Chapter 6

I don't have an excuse for why this took me so long to get out and I am very sorry

Thalia's POV

I silently cursed Aphrodite even more while we waited for our food in the dam snack bar. The least she could have done was bless the truck or something to get us closer to San Francisco, closer to Percy.

"You know I didn't have to give you a truck at all" Aphrodite replied in my head

"Yeah but if you didn't give us the truck you wouldn't get to watch your little love story unfold now would you." I replied

"Touche touche daughter of Zeus," Aphrodite said before I felt her leave my head.

"Earth to Thalia," Bianca said waving her hand in front of my face "Did you hear any of what we were saying?" Annabeth asked

"No, I zoned out a bit sorry. What were you talking about?" I asked

We were going to look around the dam for some goldy help, after all this place was originally built by my mom in honor of Zeus" Annabeth said

"Yeah, we need some dam help. What are we expecting to find?"I wondered allowed

"Really anything, because walking the next 300 miles will take too long," Zoe said. No one had to wonder what would happen if we didn't get there on time.

"Why don't we start by checking out those giant statues over there" Annabeth said I groaned knowing nothing would happen but followed the group over there anyway.

Percy's POV

"It's almost time Perse— Percy the ship has docked and half of the army has departed and is in Othrys," Uranus said in my head. "Good, it's almost time then" I responded hopefully i could end this war before there were any casualties on our side.

As always my peace (or what you could call peace when your whole body is being crushed by a weight that is nearly impossible to lift even with the help of water) is ruined by my least favorite cousin good ole Luke.

"So how is my favorite burden bearer" Luke asked in mock niceness

Like always it was a struggle to speak and I didn't have too much to say to him anyway so I settled with spitting in his face. The son of Hermes glared at me as he wiped the spit off his face

"I hope that was worth it because I have a special surprise for you along with some new fun tortuous activities," He said as his face morphed into an evil grin. "Your friends are at Hoover Dam and as we speak my skeleton warriors are surrounding your friends. They will kill the hunters and Grover and bring Thalia back here where she WILL join us. And even if they somehow evaded my skeleton warriors they are only a few hundred miles away and will arrive soon."

"No," I thought "No no no this is bad they either die or they get here and neither of those things can happen."

"Now that that is out of the way time for some torture," Luke said as he took out a long hunting knife made of celestial bronze.

"We stole this off a hunter of Artemis we killed a long time ago, I guess it will serve its purpose in hurting the savior of Artemis," He said while his face contorted into an ugly grimace of annoyance and anger.

He twirled the knife in his hands looking at it with enjoyment as if imagining what he was going to do was more fun than actually doing it (Which was fine with me). Finally, his eyes settled back on me I hope you know I am going to enjoy this very much Percy maybe after I will let one of the Empousa have some fun with you." Luke said

The thought of a donkey legged she demon touching me scared me a lot but that was a problem for later right now my biggest worry was the knife that a certain son of Hermes was planning to use to gut me like a fish (No pun intended)

I wicked I could do anything but I couldn't move enough to dodge the knife, the sky was to heavy for me to drop a hand and catch the knife and I also didn't think in my state that I could even stop him, I couldn't concentrate enough on water to move it at him, i struggled enough as it was to talk and holding up something that felt like its whole goal was to crush every bone in my body there was nothing I could do.

Luke slashed the knife across my chest cutting a deep chunk out of me and spilling a lot more blood than I should ever lose. I started to get dizzy and my eyesight tunneled "Not so fast there Perce we are just getting started" Luke said as I felt a warm liquid land on the wound it burned but also took away the pain after a moment my vision cleared somewhat enough to see he poured ambrosia on the wound cleaning it up before dumping ice cold water on me making me groan as it woke me up a bit but it also made me painfully aware of how sore my shoulders were.

"Why dont we experiment a bit y'know, I asked the army for recomendations of poisons there were a lot of suggestions and even more donations and we wouldn't want them to go to waste now would we" He said smiling savagely.

The manticore walked up carrying a case and when opened I saw it was filled with vials of very colorful liquids, all of them looking dangerous and unpleasant. In the top of the case there was a syringe. "Wow you didn't have to go to all this trouble for me cough cough" I said as sarcastically as i could muster.

"Your our guest of honor only the best for you" he said mockingly Luke took the case from and looked at it thoughtfully for a moment before selecting a sickly green poison.

