When Drew thought about the Mediterranean, her first thought was never monsters. It was bright beaches, cute bikinis, foreign men with accents, and those drinks with the little umbrellas. It was sunny and cheerful.

In reality, it was so far from that.

She didn't know much about the Mediterranean other than the fact that Odysseus got completely lost in it, and it was the home of her family, but she was pretty sure that it was not supposed to freeze in July.

And Drew knew all about being pretty.

It was one week after the Split, and her heart thrummed with anger every time she thought about that damn bandit. Getting swallowed by his stupid turtle was too good for the likes of him. She was only thankful that Lilith, Lou Ellen, and Terrel helped her fix the groove in her hair.

She looked out at the sea as the waves turned choppily. Grey clouds swallowed the sky, drizzling cold across the deck, forming ice on the rails and the ropes. She had taken to spending more time huddled in Leo's embrace due to the chill, and she had heard the uptick from the others wondering if she and Leo were officially together or not. Yeah, well it wasn't any of their business, she hadn't talked to Leo about it, and she didn't even know what she wanted to begin with.

She was a child of love, but love had never been on the table for her.

Was she even ready for a relationship?

She saw what it did to her sister.

And after dealing with Eros, she was perfectly fine with what she had now.

'It's the sceptre,' Cecil murmured, hefting the ancient staff. 'It has to be.'

Drew turned to look at him, and he met her eyes evenly. The corners of his lips flicked upwards for a mere second, and she knew it was because he remembered how fiercely she had fought that idiot that she was unfortunately related to. She inclined her head at him, curling deeper into Leo's side. Her gaze moved towards that sceptre, and she could believe that it was causing this weather change. The black orb on top seemed to leach the color right out of the air, and the golden eagles at its base glinted coldly. The sceptre supposedly controlled the dead, and Drew was just a bit interested in seeing that.

Away from her, but still close enough for her to see.

She had enough issues with the dead.

Gleeson had taken one look at the thing, turned pale, and announced that he was going to his room to console himself with Chuck Norris videos. The only people that seemed comfortable around the thing were the Underworld children and Lilith. Rue advised them to wait to try anything until they got Nico awakened. Travis had told them that his mind was trying to piece itself back together and make sense of what he had seen in hell, and that they should really let him rest. Considering the bags that Travis had from the glimpse that he had accidentally taken, they were all inclined to do what he said, and besides, she knew that Nico would be fine.

All the children of the Big Three were stubborn assholes.

Despite it all, Drew didn't think that it was the sceptre. She didn't do all that training with Apollo just to not listen to her instincts, and she found that she wasn't the only one. Piper had pulled her to the side the night before, saying that she feared that something horrible was heading their way. Drew wanted to soothe her and play the big sister role, but Drew wasn't that good at telling comforting lies.

"We can't talk up here,' Sherman decided as the morning crew gathered on the quarterdeck. They were supposed to be discussing a strategy 'Let's postpone the meeting.'

Wind swept frost across the deck, and truthfully, the only people that enjoyed the cold weather were Alina, Leo, and Gleeson. Alina could usually be found prancing around the deck in either a partial shift or in her full wolf form which the lunch crew liked curling around her.

Beneath them, the sea churned beneath them, rocking and pitching them back and forth.

Cecil brushed some ice from his hair, frowning at the sceptre of Diocletian. 'I should put this thing away. If it's really causing the weather, maybe taking it below deck will help ...'

"Sure,' Drew said. "And get some sleep while you're at it."

Cecil glanced at her, a petulant frown on his face. She raised a brow back at him. She wasn't afraid of awakening Travis who would definitely drag him off to bed. The boy was incredibly protective of his younger siblings.

"I'll make sure that it gets to bed," Will piped up, and Drew gave him a nod as she watched Cecil's defenses go up, like he was curling into a psychological ball. The two of them headed downstairs, and Drew reluctantly pulled away from Leo's warm embrace. The others spread out across the deck, some knocking away the ice, others on look out, and a few went back downstairs to get some food ready for the lunch crew.

Leo pulled a screwdriver from his belt. 'So much for the big team meeting," Leo murmured, pulling a screwdriver from his belt. She was a bit too cold to flush, and a bit too shameless to even care if she was honest. "Looks like it's just us again.'

Just us again.

She remembered their quest when they had to save Hera, and the day that they first slept together within the walls of Bunker Nine. It was just them though they both acknowledged the space that was missing. Leo hadn't changed that much since then, except he seemed more comfortable in his skin. Drew liked that. He was no longer brimming with nervous energy with no outlet. He knew how to use it now, hands constantly in motion, pulling tools from his belt, working controls, tinkering with his beloved Archimedes sphere. Today he'd removed it from the control panel and shut down Festus the figurehead for maintenance – something about rewiring his processor for a motor-control upgrade with the sphere, whatever the heck that meant.

Drew sat at his side, letting her eyes roam over him in contemplation. Her cute little elf had grown up so well.

That first quest to rescue Hera seemed like centuries ago. So much had changed in such a short amount of time. Her eyes moved towards the sky, and she wondered what Silena would say if she saw her. Did she still resemble that girl that was filled with confidence and indifference and love? Did she still look like her little sister? Was she still the same Drew or had she really grown up? She felt as if she was going to go crazy if she thought about it any longer, and she wondered how the gods handled it if she was wondering over one little year.

