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"Why doesn't she just sleep at night? Is she that tired all day?" the little blonde girl wondered out loud to her older brother.

They were standing adjacent to each other and watching their mother cozy herself into the couch, littered in mystery pills and with a strong stench of alcohol.

Her brother, Ezra, only sighed. He didn't know any way to answer his sister. It was something he found strange too.

He knew why she crawled to substances in the first place. The last man she was with, Dreas father, really messed with her in ways he couldn't fully understand. Ezra was still young when it happened and even their eldest sister, Daria, didn't gather all the details.

What he didn't know was why she acted the way she did when she was under the influence. He expected she might become violent, start throwing things, maybe yell, but she didn't.

Their mother slept day and night, drowning her sorrows in alcohol and burrowing into deep slumbers, that she rarely woke from, to hide from ugly realities. Oddly, it almost felt worse that she didn't grow hostile when she wasn't herself.

At least then she'd make the effort to acknowledge her own children. But no, she just checked herself out of the conversation.

It almost made him wonder if the cost of one's life was worth the temporary relief of drugs. What was it like? Was it that soothing? That great?

"It's just.. been a long day, you know?" He spoke to her.

Drea took a whiff of the air steaming through the house and inhaled a powerful waft of smoke and grime, "It stinks."

"Okay, Andrea, how about we clean our room before Aria comes back?" Ezra gently suggested.

Their sister was out working jobs for their neighbors for money and would likely grow frustrated they didn't do anything at home to give her a helping hand.

"You know I don't like that name.." she mumbled.

"What, you want me to call you your full name?"

With a groan, she walked away to their shared room to pick up stuff, mostly because she'd rather her brother not call her by the long name she was assigned as a baby.

Another odd quality of their mother, she'd given her 2 older children relatively short names. But their names combined equaled the length of her youngest's name, Andromeda.

Even her middle name was the same length, but seemingly more normal. Cassandra. It was almost jarring the difference in her name compared to her siblings. As much as she'd love to ask her mother what the significance behind them was, it'd be hard to catch her sober and awake so that she could answer.

ϟ

With no other means of transportation from the arch, they had no choice but to just start walking. Like, literally breezing down the side of the road with no plan.

Not wanting to be negative, Drea tried her hardest not to point out the obvious. That they needed to come up with something.. anything that would get them to their destination quicker. They had to be in California before the summer solstice and they wouldn't make it at this rate.

Breaking the silence among them, Percy began to speak, "Hey, guys. I think this quest might be harder than we thought."

Nobody inquired on what he meant by that.

"I've been thinking. I didn't steal the master bolt. You guys didn't steal the master bolt. We're pretty sure Hades has the master bolt, but he couldn't have stolen it himself."

Was he just now putting this together? Drea thought to herself.

"I mean, we don't even know who actually stole the thing, or why, or how deep this goes." He finished with an ominous tone in his voice that only came off as oblivious considering everyone but him already knew this.

By the looks that were shared between Annabeth, Grover, and Drea, Percy also figured out last just how slow his realization was.

"I'm the last person to realize this, aren't I?"

Everyone nodded agreeing with him.

"Do you need water or something to activate your brain?" Drea asked, referring to their fall in the river.

"Okay, so.. maybe when we started my head wasn't fully in this, but since the river.. it all feels different somehow."

"Different?"

"He saved me. My dad."

"Ah."

"I guess I just really never thought that's something he'd do for me."

"You and me both."

Percy started again, "So maybe I gotta take things more seriously now."

Drea stopped in her tracks with a questioning look on her face. "You weren't already taking this seriously?" Annabeth even passed him a judgmental look.

"Car." Grover suddenly called, his body turned around staring at the road behind them. Everyone spun around to inspect until Annabeth spoke, "That's not a car, it's a bike. Just let it pass. Come on."

They all moved aside to duck behind the cement half-wall lining the road. Lining up in a row, they all sat next to each other on the gravel below them

Percy started to talk again, "I'm saying, we're not just trying to retrieve a thing. I think we might need to be detectives here, too."