"This beauty right her is the mother of pain as I like to call her. Its gorgons blood watered down of course because straight gorgons blood from the left side will give you a very painful death which will happen in due time but not yet"

Luke walked over to me syringe ion hand full of the painful poison and as he was a bout to inject me i jerked with all my strength trying to get away which worked for a second before he looked at and said "Restrain him" "Gladly" The manticore responded with an evil smile.

He held me arms and once he was right behind me he whispered "This is for what happened at West Hall boy"

Once luke was sure i was properly restrained he walked back over and without waiting jabbed the needle in my arm and injected the poison I tensed waiting for the reaction but it didn't happen I looked at Luke questionably and he looked just as confused "was it watered down to mu—-" he was cut off mid sentence by my scream as the poison took effect it felt like my insides were on fire i couldn't see anything the pain from the sky was dwarfed by the pain from the poison "well well i guess it was ok after all" I heard Luke say.

"This was a worthwhile sacrifice from Stheno going to a joyful cause" Thorn said "I couldn;t agree more Thorn, couldn't agree more" Luke responded

I don't know how long it went ion for but it felt like hours that I had to endure the poison when it suddenly subsided i would have collapsed on the ground if i could have before i knew it i threw up all over the ground and then I dry heaved a few more times.

When I looked up Luke was walking away with a different syringe in his hand "What did you cough cough inject me with now?" I asked

"Just sea water, it gets it out of your system so we can continue with our next dose of fun" He answered

Luke held out his hand and Thorn gingerly placed a bright pink vial in his hand the traitorus son of Hermes smiled at it gleefully "This right here might be the worst torture for you yet. Some stolen love potion from Aphrodite mixed with a few of Tartarus's finest hallucinogens this should break you mentally oh along with my friend Kelli once she gets here"

A few minutes later an empousa dressed in a traditional white Greek chiton "What can i do for you Luke" She said batting her eyelashes at him "I was just wondering if you could keep our guest here some company" Luke answered while pointing at me.

When the empousa whose name i now knew as Kelli's eyes landed on me they lit up "I think i have some spare time" She said "Good but before me and Thorn go we want to make sure Percy here wont put up i fight" Luke said walking towards me.

My eyes widened in fear "Uranus help me out here please" I thought but i didn't a response I tried to move, I tried to bite Luke's hand that was holding the syringe but Thorn held fats and wouldn't budge.

When the pink liquid was injected unlike the poison from before this brews effect was immediate my vision tinted pink and a feeling spread down my body i tried to fight it I really did but it continued to invade my mind and in my current state it wasn't long before it broke though my barriers.

Kelli smiled and started walking towards me seductively when she reached me she squatted down to my level giving me a big kiss. In all my heart I wanted to move and push her off me but my brain wouldn't let me move I was no longer in control of my own body.

Dont worry this story is not going to turn into smut this will probably be the closest I ever get to writing Smut. Just thought I should say that. Now on with the story.

Aphrodite's POV

How did those cursed little monsters steal one of my love potions i though as I watched Luke inject Perseus with the pink liquid.

I waved my hand and another image appeared it was the quester flying across the country I just wished they could get there faster but I had done all I could to help without breaking the ancient laws and if i did that Zeus would have my head.

Thalia's POV

I hated to say it, but Annabeth was right the statues did work all i had to do was pray to my dad.

Me and Zoe were being carried by the same giant statue and I needed to think or talk about anything other than how high we were right now ,and I couldn't help but think of the prophecy

5 shall go West, both Heroes and Hunters,

Finding the burdened one

And restoring the forgotten one

Facing the friend who turned

"Hey Zoe do you have any thoughts about this prophecy?" I asked the ancient huntress.

"Nothing we haven't already figured" out she answered while shooting arrows absentmindedly at any billboards we passed. "We know that the burden is the sky, we know who the friend who has turned is,but I have know clue who the forgotten one is. I suppose it could be one of the titans but none of them match that title nor do any of the gods that I know of" Zoe confessed

"I don't like this whole thing. I feel like we are walking straight into a trap but we have tio do it we have to save Percy I said.

"Yes that is our mission so that is what we will do" Zoe answered

"I hope so" I said before we fell into comfortable silence

Ok I finally got this chapter out and it took way too long for me to get done. I meant to have this out this took me so long. Also some things Percy may have been slightly violated. I don't know why I did that but I thought it would make this more interesting and it was one heck of a curve ball as well so I thought it served its always that for reading feel free to review.

See you next time,

Toxin1316