Hey, looks like I am still alive. So I'm back from camp for 22.5 hours, and now I'm returning. And I'll be back again in about two weeks, so expect a new chapter then.

Chapter 4

The entire crew (minus the coach, who was probably watching another game) was waiting in the control room around the table when Luke and Annabeth arrived. They all fell silent instantly when Luke pushed the door open. The quietness combined with the solemn looks made Annabeth feel like she'd just walked into a funeral.

"You." Thalia pointed at Luke. "Shoo." Luke held up his hands in surrender and turned to leave.

"You don't want to know how Jason's doing?" he called over his shoulder.

"No," Leo said. "I mean, we'll ask Annabeth." Luke shrugged and shut the door.

"I don't like him," Piper said immediately. Annabeth took the seat across from her.

"Great," Thalia said. "But unfortunately, we don't just go on gut instinct for this. Got a valid reason?"

"Just to be clear, we are talking about Luke, right?" Annabeth asked.

"No, we're talking about Jason," Percy said dryly. "That's why Piper said she doesn't like him."

"Just checking."

"Can I finish?" Piper said.

"Sure."

"Okay, I really don't like him – "

"I got that much," Thalia snorted. Piper gave her a look of disbelief and frustration. Annabeth's suspicions of a rocky relationship between the two were being confirmed.

"Well if you'd let me finish," Piper said indignantly. "He just seems wrong to me. Like, I was talking to him, and he was being nice and everything, but none of it seemed natural. It just seemed kinda forced, you know? I don't trust him."

"So you think he's fake," Frank said. Piper nodded. "I guess I kind of got that vibe from him."

"I don't know," Hazel muttered. "He seemed pretty honest when he was talking to me, but he did seem a little… off."

"Guys," Annabeth said. "It's Luke. He always seems kind of off."

"Why?" Leo leaned forwards. "Because he's secretly planning to kill everyone?"

"No!" Annabeth cried. These people were useless. "Probably because his life basically sucks when you get right down to it."

"How does it suck?" Piper frowned. "I mean, I know he lost the war and everything, but wasn't that kind of his fault? What did he have against the gods in the first place?" Leo and Frank nodded in agreement, but Hazel just looked curiously at Annabeth and Thalia.

"Gods, do you guys listen to anything I say?" Thalia cried. "I told you guys a million times in the last couple days, they abandoned him with his crazy-ass mom, and then ignored him."

"Well when you put it like that he kind of sounds like a spoiled little kid who's just desperate for attention," Annabeth pointed out. "Toddlers and Tiaras, almost. And I guess he is kind of starved for attention, but that's not why he tried to bring down the whole Western Civilization."

"Great. Explain it then." Frank leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. Annabeth sighed in frustration. Percy grabbed her hand and squeezed it. He and Nico hadn't said anything yet.

"Okay. I will. So Hermes and Luke's mom had a thing, blah blah blah, we all know how that part goes. But Luke's mom could see through the mist, and after Luke was born she decided to become the oracle."

"What, like Rachel?" Leo interrupted. Annabeth glared at him and he shriveled back into his chair.

"Yeah, like Rachel. But at that time, apart from her not being a virgin, Hades' curse was still on the oracle – long story, I'm not going to explain it – so instead of gaining the power, Luke's mom just saw a whole bunch of stuff in the future and it drove her insane. She saw what was going to happen to Luke, and like, 9/11 or something, and she lost her shit over it and just went psycho.

"Then, rather than bringing Luke to camp or actually looking after him, Hermes just left him there with his unstable, hallucinating mother rather than try to help, even if it interfered with the future. She never stopped talking about Hermes, and she would have these weird fits where she would I guess attack Luke, and it really freaked him out. So eventually he started to really hate Hermes for extremely valid reasons, and when he was nine he'd had enough. He packed up and left."

The room had fallen silent again. This time it really did feel like a funeral.

"Luke kept wandering around for a few years, living on the streets, or in people's sheds and stealing stuff to stay alive. He didn't even have a weapon most of the time, he would just defeat any monster he came across with a golf club. Apparently he made a couple of mortal friends, but they were really lame or something, so he never stuck around too long. Then when he was eleven – eleven, right? – he met Thalia and they started traveling around, hitchhiking across Minnesota, or Colorado, or wherever. Then I met them, and it was all fine for a little while, until the other gods realized who Thalia was. Children of the Big Three were still illegal at the time. A bunch of monsters got sent after us, and we did have plans to head for Canada, I think, but that's when Grover – you guys know Grover, right? He showed up and brought us to camp.

