A/N-

Hey people! ELM here with a new chapter, and yes, ELM is talking in third person right now. It is fun you should try it.

ELM will probably be able to update more frequently for the next few weeks because she is now finished with her finals. Now, ELM just has to wait out her nerves about the chem final she took last week. (Urggg… I can't do this anymore. Back to first person). This is chapter the longest one I have ever written, and I, personally feel like it is one of the best.

I only got two reviews last chapter, but thank you to those who did. I did, however, have tons of people favorite and subscribe to this story, making my most popular one (Well, technically my Mortal Instruments one has the most hits, but apparently PJO people favorite, subscribe, and review more often than MI readers do!). So anyways, thank you to everyone that did F, S, R, or even read my story.

I don't own PJO and I most likely never will. Now on to chapter 5!

After about an hour, we were herded back into our cells, it turns out, Piper wasn't that far away from me, and Leo was next to her. I laid back down on my cot and started to prepare myself for the most boring week of my life.

Chapter 5-

"Demigods, today we offer you a choice. Those who manage to prove their trust may join the Kronos's army. You fill fight to protect our nation from its enemies," said the officer. "Those who choose not to fight will be given an opportunity to help out in another way."

I had been at the prison for about a week and I had already fallen into the same routine. I'd wake up, talk with Rachel, eat, try to talk with Piper though the wall, go outside, talk to Piper and Leo, go back inside, eat, take a nap, talk with Rachel, eat, and go to sleep. It was, without a doubt, the most boring experience of my life.

I had originally thought that day would follow the same schedule, but it didn't. Instead of going outside, we had been herded into a large room. In the front of the room, was a small platform with a podium sitting on top of it, like what you would find in small church. There was a door entering on to the platform. The only other exit was through were the prisoners had entered.

The officer had waited for everyone to get situated, before going on about how it was our duty to help the army. The odd thing was, I found that a part of me was agreeing with him. Kronos and the Titans really have done a lot for me, I thought, I should join the army. A son of Poseidon would obviously be useful.

I was draw out of my thoughts by Piper saying, "This is ridiculous. They lock us here, and then think that few pretty words will convince us to join them." All the thoughts I had had about joining Kronos vanished from my mind. A few of the other demigods also seemed to agree. The weird thing was, that just a few moments ago, they, like me, had completely agreed with the office.

"Piper's right," declared Leo, "There's no way I'd fighting for them."

"But, they won't just let us go, will they?" I asked hesitantly.

Nobody answered.

The officer was just finishing his speech, "Anyone who would like to serve our nation, can up here and join me in this journey to protect our wonderful nation of Titania." It sounded like a bad student council speech, you know, the type no one actually listens to because everyone knows that they're going to win.

About a third of the demigods imminently went up. Half of those that remained followed after a moment's hesitation. I stayed were I was. So did Piper, Leo, and the other couple dozen demigods that had heard Piper's speech. We were the only ones who stayed.

The officer frowned when he saw that we were still there, but still led the new recruits out though the off the stage. The guards, then, came back and dragged us to our cells. When I was locked away, Rachel raised questioning eyebrow. I quickly explained it to her.

When I was finished, her eyes had gone wide and she was quickly shaking her head back and forth. I asked what was wrong, but she didn't answer.

I had a feeling that Rachel Elizabeth Dare knew much more than she was letting on.

(Page Break)

The guards came back that evening and removed everyone from their cells. From there, we were marched out of the compound and toward the main gate. Waiting there were five large, black vans. The guard holding me, immediately dragged me over to the second van on the right. It was fairly obvious that I had been assigned a seat in that particular car.

Once inside the van, my already handcuffed hands were tied to a wooden bar that ran along the ceiling above the benches. This same thing happened to each of the other prisoners. Two soldiers climbed into the back of the truck and sat their holding their celestial bronze machine guns.

The guard flung open the van's back door before pushing me in. There another soldier grabbed me. He glanced at the newly acquired tattoo on my arm before throwing me down on a bench and tying my hands to a bar above my head.

I guess I should explain he tattoo.

I few days earlier, a guard and the facilities doctor had come through holding a large suit case. They stopped at every cell and went in. Sometimes it was quiet, but other times, you could hear the cells occupant whimpering.

I didn't figure out what was happening till they reached my cell. The guard opened the door and the doctor sent the suit case down on the cot. He then opened it up and took out several instruments. One was a tattoo gun.

The doctor grabbed my arm and forced into a clamp so that it would remain still, he then began to place the tattoo. It consisted of six characters, three letters three numbers. UnK149. Later that day, I saw Piper and Leo's they were UnK127 and UnK163. Some of the other kids had the first three letters of their parents name written out, like Apo27 or Dem18.

The car jumped to life and we began to move. It was about six minutes before my ADHD got the better of me and I began to fidget. I tried to stop, but it was just so boring. I started talking deep breaths and tried to relax. I must have worked, because soon, I was drifting to sleep.

I was standing in a magnificent throne room. While the one at Mt. Orthys was dark and harsh, this one was glistening with power. However the occupants of the thrones were all in rather disheveled states.

In the center of the twelve thrones were a man and a woman who looked as though they enjoyed being in charge. The woman was wearing a long, Greek style dress that's colors resembled that of peacock. It looked like it would have cost a mint, but it ruined by the tear up its side. The man next to her had forsaken his pinstriped jacket and rolled his shirt up to his elbows. His tie had been loosened, and his hair looked like he had run his hands through it many times. The man next to him looked like our average beach goer, that got caught in a tropical storm. He looked familiar, but I couldn't guess where I would have seen him.

