Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. We passed the 200 review mark already, which is amazing.

Last chapter I asked you guys whether you would rather join sides with Kronos or Gaea and the results are in. With an outstanding 27-7 margin, you guys chose to side with Gaea. I can now see why she's so powerful.

Quote Trivia: Nico di Angelo speaking to Percy Jackson in The Last Olympian. Here are your winners (bonus points to those in italics): Bookworm1756, SummerSpirit18, MidnightSeas16, Futuregal, AGreyMood, ShimmeringDaisyFace, numbah435spiritsong, JazzApples, Wisdoms daughter, awesomeness, DauofApollo, Iss, coolmango, Tajee165, littlemisslaugh, LeoLuver, LeahTymara, Ble fotia, Smarties, raeganb123, huntinginstars and two guests.

Reminder: I need both the speaker and the book for it to count. You can't assume I know what book you're talking about.

Onto Chapter 7. We pick right back up and you guys won't like me at the end. This chapter is dedicated to AugustSummer and the story to JazzApples.

Enjoy Chapter Seven of The Ten.

Disclaimer: Rick Riordan makes writing look easy.

VII: HISTORY PROFESSORS AND UNEXPECTED EXPLOSIONS

Percy froze. He turned slowly to his right, finally coming full circle. What he found was a guy his age, maybe a little younger, a year at most. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed, although it was almost four o'clock. His dark black hair was messy and his skin was pale, paler than it should have been. His dark eyes were clearly awake, however, and they were staring at Percy, narrowed with suspicion.

What saved him was the distance. The guy was a good twenty or twenty-five feet away from him, which made conversation kind of difficult. Luckily Thalia was already moving and she got the guy's attention before Percy could answer. He turned in their direction and Percy, who still had the bracelet in his hand, slipped it quickly into his pocket and slowly made his way back over to the girls.

"…I don't care," the guy was saying. "If my boss comes back and sees a bunch of teens poking around at his dig site, he'll get pissed." He turned on a dime towards Percy, his left hand pointing accusingly at Percy's chest. "You. Did you take anything?"

The New Yorker put his hands up. "No," Percy said. "I thought I saw something, but it was just a wrapper, so I let it go." Thalia and Piper were both looking at their comrade with interest, but they let it go, knowing he had lied to preserve the bracelet.

The guy didn't seem to believe him, but he let it go. "Alright, fine," he said, looking back and forth between Percy and the girls. "What are you doing here anyway?"

Thalia was about to respond when suddenly Percy cut her off.

"We were looking for you," he said, swiftly bringing out the bracelet in one motion.

"So you did take something!"

"Percy! What are you doing?" That was Thalia.

"Look at his ring," Percy said unfazed by either of them, tossing the bracelet towards the girls. "And then look at the symbol etched there."

Piper caught the bracelet and Thalia looked over her shoulder as the two girls looked at the design and then up towards the ring on the South African's finger. Thalia figured it out first.

"They're both bones," she said slowly.

"Exactly."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Just what is going on here?"

Percy turned towards the only other guy in the clearing and looked him in his eyes.

"Do you want the short version or the long version?" He asked.

"Short version, please."

"Alright," Percy started, taking a deep breath. "The world is in trouble. There's this guy who wants to take over. We're not exactly sure how he is going to do it, but he is going to try somehow. Scattered throughout the world are ten kids, ten teenagers that have to bond together to fight against this guy and try to save the world. We each have a bracelet. I have mine, Thalia and Piper have theirs. We're supposed to find ten people and ten bracelets. Supposedly we only have a year to do all of this and we're already almost two months in. The three of us are the first three of those ten. We need to find the others as fast as we can or else the world is going to be destroyed."

"That's the short version?" The guy asked. "Gods forbid I have to hear the long version."

Percy ignored the sarcasm. "Alright? You get what's going on?"

"Ok, let's pretend that what you're saying is true for a second here. What does that have to do with me?"

Percy sighed in exasperation for a second and that opened the door for Thalia.

"Are you that blind?" She said. "We're the first three. We find a fourth bracelet and suddenly you show up. The light bulb going off now?"

"You think I'm the fourth member."

"Well, duh. It doesn't take a Seaweed Brain to figure that one out."

For some reason Percy felt as if he should get offended by that statement, but he wasn't sure why. He let it go and came back into the conversation.

"Ok, you said you work here, right?"

