Nico

I had shadow-travelled Clarisse and I inside one of the air ducts in Olympus. The instant we had appeared, Clarisse banged her head against the ceiling of the duct. 

"Ow!" She growled as she rubbed her head. I sighed before crawling past her, trying to see if I still remember how to navigate my way through the ducts. "Don't be so loud please." I whispered as I heard Clarisse start to follow me. 

"Shut up." The Daughter of Ares hissed and I rolled my eyes before continuing to awkwardly shuffle forwards on my hands and knees. 

We crawled through the duct for a little bit more before I heard the sound of voices coming from below us. I shuffled forwards to see that a part of the duct had silver bars lining across it, allowing Clarisse and I to see what was happening below. 

"Clarisse, over here." I murmured and moved over to allow her to squeeze in beside me. We both stared down to see a familiar male with blonde hair and blue eyes scrubbing at a marble wall. 

"Jason." Clarisse whispered with wide eyes. I gazed at the son of Jupiter, feeling some sort of fury rise up inside of me. Jason, along with the other demigods and Gods, have been slaves for Percy for several years already. I couldn't imagine how they all felt right now. 

"I want to tell him we're here." Clarisse said, watching as Jason stopped scrubbing at the wall for a moment to wipe the sweat off of his forehead. He took a deep breath before dumping the sponge in a bucket of water and stretching, wincing as some bones in his back cracked loudly.

"We can't. We can't get caught here." I said sadly before stiffening as I heard an unfamiliar voice call "Grace! Are you done scrubbing that wall yet? The King wants everything to be perfect!" 

A girl with long, blue hair came into my view, a cocky grin on her face. She was wearing a black combat shirt and pants with two dual blades strapped to her waist. 

"Who is that? I have a sudden urge to punch her face in." Clarisse growled, curling her fingers into a fist. "I don't know who she is, but I've seen her around Percy quite a bit." I answered, scowling.

Jason turned to face the approaching girl, and I could tell he wanted to roll his eyes in annoyance at  the sight of her, but he refrained from doing so. 

"What do you want, Crystal? I've been scrubbing at this wall for an hour already. I think it's safe to say that I can move on." Jason said in irritation. The girl, Crystal, stopped and examined the wall carefully for a few seconds before she simply shrugged. 

"If you say so. Onto the next wall then, Grace!" Jason bent down and picked up the bucket, giving the blue haired girl a fierce glare. "Nice try, but I have break right now. You're more than welcome to scrub the wall if you want." 

I covered my mouth with my hand in an effort to not burst out into laughter. Clarisse's shoulders were shaking as she silently snickered at Jason's comment. 

Crystal, on the other hand, looked livid. She put one hand on one of the swords strapped to her waist, but Jason walked right past her, completely ignoring her. 

Crystal decided to let him go, and I watched as the son of Jupiter disappeared from my view. I glanced at Clarisse, and I saw the sadness clearly evident in her expression. I reached out and placed my hand on her shoulder, slightly startling her. 

"Don't worry. We'll save them all, we have to." I whispered. "I feel what you're feeling now every time I went to visit the prisoners and slaves here." 

"Where's my dad?" Clarisse asked as I removed my hand from her shoulder. "Uh....... He might be in the training arena with Hestia. We can go check there next." 

Clarisse nodded as we started to crawl through the duct again. But as we passed through another set of silver bars, I heard a familiar voice that made my skin crawl. 

I looked down to see a tall, raven haired male standing talking to two other males. My blood ran cold as I gazed down at the current King of Olympus. "Nico? What- Oh fuck." Clarisse whispered as she noticed who I was looking at. 

"We have to go, now. We can't get caught." I hissed as I started to back away from the opening. But as I did so, Percy said "Alex, Jake, return to the training arena. I have something to do." 

The two males, who I assumed were the twin sons of Hyperion, nodded before disappearing in a burst of flames. Percy stood alone in the hallway for a moment before casually saying "I know you're up there, Nico, Clarisse." 

I froze, and Clarisse did the same thing. Percy glanced up at us, a small smile on his face. "I didn't think you would be this foolish to try and infiltrate Olympus. Don't worry, I'm not going to have you two captured. It would be a waste of time on my part." 

"What do you mean?" I managed to say as my heart pounded painfully fast. Percy tapped his finger against his cheek as he continued to look up at Clarisse and I. "What I just said. I have no interest in capturing you two. I'll see you two later." 

A wicked grin spread across my cousin's face, and he vanished in a spray of mist. I blinked, completely stunned at what I had just heard.

I was shaken roughly on the shoulder, and I glanced to my side to see Clarisse glaring at me. "Snap out of it, he just let us go! Come on, we have to get out of here before he changes his mind!"

I nodded dumbly before quickly following Clarisse down the air duct. As we reached a dead end, there was enough shadows to use to shadow-travel us out of here. 

I reached out and touched Clarisse on the shoulder before the two of us melted into a shadow and disappeared.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

We appeared somewhere in the middle of a park. Trees surrounded a single black bench in the middle of a field, and Clarisse and I went over to the bench and sat down. 

I put my head into my hands as I thought about what had just happened. Percy had just let us go. Just like that. He could've captured us and had two more demigods out of his way, but he didn't. He let us go. 

"Why did he let us go?" I muttered as I looked at the Daughter of Ares. Clarisse had her arm around the back of the bench and she was staring out at the bright blue sky.

"I don't know. I think maybe he finds it funny that we're trying to take back Olympus from him? I think he wants to see us try and fight him. He thinks we stand no chance against us."

"Overconfident much?" I asked as I rubbed my eyes wearily. Clarisse sighed as she crossed her legs and leaned forwards. "I think Percy has a right to be confident, Nico." 

"What do you mean by that?" I questioned as I put my full attention on the brown-haired girl. "I mean, he's the fucking King of Olympus. He has his own personal army full of pretty skilled demigods and demi-titans, and he's been blessed by half of the primordial council. Wouldn't you be confident?" Clarisse demanded.

I grimaced as I knew she was right. I always knew we had a slim chance of beating Percy, but hearing Clarisse say it, it was like a slap to the face.

"You're right." I groaned. "But we can't give up now." "I never said anything about giving up." Clarisse snorted as she pulled her spear out from behind her back and examined it. 

"Whatever. We should head back and tell the others what happened and how I nearly had a heart attack." I grumbled, rising to my feet. 

"Shut up, you weren't the only one who almost had a heart attack!" 

Word count: 1368

i've been so tired nowadays that i've been relying on drinking coffee to stay awake.