Before I knew it, we were souring over the battlefield between the Olympians and the Storm Guard. The whole battle was in absolute chaos – fires were everywhere, chariots were overturned and soldiers were yelling curses against their opponents. Spears went everywhere and shields were splintered.

I managed to secure Proculus's hands behind his back with Ventus's reins. I knew he was starting to regain consciousness because he was groaning loudly. I knew I only had a few minutes before he woke up, and he would wake up very angrily.

Ventus touched down in front of the palace's destroyed doors. The palace itself was a ruined mess – the red tiled roof of the building was shattered, the walls were starting to corrode from the burning fires that were starting to grow and the marble stairs of the palace were blasted to pieces.

I dragged Proculus off of Ventus and threw him to the ground, which resulted in a loud groan.

I got Proculus into a kneeling position and placed the edge of my sword onto his unprotected throat. Hopefully, this will get everyone's attention, because at this point I really wanted this to be over.

"EVERYONE," I bellowed, "STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!"

The Storm Guard stopped attacking the Olympians and gawked at their Prince, who was now waking up to see his men staring at him.

Then all the Olympians and Whirlwind Hunters stopped what they were doing. I saw Chloe at the foot of the stairs, her bow glowing glossy black. She glanced at the Prince with distaste. Zeus looked grim as he looked in my direction, holding his thunderbolt at his side. Poseidon came up next to him, using his trident as a walking stick. Kane was supporting Maximus on his shoulder, since Maximus was limping worse than ever.

But it was Katie who got my attention. She stood next to Chloe, looking drawn out and tired, but still very beautiful in the sunlight. She didn't seem to have any injuries, and she was looking at Proculus with anger seething in her eyes. She nodded at me, a small smile on her lips.

I addressed the crowd of Storm Guard soldiers. "Storm Guard, your Prince has been defeated. He kneels before me, beaten and barely able to stand, so if you try anything to save him, you'll seriously regret it. So, drop your weapons NOW."

Each of Proculus's men looked at each other, and then, hesitantly, one by one, they dropped their weapons to the floor. They raised their hands above their heads, so that each Olympian soldier could handcuff them and restrain them.

Proculus began to struggle, trying to push my sword away from his throat. "How dare you do this to me?" he screamed at me. "Let go of me!"

His wrist flailed around and I grabbed it. Squeezing it tightly, I snapped it backwards so that it was behind his back, but it was enough to break it completely, causing the Cyclone Prince to yell in agony.

"Move again, and I will break your neck," I snapped at him. "Don't think that I won't – I'm this close to killing you."

Proculus stopped moving, keeping his mouth shut.

Zeus came up, coming to a stop right in front of Proculus Mathias, looking at him with a stony expression. Poseidon came to his brother's side and wore the same expression as Zeus had on his face.

"What to do with you," Poseidon mused. "What do you think, brother?"

Zeus shrugged. "He's not my son – it's your decision Poseidon."

Poseidon nodded slowly. He looked at the Prince and glared at him. "He's been killing every single one of my children for over seven hundred years, and he threatened to kill two of the only children I have left. He beat up Maximus Orion, the general of the Typhoon Army and locked him in prison; because he was trying to help my son and daughter escape and he broke and defied several of my city's laws. For that, he deserves a life time punishment in Tartarus."

"You're not throwing me into that hellhole," Proculus screamed in panic.

Every one of the gods started to form a circle around Proculus, eyeing him like they were afraid he was going to make a run for it. They pointed their spears and bows at him.

Proculus looked at each and every one of them, fear clearly evident in his eyes. Then, he did the one thing that left me really confused – he looked at me pleadingly.

"Please, don't let them do this to me," he whimpered.

I just threw him a dirty look. "All this time, you've been tormenting me and my sister in a useless attempt to make us feel like we only know suffering. And, you've destroyed Chiron's school for demigod heroes, the home you've once been part of. You won't receive any mercy from me, so don't even bother looking at me like that."

Proculus turned his head around to face the gods.

