AN: merry crisis

Act II

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and further still at an unearthly height, / one luminary clock against the sky

—

December

I was sat in the corner of a bustling café near Jason's new school in Pasadena—an all-boys private and day school, which sounded nothing like Jason, and somehow exactly like Jason. I'd taken some pain meds after I'd gotten my tea and sat down. The warmer weather in SoCal also helped, despite it being fall here.

He was still in his school uniform when he arrived, even. Perhaps more casual, though. He'd shed his jacket, which hung over his arm, and was now in just his white button down, with the sleeves rolled up, and navy-blue slacks. If he had to wear a tie, he'd taken it off before he'd come and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.

His glasses were ever so slightly crooked on his face and I, once again, fought the urge to correct them for him as he hung his jacket up on the back of his chair.

"I'm here during lunch period," he said, taking a seat, "so I have to be back within the hour."

I examined him. "How is school treating you?" I asked.

Jason blinked in surprise, reaching up to adjust his glasses. He let out a chuckle. "Fine. I guess."

I wanted to ask him why he hadn't switched to another co-ed public school, but thought better of it. I didn't want it to feel like I was grilling him, as much as I wanted to. Back on the Argo II, Hazel had said she found him hard to read, and I was starting to understand why she'd said that. For some things, it was very easy to understand the things he said or did. But something had changed in him after defeating Gaea, and I couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was. Now I was finding it extremely difficult to read him.

"I, um…" Jason trailed off, clearing his throat. "Why are you staring at me like that?"

I blinked. "Oh, sorry. Lost in thought." I paused. "I was also waiting for you to broach the subject."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

Jason shifted uncomfortably and the silence continued.

"Look, I know…" I began, trying to come up with the right words. "I know this is weird. We have a weird relationship. Maybe some bad blood between us, if you really still see it that way, but if you think I'm going to hold a grudge against some sixteen-year-old boy who didn't like my boyfriend, I think you need to rethink my priorities."

Jason's looked shocked at my candor but it melted into an awkward laugh. "It's…it's not that. I'm—" He coughed and hunched his shoulders, lowering his voice. "I'm embarrassed. I feel like…after saving the world, I should have a better handle on…my emotions. On how I should feel about things. On how I should handle things."

It was honestly a bit weird to see him in such a mundane place, acting like such a mundane sixteen-year-old. When he was directing the others on the Argo II, coming up with battle strategies with Annabeth and Frank, or leading armies into battle, he was commanding. His blue eyes blazed, and you could feel his untapped power as a son of Jupiter.

But his stumbling words, his shy smiles, and awkward laughs were a completely foreign Jason to me.

I think I liked this version of Jason a lot better, though.

I gave him a sympathetic smile. "You're still just a teen, Jason. And all this probably came as a shock to you. It's okay if you don't understand your feelings, and don't know how to handle them."

"I just feel like if I can kill monsters, summon freakin' lightning, I should be able to…manage how—" He broke off suddenly, his blue eyes going wide.

I recognized that pain.

"How hurt you feel," I said gently.

Jason pursed his lips and nodded, his shoulders now tense.

"Love isn't easy," I said. "It takes everything you have, everything you are, and, if you play your cards right, it gives you something in return. But it can also hurt. Loving someone is an incredibly vulnerable state, and suddenly losing it can send you into a freefall, where you don't feel like you have a net. That's terrifying, Jason."

"I can control the winds," Jason muttered.

I chuckled. "Not for this. This isn't your father's realm anymore."

"Yeah," Jason scoffed. "It's Cupid's. And it sucks."

We'd met Cupid. It wasn't the greatest experience for either of us (most especially Nico, because he'd been there, as well).

"I just…miss her, I guess," Jason said. "We don't really talk a lot anymore."

There were a host of questions that popped up from just those two sentences. But the first thing he said…the way his voice caught, the look in his eyes. It reminded me of Nico—his loneliness.

