Aeternum Furorem: Book 1
Chapter 1: The Beginning
"He's gone." Annabeth Chase said, a little too carefully. If you looked close, her jaw was clenched shut a little too tight. Her eyes were rimmed red. As she expected, no one at the council took the news too well. At first, when she had come back without him, they had all (herself included) expected the unbreakable son of Poseidon to return. But, as time went on, they all began to lose hope. The gods weren't being particularly informative on this front. So this meeting was Annabeth recognizing that the jig was up, so to speak, and that Percy wasn't coming back.
She knew, herself, that he was alive. She didn't know how or where or why, but she could feel in her bones (maybe because of all the near-death experiences they had together?) that somehow he wasn't dead. But that begged the question then, just where was he? She could be wrong, she figured. After all, this touchy-feely sixth sense thing she was relying on was the opposite of anything she could readily accept as proof. Maybe she should just forget about it, she thought as she fingered her necklace, just assume he was dead.
"Annabeth?" Silena, her ever perceptive blue eyes wide with concern, jostled her out of her circuitous thoughts. The daughter of Aphrodite quirked an eyebrow towards the rest of the room. Ah, right, the council meeting that was...now more of a shouting match.
Annabeth nodded, deciding to observe it for a moment before intervening. She sunk a little into her cushy chair, trying to relax her too tense muscles.
Clarisse was jabbing her finger accusingly at Will Solace, "Yeah, punk? Well, why didn't you poetry-tards see this coming, huh?"
"That's not how the art of prophecy works, moron!" He retorted angrily.
"Why don't you dolts just steal us a new hero?" Clarisse spat at Connor and Travis Stoll, evidently deciding to pick an even bigger fight.
"Clarisse, calm down, please. Your negativity is destroying my chakras," Katie said, looking like she was trying to center herself.
Clarisse laughed darkly, "Oh, I'll show you chakras," and made to jump across the table at the oblivious daughter of Demeter, whose eyes were now squished shut in meditation.
"That's quite enough," Annabeth bit out, in her loudest, coolest voice. Okay, good. That still worked. Everyone was frozen, and now staring at her. Their leader. She licked her lips, gods, she was exhausted. She stood up, "Fighting ourselves isn't productive, alright? We have to move on. If it isn't Percy, it's Nico. We have to find DiAngelo, and bring him into the fold." She frowned, remembering the lost, sad little kid they had run into weeks ago. This was going to be horrible.
Pollux frowned, "Doesn't he hate the gods?"
Annabeth sighed, "He doesn't love the gods. But I believe with the right kind of training, and exposure, he can see that Olympus isn't evil, and also isn't responsible for Bianca's death."
"I think we're screwed," Clarisse proclaimed, obviously trying to get a reaction from somebody. Annabeth stared at her for a long moment, she understood what the daughter of Ares was trying to do. Divert, try and find a distraction, try and pick a fight to feel pain in some easily articulable way. It was an admirable effort, it was, but right now, Annabeth didn't care for it much.
"I don't care that you're fucking miserable that he's gone, and that we're losing people left and right. We are the ones ending this falls to." Because the gods were apparently incapable. Annabeth felt a pang of understanding for Luke's side of things before she remembered the bloodshed and madness his side caused on a daily basis, and scolded herself for even briefly feeling it. "I want three people on a quest to find DiAngelo."
She narrowed her eyes, "Clarisse, Will and Silena, you're in charge of that. Get moving."
Castor snickered, "Silena?"
Annabeth spun on him, "Do you have a problem with that?"
He raised an eyebrow, looking like a handsomer mini-me of his father, "I mean, can she even do anything? No offense, Silena."
"I-"
"Well, for starters, she has a bigger brain than you do, and can probably kick your ass in a duel. I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what I saw last week, but hey, what do I know. Secondly, do you have a weapon on you, laddie? I know she's carrying at least a knife." Clarisse said haughtily, oblivious to the astonished stares she was getting from everyone including Annabeth. Castor balked under her stare. Beckendorf cleared his throat a little bit, drawing Castor's eye as a screwdriver appeared in his hand, and he twirled it with a dark look on his face. Castor swallowed.
