Greeks, Gladiators, Gore
Emotions
Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan, and therefore own nothing that he does.
Kronos was, to say the least, infuriated. He wanted those three dead – he didn't care how they died, he just wanted to be rid of them. All Kronos had to do was order a guard to silence them in their sleep. Simple.
But it wasn't that easy, was it?
Perseus, Annabeth and Nico were the soul reasons behind the spectators' visits. They were surprisingly strong for three teenagers, and this drew the crowd towards the arena. Not once did they fail to impress the spectators. Rome adored them; their deaths would be riot-provoking. Kronos hated it.
Why were they so strong? Perseus' performances before his reunion with the girl and his friend were not as marvellous as they are now. Sure, he was still loved by the spectators – that hadn't changed – but the slaves' victory rates had.
Then realisation slapped Kronos in the face: Perseus was not as strong alone as he was with his companions. All of the recent brawls had been won due to the perfect combination of Perseus' strength, Annabeth's intelligence and Nico's rage. Neither of those characteristics alone can win a battle.
Why not separate the trio?
. . .
Angst; it was evident in the shack's atmosphere. Since Thalia's arrest, nobody had uttered a word. Even Leo was quiet – Leo was never quiet. However, unlike Jason, Piper, Natasha and Leo looked calculating. They all appeared to be deep in thought; thinking of ways to free Thalia, undoubtedly.
Jason was too astonished to function correctly. His mother had abandoned him at birth, his father was long gone, and now his sister – his only family – had been pried from his grasp. Words couldn't describe the sensation bubbling in his veins. He was enraged, mortified (who would treat an 'innocent' lady in such a rough manner?), lonely and grieving
He was numb.
Natasha was the first one to speak. She whispered, "Thals is coming back. I know she is – those bloody Romans are all weak. She took them all down without breaking a sweat. Hell, Thalia's gonna find us and tell us about how she wiped out those Roman -"
"She wouldn't fight them. She's smart, Natasha; any chance of survival Thalia had would've been lost if she fought them," Jason rasped. "Let's just accept that she's gone."
. . .
Thalia saw red. Red, the colour of fury, the colour of blood.
The girl's crimson blood splashed against Thalia's leg when she was stabbed, and it dried whilst trickling down her limb.
She'd been walking for a couple of hours. Occasionally, she stopped to look in an alleyway for her friends, but usually was shooed away by a stray cat. She analysed the cats' movements whenever she saw one; they fought the other prowling creatures of the night, they lunged at whatever food they could find, they listened out for any potential threats. After all, if all else failed, Thalia would have to live the life of a rogue.
Time passed at a painstakingly slow pace. Thalia didn't know where she was, or far away she was from the Colosseum.
In front of her stood a figure of stone 7 feet high. It would have been intimidating, if it weren't for its lack of stone clothing and ridiculously large nose. Thalia suppressed a giggle – the last thing she wanted was to draw attention to herself. To make matters worse, she was surrounded by more statues. Each statue had its own hilarity, from gargantuan ears to over-exaggerated frowns. Thalia bit down on her right hand to prevent any laughing fits. Hard.
"Gah!" She hissed. Blood seeped from the bite-mark on her hand. "I'd better clean this up. I could catch something from one of those cats," Thalia murmured, wiping her hand on her leg.
Conveniently, a fountain sat in the middle of the ring of eccentric stone carvings, water trickling out from its openings and into a large basin. Thalia jogged over to the basin and placed her hand in the cool water, allowing it to numb the pain. A soft sigh escaped her cracked lips. She cupped her hands and brought some of the liquid to her mouth. It glided down her dry throat.
Thalia positioned her leg over the basin and its contents to wash off the blood, shivering as the coolness touched her skin. Once all of the girl's blood had been removed from her leg, Thalia got up from the fountain. Taking a final drink from the fountain, she walked away from her only free water source and into the unknown.
. . .
Jason had cried himself to sleep.
"Let's just accept that she's gone."
His own words had triggered his tears. Truthfully, Jason couldn't accept that Thalia was gone. In the months that he had known his sister, Jason had grown used to her constant yelling and electrifying aura. He loved how she could start a petty argument as easily as she could end one. He missed Thalia.
He sobbed for what seemed like an eternity, and nobody tried to stop him.
And then, darkness.
"Okay, Jason. We managed to steal one of these things from the Roman officers that passed by yesterday. You're the only one of us without a weapon, so here you go."
Jason took the golden sword from Thalia, admiring its gleam. The blade was short but sharp. It felt perfectly balanced in his grip.
"Thals, are you sure? I mean, I'm grateful, but shouldn't someone more experienced than me be using something as cool as this?" Jason asked, resulting in Thalia slapping him upside the head.
"Jason, sometimes you just need to take a gift with a smile. Be grateful that you even have a weapon."
"But…"
"Mouth closed."
"Gotcha."
"Anyways, you'll be training to use this at dawn – every day until you can use it properly. Don't use it when Romans are nearby. Well, I suppose that goes without saying, but you can be a total idiot sometimes. This thing practically glows." Jason felt slightly offended by this, even though his sister was joking. Hopefully.
"Thalia, do you know what the Roman who you stole the sword off of looked like?"
Thalia, arched an eyebrow and said, "Why'd you ask?"
"Uh… Genuine curiosity?"
"Fine. She had dark brown hair – typically Roman – tanned skin – typically Roman – and black eyes. Happy?"
"Yeah. Training at dawn. Got it."
School decided to be a huge pile of schist by attacking me with an insurmountable weapon called 'tests'. Please let this be an acceptable excuse for my absence.
AndImayormaynothavebeenslightlyprocrastinatingwhenitcametowritingthisupdate.
Anyways, here's another update for you. I'm not too satisfied with it, but I can't think of anything else to include in it. You know when you want to write something awesome but can't at that moment in time, because if you did it would seem like you've skipped part of the story, so you only write something that you give half-a-crap about instead? Yeah, that happened.
I was listening to an AOT soundtrack while writing this. If you haven't watched Attack on Titan, you have been living under a rock. Go watch it. Now. It's better than reading this A/N, anyways.
Thank you ever so much for reading this story. It means a whole lot to me. All of your reviews are so kind, too!
SetFireToTheRainbow
Blue waffles are fabulous. I am grateful that you deemed them a valid apology. You're amazing. :)
Waffle time, everybody. Yay waffles wooooo…
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Goodbye for now, my pretties… *Cue evil witch cackle*
-Holly