•as the world caves in•

•percy battles a god•

We burst up in water, in the middle of the Santa Monica Bay.

I was grabbed by my arm over to a life buoy, where Annabeth and Grover were.

In the distance, Los Angeles was on fire, definitely an earthquake.

I was in shock of everything that had happened.

Here's the run down: Percy had the lightning bolt, his mother is alive and might actually be dead now, Hades is after us and we have less then a day to get back to New York and return the lightning bolt.

Easy enough.

Coast Guard picked us up, and thankfully didn't question why four kids were out in the bay, or why Percy was shoeless.

They dropped us off at the pier before speeding off to save more people.

We stumbled down the beach as the city burned. In a sad way, it was almost beautiful.

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

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

"Hey," she warned.

"You get it, don't you?"

"Yeah. I get it it."

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

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

He pretended not to hear me, but it was okay. He was still grieving.

"The prophecy was right," Percy said instead. "You shall go west and face the god who has turned. But it wasn't Hades. He didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades's helm, and framed me because I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three way war and I'll have caused it."

Who put the fate of the world in the hands of an unprepared half-blood?

Grover shook his head. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?"

War. Someone wanted war.

The god of war.

"Gee, let me think." Percy stopped.

Ahead of us, was the one and only Ares.

"Hey kid, you were supposed to die."

"You tricked me," Percy said. "You stole the helm and the master bolt."

"Well, now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power—that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."

Oh my gods.

Why has it just now dawned on me that someone I knew stole it?

"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice."

I frowned. As much as I hated that girl, I knew she wouldn't do something like that. Even for her father.