A Twist in My Story…
Hera pulled on Athena's arm, stopping Athena from going into the throne room where Zeus sat alone. Athena looked back at Hera, trying to mask her outrage. She had never gotten along with Hera really, but they had an unspoken agreement. Athena didn't mess with Hera, Hera didn't mess with Athena.
"Don't bother. It's Skye Time again," Hera rolled her eyes, wondering why her husband just couldn't get over Skye's death.
Skye was his last son, and he had died in the Second Titan War almost thirty years ago when he was twelve. Everyone else had gotten over it, Skye's mother even. Zeus had gone on to have more children, even some grandchildren by now.
But Zeus had never gotten over it.
Skye was the first child of his to be exactly what he wanted. He was a male, he was handsome, he was strong. He looked exactly like Zeus, and he acted like it, too. So much so that he wasn't exactly liked by many. And he loved his father, which was also unusual. Hera hadn't seen Zeus so happy with a child, which made her jealous since she had bore his children twice.
"Again?" Athena complained.
"Again," Hera nodded.
"Perfect," Athena mumbled, crossing her arms.
Hera paused, deciding that now was as good as a time as any.
"I was about to head to the human world. There's a lecture on Female Greek gods down at Yale. Want to come?" Hera offered, hoping for some bonding time with her step-daughter.
She longed for a companion, someone who didn't make her want to scream or come home reeking of alcohol and cheap perfume.
Athena looked hesitantly at the door to the Throne room. What she had to tell him was important, but it wouldn't do any good if she went in there now. He wouldn't listen, and he would become agitated if she tried bringing it up again, even if it was another day.
From that point on, her proposal would forever be connected to Skye.
"Sure," Athena smiled, and the two goddess turned away from the throne to begin walking toward the edge of Olympus.
"Oh, how are Percy and Annabeth?" Hera asked, almost forgetting about the pair. A few years ago, Annabeth had made it up to Hera by coming to her by saving the life of Eleanor, a girl Hera had secretly raised for years. Hera blessed Annabeth and her husband, making it so that their dream of a family could come true.
"Well. Peter just turned ten, and Catherine is already six," Athena smiled. She didn't quite like Percy, but she had accepted him by now, for her daughters sake. And she adored their two children, even they were part Sea Spawn.
Hera smiled at that, and they continued to talk as they left for Yale.
Zeus waited until he could hear them far away before turning his attention to his favorite servant, who waited attentively at the bottom of the throne. Zeus smiled to himself, and he looked back to his servant. He knew his wife and Athena would kill him if they knew what he was to do, each for their own reasons, but they'd be too busy to notice if he did it now.
"Do it," Zeus nodded towards the servant, and the servant began the spell.
Zeus watched without emotion as the portal opened, or at least he was trying to show no emotion, showing the home where Alexis used to live. Once the servant stopped chanting, Zeus stood and stepped through the portal.
Everything hit Zeus at once. The smell of flowers. The sound of sprinklers and kids laughing. The neighbor women gossiping on their front lawns. Children riding around on their bikes, and moms jogging around with their toddlers in their strollers.
He took that first step onto the paved walkway to the front door of one of the many homes, and he realized how different it was from where Alexis had lived when they met. Alexis was an ex-model who lived in an expensive penthouse, but she had moved here when Skye was born. She owned her own store and, like her son, was loved by the town even if her son was without a father.
Zeus hesitantly knocked on the door, and it didn't take long before Alexis answered. She gasped and dropped a phone.
"Zues," she stared at him, her eyes wide, for a long time before she spoke again, "What are you doing here? Is Skye okay?"
"He will be if you listen to me."
Alexis stared at him for a long moment.
"What are you talking about?"
"May I come in?" Zeus asked, but he was taking a step in before she could respond.
"Zeus, what did you mean about Skye?" Alexis didn't waste any time, and she hurriedly inquired for her only son, even if she secretly sometimes wished that she hadn't conceived him.