"We got stuck in a Cyclopes cave, and everything was crazy, and then right at the border of camp, Thalia sacrificed herself to keep the monsters back and save us. Zeus turned her into a tree, and me and Luke ended up at camp."

Frank and Hazel were staring at Thalia. She seemed uncomfortable with all the attention, so Annabeth kept talking.

"Luke wasn't too happy for a while, obviously, and he made other friends – Lindsey, Scott, Finn – but he still spent a ton of time training, way more than anyone else at camp. Then when he was seventeen he got the quest. It didn't go so well and – "

"What exactly happened on the quest?" Percy interrupted. "I mean, I keep hearing people mention it, but no one actually explains what went so wrong on it."

Annabeth sighed and looked around at the eager faces. They'd definitely all heard about how nobody went on quests for a few years. And it was true that nobody would ever have explained what happened. No one really knew what had happened.

"Okay," she said, "So Luke got the quest to go steal one of the golden apples from the Hesperides' garden. He went with Lindsey, this unclaimed girl who was an amazing fighter, and Mike, a son of Ares who was actually really good at strategizing. I tried to convince him to take me, too, but I was ten at the time, so obviously he said no. They all left together, and then two weeks later Luke and Lindsey came back saying they didn't want to talk about it. Luke had the huge cut on his face, and Lindsey's arm was a mess."

"But what actually happened?" Percy said again. "And what about Mike?"

"Hold on. I'm getting there.

"They came back without Mike, both of them gushing blood. Once we cleaned them up we asked what had happened. They told us everything up until when they got to the garden and then… well, they just kind of stopped talking. Eventually we managed to piece together that they had a plan, but Luke went off from the plan and the dragon attacked him. And then Lindsey kept insisting that the wind was all weird. And somewhere in all that, Mike got killed.

"Neither of them were ever really the same after that. Lindsey got a lot shakier, and Luke got a lot more distant. She kept saying she didn't blame him for what happened to Mike, but it was pretty obvious that Luke blamed himself, even if she didn't."

"So was it his fault?" Frank asked.

"I don't know. Probably. I'm pretty sure Lindsey did blame him at least a little, but she never said it. She was a couple years older than Luke, so after that year she left to go to college. I think she's in Seattle now, still alive.

"Like I said, Luke was never really the same after the quest. He was just as angry at the gods as he had been right after Thalia got turned into the tree, and spent almost all of his time training. Somewhere around then he started having dreams with Kronos, and Kronos convinced him that a world where the Titans ruled would be better. In 2004 at the winter solstice he stole Zeus's lightning bolt. This pissed off Zeus, and for whatever reason he decided Percy, who'd just arrived at camp, was the culprit, despite the fact that there was a very talented thief that openly hated the gods who had just visited Olympus.

"So Luke worked with Kronos, making battle plans. He mapped out a strategy to bring Thalia back and tried to get her on his side in this whole thing. He swam in the river Styx to become invincible, and eventually Kronos took over his body. After a year of trying to fight back, Luke finally regained control and killed Kronos and himself. He finally realized that the Titans were no better than the gods, but that doesn't mean that he has to like the Olympians. They haven't exactly been generous to him."

Annabeth looked around the room in the silence that followed her story, satisfied but annoyed when no one could make eye contact with her. Thalia glared at Piper with total disregard, occasionally shooting glances at Leo, Hazel, and Frank. After a few moments Nico broke the silence.

"My sister would still be alive if it weren't for him," he said bluntly. "If he'd never kidnapped you, Bianca wouldn't have gone on that stupid quest." Hazel looked curiously at Nico. Apparently he hadn't told her much about Bianca.

"I – I know. But he made a mistake, and he knows it was wrong," Annabeth said gently. Nico rolled his eyes.

"It's still his fault."

"He's different now," Percy said. It was the first input he'd had. "I still don't really like him, but he's definitely not going to try to kill us all or anything."

Nico crossed his arms and looked away. He didn't seem to pleased with how the conversation was going. Annabeth felt a little guilty. Percy and Luke didn't get along very well, he was obviously only defending Luke because she had been so determined to keep him around. Well, that was loyalty for you. Defend your enemy to help your friend.

"From what I've heard he's an amazing fighter," Frank said, looking at Thalia. "He might be useful to the team, even if he's not always the nicest person."

"Exactly," Annabeth agreed. She'd forgotten that Frank was also a strategist.

