Percy Jackson, Guardian of Tatarus
Chapter IV
Author's Note: Hello everyone, it's been a while, hasn't it? Over a year now, my last story was published in October of 2010, and now it's November of 2011. I've read over my stories to make sure my storyline doesn't suddenly change, but I can say that I'm trying to make it better from now on. One of the complaints I got was that I changed points of view too often, so I'll try to fix that. Anyways, roll the story!
Percy POV
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but I'm getting sick of always being in charge. After a while, having a reputation for always being right gets hard to deal with. I'm a god now, sure, but as it turns out, I'm still all too human. I make decisions in anger. Decisions that got people KILLED. It gets harder to sleep at night every time I make a decision like that. I wish I was still a demigod, because at least then, I could still be out on the front lines. Nowadays, the Athena cabin stops me going out there, says if I got captured, then the war's as good as over. They're right, of course, but that doesn't make it any easier to handle. That sounded bad, didn't it? I don't want to brag, but as a good man once said, false modesty is never admirable. I'm the last resort for the gods. If the Titan forces capture me and manage to get me close enough to Kronos, he could drain me of energy faster than you or I could draw a sword. If that ever happened, he'd regenerate to full power in an instant, and he'd be stronger than ever. We had a few close calls yesterday- a few dracanae almost overran the base, and we lost three demigods- I think the total now is somewhere around 150 able bodied troops. We're gonna have to get some more troops somehow if this war drags on, or we're gonna have to end it, and soon. Now would be the best chance to attack, while Kronos is weak- at least, it would be if we had any idea where he was. Just about then, one of the campers from the Athena cabin- I think her name was Melanie, she was a new kid- ran up to me and bent double, hands on her knees while she caught her breath. In between breaths, she managed to get out, "Annabeth said to get you, *pant* She thinks we found *pant* where they're keeping *pant* him while he regains his strength!*pant*" Naturally, I had no idea what she was talking about, so I asked. "Whoa there, slow down, and explain to me, slowly, exactly what you're talking about." "Annabeth told me to come get you and ask you to come to the intelligence center. We think we know where Kronos is!" At that, I turned smartly on my heel, got a face full of dirt for trying to turn smartly on my heel, and after picking myself up, I jogged on over to the intelligence center, where we had all the Athena campers and the other smartest campers stationed. Annabeth was at one of the tables, gray hair looking like a bird's nest, and a pencil tucked behind her ear.
Annabeth POV
I heard someone coming up behind me, but I was still trying to decode the last part of this message we had intercepted a few hours ago, so it came as a surprise when somebody shouted "BOO!" from behind me. I jumped, drawing a jagged line across my copy of the message, and turned to punch Percy in the arm, because it was indeed Percy. "What was that for, hmm?" I asked him. He replied, "You looked like you were asleep on your feet, so I figured you could use a wake-up call. You called for me?" Despite the fact that he had just made me ruin yet another copy of the message, I couldn't help smiling at him. As I recalled why I had sent Mallory to him, the smile slipped off my face. "Oh, yes. We intercepted an encrypted message from the Titan camp about… eight hours ago. It was from Atlas, regarding the regeneration of 'Lord Kronos'. It was in a pretty simple cipher- once you figured out the cipher changed every other line." "I don't know, Annabeth… They know we have the entire Athena cabin, and like you said, the cipher was pretty simple. It smells like a trap." His concern was touching, but it would only be a hindrance later. "Actually Percy, it wasn't regarding his current location, but where they're going to move him in three days. Naturally, that was encrypted in about… seven different codes, and you had to crack each one before getting to the next. We're still working on it." I saw his expression cloud over for a second, and then it cleared as he realized it probably wasn't a trap after all. Of course, the new location hadn't been encoded any more than the rest of the message, but if I told him that, he'd never agree to go. I was so zoned out that it took me a second to realize he was talking. "… Is this place exactly?" I couldn't let him know I hadn't been paying attention, so I snapped back to reality. "It's in New Jersey, as a matter of fact. In the deepest part of an old silver mine they found there." His brow furrowed as the full implications of what I'd just said hit him. "But… Isn't Kronos weak to silver? Why would they hide him in a silver mine if he's weak to silver?" That one stumped me for a minute. "We-ell, it must be because they know that we know that Kronos is weak to silver, so they think the last place we'd ever think to look would be in a silver mine!" "Oh, so it's a case of they think that I'll think they'll do A, so they'll do B because I wouldn't think they'd think of that but then because I might think I know what they're thinking they'll do A after all because I wouldn't think they'd think that way." There was a moment of silence while I tried to untangle what he'd just said. "Um, Percy? Could you repeat that?" He grinned and said, "You know what? I don't think I can." After that, we both started to laugh. It was than just funny, it wasn't just the humor of the situation, it was release. It was a way to release all the tension of the past few weeks, when we'd been fighting the Second Titan War day and night. When you're fighting a war like that, there's not a lot of chances to laugh like that.
Mystery POV
So, the fool Jackson had taken the bait. He would attack within the week, thinking to catch Kronos while the Lord was at his weakest. Fool. If he had known of the surprise in store for him, or my own identity, he would never have the nerve to attempt such an attack.
Alright guys, that's it for chapter four! Sorry if the tense changes are a little confusing, but that's just how I am. Did I overdo the mystery character? Did I change POV too often? Please let me know! Well, I've typed my 1,000+ words for this story, so I'll see you all soon, hopefully!