Kassandra itched to trade a finger over the smooth, dulled metal of the Apollo space capsule, wanted to take in the thing that had been named after her father with care and gentleness. She also wanted to shove it as hard as she could to knock it over. There was no in-between.

From the moment that she had woken before dawn, woken before her father could even try to annoy her awake, she had felt on edge more so than she normally would on the days that she had to leave camp.

It didn't help that her siblings had been the ones to help her pack the night before. She was far overprepared as they kept insisting that they just knew she had to bring extra things, that she just needed to find a little more room in her backpack until she finally put her foot down when it came to finding a place to fit a tent.

(Last summer, the things that she had prepared herself had been fine, but she was still missing everything that she couldn't prepare for.)

(Somehow, her bag ended up stocked with food and water, a few changes of clothes, more medical supplies than her first aid kit needed, ambrosia and nectar from their own stash, cash, and a bundle of throwing knives that she was prevailed upon to pack knowing that she would never get them back.)

(Of course, she had a set of dagger lining the inside of the pocket of her normal jacket and another strapped to her thigh, having learnt her lessons since Polyphemus and Chris.)

(Another issue was, perhaps, the heirloom bow that was slung across her back, with the quiver. They had argued over her taking it until Christa went and cut the string of her personal bow leaving her with no choice but to take that one unless she wanted to spend the night looking through the ones available at camp that would suit her well.)

(When Kassandra was ten, almost eleven, and had first decided that she was ready to go home, she had snuck out nearly every night that week leading up to her leaving day in the arena or on the archery field.

She wanted to make sure she knew her weapons, wanted to make sure that she had the right one's to keep herself safe.

A dagger was perfect for her small size and abrupt yet fluid, boxer, brawler style of attack. It made it easy for her to glide in and out, to manage quick redirects and desperate blocks while dodging like a dream.

The bow and arrows were different. They made her feel sturdy, ready and complete, but she couldn't and wouldn't use them when she heard the whispers of campers that guessed at her parentage, that acted as though they knew and so did she and she hated it.

Luke had found her late in the night but too early to be considered morning. He had told her that no god alone could dictate her weapon or her right to defend herself. Had thrust into her hands a bow that had become hers.)

(She still had that smaller bow hung on the wall above her head of her bedroom at home.)

"Grover, are you sure this is the place?" Thalia asked the satyr.

"Yeah, I'm sure. The trail definitely came through here."

Kassandra looks away from the space capsule, twisting so that she was fully facing them. The hunters were looking around the room as if to find a trace of the lost goddess.

She flits her gaze over the room as she searched for any clues herself, taking a few steps forward because she just knew that she should.

"We should get going," she says quickly. "I feel like we should keep moving."

"What?" Bianca asks. "Why?"

Kassandra shrugs. "I don't know. It's just a feeling. We shouldn't be still for so long in one place, not with so many of us."

Zoe regards her, brows furrowed in thought.

And then someone ran into Thalia, knocking her over into the Apollo space capsule that she had just moved away from. The hunters had their bows pulled from thin air and aimed at the one that knocked her.

(She would give just about anything to have a weapon that could just appear when she needed it. She couldn't even begin to imagine how utterly useful it was to own.)

The boy lifted his head showing sea-green eyes. He was paler than normal, hair windswept messy. Her lips parted at the sight of him, a slow grin curling in place. Six is six after all.

"Percy!" Kassandra and Grover exclaim. She immediately gravitates to his side.

"You! How dare you show thy face here?"

"Thank goodness you're here, man," Grover says.

Zoe shot him a glare.

"Luke," Percy says. "He's here."

The anger in Thalia's eyes immediately melted. She put her hand on her silver bracelet. "Where?"

Percy told them about the Natural History Museum, Dr. Thorn, Luke, and the General.

Each word simultaneously made her stomach drop and heart race as she burned as if electrified. Her desire to shoot Luke between the eyes was likely far too obvious for her own good but it didn't matter as she held her bow in hand and fiddled with an arrow against the string.

"The General is here?" Zoe looked stunned. "That is impossible! You lie."

