Chapter 9- The Factions

Annabeth's mind was groggy and unfocused when she started to slip out of the state of dreams, none of which she could remember. The bed beneath her was by no means soft but surprisingly comfortable; there was stiff fabric wrapped around her hands and something sticky was attached to her head. The backs of her eyelids were dark and reassuring and Annabeth could not bring herself to fight off the sleep that kept her body from moving. She felt so much more tired than she usually did after sleeping and began to wonder if something had awoken her at the time of a very deep sleep but surely she would have been able to remember the end of a dream if that was the state she had awoken from. The more abrupt your awakening, the greater your chances of remembering a dream because you were pulled out of it.

The sound of muffled footsteps met her ears.

"Hey," Someone was shaking her shoulder. "Hey, get up. Come on, Chase, you've been sleeping for two days."

Annabeth grumbled some nonsense response and turned her head way from the noise. Clearly, her body was saying that two days was not enough and that she should go right back to sleep. What a splendid idea, she thought.

"Chase," The voice sounded irritated now. "Get up."

Something soft slammed into Annabeth's side and she cracked an eye open in surprise.

"Wha…?"

"Don't use baby talk," The voice reprimanded from her right. "Get up and get dressed. Then we'll go and get you some breakfast since your stomach is probably empty right now."

Oh that's why it hurts, Annabeth thought as she fought to urge to grasp her stomach as it spasmed. She rolled over with great difficulty and noted that it was Kelly who had been speaking from where she was sat reading a coverless book; she'd thrown a pillow at Annabeth for refusing to awaken. There were clean bandages wrapped around the lower parts of Annabeth's hands from where the lava had burned them but the tops of her fingers were uncovered and unscathed. A glass of water and pile of clothes was on the bedside table and Annabeth noted as she chugged the liquid that the clothes were in much better condition than any of the ones Annabeth had managed to hold onto in the past few years. They always ended up getting torn, or singed, or burned away by monster venom or slashed by the talons of an unfriendly creature. If these things didn't happen, Annabeth probably would never have been prompted to go clothes shopping in her life.

"Where are we?" She asked as she put the glass down.

"Fern Cottage," Kelly replied. "It's owner died a few years ago and left it to me. I've never had a use for it until now."

"You've got another house?"

Kelly tilted her head slightly. "You could say that," She said. "Get changed, your clothes have holes burned through them."

"I'm not getting changed while you're here!"

"You don't say," Kelly rolled her eyes sarcastically. "That's what the toilets for. Second door on the right."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "You call the bathroom the toilet?"

"Not all gods are American."

"So you're British then?"

"Yes. Now go get changed."

Annabeth grabbed the new set of clothes and wandered into the bathroom/toilet. There was a long-sleeved light brown top, pristine jeans and grey hoodie along with a pair of black socks all wrapped up and waiting to be worn. As she dressed, trying her utmost not to jog her wounds or tear any bandages, Annabeth wondered where exactly they were. Fern Cottage wasn't exactly a specific location and the building they had ran into after escaping the collapsing cavern had looked like anything but a cosy little cottage. Annabeth ran a hand through her tangled hair and hissed in pain when her fingers nicked against something soft and squishy on the back of her neck. Twisting around so that she could get a clear view of it in the mirror, Annabeth shifted her long blonde hair to the side and saw another bandage, this one spongey and taped on, was covering a spot along the base of her neck and spine.

When had she been hit there?

She pushed her hair back gently and slid the hoodie over her head with about as much speed as a killer snail. So many of her joints were aching and Annabeth heard rather than felt her body fixing itself when a loud crack emitted from her elbow as she moved to pick up her old clothes and the joint popped out of position momentarily before going back in. She'd always hated when people did things like that on purpose. There was a small window with translucent glass at the back of the room and Annabeth opened it to see what was on the other side. The sight her eyes met was like something out of Assassin's Creed. The buildings in the distance had golden brown bricks and roofs made of burgundy tiles. There were people walking about in large crowds around what appeared to be a market and sun seekers lined the bay along the wooden piers that served as docks.

The sky was a deep blue with clouds dotted about every so often and the sun shone brightly in its morning position. Annabeth noticed that Fern Cottage was sat right on the outskirts of the town were the buildings were smaller and less people roamed. It didn't seem to be a crime ridden place, as children chased each other in the alleys and women conversed over broken walls, but it was definitely in the backstreets of the town. She assumed it wasn't a city because there was a lack of metal buildings and no technology such as billboards were hanging from the sides of every surface. It was all very peaceful and very out of the way; she couldn't help but wonder why Kelly had chosen not to use this house more often.

Annabeth closed the window and left the bathroom with her dirty clothes in hand. Kelly was waiting by the front door for her.

"Done?" She asked.

"Yeah, but where do I put these?"

