For everyone out there, I give you an early Christmas present in the form of the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy this and please know that I am currently working on trying to finish this. If things seem rushed, please let me know in a review.


Chapter 29:

Rescue and Healing


The place was exactly like I had left it and exactly like the vision in my dream. The wall to the right of the entrance was home to four broken chains that no one had bothered to replace or even remove. Just looking at the place made my wrists and ankles sting with the memory and my shoulder seemed to hurt even more. Subconsciously I rubbed my wrists where only scars remained of the heavy chains.

When I turned to Apollo, however, I expected him to look exactly like he had in the dream with golden blood dripping incessantly from open wounds. I expected to see numerous wounds from a whip, golden spikes in his arms and legs, and cuts and bruises too numerous to count.

I never expected to find all those things plus more.

Now, Apollo looked like he was practically skin and bones. His eyes were closed and it looked like he was barely breathing. He even had blood dripping out of his mouth. I feared that we were too late. His arms and legs were wrapped in chains that weren't there before, digging into his flesh and causing severe infection; the pegs that were previously implanted into his limbs now kept the chains in place. Around his neck and head were bands of spikes forcing golden blood to drip freely. Just the sight of how my father was suffering made my own blood boil.

" Ieros gamoto." I heard Lee curse under his breath in Greek.

" Binew." I heard Karla mutter at the same time.

I could tell just from the way they spoke that they had both spoken some pretty foul words. The only thing was, I got the feeling that Lee was speaking in Modern Greek while Karla stuck to the ancient tongue which flowed in her blood. But I ignored them and took out the ray gun (the keys had morphed again), aiming at one of the hooks above the god's head.

Within seconds of pulling the trigger, Apollo's left arm dropped lazily to his side and his body shifted along with his centre of gravity. I only had to notice how the freed limb rested to know that it had been broken. And I could only make an assumption that the rest of Apollo's limbs were in the same state as his left arm. With that thought in mind, I made sure that I was quick to vaporise the three remaining chains. Thankfully, both Karla and Lee were ready to catch the unconscious god when he fell.

" He's so light." Lee whispered with shock lacing his voice.

" I know. But this isn't the place for talk. One of you get some nectar. I want to get this thing off his head before we go anywhere." I replied, kneeling down beside my fallen father.

Lee hurried to get the nectar (Karla was taking most of the weight) from Glade's pack as I searched for the latches on the head piece that was boring holes into Apollo's head and neck. Within seconds, Lee was back and Karla and I were still searching.

It took the son of Athena lees than a minute to figure out that both spiked bands were attached to each other in three places; one spiked bar right behind each ear and on tightly travelling from the front of the head piece to the back of the neck piece. He also discovered that the middle strap hid the latches to the head and neck.

" I'm sorry Dad. This will be over soon." I promised, sighing under my breath.

As I made my quiet promise, I heard the sound of a small flamethrower being turned on. Now, I'm not sure who had the brains to kidnap a flamethrower from the Hephaestus forge or what exactly they were planning on doing with it, but I was darn glad they had it… as long as they didn't hurt Apollo more than what he already was. But it turned out I didn't have to worry because with swift precision and gentle care, the lock centre piece of the torture device had been removed.

I was quick with the nectar (Lee had given me the practically full bottle earlier so that he could examine the torture device), making sure to have enough of the godly liquid for the other wounds. To be honest, I wasn't sure if the nectar was going to help heal the wounds or not, but that message I received didn't exactly tell me how to use the stuff. So I assumed that nectar worked in a similar way to how it did with healing demigods.

The dull orange-gold colour of the nectar clashed badly with the bright golden colour of Apollo's blood-ichor as both liquids trickled down the god's head and neck. And I wasn't sure if that sizzling sound coming from the combination was a good sign. But I noticed that, as I poured the nectar over my father's head, the dull golden liquid seemed to be reviving Apollo in a slightly similar way to a demigod… albeit, agonisingly slow.

Thankfully, taking the rest of the torturous mask off was surprisingly quick and easy. Now that we knew where the latches were and that – despite how complicated the thing looked – they were 'of a really simplistic design', or so said Lee, opening the thing was no trouble at all. We simply unlatched the head and neck bands and very gently peeled the head brace off Apollo's head. Unfortunately, sickening slurps and monstrous holes had to accompany the peeling off of the torture device.

