Chapter three;
It was to screams and loud bangs that Deo woke that night.
He'd easily found a motel to stay in for the night, it was rather easy actually, once he had been to the CALIX mega store in London and bought a full new wardrobe – he found it amusing that the people in the shop had basically bowed down to him after sneering when he had first entered, when they had seen the name on his Debit Card.
The store did everything from casual wear, to sports, to formal wear. Both male and female. All sizes, styles and materials. Once in the store, he actually recognised some of the items – they were some of which Dudley had begged his parents for, but they had nearly always told him no. Vernon had a few suits from the store, but not many, and only ever used on the most special of occasions.
Even in his casual clothes, the motel was more than eager to give him a place to stay that night.
The twelve year old bit back a groan as he rolled off the bed, and grabbed the dagger from beneath the pillow, rushing from the room he found himself immediately thrown backwards – outside the room was a large half-man half-bull thing, what had sent him flying backwards was a girl that had come flying towards his door just as he opened it, clearly knocked to the side by the monster. Deo bit back an irritated growl at being bowled over, rolling back up onto his feet without a second thought and taking a running-jump at the beast, which was currently focused on a boy at the other side of the corridor. With as much strength as he could muster, he landed on the beasts back, and plunged the dagger he held into the beasts neck.
He fell to the ground with a thud, landing on his knees as the creature burst into golden dust, vanishing in a non-existent winds that suddenly seems to swirl around him.
He felt surrounded by warmth, light and…pride?
A heavy but comfortably weight settled around his neck, and he looked down and gaped, on his bare chest (he slept in only PJ bottoms) was a golden pendent, it was a circle with a sun blazing within, at each point of the sun were the zodiac signs that he had seen so often used by the older students that studied Divination.
You did well, grandson. Son of Lilia.
Deo jerked and looked around for the voice, but neither of the…where they twins? Siblings? Were speaking, actually both of them looked gobsmacked and look breathless to speak.
I may be in your mind, but I am no less real. Trust my twins, my grandson, and travel together. Get to camp, it is safest there. The twins know how.
"Does that mean he's our brother?" the boy asked pointing at the pendant,
"No…he's a legacy." The girl stated, moving forward and stepping out of Deo's assigned room – he allowed her to look closely at the pendant. He hadn't noticed until she ran her thumb over the back, but it had the words Son of Lilia.
Looking carefully at the two, he found that they had identical pendants around their necks – the girls was more delicate and feminine, but of the same design and details.
"A legacy wouldn't have been able to defeat Minotaur so quickly. So easily." The boy stated looking irritated, "If we were struggling with two of us – how did he do so, so easily?"
"He didn't know I was there." Deo pointed out, yawning – looking longingly at his room, he grabbed the hand of the elder boy and yanked him into his bedroom. He was surprised security hadn't come running at how loud they were being actually, "The element of surprise. What the hell is a legacy? – actually, don't answer that! I just want to sleep right now! Its been a long day!"
"I'm not just leaving you alone! A newly claimed always draws more attention," the girl started blabbering as Deo went and fell onto the bottom bunk of one of the beds he had been laying in, "And we haven't actually got a room here, so we best be leaving – all of us!"
"This room is paid for." Deo grumbled, "Use the spare beds."
As it turned out the two siblings were actually twins, aged 14. Alesandro (Ales) and Celia (Lia) Mason. Deo was the first awake that morning and had managed to sneak out and buy breakfast before the twins even woke. Apparently they hadn't eaten properly in weeks, since running away from home – their stepfather had moved them and their willing mother to England, but they had absolutely no intention of staying and had been looking for a way back to America since. With no money, no transport and no connections they weren't exactly getting very far.
Having access to the internet made things a lot easier, Deo decided.
The motel that he had chosen didn't have any computers but they did have wifi, and since Ales and Lia both had mobile phones that could connect, and Deo had his debit cards – well, booking three transatlantic cruise tickets was easy. Expensive, but easy.
Getting onto the cruise, well, that was a little more difficult.
After all, who wasn't going to question two fourteen year olds and a boy who looked ten at most, travelling together without an adult?
No sane adult, that was for sure.
Whilst Ales and Lia were cussing him and nearly throwing up, Deo had gone for a walk along the marina where they were setting sail from. Scanning the crowd and pinpointing individuals that looks like they wouldn't ask too many questions – if it was just Deo, he would probably have skipped buying the ticket altogether, used his invisibility cloak and slipped on board, but having three of them it wasn't so simple.
So, they needed someone with questionable morals, that possibly needed money and wouldn't rat them out at the first chance.
His eyes fell on a very familiar looking person, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to go back and puke with the twins or bang his head against a wall.
William Weasley.
