Hannah and Leo walked into the forge, and so far they were the only ones there. Projects in various stages of completion littered the workbenches, while the forge that dominated one wall had some embers that were still slightly smoldering inside. Quickly they made their way to the back corner where they had set up some curtains to create a private workspace. Once there Leo lit up a small forge and got out some supplies. Hannah also brought out a series of small rings made from Imperial Gold and Olympian Silver, about five in total. Each one was progressively smaller than the last, and when laid flat each fit snugly inside of another. The largest ring also had a large circular frame on the front of it, like a lens. Soon after Calypso came in, whose nimble fingers and magic had been of great help, followed by a teen wearing a bandanna around his forehead, sunglasses, and a beaming smile that was all too familiar.
"Um. . . Lord Apollo," Hannah said tentatively. "What are you doing here?"
Apollo flashed his smile. "I don't know who this 'Apollo' guy you're talking about is, but he sounds like a truly awesome guy. No, my name is Fred," 'Fred' said while lowering his sunglasses and shooting a wink.
"Well, 'Fred'," Leo started, playing along with Apollo. "How good are you at anatomy of the eye?"
"The best around," Apollo replied, flashing his smile. He then grew serious, something that rarely happened. "What were you thinking for this prosthetic?"
"Well, the idea is that these rings create some sort of sphere with these connections on the ends and small rails inside," Leo picked up the rings off of the workbench, demonstrating how they could spin in multiple directions." Apollo nodded, seeming to understand. "Hannah will then create a ball using a mixture of shadows and the Mist to give the rings some support when in the eye. Then, with your help, Calypso will craft a spell that allows Hannah's mistform to become permanent, control the rings, and connect to the brain so sight can be achieved." Leo grinned as he finished, clearly proud of the design he and Hannah had come up with.
The day flew by quickly as the group worked. Leo made some adjustments to the rings while Calypso and Hannah worked with Apollo to craft and enchantment to the specifications they needed. They worked all day, only breaking for lunch, and by the end of the day the prosthetic eye was almost complete. Leo had created a lens using some sort of clear material, while Hannah had successfully crafted an orb that swirled in a mixture of black and purple mist. "I hope he likes it," Hannah said as she put the completed materials into a little pouch she had strapped to her side next to a dagger.
"Of course he will, the Flaming McShizzle made it!" Leo joked as he attempted to wipe the soot that had gathered on his face and arms off. Apollo laughed while Hannah and Calypso just raised an eyebrow at his antics.
# # #
Jacob sat on the beach where the sand met the grass, watching as Percy taught his sister about her water powers. He stood on the sand near the water, while Kate stood in the surf. Jacob kept glancing around nervously, afraid that someone would catch them. Luckily, nobody seemed to be around. By the time the horn sounded for lunch Kate had shown great progress with her powers, able to manipulate the water with relative ease. She was nowhere nearly as powerful as her brother, but Jacob could tell that one day she would be an extremely powerful demigod that might even be able to rival Percy.
Maybe fifteen minutes into lunch Jacob heard a group of footsteps coming toward the trio by the water. He got up and turned around, expecting to see some Hunters coming to get them for lunch, only to get blasted backwards into the water. Jacob stood back up from where he had landed in the ocean, sputtering. Through the water on his glasses he could see Percy standing in front of Kate protectively, sword held out in front of him to keep a group of people at bay. Wiping his glasses clean, Jacob could see that it was Annabeth, Jason, and half a dozen Ares campers. "What do you want," Percy growled as Jacob waded out of the water to stand next to Percy, twisting his ring to bring out his spear as he did so.
"We just want to have a talk, Periplanómenos," Annabeth said innocently.
"Ya, well, I don't," Percy sassed back. "Now leave us be."
"You don't understand," Jason growled as he drew his sword. "You. Are. Coming. With. Us."
Percy smirked, eyes twinkling with amusement behind the silver sunglasses. "You know, it isn't a good idea to threaten people near the ocean when a Child of Poseidon is around," he said casually, now twirling his sword around like he was bored.
