Interlude VI

Reyna Ramirez-Arellano quietly stared as her boyfriend, Jason Grace, walked the room impatiently.

Behind him, the skyline of New Rome could be seen rising into the bright blue sky. Tall marble buildings, heavily inspired by Rome and its surroundings littered the city as did newer forms of architecture such as brick buildings and large circular parks.

In the distance, atop a grand hill, a great white citadel with a stocky white tower rising high could be seen. The tower of the Pantheon seemed to always be active, the Twelve Golden Flames ignited completely for the first time in many years, something that only happened when all Twelve members of the Pantheon were on a mission.

On a normal day, New Rome would be an impressive and beautiful sight, yet now the only thing that New Rome had was a cloud of tension and apprehension, something that was mimicked by Jason as he paced the room for what felt like the fourth hundredth time that day.

"Oh, would you stop doing that!" Reyna said finally, having enough of Jason.

"She's gone Reyna! GONE!" Jason yelled, sparks exploding between his fingers.

Ever since Thalia had been told she was going to marry Triton, she had gone into hiding and no one could figure out where she was. Jason was mad with worry looking for her, as was Reyna, but after three weeks of no results, they had chosen to return to New Rome and rest for a day or two before they set out again.

She had hoped that a rest would help Jason, however it seemed that everything Reyna tried to do was the wrong thing, and her relationship with Jason had grown even more volatile in the past days.

"I know, Jason, its just—"

"No, you don't know Reyna!" Jason yelled, and Reyna flinched. Jason saw, and immediately sighed, and approached her gently. "Look, I'm sorry Rey, its just…I'm scared! Thalia's gone, no one has heard anything from her for weeks now, Triton is also hiding and Poseidon is out there doing who-knows-what! I need to be out there, Rey, need to help find her! What if…what if that Jackson kid did something to her? What if she—"

"Now you're being paranoid." Reyna said, approaching Jason and placing a hand on her shoulder. Jason moved away, pushing her hand and Reyna had to strain herself not to show hurt in her face.

"I'm not, Reyna. You didn't see him in Olympus. He has that look, he's a troublemaker I know he is. He humiliated Thalia and Nico, nearly killed Clarisse and got consumed in his enlightenment, and then had the balls to pretend as if he didn't know what he just did! If it wasn't for him, Thalia wouldn't have—"

"Your dad was going to marry Thalia off either way, you know this." Reyna said, taking a seat a few steps away from Jason. "It was either to Nico, Leo, or Triton. Nico would tear Zeus a new one, as would Hades, Leo would have been a good choice if not for the fact that he really doesn't bring anything to Zeus as Beckendorf ended up taking control of the House of Fires. Triton was the only choice. Well, Triton and now Perseus."

Jason said nothing, merely looking at the skyline of New Rome.

"You need to stop blaming this Percy kid, Jason. You barely know him, barely spoken to him! The only time you met him was after the thing happened with your sister, and from what I heard it's a shut and close case of loss of control."

"He humiliated Thalia…"

"By beating her? Come on, Jason, Thalia is good, but everyone loses once or twice, that doesn't mean he did something to her. Besides, he won, why would he do something to Thalia?"

Jason had no answer to that.

"Look…this Jackson kid…do you remember when you arrived at Olympus? You and Thalia…scared, worried, not understanding your power and why you had it. You beat Lupa in a similar fashion that Percy beat Thalia, remember? You lost control, nearly killed her, and in response, Lupa merely laughed and began training you.

"Doesn't Percy remind you of someone? Someone who grew up fatherless, only to discover that they had a great destiny thanks to their name? Someone with more power than they could understand, someone who…someone who only survived because he found someone to help him?"

Jason's face seemed pained as he tried to ignore what Reyna was saying.

"Percy's like you, Jason, he's strong, powerful, but he doesn't have a Thalia. You had her who could understand you, who could help you when you wanted to scream because your power nearly killed you."

"Percy has Bianca and Nico." Jason said.

"Bianca and Nico will never understand what its like to live without a father, nor will they ever understand the feeling of helplessness that comes with being consumed by your own power." Reyna tried again to touch him. This time, Jason let her.

"Jason…perhaps he can help?" she suggested.

