Hello my minions! (you are still reading this, therefore, you are my minions. Simple logic.)
Seeing you may have forgotten, the last chapter ended with Percy about to kill Annabeth.
"Percy, you don't know what you're doing," she pleaded.
"I know exactly what I'm doing," I growled back. "Who are you?"
"It's me, Annabeth."
"You are no Annabeth. Who. Are. You?" I pressed harder on her throat.
"M-my name is Tammi." she gasped, lacking oxygen. I took away my arm, but kept Riptide at her stomach. She made no attempt to escape. She glared up at me. With Annabeth's glare. Somehow, that made hurting her all the more difficult, and I had to keep reminding myself that this wasn't Annabeth. "Congratulations," she told me drily. "You figured it out."
"Why do you look like Annabeth?" I demanded. She didn't speak. My gaze flickered to her wrist. The bracelet. I grabbed her arm with my free hand and yanked off the strange bracelet. Tammi didn't even try to stop me. She knew she couldn't. Blood started dripping from her wrist, and her form started to change, the same way I had seen in the old house. Her body shrunk, her hair straightened and darkened into a fiery red, her skin paled, and her eyes changed from grey to brown.
"I know you will ask me. That bracelet simply lends me some of Annabeth's DNA, which allows me to take her appearance." I rose an eyebrow at her.
"It can't be that simple." She had the nerve to laugh.
"Obviously not. I just gave you the basic explanation. I assumed you wanted to understand." I pressed my knife harder into her stomach, and a red dot started slowly expanding on her shirt. It was one thing when my friends implied I was stupid, but when it was coming from an enemy, it fuelled my anger.
"What are you planning," I asked.
"I'm not planning anything."
"I meant Kronos's Army," I hissed.
"I thought it would be obvious. While you guys are trying to track down the petty rebellion, we've been growing. We're going kill your leaders, and without your leaders, your numbers will scatter. Either they will be with us, or against us. Their choice. We will rule America by fear, for we hold it in our power to kill whoever we choose." I stared at her for a few moments.
"That is such a cliched plan. In the movies and books that plan always failed."
"Well this is real life."
"Ask her where her headquarters are," I heard Athena say through the earpiece. I can't believe I forgot about that.
"Where are your headquarters?"
"Why would I tell you?" I pressed harder and she clenched her teeth. "I won't tell you. I won't betray Kronos."
"You've already betrayed America, what's the difference?" I challenged.
"It's not like you're not." That struck a nerve, but I refused to let her know it.
"Would the bracelet work on a dead body," I questioned.
"I'm not stupid. I know what you're planning. But killing me won't do any good. They'll find out." She didn't only mean Kronos's army, she meant the MoA. She was trying to get under my skin.
"Just answer the question."
"Betraying your own flesh and blood now?" I clenched my teeth.
"My flesh and blood is only me. We may be related by blood, but I am not family with anyone who's loyal to the Murderers of America," I snapped, thrusting Riptide through her stomach. Her eyes widened in pain, and she stared at me with loathing and disbelief.
"You are destined to die. Don't expect to be a big hero."
"Everyone dies. I don't want to be a hero, but when I die, I will have done something," I retorted. After a few minutes of watching Tammi bleed and groan in pain, I finally slit her throat so her death would be final. I snapped the bracelet back on her wrist, and her form flickered. I was now staring at the body of Annabeth Chase. Something tightened in my chest. I looked away. I contacted Nico through the watch that I had done the deed.
Nico arrived within ten minutes, the whole time Athena was nagging at me about how I should have pried further, ask about Annabeth, how I lost control, and I should have been a bit more merciful with the length of her death. I was urged to take out the earpiece, but then Athena would have my head. Nico looked at Annabe-Tammi.
"Looks like stage one is complete," he noted. I spared a glance at the body that I had hid behind a garbage can. Blood was still flowing from her wounds, but it was slow. There was also a faint trail of blood that I had attempted to clean with a rag. Luckily, people that walked passed didn't pay any attention to teenagers hiding in alleyways. It still pained me to look at Annabeth's body.
"Time to call," I said as I slipped out my phone. I speed dialled Zeus and told him the nearest address. I hung up before he could reply, and I knew he knew I had finished a kill. I explained what I had learned to Nico, and he listened thoughtfully. I tried to push away the feelings of guilt I had. I had never felt this much regret taking someone's life. I had always been able to push away my guilt. Today had been different. I kept telling myself she deserved to die. Nobody deserved to be slaughtered. A small part of me kept telling me. I always replied with the same answer: It was to save Annabeth. I couldn't even reassure myself. There could have been another way. You will pay, karma always wins in the end. I mentally chuckled at myself. I was already talking to myself. Next thing you know, I'll be seeing my imaginary friend from kindergarten.
