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"And if they lock us away/ I'll still be here
Proudly waiting/ To spend more time with you"
- Outlaws (Alesia Cara)

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THE GANG'S BACK TOGETHER AGAIN

AFTER A LONG NAP, a talk with a few fish friends, and a few more polite askings for the coordinates, Arya knew they had found the Cyclops island when she could smell the air turn from the salty version she had grown used too, to a sickly sweet tone that really threw her off. The only smell that only came remotely close was the smell of Ambrosia.

"You smell that?" Arya asked, just to make sure that she wasn't hallucinating.

"It's gotta be the fleece." She agreed as the island came into view.

"If that bridge doesn't scream 'dangerous cyclopes' I don't know what does." Arya said as the cyclopes islands became clear in their vision.

    As the boat pulled up to the shore both Clarisse and Arya seemed to get a second wind, as if they knew they were going to have to give it all to get the fleece for camp. The girls walked out of the shore and Arya used the water to pull the boat out of the water and up on the sand, effectively beaching it.

     Both took a second to get there bearing on land since it had been a while and Arya took the time to look around, but there was no sign of anyone else.

"I guess it's just us." Arya sighed, quickly redoing her hair into a braid. Clarisse's face dropped for a fraction of a second at the idea that they would have to face the Cyclopes alone. It disappeared as quickly as it came and her hard demeanor was back, with a new sense of determination in her eyes.

"It doesn't matter, I was sent on this quest to receive the cloak and that's what i'll do."

As worried as Arya was about her brother and Annabeth. She knew how badly Clarisse needed to finish this quest, not only for her father, but for herself as well. Since there time on the boat she had come to understand the daughter of Ares a little better. Arya would make sure that happened. Clarisse deserved this.

There was a cliff that wrapped around the base of the mountain that was the vision of paradise. By the way it looked, there were four different paths at the top of the cliffs. One that leads directly to the tree, one that led to the cyclopes cliff, one that lead to the creepy bridge, and one that lead right to the Cyclops lair.

"I think we should divide and conquer." Arya suggested.

"Why do we need to divide?" Clarisse asked. Her eyebrows pulling together in worry. There was no doubt the girls were stronger as one unit.

"Because Grover is in the cave, and I need to get him in case Percy and Annabeth don't get here. You finish your quest, I finish mine."

"I thought you weren't on a quest." Clarisse jabbed.

"At this point I don't know what else to call it, and considering I haven't been shot dead out of the sky yet, I'd say I'm in the clear."

"Or Lord Zeus can't keep tabs on you when you're not in camp."

"Either way, I don't care." Arya said with an eye roll. "You have to go make your father proud and I have to go save my brother's best friend. Hopefully we can do both without that nasty cyclops getting in the way."

"Sounds like a plan." Clarisse agreed. Although they both knew it wasn't going to happen that smoothly.

"Now be careful. There's going to be something guarding the fleece."

"You should be careful too. Grover got himself in a sticky situation, who knows what's in that cave."

Arya nodded her head in conformation. "Meet back on the boat?"

Clarisse held out her arm, which Arya took by wrapping her hand around the girls elbow and felt Clarisse do the same thing back.

"Good luck" they spoke simultaneously, as they shook.

Both girls then ran to their designated spots on the cliff and looked at each other one last time. With a nod of their heads the two were off.

Arya quickly scaled her way up the cliffs, making the mental note to thank Chiron whenever she got the chance next for all the years of rock wall climbing he made her do. Now it seemed like a piece of cake to climb a cliff especially because there was no lava dropping down on her randomly.

Despite the fact that Arya's wall was higher than Clarisse's. She was smaller than the Ares girl, and therefore quicker, making it to her destination of the cyclopes cave first.

"It is time for the wedding!" A voice roared loud enough to make the ground shake and Arya had to grab the wall to stay up.

"Not yet! You said I had two more days!" The overly high pitched voice of Grover came, much quieter as the sayr was significantly smaller than the Cyclopes.

Arya slowly made her way to the ledge of the cliff where she stood above the two living creatures and took in the sight below her. Grover In a wedding dress. If the situation hadn't been as dire as it had, Arya would have laughed.

The Cyclopes and the Satyr sat and argued, while Arya tried to come up with a plan to get Grover out of the cave and back on a boat. Arya had no idea how much time had passed, it couldn't have been more than minutes, when the sheep outside started to freak out and belt loudly. All three's attention was pulled from what was happened, and they all turned to face the entrance of the cave. The cyclopes let out a low growl and Arya knew then, that the sheep were the guardians of the tree and that Clarisse had been caught by them.

"One minute. When I come back, we get married." The cyclopes stated as he stood up and made his way outside. Arya sent a quick prayer to the gods that Clarisse would be okay before scaling down the small cliff landing on the ground floor right by Grover.