She shot the hunter a look. If it was the General that she thought it was, then they were all certainly in deep shit.

"Why would I lie? Look, there's no time. Skeleton warriors—"

"What?" Thalia demanded. "How many?"

"Twelve," I said. "And that's not all. That guy, the General, he said he was sending something, a 'playmate,' to distract you over here. A monster."

Thalia and Grover exchanged looks.

"We have to go now," Kassandra breathes, glancing toward the nearest exit sign. "We have to leave right now. We aren't far from a gift shop. Those things always lead to an exit.

"Zoe," Bianca says nervously, "if it is the General—"

"It cannot be!" Zoe snaps. "Percy must have seen an Iris-message or some other illusion."

"Illusions don't crack marble floors," Percy tells her.

"He isn't lying. I can hear it. Let's just go and pick the trail back up away from here."

Zoe took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "If Percy is telling the truth about the skeleton warriors," she says, "we have no time to argue. They are the worst, the most horrible... We must leave now."

"Then let's go now," she hissed. "If we run we might be able to still get away."

"Good idea," Percy says.

"I was not including thee, boy," Zoe says. "You are not part of this quest."

"Hey, I'm trying to save your lives!"

"You shouldn't have come, Percy," Thalia says grimly. "But you're here now. Come on. Let's get back to the van."

"That is not thy decision!" Zoe snaps.

She twangs the string of her bow, listening to the sound as it travelled. Something was coming and it was coming fast. Her heart began to pound steadily, instincts taking over in preparation for a fight.

"We're out of time anyway," Kassandra growls, raising her notched bow to aim at the entrance. "Your arguing screwed us."

The growl was ferocious, impossibly loud and echoing. It wasn't anything near to Charybdis, however, and that was enough to keep her from clenching her ears in a bid of desperate fear.

One would think that after facing everything that she had as a demigod, that Kassandra would have gotten used to seeing things that were supposed to be myth and legend pop out of stories to attack her. You would think that she wouldn't be fazed, but the Nemean Lion, the great foe of Herakles, was a monster that she had never actually considered ever having to meet.

But here she stood facing the lion the size of a truck with shiny silvery claws, fangs that gleam like stainless steel, and thick, glittering, metallic gold fur.

"The Nemean Lion," Thalia says. "Don't move."

The lion roared. Its fangs gleamed like stainless steel.

"Separate on my mark," Zoe says. "Try to keep it distracted."

"Until when?" Grover asked.

Kassandra's hand tightened on her bow, straining against the urge to just shoot it.

"Until I think of a way to kill it. Go!"

The arrow let loose, striking the lions nose as Percy uncapped Riptide and rolled to the left. Zoe and Bianca climbed the space capsule, firing arrows that harmlessly bounced off the side of the beast.

Grover jumped back, playing a frantic tune on his read pipes as Thalia jabbed at the lion's side with her spear, her shield Aegis raised in defence.

She backtracked, putting distance between herself and the claws as she notched another arrow searching for a weak spot.

The Nemean lion crouched, as if backing away, but its muscles tensed in preparation to pounce, wiggling slightly as if it was nothing more than a big murderous kitten.

"Hey!" Percy jumped into its path, wielding his sword to distract it from the others, turning it so that it was faced her again in her position against the railing out of the way. He slashed at it with Riptide, hitting its flank, and rolled out of the way of his incoming claw.

His jacket tore as he got closer to her.

Kassandra spun to the railing, eyeing the three-story drop, then turned to the aircraft that hung below.

She climbed over the railing and jumped, landing on the flat of the ship with a shaky thump and instantly dropped to her knees to keep from toppling off as the ship swayed.

"Percy!" she called, positioning herself near one of the cables that held the ship. "Jump!"

He doesn't hesitate as he throws himself over the railing to the airplane.

An arrow fires, grazing the soft inside of the lion's ear. It whimpers, backing away, bares her teeth, readying another arrow.

"It's soft on the inside!" she yells. "It's only the skin that's impenetrable!"

