Octavian stood at the front of the battle. The Romans were at war with the Greeks. Octavian was glad to fight those filthy graecus, but it wasn't real. They were playing a war game on a giant chess board. Giants in toga's and oddly patterned shirts watched eagerly outside for the game to begin.
(Before we begin let's explain the story. The seven and Nico were on their way to defeat the Gaea when they plummeted down an unseen hole and landed on a giant chess board. The giants brought out the Romans that they'd captured from Camp-Half-Blood after invading. They set the Romans down. Without a way to escape, but play the game, the Greeks and the Romans were forced to play a chess game that could cost them their lives.)
Octavian moved to his spot on the far right end of the board near the back. He was set at the Knight. This pleased Octavian, but he knew that he could only move a certain way. If he made a wrong move he knew that it would be his last.
On the other side were the Greeks; Percy, Annabeth, Leo, Piper and Nico di Angelo. On the Romans side there was, Reyna, himself, Frank, Hazel and Jason creating a five on five match.
"Now who's ready for a game of chess?" The Giant in the large Purple toga laughed waving his hand for his partner to ring the bell to begin the death match.
"You with the curly hair and yellow eyes, move forward." The giant bellowed. Hazel gasped and slowly moved forward to the center of the board. "Now, pretty girl with braids, move forward in front of the curly haired one" the giant roared. Piper's eyes widened. She slowly and gracefully walked to the space just in front of the terrified Hazel. "Look, at them Ralf, their terrfied!" The giant laughed smacking his large, beefy hand against his chair. The giants around him laughed alongside him.
The giant continued to assign partners. Annabeth was paired with Reyna. Frank was paired up with Leo. Jason was paired with Nico and fate decided that Octavian be paired with Percy Jackson, the Greek.
"Let the match begin. May the best team win." The giant rung the bell and the match began.
"I don't want to hurt you, Octavian." Percy uncapped his pen which morphed into his long, leaf shaped, bronze sword that he called, Riptide.
"You hate me!" Octavian shrieked. "I know you've wanted me dead since the beginning, so fight me, you coward!" Octavian snarled taking out his doubled edged imperial gold sword that his father had given him for his eighteenth birthday.
"Fight him, Fish face!" The giant yelled throwing a very large tomato in between Percy and Octavian which splattered all over their faces and clothes.
"You want to fight then," Percy said wiping the tomato juice off his face and getting into fighting position.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time," Octavian smiled and lunged at Percy. Percy dodged his attack and their swords clashed.
"Please, Octavian, I don't want to fight you," Percy pleaded shoving Octavian away with his sword.
"You're lying!" Octavian shrieked clashing swords with Percy once again. "Ever since the auguries showed me that vision of you I've hated you! You're the reason he's dead!" Octavian took a lash at Percy's leg. Percy winced in pain and regained balance quickly and the two clashed swords once more.
"I didn't kill anybody!" Percy objected, "Who are you talking about?" Percy lashed at Octavian's face leaving a thick scar on his right cheek. Percy staggered and backed away. Fear and terror reflected in his sea green eyes. "Luke," he mumbled.
"Yes, him," Octavian snickered. "You're so smart!" Octavian lunged at Percy but missed. Percy stood their motionless. When Percy had given Octavian that scar, for a moment, he'd looked like his old friend and enemy, Luke Castellan.
"How could you have possibly known Luke?" Percy asked. "He was a Greek and you're a Roman. The only Greek who has ever gone between our two world is Nico, and plus Luke was working for Kronos. He wouldn't have had time to even consider the possibility of a Roman Camp hidden somewhere in Los Angeles, California." Percy paused. "Unless, you knew him before he came to live at Camp Half-Blood." Percy started at Octavian as if wondering how to find the answer in the Octavian's blue eyes.
"I knew him years before he supposedly joined Camp Half-Blood." Octavian snarled and once again they clashed swords.
"Luke ran away from home when he was nine. There's no way you could have known him before that. His mother would have never have let him stray too far from home." Percy paused once again, "unless you met him on his travels to Camp Half-Blood with Thalia and Annabeth, but if that was the case he never talked about a boy named Octavian once and trust me he talked about his travels with Thalia and Annabeth many times, especially the story of them entering into Camp Half-Blood." Percy moved his sword to the side causing Octavian to lean forward from the loss of weight, but he quickly regained his balance and they clashed swords once again.
"You don't understand," Octavian growled, "Luke was my half-brother!" Octavian put so much force on Percy's blade that it flung right out of his hands and onto the floor next to them. The Giants cheered them on.
Percy sat on his butt looking up at Octavian with confusion and fear in his sea green eyes. Octavian held his blade close to Percy's throat.
