We meet again, fellow readers!

Oh yeah, and here's chapter 11 btw. This, for me, was suppose to be a short chapter about what's going on as our three main characters are continuing their journey, but as I went back through the chapter, I REALLY wanted to add more stuff... and it turned out to be 4,000 words more than estimated xP

woops.

If you guys don't like my long chapters, please let me know.


Thanks to...

-ConcreteAngelRoxHerHalo for giving me great advice on how to continue my story! Thanks for reading it and giving your honest input on it! :)

-2coolwriter who's still out there (I think) but he (or she?)'s still with me and my story for quite a while now! Thanks :D

-This guy named Will? yeah, Will. Okay. Thanks, :D You really surprised me when no one was reviewing my story. I thought I was going to discontinue this story when TADA! a review from you! Thanks :DDD you encouraged me a whole lot!


And we continue...

Chapter 11 in the house!

-Olo Eopia03


Chapter 11: Blind Decisions


'Kill the heir.'

What did that mean? What good does it do to them?

Chiron just shook his head in dismay as he ran through the memory of the encounter with Hermes only a few days ago. Before, he had just finished a nice conversation with Allen, and little did both of them know that two children were going to go on a dangerous quest, a mission to save a child.

A child who has the power to destroy the whole of Greek civilization.

Or can the heir save them all?

Today the centaur was sitting in his magic wheelchair, staring at his desk as he finished up the remaining work late into the night. As Chiron glanced at the golden grandfather clock nearby, he saw that the hour hand was on the brink of reaching midnight.

Then he remembered (he didn't know why he remembered, but he just did). The memory and argument itself just wouldn't push itself out of Chiron's mind.

It had been quite a normal and relaxing day . . . Until he came. He, the speaker and representative of the most powerful gods in Greek civilization. He, whose son had betrayed them so long ago, yet had earned forgiveness while the young man had breathed his last breath on the solid floors of Olympus. Even Luke was forgiven. Luke was forgiven for every bad and wretched thing he did that could've destroyed the world.

Even just a mere demigod who had suddenly turned bad was horrible enough (seriously). But what was Chiron getting at? As he tried to dig deeper into the mysteries that surrounded the heir, he could still feel the frustrating questions overflowing out continuously and burning them into his mind. He needed to know. Or was it just his own desire?

Chiron remembered the ominous timing the messenger of the gods had arrived during, the grim and inscrutable face, the strangely quiet caduceus with the two not-so-harmful snakes, George and Martha, intertwined around its strong and sturdy staff. Hermes hadn't even bothered to let Chiron know that he was going to visit Camp Half-Blood. Allen had just opened the door and boom, there he was.

Just.

Like.

That.

It had been a cold and windy night that day, and after Hermes had left there was quite a storm that had stirred up the whole camp. Just Hermes coming alone during the night was already a bad sign to him. Everything seemed like a bad sign nowadays . . .

Chiron sighed. The wrinkles around his eyes were already creasing with worry. His desk that he had been sitting in front of for the past couple of hours had looked more cluttered than he had ever seen in his life, and the mess really wasn't to his liking.

A cracked ruler here. A dusty book over there. Broken pencils and different colored pens (that probably didn't have any ink in them) were scattered randomly all over the place. The papers were crumpled and strewn across the desk and others even stuck out of the drawers in the desk. There even seemed to be a coffee stain on one of them, and it didn't look that old either. Dozens of torn elastic rubber bands were littered all over the corners of the desk. The metal waste basket underneath the desk was overflowing with fistfuls of torn and balled up pieces of paper. Broken forty-five records of Frank Sinatra were cracked on the floor, and dozens of records were already spread out messily all over his desk. Shattered pieces of the black CDs were all over the place. Many other unnecessary things were piled unceremoniously on top of each other. It was already hard and kind of frightening to imagine what was actually inside the drawers themselves . . .

To Chiron, it looked as though a huge and very ruinous battle had recently occurred, and no one even bothered to try and fix the conditions around them.

In short, the desk was a complete mess. But Chiron didn't try to clean it up. No matter how easy it was to tidy the table, it was not easy to fix things during these times right now.

It was never easy.

Rubbing his temples, Chiron went over the situation once more. This was starting to get really confusing. Did it always have to be this hard?

Why? How could they do this? Chiron thought.

