Guess what? I'm alive! I've never felt better, either. My life has derastically changed from the last time I updated, and if you want to learn more about me, or figure out why I wasn't really updating the last few monthes, feel free to PM me. Also, I'm always up for suggestions on ANY of my stories, so if you feel like something should happen, PM me, or review. So… I guess that's it

Other news- my best friend's little brother, Noah, has Hodgkin's Leukemia… it's pretty hard for her. I've been trying to be a good friend, so I hope you can help me a bit and pray for him. He's a good kid, and doesn't deserve this.

~GoGreen43

Taken

Chapter 8- Conference Room

-Thalia POV-

This might be the first time I'm really scared. Like actually trembling in my socks- kind of scared. My best friend and my brother's best friend- both enemies, are God knows where. I can't help but be worried for my friend.

My other two best friends, both emotional wrecks, were sitting next to me. After the whole ordeal with the principals announcing Annabeth and Percy missing, someone identified the three of us, and my brother and his friends, as the best friends of the missing kids.

So, basically, we're sitting in a conference room, waiting to be questioned.

I could hear Piper and Juniper sniffling, and I could feel their movements in the spiny chairs. I knew that they were trying to hold themselves together, especially in front of Percy Jackson's gang of friends, and I also knew that they were failing miserably.

I was basically the only girl in the room able to hold herself together. Leo and Grover had tear stains on their cheeks, so I was pleased to see that I was indeed the only girl that wasn't tear stained.

Yet, I knew the reason why I wasn't breaking down. I just didn't believe it.

Annabeth was too smart for this to happen to her. I mean, I defiantly can believe Percy Jackson being kidnapped. The guy isn't exactly the sharpest crayon in the box. If anything, Annabeth is probably off with her mother in some other country, and forgot to let the school know.

She's going to come back, and we'll all wonder why we worried so much about her in the first place. Might as well not make such a fuss about this right now.

I sat back in my chair, and took a deep breath. But what if she isn't on vacation with her mom? The thought ran through my head, and I shrugged it off. Remember, she's too smart for this.

A soft mumbling came from the other side of the table, and I looked up to meet my brother's glare. He was glaring at me, like the child he is, and his friends were looking at my friends curiously. I just smiled at Jason, trying to keep myself from laughing at his ridiculous-ness.

He's such a child.

"What's got you so smiley, Thalia?"

I turned my head to look at Nico, who was raising an eyebrow at me. I just glared at him. "I guess you'll just have to hope one day you find out, Di'Angleo."

His eyebrows furrowed. "Well, I hope it's not when you're in a strait jacket, Grace. I mean, you are smiling like a kid on Christmas after you just heard that your friend was kidnapped."

I sighed. Obviously, he didn't get it. Well, he doesn't really know Annabeth like I do. She's smart, and not a damsel in distress. He can't possibly know that.

"Well, I don't see the point in all of this."

I felt Piper and Juniper stiffen next to me after I said that. The whole room went silent, and I swear you could've heard a pin drop.

Jason started to laugh, a cold, dry laugh. "What don't you see, sister dear?"

"I don't see in why we have to make such a big fuss out of nothing. Well, at least, I don't have to."

Now it was Piper's turn to be curious. "Thalia, why exactly don't you have to make a 'fuss' out of this? Annabeth was kidnapped, Thals," she said, her voice still hoarse from when she was crying. "I think that's plenty reason to make a fuss."

As Piper's voice died down, I could feel everyone's eyes on me. I knew that they were expecting some philosophical answer, but all I could give them was, "She's too smart to get kidnapped."

You could've heard a pin drop.

Jason looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed. The glare was gone, the look of pure disgust was gone, and all that was left was a look of curiosity. I shook him off, and crossed my arms. It's like they all think that I'm crazy or something.

Juniper was the one who broke the silence, "Uh, Thalia? Even the smartest people succumb to things like this." Her voice was small, and innocent. But I still didn't know why she didn't see what I saw.

"But were any of those people Annabeth, Juniper? She wouldn't let this happen to herself."

Juniper opened her mouth, about to say something, but Leo cut her off. "You know Thalia? De Nile isn't just a river in Egypt."

Just before I could lunge at him, Piper and Juniper held me back, and he sunk down into his chair, realizing that wasn't the best thing to tell me at the time.

"Who do you think you are? I am not in denial," I seethed, shaking the two off of me. As long as he kept his mouth shut, he wouldn't be pummeled.

"Thalia, please, you need to see that-"

"Will you just shut up? My best friend is not kidnapped, alright? I can't handle you people!" I exclaimed, cutting Piper off, and storming out of the conference room. As I walked out, I could hear some voices in protest, but I just had to get out of there.

I was starting to see the facts.

Annabeth was really kidnapped.

-Jason POV-

When my sister stormed out, like the dramatic she is, everyone was looking at me, as if they thought I was supposed to do something. Like that would actually happen.