Golden blood still ran from the wounds and onto my hands as I tried to clean the wounds with my now torn shirt (I know, not very hygienic and sterile, but it was the only thing I had. And that golden ichor blood was actually burning at my hands like it was hot oil). Getting the nectar to the wounds without spilling any was a little trickier, though, thanks to my rag mittens.

Karla disappeared to her pack so that either she or her boyfriend could nectarise the other side of Apollo's head (and, yes, Lee. I do know that 'nectarise' isn't a word. And I don't care. It was the best way to explain what was going on). Apollo's hair kept getting in the way of the wounds around his head (it had grown during captivity) and the blood from the top wounds would mix with the nectar being poured into the lower wounds.

In the end, we went from top to bottom with the nectar shower. And just as we finished, Assassin gave a loud, earth shaking bark.

" We have to go, now." Lee said, almost as if he had translated the bark. " The monsters have finally realised that we're after Apollo."

" Took them long enough!" Karla growled.

" Shut up and help Dominic with Apollo. I'll… I'll…" That's when Lee started to get dizzy himself.

I wasn't sure if it was something to do with the poison or with Apollo being the god of illness, but Lee's confused and pain-filled look scared me. It reminded me of when I used to look in the mirror, before all this Greek mythology stuff started warping my life. Karla looked worried, too, until a sigh escaped her lips and I discovered that Apollo was her top priority at that moment. Together, the two of us managed to tie Apollo behind Glade with me sitting behind the god.

While we were getting the sun god up on the hellhound's back, though, Lee succumbed to whatever it was that was making him dizzy. By that, I mean that his sudden confusion was thanks to the poison currently inside him (my very small medical senses began kicking in at that point). That led to the son of Athena kneeling by the wall and… well, you get the idea. Karla ended up hurrying over to her sick boyfriend with a square of ambrosia to calm his stomach down enough so that we could move on.

You know, considering the amount of nectar and Ambrosia we have on this quest (and I'm not talking about the portions that we've already consumed) I would have to say that someone other than myself must have realised that we were going to need a large amount of the godly food and drink. Personally, I thank Glade for that idea. He strikes me as the kind of guy who would pack for emergencies.

Of course, I couldn't exactly leave the other two out completely. Either one of them could have known or guessed what our situation would be like. Okay, so I figured Karla would only carry this much ambrosia and nectar due to Lee's health. Lee seemed like the guy who would play the hero and give off all the godly medicine meant for him to someone else.

And something in the back of my mind told me not to forget about the message I had received at Grandpa's. I didn't understand why, but that voice was trying to explain to me (I think) that the gods did help on demigod quests even though I knew they weren't supposed to. If that was true, then it could have been possible that the guy who had sent the message.

In any case, I was grateful for it because I had a feeling that we were going to need most if not all of it just to get Apollo back on his feet. Just to make sure, though, I tipped some of the godly liquid into Apollo's mouth and made him swallow. The drink seemed to help with rousing my father as well. Unfortunately, it seemed like he was going to need more before he woke from his unconscious state and maybe help me help him.

But, of course, while my mind was on other thing, I didn't notice when Lee and Karla both strapped themselves back onto Assassin's back. Heck, I didn't even notice when Assassin was ordered to shadow jump again, which – in turn – meant that I didn't notice the shadows surround us just in time to save our lives from angry monsters.

What I did notice, though, was that as Assassin travelled to his next destination, Apollo shivered violently. At first, I thought that the shiver was from pain. It could have been a likely possibility, but I wasn't quite sure if it was the right possibility. Not to mention the fact that he was feeling cold was probably low on the probability list. I mean, come on. The dude's the god of the sun. A cold sun would be a bad sun… and quite possibly mean the end of the world.

I chose not to think about that last thing.

Then it hit me… almost as hard as the brick house. We were shadow travelling (and yes, that is when I finally realised what was going on around me). The dark shadows were what was causing Apollo to shiver like crazy because we were dragging the god of the sun through him. Light and darkness, despite needing each other to coexist, it was practically impossible for the two to interact without severe consequences.

On that thought, I dearly hoped that we hadn't harmed Apollo more than he could handle at that moment. Heck, I was hoping Assassin didn't get sick or something like that. I really was starting to like the giant dog, you know, and would feel pretty bad if he got sick or injured because we had to get the sun god to safety via shadows.

