Chapter three: Love of the Sun

Apollo made his way through Camp Half-Blood with wonder written all over his face. It had been a while since he visited the camp, and he was fairly impressed with the reconstruction that had been done to it. He gave out a low appreciative whistle. The architecture took him back to the days of Ancient Greece, and a wave of nostalgia for the past washed over him. But Apollo had no time to marvel at the reconstruction of the camp; he had business to attend to. Business such as discussing Rachel's unheard prophecy and Aphrodite's pleas for him to visit Fiona Chronis, her new daughter. He had no idea why Aphrodite wanted him to visit her, gods weren't exactly supposed to get entangled with demigods, but he got the hint as soon as he entered the Dining Pavilion and saw her. She was sitting amongst her new brothers and sisters, laughing nervously with them at a joke she didn't get. She looked exactly like he had remembered her a thousand years ago. Honey brown hair, amber eyes, and tanned skin. She poked at her food with disinterest and jumped with a small yelp when one of her half-sisters poked her in the side. Apollo was disappointed as soon as he heard her voice. It was just a small yelp, but the tone was different. It wasn't really her. It was just another carbon copy. Nonetheless, he still approached her. He was amused that she had made it to the half-blood camp. The Fates are incredibly cruel, he thought to himself as he took steady steps towards the girl.

All chatting stopped as soon he approached the Aphrodite table. The Aphrodite kids gave Apollo a look that reminded him of a group of deer being trapped in the headlights. Fiona looked up at him, mouth agape. He gave her a small smile that made some of the girls and boys swoon.

"Are you Fiona?" he asked. The girl squinted her eyes as if he was too bright to look at and gave a wordless nod. "Well, Fiona, my name is Apollo. Would you give me the pleasure of accompanying me for a walk?"

He outstretched his elbow, the voice in the back of his head was silently cursing at him and telling him not to go on and to leave this girl alone, but he completely ignored it. The girl, Fiona, gave him a small, nervous smile that made Apollo's chest ache. She looks exactly like her, he thought mournfully for what seemed to be the millionth time in his life. Fiona looked at her siblings for approval. They were all egging her on, and, with a smile, she stood up and took his arm. There were small giggles coming from the tables and whispers from the other tables were starting to be heard as they tuned in to the scene before them. The voice was now yelling at Apollo to let her go and let her live on like she was supposed to, but he ignored it, just like he ignored it plenty of other times. She'll turn out okay, he thought. She won't turn out to be like the others. And with that, he led her out of the Dining Pavilion towards the beach, leaving the rest of the demigods speechless that a god had just sought out a daughter of Aphrodite.


Around nine o'clock Piper stumbled into the Aphrodite cabin panting with exhaustion and sticky with sweat. She collapsed on her bed and made a mental note to never challenge Leo to a race on the rock-climbing wall made of lava. Piper would've loved to get out of her day clothes and wrap the covers around her and sleep, but she had plans later that night with Nico and Leo. Piper considered taking a small nap to relieve her of her weariness, but she knew that the moment she closed her eyes she wouldn't open them till the next day; so Piper resorted to lying on her bed and staring at her siblings as they began to walk in. She was slightly startled to see that Fiona, her newest sibling, hadn't walked through the door with them. Remembering Apollo's request to find her, she started to wonder what Fiona could've possibly gotten herself into, but she left the issue alone. Piper just hoped that Fiona made it back in time before the harpies came out, or before she left to go with Leo and Nico on their test run.

Time started going by and Piper was starting to get extremely worried each minute Fiona didn't walk through. She was seriously considering looking for her herself before she heard giggling outside the door and a male voice saying "goodnight". Piper creased her eyebrows. She shifted her body so that she was sitting up and stood to go see who was outside of the door. The moment she reached the handle the door opened, and on the other side was a flabbergasted Fiona Chronis. Piper was startled to see Fiona's eyes in the dark. They reminded her of a wolf's eyes: hungry and fierce. It reminded her of how uneasy Fiona actually made her feel, the resemblance she bore to the woman in her dream made Piper extremely cautious of the new girl, but she tried not to let that get in the way of developing a bond with her. They were sisters, after all.

"Where were you? I was starting to get worried," Piper asked as she closed the door after Fiona walked through.