Maybe that was what made humanity, mortality so unique. It was fleeting, and change happened every second. How much change had the gods seen? Apollo. Hermes. Her Mother. Gaia in a state of being half-asleep; feeling the destruction of herself and knowing the gods helped guide that change.

Drew shook her head, turning to look back at Leo before her gaze dropped down to her knife. Ariadnê hadn't shown up in forever, and she found that she wished that she was there. Octavian had mentioned for a simple second of meeting Aineas, and Malysia had wanted to talk to her father, and yet...

Drew sighed.

'Hey, it'll be fine. We're close to Epirus now. Another day or so, if Cecil's directions are right.' Leo said as he reached over to squeeze her shoulder, hand just the slightest bit warmer than usual and combating the chill that she was feeling. He moved away too fast for her comfort, going back to tinkering with his sphere, tapping and nudging one of the jewels on its surface. 'By tomorrow morning, we'll reach the western coast of Greece. Then another hour inland, and bang –House of Hades! I'ma get me the T-shirt!'

"Woohoo," Drew murmured as her gaze drifted towards her knife.

She wasn't anxious to plunge into the darkness again. She still had nightmares about the nymphaeum and the hypogeum under Rome. In the blade of Katropon, she'd seen images similar to what Leo and Rue had described from their dreams – a pale sorceress in a gold dress, her hands weaving golden light in the air like silk on a loom; a giant wrapped in shadows, marching down a long corridor lined with torches. As he passed each one, the flames died. She saw a huge cavern filled with monsters – Cyclopes, Earthborn and stranger things – surrounding her and her friends, hopelessly outnumbering them.

She saw too many deaths for her to be comfortable.

Drew was so tired of death, and every time she saw those images, a voice in her head kept repeating one line over and over.

'I've been thinking about the Prophecy of Seven.'

'What about it?' Leo asked. 'Like ... good stuff, I hope?'

She gave him a small smile, turning her head when she heard footsteps. Piper was up early, but her sister didn't come to greet her. She was the main advocate of keeping PinkFire at peace; the ship name that Lilith had given Drew and Leo. The girl instead moved to talk to Terrel who was always willing to talk magicka with anyone that would listen.

'In Katropon,' Drew started, turning back to Leo, 'I keep seeing that giant Clytius – the guy who's wrapped in shadows. I know his weakness is fire, but in my visions he snuffs out flames wherever he goes. Any kind of light just gets sucked into his cloud of darkness.'

'Sounds like Rue,' Leo said. 'You think they're related?'

Drew snorted because she knew he was only saying that after Rue had gotten tired of him not sleeping and ignoring the rest of them forcing him to and actually gave him a knockout punch so that he could get some type of sleep. He made it his mission to avoid aster, but third shift was technically his shift since he and his brothers shared the duties, and Rue ran that shift like a drill sergeant.

"What are you thinking," he asked, bringing her back to reality.

'I keep thinking about fire,' Drew said. 'How we expect you to beat this giant because your ...'

'Hot?' Leo suggested with a grin.

"Sparking," Drew said with a smirk. It fell in the next second. "But that line from the prophecy bothers me: To storm or fire the world must fall.'

'Yeah, I know all about it,' Leo promised. 'You're gonna say I'm fire. And Jason is storm.'

"I mean there's Percy too," Drew added. She had seen plenty of what the boy could do, and Apollo never stopped bragging about him either.

The ship pitched to starboard, and she grabbed the icy railing.

'So you're worried one of us will endanger the quest," Leo said, tilting his head. "Maybe accidentally destroy the world?'

'No,' Drew said. 'I think we've been reading that line the wrong way. The world ... the earth. In Greek, the word for that would be ...' She hesitated, not wanting to say the name aloud, even at sea.

'Gaia.' Leo's eyes gleamed with sudden interest; his smile widened even wider. Drew liked seeing him smile. 'You mean, to storm or fire Gaia must fall? You know, I like your version a lot better. 'Cause if Gaia falls to me, Mr Fire, that is absolutely copacetic.'

'Or to Jason or Percy... storm.' Drew giggled as he kissed her.

'Drewberry, that's brilliant!" He said giddily. "If you're right, this is great news. We just have to figure out which of us destroys Gaia.'

'Maybe.' Drew said, wanting to be excited as him but the rest of her worries wouldn't allow her to feel the same level of excitement. 'But, see, it's storm or fire ...' She unsheathed Katropon and set it on the console. Immediately, the blade flickered, showing the dark shape of the giant Clytius moving through a corridor, snuffing out torches.

'I'm worried about you and this fight with Clytius,' she said. 'That line in the prophecy makes it sound like only one of you can succeed. And if the storm or fire part is connected to the third line, an oath to keep with a final breath ...'

She didn't finish the thought, but from Leo's expressions she saw that he understood. If she was reading the prophecy right, either Leo or Jason or Percy would defeat Gaia. The other ones would die.

Leo stared at the dagger. 'Okay ... so I don't like your idea as much as I thought. You think one of us defeats Gaia and the other one dies? Or maybe one of us dies while defeating her? Or—'

Drew shrugged. "We'd drive ourselves crazy overthinking it. It's why Apollo said that knowing too much of our future was never a good thing, and prophecies..." She remembered hearing about the prophecies of the quests that happened during the titan war. All the double entendres. As the champion of Apollo and a daughter of Aphrodite, double meanings were something that she was supposed to be good at but still—"You know how prophecies are. Heroes always get into trouble trying to thwart them.'

