Chapter 9: The Royal Family

Is doubting decisions wrong or not?

The crowd was quiet in shock. The slaves had actually won... Then they cheered, screaming and yelling at the slaves who just stood there. He watched it all with a frown on his face. The fact that there had been a second fight was because he requested it, because there were too many surviving slaves. Bacchus had just announced it to the crowd. He had expected for them to die. It was one of the most difficult set-ups they had.

Still, nine slaves had won against ten gladiators by killing them all. There were even three left! Oh well, this would only mean more entertainment for his guests. Something bothered him though. He had a feeling that he knew those three. Or at least the two who didn't have a helmet on. But he couldn't quite put his finger on it. And the one with the helmet... He had a strange feeling no good would come out from that kid.

His thoughts were interrupted by a voice next to him. "Is there something wrong, father?"

He looked to his right and saw his son looking at him. He smiled reassuringly at him. "No, it's nothing Jason." Jason raised an eyebrow on that, but focused his eyes on the center again. The slaves were guided out, probably going back to their cell. And tomorrow they would fight again. This time, they would die.

Suddenly, his daughter stormed away. Not before asking him to excuse her, of course. That was at least one thing that he could teach the girl. Still, she looked pretty upset about something. He had to admit that he wasn't the best father in the world. She had let him know that quite frequently in fact. But he could still sense that something was wrong.

He looked at Jason, demanding an explanation. He just shrugged. "She just kept looking at the game in shock. As if she knew someone who was fighting, or something..." The king frowned at that, knowing that Thalia knew something he didn't know. And that fact was something Zeus just couldn't overlook.

While Percy had been fighting the wolves, Chris had prevented a gladiator from attacking Percy. That had cost him his life. Not that Nico would tell him that. It was worse enough to see a comrade die. There was still something that bothered Nico. Percy wasn't telling him everything.

He frowned, thinking about that, when they were put back in their cage. He felt that Percy was depressed about something, but not only about Chris' death. No, it was much greater than that. But Nico would wait for Percy to tell him what exactly was going on. Since he too hadn't said everything to him.

Percy knew it was too much to ask. He sighed, knowing that sulking wouldn't get him anywhere. He had heard from the guards that more slaves would be arriving today. Apparently, the guards weren't all bad. Some had even given them some food after they had returned from the Colosseum. They still refused telling more about the new slaves though, or they didn't know much about them.

The market before them started to wake up. They could hear people screaming to buy their goods. More people started to fill the streets. Percy looked in awe at the beautiful city. Even if he hated it's rulers, that didn't mean he hated the city. It was astonishingly beautiful and it reminded him a lot of Athene.

For the second time, he sighed. Remembering his home made him feel all fuzzy inside. The many people who would happily become friends with the young prince. The place where his mother and he would get a drink, undercover of course, when he was having a bad day. And then that day when the warm feeling became cold. When screams filled the city. When both his parents died.

Percy knew he mustn't think about it that much. His old sword fighting teacher had always said that if he thought too much about the past, that he would be too distracted in a fight. But he just couldn't give up on it. It was like his life depended on it. As if he had no other reason to live. As if he would die if he accomplished it, or if he gave it up. He was trapped in the feeling of getting revenge for his family. But what if he got it? What would happen then?

Percy would often think about this fact. And now that Chris was dead, his chances were as slim as they were before. The chances of him not succeeding were getting bigger every day and he was just sitting here, inside a cage. Looking at the market that was now crawling with people.

In the corner of his eye, he saw Nico sitting up a little straighter, looking expectantly at the people before them. Percy followed his gaze and saw a carriage riding across the streets of Rome. People were dodging the vehicle and some were bowing. Percy realized it was the same carriage as the one that had passed them the first day they'd arrived at Rome.

The vehicle was coming towards them. That could only mean two things: he or Nico was found out. Or both. He sighed when the carriage finally stopped, not far from the cage. The people at the market yelled less harder and were paying attention at the one who stepped out. Guards were all around the carriage now, guarding it.

Percy could hear Nico gasping when he saw her. From his reaction, Percy knew in an instant that the one who he was looking at was the Princess of Rome, Thalia Grace. And you could say that she wasn't what he expected. She had black, spiky hair with a silver circlet on it. Her skull earrings matched her black dress with blue stripes on her waist. Her blue eyes inspected the cage, searched for someone. When she looked at Nico, her eyes widened. She ran toward the cage, ignoring the strange looks she was getting.

All by all, she really wasn't what Percy expected.

Even weirder was that she stole one of the keys a guard was holding and unlocked the cage. She disgracefully smashed the door open with her foot, making it slam wide open, and jumped Nico. Okay, what the fudge? Nico seemed just as surprised as Percy, but returned the hug Thalia gave him after a moment of hesitation. Then suddenly, she broke the hug and gave him a hard punch in his gut.

"OW!"

[A/N]: Sorry if it is too short, but it is late here (the clock on my laptop says 23:29 *yawns*) so I decided to stop and try to sleep. Changes in POV this time. Please tell me if it's disturbing or not ;) I want to know if I can make more of those POV changes in the future or not. ;)

To awesomeness: Thanks! I'll see if I can fit him in the story! ;D Hagan sounds like a son of Athena, who is a male hunter of Artemis xD Though I still don't understand the whole height thingy... The thing is that I'm not from the US, which means we use different units (meters instead of feet). Oh well, not that it matters much... I hope that you like this chapter (personally I like it less than last chapter, but it is an important chapter for the story... Just like chapter 10) ;P

To Lmb111514: Sorry for killing Chris :'( Thanks for the compliment and the review! It really helps me with writing, you know...

To mimiklimmatt: Your wish is my command! ;P

Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, reviewed and read the story! It really helps me build up my self esteem, which in return makes me want to write more! What it means for you: faster updates and longer chapters ;). So please review, follow or/and favorite and you'll be my best friend :))

'Till next time ^^

Xx Anny