Musa closes her suitcase in her dark Alfea room. She has been looking forward to her third year but has decided to leave. It is not going to be the same without Flora and she can't be around all of her friends, including their boyfriends, and pretend that she has no idea why Flora is not at Alfea this year, why she unexpectedly left.
"Musa, are you sure about this?" Ms. Faragonda wonders as she stands a few feet behind Musa, watching her pack.
Musa turns to look at her headmistress. "I am." Musa's voice is stern, a bit shaky as she thinks about not returning and seeing her friends, but not seeing Flora with them is going to hurt more.
"Saladin wants to know what he should tell Helia,"
"I have no idea."
"Don't be to hard on yourself, even for a grandchild of Athena, it is alright what not to do or say in many situtations. With Flora and the other children of the Big Three missing, I know that Chiron and you are going to want nearly every half-blood and descendant looking for the five of them. And I know that you want to be on the front lines looking for them as well."
"Thanks Ms. F."
Musa walks passed her and goes for the door to the balcony, opening it when she hears Ms. Faragonda call out her name.
"Don't worry about being held back or anything for the year, the challenge is to earn your enchantix to pass the entire year. You and Flora already have yours so when you return you can just go on ahead."
Musa smiles a thanks, not having the energy within her to say it. She knows if she does it will only bring back the memories of losing Flora, Nico, Jason, Thalia, and Hazel, making them all fresh in her mind.
Closing the door Musa stands on the balcony overlooking the front of the school that she has been able to call home for the last couple of years. Placing her suitcase down she shouts "Enchantix!" and transforms. Once in her fairy form Musa picks up her suitcase and starts flying towards Camp Half-Blood, hoping that when she arrives Chiron will have some news for her. All she really knows is that after defeating Gaia when they were twelve, Flora and Musa had a mostly relaxing year in which Flora was asked to attend school in New Rome and to become a Hunter of Artemis. She knows that Flora was still thinking about it last summer when it was discovered that Ouranos was awakening. Flora nearly chose to stay at Camp Half-Blood or going to New Rome so she could keep an eye on the situation, but since Jason is technically a year behind her in school he informed her that he would keep an eye on it until he chose where to go to school.
So she and Flora started their first year at Alfea. Musa had been unsure of how quick Ouranos was waking until she and Flora (along with Stella and Tecna) got swept up in that tornado by Stormy, when Flora went to the top Musa knew the situation must have been bad, demigods don't usually get caught up that quickly in tornados, much less a daughter of Poseidon. When they got to Camp that year they found that Ouranos was not fully awake but could still manipulate things just like Gaia could.
Earlier this summer, everyone heading home Musa and Flora went back to Camp to figure out how to stop Ouranos. Somehow he was able to get a hold of Flora, Nico, Hazel, Jason, and Thalia. All five were at Camp Half-Blood, asleep is when he took them. Musa found out she had to go back to Realix. All five were there giving their energy to awake the sky. Flora was in the center, in her enchantix, hands raised above her head as her cousins pushed their demigod powers into her and she pushed all five of their powers up into the sky.
Will, Piper, Frank went for their respective partners, while Musa went for her two childhood best friends. Artemis wanted to go but she was one of the few goddesses and gods who could keep the portal to realix open, not to mention that she was also helping in seeing if Ouranos was fully awake or not.
Once in Realix, everything seemed to become a blur. Piper, Will, and Frank were able to snap Jason, Nico, and Hazel out of whatever spell they were under. It took Musa awhile to get Thalia and Flora, one being the Lieutenant of Artemis and the other being an enchantix demigod child of Poseidon who also happens to be the fairy of nature. She used a sound blast to knock them out and then used her fairy dust to snap them out of it. It helped only halfway, after she had them on the ground she asked to think of their lives and what happened.
Thalia being a tree then becoming an immortal, Flora going on the quest to recover Zeus's bolt when they were seven, the sea of monsters, holding the sky, the labyrinth, then finally fighting Kronos at age eleven and saving not only the gods and demigods but also the entire magic dimension, then fighting Gaia the following year. Going to Alfea and meeting their friends in their first year, then finally their most recent year. The most packed one yet, in Musa's opinion.
That brought them back, after that the five demigod children of the Big Three worked together to defeat Ouranos. Hazel and Nico on one side of Flora, Jason and Thalia on the other as they pushed their power into Flora who made a shield that pushed all five of their energies into the sky, but something happened. She saw something that Musa couldn't and she along with Nico, Jason, Thalia, and Hazel all flew into the sky (Hazel and Thalia helping Nico) and the next thing Musa knew they were gone, portal closed, all five gone.
Musa, Frank, Piper, and Will have refused to believe they are dead. The last time Musa thought Thalia was dead the golden fleece brought her back, and Flora crashed her own funeral at camp. Musa knows that if she gets the chance to go back to Realix and get into the position Flora was then maybe she will see what Flora saw, why all five flew into the sky and never came back.
