Chapter 19

The Trials of Apollo were AMAZING!

Also, please excuse my extreme procrastination. It'll only get worse from here.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything canon.

Frank

I didn't think it was going to be a huge deal teaming up with Natasha and Annabeth. I'm pretty sure I thought wrong. At the moment, the two girls looked ready to take each other out. Funny, when I first saw Natasha one of my first thoughts was Annabeth- red head edition!

"Alright you two, break it up. I came to Camp Half-blood to take a break from babysitting." The two simultaneously turned and glared at me. Yup. Definitely an Annabeth 2.0. "If we're going to get this mission done, we have to get along, okay?"

The two thought for a moment before nodding their hesitant consent, Natasha a tad behind Annabeth. Annabeth sent her one last glare before marching out of the room.

"You guys shouldn't be going on this mission." Natasha told me bluntly.

I blinked at her. "Excuse me?"

"You all are just kids. You aren't supposed to be out-"

"Saving the world?" I cut her off. "Too late for that."

"What do you mean?"

"About a year ago, there was a prophecy. There was a group trying to destroy the world. The prophecy said that seven demigods were the only hope to save the world."

"And... what happened to these seven?"

"Well, you're looking at one of them."

"What-"

"Annabeth is another. Piper, Jason, Percy, Hazel. And, Leo."

She blinked, surprised. "Leo? And you all survived?"

"Technically no."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"The point is, we may look like kids, but we can handle ourselves. Annabeth chose you for our team for a reason. But we are your teammates. We have to work together. Atlas isn't something you can solo."

Jason

Percy, Steve, and I were discussing camp defenses when we heard the yell for help. Everyone that was left in the room ran out of the Big House. We found Chiron carrying an unrecognizable girl towards us. Will and Kayla ran out with a stretcher. The girl was carefully placed on the stretcher and rushed inside. Bruce followed, a pained expression on his face.

"Who was that?" Tony asked.

"Our third Atlas victim." Chiron said grimly. "It seems this time the torture was so bad we can't see her face. He's making it worse every time. We'll have to take attendance and see whose missing."

"Don't bother." Piper whispered. We all turned around to where she was standing at the back. "I'd recognize those boots anywhere. That was Lacy." Pipe's favorite sister. I went quickly up to her and wrapped her in a one armed hug. The others, even the Avengers, looked down.

Chiron cantered up to us and placed a hand on Piper's shoulder for a moment before going back inside. "You saw her, Jason. There's no way she has long." I didn't know what else to do than squeeze tighter.

I heard stomping. I looked over to see Percy pounding his way back into the Big House. He nearly broke the door swinging it open and slammed it shut. His fatal flaw must have been going into overdrive. There was no stopping him when he got like that. Nico sighed. "I'll go find Annabeth."

Everyone grumbled something under their breath and went to go do something. Steve was the only one that went back in the Big House. I heard him muttering under his breath. "This is so wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong."

Piper sighed and wiped the tears she had been silently crying. "I better go tell my siblings..."

I nodded. "I'll go with you." She looked up at me gratefully and we began slowly walking towards the Aphrodite cabin. Dinner was soon, so everyone should've been at the cabins. I opened the door and Piper slipped through.

Everyone in the cabin looked up when the door opened, looking a little surprised to see me.

Mitchell stood up from where he was sitting. "What's wrong Piper?" he asked, noticing Piper's tear streaked face first.

"It's Lacy. She was attacked." Gasps and whispers echoed through the cabin. Even Drew plopped down on her bed in shock.

"How is she?" A brave camper yelled out. Piper was choking up and crying again. She shook her head wordlessly. The entire cabin went silent. The silence was only interrupted by the horn signaling dinner. Everyone looked at the door and then at Piper.

"All in favor to skip dinner?" Piper eventually asked. Ever camper raised their hand. Piper nodded and turned to leave. I stopped her.

"I'll tell Chiron. I was planning to go see Percy anyways. You stay here."

Piper nodded and gave me a hug. Then she went over to her bed and pulled out her backpack. She must have been packing for her quest. I frowned, remembering I wouldn't be going with her. At least she had Grover and Leo to help her out. Not that she couldn't take care of herself.

I ran up to Chiron, who was waiting for the absent cabins. Looking, I saw that was Zeus' cabin, Poseidon's cabin, and Aphrodite's cabin. When they saw me coming up, the other campers sent me an annoyed look. They obviously didn't know about Lacy.

I whispered to Chiron that the Aphrodite cabin and I were skipping dinner. Then, after he nodded understanding, I jogged back down the hill towards the Big House. Seems all the counselors were spending more time over there than anywhere else these days.

The first thing I did was visit the infirmary. Leo, Kayla, and Bruce were all running around. That was never a good sign in an infirmary. Leo was tending to Calypso, who seemed to be sleeping. Simple things like fluffing her pillows and brushing her newly grey hair away from her wrinkled face. Leo didn't flinch, something I could admire. If it was Piper lying in that bed- no, I didn't want to think about it. Knowing Leo, he probably blamed himself for Calypso's condition.

The other three were yelling back and forth to each other while hovering over Lacy, every once and while leaning over Jake. I didn't know what they were doing, and I'm not sure I wanted to.

I placed my hand on Leo's shoulder. He gave me a weak smile. It was always hard for me to see Leo, the hyperactive elf, this down. I smiled back and left the infirmary. Where the heck was Percy?

I found him, Will, Annabeth, Steve, and Thor inside the meeting room. They all had serious expressions on their faces. They all jumped when I cleared my throat at the doorway.

"Um... Should I leave?"

Annabeth sighed. "No Jason. We were going to tell you after dinner anyways." She gestured at an empty seat. I sighed and sat down. This wasn't going to be good. Although I doubted it was worse than what I wanted to tell them.

"What's up?"

Steve spoke up. "Will just told us they found what was killing the victims."

"I thought the torture was killing them." I said confused.

"It was," Annabeth agreed. "These things were doing the torturing."

Steve picked up a container next to him and tossed it over to me, myself catching it easily. Annabeth squeaked beside me.

"Steve, please don't throw that around." She said, sounding relieved. I gingerly held the container up. All I could see was a little dot.

"Is that a-"

"Yes. It's a bug. A dwarf blacksmith bug to be exact. According to Thor, it's a bug found in the dwarf's forges. They thrive in the heat."

"So Atlas is taking the victims to some blacksmith?"

Thor shook his head. "Not likely. As far as I am aware, the dwarf blacksmith bug went extinct many years ago. And they were very rare at the time. They were only known to infest dwarves, and they bugs never did anything to them because of their high levels of dark magical energy, like Will says they did to your fellow demigods. That's why Lord Nico wasn't as affected, as a son of Hades."

"And what exactly are they doing to the demigods?" I asked.

"Feeding." Thor answered so simply it almost surprised me.

"Do you know any cure?" Percy asked firmly.

Thor shook his head. "There was never any need for one."

"I wonder how they got the bug." Steve said thoughtfully.

"What I'm more worried about," Percy said, "Is how they're getting the demigods. Aphrodite campers don't separate very often. They stay in groups. How could Atlas have gotten to Lacy?"

"That's why I was looking for you. I might have the answer. And it isn't good." I cut in. The other four all turned their attention to me, faces grim. "The only logical possibility is that there is a traitor in camp."

Sorry if my spelling and stuff is worse than usual. I opened all my documents, and literally ever single character is fully underlined red. Every single word. What a great system I have.