What's up guys? :) I hope your week has gone better than mine. Check this, I woke up yesterday morning with a scratchy throat, now it's Saturday night and I've got a stuffy nose, sore throat, and a clouded head. I can barely type cognitively at this point (I seriously just had to stop for about seven seconds to remember how to spell 'cognitively'! :rolleyes:) Ugh, so not a good week for me :p
To make it even better, I have a final exam in Psychology, an organic shape drawing to finish and my portfolio to present all on Monday. Then Tuesday I have to take a final quiz online then show up for a class and sit and be miserable as people bather on in pointless persuasive speeches. Thank god after that I'm done with this semester – if I had to go to school on Wednesday as well like my sister, I'd inject myself with a whole bottle of Nyquil and pass out in my room just to avoid it. Oh well, what are you going to do, right? :rolleyes: :p
Well, now that I'm done with my pity party, let's move on to the announcements. I bought "The Demigod Files" over the weekend, so if you haven't read it yet, my recommendation is to do so – fast. This thing is great! I especially like the short stories, "Percy Jackson and the Bronze Dragon" and "Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades". So? Go get it! Now! ;D :ahem: Moving on...The poll for your favorite couple in PJO and HoO is now closed. Thanks to everyone who voted :) The results are as follows:
First place, Percabeth with 20 votes.
Second place, Becklena with 15 votes.
Third place, Jasper with 14 votes.
Fourth place, Frazel with 13 votes.
Fifth place, tie between Juniver and Tylla with 11 votes.
Sixth place, Claris with 10 votes.
Seventh place, Tratie with 9 votes.
Eighth place, Rico with 6 votes.
Ninth place, Reyson with 5 votes.
Tenth place, tie between Lulia and Lyna with 4 votes.
Eleventh place, tie between Tharcy (that one is still eww in my book), Lezal and Daklyn with 3 votes.
Twelfth place, tie between Peryna, Rachollo, and Lubeth with 1 votes.
And finally in thirteenth place, the least liked couple in PJO or HoO is: Octyne with 0 votes (and thank the gods for that!).
Anonymous reviews:
AceOfSpadeZz – Haha too true ;D I know, kind of sad really :( Don't worry though, she'll find him… eventually ;) Thanks for reviewing!
Wizz98 – Thank you very much :) It's coming right now lol See? Look down there *waits for you to scroll down then back up* There it is! ;D
Bookworm – Thanks for the encouragement and praise, much appreciated :D I think it's easier not to do a lot of povs switches, although this chapter has quite a few. Lol why would 7,000 pages be a bad thing? Then we get more demigod goodness in one book! xD (I'm still ticked R.R. cut off the last book before the Argo II arrived) lol thanks again and hope you enjoy!
Lubi – Thank you :) Don't worry, Percy's coming right up, then we're back to Hazel in a while B-) You'll find out about the Hunters soon enough ;D Ooh, I love teasers! ^_^ Lol glad someone enjoys them, sometimes I just feel like I'm ranting for no reason, which reminds me of that All-Time Low song "Heroes" for some strange reason haha Thanks :D I am too, obviously lol Oh yes, Thunder is a total car-babe magnet xD He's my gorgeous baby and I don't mind bragging about it! ;) Thanks again for reviewing!
Thanks for reviewing, alerting, favoriting, and just in general for reading guys :) You're all awesome and make this fic worth writing, so thanks. As always, onward! B-)
That's My Seaweed Brain
Chapter 11
Percy
I don't know why I decided to leave Hazel alone. It just felt right. Now, I know what you're thinking, 'you left an emotionally strung out girl by herself on a feeling?'. Well, let's face it – I've done crazier things on a feeling, so how bad could this turn out right? …Don't answer that.
Anyway, Hazel had been distant the last few days, lost in thought, no doubt sick with worry about Nico. When she saw Nico's cabin – technically the cabin she would stay in if she were Greek instead of Roman – something in her face changed. Something compelled her to go to it. I wasn't sure what, but I wasn't going to argue with, well, whatever it was. In my world, you learn quickly to just go with the flow.
Maybe she thought she could better figure out how to find her brother by looking through his stuff. Maybe she thought she'd get some kind of sign from Hades on how to save his son (I didn't have high hopes on that one). Maybe she just wanted to feel closer to Nico. I really didn't know.
Frank kept looking back over his shoulder, his expression part worried and part perplexed. I wondered how many times my face has looked like that over the years when I was trying to figure out Annabeth and sort my feelings for her. Too many times to count no doubt.
