Oh my god I love this chapter so much because I love how much of a child Percy is here- she's feral, impulsive, somewhat immature and her interactions with Zia are amazing in my opinion- it was so fun because- well, she's a kid. I love that.
Replies:
Ryan Fowler: Why thank you.
seaweedbrain760: Why thank you- and yes, yes Zia's here and she and Percy are not best friends right now. Zia's basically just like 'How can one child be so irritating?'
SentinalSlice: She is a child and we love that, she's not gonna be super mature, she's mature for her age at times but at other times she's very much still a nine year old. And honestly at her age even as a demigod she's still gonna be looking up to him.
Guest: It will improve- but there will be ups and downs because it's never an easy process. And no Zia doesn't know that Percy is Greek.

As they ran they passed a case full of statues, and Zia casually tapped the glass with her wand. Tiny granite pharaohs and limestone gods stirred at her command. They hopped off their pedestals and crashed through the glass. Some wielded weapons. Others simply cracked their stone knuckles. They let the four of them pass, but stared down the corridor behind the group as if waiting for the enemy.

"Hurry," Zia told us. "These will only—"

"Buy us time?" that came from Sadie, "Yeah, we've heard that before."

"You talk too much." Zia said without stopping- which made Sadie shoot her an offended look, and Percy felt the need to pipe up and defend the other girl- even if she wasn't really sure where she stood with her- sometimes Sadie seemed to hate her and sometimes she seemed to almost care.

"And you're rude. Everyone has their faults." which made Sadie snicker- though that faded when they emerged into an enormous room- and Percy couldn't blame her- or blame Carter for his breathless little 'whoa.'

The place was amazing, Percy had to admit that much- and she's seen some amazing temples before. The room was the size of a football stadium. One wall was made completely of glass and looked out on the park. In the middle of the room, on a raised platform, an ancient building had been reconstructed. There was a free standing stone gateway about eight meters tall, and behind that an open courtyard and square structure made of uneven sandstone blocks carved all over on the outside with images of gods and pharaohs and hieroglyphs. Flanking the building's entrance were two columns bathed in eerie light.

"An Egyptian temple," Sadie guessed.

"The Temple of Dendur," Zia said. "Actually it was built by the Romans—"

"When they occupied Egypt," Carter said, like this was delightful information. "Augustus commissioned it."

"Yes," Zia said.

Percy let out a huff at that, resisting the urge to roll her eyes- she loved all things Egyptian, and all things Greek- they were part of her heritage-but she wasn't as into all the Roman stuff- besides, the Romans had conquered Greece and Egypt, that wasn't very nice in her opinion.

"The Temple is cool but the Romans are sucky."

"This is all fascinating-" Sadie muttered, "Would you guys like to be left alone with a history textbook.

That made Zia scowl at Sadie. "At any rate. The temple was dedicated to Isis, so it will have enough power to open a gate."

"To summon more gods?" Sadie asked.

Zia's eyes flashed angrily. "Accuse me of that again, and I will cut out your tongue. I meant a gateway to get you out of here."

"Hey!" Percy glared at the older girl. "They're new to all this, they don't get it! Just because you guys are afraid of change and power doesn't mean you get to threaten Sadie for not understanding stuff-"

"And yet you do understand." Zia's eyes narrowed at Percy, "So what's so special about you? What made Julius Kane teach you when he did not teach his own son-"

"He wasn't scared the House would hurt me if I was trained." Percy snapped, "He knew they'd notice if Carter or Sadie were though. Dad is better than any of you though-"

"And look where that got him-" and Percy was launching herself at Zia at that, dropping her staff and letting out a furious snarl, fingers curling as she tried to rake her nails across Zia's face, the other girl letting out a startled yell- she hadn't expected Percy to attack her like that- not that Percy got the chance to do much damage-
Carter might have only had one hand available but Sadie had both hands and she followed Percy, arms wrapping around her tightly, yanking her arms down and pinning them to her sides as she was hauled backwards, struggling to keep Percy from breaking free- the younger girl fought like a cornered animal, and even with Sadie's best efforts Zia had three little gouges on the left side of her face, just next to her eye, and she almost growled as Percy was hauled backwards, moving as if to follow and attack, but Carter was moving between them almost instantly.

"Hey! Don't you dare hurt my little sister! I don't care if you're saving us or not."

"She attacked me!" Zia snapped, her eyes narrowed, "Your sister is too wild- she needs to learn to-"

"Maybe you shouldn't have been talking shit about our dad." Sadie snapped the words- and Percy stopped her struggling.

"Sadie's right." Carter nodded, gripping his Khopesh tightly, "We don't have much choice but to follow you but if you say anything like that again we'll run the other way."

"You would be fools to run-"

"Why would we want to stay with some stuck up bitch who's rude about our dad?" Percy spat the words- which earned her a stunned look from Carter.

"Percy!"

"They're not here to tell me off for bad language." Percy retorted, "I don't care." if I say a bad word to someone like her."

"None of this is helping." Carter spoke firmly, "Percy and Sadie are right about some stuff- you shouldn't have said that about our dad. And Percy shouldn't have attacked you. Can we please have peace?"

"Fine." Zia didn't look happy, "I will not speak of your father again. As long as she does not try and attack me again." she gave Percy a dark look, and Percy glared back as Sadie finally let her go- but at a stern look from Carter Percy let out an annoyed sigh.

"Fine." she ground out, "I won't attack her." She paused, "And I'm sorry. For trying to claw your face off."

