Feeding a group of four demigods and a satyr was no simple task. 

Granted, Danny didn't really count. The guy was too busy scarfing down every tin can in sight. Regardless, my parents sprinted around our kitchen like maniacs, throwing flour in bowls, pouring juice in cups then dashing to the stove to make sure our eggs weren't on fire. They looked like they were on Master Chef. 

    "Really Mr. Carter," Paris looked at my poor parents sympathetically, "I can help. We can all help!"

    Danny shook his head as if to say, 'No way! Shut up!' Paris elbowed him and flashed her fluorescent white teeth.

    My father shook his head and continued to stir his waffle batter. "No, no! You kids have gone through enough the past couple of days. Let us at least make you a decent...oh crap!"

   There was smoke coming from the stove. My dad rushed over and waved a rag over the cloudy steam, trying to dissipate it. Smoke detectors began to beep through the entire house.

   "You couldn't have watched the eggs a little more closely?" My dad looked to my mom for help.

   "I thought you were on egg duty!"

   I groaned in embarrassment. This was a disaster. Why couldn't they just buy toaster waffles or Pop Tarts like a normal family?

    "Hey, has anyone seen Percy yet?" Nico came into the kitchen.

He looked absolutely ridiculous. His dark mangled hair was sticking up in every direction, sort of like his dad's.

   Paris shook her head, looking to Danny and I for answers. "We haven't seen him since we went to bed last night."

   I remembered my talk with Percy last night. "He went into the ocean for a little bit. He said he was going to go in to clear his head but he should've been back hours ago."

   "Oh man," Danny groaned. "My satyr senses are tingling."

   "What, like Spider-Man?" I scoffed.

   Danny didn't waste any time on comic relief. "Come on, you three," he gestured for Nico, Paris and I as he bolted for the beach, leaving my parents alone in hell's kitchen.

   The deep sapphire waves of the Pacific fought against each other for dominance. There was a massive single storm cloud above the ocean, sending raging winds clashing against the waters below.

    "The gods are angry," Paris gawked at the sky, "we don't have much time. We've got to get in there and get Percy so we can get to San Fransisco before our deadline." 

She began to take off her shoes. Her wavy strawberry blonde hair was whipping wildly against the strong sea breeze. Her storm grey eyes were set and determined on the vast nothingness of ocean ahead. She looked courageous, like an army general getting ready to fearlessly lead her soldiers into battle. 

     "I don't know if you know this but...we're children of Zeus and Hades. Poseidon would kill us if we set foot in there," I gestured between Nico and I.

      "He won't. Zeus and Hades let Percy pass through their realms in peace, remember? Now Poseidon has to do the same for you guys too."

      Nico nodded and began to wade into the treacherous waters without so much as batting an eye. He looked back at me with a solemn expression etched onto his face. "Well? Are you coming or not?"

     All of the muscles in my legs locked up, frozen in fear. I felt like an idiot compared to my friends, but I couldn't do it. There was no way I could go into the ocean. My nightmares had warned me about the water. I couldn't ignore that. 

I shook my head vigorously. "No way, you two go. I'll keep a look out."

    "Oh no you don't," Danny began to push me into the water. "I'm not going back to camp with a wimp. You get in there and you kick whoever's butt has our friend, got it? Plus, lookouts always work alone."

     He was right. Percy would do the same for me. For anyone. I remembered what he said about being loyal and how it was his fatal flaw. Now it was my turn to be loyal to him. I took a deep breath and submerged myself in the dark depths of the water.

   There was no sense of direction underwater. Everything looked the same. I didn't know which way was down or which way was up. The green waves were bobbing up and down and side to side like nature's own never ending metronome. 

I frantically searched for Paris or Nico but they were nowhere in sight. All I saw were hints of light coming through the dim water from above my head. There was an immediate tight sensation in my chest. My lungs were beginning to cave in from the lack of air. I began to kick my legs below me, desperately trying to reach the surface of the water.

     I sputtered and inhaled deeply as my head bobbed love the waves. Somehow I had managed to get a good thirty feet off of the shore. In the distance, my best friend was standing where the waves met the pale sand. Danny looked like a tiny ant waving his arms back and forth.

      "Nico? Paris?" I called out frantically for my friends, hoping they weren't lost to the unknown.

       Nico thrashed and spit water out of his mouth only a few feet away from me. I was relieved to see him.

      "Where's Paris?"

     "I-I don't know. I lost her," Nico spun around in circles, looking in all possible directions to find Paris but it was hopeless. She was gone.

     "We can't just sit here and do nothing!"

       Nico nodded. "You're right. We've got to go back under. On three, we go down together. Ready? One, two-" I was about to take a leap of faith with him, but he never made it to three. Nico's head rapidly disappeared underwater. Something had pulled him under.

     Then, it came for me too. I felt a bone crushing pressure wrap around my torso, pulling me under the treacherous waves of the Pacific at full speed. I couldn't see or hear anything except what sounded like laughter booming in the distance.

     "Bring them to me, Almops! I love puny demigods." The voice began to laugh again.

