Chapter 24

Percy's POV

I spotted a McDonalds at the edge of Manhattan. Nico and Thalia rode their dragons and I rode on Blackjack through the streets, and no one was really paying any attention to us. The Mist is definitely working overtime for them not to be able to see three dragons and a flying horse. Rachel had calmed down now, she was sleeping on top of Bianca along with Nico.

' Boss. Hey Boss. I'm hungry.' I groaned, even though my stomach gnawed at me as well.

" We're almost there." I said.

" What?" Nico asked.

" I was just talking to Blackjack." I said.

And I should've known what was coming next.

" That's so cool! I mean, I wish I could speak to horses! Maybe I could speak to some creatures of the underworld? But speaking to horses sound so much more fun! Hey Percy! In my next life, I mean if I chose to get reborn, do you think I'll be able to be a son of Poseidon? Then I could control water and stuff. Or maybe like Thalia? Actually, Jason is kinda cooler than Thalia. He has a freaking ventus!"

from the corner of my eye, I saw Thalia cringe. I didn't want to, but I laughed.

I used Blackjack to go get our burgers through the drive thru. Blackjack must've been one extremely sick car because the lady looked at me as if I was crazy by driving that, either good or bad, I had no idea.

' What, am I a car now or some'm to ya Boss?'

Once we acquired the much needed food, the seven of us parked a few miles outside of the city and ate on a grassy plain. I placed the burger and french fries I bought for Rachel beside her just in case she woke up.

After a while in silence (other than us chewing the most unhealthy food in the godly universe) I decided we needed to discuss what to do.

" So, does anyone have an idea on where we should go?" I asked, licking my fingers.

Thalia and Nico shrugged in unison. I looked in the satchel.

" Okay, well we've got money for about seven days. And I would like to use this money for traveling to wherever we needed to go. Not moping around here." I took a big bite from my HoneyCrisp Chicken.

" We need someone smart to help us interperate the quest." We were all thinking of Annabeth at the moment. I didn't need to be a Hypnos brethren to know that.

" Water lilies..." Nico thought out loud." Maybe it's a metaphor or something. Or maybe we just need to go to a garden?"

" Prophecies have done that before. What's something water lilies represent?" Thalia asked.

" In Ancient Egypt, it represents the cycle of life. You know, rebirth, death, life, birth. Heavy stuff like that." I said. I remembered once, I visited my friends the Kane siblings and they told me crazy things on Egyptian whatnots which were super confusing to me. I'm sure when I explained Greek Mythology, they thought we might have been canibals or murderers or holy cow hoarders.

" Well that's helpful in finding us somewhere to go."

" Other names for water lilies are lilac, lupine, and lotus." Nico counted.

" Like I said, real helpful." Thalia said sarcastically.

A truck hit me when he said lotus (metaphor) the awful place of awful memories.

" LOTUS!" I yelled." Leave or stay in no time at all! The Lotus hotel doesn't let time pass...actually its the opposite, but whatever! We need to go to the Lotus Hotel!"

Nico looked at me as if I had splashed the sea into his face.

" What?" He said.

Then I remembered Nico and Bianca were stuck there for pretty much 70 years without realizing it. Of course Nico would have bad memories.

Thalia looked between us, as if she was missing out on something.

" What's the Lotus Hotel?" She asked.

" It's a bad place." Nico put simply for the first time since we walked out of the cave."That we shouldn't go to." He added a death glare to it.

I had no idea what happened, but Nico completely snapped back to his usual self. I didn't have time to worry about him going through repetitive puberty, I felt-no, I KNOW we had to go there. Every single gut was telling me so, and my gut rarely agrees on anything with such certainty.

" We've got to go. I know it." I stared at both of them, each intently so they knew how sure I was of this.

Thalia made an exasperated gesture with her arms." Better than wandering around America. Where is this Lotus Hotel anyways?"

" I can't believe we're going to Vegas!" Thalia squealed.

" It's not that impressive." Nico said.

I sighed. We were in the air, Luke was around...somewhere, I didn't care. Rachel; still unconscious. And Nico, gloomy, which is old normal, and the new strange.

The breeze felt nice as I glided through it, especially when I was on a mount that didn't try to kill or eat me every five minuets.

