I'm on cataction, but I have 3 more chapters written. Yay me! Anyway, review or else. I am going to make an index later for those who want to skip chapters, but R-E-V-I-E-W
A guard screamed.
O-o
The scream was taken up by more guards, trying to fight but to no avail. Kronos turned away from Dawn for a moment, looking for the cause of the commotion.
Run! Eden thought franticly. It was because of her that Artemis and Hermes hadn't blown something up by now. Lars would kill her- rape her- torture her- all of the above- if they did. She shivered. Nothing- anything but that. She had to get away.
No. She wouldn't- couldn't- shouldn't- think about that.
GodfuckingJesusBullshitCrappyHeapOfDogShitWithMarijunaOnTop
The pain. She thought foggily. Focus on that. she could focus on her pain- the way her chest felt like it was cut in two, how her fingers burned with the pain. The knowledge that she might not be able to shoot a bow again.
GodfuckingJesusBullshitCrappyHeapOfDogShitWithMedimusalOnTop!!
Anger filled her. Lars. It was all his fault. With a surge of adrenaline she jerked away, kicking him hard in his soft spot. He snarled at her as she tried to run.
For the record, running on a recently dislocated knee is not as easy as some cartoons make it seem. Lars grabbed her, slamming her hard against the wall. Her head ringing with the impact she became vaguely aware of something trickling down her neck.
His hand shot out and brushed her crotch.
No no no no no. Her breathing was short and choppy, stomach pulsing with fear.
"I could go farther if I wanted to, Emmerson. I don't want to, but I can." He hissed, bringing his face closer to hers, so their noses almost touched. Oh gods, please- oh gods oh gods. "I am in control here. I wouldn't try that again."
Holy fucking Jesus with heroine and medimusal mixed in.
ARTEMIS!
He filled her vision. There was nothing else left, nothing but the sound of his breathing in her ear, the smell of his stinky breath, the heat from his face, the fact that there was nothing she could see. Nothing but his angry red face, so close to hers. So close she didn't want to think about it.
And then it was all gone. She felt him falling back, dragging her forward. She fell on top of him, to her horror.
Artemis pulled her to her feet- foot-, and Eden got a real look at the situation, heart still racing.
Cyclopes.
They had found them- they had freed more of their kind? There were more than when Eden had last seen them, though her judgment wasn't great- she had been hardly conscious. There were maybe a dozen, creating a diversion, killing mortals and half-bloods, and monsters.
How nice of them.
Eden's knee buckled under her weight, and she sank to the ground. She couldn't hold them up any longer- the cold pills pressed against her chest. She could kill herself once they left- she would die soon anyway.
"Run." She told Artemis softly.
Artemis didn't move. "Come on, Edie. You're coming with us, vote you yea or nay." Rolling her eyes, Eden tried to stand. She leaned on her good foot, one thousand years of training paying off- she was reasonably steady.
Hermes threw a bomb at the window, and it exploded into glass dust. Peter speared a dracane in the gut, dashing towards them. Dawn followed, Holding Al's hand.
"The entrance is out in the…" Peter began, but Hermes cut him off.
"It doesn't matter. Artemis- grab hold of me. Dawn, you take Eden. Peter, take Al." Eden was confused. What the heck were they…? She flinched as her bare feet hit glass, and she could feel it bleeding. Dawn grabbed her hand, and they lifted off lopsidedly.
Holy fucking shit! They were flying. Damn damn damn damn. She had never really gotten used to it, and they were so lopsided... her last moments on earth would be in freefall.
The shoes, however, were stronger than she thought.
They shot up, up, up, past the tall towers, Cyclopes jogging below them. Bullets flew around them, and Peter yelled as one hit him in the foot. Dawn flinched, adrenaline pumping. They had made it. They were almost out of there- with Artemis and Eden. That had to count for something.
I'm sorry, Arianna. We'll come get you. She thought grimly, heart aching. She pulled Eden off to one side as a bullet sailed past them. And then they were gone, leaving San Diego, flying over trees.
They were hypnotizing. They would get closer, and blur below them. Eden felt her eyes could stay unfocused, and they would…
Blood splattered her leg. Peter and Al were loosing altitude. The vote to make camp was unanimous- they all hoped they were far enough away. They hurried away, Cyclops' wreaking havoc behind them.
O-o
Peter yelped in pain as Hermes tried to fish the bullet out of his foot. One of the Cyclops', who's name was Bront, jumped, looking around.