A woman with startling grey eyes was talking. She looked too looked familiar, but I couldn't seem to place her either. "We still have a chance. The oracle's prophecy hasn't been fulfilled," she said. "I assume one of you does have a child who could fit the prophecy?"

At this a man I hadn't noticed before spoke up. He was tall with greasy black hair and was wearing ripped robes, "I have two kids hidden away in the Lotus Hotel and Casino."

The stressed out guy glared at him, but was stopped by the beach goer saying, "I to have a child."

"Very good," said the women. "We now have three options for the prophesized child. Hermes, go tell Chiron about the three of them." A man in a jogging suit that was cover in mud stood up, but before he could leave, sometime rammed against the door to the throne room.

The occupants of the room froze and stared at the door. Another ram. At this the grey eyed woman was drawn back into reality. "Hermes," she cried, "Go! Now!"

The man-Hermes- began to glow, but it was too late. The door was rammed into again, but this time, it fell with a bang.

(Page Break)

I tried not to think about the dream as we were loaded out of the truck. The cars had pulled over in an ally way. The building to right looked like it was some type of fancy hotel and the other looked like a mall. There was only one door in the ally, and it lead into the hotel.

The other two cars had begun to unload their passengers as well. I saw Leo being pulled out of one of them, but I soon lost track of him as I was pulled through the door into the hotel. I couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Piper the other vans.

We were brought into a large room that had five steel poles, evenly spaced around the room. The guard holding me dragged me over to one and chained me to it. More and more people were brought into the room. There were four other people on the same pole as me.

I had met most of the people I was with. There was an Athena kid named Malcolm, an unknown named Lacy, a son of Apollo named Will, and a son of Iris named Butch. Leo had been attached to a pull a little way over.

"What's going to happen to us?" asked Lacy.

Malcolm signed and looked over at me, as though to say 'should I deal with this, or do you have it?' I gestured for him to go ahead. He put an arm around her as best he could, and began to tell the little girl that everything would work out, and we would be out of here in no time.

"My sister is part of the rebellion," he said. "She will come and get us out of here. You can count on that."

"Your sister?" I asked.

"Half, she was one of the people that blew up the museum a few weeks ago. I've never met her, but I've had dream…" he trailed off at the end, but I couldn't help but be reminded of my own dreams, the ones that seemed to vivid to be fake.

(Page break)

After about thirty minutes, the guards came back into the room and untied a group from their pull, and were taken through a door and brought further into the hotel. Beside me, Lacey had begun to shake and whimper.

A couple minutes after they had been taken, a roar of laughter was heard through the walls. Lacey gave a small shriek and Will attempted to comfort her.

I glanced over to where Leo was chained. Where a once happy, hyper, and cheeky kid had sat, was now an empty shell. He was pale and staring at the door, flinching and every sound that emanated from it, as though he was imagining the types of horrible torture that must have been going on behind the door.

This continued on for about ten more minutes, before the guards came back. They didn't have anyone with them. The guards began to walk to the pull closet to the door, my pole. My hands were shaking as we were unchained and lead through the door way. The last thing in that room, I saw were Leo's frightened eyes staring at me.

A/N-

Well that's a wrap. Jk. I was about to end it here, but I decided to be nice and give you wonderful readers a little extra. SO KEEP READING!

I was brought into a big room with stage at the front. The main floor was filled with a few lines of chairs occupied by people who could only be from the Lacertus class. Standing on the stage, was a man in a black suit with a bright green tie. He was holding one of those wireless microphones in his hand.

The guard arranged Malcolm, Will, Butch, Lacey, and I in a line. Malcolm was first, I was second.

It was only after suit guy started talking that I realized what was going on. He walked over to Malcolm and to talk. "Let's see what we have here," he said. "He's nice and young, maybe thirteen at the most, but already has a nice start of muscle…"

I felt like I was going to throw up. I had heard about these types of events. I was at— in—a Intactilis slave auction. My step-father had sometimes gone them to buy new slaves, although my mom and I disapproved, we couldn't do anything about it. Instead she just tried to make their lives as easy and comfortable as possible. I had to stop myself from scanning the crowds for Gabe. If he was here, my life from now on would not be fun.

The auctioneer had finished explaining Malcolm attributes to the crowd. "Let's start at about, say…" I stopped listening. I had no desire to find out what this guy felt he was worth.

At some point, he was sold, and led off the stage by two guards. The auctioneer then moved on to me. "Now here, is a good one," he said. "You can just tell that this kid will be growing some muscle soon. It won't take very long, just put him in something that involves lifting and in a few months he'll be ready for some more heavy duty work." The crowd laughed, but I didn't understand the joke. "Let's start the bidding at say, $750?"

A few people raised signs and called out a new number this continued for a few minutes, until the auctioneer called out, "1,250. Going once, going twice, and sold to number 53. Remember to stop at the front desk on your way out to pick up and register him." With that, a guard lead my off the stage.

A/N-

How was it? Did you suspect the slave thing from the speech at the beginning or not? Was Leo to OCC? What do you think happened to Piper? Did everyone get that Percy was dreaming of the past? Did the whole chapter seem realistic, or boring?

There are a few other things that I do want your guy's opinion on. First off, do you that I should get a beta reader for this story. I currently don't have one and am a bit hesitant to get one because it will slow down updates, what do you readers think?

Secondly, I have was going through all the files on my computer, and found a bunch of un-finished stories that I had published and never started. A part of me wants to pick them back up, however I'm worried that it will interfere with the updating of this story. Should I start a new thing or wait till this is done?

Thanks for reading!

~ELM