He snarled with anger as he glared at Poseidon. "I've risked everything to wake you up. I wanted you to be grateful for what I did for you. And this is the thanks I get – sentencing me, and my Storm Guard soldiers, to Tartarus? I thought my father–"

"ENOUGH!" Poseidon roared. The skies tore with lightning and the winds picked up, reacting to my father's fury. "You're no son of mine! My true son is the one standing behind you, my heir to the Hurricane Throne! Even though I am glad to be awake again, I will not forgive you for putting me in Sleep Paralysis in the first place!"

Proculus's jaw dropped in surprise.

"That's right, Mathias," Poseidon spat. "I found out that it was you that attacked me and placed me into an unconscious state! I will never forgive you for that."

Proculus was about to say something, but he didn't. Instead, he just looked at the ground.

Zeus addressed his people. "Take Proculus Mathias's men to Olympus. Put them in our high security prison, while we deal with Proculus ourselves."

All at once, the soldiers of Olympus dragged the Storm Guard to their feet and vanished into thin air, like they were nothing but apparitions in hot weather.

Poseidon looked at me and nodded. "Get him on his feet," he said.

I hauled Proculus to his weak feet, making him face the two brothers in the eye. It felt good to see a frightened look on Proculus's face for once

"We'll take you to Olympus," Zeus said. "You'll receive a trial, and then you'll be sentenced to Tartarus if you're very lucky. You will be stored away in the same way the Titans had been."

"No," Proculus shook his head frantically. "No, you're not taking me there. I am the Prince of Cyclone City! Not some punk who gets thrown into prison!"

I kicked him behind his knees, making him yell in pain.

"Life's unfair, you piece of shit," I growled at him. "But if there's one thing that is fair, it's that you deserve time in that hellhole of a prison. Let's see how you feel when you're the one in your own prison cell."

Proculus turned his head to see over his shoulder, directly at my face.

He looked shocked at what I said.

For one moment, I thought I would be guilty about saying that to someone. But since it was Proculus, I didn't exactly care about how harsh I sounded. For once, I truly had enough of him.

Zeus came forward. "Before we sentence you to Tartarus, we all need to know why you did this entire monstrosity just to capture my niece and nephew."

Proculus sneered. Something about that smug smile of his made me feel uneasy, like he knew something that I didn't, which got very suspicious.

"It was the plan," he muttered. "Though it worked out a bit different than I thought it would go."

Everyone looked at me in confusion, like they were expecting me to punch him in the face.

"What are you talking about?" Artemis demanded in a stern voice like Ariadne does.

Proculus looked at the moon goddess with pure malice. "Did you ever wonder why I abducted the Dimascio siblings, my Lady Artemis?"

"I've heard enough rumours from Olympus to know that you were planning to kill them," she said, "after when you finished this infernal ritual of yours."

The Cyclone Prince slowly shook his head. "Wrong."

I frowned.

He was lying – he must be. He was probably trying to confuse them so he could slip away from the enraged Olympians. But his body language suggested otherwise, because he was still looking smug.

"Explain," I demanded in a deadly voice.

My nemesis of a brother laughed in his throat. "You don't get it, do you?"

"What don't I get?" I demanded again.

"Part of your torture was that I brought out the true side of Poseidon's children, and CLEARLY it worked really well. All those fights we've put you against, all the endless agony that you've suffered – that was all to push you over the edge of your sanity, until you and your sister literally reached your breaking point, so you would feel like your whole world turned against you. What I didn't expect was that you had enough arrogance and willpower to escape us in the first place."

He pointed at Poseidon. "The first stage of the plan was to make you think that our father abandoned you, and then we had to wait a year for your shock and hurt to overcome you. Well...that's what my men thought, but I wanted to see if you would turn into what I am now."

"Which is a power hungry murdering lying prat?" I hissed. "I am nothing like you – I have something worth living for while you destroy everything everyone cares about."

I pushed him forward, making him fall on his stomach which made him groan. He looked up at Zeus and cringed at the sight of the lightning god.

"Take that piece of trash away from me," I told the king of Olympus, "because I've had enough with him."

Zeus nodded his head. He looked at Ares, who marched forward and hauled Proculus to his feet.

As Ares escorted the Cyclone Prince away, Proculus looked over his shoulder so he glared at me.

