Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson

A/N: This is the fourth book in A Series of Unfortunate Events (not by Lemony Snicket): 1) When it Rains, 2) Enemy Among Us, and 3) Predator and Prey.

Recap: I'm writing a series of unfortunate events that was Luke's life from the day May decided to become the Oracle to the day Luke sacrifices himself to the save the world. This fourth one takes place during The Sea of Monsters. (Which means dialogue from the book, I hope you don't mind too much.)

Hope you enjoy!

Where there is anger, there is always pain underneath. ~ Eckhart Tolle

άλφα—Alpha

Silena was just sitting in her limo—it wasn't a large limo, just slightly longer than a car—at a stop light. She was heading to the airport to fly to New York to go back to Camp Half-Blood for the summer. It'd been a long year, and last summer was very eventful… then again, when was a half-blood's life not eventful? Especially when that half-blood was the son of the Sea God.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Silena jumped, startled. She looked to her right through the window to see a familiar face, which surprised her more. Looking at the light, which was still red, she quickly scooted over to the other side of the seat and opened the door.

"Luke?" she asks, shocked. What in the world was he doing here? How'd he even find her through all of this? Even if she was riding in a limo, how did he make it to her town? How'd he know that she lived here? She didn't think she told him, but then again she did have a crush on him, she could've told him anything and forgotten because she'd been so caught up with the fact that Luke was just talking to her in the first place.

The light turned green, and Luke quickly slipped inside, closing the door as the driver took off.

"I hope you don't mind." Luke said, quickly looking at Silena.

She scooted back to the right side of the cab and shook her head, still trying to figure out what he was doing here. "No… I suppose not." she mumbled. "What are you doing here, Luke?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowing together.

"Well, see, I… I wanted to talk to you about… something." Luke answered mysteriously.

Silena crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "How did you find me, Luke? I don't think I've ever told you where I live."

Luke looked warily up at the driver who was glancing into the rearview mirror at the two half-bloods in the back, alerted by Silena's tone of voice.

"Do you think maybe we could get some privacy?" he asked knowing that this particular brand of limo had one of the automatic separating blacked-out window-type things.

Silena stared at him for a moment, appraising him. He looked innocently back.

"Fine. But you only have until I get to the airport and if you try anything, anything at all, you will regret it." she warned, reaching for the switch to put up the separating window.

"Um, Madame—" the driver objected as it started rolling up.

"It's okay, Matt, I've got this." she assured him. Matt didn't look to0 pleased about her decision, but he let her separate them. She turned toward him when the window-like thing was fully up. "Okay, what do you want, Luke? How did you find me?"

"Please, just hear me out and don't freak when I tell you, okay? Promise me?" Luke asked.

"Luke, tell me." Silena demanded.

"Promise me, please, Silena."

She looked at him carefully. "Okay… I promise." she told him slowly.

"I need you to do something for me. It's a really important job and you're the only one I can truly trust." Luke began, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a charm bracelet with a single charm on it.

Silena took it carefully and held the bracelet in her palm, examining the charm.

"It's… beautiful." she murmured. "But this charm… is this… is this a-a scythe?" she asked her voice lowering, as she looked back up at Luke.

"Yes, it is." Luke answered slowly.

Silena glanced back down at it. "W-why are you giving this to me?"

"It's a magic charm," Luke explained, pulling out a thin chain necklace from beneath his shirt, revealing another identical scythe charm on the necklace. "They'll let us communicate."

Silena shook her head confused. "Communicate? What—Luke, I don't understand? Are you not coming to Camp this summer?"

"Not… exactly, no."

"Wait a second," Silena said suddenly, something dawning on her. She quickly looked back down at the bracelet still resting in her hand. "A scythe. A scythe!" Her head snapped up, here blue eyes as wide as a doe's, her heart pounding in her chest. Unconsciously she started moving away from Luke, inch by inch.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Silena." Luke told her calmly, holding his hands up in surrender, looking into her eyes. Slowly he lowered his hands, bringing one toward her. She flinched and Luke paused a moment before continuing and putting his hand over the hand that wasn't holding the bracelet. "I really like you, Silena." he told her, quietly, taking her hand in his and squeezing it gently. "You're so sweet and beautiful and smart."

Silena ignored the feelings she had for Luke and ripped her hand out of his, trying to calm her heart. "You're working for Kronos!" she accused. The air grew cold as it usually did when you said his name, and Luke took a deep breath. "I don't want this. Take it back!" she spat throwing the bracelet at Luke. It hit the door and fell to the floor.

Luke reached down to retrieve it.

"Silena, you're the only one I can trust with this. Please, do this for me—no, not for me, for all the dead, for the unclaimed, the ignored, because of the gods' ignorance." he begged, holding the bracelet out.

"You want me to spy on the camp!" she hissed. "How can you think that I'd do that?"

"I need to know what's going on at camp while I'm away. If I don't, things could break out into chaos. More people will die. If you do this, you'll be saving lives, Silena." Luke coaxed, turning on his charm. He gently put his hand on hers again. "Please, Silena."

"Why should I trust you?" she asked in a whisper, not pulling her hands away, though.

"I'm doing this for us. I want a better life for us. You saw it last summer! Poseidon used Percy because he didn't have anywhere else to turn. Percy could've died because of Zeus's arrogance." His grip tightened on her hands. "Please, Silena." He pulled away and Silena looked down to see that he'd slipped the bracelet into her hands again.

Before Silena could say anything else, the window lowered and Matt turned to look back into the cab.

"We're here, Miss Beauregard." he informed her.

"Thank you, Matt." Silena mumbled, nodding slightly in his direction. He nodded back and turned back around to face the front, but always kept his eyes in the rearview mirror, monitoring the situation.

