Falling for You

Annabeth: VI

Annabeth: VI

Annabeth reacted instinctively.

The ground still shaking, she ducked behind a rock in the stone courtyard, yanking down Piper with her. The others followed suit. Reyna's alert and questioning eyes met her own from where she was crouched behind her own rock, the same question that she herself wanted answering reflected within them- what was that? The Gods had backpedalled but remained standing, their weapons out warily. Annabeth peered around the top of the stone with narrowed eyes; a lot of dust had been kicked up, making it difficult to see. And with the sun almost down, the shadows softened the outlines of the figures before her. She could see the small ravine in the ground closing, but was unable to see whatever monster Gaia had undoubtedly released, due to Porphyrion's hulking form blocking her view.

"What happened?" Piper hissed, "What was that thing?"

"I don't know," Annabeth replied grimly, her crouch getting slightly taller as she prepared to look round again, the shaking coming to a slow stop, "Stay down."

With a deep breath and her dagger in hand, Annabeth stood up, still staying low, and caught a glance at the… figure?

It wasn't a monster; at least, she couldn't see anything straight away that could give it away as an empousa or a cyclops, though it could be covered in the Mist. She squinted and thought it almost looked as if it was in pain. It had hit one of the columns when it had been released, she guessed. It had a humanoid figure, some ragged shorts and a black mask obscuring most of its face. Over by a crumbled wall, she saw some Hunters of Artemis nock their arrows, half pointing at a smirking Porphyrion, half aimed at the filthy figure. Thalia had a strange frown on her face as she drew her own bow back.

And between the dusty flagstones and deep purple sky, she heard a muffled groan float up.

"About time!" Porphyrion spoke up, and Annabeth saw him gripping his spear tightly, "How nice of you to finally join the fun!"

The figure on the floor pulled itself into a kneeling position, still annoyingly out of Annabeth's view. Going slowly so as to not attract Porphyrion's attention, she slid over the fallen rock they had ducked behind and positioned herself behind a smaller side column. She could see Porphyrion's face now, focused squarely on the figure before him, eyes hungry and full of interest. This was Porphyrion's back-up plan? What could this thing do? It had one hand on the ground and looked as if it was struggling to get up- was this their secret weapon?

"Look at you." Porphyrion's voice took on a tone of spite, and he slowly walked over to the heavily-breathing form. "Somebody finally muzzled you. Like a vicious mutt. Blinded you too. This is just perfect."

He clapped his hands together in satisfaction.

"I told them to cut out your tongue," he continued, "but this will do too, I suppose. Unless it's missing under that mask, though I guess you can't really tell me either way."

Annabeth frowned, her eyes flicking from side to side as ideas peppered about her head. She saw the others climbing over the rocks, following her lead to get closer to the giant. Athena caught her eye from the back of the Acropolis, with a message Annabeth couldn't decipher in her gaze. Clarisse nodded to her from the other side of the quiet courtyard. They had Porphyrion surrounded and injured; so why didn't he seem to care?

There was a brief pause in everyone's positioning as the figure pulled itself up, bent over at the waist as it leaned on a rock. It was only then that Annabeth spotted the strap over its chest, a sword at its back. Oh. And another, at its waist. Two swords-