Where we last left off...

Luke had cornered the demigods, spellcaster, and others on the deck of the Malfoy yacht. He pointed to Ron and said, "This is the straw that broke the camel's back. He's the one who started all of this! Now, I'm going to capture all of you and bring you onto my ship, by force. But before I do, I'm going to make an example of him so that you will learn what I am capable of doing if you decide to defy me again."

Luke pointed a crossbow at Ron and fired. Everyone else was too shocked to react. Tyson threw himself between Ron and the arrow, with the arrow piercing his chest and him falling into the ocean.

"Tyson, no!" Percy cried out as he watched his brother fall. "Luke, HOW COULD YOU???"

"Silly, silly Percy Jackson," Luke laughed at him. "When are you going to learn that it's much easier to join me than to defy me?" To his troops, he said, "Apprehend them!"

This time, Ron went with his captors without a struggle. So did Percy, Annabeth, Clarisse, and Grover. Jacquelyn (who was smart enough to avoid recapture) jumped off the yacht and hid in a lifeboat. With the capture of the demigods, Luke sailed away from the Malfoy yacht.

Ron felt even more rotten than ever; Tyson was dead and it was all his fault. He knew that he should have stayed in Camp Half-Blood and allowed Chiron and Luke to deal with Molly Weasley.

"Don't blame yourself for what happened to Tyson," Annabeth said to him. "Trust me, you would have done the same thing for him if it were him being shot."

"But I feel so sick over the whole thing," Ron cried. "Why am I so sad over a Cyclops?"

"He's our brother," Percy said to him.

"Maybe that's it," said Ron. The others stared at him. "I never really liked any of my brothers or Ginny for that matter, and they've gone out of their way to make me feel small and insignificant. I don't know why I'm not shedding any tears for them and yet I'm very upset over Tyson. This isn't right."

"No, it isn't right," Luke said as he approached the demigods. "Yet, look at what you have done, Ronald Weasley, or should I say Ronald Puckerman?" Ron glared at him. "How did I know who you were? Well, let me tell you this in terms that you can understand: after you left the camp, I found that Hermione girl and tortured her into giving up your secrets. With that, my troops and I found your weasel family and tormented them until they admitted to stealing you and killing your mother. You can guess what I did with them upon them admitting the truth about you."

"You killed them?" Ron's grief had now turned to anger and hatred for the older demigod standing before him. "How dare you..."

"Well, they committed a grave crime against the gods," said Luke. "By stealing the son of Poseidon and raising him to be something that he was not, Arthur and Molly Weasley had broken the laws regarding the care of a child. I mean, if we had left you alone, you would still be with them, right?"

"Well..." Ron began.

"Exactly," said Luke. "Plus, I took her and some boy captive and forced them to give up their secrets. When they refused, I then had Alexandros kidnap the bitchcaster and feed her ambrosia and nectar, both of which can immobilize her kind. It also makes a great truth-telling serum, which she will learn to her sorrow. Ask Alexandros and he will tell you that the little minxcaster was singing like a drunk man on Sunday morning. She revealed all sorts of damning secrets about your little wizarding world and even spoke of some things that some men would kill to keep secret."

Ron paled as the reality of the prophecy hit him. "If she comes into any form of contact with the Hermaphrodite, it will bring such a disaster that the world could end." But the prophecy didn't say world would end, or did it?

"Prophets don't know everything," said Grover. "I mean, there have been many prophecies in history and they all came true, but not in the way that you expected."

"I knew that Jacquelyn could bring about the end of the world if the Hermaphrodite got to her," said Ron, "but I had no idea that it meant that the wizarding world was going to end because of her."

"Well," said Luke, "my mother predicted that a spellcaster would mate with a werewolf prince; their daughter would bring about the end of a hidden magical world. But she didn't know that it meant that OUR spellcaster was the prophesied one, or did she?"

"Well, this changes everything," Annabeth frowned.

"If she found out about the prophecy, the minx would go to great lengths to avoid making it come true," said Luke. "But she was a fool to prevent the downfall of the most evil man that the wizards have produced in recent years."

"Dumbledore," Ron muttered almost to himself. The others stared at him. "Dumbledore killed her grandfather and tried to capture the rest of her family, but they escaped and went into hiding. He tried to capture Jacquelyn, but her mother and grandmother resisted him. She was watched by all her relatives until she was old enough to go to Hogwarts."

"Take them to my room and lock the door," Luke said to Albert. "Make sure that they don't get out."

"Why not the brig?" said Albert.

"Knowing that they will try to escape if we put them in the brig, this is a good idea," said Luke. "Besides, nothing but the best room in the house for my favorite cousins and goat-man."

Within a few minutes, Ron found himself trapped in Luke's office. The others were just sitting around, plotting their inevitable escape from the boat. But Ron had some questions, questions which Luke would not be able to answer.

He slipped out an open window and after deftly evading any wandering guards, he found Harry Potter and Hermione Granger sitting in the brig. His jaw dropped as he stared at his former friends; they had been beaten up and their clothes were torn and damaged. They don't deserve this, Ron thought to himself.

"Ron?" Hermione cried out. "Is that you?"

"It is," Ron said. The feelings of anger at Hermione's betrayal melted immediately as they stared at each other. "I heard that my family is dead."

"They all died screaming for you to come save them," said Harry, "but that kid laughed as his pet monsters tore them apart. Even Ginny cried for you. But your mother was crying out the name Joanna, and I didn't know what that meant until now."

"Joanna Puckerman is my mother," Ron said sadly. "I never knew her. But at least you're lucky that you got to know your mother before her death."

"Indeed," said Harry.

"Now, let's get off this ship and find Jacquelyn," said Ron. "If we're lucky, she will be three steps ahead of them."

"And how are we going to do that?" said Hermione. The boys glared at her. "We're on a ship in the ocean."

"In case you haven't noticed, one of you knows who my father is," said Ron. He glared at the water; the ship began to rock violently and things began to topple over.

Percy was sitting in Luke's chair when he felt the place shake. "Time to go," he said to the group.

"You just can't keep a good man down, can you?" Clarisse quipped.

The ship rocked so hard that the bars to the prison broke. Ron snatched Harry and Hermione and they all ran to the top of the ship. Albert noticed them and shouted, "Luke, he's doing it again!"

"Figures," Luke muttered. "We just HAD to be over water."

"That's right," Ron snapped as he punched him across his face. "You just made the mistake of capturing the son of Poseidon. You made another strategical error, which is sailing away over water."

"How amusing," Luke muttered.

"The water is my domain, you forthright son of a bitch," Ron shouted as he grabbed Harry and Hermione and they jumped into the water.

Meanwhile, during Ron's confrontation with Luke, Percy seized a lifeboat and everyone jumped on. "Quick, before they notice that we're gone!" he hissed. Annabeth steered the boat around the Andromeda until the ship was a few feet away from the boat.

Ron, noticing the ship leaving and the boat coming towards them, said, "This is our ride." They all swam to the boat, where the demigods loaded them into the boat and they all took off towards shore.