Luke's POV
I had discovered that sitting in a tree for days on end did not ease feelings of loneliness, but I did it anyway.
I mean, I know I've got the other warriors, but we're kinda drifting off. Nico's always with Will, Percy's always with Adalind in the infirmary and Lexi's always with herself. I guess she felt lonely like me.
Percy was such a pea-brain sometimes. Me and Nico had spotted about sixty-four years ago that Lexi had a crush on him, but he never noticed. And you know what? I have the strangest feeling that he likes her too. I've seen him watching her training, or staring at her from his perch on the roof as she walked through the grounds of the chaos castle. (That's what I call it)
I suddenly felt angry at everything. Argh!
What God was responsible for this mess we were in? Who injured Adalind? Who killed Katie and Travis and... Chloe?
Nico's POV
I was sitting with Will on the crest of half-blood hill, resting and watching the sun set over the sea. Will was leaning back on his elbows and his blonde hair shone gold in the soft evening light, a light breeze playing across our faces.
Despite this peaceful scene, my emotions felt electrocuted. For some reason, across the whole day I'd been feeling angry on and off all the time, though I had little reason to be. I had described this feeling to Will and he had agreed, saying he had felt it too.
Just then, Will turned to look at me, and reached out a hand. I realized he wanted to pull my hood down.
"Will, what are you doing?" I asked him, leaning back and preventing him from touching my cloak.
"I just wanted to see my boyfriend's face, that's all." Will replied, smiling at me.
"I'm sorry, but you know I can only take off my hood inside the chaos cabin." I replied, a little miffed that he would take my identity so casually.
"But why? No-one would see you, it's not a big deal." He said, reaching out again.
I recoiled and put a hand to my hood, even though I knew he couldn't pull it off without me.
"Will, I'm supposed to be dead. It is a big deal. And plus, you know my hood is enchanted. You can't pull it off." I said, getting a little angry now.
"But please, just for a little while..." Will looked at me, his hand still reaching towards my cloak.
"William Peter Solace!"I exclaimed loudly, jumping up and moving away. "I am not risking exposing my identity just so you can see my face!"
"So you think I'm not worth it?" Will retorted angrily, the fraction of the sun's light casting a darker shadow over his face.
"What? When did I say that, Will? Don't put words in my mouth like that." I replied quickly, feeling a little shocked at Will's sudden outburst.
Will was glaring at me now. "Well then, if you don't want me to see your face then maybe you'd rather be here with someone else. I'll go and call Percy, and you can sit here with your hoods up and watch the waves together instead!" he yelled at me.
"Will, you know that's over. When did this conversation move to Percy?" I walked backwards until my back hit the tree behind me.
"I think I'd better go, since you obviously don't want my company tonight." Will said and he walked away defiantly, moving towards the Apollo cabin. He didn't look back.
I slid down the base of the tree, wondering what on earth had just happened. Why had Will just lashed out like that?
Silently, I fell through the shadow of the tree I was sitting in and into blackness.
*****
When I opened my eyes, I was standing in the shadow of a roman-style barrack with the eagle of the fifth cohort standing proudly next to the door. I knocked and walked inside.
There were ten bunks inside but only one was occupied. I saw a bushy mane of dark brown hair and a flash of golden eyes before Hazel was upon me, hugging me until I could barely breathe.
Then she stood back, her eyes filled with happy tears, and punched me in the face.
"Ouch!"
"You git! I thought you were dead!" She screamed at me, punctuating each word with another punch.
"Alright! I didn't even know you were still alive! Who gave you immortality, anyway?" I asked, wheezing slightly and clutching my bruised stomach, which I knew would heal in about three seconds.
"Jupi - Zeus. He said we should be given a gift for our work against Gaia, and plus someone needs to keep an eye on Jason while he rebuilds all those temples." She replied, looking a little calmer and sweeping her curls out of her face.
I grinned. "How's he doing with that?"
"Really good! He did all the ones at camp Jupiter years ago, but they still look great. He got Annabeth to help him."
We walked together towards the temples of the Gods, and I stopped in my tracks.
The temples were huge, each one adorned with fresh flowers and food as offerings. I saw Zeus, towering high with its gold and blue painted, high ceiling. To its right, the sea green sparkling walls of the Poseidon cabin and to its left -
my jaw dropped.
The Hades cabin was made of pitch black stone, blue torches burning outside the great, dark wood doors. The offerings were just as plentiful as the ones outside the others, which was a pleasant surprise. The door was slightly ajar, and through it I could see a towering statue of my father sitting on a throne carved from bones, holding a staff - my staff - and wearing his helm.
