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FRIDAY afternoon, they were sitting with grover at the lake, resting from a near-death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain, but the lava had almost gotten pandora and percy. Their shirts had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off their forearms.

They sat at the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until percy got the nerve to ask grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.

His face turned a sickly shade of yellow. "Fine," He said. "Just great." pandora frowned, "You sure? Your face is oddly yellow." She touched his forehead, then his neck, then grabbed his cheeks, percy grabbed her hands and placed it in his lap. "I'm fine, dory

"So your career's still on track?" Percy asked, Grover glanced at him nervously. "Chiron t-told you i want a searcher's license?"

"Well..no." Percy had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know.. and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"

Grover looked down at the naiads who were currently waving at buffy. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said i hadn't failed or succeeded with you yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you got a quest and i went along to protect you, and we all came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

Percy and pandora's spirits lifted, "Well, that's not so bad, right?" She questioned, "Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you two getting a quest..and even if you did, why would you want me along?" pandora shook her head and continued looking down at the naiads. "Of course we'd want you along!"

Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket weaving..must be nice to have a useful skill." Percy and his sister looked at each other and tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. They talked about canoeing and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, percy asked him about the four empty cabins.

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to artemis." He said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. if she didn't have one, she'd be mad."

"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the big three?" Pandora looked from the naiads to look at grover, the boy—man—goat tensed. They were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is hera's," He said.

"That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job." Percy and pandora glanced at each other.

"Well." She shrugged, not looking too surprised at the information, "When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of kronos." Grover continued, "Zeus, Poseidon, Hades." Percy nodded to his sister. "Right. You know. After the great battle with the titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky," Percy remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the underworld."

"Uh-huh." Grover nodded and pandora screwed up her face.

"But hades doesn't have a cabin here." She pointed out, "No. He doesn't have a throne on olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the underworld. If he did have a cabin here.." Grover shuddered.

"Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that." Pandora cocked her head. "I mean think about it. It would be cool if he had a cabin—just imagine how it would look at night."

"But zeus and poseidon—they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty." Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably.

"About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they would sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that basically a fight between the sons of zeus and poseidon on one side, and the sons of hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the river styx."

Thunder boomed. Percy said, "That's the most serious oath you can make." Grover nodded. "And the brothers kept their word—no kids?"

Grover's face darkened. "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy hairdo—he just couldn't help himself." Liz snorted. "Of course he couldn't."

"When their child was born, a little girl named thalia..well, the river styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

"But that's isn't fair! it wasn't the little girl's fault." Percy exclaimed and grover hesitated. "Percy, children of the big three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about zeus breaking his oath."

"Hades let the worst monsters out of tartarus to torment thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where pandora and percy'd fought the minotaur. "All three kindly ones were after them, along with a hoard of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters."

"She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunter animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others." The girl cocked her head curiously, looking at grover.

"So thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, zeus took pity on her. He turned her into pine tree. Her spirit still held protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called half-blood hill."

Percy and pandora stared at the pine in the distance. The story made them feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl their age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, their victory over the minotaur didn't seem like much. They wondered, if they'd acted differently, could they have saved their mother?

"Grover," Percy said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the underworld?" He asked, "Sometimes," Grover said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."

"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?" Pandora questioned, "No. Never. Orpheus came close...percy, dory, you're not seriously thinking—" Percy shook his head.

"No," He lied. "We were just wondering. So..a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?" Percy asked.

Grover studied percy and pandora warily. Percy hadn't persuaded him that they'd really dropped the underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the big three, we alert chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems." He explained.

"And you found us. Chiron said you thought we might be something special." Grover looked as if they'd led him into a trap. "I didn't..oh, listen, don't think like that."

"If you were—you know—you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and i'd never get my license. You're probably a child of hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"

Percy and pandora looked at each other, They got the idea he was reassuring himself more than them.

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That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual. At last, it was time for capture the flag. When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and they all stood at their tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

Percy turned to luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?" Luke looked toward him. "Yeah."

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?" He questioned, "Not always," Luke said. "But often."

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do—repaint the flag?" Leah grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?" Pandora asked and the two castellan siblings gave them a sly look, as if they knew something percy and pandora didn't. The scar on luke's face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.

"We've made a temporary alliance with athena. Tonight, we get the flag from ares. And you are going to help." Pandora gulped at that, she should've skipped dinner.

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with apollo and hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win supper.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: dionysus, demeter, aphrodite, and hephaestus. From what they'd seen, dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but they were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff, but they weren't very aggressive.

