Ch. 8
Thalia sat in a metal chair at the side of the ping pong table inside the big house. Her hands fidgeted nervously as she did everything in her power to avoid the eyes of the person sitting directly across from her.
That person, was Zoe Nightshade.
Her posture was rigid but her face was calm, as if she hadn't just been tracked down by a mummified corpse and given a cryptic prophecy that sounded very much like it would lead to the death of at least one of the people who were apart of it.
Thalia's eyes kept darting in the direction of the door, impatient for Chiron to arrive and break up the awkward tension that was threatening to consume the room.
"You should know," Zoe said not looking at her. "Prophecies are often misinterpreted until they have run their course."
Thalia looked across the table but Zoe wasn't looking at her, instead inspecting a small cut on the back of her hand. For the first time since the hunters had arrived, Thalia found herself wishing the huntress would at least look at her. Before she could respond though, Chiron stepped into the big house. He made his way to his wheelchair and lowered his body, the enchanted item somehow compacting his body until it disappeared under the flannel blanket that covered his fake legs. He wheeled himself to the table, taking the place at the head of it and resting his hands on top of the flimsy game table.
"Well," he seemed unsure how to start. In all the years Thalia had known him, she'd never seen him looking so nervous. "Tonight was rather, interesting."
Thalia looked at Zoe but her eyes continued to examine her hand, showing practically zero interest in Chiron or what had just happened. Thalia wanted to scream at her. How could she be so nonchalant? They'd just been given a prophecy to find a captured a god! This was not exactly a run of the mill, Friday night occurrence.
Chiron picked up on her thoughts and spoke before she could.
"You two will need to choose three other companions for this journey. You will leave first thing in the morning, it will not be a short journey."
Thalia tore her eyes off the impassive huntress, "To where?" Her tone showed more trepidation than she would have liked by she ignored that. "Chiron, I don't understand. What was that? Where are we going?"
Chiron closed his eyes and exhaled deeply, "The meaning of the lines of the prophecy will only be revealed when they come to pass. As for where you are going," she wasn't sure but he thought Chiron glanced at the ceiling for a moment, as if expecting something to explode down from it. "That needs no deciphering. Athena and Hermes are indeed missing from Olympus. You must go to California, that is where they will be held."
Thalia stared at him, a million different thoughts and emotions battling it out for dominance in her brain. Eventually, one took control.
"You lied," she said with betrayal. "You said Perseus was lying! Why did you lie to me? Lied to all of us!"
Chiron wasn't surprised by her anger and he allowed her to berate him for a moment.
"The choice to divulge those facts were not mine to make." Thunder boomed overhead, the sound resounding throughout the empty big house.
Thalia looked up and felt her lips curl into a scowl, "Zeus' orders?"
Chiron kept his eyes on the table, ignoring the second crack of thunder. "The gods felt it best to keep their abduction quiet, to prevent the campers from panicking."
Thalia wanted to scream at him. She was so mad she couldn't stop her hands from trembling. But she forced herself to stay quiet, knowing this wasn't Chiron's choice. She took a deep breath to quell to bubbling anger.
"How do you know the captured gods are in California?"
An quiet, barely audible snort of derision across the table made Thalia's scowl deepen.
"Because that is where Mount Othrys is," Zoe said, apparently deciding that now was the time to join the discussion.
Thalia glared at the immortal huntress, "Oh, so you are actually listening?"
Zoe arched a single brow but then turned her attention back to her hand, completely ignoring Thalia. Thalia didn't miss the strange look Chiron gave Zoe but it was so brief, she wasn't sure what it meant.
"You will need three more people to join you," he veered the conversation back on track.
"I'll bring my fellow huntress, Phoebe. "Zoe interrupted before Thalia could speak.
"Very well," Chiron said slowly and Thalia swore she saw the look again before he turned to her. "I guess that leaves the final two spots for you to fill."
Thalia froze for a second. Her mind immediately went to Luke but after the way he acted towards her earlier, she found herself nervous to ask him.
"Uh," she tried to think. "If they're willing, Luke and Annabeth."
