Act II Chapter XV: "Please Stop Puking."

This was the worst experience of Annabeth's life. She felt like the entire world had been torn out from under her. She felt like she had been sent into a tailspin that wouldn't stop. Her head ached from how fast the world was spinning, and her stomach churned from where she had been stabbed. Wind screamed in her ears as it ruffled her hair and face.

Annabeth finally felt something like solid ground impact her feet, and she collapsed forward. Both hands shot to her wound as her eyes screwed shut in pain. The few injuries she sustained before were from monsters. This was the first time she had been stabbed by another demigod. And it hurt so much. The wound felt like it was draining her of energy.

Annabeth felt her body slumping against the ground, but she did her best to keep pressure on the wound. A dark spell passed over her eyes as she felt dizzy. There was a ringing in her eyes. She was probably getting hit by a bit of vertigo.

Thankfully, the ringing slowly faded. As her hearing cleared, she wished the ringing would come back. All she heard was someone barfing. A groan left her as she tried to tune it out. Someone grabbed her hands, and Annabeth mumbled a protest.

"Let me see," Reyna muttered. Annabeth pried her eyes open, and she blinked a few times to whisk that dizzy spell away. Reyna lifted Annabeth's hands and studied the wound. She poured a bit of nectar on the wound and then brought the rest to Annabeth's lips. Drinking it tasted like pizza from the place that she, Thalia, and Luke ate at before they parted ways.

Reyna collapsed on the ground next to Annabeth. Her injured arm rested on her stomach as her other hand gripped her jaw. Annabeth grabbed the canteen and looked inside. There wasn't a drop in there, so Reyna must have used all of it on Annabeth.

Annabeth shrugged off her pack and grabbed her own canteen. She carefully unwrapped the makeshift bandage from Reyna's arm and poured nectar on it. Annabeth watched the wound slowly start to close. Annabeth gently poured some into Reyna's mouth.

After putting the canteen away, Annabeth laid next to Reyna, exhausted. Reyna slowly raised her arm and seemed to watch as the wound slowly healed. Annabeth placed a hand to her stomach and felt the wound closing as well.

Annabeth lifted her head and saw that Clarisse was kneeling over a bush. She vomited again. Annabeth groaned and covered her ears, "Please stop puking."

Clarisse didn't do that. Annabeth tried to block out the sound, and worse, the smell. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Reyna slowly starting to sit up. Reyna slowly moved her jaw and seemed to be testing it.

"If you keep doing that, I'm going to as well," Annabeth warned Clarisse. She turned her head and saw that Iris was sitting against the tree. The goddess looked no better than they did.

"I'm sorry," Iris began. She was breathing heavily, and her body seemed to be shaking. "I'm not sure where I took us."

"Why did you let me buy those muffins?" Clarisse groaned. She stood and turned away from the bush, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. A noise left her as she only smeared blood from her arm onto her face. Annabeth took the time to examine all of them.

They all looked like messes. For one, the demigods were covered in dirt from their crash landing, and the blood from Hylla's fountain. Annabeth couldn't tell what was her blood and what was from the fountain. Gods, how many people were bled for that? To her right, she saw Iris covered in her golden blood. The goddess was rubbing her wrists where the golden chains had rubbed her skin raw.

"Injuries?" Clarisse questioned as she looked at them.

"We took care of it," Reyna answered after a few moments. She was still laying on the grass and staring at the sky.

"All good," Annabeth confirmed. She looked down at her stomach and examined the small scar there. Clarisse grunted and looked at Iris.

"So, that whole 'being able to teleport us' thing is because you're a goddess?" Clarisse assumed.

"Yes," Iris confirmed. Some of the color had come back to her face. "With the chains cut, my powers are slowly coming back to me."

"How did the Amazons capture you anyway?" Clarisse questioned as she crossed her arms. She stood next to Annabeth, and the daughter of Athena slapped her leg. Mostly because she didn't have the energy to expend by standing.

"Show some respect," Annabeth warned. Clarisse grunted.

"It was many years ago," Iris began as she looked back at where the chains had been. "I...I don't remember how long ago. I own a store, and they would deliver supplies to me every week. One of those weeks, they attacked me without warning and used golden chains to trap me, draining me of my strength."

"Why would they torture you?" Annabeth asked next.

"They wanted exclusive use of my messages," Iris answered. "I wouldn't do it at first, but they were persistent. Even after I agreed, they still poked, prodded, and burned me for fun. Most of the queens joined in.

"Not Queen Hylla, though. She never joined. Forbade them for touching me in fact. But, she never let me go," Iris said as she looked at Reyna. The Roman was sitting against the tree and staring ahead. Reyna had her knees pulled to her chest, and she was slowly moving her jaw.

"You look like you were tortured recently," Clarisse commented.

"They never cleaned the wounds, and the chains kept me from healing," Iris said in a quiet voice. She closed her eyes. "I give all of you my gratitude."

"Lady Iris, it was our honor to rescue you," Annabeth began.

"Suck up," Clarisse said into a cough.

"But, you didn't rescue me out of the goodness of your heart," Iris guessed. "You said that Chiron sent you. Were you lying?"

"No," Annabeth said quickly. "It's true that we didn't just rescue you out of kindness. We want every demigod to have access to Iris messages again. We're trying to bring all the demigods back to a safe place where they can train, like it was before the Greeks and Romans went to war."

"The only good way to contact demigods who are trained is with your messages," Clarisse added. "We need a safe place for demigods and an army to defend it. Then, we can find all of the Olympians and bring them back."

"And you, Roman?" Iris questioned as she looked at Reyna. "Why did you help them against your sister?"

"We have a complicated relationship," Reyna muttered. She slowly looked at them. "I want to make up for what the Romans did in the past."

Iris studied her closely. Reyna met her gaze and just kept rubbing her jaw. The goddess moved her gaze to look at Clarisse and then Annabeth. There was silence in the clearing. Clarisse met Iris' gaze while Annabeth averted hers.

"I want to talk to Chiron first," Iris finally decided.

"He is at where Camp Half-Blood used to be," Annabeth said. "We're remaking it. We can take you there."

"No need," Iris said as she opened her palm. A bit of mist appeared on her hand. Then, it expanded to the size of a laptop screen before it started to form an image. "This is a direct link. A demigod sending an Iris message will be different, but for now..."

The mist cleared away completely, and the image showed Chiron. He was standing in front of a building that a few others were working on. Annabeth was too excited to question why some of them had tree limbs coming off of them.

"Chiron!" Annabeth called. Chiron looked at her, and his eyes widened in horror.

Oh...

Right.

The blood.

"By the gods, Annabeth! What happened?!" Chiron exclaimed.

"It's not our blood," Annabeth said quickly. "Mostly. There was a fountain of blood in the queen's office."

"Chiron," Iris said softly as she stood next to Annabeth. That concern on Chiron's face doubled.

"Iris," Chiron said in a quiet voice. "Are you okay?"

"I am," Iris answered. "Thanks to your trainees. It is so good to see you, Chiron."

"Gods, Iris. If I had known where you were, I would have helped you. I'm so sorry," Chiron said sincerely as he studied Iris. Tears brimmed in his eyes.

"I know, Chiron. I know," Iris affirmed. "I will escort these demigods to your camp, and we will catch up. I will see you soon."