Chapter Twenty:

I do not own anything in this story but my OC's whom I do own.

Chapter Twenty:

Percy Jackson went into a severe state of insane shock. I had to practically drag him back to the cabins after the game while he stood beside me, waving a hand in the air above his head. After that, he would look quizzically at me, mutter "Poseidon?" under his breath and then repeat the cycle again.

After twenty repetitions I finally turned to him and said, "Percy, could you please stop acting like an insane person. I might have to have you committed to a loony bin, and I fear you might not like being strapped to a bed and facing white walls 24/7."

Percy dropped his hand in a defeated manner and sighed. "I'm sorry Candy, but me, Poseidon's son? There must be a mistake!"

I looked at him and replied softly, "No, I think you're totally Big Three worthy."

Percy smiled lightly as the moonlight shone through the trees, landing on him and illumination his gorgeous face. Oh my gods!

We were all alone in the forest, it had taken Percy ages to get himself together enough to walk, and everybody had left us and gone ahead. I pushed my bangs out of my eyes and breathed in the thick air. The tension strumming in it was enough to make me nearly choke. The silence added more weight to the dense oxygen. We were nearly to the cabins.

Breaking the silence, and taking a bit of a page out of Kit-Kat's book, I looked up at the glowing white orbs above me. The stars shone brightly down on the two of us, alone. It was like a picturesque, cliché moment in those stupid romance novels.

"Look at the stars." I murmured.

I glanced at Percy, but he wasn't looking up, he was looking at me!

"What're you looking at?" I asked quietly.

It was then the cosmos gave me a very nice reward.

Percy leaned over slowly, like slow motion in those romance movies, and he lightly kissed me on the cheek.

I stared at him, wide eyes. Percy blushed and turned away.

Now it was my turn to go into shock. Percy had kissed me! Oh happy days! Yippeee!! I had to tell someone. I had to tell them that my betrothed (well in my mind) had finally found his love for me, buried deep inside all those years.

Oh happy days!

Oh my gods, oh my gods, oh my gods! By then we had reached the cabins.

I quickly tuned into Percy's mind. What was he thinking? Why had he done that? Did he love me?

But all I heard was, She seems quiet. Maybe I shouldn't have kissed her. Maybe she only likes me as a friend! Maybe she hates me!

I frowned. I had to show my love to him too! So on impulse and on those spur of the moment things I do a lot, I turned to him and lightly kissed him back on the cheek. I would have gone for the lips but we have to take baby steps in relationships, right?

Percy looked at me, full of surprise.

I smiled brightly, gave a short wave goodbye, and went into my cabin. I threw myself on my bed and fingered a lock of the hair falling out of my ponytail. I pulled the hair tie out and shook my hair out. I stared up at the ceiling, hyperventilating with joy. Percy had kissed me! I nearly squealed in delight at the thought, and then I did squeal as I heard a light tapping outside my window.

I ducked down below the window sill and silently rummaged under my bed for my knives. I grasped them tightly in my hand and took a deep, calming breath. I was ready to fight whoever was out there trying to get in and kill me.

Suddenly, I leapt up and let out a loud yell meant to terrify my enemies and poke fun at those funny battle movies where they all scream before the fight. I made a stab at the intruder with my knife but a hand caught my wrist mid-stab. I looked into the darkness before smiling brightly.

"Well hello Kit-Kat!"

Kit-Kat glared at me. "Hello Skittle bits. Thank you oh so much for nearly killing me."

I glanced pointedly at my trapped hand. "It seems I failed in my attempt." I laughed. Her glare intensified and she dropped my wrist violently before climbing menacingly through my window.

"No need to be mad Kit-Kat! It was just a bit of well needed self defense!" I shot at her.

"You are way too paranoid! Didn't you hear me whispering your name?" she asked.

Woops. "Um…well…no actually…you see I was thinking about-"

"Percy." She finished. I nodded then, barely keeping the excitement out of my voice I exclaimed, "He kissed me Kit-Kat! He finally kissed me! And I kissed him back! Now we're going to get married and I'll get to use those blue prints for that castle I made up and we can have gorgeous little babies. By the way, do you know any good architects? My castle is pretty extensive and skill would be…"

Kit-Kat put a hand over my mouth and whispered. "Candy, shut up. I'm not supposed to be here in Hades cabin remember! If the harpies hear, I'm dead."

