A/N: I love simple sentences. My friend has an account now. Read the stories written by From-Cabin-Six. You will enjoy them. More than you enjoy mine. Yay. With this story, I have broken 100,000 words, finally achieving more words about half-way through Chapter 39. Uh oh. I don't think that was a simple sentence. Maybe. Possibly. Maybe I should use polysyllabic obfuscations instead, except those force my brain to think.
Okay. I'll be quiet now.
Oh! Dionysus is in this chapter. He's so much fun to write. I mean, he's hysterical. Completely hysterical. I hope I did okay. He's completely twisted though. Very twisted. Chiron points that out, however, so I'll be quiet now.
Maybe.
Quiet.
I'll be qui-
SHH!
(Sorry =P)
Chapter Nine: Μπλε Οπτάνθρακας και Αναμονή (Blue Coke and Waiting)
Grover galloped through the woods, the echo of the voice pursuing him. All he wanted to do was break the empathy link with Percy! It would have been beneficial to the boy. Oh Styx he should never had made the link in the first place!
The satyr fled, not looking over his shoulder as Camp Half-Blood disappeared behind him. He was already well over the camp borders but he had to get away.
Get away.
Get away.
The voice, oozing with darkness and evil, smirked. What are you running away from?
"Go away!" Grover shrieked, he picked up his pace, hooves moving at a frantic pace. How could anyone hid from a telepathic? But Grover was running all the same.
Run. Little donkey, run!
At that command, Grover stopped running. He pulled up short, panting and gasping for breath as he tried to clear his head of the telepathic darkness.
Why stop running? Puny One. Worthless one. No one wants you anymore. Why stop running?
"Just cut my link with Percy!" Grover yelled.
Yet if I kill you, he dies. The voice said, the smirk in his voice more evident now than ever. And if you tell them, you die.
"No," Grover said, sobbing without tears. He tried to catch his breath but the presence was too strong. "Don't kill Percy."
Why not?
"He's my friend!" Grover cried. Rain lashed around him, the storms that never touched Camp Half-Blood all pouring themselves out on the satyr's head. He turned this way and that way, trying to get his barrings, but all he could see was the blackness and the rain.
You've been avoiding him for weeks now.
"You're wrong!"
Every since Annabeth died. Poor girl. Poor, poor Percy. Girlfriend dead. Deserted by his best friend.
"I only want to break the link," Grover said, pleading.
You would die to break the link?
"Dying kills Percy!" Grover yelled, hopelessly.
Precisely.
The presence overwhelmed the satyr and he crumpled, falling to the ground in an unconscious heap of fur.
OoOoOoOoOoO
Mr. D arrived back from the second day of emergency deliberations in a bad mood. One could only argue about the same thing for so long.
And there would be more tomorrow.
He stomped up the porch steps in into the main room. That pony was standing at the bottom of the stairs with a thoughtful expression on his face. Mr. D snorted. He had had enough supposedly "thoughtful" conversations to last him yet another lifetime
And there would be more tomorrow.
"Dionysus," Chiron said, without changing his expression. "Sam Hubert is awake."
"Yeah yeah, I don't care," Dionysus slumped in a chair and conjured up a large class of wine.
"Fifty more years?" Chiron said, warningly.
The god sighed and waved his hand, changing the wine into coke. He stared down into it. Blue. "Oh, Styx, Percy Jackson is rubbing off on me."
Chiron chuckled. "You know, sometimes I think you like it here." He had long ago gotten used to the fact that Mr. D called the kids by fake names in their presence and their real names when it was just the two of them.
"Bah," Dionysus snarled. "Did you say that Sam was up and about again?
"No, I said he's awake." Chiron said, smirking. Sam was awake. He just didn't remember who had attacked him, who had knocked him unconscious. Or more importantly, why. "Not up and about. Percy and Hope are with him."
"So-"
"Nope. All we've got is Nico and Zoe's word that it's Chaos."
Dionysus slumped in his seat, "He doesn't remember anything?"
"That's not what I said," Chiron said, with a grin. "He remembers arriving at camp and everything before that. Just not that night."
