Authors Note: Hey hey! Sorry its been so long since I've updated this story, I've been writing an agents of SHIELD fan fiction, and I've been busy with school. I'll try to update more often from now on. Also, sorry for leaving you on a cliffhanger. That must've sucked for you:) I made this chapter extra long to make it up to you. Ok, though, seriously, lets go….
Ella's POV~
I stared at them in horror. I didn't know what to do. If it weren't for Cas asleep next to me, I might have freaked out and run for the hills without a look back. My fingers itched to grab my bow, lying next to me, but Percy and Annabeth were better than me by a longshot. I stood no chance if I fought.
"I can't tell you." I said, and it was true. I had promised Cas that I wouldn't tell anyone about her past. Her terrible secret. And that was a promise I was going to keep.
"We weren't asking." Percy's eyes flashed in the firelight. I had never been scared of Cas's brother before, but I suddenly realized that he could kill me right now if he wanted too. "You have to tell us. We're out in the middle of nowhere, injured, tired, and on an impossible quest to the underworld. And we have two possible traitors with us. So start talking." There was an underlying threat in his voice, like start talking or I'm busting out the magic sword.
"We're willing to give you the benefit of the doubt." Annabeth said. "But you have to be completely honest with us, Ella."
I considered my options. I couldn't run or fight, so considering their advanced skill my best bet was to tell them, though it made my mouth taste like lead.
"I'll tell you." I said quietly. "But there's something I have to get you to understand first. This isn't about me." I turned to Cas. She looked so peaceful when she was sleeping. The worry lines on her forehead were smooth, and there was a tiny smile on her face. I liked to see her like that; it was the only time she looked that happy. "It's about her. This is Cas's story."
Annabeth and Percy exchanged a glance. I stared into the fire as I spoke, as if I could somehow fix everything if I just stared hard enough.
"It begins when Cas was just a little kid. She was born on Whidbey Island, up by Seattle. They lived in a houseboat, probably where Cas's mom met Poseidon. When Cas was seven, her mom was killed in a, "freak lightning storm"." I made air quotes with my fingers.
"Zeus." Percy said grimly. Ella nodded.
"Zeus. So then, Cas is alone. She learns to fight monsters. Travels around a lot. One day she gets cornered in an alley in Los Angeles. She's six, and she's up against a gorgon. She would've been killed, but…." I let out a long, low sigh.
"But what?" Percy asked impatiently.
"But she was saved by a strange woman, whose name was Aliah." The second I said "Aliah" Cas moaned in her sleep and rolled over. We all gave her a worried glance. She whispered in her sleep, and I felt shivers run up my spine.
"Aliah…. Aliah…." She whispered.
"Aliah told her that she was a powerful demigod. Told her all about the gods and heroes and monsters and stuff. Aliah offered Cas a place in her army."
"Army?" Annabeth spluttered. "Of demigods?"
"Yeah, pretty much. Some monsters, too. So Cas says yes. She was just six. She needed a place to stay, and Aliah offered one. So Cas joined Aliah's army. Aliah trained her to fight and made her strong. Cas lived with them for years. But she started to get nervous. She started to see Aliah for what she was; cruel, vindictive, and manipulative. Cas knew she couldn't stay with Aliah any longer, so she tried to leave.
"But there had been uprisings before, so there was a set of rules in place for that kind of thing."
"You don't say that like its a good thing." Percy said nervously.
"It wasn't; or at least not for Cas. The rules stated that she had to complete three duels before she could leave. Cas knew they would hunt her down if she tried to leave any other way, so she agreed. Cas got through the first two duels no problem, but then Aliah announced that the third opponent would be her. Cas had to battle Aliah herself.
"Cas lost. She was nearly dead, but she managed to escape. She fled all the way across the country, to New York City. I found her, we became friends, and we started school together this fall. Flint, our satyr, found us, and you know the rest."
"But…. There's more." I said, before either of them could speak. "Before Cas left the city, Aliah swore that if Cas ever returned to LA, she would be killed. Cas has had to live with that since…." I pressed my hands against my forehead. I felt terrible for my friend. My own childhood had been screwed-up enough, what with my brother disappearing and my mom dying. But Cas's had been something else. "Nevermind. It's just…. please don't mention this to Cas. It was really hard on her. The only "mother figure" she can remember is the lunatic who tried to kill her."
