A/N: I am so, so sorry for not updating sooner! It's just that my summer vacation ends in 2 weeks, and I still need to finish my summer reading projects. Yes, projects, as in more than one. *sigh* Oh well, I'll get it done. This has been the main reason I haven't been able to update, that and I've got family visiting as well. Meaning, until I get my schoolwork done, updates will be slowing down a bit. And now that I've got this chapter done, I'm not the most satisfied by it. More of a filler, definitely, but it's almost 3:30 in the morning while I finish this and my sister and her friend are in my room playing on the Wii Mario Kart, so yeah, sorry if this chapter is subpar to the others. In any case, please enjoy!
Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.
Nico's expression was one of shock and fear as Nyx handed him her poison-coated whip, telling him how he should grip the handle to get the best hit. Percy was already chained to the wall, his back uncovered for his friends to lash him.
Pontus nearly blew a fuse when Percy told him that each of the prisoners would get to strike him five times, and there being nine immortal demigods, he'd fulfill the forty-five lashes his "Lord" had ordered. He already knew that the hits were going to sting like nothing else in this world, but he'd rather his supposed "friends" to be the one to hit him instead of Nyx, who would laugh sadistically while trying to see just how much blood his body would bleed out.
The other eight were in the front row seat of the arena, Selene and Helios on either side of the pew, and Perses and Kronos in the row behind them, so they wouldn't have the slightest chance of escape before being caught. Percy heard some of them sniffling, like they were crying, and that's what Hecate was there for, to slap them upside the head and shut them up.
"Well, boy?" Pontus asked in an irritated tone, his knuckles white from how hard he was gripping the armrests of his seat. "You going to whip his hide anytime soon, or should I send someone else up first?"
Percy looked over his shoulder as best he could, what with his arms chained and all, to see that the prisoners were looking down at the ground, biting their lips, while the daughters of Pluto and Athena looked like they were about to break down into a puddle of tears.
Percy heard the thick, braided rope coil on the ground, and pained whimpers seemed to be escaping Nico's lips. He had picked Nico to go first, because of everyone in this room, he trusted Nico the most for some unexplained reason. He had answered his questions back in his room without putting up too much of a fight, and even helping him with an injury when any other captive would've tried to use that moment to escape.
"Do it, weakling!" Thalassa roared, and all the other generals whooped and wailed jovially. They normally got a kick out of hurting the other soldiers, so Percy could only imagine the high they were going to feel at seeing one of their own to become a bloodied bag of flesh.
"Nico," Percy said in a reassuring voice. "It's okay."
"No, it's not," replied Nico, his voice shaky.
Then Percy heard the whip getting drawn back. With a painful lash, the barbed coil cut into his skin instantly, poison seeping through the cut. Again, he was hit a second time, but surprisingly enough, it didn't hurt as much as he anticipated. This wasn't his first time being whipped, but when Nyx usually did it, she usually used the shadows in the room to propel her weapon forward with more power, cutting deeper into his skin than a regular hit would have.
But it appeared the son of Hades was holding back, as it was the burning sensation of the poison hurting more than the actual leather hitting his back. He bit his lip as the fifth and final lash landed against his back, and he could already feel the rivulets of blood slowly tracing red rivers down his back.
Jason was next, and Percy found that fitting, seeing as he had whipped the son of Jupiter yesterday. Needless to say, his hits were much harder than Nico's, opening larger gashes on his back, but they still weren't as hard as they could've been.
The daughter of Bellona was next, whipping him five times fast, not giving his muscles a chance to tense up, making them cause less injury than had he been tense. That seemed to be the pattern with the prisoners. Yes, they'd whip him as he asked of them, but they held back, trying to make the pain as bearable as possible. The last six followed in suit, with the daughter of Aphrodite being the last one to wield Nyx's symbol of power.
"That's it?" Leto asked, not at all satisfied with how the outcome turned out. "He's still conscious! Give him two hours to recover, and he'll be back on his feet instantly! Those worthless demigods were holding back on this pathetic excuse of a general."
Kronos placed a hand on his wife's shoulder in a placating manner. (A/N: In the first story, it was mentioned Leto was engaged with Kronos if any of you forgot) He gave her one of his less frightening smiles, before turning to face Pontus and Thalassa.
"My wife is right," agreed Kronos, telling Erebus to take his place as a guard for a moment. "Normally, he would be unconscious, bleeding a waterfall, as his vocal cords become raw from screaming. Not a single whimper escaped from his mouth, Lord."
