Chapter Nine: Nowhere To Go

Warning: Contains disturbing content

June 19th 2011 - 4 days before the Feast of Fortuna, 1045 hrs, Crawford, Nebraska, United States - Leo Valdez

It was only when it ended that Leo realized what it was - hell on earth.

It was confusing at first. One second he was talking to Naomi in the middle of the hunters' camp, waiting for Jason to return, and the next, the world around them was gone.

"What is this?" Naomi blinked in confusion, her eyes scanning her surroundings furiously, a motion mirrored by all her fellow hunters.

They have found themselves in a house. It was old, the walls were darkened with age, and the wooden floor made sharp noises whenever someone moved. There was a set of stairs, dark with the absence of light, leading to the next level. Leo and Naomi were in a living room of some sort, along with a handful other hunters. There were noises coming from the dining hall and the kitchen, so Leo knew some hunters had winded up there.

A loud gasp came from one of the bedrooms on ground level. Leo and Naomi exchanged an uneasy look, before moving into the room. Two hunters were inside the bedroom, one was Phoebe, the other Leo remembered as Celyn. Celyn's hands were covering her mouth, clearly shocked, her eyes wide in horror. Phoebe, while appearing equally as shocked as Celyn was, was trying to comfort the other girl.

"I-It's not possible!" Celyn gasped, tears forming in her eyes, "This can't be real!"

The room was plain with the lack of color. Only a few simple pieces of furniture confirmed it was habited.

"What's this place?" Leo asked, only earning a glare from Phoebe, "Where are we?"

"I-I…" Celyn started, but ended up sobbing. Tears were streaming down her cheeks freely now, her voice was shaken and her eyes, Leo will never forget the look in Celyn's eyes. Her eyes were filled with utter, raw terror, nothing more, nothing less.

"Celyn, listen, this isn't real." Phoebe tried to comfort Celyn, but it didn't look like she was hearing her. A loud scream came from above, causing every pair of eyes to snap to the source of the sound. Another haunting scream came, filled with fear.

"NO!" Celyn screamed, "NO!"

"Fuck," Phoebe swore under her breath, a look of alarm crossing her features. She grabbed Celyn's shoulders and forcing the girl to look at her, "Look at me. Damn it, look at me! This isn't real, okay? This is only an illusion. He can't hurt you anymore, you are with us."

But Celyn still wasn't listening. Her eyes were no longer focused, her face had an unreal look on it that Leo couldn't name. It felt like finding yourself being thrown into your personal horror movie.

Celyn screamed and bolted up. Her movement was so abrupt that Phoebe was too surprised to register the fact that she had struggled free of her grip. Without a word, she ran out of the room, the wooden floor screeched sharply.

Quickly, Phoebe followed her sister out of the room. A moment later, Leo and the rest of the hunters joined them. Celyn and Phoebe had moved so quickly that Leo only caught a glimpse of Phoebe's figure jolting onto the staircase. A strained, muffled scream was heard, followed by one of Celyn's own.

Leo rushed upstairs, following the screams. He pushed through a door leading to another bedroom, and he understood instantly why Celyn was screaming, and why Phoebe, despite her best efforts, was hopelessly failing to calm the girl down.

There was a young girl. She couldn't have been that much younger than Leo himself, and she looked utterly terrified. Terror was in her eyes as if she had been cursed by Metus with all his might. Tears streaming down her cheeks uncontrollably. She was screaming, crying and shrieking all at once, Leo would have found it funny that a person was capable of doing all these three things at once if he wasn't witnessing what he was.

Like all fairy tales, there was a villain - a man. He looked ferocious, his eyes were maniacally gleeful. And unlike those fairy tales children loved so much, there was no knight in shining armor to rescue the damsel in distress. There was a crazy expression on the man's face, added by the smell of alcohol so vilely strong that Leo could smell it all the way from downstairs.

The man was laughing, and not in a gentle way. His handling was rough as he grabbed the girl's hands, immobilizing her. A wave of nausea washed over Leo's stomach when he realized what was about happen, and judging by the mixed look of horror and loathing he'd say Naomi had a pretty good idea herself.