' Don't worry Boss, I wouldn't eat you because you'd probably taste like seafood.'

I rolled my eyes.

' Hey Human!'

I nearly fell off Blackjack.

" Who was that!?" I yelled, swirling around. Thalia gave me a quizzed look, Nico ignored me.

I'm not sure what it was, but I think the noise in my head snorted.'Listen, human, I want to know where we're going. Tell me right now.'

" Luke?" I asked.

' Don't you dare casually address me! Call me master!'

Fire lit my heart. And I don't mean in the way when you're filled with happiness.

" Hey! I'm not your slave or subject or anything! Don't you try to eat me again!" I wasn't sure who I was yelling at but he heard me.

' I was reminding you of your status, a peasant doesn't go up to his King asking for the King to be his mount on a relaxing cruise in the sky!'

" You're not my king, or my superior!"

Now even Nico was staring at me as if I was psycho.

' Whatever. Just tell me where we're going.'

" Not till you apologize." I said.

' Never.'

I didn't hear from him for the rest of the day. I didn't really mind. At mid day we decided to camp out in a forest because of the dragons. Monsters didn't dare approach us in fear of even two dragons. But when he didn't return by nightfall, I started to really get worried.

" Have any of you seen Luke?" I asked.

Thalia shook her head. Nico shrugged.

Dread picked at my stomach. A sense of nausea invaded my brain. Something was wrong.

" I think something happened to Luke." I said.

" Why? Did he order you to save him because he was kidnapped?" Humor glittered in Thalia's eyes. I couldn't share the same optimism.

" I'm serious. He didn't tell me anything, but I can feel it."

" What, now we're also given a sixth sense along with dragons?" Thalia said.

" I'm going to look around for him." I said, ignoring Thalia's comment.

" I'll go with you," Nico tired his Stygian Iron around his waist and pulled on the new aviators jacket Drew had given us.

I simply nodded." Thalia, you stay and watch the dragons and Rachel."

Thalia muttered something that sounded a lot like: sure, why do you two get all the fun...

Bianca made a low rumble from the back of her throat and nudged Nico. She looked sad.

" Uh, sorry. Can't bring you. You're too big." Bianca looked slightly offended, but nonetheless stayed.

Nico and I made our way through the bushes. Don't ask me how, but I knew where we had to go. I moved with such certainty, Nico slowly fell behind. Then I saw Luke.

I told Nico to duck down, about a dozen mortal men, at least I think they were human, tied Luke down to the ground with glowing ropes. The men were more gray than any other color. Luke growled pitifully, and for some reason, my soul ached with it. There were other prisoners as well, but the other ones seem to be an old man with long hair, some middle aged men, and one woman.

One of the men, who seemed to be their leader, spoke." How long will it take to move the dragon?"

" Two days, if we're lucky and it's gets a bit corporative."

" Meleager, I want it there by tomorrow."

Meleager gritted his teeth." But Atalanta, it's really stubborn."

This was the first time I felt glad that Luke was ridiculously headstrong.

Atalanta rolled his eyes." I don't care, get it done or else the gods are going to kill us again."

Nico and I looked at each other.

Gods ordered them to capture Luke? As in my father, and all those other people? I didn't want to believe it. Or listen to it for that matter.

" Nico let's go."

" Hold on, there are a dozen men there. We don't know their abilities, so-"

I didn't wait for him to finish. I stood up and charged at the men. They all looked at me.

I uncapped Riptide and swung it at the first guy I saw. He parred back, but I knew I was quicker. I fell lower and kicked his legs. The man fell and I stabbed him right in the chest. I expected him to bleed but instead, he disappeared into thin air, smoking. An arrow whistled by me, barley grazing my cheek. My demigod instincts didn't have to tell me to get the archer next. I dodged the other men that tried to stop me, some of them, I gave new wounds to. Another arrow aimed for me, and I cut it in half. The archer looked at me as if I was insane. I would do the same, no mortal in their right mind uses a bow to hunt these days. I made quick meat out of that guy and hurled myself at the next. Atalanta, the boss dude ran for me, his spear out.

I quickly jumped back.

" You're good kid." Atalanta huffed.

I shrugged." And I've got a lot more."

