The Worlds Collide (A Keeper of the Lost Cities and Percy Jackson Crossover)

Daggers and Danger

AN: I HAVE A SURPRISE!! AN EARLY CHAPTER! I have today off from school, so I wrote this. Don't worry, you will still get your update on Wednesday.

CHAPTER TEN

Sophie spent the next two days training hard, working with Percy and Annabeth.  Annabeth had decided that they couldn't completely rely on Sophie's abilities to protect them, so she took Sophie to the weapons shed.

    Sophie was expecting a huge storeroom filled with neat, labeled weapons, like a museum. What she got instead was a small, musty garden shed supported by the Athena cabin.  She stepped inside and saw piles of weapons stacked haphazardly on the floor and falling off rusty shelves.

    "Hmmmm."  Annabeth stepped over the weapons on the floor, grabbing a dagger from the floor, before tossing it over her shoulder.  It landed with a clang.  "No," she said.  "You don't want Katoptris."  Sophie just followed her as Annabeth dug carefully through the piles of weapons.

    Sophie asked a question that had been bothering her.  "They're going to search me." Annabeth nodded, distracted.  "They know one of my rings is a panic switch, and they know I have things on my necklace, like the limbium cure.  They also know I can punch them super hard with my Sucker Punch.  They will take all of those.  They will definitely take an exposed sword or dagger hanging on my hip." Annabeth stood up and dusted her shorts off.

    "You're right."  She walked over to a box on one of the shelve labeled Magical Weapons.  "Don't worry about Percy, his sword turn into a pen, and always returns to his pocket.  We should find something like that for you."  She frowned.  "Not a pocket, though.  Stupid women's clothes designers give none of our pants proper pockets." Sophie nodded emphatically.

    While Annabeth rifled through the box, Sophie said something she probably should have said when she first showed up here, at Camp Half-Blood.  She took a deep breath.  "Annabeth, I-"

    "Aha!  Annabeth held up a worn, faded friendship bracelet.  It looked like it may have once been blue and gold, but it had faded to blue-gray (AN: I keep writing grey, like how they spell it in England.  I'm American.)  and sparkly-brown, like alicorn poop.  Annabeth fiddled with the strings and frowned.

    "It's not working for me.  You try it."  Annabeth handed Sophie the bracelet.  Sophie had no idea how this would be any different from Annabeth doing it, but she pulled the strings and suddenly she was holding a dagger about 18 inches long with a gleaming bronze blade. 

Sophie knew that the Neverseen wouldn't take a friendship bracelet.  The elves only had tech, not magic.

Annabeth nodded in satisfaction.  "Perfect."

    Two days passed in a whirl of training, learning to use her dagger and strengthening her abilities.  Sophie knew the magical metal would work on the elves and ogres because Percy had accidentally scratched her with Riptide.  She had no chance to talk to Annabeth alone.  Then finally, on the night her plan was to be enacted, she walked to the Athena cabin during campfire.  She found Annabeth alone in the dark, illuminated only by the glowing screen of her laptop.

    She looked up when she heard Sophie enter.  "Why aren't you at campfire?" she asked.  Sophie shrugged uncomfortably.  In truth, all the campers looked at her with something akin to distrust in their eyes. 

They wondered why she was sleeping in the Big House, when she was so obviously healed.  They wondered why she was training with Percy Jackson, the greatest swordsman of the century and hero of Olympus.  Why would he take an interest in her, the new camper, the daughter of a minor goddess.

Sophie tried to tell herself that they were just jealous, but her brain refused to listen to her.  How much worse would they think of her when they believe the lie Annabeth will tell them?

Sophie took a deep breath.  "There is something I need to tell you."  She spilled the whole deal.  Her own abilities.  Her genetic manipulations.  Her mistakes.  Her doubts.

Her regrets.

Mr. Forkle.

She could have saved him, called out telepathically to Elwin.  But he was dead.

Kenric.

She could have pulled him from the fire and teleported.  She could have saved Oralie the heartache.  Maybe one day they would have resigned and gotten married.  But that future was gone.

Marella.

Sophie should have been a better friend.  She should have pulled her head out of her world of oblivion to ask her fried what was wrong.

Sandor.

Sure, he was fine now, but Sophie would never forget the pain she put him through.

Leaving.

She should have told them she was going.  She should have triggered the panic switch and called for Dex.  But she couldn't bring them into this mess.

This was all her fault.

She was the one to blame.

She poured her heart out to Annabeth as she had not since her telepathy manifested at the age of five.  When she was done, Sophie was sobbing, but felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Before leaving, she gave Annabeth her necklace, panic switch, Sucker Punch, and Cognate rings.  She couldn't allow the ogres to take those things from her.  She told Annabeth to press the panic switch if she wasn't back in two days with Percy.

As she headed out of the Athena cabin, passing all of the campers heading back from campfire, she sent out a telepathic call to the Neverseen.

Come for me in four hours.  I can't allow you to hurt them.

AN: Cliffhanger! And you only have to wait until Wednesday!

Don't be an invisible reader!

COMMENT - I love reading them (especially the funny ones), and if I made a mistake I love to know.

VOTE - Inflate my ego for me.