'Yeah,' Leo muttered. 'We'd hate to get into trouble. We've got it so good right now.'

'You know what I mean,' Drew said. 'The final breath line might not be connected to the storm and fire part. For all we know, the three of you aren't even storm and fire. The earth part might not even be her. We have a bunch of campers with geokinesis.'

'And I could always set Coach Hedge on fire,' Leo volunteered. 'Then he can be fire.'

Drew snickered, and a bit of tension fell from her shoulders.

'I hope I'm wrong,' Drew said cautiously. 'But the whole quest started with us finding Hera and waking Porphyrion. I have a feeling the war will end with us too. For better or worse.'

'Hey,' Leo said, 'personally, I like us. Us is my favourite people.'

Drew smiled, but she couldn't help but to worry.

Yeah, the quest started with them, but it had been years in the making. She worried greatly for Percy, Jason, and Leo since it seemed that Gaia had it out for them the most. She wished she could use her charmspeak on the Fates, describe a happy ending and force them to make it come true. She was pretty sure that Apollo would risk mortality again if Percy died. She could imagine him wrapping the threads of fate around the throats of the Moirai.

It was just so hard to imagine a happy ending with all the dark thoughts in her head. She worried that the giant Clytius had been put in their path to eliminate Leo as a threat. If so, that meant Gaia would also try to eliminate Jason and Percy, and they were in the pit of her second husband.

Without storm or fire, their quest couldn't succeed.

And this wintry weather bothered her too ... She felt certain it was being caused by something more than just Diocletian's sceptre. The cold wind, the mix of ice and rain seemed actively hostile and somehow familiar.

That smell in the air, the thick smell of ...

Drew tensed, shooting to her feet and summoning her bow. She knew that smell... the smell of impending snow. 'Leo, sound the alarm.'

She hadn't realized she was charmspeaking, but Leo immediately dropped his screwdriver and punched the alarm button. He frowned when nothing happened.

'Uh, it's disconnected,' he remembered. 'Festus is shut down. Gimme a minute to get the system back online.'

'We don't have a minute! Fires—we need vials of Greek fire." Her voice picked up in pitch, and those abovedeck turned to her in alarm. "Terrel, call the winds. Warm, southerly winds.'

"Wait, what?' Piper stared at her in confusion, coming to her side. 'Drew, what's wrong?'

"It's her!' Drew snatched up her dagger, striking it against an arrowhead and it sparked with flames. 'She's back! We have to—'

Before she could finish, the boat listed to port. The temperature dropped so fast that the sails crackled with ice. The bronze shields along the rails popped like over-pressurized soda cans. Marcus and Katie drew their swords, but it was too late. A wave of ice particles swept over them, coating them like a glazed doughnut and freezing them in place. Under a layer of ice, their eyes were wide with amazement.

'Leo! Flames! Now!' Drew yelled.

Leo's right hand blazed, but the wind swirled around him and doused the fire alongside the one around her arrow.

'Hey!' he yelled, clutching his Archimedes sphere as a funnel cloud of sleet lifted him off his feet. 'Hey! Let me go!'

"Leo..." Drew's voice trailed in panic. "Leo! No, LEO!"

Drew ran towards him; she couldn't lose him too, but a voice in the storm said, 'Oh, yes, Leo Valdez. I will let you go permanently.'

Leo shot skywards, like he'd been launched from a catapult. He disappeared into the clouds.

"LEO!" Drew shrieked, and she whirled around, fire in her eyes. There was nothing to attack...yet. Her gaze moved around her. Piper stood at her side, one hand gripping her stupid dart gun while the other was placed comfortably on her shoulder. Her gaze moved to the stairwell, but a block of ice had sealed the hatch. No help coming from that way. The whole lower deck might have been frozen solid. "COME OUT YOU BITTER BROKE BITCH!"

"Drew..." Piper said cautiously, but Drew ignored her. She couldn't lose Leo and Jason and Percy and Octavian. Gods, how was she going to face Apollo and Alina?

And oh, gods, Annabeth; she and the girl had never really gotten along but she did consider her a friend. She had known her since she was ten.

Then their enemies appeared, and Drew realized that the best way was to bring the broken bodies of these assholes to throw at their feet. She realized that no weapon would be enough.

Standing amidships was a girl in a flowing dress of white silk, her mane of black hair pinned back with a circlet of diamonds. Her eyes were the colour of coffee, but without the warmth. Beside her was a woman in black silk dress that rippled around her, her dark hair was piled on top of her head in a braided no longer wore the crown as the Princess of Colchis, but instead, she wore a gleaming gold pendant of the crossed torches of Hecate around her throat.

Behind them stood two young men with purple-feathered wings, stark white hair and jagged swords of Celestial bronze.

"So good to see you again, ma chère,' said Khione, the goddess of snow. 'It's time we had a very cold reunion.'

"Oh, Khione, it's just you. We were afraid it was somebody important," Drew snarked.

Medea stifled a laugh before inclining her head at them. "Ah, the beautiful Drew Tanaka. Hello, dearie."

"Give me back Leo and I won't break every bone in your body," Drew snapped. "Boys, you better talk some sense into your sister before I hurt her feelings."

