Chapter 1
Percy P.O.V
I woke up covered in sweat. Was this for real? I looked outside. Pitch-Black.
I went up onto the deck of the Argo ll. The sky was covered with stars. I looked at the moon, so dazzling and bright tonight. The dream that I had just now, it was the war. I was fighting, but I was fighting Annabeth. The dream had ended just when I cut her cheek, causing her to fall to the ground, looking at me in horror. What had I been doing? I heard footsteps behind me and turned around. Reyna was running towards me. A few Romans including Reyna had come with us to help in the war, and to see Camp Half-Blood. Hazel and Frank had come, but as part of the Seven. Reyna's face was etched with worry.
"What happened?" I asked her. Reyna took a second to catch her breath.
"Thankthegodsthatyourestillhere!" It was all jumbled up, but I understood 'Thank The gods that you're still here!'
"What do you mean?" I half yelled at her.
"The rest of the Seven-" I didn't stop to here what else she was going to say. I ran to to Annabeth's cabin. No, no, NO! Her knife lay on her bed. The room was messed up. Her bad wasn't made. That was not like Annabeth. The windows were opened. She had been kidnapped. I remembered what Reyna had said. I checked the other Seven's rooms. Similar scenes were in each one. Frank's room had a few feathers on the carpet. He must have turned into a bird and tried to escape. In Leo's room, a dresser had been burnt. A few blood stains were in Piper's room. I went back on deck. Reyna was still there, her face streaked with tears. She glanced at me, then turned her head.
"Not very Roman of me, huh?" She brushed away the tears.
"It's okay." I felt like I had been chopped to a million pieces. Annabeth...
"Where do you think Ja- I mean the others are?" Jason had chosen her instead of Piper. But Piper ended up with Leo, so all was okay, until now.
"What I'm wondering is how long they'll last."
"It has to be Gaea. She took Jason."
A tear ran down my cheek. They hadn't been taken away for nothing. The others might hold for a while, but Annabeth... She was strong, but they could still break her easily. All they needed was her to see me hurt, or dead...
Reyna closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Suddenly, her head jerked sideways as though she had been slapped. Her eyes snapped open. But instead of the dark color, her eyes her glowed blue. Her skin was getting the color of snow.
"Reyna?" She looked as though she was in a trance. She looked up at the sky. Then the stars started to reflect on her skin. She looked at me, then back at the sky.
"Percy, come." She then jumped into the water.
"Reyna!" I jumped off the side of the deck. But instead of hitting the water, I hit hard ground. I was in a cave. The floor was dirt. I got up and looked around. The cave continued to my right. To my left, the opening of the cave led on to a beach with white sand. Water dripped from the celling. Once at the beach, I saw Reyna and two other girls standing on the sand, except Reyna, who sat on a rock.
"Percy!" I looked towards the voice. Behind Reyna, Annabeth and the others where in a cage. The others called my name when they heard Piper. Minus Jason, who was knocked out. One of the girls next to Reyna snapped her fingers and they all suddenly were gagged, there hands tied behind there backs. A trickle of blood ran down Piper's forehead. Hazel looked like she was about to throw up. Jason woke up, looked at Reyna, and different emotions filled his face. Anger, shock, disbelief, worry. I tried to move, it felt like my feet were glued to the ground.
"Reyna," I said carefully. Reyna smiled. But it wasn't her smile, it was different, more evil.
"Percy," the voice didn't sound like hers. "Reyna is dead."
"What?"
"Kronos used Luke," I flinched at his name "And I use Reyna."
"Gaea," I hissed. Anyone with half a brain could here the distaste and bitterness in my voice.
"Finally catching on, I see. I had to use Reyna. She had the perfect spirit."
I grit my teeth. "She's been working for you?"
"No, I wish. If she had, I would have taken her a long time ago. But no matter. It was easy. I gave her the vision of poor little Jason, she became weak and easy to manipulate. Easy to take over. Her soul is no more, Percy. Destroyed. Luke wasn't, but there is no way Reyna could have survived. Luke served as Kronos host, and Reyna serves as mine."
"I know this is way off topic, but why are your eyes blue? I mean, aren't you the Earth, and stuff..."
Rey- Gaea rolled her eyes. "Just as stupid as I thought."
"Hey, I can't stay focused on one topic for two long, don't judge me!"
"Back to the topic!" Gaea yelled. She then smiled wickedly. "I know what that you would do anything for your loved ones, Perseus Jackson." One of the girls standing next to her went up to the cage. Her brown eyes were unsettling. She opened the cage, and took out the closest person to the door, which was Annabeth. She lightning fast took out a knife and put it to Annabeth's throat while the other girl closed the cage.
"Annabeth!" I yelled. I turned to Gaea. "What do you want?" I yelled at Gaea.
Annabeth's eyes were filled with fear. Whatever Gaea wanted, Annabeth knew, weather or weather not Gaea had told her. Annabeth's eyes changed. She was warning me. I could almost hear her telling me to not do anything stupid. Annabeth should know me better.
Gaea looked at me. For a moment, her eyes seemed to go back to normal, showing fear, a warning. But soon, they became cold and blue again. She turned her icy gaze back to the girls. The girl with brown eyes turned to the cage. Slowly, each person in the cage slumped to the ground, unconscious. Even Annabeth slumped to the ground.
"What I want is your loyalty." I took a step back, not even noticing that I could move again.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
Gaea smiled again. "Come with us. Join me. Come to our side."
"You wish!" She was expecting me to join her? She was crazy!
"Come on Percy. No pain, no suffering, and poor little Annabeth will stay alive." She gestured towards Annabeth. The girl made a deep cut on Annabeth's arm. Seeing Annabeth, unconscious, helpless, bleeding... It was enough to drive me insane (like I wasn't already.) I looked at the ground. Then I looked back at Gaea.
"Percy, I'll give you three days to think about it. Your friends will have no memory about what happened. If you agree, pack up your things and meet me at Thalia's pine. I hope you do join us. If not the Seven will die one by one in their sleep at the hand of our little spy at Camp Half-Blood. Any funny business an you will never see Annabeth again. Alive at least. Tell anyone about this meeting, and you will never see that person again. Don't give any hint about where you will be going if you decide to come with us. If you join me, I want you to disappear without a trace. Got it?"
"I'll never join you."
"You have three days to change your decision. If you love Annabeth, and value her life, you'll listen to me." Her image dissolved and I found myself back in my cabin on The Argo ll. Leo's voice came over the loudspeaker.
"This is your amazing and awesome Captain speaking," This is the part where everyone on the ship is rolling their eyes. Leo may be dating Piper now, but he still never missed a chance to tell everyone how cool he is. "We are arriving at Camp Half-Blood. Romans on my awesome ship, please don't kill the Greek Campers." Everything seemed normal at first, so I thought that nothing had happened last night, and that it was just a dream, but then Leo's voice came over the loudspeaker again.
"Almost forgot. But now that Jason has reminded me, wait, Jason put that down! No Jason... AAAAHHHH!"
"This is Jason everyone." Panic and worry were thick in his voice. "Reyna is missing." Those words hit me like a cold fist. "If anyone has any information regarding where she is, please notify Chiron or anyone else." That's when the intercom turned off, after a chocked sob that belonged to Jason. I ran up on deck and looked at Camp. I saw the faces of people I had known for years. Knew ones. One of them was a spy. I remembered the Second Titan War, there was a spy then, there was a spy now. If I listened to Gaea, I would be betraying all of them. If I didn't, they would all most likely die.
I had made my decision.
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