I closed my eyes and waited for their responses. I expected them to be mad and yell, but that wasn't the case.
"Poor kid." Percy said. He sounded sympathetic.
"When she was seven?" Annabeth echoed. "Thats a year younger then when I ran away, and I had help from older demigods. How long was she on the streets?"
"I think she said around six months."
Annabeth and Percy exchanged awed looks. "But… a daughter of the big three… I can't imagine how awful-" Annabeth said, but I interrupted.
"Yeah, well, whatcha gonna do?" I snapped. "I've now spilled my best friends darkest secrets. Are we done here?" They both nodded.I lay down and bent my arm to use it as a pillow. I could hear them whispering but I didn't care. I felt like I was about to burst into tears. I had broken my promise to Cas.
It was a long time before I fell asleep.
Casper's POV~
Ella hotwired a pickup truck from a farmers driveway. It was rusty, and painted the most disgusting shade of green ever. Percy had his license, so he drove, with Annabeth in the front seat navigating. There were no other seats inside the car, so the rest of us crammed into the bed of the pickup. The farther we drove, the hotter it got. It was still sunny but it was a little windy riding in the back of the truck.
Percy and Annabeth had been acting strangely around me. Percy had just started getting used to my existence, but now he seemed nervous around me. When he thought I wasn't looking he would give me looks of sympathy. Annabeth was just the same. Her gray eyes had softened and she looked at me with pity. I didn't want her pity and I didn't want his sympathy. I just wanted to be like everyone else, for once. But I also wanted to know why they were acting this way. There was no way they could know my secret, right? The only person who knew except me was Ella, and she would never tell them. Would she?
I snuck a glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She was joking around with Leo, grinning. Her jeans were dusty, her hair was tangled, and her face was smudged with dirt, but she still looked happy. I chided myself for even suspecting her of such a thing. Ella would never betray me. But that morning when I had woken up…. she'd looked a little guilty.
"It'll take way longer to get there without the plane. Almost another day of straight driving." Hazel said nervously. Her cinnamon hair was tied back in a red bandanna, but she passed what looked like an emerald from hand to hand nervously. Frank was sitting next to her, and squeezed her hand reassuringly.
"And that'll be if this truck can keep up this speed for much longer." Leo said, shaking his head. He and Ella turned to tune into the conversation. "I glanced at the engine before we started, and it'll probably only last us to the border of Nevada at best."
"I can just get us another one." Ella said cheerfully. "Its easy." She shifted around uncomfortably on the hard metal. "Though I'm wishing I'd snatched something with enough seats for us all. Bummer."
I reached into my backpack and pulled out the bunched up parachute, the one I had stuffed in my backpack back in the mountains after the plane crash.
"Sit on this." I tossed it to her. "Might be more comfy." The others stared at me in surprise.
"You took one of the parachutes with you?" Frank asked. I looked down at my sneakers, embarrassed. I didn't really like being the center of attention.
"Well….Yeah. I thought it might come in handy, so I…." I trailed off.
"Awesome!" Piper said, giving me a warm smile. "Good thinking." I was surprised.
"Thanks." I smiled back.
"I'm starving." Leo interrupted. "Can we stop for french fries? Or maybe tacos?"
"I think the nearest fast food place is in California." I snorted. "You could probably have some raw corn if you want."
We kept chatting for a while. I started to relax like I was among friends, not on a dangerous quest that would probably get me killed by either a primordial being or a psychotic demigod with a big sword and an army. I wasn't sure which one would be better, but I tried not to think about that.
Relax. I told myself. Maybe nothing will go wrong.
I just had to jinx it.
The hydra a few days ago had been bad enough, and the venti were tough too. But a mob of earthborn? Seriously? Why couldn't we have some thing easy for a change?
The first earthborn scooped up a chunk of earth from the road ahead, and hurled it at our truck. Percy swerved to avoid it, so that the truck turned sideways across the road, plowing into the cornfields. Annabeth and Percy popped their doors, Percy's glowing sword, Riptide, already drawn. The rest of us tumbled out of the back of the truck, scrambling for our weapons.
I drew the clumsy sword I had used in the capture the flag game. It still felt heavy and awkward in my hand, like I was about to tip over and fall on my face. I had to hold it with both hands to use it properly.
