Yay! Chapter 26! Shout outs! Okay, you all said Percy, not one of you said Jason and I agree! so cookies for everyone!
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Okay, the reason this chapter took so long is because, I made this one giant chapter and chopped it into three chapters so you guys are getting an update everyday for three straight days! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA YAYAYAYAY! Also you may have noticed that I added names to all the chapters, I hope you like them and don't think their cheesy.
disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns PJO and HoO
Octavians POV
They spent the rest of the night helping set up the tents before heading to bed. Rachel rested her head against his shoulder, Octavian smiled and kissed the top of her head.
"So where are we sleeping?" Leo asked.
"Well, because only a few of the more bolder hunters are comfortable sharing a tent with boys, they will be in a tent with them and we'll just do a one, two three system we usually do." Octavian was in a tent with the guys and a few hunters. He couldn't help but notice that Leo was glaring at one in particular Octavian just shrugged it off. He set up his sleeping bag and started talking to Percy for a bit.
Suddenly, Rachel came crawling into the tent. Octavian watched her as she crawled over to him with a smile on his face.
"Hey, Coffee Stain." She greeted. Octavian nodded to her.
"Coffee Head, fancy seeing you here." He grinned as Rachel rolled her eyes and pecked his cheek.
"Hey Rach." Percy greeted.
"Hey." Suddenly one of the hunters cleared her throat loudly. Octavian looked over to see the Hunter Leo was glaring at with a scowl on her face.
"Get back to your assigned tent, mortal." She snarled at Rachel. Octavian frowned, this Hunter was both a bitch and stupid. Rachel snapped at the last remark.
"Yeah, I noticed a patron in my assigned tent, why is it that all the hunters in that tent were born mortals?" Rachel snapped. Octavian looked at her with wide eyes. What? He thought. The hunter huffed.
"Are you really that stupid?" She asked in a bored voice. Octavian glared at her.
"Hey! Shut up and answer the question!" He snapped.
"How can I answer the question when you want me to shut up?" The hunter smirked. Octavian wanted to strangle the Hunter by this point. Octavian glared at her like somehow by doing so her brain would explode.
"Fine, there are invisible levels in this world. The gods are on top, and the mortals, are the bottom. The hunt understands that there needs to be boundaries, and now you're crossing it, mortal." The Hunter told Rachel.
"I'm not a mortal." Rachel snarled. "I'm an Oracle." Octavian smiled at how proudly she spoke. But the Hunter snorted.
"Oh wow, you're so special!" She said sarcastically. Rachel looked as taken back as Octavian was.
"What? Not used to hearing the truth? You're not special just because you're an Oracle! You're just like every other mortal, you don't belong in the world of the gods."
"And what? You're mortal Hunters do?" Rachel snapped but Octavian could hear just the slightest catch in her voice.
"Yes! They belong here because they-"
"Got betrayed by man, I'm not a moron! And how does that make you belong in the world of the Gods? You're all cowards! You just ran away from your problems and joined the hunt! Not even caring about the repercussions you left behind on the people in your lives at the time! Thalia did it because she needed to prevent the prophecy from falling upon her! She wasn't being a coward, she was doing what was right and could have just saved the world by doing so! What did you do?" Rachel yelled as she rose to her feet.
The Hunter did the same and the were less than a foot away from one another, the Hunter had an inch on her but Rachel still gave her the death glare, not even flinching once. The tent was silent as they stared one another down. Octavian wanted to stand up and help Rachel take the Hunter down but knew better than that.
"You can either back down now, take back all you have said and return to your tent, or sleep outside. Decide now." The Hunter spoke slowly in a cold voice. Rachel continued to glare and the Hunter. Her face as hard as stone, Octavian had never seen Rachel like this, it was amazing how cold she could be when she was normally such a warm and compassionate.
"Fuck you. I'm sleeping outside." Rachel finally growled before turning to leave. She didn't look at anyone as she left, she only looked straight ahead. Octavian watched her leave, wanting to jump up and wrap his arms around her, make her forget the things the Hunter had said. He caught a glimpse of a tear slipping down her cheek just before she left. She needed him.
Octavian turned to the Hunter to see that she seemed surprised by this. Octavian glared up at her.
"What the hell is your fucking problem!" He yelled at her. The Hunter looked down at him with a scowl.
