As scripted, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover left for their quest three days later. Once again, I watched from the shadows, glaring at Kyle when he gave Grover those cursed magic sneakers. Again, I debated sending Kyle to the moon, but consoled myself with the fact that if things kept on track, he would be revered as a hero in the end. That was my hope, anyways.

When Annabeth chased after the out of control Grover, Percy said something quietly, before Chiron reached into his pocket, giving Percy Anaklusmos. Before Percy had joined his friends in the white van with Argus, Chiron had said, "Come out of the shadows, Andy." When I didn't move he sighed, "I know you're there, child."

My face had been a bright red as I stepped out from behind the tree, rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment. "Really, Chiron?" I hissed, fiddling with my bracelet as I approached them.

"You were going to let me go without saying goodbye?" Percy had asked, the slightest bit of betrayal in his voice.

"Didn't I say goodbye to you last night?" I reminded him, still pulling him into a fierce hug anyways. Percy chuckled softly, burying his face into my shirt, like he was making a silent promise to himself that he'd come back alive if only to see me again. "Stay safe out there. And remember, I'm always there when you need me." I tapped the cloud charm around his neck one more time, hopping that maybe he'd finally understand.

He didn't.

Chiron and I waved at the departing van until it was out of sight, the both of us sighing at the thought of this quest. "If they are successful," Chiron said, placing a hand on my shoulder, gently leading me back into camp, "will you stay for the rest of the summer?"

"That's not up to me," I said miserably, fiddling with the hem of my shirt. "Aphrodite said I would, but the council as a whole haven't confirmed anything. Speaking of which, what is the latest development on this whole Master Bolt thing?"

Chiron suddenly aged decades in a few seconds. "Neither brother will back down. If the Master Bolt isn't returned by the summer solstice, there will be war."

"The high and mighty sons of you know who," I grumbled, causing for thunder to rumble across the clear sky. "Yeah, yeah, calm down, Zeus."

I looked over to see Chiron looking at me with a mixture of worry and concern, like he was afraid that Zeus was going to kill me right where I was standing for that comment. But I eased that fear after telling Chiron about my weird relationship with the Lord of the Skies.

Anyhow, my life was pretty normal for the next week, well, as normal as possible in a camp full of demigods. But exactly nine days after Percy had left for his quest, one day away from the summer solstice deadline, I received a message that nearly knocked me unconscious.

I'd been in the middle of trying to break up a fight between two sons of Hephaestus and Athena, who were arguing over the Zeus and Poseidon rivalry, when a voice burst into my head with so much force I collapsed onto my knees, the track mercilessly digging into my exposed flesh.

HELP US! Percy's voice begged. ANDY, I NEED YOU!

I clutched at my head, whimpering from how loudly Percy had yelled. Maybe I shouldn't have spent so much time trying to get him to understand the charm to tell him that he didn't need to scream to get my attention. It didn't help matters that I could sense how tightly he was gripping the stupid charm, that annoying shocking feeling running through my body like I was sitting in an electric chair.

"Please, don't yell," I said out loud, which sent the message both to Percy and the fighting campers, the latter of which were huddled over me in concern.

Sorry about that, Percy apologized, speaking at a normal volume.

"Ugh," I groaned at the throbbing migraine I now had. "Michael, take over for the rest of the day. I need to go to the infirmary."

The son of Hermes nodded, returning to the explanation of how the track and field events were supposed to work. I still held my head in my hands as I staggered back to the Hermes cabin, changing into some more quest worthy clothes. I also took an Advil and wrote a letter to the Stoll brothers, telling them that they were in charge until I got back.

I then melted into the shadows, letting them pull me towards Percy. When the shadows spit me out like day old gum, I landed on the shores of Santa Monica Bay, where an entire police force blocked all possible entrances off the beach.

I then ducked, the sound of a blade whizzing by my head following within a millisecond. I rolled out of the way, getting myself into a low crouch with my hand on my wrist, waiting to summon Epithymia.

"Ares?" I asked, watching the war god push Percy away from the ocean.