"Jason had statues of each God put in each temple. The Gods loved it, they adore posing. Especially Venus."
I smiled. Jason had done an amazing job.
"Hey, I heard Jason and Piper split up?" I asked, as we sat down on the black wall that surrounded the temple.
Hazel's gold eyes were downcast. "Yeah. About fifty years ago. Jason still loves her though."
I sighed. Love was so complicated sometimes.
"So. Why did you come here anyway, if you didn't think I was alive?" Hazel asked.
"Oh. Camp is in an awful state right now." I said.
I explained everything that had been happening to Hazel, and then my argument with Will. By the end of it I was almost in tears, and Hazel hugged me comfortingly.
"Don't worry, he'll come around." she said gently.
This was one of the main reasons that Hazel was such a great sister. When I'd told her I was gay, she'd hardly batted an eyelid and she hadn't said anything nasty like one of the Ares kids did. Also, she kind of filled the space in me that Bianca left behind when she died.
"You're awesome, Hazel. Thanks for listening to my problems, but I'd better get back now." I said regretfully, jumping up off the wall and offering Hazel my hand to pull herself up. "It was really nice seeing you, sis."
She nodded, her beautiful golden eyes filling with sudden tears. "Promise you'll come visit more often? You can see all the other temples and Jason and Frank and everyone."
I smiled at her. "You got it."
As I stepped into the shadows of my father's temple, I saw Hazel wiping tears out of her eyes on her sleeve before turning away.
***
When I arrived back at camp, my main aim was to make up with Will and to try and make him come around. However, this thought was wiped from my mind when I stepped out of the shadows and my eyes fell on the scene before me.
It was utter madness. There were campers swarming everywhere with every kind of weapon, screaming and yelling as they fought... each other.
Everybody seemed utterly determined to kill everybody else. Judging from the screams I could hear, it was for the stupidest reasons possible.
"You stole my cereal at breakfast!"
"You polished my sword when I didn't want you to!"
"You didn't pass my t-shirt to me, even though you were closer!"
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!" I yelled as I saw two cloaked figures run towards me.
"We have no idea!" Luke yelled back, dodging a vicious blow from a son of Demeter as he approached. "They just started yelling and fighting everyone in sight!"
Some campers were even chasing the nymphs and dryads out of the trees and screaming at them that they didn't let them litter when they wanted to.
Percy shouted above all the noise, "We need to get them to stop before somebody gets hurt!"
He pointed at a group of people fighting on the edge of the trees.
"Right."
The Ares cabin were so angry that they looked like their heads were going to explode. They were battling more viciously than any other campers, screaming death cries as they sparred. If they weren't careful they were going to kill each other.
I ran down towards the cabins with the intention of attempting to break up the commotion but as I drew level with the chaos cabin, a huge burly camper swung a sword straight at my head. I didn't have time to duck and just as I squeezed my eyes shut....
Nothing happened.
Instead I heard a roaring noise in front of me and a shadow cast over me. I opened my eyes a crack, and then they shot open in shock.
A huge telekhine, bigger than any I'd ever seen, was sitting in front of me, growling and the camper, who immediately turned to fight someone else.
I reached for my sword, ready to battle this creature to the death, but then...
"No! Don't hurt Bernard!"
What?
I looked around to see Percy shaking his head at me. He stroked the telekhine lovingly and it purred in satisfaction.
"You had a huge pet telekhine hidden away all this time and you decided to call it Bernard?"
"What's wrong with Bernard?"
I sighed at Percy's antics and asked, "Where were you keeping it this whole time?"
"In a secret room in the cabin."
"Ok. Now. Campers."
"Well, we can't hurt them, can we? We have to find a way to calm them down."
Percy sighed in annoyance and capped his sword.
***
Lexi's POV
I was in between Clarisse la Rue and Drew Tanaka, who were snarling at each other and trying to hit each other around my blockade. I was trying to force them apart, but to no avail.
I had thought that it would be best to intervene with this particular pairing and protect Drew, as I thought the one camper who would be the most dangerous when fired up with a huge amount of anger was Clarisse.
My efforts were not needed, however. I had underestimated the power of an angry Aphrodite girl, as usually they calmed themselves by imagining their favorite pair of shoes or shade of lippy and were almost never angry. But right now Drew was ruthless, her hair in a mess and her makeup smudged, making her look like a furious panda. I thought they were equally matched.
It was all I could do to stop them killing each other. I had spotted Nico arriving from out of the shadows and Percy and Luke running up to him and I'd felt a rush of relief. Before they had arrived we'd already taken all the little ones and shut them in separate rooms of the chaos cabin.
