phones, so payphones were fair game. I called 911, told them what happened, and waited with Sally and Percy until the cops and paramedics showed up. The paramedics were only there to take Smelly Gabe's body away and give the rest of us quick checkups to make sure we were okay.

"Well, from what we can see, it seems as if this man, Gabriel Ugliano, came in to try and kill you…but then he drowned when a water line burst?" the police officer said, looking extremely confused. "That guy clearly died of drowning, but how?"

"Your guess is as good as ours," I lied. "The second the first shot went off and the water line burst, the three of us ran out here. I guess he tried to chase after us, slipped on the water, bumped his head, and drowned. That's the only thing that makes logical sense."

I watched as the officer's eyes glazed over. "Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, we're done here boys!"

What was that? Please don't tell me I inherited charmspeak from Kronos too, or I will lose it.

Sally looked at me for an explanation, but I shrug my shoulders, not having a clue as to how to explain it. Percy had fallen asleep in her arms, the adrenaline rush being too much for his little body to handle.

"Thank you, again," Sally said gratefully, pulling me into a side hug while Percy still clung to her like a koala. "You saved our lives. I can't ever thank you enough."

"Don't worry about it, Sally. Oh, that reminds me…" I reached into my bag and pulled out a huge wad of cash. Salina was by far my favorite goddess in existence. She deserved so much more credit than she was given. "This is for you."

Sally paled at the bundle of money, shaking her head vehemently. "No, I can't accept that. Not if it's from you-know-who."

"It's not," I laughed. "This is from me. I want you to get a nice home and be able to send Percy to a nice school. You don't have to pay me back ever, Sally, this is a gift."

"What's the catch?"

"What?"

Sally sighed. "I've dealt with immortals enough to know that no gift comes without a price. What's the catch?"

"I just want to be able to hang out with Percy every once in a while. Not enough for monsters to find him, but enough so he knows I exist and that I'm watching over him. He may need me later, and I want him to know that I'll be there."

"That's it? Really?"

"Were you expecting something else?"

"If I'm being brutally honest, yes."

I laughed again. I could definitely see how Poseidon had fallen for her. She was a strong willed woman, something I admired greatly.

"Fine, add in some of your cookies, and I'll call it even."

Sally threw her head back and laughed, years melting off her complexion as she smiled. "I accept."

I handed her the cash and another one of my infamous charms. This one was a cloud instead of a star, but while the star charm hid Percy's scent, the cloud charm was like a direct message to me. I hadn't handed out that charm to anyone else yet, but I had a feeling Percy was someone who would need it.

Sally thanked me again, and I walked down the street before getting into another taxi that drove me back to camp. The driver was extremely confused when I told him to stop at the sign that read Pick Your Own Strawberries, but after handing him a twenty dollar tip, he shut up and sped off, depositing me at the foot of Half-Blood Hill.

"Home sweet home," I muttered under my breath, beginning the climb towards Thalia's pine tree.

My return to Camp Half-Blood had not been a joyous occasion. I was met with glares and frightened looks, the campers treating me like I had just signed their death warrants. Wherever I went, I heard whispers being exchanged behind my back.

I ignored the stares and the whispers, walking directly back into the forest where I had torched about an acre of area. The nymphs, dryads, and naiads weren't too happy about my return, pelting me with acorns and tripping me with tree roots, but I guess I deserved that. I really hoped I hadn't hurt anyone when I became the Human Torch.

I knew I had found the right place when I found the huge hole in the middle of the river along with trees that were leaning at forty-five degree angles. It was a miracle they were still anchored to the ground.

"I'm sorry," I told the nature spirits, positive they were watching me even though no one else was around.

The best way to make it up to them was to restore the forest to how it had been, but I knew straightening the trees and rerouting the river would take years. Or maybe it didn't have to take that long.

It was risky, I know, but there was no better moment than the present to practice. Hopefully, I'd have a little more control now that I was by myself.

Closing my eyes, I pictured the forest as it had been before my explosion, the way that the trees stood tall and proud, the way the river flowed lazily as it rushed to meet the sea. I imagined the clock reversing, bringing back the nature spirits that had fled.

When I opened my eyes, my hands were encased with gold circles that seemed to pulse around my wrists. It reminded me like that movie, Dr. Strange, that I had seen with Salina a few months ago. Oh, I do hope this Earth has Marvel movies, or that would be sad.

Right, back to the matter at hand.

I backed up and pushed my hands outward until the entire affected area was encased in a golden glow, as if King Midas had thrown a party and ran around touching everything. Once I was sure everything was covered, I pointed my left hand at the ground, centering me and grounding my powers from going out of hand. With my right hand, I made counterclockwise circles and watched in amazement as everything slowly fixed itself.

