Hello everyone,

Thank you all for reading my story. Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts from Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.

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With best regards,
SharkAttack719

Περσεύς 14

Into the Hands of the Predator

My dreams had continuously gotten worse as I got older. My latest was no exception.

I was on top of Mount Othrys, also known as the Mountain of Despair, and it was daytime, around noon. The swirling vortex of the sky appeared above me, the goddess Artemis still holding it up.

She looked horrible now, her clothes torn even more than before. There was a scratch running down the side of her face, golden ichor seeping out of the wound. Her teeth were clenched and her eyes were closed, her face distorted in pain. I couldn't imagine holding up the sky, even for a goddess like her. I would say she is the strongest goddess in terms of muscle strength and has the highest will out of the Olympians.

The fact that she was struggling to hold up the sky was not a good thing.

I saw a figure standing in the background, his grim face staring at the goddess of the moon.

I noticed the eye patch that covered his left eye and immediately felt relentlessly angry.

Artemis seemed to recognize the presence. "What are you doing here, traitor?" she growled.

"Thinking," was all the son of Nemesis said.

"You know you will not be able to win all of this," the goddess said. "My lieutenant and the daughter of Zeus are leading the rescue party. They will succeed."

"You seem to have much faith in one who refused to join the Hunt," Ethan noticed.

Artemis grunted. "She is still a maiden. She is not a lost cause yet."

"Your plan is foolish, Lady Artemis," he said. "The General will be able to kill your lieutenant with a quick swipe. Thalia will join us once she sees Luke on our side. I know she still harbors feelings for him, even if the son of Poseidon likes her."

Her eyes flashed with anger. "The son of Hermes joined you?" she asked demandingly.

Ethan let out a loud laugh. "Hades no. After what we did to Annabeth, he swore he would never join our cause. But that doesn't matter. Annabeth is still recovering, but she is weak, very weak. We never play by the rules. Blackmail is incredibly useful to get someone to act. It has happened before with spies in Camp Half-Blood."

"You watch," Artemis promised. "You will not succeed. You know that yourself. Kronos is just using you. But seeing as you are a boy, you will make the foolish decisions, not I."

Ethan's eyes flashed with malice. "This is why I chose to go against the gods. You are all corrupted, Zeus with his paranoia, you with your sexism, Dionysus with his hatred to heroes. Hah! I agree with Percy Jackson for once, the gods and goddess of Olympus are terrible. He sometimes even resents his own father. I talked to him at Camp Half-Blood. He opened up. I know what he thinks. He will join our cause if a certain thing happens that the Olympians will be framed for. Do you know what he cherishes most?"

Artemis just growled. Ethan stepped forward. "His fatal flaw is personal loyalty. I knew that the minute I met him. He will do anything to save his family and friends, anything. As Athena would say, the most dangerous flaws are those which are good in moderation."

The goddess of the hunt stayed silent.

"Every god and goddess knows that Percy is a very, very dangerous asset, even more than all the demigods at Camp Half-Blood put together," he continued. "Percy is not just that. He is smart, something he gets from his mother. I guarantee that Athena recognizes this. He would sacrifice anything, but he knows what is right and what is wrong. He recognizes all the little details about the gods, how they act, behave and treat others. He knows that the Olympians aren't good. He respects you guys, but you treat him and his friends and mortal family like garbage, as if you care about them as much as Hades cares about you. Kronos knows this, no matter what Percy doesn't know. He's figured it out, and you little Olympians haven't even tried to talk to Percy about it. Someone who has his wits and strength put together is very dangerous indeed."

Artemis glared at the son of Nemesis. "Watch your words, boy. Be thankful that we care little for you, otherwise Zeus would have already turned you to ashes."

"Remember that, Lady Artemis," he said. "Remember that Percy is a rebel. Don't think that he will flock to your side just because of his father. What they say about Percy never thinking about joining the Titans, those are lies. If given the right reasons, he will."

I gave Ethan my most murderous glare to date. I wanted to call out that he was telling lies, that I would never join the Titans. But I knew he was partially speaking the truth. The gods aren't necessarily good.

Then the vision vanished and I was inside a room, a prison room.

Luke was hunched over a bed, tending to a slender figure lying on a mattress. Her blonde hair was tucked evenly behind her head and glowed in the dim light of the torch in the middle of the room.

Luke's sandy-blonde hair almost looked grey in the light. His back was turned to me, so I couldn't see his face, but he looked tired, his movements sluggish as he wiped a damp towel over Annabeth's forehead.

