CHAPTER SEVEN

P A R A L Y Z E D  F O R C E

• • •

The room was close to silent as Annabeth and Esperanza ate their way through the pantry that Drew had opened up for them. The hunger inside Annabeth was ravenous, but something inside of her forced her to slow down her eating, and she made sure to instruct Esperanza to do the same, lest they end up vomiting everything back up. It was torture to refrain from eating as fast as she wanted to, but she already felt slightly queasy.

Esperanza grabbed another slice of plain bread and stuffed it into her mouth, crumbs falling into her lap haphazardly, but she either didn't notice or didn't care enough to brush them away. The mean-looking girl, who had introduced herself as Clarisse, was scowling as they eat, but something told Annabeth that the scowl was commonplace for the girl. Drew was eating with them, popping grapes into her mouth every so often. Chris and Cameron were in the room with the couch, a large map spread over the coffee table, quietly arguing about something that they had yet to disclose to Annabeth. But at the moment, she couldn't care less, so long as there was enough food.

"I take it's been awhile since you've had a good meal," Drew said dryly, but not unkindly.

Esperanza eagerly nodded her affirmation. "I can't remember the last time I had fruit," she said before grabbing a banana and ripping it from its peel.

Annabeth allowed a small smile to grace her face before arguing from the other room erased it completely. It was Cameron's voice, and though she hadn't known him long, she could tell that he was angry.

"It can't be in New York!" he shouted, and something loud clattered to the ground. Annabeth couldn't help but to flinch at the sound, and she instinctively reached out for Esperanza. Drew detached herself from the chair in which she had been lounging, and gracefully flitted over to the boys. Annabeth watched her cautiously.

"Cameron's right," Drew said, glancing down at the map, "we scoured all of New York already. Camp Half-Blood has been burned down and the Empire State Building's connection has been completely severed. No one can even get a mile near it without Her monsters killing them. We have to look elsewhere."

Drew was speaking English, but everything she said sounded foreign to Annabeth.

"But where else could Olympus be?" Chris pressed, gesturing wildly at the map. "There's nowhere else that makes sense!"

"California?" Clarisse offered half-heartedly, peeling herself from the chair and her station of watching Annabeth and Esperanza in exchange for also huddling around the map.

Cameron shook his head. "San Francisco was destroyed after New York. Basically anywhere with connections to the gods was turned to rubble."

"Maybe it's somewhere completely random?" Drew suggested while playing with a piece of Clarisse's hair. The other girl scowled and smacked her hand away.

Annabeth could feel anger radiating from Cameron. "That makes everything so much harder; it's a needle in a giant haystack, except the haystack is full of monsters that want to kill you!"

Drew rolled her eyes. "No need to be so dramatic, Cam; we don't even know if the gods are still, you know, around."

Annabeth heard the hidden word as loudly as anyone else; they didn't know if the gods were still alive. That thought should have terrified her, but she was too hungry to care. Instead of contributing to the conversation, she grabbed a small, round, unidentifiable fruit and bit into it, pleasantly surprised by the sweet juices that burst into her mouth.

"I just don't know where to look," Cameron admitted, sounding defeated, "and we're running out of time."

Annabeth went to take another bite of the fruit when she remembered another part of the dream. She had been on a beach, the air warm and thick with humidity, palm trees torn to shreds in the distance. That's right, a voice in the back of her mind whispered.

Some instinctual part of Annabeth forced her to put down the fruit and stand up, ignoring Esperanza's smirk. She walked to the table, ignoring the way everyone jumped when they noticed her, as if they had forgotten she was there. The map was strewn out, a blank invitation begging her to sign her name.

She stared at it for a minute, slightly alarmed that she couldn't recognize any part about it. But something in her blood seemed to know exactly where to point. Without her even realizing, her finger was on the map, pointing to a dot.

"There," she said. Something in the back of her mind hummed with confirmation. "That isn't Olympus, but it's as close as we can get."

There was a brief beat of silence, and Annabeth slowly, almost bashfully raised her head to find four identical looks of shock greeting her. Then, they erupted into noise.

"How in Hades do you know that?" demanded Cameron.

"Why would Olympus be anywhere near the coast of Florida?" Chris asked.

"That doesn't make any sense," Clarisse grumbled.

Only Drew was silent, and Annabeth found solace in her gaze, so she kept her focus aimed on the girl who had been her savior. Drew noticed her looking, and gave her a small smile.

"Hey!" Drew said loudly, and the three other demigods promptly stopped their exclamations to stare at the girl. "Annabeth says that's where Olympus is, so that's where Olympus is! Or at least, I trust that's where it is. Obviously it's hidden because the world basically ended, but if Annabeth thinks she has an inkling to its location, then I say we follow it."