"Then he is stronger than we originally thought, Kronos," Pontus said in a grudging tone. "But I am still a just ruler. He took his punishment like a man."
"Don't you want him to beg for mercy?" Nyx asked, licking her lips in anticipation. "Plea like the little slave he is for you to stop? None of this sounds even remotely tempting?"
"My husband has spoken, Nyx," admonished Thalassa, giving the primordial of Night a glowering look. "And he is right; he took his punishment. We have no reason to hurt him further-especially not when he is one of our most valuable assets."
Nico opened his mouth to protest, but Will and Reyna instantly clamped their hands over his mouth. Percy had ended up in this position for talking back to Pontus, whom he worked for. Imagine the punishment he would receive considering that he was already a prisoner, and Percy had warned him multiple times back in his room how little tolerance the immortals had for disrespect.
"I'm sensing a but here," Triton added. "You're not going to torture him anymore, but…"
Perses scowled. "Since when did you become astute?"
"I've always been perceptive of these things."
"Nerd."
"At least I have a brain."
"Why you little-!"
"Quiet!" bellowed Pontus, raising a hand. The two that had been arguing blushed, lowering their heads. "Triton is right. While we aren't going to physically hurt him…" A smug smile graced his lips, sending chills through everyone's spine.
"What do you think he's going to do?" Hazel whispered to Frank.
"No clue." He pulled her head onto his shoulder, gently running a hand through her chocolate curls.
"Arachne! Bring out the prisoner!" ordered Thalassa.
Annabeth violently flinched, causing for Piper and Reyna to rub her back in comfort. They only heard parts of the story when Annabeth confronted Arachne under Rome; but they did know she was the main reason she and Percy had fallen into Tartarus in the first place.
The first spider had apparently taken a human form, but giant mandibles poked out of her mouth like fangs, and parts of her skin were covered in the furry hair that spiders usually had covering their body-well, the bigger spiders, anyways. In her arms, bound and gagged and unconscious, was a figure Percy somehow recognized despite his past still being a complete blur to him.
Those that knew the woman inhaled sharply, looks of anger and disgust evident on their face. Nico glanced over at Percy, who had been forgotten for the most part, meaning he was working on freeing his hands from the shackles. But for the moment, he looked absolutely heart broken, frozen in time like a statue.
It wasn't just the fact that most of the immortal demigods recognized the abducted woman; no, it was the fact that she was so obviously pregnant, being forced to most likely endure unbearable torture.
"Leave my mother out of this!" Percy shouted, disappearing from his bonds before reappearing next to Arachne, his armor out and Riptide pressed tightly against the spider woman's throat. "I will endure whatever you planned for my mom, but you leave her out of this."
"Ah, there's the begging," Nyx said, placated while wearing a smug grin. Erebus nudged her into silence, causing for a dangerous fire to gleam in her eyes, before she settled on pouting like a toddler.
"Eh, I've heard better," chimed Kronos. "If that's begging, you've clearly never been to Othrys on a good day."
"A good day was when you weren't complaining about having five gods in your stomach," Hecate commented, raising an eyebrow at that. "Every other day you were publically executing some mortal that somehow wronged you."
Kronos smiled cruelly, as if happy that someone remembered the Age of the Titans. "Blood red is such a flattering color on the floor of a throne room."
The other Titans in the room-Hecate, Leto, Helios, Selene, and Perses-either wrinkled their nose in disgust, or nodded their head in an approving manner (cough, Perses, cough). Thalassa looked indifferent, and Pontus had a pensive look on his face.
"Back to Sally Jackson's punishment," interrupted Thalassa, stopping the pointless conversation between the Titans before it could continue further. "What is the worst thing you could ever do to a mother-to-be?"
"Kill them?" Triton guessed.
"Make them insane?" answered Erebus.
Selene slapped them both upside the head, using the hilts of her daggers to make the pain worse. Although she'd have to patch them up later in the infirmary, she wanted to shut the both of them up. Boys were so stupid. Her lips curled upward in disgust. Great, she was beginning to sound like the little moon virgin and her band of pre-pubescent girls.
"Idiots," Selene growled out, glaring at the two immortals as they rubbed their heads. Even her own brother backed up a little from the look she was giving them. "You don't actually hurt the mother; you go after what they love the most: their child."
If it was possible for Percy to become more crestfallen, he did at that very moment. He pressed Riptide closer to Arachne's neck, hard enough for her to start making the hissing sound spiders make when they're going to attack.
