(Recap:"Oh. You look awfully depressed. Also, where's my daughter?" He said seriously once he saw our faces.
I looked him in the eye and said
"Your daughter has been captured by an old friend. He has sided with our enemies."
"Wha..Who.... How.....!! " He stuttered, stunned into silence.
"Our Ex-Commander Omega has turned. I'm sorry." I said.)
It took Lord Chaos only about 20 seconds to comprehend what I'd said.
"How did this happen? How could she possibly just be taken in front of all of you!"
"I'm sorry sir, it was my fault. I sent her a letter through the Lord of the wild to personally check our weakest defense lines. She must've realized that the northern side was the weakest. The Pegasii alerted us when the first attack happened and it was the northern boundaries. There was monster dust everywhere, and I could sense her. Omega must've caught her by surprise." I said looking down in shame.
"Find her and bring her back. I don't care what you have to do. Understand? I want my daughter back at any damn cost and that's an order!" He said a bit sentimental and angry and swiped his hand through the mist and the message disappeared.
All of us just sat there for an hour trying to come up with anything that could, if not get Skylar back, at least buy us some time.
"It's been an hour. We only have two more hours. Why aren't we out searching for her?" Leo asked.
"There's no point. If Omega has taken her the only way we can find her is if he wants us to find her, which is clearly not the case." Elmont said.
"He's that good? I'm starting to get more scared from him then end now if you guys talk about him that way." Piper said.
"He was our Commander. For much longer than Percy was. Omega taught Percy. What do you expect. He's good." Fritz said.
"So what we just sit here waiting for him to call? And then what?" Annabeth said. This entire time Chiron was awfully quiet.
"Chiron, you're unusually quiet, what are you thinking?"
He cleared his throat and said "Percy. I don't know what to say. Is he really as good as you say he is?"
"I'm afraid so."
He inhaled, exhaled, inhaled, exhaled.
"Chiron just say what you want, You're freaking us out."
He inhaled once more and began "Percy. It's true that this camp was once your home. But we shunned you, and you found a new home, new love, new lease on life. It would be wrong of us to ask that you fight for us again, especially after what we did. And I've seen the way you look at Skylar. If Gods forbid something were to happen to her we never would be able to forgive ourselves."
"What are you saying then Chiron?" I asked, mainly just to verify what I'd understood.
"Take Omega's offer. Save Skylar. Leave us."
There was so much silence you could practically hear the heartbeat of the person seated next to you.
"I.. Chiron.. You... I can't.. No.. I.. That's... No. I can't abandon you. I'm not leaving. We'll find a way to get Skylat back and win the war."
"Percy. I Know it's a tough choice. I know how much you still care about us. But I think we don't deserve this. Maybe its the will of the fates, their plan all along. To punish us. Go. Take your armies with you. Unify all the other planets against end. We'll manage on our own."
"Chiron. You made a mistake. Unknowingly. And I already forgave all of you for that. That's past us now!"
"He's right you know Percy. You should go, we don't deserve you. You brought Grover back, that's already more than we could ask from you. Live your life, don't spoil it for our sakes again." Annabeth said.
"Annabeth. If we go, neither end nor gaea will even have to step in to battle. Their sheer numbers will overwhelm you. You know that! You're a daughter of Athena and the leader of this camp! Act like one!" I scolded her for being so sentimental at such a time.
"And Chiron. The fates wanna punish you? Their plan all along? I think their plan was to unify us not make me abandon you. As for your not- required needless guilt? What happened to me was only from a handful of you, that I've already forgiven might I add. You sending us back is like punishing everyone, the other campers, the wild, the Olympians, the Minor and other non Olympain gods... Just think what you're saying."
"Then what? You're gonna tell him no? And lose Skylar? We won't allow you to do that Percy." Thalia stated firmly.
"Thals. I don't think Oemga will kill her. He wants something. He's doing this for some reason. And he told us what it is. He wants to become the Commander, he'll become one."
'What do you mean become one?"
Jason asked.
"I mean, I'll talk to him. And I'll let him become the Commander of the Council's Army. The thing he wants the most. In exchange for Skylar. And an oath that he not attack us in this war."
"You will give up the most Prestigious position in the universe to a freaking blackmailer?" Fritz asked a bit upset about this decision.
"It's not like I have a choice. It's better than abandoning these campers in exchange for one of our hostages anyways Fritz."
