I has a smart. I got the highest grade on a test that my teacher has seen in her whole career (on that particular test anyway).

Disclaimer, blah blah blah.


Chapter 12

Rosa Is Herself Again And Trouble Is At Work

It was a very not-normal day. I blame Rosa. Just because, really, she didn't do anything.

It was going to be another normal day. But as we've established, no day is ever normal for a demigod. Not even your birthday. By birthday, I mean your actual birth day. That's where the weird factor begins. At least, mine did. Then I hit the ground when I was only eight months old when my mom died and a god abandoned me. But you know my back story. You're not stupid. I hope not, anyway.

We all woke up soon. I was thinking about two things: my dream the night before, and the room with bones. And how I hoped my siblings would understand. Understand how wrong it all was. The Ares kids didn't have to be wicked. We were just giving ourselves a bad reputation. Who wanted that?

The Musketeers (I told you I refused to call us 'the group' anymore) were about to go through Manzana's little portal. But Kyle got mad again.

"I don't trust that Meliad," he kept grumbling.

"Kyle, let it go. She's helping us on our quest, and the sooner we finish our quest, the sooner you can be back with Tierra and complain about Manzana some more there," I snapped. He had been complaining in his sleep, and it was getting kind of old. I felt bad for him and I felt bad about snapping, but I was losing it. When people talk about the same thing continuously for too long, I get annoyed.

"Be quiet," he mumbled. Kyle had been like this since the day before when we met Manzana, and he hadn't stopped. He refused to let it go and complain later. It was as if he cared more about that than saving McKenna. That was probably the case. I really doubted he was thinking about McKenna at all. He was just plain furious.

"Kyle," Lola said, "please just calm down. We're trying to work with you."

Kyle looked around and pointed at me. "She's not."

Greg rolled his eyes. "Come on, Kyle. We've had enough of this. Please."

I was hoping the whole "best-friend-soothingly-trying-to-call-Kyle-down" approach was going to work, but to my dismay, all Kyle said was, "Fat chance."

Then Zachary butted in. He stood in front of Kyle and looked him in the eye. "Kyle. That's enough."

Kyle bit his lip and turned away. "Fine."

Zachary grimaced and reassumed his position at the front of the Musketeers.

"Let's go, people," he said. He put his hand through the Iris Message, but very quickly took it back out. "Eurgh!"

"What?" asked Giselle with a puzzled look on her face. "What is it?"

Zachary looked too horrified for words.

"Zachary?" Corry asked. "Are you alright?"

"Eugh. Manzana could have mentioned that," Zachary muttered in an annoyed tone of voice.

"Mentioned what, Zach?" Carlos asked slowly and warily.

"Not even sure I can describe it. Just…you guys may want to close your eyes while passing through. I think Deimos and Phobos must have enchanted this Iris Message passageway."

Lola turned to me with wide eyes. "Deimos and Phobos? Oh, great…"

That wasn't totally alarming or anything. If it were alarming, I wouldn't have said, "Lola, you're alarming me," or anything like that. What gives you such an impression?

"I alarm everyone," she muttered. "But anyway, you need to know why I'm freaking out?"

I could tell she was definitely freaking out. She was paler than usual, which really meant something, because she was already nearly as white as a sheet. And she was sweating really badly; both of those symptoms meant bad news. If someone who was never afraid looked so afraid that she looked as if she could cry for mommy at any moment, I don't know how any gullible wimp would react.

"Not so sure anymore, considering how scared you look. But tell me anyway," I told her.

"Deimos and Phobos are the godly sons of Ares. Not sure who their mother is. But they're children of Ares, but not demigods, they're minor gods, they have way more power than all of us combined have. One is the god of terror, one is the god of fear. Neither of them are pleasant fellows. They sneer and jeer and say rude things, but worst of all, if you look into their eyes, they show you the thing you fear most. If that's not enough, they show it to you in horrifyingly, excruciatingly descriptive detail. If you happen to be a fan of Harry Potter, your first thoughts might be a Boggart."

"Well…that's not creepy or anything. Where did you learn all this?"

"Don't act like I do nothing at Camp. I study stuff like this so I can be prepared." She set her jaw and stared ahead of her.

I couldn't help but think of why she might purposely study Greek mythology. Lola wasn't the study-up-before-the-test kind of person. I knew the girl got paranoid sometimes, but still.

"Lola…why were you studying Greek myths? Were you...?"

"Eve, I know where you're going with this. And I was not studying because of that Aetheopian drakon. That was years ago. I don't know why you'd think that I'm that paranoid that something will attack us." She still looked very solemn and hard about it, which was how I knew she was lying to me.

