Enjoy and comment! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!
Disclaimer: I own neither Young Justice nor Heroes Of Olympus.
"Well, that's weird. I don't think I could be one of you." Zatanna said as a response to Jason's story. He told her about how demigods are picked up and dropped off at Camp Half-Blood and live the rest of their lives out there. He mentioned another camp that's harsher but didn't go into details, he didn't even say the name. He left out a lot of details, his trust in Zatanna was limited.
"But do you believe me?" he asked her.
Zatanna hesitated but nodded. "I don't know why but… I feel like I should trust you. And you said that you might be able to get this voice out of my head so..."
"I can't get it out, but I can help you understand why it's bothering you." Jason said, "My friend, Frank, has the same problem, but it's with two gods of war. But they gave him an awesome power up that makes him look like he's been 'roid raging. In a good way, I mean."
Zatanna actually laughed. Here she was conversing with the enemy and taking his word that there were a bunch of gods up there in the sky. And one might be her mother, who she thought had passed away. "Okay, so why do you think this voice is giving me a mega headache?"
"He could be trying to court you." Jason said with a shrug.
"That can't be it, I think the voice is a woman."
"That doesn't make a difference to the gods." Jason said as he tried to wipe the thought of Nico from his mind, "If they marry their relatives I doubt they care about gender."
"True. But, I'm only 14. What are the other options?"
"This goddess could be your mother."
"I don't think so. My mother's been dead for years."
"Is that what they tell you?" Jason said, slightly amused.
"That's what my father told me!" Zatanna almost shouted. She shouldn't be upset Jason doesn't know anything about what happened to her father.
"You know what," Jason said trying to calm her down, "How about you get this collar and cuffs off of me and we can talk about this at Camp Half-Blood."
"What?" she said.
"You can just get these-"
Zatanna shook her head, "I heard what you said, but I just can't break you out!"
"Yes you can. All you have to do is get the keys unlock my handcu-"
"That would be betraying my friends!"
"You're not betraying your friends, you're learning about your heritage." Jason said calmly.
"I can't just break you out Jason!" Zatanna said, annoyed.
The door to the interrogation room flew open suddenly. Kaldur walked in followed by none other than Perseus Jackson. He walked up to Jason and uncuffed him and removed his Inhibitor Collar.
Zatanna looked surprised, "Well, I guess we can just break you out."
Jason smiled, "Percy, how did you-"
"I apologize, but we must leave immediately. No time for questions." Kaldur said quickly.
"Aqualad, wait!" Zatanna said.
"I am sorry Zatanna but it is my duty to my king to rescue-"
"No, I'm coming with you." Aqualad looked confused but let her follow him out of the door.
They crept through the Interrogation Hall as quietly as possible until they reached the entrance to the Mission Room. The Team stood in the middle of the training area observing several holographic screens and commenting on them. They were checking up with the Justice League, just as Kaldur told them.
"He is in our custody as we speak." Robin said to the hologram of Batman.
"Good work." That was the nicest compliment they could get out of the bat.
"Aqualad and Zatanna are interrogating them as we speak."
"Them?"
Robin scratched the back of his head, "Well, there was a minor set back. We took this other guy, Jason Grace, along with Jackson."
"Jason Grace." Batman said to himself, "I'll look into it. Keep me updated." Then he abruptly cut the message.
"That was very Batman-like." Wally said with a smile.
"No, that was… something was off." But Robin decided to shake the worry from his mind.
Back in the hallway the teens watched the others quietly.
"They just contacted Batman." Kaldur said, "We must act now."
"We need to get to the Zeta-Tubes in that room." Zatanna informed the demigods, "But we can't have it be serted?"
Jackson raised an eyebrow, "Serted?"
"It's like the opposite of deserted."
"I may have dyslexia but I'm pretty sure that's not how words work."
Zatanna ignored him, "Have how to get in there Jason."
"We need a distraction." he whispered.
Kaldur took out his Water-Bearers, "Then a distraction we shall have." He aimed his weapon somewhere far down the other side of the hall. A high-pressure beam of water fired off and hit something at the end of the hall, that made a loud crashing sound. A thin layer of dust from the crash spread throughout the hall and into the Mission Room.
"What was that? What is this?" They heard Raquel scream.
"It's dust from an explosion." Robin said, "They escaped again."
"Don't worry we got it!" Just as he said that Wally ran out from the Mission Room, towards where the dust was coming from, away from them. Several others followed him down the hall.
