Rainingtearsofchocolate has returned for the beginning of The Kidnapped Hero Trilogy: Desolation! I love how NONE of you realized that the camp borders should have kept Echidna and the Chimera out. I had been planning it all along, but not one of my reviewers pointed it out. You guys noticed Riptide, but not the Golden Fleece's little whoopsie. Hahaha! I win! Ah, finally, I beat you guys at something! Woohoo! Woohoo! *does victory dance* Woohoo! Woohoo!

The second story of my trilogy has arrived, and we're turning back the clock - all the way to chapter 1 of Desperation! Remember how the story started off in PPOV, but then changed to APOV once the evening came? Well, we're doing the same story all over again, but this time, we'll be looking through PERCY'S eyes the entire time. All questions about Echidna and Percy will be answered, and greatly in THIS chapter! Been wondering what's happened to our fabled hero? Well, here he is now! Well, not NOW, but ... you know. When you start reading the story, he'll be there. Er, not. When you get to his scene, he will be. You know, perhaps I'm over-explaining this. Whatever.

DISCLAIMER: Now that I've posted this chapter, I can return to the real goal of my life. For the past week I've been chasing Percy all around town, screaming, "I'VE FOUND THE LOST HERO! NOW GET IN THE NET!" My neighbors think I'm a lunatic.

NOTE: If you think that this chapter doesn't coincide with Desperation, that's probably because you never noticed that I edited out the part with the notes a long time ago. If you're confused, then go reread the first chapter, because it's different.

NOTE: As I posted a preview of this chapter in the last story, as well as it's just the flip side of chapter 1, some of this may seem familiar. Don't worry, it's not some supernatural case of déjà vu - it's a totally normal, completely expected case of déjà vu. But that DOESN'T mean you can just skip over the beginning, because I've changed it. Got it? Okay! Well, as Mario (no, I don't own him, either) would say, "Hero we go!" It's PPOV time!

{TWO WEEKS AGO...}

EchidnaPOV (hahaha, I'm a liar):

How to do this ...?

I lay in a bush. Watching. Listening. Granted, I couldn't hear every word they spoke, every detail of their image. But it was enough.

"challenge...you...battle...arena...!"

"...nearly...scorched...lava...climbing..."

"...you...under...stars...tonight...?"

I listened. I listened. But it wasn't getting me anywhere. No one was saying what I wanted them to say.

Come ON ...

A sharp cry rang out through the hillside. It was short, painful, and it was followed a few moments later by weak calls for help. Had I been seen? That wouldn't be good. If someone had spotted me, there would be trouble. I couldn't let that happen.

But when I turned, ready to kill if necessary, all I saw was a crumpled old woman laying in the grass. She had fallen. She had fallen, and she couldn't get up. Her foot was trapped inside a mouse trap. Why would there be a mouse trap here? I wondered.

I couldn't let her blow my cover. I was about to strike when I heard a boy shout: "Oh, gods!"

Shrinking deeper into my shrub, I watched as a boy sprinted up the hill and knelt by the woman's side, followed shortly by another, this one moving slower. "Malcolm, seriously?" the second boy asked.

"Travis, this is serious!" the boy named Malcolm shot back, before returning his attention to the woman. "Are you okay?" he asked. Then he noticed the trap on her foot.

The one named Travis finally caught up, and when he looked down, he laughed. "The trap! Darn it! That's the trap I planted in the grass." Malcolm glared at him. "What? I was only trying to catch Clarisse, or maybe Katie, but I guess this old hag got there first."

"Travis!" Malcolm shouted, outraged. "We have to help her!" He gently removed the trap from her foot. There was a deep red gash.

Travis's eyes widened, and I noticed that he began to turn green. "That's ... that's not like the cartoons ..." he muttered.

"See? You see why I told you not to do this? I told you it would hurt somebody, but you didn't believe me! What did you say again? Oh, yeah, that's right. 'Uh, it works in Tom and Jerry.' Idiot!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry! Now what do we do?"

"We have to get her to the infirmary!"

"Woah, woah - inside camp? Even I'm not THAT dumb."

"Come on, Travis!"

"Ugh, fine. But if this lady turns out to be some kind of evil monster or whatever, I'm not taking the blame."

Malcolm rolled his eyes but otherwise ignored him. Malcolm said, "Let her enter camp. I'll go find Chiron, since I don't trust you to do it." He turned back to the woman. "It'll be okay. I'm going to get help." Then he ran back down the hill.