"None of that," he growled quietly next to her ear. "Make one move that I don't like, and you'll be back in Tartarus before you can even blink." Arachne hissed again, but she stood still otherwise.
Pontus looked bored at this point. "I honestly could care less about the mortal woman right now."
"But sweetie," Thalassa said, confusion in her voice, "you ordered a group of over fifty monsters to abduct this woman. Why are you going to let your hard work go to waste?"
"Because we need to regain Perseus' trust again, my queen. It's clear that having that son of Hades in his bedchambers is giving him…" He paused to sneer at said son of Hades, which the boy didn't even acknowledge, instead looking at Perseus with a deep longing and sadness in his eyes. "…rebellious ideas," he continued. "I want those prisoners under maximum security at all times, and the brat of Hades will be with the others, too, no exceptions. That will take the place of Senior Jackson's punishment. Just…send her back to the mortal world with no memory of what took place here."
Thalassa sighed. It was times like these that she hated that Pontus was the primordial of the seas; because like the seas, he was completely unpredictable, changing his opinions just as often as they came. She hoped by now he would be able to control it, but it was clear it was his primal intuitions, something nearly impossible to break.
"As you wish, my king." She glanced over at the two protogenoi of darkness in the room-one who was cleaning her blood-stained whip, while the other was nursing the bump Selene had given him. "Nyx, Erebus, it is currently nighttime in New York; I expect this woman back in her bed before the sun chariot is riding across the sky."
"Yes, my queen!" the two cheered, undoing all the binds and the gag, before taking the unconscious woman from Arachne's arms, and together the trio vanished into the shadows. Meaning they left behind a pissed Perseus, still holding the first spider with a sword at her neck. He didn't even blink, slitting her throat in a swift movement, letting her dust crumble at his feet.
Perseus stalked up to where Pontus and Thalassa were sitting. The only thing keeping the son of Poseidon from attacking the duo was the fact that Perses and Triton had moved in front of the king and queen, as well as the royal guard. He stayed a good distance away, scowling deeply, completely unaware or indifferent to the beating he had received earlier.
"If I find out you harmed a single hair on my mother's head, I don't care if I'm the most loyal person in this blasted army, I will turn on you in a heartbeat," Percy threatened, looking Pontus dead in the eyes with his wolf-stare on steroids.
"You don't mean that," the primordial of the sea taunted, swallowing a lump in the back of his throat.
Percy raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh, I don't? I swear it on the Styx if I find my mother or any of my family members harmed in anyway shape or form, I will turn on Pontus and everything he stands for."
Multiple gasps were heard, and the generals, lieutenants, and demigods in the room started screaming over each other. Guards came rushing into the room, literally dragging everyone that was a prisoner kicking and screaming out of the room.
Percy glared one more time at Pontus and Thalassa, scoffing, before turning on his heel, walking out of the arena like nothing was wrong despite the fact that he was still bleeding and poison was coursing through his body.
Pontus had been trying to make the situation better for him, but all he seemed to be doing was screwing things up even more.
Percy didn't want to be here anymore. He had spent a long enough time with Nico to learn that he was never supposed to be here in the first place, leaving a feeling of bitter resentment in his mind. He wasn't one to keel over and obediently obey whatever he was told-even if he had been taught to act that way. He was naturally a free-spirit, completely untamable even though he faced unimaginable horrors that would break any other person-but not him.
Outside of his room, a squadron of guards was placed there, making sure he couldn't go anywhere without an escort. At least they had enough decency for them to give him privacy inside his own room, seeing as he'd probably would've broken the jaw of the unlucky person assigned to watch his every movement. That would be stalker-ish on a whole new level, even worse than Twilight.
His back was already mostly healed-he had taken a shower and ate a square of ambrosia when he came back from the arena. The poison was still in his system, making him cautious of his movements, as any abrupt motion would send a wave of soreness through the moving limb. It was bad enough he could comfortably lay in bed without being in pain, but it was even worse when his vision would blur for a bit. That was a side effect; it was never permanent, but it was an annoying hindrance.
He flopped onto his bed stomach first, once again reaching for the drawer of pictures. Names slowly came back to him, as did some of his good memories with the people. But his favorite picture was one of him and Nico, snuggling together by what appeared to be a campfire, draped with a brown blanket during the winter. He had no idea when that scene took place, or who even took the picture.
Percy had been told by Nico that they had dated for a brief amount of time before being torn apart underneath Mt. St. Helens. Apparently he had thought it was a good idea to walk through miles and miles of underground lava chambers through dormant volcanoes, when there was a chance they would be caught in an eruption-which is what happened.