"It's just…It's just that…It's easy to blame him, you know? He's an outsider, new. If I can blame him, it means…it means I didn't fail to protect Thalia from him."

"You didn't fail, Jason. You've never failed." Reyna kissed his cheek, "Look back at where you started, a boy without anything but anger. Now? You lead armies, you lead people, and soon you will lead the Hunters. Percy is just like you, just as alone, even more so now that the entire armies of Olympus have their eyes out for him. Don't blame him for something he is not responsible for. He could be an ally, maybe even help you find Thalia. Gods know he holds no love for your father, so you don't need to worry about that. If you're good to him…well, who knows? Maybe the House of Seas and the House of Skies don't need to be at war anymore."

Jason seemed to be thinking hard for a moment, and eventually he relented by sighing hard and giving Reyna a kiss on the forehead.

"You're right…you're always right…" Jason said, "I've been so focused on trying to find Thalia that I blamed Jackson for something he wasn't even responsible for. Gods…I'm like my father…" he chuckled.

"You're nothing like him, Jason."

"Let us hope so." He sighed. "We must be united for what is to come."

Reyna felt a shiver running down her spine at the thought. The previous day, when they had arrived, they had been called by Zeus himself to attend a meeting at the Pantheon Chambers. Outside of the insult exchange between Jason and Zeus over the topic of Thalia missing, Zeus had demanded that Jason raise the armies within New Rome in response to the attack in Tartarus. Somehow, he was convinced that this new threat of the Titans was going to attack New Rome, and therefore had everyone on high alert.

Zeus had left with Athena and Hera to Gods knew where, leaving behind Jason to do as he was told. However Jason was not an idiot, and therefore had compromised with Zeus' orders and what he knew it to be a waste of time.

Prepare for everything, but not excessively.

That is how they found themselves now, looking over the city, worried for Thalia, and the drums of Five thousand Hunters assembling in the streets bellow.

They had another two thousand in preparation, and an extra one thousand hidden away in an undisclosed location in case they needed to spring a trap.

New Rome, a city with around Ten Thousand Enlightened living in it, was seeing war for the first time since the Great War, and the tension was thick as it was heavy.

A blur appeared towards Jason's left, and he quickly turned as his hand opened and yellow sparks began to cover his arm, an imitation of Thalia's Thunder-fist technique. The blur turned into a translucent image, and the image soon turned into a rainbow.

After a few seconds, the face of Thalia Grace appeared, dirty, bruised, riddled with cuts, but alive.

"Thalia…" Jason said, approaching the Iris-message. "THALIA!"

"Jason!" she said, smiling, suddenly her eyes widened. "Keep it down!"

"Thalia, where are you? We were so worried, we thought—"

"Now's not the time, Jason!" Thalia said, causing Jason to stop mid-sentence. "I need you to listen to me!"

"Thalia, you don't understand…where did you go?"

"When father forced me into the marriage with Triton, I stormed out of Olympus Academy as it was shifting. I got lost in some forest, thought I was a goner to be honest, but I managed to find tracks and make way towards a small camp. Turns out I was somewhere near Boston. As I was in the camp, I saw the symbol of the Cyclops tattooed in one of the humans. We fought, they died, and I began tracking down the Monsters in hopes they would lead me to a group of Hunters. What I found…"

Thalia seemed to swallow hard.

"Something's wrong. Very wrong. In the past few days I've seen more monsters than I have in my entire eight years as a hunter. There's no way that there's so many monsters without Olympus having realized. So I decided to investigate, and what I found…Jason, I—It's better if I show you."

Thalia turned around, hiding between some bushes, and both Jason and Reyna had to hold each other lest they fell to the floor in fear.

Thousands of Monsters camped outside what appeared to be a large dark mountain. However these monsters were not the humans that Jason was taught to hunt, people with minor Enlightenment that used it to their benefit. These were crooked, deformed, some had extra limbs, others had only one eye, he even saw a few with what appeared to be animal characteristics. One perhaps would have been interesting to find, two would be a mystery, but…there had to be thousands in the darkening camp.

"Where are you?" Jason asked, "Thalia, where are you? I'll send an army, no, I'll send the Council itself! There has to be at least twice our number there. What…when…how?"

"I don't know, little brother. I've been trying to figure it out myself. How is it possible that an army this size, and army of enlightened of this size, has been completely missed by our scouts? I've honestly been trying my best to figure it out…and I think there's only one way."

