Uniting As The Ten- Part Two Of The Conclusion To The United Series

Chapter Eleven

Leo's POV:

Max is still shaking in my arms and I'm terrified. I'm actually so scared I might be the one shaking soon.

What if this kills her? What if the drink Bryce gave her is actually poison? I'll never see her again. I'm so close to losing her. I can't lose her, not again.

No. That's not going to happen. Not with Percy, Annabeth, John and I here to protect her. I know she hates that; having to be protected, but she needs it. She has no energy or powers.

I softly rub her shoulder and kiss her head. She smiles warmly at me and lays her head on my chest. I smile back at her when something randomly appears out of the corner of my eye. I whip my head in that direction to see Jason, Eight and Ivan in the center of the living room. Ivan is slightly splattered in blood with hundreds of more scars on him, Eight has a giant bruise on the side of his head and Jason is now shirtless. It's a pretty weird scene.

"Gods, what the Hades happened to you three?" Annabeth asks, jumping up from the couch she, Percy, Max and I are sitting on and pushes them onto an empty couch next to it.

"They weren't there. Octavian, Bryce, Curtis and Michael were." Jason answers, a slightly angry glint in his eyes when he mentions Michael, whoever that is.

"Who's Michael?" Percy asks.

"Michael Varus, son of Janus." Jason replies.

"Michael Varus? I thought Piper got rid of him." Annabeth responds, shocked. Apparently no one else has caught on that no one stays dead in this world.

Jason shrugs his shoulders. "I guess he was brought back."

"Who would bring back Michael Varus?" Ivan questions and I'm stunned at how different his voice seems. Now it seems even deeper and harder, like he just got another dose of puberty or something.

But I'm more focused on his question. I glance down at Max and she has a dark look in her eyes. She must be at the same conclusion as me; Remo Helmer, the only one besides Max with a resurrection legacy, the one who brought back Octavian the first time. We kept him locked up in a room in the penthouse after Max got controlled and left, but he disappeared during the battle with the other Mogs. We haven't seen him since and now I'm really worried.

I quickly try to change the subject. "Well we still need to find this reverse drink, and we have to find out where everyone else is."

Everyone glances around the room, almost completely unsure of what to do. Annabeth seems to be the only one really concentrating.

"Here, I still have my phone. I'll call them." John offers, pulling his phone out of his back pocket. He presses a few buttons for a couple seconds before putting the phone to his ear. After a few more seconds of tense silence, John calls out, "Henri?" His Cêpan.

There's talking on the other line which I can't hear. After about a minute, John seems to relax. He thanks Henri and ends the call, turning his phone off. He looks back up at all of us, a relived look on his face.

"They're in New York, at the penthouse we were in before. There were too many Mogs, so they had to retreat. They took the Argo ll there." He explains and I can feel Max slightly relax next to me.

"Alright, let's go?" Eight asks us all. Everyone agrees but I stop them, a little too frantically, to be honest.

"What about Max?"

Now everyone freezes up, unsure of what to do.

"It-It's fine. We-we have to get back to the others." Max replies, her voice small and shaky. She looks up at everyone and they all glance at each other again.

"Jason, Eight and I will look for the reverse drink, the rest of you can go to New York." Ivan volunteers and Jason looks slightly shocked.

"I'm-I'm not letting you do that." Max tells Ivan. He looks down at her and slightly smiles.

"Well, I am." He replies, then turns to Eight and Jason. "You guys up for it?" They both nod their heads yes.

"At least come to New York and pack what you need. Especially shirts." Annabeth mutters. Ivan chuckles and Jason smiles sheepishly. I don't even want to know how he lost his shirt.

"N-No. You guys can look...You guys can look for years and still not find that base." Max pipes up and everyone's silent again. Gods, Max can be so negative sometimes.

"Well we have to try. Come on, let's go." Eight orders us, giving Max a slightly pitied look. Everyone grabs onto him and I help Max to her feet. She slings her arms around my shoulders and we both grab onto Eight. There's a sudden flash of color and we're in the same penthouse in New York we were living in for two weeks just about a month or so ago, and everyone else is there, just like John said. They all jump back in shock when we teleport into the living room. I immediately notice Max trying her best to not shake as much while she's in front of everyone. She stands straighter and bites her lip hard.

I wrap my arms around her waist and hold her tight to help her stop shaking. She looks at me gratefully and slightly smiles, which lifts my spirits to Mt. Olympus. I look back at everyone and they're all smiling brightly at us.

"Gods, where were you guys?" Piper asks us, her arms around Jason's neck.

"We uh...got a little caught up." Percy answers, looking back at Max, who's still shaking badly despite me holding her tightly.

I scan everyone's faces, hoping that no one seems worried or nervous as they look at Max. No one but Nine, Reyna and Nico seem concerned. Gods, it's always them, isn't it?

I look back at Max and smile warmly at her. She gives me a weak smile back and I'm so happy to be with her right now.

That happiness is quickly ripped from me.

-INSIGHT-

The Mogadorians never decided to experiment on Number One or Number Three for specific reasons. For One, it's because they were afraid that it would fail because they've tried a memory experimentation on her before in the original series and it seemingly 'failed', though it was just Adamus lying to them and saying it did, and Three; it's because they couldn't find him, and when they did during the one-year gap in book one, they killed him before being able to experiment on him, so their only option was Max, a Garde easy to find because she was surrounded by all the other living Garde plus Five, who was a traitor in the beginning, and she was always fighting against the Mogs.