AN: hey hey! F here. I don't own any characters or places you may recognize from the PJO or HoO. Reviews are appreciated, as always, and don't forget to favorite or follow this story if you like it. Here we go...

~Ella's POV~

It took another four hours to get to Los Angeles. By the time we got there I was nervous enough to leap off the bus the second it stopped. I had spent the night slipping between sleeping and waking, never sure which was which. I was so worried about Cas it was giving me a stomachache, but I knew I had to focus on finding her, not on how worried I was about her.

"Finally!" I gasped "We're here." Los Angeles was a completely new place for me. It might have seemed nice to someone else, but all I could think about was the awful things that had happened to Cas here. It didn't look nice; it looked sinister.

"Where should we start looking?" Piper asked, frowning out at the city around her.

"We should split up. It'll be faster." Annabeth said. "Plus, we'll attract less monsters that way."

"I'll go North." Jason said. "Piper, you want to come with me?" Piper nodded.

"Frank and I will go East." Hazel said.

"Leo you're with me." Annabeth said. "Percy, Ella, you're to the West." We started off. As we crossed the street, I jumped on a manhole cover. Suddenly, something Cas had once mentioned came back to me. Something about the sewers. I glared at the manhole cover, trying to remember.

"Wait, I think Cas mentioned something about where it was once." I frowned, trying to remember. "Something about…. Sanctuary was underground. Thats what she said." Hazel grinned at me.

"I can do underground." She crouched down and pressed a hand against the ground. "Nothing around here. But theres so many sewer systems here, all crossing and going in different directions... I can't look very far. Only a block or so in every direction."

"I guess we'd better get back on the bus and keep going." Annabeth sighed. We climbed on the bus, stopping every block so Hazel could hop off and press her hand to the ground to sense what was under the ground around us. Every time, she would look up at us sadly and shake her head.

Hours later, it was getting dark. "We should stop for the night. I'm starving, and even if we find the entrance we're all too tired for a fight. Plus, Hazel is exhausted." Frank said. Hazel was snoring away on the floor of the bus.

"Okay." Annabeth yawned with a nod. I wanted to keep looking, but Frank had a point. We would lose a fight like this, and that wouldn't help Cas at all. "Coming?" Annabeth asked. The others had already climbed aboard the bus for the night.

"Yeah. I'll just…" I weakly motioned to the hood of the bus. "I'll just take first watch." I said.

"It'll be okay, Ella. Cas will be okay." Annabeth said softly. I nodded. She climbed aboard the bus and closed the door behind her. I tried to believe what she had said, but I was still scared for my friend. This was the first adventure I had been on before, and it wasn't going well. I had already lost my best friend.

It was chilly, even though we were in California. I buttoned up my jacket and shoved my hands in my pockets. I sat on the hood of the bus. But I saw something unusual, flashing on the ground next to the bus. I slid off the hood of the bus, frowning and squinting at it. Crouching down, I picked it up. It was a gray button. It was off of Cas's coat. Cas is nearby. I swung around, searching the ground for more clues.

There was nothing else, but the button told me which direction they had taken Cas in. I walked that way. All that was in that direction was an alley and a brick wall. Nobody's been here for a while, I thought, but then I noticed that there were footprints in the thick layer of dust, that lead right up to…. A solid wall. I cursed quietly.

I walked back to the bus, determined to wake the others and go see if it was a secret passage or something, but after a few minutes of consideration, there was nothing we could do that night. An hour later, Leo came out for his turn on watch. I climbed on the bus and curled up on the floor, soon slipping into sleep.

THE NEXT MORNING

"I found something last night." I said through a mouthful of muffin. "I think so, at least. I'm not really sure."

"Where is it?" Percy asked immediately. "Show us." We finished breakfast and then I lead them to the footprints and wall. There was nothing new there since last night.

"See?" I said, pointing at the ground. "The footprints lead right to this wall, but I'm not sure…."

