The Heroes Of Olympus & The Surrounding Darkness

Hey, so I just thought I'd say: Thank you so much for the lovely reviews I've gotten so far! They really put a smile on my face today when I got home from school. Please keep reviewing. I honestly don't care if it's a good or bad review, I just wanna know what I can do to make my story better. Also, I thought I'd mention that I'm not going to make any P.O.V.'s with Hazel or Frank and I'm not sure about Piper. It just seems like too much skipping around from character to character. Plus, I want to get more Percy and Jason into the story. It'll be kinda cool seeing through a werewolf and vampire's eyes, right?

Leo Valdez P.O.V.

"Percy, please, just stop." Annabeth says, her eyes pink from crying.

He stands there, as if paralyzed.

"Percy," Piper says, obviously using charmspeak. "Listen to Annabeth. Back away from Lycaon now."

Percy looks up at her. He then removes Riptide from under Lycaon's chin and steps back.

Lycaon immediately moves to Circe's side. He glares at Percy while Circe smirks. She waves her hand dismissively and, as if by and invisible force, he flies back and hits the wall hard. He falls to the floor and crumples on his side and doesn't move. He's completely unconcious.

I thought this was a dream. Is it possible for him to be unconcious? I wonder.

"There we go." Circe says turning back to Annabeth. "Nothing holding us back from having some fun, huh Annabeth?"

Annabeth glares at her.

"There is one thing." I say. "Me." I break my hands and feet free of my chains. I've been working on that for a while, heating the chains just hot enough for them to give out.

For a moment, Circe looks at me with something like fear, but it easily turns to annoyance. And trust me, I know what that looks like.

"Leo, are you serious? Why put yourself up against me now? I can snap your neck with the flick of my wrist."

I roll my eyes, then look at her with my devilish smile that I've been working on for so many years. "Do you know what I can do with a flick of my wrist?"

She looks at me with astonishment. "What? Are you kidding me?"

I look at her seriously. "If I was kidding, you'd know it."

"You're a son of Hepheastus, what sort of powers can you possibly hold? You, Leo Valdez, are nothing." The way she says 'nothing' sends chills throughout my body, but I try my best to show no fear.

"Whatever you say, Lady." I purposely flick my wrist and Circe let's out a muffled scream as fire erupts around her. I look at Lycaon and the flames erupt around him too. I look at our other hosts and they take one step back. I run to Annabeth first, attempting to break her chains, but I don't have enought time.

The flames that surround Circe extinguish and she looks at me infuriated. She notices that Lycaon is trapped within my flames, so she waves her hand and the fire is completely gone almost instintaniously. She then shouts at me, "Leo Valdez, I have half a mind to kill you right now!"

I turn my body to face her. At both of my sides, my hands erupt in fire. "You ready for round two?"

Circe just looks at me mockingly. "Bring it on."

Annabeth Chase P.O.V.

No, no, no! How could Leo be so stupid? She's going to tear him to shreds! I think to myself.

When I thought about her 'tearing him to shreds,' I meant it as a figure of speech. I didn't think she'd actually do it.

Circe and Leo stand ready to attack. Leo makes the first move, which was a bad idea. As he runs at her, she swipes her hand through the air in front of her. There's an aweful slicing sound and Leo falls to his knees. The flames in his hands die out and he grips at his stomach. There's too much blood coming from his wound. He falls onto his side and lies there, unable to move any further.

"I'm actually suprised by you, demigods." Circe says addressing all of us. "You've put up quite a fight today. I'm somewhat impressed. Now I have a fire user? This day just keeps getting better. Where was I? Oh, yes! These gifts you possess are why you'll be perfect for the role I'll have you fulfill."

"Come on." I say by accident. I didn't mean for the words to actually come out. Everyone is looking at me and I have no choice but to continue. "Can't you just get whatever it is you're trying to do to us overwith already? Stop torturing everyone and get this done. There's obviously no way of us escaping so can't we move on with this?"

