"Where is she?" A file was handed to her, a manilla envelope with a name written neatly across the top, she placed it onto the top of the steal clipboard she was holding in her hand. Pulling a pencil from the pocket of her pressed white lab coat, she flipped the file open, and pressed the tip of the pencil to the name, furrowing her eyebrows. As the two walked briskly down the white hallways, the woman's heels against the marble floor was loud, and the ruffle of papers as she briskly glanced through the file. She turned to the person aside her in confusion.
"Chase? She's never given us any problem before. I should know, I'm the one who submitted her for testing. Apollo, she would know better then to make a fuss." She handed the file back to Apollo, a tall blonde man in a medic uniform with a mountain logo stitched into his pocket, and a collection of files balanced in his arms.
"I checked the cameras around her cell, it just... happened. She was just, flickering. Standard protocol kicked in, should've stopped her immediately. Only difference now is that she's screaming. She's not the only one, Grace and Castellan are freaking out as well. Underwood is still quiet." The woman's head snapped up, a brown curl coming loose from her bun.
"Those three were brought off the streets together." The woman snapped her fingers twice before pointing at Apollo, "Increase the door strength on Castellan, increase the gravity on Grace, and tell the guards to ready their googles. I want you to double the settings. I have a feeling Hades is trying something, so increase the guards on the angels."
"Yes, Athena. Right away." Apollo punched in several numbers on his phone, made a quick call, before hanging up and slipping his hands into his pockets, continuing to follow the head scientist down the hall. "Where are we going then? Which one are we going to see?"
"Which one do you think, Apollo?" Athena snapped, unlocking one of the white paneled doors with the palm of her hand. The gears in the door shifted, panels slipping back, and Athena stepped through the door, Apollo behind her. She turned back briefly, the little light in the room glinted off her steel grey eyes, "My daughter."
Athena flipped a switch on the wall, and a low, flickering light appeared over head. Her nimble fingers flicked another one down, and a wall of steel started to lower.
They heard her before they saw her. She was screaming and sobbing, choking on her own voice and it was garbled with tears. Apollo winced, and moved to cover his ears, but Athena brushed his arm and he lowered his hands. Athena seemed to be transfixed, the screaming not bothering her and merely moving closer as the steel wall lowered into the ground.
She was gripping the iron bars of her cell, her curly blonde hair splayed around her face and giving her an almost psychotic apparel. Her grey eyes were rimmed in red, and tears stained her cheeks. Her form was flickering, parts of it fading out like a TV with bad reception. She was shaking, her body quivering, splotches of her form disappearing into nothing, and then reappearing a moment later. Athena could make out a garble of words coming from her shouts, muddled with sobs.
"I-I- won't! I won't disappear! I won't be forgotten!" The words seemed to roll off her in a wave, her form momentarily stabilizing, before she convulsed. Athena backed away in shock as the girl fell through the balls and onto the floor in front of her, her form flickering once more. She turned her head to Apollo, who had backed away in shock.
"Her chip wasn't replaced was it?"
Apollo shuffled through the papers in his arms, swallowed, then looked up and quickly shook his head, "She was scheduled for tomorrow morning."
Athena nodded, "Call the guards. We must contain he-" Athena quickly backed up, Annabeth had gotten to her feet and was swaying, like her balance wasn't quite right. She had stopped shaking, and her grey eyes were calm, displaying no sign of the terror she had displayed moments before. Apollo backed up into a corner, pressing himself into a wall as Annabeth took a wobbly step forward, stumbling but catching herself, righting her stance and balling her fists by her side.
"It's gone." Annabeth gave a drearily smile, her eyelids heavy. She slowly brought out her hands, turning them around, slowly blinking and grinning as she stared at her palms. She extended her fingers, flicked her hands, and invisibility rippled outwards from her palms and over her body, her form disappearing for a moment as the wave of invisibility rolled over her body. Annabeth stared at her hands in a sense of wonderment, a full grin taking over her dirt stained face and a mad glint in her eye. Athena backed up into the doorway, past Apollo who was blending into a wall quite nicely. "You can't do anything. I'm in control." Annabeth gave a hysterical laugh as she held her hands in front of her face.
"And now I'm gone." She swung her palms around and a wave of invisibility rippled over her body and Annabeth disappeared into nothing. Annabeth's voice echoed in the halls, tainted by the wisp of a laugh, ""And they'll be gone too. " Athena backed down the hall, her heart thundering in her ears and her breath shallow. Suddenly she was knocked into the ground, a heavy force pressing into her chest.
Annabeth's form rippled back into existence, and she leaned over Athena, her blonde hair spilling over her shoulders and dangling in her face, "Bye, Mom." A swift kick to the side of Athena's head and Annabeth was gone, invisibility swimming over her form, and she disappeared, leaving Athena groaning, half conscious on the floor.
::
"They escaped, sir." Athena supported herself on the doorway, a bandage wrapped around her chest, and bruises covered the side of her face. She walked with a slight limp, and grimaced in pain when she spoke.
"And what of my daughter?" Athena adjusted herself, pushing off the doorway and taking a step inside the dark office.
"Just like she said, sir. It's working."
"Then I want you to move her in with the Angels. Keep her fully supplied." Athena nodded, pain flaring the side of her face.
"Yes, sir." Athena moved to leave, adjusting her stance, and her eyes flicked to the wall.
It was an oil on canvas painting, done mainly in bold shades of black and grey. Highlighting the sorrows on a girl's face as she struggled against a boy that was holding her back as tears stained his cheeks. The boy with curly hair and a wisp of a goatee that is attempting to reach out to the girl with his left hand, his right dangles at his side. The bold black used to outline the gun in the hands of the guards as it hangs by their side. The bright greens and rich browns-- the only color-- used to form the bark that broke the ground and wrapped around a girl that was suspended in mid-air, her hands extended and her hair rippling in her face.
Athena broke her face from the painting, turned towards the door and stumbled out, a grin tugging at her lips, "I'll get right on it, sir."
YOU ARE READING
Phobia (A Percy Jackson AU)
Fanfiction/DISCONTINUED AND INCOMPLETE You can fly but you're afraid of heights. You can disappear but you're scared of not being remembered. You can control fire but you're scared of burning others. You manipulate water but you're terrified of drowning. You...