"Some of them are still in there." Aqualad said.
"I've got this." Zatanna said as she stepped into the Mission Room
Robin, Artemis, and M'gann were the only ones in there. M'gann locked gazes with her and her eyes went wide. "Zatanna no-"
The sorceress didn't give her a chance to finish before she recited her spell. "Epacse yam ew os peels!" Instantly they all crashed to the ground.
The three boys walked inside and looked at the bodies. "What did you-" Kaldur started.
"Just knocked them out. They're only asleep." Zatanna replied.
Jason raised an eyebrow at her. "You're a magician?"
"Yeah."
"Pretty good one too."
Zatanna smiled, "Yeah, I guess so."
The group stepped over the fallen bodies to get to the the Zeta-Tube. "Oh, I almost forgot." Percy said, "Jason this is Kaldur'ahm, Kaldur this is Jason Grace." The two boys shook hands.
Jason followed his example and started introducing his new friend. "Zatanna this is Percy Jackson. Percy this is Zatanna." Percy stuck out his hand but Zatanna ignored it.
She crossed her arms, "We don't time for introductions. What's the override code?"
Aqualad thought for a second after he brung up a holographic screen in front of the Tube, "Override H-O-J/Mount Justice, Aqualad B02."
The machine replied, "Access Denied."
Percy shrugged, "Well, at least we tried."
"Are we really giving up?" Zatanna asked looking at Percy.
"No, we're not." Jason said to her, "Aren't there other ways out of here?"
Aqualad smiled, "Yes, there are. It will be easiest to leave from the entrance that leads to the forest."
The teens started making there way to the exit when they heard someone scream. "Aqualad!" Superboy stood at the entrance to the Mission Room and he looked bewildered. There was a mix of anger and confusion on his face as he looked from the four of them to the three bodies on the floor. Wally and Raquel just arrived when Conner charged at them.
Zatanna tried to speak to him, "Superboy wait, can't we-" But Conner looked like he wasn't in the mood for talking. He smashed his fists against the floor in front of them, but the teens all backed away in time.
"You guys were the mole the whole time!" he yelled at them.
Aqualad looked slightly offended, "No, this is not what this is about Conner. This is my duty to my king." He didn't take his eyes off of Conner as he took out his Water-Bearers.
This actually made Conner angrier and he lunged at Kaldur, "Your king didn't make you betray us!"
Percy looked at the two, "Woah, that is so cool!"
Wally stood behind him and tapped his shoulder, "Wanna see something cooler." he said. When Percy looked behind himself there was no one there, but when he turned back he was met with the sight of Wally's feet. The speedster landed a clean blow to Percy's chest which sent him falling to the ground very ungracefully.
Percy rubbed his chest as he laid on the ground, "Okay, wow. That was rude."
"Are you done laying on the ground, Jackson." Jason yelled at the son of Poseidon as he banged his hands against the sphere surrounding him.
Zatanna came to Percy's rescue just as Kid Flash was going to land the finishing blow. "Teef owt nwo ruoy revo llaf!" Wally then tripped over nothing and land as gracefully as Percy had on the ground face first.
As Zatanna help him up, Percy yelled at Jason who was still trapped in a bubble. "I don't think that's working."
"Thanks for the help!" he said back as he hit the hilt of his sword against the bubble one last time. He looked around for the source of the bubble and saw a girl in a jumpsuit floating in the air. His eyes crackled with electricity, but he realized that he couldn't shock her. It would probably kill her. Jason focused a vortex of wind around her that will hopefully just knock her off balance.
"Woah!" Raquel said as the wind pushed her harder than Jason had meant for it to. She screamed something a little stronger than 'woah' when she slammed against the wall. Raquel winced and slid against the wall and onto the ground.
The sphere dissipated around Jason and he winced at how hard she hit the wall. Zatanna looked at Raquel and glared at him. "I really didn't mean for her to hit the wall that hard." he said to her.
Zatanna rolled her eyes, "Whatever. We've gotta help Kaldur."
The match between Aqualad and Superboy was pretty evenly matched. The only problem was Superboy was going all out and Aqualad seemed like he didn't want to hurt his friend.
As Zatanna ran to the Atlantean's aid the Zeta-Tube finally activated. She looked at the two demigods and was about to motion for them to go through when she realized that someone was coming out from the Tube.
