Chapter 15:

Carter was currently in heaven. He was sitting next to the girl he had been thinking of for the past two years. The girl who he knew at age 16 was the only girl for him. As corny as it sounded, she was the cheese to his macaroni. And he knew he stole that from Juno but he didn't care. He had found Zia.

Carter was staring at her dreamily as he had been for the past hour on the flight from New Orleans to Camp Half-Blood.

"You're doing it again," Zia told him for the thousandth time that flight.

Carter blushed and quickly looked away. Stealing a few glances at her. She had grown since he had last seen her. The few traces of childhood that was in her features before were gone. Her cheekbones were now more prominent and her dark black hair was shiny and long. Carter loved staring at her eyes; they were the color of rich amber.

"Sorry, I'm just really happy to see you again," Carter said shyly.

The corners of Zia's mouth rose, making Carter's heart race, "I know. It's good to see you again too."

"Zia, do you remember all those years ago when I asked you to go on a date?"

"Yes, why?"

Carter fidgeted and started twirling his curly hair, "Oh, you know… I just thought that I could take you on one for once. Since I promised I would."

Zia stared at him and Carter shifted awkwardly in his chair. "You do remember we're in the middle of a huge war, right?"

Carter could honestly answer no to that question. Since seeing Zia he had mostly just gone with the flow of things. Everything else was forgotten.

"Yeah, I know," Carter lied, "But you have to take a break sometimes. Don't you ever just want to relax? You've been trying to stop Apophis by yourself for the past 2 years."

Zia sighed and smiled at him, "You're right. You sure have matured these past 2 years Carter. You're actually speaking useful words of advice to me. And you've grown a lot. I could barely recognize you."

Carter hoped that he grown in a good way, "That's a good thing right?"

Zia laughed, "You've grown to be a handsome young man."

"And you've grown to be a beautiful young woman," Carter said smoothly, he hoped he hadn't ripped out too much hair from twirling it so much.

"I'm going to beat up Alex when we get to Camp Half-Blood," Zia said after a few minutes of silence.

"Why?"

"I told him to deliver the letter months ago and I insisted that you guys were not going to rat him out to the House of Life, but he still didn't listen to me. I swear, he is so thick headed sometimes," Zia grumbled.

Carter smiled; he guessed she really had wanted him to come with her from the beginning. He felt bad that she had to do everything alone. He always had his sister to go with him. "Don't hurt him too bad, I can understand him being cautious with us. I just can't believe you two dated."

Zia looked at him surprised, "He told you?"

"Yeah, but he said it wasn't serious at all. It wasn't right?" Carter asked a little panicked.

"It was his idea to even call us boyfriend and girlfriend. It was mainly training. Right Cleo? I know you're listening," Zia said to CJ who was in the seat behind them.

"You two were a terrible couple," CJ said in a bored tone from behind them.

Carter smiled at the confirmation that their relationship had been childish. "Well that's good. I was worried you still liked him."

Zia grimaced, "I barely liked him back then. He was tolerable at best. Right Cleo?"

"Right," CJ said from behind them.

"Did I tell you that he and Sadie are dating?" Carter asked Zia.

Zia didn't look too shocked, "No, it's kind of surprising. The last time I saw Sadie she was just a little kid. I bet she's grown a ton since then. Is she still the same height as you?"

Carter scowled, it was terrible being 14-years old and the same height as his 12-year old little sister. "No, I'm way taller now."

"That's good, it must've stunk being the same height as your little sister," Zia said laughing. Carter gave her a mocking glare.

"So what happened with you finding a way to summon Amun Ra?" Carter asked.

"Most of the gods seemed happy to help me summon him, though Horus and Isis weren't very helpful. Horus doesn't want to give up his seat, and Isis doesn't want to admit her mistake of forcing him into the heavens. However I was told by a few gods that there is an item in Egypt, an amulet, that will allow for Ra to come down from the heavens without a host."

"That would be awesome, the last person who tried to allow Ra to host his body didn't survive. After we get Sadie and AJ we can go to Egypt to retrieve the amulet."

Zia nodded, "Horus also told me that when we need them they will send us gods to help fight monsters. I'm not sure which gods though."

"Well at least they're sending some kind of help, though after you meet my recruits you're going to be impressed. I trained them to be the best," Carter said smugly.

Zia rolled her eyes, "I'll believe it when I see it." She smiled at him and he smiled back.

It was late at night when they landed in the JFK airport and they were at a loss. They didn't have enough money to take a cab to Camp Half-Blood and there weren't any portals nearby.

"We can always call Amos and ask for money," Carter said reluctantly. His uncle would probably strangle him on sight, and lock him in the basement as he went out to find Sadie.

"My dad could lend us money," CJ said in a similar reluctant tone, "I'd ask my aunt for some more money, but I don't want to take too much."

Bast sighed, "We could always borrow a car."

"Borrow?" They all said at once.

Well Carter learned that Bast's idea of borrowing a car was basically stealing it but leaving a note on the ground saying, "We had an emergency, will return later (if not too badly destroyed)."

