What happens in the prison cell?

Will Nico come and rescue them?

The answer is obvious, if you happen to read Author's Notes.

Chapter 8

Reunion (Yeah, again)

We waited for hours, in the small room, leaning against the walls, lying on the floor. After sitting silently, we heard a tapping sound, as if someone was walking along the hallway outside. The bolt on the door creaked, and we jerked into awareness. Lin shot me a look, and put her finger to her lips. She stood up, and pulled the chain from around her waist.

The door slid open. A satyr stood in the doorway, holding a plastic wrapped covered Styrofoam tray. He looked around. "Where'd the other one go? I was told there were two!"

I then realized that Lin had hidden behind the door. She was invisible when the door opened, unless someone looked behind it, but that wasn't probable. Lin made a face at me, and I realized what I had to do.

"I have to use the bathroom!" I cried, holding my crotch and looking miserable. I hopped around, looking stupid. "I have to go. Like, right now!"

The satyr looked around. "Can't it wait?"

"No! It can't!" I yelled. "If you don't let me go, I'll do it on myself, and you'll be the one who has to clean it up!" Gods, this was awful. Why was I always the one who had to something embarrassing to help Lin? First the vomit, now this.

The satyr walked a few feet more into the room, his goat feet making clicking noises, like a dog. This was Lin's chance. She closed the door, and with a sharp crack, whacked the satyr on the head. He toppled to the ground, senseless. Lin opened the door and walked out, stepping over his body.

We walked through the halls together, staring at the framed art hung on the walls. Most of it was about wine or grapes. I heard a commotion from outside, and I tried to peer out through a stained glass window depicting a cluster of fat, red grapes in a bowl.

We pushed the big double front doors open, and looking to make sure no one was watching, we slipped off the huge wraparound porch to the ornamental shrubbery.

But what caught my attention was a man getting off a motorcycle. I peeked through the green leaves of the bushes. It was Lin's dad, Nico! He really had come to rescue us!

But the man who had came when we were in the prison stood in front of Nico, blocking him. The man's brown hair blew in the slight wind. He crossed his arms over his chest, clearly meaning to block Nico.

"You took my daughter!" He yelled at the man. "Now let me pass!"

"Trespassers aren't allowed to come to this Camp." The man peered closer. "Unless they have god blood. You must be one of us! Come join us, and be reunited with your child."

"Never!" Nico strode forward. "I know what you do to those poor children…forced to fight…you've been kidnapping them, all of them, even the weakest!"

"Those are fighting words," The man pulled out a sword. "Now reap what you have sown!"

Nico pulled out his blade, too. It looked heavy and had two edges on each side, with a channel in the middle to draw away blood. "So this is how it goes…"

Their blades met in the air, with a metallic crack. Suddenly, the Nico's opponent grinned, and I gasped. Five other exact copies or him appeared, with swords and all. They circled Nico, and then they struck, all at once. I couldn't tell the real one from the others.

Nico ducked, falling to his knees and rolling on the ground, and I thought it was too late. I was sure that some of the swords had made contact with his back. He stood back up, hacking away at his six opponents. Three of them lost their swords.

As Nico was fighting, I noticed that his shirt was torn and ripped from sword cuts. The holes were getting bigger as his opponents took slashes at his back. Then, one of the swordsmen thrust extremely quickly, surprising Nico. Nico leaned back, like in the Matrix, but the sword grazed his side and cut a huge gap in his shirt. It started to fall apart.

The pieces fluttered to the ground, borne by a soft wind. Nico deflected a cut with the flat of his sword, and I saw his back. It had four diagonal parallel scars, silvery against his back. His opponent saw it too, and pulled back a slash at the last minute.

"Nico? Is that you?" The man stopped. "You look a lot different…other than being older…"

"Connor Stoll," Nico drawled. "I should have known. You left side defense was always weak, I can see you still have it. Nice trick with those illusions. You can make them have mass now?"

"Yeah, I learned that a decade ago." Connor, that's what I thought his name was, suddenly went still. "Your daughter…she doesn't happen to look like Minerva Harmand for some strange reason, does she?"

