[HEATHER'S POV]

"Did you..." Grover muttered.

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "I did."

Oh shit...did they fall from the freaking Arch? My heart was practically jumping out of my chest once I saw what happened. They were falling and then a huge wave came in and caught them. Oh, we have to find them.

"Come on," Annabeth said, walking forward, "they went this way."

⊱ ────── {⋆⌘⋆} ────── ⊰

We arrived at the shoreline just in time to see Logan and Percy coming out of the water. I was surprised about how they were completely dry, but that was the least of my worries. I ran to Logan and hugged him tightly.

"Don't you ever do that again!" I cried.

Logan sighed as he hugged me back. "I can't promise that" I hugged him tighter. "But I'll try. I can promise that."

I pulled away and wiped the tears from my face. I then looked at Percy and brought him into a hug as well. He was surprised but hugged me back. I then pulled away as Annabeth and Grover hugged the two as well.

"We should go," Annabeth said as she pulled away from Percy, "I saw some news reporters in front of the Arch."

Grover and I nodded, and we started to walk away from the place. Logan and I were walking behind everyone. I could feel my brother's eyes on me, but I said nothing to him.

It's not what you think. I'm happy–ecstatic even–that he's okay. I just hate myself for letting this happen. I could've pushed him into the elevator and let him–let them–take my place. I don't care if it wasn't enough room, I could've made it work. Then I would've fought Echidna myself. I probably would've died, sure, but it's a hundred times better than what happened.

"Heather," Logan spoke as we continued walking. "It wasn't your battle to fight."

I nodded. "I know," I said. "Though I wish it was."

"Heather, no," Logan stopped me and turned me around, so I faced him. "You know you couldn't have fought Echidna on your own."

"I know," I repeated. "But even then, I could've-"

"No, Heather, stop!" he shook me as he talked. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover looked at us but he ignored them. "I don't want you thinking about this."

"But-"

"No buts," he said, his voice cracking. He then sighed. "You're the only family I have left; I can't lose you."

I opened my mouth to say something, but he put a finger up.

"Percy doesn't count," he said firmly, "Heather, you are my twin, my sister. If I lost you, then I don't know what I would do."

I huffed as I pushed him away from me. "You don't think I didn't–I don't feel the same way?" I asked. "When you fell down that arch, I prayed. To every single god there was in hopes that you were still alive. I...I hated myself for leaving you and Percy alone. I didn't know what would've happened if Poseidon didn't save you. I couldn't lose you either. Yeah, I could still sea you as a shade, but it still wouldn't be the same."

I looked back at Logan, and he had a serious look on his face. At first, I was creeped out by it but then he put a hand on his chin like he was thinking about something.

"Did you say see or sea?" he asked me.

I was confused. "What?"

"Like, see or sea?" he asked again. "S-e-e or s-e-a?"

"S-e-e," I said.

Logan then shook his head. "Nah, that doesn't sound right," he said. "I heard s-e-a."

I gave him a look like he was stupid, which he was. He looked back at me and noticed my look.

"What?" he said. "You possibly made a sea joke; I can't not talk about that."

My look turned into a smile as he continued.

He pointed to Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. "Hey, tell me. Did she say s-e-e or s-e-a?"

"S-e-e," Annabeth said at the same time Percy said: "s-e-a."

The two looked at each other while Grover snickered.

I looked at Percy before looking at Logan again, resisting the urge to laugh at him. "I did not make a sea joke."

"Yes, you did," he said matter-of-factly, "and because of that, I have to make an underworld joke."

I sighed. "Please don't."

"Too late, I already thought of one." he cleared his throat. "Uh...oh! That arch was really...grounded. Eh?"

I finally break my cover and start laughing loudly. Logan, Percy, and Annabeth joined me, and I saw Grover chuckle a bit. I tried to stop but it just kept coming. Was out of breath by the end of it.

"You are annoying," I told my brother.

Logan chuckled. "I know," he smirked. "But you love me."

I rolled my eyes before giving him a smile. "That I do."

