It had been no longer than five minutes into this little road trip, and Kia already wanted to toss herself a caesar salad out of this goddamn car.

Firstly, Zoë drove like a crazy person. She didn't care about all the potholes they ran directly over, speed bumps they practically flew over, stop signs they ran by—none of it.

Secondly, Thalia and her were bickering like an old married couple. Every moment one would say something even slightly reminiscent of civil, the other would add in some sort of snarky comment. It was like two Alphas scratching each other for dominance, except in this case they looked like pouty infants who needed to shut the hell up.

Rubbing her temples, she glanced at Bianca, who seemed similarly annoyed. She caught her eye and sighed exasperatedly, gesturing with her eyes to the still-bickering duo in front. They stared at each other, trying to hold a straight face before Bianca erupted into laughter while Kia cracked a smile.

Bianca was, in Kia's opinion, a sweetheart. The girl had wavy dark hair swept up in an intricate braid that admittedly made Kia's head hurt, familiar soft brown doe eyes and a beautiful olive skin tone that looked like it'd been dipped in gold. She looked firm and athletic, like she worked out, but that all went out the window as she tripped over her words, apologising a few times short of a million.

Zoë and Thalia huffed and looked away from each other. Kia could sense the tension between the two of them, and to chop it up into little pieces and tossing into the floor-less basket of things Kia simply didn't care about, she'd suggested that they all listen to some songs on the radio.

After picking at the buttons cluelessly, Thalia eventually swatted Kia's hand aside, twisting and turning buttons expertly and stopping on a rock station that was playing some beat by Green Day.

They drove silently most of the way, the heavy music, which Zoë surprisingly didn't protest to, drowning out all of Grover's snoring.

Kia thought she'd be asleep by now, but oddly enough, she didn't feel tired enough to. After the previous night's events, she woke up, not finding herself near the sparkling lake she'd gone to, but in her sleeping bag, undisturbed. She'd knitted her brows, wondering if it was just a dream, but the stain of deja vu when she saw Ethan's unoccupied sleeping bag was enough to convince her otherwise. Letting her thoughts drift off into the wind, stared out her window, watching the blurry landscapes rush by in a flurry. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly when she saw a giant black splotch in the sky.

Leaning in closer, her eyes widened the slightest fraction when she saw it was a pegasus and Kia knew exactly who it was.

Oh yes, she's heard all about this infamous Percy Jackson. The dude who had supposedly woken her up from her shortened sleeping beauty nap. Zoë had been muttering about that 'insolent fool' along the trip, much too loudly for Kia to not notice. She figured maybe Zoë held some grudge against the kid for being—well, a dude. Even if it seemed unreasonable and dumb to Kia, there was some sort of pain in Zoë's eyes that she held herself back from prodding at the topic.

Truthfully, Kia thought it was a perfectly valid reason—to save his girlfriend—to go on this quest; but alas, her vote had been long vetoed, putting aside the fact that she was nothing more than a mindless, sweaty rat while the meeting had taken place. A hint of guilt crawled up her spine—she had just woken up, no personal connection to this quest, and taken the opportunity away from him. She knew that even if she weren't in the prophecy, he probably wouldn't have gone on Zoë's interference, but guilt has a funny way of wiggling down someone's collar.

Bianca had seemed to notice something was wrong. "Is something wrong?"

Thalia's eyes darted to Kia, who had sloppily executed a complete 180 in her facial expression, to raise a suspicious brow.

"Hm? No."

She was aware that she wasn't a very convincing liar, but she also knew when push came to shove, she was a half-decent actress. Everybody but Thalia had seemed to buy her words; their eyes met, and a silent agreement passed through their gaze: Stay quiet.

A bunch of other realistically noteworthy things happened: Thalia being called a scullion by Zoë (and delightfully having no idea what that means), tracking spells with acorns that looked like they were in dire need of plastic surgery and learning that Zoë has been driving since automobiles were invented.

Regular family road trips, right?

Kia had been looking leisurely around the Air and Space museum, barely paying any mind to the fact that the apocalypse was probably starting somewhere. She had been studying a particularly generic looking kiosk when suddenly, the wind was knocked out of her. She wheezed on impact, her small stature flying to the ground, nearly hitting the base of an Apollo space capsule.

Thalia had nearly been knocked over with them, having been sort of hovering over Kia like a protective bodyguard. Her hand flew to her bracelet at the same time Grover yelped.

Kia ignored her throbbing head to look at what—who—knocked into her. Her eyes found a boy, around thirteen or fourteen years old, with messy jet-black hair and brilliant sea green eyes. Her wore the same camp shirt as them, it peeking out of a winter coat along with a pair of blue jeans and with a start, she realised this was Percy Jackson.

Bianca and Zoë, who suddenly had arrows notched and aiming right for Percy's chest.

Zoë seemed to realise quickly who this was but it didn't exactly make her anxious to lower her aim. "You! How dare you show thy face here?"

