Sorry for the late update, but I had to make sure this chapter was perfect. In order to make that happen, I rewrote it like fifty times.
Final Chapter… Enjoy =)
Halley
Everyone was nervous about arriving in Greece. Surprisingly enough, they had made it all the way across the Atlantic, Portugal and Spain, and the Mediterranean without any trouble. No one knew what lay ahead of them, and no one knew if they would ever see their homes again.
Looking back towards the West, Halley fought back her tears. She was scared. More scared than she had been on her first quest, her first fight, or even during the Titan war. Halley was terrified, but she knew that she couldn't show her fear. Soldiers didn't show fear. They embraced it.
"We're not just soldiers, Halley," a familiar voice said in Halley's mind.
"Dakota?" Halley asked, not believing what she was hearing.
"Didn't you tell me that once?" Dakota's voice said.
"I guess…" Halley couldn't figure out what was going on. It was definitely Dakota's voice, but how could it be Dakota?
"Don't try and figure out how this is working, Hals," Dakota said. "I can't explain why, but you need to know that this really is me."
"This is crazy," Halley muttered right as Reyna walked past.
"What did you say, Hals?" The daughter of Apollo asked.
"Huh?" Halley said, looking up. "Oh, I uh…"
"Mental cell-phone again?" Reyna asked, with what looked like an attempt to not smirk.
"Yeah, sort of like that," Halley mumbled.
"Who is it this time?" Reyna asked. "Mercury? Or maybe one of the other gods, like Jupiter, or Neptune?"
Halley shook her head. "Not even close, Rey. You'd think I was crazy if I told you who it was though."
Reyna crossed her arms over her chest. "Crazy? Have you even taken a look at where we're at right now Halley? Or who we are? Last time I checked, we pretty much make our living on crazy," Reyna smirked. "So try me. Tell me who this person is that's talking to you over your mental cell phone."
Halley just looked at Reyna, waiting for her to realize what she had just said.
After a moment of blankness, it apparently dawned on Reyna. "Oh my gods," she said. "Our lives are crazy."
Halley nodded. "And they'll get even crazier," she said. "Once you hear who it is." She paused, trying to think of how to tell Reyna that she was actually talking to Dakota.
"Just come out and say it," Dakota said.
"Oh, yeah," Halley said. "I'm just going to randomly say 'Hey, my dead brother is talking to me in my head!' Yeah, that'll work." Halley turned towards Reyna, who was giving her friend shocked look.
"What?" Reyna said, half-laughing.
Halley sighed. "Dakota," she said. "Somehow, he's able to talk to me."
"How is that possible?" Reyna asked.
"I'm not sure," Halley said. "But it's definitely his voice. And he says that it's him."
"Who says he's who?" Jason asked.
The two girls looked at him. They exchanged glances, and Halley finally said "Dakota. He's talking to me in my head."
"What?" Jason said. "How…"
"Already asked that," Reyna said.
"And we don't know how it's possible," Halley added. "Do we, Dakota?"
"Uh, nope, we don't," Dakota's voice responded, still in Halley's mind.
"You do know we can't hear him, right?" Reyna said, gesturing to her and Jason.
"You know you could put me on 'speaker'," Dakota said. "That way they could hear me."
"Oh, no!" Halley cried. "We are not doing that!"
"What?" Reyna and Jason both said.
"Speaker," Halley muttered, silently cursing herself for not being able to keep her mouth shut.
"Huh?" the other two commented.
Reyna
"SPEAKER!" Halley shouted. But it wasn't Halley's voice. It was Dakota's.
"Dakota?" Reyna asked.
"Yes," Halley/Dakota said. Halley reached up and clamped her hand over her mouth. "Mmm, mmm nnnmm."
Reyna and Jason turned towards each other, and then back towards Halley.
"Hals?" Reyna said cautiously, "What's going on?"
Halley closed her eyes. She didn't say anything, not that she could, since she still had her hand clamped over her mouth.
"Halley?" Jason asked.
After another about another minute, Halley finally pulled her hand down. "Stupid Dakota," she muttered.
"What was all that about?" Reyna asked.
