Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. 'Tis all for fun.

Piece of Darkness IV - Initiative

Chapter Fourteen

"I don't want to threaten you in your own home," Skulduggery said, "so if you'd like to step outside, I can threaten you there."

–Derek Landy, 'Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil'

We were done.

There was nowhere to go. We were too scattered around the street to form a viable defence. Olivia hadn't emerged from the house, and even if we retreated in there we'd be overrun before we could travel back to camp.

Jake drew breath to give the order, and I tightened my grip on my dagger. If we were going down, I wanted to at least try to take the son of Erebus with me. Maybe then the half-bloods back at camp would have a chance.

And then, a millisecond before he let his minions tear us apart, a deep rumbling filled the air, like a storm, but it was too mechanical—

"Demigods!" Jack appeared at the door of his shop, his booming voice frantic. "Get inside! Now!"

We all stared over at him. Alice shouted back, "They'll overrun us just as easily in there, Jack!"

"No!" he yelled. "I'm bringing up my defensive wall, you just need to get in before it seals off the door. Come on."

He stepped back, and as he did, we saw it - an honest-to-gods circular wall of bronze rising up from the ground around Jack's building, a rolling shutter in reverse.

"Go!" Alice shouted, the moment she saw it. "Inside, everyone!"

"No!" Jake yelled, livid, as we bolted for safety, his victory turning to smoke faster than he could blink. "Stop them!"

The monsters surged forward, but most of the demigods were ahead, throwing themselves toward Jack's front door. Those nearest to the shop were inside within seconds.

"Get the wounded!" Alice ordered. Down the street, Annabeth was dragging Percy to his feet, while Clarisse kept some raging Laistrygonians away from them. A few more half-bloods disappeared inside.

Kevin and I went to Leo, who was face-down on the road outside the tavern. The monsters were dissolving into chaos, their fury at our escape putting them beyond even Jake's control. We plunged through the madness, somehow reaching Leo unscathed. Kevin snatched the scrawny son of Hephaestus up into a fireman's carry, while Alice and the minor god kids were gathering up the other fallen half-bloods. Jack's defensive wall was rising faster now, already the bottom half of the door was blocked by it. We had seconds before it would be too high to get over.

Kevin and I ran the few yards across the street, me barely keeping the monsters off us. A telkhine came within inches of biting my arm off, but we were just fast enough, and then we reached the door. Kevin threw Leo inside like an oversized puppet, swung himself over the still-rising barrier, and with a clumsy hop I tumbled after him. A second later, Alice dived in, landing on top of me as Jack slammed the door.

"Everyone here?" he asked, glancing around the room. The light from the bare bulb overhead was too faint to make out who was here, but a few voices, to me disembodied as I was still stuck under Alice, confirmed we were all inside. Jack nodded, and pulled a lever with a clunk.

That rumbling sound became more high-pitched, presumably as Jack pushed his wall-raising machine to the limit. I finally got to my feet, in time to see the wall of celestial bronze rise past the ground floor windows, even as the monsters threw themselves at the barrier. The machine ground on, presumably raising the barrier still higher, though now I could see nothing through the window but bronze, its movement barely noticeable in the dimness.

Alice was sitting on the floor, exhausted, and Annabeth was already taking charge.

"Move the wounded into the back room," she instructed, as she dragged Percy into Jack's sitting room. The son of Poseidon was unconscious now, the brief spate of wakefulness that had gotten him inside over; but he didn't have any serious wounds, and a glance at his aura told me there was no psychic trauma. "Anyone who's injured should be administered nectar and ambrosia."

Six or seven half-bloods were injured, in fact, though luckily no-one seemed seriously hurt. Alice, as our only available Apollo demigod, dragged herself onto her feet and started sorting through everyone. There was nothing for me to do except get in the way, so I edged over to the wall, and found myself beside Jack, who was watching the half-bloods' triage with interest.

I was exhausted, same as everyone else, but I found the energy to be curious. "What the hell was that?" I waved my hand at the window. A second after I spoke, the noise of the machine cut out, with almost alarming abruptness, like a car engine dying, but Jack didn't react. He looked down at me. I'm not short, but he was about a foot taller than me, and I made a mental note to avoid getting into an argument with the guy.

