United As The Ten- Part One Of The Conclusion To The United Series

Chapter One

Percy's POV:

I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.

Max is gone, blown away by the explosion. It worked really well. It killed all but a few of the Mogadorians and the rest were killed by the gunfire from us.

Max isn't dead, thankfully. If she was dead the Garde would've gotten scars on their ankles, but nothing happened.

The worst part is, we have no way of finding her. The Garde-tracking tablet was shot by a bullet and it's broken beyond repair. Malcolm Goode, Conrad, and Sandor are still working desperately with it, though. Max is one of the best people ever, no one wants to lose her. Even Calypso seems upset by Max being gone. She explained to us the conversation she and Max had in the room and now everyone seems to miss Max even more.

And Leo. Gods, Leo must be feeling the worst. He just started dating Max and now she's gone. She's my sister- my loyal, amazing little sister- and now I don't have the slightest chance of ever seeing her again. It's been a whole month since the explosion and I'm about ready to crumble.

Tears start to form at the edges of my eyes. Max risked her life to save us and while she's not dead, but she's still gone. Why did I let her go on that roof? Why did I not use the water from the lake to pull her back from the explosion?

The explosion. It was the biggest one I've ever seen. It blew Max away and even took down a bunch of buildings around it. It was even bigger than the one Leo and Octavian made after shooting a cannon and Leo's fire at Gaea. I'm surprised Max didn't die from it.

I wipe away a tear rolling down my cheek and look around the penthouse. The explosion did some damage to the building but we fixed it up pretty quickly. I scan the living room where there are still hundreds of bullet holes in the walls and furniture and spot Leo standing alone in the corner, fiddling with something in his hand. I squint to see what he's holding and realize that it's a sapphire. Max's sapphire, the one her mother gave her before she left her home planet, Lorien. It must've fell from Max's pocket when she got blown away. I take another look at Leo and can tell that he's obviously been crying. His eyes are red and puffy, his hair even messier than usual and he's breathing really shakily. I get to my feet, abandoning my seat on the couch next to Annabeth, and walk up to Leo. When I stop in front of him, he looks up at me, looking more depressed than I've ever seen him.

"Hey, Percy," Leo says bluntly, looking down again. We're both silent for a few moments, staring silently at the sapphire in Leo's hand.

"We have to look for her," Leo whispers to me, rubbing his finger over the smooth surface of the gem. I'm honestly surprised nothing happened to it during the explosion.

"I know, but she can be anywhere, it'd take years..." I start, trailing off as I realize that's true. We have no chance of finding Max without the tablet.

"I don't care. I'm going to look for her. You don't have to come with me,"Leo replies bravely, shoving the sapphire in his tool belt. There's no way he's going to find her, but I'm not going to stop him from looking. I might as well help, too. She is my sister, after all.

"No, I'm coming," I confirm then turn to the room full of demigods, Garde, Cêpans, humans, and Mogadorians mourning the loss of Max.

"Annabeth said that a quest usually holds three people. Who else are we going to bring?" Leo asks, looking around the room with me. We need someone who really loves Max, not someone who's willing to go on a quest just for the heck of it.

I walk to the center of the living room, where there's a big coffee table surrounded by the white couches a few people are sitting on. I stand on the coffee table and clear my throat. Barely anyone is talking so everyone hears me and gives me their full attention.

"Leo and I are going to look for Max, and we need one more person to come with us. Who else is coming?" I ask them, waiting for the sea of complaints that comes not a second after.

"I'm her Cêpan!"

"I'm her friend!"

"I took care of her on the ship!"

There are hundreds more, each person yelling to us why they should come with us. We can barely hear anyone. It's honestly the loudest the penthouse has been since the explosion. Leo and I glance at each other but everyone goes silent where there's a BANG of a gun going off. We all jump up and turn to face where it came from to see Reyna pointing a pistol at the ceiling. She sighs, lowers the gun, and looks at me. "Enough complaining. I'll go," Reyna says.

I purse my lips. Reyna should actually go, she and Max are really close to each other, even closer than Max and Six or Max and Annabeth. Plus, Reyna's a natural-born leader, a great fighter, and she's really smart. We can definitely use a person like her on this quest.

"Okay, let's get ready," I tell Reyna who nods her head and rushes to her room on the 99th floor to start packing for the quest. Other people look slightly disappointed, which is when I think of something- one quest consists of three people, but what if we had more than one quest going on at the same time?

"Wait, what if more than three people go out to find Max?" I ask everyone and Annabeth shakes her head at my idea.

"Percy, a quest should only hold three peo-" She starts but I cut her off. She hasn't heard my full idea yet.

"Yeah, but what if more than one quest was going on but for the same mission?" I ask her. Annabeth thinks this over then nods her head.

"I guess that can work..." she replies, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Great. Then more people can look for her, but not everyone. We still need people here just in case more Mogs decide to visit," I inform everyone.

So I start up pairs of three people to look in certain places. Max might've been blown away somewhere far or traveled somewhere farther. Maybe she landed fairly close or was captured by the Mogs, but who knows? She's a Garde and a demigod, anything could've happened to her.

I create four other teams- Annabeth, Hazel, and Piper, One, Conrad, and Clarisse, Calypso, John (those two surprisingly), and Nine, and Eight, Marina, and Six. Everyone else stays back to take care of the penthouse, just in case the Mogs decide to visit again. But after that complete fail, I have a feeling Setrákus Ra's going to take awhile to piece his army back together before attacking again.

We all pack our things- clothes, ambrosia/nectar, food, weapons, and other supplies- and follow Nine into the garage which holds a bunch of different cars for us to use to go around the country in search for Max. Leo, Reyna, and I, though, are going to use the Argo ll, which Cabin 9 rebuilt after the defeat of Gaea. I know, a big ship for only three people, but Leo is really determined to find Max. He'll do anything to get her back again, and so will Reyna and I.

After everyone has exchanged their goodbyes, the teams all separate, going to different parts of the world to find Max.

We're going to find her.

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Authors Note: Hewwo :3 I hope you enjoyed chapter one of 'United As The Ten'! I'll be publishing as much as I can (though I'm not sure if I'm going to be publishing chapters separately or all at once like the last book). I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Years! It's 2018! WHOOOOO! \(^O^)/

Anyways, I really hope you enjoyed! Yours in all demigodness and all that. Peace out!