Luke's POV
As Chaos left the room, he messed up Percy's already messy hair. We all had strong relationships with Chaos, but the bond between Chaos and Percy was definitely the strongest, I mean, Chaos was Percy's adoptive father.
I moved towards the door, thinking about what had happened. I reached my room, walked in, and flopped down on my bed, too lazy to take off my armor or clothes. The night's events replayed in my head. I already had known about Percy's life, so that was nothing surprising. It must have been shocking for the rest of the Warriors who hadn't known about Percy's treatment during his last days on Earth. They had probably just figured that he'd died in battle or something. Emma's story, however, was new to me. I lay in bed, mulling over the crazy events of the night. I was trying to go to sleep, but a piece of my armor kept digging into my back, and it was getting annoying. After a while, I sighed and got up to take off my armor. I left my clothes that I was wearing underneath my armor on, and jumped back into bed, pulling the covers up. After a couple of minutes of tossing and turning, I finally drifted into sleep.
"Luke." An all too familiar voice said. I looked around, but everything was dark except for a small circle of light around me. I tried to control my dream, but it was to no avail. "You failed me once. But, you can have a second chance. I can give you everything you've ever wanted. Power, respect, a family." Kronos stepped out of the shadows. Well, more like floated. It looked like he hadn't found a host yet and was trying to rope me back in. I wasn't going to let that happen.
"Never. I'm never helping you again!" The amount of anger and fierceness in my voice seemed to surprise Kronos.
"But think of everything you can have. Power, fame, riches-" Kronos said before I cut him off.
"SHUT UP! Just shut up! I'm never helping you again! I've made that mistake once, and I'm never making it again." I yelled. Kronos got angry. He got right up in front of me and put his hand around my neck.
"You will help me, or I will slowly, painfully kill everyone you have ever loved." He seethed. I had sudden, painful visions of Annabeth tied to a pole over a fire, screaming in agony; someone slowly cutting Thalia with a knife, her face unnaturally pale; the Chaos warriors being tortured in various ways. I sunk to my knees, holding my head, trying to stop the visions. Chiron with a bullet hole through his head; Camp Half-Blood burning to the ground.
"STOP IT!" I screamed, releasing so much energy that the visions stopped. Kronos looked surprised and I used his momentary confusion to change my dream, something Chaos had taught all of the Warriors how to do. I suddenly was in an empty warehouse.
"Luke." Kronos said. "Luke." The voice started changing to a girl's voice. "Luke! LUKE!" I was being shaken vigorously and I suddenly woke up in a cold sweat. Zoë was standing in front of me, looking worried. "Bad dreams?" She asked. I nodded. "Well, I just thought that thou should know that you have two hours until we leave for Earth." I had been attempting to teach Zoë how to speak in modern day English. Although she did sometimes say thou or thee, but she no longer used them in every sentence. I nodded, sitting up. Zoë left the room. I smiled. I'd had a crush on Zoë since I met her, but I tried to keep it a secret. I was sure that Silena could tell, being a child of Aphrodite and all, and I thought that Percy was beginning to suspect something. We had grown so close in the last couple centuries, we were pretty much brothers. He had forgiven me about the whole hosting-Kronos-and-trying-to-tear-down-Olympus-brick-by-brick thing after about 100 years. Man, can he hold a grudge.
I got up and walked around my room, pulling out my backpack. It looked like an everyday backpack but I could fit however much I wanted in it. I grabbed some of my cloaks, street clothes, ambrosia, and a couple of other necessities. I put on my dark golden armor, and the cloak I had left out. I didn't have to worry about overheating because the cloaks adjusted to whatever temperature we wanted. I looked up at the clock on my wall and it read 10:14. I decided to get in some last minute training in. I walked into the training area and saw that a couple other warriors had the same idea. I trained for an hour, then took a shower. At about 11:30, I walked into the meeting room. Percy, Zoë, Bianca, and Emma were already there. Percy was completely zoned out, Zoë was reading, and Emma and Bianca were talking. I walked over to Zoë and sat down next to her.
"Hey." I said. Emma and Bianca both stole a glance at me and Zoë. Emma said something that made Bianca giggle. It looked Percy had heard it as well because he started to laugh. I briefly wondered what they were talking about, but then pushed the question to the back of my head. "Whatcha reading?" In response, Zoë held up the book so I could see the cover. It said something that looked like Paepr Twosn because of my dyslexia. "And what would that say?" I asked. She looked up and frowned. "Dyslexia" I explained.
