KAI

I brought out Scorcher and ignited it as I faced down my five opponents. This fight was going to be hell, not just because of the severe number of them, but also the fact that they were carrying several large and pointy weapons.

I darted forward at the opposition, wanting to get the goons down first before I targeted the three leaders. I easily blocked one of the GHOST's attacks, pushing their blade to the side and then, using my left hand, I hit them backwards with a fire blast, hurtling them into one of their teammates.

The other three demigods all rushed at me at one time. I weaved underneath one of their slashes, kicked them square in the chest, and was able to hit the other two demigods back into the stump of a tree with a fire wave. The vegetation of the forest was quickly set aflame by my blasts as the fire began growing.

Alexander was taking down a large group of demigods to the left, while Olivia, Ivan, and Aldric stood to the side, commanding their troops. Some lazy leaders, I'll tell you that, but it benefitted us more if they waited their turn so I wasn't complaining.

Timmy meanwhile was standing in the middle of the forest, paralyzed as he spectated the battle. I suspected this had something to do with his dislike of the GHOSTs and his dislike of us. I had suspected that Timmy would try and flee from captivity, likely in a moment such as the one transpiring now, so I was surprised he hadn't made his move yet.

I saw Olivia whisper something to Ivan, the male GHOST leader nodding after she finished speaking.

Ivan then walked towards Timmy. "Timmy Dale. What brings you to fighting with them? Are you here on your own treacherous accord, or have you been forced to be here?"

"I- uh, am-" Timmy stuttered.

I growled in rage as I blasted four GHOSTs backwards with one large fire projectile and ran in front of Timmy.

"He's here to help us, and you're going to back off," I said.

Aldric chuckled, moving next to Ivan. "It's funny how you think that Timmy would genuinely help you. Didn't you lock him in a cage against his will and essentially torture him?"

"Well, no- I mean, yes, we did, but we didn't torture him," I said.

"Really now?" Aldric asked. "Then how did your group know that we were going to be in Portugal?"

"Um-"

"Exactly," Aldric said. "Timmy doesn't genuinely want to help you. You know what he wants? Freedom. The ability to not be stuck in a cage and be forced to betray the only family he has."

"Yeah, right. Like he's ever considered your group family."

Ivan raised his eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"From what Timmy has told us, you guys didn't treat him so well either. What did he say again? Ah, 'I hate being stuck beneath those two idiots and having to listen to their commands'. He also said that the place was never his home, just a substitute that he was forced to live in."

Timmy's face reddened.

"Is that so, Timmy?" Aldric asked.

Timmy froze up, his lips moving but not making a single sound. He was truly terrified.

"Well, if that is the case, no worry. Timmy, if you help us detain these two imbecile demigods, you may have an admiral rank for the GHOSTs," Aldric offered.

I turned towards Timmy. "Don't do it, Timmy. Remember, they're not your real family. They don't really care about you."

Timmy's face returned back to its pale color as he finally spoke, a little angry. "Ha. As if you cared."

He grabbed a purple flask out of his pocket and threw it towards me. The flask exploded on the ground next to me, sending me flying backwards and covering me in goo. Scorcher fell out of my hands and was tangled in the grasp of a long, winding vine.

"Well done, Timmy," Olivia said. "You have restored your honor."

Timmy continued throwing potions at me, as goo spread across my body and stuck me to a tree. Alexander saw the whole thing from across the field, and bellowed in rage, a deafening, powerful sound bringing all the GHOSTs around him to their knees.

He bounded up from the very earth and dropped down right in front of me. "Timmy, I know it doesn't seem like it, but there's a chance for you outside of the GHOSTs. A chance to redeem yourself: Camp Half-Blood."

Geez man. Was Timmy really worth all this effort? Could we theoretically just go to Epimetheus without Timmy and still obtain the info we want?

Olivia laughed. "Yeah, right. Camp Half-Blood hasn't done demigods any sort of favors. Think about Thalia and Jason Grace. In their time at camp, both of them were met with horrible fates. Camp Half-Blood is no more a free place than the GHOSTs, and you get the added boost of being a high-ranking, powerful demigod when you stick with us."

"What she says are pure lies," Alexander said. "Remember what she said when you first saw the GHOSTs? That you would find a new family, new friends and be accepted for who you are? Where'd that go, huh? The only people that care about you in the GHOSTs aren't even your friends. They're your competitors."

"What do you mean by that?" Timmy asked.

Alexander scoffed. "I can't believe you're so blind. A system that gives people definitive ranks and control over people? Like you said, Olivia gets control over you, but for what reason? Because she's stronger? Who's to say you even need a leader?"

"You say all this but think about your own dear camp. Aren't you governed by a wine god and a centaur? Heck, even your own cabins, your supposed homes, have leaders," Olivia responded.