Nico grinned, a mocking grin. "The reason isn't so strange. Min is her mother." He leaned nonchalantly on his sword; its point was buried in the ground.

"You had a baby with her?!" Connor seemed outraged. "I thought she didn't love you enough!"

"Well, evidently, she changed her mind. And I wasn't the only one she had a baby with. She has a son, too." Nico was taunting Connor.

"Gods…" Connor trailed off. Then he put his sword up. "Fine, let's settle this."

"No tricks?" Nico was up and alert, his hands flexing on the wire wrapped hilt of his sword. I noticed that the guard was two bones jointed together, like an arm, and the pommel was a bat wing.

"If you'll return the favor." Connor circled Nico, a look of concentration on his face.

Nico struck first, raining blows to Connor's legs and torso. Connor dodged and ducked, his sword weaving a sparkling pattern in the air. They were very evenly matched, I could see. But Connor was the faster one, and Nico had more strength to his blows.

It was Nico who beat Connor. He feinted to the right, with a few complicated twists of his sword. Connor blocked, but it was too late. Nico went for Connor's weak left side, and stabbed him. Connor gasped in pain, his arm falling limp, and the sword dropping from his fingers to land on the ground with a thud.

I heard the roar of a motor cycle, and I turned to look, the bushes whispering as I moved. Nico's head turned in my direction, his eyes narrowed. He walked closer. I held my breath, and hoped he didn't see me. Then I saw my mother.

She looked tired, and her arms were scratched. She hugged Nico, and then she saw Connor, his hand pressed to his side. She stepped toward him, her hand stretched hesitantly forward. "Connor? What happened to you? Is it true that you are the one whose behind all those kids being stolen?"

Connor scowled. "It was your boyfriend. Or whatever he is. Nico. He did this to me. And we must preserve Olympus, and the only way to do that is to get fighters. Because humans are too easily corrupted, too fragile. I'm sure you're with me on this, Min."

"Actually, I'm not." My mother looked stern, her eyes flashing. "I don't see why you have to kidnap peoples' children. The gods aren't really that great, aren't they? All those endless conflicts, sired children…You stole my daughter!"

"It was all for a reason, Min. I'm sorry. But what must be done, must be done." He held her hand, his voice gentle. "But what I can't believe is that you had a child…and the worst part of all…with him."

"You realize I can hear you." Nico was cleaning his sword, whistling. "And Min, Alex and Lin are in the bushes over there…" He gestured with the sword. "They think they're slick, but they aren't that good at hiding. Real amateur."

My mother walked to the shrubs. "Alex? Are you there?"

I stood up, and Lin got up, too. "Mom!" We both yelled, and ran to her, giving her a big hug.

Nico and Connor looked strangely awkward, shifting their feet a little. I guess they weren't used to public displays of love, or they didn't really like kids.

"Well, Connor," Nico said, lazily. "You really don't need half bloods to fight in the upcoming war. I have some ideas…they'll possibly work…I'm not so sure, because nothing that I've been thinking of has been done on such a massive scale. But it's all theoretical."

They started to talk, in real technical terms, stuff about "amount of energy", and after "kilowatts" I just started to tune them out.

"Mom," I said, "Cassile turned out to a mole or spy or something, and she wrapped me and Lin up in nets and knocked us out."

Lin grinned. "We got put into some kind of prison in that big farm house, that one with the big porch over there. I got us out, but there's an unconscious satyr locked inside a cell."

My mother smiled. "Oh dear, Lin. You have to do the most dramatic things, don't you?"

Author's Note: So, hate me, because this is the most boring chapter ever, n'est ce pas?

I just did this chapter to get everyone I needed in the same setting. I like adding references. Yep. Nico's idea will be a slightly altered thing from Psychomech. I read that book ages ago; it's pretty good, if you're into science fiction, and all.

So I'm finally done with this chap, FINALLY! I like fight scenes, but it's a hassle to put them down on paper. Because when I plan the parts of this story out, it comes to my mind as a movie, with subtitles floating along the bottom. And a screenplay and script. I wonder how long this story will be, and what I'll do after it's finished. Can't really think of anything worth doing…