Author's Note:
Apologies for the delay. My computer decided to troll me and has been refusing to turn on for the past week. I got it back from Apple and immediately had to go on a family trip. Thus, this chapter is two weeks late...and may end up being three weeks late. I know I promised I'd give you guys a steady update rate but at this point, it's impossible. I'm on my toes trying to update it at all.
Unfortunately, my entire outline for this story is on my other computer and I don't have a backup copy since I didn't think it'd break down this early and hadn't set up Time Machine yet. I lost the everything on there, which means I've had to go back and rewrite a good chunk of it from memory, making things up while I go. The chapter isn't all too important since I barely started writing when my computer broke down on me, but the outline is a big loss.
The poll will be up for one more week before I take it down. So far, Jasper is winning, though Jeyna still has enough time to make a comeback.
"What do you mean, a trap?" Rachel echoed.
Thalia opened her mouth to answer before shutting it once more. "Can we get a room?" she murmured. "I'm not sure if the others should know this."
A boy with elfish features opened his mouth as if to say something, which Thalia waved off. "No, not that way, Travis," she said, plainly annoyed.
"I was just going to say," Travis Stoll said quietly, "that there's a room on the second floor that we often use for private meetings."
Thalia blinked, surprised. She looked towards Rachel for an explanation. Rachel knew the answer, but she kept her lips sealed. In the one and a half days she'd been with the demigods, she'd found out that Connor Stoll had died during the assault on Camp Half Blood and Travis had acted much more withdrawn ever since.
Rachel motioned for Thalia to join her upstairs. They climbed the stairs wordlessly and entered the room. The last time Rachel had been in there, she'd sent Annabeth off on the quest. It had only been a little more than a day, but it felt like it was in another lifetime.
"What did Artemis tell you?" Rachel asked as soon as the door closed behind them.
"She said that there was something wrong about this quest and the outcome would influence the Prophecy of Seven," Thalia said as she paced the room. "She said she couldn't tell me the specifics but it was necessary for me to warn them and help them."
Thalia looked up into Rachel's eyes. "Can you tell me exactly what the prophecy said? I need to know...it might help me find them."
Rachel nodded. "The truth is entangled within the despair, knowledge of which has vanished in air, to be found are four, to be caught are three, to be drowned is he beneath the sea."
Thalia blinked. "That...is a whole lot more vague than I accounted for." A flash of worry passed through her eyes. "To be drowned his he beneath the sea..."
Rachel didn't need to be an oracle to know what Thalia was thinking. "I don't know what the prophecy means, but you need to get going."
"Right." The cloud that had passed over Thalia's eyes vanished. "I need to go. Rachel..."
"Yeah?" the Oracle asked.
"I know sometimes you feel useless sitting at Camp but...if things play out the way I fear they will...you have to lead."
With that, Thalia ran out the room, leaving Rachel wondering exactly what she meant.
"Here!" Annabeth pointed at a thicket of trees.
The trio had just crossed the border into California an hour earlier. The trip had been fairly quiet as each reflected on their own thoughts. Now, they had landed on the western outskirts of Los Angeles, not too far away from the ocean. The sound of waves saddened Annabeth and tugged at her. If Percy was here...
They landed easily in the woods. Leo automatically reached for the reins but Annabeth cut him off. "I'll take them," she said quietly. "You can set up camp with Jason."
A flicker of anxiety went through Leo's eyes but he nodded and followed Jason who carried bundles of wood towards what was soon to be where they would camp for the night. Normally, Annabeth would prefer to find somewhere closer to civilization but three robotic pegasi would take some explaining, even to mortals.
Annabeth led the pegasi to a tree with a thick, low branch to tie their reins onto. She could hear and just about see the crackling fire that the boys had no doubt started.
Suddenly, there was a familiar hiss behind her. "What is thisssssss? A half-blood?"
With a swift and practiced motion, Annabeth reached for her knife, preparing to stab the dracaena. To her horror, she remembered that her dagger had gone missing after the hippogriff attack. The dracaena slashed her arms and though Annabeth didn't cry out, she winced, her steps slowing. The scratches weren't deep, but blood began to trickle down Annabeth's arms.
