FIGHTING THE ARMIES OF KRONOS sucked, but honestly, dealing with Alex when he was frustrated with Ophelia was almost worse. Kitty propped herself up in the crook of an olive tree and watched as he organized their defenses with a fury. At the foot of her tree, about seven feet down, Will and a few of his cabin mates huddled in a whisper.

Kitty tightened her grip on her golden coin. The colors of Olympus faded. Instead of greens and blues and purples she saw the world in greyscale. Most of the auras around the half blood campers hovered between a light grey to a light gold. Fairly normal.

Except Alex. He stood about thirty paces away, sword at his side even despite the lull. Kitty's eyes widened. If she hadn't known it was Alex Griffith, prodigal son of Hermes, she might have mistaken him for Percy. His aura swirled a rapidly changing, tangled mess of black like the void and gold like the sun.

The air shifted. Kitty looked beyond Alex through the rustling green branches of her olive tree perch. She released the coin and strengthened her grip on her celestial bronze knife. Where once warm breezes and gentle nature spirits had comforted even a mostly-abandoned Olympus, a cold wind now ripped through the streets.

The world quieted. Kitty felt the hair on her arms stand. She watched as Alex moved back a few half-steps, patting the shoulder of Mr. D's kid, Pollux, on his left. She couldn't hear the words exchanged. But Pollux nodded and went running off down the line.

They weren't many defenders. Alex had gathered about ten mostly-recovered demigods to his side. Half of them guarded the severely wounded. He and the other five stood their ground a bit closer to the street.

Kitty had managed to find a handful of very minor gods and nature spirits after raiding Intensive Flare for supplies. Olympus wasn't made up entirely of cowards and arrogant pricks. Apparently. The few immortals she'd managed to find had agreed to stand with them. Alex placed them along the road, further up, in defense of their homes and shrines.

None of the defenders stood a chance. Kitty took a deep breath. The sudden cold air sent her into a coughing fit. Will glanced up at her. She waved him off. No use worrying the already exhausted medic.

They heard the crash first. A sound like the splitting of bones and rock reverberated through Olympus. The sky darkened. Stars faded. Kitty's chest tightened.

She dropped down from the tree without a sound. Straightening her armor, she moved up to stand side by side with Alex. He didn't even look at her. He didn't dare turn from the arched entrance to the park.

"Sure you want to be down here?" he said.

No. Kitty snorted. "Of course. Fortune favors the bold."

Alex smirked. He shook his head a little. Twisting his sword around, he flinched as another crash, closer, filled the air around them. The darkness thickened. Kitty almost couldn't breathe, her throat thick with fear.

"If Ophelia's still alive when this is done," Alex said, "I'll kill her. We could've used her up here."

"We'll be fine."

Kitty didn't know what else to say. She didn't really believe it. All her life, she'd been graced with abundant good luck, the favor of her mother. But Alex… well, if his swirling aura of good and bad luck meant anything, he wasn't that fortunate.

A third explosion, this one not far off, put Kitty on the defensive. She could see her knife blade wobbling as she held it aloft. Breathe. She just had to breathe. Breathe and don't hesitate.

"Don't move."

Kitty and Alex both spun around at the soft voice. A young Korean-American girl stood in torn grey and purple clothing, overly large black leather armor scuffed up and broken. Her black hair reached unevenly to her shoulders. Pale burn scars littered her neck and cheeks. Leah Kim, Ophelia's half-sister.

She raised her hands, palms open. Kitty turned to Alex as Leah began muttering under breath in a mix of Latin and Ancient Greek. Her eyes changed from a dark brown to a pure, stormy grey.

A shadow fell across the entrance of the garden. In the large, white marble archway bordered by bushes and trees in both directions, a familiar figure stepped into view.

He still looked so much like Luke, Kitty almost cried. His fair skin, a bit paler than she remembered, was littered with far more scars than just the one across his face. She lowered her dagger. Blonde hair dirtied from soot and blood reminded her so much of nights spent around the campfire and huddled at the Cabin 11 table.

Luke was there when Tyche's cornucopia had appeared above her head. He had been one of the few to clap, to offer a high five and quick hug when she'd sniffed away disappointed tears. Alex had told her they would all stick together. That's what Cabin 11 did. They were a family, a family of rejects who chose each other. No matter how many nights she needed to cry herself to sleep, they would stick together.

But the golden gaze that swept across the park didn't belong to Luke. Kitty scrunched up her face to stop the tears and forced herself to turn away. She looked at Alex instead.

Kitty regretted it immediately.

Alex didn't cry often. Or, she didn't see him cry often. He had always been the strong one. A lot of kids found solace in their tears at night in Cabin 11 but Alex didn't cry. He offered a shoulder to those who did.

