A Family's Love (Gladiators Sequel)

Chapter Five

Percy's mind was abuzz with possible escape routes, his eyes looking around desperately. His arms were still free, and his sword was clutched in his hand.

Thinking quickly, before he was too high up, he stabbed his sword into the cyclopes hand.

The creature roared in pain, dropping him. Percy fell to the ground, almost twisting his ankle. He quickly stood back up, getting into a fighting stance once more. The beast growled at Percy, charging at him. Percy easily dodged, and the cyclopes couldn't make sharp turns. It tried to turn to chase Percy, but instead ran into a tree, hitting his head hard on a solid oak that didn't budge.

The creature slumped to the ground, but Percy saw that it was still breathing. Percy sighed with relief, safe.

Suddenly, Percy's group ran out of the trees from where he'd left them, yelling and screaming what Percy guessed must be war cries. They immediately stopped and quieted when they saw the giant cyclopes laying on the group, Percy none the worse for ware.

"You always hog all the fun," Clarisse grumbled, putting away her weapon. The others did the same, and Jason and Nico raced over to him, embracing him and checking him over for damage. A thrill went through Percy at their concern, but concealed his pleasure at the knowledge of how much they cared.

"I don't consider a giant, angry cyclopes fun, Clarisse."

"We obviously have a different sense of fun." Clarisse shrugged.

"You have a warped sense of fun." Clarisse glared at him in response, and Percy held his hands up in innocent surrender, a smirk on his face.

"We better keep moving. Who knows what other monsters might be lurking in the woods," Annabeth grumbled, her intelligent grey eyes analyzing the words. The others nodded in agreement, continuing to move through the underbrush.

As they kept moving, Percy noticed a humming noise. Percy stopped in his tracks, listening. The others stopped, now noticing the noise as well as they began looking around. It was close, as if it was right next to him. Percy closed his eyes, focusing, and he realized it was coming from his bag.

He began pilfering through it, and he soon found that it was coming from the mirror Leo had made. The mirror seemed to dimly glow in the bag, sparkling an array of beautiful colors like a rainbow. Percy gently took it out of the bag, confused, but when the sunlight touched it, a blinding golden light shot out of the mirror, enveloping the group.

Percy let out a sound of surprise, shutting his eyes tightly in pain. The others also let out shocked gasps, looking away to shield their eyes. Soon, the light dulled, and Percy had the irresistible urge to look at the mirror.

In the reflective surface of the glass, instead of seeing himself, he saw a tan girl, coated in dried blood, her face swollen and her hair matted. But, Percy could make out those unmistakeable, kaleidoscope eyes. "Piper!" Percy exclaimed, tears appearing in his eyes. Annabeth let out a strangled cry, moving swiftly to his side to peer into the mirror.

Piper's eyes softly blinked, blurry and confused. "Piper, can you hear me?" Annabeth asked, her voice strangled and watery sounding. Leo was staring dumbly, clearly in shock. He obviously hasn't known of the mirror's mystical quality.

Piper looked around for a moment, and when her eyes landed on them, recognition flickered in those multi-colored depths. Her eyes lit up only slightly, but still had that dull look. "A-Annabeth?" She asked, her voice scratchy and dry. She licked her flakey lips, trying to moisturizer them.

"Yes, it's me," Annabeth said through her sobs, taking every little bit of her broken appearance in.

"Piper, do you know where you are? Are there an definitive land marks where you are?" Percy asked, anxious to find out where they are.

If this is how Piper looked, how bad was his baby sister?

"No... Wait, yes... I think we might be close to Rome. I woke up in the middle of the flight, and the sun was setting... We were headed west, towards the sun... The- the people were all masked. We were dangling from the pegasi in nets... Everything was happening so fast..." Piper struggled out, gasping for breath.

Piper's whole body felt as if it was on fire, every nerve ending suffering from excruciating amounts of pain. Piper wished she was dead. But the part of her that still possessed self-preservation was thankful, knowing that once you stopped feeling the pain is when you're close to death.

"Okay, Piper. We're coming after you. We'll save you," Annabeth said, breathing through her tears. Percy watched the curly blonde, trying to decide if she was just saying that or if she really believed it. The girl's grey eyes never wavered, pure confidence in her eyes even though they watered.

The others stood behind them, crying, uncertain, trying to look around them to see the mirror- to see their friend.

Piper smiled- the first time her facials had been graced with anything besides a grimace, a frown, or something far angrier since her capture- and Annabeth couldn't help but think she looked beautiful even though she was bruised and battered.

Then, something much darker took hold of Annabeth's heart and soul, vowing for vengeance against those who had wronged the people she loved. It wasn't a raging fire inside of her, threatening to burn out her insides if she didn't quench her thirst for revenge. No, it was something much, much worse.

It was a slow, methodical anger that wouldn't allow her to rest until she'd hunted every single one of those sons of bitches down; it wouldn't allow for mistakes like a blinding rage would. This was a cool, concentrated rage that wouldn't waste her energy. But it was also a ticking time bomb, and it would would only explode when the culprits were in her grasp, surprising anyone surrounding her.

This was the calm before the storm, and the storm would only be unleashed when she unleashed it upon them.

"We're going to rescue you." Annabeth stated as a fact.

Just then, a crash was heard from somewhere in the room Piper was in, and her eyes darted to wherever it came from, flashing with fear. The image began to waver like a pond disturbed by a rock, and just like that, she was gone, leaving only Annabeth crying out for Piper while her other friends trying to hold her together.

But what could you say to a girl who was slowly losing her best friend?