Now that's just embarrassing.

I held up my hands, unable to figure out who was holding a knife against my throat. The silhouette leaned in close, studying my face carefully. Unfortunately, my eyes were getting crossed so I couldn't focus on who it was. Suddenly, the person dropped to the ground and the blade barely scraped my skin. "Eep!" The person squeaked as Lance dragged them away by their feet. The squeal sounded like a young girl, and I rubbed my eyes to get them to focus again.

"Serena..?" I squinted in the darkness, able to see the girl's face due to her silver glow. Her green eyes glared in the night, but with another tug by Lance, she fell face first into the sand.

"I had a feeling someone was following us," Lance dropped her feet and rubbed the back of his head, "And my suspicions were right."

The sound of rustling came from the two sleeping bags behind us, and a patch of curly blonde hair came up from the blankets. "What's going on?" Annabeth yawned, covering her mouth in the process.

Austin came up from the deep as well, with his yellow streaked hair sticking up in ridiculous places. "We found a stalker," Lance pointed at Serena, and kicked the knife out of her hand. She growled, but made no move to retrieve it. How could we not've noticed her earlier? She was completely decked out in silver clothes, and even though we were in the desert, she wore a thick silver ski jacket and cameo pants. A personal bow was strung over her back, alongside a quiver of arrows hanging on her right shoulder. Her jet black hair was braided and speckled with sand.

Lance went back to our gear to grab some ropes as bonds. Annabeth got out of her sleeping bag, picked up her sword and staggered over like a god who had drunken too much nectar. "Your outfit looks familiar," She bent over to get eye level with the young girl, "And that silver glow. Are you a Hunter of Artemis?"

Serena sat up, and crossed her legs. "What of it?" She asked in a soft voice with a hidden threat. She glared at me with a steely tone, and I unconsciously reached for my hair clip.

"But... Aren't you supposed to be dead?" Austin crouched next to Annabeth, inspecting the suspected daughter of Poseidon carefully.

"Aren't you supposed to be a talented healer?" She looked away, "We all saw how well that turned out."

Austin clenched his fists, but didn't attack her. "Hey, let's chill with the burns," I nervously laughed, watching as Lance gestured at Serena to take off her weapons. She did as she was told, and placed them besides her while making no effort to escape as Lance tied her wrists behind her back.

"Sorry about this," He muttered, "But we can't have someone who wants to kill us on the loose."

I rubbed my hands together, "So, what's a follower of Kronos doing here?" She didn't reply, obviously not much of a talker like her brother. Oh, that's right; her brother! "Aren't you Percy's sister?" I changed my question without a second thought.

Annabeth groaned, "Thanks for getting right to the point." Serena continued to act mute, although her eyes darted to her left. Annabeth noticed this, and gently held the small girl's face in her hands. Serena remained unfazed by this action, although her eyes seemed to glaze over as if she was bored. "Even though it's the middle of the night, and you probably hate all of us for a reason, could you please tell us everything?" Annabeth sweetly asked, giving Serena a comforting smile, "We've been through a lot, and I've been really wanting an explanation for a while."

Her stormy grey eyes refused to revert from the Hunter. After a while, and placing bets on who was going to win this epic stare battle, Serena closed her eyes and sighed, "Fine." She made a nodding gesture with her head towards the water bottles, and one bottle that was already opened tipped over, and a stream of water made its way towards Serena. We all took a step back with shock. The water raised and created images in the air, as if she was water bending.

"I'm still jealous," Lance muttered, and I consolingly patted his back.

The water moved into a small orb and a human-like being reaching out and grabbing it, while standing in a field of waving wheat. "That's Koalemos. He was sent by Kronos before the Battle of Manhattan," Serena explained, gesturing at the being, "He's in the Fields of Asphodel."

"Is that orb you?" Austin reached out and touched the image, and the water broke and regathered next to his finger.

"Babies who've died haven't done anything wrong, or anything right," She said, nodding her chin as the being ran away with the orb. "Which is why they're sent there by the judges. Unfortunately, I wasn't developed properly, as of dying before birth, so I couldn't be differentiated from other children. Koalemos was sent by Kronos to find the spirit of Theseus and to corrupt him while taking him over to his side, but by Kronos' luck, Koalemos was an idiot."

"I've never heard of Koalemos. Was he a giant?" I tried to think back to all the lessons back at Camp Half-Blood, and was unable to remember anything. Dang it, that means I did fail the test Chiron gave me.

"He is the deity of stupidity."

"Ah. I'm surprised he's not Lance's godly parent." He punched my shoulder with that comment.

"Continue, Serena," Annabeth calmly said while gesturing at us to shut up.

The girl seemed anxious, but continued the story anyways, "No one knows anything about Koalemos, or his abilities, but all we know is that he's a fool who tends to mess up. Unable to tell the spirits apart, he found someone who carried the blood of Poseidon, me, instead of Theseus. He somehow managed to bring me back into the mortal world, but realizing that I was only a baby, thought that Theseus went for rebirth and took care of me. After some years, Kronos sent his followers to check up on 'Theseus'. That god was such an idiot that he didn't even realize that I was a female."

The water transformed into a small person left alone, and a woman with the moon her head walking over and holding out a hand. "Mom..?" I said almost unconsciously.