"I would suggest binning them," Kelly said. "You can always get more."

"But I don't have any money," Annabeth protested. "And the rest is still in Astrid's house."

"You'll make money and then you can buy new ones," Kelly reasoned. "Now put your shoes on and let's go. I'm hungry."

Annabeth's hiking boots had escaped without any damage, it seemed, and they were out the door two minutes later. The air was warm enough to convince Annabeth that they were not in any northern country and laundry was strung up on lines linking between walls and windows. There were fountains peeking through bricks every now and then and their water was a popular source of drink for the natives though Annabeth could not be certain if the water was supplied by the government or was simply rain water that had trickled down through the system to give the city floors a sparkling appearance in the vibrant sun. The entire city had a very renaissance feel about it.

"What city is this?" Annabeth questioned.

"Prague." Kelly said.

"It looks like that town from Assassin's Creed."

"That's Florence, Annabeth," Kelly corrected. "And if you want to fit in with my friends you will never make such a mistake over video games again."

"They like video games then?" Annabeth asked.

"Like them? They've been known to go on dates with the disks in their pockets and spend all their spare time polishing them."

"That's… not what all gamers do but I guess if the disks weren't working then…" Annabeth trailed off. She couldn't imagine how strange it must be to be friends with people who treated their game discs like priceless trinkets. Oh wait, yes she could.

"What do you want to eat?" Kelly asked.

"Not sure. I don't know what foods they have here."

"Very helpful," Kelly grumbled sarcastically. "Up these stairs. There's a bar inside."

They walked inside a two floor building with windows on the front but not the back and a huge balcony in the place where the extra room should have been. It was clear that not many people used it and even as she walked in Annabeth noticed that the amount of people using the facility was a big fat zero. Well, almost zero. She could hear noises from the balcony and guessed that they were headed there just as the door to said balcony was blasted off its hinges and smoke filled the doorway. The two paused for a moment.

"Wonderful," Kelly noted as the sounds of a brawl came from within. "Looks like we're going to a not-so-cheap place instead."

"Posh restaurants are nice," Annabeth insisted, wincing as she heard a pained scream from the balcony. "People don't fight in them as often as in bars."

"Restaurant? What am I, made of money? I'm not a bloody Olympian, Chase."

In the end, they found a nice quiet spot along a manmade canal and the food was cheap enough for Kelly not to give Annabeth the death stare for simply looking at it. The food was so good that Annabeth almost forgot all about Kelly's aversion to expensive things and just stuffed her face for the next thirty minutes.

"So," She tried to sound nonchalant with a mouth full of toast. "You have money problems?"

Kelly stared at her. "You know, some gods would kill you for asking a question like that."

"Come on," Annabeth urged. "It's not that big of a deal. I'm just curious, is all. The only minor gods whose lives I've got insight into are Astrid and Sabine."

Kelly flinched. "Don't say that!"

"What?"

"Minor. Don't say it."

"Why?"

"Because it's an insult, you moron. Telling a god that they're minor is like walking up to a guy with one leg and telling him he's unimportant because he doesn't have the same abilities as everyone else; it's a very serious thing! And it isn't exactly getting any better with demi-gods like you throwing the term about whenever you damn-well please." Kelly glowered.

"I'm sorry," Annabeth apologised, shrinking slightly. "I didn't realise. The Olympians never said-"

"Of course the Olympians wouldn't say anything. They don't want people to know that the phrase they coined for immortals less powerful than themselves got taken over by the factions and turned into one of the biggest offensive words in history."

"The factions?"

Kelly sighed and leaned back against her chair. "Look, if anyone asks, it wasn't me who told you this alright?"

Annabeth nodded.

"In the past few decades, the Olympians have been losing their grip on some of the more ambitious immortals under their control. And I don't mean the good ambitious either; I'm talking about the people who see something they want and will do anything to get it."

"How did they lose their grip?"

"Well they got cocky, of course," Kelly gave a wry smile. "The people who, in most cases, are on the top of the heap usually forget that there are other people around whose feelings they should be considering. They made the mistake one too many times thirty years ago and a huge group of gods left Olympus to begin their own society; one where people were given what they deserved and not shunted to the side by more powerful beings."

"And how is that a bad thing?" Annabeth asked.

"Because that isn't what happened. The more powerful members of the group, hypocrites that they are, assumed control and threw out all of the peace-loving and passive gods that would stand in the way of their ambition. Their desires to murder and pillage every godly place that wasn't aggressive towards the Olympians and finally get themselves noticed."

"So did they?"

"Would I be telling you this if they hadn't," Kelly sassed and Annabeth suddenly felt very foolish. "Basically, they started attacking all these innocent immortals and the Olympians took notice. They decided that, given the amount of people affected, they should probably find a way to take out the leader of this faction before it got out of hand. Now, that was a good plan; arguably the best they've ever had. It's just a shame they never went through with it."

