Gracie Jackson

~ Part 25 ~

Inside the cave definitely didn't seem homie. There were old art supplies and ripped purple curtains everywhere. I took off my Yankee's Cap and switched on a flashlight.

"Only you would think to bring a flashlight Blondie." I rolled my eyes and scowled at Connor. I headed deeper into the cave, much much deeper. After wondering for what felt like hours we ran into a split in the cave.

"What do we do?" I had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next.

"I'll go one way, you two go the other." Me and Connor both stared at Jasper as if he was crazy.

"What? No!" Connor shook his head. "Dude there is no way we are splitting up."

"I sense Nature nearby, I'll be able to hold my own down in this cave." He didn't even say goodbye. I guess that was just him being hopeful that he would make it back. So me and Connor trudged through the darkness together. I reached over and grabbed his hand. Together we made our way to an open chasm where voices were speaking to one another.

"They are getting closer my lord." The first voice was Jack's, deep and manly.

"I can stop them sir." This next voice was Rose, her and Jack were back to being controlled by the Eidolons. Connor grabbed me and pulled me behind a rock with him.

"The boy won't be easy to defeat, the girl, well she's a girl we all know they are easily subdued." The third voice spoke.

"Is that why I'm stuck in this extra perky teenager's body?"

"Silence!" The third raised a blade in the air and my eyes went wide. It was Nico but that's not what shocked me. The blade he was holding was the blade given to my mother a long long time ago by Luke Castellon. My parents said that the blade got lost in Tartarus when they got sucked in, how did the Eidolons have it? "They are here!" I was so distracted by the blade that I didn't even realize Rose and Jack were slowly creeping towards us. Connor and I turned to look at eachother and our noses were touching. I threw my invisible cap on him and made my fingers run on my hand, signalling him to run. I jumped out from behind the rock and Rose jumped.

"I've found her master!" She slashed at me with her blade and my right arm started to bleed. I pressed my ring and hit Rose's helmet with the hilt of my sword, causing her to lose balance. While she was distracted I ran after Nico. To my left it looked like Jack was fighting an invisible monster. Connor was doing his part. Nico came at me. Calling skeleton warrior after skeleton warrior to his defense. I thought I was good at fighting but this experience really made me realize that I wasn't good enough. Connor was visible now, trying to distract some of the skeletons from attacking me. I was being thrashed around like a ragdoll, I had cuts all over my body and felt thousands of bruises starting to form. I couldn't take it. Connor was pushing some of the skeletons off of me with the wind, but it was useless. Suddenly I had an idea.

"Connor! Create a tornado!" He didn't hesitate, in no time a giant tornado was sucking up skeleton after skeleton. It was my turn to thrash them around, I felt a tug in my gut and raised my hands, sending water circling into the wind and ripping the skeletons to pieces. This normally wouldn't take much out of me but I was already so exhausted that using manipulating water sure didn't help. Connor fell to his knees and had to take a second, I didn't have a second. I broke into song once again and Connor looked at me, shocked. I didn't know what I was singing, the lyrics were being made up as I went. I basically just let out all of my emotions into this song. Nico covered his ears and his face went pale.

"Gracie! Help!" The real Nico was starting to peek through, fighting to take control again. I kept singing and put more power into my words. Nico threw my mother's old dagger at me and Connor changed its course. It fell directly into my hand and I realized what I had to do.

"Connor, don't hate me! I promise I'm trying to help!" He tilted his head and I stabbed Nico in the gut.

The cut was deep enough to draw blood but not deep enough to cause serious damage. Steam curled from Nico's mouth and his eyes flashed gold then went back to their normal dark and gloomy color. I ran over to Jack and Rose and did the same thing.

"Gracie," I looked over at Connor and realized he was staring at me. "Are you feeling alright?" I looked down and was soaked with blood. I was so numb I couldn't even feel the pain.

"We can't worry about that now, we need to get them help. I grabbed Rose and Connor grabbed Nico, we dragged Jack in between us. We managed to make it back out of the cave in one piece which was a miracle considering we didn't have the flashlight anymore. Jasper was waiting for us outside.