"Yes," Serena nearly snarled, "Your mom. She found me abandoned by them after they realized that I wasn't Theseus. Accepted me as one of her Hunters. I always saw her as a motherly figure, and we detested men. I hated my father for leaving me to die. I hated Percy for surviving. But when there was word about a daughter of Artemis, I left the Hunt. Artemis didn't keep her promise." The water then fell to the ground, with the sand soaking up ever last bit of liquid.

"So you left the Hunters to join Kronos?"

"No. I left them because I realized that I had no place in the world," Serena scoffed, and a look of fury fluttered over the twelve year old's face, "Not even in a womb." She closed her mouth, and refused to say any more.

Annabeth reached out to touch the girl's head, but Serena growled as if she was a dog with rabies. "There's always a place for you at Camp Half-Blood," Annabeth tried to calm her down, "And your mother would be delighted to see how much you've grown."

Serena turned her head, and closed her eyes, refusing to have any more contact with us. Austin scratched his arm, as if he got bitten by a bug, "It's like one in the morning. I'm still sleep deprived. If we go to sleep and leave her here, I'm sure she'll be fine."

"But she's a Hunter," Lance gestured at her outfit, "I'm sure she can find a way to escape."

"If she hasn't done so already, I'm sure we'll still live," I looked at the daughter of Poseidon who was gazing at the hearth. Annabeth already gave up and crawled back in her sleeping bag, and Austin's head was falling like a bobblehead as he headed back towards bed.

"Fine, I give in," Lance stretched his arms towards the sky with his shirt rising up a bit, "I'm too tired to worry."

"We can have her lead us to Eris in Las Vegas, if the goddess is in cohorts with Kronos," I got back to my land of sleep as well, snuggling Maximilian the III (yes, that's the name of my second-in-command) close to my chest.

* * *

It turned out that walking from the Chihuanhuan Desert to El Paso was going to take quite a number of days (actually, we were walking until three o'clock when Siri decided to chime in), and we decided to call for the help of our trusty pegasi once again. They were pretty upset, having to fly in the terrible heat with an extra person on their back, but after a good two hours, we landed in the dazzling City of Lights. Long story short: I ran to every glowing light in existence.

"They're just so bright and beautiful!" I watched as the water fountains spouted colorful water into the air. Yet with a nod of Serena's head, a jet of water doused nearby tourists who ran and screamed in terror. It was already another night, and yes, I tend to rush transitions. Live with it.

"Now, out of major twenty five casinos that are in walking distance, which one would you say is the one where Eris is?" Austin asked Serena.

She frowned, obviously not liking the son of Apollo, "Would you believe me if I said the Lotus Casino?"

Annabeth held out a hand as if to stop all train of thought, "No. That is the once place where I won't go."

Serena sighed, obvious that her plan failed to work, "Fine, she should be Caesars Palace. Eris always tended to mock how the majority of the statues are stark naked."

Lance immediately covered my ears to prevent me from hearing any more strange profanity coming from the small girl's mouth. "Then there we go," Annabeth gestured at the glowing hotel which has pretty fake Roman columns holding up its structure. As we headed there, with a wave of Serena's hand (Lance had to free her or else it would've been seen as child abuse), the bellhops paid no attention to us, even though we were obviously under legal age to be gambling our life savings. I honestly thought I didn't look like a twenty one year old, especially with my four year old maturity.

"You mastered the Mist?" Lance said, impressed, "Geez, you're good."

We watched as mortals screamed and pounded at the machine, probably losing a good amount of money. Other guzzled down their drinks as if it was their last days alive. "What does the goddess of discord look like?" I looked around for a crazy monkey lady smashing the room up.

"She's back here," Serena lead us towards the very back of the hotel, and I did happen to notice that a ton of statues had a lack of clothes. Or the indecency to cover up. She pushed open a door, bringing us to a back alley. It was filled leftover food in plastic bags dumped in every possible walking space, and there turned out to be a man digging through all the trash.

"I don't think a goddess would even go this far to look for food," Austin covered his nose, obviously displeased with the scent.

The man turned around, seemingly disfigured and lumpy, with his clothes disheveled. "Did you bring them?" He croaked, cocking his head and jumped down from the dumpster he was digging out of.

Serena gestured at them while walking to the man, tapping his wrist, and went back to the hotel door, "I'll catch up with Eris."

As she shut the door behind her, the four of us came to a realization. "Di Immortales!" I exclaimed, yanking my hair clip out of my bangs and it instantly transformed into a bow, "We've been tricked!"

"And how did we not see this earlier?" Lance pulled his sword of his sheath, "We were overthinking Serena's sad backstory."

"Oh Styx," Austin grabbed an arrow from his quiver, "Who are we fighting?"

The person came into view while stepping forward into the moonlight, revealing an all too familiar face. "Ah, the daughter of Artemis," Dr. Thorn cackled, cracking his knuckles delightfully and his face wrinkling into an evil smile, "What a pleasure to see you again."

"Hello, disgusting creature from the depths of my nightmares," I stomped on my heel, and the blade on my right shoe popped, "You probably aren't here to give us a discount, are you?"

He roared in response, with his body inflating like a balloon. The four of us charged forward without a second thought as Dr. Thorn began his transformation.

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This chapter was solely for information purposes, which is why I apologize for how unhumorous it was. I managed to update on time! Hooray! *throws confetti even though all my readers are dead*

Whaddya think of Serena?

Vote and comment if you enjoyed as always, and believe in Martians. We all know they're out there.

XOXO,
Arisa