I didn't really know what they all thought I should do. I mean, I barely speak to my sister as it is, so trying to speak to her when she's in one of her serial killer moods probably wouldn't exactly end well.

Piper McLean, the girl I've had a crush on since freshman year, sat there looking utterly defeated. She had her head in her hands, and her shoulders were shaking as if she was sobbing. Juniper Busch, a girl Grover has liked since God-knows when, looked even worse.

As if that were possible.

"Dude, you have to do something. When someone comes in and sees she's missing, we're all going to be in trouble. The cops told us we had to wait in here," Grover mumbled, rubbing a hand across his face.

I looked at him ridiculously. Does he seriously think I'm Dr. Phil? Anyone, especially me, couldn't convince Thalia to come back in here.

Of course, the detective in charge of this whole thing decided to come in here at that very minute. Why couldn't you have come two minutes earlier?

The detective was a tall man, who by the looks of it was very well respected, and thought a lot of himself. I rolled my eyes. I could be doing a lot better of things pertaining to finding Percy than waiting around for some arrogant detective to do it for me.

He cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. The girls looked up at him, and the next second they were quickly rubbing their eyes, and trying to fix their hair, causing me to roll my eyes again and sit back into the chair. This was going to be a long meeting.

"I am Detective Triton of the NYPD. But before I get to real introductions, I'm pretty sure that there was one more girl in this room when we started today."

I sighed, and ran a hand through my hair. He even talked like an arrogant prick. "Quite the detective, Triton. Yes, Thalia stormed out earlier. She's pretty much in denial about the whole thing."

He glared at me. Arrogant prick. "What's your name, kid?"

I tried to hide my laugh. I don't know how much more of this I could take. I felt the other's amused looks towards me, but I also picked up on the girl's flushed faces. Great, the last thing we need is girls crushing on the detective.

I just smiled at Triton, leaning even more back into the chair and crossing my arms. "That's for me to know and for you to find out. You are a detective after all."

Juniper had put a hand over her mouth and her eyes bright in amusement. Leo and Nico were trying not to laugh, while Grover had just face palmed. Piper was still batting her eyelashes at him like the love goddess she is.

Don't worry. I'm not jealous.

"I'm sorry; I don't find that tone amusing, kid. You may be important to this case, but I can have you out of here in a heartbeat."

I smirked, leaning forward, hitting my hands on the desk, and stood up. The other's flinched, and I smiled at the sight of Triton looking like he might blow up in anger. "Great. The sooner the better, please."

"So you're just about to turn your back on your friends, kid? I don't know what kind of stunt you're trying to pull, but if you're trying to be a class clown, I suggest you sit down. Whatever information you hold could be essential to this investigation."

I pretended to look in thought and said, "Wait, so you just told me I could leave, and now you want me to stay? If I were you, I would get your facts straight- I mean, since you are a detective and all."

By now, I was pretty sure that if Triton were a volcano, he probably would have erupted. I could practically see the steam coming out of his ears. The others were just watching the two of us like a tennis match, sadness for our lost friends forgotten.

"You don't know what you're messing with."

My eyebrows furrowed. "I don't? My guess is you have nothing on finding Percy and Annabeth. You probably are just going to put this off as a file on the corner of a desk. Believe me when I say this- I want them home, probably more than you could ever be capable of feeling. I'm pretty sure waiting for you to finish your coffee in this conference room isn't going to solve the fact that they're both still missing. Yes, I see that fresh coffee stain on your shirt."

Everyone in the room turned their stares pointedly towards Triton, whose eyes were wide and shocked. Awe, the arrogant prick had no idea that anyone could see the coffee stain. Even Piper stopped batting her eyelashes at him, and replaced it with a glare.

Definitely not jealous at that one.

"You kids are all just a bunch of-"

"A bunch of what?"

Even I was shocked to see a man in a wheel chair, sitting there with a small smile, looking at Triton like he was a toddler in diapers. I remembered seeing him around the school, but I couldn't put my finger on who he was.

Triton just turned his glare towards the man in the wheel chair. "Who are you?"

The man just continued to smile. "That's for me to know, and for you to find out," he threw a sly smile in my direction. "All I can say is you have ten seconds to leave this conference room, or you will not have the title as a detective, am I clear?"

Triton didn't even bother to ask any more questions, he just took off right out of the room.

I had a hard time keeping my cool at that point.

The man in the wheel chair gestured me to sit down, and wheeled himself to the head of the table. We all looked over at him, expecting him to say something completely genius, but instead, he just asked, "Where's Thalia?"

"U-Um, she kinda just left," Piper spluttered, rubbing the back of her neck.

He nodded, seeming deep in thought. "I will discuss what we need to discuss after hearing that earful, as soon as she comes back." He nodded to us, and wheeled around till he was out of the room.

Nico looked around at all of us, looking extremely confused. "What the hell was that?"