"Perce, you okay?" I jumped slightly at Nico's voice.
"Fine," I replied.
"You don't sound fine. If you want to back ou-"
"No! I'm not backing down. Annabeth's counting on me." My eyes started darting around. I was half expecting Luke to jump out at me for killing his friend, or maybe one of the big three for finding out how I was trying to deceive them. I had to relax. I finally sighed and let my body sag a bit. "I'm fine." Nico looked at me for a few moments before asking if he could ask me a question.
"Shoot," I replied.
"Do you love her?" I looked at him, but he broke his gaze.
"It's just...you seem to care for Annabeth a lot. Even when we were kids, despite your constant fights, you guys were almost inseparable. You guys had each other's backs. And the tension between you two-"
"Tension?" I asked. I never really noticed any tension between the two of us.
"It's not obvious, don't worry, but the tension makes it seem like you two are more than friends. So, do you love her?"
"I-" I didn't know how to reply. I would save her with my own life if I had to. But it was the same with Nico, hell, Thalia too. And when she was dating Connor...I was more convinced that I was jealous of Connor. I didn't want him to have her. I wanted her, I realized. I couldn't stand her being happier because of some other guy. But that could have also been a brother's protectiveness. And I couldn't stand looking at her dead figure, even if I knew it wasn't really her. I knew I cared for her, but love?
"I don't know," I finally decided.
"I do," I heard Athena say with slight disapproval. I ignored her. Nico and I loitered around until Hermes showed up in a similar SUV as Poseidon's. He picked up Tammi's body and put her in a body bag that was in the trunk of his vehicle. After he closed the trunk, he turned to us, wiping his hands.
"That took you quite a while," he noted.
"We got it done," Nico replied cooly. Hermes smiled back at us.
"I guess you did. Though you might want to tell Zeus that. He isn't very happy about the time it took you. You got the assignment in August. It's a week into November now." He climbed into the front seat, then leaned his head out the door. "By the way, Zeus wanted me to tell you that you should find a place outside Frisco. You can stay at Gwen's for another two weeks, and if you haven't found a place by then, you can stay in HQ until necessary. Before that, you can't come back to New York." I nodded. The police might follow us if we seemed suspicious. He drove off, I turned off my communication with Athena, and we headed back home.
"You know what this means right?" Nico asked, glancing at me. I stuffed my hands in my pockets.
"It means that we can't save Annabeth for another two weeks, just in case the MoA might be watching us." Nico nodded. "But Kronos's army knows that Tammi's dead. They don't know that we know that she's Tammi, but they are suspicious. They can't bring Annabeth 'back to life,' so they won't need her. They won't just let her go, they'll kill her." Nico stopped, and I was a few steps ahead of him when I also stopped and looked back at him.
"Percy, you better not be thinking what I think you're thinking." I gave him a wide smile that may or may not have looked insane.
"We're busting her out." Nico's eyes darkened.
"What you're saying is crazy! We don't even know where they've hid her!" He lowered his voice and stepped closer to me. "If the MoA figures out she's actually alive, they'll kill us. Kronos's army will come after us once they've realized we took Annabeth, in which case they'll be certain we knew about Tammi, all the more reason to kill us. And you know how determined they are. They won't hesitate to kill anyone in the way, even if there's a way around it. Saving Annabeth before we get into headquarters will put innocent people's lives at risk!"
"You're being pessimistic," I argued.
"And you're being too naive! We don't even have a place to hide out for the next two weeks!"
"Then we find a place! When we do, we'll save her, and keep her hidden." Nico calmed down a bit, ,and we started walking again.
"I get it, you care about her. She's my friend too. But we can't be certain if we're safe. If she's safe."
"What's life without a few risks?"
"You are just so stupid. Heroic, but stupid."
"I know it's stupid, but I can't let her die. I couldn't live with myself if she died and I could've done something."
"I get it Perce. Once we find a place, we'll save her. Just be glad Athena's doesn't know about the plan."
"She's her daughter, I'm sure Athena wouldn't mind."
"I still don't think she'd be happy about it."
LINEBREAK
"Hurry up, Nico," I hissed, slipping my jacket over my hoodie.
"It's a stupid plan. They probably fled to the other side of the city. Just stop and think for a second!"