The dent in the river disappeared. The burned bushes were back and no longer covered in black scorch marks. The trees were no longer in danger of falling over with a strong gust of wind.

I dropped my hands to my sides after the river had fully reverted back to normal and dropped to my knees, my breaths coming in rattled spurts. Of all my powers that had manifested, this chronokinesis stuff was by far the most tiring. It made fighting three incredibly pissed of Furies seem like a piece of cake in comparison.

I crawled to the river and dunk my head into the water, feeling some of my strength return to my limbs. Out of curiosity, I tried to breathe underwater, wanting to see just how much control I had over the domains of the eldest Olympians. And sure enough, I was breathing in the water just as easily as I could breathe air.

"Cool," I said, my voice much deeper under the water.

I stood up and started ringing out my soaked hair. Okay, so while I could breathe underwater, I'd still get wet. That was more than fair, in all honesty. That left me wondering how I could withstand the pressure in the water, but I chose not to discover that right now as I'd probably be forced to do that when I trained with Poseidon.

Athena had explained my new training regimen that would become my life for the foreseeable future. I was on a rotating schedule with the gods, spending a week at a time under the supervision of one god. As Athena had been the first to advocate for keeping me alive, she took the first week of my training and then took the liberty of assigning slots for the rest of the gods, even those who had wanted to kill me.

The only one Athena hadn't been sure of assigning a slot was Hestia, but I guess the goddess told Athena to add her onto the list, though I wasn't a hundred percent sure why. I mean, I love Hestia and all, but she wouldn't be able to train me in fighting like the others. My best guess is that she wants to help my control my fire or to have a break from being used as the gods' personal punching bag. Either way, I'd be looking forward to that week with Lady Hestia.

I walked back into camp proper and took a seat on one of the picnic tables near the volleyball pit. I needed to write some stuff down for myself, or I was going to become a disorganized mess, something that could prove deadly.

Pulling out a black journal with white flowers adorning the cover and a blue pen from my bag, I began jotting down notes for myself as well as the information that had changed in my time being here. I wrote down what had happened to Thalia and the new name of the pine tree, the fight between Smelly Gabe and me at the candy shop, and my new place amongst the demigods.

Once all the important stuff was down on paper, I placed my journal and pen back in my bag and took out The Sea of Monsters. The reason the camp had been so determined to find the Golden Fleece wasn't so much because of the magical borders as much as the fact that Thalia's pine tree was the last physical reminder of the daughter of Zeus.

Thalia isn't a pine tree in this timeline, though, so I'm not sure exactly how this will play out. I skimmed a few of the chapters, only stopping to read the pages where the ink shimmered and replaced itself with new information. Apparently, the same events would take place, the only difference being that the tree wouldn't purge a new demigod, leaving me wondering what was going to happen.

Because unless Thalia joined the Hunters, she was still aging, and that meant the Great Prophecy would come into fruition in four years, when Annabeth and Percy were eleven. That couldn't be allowed to happen, because the disasters caused by her would be catastrophic.

Percy had to be the child of the prophecy, there was no other way around it.

"Oh, no," I groaned before slumping forward onto the picnic table.

Like the Oracle, sometimes different beings liked to hijack my mind and show me things. Usually, it was the Fates, and by now I had learned to recognize their presence when they were in my head, feeling like a deep seated itch that you couldn't scratch. But whatever was currently in my head wasn't the Fates, it felt older, more sinister.

I was still at Camp Half-Blood, but I was now dressed in my full body armor, my sword in one hand while a dagger was in the other. All around me was fire, consuming cabins whole as people screamed and ran. Monsters passed through the barrier as easily as a demigod could, terrorizing the few demigods who were still alive.

Off to my left, I saw someone standing over Annabeth's dead body, yanking their spear from her chest. She wasn't wearing any armor, but it was obvious that she didn't need it. I watched as an archer tried to shoot her from behind, but she caught the arrow millimeters from her back, and with inhumane like speed and strength, she threw the arrow back at the archer, who was clutching his throat as his own arrow pierced his Adam's apple.

I wouldn't have been able to identify the girl as she had a blood red cloak hiding her face, but when she noticed me, she peeled back the hood, revealing someone I would've never in a million years thought could be capable of such mass destruction.

Her gold eyes pulsed with power, her black hair whipped around her face even though no wind was blowing. I looked down and saw her hands stained red with the blood of innocents as she kicked Annabeth, causing for the dead daughter of Athena to roll down the hillside.

"T-Thalia?" I gasped, watching as an evil smirk formed on her lips.