I thought about Jason's friends. Leo was dead. Piper still loved him, but she needed space away from him. Percy and Annabeth were across the country. Hazel and Frank were closer, but perhaps they were too busy being praetors to visit? Hang out? I frowned. That didn't seem right.

Maybe Jason didn't consider them close friends? Just fellow Romans? Was it because they were younger than him? Or, at least, Hazel was. But not that young. Frank and Hazel got along fine as friends, I thought. I tried to pull memories of summer from the murky depths of my mind (at lot had happened since then, could you blame me?)—I wanted to remember why Jason was no longer praetor. Why he was suddenly attending mortal school.

"You're…" Jason coughed softly. "You're doing it again."

I blinked and focused back in on him. I shifted awkwardly. "Sorry." It didn't sound sincere, even to me, but I brushed over it.

There were several questions I wanted to voice, but instead, I asked, "That's why you switched schools? To give Piper some space?"

Jason blinked. Then slowly said, "Kind of." His expression turning pained. "It's selfish, but part of me also couldn't bear to look at her. It was just…too painful. I still love her. The memories we have of Wilderness Camp being fake never mattered to me. I thought we'd made our own real ones at Camp Half-Blood." He paused. "But I'll respect her wishes, of course; I will. I just…I didn't want to be there anymore. I couldn't."

"You're respecting her wishes, I'm sure she appreciates that," I said, for the lack of anything else to say. I couldn't really blame him for being selfish in that way. I was too selfish for my own good. If I said that, though, he'd lecture me on how wrong it was because he was raised to be too Roman.

After another long silence, I cleared my throat. "Why did you call me?"

"You know already," Jason said. "You're really the only adult friend I have."

"But you could've gone to a teacher," I said. "Or a counselor at your school."

"I don't think they'd get it like you do," he said. "Not just because you're also a demigod." I could tell he was dancing around what he really wanted to say. Before I could ask, Jason's eyes widened. "Not that I'm comparing the two!" he exclaimed. "I don't know what I would do if I lost Piper—"

I jolted, my pin-pricks bursting as well, and Jason broke off, wincing. I felt kind of stupid for not having put that together.

"Don't tell Percy," Jason continued, "but…I just didn't feel like I could go to him. He and Annabeth have known each other for years now. All their memories together are all real. Frank is too inexperienced, and Hazel is too young."

My lips quirked up in a dry smile. "If I recall, Piper is your first serious relationship," I reminded him.

Good excuses, I thought. That eliminated contact with his friends. There had to be other adults in Jason's life he could turn to…

Jason's face turned tomato red. "F-Frank hasn't been in a relationship yet. It-it's a little different."

"I suppose I can't talk much," I sighed, resting my elbow on the table, chin in my hand, carefully picking my way to the question I really wanted to ask. "Luke was my first love, too." Jason blinked in surprised. "We were older, though. Both of us, at your age, were too traumatized to really think about romance and love. We eventually got there, though. I remember those feelings very vividly. That rush you get. It feels like—"

"Falling," Jason interrupted, looking a little stunned.

I nodded. "Yeah, exactly." I removed my arm from the table, straightening up. "You alright?"

"Sorry." Jason chuckled. "Yeah, I just— Did Annabeth ever tell you what happened when she met us at the Grand Canyon?"

I shook my head. "I heard people talk about it but, as you know, I was preoccupied with my own things to really pay attention."

"Piper was thrown over the side of a bridge, into the canyon," Jason explained, a bittersweet smile on his face as he recalled the memory. "I jumped off the bridge to help her, not even knowing I could control the winds." He shook his head and snorted. "Such a stupid thing to do. All I knew was I didn't want her to die. Even though I had just met her—had no memory of her, despite her own manufactured memories of me.

"That feeling of falling—that adrenaline rush, that dizzying vertigo," Jason continued. "That…"

"It's like nothing else," I murmured. "It'll take time. This all just takes time. And it sucks, I know. I wish I could offer you more, or better advice, but if you ever just want to talk about it, I'm here for you."

