LOST IN THE CITADEL - Lil Nas X
0:37 ━❍━━━━━ 3:01
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"TELL ME WHEN IT'S OVER," Thalia said. Her eyes were shut tight. The statue was holding on to them so they couldn't fall, but still Thalia clutched his arm like it was the most important thing in the world.
"Everything's fine," Y/N promised.
"Are... are we very high?"
He looked down. Below, a range of snowy mountains zipped by. Y/N stretched out his foot and kicked snow off one of the peaks.
"Nah," he said. "Not that high."
"We are in the Sierras.'" Zoe yelled. She was hanging from the arms of the other statue, with Grover and Percy smushed together. "I have hunted here before. At this speed, we should be in San Francisco in a few hours."
"Hey, hey, Frisco!" Y/N's angel said. "Yo, Chuck! We could visit those guys at the Mechanics Monument again! They know how to party!"
"Oh, man," the other angel said. "I am so there!"
"You guys have visited San Francisco?" Y/N asked.
"We automatons gotta have some fun once in a while, right?" our statue said. "Those mechanics took us over to the de Young Museum and introduced us to these marble lady statues, see. And..."
"Hank!" the other statue Chuck cut in. "They're kids, man."
"Oh, right." Y/N swore the statue's bronze face turned red. "Back to flying."
They began to sped up. The mountains fell away into hills, and then they were zipping along over farmland and towns and highways.
Grover played his pipes to pass the time. Zoe got bored and started shooting arrows at random billboards. Every time she saw a Target department store she would peg the store's sign with a few bulls-eyes at a hundred miles an hour.
Thalia kept her eyes closed the whole way. She muttered to herself a lot, like she was praying.
"You did good back there," Y/N told her. "Zeus listened."
"Maybe," she said. "How did you get away from the skeletons in the generator room, anyway? You said they cornered you."
Y/N told her about the weird mortal girl, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, who seemed to be able to see right through the Mist.
"Some mortals are like that," Thalia said. "Nobody knows why."
"Well, the girl was annoying," Y/N said. "But I'm glad I didn't vaporize her. That would've been bad."
Thalia nodded. "Must be nice to be a regular mortal." She said that as if she'd given it a lot of thought.
.
.
.
"Where you guys want to land?" Hank asked, waking up Y/N from a nap.
He looked down and said, "Whoa."
It was beautiful. Of course, Y/N had seen San Francisco in pictures before, but never in real life. Kind of like a smaller, cleaner Manhattan, if Manhattan had been surrounded by green hills and fog. There was a huge bay and ships, islands and sailboats, and the Golden Gate Bridge sticking up out of the fog.
"There," Zoe suggested. "By the Embarcadero Building."
"Good thinking," Chuck said. "Me and Hank can blend in with the pigeons."
They all looked at him.
"Kidding," he said. "Sheesh, can't statues have a sense of humour?"
As it turned out, there wasn't much need to blend in. It was early morning and not many people were around. They freaked out a homeless guy on the ferry dock when they landed. He screamed when he saw Hank and Chuck and ran off yelling something about metal angels from Mars.
"Sooo..." Percy said, as the metal angels flew off. "What are we gunna do now?"
"The monster." Y/N said. "We need to find out what the monster is that Artemis was chasing."
"Okay, well. How are we supposed to do that." Thalia raised an eyebrow.
"Nereus," Grover said, looking at Percy. "Isn't that what Apollo told you to do? Find Nereus?"
"The old man of the sea," Percy remembered. "I'm supposed to find him and force him to tell us what he knows. But how do I find him?"
Zoe made a face. "Old Nereus, eh?"
"You know him?" Thalia asked.
"My mother was a sea goddess. Yes, I know him. Unfortunately, he is never very hard to find. Just follow the smell."
"What do you mean?" Y/N asked.
"Come," she said without enthusiasm. "I will show thee."
.
.
.
Percy had a bad feeling when they stopped at the Goodwill drop box. Five minutes later, Zoe had him outfitted in a ragged flannel shirt and jeans three sizes too big, bright red sneakers, and a floppy rainbow hat.
"Oh, yeah," Grover said, trying not to bust out laughing, "you look completely inconspicuous now."
