AN: Hey guys! So I know it's a day late, but here I am with the fourth book in the Elizabeth Jackson series. WOW! For those of you who are new to my series, I would advise that you go back and... you know... read the first three, because otherwise you will have no clue what is going on. Before I go on with anything else, here's a full summary of this story.
The war with the demititans is going full force and Elizabeth is right in the thick of it. Elizabeth finally has a chance to lead the mission that she's been planning for months, which could bring the demigods a big victory. But unbeknownst to Elizabeth, this victory comes with a huge cost, one which will send her whole world spiralling out of control. Yet the biggest battle of the war so far is quickly approaching, and Elizabeth needs to be on her top game. Can she manage that, though, when everything in her life seems to be falling apart? With everything going on, the stakes have never been higher for Elizabeth and the gang.
Oh boy! That's exciting! Now typically, I will respond to reviews I've gotten on the previous chapter at the beginning of each chapter, but this time, I will be responding to reviews from my Elizabeth Jackson one-shot collection and the last reviews I got on the third book at the bottom of this chapter, so stick around if you want to read those review responses.
Only a couple more items of business, and then we'll get into the chapter! I want to thank all of you very dearly for reading this series. I've really enjoyed seeing how much you guys are enjoying these stories, and I'm very happy that I'm getting to share these stories with all you guys. I wouldn't have made it this far without all of you, so thank you from the bottom of my heart.
And lastly, you probably want to know what my upload schedule is going to be. I will be planning on uploading twice a week, as usual, with uploads on Tuesdays and Fridays, unless something comes up irl. I will, of course, update you guys on that if I can't post something as planned.
ALRIGHT, I think that's it. I hope you guys are excited, because I am super excited to share this with you. DFTBA!
Rating: T for language, violence, gruesome images, and some suggestive elements.
Disclaimer: Not Rick Riordan. Only time I'm doing this for this book.
Elizabeth Jackson and the Veil's Destruction
Chapter 1: That Went Well… Right?
"We're coming up on the bus now," Jake said from the passenger's seat of the camp van. I looked ahead, seeing our target: a Greyhound bus, carrying a very valuable demititan passenger. The hulking son of Hephaestus was fiddling with a tablet in his hands, making adjustments on a program. "Shit," he mumbled to himself, running a hand through his slightly curly brown hair, "I'm not ready yet."
Theo, standing next to me behind the passenger and driver seats, touched Jake's arm. "Calm down," Theo said serenely. "I can't make the shot from here anyway. You've got some time." Theo was surprisingly calm, considering what we were about to do. He wasn't jittering nervously and he wasn't running his hand obsessively over his buzzed hair. In the hand that wasn't rested on Jake's arm, he was holding a strange looking arrow; rather than a point, there was a thick cylinder. It was a radio transmitter arrow Jake made specifically for this mission.
"Besides," Jocelyn said from the driver's seat, "we're not in a huge rush. According to our intel, that bus won't be getting off the highway for another twenty miles. I can hang back until we're ready."
"Speak for yourself about the rush thing," I grumbled. "I have to pick up Hannah Zhang from the airport."
Jocelyn glanced at me, smirking, and for some reason my heart starting beating a bit faster. I'd been noticing that happening around her recently. It was pretty annoying. "Well maybe you should have thought about this mission before you told your parents you could pick her up, Lizzie."
"Yeah, because I thought the mission was going to be today," I shot back. "If you couldn't tell by the bags under my eyes, I had a final exam today."
"Does that explain your tangled hair?" Jocelyn asked. "I mean honestly, with your hair that short, how can you afford to leave your hair so messy?"
I looked self-consciously in the rear-view mirror. My black hair, which had been shorn off by an axe blade the previous summer, was still quite short. Long enough that I could keep it in a small ponytail, but not very long at all. But the shortness made my hair frizz horribly. I frowned at my reflection. The frizziness was definitely worse than usually. I wished I had a brush with me, but I was travelling light for this mission. Just the clothes on my back, including my trusty leather jacket and matching right glove, and my sword, Marianas, strapped to my waist.
