Disclaimer: Look, no matter how much I want to I don't own this.


XXVIII. Charlie

"What do you mean?" Hazel placed a hand on Nico's shoulder.

"I-I saw his spirit in the Underworld." Nico tried to explain.

"Underworld?" Charlie asked, confused.

"It's the place that your spirit goes after your body dies." Hazel explained, "Do you think it might be like what happened to me?"

"I don't see why. He was in Elysium."

"Wait." Charlie made a time out sign with his arms. "What happened to you?"

Hazel ignored the question.

"So do you even know what time he's from?" Frank asked, obviously knowing what Hazel was talking about.

"Yes, he died in Titan War. I'm pretty sure he sacrificed himself to stop some advancing monsters." Nico explained.

"Did you know him?" Piper inquired.

"Not personally." Nico said looking at the sleeping form of the boy. "Percy did, though. I think he was there when he died."

"So who is he?" Leo finally asked Nico.

"He's a Greek son of Apollo." Charlie Piper and Hazel glanced at each other, most likely remembering what Palaemon had revealed. "And his name is-"

Jason asking the girls, "What significance does him being a Greek son of Apollo have?" cut off Nico.

"Palaemon already said that. He also revealed Charlie's parent." Piper explained.

Nico looked at her. "Palaemon?"

"Yeah Palaemon."

"Great," Nico muttered.

"What's so special about Palaemon, other than he's the only god we know about that's betrayed Olympus?" Piper asked him.

"Let's just say that he paid me a little visit after the griffins attacked." He tried to say the least amount of information as possible.

"What did he say?" Jason asked. Charlie could almost hear Nico groan internally.

"First he said that we couldn't land in Tunis and the closest we could land was in Beja, which is about sixty-four miles away from Tunis. Then he, uh, said that, um, we had to close the Doors of Death by July 22nd. Finally, he said that we can't sail on the waters and that we can't trust Gaia." Charlie could tell that he was holding back information.

"Why July 22nd? I mean Gaia doesn't rise until August first, so why the 22nd?" Frank asked.

"Maybe Gaia's trying to bait us into a trap." Charlie could tell that Nico's statement wasn't the reason that he thought the deadline was the 22nd at all.

"Makes sense." Leo added. After a moment of silence, Leo asked, "So who is it?"

"Who is what?" Frank asked the Latino.

"Who is Charlie's parent?"

Charlie looked away, not wanting to think of his father, or what he did.

"Apollo." Piper answered for Charlie.

"Greek or Roman?" Frank looked at the girl.

"Palaemon never said."

Charlie heard a series of clicks and then Leo looked toward the bow of the ship where Charlie saw the dragon figurehead moving.

"I totally forgot! I'm coming." Leo seemingly yelled at the dragonhead. He raced off.

"What was that all about?" Charlie asked once he was gone.

"I just go with it." Frank shrugged.

Charlie heard someone moan. He looked at the boy (wait, wouldn't he be Charlie's brother?) on the deck of the ship. He slowly lifted his head and opened his eyes.

"Ugh, where am I?" He got into a sitting position and rubbed his head.

Piper put on a smile. "You're on the Argo II and we're somewhere over Africa."

"Over? This is a ship."

"A flying ship." She corrected.

"Okay? So who are you?"

"I'm Piper. This is Jason, Frank, Hazel, Nico, Charlie and Leo's at the helm of the ship currently." She gestured to each person as she introduced him or her. "Who are you?"

"I'm Michael Yew."