Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson
ὕστερον πρότερον
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The Latter One First
A string of profanities spewed from my mouth as soon as I registered the pain. I dropped my sword and reached my left arm behind my back to break off the tail end. Then I brought my hand forward and swiftly yanked the rest of the arrow out, my cuss words rising in volume for a moment. I hotly threw the broken arrow to the side and covered my wound.
Unfortunately, that had given Dan and his buddies time to confiscate my backpack and sword.
"I seem to recall you carrying a switchblade, Victoria." Dan said casually sheathing his own sword. I thanked my lucky stars that I had decided to not wear a jacket today, forcing myself to put my switchblade on my ankle.
"Left it at my place." I muttered trying to sound begrudging, which wasn't too hard right then. Dan studied me carefully with narrowed eyes.
"Maybe we should search her." someone behind me suggested. I turned to face him and snorted.
"Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you?" I asked sardonically. His lip curled.
"Now's not the time for this," a familiar voice said appearing into my line of vision with my backpack slung over her shoulder.
I smiled. "Oh, Brooke, it's nice to see you again." She didn't respond. "Your arrow, I presume." I continued. She still ignored me. Fine, be that way, I thought.
Brooke stared sternly at Dan. "We should be getting back to the Plaza now."
"Oh, well, if you have somewhere you need to be, then I should be going, too." I told the three of them, slowly backing into the street, making sure I wasn't going to trip over anything behind me.
"Not so fast." Dan said, grabbing my right arm, jerking me back between them. "You're coming with us."
I groaned. "Do I have to?" I whined. "You could just give me my stuff back and we could leave our separate ways, like nothing ever happened. You won't ever have to see, or deal, with me again." I coaxed.
Dan just snorted and rolled his eyes before leading the way to the Plaza, me in tow. The other two followed behind a few steps. The trip only took a few minutes, which was shocking to me, because I hadn't realized I'd been so close to their "base camp." Not exactly the kind I'd pick, seeing as it wasn't very conspicuous, but when we got into the elevator and we started for the penthouse suites, I couldn't blame them.
All around there were demigods from camp that I recognized and then girls I didn't quite recognize, whose ages ranged from about 10 to 15 (at the oldest). I assumed they were Hunters of Artemis. Everyone was crashed out on sofas, chairs, beds. Some were ripping the draperies to bandage wounds; some were cleaning up in the bathroom; some raiding the minibars.
Dan went up to one of the half-bloods—Jake, I think his name was—and started talking, shooting glances in my direction. I didn't feel like tuning into their conversation and instead admired the penthouse suites. I wished I was rich enough to even afford a one night stay here. And it didn't have to be the penthouse, any suite here would suffice. I never really understand why they made rooms like this. You could live in this if you wanted. It had everything and then some.
Dan walked back up to me.
"What's the verdict?" I asked.
"Percy's occupied at the moment." he muttered.
My eyebrows rose in interest. "Oh, Percy is leading this regime, huh? Impressive." I said looking around. I started toward one of the balconies but Dan caught my arm.
"Just where do you think you're going?" he asked sounding incredulous that after all I'd done, I'd have the guts to just walk away from him.
I rolled my eyes. "Lay off. I just wanted some fresh air." I told him gesturing to the balcony I'd set my sights on. "You liberated my weapons. I'm not a threat. Don't be such a snot." I jerked my arm out of his grasp and went outside. I vaguely registered talking coming from somewhere, but the conversation held no interest of mine.
I took my left hand off my shoulder and examined my wound. It didn't look too bad. Hurt like Hades, but I'd live. Besides, this shoulder had already been damaged by an empousa a couple years back. She'd shredded the back of my shoulder. That was a hundred times more painful than what I was feeling now.
After I was done looking at my wound I looked out across Central Park. The sun had just risen illuminating it with its golden rays. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. The air was cool this morning with a breeze that tousled the stray hair that I could never keep in my braid, no matter how hard I tried. I enjoyed the crisp air; it soothed my nerves and dulled the pain in my shoulder.
I found myself enjoying the quiet, actually. It was so nice not to hear all the sounds of cars and yelling. It gave me a sense of peace. Sadly, this feeling didn't last long. I heard Luke's name and my attention snapped to the conversation. Now that I was actually paying attention I recognized Percy and Annabeth's voice. She had been the one to bring up Luke.
