A/N: I apologize for not updating for a long time. I have been reeaallly busy with school that writing this fic must've slipped my mind a couple of times. So again, I'm really sorry.
PERCY
After training, I jogged back to my room for a quick shower. I heard him knocking on the door as I hurriedly put my clothes on. I opened the door to find Callix standing there with both arms crossed.
"Glad you stop by," I said. He rolled his eyes as I led him inside.
"Well, you did say you needed me to come by," he said. He sat on the couch while I rummaged my backpack that was on the coffee table for some drachmas. I took out atleast three just in case.
"Is your shower running?" he asked while peeking behind me, the bathroom door was slightly open.
"Uh, yeah. I need you to talk to someone." I opened the bathroom door wide, heavy steam filled the bathroom.
"That's a lot of steam," Callix commented. I took one drachma and held it through the steam.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering," I said as I tossed the coin into the steam. Callix raised a puzzled eyebrow at me, but I shrugged it off.
"Show me Annabeth Chase!" the steam shimmered and after a few moments saw Annabeth, Nico and Peeta, in deep discussion, sitting around a wooden table.
"Guys!" I called out. Apparently, Peeta saw me first and was surprised to see me in the IM since he fell back in his chair in surprised. Annabeth rolled her eyes in amusement while Nico shook his head while chuckling.
"Finally! You IMed," Annabeth said. Peeta stood up, rubbed his back and pointed his finger at me.
"Dude! How the heck are you here?" he said and continued to babble out questions. Nico cleared his throat before speaking.
" It's called Iris Messaging or IM." Peeta made a silent'o' and nodded his head.
"Anyways, got any news or updates?" I asked them wistfully but got all no's for answers. Before I could get to say anything else, Callix stood beside me with awe showing in his face.
"Woah dude! What is this?" he exclaimed and tried to wave his hand at the image but at the last minute, I slapped his hand away.
"Don't do that or I'll loose the connection!" He huffed and crossed his arms across his chest.
"Anyways, Callix here is a demigod." I stated and saw Callix's eyes widen in shock.
"You can't just tell them I'm a demigod!" he hissed at me.
"We're all demigods, well, except for Peeta here but you get my point."
"Tell them everything you said to me, Cal." he muttered something inaudible under his breath before telling them everything about Gaia and the war. It took me about five drachmas for him to finish and discussing about it.
"Are we done? Cause I think I'm getting broke here," I deadpanned. One by one they bid us goodbye and as soon as they were done, I waved the image with my hand.
"So... that's the reason why you brought me here?" he asked, walking out from the bathroom.
"What do you think? I brought you here just to talk to random people?" I said sarcastically but he didn't bother to answer the question. All he did was examine my room like it was some interesting infrastructure with all it's buttons and blinking lights.
"You do know there can be only one survivor/winner in the games?" Honestly, I never wanted to think about death anymore since the Titan war. The Hunger Games is all about surviving to the fittest.
"You're all alone, trust no one and never feel mercy are good strategic tips you need to stick with in order to survive." Great, the exact opposite of what I was going to do: get some allies, trust almost everyone and feel merciful.
"How do you know this?"
He shook his head in amusement before answering. "It's been 74 years of Hunger Games. Of course I watched all the games in television, I know how it works." It was my turn to make a silent o.
Nico
"That went well," I muttered sarcastically. Annabeth knitted her eyebrows together in deep frustration. Probably deciding what to do next. After a moment of cold silence, Annabeth finally spoke up.
"We better get back to camp and inform Chiron about this," she declared and grabbed my wrist abruptly. I yelped in surprised while she set the date right.
"We'll be right back as soon as possible," she said to Peeta.
"But I want to help!" he protested and held Annabeth's shoulder just as she pressed the small black button.
We were back at camp in a split-second. We landed on apparently something soft though that something wasn't a something but a someone. We landed on Clarisse's back, knocking off several training swords a few feet away from her.
"Get off me!" she grunted as each of us desperately scrambled off her back. She pushed herself off the ground and glared at me.
"Sorry 'bout that, Clarisse. It was an accident from all the-" she gave me another glare before stalking off to pick up the fallen swords on the ground. Peeta motioned to help but Annabeth stopped him.
"Just leave her alone before you get things much worse."
We entered the Big House, finding Dionysius sitting by the Ping-Pong table playing pinochle with some trembling satyrs. Peeta flashed a look of sympathy at the satyrs to which Annabeth notice.
"Don't worry, they're just terrified of Mr.D," she said calmly like it was just a normal thing. Peeta's surprised look was amusing.
"Mr.D is, well how to put it this way? Their "boss", you get what I mean?"
"Yeah."
We surrounded Mr.D as he stared at his cards pretending not to notice us.
"Mr.D, we need to talk to Chiron," I started but he didn't say anything for a moment. Then, he placed his cards on the table showing that he won.
"Well, I don't see why you can't talk to me, Nero?"
"It's Nico sir," I corrected.
"As you teenagers call it these days- Whatever." I resisted the urge to punch him on the spot; Annabeth shot me a look before explaining to Mr.D everything that had happened, the Hunger Games, Percy as the tribute for District 12, and how Gaea ruled the Earth once again and installed the Hunger Games as entertainment while she slept.
"Well, I see this is a problem for the future." he said non-chalantly. I slammed my fist on the table.
"For the future? We should take care of it now to prevent that kind of future from ever happening!" Mr. D stood up from his chair and glared at me. Holding his glare, I saw a strange purple fire in his eyes. Images of men becoming insane poured in.
"Do you want to test my patience, Neil?" I hesitated and made my decision not to push Mr.D to punish me with insanity.
"Of course, not, sir." I seethed. He rolled his eyes and sat back on his chair.
"You may leave me now, insolent brats."