An Undertow of Sand

"Again!" Daedalus demanded.

"Athena ruled Olympus for at least two millennia," I droned for the fifth time. "She founded Mycenaean Greece."

Basically.

Malcolm taught me that Theseus, the demigod she helped, went on to found Athens. How many times did that story repeat? Didn't Annabeth tell me something about how Poseidon tried to take Troezen from her too? And Athens itself by contest or something? I'll be honest. I wasn't really paying attention, because Greeks are jerks.

News at 11.

The ancient half-blood leaned back from his seat on the gravelly ground. His head tilted up as his face scrunched into this confused, upset but awed expression. We went from facing off on the edge of a fight to sitting in a circle on the ground Kumbaya style. I wasn't going to complain about it. It meant we weren't dying just this second.

Instead I asked, "Is it sinking in yet?"

"Not really," Quintus admitted. "One more time!"

I sighed. The smart thing would have been to humor him, but I was tired of repeating myself. Luke was a model student compared to this guy.

"No, you're supposed to be smart, or something." I was guessing based on his boasting from earlier. It doesn't take a lot of brain cells to stumble into the Labyrinth when it wants to be found. "We've got places to be. Figure it out on your own time."

"I'm trying!" He protested. "You don't understand how much this recontextualizes - what it means - how? When exactly?"

"You want me to tell you now?" I said incredulously. Kallisto is shivering down my spine. I was not going to get into that whole thing here in the middle of the desert. Quintus may not care if a giant murder bear came out of nowhere and murdered us, but I sure did. "It was ages ago. Why do you even care so much?"

"Why do I - "

"He has no idea who you are," Luke pointed out from next to me. He still had his dad's lighter gripped tightly in his hand. Quintus fumed, fists in his lap. Mrs. O'Leary sniffed around his neck and then laid a big, fat slobbering kiss on his head, giving him a blond cowlick. He calmed down enough to spit out,

"Son of Intellect, remember?"

Uh.

"If it makes you feel better, pretty sure your dad and her are still engaged," I offered. It was like Alabaster and Hecate all over again. Of course the Titanborn would only know the 'safe' uncommon knowledge and nothing else.

"...what?" Quintus croaked and Luke snorted. The look on Daedalus' face was somewhere between horrified and resigned. Poor guy just had absolutely no clue. "I - what?"

"He has no idea," Luke repeated.

"I know about Icarus!" I defended my honor. "He's the guy that crashed the sun chariot, right?" I could feel the stares from both my party members and the Roman go straight through me, which meant I should not have said anything. Luke's mouth opened, then he closed it. He held up a finger.

"One, that's Phaethon. Icarus had the wax wings. Two, I am putting you right back into Greek Mythology for Beginners when we get home."

…um.

Yeah, no, Phaethon (?) never came up.

"Okay, in my defense, Apollo told me that." Artemis grumbled some very uncomplimentary things in Ancient Greek about her brother's intelligence. "And in his defense, Helios was the sun god at the time, not him and he has a hard time remembering Herodotus died two thousand years ago."

"Two thousand four hundred and twenty years ago," Daedalus muttered petulantly. "And seven months."

"Sure, that, okay." I waved. "Whatever."

"The nereid you punched at Camp," Luke said suddenly, realizing something profound.

"The one with the suicidal dumbass boyfriend?" I said, confused. "And she was blaming Mom for some reason?"

Why was he bringing that up?

"You were actually serious. You thought he was her boyfriend." Luke's smile was twisted up. "He was her nephew. You don't know who Achilles is, do you?"

Artemis made a sound.

"...I now feel like I should." Now that I thought about it, didn't Chiron mention him getting training or something before we left Camp?

"By the Styx, Percy."

"I told you I learned about the god stuff."

"I didn't think that meant you don't know about the mortal stuff!"

Quintus (I am going to have to decide what I'm calling this guy eventually) was mumbling to himself. "Intellect - separate deity, he can't mean - Prometheus?" Daedalus said very quietly, like he was scared saying it too loudly would get him smited. "She's betrothed to Prometheus?"

Luke grinned.

"Yeah?" I said. "Has been for a while?"

Daedalus let out a strangled scream, throwing his hands up in the air.

"This is unbelievable!"

Luke leaned towards an exasperated auburn bunny. "This. Is. Amazing."

"From this end, you mean," she replied dryly.

"No more comments from the peanut gallery!" Quintus (fuck it, his identity crisis is his problem) snapped at them, hands on his knobby old man knees in his sweatpants. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"I still don't know why you care," I reminded him.

He ground a palm into his face. "She's my mother."

Oh.

"Huh, so you are a demigod," I said. "Then what's with the…" I made a vague gesture at his everything. "Terminator get up?"

"So I wouldn't die," Quintus said flatly. Cool, he knows the Terminator. "I transferred my soul into a crafted homunculus of Celestial Bronze and - "

"It is unnatural," Artemis muttered.

He scowled at her. "If I had a dinar for every time I heard that - "

"It's perfectly natural?" I spoke up and the old demigod and rabbit froze in place.

"...it is?" The former goddess of the Hunt asked with hesitant ears. "Truly?"

("I love this," Luke muttered.)

"Yeah? Mom is big on everything being permitted." I would know. She never punished me, for anything. "But Step-dad drew some lines. If it wasn't allowed," I pointed at Quintus. "He would have been erased."

Quintus knew what I meant by that. The blood drained from the older man's face.

"Don't time travel, especially not backwards," I told Quintus. "Time really doesn't like that."

("I am learning things," Luke said.")

"I understand," Quintus said weakly.

Maybe the Hounds weren't great fairy tales for a five year old, but that doesn't matter. I preferred Mom's bedtime stories over the nightmares the Dreamlands gave me about Dad's abominations like the Tooth Fairy.

"I am a little confused how you didn't just die as soon as you tried to transfer though…?" I admitted.