"Her! And now she's gone." The Hunter stated as she sat down.
"And so am I." Octavian declared as he stood up and walked out of the tent after Rachel.
Rachel's POV (Okay, it may be awhile before we see another Octavian POV because something big is coming to Rachel and I just can't write it in Octavian's POV if I want to do it right)
Rachel pulled out her sleeping bag and laid it next to the fading fire outside, tears threatened her eyes. She wanted to go back and kill that hunter! She just wiped her tears away and laid down. She closed her eyes and thought of the night she became the Oracle, she felt so strong and so week at the same time, and in the end, she felt more than mortal.
She sighed and rolled onto her side. She heard light footsteps not caring enough to look to see who it was. Maybe it was Thalia going to talk to Jason or something. She dismissed the thought and didn't notice when the light footsteps came closer.
Suddenly she heard the zipper of the sleeping bag unzip and she froze. Was the Hunter coming to kill her for leaving her looking like a fool? But then she felt someone bigger than a Hunter slip into the sleeping bag from behind her.
Two strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer into a familiar chest. The comfort she got every time he held her swept over her, the feeling that made her let her walls fall away. She turned in his arms and stared up at Octavian. He smiled down at her and her tears began to fall freely. She made a choking sound and her face went red.
"Shh." He whispered. Rachel burying her head into his chest, she breathed in his sent. She never really thought of how Octavian smelled, all she thought of was that it always comfort her. She breathed it in again, he smelt like fresh rain and sage mixed with a bit of sweat. Rachel smiled against his chest and pulled closer. Octavian kissed the crown of her head.
"I love you my Coffee Head." He whispered. Rachel smiled even wider. She loved the way he said my coffee head. She fell asleep thinking of it.
Rachel woke up to someone tapping her head not so gently. She groaned.
"Coffee Stain! Stop! You're hurting my head." She whined.
"Who the hell is Coffee Stain?" Thalia's voice suddenly asked. Rachel's eyes shot open, She pulled her head out of Octavian's chest and looked up to see Thalia towering over her with a smirk on her face. Rachel blushed and looked over to Octavian and saw that he was still asleep. She nudged him until he woke up.
"Hmm?" He mumbled sleepily.
"Wake up." Rachel told him. Octavian opened his eyes and smiled down at her. He leaned in to kiss her but Rachel dodged it and nodded up to Thalia. Octavian looked up at her and groaned.
"Hello, Octavian." Thalia smirked. Rachel and Octavian got up and started talking to Thalia.
"So are you coming with the nine Thalia?" Octavian asked her. Thalia nodded.
"Yep. Hey is Leo still flirting with every girl he see's, I want to watch out for my Hunters" Thalia told them. Rachel laughed and shook her head.
"Nope, he fell in love with Hazel and the rest is history." Rachel told her. Thalia nodded and smirked.
Suddenly, Hazel and Leo came out of one of the tents.
Thalia smirked at him. Rachel saw Leo's eyes widened.
"I hear you're not much of a flirt anymore Leo." Thalia told him. Hazel arched an eyebrow and looked up at him. Leo's face went bright red and he ran his hand through his curls giving her an uneasy smile. Rachel glanced up to Octavian and they shared a grin.
"A flirt?" Hazel questioned.
"Oh yeah, big time." Thalia told her smugly.
"Shut up! I wasn't a player or anything! I was just being a stupid teenage boy! Chasing after girls out of my league." Leo told her.
"Meaning I'm in your league." Hazel stated. Leo nodded
"Yeah."
"And she isn't?" She gestured to Thalia.
"Yes." Leo nodded his head again.
"So you're saying she's hotter than me." Hazel stated with a frown. Leo's eyes widened. Rachel and Octavian couldn't help but laugh.
"No! I mean she's out of everyone's league! She's a damn hunter! You're as hot as hell!" Leo cried, his face going red at what he just said. Octavian and Rachel were losing it now, laughing their asses off. Even Thalia was laughing now. Hazel's frown suddenly dropped and she began to laugh as well. Leo stared at her.
"That was an act?" He gaped. Hazel nodded and kissed his cheek.
"Yep."
"So you're not mad?" Leo asked. Hazel shrugged.
"As long as you don't flirt with anyone now." She told him. Leo nodded. Hazel and Leo kissed as Rachel and Octavian began to calm down. But just as luck would have it. Rachel's favorite Hunter walked up.
