Percy POV
I stared blankly at Mikayla as she whisper-yelled at me. I couldn't help but wish that I was back in bed. Estelle had gone to sleep and I was almost asleep when Mikayla burst into my room and dragged me out by my pants. I shivered slightly in the cold darkness of the Big House. I didn't have a shirt on, and I couldn't understand how Mikayla wasn't cold in that short, silver dress she was wearing.
I yawned.
"Don't yawn!" she whisper-yelled some more. "You're going to make me tired! Are you even listening to what I'm saying?"
"You're worried about Killian and Lilly's relationship, even though there isn't one, and you like Theo less than you did yesterday because he called you and Bianca lesbian bitches to Killian's face and basically told Killian to screw off and leave Lilly alone." I summarized. "The part about you and Bianca I get, but the other parts...how is this my problem?"
"Because Theo is trying to control Lilly!" she hissed. I stared at her.
"It was one thing," I said. "You can't say that when it's only happened once." She looked like she was going to yell at me but I shook my head. "Look, I hate that Killian has to put up with this, but give it time. I'm sure Theo will become less jealous after a couple of days. He and Lilly just started dating, and they've both got that new relationship jealousy. I remember you having that after you and Bianca got together and you broke the police officer's arm."
"Killian doesn't grab for Lilly's ass," she pointed out.
"Fair point," I shrugged, "but still. Just leave it alone for now. We'll see how they are doing in a couple of days." Without another word, I opened my door and went back inside to sleep.
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Almost seven months have passed now and it is summer. Fortunately, things were fine. Not much had happened since Mikayla came back and tried to convince me that Theo was controlling. There were a couple more major things that happened that had nothing to do with that.
One was how everyone reacted to Killian. The identity of his birth father got out and it had spread through camp faster than any gossip I had ever seen. Several campers tried to explain that he was a traitor because of his birth. Others simply hated him for it but after he singlehanded beat six campers into the ground—thanks to my and Mikayla's training—no one messed with him again.
A second thing was an absolutely horrifying revelation for me. Mikayla. Was. Preg... pregna...I can't even think about it without wanting to puke. A month or two back she started having these weird ass cravings. Things like hotdogs with hot sauce and chocolate milkshakes. Not the weirdest one. Another was cheese and chicken. Mixed together. Ulgh. The one that finally set me off was when she had Doritos and ice cream together.
At that point I had told her to go see Lee in the infirmary. Mikayla had glared at Bianca for a second before allowing Lee to take her to the infirmary. About ten minutes later, Mikayla walked up to us and said Lee had fainted. We were all confused but sent Will and Michael Yew back with her to check up on him and check out Mikayla. Once again, Mikayla came back saying they both had fainted. Finally, we sent Zoe with her since she was the only one who wouldn't faint.
When they came back, Zoe was running practically as fast as she could while Mikayla seemingly chased after her. Zoe had stopped at our table and immediately told Bianca to run. Being the smart girl she is, Bianca jumped from her seat and took off. Mikayla chased her through the whole camp, screaming curses and very violent I told you so's at her girlfriend. After the better portion of the day Mikayla finally calmed down and told us a quick, clean story. Clean, being the key word here.
Apparently, Silena had changed Bianca into a guy at some point and she and Mikayla had disappeared off to who knows where and done the frick frack. Bianca and Mikayla had gone to Silena for a contraceptive.
I almost fainted when I found out that this was the same day Lou Ellen had turned her small. No wonder she couldn't use her legs.
Blech. That is a disgusting thought.
For the finale, Zoe told us that despite the contraceptive, Mikayla was pregna.... Nope, still can't say it. Silena apologized, saying that it works less effectively for demigods. How she knew this, I had no idea. I didn't really want to either.
The third and less disgusting thing is that the Labyrinth was found. Zoe accidentally fell into it during capture the flag and was gone for about an hour. Now she was going to ask the oracle for a prophecy.
Right now I'm waiting for Zoe to come down from the Oracle. I was waiting with Killian, Lilly, Chiron, Annabeth, Mikayla, and Malcolm. Lucky for Theo, he wasn't there. If he was, I think my sister might have had a hard time holding her tongue. Annabeth was complaining about why Malcolm was there.
"Because I would rather have someone I trust interpret a prophecy that may endanger my friend's life," I growled at her. She stared back defiantly.
"So you don't trust me?" she practically yelled.
"Not with her life, no." I glared at her right in her eyes. "Nor do I trust you with my life, or any one of my friends'. I invited you here to hear the prophecy. Be glad for that 'cause I can just send you back to your cabin unconscious." She faltered in her stare a little.
"Percy, I thought you were past that." Malcolm confronted me. I whipped my head towards him.
"I won't ever really be passed that," I said. "You know what that kind of thing could've done to someone like me."
"But you've been good about it," he said calmly. "Why ruin that now?"
"Because I do not trust her with anyone's life," I repeated. "Nor will I ever. I know her fatal flaw. It will blind her when her time comes, and it will end something. Be glad your flaw is not the same Malcolm."
