Chapter 10

Annabeth POV-,

This can't be happening, if the guilt for what I did to Percy wasn't enough now Adam is…gods please let him be okay. Was some invisible force punishing me, is someone trying to take everyone I care about away from me? Please…don't take it out on him, not him!

It had been hours since Chiron had taken Adam into the back of the infirmary; him and Will Solace were still examining Adam. We haven't heard anything in hours, by 'We' I mean, Percy, Clarisse, myself and the rest of the Apollo Cabin, Adams half siblings. I should be relieved that Percy and I had made amends but with Adam…why am I being tormented? I don't mean for my thoughts to sound so selvage, I just want him to be okay.

Clarisse sat down beside me as we waited on the front steps of the infirmary, she must've noticed my shaking hands because next thing I know she placed her hand down over my left, telling me. "He's going to be okay," I looked up at her, I could feel the sting in my eyes as the tears welled, "you just to have some faith." I mustered what smile I could before blinking back the waterworks, though I hated to admit it I was glad she was there.

Part of me resented her for being with Percy, jealousy, but it made me feel good that she could put thing aside and forgive…even though I was still a little jealous.

Percy stood hanging in the doorway, he was almost as fidgety as I was. I could tell his brain was working over time trying to figure out what could've done this to Adam, but even I couldn't link anything to it. The only clue we have was the crater, it was too hot to touch, like something had blasted it…and Adam with fire. Scary thing in Greek legends, almost half the monsters breathed fire and almost all of them wouldn't think twice about killing you. But none of the monsters we have on the camp grounds are able to breathe fire, that points to one thing….someone had let something into the camp.

I could tell by the look on Percy's face that he was thinking the same thing.

Percy's POV-

Why does it seem like every time I come back to camp something happened that endangers a friend or nearly gets them killed. I know I'm not a genius, but even I could tell that something was up. This attack with Adam was just the start, what's next…I still don't know.

Annabeth's taking it hard, Clarisse is doing her best to console her which downright terrifies me. I know it's not the time to be worrying about this sorta thing but it's my girlfriend and my ex girlfriend when has that actually worked out well? Damn it…I shouldn't be thinking about this right now, Adam's fate is still yet to be determined and I'm here freaking out about my love life. I was getting impenitent, we all were, damn ADHD!

Finally As I leaned back against the entrance the door swung open and I nearly take a tumble backwards. Luckily I fell against my mentor, "Chiron!" I gasped, for a centaur he can move around pretty quietly. At my mention of his name everyone stormed the deck, Annabeth shot to the front of the crowd.

"Chiron, how's Adam, can we see him?" She asked, her eyes were redder than ever. In under a second the rest of Apollo cabin were repeating her question letting it blur into pure noise.

Raising his hand Chiron got them to quiet down. He pulled our attention as he whispered, "Mr. Rosewood is fine, but this is still a place for the sick and injured," he reminded, You can see him, but just…make sure you keep noise down to a minimum."

That didn't go according to what he had planned, as he moved out of the way we charged into the tent. It wasn't hard to locate Adam since the day had just started and no one had the chance to get hurt. Laid out on a cot in the far back was Adam, his hands at his side lying perfectly still. Not a good sign.

We slowed down as we got closer, each one of us surrounded his bed looking down on his unmoving form. He was covered from the waist down revealing his scar covered chest, he had been cleaned up and without the dirt we saw the scars more clearly. None of them were fresh, they had healed leaving a number of vertical and horizontal marks on his chest and shoulders. I couldn't help but zero in on one scratch in particular, a large X crossing over his heart, it looked like it was made with a blade. Thing lines creating a perfect cross…he didn't do those himself…did he?

Annabeth looked down on the same scar herself, "Adam…," she silently sobbed touching her hand to the center of the cross, he didn't even flinch, "What's wrong with him?" She asked as we all looked to Chiron for the answer.

"It's odd, you see technically he's fine but…," he said hesitating, "he's in some sort of self induced coma."

I felt my eye open wide as I spoke, "Self induced?"

Chiron nodded. "It's almost like he's in a trance, whatever attacked him seemed to do a lot of damage. It sent his body into shock. The coma is away for him to heal physically and mentally. I haven't seen anyone with this ability in quite some time."

"He looked pretty beat up," added Clarisse, "what did that to him?"