"He's going to die, Alexis," Zeus didn't water it down, he told her the truth straight-up.
"What?" Alexis screeched as she covered her mouth out of shock.
"But not if you get him away from camp for the rest of this summer, keep him out of the war. Take him with you to Bermuda. He'll live then."
"Of course," Alexis immediately nodded, ready to take orders like she always had from Zeus.
He told her to keep the baby instead of abortion, and little Skye was born. He told her name him Skye, he was Skye. He told her to move out of the city, she did just that. He told her not to be a model again, to be with their son, and she quit and became a boutique owner. She had always done as he said, and she always would.
"Good," Zeus nodded, happier than he had been in years now that Skye would never die.
Zeus didn't know what he had done, he didn't know how important his son was in reality. He didn't know who he would run into in Bermuda. He didn't know what Skye would stop, he didn't know what avalanche of effects would transpire after that. He didn't know that visiting Alexis that day, warning her, would lead to the end of the human race.
The First Effect
Just as the moment came where Skye would have been killed, he was boarding the plane to Bermuda. A young girl was being stabbed instead. She would live, but she would have a limp for the rest of her life and she would never be able to reproduce.
Zeus was fine with this though. His son was still alive, and that was all that mattered to him.
Skye felt bad about not being at the battle. It wasn't necessarily to help his friends, but he didn't want to be the jerk who went surfing instead of putting his life on the line for everyone. Skye's mother made him board the plane earlier, and, not even the expensive first class (Which Alexis's second husband's weath had afforded them) could make Skye smile.
As he took his seat, he saw a redhead take the one next to him. She looked just as miserable as him, if not more. Skye stared at her for a long moment, he knew her from somewhere. By the time she was putting away a canvas tote underneath her seat, he remembered where.
"Rachel?"
Rachel looked over at the twelve year old boy, but she didn't know him.
"Yes?" she asked, still trying to figure out how she knew his name.
"You're Rachel Dare. I'm Skye Bingley, I go to camp with Percy. You probably don't remember me," Skye suddenly realized that Rachel didn't know who he was, which felt off for him. Everyone knew Skye.
He was the Skye Bingley. He flattered himself to being the biggest ladies man their camp had ever seen, even if Percy took first prize in their eyes. Also, every guy wanted to be him. They wanted his life, which was perfect. He was part god, part King of the gods infact though he didn't know it then, and he was extremely handsome.
In Skye's eyes, you'd have to be blind to miss him.
"Wait, you're Skylight," Rachel smiled, and Skye's face fell. Skylight was a despised nick-name Annabeth had given him, saying he acted like he was as important the freakin' sun, and everyone had taken to it fast.
"Yeah," Skye blushed.
XXXXXX
Rachel stared out at the water, and she began to feel something.
She knew what it was, a vision. An important one at that, and she emptied her mind to welcome it in.
She hoped it was for Percy, she missed him so much. And she didn't like to leave Percy with Annabeth. Annabeth was so beautiful, and so in love with Percy. What would she do in Rachel's absence? Would the thought of dying make her decide to finally confess her love for Percy? And what would Percy do about it?
The vision was coming to her when she was broken out of it.
"Rachel?"
Rachel's head turned around to see Skye, running from where he was staying to her.
"It's almost time for our Scuba lessons. Are you coming?" Skye yelled off, and Rachel hesitated. She wanted that vision, and she thought if she stayed there long enough it would come back.
But she smiled at Skye and started walking towards him.
"Coming."
The Second Effect
Rachel never got the feeling to come home. She never became oracle and "Broke-Up" with Percy. A young girl, Annabeth's younger sister, Lilla, became Oracle instead of Rachel.
Annabeth sat at the table and looked over at Percy.
Her feelings were bubbling over, and she couldn't take it. Usually, she could blame it on "Teen Angst" but not this time. She knew it had nothing to do with being a sixteen year old girl and everything to do with the way he looked at her after she got stabbed. That protective nature, that genuine worry for her. He even told her about the Achilles Heel spot, which she never would have expected.