"That may be true, but there are many key differences-"

"Shut up already!" Timmy yelled, silencing Alexander. "Why are you both trying so hard?"

Suddenly, Timmy grabbed a potion from his hand and chucked it at a large portion of the GHOSTs, all hitting them backwards as Greek fire was summoned to the field.

"I make my own destiny," Timmy said confidently. "And my destiny sure as hell isn't being controlled by a protogenoi loving hippie or a jester and his sidekick."

Timmy chucked even more Greek fire potions as he made his leave, getting ready to sprint out of the forest. The fire I had summoned earlier doubled in size, the far reaches of the forest caught aflame.

Mid-escape though, Timmy was stopped by some force, being lifted up as he flailed his arms helplessly. I certainly am not alone when I say that I got Darth Vader vibes from this moment.

Olivia was lifting her hand upward, lifting Timmy higher in the air through her telekinesis. "You don't just get to run away, Timmy. When you signed on as a GHOST all those years ago, you made an oath to serve Erebos and all his endeavors. You don't just traipse around that promise."

In a fit of flames, I burst myself out of the goo and dashed as fast as I could at Olivia. I built up a massive amount of force and fire energy within me before releasing a long, powerful stream of red fire, Olivia forced to drop Timmy as she casted a forcefield to protect herself. Her forcefield was futile against the force of my blast though, as she was just sent flying into the trunk of a tree beside Ivan and Aldric.

"Let's take those suckers down," Alexander said, lifting his weapons up in preparation.

I shot streams of fire towards Aldric, Olivia, and Ivan, forcing them to retreat to the side as fire burnt down the vines next to them. I retrieved Scorcher from the ground and ran towards the trio, Alexander following behind me.

Ivan jumped at me with his dual blades, attacking me with quick pace. I was level to his strikes each time, and after disarming one of his blades, I hit him into Olivia with a light beam. Alexander meanwhile took on Aldric, doing well to dodge Aldric's drone's laser beams and many gadgets.

Olivia and Ivan got up from the tree, their sights on me as Alexander continued fighting Aldric across the forest. The two GHOST leaders looked pretty banged up, which gave me some form of confidence.

Olivia shot a wave of water at me, forcing me to narrowly dodge as it hit a tree behind me. Ivan progressed towards me once again with his blades, delivering a spinning double-slice that skimmed the sleeve of my burnt-up jacket.

The onslaught continued as Olivia cast a fire spell, but I easily redirected it, this time far quicker and more powerful, hitting Olivia in the chest and sending her deep into the forest. Ivan shot a ray of darkness at me, which I countered with a beam of light, the two attacks leveling the other in strength. I rolled to the side, allowing his beam to overpower mine as it traveled through the high tops of the trees. Then, with his feet exposed, I got a straight light beam that tripped him on his back. I advanced towards him, kicking him down before he could get up and holding my sword to his neck.

Aldric came flying in, crashing into the ground and groaning in pain as Alexander jumped down next to me.

I smirked at Alexander before turning my attention to the two GHOST leaders in front of me. "Give it up, Lord Edge and Nerd Boy. You've lost this one. You never won one technically speaking, but whatever."

"No, we haven't lost yet," Ivan said, pushing up from the ground. "We will not lo-"

Mid-sentence, a massive gust of wind hit him from the side and blasted him all the way off the island and into the far city of Mallorca. Aldric was similarly blasted away, as were all the remaining GHOSTs on the island and the massive fire that had been spreading was cleared out in an instant. When we turned to see who our savior was, we were met with a quite big (and ugly) surprise.

In front of us was a six foot-tall man, with waist length white hair, a long white beard that was definitely fake, and calm blue eyes. He was wearing a silk cloak that was purple along with sandals showing his nasty toes and feet. His face was extremely disformed, with his left eye two inches above his right, his jaw crooked, and a nose so disheveled and hairy, it would be the only nose that Voldemort wouldn't want. He also reeked of a conglomerate of terrible smells, including and not limited to, old tuna, rotten eggs, sharpies, onions, steamed broccoli, spoiled milk, and garlic.

It literally took all of my energy not to barf. Alexander wasn't as secretive about it as he barfed all over the grass next to us. Timmy rose from the ground he had been knocked down to earlier only to fall back over as he began holding his breath.

Besides being known as the biggest health hazard since the bubonic plague, this man was also Epimetheus, the supposed wise one and the man that was supposed to help us on our quest.

"Ah, Kai! I'm very glad you made your way to my island! Come on into my den. We'll talk there," Epimetheus said, flashing his crooked smile.

I wasn't looking forward to this.

