I said I would update! And I HAVE!

Well, I'm slightly less asleep, but that's not the point.

Okay, I'm going to be annoying and tell you about my crossover that I'm also writing at the moment.

IF you have read the Mark of Athena, and IF you like the Divergent Triology, and IF you have read Insurgent, then I have started a crossover wiyth major spoilers with that in there. There you have it! Okay, back to the Blackjack Tales.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but My Ocs and words.

Chapter 9: We Meet Again, Old Meanies

I came around a while later. I was lying on my back in the middle of a huge room. There was this weird furry thing over my face. It dripped saliva on my face. Gross.

"Ah, the Night Pegasus awakes."

I froze at that voice. What is that guy's problem?!

I blinked blearily as the furry thing shifted so that I could see the bottom of a huge fang that stuck out beneath the lip of the creature on top of me. I rolled onto my side and saw Luke standing on a balcony next to a chair that was shrouded in shadows. I could see a pair of hands on the gilded armrests.

"My boy, you know this horse?" asked the figure in the armchair. His voice had the same sort of disturbing strength as Kronos's, but it was deeper and stronger, so that it filled the room even though he wasn't yelling.

I looked down at where I had been lying and noticed a small pool of blood. Obviously from my shoulders. I looked up at the two people. "Well, I outsmarted this place once," I practically snarled. "And beat the living daylights out of my guards, and then I showed up that dracaenae pretty well just before."

Luke's eyes narrowed at me. "You dare—"

"Night Pegasus? Has my aunt . . . ? Oh, I see. Foolish goddesses."

I stared at the shadows. "Dude, do you know how sexist that is?"

The titan laughed. Luke was glaring at me. I got to my feet. I was not going to fail. I was going to make it back to camp. I was.

The titan sat forward on his chair so I could see the outlines of his face. He had slicked back black hair and light brown skin, like he'd spent the last century getting the perfect tan. He had done a pretty good job, I had to admit.

"You have courage, Night Pegasus. My aunt always fails to see what lies ahead for her subjects."

"I am not a subject!" I yelled. "I am he, not an it, therefore I have importance greater than a subject!"

The titan grinned. He stood up and walked towards me. I shifted on my feet. He looked pretty strong, and he was tall.

Good thing I was taller—just.

"I can see why Nyx chose you," he said. "Half Roman, half Greek . . . ancient roots with many gods . . ."

Uh, I got lost at the 'ancient roots with many gods' bit. A little help?

The 'General' looked at me again. As if I wouldn't remember that helpful bit? I'm not that dumb!

"You have met my daughter," he said. He grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. "Tell me what her tie is with the demigods."

I pulled my head back. That furry thing that had been over me before—it growled. I glanced at it and saw that it was a huge cat with huge fangs. Sabre-tooth tiger? Man, this just gets better and better.

"Firstly, I'm enough debt to say nothing. Secondly, I don't take orders from people like you, Atlas, and thirdly, the ancient roots thing? I have enough trouble with just me. Oh—and your daughter says hi."

She didn't, but anyway.

Atlas swatted me in the shoulder with such force that I was sent catapulting into the wall. The dracaenae bristled their spears at me. "No ssssudden movementsss," they hissed. I glared at the titan that was grinning widely. "So foolish, the young."

I eyed him. "I am not—"

His smile grew wide, and he said another line to cut me off. "And the night's blessed bane child of the sun."

I froze. Those lines struck home with me. Why? I'd never heard them before.

He strolled over. "Oh, you have missed out on much, Night Pegasus. But by the end of your life, you'll wished it had stayed that way."

I rolled my eyes. Sadly, I was kind of used to these sort of threats now. "And I don't suppose your next line will be, shame it will be right now, will it?"

"No," Atlas smiled. "Since I can see why my boy here wanted you captured so badly. Not to mention my foolish brother. Foolish indeed. You working for him . . . that could make them unstoppable."

"I am not working for you!" I pawed my hoof on the ground so hard a jagged black line spread along the ground. Black vapour began to waft out of it. As it rose the light darkened. "Never," I said.

Atlas smiled like this was a lovely game. "Oh, even better! My, my, Nyx was bored, wasn't she? Sure, give him powers over the night, let him be able to control night levels."

I guess I was just mad with the death threats and the mockeries and all the ways they could manipulate the pain levels of my death. I had had enough.

"You left out one thing," I said, opening my good wing. "There's a reason I escaped."

And I sung the wing at him, and those knife-like feathers shot out, catching every monster in the room by surprise.

Then I took my chance and ran. I crashed through the doors and jumped into the sky. My shoulders were killing me, but I ignored it. Pain is for now, I thought. Freedom won't be easy to come by from now on.

I landed eventually at this industrial wasteland. Warehouses and railway tracks . . . and snow. I walked around a storage container, and then over some tracks, keeping an eye on the kids in front of me.

