Chapter 8

Annabeth´s POV

Yes the girl was pretty and yes maybe I inwardly flinched when Percy bear-hugged her. And yes I might accidentally had the urge to scratch her eyes out! But I was totally not jealous! Definitely not!

Alright maybe I was just a tiny little bit.

When they parted I inched a bit closer to Percy then it might have been necessary and whispered into his ear "Who is she?"

"Oh- uh yes this is…" Percy started but Zoë interrupted him.

"I´m Zoë Nightshade… and you must be Princess Annabeth Chase right?" she said and shook my hand with a friendly smile.

I raised my eyebrows and Percy added "We meet a couple years ago when I was still in training. She is one of Artemis´ hunters."

I almost let out a sigh of relief but managed to remain my expressionless face. The hunters of Artemis where a small group of elite fighters and consists of girls that swore an oath of maidenhood for their entire life. But if she was here where was the rest of the group?

"Then why aren´t you with the rest of the hunters?" I asked Zoë and her smile immediately got replaced by a sad look.

"We had an observation mission at the newly discovered planet in the same solar system that Tartarus is in. Very well payed you know? So we all went there and looked out for unusual events. The planet is pretty much just a rocky desert but after a couple of weeks our measurement devices found a pretty high amount of water particles in the air very close to a big mountain."

Wait water? I thought the planet doesn´t have any valuable resources besides iron? At least that´s what Minos said…

Zoë interrupted my thoughts "When we reached the mountain we found a lot of hidden holes in it. We later realized that it must have been airlocks because when we reached the end of one of the tunnels we found a huge factory in it. A weapon factory to be exact and you can guess who it belongs to."

I had a bad feeling about this and Percy nodded darkly "Minos!"

"Yes. Due to the restriction on their army after the last war, Tartarus wasn´t allowed to produce their own weapons anymore so they had to do that secretly. The rest of the trade union didn´t even knew that the planet existed until recently so it was the perfect place to equip their army to start an invasion." the huntress explained.

"But what happened to the rest of your group?"

Zoë kicked a branch and looked down to the ground "Captured by some of the guards there. I was the only one who made it out of there. That´s why I went here to warn the leaders of the other planets but I was too late… when I arrived the fight had already started."

Okay now I felt really bad for being jealous earlier. She had lost her friends in a stupid ambush and now she didn´t even knew if they were still alive or not.

Percy pat the sad huntress on her shoulder and said "Don´t worry I´m sure they are still alive."

"They are probably held captive somewhere near the factory." I added reassuringly. Okay normally being held captive isn´t that comforting but in that case it might be better than the other option.

Zoë nodded sadly and forced a smile.

"Alright let´s focus on what we need to do next – we need to leave Delphi as soon as possible before they manage to find us."

"Well we can´t use the ship I used to get here because that´s at the main landing area and that is highly guarded right now." Zoë said.

"Why don´t we just stick to the old plan? Maybe Rachel knows how to get off this planet." I threw in "If she lives here she is probably going to know more than we do right now."

When I mentioned Rachel I noticed how Zoë threw Percy a questioning look and he slightly flinched while trying to not look at me.

What was that all about? What is the history of Percy and that Rachel girl?

Percy´s POV

It has now been three days since Zoë joined us and thankfully Annabeth and the huntress seemed to get along pretty well now. One half of me was glad that we were more people now because we weren´t as vulnerable as before but the other part was a bit disappointed that it was now very hard to talk with Annabeth alone. And I really wanted to sort things out with her about that almost-kiss.

We weren´t in a very great mood right now because just yesterday we found out that Rachel was also taken captive during the invasion and now we had to find another way to leave Delphi.

It also got more and more difficult to find food these days because of all the fighting that was going on. Most of the time we stole our food from some abandoned stores around the streets.

I was watching Annabeth´s blond curls from behind as we sat behind a half destroyed wall that used to belong to one of the buildings on a side street. Annabeth and I were now wearing a very similar attire as Zoë. Black clothes and a dark fabric to cover our faces.

Our plan to leave now was to capture a spaceship from the enemy and then head straight towards Olympia. Sounds simple right? Well it definitely wasn´t.

"Alright the soldiers are leaving the ship! I see one… now wait two guards at the entrance!" Zoë whispered.

"When the group is out of sight take them out! I try to get as close as I can and take control over the ship!" I told the huntress then I looked at Annabeth "You stay here with Zoë alright?"

The princess nodded and took my hand "Be careful."

With that I stood up and sneaked my way towards the ship that has landed on the streets just about five minutes ago.

When I was close enough I saw the two soldiers who were guarding the entrance falling to the ground.

As precise as always Zoë.

I found out that hardly anyone else was on the spacecraft right now. Just the pilots and another guard who had no chance against me and my lightsaber.

As I started the engines I saw some of the soldiers looking back and shouting orders. But they were too far away to get here in time because when I noticed that Annabeth and Zoë had entered I had already taken off.

With a sigh of relief Annabeth sat down next to me in the co-pilot seat "We did it!"

I grinned at her "Told you it would work"

"Yea, yea. You´re a genius." She replied with a hint of sarcasm but smiled anyway.

Then I smirked and said jokingly "I think after this I deserve a raise don´t you think?"

When I looked at her again her face was just inches from mine. I could feel her hot breath on my skin and I couldn´t help but notice a warm feeling spreading through my whole body.

"Hmm I think I know something better." She whispered and then she closed the small gap between us.

When we kissed everything else suddenly went far, far away from me. All problems seemed irrelevant at that moment. I pressed my body closer to her and put my arms behind her back. I could smell her sweat scent, her warm skin just everything. And it was amazing.

We only parted when I suddenly heard Zoë behind us laughing her ass off while trying to look a tiny bit disgusted.

I couldn´t help but join her laughter, Annabeth blushed and hid her face behind my chest.

It where moments like this that always made me realize for what I fought for.

Yea, yea I know that it took longer than usual but I really wanted this chapter to be as good as possible. I also suffered some kind of writer´s block the last week which is probably the main reason why it took me more than two weeks for the update.

And before people start asking: No this is by far NOT the end of this story!

But nevertheless I want to thank all of you guys (and girls of course) for the amazing support and for almost three thousand views on this story. You´re the best!

-Inverted Logic