Chapter Fourteen

Testing Times

I felt like I had sat for hours in the pounding surf, but I got no sign of what had happened to Annabeth. I couldn't bring myself to even consider that she might be dead. I climbed out of the water and headed over to Thalia in a daze. Her face was still covered in blood, I returned to the water and willed a living sponge into my hand, walked back to Thalia and cleaned the blood of her face, and was pleased to find the cut wasn't large, but head wounds always look messy. Thalia's eyes fluttered open as I was washing her and she looked at me with fear in her eyes.

"I-I'm Alive?" She stammered.

"Yes Thalia, you are on Rongelap." I said without a trace of emotion.

"Where's Annabeth." She said looking around.

I looked down, and explained to her what happened, and we were soon crying in each other's arms.

"I failed her, Thalia!" I wept. "It's all my fault!"

"What could you do, Percy? You were up against a water demon more far more ancient and powerful than you, you saw no way of retrieving her, and if you did, I would be dead. So thank you for my life, Percy Jackson, you sacrificed a chance at saving Annabeth to save my life." She gave me another hug.

"She may have been my best friend Percy, but I can't even begin to imagine what you are going through right now. Love is but a distant memory to a huntress, but I know you loved her Percy, even if you were too shy to tell her. But I could tell, anyone at camp could tell. You two were destined to be together, so don't give up Percy, the Gods play cruel games on us and there may be hope yet. Not to mention that the prophecy said that three of us would make Olympus."

"I do love her Thalia, but it took this to make me realise it. I feel so thick."

"Do you think you are born with emotions, Percy? You're a teenager and they all have to go through this emotional turmoil. You feel lust, love, longing, envy and pride, and they seem so powerful, but we cannot differentiate between them sometimes and we all have to learn how to interpret them. It makes us awkward with feelings and we exaggerate things, like Annabeth's jealousy of Rachel. Becoming a hunter of Artemis made much of this clear to me.

"Do you ever regret becoming a hunter?" I asked.

"I don't regret it for a second Percy, if it means avoiding the hurt you must be going through right now." Thalia said. "Where is the exit?"

"The hut under that lookout tower, over there." I pointed. "But I can't leave without Annabeth."

"Then we fail the quest."

How could I do it? How could I just leave her? In the end the decision was made for me. The water receded into the distance and left hundreds of yards of seabed exposed. A white line of surf in the distance headed for us.

"Tsunami." I said. "The most powerful force in nature."

"Can you stop it?"

"Not even the son of the sea God can stop that. The realm is forcing us out of here."

"How long have we got?" She asked looking very worried now.

"About ninety seconds." I said blankly

"C'mon then we have to run!" She grabbed my arm and dragged me along with her.

The water started roaring, and I started running really hard towards the lookout tower. The door was a bit rusty and it took a lot of effort to open it, and I could see we were not going to have enough time.

"Keep going with the door, Thalia." I shouted over the noise.

A wave four yards high crashed over the beach and kept on coming. I redirected it around the tower but didn't know how long I could hold on.

"Let's go, Percy!"

I jumped through the door and down through a trap door in the floor after Thalia.

We landed in a flame lit stone room with a stern looking woman in front of us. If we weren't in trouble before with the rogue wave, I knew we were in trouble now.

"Perseus Jackson what have you done with my daughter you cursed son of Poseidon?"

"I-I lost her Athena." I knelt down, feeling very unworthy.

"What is there to stop me from destroying you where you kneel?" She snarled

"I wouldn't blame you, I would die in her place if I could."

Athena looked at me coolly. "I might take you up on that offer, son of Poseidon."

"My name is Percy Jackson!" I said defiantly. "And I did everything in my power to help Annabeth, but fate took the decision out of my hands!"

"You have some fire in you Percy Jackson, I can even see how you could have beguiled my daughter."

I looked at Thalia. "Beguiled?"

"Enchant or bewitch." Thalia explained.

"I don't know if I have beguiled Annabeth, see seems quite frosty towards me recently, no thanks to you, but I do know that I love her, and would assault the castle of Hades to bring her back."

"I'll admit I haven't helped your cause, so you'll have to prove to me that you are worthy of her, young demigod, by navigating your way through my realm. Annabeth would have done it easily, but you two will have a harder time of it, especially as you only have your undergarments for company."

I looked down at my battered underpants and across to Thalia in her panties and halter top vest. "I don't suppose you have any spare clothes food or weapons?" I asked, with more hope than expectation.

"Help you? That wouldn't be my best strategy." She said back.

"Fine. I can play your games." I snapped. "Is Annabeth alive?"

"That depends on how well you do here." Athena said. She vanished in a flash of light.

We were left stood in the stone room. It was square with one exit, a straight corridor. There was a closed door at the end. We looked at each other and shrugged and proceeded to walk up the corridor. The door was locked and there was some large and small pithos of wine. The large ones said five on them and the small ones said three on them. A sink like hole by the door had a message by it.

