Meant to have this chapter up ages ago, but when I finished it I couldn't post it because I didn't have internet *gasp* and then I forgot. Hehe ;)

Chapter 13: Reunions

Percy POV

After Leo practically dragged us inside he slams the door and both Piper and Calypso tackle Annabeth into a massive bear hug. Jason comes over and grins, and Nico looks as excited as I've seen him in a while.

"How's Hazel?" Annabeth asks once she is able to breathe again.

"She's getting better, apparently," Nico replies.

"She's starting to respond to touch, as well as her favourite music," Frank adds. He looks terrible. Pale as Nico with huge bags under his eyes and stress lines on his forehead.

"Dude, have you slept since they were taken?" I ask Frank, referring to four days ago when the last attack took place.

"I've dozed, but I kept having nightmares,"-the rest of us nod- "or thinking Hazel was waking up. I'm not tired though, don't worry. I won't fall asleep in battle. I'm going to fight as hard as anyone to get my kids back."

I feel a little wave of shock as I remember that Frank hasn't heard anything about Sammy or Emily. He must be twice as worried as the rest of us.

"It's okay Zhang, we'll get 'em back," Leo reassures him.

"Speaking of which, we'd better get going, if we want to pick up Reyna as well," Nico says. "Where is she meeting us?"

"The ice-cream shop in New Rome," Annabeth says.

"Perfect. There's a McDonalds right across the road," Nico mutters, a little too loudly.

"Nico, why do you need to go to McDonalds?" Annabeth asks cautiously.

Nico turns red as a tomato. "I need to pick up a Happy Meal," he mutters.

"Neeks, why do you need to pick up a Happy Meal?" I ask teasingly.

He goes even redder, if that's possible. "For energy," he mumbles.

"Louder Nico, I couldn't quite hear," I say.

"Shadow-Travelling seven people plus myself takes a lot of energy! I need a refill!" he yells.

"Why couldn't you have ice-cream? Or even a normal McDonalds meal?" Calypso asks reasonably.

Leo kisses her cheek. "You know what McDonalds is," he pretends to wipe away a tear. "I'm- I'm so proud."

"Nothing works as well as a Happy Meal," Nico says, both him and Calypso choosing to ignore Leo's comment. "Anyway, let's just go. Everybody got their weapons?"

We all nod, sobering up pretty quickly after our lame excuse for a laugh.

"Let's go then. Everyone, hold onto"-Nico glances around, and his gaze lands on the bookshelf full of Will's medical books. He pulls one out. "This book."

After some extensive studying (Annabeth re-reading Harry Potter) we've discovered that Nico's shadow travelling can work kind of like a Portkey from Harry Potter. If Nico is holding an object (a book in this case) that someone else is also holding onto and he shadow-travels away, still holding onto the book, both people touching the book will also disappear, not just Nico.

We all grab onto the book and I double-check my pocket for Riptide before the familiar-but-still-unpleasant sensation of shadow-travelling washes over me. We appear in the New Rome ice-cream shop exactly as we planned, and Reyna rushes over and grins at us all.

"Are you ready?" she asks, unsheathing her gladius.

"Not quite," Jason says, glancing across at Nico, who has gone pale-even more pale than normal.

"Excuse me for just a second," he says, and runs out of the shop and across the street to McDonalds.

"You know, I'm surprised that New Rome has a McDonalds," I say. "Most of it is just small business that are exclusive to New Rome."

Reyna laughs. "Actually, McDonald's was founded in New Rome, by two children of Edesia, the Roman goddess of feasting!"

Leo's jaw drops. "Who would've thought? MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE!" he exclaims. He then turns to Jason. "Why didn't you tell me? I thought we were bros?"

Jason lifts his hands up in surrender. "I didn't know either."

They both turn to Reyna, and just as Leo looks as if he is about to tackle her, Nico bursts in panting, holding an extra happy meal in his hand, for what I assume is after the second shadow-jump.

"Right, let's go." He glances around, taking in the angry expressions on both Leo and Jason's faces. "Did I miss something?"

"Yes," Leo says. "McDonald's-"

"Doesn't matter," Annabeth interjects. "We can sort this out later. Right now we have more important things to do."

"Correct," I say, shooting my own death glare at Reyna. "Let's go. Nico, do you know where the police station is?"

"I think so. Can I just have one more look at the map?"

Annabeth pulls out her phone and opens Google Maps. "So if you could get us here" -she points to a spot just around the corner from the police station- "because we don't want to just appear in the police station. I don't think even the mist could hide that."

Nico nods. "Alright everybody, hold on."

