It Will Come With Time
Complete summary: Thirteen years after 'Made From Broken Parts' takes place, Leo and Lucy live on the Ohio countryside with their seven-year-old daughter, Ruby. One fateful day, Ruby finds a boy in the woods, one with demigod blood. The Valdez's take the boy, Max, in and raise him alongside Ruby. The day comes when it's time to send the two of them to Camp Half-Blood, the one place Max has been told to avoid at all costs.
Sequel to Made From Broken Parts.
Understand that it's not necessary to read Made From Broken Parts to understand the story.
Rated T for language.
Chapter 1-Maxwell
Max crashed through the underbrush and broke into a clearing, but those things weren't far behind. The huge, black dogs leaped into the clearing after him, and Max backed up slowly as the monstrous creatures prepared to pounce. It was no use. For two days, they had chased him across the highways. Last night, they had snapped his father's weapon. This morning, they had eaten what was left of his rations. He hadn't slept since they had first attacked his home.
He had fallen asleep in his mother's lap while watching a movie. Next thing he knew, he was awake in his mother's bedroom. The door was locked and blocked off with a dresser. On the other side, there were angry snarls and huge claws raking against the wood. Max sat straight up, petrified with fear. "Mommy?" he called out.
"I'm right here, sweetheart," his mother said from the closet. There was panic in her voice, but she was obviously trying to hide it.
"What's going on? I'm scared," he whimpered.
She didn't answer. Instead, she emerged from the closet with three packages; two were wrapped in brown paper and one was a small hiking backpack. She sat on the bed next to Max. For a moment, she sat with her head in her hands, and when she looked up at Max, she had tears in her eyes. "Your father said this would happen, but I didn't think it would be this soon. You're only 7." She touched his cheek. "You have to leave now, honey. You need to be closer to your father."
"But Mommy, you said Daddy was gone." He gripped his mother's arm. The clawing grew louder.
She gave a sad smile. "He's very weak, too weak to see us, but if you're close enough to him, he may be able to protect you. You're too powerful to live in the mortal world."
"But you'll come with me, right?" He wasn't going anywhere without his mother.
When Emma Wise spoke, her voice was choked up. "I'm sorry, Maxie, I can't go where you're going. The best I can do for you is hold off the hellhounds." There was the sound of splintering wood and a great black paw broke through the door; in was soon replaced by a snarling maw. "You don't have much time," she hurried on. She handed Max the smallest package, a curved, bronze dagger. "Your father wanted you to have this. Use it to protect yourself against your pursuers."
Max looked at the blade in alarm. "I'm not supposed to play with knives though."
His mother laughed. "This is an exception." She handed him the backpack. "Don't look through it until you've put a safe distance between you and the monsters. There's food and water and a little bit of nectar in a silver flask. Only drink it if you're injured, and even then only a little. Too much could make you very sick," she warned. The hellhounds were slowly inching the dresser out of the way. "You must go now. Hurry!" She urged Max towards the window, which she had opened into the night.
"B-b-but-"
Emma wrapped her son in a tight hug. Then she held him out at arms' length and studied him. "You look just like your father," she remarked. "Maxwell Wise, you are special. You host the blood of two great powers. You have abilities beyond your wildest imagination." A tear ran down her cheek.
"What kind of powers? Where am I supposed to go? What's going on?" Max demanded.
"It will all be clear in time," she said, putting emphasis on 'time.' She removed the oval, silver locket from her neck and placed it over the head of her young son. "Remember where you came from, Max. Find your father in the Underworld, and above all, stay away from Camp Half-Blood at all costs." She lifted Max up onto the window ledge and planted a kiss on his forehead. "Be good, my son, and good luck." At that moment, three huge black dogs, hellhounds, burst through the door, knocking the dresser aside. Emma grabbed the final package and unfurled a glistening bronze sword. The hellhounds growled and paced, trying to find a way to get to Max's mother without getting skewered.
"Mommy!" he screamed.
She threw a glance over her shoulder. "Go! I'll hold them off!" she yelled. Max hesitated, but swung his legs around to the outside.
"I can't leave you," he whimpered.
"It's the only way, now go!" She shoved him off the ledge and Max landed on the grassy lawn on his hands and knees. His knees stung, but he scrambled to his feet and gathered his gifts in his arms. He took off into the dark woods and as he glanced back, he saw the hellhounds pounce.
