Ugh. This chapter stinks! Feel free to rub it in my face. You'll all hate me for it! But I swear on the river of styx, *thunder booms* that the next chapter will be better!
Oh, and for he Mark of Athena prophecy earlier in the story, I cut it in half, because there is no way I'll be able to fit it all in this story. So please, reread chapter 25. Thanks!
Percy, Chapter 29
Percy watched as Hazel and Frank gave each other confused glances. Jason, Piper, and Leo all did a little take-back, all having obviously heard the name, but not recognized the person.
"I knew you looked familiar," Jason said at last, rather loudly. "You were on that one picture with Thalia!"
"I guess I was," Luke shrugged. There was another long, awkward silence, until Annabeth piped up.
"We need to talk to everyone else, about," she gestured to Luke. "And he needs a room."
"I don't know if we have another bed," Leo bit his lip. "Unless you want to sleep in the infirmary?"
"I don't need a bed," Luke assured them. "I'm dead, so I don't need to sleep."
Hazel gave a little squeak, but they all resisted the temptation to look at her. So Luke was dead… and Hazel had come back from the dead. Weird.
"I'll call a meeting, and we can announce Luke's arrival," Annabeth told them, before jogging off to the meeting room. Percy led the others to a spot where he could tell them about Luke, who went with Annabeth.
About half and hour later, half of the demigods on the ship were crowded in the meeting room. All 50 chairs were occupied, and the rest stood to the side.
"Well, what are we here for?" Clarisse demanded once everyone had settled. Anyone who knew Luke was onboard exchanged nervous glances.
"Um…" Percy wasn't quite sure what to say, and looked at Annabeth desperately. She sighed, but turned to everyone else.
"Luke's back." An uproar began amongst the Greeks.
"That traitor!" roared Clarisse.
"What?" Thalia was practically speechless.
"Is he here to help us?"
"He's good, right?"
"He should just leave!"
The Romans just looked awkward, having never met the son of Hermes. Percy let the shouting continue for another few seconds, before putting two fingers in his mouth, and blowing a large taxicab whistle.
The room was silent immediately, and everyone stared at Percy.
"Um, Annabeth will tell you what happened," he informed them, and their attention shifted from him to his girlfriend.
"Alright, so, when I was 7 years old…" Annabeth started at the very beginning. Meeting Luke, their adventures on their way to camp, and Thalia added a lot of details that Annabeth forgot. She included Luke's first quest, the change he went through afterwards, and the time he set the poisonous scorpion on Percy.
Then she went on about the cruise ship Princess Andromeda, and holding up the sky while fighting with Atlas. She explained the whole ordeal with the Labyrinth, and some of the Romans admitted that they'd seen it too.
The battle by Olympus took longer to explain than the rest. It took awhile for the Romans to even understand that Kronos had taken over Luke's body, and how that was possible. Then the battle, and finally the struggle between the Titan lord and Luke, and the knife.
Once Annabeth had finished explaining, she plopped back into her seat, and let everyone else discuss. Most of the Romans voted that Luke should leave, after hearing the story. Most of the Greeks voted that he should stay. And of course there were a few who didn't know what to say.
Percy decided that if anything efficient was going to come out of this, he should step in. He put two fingers in his mouth, and once again, blew a loud whistle.
Everyone sat down quickly, letting their words hang in the open air. Eyes peered at Percy, questioning his opinion on the matter.
"All I'm going to say is that I trust Luke enough to believe that he's not working for Gaea," he told them. "But I think we should vote on whether or not he stays."
"We'll do a concealed vote," Annabeth agreed. Somehow she produced a stack of paper along with a to of pens and pencils. "Everyone rip off a small slip of paper, write 'yes' for he stays, and 'no' for he goes. I'll count them up, and we'll have our decision."
Hands reached for the papers and pens, making a tangled mess of fingers. Annabeth directed all the slips into a hat, in which the pile of white steadily grew. There were whispers of those who were uncertain, wondering which option they should side with. As the stack of papers in the hat grew, the mob around the materials lessened, and Percy decided to claim a paper and pencil for himself.
He quickly scribbled "yes" onto his voting slip, before handing it to Piper, who had taken over holding the hat of slips while Annabeth voted.
After about 5 minutes, everyone declared that they had voted, and Annabeth nervously dumped the slips on the table in front of her. A few of her siblings crouched next to her, and between the 5 children of Athena and Minerva, they were tallying at about 40 votes a minute. And with about 200 votes, they got done within 5 minutes.
Alicia, one of the Athenian campers who had been at camp during the 2nd Titan War, grabbed the sheet where the votes were tallied on, and quickly tallied them up.
"Good news," she announced to the crowd, which held its breath together. "Luke stays."