I rubbed my chin, thinking it over. The body was important, even after you died. The undead and revenants were trapped in it. You could do nasty things to ghosts if you had their corpse on hand. Quintus wasn't undead though, because I could see him die. The Roman Ancient Greek just got paler and paler waiting for me to say something until he looked like death warmed over.

"I mean, congratulations on defying death?" I tried to make him feel better. I was a little worried he was about to pass out and then all hell would break loose. He was the only thing holding back the monster bikers. They were still waiting at the edges, watching us closely with too bright eyes.

"Becoming a lich is a great goal to have, I approve - but like, phylacteries are always about anchoring parts of the soul. The natural splits - "

Suddenly, I knew how he pulled it off.

"Oh right," I said, remembering Annabeth. Who was stuck in the Dreamlands, unable to return because her soul had completely left her body. Clovis and the others were staying to protect her because she couldn't find her way back through the Night. No anchor back to her mortal coil remained.

If it ever existed in the first place.

"...Percy?" I turned to Luke. He looked concerned. "Are you okay?"

"I…" I wasn't okay. "I am having a second hand existential crisis on the behalf of a mutual friend."

Luke had cracked a smile at first, but when I finished his face was full of dread. "Annabeth?"

"Athena fucked her kids up."

Artemis choked.

Holy crap.

Athena fucked her kids up.

It didn't hit me while I was Dreaming because my logical mind was asleep. Now, I was very awake and the stark reality was slapping me in the face. Human souls shouldn't work like that. They don't work like that. They can't work like that. Mortality means you were tethered to a body that can die. I was reminded of Artemis' account of the Roman gods. Formless, but independent beings. But those were Young gods. A Domain could substitute. Spirits were always tied down. To a tree, a concept, a duty. Elder Gods can't be separated from their physical being either. It's just that what counts as 'physical being' could be a bit weird.

But even my mother could be chained.

If Annabeth and Quintus could just abandon their body entirely without dying, did that make them somewhat immortal? Were they tethered to someone, not something? Was that why Athena didn't treat them as children?

Was Cabin Six full of half-bloods or was it full of semi-divine golems?

Monsters.

"Athena fucked her kids up," I said again, faintly.

Quintus blinked owlishly at me. His face then fell. "No."

"Yes." I insisted. "One of your siblings, she's stuck in the Dreamlands right now because her soul doesn't split. She's not tethered to her body." Quintus' ghost shifted. It changed right before my eyes. Its smile was not relieved. It was sad, but peaceful. Then an explosion from within turned everything white.

For a long moment, the ancient demigod said nothing. He just studied me for a long moment. Then he raised a hand and rubbed at the back of his neck.

"A brand that follows me no matter what body I take," he murmured. "Because my body didn't matter. It was always about my…" His head bobbed thoughtfully. "Excuse me."

He stood up and walked a few paces away, his hellhound puppy at his heels whimpering in concern. Then he stubbed his toe on a rock or something because out of nowhere he started yelling at the sky, cursing up a blue streak in at least five different ancient Greek dialects and a few others. I recognized Egyptian and what might have been Phoenician, but I don't want to know what it means that I knew it.

" - I have fucking accomplishments!" He screamed at the void above us. "Stop fucking taking them away from me, gods fucking damn it Athena!"

One of the monsters watching him, turned to Ghost Rider to complain with a cockney accent,

"I don't get it - are we eating the fecking blighters or not?"

"You're not," I said. Quintus whirled on me. His gray eyes were wide and panicked. His neck was flushing red with rage. I wasn't worried though. Now that I knew this guy was a child of Athena, I knew exactly how to handle him. "Think of all the lore I can't tell you when I'm dead."

"You - " Quintus froze, finger pointing at me.

Got'im.

I stood up slowly. "Finish your business, then I'll see you back at Camp Half-Blood to pay you back."

"Please," he sneered. "Do you think I've been living in the Labyrinth all this time for my own health?" He paused. "Well, I have been, but only so I wouldn't be found - " He sighed. "You know what I mean."

"Hiding from the consequences," Luke said blandly. Artemis looked like she was going to say something, then she glanced at the both of us and drooped. Luke noticed and an absent hand gently cuffed her upside the head. "But your mother branded you for murder."

Quintus froze again. The realization dawned on his face.

"Yeah," I said with a shrug. "Athena knew where you were the entire time." If her kids were tethered to her, it was a few steps away from them being her spawns. She knows. Not wanting to fight the Labyrinth for him wasn't wisdom. It's called being sane. "She knows where you are now."

"She is simply too busy," Artemis spoke up, sounding very pleased with herself for the dig.

"Yes," Quintus hissed, not nearly as pleased. "You gods are good at being too busy, aren't they?"

Luke frowned as the rabbit reeled back..

"Don't worry," I cut in. Let's not go down that road again. "I'll be changing that."

Quintus raised an eyebrow. He looked me up and down. I felt vaguely insulted. "Sure you will."

"My mother's not too busy and I can prove it." I gave him a big grin and mentally crossed my fingers hoping that Mom would back me up here. I took a few extra steps away from my party members. Then a few more steps. Just -

Just in case.

"Hermes has no idea he wrote up for a cross pantheon violation Ananke herself."

Mom was there.

And she was still pissed.

I could tell because I fell about six feet and rolled my ankle when the ground underneath me just evaporated. My tattered tunic fell apart. Time seemed to slow down as I watched it crumble into the same bone white dust as the ground, falling off me in streams of dust that blew away on the Night Winds. I saw my skin ripple and spasm. My stomach scrunched and I thought my belly button looked back -

Then the moment was gone and I was left in a big hole with glass smooth sides and no shirt.

"Thanks, Mom," I muttered. I was stuck. "Sorry, love you too."

There was no response.

