𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑
𝒂𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒓𝒂 𝒓𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒔 𝒂 𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒚

❛ suspicions cloud the mind
     my love,            believe me ❜

                         𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐎𝐑𝐀 𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐒 𝐀 𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐘, 𝕬urora wanted to curse at the gods ( more than she already wanted to ) at their predicament. She was moments away from a TKO from her battered and bruised body, They were completely surrounded by monsters mere moments away from either ripping them to shred or devouring them ( they'd likely do both ) and Nate was stirring within her almost as if he were on standby in case he needed to get a bit messy.

                         And by messy Aurora means turn everybody and everything that so much as looked at her wrong into nothing but dust.

                         Safe to say, she knew how he worked.

                         Blood was now dripping down her forearm from where bear claws were digging into her flesh, yet no tugging from her offender would ever let up their grip.

                         This only made Nate stir even more.

                         "One on one," Percy challenged Luke. "What are you afraid of?"

                         Luke curled his lip. The soldiers who were about to kill them hesitated, waiting for his order. Before he could say anything, Agrius, the bear-man, burst onto the deck leading a flying horse. It was the first pure-black pegasus Aurora had ever seen, with wings like a giant raven. The pegasus mare bucked and whinnied like he wanted nothing to do with the fight before him. She couldn't really say she blamed him.

                         "Sir!" Agrius called, dodging a pegasus hoof. "Your steed is ready!"

                         Luke kept his eyes on Percy. "I told you last summer, Percy," he said. "You can't bait me into a fight."

                         "And you keep avoiding one," Percy noticed. "Scared your warriors will see you get your ass kicked?"

                         Luke glanced at his men, and he saw Percy had trapped him. If he backed down now, he would look weak. If he fought Percy, he'd lose valuable time chasing after Clarisse.

                         "I'll kill you quickly," he decided and raised his weapon. Backbiter was a foot longer than Percy's own sword. Its blade glinted with an evil gray-and-gold light where the human steel had been melded with celestial bronze. Aurora could almost feel the blade fighting against itself, like two opposing magnets bound together.

                         Luke whistled to one of his men, who threw him around leather-and-bronze shield. He grinned at Percy wickedly.

                         "Luke," Aurora glared, her wet hair sticking to her face. "at least give him a shield."

                         "Sorry, Aurora," he said. "You bring your own equipment to this party."

                         Aurora cursed herself as she sadly remembered her lost left bangle that transformed into her beautiful shield gauntlet. Percy wouldn't be accustomed to it, but nonetheless it would've helped.

                         The shield was a problem. Fighting two-handed with just a sword gives you more power, but fighting one-handed with a shield gives you better defense and versatility. There are more moves, more options, more ways to kill.

                         Luke lunged and almost killed him on the first try. His sword went under Percy's arm, slashing through his shirt and grazing his ribs. Percy jumped back, then counter-attacked with Riptide, but Luke slammed his blade away with his shield.

                         "My, Percy," Luke chided. "You're out of practice."

He came at Percy again with a swipe to the head. Percy parried, returned with a thrust. He sidestepped easily. When Luke lunged again, Percy jumped backward into the swimming pool. He spun underwater, creating a funnel cloud, and blasted out of the deep end, straight at Luke's face.

                         "Aurora," Annabeth called from behind her, giving Aurora a perfect excuse to take her eyes away from the fight she could hardly stand to see. When she whirled around and locked eyes with Annabeth it only took a mere second for their eyes to lock for Aurora to know that Annabeth had a plan.

                         The gray eyed girl sent a look to Aurora's wrist and Aurora only needed a second to realize what she was talking about—her bangle.

                         "Say, Luke," Aurora called out. "If I were to stab one of your goons in the eye with my DAGGERS, no hard feelings right?"

                         Luke hardly seemed dazed by the question as a look of confusion passed over his face. He had just dropped to a crouch and jabbed at Percy's legs causing Percy to collapse.

                         "Any pain you inflict on them, I'll inflict on Percy tenfold," he sneered menacingly as he turned to face her.

                         The corner of her lips tilted up as she saw Percy send her a glance over Luke's shoulder, "I'll call your bluff, dog."

                         Within seconds Percy swiped at Luke's legs just as Aurora brought her new found dagger up slicing right through the bear claws that were gripping her arm.

                         She sent her other dagger skidding against the asphalt towards Annabeth who caught it and jammed in to her holders neck, turning him into nothing but monster dust.

                         Ignoring her pain, Aurora grunted as she pushed the bear man away from her with all her might, and jammed her dagger right in his eye. He wailed in agony but he too joined his friend and turned into dust, scattering all over Aurora's body.

She didn't have time to recover seeing as her knees buckled and sent her sprawling to the ground with a pained scream erupting from her mouth. She knew she was on the brink of a KO but didn't realize it would hit her right as the fight was beginning to grow deadly.