'I knew the pretty girl would miss me.' said the scrawny brother—Zetes, she recalled. And she wondered where the hell he got that idea from? He spoke Québécois French that she effortlessly translated and effortlessly ignored. He stood on the catapult platform, his purple wings spread. His white hair still feathered in a horrible Disco Age mullet like those old pictures of David Bowie. The collar of his silk shirt stuck out over his breastplate. His chartreuse polyester trousers were grotesquely tight, and his acne had only got worse. "And she has an equally pretty friend."

He wriggled his eyebrows and smiled like he was the demigod of pickup artists.

"Stay away from her," Drew warned, moving to cover her sister. "Or I'll fuck you up."

'What are you doing?' Piper demanded. Then, in charmspeak: 'Let our friends go.'

Zetes blinked. 'We should let your friends go.'

'Yes,' the other one agreed. Calais, Drew remembered. The one that liked hockey. He was dressed exactly as he had been in Quebec – in cleats, sweatpants and a red hockey jersey – and had two black eyes and several broken teeth.

'No, you idiots!' Khione snapped. Medea covered her mouth with her hand as she stifled a laugh. 'She is charmspeaking. Use your wits.'

'Wits ...' Cal frowned as if he wasn't sure what wits were.

Zetes smiled in what she assumed was supposed to be a charming way. 'Ah, my beautiful Drew... so long I have waited to see you again. Sadly, my sister is right. We cannot let your friends go. In fact, we must take them to Quebec, where they shall be laughed at eternally. I am so sorry, but these are our orders.'

'Orders ...?'

Drew had expected Khione to show her stupid face again. She even expected Medea, and she remembered Iásōn's words though she didn't look all that healed from hatred to Drew. When they'd defeated her at the Wolf House in Sonoma, the snow goddess had vowed revenge. But why were Zetes and Cal here? Why was Medea? He said it broke through her hatred. In Quebec, the Boreads had seemed almost friendly – at least compared to their sub-zero sister.

'Guys, listen,' Drew said. 'Your sister disobeyed Boreas. She's working with the giants, trying to raise Gaia. She's planning to take over your father's throne.'

Khione laughed, soft and cold. 'Dear Tanaka Aeri. You would manipulate my weak-willed brothers with your charms, like a true daughter of the love goddess. Such a skillful liar.'

Drew shot forward, body a blur of motion as she sent an uppercut to Khione's chin, grabbing her wrist and snapping it as she spun her around, and pinned her to the ground with her knee digging into her back. "Let's get one thing clear, my name is Drew. You don't have permission to call me anything else, got that? Secondly, tell this lovely little girl why trash like you think you can speak to me as if you're a real threat or I'll make sure that surgery won't be able to make your gorgeous face perfect again. Zethes, Cal, you move an inch and I swear I will turn you into a melted snow cone."

Both of the brothers froze in place from the sheer amount of rage in her voice.

Zetes winced. 'Alas, beautiful girl. We all are working for Gaía now. I fear these orders are from our father, Bóreas himself.'

Piper rushed forward, grabbing Drew to pull her off of Khione who stood up in a rage but still had the audacity to smile smugly.

'At last my father saw the wisdom of my counsel,' Khione purred, 'or at least he did before his Roman side began warring with his Greek side. I fear he is quite incapacitated now, but he left me in charge. He has ordered that the forces of the North Wind be used in the service of King Porphuríōn and of course ... the Earth Mother.'

"And he left you in charge," Drew scoffed. "He was desperate or something?"

Piper gulped. 'How are you even here?' She gestured at the ice all over the ship. 'It's summer!'

Khione shrugged. 'Our powers grow. The rules of nature are turned upside down. Once the Earth Mother wakes, we shall remake the world as we choose!'

'With hockey,' Cal said. 'And pizza. And muffins.'

'Yes, yes,' Khione sneered. 'I had to promise a few things to the big simpleton. And to Zethes—'

'Oh, my needs are simple.' Zethes slicked back his hair and winked at Piper. 'I should have kept you at our palace when we first met, my dear Drew. But soon we will go there again, together, and I shall romance you most incredibly.'

"You got me so fucked up," Drew snarled. "Bring me back Leo, and I won't hurt you too bad."

"You care deeply for the little scrawny thing," Medea mused as she looked at her. "How intriguing."

"Where is he," she snarled. "Where did you send him?"

"Oh, he went to an old family friend," Medea smiled cruelly.

"Tell me," Drew demanded, weaving charm deeply into her words. "And let the others go."

Zethes obeyed, snapping his fingers. Instantly, Katie and Marcus defrosted. They crumpled to the floor, gasping and steaming, but at least they were alive.

'You imbecile!' Khione thrust out her hand, and the two demigods refroze, now flat on the deck like a bearskin rug. She wheeled on Zethes. 'If you wish the girl as your prize, you must prove you can control her. Not the other way around!'

'Yes, of course.' Zethes looked chagrined.

"It's hard to find good help these days," Medea mused, stepping lightly around Katie and Marcus as if they were sidewalk art. Drew rolled her eyes, feeling a bit better now that she knew those two were alive because she didn't fancy telling Travis that his girlfriend was a popsicle but the deep freeze could be reversed. That meant her other friends were probably still alive below deck. She just needed a plan to free them.

That was fine. That was okay. Apollo trained her in warcraft. Her Mother and stepfather were gods of war.

"You didn't answer my question and I don't like repeating myself," Drew said slowly. "Where did you send Leo?"

'Leo Valdez deserved a special punishment,' Khione said. 'I have sent him to a place from which he can never return.'

The air was stolen from her lungs. If she lost another friend to that damned pit... Khione must've seen it in her face.