Once again I am thrown into the uncomfortable realm of the shadows. I don't know how the others feel when they shadow-travel, but Nico did tell me once that the feeling is amplified for Jason, Thalia and I because the shadows resist children of Poseidon and Zeus because of their rivalry with Hades. As we enter the mortal world again I have to blink a few times before my eyes adjust to the bright sunlight. I look around to see everyone else doing the same except Nico who is bent over breathing intensely. I rush over to him and pick up the extra happy meal but he waves it away.

"Until- we get-there," he says in between pants. "I- couldn't get there- in one go- just give me a second."

We wait five minutes until Nico is ready to travel again.

"You sure you're ready?" I ask.

"We've got a Happy Meal. I'll be fine."

When we arrive at the police station Annabeth insists on knocking politely before the rest of us barge in, our ADHD taking over and making us impatient. The only ones who stay back are Thalia and Reyna, but even then, they rush forwards to see their 'nieces and nephews' after a short time. As we barge into the police station the man at the desk looks shocked.

"You're quicker than we expected," he says.

Annabeth steps in with a prepared lie. "We just happened to be in North Alabama searching for our kids. We just hopped in a couple of cars and drove down."

"Right. Of course," he says. "I'm Mark, by the way. Um, the kids asleep at the moment, and they're in pretty bad shape, I'd let them rest for a little before you see them if I were-" he says, but he is cut off by a voice that is unmistakable. "MOM! DAD!" Zoë yells.

We run over to each other like in those movies except we were most definitely not running in slow motion. We engulf her in a huge hug, my two girls crying. I even start to tear up myself. I hear the other two kids rush out to meet their parents, and Leo and Calypso go into the other room to see Esperanza who is still asleep.

"Zoë! Oh gods, Zoë, we were so worried!" Annabeth says.

"We missed you so much!" I add.

"We missed you too," Zoë whispers, still hugging us both. We step away to ask about Luke, and my breath catches. Annabeth starts to cry again, but not happy tears this time.

"Zo," I whisper. "What did they do to you?"

We hug her again, and she flinches when we hold too tightly. "I- I'll tell you later," she says, glancing at Mark.

We nod stiffly and glance at the others who look similar. I take in their bruises and cuts wordlessly, my imagination running wild with possibilities.

At that moment, Leo and Calypso come in from the other room, Leo holding Anza, both their eyes glistening with tears but their mouths drop open when they see what has happened to our children.

"What- what did-" but as soon as Leo talks, Esperanza stirs. She begins to cry, and Leo starts to hand her to Calypso until she opens her eyes.

"Dada!" she gurgles happily.

"That's right baby, Mommy and Dada are back!" Leo says, tickling her stomach. She squeals with laughter, and, unexpectedly, she bursts into flames!

"Mama! Dada!" she laughs, and the flames grow brighter.

Leo grins and holds his daughter close. "My beautiful baby girl," he says, turning to Calypso. "I told you she would inherit my-" but he is cut off by a sharp elbow to the side. She glances at Mark, who is standing horror-struck across the room.

"Um. Oops?" Leo says.

"Your- Your baby!" Mark yells. "Your baby is on fire!"

Thalia steps forwards. "What are you talking about?" she says, snapping her fingers. The mist is so thick I can practically feel it floating around, clouding the mortal's vision. His eyes glaze over and he blinks confusedly.

"Right. Yeah, I-I don't know what came over me. Sorry," Mark stammers.

"It's all good," Leo jokes, shooting a grateful glance at Thalia. "My hotness has that effect on people."

We let out a collective groan and Mark turns red as a tomato. Annabeth turns quickly back to Zoë and Bianca.

"Have you had any ambrosia?" she whispers, after making sure Mark has left the room.

"That's practically the only thing that kept us alive," she whispers back. "They fed us a tiny bowl of soup every day or second day, depending on how we behaved. If they- I'll tell you later, but yes, they gave us ambrosia."

"Who's they?" I question worriedly.

"Monsters. They called themselves Epilates," Bianca interjects.

"Nightmares," Annabeth, Nico and I translate immediately.

"They don't sound like something I want to mess with," I add.

The girls shake their heads as Mark opens the door and walks in, holding a stack of papers.

"Here's their reports, just sign here and you're free to go," he says. "We'll keep searching for the others, but the kids wouldn't talk except to you and to ask to speak to you."

We glance around at our children, confused. Unless... it is too dangerous for a mortal to go near.

"Thanks, um Mark."

We file out solemnly, everybody thinking about one thing- defeating the Ephialtes.

After walking out of the police station, we stare at each other cluelessly until Annabeth pulls out her phone. We look blankly at her, but she quickly types something into the search bar, then dials a number. She waits a minute, but then there is an answer.

"Yes, hi. My name is Annabeth Chase-Jackson, and my friends and I are looking for a place to stay?" she says to the person on the phone.

