A/N: I'm excited, for some reason, and it probably has nothing to do with Christmas, because, well, my Christmas sucked for a number of reasons which have no relation to this fiction. Anyway... there's more Apollo, in this chapter, for you who like him. He's hard to write, for me. =P I did this one drabble based on the Lion King song, I Just Can't Wait to Be King. Apollo and Elvis Presley make a very interesting combination, don't they? And I'm off topic... so Sorry.
Disclaimer: Percy, Zoe, Chiron, Nico and the rest of the PJO characters are not mine. My OCs, however, because there are a crippling amount of them ( =( ) belong to me.
Enjoy!
Chapter Eight: Η τραγική ιστορία (The Tragic Tale)
"Fourteen faces?" Hope said. "Is there any chance it's us?" She motioned to the room with her hand.
"Unlikely, there's only seven of us," Jayson pointed out, "eight if you count Miss Iaso goddess over there."
Zoe stayed quiet, not mentioning that she was almost positive about Nico, and Sam, maybe? Sam was the one who had dealt with Chaos, and Nico had felt him...
Kristen snorted, "It's not like a child of Eris will ever be the hero."
"Don't ever degrade thyself," Zoe said, fixing the younger girl with a piercing stare. Kristen seemed so... unconfident. Unsure of herself. She didn't value herself at all. Zoe sighed. Were she and Kristen parallel in some aspects?
The door opened, the lock clicked open. Instead of Chiron, who everyone was expecting, Rachel Elizabeth Dare stuck her head in. "What on earth is going on here?"
Zoe had reached the door and slammed it shut in Rachel's face. Through the door, she said, "I'm sorry, but we can't tell you."
"Why not?" Rachel cried, affronted.
No one replied. After a pause, they heard Rachel storm away, muttering to herself in ancient Greek. Zoe stepped back away from the door and took the five accusing glares in stride, "She's the Oracle of Delphi. She is bound to tell Apollo anything and everything she knows. Okay? I'm just not comfortable with letting him know."
"Why does it seem like everyone hates Apollo?" Nico asked, softly.
"Careful," Jayson warned.
"Especially Artemis," Zoe said, half-smiling. She was not expecting the group, everyone but Kristen, to tense and stare everywhere but her. "Relax, it's not like I'm going to burst into tears if you mention her name."
Everyone but Percy continued to look away. Percy, however, stared up at Zoe with his mouth open, "You just said you."
"Uh-"
Nico picked up on it, "You just said you."
The two boys grinned at each other and started chanting. "You said you. You said you. You said you."
Zoe knocked the back of her head against the wall and rolled her eyes. Boys. She froze, suddenly. What did she think of boys now? Percy and Nico... they were the only ones here who had meet her before. Oh at least the only ones that had meet her and cared. And she didn't equate all boys to Hercules anymore. She shuddered and found herself gasping for air. Hercules. She saw herself, standing beside him, helping him, putting faith in him. He had welcomed her, listened to her every advice, and then disappeared, but not before completely and totally breaking any trust she had in men.
Styx. Her sisters expelled her because of him, and he didn't care. He abandoned her. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Percy's worried green eyes hovering two inches above hers. He whispered, so quietly she was sure that the others couldn't hear, "We aren't Hercules." Percy reached out and placed something in her hand. He pulled away and went back to sit next to Hope.
Everyone, even Kristen, refused to look at Zoe now.
Awkward much?
Zoe looked at the item in her hand and her heart stopped for at least three seconds. A normal, blue and white, ballpoint pen. That had so much meaning to it. The pen she had given to Hercules before he betrayed her. But Percy wouldn't... Percy couldn't... She looked up at him, completely aware of the tears on her cheeks.
He smiled.
And Zoe sobbed. She sank to the floor and buried her head in her knees. And sobbed. It didn't help when she heard Nico whisper, "Who is that and where is Zoe Nightshade?" She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. She sobbed over Hercules. She sobbed over Percy. Over herself. Over the Protogenoi and the approaching future.
She sobbed her heart out. Something that Zoe Nightshade had never done before.
Percy fixed Nico with a glare that shut him up. Everyone in the room was silent. They watched as Zoe cried.
Not long afterward, Iaso stirred. She sat up, wild eyed and stared around the room in disbelief. "What-?"
Zoe stopped crying and looked up at her, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
"You fainted, Ma'am," Hope said, standing up and walking over to Iaso's bed. "How are you feeling?"
Iaso rubbed her head, "Oh my. Chaos. I've got to get to Olympus." She leaped off her bed, performed a lightening fast check on Sam, pronounced him, "Unchanged," tossed Hope a golden coin with the instructions to contact her if anything changed and then disappeared. The half-bloods hardly had time to blink before she was gone.
Zoe finished wiping away her tears and stowed the pen Percy had given her in a slot on her belt. She had always had a notch there, usually for holding an extra arrow, but the pen fit just perfectly. Quickly, she glanced up to see if anyone noticed it, but it seemed that only Nico had picked up on the pen, and he was staying quiet.