I tested my ankle and approached the wall of the hole. My sneaker slid right off the smooth side with a screech of rubber sole. Dust fell in a stream and I looked up to see a gloved hand reaching down to help. There was fire and smoke and shadow grinning underneath. I followed the hand up further and saw the elf look back.

"Thanks," I said. I didn't move. I knew better. "Can I repay you with a joke?"

"A good one," she warned me.

"Cool." I grabbed her hand and she hauled me up easily. Around the hole I saw various monsters of the convoy had either backed off or thrown themselves onto the ground, stretching out all manner of limbs just like Rhea did. Luke was pale and sweaty, unsteady on his feet but making an effort to hold Artemis up. The small rabbit clinging to his vest looked like she just had a decade scared off her life.

"Urk!"

Quintus bent over and threw up.

"Yeah, sorry," I said. "She does that." As he wiped his mouth, I turned back to the elf. "So how many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman?" She blinked her star-like eyes slowly at me. "None."

The Ghost Rider grumbled from somewhere behind Quintus (I must have hit a nerve) but the elf's laugh was like the short ringing of a chime.

"What's wrong with you!" Quintus barked at me.

"Uh nothing?" I said as I reached down and picked up my backpack. Capable of traversing space from the van to my hand, cursing thieves and defying physics, still missing a strap because of a fucking dog. "Also, rude."

"Very rude," Luke said unsteadily, but he strengthened. "You won't kill us."

"I don't have to take you with me either," he snapped back, but he glanced at the hole in the ground. It was the same radius as a trampoline and perfectly spherical. "I can leave you here. I -"

"I can't tell you shit if I'm dead," I sing songed.

Quintus rubbed at his temples, torn. "You don't understand…"

"Just tell your mom I said to let you bunk at Camp," I said reasonably as I dug around in my bag for another shirt. Apparently, I packed all my tunics. Another blue one. Blue is good. "Say I'm returning the favor. Feel free to rub it in. She wants to be on my good side. She'll do it."

Quintus wavered.

"He's been teaching us," Luke joined in. His voice was that smooth, calm tone again. "Your siblings have been getting themselves locked in their Cabin at least three times a week since they learned about Athena."

"...rioting?" Quintus asked quietly.

"Researching," Luke deadpanned and Quintus snorted.

"Yes, yes, that sounds like…" His voice got quieter. "Something I would do." The world hung on a breath as he thought about it. "You are being chased. I can't in good conscience put the convoy at further risk." My heart sank. "But," he continued. He glanced over my shoulder and I realized he was looking at the elf. "I won't say no to volunteers. The second route, further north. It's risky."

My heart sank further.

I didn't look back at the elf.

Debts were bad.

"No debt," the elf said, like she read my mind. "The favor has already been paid in entertainment." She smiled, but it wasn't a nice one. "I swear this thrice, on the Name of Nodens."

A chill ran down my spine, the sensation of a mountain that reached the stars shifting ever so slightly with glacial movement in our direction. A howl rang out in my mind of some unnamed predator, blood was in my mouth, a faint unpleasant pressure like being squeezed through a tube lined with the glass shards of its attention and then it, too, was gone.

I breathed out, shaken. Now I know how everyone else feels when Mom answers.

I knew that Name. Nodens. He was Celtic. That probably means she was not a Light Elf of the Norse, she was one of ours. No wonder she laughed at my joke. Dark and gallows humor, we love that shit.

I wish she was Norse.

"Okay then," I murmured. I glanced at Luke and Artemis.

"We need to go," Artemis said quietly. "I feel…"

I felt it too.

We were boring Kallisto.

"Get your bike," the elf told Luke. "Kieran, with me."

Joy.

Quintus watched us scramble around. Mrs. O'Leary first followed Luke around as he hauled his red and gold hot rod motorcycle out of the van and then she ran back to follow me. She was sniffing me frantically, like she was trying to commit to memory what we smelled like. Like she knew her new friends were leaving.

"It's okay girl." I rubbed her ears as her brimstone eyes stared pitifully back at me. I give up. This hellhound was alright. Her siblings were all jerks though. "We'll see you soon."

Up close, I realized that the elf's bike didn't just look like she fused a deer to an engine. The fur was real and warm and I could feel a pulse under my hand when I touched it and it whined. It was a whistling agonized sound as the three heads of the deer twitched.

…please… Destroyer…

Was he talking to me?

"Don't mind him," the elf said lightly as she put on her helmet. "I won a bet and he's a sore loser, aren't you, old friend?"

"So…" I started. "How long ago was that?"

The shadow and smoke chuckled as dark blood from the deer trickled onto the ground. "Does it matter?"

She's definitely a Celt.

"Good to see you still have some spirit!" She said gleefully in Gaelic. The deer moaned and then went silent. I swallowed as she held up a hand and with a twinkle of fae lights and embers, a smaller motorcycle helmet was tossed my way. Right. So I just…keep my hands in very safe locations.

Quintus wandered over as the convoy split into two groups. The more varied monsters, the big ones stayed with Ghost Rider as the thin, hungry human-like waifs drove in circles around us, a low chant starting up that thrummed in my blood.

He sidled up, looking hesitant.

"I'm sorry," he said miserably. "But Artemis…I can't."

"I get it," I said as I put on my helmet. Khione said the same thing and I couldn't blame her either. This guy had thousands of years of history as a branded demigod alone in the Greek world. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Quintus nodded and turned to leave. He took two steps and then turned back around. "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

"Sure, every human who has ever breathed oxygen?" I paused for dramatic effect. His eyes widened as he leaned in, desperate as the elf's engine roared alive. "Dies!"

I don't have it in me to regret that one, because you could almost see Quintus' soul just leave his body.

"Athena's always been a bad mom. Your brother Ericthonius still lives in Atlantis."

The elf whistled. Her engine roared again, sounding like a dragon and the last I saw of Quintus was his shocked face.

Then it was just the desert.