Aphrodite's sons and daughters they wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day.

They might be a problem. That, of course, left are's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on long island, or anywhere else on the planet.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. "Heroes!" He announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

"Whoa," Percy said. "We're really supposed to use these?" He asked, pandora picking up a sword with a grin on her face, Luke and leah looked at him as if he was crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."

Their shields was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. They could have snowboarded on it fine, but they hoped nobody seriously expected them to run fast. Their helmets, like all the helmets on athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.

Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!" They cheered and shook their swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at the blue team as the red team headed off toward the north.

Percy and pandora managed to catch up with midas and annabeth without tripping over their equipment. "Hey." She kept marching. "So what's the plan?" Percy asked.

"Got any magic items you can loan us?" Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid he'd stolen something.

"Just watch clarisse's spear," She said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from ares. Has luke given you your job?" She asked.

"Border patrol, whatever that means." Pandora muttered the last words and she trailed behind percy and the two other demigods. "It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me and midas. Athena always has a plan."

They pushed ahead, leaving them in the dust. "Okay," Pandora mumbled. "Glad you wanted us on your team."

It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed them next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks; then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

Standing there, with their big blue-feathered helmets and their huge shields, they felt like idiots. The bronze swords, like all the swords they've tried so far; seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on their hands like a bowling ball.

There was no way anybody would actually attack them, would they? i mean, olympus had to have liability issues, right? Far away, the conch horn blew. They heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from apollo raced past them like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Great, Percy thought. They'll miss all the fun, as usual. pandora sighed and drove her sword into the dirt, Then they heard a sound that sent chills up their spines, two low canine growls, somewhere close by.

Pandora quickly grabbed her sword and she and percy raised their shields instinctively; they had the feeling something was stalking them. then the growling stopped.

They felt the presence retreating. On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark. "Cream the punks!" Clarisse screamed.

Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made them feel any better.

"Oh, great. We're dead." Pandora frowned as clarisse's siblings charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. Percy and pandora could run or they could defend themselves against half the ares cabin.

They managed to sidestep the first two kid's swings, but these guys were not as stupid as the minotaur. They surrounded pandora and percy, and clarisse thrust at pandora with her spear that crackled with electricity. Pandora's shield deflected the point, but she felt a tingling all over her body that didn't feel very painful as it should have.

Her hair stood on end. Her shield arm went numb for a moment, and the air burned. Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. pandora fell back onto the dirt.

Another ares guy slammed percy in the chest with the butt of his sword and he hit the dirt. They could've kicked percy and pandora into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.

"Give them a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab their hair." Percy and pandora managed to get to their feet. The latter raised her sword, but clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Both of her arms should've felt numb but they felt stronger as if she was absorbing the electricity.

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this punk. Really scared."

"The flag is that way," Percy told her. He wanted to sound angry, but he was afraid it didn't come out that way. "Yeah," One of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about the two who made our cabin look stupid."

"You do that without our help." Pandora told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say but she giggled a little bit. Two of them came for pandora and percy.

They backed up toward the creek, Percy tried to raise his shield, but clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck him straight in the ribs. If he hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, he would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked his teeth out of his mouth. Two of her cabinmates slashed their swords across pandora and percy's arms, leaving good-size cuts.

Seeing her own blood made her dizzy—warm and cold at the same time. "No maiming." Percy managed to say. Seeing the cut on his sister's arm made him angry, not even caring about his own cut. "Oops," The guy said. "Guess i lost my dessert privilege."

He pushed percy into the creek and he landed with a splash. The ares children all laughed. Percy figured as soon as they were through being amused, he and pandora would die.

But then something happened. As Pandora took a deep and slow breath, her eyes glowing a faint electric blue, The water seemed to wake up percy's senses and the wind that suddenly blew seemed to the same for pandora after she exhaled, she could hear faint whispers in her air as the temperature got cooler, as if they'd just had a bag of their mom's double-espresso jelly beans.

Some of clarisse's cabinmates came into the creek to get percy and clarisse and the others stalked toward pandora.

But percy stood to meet them. He and pandora knew what to do. Percy swung the flat of his sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. He hit him so hard he could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.

Ugly number two and ugly number three came at percy. He slammed one in the face with his shield and used his sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick.

Ugly number four didn't look really anxious to attack pandora, but clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrusts, pandora caught the shaft between the edge of her shield and her swird, and she snapped it like a twig.

"Ah!" She screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!" She probably would've said worse, but pandora smacked her between the eyes with the her sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward.

"Sorry." The girl winced, watching as clarisse covered her eyes and cry out in pain.