It sounded odd to myself, saying that to him, given our rocky history. But Jason seemed to appreciate it. Despite his awkwardness, he seemed more relaxed than he had on the phone. I knew it came in waves—that hurt and feeling like you just got the wind knocked out of you, but for right now, his emotional wave had subsided.

"Thanks, Tori," Jason said.

"Tell me," I began slowly, my prickles reacting to my own nervousness. "Are you in any clubs? Do you have any friends at your new school?"

The corner of Jason's lips quirked up in a crooked smile. "Wow, you sound like a mom."

Odd comment. I filed that away for later, simply shrugging and waiting for him to answer me.

Jason pursed his lips. "I'm not in any clubs. I have a study group, but we don't really hang out outside of that." He shrugged. "I…don't really have time."

"Please tell me you're not going on quests," I said.

Jason chuckled. "I'm not. I'm…I'm working on fulfilling my duty as Pontifex Maximus. Designing more shrines for Temple Hill at Camp Jupiter."

I almost told him he should really be talking to Annabeth about that but caught myself. Communication was still technically down in the usual ways for demigods. I'm sure anyone who was able to call me wondered about it, but they hadn't worked up the courage to ask me about it. Or maybe they had other things on their minds.

"You should really join a club," I said. "If you're not going on quests, you can't be that busy. I'm sure a fancy private school like that has a fencing club. Or a physics nerd club."

Jason rolled his eyes good-naturedly at my nerd comment. "It's just difficult to keep mortal friends."

I nodded. "It is, but I still think you should give it a shot. At the least, Jason, get out of your room for a while. Keep your sword skills sharp. Talk to like-minded individuals when it doesn't involve school work or studying. You know, scratch that—I'm sure your school has a robotics club, you should join that!"

"Isn't that really more children of Vulcan's thing?" Jason asked, giving me a skeptical look.

"Sure, but it requires the logical and critical thinking skills a physicist would have."

"…I'll think about it."

"Good." I smiled, but then took a small breath and asked, "You've said a couple times that I'm the only adult you felt you could talk about this with." I paused. "What about…Coach Hedge, was it? And his wife, Mellie? They're here in California, if I recall. Why didn't…" I trailed off as Jason's expression changed into something…the best way I could describe it was forsaken. Maybe it was a bit dramatic, but for a moment, his expression turned desolate before he could mask that with something more neutral but still pained.

His body tensed, his shoulders stiffening.

"They—" Jason broke off and his eyes flitted away. He reminded me of a trapped animal, looking for a way out. "They stopped talking to me." He said so quiet I almost didn't hear him over the bustle of the café. "After Piper and I broke up."

"What?" I asked, confused.

Jason shrugged, but I could tell by the way his chest rose and fell, his breathing was ragged. I could see his carotid pulsing in his neck. "They think I broke up with Piper. And they're…well, they're mad at me."

"What."

Jason flinched at my tone and his eyes flitted back to me. "I don't want you to bother them. It's fine. I understand why they'd be angry at me. Piper is having a rough time of it, too. She needs them more than I do, especially with everything going on with her father."

"No, it's not fine," I snapped, putting a pin in whatever was going on with Piper's dad. "They're having a baby. They're old enough to know better than to take sides like that." And it was crystal clear in the way Jason had reacted to my question, it was not fine.

Jason blinked. He looked startled at my reaction, but I couldn't fathom why.

"Still," Jason started slowly, "I don't want you harassing them about it. Please?"

"Tell you what," I said, tramping down on my anger and pushing my pin-pricks to the side. "We'll make a deal. You sign up for two clubs, and actually attend them, and I won't go have a chat with Hedge and Mellie."

Jason scoffed. "Really?"

I shrugged. "Take it or leave it, Jason."

"Fine, I'll go join some clubs."

