Percy, Jason and Annabeth all looked at Lyca. "Apollo?" Percy asked her.
Lyca combed her brown hair back with her fingers. "Yup. God of light, archery and healing."
Jason stared at her. "But wait. You did something on the hill when we were fighting those bloodlust. You blinded the guy...somehow...you knew it was going to happen. How did you do it? I don't know anybody who can do that, not even children of Apollo. The only thing that I know that makes such a bright light is..." Jason trailed off, as if he was remembering something unsavory.
"What?" Lyca asked him.
"A god," Annabeth finished for the son of Jupiter. "Only gods have been known to be able to create such massive amounts of light."
"Exactly," Jason continued, picking at the dirt under his feet. "So how can you do it?"
Lyca shrugged her slender shoulders. "I have no idea. I remembered my childhood, and how every once in a rare while my mother would send me to my room for a couple of minutes. She always said that I was a little too radiant, and the other kids would be jealous if they ever knew. It was our little secret and when I would come out, she would give me something sweet or a toy and I'd think nothing of it. I had never done it consciously before, but I knew how I felt when I was being radiant. Something in the back of my mind was telling me that it would save me when I could harness it. I still haven't figured out why I could do it and why I stopped doing it when I got older."
"Wait," Annabeth interjected. Despite the pain she was in, the demigods could see the gears working double-time in her head. "At any point did you move to a cloudy area when you got a little older?"
Lyca nodded in surprise. "Me and my mom moved to Seattle after when I was seven. We used to live further south, where it was warm and sunny a lot. How did you know that I moved like that?"
"Just as I thought," Annabeth explained. "Your ability is extremely rare, even rarer than any child of Hephaestus gaining fire powers. You seem to be able to absorb the energy of the sun, your father's energy-and radiate it. When your mom called you radiant, she meant it, literally. You were glowing. She probably was letting you burn off the extra energy when you were in your room. When you moved to Seattle, you couldn't absorb as much energy as normal because of the decreased amount of sunlight, so you didn't need to dissipate the energy like that."
"Great," Lyca intoned. "Now I'm a human light bulb. Anything else I can do with this energy?" Annabeth shrugged. "I've never heard of anything like this before. Everything I just said is all conjecture based off what you just told me. If we can get out of this hellhole and find Chiron, maybe he can tell you exactly what you can do." Annabeth shifted and winced, grabbing at her thigh.
"What's wrong?" Lyca asked her.
Percy spoke up before Annabeth could talk. "She got caught by a throwing knife when we were trying to escape from the fighting. I tried to heal her with water from the river, but I think being in the Arena saps some of our abilities."
Jason nodded in agreement. "I think he's right. I can't do a lot of the stuff I normally could. I mean, I can't even fly."
Lyca stared at Jason. "You can fly?!"
"I could," he replied. "If Percy is right, then that's the reason I can't do that stuff right now. I'm limited to generating electricity within myself and I can use the wind to power my jumps a little higher or farther, but no flight. No full on 'Son-of-Jupiter-lightning-blasts' either."
Lyca stared at Annabeth's leg wound for a moment. "Well, I don't know what the Titans took from me being in the Arena. I mean, I never tried any healing in here, and I clearly don't know the limits to my own power, but I can try to help you." Annabeth silently tore the leg of her sweatpants, exposing her thigh and the red, swollen, angry wound marring her otherwise white skin.
The daughter of Apollo breathed in deep and studied the wound. "Percy I need you to go and get some water from the nearby stream. Just need a little to clean the wound. Jason I need you to find me a small, sturdy stick. If I can do anything permanent, she'll need that to bite down on. When you get back, I need you to get that electricity running: it'll help ionize the water." As the boys ran off, Lyca stared at Annabeth, who looked like she was just managing to hold it all together while in so much pain. "Don't worry Annabeth. One way or another, we'll fix that leg of yours."