The god of wine groaned, "I was hopping you'd be able to give me more than that. More deliberations." He took a drink of his blue coke and smacked his lips. "I must commend Poseidon. Sally Jackson was an excellent choice."
"That's... only slightly demented," Chiron said, making sure to pause before finishing the sentence.
Dionysus tossed him a glare, "Yeah right. What about the original Castor and Pollux?"
"Not both gods," the centaur pointed out. "One was mortal."
"Same thing," Mr. D said, with a wolfish grin on his face. Boy he loved winding Chiron up. It was SO much fun.
"Most assuredly, not the same thing," Chiron stated, glaring at the god. "Just stop thinking about it."
The god laughed. "So how long until Sam recovers?"
"Couple of days, according to Iaso and Meditrina."
"I thought it was just Iaso."
"A second opinion."
Dionysus fingered his cup of blue coke. He stared down into it and snorted, "Percy is really rubbing off on me."
There was a laugh from the stairs and then a pattering of feet, Dionysus cursed as both god and centaur could her Hope scream, "Percy! Mr. D just used your name. And he was drinking blue coke!" Three laughs could be heard from upstairs.
Chiron smiled, "It's good to here Zoe laughing."
"Zoe?" Dionysus said, gulping down the rest of his coke. "Weird."
The centaur gave Mr. D a soft smile before clunking up the stairs. Chiron opened the infirmary day to see Hope sitting in a lawn chair across from Zoe and Percy who were sitting on the bed next to Sam.
"Hi Chiron," Zoe said. She was grinning, her vibrant white teeth flashing in light of a lamp.
"Zoe," he smiled down at his campers. Glancing at the two half-bloods, he said, "Percy, Hope, it's after eleven. You need to head to bed."
"But," Hope said, glancing at her younger brother.
"He'll be fine," Iaso said from the far corner of the room, "I don't need any sleep." Sam was asleep, but his color was better, not so pale.
Percy and Zoe stood and Percy pulled a protesting Hope to her feet.
"'Night Percy," Zoe said, smiling "Hope, Chiron." She walked out the door. The door swung shut.
Hope smirked, "Percy, do you lik-"
Percy narrowed her eyes at her, with a look so full of vehemence that Hope took a step away from her, eyes wide with shock. "No, Hope." He pushed passed her, almost knocking her to the ground. "Never." He missed the tears of pain welling in her eyes as he stormed out of the Big House and down the stairs.
Hope brushed the back of her hand over her eyes and looked up at Chiron, "What did I say?"
Chiron reached out and put a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder. "Annabeth."
"Oh my-" She clamped a hand to her mouth. "I did not just imply that." Eyes wide with concern and worry, Hope pushed past the centaur and chased after Percy.
OoOoOoOoOoO
Zoe Nightshade collapsed on her bed, her head spinning.
She flung her bow and arrows aside and even tossed the knife to the ground. Hugging her pillow, the girl rocked back and forth. She had seen Percy race passed, a few seconds later, Hope following. It didn't really make sense. Teenagers.
Some part of her brain reminded Zoe that she too, technically, was still a teenager. The thought made her lie awake, deep in thought. But, always the practical one, she didn't stay awake for very long.
In her dream, Zoe found herself standing on a rock floating among a mass of orange and molten red. Somehow, she knew it was in the Palace of Uranus again, just a different section. Zoe turned about on her floating rock, half expecting to find Cassiopeia to be glaring at her from across the orange nothingness.
But there was no Cassiopeia standing on the other rock, only a teenager who reminded Zoe a lot of Thalia Grace, Artemis's lieutenant.
"What do you want now?" Zoe asked.
"This that anyway to speak to a god?" The girl sneered. In appearance, she could hardly be older than Zoe herself, but age wise, Zoe was sure this god was older by several hundred centuries. And that was a feat.
"Well, seeing as I don't know which god you are, or why I'm here, so, yes, it is."
Jeering, the goddess said, "The Queen cut me short of my meeting with you last night, I wanted to talk to you. Undisturbed."
"About what?"
"The Rise of Chaos, of course. Don't you see? It could be a good thing."
"Chaos. A good thing," Zoe said, hinting her tone with sarcasm. She guessed that this was Nyx, the only goddess last time who had seemed this dark or unnerving.