"I just want you to attend them once," I said. "See how it feels. If you don't like it, then you don't have to keep attending. But…I have a feeling you might find that you feel a bit better afterward." I checked the time on my bronze phone. "And, honestly, if it were up to me, I'd get you to ditch the rest of your classes today and hang out with me this afternoon, but I know you enough to know you'd never go for it."

"I would get detention," Jason said.

"Being a trouble-maker isn't necessarily a bad thing," I countered.

Jason stood, grabbing his suit jacket off the back of his chair, snorting. "Sure."

"Jason," I said, becoming serious again, making his pause. "I'm a phone call away if you need me."

He looked at me with a strange expression, emotion I couldn't quite pin down swirling in his blue eyes. Then he smiled, it was small but it was a lot less pained now. "Thanks, Tori." And with that, he turned and exited the café.

…

Present

I had bad dreams. As was my usual and I started awake feeling suffocated and way too warm. (On the plus side, my prickles seemed to enjoy it.)

I tried to move and when I felt resistance, I looked down, having to peek under the covers to see that Ellery and Huixing had wormed their way into my bed. Not just that, but they had octopus-ed me from either side. Huixing had her head resting on my shoulder, her arm around my lower ribs. Ellery had his head just under Huixing's arm, on my stomach, one of his arms around my waist.

I jerked, jostling them. "Get off," I complained.

They simply nestled back in.

"It's too cold," Huixing complained, her breath blowing across my neck.

"You're warm," Ellery mumbled from under the blankets, matter-of-factly.

"I'm over-heating," I objected, jerking again, trying to sit up. They groaned in protest, trying to hang on to me, but I managed to extricate myself with some effort. I kicked the blankets off me, to the end of the bed, and sat up, breathing hard. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Ellery and Huixing grasp half-awake for each other, now that the warmth was gone and escaping because I'd taken the covers.

I huffed and jumped off the end of the bed. I threw the blanket back over them as I went into the bathroom. I slumped against the door and sighed. I suppose there were worse ways to wake up. At least they had me so thoroughly entangled, I hadn't accidentally attacked or hurt one of them waking up. I might have to move both beds together and to one side of the room. At least that way, they would have to get through each other to get to me. Was I able to move the queen or was it solidly in place like at my previous maid job?

My nose had completely desensitized to the smell of the sewer itself, but I suppose it was difficult to heat a sewer. Though, having been through sewer (because of the Labyrinth), I also knew they could be well-insulated, so I don't know why either of them were cold.

I freshened up and went back out to grab a change of clothes. Ellery and Huixing were now up, sitting on the edges of the bed, opposite sides. They still had bed-head and looked half-awake, but…embarrassed? I wasn't sure what to call it. They didn't say anything as I grabbed clothes, so I didn't comment.

Soon enough, we were all dressed and refreshed. I'd taken some more pain meds in anticipation of a stressful day. Commodus's minions hadn't confiscated our weapons, which I thought a tiny bit odd, but I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised all things considered. This just meant I was able to keep my throwing knives with me, and they had become a safety net of sorts. I'd attached them to my thigh today.

"Now what?" Huixing asked. She would be leaving her tigershead swords here, but had a dagger with her. "Are we allowed to leave the room? Wander his underground palace?"

"We'll have to be careful if we do," Ellery muttered, one of his hands at his chin, his eyes deep in thought. He was also leaving his sword here, but had his pugio in a shoulder holster. "He has cameras everywhere. There are always weak spots but I'd need more time in the halls to really get a feel for them. Those chest monsters seem slow but they're big and heavy. Very strong. Probably dense, so I wouldn't want to get hit by them, or try fisticuffs with them. Decent as far as bodyguards go."

Huixing nodded. "They've also got comms." She tapped her ear. "Most likely check-ins and passwords, as well."

I grimaced. "And then, of course, the Germani to guard the emperor. Not that we're going to try anything of that sort."

"Keep him busy," Ellery said. "Maybe he'll forget about the two of us." He gestured to himself and Huixing.

Huixing clicked her tongue and crossed her arms, glaring at Ellery. "You could have said that with a little more grace."