"He was your half-brother? How," Percy asked. Octavian loosed his grip on the blade giving Percy breathing room all while keeping the blade close to Percy's throat. "Luke was May's only son and even Hermes told me that. He visited her often before and after Luke left. How old were you when Luke left?" Percy inquired.
"I was three when he left. Luke and I were playing a game of catch outside. Luke threw the ball to high and it fell into the small garden. I went to retrieve it, and when I looked back Luke was over by the fence. I asked him where he was going and he said that he was going on a secret mission that only he could go on. I thought that he was telling the truth when he hoped over the fence and left, but he never came back!" Octavian's eyes filled up with tears. "The last thing he said to our mom was, 'We'll be back in time for lunch'. I haven't seen my brother since then." A tear trickled down Octavian's pale face. He lowered his blade and took in slow, deep breaths to calm his nerves.
"That's terrible," Percy whispered. "What about you and your father? When I visited May Castellan last summer during the titan war there was no sign that anyone but her and Luke had ever lived there." Percy stood up on his feet waiting for Octavian to answer.
"My mother," Octavian took in a shaky breath. "My mother went insane after Luke left. She'd always been rather odd since I was born, but when Luke left she lost it. All she could ever talk about was Luke and everyone to her was Luke. Her hair grew white and her eyes glazed over. They used to be a pretty blue before he left." Octavian paused as if in deep thought. "She began making and endless supply of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and Kool-Aid." Octavian squeaked. "When I was eleven it became obvious that she didn't know who either my father or I was. We were nothing to her. When my father asked her how old I was she didn't even know who, Octavian was." Octavian cried. "My father grew tired of her games and took me to Camp Jupiter. I've been living there, with my dad, ever since." Octavian looked down at the ground and wept.
"I had no idea. You were always there." Percy paused. "Wait, since Luke's favorite food was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with Kool-Aid then how come she baked cookies and left all those beaten down teddy bears on the side of her house?" Percy asked.
Octavian looked up in desperation. "What kind of cookies?"
"Chocolate-chip," Percy said with a tone as if wondering why the matter was really important.
"Mom used to make chocolate-chip cookies for Luke and I when we were little. Luke hated them because they burnt and crispy. I loved the burnt taste. Burnt chocolate-chip cookies were my favorite side dish for lunch." Octavian smiled. "To answer your question about the teddy bears, they were mine. I used to collect teddy bears when I was little. I loved them."
"How ironic," Percy laughed.
"I know, right," Octavian smiled. "Every time I got a new bear from the store I would set it on the window seal. Dad thought it was weird, but mom loved it. It made her happy to see that I'd found something that I'd loved. To think that she'd kept those old things all those years." Octavian smiled and a tear trickled down his pale, swollen face.
Percy picked up Riptide and put the cap back on. The large, bronze blade morphed back into a usable pen and stuck it in his pocket.
Octavian grabbed his double-edged sword and put it back in its belt case wrapped around his waist.
"Hey, you two, take your swords out!" The giants roared.
"No," Percy grinned at the ugly Giant before them. The other's stopped fighting and stared at them.
"How dare you back talk to me, puny son of Poseidon!" The Giant bellowed smacking his large, beefy, fist against the Large, grey boulder. "I said, fight!"
"You can't tell us what to do, dirt brain," Octavian snickered. Octavian and Percy fit bumped and narrowed their eyes at the giant with large grins their faces.
"That's it!" The Giant bellowed lifting up his filthy, large foot. He was about to step into the arena when lights from above shot down on the giants.
"AHHHH!" The Giants roared covering their eyes from the bright light. "The light, not the light!" the Giant screamed!
"Leave them along, and I will let you live." A deep, commanding voice from above said. Octavian knew that voice. He couldn't believe that he was here. He wasn't expecting this at all.
"Never!" The giant snarled reaching for the small, dark figure above.
"Wrong answer!" the man laughed. The light grew brighter and brighter. Octavian and the others shielded their eyes from the blinding light. The area around them began excruciatingly hot. Octavian could feel the heat burning on his skin that was hidden under his armor, toga and shirt. Within a few seconds that light was gone and so were the giants.
"That will teach you to mess with Alberto Malcom Matinez Augustus Octavius the third." The man laughed.
Octavian looked up to see a golden chariot with two white pegasi in front. The chariot swooped down and out stepped Octavian's father, Alberto.
Octavian father, Alberto was handsome man. He was tall, tan and muscular. His dark hair was sleeked back with a thick grey streak running down the side. He was wearing his usual white button down shirt, jeans, and black dress shoes. His obsidian eyes were filled with pride and joy.