What if the gods were making a mistake? Although they've lived for thousands of years, even centuries, and the gods always tend to repeat their mistakes. They can do it even more than twice if they wanted to (even if it wasn't intentional). If Kronos is rising, wouldn't trying their best just to kill the heir hinder and even weaken their own powers? The heir, if on the wrong side, could be their worst enemy.

But he or she can also be their best and kindest friend. Their ally. Helper. Leader. Maybe the gods were confused themselves. They can't possibly try to stop him or her. They don't even know who that child is.

We don't even know how strong that child might be, Chiron thought.

The clock struck twelve.

After moments of thinking, Chiron still couldn't get over the fact that this heir actually existed and is in this world, right now. He or she might be different, yes, but alone? No. Even when Allen or Elli wasn't with the child, he or she might still be watched over . . . or was it the child just being watched? Watched like a predator prowling insidiously towards its prey. The poor child. The heir will never lead a normal life. The child's journey will be filled with twists and turns, and the child will never know when that moment of failure will ever end.

Yup, even demigods tend to have that kind of life.

The child must be like Thalia. Or Percy. Chiron's mind filled with sadness and pride for the two heroes that he was able to mentor over the years. What if it's similar to that? Sure, that child can cause another world war through the ages . . . but . . . The heir can't possibly be killed. He or she's still human (well, half human . . .). Everyone must have their own choice, at least.

I wish I could help you, Chiron thought, I really wish I could.

What if the heir ends up saving the world instead?

Last time, Kronos tried to swallow up the gods. Kronos wanted to murder his own children because he was too greedy for his own power.

And yet his pride had outwitted him. His carelessness and even rashness was just the key that had been the cause to his cruel and wretched life in Tartarus. If Kronos had tried so hard to end the lives of the Olympians, won't the Titan Lord himself want to kill this child? This heir might be too powerful after all. How did the heir get away in the first place? This was definitely something to be thought of as strange.

That didn't seem as unnerving as the next thought. The heir has been in the world for at least a decade or more, right?

Why hadn't Chiron heard of this before? Surely he could've known about this problem a few years after the heir was even born. His or her mother must've done something very extraordinary to escape any sort of detection from anyone. What happened?

This child is definitely a special one. If only . . .

They can't do this. The child must never come to Camp Half-Blood.

The gods want to kill the heir. It's another repeat of the past. If the child comes here, then it will certainly be the end of the gods themselves. It might be another distraction for the Titan Lord to attack Olympus.

"No," Chiron just realized what was happening. He felt his heart rate increase by . . . well, you could say that it increased by a lot. Chiron's knuckles were turning white as his fists clenched tightly onto the armrests of his stationary wheelchair. Did all of the gods fail to notice this? Or did they really not have a choice?

Yeah. What if they didn't have a choice? Maybe the Olympians want to kill the child themselves, to see that the job was done correctly. Chiron shuddered in discomfort, shaking his head once more. If the child was placed in the wrong hands, it will be the end. Having a child like that around was extremely rare and dangerous, and could change the future of Olympus itself.

But what if they got to the heir first? After all, Allen and Elli are with the child now. They can't possibly let the heir turn his or her back to them without a fight.

They better not.

{xxx}

"Allen," Chiron said. It was almost time for their departure, and they were standing on the grassy borders of camp. Allen told him a few moments before that they didn't need the help of a satyr; if they were lucky, the heir might find them first. Besides, all the satyrs, or protectors, were gone, spread all over the United States, and did not have enough time to be informed of another demi . . . titan being located in San Diego.

Oh well.

Chiron remembered seeing Allen high-five and fist pounded his best friends and "brothers" good bye as he walked away from the Apollo cabin. He remembered Elli being hugged by her own buddies from the Hecate cabin, Hephaestus cabin, and even a few from the Athena cabin. Chiron himself couldn't help but feel a kind of affection for the two. Allen and Elli were two of the most reliable and maybe even powerful and strongest demigods in the whole of Camp Half-Blood. Without them, Chiron didn't know who he would choose to go and take on this journey.

Allen was smart, naturally athletic, and his skill in archery was impeccable. He reminded Chiron of a real living Robin Hood, or the famous Paris from the Battle of Troy himself. That was how good and amazing Allen was. He could shoot multiple arrows and every single projectile will hit its target, whether moving or not. Even Chiron didn't have anything else to help him improve on his talent. He could even rival the Hunters, if he was willing to himself. The only problem in this was the speed of the target that Allen was aiming at. Some very frightening and powerful monsters (who were bound to appear on their path while they were traveling back to camp) could be incredibly fast; Allen had never faced anything outside of Camp Half-Blood before. The most dangerous things he'd ever shot were moving dummies or flying disks that were used as targets.

