Thanks for reading my Mark of Athena. I hope I can give an original approach to it. There is a reason as to why I titled it, Cold Air, and you will soon find in the story and the plot. Enjoy!
Cold Air: The Mark of Athena
Gaea could feel the pain in the death of her sons as they faded into her skin. Her rich soils could feel their blood soaking into the core of her heart. Humiliation rose up from her, humiliation that her sons could not withstand the wits of demigods. She had worked so hard to keep Percy Jackson as a pawn in her game; for her future purposes. But now she was doubting that it was worth the wait. She had to work to convince herself that her future plans would be to much for these demigods to fight against. For now, her greatest allies were not her sons, but the tactics of fear and manipulation. Her power had not fully waken and that is what made her feel vulnerable and weak. She hated the feeling of the billions of human feet that walked upon her, that when she felt the first heavy feet of her sons, the giants, she felt hope again. Hope that she could take her dominant place as ruler over the earth. Feeling threatened was not an option for someone as powerful as her. She could not feel threatened at the fact that the two camps were now joining each other in the race against her plans. Her first plan had failed, so now her next act must be executed shortly.
Masses of the inhabitants of Camp Jupiter swarmed the area where the Argo II was seen to be approaching. They came together, hot sweaty bodies crowding past Terminus, so they could see the Greek visitors… or deceivers.
"STOP! STOP I SAY!" Cried Terminus in frustration. "That's it! If you all intend to act like wild animals, then I shall treat you as such! Feel that? That is the my iron fist punching you in the gut!" The campers ignored him still. "That's right!" He continued. "Oh look! There's something on your face! It was pain! That's what you get for passing without inspection." Now seeing that he was being completely ignored and his threats and mental attacks weren't working, he groaned in distress. "I shall complain to Jupiter himself about all of you! Then you'll be sorry."
The trio that had ventured into the land beyond the gods could be seen at the front of the crowd waiting with anticipation. But maybe Hazel was the most nervous of them all. At first, when she was holding hands with Frank, she thought it was his hands that had started to sweat, but now she realized it was her. There was a cool wind stirring from the bay, but all she could feel was the heat that spread from her forehead to the rest of her body. And one name kept coming to her mind: Sammy.
The same was true for Frank. That name Sammy had been coming back to his mind again and again and made him feel sick all over. Here he was trying to enjoy himself, especially since he was holding hands with Hazel. Oh great! He thought, Now my hands are sweating!
Percy on a different note was completely at ease. The thoughts of seeing Annabeth had his head spinning. He couldn't wait to hold her tight in his arms and hear her voice whisper love. He couldn't wait to run his fingers through her hair, and then… feel her lips gently touching his, forming perfectly. Yet there was still an under stream of nervousness that ran deep within him. Juno had said that she would cause trouble for the quest, and as much as he wished not to believe it, he knew that Juno was probably telling the truth. He hoped that the only reason as to why she said that was because she abhorred Annabeth, and she did, but that was only hope.
Reyna's eyes gleamed with faith as the airborne ship started to descend to the ground. Octavian walked up from behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Praetor Reyna, if these Greeks do turn out to be deceivers, you can rest assured that I will slay that son of Neptune… I hope you're not apposed to the brazen bull method." Reyna shook his hand off her shoulder with disgust.
"I can see that you are resolute in your idea that Percy is a Greek deceiver or a spy for Gaea. But the question still remains as to why he would fight for us and kill Gaea's sons if he was one of her spies. And why would he restore our eagle to us if he was a Greek fraud." Her answer came quick which left Octavian without any words for the time being.
Then… there was a silence that fell upon all of them. Octavian in the time being, had walked over to where the campers with weapons were ready, to signal to them if there was any treachery. The ship, with it's gold dragon head mast glittering fiercely in the sun, was now hovering five feet above the ground. There were a few voices on board and one of the Greek campers let the heavy anchor drop to the earth.
Percy started to walk forward slowly. He could almost feel Annabeth in his arms. Hazel was almost about to faint. The heat was bearing down on her, her head hazy with the memories of Sammy. She was only conscious of Frank's strong hold on her hand. Frank though was trying to clear his thoughts of this Sammy, or rather, Leo, as he was now known. He even comforted himself with the thought that Leo might be Sammy's grandson, and looked identical to Hazel's childhood friend.
Finally a door into the ship was opened, and a gangplank slid out smoothly. Then, the next thing they knew, the short, Hispanic, curly haired kid Leo was coming out with a big grinning, waving. "Hey everybody! I'm the captain of this ship, and you can greet me with the name Super Awesome Aviator Captain of the ship Argo II!" Then someone hit him on the back of the head, "Shut up Valdez!" There was a ringing of laughter heard from the crowd and a nervous smile from the girl who walked out behind Leo. Her short dark chocolate brown hair had small braids running through it, and her currently green eyes could be seen shining even from a distance. She was dressed in stressed jeans with some tie up boots that looked designer. Her top was a turquoise blouse that fit her perfectly, and an aviator jacket that matched her boots. But her face had some of the roman guys edging closer to her as she made her way down the walkway.
