Chapter 39

A/N: We're almost to chapter 40, guys! Can we make it past 250 reviews with this chapter?

Aria's POV

The light was dancing off of the walls when I opened my eyes. Immediately, I jumped to my feet, eyes darting around wildly for the four prisoners. Luckily, they hadn't woken up yet. James and Katie had. Together, we dragged the four of them to four separate rooms in the safehouse, isolating them from their support systems.

Now they just had to wake up.

"So what's our interrogation technique?" Katie asked, collapsing in a beanbag chair near the door.

"Intimidation," I said quickly. "I don't do anything else."

"Do we have to call anyone?" James asked. I gave him a quick confused look. "I mean, to tell them that we have prisoners."

I nodded. "Percy and Jason. Dionysus will already know – we had my father transport us. Phone, anyone?"
James dialed Percy's number and tossed me his cell.

It rang four times before he picked up.

"Hello?"

"Percy, it's me."

"What happened?" he asked immediately.

I smiled at my brother's tendency to jump to conclusions. "We've got four humans as working with Banner. Haven't questioned them yet. We'll do it soon."

"Everything okay?"
"Perfect."

"Call Jason and tell him too."

"I know. I will."

"Okay. Call me when interrogation is done. And be safe!"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course. Love you."

"Love you too."

I hung up and dialed Jason's number. Five rings to pick up, this time.

"Jason Grace."

"Hey, Jason, it's Aria."

"Oh hey, what's up?"

"We've got four humans for working with Banner – the one controlling the monster. Interrogation hasn't been done yet, they're still unconscious."

"I have teams on stand-by if you need them. I only need your word."

I laughed. "We're fine, Jason. I'll call if I need help."

"Alright. Be careful!"

I rolled my eyes again. Jason and Percy were too much alike for their own good. "I will. I'll call if anything comes up."

I hung up and tossed the phone back to James.

"How long until they wake up?" James asked.

"I have no idea," I responded. "I don't know how hard we hit them."

"How long do we have until we need to get back to the Cullens?" he asked again.

I turned to Katie.

"Jasper and Alice are…otherwise occupied, and so are Emmett and Rosalie," she said, wincing at the mental picture. "I've got no idea how long."

I opened my mouth to say something, but I heard sounds from upstairs. The humans had woken.

"It's time," I said, grinning. "Who wants which human?"

"You are not going anywhere near Sean," James growled.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. I've got Lauren. You get Sean. Katie?"

"Tyler. Eric's the weakest. He won't wake for a while."

I nodded. "Perfect. Let's go." The noises from the humans were getting louder. They were obviously trying to escape their bonds.

I slipped into the room where Lauren was being held just as she tried to get the ropes off of her arms.

"Hello, Lauren," I said quietly.

She looked up and narrowed her eyes at me. "You."

"Yes, me," I said. "Who else would it be?"

"I thought you'd have another demigod interrogate me. A scarier one."

I merely smiled at her. During interrogation, it was important to never let the subject see that you were angry. Control was mandatory at all times. I moved to sit down in the chair across from Lauren, while she glared at me angrily.

If looks could kill, I thought wryly, smiling to myself. I stared at Lauren, waiting for her to speak again.

"Are you human?" she asked me.

I smiled. "What do you think?"

"Well, Mr. Banner said—" she stopped suddenly, aware of the fact that she had let a name slip.

"Yeah, Mr. Banner told the same thing to Sean too," I said nonchalantly, reading her mind quickly to confirm the fact.

She scowled at me. I smiled back at her.

"So, who are you working for?" I asked.

"Why should I answer?" she shot back defiantly.

I sighed. "Honey, I'm a mind reader. I can just knock you unconscious and probe your mind, but that would be more painful for you. I'm trying to help you here."

Lauren swallowed. She tilted her head and examined me. "Why should I believe you?"

"You want me to knock you unconscious?"
"Fine. I'll talk. One condition – no one gets hurt, okay?"

"Deal. Spill, sweetie."

Lauren sighed, scowled at me one last time, and began. "Tyler, Eric, Sean, and I were called to Mr. Banner's room during lunch one day. About three weeks before you and James showed up. He said that two new students were going to come to the school, and we had to keep an eye on you. He paid us all in money, and he blackmailed us."

"With what?"

"Somehow, Mr. Banner found out most of our secrets. He knew Tyler and I were smoking weed. He knew that Eric had a thing for Bella – and he threatened to tell her. Eric freaked. And he knew something about Sean, but Sean wouldn't say what."

"Was there any reason that the four of you were called to his room?"

Lauren shrugged. "If he had one, he didn't share it with us. I was just worried that he'd tell my parents."

I nodded. "Okay. So, do you know who he's working for?"

"Who he's working for?" she asked, confused.

"Whom he reports to. Did you ever hear him call anyone or something like that?"

She frowned. "I heard a couple names mentioned…I thought they were code names. Does the Neamean Lion mean anything?"

I shook my head. I already knew where that came from.