"I'll have the program ready to go in less than two minutes," Jake said, snapping me back to reality. "You should run through the plan with everyone one more time."
"Right," I said, nodding. I turned around, facing the rest of the van. We'd removed the seating in order to fit more people; my troops for this mission. Well, technically they were Jocelyn's troops, since only counselors could lead a mission (quests were different, it was very confusing), but in reality, I was the one in charge. I had developed our plan. So the mission was really mine, and the others who'd volunteered were looking to me for leadership.
We had ten others with us, in addition to Theo, Jocelyn, Jake, and I. First there was Dan Ocker, the son of Hades. He stood next to the sliding door, his arms crossed. His skin was even paler than usual, which was saying something, since his skin was constantly deathly pale. He was tapping his foot nervously. From his belt hung his two standard weapons: a single-handed axe and a short sword. James, the son of Nike, and my cabin-mate Katherine's boyfriend, stood in the middle of the van, holding onto an overhead strap for balance. His red hair was messy from running his other hand through it. The rest of the crew was obviously pretty nervous too. Jocelyn's half-brother, Donny, was checking the safety of his hunting rifle obsessively and shaking his long black hair out of his face (which was, annoyingly, longer than my own). Trisha, one of James's siblings from Nike, was rapping her collapsible spear against the wall of the van. She'd pulled her dyed blue hair into a bun so tight it had to be uncomfortable. Jake's younger sister, Cecelia, who was taller than me despite the fact that I was sixteen and she was only thirteen, was shifting from foot to foot.
And of course, all of Theo's siblings were acting extra nervous. Which made sense, because they were arguably the key to this whole operation. Tina and Leah, twin sisters who'd only just arrived at Camp Half-Blood a month ago, were both checking their bowstrings excessively. Even though they were new, they were already camp's best archers – even better than Theo, who had long held the position of Camp Half-Blood's best archer. I just hoped that their skills held up under pressure. Danielle, who typically spent more time in designer clothes than in the leather armor she was wearing now, was inspecting each individual arrow. For the third time. Wade, who was normally the last person to take things seriously, was tapping his fingers up against the wall of the van in an intricate pattern. Even Jasper, a long-time veteran of Camp Half-Blood and Theo's number two for the Apollo cabin, seemed nervous.
I took a deep breath. My team was anxious. And so was I. This was a big mission, after all. If we succeeded, this could be the turning point in our ongoing war against the demititans. But if we failed… well, I didn't want to think too much about that. The fact was, everyone needed to get motivated, and as mission leader, it was my job to do so. I closed my eyes briefly to collect my thoughts.
I opened my eyes. "Alright guys, listen up. It's go time. After all of our preparation, it's finally time to execute our plan. Success today means we can bring this awful war to an end much quicker. And I have the utmost confidence in this plan, and in all of us. We've practiced each step time and again. Now let's put it all together and do this thing!"
Everyone cheered. I nodded to myself. Good. Motivation part done. "All that being said," I went on, "let's run through the plan one last time, just to make sure everyone is on the same page. In just a moment, we will pull up close to that bus. While we're still behind it, we're going to roll down the window and Theo will fire his radio transmitter arrow. Once the arrow has magnetized to the bus, the software in Jake's tablet will automatically hack in and allow Jake to take over control of driving the bus."
"That part is important," Jake said. "Because once shit starts going down, the last thing the driver will be able to do is control the bus. So we can't move on to the next part until my tablet has fully connected."
"Right," I said. "So we'll wait for Jake's go ahead for the next part of the plan. Theo, you want to run through that part again?"
"Uh, sure," he said. He cleared his throat, then continued, "After Jake has control of the bus, Jocelyn will pull us alongside it. At that point, if you aren't already holding onto one of the overhead straps, you're going to need to. Dan, since you're standing closest to the door, it'll be your job to open it, alright?"