"I accept your apology." Zia nodded stiffly, before they started moving again, Percy picking up her staff as they walked, the three siblings following Zia up the steps and through the temples stone gateway. The courtyard was empty, abandoned by the fleeing museum visitors, which made it feel quite creepy. Giant carvings of gods stared down at me. Hieroglyphic inscriptions were everywhere, Percy looked around curiously, sticking close to both Carter and Sadie.

Zia stopped at the front steps of the temple. She held up a wand and wrote in the air. A familiar hieroglyph burned between the columns.

Open. Percy had seen it dozens of times, the most recent one being when their father had summoned the five gods at the Rosetta stone. It glowed for a long moment before fading, and then Zia opened her backpack. "We'll make our stand here until the gate can be opened."

"Why not just open it now?" Carter asked.

"Portals can only appear at auspicious moments," Zia said. "Sunrise, sunset, midnight, eclipses, astrological alignments, the exact time of a god's birth—"

"Oh, come on," Sadie's voice was incredulous. "How can you possibly know all that?"

"It takes years to memorize the complete calendar," Zia said. "But the next auspicious moment is easy: high noon. Ten and a half minutes from now."

She didn't check a watch, but Percy knew that a lot of Magicians almost had a sense of when the times were close- Percy didn't- but then again she was young, and Zia had probably been training for longer than she had.

As they waited Sadie spoke up, "Why should we trust you?" she asked suddenly, "Other than not having much choice. At the British Museum you would have killed us- and your friend would have kidnapped us if Percy hadn't used that spell to help us get out.

"That would've been simpler." Zia sighed. "Unfortunately, my superiors think you might be innocents. So for now, I can't kill you. But I also can't allow you to fall into the hands of the Red Lord. And so...you can trust me."

"Well, I'm convinced," Sadie's voice was thick with sarcasm. "I feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

Zia reached in her bag and took out four little statues—animal-headed men, each about five centimeters tall. She handed them to Sadie. "Put the Sons of Horus around us at the cardinal points."

"Excuse me?"

"North, south, east, west." She spoke slowly, as if Sadie was an idiot- Percy glowered at Zia again.

"Did no one ever teach you manners?" she grumbled as Sadie spoke again.

"I know compass directions! But—"

"That's north." Zia pointed out the wall of glass. "Figure out the rest."

"You could be even remotely nice you know." Percy snapped, "They've not been trained-"

"I do not care." Zia's voice was dismissive, and she handed Carter a piece of chalk, ordering him to draw a circle around them, connecting the statues.

Carter tensed when he realised what they were doing. "Magical protection- like what dad did at the British Museum-" he paused, "If dad did it-" he glanced towards Percy, who gave a little shrug.

"I helped him do it all to save time."

"And we saw how well that worked." Sadie grumbled the words- but she was getting on with what she'd been asked to do, and Carter got on with his job too, pulling away from Percy, who crossed her arms over her chest, eyeing Zia distrustfully as she took a plain wooden rod from her bag- Percy knew what it was of course, even before she spoke a word under her breath and the rod expanded into a two meter long black staff topped with a carved lion's head. She twirled it around single handedly like it was a baton, and Percy rolled her eyes- Zia was showing off for some reason.

"You're a show off." she declared, voicing her opinion.

"I don't care for your opinion." Zia shot back smoothly- which was annoying.

"Yeah well I'm gonna give it to you anyway."

"You are a child." Zia scoffed, "You may be more trained than your brother and sister but you are still a child-"

"We're not sisters!" that came from Sadie, "She's my step sister at most-"

"Sadie!" Carter's voice was frustrated but Percy rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry Carter. I don't care what Sadie thinks. I don't think of her as a sister either-"

"But Percy-"

"You're my brother, dad's our dad and mom's our mom. What else should matter?"

Carter's expression softened, "Love you too shorty-"

"Hey! I'm gonna be taller than you when I'm grown up-"

"Nah." Carter's grin was almost playful, "You'll be short forever."

"Oh shut up and keep chalking."

"Finally something we can both agree on." Sadie rolled her eyes- and Carter got back to work- and he finished the chalk circle as the first scorpions appeared at the gallery's entrance.

"How much longer on the gate?" Sadie's voice was nervous, though she was clearly trying to hide how terrified she was.

"Stay inside the circle no matter what." Zia ordered them, not answering the question- which in Percy's opinion just had to mean 'it's going to take longer than I'd like and those scorpions are gonna get here first'. Which- couldn't she just say that? It would certainly be a lot easier. "When the gate opens, jump through. And keep behind me." And huh, that- was kinda nice of her. She was protecting them even if she didn't want to.

Zia touched her wand to the chalk circle, speaking softly, and the circle instantly flared to life, glowing a dark shade of red, and Percy straightened up, gripping her staff very tightly as Carter and Sadie moved in closer to her, so that they were all behind Zia.

As they did hundreds of scorpions swarmed towards the temple, turning the floor into a living mass of claws and stingers. Then Serqet entered the gallery, smiling at them coyly. Percy forced down a rush of fear as Sadie grabbed her hand tightly- and Percy didn't even say anything about it- Sadie was scared. Percy couldn't blame her for that. If she needed comfort then so be it.

"Zia-" Sadie's voice was shaky, "That's a goddess. She defeated Bast. What chance do you have."

Zia held up her staff and the carved lion's head burst into flames—a small red fireball so bright, it lit the entire room. "I am a scribe in the House of Life, Sadie Kane. I am trained to fight gods."

"This is crazy- this- there's no way-" Carter's voice shook, and Percy let out a breath.

"Zia stands a better chance than the rest of us do."

"At last the girl talks sense."