"What's with Hazel?" Frank finally asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.
I smiled dryly. "She's your girlfriend, you tell me." Because really, he expected me to have the answers? There's a reason my friends called me 'clueless' and 'seaweed brain' all these years.
Frank gave me a light glare, though he was blushing deeply. "Ha ha, Percy, very funny. Seriously, why is she acting so weird?"
I shrugged. "I don't know," I replied honestly. "I think she's just trying to sort everything out. She wants to find a way to rescue Nico."
"Don't we all?" Frank said.
I nodded. "Sure, of course. I'm as worried as she is."
"You don't look very worried," Frank accused.
"I've gotten good at clamping down certain emotions – anger is still a work in progress, but worry is fairly easy to hide. Worrying isn't going to get us to Nico faster," I explained calmly.
The Roman gave me a skeptical glare.
I rolled my eyes. "Frank, don't give me that look. As much as I'm still peeved at the kid for not telling me who I was, I'm just as worried as Hazel, if not more. Nico is like a little brother to me. I was a part of the team that went to retrieve him and his sister when he was just a kid. Sometimes I still think of him as a naïve ten year old," I sighed.
Frank stopped suddenly. I halted a few paces ahead of him and turned back. We were by the canoe lake again, deserted right now as most kids were either helping with the ship or having activities in other areas.
A couple of naiads wiggled their fingers at Frank and me from the bottom of the lake. While Frank looked shocked I just smiled and waved back. The naiads giggled – or at least their version of giggling, anyone else just thought it was an explosion of bubbles – and ducked beneath the wreckage of an old canoe.
"I missed this place," I remarked fondly.
Call me a sap, but everyone gets homesick once in a while. That reminds me, I need to send an Iris Message to my mom. She and Paul were probably frantic after my, in hindsight, rather cryptic message that I left on the machine at the apartment. Geez, not only did I miss most of the school year, but I also missed Christmas with my mom and stepdad. That really sucked.
Frank's mouth was open like a guppy, his expression pulling me back to the present. He pointed at where the naiads had disappeared. "Those were girls…"
"Yeah," I said slowly.
"They were underwater…"
"Uh-huh," where was he going with this?
"And they waved at us…" Frank finished dumbly, his expression blank.
I laughed, "Yep. I hate to say it, as they've helped me out a lot before, but naiads can be terrible flirts, especially with me," I clapped him on the back, "You too apparently – must be the Poseidon genes. They said 'hi' by the way."
Frank shook his head, like he was trying to clear all thoughts of underwater fish girls. Good luck, buddy. Annabeth was most definitely my girl and there would never be anyone else, but naiads were hard to ignore. Just ask my dad about Tyson's mom.
"Okay, uh, what were we talking about before… uh, you know," Frank gestured at the lake helplessly.
"We were talking about Nico." I offered, holding in a smirk.
"Right," Frank closed his eyes for a second and blew out a short breath. "You, you knew Nico when he was a kid? You brought him to camp?"
I frowned. "Yeah. Me and Jason's sister Thalia… we went with Annabeth, but, well she didn't come back with us from the mission. I don't want to get into it too much. It's a long story. I almost lost her..." I really hated that quest, even if it did get us Nico as an ally and Thalia found the family she'd been missing with the Hunters.
Frank frowned, clearly wanting more details but I didn't really feel like sharing. "You're not going to tell me anything?" he asked.
I mulled it over for a second. "Do you know the story of the Titan who holds the sky and keeps it from touching the earth?" I phrased the question carefully.
Frank thought about it. "Atlas? The guy who Hercules tricked to get the Apples of Hesperides?" He guessed.
I nodded and frowned in distaste, "Yeah, him. Atlas was Kronos' army general – he was trying to find a way to get Kronos to reform faster, to force the second Titan War to start early. He used Annabeth as a part of his plan. He used us all, and it very nearly killed her and me. His plans did kill two of our friends."
"How?" Frank persisted.
"Have you ever noticed that streak of gray in Annabeth's hair?" I said, staring at the lake.
"Yeah, it's kind of hard to miss. I mean, not to sound rude, but how many sixteen year olds have gray hair? Even demigod sixteen year olds," Frank said.
I sighed very softly, moving my fingers through my hair. "Ever notice I have one too?"
"Well, yes, but…" Frank frowned, and opened his mouth to go on, then stopped. I think he was beginning to understand what I was talking about.
