Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns almost everything.

Author's notes: 5/19/15 - It's Friday and next week is the last week of school. The end of the school year is so close that I can taste it. 6,187+ views.

CH 35 "Girls" (Theo)

So, Claire and I were going to the entrance where the rest of the campers including my parents were fighting the hordes of monsters coming in through big holes in the Camp protection barriers. Something must happen at Thalia's tree but I wasn't sure of going up there or not. I saw monsters coming and I knew I wouldn't be able to protect Claire with my health. Dad was right. I yelled to my sister as I grabbed her arm "Go to the cabin 13, NOW!"

Claire brushed me off saying defiantly "Drag me there because I'm not going. I'm fighting. Mom and Dad are not here to stop me, neither Kate."

I stared at my sister and I knew she was just one of us. She had to help but she was in no shape to do it. She wasn't the skillful fighter the rest were. I wondered if my parents made the right decision of stopping Claire of training. I pleaded "Claire, listen to me. You will protect the little ones. There is no more important task."

"Then you do it" snorted Claire with the whole intention to attack the incoming monsters.

I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to hide behind a tree. The monsters were dumb enough to pass us without seeing us. I saw them race to the cabin area where at least a dozen of campers were waiting for them. I said to Claire "I have to find Lana. Please, go to cabin 13. I want you safe."

Claire looked at me angry ready to talk back when she saw something behind me that scared her. She pointed saying "What's that?"

I looked back and I saw a 50 feet humongous frozen body of water. I said "A wave. It will destroy Camp." It was more than enough to swipe us all including monsters, no room to hide, our doom for sure.

"Dad is going" said Claire pointing to the wave and I saw him running too "We have to help him."

"Yes" I said forgetting everything else. Claire was right. Dad needed us. Maybe with the 3 of us, we could stop the wave from destroying Camp.

In that moment, a couple of monsters appeared blocking our way to dad, well 10 of them. They were ugly, big and terrifying. I thought they would scare my sister but she just tightened the grip on her sword with her eyes fixed on them. She took a quick look at me and I nodded. It was time to fight.

"Let's hope you are good enough" I said "Don't take unnecessary chances and stay with me all the time."

"I hope the same of you" said Claire and we rushed at them.

Claire was faster than before like something just unleashed inside of her, a switch was on. She moved with the same grace as my mom but each blow was deathlier than my dad. With training, she could be better than me and anyone else, a natural fighter. She blew out my mind.

Within minutes, we were covered in monster dust, panting. I felt tired. The curse was working against me and I couldn't fight like I used to. I was now a liability, not my sister. To my shame, I already dropped my dagger once as I was fighting.

I looked at the wave where now there was hole in the middle as probably my dad was fighting with whoever was behind this. Without warning, I saw the wave moving not to us but to the left and something was thrown away to the entrance. I thought it was a monster at first, but I recognized dad yelling for Lana. Was Lana also fighting by the wave?

I saw my sister seeing the same and I pushed her to the entrance saying "Go for dad!"

Claire looked at me unsure for a second, not wanting me to go on my own, but Lana was there. I have to be there too. After a long second, my sister nodded saying "Okay!" and ran to dad wherever he had fallen.

I felt the ground shaking and I saw the wave. It came to us fast and without warning. I was swept away as the rest of everybody. The power of the torrent wasn't as much as I expected. It just threw me back a couple of feet, the cabins and the rest of the buildings were in place and something was off. This wasn't the wave I saw, just a pale shadow of it, probably just a warning.

I heard the loud deep sound of the conch shell reaching the farthest corners of Camp. Everybody, even the monsters, turned the eyes to the shore and I saw her, Lana was on the crest of the wave like she was surfing. It was her wave.

I ran and I ran. I saw Jonathan and a couple of campers being thrown away by a powerful stream of water, then I faced my girlfriend. She looked tired as she was using a lot of power to keep the wave frozen on its position, a clear threat. She was beautiful as always, but something was definitely wrong and different in her eyes.

I couldn't believe it was her, but there was nobody else. I saw the conch shell strapped on her shoulder and her sword on her hand.

I didn't want to fight her but she took out a dagger. She meant to fight me with two weapons matching my style, so we fought. I was better but I was hesitating. How could I hurt her? But I had to disarm her for sure. Her slashes were precise and firm, mine weren't. My hands were shaking and my fingers were numb. Lana could win if I wasn't clever.

Suddenly and most unexpectedly Lana kissed me, a distraction and I fell for it, then I felt the blade on piercing my shoulder. I gasped in pain and surprise. The dagger on my bad shoulder felt like it was draining me. Lana saw the opportunity and threw me down. I fell heavily in my stomach and before I could stand up, she was on top of me keeping me down.