"Olympus has fallen!" she cackled, stabbing her spear into the ground and raising her hands to the sky. "Those treacherous gods shall be punished for all eternity for their treason! Western Civilization has died!"

"Kronos has possessed you," I pleaded, taking a step forward, cringing when I felt my boot break through something. I looked down and saw I had accidently stepped into a young boy's ribcage. "You wouldn't turn your back on the gods."

"You know nothing about me! I want Zeus to die for what he did to my family!"

Thalia then raised her hood again, wiping the blood off her hands with the ends of her cloak. She picked up her spear and returned it to its concealed form of a mace canister. "You could've joined us," she said levelly, her eyes brighter than polished drachmas under the shadow of her hood. "He would never hurt his daughter. Surrender now, and you'll live the rest of your life happily in the new world."

"What happened to you?" I asked, tightening the grip on my weapons.

"A half-blood of the eldest gods shall reach sixteen against all odds," Thalia began, her voice starting to sound more like a growl than that of a person. "And see the world in endless sleep. The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. A single choice shall end his days. Olympus to preserve or raze. And guess what? It's my sixteenth birthday!"

Thalia then grabbed ahold of my wrist in a vice-like grip and dragged me down to the huge flaming brazier in the middle of the now destroyed cabins. I almost threw up at what I saw. In the burning flames of the brazier, I saw Percy Jackson, a knife shoved hilt deep into his arms and legs, pinning him to the marble.

How is that possible? I asked myself, cringing at the knives. Assuming he still had the Mark of Achilles, there's no way those knives should be hurting him.

The knives themselves weren't the gruesome part. No, the thing that made me sick to my stomach was the fact that someone had taken it upon themselves to cut Percy open like they were performing an autopsy on him, revealing all his internal organs. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. His sea green eyes were still wide open, gazing lifelessly at the bright red and orange sky.

"Hero's soul cursed blade shall reap, indeed," Thalia said with a smirk, unsheathing the sword Backbiter, which was spattered in dried blood.

I then sat up, my breathing heavy as I rubbed my eyes, looking around the camp to make sure it wasn't aflame. It wasn't, obviously, but still, it was surreal to me watching as campers made their way back to their cabins like doomsday wasn't just around the corner. If I was right, the majority of these kids don't even know about the Great Prophecy or what it entailed, because if they did, training would quickly become the main priority.

No, I'm sorry, but Thalia Grace could not become the child of the prophecy, not if it meant Kronos would win.

I sighed, rubbing my temples to stave off the forming headache. Zeus is going to kill me when I tell him what I saw. Then, he'll kill Thalia.

Off in the distance, I saw a twenty foot flame leap into the sky from the amphitheater before it died just as quickly, signaling that we had ten minutes to be back into our cabins for curfew, or else the harpies would eat us. Lovely guardians, those harpies.

Packing up my stuff, I walked back to the Hermes cabin, deciding to keep to myself before anyone could start calling me a witch, monster, et cetera. When I sat back down on the little patch of floor that was my bed, I could sense that everyone's eyes were on me, like they were calculating whether they should throw me out and leave me at the mercy of the harpies for the night. Some of the kids that had slept around me the night before went so far as to visibly scoot away from me.

Whatever, I told myself, summoning my sleeping bag from my bag. They're afraid of me, and with good reason. If I were in their shoes, I' be afraid of me too.

"No wonder she's unclaimed," I heard one of the older boys whisper to his friend. "She's such a freak that not even her mommy, or is it her daddy, will claim her."

"Scram," I heard Luke tell the other boy, shoving him aside. "You don't know her, therefore, you have no right to judge. Leave her alone."

"Why stick up for her, Luke? Stay with us. At least you know we won't burn you into ash."

I heard Luke snarl and within seconds, I knew the two were fighting. Noah, who had been reading peacefully on his bunk, sighed and walked over to the brawling pair, pulling the boys apart with the help of Connor and Travis Stoll.

"Enough," Noah said tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Both of you go to bed, now. I'll deal with your punishment in the morning. Light's out."

I laid down in my now slightly bigger space, pulling up my sleeping bag up to my neck for some warmth. Funny, the girl who could summon fire was cold. A few seconds later, I saw Luke set his own sleeping bag next to mine, trading his spot by the door with some girl to stay by me.

"I'm sorry for what happened earlier," he said softly, his blue eyes shining under the moonlight that flooded the room. "I shouldn't have reacted like that after everything you did for me and my girls. All you've done is help us, and when you needed us, we left. Can you ever forgive me for what I did?"

"Of course," I replied, meeting Luke's gaze. "You were scared, trust me, I was too. It's only natural you leave for your own safety. If I was a camper, I would've run away from myself as fast as my feet could take me. I forgive you."