"Arya!" He belted, jumping at the sight of her. "What are you doing here? Is Percy with you?"

Arya gave the satyr a quick hug and a sigh of relief.

"Now is not the time for questions. Right now we get you out of here."

"Don't tell me Percy is the one outside." Grover paled, nervously chewing his bottom lip.

"No it's Clarisse. Percy isn't here, there was an explosion and we got separated, it's a long story." Arya waved off as Grover took notice of the bandages on her arms causing his panic to only increase.

"Well at least we knew he's a-a-a-alive" Grover belted.

"What makes you so sure?" Arya, who was looking for a way out paused, and turned back to Grover. She needed hope that nothing had happened to him because Arya had been refusing to even think about Percy, she didn't need the distraction on her mind.

"I gave us an empathy link. So if I'm still alive..."

"So is he'' Arya breathed. Remembering that important piece of information. "So now we just have to get you out of here without you getting killed."

Arya knew it was unlikely to get out through the front of the cave so the only other option was to scale back up the cliff and then back down towards the boat. But Grover would be unlikely to do it in a dress.

"We'll leave the way I came. How fast can you get that dress off?"

Grover started to take the dress off as fast as he could. However, with his hooves and lack of knowledge about the many layers of a wedding dress, it wasn near fast enough before the Cyclopes could be heard making his way back into the cave. Grover let out a belt in fear.

"Let me go!" A voice screamed. The Cyclopes just let out a laugh and stomped back into the cave with the teenage girl in his hands.

Arya let out a sigh and took a step back from Grover.

"You need to go! Find Percy and come back." The Satyr told her.

"You don't think I can handle this on my own?" She shot back but immediately regretted her words. This was not the time for her ego to get in the way.

Arya was planning on going to run and hide so that she wouldn't also be caught. The plan was ruined almost as quickly as it was made when the deep voice of Clarisse called to her across the cave.

"Arya! Help!"

The Cyclops' eye snapped towards Grover and then landed on the daughter of the sea god.

"Another one!" The Cyclopes roared and Arya was quick to summon her spear and hold it towards the monster ready to fight, but it was futile as all she was able to do was get a couple of scratches on him as he swung his good arm at her. It was a good fight for a while, then eventually, the Cyclopes overpowered her and hit her hard, flinging her against the wall and Arya's vision went black for the second time in two days.

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She had no idea how long she was out, but she knew that Clarisse's annoying and loud protests were the reason she woke up with a pounding head. It was worse than she had ever experienced in her life. It hurt her to open her eyes because the light only made everything more painful, and it took a lot to keep her vision focused. Arya wasntr used to being out of commission.

"You don't know what you have coming for you!" Clarisse yelled again.

"Shut up" Arya groaned as she moved her hands on his head and felt the sticky liquid in her air. She was hanging upside down with a head wound. Nothing good could come from that.

"You were supposed to get Grover out." Clarisse snapped.

"And you were supposed to get the fleece. Looks like we both failed" She retorted, but let out a loud groan because her voice was too loud.

    The two went back and forth for a few minutes until Arya was in too much pain to continue the argument. Arya was frustrated, it was like the last six hours hadn't happened. Like the daughters of Ares and Poseidon hadn't bonded on the ship and gotten passed there times of petty arguments.

Eventually, Clarisse moved on from her anger at Arya and went back to screaming uselessly at the Cyclopes that was now getting ready for his wedding to Grover. From what Arya could see, she was being held up by a rope, that could easily be cut by her spear she could summon. But there was no way she would be able to do it now without just getting killed.

"You're no threat!"

"You're a feisty one!" The Cyclopes eventually spoke up, a rather amused tone to his gruff voice.

"Challenge me! Give me back my sword and i'll fight you!"

The Cyclopes just laughed, which made Aryas head pound again, and suddenly all the girl was able to imagine was her cutting the monsters throat so he wouldn't be able to laugh again.

"Eat loudmouth girl now, or wait for the wedding feast? What does my bride think?"

Arya's eyes were still closed but she could practically feel Grovers unease.

"Oh, um, I'm not hungry right now, dear. Perhaps—"

"Did you say bride?" Clarisse demanded. "Who, Grover?"

"Shut up" Arya butted in. Realizing Percy hadn't told Clarisse about the wedding dress part of his dream. Percy was trying to spare his best friend the embarrassment. In hindsight, all the details probably would have been a good thing.

"What 'Grover'?" Polymethus asked

"The satyr!" Clarisse yelled.

"Oh!" Grover yelped. "The poor thing's brain is boiling from that hot water. Pull her down, dear!"

Arya almost laughed at the comment, Clarisse would have been boiling from the water if Arya had not been controlling it and keeping the boiling down to not burn the other girl. Even if she was being idiotic.

