A/N: Bonjour, mes amis! I know I said this would be coming next week, but I got sick and consequently had a lot of free time on my hands. So as a result, you're getting this early. The next updates probably won't be as quick, so enjoy it. XD
I think I'm gonna have this story be in first person for Percy, Annabeth, and Max (who will be joining us in a couple chapters, along with the rest of the flock). Anything else will be labelled as third person, as you'll soon see.
Anyway, don't wanna keep you waiting for long, so here ya go...
Annabeth
Silence rang in my ears. Funny how the absence of all sound could create a sound itself. Of course, the ringing was just caused by the ears straining to hear something and reacting to wind blowing on the minuscule hairs in the inner ears, but - okay, I needed to focus.
My mind was still reeling from the events of today (probably why my thoughts kept wandering). I had spent the rest of the afternoon breaking the news to my family and Camp Jupiter that Percy had been kidnapped by unknown strangers. No one had taken it very well, understandably.
Now, I was standing in front of the ping pong table that served as the Camp Half-blood head councillors' meeting place. As soon as the words had passed my lips that Percy had been taken once again, all noise had cut off abruptly. Even Leo had stopped fidgeting with his helicopter made out of pencils and pipe cleaners to gape at me.
Now, my gaze travelled around the room. Jason appeared to be shocked (literally, sparks were flying off of him and his hair stood on end), Piper had a look of deep concern on her face, Leo's nose caught fire, Butch's face drained of all color, and even Clovis's normally drooping eyes were now bulging out of his head. Chiron, who I had informed previously, and Nico were the only ones not blindsided by the news so had time to mask their emotions. Clarisse, for her part, looked outraged.
The daughter of war huffed, "What did Prissy get himself into this time?" Normally I would have reprimanded her for a comment like that, but instead I just glanced somewhat thankfully at her. The silence had been getting uncomfortable; everyone's stares had me shifting on my feet.
"I'm not sure who took him or why. Though their guns would suggest that they were mortal, at least partially." Everyone looked taken aback by this revelation.
"So, you're saying that either demigods took him or regular old humans did?" Miranda Gardiner, head of the Demeter Cabin while Katie was at school, asked me, raising a brown eyebrow. I nodded in affirmation.
"What I'm wondering is how Percy could be taken down by a mortal, with all his cool Aquaman powers and stuff," Leo piped up. I shot daggers at him, my temper flaring.
"We were sort of preoccupied with fighting off a rogue hellhound, Valdez, and as I mentioned before, they had guns that were filled with tranqs." I was nearly growling; Leo held his hands up in surrender. "Once I had finally realized he was gone, two more hellhounds had appeared and-"
"Enter Nico," interrupted Will Solace. Nico sent him a death glare, but the son of Apollo just winked at him.
"Yes, Nico arrived and helped me defeat the rest of the monsters. When we were done, he was long gone." I swallowed the feelings that were trying to rise up - the anger, desperation, and complete loneliness that filled me when he wasn't around. I would deal with the emotions later, after we had a plan to rescue my Seaweed Brain.
Jason cleared his throat, getting my attention. "Is it possible that the monsters were some sort of trap? It couldn't have been a coincidence, right?" I contemplated this before speaking.
"I guess so. Although hellhounds wouldn't be the best monster to use for a trap - too unpredictable -, I do see your point." I nodded at him; he smiled back reassuringly.
"What about the Romans?" Connor Stoll asked, absentmindedly twirling a pencil stolen from Leo's hand-made helicopter.
"Yeah, you were in Cali, right? Do they know?" His older brother, Travis, added.
Their question brought me back a couple hours ago when Nico and I had arrived at Camp Jupiter after a quick visit to my family's house. We had found Reyna and Frank dressed in their praetor robes talking with a fully armed Hazel, fresh from the war games. Hazel had been the first to spot us.
"Nico! Annabeth!" She had exclaimed, before enveloping both of us into a big hug. Frank had been content with a simple friendly wave. Reyna, on the other hand, had frowned, her eyebrows coming together in confusion.
"Where's Percy?" As soon as those words had left her mouth, my entire face crumbled. Hazel and Frank's smiles had immediately vanished.
"Annabeth? Weren't you guys on a date?" Hazel's voice had been trembling. My throat dried up and all coherent thought left me. Luckily, Nico had been there to back me up.
"Someone's taken him." His voice had sounded grave. Hazel's hand flew to her mouth, Frank stumbled in surprise, and Reyna's face became stoney.