Annabeth felt her face begin to warm under the trust Drew clearly had in her. But the others still looked skeptical.

"But why Florida?" Cameron pressed, frowning down at the map. "The gods have never even associated with Florida."

"Have you ever thought," Esperanza said suddenly, and this time, even Annabeth jolted at her sudden presence, "that the gods aren't really the ones controlling Olympus? That maybe it's the demigods we're after instead?"

Now, it was Esperanza's turn to stand while everyone looked at her in silent shock. She seemed much more accustomed to it than Annabeth had, and nonchalantly bit into her apple, the loud crunch producing the only sound in the room.

Clarisse was the first one to move, muttering "I need a drink" as she walked to the kitchen, Drew hot on her heels. Cameron still frowned at the map, as if he was expecting it to start talking and tell him the answers.

"Florida," he repeated, more to himself than anyone.

Chris offered Annabeth a kind smile, and she felt herself hesitantly return it. He gestured to the couch, and she gratefully sat down. Esperanza followed suit and sat down beside Annabeth, leaving Cameron to mutter darkly at the map.

"I take it you're still pretty confused about anything," he said gently, his dark eyes full of sincerity.

Annabeth nodded in response, still somewhat overwhelmed from the previous foreign bout of confidence that had compelled her to speak.

"Well, I'm probably the closest thing we have to a historian here, so I'll try to catch you up." He grabbed a mug from the table, careful not to spill any of the contents onto the map. From the looks of it, Chris was handing Annabeth a cup of tea. "It helps the mind," he offered like that explained anything.

Annabeth felt her hand wrap around the handle, surprised at the comforting warmness. She took a sip, and instantly felt soothed by the flavor.

"You've been gone for a little over two years," Chris began, "and everything kind of fell apart all at once. There was a prophecy that you were a part of, and you and six other demigods were tasked with saving the world. The seven of you traveled the world, looking to stop Her from waking up. But everything went wrong very quickly. On the day of the battle, the gods appeared, though we don't exactly know why. But it was too late; She woke up and you disappeared, and soon after, Percy disappeared, too."

Annabeth nodded along, pretending like anything he said made sense. But honestly, it didn't, and she just felt more confused than if Chris had never said anything.

Chris must have sensed this because he shook his head. "I'm not doing this right. You don't remember anything, right?" Annabeth nodded, taking another sip of tea. "So nothing I'm saying makes sense. Okay, let's start with the prophecy. I'm not sure about the exact wording, but--"

"Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, to storm or fire the world must fall," Cameron said without looking up the map, "an oath to keep with breath and foes bear arms to the doors of death."

Cameron didn't look up to see the startled look on Chris' face. "Okay, well it seems like someone does know the exact wording."

As soon as Cameron said those words, Annabeth felt herself still. That was the same prophecy that Esperanza had told her about only days ago, in the weird story she shared before their escape. One of the heroes disappeared right off the battlefield. Was the story about this prophecy, about her?

Chris continued, oblivious to Annabeth's confusion. "Anyways, that was the prophecy and there were seven of you. Jason Grace, son of Zeus, well, Jupiter actually. He can fly, I'm pretty sure. Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite."

"And my half-sister," Drew added cheerfully, waltzing into the room with a glass full of something that was definitely not water.

"Right, Drew's half-sister. She can control people with her voice. There's Leo Valdez who is a son of Hephaestus and can control fire, which is very rare, and then Frank Zhang who is a shapeshifting son of Ares--"

"Mars," Clarisse corrected, plopping down on the couch beside Drew. She plucked the glass from Drew's hand and took a long drink. "Ares is my dad, not his."

Chris rolled his eyes, but nodded amiably. "Son of Mars. Then Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto, and lastly, Percy and you."

The room stilled, any joviality immediately freezing. Clarisse was giving her an odd look, like she expected Annabeth to start crying or screaming.

"She doesn't remember Percy," Drew helpfully supplied, draining the rest of the glass, "I already asked."

Chris nodded, but this time, it was hesitant. Annabeth felt oddly guilty, as if she had done something horrible but couldn't remember what it was. "You're Annabeth Chase, obviously, daughter of Athena. Percy Jackson is the son of Poseidon, and he went missing right after you did. No one has seen him in years."

"We thought he was with you," Clarisse admitted gruffly, "that maybe you two lovebirds had fled and left us."

Drew elbowed her sharply. "That is definitely not what we thought," she said, glaring at Clarisse, "we did think that you were together, but maybe trapped somewhere together."

Annabeth dismissed Drew's amendment, instead focusing on what Clarisse had said: lovebirds. She didn't remember anything about him, but according to Clarisse, she used to love him.

"Those were the seven of the prophecy, but the problem is, no one knows where any of them are now," Chris continued. "All we know is that the rest of the seven, excluding you and Percy, are rumored to be hiding in Olympus."

"And the problem with that is we don't know where Olympus is," added Cameron, still staring at the map.

"And Percy is just completely out of the equation," Drew said.

Annabeth took another sip from the mug. As soon as she lowered it from her lips, her brain exploded with pain.

Esperanza caught the mug before it shattered on the floor, and her dark eyes were swimming with concern. But Annabeth wasn't focused on that; she was occupied with the sudden flood of memory running through her mind.

There was a blade in her hand, and it gleamed in the dark. She was in a dark cavern with tapestries and cobwebs decorating the walls. But her attention was immediately drawn to the screaming spider-woman caught in a woven trap.

The horrific spider began shooting out webs, and they landed everywhere with no rhythm or pattern. Finally, she rolled into a brazier and the flames spilled out, slowly beginning to devour the woven tapestries. Annabeth couldn't ignore the way the floor shook beneath her.

"Stop that!" she found herself yelling at the spider. "You'll bring down the whole cavern and kill us both!"

"Better than seeing you win!" the spider cried. "My children! Help me!"

The thought of the spider's children was enough to send a shiver down her spine. The knife was heavy in her hand, and Annabeth realized just how easy it would be to use it, to kill the trapped spider.

But then, spiders flooded into the cavern, steering clear of the large glowing statue. They hesitated as they saw the statue, as if something about it scared them.

"Arachne, stop it!" Annabeth yelled, the sight of the spiders scaring her as much as the statue seemed to scare them. "I'll--"

But speaking had been a mistake. The spider twisted around at the sound of Annabeth's voice and managed to shoot a web directly at her chest, knocking her to the floor.

Her ankle sang with pain as she collapsed. She used the knife in her hand to slash through the webbing, even as the spider used the web to drag her closer. Annabeth sawed through, but the smaller spiders were upon her. They swarmed around her body, growing closer with every second.

Percy, she thought, I'm sorry.

Then, the cavern ceiling burst open, causing sunlight and cars to rain down. There was a large ship hovering above the open cavern, and Annabeth felt relieved. Amazingly relieved.

The spider was hit by a falling car, and with a scream, she fell into the large chasm, a trail of spiderwebs flying behind her like the tail to a comet. Annabeth realized that her knife must have fallen, too, and that it was gone into the depths of Tartarus, likely to never be seen by her again.

But that concern disappeared as she heard Percy call out her name from high above, and she craned her neck to see him.

"--Annabeth! Can you hear me?"

Her head pounded in agony, but when she opened her eyes, she found that she was back in the safe house with five people staring down at her with varying levels of anxiety. Her eyes found Esperanza's first, and the young girl's eyebrows were drawn together with concern. Annabeth opened her mouth to speak, but a groan escaped instead.

"Are you okay?" Drew asked hesitantly, slowly helping Annabeth sit up. "What happened?"

The image of that dark cavern burned so brightly in her mind. It had felt so real, seemed so real. The terror and pain felt like they really happened.

"I--I think I remembered something," she said, surprised to find her throat dry.

Esperanza held her hand, and though her eyes shone with concern, she had a triumphant smile on her face.

"That's great!" Chris said excitedly, "that tea does wonders!"

"What did you remember?" pressed Drew, ignoring Chris' excitement.

Annabeth hesitated before speaking. What if it hadn't been a memory? What if it was just a bad dream, or something her mind made up? But there was another, slightly louder voice in her mind that drowned out the doubt. This is right.

"There was a cavern," she said slowly, "and a spider, caught in a trap of some sort. And then the ceiling opened and the spider fell into this horrible chasm."

Annabeth didn't miss the concerned looks that the four other demigods exchanged. "What?" she asked, the feeling of doing something wrong flooding into her mind.

"What else?" was all Cameron said.

She frowned, but obliged. "The spider had shot a web at me, but I escaped with my knife."

"The knife," Esperanza said, eyes gleaming. "What happened to the knife?"

"It fell into the pit," Annabeth breathed, "why?"

Esperanza's answering smile was jarring, and not for the first time, Annabeth began to question where this girl came from. "Cursed blade hero's soul shall reap."

"How do you know that?" Clarisse asked harshly, her brown eyes glaring at the young girl.

"Clarisse," Drew said, pulling on her sleeve.

Clarisse brushed her off like she were an irritating spider. "That's from the first Great Prophecy," Clarisse's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "so how in Hades do you know that?"

Esperanza just gave her a small smile, but before anyone could press the child anymore, Annabeth felt a wave of nausea. She felt Drew catch her before she swooned back to the floor.

"Okay, I'm gonna get Annabeth to the bathroom; she does not look good. You all, just stay here."

Annabeth allowed herself to be ushered from the room, ignoring the strange look that Esperanza was giving her.

• • •

Later that night, Cameron found himself standing outside Chris' room. The others were asleep, or at least, that was what he was supposed to think, though he had noticed Drew slip into Clarisse's room an hour ago. Drew prided herself on her overall sneakiness, but Cameron wasn't dumb.

Finally, he knocked on the door, half-expecting the other boy to be long asleep. But to his surprise, the door creaked open, and Cameron allowed himself to step into the golden glow emitted from the room.

Chris had been gardening, that much was clear from the dirt caking his hands, and the streak of it on his face. He looked exhausted, but there must have been a reason for his late night.

"Hey," Cameron said softly.

"Hey yourself," Chris responded with a small smile, kneeling back to tend to the small plants by his window. "What's up?"

Cameron sat down on Chris' bed, ignoring the loud creaks it produced. "I'm worried about Annabeth."

That, somehow, conveyed everything. He was worried about Annabeth, about the future, about what was going to happen when Gaea learned of his inevitable betrayal. He was worried about his family, about this group forged from blood and war. He was worried about what he was going to lose.

Chris nodded. "I know. I am, too. But she remembered something; that has to be a sign."

"I know. This is the miracle we've been waiting for."

There was a pause of silence, the only sound being the dirt Chris was gently scooping from a pot. Finally, he put the shovel down and faced Cameron. "But?" he prompted.

Cameron smiled. "But something about it feels wrong. Like we don't have all the pieces yet."

"We don't; we still have to find Olympus and the others. We're pretty far from all of that."

And Cameron knew that; it was one thing to find Annabeth, but to find Olympus, which was so secretly hidden that not even the goddess of the Earth could find it? That would be beyond a miracle, and miracles were hard to find these days, with the gods having abandoned them.

"Is it horrible that part of me wants to just hole up in this house forever?" Cameron said before realizing he had let that terrible thought be spoken. "Let someone else help Annabeth and fight?"

But Chris understood; Chris always understood. "I don't think anyone ever wants to fight, Cam. But we have to."

"Except for Clarisse."

Chris laughed, the small sound sending an army of butterflies to inhabit Cameron's stomach. "Right. Except Clarisse. She's always looking for a fight."

Chris and Clarisse had been a couple, once, back when the world was somewhat normal. And they had stayed that way for years. But at some point, Clarisse's harsh edges were too much for Chris, and she had grown tired of his gentleness. Or at least, that was the excuse that they had presented to Cameron and Drew when they broke up, not long after they had all joined forces. But Cameron had seen the way Clarisse looked at Drew, like the girl was second chance or a miracle given life. Drew was just as sharp as Clarisse, just as capable as handling herself in a fight. Sure, her overall bitchiness had eroded away through war, but her tongue was just as sharp. Clarisse looked at Drew in a way that she had never looked at Chris, but Chris seemed fine with it, never seeming bothered that the two were always sneaking off.

"This is our mission," Chris said, tearing Cameron from his thoughts, "and we're the only hope Annabeth has. We have to help her."

In a different lifetime, Cameron would never have dreamed of helping the great Annabeth Chase; she was a myth among demigods, as was Percy. The two had slayed more monsters than anyone else at Camp, and Cameron had been awed by her presence. The girl they had rescued acted nothing like that Annabeth, but something about her was still the same; she still had that grim determination.

The golden light cast a heavenly glow on Chris' skin, and Cameron yearned to reach out and touch him, if only to ascertain if his skin would burn him. But he refrained, just like he always had.

"I'm tired," Cameron said, opting to speak another truth than the one that burned in the depths of his heart.

"Then sleep," Chris said simply, gesturing to the bed on which Cameron was sitting, "I'll wake you up if anything happens."

The offer was too tempting to resist, to sleep with Chris watching over him. So, Cameron laid down, his eyes watching as Chris tended to his plants. His gaze was fixated there until sleep eventually claimed him.

• • •

author's note:
i hope you enjoyed this chapter! i've definitely changed a lot of things around from the original, but i hope you like it! in the original, a lot of people thought cameron was going to be a love interest for annabeth, but in this version, my boy is gay. anyways, thank you for reading!