Chapter Fourteen has arrived! In this chapter we see Percy and Charlie working together, the Parents being told the full story of Payton Lewis and the Kids worrying over what Nemesis told Lily. Enjoy! See you at the bottom of the chapter!
(Charlie POV)
Leaning against the railing as he scanned the area, Charlie was trying his hardest to ignore the bad feeling in his gut. It was he always got when one of his cousins was on a quest without me.
He stopped telling people about it after a while since everyone always said it was his motherhen tendencies kicking in. Charlie couldn't blame them though since he was admittedly the most overprotective person he knew.
Thankfully Lily was with Leo and Hazel so she would be fine. Charlie just always liked having his cousins in where he could see him or at least in the same building as him.
Sighing, he rolled his shoulders and winced at the dull pain in his left shoulder. Despite what he had told his family, it wasn't as good as he said it was. It was fully closed and scarred over but the muscles in his shoulder weren't as lucky.
Charlie knew he was lucky though, if anybody else had got this injury they would still be bedridden. The only reason he was up was because of the after effects of his father's swim in the river Styx, no one knew the exact science but Charlie got some advanced healing, extra speed and strength and an extremely high pain tolerance, way more than the average half-blood.
They didn't figure it out until Charlie was four though; he had climbed a tree and proceeded to fall out of it, resulting in a broken arm. He hadn't cried or screamed though and gave Will a heart attack when he came in and calmly told him that he had fallen, holding his broken arm.
After that the Apollo cabin put him through various tests. Eventually they deduced that it was the fault of the Achilles curse Percy had at one point. His parents had been happy he was better protected while he only took it as incentive to train harder and longer.
Abruptly pulling himself from his head, Charlie whipped around to look at the island behind him and saw Arion racing towards the ship.
He turned just as Arion trotted on to the ship. The three of them dismounted and Charlie couldn't help but stare at Leo. He had welding goggles on his head, slicked back hair, drawn on tattoos all over his arms, lipstick mark on his cheek and a T-Shirt that said Hot Stuff, Bad Boy, and Team Leo on it.
"Um, Uncle Leo? What the hell is… that?" Charlie asked as he gestured to his entire costume.
"Long story, I'm sure Lily will tell you later." He said as he dragged a large sheet of Celestial bronze of the horse's back. Charlie stepped over and helped carry it downstairs, passing Ethan and Zack on the way, both of them staring at Leo like he had grown an extra head.
They passed Jason's room and stopped in the doorway seeing that he was awake talking with Piper and Silena. The three of them stared at Leo like he had and Piper spoke up first.
"Gods of Olympus." She said in surprise. "What happened to you?"
"Long story," He said once again. "Others back?"
"Not yet."
Leo cursed and noticed Jason was awake and lit up. "Hey, man! Glad you're better. I'll be in the engine room." And promptly took off with the bronze and Lily, disappearing down the hallway.
Piper turned to Hazel and raised an eyebrow at her "Team Leo?"
"We met Narcissus," Hazel said as if that explained everything. "Also Nemesis, the goddess of revenge."
Jason sighed, depressed. "I miss all the fun."
"How does that explain-" Charlie began to ask only to be cut off by a loud thud above us and his parents came running down the hall. Percy was carrying a big plastic bucket filled with some kind of steaming black substance that smelled terrible. Annabeth had it in her hair and Percy's shirt was covered in it.
"Roofing tar?" Piper dryly asked as Frank stumbled up behind them with a big smear of it down his face.
"Ran into some tar monsters," Annabeth said, lightly panting from exertion. "Hey, Jason, glad you're awake. Hazel, where's Leo?"
She pointed. "Engine room with Lily."
The entire ship listed to port. Everybody stumbled and Percy scrambled to keep his tar bucket from spilling everywhere.
"Uh, what was that?" he demanded.
"Oh…" Hazel looked incredibly embarrassed. "We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake. Like… all of them."
"You're kidding. Please tell me you're kidding." Charlie said hopefully, not wanting to deal with a lake full of pissed off nymphs. He saw her expression and hung his head in despair. "You're not kidding."
"Great." Percy said, handing Frank the tar bucket. "You guys help Leo. Charlie and I'll go hold off the water spirts for as long as we can."
"On it!" Frank promised.
Annabeth and Frank ran to the engine room whilst Dad and I ran back upstairs. Sprinting across the deck he realized just how many nymphs those three had managed to piss off. Several dozen water spirits were fifty feet away and closing in, shoving waves of water at their ship.