"Roger that," Dan said.
"So when we pull up alongside, Dan will open the door," Theo went on. "At that point, Leah, Tina, and Wade will shoot explosive arrows across and blow a hole in the side of the bus. While they're doing that, Danielle, Jasper, and I will set up the anchors for zipline arrows. Once the hole is open, Danielle, Jasper, and I will shoot our lines across through the hole."
"Once the zip line is established," I went on, "we need to start getting people across immediately. The monsters and demititans inside will probably be disoriented right after the explosion. We need to take advantage of that before they can get organized."
"No to mention the fact that if we come up on some traffic, you guys are S.O.L. if you aren't across," Jocelyn said from the front.
"Right, that too," I said. "Now remember, we'll be outnumbered, but since we'll have the element of surprise, it'll go a long way to helping us out. We need to press our advantage. Kill the monsters quickly. Do whatever you need to to incapacitate the demititans. But above all, make sure that we capture our target intact."
I pulled out my phone and brought up a picture of our target. The image showed a guy with a scarecrow figure dress in a slim suit with a wedge of brown hair and black eyes. Marcus, the son of Prometheus. He was third in command of the entire demititan organization, and one of Gaius's most trusted advisors. I passed around the phone, making sure that everyone got reminded of how he looked.
Capturing Marcus. It was a plan that Jocelyn, Theo, and I had hatched last summer, and now it was coming to fruition. If we succeeded, we could turn the tide against the son of Kronos. Marcus surely had a gold mine of information, if we could just get it out of him. And I desperately wanted to do that. I clenched my robotic right fist, almost subconsciously. Gaius had cost me so much; my arm, my mental and emotional health, and, indirectly, my friend Thalia. I was going to make him pay for it all.
Dan handed me back my phone. At that moment, Jake exclaimed, "Ah ha! I got the program ready to go!"
I looked at everyone. "Alright guys. We've got this. Today we gain the advantage that will bring this war to an end! Is everyone ready?" My teammates cheered. "Let's do this!" Jocelyn slammed her foot on the gas pedal. We shot towards the bus up ahead. Theo notched the radio transmitter arrow. Dan rolled down the widow. Theo leaned out, drawing back his bow. Wind blew in, ripping at my jacket and making my already messy hair worse. I didn't even know why I cared. My eyes flickered forward to Jocelyn, then back to Theo.
He let loose the arrow. I don't know how he managed to make the shot, but he did. The transmitter arrow latched onto the bus. The pulled himself back in through the window and immediately started stringing his zipline arrow. Jocelyn swung the van out into the left lane and sped up even more, pulling us up alongside the bus. We were next to the back set of windows. Dan opened the door. The wind whipped through even harder. James and Donny bumped into each other.
Leah, Tina, and Wade notched their explosive arrows. They aimed forward, accounting for the wind, then let loose. I braced myself against Jocelyn's headrest. The arrows hit the side of the bus and… BOOM! The sound of glass shattering and metal ripping combined with the sound of the explosion itself. The whole van shook. Broken glass had sprayed into our van. The smoke started to clear, revealing a big hole in the side of the bus. Monsters and demititans scrambled away from the hole. Leah, Tina, and Wade were already firing regular arrows to keep them back while we set up our zipline.
Speaking of which, Theo, Danielle, and Jasper let their arrows fly. The ends latched onto the opposite wall of the bus. Our vehicles were now anchored together. "Move!" I shouted. Dan, James, and Trisha grabbed the black pieces that latched onto the line and zipped across. They crash landed on the other side, drew their weapons, and went to town on the monsters. With people actually across, Leah, Tina, and Wade stopped providing covering fire. Wade went across next with Donny and Cecelia. Danielle went across with Leah and Tina, both of whom looked sick, but still managed to get across safely. Theo, Jasper, and I were last. But before we could…
"Shit!" Jocelyn cursed. I looked ahead. We were fast approaching another car, one that was moving a lot slower than us. Time seemed to slow as my brain processed the information at light speed. Rear ending that car would be disastrous. Jocelyn was going to have to brake now. There wasn't time to zip line across, which meant…
"No time!" I shouted, time returning to normal. "Jump!"
