GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS! I HAVE 976 REVIEWS! WE'RE SO CLOSE TO 1000! YAYZERS!
Oh, and here's your Frank chapter. Not like it's a big deal or anything, you all seemed pretty unenthusiastic about it. :) (and, sarcasm)
Reyna (guest): Leo may have a very horror-filled day soon in his future. Just wait for it... :D
Leona Valdez (guest): I always love hearing where people are from. It's so cool to find out that I have a bunch of readers from somewhere like Hungary. Also, Caleo is sort of on its way. Although it's kind of angsty, slightly mad Caleo. Because Leo is struggling.
Icehawk54: I know, I know. But Percy is the hero. He's the hero. And I am going to try and focus on him a bit less...I'm just trying to ease into it. But it mostly started with trying to make Jason a bit more in character, and now that he is, I can't just let him be completely perfect all the time. He has to have a few problems. And he really does try to carry the whole weight of the quest on his shoulders-stressed out, unwilling to relax Jason didn't seem too far off.
Hope Garrit (guest): Is your 5 pound cat a relative of Small Bob's? :) And yay, CHOCOLATE!
Pjbooksrock (guest): Thanks, very very much. Your support makes me feel rainbowy inside-not that it's that hard to do. And they're going to talk about it soon-just not too soon.
drinkingthestarswithbob: Aww, thanks. I'm glad you think the characters are so great. And three cheers for epically awesome crazy people! Like me and you. :D On a different note, how's the update for your fanfic coming? Well, I hope?
Chickenislife (guest): I really like your review name. :) It makes me smile. And, here they are, I'm keepin' em comin'.
KristenAAliana (guest): See, that's what I was going for. I really want everyone in the Seven to have a really strong bond-stronger than brothers and sisters. Of course, Rick's already started some of that by pairing people up, but he really ought to have focused more on creating that relationship between everyone. Take Piper and Percy, for instance. They both care about one another, and would protect each other, but they don't have a very strong relationship. They don't talk much, and they haven't ever opened up to each other the way real friends would do. I plan to change that.
IamElizaBennet: No, but close. Think back a little farther...maybe to the first quest. ;)
shreylakhanpal4: Don't worry, Roseus is cirling in the water below where the ship is hovering. He's there. And he's going to play a more active part soon.
Naomi MK Jackson: No, not completely. It's definitely faded, but how could he help still being a little envious of Percy? His next chapter will have a bit more thought on the subject.
Random Person (guest): Thanks, your support really means a lot. And yes, I did say that screech owls were an omen of death...and Annabeth just had a dream visit from Aphrodite that predicted death...Hmmm...But remember a few things: A. I'm not completely evil. B. Percy has a habit of just being like 'Haha, nope' whenever someone tells him he's going to die. And C. Aphrodite said Percy might die. Also, Jason saw the owls as well. Just think about all that for a bit.
Wild-at-Heart14: Aww, thanks, pretty person! You are absolutely wonderful! And I really like the bro-bonding too, that's why I put it in there. More to come, I promise. And DO NOT WORRY, I don't understand the Jason/Percy ship either. PERCABETH ALL THE WAY!
Blackberry Explosion: I love Percy's sarcasm; I have the same thing. I'm extremely sarcastic. My family hates me for it. :D
WisegirlAnnabethChase: Yes, I believe so. At the beginning, I had epicly, but I once typed that in to a computer with spell check and it said epically instead. So, pretty sure it's a word, now that I have it spelled right. Although I wouldn't really care if it wasn't...I invent new words all the time.
Me (guest): Well, is it? Read the chapter below and tell me what you think! I bet my dog (yes, my dog, my family isn't particularly supportive of the whole fanfiction thing, and she comes back here and watches me type, so...) that someone would start their review with OH. MY. GODS. So try and do that. Although I'll probably give her a treat or two anyway...
Cherries (guest): I will calm the mob with yummy homemade blue cookies and then I will hug you all for being so excited about my fanfic.
Mitsuru Pekkinen-Kirijo: Well, I hope you don't literally die. That would be tragic. And the whole PURPLE TURTLEZ thing isn't really that random, my best friend has a thing with turtles too. Although in our world, they are man-eating werewolf vampire unicorn turtles. So her obsession is totally understandable.
Chapter LXVI
Frank
The first thing Frank notices as he walks through the flames is that he's not being burnt to a pile of ashes. He doesn't even feel the heat, even though the flames are swirling against him like they're trying to become part of him.