"…came to see me in San Francisco." she said weakly. If it hadn't been so dead silent I might not have been able to hear her.
"In person?" Percy's voice was tight, but it wasn't out of anger, it sounded like. "He came to your house?"
"This was before we went into the Labyrinth, before…" Annabeth's voice broke. My chest tightened at her words, my breath coming out in small, quiet gasps. "He came under a flag of truce. He said he only wanted five minutes to talk. He look scared, Percy. He told me Kronos was going to use him to take over the world." My hands closed into fists. I remember yelling this to him on the Princess Andromeda, but he didn't believe me. "He said he wanted to run away, like the old days. He wanted me to come with him."
"But you didn't trust him." said Percy in a low voice.
"Of course not," Annabeth continued. "I thought it was a trick. Plus… well, a lot of things had changed since the old days. I told Luke there was no way. He got mad. He said… he said I might as well fight him right there, because it was the last chance I'd get." Her voice rose slightly.
"It's okay," Percy said soothingly. "Try to get some rest."
"You don't understand, Percy." Annabeth continued in an almost desperate-sounding whisper. "Hermes was right. Maybe if I'd gone with him, I could've changed his mind. Or-or I had a knife. Luke was unarmed. I could've—"
"Killed him?" Percy finished. "You know that wouldn't have been right."
There was a pause. "Luke said Kronos would use him like a stepping stone. Those were his exact words. Kronos—" Blinking, I tuned out.
Up until then I'd been totally paralyzed. Now, hearing what Annabeth had said, a dull ache in my chest broke me out of my trance. My jaw clenched, I dug my nails into my palms and bent over, resting my arms on the railing to keep me up. The burning in my chest became worse. I squeezed my eyes shut refusing to let any tears escape.
This was before we went into the Labyrinth. Annabeth had said. If only I had still been on the ship! I couldn't even begin to imagine how scared Luke was. If only I had been there. He could've come to me. I would've gone anywhere with him. I could've saved him, like I had promised myself all these years….
My heart lurched painfully as the thought that Luke probably did come looking for me, popped into my head. When he couldn't find me he went to Annabeth. They'd been through a lot together. They had a strong connection. But she rejected him.
"Victoria," Dan's voice came from behind. I pulled myself out of my depression, straightened up, and turned to look at him.
"What?" I snapped, cocking my head slightly to the side.
"You're wanted in the living room." he said reaching out to grab my arm. I let him just because I hadn't managed to pull myself out of my miseries all the way. My mind was still reeling. I was scolding myself. You could've saved him! You could've saved him!
We walked into the living room where I saw Percy, Grover, Thalia and Jake were conversing. Percy looked… different. I couldn't pinpoint what, or why, but something about him was just… off.
As we got closer I realized they were talking about the spy in camp. I sighed heavily, grabbing their attention. They all looked up with varying degrees of glares. Percy's was probably the hardest, most murderous, one. But I was used to those by now. I'd built up a barrier to all outside emotions, comments, looks, etc.
"You rang?" I asked, crossing my arms, smiling slightly.
"She used to be the spy, right?" Dan asked. "Maybe she knows who the spy is now."
"Well would you look at that!" I exclaimed turning to look at him. "The boy thinks!" He rolled his eyes and one of his hands came up to slap my hurt shoulder. It wasn't totally hard, but it wasn't light either. My left hand flew up to grab my shoulder. "Ow! That hurt!"
"It's supposed to." he retorted.
My hand fisted. "You know what else hurts?" I asked shaking my fist. "A broken nose."
Dan snorted. "Like you really could."
"Is that an invitation?" I asked taking a step toward him, pulling my arm back.
"Okay, guys, break it up." Percy intervened, pushing us apart.
I heard Dan grumble, "She started it."
"Oh, grow up and act your own age." I told him.
He took a step toward me, but Percy stopped him. "Guys." he warned again. Then he turned toward me. "How did you get here?"
"I live here." I stated.
Annoyance flashed in Percy's eyes. "Not in Manhattan."
"I came a couple hours before the war started." I explained. I thought he was going to ask me why. Instead he turned toward Dan.
"When did you find her?" he asked.
"This morning. She was about two blocks away from here." Dan reported.
Percy turned back to me. "What were you doing?" he questioned.
"Getting a drink of water." It was the truth, but it was apparent he didn't believe me.
