Helloooooo everyone! I apologize for the two weeks with no update, but I've been a little busy. I managed to finish it, though, and now we're back to the plot! So, without any further ado, here's chapter 10!

Thalia was not exactly sure how it happened. The mission had gone as planned... well, it had gone how the loosely spoken words that could hardly be called a plan had anticipated. But, somehow, she had been the one to make a mistake. Maybe she misstepped, got too far away; she had a habit of staying toward the edge of any sort of gathering, so perhaps she looked like easy prey. Oh, she put up a real fight when the undead henchman took her from behind, but it was surprisingly strong for a corpse. At any rate, she found herself being thrown into a cage and heard the door slam shut, before she could spring to her feet and fight back. She threw herself against the black, spindly metal bars, but they were as unmoving as she should have expected and were too close together for even her hand to reach through.

"Lemme out!" she yelled, wrapping her fingers around the bars. "OI! Lemme out or yer gunna be sorry, ye pathetic bastards!" Thalia screamed and thrashed until her throat became sore and her body shook with exasperation. But she refused to give up. Never would she give up. Silence encompassed the room in place of the echoes left by her voice.

That didn't last long, though. Someone cleared their throat, and Thalia finally took a moment to observe her surroundings. The room was dimly lit by the pale glow of blue flames along the walls. It was barren, aside from an identical cage directly opposite of hers. "Are you done acting like a petulant child?" asked the voice, too smooth and calm to be trustworthy, Thalia thought. She blew a tuft of her short, fiery hair from her face.

"Excuse you, but I have a right ta be angry." Her accent thickened with every word, the frustration lacing her words. Something resembling a snort came from the other prisoner, whom was seated with his back against the bars of the cage, facing her. His light brown locks matted around his face, and she could just make out the stubble formed along his jawline. He could not have been there for too long, though, because his muscles didn't look like they could have suffered much damage. The guy was a wall of flesh that looked like it would have taken many more guards to subdue. "I'll be damned if I'm gunna stay 'ere, caged up like a wild animal!"

Slowly, he stood from his position, crossing his arms over his chest as he strode to the side of his cage that was closer to Thalia. A bluish glint sparked around his purple irises, and he bore an eery resemblance to Lance. "Oh, I don't doubt it. But..." He hesitated. Very unlike Lance. "...I trust you are acquainted with my brother, Lance? You must be Thalia. He mentions you sometimes." The expression on his face remained neutral, though his tone failed to disguise a hint of uncertainty. When she gave him a curt nod, he slumped in what looked like relief. "Is he okay?" She nodded again, eyes darting over his loose brown tunic, leather boots, back to his eyes. "And my sister?" Her stomach twisted, a pang of guilt shooting through her body. Honestly, Angelica might have been dead, for all she knew. The frail little girl was already so close to dying the last time Thalia had seen her, and the rest of her team- er, group- might not have completed their task.

Evidently, she had stayed idle for too long. The boy's face fell, the light in his eyes extinguished. "I can't say fer sure. We came down 'ere to save her, but I got captured before we got to wherever we were goin," she was quick to explain, but he did not brighten again. "How did ya know my name?" He shrugged, leaning against the bars.

"I told you, my brother mentions you sometimes." He pondered this for a moment, before adding, "Lance mentions a lot of people, actually, but you're the only one he always has to mention is a redhead." Thalia's face flamed, rather against her will, from what she assumed was irritation, but it wasn't quite the same. "I'm Daren."

He stepped away from the bars and bowed to her, with which she returned a face of disgust. "Don' ever do that again." Thalia huffed, turning her back to him and sinking to the ground. "...Nice ta meet you."

Gladice stared in awe at the observatory Peter had led them all to, after Gladice's sudden announcement of Thalia's absence. A thousand glittering stars shined through the glass ceiling, and an enormous telescope stood on a raised platform in the center of the room. Of course, there had not been much time to admire it. They were there because they had to know where Thalia was. The most likely (and obvious, Gladice thought) place she could be was the Underworld, where perhaps they had unknowingly left her. Aspasia said she could not recall seeing another member of their group with them, so she would have had to have gotten separated from them before then. Peter was doing something with Melody, wrapping her hands in some sort of blue fabric, it looked like. Despite everything, she still looked resilient, though Gladice wasn't sure how much longer that would last.

Rosette and Evan looked like they were trying not to smile, and Gladice's confusion must have alerted Rosette, because soon her friend had pulled her off to the side. "Hey," Gladice greeted. "What's up?"

"There's... um..." Rosette seemed lost for words, a rare occurrence from the usually so astute brunette. After a few more mumbles, she finally just ended up blurting, "I'm engaged." Gladice's jaw slackened as her sentence swirled around in her mind.

"To Evan?" was the only thing she could think to say. Rose's smile broadened, and her head bobbed eagerly, which in turn invoked a smile from Gladice, as well. "Oh my gosh, Rose!" Pulling her friend in to a hug, she realized just how long she'd gone without having a moment like this, with her best friend and being happy just because Rosette was happy. And she had really missed that feeling. When they pulled apart, Gladice asked, "When did this happen?"

"Just now." The brunette raised her left hand and wiggled her fingers, showing off the golden ring embedded with three shimmering diamonds. As she admired the gorgeous ring, Gladice couldn't shove down the envy in the pit of her stomach. That should have been her. With Lance. As soon as the thought came up, Gladice knew it was wrong. After all, she was certainly aware of Lance's relationship with Brook, and having a crush on a taken person was despicable. Still...

She sighed, supposing nothing would come of her feelings, now, anyways. "I wish I could've been there to see it," she mused. Shortly before returning to the dining hall, Gladice had been exploring the kitchen with James, since they were both hungry. That must have been when Evan had popped the question, she guessed.

A bright green flash lit up the room, but was gone just as quickly as it had come. Melody stood in the center of the observatory, glowing green dust glinting around her eyes. "What happened?" asked Evan, whom had been in conversation with Lance a moment before. Brook clung to Lance's arm, ever so petite and fragile and lucky. Gladice quickly averted her gaze.

"Your friend is searching for the other one. She's about to enter the other's mind," Peter said as nonchalantly as ever. "With any luck, the other one'll actually listen to that little voice in her head." He winked at the group. "And I'm pretty lucky, for an old man."

Melody was swimming, then she was sinking, then she was running. The ocean turned into the forest, the scenery dragging her out of her own mind and into someone else's. Confusion washed over her for the first few hectic moments of the transition, but then she slowly began to remember where she was and what she was doing. She ended up on the peak of a tall mountain, overlooking a wide forest with a castle somewhere off in the distance. Peter had told her that once she found Thalia, she would have to sprinkle the pixie dust on her mental state in order to bring her fully into her own mind. Only then would they be able to communicate. Sighing, Melody adjusted the loose-fitting jeans she'd put on before agreeing to this. Apparently, Peter had a bunch of clothes of various shapes and sizes he kept in his house for some reason. It creeped her out, if she was being perfectly honest. But the jeans and t-shirt were better than the heavy dress she'd had to wear for the past few days.

Finding Thalia was not extremely hard. After wandering through the forest in the direction of the palace for a while, Melody saw her wandering around like a zombie with an emotionless stare. She wasted no time blowing a puff of green pixie dust into the girl's eyes. All at once, Thalia swiftly pulled the sword from her belt, pinning Melody to a tree with it at her throat. "What the 'ell are ya doin' in my head?"

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~Peace Out~~Icee