Percy's POV
I carried Lexi into the infirmary and set her down on a bed. I knew she'd be alright. She'd been through worse than this.
When the rest of us returned to the big house, we found the meeting room in chaos. (no pun intended) People were shouting and screaming at each other, throwing things across the room.
Grover was playing his reed pipes, causing thick roots to shoot up and wrap themselves around the legs of a furious Clarisse, who was struggling to reach Nyssa, who had apparently set a mechanical spider on her. Butch was throwing skittles at Nicolas, Alex (a new son of Zeus) was shooting sparks at people and Connor Stoll was slipping his hands into people's pockets. His brother Travis was just sitting in the corner, staring at the ceiling.
"Hey!" I shouted across the room, but no one paid the slightest bit of attention.
Will, having spotted my futile attempts, put two fingers to his mouth and blew. A shrill, high, piercing note bounced around the room, rattling everyone's ears and causing many to clamp their arms around their heads to block the terrible noise.
"Thank you." I said calmly, and all eyes turned to me. "What the hell is going on? We left you for, what, fifteen minutes, and when we come back it looks like Tartarus in here. What's this about?"
Will responded immediately before anyone else could say anything.
"We were arguing about why Nicolas could get into a monsters only shop. I personally think the rumours are true. Nicolas is a son of Kronos."
This simple sentence started off another wave of noise, until Luke yelled, "SHUT UP!"
"He is not a son of Kronos!" said Nyssa angrily, looking close to tears. At first I wondered why she was backing him up, but then I remembered the Hephaestus cabin had been subject to many rumours and lies over the years, and I could tell Nyssa didn't want that to happen to anyone else. I respected that, but people had to know.
But how to tell them without revealing my identity?
"I know you don't want any prejudice, Nyssa, and I understand that." She nodded, staring at her laces.
"I know the Hephaestus cabin has been through a lot recently, and I realize you don't want that to happen to anyone else, however I can confirm these rumours to be true. Yes, Nicolas is a son of Kronos, but that doesn't mean he's evil or anything."
I turned to Nicolas, who was looking at me in shock.
"You... don't think I'm evil? After all I did?"
"No. I think you were trying to win some attention from your father. Many of us know how that feels. I spent a long time trying to impress my dad, and so did Alpha and Omega, but the truth is, if they're fighting for the wrong cause, it's not compulsory for you to be on that side too. You have time to turn it around."
Nicolas' face was grateful, but a little confused.
"Why are you trusting me? I heard from Annabeth that you knew... you knew Percy Jackson. Don't you know what I did to him?"
"I know exactly what you did to him. But I am prepared to give you a second chance, and I'd recommend you take it, and turn over a new leaf before it's too late." I said.
I didn't know why I was giving Nicolas my forgiveness. All I knew was that Luke and Nico were right when they said I had to move on from my old pain. Nicolas could become a very talented fighter, after all he didn't have any mortal blood at all, he was half god half titan.
And just because he was the son of Kronos didn't make him automatically horrible. That was prejudice, and I was against prejudice.
I was shaken from my thoughts with a shocking jolt as I realized Nicolas was hugging me. His arms were around my middle and it was then that I realized how frail he was. He had been four years younger than me before we became immortal, and he was quite short.
I hugged him back.
Once we had finished our moment of emotional forgiveness and that, I turned to the others with a question that had just formed on my lips.
"Why are so many of you immortal?"
Butch answered. "All the counselors from the cabins were made immortal, to become sort of staff for the camp. After the war and everything, there was a massive upswing in godly children. The rules are more relaxed so the gods were like 'hey, let's go crazy' and now there's hundreds more kids in camp. The big three still hold back a little, but now there's three children of the big three in every cabin.
Plus sometimes we go on quests for the usual stuff, and sometimes to look for Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo. Their souls aren't in the underworld. We're also a bit curious about Luke Castellan, he went to Elysium of course and one day his soul just... vanished. So we go to look for them a lot."