He sighed and turned back toward the other half-bloods that had gathered. "I don't have the time, or the patience, to deal with this right now. We can't obsess about this spy. You guys were awesome last night. I couldn't ask for a braver army. Let's set up rotation for the watches. Rest up while you can. We've got a long night ahead of us."
As the demigods dispersed, Jake pointed at me and asked, "What about… her?"
Percy glanced at me. "I suppose we should have someone watch her." he decided. "And," he paused, "we should, probably, give her some ambrosia—" As soon as that word was out of his mouth Thalia, Grover, Jake, and Dan started objecting.
"Why should we waste our supplies on some low-life like her?" Thalia asked angrily over the others, who quieted down as soon as she finished. Low-life, that was new.
"Calm down," I said bravely. "It's not a horrible, life-threatening wound. I won't need that much."
"Would you like me to make it life-threatening? 'Cause I can." Thalia jeered reaching up to grip her bow.
Percy took a deep breath. "As much as I hate to admit it, she's right." he muttered, stressing the word, hate. "Her wound isn't bad. She won't need more than a small portion." He looked at Dan. "Dan—?"
"I've got it." my brother said putting a hand on my shoulder. I made a face and shook it off. I turned and looked around the living room. I had a feeling that I wouldn't be finding a bedroom up here with all these other half-bloods. And I didn't exactly want to share, so I might as well just crash here.
There was a loveseat on the other side of the room, so I went over to that and plopped down, the wariness catching up to me. Great. Now I was a prisoner here too. Was it ever going to end? I was starting to get really tired of this routine.
"I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." Dan warned.
I rolled my eyes. "It's not like I really have anywhere to go." I replied. He gave me a hard stare for a moment before walking off.
I lied down on the loveseat, taking up the whole space and more; my legs were hanging over one of the armrests. I closed my eyes, breathing deeply and was on the brink of sleep when something landed on my stomach.
I lifted my head to see a baggie of ambrosia.
"Thank you." I told Dan before opening the bag and dumping the remaining ambrosia into my mouth. It melted and warmed my throat as it slid down. The warmth spread and the pain in my shoulder faded. I sat up to inspect my shoulder. The wound was gone, but when I rolled it, it was really sore. At least it was healed, for the most part. It's not like it'd never been this sore before.
I stretched back out, laced my fingers and rested my hands on my stomach, and closed my eyes.
"You could sleep, after all that?" Dan asked unbelievingly.
I waved my hand flippantly. "Quiet."
Why did I have to have demigod dreams? I wasn't a hero. I had betrayed my family—if you could call it that—to join the Titans. It just wasn't fair.
I was standing on one of the balconies at the Plaza. It was night, the stars were twinkling in the midnight blue sky, as bright as ever, and the moon shone down, bathing Central Park in silver. A crisp night breeze blew my loose hair back. There were no sounds of battle, just the sound of the leaves rustling in the trees as the breeze blew through the boughs.
I shivered.
"No way out," a familiar voice murmured in my ear, so close I could feel his warm breath on my neck. It was absolutely heart-wrenching hearing his voice after so long.
I spun around, my ice water running through my veins. "Luke?" I asked in an uncertain whisper. But no one was on the balcony with me. Inside the hotel was pitch black. I hesitantly turned back to look out over at the park again.
"But down." Kronos's voice finished. My spine went rigid as below me, the balcony started to crumble. Before I could even scream, "No" I was plummeting to the concrete sidewalk, twenty stories below. A shriek of pure terror broke through my lips. When the ground came within feet of me I closed my eyes, bracing for impact.
I jerked awake on the loveseat with a choked gasp. I coughed a little before swallowing hard. I blinked and looked around, trying to gather my bearings. Blood roared in my ears. I slowly sat up, breathing deeply, trying to get the black-and-gray spots to disappear from my vision.
"Did someone have a bad dream?" a male voice taunted. I looked over to my right to see Conner Stoll.
"Oh, shut up." I growled glaring at him. He gave me a contempt look before rolling his eyes and turning back around.
"This is so unfair." another voice mumbled. It was Travis. He was standing opposite of his brother. "Why do we have to guard you?"
"Yeah, we have much better things we could be doing right now. Like Dylan's Candy Bar…" Conner added, grinning at the thought of all you can steal candy.
I rolled my eyes. Even in the middle of a war all they could think about was raiding stores. Then again, I kind of admired that about them, they weren't as depressed as everyone else.
