J A S O N
I paced the cabin, trying hard to come up with a plan. We need more ingredients, but we don't know what they are. If we ask Chaos though, then he'll know we broke in his office and stole the files. He'll hate us and then he'll have us removed from the team.
I tugged at the ends of my hairs, and walked to the window. I saw the tiny flowers gleaming, growing pretty fast. We only put them in a couple hours ago, but they've grown a lot. I gently touched the small petals, feeling comfort flow through my body. I sighed, forcing myself to relax. I turned around to face Zoë once more.
"Call him." I told her.
She glanced at me wearily,"Are you sure...?"
"Yes." I said, confidently,"It's now or never. Just call him."
She nodded, clicking a few buttons on her watch. She called an emergency meeting, so he'd have to come, but that didn't matter. He came instantly, looking happy to be called.
He nodded at us as he arrived,"Oh thank Gods." He said, relief evident on his face,"I'm finally able to end that stupid meeting. So, what's this about?"
They all looked at me. I silently cursed them all before glancing at Chaos once more,"Ok, I know you're going to be mad, so I'm going to just say it."
Chaos frowned,"Wait a minute-"
"We broke in your office, ok?" I said, making him freeze,"We were upset that you've been ignoring us, so we broke in and stole some files." Chaos looked calm, so I continued, wearily,"We saw a file about Thalia and took it, and when we saw that it could be a cure, we went to search for the flower. We went to the mountain and took it, but we can't use the flower by itself. We need other ingredients, and only you know what they are, so I need you to us what they are."
He crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow,"Anything else you want to confess, Jason?"
I shifted on my feet,"Yes." I muttered,"I stole an extra two files about Order and Percy, but we returned them all."
He nodded,"I know."
"Look, we're so sorry, but-wait what?" I stuttered.
He shrugged,"Yup. This is old information."
Bianca frowned,"How did you know?"
Chaos scoffed,"Come on, guys! I know everything that goes on in my planet. Did you really think I wouldn't find out? I was just waiting to see if you'd confess it."
I blushed,"So you're not mad?"
Chaos raised an eyebrow,"Who said that?"
I frowned,"But-"
"Nobody said I wasn't mad." Chaos interrupted,"In fact, I'm furious that you would even dare steal Top Secret information from my office. Honestly, I would've fired you if I could."
"Can't you?" Michael asked, weakly.
Chaos looked pained,"No. Percy would probably kill me if he found out." I looked down,"So, I'll have to do the next best thing."
Zoë looked at us wearily,"And what's that?"
He held out his hand to Zoë,"Give me your watch, Jason will be stripped of his powers along with Bianca. You will only get them back if you right your wrongs."
"Wait, what?!" We all yelled.
He gave us all a glare,"Be lucky this is your only punishment."
"Chaos." Bianca said,"I get you're angry, but we need them in order to succeed."
I'm sure we pushed all his buttons, for he swiped his fingers, and Zoë watch flew in his hand. He pointed at me and Bianca before closing his fists. Pain flared my body and I gasped, stumbling back. It was gone as soon as it came, though, making me feel weak.
Once he was finished, he glowered at us,"Listen, if you want to go on the quest, go ahead, but I will not delay your punishment. This is a very stressful time for me, so I don't have time to deal with disobedient children."
I chewed on my bottom lip, looking at the others,"Fine." He looked at me,"Take our powers, but you have to give us the ingredients." He hesitated,"Please, it's the only way to save her. I can't lose my sister like this."
His eyes filled with pity as he nodded,"Ok, whatever." A sheet of paper formed in his hand,"But you must collect it yourself."
I grinned,"Thank you, Chaos!" I reached for it, but he moved it away from my grasp. I looked at his cold stare.
"But," Chaos said,"If I ever find you doing this again-"
"Yes, yes, I get it. We won't even think about it." I told him, reaching for it again, and this time getting it.
Chaos grunted,"Good. Now, I'll be leaving."