Reyna expected to not feel anything. Actually she expected to feel herself splatter against sheer concrete and solid stone chariot and dead horse, and after that she was going to feel nothing. So she was utterly surprised when she could only feel herself braced against the smooth obsidian chariot and the fact that her eyes were clenched shut. Reyna heard the clattering of the wheels on bumpy ground and the wind blowing past. "You know, you can look now," she heard Nico tell her over the wind rushing by the chariot.
The praetor opened first one eye and then the other, looking herself over and then at the son of Pluto beside her. He had summoned enough ghosts in her presence to know that neither of them held the sickly pale vigor of the dead. She managed to stand upright in the chariot, realizing that the horses weren't moving nearly as fast as they were when they left the camp. "Where are we? Why are we moving so slow?" Reyna asked him.
Nico snapped the reins again and the horses kept moving over the plain. "My best guess? We're in Kansas right now. I'm tracking the Arena with the smell of the dying demigods. It's a strong smell when I'm in range, so we should be there soon. If I'm right, Thalia will already be nearby." Nico stifled a yawn as he continued speaking. "We're moving so slow now because shadow travel is draining. Typically, a child of Hades or certain types of monsters or animals can do it. My first travel by myself almost knocked me out for a week. Anyways, both horses used their powers to shadow travel themselves and the chariot. I picked up the slack and took you and me. The horses are tired, so when we finally stop they will need to rest until its time to go again."
Reyna nodded to herself, and the ride continued in silence, until Nico spoke up again. "It's not any of my business, but since we're supposed to be allies I feel like I can at least ask this question." Reyna turned her dark eyes onto Nico's pale face, who continued to stare ahead and steer the horses from hell. After waiting a beat for a rejection of questions, he continued. "Why are you so dead set to get Jason out of the Arena? I mean, I understand that he's co-praetor with you or something, but you have strong legionnaires who could take his place if necessary, I think. Of course, I'm going to save Percy and Annabeth, but it's a little more necessary for me than you. The Greeks need a child of the Big Three to take control, and it can't be me."
Reyna thought about the question. Maybe the boy's question made sense to her. Jason was a powerful praetor, but if it came down to it, she could find someone to take his place. But what if she didn't want anyone else to take his place? It wasn't uncommon for praetors to be linked romantically...was that what she wanted between her and the son of Jupiter? Maybe her search for Jason Grace was more than a little bit personal, but she didn't share any of that with Nico D'Angelo. Instead, her eyes spied a large dome on the horizon, and she pointed at it. "What is that?"
Nico stared at it, and if it was possible, Reyna swore his dark eyes grew even darker. "That's our destination. That's the Arena."
Lyca stared resignedly at the situation she found herself and her new allies in. Just like Jason and Percy's more powerful abilities, her healing capabilities had been diminished in the confines of the Arena. She actually should have expected that much; it'd be cheating if she could keep healing herself. The daughter of Apollo had managed to clean the wound with the ionized water, courtesy of Jason and his static electricity, and then she wrapped it firmly with strips of cloth Percy had found in the camp. Percy made himself useful during as well, cradling Annabeth's head in his lap, cooing uncharacteristically at her and using the leftover water to clean the sweat from her brow and cool her heating skin. "You know," Lyca said absently, finishing off the knot in the makeshift bandage, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you two were more than friends." She expected to hear some very general declarations of, Nah, we're completely like siblings, but the complete and utter silence from the pair took her by surprise. She looked up from her finished job and noticed that Jason was glancing at the two expentantly, expecting an answer one way or another. Lyca watched intently as she noticed Percy's skin flush red in the dim light of his bronze sword.
Jason broke the awkward silence. "So, Lyca. Why don't we go and check out this new bow of yours? I figure that it's been a couple years since you used one, and you might want to get your body back into the rhythm of sniping people." He grabbed the arrows and tugged on Lyca's arm gently.