Charlie glanced at his dad. "What's the play?"
He furrowed his brow and thought. "You start shoving back and I'll try talking to them."
Charlie gave a nod. "Got it, and if that doesn't work?"
Percy gave him a smile. "Then we better hope the others get the ship working soon."
Charlie threw him a thumbs up and started forcing the waves back at the nymphs, careful that he didn't hurt them.
Percy cleared his throat. "Excuse me ladies but can you please not destroy our ship?"
One nymph screamed back. "Those demigods stole Narcissus reflection! We're getting it back!"
Percy and Charlie shared a glance as they both wondered how one could steal another's reflection. "Um, I'm sure they had a good reason for it."
"What good reason is there for stealing Narcissus reflection! He'll leave if we don't get it back! So, GIVE IT BACK!" Another nymph yelled hysterically at the two of them, wearing an 'I heart Narcissus' T-Shirt.
Charlie sighed. "Dad? I don't think this is going to end peacefully."
Percy nodded in resignation but before he could say anything Coach Hedge appeared.
"INVADERS!" He yelled waving his baseball bat around almost smacking Charlie in the face. "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"
Charlie scowled, not wanting to deal with the shoot first ask questions later 'chaperone' of ours. "Coach shut up. Dad and I are dealing with it. Go back to your MMA championships."
"Quiet cupcake! I got this!" Hedge yelled.
"Hedge! We have this! Go. Back. Down." He snapped. Coach Hedge was only going to complicate this thing.
Hedge scowled at me and went to speak but Percy mercifully cut him off.
"Do what he says Coach. We have this." Percy said firmly, putting out his hands and helping Charlie push the nymphs farther back.
Before the argument could continue the ship sputtered into gear and lifted into the air. The rocking stopped and everything became quiet.
Charlie huffed before turning back to the coach. "Told you we had it."
He harrumphed and stalked downstairs.
Leo came up next with a raised eyebrow at Coach Hedge and how angry he was. "Meeting in the mess hall, one hour." He said shortly and pointed down. "I'm going to take a shower."
Charlie looked at him and registered the sweat, lime dust and tar that covered him and how his clothes were ripped to shreds.
"Yeah, you go do that."He said, amused.
He gave Charlie a look and disappeared back downstairs. He turned back to Percy and looked at him, taking in the orange Camp Half-Blood shirt and jeans he had on.
It was slightly disturbing to Charlie how alike the pair looked sometimes. People always said that if he dyed his hair jet black, he could be his dad's younger self and looking at him now Charlie had to agree. They had the same green eyes and tan skin; the same build and Charlie was maybe an inch shorter than him.
He was dragged out of his thinking when Percy lifted his hand and ruffled his son's hair.
"How are you feeling?" He said with a warm look in his eyes.
Charlie gave a content half smile. "Pretty good surprisingly."
He nodded and said. "Well then, lets go annoy your mother, shall we?" with a mischievous look.
Charlie grinned and nodded. The two of them jogged down stairs, Charlie thinking to himself 'I could get used to this.'
OoOoOoOo
Settled in a chair with Zack to his left and Lily to his right, Charlie patiently waited for the meeting to start. As he glanced around the room he realized it was the first time in a long while it had just been the thirteen of them. The only people missing from the family table were Nico, Will, Reyna and Calypso. Hopefully we would all be together soon.
Leo was next to his daughter, the two of them fiddling with something together. Piper was next to him with Silena and Jason next her. Annabeth was next to him at the end of the table with Percy beside her. Uncle Frank next him and Emily and her mom next him. Ethan sat opposite of my mom with Zack on his right and Aunt Hazel on his left.
It had gotten a little tense when his dad and Jason tried to sit at the head of the table at the same time causing sparks to fly from Jason's hands and the water in people's cups to move. Piper and Annabeth both thankfully stopped the incoming fight by smacking their respective boyfriends on the back of the head and his mother sat in the chair before either of them could make another move for it.
Charlie and Silena just traded looks and rolled their eyes at them.
Leo finished his story about Narcissus and glanced at the Kids thoughtfully. Charlie raised his eyebrow at him, curious to what he had to say next.
"So, Lily, it's later. You mind telling the class about who you saw Nemesis as?" He casually asked, eyeing her in interest.
Lily froze looking like a deer in the headlights. "Uhhhhhh, I plead the fifth?"
