Chapter Quote:
"Defiance is the biggest weapon of the weak."
~African Proverb
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Chapter 19: He's Good At That

Silena

Isabelle had left a note saying she'd gone to find breakfast with Alec. Bryn sat at the desk, asleep and face-planting her laptop keyboard. Silena covered her with a blanket before grabbing her own laptop and going back to researching. She'd narrowed it down to ten potential places, but they were scattered all over the globe. Even with the Helm in their possession, they didn't have the time to search them all and risk Luke and Hallie being in the last one. Silena wanted to wake Bryn up to see if any seemed familiar from her dream, but she also knew her friend needed sleep. The gods only knew how thin Bryn had worn herself, but Silena had a pretty good idea.

"All right, I tried to get something simple for us to eat," Isabelle announced, walking into their room. "Bacon and scrambled eggs."

"Bacon?" Bryn mumbled, sitting up groggily.

"I didn't know bacon could wake the dead."

The daughter of Zeus glared at her. "Give me my bacon."

Isabelle acquiesced, handing her the to-go box. Silena took hers and shoveled it into her mouth.

"Any progress on Luke and Hallie's location?" Bryn queried when she finished.

"Here, any of these places look like the one in your dream?" She turned the laptop around to let her friend view it. Bryn clicked through all the tabs, muttering unintelligibly to herself until she suddenly exclaimed, "This! This is what I saw in my dreams!"

Silena peered over the screen and said, "Jal Mahal palace. It makes sense. It's in India. It ''s hot, humid, in the middle of the lake-"

"And it has the same design on the floor that I woke up on in the dream," Bryn interrupted. "This place is it. Come on; we have to go!"

"Slow down. Don't we need a plan?" Isabelle inquired, looking to Silena for support.

"I'm with Isabelle-"

Bryn whirled on them. "When has a plan of ours ever gone the way we planned? I can answer that for you: never. Not even when it was to do something as simple as getting the Helm off a mountain. We go in there, guns blazing, we take down Balthazar, rescue Luke and Hallie, return the Big Three's weapons to them, and tell the world to take care of itself while we take a long vacation."

Silena took a calming breath, knowing Bryn's reaction was a mixture of desperation, exhaustion, and anger. She wouldn't let herself snap back. It wouldn't do anything. "What I was going to say is I agree with Isabelle, but I also agree with you."

"How is that possible? We either go now without a plan, or we don't go at all."

"We split up. There are seven of us. We need to go in groups of three. As much as I don't like it, Isabelle and Alec need to go with you because you've spent the most time fighting alongside them. The twins can go with me and Derek. Give Derek the vial to shoot into Luke. Luke will be so busy fighting Balthazar over control to get to you that he won't notice us. Does that sound like a feasible plan while still letting you go in relatively guns blazing?"

Bryn hesitated. "Yes... I'm sorry for snapping at you."

"I know you didn't mean to, nor could you help it."

"I'll go tell the boys. Meet outside in twenty?"

"You're being generous," Isabelle said.

"You want me to dock it to ten?" Bryn countered.

"Twenty it is." The daughter of Zeus haphazardly threw her belongings in her bag before rushing out of the room to let the boys know the plan. Once she was gone, Isabelle asked, "How did you do that?"

Silena shrugged. "I know Bryn. Whenever any of us have been in danger, she's never thought clearly. But when it comes to Luke, it's like she stops thinking entirely. The same goes for my brother. He practically went mute after she temporarily died. He just... did nothing. He couldn't function," she said. Silena paused. "I sometimes think about what would've happened had it been the reverse, if Luke had died instead of Bryn."

Isabelle frowned. "You think she'd be the same way as him?"

"No... I think she'd tear the world down."

Bryn

"I know you're anxious, but you're going to break my hand if you squeeze it any tighter," Brady remarked, causing his sister to sheepishly soften her grip.

"Sorry," she said.

"Hey, look on the bright side, we're about to end this thing once and for all!"

"Everyone ready? I'm going to drop Bryn, Alec, and Isabelle off in the pavilion. Then Silena, the twins, and I will be in the arches on the outskirts, waiting to circle Balthazar in," Derek reiterated.