I glanced at Nico and Luke next to me. The fact that after five hundred years the campers were still looking for us was quite extraordinary.
"Well... the other reason we called this meeting was because we need lookouts 24/7 around the camp to give warning of further attacks. Clarisse can organise that and gather a team. If more come, we need to call more meetings to find links, but currently I think there isn't really much to go on. Also, I want the Apollo cabin working hard to find a cause of Katie's death. Once we've found it, I would like the Athena cabin to make her a shroud, is that ok?"
I looked at Annabeth and Will, and they nodded. Murmurs of consent echoed around the table, and Clarisse gave me a rare approving look before stomping off to organise.
The crowd dispersed and vanished out the door. I was just heading out when I was pulled out to the side by Annabeth.
"Look." She said, "I know you're still really mad at me, but I just wanted to say thank you for giving Nicolas another chance. You know, his family in England were terrible. His dad was a drunk, his mum was abusive, and he had an older brother who hated him. He had a terrible childhood. The reason he was in the sea was because when he was on holiday with his family here in America he tried to drown himself."
I looked at her in utter shock. I had no idea at all that his life had been so miserable, much worse than mine.
"No problem." I replied. "I had no idea. And I'm not mad at you, I'm sorry for yelling at you, but I just had to vent my spleen, I had a lot of pent-up anger on that day. I'm really sorry."
"So, we're cool?" Annabeth asked me, her blonde eyebrows arching questioningly.
"Friends. But no dating or anything." I replied, smiling.
We shook hands.
***
Lexi's POV
I was strolling out of the infirmary when I saw Annabeth and Percy talking quietly on the porch of the big house. Percy smiled, and they shook hands.
I didn't know how to feel about it. I didn't know whether Percy still had feelings for Annabeth, but I had promised myself I would make friends with her.
After all, it wasn't her fault. Percy had been very forgiving.
Will had told me before he let me out that 'Aeschyus' had just forgiven Nicolas of his crimes and given him the opportunity to start over. If Percy could do that with the person who stole his girlfriend, all his friends and his parent's lives, surely I could do that with the girl he used to date.
Percy had walked away, heading towards the chaos cabin. I walked up to Annabeth.
"Hi." she said. "Lexi, right?"
"Yeah, hi." I replied. "Look, I'm not really from here, like, at all, and I don't know anyone except the chaos warriors. You look quite nice, and I kind of need a friend who's a girl, that I can talk to about girl stuff. Like, seriously, all my friends are three boys and a dragon."
She laughed, and smiled at me. "OK."
"Hey, do you want to go and see the chaos cabin, I could show you my room, and take off my hood and everything."
She seemed shocked that I was ready to reveal my face so quickly, after all the caution the boys had taken, with the fake names and everything, but she agreed.
We walked through the center of the cabins towards the chaos cabin, and as I opened the door, she gasped.
"It's..."
"A TARDIS cabin!" We both said at the same time, and burst out laughing.
"The boys made me watch all three-hundred and sixty seven series of doctor who before it stopped showing." I said, giggling.
We entered and walked through the kitchen. I was halfway across the room when I realized Annabeth had stopped.
She was standing stock still, staring at the two figures sitting at the table, their hoods flicked back, playing a game of pinochle with chaos silver.
"I KNEW IT!" she screamed, and dived at Nico and Luke, hugging them until they were wheezing for breath. "Oh my gosh, I missed you guys so much... Luke! We all forgive you, I missed you... Lexi!"
She turned her shining face towards me, and I could see her happiness reflected at me like a mirror. "Thank you so so much for bringing me here."
Luke looked surprised, but pleased, and Nico looked positively buoyant.
I smiled and beckoned to her, and opened to door into my bedroom.
Another gasp.
"Wow..."
I had to admit, my bedroom was beautiful. It was huge, with a soft, squidgy green carpet, and a wallpaper patterned with woodland scenes. My shelves were made with rough wood with the bark still on, and by bedframe was the same. I had a huge flattened log in the middle that served as a desk. The only thing that wasn't nature themed was the huge screen on the left-hand wall, with several consoles attached to it. (Yes, I'm addicted to videogames)
She settled herself on one of my enormous beanbags (coz I'm a hipster) and gazed around at all the books on my shelves.