"Well, now," Jayson said, breaking the silence since Iaso had left. "Awkward?" He wasn't meeting Zoe's eyes any more. Maybe he glanced at her feet a couple of times, but never her eyes.
"A little," Hope said, standing up and turning so she could look at her half-brother. "We hardly know him."
Nico glanced up at her, "Hope, he's not dying."
"But what if it's an indefinite coma?" Hope said, peering down at her other half-brother with tears welling behind her eyes.
"Hope Elaine Russo, cut it out," Nico ordered.
She turned from Sam and shot Nico a glare, "Yes oh mighty Nikolai Percival Di Angelo."
Kristen choked on a laugh, "Nikolai Percival?"
Zoe smiled, but only so slightly. She didn't feel like joking anymore.
Nico reached over and poked Hope in the side, "You promised." She stuck her tongue out at him. Jayson and Percy exchanged an glance and mutually decided to stay out of it. Again.
"Nikolai?" Kristen sputtered again.
"Yeah, don't repeat it," Nico said, to the daughter of Eris. For the past couple of hours she had been locked in here with them, she hadn't been that bad. Nothing like some of the younger Ares kids and all.
"Nikolai?"
"I said don't repeat it!" Nico cried.
Percy and Jayson lost it. They cracked up.
OoOoOoOoOoO
Above the infirmary room, Rachel Elizabeth Dare rotated her headphones and tried to get the music to drown out the laughter. How on earth could they be so loud for so long? It had to be multiple people, at least five, maybe more. And she had only heard the sobbing and the laughter. Sure, she had 'heard' the talking, but it was incoherent jibberish. As the laughter continued, the Oracle slammed her pencil down and got to her feet. One of the laughing voices was definitely Percy. Styx. How did Percy, Zoe and a few other people all end up locked in the infirmary together? It made no sense.
Rachel groaned as she felt a familiar presence ruffled her hair. "Go away Apollo."
The god materialized behind her, in his hobo 'Fred' costume that Rachel absolutely hated. "Tsk, Rach, if I didn't know better I'd say you were depressed."
"Gee, thanks," Rachel growled, "now why would that be?"
"Pining for someone?" Apollo said, completely in jest.
Rachel banged her head against the table. "Go away, Apollo."
He sat down on her bed and steepled his fingers under his chin. "You don't want to know why Percy was locked in a room with Zoe Nightshade?"
The girl refused to answer, knowing he was only trying to get her riled. It wasn't like Percy and Zoe would ever be romantically interested in each other.
"Chaos is stirring," Apollo stated, matter-of-factly.
Rachel didn't even bother to ask who Chaos was. She didn't know and she didn't care. She half-wished that her life would go back to seventh grade when there was no Percy. No Olympia, none of the gods existed. No Oracle. No prophecies. And certainly no stinking Apollo.
Apollo moved from the bed and placed a hand on Rachel shoulders, "C'mon, talk to me."
Not knowing what was coming over her, Rachel sprung away from the desk. She ducked through Apollo's arms and dashed out of her room. Anger and sorrow chased her out of the Big House and into the, yet again, sunshiny day at Camp Half Blood. She ran from her pain, wanted to forget it all and leave it all behind. Rachel ran, but couldn't tell where she was going.
She just ran.
Until she ended up inside the Artemis cabin. It was empty, devoid of life. It hardly looked used, what with a stack of cots pushed up against one wall and the floor empty everyone where else. The walls were plain, gray mixed with white, but the whole cabin had a peaceful aura to it.
"I can't be here," Rachel whispered to herself. She had pledged herself to Apollo. There was no way being here, in the cabin of Artemis, would do her any good. Sure enough, she heard and felt the familiar shimmering of a god's wind transport.
But it was not the god she thought who might come.
"Rachel Elizabeth Dare," Aphrodite said, her beautiful features frowning. "What are you doing here?"
Rachel shook her head, not willing to tell the flippant goddess anything.
"I gave you the perfect opportunity."
The Oracle of Delphi looked up in shock as Aphrodite glared at her, an angry fire burning in her eyes. If Rachel hadn't been so confused, she would have been terrified. "What do you mean?"
"I put Percy into your life. I gave them the urge to seek you out. I was the one who disposed of your competition-"
"You killed Annabeth?" Rachel shrieked, her brain clearing enough for her to comprehend what Aphrodite was saying. Aphrodite had... had... had killed Annabeth? But why?
"Pshaw, girl, please, I didn't kill her. Directly, at least. You mortals, so predictable. Attack Percy, Annabeth takes the blow and it kills her. Job complete."
Rachel slapped the goddess across the face, not knowing what she was doing before her hand came in contact with Aphrodite's face. The goddess of beauty was too stunned to react. "You had to go and interfere. You couldn't let Percy and Annabeth be happy."
