Chapter 2: I Make a Mistake
We walked up to the man, weaving through the frozen traffic. As we neared him, Zia scowled, and lit her staff on fire. The man's cocky grin was suddenly wiped off his face, replaced by a look of utter panic. He disappeared, taking all the cars with him. I wonder what the mortals in the cars would think when they unfroze and realised that they weren't on Brooklyn Bridge.
"Sadie? Do you know what you're doing?" Felix asked nervously.
"No," Sadie admitted.
I told you Egyptians were stupid, a strong male voice said in my head.
Don't say that! Those are my kittens! Another voice - female and kind of purring argued.
It isn't wise to argue now, another female voice said, Okay, Bast, Poseidon?
"Just shut up!" I muttered.
"What?" Walt was looking at me funny.
"Just someone in my head," I said.
"Is she a -" Carter trailed off as he stared at the other seven kids.
"I thought you froze them! What did you do?" Jaz demanded.
"I - I think they're related to gods, too." I said weakly.
We didn't have time to run, though. The other group gathered in front of us, so we were standing face-to-face. I gulped. Something told me that I was supposed to know who they were.
Oh, look at them! the catlike voice scoffed in my head.
Just shut up, whoever you are, okay? I told it mentally.
One of the girls in that other group narrowed her eyes at me. My heart pounded quicker than usual, and I got a weird feeling that I was somehow related to her. But I brushed the thought aside. Not possible, I told myself.
"Who are you?" one of the boys demanded.
"Words have power," Sadie said, "How do we know we can trust you?"
"We'll tell you our names first, then." Another girl said.
"Fine," Jaz grumbled.
I sized them up. They were generally older than us, and they looked like they've been through a lot. Some of them had strong feelings for each other, I realised. There were three couples, and a boy... the seventh wheel.
"You have to tell us your names after us." the girl said.
"Swear on the River Styx." another girl added.
"Um, we swear." Carter said for all of us.
They took turns introducing themselves.
"Percy Jackson." a raven-haired, sea-green-eyed boy said.
"Annabeth Chase." his - I supposed - girlfriend said. She had blonde-hazel hair, and really grey eyes.
A girl with choppy brown hair and kaleidescope eyes smiled, "Piper McLean, daughter of Aphro -"
The boy she was holding hands with, a boy with close-cropped blonde hair and electric blue eyes, quickly interrupted, "Tristan McLean. The actor. Oh, and I'm Jason Grace."
Piper looked apologetically at Jason and said, "Gods, Jason, I am so sorry."
Gods? Were they magicians too?
"Hi, I'm Leo Valdez, and I have a cool ability!" an impish-looking scrawny Latino boy grinned, and lit his hand on fire.
Zia and Sadie exchanged looks. I wasn't very good at reading people, but I swear their message was, Fire elementalist? Magicians?
Then, a girl - thirteen or fourteen, maybe? - with curly light brown hair and amber eyes stepped forward and said, "Hazel Levesque."
The last boy, a muscular guy with buzz-cut hair and an Asian look smiled uncertainly, "Frank Zhang."
Annabeth nodded and announced, "Your turn!"
I stepped forward. "Hello. I'm Bianca, and that's Sadie, Carter, Jaz (short for Jasmine), Felix, Walt, and Zia." I said, pointing to each person in turn.
"Holy Hephaestus!" Leo cried, then shut his mouth tight after being given a withering glare from Annabeth.
She's fierce, the cat voice in my head commented.
Just shut up! I yelled at her mentally.
"Which nome are you with?" Carter demanded, deciding that they were magicians.
"Dude," Percy laughed uneasily, "I hang out with centaurs, Cyclopes, and even satyrs, but I don't hang out with gnomes."
Frank frowned at us and said, "Are you all unclaimed half-bloods?"
Gods... Hephaestus... Centaurs... Poseidon... Cyclopes... Satyrs... Half-bloods... River Styx... All those words swirled in my mind as the pieces of the puzzle fit together. Though, now, I wished I did not figure it out, so I could not tell anyone. That would've saved us a lot of pain.
"You're Greeks and Romans," I realised, "Demigods. Half-bloods. Half god, half mortal. All of you are the children of either a Roman or Greek god."
Annabeth gaped at me. "What - how -" she stuttered.
"Do you know?" Percy asked Annabeth anxiously.
Annabeth said through gritted teeth, "No."
Leo laughed, "Wisdom's daughter doesn't know something!"
"Quiet, Leo." Piper scolded.
I ran through a list of gods that I didn't know I had. Wisdom... Wisdom... Athena? I thought. Athena was the Greek goddess of wisdom, so Annabeth was the daughter of Athena?
"You're the daughter of Athena," I blurted out.
"Yeah, that's why I like owls," Annabeth admitted.
"So the Greek gods are in Manhattan? That's why we're not allowed!" Carter cried.
"So the Roman gods don't exist?" Sadie asked.
Jason rose a few inches off the ground. "Why you -" he started, but Piper calmed him down.
"Son of... What's the Roman form of Zeus? Oh yes, Jupiter! Jason, are you the son of Jupiter?" I asked proudly.
"Yep," Jason replied quietly.
Percy raised a hand and a globe of water flew to his palm. He scowled, still suspicious.
"Are you a spy?" he asked.
"Nope!" I answered cheerfully, "And you're the son of Poseidon!"
"Of course! Look at my trident!" Percy grumbled and pulled up his sleeve, revealing a trident tattoo.
Owl... Trident... I thought, remembering the picture on my sword, Riptide.
I took a deep breath and said shakily, "Guys, I know who are my parents."
"You didn't know?" Leo scoffed.
"Amnesia." I replied.
"Who are your parents?" Zia asked, suddenly interested.
"Blood of the pharaohs?" Sadie asked.
"No," I replied apologetically, "It's - It's - It's Poseidon..."
Percy gasped.
I continued, "And... I cannot tell you who my mother is."
Annabeth shrugged, "We'll have to bring you to somewhere safe."
"You're a demigod too?" Hazel asked.
"Yeah, I guess, daughter of Pluto." I said casually.
Hazel tilted her head, obviously surprised that I knew her father and that she was Roman, not Greek.
"No offence, but actually Romans are more sensible and mature and disciplined than Greeks, so..." I explained.
"Wait... Greeks!" Zia yelled.
"Yeah." I replied cautiously.
"Greeks." Sadie's eyes widened.
"Greeks and Egyptians never got along." Carter told us.
"Egyptians?" Percy growled.
"We have to fight." Frank decided. "It is the rule."
Annabeth looked at me. "Bianca, which side are you with?" she asked.
I sighed. I hated choosing sides! But I had to. I knew the right choice, but I didn't want to let my Egyptian friends who accepted me die just because the demigods were my half-siblings. So, the only choice was to join the Egyptians.
"I'm joining the Egyptians." I announced.
"Let's just do it single?" Piper asked.
"Yeah, sure." Walt agreed.
Jaz and Piper stepped forward at the same time. Everyone else backed away to the side of the bridge. Piper and Jaz began to circle each other, slowly taking out their weapons. Jaz her wand, Piper a dagger. I watched nervously as they charged at each other. This was not going to be good. I sighed again. Oh, well... I couldn't stop it, so I may as well try to win, right?