"Recognized, Wonder Woman, 02. " Just as the machine said Wonder Woman entered the cave but there were several people behind her. All these people seemed to teenagers. Zatanna recognized four of the many teens present. One of them was Leo Valdez, the boy they picked up the first time. The other three were the ones who came to save Valdez and the girl that was with him. The were four others she didn't know. There was a small African-American girl with cinnamon-brown hair, a tanned girl with feathers braided into her hair, a blond boy with a bow over his shoulder, and a red-headed girl with paint splattered clothes. But there was one girl in the front that really caught Zatanna's attention, she was a tall blonde and had stormy grey eyes.
"It has already gotten way out of hand." said the girl with the purple cape. She was one of the people who came to rescue Valdez.
"Piper," the stormy-eyed girl said to the tan one, "Control the situation."
Piper looked at her and batted her eyelashes, "Control the situation…"
The other girl sighed, "Control the situation please."
"That's more like it." she replied. The tanned girl, Piper, turned towards them with a wide smile. "For those of you who are sleeping, passed out, or simply laying down please get up. It would be nice to sleep forever, but I'd hate it if you actually did. So please, get up." No one wasted any time. Robin, Artemis, and M'gann all got up as if the sleeping spell that had been cast on them had no effect. Wally and Raquel got up as if they suffered no injuries.
Robin rubbed his eyes and looked around, "What is going on?" he practically screamed.
"Wait a second." Piper said again. Her voice spread through the room, this time affecting Zatanna too. "Why are we so stressed? We should all calm down."
She walked around the room until she was in front of KF and Rocket. "Violence doesn't solve our problems. All violence does is make us unhappy."
Wally and Rocket repeated her sentence like mind controlled zombies, but for a second Wally snapped out of and gave Piper an odd look, "Hey, this is like the Jedi mind trick!"
Piper looked surprised but then she just smiled with more finesse, "This is not like the Jedi mind trick. You're just upset." And Wally repeated after her just like he should.
"Good, I think we're all really upset. Let's just calm down."
All of Zatanna's troubles seemed to melt from her body. For the first time since Zatara had been captured by Fate she felt truly serene. The effects of Piper's voice was visible in the faces of the others. Even Conner and Kaldur had stopped fighting and were staring at Piper as if they were in a trance, which they probably were.
The stormy-eyed girl stepped up in front of Wonder Woman and smiled, "Now that were all settled down we can talk."
-(Line Break)-
Her name was Annabeth. The girl with the stormy eyes and blonde hair was Annabeth Chase, she had introduced herself as such. All of the half-bloods introduced themselves, but the heroes wouldn't. It was quite a beautiful name, Zatanna had to admit. She also seemed to be dating Percy and greeted him with an angry yell while he greeted her with a kiss on the cheek.
Annabeth must have been a miracle worker because she somehow got them all sitting in a circle on the floor of the Mission Room. Wonder Woman sat at the head of the circle, of course. Zatanna noticed that several of her teammates looked like they wanted to say something that would interrupt the peace, but the calming spell, or whatever that was, was still on them. They just settled for making odd comments.
"So… why are we sitting on the floor?" Wally asked.
"This is the Circle of Peace. Where everyone must be calm." said Valdez. Or should she say Leo, since they were trying to be friends and all.
It was a very silent and very awkward. Zatanna decided she was going to clear away the silence. Conner seemed to have the same idea at the same time.
"This isn't what it looks like." she said just as Conner yelled, "You guys were the moles the entire time!"
"No this isn't what this is about!" Zatanna said, insulted.
Artemis stood up, "Not what it looks like? Not what it looks like! You literally attacked us!"
Zatanna stood too as she felt Piper's calming spell thing fade away, "But it wasn't because we were moles! We did it to save them!"
"Save them from what?" Robin asked, "We're the good guys, if they were really any trouble you could've told us! Was breaking them out really the best option?"
This broke into a huge argument between the teammates. The demigods, Wonder Woman, and (surprisingly) Aqualad never joined in. They all yelled until their throats were sore and their faces were red. It felt like hours of just screaming, but it was probably just a few minutes.
"So much for the Circle of Peace." Leo said with a shrug.
They all seemed fine with screaming among each other but Conner kept glancing at Kaldur like he expected him to be apart of this. Conner slammed his hands on the table, "What do you have to say for yourself." It was more of an order than a question, but it made everyone quiet. They all stared at Kaldur and he said nothing for a while.