"Leo!" she yelled. "Jason!"
Silence was the only answer she received. Gritting her teeth, Annabeth whipped out the pocketknife she had taken from Leo instead. The dracanae snickered. "What a ppppppppitiful weapon! And they sssssssssaid you were worth being feared!"
She lunged at Annabeth. Expertly, Annabeth swung the knife into the dracaena's shoulder. The monster didn't disappear, but she did cry in agony.
"Youuu," she hissed. "Will paaaaaay!"
Leo, Jason, Annabeth thought desperately. Where are you?
Jason dumped the pile of sticks and twigs to the ground, not saying a word. After they had left the diner, Jason had begun feeling worse. They hadn't talked much, if at all.
Usually, when Jason was in the air, his mind was clear. This time though, he felt irritated. When Jason left the diner, he had temporarily forgotten Leo's comment about not caring. Now though, it surged back to him with such force that he began to feel something that vaguely resembled contempt.
Leo seemed to sense this as he stood awkwardly after lighting the fire. "Listen...Jason...I...I didn't mean to."
"Oh? Really?" Jason's normally calm voice was tinged with anger. "So do you think that means you can just randomly accuse me of not caring? About my girlfriend?"
His voice rose higher with each word. The air around him was tense, tingling with electricity.
Leo's eyes no longer burned with the cheerful fire that Jason was used to seeing in them. Instead, they seemed cold. Resigned.
"Fine," Leo said, his voice piercing Jason like a thousand shards of ice. The tone made Jason blink and suddenly, his mind cleared. "Fine. I'll go since you obviously don't want my company."
He turned and walked away, towards the edge of the woods.
"No, Leo, I...I didn't mean it that way!" Jason scrambled over his words. He ran to his best friend, grabbing him by the shoulder and spinning him around. The iciness in Leo's ice made Jason step back in shock.
"Then maybe," Leo's eyes were colder than even Khione's greatest snowstorm, "you should've thought of that."
He pushed Jason's hand off his shoulder and disappeared into the trees.
Jason stood there, stunned. An overwhelming sense of failure seemed to overcome him.
Desperately, Jason tried one more time. "Leo!" His shout rang through the forest, echoing around him. He felt alone. Very alone.
That's when he remembered that Annabeth should still be around. Though Jason felt weak relying on someone else for guidance and leadership, Jason knew she was the only one who could help him right now.
"Annabeth?" he called. No one answered. "Annabeth? Where'd you go?"
"Oh, right here! Gimme a second, I'm coming!"
Relief washed over Jason. Footsteps came through the forest and Jason headed towards them.
"I did something stupid," Jason confessed. "It was my fault...I shouldn't have reacted to Leo that way, I shouldn't have been so...so..." The words seemed to tumble out of his mouth and Jason couldn't seem to stop them. He needed someone right now, someone to support him.
"Jason..." Annabeth's voice had gotten closer. "Look, it's not your fault and blaming yourself won't make things better. But we need to find Leo, Jason, we've got to..."
Someone stepped out into the small clearing where Jason had planned to set up camp, but it wasn't Annabeth.
"We've got to, Jason," the Cyclops grinned, speaking in Annabeth's voice perfectly. "After all, I'm getting hungry."
She really, really missed her dagger.
That was the only thought she was repeating to herself as she fought the dracaena. Annabeth's mind had automatically gone into battle mode, her ADHD kicking in, telling her where to go, what to do. Each of Annabeth's strikes landed precisely where she planned them to. Despite this, her attacks did nothing more than enrage the monster.
On the other hand, Annabeth suffered more injuries than she had since the Second Titan War. Long scratches ran down both of her arms, both trickling blood. There was a scratch on Annabeth's forehead that ran along the side of her face. If the scratch had extended to her temple, she could've had serious injuries. Regardless, the scratch hurt and if Annabeth didn't kill the dracaena soon, she had a bad feeling that she wouldn't live to finish this quest.
The dracaena seemed to sense this and her attacks became more vigorous. "Pity that you won't be there for our greatessssssst victory." The dracaena gave a hoarse, raspy laugh. "It would be mossssssst wonderful."