Elli was powerful. She could summon almost twice as much power than any tidal wave that existed on the world. Seeing Elli go through the training he had set for her (which was horribly back breaking for even someone like her), Chiron knew that she was just the person to come on this mission. She'd trained almost every day for this. And she had a good spirit and a strong heart. It reminded Chiron of Percy Jackson himself. Almost nothing can stand in her way if she persevered to do her very best. The only thing she needed to worry about was her fatal flaw (if she had the same one as the child of the sea god before her), and drawing monsters toward them; her godly aura seemed to be quite strong as well.

The two of them were going to go on a very different journey, now that their own lives are intertwined with that of the heir's own destiny. Both might even be essential for the sake of the whole world.

Elli and the two pegasi were already standing there as Allen and Chiron approached them. The weather today was perfect. The air smelled fresh as white fluffy clouds hovered lazily in the baby blue sky. The wind weaved through the tall blades of green grass. Allen looked at Chiron. "You cannot let us down in this. The heir is our key to either success...or failure."

Allen nodded, smiling as he looked at Elli, who was busy stroking a Pegasus' immaculate white mane. She seemed to be talking to it, even chatting a little as she continued to feed the winged horse a couple of sugar cubes. It reminded Allen of the conversations he himself had had with Gus, who was perched on his right shoulder at the time. "Don't worry, Chiron. I'll contact you daily and make sure we find the heir soon."

"Hey Chiron, can you take care of this?" Elli had bounced over to them as Allen and the centaur were talking. In her hand was her own Camp Half-Blood necklace, with four beads hanging loosely on the string. She was looking at Chiron as though she needed him to care for this necklace with all his might. "I don't want it to get lost. You can say it really means a lot to me." Elli smiled.

Yes, Chiron knew.

"I guess I'll do the same." Allen said as he slowly unfastened his own necklace that was tied around his neck. Chiron smiled gently as the two handed him their necklaces. It was a signature, an identification for them. The necklaces were the only things that connected them with they chose to stay. Camp Half-Blood was their home.

"Hopefully Zeus will keep you safe in the air. He will immediately know that you are riding in his territory. Do you have everything Hermes provided you with?" Chiron asked with concern. Both of them nodded as they started to mount each of the winged horses. "I expect to see you soon."

"Us too, Chiron," Allen replied back as he looked at Chiron in the eye. "We'll contact you as soon as we find the heir."

"Hurry up Allen," Elli piped up. Both the horse and the little girl were already a few feet of the ground.

"Elli, be patient." Chiron said, with a soft note of gentleness in his voice. She had learned so much in the past years that it was quite amazing to see her grow so fast, even though she was only ten years old. "Use everything that you learned in training."

"Yes, Chiron," Elli said happily, "It's what I've trained to do."

Chiron nodded. She understood the situation they were in perfectly, no matter how lightly she seemed to be talking about it.

'Take care of her,' he seemed to be thinking as he looked at Allen, trying to communicate those words toward him with only his grave facial expression. Sometimes his best students could understand him completely. He trusted those students. Seeming to understand, Allen nodded, mouthing, 'I will.'

"Now go," Chiron said, as the Pegasus Allen was riding on rose off the ground to join Elli. "Remember what you are doing."

The two winged horses flew away, and Chiron watched them leave until they were nothing but two minuscule specks in the vast blue sky. He really hoped both of them knew what to do.

'Just come back . . . alive."

{xxx}

On the right corner on his desk, lay a single drachma. The coin seemed to almost fall off the desk, but Chiron did not let it escape from his vision, even though it was underneath a few sheets of crumpled paper. He needed to let Allen know about this first. His hand inched forward toward it. But . . . Where are they? Chiron's hand froze on the spot. In order to contact them, he must tell Isis an area or region they would be in.

Where was he, anyway? Allen's intelligent, caring, neat, and even a responsible young man. He even listens to classical music compared to most people. It's been four days since they've found the child of Kronos. Surely Allen should've contacted Chiron to let him know what was going on by now? Maybe something happened to them...

No. He mustn't think of that.

Not now.

If he can't contact Allen or Elli, then Chiron would just see Olympus. Convince them. Tell them that this was some sort of mistake that was slowly being repeated from the looked at the computer-like device in front of him.