      To my surprise, everything went still. There were no more thrashing waves anymore and my lungs weren't caving in on themselves. Gravity seemed to take over and I could breathe again. Was I on land or was I dead?

      I opened my eyes and almost wished for the sweet release of death. Air bubbles came out of my nose each time I exhaled and the scenery around me swayed slowly. I was underwater in the middle of a Greek coliseum. 

The place was enormous, about the size of six football stadiums put together. It was packed with what looked like monsters and...regular people. Demigods. They were cheering wildly at the scene below them.

 Paris was lying in the center of the sandy arena, at the feet of a giant the size of a small building. His skin reflected the color of the ocean, phasing from dark green to a light blue and back again.

My eyes darted back to Paris. Her face was cut up and bruised from what looked like an ugly fight. Nico stood in front of her, held in place by two women with green scaly skin and blue hair. I couldn't see their faces, but I was sure they weren't in the running for Miss Teen U.S.A.

     "What's this? Three children of the Olympian gods in my arena? What did I ever do to deserve such a treat?" The giant roared and erupted into a booming fit laughter. Everyone in the arena joined him. "Who wants to see a fight?"

     The audience broke out into a deafening roar of cheers.

    "Brother, let me fight them. I'll kill them all." I heard Percy's voice clearly through the shrill cheers of the crowd. He was shackled to a gigantic thirty foot tall throne. 

It was made out of old sea creature, monster, and human remains. I was surprised the giant monster sitting on his scary high chair hadn't broken it by now. He was what I liked to call a double H: huge and hideous. The giant had a black Mohawk lining his bumpy, lemon shaped head. Craters covered every other inch of his skin, making it look like the guy fought a paper hole puncher and lost.

         "Percy Jackson," the giant took Percy in one of his giant, meaty hands. "You will duel against this tiny demigod. Do not fail, champion." His grey sausage finger pointed straight at my chest.

      "What? N-no!" I shook my head in protest but he didn't care. Two more serpent skin women emerged from thin air, or water, and began to drag me towards the center of the arena.

       "Orion!" Paris cried out from the other side of the arena. "He works for Hecate! Percy is under a-" a serpent woman covered her mouth before she could finish.

      The crowd began to hurl paper cups, food and crumpled paper at Paris. They were booing her as she was being shackled to the floor. 

I watched as Percy was placed by the hand of the giant in the arena. His eyes refused to meet mine. There was something wrong with him, but I couldn't place my finger on it.

    "Brother! You had slain me three years ago! It is time for my revenge. It is time for a fight," the giant looked to the crowd for approval. 

They began to chant, 'TO THE DEATH! TO THE DEATH! TO THE DEATH!'

     The giant chuckled in amusement. "Yes, my friends. To the death. Begin, puny demigods!"

     Percy didn't waste any time trying to warm me up. He immediately uncapped his ballpoint pen, unleashing his mighty sword Riptide. Then he came straight at me. 

There was a wild look in his eye, bloodthirsty almost. In all of my confusion, I hadn't even realized that I had no weapon on me, except my necklace. I opened the locket and sidestepped Percy's first swing for my head in one swift movement. 

He was going for decapitation right off the bat. Simple, but effective.

     I rolled out of the way and reached towards the quiver on my back quickly. My hand steadily began to aim my bow and arrow but Percy lunged towards me before I could fire.

    "What, are you insane?" I cried out, twisting my abdomen to dodge his sword's slashes. "It's me, Percy! You know me!"

    I loaded my silver bow with an arrow once again, charging it with blue electricity and pointed it straight at Percy. I aimed precariously for his leg. My goal was to maim him. I didn't want to actually kill the guy, regardless of how annoying he was sometimes.

    Percy blankly stared at the flickering arrow coming directly towards him. He lifted his left hand, creating a protective barrier around him with the water surrounding us. 

Great, I'd forgotten we were in Poseidon's realm. Everything was in Percy's favor. 

My arrow hit the barrier, sending waves of electrical currents throughout Percy's homemade forcefield. His black hair stood up completely straight as electricity passed through him. 

Of course, water conducts electricity. The crowd went wild.

       The giant on the skeleton throne in front of me kicked his feet in delight. "Fantastic, daughter of Zeus! Fantastic!"

       Percy was now unconscious on the floor of the coliseum. His body twitched as electrical currents passed through his body. 

    "Now kill him." The giant looked at me with hunger in his golden eyes.

    "No! Let us go!" I demanded.

    The crowd's heavy cheering stopped instantly. They began to boo, throwing anything they could get their hands on at Percy and I. 

I threw my arms over Percy's face and chest and my best to shield him from the debris.

     "Orion?" Percy groaned in pain. 

    He was back. The electricity must have shocked him hard enough to snap him out of whatever trance he was in, but I had no time to waste on playing catchup. 

I tried to give him the condensed version of our current situation. "Look, I don't know what happened to you but you've been in this place since last night. Paris said someone here is working for Hecate, whoever that is."

     "Di immortales," Percy cursed in Greek. "I must have been placed under a spell by the goddess Hecate. She's... romantically involved with that monster, Antaeus, right now. He probably convinced her to use her magic on me to get revenge."