Halley sighed. "Some of the more powerful children of Mercury can do that," she explained. "If two Mercury kids are having a mental conversation -which would usually mean that they're pretty powerful—one of them can actually speak out loud through the other's mouth. It can be pretty annoying at times, but it can also be helpful, like if you're trying to give direc…"
"So that's what just happened?" Jason asked, cutting Halley off before she could start rambling. "Dakota took over your mouth?"
"Um, yes," Halley answered.
"How?" Jason asked. "He's dead."
"I don't know how." Halley shrugged. She paused and then said "He doesn't either, by the way."
"Has he always been able to do that?" Reyna asked.
"Oh, yeah," Halley said. "We used to do it to each other all the time when we were younger. It really helped while trying to lead the cabin."
"You can do it too?" was Reyna's next question.
"Duh," Halley responded, rolling her eyes.
"Soo, both of you can do this," Jason said cautiously. "And you've apparently been able to for a while." He paused and looked at Halley questioningly. "Why did you never tell us about this?"
"Uh, because we never felt like we needed to," Halley said. "But if you had paid more attention to us when we were younger, you would've noticed that we've actually done this to you guys before."
Her voice changed suddenly, back to Dakota's "Yeah," he said. "That's one of the best pranks ever."
Halley clamped her mouth and eyes shut. She was frowning in concentration.
"I'd hate to be in her head right now," Jason whispered to Reyna, who grinned.
"I'd never want to be in her head," Reyna whispered back. "That girl's thoughts go a million miles an hour."
Jason nodded in agreement. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Halley interrupted him.
"Shut it, Dakota!" she said.
Reyna and Jason glanced around them. Halley had a tendency to lose control of her projecting powers when she was ticked off, and right now, she seemed pretty ticked at Dakota. As near as they could tell though, the others hadn't heard.
"Halley," Reyna said. When Halley didn't answer she shouted "HALLEY!"
Halley jumped and looked up at Reyna. "What?"
"Would you mind hanging up on Dakota?" Reyna asked.
Halley frowned. "Ugh, I can't right now, Rey. I mean, I haven't talked to him in almost a year…"
"We understand," Jason said. "Why don't you go below, or up to the crow's nest so you can talk to him."
Halley looked up at the crow's nest, which was currently occupied by Annabeth. "Annabeth could probably use a break," Halley muttered. She glanced down at her shoes. "See you guys later." With that, she called out "Volo!" and flew up to the crow's nest.
Jason and Reyna watched her for a few minutes and then turned to look over the railing.
"I think we'll be passing over Italy soon," Jason said. "If we haven't already."
"I don't think we have," Reyna said. With a sigh she added "I wish we could go to Rome."
"Yeah," Jason agreed.
"To see the land of our ancestors," Reyna continued.
"Maybe we can hit it on the way home," Jason said sympathetically. He knew how badly Reyna wanted to see Rome. They had had tons of conversations about it when they were younger.
"Yeah, maybe," Reyna said with a sigh. Jason could tell she wasn't very enthusiastic about it.
Neither of them wanted to voice the unspoken sentence between them: if they ever made the trip back home.
After an awkward silence Reyna said "so, where's Piper?"
Jason gave a half smile, which made the little scar on his lip more noticeable. Reyna had noticed that scar long ago, but she had never asked how Jason had gotten it. For some reason she felt like she should now, but decided to wait till he answered her first question.
"I think Piper was down in the galley with Leo cooking dinner," Jason answered.
"Hmm, what are they making?" Reyna asked.
"Tofu burgers!" Leo called from the doorway. "Nice and hot!"
"Tofu?" Halley called down from her perch in the crows nest. "Eww!"
"Chill out, fly girl," Leo called up to her. "I made regular burgers too!"
Jason laughed and Reyna looked at him curiously. "What's so funny?" she asked.
Jason just shook his head and smiled. "Piper's a vegetarian. When we were on our quest to save Juno this past winter, we stopped in a cave on Pike's Peak. Leo somehow managed to pull hamburger meat out of his tool belt. Well, as you can probably guess, Piper wasn't too happy about that. Neither was the faun that was with us, Coach Hedge."
"A faun that's a coach?" Reyna asked in disbelief.
"It's a long story," Jason explained. "Anyways, Leo decided to pull out some tofu and make burgers for them. Now he takes it as a joke, sort of."
"A tool belt that holds hamburger and tofu?" Reyna said. "What Bobby would give for that."
"Are you guys gonna come eat or what?" Leo called. "The food's getting cold!"