"Oliver Twist... the entire Harry Potter series... A COMPLETE GUIDE TO ARCHITECTURE????"
I could tell from her face that we were going to be good friends, so now was the time to ask about Percy.
"Hey, Annabeth... I saw you talking to Percy earlier, what was that about?"
She looked at me in surprise.
"Why would you ask?"
"Oh, you know, I'm a Chaos warrior and he's my captain and I'm also his friend so I want to make sure nothing's upsetting him or anything." I said, very quickly.
"Ooh ok, well basically I said thanks for giving Nicolas a chance because he's had it rough, y'know? And then Percy said do ya wanna be friends again and I said ok but no dating and he was like that's what I meant and now were cool."
I internally sighed in relief. Nothing is going on between them, it's all fine. I had a chance with Percy, and a really cool new friend who likes Architecture.
YAY!
Percy's POV
I finished talking to Annabeth, and she went off to the chaos cabin with Lexi. I was cool with that, Lexi and Annabeth actually have a lot in common. They're both great with battle strategy, and they both love Architecture.
I decided I would go to see Clarisse and see how far she had got with organizing the lookouts. I knew she was the one for the job, after all it was she that had led the scouting group last time that camp's borders had failed, and she knew quite a bit about killing stuff, even though the first time she met she had tried to stuff my head down a toilet.
I set off and cabin five soon loomed menacingly into view, the barbed wire and stuffed boar's head clearly visible. I had never been into the Ares cabin before.
I knocked on the door, and a freckly ginger teen the size of a small truck opened it.
"Whadayawant?"
I knew he wouldn't have dared call me punk, but if he had known who I really was he'd probably have stuck a spear in my foot.
"Can I speak to Clarisse?" I asked him.
He grunted, and stepped aside, revealing the filthiest and deadliest cabin I had ever seen. The floor was covered in dried blood and dirt, and the whole cabin smelt of sweat. There was a speaker blaring punk rock into the room, and I noticed that Chiron had attempted to make the Ares cabin read by putting a bookshelf in the corner. All the books were covered in dust, and had obviously never been touched, apart from a heavy encyclopedia that looked like it had recently been used to smash someone's head in, judging by the blood on it and the unconscious camper next to it.
The only things that looked clean were the weapons hanging all around the walls. They were all polished to a fine, coppery glow, and many Ares campers were tending to them, crooning to them like new mothers.
Though I knew I could blast this cabin and all its occupants apart with a thought, I still felt a little nervous.
The crowd of big ugly kids parted, and I saw Clarisse sitting at a table, muttering over a map and a list of names with her tongue between her teeth.
She looked up at the sudden silence of her siblings, and spotted me approaching. She waved me over, and I sat beside her.
"Sooo..." She said, without so much of a hello, I thought we could put Ares here in these trees, and then we can get the hephaustus cabin to build a platform up this tree here, and each Chaos warrior will stand here and look out over the beaches and surrounding area. Apollo here with arrows, Iris here with blinding lights and other stuff, etc. What do you think?"
I looked down at her complicated and detailed plan, including cabins, weapons and even particular names. I could never had done any of this, but I thought I saw a bit of a different style.
"Did Lexi help you?" I asked, looking at the handwriting. "I can see a bit of her in it."
"No..." said Clarisse, a little confused,"Annabeth gave me a hand."
"Oh."
I pointed out a few things I wanted changed, but most of it I agreed with. Once it was all sorted I took the commission of the platform on the highest tree to Nyssa, who was sitting by the fire.
Once I had explained what I wanted, she turned to me, and I realized her eyes were exactly the same shade as Leo's. The same fiery brown that looked like it would turn orange at any time.
"Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for understanding. About my cabin and everything." She said, and her eyes were full of worry and sincerity.
I nodded, and I meant it.