Fiona gave Piper a little smile, "Sorry, sister," Piper slightly flinched. Fiona made the word sister sound more threatening than endearing. "I was walking with a new friend."

"Really?" Piper started grinning like a dork, "who is it?"

Fiona shook her head, as if she was embarrassed to admit who it was.

"Will you two please keep it down?" a voice hissed in the darkness. Piper recognized it as Drew's voice and rolled her eyes. She signaled for Fiona to keep it down. Fiona, in response, shrugged her shoulders and practically skipped to her bunk towards the end of the cabin.

Piper held in a sigh and decided to let her conversation with Fiona go. Maybe she'll tell me in the morning, Piper thought. She looked towards the clock and saw that it was thirty minutes till twelve. With a groan, Piper decided to organize all the things she thought she was going to need.

Katropis?

Check.

Nectar and Ambrosia? Check.

Horn of Plenty? Not particularly necessary, but check.

As Piper mentally checked everything off, time seemed to speed by. Just as she finished putting her weapons and necessities in a messenger bag, it was already 11:58.

"Just in time," Piper whispered to herself.

She tiptoed across the Aphrodite cabin to the door, trying to open it as quietly as she could not to awaken her siblings, and to not inform the harpies of her presence. Silently, she made her way from the cabins towards the outskirts of the woods. She heard two voices whispering, and as she approached, she could see the outlines of two people.

"Piper?" one of them whispered. It was Leo.

"I'm right here!" she said as she jogged up to them.

"That's great. Now let's just get this over with." Nico grumbled.

Piper rolled her eyes. It was going to be a long trip if Nico was going to keep up an attitude with her.

"Where are we gonna go?" she asked as she rubbed her arms in an attempt to warm herself from the chilly night.

"You mean you haven't-" Nico sighed; he pinched the bridge of his nose as if he was refraining from doing something drastic.

"Haven't what, Nico?"

"You haven't even thought of where we were going?"

Piper shifted from the balls of her feet, "I thought I would leave that to you, since you're the one shadow traveling."

Nico didn't respond, the only sound that was made between the three was the sound of Leo's teeth chattering as the cold got to him.

"We can just go to Central Park," Nico spoke at last. "It's quicker, and it's in the area, so we could travel back by foot if I'm too weak to bring us back to camp."

Piper bit her lip, "Alright. Cool."

They waited there for a few minutes, as if expecting someone to leap out and tell them not to go, but all was silent except for the sound of Nico's ragged breathing and Leo's chattering teeth. Nico shifted awkwardly.

"Umm, you guys need to hold my hands." Nico's voice was barely an audible whisper.

Leo and Piper took a hold of the smaller boy's hands and noted with displeasure that they were freezing cold.

"You need to get some gloves, or mittens." Leo mumbled.

Piper thought she could see Nico glaring at Leo from the corner of her eye.

"Whatever. Just hold on, and don't let go." Nico instructed.

It was still for a moment before an icy cold, colder than the night air, enveloped around them. Piper's body started getting goose bumps and she started shivering. I remembered everything but a sweater, she thought to herself. Leo's teeth were chattering as fast as ever; he was seriously beginning to consider heating himself up with fire, but he didn't want to end up hurting Piper or Nico, or the trees around them. The cold grew colder and colder. It bit at their skin and darkness began to surround them, almost as if it was greeting them with an icy hug. Piper tightened her hold on Nico's hand and heard him gasp in pain.

"Sorry," she whispered. Nico didn't reply, because in that moment the cold swooped past them and started carrying them with so much speed Piper thought her skin was going to peel off her body. She heard Leo scream from Nico's other side, and she herself was considering it too. Just before she could humiliate herself by screaming, they were forcefully thrown onto the ground. Nico scrambled up.

"Lady and boy, welcome to Central Park!" Nico spoke as if he had just won an award. He was, no doubt, trying to prove to Piper that her worries about his shadow travel capabilities were wrong. And apparently they weren't.

"Dude, why are there gravestones in Central Park?" Leo questioned as he slowly picked himself up from the floor.

"Gravestones? What are you-" Nico seemed to notice his surroundings for the first time.

Instead of being surrounded by grass and trees, they were surrounded by old gravestones as tall as them. The dates went as far back as the 1940s and Piper could already see that one was on the verge of collapsing.