"Perrrrrcy!" Grover bleated.

At Grover's bleat, Aurora turned her head seeing Percy crawl toward the swimming as Luke stood above him—following him with the tip of backbiter tinged red; Percy's blood.

                         Aurora knew he'd never reach it in time, especially with how menacing Luke looked as he twirled backbiter in his hands. Luke would kill him before he could even get the chance of using his power and gaining the upper hand.

"One thing I want you to watch before you die, Percy." He looked at the bear-man Oreius, who was now holding Annabeth and Grover by the necks. "You can eat your dinner now, Oreius. Bon Appetit."

                         "He-he! He-he!"

                         "I'll kill you myself, Luke!" Aurora screamed as she tried to stand upright. The swirling in her stomach due to Nate and the pain on her body made it almost impossible to move, but she was determined.

                         Luke only waved her off, "In your state, I'm not too worried."

"Okay," a glance from Percy was all she needed before the stirring with in her grew more profound. It seemed as if Percy knew what was happening, he glanced in between both Aurora and Luke before settling his eyes on her and shooting her a look.

It was all she needed before she let Nate take control.

Much like they predicted, Nate appeared with a now unconscious Aurora on the floor. His flickering form and blazing orange eyes were all to familiar to those around her, as they've seen it far too many times to count.

Where it used to be fear, now it was relief when they saw him.

Nate turned and sent a powerful blast ( that made his beams back in Polyphemus' island look like flashlights ) to the monsters surrounding both Annabeth and Grover.

The blast was so powerful that it disintegrated Oreius on sight. What was left behind was dust that blew away gently from the breeze. Too gently, for any of their liking.

"Brother!" Agrius wailed. He let the pegasus's reins go slack just long enough for the black steed to kick him in the head and fly away free over Miami Bay.

Nathaniel let out a loud roar that shook Luke and his guards to the core as he sent another blast to Agrius who was still wailing for his lost brother, but he too was turned to dust in a matter of seconds. And even then, Nate's bloodlust waged on—especially when his fiery eyes turned towards Luke who now had a sharp knife against unconscious Aurora's throat.

                         "Leave," Luke demanded. "Or I won't hesitate to slit her throat."

                         Nate grunted as he weighed his options, if he were to send a blast their way he would be too slow and as much as he wanted to call the younger boys bluff—he couldn't. The wild look in his eye was familiar, in one he's seen long ago. So, he couldn't bet Aurora on this bluff, he simply couldn't. She meant too much to him.

                         Instead his usual flickering form hardened as he sent a final glare toward the blonde male, "Here my words and hear them well, son of Hermes," he sounded as if he were gritting his teeth. "Whether it be me, Aurora, or even Percy that puts a blade through your heart and you venture into the unknown, know that I'll be there . . . waiting."

                         And before they knew it, he was gone.

                         Percy shakily crawled to Aurora who woke up with a daze on her face and a slight cut to her neck, the usual pain she'd gain from Nate overtook her mixing in with the pain she previously felt—it was overwhelming. And all Percy could do was pull her against him and away from Luke as he held his sword tip towards them.

                         Suddenly, a wild chorus of war cries and hooves thundering against metal was heard, but she was much too tired to turn her head in the direction.

                         "Ponies!" Tyson cried with delight.

                         Likely centaurs, Aurora guessed.

Percy perked up as he caught sight of something among the crowd, "Chiron?"

He gently twisted Auroras head ( much to her annoyance and the wince it pulled out of her ) in the direction of what he was looking at. There among the centaurs she had guessed were there, was Chiron.

A sense of relief filled her heart at seeing him. All those years she was at camp, he'd taken care of her just as the others—as if she were his own. He'd been a mentor when she'd lost her father and consoled her as well. She was glad to see him back, even from her spot on the floor

Surrounding Chiron, there were centaurs with black Arabian stallion bodies, others with gold palomino coats, others with orange-and-white spots like paint horses. Some wore brightly colored T-shirts with Day-Glo letters that said PARTY PONIES: SOUTH FLORIDA CHAPTER.

Some were armed with bows, some with baseball bats, some with paintball guns. One had his face painted like a Comanche warrior and was waving a large orange Styrofoam hand making a big Number I. Another was bare-chested and painted entirely green. A third had googly-eye glasses with the eyeballs bouncing around on Slinky coils, and one of those baseball caps with soda-can-and straw attachments on either side. They exploded onto the deck with such ferocity and color that for a moment making Luke more stunned than he already was.