Theo and Jasper got my message. We leaped from the van door just as Jocelyn slammed on the brakes. The zipline wires were yanked from the bus and whipped past our faces while we were still in midair. I felt weightless, the wind tugging at me, the road flashing by underneath. I had a moment of absolute terror, then – CRASH! Theo, Jasper, and I tumbled to the floor of the bus. I heard ringing in my ears. An arrow whizzed past my face. I was completely disoriented. I must have hit my head on impact or something…
Theo grabbed me and dragged me behind a row of seats just in front of the hole in the bus. My sense of sound came back. "You okay?" Theo asked.
I breathed deeply, running a quick check to make sure that everything felt okay. "I'm good," I said. I looked at Theo, determined. Theo frowned, a shadow passing over his face like he's seen a ghost. "Are you okay?" I asked, worried. I really didn't want my friend injured.
"I'm fine," Theo mumbled. "Déjà vu is all. Let's do this." I nodded, drew my sword, then dove around the seat to enter the fray. Theo fired his arrow, killing a dracaena a couple rows ahead. I slashed through two Empousai who had been trying to cast a spell then whirled around and blocked a strike from a demititan. We exchanged blows for a few seconds, the fighting cramped in the bus. I ducked under a strike, and my opponent sliced the headrest off one of the seats. I slammed my hilt into the side of the guy's head, making him fall back, unconscious.
I turned, killing a dracaena. Towards the back, Theo and his siblings launched volley after volley of arrows at the enemy. Donny was with them, picking off monsters with his rifle. Trisha and James were standing on top of seats, perfectly balanced, and bashing demititans over the heads with their weapons. Cecelia and Dan were both a couple more rows ahead of me, fighting in very close quarters.
Way towards the front of the bus, I saw the very top of Marcus's head as he peeked around the seats he was hiding behind. My vision tunneled. I charged forwards, past where Trisha and James were fighting. I elbowed a demititan with my metal arm as I charged up the center aisle. I sped past a row, a demititan popping out to get me. I turned and kicked her in the chest. She slammed against the window, dazed. Soon I was level with Dan and Cecelia, who were back to back in the aisle, each fighting an armored demititan.
"Hey Elizabeth," Dan panted. "Good day for it. Wanna lend a hand?"
That's exactly what I did. I jumped sideways into the aisle behind the demititan Dan was fighting and slammed the flat of my blade across his face. I climbed over the seat and the dazed enemy as Dan turned to help Cecelia. I jumped back into the aisle. Three dracaena were now all that remained between me and Marcus. Three arrows shot past me, destroying the monsters. I smiled. Excellent. I stepped forward, past the last row of seats and…
There he was. Marcus was up against the window. He wore a checked gray suit. He smiled at me, his black eyes glittering. "Hey, Elizabeth," he said. "Long time no –"
I interrupted him by yanking him to his feet by his tie. He made a choking noise. "Sorry, I didn't catch that," I said coldly. "You want to try that again?" He coughed, trying to speak. I shrugged. "Guess we'll have to try again later." I threw him up against the window, then knocked him over the head with my sword for good measure. He collapsed, out cold. I cracked my neck. "That felt good."
Suddenly, Theo was at my shoulder, throwing his bow over his shoulder. "Looks like we're done here." I turned and looked at the rest of the bus. All the monsters were dead, piles of glittering dust littering the floor. Most of the demititans were unconscious, but those that weren't were laying down their weapons, placing their hands on their heads. Donny had pulled out rope and was tying up our new prisoners. "We did it, Elizabeth," Theo continued. "We completed the mission." He smiled and clapped me on the shoulder. "Nice work!"