The girl never stopped screaming. She was struggling and hopelessly so, it was obvious to Leo as the man laughed again and forced his large figure upon her, pressing her body onto the bed with no escape and pinning her legs under his knees tightly.

She led out a heart-piercing cry, her face shooting up desperately, but the man shoved it down roughly. That's when Leo got a good look at the girl's face, and he understood the sickly pale color of Celyn's face, the desperation in Phoebe's eyes and the rage as Celyn's hands shook.

The girl was Celyn.

The man held up a piece of rope, grabbed Celyn's hands and began tying them to the bedposts. A sudden urge of stopping the man and protecting the girl took over Leo's mind. He began to move but found himself unable to. Every muscle in his body was frozen. Leo couldn't move, he struggled against this invisible force, whatever unholy power binding him in his place but no avail. The son of Vulcan briefly recalled how Percy described his battle with Saturn in the throne room of Olympus. The Titan Lord's time spell that had frozen him in time, immobilizing him while Saturn tried to slaughter his friends. Whatever this force was, that had trapped them in this unknown dimension and thought to force them to watch a barbaric act in a twisted manner, was an entirely different kind of magic.

Celyn was crying and pleading, but the man only laughed cruelly as he proceeded to tie her hand. She struggled to set herself free, but the ropes were too thick for her delicate wrists. The girl cried as the man went to tie her feet with another piece of rope. She tried to kick him, earning herself only another monstrous laughter from the man as he subdued her with ease and immobilized her legs as well.

She could no longer struggle now. An entirely different animalistic look crossed the man's face, one of pure lust and desire. He laughed as he ripped the girl's nightgown apart with ease, his hungry eyes taking into her creamy skin. He never once stopped laughing as he tore off the girl's undergarments, ridding her of her last shred of dignity. He eyed the exposed flesh of her breasts lustfully, his hands slipping up the girl's bare thighs as the girl cried.

She cried and pleaded for the man to stop, but he didn't. She cried and pleaded for help, but none came.

Leo was forced to watch as the man forced himself on the girl without much care, blood bleeding from the man's forceful entry. Leo was forced to do nothing but watched as the man committed a savage atrocity repeatedly. They were forced to endure hours of the man's loathsome groans and the girl's silent cries.

And when it was over, the world around them shattered. Celyn's eyes were empty and unseeing as the man and her past-self faded away, she was unresponsive even as her own body melted to a pool of black acid, ignorant of Phoebe's strained cries for help as she died along with the world around them.

They were back to their hastily-made camp and there wasn't a single trace of Celyn's existence left.

Leo was shocked, his body still frozen in place. He didn't hear Phoebe's pained sobbing or Naomi's outraged screams, nor did he see Thalia returning with Jason and Piper, looking as if they'd seen a ghost.

June 18th 2011 - 5 days before the Feast of Fortuna, 1630 hrs, Seattle, Washington, United States - Hazel Levesque

Hazel knew she probably shouldn't have done it, but in her defense, it was just too tempting to resist. Besides if she hadn't, Hazel would probably have ended up with a dozen arrows in her chest before she could make it to the front door.

He was the most beautiful horse Hazel had ever seen in her entire life. Lives, she should say. He was not winged like Percy's pegasi, not majestic and powerful none the less. The power that was radiating from him was so intense that Hazel literally sensed it a mile away.

The Amazon headquarters was a maze and the fact that she was blindfolded when they dragged her in didn't help at all. It was strange as if the horse was calling out to her. Hazel knew how absurd it sounded, but it was the only explanation given that she didn't just find her away and stumble upon the horse by pure coincidence.

Luck was a luxury foreign to children of Pluto. There was a long time that Hazel thought she was a walking curse, and sometimes she still thought that true. The poor creature was caged, his fierce brown eyes regarding Hazel impatiently as if saying it was about damn time she got there.

Hazel had caught two Amazons by surprise and put them down with relative ease. They didn't expect her to put up much of a fight, but rather handing herself over to be put to sword willingly. She'd snatched a weapon off one of the Amazons. They were only unconscious, since killing someone with your bare hands was really not as easy as some made it to be. As a daughter of Pluto, Hazel could sense their life forces still tied to their bodies.