"Okay…let me think. I have to remember." She paused for a minute. "Oh, I think I have some. Camp Half-Blood? Camp Jupiter?"

I shook my head again. "Nothing."

"Humph. I think there was one last one…I just can't remember it."

"Gaea?" I prompted. "Something about a giant?"
"He did mention the name Gaea once, but he said that she was already defeated."

"Oh, not that, then. Can you try to remember?"

She screwed up her facial features, so I assumed she was remembering. "I remember thinking 'disaster' but I don't know why…Oh! I got it! Chaos was the last name!"

I froze. "What did you say?"

"Chaos. I thought 'disaster' because in English class that day, we learned that chaos is a synonym for—"

"Are you sure that that's what you heard?"

She frowned. "Yeah, why?"

I took a deep breath. "Then we're in a shitload more of trouble than I thought."

*O*

"So first Kronos, then the Giants, and now Chaos?" James asked.

I nodded. "It seems like that. They all want revenge."

"Hold it," Katie said. "Who's Chaos?"
I sighed. "You know the old Greek myths stating that everything came from one immortal being? The universe?"

"Yeah, I remember those," Katie said.

"Well, the universe is called Chaos. And apparently, that's what wants revenge on us now," I said gloomily.

"But for what?" James asked.

I shrugged. "Probably 'cause we beat the Titans and the Giants. She can't be too happy about that."

"Wait, Chaos is a 'she'?" Katie asked.

"Yeah, it's part of the myths," I clarified. "That's why the Greeks are one of the only cultures to respect women, because their beginning was from a woman."

"Huh," James tutted. "So what are we supposed to do?"

"Notify everyone we can," I said. "We have another war on our hands now. Just like the last one."

"But why on earth would the universe want to hurt us? I mean, what does she get from eradicating demigods?" James demanded, sounding angry.

I shrugged. Again. "I don't know." Not knowing frustrated me to no end. "We have to call Percy," I decided.

"Screw that," Katie said. "You guys are coming back to Camp, and we're having a meeting. This is way to important to neglect."

"But we need to involve the Romans on this too," I argued. "So where do we meet for that? Neither side will go to the other camp."

"A neutral location," James insisted. "We'll figure something out. But for now, we need more information."

"Who knows the most?" I asked.

"It seems like Sean does," James said. "But he wouldn't talk."

"Let me—" I started.

"No!" James growled.

Katie sighed. "James, we can listen from outside. Sean will talk to Aria better. Let her."

James tilted his head, contemplating the idea. I raised my eyebrow, giving him the full You-chauvinistic-pig bitch brow.

He sighed. "Fine. But the first time you raise your voice, I'm coming in there."

I nodded, glad I had got him to agree. "I'll be fine. I know it."

*O*

Sean had his head down on the table, and was relaxing as much as he could with his arms and legs tied.

"Hello, Sean," I said, shutting the door behind me. Through the wall, I could hear James pacing and Katie worrying aloud.

His head popped up, and an evil smile immediately donned his face. "Aria."

"Would you mind if we talked for a while?" I asked.

"I know all your interrogation techniques. Don't even try."

"Do you know what we are?"

He was silent.

"Exactly," I continued. "So, I'll give you a full description of what we are if you promise to answer any and all questions that I have."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Why should I believe you?"

I sighed. Deciding to take the same route that I did with Lauren, I started talking again. "Honey, if I wanted to, I could just knock you unconscious and get all the answers that I need. I'd prefer to do it this way."

Sean flinched, and I knew I'd gotten through to him. He sighed to himself, and muttered. "What have I got to lose?"
Before he could speak again, I added, "If you talk now, I can guarantee that you, Lauren, Tyler, and Eric, don't have to go back to Mr. Banner. You'll all be set free. We can arrange that."

God, I sound like some sort of assassin, I thought to myself.

Sean nodded. "That sounds like a good plan. I might even answer more questions now."

"Okay, so let's start. Who is Chaos?"

"The person that Banner says is in charge," he answered immediately. "Who is that?"

"How does she contact him?" I asked, ignoring his question.

"He says that the sky speaks to him…always thought he was loony," he said derisively.

The sky speaks to him…Chaos would leave him messages through the stars? I was clueless for a minute, until Sean said something else.

"Whenever he went outside, this little cloud would always follow him around…I thought that was kind of freaky."

"Of course!" I yelled, and jumped up from the chair where I was sitting. I raced out of the room and nearly ran into James.

"What is it?" he asked, concerned.

"She's the lower atmosphere!" I said excitedly. "That's how she's controlling things! She has power over the wind and weather, because she's the lower atmosphere!"

"What?" he said, looking confused.

"The lower atmosphere," I babbled excitedly. "In the myths, the universe is present on earth as the atmosphere. She communicated with Banner through cloud form – water. Jason or I could probably send it away if we wanted to, but it would take a lot of work—"

"Hold on, hold on," James said. "Slow down. So we know how she's communicating with Banner. Now what are we going to do about our captives?"