'Alas, my dear Drew!' She smiled in triumph. 'But it is for the best. Leo could not be tolerated, even as an ice statue ... not after he insulted me. The fool refused to rule at my side! And his power over fire ...' She shook her head. 'He could not be allowed to reach the House of Háidēs. I'm afraid Lord Klythios likes fire even less than I do.'

Drew settled her shoulders back. Fire, huh? She'd turn the entire world to flames if it meant getting them back.

'Well!' Khione interrupted her thoughts. 'I fear our time together is at a close. Zethes, if you would—'

Drew gave a smile as the son of Boreas moved towards them. In the same instant, Drew shot an arrow into Khione's eye that instantly set itself ablaze. The goddess screamed.

"Take another step towards me or my sister, and I'll pop every pimple on your face," Drew warned Zetes. She looked back at Khione and Medea. "I'm not going to tell you again. Let my friends go, and give me back Leo."

"You miserable wench," Khione snapped, freezing her wound over with a wince. "I should just kill you now."

"Drew..." Piper murmured from behind her.

"You should have killed me back in Quebec, " Drew snapped. "But even worse is the fact that you think that I'm about to argue with you and you can't even beat me up. Like you're mad tough, but you ain't even powerful enough for me to keep going back and forth with. You're an unknown goddess; not worth a goddamn thing. You couldn't kill me then. You can't kill me now, and you're afraid of my friends. You say you're on Gaia's side then why not just kill them?"

She gave a mocking laugh. "Oh, I know. I'm just looking at one bitch. No, two bitches. Old bitches. Neither one of you bitches not gon' do shit."

"You are not a god, or you would understand." Khione laughed. "Death is so short, so ... unsatisfying. Your puny mortal souls flit off to the Underworld, and what happens then? The best I can hope for is that you go to the Fields of Punishment or Asphodel, but you demigods are insufferably noble. More likely you will go to Elysium – or get reborn in a new life. Why would I want to reward your friends that way? Why ... when I can punish them eternally?'

'And me?' Drew asked, tilting her head. 'Why am I still alive and unfrozen? Why is Piper?'

Khione glanced at her brothers with annoyance. 'Zetes has claimed you, for one thing.'

'I kiss magnificently,' Zethes promised. 'You will see, beautiful one.'

"I would rather gargle sewer water from a war-torn country with no access to plumbing," Drew snapped.

'But that is not the only reason,' Khione said. 'It is because I hate you, Drew. Deeply and truly. Without you, Jason would have stayed with me in Quebec.'

'Delusional, much?' Piper snorted before hurrying to shut her mouth. Drew reached back for her hand, rubbing her thumb across the back of it, doing her best to infuse lovely feelings within her. It was one of her recessive gifts that she didn't train too much.

Khione's eyes turned as hard as the diamonds in her circlet. 'You are a meddler. Both of you. The daughters of a useless goddess. What can you do alone? Nothing. Of all the seven demigods, you have no purpose, no power. I wish you to stay on this ship, adrift and helpless, while Gaia rises and the world ends. And just to be sure you are well out of the way ...'

She gestured to Zethes, who plucked something from the air – a frozen sphere the size of a softball, covered in icy spikes.

'A bomb,' Zethes explained, 'especially for you, my love.'

'Bombs!' Cal laughed. 'A good day! Bombs and muffins!'

'Uh ...' Piper lowered her blowgun. 'Flowers would've been fine.'

'Oh, it will not kill the pretty girl.' Zethes frowned. 'Well ... I am fairly sure of this. But when the fragile container cracks, in ... ah, roughly not very long ... it will unleash the full force of the northern winds. This ship will be blown very far off course. Very, very far.'

'Indeed.' Khione's voice prickled with false sympathy. 'We will take your friends for our statue collection, then unleash the winds and bid you goodbye! You can watch the end of the world from ... well, the end of the world! Perhaps you can charmspeak the fish, and feed yourself with your silly cornucopia. You can pace the deck of this empty ship and watch our victory in the blade of your dagger. When Gaia has arisen and the world you knew is dead, then Zethes can come back and retrieve you for his bride. What will you do to stop us, Drew? A hero? Ha! You are a joke.'

A joke? Useless? After everything that Drew had been through, the bitch was still playing in her face. Yeah, Drew and her siblings like to be underestimated but that's all that they were.

Underestimated.

There was nothing more powerful than love and there was nothing more dangerous either.

Drew was going to break her heart, and she meant that physically.

"Piper, watch closely and take notes," she told her younger sister. "Idiots like them have stripped Mother of everything that is supposed to be.A warrior, a queen, a lover, and a fighter. Medea is right there. You can ask her how Mother gets down. It's why she left with Jason in the first place."

Medea's eyes flared with anger.

"There isn't anyone on this earth including the earth herself that is stronger than my Mother. Not you. Not your brothers. Not those wackass giants. And not even Gaia. You're all just pawns in Mother's game."

"Am I supposed to be terrified?" Khiónē laughed.

"You should be," Drew shrugged. "Because from where I'm standing, all I see is two scared bitter bitches trying to sit at a table above their stature. Both of them are too scared to face me themselves, woman to woman. Did you tell them, Medea? How I had you running for your life in your own little mall?"

"Why do heroes always do that?" Medea sneered. "Why do they try to taunt me into doing something foolish?"