Ellery's eyes refocused as he looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

"Jackass," Huixing sighed, rolling her eyes.

Ellery opened his mouth to respond, his eyebrows pressed together now in anger, rather than deep thought.

"He worded it fine," I muttered.

"Not true!" Huixing burst. "He said it like he was giving you an order. It was rude!"

I shrugged. "It doesn't really matter because Commodus will probably order you two away."

Huixing pouted at me. Ellery's anger had been soothed over his win this time.

Not that I particularly wanted to be alone with him. I didn't like the look he'd given me last night. I still couldn't quite figure out what it meant, but it was unnerving me. If I had my way, I would never have to see him again. Unfortunately, I had a sinking feeling this was only the beginning. It was no coincidence he'd called me over here with Apollo on his way.

And if Apollo was on his way, that meant there was another oracle here.

I thought about the conversation Jason and I had right before I left. I wanted to speak with him more before he really dug in his heels about whatever decision he had made. But I wasn't sure I could risk it, being this close to an emperor.

The bronze phones we carried were made by the resistance—they were on a private, closed network. They'd managed to figure out how Triumvirate was still able to communicate and replicated that system for us. So, the emperors didn't know about it. But if the emperors got their hands on them, that still wouldn't be good.

I couldn't risk the operation for a measly phone call. As much as I wanted to.

A knock at the door broke me from my thoughts. Ellery went to answer. One of the chest monsters, dressed in a butler uniform was at the door.

"Good morning. Breakfast will be served in the dining hall," he said, sounding way too happy. "Right this way, if you please."

We all exchanged glances before slowly filing out.

Breakfast was a surprisingly uneventful affair. In fact, to my relief, Commodus wasn't even there. I'd take whatever I could get, no matter how fleeting.

I didn't think I'd be able to eat with the smell of the sewer occasionally reminding me that I was, in fact, residing in a sewer, but I was hungry enough that it wasn't actually a problem. (Which was unusual for me.)

The dining hall was as big and as lavish as you'd expect from a Roman emperor, even one who was being forced to live in the sewers of a midwestern state. Braziers burned along the walls. Everything was polished marble or pearl or gold—it, in a sickening way, reminded me a lot of Mount Olympus.

Our utensils were pure silver, our plates seemed to be Celestial bronze. The food was suspiciously delicious.

I probably should've been more wary, eating whatever was made for us but, like with much of my life, I didn't really have a choice. I could, if I felt particularly motivated, go on a hunger strike. But there was always the threat to Dan and Anya looming over my head, keeping me obedient.

Well, mostly obedient.

We ate in silence. The chest-monsters keeping close watch on us through the guise of midwestern niceness. They hovered like any good butler or maid should, but I didn't feel pampered. It was more suffocating than anything else. I could tell Ellery and Huixing were also disgruntled about it, since it made casing the place more difficult.

When breakfast was over, one of the maids gestured to a door on the other side of the room with a smile and said, "This way, please." before she began leading us through the winding halls? Corridors? Neither word seemed to quite suit. Anyway, she led us through the winding halls of this underground palace.

When we came to a set of stairs, she stopped at the bottom and gestured to them, with that same, nice-but-not-kind smile.

"Emperor Commodus is waiting for you just up these stairs," she said, then cheerfully brushed past us and made her way back down the hall.

The three of us looked at each other before making our way up the stairs.

I took up the rear, bracing myself to see Commodus again (and fighting of my chronic pain, despite the pain meds I took before breakfast). Maybe I could determine what emotion was on his face when he gave me that look. At the same time, just the thought of it made my uncomfortable. Worse, I could not, for the life of me, pinpoint why. Why he was giving me such an intense look. Why it made me uncomfortable.

