"Run!" I shouted to the other gods. "Run and don't look back!"

I turned and kicked away a Hydra head that got too close for comfort. I wrestled it to the ground, stabbing it but not cutting of the heads. A volley of arrows embedding in the Hydra's side.

I jumped back, firing flaming arrows to cover my retreat. The Hydra still advanced. I summoned a few undead warriors to back us up, and another volley of arrows hit their mark.

"Artemis I told you to go!" I shouted.

Instead of responding, she fired off another stream of arrows. I figured she was going anywhere, so I turned my attention to the Hydra. Artemis and I fired another storm of arrows, but this time they were dissolved by the acid spit. I really wish I had something other that a knife and a limitless supply of sun and moon arrows to fight with. Wait a minute. Using the power of Hephaestus, I pulled on my knife blade and formed it into a three foot long sword. That was cool.

I charged the Hydra with blinding speed and slashed three of its heads off. Six more grew back by the time I slashed off the other four. After rolling backward to dodge acid, I was looking at a fourteen headed Hydra. Oops.

I threw my sword and readied a flaming arrow. As soon as the sword lopped off a head, I fired and burned the neck stump. One down, thirteen to go. The Hydra fired another river of acid, which would have killed Artemis if I had risen up a tree to shield her from the blast.

I combined multiple powers of Apollo. Loud music and light from the sun to make a god-level flash bang.

"Cover your ears!" I shouted and threw the flash grenade.

While the Hydra was stunned, I alternately sliced off heads and burned them with fire arrows. By the time the Hydra came to its senses, it only had one head left. I fired two more arrows. One cut off the head, and the other burned the stump.

"He's down," I called out to the other gods who had run off.

Ares was the first one to say something. "How much longer till we reach New York? This is getting old."

I looked up at the night sky, trying to read them like a map. I couldn't. Thankfully, Hera could.

"I'd say we're somewhere in Pennsylvania. We're getting close."

"You said the same thing in Utah," Hermes complained. "How close is close?"

"Roughly one-hundred and seventy two miles," Hera said. "Happy?"

Hermes groaned. "No."

Two days, one-hundred and seventy-two miles, five run-ins with monsters, and about a million bathroom breaks later, we reached New York. That was where we split up. Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hermes went o find food. There weren't many trees that I could make give us fruit in New York. Hephaestus, Ares, and I went looking for supplies to remodel the raft like Athena had told us to. Artemis, Apollo, and Dionysus were on recon duty, keeping an eye out for monsters that might get in our way.

I found a lot of broken pieces of wood we could use, plus some sheet metal and some cloth to make a bigger sail. We of course, made Ares do most of the heavy lifting, and in the end his was carrying twice his weight in building materials. We set up camp near the raft and got to work. About and hour later Demeter and the others arrived with some cans off food and a few pieces of fruit. Hermes had also somehow snagged a few bags of candy.

Ares took a break to eat and so did Hephaestus. I kept working, using Hephaestus's powers to get the job done pretty easily. I was just attaching the new sail when my brain felt like it was shoving its way down into my feet. My body shook violently and sweat poured down my face. I heard my heart hammering in my chest, and my vision started to go red. My breathing turned into hyperventilating, and I was sure my lungs were being dipped in boiling acid.

The veins on my neck and arms bulged. My body glowed gold for a fraction of a second, and then the pain subsided. I clutched my stomach, because it still hurt. This was getting bad. If I didn't fight and beat Kronos soon, I'd be burned to ashes by the excess power inside of me. It was pretty depressing.

At times when you come to terms with your own mortality, one of two things happens. You either have a million thoughts run through your head and you get over whelmed by your own thoughts, or one single thought enters your head and your mind goes blank. For me, the one thought was: Annabeth, where are you?

My mind went blank for a bit, and I just spent my time staring at the ground. But whatever controls this world is determined to keep me from having a personal moment, because at that moment everything went to Hades.

"Hey has anyone seen Artemis, Apollo, or Dionysus?" Hermes asked.

I looked up. Sure enough, they were no where to be found. I was freaking out. Gods, if they were hurt...

A huge explosion sounded off in the distance, followed by a loud roar. I pulled out my sword/knife and stood up. Some of the other gods stood up too, but I motioned for them to sit down.

"Stay here and finish the boat," I told them. "If I'm right we're gonna need it. Soon too."

Hephaestus stood up first. "Alright you heard him. Let's move!"

While they got to work, I sprinted off in the direction of the explosions and roars. A mile later, I got blasted off my feet by a burst of Greek fire. When I recollected my wits, I was staring at five dracaenae and my old pal the Nemean Lion.

The dracaenae readied their Greek fire bombs, but two of them disintegrated and another turned to deal with Dionysus in a sword fight. While they fought, I killed the other two dracaenae and wrestled the Nemean Lion. Both of us were invulnerable, so nobody got hurt until I caught it in a net of vines. I commanded the vines to pry open the lion's mouth. The mouth slowly opened, and I fired and arrow into its mouth. It slumped over dead.

Dionysus finished off his opponent and made the by now infuriating pft sound at me. "You know, we had this under control."

"Shut up," I told him.

We walked back to camp, making good time.

Not so fast Percy. A voice spoke into my head.

What now? I thought.

Sorry Percy, but I can't have you getting back to the others just yet. Athena told me. I had a bad feeling about this.

The first thing that happened was the Nemean Lion got back up. Okay this was insane. Come on! I know you hate me, but still.

It's nothing personal Percy. I just need to give her more time.

The gods finished the ship by the time I'd shown up. Carefully, as my mother had instructed, I snuck onto it and down into the rear wing. I came within a centimetre of brushing against Aphrodite, but I made it.

Percy still hadn't shown up from his rescue mission, and I started to get worried. Just as I decided to get back off the ship and go find him, I heard him scream to the others: "Go, go, go! Keep moving!"

The ship started moving, and I felt four people jump on. I heard the sound of a lion roaring and claws scratching the side of the ship. But that was it. I never once took off my invisibility hat, but I really didn't need it. They never once came into the rear wing. Percy would always sleep by the door that connected the two wings. My favorite thing to do at night was listening to what he'd say in his sleep.

Cheesy, I know, but I was alone in a ship with nothing to do. So I'd just listen to him talk in his sleep. And I swear the coolest moments were when he would murmur my name.