SANITY; heroes of olympus

04.11

"There!" Nico's voice shook Zara out of her thoughts. As usual, the younger was perched atop the foremast. He pointed toward a glittering green river snaking through the hills a kilometre away. "Manoeuvre us that way. We're close to the temple. Very close."

As if to prove his point, black lightning ripped through the sky, leaving dark spots before Zara's eyes and making the hairs on her arms stand up. She could feel a small pull in her gut, like she was being tugged towards their destination, and she knew it had to do with her relation to the god of the Underworld. Even though she was technically related to Pluto, there was still a general connection to Hades in her blood.

Jason strapped on his sword belt. "Everyone, arm yourself. Leo, get us close, but don't land—no more contact with the ground than necessary. Piper, Hazel, get the mooring ropes."

"On it!" Piper said.

Hazel gave Frank a peck on the cheek and ran to help.

"Frank," Jason called, "get below and find Coach Hedge."

"Yep!"

As Frank went to find Coach Hedge and as Piper and Hazel completed their task, Zara wandered over to where Annabeth and Percy stood with Jason. The three looked deep in thought, most likely trying to make a plan for what would be happening in the next few hours. She noticed Donnie wasn't there and looked around for him. He must have gone to help Frank or something. He had been even more on edge the last several hours as they neared Epirus, no doubt because he was getting closer to reuniting with his twin, the anticipation growing more and more.

"Hey." Zara said as she sidled next to Percy. His brows were furrowed, and his hair hung over his forehead in messy curls. She asked, "What's wrong?"

Annabeth shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest after she pushed her ponytail over her shoulder. "Just trying to make sure we have some semblance of a plan in place. I don't think it's smart for us to go wandering into the House of Hades without trying to at least anticipate what might happen." She looked between the three. "We need a plan, something to go off of."

Percy shook his head, looking like he...disapproved. "We have no idea what we're walking into. How are we supposed to plan for that?"

The daughter of Athena sighed angrily. "By thinking of the possibilities rationally, using the information we already have."

"Yeah, well—"

"Guys," Jason said, pulling the attention to himself. He was trying to dissolve the tension. "Maybe you're both right, okay? Percy, we don't know what's going to happen, but Annabeth, we do need to prepare ourselves." He angled his body towards the island that they were approaching cautiously. "We don't know what all is going to be in there, but we do know that the Doors of Death are there, which means monsters and Andy. We know that we're going to have to fight our way in, and maybe fight our way out."

Zara added, "And we don't know what condition Andy is going to be in. She's been down there alone, fighting. She could be really hurt, probably scared and exhausted."

The silence between the four demigods was stark and painful. They all knew Zara was right; Andy's condition was unknown. They didn't know the extent of any injuries she most likely had or if she was even going to be conscious when they got her out. All they knew was that she had been in Tartarus for however many days and was bound to be on the brink of collapse.

"Hey, guys!" Piper called from the bow as Frank, Donnie, and Coach Hedge came up on the deck. "Better get over here. You need to see this."

They'd found the source of the dark lightning.