When we got to the top of the stairs, it opened up into an arena. A coliseum. A small one by coliseum standards, but still quite big. Though, it wasn't your average coliseum set-up. The perimeter was ringed with animal enclosures. From where we stood, I could see a large, red bull pacing restlessly in one. Some kind of winged serpents, and…ostriches? They certainly looked like the large, flightless birds but they jerked and moved in weird ways; something had been placed around their necks, on their heads, and around their legs that probably contributed to this.

Plexiglass walls were framed in stone, keeping the animals inside their abysmal, and bare prisons. I assumed there were more prisons on the side we stood on, out of my field of view.

Above the prisons, where Ellery, Huixing, and I currently stood, were three tiers of stadium seating. And overhead the entire coliseum was a canopy of camouflage netting.

As I looked longer, I realized around the floor were chains with empty manacles, which were held by spikes in the ground. Near these sections were racks of torture devices: cattle prods, noose poles, whips, harpoons.

I swallowed the bile in my throat, my breakfast slowly working its way back up my throat. My prickles slowly rising in tandem. I really should've carried my pain med bottlee around with me.

This arena also reminded me too much of the arena in the Labyrinth. Before Daedalus had died, and he still had somewhat control over the Labyrinth, you had to pass through Antaeus's coliseum to get through the maze. There, Antaeus demanded sacrifices—monsters and demigods to fight to the death.

It had been sickening to watch.

Then he'd ordered me to fight.

I tried to focus on the now, though. Mentally flitted through all the coping and calming techniques I'd painstakingly practiced with Rowan. Nothing was going on in the arena, setting off some of my alarm bells, but there wasn't much else I could really do. As usual. I vaguely wondered if I was ever going to get used to this feeling.

"Good morning!" Commodus bellowed, bringing my attention to him. He was a few feet away, on our left. He was sitting in the only padded seat that I could see, next to levers, which I found a bit strange. More modern than I was expecting I suppose. The labels were in Latin, but I recognized some of the roots since English had some of them.

He was dressed in what he'd been dressed in last night—purple robes, but today laurels were in his hair.

When I met his eyes, he grinned. No odd expression, just the usual slightly crazed grin I expected from him.

I swallowed hard, trying to take steadying breaths. My breakfast continued to climb up my throat. My pin-pricks continued to follow. It didn't help that the arena wasn't heated, so I was starting to feel the cold. I was wearing a jacket, of course, but I'd been idle for too long.

"Please," he gestured to the seat next to him, keeping his eyes locked on me once again, "have a seat."

Ugh, of course he would ask me to sit next to him.

At least he had allowed me to keep my weapons. And having Ellery and Huixing here with me was some small comfort.

Swallowing, I forced myself to walk over to him, sitting down on his left. I perched on the edge of my seat, slightly leaning away from him. Not wanting to be close enough he could reach out and touch me. At least, not easily. These were stadium seats, after all. You could only put so much space between yourself and someone right next to you.

Ellery and Huixing sat behind me. I could feel Huixing's daggers shooting into the back of Commodus's head.

"You're just in time for the show," Commodus said, grinning over at me. If he noticed the space I put between us, he didn't comment.

I gave him a suspicious look. "What do you mean?" There was something off about his expression—this time though, it definitely had to do with why we were in this coliseum. It was setting my nerves on fire, making my stomach tighten in a painful way that made me even more nauseous.

Commodus's eyes glinted with some kind of glee before he gestured toward the arena. I slowly turned my head to look and my breath caught when I realized there were now people walking toward the middle of the arena. They were holding…my heart dropped to my feet and my blood ran cold. They were holding cattle prods.

Then I noticed the small animal they were herding with the cattle prods.

A dragon. About the size of a cat with scales a dark golden color mottled with splotches of dark emerald and sapphire colors, but her skin was now marred with scars. Eyes like topaz, pupils in angry and scared slits, as she growled weakly at her captors.

I stood, my breathing erratic as my heart pounded behind my ribcage. My hand began to shake with anger. My pin-pricks roared to life in response to this.

It was Audrey II.

My dragon who I had desperately hoped had escaped the emperors. How long had they had her? How long had they been—

It finally struck me that they were hurting her. That they had been hurting her. My vision went red.