"Spread out." Percy snapped to the others. "There may be a button or something to make this part of the door slide away. Find it." I was surprised at the angry edge in Percy's voice, and the others seemed to be as well. He must be scared for his sister more than he wanted to admit.

We had been looking for almost an hour, and I was starting to think there was nothing there to find, when Hazel yelled, "I found something!" From the behind the dumpster next to the place where the footprints disappeared, she waved for us to come see what she had found. We all rushed over. "See, this part of the wall has this odd scratch in it, and I think if I…. There!" Hazel ran her fingernail through the slit, and a large portion of wall slid away, to reveal stone steps leading down into darkness.

"Should we go in?" Frank asked nervously. He clutched his bow.

"Everyone armed?" Percy asked, his face showing his determination. We all nodded. I reached over my shoulder and took of my bow, nocking an arrow but not yet drawing the bow string tight, pointing the tip of the arrow down at the ground. Jason unsheathed his golden sword, as did Hazel, and Piper and Annabeth unsheathed their knives. "Then we go in." Percy pulled out riptide. Leo lit his hands to light the dark stairs as we walked down.

The stairs led down five flights, underneath the city. It would have been pitch black but for Leo's fire. When the ground finally leveled out, we were in a long stone hallway. There were puddles on the floor, and one flickering light bulb resting on the ground, dangerously close to a puddle.

I could hear voices from the end of the hallway, but I couldn't see anyone there. There was a door to my right, so I slowly pushed it open. Inside was another downwards staircase. I mouthed, Should we? to the others. Annabeth nodded.

"When in doubt, head for the center." She whispered. We went down further, until we couldn't hear voices anymore. It led to another door, which opened into… an arena? It looked like the arena Cas had described from her dream, after she had used her earth powers to defeat the earthborn. There were rising rows of benches, and a raised platform over scummy water. We were in the stands, and standing on the platform was a woman. Aliah.

I don't remember what happened next, but I heard a sound from the stairs, and then felt a sharp pain on the back of my head. My vision went black.

Casper's POV ~

"Wake up." I twitched. It must be Aliah back to rub in that I was a prisoner again. I squeezed my eyes shut tighter, desperately trying to go back to sleep. "Please, Cas, wake up!" I sat bolt upright, suddenly wide awake.

"Ella!" I looked around wildly. "Where are you!?"

"Over here!" I crawled to the bars of my cell. Ella and Annabeth were sitting in the cell across the hall from me. I craned my neck and spotted Percy, Hazel, Piper, Jason, Leo, and Frank in the cells to the left and right.

"Thank the gods you're okay." Percy sighed from his cell. "We were worried."

"How are you guys here? What happened?" I asked.

"You first. What happened? We knew they took you-" I cut Ella off.

"Knockout gas! They threw it through one of the back windows and took me while I was knocked out. But you have to answer my questions. Why did you come down here? How did you find the entrance to Sanctuary?" I asked quickly.

"We came looking for you, dummy!" Ella exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "We found the secret entrance but we were ambushed in the arena thing. What's that room for, anyways?" I felt like I was going to be sick.

"Its the…." I gulped. "It's the Dueling Arena."

"Oh." Ella said. "Is that where-"

"Yeah." The pause stretched out for an uncomfortably long time. Finally Piper broke the tension.

"What I want to know is why they didn't kill us when they caught us?" Piper asked, puzzled. "It makes no sense at all."

"Oh, I think you'll find it makes perfect sense." Aliah was back.

Ella's POV~

It was the same woman I had seen on the platform in the "Dueling arena". She was quite pretty, with long shiny auburn hair, dark eyes, and a slim athletic figure. A jagged sword was strapped to her back.

"I am Aliah."

Maybe the most surprising thing about Aliah was how scared Cas seemed to be of her. When she saw the woman she shied backwards into her cell, eying her warily like she might attack at any moment, like a cornered animal. The look of fear on my friends face made my blood boil with anger.