The screen was in the shape of a shield, attached to a very fancy, bronze keyboard and mouse. Its connection wasn't that bad either. A talented Hephaestus child made this for him after the Titan War. You can contact anyone without actually being killed if you use an electronic device (for example, you seriously wouldn't want to look up the word Chimera on Google or something. Definitely not a pleasant experience . . .). The Wi-Fi was pretty good around the place too. Camp Half-Blood needed to step up a notch in technology, and now would be a pretty good time.

It was actually quite a smart idea.

Okay. Enough of the distractions, Chiron thought as he moused his way across the screen in order to contact Olympus. In only a few moments a big window popped out, with an image of the Olympians sitting in a wide circle. Fortunately, they were all in their human-like forms. Chiron counted himself lucky that he wasn't evaporated into dust if they had taken their own godly forms. The twelve were already seated in their very own thrones, with Zeus and Hera located in the center of the majestic hall.

The great hall of Olympus looked amazing; light filled to the very top of the room as the white pillars of Greek architecture stood there with magnificent grandeur and glory. The hall looked big enough to fit the whole area of Camp Half-Blood itself, with its massive ceiling shining in pure brightness. The engraved walls were a nice, bright shade of white, and the floor was tiled with marble and other very beautiful minerals. Chiron's been here almost too many times to count, but he never got tired of looking at this jaw dropping spectacle.

The only worrying thing was that Chiron had accidentally butted into one of their arguments, and apparently a heated one too. The altercation seemed to be taking place between not just two particular gods, but all of them. Every Olympian's face was red with anger or stressed with so much intensity. The air in the hall felt like it was going to sizzle, and Chiron wasn't even in the room completely. This must've been a bad time to come in.

No duh, Chiron could almost clearly hear Mr. D's voice in the background.

With the huge and powerful lightning bolt at his side, Zeus looked ready to cast an extremely dangerous thunderstorm in the hall himself . . . and Chiron really would not want to experience another repeat of that.

"We cannot let him win, Athena! We never have, and we never will!" the god of the sky roared, his face contorted with rage and despise.

"He is the enemy, Zeus. Not the heir!" Athena hissed back.

"But if the heir is defeated, Kronos will have no one to continue his work," Hera argued back.

"But why not use the child?" Apollo asked. "The child can have the power to destroy him too," Another murmur seemed to go through the crowd of Olympians. The conversation didn't seem to end. It just rambled on and on as the gods continued to discuss.

None were interrupted as much; at least they were a little civilized enough. This would mean that they wouldn't start a war between themselves yet.

Yet.

"Whoever he or she may be," Aphrodite piped up (it was so unlike her to join these types of conversations, when she can be busy filing her nails or something . . .). "The heir might want to have a choice . . . us, or Kronos."

Athena nodded, and said, "The heir is merely a distraction for Kronos to attack-"

"And his only hope!" Poseidon boomed aloud. It seemed that this time, the sea god was actually siding with his brother. Having two of the leading gods of Olympus agree on one firm and unyielding choice could already win in a vote against the rest of the gods. Sometimes the Big Three had their ways.

Athena glared at him with renewed hatred (other than her original kind of hatred for him, of course). Poseidon ignored her. Hadn't he always? "If the heir survives and is somehow in league with Kronos,-"

"It will be the end of the gods!" Hephaestus bellowed, his eyes blazing like the hottest and brightest coals that had just sizzled out from a very hot and blazing fire. Sometimes Hephaestus looked like he could already burn or even fry something to pieces just by looking at the object with his very own eyes.

"Rip the child to pieces!" Ares snarled, his vermilion red armor glowing with a deadly aura. "Kill the heir!"

The hall was instantly in a flurry of confusion, with the gods shouting and yelling amongst each other the ground of Olympus seemed to crack as it shook with surprising energy. It was as if all hell had broken loose. Or was it the whole of the Underworld?

Never mind about being civilized.

As the pandemonium raged on, thunder boomed deafeningly and the air was soon filled with the smell of blood and tinged with crimson. The scene was devastating. Chiron had never seen the gods so . . . uncontrolled. During his whole life (and that was a long time), Chiron had always thought that during hard times like these the Olympians would at least be less tensed than how they were feeling right now.

But this was the first time a child of a Titan had existed into the world. Maybe it really was something to worry about.

Go figure.

It was only after a couple of minutes when Hermes, messenger of the gods, rested his eyes on the simple yet blurry holographic image of Chiron, who was patiently taking in all that was being said. To Chiron, Hermes looked a little irritated, as if a little insect had just bit him. Am I starting to look like a mere annoyance to him now?