"What do you—" Jason's eyes widened.

"Spies." Reyna said for him, and Thalia nodded.

"We have a spy amongst us who's been keeping this hidden. Somehow has been keeping this hidden. There's not a lot of people with that power, Jason…"

"I know. It has to be someone at least of the rank commander, and even then someone really talented with mental arts and manipulation…"

Reyna thought about three people almost instantly.

One was with Jackson, the other was with Zeus, and the other was unaccounted for. Dangerous places to be, making them even more suspicious in her mind.

"Come back." Jason said, "Tell me where to meet you, sending an army is too risky, we would be heard, but maybe a few specialized groups? Di Angelo…yes, I'll contact Nico. He can be there in a few minutes and extract you without rustling a leaf."

"Well, see, there's the problem." Thalia said, "I know where I am. Jason, this is the entrance to Underworld."

This time Jason couldn't hold himself, and he fell to his knees in pure horror.

"No…" Jason thought, "Underworld is…Underworld is impregnable. There's no way they intend to attack it. You must be wrong, Thalia, you must!"

"Listen to me, little brother, and listen very carefully. I want you to call Hades and tell him that twenty five thousand enlightened monstrosities are about to attack Underworld in the next few hours. I know the number because I counted. He may be able to hold them off for long enough for us to get some help here, but only if he knows what's coming. Yet that's not all. I have reasons to believe that this is only one part of their army, maybe even less than half. They wouldn't expose themselves so blatantly in a full-on assault into a place that never in its history has fallen, so that means that they must have another army somewhere. I am going to try and figure out where that is, but I might fail."

"Thalia, I—"

"Jason, listen to me. This right here is the most important thing I will ever tell you, and you must make sure it gets to the ears of the pantheon. They have a…something that has helped them create this army, something that they call a Fleece. That is all I have been able to gather without giving myself away. I don't know what the Fleece is, but it seems important since they are clearly using it somewhere. If the Pantheon knows what it is, perhaps they can track it down to where the bulk of the army is. This will only work if they don't expect us coming, which is why—"

Thalia screamed in pain as the tip of a sword pierced her through the shoulder blade.

"My, my…what have we here…" A deep voice said, and soon enough a deformed creature, giant in its size, made its way into the IM. "Little girl…far from home…I am going to have so much fu—ahg!"

Blue lightning exploded in front of Jason, and he screamed for Thalia as he saw it happening.

"TELL THE PANTHEON JASON!" She screamed as what appeared to be more of the deformed creatures tried to overwhelm her, "TELL THEM WHAT I TOLD YOU, TELL HADES, TELL EVERYONE! THE TITANS HAVE AN ARMY—"

Blood exploded from Thalia's mouth as she received a punch to the stomach. One of the monsters grabbed her by the neck, and Thalia spasmed as she tried to let go.

"I will fuck you, kill you, and fuck your corpse!" The creature said.

"You will do no such thing." Another voice said. "We don't torture our captives."

"She killed Orys!"

"And I will kill you if you don't release her now!"

Thalia was dropped to the floor, where she coughed and breathed hard. A black boot was placed on her back, forcing her to slam her face into the dirt.

"Tell the commander that there might be spies from Olympus around us. I want them all dead by morning. If word gets out, it will be on your head, do you hear me?" the man said.

Reyna put a hand to Jason's mouth as he was about to scream for Thalia. Apparently the man didn't see the IM, and Reyna intended to keep it that way for Thalia's sake.

Thalia managed to move her face to the side, facing Jason and Reyna, and a single tear fell from her stormy blue eye.

"T-Thalia…please…don't…" Jason said quietly, holding back a sob.

"AGH!" A burst of incredibly powerful lightning, and a clap so thunderous Reyna swore she heard it in New Rome, echoed through the darkening chambers. The man screamed and took a step back, cursing in a language she didn't understand.

After a few seconds, it was over.

"CHAIN THE BITCH!" he yelled, "I WANT HER IN THE PRISONER TENT NOW, I WILL INTERROGATE HER TOMORROW, GODS FUCKING DAMNIT MY EARS!"