I nodded, but for some reason I didn't feel as excited as I thought I should be. I turned back to Marcus's unconscious form as Theo pulled out his phone to let Jocelyn and Jake know we were done. I rifled through Marcus's pockets. I scrunched my eyebrows together. "That's weird," I muttered.
"What's weird?" Dan asked, coming up to me.
I looked up at him, his face flushed with triumph. I didn't want to ruin his anyone's good mood just because I had noticed something sort of… odd. "It's nothing," I lied. "Just uh… I guess it still hasn't hit me that we succeeded. That's all."
"I get it," Dan said. "But relax. We did it! We're going to start turning things around now. I feel it."
"Yeah," I said absently. "Yeah, maybe." But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
"…yep, see you in a second," Theo said, hanging up the phone. The bus lurched sideways onto an exit ramp. Theo turned to me. "We're getting off here."
I blinked. "Really? I couldn't tell by the fact that the bus was getting off the highway."
Theo frowned. "Oh. Right."
I chuckled weakly, standing back up. "Sorry, Theo. I gotta pick on you every chance I get."
The bus pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned supermarket, the van parking next to us. I got out, walking back towards the van. Jake and Jocelyn climbed out, grinning and whooping. "Went off without a hitch!" Jake exclaimed.
"Not so hot now, are you, demititans?" Jocelyn called over to the bus.
I shifted uncomfortably, trying to feel as psyched out as everyone else. They were right to be so excited. The operation we'd been planning for months had gone so well, yet I couldn't bring myself to be pleased. I just had the feeling that something was wrong. Still, I forced myself to smile. "Yeah, we did good work."
From the bus, Dan and Theo strolled over, dragging the unconscious Marcus between them. Theo and Jake kissed quickly, then – oh yeah. Theo and Jake were dating now. Finally. Took them long enough to figure out that they liked each other.
Anyway, Dan turned to me and said, "The demititans in there are all tied up, but there's no way that we're fitting all of them in the camp van."
"That's okay," Jake said. "I can drive the bus back. I could use the material for some of my projects, anyway."
"And I'll keep driving the van," Jocelyn said. "That works well. Lizzie –"
"I feel like you're calling me that more often," I interrupted. "Not a fan."
"– you said you have to go back to the City and pick up Hannah Zhang from the airport anyway, right?"
"Yeah," I said. "My stuff for camp is still at home, too."
"Cool," Jocelyn said. "I'll drop you back off at your school on the way back. Your car is there, right?" I nodded. Jocelyn turned to Theo. "You coming with us?"
"Yeah, sure," he said.
"And bring Marcus," I said on an impulse. "If he comes to before you guys drop me off, I'd like to get first crack at the bastard."
"Alright!" Jocelyn said. "Road trip with the original gang – plus one piece of garbage."
AN: Alright that's chapter 1. I hope you guys enjoyed it. You won't have to wait long for the next one either, since that'll be on Friday. Before I go, I'll respond to reviews from Elizabeth Jackson One-Shots and Elizabeth Jackson and the Magician's Maze that I haven't responded to yet.
First I'll do the ones from Elizabeth Jackson One-Shots. From Person: "Awww, sibling love. Cute and I love it. I really want to read book 4. From the tidbits of the Theo short, the one-short before book 1, and the summary I can't wait!"
A: Well your wait is over!
From Unicute17: "Agh If I have to wait one more minute for book four to come out I am going to EXPLODE"
A: I hope you didn't explode
From cghe: "Is it like the Triumvirate Holdings thing again? Are you going to borrow ideas from Trials of Apollo, or is it something different entirely?"
A: It's something entirely different. But don't expect answers on that for a LONG time.
From EllaAnnieGrace: "Oh gods! I dunno what to type! Alot seem to be happening both in the one-shot and in book 3."
A: A lot to think about! I hope you don't worry yourself too much thinking about it.
From SilverAngelo: "CAN YOU DO A FAMILY TREE, PLEASE!? Including the demititans?"
A: That's not a bad idea.