"Come on," Jason said. "Let's not keep him waiting."
Leo
"Well, apparently the old grease monkey can cook pretty well," Halley teased Leo.
Leo shook his half-eaten burger at her. "Be careful what you say, Fly Girl, or you might get a face full of that good cooking."
"Bring it on, Hot Head," Halley said, raising her burger to throw at him.
"Guys," Piper said. "Please."
Halley and Leo exchanged glances and then at once threw their burgers at Piper, who squealed and jumped out of the way. The burgers missed her. One hit Reyna, and the other hit Jason.
They jumped up and threw their burgers, aiming for Halley and Leo, but they were too quick. Halley launched herself into the air, and Leo threw himself to the deck. So consequently, the burgers hit Percy and Annabeth.
"Oh, gee, thanks," Annabeth said, wiping mustard off her face.
"Definitely not the worst thing I've been covered in," Percy said, as he pulled pickles out of his hair.
"Oh waah," Halley said with a laugh. She was hovering about five feet above the deck.
Leo snickered from his position on the deck. That's when he heard the footsteps walk up beside him. But before Leo could do anything about it, he was pelted with burgers. Overhead Leo could hear the beating of Halley's winged shoes, and her occasional taunt or surprised exclamations.
"Oh, yuck!" Leo heard Halley say. "Tofu!" he figured someone had just nailed her with one of the tofu burgers.
What am I still doing down here? Leo thought. I'm missing all the action. He jumped up, reaching into his tool belt for more food... including a few burritos.
Percy happened to catch sight of the burritos and busted out laughing. "Burrito fight!" he yelled.
Leo glanced at him curiously, just as Halley swooped down and swiped two burritos from Leo's hands.
"Hey!" Leo called after her.
Halley just laughed as she spun in the air and launched her burritos at Reyna and Leo.
"Ugh, Halley!" Reyna called after her.
Halley laughed. Suddenly she stopped, and reached into her bag. Leo would've launched a few burgers and burritos at her, but she had stopped out of range.
Out of her bag, Halley produced to large glass mason jars filled with some mushy green gunk.
"Oh yeah!" Halley cried.
"That isn't..." Percy started, a stupid grin still placed on his face.
"Oh it is," Reyna responded. "Guacamole."
"Please tell me she's not going to throw that at us," piper said.
"She's probably going to," Jason said. "Halley hates guacamole, but that's all her grandmother ever sends her."
"So what does she usually do with it?" Leo asked. He actually kind of liked guacamole, but he couldn't eat a lot of it.
"Well back at camp, she could usually find someone to eat it," Reyna explained. "Fauns really like it on enchiladas."
"Or she and her siblings would make guacamole bombs with it," Jason added. "Those were some of the worst bombs to get hit with during battle training."
"Why?" Leo asked.
As an answer to his question, a jar fell down from the sky and landed in the middle of their group. It exploded and green Mexican mush went everywhere.
"Ohh gross!" piper cried. Everyone was covered in guacamole.
Halley landed and walked over to the group. "That's a good color on you guys," she said with a grin.
As expected, everyone started scooping guacamole and throwing at Halley.
"Ah, guys!" Halley said laughing. She started dodging it, and returning fire. Soon it had turned into an all out guacamole-burger-tofu-burrito fight.
Everyone was laughing and throwing food. They were all covered in condiments and Mexican food.
That's when a shadow passed over the ship. They all looked up and for the first time noticed the sun was almost below the horizon.
"I didn't realize how late it was," Halley said, wiping guacamole off her face with a towel she had pulled out of her bag. She pulled out six more and passed them around the group.
"We should probably get to bed," Reyna stated. "We'll be to Greece anytime now. We need to be as rested as possible."
"We can't go to bed," Piper said, "Covered in food."
"You're right," Annabeth agreed. She looked at Percy. "We're still over the sea, right?"
He concentrated a minute before answering. "Yeah."
"Then maybe we should land for a few minutes," Annabeth said. "Let us get cleaned off, and clean off the deck." She kicked a hamburger bun with her sneaker.
"Good idea," Leo said. He sprinted towards the steering deck and prepared the ship to land. Jason and Percy worked quickly to help him out. In no time, they had set the Argo II down in the Mediterranean.