Chiron nodded like he had expected that, "Go," he said. "Gather your quest mates. If they all consent, we will go over preparations so you're ready to leave at first light."
With that, Chiron wheeled himself back from the ping pong table and out of the room. Thalia slowly rose from her chair, following Zoe out of the room and out the front door of the big house. They made their way towards the cabins and just before they needed to branch off in different directions, Thalia had to ask the nagging question in the back of her mind.
"You don't care," she tried to keep her voice even, "That we're going to be traveling with Luke? I would have thought you'd want only hunters on the quest."
"That's dumb," Zoe said simply. "The more of your friends on the quest means the better odds that one of you dies rather than one of the hunters."
Before Thalia could respond, Zoe turned left and slipped inside the Artemis cabin, leaving Thalia standing between all the cabins, wondering if she had just signed her two friends up to die.
-X-
Artemis could only sit and try to not show any signs of weakness as the eyes of eight immortal gods stared at her, their gazes trying to siphon out anything she may have left unsaid. She refused to allow herself to be intimidated and simply reminded herself that she had told them what she had witnessed.
"And you," Zeus did nothing to veil his suspicions, "You just left Hermes and Athena at Mount Othrys?"
Artemis shook her head, unsure why she needed to repeat what she'd said not five minutes earlier.
"No, I did not, father. But when Per..." She stopped when Zeus' nostrils flared, "when he showed them the scene at Othrys, Athena and Hermes flashed away before I could stop them. When I tried to enter the titan stronghold, I was attacked. I would have been right there with them had he not spared me so I could report what had happened to the council."
Zeus kept his eyes glued to her, cranking up the tension in an already agitated council of immortals.
"He managed to subdue three gods," Hera spoke, her eyes narrowed. "In a matter of minutes?"
"No," Artemis snapped back. "Like I just said, it was Hecate and Atlas with him. Athena was subdued while Hermes was deceived into willingly stepping under the sky."
"And now, the demigods know they have been captured. The prophecy given to Thalia is most troubling." Zeus looked downright furious.
"I didn't ask to hunt him!" Artemis hissed, "He has grown powerful and is driven by a thirst for vengeance!"
Zeus glared at his daughter but before he could speak, a quiet voice spoke from the side of the room, at the feet of the hearth.
"I believe his true motives are rooted in a betrayal much deeper than his expulsion from Olympus."
Artemis' eyes followed the sound back to their source. She watched the small girl stoking the coals of the hearth fire as a wave of shame washed over the moon goddess. She turned her head, unable to meet the eyes of the quiet goddess.
"His motives are not important," Apollo snapped back. "All that matters is what we do next."
Hestia didn't acknowledge Apollo's retort, keeping her focus on the meager fire burning in the hearth.
"There is nothing that can be done," Poseidon said trying to bring the focus back to why they were there. "A prophecy was issued. We can only wait and let the events unfold and deal with the ramifications of those events."
He briefly eyed Artemis in her throne and she wished she could sink into it.
Zeus' face was red but he also knew Poseidon was right. They could not interfere with what the Fates have decreed.
"Very well," he said through pursed lips. "We will adjourn but first," he looked around the room but his eyes were mostly on Apollo and Artemis. "Any kind of interaction with this quest will be dealt with swiftly and severely."
He allowed his warning to sink in for a moment before he flashed away from the council of the gods.
One by one, the Olympians all followed the lead of their king until only Apollo and Artemis were left. Apollo eyed his twin for a minute, "What will you do?"
Artemis' face stoic but her eyes revealed the truth. Her heart was throbbing as she envisioned what would soon come to be. She glanced at Apollo for a minute then shook her head.
"Lord Zeus had spoken." She said emotionlessly. "There is nothing that can be done until the quest is finished."
Apollo opened his mouth to respond but Artemis disappeared in a silvery flash of light. The sun god shook his head, lamenting about things past, present and what may be to come.
-X-
Silence filled the camp van as Thalia rode in the far back, Luke and Annabeth in the row in front of her, the two huntresses in the driver's and passenger seats.