It was wrong.

The rumble of the engine, the wind whipping past, the crunch of the gravelly, sandy ground and even the look of the Night sky. Everything seemed almost too real. Too bright, too loud, too close. Vibrations were rattling my skeleton as the scenery blurred. We didn't even seem to be going that fast, like our speed was completely independent of how fast we were going.

"Is this a Hunt?" I asked. The noise stole my words away, but the elf heard them. Must have been the long ears.

"Aye, but not yet!" She sounded excited. "We're the prey!"

Glad one of us was having fun.

My neck was still screaming. A looming sense of dread was creeping closer but no matter how much I swiveled my head around, searching, there was nothing around. On a normal day with the sun out, I bet you could stand on one of the nearby plateaus and see for miles. I was back in the dark ocean, feeling the doom creep in. An hour passed like this, waiting.

The attack, when it came, was sudden.

The van. The one we had been riding in until we moved to the bikes drove up next to us. I saw the elf's head turn, "Fiamh, what are you doing - "

It exploded in a burst of rotting flesh and foul blood like it wasn't a van at all, but a giant diseased tick. The shockwave crashed into me, drops of blood burned on my tongue. For the third time in this Quest, I was airborne.

I don't remember hitting the ground.

I remember flashes. Pain. The moment that really sticks out was watching a rabbit look at me and just -

give up

A massive silhouette reached for her, she wasn't going to move in time and the absolute feeling of certainty that Artemis was going to let herself die here. I remember feeling my jaw dislocate itself and distend. There was a different kind of roar. And then -

"Don't you fucking dare!" A voice yelled. "Die on your own time! You swore, Thal - "

Then I must have blacked out again because the next thing I knew,

"- hold on!" I felt myself being picked up as sound came back in bursts along with the pain.

"My legs," I rasped, tasting blood in my mouth. I think I lost a few teeth and I couldn't feel anything under my waist. "I think - "

"I got you - " The sound died. Then it came rushing back as I was placed on a motorcycle. I got the vague impression of red and gold in front of my face. Luke. " - Arizona?"

"I don't know!" Artemis' voice wailed. Someone was screaming in distance, a tortured howl and I recognized it.

"I know where - " The third voice cut off.

I felt like I was underwater, trying to breathe through crushed lungs as the waves washed over me as a rush in my ears. My head pounded.

" - hurt bad, he can't do that again - "

"Strap him in, quickly!"

"Luke?" I slurred. I felt like I didn't have lips. What happened to my face?

"Hey, bud," he said softly with the same tone I've heard him use on the younger Campers. "You're going to be okay, alright?" There was that slight warble that said he was trying to be strong because they were hurting. I couldn't see him clearly. That worried me. "Just need you to do one thing for me. Open wide."

He shoved two cubes of Ambrosia into my mouth immediately, the normal limit for most demigods before they burst into flame.

"Can you - " He turned from me. I could see the silhouette of him moving as my blood rushed in my head again.

"Did he swallow any?" Someone asked. The voice was familiar. I felt an impression of heat against my side as a cool hand brushed my forehead. "Don't die now, Kieran."

I won't.

"I don't know," Luke responded shakily. "Did that cause - he can handle it - " he pivoted. "Son of Fate, right?"

No one answered him.

"Okay," he murmured. "Okay."

"Go," the elf said. "We'll distract it."

"It will not work for long - " Artemis started.

"It does not need to," the elf laughed. "We just want to have some fun!"

Luke started his bike. I felt it rumble against my stomach and I realized I was laying on the seat in front of him. My sense of up and down was all messed up or it was like I was (kind of) seeing through eyes that weren't above my nose.

"Where are we - " I tried to speak but Luke shushed me.

"Just, rest, okay? We've got a little ways and then I'll…" He trailed off. "Figure something out."

"Luke," Artemis' voice said worriedly.

"Who do you trust more?" He asked. "Your father or your step-brother?"

"Hephaestus," Artemis said immediately.

Ouch.

Luke let out a dark sounding chuckle. "Yeah, you and your sister both…"

I think I fell asleep, because the next time I was aware again, no one was saying anything. The screaming was gone and I could hear what sounded like pavement under the tires, instead of desert ground. I felt better, a sharp tingling like pin needles ran up and down my legs and back. I was able to blink again. We were in some kind of town with small squat looking houses with empty streets.

"I'm good," I croaked.

I felt Luke jump. "Styx! Perce - you shouldn't be - " He made a hard turn at the next road sign. "Okay, don't need the hospital - where are we going?"

"I - " I saw Artemis' head poking out of Luke's vest beside me, looking around desperately. "I do not recognize anything - he might not be paying attention - "

"You're a mortal now!" Luke almost yelled at her. "Fucking pray!"

The rabbit startled and then shut her eyes, mumbling.

A store sign on an abandoned corner store flicked on. Some of the lights had burned out but some were left flickering. Before I could even try to read the broken up word it made, Artemis' ears shot straight up.

"Left!"

Luke burned rubber, leaning hard into the turn. I couldn't tell if the back of my neck was screaming or if everything was screaming.

Another store sign flickered on in the distance.

"Left again!"

We followed the trail of store signs off the main road and deep into the middle of nowhere where a ghost town with old school mining equipment rusted and broken silently littered the gravely road. A final 1950s looking diner flipped its sign on, WE'RE OPEN.

Beyond it was a junkyard.

Mountains of trash, old refrigerators, cars, TVs, toys, bicycles in various states of brokenness were piled high on top of each other along with the smashed chariots, crumbled statues, a few dozen crowns decorated with pearls, rubies and sapphires, and a washing machine squatting like it owned the place.

There was another side to the place. Laying on top of an old couch was a gleaming Celestial Bronze bow that reeked of an enchantment. In the driver's seat of a broken down tractor was a shining lorica chest armor, decorated with silver and gold along with an electric guitar shaped like Apollo's lyre. It even felt like him, but there was something wrong with it. Like the time he tried to fix the coffee machine. The broken off heads of bronze horses were scattered around as in the back a giant trash compactor loomed over it all.