"Yeah but how will you make sure that once he becomes Commander, he doesn't go rogue on the Council? We are all bound by blood oath to follow our Commander, regardless of his character or his deeds. If we don't follow him we'll die. Well, I don't mind dying, in fact I'd rather die than let him lead me. But what about the rest of the guys?"
"Relax. Things will pan out just fine if you all follow my plan."
'You have a plan? You should've told us sooner Perce!" Nico said. Wow, that guy still appears out of nowhere and speaks from the shadows. Oh well, some things never change I guess.
"Okay see here's the thing. I'm going to resign as Commander of the Council's Army officially by spilling a little blood from my wrists. Once that is done, I'll pass on the mettle of Commandership to Omega. We'll make sure Omega swears according to our terms first though. Then we finish this war. He stays out, we get Skylar, our attack plan stays intact and we try to defeat end and gaea's combined forces as planned."
"You... Are just going to... Leave that post? I mean can you even do that?" Annabeth asked. I was about to answer her when Fritz spoke up
"That's a crap plan! The same problem persists! We can't have such a strong army at the disposal and mercy of such an ungrateful power hungry psychopath! Did you not look at what he did to Skylar?"
"Fritz, calm down. Remember, our priority is to get Skylar out and help earth win this battle at the same time. I don't care about a post as of now. That can take a backseat as far as I'm concerned." I replied.
"But he's right you know, you should think about it once more. In winning this battle, you're endangering the entire universe by giving them Omega as the Council's Army's leader." Elmont said.
"Do anyone of you realize you're not letting me compete the climax of my plan?"
"Wait there's more?" Clarisse asked confused.
"Of course there's more! How could you even think I'll let that man snatch so much power when I know he's not capable or worthy of handling it?"
"Okay then go on. We're all ears." Annabeth said, resting her chin under her palms taking support of the table.
"Okay so look. Let's let Omega feel he's got what he wanted. He'll make an oath, he'll be bound to not attack us. He'll be busy celebrating his victory and meanwhile we'll be defeating our other enemies. Once the war is past, Omega is gonna realize he isn't really Commander. Because I won't swear to that directly. I'll put in something about how the Primordial Coucil has to be consulted first. But end gone, gaea gone, he'll not have any ally. He'll just have to go back to wherever he suddenly appeared from. We get Sky, we get to fight the war fair and square, he goes away, hopefully permanently this time. So... What say?"
"Uhh... It sounds good and all, but I don't understand, if you make him swear, he'll also make you swear that you're making him Commander! How do you plan on getting away from that?" Fritz reasoned.
"I can play with words. Trust me, I'll break no laws, make no promises and yet get what we want."
"Are you sure? That sounds like a pretty big gamble to me..." Annabeth said.
"You know my plans always have 10% skill and 90% luck and yet I get through without being skinned alive by some enemy."
"Uh..you have a point there. But this time if you fail Perce, you're not going to have a chance to even look back let alone change anything." Thalia said.
"I know thals. But don't worry, there's a reason the universe is in its most war free state since I took charge. So do you think people all of a sudden stopped fighting? No. They can't stop hating, but I can make them, if not love, at least be tolerant towards each other. I've been more diplomatic than aggressive throughout my tenure of 4 centuries. I have a way with words. So you can count on me."
"It's funny how we've always been counting on you, how you always end up being the front face and the leader of the wars we fight." Annabeth said.
"We trust your judgment my boy. Hopefully it'll succeed, but even if it doesn't, we'll find a way. No pressure on you." Chiron said.
"Thanks Chiron." I smiled.
"So its settled. When he calls I'll talk to him and keep this proposal. If he agrees, phase one of fooling him is complete and if he does not go with it, I'll tell him to go to hell." I stated with authoritive finalty. I knew some of them would want to contest the last part but I wasn't gonna have any of it. At last they just nodded. We decided to wait for a while in the big house itself and wait for his call. We couldn't afford more time here when a war was looming over our heads after all. Turned out we didn't have to wait long. Omega was very punctual. In exactly three hours he'd called us and we had put forth our proposal. He took his time but finally agreed to it. He swore in the message itself that if when he came here I did give him the post I'd promised he'll tell me Skylar's location and I'd find her alive.