"That was my security system," he said, somewhat unhelpfully. Up close to him for the first time, I saw that his eyes were a deep brown; and when it wasn't clouded by rumbling anger, his gaze was warm, even reassuring. "It took ten years to construct. A two-foot-thick wall of celestial bronze encircles the whole building. When it's fully extended, it's as tall as the building. This is only the second time I've had to raise it."

"And the whole thing sits in the ground normally?" I said, staring at him in astonishment. "It's like a retractable siege wall or something?"

Jack nodded. "That's exactly what it is. And now it's facing its first real siege."

I gaped. It was only around one building, but that was still one heck of a construction job. And how the hell had he even assembled the wall? Or gotten enough bronze to build it so high?

"But what about shadow-travel?" I asked, going to the most obvious issue, given we were battling the lord and prince of shadows. "What's going to stop our friend and his meaner friends just shadow-travelling past your big, retractable wall?"

"He can't do that," Jack said coolly. He turned away, and pressed a few buttons on a panel by the lever he'd pulled earlier. "There's an empowered circle embedded within the bronze. No-one can travel in or out, except through the escape door."

"Wow," I blinked at him, barely aware of the demigods bustling around me. We'd really gotten lucky here. Sure, we'd backed ourselves into a corner where Jake and his mythological cronies could lay siege to us, but it was a heavily armoured and enchanted corner. "But that's a huge project. You couldn't have done that alone."

Jack went totally still, like the way Nico sometimes got. I could see only one side of his face, but I still saw his expression darkening, that burning anger returning to his gaze. Self-preservation has never been one of my defining traits, and in my confused excitement I went on, "You would have needed a child of Hecate or someone like that to set the thing up!"

The son of Hephaestus gave me a flat look, but coming from someone of his size and temperament, and coming to someone as unwarlike as me, that was a few hairs short of a death threat. I stopped.

A long, awkward pause elapsed, during which we stood and stared around the room, like mismatched bodyguards. Most half-bloods were in the backroom now, many settled or settling into makeshift beds. I was plotting my route in to them when Jack sighed, and said, "My wife. She was a daughter of Hecate, and she helped me build this sanctuary, before…"

He stopped as abruptly as I had, and shook his head. I eyed him. Up close, I saw that his aura was more complex than any I'd ever seen, other than those of the gods. The different monochrome shades were in constant conflict, weaving and crashing into each other, never letting up. Jack breathed in heavily, and I understood that I'd stumbled straight into the reason why he hated the gods.

"What happened?" I breathed, afraid to ask but knowing it was necessary.

Jack shook his head (that seemed to be his favourite gesture) and started to walk away, but then Annabeth was in front of us, full of nervous intensity.

"Most people are asleep now," she reported, glancing between me and him. "No-one is severely wounded, but they need to recuperate. Since Alice is the only child of Apollo we've got, she's watching over them, and I'm temporarily in charge of the mission."

I nodded. Jack just gazed at her, anger still heavy on his brow. I was jealous: Annabeth was totally unfazed by his glowering. He could have been a disgruntled kitten for all the reaction she gave.

"Now, I need to know how secure this place is," she folded her arms, always a sign of impending interrogation. Outside, all seemed to be quiet, presumably as Jake plotted some dastardly way of getting in here. With the dimness of the lightbulb, there was a lot of shadows in the shop, and I glanced at them as though they were about to eat me, despite Jack's reassurances. "What kind of defences do you have?"

The son of Hephaestus had evidently used up his explanation quota for the day, because he just grunted, "No-one is getting in here," and started walking toward the backroom.

Annabeth let him pass, but she kept staring at him. "Your fate is tied to ours now. It's in your own interests to work with us."

Jack paused at the shop counter, and glanced back, his eyes unreadable in the gloom. "You tell her, Cyrus."

"Uh. Sure." I wasn't overly pleased with being his spokesman, but I figured anything I could do to improve his mood would help. I relayed to Annabeth what Jack had already told me. By the time I'd finished, she looked even more astonished than I'd been.

"But those kind of empowered circles have a limited power supply," she stared at Jack as though he'd said he'd invented the cure for death. "How long?"

"Long enough," he replied. "Finished?"

He turned away, but Annabeth stepped towards him.

"Can we see outside?" she asked, her tone more diplomatic. Presumably Jack's defensive setup had earned the strategically-obsessed daughter of Athena's respect. "We should know what Jake's doing out there."