"Bast, I don't think this was a good idea. What if the police pull us over?" Carter asked nervously from the back seat.

"Then I'll use my mind tricks and send them running," Bast said smiling as she let the car roof down.

"You're not supposed to let it down in the middle of driving," Carter protested but it was too late. The top of the car went flying off behind them.

"Oops," Bast said nervously before smiling again.

"Just relax Carter," Zia said to him. She was sitting in the back of the car with him.

Carter looked at her; she was smiling at him and leaning back in her chair. Carter could tell she was enjoying the little time she had to relax.

"I'm sorry, I'll shut up now," Carter said smiling back at her as he leaned back in his chair and let the warm night breeze blow over his face. Carter then got up the courage to put his hand over hers. Luckily, she didn't pull away and they both continued to look up at the stars.

(Percy)

Percy and the others had set up camp in a new spot on Mt Olympus that was covered with forestation. They were away from the dangers of falling rocks, but were more vulnerable out in the open.

"How much longer do you think it'll take them to get here? We've been waiting forever," Leo groaned as he held his head on his knees and rubbed his fractured arm.

"How do we even know they'll send help? We could be left out here to die," Piper added.

"They wouldn't do that. I know my mother would never allow it," Annabeth said fiercely.

"But the council might vote to have us fend for ourselves because of the prophecy," Piper said grumpily. Percy knew she wasn't normally this cynical but they were all a little more grumpy than usual.

Jason sighed, "Can you both stop arguing. Instead of looking at the two extremes we should prepare for both. If they don't come in a few days I say we leave."

Leo and Bobby nodded in approval. Percy still had faith that his father would send help, but had to admit they were in a bad situation that they needed to get out of. He wasn't one to leave mid-quest but more people would die if they stayed.

"I agree with Jason," Percy ignored Annabeth's glare, "You're injured and we have no ambrosia left, we can wait a day more and if they don't arrive by then we should leave."

Annabeth looked like she wanted to argue but decided to drop the matter since her opinion was clearly outnumbered, "It's late, how about we get some sleep?"

"Good idea," said Bobby.

Percy decided to take the first watch as the others slept in their tents. He tried to keep himself awake, but seeing as it was probably 3 AM after a day of escaping an avalanche and burying a best friend he was failing. Just as he was about to doze off he heard someone whisper a few meters away from. He quickly stood up and took out Riptide. He didn't think locals would be walking around, the mist had surrounded the mountain with a dense fog and the weather had been pretty bad since they arrived.

Percy quietly walked away from the others towards the whisper. After walking a bit the whispering stopped. Percy looked around but didn't see anything.

"Croak!" Percy looked at the ground and saw a tiny frog sitting on a fallen log staring at him.

Percy smirked at it, he guessed a lack of sleep was finally effecting his mental health.

"Hey little guy," Percy said before turning around to go back to the others.

Suddenly everything went dark, the moonlight stopped shining, the leaves stopped rustling, and every living creature in the forest became quiet. Percy turned around and stared in shock at the frog that had transformed into a man with a frog's head. Out of all the strange creatures he had seen since he first discovered he was a demigod this was probably the weirdest. He wasn't sure whether to laugh or run.

As the frog man sort of glared at him, which was another amusing site, Percy realized the seriousness of the situation and began to run back to the tents.

He ran closer to the others and was sure he was going to make it. Then his body suddenly stopped moving. Percy couldn't move at all. He was frozen in a running position, all he could do was breathe and move his eyes to look at the man frog who now stood in front of him.

"You won't be able to leave demigod," he said in a gruff menacing tone, "You and your friends are mine now until I get what I want." The frog smirked at him before walking towards the tents, the darkness seemed to follow him.

Percy wanted to scream out a warning to his friends to run away but he was still frozen like a statue. He saw Jason and Bobby rush out of the tent with their weapons drawn, but the man just waved his hand and they fell to the ground. Then Jason and Bobby became frozen too.

Percy saw the man pull Piper and Leo out from their tents then he froze them. Percy's heart filled with relief when the man walked away from the tents. He guessed Annabeth was wearing her New York hat and was invisible. The man didn't know she was there.

"Now that I have you, they will not be able to ignore us anymore," the frog man said smirking as he walked back to Percy. Then his frog face transformed into that of a humans. The man's face was hideous, he looked as pale as the night and he lacked the whites of his eyes and they were like black orbs gleaming sinisterly.

The man held his hand up and Percy's world fell into darkness.

AN:/ Bad and good news. Good news is I'm getting all As in my classes. Bad news is I want to keep it that way so I can't update for about a week and a half (maybe more). I have a geology exam next Friday and I really have to do good on it, plus I have a piano competition coming up and I really want to win. So I'm really busy.

At Non Malum : thanks for telling me :) I thought maybe it was and told myself to check later but then forgot to check later.

At ILuvZarter : I like all criticism, without it you lose readers and don't even know why. At least with it I can figure out what's going wrong and fix it so thanks again! And yay to the enthusiasm coming back!

At iHATEfangirls : Thanks for the honesty. I'm trying to find a happy medium for all the characters now. So tell me if you start getting sick of anyone or want more of someone.