Logan gave me a toothy smile before hooking his arm around my waist. "Feel better?"

I nodded. "I do."

"Good," he said, "We're siblings, we're supposed to annoy each other. But just know, I will always be with you. No matter what. Wherever you go I go."

I sighed as he spoke again.

"And I guess that was the fates' punishment for you almost falling to your death by that fury." he said blankly. "They must really want us to be one in the same."

I chuckled before pulling him ahead. "Come on, idiot, the others are waiting for us."

Logan chuckled before grabbing my hand and dragging me over to Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. We were then joking with each other until we reached the highway and things started going south. Again.

⊱ ────── {⋆⌘⋆} ────── ⊰

The five of us were walking down the highway, ignoring the cars passing by us.

"How long do we have until the Solstice now?" Percy asked.

"Uh..." I thought about it. "Seven days," I said. "Right, Annabeth?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah," she agreed. "About a week. More or less."

Percy nodded as we continued walking. After about a minute we heard the sound of a motorcycle. We turned around and noticed it was coming towards us (obviously). We all hurried and hid behind the large guardrails that–unlike the ones we have in Delaware–actually hides us completely from the highway in front of us. We stayed crouched down behind the guardrails, hoping that the person went away, but, to our disappointment, they didn't instead we heard them stop right behind us.

"You guys need some help?" the person, a man, called out.

We all popped our heads out to look at the man. He looked awfully familiar.

"Beg pardon?" Grover asked him.

The man shifted on the seat of his motorcycle. "I asked, do you need any help?"

Annabeth and I looked at each other.

"Uh, no thanks," Grover said, looking at the rest of us. "We're good. So long."

With that we went back to hiding behind the guardrails, but the man didn't leave.

"Really?" he asked. "Because you are far behind schedule, and as your big cousin, I thought I could give you guys a hand."

We popped back up at his words.

"Big cousin?" Percy asked, looking at us.

I groaned. I knew he looked familiar.

"That's Ares," Annabeth told him.

"You must be Athena's kid, eh?" Ares asked Annabeth. "You always want to be the wisest of the bunch."

I opened my mouth to say something, but I just huffed and pinched the bridge of my nose.

Ares looked at me and Logan. "Oh, look who it is," he smirked. "Martha's little junkies."

I gave the god a deadpan look. "I'm going to punch you if you talk about my mother like that again."

Logan raised his hands. "I second that."

Ares's smile faded for a moment before he brought it back but said nothing.

Annabeth then spoke. "How do you know what we're doing here, anyway?" she asked.

"Because I'm doing the same thing you're doing," he told us. "Zeus sent all his children out looking for the bolt and since I don't want to deal with his tantrums, I just left."

"Why?" I asked. "So, you can steal the bolt from us and claim all the glory?"

Ares gave me a toothy grin. "Not exactly," he said before laying back against his motorcycle. "Now, there's a half-decent bar not far from here. Meet me there and hurry up, you know I don't like to be kept waiting."

With that, he started his motorcycle and rode off, leaving us alone. Finally.

"Okay," I shifted. "All in favor of not going to this bar?"

Logan and Grover raised their hands. I looked at Grover as I was surprised, he would raise his hand to not visit a god.

Grover looked at me. "Ares scares me," he said.

I nodded. "Fair enough." I spoke.

Annabeth sighed. "As much as I don't like Ares, we have to go," she said, causing the three of us to groan. "Come on."

As we started walking, Percy spoke.

"That's my cousin?" he asked. "What kind of messed up family is this?"

I chuckled. "Did you forget that I'm your sister and cousin?"

"No one mentioned that to me," he told me.

I just laughed at him as we continued down the highway

⊱ ────── {⋆⌘⋆} ────── ⊰

We finally arrived at this bar/diner called "The Dinel". We walked inside to see Ares on his phone sitting at a lone booth. That booth looked really familiar to me. Even then we walked over to him.

Ares noticed us as we sat down. "Oh, finally," he said. "Don't mind me, just starting a fight on twitter."