"Yeah, but don't tell him that," Piper said. Leo nodded. "Have you heard the way he talks about himself? Even just this morning!"

"That guy needs to get his ego deflated," Leo agreed. "Even if he is kinda cool."

"Hold on, did you just say Luke has a huge ego?" Thalia said.

"Well… doesn't he?"

Thalia leaned back in her chair, her eyebrows knit together. She frowned, then looked back at Piper and Leo, and sat forward leaning her elbows on the table.

"Piper, Leo, let me ask you something," she said. "When confidant people gain power, do they willingly hand it over to someone else?"

"Well – "

"Are they really easy to manipulate and spark hatred in? Do they generally have pasts that they get scared of or feel horrible about?" Thalia glanced around the table, looking everyone in the eye. "No. They don't."

Annabeth had never really thought of that before, but it was true. Luke's seemingly never ending supply of narcissism and confidants was really a bunch of lies. She thought about all the times she'd talked to him, all the hours they had spent together, and how uncommon it was for him to truly be happy. She thought of how hard he'd always been on himself, how hard he'd pushed himself, always trying to beat his own record. He'd hated the gods, and hated his father, and, in the end, he hated himself. Annabeth could think of a thousand times he'd disappointed himself. The quest, not being able to save Thalia, even the games of capture the flag where they hadn't won. Even when he did succeed, he'd never seemed as happy as he should have been about it.

"Luke has a ridiculously low self-esteem," Thalia continued. "And that's what you get when one parent's insane and the other one ignores you. You feel worthless. Top that off with a couple of major failures, even if they weren't entirely your fault, and you've got a recipe for depression."

"And you guys said Kronos started talking to him after the quest," Leo said. "Right after a big failure. So he would have been most vulnerable then." Thalia nodded.

"And then with Kronos egging him on he never felt better," Hazel added. "And he just kept getting more and more angry at the gods."

"But that's all over now, so he should be able to get better," Percy said.

"Hopefully." Thalia smiled a bit. "More or less. It's been a while, so it might take some time."

"You know this is great that we can all help Luke get some self-esteem and everything, but he still hates the gods," Frank said. "And we're kind of trying to help them with this whole problem with Gaea."

"Dude, I'm not a big fan of the gods either," Percy said. "They're selfish, lazy, and really annoying. Me, Piper, and Jason had to put on this big show for Bacchus before he'd even think about helping us with defeat Ephialtes and Otis, and then he took all the credit for it."

The entire table was staring at him in disbelief. Percy held his hands up in defense.

"Hey, I'm not going to try to burn them to the ground guys! I'm just saying, I don't like being their pawn, but I still put up with them."

"So you think Luke will, too?" Hazel inquired.

"He didn't before," Leo threw in.

"Yeah, but his brilliant plan to bring them down didn't work to well, so he'll probably cooperate a little better now. He did for a long time," Annabeth said.

"I still think – " Piper started to say something (Thalia glared at her), but Nico cut her off.

"Look, can we just vote? We're going to start going in circles soon, and pretty much everything's been put out there. Luke's a traitor, but he regrets it and is probably depressed or something. Can't we just come to a verdict now?" he groaned.

"Fine," Thalia said.

"Should we write our vote on pieces of paper so that no one's pressured?" Frank asked.

"Nah." Annabeth shook her head. "Either way, it's going to be pretty clear who's not happy with the outcome. Right then. Everyone who wants Luke to stay on the Argo II, raise your hand."

Thalia's hand shot up while Annabeth raised her own. Percy slowly raised his hand, as did Hazel. Leo shrugged and lifted his arm.

"And those who want him gone?"

Nico raise his hand in grim determination, along with Piper and Frank.

"We just can't trust him," Frank explained to a very annoyed looking Thalia. "You said it yourself. He's too unstable."

"That's not what I –"

"You got your way anyway, so what does it matter?" Nico said coldly. Thalia stood up, but Annabeth grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.

"Shouldn't we at least get the coach to vote, too?" asked Piper.

"It wouldn't make a difference," said Frank. "It's five – three. Even if he sided with us, which he probably would, they'd still have more."

"Okay then." Annabeth gulped and shifted uncomfortably. It felt as if a large chasm had appeared in the middle of the table, separating their team. Those who wanted Luke there, and those who didn't. Maybe Frank had a point and it would have been a good idea to do an anonymous vote instead. "Should we, uh, call Luke back in then?"

