Blessings from Khaos

|No One Else Matters When I Look Into Your Eyes|

Lea loved New York.

One could be cruising through the streets driven by a demonic chicken ladies that needed to go back to Hermes' Driving School with a giant sabretooth tiger loping along behind them, and nobody gave it a second glance, but to spew curses as the harpies narrowly avoided a fender bender as they abruptly cut them off.

(Lea would have rather flown on the back of pegasus than ride with one of these ever again!)

It didn't take long for them to get to the Empire State Building where Percy was already waiting. Mrs. O'Leary was sitting at his side when they came to a stop.

Lea eyed him as she climbed out of the van. He didn't seem all that different, but she could sense that there was something.

Drew appeared at her side, draped in her rose-golden armor. A gift that was worthy only for a child of Aphrodite.

(She heard Chiron whispering to Argus that it was so similar to the armor that her half-brother, Aineías, had worn when he went to battle against the Trojans and even after when he battled the Rutuli and brutally defeated the Rutulian King Turnus.)

"Any word from Alabaster," Drew asked. Lea gave a small shrug. "He's finishing up on his mission. He would be here soon enough."

Though they both worried greatly for their friend, but three titans, his Mother, Pasiphaë, and Aeëtes, were all on the other side. With their magical defenses, it was no doubt taking a long while for him and the siblings he had taken with him to break through.

Eliza and Annabeth flanked Percy, both of the dressed in matching black camouflage. Annabeth had her Celestial bronze knife strapped to her arm and her laptop bag slung over her shoulder—ready for stabbing or surfing the Internet, whichever came first. Eliza had her weapons hidden somewhere in the fanny pack around her waist like most of her siblings. Fashionable and deadly.

Lea raised a brow as she saw the way his eyes looked at both of them. There was almost something hungry in his gaze, but desperate also. His eyes dropped down to Eliza's mark on her wrist, a dove with their names on the wings, twirling around the head like a crown, and between its beak like a slip of grass.

"What is it?" Annabeth frowned as his eyes darted to hers once more.

"What's what?" Percy asked.

"You're looking at us funny," Eliza drawled.

"It's, uh, nothing." Percy turned to the rest of the group. "Thanks for coming, everybody. Chiron, after you."

The centaur shook his head. "I came to wish you luck, my boy. But I make it a point never to visit Olympus unless I am summoned."

"But you're our leader."

He smiled. "I am your trainer, your teacher.—" Lea refrained from snorting. She didn't exactly remember what she had said during that meeting, but he didn't teach them shit but how to utilized empathy blind spots. "That is not the same as being your leader. I will go gather what allies I can. It may not be too late to convince my brother centaurs to help. Meanwhile, you called the campers here, Percy. You are the leader."

Percy looked like he wanted to protest, but seriously, what did he expect? For Lea to lead? Please. She'd sooner set everything on fire. Percy took a deep breath. "Okay, like I told Annabeth on the phone, something bad is going to happen by tonight. Some kind of trap. We've got to get an audience with Zeus and convince him to defend the city. Remember, we can't take no for an answer."

Percy asked Argus to watch Mrs. O'Leary and Salome, which none of them looked happy about.

Chiron shook her brother's hand. "You'll do well, Percy. Just remember your strengths and beware your weaknesses."