"Just wait and see how long it takes him to screw that up." Leo broke his kiss with Hazel and sighed unhappily before glaring over at the Hunter.
"Piss off." He growled. Hazel, Thalia, Octavian and Rachel all looked at him in shock. The hunter just glared at him and stalked off. Leo glared at the back of her head as she left. When she was gone he dropped his glare and sighed again.
"I really don't like her." He grumbled.
"Yeah, we noticed." Octavian told him with an arched eyebrow. Leo just waved him off,Rachel wondered how the Hunter pissed him off so badly. When everyone else was up they started taking down the tents. When they were all packed and ready. Rachel couldn't help but notice that Frank was nowhere to be found. SHe even looked around for him the there wasn't a trace of him anywhere. She looked over to Leo and Hazel, Rachel couldn't help but think that She was still gunning for Hazel. Rachel walked over to Leo.
"Watch out for Hazel, Frank isn't anywhere to be seen, I've checked everywhere, I think she's still going to try going after Hazel." Rachel whispered in his ear. Leo nodded and she walked away back to Octavian who wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head making her smile and almost forget about Frank.
"Okay everyone! We're going to be splitting up!" Jason called before Thalia stepped up.
"Hunters, split up into groups no bigger than three, I will be going with the nine in one big group. You guys will surround Mt. Olympus well I will continued with the group. Some groups with camp out on the sides of the hill, we'll decide that when we meet up there." Thalia told them, and with that they headed out.
They were within the city in less than two hours. The streets were busy, by the time they were down two the sidewalks were packed. Rachel held Octavian's hand tightly so she wouldn't lose him. The hunter's split up well Thalia stayed. Percy came up beside Rachel.
"Try not to lose everyone in the crowd, we need to stick together." He told her.
"Percy, Frank isn't here, I looked for him this morning, I think She is taking him to help Gaea or even worse, kill him." She told Percy. Percy thought for a moment.
"Watch your back and be careful." He told her. Rachel nodded knowing that was all she could do for now. Slowly the crowds began to lessen until it was to the point that Rachel didn't have to yell to talk to Octavian and it wasn't hard to see the others.
Suddenly something caught her eye. Rachel looked over and gasped in front of her, hanging on a wooden pole, was her mug shot on a missing person's poster, the top was written in Greek and the bottom in English. She pulled away from Octavian and walked over to the sign.
Rachel hear as Octavian was about to say something but it caught in his throat and he only followed her to the sign, soon the others saw and followed as well. They stood around the pole staring in shock and awe. Percy was finally the first to speak.
"Rachel," He spoke slowly, his voice dripping with caution. "Why are you missing?" Rachel shook her head. She read the poster that was in English.
"Rachel Elizabeth Dare, red curly hair, green eyes, "5.6" 16 years old, daughter of James Dare, CEO of Dare land development, said to be in the area of USA, Rome and Greece.
$1500 cash reward for her safe return."
Rachel bowed her head and choked back the tears. Part of her wished she had never left him the letter telling him the truth. The other part was shocked that this was actually up, that he actually cared until she realized that he was only doing it for the press, saying that he was worried about Rachel and that he'll do anything to get her or whatever lines his assistant whispers in his ear before a press conference. Rachel straightened up and tore the poster down.
"Its nothing." She growled. She turned to Percy, SHe hadn't told anyone except Octavian about her leaving the mortal world for good.
"I'm never going back. I no longer belong in the mortal world." She told them. Everyone was silent, staring at her in shock, not saying a word as they slowly began to fully understand the meaning behind her words.
Piper suddenly stepped up. She wrapped her arms around Rachel's shoulders and hugged her. Rachel hugged her back.
"You never belonged with them to began with, you were always meant to be here, with us." She whispered to Rachel. She smiled as she pulled away from Piper.
"Thank you." Rachel whispered. Piper just nodded. Suddenly Leo walked over to her and hugged her as well. Rachel laughed and hugged him to. Jason then hugged her from behind and everyone else quickly joined the big group hug. Rachel laughed happily, no longer caring about her father, she had a new family that loved her much better than he ever could.
Rachel ripped the poster up and they moved on. Octavian wrapped his arm around her waist as they walked and leaned in closer.
"Piper is right." Was all he said.
"That Question!"
Piper or Annabeth, who would win in a fight? Why?