Annabeth cleared her throat, pleased she didn't have to take further action, and nodded at a smug looking Silena, "Why aren't you guys gone?" She pointed towards the door expectantly.
"We're off, captain. Don't need to tell us twice," and Clarisse, obviously pleased to be doing something useful, strode out of the room, followed by Will who shrugged. Silena kissed Beckendorf, and then strode out after them.
Beckendorf nodded to himself, a silly half smile on his face. Annabeth noticed it, just as she noticed Katie shifting in her seat, Conner and Travis both communicating with each other via facial expression, and Elizabeth, the daughter of Hecate, drawing tendrils of colored purple in the air absently.
Elizabeth had been Annabeth's addition to the council once she had seen how powerful the girl's magic was a few weeks back. They were in talks to reinforce the wards set up by the golden fleece. Annabeth didn't know a lot about Elizabeth, which might have been concerning, but she had arrived at Camp Half-Blood around the same time Annabeth had, all those years ago and so they knew each other in passing.
Once Annabeth had a solid read on the room, and an idea of how to move forward, she cleared her throat, "Now, as for the rest of us-"
"ATTACK! ATTACK!" Will bolted back into the room, panting, "There are monsters, loads of them, coming up from near Zeus's labyrinth. We-"
Annabeth blinked feeling like she had been submerged in ice water. Distantly, she noted the fuzzy green carpet on the floor. It looked a little like Percy's eyes. "Everyone up, suit up. Then get outside and join in. Someone find Antaeus and Chiron and let them know." Dionysius was up on Olympus for some council meeting that just had to be now, not that he would be much help even if he were here.
She pulled her knife out of its sheath, and strode out of the big house without looking back, running towards the forests.
It didn't take long before she saw a cyclops lumbering about. It was making its way towards a tiny little blond girl who was just staring at it in astonishment. Oh no. Not another child, not today. Not on her watch.
"Hey! MOVE IT!" Annabeth shouted, trying to warn the girl. She threw her knife into the cyclops eye as it turned to look at her, and it disintegrated into dust. The girl was looking at her now, and Annabeth flinched backwards. How-how was it possible? How was that...that wasn't...familiar grey eyes, too intent and too curious peered back at her. It wasn't another child of Athena, no, it had to be...herself?
"CHASE! A little help here?" Clarisse growled, fighting three hellhounds at once. She was backed up against a tree, but she was doing an admirable job considering. Every time a hound tried to close the space and get her, she jabbed out with her spear.
Annabeth spun around, throwing her knife at one of the hounds and turning it to dust. She blinked. She hadn't even realized she had picked up her knife again, she must have gotten it when she was looking at the girl? She looked back. Where was the kid?
A scowling demigod with an eyepatch was swinging a sword as he raced towards her, but the girl was gone. Annabeth ducked as he swung the sword at her in an arch. Shit. Her knife was by Clarisse, by the tree. Wait, no it wasn't. It was in her hand again. What the fuck? She hadn't picked it up. It wasn't like Percy's sword. But she wasn't exactly where she had been a moment ago either. She just...was she losing time? She grimaced as the sword sliced into her side, and decided to think about it later.
"That all you got?" She spat, swiftly ducking another of his wide swings and bringing her knife in under his ribs, and straight into his heart. He twitched like he was going to move, but then realized that wasn't happening as he looked at her in horror and promptly fell back to the ground. Dead.
Her neck tingled, and she spun just in time to parry a claw. Great. An empusa with poisonous claws was hissing at her in rage, and Annabeth just barely had enough time to duck and roll under its arms as it came towards her for a bearhug. She twisted to face it, realizing distantly that everyone competent with a weapon was fighting, and that somehow meant they were drastically outnumbered given the hordes of monsters surrounding them all.
Unbidden, the words of the prophecy came to her...The child of Athena's final stand...oh gods, was she going to die here? She didn't want to die. She stumbled over one of the empusa's donkey legs as she was moving to thrust her blade into it, and saw the sickly green claw coming towards her in slow motion...
And then she was on the floor, sweating profusely but miraculously alive. Antaeus stood above her, offering her a calloused hand. She took it, nodding at him, "Thanks."