"I feel no need to justify what I did, because I feel like I did nothing wrong." Kaldur finally said, "I will never have any regret about it. The son of a god we Atlanteans worship was in trouble. I did what any Atlantean would have done. That is all."
The superheroes looked taken aback. The demigods looked impressed. But Kid Flash snorted. "You don't actually believe that he's the son of Poseidon. That's ridiculous, there's no such thing as gods." Just than there was a loud clap of thunder.
Zatanna almost laughed, "You shouldn't say that."
"You need to start believing." Annabeth said, "Kidnaping us is wandering into territory that mortals, like you, shouldn't be in."
Raquel raised a brow, "Mortals? Is that supposed to be an insult?"
Jason explained, "They're basically humans. Some humans can get involved in the godly world. Like if you have a demigod child or if you can see through the Mist, which hides monsters and other things from you."
"So what you're telling us is gods and monsters are real? Then why haven't I seen any of these 'monsters' wandering around." Robin asked.
"That is exactly what I'm talking about. Only a few mortals can see through the Mist, which is a magical substance that makes monsters, gods, and other mythical things into other things that mortals can comprehend." Jason explained it as slowly as he could, but it didn't seem to sink into the minds of the mortals. Zatanna understood very well, it was like a spell that covered the eyes of anyone who wouldn't be able to believe what they were seeing.
"So they're all there but we can't see them." Conner scoffed.
Kaldur sighed, "At least understand that we are not the mole. The breakout was sudden and we never planned in advance to do it. To be honest, I have never heard of all of this until now."
"Neither have I." Zatanna said. But the Team sat in silence, not saying if they believe them or not.
M'gann sighed too, "I believe you." Everyone turned to her, "About the not being the mole thing and the gods thing. Besides, we're friends we need to have more faith in you." Slowly everyone followed her example and decided to put some belief in their friends' words.
"Plus you couldn't have made up the gods thing all by yourself." Wally said with a smile.
Percy spoke up, "But it isn't made up. We're all demigods, even Diana."
"Except me." the red-headed girl said.
"Yeah, except Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She's the Oracle."
"This is more than ridiculous." Wally said under his breath.
Percy furrowed his brow, "What else do we have to tell you! Jason can fly and literally make tornadoes with his mind!"
"We have metahumans that can do that."
"Piper just controlled you with her voice!"
"We have politicians that can do that!"
"Rachel could tell the future!" he said pointing to the red-headed girl.
"That's actually the reason why I'm here, this morning a woke up with this slip of paper under my pillow." she then pulled out a small, worn piece of yellowish paper.
"Did the tooth fairy leave it there for you." Wally muttered. Zatanna noticed he would of said something else if Reyna hadn't gave him the most terrifying glare she had ever seen.
"Ever since... certain events took place I've lost my ability to tell the future. But I've been hoping that the god of prophecies, Apollo, would find another way to send us the prophecies we needed. It seems like this yellow slip of paper is the answer." she continued.
Reyna stopped glaring at Wally and looked at Rachel, "But how do you know that it's meant to be told now?"
"I actually read it earlier, Apollo himself sent this to me and this seems like the perfect time to recite it."
Wally rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Why don't just read me my fortune already." Artemis responded by elbowing him.
Rachel Dare glared at him, it wasn't as scary as Reyna's but it still startled him. "Don't scoff at the gods or they'll show you just how powerful they can be." The tone she took sent shivers down Zatanna's back. It was less of a threat and more of a warning of what was to come.
Rachel stood and threw the piece of paper into the middle of the Peace Circle. It unfolded itself and shone brightly, blinding everyone in the room. Everyone except Rachel, who stood in front of the paper as if nothing had changed. Zatanna was surprised to also see Will Solace sitting up as well. Rachel stepped closer to the paper and began a to read a cryptic message from it:
"To recover the jewel of the cursed regina
Travel to the prophetic arena
Find the serpentine chain in the land of the Roman
Where a goddess will deliver her good omen
The Big Three with mortals as company
Will make half-bloods and mortals in harmony."
Once she had finished she looked out at all the young heroes, "Please heed this prophecy as you would regard any warning." Her eyes glowed green for a second but as fast as they lit up the flame died out.
Sorry, I felt like this chapter so unnecessarily long. I was really hoping I would start the actual adventure this chapter too! I'm also sorry about Wonder Woman talking like zero times in this chapter, I couldn't really find a place to fit her in. I'm sorry about everything.
Comment if you enjoyed this! A new chapter will be up hopefully next week!