A murmur of agreement spread around the table. Frank was looking unhappily at Leo and Hazel. Great. Just what those three needed. Thalia stood up and opened the door. Luke was sitting against the wall outside, but not the way people usually would. He was doing an actual wall-sit, his back flat against the wall, legs at 90 degrees. Typical. Cope with mental stress by adding a physical distraction.

"So? Deal or no deal?" he asked, looking up at Thalia.

"Deal," she said. "Welcome aboard." She offered him her hand, which he grabbed and used to pull himself up off the wall. They returned to the table, Luke taking the last empty seat, right between Thalia and Piper. He looked around the table, assessing the varying levels of friendliness. Annabeth hoped dearly that he wouldn't judge, because it was pretty obvious who had voted against him.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Piper spoke.

"So, Annabeth," she said. "Did you figure out anything else about what's wrong with Jason?"

"He likes Rose Tyler, for one thing," Annabeth muttered.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing," she said. "No, I couldn't tell anything. I've never personally seen anything like this. I've heard of all kinds of mysterious illnesses, but I don't know how to tell them apart."

"He doesn't have the plague, does he?" Percy said. Annabeth rolled her eyes. "What, it's possible, isn't it? Didn't it survive in prairie dogs or something?"

"I used to feed those things," Piper whispered. "Am I going to die?"

"Dude, we have a plague carrier on the ship," Leo said, raising his hands dramatically over the table. "We're all doomed, whether we fed prairie dogs or not."

"Whoa, wait, he actually has the plague?" Hazel asked.

"No," Annabeth said. "There are way more signs for the plague. He'd be rotting from the inside out, and he's pretty obviously not doing that. Also he'd have black spots on him, and he'd be coughing up blood. He's not coughing up anything."

"We can eliminate cancer, right? I'm pretty sure he doesn't have cancer," Luke said. Thanks for that contribution, Luke. "And don't most infections usually involve coughing up at least something? Some kind of body fluid?"

"Exactly. So we can rule out the flu and a ton of other viruses," Annabeth confirmed.

"Piper told me before you came back that they've given him tons of nectar and ambrosia," Percy said. "But it didn't do anything. What can be so bad that nectar and ambrosia don't even help?"

He looked around the table, but no one answered him. It was hopeless, Annabeth decided. None of them had any ideas to begin with, and now half of the crew didn't like each other because of this whole thing with Luke. Annabeth noticed the shifty, annoyed glances being passed around. Piper and Leo were avoiding eye contact, but every now and then Piper would throw Leo a slightly disdainful look. Frank was glancing anxiously between Hazel and Leo. Nico was glaring at Thalia, still. He hadn't said anything yet about Jason. Annabeth wished he would. After all, he was the expert on death, and Annabeth hoped he could just tell them that it wasn't life threatening.

"I guess I've seen something like this once before," Frank said cautiously. Everyone seemed to perk up. "But it was on a soap opera."

"Wow," Luke said. "Reliable."

"Whatever," Frank continued. "But the point was that the woman's body was just shutting down, kind of like what Jason's doing. And she was just dying from old age because her body couldn't keep up anymore."

"He is not dying from old age," Thalia snapped.

"I know," said Frank, looking taken aback. "But I was just thinking, maybe he's not sick. Maybe his body's just shutting down for whatever reason, and we can't stop it."

"Fun," Leo said miserably.

"What show was this?" Luke asked.

"ER."

"Huh. That's still on?"

"No." Frank shook his head. "That was the finale."

"Well, if you're all done talking about soap operas, we can move on," Annabeth said. "Anyone got any better ideas?"

"I'm not very good at telling if people are going to die, but Nico can," Hazel said nervously. The gaze of the room shifted expectantly towards Nico. He took a deep breath. No escaping now.

"Okay, he's not dying," he said. Piper let out the huge breath she'd been holding. "But he's… I don't know. I'm working on it. He's not okay, I know that."

"But he's not dying," Leo repeated. Nico shrugged.

"Well, no. He's not. But he's still not doing very well," he said.

"Hey, when did ER get cancelled? That's been on for years." Luke said.

"April," Frank told him.

"Bummer."

"Luke, forget about the show. It really doesn't matter," Annabeth groaned.

"Speak for yourself, I used to watch that at camp during – "

"It's a soap opera. I think it's time for you to reassess what you value in life."

"Well excuse me," Luke said. "but Jason also likes it. He had at least three seasons of it on his computer."

"That doesn't make it relevant to his current health situation."

The fruitless, hopeful discussion continued for another hour, ideas coming up only to be shot down. By the time the group dispersed there was a definite gloom settling in on the ship.