Circe chuckles with delight. "Oh, Annabeth. Torturing some of you is the only thing I can do to get you to do what I want. You, Annabeth, I'm finished with."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I mean you're already what I want you to be. Don't you hear yourself? You're quitting. Annabeth Chase has never been known to be a quitter, so that's what I had to drive you to: Quitting. You couldn't stand to see your friends beaten and tortured anymore so your only choice was to quit. Think about it. Have you ever given up even once in your life?"

I do think about that, and the fact is: I haven't. I've never given up. "No." I answer.

She smiles. "So, are you willing to do what I want you to, or do I have to break out my whip?"

No, I'm not going to give up that easily. "Whip me all you want, Circe, but I will never work for you."

"Hmm... Number one: I didn't mean I was going to whip you. I was planning on whipping Percy just to make you suffer. And number two: I'm pretty sure you mean you'll never voluntarily work for me."

"What do you mean?"

"Annabeth, my dear, do you remember the eidolons? I recall your last encounter wasn't so sweet. Well, I have some. Enough to possess all of you in fact, and no one at Camp Half-Blood would even notice you were acting different, I'm sure."

Leo groans on the floor. "Oh gods. Please not the eidolons again."

Circe giggles. "Poor Leo. You always did have the worst of luck when it came to the eidolons, didn't you?" She then begins to laugh out loud.

"Stop!" Lycaon shouts catching everyones attention. "Can you feel that?"

"Lycaon, what is it? Feel what?" Circe questions.

"That shift in the air. I can't tell what's causing it." All eyes seem to drift to Jason, who looks to be momentarily panicked. I also realize now that he's still on the floor, looking worse than ever. He seems to get more and more pale every time I look back at him.

"Woah," Jason says, stopping anyone from jumping to conclusions. "My powers don't work here, remember?"

"That's right." I say. "If Jason's powers don't work here, why did Leo's?"

"That's 'cause I'm just awesome." Leo says, still laying on the floor but with his eyes shut as if it requires too much effort.

Circe rolls her eyes, then walks toward Jason. She grabs his pant leg and lifts it, revealing a golden bracelet around his ankle. "This is why. I had Lycaon put these on whoever I thought may have powers that could be a threat. There's one on Percy, Frank, Hazel, and obviously Jason. I didn't think the rest of you would have any special powers that could actually come close to defeating me. In fact, Lycaon, put one of the bracelets on Leo."

Lycaon doesn't answer. Instead, he pauses for a moment, then says, "I can still feel it. It's getting stronger. I fear what I think it is."

"And what do think it is?"

He freezes. "Someone else is coming."

"What!" Circe shouts. "That is not possible. How do you know?"

"They somehow managed to connect dreams. I can feel their presence. It's only a matter of time before-" Lycaon never got the chance to finish.

Only inches before Circe stands my good friend, Nico.

Nico looks like he's in shock. His eyes widen as he stares into the piercing eyes of Circe. He must be completely clueless on what to do next because all he can stifle is, "Umm, hi."

"Nico!" I shout through sheer greatfulness.

"This isn't possible! How did you get here?" Circe shouts at Nico.

Nico takes a couple steps back and clearly states, "I took a nap."

Circe is in a murder rage. Without any warning, she swipes the air like she did with Leo, but nothing happens. Nico stands there, completely unharmed with his head crooked to the side like a confused puppy. Circe stands in mock suprise, until she recovers from her shock and tries again. Still, nothing happens.

"What are you trying to do?" Nico asks.

She ignores him and turns to Lycaon. "Kill him." She says with distaste.

"With pleasure." He grins and charges at Nico.

Nico throws up his hands to block the blow. Lycaon is thrown back and lands on the concrete. Nico stands up tall as if pleased with himself. Lycaon jumps to his feet and asks, "How did you do that?"

Nico half smiles and answers, "I entered this dream on my own, that makes it my dream and I can control it however I please."

A/N I really don't have anything to say like I usually do. I hope you enjoyed and I'm glad you've kept up this far. Please review! I'll post the next chapter asap!