"Percy!" Grover said. "Thank goodness!"

"Were we not sufficient company?" Kia muttered to herself, taking Percy's extended hand and helping herself up.

Zoë glared at Grover for his statement. "I mean, um, gosh. You're not supposed to be here!"

"Luke," Percy said, seemingly out of breath. "He's here."

The anger in Thalia's eyes faded and the hand on her bracelet tightened. "Where?"

Percy told them all about the Natural History Museum, Luke, Dr. Thorn and the General.

"The General is here?" Zoë looked like he'd just struck her across the face. "That is impossible! You lie."

"Why would I lie? Look, there's no time. Skeleton warriors—"

"What?" Thalia demanded hotly. "How many?"

"Twelve," Percy said. "And that's not all. That guy, the General, he said he was sending something, a 'playmate,' to distract you over here. A monster."

Grover and Thalia exchanged wary looks.

"We were following Artemis's trail," Grover said. "I was pretty sure it led here. Some powerful monster scent... She must've stopped here looking for the mystery monster. But we haven't found anything yet."

"Zoe," Bianca said nervously, "if it is the General—"

"It cannot be!" Zoe snapped. "Percy must have seen an Iris-message or some other illusion."

"Illusions don't crack marble floors," Percy told her, laying on the sass so hard Kia snorted. He shot her a smile over his shoulder.

Zoë took a deep breath. Kia wondered if this 'General' was something personal to her, seeing as how she reacted rather explosively to the situation; Kia couldn't see her as someone who was easily made anxious in such a way—either way, this wasn't the time to ask. "If Percy is telling the truth about the skeleton warriors," she said, "we have no time to argue. They are the worst, the most horrible... We must leave now."

"Good idea," obvious who added that one. Kia really thought about why they hadn't talked before; he seemed just swell. Oh, yeah, she was unconscious.

"I was not including thee, boy," Zoe said sharply. "You are not part of this quest."

"Hey, I'm trying to save your lives!"

"You shouldn't have come, Percy," Thalia said grimly. "But you're here now. Come on. Let's get back to the van."

"That is not thy decision!" Zoe snapped.

Thalia scowled at her. "You're not the boss here, Zoe. I don't care how old you are! You're still a conceited little brat!"

"You never had any wisdom when it came to boys," Zoe growled. "You never could leave them behind!"

In unison, Percy and Kia winced at how heated the argument was getting. Thalia looked like she was less than a second away from hitting Zoë and as soon as, everyone froze. A growl so loud rippled through the room that Kia thought an engine of one of the rockets was starting up.

Below them, a good chunk of adults screamed, really exercising that authority of theirs they claimed to have. Kia was pretty sure she heard a kid shriek in delight, "Kitty!"

Bounding up the ramp was an enormous, golden lion with claws of silver. It was magnificent, in a batshit crazy sort of way; the spectacular flurry of shimmery gold was glittering in the light and its beautiful mane swept back, making the lion look practically ethereal.

Kia didn't have time to analyse it further, though.

"The Nemean Lion," Thalia recited stiffly. "Don't move."

The lion let out a bellowing roar, effectively blowing Kia's hair out of her face, although she could make do without the wads of spit flying around.

"Separate on my mark," Zoë commanded. "Try to keep it distracted?"

"Until when?" Grover asked, sounding unsure, terrified, anxious and very close to screaming, all in equal amounts.

"Until I think of a way to kill it. Go!"

Kia climbed up the Apollo space capsule, following behind Zoë and Bianca. Zoë pulled out a pack of arrows and a bow out of literally nowhere, handing them hastily to Kia who clumsily caught them. Weirdly enough, they felt oddly... perfect in her hands. She knew they felt uncomfortable for just a millisecond before they just melted in her hands, as if they were bending to her wishes. She didn't have time to marvel at the function, though. She notched an arrow, aiming it wherever she saw fit.

She could tell the others were also trying with their own devices to try and kill the fluffy boy (hey, he was, okay?), but her concentration was solely focused on getting her arrows into some sort of weak spot. From the corner of her eye, the little part of her mind that decided the arrows would be notched and aimed on autopilot registered Thalia stepping into the lion's path, her shield raised valiantly. The lion instantly recoiled.

For a moment, Kia's mind went blank when she realised that this was Aegis, a shield that bore the face of Medusa. She'd read about it somewhere before, it wouldn't turn you to stone, but it gave the shield the ability to ward off enemies, hence the nickname 'Shield of Terror.' Kia shook her head slightly, finding that it wasn't the time to think about (absolutely sick) shields.

She heard Thalia let out a battle cry and yell out, "Back!"

The lion roared, clawing the air yet still retreating as if the shield was covered in flames hot enough to melt its fur.

Kia almost thought they had it under control. Then, the lion crouched, tensing it's legs; Kia knew enough about body language and the anticipation coming off in waves from the lion to realise it was ready to pounce.