Zoe nodded with satisfaction. "A typical male vagrant."
"Thanks a lot," Percy grumbled. "Why am I doing this again?"
"I told thee. To blend in."
She led the way back down to the waterfront. After a long time spent searching the docks, Zoe finally stopped in her tracks. She pointed down a pier where a bunch of homeless guys were huddled together in blankets, waiting for the soup kitchen to open for lunch.
"He will be down there somewhere," Zoe said. "He never travels very far from the water. He likes to sun himself during the day."
"How do I know which one is him?"
"Sneak up," she said. "Act homeless. You will know him. He will smell... different."
"Great." Percy mumbled. "And once I find him?"
"Grab him," she said. "And hold on. He will try anything to get rid of thee. Whatever he does, do not let go. Force him to tell thee about the monster."
"We've got your back," Thalia said. She picked something off the back of his shirt. "Eww. On second thought... I don't want your back. But we'll be rooting for you."
Grover gave him a big thumbs-up. Y/N just smirked, as if he was waiting for a show to start.
Percy grumbled as he trudged over towards the homeless people. He pulled his hat down and stumbled like he was about to pass out, which wasn't hard considering how tired he was.
Y/N and the others watched at Percy seemed to weave in and out of the homeless people, stopping every to seconds. All of a sudden, he seemed to stop at the end of the pier, a guy who looked about a million years old was passed out in a patch of sunlight. He wore pajamas and a fuzzy bathrobe that probably used to be white. He was fat, with a white beard that had turned yellow, kind of like Santa Claus, if Santa had been rolled out of bed and dragged through a landfill.
Percy seemed to almost gag as he got closer. He took a seat on the pier next to him, trying not to act suspicious.
"Soooo... what are we waiting for again?" Grover said.
"Percy needs to capture him." Zoe said, shielding the sun from her eyes.
"To be honest, I don't see how that's possible." Thalia said.
All of a sudden, Percy jumped the old man.
"Ahhhhhl" he screamed. "Help me!" The old man sure didn't look like he was in trouble. In fact, it almost looked like Percy was the one being held.
"That's a crime!" one of the other homeless guys yelled. "Kid rolling an old man like that!"
"They're rolling all right." Y/N murmured, as Percy and the old man tumbled down the pier, slamming straight into a post.
"I don't have any money!" He tried to get up and run, but Percy locked his arms around Santa's chest
"I don't want money," Percy yelled as he fought. "I'm a half-blood! I want information.'"
That seemed to make the old man struggle harder. "Heroes! Why do you always pick on me?"
"Because you know everything!" Percy said as they staggered toward the edge of the pier. Percy glanced down at the bay, getting an idea "Oh, no!" he yelled. "Not the water!"
The plan worked. Immediately, Nereus yelled in triumph and jumped off the edge. Together, they plunged into San Francisco Bay.
"Percy'll be fine, right?" Grover seemed nervous.
"He's the son of Poseidon. Water is his element." Y/N said.
As if in response, a giant killer whale burst out of the water, with Percy holding on to the dorsal fin. Percy turned to the crowd, waving.
"Show off." Thalia muttered.
Y/N watched as the water seemed to ripple violently and travel towards one of the docks. "He's going to resurface soon. Lets go." Together, they all jogged down to the boat dock.
Finally, Nereus and Percy burst out of the water, collapsing on the pier. The old man was breathing heavily and gasping for air, but Percy just grinned happily.
"You got him!" Zoe said.
"You don't have to sound so amazed," Percy said.
Nereus moaned. "Oh, wonderful. An audience for my humiliation! The normal deal, I suppose? You'll let me go if I answer your question?"
"I've got more than one question," Percy said.
"Only one question per capture! That's the rule."
They all looked at each other. A voice was screaming inside Y/N's mind. Ask about Annabeth! But it wasn't his question to ask. It was Percy's. "Ask about the monster." Y/N said.
Percy sighed. "All right, Nereus. Tell me where to find this terrible monster that could bring an end to the gods. The one Artemis was hunting."
The Old Man of the Sea smiled, showing off his mossy green teeth.
"Oh, that's too easy," he said evilly. "He's right there."
