Chapter 2

(A/N) I would like to apologize for the first chapter, as it was a much shorter than I would like it, but it was only a uhh...let's call it a sample, to gauge your opinions and for the second being a few days late. I promise later chapters will be at least a thousand or more. So, without further ado, the story.

Percy

Still in flashback...

I woke up on a cold, rough surface. Probably stone. Seeing Annabeth lying next to me jolted me back to reality and was a better stimulant than any drug on Earth. Her shallow breathing was the only sign that she hadn't died. Rage replaced confusion, and my vision started reddening, whoever did this would pay. However, remembering the incident and replaying the scenes in my mind, I took in my surroundings. We appeared to be on a daïs of some sort, raised above the ground about a few feet.

"Ahhh... the great Percy Jackson finally awakes," a voice spoke, practically spatting my name.

Searching for the source of the words, a woman appeared at the spot I was looking at before I blinked.

"WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY FRIENDS?! LET THEM GO!"

"My, my, not even past the introduction, and we're already getting to demands. Don't worry, your friends are being very well taken care of. I think they quite enjoy the spacious housing they've been given," the woman said, gesturing to the bronze jars sitting at the base of the daïs. "Back to names, I am Pasiphaë, immortal daughter of Helios, master sorceress, remaker of the Labyrinth, and slayer of Percy Jackson."

"Okay, crazy lady, let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. I'm not dead and Gaea is still out there, so if we could wait until I put her to sleep, that'd be nice."

"CRAZY? I'm the crazy one. You're leading your friends on a suicide mission to kill Mother Earth, so if anyone here is crazy, it is you! Mother needs the blood of two demigod sacrifices to awake fully and reclaim her throne, and I shall have the glory doing killing all-"

"Yeah, yeah, kill all the demigods, torture the gods, rule the world, can we move on to the fighting part?"

"So eager to die I see. Sadly, I can not enforce your death, but someone will be with you very soon," she said, smiling a sick, sadistic face at me before leaving with a whirl of wind.

After the witch lady left, I wheeled around and kneeled down next to Annabeth. Turning her body over, I lifted her head a bit and softly called her name, hoping she would regain consciousness. Her pale eyelids fluttered open and she quietly whispered, "Was I drooling while I was asleep?"

Chuckling to myself, I joked, "No, nothing embarrassing if you don't count snoring loud enough to wake me." She started coughing, the spasms shook through her entire body and she sank into my arms. Praying like I never had before to any god I could think of, that she didn't die and just fainted, I stood up and picked Annabeth up with me. Carrying her down the dais, I set her in a sitting position at the base and went to look at the bronze jars. Almost exactly like the one Nico was held in, but with crude holes poked in the lids. One by one, I tried to pry them open to no avail. I was about to try again, when a soft voice spoke behind me.

"You should really save all that energy for me, you know."

I whirled around, and found myself face to veil with a pile of dirt. Now, mind you, a well sculpted pile of dirt in the figure of a woman, but still a pile of dirt. She had a veil, as mentioned, made of dust, swirling around her face and wore a cloak of shifting soil. "Gaea," I whispered.

"Hello!" She said cheerfully, as if it were one friend finally meeting another after a long time.

"Guess you're here to kill me now, huh?"

"Not quite kill. Consider it a great honor, you and your little girlfriend sitting over there, sacrifices to wake me,the almighty Gaea."

"What, you want me to bow down to you? Thank you for killing me and everyone I love? Sorry, not sorry. Not in a million years."

"Fine. If you won't comply and see reason, I guess we will have to resort to violence," she said somewhat disappointed.

I guess fighting wasn't really a strong point for Gaea, as she sank back into the ground, and replacing her form were two giants. The smokey one, from the Doors of Death, and a shorter one, with dreadlocks and what looked like...bones (? and gross) in his hair. Getting a better look at the giant I met at the elevator, he seemed to be completely encased in darkness, even in the brightness of day. (Twilight, really.) Wearing only what I can assume is Stygian armor, only his eyes stood out from the mass of shadows before me. The other one..., the smaller one, wore bronze amor with flame designs etched into it. Both had lizard-looking legs and claws on their feet. Still, although he wasn't as tall as his Gigantes counterpart (Enceladus and Clytius are not siblings contrary to what some may believe) two 20-feet plus tall lizard looking creeps standing in front of you, staring you down is always scary. The stubby one spoke first.

"I am ENCELADUS, Bane of Athena," he boomed.

"I am Clytius, Bane of Hecate," he said again in a deeper voice?

"Ah! Cly, you gotta fucking stop doing that. It's fucking wierd," and again?

"It's not my fault I was born without a voice and have to possess things to talk."

This is just creepy now. I raked my mind for whatever now important, vital to life tidbit of information that is casually spouted out by Annabeth. Clytius, Clytius...oh! He got set on fire by Hecate. So he's vulnerable to fire. Sadly, our human torch is sealed in a, I assume, locked jar. Expecting him to be good at magic was probably a good guess. Jarring me out of my thoughts was the screech of an eagle. Or a griffon. I can never tell the difference. I heard someone yell my name, "PERCY!" I look up to see formations of warships, similar to the Argo II, flying towards us.

"YES," Enceladus bellowed, "Mother promised us death and death we shall spread. Starting with you and your pitiful girlfriend!"

(A/N) Ha! Left you with a cliffy. Sorry for the late update, what with Algebra, my girlfriend, tennis, pets, and writer's block, I could hardly make this chapter work out. I'm sorry if this part is a little to fast or if this flashback takes three chapters, but, what can I say, CAN'T BE CONTAINED! The pairings will be decided later through a poll, but I'm pretty sure I'm picking Reyna. We'll see. Cliché ending, as always: Rate and Review. -Out