The room was dirty, blood stains and creepy-looking carvings on the walls. I figured that they were imprisoned somewhere near Mount Othrys so that when Thalia would arrive, Ethan would spring his plan into action.

When he said blackmail, I figured that they would threaten to kill Annabeth if Luke did not comply.

My blood boiled in my veins, even though I was just dreaming.

"Annabeth, please wake up," Luke whispered shakily. "Please wake up."

Then I saw Annabeth's eyelids flicker. Slowly, her eyes opened and she stared up at Luke. "Luke," she whispered. "Are...are you really here? I thought you were gone?"

I couldn't tell Luke's facial expression, but by his tone of voice I assumed he was happy. "It's all fine, Annabeth. You're almost healed from holding up the sky. You'll feel weak for a little while, but you'll be fine."

"Holding up the sky," Annabeth said robotically. Then her eyes widened. "What happened to Artemis? I—I saw her before I fell unconscious. Is she all right?"

Luke shook his head. "I don't know. I think she is still holding up the sky. I just hope Thalia and Percy can reach here in time to save us. I'm not sure what Ethan is planning, but I overheard the guards talking about 'bait' and 'blackmail.' I'm not so reassured as to what is happening."

Annabeth closed her eyes and took a shaky breath. "Are we okay, Luke?"

"Yes, Anna. We're fine."

"Then what about the scar on your face?" she asked, worry lacing her voice.

"It's—It's nothing," he said, stumbling on his words.

Scar? If Luke had gotten a scar, I wondered if Ethan had monsters torture him. That was probably the only way he could have gotten a scar.

"It's good to see you awake, Annabeth," Luke said. "I have a feeling we'll be out of here soon."

"I hope so, too," she said before she slowly tumbled into slumber.

Luke sighed with relief and turned around. That was when I saw the scar on his face. It ran down the right side of his face, a long scar that came down from his forehead to the bottom of his cheek. It was red, a scar that looked new.

Why would they do that to Luke? What had he done to them? They were the ones that put Annabeth under the sky. They were the ones that caused Annabeth to be in the state she was in, and Luke got the scar?

"You know, Annabeth," Luke said facing the bars that locked them in. "That grey streak in your hair, it kind of matches your eyes. It makes you more pretty than you are already. Admittedly, I only liked you at first because Thalia forced me to. I had always thought of you as my sister. The more I think about it, the more I become certain that being my sister was something you weren't supposed to be."

He sighed. "Aphrodite must really hate us, Anna. I do like you now, Anna. The more time that passes, the more convinced I become my feelings for you are justifying. I really don't want to lose you, Annabeth. I know that maybe our feelings were started for the wrong reasons, but I may be falling in love. We need to stick together, Annabeth. I—I can't stand to lose you."

He turned and began playing with her curls. "I promise to you that I will stay by your side through anything."

I smiled sadly at the couple, feeling happy for them. They kind of acted like how I thought about Thalia. From that, I knew that Luke loved Annabeth. His feelings for her had developed quickly. Just six months ago, he was head over heels for Thalia Grace. Now he was head over heels for Annabeth Chase.

Aphrodite sure loved playing games with us, didn't she.

But that happy dream didn't last. The third and final dream was the one that made my mind blow up to the extent of the Tsar Bomba, the largest mortal bomb ever to be tested.

I was racing along the coast, Thalia, Zoe, Bianca and Grover at my side.

"Percy!" Grover shouted. "You're alive!"

Stunned by the sudden change of events, I stopped in my tracks.

"This is an illusion," Thalia said, her eyes sad. "He's dead. You saw what happened in Arizona. I wish he was alive too, Grover. But that can't be him."

"He's not dead!" Bianca said, seemingly insisting. "I—I don't know how I know, but I know it. He's not dead. Maybe it's his ghost trying to speak to us from wherever he is."

A voice chuckled in my head. A gift from me to you, he said.

"Guys!" I said happily. "You made it to San Francisco!"

Zoe stared at my "ghost" with wide eyes. "Percy, are you there?"

"Yes!" I shouted. "What are you doing?!"

"We're heading to Mount Tam, Percy!" shouted Grover. "But we found the beast we're looking for. It is here, the Ophiotaurus." He pointed at the water.

I looked down and nearly jumped out of my pants. In the water was a happy mooing creature that I'd saved in Long Island Sound: the cow-serpent.

"Bessie?" I said.

"MOOOOO!" the creature moaned.