"Not really what I imagined Central Park to look like," Piper whispered as she scrambled away from the dangerous looking statue.

Nico seemed distraught, "I don't understand. My shadow traveling has improved, why is this still happening?"

There was a whistle from behind them. It was Leo. He was beckoning them over with one arm and pointing at a gravestone with another. When they approached them he gave them a wicked grin.

"We're in New Orleans!" he whispered with enthusiasm.

"New Orleans?" Nico seemed about ready to collapse on the ground.

Piper quickly opened her messenger bag and pulled out a small square of ambrosia.

"Here," she said as she held it out to him.

Nico took the ambrosia and bit into it slowly. As demigods, they had to be weary when they ate the food of the gods. Eating too much wouldn't be too pretty for them.

"I've never really wanted to come to New Orleans, but now that we're here, why don't we look around?" suggested Leo.

"No!" Piper all but screamed.

Leo gave her a disappointed look, "why not?"

"Leo we don't even know the city that well! Plus, this graveyard gives me a bad feeling; it feels . . . it feels threatening. What if we get attacked? I didn't bring that much ambrosia, or nectar. I think we should just shadow travel back to camp and try again some other time."

Leo grumbled with disappointment as he realized Piper was right. Piper bit her lip and turned towards Nico.

"Do you think you're okay enough to take us back to camp?"

Nico answered her with a sharp nod. He extended his hands towards Piper and Leo, and they each took one. Yet, when Piper held Nico's hand, she suddenly felt faint. She slightly stumbled and felt a piercing pain in her head.

"Ouch," she hissed.

"Piper, are you okay?" Leo asked with worry.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Perfectly fine."

Nico have her a curious look, "Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Piper was becoming exasperated. She didn't like the feeling the cemetery was giving her. "Can we go now?"

Nico nodded and closed his eyes shut in concentration. They stayed still for a few moments before the darkness enveloped them yet again. Piper felt even sicker than before and before the darkness could fully obscure her vision, she saw a name on a gravestone that made her blood run cold. Ruth Fiona Chronis. Before Piper could register it, they were thrust into the shadows. The shadow trip seemed quicker this time, and before she knew it, they landed safely on the ground. Piper sighed with relief.

"Are we at Camp Half-Blood yet?" Leo eyes were shut tight and his teeth were clenched.

Nico looked at their surroundings.

"Yup," he confirmed. "We're back."

Piper felt nauseous, but she was glad they were back home.

"I'm gonna go to bed now, guys," announced Piper as she stumbled down what seemed to be Half-Blood Hill.

"Don't get eaten by any harpies," Leo called after her.

"Wouldn't dream of it," she whispered.

She made it to her cabin safe and sound, and free of being the harpies' late night snack. Just as she reached to open the door to her cabin, Piper heard something that she knew she shouldn't have heard in the early, early morning. It was the caw of a crow. The sound seemed to have come from above her cabin. She climbed down the steps and looked around. Sure enough, there it was. A huge crow was perched on the roof of the Aphrodite cabin, and it seemed to be staring right at Piper. But there was something off about the crow. It was white, not black.

"What are you doing up this late . . . or early?" Piper whispered as she stared at the white bird above her. The crow only cawed in response and continued to stare directly at Piper. Slightly frightened, and very confused, Piper rushed up the steps and opened the door to let herself inside. She was greeted with the slow breaths and loud snores of her siblings. Quietly, she made her way to her bunk and collapsed on her bed. She looked at the clock to see that only an hour and a half had passed since they made their trip. With a loud yawn, Piper rolled to her side and closed her eyes. Yet, she wasn't greeted with a peaceful sleep as she had hoped, but was plagued with another dream about the mysterious woman.

In this dream, the woman was standing over a white tomb in the middle of a lake. She seemed to be alone. Mist surrounded her, making her figure look eerie in the middle of the cold darkness. The woman had a look of distraught and agony on her face.

"Oh my sweet," muttered the woman. "You didn't deserve such a death. Do not fret, though. Soon enough, when the time is right, you will rise from your tomb."

Piper coughed, and the woman turned toward her in a stiff stance. Her body relaxed as soon as she saw Piper.

"The girl . . . This girl will save us, child." the woman smiled. The tomb behind her opened and, curiously, Piper walked up to it to see what was inside.