Awkward did not do justice to the mood inside the van. They'd driven almost non-stop for nine hours, the only break was in Pittsburg where they'd stopped for a bathroom break and to let Zoe take over driving duties from her fellow huntress.
"Let me get this straight," Luke said, ending the silence but not the uncomfortable tension. "We're supposed to drive all the way to California and somehow rescue my Dad and Athena from some lunatic god who's joined the Titans because he's butt hurt over something that happened thousands of years ago?"
Thalia could see Zoe's knuckles turn white as she gripped the wheel.
"Well, boy," Phoebe answered sharply. "In the most idiotic terms possible, that would be right."
Luke scowled at the back of her chair, though Thalia was pretty sure she didn't get the message.
"Five of us versus one god?" He continued, "that shouldn't be that hard."
"Idiot," Zoe grumbled but she kept her eyes in the road and didn't elaborate.
"He managed to capture two gods, "Phoebe picked up on Zoe's statement.. "It would take an army of demigods to overcome Percy by force."
Thalia felt a shiver run down her back. She saw Annabeth and Luke stiffen as well.
"Percy?" Thalia asked.
Zoe shot her fellow huntress an annoyed look before glancing in the rearview mirror at Thalia.
"Long ago, before he betrayed Olympus, that was the name he preferred to go by."
"You know him?" Annabeth asked. Her tone was curious, though there was definitely a hint of fear in it too.
"In a different time," Phoebe answered. "He would visit Artemis and the hunt occasionally. It was so long ago, even I have trouble remembering."
"So," Thalia cut in. "It's all true? He was an Olympian?"
Phoebe and Zoe exchanged brief glances that made Thalia uneasy.
"He was." Zoe answered slowly. "But he lost his throne when he betrayed Zeus."
Thalia eyed the huntresses from her seat but they didn't continue.
"And his wife?" Thalia pressed.
Both hunters froze for a moment. Though their heads didn't move, Thalia was positive they were looking at each other. As the silence dragged on, Thalia waited, positive they knew the answer.
"I don't know," Phoebe said with a little more force than necessary. "He is a male. His visits to the hunt were always brief and Lady Artemis never spoke about a wife."
Thalia was certain that was a lie. She opened her mouth to demand they tell her when the van veered hard to the left, across three lanes of highway and into oncoming traffic.
"WHAT THE HADES?!" Luke yelled when the sound of a machine gun answered exploded off the pavement, carving a path right at them. They would have been hit had Zoe not slammed on the breaks and cut the wheel hard, sending them into a spinout as they still sped down the highway.
Zoe struggled to keep the van on four wheels. If her reflexes weren't beyond that of a mortal, they would have been flipping down the highway to their deaths. Instead, they bounced off the the guardrail a couple times and came to a skidding stop in the middle of the road, their van smoking and the smell of burnt rubber nearly overwhelming.
"What was that?!" Thalia yelled as she managed to keep the bag of chips she'd eaten earlier from coming up.
Whop Whop Whop Whop Whop Whop the sound came from overhead, the blades of the helicopter resounding loudly over the sounds of horns honking and mortals yelling from their cars.
"Mortals," Phoebe growled but Thalia barely heard it, the thrumming of the helicopter drowning out all other sounds.
Zoe looked at the small pileup of cars ahead of her. Her eyes darted to the rearview mirror before Thalia heard two word come from her lips.
"Hang on!"
She jammed the van into reverse and punched it. The tires squealed for a second before catching traction and shooting down the highway in reverse.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Luke screamed as he tried to keep himself from flying into the windshield.
Zoe didn't answer though. She cut the wheel sharply to the left and then to the right, the van sliding from side to side a bit with every violent turn. She didn't even turn her head, her eyes glued to the mirror as she avoided stopped cars.
Bratatatatatatat rang out as the helicopter opened fire again. Zoe weaved through vehicles and managed to avoid being hit, her face hardened in concentration but not the least bit fearful.
"Take the exit!" Phoebe yelled. "There's a subway station right off the exit!"