"Because it usually works," Drew said sweetly, twirling her dagger in one hand while she held her bow in the other. "Snowflake over there keeps talking about how she wants to kill me. You claim to be some big-time sorceress, and yet both of you lost against me. Khione, did you tell Medea how I embarrassed you in front of your Father? Did you tell her how Leo had you running for your life? We keep beating you. I don't see a powerful sorceress. I don't see a powerful goddess. I see two lame ass bitches."

'The beautiful girl must be lying,' Zethes said. 'Khione was not beaten at the Wolf House. She said it was a ... ah, what is the term? A tactical retreat.'

'Treats?' Cal asked. 'Treats are good.'

Drew pushed the big guy's chest playfully. 'No, Cal. He means that your sister ran away.'

'I did not!' Khione shrieked.

'What did Hera call you?' Drew mused. 'Right – a D-list goddess! Tch, the best part of you ran down your fathers leg.'

"I thought you were nicer than this," Piper said in the resulting silence while the two aforementioned loser bitches went red in the face.

Drew gave an airy laugh, and her amusement was so genuine that Zethes and Cal started laughing, too. Khione's white dress began to steam. Ice formed over Zethes and Cal's mouths, plugging them up.

"You've never beaten me, Tanaka Aeri," Medea growled.

"Didn't I," Drew smiled before it dropped off her face. "Stop breathing."

Medea stumbled, hand going to her throat.

"Deja vu," Drew said, smile curling even deeper, like a blade of blood. "You wanna go, too, Frosty?"

Khione's eyes flickered between her and Medea who turned to her with blazing eyes.

"Look at you two," Drew mocked. "A match made in Tartarus. In fact, that's where I'm going to send you."

"Brave words, Drew," said the sorceress with a raspy voice. "We both want you dead. Just because we promised Zetes to let you suffer in exile at the end of time doesn't mean we can't make you suffer on the way there."

Drew kept her same smile, tilting her head to the side. "Oh, baby, you haven't seen suffering yet."

"Probably." Medea shrugged. "But you know I'm feeling generous, so I'll grant your request. A duel just between us, woman to woman. Choose your weapon. I'll choose mine."

Drew sheathed her dagger and hefted her bow and arrow. She had a few trick arrows that she hadn't had the chance to show off yet. She glanced at her sister who looked a bit nervous. She shouldered her blowgun, and Drew met her eyes before shifting her gaze over to Festus.

"A pretty weapon," Medea said. "Pretty like Helen of Troy. Pretty like you. But, woman to woman, let me give you some advice. Pretty can be useful. Powerful is better. For my weapon, I choose Helios, the Titan of the sun!"

She lifted her arms, and the sun blazed from behind the clouds.

This dumb ass bitch, Drew seethed.

Drew thought that the etiquette for dueling was that when choosing a weapon for single combat, one shouldn't wield their grandfather.

They also shouldn't wield their grandfather whose domain existed in the domain of her grandfather.

Drew sneezed as the heat dropped dramatically, and Khione appeared on the side of Medea whirling like a snowstorm.

If she got the flu, she would bypass the pit and throw them into khaos!

She pushed Piper out of the way, knowing that if either of them stayed in Medea's proximity then they would have burst into flames.

She shot arrow after arrow towards them. Some of them dissolved before they could reach their target, but Drew accounted for that. Each of the arrowheads were filled with a highly reactive, fast drying, industrial polymer. It dropped from the air, landing without direction, but they started to clump together. She kept an eye on her sister as she skirted around the impromptu battlefield, playing an impromptu deadly game of chicken—fried chicken.

Dammit, she was hungry.

Focus.

Drew needed to take both of them down. Khione kept summoning ice daggers to throw at her, blasts of winter air, tornadoes of snow.

Think, dammit. Chanel your inner Apollo. Analyze the problem, offer a solution and look great doing it.

She needed to get Medea out of the way first. She was the bigger threat no matter what Khione thought. The bitch was wielding the fucking sun. Drew's eyes darted around them quickly. She jumped backwards, dodging a curtain of heart that flashed past her. The essence of Helios did not roar or dazzle with many colors. It was ghostly white, almost transparent, but it would hit them as fast as exposure to a nuclear core.

It was nothing like Apollo's dazzling visage.

Apollo!

"Where is your bravery now, dear," Medea called out, filling her words with concerned mockery. Drew ducked away as a curtain of flame sliced across the deck—sharp and fast and deadly, sucking the air from her lungs and setting her clothes on fire. That bitch! Drew rolled instinctively, thankful for the fact that Khione was trying to bring back the ice age for just one moment. "Let us put this behind us. The Titan is hard to control."

While that may have been true, the titan was not the only god of the sun. Apollo was the god of sunlight!

Drew stood straighter, turning her gaze away from Medea and onto Khione. She was the weaker link, so it made better sense to go after her. Snow had a very high albedo, meaning it reflected a ton of light energy. If she could channel Apollo through the snow...

Well, if there was one thing for certain, Drew really was a demigod. They all seemed to come up with dumbass and risky plans.

She charged across the battlefield, sliding between Cal's legs as the demigod appeared out of nowhere. She got back to her feet, dodging a swing from Zetes' sword. She ducked under his defense, grabbing his arm and twisting it. He grunted in pain, but she placed her hands on his shoulders, boosting herself up. Kicking off his back, she landed in a crouch before rolling into a backwards handspring and kicking him into Cal. Grabbing her bow, she continued forward, cartwheeling out of the way of a vertical blade of snow.