Leo gave his daughter a look. "Nope, you said you wouldn't mind pushing them off a cliff, carino. Speak." He settled back in his chair and crossed his arms, waiting for his daughter to speak.
Charlie had to admit he was slightly curious himself, who did Lily loath enough to push off a cliff? The moment she spoke he regretted it instantly.
"Payton Lewis." She admitted, eyes narrowed and smoke rising from her hands.
Immediately a wave of anger rolled through him. Water from everybody's cups rocked and sloshed around in time with his heartbeat. Charlie had never wanted to kill anybody as much as he wanted to kill Payton Lewis. That bitch seriously injured a member of his family, his best friend. The only mercy he would show her would be if he killed her quick.
Getting a hold of himself again he glanced at the rest of his cousins. Silena had sparks flying off her while the smell ozone began to fill the room, Ethan was growling and clenching his fists, Zack had shadows surrounding him and was fondling the hilt of his sword, Emily was coated in potent magical energy with her eyes glowing a slight gold.
The Parents looked startled as their children's powers reacted to the well of emotions inside of them.
Hazel and Frank put their arms around Emily and soothingly whispered to her, calming her down. Charlie's parents shot out of their seats toward him, Ethan had managed to wrangle in his emotions enough to lay a hand on Zack's shoulder and quietly started talking him into a calmer state of mind. Lily had her head buried in her arms on the table and was taking deep breaths while her dad ran his hand through her hair comfortingly. Silena was staring hard at a spot on the wall while her parents hugged her.
Charlie felt hands land on his shoulders and upper back and heard his mother quietly murmuring soothing words in his ear with Percy running his hand up and down Charlie's spine.
Charlie took a deep breath and shoved his emotions back into their box, sitting up straight and waiting for everyone to calm down again.
A few minutes passed before all of the Kids were calmed down and managed to gain control over our powers again. Everybody slowly moved back to their seats and waited for someone to explain.
Rolling his shoulders back, Charlie spoke up. "Payton Lewis was one of our best friends in the world. We met her just after I turned six. It was a year before Camp Jupiter was destroyed and everybody was living their lives happy and content. Emily had met her at the Roman camp and introduced her to us and we all became instant friends with her, Lily even considered her a best friend. She and Ethan dated as well for a little bit."
He looked at the Parents and saw they were enraptured in the story while his cousins just looked angry and hurt.
"Around the time I was thirteen, a month after we were told we would be going to the past she started acting strange. Blowing off dates with Ethan and snapping at all of us, just generally being a hard person to be near. Then rumors started going around camp, about Ethan abusing Payton and how the rest of us egged him on. That secretly we were conspiring with the Titans to destroy camp, and that we were going to ensure that Gaea won instead of fixing Tartarus like we said we would."
"Thankfully not a lot of people believed her but some did. One even came up to Dad and had the balls to say that I was evil incarnate. We eventually deduced that it was Payton and never talked to her or about her again."
Charlie grimaced at what he was about to say, knowing it was going to push the Parents over the edge, especially Jason and Piper.
"Then three months before we left for here, Silena was attacked in the middle of the night. Some broke into the Grace's house and into her room, put up a silencing ward and started slashing and cutting her. Before they left the house the stabbed her in the stomach twice and left her to bleed out."
The tension in the room skyrocketed and ozone once again filled the room as Jason had mini lightning surround him in response to his anger. Normally Piper would calm him down but she was too busy staring at their daughter in horror.
He let out a shaky breath and continued. "Thankfully Ethan has the habit of taking nighttime walks because he saw a someone come out of your house with a bloodied knife in their hands and sprinted into the house after the person walked away."
"He managed to take down the silencing ward and screamed for a medic. They got there in time and managed to stabilize her. We scoured the camp and found a notebook in Payton's writing. It explained how it was Payton who attacked Silena and why she did it. You see her parents were on the Titan's side of the war during the Second Titan War but managed to keep it from everybody. So when they had Payton they raised her to be a solider for their cause and set us up. She was set to betray us from the moment we met her. Her reasoning for attacking Silena was that she was hoping to demoralize us. She left camp right after hurting Silena and we never saw her or heard from her again." He finished solemnly.
By this point in time Piper and Jason had themselves wrapped around their daughter again and trading murderous looks while the rest of the 'adults' looked completely horrified at the story.
"Oh, my sweet boy." Annabeth breathed as she stood and walked toward Charlie again, pulling him into a hug. Percy followed after her and joined in, dragging Zack in as well when he registered his expression.