Zoe didn't respond but she clearly listened, cutting hard to the right and shooting off the exit ramp at speeds that would be unsafe if driving forward, doing it in reverse was downright suicidal.
As they sped towards a red light at the end of the exit, Zoe spun the wheel, sending them sliding sideways as she threw the van into drive and punched the gas again. They drifted side to side a few times before she managed to straighten out. She plunged into the breakdown lane and blew past a half dozen vehicles waiting at the light. She kept the pedal to the floor and shot across the intersection, missing a semi truck by inches as it passed through its green light.
Thalia wasn't sure about Luke and Annabeth, but she was pretty sure she'd just pee'd herself a little.
"There!" Phoebe pointed to a ramp leading down into a parking lot. Zoe flew down the ramp, smashing a wooden boom barrier to splinters as she shot down a level and the sound of the helicopter faded until it was gone. Zoe pulled into a secluded corner of the lot and threw the van into park, exhaling softly as she came down from the adrenaline rush of the getaway.
"We should move," Phoebe said to her. "It'll take the mortals a little while to sort out what happened up there and I don't wanna be here when they do."
Zoe nodded and killed the engine. Grabbing her bow and small pack and jumping out of the driver's seat.
Thalia was stark white, frozen in her seat. Annabeth and Luke appeared to be about the same as none of them made any move to leave the van until the side door slid open hard and Phoebe looked at them impatiently.
"Let's go! Or we'll leave you here!"
Annabeth and Luke snapped out of their daze and got out, stumbling a little when their feet hit the ground. Thalia didn't fare any better as the ground seemed to be shifting beneath her feet.
"Come on!" Zoe growled. "We need to move!"
"What was that!?" Luke demanded, gesturing in the general direction of the highway.
"That was Zoe saving your life, boy." Phoebe sneered.
"You said those were mortals," Thalia cut in. "Why would mortals try to kill us?"
Zoe ran a hand through her hair in frustration, clearly not enthused about having explain it herself to three young demigods.
"They're mercenaries. They probably have no idea who they were trying to kill. Through the mist, we might be terrorists or criminals to them."
"But..." Luke was having trouble finding the words. "But, why?"
"You know," Phoebe said mockingly. "I didn't get a chance to ask them. Why don't you three wait here and you can ask them yourselves? We're going to get on a train before they catch up with us." She didn't wait for Luke to respond as she turned and started to jog across the lot, Zoe right behind her.
"I think we should go with them." Annabeth said grabbing her bag and starting after the hunters. She paused and looked back at her two friends. "Guys, we can ask them more later but they're right. The longer we wait, the better chance we have of getting captured, or shot. So, unless you have a better option, we follow them."
Luke didn't look happy but he grabbed his stuff and followed Annabeth. They both stopped and gave Thalia exasperated glares, finally bringing her to her senses as she followed her friends.
-X-
It turned out they had been in Columbus, Ohio. They took the subway clear across town before cutting back and taking a cab to an Amtrak station a little outside the city. If the driver had been confused by either their ages or the fact that they were heavily armed with ancient looking weapons, he made no indication. Zoe had paid the fare and then bought them five tickets west. Fortunately for them, there was a train heading to Denver leaving in five hours. While it was better than they could have hoped, five hours was a long time to be sitting around a train station, waiting for their pursuers to catch up to them.
All five were seated around a table of the coffee shop that was located right inside the station. Luke was filling his face with a donut while the four girls sipped coffee and waited for the minutes to tick by slowly.
"So," Annabeth said trying for a friendly tone. "Mortal mercenaries weren't really what we prepared for when we left." She fiddled with a small celestial bronze dagger.
"Yeah, well, if they show back up on foot, we'll have something waiting for them." Phoebe said as she reached into her quiver and pulled an arrow out before letting it drop back in. It was silver like the rest of her arrows but this one was duller than the others. From the brief glimpse Thalia got in her quiver, she appeared to have around a half dozen similar arrows.
"You guys carry weapons for killing mortals?" Thalia asked, trying not to sound judgmental.
