I know it's not enough to just say sorry, because I haven't uploaded in soo long. I'm kicking myself about leaving it off... I hope the chapter is good enough to kind of make up for it, though.
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Considering the circumstances, everyone was pretty calm when Annabeth told the cabin leaders about Percy's dream. There were some skeptic looks and disbelieving faces, but no one doubted the information when Annabeth came to the part about the border situation.
"Just what border are we talking about?" asked Clarisse. "We can't help or do anything if we don't know where we're supposed to be going."
"I'm thinking it's the Canadian border, but I don't know which part." Annabeth grimaced. "We're hoping that Chiron will know."
"Yes, yes. And it's all fine and dandy if he does know, but how do we know we can trust what Percy says? He just showed up yesterday, and he's yet to do anything that earns him my trust." That was Michael Yew.
Annabeth glanced over at Percy. "We can trust him."
"How do you know? I mean, we thought we could trust Jackson! He was the guy with the most credibility here! So what makes this guy so trustworthy?"
"Don't bring him into this! We don't know why he switched."
"I thought it was pretty obvious from that note."
"Well, whatever. Percy isn't him." Percy noticed the little spark in Annabeth's eyes. Technically, he was him. "We can trust what he says."
Michael sighed in disgust. "But how do we know we can? All he's got is your vouch. We don't know anything about his past, and Chiron says that he's a son of Poseidon. He even shares a name with Jackson! And then Chiron forbad us from asking him about it all! How suspicious can you get?"
Firmly, Annabeth repeated, "Chiron trusts him. I trust him. For the last time, Michael, we can trust his word. So could you drop the subject please?"
Michael relented. "Fine. But we better find out about him pretty fast."
Percy decided to step in. "Guys, look. I know you don't trust me and all, but please believe me when I say that I hate everything Kronos stands for. I could be a big help to you. I have no intentions of helping Kronos-"
"Humph. That's what Jackson said too. And then he went and joined him." Michael grumbled.
Percy hesitated before answering. "I'm not this Jackson guy that betrayed you. I really want to help." Feeling slightly guilty, since he was 'that Jackson guy', just a different version, Percy finished and awaited judgment.
It was Silena who spoke up first. "Well, I, for one, feel like we can trust him for the time being. We don't know where he's been or anything, but I believe what he says. I think we can trust him. And he's right. We don't stand a chance against Kronos right now. Any help we can get, we should take." She looked expectantly around the table.
Not surprisingly, Beckendorf was the next to speak up. "I agree- I trust Annabeth and Chiron's word, and we seriously need some sort of an edge."
One by one, the others all gave their consent to trust Percy. Even Michael yielded, to everyone's surprise. "It's not like I can veto this. For me to refuse would only get us arguing, and we can't afford to do that a whole lot of that right now."
With that matter settled, Clarisse repeated her first question. "So what's this border situation? We need to find Chiron and ask him."
"Obviously," Annabeth said. "But why isn't he already here? I forgot to ask earlier."
That surprised Percy- since when did Annabeth forget something?
Katie answered "I think he's trying to contact Olympus."
"That makes sense. Okay, so, before we adjourn for now, is there anything else we need to go over?"
Pollux spoke up. "I have one question. What was the deal with that dude flying around in Percy's dream?"
"Yeah- and a replica of Rome?" Clarisse chimed in. "That doesn't make sense. Where do you find a replica of Rome complete with a flying guard?"
Looking visibly disturbed, Annabeth responded. "That's another thing we were planning on asking Chiron."
"Then let's adjourn quickly so we can get some answers." Beckendorf said.
"Agreed."
The war council quickly adjourned.
As everyone else was leaving, Percy and Annabeth stayed behind.
"So, what do we do now?" Percy asked.
"Now, we find Chiron and have a very long conversation with him."
Chiron was surprisingly hard to find. Annabeth and Percy checked the mess hall, the cabin field, the armory- even the stables. But no matter how hard they looked, Chiron was not to be found.
"Where could he be?" asked Annabeth, frustrated, as they plopped down onto a grassy hill.
"I don't know. We checked everywhere!"
"This is so annoying. Normally I can find him in a heartbeat. And now…" She put her head in her hands and pulled at her hair.
"Yeah, it's so weird. What could he possibly be doing?"
"Who knows? Anyway, come on. Let's go ask around. Maybe somebody else has had the good fortune to spot him." They stood up and walked over to the cabins.