She had known she had a crush on him for a long time now, but it seemed to be growing and growing until it was just a crush anymore.
She….she loved him.
She knew what she wanted to do, but she tried not to think about it. If she thought about it, she might talk herself out of doing it.
She was leaning closer to him, about to kiss those lips of his. But then an Iris message came through when Annabeth was mid-lean.
"Percy?"
Both Percy and Annabeth looked at the message, with the same amount of surprise.
Rachel was on the other end of the line, her green eyes wild with worry. Annabeth's stomach clenched, and she knew that her moment with Percy was over. Once again, it hadn't gone through, and she was still in the Friend Zone with Percy.
"Rachel!"
The two began to quickly talk, and Annabeth felt out of place. She told Percy that she'd leave the two to talk, but Percy barely heard her. Annabeth was slows as she walked away. She felt herself get heavier with every step, and it took all of her strength to make it away.
"Wait, Annabeth, what happened? I thought you were going to tell him!" Juniper followed after Annabeth, worried for her friend.
"Rachel happened."
While Juniper chased after Annabeth, trying to help her friend, Rachel began to weep out of joy that Percy was alive.
"I don't know what I could do without you, Percy," Rachel began to cry into her knees, and Percy wished he could be there to stop her tears, "I love you so much, Percy."
Percy's eyes widened, and Rachel looked up, realizing she said that out loud.
"What?" Percy inquired.
"I…I…I love you, Percy," Rachel looked down as she finished that.
"I…" Percy waited a moment, not sure how to finish it.
He knew he wanted to say the same back. He liked her, he liked her a lot. But something was holding him back, something he couldn't explain even to himself. That image of what he saw when he got the Achilles Heel was stuck in his head.
"I love you, too, Rachel."
Rachel smiled wide, and her tears turned into tears of joy.
The Third Effect
Percy and Annabeth weren't as close after Percy proclaimed his love for Rachel, instead of Annabeth. For a while, she couldn't even look at Percy. It hurt too much to bear, and she was so in love with him that it felt like Aphrodite could only give her so much that Percy must feel the same.
When Percy went missing, Annabeth was the one who searched the hardest. She tried to seem like she wasn't in love with him, but she gave up on that early on. She worked with Jason every day, trying to help him remember the place where the Roman Camp hid. Annabeth would do anything for Percy.
When the moment came where she found him, he hugged her. Everything was perfect for Annabeth, so perfect that she cried from joy. He held her tightly, like she was the dearest thing he could ever hold. She buried her face in his shoulder, and he swirled her around like she weighed littler more than a leaf.
But then he set her down, and he loosened his grip to talk to her. He was smiling as he asked how she was and what had happened since he had been gone, and she was happy to tell it all. Then Rachel got off the boat.
Percy forgot about Annabeth and looked at Rachel. He let go of her and stared at Rachel. He didn't even say goodbye to Annabeth, he just ran off to Rachel.
Chiron watched as Annabeth broke. The light which had always been in her eyes no matter what evaporated, and she was unable to move. Her mouth formed an 'O', and her tears became real. Chiron watched Annabeth give up on Percy, but Percy was too busy kissing Rachel to even notice.
Everyone knew what had happened (Taking a picture of Percy and pasting it on a dummy, which she sliced to pieces only moments later, made it obvious). But no one knew what Percy thought. He didn't seem to understand why his best friend of all time suddenly couldn't look at him and avoided him at all cost. And no one had the heart to tell Percy what had really happened.
The Final Effect
Chiron hurried to Percy and his family.
"Chiron, you made it," Percy smile at Chiron, happy to see the old man. Percy couldn't imagine his high school graduation without him, especially with how hard he worked to become valedictorian, and he had worried that Chiron really would be too delayed to make it.
Chiron had warned Percy that morning that he would be a little late because of delays. He just didn't tell Percy that the delays were Annabeth.