Once more, as quickly as they had come, the shadows were gone again. I didn't even bother to look around at our surroundings. I just wanted to do what I could to help my father heal. And, for that moment at least, that meant pouring nectar into Apollo's mouth and making him drink.

Almost as soon as the shadow's had disappeared back into the pillar they were originally from, Lee had called over to me and practically ordered me to get Apollo untied and somehow onto his throne. It was around this time that I figured that we had arrived on Mt Olympus, and Assassin was breathing pretty heavily. The poor hellhound must have been exhausted.

Of course, despite me noticing these minor details, I failed to notice the giant meeting that we had unintentionally intruded upon.

" WHO DARES…" someone boomed like thunder was above my head. Needless to say, I was scared out of my wits.

However, the loud voice was quickly interrupted by another, more shocked voice. " Brother!"

And that is when I finally had a look around the place that Assassin had brought us to.

The Olympian Throne room was massive! Eleven people stood in front of us, each way taller than I expected when I was introduced to their world. And each one of them was looking at us like we were filthy cockroaches or something… well, that is if they weren't looking worried or sick at the sight of their fellow god. Personally, I blame the disgusted look on the fact that three demigods and a satyr had just appeared out of the shadow of a pillar and on the back of a hellhound, not to mention with Apollo the sun god looking like a metal pin cushion.

Yeah, I decided not to think about the roach thing and chose instead to figure out who was who. I only got as far as Dad's throne when I tried to figure out who was who out of the gods. And I started out with the guys, so it wasn't really that long until I got myself distracted. For your convenience, I'll start with the Boss man – who also had the booming voice and was currently in a heated discussion with his neighbour.

The guy stood at the front of the assembly with a tuxedo suit and eyes that I swore had lightning bolts flashing through them every few seconds. I was more than sure that he was about to smite us all into oblivion with the look he was giving us… and it wasn't very friendly either. He also had a salt and pepper hair that wrapped his face - similar to Santa's beard - but it crackled like a thunderstorm was living inside of it, not to mention the red fact which I'm pretty sure was thanks to our sudden arrival and thus interruption of his meeting.

To his right stood a fisherman, there was no other way to explain the guy. Heck, he even had some kind of tropical drink in his hand when I looked. In his deep sea fisherman's throne sat a three pronged trident which I really didn't want to be on the receiving end of. But despite the guy's seemingly relaxed demeanour and slightly worried expression which seemed to clash, I got the strange feeling that he looked familiar… and I doubt it was because his green eyes reminded me of a calm ocean in a breeze.

Finally came the last guy that I noticed before getting distracted. This guy was wearing black leather everything except his shirt; that was red. He had all sorts of tattoos and manly jewellery on but what really gave off the biker look were the sunglasses. They were dark and – with the red glow coming from behind them – they really looked freaky. Plus he was giving off an evil kind of aura that seemed to make me feel like wanting to strangle someone as he sat on his throne, sharpening his sword. He was the only one who hadn't moved to get up upon our arrival, and he seriously looked like he really wanted to turn me into a Dominic Shish Kebab.

And now we come to the empty, golden throne of Apollo. Like all the others, the throne was massive; so you could understand how I looked at it and wondered how we were going to get the sun god back into his rightful seat. And, as stated earlier, as soon as I saw that throne, there was no way to stop me from trying to heal my father. I practically hurried to get the ropes off Apollo and myself, only sliding to the ground with my father once that last rope was gone.

" What is going on here?" Some woman asked, obviously demanding an answer.

I probably shouldn't have ignored the woman – she had such a strong, authoritative voice to her it scared me – but I had more important things to worry about… like trying to stop Apollo's wounds from bleeding out like they seemed intent on doing. Between the wounds and Apollo's mouth, I had already used up most of the nectar Lee had handed to me back in the dungeon. Not to mention, we hadn't long arrived on Olympus which made me think that my attempts at healing were futile.

Okay, I admit. I was starting to feel useless upon that discovery. And I think Karla noticed because she came along and, after gently brushing her hand over my shoulder as she passed me, helped with the cleaning of the bleeding wounds. She must have given Lee a signal or something because the next thing I knew was that his voice was focussed on explaining what was going on. My only hope was that Assassin was watching Glade despite the tiredness that I felt rolling off the hellhound.