"Hold still, Peter. I can heal the wound, but you aren't going to want a bullet in there forever. Hold still." Hermes got Al and an uncomfortable Dawn to hold him down until the bullet popped out, trailing blood across the clearing as it rolled. It took the god about ten seconds to heal the hole.
Eden let him fix her leg and hand, but couldn't be talked into anything else. She wrapped her arms around her chest and put her chin on her knees, the fire reflecting in her eyes, the waves that were usually in them gone.
Peter wondered uneasily if she would be like this forever, if the Titans had reduced her to a mere shadow of her former self. He could remember her just three weeks ago, arguing with Gäldstrup. Now he could see nothing of the defiance, the stubbornness, that had consumed her for the last seven years.
He replayed Kronos's threat in his mind, feeling sick. Would he really? Had he… he refused to think about it, shooting Eden an anxious glance. Her face looked like it was in shadows, but it was the bruises that were on her. Her arms, stomach, legs, and the one on her face. Everyone left her alone.
O-o
Eden looked about camp. Artemis was on watch, talking quietly with Hermes. Dawn and Peter were sound asleep.
When the god's backs were turned, she slipped quietly out of camp.
She knelt slowly next to a river a few meters away, burying her face in her hands. It felt like the world was gone. The Eden of last month felt like a completely different Eden from the one that sat here on the river in California.
Oh, gods.
She had always known, she thought she had been prepared for this. They hadn't raped her-she knew she should feel lucky. She wasn't going to die. She thought she was aware of the world, but looking back she felt she had been naïve. Eden had known, though. She had known from the first moment, she had known when she dragged Gäldstrup and what was left of the Olympian Army and half bloods into the forest. Even with all the death around her, it hadn't seemed real.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped, but it was only Artemis. The goddess sat next to her and watched the water for a moment.
"Who's still alive?" she said finally, and Eden looked at her. "I haven't heard anything for years, Edie. Nothing. Just small sound bytes- You are leading the resistance, Peter is still alive. A certain Gregory has hit America's most wanted. That's it."
There was a silence, broken only by the croak of a frog in the water.
"Thalia's dead, Jessica is, too."
Artemis closed her eyes a moment and shook her head. "I know about Thalia, but my question was who is alive." She wrapped her arms around the lieutenant's shoulders. "How are the hunters?"
Eden took a deep breath, shaking. Artemis might have meant it to cheer her up, but it was backfiring. She hadn't done her job. Her job was to keep the hunt together, and safe. Arianna was MIA, Jackie was a traitor, Thalia, Jess and Laurel were dead. But Artemis was looking at her expectantly. "Mary, she had a nasty side injury 'bout four-ish years ago but she manages OK. Um, Ari, she's fine, and Chloe. Jenna's alright. Peter and Dawn, duh. Um, Greg is still alive, they want him really bad now." She paused when Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Badly." She fell silent, closing her eyes. The moonlight reflected off the lieutenant band, like a reflector on a bike. Lars had tried, many times to take it off, but it couldn't be done. The strip of metal wouldn't budge.
She trembled. Lars. They used to be rivals, with no real fear. Or equal fear. Like siblings, only deadly. They had been almost equals. Now… now his name struck terror into her heart, her soul. She was going to kill him. If she lived long enough to kill him.
You did slice his dick in half at Pike Market, she reminded herself, smiling slightly. Artemis gazed out at the water.
"Artemis?" Eden said cautiously. Artemis looked at her, and her insides squirmed. She felt almost like a ten year old asking for an autograph, and it took all her willpower not to come up with something else. She had to ask. "Did you make me lieutenant because you wanted to, or because I was there?" Artemis blinked in surprise.
"What?" Eden felt unprotected, vulnerable. She had just spat one of her secrets out into the open. Did I really do that?
"Well?"
"No, I didn't. I had been thinking about it, from the moment we got the alert. You could have died that day. To be honest, I was considering You, Jessica and…" She stopped, but Eden knew which name had been about to slip through her lips. "You were the only ones that could do it. Dawn, too. I was hoping it wouldn't come to that." her voice was flat, emotionless.
Yes, Jackie had been strong and smart. Jackie would have been a lieutenant to rival Zoë Nightshade. But Jackie was a fucked up, stinking traitor.
Pop-quiz: what is Eden allergic to? P.M. me, AND review with Constructive Criticism (with the answer NOT in the review) and , and you get to choose the next Beta Reader victim. And remember about Eden's fatal flaw. And Peter's, too.
There... was a writer named storm brain. TYOOT was her fan fic!
R.E.V.I.E.Dub! R.E.V.I.E. dub! R.E.V.I.E.dub and she wanted rev-iews!