He shook his head, brandishing his sword, "Don't thank me. Back to back."
Annabeth blinked before moving, and together they stood to deal with the seven empusae now surrounding them.
"Annabeth, it isn't too late. You can save me. Please." She could hear him in her mind while she was fighting. Smell him, in fact. He smelled like sweat and smoke. Luke. She couldn't let him distract her. The last empusa vanished, and Annabeth saw something that made her stomach plummet to the underworld.
In the distance, a blond boy (unmistakably Luke) was dueling a fierce Clarisse. Annabeth wondered at how she heard him. Was she imagining things? Clarisse was advancing on him, pushing him into the forest...she was winning. Somehow that terrified Annabeth. But it shouldn't, she rationalized, wondering at the suddenly dwindling numbers of monsters. It seemed like they were retreating, but they didn't really have reason to move out, did they?
Her campers were still fighting, but it looked like they were handling themselves well against the much decreased enemy forces. Annabeth ignored Antaeus calling her to wait, and bolted towards Clarisse. She was damned if she wasn't going to help put down that bastard. Bastard? But it was Luke, wasn't it? No. No, it wasn't. It wasn't her Luke.
Clarisse was doing well, but clearly tiring. Annabeth didn't understand why Luke wasn't down yet. But wait. Could he be invincible? No...she had to step in or provide support for Clarisse somehow. She was feet away when it happened. One slip up from the daughter of Ares, and Luke's sword found its way into her center. He was sneering. He saw Annabeth, and the sneer turned to a fond smile.
Clarisse hissed, and crumpled to the floor, "Finish it, Chase."
"Annabeth-" Luke began, hands in the air (one of which was holding a sword with Clarisse's blood on it).
Annabeth was angry. Clarisse on the floor made everything boil over, and all of a sudden she was racing towards Luke, her knife hand cocked to stab. She was going to kill him. She was going to stab him until she found his stupid achilles heel, and then this would all be over.
She wasn't expecting him to throw his sword to the floor at her feet, and let her stab him repeatedly. She frowned. That probably meant his spot was nowhere on the front of his body. But where was it then?
"Anna, listen, I didn't want anyone, least of all you to get hurt today." Luke said, placatingly. Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him before leaping around him and onto his back, and proceeding to stab his lower back then his shoulders...
He snickered, "Just like old times, huh?"
"What the Hades is your fucking problem? What do you mean you didn't want anyone to get hurt? You fucking invaded our safe place, with monsters, and you...you killed Clarisse and gods know who else! You-" and she was hitting him in a blind rage. It wouldn't do anything, he was invincible, but she was stalling till someone showed up and she could use them to capture Luke and then they could find his spot and end him. She realized if he wanted, he could probably just walk away with his army. Hell, he could kill her if he wanted. She would tire in a duel to the death with an invincible man. It was her last stand, wasn't it?
"We came for you," Luke said.
"What?" Annabeth slid off his back, holding out her knife as he turned to face her, "What, interrogate me and get all the intel you can to put us at even more of a disadvantage? You've been poaching new campers for weeks, killing our soldiers, our kids...you-"
"I never wanted any of this bloodshed." Luke said a touch too innocently, given that Clarisse was at his feet bleeding. "Lord Kronos wants you because he knows you're important. In fact, everyone's orders today were to kill anyone who got in the way, but to capture you safe and sound. We came for you," he sounded compassionate. He sounded like he was trying to tell her he cared, like he used to care. Like they cared about her.
Annabeth wanted to vomit. What did this mean? What...?
She backed away from Luke, before making to bolt around him. A few paces away, and somehow she was on her knees, and her eyes were very heavy. She couldn't...
Ah shit. The sword. The sword that cut her must have had some kind of sleeping draught on its blade. She could hear Luke clucking his tongue behind her, and she held onto her blade a little tighter, hating how her hand loosened around it.
"ANNABETH! No, no, no..." It was Antaeus calling her, but she was so tired. She looked up to see him, horrified. All of a sudden, his grey eyes seemed a little too familiar. The child of Athena's final stand...oh gods, no. Not him.
"It's all my fault," he muttered, looking behind Annabeth, presumably to Luke, with narrowed eyes.