Jason flipped a coin, and it turned into a long gold sword, the same one I remembered from the hydra attack. Leo reached into his toolbelt and pulled out a bronze hammer and a box of breath mints, and Piper unsheathed a dagger. Ella slung her bow, the gift from her dad Hermes, off of her back and knocked a celestial bronze tipped arrow. She crouched, on one knee, on the roof of the truck, one eye squinted to get a good shot. Frank turned into a pigeon and spiraled upwards, Hazel drawing a gold cavalry sword.
I hoped we looked intimidating enough to scare off the earth born, but no such luck. Apparently they weren't scared off by a bunch of teenagers and Frank the pigeon.
An earthborn scooped up another chunk of road. It roared in fury and threw it at us. I launched myself backward, flipping over the bed of the truck, the boulder hitting the ground where I had stood a moment before.
But there wasn't time to marvel at my own awesomeness. The other earthborn started to arm themselves.
"Attack?" Jason asked Annabeth.
"Attack." She nodded.
And we charged into battle.
I slashed the head off of a large earthborn, diving out of the way of another boulder and cutting another monster in half. As I fought, the adrenaline in my system made the clunky sword easier to use. More earthborn formed out of the ground, though, taking the place of the fallen monsters.
"Does every monster from here to New York want to kill us?" Ella shouted, catching an earthborn between its eyes.
"Were demigods! Every monster from here to Norway wants to kill us!" Leo shouted. An earthborn heaved another boulder at me. I ducked out of the way, but it went so close in front of me I could feel the wind on my face. When the dust cleared, the boulder sat two inches in front of me.
"Oh, you did NOT just do that!" I screamed. Suddenly I was mad. Really mad. These things had no right to attack us. And they certainly weren't going to hurt my friends. "Stupid mud creeps!" A tremor went through the ground spreading out around me. I raised my hands, and all the earthborn froze, lifting off the ground a few inches. I made a smashing gesture with my fists and slammed the small army of monsters into the ground. They melted into puddles of goo, sinking into the ground and disappearing. My head pounded and my whole body was numb, but the monsters were gone.
"How did you…" Everyone was gaping at me.
Then my eyes rolled up into my head, and I passed out.
I was dreaming. I stood in a large stone underground room. The floor was covered in five feet of sludgy smelly sewer water. A square stone platform rose twenty feet above the water. It was circled by a thick stone wall, and connected to a door high in the wall with a retractable stone bridge. The walls were lined with rows and rows of raised stone bleachers.
Standing on the platform was a woman I recognized too well. She was tall and solid, with big muscles and shiny auburn hair. She was the prettiest woman I had ever seen, even though the gleam in her dark eyes was that of an angry animal. Her jaw was set and her features sharp. She had a jagged bronze sword strapped on her back. I knew from experience she could use it with cruel speed and no mercy.
It was Aliah.
She was talking to a boy and girl a few years older then I was, and I recognized them too, from training. They looked almost identical. Their names were Lil and Tommy Hughes. They both had dark brown hair with identical diagonal slashes across their foreheads, and tiny birthmarks on their right cheeks. They were her lieutenants, and loyal followers.
"She's getting closer." Aliah hissed. "She's heading straight to this city. When she gets here, I want you two to capture her and her friends, and then bring them to me."
"M'lady, can't we kill her ourselves? We could-"
"No!" Aliah hissed, grabbing the boy by the throught and lifting him off the ground with one hand. "She is mine. When Caspian enters my city, you shall bring her to me and I shall rip her apart." She dropped him, gasping, to the floor. "You shall form two teams. Lilian, take Marie, Will, and Jake. Thomas, take Faith, Mandy, and Herald. I want them alive. All of them, even her companions."
"Surely her friends are expenda-"
"No!" She snatched Lil by the throat. "You are one of my best lieutenants, but I will kill you if you disobey me. Do you understand? I said, do you understand?" Her voice was practically a growl.
"Yes, m'lady!" Lil choked. Aliah released her, and she scrambled to her feet clutching her throat and gasping for breath.
"Get out of my sight." Aliah snapped. Her vicious eyes added the words, or else.
The twins scrambled out of sight, down one of the corridors.
"I am so screwed." I whispered. And then I woke up.
Hey, sorry again for the wait on this chapter. Please review/fav/follow if you like this story.