"Then what do you have in mind, sergeant Jackson?" Drea asked, partially curious as to what supposed detective work he was leading to.

He started to talk along the lines of Hades but Percy hardly caught Drea's attention the second she noticed Annabeth was oddly quiet and had a bothered face plastered on.

"What's wrong?" She mumbled while Percy continued whatever he was saying to Grover.

"Nothing."

"Annie, don't lie to me."

She suddenly spoke louder for the boys to also hear, "I saw the Fates."

Percy was caught off guard by her outburst but Grover wasn't.

"Back at the Arch, I saw the Three Fates, and I saw Atropos cut 2 pieces of thread."

"And that's bad or..?"

Drea couldn't even muster the slightest hint of energy to roll her eyes or make any sign of annoyance at Percy's cluelessness. The news completely stunned her.

"The Fates weave the life strand of every living thing. When you see a string cut-

"It means 2 of us are going to die."

Without missing a beat Percy casually said, "We're all gonna die.. eventually.."

"Soon." Annabeth corrected him. "It's a warning. An omen."

Percy sighed, "Okay. Guys, we need to talk about this whole fate thing. Three old ladies with a ball of yarn can't know what's gonna happen."

"What and you know?" Drea finally spoke up. She didn't mean to be rude or condescending. She was just frustrated and scared.

"Look, what I choose to do changes what's gonna happen, and I can choose anything I.. want.." He paused in confusion.

The sound of a motorcycle had approached and they all assumed it would pass and fade into the distance, but it didn't. It stopped right where they were sat. They awkwardly waited for a moment before a voice called,

"Need some help?"

All of them sat up to look over the ledge of the cement wall and peek their heads at the biker. It was a scruffy and strong looking man on a very shiny bike, like it was freshly polished. Drea noticed his very long jacket that almost laid like a cape on his bike and decided she liked it.

"Beg pardon?" Grover politely asked.

"I asked if you could use some help." The man firmly repeated himself.

"Nope. No. We're— We're good. Appreciate you asking, though. So long."

With that, they all popped their heads back down. They hoped he'd go away. After all, they were still being hunted by the police for the train attack and potentially the mysterious firey hole in the St. Louis Arch. This man could be a cop.

"You don't seem too good."

Annabeth popped back up, "We don't want anything from you." and dropped back down.

"You sure?" The man chuckled, "Because you guys are so behind schedule."

What?

The odd statement made all of their ears perk up. Who was he? Could he know they were on a quest? All four of them stood up entirely from the cement wall to look at him with their full attention.

"I mean, summer solstice is just a few days away. And as much as I'd love to see a good war pop off, as your big cousin, I feel like, maybe.. I wanna give you a hand."

"Cousin?"

"Ares." Annabeth thought aloud.

"You must be Athena's kid. Always gotta be the wisest one in the bunch."

His attention turned to Drea. He looked her up and down, trying to figure out who she was.

"Now don't tell me.. whose are you again?"

She scowled at him.

"What, don't tell me you're mine." He sarcastically grinned.

Annoyed, Drea made a tiny gesture with her arms to imitate a bow and arrow being shot.

"Ah. My niece." Ares sighed.

Drea crossed her arms, "Ah. My uncle."

Breaking the tension, Annabeth asked him, "Why would you help us? How do you even know about what we're doing out here?"

"Because I'm doing exactly the same thing as you. Zeus sent all of his kids out looking for the master bolt, too."

Everyone seemed a bit confused. Why was Ares looking for the bolt if Poseidon tasked Percy with finding it? Seemed like there was no faith in them.

"Listen, dummies. I'm hungry. There's a halfway decent diner up the road. If you want my help, you'll meet me there. But don't dawdle. Won't wait forever."

With that, he sassily put his sunglasses on, started up his bike again, and sped away down the road without another word.

"That's my cousin?.. What kind of family is this?"

