Children of Olympus

Our Hope

" Hope!" Nico cried.
He rushed forward and grabbed her, steadying her as she clenched her teeth in pain.
" What's wrong?" Bruce asked as he ran forward.
" People are losing hope," Hope whispered through clenched teeth.
A strand of her dark brown hair turned silver, like shed moonlight.
" Hope, I have hope in you okay, focus on the hope I have in you," Nico fretted.
Hope stared at him, her eyes flashing yellow again but she held his gaze and slowly stopped gasping in pain, instead she swallowed hard and stood straight again.
" Thanks," she whispered sadly.
Nico smiled at her weakly and she returned the smile.
" What happened there, people lost hope? How does that affect you?" Bruce asked in confusion.
" I'm not merely called hope, I AM hope, an image of everyone's hope and faith and yet my own person. When people lose hope, they lose a part of me, I start to wither away," Hope mumbled awkwardly.
" And the hair turning silver?" Tony inquired.
" The first source of hope was the moon. The sun was scorching the earth, but when night arose the moon cast its cooling light over the land. People had hope that the moon would rise again after every sun and so when I start to wither away, I become silver like the moon," Hope informed.
" Hope, do you know what is happening here? We are totally confused about those four evils and the world going dark," piper asked soothingly.
Hope stared at her, starting to get nervous with all the questions.
" I don't know anything about Loki, or his plans. I do know why the world went dark though. This happened last time the four evils were freed, the sky is darkened because Sickness loves to let people die slowly and he knows that when there is no light in the world, people's sanity starts wearing thin and it kills them inside. It's also a warning, the first stage of chaos," Hope mumbled.
" And the second stage?" Clint asked nervously.
" War," Hope whispered.
" Where do you stand in this war? Are you evil like your little jar buddies? You know an awful lot about their plans for someone who claims to be nuetral," Tony said in suspicion.
Hope glared fiercely at him, eyes flashing yellow yet again. She turned and ran out of the room shaking with fury.
" Hope wait!" Nico called as he raced after her.
" Leave me alone!" Hope yelled back at him and continued running until she was out of sight.

" Tony!" Steve yelled angrily.
" That just proves it! She won't answer questions about her role in this situation!" Tony said in annoyance, spreading his hands in a gesture of ' I told you so '.
" Don't talk about things you don't understand! You know nothing about Hope! She's the reason I'm here, why the evils haven't broken out already, why everyone in this world isn't insane already! She's bound to protect us from the evils for eternity!" Nico yelled furiously.
" How am I supposed to believe that a girl whose life is spent with evils, is one hundred percent innocent!" Tony yelled back.
" STOP!" Piper yelled.
Nico and Tony stopped fighting as the charmspeak rolled over them. Nico just huffed and stormed off after Hope, hoping to catch up to her.

" While Nico sorts things out with Hope, why don't we make a plan. As she said, the second stage is war, and Loki won't wait long," Piper said diplomatically.
" We need to find a place that will not endanger civilians when we fight," Steve prompted.
" What about Central Park? If we can get a message to everyone telling them to stay indoors during the attack and stay away from Central Park we could fight there," Frank suggested.
" Tony and I could rig up a device to get the message out," Leo said mischievously.
" Well once you do that, Piper could deliver the message with her charmspeak," Clint suggested.
" Good plan, Annabeth, Bruce, why don't you two figure out how to use the layout of the park to our advantage. I've got a feeling that any advantage would be a good one," Steve ordered.
Annabeth nodded and kissed Percy before running off to the lab with Bruce whilst Leo and Tony went to create the device.
" I think we all need to train a little extra today," Percy commented.
" Well maybe you do," Jason teased.
" Woah, Bro Code broken!" Percy said in mock hurt.
" Boys, stop the bromance and let's get to the training room," Steve grumbled.