"No you're not." I hissed back, pulling her stifling hand off of me. "I can mess with their minds remember. And anyways, the harpies are checking the woods for more hellhounds, I can feel them."

Kit-Kat rolled her eyes and muttered, "That's not really the point Candy."

I sat still. "What'd you come here for anyways?" I asked. Kit-Kat was snappy when tired and if she was tired she wouldn't have come over here unless it was something really important.

"I came over here to talk about Percy."

"Do elaborate."

Kit-Kat sighed and sat down on my bed. I sat down next to her and she turned to me, gazing deep into my fake purple eyes.

"I'm worried about him being declared Poseidon's son. Something's not right with the elements Candy. I can feel it. Two of them are fighting with each other, a fierce brutal battle, and it has me worried."

"Gee Kit-Kat, could you sound any more Lord of the Rings-y?"

Kit-Kat rolled her eyes. "Candy, this is serious! Two elements at battle, like the battle over Atlantis. It could end like that; the United States could be put underwater! And then…"

Mid speech the change began to occur. First, Kit-Kat started to twitch violently about. Then, her hair snaked back up her head, the auburn shade turning a mousy brown. Her eyebrows thickened and her nose and mouth seemed to stick out more then usual. She opened her mouth to speak, still staring at me with her brown eyes, the only thing that hadn't changed during her transformation into Chiron.

It was clairvoyance time again.

Kit-Kat, or should I say Chiron, spoke. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility." He said in a deep voice, full of authority. What in the world?...

The face blew up and gold sparks flew. Kit-Kat turned back to Kit-Kat and Chiron left us. Kit-Kat was still babbling away at whatever she had been talking about before. Then she stopped. "Candy, what are you staring at?" she asked, annoyed. "Are you listening?"

"Kit-Kat I just had another clairvoyant moment!"

Kit-Kat leaned forward, curious. "What happened?"

I looked at her, suddenly confused. "You turned into Chiron. You said that my father was the only possibility, but I don't know what he was talking about. I really don't…" Then I stopped. I remembered then another clairvoyant moment I had had recently, one my ADD mind had completely let go of. One where my father came to me out of Grover's body, and said something about war. War.

And just now Kit-Kat had been talking about a war between the elements. A war. Was that what Chiron was talking about when he said dad was the only possibility? Was Hades the only person that could start a war between elements? A war that was going on now? What was going on? Was my father causing all this bad weather? I groaned. There was a good chance my father just might have set off a war that could end the existence of the U.S.A. Brilliant.

I looked up at Kit-Kat. "Hey, can you leave please?"

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Why?" She really must work on that anger, and not snapping constantly when fatigued.

"I really need to think alone."

Luckily Kit-Kat understood that and she wished me good night huffily and left. What a lovely girl.

I rolled over to a lying position on my bed and once more stared at the ceiling, the kiss with Percy out of my head. Instead I was faced with the possibility that my father was behind a brutal conflict. And when I drifted off to sleep, that thought remained with me and gave me a really tough night.

Well, hello my friends. This chapter was actually supposed to go up to when Percy is offered the quest, and I wrote about half of the quest being offered, but tragedy struck when I lost the Lightning Thief book!! And I need the quotes for the fan fiction! Oh noes! I couldn't go on because it would be really weird if only half of the quest was offered…that would be really odd.

While I search high and low for that darned book, enjoy a section of the chapter. More will be added later once I find that book! Grr…

Review please, no flames.

Oh, and by the way, Candy is going on the quest with them, I don't want anyone to be surprised when she does (I've found a loop hole in the plot that allows Candy to go in without Percy's prophecy and initial quest getting all messed up. Yay for me!)... I love Candy too much to not let her have some battle time with Percy. ) there's only going to be about ten more chapters to this story (once I find that book...) but they're going to be long chapters.

Ruby Thorn