Though she may have underestimated Khione herself. This wasn't frost or the first snowfall of winter, it was the cold of deep winter, of death and endings, the kind that crept through skin and bone and froze you at your core.

Drew tapped twice on her bow charm, blinking at the arrow as that dropped into her hand.

An arrow of pure sunlight.

Bacchus had given her this. When they rescued Nico, and after they defeated the twin giants, he had reached to the heavens and gifted her the arrow. "You'll know when to use it," he had said. Her hand curled around it before she knocked it. She rolled out of the way of another column of heat, keeping her gaze firmly on Khione.

"You miserable girl," she hissed. Hatred seethed in Khiónē's eyes. "You think you can defeat me — a goddess?"

Drew ignored her, letting the arrow fly.

"O Lord Apollon, Lykia is yours and lovely Maionian and Miletos, charming city by the sea, but over wave-girt Delos you greatly reign your own self." The gates of the heavens flew open, pouring into Drew like a roaring waterfall. Absently, she took note of the golden glow that surrounded her, a radiance that she saw perhaps once or twice in the Titan war that was slowly intensifying, building to a crescendo. Power sank into her belly, ancient in a way that not even time could touch. A legacy of that surpassed the rise and fall of empires. The touch of a god.

The arrow soared through the wintry sleet, glowing brighter and brighter, reflecting off the snow like it was a winter night with a full moon of a snowpack ground.

"Leto's all-glorious son goes to rocky Pytho, playing upon his hollow lure, clad in divine, perfumed garments; and at the touch of the golden key his lyre sings sweet. Armed with arrows dread, rays of light rise from about his brow and his cheek emits a smile mingled with wrath; keen is the glance of his eyes as it follows his uplifted hands. Over the shadowy hills and windy peaks he draws his golden bow, rejoicing in the chase, and sends out grievous shafts. And so hail to you lord! I seek your favour with my song."

The snow dissolved into a steamy cloud as it moved through it until it struck the goddess directly where her heart was supposed to be.

Drew stood silently in the aftermath, turning her eyes onto Medea who looked on in shock.

"Let me tell you both something. Love shines brightly as the sun."

There was a moment of silence, and then Khione screamed.

Her skin began to glow in patches, flaking over as if she was getting sunburn and cooling from it in the same instance. She jerked from the feel of it, and yet every movement that she made disturbed the arrowhead.

Drew didn't bother to laugh, turning towards Medea. She cracked her knuckles, and suddenly, she began to radiate a soft-red color, almost pink and her voice was drowning in charm and— and— "Burn."

Flames licked at Khione skin, manifesting from gods' knows where, and the goddess' screams went higher in octave.

Medea stumbled back, and she saw Piper standing beside Festus, looking on in shock. Her sister had her hands on Festus's neck as if she had been trying to find his own switch, but Leo had switched him off, and Piper wouldn't know how to reactivate him. She'd never have the time to figure out the right controls at the ship's console. The only other people that would be able to were Leo's brothers and they were below deck. Besides, Festus was more than a machine. He was a living creature with a penchant for gossip.

"You know she called my mother useless," Drew sneered. "Let me show you uselessness."

Medea aimed a torrent of flames at her, and Drew didn't bother to dodge it. The flames twirled around her like a stuffy coat. Within the flames, she saw a beardless face, eternally young and handsome, dark curly hair crowned with a golden diadem of fire that was too bright to look upon for more than an instant. There were flowing golden robes, a burning scepter in hand.

"Help a demigod out once, and now they think that you're some kind of waiter," the face said. Drew raised a brow. "And who may you be, demigod? One of Ouranos' brats?"

"I am Drew," she said, drawing upon all of her confidence.

Around her, a white-hot maelstrom roared. A scorching temper that reminded her somewhat of Apollo when he threw his temper tantrums.

"I will not be burned," she said. "I am the Champion of Apollon. The daughter of Aphrodite. The rightful heir of the sun and sky."

The fire seemed to rage hotter. Noise crackled and hissed in her ears. The face regarded her evenly, but she could feel the emotions that thrummed beneath it all. The sheer amount of loathing that she could feel almost bowled her over. She remembered how Medea had said that it was hard to hold back the titan, and she could feel it. Medea wasn't holding him back from killing them; at least not completely. She was holding him back from killing her. An astounding amount of irony considering that she had held his favor and was once his favorite grandchild. However, he despised Medea's presumptuous magic.

The gods weren't fond of killing their own descendants.

Thankfully, Drew didn't have those same reservations.

Drew stood silently, and for a moment, she felt something close to approval. She could imagine a golden helm being placed upon her dark curls, gilded shoes covering her feet and protecting her from the rays of the sun, and a whip that wrapped itself around her arm like band. She could imagine her brown eyes that glinted like molten lava under the sun churning like molten ingots. Her clothes: a simple but cute sweat suit with her name embroidered on it, shifted into a golden peplos; her bow shifted in her hand into a burning scepter with a dove crowned with laurel leaves on the top.

"Shine bright, little bird," the voice stated before the flames burned brighter.

When it faded, Drew was still standing on the deck of the ARGO. Medea was staring at her incredulously, and Piper looked just as shocked, eyes red as if she wanted to cry but it was just too hot for tears to form.

"What...? How?" said the sorceress.

"You want to play with flames," Drew smiled, eyes gleaming as bright as Medea's own. "Let me school you on the flames of passion!"