The Imperial Gold spear wasn't as comfortable as her Spatha, but it was better than nothing. The Amazons were closely behind her, and yet she magically stopped in front of the cage, being pulled to him by an unexplainable force. She busted the lock open with the butt of her spear and freed the horse. Hazel could swear it was the same horse she chased in Alaska during her first lifetime. At first, she thought it absurd, then again so was the notion that Gods of Roman mythology were real, and she was the daughter of one.

The horse led out what could only be described as a triumphant roar before Hazel jumped onto his back, something strange in the back of her mind telling her she could trust the creature. The horse took off running, moving even faster than Peleus and Hazel had to hold onto him for her dear life.

It was apparent that the horse knew his way around the Amazon headquarters, before less than a minute later, she was free, leaving the Amazons behind in the sky of Seattle. Hazel briefly wondered about Percy and Zoë, then decided if anyone could either charm their way out of there or fight, it would be the pair of them. Though knowing her friends, they'd probably end up cutting down every Amazon in their way until they were free.

Hazel would have loved to ride all the way to Alaska, but the idea of returning to that place alone wasn't very much appealing. Besides, she knew the Amazons had either bribed or manipulated the mortal police into believing she and her friends were dangerous terrorists responsible for an attack on American soil. Hazel had no doubt every pair of eyes on the planet was looking for her, thanks to Otrera and her mortal buddies.

Hazel knew that the mortals had radars, and while it was possible that the magical horse she was riding would be invisible to mortal radars, who was to say that the Amazons didn't have magical radars of their own built? She couldn't afford to take that chance, and knowing how ruthlessly the mortals worked from Percy's description of his third quest if air passage was being monitored closely, she best not risk it.

So, with much regret, Hazel hopped off the horse, told him she'd find a way to let him know if she needed him, and spent the next hour trying to figure out how she was supposed to get out of Seattle with police filling the streets and helicopters flying in the sky, looking for her.

That being said, when a SWAT truck pulled over in front of her, Hazel knew she was in trouble.

The backdoor swung open and half a dozen mortal policemen armed to the teeth jumped off. Hazel took off running, turning around the corner of the block as heavy footsteps followed. She halted sharply, concealing her body from the view of her pursuers with the red brick wall. Hazel raised her spear just as the first of the mortal cops caught up to her. She jabbed the butt of her spear onto the face of the unsuspected mortal, before swinging it around and sweeping the second off his feet.

Hazel barely had the time to bend down and pick up a gun when bullets started flying. She swore under her breath, took cover behind the wall and started running again. She barged into a house, fired her gun at the front porch and made for the back door, apologizing to the family she'd threatened on the way.

The back door was kicked open, revealing a cop waiting for her with his rifle. Not pausing, Hazel body-slammed the cop, catching him by surprise and sending both of them flying onto the street. Hazel raised her fist and delivered a strong blow to the mortal's jaw before jumping back on her feet and taking off running once again.

This time, she found an apartment building. Another armored SWAT truck stopped in front of her, with her pursuers still behind her, Hazel took a left turn and smashed open the apartment door with her spear. Hazel wasted no time and flung herself onto the stairs. She cocked her gun and fired at the gap between the staircase, pinning down her pursuers as the mortal police scrambled for cover.

She didn't stop until the clip was empty. Hazel dropped the gun, took note of the level she was on and made for the apartments. She found an unlocked door and entered the apartment, it was empty. Loud noises of helicopter propellers came from the balcony, so she ran onto the balcony and popped her head out, praying to Pluto there weren't any snipers around.

Hazel saw half a dozen more SWAT officers dropping from the helicopter onto the roof of the apartment building she found herself in. Quickly, Hazel went back into the apartment and made for the kitchen. She picked up a very sharp-looking knife from the kitchen just as heavy footsteps of armed police came from the hallway outside the apartment, banging at doors and ordering inhabitants to clear their homes.