Blow her Musa hears some shouting, looking down she realizes that she is right over camp. Flying down, Musa heads towards The Big House, hoping that Chiron has any sort of news for her. Landing on the porch Musa is about to knock when someone opens the door. On the other side is a centaur with the bottom of a white horse and the torso of a man whose brown hair is starting to streak white. Maybe because of the situation at hand.
"Musa," his voice his heavy and grief field.
"Chiron. I'm sorry for coming so late-"
"Do not worry about it, after all we have been expecting you." He steps aside and waves for her to follow him in. Stepping inside Musa notices the differences, Mr. D's leopard that used to hang on the wall is gone, in fact it barely looks like the one she grew up with and has come to know. In place of Mr. D's animal head is an automatic portrait that the Hephaestus cabin decided should be about the adventures the camp has seen. Most of it involving Flora, her kneeling down on Olympus to her father and Zeus at seven, everyone surrounding Thalia's tree after they got the golden fleece, the Winter Solstice party on Olympus after defeating Atlas. Looking in the far upper left corner is Flora Iris-Messaging her mom, and someone has to zoom in if they want to see the grey in her hair. Musa holding Daedalus's laptop as she and Flora come out of Zeus's Fist after the labyrinth got destroyed (though Musa is sure that some newer campers made that painting), the next several are of the Second Titan War in Magix in which there are many demigods fighting monsters, Selina pretending to be Clarisse, Artemis's Huntresses coming in, Thalia, her, Grover, and Flora on Olympus near the end, finally Flora and Musa over Luke's body after Luke used Riptide to kill himself and defeat the Lord of Time.
After that it shows the post-war celebration on Olympus, after that picture it asks if Musa wants to continue, she figures that most things will be of the following year of fighting Gaia so she decides not to. The portrait regenerates to a picture of Flora, Jason and Nico. Jason in the middle, Flora on his left and Nico on his right, all of them are smiling and are showing their Camp Half-Blood necklaces along with their SPQR tattoos that also have their fathers symbols and the years they survived. Jason has a total of twelve marks, Flora has one, and Nico has three.
Even after all these years Musa still doesn't understand how Nico has been able to keep the camps a secret from each other until the whole Gaia thing happened. Then again Nico had been a loner, still so young and yet knowing that he was gay and fearing that people wouldn't accept him. While Nico is technically the older between the three of them, because he had been in the Lotus Hotel for most of his life he and Flora only have a couple of months between their birthdays. (Nico being born in December and Flora in March.)
Hearing the clumping of hooves Musa turns to see Chiron behind her holding a cup of warm strawberry and apple cider. She gracefully accepts the cup from Chiron and takes a sip. "Have you heard anything?" She asks, voice quiet. She feels like she is saying a name that she shouldn't and that saying it quietly will not give it any power. After all, names have power.
"No, my child. We have not heard anything. Grover has not heard anything, any of the gods and goddesses on Olympus have not seen or heard anything. Hades and Poseidon have not seen them in their respective domains either."
"Except," Musa says, voice raising a little but not much.
"Except? Except what Musa?"
"Tartarus." Chiron's eyes widen. "Hear me out, tomorrow I will leave and go back to Arachne's hideout under the realm of Rome, see if she has been there. If she has maybe she knows something about where they went, if she doesn't then maybe I can go back down to Tartarus and visit Damasen, see if knows anything. He helped Flora and I escape that horrid place. Maybe Hades can see if Bob knows something."
Musa knows she is pleading but what else can she do? Both camps are very strict on campers leaving and ones caught sneaking out will face punishment. Even though Musa is the only grandchild of Athena on either the Greek and Roman sides she has a sinking feeling that she will be greatly punished for leaving.
Chiron tilts his head to the side, considering her idea. Her heart is pounding in her chest waiting for an answer. "Alright," he answers reluctantly. "But, Leo and Malcolm have made a series of small video cameras. Ones that I want you take on your qu-journey." It has gotten harder for many to say quest, especially with five powerful demigods missing and no official prophecy from Ella or Rachel no one knows what to do. This is the best Musa can come up with; her mother's life-long enemy has stalked Musa before, if she's back from Tartarus it is possible that she could be stalking Musa again, planning on taking on the demigod who tricked her and pretending that Arachne was a much better weaver than Athena. (No one is better than Athena!)
"You will meet with in the morning before you go, now head back to Cabin Six and get some rest. You have a long road ahead of you."
Musa nods, putting down her cup of now cold cider that she has only drank half of. Leaving the Big House and heading towards her cabin, Musa can suddenly feel the weight of all these past weeks finally catching up with her, exhaustion settling in and she feels like she is holding up the weight of the entire magic dimension again. Only this time no one else is here to take it so she can catch a breath, and she has no idea when it will end.
What do you all think? Also did I use present and past tenses right, I have trouble with those sometimes and I am really trying to work on them. In this I want Flora and Nico to be around the same age, maybe he will be as old as Jason (who is a year younger than Percy I think so he will be a year younger than Flora) or maybe they will be around the same age. Idk. Also, does anyone else picture teenage Nico as Zuko in the later seasons of ATLA but without the burn mark around his eye?