And of course, the gate was locked.

Luke flung out a hand, face screwed up in concentration and with a loud click the giant padlock fell to the ground. He spun the bike into a skid, slowing down just enough to let him kick the gate open.

We were through.

Now what?

Luke drove right through, maneuvering around what he could avoid and driving over what he couldn't. Behind a big pile of stuff, he stopped.

"Okay," he breathed. "Perce, how are you feeling?"

I felt like newly ground beef, but I wasn't going to say that. "A bit sore, but I'm fine."

To prove it, I got off the bike. I nearly threw up. My stomach was a miasma of ick and I felt hot. I worried that I was developing a fever again, like at Rhea's on top of the pain. My back was hovering at a level of Fuck/10 and my legs weren't any better. I was really feeling a broken right big toe right now and my face felt raw.

My eyes hurt.

Luke eyed me suspiciously, but he didn't call me out. Instead he turned to look around the junkyard.

"There," he pointed. I looked and saw telephone poles strung up with wires. "Was she tall enough to get caught in those?"

They saw her?

Artemis squinted. "Almost."

"How sturdy are these piles?" I spoke up. Luke knew what I was getting at, looking around again with fresh eyes.

"We need to involve Hep - " She stopped herself. "The forge god. I think he is just - just waiting for an excuse. He has power here."

"What are the defenses like here?" Luke asked. "The only traps I can sense are on some items."

"This is the junkyard of the gods," Artemis said and there was a bitter undertone to her voice. "A simple padlock to keep people out, no warnings and nothing to keep anyone safe. What else could we possibly care about other than thieves?"

The wind shifted.

"She's here," Artemis said, hushed.

She was.

As the lumbering form slowly slunk through the open gate of the junkyard, I could see why Kallisto went down in history as a bear. Just as I could see how Apollo could say her true nature was hidden by the Mist and that she wasn't a bear at all.

There was a vaguely canine short muzzle lined with fangs. It was hunched over, like Artemis' Roman half Diana with a too long neck and torso. The silver chiton like uniform was almost completely intact, billowing about her, giving Kallisto the appearance of a burly, heavyset form, but underneath she was an emaciated skeleton. Large dark claws curled off the tips of hairy paws. She walked on three of her limbs, the fourth clutching desperately the broken remains of a silver bow to her thin chest.

She had no eyes. Gouged out pits partially hidden with bandages stained a rust red with old blood. It looked like worms were writing under her skin and the silver fabric over her chest moved independently.

"Arty…" I sighed.

The rabbit looked down at the ground.

"That pile," Luke whispered, pointing. It was actually three piles close together, but I could see that one had a beaten up Chevy Impala sticking precariously out of it. "Can you play bait? Artemis."

Her head whipped around. "I - yes."

"Bait," Luke warned her. "You don't have my permission to die."

Artemis didn't reply, just darted out into the open and jumped on top of a broken TV that looked like something out of an old sitcom. Just as Kallisto's head peered around a corner, she did something I thought only happened in that one old Disney movie, with the deer. She started thumping her foot against the TV like it was a drum.

"She didn't - " Whatever Luke was going to say was immediately silenced by the tortured scream that shook the yard. Kallisto took one lumbering step, and then it was like she swung her body like it was a bat. One second Kallisto went from standing there, and in the next Artemis was already running as the Hunter was way too close, slamming everything around her into a scattered pile of trash.

You don't understand. Imagine a trash pile of junk with TV screens, old dishwashers and chairs and desks, the works.

And it just scatters like you swung a hand through a Jenga tower.

Luke yanked my arm, ducking under debris, "Come on! This way!"

I think I got it. Lure the former Hunter to where the car was perched, drop said car on her, then keep running. Simple, direct, this was a good plan, right? We couldn't possibly screw this one up.

Right?

As Kallisto smashed through another pile trying to grab Artemis, Luke glanced back at me, "Gonna need your help with this."

"Drop the car on her?" I asked, hoping I was on the same page as him, and blinked when Luke shook his head quickly.

"Not yet, need to slow her down, trip her up, something to keep her still long enough to do the trick." Luke explained, eyes searching the scattered junk before he paused, "Huh, that could be useful."

I followed his stare and saw what look liked the freakish love-child between a roll of barbed wire and a bomb. Luke dove for it, sweeping it up into his hands.

"What do you need me to do?" I blurted out, as another loud crash sounded. Artemis couldn't run forever. In response, he shoved the bomb looking thing into my hands. "Use this."

"But - "

"Yeah, let's hope it works." Luke spun on his heel, grabbing a discarded spear. He completed the spin smoothly, launching it into the air where it cut through one of the wires running from the telephone pole. There was a loud snap! Sparks flew as the wire fell.

"Damn, it still has power. Plan C."

"What even was plan B!" I yelled.

"That that thing works!" He yelled back. My Spidey Sense screeched as he yelled, "Scatter!"

I dove to the side immediately.

Kallisto screamed.

Tendrils burst from her like a mutated hedgehog, slicing through the air in all directions. If I hadn't dropped, I would have been speared like a bug on a pin. As soon as they pulled back, I got up and just ran, clutching the strange device in my hand.

It felt cruel and bloodthirsty. The barbed wire really gave it a Try Hard look.

Junkyard of the gods.

I bet I know whose art class project this was.

I risked stopping. Just enough to crank the obvious handle on the thing. It jammed and seized with rust. "Come on," I whispered. "Come on!"

The handle slammed home with a clunking sound.

Then it started to tick.

Uh oh.

I ran back where I just came from. "ARTEMIS!"