He recognised him from the family photographs that the twins (Fred and George) had around their dorm room – George had pointed each of them out, told him who they were and what they did. Bill (William) worked as a curse breaker for Gringotts, usually placed in Egypt, Charlie Weasley was a dragon tamer in Romania, and the rest Deo had already met since he went to the same school as them.
There was absolutely no chance, on this earth, that Bill would recognise him – Deo reminded himself viciously. Not only hadn't Bill met Harry Potter, but he certainly hadn't met Deo Calix.
"Master Calix. Axegar sent me." William Weasley interrupted his thoughts,
Startled slightly, Deo stumbled backwards, only prevented from falling from the hand that wrapped around his upper arm. Axegar. Right, his financial manager. Who would have seen his transaction for three transatlantic tickets to America.
"Right. Yes. Is something wrong?" He asked cautiously,
William shook his head and gave him a crooked half-smile.
"Axegar said to remind you that you are only twelve," William stated looking highly amused, "And therefore, by muggle laws, you aren't allowed to travel alone. Even if it is with two fourteen year olds."
"And you are here to tell me that we aren't allowed to go," Deo scowled,
William Weasley had the audacity to laugh at him!
"No, I did suggest it I will admit." William smirked as Deo growled in annoyance, his green and gold eyes fixed on the Weasley heir. "Axegar had me pulled off my current assignment to escort you, and your two friends?, to America. He says he would prefer you to allow me to travel with you to your intended destination, but understand why if you say no."
"You're on babysitting duty then?" Deo said – he was trying to decide now whether to laugh at the scowl on the older mans face, or cry in embarrassment that Axegar thought he needed an escort to go with him! "Actually, this is perfect! We were just looking for an adult to con, to get us onto the cruise without being questioned about being so young!"
Getting onto the ship was pretty easy after William joined them, Deo and the twins stood back and let the qualified adult do the talking and easily enough got them switched to a family suite – saying that there clearly had been a mix up in the paperwork. The twins weren't exactly impressed that William was basically babysitting them, but Deo had pointed out that it made life so much easier to have a known adult that worked for him doing the job.
Ok, so he worked for Gringotts…
Axegar had sent a letter ahead with William, stating that he should have thought about these things in advance and that William's weeks – or how long the journey was going to be – was coming out of his accounts.
Leaning out over the railings as the ship set off, Deo could only think of how comfortable and at home he felt watching the wave crash against the cruise ship below.
Lee Fletcher was concerned. He had expected to be contacted by his only (currently) set of twin siblings before now – it had been over a week since they had last contacted him. When they had contacted him, it was to say that they had ran away from home and that they were trying to find a way to camp – Lee had prayed to their father, and pretty much every god out there to grant them a safe passage from England to Camp.
Without their location, he couldn't contact them either.
He spent the majority of the time he wasn't healing people, or training, to scan the mortal news. No news of plane crashes over the Atlantic, or of boats going missing, no news – well more than the usual – of unusual disturbances that were probably attributed to demigods being attacked by monsters. He had even been watching the British news for such things, but nothing showed...one thing that had caught his attention on the British news was the escape of Sirius Black from some high-security prison over there, apparently he was a mass murder and highly dangerous.
Lee was itching to go out searching for his siblings,
Chiron had bluntly said no.
No point in having three missing demigods.
Lee had signed himself and his cabin up for patrol duty, ensuring that at least two of them were stood by the entrance to camp in case something happened. The only time they weren't allowed to stand guard was during the night hours –Chiron had put his foot down about curfew.
"Pacing isn't going to help," Michael Yew rebuked,
Lee dodged the pillow that was thrown in his direction, but quit with his pacing as he stood looking out of the cabin window – the one that faced the entrance to camp, that had magically appeared three days prior. The window even had magnifying properties, and he suspected that his father had something to do with it.
Despite Michael snapping, Lee wasn't the only one on edge about the twins. All of the Apollo children were on edge – all of them nervous, like they knew something was going to happen. Given that their father was the god of prophecy, it wasn't something that they were going to shrug it off so easily as Chiron seemed to. Or dismiss their claims as paranoia like Mr D had.
"Get the medical tent ready! Now!" Will Solace snapped,
Lee's eyes snapped to his brother and then back to the window, seeing what his brother had and that he had missed the first time – a shadowed figure, that as clearly two people stumbling into camp.
Lee never even thought about it as he snapped at Michael to take charge of getting the medical tent sorted, as he grabbed his Bow and Arrows, and ran at full speed – which was rather fast – across the grounds that where illuminated by the rising sun, it was still dark but his fathers chariot could be seen rising in the distance.