Annabeth and Grover grabbed my shoulders, dragging me back from the fight. I told them to fill me in, only stopping once to create a shield of water around us when Ares waved his hand in the direction of the cop cars, a wall of fire blocking any of them from interfering with the ongoing battle.

"Percy called for you to help him," Annabeth said, like I hadn't known that already. "So why aren't you helping him?"

I shook my head miserably. "I'm bound to my oath. I can't attack any Olympian unless it's for training or if I'm in serious danger."

"Then break it!"

I glared at the daughter of Athena. "Don't you think I'd like to? But I swore on the Styx, Annabeth, and I don't feel like suffering a fate worse than death. As much as I'd like to help, I can't unless Ares attacks me."

"Sorry about this then," Grover said, swiftly kicking me in the chest, pushing me right into the middle of the fight. I barely had time to jump over Ares' swing, moving away before the god accidently hurt me.

But apparently Percy had been listening to our conversation as well, because he got the water to pick me up by the ankles and fling me at the war god. I turned into mist before I could hit Ares, reappearing behind Annabeth and Grover again.

"Don't do that," I growled at the both of them, watching as Percy retreated into the water, forcing the ocean to still behind him. "I will not break my oath by you throwing me at Ares sword."

I've got to hand it to them, they had some guts.

When Ares drew his sword back, Annabeth and Grover shoved me towards the blade. I ducked the first time, but then Percy launched forward and Ares whirled around too quickly for me to do anything. I gasped as I felt the blade slice my chest open, blood blooming through my shirt.

But Ares and Percy were too consumed in their fight to do anything about me. Percy then feigned a blow to the right, and when Ares went to block, Percy went the other way, bringing Riptide down on the god's heel.

I tried to get to the water to heal myself, but then Ares yelled, all water in the surrounding area disappearing to leave a circle with a fifty foot diameter in the middle of the ocean. The earth trembled from the god's induced earthquake.

I clutched my chest, wincing in pain from the earthquake. Despite this, I took off my shirt and tied it tightly across the wound, applying pressure while staunching the bleeding. But Ares had cut deeply, and soon the orange fabric was soaked all the way through. And seeing that I was still kinda disoriented from my migraine and now from blood loss, I didn't think to get some ambrosia from my bag, which was still in charm form.

"You have made an enemy, godling," Ares told Percy, his body starting to glow with a harsh red light. "You have sealed your fate. Every time you raise your blade in battle, every time you hope for success, you will feel my curse. Beware, Perseus Jackson. Beware."

His body began to glow, but before he could disappear, I shouted, "Lord Ares!" with the little bit of strength I had left.

The glow died down and he whirled around, searching for my voice. He finally glance down, seeing me breathing heavily on the floor. I pointed weakly at his sword, and after seeing that his blade was indeed stained red, he realized that he had struck me.

"You broke your oath!" Ares roared, but I weakly shook my head.

"No," I said, my voice barely louder than a whisper at this point. "I was thrown into the fight against my will. I tried to avoid you, but I failed."

"Let me see!" Ares bent down and pressed his hand to my forehead, allowing for him to access my memories. After seeing how I had genuinely tried to stay out of it, Ares' anger faded, ignoring the interaction between Percy and the Furies behind him. "What can I do, kid? You're still a mortal. I can't interfere."

"The water," I gasped, tasting blood in my mouth. Great, he'd punctured my lungs. "Please, Lord Ares, throw me into the ocean."

He didn't think twice, scooping me up and throwing me as far as he could into the sea. I felt myself break through the waves, bubbles surrounding me as my eyes closed, my body sinking to the bottom of the sea.

When I woke up, I was in the infirmary in Apollo's palace. It was identical to the one back at camp, except there was more technology here and much less people. In fact, I was the only one in the infirmary, a steady beeping coming from my monitor being the only noise.

I tried sitting up but quickly regretted the idea after feeling my entire chest flare in pain, like I'd been tapped danced on by a bunch of ten-year-old girls. There was an IV in my arm, and I could taste the ambrosia that had been force fed to me while I was unconscious.