The man shook his head, and for the first time faced the IM. It was dark where Thalia was, very dark, and Reyna couldn't see much of the man. All she saw was the silhouette of a dark haired boy with sharp features, and before he could realize that he was being watched, she moved her hand between the rainbow and made it disappear.

After a few minutes of silence, where Jason and Reyna simply stared at where the IM had been moments before, Jason spoke.

"Call Underworld, tell them what we have seen." Jason's voice was cold, hard, yet Reyna could hear the grief and anxiety as clear as any other emotion of anger in his voice.

"Jason…"

"Call Underworld." He said, "I'll deal with my father." His fist clenched, and one of his bones seemed to pop. "My sister gave us a chance. I won't throw it away. Call Underworld."

Reyna stood, and walked towards the water fountain they had in their room. Before she could call, however, she stared at Jason, who was looking at his hand with a mixture of confusion and fear.

She wanted to comfort him, she really did, but they had more important things to do.

Thalia was captured, most likely dead within the next few days, and the war that they thought was merely Zeus' paranoia was now more real than ever. She tried to call Underworld once, and it failed. She stared quizzically at the rainbow in front of her. She tried again, throwing a golden coin even to amplify the signal. Nothing.

"It's not working." Reyna said in horror. She tried one more time. Nothing. She turned, facing Jason, who seemed to be looking at her with the same expression of fear.

"Come, we have to go to the pantheon, and we have to go now!"

Hola!

Holy shit, it has been a freakin' journey to get these two chapters out.

Well, let's explain why I took so long to update. First, when I was supposed to update yey back, was apparently going through some issues that basically didn't allow me to even load the website. So seeing this as an opportunity for some extra editing, I went back to look at the two interludes and saw several things I didn't like, this added onto my heavy uni work which culminates tomorrow in my exams, plus the lack of satisfaction with every re-write of the chapter, and overall tiredness delayed these two chapters quite a bit and pushed back my schedule a lot.

Right now, im kind of stuck in a limbo. I know what I wanna write for Part III, I've got it outlined and all, but I don't know how. Call it writer's block or whatever, but I'm stuck. Its coming out slower than I would like, mainly because I know exactly what and how I wanna write the ending and climax of part III (which is the first climax of the series) but getting there is a bit slow. I like to add backstory, worldbuilding, and other elements that make this novel seem like a proper functioning world with all its gears, which is why every chapter there is something new added, or a callback to something said before.

These interludes are sort of similar. I use the Interludes as a method to explain things that may be going on elsewhere outside of the main characters (Percy/Bianca for Book 1). In this set of Interludes I continue Artemis' plotline of looking for Perseus while adding a little of conflict into her Arc, I also introduce Spyess, who is a character I'm working hard to get right since she is so pivotal to the story, and finally a chapter from Reyna's POV, which also highlights other conflicts added into the story. As always, Artermis' Interludes tell her arc, and I'm already thinking which characters I want to do for the next set of Interludes. Got some good ideas on those ones.

Anyways, don't worry, I haven't abandoned this story, but just as an FYI the next few weeks might be a bit wonky with the schedule of posting, which means I might need to post only one chapter a week instead of the normal two for a bit while I get all my writing under control. I like to be at least 8 chapters in front of what is published, that way if something comes up in the final revision of the chapters before I publish I can address them with time.

On a sidenote, Im starting to work on other stories. They defo will not be as long as this, but they are from other series' which I like. Harry Potter is a WIP right now, as well as My Hero Academia. I want all my stories to follow a similar pathing to this one. Same cast of characters (mildly OOC), but with an original plot and settings. I want to twist the formula of Fanfiction, make something as original as I can while respecting the Author's view and works. This story was born with that thought in mind, to get out of the common tropes of 'Percy gets betrayed' or 'Percy goes to tartarus' or 'Percy is more powerful than he seems' and take elements from all of them to create a world that looks and feels like Percy Jackson, while at the same time be a completely original story where you can change some names and some aspects and get something different. In my opinion, that is what makes good Fanfiction, and I hope I am properly following that path.

So, as a lil' conclusion, I will be posting the chapters whenever they are done. May take me a week as usual, may take me a bit more. It should be a bit more quicker now that I'm not focusing on exam prep, but you never know.

Thanks for reading my story, take care of each other, be respectful and as always,

Happy Reading.

~ AWL