"This is not over, Dimascio," he snarled. "I will return. And when I do, I will hunt you down, I will find you and I will kill you!"

"Not before I kill you first," I growled back.

Then, Ares and Proculus disappeared, along with most of the Olympians and the gods. The only proof that they were there was the slight outline of their frame, which glowed bright gold, but that faded as well when the wind picked up.

The only gods who stayed were Zeus and Poseidon. They both looked at me and my friends, who either crowded behind me or stood by my side. I noticed that my father was smiling at me, while Zeus looked at the ruined palace, which continued to burn with fire.

"You've got a lot of work to do – building this place up," the thunder god said. "If you want I could send a team of builders to help you fix it."

I thought long and hard about it. But at the moment, I felt bone tired and every muscle in my body screamed with stiffness. I wanted to sit down and relax and not worry about anything for once.

Sensing my thoughts, Poseidon came up and placed a hand on my shoulder, patting it gently.

"Why don't you go and rest?" he told me.

I nodded gratefully, but then Kane came up to me and shook his head.

"I don't think he'll want to get some sleep right now," he said, a slight smile forming on his face. "Because there is someone who I think you'll be most wanting to see."

At that moment, Chloe came up, looking rather anxious. "Is it mom?"

I perked up at that point. "Where is she?"

In answer, Kane turned around and told us to follow him, with Poseidon right behind us.

A few seconds later, we found ourselves in an infirmary.

The place was already ran jammed with patients and wounded Whirlwind Hunters, along with several Typhoon Soldiers. Most of the doctors and nurses were either too busy patching up the wounded or running around trying to find some medicine.

The whole place was on the other side of the palace, several corridors away from the Throne Room. And for an infirmary, the place was huge – imagine the biggest hospital in the world and then multiply its size by three and you'll probably get something like this. It made Madison Square Garden look like a children's playground area, because of the size of the place.

Kane escorted us through the overcrowded place until we came to a set of doors, which led to another medical room where it wasn't full of wounded soldiers.

The room was dark, but not entirely. In the corner of the room, a single desk lamp was on, placed evenly on a blank white desk. Next to it was a hospital bed, with a patient sleeping under the blankets. She was hook up to an IV machine, but her heart was still beating strongly, letting me know that Proculus was telling the truth – she was still alive. Whole and well, she looked the same as when I last saw her.

"Mom!" both Chloe and I cried out, rushing over to her side immediately.

I grabbed her hand, which felt warm even though the room felt cold. I couldn't believe it – she was still alive. Part of her face was covered by her long brown hair which was neatly combed and she was wearing hospital clothing.

Chloe rested her head on our mother's chest, though lightly like she was afraid it would hurt her.

Poseidon came up and placed his strong hand on the side of my mom's face. He moved his hand up to her forehead, as if checking her temperature. He nodded in relief.

"She's alright," he breathed out. "Thank god."

Zeus came up to his brother's side and looked at my mother.

"So this is the woman that you've spent with for over eighteen years," he said with interest. "Why is it that you always get the good ones?" He looked at Kane. "Can she be woken up from this coma of hers?"

Kane nodded at once. "Proculus was planning to wake her up so she could see Marcus and Chloe dead at his feet, but now everything has changed. Should I wake her up?"

He looked at me and Chloe when he asked that question.

Chloe ad I looked at our mother and then we both nodded. Kane came over and started pressing a bunch of buttons on the IV machine. Almost immediately, my mother's breathing changed its rhythm as she struggled to wake up. Then, with a deep intake of breath, she slowly opened her eyes.

I was the first person her eyes landed on. "Marcus..." she croaked.

I threw my arms around her. "I'm here," I said gently. Chloe did the same.

When she wasn't in a shocked state anymore, she tightened her grip around my neck. I heard her sob into my shoulder. "Marcus, Chloe. My children, my little babies..."

I must admit, I did cry at that point, but silently so the only person who saw me was Katie, who walked over and placed a hand on my back. Jake came over and stood by Chloe's side

I looked at Poseidon, who was looking at me. He smiled and that made me feel a whole lot better.

I need to talk to you later, he said telepathically to me. If you are ready for it.

I nodded. I was ready.