Percy seemed to have a similar epiphany. "Hey!" he yelled out. He charged the overgrown sparkly cat, slashing with a mind-boggling sort of precision with his sword, going right in for a strike that should've vaporised the thing, but the blade just rebutted off the fur in a flurry of sparks.

Kia watched in horror mixed with slight fascination as the lion raked at Percy, ripping off a section of his coat. Percy kept trying to evade, eventually jumping on top an old-fashioned plane, that wobbled in unstable equilibrium with the sudden weight.

Kia aimed an arrow, but it only seemed to whiz by, not doing anything purposeful. She clicked her tongue bitterly. To her amazement, er, dismay, the lion jumped onto the aircraft, the cords of the plane groaning in protest.

Kia kept shooting arrows, when Percy suddenly shouted, "Kia, target the mouth!"

She blanched, not expecting him to trust her of all people to carry such a task. Of course, the command went unspoken, he also implied that the others also target the spot. Still, the fact that he'd given the task to her was kind of sweet, like a silent encouragement.

In a second, the feeling was gone, long replaced by determination. She couldn't be getting all sentimental and distracted and end up dying before she had the chance to thank him. Zoë, Bianca and her all shot arrows, all of them missing by a significant amount. They just couldn't get a clean shot.

Percy shouted across to Grover, telling him to get everyone out and evacuated. He slipped down and Thalia dropped down, the two of them on opposite sides of the globe. The lion regarded them as if wondering which one would taste like pop rocks and which one would taste like toxic waste.

The place was a catastrophe, kids and adults ran around screaming like headless chickens, all the while Grover tried to get them to calm down while the demigods were trying their hardest not to die. It was as if the universe was begging them to die; the gods weren't subtle about it, were they?

"No clear shot!" Zoë voiced Kia's earlier thoughts.

"Try and get it to open it's mouth further!" Kia added helpfully, because Percy totally didn't think of that.

Kia watched Percy's eyes turn stormy, glancing around the place before his eyes eventually settled onto... a gift shop. He muttered something to Thalia, to which she nodded firmly. Percy's gaze caught Kia's perplexed one for a moment. They read: Trust me.

And she did.

She kept going, trying to keep the lion distracted from Percy, as much as she could from her vantage point.

It was a blur, the adrenaline of the fight making the events hazy for her. All she remembered in that moment was that she had to keep going. Arrow after arrow, battle cry after battle cry, Kia saw Percy recklessly throw his sword at the lion, effectively leaving him weaponless, if that's what he was going for. She shook her head, she had to trust him.

The lion turned and snarled. It was at this moment that Kia wondered if Percy actually had a death wish. The fool charged towards the lion but at the last possible second, centimetres away from being cat food, he chucked some weird packet into the monster's mouth.

Unexpectedly, the lion gagged and it's eyes widened as if whatever was in the packet was worse than feeling a stub on your little toe.

"Kia, get ready!"

She straightened like she'd been zapped with a bolt of Zeus' lightning. She knew how peculiar it was that she'd suddenly developed an affinity for the bow and arrow, but this... this was something much more complex. The feeling of unbridled power rushed through her bow, prickling the skin it was in contact with like a hot needle. The strange thing was that it didn't bother her, only making her aim less shaky, more precise and abundantly more deadly.

Percy had chucked one more packet into its mouth just in time to cry out, "Now!"

Immediately, Kia's arrows met the lion's maw—two, four, six. Zoë and Bianca also had deployed their own volley of arrows and they also perfectly hit the spot. The lion thrashed and fell backward and then, it was still. Kia expected killing a creature to feel bad, waiting for guilt to swallow her up, but the strange thing was that she didn't feel any of it. She knew the others were probably similar to the state she was in, but Kia had always been the type to feel overly conscious of her actions but in this case, she felt none of the expected moral weight on her shoulders.

As quick as that, she felt as if the energy had been drained out of her completely. The kindling of energy she felt from her bow went down the drain, exhaustion taking over her. She stumbled slightly and Zoë had to steady her by the shoulder.

Neglecting the looks of concern both hunters threw her, she hopped down, Zoë and Bianca following closely after.

Alarms blared brightly while the demigods took ragged breaths, trying to collect themselves.

"Did you... " Kia hesitated, finding her question absurd to ask. "Were those... freeze dried food packets?"

Percy smiled crookedly at her, the effects of the fight barely taking a toll on his friendly aura. "Cool, right?"

"Sure, Mr. Inflated Ego."

His face twisted into one of offence. "I didn't see you coming up with some world-renowning ideas!

"You call that word-renowning?" she scoffed, crossing her arms. "You threw your sword at it, Barnacle Shorts," she said, clapping sarcastically. "Real smart."

"I'm not even wearing shorts!"

Some of the events in the chapter may be confusing to some of you, but don't worry, it's meant to be! Some answers will be revealed in the next few chapters and I've got a lot of ideas for the upcoming developments in the story. Thanks for reading!