᯾☾︎𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑶𝒇 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈☽︎᯾ ᵖ ʲᵃᶜᵏˢᵒⁿ ˣ ᶠ ʳᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ

⋆ 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 ⋆

꧁𓆉︎𖦹☾︎✯☽︎𖦹𓆉︎꧂

⋆ 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐬𝐲? ⋆

꧁𓆉︎𖦹☾︎✯☽︎𖦹𓆉︎꧂

𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐁𝐎𝐀𝐓 𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌 𝐔𝐏, 

but they were too busy to keep them for long and wondered how four kids in street clothes had gotten out into the middle of the bay. There was a disaster to mop up. Their radios were jammed with distress calls. They dropped the teens off at the Santa Monica pier with towels around their shoulders and water bottles that said I'M A JUNIOR COAST GUARD! and sped off to save more people.

Their clothes were sopping wet, even the annoying Poseidon's kid clothes were. Percy had given Grover his shoes after the flying shoes incident. It better the Coast Guard wonder why one of them was barefoot than wonder why one of them had hooves.

After reaching dry land, the four stumbled down the beach, watching the city burn against a beautiful sunrise.

"I don't believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way..."

Should I feel bad for them? No... Yes..? Y/N questioned herself mentally.

"It was a trick," Percy said. "A strategy worthy of Athena."

"Hey," she warned.

"You get it, don't you?"

She dropped her eyes, her anger fading. "Yeah. I get it."

"Well, I don't!" Grover complained. "Would somebody..."

"Later goat boy," Y/N patted Grover on the shoulder. "Later."

"Percy..." Annabeth said. "I'm sorry about your mother. I'm so sorry...."

"The prophecy was right," Percy said. "'You shall go west and face the god who has turned.'"

"But who would be that sneaky? Who would want a war that bad?" Grover said.

"Oh, wow, I don't know. Let me think." Y/N trailed off as she looked at a man.

There he was, waiting for them, in his black leather duster and his sunglasses, an aluminium baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.

"Hey, kid," Ares said, seeming genuinely pleased to see Percy. "You were supposed to die."

"You tricked me," he said. "You stole the helmet and the master bolt."