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Have you ever had that feeling like you've packed everything, but that one little thing that you've taken somewhere before, but you can't remember it?
That's how Percy felt.
All freaking day.
And man, he's had that feeling before, don't get him wrong- that type of stuff seems to happen a lot with him, really- but this is overwhelming and it's been bugging him since the camp spread out in groups, no one alone, to their places and to do what they were needed to do. The other commanders seemed fine with it, like they had everything planned out, but that's because Gerry's Gerry, Vernica's seven, and Jaden...well, Percy's surprised that he wasn't being the one paranoid.
What was he being paranoid about anyway? There was the usual paranoia of spiders invading the camp, hearing their plans, spiders in the labyrinth, and the war stuff he's worried about plenty of plenty of times before. But this...this was different. There was something about it that was a little nagging voice in the back of his head, telling he was forgetting something completely important.
Bianca was safe, the camp was safe, he was on good terms with a lot of the people there, and Rachel was somewhat safe in the Underworld- Elysium, he's sure, or maybe she wants rebirth; Percy couldn't really see her declining an offer like that. The prophecy, well, obviously he wasn't going to forget about that. It was replaying itself in his head like a stupid recording thing (there was a name to those, but that was a long time ago.) and he's assessed all the lines with the help of the others and did it himself.
The path ahead is full of webs,
Full of trials and challenges,
That meant that nothing they planned would work, but Percy couldn't managed to be surprised of that because when have things ever worked out in his favor? He can't get a steady girlfriend, and he's had more deadly situations than a math teacher could caculate, so he was pretty sure that was all his fault with this line.
But only one child will lose a head.
Someone was either going to die or go crazy, which the crazy part actually went very well with the path of the labyrinth because Chris went crazy there, too, so it was possible that the demigod leading the way, or one who wondered in got lost.
The question remains as so:
How many will join him in Death's bed?
That person would die- either by sword or no mind, Percy wasn't positive, but it freaked him out- and no one was sure how many people there were. That freaked him out, too, but he tried not to think about it being anyone close to him, or himself- yes, he was having those thoughts, but that was normal for him.
One will disobey
One will leave
He was pretty sure that this went the traitor, you know leaving the good side to go over to a bunch of evil spiders instead of following orders.
One will stay
One will lead
This one confused the Chaos out of him. He was praying to Chaos that more than one person stayed and there were actually four people leading- him, Jaden, Gerry, and Vernica, and maybe the gods, if you wanted to get really specific. Did this mean that someone would rise out of those people and take charge? Maybe some of them got hurt and there was only one left. Gods, he hates prophecies.
One will betray
Another will lay
And when it is all over
The son of the sea
Has to make a choice
For gods' sake.
Love or secruity?
Stay or leave?
Old or new?
In the end,
He has to choose.
Okay, well, that's obvious enough. Chaos will give him a choice of whether he wants to leave the command in order to stay at Camp Half-Blood. Days ago when he was assigned this mission, Percy would've boomed with laughter and then punched you for suggesting he stayed. But then...he met Bianca again and he saw the people he cared about, who cared about him, and he kind of missed this place. He missed sunny days, snow on the ground, the beach, the pegasus, the laughter; they only have one of those things at "home" and the rest are pictures, and Chaos, that isn't enough.
The biggest web is set
Will you be the prey?
Watch your loved ones
For who knows where they lay,
And watch your goddess,
For her pride will cause your fall."
He was half sure that Athena, or some of her children, would ignore them and walk into the fight to get captured. The first part, he had no idea, and that was all he got by. Now, remember that this replayed in his head, but he didn't necessarily process it all the time. He couldn't stop his patrolls and process all the information. As stupid as it was, it was hard for him to do one thing and think about a completely different, but somehow involved thing at the same time. And he got distracted a lot. Damn his ADHD.
So Percy went around the whole day, thinking and worrying and checking and patrolling, while this stupid little annoying voice told him he was missing the big picture and that he needed to figure it out soon before the war started and people were injured because of it. Was it something that people could get injured by? He wasn't sure.
Add that to the list of things he didn't know:
1) Girls
2) Wars
3) Girls
4) Prophecies
5) This stupid feeling
Nice, right?
It was one day after the whole big speech to the camp and everyone had been patrolling their areas. The Chaos commanders were trying to be everyone at once and even the gods were chipping in to do everything they needed to keep their kids, and sister/cousin/daughter/stepdaughter, safe. Percy was stressed and tired and he wondered how much longer this would last- resources said that it'd be a day or two, but they wouldn't tell how they would get here, and it was only increasing his suspicions that there was a spy.
This fact, he knew, had the others worrying also.
But Percy was Percy, and he was trying to think of other things they could be doing like they were doing it because they were afraid that the name of their location would draw attention or some other sketchy crap.
The alarms that Hephateus and his kids set up all over the places where they were guarding, and Percy, who had just sat down on a bench in the dining pavilion with Jaden, attempting to get some rest because they had both been up all night with the others, making sure everyone was staying awake and doing their job. Percy had looked out for Bianca all night too because he had that feeling, and he didn't know whether or not it had to with Bianca, so he tried to find her, but he didn't have much luck (again that was because he was Percy, and he didn't have a whole lot of luck when he wanted it). He was hoping that she was out in the shadows, searching for spiders, or he just didn't catch her in the right place at the right time.
Both Chaos commanders jumped up, along with the many other kids who were trying to eat and relax during the tense time, but the Athena campers were, surprisingly and nonsurprisingly, the first to react. "Southeast side near the labyrinth!" Annabeth shouted over the sounds of metal clanking, nervous murmurs, and scruffle of people getting armor and weapons and leaving to their places.
