"Oh she will hand herself over to the hermaphrodite, or no one will see them again!" Circe shouted as she held the frogs high. Annabeth, Clarisse, Grover, and Tyson gasped as they saw Percy and Ron about to go off to their deaths. They all realized that the next few minutes would undoubtedly decide the fate of the world...

Clarisse sprang into action and pounced on the nearest woman who was standing next to Circe. The woman screamed in pain, and the other three followed suit. No one threatened their friends and lived!

Jacquelyn frowned as she stared at the Hermaphrodite. He seemed to smile at her. All she knew was that if she gave in to the Hermaphrodite's demand, the world would meet its end.

Luckily for her, Hansel and Francis pounced on Circe, causing her to drop the frogs. "Catch!" Francis shouted as Magnus caught the frogs and handed them over to Jacquelyn. Within a few seconds, Percy and Ron were restored to their normal selves.

"What happened to us?" Ron wondered.

"The witch turned you into frogs!" Jacquelyn cried out. "If it weren't for me, you'd both would have ended up as high school biology projects, mainly dissected."

"Sick!" Percy cried out.

"Now let's get out of here before she does anything else," said Ron, but Circe interrupted them, saying, "You kids aren't going anywhere! Not after what you did!"

"What did we do to you? Stopped you from being evil and hurting innocent boys in the name of feminism?" Jacquelyn snapped.

"And I suppose that I have you to thank for ruining my plans for these boys," Circe snarled as she glared at Jacquelyn. "But I'm willing to forgive you,for a price. And that price is I'm going to hand you over to that monster and you're not going to resist!!"

"Wanna bet?" Magnus snapped as he, his brothers, and many other boys went in for the attack.

For a few minutes, chaos reigned supreme as the demigods, spellcaster, satyr, and Cyclops battled the witch for not only their freedom, but the freedom of 100 other boys. At one point, the wand Circe was holding in her hand went flying, and Jacquelyn reached out to catch it.

"I got the wand, let's go!" she shouted as the children bust through the door of the salon and out into the streets. As Circe bemoaned the loss of her wand as well as her defeat, the Hermaphrodite had a different plan in mind. He was not going to rest until he got what he wanted.

In that case, what he wanted was Jacquelyn-Claire Alexandra Ulrich.

*****

"That was so close!" Percy cried out as soon as they had put some distance between themselves and Circe's beauty salon. "Never again will we do this!"

"And that's why I don't like strip malls," Jacquelyn said. "Too many unsavory characters."

Ron stared at the wand in her hands and said, "I guess we got what we came for, but why?"

"Why indeed," said Annabeth.

"I say we get going now or that Hermaphrodite is going to come back," said Grover.

"We should," said Annabeth, "and yet, I think we're here for a good reason."

Ron stared at Jacquelyn and she nodded. It was time for them to find out the truth about who Ron really was and where he came from...