A/N: Merry Christmas everybody! (Oh, and a Happy New Year!)
Fang POV
When we got to Itex, I panicked. Everything I saw before when with the Flock, but tripled. I wondered if we could be hurt by these creatures. I slid my hand over to Max's, and grabbed hers. I leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Maybe we should just go back, Percy has more experience, leave it to him."
"No." She said, "We're going in now." After that, there was no stopping her.
We skirted along the wall, staying low behind trees, bushes, and other dead shrubbery. Max stopped suddenly.
"There." She pointed at a small air duct, and looked out of the bushes, making sure it was safe. She pulled back in, and pressed up against the wall. A huge dog walked by. Its nose came right up to the bush we were at. It sniffed, and kept walking. Max dodged out, I tried to hold her back but she shook me off and kept running. I got up and ran too, being the only thing I could do. When I had almost caught up with her, the big dog turned around. It came charging,
"Max!" Someone yelled. She turned toward the dog just as it jumped on her. I could see it going for the kill; it was going to bite her head off.
Thalia POV
We got there just in time, Iggy and I. We… well I saw a giant Hellhound running toward Max.
"Max!" I yelled.
"What's happening?" Iggy asked, panicked. I didn't tell him because I assumed it would scare him. I grabbed the bow and arrow on my back, and aimed at the Hellhound. The oversized dog jumped on Max. It was now or never.
Fang POV
A silver arrow shot through the air, and suddenly Max was covered in dust. She shook it off, and ran to the vent. She pried it open, and crawled inside, Iggy, Thalia and I on her heels. We crawled threw until it slanted down, we stopped.
"We should just send one person through." Max said, so we did. Since Thalia was the shortest, we sent her. She was to give us the 'all clear' when she got down.
"Keep your head's out of the way. I'll shoot an arrow right here." She pointed to a spot, and marked it with a G. "The G means good. If I shoot it there, that means come down." She marked a D on the opposite side of the vent. "If I shoot here, that means don't come down, and I'll be back up shortly..." she thought for a while. "Or never," She added.
"What if you miss?" Iggy said.
"I never miss." And with that, she was gone. We were all tempted to look down the shoot to see what happened. But then were reminded of the D and the G on top of the vent. With a large twang from the two medals colliding, we looked up at the G, were the arrow stuck right in the middle of it.
"Dang," Max said. "She's good." Which was the understatement of the century, we all slid down the shoot, and landed on the ground of a clothes washing room. Inside were lots of unwashed towels covered in blood, sweat, mold, or water. A small cat staid curled up on a mound of towels.
"Aw! Wook at da wittle kwitty!" Max said. She walked over to pet it.
"Wait! Stop!" Thalia cried, "It could be dangerous." Max gasped and Thalia readied her bow.
"No," Max said. "It's dead." She picked up the dead cat and showed it to us. Thalia walked over and I could have sworn I saw a tear in her eye. She opened its mouth and smelled.
"Poison," Thalia said, "The same stuff used to make Annabeth loose her memory. Those monsters! They tested it on animals!" She took the cat to a clump of dirt, and put the dirt on top of it. She said something and the cat itself became dirt.
"You demi-gods are just creepy." Max said.
"Why?" Iggy asked, "What did she do?"
"She turned a cat to dirt."
"Ah! Cool!" Iggy punched his fist in the air.
"It was poisoned with the same stuff they are probably using on Nudge, Gazzy, Angle, and Total! Now is it cool?" Max said.
"Actually, not me." Someone's voice said, but it was slightly muffled.
"Where are you?" I said, looking around
"In the washer!" the voice called again, and the washer door rattled. Thalia pointed her bow toward the washer, and I walked over to open it, I pulled the door forward, and out hopped a little, wet, brown dog, the type that Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz had.
"Total!" Max and I said simultaneously. Iggy joined in a little late.
"Total!" We all laughed, but Total brought us back down.
"You better hurry, they'll be back. They r-ran me through t-the washer because I was being a 'nuisance' or something."
"Alright, where are Angle, Nudge and Gazzy?"