Instead of tears, he got angry. Kitty still remembered the day she'd found him, Luke, and Chris hanging around the dining table about a month after Percy, Annabeth, and Grover had returned from their quest to find the bolt. He'd been stabbing the wood over and over and over again with a celestial bronze dagger as they sat and talked in low voices.

He'd been frustrated ever since Poseidon had claimed Percy. Kitty had heard him complaining to Luke. It wasn't fair that one of the Big Three could have a child, illegally, but half of Cabin 11 still cried themselves to sleep at night, abandoned by their godly parents or, like Kitty, not considered valuable enough to be given their own cabin. Even Hera got a cabin and she'd never have a kid. Cabin 2, an empty shrine to an undeserving goddess.

But Luke insisted they focus on training. On getting stronger. And Alex, staring up at their counselor with admiration as he always did, had listened. He'd disappeared half way through October, sneaking away from Camp Half-Blood and not seen again until he had shown up three hours before the Battle of the Labyrinth, girlfriend in toe and warnings in hand about the impending invading army.

But now, as Kitty watched Alex standing guard between Luke and the wounded of Camp Half-Blood, she saw him cry. His sword dropped just a bit. He loosened his grip.

"Don't move," Leah repeated.

Kitty sheathed her knife. Reaching across, she put a hand on Alex's shoulder. He stiffened. Every muscle in his body tensed, but he managed to turn himself away from Luke. From Kronos.

The world stopped breathing.

Kronos moved on. Leah's knees buckled, arms dropping to her side as she collapsed to the ground. Kitty caught her before she hit her head.

"Woah, woah," Kitty said. "Careful."

Alex knelt on Leah's other side. Tears filled the girl's eyes as she wriggled out of Kitty's grip.

"What did you do?" Alex asked.

Leah frowned. "I showed him what he wanted to see." She tried not to cry, but moments later, she couldn't help it. "Where's Ophelia?"

Alex narrowed his eyes. "If only I knew."

"She'll be back," Kitty said. She shot Alex a glare, pushing him out of the way with her left hand. "She went to help downstairs."

"He burned me!"

Kitty didn't know what to do with a crying ten year old. Glancing around, she finally caught sight of Will Solace.

"Hey, do you see that boy over there?" Kitty pointed him out by one of the olive trees. "Why don't you go hang with him until we can find Ophelia, okay?"

Leah cried all the way to Will and the Apollo cabin, hands bunched up against her face to cover the tears. Kitty watched her go. Her hands shook as she reached for her knife again and stood up off the ground.

The murderous fury that had lit Alex's eyes when he'd been stabbing the dining table at Camp Half-Blood at fourteen had returned. One hand on his sword, the other pushing his hair out of his eyes, Alex faced the gateway. He sniffed away the last of his tears.

"Hey," she said. Kitty stood next to him, bracing his left with her right. "You didn't fail him. He failed you."

"No," Alex said, lowering his voice. "Luke shouldn't have fought the gods. But the gods are the ones who failed us. Not the other way around, Kit."

She wished she could disagree with him. But she didn't.

It didn't take long for a few stray monsters to walk into the small pack of defenders. Kitty could hear explosions and toppling ruins from further up Olympus, but comparatively few enemies made it inside the park. Those that did found themselves on the wrong end of Alex's celestial bronze sword.

An hour and a half later, a flash of light and a thunderous explosion threw Kitty off balance and onto the ground. Her muscles already ached from having to wield a sword. Hitting the ground didn't help. Groaning, she laid on her back and stared up at the now brilliant stars above.

Kitty didn't know how much time passed before a cacophony of familiar voices floated towards her on the wind. Staring down at her was the smirking, bloody but otherwise normal looking face of Travis Stoll.

"What the hell?" she muttered.

He grinned. "Hey! You're not dead."

"Yeah, I knew that." She struggled to sit up, noticing immediately that Alex had disappeared. "What happened?"

Travis's face fell. "We don't know. The gods showed up a little while ago. We were stuck on the elevator with the bridge to Olympus broken."

She accepted his hand up off the ground. The air felt warmer. With a deep breath, she tried to ignore the pain in her ribs. Travis looked fine other than the scabbed over cut along his forehead. Beyond him stood a shivering Clarisse wearing no armor but still gripping a celestial bronze sword like she was about to decapitate someone. Maybe a statue or a particularly unlucky satyr… maybe Kitty could point her towards the clerk at Apollo's pharmacy.

"Where's Alex?" Kitty said.

Travis pointed over her shoulder. "Chewing out Ophelia."

Kitty turned to look. It was true. Alex and Ophelia stood to the side, arguing with their voices low. But the longer she watched, the less convinced she was that they were mad. Ophelia seemed… worried.

"If the bridge fixed itself," Kitty said. She turned back to Travis. "Did we win?"

He didn't have an answer. No one had an answer.