These feelings faded quickly, though, when I thought back to the dream I just had. I was going stir-crazy. That was probably it. But… on the other hand, you didn't have seemingly random dreams about Kronos for no reason. Then what was it supposed to mean, if anything? I didn't really see any point to it at all, except for the fact that it made me miss Luke.
A lot.
I sighed and looked out the windows. The sun was out and I guessed that it was mid or late afternoon. What I wouldn't do to get out of this place! That gave me an idea. Who said I had to stay here? I swear, I'd die before I got out of here! So, why not just make a break for it? You never know until you try, right? I only had two guards; I didn't think it was going to be too difficult.
As my mind raced, I listened to see if anyone was up. It didn't sound like it. All was relatively quiet. I'm sure that there were still people up, but not many. A lot were probably resting up from the battles last night. I glanced at the Stoll brothers who were now chatting away about all the goods they could be out getting right now.
Making sure that the living room was empty and that they were paying no attention to me, I lifted my right foot up and rested it on my knee. Glancing up at both of them once in a while, I slipped open the cover to the compartment and removed my Swiss army knife. I then opened the small compartment in that and took out one of the poison darts. It was a small thing, about the size and shape of a thumbtack (without the little plastic grip) and a cast-iron color. I quickly slipped my knife back into my compartment and lowered my foot.
Keeping my eye on the two, I pulled out the chopstick that I used to shoot the dart. I slipped the dart inside and was about to shoot when I noticed that they were both wearing the type of Greek helmet that protected the back of their necks. I'd have to get one of them to turn their heads. Even then, I'd only have a very thin margin of error. I had to hit the target the first time or I'd be in big trouble.
I took a deep breath, made sure that no one was coming in and then whistled softly to get their attention.
Both of them turned their heads, but Conner's was at a perfect angle. I quickly lifted the chopstick up to my lips and blew.
"What—?" he started, but, thank the gods, the dart hit the exposed part of his neck and the poison did its work quick. His eyes rolled back and his knees buckled. Travis lunged forward to catch his brother. I took this time to shove the chopstick back in my braid and pull out my switchblade. Travis stood up and I stepped in close to him, holding the tip of the blade to his neck.
"Don't move, don't make a sound." I ordered quietly. He glared at me, his chest heaving, his hands clenching and unclenching into fists.
"What did you do to my brother?" he spat through gritted teeth.
"He'll be fine." I said quickly. "Now, I want you to take off your helmet." I instructed. "Do it, now." I said putting a little more force behind my words, and pressing the blade deeper into his neck.
Slowly, Travis reached up and removed his helmet. As soon as it was off, I withdrew my blade, brought my fist back and hit the side of Travis's head, more specifically his temple. He collapsed. I made sure that they were both breathing and both completely unconscious.
Then, I went to look for my sword. No way was I going out without it.
My search was super annoying. I had to look through, what felt like, every room in the whole penthouse. Thankfully people were resting up and I didn't come into contact with a lot of other half-bloods or Hunters. When I did, I made up some excuse and quickly darted out of the room. There were some close calls where I'd accidentally knock over a decorative vase, or a vase full of flowers, but I caught them just in time.
It was resting on my backpack at the edge of a bed. It was actually much easier to slip in, grab my sword, and slip out again than I expected. But I was glad. Unfortunately, it had taken me so long to find my sword; I only had little time before Travis and Conner would wake up again and probably even less time before someone found them and woke them up. I'm kind of surprised that someone hadn't found him yet….
I swiftly and silently made my way to the "front doors" of the suite, cracked open one of them and peeked out. There were two guards on either side of the French doors, one from Apollo and one from Athena. I quietly closed the door again and got one of my darts out (this time shoving my Swiss army knife into my pocket for easier, quicker access). I opened the door again, aimed and blew. She collapsed. The other guard ran up and knelt down next to her. I slipped out and before he could do anything, I slammed the butt of my sword where the temple should be (because he was wearing a helmet) with as much force as possible.
Once again I made sure they were both completely out and then B-lined it to the stairwell. The elevator would've been much faster, I know, but if Percy assigned any guards down in the lobby, I'd be done for. I wasn't going to risk it.
I grabbed the railings on either side and catapulted myself forward and down to the next landing. I did this until my feet hit the ground floor. I tried the door to the alleyway but it wouldn't budge. I kicked it, still nothing.