As Luke was raising his sword to rally his remaining troops, a centaur shot a custom-made arrow with a leather boxing glove on the end. It smacked Luke in the face and sent him crashing into the swimming pool. His warriors scattered. Aurora couldn't blame them. The centaurs looks alone would've had her running the other way. It reminded her of the many times she'd wake up in the morning only to find her father with a crazed hangover—looking as if he was moments away from jumping off their Malibu balcony towards the sea to relive his massive headache.

"Come get some!" yelled one of the party ponies.

They let loose with their paintball guns. Percy turned his back towards them so he was shielding Aurora, who painfully gripped his shirt.

A wave of blue and yellow exploded against Luke's warriors, blinding them and splattering them from head to toe. They tried to run, only to slip and fall. Chiron galloped toward Annabeth and Grover, neatly plucked them off the deck, and deposited them on his back. Percy tried to get up and help Aurora stand, but his wounded leg still felt like it was on fire.

"East," she groaned. "Cant you see I'm in pain?"

"Can't you see I'm trying to keep you alive," the boy bit back.

Luke was crawling out of the pool. "Attack, you fools.'" he ordered his troops.

Somewhere down below deck, a large alarm bell thrummed. Aurora knew any second they would be swamped by Luke's reinforcements, even with the damage Nate had done, it was only a small dent of his forces. Especially considering the warriors he did have, finally regained their composure and started coming at the centaurs with swords and spears drawn.

Tyson slapped half a dozen of them aside, knocking them over the guard rail into Miami Bay. But more warriors were coming up the stairs.

"Withdraw, brethren!" Chiron said.

"You won't get away with this, horseman!" Luke shouted.

He raised his sword, but got smacked in the face with another boxing glove arrow, and sat down hard in a deck chair. A palomino centaur hoisted Percy and Aurora onto his back. Percy had a tight grip on Aurora's waist who looked about ready to pass out at any moment. The pain being too much to bear.

"Dude, get your big friend!"

"Tyson!" Percy yelled. "Come on!"

Tyson dropped the two warriors he was about to tie into a knot and jogged after them. He jumped on the centaur's back.

"Dude!" the centaur groaned, almost buckling under Tyson's weight. "Do the words 'low-carb diet' mean anything to you?"

Luke's warriors were organizing themselves into a phalanx. But by the time they were ready to advance, the centaurs had galloped to the edge of the deck and fearlessly jumped the guardrail, as if it were a steeple chase and not ten stories above the ground. Percy was sure they were going to die so he wrapped his arms around Aurora—further securing the daughter of Aphrodite in his arms and onto the centaur.

They plummeted toward the docks, but the centaurs hit the asphalt with hardly a jolt and galloped off, whooping and yelling taunts at the Princess Andromeda as they raced into the streets of downtown Miami.

Streets and buildings began to blur as the centaurs picked up speed. It felt as if space were compacting as if each centaur step took them miles and miles. In no time, they'd left the city behind. They raced through marshy fields of high grass and ponds and stunted trees. Finally, they found themselves in a trailer park at the edge of a lake.

The trailers were all horse trailers, tricked out with televisions and mini-refrigerators and mosquito netting. They were in a centaur camp.

"Dude!" said a party pony as he unloaded his gear. "Did you see that bear guy? He was all like:'Whoa, I have an arrow in my mouth!'"

The centaur with the googly-eye glasses laughed. "That was awesome! Head slam!"

The two centaurs charged at each other full-force and knocked heads, then went staggering off in different directions with crazy grins on their faces. Chiron sighed. He set Annabeth and Grover down on a picnic blanket next to Percy and Aurora.

"I really wish my cousins wouldn't slam their heads together. They don't have the brain cells to spare."

Aurora looked at the centaurs, "They have no remaining brain cells, you mean."

She suddenly groaned and placed her head on Percy's shoulder.

"Chiron," Percy said, still stunned by the fact that he was here. "You saved us."

He gave Percy a dry smile. "Well now, I couldn't very well let you die, especially since you've cleared my name."

Aurora groaned. "Nate and I had it covered."

Chiron shook his head. "Child, He could have ripped you apart the longer he was in his true form. It's a miracle you are still alive. We stepped in when we could, at a good time too."

"I'm sure I could've held out a little longer," she turned towards the others. "Right?"

One somber look from Annabeth was the only answer she needed.

"What happened?"

"Luke held a knife to your throat," Percy answered not minding her head on his shoulder. At this point it was common occurrence between the two friends. "He threatened Nate to leave and if he didn't . . ."

Aurora bit back the surprise, "He would've killed me."

She placed a hand over her throat and when she pulled back, she was met with a dark crimson liquid drip down her hands. Well, now she knew where she got the cut from.

"Thanks Chiron," Aurora abruptly sent him a small nod. "For showing up when you did."

"How did you know where we were?" Annabeth added.

"Advanced planning, my dear. I figured you would wash up near Miami if you made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive. Almost everything strange washes up near Miami."