With one look from Annabeth, Percy pulled water out of the sea and doused everyone and everything with water. Then with one simple thought command, all the water washed off the deck and back into the sea, leaving the ship and crew clean and soaking wet.
"Well that was a nice bath," Reyna muttered. "Jason?"
Jason sent a nice warm breeze across the deck, drying everyone off.
"Thanks Jason," Halley said.
"Yeah, thanks bro," Leo agreed. "Now let's get this ship back up in the air and hit the sack."
Everyone agreed. Percy said "Annabeth and I will keep watch."
"I can too," Reyna said. "And promise I'll stay out of your guys' way." She winked and climbed up into the crow's nest.
"Ok then," Halley said, a cheerful look on her face. "Let's fly."
Percy
It was very quiet. Percy and Annabeth were standing on the steering deck and Reyna was up in the crow's nest, holding a pair of night vision goggles to her eyes.
"It won't be long now," Annabeth said.
"Nope," Percy agreed.
They were quite for a few seconds before Annabeth broke the silence. "Are you scared, Percy?" she asked.
"Of course I am," he responded. "I keep having this feeling that if we make it back… things won't be the same."
"If we make it back," Annabeth whispered quietly. "We have to make it back. We will make it back."
"Of course we will," Percy said, wrapping his arms around her. "If anyone can get out of this, it's us. We've gotten out of more sticky situations than anyone I know."
"Right," Annabeth said, a faint smile playing on her lips. "I mean, you've been to Hades and back three times."
Percy laughed. "That's true. And you've saved my butt I don't know how many times."
"I have a feeling you can't count that high, Seaweed Brain."
"You're probably right," Percy said. "Wise Girl."
Reyna
As she looked down at Percy and Annabeth, Reyna couldn't help but think how great they were together. And how tragic it was that their lives were the way they were. Demigod couples could be extremely cute, but given the lives of demigods, they were never guaranteed to last very long.
Oh gods, Reyna thought. I'm starting to sound like a freaking daughter of Venus.
Reyna sighed and did another three-sixty with her night-vision goggles. They would be to Greece anytime now. Reyna didn't know whether to be glad about that or upset. She was definitely nervous and scared, that was for certain.
This wasn't her first war. Far from it, actually. Reyna had fought in so many battles…
"No one should have to go through that," she muttered.
"You're right," a voice said from behind her.
Reyna turned to face her visitor. He was dressed in traditional Roman Legion spy armor, his brown back hair cut short, but not shaved. Reyna recognized him immediately, and it had nothing to do with the caduceus design of his sword hilt.
"Mercury?" Reyna said. "What…"
"Letter from your father," Mercury said, holding up a pale golden envelope. "He wanted me to get this to you before you guys reached Greece."
"Oh, okay." Reyna reached out and signed the clipboard Mercury held out to her. She smirked when she saw the little snakes on the pen.
"Hey George and Martha," she said.
"Hello, Reyna," Martha replied.
"Hey," George said, sounding bored.
Reyna finished signing and handed the clipboard back to Mercury. "I think George wants a rat," she said, trying to hold her laughter in.
"He always wants a rat," Martha said at the same time George said: "Duh!"
Mercury smiled, but Reyna noticed it wasn't his normal happy smile. The few times she had met Mercury, he had been generally happy. But not now.
"Halley's below, if you want me to get her," Reyna said.
"I know," mercury responded. "But I think it would be best if I did not speak to her before..."
"I understand," Reyna said.
Mercury sighed and started to turn away but stopped abruptly. "Reyna," he said. "Will you do something for me?"
"Sure. Anything you need sir." Reyna knew that agreeing too quickly to do something a god asked could be dangerous, but Reyna trusted mercury. He was her best friend's dad. She knew that he wouldn't have her do anything stupid.
Mercury reached into his messenger bag and produced a small cloth drawstring bag. He handed it to Reyna, who glanced up wondering if it was okay to open it.
"Go ahead," mercury said, reading her mind.
Reyna opened the bag and emptied its contents into her hand. When she saw what it was she quietly muttered "Oh."
"Dakota wanted me to bring it to her," Mercury explained.
Reyna looked down at the object lying in her palm. "Her locket," she said with a smile. "I remember when we got this for her. It was her fifteenth birthday, and we all decided to get her something really special. It was Dakota's idea to get the locket."