"Oh, it says Paper Towns." She responded. I nodded. She went back to reading and an awkward silence hung between us. The door opened and Beckendorf and Silena walked in. Silena was holding onto Beckendorf's arm. They weren't talking, just smiling contentedly. As soon as Chaos brought them both back from the dead, they started dating again. They were the only couple in the army. Castor walked in, late per usual, followed by Chaos. We all took our seats at the table. We talked amongst ourselves quietly and Chaos cleared his throat. We all became silent.
"As you all know, there are powerful enemies rising on Earth." Chaos started. "We know that Gaea and Atlas are both rising, and we're sure there are others." At Atlas's name, Zoë paled.
"Styx, Kronos." I mumbled.
"What?" Chaos asked.
"Last night, I had a dream. It was Kronos and he was trying to get me to become his host, but I refused. He's getting stronger, and he's looking for a host. It won't take him long- he is very persuasive. I know that from personal experience." I described my dream. Everyone sat there, absorbed in their own thoughts until Chaos cleared his throat again.
"Well, now we know of three Titans that are rising. So, anyway, you guys are staying at Camp Half Blood. Oh, and you should know, time is different here on my planet than it is on earth. It has been five hundred years here, but it has only been five there." This was met by cries of, 'What?' 'Are you serious?' 'You've gotta be kidding me!' Chaos clapped once and everyone shut up. "Now, as I was saying, you will be staying at Camp Half Blood. Percy can make you guys a cabin. You guys can reveal your identities, but think it through. If you want to, raise your hand." Beckendorf, Silena, Bianca, and Castor raised their hands. "Alright, I would like you guys to reveal your identities to the gods, and put up your hoods before you go to the camp. You may reveal yourselves at the campfire." He looked at his watch. "It's currently 11:45, so you have ten minutes to make sure you have everything. The plan is that you will all arrive at 12:00 on the dot. I will arrive roughly three minutes after you."
"Why, to make a dramatic entrance?" Percy questioned mockingly.
"Exactly. Now, don't forget to wear your cloaks. Any questions?" Emma raised her hand and Chaos nodded at her.
"Can we reveal our identities to some people and not others?" She asked.
"Sure." He responded. No one else has any questions so he walked out of the room. A few warriors walked to their rooms to do some last-minute packing, and some stayed and talked. I took my cloak from the back of my chair, and put it on. The others in the room followed my example. The hoods of the cloaks were elongated so mine covered my face except for my mouth, but you could barely see it because it was draped in shadows. I could see through my hood and see through the hoods of the cloaks of the other warriors. The front of our armor was also showing. Each of us has a different colored armor, making us easily identifiable. Mine was dark gold, Percy's was pure gold (to represent his pure heart or something, I don't know, Chaos came up with it), Zoë's was silver, Castor's was a deep purple, Bianca's was black, Emma's was fire-red, Beckendorf's was brown, and Silena's was hot pink.
As I stood waiting with the Warriors, I was struck by a sudden thought.
"What are we going to do about our voices?" I asked after a few minutes of thinking of possible solutions. Percy's expression turned thoughtful.
"Well, we don't need to worry about Bianca, Beckendorf, Castor, or Silena because they're going to reveal themselves anyway." He decided.
Emma piped in. "That leaves just me, Luke, Percy, and Zoë." The Warriors that had left to go to their rooms had arrived back, and we were just waiting for Chaos. After a few minutes, he strutted in. He had changed out of usual sweatshirt and worn jeans and into a cloak that made light sort of swirl around it. He practically radiated power.
"Alright, it is 11:55, is everyone here and ready?" Chaos asked.
"Yep." Castor responded casually.
"Chaos, we were thinking that the gods and demigods might recognize our voices. Me, Percy, Luke, and Zoë need our voices to be changed." Emma explained. Chaos nodded and waved his hand.
"Did it work?" Percy asked. His voice sounded weird and deep.
"Apparently." Zoë said, then made a face. She had a heavy British accent.
"How do I sound?" Emma asked, then immediately started laughing. Her voice sounded different, but I couldn't tell you exactly how.
"You guys sound- really Chaos?" I scowled and everyone burst out laughing. It sounded like I'd inhaled twenty balloons worth of helium. Chaos laughed and waved his hand. "Better." I said. My voice was still higher than it normally was, but at least it wasn't ridiculous. Chaos looked down at his watch again.
"It's 11:59... and.... little bit longer... 12:00! Go!" A portal appeared. I turned to Percy.
"You ready for this?" I asked him.
"Ready as I'll ever be." And together, we stepped into the portal.