Percy
I wasn't too worried. Despite their extreme size dwarfing even Damasen, Hyperboreans were usually peaceful and didn't att- An Icicle almost impaled me, but I jumped to the side just in time. The giant blew his icy breath at me which I was only able to partially deflect using my powers, so I only got frozen a little bit, but for now, I was out of commission. If only Annabeth was here to help me.
"I'm here" Annabeth told me. "Look, the giant has something on his right wrist. I think it's like a shocker bracelet that makes him angry. If we can disable that, he'll stop being angry" "Good plan. I'll help you reach it once I'm able to move again" I focused all my power into the ice, building up pressure until it shattered.
As soon as I was free, Annabeth took of her cap. "It looks like we have a new opponent in the arena" A loud voice said over the speakers. "Very well. This is about to become very interesting" And interesting it did become. The giant send another icy cloud towards us and I was barely able to jump out of the way. Annabeth took a single step in the other direction, which was enough for her since the attack had been badly aimed.
Annabeth tried running between his legs to get behind him, but the hyperborean reached for her and she barely escaped. He tried the ice blast tactic again, freezing Annabeth solid. He then went for me, shooting an icy beam at me. I ran away, the ice following me. I had to complete an entire loop through the arena before I was able to reach Annabeth again. Seeing her like this gave me new strength and within seconds, her icy cage shattered.
We kept fighting for what felt like hours, never getting close enough to harm the giant, let alone reach the bracelet. The giant shot another attack at us. Annabeth ripped me backwards and a shield made of ice formed above us. I turned to Annabeth. "Now would be a great time for a plan" I told her. "Well, I have one" She began to explain.
"No. We're not doing that" "It's the only way" "Then find another way. I'm not letting you do that. It's just too dangerous" "Percy, I appreciate you wanting to protect me, I really do. But I still get to decide what I do. I love you, seaweed brain" "I love you too, wise girl" She gave me a kiss before we ran out from below the ice in opposite directions, which led to more ice blast attacks which we were luckily able to dodge. Eventually, the giant got frustrated and tried to pick Annabeth up from the ground. This time, he was successful. He exhaled an icy cloud towards her. I tried my best to deflect the ice from Annabeth, but the way the hyperborean magic worked meant that there was close to no actual water present. I saw Annabeth's skin turning a bluish hue, so I kept pushing, putting all my strength into protecting Annabeth. Ice crystals began forming on the metal bracelet. My vision began to darken and a moment later, I hit the ground.
When I opened my eyes again, a face was floating in front of me. It seemed familiar, but I was still too dizzy to remember from where. "Morning seaweed brain. You still drool when you sleep
Annabeth
When the giant hit me with its icy breath, I started to reconsider my plan. Percy would be able to deflect this easily, right? I felt the cold soaking into my skin, but then it grew weaker again. I saw that the stream of icy particles was splitting in right front of me, and some of it still hit me. While these conditions were survivable, I knew they wouldn't last. Percy liked his fights to be dramatic. If this small amount of deflection was all he did, it was probably all he could do. And if he was at his limit now, he'd run out of strength quickly. I knew that this was a matter of seconds.
I started to feel colder again, a sign that Percy was growing weaker. When I turned around, I saw that some ice was forming on the bracelet, but it wasn't enough. Would this be the day I died. Killed by my own hubris, like so many before me. Sequences of my life began flashing before my eyes as the protective shield collapsed.
The cold was intense. I could see my skin turning blue. Then, the first Icicle appeared on my right hand. The cold reminded me of a video I'd seen in school once. A scientist had put a rose into liquid nitrogen, which had made it brittle. Brittle enough to shatter it. That gave me an idea. I held my right hand in front of me while scanning the bracelet for any weak points. After a short eternity, I found it. When it had been closed, it'd seemingly been a tiny bit too small, so the two ends didn't touch completely, exposing a tiny bit of the connector. I looked back at my hand. I couldn't feel it, but it was enclosed in a large chunk of ice, turning it into some sort of morning star, just without the spikes. With my last remaining strength, I raised my hand and let it crash down onto the thin connector piece, hoping the rose's fate would be shared by the latter rather than the former.
My hope was fulfilled, and the thin strip of metal shattered upon impact. The giant dropped me, but luckily, I landed in a pile of snow. I stumbled towards Percy, who was just starting to wake up. "Morning seaweed brain" I said. Then, suddenly being reminded of our first encounter, I added "You still drool when you sleep" A moment later, the cold knocked me out.
Everything was cold. So horribly cold. But then it wasn't. I felt something warm trickling down my esophagus. It filled my body with warmth, driving out all the cold. I changed from unbearably cold to just cool, then normal, then warm. Then it started to get really hot. In addition to that, my mouth felt like I had just sipped a chili smoothie and I had to fight the urge to throw up. When my heart stopped racing and my brain regained its regular thinking ability, I opened my eyes and saw Percy looking over me. "Is it getting hot in here or is that just you" Was the first thing that my half-frozen brain came up with. Instead of laughing, Percy just smiled at me. "Pretty sure it's not me" "How did I get here. This isn't the arena" I concluded after looking around. "Allow me to explain"
Percy
Just as I recovered from being knocked out, Annabeth got knocked out herself. When I touched her, she felt cold. Not the kind of cold that the skin of some people just normally is, this was the kind of cold that was bad news for any warm blooded being that wanted to remain not dead. She had to warm up immediately and I knew cuddles wouldn't be enough this time. I got up and dragged Annabeth the few remaining meters to the exit of the arena which was – thank the gods – not locked. Following a random Idea, I ran back and picked up a part of the bracelet before going back to the gate.