"I promised them safety. If we send them back to school, Banner will undoubtedly know that they talked. I don't doubt that Chaos already knows. In fact, I'm surprised no one's attacked yet."

"But we don't know who's working with her," Katie added. "We have to find that out."

"She could have teachers like Banner all over the world," I theorized. "Finding humans and teaching them to dislike demigods, so they'll kill all of us. It's a viable plan."

"Send the four of them to Arizona," Katie piped in suddenly. "We have a human safehouse there, for the people affected by the gods. It'll be perfect."

"Affected by the gods?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Humans whose lives they destroyed because they had a kid with them," Katie explained.

"That sounds morbid," I said. "So, flight tickets to Arizona?"

"I'm on it," James said, pulling out his cellphone quickly. While he made the calls get flight tickets – don't ask, we know people – I walked back into Sean's room, with a couple more questions in mind.

"What happened?" Sean asked, looking curious.

"Nothing," I said. "Do you know if Mr. Banner had any more students like you working for him?"
"None at all," Sean said. "We were the only four. Now, what are you people?"

"Okay, here's the deal," I said, blatantly ignoring his question. "We're sending you all to Arizona. We have a safehouse there. Someone will explain everything to you, and you'll be able to pick up from there."

"What about our families and everything?" Sean asked, his eyes wide.

"We'll arrange for them to be sent a couple days later. Don't want you all disappearing at once." I made a mental note to remind myself to ask Chiron to send all their families there with them, and make sure that they had enough to settle properly.

I walked out of his room once again, his unanswered questions lingering behind me. James was still on the phone, bargaining for airline tickets. Soon, I knew he would switch to ancient Greek, as our demigod friend in the airline would guarantee us the tickets that we needed.

"Next," I muttered to myself, my mind in a whirlwind. The only way to keep calm was to have an organized and orderly play. I had to call Percy and Jason and arrange a meeting in a neutral location. We had to discuss this new breakthrough, and find out who else was helping Chaos. We had to organize search teams, train new demigods…the list was endless.

Just as I was thinking of all this, my phone started to ring.

"Hello?" I said, not recognizing the number.

"Aria, where are you?" Rose's voice filtered through the phone. "Emmett and I can't find you anywhere."

Damnit..the dance! I had totally forgotten where we were supposed to be. I saw Katie's eyes widen and she mouthed tell them I'm hooking up with a random stranger.

I rolled my eyes.

"Um…James and I are…" I trailed off, not sure how to finish that sentence without embarrassing myself. "And I last saw Katie draped over some random guy."

Rose snorted. "Your friend is a fast mover. I'm not exactly sure I want to know what you and James are doing, but we'll call you when we find Katie."

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that I'd lied my way out of that one. I hung up the phone at the same time James did.

"We got airline tickets, they'll be sent to my email," he said. "Who was that?"

"Rose," I answered. "She's gone looking for Katie."

Katie already had one foot out the door. "I've got to go find myself a random guy to be draped over," she rolled her eyes. "Hurry up, we have to get back to the dance. And make sure that our prisoners don't escape until we can get back."

I sighed. "Back to the dance we go."

A/N: Okay, my readers. That's the next chapter. Review, please! If you want an outtake, let me know. I know that guest reviewers can't exactly request outtakes, but be assured, once this story is over, I will post every single outtake that there is, and possibly some new ones.

Fic Rec: Complicated by scarlettstones: Bella isn't as normal as she seems. She's not human — or part human, at least. What is she, then? She's complicated. A third Mai, a third Greek demigod and a third vampire. Who said everything was easy? It's Twilight meets The Nine Lives Of Chloe King meets Percy Jackson & The Olympians. Set during Twilight.

Note: My FFN BFF's story, a WIP. Go ahead and read, I think it's awesome!

Review Replies:

lil Miss Mysterious: Oh no, don't die from laughter! I can't lose a reviewer! Question for ya, who's your favorite character? I wanna know who makes you laugh the most – in the series, and then in the story.

Katie: Of course they don't, honey. Why do you think I didn't write it in there? **winks** How do you like the Katie that I wrote in there? Is she anything like you?

Anna M. Banana: For some reason…I love your name. Though, wasn't it 'Softballs HATE me' and a picture of the princess from the Disney movie? I like the new name & pic. Was there a story behind that original name?

HuntressofArtemis192: Aww, thanks! I started reading OUT for Revenge – one of your stories – go see my reviews! Question: If you were the one writing this story, would you have Edward and Bella be mad at Aria for keeping all this from them, or understand?

Angelina Roongta: Your conciseness continues to amaze me, milady.

Greenafied: Happy to hear that you're still alive. Like I said to Katie, of course we don't want to know what Rose and Emmett are doing. Do you like the mom-daughter dynamic between Rose and Aria, or should I make it more sister-like? Your opinion, please?

I LUVS NATURE: Good job…demigods? As in, good job at ramping up the sexual tension and causing Jasper to explode, or good job as in they got all the humans? **winks**

Anyways, until next time! Review if you want an outtake!