Also from SilverAngelo: "ITS JUNE 14TH AND I WANNA HAVE A NEW BOOK TO READ SO I CAN COMPARE AWESOMENESS LEVELS WITH THE OTHERS BOOKS! PS: THIS IS HIGH ON THE AWESOMENESS LEVELS LIST. IT IS."
A: Well thank you so much for the compliment!
From the-only-soldier-left: "A "thing" happens, huh? Well, at least we'll know what you're talkin' about soon!"
A: You will know soon. Next chapter, in fact.
Now for Magician's Maze reviews. From Shiroji IA: "THALIAAAAA *creys* But anyways, once again I AM FRIGGIN ASTOUNDED WITH HOW WELL YOU WRITE. You're so awesome. I LOVE YOU. (like srsly you're one of the authors I look up to *beams*)"
A: Well thank you so much! That means a lot to me.
Another from Shiroji IA: "The one thing I'm sad with though (except Thalia) is the AugustusXElizabeth break up D: Please please please please tell me that they're getting back together. I ship them SO HARD gah. I also totally love Matt as well and would like to read a oneshot about him *feels giddy* Anyway yeah. XD"
A: I'm sorry you're sad :(, but I promise I do everything for a reason. And yeah, I really like writing Matt, too. I'd like to write more with Matt, so I probably will.
From TheImpalaLover: "I usually don't cry even at the saddest things but once you get attached to some sort of character in a book or movie it really hurts when they are killed off. I know that it had to be done and I understand but it still makes me sad. Only the best books and movies will make me cry and you succeeded. I really want this to continue and once this series is finished I will go and reread it all over again. Because I haven't posted a review while getting caught up in the series I hope this makes up for it. Thank you for taking time out of your day to make each chapter."
A: Thank YOU for reading and for leaving such a wonderful review. I really appreciate it. And I'm very touched that my writing was able to move you so much. I hope you continue to enjoy the series :)
Also from TheImpalaLover: "I'm glad I'm caught up but at the same time I am not. I know how much you like cliffhangers and now I will have to wait to find out what happens afterwards."
A: Haha, yeah I really do enjoy cliffhangers XD I'm such a troll.
From UtilitarianShank: "The pegasi-bending-space thing was a violation of the null energy condition, but it's fiction and I guess that making a whirlpool with your head qualifies as such too, lol. BTW in the line "chemistry I was reading between Matt and Sierra" - I think you meant "Amy", not Sierra."
A: Yeah. Plus I'm pretty sure the pegasi thing in the RR books. And nice catch on the typo.
From UtilitarianShank: "BTW, Julius Caesar could not have been a member of the 12th legion. If I understand correctly, the "1st legion", "2nd legion", etc. are differentiated by time period, (as in 6th legion might've been from 800CE while the 12th legion is from 2000AD). The segments of the legion are the cohorts."
A: Actually, I did quite a bit of research and Julius Caesar actually was part of the 12th Legion. I'm not sure where you learned the legions by year thing, but that's at least not entirely accurate. Maybe it started that way in the early days of the Republic, but that changed as their Empire grew?
From UtilitarianShank again: "I'd been wondering if there was any connection of Nero here to Nero's appearance in the Trials of Apollo. Also, I kinda wish Hylla had gotten at least half of the punishment Nero got, keeping slaves and all. She didn't own gladiators, to her credit."
A: Funny enough, I put Nero in the book before Trials of Apollo came out. I had no clue he would be in that book. And you don't seem to like Hylla much.
And one last one from UtilitarianShank: "I'm going to admit I was hoping Jocelyn (or Theo, but that didn't seem likely, for some reason) would die. Thalia was one of the best characters of PJO - in fact, I'd found the entire Hunters club to be an annoying bore until she'd joined them."
A: I'm sorry to have killed off one of your favorite characters, but I hope you continue to enjoy the series, anyway!
Alright, that's all from me. I will see you guys on Friday with chapter 2.