Jack eyed her for a moment, and I could tell that the answer was yes, but he was weighing whether he wanted to bring his cooperation up to that level. He seemed to view everything he did for us as a personal favour to the gods.

"The more we know about the situation we're in, the sooner we can get out of here," I said, not sure where this negotiating skill was coming from.

Jack's gaze flicked over to me, a hint of amusement in his eyes. Then he looked back at Annabeth, and nodded.

"I have a surveillance room on the first floor. Come on. There's a screen on the wall outside, so we can talk to your friends as well, if you want."

He walked on, Annabeth and I following eagerly.

Most of the half-bloods were fast asleep on couches or the floor. It always amazed me how the food of the gods was effectively a sedative for a lot of demigods. Alice and Kevin sat in the armchairs, and Olivia on the floor between them, all three staring into the fire.

"We're going to look outside," Annabeth told them, as Jack walked to the doors at the back of the room. "Jack has a surveillance system, and a screen so we can talk to Jake."

"Oh." Kevin glanced at her, then me. "Well, let's have a look."

He got to his feet, as did Olivia. Alice didn't move.

"I'll stay here and keep watch over the dead, make sure they don't run away," she said, without looking up from the fire. I laughed, though no-one else seemed amused. I guess the concept of the living dead loses its humour after the millionth monster attack.

Jack unlocked the right-hand door, and we followed him through. I expected to find a staircase beyond the door, or perhaps a box room with a few computer screens set up.

What I did not expect was a whole new corridor, with one door on either wall. The sheer length of the hall showed that the rooms beyond those doors were at least as big as the sitting room behind us. Olivia let out a gasp as the door shut behind us. Annabeth and Kevin stared around in confusion. "What the heck?" I said, just blinking.

Jack snorted. "Didn't expect that, did you? Control room is on the left. Follow me."

We trailed after him, too tired and bewildered to start asking questions. Architectural impossibilities like this were overwhelming to even Annabeth's logical faculties.

Jack produced another key, not from the key-ring but from his capacious tool-belt, and let us into the control room. It was the same as the sitting room in both size and shape. Stocked tool benches and cupboards stood along the narrow walls. A desk ran the length of the longer wall opposite the door, on top of which sat three massive computer monitors. Jack walked over to them as we looked around.

I'd expected Jack to have a really high-tech control centre, since he had such a sophisticated security system, but his setup was minimal. The desk was messy with ancient-looking keyboards and mice, at least half of which were broken. Tools were arranged in a rough order on the benches, but most of them looked like they hadn't been used in a long time. It was very utilitarian, nothing superfluous or even decorative, not even a carpet to cover the wooden floor. Illumination was provided by two more bare light bulbs, one of which flickered unenthusiastically every couple of minutes.

Jack glanced over his shoulder, and beckoned us to join him.

"I have cameras on this building, and across the road," he said. "They won't know that we're watching, but we can communicate through a screen on the defensive wall if you want, although I don't really see the point. Your friend Jake doesn't seem to understand the meaning of hell no."

Annabeth and I nodded. Olivia and Kevin, on Jack's other side, just watched. The son of Hephaestus hit the return key, and the screen flickered into life.

Two video feeds flickered on. The top half of the screen showed us an overhead view of the monsters, which were congregated in the middle of the street. Jake was pacing around, his aura jumping with fury. The bottom of the screen showed the same thing, except from ground level on the other side of the street. Jack tapped the keyboard again, and the overhead view filled the screen.

We watched, as Jake prowled up and down. The tension in his aura was worse than I'd ever seen it. Even with my defences up, I couldn't stop myself shuddering at the sheer darkness of his anger. Even the monsters looked scared. Their claws and talons were demurely retracted, their expressions hilariously compliant.

Jane stood outside the tavern, her arms folded, her expression unreadable. She was watching Jake, but alone among both us and the monsters, she didn't seem nervous, as though she knew his bad temper wouldn't touch her.

With a rush of anger and unease, I wondered just how close the two shadow demigods had become. Close enough that he trusted her to be his lieutenant in this crucial mission. Close enough that she understood his emotions and could treat his bubbling rage with equanimity. What had she done to earn that trust, to reach that level of familiarity? Had she descended even further into the darkness of her own anger than I'd imagined?