"Think about the story of Hercules," I said softly. "What did Atlas trick him into doing? Then think of what Hercules did in return to him."
Frank stared at me, his expression horrified. "You held the sky?"
"Not just me. Annabeth did too, and for much longer than me. I still don't know how either of us is alive." I shook my head. "That's not important. What is important is that Nico's sister was one of the two killed while on the quest. For a while, he blamed me for her death. To be honest, I blamed myself too."
I gazed into the tree line of the woods behind the lake, "Nico ran away after that, bitter and alone. He was missing for a whole year. Even after I found him again, he couldn't come back with me to camp. Back then, there had never been a child of Hades in camp, just like there hadn't been a child of Poseidon before me. There wasn't even a cabin for one. It wasn't safe for his parentage to be known, so he wandered. That's why he still doesn't stay here all the time, or at Camp Jupiter. He's been wandering for so long, I don't think he knows how to stay in one place anymore."
"I've felt responsible for Nico ever since he was ten, that's never changed," I said turning back to Frank. "But I've got other things to think about right now. I can't worry for him twenty-four/seven, at least not openly. I know we'll find him. I don't know where or when, but I know we will. In the meantime, I've got a quest to co-lead and six demigods to keep from killing each other."
Frank gaped at me for a long moment, taking in Nico's history, which neither Hazel nor Nico himself had evidently disclosed (part of me wondered if Hazel even knew the whole story). Frank seemed to realize he was staring and looked away for a second.
"I hope he's okay," he offered quietly.
"Yeah, me too," I agreed somberly.
A conch blew in the distance. Frank and I looked towards the dining pavilion where everyone was streaming. "Lunch time, come on."
Annabeth
After learning from my siblings that in fact there hadn't been any new signs from the gods – including our mom – just like Will had said, my mood dropped considerably. It seemed the only god that wasn't strictly following Zeus' "Olympus lockdown" rules was Artemis, but with the Hunters MIA that wasn't much help either. Still, I sent a prayer to the moon goddess for help, just in case she was willing to lend a hand – I also asked for a pardon that the quest included boys, which I'm sure she wouldn't like.
With that errand done, I had a handful of others that needed to get done. The first of which, involved seeing Rachel.
I hiked the hill to her cave, glancing around the valley as I went. I could see Percy, Hazel and Frank checking out the canoe lake from this view, as well as Leo, his siblings and the Ares cabin moving things onto the ship. I wondered where Chiron was. I didn't remember seeing him at the beach when we arrived, and he was nowhere to be seen around the Big House, the archery range, or anywhere else from my vantage point. That worried me, but I dismissed the thought for the moment. I'd probably see him at lunch.
Reaching the cave, I pulled back the thick purple drapes and peered into the dark interior. Torches that burned with purple fire which didn't give off any smoke were hung from the wall. Thick grass grew from the bare floor, to the point where it was almost like a natural carpet (the work of some of the satyrs and dryads as a favor to Apollo and his Oracle).
Couches and chairs made of bushes with comfy looking beds of flowers and leaves (also a gift from the satyrs and dryads) were arranged around the room. There was a bed made of similar organic material.
Sheets of paper, jars of paints and pencils, and paintings were strewn everywhere, some hanging from the walls, some half finished. From a small table, a boom box with an iPod docked to it – the only modern, electronic gadget in the whole room – blasted out some alt-rock band's song. Oh yeah, Apollo knew his Oracle well. This was totally Rachel Elizabeth Dare to a T.
"Rachel?" I called.
"Back here!" my friend called back.
I stepped into the cave and walked back into its recesses until I came to a corridor that led to a small, back room. In it were Tyson, Ella and Rachel sitting in a circle on the floor.
Tyson was tinkering with some spare parts, his shoulder occasionally bumping with the shoulder of his crush. Said crush was sitting on a small nest of books and scrolls she was speed reading through, her eyes flipping to different scrolls wildly, trying to drink in every word. Rachel sat with folded legs, watching the harpy intently, her chin propped on her fist, elbow on her knee.
"Rachel?" I prompted.
"Hey Annabeth," She didn't look up. "Come sit."
"Okay," I said slowly, settling down beside her.
The red head still didn't look up. "Where did Percy say they found Ella?"
I blinked. "Portland, Oregon I think. She was under a curse by Phineas the Seer. Percy, Hazel and Frank rescued her and she tagged along as far as Canada."