Then they heard yelling, elated screams, and they saw luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few apollo's behind them, fighting off the hephaestus kids. The ares folks got up, and clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" She shouted. "It was a trick." They staggered after luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as lukewarm ran across into friendly territory. Their side exploded into cheers.

The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up like and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. They'd won. Percy and pandora shared grin and was about to join the celebration when annabeth's voice, right next to percy in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero." Percy and pandora looked, but she wasn't there.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" She asked. The air shimmered and the thunder began to ease up slightly, and annabeth materialized, holding a yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her.

Midas then appeared behind of her, clad in his armor as he held a black sword with flower carvings in it.

Pandora and Percy felt themselves getting angry. they weren't even fazed by the fact that they'd just been invisible. "You set us up." Percy said. "You put us here because you knew clarisse would come after us, while you sent luke around to flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get us pulverized." Pandora gritted her teeth at the girl, "I came as fast as i could. I was about to jump in, but.." She shrugged. "You didn't need help." Then she and midas looked up at the sky when they heard more thunder, the lightning striking in the distance.

They both furrowed their brows and looked at each other, then they both noticed pandora and percy's wounded arms. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," Percy said. "What do you think?"

"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it." The blood was gone. Where the huge cuts had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As they watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.

"I—I don't get it." Percy said. Annabeth was thinking hard. She looked down at percy's feet, then at clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy." The blond looked toward pandora who was still angry, staring right back at her. "And you..you stop doing whatever you're doing."

"I'm not doing anything." Pandora said with a heave.

"Just do it." Percy came out of the creek and Pandora watched, the wind around her finally stopped blowing and they immediately felt bone tired. their arms started to go numb again. their adrenaline rush left.

They almost fell over, but Annabeth and Midas steadied them. "Oh, styx," Annabeth cursed and she looked toward her friend, "This is not good. I didn't want..i assumed she would be poseidon and he would be zeus.." Before they could ask what she meant, they heard the canine growls again, but much closer than before.

Howls ripped through the forest. The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in ancient greek, which pandora and percy would realize, only later, they had understood perfectly. "Stand ready! My bow!"

Annabeth and midas drew their swords. There on the rocks just above them was two black hounds the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

They were looking straight at percy and pandora. No one moved except annabeth and midas, who yelled, "Percy, Pandora, Run!" They tried to step in front of percy and pandora, but the hounds were too fast. It leaped over them—enormous shadows with teeth—and just as they hit percy and pandora, as they stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through their armors, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other.

From the hounds necks sprouted clusters of arrows. The monsters fell dead at their feet. By some miracle, percy and pandora were still alive. They didn't want to look underneath the ruins of their shredded armors.

Their chests felt warm and wet, and they knew they were badly cut. Another second, the monsters would've turned them into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.

Chiron trotted up next to them, a bow in his hand, his face grim. "Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "They were hellhounds from the fields of punishment. They don't...they're not supposed to.."

"Someone summoned them." Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp." Luke and leah came over, the banner in luke's hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, "It's all percy and pandora's fault! Percy and pandora summoned them!"

"Be quiet, child." Chiron told her. They watched the bodies of the hellhounds melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

Pandora breathed heavily, the pain in her chest slowly going away, minute by minute, "You're wounded." Annabeth told them. "Quick, Percy, Get in the water."

"I'm okay."

"No, you're not," She said. "Chiron, watch this." Percy was too tired to argue. He stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around him and Pandora took a deep breath, exhaling slowly.

Instantly, the two felt better. They could feel the cuts on their chests closing up. Some of the campers gasped. "Look, I—I don't know why," Percy said, trying to apologize for the both of them. "We're sorry.."

But they weren't watching their wounds heal. They were staring at something above their heads.

"Percy, Pandora," The blond said, pointing. "Um." By the time they looked up, the signs were already fading, but they could still make out the holograms of green and blue lights, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident over percy's head and lightning bolt over pandora's head.

"Your fathers," Midas muttered. "This is really not good." Annabeth agreed.

"It is determined," Chiron announced, All the campers around them started kneeling, even the ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.

"Our fathers?" Percy asked, completely bewildered. "Poseidon," Said chiron. "Earthshaker, strombringer, father of horses. Hail,  Perseus Jackson, Son of the sea god." He looked to pandora who was very confused about the current situation.

"Zeus. King of the Gods, clouds-gatherer, father of gods and men. Hail, Pandora Jackson, Daughter of the sky god." Lightning struck behind of them and percy and pandora looked at each other.

☽