Medea stumbled back; eyes furrowed.

"I told you there's nothing more powerful than Love," Drew said, walking towards the woman.

'You—have—no—power,' she insisted.

'Spoken like an old washed-up sorceress,' Drew said. 'One who never gets taken seriously, who always wants more power thinking it could give her what she wants. Iásōn didn't love you. You don't even love yourself.'

Medea flinched.

"Can you imagine Love backed by the power of the sun?" Drew smiled. "Love is as all-consuming as the sky and guess what Medea? My Grandfather is the sky!"

She threw her hand out, and a blazing wall of heat shot from her palm. Medea screeched in anger, batting it away. She threw her own flames back at her, and the blaze swirled around her, trying to incinerate her flesh and dissolve her soul but— "Your little embers can't do anything to me. Not when my flames are empowered by the force of my love!"

"What are you talking about!" Medea snarled.

"I love my Mother," Drew said evenly. "I love my sisters. All of them. Lilith, Piper, Silena, Valencia, Gracie, Gersemi, Harmonia, Rhodos, Lacy. I love my stepsisters. Clarisse, Carmen, Evette." With every name that she dropped, the flames burned brighter and brighter, becoming all encompassing. It gave her enough time to move around the ship until she was closer to Piper, leaving Khione's crisped form behind her. "I love my brothers. Deimos, Phoibos, Aineas, Eryx, Anteros, Mitchell, Anthony, Jaemin, the triplets. I love my stepbrothers. Sherman, Mark, Ellis, Kevin. As much as I hate him, I love that asshole Eros too."

Piper squinted at her, not looking at her directly. Not that it did much considering how brightly she was shining.

"I love my siblings. Hermaphroditus, Terri, Brinkley, Renae. I love my friends. Katie. Percy. Annabeth. Travis. Nico. Rue. Octavian. Jason. I love Apollo and Hermes. My stepfather. My grandfather. My adopted dad and brothers." The flames roared, and she leaned closer to her sister and the dragon.

"Shoot her," she murmured as she ran her hand behind his metal ears. Piper stared at her like she was crazy. Drew couldn't blame her. Even if the flames around her didn't get rid of the dart, the missile would never make it through both swirling walls of heat. "Trust me."

Piper hesitated before she unslung her blowgun. She looked between Drew, the raging maniac, the brothers trying to cool down their sister, and the dragon that her sister was petting. "Drew's right, Festus. You're a good friend. No one can truly deactivate you. You're more than a machine. You're alive. You're our friend. You can wake up on your own when your friends are in trouble, especially Leo.'

"STOP THIS FOOLISHNESS, DEAR!" Medea called, filling her words with concern. "You do not have the power needed to control the titan."

"I don't want to control him," Drew snapped. "Love is all that I need. It can heal and it can kill. And you gnat headed bitch, you took the person that I love from me."

"What...?"

"I LOVE LEO!"

Piper stepped into the open.

She took her shot.

The dart flew straight through the wall of fire and speared Medea between her breasts. How? Drew could only speculate. Perhaps, being a Cherokee weapon, it was not subject to the rules of Greek magic. Perhaps, just as Celestial bronze will pass straight through regular mortals, not recognizing them as legitimate targets, the fires of Helios could not be bothered to disintegrate a puny blowgun dart.

Whatever the case, the sorceress curled into herself and screamed. She glowered and pulled out the missile. She stared at it incredulously. "A blowgun dart? Are you kidding me?"

Medea staggered. Her eyes crossed.

"And it's poison?" The sorceress laughed; her voice tinged with hysteria. "You would try to poison me, the world's foremost expert on poisons? There is no poison I can't cure! You cannot—" She dropped to her knees. Green spittle flew from her mouth. "Wh-what is this concoction?"

"Compliments of my Grandpa Tom," Piper said. Drew eyed her sister. When the hell did she start dabbling in poisons? "Old family recipe."

Medea's complexion turned as pale as the fire. She forced out a few words, interspersed with gagging. 'Kill them!' She fell over sideways. Rather than dissipating, the cone of fire swirled even more furiously around her.

As the Boreads raised their swords, the dragon's metal skin grew warm under Drew's hand. She dived out of the way, tackling Piper, as Festus turned his head one hundred and eighty degrees and blasted the Boreads, vaporizing them on the spot right as the cone went supernova. Drew heard Festus clacking and whirring, the reactivated alarm bells ringing. It was just their luck that the sphere of winds' bomb shattered, and the ARGO II and all those that rode on it were thrown across the winds.

WORD COUNT: 8589

COMMENTS FROM AUTHOR:

1) not gonna lie. im not fond of this fight scene. i cant write them, but i wanted this to be different than canon and different from how i wrote it in blessings from khaos.

1A) This is a mix of my own personal writing alongside scenes from the burning maze.

2) Drew loves Leo...? Oh, my. And to think that this girl is absolutely and honestly not ready for any relationship, but knowing and understanding her feelings is important.

2A) Now boundaries because no one wants to lead anyone on.

2B) Also a crisis because girly, you feel love like you're suppose to.

2C) Again, Drew is not ready for a relationship. She has her own trauma to work through but its good that she can acknowledge her feelings. Gotta repeat that.

3) Me realizing that I made the Tenth Cabin big asf alongside the kids of Venus at CJ while Drew is over there naming the people she loves. Yeah, she loves all of her family. Even the assholes.