Nico walked to the Poseidon cabin and knocked on the door.
"Percy!" he called, "Are you in there?"
He sighed. Recently he hadn't been able to spend much time with the son of Poseidon.
Yesterday, Percy's brother had arrived at camp. A boy called Abriel, with red hair and blue eyes. It was odd, however, that the boy, who was eighteen, hadn't been in the first great prophecy. Most of the camp shrugged it off on the basis of the first line being A half-blood of the eldest gods, indicating that there wasn't a specification as to which half-blood. Nico wasn't sure.
And then there was the fact that the gods were giving their kids a god free three days, if it were 'god free' there'd be no claimings, and yet…
And then there was the part about how Abriel seemed 'so much like the sea' and was 'so good with water'. The kid hadn't even fricking reacted to being a demigod!
Something about it all was off, and whilst any other camper would say 'it was natural' Nico could feel something was up, and no matter how big or how bad, he wasn't going to let it hurt Percy.
He shadow-travelled in, figuring if they were just sleeping, which despite it being late morning was very Percy to do, they wouldn't notice him. Instead what he found were dents in the floor- which he had no idea could get dented- a bit of blood on the ground and- he froze. Percy's bed, where silken white sheets usually lay, had a trail of blood on it.
Panic washed over him. Why would there be blood on Percy's bed sheets? He reviewed all possible friendly reasons why, but crossed them off immediately, after all, none made sense, and a feeling in his gut told him Abriel and Sia were behind it.
He checked Abriel's bed, which was the one next-to-on-top of Percy's.
On it was a note, thankfully in Greek.
His anger-fueled mind only managed to pick up half the words:
… Captured Percy… Taken him as captive… stupid demigods… no match for demiprotegnoi.
He froze. Demi what?
But no matter how many times he re-read it, it wouldn't change, though as he mulled it over, things fell into place.
Sia, she could control the wind, so if she were a demiprotegnos then she would probably be a daughter of Ouranus, yet she could not control lightning, which would make sense considering that the lightning bolts were Zeus's special power, and made after the reign of the protegnoi.
He grabbed the note and rushed to the Athena cabin.
His fists barreled on the door, and, in his desperacy, failed to notice when Malcolm opened the door, the poor boy taking multiple blows to the chest and falling down.
Nico winced, "Sorry."
Malcolm raised a pointing hand, "It's okay," he said, grabbing the doorknob and getting up.
"Ummm, is Annabeth here?" he asked, surprisingly shyly given the situation.
Malcolm shook his head, "Archery… range," he said, his respiratory system a little sore from Nico's accidental beat-down.
"Thanks!" called Nico, already half way to the archery range.
Malcolm closed the door and fell. Maybe he should go to the medical bay…
.
"Annabeth!" Nico called from across the archery course.
He immediately shielded himself with his hands as he realized they were about to shoot.
"Hold fire!" called Annabeth to the young campers she was teaching.
He waved the note around in the air as soon as he realized they weren't going to shoot.
Annabeth hopped over to him and grabbed the note.
Dear half-bloods, she murmured, … captured Percy… captive…, her eyes began widening, demi-protegnoi!
"What should we do!?" he asked, "They've got Percy!"
She rolled her eyes, "I know," she said, stomping her foot impatiently as she thought, "Call the Head Counselors to the Big House, tell them it's a war meeting."
He nodded.
"I'll take the major gods, you take the minor," she said, before running off, "And hurry!"
He nodded again, and ran off to the minor gods cabins, thankful that there were only eight of them.
And yet, by the time he reached the Big House, dressed in armor, Annabeth, as well as everyone else, was already there.
He felt sad as he took into recognition the empty seat next to Annabeth, the one usually occupied by Percy, seeing as those two were the Camp Leaders.
"Alright," said Annabeth, "Now, judging by the fact that the letter has a few fingerprints, I've checked it out through a microscope, hacked into the U.S. security system, and I've matched it to this guy, right here."
She clicked a button and a projector turned on, showing an image of him on the wall behind her, as well as some writing. She moved out of the way, and began reading.
.
Abriel Fischer
Born December 12th 1993 to Benjamin Fischer and alleged stripper by the stage name, Thalassa.
.
They all gasped as Annabeth read that part.
"Wait," said Clovis, "Who's 'Thalassa?'"
Surprisingly, it was Clarisse who answered, "Thalassa's an ancient Sea goddess, a protegnos, daughter of Aether and Hemera."
"Ok," nodded Jason, "But what would they want with Percy?"
Annabeth seemed to already have an answer, "It's not a what, it's a who."
"'Who?'" chorused the entire room.
"Wait!" yelped Leo, "They don't want the doctor, do they? Because if they do, they can't have him!"
The entire room looked at Leo in puzzlement.
"Leo," said Annabeth, calmly, "Doctor Who, is not real."
"You're not real!" he protested defensively.
She sighed, "O Zeu kai alloi theoi, at this rate we'll never find him."
"You know," said Piper, "You seem pretty calm for someone who's best friend/cousin is missing."
Annabeth rolled her eyes, "I've known him since I was twelve, Piper," she explained, "And while I was worried the last time he was kidnapped, I'm not as worried this time, because I know if he can survive Tartarus, and all that crazy shit we had to go through to stop Gaea, he can survive whatever those monsters have in plan."
Piper nodded, that seemed plausible.
"So who do they want?" pressed on Jason.
"Don't you see?" sighed Annabeth, "They want us, to see us crumble so they have one less threat to worry about. Without Percy, we're nothing, he's got all the experience, he's got all the power, and let's not forget his swordfighting skills. With him, they also have control over what we do, after all, think about it. How many of us owe him our lives?" there was some mumbling, "And how many of us would willingly lay our lives down for him?" more mumbling as people realized she was right.
"You're all missing the big picture," said Nico, "Where is he? And how do we get him back?"
Annabeth replied, again.
"Now, as I'm sure most of you noticed, something felt… off about those two. They claimed not to know anything of our world, and yet they radiated a power stronger than any of us. In his ecstasy of receiving a half-brother, and his need to prepare him so he too, would not perish, Percy ignored all instincts and caution. I, however, took things into my own hands. Leo," she called.
Leo held up his hand, which contained a flat, square screen, on which a blinking dot appeared.
"You chipped him!?" asked Jason, incredulously.
"Them, we chipped them," she corrected.
Leo peered at the screen carefully.
"Well," he said, "They're somewhere in Alaska, hang on," he wirelessly connected his device to the projector and zoomed in. It showed an old abandoned warehouse in the middle of some woods."
"Great," said Nico, already half into the shadows, "We know where he is, now let's go find him."
"Not so fast, Nico," Annabeth stopped him from entering by hooking a finger into his collar, "We don't even know what we're up against."
He turned back to her, angry. He glared her right in the eyes with a glare that made her heart stop beating.
"Look," he hissed, "I don't give two shits about what's out there, all I know is that Percy's in danger, and that I need to go find him."
Her eyes softened a tad, "I know, but charging in will just result in more capture, we need a plan."
He was reluctant to admit that she was right.
"Ok, so the plan is?" he asked.
"Wait till the gods are back in contact, Triton will help us," she said, coolly, "With a god by our side we stand a better chance."
Begrudgingly he had to admit that she was right, and he stormed out of the Big House and to his cabin immediately after they were dismissed.
Jason caught up to him.
He placed a hand on Nico's shoulder as a sign of comfort.
"Hey," he said, "We'll find him. He'll be alright," he reassured.
But at this point Nico was too mad to care, and just shrugged Jason's hand off, before storming into Cabin 13…
xoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Done! SYS!
-httyd4eva
peace out yo;P