"Ok, guys. Do NOT open your eyes while going through the Iris Message. Unless you want to be scared out of your wits, I sincerely advise it," Zachary told us.

He shut his eyes very tightly and went through. Then he was gone.

Then Giselle went through, then Karen, and then Carlos. After them went Field, Tyler, and Louis. And then Penelope, Kristen (who I didn't imagine would even see anything too terrible if she opened her eyes, considering she was probably what would be seen by at least one of our Musketeers), and Rico. And then went Gordon, Annika, Jasmine, Darius, Corry, Elijah, and Davie. That left Greg, Kyle, Lola, Rosa, and me.

Kyle went through with his eyes shut very tight. Then Lola braced herself.

She didn't look so good. In fact, she looked like she was going to be sick.

"It'll be okay, Lola," I told her comfortingly (or as comfortingly as a child of Ares can manage). "Just don't open your eyes."

Lola nodded grimly and closed her eyes as tight as they could go. She even put a hand over her eyes just in case. Then she disappeared through the Iris Message.

Rosa looked at Greg and I with horror. "Are you guys going to go first, or…?"

I had no intention of going first. What I wanted was to not go through at all. But Rosa looked like she needed to go last or she'd freak out.

I was about to say that she could go before us when she said, "Never mind. I'll just get it over with."

She went through, but then I heard screaming. I didn't recognize it as Rosa's scream, because I'd never heard her scream before, but I was sure it was her. I ran next to the Iris Message.

"Rosa, can you hear me?" I called.

"I—Simon—AHHH!—Ph-phobos…Eve! W-what did you s-say?"

"Rosa, can you hear me?" I repeated.

"Yes!" she responded in a shriek.

"CLOSE YOUR EYES!" I shouted. "Close your eyes and keep going!"

"I can try," I heard her tell me. Then the screaming died down and I heard nothing else besides some angry shouting on the other end, and it was Zachary either telling us to hurry up or reprimanding Rosa for opening her eyes.

And now only Greg and I were left.

"D-do you want to go first?" I murmured weakly. "I...okay, I know this is lame for a child of Ares to say, but I'm really freaked out right now."

"Not lame," Greg said. "Normal. And I don't feel like going through either. I think I'm more scared now than I've ever been of anything before."

"So neither of us feel like going through first. Yeah, this is really getting us places."

"How about a compromise?" he offered. "Let's go through together."

I'd normally be annoyed by that, coming from Greg and everything, but I was never more grateful for him wanting to help me out. I nodded.

He held out his hand.

"Your idea of together must be different than mine, but fine," I muttered, and I took his hand.

We went through the Iris Message together, but my thoughts were not filled with any happiness that Greg might have been feeling because he finally got somewhere with his love plans. I was worrying about what Rosa might have seen, and what I might see if I opened my eyes.

So, of course, my eyes involuntarily opened.

The IM was thicker than it looked from the outside. It was a long tunnel. But I only got to see that for about two seconds before the image hit me.

The world was red, and children of Ares were bombing and wrecking and destroying the world. I saw massive chunks out of the Empire State Building, and there were dead demigods scattered around, and there was rubble from explosions and whatnot that the children of Ares had caused.

But even worse than my own kind destroying things that I loved, I recognized every last dead demigod on the ground. There was Zachary, Corry, McKenna, Katie, David, Karen, Isabelle, Sacramento, Giselle, and many others that I cared about. But there were a few that caught my attention in particular: Lola, Greg, Kyle, Rosa, and Jasmine.

I screamed at the top of my lungs, probably in both the apparition and in reality. But I was focused on the apparition a lot more.

I ran to my friends. I'd always wondered what might happen to any one of them sometime, if a monster came too close, but this just looked horrible. They were bloodied up and gruesome. Especially Greg, for some reason. Lola took second place in terms of blood loss. Then Kyle, then Jasmine, then Rosa. But even though Rosa wasn't as bloody as Greg or the others, she was way bloodier than anyone else who was dead on the ground.

Since Greg looked the worst, that's who I focused on a little more. I tried to wipe up some blood, or something. But nothing worked. All of them were dead anyway.

I was shrieking madly, kicking and fighting. They shouldn't be dead. It was just wrong.

I tried to wake up Greg, I tried opening his eyes, but where his blue eyes should have been, I saw blank blue eyes that I knew were his, but it didn't feel like it. It didn't feel like it at all.

I even tried slapping him awake. But nothing worked. His head just bounced to the side.

I tried to wake up the others, any of them. I tried every last demigod on the ground, but none of them would wake. Not a single one. So I just went back to Greg and sobbed there.