I tried to move her out, to stand up. I pleaded her to stop this. We could talk this through but then I felt a big blow on my skull and I was knocked out.

I dreamed of Lana kissing me. Everything was perfect like it was before, like it was supposed to be. I traced her cheek with my thumb as we stared at each other. I love her so much. Lana kissed me again and said "Sorry… I love you with all my heart." I felt her lips again and something felt off.

"For what?" I asked curiously "You don't have to apologize to me ever."

Out of the blue, she slashed my neck saying "This is for what your sister did to me."

I woke up gasping for air and instinctively touching my neck. The skin was smooth and nothing was wrong. I looked around and I was in the Camp's infirmary. Somehow I missed the rest of the battle. I guess we won. I looked around and I didn't see any of my family or my friends. There weren't a lot of injured Campers, just the right amount after Capture the Flag.

I slumped back on my pillow and I closed my eyes with a deep sigh. I was tired but not as much as before, I even felt lighter and my fingers freer. I looked at my hands and my skin wasn't pale at all. What happened?

I was about to stand up when I heard noise in the corner where a group of campers, 5 or 6 kids of 16 or 17 years old, were talking. I closed my eyes, pretending to be sleeping and I concentrated to hear them.

"She is a traitor" said a girl.

Another girl gasped before saying "It makes sense. She is Poseidon's daughter. We can no longer trust on them. Poseidon and his children are dangerous. I will tell my mom."

"Maybe she planned this all along since the first Dark Sword" said a boy seriously. I recognized the voice, Pete, son of Apollo.

"Maybe TJ's sister wasn't even the Dark Sword after all" said the first girl "I put money on this."

"Are you saying Lana framed her?" said Pete "Do you think her would do that? She is your friend."

"It could be. Nobody was there but her, TJ and Ewan… and we believed Lana, Ewan supported her and TJ left. Don't you think it's strange?" said the first girl. I think it was Callie, daughter of Hermes. Pete was right. She was Lana's friend.

"Maybe, both girls were working together from the beginning" said Callie "Don't look at me like that! Why not?"

"Lana is powerful" said another boy whose voice I didn't recognize.

"How you know, Thomas?" said Pete.

Thomas made a dramatic pause and he said somberly "I saw her once training with Ewan in the deeps of the forest. I was with my siblings putting tramps and we ran into them. Only Ewan knew the true extent of her force. She really scared me and I promised myself never to be on her bad side."

"Did you see the wave?" said Callie "How Jonathan and others flew away? No one is safe as long as she is alive."

I was about to stand up and defend my girlfriend when I heard a loud voice on the other side of the long room saying in a hiss "Could you leave? We have patients trying to recover"

"Sorry, Gladys. We are leaving" said Thomas and they marched out quickly and as quietly as possible.

I didn't know what to think and believe. I knew Lana and there was no way or reason for her to attack like she did. Something was definitely out of place. Campers didn't trust her like they didn't to us. I wondered how come nobody had tried to kill me on my sleep.

Then I saw why. Taylor was plastered in a corner almost concealed and quiet, with his sword on his hand and looking deathly, taking guard for my sake. I had my personal bodyguard.

"Don't listen to them. Idiots!" said Taylor with dry anger. I could see his knuckles white as his grip on his sword looked painfully almost to the point to break it in half. He walked to me and sat on the bed. I sat up against the wall. His hand touched my forehead, checking my temperature. "How are you feeling?"

"I think I will live" I said and I took his hand away of me. I knew I shouldn't let other people's opinions affected me, less ignorant campers, but I had my doubts too. I looked to Taylor. He had dark eye bags and his hair was a mess. His left forearm was bandaged and his Camp shirt looked clean, probably new. "Any news of Lana?"

"No" said Taylor quietly and looked down to his sword on the bed "She vanished, no trace of her, nobody saw her leaving. We found you after the battle was over, knocked out cold and your shoulder was a bloody mess. The Golden Fleece cured Thalia's tree and the protections are as good as new. We were lucky. It wasn't a powerful poison."

I nodded at his words. Those were good news, but I was worry for Lana. I said "I can see that campers were injured" just to say something.

Taylor gave me a little smile and said "At least, they weren't a lot of causalities, only a couple, one eaten by a monster and two kids who didn't know how to swim and ended up alone in the middle of the lake."

"My family?" I asked feeling a little bad that I didn't ask before.

"Claire is at cabin 3 with your dad. Your mom is at Big House talking to Chiron and Jonathan. They are fine" said Taylor and we both took a deep breath. This was good. "Em is with the twin sisters of Hades checking the perimeter with other campers. Sorry if we didn't get here earlier. We got stuck in the road by a triple car accident and we had to run the rest of the way."