The second thing he notices is the fact that as he continues to step forward, spine straight, standing tall, his fear starts to ebb away, leaving nothing but determination in its place.
And the last thing he notices is that even though he can feel the flames where they're flickering against his face, he's breathing fine. He breathes in the fire, and doesn't even feel it. It's like the whole thing is an illusion, even though that burn when he touched it at the beginning felt perfectly real.
He lifts up his hands and watches in wonder as the flames twist through his fingers, swirling against his skin. You know, he thinks, there's something really beautiful about fire too, once you stop being afraid of it. And it really is amazing, the way they tumble over each other. He never knew there were so many different shades of red, yellow, orange, and gold.
And then, suddenly, as soon as the flames flared up, they're gone, and Frank is standing at another branch in the tunnels. Ridiculously, he feels a sense of loss when they disappear, and he shakes his head in irritation.
Get it together, Frank, you're being stupid. He chides himself. Then he looks up, and stares at the two tunnels in front of him, looking as far as he can down one, and then the other, waiting for his instinct to tug him in the right direction.
It comes in the form of an ocean breeze, just like the previous two times, and Frank starts towards that tunnel, but as soon as he does, he feels a sudden longing to go the other way. He turns to it, and looks into its depths, wondering what could make him want to go that way so much.
As soon as he thinks it, images flicker to life within the tunnel, along the walls, and at the far end. He can hear them, too, and it's like watching a movie on an old projector...
The first is of him and Hazel, a little older than they are now, sitting on a picnic blanket in a park he doesn't recognize. As he watches, Hazel throws back her head and laughs happily, and when she stops, she grins and turns to Movie Frank, her eyes shining with happiness, and a healthy glow in her cheeks.
The second is of them at a wedding-not theirs, though. Percy and Annabeth's. She's a bridesmaid, and he's her escort, obviously, walking her down the aisle. When they get to the altar, he goes to stand by Percy, Jason, and Leo, and then he turns to face Hazel. He grins at her, and she suppresses a giggle over her flower bouquet.
The third is of Hazel lying in a hospital bed, and Frank's heart skips a beat when he sees it, but then he realizes that she's smiling tenderly, and she looks fine, just a bit tired. Then he notices that she's holding a tiny bundle wrapped in a pink blanket-a perfect, beautiful baby with a shock of dark hair and cocoa skin. In the picture, he's kneeling by Hazel's bed, holding one of her hands, looking happily down into the face of his daughter.
Frank's heart nearly stops. The longing he feels, seeing both of them so happy, is overwhelming, and he takes an unconscious step forward before stopping himself.
Could this show the future...? He wonders. He wants it so badly, it hurts.
The breeze blows more insistently from the tunnel to his left, and he glances at it guiltily. He knows that's the way he's supposed to go, but he wants to see more...
He shakes himself awake, cursing at himself. No. I can't. I'm here for a reason, and that isn't to get distracted by pretty pictures.
He takes a step towards the right tunnel, the one he's supposed to take, and glances longingly one last time at the clips of him and his friends, all healthy, smiling, happy, before stepping inside it.
As soon as he does, more images flicker to life on the walls, and at first, he's eager to see them, thinking they might be more of the ones that he saw in the other tunnel. But they couldn't be more different.
They're violent, bloody, not at all happy. They depict scenes of horror and death, of desperation. One shows Hazel getting stabbed in the back by a shadowy, indistinct figure. She gasps in surprise, and then crumples to the ground, and Frank feels like his heart is being ripped from his chest.
Another shows Annabeth sobbing over Percy's unmoving body, with the rest of them gathered around her, crying silent tears of grief.
The third depicts Jason free-falling through the air, his eyes closed, making no move to catch himself, either unconscious or dead. Below, Piper is screaming at him, but he isn't responding.
In this hall, Piper gets stabbed in the heart with a massive sword, Leo gets crushed by a hundred tons of dirt and rock, Frank is watching his lifeline burn, Annabeth is screaming in pain as poison slowly covers her skin...
Frank stumbles backward, only to find his way out of the tunnel blocked by what feels and looks like glass. He pounds at it with his fists, but it's unrelenting, and he closes his eyes to get away from the images, but now they're in his head, and he knows he's never going to be able to forget them.
He takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself, trying not to let himself fall apart, but the pictures torture him, and even with his eyes closed, he can still see them, still hear them. They're branded on his brain, and his heart is pounding painfully in his chest.
