Always The Prey (PART 3)

Chapter 10: I Have More In Common With Cows Than I Thought

Annabeth's POV

Living in the detainment center was difficult to say the least. The children were restless and upset at the unknown place they were living. How long has it even been? There are no windows so I cannot even track the sun. Has it been days? Weeks? Have we been here for months? What is going on in the outside world? The monster attacks are definitely increasing. Tartarus is getting stronger.

We need to start working to fight the enemy, but we're too busy being treated as the enemy ourselves.

I feel exhausted. Percy and I have been going nonstop for questioning and they've barely gotten any information out of us. We can barely ever fall asleep. Usually we spend the whole night talking, or we sleep in 20 minute intervals, with the other awake and watching, so that we can at least have a nap without being in there too long for a nightmare.

Every now and then, we're allowed to get out of the cages and make one lap around the inside corridor that is lined with silent men in sharp, black suits, holding a large gun in their hand.

Sometimes, the soldiers are mean to us for absolutely no reason. They come to serve the food because, you know, we're still human beings that need to eat, but they throw our food on the ground like we're animals. Sometimes they "accidentally" punch one of us, usually Percy, for some unknown reason.

What did we do that was so bad to be treated this way?

Soon, a dark man with an eyepatch walked in with such a dutiful stride that I knew he was the one in charge of all this nonsense. When he started talking, I realized that his voice sounded the same as the one in the loudspeaker.

"Percy," I called out from my cell. Seaweed Brain was taking his turn for the nap. "Percy, wake up!"

Annoyed, he grudgingly woke up, and tried to rub his eyes, but then got more irritated when both hands came up because they were cuffed together.

"I'm up, I'm up, relax," he grumbled, sitting up right, with his back leaning against the cage.

The man who walked in narrowed his eyes on us.

"Well, now that I have all of your attention, there is an announcement that has to be made. Effective at 7:30 AM today, all of you are no longer citizens of this country. By this afternoon, you have to submit your name, personal history, and a list of your known powers to the Demigod Registry (DR). With citizenship denied, any legal documents will be invalidated. Further details will be provided later."

Wait, what the Hades?

"How can you do that to us? Isn't it already bad enough that you locked us in here? Now you're taking away our citizenship, our legal right by being born in this country, and putting us into a registry to take note of us like animals?" I voiced out, from my cell, turning my angry glare towards the director.

His face didn't even change when he pressed the button to activate my shock collar, making my body twitch out in pain. I didn't scream out though; I bit my tongue so I wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Percy jumped up at the sight of them hurting me, but even he too knew better than to say anything in retaliation.

"I wouldn't talk too much Ms. Chase. May I remind you which one of us is behind bars? A little cooperation would be better received," Fury drawled, not even phased at all that he just tortured a minor. What is wrong with the world these days?

The rest of the day passed by slowly. The officers in charge of giving us food rudely threw the slop they called food into our cells. Our taste buds slowly adjusted to the plain, disgusting taste of the weird oats thing they give each time. A little while later, we were all taken, one by one, to go put our name, godly parents, powers, and other important history they need to know. I tried resisting writing my name, but, let's say, it didn't end up too well for me.

"What happened? Who did this?" Percy murmured, anger seeping into his voice as his eyes locked onto the newly forming bruises on my cheek and neck.

"It's fine Percy," I mumbled back, staring right back at him. I knew this was killing him, not being able to help me. "It's not your fault. I just, um, you know, forgot how to use a pen all of a sudden."

His eyes, recently dim from being locked up for so long, shone brightly at what I had just said.

Every demigod in our holding cell had to go and put their names in the registry. That all happened so quickly and suddenly and now, all of a sudden, we're no longer citizens and we're all written up and categorized like we're cattle.

Don't the gods see what is happening? Can't they even help us? Our powers are restricted by the cuffs and the cells. There are too many guards everywhere and too many younger children to protect for Percy and I to break out. We're stuck here, trying our best to divert the attention from the smaller ones.

How much ever time had passed, hours or days I don't know, we were all taken out of our cell. I thought it was for our walk-thing that they do because, well, we're still ADHD teenagers, but they actually took us somewhere.

Before they let us leave the dimly lit detainment center, a black sac was placed over our heads, cutting off all the light, and we were shoved into the back of a truck. We drove for what seemed like 30 minutes before we reached the place.

We were all ushered out by the guards and groups of us were placed together and forced to stand in line. The bag was quickly taken off of my face, making the bright light of the sun momentarily blind me

When my eyes finally adjusted, I stared at what I saw ahead of me. Me, Percy, Will, Nico, and Clarisse (the people in my group) were standing on a platform, our names and powers listed on top of us, staring at a group of influential looking people sitting at tables.

I hunted around and found a table full of the avengers, who all had a scowl on their face.

"WHAT IS HAPPENING?" I tried to scream with my eyes.

"First off, we have the most powerful mutants: Percy Jackson, 001, with power over water. Annabeth Chase, 002, with brilliant mind and strategy, Nico Di Angelo 003, with power over the darkness and shadows, Will Solace, 004, with powers in healing and medicine, and Clarisse La Rue, 005, with powers in fighting and war."

Oh.

Oh my gods.

My eyes were trained on the avengers and saw them living up a circle with a number on it.

Oh my gods.

A few more people lifted up numbers, but Tony Stark kept on raising a higher one.

"Mr. Tony Stark has just won this bidding round!" the man wearing a crisp gray suit called out into the microphone.

Oh wow.

Oh my gods.

We had just been sold.