Luke's POV
Once everyone had left the meeting, I decided to go for a run so I slipped into invisible mode and crept silently around Percy and Annabeth, who seemed to be having a 'forgiveness talk'.
I ran down the hill away from camp and reached the long track on the beach that had recently been put in place by Chiron. It was about 5000m long, so I planned on doing a healthy thirty laps before taking a break.
I slipped on my workout bracelet (I was not going to run in my armor) and set off at a steady pace, my feet making a rhythmic thump thump thump as the grass beneath me flattened, and then rose, apparently on its own.
But what I didn't realize was someone else was on the other side of the track. With a crash, I collided with a lot of long black hair and a flash of blue eyes.
She screamed and I regained my balance, catching her just before she hit the ground. She looked around for a second and then screamed again, and I could understand why. Being held up by an invisible force must have been a bit disconcerting.
I quickly flashed into view, holding the hand that wasn't supporting her up to show I wasn't going to hurt her. Her breathing leveled out and she stared at me.
"Who are you?"
I then realized my workout bracelet didn't come with a hood. Sh*t.
"Erm, I'm... No-one!" I said quickly, avoiding her gaze. Thank god she had came to camp after the Titan war, though she looked about eighteen. I then realized it was the girl from training I liked talking to, Chloe, daughter of Aphrodite.
"I know who you are..." she said thoughtfully, looking up at me, and for a moment I felt a thrill of dread. "You're that Chaos warrior I sometimes talk to. I recognise your voice."
I sighed. There really wasn't a way out of this one. "Yes."
She looked at me, and smiled. "You're not all that bad looking under that hood of yours."
I blushed slightly, stuttering, "Same to you... I mean, you don't have a hood or anything, but... you're very, erm, pretty... and if you had hood, I guess, you wouldn't be all that bad looking either, I mean."
She giggled at my awkwardness and I realized I was still holding her up. I lifted her gently and set her on the ground.
"Sooo... Chloe, right?" I asked nervously, staring at her eyes.
They were a deep, rich blue, like the colour of the summer sky in the morning, or the deepest lakes in the evening. They drew me in like a magnet. Dam these daughters of Aphrodite.
"Yes" She answered, giggling a little. "I can't believe I'm having this conversation with a Chaos warrior!"
"Well we are human too, you know" I said, with a smile.
"So did you go to this camp before you were chosen?" she asked me.
"Yes, but I didn't come straight from camp. I died first, and Pe - Aeschyus gave me another shot at life. He knew me, and he knew I had made... mistakes, I guess. So he made me his second-in-command."
"Wow..." said Chloe. "This is your second life?"
I nodded, and she raised her finger, tracing the scar down my cheek gently.
"Where did you get this?" She asked, and I felt goosebumps rise on my arms at her touch.
"Drakon." I answered shortly. That was something I wasn't going to go into details with.
She seemed to have heard my tone, as she looked down at her spotless sneakers and said, "Sorry. I shouldn't have asked."
I smiled at her and said, "Run with me?"
She smiled and we began running round the track talking about me and her as we went. I learnt that she was Pisces, that she loved cooking and drawing and that she didn't like a lot of her sisters because they were quite snide. However, she loved fashion as much as all of them.
We ran for about twenty minutes and then she stopped.
"I need to go now." She said, smiling.
Then, she leaned forward and kissed me on the cheek.
I blushed a violent shade of Scarlet as she walked away.
"Bye, Chloe." I called after her retreating back.
"Bye, Luke." She called in return, blowing me a final kiss over her shoulder.
I ran the rest of the laps with a smile on my face, and it wasn't until later when I realized I had never told her my name.
Dam those daughters of Aphrodite.
Hi Peoples!
I'm sorry this chapter didn't have much action, but this is kinda the pre-scene for the main scene, you know?
Do you guys like Chloe?
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING, YOU GUYS!
Thanks for waiting for the chapters and keeping the story in your libraries and not giving up on me.
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!
cheers,
catgirl xxx