I'm back.
I'm sorry I was gone for a month. I had to take a small break from writing because of college preparation and just being stressed with trying to get good grades and blah blah blah etc. etc. etc.
And then I just took a rest and watched Sherlock—the amazing BBC TV show that left me with a gaping black hole in the middle of my chest because the third season can't come out soon enough all because Sherlock and John Watson are in the Hobbit as the main characters so they have extremely busy schedules being Smaug the Dragon and Bilbo Baggins and I cried at the end of the last episode of the second season because it was just incredibly awful and sad and amazing all at the same time, and then it ended on the cliffhanger of the century and I swear I died a little inside. It was bigger than Rick Riordan's. I didn't even think it was possible.
So if any of you have seen all the episodes of Sherlock, let me know so I can actually talk to someone about it because none of my friends watch it and it kills me that they don't understand the sheer FABULOUSNESS of the TV show.
And if any of you haven't seen it, YOU NEED TO WATCH IT. I'm serious. It will change your life. (Although, some parts are a little scary and intense, so you might want to watch those parts through your fingers.)
Gods, I think that's enough Author's Note for one chapter.
Let it commence.
Percy
"Nate, hand me the keys," I said, holding my hand out.
He dropped them on my palm and I started working on unlocking the shackles around Reyna's wrists and ankles. The shackles opened on her wrists and she fell weakly forward. I steadied her.
"Sorry," she said, leaning against the wall. "I haven't stood on my own in a while."
"It's fine," I assured her, trying to ignore the heat on my cheeks. Annabeth shifted slightly behind me. I released the shackles on her ankles, and Reyna slowly slid down onto the floor.
I moved to the person next to her—a boy with curly dark hair and an elfish face.
"You're Percy?" he asked as I unlocked him from the wall.
"Yeah," I said, frowning. "How did you know?"
He rubbed his raw wrist with his hand. "Annabeth found me when she was looking for you. I'm Leo, son of Hephaestus extraordinaire."
"I recognize you," I said, pointing the keys at him. "You sent us a message on that piece of paper."
"Made it myself." He grinned, a bit of pride entering his voice. "I—"
"Boys, less flirting, more unlocking," Annabeth said irritably, catching a girl with choppy brown hair and tan skin and helping her stand up.
"Can't say I've missed Annabeth's bossiness," Leo muttered to himself.
I tried to hide a smirk.
It quickly slid off when I saw Hazel still chained to the wall, and I quickly moved to her.
"Percy," she said gratefully. "I knew you'd come."
I felt a little pain in my chest. Hazel was like a little sister to me, and I hated seeing her like this.
"Of course I came," I told her. The chains on her wrists released and she fell against me. I caught her and settled her on the ground. "I'm going to fix this. Fix all of this."
She gave me a weak hug. "Find Frank," she whispered. I nodded, and she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. I stood up and moved to a boy with blond hair.
"Jason," he said hoarsely.
"Percy," I replied. "You're the kid missing from Camp Jupiter. You're the praetor."
He looked surprised. "And you're the kid missing from Camp Half-Blood. You're Annabeth's boyfriend." His hands dropped to his sides, and he kicked away the shackles binding his feet.
I nodded. "You're a son of Zeus?"
"Jupiter," he corrected automatically.
"I know a daughter of Zeus. She's one of my best friends."
"Thalia?" Jason asked, giving a small smile. "She's my sister."
I stared at him.
"Yeah," he said. He took some keys from me and started to unlock another grateful Roman from the wall. "She was one of the only things I remembered. She left some pictures in the Zeus cabin, and Annabeth told me her name." He steadied the boy he'd unlocked and moved on to the next person.
"Who're they?" I asked, gesturing to the girl with choppy hair and Leo.
"Leo's my best friend," Jason said, nodding towards him. "And Piper's my girlfriend."
I was about to reply, when I realized that the entire room was silent. I looked around and saw people staring at me and Jason, as if expecting a nuclear explosion to happen any minute.
"Hey, man," I said, catching him on the shoulder. I swear, everyone sucked in a breath. I ignored this. "I can easily give up the praetor's spot. I know that you were praetor first, and I don't want to get in your way. You can have it."
It was his turn to stare at me. "You're serious?"
"Would you give up the position so easily?" a voice said. Reyna stood up and gave me a calculating stare I was all too familiar with.
"Yes," I said firmly. "He was the praetor first. He deserves it more than I do. I'd rather be leader of one camp, thanks."
I saw Annabeth in the corner of my eye start to smile.