A small auburn light bolt ran towards me, darting over the piles of trash. Kallisto followed her far more sedately, almost deceptively slow. She'd wind up and hold and then blur into motion. I was hoping that was just how she was and it wouldn't change.

I was counting on it.

I hefted the ticking barbed wire bomb and threw it as hard as I could. It sailed over Artemis' head. Kallisto was blind and thousands of years old. The ticking meant nothing to her. She suspected something as she wound up her arm. The ticking stopped as it fell with a clunking sound at her gnarled feet.

Oh, okay.

Fuck me, I guess.

The bomb exploded. Reams of barbed wire snaked out of the bomb, wrapping around the Bear as she screamed.

"How do you like that!?" I yelled, whooping.

The Bear reached up, and ripped the barbed wire spike from her chest and tossed it aside. My cheer died as the wriggling under her skin got worse. Her dress started to rip as streams of repulsive, clotted blood began to stream out from her wounds. This thing with two mouths burst from her chest as her scream took on multi tones.

So I was right earlier.

Fuck me.

A roar punched through the Night air as I watched a fucking RPG missile slam into the Bear, knocking her back into a large pile of trash. It didn't all fall over. Underneath was a shining Celestial Bronze construct of some kind. The gears and frame of what was clearly a giant robot arm. Someone's been watching Star Wars movies over and over because there was a suspicious resemblance to C3PO.

There was no way someone would throw an entire giant robot away, right?

I remembered what Artemis said.

What else would gods care about, than thieves?

I ran.

"Artemis!" I called out. "The pillars!"

She split off from me, dashing through a broken down car with missing doors.

I had an idea. It was a stupid idea, but I knew that we were on a deadline. Kallisto was only going to get stronger.

Artemis had an idea too. It was the same as my first one. She made a beeline for the tallest pile, the one with the Chevy Impala defying gravity.

Trash gave way under my feet, causing me to trip. I reached out to steady myself and my world tilted. There was a brief glimpse of Nightshade, tiara and all. The girl and boy from before, on the mountain. Black hair punk with brilliant blue eyes and someone who could have been my twin brother who's sea green eyes looked away from the scene to -

To see me.

"It…it was for Nico," a girl's voice said. "It was the only statue he didn't have."

'Not now!'

The vision broke. I could feel blood gush out of my nose, my head pounding as I finished picking up the small figurine. It was a Mythomagic statuette, from back when they launched their failed answer to Warhammer 40k figurines to go along with their card game. Now, they were just collectors items, discontinued after only 2 years of production.

The figure was of Hades.

Artemis made death defying jumps, hopping from perch to perch as she wound her way up the trash pile. Ominous creaking noises rang out as Kallisto lurched after her, blind. My heart was in my throat. If Artemis brought it down, it would hit Kallisto, but Artemis would still be on top of it.

She hopped onto a part of the pile where the car was sitting. The car creaked menacingly, and just like a Saturday cartoon, I watched the bunny rabbit slam her whole weight into an Olympus Air refrigerator. It fell onto the car, finally losing its war with gravity and the whole thing tilted.

"Artemis!" Luke yelled. "Jump!"

Kallisto just had enough time to scream as the car came down right on top of her head moments before the rest of the pile buried her under metal and other garbage.

I spun on my heel, breathing out just like Apollo taught me, and tossed the toy right into Kallisto's open mouth as she thrashed underneath the trash. She choked but couldn't spit it out. It had been a perfect throw.

"Oh no!" I cried out as loud as I could, clapping my hands to my cheeks. "Goodness me! Look at that! A thief!"

Artemis was right. Hephaestus just needed an excuse.

The Talos moved.

"Run!" Luke yelled as he caught the flying bunny he yanked towards him with his power.

We ran straight for the half buried trailer by the fence. I stumbled. "Wait," I called. "Luke, your bike!"

"Leave it!" he snarled as he jumped onto the roof with a single jump and turned around to haul me up and then tossed me over the barbed wire. I hit the ground hard enough to rattle my knees, but I kept running. I heard Luke land just as hard right behind me, Artemis in hand. I risked a glance backwards.

All I saw was the giant bronze frame of the Talos. Kallisto nowhere in sight.

This wasn't the end, but we bought ourselves time.

Not a lot.

We found the Roman border by running right into it. I felt like I was six years old again, running face first into the sliding glass door I thought was open. Something shattered and then I fell through, stumbling up the hill.

"What the…hell…" I stopped at the top of the hill.

"By the gods…" Luke breathed.

"Oh," Artemis murmured.

All three of us stared down the hill at the land beyond the Roman border. The sky was no longer just the Night. Above us, dark storm clouds boiled beneath the black Night sky, rolling in and out like billowing smoke. Lightning flashed in the cloud, illuminating the massive silhouette of a creature in the sky.

Who was the sky.

I lifted a finger.

"The prison of the Sky Father," I whispered. I shifted my finger to point far behind us towards the East Coast, shining brightly against the darkness. An unbelievably large trunk, a pale white ash tree disappeared into the darkness above.

"Yggdrasil."

I traced the farthest branches to where they intertwined with the fiery branches of another massive hardwood growing far in the West, glowing gold. "The god that Burns."

Vesta.

The mountain of Despair, Mt. Othrys was far larger than it had any right to be, visible from an entire state away. A giddy feeling rose up in me. They were here. Not phased, or removed from reality, but here. It was like the world was glitching, merging the Was and Could Be and Not together into one plane.

"This is amazing!" I shouted.

"This is terrible!" Artemis shouted back. Luke said nothing, staring at the red harvest moon looming large in the sky. "We can't let it fall! We need the Mist! Even the gods!"

Wait.

"Wait, what?"

The moment was interrupted by the thundering of horses. The sound got louder and louder until they stampeded into sight. The horses were just what you expect. The riders weren't.

