Revealed

Chapter 23 (Frank)

"The chained goddess two are to free, while fate befouls the other three," Annabeth muttered with a sharp intake of breath. Her voice was so soft I doubt she realized she said it out loud. Nobody else but me heard it. 

"What do we do now?" Percy asked. He tried one more time to slice through the chains, but it did not even dent them. 

Sacrifice. My thoughts immediately went to my firewood. I know that the curse is gone, that I don't have to worry about it anymore, but this situation felt eerily like what happened in Alaska.

"We need to do something, but what?" Piper rephrased Percy's question. Annabeth looked like her mind was racing at the speed of light, and being a daughter of Athena, maybe it was. She frowned a little, and her expression suddenly became deadly.

"We split up. We have to take the chance. I hate to say this, but we can't avoid the prophecy and the best we can hope is that it all works out somehow, with minimal damages," Annabeth said. 

"What do you mean?" Thalia asked. Annabeth gave her a sad look. 

"The prophecy. The chained goddess, two are to free, while fate befouls the other three. Two of us will be able to free her while something bad may happen to the other three."

"I don't think it would be too bad, won't it? And what about an actual plan?" 

"Simple. We ask the goddess," Annabeth replied. she approached the still form of Hecate who appeared to still be sleeping. Annabeth took out a small square of ambrosia from her pouch and put in inside Hecate's mouth. After a few seconds, the goddess' eyes opened. 

Before the goddess could speak, gunfire started ringing outside. The descendants ran out, firing at whoever came back for her. Maybe the government soldiers are back.

"Frank, Piper, come on, let's show these soldiers what demigods are made of," Thalia said, her eyes flashing dangerously. Her spear and shield were already out, the spear crackling with electricity. Piper drew katoptris and I followed them, shapeshifting into a dragon.

The men who attacked were still shooting, but the descendants were providing us some cover fire. I roared once to warn them and charged, breathing fire as I ran. Piper lowered Katoptris and started charmspeaking them to drop their weapons, but it seemed like they couldn't hear her and continued shooting at me. Luckily, my scales were bulletproof. 

Thalia was probably disappointed that no one was paying attention to her so she yelled at them to come and get her, lightning striking her spear and ricocheting off to hit the ground in front of the soldiers. They stopped and looked at her. Bad Idea. A giant dragon smashed into their ranks, scattering them as they ran for cover, others flying off after being hit by the tackle. 

Soon enough, a pile of unconscious soldiers filled the area near the entrance of the warehouse. as we recovered from the fight and tended to the wounded, Percy ran out. 

"Annabeth wants to say something. Hecate talked to us," He said before running back in. We followed him in a hurry, eager to hear what she would say. As we entered, I saw the goddess looking tired but wide awake, but still tied to the chair. Her head snapped to our direction. 

"Demigods," she said. Her voice was calm yet powerful. Not all of you can help me. Only the daughter of Zeus and the son of Poseidon can. These chains need a sacrifice, but as all magic, there are loopholes. It seems the daughter of Athena is close to it," 

"I got it!" Annabeth cheered. "The sacrifice these chains need is pain, right? Not necessarily death. But not a few drops of blood either, actual pain. And you say you need Percy and Thalia to do it because water plus electricity... No! Percy, do not do this!" 

"We need to free the goddess," Thalia said. "If this is what it needs, then we will give it to the chains,"

"You're just saying that because you won't be the one to get hurt," Annabeth pointed out.

"And I'd like to see Seaweed Brain here fried even just a bit," 

"I still don't know what's going on here," Percy said. That's when I realized what Annabeth had already thought and what Thalia was proposing.

"They're saying you summon water and hold on to the chains with it while Thalia electrocutes you," I told Percy.

"Hey! don't I get a say in this?" He snapped.

"That's what I was saying!" Annabeth retorted. "Don't do this!"

"But I want to, we need to free the goddess," Percy said. He turned to Thalia. "Let's do this," he said.

A/N: Too many stuff going on but here's the promised chapter even though it's late!

Thank you for reading!

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