"Bye, Chaos." I told him, opening the folded piece of paper. I heard him flash out and read the words. Thyme, Oregano, and The Queen of Night. Wait, what? I've never heard of that last one...
I showed it to the others. Bianca pointed at picture of the Queen of Night,"I've seen that on Utopia somewhere."
Michael pointed at the others,"And I'm sure the Apollo kids have those."
I nodded,"Let's go check." We made our way outside, and we walked to the infirmary. When I entered, I spotted Will instantly. He was leaning back in his chair, talking to Nico. As I walked over to Will, he was smiling at what Nico just said. They both looked up as we approached
"What can I do for you guys?" Will asked us, sitting in his chair properly.
"We were wondering if you had any Thymes or Oregano?" Michael asked him.
Will raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair again, knowing it wasn't an emergency,"Can't say I do, sorry. Those are very powerful and magical herbs used only by my dad. We're restricted from having it."
I frowned,"Oh, ok then. I guess we'll just go talk to Apollo then. Thanks anyways." I told, turning around to leave.
"Anytime." He said, then resumed his conversation with Nico.
I turned to the others once we reached Half-Blood Hill,"Ok, so how about Bianca and I go and talk to Apollo. Zoë and Michael, you can go to Utopia and get the last ingredient. Deal?"
They all nodded. Zoë and Michael went back down the hill to our cabin. I looked at Bianca,"Let's go."
...
After a long trip to the city, we got to the Empire State Building, and I walked up to the counter,"Sixth hundredth floor, please." I told the man, who was reading a magazine.
He didn't look up,"No such floor kid."
I rolled my eyes,"Look, I just got stripped from my powers at the moment, so I'm pretty agitated. Sixth hundredth floor."
He stayed silent for a minute before saying,"What's your reason?"
"We need to speak with Apollo, dude. If you don't us in, my sister is going to die, and it'll will start a Civil War between the gods."
"And why exactly would there be a Civil War?" He laughed,"They die all the time."
I growled,"Because we're Zeus' children." His eyes snapped up,"Yeah, now let me in, so I can save her, will you?"
He hesitantly tossed the keys to me,"Make sure-"
"Yeah, I know." We rushed to elevator, and put in the key card. A button glowed, so I pressed that. We waited impatiently for it to arrive listen to 'Stayin Alive'. They really need to have better music. Finally, we arrived to Olympus. I smiled as I looked around. It was still as beautiful as it had been the last time I was here.
"Hey," Bianca said to a satyr. He looked at her,"Do you know where Apollo's temple is?"
He looked around nervously, but then pointed at a temple,"I think he just came back, too."
The temple was so bright, it was hard to look at it properly. We thanked the satyr before walking to the temple. I was just about to knock on the door when it opened. He looked like he was going to leave, but stopped when he saw us.
He grinned,"Hey! What's up?" He had on a sleeveless black shirt with some ripped jeans. His hair was pulled back into a small ponytail, and he had only one earbud in his ear as he listened to something from his IPod.
"Hi, Apollo." Bianca said,"Mind doing us a favor?"
He hummed,"Depends, how long will this take?"
"Not long at all." I answered.
"Then sure!"
"We were wondering if we could use some Thymes and Oregano herbs." I told him.
His smiled faded,"Thymes and Oregano?" I nodded. He shook his head,"Sorry, man, but I can't do that. I'm forbidden from giving anyone those herbs."
"Why?" I asked, noticed the way he emphasized 'giving'.
He shrugged,"Eh, I don't know. Zeus forbids it." He closed the door behind him. We moved out the way as he walked away,"Look, I have to go. See you around, yeah?"
"Sure..." I muttered. Then, he flashed away. Once he did, I opened the door.
"Jason!" Bianca exclaimed.
I shrugged,"He wants us to take it, B. The satyr said he just got here, so why'd he leave so fast?"
She hesitated before sighed,"Ok, whatever. Let's be in and out."