Oddly, as they got there, an arrow shot out of nowhere and hit a tree trunk. There was a yelp, and a camper sprang out behind the tree and started running. An Apollo girl soon followed, shouting angrily. She looked as if she'd been getting into fights with everyone. Across the field, the rest of the cabin looked pretty much the same, all covered in dirt and muck and blood.
"Oh no…" Annabeth groaned. "Not this again."
"What is 'this'?"
"The Ares cabin must've cursed the Apollo cabin- they pick out fights with everyone over the smallest things. It takes forever to clean up the mess, and they drag as many people as they can into the thing. The last time it happened, 20 people ended up in the infirmary, as well as the entire Apollo cabin, and so many things were broken…"
"Does this happen often?" It sounded backwards to Percy. In his world, it was normally the Apollo cabin cursing the Ares campers.
"At least 4 or 5 times a summer, usually. Thankfully, it only lasts, like, 2 days. Come on- we won't be able to break it up. I want to find Lima- she spends so much time at the Big House and the infirmary, I'm amazed she hasn't moved in yet. So she'll probably know where Chiron went."
"Isn't she cursed right now?" Lima was a daughter of Apollo, after all.
"No- she's almost never around the cabins, so the Ares folk have a really hard time hitting her with curses. She was probably at the infirmary when it happened. But she'd have come back after the fights started to break out- she always insists that there must be some way to get her siblings to stop fighting while under the influence of the curse. She's wrong, of course, but she always does her best."
"So she's out stopping fights?"
"No- she's probably in the cabin testing out some weird concoction on some of her siblings to see if it reduces the urge to fight."
True to Annabeth's word, Lima was in her cabin, staring intently at two of her younger brothers. She was saying "Do you feel like fighting? Or has the rage calmed down? Or has it escalated?"
The one on the right answered "Jeez, Lima. Slow down- one question at a time. And no- I still feel like punching someone's guts out."
"Same here!" The other boy chimed in.
"But you're not punching me or anybody else right now, which must mean something went right…"
"Whatever you say. Come on, Johnny, let's go." The two boys rushed out and started looking for someone to pick a fight with.
Lima looked after them. "One of these days, I'll figure it out, and then it'll be so much more peaceful around here. Wouldn't that be so nice? Anyway, what do you guys need?"
"We were wondering if you knew where Chiron went. We've looked everywhere for him, and we can't find him." Annabeth replied.
"And we have some really important questions for him." Percy added.
"Huh. Let's see… Um, I think he said he was going to be in the woods."
"Why?" Annabeth asked.
"It beats me. Anyway, he said something about it being important, and that what he was doing wasn't something that you could do everything for in the Big House. But other than that, I won't be much help to you guys."
"Oh, well, thanks."
"You're totally welcome. Hey, would you tell me if Johnny or Mark starts to act weird? I think I'm on to something this time!"
"Yeah, sure thing." Annabeth told her.
"Awesome!" Lima beamed. "Well, see you at lunch!"
"At lunch."
They walked out of the cabin and started heading for the woods.
"So, do you have any idea of what Chiron is doing that he has to do in the woods?" Percy asked.
"No. In all my years here, I've never heard of something like this. Chiron must have a really good reason to be doing it now, though."
"Yeah. What part of the woods do you think we should be checking?"
"I'd say probably Zeus's Fist first. It's a big landmark, and maybe has some significance to completing old processes. Plus, the entire Battle of the Labyrinth started because of the entrance there."
"Sounds good."
They trekked their way through the trees until they reached the pile of boulders. Looking all around, Chiron was not there. "Maybe the creek," Percy offered. "It's got importance to do with Percy."
"Okay. Let's go."
But after reaching the creek and walking all along it, they still couldn't find the centaur. This proved to be true for all of the places they could think of. Percy figured that Chiron must be doing something very secretive to be this hard to find. "Maybe we should just give up the search," he said. "I don't think we're going to be able to find Chiron in the woods, and he has to come to lunch, right? We'll just go up to him afterwards."
"I guess you're right. But I'm dying to know what he's doing. There's no way that he should be this elusive."
They started to make their way back to the cabins. When they got to the field, Annabeth told Percy "Well, if you see him before lunch, come get me."
"I will."
They parted ways, each heading for their own cabin.
When he got into his, Percy headed straight for his bunk and plopped down onto it. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to take a long nap, but lunch would be any minute now. He lay there, thinking about the morning's events. The meeting had gone about as well as it could have gone, but the search for Chiron… What on earth could he possibly have been doing? It was so weird. The conversation they had with him was sure to be an interesting one.