"He knows you, though." I winced as a tin can hit the small of my back. "How?"

"The giant up there is my half-brother. I...kind of killed him when I was fifteen and now he wants to kill me. He wants me to duel to the death for eternity and be his champion." He spoke like all of his memories were coming back.

     "So what do we do? How do we kill him with all these monsters around?"

     Percy laughed. "He's a tough guy to beat. Antaeus is the son of Gaea, so the earth bends to his will. You've got to get the guy mid air to kill him."

   "Okay, okay. Let me think. Remember the ball of water you made last night?"

     "Yeah."

    "Could you make it again? Just...bigger?"

    Percy shrugged. "I could try."

  "Good. If you get him to jump and hold him in the ball of water, I can just electrocute it and knock him out long enough for us to escape. I'll distract him long enough for you to help Nico and Paris. You ready?"

     "No, but let's do this."

      I sprung up from Percy's chest and bolted for the foot of Antaeus's throne. "Hey, you!"

        The giant frowned at my presence.

       "Hungry, big guy? How does a static sandwich sound right about now?" I loaded my bow and aimed for the mouth of the giant. Antaeus twitched and swatted the arrow away as if it were a bug.

       "You insolent child! I'll have you killed!"

       "Why don't you just do it yourself?" I fired another arrow at his face and began to run. The giant rattled the arena with every footstep, making people leap out of their seat every other second.

      Out of the corner of my eye I saw Percy cutting Nico and Paris free of their chains. Nico rubbed his wrists, now free of shackles. I had an idea.

    "Nico! Throw me your sword!" I screamed out to him, hoping he'd hear me.

    He didn't even hesitate. His jet black blade flew through the cyan blue water and collided perfectly in my hand. It felt cold, like I was holding a solid block of ice. This was the very same blade that paralyzed me with fear when Nico cut me during capture the flag.

    I ducked and rolled under the giant's legs, now standing directly behind him. Paris and Nico ran towards Antaeus without hesitation.

    "Nico, boost me!" Paris yelled.

    Nico complied, cupping his hands together while Paris leaped off of them, landing directly on the giant's face. I'm sure that's the last place Paris wanted to be.

    Antaeus screamed in agony as Paris dug her sword into his face. "Arrrrgghhh! Get off of me! Get off!" He plucked my friend from his face and flung her across the air and into a limestone wall across the arena.

     "Percy, now!" I yelled.

     Suddenly the water around us began to bubble and fizz. It looked like someone had just dropped a giant Alka-Seltzer into the middle of the coliseum. Percy was using the water to create an orb around Antaeus.

     "What's this?" Antaeus stuck his hand through the water roaring around him. The orb wasn't strong enough to hold him on its own.

    Nico and I leapt to Percy's side immediately. Without a word being spoken between us we began to work together. Nico began to bend the dirt floor around us to his will, breaking chunks of rock and using them to create a second barrier around Antaeus while he roared in anger. I felt a tight, pulling sensation in the pit of my stomach as I summoned millions of air bubbles around us and placed them at the bottom of the orb. The orb began to levitate, higher and higher until it was suspended above ground and ready for one final blow.

      Grabbing his sword in one swift motion, Nico flung it at a tiny opening in the center of the cage we had built for the monster. In a blinding flash of gold and a raging screech of agony, Antaeus was gone. 

Nico's sword clattered on the dirt floor below. The blade turned gold for a moment, then returned to its natural black state.

         Everyone in the coliseum went silent as the orb disintegrated into a pile of mud in the middle of the arena. Then, they did the strangest and most unexpected thing. They began to cheer. For us.

      "Demigods! Demigods! Demigods!"

       Percy scoffed in awe at the waves of cheers from the monsters that had just been rooting for our deaths.

       Death. Oh no. Paris.

      I sprinted towards the stone entrance beside Antaeus's throne. Paris was lying on her stomach. She wasn't getting up. 

 I took her into my arms and tried my best to wake her up, but it was no use. Her face was as pale as paper. Horror overcame my entire body as I stared at an impaled pointed rock stuck in her lower abdomen. Her chest moved in sporadic and uneven breaths. Red blood seeped through her orange camp t-shirt as she stared at us with distant grey eyes. 

     "Her life aura is fading," Nico knelt beside her, "I can feel it."

     "What do we do? We can't just let her die here!"

     Percy clamped his eyes shut and hovered his hand over Paris's body. Instantly his fingers began to glow green, and the rock slipped out of her bleeding wound. I winced, diverting my gaze to Percy.

His lips were pressed together in concentration. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to heal her with water.

      Nico's eyes flickered nervously between Paris and Percy. Time was running out.

    As if by magic, the color started to come back to Paris' round face. Her chest began to rise and fall in a slow and steady rhythm once again. Then, slowly, her eyes fluttered open and shifted between cool tones of grey. 

    "Did we get him?"

    I breathed out what sounded like a mixture between a laugh and a sigh and pulled my friend in for a hug. "Yeah," I whispered, "we did."