He began typing on his phone aggressively. He grinned as he sent the message and finally turned to us.

"So," he said, trying to lighten the mood. "Who's hungry?"

Grover raised his hand, and Ares took that as a sign. He snapped is hands and in an instant a lady came out with two plates full of fries and Hamburgers. Once the food was on the table Ares snapped his hand again and sent the lady away.

Grover picked up one of the burgers and immediately started eating it. The rest of us looked at it skeptically.

"Don't worry," he said, waving his hands. "It's not poisonous."

I looked at Annabeth, who looked at Percy, who looked at Logan. Still the four of us didn't eat.

Ares sat up in his seat. "Not going to eat?" he asked. 'That's fine, time to get to the situation at hand. I need you to do something for me."

I raised my eyebrows. "Why?"

"Why do you think we need your help?" Percy asked. "Why can't you do it yourself?"

Ares leaned in closer to us. "Why don't I turn you into a raccoon and run you over with my Harley? Cause I don't feel like it." He then turned to me. "And you better watch your attitude, I am not the one to be messing with."

"And we don't want to be messed with, but here we are," Logan said. "Somehow 'far from schedule' and yet you're here spouting out nonsense."

If looks could kill (and I swear it's more 'looks can kill' for the gods here) Logan and I would be dead by now, but for some reason, we weren't. Instead, Ares growled.

"You are lucky Poseidon, Hades, and Apollo want you runts alive right now cause if not I would've been more than happy to feed you to the wolves."

I tried to make another remark, but I just kept quiet. Logan did as well, and we both just stared at the war god.

Ares huffed. "There's an abandoned waterpark just a few miles away from here. I left my shield there. If you go get it for me, I'll find you a ride to the bolt."

Percy, Annabeth, and I looked at each other. "What are you doing at a waterpark?" I asked him.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "Just go get it for me."

Annabeth sighed. "And you swear you'll help us?"

Ares smirked. "When have I ever lied?"

I sighed as Annabeth slowly got up. "Fine," she said. "Let's get this over with."

We tried to walk out but Ares stopped us.

"Now wait just a minute," he said. "Two of you need to stay here. Just so I know you won't get up and runnin' when you reach the door."

I let out a tired breath. "Really?" the god said nothing, and I just groaned. "Fine. Annabeth, Percy, we're going. Logan and Grover are staying."

Logan quickly got up. "Hey, I'm not staying with him."

He pointed to Ares, who was just waiting for us to go.

"Neither do I but Percy's going cause he's Percy," I said, motioning to the blonde. "And Annabeth's the daughter of Athen, of course we're going to need something to keep us from going crazy."

Annabeth walked towards me and put her arm around my neck. "And she's my best friend, if I'm going, she's going. No objections."

Logan opened his mouth to speak, but he just sighed. "Just make sure to come back with at least one scar."

I chuckled. "Sure."

Logan then turned back to Ares and let out an exhausted groan before sitting down next to Grover.

Annabeth, Percy, and I looked at each other before walking out of the diner.

⊱ ────── {⋆⌘⋆} ────── ⊰

Turns out Ares was right about something. This water park really is abandoned.

Percy, Annabeth, and I reached a sign that said: WATERLAND WATERPARK in big bold letters, though some of those letters fell off and others were so smushed together it looked like: WEALD PKRA.

We all lifted up the fence cage to let each other in; Annabeth was first, Percy was next, and I was last.

We are now just walking around the park just looking for some clue that might show us where Ares' shield is.

"Wonder why Ares would go to a broken-down waterpark," Percy said.

I shrugged. "Probably to hang out/do the deed with his girlfriend."

Percy looked at me with confusion while Annabeth nudged me.

"Stop, you are a child," Annabeth said.

I shrugged. "I'm not wrong," I said, smiling.

Percy kept looking at me. "Well, who's his girlfriend?" he asked. "If he wants to take her to someplace as broken down as this, she must be atrocious."