She pauses for a little, listening to the other person speak until she replies with, "We'll be needing seven rooms."

Another pause then- "Uh huh."

"Okay."

"Alright, we'll see you in half an hour."

She takes the phone from her ear and turns to us.

"I've found us a hotel to stay in. It's a little bit of a walk away, but we can start planning on the way."

We nod and Annabeth shows us the directions on Google Maps. We start walking, unconsciously making sure that the kids are in the middle. I hold tightly to Zoë hand as she, Bianca and Tom tell us all about the Epilates.

"They look kind of like ghosts," Bianca starts. "With glowing red eyes though. And they're able to touch us." She shivers at the thought.

"When they first took Luke and I, it was fine. They fed us, though we were kind of in shock for the main part. The next day was when it got serious. They started asking us about- about some sort of plan that you had. They said someone had overheard you talking ab0ut how 'the plan' would change demigods lives forever. We told them we didn't know what they were talking about, but they didn't believe us. They started-" Zoë burst into tears, Bianca too.

"Bi, what did they do?" Nico asks, stressed.

"They tor- tortured u-us," Bianca finally manages to get out.

I squeeze Zoë's hand even tighter. "It's okay," I whisper. "You're safe now."

"Can we stop talking about this now?" Tom interjects. We turn to him to find him shaking, silent tears streaming down his face. Piper is hugging him tightly, and Jason is holding his hand.

"Of course, Tom. We're sorry," Thalia who has been strangely silent whispers.

When Tom stops shaking, we start walking again, this time in silence until Annabeth speaks up. "I'm sorry, kids. I just want to double check one thing," she says. "So these- these monsters said they overheard something about a plan?"

The kids nod miserably. We all look around at each other worriedly.

"Where could they've overheard it?" I ask. "We were so careful."

The rest of them shrug, but Zoë looks up at me, he big, green eyes still red rimmed from her tears. "You mean, there really was a 'plan?'" she says.

Piper sigs when Tom looks up at her with the same expression. "Aunt Annabeth had the idea, but Uncle Leo is putting it into action," she explains. "We had the idea to make a- a sort of perfume for demigods, that can weaken the scent, or for the younger or less powerful demigods, get rid of it completely! It's still a work in progress, mind, but it is getting better."

Zoë grins. "That's amazing! No wonder those stinking monsters want to get their hands on it."

I ruffle her hair. "Thanks kiddo. Now, tell us about your daring escape."

"It took us two attempts, actually," Tom says.

As they tell us about the first attempt, I begin to frown. I don't see any fatal mistakes in their plan, so what went wrong?

Tom fingers his key ring nervously, as if he afraid of our reaction. "But as we tried to attack them our blades went straight through. They didn't dissolve into dust or anything," he says.

Annabeth frowns. "Monsters immune to celestial bronze and imperial gold? I've never heard anything like it. How is it possible?"

We all shrug helplessly, leaving Annabeth to puzzle over this new mystery.

"Well, if it didn't work the first time, and they're immune to celestial bronze, how did you escape?" Piper asks, trying to lighten the mood again.

Bianca and Zoë grin. "It was Sammy and Emily's idea, actually," Bianca says. Frank stands up straighter, for it is the first news of his kids since they were taken.

"Are they okay?" he asks.

"Last we saw," Zoë says. "Em saved my life, and Sammy was a grizzly bear."

We turn to look at her, but she waves her hand like it's nothing. "We're getting to that."

"As I was saying, it was Sammy and Emily's idea actually," Bianca says, pretending to be annoyed. "See, we'd all been trapped in a tiny, dark, room, being tortured every day, we'd kind of lost hope. Or maybe we were just hoping for you to show up and look after us. Either way, we weren't doing anything productive. Until Sam and Em showed up. They were strong and extremely stubborn-"

"Really stubborn," Zoë adds. "They wouldn't take no for an answer."

Frank swells up with pride at the compliments, but his eyes betray that he is still terrified for their lives. As we walk, Zoë, Tom and Bianca tell us about what happened, interrupting each other to add more detail. As we reach the part about Bianca transporting the monster, they have to backtrack and tell us about what she did the first time with Esperanza. We all turn to Nico who is looking thoughtfully at his daughter, as if she is hiding something. When Zoë tells us she thinks she heard a human-like scream as they were leaving, she looks like she is going to cry again, but it's like she has no tears left.

I turn to Annabeth who is looking at our daughter and our 'nieces and nephew' with such pride I think she is going to explode. "You were so brave," she says. "So, so brave. And so were all the others. Let's go make a plan so we can get our family back."

Sorry about the crappy chapter. It was just a filler. So was the last one actually, hehe. Um, have some blue cookies? (::) (::) (::)