Piper almost screamed. Inside the tomb was a large gray wolf, larger than Lupa. It lay quietly in the tomb, as if in a peaceful rest. The woman beside her took in a sharp breath and clutched Piper's shoulder.

"Glory, Piper. Bring us glory." she whispered as she looked into Piper's kaleidoscopic eyes with her amber brown eyes.

Piper tried to back away, but the clutch on her shoulder was too strong, and the only thing behind her was the open tomb.

"How do you know my name? Who are you?" asked Piper in a hushed, frantic whisper.

The woman smiled, "I am the mystery of creation; I am adaptability, intelligence, destiny, and personal transformation. I am the spirit of the moon, the symbol of death. I am cunning power; I am instinct; I am family."

Piper's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. How long did it take for the lady to practice that? The grip on her shoulder loosened and the woman backed away slowly.

"And you, Piper," she began. "You are our last hope. Bring us glory."

The woman gave Piper a hopeful smile and lifted up her arms to the sky. In that moment, Piper's eyes opened and she saw Fiona reading a book in the bunk next to her. It was then that she remembered the name on the tombstone: Ruth Fiona Chronis. And Piper's mind began to wander back to the woman in her dreams, and how much she looked like Fiona. As hard as she tried to make a connection between the three, she found it impossible beyond the fact that they shared the same looks, and quite possibly the same name. Fiona turned to look at her and bit her lip.

"Are you going to stare at me like that all morning?" she sounded irritated, and Piper could hear that she was trying to laugh it off with a joke.

"Sorry," Piper apologized as she sat up. "I just had another dream."

"Hmm," was all Fiona said in response.

Deciding not to carry on with the conversation, Piper started to do her bed. It was a while before she noticed Fiona staring at her.

"What?" Piper asked a little too harshly.

"Why are you still in your day clothes from yesterday?"

Piper looked down at herself; apparently she forgot to put her pajamas on last night. She simply shrugged it off. Fiona didn't appear to be interested, because she went back to reading her book and didn't ask any more questions after that. Piper sighed, she didn't think she would ever understand exactly what kind of person Fiona was, and she was slightly afraid to.

Just as Piper finished doing her bed and changing into fresher clothes, Fiona popped up with a question.

"Piper do I make you uncomfortable?"

"That's a weird question," Piper answered with a nervous laugh.

Fiona smiled as her eyes scanned the pages of her book.

"Yeah, I guess it is." she said nothing more and gave Piper the indication that she didn't have to answer.

Quickly, Piper walked out of the cabin, thinking about how Fiona's attitude changes were just as bad a s Nico's mood swings, and ran smack into Leo. Leo made a sound of displeasure and held his forehead. Piper bit her lip to keep from saying, or doing, anything rash.

"Leo!"

"Sorry, agh, Nico asked if you wanted to do another group test run this morning," Leo rubbed his forehead.

"Nico volunteered to de a test run?"

Leo snorted, "Yeah, and he wants to do it right now."

"Alright, let me just get some nectar and ambrosia!" Piper ran into the cabin. Trying her best to ignore Fiona's questioning stare, she grabbed the messenger bag she packed last night and ran out to meet Leo. They met Nico at the same spot.

"So what gave you a change of heart?" Piper teased.

Nico grunted, "Nothing. I just want to get this all cleared. I have improved with shadow traveling, I was just . . . tired last night."

"Okay. What time is it right now? Eight? Seven? What time are we heading-"

"We're not going to take long," Nico cut off. "We're just going to Central Park and back. It's just a test run, remember?"

Piper's cheeks got hot with irritation, "Yeah, yeah. Let's just get this over with then."

They each took a hold of Nico's hands and waited for the cold to wrap around them again. As the shadows began to wrap around them Piper saw the same large, albino crow from the night before. Just before she could react it swooped down at the trio, clawing at Nico's face. He made a sound of hurt and displeasure, but it was too late for them to react as the shadows closed around them. Piper almost lost her grip on Nico's hand as they made their way through the shadows. The intensity and speed were far more prominent in this trip than the last. This time a scream did escape from Piper as the wind rushed past her. Her skin felt like it was getting ripped off bit-by-bit and the cold hit a numbing point. As soon as it all started, it ended. Piper, Nico, And Leo were thrust into the ground yet again. She heard Leo's groan of displeasure and Nico's quick gasps. She herself wasn't feeling any better. Her ankle was throbbing in excruciating pain and feared she broke it.