"We need to call a Senate meeting." Reyna had gritted out. The next hour was a big blur. The Romans hadn't taken the capture of their former praetor very well. There had been shouting, crying, and looks of utter disbelief before Reyna could calm everyone down enough to formulate a plan.
Now, I nodded in confirmation to the Stoll brothers, but Nico saved me from speaking once again. "Frank and my sister are leading a search party. They, along with some of Lupa's wolves and the fifth cohort, have California covered. Since Percy disappeared while in San Fran, there's a good chance he's still around there."
After the son of the underworld finished speaking, the head councillors looked somewhat more calmed down - though that could have been because of Piper's quiet reassurances to them that everything was going to be fine. We had a place to start looking, unlike the last time when he just disappeared in the middle of the night. The mood around the table changed from somber to hopeful.
Chiron took this as his chance to speak up. "The news of young Perseus's kidnapping is very disheartening. His capture at the hands of mortals is...foreboding, to say the least." The centaur spoke in a grim tone. Though his face remained neutral, I could see worry and apprehension in his centuries-old eyes. "However, with both camps newly united and stronger than ever, I have no doubt that we will soon rescue him."
Chiron ended his speech and stomped his horse hoof twice; everyone took this as their cue to leave and stood up, many of them gave me sympathetic looks as they passed by. Over the last few months, I had gotten very used to those. After all, every camper knew of Percy and my little trip downstairs, and they had all seen the aftermath of said trip themselves. It was the reason why we refused to eat spicy food (too much like the Phlegethon); and the reason why I couldn't stand to be alone for more than a couple of minutes (Calypso's curse still haunted me); and the reason why no one dared to sneak up on Percy anymore (someone nearly got impaled the first time); and most of all, it was the reason why the gods had allowed me to sleep in cabin three (after the third time Percy nearly drowned the camp during a nightmare, they finally gave in).
I couldn't blame anyone for their pitying looks, as much as I hated them. I mean, how do you approach two PTSD demigods who had literally gone through hell? It did make for some pretty awkward conversations. Like, "So, how was your summer?" "Oh, you know, I just went on a quest to save the world, fell into Tartarus, and defeated the primordial goddess of the earth; nothing big. You?" Yeah, that wouldn't send people running in the opposite direction, not at all.
As Chiron was telling people to keep quiet about the news until he announced it at dinner, I pulled Lou Ellen aside. Seeing us, Piper also stayed by me, shooing her boyfriend towards the others as they filed out. When the door finally shut behind him, the daughter of Hecate spoke up.
"Yes, Annabeth?" She questioned. From the look on her face, I guessed that Piper was also wondering what I wanted.
"Grover and Percy still have their empathy link from a couple of years ago. Last time, we couldn't find Percy through it because Hera was blocking it."
Lou Ellen nodded, her dark curls bouncing slightly as she did so. "I figured. But what does this have to do with me?"
"Would it be possible for you to create a spell of some sort to amplify the link so that Grover could locate him?" Her eyebrows creased as she contemplated this.
"I can probably think of something, but I might need my siblings' help."
"That's great. I think Grover is in the woods with Juniper, if you need him."
"Okay, I'll get right on it, Annabeth." Lou Ellen waved a small goodbye before taking her leave.
Once the daughter of magic was out of eyesight, I slumped into the nearest chair. As my facade dropped, my eyes slid shut and hid behind my hands. What was I going to do? At this very moment, Percy could be getting tortured or worse, and here I was doing nothing. I still needed to break the news to his mother. Oh, how was Sally going to react to her son's second kidnapping in a year? And what about Poseidon? The gods were most likely already aware of what transpired down in that alley, and if the weather outside of camp was anything to go by, they were not happy. So, a visit to Olympus was probably in order.
I felt like ripping my hair out, like screaming until my throat bled, like destroying an entire army of monsters. Was this what Percy had felt down in Tartarus, when Misery had been about to drown me in poison, and he had just snapped? If so, then I could empathize - it felt like I would shatter at any moment.
Suddenly, a hand lightly touched my shoulder. I peeked my stormy eyes through my fingers to meet Piper's kaleidoscope ones. "Don't worry, Annabeth, we'll bring Percy back. We found him last time, didn't we?"
Piper's words sent a wave of serenity through me; I gave her a grateful look that she returned with a sweet smile. However, in the back of my mind, an uneasiness settled. I didn't doubt that we would be able to find Percy. I just wondered how much would be left of him when we finally did.
Third Person
This was not good, Chiron thought as he lowered himself into his wheelchair, his horse-end slowly disappearing into the magical contraption. Once he was finally settled, he rolled behind the desk in his office. Not good at all.