"What is it that you have come for, mentor of all heroes?Do you come to bring us any news or only more questions that need to be answered?" Hermes asked as the hall quieted to his question. All eyes turned on the centaur.

What can he say now?

"Zeus," Chiron began, clearing his throat. Here goes nothing... "You can't kill the heir. Please, you mustn't." The air of the hall seemed to be crackling and heating up with sheer power (and to imagine Chiron was only a holographic image in the room). Before another uproar could be incited, Zeus lifted up his hand to stop them.

"And why is that?" he asked intently. Zeus' face had just the right features to show that he was obviously the leader, and king of the gods. The way the eyes and nose were finely carved, and his mien giving off a strong aura that had showed a huge amount of confidence. Zeus seemed to be a natural leader who can always lead his comrades to a battle of triumph victory, although this was not always the case.

The god's electric blue eyes stared at him with so much striking intensity that Chiron could imagine himself getting fried just by glancing back at the god.

"The heir is merely a child. He or she is like your daughter, Thalia, from before. The child can be like Percy from all those years ago," it sounded as though Chiron was pleading. "Don't you remember what Percy did for all of us? He protected the whole world. He saved his friends, his family. Even you. Destroying the child wouldn't help any of you at all."

The whole hall became quiet for a few minutes. It looked as though neither of the gods there knew exactly what to say.

"The teacher has some sense, your majesty," Hestia said, breaking the continuous silence. She was sitting at her usual place, tending to the hearth as she watched the gods argue only a few minutes before. Lady Hestia always seemed to be the one who made staying in Olympus for even a couple of minutes at least bearable. Thank gods she was here. What were they thinking? All the Olympians had their eyes straight on Zeus. That's where it always ended up in. It seemed like he would be the one to decide now.

"I'm sorry," Zeus said quietly as the rest of the gods murmured, their faces now facing forward toward Chiron. It was as if Zeus hadn't listened to Hestia. "But we don't know if this heir can be good or not. The-"

"The heir is only a child!" Chiron pleaded again. This time Chiron did not hold back the note of helplessness in his voice.

He was getting desperate.

"And it's best if the heir stays unaware of the fact that he or shecan destroy us all!" Zeus said, his anger flaring once again. The air around the hall seemed to have gotten tighter, hotter. Zeus' face seemed to be burning with rage. The rest of the gods only continued to listen to the words that were being said. They did not want to fight with the king of the gods, especially when he was like this. Had Chiron gone too far? "The only choice now is to execute the child, before Kronos gains any sort of power. The Titan is the biggest problem we have right now, and we shouldn't be wasting our time arguing about this. Now be gone, Chiron! This matter will be discussed even further, this time without you."

In the next moment the god swiped his hand over at the flickering image of Chiron, and immediately the screen of the computer went completely pitch black.

Instantly, Chiron realized that he was back in his office, the image of Olympus now gone. The conversation had been so real... Chiron wished that it had never happened.

Wait. It was real.

The centaur sighed in dismay. He felt as though he wanted to slam his fist down on the desk in didn't care of all the debris that was lying all over his desk. It was so impossibly and painfully nerve racking that he felt like he wanted to even shout at a wall (and who cares if it sounded foolish.).

But what can he do?

I'll just have to deal with what I have right now. Chiron thought. However, this almost seemed impossible. For every fact that Chiron had, a thousand questions would always bloom in a few seconds.

How did the heir escape from the gods?

Well, the child needs to do it again, no matter what happens right now.

He must warn Allen, it's too late. It can't be too late. Not now. When Allen comes back, he will inform him to run away with the child, away from Olympus. But he must not let the heir know the purpose of this plan. Where is Kronos, and why did he not find the heir in the first place? How did the child escape from his tight and unremitting clutches? This could be a time when the child discovers his or her own past as well.

Preventing the heir from reaching Camp Half-Blood is already not an option. Even now, Chiron was still running out of options. Chiron didn't even know where the three are in the United States... If only they could contact him sooner!

He will just have to trust them... Yeah, that wasn't so bad. Let them be the ones who would decide the fate of the whole world.

Oh joy.

Something caught Chiron's eye. As he looked over to the left side of his desk, he saw the two Camp Half-Blood necklaces lying there, and instantly Chiron hoped that both of them would come back here.

I'm counting on you, Allen.

Either way, it'd always get clearer in the end whether it's good or bad.


Review.

-Olo Eopia03