Chapter 12: Freedom and Phone Calls

'A chapter so soon? Wow LolzBolz02, you're impressing us all!' I can practically hear you saying. Yes, I've just been feeling really creative. Hope you enjoy!

Bianca POV

I don't know what exactly I did back there. I don't know how I did it or when I became able to do it, I just know that it helped. I feel a surge of pride rush through me, and look back to where we were being kept for the last few days, or weeks. I feel my mouth drop open with surprise. We were being kept in an abandoned supermarket? The thought makes me want to giggle, but the look on my friends face's stop me. If I were to laugh now I would probably get my head bitten off. Besides, my cousins are in danger, this is no laughing matter. I turn back to face Tom and Zoë, who are already running ahead, along the road, a car zooming past every half a minute or so. I catch up to them -not very easily might I add, running with a one year old is not easy. They look grim faced and worried, the same way I feel, but I've got to try to keep their spirits up.

"Feels good to be free, doesn't it?" I say.

"I guess so," replies Zoë.

"I'm just so worried about them," Tom says.

"Me too," I confide. "Anyway, have we got any strategy, or is it just run, run, run?"

"I think we'll just keep running until we find a police station, or until we need a break."

"But we can't accept a ride from anyone. They might be a monster."

We all nod in agreement. After what we've just experienced it'll take a long time for us to trust anyone.

As we run, we seem to get gradually closer to, well, actual people. The houses begin to look lived in, then they get closer together. We start to see small groups of shops, then bigger groups of shops.

"Stop!" I finally call, after many switches of 'baby duty' and what seems like hours. "Look!"

We run towards the police station, too tired to say celebrate, too relieved to say anything. We burst through the door, startling the man at the front desk so much that he falls off his chair. He stands quickly again, and his eyes widen with what I assume is recognition. Although, I don't know how he could recognize us. Our clothes are tattered and bloody, my hair is a tangled birds nest, we are holding a baby and we are all in desperate need of a shower.

"Z-Zoë? Zoë Jackson? Bianca Solace-di Angelo? Tom Grace? And is that Esperanza Valdez?" the man stutters.

We nod tiredly. "Where are all the others? Where are they?" he asks worriedly.

"Can I speak to my parents?" Zoë asks timidly.

"Parents. Of course. Of course," the man says, first to himself, then to us. "Yeah, of course. Um, you can all speak to your parents. Zoë first."

Annabeth POV

I feel my phone vibrate in the pocket of my sweatpants. I take it out and look at the caller ID, expecting it to be Piper calling for comfort, Percy double checking if we need milk or not, or Frank calling about Hazel, but it is an unknown number. I cautiously answer, because anyone could've gotten hold of my number, a monster even.

"Hello?" I say

"Hi, this is Mark from Nessmond (I'm pretty sure this place doesn't exist, I just made it up) police station, is this Annabeth Chase-Jackson?" says a crackly voice from the other line.

"Speaking. What can I do for you?"

"Well ma'am, I'm not sure if you know where Nessmond is?"

"No, I don't, I'm sorry."

"Well, it's in South Alabama, and well, we had some kids show up about 10 minutes ago. Hold on one sec," Mark says, and I hear some static while I think about what he means. I gasp, and start to tear up. It can't be, can it?

"Hey, Mom," I hear from the other end of the line. It is unmistakably my daughter.

"Zoë?" I ask, full on crying now.

"Yeah, it's me," she whispers.

Wait. I've had enough experiences with Cyclopes' to last a lifetime.

"Zoë, what happened at the exact minute you turned three years old?" I ask hurriedly.

She replies straight away with, "I summoned a small wave that came up from the beach and right into the house, and that's how you and Dad knew I had inherited his power over water."

"Oh, Zoë! Wait, where's Luke?" I say. This time it's Zoë who starts crying.

"Mom, how quick can you get here?"

I begin to panic. "Um, I'm sure uncle Nico can shadow travel us…"

"Great. I'll let the others talk to their parents, can you organize a way to get here, and make it quick. You might also what to bring Auntie Thalia, and Aunt Reyna."