"I don't see why you care. Percy could have been yours," Aphrodite said, "and you go and pledge yourself to Apollo. Stupid child, giving up love like that."
"I didn't know Annabeth was dying!"
"It shouldn't have mattered," Aphrodite spat. "You should have kept fighting for him. It's a tragic love story, isn't it?"
Rachel clenched her fists and took a few deep breaths to calm her ever rising temper. Curse red hair and temper tantrums. She was as good as dead if Aphrodite stayed mad at her. "It shouldn't have to be."
"Puh-lease," The goddess of love sighed, "it was a work of genius. The sneeze that caused Percy to think you were a skeleton. A masterpiece."
Rachel clenched her fists.
"So, now what," Aphrodite said, "are you going to go to Percy? Confess your undying love?"
"I'm the Oracle of Delphi," Rachel dug her fingernails into her palms in an effort to keep from hitting her again.
"Boring."
"I'm the Oracle of Delphi."
Aphrodite's expression turned downright murderous, "I only wanted a love story!"
"You should have killed me instead!" Rachel screamed, her temper breaking through. "Percy was never interested in me. You should have let them be happy."
"Never interested?" Aphrodite snorted in a very unappealing way. "Poor, oblivious, little Rachel."
"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Rachel said, looking away from the goddess.
"Because you little toys are fun to play with," She said, smirking. "So much more fun than my boys up at Olympus."
Oracle of Delphi, Rachel reminded herself. Oracle of Delphi.
The air shimmered again, and this time, an auburn haired girl of twelve that Rachel recognized immediately, appeared in the center of the room. She looked up at Aphrodite with calm authority. "This is not your cabin Aphrodite. Leave."
"You're such a wet blanket, Arty," Aphrodite said, adopting Apollo's and Eros's nickname for the Huntress.
Artemis's eyes glowed silver and Aphrodite disappeared in a flurry of wind. The goddess's shoulders slumped forward. "Sorry, I couldn't get here sooner. Zeus kept me longer than the others."
Rachel sunk the floor, "Did she really kill Annabeth?"
"Indirectly," Artemis said, sadly. "Athena would have sent her to Tartarus and back if Ares and Zeus had not stepped in. Rachel, child, if you were not the Oracle of Delphi, would you go talk to Percy?"
"It's an if," Rachel said, covering her face with her hands, "how would I know what I would do?"
"Would you join the Hunters? Even if you are the Oracle," Artemis asked, her voice soft.
Rachel moved her hands away and stared at the goddess in shock. Join the Hunters? She had thought the offer directly after Nightshade coming back to life had been in jest. "Yes," Rachel said.
"Come, child," Artemis said, reaching out and grabbed Rachel's hand. "And we shall speak to my favorite brother."
OoOoOoOoOoO
When Chiron got back to the Big House, he looked older than he had in years. He immediately went upstairs to the infirmary. Sam was still white as a sheet. Poor Sam.
And the others were quietly discussing the upcoming game of capture the flag.
He unlocked the door and stepped inside.
"What did the gods have to say?" Jayson asked, just as soon as Chiron had opened the door.
"They will consider this and search for evidence," Chiron said, softly.
Nico scowled, "It's not like they'll find any."
"You are all free to leave," Chiron said, "but please keep this news about Chaos too yourselves." His eyes lingered on Kristen and Jayson for longer than anyone else. The only ones in the room he wasn't sure he trusted.
Jayson left almost immediately, skipping from the room with a whoop driven by being stuck in the same place for more than four hours.
"I won't tell. Anyone," Kristen vowed, perhaps picking up on Chiron's veiled threats. She followed Jayson out the door.
"Can I stay with Sam?" Percy asked. Hope's eyes lit up at the thought.
"Percy may," Chiron said, "I'm sorry Hope, but you need sleep."
Hope's face feel and she slowly got her feet, "Fine." She tossed Percy the little gold coin that Iaso had instructed them to use to communicate with her. Hope and Nico left, leaving Chiron, Zoe, Percy and the still unconscious Sam.
"Goodnight," Chiron said, turning around in an awkward horse semi-circle and stomping from the room.
Zoe got to her feet and closed the door, turning back to face Percy. "Why? You know I don't fight with a sword."
He didn't even have to think to catch her meaning, "Why are swords always used to fight?"
"I'm not playing word games," Zoe snarled.
"Zoe," Percy said, sighing, "You need Riptide more than I do right now. I'll IM Tyson and get him to make me a different sword."
"But-" Zoe started to protest.
"It's a done deal," Percy said. "No arguing."
For the first time in a long time, Zoe's whole face lit up in a brilliant smile. She opened the door but before stepping through, she turned and gave Percy a hug. "Thanks," she whispered in his ear before pulling away and dashing out of the room, her face redder than a tomato.
Percy sat on one of the beds next to Sam and grinned. It was a good thing Zoe was loosening up. He couldn't help but wonder what she had been like before the whole Hercules debacle.
His thoughts were lost as Sam stirred.