Nereus pointed to the water at his feet.
"Where?" Percy said.
"The deal is complete!" Nereus gloated. With a pop, he turned into a goldfish and did a backflip into the sea.
"You tricked me!" Percy yelled.
"Wait." Thalia's eyes widened. "What is that?"
"MOOOOOOOO!"
They looked down, and there it was.
"Is that a cow snake?" Y/N's eyes widened.
The cow snake swam around the edge of the dock, looking up at Percy with sad brown eyes.
"Ah, Bessie," Percy said. "Not now."
"Mooo!"
Grover gasped. "He says his name isn't Bessie."
"You can understand her... er, him?"
Grover nodded. "It's a very old form of animal speech. But he says his name is the Ophiotaurus."
"The Ophi-what?"
"It means serpent bull in Greek," Y/N said. "But what's it doing here?"
"Moooooooo!"
"He says Percy is his protector," Grover announced. "And he's running from the bad people. He says they are close."
"Wait," Zoe said, looking at Percy. "You know this cow?"
Percy told them.
Thalia shook her head in disbelief. "And you just forgot to mention this before?"
"Well... yeah."
"I am a fool," Zoe said suddenly. "I know this story!"
"What story?" Y/N said.
"From the War of the Titans," she said. "My... my father told me this tale, thousands of years ago. This is the beast we are looking for."
"Bessie?" Percy looked down at the bull serpent. "But... he's too cute. He couldn't destroy the world."
"That is how we were wrong," Zoe said. "We've been anticipating a huge dangerous monster, but the Ophiotaurus does not bring down the gods that way. He must be sacrificed."
"MMMM," Bessie lowed.
"I don't think he likes the S-word," Grover said.
Percy patted Bessie on the head, trying to calm him down. "How could anyone hurt him?" I said. "He's harmless."
Zoe nodded. "But there is power in killing innocence. Terrible power. The Fates ordained a prophecy eons ago, when this creature was born. They said that whoever killed the Ophiotaurus and sacrificed its entrails to fire would have the power to destroy the gods."
"MMMMMM!"
"Um," Grover said. "Maybe we could avoid talking about entrails, too."
Thalia stared at the cow serpent with wonder. "The power to destroy the gods... how? I mean, what would happen?"
"No one knows," Zoe said. "The first time, during the Titan war, the Ophiotaurus was in fact slain by a giant ally of the Titans, but thy father, Zeus, sent an eagle to snatch the entrails away before they could be tossed into the fire. It was a close call. Now, after three thousand years, the Ophiotaurus is reborn."
Thalia sat down on the dock. She stretched out her hand. Bessie went right to her. Thalia placed her hand on his head. Bessie shivered. Thalia's expression seemed weird. She almost looked... hungry.
"We have to protect him," Percy "If Luke gets hold of him..."
"Luke wouldn't hesitate," Thalia muttered. "The power to overthrow Olympus. That's... that's huge."
"Yes, it is, my dear," said a man's voice in a heavy French accent. "And it is a power you shall unleash."
The Ophiotaurus made a whimpering sound and submerged.
They looked up.
Standing behind them, his two-color eyes gleaming wickedly, was Dr. Thorn, the manticore himself.
.
.
.
"This is just pairrr-fect," the manticore gloated.
He was wearing a ratty black trench coat over his Westover Hall uniform, which was torn and stained. His military haircut had grown out spiky and greasy. He hadn't shaved recently, so his face was covered in silver stubble.
"Long ago, the gods banished me to Persia," the manticore said. "I was forced to scrounge for food on the edges of the world, hiding in forests, devouring insignificant human farmers for my meals. I never got to fight any great heroes. I was not feared and admired in the old stories! But now that will change. The Titans shall honor me, and I shall feast on the flesh of half-bloods!"
On either side of him stood two armed security guys. Two more stood on the next boat dock over.
way. There were tourists all around—walking down the waterfront, shopping at the pier above us—but Y/N knew that wouldn't stop the manticore from acting.
"Where... where are the skeletons?" Percy asked the manticore.
He sneered. "I do not need those foolish undead! The General thinks I am worthless? He will change his mind when I defeat you myself!"