"Stop!" I yelled, going to the edge of the wall that separated the arena with the stands.

The people ignored me, prodding her again.

"Stop it!" I shouted again. When one of them jammed their cattle prod at her again, I vaulted over, rolling as soon as I landed. Pain shot through my legs, and my prickles reacted negatively, but I ignored both as I stood. Rage the only thing holding my chronic pain at by.

"You're hurting her, stop it!" I shouted, running toward them.

One of them looked at me—a demigod? He looked human enough—before smirking at me and shoving his cattle prod at Audrey II again. Before it could touch her, however, I threw one of my knives at him. The blade impaled his arm and he dropped his cattle prod with a startled yelp.

"Get away from her!" I growled, grabbing more throwing knives to try and get the others to drop their cattle prods.

They were prepared and better trained than any human merc, managing to dodge my knives. But I threw a volley, moving quickly, and soon all their cattle prods had clattered to the floor. And they all had new holes in their arms.

I immediately went to scoop Audrey II up, though I have no idea what my plan would be after that, since I had no idea how to get out of here, but veered back when she blew fire at me and growled. Some small part of me felt hurt she didn't recognize me, but another part felt it was justice for abandoning her like I had. (I should've asked about her—asked what they'd done to her.)

It wasn't a very big blast of fire, and I felt my anger spark hotter, still. So hurt she could barely muster flame. So hurt, she thought everyone was going to hurt her.

Breathing hard, trying to get my anger somewhat under control, I kneeled in front of her.

"Hey, it's just me," I said softly, though my voice broke. "Remember? The Argo II?"

She growled at me again, glaring at me. She pressed herself closer to the floor.

Tears flooded my eyes and my throat threated to close, but blinked the tears away, trying to think of a way to get her to trust me. We didn't have a lot of time!

Then I remembered what I'd done to gain her trust the first time. I had sung to her: "Together We Can" by the Cheetah Girls, the acapella version when they had sung to one of the character's dogs to free him from the sewer.

I took a deep breath and sang that again, carefully holding out my hand to her. My voice shook, and my closing throat didn't help. My hand trembled. But her eyes widened in surprise, then recognition. I felt my heart lift. I kept going, the more I sang, the stronger my voice, the more Audrey II opened up. She took a tentative step toward me, and I nodded, leaning closer to her.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement, my song breaking off as I looked to see one of the demigods, cattle prod in her good hand. She jammed it toward Audrey II with a sneer, but I was close enough now. I lunged to protect her, taking the hit. I couldn't hold back the yelp as the zap of electricity hit my arm, making my head burst with pain, and the spot she'd hit go numb in my arm.

I had sudden flashbacks of being in the throne room with Zeus, as he grew angrier and angrier. Ozone filled my nose, for a terrifying moment, I thought I was going to be struck by lightning again. My prickles began to grow, smothering my anger as it simultaneously fizzled out.

Despite all this, somehow, some part of me knew I still had to protect Audrey II. So, I curled tighter around her as another cattle prod hit me in the lower back. I gritted my teeth on a yelp, but when they held it there, I couldn't help the scream that bubbled up from my lungs. My vision was going fuzzy. My prickles roared.

I would've used my knives again but I was afraid of leaving Audrey II unprotected. I would not let any more harm come to her.

I felt another cattle prod at my side. I gritted my teeth, but couldn't help the scream that still escaped my throat.

Distantly, I heard others shouting—possibly Ellery and Huixing—but was too lost in pain to really comprehend their words.

They kept jabbing me with cattle prods. I curled tighter around Audrey II, while also trying to protect my face and the back of my neck/head. My pin-pricks growing with every new hit, threatening to completely invade my mind and render me incapacitated.

My heart threatened to burst out of my chest as instinctual fear filled my every pore, and I saw blinding light flash in my vision. Heard Zeus shouting so loud, it hurt my eardrums.