"Yeah," the guy replied. "Well, sort of. It's an internship when I'm not in school. I've worked here for the entire year, heading back to the beginning of last semester."

"Ok," Percy said. "Then if you've been here so long, why haven't you noticed the bracelet before?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, everything else is cleaned," he said, motioning around the clearing. "There are no other items lying around on the cleared areas. You saw where I picked the bracelet up. There's no way you guys would have passed over it. It's sterling silver."

"Alright, fine. I agree it couldn't have been there before. But you're saying it just appeared out of nowhere?"

"I don't know how it got there," Percy admitted. "But you were the only one other than the three of us that was here when we found it. I've learned to follow my gut during these couple months and it's saying that you're next. Your skull ring helps me believe my gut even more."

Their supposed-to-be-fourth comrade was yet to be convinced.

"So what?" He said. "Your bracelet just happens to have a set of crossed bones on it. How exactly does that connect with me?"

"Your ring has a skull on it," Piper said. "This bracelet is etched with a picture of some bones. They're both relating the same thing. You've got to see the connection."

For a second the guy nodded a little bit, as if in understanding. For a second, Percy thought they had convinced him, but then he shook his head quickly, as if trying to clear a bad thought.

"Whoa, wait a minute," he said. "That doesn't mean anything. You guys are still talking nonsense to me. I'm surprised my boss hasn't gotten here yet." The guy looked behind them over their shoulders, as if looking to see if another car had pulled up.

Percy resisted the urge to look over his shoulder and thought hard. How on earth was he going to convince this guy?

"You said you were a student?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Okay, so I'm assuming that your school has a library of some sort, right? Something we can use to look up some history?"

"No, actually we're one of the only schools that doesn't have a library. Although if you want history, we can ask my professor. He knows almost everything about the subject."

"Alright," Thalia replied. "Let's go pay him a visit then."

"Now?" The guy exclaimed.

"Yes, now," Thalia said sternly. A couple cars pulled up on the edge of the grid.

"But my boss just showed up." The three of them could clearly tell he was trying to come up with an excuse to stay.

"Just say you have something you have to do for school," Piper pleaded with him. "You're in an internship. It's not like you're being paid for this."

"You're right. It's not like I'm being paid for this." The guy walked off, but the three of them were looking at each other, confused. The guy seemed in a trance, but Piper hadn't done anything other than talk to him. Percy wearily took another half-step away from the Los Angeleno.

The guy came back and the three of them braced themselves for another trance response, but the guy spoke normally.

"Ugh, fine. Let's get this over with. This internship is my route to a job, so let's make this quick."

Percy drove, the girls riding in the back as the guy gave him directions. Halfway to his school they introduced themselves and they found out his name was Nico.

Yeah, weird right? Talk to a guy for an hour and only then learn his name. Not the most traditional way of introduction, but it still was effective.

"Get off here," Nico said after a couple more minutes. They had been driving on a highway.

"Centurion?" Piper asked, referencing the exit sign. "Isn't that a rank of a Roman soldier?"

"Wouldn't know," Thalia said. "Not really into Roman armed forces."

Percy shrugged and took the exit. Within ten minutes they had pulled over to the side of the road, next to a small looking university.

"Alright," he said. "Now what?" The three so-called veterans looked over at their new comrade.

"I'll need one of you to come with me."

"Only one? Why?"

Nico twisted around to take a glance into the backseat. "This is Centurion, not New York City. You don't magically make three new friends here."

"Alright," Thalia said. "I vote Percy."

"Make that two votes for Percy," Piper put in.

Percy rolled his eyes. Nico looked at him.

"They do that normally?" He asked.

"How do you think I got chosen to get the bracelet?" Percy replied. "Come on, let's get this over with."

The two guys exited the car and Nico led the way into one of the buildings. Percy followed him down a hallway for around a minute before Nico stopped in front of a door.

"Come on," he said. "I think he's in-between classes."

Percy followed him down into the lecture hall. About halfway down the professor noticed them.

"Oh, Mr. di Angelo? This is a pleasant surprise. How may I help you?"

"Hello, Dr. Hiwasl. This is one of my friends from back home, Percy Jackson. He had a question about history and I figured I'd take him to you while he was in town."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Jackson," the professor said, extending his hand.

"Likewise," Percy responded, returning the handshake.

"So, you have a question on history?"

Percy nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Then let's hear it."

