Sina Saves

Chapter 8: Capture the Flag

Will turned to Mia and started explaining her nectar doses. Nico and I made a silent agreement to wait for him. He finished, sighed and turned around. He looked at us like 'why are you still here' but took Nico's hand happily. We walked to the top of Half-Blood Hill and saw Percy.

He looked anxious, and his ADHD was shining. As we approached, he waved and tried for a smile. He was extremely agitated. "I really want to help, but I don't know how to. If there's anything I can help with, anything at all, please tell me," he rushed. For the first time, I walked up to Percy and hugged him. When I stepped back, he looked extremely confused.

I gripped his shoulder and said, "Thank you, Percy. It means a lot to me that you want to help so badly. I don't think you're going to like anything I'm about to say, but it's all we got." I explained everything to him, my hand not leaving his shoulder. He didn't like anything relating to the Mark of Athena.

Once I finished, he said, "You were right; I didn't like any of that. The only positive is you have some more things figured out. I think the best plan of action is to talk to Annabeth."

This time, she was sitting alone on a bed and seemed delighted to see us. Percy seemed to relax a bit at the sight of her. "I don't have too many more ideas. If it's like the Mark of Athena, you'll have no idea what's going on until you're there. All I can say is that you're a great fighter and apt to analyzing situations. You're instincts are good, and I'm sure you'll do alright," Annabeth said fiercely.

[Having Annabeth compliment me made my confidence rise a little, but I wasn't sure what would come of this. My anxiety went crazy from not knowing what the future held. I like having a plan. If I don't have a plan, I can't think things through as well, and if I don't think things through well, I'm more likely to mess up. If I mess up, I might die. If I die, Nico loses another sister, and if Nico loses another sister, he'll be very depressed. If Nico's depressed, Will's going to try to make him feel better. If Will can't make him feel better, he'll get depressed too. So if I don't have a plan, there's a larger possibility that Nico and Will both end up depressed because of me. This cycled through my brain over and over and over. Thanks, Anxiety.]

The connection was cut, and Percy said, "I'd love to stay and talk and play capture the flag, but I really want to spend time with my mom and sister as much as possible."

"No problem, Percy. If anything happens, we'll get ahold of you." He smiled and waved and started to walk away, but I couldn't let him. "Percy, thank you...for teaching me how to sword fight and sharing your mom with me and just making me happy." He seemed stunned. "Love you, Perce," I said with a shake of the head. He gasped and ran back to me and gave me another hug.

"I love you too, Sina," he told me. When he finally let go, he had tears brimming in his eyes.

"Alright, Alright. Go home to your mummy and sister," I told him.

Once he left, Nico made me talk to the Ares cabin about strategy. Again.

•••time skip because strategy meetings are boring•••

Finally, the damn meeting was over. I ran to the Iris cabin and got my hair changed back to blonde so I wouldn't confuse my teammates. I was really angsty. I wanted to win if this was gonna be the last time I played capture the flag before I left...or maybe the last time. I tried to ignore that when the games started.

I was ready to kick the Athena cabin's butt. Our flag was placed high in the tree so Meg and Mia stood with their backs against the tree in the high branches so they were out of sight but they could see everything else. I stood in the open so I looked alone. We each covered a third of the view around it, overlapping slightly.

After twenty uneventful minutes, something finally happened. I heard a rustling to the east, my left. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see branches moving. Mia started to move over to Meg, but I put one hand up to 'adjust my armor' which meant for her to wait. She started to mouth something and glared at me, but I looked away and shifted to my left slightly and pressed against the tree. I wasn't sure why I even wanted her to wait, but my instincts were usually right. I strained my right ear and heard a small noise to my right. The chances of it being a person were slim, but it was possible. I could sense something was alive there and it had a strong life force, life force like a human. I stepped back behind the tree to 'hide myself from view and use it for cover'. Mia was moving her eyes quickly from the east to me. I pointed my dagger behind me in a way that seemed semi-natural. She raised her eyebrows, and I tucked my hair behind my ear to say, "Yes, I heard something over there." She nodded and leaned in to Meg. She gestured behind me and to her own ear to explain. Meg nodded and clenched her jaw.

I kept my ears strained trying to hear behind me. I heard leaves rustling. I held my dagger up and squinted at the silver in the hilt and butt. I tried to make it look natural, but it was difficult. I couldn't see anything, but that wasn't saying much. I stood ready to fight someone from either direction. I held my breath, and when I finally exhaled, all hell broke loose. Two people I couldn't recognize jumped out from the east, Malcom Pace behind me. I tried to make myself seem startled and afraid.

I moved to my right, and Malcolm slipped slightly in the mud. Malcolm knew I could fight and was smart enough to know I could beat him plus his friends if he dropped his guard.

The others weren't children of Athena by far and looked at each other like we've got this in the bag. Unfortunately, I flicked my dagger, it transformed to a sword, and two girls jumped on them from the tree. "Nice and intimate," I teased Malcolm, but he wasn't shaken; he was determined. We'd still got him a little though. He knew his team was slightly outmatched now. I batted my eyelashes playfully and took a deep breath before we launched into a fight.

I kicked his side hard, but he barely stumbled. He was tough, sure, but that wouldn't save him. I had to fight like hell to get him down, but I did soon enough. He dropped to the ground, exhausted, out of breath, but with no broken bones. Considering how hard he was to get down, I didn't want to have to fight him again. "Sorry about this, Malcolm. You're too strong to be left like that." I stepped on his right hand until I heard a slight crack.

I turned to Mia, and she wasn't fairing too well. She probably shouldn't be playing anyways. I shadow traveled behind her opponent's back and kicked it. The girl wasn't expecting it and almost fell on her face. Mia hit the girl's head with her sword hilt. She dropped like a stone. Meg saw that Malcolm and the girl were down so she stopped playing nice and took her guy down. The Athena kids should have known we'd have a better strategy than the Ares cabin normally did. Sometimes they thought they were the only ones that had good ideas. [Eye roll.]

Mia and Meg climbed back up the tree. I looked over at Malcolm and all the little cuts from my dagger littering his arms and face. He had bruises from where I hit him with my sword. I felt bad. Breaking his hand may have been too much. I couldn't look at him any longer. He would be fine; I'd know if he was dying. I tried to focus on protecting the flag, but I couldn't do it. I knelt beside him and felt his hand. The break wasn't severe, probably just a hairline fracture. The sound might've been cartilage around his knuckle. It wasn't going to take long to heal.

I stood, and the seconds ticked away like there was a clock in my head until I heard an uproar of cheers and protests. I couldn't hear anything around me over the shouts. Will suddenly crashed out of the forest right beside me. He grabbed my shoulders and screamed, "We won!" Meg and Mia landed beside me. They put their arms up and started screaming. Will pulled me into a hug.

"Will, I... I don't like this. Too loud, overwhelming," I tried to explain. His expression changed, and he took my wrist. I was happy we won, but I didn't like all the noise or crowd. I saw Nico holding the flag, looking like he had no idea what to do. He ran over to us, and we retreated to the safety of the Hades cabin.