"Let's go," Silena said determinedly. The group grasped each other's hands firmly, then Derek put on the Helm of Darkness, and the world went black. Wind gusted around them, only stopping when Bryn was dropped into the middle of a recognizable pavilion with a white engraved flower emanating from the center. Alec and Isabelle were at her side, already armed and waiting.

"Where to?" Alec asked, scanning the area.

"This way," Bryn replied, going off her memory from the dream. The Greenwoods followed closely behind. However, they'd only taken a few steps when a tall, familiar blonde strode outside, seemingly unaware of his visitors.

Bryn froze as Balthazar finally realized the demigods were there. Her vision narrowed. All she could see was him.

"Luke?" Her voice cracked. And when he spoke her name, she knew it was him. Not Balthazar, not Balthazar pretending to be Luke, but Luke.

"Luke!" Bryn exclaimed, bolting towards him. He met her halfway, enveloping her in a bone-crushing hug as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, unable to believe she'd finally found him. She pulled away and kissed him, long and hard and desperately in order to convey how much she missed him.

"I can't believe you're here," he breathed, stroking a piece of hair out of her face. "Bryn."

"I'm here, Luke. I'm here."

His eyes flashed from blue to gold, and she snapped away from him.

"OW!" Balthazar snarled. Bryn glanced down to see an arrow protruding from his shoulder. "You're going to pay for that you bi-"

Luke collapsed to the ground as the Eidolon was forced out of his system. Bryn dropped down beside her boyfriend, checking to ensure his well-being. When she felt a pulse, she let out a sigh of relief. It was replaced the next moment by horror as Bryn watched the demon slither out of Luke's body. Rather than disappearing like she believed it would, something much, much worse happened.

It began to take a corporeal form.

"Uh, guys? Is this supposed to be happening?" Isabelle asked hesitantly.

"I didn't think they could take physical form. I thought they had to possess someone," Silena said in horror. Bryn couldn't place when the rest of her group appeared. She was too busy watching Balthazar take shape into a real person.

"Oh my gods," Isabelle gasped.

Before them towered a man with rippling muscles, wearing nothing but a Spartan skirt, and his eyes glowed an emerald green.

"It feels good to be back," Balthazar said.

"Where's my sister?!" Derek demanded. "Where is Hallie?"

"She's in an interior room, just in the corridor behind you." He waved his hand. "She is free."

Derek glanced over at Bryn, hesitated for a split second until she gave him a subtle nod, and then he sprinted off, Bradley hot on his heels. Meanwhile, she cradled Luke's head, shielding his eyes from the blazing sun above, waiting impatiently for him to get his bearings.

"Who in Poseidon's name are you?" Silena demanded.

"Ah. The sister. Luke thought a lot about you. Talked to you a few times as well," Balthazar said. "You know who I am, so why ask?"

"Because I want to hear you say it aloud, and I want to know exactly what your title is. You can't be any ordinary Eidolon to have a corporeal form."

"You're also the smart one." He smiled. "I am Balthazar, second in command to Amara, our glorious leader who is here among us."

Bryn's gut tugged, but she stayed in place, glowering at him.

"Guys, let's get away from him. We can figure out how to deal with him later. Right now, we need to get all of us back to camp," Alec interrupted, his arrow aimed at Balthazar's heart.

"The voice of reason and Bryn's male counterpart."

Alec frowned. "I'm what?"

"He's just trying to get under your skin," Isabelle warned.

"Something's he ridiculously good at," Hallie growled in agreement. Everyone turned to look at her, and Bryn was surprised by the strength in her friend's voice, considering her haggard appearance. She had her arms slung around Derek's and Bradley's shoulders for support, and her paleness worried Bryn, but if she was speaking coherently the way she was, surely she was okay for now. At the moment, Bryn needed to get Luke up.

"Sharkboy, I need you to wake up, okay?" she whispered. "We need to get to camp and get you well."

His hand reached for hers, grasping it tightly. "I'm okay. Just... make sure I don't fall."

With a groan, he pushed himself up, and Bryn helped him stand. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Maybe don't let go, though."

"I'm never letting you go again."

Luke grinned through his exhaustion. "I like the sound of that."

"Bryn, let's go," Derek insisted. She nodded and tried to move, but her feet remained rooted in place, and no matter how hard she tried, they wouldn't budge. Bryn was paralyzed, and it took her only a moment to figure out what was wrong.

Amara.