His thoughts moved towards the other Percy. Kronos was holding something above him, that much was pretty obvious. But what was it? It could have to do with friends or family. Maybe Kronos had gotten hold of his mom. The thought sent an icy chill through Percy. In this world, that was a very real possibility of what could've happened.
But it didn't explain the behavior for the month or so before he left. A kidnapping wouldn't result in a total personality change. No, it likely wasn't something to do with a hostage. So what was it?
Percy spent the rest of the morning thinking of ideas, and then tearing them down. He eventually decided to ask to read the note that had been left behind. Maybe it would hold some clues.
When it was time to go to lunch, Percy made quick time to the mess hall and sat down at his table. Sure enough, Chiron was present. When the Athena cabin had sat down, he looked over at Annabeth, and she nodded at him.
Lunch couldn't proceed fast enough. But eventually, it ended. While everyone was filing out, Percy saw Annabeth whisper something to Malcolm. He nodded, and she started to head over to Percy. When she reached him, she said "Come on, let's go catch him."
They walked over to Chiron. "Chiron, can we talk to you?" Annabeth asked.
"Of course."
"At the Big House?" Chiron raised an eyebrow.
"Very well, then. I trust this has something to do with the entire situation with Percy here?"
"You could say that."
"Then let us not wait."
They made their way to the Big House, and sat down at the tables on the porch, Chiron standing nearby. "So, what is it you would like to know?" Chiron asked.
"There are a lot of things." Annabeth responded.
Percy added "Like, where were you this morning? We searched practically every inch of the whole camp looking for you."
Chiron looked uncomfortable. "That is a question I cannot answer right now."
Annabeth looked stunned. "Why not?"
"I am not at liberty to discuss my actions of the morning."
Annabeth started to say "But-", but was cut off by Percy.
"Okay, so we'll leave that conversation for later." He looked pointedly at Annabeth.
She glared at him. "Fine. I guess next would be the border situation."
"Border situation?" Chiron questioned.
Annabeth explained about Percy's dream. "So, do you know where it is? If we could intervene, it might be a chance to deliver a blow to Kronos, and it might give us an opportunity to find out about Percy- maybe even capture him. Because if he's about to get trained by Oceanus, this is probably our last chance."
At this statement, Chiron looked very surprised. "Kronos is sending to Percy to handle a border situation? You are absolutely sure about this?"
"Yes." Annabeth said confidently.
Chiron sighed. "I suppose I don't have much of a choice but to try and reveal everything to you. We will discuss this later."
Both Annabeth and Percy started to protest, but Chiron said firmly, "This matter is not one to be taken lightly. I will tell you, rests assure, but I will have to tell the entire war council. Call a meeting for tomorrow morning. It will take a long while to explain everything. Is there anything else? I now have preparations to make that will likely take the rest of the afternoon."
Glancing at Annabeth, Percy hesitantly responded. "There is one more thing…"
"Go on, Percy." Chiron prodded.
"Well, it's just that if I'm another version of the Percy here, then don't I look just like him? It's like no one here recognized me by my looks, except for Annabeth. She says I look like an older version of him. But everyone else, including you… You were so surprised when I told you my name. But why didn't you recognize me?"
Chiron looked sharply at Annabeth and said "Annabeth is this true? He looks like an older version of our Percy?"
Annabeth looked confused. "Yeah- same basic features. They're just aged a bit." She looked over at Percy. "He's even got that little gray strip of hair."
Chiron suddenly looked intensely at Percy. "A gray strip, you say… I don't suppose… Oh, I don't believe it!"
"Don't believe what?" Percy asked. "And why are you looking at me like that?"
"Percy, my boy, I'm looking at you like this because since you got here, I've been seeing a pale, brown-eyed 16 year old with sandy brown hair. And I suspect that apart from Annabeth, that is what the rest of the camp has been seeing too."
Again, thank you to my reviewers!
Spazthe1st- Here's the update, finally!
zeynel- Yes... and more people will likely know soon... There will be some interesting conversations to come!
PJOHPHGlove- Thanks! And you are right on two accounts- you can't hide from Annabeth. And Hera is most definetely stupid. Feel free to ramble!
Liberty Girl In the Sky- Thanks:) Your update is at last here.
Bookaholic27- Thank you so much! You kicked my butt into gear!
