Chapter Thirty-Five


Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series by Rick Riordan, nor do I own Star Holder Commander's character, Walker. I do own all of the other OCs mentioned.


Adrienne's POV

"Guys, I think she's waking up,"

I felt something cool being held against my forehead. There were sounds of some shuffling and something like backpacks being unzipped and supplies pulled out. I slowly blink open my eyes to see the four of them staring down at me.

James was on his knees right beside me, holding a damp rag on my forehead. Jade had pulled out a small portion of Ambrosia and Tristan had a bottle half-full of Nectar.

Keegan was also on his knees, and he was right behind me. He had his fingers lightly pressed against my temples, and his eyes were closed. He was humming a familiar tune very quietly, it was almost comforting. Something about it reminded me of mom.

"Addie, can you hear me?" James asks.

I blink and look at him. "Yea..um, what happened?" I start to get up, only to be held down by James and Tristan. Keegan hummed an irritated note in his little song.

"Why won't you let me move?"

"Keegan is trying to heal you. You broke some bones when you landed,"

"Landed? What do you mean? What happened to the monster?" I was about to move my head around, but then thought about it and realized that would probably be a bad idea.

They were all silent for a moment, except Keegan who was still humming away, and starting to rub my temples. James and Tristan exchange a glance, then look back at me.

"Adds, what all do you remember?" Tristan asks.

"Just—I was climbing on top of the monster, and I stabbed its weak spot with my stars. Then I—," I pause, racking my brain for what happened next, "What—what happened after that?"

"You fell, all the way from the thing's neck," Jade says.

"I Analyzed you and you broke your right leg, and a couple of ribs. And you landed on a rock, and it pierced into your lower back and chipped the backbone," James says.

"So is that what Keegan's doing? Fixing everything?" I ask.

"As much as he can, hopefully he'll be able to at least mend the bones before he runs out of juice. Then we have the Ambrosia and Nectar as the backups," Tristan says, shaking the bottle he was holding.

I sigh and close my eyes. Now that they mentioned it, my leg really did hurt. Not as much as a broken one should, but I was guessing that the lack of agony was because of Keegan.

A couple of minutes pass, and I feel Keegan lift his fingers off of my head. I hear a 'thud' behind me and my eyes snap open.

"Well, I'd say he's out of juice," Jade says.

James grabs my hands and pulls me up into a sitting position. My chest ached a little when I would breathe, and my lower back was a little sore, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle.

I look behind me to see Keegan sprawled on his back. His eyes were closed and his chest was rising and falling with ease. He completely knocked himself out trying to heal me. Jade was crouched down next to him, tilting his head up a little and pouring small portions of Nectar into his mouth.


When Keegan had finally woken, he had said he had had a dream while he was out. It had been Walker telling him where we have to go next, our final destination.

We were going to Piscataquis, Maine, to the old Baxter State Park. Keegan had told us as much as he could remember, which was our end destination and then what Walker had said, about why he couldn't meet us in person.

Keegan had said that there was something blocking Walker from coming, some kind of dark magic. He was completely stumped as to why he couldn't get past it, he said he had tried everything, and still nothing. He said that if he can get past it, he'll come to us on our way, but otherwise, he'll be communicating with us through dreams, since it's the safest way without any unwanted ears listening in.

We were walking along what appeared to be a hiking trail of some sort. Tristan had some maps in his backpack, one of which was a changing map for demigods on quests. It had been a gift from Uncle Leo for Tristan's fifteenth birthday. You would place your hand in the center of it, and it could read where you were and where you were headed. Then it would give you some relatively safe ways to go to get there. Very hi-tech demigod technology, of which monsters couldn't track you if you used it, unlike the old cell phones mom and dad had to use when they were teenagers.

I was walking towards the back of our group with James beside me. I had a large stick I was using as a support, since my leg wasn't quite back to normal. Jade had found it for me before we had left the grassy hill.

"I thought I told you not to Analyze me," I say, keeping my voice low so the others wouldn't hear me.

James sighs, stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets. "We didn't have another choice to see if anything was broken,"

"Couldn't Keegan have done it?"

He shakes his head. "He doesn't possess that ability. You know how demigods work, even children of the same god don't have the same abilities as others do,"

"Well then why couldn't you have just poured Nectar down my throat?"

"We weren't going to risk moving your head, that would have been too risky,"

I give an unhappy sigh, running a hand through my unruly hair. Since I had conveniently left my hair brush in the Hades cabin back at Camp, it had just gotten curlier and more tangled over the time we had been traveling. Thankfully, I hadn't forgotten hairbands, so I could at least tie it up if it got too hot.

"James, you know the risks of Analyzing someone. That's why mom and dad told you not to after that first incident,"

"Well what was I supposed to do?" he whispers, clearly agitated and worried out of his mind.

I wait a moment, because I didn't know how to answer. He was right, really. There hadn't been anything else he could have done. My silence was apparently enough of an answer for him, because he just huffed and crossed his arms, not saying anything else.

I look ahead of us, seeing nothing but dense trees and lots of roots crawling all over the worn path. I was already having difficulties walking along this trail, I didn't want to think about trying to walk over those roots.

But if it got us to mom and dad and Mike, I was willing to do anything. Anything at all.

A/N:

And we're at the calm before the storm...exciting, right? And I know, I know, you're probably dying to know what the whole Analyzing thing was about, and that will be explained in the last installment, I promise.

Speaking of which, I decided to call it "The Haunting Injustice." I think it just kinda fits, y'know? And that will not be started for another two weeks, so chapter one will be up sometime on November 17th! I always like to take a little break after finishing a story, so I can refuel my ideas and get everything sorted out, so it makes the writing process easier.

And boy, I am so excited to be writing in Kyra's POV again, and James's as well. Don't get me wrong, Nico and Adrienne were fun to write in, but for some reason, Kyra and James are so much easier for me to do. Kyra I can understand, because I've been writing in hers for so long, but James's..well, I dunno why he's easier than Adrienne.

That's all for the A/N for tonight, because I'm pretty tired. I hate Day Light Savings. I'll reply to last week's reviews sometime tomorrow after I get off work for the same reason.

M/A:

"'Buy hope, hope that it lasts,
Give in, forget the past
Be strong when things fall apart,
Honest this breaks my heart'"

~ Please Take Me Home by Blink-182

XOXO,

Mrs-diAngelo25