Scratching his head Chiron sighed, "That's another thing that confuses me. These scars weren't made any time soon. In fact I couldn't find a scratch of marking that indicated he was attacked in the last few days."

"How do you explain the crater on the beach?" She asked astonished.

"I'm not saying he wasn't attack," Chiron explained, "what I am saying is that he's already healed any external damage."

Me and Clarisse exchanged looks before we both looked up at the centaur, "Ok, I'm lost," I said, "how can you tell that?"

"The beach where you found him was superheated to the point at the sand had turned to glass," he reach for a tray next to the table and held it front of us, "we found minor glass shards under his skin." In a little glass bowl looked like a bunch of blood stained crystals.

Then I remembered when I first stepped into the crater, the sand under my feet cracked like cheep glass. "Someone dragged him through it?"

"Not that I can tell, but that's not it," Chiron started to sound as confused as I was, "his wounds had already closed up, there's a very thin layer of skin covering the glass shards."

"How can that be?"

"Apollo is the god of healing, it could be that his healing abilities are greater than most."

"That still doesn't explain why his body was burning," I laid my hand on his shoulder; his temperature had gone back to normal.

"What if he's not a child of Apollo?" Clarisse said wondering, the Apollo campers shot her a look I could tell wasn't all friendly, "I'm just saying, the combat skills, and the ability to take all that heat and live, what if he's something else? Like a son of Ares or-,"

"Apollo is also the sun god as well, we all can take the heat," Will interrupted. He was obvious stressed, his eyes were angry. A few second passed before he realized the sound of his own voice and apologized, "I'm sorry, I'm worried, we all are, but Adam is our brother no matter what and we just want to make sure he's okay." I thought it was honorable, and part of me was relieved that Adam wasn't as alone as he thought. Looking around I saw that not a member of the Apollo cabin was missing, they clearly cared about him.

Clarisse smiled and waved it off. "I didn't mean anything bad by it, I promise, just after seeing this-," she motioned towards the scratch marks on their brother, "-I started to wonder."

"By his scars I can tell he's been through many a fight…they've seemed to have been there for years," Chiron stated with a heavy breath, "he's been through a lot in his life, more than he lets on."

"He'd never let us see them," Kayla choked out, "we didn't know."

Will sat down on the cot next to Adams, running his hands through his hair, "We knew he had a rough past, he just didn't tell us how rough." Two of his siblings sat down next to him wrapping their arms around his shoulders. We were all at a loss for words but our emotions still showed on our faces, anger, fear, concern, all proper feelings for this situation.

Soon the uncomfortable silence was broken by Leo Valdez and several members from Hephaestus cabin marching towards us in a hurry. "Chiron, we examining the scene and we found this a few feet away in the tide," Leo's brothers came through carrying what looked like a misshapen bronze armor piece, "it's a piece of bronze; it looks like it had blistered from rapid cooling. But that is not what's strange," They flipped it over and right in the middle of the shard was a crest, surrounding it was the shape of human right hand. Leo pulled the bronze piece over and handed it to Chiron, "that is my father's symbol. Someone was able to dent the armor perfectly; no one should be able to do that with just a hand."

"That looks like a piece of an automaton," Chiron said marveling at the piece. Suddenly something hit him as it did me, we shared a look as he trotted over next to me. I bent down and lifted Adams wrist, before anyone could object Chiron pulled the piece against Adams palm.

I slowly let go as Adam's hand sank into the finger impressions, all eyes were on me, while Leo's mouth hung open, "Perfect fit…,"

Annabeth's lip trembled, "He fought it, whatever it was, did it do all this to him?" She said what we were all thinking. Something had indeed attacked Adam but he wasn't an easy prey. Someone had sent an Automaton into camp, and Adam found it.

Chiron handed the bronze piece back to the Hephaestus cabin and cleared his throat nervously, "I've put in a request for the hunters to return immediately, this latest attack must mean that something is brewing. Until then I don't want anyone going anywhere alone. Camp activities will consume regularly, we must try and stay calm, and hopefully we can deal with this quickly."

"Quickly or not, I plan to make whoever did this to him pay." Will said, exchanging glances with his siblings before he turned to me waiting for me to agree, which I did without any hesitation, "We all will."