Hazel grabbed Ethan and Emily into a hug as well while Frank stood behind them, resting his hands on their shoulders in comfort. Leo had Lily in a bear hug and was murmuring in Spanish in her ear.
Everyone stayed in their respective dog piles for a long time; just soaking in the comfort they were being provided. Eventually everyone returned to their seats, a few with red rimmed eyes.
Leo cleared his throat and hoarsely asked "So where to now?" changing the subject so that everyone could calm down.
Percy picked at his completely blue pie depressively. "We need to put some distance between us and Camp Jupiter, Frank spotted some eagles over Salt Lake City. We figure the Romans aren't far behind us."
The mood around the table didn't improve in the slightest. Piper looked the littlest bit guilty about something. Charlie glanced at Silena and saw she was giving her mother a questioning look as well.
"I don't suppose we should go back and try to reason with the Romans? Maybe… maybe I didn't try hard enough with the charmspeak." She said reluctantly.
Jason took her hand and squeezed it. "It wasn't your fault, Pipes. Whatever happened, it was Gaea's doing, to drive the two camps apart."
She bit her lip but continued. "Maybe if we could explain that, though- "
"With no proof?" his mother interrupted. "The only people who know what's going on are the Kids and they can't tell us for obvious reasons. I appreciate what you're saying, Piper. I don't want the Romans on our bad side, but until we understand what Gaea's up to, going back is suicide."
"She's right," Hazel said still looking nauseous but was snacking on a few saltines to help. Charlie couldn't tell if it was from their story earlier or seasickness.
"Reyna might listen but Octavian will try his best to cut us off and spin the story. The Romans have honor to think about. They've been attacked. They'll shoot first and ask questions later, which is exactly what Octavian will want." Hazel finished.
Piper sighed and nodded. "You're right, we have to keep going. Not just because of the Romans. We have to hurry."
Hazel nodded back. "Nemesis said we have only six days to save until Nico dies and Rome is destroyed."
Jason frowned. "You mean Rome Rome, not New Rome?"
"I think so," She said looking concerned. "But if so, that's not much time."
Percy got a contemplative look on his face "Why six days? And how are they going to destroy Rome?"
No one answered. The Parents didn't because they didn't know and the Kids because they couldn't without seriously messing with the timeline.
Piper cleared her throat. "There's more, I've been seeing things in my knife."
Frank froze with his mouth open, a forkful of spaghetti paused in its journey to his mouth. "Things such as…?"
"They don't really make sense," She said with a shrug. "Just garbled images, but I saw two giants, dressed alike. Maybe twins."
Annabeth stared at the video feed of camp on the wall in thought. "Twins, like in Ella's prophecy. If we could figure out those lines, it might help."
"Wisdom's daughter walks alone," Percy quoted, slightly irritated. "The Mark of Athena burns through Rome. Annabeth, that's got to mean you, Juno told me… well, she said you had a hard task ahead of you in Rome. She said she doubted you could do it. But I know she's wrong."
Annabeth didn't look any less worried at that statement. "Reyna was about to tell me something right before the ship fired on us. She said it might be the reason Greeks and Romans could never get along."
Leo and Hazel shared uneasy looks.
"Nemesis mentioned something similar." Leo said, absentmindedly running his hand up and down Lily's spine at the mention of the goddess. "She talked about an old score that had to be settled."
Hazel took over from there, playing with Emily's hair. "The one thing that might bring the gods' two natures into harmony, an old wrong finally avenged."
His dad drew a frowny face into his blue whipped cream sulkily. "I was only a praetor for about two hours. Jason, you ever hear a legend like that?"
Jason fidgeted slightly. "I… uh, I'm not sure. I'll give it some thought."
Percy narrowed his eyes at the rather horrible lie and deadpanned. "You're not sure?"
Jason stayed silent. Charlie looked at Silena and silently told her 'Your dad is a terrible liar.'
She shrugged slightly and gave him a silent look back. 'It's endearing, besides not everyone can bluff their way out of everything like us.'
Charlie pursed his lips and gave her a raised eyebrow 'It's sad is what it is. It physically pains me watching him trying to lie.'
She rolled her eyes and told him to pay attention. He pouted but did as she said, Jason having just asked Frank about killing a giant in Alaska.
"Alcyoneus was a special case," Frank replied. "He was only immortal in the territory he was reborn in, which was Alaska, but not in Canada. I wish I could kill all the giants by dragging then across the border from Alaska into Canada, but Percy's right, we'll need the gods."