Annabeth had invited him to her graduation in California earlier, and he just had to come. He cried with the family as Annabeth was crowned valedictorian and gave a magnificent speech. Annabeth first hugged Chiron when she got to her family, and Chiron had been ecstatic to be there, he couldn't imagine not having been there. Once again, Chiron tried to talk Annabeth into coming back to Camp that summer for the few weeks off with her "Pre-College" classes in New York. But Annabeth didn't budge, but Chiron knew she wouldn't. She did promise to come the next summer though, but Chiron wasn't sure she'd hold to it.
"Wouldn't miss it, Old Boy," Chiron resisted the urge to call him Seaweed Brain. No one had called him that in so long, and Percy wouldn't have known how to handle it.
"Great," Percy smiled wide, happy to know that someone was here other than his family.
"How are you doing?" Chiron asked hopefully, and Percy wished he meant with the fact that he was leaving his family for college soon.
But Percy knew he meant his new break-up. He had been with Rachel for two years, two long years in which so much had happened, and it had blindsided him when she told him "We need to talk". Rachel explained everything, why she was leaving and everything that he could have ever wondered about. Just because she made it all make sense, it didn't soften the blow. It might of even made it worse.
"Fine," Percy shrugged. He wasn't sure how he was doing yet. It hadn't been long since the break-up, and he was still numb from it.
"Good. I hope to see you at Camp, you're coming back this summer, right?"
"Of course," Percy nodded, "Why would I not?"
"Well," Chiron found himself stuck. He had to bring up Annabeth now, "It's just…Annabeth's not coming."
"Annabeth?" Percy nodded, feeling a hollow feeling settle over him.
He missed Annabeth, especially now. He missed her calling him Seaweed Brain and somehow making everything fade away. It also hurt that she wasn't here, smiling proudly that he had worked so hard be valedictorian or to make fun of his speech. He wondered what she was doing, why she wouldn't come to Camp. And he worried if it was about him.
Chiron's chirping cell phone interrupted the awkward silence, and Chiron apologized repeatedly as he took the call.
XXXXXXX
Lilla waited impatiently for Chiron to come. She sat at the desk of the dwelling Apollo had decked out for her. For more than urgency of her message, she wished Skye to leave the area. He was hunting with his friends, bragging about girls he had been with though he was still only fourteen. And Lilla could hear everything, probably by Skye's design.
When Skye finally shut up, Lilla smiled and straightened her spine, knowing Chiron was finally here.
Chiron didn't go into all the write formalities of coming in, her urgent tone on the phone told him that he didn't have time for that. He didn't even change out of centaur form, which he usually did because it made it easier for Lilla to have him sit beside her to watch the computer screen.
"Come, come," Lilla waved him in and went to her files. Like Rachel could transmit visions to paintings, she could transmit it to video on the computer.
"What is it, Lilla?" Chiron asked impatiently.
"First, I saw this. What was supposed to really happen today," Lilla replied quickly.
She pressed play, and it showed Percy coming out of the school Gym, in the same valedictorian dressings Chiron had just left him in. His mother was the first to find him, and she hugged him tightly. The rest of the family followed, but they soon all made way for one. Annabeth ran up to hug him, and he swirled her around and kissed her passionately after setting her down.
Chiron was shocked, but Lilla wasn't done.
"Then this all came."
Lilla showed him a video that showed small fragments of videos.
Annabeth saving Rachel in a helicopter. Rachel telling something to Percy and him nodding solemnly. Annabeth kissing him in the pavilion. The two being thrown into the water and kissing. Their tear-filled reunion after he went missing at the Romans. Their graduations, in which she still lived in New York. Them going to college and both graduating. Them moving into together a few years later, and her waking up the next morning with an engagement ring on her finger. Their wedding. Having a son. Then having a daughter.
"What is all this?" Chiron finally asked.
"Their life, what it should have been."
"Wow," it was all Chiron could manage.
"That's not it. This is their son, Peter," Lilla showed another video.
