CH 37- REYNA
When Reyna came to, the first thing she heard was the sound of Clarisse's voice.
"I don't know, punk," Clarisse was saying, "but does it look like she's less pale now?"
Reyna opened her eyes. The world was swimming around her, slowly becoming clearer and clearer. "Clarisse?" she croaked out.
There was a scuffling of noises, and suddenly Reyna saw a muscled, tanned face accompanied by longish brown hair.
"Hey, war-girl!" Clarisse had referred to Reyna as 'war girl' ever since she'd found out Reyna's mother was the goddess of war. "You're up!"
"Not quite yet," Reyna admitted weakly, but the world was focusing better and better every second. "Can you help me sit up?"
"Sure thing," Clarisse assured her and proceeded to gently push her against a pillow.
"Where are we?" Reyna asked.
"Akron. We did this huge assisted shadow travel from the West Coast, remember? Hades himself assisted us, since Nico was blasted into the sea."
"Nico was... what?"
"Yeah, that's another issue, war-girl. Punk kid's gone missing. Looked everywhere, tried to send an Iris-Message. Nothing."
"What?" Upon hearing this, Reyna felt extremely guilty. She hadn't known Nico long, but he was like a brother to her. "We must search for him."
"Calm it, war-girl," Clarisse cautioned. "We have. And you're not ready to look for him yet."
"We have to! He could be hurt!"
"Or he coulda just run off with his boyfriend," Clarisse replied with a shrug.
"Stop it, Clarisse," Reyna said with a half-hearted laugh. Nico's confession about his sexuality had at first shocked her slightly, but then she'd realized that she'd met plenty of weird people in her lifetime and Nico was probably the least of them. Clarisse had been totally indifferent, as had the Coach. Chris had been slightly shaken, but like her, gotten over it.
Reyna felt ready to stand up, and she did so with the help of Clarisse. "Where're Chris and Coach?"
"Coach's Iris-Messaging," Clarisse answered with a slight frown. "Chris' right outside."
"What's wrong?" Reyna immediately asked. She could tell something was wrong from the way Clarisse's lips turned down, and how her brow was creased with worry.
"Well... I didn't mean to overhear..." Clarisse licked her lips nervously.
"It doesn't matter," Reyna promised. "What has gone wrong?"
"His girlfriend's gone into labour," Clarisse said, very quietly. "And they're not sure if she'll make it."
"Oh." Reyna suddenly felt sympathy for Gleeson. He had been through, and was still going through a lot. "Very well then, we should leave him some privacy today. Now, I will go on a hunt for Nico. Maybe you wish to come with me?"
"Sure thing, war girl," Clarisse agreed. "Leave now?"
"Indeed." Clarisse trooped out of the tent to warn Chris, and Reyna quickly changed into clean pants, and her red velvet praetor's coat. She slipped her feet into her shoes, and exited the tent right in time to hear an exclamation.
"Punk kid! Wake up! Hey, Reyna, a little help is needed!"
Reyna rushed out only to find none other than Nico di Angelo, passed out on a raft. She helped Clarisse lift him off, and set him against a tree only to now turn angrily to her friend. "Is this a trick?" she demanded. "I was worried, you know!"
"No, of course not, war girl," Clarisse assured her. Reyna immediately believed her: Clarisse was a lot of things, but dishonest was not one of them. "I'm just as shocked as you are."
"Well then, hurry up and help me get him into the tent!" Reyna felt Nico's forehead which was ice cold. "He needs to be kept warm!"
"What?" Clarisse hovered around, looking absolutely stricken. Her total incompetence in the matter amused Reyna.
Together, they lugged Nico into the tent, by the fire. After a few minutes, his eyes opened.
"Nico!" Reyna exclaimed, pulling him up into a tight hug. He choked, and when she pulled away, he looked completely fine. Of course, his eyes were dull and his cheeks lacked color, but there was nothing new in that.
"Hey, this is urgent," he said, sitting up. Reyna half expected him to topple over, but he seemed fine.
"First things first, punk," Clarisse said with narrowed eyes. "Where have you been?"
Nico glared right back at her, getting up from the raft. "None of your business," he rudely retorted. "But we have to hurry and make that jump to camp. We should leave now, if we can."
Clarisse stared at Reyna, like can you believe this guy? But Reyna actually understood Nico, in the sense that she also wanted to arrive at this Greek camp, as soon as possible and stop the fighting.
"Very well," she said, as usual taking command. "Clarisse, you and Nico close up the tent, I will search for the coach."
Reyna went out into the woods, calling out the coach's name. Until finally she heard an elated whooping and before she had time to react, the coach was prancing around on his hooves, yelling.
"Coach-"
And to Reyna's surprise, the coach pulled her into a hug, almost knocking her over. "IT'S A GIRL!" he screamed. "IT'S A GIRL!"
"That's great, Coach! But maybe you..."
The coach paid not the slightest attention. "A BABY GIRL!" he screeched. "We named her Antheia!"
"Beautiful name, but..."
She might as well have been talking to the wall, for the coach continued to dance around. "IT'S A GIRL!"
