*puppy eyes* You don't hate me, do you?

Well, you will after this REVOLTINGLY SHORT CHAPTER!

Sorry, but I was sick, and I have a rebelling brain, so I figured that I'd give you this so you could yell at me.

Uh . . . Yeah, I'm more of a Percabeth supporter, as you can see.

Dude, those two ae awesome! He's a smartarse, she's a genius!

And then you just have to admit that basically everyone in the PJO fandom loves reading about those guys.

Okay, yeah, please don't kill me!

Disclaimer: NOT EVEN THOSE TWO AUTHORS COULD BE THIS ASHAMED RIGHT NOW


Chapter 8: Not What Was Expected

Annabeth froze. There was something hairy, fat and eight-legged right in front of her. "P-Percy!" she yelled. She started trembling, her heart pounded. The spider turned towards her. Annabeth thought she could hear it clicking its mandibles.

"PERCY!" she screamed. The spider was coming at her now. Her heart felt like it was going to smash her ribs to smithereens.

"Wha—" Annabeth fell backwards, onto Percy. She pointed. "Sp-sp-spider!"

The spider was running towards her now. She was backpedalling as fast as she could. "Annabeth, it's okay," Percy tried, but nothing could get through. She was fixed on the spider, and how very fast it was coming towards her. Then, she didn't know what she did. She wanted them gone, so she made a shoving motion with her hand.

The spider was then shoved away by some invisible force. It flew back into the wall. Annabeth froze. Her hand dropped to her side. She—she—had done that. But what had she done?

The spider turned and scurried away. Annabeth broke down in Percy's arms. She buried her face into his black Dauntless shirt and cried. "What am I doing?" she said between sobs. "Why am I breaking down?"

Percy pushed the hair from her face. "Who says you're not allowed to?"

"Me, that's who," she snapped. She rubbed her eyes and took some deep breaths. "I just . . . all our friends are dead, and we don't know how, we're stuck here going out with some people we hardly know that think we're aliens and . . . and we just . . . I don't know what to think . . ."

What do I say? She heard. She froze. What had she just heard? Percy's arm wrapped around her shoulders. "It could be worse."

I could've lost you, she heard. She looked up at Percy. "Percy . . . did you just . . . ?"

"What?"

"I . . . I heard . . . what did you just think?"

"That you're freaking me out right now."

"No—before that."

"That I could've lost you in Tartarus," he said. "Because if I had—"

He must've seen Annabeth's pale and terrified face. Had she just heard a thought? Tears pricked at her eyes. "Percy, maybe . . ." she didn't say another word, she just started crying.

Get it together, lady! She yelled at herself. You never cry! You're a leader!

But she did. She felt so small and weak, and her tears kept coming and coming and coming. She buried her face into Percy's shirt. She thought she'd finished crying, but she hadn't. Nothing ever finished with them!

Not even their lives.


The gates of Amity slowly inch open. Every breath in the air is a collective, thrumming sheet of tension. We want to get to Amity, to tell them to open the gates on the other side, to let us through to see what's out there.

It was always my intention to save you . . .

My mother had said those words. Had she not been lying to me and meant that saving me was for me to be alive when the truth was eventually released? Or had she been lying to me.

After all, my mother had been born a Dauntless . . .

I shook my head to rid myself of those thoughts. My mother had loved me, but she was gone.

Did Caleb love me? Would a normal brother turn in a sister or . . . or help experiment on her? What kid of—

I froze. The gates had inched open. Standing between them was Caleb.

He's grinning. His hands are clasped behind his back, and his hair is as messy as ever. Tobias grips my hand.

"I've come to . . . escort you to the headquarters," he says.

"We don't need to be escorted anywhere," Tobias snarls. "Especially not by you. Traitor."

That makes Caleb grin wider. "Sometimes you don't have a choice."

That makes something snap within me. Don't have a choice.

I let go of Tobias's hand and storm up to him. I'm shorter than him. I grab the collar of his shirt and pull him down to my eyes. "You know nothing of not having a choice," I say. Rage is boiling in me. "You don't know anything. You think that the Erudite know things—they don't. They don't know what it's like to watch someone die; they don't know what it's like to be betrayed by your own brother. And maybe no one does, but let me tell you, Caleb, I do."

I pull out my gun and press the handle to his chin. His eyes go wide.

"And I know a way to help the memories go away."

I push him away from me. The Divergent are walking forward. Caleb regains his composure. "Killing me won' do you any good, so you'd better come and see Johanna anyway, seeing as she's your ticket to opening the gates to the world beyond here."

I shove my gun back in its holder and grip Tobias's hand as he walks up next to me. Neither of us says anything, maybe because we don't have to. He knows what I meant when I said those things.

It's late afternoon when we finally get to the Amity headquarters. Some things I had been expecting, some not.

Johanna regards us all with her hair draped over her scar. She nods to us, and then announces, "the gates will be open tomorrow, until then, I advise that you get some sleep. If the world is hostile out there . . . you'll need your strength."

No one disagrees with her. We file towards the door, and I can see the back of Annabeth's curly blonde hair.

Then everyone stops as Johanna points at Annabeth and Percy and yells, "You!"


Yeah, cliffhanger, but hey, Rick pulls them off EVERY FREAKING TIME, I mean, listen to this:

The Lightning Thief: Percy's half dead after Luke betrays camp and the gods and gets him stung by a Pit Scorpion

The Sea of Monsters: "I am Thalia, Daughter of Zeus." Need explaining?

The Titan's Curse: LUKE'S NOT DEAD?! And Percy claims the prophecy and Nico's missing, and Percy thinks the kid wants him dead, and Grover hears Pan? Dude, biggest cliffhanger ever?

The Battle of Labyrinth: Nico di Angelo is RIGHT THERE, with a plan to help Percy win the war.

The Last Olympian: Maybe not, but I needed to have all five, because I love them so much.

HoO!

The Lost Hero: Oh, by the way, Percy's over in the, uh, Roman camp with no memory.

The Son of Neptune: The ship descended through the clouds - NO FREAKING REUNION!

The Mark of Athena: (I'm assuming you've all read it, but if not, stop reading here.) PERCY AND ANNABETH AE IN FREAKING TARTARUS?! WHY? And Nico says they're not dead? WHY? THEY'RE THE BEST CHARACTERS OF ALL TIME!

But you have to admit, he pulls it off every time and we still love the guy! I mean, we hate the guy for his cliffhangers, but we can't bear to leave the fandom? WHAT EVIL GENIUS IS THIS?!

Yeah, I'm ranting to fill up all the space the chapter missed out on . . .

I have to do a Wide Reading presentation and I'm doing the MoA, I'm just gonna talk about that the whole time.

*grins evilly*

Sorry about the chapter! I WILL have a longer new one soon, and I did promise to have longer chapters . . .

Maybe this can be a microchapter?

Have any of you read Maximum Ride? The chapters are SOOOOOO short!

But there is a lot, so I guess that's okay.

Okay, a warning, when we get out of the gates into the outside world in this fanfic, I'm going to ditch the plot of Divergent completely, which I'm sorry about if you live that and not so much PJO, but it sounds good in my head, and Cat likes it.

Oh! And yes, Annabeth is beginning to read minds.

If that wasn't obvious and you hadn't picked it up, sorry!

Yeah, that and the powers thing is Cat's idea, so I need to put that in the Disclaimer too . . .

WHY?!

I APOLOGIZE AGAIN! And I'm sorry!

Until the next chapter,

Please R&R, (Flames welcome, seeing as how bad I feel about this chapter and this whole rant . . .),

-Owl

(And Cat, I guess, decide for yourself.)