We'd made it this far, but I doubted I'd have the strength to make it back to the cells, let alone carry Annabeth. But I had an idea.
Using what little power I had recovered, I summoned a puddle of water beneath us. Annabeth's body was so cold that the water froze below us and we started gliding down the hallway. I was still very much weakened, but I managed to somehow steer us through the corridors back to my cell. In there was a small basin with a glowing red liquid in it. If this was what I thought it was… well, it was her only chance at survival. I pulled Annabeth closer to the basin, scooped up some liquid and watched with my breath held as the phlegeton dripped into my girlfriend's mouth.
Annabeth
"You gave me phlegeton water to drink?" "I mean it worked" "You did save my life there, I'll have to give you that" "And guess what else I got. I figured it might be useful" Percy pulled out the shocker bracelet. "Then let's see what I can do with it" I pulled out my phone and put it into laptop mode. A few months ago, I had improved it with a cable that could connect to virtually anything using thin cable strands that connected to the other device. Yes, I copied the idea from Na'vi hair. This cable was what I put to use now. "This guy is so stupid?" I said. "Why?" "Not only did he make the connection between the remote and the bracelet two-way and somewhat broadband-ish, he also connected all the remote controlled systems to the same servers" "And what does that mean" "It means I can force a manual override of the system" "And what does that mean?" "Could you let me focus for a moment here" After said moment, which was a few minutes long, I continued. "That means I can do this" I clicked a button and all cell doors slid opened. "Don't worry, that was me" I said, loudly enough for everyone to hear me. Everyone started shouting in excitement. The breakout had begun.
"So, what's the plan?" I asked. "The plan is to get away while these kids and NH, uh, sort out their disagreements" Percy confirmed that my plan was excellent, so we made a run for it.
Luckily, the freed hyperborean was seemingly very angry at the people who'd captured him, which was causing a lot of chaos that we could easily sneak through. Only when we got to the door, a guard actually tried to stop us. He picked up Percy, but before he could take me, I went invisible. I snuck behind him and pushed my knife into his back. "I'm sorry" I whispered as he dissolved into monster dust. I opened the large oak doors and we went through.
"Whoa, I wasn't expecting that" Was the first thing I said. "Yeah. How often did we almost die? Like ten times?" "Probably. But consider this: we'll be able to undo a lot of presumed deaths.
After walking for about an hour, we turned into something that looked like an alleyway, except that far above us, the house facades ended in stone rather than the sky. I instinctively began to look around, but this time I was not looking for monsters. I was looking for a dumpster. After a few seconds, I found it. When I opened it, I whispered "Jackpot" "What is it?" Percy asked. I lifted out a Styrofoam box, the kind you get when you order food for an event. When I opened it, it did, in fact, contain food. It seemed someone had thrown a party and put all the leftovers in here. It was a wild mix of different things, but that tended to happen when you relied on the stuff that people threw away. At least this stuff didn't remind me of camp, like certain other found food had done. No, I did not know what I meant by that.
Percy
Annabeth looked at the food for a few seconds, then appeared to lose consciousness; a switch. After a few minutes, they regained control. "Hi, who's out" I asked. "Chris, but Annabeth's also somewhat close" He looked around. "Uh, where are we?" "The labyrinth. That's all I know" "And when" "Friday, around noon. We've been in here since yesterday at around three thirty" "Okay. I guess we just found something to eat" "Seems like it. Well, it's not that far from lunchtime anyways, so why not take a break here?" Chris agreed and we ate what we could and added the rest to Annabeth's backpack. Then we continued exploring the alley. There wasn't much to see as the houses were actually just facades against the same rock that also made up the ceiling. The same thing applied to the manholes in the street, the whole thing looked like an underground film set. At the end, the alley went back to the typical brick wall corridor we were used to.
As we continued walking, the red color of the bricks slowly faded until it became one with the mortar and eventually turned into concrete. The only sprinkle of color were the occasional graffiti on the walls, but before long, they'd disappear as well, leaving nothing but dull, grey concrete walls. The whole atmosphere didn't exactly raise my spirits and by the way Chris was walking, he didn't seem to feel much better. Eventually, he slowed down and came to a stop. I didn't know why he had done so, but I stopped as well and kept quiet. After a minute or two, he continued walking, now doing so much more cheerfully, so there was probably no danger.
"Why'd you stop?" "Oh, I was just thinking about something and got distracted for a moment" Chris said. Wait, this hadn't been His voice. It'd sounded closest to Annabeth. I figured that a switch must have taken place. If this was Annabeth, she wouldn't deny that it had been a switch that caused her to stop. If it was Thalce or one of the littles, they wouldn't try to match Annabeth's voice. This could only be a new alter who'd found the perfect time to show up. I tried to approach the topic gently. "So, you're Annabeth" "Of course I'm Annabeth. Who else would I be?" Yup, definitely someone trying to mask DID. "Well, basically, I know you have DID and Annabeth knows that I know, so she wouldn't say what you just did" "Fine, I'm not Annabeth. Who are you?" "I'm Percy. Annabeth and I have been dating for a bit over a year now" "Dating? How old are we?" "Biologically, seventeen and two months. So, do you want to tell me your name" "You can call me R. She/her by the way since you probably couldn't tell by my name" "R. Is that short for anything?" "Does it matter?" I decided not to press anymore. "So, do you know what your purpose is?" "Well, how did you notice I showed up?" "Well, the surroundings were getting really boring and depressing and we were feeling accordingly. Then a switch happened and suddenly you were very cheerful all of a sudden"