Rolling his eyes, Travis said blandly, "I, Travis Stoll, give you permission to enter camp."

Thunder shook the hillside. And then, just like that, the woman was there, inside the camp. Travis sighed loudly. "I guess I'll wait with you until Chiron gets here." He sat next to her, and they waited. The woman had tears streaking down her face.

Well ..., I thought. That was interesting ...

{TEN DAYS LATER...}

{DAY ONE}

PPOV:

Ah. Life was perfect. I happily trotted down to my cabin to get out of my sandy clothes, a smug grin on my face. I'm glad Poseidon hadn't had any more children in the couple of months since the law was lifted; otherwise my cabin-mate would've seen me come in, and he/she'd tell Chiron I'd been gone all night. And after seeing all the sand in my hair and clothes, it was only a short leap to Annabeth, and once they saw that she had sand stuck in her long, blonde hair ... it wouldn't have turned out well at all.

Well, what can I say? I didn't MEAN to fall asleep there. I just ... didn't want to get up. How could I, with her head on my shoulder? And she was asleep, and she looked so cute, and ...

Okay. Enough on the topic. I got back in my cabin, took a long shower, got changed, and headed for the dining pavilion, getting there just before the bell rang. Annabeth and I had plans for that night, and I couldn't wait. At 7, I'd head over to her cabin. I couldn't contain my excitement.

When I was sitting at my table, I noticed Annabeth wink at me. I grinned like an idiot.

Clarisse and the Stoll brothers snickered to themselves, but frankly, I didn't care.

Like I said, life was perfect.

EPOV:

Okay ... now this will require precise timing ...

I stood on the hill, wearing a dark robe that shrouded my body in darkness. I couldn't risk being identified - it wasn't time for war yet. And I waited. And waited.

Come on ... where are you, demigods?

There! Finally. I spotted them dueling in a stadium. I couldn't see anyone else in the building - which was odd. Why were these boys fighting without an audience of some sort?

Practice, I realized. Good. It's better that they're alone.

Here's my chance. Get ready, Jackson. Surprise...!

I grabbed a dagger from within my robe. The blade was celestial bronze, within which I could see a duplicate of myself, mimicking my every move and pretending to be me. The handle was made of gold, a delicately-carved representation of a lion swiping a mortal's head right off his neck. Blood spilled from the decapitated human as he held his hands to the sky, begging for mercy. I loved its beautiful design, but I rarely ever found a chance to use the knife. Now was the time. But today, it would not be beheading anybody.

Moving almost too fast for the unaided eye to spot, I leaped. As I left the ground, I dragged the blade across my left hand, creating a large slit. On the return swing, I released the dagger. It spiraled down the other side of the hill. I landed in the grass facedown, prepared to play the part.

I took a deep breath.

And I screamed.

MalcolmPOV:

Cling!

Cling!

"Why don't you just give up now and spare yourself the agony?"

Cling!

Cling-scREEEch!

"Hah! You wish!"

Then came the scream.

It was bloodcurdling. It shook the camp. It echoed throughout our very minds, our bodies, our souls. It was there one second, gone the next. Left as abruptly as it had begun - but even once it had, it was still there. Lingering around us, it was still there.

I froze. So did Travis.

What - what was that?

"What the Hades?" Travis cried.

I walked to the open door of the stadium. "You don't think it was a camper, do you?"

Travis shook his head, coming up beside me. "Nah. I doubt it. A demigod wouldn't scream like that. Besides, it sounded too old."

"So then, who was it?"

"Beats me -"

We both saw her at the same time.

"Oh, not another old lady," Travis complained.

"Seriously, Travis? Come on. Let's go." We ran up the hill.

The woman was tall. She lay facedown in the grass, cloaked in a black robe. The robe hid most of her body, except her hand - from which a thick, golden liquid seeped.

"Fine. I'll do it again," Travis muttered.

What could that be? I wondered. Some kind of honey?

"I, Travis Stoll -"

ICHOR!

"Travis, no!"

"- give you permissi -" "NO!" "- enter camp."

I screamed my warning over his statement, but the sentence was out of his mouth before he could react.

A flash of thunder. It was done.

"You idiot!" I cried. "Do you know what you just did?"

The woman leaped off the grass, climbing quickly to her feet. Laughing gleefully, she shoved us both to the ground before running further into the camp.