"One of my cousins from over in the states was telling me about a certain group of Greeks called The Ten. He was telling me that there wasn't much known about them, so I was figuring Nico would probably know more, seeing as he's aspiring to become an archaeologist and studying ancient bones. But that wasn't the case, so he led me here. Have you heard about anything of that sort?"

"The Ten, you say?" Dr. Hiwasl said. "I have heard of the Greek legend about them, although I've got to admit there isn't much info. What do you want to know?"

"Anything about the members themselves. Like what did they do, where did they come from, et cetera."

"Hmm, alright. A lot of sources pinned The Ten as being from all over the ancient country. I think they had a warrior from Sparta, a philosopher from Athens, so on so forth. The major one around here was the guy from the southern section of Greece. They said he was one of the youngest, short in stature, great with bones."

"So, what?" Percy asked. "He was an ancient archaeologist?"

"Not exactly," the professor said. "He had a way with bones, they said, but it wasn't a profession for him. No one really knew what he did, to be honest. Other than that I don't really know anything else."

Percy swore his companion got even paler after that.

"Alright, thanks," he said. "Would there be any place I could get more info on the subject?"

The professor took a couple seconds to answer, his right hand stroking his beard.

"On a subject like that, you'd be best off with a large library. There's very little known about the subject, but you could still find something hidden in a library. I'd suggest the library back in Johannesburg. That would probably be your best bet."

"Thanks so much, sir," Percy told him. "You've been a huge help."

"You're welcome," the professor replied. "If you ever need any more help, don't hesitate to contact Mr. di Angelo again. I'll be glad to help."

"Alright. Thanks again."

With that, Percy turned from the professor, starting to head up the stairs. He practically had to drag Nico up the stairs, but he was unsure why. The professor had said something that had rattled his companion's nerves.

The second they got out of the door, Percy turned towards Nico.

"Yo, dude, what's up? Are you okay?"

"Alright," he replied. "I believe you now. I'll come with you guys."

Percy's eyes widened a little at the sudden change of heart.

"Why the quick change?"

Nico looked over his shoulder, back down into the lecture hall at his professor. He stared for a second or two before looking back at Percy.

"I'll explain later," he told the New Yorker. "I need a little time to think. Let's get to this library and I'll sort out my thoughts on the way there."

Percy was surprised, but he went with it. The two guys made their way back to the car, startling the girls as they got back.

"What-"

"How-"

Percy cut both of the girls off.

"Library in Johannesburg," he said. "We got some info. Think it helped. We'll see what we can get here at the library before moving on."

"Alright," Thalia replied. "Let's get going then."

Percy started the car and they took off, making a U-turn that was most likely illegal. After another thirty or forty minutes they found the library, but there was absolutely no parking for a couple blocks so they parked far away and had to walk.

The foursome ended up directly opposite the library, across a two-lane road. After looking both ways, the four of them started to cross the road, being sure there weren't any cars in the area to hit them. About halfway across, Thalia nudged Percy and pointed across to the other side.

"Look," she said. "Tell me that guy doesn't look shifty."

Indeed he did. The guy was dressed in jeans and a gray hoodie, the hood pulled up way over his head, and he was wearing sunglasses that shaded his eyes.

A few moments later a second guy joined him, sprinting out of the library, and the two of them doubled it down the road, rounding a corner out of sight.

Percy was about to shrug and say, 'Hey, it's the inner city,' but he never got the chance.

Seconds later, the library exploded.

A/N:

So, what did you think? Told you guys you wouldn't like me.

Chapter 8 will be uploaded...sometime in the future? I currently have no idea when I will even be able to write, much less upload, but we'll go along as it happens.

Other news: I will be finishing up The Prince, The Girl and The World this week, so if you haven't been following along with that, you will have the chance to read the entire story.

Also, this week I came up with a new idea for a story. It will be called Demigod Celebrities and you can find the summary on my website. The link is on my profile page.

Now to Quote Trivia. Who said this quote: "Hey cuz," [he] said. "Welcome back to the States."

I need the speaker and the book. Bonus points are for the recipient(s).

Onto the Question of the Chapter: Would you rather get into a verbal argument with Octavian or a duel with Clarisse?

This is another easy one for me. Duel with Clarisse. I'm horrible with words and especially coming up with them on impulse. Octavian would destroy me, so I'm choosing the physical beating.

Make sure to review!

Thanks!

-PSON