Alex Rider: Luck of the Goddess

Something Bigger

If it wasn't for the IM, Chiara would have called...

Well that was the thing, Chiara didn't know who she was going to call. He hadn't really talked about his home life very much. Even then the brief moments he did talk about it, it was like he was reminiscing about better times.

She knew his Uncle took care of him, then he died, and he lived with housekeeper. She knew he was smart, resourceful, nice, and British.

She knew he knew several different fighting styles.

By accident she knew he had been shot.

There were burn marks along his neck.

Alex Rider wasn't telling anyone anything.

Annabeth had asked Chiara once if she knew anything about Alex Rider. The lack of information that Chiara could share shocked her. She was his sister after all.

Chiara had made sure Alex had promised to stay in contact with her, but then his face appeared one evening as she was heading to dinner.

"Alex, what are you," but Chiara stopped short when she saw his face. He looked like he fought a war and lost. His eyes were sunken in, and he looked like he hadn't slept in days.

"Alex, are you okay?"

Alex let out a heart wrenching sigh. "I'm not going to be able to come back to camp in a while. Things happened and I'm going to live in America now, but it's..."

"Alex, do you need help?" Chiara wanted to cry. Alex looked so... pitiful.

Whatever happened had shaken him up badly. He looked almost as bad as when someone close to a person died... oh. There was only one person Chiara had ever heard of being close to Alex Rider, and if they were gone.

Alex shook his head.

"This isn't something you can fix. I don't think I could live with myself if I tried to hide from this. Just... don't try to contact me, if it was at the wrong time... it's complicated.

"Bye Chiara."

"Alex, wait..." but it was too late. Alex had swept his hand through the connection, and his gaunt face faded into nothing.

Chiara went to talk with Annabeth afterward. This wasn't something she just couldn't talk about. Annabeth, even if she was a little distracted, listened carefully.

"Did he seem injured, was he out of breath, was he looking over his shoulder?"

"I don't think so... for all of the above."

"Then I don't think it involved his demigod life, the way he phrased things, I think it has to be really personal."

"But that's the thing, I want to help, but I don't know anything about what's going on."

"Chiara, if he didn't talk to you about it before, I don't think he wants to get you involved. If there's anything I know about Alex Rider, it's that he's not someone to give up easily. I don't know what to tell you. Just wait. Chiara, know that Alex hasn't been completely honest with anyone. Maybe after Percy..."

"Something big is going on."

Annabeth sighed.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

Alex did not expect the scorpions. Sure, Egypt is full of them, but these were several meters long, not including the wall, which was sticking out much taller than Alex.

Alex had taken one step into the complex, his heart and head a mess, when the ground started shaking and the sand began compiling. Alex had a sinking feeling that this had nothing to do Razim and that his demigod life was more clingy than he realized.

One out of two isn't bad.

The whispering started as Alex drew the dagger out of his sleeve, and ducked behind the rubble of a blown apart wall.

"You cannot escape Alex Rider."

The voice, ancient, powerful, and old hurt his head.

He held his breath. He weighed his options of trying to catch a glance of the creature or stay put.

"Come out, come out, little spy."

Alex almost dropped his dagger.

Monsters didn't know, they couldn't, but this one did.

"Oh yes," the voice said. "I know who you are, and you know who I am. I am the essence, the core, the monster..."

Alex didn't wait for the voice to finish crescendoing. The voice seemed to come from everywhere, but the unmistakable sound of steps on sand did not.

He had waited until the steps came from slightly to the right of the wall, and he vaulted over the wall with his dagger drawn, and pounced ready to strike. He in fact, did not count for the length of the creature, and when he saw what it was Alex nearly fell off, but thankfully his instincts drove him to land on the scorpions back, driving the dagger into a crook in the shell, the stinger arching high above him. He didn't want to tag along, so he pulled out his dagger, slid off the creature, and ran.

The creature reared up. Anger radiating off. Alex didn't glance behind him, but he didn't need to in order to hear the rapid pace of the creature behind him, again he miscalculated.

Alex's survival instinct kicked in. He didn't flee, he fought. With a speed only demigod reflexes provided he turned and baseball slide underneath the charging creature, his dagger poised to open his stomach. That again, didn't go as planned. The creature had prepared for it even. The claw came up just as Alex almost passed underneath. In less than a second, the scorpion's claw clamped firmly on his shoulder. His cry of pain echoed throughout the fort.

It all happened within the blink of an eye.

That's why the boy on the pegasus in the air almost missed it, but it was fortunate that he didn't.

Alex only lay prone on the ground. His brain a muddle of emotions. Death was not on his mind. It was too preoccupied with something else.

"Do..." this time the creature's monologue was again cut short. Only this time it was the arrow protruding from the already exposed crook Alex had stabbed.

The creature didn't waste anytime dissolving into dust.

Alex only whipped the pile of his face before calling up, "you could have done that five seconds ago!

Simon soared down on a pegasus the color of the sand. "If I had done it five seconds ago, you wouldn't have been epic-ly saved."

"If you had done five seconds ago, I wouldn't need to be saved."

"Touche, but since I saved your life, I think I win this battle."

"I don't think that's particularly fair. Don't you have the pegasus?"

"Pfff, Sandy here is a big wimp, that's why he hides from monsters in Cairo."

"Sandy?" Alex said accepting Simon's hand up.

"He's the only pegasus in Egypt, what do think I should call him."

"Well..."

"Actually, I don't want to know. You'll probably come up with something really cool, and then I'll have to rename him."

When Alex opened his mouth to respond, Simon shoved a block of ambrosia in it.

"Eat up, we've got some investigation to do."

Alex could agree more, but things were a little more weary now. If Scorpia was involved, if the Scorpia, as Alex deduced, was involved, what was really going on, and what did Jack have to with any of it.

Alex finished eating his square, his shoulder no longer a stinging pain, but reduced to a dull throb.

Something big was going on, and Alex was afraid.

I wish you all the luck in the world,

Me