Annabeth glared at him while I pinched his arm, causing him to wince in pain and rub his arm.

"You can't say that" Annabeth hissed. "Gods don't take insults nicely, especially about their looks."

"And you do not want to insult Ares' girlfriend 'cause she doesn't like it when people call her names like that, although they're kind of fun." I added.

"Why?" Percy questioned. "Who's his girlfriend? Artemis?"

"A, ew," I said. "B, no. It's Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty."

We all stopped at a souvenir shop where there was a whole rack of clothes. Annabeth grabbed some and dragged me into the back of the shop where we just changed out of our old, smelly clothes. After we were done, we tossed the rest of the clothes we had to Percy, and I grabbed two shirts and pants for Grover and Logan.

"So," Percy continued as he walked out. "Why would he bring Aphrodite here? And why would Aphrodite be with Ares? Doesn't she already have a husband? Hephaestus?"

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah, but that never stopped them, did it?"

"And to answer your first question, I suspect that Ares wanted a place where he could hide from the other gods, more specifically, Hephaestus." I spoke.

"Why?"

"Because the last time they were together, Hephaestus literally caught them in the act by way of golden net." Annabeth said. "Once he caught them, he brought all of the gods over to watch them. Guess Ares doesn't want history to repeat itself so once he realized he was going to get caught he and Aphrodite ran."

"But where would two gods hide in an abandoned waterpark?"

I stopped abruptly and looked ahead. "Maybe in there."

In front of me was an empty bowl in the middle of a pool. At the top there was a sign that said: THRILL RIDE TUNNEL 'O LOVE this is not your parents' regular tunnel 'o love!

I chuckled. "Well, that's fortunate."

Percy sighed. "So, we go in and get the shield and get out, right? Can't be too hard."

Annabeth shifted. "I don't know," she said. "Something made by the gods always has some kind of catch to it. We should be careful."

I huffed. "Well, have fun in there, tell me how it goes. I uh, will be on this bench watching you from afar."

I then plopped down on the bench near the tunnel.

Annabeth gave me a look. "Really?"

I motioned towards the tunnel. "It's a tunnel of love," I said. "And it's only a two-person seat. I'll be watching you from afar."

Percy just sighed. "Fair," he muttered. "Though it doesn't look too bad. This is going to be quick. Come on, Annabeth."

Annabeth gave me another look, though I was surprised to see her cheeks were tinted red. I chuckled at this and saluted to her. She stuck her tongue out at me as she hopped in the boat beside Percy. I finally got up and walked towards them. I ran my hand through a marking on the inside of the boat.

"Êta," I muttered. Annabeth looked at it.

"Another one?" Annabeth asked. She looked at the marking for a moment until her eyes widened in realization. "It's a trap."

"What?"

"This is why Ares and Aphrodite left so quickly," I explained. "They knew it was a trap, that's what he wanted us to get his shield and-"

I screamed out as a sound erupted around me. The sound of gears turning. I looked at the cupid statues that were hanging from the ceiling. They were notching their arrows at each other, ready to commit a helluva lotta homicide. I looked around to see some silky golden thread that looked like spider silk. I then noticed that there was a multitude of them wrapping around each other and looping from the cupids, making a large net.

I quickly got away from Annabeth and Percy, though it wasn't easy for them to get out. Percy grabbed the shield and tried to get up the slide, but like all of them, it was hard to get up. Annabeth tried tearing up the net, which was another bad idea in itself.

I tried to grab onto Annabeth but then the silk started wrapping around my hands.

But that didn't creep me out as much as seeing the cupid's heads open up, revealing video cameras. Then, a loudspeaker around us came to life.

"Live to Olympus in fifty-nine...fifty-eight..."

"How did I not see this?" Annabeth cried out. "Êta is H. Hephaestus built this trap to catch Ares and Aphrodite and broadcast them to Olympus. Now he's gonna do the same to us."

I huffed. "Okay," I shuddered. "I'll go see if I can turn it off."