"No. The Rise of the Ancestors," Nyx said, smiling. "A democracy."
Zoe crossed her arms and front of her chest and glared across the orange expanse. Wherever Nyx was taking this, Zoe wasn't ready to like it or even consider it until given proof. The goddess of night was quiet, gazing across the expanse to meet the ex-Hunter's eyes.
"Do you really thing Zeus deserves to rule the gods?"
The dreaming girl said nothing, only lidding her eyebrows slightly so that Nyx couldn't see her expression.
"Look at America," Nyx stated, after another long pause. "Isn't it stronger for being democracy while our descendants hold to their system of limited monarchy."
"Is that even a term?" Zoe said, hoping to rial the other up a bit. "I mean, I've heard of a limited republic or even a limited oligarchy, but a limited monarchy is redundant in the very meaning of the words."
Nyx growled. "My point is that the Protogenoi are the fairer than Zeus and and the other eleven."
"Artemis? Athena? Hephaestus? Hera?" Zoe challenged, holding up the fairest of the gods. "Even Dionysus."
"Ba. Who can rest the world on the shoulders of twelve? The Protogenoi would bring about a new era of democracy."
"Anarchy," retorted Zoe. She didn't like what Nyx was proposing. A new age? In the morning, she had to talk to Nico.
"Rebirth," Nyx said.
Zoe opened her mouth, but she couldn't find the words to formulate a reply.
The orange light shimmered and then Nyx look up, staring off into space. "I just wanted to talk-"
Zoe was quiet, sensing that Nyx wouldn't have heard anyways.
"I'm sor-" Nyx vanished. Just disappeared into nothing.
In her place, was a young boy, maybe about seven. "I'm sorry to disturb you. We will be forbidding Nyx to summon you from now on."
"It's-"
"Don't say it's okay," the boy said, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I know it's not. Now, any questions?"
Zoe glanced around at the orange expanse, "No, thank you."
"Oh, and you're right about Nico. He is one of the fourteen," he grinned and then disappeared, just like Nyx.
Zoe woke in her bed with the sun shining in the window.
OoOoOoOoOoO
Nico awoke to a pounding on his door. "What?"
"It's Zoe," she said, impatiently. "I have to talk to you."
"The door's open," Nico said, pulling on a pair of pants and a mismatched shirt. He went to the door and opened it – Zoe hadn't, apparently. She was such a Hunter. "What do you want?"
Zoe was hardly in the door before she gasped out her dream to him.
The son of Hades paled, "But I've already saved the world."
"That was Percy," Zoe retorted.
"Do you think he could be part of it again? You know, the whole saving the world gag?"
Zoe looked at her feet, not wanting to answer the question. She didn't really want to think about Percy right now.
"Zoe?" Nico said, quietly. "Son of the Dead to Zoe."
She jolted, and looked down at the younger boy. "What?"
"Do you think Percy is one of the fourteen?"
"Maybe," Zoe shrugged.
He laughed, "That's about as non-committed as possible. So are we going to tell Chiron?" The boy watched as Zoe's face became more and more guarded than even before. But not guarded enough, he could her
"No," Zoe said. At Nico's dubious expression, she said, "He told the Olympians about Chaos. I was told to only tell Chiron."
"But they had to know he would tell the Olympians," Nico pointed out. "And you told us."
"Yeah, well-" Zoe said, looking away.
There was a knock on the door and Nico reached around Zoe to open it. Percy stepped inside, blinking in shock when he found Zoe and Nico. "Uh, I'll come back."
"Don't you dare," Nico sputtered, grabbing his arm and pulling him in. "You're such a gossip."
"Me?" Percy said, his tone light, but both Zoe and Nico knew him well enough to see the pain in his eyes. And the dark circles under his eyes. He apparently hadn't slept last night.
Nico looked at Zoe, fishing for permission. Zoe nodded and so the son of Hades said, "Zoe had another dream. She was told by one of the Protogenoi that I was one of the fourteen."
"That's good," Percy said, guardedly.
"We aren't telling Chiron about it though," Zoe said, with a warning edge in her voice.
Percy nodded. "What are you going to do now?"
"Find the others?" Nico suggested.
"Wait?"