Lee dropped to his knees beside the twins, who were barely conscious and just inside of the camps boarders. Both were covered in blood, their clothing ripped rather nastily, and Ales was actually fully unconscious – a nasty looking gash on his forehead, he had clearly been knocked unconscious from it. when Lee started to fuss over his sister (since she was still particially conscious, so would feel most pain) she pushed her hand away and shook her head viciously, looking urgently towards the boarder.
"Don't worry about any monster," He tried to reassure – but a nasty feeling crept into his stomach as she continued to shake her head, "They aren't going to be able to get into -."
"D…De…" Lia rasped, "H-help h-h-him."
De? Who the heck was De? A new demigod?
She was actually trying to stand back up and go back out!
Jumping back to his feet just as he was joined by several of his other siblings, he dashed to the edge of the barrier – his eyes widening in horror at the sight. On the other side were several monsters, with a red-headed ginger guy who was unconscious by the foot of the barrier and a small boy covered in blood, that was still fighting with all he had.
He was up against four hellhounds.
Notching one of his arrows, Lee shot an arrow with deadly accuracy – it actually went down the monsters throat, as the small boy turned another of the monsters into gold dust. Lee watched in wonder as another arrow came flying past his ear, as a second was vanished by the boy with a second deadly swing. The last, and largest of the hell hounds, had managed to dodge the arrow somehow – but wasn't able to miss the next three that were shot in quick succession by Michael, Austin and Lee.
Deo coughed violently as he realised that all the large dog-monster things had been killed, wiping his lip he grimaced as he noted the blood that coated his lips and now his hand. Well, there was blood all over him, so that wasn't so much as surprise. Looking around wildly he found William propped up against the tree that the twins had vanished beyond, at his orders.
Ales was unconscious, and Celia had been nearly joining him – he didn't have time to keep an eye on them and watch their backs as well as watch his own.
Stumbling over the three, he flinched violently when three older boys suddenly appeared – apparently there was wards in place that had stopped him seeing them at first – both rushing towards them, Deo dropped down beside William and felt for a pulse, letting out a sigh of relief at finding a rather strong one there.
He wasn't sure how he would have explained it to the Weasley's if their eldest son/brother had died trying to protect him.
He knew he should have sent him back, but William had insisted on accompanying them!
No, without William they would have been overwhelmed by the sudden attack, William had managed to blast several of the hell hounds far enough away that they could vanish several others before being jumped again.
Everything was so fuzzy and going black…
Lee cussed as he managed to catch the small boy before he fell and whacked his head off of Thalia's tree. Easily he moved and scooped up the tiny boy into his arms, heading past the barrier where Chiron had appeared, al a ong with several other campers from different cabins, the twins had gone and Lee presumed that they had been taken to the medical tent.
Seconds after he passed the barrier, Austin and Michael joined him with the red headed male between them.
It didn't take long to reach the medical tent, and it didn't surprise him to find that Will had already patched up the twins wounds – Lia looked more aware now, clearly she had already been given nectar and ambrosia.
"Deo! Is he ok!" Lia threated, trying to get off her bed but Will held her down in place as Lee placed the small boy on the bed beside her. "Deo! William! Oh gods, I should have stayed and help but Deo told me to get Ales to safety and then you were there…"
"Who are they?" Lee asked,
His hands expertly ran over the small boy in front of him, detecting the injuries with even more ease than normal – he sent a silent prayer of thanks to his father, who was clearly watching over them. The things that he needed to heal the child instantly appeared on the table beside the bed.
"That is Deo Calix, legacy of fathers." Lia explained watching what Lee was doing very closely, "We think his own father was a god too though, as well as his father being his grandfather."
"More common than you think," Chiron piped in as he entered carrying William, clearly having taken the adult male from the teens. "Sometimes when a demigod doesn't know of their heritage, a god or goddess, well, shall we say are attracted to them to find out why they don't know about it?"
"And they end up doing the do." Lia chipped in,
"More often than not," Chiron agreed, "You are correct though, he is certainly more than a blessed legacy."
"Chiron, the results…" Lee whispered,
He felt ill.
Usually his scans only showed what was wrong at the present time, or long term problems. His father (and he knew it was his father!) had given him a view of this childes medical history. He had been too near death his full life – he had probably only survived the malnutrition and dehydration throughout his lift because he was a demigod. And at that, because he was also a legacy of Apollo.
"He…if he was mortal, he would have died a long time ago." Lee stated putting on a professional voice, hiding the fury at whoever had done this to his nephew. Because, yes, this was his nephew and he wasn't going to argue that fact just because he was only a few years older than the boy. "How old do you think he is, Chiron?"
"I'm going to say between 9 and 10?" Chiron answered, he looked grave.
"He's 13 on July 31st." Lia replied softly,