We didn't know why we weren't affected by this mass of anger. We had felt occasional flashes of fury, but nothing serious.
Whatever this war was, it was aimed at the campers, not us.
I knew I didn't have a choice. I hadn't told anyone, but... I guess duty calls.
I was preparing myself, ready for the excruciating pain I would feel when I performed my hypnotising, but as I braced myself I let my guard down.
I was pulled back down to earth by a yell of pain.
I turned and saw, to my horror, that Drew Tanaka had reached around me while I wasn't concentrating and plunged her spear into Clarisse's chest.
Clarisse gasped, her her body curving slightly around the blade she had been pierced with. Then she fell and I lay her on the ground.
There were no parting words, no fond farewells, but no tears fell from her fierce eyes as she stared at me, her face defiant.
She died.
As soon as the light left her eyes, the entire camp fell silent. The campers looked around wildly and dropped their weapons wondering why on earth they were attacking their friends. The enchantment they had been under seemed to have lifted.
***
That afternoon was when we burned the shrouds. The Athena cabin had finished them long ago, but now we burned them all together. Katie's green shimmering banner slowly fell apart in the flames, the threads falling onto Travis', the brown Caduceus fading to black. Chloe's pink shroud was covered in embroidered roses that sparkled in the light from the dancing flames.
The campfire that evening was dismal, the flames barely flickering. They were a greyish colour (I'm British, guys, don't hate on the spelling) and looked as if they were going to go out.
The camper's faces were downcast, a few siblings of the fallen campers were crying. It looked like they had completely given up.
I stood up suddenly, not entirely sure what I was doing. I knew I had to do something, I just wasn't sure what. I guess I'd make it up as I went along.
"Listen." I said loudly, and many campers looked up at me. Their gaze was slightly unnerving, but I kept going.
"Listen, I know you're sad, and many of you will feel isolated. I know you all think that no-one else knows what you're going through, but that's not true. Look around. Everyone here feels a bit of one grief. We all need to mourn in order to move on, but we have to remember what these campers died for. They gave their lives for yours, and they wouldn't want you to waste them."
"What do you know?" asked one of the Ares cabin. They had definitely been the most effected by the deaths. They had lost their immortal head, and they seemed to be lost. "You're not even from this camp."
"No. Actually, I'm from a long, long way away."
I turned to Percy and nodded at him.
Percy raised his hand in answer to my gaze and moved it in a sweeping motion in my direction. I felt the layers of glamour hiding me peel away.
The campers around the pitiful fire gasped at my green complexion, looking like I was... well, and alien, I guess. Some even drew their weapons.
"Don't worry. I'm still the same person. My name isn't Lexi Allen, it's princess Lexi of Ariem. Ariem is a planet in the Andromeda galaxy, inhabited by the Arishe. We all look like this - well, only the royal family have red hair, the rest of us are blonde."
I smiled around at the shocked campers, and then turned to the Ares camper who was looking utterly blown away.
"What do I know? All this time, I've been alone in this camp. I'm the only Arishe here - well, apart from one, but I don't think she'd want me to tell you who she is. It's her decision.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that you don't need to be a demigod, you don't even need to be a human to want to do the right thing. They did and the best we can do is honor their memory and sacrifice, keep up what they couldn't do. So mourn, grieve, but use this to give you strength. Enter battle with a ferocity the enemy has never seen. We will defeat Kronos and all his allies. We will avenge our fallen. We will WIN!"
A chorus of cheers and yells followed my words, and the flames behind me rose high, a flickering, burning, ferocious red.
Percy's POV
I saw Lexi give her speech, the campers replying with cheers. I saw her fist hit the air like a bullet, her face set in anger and determination.
Behind her, the flames rose higher and higher until they surrounded her silhouette, her hair looking like a dancing ring of fire as it whipped around her face in the heat and wind. Right then, looking so inspiring and fierce, she was so... so beautiful.
Hi peoples!
OMG I WAS SO EXCITED WRITING THIS!!!!! This was so fun to write, at the end I got feels!
Something I completely forgot to tell you guys;
I LOVE PERCABETH.
BUT ALSO LERCY.
Let me just tell you why I didn't put Percabeth in. You know all those other choas warrior books? Well they ALL end with Percy and Annabeth either hating each other forever or getting back together. I decided to smash the stereotypes and have them as friends.
Also, Percy's love interest is NEVER an OC. So I was like, 'f*ck it' and I gave you guys an OC. I know that is really risky, but the feedback you guys have given me about Lexi and her backstory is so positive, thank you so much!
I LOVE YOU GUYS!
cheers,
catgirl xxx