Alberto quickly ran to Octavian's side when he saw the scar on his pale face. "I let you leave Camp Jupiter on your own without me and you cut your face open." Alberto set a firm, steady hand on Octavian's face and the wound quickly healed leaving a small, thin scar behind. "There, now you look bootiful!" (Alberto had a thick Italian accent. Only a few people like Octavian actually fully understood what the man was saying) Alberto embraced Octavian in a hug and kissed him gently on the forehead.
"I love you to, dad," Octavian smiled as the air slowly was squeezed out of his tiny lungs.
"That's your dad?" Percy asked
"Yes." Octavian said when his father let him go from his tight grasp. "Dad I'd like you to meet Percy Jackon, Annabeth Chase, Leo Valdez, Piper Mclean and Nico di Angelo, and you already know Hazel, Frank, Jason and Reyna."
"It's very nice to meet you all," Octavian's father smiled. His father had an award winning smiling that always had the lady's falling for him.
"Now that, that's over, let's go and find Gaea and end this silly war, once and for all," Jason raised his sword high up in the air. The other's cheered him on.
"Gaea? Are you talking about mother earth, the great titan Terra, the mother of Saturn?" His father asked.
"Yes, dad," Octavian replied steeping away from his father to join the others.
"Oh, no you don't!" Octavian's father grabbed Octavian and pulled him back. "I am not letting you fight some titan, and Terra, for that matter. I came here to bring you home, and I am not driving all the back to New Rome, in America, to go leave you here after coming all this way to for you," his father exclaimed.
"Dad, I'm eighteen years old now! I can fight my own battles, and plus I'll be with them," Octavian gestured to Percy and the other's by his side.
"Alright," his father sighed, "but I'm coming with you," Octavian's frolicked across the giant chess board toward the small cave that had been covered by a small metal plate, but was nothing more than a burnt, crimpled pile of steel in the corner.
"Your dad is weird," Percy observed.
"No he's not!" Octavian objected following his father into the small cave. The others followed close behind.
We defeated Gaea, together. It was a great battle, but even mother Earth couldn't stand the awesomeness of the seven, plus Nico, Reyna, himself, and his dad. They escaped from the battle with few scars and minor bruises. The world had been saved, but Percy knew about his secret, the secret that Octavian had been holding in since he was eleven; the fact that Luke Castellan was his half-brother.
The seven, plus Reyna, Nico, himself and his father arrived safely back at Camp Jupiter. The other campers rushed over wondering what had happened while they gone.
Jason and Reyna explained the story to the others. The campers cheered and little children came running up to greet them and give them hugs.
"Octavian, can I talk you for a second?" Percy gestured for Octavian to follow.
"Yes," Octavian asked.
"I wanted to tell you what happened to Luke, the full story." Octavian took in a shakey breath and nodded for Percy to continue.
"When I arrived at Camp Half-Blood, when I was twelve I was befriended by Luke. He was eighteen at the time and sported a thick scar, such as your own, across his check." Octavian touched the scar Percy had given him during their battle with the Giants. "He was really nice and taught me how to be a demi-god and survive, but he had a dark secret. Luke hated the gods. He felt like his father, Hermes had abandoned him and he hated him for it. Later Annabeth, and my best pal, Grover went our first quest together to retrieve Zues' lightning bolt that Zues claimed I had stolen. After everything was said and done it turned out Luke had stolen the bolt to seek revenge on the gods. He tried to kill me, but I survived." Percy sighed. "Then Luke joined forces with the titan Kronos and five years later he allowed Kronos to use him as his host. We had to stop Kronos and the only way to do that was to also fight Luke."
"So you killed get rid of Kronos and throw him back into the depths of the underworld." Octavian sighed. He knew all along that Percy had killed Luke. It was just different hearing it from the man who killed his half-brother.
"No," Percy said. "I didn't kill Luke."
"What? Well then if you didn't do it then who did kill my half-brother, Luke?" Octavian asked.
"Octavian, to save Olympus and the world from Kronos, Luke killed himself. He sacrificed his own life so the rest of us could live." Percy put his hand on Octavian's shoulder. Octavian shoved his hand off and walked back to the first cohort and laid down in his bed. He reached under his bed and pulled out a dusty, red and gold box with a small lock on it. Octavian opened the top drawer on his small dresser and opened the tiny red and gold box. Inside was a small folded up photo. Octavian gently unfolded the picture and looked down at the two little boys staring back at him.
It was the last picture Octavian's mother had taken before Luke ran away from home and Octavian's life crumbled to the ground.
Octavian grabbed empty picture frame and put the tiny picture inside. It fit perfectly inside the picture frame. He stood the picture frame up and looked at it and smiled.
"Happy birthday, Luke." With that he lit a small candle and set it next to the picture and left the room. For the first time in fifteen years he felt true happiness, and peace. He finally knew what had happened to his long lost half-brother, Luke Castellan.