Chapter Seven

2 Months Later

Percy was bored. The trip to Rome had been easy enough, that is until the slave traders got them.

It began about a week after they had decided to go to Rome. The trio was hungry. They had decided to find a civilized road and with civilization comes the need of money. Luke thought about selling his armor but Nico pointed out he would be caught as a deserter if he sold it. The trio quickly got rid of the armor and now was left with nothing except their horses. Percy didn't want to sell them, especially when one of them was his personal horse, Blackjack.

They couldn't get jobs as they were on a journey to Rome so they resorted to something incredibly stupid now that Percy looked back on it. Thievery.

They became highway robbers, using the money they found to buy their everyday necessities. One day they slipped up. On a road just at the beginning of the peninsula of Italy, the trio had tried to rob a carriage. Key word: tried.

Turns out the carriage was full of bounty hunters looking for the trio.

Flashback

The carriage came into their field of vision. Percy and Nico hid behind a rock a few yards from the road while on the other side Luke hid behind a tree. As the carriage came in between the two hiding places the boys burst into action. Percy jumped onto the horses and cut loose the ropes connecting them to the carriage while Luke took out the coachman.

Nico ran to the door and wrenched it open, holding his sword out only to be met with a half dozen swords pointed at him. Panicking, he slammed the door closed. "Percy, we got a problem here! Armed people!"

Percy ran to Nico's side while Luke ran to the opposite side of the carriage. Percy gave Nico a boost and the smaller boy scrambled onto the top of the carriage. "You know what to do!" Percy shouted up at him.

Nico carved a hole in the top of the carriage. "Incoming!" he shouted as he kicked the wood in.

The people inside let out a screech of surprise but quickly readied their swords.

Percy kicked open the door and held his sword to the neck of person closest to him as Luke did the same thing on the other side. He knocked the swords out of the 2 people closest to him and soon the carriage was unarmed. "Hand us your gold," he demanded.

He felt the familiar coldness of blade prick the back of his neck. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

End of flashback

Things went downhill pretty quickly after that. Yep, bounty hunters on the sides of the road too. Ironic seeing as they came out of the very places the trio was hiding. Although, a part of Percy was flattered seeing as at least 10 bounty hunters had banded together to catch the trio.

They were led on a 2 mile trek to the nearest town where they were sold to a slave trader. Now Percy was sitting in a wooden cage/carriage with the other two, hands bound of course. Nico and Luke were each put in different carriages with other prisoners to prevent "shenanigans" as the slave trader had put it.

The only excitement he had had for the last 5 weeks was when they stopped in a town or village. Usually someone new would be thrust into the smelly cage.

He never saw women enter the cage. Probably because they were put in a separate cage or the slave trader wanted them personally, which is why he was surprised when he saw a girl of about 20 pushed into the cage. Her choppy black hair was dirty, as were her clothes. Luckily for her, they weren't so ripped that they were exposing.

"Stupid smelly men, aren't worth my shi-" he heard her mutter.

"Um, hey," he greeted.

She lifted her head. "What do you want?" Her eyes were an electric blue, almost like…

Percy said something intelligent. "Uh…"

She rolled her eyes and went back to muttering about men.

Meanwhile Percy contemplated her resemblance to someone else he knew. Was it possible Triton would have gone so far to banish his sister?

He looked up and analyzed the dirty girl. She was slightly skinnier than the last time he may have seen her but based on her mutterings that weren't too kind to males, and the familiar electric eyes, Percy had to conclude that this was indeed-

"Princess Thalia?"

The other prisoners looked at him like he was crazy and went back to conversing, not paying attention to the supposedly mad boy, but Percy kept his vision trained on the girl in front of him.

Thalia looked up and took the chance to truly analyze the boy in front of her. His raven hair was starting to hang around his eyes. His tunic was as dirty as any of the other men's in the carriage. What really mesmerized her though were the sea green eyes, like her father's. She'd seen them somewhere else. The general's…

"General Perseus?" she whispered.

Percy's lips widened into a huge grin. "It's just Percy now. General Perseus is supposed to be dead."

Thalia's eyes widened in bewilderment. "What happened to you?"

"Long story short? Well, I was supposed to be executed but then I wasn't because I killed the executioner...and the rest of the guards, except for one, Luke got him. Then I went to my farm and found my family…" Percy trailed off. He had started out pretty happy until he got to the touchy subject of his family's murder. But he had to get past that. He had Nico, Luke, and now Thalia to take care of. So he smiled his signature lopsided grin and continued. "I found Nico, my brother, but everyone else, well, Jupiter bless them. Then all three of us decided to go to Rome and on the way became highway robbers. As robbers, we decided to rob a carriage. Turns out the carriage was full of 6 bounty hunters but we still persisted and got caught by 4 more robbers who were hiding off the road. Next thing I know, I'm sitting here next to Smelly," he said, pointing a thumb to a sleeping, dirty, fat man next to him."

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "So let me get this straight. You were about to be executed but then you survived. Why were you going to be executed in the first place?"

"Triton asked me to swear allegiance to him but I didn't. You see, princess, your father's last wishes to me were to ensure that Rome would be made a republic. I'm sorry to tell you this princess, but your brother murdered your father," Percy explained.

"I know."

"You do?"

"Annabeth told me."

Percy rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm sorry about your loss princess."

"Stop."

"What?"

"With the princess thing. I'm not a princess and Triton isn't my brother. I disowned him and he banished me for not telling him Annabeth had told me his secret," Thalia said.

"Oh."

The conversation lulled. Eventually Thalia broke the silence. "I'm worried about Jason."

"That makes sense. I mean Triton already killed your father for the throne and now he's banished you. Also Jason is a guy and he's next in line for the throne so-" he stopped when he saw Thalia glaring at him. "Sorry."

Thalia sighed. "I never really got to spend time with him. Father sent him off to Greece to learn from the scholars and warriors and I was always at home, being the good daughter and princess."

Percy laughed, earning another glare from Thalia. "What?" she demanded.

"I'm sorry, good princess? Excuse me if I'm wrong but your whole persona screams out 'I'm a rebel! Look me in the eye and I'll grind your bones to make my bread!'"

"I'm not a giant!" Thalia complained.

Percy scratched his chin, as if he was thinking deeply about the subject. "Yeah, you're right. You're kind of short."

Before Thalia could strangle him, the carriage jolted to a halt.

"Out!" a voice commanded and one by one the slaves filed out of the carriage. They were led down the street of a village. Shouts of merchants and the chatter of people were everywhere as Percy walked down the street, Thalia at his side. Soon they arrived at a building with a courtyard to Percy's right, stone walls surrounding it. To his left, he could see the top of a small arena peeking out over the buildings and Percy what was happening: they were sold as gladiators.

Author's Note: AND ENTER GLADIATORS! Yep, some Percy and Thalia bonding. Don't worry, it's not a Perlia. Thanks for reading! Please Review! (I used way too many exclamation points)