Thalia? Reyna? This must be serious. "Zoë, wait!" I say, but she's already gone. I'm overjoyed to hear my daughter's voice again, after a week of my too good imagination being left to wander, but I'm worried sick about Luke. I bring my phone back down from my ear and begin to scroll through my contacts. My shaking hands struggle, but I eventually get down to S. I click on 'Seaweed Brain' and wait just one ring until I hear Percy's worried voice.

"Annabeth? Are you okay?"

"Seaweed Brain, I'm fine. Hey, I just got a call from a police station in Nessmond and-"

"Nessmond? where's that?" he interrupts.

"Somewhere in Alabama, apparently. But that's not important at the moment. I heard- they found them. I talked to Zoë!"

"What were the first words you ever spoke to me? While I was fully conscious, I mean." he asks cautiously, and honestly, I don't blame him. With our lives, he could be on the phone to anyone.

"You drool when you sleep," I reply, smiling a little at the thought.

"You're joking!" he says, clearly excited. "They found them!"

"Well, I spoke to Zoë. How quick can you get here?" I ask, as I hear my phone beep. Someone is trying to call me on another line.

I can practically hear Percy's eyes widen. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

I hang up the call and see it's Jason.

"Hello?" I say

"Did you hear?" Piper practically squeals. "They found them! Well, four of them anyway."

"Which four?" I ask. "Zoë was in too much of a rush to tell me much."

"Tom, Zoë, Bianca and Esperanza," Jason says.

"Whoever it is has still got the others, but I'm sure we can find them and beat their guts out for taking our babies," says ever the optimist Piper.

I smile. "Why don't you guys wait a little, then ring Nico or Will and start organizing a place to meet up. I'll ring Reyna and Thalia, and we can talk in twenty minutes."

"Alright, talk to you then," Jason says.

I lower my phone from my ear and scroll back through my contacts. Hopefully Reyna has her phone turned on, because she has a tendency to turn it off and leave it off. I click on her name, and wait a few rings, and then I hear Reyna's slightly confused voice.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

I laugh. Living on Circe's island, then in Camp Jupiter, Reyna has about as much knowledge of technology as Calypso. And even then, Calypso has been living with Leo for the past twenty-odd years. "Yes, Reyna, I can hear you."

"Annabeth? I'm guessing there's good news then, if you're laughing!" Reyna says hopefully.

"Well, actually, there is! We got a call from a police station in Nessmond, somewhere in Alabama. They found Zoë, To-,"I start, but before I can finish, I am cut off by a shriek of joy.

"You're kidding!" Reyna squeals.

"Well, I haven't finished yet," I say. "They found Zoë, Tom, Bianca and Esperanza. I talked to Zoë, and they want us there ASAP. She said to also bring you and Thalia, because I think the others are in trouble."

I can practically feel Reyna nodding until she remembers that can't be seen on the phone. "Okay, what do you want me to do?"

"Where are you?"

"Um, I'm in New Rome," she says.

"Alright, can you be in the ice-cream shop in half an hour?"

"Sure."

"I've gotta call Thalia, so, I'll see you soon."

"Bye Annabeth."

I scroll through my contacts for what is hopefully the last time today and find Thalia. I press the call button and after a few rings I hear a male voice answer.

"Hello Thalia's phone. This is Isaac speaking," it says.

"Hi Isaac," I say, trying to hide my tone of surprise. "It's Annabeth speaking. Can I talk to Thals?"

"Sure, she's just upstairs. Can you wait one second?" he says, and I hear him yell up to Thalia.

"She'll be right down. So, you seem happier than when I last saw you. Has there been good news?"

"Actually, there has been. They found Zoë, Tom, Bianca and Esperanza at a police station in Nessmond, Alabama. We're shadow-travelling out to meet them in about twenty minutes."

"That's great! But what about- Oh! Here's Thals now. Bye Annabeth, I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks Isaac."

"Hey, Anna. What's up? I heard Isaac say something about good news," Thalia says. She is the only one who can get away with calling me Anna.

"Yeah! They found Zoë, Tom, Bianca and Esperanza at a police station in Nessmond, Alabama."