I sighed, "Beat's me. So, who's going to find my big brat of a sister?" Wordlessly, Piper stood up and left the room. "I guess that just answered my questioned."

We waited for probably a half an hour before they came back. Leo had fallen asleep, and Nico was having his own fun messing with him. I spent most of the time deep in thought, busy thinking of what could've happened to my friend.

An eerie feeling rumbled in my stomach as I thought about how bad it could turn out to be. I mean, who knows if we're going to find them alive? Who says they're not dead already? Maybe the kidnapped just wanted them for their money? I don't know much about Annabeth, other than she can be a little snot like my sister, so she must be rich.

Bile rose in my throat at the thought of my friend being dead. I couldn't help but think about Mrs. Jackson, one of the nicest women in the world, as I tried to get the image of Percy and Annabeth dead out of my head.

She would be ruined.

My thoughts were cut off as soon as I heard the small creak of the door open, and see Piper and an angry looking Thalia walk in. Thalia just walked right in and sat in her chair, between the two girls and not meeting anyone's eyes.

Couldn't blame her. But it would be pretty fun to make fun of her later about this, though.

As soon as the girls got situated, the guy in the wheelchair wheeled himself back into the room, and Thaila turned to look at him in disbelief. "Mr. Brunner? What are you doing in here?"

He gave a small smile to her, and said, "Nice to see you too, Miss Grace. Now I can officially begin my introductions… well, as soon as Mr. Valdez wakes up."

Juniper giggled a little as Thalia threw one of her shoes at his face, causing him to wake up in a fast motion, ultimately ending up on the ground. Thalia looked pleased with herself.

I rolled my eyes for the third time.

Mr. Brunner raised an eyebrow, and started to speak, "As a teacher, I shouldn't allow that, but as a man, I might just have to let that slide. Besides, you're all going to be getting into a lot more trouble in the next few weeks." That sentence got him full attention, and everyone watched him intently.

"As you know, your friends have been kidnapped. They were in my class before this happened, and when I sent them to the office, a lockdown was issued and they were taken. Now-"

Thalia cut him off, "So what are you doing here? Why make the detective go away? Do you want redemption or something?"

Mr. Brunner gave her a quirky smile. "I have my reasons. All of which you will find out if you listen to my story. Obviously, many students have wondered exactly why I'm in a wheel chair. I've made up many stories, most of which you all know. But the true story involves Annabeth Chase.

"I first met Athena Chase when she was traveling the country. She knew that her daughter would be a target for many of her competitors, who want to take her off the grid for good. She had pulled some gigs with the FBI and NASA, some of which left her with some pretty unsettling enemies.

"Athena had asked me to watch over Annabeth, and make sure that no one did any harm to her. At the time, I was working for the FBI myself and had helped her with one of the 'gigs' she did with the FBI. Needless to say, she trusted me enough to let me protect her daughter.

"Unfortunately, under my care Annabeth was kidnapped, much like this. She was taken by a man named Luke Castellen, who was insanely taken with the young girl. Later, we found out from Annabeth herself, that Luke used torture in a different way. He had scared many people to death, creating each person's personal phobia into a reality. I had an accident while trying to save her, and ended up paralyzing my legs. She doesn't remember me today because of the post-traumatic stress disorder that she had obtained from being held captive for many months.

"My guess is after she escaped last time, he's even more taken with her, especially because she's the one who got away."

When he was finished, we all looked at him in shock.

"You expect us to believe this?" Leo asked, his wicked smile coming to life. "This must be like some sort of prank or something. This can't be real."

Mr. Brunner looked at him in shock, now. "I don't know what else to tell you besides that this is the truth."

Everyone took a second to ponder over what had just told us. This was some serious stuff… but since he knows where they are, maybe he could help us.

Thalia was the one to break the silence, "So why was Percy Jackson taken too? Why not just Annabeth?"

Mr. Brunner sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I sent the two to the office together. My guess is that Percy Jackson was taken because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Why are you telling us this?" Juniper's small voice asked.

Mr. Brunner looked at her softly. "Miss Busch, I need you all to help me. I know that you want your friends back as much as I do. I also happen to know that there is someone in this school that is a mole. Someone who feeds Luke with information, so he knew when to take Annabeth. A genius plan, actually."

"So you want us to act as your insiders? Check out your suspects?" I asked.

He looked at me gravely. "Exactly that. But I need to warn you, this could be dangerous. One false step, and you could be hanging out with your two friends. This isn't some child's play. But I need your help, and I looked into all of your files, and I see that every one of you probably has a reason to play hero."

We all looked at Mr. Brunner, shocked. He was right, after all.

We all had a reason to be a hero.

That's when I knew we were all in.

Hope you liked it! Next chapter is with Percy and Annabeth, so don't worry about that cliffhanger I left you all with a few months ago

~GoGreen43