"So…" Leo said, pushing his chair from the table. "First things first, I guess. We'll have to put down in the morning to finish repairs."
Sensing the meeting was about to end Charlie stood up and stretched as Annabeth threw out parameters of where we should land. He ignored the questioning look from their parents as his cousins followed him out the door as Charlie led them down to the stables so that they could have their own talk.
Sitting back down, this time leaned against the wall facing the door he waited for them to get comfortable before starting them off.
"Alright firecracker, what did you leave out from the adults?" Charlie asked, having a hunch that she didn't say everything in that meeting.
It was a testament at how well they knew each other that she didn't even try to deny it. "Nemesis told me something at that beach."
He was startled at how grim she looked and his concern shot up. Ethan beat him to the punch by demanding what it was.
She bit her lip and recited what the goddess told her. "For the changes you make for the good of the world, you and your cousins will sacrifice something you might not be able to live without."
An icy cold ran through his body, turning his blood to mush as she said it. His thoughts raced through his mind as he thought up and discarded ideas at the speed of light. Charlie kept circling back to the 'something you might not be able to live without' part.
Emily looked terrified. "What if she means our parents?"
Silena, Ethan and he shook their heads instantly, Silena hugging her tightly.
"That wouldn't work Shortstuff. If they died before having us it would negate everything we change." Charlie told her, hoping to calm her and a scared looking Zack down.
It must of worked because their expressions eased away from 'terrified' back to 'nervous'. Zack came over and cuddled into him, making his protective instincts kick in and Charlie wrapped his arm around the thirteen year olds shoulder tightly.
Lily and Ethan were next to each other, Lily with her head on his shoulder and Ethan resting his head on hers.
"Okay then what? Because I don't like the sound of that stupid fortune." Lily spat, looking fierce.
Charlie sighed and exchanged looks with Silena telling her she could answer this one.
"Look guys it might be nothing okay? Let's just calm down and go to sleep. We'll worry about this later." Silena said as she ran her fingers through Emily's hair.
"But Lena," Zack protested. "We need to figure out what it means!"
She gave him a look. "Exactly, which is why we will talk about it. Later."
He pouted but conceded the point, snuggling farther into his chest. Charlie tossed his other arm around him and held him there.
They held a comfortable silence for ten minutes until they heard Coach Hedge start screaming about it being "sleepy time cupcakes!"
They all sighed and started to get up. Zack however held Charlie tighter and refused to move, citing that he was too comfortable to get up.
He stared down at him with an exasperated look for a second before he sighed dramatically and moved him around until Charlie could easily toss him over his shoulder, pleasantly surprised that he didn't have any more pain in it.
Charlie heard and felt him giggle tiredly as he walked toward Leo's cabin to dump him on his bed. The duo passed Percy who took one look at them and started laughing.
Charlie felt Zack lift his head and presumably stick his tongue out since his dad did the same right back at him.
Charlie grumbled about being surrounded by immature children as he walked into the cabin and saw Leo already in there. He gave the two an amused look as Charlie dropped Zack on his feet and ordered him to bed. He gave a sarcastic salute and went about his nighttime routine. Charlie backed out of the room after telling Leo goodnight.
Charlie shuffled into his and Percy's shared cabin and fell into his bed, asleep before his head hit the pillow. He swore, some day's he won't live past thirty with how much stress he had on him.
Well at least his parents had it worst than him, Charlie didn't have kids.
Whoop! Another long as hell chapter! Hope you all enjoy seeing as this is the byproduct of three days of writing! Also I published the first chapter of my deleted scenes story! It's called A Helping of Missing Moments, go check it out!
Come back this Tuesday for the next chapter of Fated to Save! Comic out!
RosettaQueen20- I'm sweet? Girl, you are one of the reasons I like posting so much! You always have such nice thing to say about my story, anytime I read your reviews I get a warm feeling inside. Angst and general darkness will slowly start to creep in the farther we get into the book.
Did (Guest)- Yeah it was kind of necessary but it will usually just switch between Charlie and Silena with a few of the other character POV thrown in for good measure. The Kids only abuse their parents out of love ;D. Besides they never hit them hard. Much.
EspeonAuraGirl55- Thank you! Yeah I completely forgot about her to until I reread MoA for this fic. You guys aren't going to know what Nemesis meant for Lily for a LONG time. Don't worry Emily will set her parents straight soon. I'm so happy to hear that you like the addition of Payton! I didn't know whether you guys would love it or hate it.