Annabeth ducked under the dracaena and the dracaena sliced thin air. Annabeth's hands moved methodically, her New York Yankees cap flying onto her head, her body shimmering and disappearing. By the time the dracaena turned around, she was gone.
"Fighttttt!" The dracanae snarled. She slashed at the air. "Apppppppear, half-blood, so that I may killll you!"
Suddenly, she stopped. She trembled before she burst into gold dust and green slime. Annabeth whipped off her cap, the pocketknife having sliced through the upper half of the dracaena's body.
"Not a chance," she said savagely.
Now that she was done with the monster, Annabeth's thoughts returned to her quest mates. However angry they were, she believed that they would never just leave her without good reason. Which meant...they were likely in a battle of their own.
Annabeth gripped the pocketknife in her hand. It wasn't the best weapon, but it was the only weapon she had. And she had a feeling that she might need to use it.
Jason froze. Memories of his encounter with Cyclopes flooded back to him, especially the time when he had been knocked out, leaving Leo and Piper to fend on their own. This Cyclops certainly wasn't the one that he'd seen that day, but he might as well have been. The malice in his eye was unmistakable.
"The mighty son of Jupiter!" the Cyclops roared, though his voice was full of delight. "Abandoned by his friends—left alone! Do you believe you have what it takes to defeat me?"
Jason unsheathed his gladius, the one that Juno had given him so long ago. "Yes," he replied, putting as much energy and confidence into his voice as possible. "As a matter of fact, I believe I can."
The Cyclop's smile just grew wider. "I believe I phrased my question incorrectly! Do you believe you have what it takes...to defeat us?"
A shiver ran through Jason's body as monsters emerged from the woods. Snake women, dracaenae, he believed they were called, hissed at him. Another Cyclops entered, roaring as he raised a wooden club above his head. Two creatures he had never seen before—tigers with the bodies of wolves—snarled at him with their ugly yellow fangs.
There was no time to think. With a yell, Jason charged towards the first Cyclops. His gladius struck the monster full on but the monster only stumbled. Gold-plated armor shimmered from underneath his ragged cotton shirt.
"Is that all you have, child of Jupiter?" the Cyclops taunted. His companion grunted in agreement.
Jason stood there, shaking. Suddenly, Lupa's words resounded in his mind. Run away and live to fight another day.
He had no chance in this battle. Gripping his gladius, he took a step back.
The Cyclops advanced, chuckling. "So this is how it is, isn't it?" he laughed. "Son of the mighty Jupiter who toppled the throne of Krios chooses to surrender? If you come with me, boy, we shall have fun, fun indeed."
Jason drove his sword into the back of a nearby tree. The tree creaked and groaned and the monsters backed away instinctively in fear. Using their hesitation and temporary distraction, Jason ran as fast as his legs could carry him.
It was cowardly to run and every fiber of him, every single cell in his mind told him to turn around and fight like a true Roman. But Jason ran.
The Cyclopses roared in indignation. "Come back, you fool! Stand and fight!"
Footsteps echoed behind Jason. Branches whipped him from both sides, leaving red streaks on his skin. A sound that seemed to be a cross between a howl and a roar sounded behind him. Jason tripped on a rock but brought himself up again.
Run, run, run.
When Annabeth burst through the clearing in search of Jason and Leo, there was nothing. A tree had been cracked in half, almost but not quite toppling over. Footprints were all over around the fire which was still burning so they hadn't been gone for long.
"Jason? Leo?" Annabeth called. She kneeled on the ground, one finger tracing the largest footprint. It was much larger than a normal human's, though shaped similarly. Nearby, there were paw prints—wolves or dogs or something of the sort. Next to them were tracks that resembled that of snakes—dracaenae. Leo and Jason had been ambushed by monsters.
She had to move camp. There was no other choice. Annabeth had to go after the two of them and she definitely could not leave everything here. Also...
Annabeth looked down at her arms. The blood on them had dried and the flow had stopped but if she didn't look into them soon, they would get infected, something Annabeth had experienced and wasn't eager to go through any time soon.