The lion jumps to the ship making the cables groan and almost spill them off the side to the long drop. She clings to the cable, arrow dropped as she's forced to steady herself.

"Time to go," Percy tells her, grabbing the wrist to the hand that holds the bow and tugs her to the side. The jump is quick as they land on a spacecraft with helicopter blades.

He leaves no room to stall as he continues forward, glancing back for a moment behind him at the lion roars.

They drop once more to the huge model earth floor exhibit, landing on Russia and sliding down past the equator to the ground.

"Zoe!" Percy shouts. "Target the mouth!"

She spins, putting out an arm to continue pushing him back. You don't turn your back on wild animals like lions.

"Grover!" he yelled. "Clear the area!" He guides them away, using the exhibits to hide them. "You got a song for this thing like the sirens?"

"No! The only reason I even played like that then was because you couldn't hear underwater."

One of the cords holding the spacecraft up snaps and the Nemean lion drops to the earth model, landing on top of the North Pole. 

Screaming people, children, ran around them, desperate to get away, and make sense of what was going on. The security guards wandered around in confusion, unsure of where to actually go or what to do. Grover tried to corral them away, ushering them toward the exits.

Thalia dropped from the second-floor balcony to the other side of the globe.

Silver arrows arched gracefully through the air, but all missed their marks.

The lion looked between Percy and Thalia as if trying to decide on who to kill first.

"Theirs no clear shot!" Zoe yells. "Get it to open its mouth more."

Percy looked around, desperate, before turning to her. "You can something that can make it open its mouth more?"

She looked to her arrows in consideration for a second before she nods, slinging her bow across her back. "Yeah, I have something that could work. You have a plan?"

He nods. "Thalia! Keep it distracted!"

Thalia nods grimly. Electricity arced at the tip of her spear and she rose Aegis up at the monster, calling its attention.

A spidery line of electricity lanced out and zapped the lion's tail.

"You help Thalia. I'll be right back."

With a firm nod, she made her way along the edge of the room, swinging her bag around to her chest so that she could pull out the packaged throwing knives that were stuffed at the top, flipping the bag on her back once more before taking off to stand behind Thalia with her lightning and shield.

Palming a throwing knife, she waited for the lion to rear back on its haunches preparing to make another swipe at Thalia with a large paw and curled claws. 

She launches the knife hard, her mark hitting true with a shink of metal hitting invulnerable fur. The Nemean lion shook his large head, pulling back slightly as she hit his nose because no matter how impenetrable he might be, it couldn't be comfortable to be hit in the nose for anyone. 

Taking aim was momentary, a quick scan, and she threw the next knife with a flick of her wrist. It grazed its eye as the monster moves, pushing closer, and the lion rears back with a roar, pawing at its own face giving Thalia the space she needed to breathe as she struck the creature with lightning, pushing back more with her spear. 

Arrows showered down, taking advantage of the beast's pained state to try and drive him off. 

"Can you do that again?" Thalia asks, racing Aegis in a ready defence position. 

"If you can get its mouth open, I won't miss," she says confidently. "These knives are enough to be a bigger pain than arrows right now, and Percy says that we need the mouth open." 

"Soft insides," Thalia says, repeating her words from earlier. "You sure that it's not you that just doesn't to lose your arrows?" 

"These arrows come back to me, thank you very much!" she snaps lightly, launching a knife when Thalia gets it to roar at her once more with a strike of electricity. "Knives are just the better option!" 

"I'm not so sure!" Thalia argues as the lion grows angrier with them, ignoring the lightning and knives as it steps closer. 

"Just get it to open a little bit," she says. "Lightning in the eye. Aim for its eyes and ears, Thalia!" 

The girl raises Aegies, jabbing harshly with her electrified spear. The bolt lances out, aiming for its mouth to pry it open. 

"Just do it! Trust me." 

Thalia groans, shouting a "Hi-yah!" as the lightning comes crashing near its eyes. 

The monster's mouth falls open in a roar and Kassandra launches knives at it swiftly -- watching as they hit soft pick and disappeared behind sharp teeth. 