Percy audibly cursed and Jaden and him shared looks. They could try a route near their cabin, like they had fallen into, but they didn't know if that led up to where they wanted to go and they weren't sure that it was safe that way. What if they got stuck and were needed, or someone else fell in in their hurry to get where they were needed? It was too risky; they'd have to go the safe route, and Percy wasn't sure that it was that safe.
"Athena kids!" Percy called, and everyone stopped what they were doing at his booming, stern voice. It pulled you to listen, and pulled you to follow him. Percy had learned it from Jaden, but part of him wondered if he would've tried all those years ago if it worked; it had once or twice, but he wasn't sure- that was hard to remember. "You are to stay at your posts! If one of you are out of here, we're going to lose this war, and you'll be more of a help here! STAY!"
Jaden nodded approvingly and his voice was stronger and more confident than Percy's when he spoke, "Now let's go crush some spiders!"
Cheers and cries went up throughout the crowd of campers and they went back to their business, but the Athena kids, obviously, were more tense and they tried harder to have something to do since they weren't allowed to fit.
Screams were heard of different goddesses' names and Annabeth's and Percy's eyes locked over the crowd. Hers were pleading and sad, but determined and fierce, and Percy gave her a half smile because that was the Annabeth he used to love, and maybe, just maybe, if he chose, he'd be able to forgive her and they'd be friends again.
Jaden and Percy darted past the crowds and they were rushing towards the scene in the forest, where there were cries for help and sounds of a fight. The alarms went off somewhere up the hill and another near the beach and Percy prayed that they'd be able to handle it. He wondered where Bianca was before shaking his head and forcing himself to focus on the topic at hand; sometimes he hated her for making him feel like such a loser, but it was more of a brotherly, sisterly hate, even though he didn't have any brother/sister feelings towards her, and Chaos, she has him doing it again!
They broke through the forest and what they saw scared Percy out of every piece of heavy armor he had on. The tree trunks were black and moving with little spiders and the ground was a moving mass of them. There were small ones that rode on the huge ones, hairy ones and ones that looked bare to the bone. Some were extremely fast and they had reached Percy and Jaden's feet before they processed what happened, while others stayed back and slowly moved along as if too lazy to do the works.
They were in the branches, on the leaves, falling from the skies, and gods, Percy shuddered and felt like he was going to throw up at the sight. And it definitely didn't help that there were already hundreds crawling up their legs and trying to bite them. Thankfully, they had chosen to wear heavy boots on top of the bottom of their jeans so they couldn't get in their pants.
Ignoring them the best they could- which was hard because have you ever had spiders climbing your legs and more getting crushed under your feet enough that you felt rather than heard the snap of their bodies? No? Don't try it at home- they darted forward towards where they were. Maybe they could cut off the labyrinth, which they had already tried, but that didn't work so well.
They didn't send any fire, earth, or air spells/weapons because they were afraid they'd hurt the dryads, cause even more danger, and send the spiders back to where the people guarding where probably covered with them. But they used water, and Percy, being a son of Poseidon, didn't have any problems with clenching his fist and feeling that familiar, old tightening in his gut as the ground cracked and water burst forward in a geyser, dousing the spiders on the trees and grass nearby. Jaden yelled, "Biso!" the ancient word of Venus that meant ice rocks and they were basically ice rocks that sought out heat and that worked to get most of the spiders crushed.
Constantly, they had to swat the spiders out of their hair and keep them away from their faces. The spiders somehow managed to stay on them even with the force of their running, so they were now up to getting a whole new pair of pants of spiders and they were starting on the top, and Percy had never been more freaked out and ready to throw up and scream like a little girl than in that moment.
They broke through to their destination, and what they saw was even worse than the beginning. You couldn't see rocks or grass, or the clearing. All you saw was black and it was like a heavy shag carpet that moved. There was a puff of black "smoke" coming from something that might've been a corner and on top of it, where many of the spiders were hiding, was a spider proof cafe made of fire, rocks, water, and air swirling around Vernica and the chosen kids to watch over that area. Vernica was holding her hands out in a surrender like gesture, and there were tears in her eyes, while the older kids stayed close together and around her, staring with horror and disgust at what was happening.
"Vern!" Percy cried and he crushed more spiders as he ran forward, but then spiders jumped from the rocks and onto him and he was full of spiders nibbing and ready to eat him alive. Do spiders eat people alive? Percy really didn't want to find out. He started swatting them off, but it wasn't enough because more kept coming and coming, and Chaos, this was what the word standed for. Percy wondered how the other guys were holding up and he wondered if they could actually win this fight; it didn't seem likely and Percy knew that this was only the beginning of it.
That scared him more than the spiders all over his face that were stopping him from seeing.
He managed to cry out to Iris before he felt a faint prick in his neck, followed by another, and another, and then suddenly the world was fuzzy and he couldn't hear the sounds of the spiders, the crunches of leaves, the swooshing of water, or see anything- even without the help of the spiders.
When he fell back with his eyes rolling back in his head, he heard one voice crying out to him with tears and pain.
It was Bianca.
I know I suck for leaving you with a cliff hanging, and I'm sure this chapter sucked too, but my brother is going to continously bug me until I hand over my laptop so he can play Minecraft with his friend, even though we have it on Xbox, and I can't write with him breathing down my neck, so I had to break it off early.
I also know I suck for not updating for such a long time, but with homework and the new school, it's getting harder to handle, so I've been adjusting, and now that it's Labor Day weekend, I plan on getting at least one more chapter (excluding this one) up on all my stories, and I really hope I do.
How's school for you guys? Do you hate it? love it? And what about this chapter? How do you feel?
Hate it? Love it? Tell me about it(: