Percabeth Betrayed

Chapter 23 - The Little Boxy Thingy

New post. And now you get to find out what happens to Leo! Sorry I left you on a cliffy. I just couldn't resist making you wait two more days to find out what happens. Maybe even more. (Insert evil laugh.) But hey, at least I'm not as bad as Rick. He made us wait a year. A YEAR PEOPLE to find out what happens to Annabeth and Percy when they fell into Tartarus. But now I'm back. And it's only been three days. So let's go!

Annabeth's POV

"No!" I screamed as I watched Leo fall to the ground. The Chimera had plunged its claw into Leo's chest, and he was quickly losing blood. Not only was he a spy and one of our only chances of finding out what happens to the camp, but he was a close friend that Percy and I had only recently united with. If Leo died now, I didn't know what would happen to Percy. An emotional breakdown so bad, well, lets just say a planet wouldn't be the only thing that would blow up.

Percy and I, moving at the same speed, lunged towards Leo. I caught Leo's head, right before it collided with the ground. Percy fended off the Chimera, and in less than two seconds it was reduced to nothing but a pile of golden dust. Percy growled and stabbed his sword in the dust several more times, taking out his anguish for Leo on the golden monster dust.

In the corner of my eye, I saw Jake smirk. "What's wrong?" he asked in a babyish voice. "Could the stupid son of Chaos not save everyone?" He pouted mockingly, and before I could blink Percy had his sword up against Jake's throat. 

"Say that again," Percy threatened. "I dare you." Jake went cross eyed when he saw the metal blade pressing into his throat, but quickly covered it up with a glare.

"Whatever." And he stalked off into the forest, muttering about stupid dragons and warriors.

Leo started to come to. I had applied pressure using the edge of my cloak to his wound, but it wouldn't stop the blood flow. "Anna-" I cut him short.

"Delta. My name is Delta." I cut him off before he could say my real name in front of all the campers.

"Paranoid much?" he muttered.

I frowned down at the elfish boy. "Leo, you're dying and you're worried about how paranoid I am?" 

He grinned. "That's me. Mr McShizzle, the selfless guy who puts others' needs before his own." He tried to point at himself, but grimaced when he heard his ribs crack.

Percy was steaming now. Literally. There was smoke curling off his cloak. "Everyone move away!" he shouted. No one moved. "Move! Now!" He brandished his sword, and the demigods scrambled. I knew he didn't want Leo to die anymore than I did, and if Leo did die, he didn't want there to be 50 other half-bloods watching.

Suddenly, an idea hit my mind. I looked at Percy. "I have a way to save Leo, but we need to split up. I'll take Leo and I need you to do something different."

He stared at me like I was crazy. "You want to take one of the only friends outside of the Chaos Warriors I have left to someplace I don't know to save him without me being there? No way."

I stared back at him. "Leo will be fine. But right now, we don't have a spy and I need you to find Jake when he doesn't suspect it. See if there's anything suspicious going on. Your job is just as important as saving Leo." 

He opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked like a goldfish. Then he settled on a decision. "Fine. I'll go. But Leo better be alive when you get back." 

I smiled. At least he had his priorities straight. Always listen to Annabeth. "Leo will live," I told him. Hopefully. If my plan didn't work, I didn't know what Percy would do.

Percy nodded, satisfied with my answer, and proceeded to run into the woods after Jake, telling more campers who had been trying to spy on us to scram. They had been trying to spy, and were not succeeding.

As Percy disappeared into the woods, I opened a portal. I stared at it and inhaled a deep, shaky breath. Chaos would have to listen, or else this mission would quickly become a whole lot harder.

Percy's POV

I ran into the woods, taking one last long look at Leo and Annabeth. Whatever her plan was, I hoped it was a good one. Leo was not only an important spy for our mission, but one of the only friends I had left. Outside of the Wings of Chaos of course. I didn't know what I would do without him.

I shook my head and kept running. It was Annabeth. Of course she knew what she was doing. She was a daughter of Athena. Her plans almost never failed. Actually, never mind the almost. Her plans never failed.

I followed the footsteps of Jake deeper into the woods. I headed past Zeus' fist, the creek, and Juniper's tree. But I stopped when I heard muttering coming from the area near the old entrance to the labyrinth. The entrance was just a cave now that the labyrinth had been destroyed, but campers had tried to avoid it because of what had occurred in the deadly maze. 

I crept quietly through the underbrush. Every step counted. If I broke one twig, I would be discovered by Jake. I hid behind a tree and listened to Jake.

I couldn't really hear what he was saying. He was mainly just muttering gibberish. Too bad I didn't have some sort of advanced hearing aid. Oh well. Getting hearing aids could wait. Right now I needed to find out what Jake was doing.

Currently, he was fingering a rectangular device in his hand. It was polished, silver, and has several red buttons on it. It looked like he was typing some sort of code into it, because when he typed in a certain number pattern, it beeped and an antenna rose out of it. I could see the signal the antenna was sending by watching the purple waves emitting out of it. He was definitely hiding something. 

I was trying to lean in closer to see more of what was going on, when Neptune decided to fly in and land on my shoulder. Well, he tried to. His wing clipped a branch and snap! A twig broke. Great. 

Jake's head snapped up, and he saw me with Neptune now wrapped around my shoulder. I couldn't let him know that I had been spying on him, so I had to come up with an excuse, and quick. Schist. This was Annabeth's thing to come up with ideas. What was I supposed to do? 

Wait a second. I should do what I do best. Embarrass Jake. I leaned back casually on a tree as if I hadn't been spying on him. 

"What do you want?" Jake demanded as he fumbled with the box and shoved it in his pants.

"Well I was just wondering if you wanted to do a rematch. Another duel. Maybe tomorrow morning at nine?"

He nodded, forgetting about the tiny box device. "You are so on. Be prepared to get pummeled."

"I'm pretty sure it will go the other way around," I said, repeating my statement from our first duel. With any luck, his little box thingy would be at the duel, and I could steal it in mid fight. It might give us a clue to something that was happening that had to do with the war.

Both Jake and I walked in opposite directions, heads held high. I looked down at Neptune. We really have to work on your stealth skills. 

I just realized I didn't tell you what happens to Leo in this chapter. Oops. But don't worry. Next chapter will be the one. We still have to find out what happens to Leo, find out what the box thingy is, and find out what Percy eats for breakfast the next morning. (Probably blueberry pancakes. Again.) So, til next chapter comes!
                                                                                                             -Ahey