Nico had been the thing he had felt missing the entire time he was here. He felt…more at peace when Nico was around and in his room. He had been able to spill his guts about all of his insecurities and doubts about being here, and Nico had attentively listened, adding in a snide remark here and there, causing for Percy to break out in laughter. There was obvious chemistry between the two of them, in a way that they'd never leave the other to fend for themselves unless there was no other way.
His friends had been searching for him for just about six months now, and he could only imagine how betrayed the must've felt, especially since he had participated in the slaughter of one of the two safe places for demigods in the world. But that had been when he still had an ounce of trust and respect for Pontus. Now, Percy would rather blow up the entire ocean instead of seeing that bastard again.
Percy had sworn on the Styx to turn on Pontus if he harmed one of his friends…but he never mentioned anything about him turning on his own free will. Oh, how he loved loopholes.
He slowly got up, before going into his dresser and pulling out the pouch of drachma he had found in there-at least fifty. Grabbing a handful of the golden coins, he entered his bathroom, turning on the shower to hot water, until there was enough mist to make a rainbow.
Using his still faulty memory, he remembered the prayer for Iris messaging. "O' Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me…"
Andy was in the Iris cabin currently, lacing up her favorite pair of combat boots with Celestial bronze tips-which in itself was a rarity among demigods; most blessed metals are used in weapons, not in articles of clothing. She felt the iciness of her silver daggers pressing against her heels through its sheath, but she was already used to the feeling by now. She braided her hair hastily, before using a handful of bobby-pins to leave her hair in a bun. As for clothes, she was just in a typical Camp Half-Blood shirt with black workout pants. Normally, she would've worn jeans, but she planned on training until her muscles were screaming in agony, and jeans would've been too restricting for what she wanted to do.
Her cabin mates-not siblings, cabin mates-were still peacefully in the realm of Morpheus, seeing as there wasn't a ray of sunlight to be seen. It was around 5:30 in the morning, and wakeup call wasn't until seven. The wooden floor creaked slightly under her feet, but she had been taught stealth ever since she could spy.
She tried to push her thoughts away, but the overwhelming memory of how she had been recruited into Olympus' Special Ops program was enough to send shivers down her spine in the cooler morning.
Flashback
It had been about a year since her father's death, and Thomas had been found violently murdered in their apartment about four months ago. Andy was only nine-much too soon to see so many people close to her heart die. Thomas could never replace her father, but she still saw him as a father figure, someone who took her in even though he didn't have to. She loved him like a father.
She had been offered to be escorted to Camp Half-Blood by a satyr named Tom, ironic enough, but with his name being so painfully similar to her dead stepfather, she just asked for the direction, saying that she would get there on her own. Looking back on it now, she had been extremely petty and naïve for not following Tom, but she still turned out fine in the end, she guessed.
Andy was alone in the state of New Jersey, which admittedly, wasn't far from New York at all, especially since she probably could've gotten a taxi across the GW Bridge into Manhattan. Heck, if she was really that desperate, she could've called her aunt. There was just one problem with that: she hated her aunt with every fiber of her being.
One time, Andy had been with Aunt Lucille while her dad was deployed over in Iraq for a few months, in which her aunt allowed her older sons, Henry and Drake, who were sixteen and fourteen respectively to use her as a punching bag. At the time, she had been seven. When her dad picked her up, her bruising and broken bones had all been healed, looking like the same exact girl he had left all those months ago. Not to mention that Lucille would call her insulting names for having ADHD and dyslexia, and at times, she would say she was so worthless that she would refuse to feed her for days on end.
A few weeks had passed since the meeting with Tom, and currently, Andy was taking refuge with a nice family that had insisted that she stayed with them for the weekend, before she could return back home. The thing was, she no longer had a home, not since her father died.
That night, she had gotten one of the most vivid dreams to date. She had been dressed in a long, flowy dress with sleeves that would keep slipping off her shoulders and sandals with straps that reached up to her knees. It looked kind of like the dress that belonged in Ancient Greece, something she had learned during their mythology unit in class.
And sure enough, there were twelve people in thrones around thirty-feet tall, looking down at her with varied degrees of amusement, or flat our boredom in some of the gods (cough Ares and Dionysus cough). The power radiating off of them was nearly enough to send her to her knees, but she stood straight, head held high with the same level of confidence her father had taught her to embrace. One of the last things he taught her was: If you act confident in scary situations, you'll feel more at ease. And, like always, he was right.