Reyna smiled quietly. "Coach, we're on our way to see her now."
This got the Coach's attention. "Really?" he asked, stopping the prancing for a minute.
"Indeed. The others are packing their stuff right now. And then we'll be doing the final shadow travel jump."
"I'm in!" Face still alight with happiness, the Coach ran off in direction of the camp. Reyna smiled, and jogged after him.
***
"Ready?" Nico looked around at all of them. Clutching the statue to secure it somewhat in the chariot, Clarisse grunted, and Chris sounded out a confident, 'Yep!'. The Coach looked ready as ever, and Reyna nodded.
Nico made sure he was touching the statue.
"Three..."
Reyna looked up at the ropes, were they secure enough?
"Two..."
Was she ready for this?
"One!"
Reyna's eyes felt like they had been squeezed right into her head, as the shadow travel overtook her. Everything was black and spinning. After shadow traveling multiple times, she should have been used to it, but she wasn't.
"Reyna!"
Gasping for air, Reyna sat up, only then realizing that she'd been sprawled out on the floor, and accepted Nico's hand. "Sorry," she choked out.
"It's fine." He easily lifted her, even though he was skinnier, and not much taller than her. And Reyna suddenly felt a kind of breathlessness that had nothing to do with shadow travel. "Look behind you."
Reyna spun around and took in the scenery behind her.
Was this Camp Half Blood?
A lone tree stood on the top of a hill. Blood and corpses were piled up by it, with a lone figure crouching by them. And shouts could be heard even though there was no one in the vicinity.
"We have to go past that pine-tree." stated Clarisse's voice. "You think the statue can make it?"
"We'll have to try," Nico grimly answered. "Come on."
Pulling the heavy, ivory covered statue, they made their way up the hill slowly but surely. Reyna had never lifted nor pulled something that heavy, and it definetely made her wish she'd worked out more.
"Faster!" Chris said through gritted teeth.
Suddenly, he tripped on the way and rolled all the way down the hill. "HEEEEEELP!" he cried.
"Stop!" Clarisse commanded. They stopped pulling the Athena Parthenos. "I'll go help him, you guys run to the Big House and see where everyone is."
Reyna didn't know what she meant by the "Big House", but at least Nico and Gleeson Hedge seemed to know where that was.
"C'mon Reyna," said Nico. She followed the two of them down the hill.
Spoils of war lay everywhere. It was evident there'd been a battle at Camp Half-Blood, but where was everyone? Of course, Reyna had never been to this camp, but she felt like everything was dead when it should be bustling with activity.
The got to the bottom of the hill, and Reyna gasped. Bodies lay everywhere, and they weren't just Greek. She recognized a few people from Camp Jupiter, some being just acquaintances, others that were more than that.
"No," Nico muttered. They were too late. There'd been a battle between the Romans and the Greeks. All their efforts had been for nothing.
Reyna wanted to break down and sob, right then and there, but as usual, she kept a calm composure. She needed to be the leader, the reassuring voice. "Do not worry, I'm sure this isn't everyone. The others must be around here somewhere," she said, hoping she sounded like she meant it.
Coach Hedge looked on the verge of tears. "Mellie!" he shouted. He took out his megaphone, and said louder this time, "MELLIE!" Then he took off as fast as he could with his little goat legs, calling his wife's name into the megaphone.
"Gleeson Hedge!" Reyna scolded. "Be careful!"
"Let's leave the statue here and follow him," suggested Nico.
"Very well," said Reyna. "I think I remember the Oracle girl, Rachel, saying that she had a vision of us leaving the Athena Parthenos on the hill anyway."
It wasn't hard to follow the Coach. He was very loud with his megaphone.
"Coach! Wait up!" Nico called.
They found him near this wildy assorted cabins formed into an Omega. They also found the rest of the half-bloods: the ones standing to the left being Roman, the ones on the right being Greek. They seemed to be mourning.
"Fellow demigods!" Reyna shouted. They all turned towards her with grim expressions. "We have returned with the Athena Parthenos to restore the peace between Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood!"
"MELLIE!"
Reyna felt like glaring at him, but tried to keep a calm composure, and understand what the Coach was going through.
"A roman leader has presented the statue to a greek battlefield, and this is the biggest peace offering that can be!" Reyna shouted.
There was a shuffling, and someone called out from the crowd. "So where is the statue?"
"It's... it's, well, on the hill," Reyna said and turned to where she could see the hill.
Her heart sank.
The statue was demolished. And next to it stood a sweaty, but triumphant looking Octavian.
OCTAVIAN IS EVIL. THERE IS NO DOUBT ABOUT IT. I HATE HIM!
sorry for the wait guys but there was like writers block, school, visits, stress, and all dat shit. So yeah, we apologize.
Dedicated to @AnnabethxGranger for her lovely comments on the last chapters, and the fact that she added some of our stories to her reading list! By the way, I love your username and profile pic. Perfection! <3
I'm out!
~Rachel
PS: by the way guys, Tess has posted a new story! It's a #Jelsa fan fiction and the introduction is like adorably perf <3 you guys should check it out! Click the external link to view it:)