ϟ

Arriving at the diner felt anticlimactic. After taking a long walk, they weren't even entirely sure if they walked into the right one. Nonetheless, a bell rang after opening the door and after a moment, they were greeted with the sound of obnoxious laughing and slamming of a table.

Ares had sat himself in a booth and seemed to be twiddling on his phone yet laughing hysterically at whatever he was doing.

"Guess this is the right place." Percy murmured.

The group of kids slowly wandered over to the table, unsure of how to approach Ares. He noticed their presence after a moment and began, "Gimme a second, I'm just starting a fight on Twitter here."

They took their seats in the booth seat across from him. Drea somewhat recognized the term Twitter. She'd heard Irene mention it before.

"Nothing makes me happier than a good old-fashioned, burn-it-down fight... Ah. Okay, done." He placed his phone down and started again, "So your quest.. is going to fail. Ask me how I know."

"It isn't going to fail." Percy confidently stated.

"Sure it is." Ares chuckled, "For starters.." he lifted his phone back up, turned it to the kids, and pressed play on a video.

On the screen was a news channel broadcasting a sluggish-looking man Drea did not recognize. He seemed to be upset as he began speaking,

"Percy was always troubled, but I never thought he was capable of something like this."

Percy's face contorted into annoyed and offended as Grover asked, "Wh-Who's that?"

"My stepdad. What's he doing?"

"Wait for it." Ares answered with a grin while the reporter kept asking him questions.

"..-you believe he may also have had something to do with your wife's disappearance?"

"A kid that messed up? What wouldn't he do?"

Drea let out a pfft at his stepfather's words. She'd barely known him a week or so, but she had no doubts about how much Percy loved his mom.

"What?" Percy exclaimed.

Ares chuckled, "Wild right? The FBI is already spreading your picture around."

The wretched man continued talking to the interviewer. "It's a Camaro. I really— We really loved that car.. so much." He seemed more heartbroken over the loss of their car than his own wife having gone missing as he whimpered and asked for the video to be cut as he cried.

What a wimp Drea thought.

"I'm gonna kill him."

Ares smiled, "I knew I was gonna like you."

"But safe to say, the chances of you four idiots hitchhiking the rest of the way to L.A. without getting arrested are slim to none."

As much as she wanted to spit a rebuttal at him and declare that they could do it, Drea bit her tongue. She didn't want to admit that they were currently left without any options.

"Why are you sitting here then?" Annabeth spoke. "If you're supposed to be looking for the master bolt too, shouldn't you be out there looking for it?"

There Annabeth was, working that detective magic Percy spoke of earlier. It brought a grin to Drea's face.

Deflecting, Ares answered, "Hm. There's no fear in you, is there?"

She firmly shook her head no.

"Doesn't matter. Whether the bolt's retrieved or not, Zeus is going to war with Poseidon."

Every seemed confused. That couldn't be true. The entire basis of their quest was to get the bolt and therefore prevent any outbreak of war.

They all turned to Percy hoping for some clarity.

Despite the pressure of all eyes falling to him, he didn't fail in stating, "No. The Oracle said if we return the bolt, there wouldn't be a war."

"Is that what she said? Or is that what Chiron said she meant?"

They all despised that he seemed to be right.

"You're new to the family, young one, so let me fill you in on how we work."

Drea hated the way he looked at them. The way Ares held himself higher. But mostly, she hated being wrong. She believed if she could help stop this war, it'd mean something to her dad. She felt robbed of this opportunity and blamed Ares for having broken the news.

"See, years before I was born, my grandpa Kronos ate my aunts and uncles. Yeah. Then my dad make him puke them back up, then chopped him into a million pieces and chucked 'em into a bottomless pit, so that kinda set the tone right outta the gate." He talked all in one breath.

"Spit much?" Drea stared at him for a second before taking a napkin and wiping down the spot of the table in front of her.

Ares scowled at her before continuing, "Olympians fight. We betray. We backstab. We will pull push anyone down a flight of stairs to get ahead."