Grover frowned. "What do you mean he's not really here?"

"MOOOO!" Bessie said.

Then Grover turned to me with wary eyes. "Illusion? You mean...Percy's dead?"

"Mooooo!" Bessie lowed sorrowfully.

"He's not dead!" Bianca insisted. "I told you, I have a feeling!"

Zoe turned to Bianca with an exasperated look. "Why does thee keep insisting that? How would thee know? Thou don't have feelings toward Percy, does thee?"

"No! It's just...urgh!" Bianca stomped in frustration.

"We have to get to Mount Tam soon," Thalia warned. "Sunset is approaching. How are we supposed to get this creature away from here?"

I stood there in thought. Then an idea hit me. "Bianca, do you still have the lion's fur?"

She stared at me sadly. "Yes."

"Sacrifice it. Send Grover to Long Island with Bessie. Poseidon will grant you safe passage, Grover. I'll make sure of it."

"But you're—"

"Forget if I'm dead or alive! If I am dead, I'm still helping you, am I not?"

Grover hesitated. Then he nodded at me. "Let's do it."

Grover hopped onto the Ophiotaurus, and Bianca threw the lion's fur into the ocean. It glowed a golden color before disappearing. Bessie mooed contently and dove into the ocean, a worried satyr riding on his back.

Bianca turned to Thalia and Zoe. "It worked!"

She turned towards me, but before she could say anything, wind rippled by, blowing at my hair gently. It felt like a different wind, like...the Mist!

"Good plan, Zoe!" Bianca complimented.

Zoe just nodded grimly. None of them seemed to noticed I was here anymore. She looked towards a mountain in the distance, a storm seemingly swirling above the mountain. "I did what I had to do."

Thalia's mood had completely changed. Her eyes were red and she was holding her spear so tightly that her knuckles were white. "I know how we can get there quickly. Percy gave this to me."

Her voice cracked when she said my name, but she took a slip of paper out of her pocket, the very piece of paper that had been mailed to me by Dr. Chase saying that he was moving to San Francisco.

"Dr. Chase," Zoe read. "Annabeth's father?"

"Yes," Thalia said affirmatively. "Let's go. For Percy."

Bianca and Zoe both nodded sadly. "Let's go."

Then my dream dissolved and I awoke in a prison cell, similar to that of Luke and Annabeth.

"Hey!" a hissing voice said. "The sssson of Posssseidon is awake."

"Then get him," a familiar voice said. "Send him up to Ethan."

"Yessss, demigod," the dracaena agreed. I saw as the creature slithered to my cell and unlocked it. When I stepped outside, I was in an empty hallway, empty prison cells lining on one side of the hallway.

There were tons of guards, though. Dracaena and hellhounds all hissed and growled at me. There was one lone mortal guard, someone who looked very familiar. My eyes widened. "You? What are you doing Sherman?"

The son of Ares grinned at me. "Didn't expect to see me here, did you? That's right. I joined Kronos."

I stared icily at him, making his grin falter. "Clarisse will kill you if she ever finds out."

"Which is why she'll never find out," he said. "Mark thinks I'm dead, so he'll tell her that. Easy as pie and then I'll never have to worry about it ever again. By the time Clarisse finds out, she'll probably be chased by hundreds of monsters when Kronos destroys Olympus."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why join Kronos?"

He scowled at me. "I'm made fun of by everybody, even when you weren't here. Most kids side with the Athena kids and call us children of Ares numbskulls. We're not numbskulls. They're just jealous they can't fight as well as we can."

"Like always," I muttered angrily.

"Now, you'll follow me like a good prisoner so that Atlas won't have to kill you," he said. "You're just lucky Kronos wants you alive."

"You want to take me?" I asked. I narrowed my eyes and pulled out Riptide and Triametalla. "Then you'll have to take me."

Sherman's eyes widened. I'd beaten him so many times during sword fighting that he knew I was a powerful demigod. Apparently, he was a coward like his father. "Restrain him!" he ordered the monsters. "Scar him if you must, but don't kill him!"

Then the monsters charged.

I knew the benefits of being me and being the monsters at that very moment. The benefit for the monsters was that there were at least fifty of them, outnumbering me by a huge margin. The benefit for me, however, was the fact that I could kill, and they couldn't.

I tensed my legs before extending me sword out and spinning three hundred-sixty degrees. I stomped down on the floor making the hallway shake a little bit. It was enough to knock the monsters off balance.