"They'd be expecting us to think they'd flee, so they'd stay here, where we wouldn't expect them to be." Nico started muttering things under his breath as he slipped his sneakers on. It was 10:00pm, and we were going out to look for a suspicious looking house. It was a horrible plan, but it was all I had, and Nico didn't have a better idea. Most people would be indoors, so there was a smaller chance that there would be witnesses. We also brought the gadgets that Athena had given us, just in case of an attack or something. Nico was wearing the ear piece and mic this time, along with the tranquilizer-nail. I had the USB secured in a smaller secret pocket in my hoodie, along with the contact lenses in my eyes. Athena wasn't lying when she said it would irritate my eyes, and I had come close to rubbing them before I stopped myself. They caused me to blink a lot, which helped a bit, and they gave my eyes a blue-ish tint to my eyes. They were unlike night-vision goggles, because I saw everything in it's normal colour, only a more vibrant, which made smaller objects easier to find, whereas the goggles made everything green.
"By the way, even Athena thinks this is a horrible idea," Nico pointed out as we went out the door.
"Shut up. Maybe if you told her the circumstances, she'd agree with me."
"She doesn't."
"Whatever."
We continued walking and bickering, quieting down every time we saw someone. Nico finally stopped, holding an arm in front of me.
"Hold on, I saw something. Is there anything in that alley?" he whispered, gesturing to the alley behind us. I peered into the space between the two buildings and did a quick scan.
"A teenager about eighteen is perched on the fire escape. Dark hair, dark clothes, dark eyes and I'm pretty sure he was wearing an eyepatch. He's got a long knife attached to his belt, and a hand resting on his gun's handle. Kronos's army, I saw the tattoo." Nico nodded and slipped out his gun. He slipped into the alley and I heard him shoot, his silencer muffling the sound. Then I saw Nico's body fall.
"Nico!" I rushed toward him, pointing my gun at the teen, who was also pointing a gun at me. I saw him pull the trigger, and a sharp pain ran through my neck. I dropped my gun, and my hand flew to the wound. No blood. I pulled out a tranquilizer dart. Then I blacked out. He didn't want to kill me. Why?
LINEBREAK
I woke up in a semi-dark room, with my hands tied to a wooden chair. I looked over to see that Nico was in the same state as me. The boy with the eyepatch was guarding the door, and Luke was pacing back and forth, almost as though he was worried. I immediately did a weapon check, and found that he hadn't touched any of our weapons.
"What do you want, Castellan?" Nico snarled at him. He jumped and looked over at us. He was jittery.
"Good, you're finally awake. I don't have much time-"
"Why haven't you killed us?" I interrupted.
"I do apologize for the straps, but I couldn't have you attacking me as soon as you woke up. I haven't killed you, because I need your help." I opened my mouth to speak, but Luke raised his hand to tell me to stay quiet. "As you probably already know, I'm the leader of Kronos's army." He came over to us and undid the straps. We stayed seated, and I glanced over at my cousin to see that he was turning on the mic. "Kelli is another member, and she's been second-in-command for a while now. Kelli has been in charge of the devices we've been using, such as the shape shifting bracelet we used to mimic Annabeth."
"So what's the problem?" I asked.
"She's gone out of control. She's power hungry. Her plan is more than just take over the world. Not everyone respects her decisions, but they listen to me. She's injected me with a chip, which will allow her to control me. I won't be in charge of my body anymore. As long as the chip is active, she could control a dead body. I think the science of it involved the spine, but I never really pay attention to the explanations. We don't have much time before it's activated. I need you to help my destroy it."
"Why can't you get your guard over there to help? Or get someone to do some kind of surgery or whatever to get it out." He shook his head, and I noticed beads of sweat rolling down his neck. This chip is the only copy, and it will take years to duplicate from scratch. If Kelli finds out that someone else was involved, she'll kill them."
"Why would you care?"
"This is my family Nico, I can't have them hurt. You two are powerful. You'll be able to help stop us, and the MoA. You can bring peace between the half-bloods, at least for a while. Unfortunately, death will have to be involved." Luke took out an envelope fro his pocket. "I don't have time to explain everything, but I've written it out. It'll tell you how to save Annabeth. Keep her safe. Stop us. Stop the MoA. You have to promise me." Nico looked at me.
"He's telling the truth, I confirmed. The contact lenses didn't show any signs of him lying.
"That's a pretty big promise, but we can try," Nico assured.
"How do we destroy the chip, I mean it's inside you..." I trailed off.
"There'll be an electric shock that will run through my body. Most likely deadly, seeing as this is more or less of a prototype, and Kelli designed it." As much as I had hated him, I had come to respect Luke. I think I have for a while, though I had no reason to. He was willing to sacrifice himself for his family.
"You're talking about suicide!" A shudder went through his body, and his eyes had an almost yellow-ish tint to them.
"How noble of him, don't you think?" he snarled with venom. His eyes flickered back to their normal blue shade.