Growling I turned toward the other door that led to the lobby and looked out. Sure enough, there were also two guards down here, but they were Hunters and they had one of their white timber wolves with them.
It was going to be a little easier than upstairs because I didn't have to worry about half-bloods and Hunters waking up if we made noise. On the flip side, they were Hunters, who didn't like half-bloods very much, period.
They were skilled, I'll admit it. And they did scare me just a little.
The fact that I was also a daughter of Apollo didn't exactly help the situation. Apollo may have not claimed me, but I had a feeling they'd know.
I really didn't want to, but I had no choice but to use another one of my poison darts. This was going to be harder. They were farther away and almost constantly moving, only pausing every now and again, listening for any kind of suspicious noises. The good thing was, there was a time when they'd split up. All three of them. One hunter would go one way, the other another way, and the wolf yet another different way. But for only a couple seconds. So I had to be accurate and fast.
I got the dart ready and opened the door a sliver. I waited until they all split up, aimed the chopstick as best I could and blew as hard as I could. I'd never blown a dart this far, so I was really crossing my fingers and holding my breath as I waited.
Luck must've been on my side today, because she let out a small yelp and instinctively reached for her shoulder (where the dart must've hit). Then, just like that, she dropped.
As soon as she hit the floor, I pushed the door wider and sprinted, pushing myself as hard as my body would go, and lunged over the lobby desk just before the other Hunter came back into the room. I heard her run over to her fallen comrade.
"Who's there?" she barked, no doubt readying her bow. "I know you're here. Show yourself, you coward!" Her voice full of pure hatred. I couldn't blame her though, I probably would be too, if I were in her situation.
I needed to create a distraction. I didn't want to use another one of my darts and I didn't want to go up against her either. I'd lose, she was ready with her bow, and I know I wouldn't be able to take her out before she'd kill me.
Looking around I looked for something I could throw. All I really saw were Plaza pens; they'd just have to do. I grabbed one lying on the counter, and lifted my head just enough so I could see where she was. Bile rose in my throat when I saw her though. She was no older than fourteen. It just felt wrong to hurt someone so young, I didn't know if I'd be able to knock her out.
You have to get out of here! A cold voice blew through my head. Right. I did have to get out of here, and it wasn't like I was going to kill her. I'd already pushed the snowball down the slope, I had to follow through or I'd be finished before it started.
The huntress turned around, her back facing me and I quickly stood and threw the pen—like a normal dart for a dart board—across the room, and ducked behind the desk again. I heard her soft, agile footsteps run over to where I'd thrown the pen. I peeked over and saw her disappear around a corner. I hopped over the desk and landed delicately on the balls of my feet.
I followed where she'd gone quietly. I turned the corner she had and almost crashed into her. Before I could change my mind I put her into a sleeper hold. Her nails raked my arm before the effects took place. I laid her gently on the floor. I felt horrible, I did; I'm not one of those heartless, sadistic people. But I was going to go crazy if I stayed up there any longer. (Sure, I'd only been here for an hour or two, but I'd been a prisoner for a whole year. I was not ready to be a prisoner again.)
Knowing I only had a few minutes to get out I headed toward the doors, only to come face-to-face with the wolf. The wolf I totally forgot about.
Its hackles were raised, it's lips pulled back in a menacing snarl, revealing ivory teeth as sharp as razor blades. A slow, low growl rose from deep within its chest. My heart skipped a beat before going double time. Its black eyes glared at me full of malevolence.
I took a step forward and it barked, jaws snapping. Behind me, the huntress was already moaning. I wasn't going to hurt this wolf either, so I didn't pull any of my weapons. I'd have to put it out though, so I had to get one of my darts again. I started to pull my Swiss army knife out of my pocket, but the wolf, snarling, leaped toward me. I quickly ducked underneath it, and turned over on my back just as the wolf landed and spun around.
It was just nonstop growling, snarling, like it was continually cussing at me. What's, kind of funny, is that it probably was cussing at me.
I hastily readied another dart, but before I could gather my bearings and stand up, the wolf jumped toward me. Its big paws landing squarely on my shoulders, knocking the breath out of me, and snapping my head back. I saw stars for a moment. But the haze quickly cleared when I felt the wolf's needle-pointed teeth skim my neck.
Hope you enjoyed!
.happiness.
~ See you at Camp Half-Blood