The Forgotten Heroes || PJO

T H I R T Y - S E V E N : P

--- Kat ---

I STARED AROUND THE DARK, EMPTY SPACE, THINKING of what Order had just told me in a dream: Do not break. Help is on the way. Not long now.

I breathed out loudly, reminding myself that my ears still worked. I had been in here for days, keeping quiet, protecting Order.

Chaos had caught up to me when I'd stopped at one of the planted that had been left in ruins because of him. I'd performed a ritual to get rid of his blessing, and just as I was about to leave, I'd found myself surrounded. He'd thrown me in a cage, that masked all magic - except dream messages. Order had been visiting me in dreams, keeping me sane. Her latest message had been fuzzy and short, but the message was comforting nonetheless. Not long now.

I looked up in confusion as the door screeched open. I had already had a session with Chaos today, and I shouldn't be getting any food for a few more hours.

"Are you sure this is the right one?" Someone said.

"More sure than you. We opened three other cages with you guessing," a deeper voice replied indignantly. I frowned. These weren't Chaos servants.

"Well, we could just free everyone in this section. It'd be a great distraction, and they'd be grateful. I doubt any of them are here for good reason anyway," the first voice said in a tone filled with offense.

"That's not our mission." the second voice hissed. "We have to rescue the girl Order chose as inheritor, not free all of Chaos's prisoners. Some of them are truly dangerous and it's a good thing they're locked away."

All the while, they'd been slowly opening the door, trying to be quiet.

I crawled over to them and coughed to let them know I was there. They looked at me, and I at them.

One was short and thin, wearing the black armor of Chaos. It must have been haphazardly fastened though because the helmet was missing, as well as the red mark that showed rank. It was also far too big.

The second was tall and muscular, wearing ripped up clothes, and had the likeness of handcuffs secured around one wrist.

Neither one was human though - the tall one had pastel green skin, a very round head, a long neck and long white hair. Sticking out of his hair were long white horns, like a gazelle, also white. His eyes were big and bright, and brown, shining with youth, and excitement, and innocence.

The short one had purple skin, bright and bold. He had no hair, and his head was shaped like a square. His eyes were red and sunken, but bright with energy. He grinned at me, revealing blunt teeth.

"You're the one!" He said in the deep voice. He offered me a hand, with seven fingers and pointed fingernails. I took it cautiously. "My name's Maniee. This is Argen-Theos. We've been sent by Order to rescue you!"

"I... Thank you." My throat was raw and dry from lack of water, and my eyes hurt from the constant darkness. Maniee nodded at me and helped me to stand.

Just then a voice shouted, "YOU THERE!" The three of us looked in the direction of the voice and found ourselves facing a real guard - a real pissed off guard. "Where's your helmet and rank?" He asked, looking at Maniee. The guard stepped closer, towering over Maniee and myself, as I was still too weak to stand. "We have a breach in security, we all have to be dressed properly, otherwise you'll be mistaken as the breach," I started to wonder how stupid this guard was, but then he pushed Maniee and Argen-Theos into my cell and slammed the door on us. "Which you are." I realized, he'd used our disguise against us - tricked us into thinking he was stupid when he was actually very clever.

The guard grinned at us, and sharp teeth glinted through the darkness, the rest of his face hidden by his helmet. He closed the hatch in the middle of the door, and we were plunged into absolute darkness and silence once more. Only it wasn't silent anymore - there were two others in the cell with me now, and they were breathing rather loudly.

"Well..." Maniee started.

"It wasn't the plan, but it works too," Argen-Theos said.

"Especially because I still have the keys," Maniee grunted. I heard the jingle of keys on a ring and smiled. "Let's get out of here."

"Wait." It hurt to talk, but I had to be heard. "We can't go now."

"Why not?" Maniee asked, pausing in his movements.

"The guard is clever. He'll be watching us closely now. Plus, I'm too weak to be of any use, I'd only slow us down when we have to run - and we will have to."

"Order gave us something for that - I thought that might be the case," Argen-Theos spoke in a soft voice, and I realized that he was not a warrior. If anything, he was a healer and wasn't used to going on missions. He rustled in his bag for a moment, and then pulled out a glass vial, with glowing red liquid inside. "It will restore your health for an hour, it's not a permanent fix. It's best if you take it with food though."

I took the vial and examined it. "Our best bet is to go when they change guards," I muttered. "They'll shove some food in here, as it happens. Once they're done shoving food in the rest of the doors in this wing, we can go. Argen-Theos said something about releasing everyone in this area, and it's a good idea. None of the people in this hallway deserve to be here. We should free them all, I'm sure they'd be grateful, and they'd need a place to hide. Could Order offer them that?"

There was a moment of silence and then Maniee answered me; "Order would gladly take them all in."

"Fantastic. How much of this potion do I need to drink for it to work? The rest of them will be in a similar state as me."

"Just a drop should last long enough to get back to the ship," Argen-Theos muttered. "There's only ten cells in this block, we could fit them all on the ship. What do you think Maniee?"

"It's definitely doable," Maniee sounded confused, and I understood why a moment later. "Are you sure you want to do this girl?"

"Of course I'm sure," I said immediately. "None of them deserve imprisonment, why wouldn't I be sure?"

I heard Maniee mutter something that sounded like 'right choice'.

"This will work for everyone here, right?" I asked.

"They're all humanoids, so yes," Argen-Theos replied. I thought I could hear the smile in his voice. "I have some cups in here, we can split it into ten for all of them. Eat the food they bring, then drink the potion."

"Ok. I'll unlock all the cells, and Argen-Theos can give them the potion, and tell them to go to Maniee who'll be keeping a look-out and lead us all to the ship. Sound like a plan?"

Maniee disagreed. "Argen-Theos can unlock all the doors, and I'll ditch the Chaos gear and keep look out," he said. "They've been held captive by strange looking alien creatures for who knows how long. They should be told to drink a strange potion by someone who looks more like them. More likely to do it."

I considered this for a moment and realized he was right. Very few of Chaos's army came from a planet with humanoid creatures. He went for looks scary rather than smart or battle-experienced. The guards definitely looked like scary aliens to them, and they might not trust what Maniee and Argen-Theos said, despite how nicely the spoke. "Ok." I nodded, before realizing they couldn't see me. 'Yes, you're right. I'll give them the potion."

"I'll lead you all to the ship once everyone is free." Maniee decided. "Argen-Theos will follow behind everyone. The ship's not too far."

"Ok. We have a plan." I agreed. "Got a way to divide the potion into ten?"

Argen-Theos pulled out some cups made of who knows what and took the vial. He split the potion into nine cups and handed what was left in the vial back to me. I eyes the cups and the vial then turned to the door with a sigh.

"And now, we wait."

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