I yelled a battle cry and charged through a line of dracaenae, turning that group of monsters into dust.

I swung my sword wildly and killed a couple more monsters. Then I somersaulted over the front line back into the center. I landed swiftly and held a defensive posture. I waited for a monster to attack. It was a good five seconds before two hellhounds jumped at me.

There is a large difference between skill and luck. I get rotten luck all the time. That's the only reason I can defeat these monsters without getting brutally mauled.

That moment was when my luck...well, lucked out.

I managed to kill one of the hellhounds; however, while I was busy killing one, the other swiped at my left hand and knocked Triametalla out of it.

As a unit, dracaenae attacked my unguarded left side using their spears. Only having my sword left, Triametalla having disappeared in the sea of monsters (Not the place, obviously.), I panicked a little.

I turned to fight the unit of dracaenae, but another hellhound attacked, tearing the sleeve of both my shirt and jacket. My right arm was bare and my scar became palpable. It was a scar that ran down the length of my forearm, elbow to wrist, and was on the underside, basically the side that would face forward if I held my hands in surrender.

It looked gruesome, my tanned skin not covering that area. It was as though someone had cut off my skin there and permanently kept it open. The weird thing was that it didn't hurt. It was red, but felt normal. Even I was afraid of the wound, not to mention the people that would be around me. The electrical fire that burned me must have gotten me badly.

Then my luck returned. The monsters cringed at the sight of the wound, as if my wound was like Medusa's face. I took that advantage to quickly take out all of the monsters. I swiped, slashed and hacked at the hellhounds and dracaenae until they were all dead, leaving Sherman, the son of Ares, standing alone in the hallway.

He backed up slowly, staring at me in fear.

I looked down at my scar before regarding the son of Ares coldly. I walked up to him and grabbed the scruff of his neck.

"Be thankful that I am merciful," I growled. "Be it someone else, you would be dead by now. But, if I see you again not at Camp Half-Blood, or if I see you again at Camp Half-Blood acting as a spy, you will be dead."

I threw him to the ground and kicked his temple. He dropped unconscious.

Breathing heavily, I stalked over to pick up Triametalla, which was sitting harmlessly on the ground. To believe that this weapon is extremely effective when I fight can be hard to believe, but it works. I'm too lazy to figure out how it works.

On my way out, I looked back at the slumped over figure of Sherman and remembered someone tell me about Clarisse being missing in action.

I frowned and remembered about why Ethan would want to give the Golden Fleece back to us once he was finished.

It would be a distraction to make us think we're safe, and then they'll strike at the heart of camp, whatever that may be.

Suspicions began entering my brain like crazy until I realized I had another problem at hand at the moment. I pursed my lips and ran down the hallway until I reached the end, a doorway that blocked me from exiting the prison block.

I tried opening it, but it was locked.

I fumbled with it some more until I got frustrated and then tried smashing the door down. After a good five times, I realized that the door was metal and would be much harder for me to smash open.

"Stupid me, of course it's metal," I muttered. "How the Hades am I supposed to get out of here?"

I retraced my steps back to Sherman and searched his pockets for keys. Turns out there were keys in his left pant pocket.

I went up to the door and unlocked it. Quietly, I pushed the door open and peeked out. There were no monsters or guards around. Deciding that it was safe, I stepped out and shut the door.

I wasn't sure where I was so it was kind of expected when I made four circles in what felt like an hour. I knew it was much less time than that because then I would have missed the battle on Mount Othrys.

The place I was in was some sort of dungeon, rooms of prison cells everywhere.

After a couple more minutes, I found an emergency exit. I took the stairs up to the highest floor possible (via stairs, at least) and peeked out.

I saw dracaenae lined up behind two VIPs (Very Important Prisoners): Annabeth and Luke. I considered waiting for the dracaenae to lead them outside so that I knew where I was going, but shrugged to myself. Freeing Annabeth and Luke now would be better.

I burst out the door and ambushed the dracaenae from behind. Screaming hisses echoed throughout the prison block and surprised monsters turned around only to be met with my blade to their face.

I didn't make the smartest choice because there were tons of other guards who I couldn't see from peeking out of the emergency exit door. Before Annabeth or Luke could exclaim their surprise in seeing me here, a dracaena hissed, "Intruder!" before sounding the alarm.

A loud, wailing alarm suddenly shouted out.

"Percy! What the Hades are you doing here?" yelled Luke.

"It doesn't matter, Luke," Annabeth said. "He's here to save us. That's all that matters. Let's go!"