Hazel calculated she had very little time left, and dropped to a knee, hiding from the view just as knocks came from the other side of the door. A few seconds later, when it became clear that nobody was going to answer, the door was kicked down. Two SWAT officers barged in, their rifles raised. The pair of mortals exchanged a quick look before one of them made for the narrow hallway leading to the bedrooms while the other made straight for the kitchen.

A plan quickly formed in her mind. Hazel waited until the unsuspected mortal was only inches away. She sprung into action, elbowing the mortal in the stomach. The man went down, having the wind knocked out of him. He struggled to get up, but Hazel grabbed him by the back of his head and slammed it onto the hard kitchen counter, knocking him out cold.

The commotion in the kitchen made had made a lot of noise because a few seconds later, the other cop came rushing from the empty hallway, his eyes searching behind the scope of his rifle. Hazel picked up the knife and hurled it with dead accuracy. The knife landed on the mortal's neck and he went down not a second later.

A small tug of guilt was present in the back of Hazel's mind as life existed the mortal but she had little time for that. It was either him or she and Hazel had no plan to be executed by Terra's minions. She moved to the living room just as two more SWATs stormed into the apartment. Her instincts took over as Hazel struck the first mortal in the leg with her spear, but the second had already moved to flank her.

Hazel's spear clattered to the ground as the mortal slammed her against the wall, her arms twisted behind her as the mortal grabbed her hands to cuff them, an unpleasant sense of déjà vu washed over her as scenes from the café flashed in her mind.

"Hazel Levesque you are under arrest f-" the mortal began, but Hazel head-butted him while he was busy reaching for handcuffs. The mortal stumbled away with a loud curse while Hazel picked up his dropped rifle and drove the butt of the gun onto his face.

More footsteps could be heard outside the apartment as Hazel led out a heavy sigh. She quickly moved to the balcony, preparing to execute her escape plan. She saw a police cruiser pulling over by the apartment building and knew it was her chance.

Hazel tried to calm her raging mind, telling herself she had done crazier things in her life, but it was making her feel any better. Sending a silent prayer to her father, Hazel leaped off the balcony just as more mortal policemen stormed into the apartment.

After possibly the longest few seconds of her life, Hazel's back landed on top of the police cruiser painfully. Knocked off her breath, Hazel rolled herself off the car hood, groaning as she did. It was then when she realized there were two mortal policemen sitting in the car, staring at her wide-eyed through the windshield.

"Well hello there," Hazel groaned, her back aching. Thanks to the godly blood in her veins, Hazel was still in once piece after jumping off a balcony on the eleventh floor, but her body sure felt otherwise.

Almost as if a cue, both mortals started moving. They opened the car doors and reached for their guns. Hazel's body screamed in protest as she leaped, driving her fist onto the first mortal cop's face. The mortal dropped in a thud while Hazel sprung her body around, using the car door as a lever and throwing her body off the ground, performing a flip mid-air and landing behind the second mortal. In a swift motion, Hazel smashed his face onto the car hood.

Cracking her bones with a loud curse, Hazel swung herself onto the driver's seat. She was surprised when the engines started, but no complaints.

Hazel drove the cruiser off just as more police vehicles surrounded the apartment building, thanking Pluto her insane grand escape plan worked. It would certainly be something to brag about to her friends when all this was over.

Just when Hazel thought she'd gotten away, a bullet whipped past her and landed on the windshield. Trying to calm her once again raging mind, Hazel glimpsed into the rear mirror and caught sight of a cruiser trailing behind her, one of the windows rolled down with the point of a gun aimed at her.

Hazel's attention was caught by her new pursuer that she forgot about the most basic rule of driving - always keep your eyes on the road. Her cruiser rammed into an armored SWAT truck.

Hazel's world was spinning. She struggled to keep her eyes open, only to see more armed police approaching her car. Hazel dove for cover just in time as automatic rifles started firing, the mortals were more than a little trigger-happy - the work of Otrera no doubt.

The mortal police had her car surrounded, their guns ablaze. Hazel tried to reach for her rifle a few feet away from her, but a bullet whipped past her, leaving a bruise on her arm. Hazel cursed and was forced to stay hidden.