Yeah, I'd found them. It seemed that my shoulders had given up hurting, because I had just not stopped. Not to mention they'd gone numb, and it was cold, and because I was . . . slightly emo at this point. (A/N: emo as in he wants to die, you know? Hey, that's what I'd be like in his position.)

They stopped and huddled around a campfire. That campfire looked really good, you know, and it was getting dark . . .

Actually, it wasn't, I was just looking for an excuse to get over there.

There was a homeless guy sitting there, and he pointed somewhere, I followed his finger and saw one of those freight trains. It was gleaming and new, and had a distinct air of warmth around it.

I looked back at the kids and saw that there was no homeless guy, and no fire.

Just my luck.

The kids started walking towards the train, and I limped along behind—the feeling had started to come back in my shoulders—and watched as they got on.

I galloped along the side—in pain, I might add—before realising that I would have to fly into a carriage. I gritted my teeth and opened my wings, making pain the largest civilization on the world and flapped them once to get into the air. I flapped them again and angled into the carriage, before tumbling in.

Ouch.

I shook my face free of motor oil—yuck—and walked along the jumbling carriage. Then I got myself stuck between some cool cars—I've caused enough traffic accidents to know the flash ones from the rubbish ones—and then lay there for a bit, trying to get rid of the pain.

I guess I was there for quite a while, because I was jolted back to reality by Thalia yelling.

"She wasn't right! Luke never let me down. Never."

"We'll have to fight him," boss said. Gee, such a comforter, aren't you? [Shut it.] "There's no way around it."

Thalia didn't say anything back; she was probably trying to restrain herself from creating boss's immediate and painful death. "You haven't seen him lately," boss said. Okay, there are times when you don't say anything, you know? No, you don't. "I know it's hard to believe, but—"

"I'll do what I have to."

Dude, that's the subtle and stereotypical way of saying stuff off. Did you miss that? [Well, clearly you did, okay? What? No, someone as handsome and brave, and— fine, but you did.]

"Even if it means killing him?"

Here we go.

"Do me a favour," Thalia said. "Get out of my car."

You have to admit, sometimes the girl is right. [There, now Annabeth likes me.]

I looked through the cars and saw boss climbing out of Thalia's car. He was about to go when she said, "Percy."

Am I the only one confused?

"Annabeth wanted to join the Hunters, too. Maybe you should think about why."

Then she raised the power windows and shut him out. Yeah, the girl was definitely right, even if she nearly killed me at capture the flag.

Boss climbed into this Lamborghini I think, is that it? [. . . You see? The horse knows stuff!] Grover had fallen asleep in the back, and I was wondering why there was poison ivy twisted around the axel of the car.

And then I had a very strong urge not to go near that car. I couldn't care less about the ivy, but there was something else, something . . . sunny.

Sorry, but I'm a Night Pegasus—sun doesn't go as well as dark, people.

To be honest, neither does Apollo's haiku.

I crept back, something told me that there was something godly in that car. Um . . . me and gods? Just about the same as starving lion to meat—I'm the meat, for future reference.

I was about to calmly ignore what was going on in my bizarre and really annoying and painful life when Apollo the smart aleck himself was right there.

"Greetings, Night Pegasus."

Was it just me, or was the way he spat 'Night Pegasus' out any indication that he didn't like me?

"Apollo."

He crossed his arms. "I'm meant to be Fred."

"And I'm meant to be dead—many times. May I help you?"

He smiled for a second. "Fred—dead, rhymes! Okay, number one—you have to help my sister. If you don't . . . it won't be pretty. Secondly, you have too many dealings with the sun. That filly—she's a bad thing, stay away from her."

Then I was mad. "What have you got against Opal? What has she ever done to you?"

Apollo gave a bitter laugh. "You have no idea."

It was getting dark outside. At least that meant I could get rid of him. "What do you want, Apollo?"

He rubbed his hands together. "I want you to help my sister. You're in debt to her anyway."

"Um . . . yeah, even if she shot me out of the sky."

Apollo glared at me. "Got a problem with that?"

I wanted to say, yes, I did, but I kept my mouth shut. I didn't need a moody teenager god trying to kill me too.

I sighed, "No, I don't. What do you want me to do more specifically?"

The god shrugged. "I'm the god of prophecies. Keep that kid safe."

"I've been doing that for the last two years."

"Then keep going. And be prepared for sacrifices, and pain, more than one type of pain, Night Pegasus. Nyx may have tried to change her ways, but a primordial is a primordial. They can't be trusted."

I was about to kick him or something, but he disappeared, leaving me wondering who he had meant to insult. Me, Opal or Nyx.

Ta-da!

There you have it! Chapter 9 done and dusted.

I feel like getting more opinions on this question, Nanu Kitty has a pretty good idea, but I just want to know what you think.

QUESTION:

What is it that makes Opal so special? What is her tie with the sun?

*shrugs* I just felt like asking that.

. . . Cat is saying that I should shut up and post the chapter.

Until the next chapter!

Please R&R,

-Owl