"What the Hades?"

"That was a monster, you imbecile!" I got to my feet, smoke practically billowing from my ears. "Didn't you see the golden ichor coming from her cut?"

"Me?" Travis stood quickly. "You're the one who always wants to save people, always wants to help. I told you, I told you this was going to happen! Well, I'm not taking the blame for this one. No way! This is all your fault!"

A part of me desperately wanted to destroy him. But I tried to calm myself down. Speaking slowly, pronouncing each syllable carefully, trying not to let my temper overflow, I said, "Standing around and fighting about it isn't going to help. We have to go to Chiron. He'll know what to do."

I started down the hill. But then: "No."

I spun on my heel, incredulous. "No? We just set a monster loose in the camp! We're all in danger! What else can we do?"

"Nothing," Travis said angrily. "We're not going to say anything. If we do, we'll just get in trouble. It's not like Chiron can do anything about it, anyway. We'll search for it on our own, maybe, but we're not going to tell anyone. Got that, Malcolm?"

I shook my head. "You are unbelievable!"

"Promise me, Malcolm!"

I sighed. "Fine. We won't say anything. But we have to go look for it immediately."

He nodded. "Let's go."

We walked back down the hill. As we went, I had a terrible feeling that this monster would be worse than the ones we often faced in the camp woods.

Much worse.

{NIGHT ONE}

PPOV:

It was only 5:37, and I was freaking out. Annabeth and I had a good relationship going, and I had decided I was finally going to tell her the one thing that had been on my mind for weeks. But, like any seaweed brain, I drew a blank. Words aren't really good with me - and I don't just mean the dyslexia that comes with being a demigod.

I needed some fresh air, so I opened my cabin window. It was a windless night, but I didn't care.

I went through a few different scenarios in my mind, but none of them seemed right. How could I say it without sounding stupid or corny? Was that even possible? I know, I know, this doesn't sound like noble, heroic Percy at all, right? Well, that's love for you. It makes you stupid in the just the wrong ways at just the wrong times.

I panicked. It was 6 already, and I wasn't at all ready.

Sitting on my bed, I scribbled WHY CAN'T I JUST TELL HER I LOVE HER? furiously on a piece of paper before my anguish took over. I balled it up and threw it at the wall. Hard. It bounced off and whacked me in the forehead, dropping to the floor at my feet. I sighed, about ready to explode.

Crunch.

My head snapped alert. What was that?

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Either something really heavy was walking over the leaves outside, or a giant was noisily chomping on Chex Mix right outside my window.

Relax, I told myself. You're just high-strung. It's ... it's the breeze.

There was no wind.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

Instinctively, I grabbed Riptide from my nightstand and uncapped it. This thing definitely sounded too heavy to be a person. Was it a monster? How did it get through the camp borders? The Golden Fleece should have been protecting us.

I don't like this.

Slowly, I moved toward the window.

"Who's there?" I asked.

Silence.

I sighed, closing the window and locking it. I must be losing my mind.

Thump.

What was that? I whirled around, brandishing my weapon. I saw a shadow move across the floor towards my bed.

Thump. Thump.

One thing was for certain: I was not alone in the cabin.

Thump. Thump.

Thump.

And now The Kidnapped Hero Trilogy: Desolation has officially begun! My sincerest apologies (HEH - yeah, right) if Echidna seems OOC in her part. But come on. Some people think using someone else's characters is hard. Then they try using monsters from Greek mythology. Who knows how they think? But I think I did okay. Either way, I'm proud of this chapter. I like the way it turned out.

I planted a reference to an old Life Alert commercial in there. See if you can find it! :D

So ... yeah. Okay. That's done. So ... check out my website, read my new one-shot Death Do Us Part, yadayadayada... you know, the works. :)

FUN FACT: I actually started writing this chapter back in November. As I had new ideas and altered my original plan again and again (like when I edited out the part with the notes, which I'm sure most of you never noticed), I changed things I had jotted down and added things and erased things. The scene where Percy hears Echidna and tries to figure out where it's coming from - I wrote that before I even STARTED Desperation. Then as I wrote chapter one of D, it ended up staying APOV. That's when I came up with this idea, and that part got delayed to this story. Eventually it transformed into this. The pact that Malcolm and Travis made actually came to me today, as I was finishing this chapter. Haha, well, my best ideas usually come at the last minute, :D

- I have been down the water spout. Have you?