I admit: I made a mistake with the timezone system. The story is jumping backwards by three hours, so it is not linear anymore. Small mistake but it still manages to irritate me. Anyway, when Chiron is waking up near New York, Percy is talking about bald taxi driver In San Francisco.

I don´t Percy Jackson or the Olympians. They belong to Rick Riordan.

Chapter 9

Chiron

Chiron woke up. Today is the 1th of January, about a week after winter solstice and the day when Jason, Piper and Leo had returned from their quest. The clock showed him that it was 6am. Time to rise and greet yet another year. Again.

Chiron stood to his four legs, stretched and walked to the mirror in his bedroom. He looked at himself. Chiron had curly brown hair and scruffy beard which he trimmed every morning. His eyes however told the story about many years of teaching, nurturing and burying his students. The eyes were old, wise and sad. From waist down he was a white stallion. In short he was Chiron the Centaur, oldest and superior of his kind, Teacher to demigods and immortal. Chiron sighed, picked up his T-shirt that said World´s best pony and put it on. It was a deferred Christmas gift from Tyson. Chiron was touched. Since Annabeth had learned the general location of her boyfriend Percy Jackson, she had called all those who had searched back to the Camp. That meant the satyrs, pegasei, Tyson, Nico di Angelo and the Huntrers, though they haven´t yet returned. Might as well be that they wouldn´t. Chiron sighed at his reflection, put his quiver bow on his back and walked out the room, ducking at the doorframe.

The children was already up, each doing their own morning activities such as sword fighting, practising, riding with pegasus or some other creature or just playing around. Todays hip was snowball fight between Ares cabin and Hermes cabin. Ares children was shouting something like " You blew up our beds!" and Hermes cabin answered "Happy new year!" Chiron saw Jason eyening them in a distance. His legion training starting to catch up on him, Chiron noticed. He looked more stern than usual. He always did when someone was acting foolishly or disobeyed direct or indirect orders. He was blond with fair features and elecrtric blue eyes. He had a little scar on his lip and he was wearing a battle armor. Chiron had noticed a long time ago that demigods tend to do that when they were anxious. OF corse thy did a lot of other things too, but this was the most common one. The other one was to be hyper. Wonder how Percy is doing in the legion and shuddered at the idea of it. He walked to Jason.

Jason saw him coming, turned to him and nodded respectfully, though he eyed his shirt at the same manner as he did the fight between two cabins. " Good morning, sir" Yep, definetly catching up, though it´s nice to be respected once in a while.

"Morning Jason. How the Hephaestus cabin is doing with the Argo II?"

"Working day and night, sir. They have requested help from Athenas children. Tyson too has decided help, he is being great help. Hecates children help too by laying enchanting spells on everything that they can think of. Overall, they will make it in time. We even might have some time to rest before summer solstice. Sir." He added. Chiron nodded and gestured him to follow. He headed towards the dining pavilion, Jason following on his … hooves.

"Have you remembered anything relating to legion?"

He shooked his head. "Nothing useful. Some personal stuff. I can recall some of my friends names and how I felt being the leader."

Chiron nodded. He already knew all about the Legion. He was just testing how long the amnesia would last, wondering when Percy would remember who he was. But there was some things that he couldn´t know and so he asked "Can you tell me some characteristics of your friends? How would they treat Percy?"

Jason grimaced. "They might take him as any other, so he would need to prove himself in a test before he could be one of the Legion. The test varies, depending on his age and past. Since he is older than most and he can´t remember his past, I expect that they would test him in many manners. None of them will be easy."

Chiron knew this too, so he narrowed his question. "Would they befriend him if he could make it?" This was the thing that really mattered.

"Hardly. There might be two or three true friends certainly, but to win the heart of Legion? You would need to be a leading character, fearless in battle, unbeatable in tactics and modest in fictory. But foremost of all, he needs to have discipline. If Percy can manage that, he will be different man when he returns. If not, well … It might mean the next Civil War, giants victory and Gaeas awakening. We would need a miracle to survive that."

Yes, we need a miracle, agreed Chiron though he didn´t dare to say it aloud. Instead he said "Well, it seems to me that the Gods do see further away than we could ever expect. Hera made Percy a Tabula Rasa, an empty picture, by taking his memories.

Jason looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"This might be a little confusing, I know. To put it simple, imagine a empty painting. It has the finest of frames made by Poseidon and a canvas that takes in any color that painter might put at it. Imagine the color of discipline. I believe that Percy would be somewhat resistant against it, but it will stick. Add in the colors of fearless warrior, unbeatable tactician and modest nature. And there you have it, a masterpiece painted by Roman Legion and Lupa, provided by Hera." Jason looked a bit scared of the picture. He said "That plan is insane. Why would she believe that Percy wouldn´t attack at us just like any other Legionare?"

"Well, Hera has his memories stored somewhere, so I imagine that she would give them back to him when the time is right." Chiron answered, evasively. Jason seemed to to relax at his answer. So young, Chiron shiged.

The thing Chiron did not say aloud was the worry of the damage that would be caused when Percy would see both of his pictures. Just like some hero in the past, Chiron thought. He got his face bitten off. I can´t remember his name ...

Piper was waiting them in the dining pavilion. Jason walked to her and sat next to her. She had chocolate brown hair that was cut choppy and uneven. She had thin srtands braided down the sides. Unlike most Aphrodite girls, she wore no makeup and had practical clothes. It is nice to see some varieties from the norm, thought Chiron. It makes them to stand out of the mass. And I have seen masses of mass over the years.

"Jason, I thought that you wanted to know that the Stoll brothers pulled some prank in bunker 9. The ship will be behind the schedule by three days." said Piper, eyening him carefully. It seemed like she too had noticed a chance in Jason´s behavior. Clever girl.

Jason jumped to his feet, knocking the table of it´s feet, his eyes and hair sparkling with electricity. "What! I have told them not to interrupt the work!" he shouted, and started marching. Piper ran to him, grabbing both of his clenshed fists.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"They need to be punished." he said, through his teeth. "It´s neccessary. I don´t take pleasure of it." He added when he saw her expression.

"Jason, this is not the Legion. You can´t punish people. Let´s put it this way: Camp Half-Blood is like kindergarten compared to Legion." Chiron almost laughed at that. True enough, he thought. A kindergarten full of ADHD kids with supernatural gifts. Piper continued "To make things work in everyday activity, you need to distract them, not punish them of every little thing. Make them do something useful insted of saying do not go there. When you put it that way you can be sure that they will stumble in for some reason or another. I mean, This is the Stoll brothers that we are talking about, right?" She laughed and Jason smiled. Piper hadn´t even used her charmspeak.

He was silent for a moment and stared at her hands. "You are right. I´m sorry, I´ll do better." He held her hands gently, smiled at her and she smiled back. Then he left.

A miracle, Chiron thought as he watched them.

He even felt a little hopeful.