Apollo flashed in minutes later, a doctor's coat on top of his sky blue tank top and khaki beach shorts. He flipped through my chart, rolling over to my bedside in one of those wheelie chairs that were in every doctor's office. He jotted down my vitals onto a fresh sheet of paper before filing that away, too.

"You gave us quite the scare there, Andy," Apollo said, hanging up a bag of blood next to the saline. He then reached into his coat pocket and produced a crumpled cream colored envelope. "Hermes asked me to give this to you."

I tore into the envelope and pulled out a folded piece of red construction paper with the words Get Better Soon written in messy Ancient Greek. On the inside was an apology from Ares about the whole near-death and accusation thing. I'd also found out that Hera had been the one to force him to write the letter, bringing a small smile to my face.

"So, what are you going to do to Ares?" Apollo asked as he listened to my heartbeat with his stethoscope.

I waited until he was done before saying, "Nothing. He didn't purposely attack me, so I don't blame him for anything that happened. Plus, he threw me into the water, which if I'm not wrong, probably saved my life."

"Right like always," Apollo said, much too cheerily for the statement I'd just made. "No, but in all seriousness, we were really worried about you."

"Really?" I tried to sit up again, but Apollo pushed me back down and gave me a look, as if daring me to try to sit up again. Thankfully, he raised the bed a little bit more so I wasn't lying down, making me feel more comfortable.

"Really. It's not every millennia we dedicate our time to a single hero, err, heroine. Plus, we all like you, whether we show it or not. You're always respectful and remind us that it's okay to be human at times." Apollo set down my chart and looked me in the eyes so intensely I thought I was going to spontaneously combust right there.

"You've helped me through some rough patches, Andy," Apollo admitted quietly, like he was afraid someone was going to overhear him. "When my own sister ignored my cries, you were there, completely open minded to what was going on. You didn't judge me or run away screaming, instead you waited until I was okay and always tried to cheer me up. That means a lot to me, something I'll never forget."

"You've helped me, too, Lord Apollo," I said truthfully. "Thank you for everything you've done for me."

Apollo gave me one of his blinding smiles, the one that you needed at least four sets of sunglasses on if you wanted to stare and keep your eyesight. He waved off my thanks and gave me a glass of nectar, warning me that I shouldn't consume anymore godly food any time soon unless I wanted to burn up.

"Noted." I slowly but surely drained the glass, keeping up our casual conversation while Apollo finished running all the necessary tests.

Later on, some of the other gods popped by to check in on me. Ares and Hera had been the first ones to arrive, excluding Apollo. Ares apologized again, giving me the chance to forgive him, which shocked both the god of war and his mother.

"I feel like I should remind you that you almost died, Andromeda," Hera said.

"I know," I replied. "And I forgive him anyways. My friends wanted my help, and I wanted to help, too. But I wasn't going to break my oath."

"Not even for your friends?"

"I'm a mortal," I reminded her. "That means any oath on the Styx that I break will haunt me for the rest of my life. While a god's punishment may befall on their children, I alone will bear the burden of breaking my oath, something I hope never comes to pass."

"Wow," Ares scoffed. "Respect, kid."

"Thanks, Lord Ares. And thank you for not killing me on sight."

"With the way this one gushes over you," Ares pointed at Hera, "I'd sooner be stripped of my immortality than face her wrath."

"Careful what you wish for," Apollo grumbled, having experienced mortality twice before.

Artemis visited as well, but only for a couple minutes, more like a reassurance that I was still alive rather than actually caring about my physical state. I knew her reason for the cold shoulder, so I didn't say anything when she disappeared literally a minute after seeing that I was awake.

My last visitor was Poseidon, who showed up after Apollo gave me a lunch that consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich, an apple, a granola bar, and a bottle of water. He'd said Hestia made the sandwich, which made me more confident that I wasn't going to die of food poisoning. Trust me, I wouldn't eat anything Apollo made. You had a better chance of getting botulism and E. coli than actually enjoying his food.