Chiron laid his hand on Solace's shoulder. "For the time being worry about your brother, not revenge." I hated to admit it but he was right, we all knew it. Adam was strong, I saw his skills first hand when he saved me and Clarisse, whatever attacked him was strong enough to hurt him. He was the only one that knew what exactly it was we were facing, he was the only one who faced whatever it was. We needed him. But more than anything we wanted him to be okay.

"Valdez, tell me something," Will said, I could see the anger growing. Quickly he spun around snatching Leo by his collar, "Why in Hades was your father's toy attacking my brother, huh? You said your daddies mark was on it! So tell me, where did it come from?"

Leo squirmed as Will's siblings tried to pull him back, "Don't blame me," Leo exclaimed, "I never seen anything like this, none of us had! Look what ever did this was something old school, way before any of us were born, to all we know it could've been one of his lost projects that anyone could've found."

I ran over in between separating them, "He's right Will, remember, we went up against the Colchis bulls before, anyone could've done this, just don't start pointing blame at our friends and allies."

Will ease up, blinking back the welling tears he looked down, "You're right…I'm sorry, Leo."

Leo fixed his shirt, he was more frazzled than angry, "It's okay, man, I couldn't only guess what you're going through. I'm just happy you didn't kick my butt." Leo was able to get Will to laugh a little, he needed it.

Things had almost settled down until we heard, Annabeth whispering, "Guys," she drew our attention back to her. She was holding Adam's hand looking down at him. "He's crying…." Surely enough he was, silent tears were steadily flowing out the corner of his eyes.

"Br…" his lower lip trembled like he was trying to say something. We lean in closer trying to make it out what it was he was saying. Honestly I hope it meant that he was stirring awake, instead he stammered a name, "Br…Brina…." His face went still and the tears ceased. I looked around trying to get a read on the others but they all seemed as confused as I was, and twice as fearful.

Annabeth's POV-

The room became too quiet too quick, so quiet that I could hear the beat of my own heart pounding in my chest. Adam may have calmed down but his grip on my hand was stronger than ever, he was responding to my touch. That's when he opened his eyes lids causing us to jump at the sight of pure white. That's when he screamed, his back arched as he let out a loud,"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" that echoed through the camp.

Just as quick he opened them so did his eyes close, and his body went limp just as fast. I jumped up tapping him lightly on the cheek though on the inside I was freaking out. "Adam…Adam!" I cried, but nothing. I felt his grip on my hand loosened and my heart sank. Please…no!

Chiron pushed his way through examining him, as he felt for a pulse he sighed in relief, "It's okay, he just fainted." He turned towards us with a stern expression, "Come, let's give him some peace and quiet." I didn't want to but I obeyed, my eye didn't leave Adam's sleeping form once as Chiron herded us out the door. Clarisse almost had to drag me from the doorway as Chiron shut the door behind us. Why was I freaking out so bad? And who's Brina? By the looks of Apollo Cabin they knew just as much as I did…nothing.

We were back outside the infirmary with no idea what to do next. So many questions plagued my mind and it was eating away at me. "What do we do now?" I asked out of desperation. I looked to someone else for the answer now.

Clarisse's POV-

I was stunned, not by just what happen inside, but by Annabeth's expression. She looked so helpless, so lost. Hear we were, she had tried to maim me the day before and now I was worried about her. No one better say I'm selfish now.

"Listen," I said, quickly everyone turned to me, "we should do what Chiron said…we have to ensure to the other campers that everything is going to be okay, and it is going to be okay." I can't believe I'm trying to be the voice of hope. "Now, Chiron said that Adam is going to be fine, that we should continue on like it was any other day. So I think…we should head to the water front, preferably where Leo found that scrap metal. If anyone asks tell them we're going canoeing." Smirks started to spread to one person to the next till all were in agreement, even Annabeth gave a tear-filled smile.

Will and Leo quickly led the group to the water front as I trailed behind. I gentle grip pulled me back until I found a comforting pair of arms wrapped around me. "I'm proud of you, war girl," whispered Percy, "if it wasn't for you they'd be wondering around for hours."

I whipped around taking quick kiss before I wrapped my hands around the back of his neck. "I did it for Rosebud, but this-," I gave him a little peck on the lips, "-is because you look like you needed it."

He smiled down at me as I rested my head on his shoulder, I could hear the concern in his voice as he sighed, "you know me so well."