"Can you go any faster?" Alec asked.
"Can you help any more?" Leo answered back with a very forced smile.
"Guys, we need to try putting aside our differences for, like, six seconds and actually getting something done," Piper urged, trying in vain to fill the logical void that had been left by Annabeth.
"It's like Romans versus Greeks all over again," Hazel agreed.
"Don't go Wonder Pets on us, girls," Leo pleaded in exasperation. "What's gonna work isn't teamwork; what's gonna work is Zappy Finger Dude helping me with my crystal tracker and everyone else getting ready for a battle and leaving the workmen to their task."
"We're ready to go," Jordan said. "We're just waiting on you guys."
"Well, you and the rest of the Twilight cast can wait outside."
"Last time I waited outside, my parabatai was abducted," Alec said darkly.
"And that sucks, and we're working as fast as we can, but-"
"Everybody out," Percy ordered simply.
With slight hesitation, the room cleared. Only Magnus, Leo, Tessa, Jem, and Percy remained.
"This is insane," Magnus sighed, reviewing all of Leo's notes. "Really, really insane."
"I second that insanity," Leo concurred, handing Magnus a crystal.
"It could work though," Magnus noted incredulously. "Since when are heroes so useful at this stuff?"
"On behalf of my people, I take great offense," Jem replied with an easy smile.
"You know what I mean..."
"Guys," Nico said, startling everyone as they suddenly noticed him in the back corner of the room, "I can sense the island."
"What?" Percy said. "Like...just now?"
Nico shrugged. "There was nothing to sense before. Now..." He angled his head to meet Percy's downtrodden gaze. "Somebody on the island is dying," Nico announced more loudly. Then he lowered his eyes. "One of ours."
...
Sebastian sat Annabeth down in a chair that came complete with shackles and bloodstains. He grabbed at her wrists.
"You don't need to chain up an injured teenage girl, do you?" Annabeth asked. "Am I that intimidating?"
Sebastian gave her a withering smile and locked the shackles around her wrists. Then he stood, bent over, with his face inches from hers. Annabeth found herself remembering Rachel's injuries. Not the image she wanted right now.
"I'm not going to try to trick you, Athena's daughter," Sebastian said at last. "That would be silly. Honestly, your brain is the only weapon you have."
It's kept me alive this long, Annabeth thought.
"So I'm going to tell you what I want you to do," he told her slowly, "and you're going to do it."
Likely, Annabeth thought sarcastically, but all the while she smiled and said, "Sounds like a plan."
Sebastian grinned terribly. "I'm glad to see you're so on-board with this. You might just survive." Then, without warning, he took out a dagger and sliced through the palm of her hand.
Annabeth made a pained sound, but Sebastian simply collected the blood into a tiny vial.
"Now," he sighed, "you're going to call to your mother."
"My mother?"
"Yes. Call her here. I need her."
"She won't come. In case you don't know, my mother and I had a falling out."
"And then you recovered the Athena Parthenos. She owes you."
"What do you need her for?"
"That's my business."
"I won't call her."
Sebastian's countenance darkened. "Yes you will," he said simply. Then one of his evil minions dragged a bloody, half-alive figure into the room.
"Connor!" Annabeth exclaimed, staring in horror at the beaten form of one of her favorite Hermes kids.
Sebastian brought his hand to her cheek and turned her head to face him. "You're too strong to be motivated by your own pain," he whispered. "Let's see how you fair with his."
Annabeth glared at him. She'd known Connor and Travis for years. They'd played Capture the Flag together, told jokes, clowned during sing-alongs, fought monsters in the Titan War. "Too far," Annabeth seethed, articulating every word perfectly. "You may think you're a Grade A villain, but you don't mess with my friends! I am Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena and Hero of Olympus! I've fought sphinxes, gods, Titans, and the Earth. You are not equipped for the war you've just started."
Annabeth hurriedly stopped speaking when the air behind Sebastian started shimmering. He grinned and straightened. "Sorry, Goldilocks," he sighed comfortably. "I lied about not tricking you."