"I'm not sure were Nudge and Gazzy are, but after they did testing on us, for demi-god blood or something, Angel came out positive. So she is in training, yeah, I know what you're thinking. Probably something like, "Not more!" but this stuff is different. She's learning how to use a sword and stuff. It's not that bad. I watched some practices. If she gets hurt, they feed her some pretty yummy food, so I've been told. She says it tastes like burgers! Mhmm, that makes me hungry just thinking about-"
"I see why they put you in the washer," Thalia said. "And the 'food' you are referring to is ambrosia. We should get some for Annabeth."
"And that is why I put the stupid dog in the washer." A voice from down the hall said.
"Well get it out! It has been very useful!" Dylan replied.
"We need to get out of here," I said.
"Why? Can't you stay for a while?" Dylan said, he laughed. "Lock 'em up." And with that we were cuffed, and being pulled through the hallway. I passed Omega, and he glared at me, and then smirked. He punched Max in the face as she walked by. Her nose began bleeding. She lunched at him, and he backed up just out of her reach but not out of mine. I kicked him in the back, and he turned to swing at me. I ducked, so he backed up into Max's range. She pulled free from the person holder her cuffed hands behind her back, and socked him in the nose right back. We were regained control of, and pushed past. I looked behind at Max, who had obviously hurt her hand punching Omega's face, because she was biting her lip. She looked behind her, so I did too. We watched Dylan smack Omega. He yelled at him, "Don't do that again!" Omega went to grab at Dylan, but he retreated back with his hands up. "Just go be on guard duty in the west lawn." We went out of earshot, and thrown into a dark room.
"Well this is wonderful." Thalia said sarcastically. Total, being the dumb dog he is replied,
"That was sarcasm, right?"
Percy POV
I sat next to Annabeth on the little couch. "Listen," we both said simultaneously.
"I just want to tell you that if you want to go back, I'll take you, under one condition."
"And what's that?" She said.
"If you let me tell you about Greek mythology, then you can go." She sat silently.
"Alright, shoot."
I told her about all of the Greek gods I could name. Then, I told her about how sometimes, they have children with mortals. I told her about the pact of the Big Three, about how they all violated it once. I told her about Nico, Thalia, and I and how we were those children. I told her about her mom, and about Camp-Half Blood. The best part was she didn't interrupt me the whole time. After I got on the subject about quests, I told her about her first one, and the first time we met. She gasped.
"What's wrong?" I asked and stood slowly, to go get some ice if needed.
"My leg," she said. "You said celestial bronze only hurts demi-gods, was that sword celestial bronze?"
"Yeah, it was." I said.
"What if you're lying?"
"I'll prove it." I said, "Dr. Martinez!" She trotted into the room,
"Is everyone alright?" She asked. I pulled out Riptide, took of the lid, and held it close to her.
"This shouldn't hurt." I said, "as long as you're not a demi-god."
"Don't think so." She said, as sweat dripped down her face. I slashed. She screamed. Ella came running into the room, "Mom, what's wrong?"
"N-Nothing," she was astonished. I was relieved. Annabeth passed out.
"Annabeth!" I said, and ran to her side.
"She'll be fine." Dr. Martinez said, "J-just trauma. Help me pick her up." Dr. Martinez grabbed one arm and lifted. I picked up all of Annabeth with a grunt, and we walked into the dark room she had originally come from. After I set her down in the cot, I pulled up a chair and held her hand.
Annabeth POV
Percy was telling me all of this stuff, and I had this flashback:
I was standing behind Percy he was talking to Fang. I remember his name from a brief introduction. Percy was doing this really cool thing with water, making it reverse its way up the fountain. Then, I was gagged, and a bag was put over my head. I was picked up, and thrown in another bag. I hit my head on a rock and passed out. When I awoke, I saw a familiar face, it was Dylan, and he pulled me out of the back and poured a liquid down my throat. I instantly forgot where I was.
I gasped.
"What's wrong?" Percy asked. I had to make up an excuse. I didn't want to tell him, so I made something up. After he slashed through Dr. M, I fake passed out. Percy picked me up and carried me to the room where I had surgery on my leg. He left, and I opened my eyes. He came back in with a chair, so I shut them again. He continued talking to me. Telling me all about myself, and everything we had ever done together. I fell asleep. And dreamed about a quest we went on with a Cyclops.