"I don't care if I have the same flaw. What I want to know is why you are doing this!" he tried to keep his voice calm but his grey eyes sparked with anger and confusion. "I thought you forgave her. If you have, why are you doing this?"
"As he said, you know his flaw." Killian butted in. We both turned to him and he quickly shrunk back. "I mean, his fatal flaw would keep him from trusting someone that broke his trust." Yeah, Mikayla and I told him about the last timeline. It was totally accidental, but I had let something slip about the past timeline while he was with us, which confused him, and Mikayla and I ended up telling him everything that had happened. Then, because we felt like we were cheating Lilly and Summer and Brooklyn and Luca about Killian having this knowledge and not them, we ended up telling them too. We didn't tell Theo, per Killian's request, and I only listened because Mikayla threatened to drop me off with Artemis's hunt if I tried to. While I was getting good at flashing places as she does, I would not be able to do it while running away from Thalia and the other girls.
"What about Luke then?" Malcolm said. "He betrayed your trust. How can you trust him again."
"Because he didn't see the first act of betrayal," Lilly spoke up this time. "I've done some research on fatal flaws and Percy's goes along like that. Personal loyalty, otherwise known as selflessness, makes sure that if one who has it sees a betrayal made, the first action that leads to unfaithfulness, they will almost never be able to trust that person again. Everyone should be glad that this is a very rare flaw. The only way for him to trust her again would be if he let himself, and it's obvious that he's not." She finished that with a pointed look towards me. We all stared at her in surprise. "What?"
"That was some extensive knowledge," Chiron said amusedly. I wouldn't be surprised if he actually knew about the past timeline. Maybe one of the others told him. "Even I didn't know that much on the subject."
"So you know most people's flaws by the way they act?" I asked. She nodded. "What's Killian's?"
"Hey!" Killian shouted indigently.
"He has low self-confidence," Lilly stated. "It has reduced some since he has defeated those other kids. Luke has excessive wrath as his. Thalia has ambition, Nico has grudges, Annabeth has excessive pride, Bianca has grudges as well, Michael and Mikayla have guilt complexes, Malcolm has honor, Theo has jealousy—which we are working on—Travis has impulsiveness, and Zoe has reduced hypocrisy. Very reduced." We all stared at her again.
"Well, thank you for that enlightening conversation, Miss Lilly," Chiron said, a shocked look on his face. A few minutes passed until Zoe came back down.
"Hey, Zoe," I said. "Did you get a prophecy?" She nodded, and I noticed that her breathing was a little shaky.
"Can you tell it to us?" Mikayla asked gently. Mikayla herself was looking different. She was seven, almost eight month pregn...still can't do it. She was almost eight months in and her stomach was huge. At least compared to her height. She looked like the slightest push would unbalance her and she'd fall. She was super whiny, which wasn't unusual, but it was annoying. Her powers were a little out of control, though. They responded to her emotions like they were one in the same. If she was angry, her powers lashed out in the form of hard beams of light. If she was sad, she'd become invisible (which scared the hell out of all of us the first few times). If she was happy, small, sparkly and glittery trails of multicolored light followed her around. She didn't want to abort the baby, which I was pretty much fine with. Bianca was too, thankfully.
Bianca herself was taking care of Mikayla to the point that she spoiled her. She felt so bad that she made Mikayla like this when she knew Mikayla didn't want to be put in this situation. She put up with all of my sister's cranky moods and cravings and all the weird stuff so the rest of us wouldn't have to. Of course, Silena, Lee, and Zoe helped a lot. Zoe was helping because she was the closest to Artemis that we could get without calling her down here, which Mikayla did not want.
Zoe nodded to Mikayla's suggestion. She took a deep breath before saying, "One of the ancient sea, one of the new sea, the Titan-light, and the pain controller,
Must go down into the Labyrinth and find what grows older,
The one blessed by the god of torture,
Comes to light powers of horror,
A battle to end the shamed brain,
The creation destroyed by the slain,
Another side becomes clear,
To those who will not rule by fear."
"The 'new sea' is Alex," I said. "That's not good."
"The 'Titan-light' is Killian," Mikayla added. "Y yo soy the one blessed by torture."
"Who's the one blessed by torture?" Lilly asked.
"I am," Mikayla cleared up.
"How do you know that?" Annabeth questioned. Mikayla and I shared a look.
"We just do," she surmised.
"The pain controller is Lilly," Zoe murmured. "That means that Killian, Alex, Lilly, and I are to go down into the labyrinth and 'find what grows older.'"
"Daedalus?" I suggested. "He was never heard from after he disappeared into the labyrinth several thousand years ago."
"Again, how do you know this?" Annabeth demanded.
"I keep in contact with my girlfriend's father," Mikayla said. "He and Thanatos are always annoyed that Daedalus hasn't died yet, and they are only annoyed because Minos keeps on yelling their ears off about it."
"Which Thanatos annoys Nico about," I continued, "and he, in turn, annoys me about it."
"The rest is unclear," Malcom said, looking up from the ground. "I certainly don't understand it."
"Mikayla," Chiron spoke up. My sister turned to look at him. "You say that you are the one blessed by the god of torture. Any ideas as to these 'powers of horror'?" She shook her head.