Ella didn't look up from her scrolls, but her grip on the pages became more strained, the flipping more erratic. She shivered. "No, no, no. Ella doesn't like Phineas. Phineas mean to Ella. Hurt Ella. Starve Ella and sisters. Phineas dead now. Yep, yep, yep. Food for Ella now. Food for Ella's sisters. Cinnamon, yum!" She nodded to herself firmly, and continued flipping pages.
"Did that make any sense to you?" I asked blankly.
I noticed for the first time that Rachel had a lined note book in front of her, which she was scribbling in furiously. "She seems to talk like that all the time. She uses short sentences, straight to the point, and yet a little sketchy in detail. It's almost like Morse Code… but with a lot less beeping or tapping."
I nodded. I'd realized the same thing as well, but I still wondered a few things about how Percy and the others saved Ella. My boyfriend's details on the matter had been vague at best, and that ticked me off a little. He was obviously trying to tone the danger down so I wouldn't worry – which only made me worry more.
"Ella, how did they help you? How did they beat Phineas and break the curse?" I asked carefully.
"Phineas can't see. Phineas blind. Sees big things not small. Chance. Chance is fun for Phineas," Ella replied cryptically, eyes glued to a particularly old scroll that was brittle with age. "Hmm, faded. Words faded. Gods fade. Faded jeans, in this season. Light on the seasoning, not a lot of pepper. Hmm, Ella doesn't like pepper."
Rachel stopped writing and gave me a perplexed look. "Huh?"
"Careful, if your face freezes like that, you'll be stuck looking like Percy for the rest of your life," I teased.
Rachel rolled her green eyes. "Ha ha."
"Hmm," I murmured, stealing the Oracle's pad of paper and pen.
"Hey!" She protested as I made a few notes on a fresh sheet of paper.
"'Blind', 'sees big things not small', 'chance is fun for Phineas'," I muttered, tapping the pen to my chin. "What does that mean?"
"Wasn't Phineas blind in the myth?" Rachel asked.
"Yes, and was gifted with visions as a seer… but then why did Ella say he could see 'big things not small'," I wondered aloud. "Wait… 'chance is fun for Phineas'… Of course!" I exclaimed.
"'Of course', what?" Rachel said in bewilderment.
"Rachel, have you ever tried to use your gift as the Oracle for things aside from prophecies?" I asked.
"Um… you're going to have to be more specific," She told me.
"Have you ever used your abilities in a game like poker? Or something like it involving chance?" I clarified.
"Not really," Rachel frowned, "my gift doesn't work like that. I can't see stuff like that. Ask me for a prophecy, and I can provide. But I don't see small stuff like that."
"Exactly! You can't see the small decisions in life," I said excitedly.
"I don't get what that has to do with anything."
"I swear you and Percy are far too much alike, even if you do have better sight than he does," I muttered, rolling my eyes. "Phineas was the same way, that's what Ella's saying. He could see the 'big things, not the small', so he liked games of chance. That must be how Percy beat him, by exploiting that weakness. The only question is – what was the wager?" I tapped the pen to my chin some more.
"You'll probably just have to ask Percy later," Rachel replied with a shrug.
"More like beat him over the head until the answer comes out – along with all that stupid sand and kelp," I replied in annoyance, looking over my notes.
Rachel barely held in a smirk, but I still caught it.
"Not a word," I warned.
She held up her hands and smiled disarmingly. Looking at her, I was suddenly struck by how much she could look like one of the Hermes campers when they were begging innocence… well, actually, she looked like one in particular.
Suddenly the cave's temperature dropped twenty degrees, the torches dimmed until the light looked like pale lavender, and we could see our breaths.
"What on earth?" Rachel asked, teeth chattering. She hugged herself against the icy coldness of the cave. I was doing the same.
"You think it's one of the gods sending us a sign? Maybe Apollo," I said hopefully. Gods it was freezing!
Rachel shook her head. "Apollo hasn't talked to me since Olympus closed. He answers me when I ask for things – like these scrolls and books that hold prophecies – but other than that, I haven't heard a word. Besides, a freezing cold room is not his style. Suddenly putting me in a skimpy Gucci bikini, showing up in swimming trunks and telling me we're going to the beach in Fiji, that's more his style."
I didn't have time to process that statement, and I wouldn't have had the breath to do so anyway, because I looked up, and all the air seemed to leave the room. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move, I could only stare.
My voice was no louder than a whisper. "What… how… Luke?"