"We beat you once before," Y/N narrowed his eyes.
"Ha! You could barely fight me with a goddess on your side. And, alas... that goddess is preoccupied at the moment. There will be no help for you now."
Zoe notched an arrow and aimed it straight at the manticore's head. The guards on either side of them raised their guns.
"Wait!" I said. "Zoe, don't!"
The manticore smiled. "The boy is right, Zoe Nightshade. Put away your bow. It would be a shame to kill you before you witnessed Thalia's great victory."
"What are you talking about?" Thalia growled. She had her shield and spear ready.
"Surely it is clear," the manticore said. "This is your moment. This is why Lord Kronos brought you back to life. You will sacrifice the Ophiotaurus. You will bring its entrails to the sacred fire on the mountain. You will gain unlimited power. And for your seventeenth birthday, you will overthrow Olympus."
No one spoke. It made terrible sense. Thalia was only two days away from turning seventeen. She was a child of the Big Three. And here was a choice, a terrible choice that could mean the end of the gods. It was just like the prophecy said. Doomsday was happening right now.
"You know it is the right choice," the manticore told Thalia, who looked stunned. "Your friend Luke recognized it. You shall be reunited with him. You shall rule this world together under the auspices of the Titans. Your father abandoned you, Thalia. He cares nothing for you. And now you shall gain power over him. Crush the Olympians underfoot, as they deserve. Call the beast! It will come to you. Use your spear."
"Thalia," Y/N warned, "snap out of it!" He tried putting emphasis into his words, but they had no effect.
Thalia looked the same way she had the morning she woke up on Half-Blood Hill, dazed and uncertain. "I... I don't—"
"Your father helped you," Percy said. "He sent the metal angels. He turned you into a tree to preserve you."
Her hand tightened on the shaft of her spear.
Y/N looked at Grover desperately. Thank the gods, he understood. Grover raised his pipes to his mouth and played a quick riff.
The manticore yelled, "Stop him!"
The guards had been targeting Zoe, and before they could figure out that the kid with the pipes was the bigger problem, the wooden planks at their feet sprouted new branches and tangled their legs. Zoe let loose two quick arrows that exploded at their feet in clouds of sulfurous yellow smoke.
The guards started coughing. The manticore shot spines in their direction, but they ricocheted off Percy's lion's coat.
"Grover!" Y/N said, "tell Bessie to dive deep and stay down!"
"Moooooo!" Grover translated.
"The cow..." Thalia muttered, still in a daze.
"Come on!" Y/N pulled her along as they ran up the stairs to the shopping center on the pier. They dashed around the corner of the nearest store. From behind them, the manticore was shouting at his minions, "Get them!" Tourists screamed as the guards shot blindly into the air.
They scrambled to the end of the pier, hiding behind a little kiosk filled with souvenir crystals—wind chimes and dream catchers and stuff like that, glittering in the sunlight. There was a water fountain next to them. Down below, a bunch of sea lions were sunning themselves on the rocks.
"Go over the side!" Zoe told Percy. "You can escape in the sea, Percy. Call on thy father for help. Maybe you can save the Ophiotaurus." He seemed to hesitate.
"I won't leave you guys," he said. "We fight together."
"You have to get word to camp!" Y/N said. "At least let them know what's going on!"
Then Percy seemed to notice the crystals making rainbows in the sunlight. There was a drinking fountain next to them....
"Get word to camp," Percy muttered. "Good idea."
He uncapped Riptide and slashed off the top of the water fountain. Water burst out of the busted pipe and sprayed all over them.
Thalia gasped as the water hit her. The fog seemed to clear from her eyes. "Are you crazy?" she asked.
But Grover understood. He was already fishing around in his pockets for a coin. He threw a golden drachma into the rainbows created by the mist and yelled, "O goddess, accept my offering!" The mist rippled.
"Camp Half-Blood!" Percy said.
And there, shimmering in the Mist right next to them, was the last person Percy wanted to see:
Mr. D, wearing his leopard-skin jogging suit and rummaging through the refrigerator.
He looked up lazily. "Do you mind?"
"Where's Chiron!" Y/N shouted.