Something struck a cord with Annabeth in his last sentence. She remembered Percy using the same words. When he spoke to Chiron saying Annabeth wouldn't hesitate to do exactly that if their quest required it. She didn't like being compared to the Olympians in that way.

"And that's why I love my family so much. My dad knows he's not getting this bolt back with quests or goose chases. He knows there's a war coming. And in reality, I think he's okay with that. I think he feels it's just time for a war, so we're gonna have a war."

Ares took a moment to smile to himself and grinned, "Isn't that great?"

Drea scoffed, "What an immature and irresponsible reason to have a war. What, just because it won't be the first or the last means it shouldn't be stopped?"

He looked at her, completely annoyed, and began, "No wonder my brother—

"We're completing this quest." Percy cut him off, not wanting Ares to finish his words. He didn't want Drea to hear whatever horrible thing he was going to say about her in regards to her dad, Apollo.

"We're stopping this war. You said you can help. Can you?"

"..okay, so here it is. There's an amusement park up the road. I left my shield there. You get me my shield back, and I'll get you to the Underworld by.. lunch tomorrow, with a plan to invade Hades's palace."

"You left your shield? Like, forgot it on the merry-go-round?" Annabeth pettily asked, not so happy with him.

He leaned in closer to the table as a gesture of intimidation. "Okay. The chirping was funny to me for a minute, but it is getting old." Ares finished with a low tone.

Annabeth, unbothered, raised her eyebrow at him.

"You'd know about getting old, wouldn't you?"
Drea snipped at him, entirely inspired by Annabeth's attitude.

"Do we have a deal or am I killing all four of you so I can eat in peace?" He demanded loudly, fed up.

Percy stared into his eyes. "Okay."

"Great." Ares grinned. "One catch. I really do need that shield back, so I'm gonna keep the saytr here as collateral so you don't run off."

Annabeth and Drea bursted out at the same moment,

"Excuse me?"

"What? No."

"Okay." Grover responded calmly.

They all turned to him, shocked.

"No way. We don't split up again." Percy denied. He hated the idea of leaving Grover.

"It's okay." He reassured them. "If he wanted to kill us, we'd be dead by now."

Ares didn't mutter a word as he only smirked.

"Can I just walk them to the door?"

He took a moment to sigh and then gesture with his hand, suggesting he'd allow it. Walking up to the front door, they all marched until they reached the front counter.

"Okay, look. Don't engage with him. He'll wanna get you riled up, get in your head, and you can't let him." Annabeth instructed.

"It's okay. Really."

Drea looked at him, saddened. He didn't seem at all bothered and it somehow only made her more upset. She was so used to going everywhere with him. Who knew what games Ares would play while they were gone doing his bidding.

"I know what I'm doing. Go. Get the shield."

She couldn't help it any longer and jumped at Grover, engulfing him in a dramatic hug in a sorry effort to hide her frown. He accepted it with a smile. The gesture meant a lot to him.

"I'll be here when you get back." 

Drea let go and looked straight into his soul to joke, "Don't have him completely outwitted by the time we get back, we still need him to help us."

Grover snickered and gazed to Percy. There was a silent understanding that they both agreed to meet each other soon enough in the exact same spot.

Pausing another second, they slowly walked out of the diner. The little bell rang, announcing their departure, and Drea swore to make the adventure as quick as possible as to not let Grover be alone for so long.

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Ellie Speaks!

okay so i'm a big fat liar i said i'd manage my time better but 3 months later and i'm barely updating..

TRUST i have not forgotten to give love to this story i've just been so unmotivated. my issue is i would never want to put out a halfway decent chapter because i felt obligated to update

the way it'll be now is whenever i feel i actually have a good chapter to upload because i'd rather give a great chapter that took some time rather than a bad one because it was rushed

but during this 3 month time this book hit 3k AND 4k!! thank u to anyone who is reading and is patient with my irregularity ur love does not go unnoticed ☹️🤍