Based off my dream, I already knew that Epimetheus was not exactly the smartest, but the fact that he couldn't even find his own den still surprised me. He led us through multiple burnt stretches of the forest, realized he was going the wrong direction, went another direction, and then the process repeated.

This time, we were going through… nope, just forestry. Nothing that special. I swear we had been down the same route before, but given how similar the forest looked basically everywhere, I wasn't really sure.

Epimetheus was about fifteen feet in front of me, with Alexander walking a few inches behind me. We had insisted on the space, considering Epimetheus' pungent smell.

Timmy awkwardly turned to me. "Hey, thanks for the help against Olivia. I'm not sure what would've happened had you not interfered."

"No problem," I replied, secretly a bit weirded out.

This was such a weird predicament to be in. Remember, Timmy had tried fleeing from us in the forest before Olivia did a full on Anakin Skywalker. Now we were sort of forced to converse as Epimetheus tried locating his den. This resulted in there being a prompt ten second silence as we followed after Epimetheus.

"So, uh, Timmy, who was that Samantha girl back there?" Alexander asked, breaking the quietude. "You two seemed really close."

Timmy blushed slightly and scratched the back of his head. "Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that. When the GHOSTs found me all those years ago, Samanatha, Johnny, and Keenan greeted me. Those three were the only reason I ever continued with the GHOSTs."

Alexander muttered, "Interesting."

The three of us walked in silence again.

"Timmy, I'm confused," I said. "You say you dislike the GHOSTs, but then you also say you had friends back there that made you wanna keep going. So why exactly did this happen?

"Kai," Timmy said. "Even though I liked my friends, I've always thought their blind worship of the GHOSTs would lead them into a bad place when they got older, and I'm not just gonna stick around while they become what Olivia or Ivan are. Plus, Olivia's entire thing about not being able to go back on my oath, whatever made-up bullcrap that was, further proved to me how messed up the GHOSTs are."

I rubbed my chin. I guess that all made sense. It also really told me just how corrupt the GHOSTs were. This entire time, I had assumed these people chose to be evil for evil's sake. But after knowing Timmy and what he told us about his friends, it really opened me up to the real truth; the campers back at Camp Half-Blood and the demigods in the GHOSTs weren't all that different, just that their loyalties lied in different places.

"Okay, so you dislike the GHOSTs," I commented. "But why are you sticking with us right now? Why not run away?"

"Well, I did try and run away, but I don't think I'm in good enough condition to try that stunt again. Also, something you two and Olivia talked about piqued my interest."

I raised my eyebrow, wishing for him to elaborate.

"Camp Half-Blood," Timmy answered. "Is all that stuff you two said about Camp-Half Blood true?"

"Yes," I said without hesitance.

Timmy nodded, taking a while to configure his next question. "You guys have an alchemy class at camp?"

"Yeah, we do," Alexander confirmed. "Fair warning though: more bad has come out of that place then good. Connor Stoll almost burnt himself into a crisp when mixing nectar and sulfur to get Greek fire, and that's just the tip of the snowflake."

"That's an amateur mistake," Timmy said. "To make Greek fire, you need nectar, alcohol, pitch, quicklime, sulfur, resin, bitumen, saltpeter-"

He stopped after realizing he was rambling on.

Timmy ceased his tangent and said, "Point is, that Connor kid can't be very bright."

"He isn't," I said. "Doesn't seem to run in the family."

Timmy looked at me quizzically. "Family?"

"Yeah, you and Connor are half-brothers," Alexander answered. "You're also brothers with Cecil, Julia, Alice, Campbell-"

"I have brothers and sisters at camp?" Timmy asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, basically everyone does. I have like seven."

He just furrowed his brow, scratching his head

"I'm not surprised you're so taken aback," I said. "Finding out you're related to Connor is a real world-ender."

"No, it's not that. I just… never knew I had such a big family, at least to my knowledge."

I might've questioned him further, seeing as he got kind of down from the last thing he said, but then Epimetheus announced, "We're here! Come on in!"

I had been so focused talking to Timmy and Alexander I hadn't even realized we had arrived at Epimetheus' cave. Seems the guy had finally figured out where his home was.

The cave looked just as it did in my dream, with the same leaves draped across the entrance and the setting of the forest. We pulled aside the leaves and entered the cave behind Epimetheus.

It looked like the inside of one of those crappy apartments you'd see while browsing the web, with there being a worn bed with a leaf for a blanket, a mini-fridge, a small table with a TV hooked to the wall, and a sitting area. Scattered across the floor were several bust-open coconuts. I even thought I saw a ferret enter and exit the den through a hole in the side.

"Go ahead and sit down," Epimetheus invited, patting Timmy on the back as we all walked in.

Timmy, Alexander, and I all sat down on the green couches while Epimetheus sat across from us on his bed.