Piper began to observe the place around her. We're definitely not in Central Park, she thought to herself as she took in her surroundings. They seemed to be in an office of some sort. There was a large desk with two chairs and millions of trinkets aligning the walls. She saw that the place was covered with portraits of aged men and women. She noted, though, that the people within the portraits were moving. She shook it off as her mind playing tricks on her. I probably hit my head really bad, she thought.

She sat up and saw that Leo and Nico were still on the floor. Nico was covering his face with his heads, refusing to look at the location they had landed in. Leo was clutching his ankle in pain. He must've broken it too, Piper thought.

"Are you guys alright?" Nico asked from behind his hands.

"I think my ankle's busted," Leo said.

"Yeah, mine is too. I've got some ambrosia in my bag though. We'll be fine." Piper reassured.

Leo gave Piper a thumb up and slowly sat up. They heard Nico mutter something about a stupid crow and his shadow traveling capabilities. Leo stared at his figure for a moment or two before looking around the room.

"Where are- why are those portraits moving?" Leo asked as he pointed to on of the portraits.

Piper gasped and followed his finger. It wasn't a trick of the mind, the portraits were actually moving. She saw the people within the portraits stare at the group with apprehension. Some were even walking out of their portraits to talk with people in other portraits.

"Impossible . . ." Piper muttered.

Nico sat up and also stared at the portraits. He seemed to still be in a daze and Piper noted that he had a scratch on his hand from where the crow had clawed him. She saw Nico's eyes widen with shock as he began looking around the room.

"No . . . No . . ." he began muttering to himself.

"Nico, what's up?" Leo asked.

"No . . . we're not supposed to mix!" Nico's muttering got louder and eventually he was cursing out loud.

"Why did I ever agree to this!" he yelled out to himself.

"Nico . . ." Leo started crawling away from the small son of Hades.

"Give me your hands, we're going back to Camp Half-Blood."

"But our ankles!" Piper protested.

"You can heal them when we get back! Now hurry!" his voice was laced with worry. Piper and Leo crawled over to Nico as quickly as they could and took a hold of his hands. They waited for the cold to envelope them, but it never came.

"What!" Nico's voice was frantic. "It's not working!"

He clutched Piper and Leo's hands even tighter and masked his face with concentration. Yet the shadows never came for them.

"Nico what's going on? Where are we?" Piper asked.

Nico gave Piper a dark look and she inched away from him. He let go of their hands and collapsed to the floor with them.

"I don't know . . ." he confessed.

"What! But you were just muttering about how we're not supposed to interact! Where are we, Nico?"

"Keep your voice down!" Nico shushed.

"No! Tell us where we are!" Piper asked with desperation in her face.

Nico opened his mouth to start talking but was interrupted by a murmur of voices behind the closed door. Piper's eyes widened. They were out in the open with nowhere to hide. Making an easy escape with Nico's shadow travel was impossible, and hiding was no option due to her and Leo's broken ankles. They were defenseless against whoever was on the other side. The voices inched near and nearer and Piper wished that she hadn't pressured Nico into shadow travelling. How were they going to explain their presence there? The voices eventually paused and the doorknob rattled as someone opened the door. Piper, Leo, and Nico were fully exposed to whoever was on the other side. And whoever was on the other side had quick reflexes as soon as they laid eyes on the demigods on the ground. The only thing Piper could register before her world faded to black was the bright red light shooting at her and the fact that whoever shot at her used a stick as a weapon.


Author's note: Haaaa . . . haaaaa . . . hi guys? It's been . . . a year. I'm sorry for the lack of updating. You can say I got . . . lazy. But, umm, I think (hope) you're still interested and I hope I won't put off my updates anymore. So sorry for the wait.

So I guess it's getting kinda obvious who the chapter was named after. Haha. Talk about last minute chapter titles.

So who's excited for BoO? Whoo! The last book of the series.

I'm so sorry for keeping you guys waiting. Don't hate me.

Anyways, next chapter should be up soon (probs a year. jk) I've gotten myself invested in this story again so I hope I don't get into my lazy period again.

Tell me if it was too rushed or too slow and what I should focus on!

Thank you for sticking around and reading!

~ K.o.a.G