"Who, you?" Annabeth questioned eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"My parentage is none of your concern," Percy replied coldly. "But hers is." All eyes went to Kate, who shrunk away further into the ocean.
"This is your last chance," Annabeth warned as the Ares campers started moving to encircle the three demigods. "Come with us, are we shall be forced to take you against your will."
"No," Percy stated.
"So be it," Annabeth sighed as she stepped backwards and the seven demigods rushed forward.
Jason and four of the Ares campers charged towards Percy, while the other two rushed Jacob. Not waiting for the enemy to come to him, Percy rushed towards the nearest target, who happened to be a rather gruff looking Ares girl. She didn't stand a chance. Within seconds Percy had performed the disarming technique Luke had taught him all those years ago, slammed the pommel of his sword into her temple, and moved on to the next Ares brute. The next opponent went down in the same fashion, causing the rest to become wary of the warrior in front of them. Periplanómenos was more skilled than they had realized, he surpassed even Percy in speed and technique. Noticing Jason flanking around his left, and the other Ares minion doing the same on his right, Percy drew a throwing knife from among the sheaths on his thigh. The Ares warrior in front of him had a spear, and he did not have the time to get under his guard before the other two attacked him from behind. Percy threw the knife, and it embedded itself in the fleshy part of the shoulder joint as Jason took to the air. Clouds started gathering and thunder started booming as Percy dispatched the last of his Ares attackers.
Meanwhile, Jacob was dealing with his own attackers. He knew that he wouldn't last long in a prolonged fight. He was good with a spear, but nowhere near as good as the skilled Ares kids. Drawing sunlight into his palm, Jacob dashed for the large gap in between the minions and fired it directly into their eyes as he ran past. This blinded them and allowed him to get to a better position. Looking back, he saw Percy take down all of his attackers but Jason in quick succession. Jacob also noticed that this seemed to worry Annabeth, who then threw on her Yankees cap and vanish as Jason started launching lightning strikes at Percy. "Peri, watch out," Jacob shouted as he took a stab at an approaching opponent. "Annabeth is using the cap!" This caused Percy to frown and look at the sand around him for footprints. Jacob retreated as the two Ares kids advanced on him, angling slightly to get back to Percy.
However, before he could get far, a blade was placed at his neck. "Drop the sword," Annabeth ordered from behind him. "Or the Sun Spawn gets it!"
"Don't do it," Jacob argued. "She'll just kill me anyways!" Percy glanced at the terrified Kate, Jason, and then the hostage Jacob, unsure of what to do.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Periplanómenos, I swear on the River Styx not to kill Jacob today of you drop the sword." Thunder boomed to seal the oath as Percy dropped RiptideI with a sigh. "Good, good," Annabeth grinned. "Now, we're just going to take a quick walk into the woods for a. . . talk." Annabeth started dragging Jacob towards the woods, while Jason escorted Percy.
"No, no!" Jacob frantically shouted while struggling, causing the sword in Annabeth's hand to make a small cut on his neck. "I won't go back there!" Percy's hand drifted to his pocket as he felt a familiar weight return. He wanted more than anything to draw Riptide and save his friend, but knew it would be a dead giveaway.
Luckily, before he was forced to make a choice an angel appeared. Well, not a literal one, but she was to Percy. "Hold it right there," Thalia said from the top of the hill that overlooked the beach.
"Oh ya, and what is one little Hunter going to do," Annabeth scoffed, even as the two Ares campers shifted nervously. They remembered being ambushed in the woods by Periplanómenos and his small group of girls.
"Oh Annie, you clearly don't know much about us, do you?' Thalia sighed. "We are never alone." On que, Hunters appeared as if from thin air, completely surrounding the group with bows trained on them. Percy grinned, he loved his sisters.
Annabeth faltered for a second before the smug look went back to her face. "Oh, but you wouldn't risk a hostage would you?"
"What hostage?" Thalia grinned, causing Annabeth to be extremely confused. Hannah walked up from behind Thalia and used her powers to make Annabeth's shadow literally crawl up her body and cover her eyes as Thalia launched an arrow at her feet. Annabeth dropped her bone sword in a panic as bronze cords started wrapping around her body and she was suddenly blind. This caused more Hunters to open fire, and wrap the rest of Annabeth's allies in bronze cords.
