Author's Note: I just want to say a quick Thank you to Assassin Lord for your review of the latest chapter. Thanks, Riptide2
Chapter 9
We ran through so many corridors I would have been lost, but Thalia seemed to know where we were going. The halls were eerily quiet, not a soul in sight, and the farther we ran with no opposition the more agitated Thalia got.
"This isn't right. This place is usually crawling with guards." She muttered.
"Hey don't complain, the fewer guards the easier this'll be." but I had to admit it was strange. If the Keeper was so paranoid where were all his evil meanies. It was almost too easy.
Like he wanted us to find the Keys. Like he knew we were coming.
We ducked around another sharp turn and ran straight into a wall. Yeah I said a wall.
"Do you even know where we are?" This place was really starting to remind me of the Labyrinth.
"Sort of." She was pacing, definitely not a good sign.
"Sort of? Just lovely Thalia, now we're lost in this stupid cave while the others and duking it out with old Tartar face. Just what I wanted to do on a Saturday night." Please note the heavy use of sarcasm here.
"We're not lost!"
"Oh really? Then just where are we?"
"Well um...here?"
"Oh brilliant observation, Thals. Just brilliant." I pretended to applaud her. That is until I got electrocuted.
"I know where we are, but this wall isn't supposed to be here." She said still glaring at me.
"Is it like the cliff? A false wall, maybe?" It was covered with symbols and at the bottom there were four groups of lines.
"Okay, so if it is how do we open it? Some kind of combination lock maybe?" She said looking closer.
"Well that's the Greek alphabet on the top, so maybe a phrase of some kind? Four groups of lines so four words?"
"Okay, so then what's the phrase? How 'bout I'm an annoying dork?" She grinned at me pointedly.
"Nah, how about 'My goal is to be impossible'?"
"That's six words."
"Oh right. Yeah I knew that."
"Sure, you did." She rolled her eyes.
Then I had an idea, "Hey wait a minute. What did he say the Titans were going to make him?"
"The Lord of the Underworld, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"So if you were the demented egomaniac what better to use as a code?"
She nodded, "Okay let's try it."
I pressed the Greek letters along the top so in English it spelled: Lord of the Underworld.
I pressed the last letter and with a grinding noise the whole wall swung aside.
"Come on, Percy. It's this way."
We ran down another long hallway and into a circular room with a pedestal in the middle. Under a glass case were two long, black, keys with skulls for handles.
"Come on, Percy. Let's get the Keys and get out of here."
"Wait this is too easy and besides where's the sword?" I glanced around the room, there were no other pedestals or a sword rack, but leaning against the Keys' pedestal was a familiar sword and scabbard. I held it up for Thalia to see.
"Here take it well I get the Keys." I passed the sword to Thalia and she tied it to her belt.
I carefully lifted the glass cover off but as soon as I touched the first Key a blast of what felt like a million volts of electricity hit me.
The pain of the River Styx was nothing compared to this, it was like my soul was being ripped from from body. I tried to fight the darkness that was slowly engulfing me, but the more I fought the faster it closed in. Everything went dark as I crumpled to the ground.
...
( Beginning of Flashback )
I was running across the deck of a ship with Riptide in my hand, I kept running as a strange sense of dejavu settled over me. The sound of a way too familiar voice made me freeze in my tracts.
"You're late, Percy."
I looked up to the balcony above me, Luke was standing there leaning against the railing, his golden eyes staring me down. "We've been expecting you for days. Come, bow before me." He continued.
The dream me muttered, "Yeah that'll happen." But I wasn't completely in control of myself as that feeling of dejavu overwhelmed me.
Luke nodded and dozens of monsters filed in from every direction, in seconds I was completely surrounded.
According to the prophecy I would have to fight him eventually, and as if reading my mind Luke, I mean Kronos I had to remember he was Kronos now, smiled, "Come forward. If you dare."
The crowd of monsters parted and I moved up to the balcony, heart pounding. Kronos' scythe appeared in his hands and before I could second guess my own sanity, I charged.
Time slowed down, it was like moving through syrup, I could barely raise my sword. I tried to fight the magic, concentrating on the ocean around me- the source of my power, but now nothing worked.
I took another step and the monsters jeered. I concentrated harder and there was a wrenching pain in my gut, the entire boat lurched sideways as four thousand gallons of salt water surged out of the swimming pool dousing everyone on deck. The water revitalized me braking the time spell and I lunged forward.
All of sudden everything seemed to go on fast forward and when it stopped I was standing if front of Kronos, pain blazing up my one side so bad I could hardly remember who I was.
Kronos turned to me with a crooked smile, "You'll have to excuse my incompetent help, Percy Jackson. But it doesn't matter. We have you now. We've know you were coming for days." He showed me a silver bracelet with a scythe charm- the Titan Lord's symbol.
The wound on my arm was sapping my ability to think but I muttered, "Communication devise...spy at Camp."
Kronos grinned, "You can't count on your friends. They will always let you down. Luke learned that lesson the hard way. Now drop your sword and surrender to me, or your friend dies."
But from there the memory went wrong, the colors started to bleed out of the background leaving only black, he turned to me.
"You may think you have won Percy Jackson, but the war has only just begun. Soon I shall return and then no force in the universe shall be enough to stop me. Remember my words Jackson, this is not over yet."
The image shattered and I woke gasping for air.
...
"Percy, are you okay?" Thalia asked leaning over me.
Still trying to catch my breath, I nodded.
"Come on, we have to get moving. Can you get up?"
"Yeah. I'm fine, I think." I staggered to my feet.
"What happened?"
"I'll tell you later. We have to get back to the others." I flipped the flap on my pack open.
"Wait! Maybe I should get them." She said eying the Keys uneasily.
I ignored her and grabbed them. There was no jolt of electricity this time, but I could feel some kind of dark, evil energy radiating off them. I dropped them into my pack and together we ran from the room.
We darted down the dark hallways until the sounds of fighting echoed from ahead, Thalia summoned her bow just as we came out in the middle of the fight.
Nico was holding the Keeper's attention, attacking and then darting away as his huge spear slammed into the ground he's been standing on seconds before, but he was doing little more then annoying Ol' Tartar Face and he was slowing down only just avoiding Taratarus' spear point, with a nasty looking cut running down one arm.
Clarisse was attacking from behind with her back to us, while the others stood in a phalanx formation, their weapons bristling over the top of their shield wall.
"Come on, guys. We have what we came for." I yelled and they broke off their attack, running back the way we came.
Thalia and I started after them, but the Keeper bellowed behind us, "After them! Don't let them escape."
"Sorry to disappoint you, Toothbrush Brain, but we're out of here."
I pointed Riptide at the arch of his cave and an earthquake ripped through the ground toppling his cave down around him. Then we turned and ran back the way we came.