There was some relief in the camp as Omega accepted that offer. Some relief in me and the army that Sky would soon be with us. We even let Lord Chaos know about the offer and our plan, and he wished us luck. Alas! Even that little bout of happiness was gonna be shortlived. We got another call. Not from Omega and yet from Omega. Because this was some unknown Chaos lookalike calling, and Omega was standing right beside him.
"You liar! You dare mess with me! You dare play games with me! I'll make you pay for it!" Omega screamed from the other end of the mist. The whole Army of Peace and the immortal counselors had gathered around me by now seeing the mist and hearing the all too familiar voice of Omega.
"What happened? Why's he screaming his throat off?" Grover whsiper-yelled in my ear.
"I think he's got a wind of our plan." I whispered back.
Meanwhile on the other end of the mist the Chaos lookalike was trying to calm down Omega. What a strange sight.
"Perseus Jackson. We know who you are, we know why you care so much about this place. Although after all they put you through it makes us wonder why you'd want to help them, but Omega here gave us an insight into your.. Ahh.. Personality and we realized that you won't change sides for anything in the world."
"Who are you? Why is Omega suddenly screaming bloody murder to me and why do you look so much like Chaos? What's this call about?"
"Oh who am I? Wow, for a person of your wits you're so dumb. I'm End of course! That's why I look like Chaos! He's my brother! As to why he's shouting and what this call is about, it's a joint answer. You see, we here have the resources and power to intercept iris messages. Me and Gaea have been following your ongoing discussions with Omega for a while now. He got your girlfriend didn't he?"
"That has nothing to do with you. It's between us and we'll sort it out. You stay out of it." I said with clenched teeth.
"Oh but Omega can make a very powerful ally to me. Not only in this war of course, in the future as well. We can crush forces with so much ease."
"We made a deal. He gets what he wants and in exchange he gives us what we want. The deal was closed today itslelf, maybe you missed that conversation."
"No. I assure you, I don't miss eavesdropping on any conversation. Including the one you had with my brother very recently." He smiled creepily. Done. We were so done. I had literally narrated the whole plan to trap Omega on the message. It was no use denying or arguing now, Omega would just make me swear in his own terms and I wouldn't be able to do that and be caught anyway.
"End. Stay out of our business." I said seriously.
"Too late now Perseus Jackson. It's our business now." He said, placing his hands on Omega's shoulders like they were best buddies and still smiling creepily.
"Jackson. You made a grave mistake. You tried to trick me. You gave me false hope. You tried to ditch me all along. It's payback time now. Start counting your days."
"It's on Omega. But I tricked you. Keep Skylar out of this. Chaos will never forgive you if something happens to her." I threatened.
"Don't give me those threats Percy." He said, surprising everyone by rolling his eyes.
"What so now you're not scared of him? You must be out of your mind."
"Don't be naive Jackson. Look at us and look at you. Your Olympian Gods won't help you, the Council can't help you, Lord Chaos can't interfere and fight. We have two Primordials and a huge army with us. And now we have Omega as well! Tell me, who should be threatened?" End answered.
Onega continued "Oh and about keeping Skylar out of this, I think we both agree to that."
"We do?" I asked confused. I couldn't see where this was headed.
"Sure. So go get her out from that museum you once had your mission on."
"So you expect me to walk into your trap?"
"Oh Percy. Please. It's no trap. Okay, if it makes you feel any batter, I swear on the Styx that on your way from here to the museum and back, and also when you're in there, nobody and nothing from me or my army will attack you. It'll be like we never existed."
"That... Doesn't make any sense. Why would you just leave her?"
"Leave her? Oh excuse me. I forgot to swear to something else. I swear, Percy that when you go to that museum.. You will indeed see Skylar, although she might be a little... Unconscious. "
"Unconscious? What do you mean?"
"Oh you know, Unconscious as in when somebody dies?"
"Wh.. What.. You... You... No... You're messing with me. You're lying."
"Have it your way. I just swore by the Styx. And still if you're not satisfied, I swear on the styx that I used these very hands of mine to strangle her." He smiled creepily, just like end. Then End gave me another creepy smile and swiped his hands through the mist, his last words being "We're coming for you, be ready. Soon enough we unite you with Skylar."
"No. No. No. He.. He.. Kill... No.. How.. No..." I just sat there so lost, so destroyed mentally, so distraught emotionally. I couldn't comprehend anything happening around me. I failed. My plan failed. And if Omega was to be believed, it cost Skylar her life...
(A/N: PLEASE VOTE, COMMENT. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS APPRECIATED.)