A deafening silence descended when the mortals stopped firing a full minute later, probably out of ammo. Either way, Hazel spotted her opportunity to get away when a mortal policeman approached her car with slow, cautious steps.

The mortal policeman stopped short of Hazel's cruiser, his eyes looking into the shattered window when Hazel lunged at him. The daughter of Pluto grabbed the barrel of his rifle and shoved the butt of his weapon at the mortal, breaking his nose effectively. She swung the unconscious body around and pulled the trigger of his rifle before the rest of his unit could fire again.

The mortals scrambled for cover as the rifle blazed into life. Shots were fired from her back and Hazel ducked her head low. She snatched the mortal's sidearm from his holster, spun around and fired. Kicking the door open while the narrow window was not yet closed to her, Hazel grabbed her rifle and jumped off her cruiser. The SWATs resumed their assault and Hazel was forced to use her car as cover.

Two more mortal cops were in front of her, using their cruiser for cover. Hazel cocked her rifle and was about to fire when the two mortals collapsed, revealing a man behind them. He was maybe twenty years old and a full foot taller than her. He had very handsome features, a muscular figure, short black hair and his eyes were light brown, more intriguing than any other pair of eyes Hazel had ever seen. He wore a black suit and dark blue eyes with a white shirt underneath. A pistol was held in his right hand, the muzzle of his gun was smoking.

"Come on then!" He shouted at her, a slight accent in his voice, his head tilting at the black car behind him, "Get in the car if you want to live!"

Not certain of what was going on but equally uncertain of any realistic alternative that didn't involve getting her killed, Hazel did as she was told and threw herself into the car.

June 18th 2011 - 5 days before the Feast of Fortuna, 1730 hrs, Amazon Headquarters - Seattle, Washington, United States - Hylla Ramírez-Arellano

"Do you have any idea what you are asking me of?" Hylla's lieutenant, Kinzie, questioned incredulously from the other side of the Iris Message.

"Please Kinzie," Hylla pleaded, "You know I would never ask you to take such a risk if there was another way."

Zoë decided to jump in when Kinzie still didn't look totally convinced.

"Kinzie," the ex-huntress interjected, "I know it's a lot to ask, but every second we spend arguing is another second for Terra to build-up her strength. An army is marching on New Rome and in five days, the Romans will be wiped out with the strength of the Amazons behind her. If you don't do this, then we truly stand no chance in winning this war."

"Fine," Kinzie said, biting her bottom lip, "We will make our move, tonight, be ready."

"We will be," Hylla nodded, "Thank you."

"That was close," Hazel led out a sigh in relief as the car steered away. She turned and looked at her rescuer, "Who are you?"

"Name's John Smith darling," He flashed a bright smile at her charmingly.

"I'm Hazel," Hazel offered.

"I know that sweetheart," Replied John with a smirk, "The entire country knows who you are Hazel Levesque. You and your friends are on top of the FBI's most wanted list for domestic terrorism charges."

"Then why are you helping me?" Hazel raised an eyebrow at John.

"Us Romans got to stick together," He grinned at her, "Besides, the moment cops dragged you into the Amazons HQ, I knew something was up."

"You are a Roman?" Hazel wasn't actually all that surprised since she didn't think anyone else would help her, "How come I never seen you at New Rome."

"I finished my enlistment a few years ago," John explained smoothly, "I didn't want to be stuck at Camp Jupiter forever, so I thought I'd take my chances in the mortal world. I'm a federal agent, turns out what the legion teaches you do come in handy at job interviews."

"How did you know I'm a Roman?" Hazel's eyebrows furrowed.

"You can thank Praetor Reyna for that, she contacted me a few days earlier, told me about your quest and asked me to offer my help to you and your friends if you run into any trouble," John grinned dazzlingly, "Besides I just can't resist it when I see a pretty girl."

For some strange reason, Hazel found herself returning that grin.

AN: Now that's done with, Percy and Zoë will finally be getting out of the Amazon dungeon next chapter. Hazel and John will be having some fun on their way to Alaska and the place Jason, Leo, Piper and the hunters have found themselves in will be explained in the next chapter.