I stared at Jane, her image dim and grainy on the CCTV feed, and wished that I could reach out, pluck her from the train wreck of her rage-fuelled choices, and put her back among us. I knew who she was. I knew she wasn't evil. The daughter of Nyx was reacting, making rash decisions. Surely it would only take the right word, at the right time, to banish the fog that shrouded her better self?

But, as I looked from her to Jake, I wondered if Jane had already received too much exciting new power to be able to walk away. And I knew, too, that just because I could forgive her betrayal didn't mean the rest of the camp would.

I shook myself, back into the moment, back into the crisis.

"We should talk to him," said the daughter of Athena, watching Jake as you would watch a wild lion that has wandered into your backyard.

Jack gave her a scornful glance. "You think he's going to negotiate?"

"No," she shook her head. "But it won't hurt to clarify the situation."

He raised his dark eyebrows, but shrugged, and typed something on the keyboard. There was a significant beep. A few seconds later, Jake froze mid-step, staring at something to the left of the camera. Even Jane looked taken aback, her composure dropping a couple notches. It was a few seconds before the son of Erebus regained his poise

"Jack!" he called, folding his hands behind his back. His voice sounded tinny through the computer's cheap speakers. "And Cyrus, and friends. I suppose you can see me."

"Clear as day," Jack grunted, folding his arms and looking all the more intimidating for it.

Jake stared up at us neutrally. Jane was uneasy.

"This is quite a setup you've got here, man," he went on. Jack tapped the keyboard, and the camera zoomed onto Jake. "Did you have all this gear the last time we came through?"

"Most of it," Jack replied, as though talking with a guy in a bar. "I made some upgrades when I heard about the trouble you've been causing. Funny. When you passed through this town you were one of the good guys. I risked my ass saving you and your friends, and it turned out that you were the thief all along."

"Yeah, well," Jake scowled. He hadn't truly regained his composure, but he was making a good pretence of it. "Not everything is the way it seems, right? Alright, let me make this clear to you all."

He walked a few paces down the street, the camera tracking his movement.

"I want that piece of darkness, and we aren't leaving until we get it." Jake came to a halt, and the good humour evaporated from his voice, leaving only the hard crystals of his anger.

"You know you can't get into my house," Jack countered. "So unless you have a nuclear bomb under that ridiculous leather jacket, you're going to be waiting a long time."

"I can't get at you yet, sure," he nodded. "But lots of impossible things happen if they're given enough time. So you have two choices. You can give the artefact to me, or you can wait until your supplies run out and your empowered circle runs out of energy."

"That won't happen for a long, long time. How about I give the thing to the half-bloods here, and let it be their problem? It's not like I need some accursed artefact that belongs to a forgotten monster."

Jake laughed, but it was hollow, coursing with rage. Through those high-pitched speakers, it sounded weirdly mechanical. "Do that, if you like. It won't make any difference. It's not like they can get away from here with it, after all."

"Wait, what?" I said. I looked at Olivia in alarm. "Is that true?"

She gave me an awkward nod. "I won't be able to take us home with quanta transmission unless we're on the ley line."

"But the ley line is just there," Kevin waved his hand in a general direction.

"It is there," she confirmed, pointing in a specific direction. "And we're here. We're just off the highway, but we need to be on it. The only way to do that is to be standing on the same spot where we arrived. That's where the ley line is accessible, nowhere else."

I stared at her in disbelief. I'd thought that this quanta transmission would be our ace in the hole, the one thing that Jake couldn't block, but now I was realising that it was a lot more limited than shadow travel. For the thousandth time, I wished Nico was with us. Things would be so much easier.

And Jake knew it.

"And there's no way you'll be getting past us, guys," he said, with a gratuitously villainous shrug. "So you're stuck there, and we aren't leaving until I get that piece of darkness."

He stared up for a long moment, as we considered the revelation that things were a lot worse than we'd imagined. Kevin looked like he wanted to reach through the screen and strangle Jake. Olivia quite clearly wanted to jump off the top of the building. Annabeth's features were set in a determinedly neutral expression. I glanced at Jack.

We all knew that this depended on him. He could give up the piece of darkness to Jake, and there was nothing we could to stop him. Hell, we didn't even know where he kept the damn thing. If he hated the Olympians as much as he said, he'd be happy to hand it over to someone like Jake. And even if he wasn't an anti-Olympian anarchist, he might just hand over the artefact to get some peace.