"What satyr?" asked Polyphemus. "Satyrs are good eating. You bring me a satyr?"

"She doesn't know what she's talking about! There's no Satyr here! You would have found him already!" Arya tried to counteract. Incredibly irritated that Clarisse couldn't proces what was at stake.

"No, you big idiot!" bellowed Clarisse. "That satyr! Grover! The one in the wedding dress!"

"Gods Clarisse! Learn when to shut your mouth!" Arya shouted before groaning again and putting her hands back to her head to get rid of some of the pressure.

Arya attempted to open her eyes when there was no response but she only had flashes. Polyphemus ripping off Grovers veil, she heard the Cyclopes yell about Grover not being a lady cyclopes. She saw a flash of the Polyphemus picking up a boulder to kill Groover with, and heard as the young Satyr quickly stopped his death by claiming he had a recipe. Then Polyphemus insisted that he was going to cook Grover for wedding dinner and that one of the girls will be his bride.

"Make it her!" Both girls defended, pointing at the other.

"It can't be me! I have a camp I need to save!" Clarisse demanded.

"It can't be me! I'm technically his half sister!" Arya gagged at the thought.

"You decide amongst yourselves." He said as he took down both Arya and Clarisse from their respective holdings and stuck them on the floor next to Grover. Arya couldn't stand up because of the pressure that was leaving her head. But at least some of the pain was going away.

"I come back at sundown for big event"

Arya could hear a boulder covering the entrance to the cave, locking them all in.

Hours passed and Arya and Clarisse occasionally argued about which one of them messed up the mission. But Grover would intervene before the girls could kill each other. Aryas head had stopped bleeding and her vision was slowly getting better but it was still killing her.

"Can you use the water to heal?" Grover asked, signaling to the pot of still boiling water.

"No. It's too hot and I can't cool it down." She said,

"We'll figure something out" Grover tried to offer, which Arya appreciated but it didn't really do anything. All she could do was hope Percy would show up. Over the hours Arya had summoned her spear and cut through her own bonds, as well as Clarisse's. They tried to move the boulder, but to no avail. Eventually they decided that their best option was to get as far away from the entrance as possible and so they made their way as far back through the maze of caverns as they could, and talked about ways to get out.

The conversation got cut short when a presence entered the cave.

"Percy!" Arya exclaimed while Grover belted out. Arya made her way up to hug her brother but Grover, who was uninjured, was much faster and tackled his best friend in a hug first. Arya was next in line.

"I'm glad you made it out."

"I thought you died" Percy breathed into her shoulder. She could physically feel him relax in her arms. Arya hated to admit it, but it felt really good to know that someone cared about her.

"Where's Annabeth?" Clarisse asked.

"Outside, but there's no time to talk" He said, uncapping his pen and having it turn to riptide. "Was there anyone else on the lifeboat?" He asked, turning to Arya with a hopeful look on his face. Arya knew exactly what he was asking and she felt a sense of dread overcoming her as she realized that Percy had not saved Tyson either. All Arya could do was shake her head back and forth.

"It was just me, I pulled Arya out of the water, everyone else aboard the Birmingham... Well the only two I saw were you, and I was too busy patching up Arya to be able to follow" Clarisse spoke solemnly.

"Patching up Arya?" Percy asked as his eyes went to Arya, looking for her injuries. Eyes settling on the bandages that had loosened up over the hours.

"What happened?" He asked, taking a step towards her.

"I was in an explosion Percy, what do you think happened?" She asked back with more attitude than she meant. "I thought you said there was no time for talking"

All Percy did was nod his head and turn towards the door.

"Now come on, we have to help-"

But before the sentence could be finished, the echo of an explosion reached them and a terrifying scream of Annabeth followed. Making everyone in the room cringe.

They all ran out to see Polyphemus celebrating with himself about catching 'Nobody' as he held up nothing and shook it around. It wasn't until the cap came off of Annabeth's head and she became visible again that Arya understood exactly what was going on.

The Blonde girl was sweating, and her eyes were glazed over as a gash in her forehead caused some hair to be stuck to her face. Arya thought her head injury was bad but it was a measly scratch compared to the younger girl.

"Ill rush him" Percy started. "Our ship is around the back of the island. You, Grover, and Arya-"

"No way" The other three kids said in unison. Not daring to let Percy even think to take the Cyclops on his own.

"We'll take him together" Clarisse nodded.

"The more the better" Arya agreed.

"Yeah" Grover nodded, surprised they were all in agreement.

"Alright, attack plan Macedonia" Percy said knowing that they all knew what that meant. They all nodded back to him in understanding and took off. Grover took the right, with Arya because she was heading for his back. Clarisse took the left while Percy stayed in front to be the distraction.

Arya had lost all of them once, she didn't plan on leaving the island without every single one of them, and the Golden Fleece.