In this dream he was tying me to a pole. He put wax in his ears and left. He steered the boat and we passed by some vulture-looking creatures. They sung, and I just couldn't resist them, I cut myself free, and jumped overboard. Percy saved me, and kept us underwater until we were completely safe.
When I woke up, Percy was still there, but sleeping. I sensed it was night time. He was still holding my hand. I got up, and with my other hand, prodded him awake.
"Who- what's happening?" He yelled, he shook his head, blinked hard several times, and rubbed his eyes. I said what I had too,
"You said you would take me back, and now I'm ready to go."
"It didn't work?" He asked.
"Did what work?"
"It doesn't matter, you don't care."
"Is this about that Greek thing?"
"You know, it's more than that! It's about getting your life back! Healing your leg, and getting back your memory." He put his elbows on his knees, and buried his face in his hands. "About you remembering me." He added softly. "But if you want to go back, we can." I cared about Percy as a friend. I had had many dreams about him and me, some of them, we were together, some of them we kissed, and others we couldn't stand each other. But in every single one, we were friends. They all seemed like vague memories. Somehow, when he showed me Greek writing, I was able to read it. When he listed the symptoms of a demi-god, I found I had them.
"Let's go." Percy said, he began to leave the room, but I stopped him.
"Wait, uh, can I tell you something?"
"Sure, whatever." I could tell he really wanted to hear by the way he snapped back into his chair.
"I've been having these dreams…" I told him all of the dreams, even the one were we'd kissed.
He smiled sweetly, but kind of awkwardly. I could feel myself blushing, and turned away and pretended to act nonchalant. (You know: the odd smirk, scratch of the head kind of thing that makes you look like you might be smelling your armpit. (But I totally wasn't in my defense.))
"Do you believe any of it?" He asked, getting a bit nervous himself. I didn't know what to say.
"Possibly…" I said, and he immediately went for a hug, "but I'm not sure!" I pushed him away. We sat in silence. He moved at sat next to me on the cot, both of our legs dangling off the side. I put my hand on my wound, and took in a sharp breath when it stung. His hand brushed mine, and then he grabbed it. I looked over at him, and he leaned in to close the space between us. Then, we kissed, a soft quick kiss. The floodgates of memories let loose, filling every crevice of my mind with old memories, the ones of my family, Luke, and Percy. All hitting me at once, it felt like getting hit in the heart with a baseball bat. I began to cry, remembering Camp Half-Blood and the gods.
"I need to be alone." I said, and looked down at my hand, which was holding his. He let go, but I didn't. Not until I had to. He walked out; head down, and silent as a mouse. I crept slowly out of the large part of the cave I was in, took a small glance in the brighter room, inside was Percy, Dr. Martinez and her daughter. I new about Nico, and how he would not let me past the large rock, I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I needed to breathe. I needed to get away from my emotions, but I didn't know how. I explored around the cave.
After a while of searching I was worn out. I was ready to give up, but I had no idea were I was in this cave. I sat down on a rock and sighed heavily. I felt a breeze on the back of my neck. I looked up at a small tunnel going up. I glanced around, and pointed my flashlight up, I thought I saw grass. Using rocks in the sides of the wall, I hoisted myself up, my leg burned from all the walking I had been doing, but I pulled my self up higher and higher, refusing to let myself come back down.
I reached the top, and stuck my hand out the hole. I didn't think it was large enough for me to fit through, but I had to try. I blindly looked around to find something to grab onto outside of the hole. I found something leathery, but it backed away making me think it was a snake, or other animal. I found a hand grab mine, and I freaked out, trying to get away. I was hanging now, I let go of the cave as the person continued pulling me through a hole I totally didn't fit through. I burst from the hole, and a huge person was holding into my arm, which had been dislocated. My hair had dirt in it. It was night time, and this person was starring at me and the hole I had come through. He set me on the ground and pulled me after him, back toward the crumbling Itex.