"Gee, thanks," Grover mumbled.

"No, no," Chiron said. "I didn't mean . . . Oh, never mind. I am glad to see you, my young satyr. The point is, I was able to eavesdrop on Percy's Iris-message and trace the signal. Iris and I have been friends for centuries. I asked her to alert me to any important communications in this area. It then took no effort to convince my cousins to ride to your aid. As you see, centaurs can travel quite fast when we wish to. Distance for us is not the same as distance for humans."

"So what now?" Percy asked Chiron. "We just let Luke sail away? He's got Kronos aboard that ship. Or parts of him, anyway."

Chiron knelt, carefully folding his front legs underneath him. He opened the medicine pouch on his belt and started to treat Percy's wounds. He passed a canteen full of nectar to Aurora whom sighed in relief. She'd never been so happy before to see nectar.

"I'm afraid, Percy, that today has been something of a draw. We didn't have the strength of numbers to take that ship. Luke was not organized enough to pursue us. Nobody won."

"But we got the Fleece!" Annabeth said. "Clarisse is on her way back to camp with it right now."

Chiron nodded, though he still looked uneasy. "You are all true heroes. And as soon as we get Percy fixed up, you must return to Half-Blood Hill. The centaurs shall carry you."

"You're coming, too?" Percy asked.

"Oh yes, Percy. I'll be relieved to get home. My brethren here simply do not appreciate Dean Martin's music. Besides, I must have some words with Mr. D. There's the rest of the summer to plan. So much training to do. And I want to see . . . I'm curious about the Fleece."

Over by the campfire, Tyson let loose with his paintball gun. A blue projectile splattered again stone of the centaurs, hurling him backward into the lake. The centaur came up grinning, covered in swamp muck and blue paint, and gave Tyson two thumbs up.

"Annabeth, Aurora," Chiron said, "Perhaps you both and Grover would go supervise Tyson and my cousins before they, ah, teach each other too many bad habits?"

Annabeth met his eyes. Some kind of understanding passed between them. Aurora on the other hand looked completely confused.

"Sure, Chiron," Annabeth said as she took Grover's hand. "Come on, goat boy."

"But I don't like paintball."

"You do now," Aurora stated and a confused face imprinted on her face. "Apparently, I do too?"

Annabeth grinned. "Right, let's go"

She hoisted Grover to his hooves and led him off toward the campfire. Grover sat next to her and after a moment of them staring at the fire ( as though it held all the answers ) he turned his head towards her with a nervous shift. "Um, Aurora?"

Aurora swallowed the nectar that made her miss her father terribly and nodded. "What's up, Grooves?"

"When did you meet Nathaniel?"

She rose her eyebrows in interest, slightly caught off guard with the question. They had told him pretty soon about Nathaniel, but she wasn't surprised. He's likely seen her go completely limp and assumed it wasn't her doing and the others told him about it.

Nevertheless, Aurora puffed out a breath and tilted her head. "Last year, maybe?" She turned to Grover with a raised eyebrow. "Why?"

Grover just shook his head, "I was just wondering."

Annabeth then poked her head from over Grover's shoulder. "Wait, did you say only a year?"

More paintball shots went off, narrowing my missing Aurora's head.

Aurora nodded, the fire gleaming in her eyes. "Yeah," her eyes narrowed when she saw the look on Annabeth's eyes. "Why?"

Annabeth just shook her head and placed her index finger on her chin. "Isn't it a little weird that he appeared in a dream, completely out of the blue?"

Aurora shook her head, not thinking anything wrong with it, "Where are you getting at?"

Annabeth shrugged. "Look, If Nathaniel is your protector wouldn't he have been protecting you your entire life," Her eyes looked dangerous in the firelight. "He wouldn't just simply pop out now, of all times?"

Aurora thought about it but shook her head. "Maybe he showed up last year because it was my first quest and I was in danger?"

Annabeth shrugged, only continuing to dwell on the information given to her. She was suspicious of Nathaniel, Aurora could tell. She just wasn't sure on why. On many occasions, Nathaniel saved all of their lives—including that of Annabeth's. Shouldn't the blonde haired girl be greatful at that? Shouldn't she know by now that Nate is to be trusted?

Nonetheless, it did spark some questions in the young girls head.

Just how long has he truly been her protector for?

And everything he's been telling her, has it all been the truth?

— NAT TALKS !

We're almost done with this act yell with me! AHHHHHHHHH!

Might get another update later seeing as I'm off, so expect that! Also I am working on a young justice fic! So be prepared, it will have Aurora! With dick grayson being the love interest!

Y'all I'm super excited for titans curse! Bcs after titans curse we'll be moving onto Iron man 2!!

What are you excited about?

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