She took off in a random direction.

"You trust her?" I asked.

Luke nodded. "With my life."

"After you." I held up a after-you gesture.

He gave me a terse smile and sprinted after his girlfriend. I followed him, making sure to stay behind so that I could protect his flank.

"You have your necklace?" I shouted as we turned a corner.

"Idiots forgot to remove it," he called over his shoulder.

"Annabeth!" I yelled. "Slow down! Your boyfriend is a little slow!"

Then I turned to Luke. "I thought she was still recovering. How the Hades can she run at almost full speed."

"Honestly, I don't know!"

We turned another corner and found Annabeth in a fight, watching as she kicked the dracaena at the wall and stabbed it from behind.

She turned to us. "I'm getting tired. Where are we supposed to go?"

"I thought you were leading us."

"Not really."

I rolled my eyes. "Let's go this way. Thalia and Zoe are on their way to Mount Tam. The dracaenae were going to bring you there as well."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Luke made a time-out gesture. "Can we backtrack here? Start from the beginning, Percy. How did you come here, what is happening, and then where are we going?"

So I told them. I told them about the capture of Artemis and the quest. I told them about the journey from Camp Half-Blood to Arizona, including the details about my "death." It was the second time in a year that I'd almost died. The last time that happened was around the Summer Solstice. This time it was around the Winter Solstice.

I told them about how there was the Ophiotaurus and about how it was meant to be sacrificed so that whoever did it would get the power to destroy the gods once and for all. I told them about how Zoe, Thalia and Bianca were on their way to save Artemis. Then I told them that we needed to get to Mount Tam, where Mount Othrys was rebuilding itself.

They paled further the more I spoke. They went from tanned skin to fair skin to pale skin to ghostly pale skin.

"That sounds dangerous," said Luke. "Is Artemis okay? She has to have held the sky for at least two or three days by now."

"Two and a half," I said. "I had a dream about a conversation she had with Ethan. She's struggling, even for a goddess of her strength."

Annabeth touched her hair subconsciously. A question formed in my head.

"Annabeth, how did you get that grey streak?"

"From holding the sky," Luke said. "The weight should've killed her, but luckily it didn't."

I gave an impressed look at the daughter of Athena. "That's really, really impressive, Annabeth. How did you manage to hold up the sky?"

I watched as her face slowly turned red. "Just...thoughts."

I grinned. "Yeah. Thoughts."

"Let's just get out of here!" she snapped, though it didn't have the intended effect because of her red face.

"Yeah, sure." I looked at the door I'd said we should go through. I took a deep breath and unlocked the door.

I swung it open and rushed inside. Immediately, I ran into something large, like a tree of some sort. Either way, I was knocked to the ground because of the impact. I heard two yelps from behind me and a strong hand pick me up from the ground.

When I opened my eyes, I was met with dark obsidian eyes. They peered at me with curiosity and eagerness.

"Well," the voice boomed. "I guess we have a special guest. I won't even bother to ask where you came from, Percy Jackson, because soon you will witness the great sacrifice Thalia Grace will make."

That's when "sacrifice" registered in my mind.

"You planned that!" I accused. "You wanted to isolate Thalia so she could sacrifice the Ophiotaurus and destroy the gods."

"Yes, but it's too late to stop it, Percy," Atlas said with dry humor. "It is unfortunate you were not capable of figuring this out quicker."

My vision turned red. I opened my mouth to protest, but a firm squeeze kept me from shouting at the Titan's face. "I would advise that you keep your mouth shut. You may be the most powerful demigod alive, but I can still crush you like a bug."

He held me out in front of him. I looked down from my view and saw Luke and Annabeth being handcuffed by traitor demigods. There were at least a dozen of them. Atlas smiled cruelly at them and waved them off.

"Leave, demigods," he ordered. "The dracaenae will take the prisoners. Meanwhile, I'll take this one."

The General turned me around. He had a sinister look in his eyes, one that looked so evil that it sent shivers up my spine and I was legitimately freaked out to the point where I felt like cowering. Atlas just radiated that kind of aura.

"We're going to have some fun, Percy Jackson," the Titan announced. "And it begins with the sacrifice that Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, will make."

Hey everyone,

Hope you enjoy this chapter. Thanks to those who've put this on their favorites, followed and reviewed.

Disclaimer: I don't own any excerpts taken from Rick Riordan's book Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Titan's Curse.

I also apologize for any grammatical errors in the chapter above.

With best regards,
SharkAttack719