"When you travel with a band of teen and pre-teen girls, you learn to be prepared for a certain type of man who might be drawn to our group." Phoebe didn't need to elaborate and Thalia decided she could understand the reason.
"You're gonna try to take down a guy with a gun, using an arrow?" Luke was walking towards the trash bin to throw out his napkin and crumbs when the coffee he was carrying in his other hand exploded, covering his pants in coffee. A silver arrow thudded into the wall beside the trash as Annabeth and Thalia both jumped to their feet in alarm.
"Phoebe is a daughter of Apollo and a huntress," Zoe was trying to hold in her smirk. "She could drop a man with her eyes closed before they could even raise the barrel of a gun."
The daughter of Apollo walked past Luke who was still frozen in shock. She plucked out her arrow, examined the tip and then tucked it back in her quiver when she was satisfied it was still in good shape.
"That was unnecessary." Thalia glared at Phoebe who simply shrugged and sat back down. Luke turned around and Thalia could see he was ready to explode.
"Maybe we should go for a walk!" Annabeth said standing up. She was by youngest in the group but was probably the most mature. She knew a huge argument wouldn't help the quest at all. She ran forward and grabbed Luke's hand, tugging him forward and away from the two hunters as they tried not to smirk at the look on his face. Once they were out of sight, Thalia narrowed her eyes.
"You didn't have to do that!" She hissed. "He wasn't questioning your skills."
Phoebe chuckled a little, "Okay, sorry?"
Thalia would have kept going but Zoe cut her off, "Enough. Let's just focus on the job we have to do."
"The job?" Thalia asked accusingly. "Yes, let's focus on the job at hand. To start, why don't we discuss the crazy god who kidnapped me? If you think I bought the BS answers from earlier, then you're as bad at reading people as you are at lying."
Zoe's dark eyes narrowed into slits, "Are you calling me a liar?"
Thalia laughed humorlessly, "Wow, perceptive." Zoe stood up and pulled a long hunting knife from her belt. Thalia jumped back and whipped out her canister of mace before it transformed into a long celestial bronze spear.
"Whoa, whoa whoa." Phoebe stepped between them and spread her arms towards each. "Both of you, stop. We aren't your enemy here, Thalia."
Thalia didn't lower her weapon, "The prophecy says a traitor will be revealed and that bullshit about barely remembering Perseus tells me I might be looking at two of them."
Phoebe's face flashed with anger but she controlled herself and used her hand to make Zoe lower her blade before turning to look directly at Thalia.
"You're wrong," she said looking dead into her eyes. "We didn't tell you all we knew but it wasn't to deceive you."
Thalia glanced from Phoebe to Zoe, who still looked angry, and then waited for her to elaborate.
"We can't tell you. You don't understand," Phoebe looked exasperated. "When he was banished, Zeus forced all hunters to swear an oath."
Thalia's spear slowly lowered and she stared at Phoebe in disbelief, "An oath?"
"Yes," Zoe growled. "He was stricken from the histories of Olympus and to make sure he was never mentioned, Zeus made all hunters who knew him swear on the River Styx to never talk about his life. If we told you the things you asked, we'd be breaking an oath on the Styx!"
"But," Thalia stared at them, her mind slowly trying wrap itself around what she'd been told. "But why?"
Zoe tiled her head to the side and gave her a deadpanned expression.
Thalia blushed a little in embarrassment, "Right, you can't say. But how do I know you're not lying to me now?"
Phoebe rolled her eyes, "Because I swear, by the River Styx, that we're not lying about being sworn to silence." Thunder rumbled overhead making Thalia's spear shrink back into its mace canister form.
"Well," she shook her head, "shit."
Phoebe's face morphed into an amused smile, "Pretty much."
"RUN!"
They all turned and saw Luke basically dragging Annabeth right towards them. At first, they were confused, then they saw three heavily armed men in black coming up on them in quick pursuit.
"SHIT!" Thalia yelled. Her spear reappeared in her hand but Phoebe stepped past her, her bow already drawn.
"We need to move." She said as she took aim.
"They have bullet proof vests on," Zoe said as she had her own bow out.