"Kinda is, yeah. Thanks Daedalus. Now I don't want to hurt you because you have been such a big help," Luke said, conversationally, twirling his sword around in his hand.
Antaeus (Daedalus?) growled, expertly thrusting out his sword, he threw something at Annabeth as he walked by her and she caught it, realizing it was a vial. Her hands were so tired though. She was so tired. It was green. Sea green. It was some kind of nectar. She licked her lips, she had to do this. She forced herself to unscrew the lid with heavy hands, and quickly downed it.
Meanwhile, Luke was laughing as Antaeus, no Daedalus, advanced on him, "Seriously, buddy? You can't be pissed we came in when you gave us the maze!"
They were fighting then, and Annabeth felt the energy slowly flowing through her body, waking her up. She shifted to watch as Daedalus, with his centuries of experience fought a gorgeous fight against Luke's stiff, tight movements. What exactly was she supposed to do here?
"You can't win, old man!" Luke spat, getting somewhat frustrated by Daedalus's clearly superior reflexes and style.
"I certainly don't intend to win," Daedalus said, just as he didn't bother to parry a particularly hard strike to his stomach. He grinned as Luke looked at him in horror. Behind Luke, the maze entrance was rumbling and collapsing. Annabeth could move now. She leapt to her feet, stooping to be by Daedalus who was looking at her sadly, "It was my fault, Annabeth. But now, now they don't have the maze to enter camp."
Luke scowled, "You think that'll stop us!" He looked at Annabeth once, then behind her, before making up his mind and bolting away. Annabeth glanced behind her. Twenty or so battle-scarred campers stood behind her, clearly ready to fight. She felt a surge of pride in them. In her mind, she heard Luke's voice saying, "Next time."
Daedalus rasped something about his laptop and good cheese, and Annabeth nodded slowly, "Thanks for saving my life even though I gather, you're the reason camp was invaded to begin with." She glanced at Clarisse, swallowing hard.
He nodded, "It was my fault. I was foolish, prideful. I'm so sorry, Annabeth."
Annabeth shook her head, she had looked up to this man, and he had let her down. But still, "I forgive you." She said, meaningfully.
"Do you really?" He coughed out, looking at her with too wide eyes.
Annabeth sighed, "I do."
He sighed, looking more relaxed than he ever had before despite the blood flowing swiftly from his midsection. A golden wisp flew from his body to the sky, and Annabeth stood up, clasping her hands and facing her people, resolved to keep certain information to herself for now.
We came for you...
Two days later:
"We lost him," Will said, softly, putting the picture down on her desk. Annabeth heard the unspoken 'too' at the end of his sentence. It was a tiny, golden haired, blue eyed picture-perfect son of Apollo, no older than 10. They had missed their window it seems.
"How?" She asked, looking up at the broken looking boy.
Will scoffed, "It was practically an ambush. The kid was gone, the house was trashed. Three cyclopes snuck up on us, and we had to fight our way out. We missed him! My little brother."
Annabeth stood up and put a hand on his shoulder, "I'm so sorry, Will. We'll try to get him back, for sure."
Will laughed bitterly, "Annabeth, don't make a promise you can't keep. They've been poaching new campers for weeks, just when they get on our radar, they grab them up. We lost Clarisse," Will was tearing up now. He twisted away from her, pacing a little bit.
Annabeth exhaled, "I'm sorry, Will."
"How are you so calm about all this?" Will roared a little bit, turning to face her. She would have been mad, but for the desperation with which he posed the question.
Annabeth had to be strong. Be strong for them all.
"We're in the middle of a war, there's no time to be weak. We can mourn later. We have to focus on being better than them right now. We have to turn the tables. We have to win." Annabeth said, forcing down how terrified she was. What would they think if she told them Clarisse had died for her? That the battle had posed no real danger to her? That she was hearing things, and seeing things...that their beloved, brilliant leader was basically losing her mind?
Will nodded at her, evidently not sensing her internal battle, "You're right." He swatted at the lone tear running down his cheek, steel in his eyes. "We'll make 'em pay."
Annabeth nodded numbly, "Go work with the archers. I want perfection," She ordered.