The centaur rubbed his temples, feeling all the weight of his hundreds of years of living resting on his shoulders. It was a crushing weight to carry, like the entire sky was pressing down on him. This thought, however, only seemed to make the load heavier. He could clearly remember the time when the son of Poseidon had to bare the Curse of Atlas when the boy had just reached his teenage years. It took an enormous amount of will-power and determination to hold up Ouranos; many a man would have crumbled under the great burden. And yet, young Percy Jackson had voluntarily taken it to save the male-hating goddess, Artemis, and his friend.
Now, said demigod was captured by a new, unknown enemy. The queen of the gods wasn't responsible for his disappearance this time around. At least when it had been Hera's doing, Percy was relatively save in his deep slumber. This time, however, he could be in grave danger, and no one would ever realize it until Grover suddenly went into a coma.
Chiron sighed, one of his hands sliding down his face to stroke his beard while the other clenched the oak desk in front of him in a white-knuckled grip. His wise eyes trailed to the opposite wall; it was filled with pictures of his favorite students over the many years. Two of the pictures stood out to him.
The first was taken a little over a year ago. On it were Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase a week after the Second Titan War. The daughter of Athena was frozen mid-laugh, unaware of the picture being taken. The son of Poseidon, on the other hand, had an arm draped across her shoulders and his signature trouble-maker grin on his face, obviously the reason behind Annabeth's laughter. His sea-green eyes were fixed on her like she was his entire world (which she probably was). They both looked carefree and happy. To them, they had just defeated the Titan Lord Kronos, survived a war, and finally realized their feelings about each other. To them, they had a whole prophesy-free future ahead of them.
The picture beside it was the newest addition to the wall, taken only a few months previously. This one featured the Seven of the Prophesy, all standing in front of the Athena Parthenos that was now positioned in the center of Camp Half-blood. On the right, Leo had an impish smile on his face and his scrawny arms thrown across Jason's and Piper's necks, putting bunny ears behind the head of the latter. The daughter of Aphrodite, for her part, was shoving an elbow into his side, while her boyfriend was laughing at the two's antics. On the left side of the picture, Frank and Hazel were holding hands and staring at each other, their eyes shining with true joy and affection. Annabeth and Percy were in the center, making their roles as the leaders and glue to hold the group together evident. They had their arms around each other's waists, and Annabeth's head was laying on Percy's shoulder. Unlike the other five demigods, they had their eyes on the camera.
Between the two pictures, Chiron could see a big difference in the young couple. Percy and Annabeth seemed to have aged years, even though it had only been one. Their faces were more gaunt, their skin had lost some of its shine, and their eyes had an almost broken look to them. Despite all of that, the two had genuine smiles on their faces. The picture had been taken a little under two weeks after the defeat of Gaea. It was the day that Leo had finally returned with Calypso on the back of Festus the Dragon, so the entire camp had been in good spirits.
Now, as Chiron gazed at his Wall of Heroes, a knot formed in his stomach. In less than an hour, he would have to inform the rest of Camp Half-blood that Perseus had been kidnapped once again. Chaos would break out; the campers would be in pandemonium! Percy Jackson, their hero and leader, had been stolen from them for a second time. Except this time, there was no doubt that he was now in the hands of the enemy.
The immortal centaur rested his chin on a fist. It was the Winter Solstice, so all the gods had locked themselves into the throne room for their annual meeting. He had no idea what the gods knew, but he suspected that they didn't know much more than himself. After their meeting was over, Chiron planned to take a trip to the Empire State Building for a little talk with the Olympians.
The fact that someone had managed to capture one of their strongest demigods was troubling to him. It meant that there was a new, powerful enemy arising. The thought made Chiron's mood plummet even further. The demigods were still recuperating from their last war. Would they be able to handle another big fight?
Sure, the children would do anything to bring Percy Jackson back, Chiron thought, but I fear that this might be just the beginning.
A/N: So, yeah, that's it. Hope you enjoyed reading! This chapter was interesting to write. There were a lot of characters in it.
Also, that first picture in Chiron's office is talked about in The Lost Hero. I didn't remember what it looked like beside the fact that it had Percy and Annabeth on it, so I just made it up. The second picture is also a product of my imagination.
Lastly, I wanna thank everyone who has favorited, followed, and reviewed this story. Especially this who took the time to write a review. Your kind words inspire me to keep writing this. So, cookies to every one of you!
That's all for now. Au revoir!
~Wrendsor