Sighing, Silena looked down at the bracelet in her hands, thinking about all that Luke had told her. More people would die if she didn't do this. She couldn't bear to think that the people she knew and lived with during Camp, survived with would get hurt or perish because she didn't do what Luke was asking of her.

She closed her hand on the bracelet, closing her eyes, praying she was making the right decision.

"Okay," she whispered her voice a little ragged. "I'll… I'll do it."

Luke relaxed and smiled that charming smile that she'd come to know, the very smile that made her fall for Luke in the first place.

"Thank, Silena, thank you so much." he said, scooting over, and leaning forward, hesitating before gently pressing his lips against her. Silena blood boiled and flooded into her cheeks as Luke pulled back. "You won't regret it." With that, Luke opened the door and stepped out, the noise of outside coming through for a moment before silencing again when Luke closed the door.

"Miss Beauregard, we should get going. You're going to miss your flight." Matt noted.

Silena nodded, her heart still pounding, her head a little foggy. "O-okay." she said faintly looking at Matt before looking down at the bracelet with the single charm. She was doing the right thing, right? She was….

So, then, why did she have a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, her heart heavy?

Luke didn't think that he was going to coming back so soon. Of course, he wasn't actually coming back, just visiting, but he thought for sure it'd be longer before seeing the camp again.

The moonlight shone down on the strawberry fields, the Big House, the cabins. There was a cool summer night breeze. The sky was dark as midnight with twinkling stars, burning coldly. Everyone was asleep, but not a lot of campers had arrived yet, anyway. There were only the year-rounders and then some of the campers who come early because school ends earlier in the year than others.

Luke stood at the peak of the hill, next to Thalia's tree. The camp wasn't his concern right now. It was Thalia's tree. He turned toward the tree, hating that this used to be a girl he loved, his family.

"It's been a long time, Thalia." Luke murmured, pretending just for a moment that she was alive, that they were just talking, like when they were on the run and Annabeth was asleep in one of their hideouts; a whispered conversation between Thalia and himself about nothing in particular.

He'd gotten to know her over those few years they were on the run together. He could just hear what she'd say if she were actually human, if she were able to talk: "You're the one who hasn't talked to me."

He savored this moment, pretending that they were really having a conversation. He didn't care if it made him look like a lunatic.

"I don't know if you've heard, but… I've joined—I've joined Kronos. I'm trying to throw the gods off their pedestal." he said quietly, looking out across the camp.

Silence on her end.

"I didn't want to do this. I really didn't, because I've already hurt one of my family members, I don't want to hurt another, but—" He broke off and sighed, shaking his head.

It really had taken a lot of convincing for Luke to do this for Kronos. Thinking about hurting his best friend, a girl he loved, was unbearable.

"I hate knowing that I'm hurting Annabeth, but she doesn't understand that I'm not doing this just for me. I'm doing this for her. I'm doing this for you, too." He paused. "I'm doing this for all of us." He was already suffering enough knowing how much he'd hurt Annabeth, and now Thalia, too? The whole idea that it'd be creating a better world for them just wasn't cutting it. "But he promised, the Titan Lord promised that you'd be all right after everything was done. That you won't… you won't suffer"—his voice broke on this word—"for long. You'll come back. You'll heal; you'll be human again. Then it could be almost like old times, Thalia: you, me, and Annabeth, on top of the world."

The Fleece, the Golden Fleece, is what Kronos had told him. It wouldn't only heal Thalia's tree from the poison, but it'd bring her back. He might just get to see the girl he loved again!

The only thing that scared Luke about this what was happening, was that Annabeth seemed pretty at ease with Percy and if she started hanging out with Percy, the ways to keep Annabeth safe and out of trouble were slowly but surely dwindling. Luke would do all he could to keep Annabeth alive, though. But if Thalia came back and joined Luke's side, maybe that'd convince her to join the Titan's side, then she'd be indefinitely be safe.

Sighing, Luke turned to look at the strong pine. Thalia having said nothing as he told her about what was happening, what was going to happen.

He placed a hand on the rough bark, the sound of the lightning striking down spinning through his head, the scene of the wave of black crashing over Thalia. He let out a sharp breath, through his teeth, sounding like a hiss, at these overwhelming memories.

"I'm sorry, Thalia." he apologized quietly, taking a step closer to the mighty pine. "I'm doing this for us—for you, me, and Annabeth." He reminded. "Please forgive me." Slowly, he took out a syringe filled with venom, venom from an ancient, powerful monster from the deep within Tartarus. The color was shockingly was clear, so clear it almost didn't look like anything was in the needle.

The syringe looked like your regular, doctor's office syringe, but the actual needle was fairly long and fairly wide and wicked sharp.

Taking a deep breath, Luke looked for a spot that he could get the needle in. It didn't take long before that and when he found where he was going to inject the poison, he took another deep breath, slowly, carefully raising the syringe. He couldn't believe he was doing this, but he was doing this for her. Telling himself not to think about it any longer, he quickly pushed the needle into the bark and injected all the poison.

The effects taking place almost as soon as Luke had removed the needle. A wind blew through the valley, practically robbing Luke of his breath for a moment. The silver glow of the moon seemed to dim into a dull gray, the grass wilted and turned yellow, the forest seemed to slump. Luke looked back over at Thalia's tree, some of the needles on the lowest bough had already turned yellow and fallen off, and the puncture wound was clearly visible, even on such a dark night.

He gently pressed his hand on the trunk again. "I'm sorry," he apologized, feeling the need to again. "I hope you understand why I did this." With those last departing words, Luke slowly made his way down the hill, not looking back at the place that had been his home for five years.

So, kind of short, but I wanted to end it there. I'll update as soon as I can. Hope you enjoyed the first chapter!

thank-you-for-everything

~ See you at Camp Half-Blood!