Prisoners of HYDRA

3.

"Why is he gone again? Why? Why does this keep happening to me?" I paced back and forth angrily, trying to come up with a plan of action. Everything that I'd come up with before had failed when we'd done it. This was Plan #301. I was getting a little desperate.

"Look, Annie, you just have to keep trying," Thalia said comfortingly. "For all you know, Percy could be being tortured by monsters or even Kronos right now. If you give up, he could get seriously hurt."

"Okay, first thing- Don't call me Annie," I snapped. "Second, you're not helping with that. I will never give up. Ever."

She put her hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay."

I sat down hard on my cabin bed and put my head in my hands. I felt so hopeless. We'd finally gotten to be free. Free of quests and prophecies and people trying to kill us. Sure, we'd had nightmares from our travels in Tartarus, but we'd been together. And then he'd disappeared, and I was alone again.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," Thalia said, and suddenly I felt her arms wrap around me in an awkward hug. "Look, I get it. But we'll find him, don't worry."

"How?" I tried not to let the waver in my voice show too much, but I could tell that Thalia noticed.

She sighed. "I-I don't know. My hunters and I have been searching everywhere. We've asked every possible person we've ever come across. The gods won't answer, and Apollo's disappeared. I know it wasn't Hera though, because she looked genuinely worried that he was missing. Probably because she wanted to use him as a pawn in the future. There's no sign of him anywhere."

I took a deep breath and straightened. I was going to be alright. I couldn't show any weakness, I had to find him. Giving up was not an option. "How's Grover doing?"

Thalia bit her lip. "Not well. He keeps forgetting things, having nightmares at night and he'll burst into tears randomly for no reason."

My short burst of strength and motivation left me. "So that means..."

"Something bad's definitely happening here." Thalia's voice was grim.

"Annabeth!" a voice interrupted. It was Piper. Her eyes were wide and panicked, her chest rising and falling quickly as she gasped for air. "Come... quickly!"

I exchanged a worried look with Thalia and hurried after her. "What happened?"

"It's... it's... Grover!" Piper said between pants. "He- it's not good."

I felt dread fill me and pushed myself to go even faster. I couldn't lose Grover, too. I just couldn't.

As we got closer to the infirmary, I could hear screams fill the air.

We hurried inside, and Piper lead me to Grover. He was writhing in his bed, screaming and bleating. Tears slipped down his cheeks. "St-stop!" Grover cried out. "Please, please st-st-st-stop!"

Juniper had her hands to her face and a torn look on her face, her eyes tinted green.

"What's... what's happening to him?" I asked, alarmed.

"We-we were in the strawberry fields, on a picnic. Suddenly, Grover told me that he'd reached contact with Percy again. He talked mentally with him for a little, and then... then he started screaming. He said that whatever they were doing to Percy was too strong for him to ignore, that it was worse than anything he'd ever felt. And then Grover couldn't talk anymore, the pain was too much. All he can do is scream and cry and- and I don't know what to do! Since it's an empathy link and actually isn't happening to Grover, Will can't heal him. We can't do anything."