When was I going to pass out?

One moment, I was curled around Audrey II, my world getting hazy as the pain of the cattle prods, my pin-pricks, and flashbacks washed over me. The next, I had been pushed to my back. A large shadow loomed over me. A loud bellow from an animal echoed through the arena, hurting my ears. I think I saw a pillar of fire. But I was too out of it to really make sense of what was going on.

I reached out clumsily with my left hand, feeling the spot next to me, which was now empty, cold concrete. Where was Audrey II?

That's when I realized, the onslaught of electricity had stopped. Though my prickles continued to crash over me, I slowly came back to my senses as the flashbacks and my heartrate slowly subsided. My vision cleared a little. Sounds became slightly sharper. The shadow that loomed above me wobbled. Another bellow blasted through the arena but it was much weaker this time.

Breathing hard and trying to blink away my blurry vision, I struggled to push myself to a sitting position as the shadow above me fell over, shaking the arena floor. Now that it was closer to me, I realized it had the same coloring as Audrey II, but…that couldn't be right? She was a small dragon. Dragons couldn't…grow bigger like that, could they? Evolve like that? I had never heard of such a thing before. I supposed, when you lived in a world of fantasy and myths, anything could've been possible.

My vision cleared more and then I realized there were ropes around her now. People were shouting—no, someone was shouting directions to the people holding the ropes.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, stumbling to my feet as Germani—I have no idea when they'd shown up—began dragging Audrey II back toward an enclosure. The Plexiglass had disappeared.

Panic surged through me, giving me one last burst of adrenaline. (My chronic pain didn't like that, though.)

"Stop—" I gasped, taking a shaky step toward them, my hand going to my throwing knives, but I someone's arm snaked around my shoulders, stopping my pursuit. And I was much too weak to fight them off.

"Good," Commodus hummed in my ear. I gripped the hilt of my throwing knife, desperately wanting to shove it into his eyes. But I was afraid he would only hurt Audrey II more as punishment. "Thank you," he continued. "You did exactly what I wanted you to do."

"What?" I demanded harshly, watching as the Germani pulled Audrey II further into the enclosure. No, prison.

My eyes darted around and horror filled me to the core as I finally saw, up close, all the other monsters in the other prisons. They all looked angry and restless, but the thing that stood out were how brutalized they were.

"Yes," Commodus chuckled, "when I found out you had this little gem as your pet…well, I knew I had to get her to reach her full potential. You found a very rare species—not many dragons can evolve into something so large from something so small." He paused. "To be quite honest, not many can evolve at all." He laughed softly. "And to think, she was right under your nose this entire time. She's been quite stubborn, but I had a feeling bringing you here would trigger it." I could hear the grin in his voice. "And I was right."

Commodus pulled away. "Please, feel free to explore my humble abode. A servant will come find you for tonight. I have a special dinner planned. To welcome you properly."

I listened as his footsteps retreated, never taking my eyes off Audrey II as she lay still in her cell, the Plexiglass now firmly back in place, keeping her enclosed. Captured. Trapped.

I felt cold. But…angry. It burned inside me.

Anger at myself. Anger at the emperors. Anger at Commodus.

I moved—stepped toward her cell. Someone's hand grabbed my arm but I shook them off, not even looking back to see who it was and continued forward. My steps were wobbly. I was on the verge of collapse. My chronic pain was threatening to invade what was left of my mind.

I pressed my palm to the Plexiglass wall, tears welling up in my eyes again. I gritted my teeth, annoyed that I could be crying right now. Of all times!

"I'm sorry," I choked out, even though I knew she couldn't hear me. "I'm going to find a way to get you out of here." I promised.

life uhhhh hit me in the face and then sucker-punched me in the stomach. Several times. That's why it's taken so long to get this to you.

merry shitscram if you celebrate, and happy holidays if you don't

hope you enjoyed! Comments are appreciated. pls as a gift for holidays?

thanks for reading,
thebrightestnight

edited: 2/10