Then she was followed by a tall guy with short blond hair, and a handsome face walking out into the sunlight. He waved as a huge roar of the people went up in the crowd. Reyna pushed her way through the crowd and was about to grab him in a tight hug until she saw him holding hands with the girl that had just come out. "Jason!" She said just as the crowd was quieting down. His eyes met her's, and for a second his smile faltered. Reyna was almost fuming inside as she saw that pretty faced daughter of Venus edging closer to him. Thankfully she kept her cool. "It's been a while Jason." He nodded,
"It has been quite some time since we spoke." Then coming down, he let go of the girl's hand and hugged Reyna. But it was nothing romantic, that much Reyna could tell. It was a stiff friendly hug, and it only last for an instant. "I want you to meat my friends, Leo and Piper." His voice was calm and pleasant enough. Piper? What a silly name! Reyna caught herself thinking. "And this is Anna-" But before he could continue, there was a call from the crowd,
"Annabeth!" Percy's voice could be heard resounding across the people. The campers made way for him and when Annabeth had just barely started to come out, she was met by a strong boy grabbing her into his arms. He held her tight against him, his lips hitting her's, and his arms wrapped firmly around her as if afraid he was going to lose her. A cheer went up from the crowd, people chanting, "Percy, Percy, Percy!" There was a tap on his shoulder, so reluctantly, he looked up to meet Jason's eyes for the first time.
"It seems you've made quite an impression on the camp son of Neptune." Jason's smile seemed real enough.
"Poseidon if you will," Percy joked, but truthfully he was being serious,
"It's nice to finally meet you Percy. I've heard a lot about you from Annabeth." Percy looked at Annabeth, and he could see her blushing.
"Don't get to proud Seaweed Brain." She smiled. How could he not help kissing this girl. And then, after another tight embrace, he raised his hand to the audience who had gotten a little to loud. Everyone went silent in an instance. Jason looked at him in amazement.
"And how long have you been hear?" Jason questioned.
"Around five days." Percy didn't mean to sound smug, but he couldn't help feel a little proud.
"When I became praetor, it took me a whole month for them stop speaking in an instant like that." He laughed, clapping Percy on the shoulder. "What'd you do to make them respect you so quick?" But before Percy could answer, Reyna spoke up,
"There's a lot to speak of… a lot of explaining… and a lot of story telling to do… so I think it best that we should head over to the senator's hall and talk in private." There were many groans of displeasure among he crowd, and Percy held himself back from the temptation of putting up his arm to silence them just to impress the son of Zeus. "Percy, would you like to talk to them?" Reyna looked up at him expectantly. Annabeth smiled a humored smile; she knew him all to well. If it was one thing that hadn't improved, it was Percy's confidence in making speeches. He cleared his throat nervously, but kept a calm face. Facing the crowd, he spoke the first things that had been running through his head:
"When I first arrived at Camp Jupiter a few days ago, I had nothing with me, not even my memories, except my name. I felt alone, concealed within an empty chamber in my mind. There was nothing from my past that gave me comfort because there was nothing there… except for Annabeth." Percy looked back at. She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms, but a smile spread across her face. Much of the crowd, mostly girls, let out, "Aaaawe." But most of the guys whooped or cat called. "Then, I found friends… Hazel and Frank who gave me hope again. Hope that I might be able to attain what belonged to me; my memories and my past. They helped me through the journey of the quest into Alaska and without them, I would have never made it back. But when we did, we returned with victory, and helped you in your struggle on the Feast of Fortuna-"
"You mean saved us!" Somebody yelled out. There was laughter and then Percy continued with a chuckle.
"And now you have honored me as your praetor and received me as family… but what I wish to happen is that Romans and Greeks receive each other as family." There was a nervous silence among the crowd. "Jason, son of Zeu- er Jupiter, has already become apart of my Greek family and I of yours. This was the purpose of the goddess Juno. To bring together the camps so that we may defeat the enemy forces. You have trusted me and I have not deceived you."
"Ha!" Octavian could be heard somewhere in the crowd. Percy continued, ignoring him,
"Neither will they and I lay my life down on that."
"As do I." Jason said standing by Percy. "I have gotten to know the Greeks and they have received me as warmly as you have received Percy. There may be differences, but once we realize who the real enemy is, we can work in unison as friends. I have already done so with Leo and Piper and I know we can trust them."
"Right," Percy said after Jason had finished, "We both worked together in defeating the Titans, but we just didn't know it. You helped to destroy them on the west coast and destroy their palace, while we destroyed them in the east and protected Olympus."
"And you killed Kronos, don't leave that out." Reyna said jokingly. There was an outburst at that, but Percy raised his arm again to silence them. Ok, so maybe he did it to show off a little.
"Now, with two camps joined, we can make history once again as strong allies. Our ancestors fought each other, but we can work together and be different than the Greeks and Romans of the past."
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