Jack drew breath. The four of us watched him out of the corner of our eyes, not daring to look at each other or him directly.

"I don't like the gods," he said. "They've done a lot to insult me."

Jake nodded like a salesman listening to a customer talk himself into buying an overpriced car. We stood stock-still, afraid of this angry demigod's instability, afraid of our lack of control.

"But I like traitorous scum like you even less," he added, his voice hardening. "At least the gods don't pretend to be something they're not. You? You're nothing but a mercenary, a traitor to everything, even yourself. No. Threaten me all you like. I'm keeping the piece of darkness, as you call it, and I'm going to wait here until you realise you can't win. You say I might as well give it to you now? I say you might as well leave now."

I just stared at him in amazed relief. Olivia looked like she wanted to hug him. Jake's reaction was not so positive.

"I see," he muttered, glancing around the street before looking back at us. "Well, that's fine. We'll stay here, too." He paused, his gaze flickering around, then added, "But, hell, I've got things to do. I'm not wasting my time trying to scare an old man. Jane!"

Jack tapped the keyboard, and the camera zoomed out. We watched as Jane stepped into the street, a fist clenched as she gathered some power.

"Yeah?"

"You take command here," he said, with an impish grin. "You get to be the cat waiting for the mouse to creep out of its hole. Can you handle that?"

Jane glanced at us. I searched her face for any signs of the playful, friendly person I'd known, but there was nothing except a hard mask. I felt like I was looking at a stranger, and that scared me, because I couldn't know what she was capable of.

"Sure," she said, all calmness and confidence. "I'll handle it."

"Great," Jake nodded. He gave us one last scornful glance, and this time I knew he was looking at me. "Let's see who gets bored first."

He flicked a wrist, the nighttime shadows surged toward him, and then he was gone. Before any of us could react, Annabeth reached out, and hit a key. The video feed cut off.

"Jack, you have to give it to us," she said, turning to stare into his face. The room felt very quiet with the computer off. The presence of the monsters on the other side of the wall was a lot more unsettling when I couldn't see them. "We'll figure out a way to reach the ley line, but you need to let us take it."

The son of Hephaestus didn't react for a long moment, just staring past Annabeth at the screen, as though it was still on. Finally, he met the daughter of Athena's imploring gaze.

"No," he said, his expression as unyielding as Jane's had been, his tone not much softer than when he'd spoken to Jake. "No-one is getting that thing. She told me to never let it go."

Without looking at us, he turned, and walked to the door.

"What do you mean?" I asked, turning. "Who told you that?"

Jack didn't reply. He reached the door, and was swinging it open when Annabeth said, "How long can we last in here, anyway? Those monsters are immortal, but I don't believe your defences are. That empowered circle won't hold forever."

He stopped, and glanced back at us. He stood on the edge of the light bulbs' thin illumination,, and with his face in deep shadow, he looked more like an ancient rock cast in the shape of a man than a real human.

"We'll last as long as we have to," he said, his tone like a cliff face, hard with nothing to grab onto. "I - she and I - built this place to last. No-one's getting in." He paused, glowering at Annabeth, and repeated., "No-one."

Then he left the room, shutting the door with a determined snap.

"Okay, hold on. Empowered circle?" Olivia asked, looking between me and Annabeth. "What's that got to do with anything?"

We explained Jack's defences, in particular the part about the magic circle that kept out any intruders. Kevin was greatly impressed by this, but Olivia's expression passed from eager interest to grave concern.

"You're right," she frowned. "Those circles don't last a long time, even if they're designed by a master child of Hecate. They need a power source, a really good one."

I shared an edgy glance with Kevin, who asked, "Would you have any idea how long it could stay up?"

Olivia somehow nodded and shook her head in one gesture. It must have been magic. "Only if I get a look at the energy source, but I don't believe for a second that Jack will let us near it…"

"But you can give us a ballpark figure," Annabeth said, starting to pace the room. "What's the best we can expect, if Jack has a strong source?"

She tilted her head, thinking. We watched her intently, like it was one of those terrible game shows where they pause before announcing the final winner, except this time the announcement meant the difference between having a chance against the forces of darkness and not. No pressure, Hartnell.

"This is only an estimate," she said, glancing at each of us. "But a circle this size, under attack from a strong force of monsters, at this time of year? It would be incredible if it lasted more than a week."