"Daughter of Ariana," the man seated in the smack middle of the U of thrones spoke. "You have endured through many hardships, and you know where a safe haven is for people like you, but you haven't shown any real decision of going. Why is that?"
"I don't trust people," she said. "I can only trust myself, and the monsters leave me alone. I'm safe."
"My daughter acted like that around this age," a lady wearing a billowy, purple dress said, looking at her reflection in a mirror the size of a dinner plate as she reapplied her lipstick. Her features kept shifting, but they seemed to settle on the same gentle, loving brown eyes of her father. She wished her eyes would stay the same colors. Andy had learned that her eyes change colors to reflect her moods, and people would cringe away from her when she was mad, unable to look into her blood red eyes.
"Really, Aphrodite?" another female asked. She had black hair and steely gray eyes, and a book with at least six-hundred pages was in her lap. "Why are you bringing your daughter into this?"
Aphrodite shrugged. "It was really more of a way to claim her as my granddaughter." Then she shot a glare at one of the men opposite her, who was wearing a leather jacket and had eye sockets full of fire. "Ares, don't you have something to tell Andromeda?"
"How do you know my name?" she asked timidly, trying to disappear. Andy didn't like being with people she didn't know, and no one should be able to be this powerful…unless they were supernatural beings or something along those lines. But the names sounded just like the ones in the Greek myths.
The blood drained from her face. Oh God…or should she say gods? She was speaking to the gods of the Greek pantheon.
"Punk's also my granddaughter," Ares grunted out. "Her dad was one of my boy's. He made me proud."
"My dad's dead!" Andy screamed. "How does that make you proud?!"
Ares gave a low growl, causing for Andy to retreat to the side of the room with the female goddesses. It looked like they had better control over their tempers than the males. "He died in war, brat, something you wouldn't understand. War is my domain, so he died fighting in my name."
"World's worst Grandpa," Andy muttered to herself quietly, silently fuming that the god of war was her grandpa. Of all the gods he had to be her grandpa? Unfair.
"Lord Zeus, why did you summon me here?" Andy asked respectfully, deducing that the first man who had spoken to her was the King of the Gods.
"You have showed that you are pure of heart, and have the potential for much power seeing as you are Ariana's first demigod child," Zeus explained. "We want you on our Special Ops team, my dear."
Andy blinked twice, trying to use her nine-year-old mind to process the information she had just been given. There was still many unknowns, but she quickly learned what her role was. She wouldn't have to go to the camp, but she would have to be trained in order to do her job correctly. She agreed, and after the weekend with the nice family was up, she was teleported to Olympus to begin her new life.
Flashback End
Andy shook her head, finally shoving her past out of her mind, realizing that her feet had led her to the training grounds just like she had wanted. She was already halfway done with her warmup when she heard someone call her name.
Instantly, her daggers were in her hand, her eyes glancing over the entire area with trained vigilance. Then she focused on the rainbow that had appeared a few feet from her. It showed the worn face of her boss, but he looked happier than he had in ages, and that was saying something seeing as the pact of the Big Three was no more.
"Lord Zeus," Andy said respectfully, bowing her head. "Is everything alright on Olympus?"
"Oh, everything is better than alright! Go grab your squadron, and meet me here at once!"
Andy bit her lip. "My lord, my squadron has been under constant surveillance from Pontus, and I think it's completely plausible that a few have already been executed. I'm the only one left of the Special Ops."
"Way to dampen the mood," Zeus said, pouting like a kid who had been told they were going to get ice cream, but they'd have to get their teeth pulled first. "In any case, I want you here then. If you truly are the last one, it's vital you come and hear this information."
"I'll be there as soon as I can, milord. Let me leave a note for Chiron, and I'll ride one of the pegasi to Olympus."
"Good, good. I'll see you then!" The Iris message dissipated as Zeus waved a hand through the rainbow.
Well, that was strange, Andy thought to herself as she began jogging back to the Iris cabin to change into jeans and scribble a note. She had never seen the Lord of the Skies so happy before; he was usually so serious and stoic, the most emotion usually being anger or frustration.
Andy mounted the Pegasus Porkpie, before kindly asking for a ride to Olympus. The winged horse snorted indignantly, causing her to sigh, and she promised to give him a donut much to her chagrin. That seemed to be incentive enough, and with that, they took off soaring to Olympus to see what had gotten Zeus so riled up.