In a final attempt at trying to be useful to my father, I let my eyes drift between the golden throne and Assassin. Glade was still strapped to the hellhound's back, so that meant that there was no one watching him in case something bad happened to the concussed satyr. But Assassin, on the other hand, was between me and the throne. It was almost like he was trying to tell me that the two of us together were tall enough to get Apollo back in his rightful place.

And that is how my hopefully good plan formed into my mind.

" Karla, get Glade off Assassin's back. I have a feeling that my father wouldn't like it if I had to share his throne with him for even a second… even if it is for the sake of his health." I said as the voice from earlier returned to the back of my mind.

Of course, I had to forget to let Karla in on the plan. I say this because, instead of doing what I had ordered (which also got the biker dude glaring flaming daggers at me), Karla blew up at me instead. My guess is that she was prone to jumping to conclusions. " You're planning to get yourself killed?"

" Not really. But those thrones are massive. Both Assassin and I know that us working together is the only way to get Apollo back on his throne. And, besides, I want my father to be healed as best as possible before I get those stupid thorns out of him. The only way that is ever going to happen is if he gets on his throne because you and I both know that the nectar isn't working! I don't need healing abilities to know that Apollo needs to be stronger before he can get those dumb things out of him. And besides, if anything goes wrong, I'll have John in the back of my head telling me everything he can in order to fix it."

" I can tell that you're hinting at your lack of healing powers. But since when can you understand hellhound? And what do you mean John'll be in the back of your head?"

" Karla. It is common for two people to have a mutual understanding just by looking at each other. That's what happened with me and Assassin. And you don't need to go getting your nickers in a knot because I wasn't planning on jumping up onto Apollo's throne. Assassin and I are the tallest out of our little group, so the two of us would somehow manage to get Apollo up there. As for John, ever since I started getting my memories back, he decided to get all creepy, ghost like on me and invade my mind."

If you were wondering, yes I did forget that we were currently in a room full of giant people. But I wasn't focussed on that. I was more focussed on the look that Karla was giving me… or rather the same one she had been giving me for the past five minutes. You know, the one with the squinted eyes and the slightly scrunched up nose and the deep frown. Yeah. That one.

Thankfully she didn't question my plan, my weird connection with Assassin, or the fact that my brother was practically possessing my body. Instead, she growled something under her breath and went to get Glade down from Assassin's back like I had asked. I even heard the slap from her hand connecting with the satyr's cheek which could have only meant that the satyr had either fallen or else tried to go back to sleep. The second slap and the deeper growl that followed could have meant only one thing; Glade had said something that the daughter of Ares hadn't approved of. I was just thankful that I hadn't caught what had been said for fear of being the next person on Karla's hit list.

You see, I'd figured that it was better for my own health if I just focussed on the task in front of me. And that task just so happened to be getting those peg things out of my father's body. As soon as Assassin was free from Glade, the giant hellhound had made his way over to where I was tending to the open wounds of Apollo. And, of course, he had to show some attitude right when I was trying to get Apollo onto his back. It turned out the dog didn't want the god on his back again until after those peg things and chains were removed from the god's body.

Because of that, we weren't getting anywhere fast. Somehow I managed to get Apollo to the edge of his throne so that he was leaning against it. And, even as I tried to remove the spikes, I was praying that he had enough strength in him and was getting enough strength from leaning against his throne to heal.

Unfortunately, the spikes' removal was proving to be a difficult task. Even if I moved one spike just that little bit to try and ease it out of the god's body, the wound that had been created would spring a leak of golden blood and force me to use a lot of nectar just to try and stem the flow. That led to dilemma number two; the depleting source of nectar.

At one point, I got desperate and tried to stuff ambrosia into the wound to see if that would work as a healing substitute for the nectar. All that did was nothing. The flow of blood was too much that the ambrosia didn't even get a chance to start trying to heal the god before it was washed away. I decided – after that first failed ambrosia attempt – to just give up on that particular idea.

The next thing I knew was that a young, silver robed woman with auburn coloured hair had roughly forced me away from my father. Immediately the young woman got to work on placing Apollo onto his throne and started to remove the thorns and heal the wounds. As she worked, three other gods hurried to Apollo's throne; one looked more like a mechanic complete with leg braces and everything, one looked like a doctor and the third had a similar appearance to the doctor but seemed more like a professional surgeon than a normal GP.

Assassin and I were pushed further and further back as each one hurried to heal the sun god; me with the feeling of not being able to do anything to help stronger than ever as it lay like a lead weight in the pit of my stomach.