XII

PANDA

They brought me to the basement, out of all places. No chairs, no bathrooms, nothing; just dust and humidity. The camper who'd brought me down had taken off the cuffs and to my horror, took the dagger and he locked the door. All I had to keep me company were the scratches on the wall Chris had made when he was down here insane, and a yellow light bulb hanging on the ceiling. I sat on the floor with my head against the wall.

Thoughts about the capture kept circling in my head. I kept trying to figure it out. I knew Annabeth wasn't one to drop friendship at the drop of a hat, even for the gods; especially not if it were Percy out in the field. So I thought. Why?

I changed positions several times as I wondered. Flat on my back, flat on my stomach, my butt stuck to the wall with my legs crossed against the wall, doing the table. I occasionally kicked the wall and then hopped on a foot as I rubbed my sore foot, every time I shot down a possible theory for the betrayal.

"Think Panda!" I mumbled in frustration as I pulled at my hair. I slumped to the floor and held my knees close to my chest as I rocked back in forth. The only reason I would ever betray someone is to… I jumped up.

"That's it!" I whispered, as the door of the basement opened and yellow light poured in. The door closed again and a figure walked down the steps. It was Annabeth. Normally, I'd be glad to have a chance to talk to her, but her action had seriously delayed my plans to fix things, so now, I was just angry at her.

"Hey," she said, as she stopped a few feet away from me. I didn't answer, because if I opened my mouth, nothing she liked would come out. She sighed.

"Panda please, I did this to help you," she said, a look of plea came over her face.

"I had it under control," I said. Her face changed, into sarcastic mocking.

"Under control?" she asked incredulously. "You had nothing under control and like always I had to be the one to think of a plan!" she said, taking a step toward me. That was the final straw for me to crack.

"Dammit Annabeth! You are not the only one who has plans! And you don't know everything," I said angrily as I walked closer to her. She didn't flinch to my sudden outburst, but her eyes grew dangerous.

"Fine then, why don't you tell me how much you've screwed up?" she says sarcastically.

"Annabeth, that dagger is not safe here," I said, lowering my voice.

"Yes, it is," she countered.

"It needs to be with me," I said, trying to keep my anger on a leash again.

"What? You think you're the only one who can protect it?" she said, her hands moving as she spoke.

"Now? Yes! Annabeth, the only reason the gods don't have it yet is because I have it."

"You're also killing them with it Panda! When is it going to stop?! When every god and goddess and Olympus is nothing but a memory?!" Annabeth said, her voice beginning to rise.

"I didn't have a choice!"

"Everyone has a choice!" Annabeth yelled. I silenced and looked down, before I spoke again.

"Annabeth, if you had been in my position…" I looked up at her, "you would've done the same."

"I'm not you Panda," she said defensively.

"But you aren't perfect and you're human… most of the time," I said. A look of defeat and the desire to be right burned in her eyes. I turned around and took a few steps.

"Everyone says revenge is bad, but… it's something hard to resist. It's something hard to not want." I turned to look at her. She had her arms crossed now and her eyes flooding with anger.

"I won't lie. It felt good to see him die," I admitted shamefully. "But it's the after effects that really get to you," I said, closing up the distance between us. "If it had been Percy, you wouldn't have thought twice before doing what I had done," I said. The anger suddenly left her eyes. I knew she was thinking about him, about how her world would shatter around her if Percy had died. She was looking away, towards the floor. I touched her shoulder. I locked eyes with her.

"Annabeth, I regret what I did, but it's done. The only thing left to do is to try to make amends. I have a plan, but I need the dagger," I said. She blinked slowly, as if arguing with herself internally.

"Fine," she said softly, but with a hint of reluctance. "But the only way you can get out of here and me keep my status, you'll have to escape."

"Perfect," I said.

After she had told me her plan, she had left; locking me back up in the musky basement. She would come back at night, at midnight. So I wasted time as best I could in the basement. Working out, singing, using a piece of wood from the stairs to perfect my skills at tic tac toe on the wall. I tried not to think, but memories of Ryder kept coming back with a vengeance. I would wipe my cheeks and feel a cold wetness from tears I hadn't even known I'd let go. I would feel a lump in my throat appear and I would feel my heart hurt. Every time I blinked I saw his face. His Godforsaken face. The face I'd fallen in love with, the face that had brought me the greatest happiness, but now only brought me the greatest sorrow. Every time I thought of him, happiness, guilt, sadness and anger flooded me, to the point I didn't know what to feel.

Why did he wait until he died to freaking tell me he loved me? To finally kiss me? I touched my lips and I could feel his blood, his cold lips against mine. It was a nightmare. A lot of people feel sorry for the ones departed, but no one ever thinks about the ones left behind. The ones who suffer the most.

It felt like a lifetime, before I heard the door to the basement open. It snapped me out of my thoughts, which I was glad about. Annabeth tip-toed down the stairs and tripped on the last step, almost falling on her face. I stifled a laugh and ran over to help her. She had tripped on the same exact place I had taken the piece of wood from.

"Sorry, I kind of borrowed some wood…" I said. She just rolled her eyes and jerked her head towards the door as she walked back up. We closed and locked the door. She taped a piece of paper to the door, saying: PRISONER AGGRESSIVE, NO CHAINS, DO NOT ENTER. She had told me this would give me "a reason to have escaped". She took me to the back. She opened a door and I saw two cages with two crumpled up figures inside. She grabbed the keys, pulled one out and gripped the others to silence their jingling.

Percy was in the first cage. He lifted up his head and smiled.

"Where are the supplies?" he asked, as he stood up.

"Under the porch steps, three bags, extra weapons," Annabeth answered as she opened his door. She walked over to Nico's and released him next. Nico tapped Annabeth's shoulder with his fist in gratitude.

"Okay, there's a map in your bags with safe houses circled in red. The ones Thalia and I had made. Hopefully, things will be fixed before you need to go to any of them. You're weapons are in your bags as well," Annabeth said, as she hung up the keys.

"Thanks Annie," Nico said with a cocky smile. Annabeth stuck her tongue out at him as Nico walked out the door.

"He's lucky he's got an army of skeletons behind him," Annabeth mumbled.

"You know you like it," Nico said, pulling his head around the doorframe again and winked. Annabeth rolled her eyes. I touched Annabeth's shoulder.

"Thanks Annabeth, I owe you," I said.

"If you can get this fixed, that's enough," she replied. She stayed silent and I quickly got the hint that she wanted time with Percy, so I left. I found Nico in the living room of the Big House and sat next to him.

"You think the plan will work?" I asked him. He looked at me.

"Do you want the truth or a lie?" he said softly. I sighed.

"Lie," I said.

"It's going to work perfectly, without a hitch. Everything's going to work out right and everything will be good again," he said, leaning closer to me.

"Liar," I said. Nico chuckled softly. He put his hand on my shoulder.

"It's going to be okay Panda," he said, a soft smile playing on his lips. At that, Percy and Annabeth walked out.

"This is as far as I'm going with you guys. I can't risk one of my campers noticing my disappearance," she said, as she walked to the front door. "Be careful," she said, her gaze landing and holding Percy's. With a forced smile she then walked out into the darkness.

Okay, so like always, let me know what you think! Thanks guys :) I'm glad you liked the last chapter, so I won't change it.