"WOOHOO!" Thalia cheers, but then remembers the others. "What about Luke and the rest?"

"Well, Zoë wouldn't say when I spoke to her on the phone, I think because there were mortals listening, but I think they're in trouble. She said to bring you and Reyna as well, so it must be serious."

Thalia sighs. "These monsters don't to things in halves, do they?"

"Apparently not. Hey, where are you?"

"I'm-" I can practically feel Thalia's blush. "I'm at Isaac's, about ten minutes from your place."

I laugh. "Now is not the time, but when this is all over, I will be investigating. Listen, can you head over here now?"

"Sure thing. I'm on my way now. See you soon!" she says, and hangs up, just as I hear keys in the front door. I run to the front of the house and see Percy opening the door, a stupid grin on his face, a grin I've come to love.

"Hey, Wise Girl!" he grins. He comes over to me and engulfs me into a giant bear hug. I hug him back excitedly, but then remember he doesn't know the whole story.

"Percy, they only found four of them. They found Zoë, Tom, Bianca and Anza," I tell him.

"Where are the others?" he says.

"There were mortals around, it was too risky to say, but I think they're in trouble. Thalia's heading over here now, and then we're going to meet up somewhere and shadow-travel to help them."

"And we're going to kick butt," Percy reassures me.

"Percy, they had to have been kidnapped for a reason. What if they found out about our plan?" I say, pushing him away.

"But- but we were so careful. How could they have found out about it?" he counters me, trying to calm me down again.

"Monsters have their ways. You of all people should know that."

"I guess. We'll just have to hope for the best but expect the worst."

I squeeze his hand, and feel my phone start to vibrate. It's Jason.

"Hello? What's the plan?" I ask quickly.

"Wise Girl, calm down," Percy says, wrapping a comforting arm around me.

"Is that Percy? Good. We're all heading round to Nico and Will's except for Will, who is staying at camp with Hazel. Frank says he needs to do something to get his mind off it, and what better way than fighting some monsters? What's going on with Thalia and Reyna?" Jason says quickly.

"We'll have to shadow travel to New Rome to pick up Reyna, and Thalia is heading round here now. We'll meet you there soon."

"Alright, see you then. And, be ready. Apparently the kids are not looking that great."

"Thanks Jason."

I hang up and pull Percy upstairs to the bedroom.

"We may be about to go and kick some monster butt, but first we're going to run into some mortals, we've got to look presentable," I say, going into our walk in wardrobe.

I pull out a pair of jeans for us each, and a clean t-shirt for us both, blue for him and a black one that says 'Bring it on' in white writing.

Percy laughs and kisses my forehead. "Perfect," he says.

A few minutes later, the doorbell rings, and we open it to Thalia standing on the front porch. She gives us an excited smile, and we rudely don't even invite her inside, just head straight for Percy's blue Ford.

"We're heading to Nico and Will's place now, Nico is going to shadow-travel us there," I inform Thalia as I climb into the shotgun seat, with Percy driving and Thalia in the back. "We're going to take a detour into New Rome to pick up Reyna on the way through."

Thalia nods and unconsciously fingers Aegis, a nervous habit she has had since we were runaways together.

"Thalia, calm down, we've fought monsters before," I say when I notice.

"Yeah, but Annabeth, I think these are different," she says. "I mean, they got into your house, they got past Valdez's security system, they even got into camp for crying out loud."

"We'll be fine Thals," Percy says. "Calm down. You're starting to sound like Annabeth."

"Better than sounding like you," Thalia shoots back.

I roll my eyes. "With you two bickering we won't get anywhere. Try to get on will you, just until we get this over with, I don't know how long I'll last." I say.

"Sorry Annabeth," they chorus like school children.

"That's better," I joke, but despite all our attempts, the rest of the car ride is silent, the tension in the air thick enough to be cut with a knife. We finally reach Nico and Will's and Leo opens the door.

"Finally," he says. "Let's go."

Thanks for reading! Also, I've published a oneshot called Differences- A Solangelo oneshot, so if you could check that out that would be much appreciated.