Luke blinked twice, like he was surprised I had been so willing to forgive him. By the way he looked, I guess he thought I was going to hold a grudge against him for the rest of eternity, but that's not my style. There's no point in holding onto unreasonable anger, especially something that I could easily justify in my own mind.

He gave me a weak smile before turning away from me, his breathing quickly evening out. Many demigods seemed to share this trait, but not me. It seemed like I was one of the few demigods in the world that suffered from insomnia.

I stared at the ceiling, alone with my thoughts as I tried to come up with possible solutions for my prophecy problem.

I woke up the next morning dangling by my ankles from a tree branch.

At first I thought I was still dreaming, but when I felt my body bump into the tree trunk, I knew someone had taken me from the Hermes cabin and decided that this was a funny prank. Turning my head so I could look around, I found Holly and that other boy from the Hermes cabin, Kyle, I think, laughing obnoxiously loud for the time that it was.

Hades, the sun hadn't even risen over the horizon yet. It was way too early for this kind of prank, but then again, I never asked or wanted to be a participant of dangling from at least thirty feet above the ground. Just what kind of trees grow in this forest?

"Ha, ha," I told them, drawing their attention towards me. "Can you please let me down?"

"And why would we do that, witch?" Holly sneered, grabbing the rope holding me up and swinging it, causing me to slam into the trunk so hard the wind was knocked out of me.

"You embarrassed us during capture the flag," Kyle continued, doing one worse than Holly – he actually released some slack in the rope, causing me to drop a couple feet, more than I felt comfortable with. "You're the girl with freaky powers, Andy. You're a monster, probably a daughter of Circe or Medea. Not even the goddess Hecate would be proud enough to claim someone like you!"

"Am I supposed to be hurt?" I asked in a bored tone. "Like, do you expect me to cry or something?"

Holly and Kyle both looked at each other in shock, but before they could recover, I bent my body forward and grabbed hold of the rope with both hands. Not gonna lie, bending over like that really hurt, but I managed to reach a nearby branch for me to sit on so that I could untie my ankles. Afterwards, I used the rope to climb down the tree, jumping down once I was close enough to the ground.

"Thanks for the early morning workout," I said sarcastically, even saluting them to piss them off even more. "But next time save yourselves the work and just challenge me to a duel instead."

While the duo stared at me, steam practically pouring from their ears, I made my way back, choosing to hide out in the stables rather than go back to the cabins. Since the conch horn signaling for us to wake up hasn't sounded yet, if a harpy saw me, she would eat me. The harpies tend to leave the pegasi alone, so I figure that's as good a place as any to wait out the harpies.

The majority of the pegasi were still sleeping with the exception of two in the front stable, who were eating the hay from the floor. I found myself searching for Blackjack before remembering that he wasn't in camp until after the events from The Sea of Monsters, because Percy had freed him from Luke on the Princess Andromeda.

Ugh, I still hate the fact that my name was plastered onto that demon-infested ship. Bad enough they had a screaming masthead with my namesake's face on it, but they had to taint her memory by branding an unholy ship with her name.

Sorry, I'm still slightly bitter over the fact that the Princess Andromeda was the place that Charles Beckendorf died. He and Silena deserved better. At least they're happy in Elysium.

Oh, right, I'm supposed to change their deaths.

According to my list, they're both supposed to stay alive, and honestly, I wasn't too upset over the names that replaced their own. From what I've seen and read, the two destined to take the fate of Beckendorf and Silena were first rate assholes, so personally, I don't think I'd lose that much sleep over their deaths.

I ended that train of thought right then and there before pulling out another notebook and a pen, figuring that I could try my hand at sketching for a little bit to pass the time. My pen scratched at the page, only stopping when I finally heard the familiar sound of the conch shell sound echoing across the entire enchanted valley.

The pegasi awakened at the noise, and like clockwork, they headed for their feeding troughs, which magically filled with fresh hay and apples. The apples were gone within seconds, taken by the younger pegasi, but there was still plenty of hay.

I walked out of the stables and towards the dining pavilion, where everyone would be heading, but halfway there, I stopped. Someone was watching me from a distance, probably thinking I couldn't sense them.

Looking around me, I found a pair of stormy gray and electric blue eyes focused on me from the statue of Apollo that was in the commons area. But there was someone else, too. Although the Big House porch was too far away from the dining pavilion for me to be certain, I'm pretty sure Chiron was watching me from afar.

Speaking of which, I needed to talk to him about my parentage. That would also mean we're…great, I never knew what it's like to have an immortal centaur as a sibling, guess it's time to find out.

Oh, the joys of being me.