"Aida?" I asked. Maybe she got delayed like them.

Taylor tensed and his eyes grew worried. I didn't like this. He cleared his throat and said "Nobody has heard of her. She is not answering her phone." We both stared at each other and this was definitely no good.

I asked after a big gulp "Did anyone get to her? The Dark Sword?"

"We are not sure. Em and I decided to go as soon as you woke up" said Taylor.

I nodded and jumped of bed saying "I'm going"

"I knew you would say that" said Taylor with his characteristic troublemaker smile and we left the infirmary.

As we walked to cabin 13, I saw the damage of the battle, everybody had the belongings out in the sun, hoping to dry everything out after Lana's wave. Campers stared at me with hate and fear. They were just waiting for the brave one to face me and they would follow him or her. To think, I wasn't welcomed before, now I knew I couldn't stay any longer.

In cabin 13, Em was chatting with crackers, milk and music magazines with Elena and Eunice, daughters of Hades. I hadn't met the twins before and as all the children of Hades, they didn't look like the God except for mad eyes when they were angry. Both girls were caramel brown skin, light brown eyes, dark straight hair and thin as straws. They saw me wearing matching big smiles and black clothes and they jumped on me with big laughs and kisses, throwing me to the floor. After all, they were 9 and carefree.

"So, you are Percy's son, the twin, right?" said one of the twins. As I stared at them, I saw no difference and it was annoying. They would often get confused and I could relate to that. When I was little, people at New Rome would confuse me and Mer if we were wearing hats or matching clothes.

"You are cute like in Grover's pictures. I'm Eunice. She is Elena" said the other twin. They backed down and even helped me to stand up.

"Sorry, I told them to give you a warm welcome" said Em as she came to us. She took her husband's hand. They kissed softly and my world didn't seem as bad as long as they were happy. "Ready to go?"

"Of course" I said.

Both twin girls pouted at us with pleading eyes saying "We want to go"

"Sorry, girls. Another day" said Taylor with his best enchanting smile and the girls nodded.

We walked fast of Cabin 13, going all the way to the stables. Arion was there with the rest of the pegasi. They greeted at me and I was still annoyed that I couldn't hear them just like my dad and Lana.

"Your family?" I asked to Em as I saw the Roman chariot in the corner.

"My parents are with your dad helping him with anything he needs" said Em and then she rolled her eyes "My brothers are in Mars cabin, probably sharpening something, or starting training combats. Boys!"

"We have to get going" said Taylor being the serious of the 3, which was new.

"I know. Aida needs us" said Em quickly and I saw she was probably the most worried. Aida and she were best friends, almost like Taylor and I.

In less of 3 heartbeats, we had everything to go and I braced myself for supersonic speed of Arion. I hated travelling in this horse but he was fast for sure and the quickest way to my sister.

We arrived at Boston and the sun was dying out. I had no idea where we should go, but Taylor did. He quickly used the GPS system on his cell phone and we walked 3 more streets with Em walking Arion who was really annoyed of walking like a mortal horse. We found ourselves in front of a modern apartment building.

"Arion, please wait here and my mom will give you a bucket of gold" said Em touching gently his ears. The mythical horse made noise that sounded like 'Hurry up. I'm hungry.'

As we walked to the front door, someone was coming out and we got ourselves in. My sister lived in apartment 10A in the 10th floor. The door was barely opened, just a crack, and we let ourselves in.

The apartment was so Aida: clean, organized and soft grey. There were neatly pills of books and papers, boxes of electronic pieces in the floor and over the table; everything neatly labeled with my sister curly stylish handwriting.

"Do you see anything out of place?" I asked as we were with weapons at hand looking around the living room.

Em shook her head and said "We never came here before. I don't know this place. Taylor, we should have visited her. She is our friend."

"It's not your fault, Em. You didn't put her in danger" said Taylor and kissed his wife, just a reassure kiss.

I pointed to the wall where there was an empty nail and it was odd. I said "There was something here hanging out"

"A sword maybe?" asked Taylor.

"Could be" said Em "But Aida's weapon is in her wrist all the time"

"Not anymore" I said pointing to the coffee table, where my sister's bracelet was there, waiting for us.

I went to the kitchen and nothing was out of place, no signs of struggle like the living room. I opened the fridge strangely hungry and there was a pot of chili with a note saying 'To my lovely girlfriend. Heat 2 minutes in the microwave. Love, C.' That reminded me of her girlfriend. Where was Charlie? Was she in danger too?

"Theo!" yelled Em urgently. I ran out of the kitchen.