Hideous, twisted figures like humans turned inside out but still living with their arms or heads split open with teeth lining the wounds, joints twisted backwards. Some of them had eyeballs hanging out of the socket by the optical nerve with their internal organs showing through their mouths or chests. Their hair, if it could be called hair, were spikes sticking out in all directions like thorns. They were flayed, spurting blood, staining their leather armor.

I knew this. The riastrad, the same affliction that the Celtic demigod, the Hound of Ulster Cu Chulainn suffered from.

'Warp-spasms,' Mom called it.

"The Reserve," Artemis sighed sadly.

The Reserve?

At the head of the column rode two people. The first was a goddess, the rolling thundering of her presence was easy to sense. Strawberry blonde hair pulled back into a severe bun. She was definitely Roman if the armor meant anything, a long spear in her hand. Her right eye glared at us, an endless plain with no horizon. You could see and see and it kept going forever.

Her left eye was just blue. A faint scar crossed the socket. A replacement eye.

The second was a boy about three years younger than I was, the same age as Weird Girl. He was a light blond with electric blue eyes and a scar on the corner of his lip wearing armor that looked too big on him.

Luke made a wounded sound, staring at the kid like he'd seen a ghost.

"What's this?" The Roman said. "A graecus and…" She paused and I had a bad feeling about what she was going to say next. "...A celtae." She stared at me. Artemis wiggled free of Luke's hands, making him set her down.

"Epona," she called out and the goddess' attention shifted down to the small animal standing in front of us.

Oh good, Artemis knows her. We can get through this.

It wasn't like we could outrun horses on foot.

"Ah," the Roman said slowly. "I was mistaken. There are two graecus."

Artemis thumped. "You know who I am! Let us through."

Epona smiled at her. "I know who you are," she confirmed. "I also know what you are now and no mortal may command me."

Well, shit.

There went that faint hope.

"Fine," Artemis said eventually, but she sounded shaken. "If you cannot be commanded, then can you be reasoned with?"

The goddess' horse took a few steps forward and then back, dancing around. "What is there to reason?" She asked carelessly. "My lord has bid this border closed and closed it shall remain. You should be glad I am sending you away intact."

"Well," she said suddenly. "Most of you."

There was no warning.

The nearest Warped just extended in my direction like a human rubber band. It caught me around the neck. I had just enough time to realize how utterly reliant I've become on my Spidey Sense before I was slammed into the ground. I heard Luke let out a wordless yell. The ring of swords clashing, then a wet 'schlick' sound, a high pitched wail and I saw a twisted arm fall to the ground. Red blood spurted from the amputation and I could see that it was tattooed with 9 bars and a spear on the inside of the wrist.

Luke froze. Horror bloomed over his face as he stared at the blood. He didn't move, even when he was tackled to the ground next to me.

"Stop! Stop!" Artemis was yelling and so was the blond boy.

"Boy!" Epona barked, ignoring the rabbit. "Be silent. Soldiers of the Legion do not question their superiors. They obey."

I couldn't see much pinned to the ground, but I could hear the small pony skitter backwards. "I will obey," a childish, thin voice spoke from somewhere above me. Grass tickled my nose. Don't sneeze. "I just…wished to know which section of the legal coda holds the law we are judging them by."

So that heap of bullshit wasn't going to fly, but I loved Mystery Kid for trying.

Epona barked a harsh sounding laugh. She rattled off some numbers interspersed with Latin that had my head spinning, but Mystery Kid seemed to understand. He didn't like whatever it was he understood.

"That's for wartime," Luke whispered. He was slurred from his face being pressed into the road. "He's saying the code she's using is for prisoners of great enemies."

"And she is reminding him that Rome is at war," Artemis said despondently, head hanging. "The war with the Greeks has paused, not ended."

"War with the Greeks?" Luke was bewildered.

"And him?" Mystery Kid said in English again. "We are not at war with the Gallia - "

"He's not of Gaul," Epona snarled. He snarled back, a rough almost barking sound. "And you are not an animal! Bite your tongue."

Yeah, I knew who she was. She was Roman now, but once upon a time, she used to be Rhiannon's foster sister. Epona, the Gallic goddess of the Calvary and Equines, the Fertility of Spring and the Great Mare of the Dead. The Romans conquered Gaul. Absorbed what was left, and the rest was history. I knew now why the elf told me to avoid the Romans.

Mom was the Tuatha de of Future Victory in Death and Battle. The Harbinger of Fate. Just her omens alone could turn the tide of any battle.

The Gauls lost.

"Did you think I could not smell the stench of the Betrayer on you, celtae?" She sneered at me. "Did you think I wouldn't recognize the magic of the Dagda's black whore anywhere?"

Fire roared in my stomach.

"What did you just call hrmghl." My head was ground into the grass and dirt. I bucked, nearly throwing whoever was on me off, but that just invited their friend to dive onto me too.

"I won't kill you," Epona said graciously as I wriggled. Two, three, four Warped sitting on me. "I will just send you back to your mother in pieces, boy. Take his arm!"

How about not?

I struggled harder, digging as deep as I could past the pain until it took five of them just to stretch out my left arm.

Mom!

Nothing.

"Please!" Mystery Kid was begging. "You don't have to do this! At least give him a chance!"

A chance.

My brain started firing on all cylinders. Epona thought I was just a Celtic demigod. An Irish one.

There were rules.

"A duel!" I cried out as my left arm was finally straightened flat onto the cold ground. "I have the right to fight for it!"

I instinctively yanked, expecting the sword to come down on my arm at any moment, but there was nothing. It took me a moment to register that nothing was happening at all. I was abruptly released.

The goddess' mismatched eyes bore into me. "I am Roman, boy," she said severely. "I need not heed your request."

"I can tell you're Roman," I said. I brushed myself off, trying to hide how my hands were shaking.

I just challenged a god to a fight.

"Otherwise you'd treat your foster better."

Mystery Boy stiffened, sneaking a glance at Epona who scowled. "He's not mine."