Reyna studied the beautiful locket. It was gold, with a silver caduceus etched on the front. Inside was a picture of Halley, Dakota, Reyna, and Jason standing together in front of the Wolf House. It wasn't the best backdrop, but that house meant so much to the four of them...
Reyna wiped the tears out of her eyes. She let out a small laugh. "We thought it was gone forever. Caleb had stolen it when Halley and Dakota ran into on top of mount tam. Halley told me it had fallen off, but she couldn't go back to look for it." Reyna sighed. "I'll make sure to give it to her," she said to mercury.
That's when Reyna noticed mercury was gone. In his place was a thick envelope with a sticky note stuck on it that read Give this letter to Halley along with the locket -Merc
Reyna took one more look at Halley's letter and then remembered she had her own to read.
She quickly pulled out her dad's letter and opened it.
Inside, a haiku was written. It read:
Fate comes to take all,
Heart of a Hero stand tall,
Then will Giants fall.
Underneath that was a short note:
Reyna, you alone know the fate of your friends. Don't let that guide your judgment in this war. The fate of the world relies on what you saw. If that event doesn't happen, then the giants will win and Gaea will rise. Follow your heart daughter.
Reyna read through the letter. "Follow your heart". That's what her dad had told her to do. But how could Reyna follow her heart when it was already shattering into a million pieces?
Annabeth
She was happy to be here with Percy, even if they were on their way to fight Giants to the death. After all those months of wondering whether he was alive or not… after all the stinking tears… Annabeth couldn't be happier.
Percy was currently in the middle of telling about his six months at the Roman camp, when suddenly Annabeth noticed someone standing in the crow's nest with Reyna.
"Who's that?" she asked Percy.
Percy looked to where she was pointing. A frown crossed his face when he saw the random visitor. "I'm not sure, but it kinda looks like Hermes."
"No it doesn't," Annabeth said, though now that she looked closer, it did look a lot like him. "I don't think."
The two of them stood there and studied the figure for a few seconds, and watched as he disappeared.
"Well, whoever it was," Percy said. "It was definitely a god."
A slight breeze passed over them, and two envelopes floated down from the sky.
Annabeth caught one and Percy caught the other. Their names were written on the front in very nice script.
"This looks a lot like the letter I got from my dad before the chariot race," Percy muttered.
"Which chariot race?" Annabeth asked, still studying her letter.
"The first one we won together," Percy said. "My dad sent me a letter before that race saying "Brace yourself". I didn't really know what he was talking about. So much happened after that… us winning the race, Thalia coming back… I never really did figure out what he meant."
Annabeth frowned. "What does this one say?"
Percy opened the envelope and unfolded the letter. "It says Brace yourself and under that it says be prepared. Glad to know my dad has a way with words," Percy said with a sigh. "What does yours say?"
Annabeth opened her letter and read it aloud: "Listen to your heart, but use your brain. That sounds like something my mom would say."
"Your mom would tell you to listen to your heart?" Percy said with a smirk.
Annabeth elbowed him. "Shush, Percy. Of course she would!"
Percy laughed and shook his head. Then he glanced at his watch. "Our watch is almost over," he said. "We should go wake the others."
Annabeth nodded, and was almost about to start walking towards the doorway when a shadow in the distance caught her eye.
Puzzled, she called up to Reyna. "Hey Reyna!" she said. "What is that out there?"
Reyna took her night-vision goggles and looked to where Annabeth was pointing. "Land," she called down, her voice barely audible.
Annabeth's eyes widened. "Percy," she said cautiously, "What's our position?"
"We're not at sea," Percy said solemnly, "So I don't know. But if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, and it's the same thing I'm thinking, then that land out there…" He didn't finish.
"We should go tell the others," Annabeth said quietly. Reyna had come down from the crow's nest and was standing with the other two at the rail. "And tell them that we've made it to Greece."
Duh-Duh-Duh! Alright guys, so this was the Final Chapter of Journey to Greece.
The sequel will be up soon, like tomorrow even, because I already have the first chapter typed ;). And of course, you have to know what the sequel will be called so…. Drum roll please…
The sequel to Heroes of Olympus: Journey to Greece is…
Heart of a Hero
It's going to be great. I'm really excited about it. =)
Let me know what you guys think.
Till the next story:
ArcherDaughterOfApollo