The Third Camp Trilogy: The Final War?

Chapter thirteen: Neptuna

"Wait, where's Carrie?" Alivia landed next to me, she was the last one to arrive.

"Alivia, we've been over this." Natalie sighed.

"What?" I asked, I hadn't told them about how Carrie wasn't allowed to be anywhere near us for the rest of the quest.

"That wasn't Carrie." Max dug his sword into the ground out of frustration.

"Yes it was!" Alivia wined.

"No it wasn't. Whoever or whatever it was it definitely wasn't Carrie." Natalie sighed as she started a fire.

"You two just don't want to believe that Carrie fought Zeus." Alivia chilled.

"Do you truly believe that Carrie could fight the king of the gods?" Max sighed.

"This is Carrie we're talking about." Natalie laughed.

"You both just don't believe in him. Do you guys remember last time we were all on Mount Olympus?" She looked from Max to Natalie then back again.

"We all remember it." Max rolled his eyes.

"And you still doubt him? You guys should be ashamed of yourselves." She got up, cast one last appalled look at the two then stormed away.

"Wait, what happened at Mount Olympus?" I eyed them.

"Nothing." Max snarled.

"Neptuna, I want you to understand something, us four have known each other for as long as we've been been at camp. Every up and down, everything since the day we came to camp. When he became praetor it was a win for the little guys, the ones that never fit in... you know the type."

"So?"

"Ever since Nevada Carrie's been acting differently."

"That doesn't mean that he's a different person."

"Sometimes that's all it takes." She shrugged.

"People can change, but that's not the point. What happened on Mount Olympus?"

"You'll have to ask Alivia, we wouldn't dare tell you without her permission."

"Okay, fine." I got up and started walking toward where Alivia went.

I found her attacking a tree with a sword. But I must say, it wasn't very good.

"Hey." I leaned against a tree behind her.

She whipped around, her eyes wide with fear. But once she saw that it was just me she relaxed a little.

"Oh, it's you." She leaned on her sword.

"Yeah, what happened on Mount Olympus?"

"Here, I don't care anymore." Alivia pulled off her dogtag and tossed it to me.

I placed it on the forest ground in front of me as Alivia went back to cutting up the tree.

The normal shimmering wall came out of the dog tag and it showed Mount Olympus.

"It was right after the battle against Geia." Alivia kept attacking the tree.

Carrie walked into the throne room of the gods followed by Alivia, Natalie, Max, Doleo, and a few other people. Other than Carrie, everyone was murmuring to each other about what was going to happen next. Once they got into the middle of the room everyone went silent.

"Ah, the little demigods from Camp Ops." Hera smiled.

"I believe you all know your places?" Zeus scanned the demigods and they all went to different thrones and sat at the god's feet.

Carrie went to Apollo and sat but Apollo looked almost... uncomfortable with Carrie at his feet. Natalie sat at Athena's feet, Max went and sat at Demeter's feet. But when Alivia walked toward Athena, Athena stopped her.

"You are no daughter of mine." Athena snarled.

Alivia stared in fear at her mother.

"My children should be warriors, planners. Not healers." She snarled once again.

Carrie slowly rose to his feet.

"Sit you buffoon." Athena wheeled on him but Carrie didn't.

He fully stood and the room watched him, you could hear a pin drop. I gazed at Apollo, who still looked terrified but Carrie didn't seem the notice, or he just didn't care.

"Do you defy me child?"

"Yes." He finally reached Alivia and guided her back to Apollo's throne.

Apollo, and the rest of the gods gaped at him.

"Carry on." Carrie smiled to Zeus and Hera after he and Alivia sat down.

After a few minutes of talking about how good everyone did Zeus stood up.

"So after discussing what your reward should be... we decided that each of you should choose your own reward."

The image disappeared and suddenly I was standing alone with Alivia.

"What did everyone ask for?" I questioned.

"Not much, at camp we're taught to never make choices that we'll regret. But there's more to that day."

"Like what?"

"Zeus skipped over Carrie but no one said anything until we were back at camp. I asked him why he didn't ask for anything and you know what he told me?"

"What?"

"He didn't want anything. But after I kept pressuring him to tell me what he really wanted he finally broke."

"What did he say?"

"All he wanted in life was Apollo to say something to him. All he wanted was Apollo to acknowledge him as a son. He said that or that Apollo was proud of him."