Anyhow, Poseidon didn't say anything for a long time, merely watching me eat my lunch, which I thought was extremely creepy. Not as creepy as watching me sleep, but still. I was halfway through my apple when Poseidon finally said, "You shouldn't have interfered."

I choked on the bite of apple in my mouth, forcing myself to swallow as I tried to regain my breath. I'd expected him to say a lot of things, mainly negative, but I hadn't been expecting that.

"If a friend of mine calls me," I said lowly, "I show up, simple as that. And I didn't interfere. If I recall correctly, it was Annabeth, Percy, and Grover that put me in the way of Ares' sword."

"Then you shouldn't have shown up at all," Poseidon growled, his eyes darkening, the way the ocean did before a storm. "You should've left Perseus to defend himself."

"He did," I argued, taking note of the fact that he had called Percy by his full name. "He bested Ares in combat at the age of twelve with practically no training. I did nothing to help him."

Poseidon's eyes then started to glow, but they were no longer sea green. Now solid gold irises replaced the green, and the way the god was smiling made me uneasy.

"Pity," Poseidon said, though his voice had changed, sounding like there were multiple copies of him, the same way that the Oracle of Delphi sounded when she spoke a prophecy. "I thought you were going to come and visit dear old Dad."

"Your plan failed," I growled. "And I will never be your daughter."

Poseidon lunged forward, pushing down on my bandages with one hand, causing me to bite my lip. I wasn't going to show Kronos any weakness if I could help it. He then ripped off the thin hospital gown I was dressed in, revealing the thick white bandages and my bra. Poseidon's hand gently ran down the bandages before yanking them off, revealing the angry red scar that was running up and down underneath it.

The wound had black stitches running its entire length, and the surrounding skin was still red and tender. I didn't really want to know the extent of my injuries, but if the bruising around my ribcage was anything to go by, I'd guess I'd suffered a punctured lung and severed ribs, and who knows, maybe my heart had gotten hurt as well.

I bit the inside of my lip harder when Poseidon expertly undid the knot holding my stitches closed. My hand had slid underneath the mattress, where Apollo had left me an emergency button in case something happened. I was also praying to Salina, wishing that Poseidon would regain possession of his own body.

When Poseidon went to start removing my stitches, I spat in his face and punched him square in the nose. The god growled in anger and went to attack, but I rolled out of bed, grabbing my saline and blood off the metal pole before taking off, ignoring the fire in my chest as I ran, Poseidon hot on my heels.

I was far too weak to teleport myself away, so I kept running, praying that Apollo would show up soon. Tyche must've been listening, because Apollo appeared right in front of me, glaring at me like I was crazy.

"Duck!" I shouted, practically tackling the god when his wheelie chair was thrown over our heads, crashing into the wall.

"What's going on?" Apollo demanded, his bow and quiver appearing on his back and golden hunting knives glowing in their sheaths at his waist.

"Poseidon's trying to kill me," I muttered. "Father's possessed Poseidon, and now he wants me dead."

"Because you didn't join him?"

"Pretty much."

Apollo sighed. "And here I am thinking I have father issues." He notched an arrow and released it at Poseidon, sending the sea god stumbling back as he clutched his chest.

Apollo then waved a hand over me, and the next thing I know, I was standing in the middle of the throne room in nothing but my bra and some gray running shorts, my bags of blood and saline still in my hands while a needle was still in my arm.

"Heavens me! Have you never heard of clothing, Adriana?" Dionysus scowled, covering his eyes with his wine magazine.

"Thank Poseidon for that," I grumbled, hobbling over to the hearth, my chest still aching. A little bit of blood had started to seep from the edges of the stitches, and I swore, afraid that the stitches were going to tear completely.

Hestia didn't say anything, handing me a dark blue nightgown and helping me slide it on, what with the tube sticking out of my arm and all. She also pressed a glowing hand to my chest, humming a peaceful melody under her breath. The pain and swelling around the stitches died down, much to my relief.

"Thank you," I'd said, slumping down against the hearth, relishing the heat the fire was giving off.