Will saluted her, with a ghost of his smile, and left.
Annabeth licked her lips, looking back down at the blueprint of the Camp she had been working on. It was surprisingly vulnerable to attack from several points, if someone were to breach the wards. Which, as she understood, strong enough magic could most certainly do. She had to figure out a way to put non-magic precautions in place, and arrange different battle responses if camp were being invaded. She also had to meet with Elizabeth and amp up the wards in any conceivable way, but the daughter of Hecate was currently passed out from magical exhaustion courtesy of the battle of the labyrinth. Now she should clearly have some code to bring the archers to prearranged high vantage points where they could pick off invaders from a distance. But it would depend on where the ambush came from, and there were really only seven in Apollo cabin to use as dazzling archers. They were training the other cabins up, and there were a few passable folks, but still-
"Annabeth, my dear?"
Annabeth looked up and jumped back a little bit at the sight of Chiron, right in front of her. His brown eyes peered at her in concern.
"Hey, Chiron," she recovered quickly, "How's it going?"
Chiron looked at her oddly for a moment before shaking his head like he was ridding himself of some thought. The thought that you're a traitor, the thought that there's something wrong with you...
"Will told me we've lost another potential camper," he began sadly, "I understand that's the eight since the Percy went missing."
Annabeth inclined her head.
Chiron continued, "It seems that Kronos took his disappearance as a sign to accelerate his action. We must locate Mr. DiAngelo before he does, and bring the boy up to speed."
"He still isn't reachable by iris message, as he wasn't before I attempted to issue the quest to find him. Before this could have meant he was within the labyrinth, but now, I assume since the labyrinth was destroyed that it means he is in Hades," Annabeth theorized, her hands clasped.
Chiron frowned, "And this poses a number of issues, doesn't it? How to get to the boy?"
"I think we'll have to speak to Lord Hades," Annabeth said, remembering how much of a jerk the man seemed when she had met him on the lightning bolt quest.
Chiron chuckled a little bit, seeming to know where she was at, "Yes, well, I think that would be prudent. Perhaps we should contact Lord Zeus, and-"
Annabeth had a look of intense concentration on her face. She was staring fixedly at the dark wood of the bookshelf behind Chiron. He stopped mid-sentence, looking behind himself at the shelf, then back at Annabeth. He knew that look. It was the patented Athena look, an expression that had taught him over the years to fear what paradigm-shifting thing she would spout.
And as expected, "It isn't going to work."
"What?" Chiron asked, as the grey eyes locked onto him.
Annabeth stood up, bracing herself against the desk, "We need them to all want to help each other. This has to be a battle fought outside of their realms. They have to unite like they did the first time, fighting with each other. Otherwise, we might as well have lost. Kronos is going to have other titans with him, they can't just sit on their asses and expect us to keep losing our comrades and somehow win this thing."
The sky was rumbling warningly, but Chiron closed his eyes and sighed.
"You're right, Annabeth, of course. But-"
"Annabeth?" Luke walked into her office in the Athena cabin, drawing her stare but not Chiron's as the troubled centaur was continuing to speak. Annabeth's eyes followed the golden eyed, sneering son of Hermes as he strode right in and took a seat on one of the chairs she kept in front of her desk. He crossed his legs and stared at her in amusement. She looked from him to Chiron and back again.
"Told ya I'd be back," Luke said, grinning. Only it wasn't Luke, was it? No, the golden eyes meant it was...Kronos?
"Annabeth, did you hear anything I just said, my dear?" Chiron asked, waving a hand in front of her face and looking to where Luke was sitting with a confused expression on his face. Oh gods. He couldn't see him.
"Why can't he see you?" She asked Luke in alarm.
"See who?" Chiron asked, looking somewhat alarmed.
"Because I'm not here?" Kronos/Luke asked, "Or am I?"
Annabeth looked to Chiron, "Sorry, I'm just really tired. Uh, almost just about seeing things. Could have sworn I just saw a blueprint I had been dreaming about in the air, and I was-"
"When was the last time you slept?" Chiron asked, placing a fatherly hand on her shoulder.