Then, I heard him.

I warned you to not mess anything up, did I not? Kronos taunted. And look what happened. Every last demigod in the world, destroyed, except for the children of Ares, who are the ones destroying them. You should be ashamed. You let your own kind do this. You should be imprisoned in Tartarus, and when you are pulled in, I shall be pulled out, and I will rule. Is this what you want?

"YOU!" I shouted. "You let this happen, you inconsiderate, heartless, pathetic TOERAG!"

Me? Why would you ever blame me? I had no part in this. But you are guilty by association. You are one of them, are you not, demigod? A child of Ares, a child of war, a destructor? I believe you are.

"BUT YOU LET THIS HAPPEN! I'm guessing you ORDERED them to do this! KILL MY FRIENDS! You should know that as a child of Ares, I am very capable of revenge."

Revenge on me won't work very well, demigod. I am much more powerful than you.

"Try me," I spat.

I felt someone shaking me, and I looked up. I saw the tunnel again, and Greg was holding onto me and shaking me, trying to snap me out of it. His eyes were firmly closed.

It was a relief to see him alive after that horrible vision. I reached up, grabbed him, and hugged him to death. This probably was not what he was expecting, particularly was an Ares kid.

His eyes opened, probably because of the surprise. Then he screamed.

"Uh, oh," I murmured. How I had my eyes open and wasn't seeing the apparition anymore, I wasn't entirely sure, but I was grateful for it.

I reached down and shook Greg. His screaming died down a little, but he was still horrified.

"Close your eyes," I advised.

He was shaken up, but he did it anyway. Then he stopped screaming.

I helped him up, and then we went through the rest of the tunnel together. When we exited the Iris Message, we saw a forest that looked exactly like the one we'd just left, and we were met by a very furious Zachary.

"WHAT-TOOK-YOU-SO-LONG?" he demanded.

"My eyes may have…involuntarily…opened…" I muttered weakly.

"Mine, uh, too…" Greg sighed.

Zachary looked angrier than ever. "You opened your eyes in there? When I told you not to? Why?"

"Neither of us tried to. Both of us had accidents," I explained. I realized too late that it sounded awkward to say we had accidents.

Zachary raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? And what exactly happened?"

"Um…I don't really feel like mentioning it. Kind of a personal thing."

Zachary just glared. "Hmph. Well, let's just keep going, shall we? The sooner we get to McKenna, the better."

We both just nodded, and soon we were off again. But Rosa wasn't a happy, er, camper.

"Why did I open my eyes? Ugh, so stupid…" she kept whispering.

"You're not stupid, quit saying that," Jasmine would keep telling her.

"Jasmine, stop trying to reassure me."

"But it's the truth!"

"She's not lying," I said. "You aren't stupid, Rosa."

"Have I ever trusted you, Benson? No. Now be quiet."

"Rosa—"

She brought out her spear and put it at my neck. "Forget it," she sneered. "Just forget this ever happened."

I glared at her. "And pretend you're stupid when you're not? No chance."

She dug the spear into my neck a little. "I said enough."

"Fine," I spat.

Rosa lowered her spear. "Thank you."

"You're not welcome."

She looked like she was considering impaling me with the spear, but she refrained.

Whatever Rosa had seen, it must have knocked her back into place.

I went to another part of the group, where Greg was walking.

"What did you see?" he asked immediately.

"That's something personal," I replied.

"Yeah, so is what I saw, but I'd tell you if you asked."

I frowned. "I'm not curious enough to slip. In any case, thanks for waking me up from that. It was horrible."

"I was about to say the same. What I saw…eurgh. Horrifying."

"Oh, you have no idea how gruesome it was, what I saw. Mine had to be worse," I told him.

"Try me," he grumbled.

"Thanks again."

He sighed. "No problem."

"So where is Zachary taking us?" I asked.

"No idea, but after the rest of this forest, it looks like…" He squinted to see what was ahead of us. "It looks like a town. An actual town. With actual food and actual showers. A town has never sounded better to me."

Before he'd mentioned the food, I hadn't realized how hungry I was. But now my stomach ached with emptiness. I needed food.

"Guys, there's food down the road, keep going!" I shouted. Suddenly everyone was running to get there.

"Well, that worked," Greg laughed.

"Sure did," Lola said, joining us.

"Time to get some food," I said.


Yeah, short chappie, whatever. Live with it, you've seen shorter. :U I only needed to convey that Eve is slowly beginning to like Greg, very slowly. I'll get to them even more next chapter. But their slash names are horrible. Our only options are Eg and Greve, neither of which sound nice.

Bye.