Apollo flashed into the throne room about twenty minutes later, his hands covered in ichor up to his wrists and a nasty cut gracing his perfect face. He scanned the throne room before finally finding me, telling me to lay down as he pulled out a first aid kit and slapped on a fresh pair of gloves.

"What happened to Poseidon?" Hestia asked, watching with a slight frown on her face as Apollo redid the knot, pulling tight enough that I winced in pain.

"Father Time thought it would be a good idea to kill his daughter through his son," Apollo said bitterly, checking that everything was in place before summoning a wheelchair for me to sit in.

Hestia sighed sadly. "That sounds like something Father would do."

"How long have I been out, if you don't mind my asking?"

The two gods glanced at each other, like they were uneasy about my question. They had a silent conversation, as if debating who was going to be the one to break the news to me. Luckily for them, they didn't have to say anything as Dionysus said, "A little over a month and a half."

"Have I missed the last day of camp?" I asked the wine god.

"Unfortunately not. The last day of the summer session is tomorrow."

I felt my eyes widen. "Lord Apollo, I have to go back to camp, if only for tomorrow."

"You're in no condition to go anywhere, Andromeda," Apollo said sternly, sounding like his forty-year-old self. "Especially when Poseidon nearly tore your stitches open again. Not to mention the fact that you've been in a coma for six weeks. Getting hit by a god's symbol of power takes a lot out of the person if they survive the wound. It's a miracle you're still breathing on your own, Andromeda, I don't know how else to tell you."

"Please," I begged, my voice cracking from lack of use. "I had a vision about one of my friends. They're going to die if they face this threat alone."

Apollo's stern expression didn't change. "That's something that the Fates have ordained, then, and that means there's nothing you can do about it. If anything, all you're doing is opening up the chance for you to die as well."

"It's worth it if it means he gets to live."

"No, and that is final," Apollo announced. "I managed to get Father Time out of Poseidon's head, so you will be coming back with me to the infirmary to finish healing there. However, I'll let you contact your friends at camp via Iris-messaging."

"Thank you," I said, trying and failing to hide my bitterness in my voice. At least I got the Iris-messages.

That night, after Apollo promised me some privacy during my Iris-messages, I called Chiron and told him to prepare anti-venom for a pit scorpion sting. Unsurprisingly, he asked me why he needed to make such a concoction.

"A dream," I told him. "Tomorrow, someone is going to be stung by a pit scorpion. I don't know who it is, but they will die without the anti-venom."

"I'll begin right away," Chiron said gravely, scratching at his beard thoughtfully. "Would you mind giving me an update on Olympus? Ever since Percy's come back, Mr. D has refused to tell us why he was called back."

I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly. "Yeah, that was because of me. Ares hit me in a fight at the Santa Monica Beach, and since it was a cut from his symbol of power, I was in a coma for six weeks. I literally just woke up today and have already been attacked by Father."

Chiron's eyes glinted dangerously. "What did he do?" he said in his steely calm voice, something you only ever heard when he was really angry.

"Possessed Poseidon," I said. "Apollo had to take him down with some serious tranquilizers. He's still sleeping off the effects at the moment."

"But he is free?"

"According to Apollo, he is." I sighed, tugging at my hair in frustration. "This is crazy, Chiron, absolute craziness. He can't be this powerful already, right?"

"I believe his subconscious has left the pit, but performing acts such as possessing one of his own children must take a huge toll on his strength. As for a body, he is still completely dismembered."

"Beautiful," I muttered, picturing the mess that must've been made after Kronos was chopped up. "Do you think he'll try to possess us the way he did to Poseidon?"

"Anything is possible with our father," Chiron said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "But we shouldn't worry about that right now. Thank you for the warning about the pit scorpion. I'm sure the victim will be very thankful for you."

"Don't mention this to them, please."

Chiron merely nodded, having learned about my secretive ways by now. "I hope to see you at camp very soon."

"Same here," I laughed, wincing when I felt pain flare up in my chest. "I'll see you around, Chiron."

I then slashed through the rainbow, praying that everything would turn out okay tomorrow.