Yeah, right.

And I'm just Greek.

"My existence doesn't offend Epona of Rome," I continued. "I offend Epona of Gaul. Fight me."

She tilted her head, eyeing me.

Then she smiled. "Very well." She swung off her large black horse smoothly, rolling her spear with her wrist. "My handicap?"

"The fight is to first blood," I said quickly. There was no way I was going to actually beat a god in a fair fight. Being able to land a hit first was my only hope. The way that got a bark of laughter from her didn't make me feel good though.

"You will ask three for advice in my hearing."

Okay. That was a traditional handicap. I didn't know how to feel about it. Glad she didn't ask for worse, like for me to fight one handed? Or worried that she was just that confident?

Why wouldn't she be?

She's a god.

They let Luke sit up, but twisted limbs still held him in place. His face was pale as he gazed around the crowd of Warped. His eyes met mine and they gleamed in the dark.

"They're children," he hissed and I thought back to the cry I heard when he cut one's arm off.

Artemis said Camp Jupiter wasn't better.

"I - okay," I dragged a hand down my face. I was tired. "I have to fight her and you have to give me a tip." I tried to motion with my eyes and face the rest of the sentence, 'that doesn't give itself away.'

Luke looked at me for a long moment. Then he watched Epona pace for a few moments. A small, superior smirk formed on his face. "Spear user, huh? She's worse than Silena."

I breathed out a sigh of relief. I knew what he meant. Luke has bitched often enough about her footwork, and just learned that it's because she was born of Astarte, Lion goddess of Chariots and Horses.

Epona was goddess of the Calvary. She's not used to fighting on foot.

"Thanks."

Luke's head bobbed. The Warped holding him down shifted and he glanced at them. "That kid," he said softly. "I know him."

"You do?" I asked, confused. Luke didn't know the Romans existed, had been at Camp for four years and you could clearly see the six bars for years of service on Mystery Kid's inner wrist. He must have been thrown into the Legion as a toddler.

"Well," Luke continued quietly, painfully. "Know of him."

I approached Artemis next.

The rabbit blinked up at me.

"You know the drill?"

She nodded slowly. "I do. I am…sorry, it has come to this."

"Hey, none of that," I said. "This time it wasn't your fault."

"If I was not a rabbit - "

"Stop beating yourself up. You've got plenty of others willing to do that for you."

She snorted.

"She doesn't know," I said quietly, jerking my head back to where Epona was still pacing impatiently. I pointedly raised a hand to my sunglasses. "If I were to tell her - "

"There must be a reason," Artemis told me, head dropping. "Fate always has one." I remembered that Rhea said the Hunter was in the Celtic pantheon. Someone who really didn't like my mother and was strong enough to do something about it. If I outed myself to the Gaul that clearly had a problem with my mother, I might be dropping a steaming pile of shit on Mom's head. I might be dropping that shit on my head.

"Plan B then," I said softly. "If this goes…poorly."

"Yes." Artemis then looked up at me again. "I am assuming you know far more than you should, so I will tell you a riddle. The death of Nuada Silverhand."

I waited. She didn't say anything else. "Wait, that's it?"

"Here." Artemis shuffled off her protective jacket, nudging it over to me with her nose. She did it so easily. I felt warm. Her silver eyes gazed at me solemnly. "And think about it."

I tried, but the second I started I then realized that Epona told me that my handicap was to ask three for advice. That was only two.

Fine.

Electric blue eyes widened as I stomped up to Mystery Kid's pony. "Hi, sorry your mom's a jerk. Got any tips?"

Those eyes widened further, then they narrowed. He slid off his horse and I noticed that he was younger than I was, but nearly just as tall. That was very unfair. He glanced at Epona before stalking around me. He had a strange, loping walk. He was leaned forward, a little hunched over and walking on the balls of his feet. He circled me like a wolf eyeing prey.

Then he stopped.

"You won't win," he said, just a little louder than necessary.

"Is that the advice?" I said dryly.

Mystery Kid smiled gently for a second. That's when I noticed he didn't make a full circle. He stopped just where my slightly taller frame hid him completely from his mother.

"Your mouth will get you in real trouble, better watch that."

"Gee, tha - " His mother has a temper, I realized. One that I could exploit. I gave the kid a considering look. "-nks."

"Don't thank me, graecus," he sneered as he stalked back to his pony.

I was going to have to do something real nice for that kid.

I dragged my feet a little going back, thinking furiously over Artemis' riddle. Nuada Silverhand. He got voted out from being King for a while because he lost his hand and the Celts at the time were vain perfectionist jackasses. You got maimed?

Sucks to be you!

You didn't know that your years of good kingship was worth jack shit compared to being ugly?

Should have thought of that before you got your hand cut off.

Surprisingly, after the jackasses voted the stupid tyrant Bres in his place, seven years was long enough for them to accept his new silver hand replacement as 'good enough' to make him king again. Balor killed him in battle though, because his silver hand wasn't…

Wasn't good enough.

I called my backpack to me. I dug into it desperately. It probably wasn't in here, I took it out, I know I took it out because why would I use it on a Quest?

It had to be in here.

It was.

I grabbed the object I was looking for, slipping it into the pocket of my jacket. As I took up my position and watched Epona show off with a few twirls of her spear, something occurred to me. Epona was goddess of the Calvary.

A Celtic war goddess with a spear. Stronger with longer reach than me.

Like I've been training against for years.

"Even if you win," Epona taunted. "It will be short lived, demigod."

Mom.

I love you.

My mother plans ahead. My Spidey Sense only triggered against shit that will kill me.

Time to make a god mad.

"My victory will be short lived," I agreed as I unsheathed Damocles from my necklace. The bone sword with its silver gold rippled edges was a comforting weight in the palm of my hand. I could do this.

I grinned cheekily. "Your defeat won't be."