A very handsome teenager stood alone who had inherited every attractive feature from their parents to create someone who looked to be a god. He climbs down a ladder while a girl distracts someone else. He takes out a few tools and manages to help out his friend, probably a Hephaestus child, fix something. His friend was yelling, and Peter had to climb up again. He took out a dagger, something his obviously cherished, and he pushed the dagger into a pipe. A close-up of some guy showed him screaming as he saw the "Unable to Perform Explosion. Request Terminated" alert blink on a computer screen.
"If he didn't do this," Lilla pointed to the screen, "We all die. Everyone. The gods have to start over. It might even kill some of them eventually, they'll fade. Unlike everything else, there is no one to replace this moment. He has to do it."
Chiron nodded, still not quite sure what he could do about it.
"He has to be raised like Percy and Annabeth raised him, with good values and loyalty. He can't just be born and sent to an orphanage or anything," Lilla was first to rule out Chiron's plan, "You have to make that happen."
Annabeth
I hurried my walk towards my apartment building.
It was a cute building, very urban and was in a great part of town. My older half-brother knew about how I had worked on Olympus and wanted him to come work with his company as soon as I finished college. Since I had a lot of offers, my older brother was giving me special benefits, like a heads-up on low rates at this awesome building.
But I also thought he wanted to take care of his little sister.
Today was the day that I met my new roommate. I had lived here this summer with Vanessa, but she left saying she wanted to be in the social side of college. But I knew she cared more about taking my spot as favorite student and best student than the entire human race. It's not like I liked her, so I was happy to finally get her away.
I didn't know who my new roommate would. Vanessa was paired with me through the school where we both got into this summer internship thing, and I didn't really know anyone who was going to school around here who didn't already have a roommate. Chiron had chosen my roommate but hadn't told me who it was yet.
As I got to the front door to the lobby, I saw the long line to the elevator, and I groaned. I hated long lines, always had. Especially for elevators.
I turned away from the front door and went to the back of the building.
Since I hadn't been to Camp Half-Blood in a year, you'd think I'd be without my usual training. But you'd be wrong. I was in better shape today than I had ever been, and climbing up the fire escape like I did everyday had to do with it.
I pulled down the ladder and began to climb up. The fire escape back here wasn't really supposed to be used, it was more of so you could say "We have a fire escape". If there was a fire, everyone would go to the place in the hall that led off to the side. The fire escape I climbed was metal and a little rickety, despite how new it was, and that made me love it all the more.
It was harder to climb in my black combat boots, but I didn't want to take them off. It would ruin the look, the look that I had spent forever putting together after the "Percy Incident".
When he chose Reddy over me, I lost it. I couldn't seem to survive that summer, that awful summer. When I did, I bit my lip and sadly stayed in New York to finish Olympus. As soon as I could, I moved back to California, and this was really my first time back to the state other than coming when I knew it would be impossible to see Percy.
I cringed as I thought about him, and I continued climbing to the sixth floor of the nine floor building.
I came to the window to the empty extra room that had never really been used. There were already two bedrooms, and this wasn't exactly a big room. It was just kind of small and wasn't big enough to be a bedroom. I wasn't sure what it was supposed to be used as, but I used it as a room to get through the window.
While I was pulling the window open, I heard a muffled voice.
My roommate wasn't getting here for another two hours.
I pulled my dagger out, and I slowly crept in, making sure not to speak.
The door opened, and, in a flash, it came to where I was holding a dagger to someone's throat.
I took a look, thinking it'd be a monster, but it wasn't
Held in my tight grip was a boy. He was about my age and maybe 6'3. He was strong, insanely muscled as if he had been training his entire life. His eyes were a beautiful sea green, and his hair was newly cut and black. The boy's skin was so tan, like he lived in the sun twenty-four seven.
His eyes widened, and I gasped, dropping my dagger in the process.
"Where-" Chiron trialed off as he came into the room, and he immediately looked down at the dagger on the floor, "I see you two have met again."
Percy.
Percy is here.