I nodded and walked in the temple. When we walked in, I noticed one thing. He had a lot of portraits of himself. He was grinning in most of them, but in others he looked upset. My eyes shifted to the picture in the middle. It was a photo of him, Artemis, and what I assumed was his mother laughing. They were in a meadow with flowers blooming around them. Artemis was pointing at Apollo and laughing. The latter had a butterfly on his nose, which caused the look of surprise on his face.
The painting then started to move. He was soon shooing the butterfly off his face laughing alongside his twin and mother. Then, it kept on repeating like it was a memory, which it probably was. They looked young, so I assumed it was a long time ago. Unlike all the other portraits, this one was covered in a glass case as if precious.
I don't think I've ever seen the twins act like that before with my own eyes. Though, I've heard that whenever they are together, they are always bickering. It just made me want to go to Artemis' temple to see if she had something similar to it, but I doubt she would. That was just sad...
"Jason." Bianca said. My attention was drawn to her now,"In and out. Come on." She was already going up the stairs, so I quickly followed her. Once we reached the top of stairs, I knew we were close. It smelled like a doctors office, so there must be some herbs somewhere here. We searched the place for a good 5 minutes, but this place was huge. I kept opening the same doors, which had me annoyed. Why can't this place be smaller?
Finally, I opened the last door. I grinned as I saw it was filled with herbs,"Bianca!" She rushed to my side and smiled. She didn't say anything as she walked in. We looked around for the herbs, seeing as they were labeled.
"Found it!" Bianca said, grabbing two herbs. She grabbed a couple of each and stuck them in her bag. She looked back at me,"Let's get out of here." I nodded.
We went back down the stairs only to see the door closing. We froze as a pair of eyes fell on us. Apollo's lip twitched upwards, but the tone in his voice showed annoyance,"What're you doing?" It was hard to tell if he was happy or angry with us, so I played along.
"Uh, well..." Bianca stuttered.
"We wanted to see all your portraits." I finished for her,"They are magnificent. Who's the artist?"
Apollo grinned, looking at the paintings,"Ah, they are amazing, aren't they?" He looked back at us, and shrugged,"I can't remember who painted it, though. Why, do you want one of yourself? I'm sure I can have one done."
I hesitated,"Uh, I don't think-"
"Oh, come on! If you really did love them, you'd want one for yourself, right?" I noticed the mischievous spark in his eyes.
I sighed, then fake smiled,"Ok, yeah! Of course I'd want one!"
"Wonderful! Come back tomorrow, and I'll have the painter ready!" He said.
Oh great,"I'll be there." I was eager to change the subject, so I pointed at the painting of him and Artemis,"How long ago was that?"
He looked behind him, and I swear I saw his eyes darken drastically, which surprised me greatly,"I cannot remember. The memory of it is already fading. That's why I had painted, so I will always know it was there in the first place."
My heart clenched at the pain lacing his voice,"And Artemis? Does she have one too?"
He sighed, not looking away from the painting,"I don't know, but I doubt she does. It's unlike her to have a photo of me." Before I could say more, he turned around,"You should probably go." His usual smile was long gone. In just those few seconds of looking at the painting, he looked much older. His vibrant eyes were dull and full of a deep sadness and regret,"Don't let anyone think I let you steal those herbs so easily. I'd have many more doing the same thinking I won't shoot them down." Then, he was gone.
My eyes shifted to the memory again. I would've stood there forever if Bianca didn't drag me towards the door. Once we were outside, I had control over my body again. The door slammed shut behind us, and I heard it lock. I pursed my lips because I knew I made him upset.
"Jason, you ok?" Bianca asked softly.
I forced a smile,"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go."
As we walked, I snuck a glance at the temple beside his. The temple was a silver color, so I instantly knew who it was for. I was dying to find out if she a memory like that, but I knew if I dared to enter, then I would be shot down. I quickly turned away and made my way back down to the ground.