"Ah! Is that a cat?" Alexander yelled.

"Oh no, that's Kivan!" Epimetheus said. "He's a ferret, and though he may seem aggressive at first, he'll eventually warm up to you."

Timmy nodded slowly. "Sure."

"Now, let's get to business," Epimetheus said, stroking Kivan's head. "Kai, what guidance do you seek?"

"Well, we were told by Clio that we needed to find the father of excuses and that he would help us on our quest," I explained. "Then you showed up in my dreams and told me to come to you for guidance."

"Very good," Epimetheus said.

Was this guy my math teacher or something? What does 'very good' entail, you stinky old boomer?

"So," I continued, containing my rising frustration and confusion. "I came here with my two friends to see what you had to offer. So, uh, wise one, what must we do to get your service?"

"Well, I have a few tasks I'd like you guys to do to gain my guidance," Epimetheus said.

Timmy raised his hand up. "Um, sorry to interrupt, but uh, how exactly did you get here? Weren't you once an all-powerful Titan?"

Epimetheus considered the answer for a good few seconds, remaining silent.

I glared at Timmy, who shrugged confusedly.

"No, it's okay, Kai," Epimetheus said, reading my expression. "Timmy, you are right. I was an all-powerful Titan once. Back then, I was a respected leader. But after my fatal mistake with the animals and Prometheus' thievery of fire from Olympus, I became a disgraced Titan, one that was always looked down upon. Then, Pandora happened."

I winced as I remembered the tale, the only bit of mythology I knew about Epimetheus.

Essentially, the tale was that after Prometheus stole fire from Olympus, the gods were angered and created Pandora to deliver evil and wickedness to men. She was a very beautiful creature, one that took after many of the Olympian's traits, like Aphrodite's beauty, Athena's brain, Hermes' craftiness, etc. The perfect specimen, so to speak. Anyways, when Pandora arrived, Epimetheus instantly took to her, and Pandora and him married one another. Soon after her arrival, she lifted a jar entrusted to her by the gods, releasing a bunch of harmful keres - aka bad stuff - to mankind, like disease, starvation, and warfare.

"After Pandora succumbed to her terrible fate, I hid away, not wanting to face the gods or the Titan's fury," Epimetheus continued. "During the Titan War two years ago, Prometheus came to my island to talk to me, but after seeing me in my current state, he yelled at me and called me a disgrace."

"Oh, that must've sucked," Alexander said. "Especially the part with Pandora."

Epimetheus nodded. "So that's why I'm here. I help guide travelers on their quests, and partake in no wars or battles. That time of my life is far behind me. Looking back at the person I was eons ago, I feel ashamed. I was a cocky, eager, airhead of a Titan that saw no wrong in my ways. I'd like to believe I've improved."

"That's, um, good," Timmy commented, not expecting a whole life story. "Uh, so what are these tasks you want us to do?"

"Usually, I have four tasks that I assign to passengers, but given that you guys just faced an entire squadron of demigods, I'll give you three," Epimetheus said.

"Nah, you can give us four," Alexander said.

Timmy and I glared at him.

"What?! I like doing things, especially for smelly old men!"

Epimetheus chuckled. "Oh, I like this one. Your first task is to find a ripe set of bananas and give them to me."

"Bananas..?" Timmy trailed off.

"Second, I need you to give me a professional, resort-worthy massage and rest. My back is killing me today!"

"I take back what I said," Alexander said. "Pun not intended."

"Your last task is one I will only tell you once you have completed the other ones," Epimetheus finished.

"Um, so you're telling me that when you see passengers and travelers come to your island, you.. make them massage your back and find you bananas?" I asked.

Epimetheus made a so-so motion with his hand. "Well, different varieties of tasks, but mostly the same; finding me food and giving my body a nice pedicure."

"And you can't do these yourself because..?" Timmy asked.

"Well I'm the father of excuses, of course! I'll find some way."

I furrowed my brow. "Yeah, right. Try me."

Epimetheus looked me straight in the eyes. "Well, Kai, Kivan here needs a trim, the fields need to be cut, my back is so sore, my fridge needs to be refilled and cleaned, I have a meeting with an old friend at the beach, my place needs to be cleaned, my eyes are super glassy, my children need to be fed, and my gods, my back is aching!"

"Dang," Alexander said. "He's good."

"Uh, no he's not," Timmy said. "He's making most of this stuff up. Children? Really? You have children?"

Epimetheus shrugged. "Maybe. Who knows really?"

"I'd assume you know," I said.

Epimetheus shrugged once again. "Maybe. Maybe not. Anyways, for your first task, go ahead and use the back entrance of the cave. I believe you'll have the most success searching that part of the forest for some bananas. Go on then! Don't come back until you've brought me my ripe set of bananas!"