With that I ran to the control panel and to my surprise, there was no off button. No big red button to show where the off button was. Shit! I just pressed any and everything I could as the loudspeaker rang in my head.

"Thirty...twenty-nine."

It continued as I heard Annabeth start screaming. I winced as I knew it was her 'i just saw a spider' scream. I tried my hardest to shut off the ride but nothing happened.

"Turn it off!" Percy yelled at me.

"Do you see me trying!" I yelled back. "It's not working!"

"Five...four..."

Shit, shit, shit, shit! I pressed every button and nothing. I looked over to Percy and Annabeth, the latter of which was still screaming as millions of tiny spiders moved towards her. This made me understand her fear of spiders a lot better

Percy had his eyes closed, as if praying for a miracle.

"Two...one...zero!"

Suddenly, the pipes bursted, sending a huge blast of water their way and drowning all the spiders. It lifted their boat, sending them down the tunnel and spinning them repeatedly, making a whirlpool.

I was panicking as the spotlight glared at them. If Grover was here, he would've helped them quickly. But he's not here. He's with Ares, and so is Logan. So they're completely helpless down there.

I took a lot of deep breath, trying to steady myself as the screams of Percy and Annabeth rang through me. I closed my eyes as I concentrated on them, and as I did I felt a cold chill run down my spine and my body was tensing up and before I knew it I was hit with a cold wave of wind that quickly disappeared and replaced with the screams of Percy and Annabeth once again, which was now right in front of me.

I opened my eyes to see Percy and Annabeth, just as I suspected, right in front of me as the boat was coming very close to a dead end.

"How are you here?" Percy screamed.

I didn't answer him, I just grabbed him and Annabeth. "No time! Hold onto the shield!"

He did as told and I closed my eyes once again and I concentrated on the ground in front of the tunnel. And just like that the cold wave appeared once again and a second later we were on the hard ground and the sound of the boat crashing sounded in my ears.

I opened my eyes to see Percy and Annabeth getting up to their feet, their eyes wide as they looked at each other, and then at me. I was just laying on the ground. I don't know what I did, but it took a lot out of me as I felt like passing out right here.

But I didn't. I rolled around on my side as Annabeth and Percy helped me up onto my feet, though I couldn't stand properly and I was going in and out of consciousness.

"How did you do that?" I heard Annabeth say.

Percy sighed. "There's no time to talk," he said. "We need to have a serious talk with Ares."

⊱ ────── {⋆⌘⋆} ────── ⊰

It took us about ten minutes to get back to the diner, but once we did, I sat down on a nearby bench, still ready to pass out.

Logan and Grover rushed to my side and Logan put my head on his shoulder.

I heard Ares's voice. "Wooh," he said. "What happened to her?"

"You knew it was a trap," Percy said, ignoring his question.

"I bet that blacksmith was surprised when he netted a bunch of kids," Ares chuckled. "You looked good on TV."

"You are a horrible person," Percy said to him.

I don't know what happened next, but it was silent for a moment until Ares spoke again.

"See that truck over there?" he said. "Take you straight to L.A. with one stop in Vegas."

Logan picked me up bridal style and carried me over to Percy and Annabeth. I saw a large truck with words on the back but didn't even bother to read them cause they looked like straight gibberish right now.

"Anyways, here's a little something for doing the job."

Ares handed Percy a blue backpack. I didn't even bother to ask what was inside.

"We don't need you're-" Percy started but Grover interrupted him.

"Thank you, Lord Ares," he said.

"You owe me one more thing," Percy said. "The info about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" Ares asked. "She's not dead."

"What do you mean?"

Why does my body want me to stay up for this? Not that I don't care what happens to Percy's mom, but with the way I was going in and out of consciousness, I didn't need to be up for this. But I was.

Unfortunately, I drowned out the few minutes of conversation, which ended with Ares saying: "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."

After that I tuned it out again. The muffled voices of Percy, Annabeth, Logan, and Grover filled my ears as I finally closed my eyes and fell asleep.