"How rude." Mr. D took a swig from a jug of grape juice. "Is that how you say hello?"
"Hello," Percy amended. "We're about to die! Where's Chiron?"
Mr. D considered that. Behind, footsteps and shouting—the manticore's troops were closing in.
"About to die," Mr. D mused. "How exciting. I'm afraid Chiron isn't here. Would you like me to take a message?"
Percy looked at them friends. "We're dead."
Thalia gripped her spear. She looked like her old angry self again. "Then we'll die fighting."
"How noble," Mr. D said, stifling a yawn. "So what is the problem, exactly?"
Percy told him about the Ophiotaurus.
"Mmm." He studied the contents of the fridge. "So that's it. I see."
"You don't even care!" Y/N screamed. "You'd just as soon watch us die!"
"Let's see. I think I'm in the mood for pizza tonight."
Behind them, the Manticore screamed, "There!" And then they were surrounded. Two of the guards stood behind him. The other two appeared on the roofs of the pier shops above. The manticore threw off his coat and transformed into his true self, his lion claws extended and his spiky tail bristling with poison barbs.
"Excellent," he said. He glanced at the apparition in the mist and snorted. "Alone, without any real help. Wonderful."
"You could ask for help," Mr. D murmured, as if this were an amusing thought. "You could say please."
Zoe readied her arrows. Grover lifted his pipes. Thalia raised her shield, and Percy noticed a tear running down her cheek. This had happened to her before. She had been cornered on Half-Blood Hill. She'd willingly given her life for her friends. But this time, she couldn't save anyone.
"Please, Mr. D," Percy muttered. "Help."
Of course, nothing happened.
The manticore grinned. "Spare the daughter of Zeus. She will join us soon enough. Kill the others."
The men raised their guns, and something strange happened. There was a rush of pressure around them, as if all the blood in their heads drained out, and a sound like a huge sigh. The sunlight tinged with purple. There was a smell of grapes and something more sour—wine.
SNAP!
It was the sound of many minds breaking at the same time. The sound of madness. One guard put his pistol between his teeth like it was a bone and ran around on all fours. Two others dropped their guns and started waltzing with each other. The fourth began doing what looked like an Irish clogging dance.
"No!" screamed the manticore. "I will deal with you myself!"
His tail bristled, but the planks under his paws erupted into grape vines, which immediately began wrapping around the monster's body, sprouting new leaves and clusters of green baby grapes that ripened in seconds as the manticore shrieked, until he was engulfed in a huge mass of vines, leaves, and full clusters of purple grapes. Finally the grapes stopped shivering, and the manticore was no more.
"Well," said Dionysus, closing his refrigerator. "That was fun."
They all stared at him, horrified. "How could you... How did you—"
"Such gratitude," he muttered. "The mortals will come out of it. Too much explaining to do if I made their condition permanent. I hate writing reports to Father."
He stared resentfully at Thalia. "I hope you learned your lesson, girl. It isn't easy to resist power, is it?"
Thalia blushed as if she were ashamed.
"Mr. D," Grover said in amazement. "You... you saved us.
"Mmm. Don't make me regret it, satyr. Now get going. I've bought you all a few hours at most."
"The Ophiotaurus," Percy said. "Can you get it to camp?"
Mr. D sniffed. "I do not transport livestock, Percy Jackson. That's your problem."
"But where do we go?"
Dionysus looked at Zoe. "Oh, I think the huntress knows. You must enter at sunset today, you know, or all is lost. Now good-bye. My pizza is waiting."
"Mr. D," Percy said.
He raised his eyebrow.
"You called me by my right name," he said. "You called me Percy Jackson."
"I most certainly did not, Peter Johnson. Now off with you!"
The god waved his hand, and his image disappeared in the mist.
All around, the manticore's minions were still acting completely nuts. One of them had found the homeless guy, and they were having a serious conversation about metal angels from Mars. Several other guards were harassing the tourists, making animal noises and trying to steal their shoes.
Y/N looked at Zoe. "What did he mean... 'You know where to go'?" Her face was the color of the fog. She pointed across the bay, past the Golden Gate. In the distance, a single mountain rose up above the cloud layer.
"The garden of my sisters," she said. "I must go home."