And then Athena appeared in the room.
...
"Nice ship," Simon declared, grinning at Leo as he drove with his Wii controllers.
"Thanks, vamp," Leo answered. "Sorry we don't serve blood or raw humans."
Simon winced, which was not Leo's intention.
"Kidding, man," he hastened to amend. "Just hoping I'm not Item One on your Kill List."
"He'd be good for barbeque," Isabelle informed Simon mildly.
"Huh?" Simon said.
Leo lifted a pinkie (It was the most that he could spare.) and allowed it to briefly catch fire.
"Cool," Simon chuckled. "Do you do Bar Mitzvahs?"
"Sorry. I'm booked."
"So his hands catch fire," Magnus drawled. "Big deal."
"I spy with my little eye a jealous warlock," Leo said.
Magnus pointed a finger and sent blue sparks to zap the ground at Leo's feet. "Anything you can do, I can do better."
"I know that song," Frank mused. "I like that song. It's a nice song."
"Where did Alec go?" Isabelle wondered aloud.
"Oh, he's probably belowdeck trying to kill me again," Magnus sighed.
"Bane, I swear..."
"Guys!" yelled Alec as he ran out onto the deck carrying an unconscious Nico. "We were talking and he just collapsed."
He set the son of Hades on the ground, and everyone huddled around him, except for Leo, who was still steering.
The scrawny boy had gone pale (well, paler), his dark hair plastered to his forehead by a cold sweat. His lips were moving to frame silent words.
"What exactly were you doing?" Percy demanded.
"Just talking," Alec stammered. "He was telling me about the way his death senses work, and then he collapsed."
"F-feel..." Nico murmured laboriously. "I f-feel it." His tone had become urgent and breathless. He grabbed onto Percy's wrist, a death-grip. His eyes were wide and brimming with moisture.
"What do you feel?" Jason asked.
To everyone's surprise, the boy loosed a short sob before saying, "I feel the world burning."
...
Clary woke feeling sore all over and experiencing searing pain in select spots: her throat, for instance, burned from her efforts to scream past the Silencing rune Sebastian had placed on her. The rune seemed to have faded, now, as did the Binding rune.
"Have you seen my brother?" a voice asked from a dark corner of the room. Clary looked up to see a teenage boy with curly hair and fingers that tapped restlessly against the cold floor.
"No," she answered hoarsely. "I'm sorry."
The boy sighed and approached the door to the dark room, fiddling with the doorknob a bit. "I can't pick the locks," he sighed. "I've tried sixteen times."
"You're a demigod," Clary concluded suddenly.
The boy nodded. "Travis Stoll, son of Hermes."
Suddenly, the door swung open, granting entry to a malevolent-looking Sebastian, who was flanked by two henchmen. Somehow, Clary found the strength to crawl into a far corner.
Her brother chuckled. "Relax," he said sweetly. "I'm here for the son of Hermes." He turned to look at Travis, who had flushed.
"Where's my brother?" the boy demanded.
Sebastian shrugged casually. "Alive-ish, for now. He'll stay that way for a lot longer if you do something for me...now."
But just then, an image appeared in front of Sebastian's face, with all the irridescent beauty of an Iris message. The face in the message looked familiar.
"Percy!" Travis exclaimed.
"Sea boy," Sebastian chuckled.
"What did you do to Nico?" Percy asked without preamble.
"Just a little spell," Sebastian crooned. "I thought it would be interesting to see how Death Boy handled a bit of premonition."
"Where is Annabeth?"
"Oh, Goldilocks?" Sebastian smiled. "She's here. Getting a little weak, though...I think what she really needs is some company."
The image of Percy's face drew nearer, and Clary could see all that made the other demigods follow him; it was clearly reflected in his eyes. "Deal," was all he said.
A voice outside of the picture whispered, "Calypso! What about Calypso?"
But it was too late; Sebastian slashed a hand through the image, and it vanished. He turned to Travis again. "Now Stoll," he said with deadly calm, "you are going to call to your father for me."