"I can go visit my patron and find out," she offered. "I'll take Bianca and..." she trailed off, a look of concentration covering her face.
"Take Ethan," Malcom suggested. "He's handy with a sword and it wouldn't do him much good to remain here until this prophecy is over, in case you don't remember what happened." He and I shared a look while the others looked at us like we were crazy.
Mikayla—bless her cold, dead heart—shrugged and agreed.
"Only I know how to get there." Mikayla continued. "I'll go get those two and we'll head down to my patron's place." Mikayla turned and started to walk away, shaking her hips a little more than necessary.
"Um, Miss Conteras?" Chiron called after her, and I blinked at the name she had given the old centaur. That was the name of her 10th grade Spanish teacher. Weird. Mikayla looked back over her shoulder. "Are you sure you are fit to go in your, ah, condition?"
"Yeah," she said. "I won't be doing any fighting. I'll leave that to my girlfriend and soon to be bodyguard for the day." She turned and kept walking.
"One more thing." Mikayla looked back. "Who is your patron?" Mikayla's smile was anything but reassuring. She didn't answer and kept walking towards the Hermes cabin to gather her two companions. Chiron looked to me for an answer but I shook my head.
"You don't want to know," I muttered.
"Well then," Malcom said, clapping his hands together. "Shall someone go get Alex?"
I ended up being chosen for that. What are the odds? Fortunately for me, Lilly decided to accompany me to go get the sea brain from his cabin, which I was glad for. She would keep me in check from slamming him into a wall. Probably.
I knocked on the door to the Poseidon cabin and after a few seconds the door opened, revealing a 15-year-old Alex. His hair was a brown mop, a lighter brown than Mikayla's, and his moss green eyes were tired. He scanned Lilly and I before walking back inside the cabin, leaving the door open for us. I let Lilly go inside first and closed the door behind me.
"So, what do you want to ruin now?" Alex asked from where he was laying on his bed. The cabin looked the exact same way it had when I was in here. A minotaur horn was hanging on the wall and there were pictures of Alex's friends around the cabin.
Lilly gave me a quizzical look because of Alex's question. A look which I ignored.
"We don't want to ruin anything for you, Alex," I said. "I'm sorry that my brother and I embarrassed you when we first got here. But to be fair, you did try to run us out of camp."
"You were trying to take over my turf!" Alex exclaimed, sitting up on his bed.
"No, we weren't," I told him. I used my powers to pull up a chair and sat on it, then did the same for Lilly. I crossed my legs and braced my arms on my them. "We just want a safe place to live. You wanted us out, so we fought back. I am sorry for the way we treated you and how we made everyone forget about you. We never meant to do that."
"Then why are you here?" he snarled.
"You're in a prophecy," Lilly said before I could. "Zoe discovered the labyrinth during yesterday's capture-the-flag game and she got a prophecy about it today. You're in it. You, me, Zoe, and Killian are going into the labyrinth to find the creator of the thing and whatever else we have to do."
"Why should I go?"
"Well for one, it's a fate given prophecy," Lilly started. "And for two, you'll be a hero again. You retrieved Zeus's lightning bolt and you retrieved the Golden Fleece, even if it was Clarisse's quest. You helped get Chiron back his job here, you helped give away Lace's position in the oncoming war long before anyone else had noticed, and you are the son of Poseidon. You're a worthy son of Poseidon. And besides, I'll drag you into the labyrinth even if you don't want to go."
He laughed. "Are you sure about that, little Lilly?" As fast as lighting, Lilly was out of her chair and holding Alex by the neck. His eyes widened almost comically when she let go and walked back to her chair.
"I think she's very sure," I told him. I locked eyes with him. "I didn't even know she could do that."
"Who the Hades has been teaching you?" Alex asked.
"Zoe," she answered simply. Alex and I blinked in surprise.
"She has?" I asked incredulously. "She doesn't even want to teach Katie or Silena!" Lilly shrugged, a hint of a smile on her face.
"I guess she wants to teach me," she said shyly. Her shyness suddenly disappeared and she stared Alex in the eye. "You're coming on this quest whether you like it or not. We need you somehow, and if you don't come, we're doomed. We're meeting in the Big House in an hour. Don't be late." Lilly stood up, placed her chair back where it was, and left, leaving Alex and I staring after her. We looked at each other for a minute. He finally cracked a smile.
"Too bad she's taken, huh?" he chuckled. I let a smile grace my lips.
"Too bad." I stood up and walked over to him. I stretched out my hand to him. "Friends?" He visibly pondered it.
After a couple of seconds, his hand grasped mine and I hoisted him off his bed. "Friends." I slung my arm over his shoulders and escorted him out of his cabin.
"Man, my sister is not going to believe this," I remarked as we left his cabin.
"I don't think Estelle will understand or care," Alex said.
"No, not Estelle," I corrected him without thinking. "Mikayla." He froze in his tracks and I realized my mistake.
"I'm sorry," he said. "Mikayla is your sister?"
"Yeah," I rubbed the back of my neck. "Hey, since we're friends now, you want to know a couple of secrets?"