Chapter III

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-Rho-

I saw Phi waiting in front of the portal, his wings fluttering a little. I saw him being nervous, almost terrified to return to the place he once had to leave. His wings reminded me of a story Chaos once told me, but I believe Phi had never heard it before. I walked up to him, standing next to him, careful not to let our wings touch each other. The wings were a gift of Chaos, when we became Warriors. The feathers of my wings had a little white streak on it. It depended on your godly parent. Silena's wings had a little pink in it, and Beckendorf for example a flaming red. 
'Has Chaos ever told you how the Christian mortals came to believe that Gods Angles had wings?' Phi shook his head slightly. 'When God sent his Archangels to earth, they didn't have wings. They were simple human beings, but the mortals didn't notice. At the same moment, Chaos sent his Warriors to earth for a mission. The Warriors were mistaken for the Archangels, because of their wings. The mortals have made the Archangels appear with wings ever since, and it doesn't look like they will change it any time soon.' 
Phi smiled a little. 'So I guess we're in a certain way Archangels, right?' 
The corner of my lips tipped up. 'Yeah, I guess you could say that,' I answered.
Phi now had a full smile on his face but he didn't seem less nervous. Apparently the story didn't help to let him loose a little of the tension. How could he? I understood him perfectly. I know Chaos only said we had to go to earth, but it wasn't like any place on earth. If he hadn't been hesitating to answer my question, we would have been perfectly fine with the mission. But we had to go back to the place where all of our lifes had begun, and ended.

I looked back at Phi and saw him give me a reassuring smile. With a deep breath he stepped through the portal. I looked over my shoulder, motioning the other Warriors to follow, and entered the black hole.

When we stepped out, the first thing I noticed was the quietness. The only times when it had been this silent, was when someone had died and the body was being burned. Somewhere in the distance a horn sounded, and immediately campers started to come out of their cabins, weapons ready, and not less important all aimed at us. We were just standing there, waiting for someone to make the first move. It never happened. We heard the sounds of hoofs clattering and we looked to our left, seeing Chiron arrive, with a bow and arrow in his hand.
'I would advise you to introduce yourselves before we judge you, young ones.'
Phi chuckled, a soft sound but loud enough to be heard by the other Warriors. I had to smile too. Young ones? Excuse me for saying, but we were over five hundred years old. We might look young, but we definitely weren't.
'My name is Phi,' Phi started. 'Chaos send us, myself and my Warriors, to help you with the upcoming war.'
Chaos aimed the bow at his heart. 'How do we know we can trust you? There have been to many to enter this camp, saying they were here to help us, but in the end to only tear our camp apart.'

Phi was about to respond, when another portal opened. The person stepping out of it, was someone I didn't expect to see.
'It's good to see you again, old friend.' Chaos said.
Chiron paled and immediately lowered his bow. 'Lord Chaos,' he said, as he bowed down. The campers immediately threw their weapons on the ground, to bow even deeper as Chiron if it were possible. Chaos sighed and motioned Chiron to get up.
'What have I told you about the bowing, Chiron? I remember you promise not to do it anymore.'
Chiron smiled a little and looked up to him. 'To what do we own this honour, lord Chaos?'

Chaos motioned with his hand to us.
'These are my Warriors. Each of them is one of my most valuable soldiers. I've send them here to help you. I thought they would be welcomed into camp, but it turns out I was wrong. An upcoming war tells me it will be the hardest one yet, and you could use all the help you can get.'
Chaos looked at each Warrior. 'Introduce yourselves, help the campers with their training and try not to destroy anything, okay?'
Phi smirked. 'No promises made,' he muttered. Chi, Nu and Eta laughed softly. I saw the campers pale a little and a little smile appeared on Chaos' lips. 
'Good luck,' he said, before disappearing again.

-Phi-

I turned to face the campers. 'As I said,' I started, 'my name is Phi.' I motioned for the others to introduce themselves. 
'I'm Rho,' Luke said, as he gave the campers a little nod. 
'Nu,' Silena said, her brown hair curling a little. 
'Chi,' Beckendorf followed. 
'Eta,' Bianca said. 
'Tau,' Zoe finished. 
I smiled on the inside, because the campers didn't know who they truly were. Chaos had gotten me five friends back from the land of the dead. Don't get me wrong, I gave them the choice to join me, or to stay in Elysium. A few had chosen to stay in Elysium, however, the other five had chosen to join me. 
'Now I do believe if each of you would introduce himself we would be standing here for another hour, so if the counselor of each cabin could come forward and introduce themselves, it would probably go a little faster,' I suggested.

Chiron nodded in agreement, and about twenty children stepped forward. It seemed like the eldest cabin counselor was about eighteen years old, and the youngest around fourteen. I took a good look at each camper, but it wasn't until I saw the counselor of the Athena cabin that I felt like my heart had stopped beating. Because even after five hundred years, the head counselor of the Athena cabin was still Annabeth. Annabeth. The Gods must have made her immortal. I felt a little pang in my heart. I had been offered immortality twice, but I had refused both the offers, because I had wanted a normal life with Annabeth, or however a normal life of a demigod could have been called. Guess she didn't refuse immortality for me then. She hadn't changed a bit since I had left camp. Her blond hair was still in the same ponytail and her grey eyes still looked like the colour of the sky before the storm was coming. Except that her blonde hair didn't shine anymore. And her grey eyes looked dull, as if they hadn't showed an emotion for a long time. And as I took a closer look, I believed she was skinnier than I remembered. But maybe that was only my imagination. Maybe my memories of her had faded in those many years. I had to force myself to look away, because I felt Annabeth notice me staring at her.

As I took a look at the other counselors, I found my old friends standing in the line. This picked my interest, and I guessed the Gods had offered the Seven, or six because you couldn't count me, immortality. Annabeth was headcounselor of cabin Six. Leo was made headcounselor of cabin Nine. Piper seemed to be the headcounselor of cabin Ten, which did surprise me a little. Then I realized Piper had told me about her becoming headcounselor instead of Drew. Five hundred years didn't do much good to my memory. Nico was still headcounselor of cabin Thirteen, however, when I scanned the people behind the counselors, I saw more children with pitch black hair and a dark look. Seemed like Hades' children were finally accepted too. After everyone introduced themselves Chiron motioned for us to follow. We entered camp, and I experienced something I hadn't had experienced in years. I felt like I had come home.

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