There was nothing around. Leo and Jason had obviously taken their backpacks with them—possibly because they'd never taken them off. Annabeth grimaced. She put out the fire as best as she could and walked away.
A few minutes later, she arrived in the place where she had fought the dracaena. The robotic pegasusi stood motionless where she had left them. Annabeth grabbed one of them and mounted easily, taking to the sky.
They soared above Los Angeles, Annabeth searching for any signs of Leo or Jason, but it was hopeless. Too many streets, too many people, too many buildings. She'd tried the woods as well, but there was no smoke and to search on foot would've been both dangerous and endless.
The flight, despite being a great deal shorter than the previous flights, seemed to extend on forever. Around her, there was only silence. Her robotic pegasus was silent and Annabeth thought of the pegasus she used to ride at Camp—Guido. Even after Camp Half-Blood had been invaded, there had always been someone, someone living that she could see or at least know that they were nearby. Now, emptiness surrounded her.
The sun began to set and Annabeth cursed in Greek. To find two missing demigods next to a gigantic city that housed millions in the middle of the night would be an impossible quest. She had to find somewhere to stay for the night...and she had to tend to her wounds. Her arms felt like lead and the pain, which had begun to fade, started to intensify. Annabeth didn't want to know what that signified.
She landed the robotic pegasus near the woods where they had originally meant to set up camp. The pain in her arms made her feel faint as she groped for ambrosia or nectar in her bag. Finally, at the bottom, she found one small, squashed square of the godly food. Ever since the attack on the camps, they had been low on ambrosia and nectar and one square of ambrosia had been all Annabeth was willing to take from the demigods' hideout. Annabeth broke off a little bit and chewed it.
The ambrosia seemed to melt in Annabeth's mouth. It tasted like a lot of things, but mostly like a simple, hot dish of spaghetti and meatballs. The warmth spread to Annabeth's toes and slowly, the wounds on her arms began to heal. There wasn't enough ambrosia to make them completely go away, but the green tint around the edges faded and the cuts looked like they were several days old.
Relieved, Annabeth sat down numbly. If Jason and Leo were to return anywhere, it would be here, but the same could be said for the monsters. It would be best to move away, not too far, but enough to ensure she wouldn't be ambushed in the night.
Putting the rest of the ambrosia square in her bag, Annabeth led the pegasus away, deeper into the woods.
Jason collapsed.
He'd been running from the monsters for at least two hours. It was dark in the woods, but for the first time, it was also silent. No hissing. No growling. No stomping. Just silence.
In a way, it scared Jason more than noise would've. Noise at least told him where his enemies were. But Jason had been running for so long. He wanted to be able to hope—just a little bit of hope wasn't a crime, was it?—that the monsters were gone.
Pulling himself up, Jason staggered around. Through the thick layers of trees, he could spot a patch of green grass. He stumbled there, crashing into the soft grass. Panting heavily, he lay there for a while, trying to catch his breath.
Slowly, Jason's panting turned into regular breaths. His gladius lay next to him, the shiny gold surface reflecting the moon.
Just as Jason's eyes began to close (he was so exhausted he barely cared about safety at this point), a form shimmered before him. His gladius began to glow with a burning light and Jason instinctively sat up. His drowsiness faded as the figure became visible.
"Juno," Jason said. "I mean, Hera."
The goddess smiled at him, her Greek-style white dress shimmering as she moved. "I am in my Greek form, but you may continue to call me Juno. It is what you are most familiar with, no?"
"You still didn't give me my memories back," Jason murmured.
Juno's gaze was difficult to read. "No," she said. "I did not give you your full memories back. There are trials you must endure before you truly remember your past. I assure you though, they are closer than you think. Memories are a difficult matter. They bring pain in addition to joy and no one is ever exempt from it. You are my hero, Jason Grace. I trust that you will survive what is to come.
"You will need a good night's rest to ensure that you have enough energy for what you may face tomorrow," Juno continued. "Good night, Jason Grace. I bid you good luck."