"I know," Phoebe said in barely a whisper. "Sucks for them." She fired an arrow. It flew right over the heads of Luke and Annabeth and caught the closest mercenary in the neck. He was knocked back, his feet flying out from under him as he crashed to the ground and lay motionless.
Zoe fired her own arrow, clipping another in the arm and stopping him in his tracks. He and the final man raised their assault rifles and took aim.
"Not so fast, boys." Phoebe spat as she pulled a small object from her bag. She threw it past Luke and Annabeth, landing on the ground in front of the men. Before they could react, it exploded in a plume of smoke, sending them to the ground gasping for air.
"Let's go!" Thalia yelled as her two friends reached them. They all turned and ran in the opposite direction, towards the tracks.
"There!" Zoe yelled, pointing to a train as it began to pull out of the station.
"We don't know where it's going!" Annabeth yelled back.
"Away from here," Luke replied. "Good enough for me!"
It was hard to argue with that logic. They jumped down and started to run alongside the tracks as the train rolled by. When a cargo car began to roll past, Zoe nimbly leapt up and grabbed the locked door, holding on for dear life as she tried not to fall off the narrow footing she had.
She pulled her knife from her belt and, holding onto the train car with one hand, slashed at the lock. The lock sparked and then broke apart, swinging open as Zoe threw herself in. Phoebe dove in right after Zoe, Luke rolling in afterwards. Thalia jumped and would have fallen back out had Zoe not grabbed her by the shirt and yanked her into the car.
"Come on, Annabeth!" Luke yelled as he watched his young friend try to keep pace with the accelerating train. He tried to reach for her outstretched hand but could only grasp her fingers before she stumbled and lost ground.
"We need to get off!" Thalia panicked. "We can't leave her behind!"
Without a word, Zoe yanked Luke away from the door making both he and Thalia snarl in protest. Zoe ignored them though and looked out to find Annabeth losing ground on the train.
She shook her head and then took a step back before jumping from the car and somersaulting forward when she hit the ground. She hopped back to her feet though and took off at a dead sprint. She caught up to Annabeth quickly and snatched the smaller girl up, tossing her over her shoulder and putting her head down as she really turned on the jets. For a smaller girl, Zoe's legs incredibly strong as she sped alongside the train until she was running beside the open door.
Thalia and Phoebe grabbed Annabeth and pulled her inside.
"Zoe!" Luke yelled as he looked ahead as saw a huge boulder blocking Zoe's path.
She looked up and barely had to time to react. She jumped up, kicking off the rock and launched herself sideways and into the open doorway, crashing roughly to the floor and rolling for a few feet before she slammed into the side of something hard.
She groaned and put a hand to the back of her head before going stiff when she felt a pair of arms around her neck. She opened her eyes and found a mess of curly blonde hair in her face, taking a minute to recognize as the small daughter of Athena's.
Zoe awkwardly patted her on the back, "It's alright," she said gently. "We're all on board now."
Annabeth slowly detached herself from the huntress, blushing in embarrassment. Zoe found an outstretched hand in front of her and was surprised to see Thalia the one offering it. She allowed herself to be pulled to her feet, still a little wobbly from slamming her head.
"Thank you," Thalia said under her breath, though Zoe heard it clearly. She gave her a small nod and finally looked around. They were in a large boxcar filled with luxury vehicles. She looked behind her and saw the large dent in a silver Ferrari from her head.
"Alright," Phoebe said as she looked around. "Let's ride this thing out for the night. When the sun rises, we'll try to figure out if we're even headed in the right direction."
No one argued with her. After the long day of driving and then the mortal mercenary attack, they were all exhausted. They began shuffling around to find places to crash. Luke was able to jimmy open the lock of a car and did it for each of them, giving them each a somewhat cushioned place to sleep through the night.
Thalia found herself in the silver Ferrari that Zoe had dented. She reclined the seat and was about to close her eyes when a voice beside her made her almost jump straight through the windshield.
A.N: So, kind of like Titan's Curse but there will be some big changes. Stay tuned and let me know what you thought so far.