"I accept," Jason said.
"Great," I replied. "Now hand me the keys."
Soon, everyone was free from their bonds. Everyone looked pale and tired, with sunken cheeks and baggy eyes. They probably hadn't seen daylight in weeks. They were all lying down on the ground, rubbing their raw ankles and wrists, and massaging sore muscles.
I stood up. All eyes swiveled towards me.
"This is what's going to happen," I said loudly. "We need to get rid of Octavian once and for all."
I expected some loud cheer, but all I got was Leo weakly yelling, "Woo!"
"The only way we can do this is if we have weapons. We also need to set sentries at the doors of this room to knock out any guards that come down here and protect the weaker ones. How many of you are newer prisoners?"
About thirty or forty people raised their hands. I bit my lip. It wasn't even close to half of the people in the room.
"Are any of you sons or daughters of Mars?"
Five people kept their hands raised.
"You need to find where Frank is being held captive. We need him."
They stood and moved to a different place in the room. "Don't go looking for him until we can get some weapons for all of us," I told them. "I don't want any of you captured again.
"Right," I said. "Now I need about ten of the newer prisoners, along with those who were with me earlier, to come with me to the armory."
Annabeth, Nate, and Bethany came to stand by me, but no one else moved.
Until Jason stood up. Leo and Piper trailed behind him and took their places by my side.
Reyna stood up, too, but I shook my head. "I need you to stay here with the rest of us. You're a good leader, and I know you can protect them." She didn't look that happy to be ordered around, but she sat back down.
Seven other people got to their feet and stood beside me.
"The rest of you stay here. We'll try to bring back enough weapons for most of you, as well as some food."
I turned away from them to face the thirteen standing by me.
"Do you think this will work?" Annabeth said, placing a hand on my arm.
"You tell me," I said, rubbing my forehead. "You're normally the one with a plan, not me."
"This has to work," Bethany assured me. "I have a feeling it will."
"Great," Annabeth said. "Okay, four of us already have weapons, so there should be two of us in the front of the group, and two of us in the back to keep us protected. We also have Piper to charmspeak for us, and Percy and Jason with their…uh, powers. They are our first priority to protect."
The group nodded.
"Percy and Bethany should be in the front, since they are the best fighters, with Jason behind them. Nate and I will hold up the back. Piper, stay near the middle with Leo," Annabeth instructed. "If any of you have any…abilities, I guess, use them. Don't use any force unless absolutely necessary. We don't want any attention drawn to ourselves. Our priority is to get in and out of the armory as quickly and quietly as possible. The reason why there are so many of us are because we need people carrying weapons. Anything else, Percy?"
"Uh, what?" I said. Annabeth rolled her eyes and whispered something to Piper, who grinned. I glared at them, but they didn't stop smiling.
"I think that's about it," I said. I could feel everyone's eyes on my back as we got into formation.
"Keep everyone protected," I said to Reyna. She nodded curtly.
I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it. Bethany unsheathed two daggers and twirled them in her hands.
"We'll be back," I said. "If not…let's just hope that doesn't happen."
"You and Jason will have to tell me where to go," I said to Bethany as we hid in the clearing. "I've really only been here about three or four days."
"Sure," she replied. She picked at some grass as we waited for Nate and Annabeth to get back from scouting ahead.
Jason was sitting next to Piper, who had her head on his shoulder. Leo was fidgeting nervously, and was starting to build a miniature grass snowman. Even though he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, I could see the raw skin ringing his wrists. A surge of anger flared inside me towards Octavian. He had hurt so many people—especially the people from Camp Half-Blood.
I looked at the rest of the people that came with us. Some I recognized from the war game, but the rest I'd never seen before. They all had the same exhausted look. They were probably malnourished, dehydrated, and practically dead on their feet. The only people that seemed to be in any shape to fight were me, Annabeth, Nate, Bethany, and Jason. Being released from prison seemed to give him a surge of energy. Or maybe it was his lightning powers or whatever.
The bushes rustled and Nate and Annabeth burst into the clearing.
"They've found the bodies of the guards at the entrances of the tunnel. They know we're here," Nate said.
"Perfect," I groaned. "Could we just have some small bit of luck?"
"The good news is that the armory is almost completely abandoned," Annabeth said. "Octavian seems to have called most of the guards on a hunt for us—which is the tricky part. Getting to the armory is the problem, not the weapons."
I blew out air sharply. "We've still got to go. We won't be able to do anything if they're armed and we're not."
"Just what I was thinking," Jason said. "Once we get swords, things will be more evenly matched."