"Are you okay?" Hannah asked Jacob while the Hunt checked on Percy.
"Ya, I'm fine," he replied while rubbing his neck. "That was close. She was taking us. . . there." The two talked for a while longer before Hannah headed back to the forges and Jacob went back to the Hades cabin.
Inside, Jacob stood in front of the floor to ceiling mirror that someone had hung on the wall as a joke. Something about the Hades kids 'being like vampires'. Taking off his shirt, Jacob started tracing the scars on his chest. "Traitor," he muttered while tracing the letters. "Murderer, Spy, Useless." Jacob then heard the door open and scrambled to put his shirt on, but dropped it in the process.
"Hey Jake, you in here?" Percy asked as he walked in, but froze when he saw the scars covering Jacob's chest. Jacob couldn't meet his eyes, he had hoped that nobody would ever have to see these. "Oh gods. Who. Did. This?" he said angrily. Jacob couldn't bear to look at Percy, or respond. "It was her wasn't it?"
Jacob nodded. "Please, don't do anything rash. They just remind me of the truth," he said sadly before sitting on the bed he was using.
Percy's expression softened as he sat next to him. "No, don't listen to them, it isn't true."
"But it is," Jacob protested. "You know the things I did during the Titan War, the people I caused to die."
"No," Percy stated. "That isn't you anymore. You moved past your anger, you became a hero and fought for Olympus."
"But at what cost?" Jacob replied, tears dripping from his eye. "I almost made us lose the Battle of the Labyrinth because of the information I fed, I got my brother killed."
"No, Kronos did," Percy comforted his friend.
# # #
Jacob sat alone in the Hades cabin, sketching something in a notebook while he sat on the bed. Percy had left about an hour ago, and Jacob had an idea. Jacob looked up as Nico walked in. "Oh, hey Nico," Jacob said as he stood up. "You wouldn't happen to have any spare Stygian Iron lying around, would you?"
Nico gave him a weird look. "Um, I do actually, why?" He showed him the picture on the paper, causing Nico's eyes to widen. "Is that?" he started.
"Yep," Jacob said cheerfully. "Do you think you could keep it a secret." Nico nodded, and grabbed a small chunk of the metal for him, wrapping it in a cloth.
"Make sure no one touches this, it's dangerous to those that aren't children of underworld gods." Jacob nodded and thanked Nico before grabbing a small sack and putting it inside. One down, two to go.
Jacob then headed over to the Artemis cabin, where he got some Olympian Silver from Thalia and some small gems from Hazel. Putting them all in the small sack he went to dinner. Later that night all the guys sat in the cabin just talking and joking around. During a lull in the conversation Jacob pulled out the notebook and sack. "Hey, Leo," Jacob said, showing him the notebook. "Do you think you could make this?"
"Ya, why?" Leo asked.
Jacob rolled his eyes. "Fine, will you make it for me?"
"Of course," Leo grinned. "Anything for one of my best buds."
"Wait, what is it?" Percy asked. Jacob turned the notebook around so everyone else could see it, causing Percy's, Grover's, and Frank's eyes to both widen. "Is that a?"
"Yep," Jacob replied.
"For?" Percy said incredulously.
"Yep," Jacob replied again.
"Wow," Frank said. "Well, good luck man."
"Thanks Frank, I hope it goes alright," Jacob said nervously.
"Don't worry about it, man," Grover said. "It'll all work out." Jacob smiled, glad that his friends supported him.
A/N: So, here we are, another chapter done, and I would like to thank Sentinel2362 for being my new Beta reader! Hannah is making an eye for Jacob with help from Leo, Annabeth is being a bitch, as usual (there's a reason, I promise), and Jacob has a little project he's working on. What could it be, I wonder? Percy needs to be careful though, Annabeth is getting suspicious.
Also I have a question that I've already asked my followers, but would like to ask all my readers: How would you guys feel about one of our main characters dying? (Not Percy or Thalia of course, this is a Perlia story after all.)
Anyways, have a great day!