Four will open the door, more will open the floor.

I smiled. "I've seen this puzzle before in Die Hard 3"

"What does it want exactly?"

"The puzzle wants four, let's call them quarts, poured into the sinkhole, any more and the trap floor will open."

"But we only have five and three quart jugs, how do we get four?" She asked.

I grabbed an empty five quart jug and poured three quarts in, got another full three quart jug and filled the five quart up to the top.

"I have one quart left in the three quart jug from filling up the five quart."

I got an empty five quart, put my one quart in, plus another three quarts from another jug.

"Four quarts, thank you Bruce Willis!" I said, pouring the wine in the hole. The door clicked open.

"Ladies first!" I said smugly. Thalia shook her head and went through the door, and I followed right behind.

We emerged in another corridor, still made of stone, like the basement of a castle. We passed locked empty iron barred cells. It looked like prison from a Second World War German castle. We heard footsteps coming down some steps and before we could take cover a Nazi guard walked around the corner. Seeing us he pulled a knife and thrust it at me, my demigod reflexes kicked in and I sidestepped the thrust, grabbed his knife arm and head butted him full in the face. It hurt like hell and stars swam around my vision but my dizziness receded quickly, the guard wasn't so fortunate, and he dropped to the floor like a sack of spuds.

"Nice one, Percy!"Thalia said.

I smiled, holding my head. "I don't want to have to do that again.

I searched the guard and found his knife, a Zippo lighter, a set of keys and an unloaded Luger handgun. I handed them to Thalia while I removed the guard's clothes.

I tried them on and it was a reasonably good fit.

"Percy, you look really scary!" Thalia said, looking shocked and amused at the same time.

I looked down and thought I looked quite smart, until I saw the iron cross on my chest and the swastika on my right arm, then I felt a bit sick.

One bonus of dressing as the guard soon presented itself. A pen appeared in my pocket.

"Thalia! I've got Riptide back! It just needed a pocket!"

We deposited the guard in one of the cells and locked it with the keys. And we made our way up the steps and quietly opened the door. A young blonde woman was typing at a desk and was shocked to find a young black haired woman holding a gun to her head and an unfamiliar guard holding a bronze sword.

"Was ist das?" She spluttered. Neither Thalia or I spoke any German. Thalia motioned for her to undress and cocked the pistol when the woman refused. Thalia looked serious, and spoke the only German she knew, a countdown.

"Zehn, neun, acht, sieben, sechs..."

The woman looked panicked, and complied removing all her clothes. My eyes bugged out, but Thalia rolled her eyes and gave the woman her underwear back, while she put on the Nazi woman's uniform and took the woman down to the cells to be locked up.

We searched the room and found, some food, ammunition for the gun, and code charts for something, but not being able to speak german, we didn't know what they were for.

"Did Annabeth speak German?" Thalia asked me.

"It wouldn't surprise me, I know she can speak ancient Greek, modern Greek, Latin, French, Spanish and Italian as well as English of course. I really hope she's okay."

"Me too. I feel she was at the center of our world and I feel a little lost without her."

We gathered our stuff and opened the other door in the secretary's office, it was long and unoccupied.

"It's a shooting range." Thalia pronounced."Athena wants to give us a multi-layered test."

"Can you shoot?" I asked.

She looked insulted. "I'm a hunter of Artemis, I can use any ranged weapon." She said as she expertly loaded a magazine into the handgun. She took a step forward and the doors slammed shut, and the ceiling started to slowly drop.

"Great, Athena's gone all Indiana Jones on us! Shoot something!" I shouted.

Thalia stayed calm and concentrated on the targets downrange. They were spinning around and stopping only for a fraction of a second. There were nine of them.

"Nine bullets, nine targets, no problem."

She fired the whole magazine in about ten seconds. The ceiling stopped and doors opened.

We high-fived each other. "Athena messed with the wrong team!" I said. "Great shooting, Thalia, I could kiss you."

"As nice as that sounds Percy, Artemis would be very upset, but I'd be more worried about the wrath of Annabeth." Thalia said, winking at me.

I laughed and we continued on our way. We walked into a small square room with two doors, between which a familiar and unwelcome figure was sat, with its two faces on either side of its head.

"Janus." God of doorways, and choices, I said moodily. I didn't like this god very much.

"Perseus Jackson!" Please read the sign above my head."

I looked up.

One tells the truth, but the other will just lie,

One door is freedom, but the other you will just die.

Ask One Question.

"Goddess fail!" I shouted. "Athena assumes without Annabeth we would have trouble with logic riddles, and most of the time she would be right, but like the first puzzle, I've seen it in a film!

"What film?" Thalia enquired.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Labyrinth!"

"You've got to be kidding me- hey, wait a minute, I've seen that film too, and didn't the girl get it wrong?"