"What are we waiting for, then?" Piper asked.
"The distraction," Annabeth said.
"What distract—?" I started to ask, before I heard a small explosion and shouts.
"What was that?" Bethany cried, jumping to her feet.
"I planted a grenade arrow in one of the shops," Nate said. "It should give us enough time."
"Then let's go!" Leo said.
I uncapped Riptide and everyone gave a cheer. Bethany twirled her knives again and we exploded out of the bushes.
"Follow me!" Bethany yelled. There was panic everywhere. People were running around with buckets of water, yelling, and sprinting towards the flaming shop. I could hear Octavian screaming shrilly somewhere, but I kept running.
Bethany weaved through buildings like a panther. She streaked down alleyways and sprinted towards the barracks.
We ran past a shrieking Terminus and up a dirt road towards an open gate. There was no one in sight. They were all taking care of the building in New Rome.
Bethany ushered us inside a small building by one of the barracks, and then shut the door. Automatic lights flickered on, and the armory lit up before us.
"Oh," Nate moaned. He dropped Bethany's sword and grabbed a bow and large quiver of arrows mounted on the wall. "I've missed you." He rubbed the bow shaft as he shouldered the quiver.
"Kids of Apollo," Bethany said, shrugging.
"Get what you need, and more," I said.
"My tool belt!" Leo cried. He picked it up and buckled it around his waist.
People surged forward to get their weapons, shields, and armor, and soon I had people who looked like warriors, not prisoners.
"How are we going to carry the rest?" Annabeth asked. She had on a breastplate and a shield on her arm.
"I wonder…" Leo mused. "Pipes, hand me your knife."
"What?" she said.
Leo held out his hand expectantly, and Piper reluctantly dropped the knife into his hand.
He shoved it in his tool belt in what looked like a too-small pocket.
"Hey!" Piper yelped.
"Wait," Leo said. He reached his hand back in the pocket, and Piper's knife appeared in his hand. "Aw, yeah. Tool belt converts into storage unit. I like."
"But, that's impossible," Nate said, frowning.
"Man, until a few months ago, I thought the gods were impossible," Leo said. "Put your stuff in here."
We started to put things in his tool belt, and they just seemed to shrink as they fit into the pockets.
Soon, we basically cleaned out the armory. We were about to leave when I saw a shield sitting in the back corner.
"Wait," I said. I reached down and was about to buckle it onto my arm when my fingers lost feeling. The shield slid out of my hand and clattered to the ground.
"Percy?" I heard Annabeth say. It sounded like her voice was underwater.
I felt her hand on my shoulder, and then it clenched. Annabeth was staring at the exact thing I was.
The pithos.
"Why?" I asked numbly. "Why is it here?"
"It doesn't matter, Percy," Annabeth said. "We need to get out of here. Right now."
She tugged at my shoulder, and I forced myself to look away from the looming jar. The group was staring at me, but I just pushed through them and opened the door.
"Let's go," I said.
People ran out and followed Bethany back to the clearing, but Annabeth made me stay behind.
"Percy, don't let it get to your head," she said. "It's here to freak you out. You've got to keep going. Stopping is what it wants you to do."
I forced myself not to start getting tunnel vision"Sorry. It's just—"
"Percy, I understand," Annabeth said, taking my face in her hands. "I can't even think of when we actually slept, let alone in a bed. We've kept moving and moving, and I just want to stop. But we can't. We've got to keep going. We're almost done. Do you hear me?"
"Yeah," I said. "I do."
"When we get back, I want you to sleep. Even though we've got to keep going, you're not a machine. We've been running on adrenaline, and it's about gone," Annabeth said. "I'll handle things when we get back. I've slept more than you."
"I swear I've heard you say that before," I said, smiling slightly.
"Yeah, the Titan War. But we've got to go. Just a few more minutes. Can you do that for me?"
I sighed. "Yeah."
She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "We can do this."
And she took my hand, and we ran to the clearing.
Sorry if the chapter is a little off. I've kinda lost my funk since I haven't written in three weeks, but I hope to update more in the future because it's CHRISTMAS BREAK. Glory Hallelujah. Praise to the Man. I need to just catch up on SLEEP.
I hope you guys like this chapter, and I'm also sorry I was AWOL. Trust me, I didn't want to, but you know.
If any of you guys go AWOL for a while, may I recommend Sherlock? It's a good show to watch while you're gone doing whatever.
Hope to see you guys soon!
OKAY BYE.
~littlebitclever