I dug into my deepest self and asked for water. I remembered the time I did that in a volcano, it did not end well for me. But this time, I was ready. A cascade of water shot into the air like a geyser, looming over the leftover men.

" Now, you'll surrender, or else I drop this big water balloon over you." I smiled knowing I had pretty much won. I didn't know how I was able to summon that much water, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Suddenly, I felt a cold metal up against my throat.

I froze.

Meleager was behind me. A mortal knife was placed on my neck.

" Hey kid." He said."I suggest you lower the river harmlessly, and I won't slit you're throat."

Luke looked alarmingly at me. He roared.

' Why did you come here Human? How did you know I was captured? You're really stupid if you thought a human like you could kill fifteen Calydonian Hunters.'

I rolled my eyes at that last comment. These were Calydonian Hunters?

" So, you guys are the Calydonian Hunters?" I asked. Where was Nico?

Several of the men chuckled.

" We were, but now we're dead." One called out.

" But we got a second chance to live. If we capture the Five and anything that looks too suspicious, we can get a new life with our memories intact. Hades said so as well."

I wanted to laugh when they said capture the Five.

" That's impossible. You do realize the Five are most likely more powerful than anything you've faced right? If I can take three of you down, one could destroy Zeus."

I knew I hit some fear when a couple of the men paled.

" You lie. If they were so powerful that we couldn't capture them, the gods would never use us." Atalanta said.

Some men murmured in agreement.

Nico, any time now.

The ground parted between me and Meleager. Stunned, Meleager lost balance and fell on his bottom. I made quick work of him from there.

" Took you long enough!" I yelled.

" Well I would've been here sooner if you had dissipated that huge body of water above you." Nico said.

He unsheathed his Stygian Iron sword.

" I order you, go back to Elysium."

" It's a Hades' spawn!" Atalanta said in alarm.

But it was too late, all of them disappeared into dark smoke.

Nico looked bewildered.

" I didn't know that would take all of them out." He murmured.

" We don't have time to worry about that."

I ran to Luke. He didn't try to eat me. I didn't know what the rope was made of, but it definitely wasn't the usual rope you can find at Home Depot. I slashed at it, but I didn't make a dent.

" What is this?"

" Lasso of Hestia." Nico said." It can only be loosened if the captured says a truth that nobody knows."

" That's simple." Percy said." Hey Luke, tell me some juicy gossip."

' You're really bratty, human.'

The ropes tightened.

" Tell Luke to say something true, but he has never said before." Nico said.

" It's either that or stay here and die."

' You are a not human, you're a demigod.'

I thought that was stupid, but the ropes loosened and Luke shot into the sky like an arrow.

Nico helped the other captives free. The girl cried and hugged Nico.

" Thank you so much! Those men dragged me from my farm without reason!"

Nico blushed as the girl's round breasts pressed against his chest. Yep definitely puberty.

Nico helped untie the other middle aged men who thanked him in a more formal way. I couldn't help but notice how no one came to thank me.

I bent down to the old man, and untied his knots.

" Thank you." I nearly jumped. His voice was not raspy, heck, it didn't sound old at all. It was smooth, and almost feminine.

The old man looked at me. I realized this was not an old man at all. It was a young girl around the age of 12. She had greenish eyes and smooth skin. The only thing that concerned me was her hair. It was blinding silver, almost white.

I gaped. The girl chuckled.

" You probably thought I was some old lady right? Well, my hair makes many people say that." Her laugh was like spring melting with a rushing waterfall. It brought peace to my mind.

" So, where do you live? I mean, not in that way. I can send you home." I said.

The girl thought for a moment." I live in Las Vegas."

What a coincidence.

" That's where my friends and I are going, we can give you a ride on our...er...helicopter."

' Helicopter!?'

Suddenly, the girl's expression turned blank.

" That would be nice." She said, monotone.

Her sudden personality change reminded me of Nico for a moment, but I shrugged it off.

" I'm Percy. What's your name little miss?"

" Aglovale, I'm a boy."

Chapter 24 end

If you refer back to chapter 23, you'll remember Aglovale was mentioned.

Alright! Tell me what you think. This may be spoiling it a bit, but notice the personality changes in Nico and Aglovale. "Maybe" they're related in some way?