As she began to glow, Jason's eyelids grew heavy. By the time she had disappeared, Jason was fast asleep.
Leo woke up.
He didn't remember where he'd passed out, but after leaving Jason in fury, his mind had been completely blank. He hadn't been thinking. All he felt was fury and, in the back of his mind, failure and doubt. Leo had ended up wandering around the city and then...he didn't know.
Leo sat up and looked at his surroundings. He was in a nice room, a little too nice. He was on a comfortable white bed with several fluffy pillows and a wood desk in the corner. There was a TV cabinet in front of him. A completely normal (perhaps too normal) room. A hotel room. The lights were all turned on and the curtains were drawn. Odd.
Just as Leo was beginning to wonder exactly why he was here (and somewhat panic since no one knew where he was), the air shimmered. Hemera, goddess of daytime, appeared before him. She was dressed more casually now in well-worn jeans and a glowing yellow t-shirt.
"Hello Leo," she said, flashing him a brilliant smile.
Leo blinked. There was something wrong about the situation...though he couldn't be sure exactly what. He frowned.
"What am I doing here? Heck, lady, what are you doing here? Where are..." Leo's voice faded as he thought of his friends. A wave of guilt swept over him. He'd abandoned him. He ran away—just like he always did. Just like he always would.
"They're safe," Hemera said simply. "Look, Leo, you have a big part to play, not just in this quest but in plenty of other places. Right now, your group is in shambles."
"I know," Leo stressed. "That's why I need to get back to them. Now. And...all that stuff about the Great Prophecy of Seven and stuff..." Leo's voice faltered. "You know what? Never mind."
Hemera didn't seem surprised by his reaction. "I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about the other demigods. You're supposed to fight Gaea, but you're too weak. You need to start planning...and now."
She waved her hand and numerous scrolls appeared on the wooden table. "I believe you were told this last year, but I shall remind you. You are like the hard drive of the seven. If you fail, they shall all fail. You are the machinery. You must be a step ahead of the game."
Hemera nodded and Leo looked away as the goddess disappeared in a sheet of golden sparks.
Annabeth watched the fire silently. She was huddled in a small ball, wearing a worn cotton jacket that didn't do much to shut the coldness out. She knew that the smartest course of action would've been to head into the city, but there were too many memories there. So instead, she had decided to stay in the woods.
Out of her backpack, Annabeth took some other clothes out. Using her backpack as a pillow, she lay down and watched the crackling fire.
She felt so alone. Percy...if he was here...if only.
Annabeth was tired of being strong. Tired of standing up and taking everything on her shoulders. For the first time, she admitted to herself that she couldn't hole up. That she couldn't do this.
A silent tear trickled out of her eye as she watched the flames. The crying came slowly. It didn't evolve into full blown sobs, but Annabeth could still feel her heart breaking apart at the seams.
I can't do this. Not anymore.
Her brown hair was matted from days of living in the woods. She was so far away from where she'd begun. In fact, she could barely remember where she'd begun. Heck, she barely knew where she was right now.
Her hair had grown longer in the past few weeks after she'd woken up in the middle of nowhere. She'd cut it, but really, at this point it was the least of her worries. Thanks to a broken ankle, her progress had been slow. She barely knew where she was headed—in fact, she was probably going in the wrong direction. All she knew was that if she stayed put, sooner or later, she'd be killed by monsters. Boiled or eaten or delivered to Gaea, she didn't know which, but she was certain that the outcome wouldn't be one she liked.
She had to find them. Really, at this point, it was the only thing that was keeping her going.
She limped slightly, squinting to read the signs. Los Angeles? Disappointment flared through her. So she had been going the wrong way. Joy.
She sighed as she hobbled to the nearest motel. Time to find somewhere to rest before moving on.
Author's Note:
I'm sorry for the late update.
Life's been kinda tough on me. I'm moving in a week's time into a new dorm and I have to finish packing and saying all my goodbyes. My computer's broken down several times in the past two weeks and I had to send it to Apple twice. Not to mention my parents are planning to give away my dog after I leave. I also have to finish up several applications.
Anyways, I hope this chapter wasn't too horrible. Please review.