He had been running for nearly an hour when he stumbled across a brightly lit gas station along a county highway. He slumped down against the wall with his legs shaking and his chest heaving. He pulled the backpack off of his shoulder. 'Don't look through it until you've put a safe distance between you and the monsters,' his mother had said. Mother. She had to be okay. She was strong, Max knew that. Those hellhounds couldn't kill her, could they? A part of him knew they could, but he tried not to think about it and unzipped the bag. There were several cans of food, a large water bottle and a small silver flask, just as his mom had said. There were other things too: a map, a wad of money and a sandwich bag filled with gold coins. He pulled out the water bottle and took a swig. He was exhausted, confused and scared. Those things couldn't be far behind. He had to keep going. He had to find his father in the Underworld, wherever that was.
Max was about to look at the map when he heard a growl to his left. A hellhound stalked out of the darkness, flanked by the other two. He didn't know what else to do then run inside the gas station. A teenage boy sat with his feet on the counter playing on an iPod. Max rushed over to him. "You've got to help me, these monsters are after me!"
"Woah, little boy, there's no such thing as monsters. Go back to your mommy," he said without looking up from his game.
"You don't understand. They got my mom. I have to get to the Underworld!" Max bounced up and down on his toes. The hellhounds stood outside and fogged up the glass with their breath.
The clerk sighed and set aside his game. He leaned over and put his face so close to Max's, Max could smell Doritos on his breath. "Look, kid, I don't know what the hell yer smokin', but it ain't my business. I ain't no police department and I definitely ain't yer babysitter." The hellhounds must have figured out that they could get in by pushing on the doors, because one leaped in and hopped up on the counter. The clerk screamed and scrambled out the other door. Well, that hadn't gone as well as he had hoped.
The hellhound turned his attention to Max and growled at him. "Um, nice doggy," he offered. The dog pounced. Max dived out of the way into a display of beef jerky. He got an idea. He ripped open one of the beef jerky packages and tossed a piece into the beast's mouth as it snapped. It chewed at it for a moment but went back to sizing up Max once he had swallowed it. Max threw a handful of pieces at its face and scrambled out the same exit as the clerk.
Max managed to crawl into the bed of a pickup truck that had been filling up at the gas station just as it was driving away. The truck drove on all night, and Max stayed huddled in the corner. But he couldn't sleep. He kept watching behind him and along the sides of the road for the three vicious mastiffs. The driver pulled over at a rest stop in the morning and saw Max crouching in the back.
"What the hell ya doing back there? Damn freeloader!" he hollered. It didn't take Max long to get out of there.
He had managed to study the map last night. Hollywood, California had been circled in red. 'Entrance to the Underworld'was scrawled next to it. By the signs he had seen, he was in Ohio now. He needed to be going west, so he hopped snuck into the trailer of a family headed to Indiana.
That ride lasted even less time.
The family's SUV blew a tire an hour down the road and Max had to hop out and dash into the woods before they lifted the tarp and discovered him there. Now he was stuck following the road from the woods and trying to stay out of view of the cars. Every now and then, he would hear a twig snap or leaves rustling, but when he turned to look, no one was there.
By sundown, Max was low on water and down a can of tomato soup. He tried to sleep outside the restrooms at a rest stop, but the hellhounds had caught up with him. They easily broke through the glass doors and Max was forced to draw his dagger. He succeeded in slashing one in the face and it fell on the ground, yowling in pain, but it just made the other two angrier. He slashed at another one, but it just ripped the knife out of his grip and snapped it in half in its maw.
Fortunately, he made it out by backing out the door then sitting on the bumper of a tour bus. However, he couldn't hold on long before the vibration of the moving bus knocked him off and sent him sprawling out on the highway. He narrowly avoided the oncoming traffic and crawled into the ditch. He was so exhausted, he expected to pass out as soon as he lay down in the grass, but all he managed was shivering in a fetal position. He lay there all night and admired the wildflowers that bloomed at his touch.
At sunrise, Max sipped another can of tomato soup and chewed on a strip of beef jerky he had saved. After his odd breakfast, he continued to hike along the highway. Around noon, something grabbed his backpack. He spun around and saw the hellhound he had slashed in the face gripping into the front pouch. Max managed to reach in and grab the bag of coins before the creature ripped the pack away from him. The dog stayed and tore the bag into shreds, allowing Max to sprint into the woods.
Five hours of hiking later, the dogs were after him again. That was when he came to the clearing.
He knew it was over. There was nothing left he could do. He faced his attackers and prepared to die, but something his mother had said flashed through his head: You have abilities beyond your wildest imagination. It will be clear in time. Time, Max needed more of that. He closed his eyes and focused. The hellhounds sprang, but they never landed. In a flash of light, they disintegrated, and Max was left suspended in a bubble of energy. He felt slow and tired. He could sleep now. No one would find him out in these woods. He could nap forever if he wished. As he closed his eyes and passed out, a metallic voice spoke in his head: Yes, sleep, my son. When you wake, the world will have changed and you shall avenge me.