Luke's scar twitched upward as he smiled his face and body as transparent as mist. "Hey, Annabeth," he said.
Hazel
Stepping further into the cabin, I looked around curiously. Aside from the décor that would've left any Goth kid insanely jealous, the room was like most of the cabins. Six bunk beds pushed against the walls, a small bathroom and trunks at the end of the bed for personal belonging. But it was evident only a boy lived here.
Only one bed was messy, clothes were strewn across the floor. The bathroom was littered with toiletries like a can of shaving cream and a half empty pack of disposable razors – I didn't even know my brother shaved – and the trunk at the end of the bed was half open. I decided to try the trunk first.
I knelt down and opened it curiously moving aside black shirts, black pants, and even black boxers. Did Nico wear anything but black? I shoved all the clothes out of the way, and dug out a few other random knickknacks. There was a pocket knife made of celestial bronze, a box of wheat cereal (that was a little weird), a small photo album and a beat up shoebox. I pulled the photo album and the shoebox out.
Sitting on Nico's bed, I flipped through the album thoughtfully. There weren't a lot of pictures, and most appeared to have been taken in the last few years, but a handful were black and white and crinkled with age. One was a formal portrait, showing a young eight year old Nico, a little girl of maybe ten with long dark hair and sparkling dark eyes, a tall beautiful woman with short hair and a string of pearls around her neck, and a tall man with his arm around her.
I gasped quietly to myself. The man was a spitting image of Nico – but more importantly he looked like the man who I saw the last night I spent in New Orleans. He was my father and yet not my father. There was something about him that wasn't quite right, but it was so slight that you'd swear they were the same person. In reality they were. The little girl was a dead ringer for the woman, and both they and Nico shared that dark Italian look. This was Nico's family before everything went wrong in his world. Before his mother was killed. Before he and Bianca were forced into hiding for eighty years and they lost their memories.
The saddest part was they looked so happy. Even Hades seemed to be smiling just a little. Nico's eyes didn't have the dark shadow that haunted them now. His sister was alive and well, her face bright with youth and light. Nico's mother looked especially happy, not sad and worried, like how I'd seen her in my dreams.
I shook myself mentally and put the picture down, moving to another. The rest of the old photos showed Nico either with his mother, or his sister, but never alone. The family portrait was the only one with Hades in it.
The newer photos showed Nico first as a carefree ten year old at camp, hanging out with kids who had upturned eyebrows and mischievous grins. Then they showed him as a thirteen and fourteen year old either with Percy, Annabeth, Grover, or another girl with dark hair and punk clothes. One had all of them together. Weirdly enough though, there were no picture of him when he was twelve – like a whole year of his life was missing.
The last one was a picture of the whole camp, with every cabin accounted for, along with many of the fauns, nature spirits and a centaur with scraggly brown hair and a beard. I noticed Nico was standing slightly off to the side, like he felt he didn't quite fit in. I knew the feeling.
Done with the album, I set it aside and opened the shoebox. "What in the Underworld?" I muttered.
Inside the box was a weird assortment of small statuettes and cards. The cards had those weird images on them, the ones that changed the image slightly when you flipped it around – they sure didn't have those back in my day. I pulled out a statue curiously, realizing they were modeled after the Greek gods.
The one I held was supposed to be Athena, wearing full battle armor and an owl on her shoulder. Looking in the box, I saw every Greek god was accounted for – a tiny Zeus with a lightning bolt; a small Poseidon carrying a trident; Dionysus growing a grapevine; Apollo with his lyre; the list went on. All the gods were accounted for, except Nico's and my father. For some reason, Hades was missing.
That was all that was in the box. Just the cards and statues. I moved them aside, just to be sure I hadn't missed anything, but it was totally empty otherwise. I groaned and shoved the box aside.
"Great, that's it! I thought I'd find something that would lead me to Nico – instead I get sad photos of his family and friends, hologram cards and miniature statues of the gods. What good does that do me? Ugh!" I fell back against Nico's pillow in exasperation.
I stared at the ceiling, as if it might actually tell me what I wanted to know. Suddenly a thought occurred to me and I sat up, going back to the newest picture of Nico with his sister. Bianca di Angelo stared back at me, dark eyes peeking out from under a green cap, her arm slung around Nico's shoulders. Something about her – I didn't know what – but something was familiar about her. I'd seen her somewhere before.
But that wasn't possible. Nico said she'd chosen to be reborn. How could I know her? And yet… I knew that I did. The question was, how?