"It's starting. Give me a knife! I have to do it now. I reached into my pocket and unsheathed Riptide. I had to give it to him. It was the only way to save innocent lives. Maybe not all of them, but most of them.
"Toss him the knife!" Nico yelled at me. I passed it too him, but before he caught it, his eyes changed again. I was too late.
"You fool. Luke, your death will be very painful." His right arm was shaking, but it was slowly going towards his upper-left arm. When I looked closer, I saw that the contact lenses showed me the chip. It was a faint outline, just under his left arm. It would almost be impossible to hit if Luke was fighting somebody. When he cut himself, a shudder ran through his body, and I could see electric currents go through his body. It took most of my willpower to stay seated. Luke screamed as he collapsed to the floor. He finally lay motionless; lifeless. Luke Castellan was dead.
The guard looked sadly at his friend with his one good eye, Then picked him up and put him in the corner, where the shadows hid him. At least, for the people that didn't have advances contact lenses. Nico went over where Luke had dropped the envelope, and picked it up. He handed it to me, and I opened it. Inside was a letter, a keycard, and another set of regular keys. Two keys. A key to a car, and a house key. I unfolded the letter, but I couldn't quite make out the words. The writing was shaky, and I wasn't in the mood to fight my dyslexia. I looked over at the guy with the eyepatch.
"Could you read this for us? We have dyslexia, and I have a feeling we don't have time for us to decipher it." He took the letter and cleared his throat.
"Percy and Nico,
I know we've had our differences in the past, but we have to help each other. You must stop Kelli and the MoA, and I'll help you free Annabeth. Hopefully they haven't killed her yet. If you still don't know where you are, you're in our headquarters, in a secret building in Mt. St. Helens. Ethan can lead you out." The guard stopped reading to tell us he was Ethan. "Annabeth is in room 36. It's a prison can take you there. You can trust him by the way, he's a spy for the rebellion. Act as though you're prisoners. I've told Ethan how to sneak you in and out. Once you get out of Headquarters, Ethan will lead you to my car. The keys are in the envelope. There's a GPS, and all you have to type in is home. You can hide out at my house as long as you need to. My mom is still in the insane asylum, so the house will be yours. I also called the school a couple months ago, to say you three will be attending on November 20th, so I hope you'll take my offer. The school is Yancy Academy, and it's a boarding school, so you should have a few days to get ready. So I guess you won't be using my stuff that much anyway. Good Luck.
-Luke
PS. You might find it easier if the MoA and Kronos's Army is in a group, and then call the FBI to arrest them. I'm sure Ethan will tell any other spies to flee." Ethan handed the letter back to us.
"So what's the plan?" Nico asked.
"We don't have much time before Kelli starts looking for us. I'm going to take you to the prison cell that Annabeth's in, and you'll be my prisoners. From there, there's an extra room that only Luke's card will be able to open. In there, we'll get you three a disguise. I'll leave, and you follow a few feet behind. Act casual, we have to act normal. No raising suspicion. I'll only be able to lead you to the elevator that takes you to the tunnel at the base of the mountain."
"Volcano," Nico corrected.
"Whatever. Anyway, there'll be a path that leads you to a nearby fast food restaurant. His car is a black pick-up truck. There's a red plaid blanket laid out in the back." Nico rubbed his hands together.
"Let's get started."
So what did you do on Valentin's day? I crashed one of my friend's date with two other friends. Fun. I also watched Warm Bodies. Awesome movies. Zombie's name is R...love interest is Julie...hmmm...R(omeo) and Julie(t). Nah, must be a coincidence.
The Goddamn Dark Knight - Were you talking about Annabeth or Tammi?
ElmoDaHorse - Yes. No prob.
Jay1697 - I've been told I'm mean before...many times..but never been called a nerd except by you.
Mayhaah – Good. Too badc you got nothing...
DaughterofPoseidon917 – Oh? Did you now? Mkay.
SonOftheOcean – it's an inside joke. My friend killed me about two years ago, but I survived.
csarcher3 – That's what most of the Aus are like. Thanks :D
brunetteAnnabeth – Don't worry, I don't usually pay attention either. I wing it and hope for the best. But that's school, not ff. Don't worry though, I'm sure you're not the only one... I think...
dreamchaser31lucky – Thanks :)
pysyco warack – This is quick...sorry.
Misty's psyduck – Keep wondering. I BROUGHT YOU AN UPDATE!
KirbyGamzeeGirl – Sorry :/ I'll try harder to update.
heywhatsup55 – Thank you ^.^
Coldflame18 – No. They can't. Nopenopenope.