"Sure," Lyca said warily, grabbing the bow beside her and leaving the clustered grove of trees. "But keep an eye on those arrows. We don't know how many we might need to bust out." She slid out of the trees fluidly, leaving the two alone to themselves.
Jason half-led, half-dragged Lyca off to the hill towering over their temporary hideout. When they were far enough away, Jason looked back at her. "Sorry about dragging you out like that, but something tells me that the question you asked is one that they haven't answered yet." He held the quiver out toward the daughter of Apollo, and she plucked three arrows from it and stuck them in the ground in front of her.
"Maybe," Lyca replied, shrugging her shoulders. She tugged on the glove on her right hand and adjusted her grip on the bow, noting how perfect it fit her hand, as if she'd made it for her own hand. She let her thumb linger on the bowstring before plucking it to hear the low, sweet twanging sound resonate through her hand and up her body. She grabbed hold of an arrow and notched it to her bow, pulling the bowstring taut along her arm. "Call a target, Sparky, and we'll see if I can hit it."
Jason glanced around, looking for an easy target. "There's a tree by the bloodlust camp, just down the hill. Hit the trunk."
Lyca rolled her eyes and took one deep breath as she lined up her shot, before letting the arrow fly. A sharp thudding sound let her know she nailed her target. "That was way too easy! I'm a child of Apollo. I know the Arena is sapping our powers, but come on. Give me something tougher."
"Okay," Jason said, heading to retrieve the arrow. "How about nailing those apples over our grove? We need some food. Maybe you should split one, too, just to test your skill."' He said with a wink, as he wandered slowly down the hill, the quiver on his back, off to get the lone arrow.
Lyca nodded to herself grimly. "Great. A light bulb, a telephone between gods and mortals, and now apple-picker." She notched an arrow and, after judging where she wanted to put her shot, closed her eyes and released. She opened her eyes and watched the apple free-falling, pierced cleanly with an arrow. "I know I can be more than this. There's something more I can do, I just know it." Lyca took aim at another apple before changing her mind and aiming wide, letting the arrow fly and watching as it cut two apples down at once.
She looked down the hill and towards the grove and watched Jason fetch her arrows and wave her down with them. Jason is the son of Zeus. Percy is the son of Poseidon. Those two are made to be great. And Annabeth is brilliant. She's worthy of being Athena's child, she thought to herself, while she began thumbing her bowstring. Please Dad, let me be special. I want to be worthy of you. I want to help however I can.
She saw someone waving down the hill and noticed Jason waving some more, trying to get the demigod to join them, although she noted he was moving more urgently. Then he started pointing toward his hand, which grasped her three arrows. On a whim, she looked down at her bow while her fingers still played with the bowstring, and was surprised when she saw a small flash of light as her fingers danced along the string. She held her fingers steady and noticed the silhouette of an arrow resting against her bow. She pulled the bow taut, as if she was aiming at something; the arrow of light was still pinched between her fingertips, waiting to fly. Wanting to see what would happen, she let go of the bowstring, and watched as the arrow flashed out of her grasp and spiraled away, picking up speed before disappearing in the darkness, faster than any normal arrow she'd ever shot. Jason dropped the apples and the arrows and ran off into the forest, following the path of her arrow.
Lyca came down from the hill, where she met the son of Jupiter at the foot of the hill.
"What was that?!" Jason asked her, his blue eyes wide with amazement.
Lyca's eyes were just as wide. "I don't know...It looked like an arrow in my hand. Where'd it go?"
Jason shrugged his shoulders but held out his hands. "I couldn't find it. I think it disappeared. But look what I found." A half in each hand, he held out an apple that looked as if it had been lightly roasted.
A/N: Okay the calm before the storm. Lyca's learning more about her powers and Percy and Annabeth are confronted with the truth. And Nico and Reyna are ready to bust out the gang. Thalia will be in the next one and there should be action, as well as that new POV that I originally planned for a couple of chapters ago. Please review guys, I like hearing your input.