"What?" Annabeth frowned. "Why?"

"The master bolt got stolen," said Kelly. "And Zeus decided that the possession of his weapon was far more important than stamping out any faction. True, getting an incredibly powerful and destructive weapon back in safer hands was a good idea, but it was what happened afterwards that really broke the camel's back. The faction started to splinter apart and its member formed new ones, stronger ones, and they started fighting each other for power and tearing apart the homes of the gods living on earth in their quest to get it. The Olympians were so absorbed by the new threat of the Titans that they completely forgot to watch the home fort for things like this. This allowed the factions to grow not only right under their noses, but to become powerful and large in number with Gaia's support in the Giant War."

"Impossible," Annabeth decided. "There were no factions following us on the trip to Athens and none showed their faces when Gaia's allies were being hunted down."

"That's because they didn't care about her," Kelly insisted. "They only wanted to get a bit more power and forces for themselves. Shortly after the wars end, the Olympians finally noticed that there were a bit too many splinter groups of gods lying around and tried to talk them down but it was too little too late."

"And where are these factions now?" Annabeth asked. "Why aren't they being taken apart and forced to stand trial for the gods they attacked?"

"Because the factions live on land and hide themselves from the Olympians with spells and the size of the landscape. Not many people know that the factions even exist yet; their all talking about some new people they found. Big black cloaks and silver swords or whatever."

"Big black cloaks?" Annabeth repeated, the image strangely familiar. "I saw someone in a big black cloak back in England. Are there more of them?"

"Not sure," said Kelly. "You'd have to ask an Olympian for that."

"Well what about the factions?" Annabeth continued. "Do you know anything else about them?"

"I know they get into firefights all the time and don't care if anyone gets caught between them. They all have their bases hidden by natural landmarks and put out turrets to ward off intruders but-"

"Wait… you know where these places are?"

"Well done." Kelly rolled her eyes.

"But how? I thought no-one could find them!"

"Annabeth I'm unemployed, homeless and the only thing I've ever been able to do is scour the landscape looking for places that things could be hidden in. Why wouldn't I know where their bases are?"

"You're not homeless!" Annabeth protested. "You have Fern Cottage and another house, or so you claim-"

"I prefer to be on the move," Kelly said, crossing her arms. "And it's always more interesting to be travelling around the world with a group of your mates. I barely got to do that before I turned eighteen."

Annabeth put her face in one hand. "Please tell me you've told someone in a high up position about these places."

Kelly sighed and stretched her arms out behind her. "Look, I don't have time for this. If you were a god you would understand automatically but seeing as you're not then it'll probably be that much easier to explain why some of us don't trust the Olympians."

"I know that you shouldn't trust the Olympians," Annabeth said. "But surely you should pass this information on to someone who can do something about it. How many of these bases have you found?"

"Five now, with clues on a sixth."

"Good gods." Annabeth cursed.

"I wouldn't go saying that," Kelly chuckled. "Some of us aren't that good."

"I'm trying to be polite," said Annabeth. "Kelly if this is a serious matter then you have to fess up those locations."

"It's not serious to the Olympians!"

"But if it does get serious," Annabeth pressed. "Will you tell them?"

"Oh for the love of-"

Woof!

A huge grey dog with brown eyes and a shaggy coat came bounding through the restaurant towards them. The mortals paid it little notice with children laughing as it upturned a trolley in its enthusiasm before skidding to a stop in front of the table Kelly and Annabeth were sitting at. It barked again.

"Hello Tramp." Kelly muttered.

Annabeth snorted. "You named the dog after the one in Disney?!"

"I hadn't seen that when I named him!" Kelly protested. "He came in as a puppy from the streets and I just thought, since tramps are always on the street, that I should name him that."

"Don't you live on the street, supposedly?"

"Shut up."

"And you lecture me about offensive language."

"Go eat a boat of-"

Woof!

"Will you stop interrupting me!?" Kelly demanded.

"He probably doesn't like your language." Annabeth teased.

"More likely that he wants to wind me up," said Kelly. "Bloody dog. I'll bet he wants to steal my food again."

"Did you feed him today?"

"Five times already. Greedy pig."

Annabeth laughed but Kelly went stiff.

"Don't move." She said.

"What?"

Suddenly, Kelly picked up a butter knife from the table, twisted around to view the rooftops overlooking the canal, and threw it with deadly precision towards a figure that Annabeth had not noticed before, standing in perfect view of their meal with a gun in his hands. There was a horrible sound, high pitched and audible for only half a second, that indicated the knife had found its target and the man stumbled back in pain, clutching at his neck. Five other figures rose into view and levelled their weapons.

"Go!" Kelly cried, shoving Annabeth to her feet. "Go, go, go!"

Annabeth ran.