"Oh yeah." I said, a bit deflated. "But the film gives me the right idea."

"Left face! What door would the Right face tell me is the door to freedom?" I asked

"The right door of course!" Janus' left face announced.

"It's the left door." I said confidently.

"What if he is telling the truth?" Thalia asked, confused.

"Then, the other is lying. Because I asked one what the other would do, the truth and lie will always cancel out, whatever way round it is. See you later two-face!"

"You better be right, Percy."

I am, let's go as we walked out of the door and into a scene of utter chaos.

We were standing on the pavement of a large metropolis. It was a very hot day and there were large amounts of people and traffic going about their business. It suddenly made me feel very self conscious to be wearing a Nazi uniform in public. Thalia and I looked at each other and quickly dumped our Jackets, and I pulled at my pants, that were tucked into my jackboots so they came out and covered the boots. We blended in well enough.

"Now where are we, and where are we supposed to go?" I said.

I didn't recognise the city or the writing on the signs, but I did recognise the alphabet they were using.

"Thalia, I think we're in-"

"Greece." She said, cutting me off.

"How did you get it? The Greek Aplphabet?"

"Nope." She pointed and in the distance sitting prominently on a lump of rock in the middle of the city, was one of the world's most famous buildings. The Parthenon.

"We're in Athens?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"It makes sense, doesn't it? Athena? Athens? She's patron of the city. It was named for her." Thalia told me. "And it's like we have to get to the Parthenon. Can't you feel the impulsion?"

I could feel it. A strong urge to get to that set of ruins dominating the skyline.

"Shall we take a taxi?" I asked.

"We've got no money."

"No you don't understand. We'll take one. You still have that gun don't you? Or can you not manipulate the mist?" She nodded.

We walked over and climbed into the taxi in the front of a queue, and Thalia pulled a gun and threatened the driver with it, and he didn't need much convincing to get out. Thalia jumped into the driver's seat and took off.

"What about the mist?" I asked.

"Don't know modern Greek." She explained. "Luckily the modern Greek knew gun."

As we got closer, the roads started to give us problems. Police in riot gear had blocked off many roads and we could see smoke rising ahead.

"Civil disturbance? I think I heard somewhere that the country is in financial trouble." I said.

"How do we get through? The roads are blocked off."

"Try that road over there, it seems to be free of police." I suggested, pointing.

We turned the corner and ran into a mass of masked rioters wielding every type of improvised weapon imaginable. A Molotov cocktail flew though the air and smashed in front of our taxi, setting the hood on fire.

"Okay, I've had enough now."

I projected my conciseness outwards and found every source of water on the street and pushed.

Water mains and hydrants blew upward explosively smashing into the rioters, sewerage blew out of manhole covers covering everything in the street in a layer of excrement, most ran for cover, but still some wouldn't get out of our way.

"Thalia, we need a spark to move these people." I suggested.

She said nothing and slightly closed her eyes, and a massive lightning bold stuck our taxi.

"Jesus Thalia! Not us!" I screamed holding my head.

"Don't worry we're safe in a car, and it's scaring them, look!" Thalia said, hitting the car with another bolt. "I can't use indiscriminate lightning, I might take down a telegraph pole or kill someone."

We eventually got through the rioting throngs as they ran away from the lightning and approached the Acropolis upon which the Parthenon sits.

"Stop!" I shouted. Thalia slammed on the brakes.

"Over there! The Acropolis Museum!"

"What about it?" Thalia asked.

"It has the Omega sign, the realm sign." I said. Thalia pulled into the car park and we got out to investigate.

"It looks shut."

There was nobody around, but the front doors were unlocked. We went in to the lobby and straight on into another room, where the doors slammed shut on us.

"I guess we're in the right place." I announced, uncapping Riptide.

The only door we could get out through was dark, and as we moved towards it a huge figure appeared, firmly guarding the doorway. It had the body of a lion and the head of a woman, and I'd seen a smaller one in the Labyrinth.

"A Sphinx." I said to Thalia, unnecessarily. "They like riddles."

"Demigods! Answer or die!

I do not breathe, but I run and jump.
I do not eat, but I swim and stretch.
I do not drink, but I sleep and stand.
I do not think, but I grow and play.
I do not see, but you see me every day.

I had no idea. I looked at Thalia, and she shrugged. My mind raced, but I couldn't think of what it could be.

"Time!" The Sphinx shouted with a roar.

"Wait! Can't you ask us what the capital of Peru is, or something?" I asked, not knowing what else to say.

"Die!"

As it's front paws rose into the air, ready to strike us dead, it vanished in a rain of gold dust and before us was a fearsome looking armoured warrior brandishing a wicked looking bronze knife.

The warrior sheathed the knife and removed their winged helmet, and to our surprise a shower of golden hair poured out.

Thalia and I looked on thunderstruck, not knowing what to say.

"Hi guys. Miss me?"