Just in time for Percy to return and start launching silver packets into the lion's open maw, forcing it to part its jaw more and more. He shouted a gleeful, "Snack time!" 

The lion snarled, swiping out a paw that knocks Thalia off her feet and to the side of the room hitting the side of a Titan rocket. She hits her head against the metal and slides to the ground. 

Kassandra looks up at the enraged animal, holding the knife tightly in hand as it faces her, its mouth still open. 

"Percy. Whatever you're going to do, do it now." 

It bends back, readying to pounce, and she watches the way the muscles tense in the hind legs for an unblinking moment. She waits, counting the seconds as they creep by as if in slow motion. 

She shifts her weight subtly, slowly. 

Now! 

Her boots squeak as she presses hard and darts forward, sprinting to the side in time to avoid the lion as it goes shooting past her. 

"Percy!" She screams, desperately trying to pick up speed as she already knows that the monster is just getting back up again, turning on its feet to come after her. 

The boy's eyes are dark, indistinguishable like ocean storms as he gazes past her. 

"Duck," he says, the words coming out a command. 

Kassandra drops down, hands hitting the floor hard as she keeps herself from landing badly, softening her fall as she slides down to her stomach, her knees grazing the floor enough to sting. 

Riptide sings as it's uncapped, the blade shooting over her as it throws it as if it was a javelin. 

She doesn't wait to see what happened as she pushes herself to her feet and to the boy's side -- hand reaching to the sheath in her jacket automatically just in case because he had just thrown his only defence at the monster. 

The lion lay on the floor, unmoving. 

Alarms wailed throughout the museum. People were flocking to the exits. Security guards were running around in a panic with no idea what was going on.

Grover was kneeling beside Thalia, helping the girl to her feet. She seemed alright, if only a little dazed, but she made a note to make sure she was actually fine later when they weren't at the immediate threat of death.  

"Is it dead?" she asks, leaning forward slightly to look at the sprawled lion. His hand lands on the small of her back, bunching the material of her jackets in his fist. 

Zoe and Bianca jump down from the balcony, landing next to them. 

"That was an... interesting tactic," the hunter says. 

"Hey, it worked." 

The lion seemed to be melting, fading away to nothing as dead monsters sometimes did, leaving behind nothing but shimmery gold pelt that shrunk to the size of a regular-sized animal. A spoil of war and one to be envious of, at that. The pelt of the Nemean Lion. 

"Take it," Zoe tells him. 

"Isn't that like, against anima rights or something?" Percy asks. 

Kassandra giggles. "It's a spoil of war. You killed it so it's your now." 

He shakes his head. "I think you and Thalia did more than me." 

She nudges him forward, pushing him toward the pelt. "No. You killed it, Percy. It belongs to you fairly."

He picked up the pelt, easily, as if it didn't weigh a thing, and she watched as it shimmered and shifted into a full-length golden-brown duster that Percy was likely to never actually wear it so wasn't his style. 

"Not exactly my style," he murmurs. 

She snickers. "Maybe Chiron will know how to change it?" she offers. 

"We have to get out of here, " Grover says. "The guards won't stay confused for long." 

The guards in question were still running around in an almost blind panic, avoiding coming near them at all as they searched for something that they would never find running into walls or each other. 

"That was you?" Percy asks. 

"Yeah, a minor confusion song. I played some Barry Manilow. It works every time but it only last a few seconds." 

"The security guards are not our biggest worry," Zoe says. "Look."

Through the glass walls of the museum, they could see a group of men walking across the lawn. Gray men in gray camouflage outfits. They were too indistinguishable for the most part, mercenaries that likely had no idea who they were even working for. Still, she could tell they were looking at them. 

"Go," Percy says. "They'll be hunting me. I'll distract them." 

"No!" Kassandra protests.

"No," Zoe says. "We go together."

Percy stares at her. "But, you said—"

"You are part of this quest now," Zoe says grudgingly. "I do not like it, but there is no changing fate. You are the sixth quest member. And we are not leaving anyone behind."

☼ ☼ ☼

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unedited

written: 2021-02-13

posted: 2021-04-11