Luke/Kronos cocked his head, pursing his lips, "Yeah, when was the last time you slept, Annie? You looked so tired."
Annabeth forced herself to ignore him and meet Chiron's eyes. Oh gods. She was losing her mind, wasn't she?
"Ahhh, a while ago," Annabeth said.
"I want you to go to bed now. You're no good to no one if you're drunk on sleep deprivation," Chiron ordered, trying and failing to be stern.
Annabeth nodded. Chiron smiled at her, wearing that odd expression again, "Take care, my dear."
He left, and Annabeth looked at the boy sitting by her desk. He was smirking. "Who are you?" She demanded.
He hummed in thought, "Well, I guess you could say I'm Luke Castellan. But I guess you could also theoretically say I'm a certain lord of time," he waggled his eyebrows.
Annabeth stared at him open mouthed, drawing her dagger, "What the Hades are you doing here, Luke?"
"Yeah, you can call me that, I guess. We're both home," Luke said spreading his arms, "Anyhow, I'm here for you, Annie."
"Stop calling me that," she brandished the dagger at him.
He laughed, "Annie? Oh, no, that's her name, isn't it?" He tilted his head, gesturing to his left side. The little blond girl she had saved from the cyclopes stood there, staring at her with terrified wide, grey eyes.
Annabeth's head was pounding. She was losing it. Was she? Or had Kronos managed to slip into camp like this, past everyone. Were they all as good as dead?
"No, your little camp is safe for now. But soon," Luke smiled angelically, his golden eyes glinting, "Soon you'll be burning it to the ground with me, ma cherie."
"You're out of your mind," Annabeth said, her voice more uneven and frantic than she would have liked.
Luke chuckled, "Maybe. Or maybe, I'm just not pretending. Or maybe I just know things you don't yet," he walked over to her, smiling that crooked half smile.
Suddenly his eyes grew wide and blue and urgent, and his scar vanished. He was earnest as he took her hand, "I'll keep you safe, Annabeth. Forever and always. We can be a family." Those words...he had said them to her when she had met him and Thalia...
Suddenly she was seven. She fell to her knees, losing his hand. She was...she was on the street, in New York somewhere. She was cold, and alone and there was a giant, hissing python slithering towards her. She was tired, so tired. Out of moves. She just wanted to be a kid with a family that wanted her, was that too much to ask for? She squeezed her grey eyes shut as the snake lunged for her. This was it.
Pain. Searing agony. Darkness. Warm, enveloping, all-encompassing darkness.
She saw a flash of a woman's face. Dark skin. Dark, black eyes.
Then she was shuddering, freezing on the floor of the Athena cabin, and very much not a seven year old.
Luke was looking at her with concerned blue eyes. She forced herself to her feet, willing her limbs to stop trembling.
"Come with me, Annie," he offered, earnest as ever.
She spat at him, "Hades would sooner freeze over."
He laughed indulgently, "You'll join me soon enough, ma cherie. You'll know all about your flawed Olympians soon enough, and I will welcome you then."
He vanished, and Annabeth collapsed onto her chair, quickly grabbing some ambrosia from her bag and chewing on it. Warmth flooded back into her limbs. Her head still felt terrible and cold.
What was happening to her? What were these memories? She had never been attacked by a snake, had she?
She closed her eyes. Something was wrong with her. She had to tell someone. Someone had to take over being leader, someone who wasn't going insane.
"Annabeth? Is this a bad time, my dear?"
No, no, no...not now. Why now?
Annabeth opened her eyes, looking at the door where Athena stood, leaning against it, wearing a frown.
"Not at all," Annabeth said weakly, standing up and gesturing for Athena to come in, and take a seat.
Athena smiled distantly, her cool grey eyes scanning Annabeth's desk as she came in before coming up to rest on her daughter, "Is something wrong?" She asked, ever observant.
Annabeth exhaled sharply, collapsing back into her chair. She felt like she had just run a marathon and simultaneously been crushed by an ogre. She probably didn't look much better than she felt, she was aware. But she couldn't just tell Athena...she would be letting her down, wouldn't she? But protecting the camp, hell, protecting the western world was more important.
"Actually, yes..." Annabeth began with a sigh.
...to be continued...