His breath shudders, and he can feel himself shaking. No...this can't be real, it can't be real, it can't be. He moans in his head, trying to calm himself.
Suddenly, the words etched in the gold above the entry to the last tunnel burst into his mind, surrounded by swirling flames.
To pass, one must master one's greatest fear.
He latches onto the words fiercely, shoving the other images away. I already faced fire. And even as I was about to do that, I even said-well, thought-that fire and losing Hazel, losing my friends, that they were my greatest fears. This is just meant to test me, it probably doesn't mean anything.
His shaking slows, and he starts to calm down, but he can feel a small voice in the back of his voice nagging at him. What if it does? What if this is a warning? What if all this is really going to happen?
But he pushes the voice away angrily. "I won't let it happen." He says out loud, his voice fierce. And he opens his eyes and walks forward, trying to ignore the images of blood and pain surrounding him.
This tunnel seems to last longer than the last one, but maybe that's just because this fear is so much greater than his fear of fire, than his fear of losing his own life.
The only other difference is that this fear doesn't fade as he walks further along the corridor. It just doesn't get worse, and his heart stops tugging at him quite so much. But the only other positive feeling is the steely determination that fills him-the determination that none of this will happen. That he won't let it.
Finally, though, the hallway ends, and the pictures flicker out of sight, leaving the tunnel looking normal and innocent-when Frank knows it's anything but.
He's once again faced with a choice of two tunnels, and once again, an ocean breeze wafts from the one on his left. But this time, another breeze blows from the one on the right-a fresh breeze that smells of trees and sunlight, with just a hint of salt. It smells like the air above.
Okay. So one tunnel leads deeper in, and the other leads out. Frank thinks.
After that last hall, there's nothing he would like better than to get out of here, and never come back. But he knows he can't do that, not after getting so far. He has to keep going. He has to meet his ancestor, and hear what he has to say to him.
He steps into the lefthand tunnel, and this time, to his relief, the only difference is that he's plunged into darkness. Another test, maybe, but the darkness doesn't bother him. He can find his way through it fine. Hopefully.
After he's been walking for maybe a minute, feeling his way with his feet, he hears whispers in the dark. He can't tell what they're saying, but they up the creep factor to a solid ten.
The hair on the back of his neck stands up on end, and a shiver races down his spine, but he keeps walking. Unintelligable whispers are harmless. At least as long as they stay unintelligable.
As soon as he thinks that, the whispers stop completely, leaving him in utter silence. He can't even hear his footsteps on the golden floor. It's like the darkness is muffling all sounds.
And then he hears a scream, coming from his left. Hazel's scream.
"Hazel!" He cries out before he can stop himself, turning to his left and trying to run that way, only to smash into the wall.
"Ow." He mutters, rubbing his forehead. Then he listens intently, turning his head from side to side, searching for a sign.
Percy's voice calls desperately from his right. "Frank!"
They aren't really here. It's not them. Hazel's back at the ship, and Percy's waiting outside with Jason. This isn't real. He tries to reassure himself.
Then he hears his mom's voice, directly in front of him. "Help me!" She's calling desperately.
Shadowy shapes start to form in the darkness, like tendrils of gray mist colliding and creating the form of his mom, laying in a muddy ditch with her legs tangled in barbed wire. Bullets are flying over her head, and there are already bloody wounds bleeding through her tattered military uniform.
"Mom?" Frank asks uncertainly, and she looks up at him, desperation in her eyes.
"Frank!" She calls to him. "My son. Help me!"
No. It's not her. She's dead. He tells himself, but she looks so real. But she wouldn't tell me to help her. She'd tell me to run, to save myself.
Just like that, the mist dissipates, and her form is gone, but another quickly replaces her-Hazel.
She's stumbling unsteadily towards him, her hands pressed tightly against her chest, where blood is pouring relentlessly from between her fingers, soaking her shirt and denim jacket. "Frank." She croaks desperately, and one of her hands reaches out to him.
He stumbles back. "No." He tells her. "You're not real."
She stops, and her brows furrow in confusion. "Frank?" She asks uncertainly.
Frank squeezes his eyes shut and runs forward, and when he opens them again, all he can see is the darkness. No one else is there. He's alone.
Then he suddenly steps into blinding golden light, and he blinks, temporarily blinded.
"Welcome, Frank Zhang." A voice says, echoing around him. "I am Periclymenus."
Ha! Cliffy again! Don't you all just love me?
I love you, join Cherries' mob to visit me, ship Percabeth like nobody's business, and watch out for mutant owls!