Cas was scraped and bruised, and smeared with dirt, and her clothes were torn. To sum it up: she looked terrible."And you are in the Sanctuary. You are my prisoners. You have been disarmed, and been made unable to use your powers. These cell bars are made of imperial gold, and they've been cursed. You aren't getting out."

"Why are you attacking us?" Annabeth demanded. "Why are you keeping us prisoner?"

"Why, to keep order of course. If my troops see you traitors killed in a duel, they will not rise against me. Of course, it doesn't have to be that way for all of you…."

"What are you saying lady?" Leo asked. "`Cause if you think we're gonna help you, then you must be one sick nutjob. Eat fireballs!" He lit his hands on fire, and shot a blast of flame at Aliah, but as it passed between the golden bars it extinguished with a little poof. "How the Hades?"

Aliah gave him a cruel sneer. Her eyes were like shards of ice. "I told you it wouldn't work, fool. You have two options. Join me and let this one die," She pointed at the trembling Cas. "or don't join me and you'll all die. The choice is yours, but I hope you're smarter than it-" She pointed to Cas. I clenched my teeth. "And join me."

"I choose option C." Percy called from his cell. He had his hands clamped on the cell bars. "We kick your ass, free my sister, and go home safe. You have two options. Stand aside or get killed."

"You have spirit." A smirk slid onto Aliah's face. "Pity you are such a fool. Nobody can defeat me and my armies."

"Try deflating your ego, witch." Cas whispered. Aliah's head whipped around to face her.

"Did you talk back to me, deserter?" She stormed towards the bars, her icy eyes fixed on Cas. Cas stumbled back.

"N-No, I just-" Aliah moved so fast it took me a minute for my brain to catch up with my eyes. She grabbed Cas by the neck, nearly lifting her off the ground. Cas clawed at Aliah's hand with her fingernails, trying to free herself.

"Hey! Put her down!" I yelled, throwing myself against the bars.

"Leave her alone!" Percy yelled. "Or so help me I will kick your ass!"

"Don't hurt Cas, you jerk!" Leo yelled from his cell. The others chimed in. Our yelling probably wasn't helping, but there was nothing we could do.

Aliah held Cas by the neck for another long moment. Then she let go, and Cas crumpled to the floor in a heap, gasping for breath. She clutched her neck, eyes wide with fear.

"I will give you one day to decide. Her duel-" She again motioned to Cas, still on her knees. "will be tonight. If she wins, which I don't think likely, I will let you live. If she loses? Then she dies, and tomorrow evening we'll start again with the smallest and work our way up." She gave Hazel a vicious glare.

"Hey, stay away from her!" Frank shouted, but Aliah silenced him with an evil sneer.

"Silence son of Mars!" Aliah shouted. Her voice echoed in the hallway. Frank silenced. "Your time will come soon enough." She turned and started walking away. "I will be back for Caspian at sunset. You should probably all take this time to say goodbye to her." She turned down the hallway and was gone.

When she was gone, we stared around at each other in silence for a minute.

"What do we do?" Jason asked finally. "We're unarmed, we can't use our powers, and we're deep underground."

"Does Aliah have any weaknesses?" Annabeth asked Cas.

"No." Cas sounded like she was close to tears. She was still rubbing her neck, like Aliah's icy fingers were still wrapped around her neck.

"She has to! Everyone has a weakness!" Annabeth exclaimed. "Think, Cas."

"I've been fighting Aliah most of my life. I studied her for months when I decided to leave. I know everything about her. She saved my life when I was little. Gave me a home and something to fight for. But she's evil. And strong." Cas said quietly. "Believe me. She doesn't have any weaknesses." There was an awkward pause right about then.

"Anyone know any card tricks?" Leo asked nervously. "We have a few hours here."

"Seriously?" Piper snapped.

"Hey, I'm just saying-" Leo and Piper went on like that, but I could tell they were only arguing to keep from breaking down. I couldn't see any way out. Neither could anyone else. This time, we might not make it out. Not alive, anyway.