"Percy! Oh, thank goodness. Oh, my baby." The words echoed in Aaron's ears as Percy opened the door, looking wild and unkempt and powerful and sad all at once. He fell into his mother, almost crying as she fretted and squeezed him. It was a beautiful sight and one that Aaron watched with some happiness, even through his poker game with his useless father ( he was winning by the way, four hands to one. He was pretty sure Tyche was helping him win, it didn't make sense otherwise). The idiots Eddie and the other nameless one, looked onward while Gabe sneered at the sight.
From his place at the table, he heard her tell the poor boy about how they had shown up mere hours ago, scaring Gabe out of his wits. Her words, despite their innocence, seemed it inflame rage in Gabe.
With some anger, his eyes turned to where the others stood. "Hey, Sally! That meat loaf done yet or what?"
Again, he heard her speak. "He isn't going to be happy to see you, Percy. The store got half a million phone calls today from Los Angeles ... something about free appliances."
"Oh, yeah. About that..." Percy's voice was soft, innocent in the most false way imaginable.
"Just don't make him angrier, all right? Come on."
She led Percy into the room, where he gaped at the horrible condition of the apartment, covered in beercans and nastiness. It was revolting in the worst way.
When Gabe saw Percy, his cigar dropped out of his mouth. His face got redder than lava. "You got nerve coming here, you little punk. I thought the police-"
"He's not a fugitive after all," Sally interjected. "Isn't that wonderful, Gabe?"
Gabe looked back and forth between them. He didn't seem to think Percy's homecoming was so wonderful.
"Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, Sally," he growled. "Get me the phone. I'll call the cops."
"Gabe, no!"
He raised his eyebrows. "Did you just say 'no'? You think I'm gonna put up with this punk again? I can still press charges against him for ruining my Camaro."
"But-"
"You have no case." Gabe turned to him, eyes wide with betrayal just as he raised a hand to Sally. "He wasn't driving as we were attacked. You'd just waste your money on a case you wouldn't win. Then Sally would probably separate with you, she'd probably bring up that you've been hitting her though." His eyes focused on his father's raised hand, a moment of hate in his heart. " She could easily have them evaluate you, and Percy could talk about your treatment of him. It wouldn't be a long case. You'd be behind bars in minutes." Happy, he tossed his cards down. " Another winning hand, that's five games and a hundred dollars. My lucky day."
Percy, who he had been trying to stall long enough to calm down, strode down to Gabe with pen coming out.
Gabe just laughed. "What, punk? You gonna write on me? You touch me, and you are going to jail forever, you understand?"
"Hey, Gabe," his friend Eddie interrupted. "He's just a kid."
Gabe looked at him resentfully and mimicked in a falsetto voice: "Just a kid."
His other friends laughed like idiots.
"I'll be nice to you, punk." Gabe showed me his tobacco-stained teeth. "I'll give you five minutes to get your stuff and clear out. After that, I call the police."
"Again, you can't. Kicking him out would get you in trouble, not him. Still, we have a place to go. Percy, let's go pack your stuff. The less time we have to spend with this idiot the better." Together, Sally and Aaron managed to drag Percy away, leading him into his room. "You need to calm down, I wouldn't mind you killing him but you'd be in prison more then likely with your record."
His room was disgusting, torn apart by Gabe, there were stacks of used car batteries, a rotting bouquet of sympathy flowers with a card.
"Gabe is just upset, honey," my mother told Percy. "I'll talk to him later. I'm sure it will work out."
"Mom, it'll never work out. Not as long as Gabe's here."
She wrung her hands nervously. "I can ... I'll take you to work with me for the rest of the summer. In the fall, maybe there's another boarding school-"
"Mom."
She lowered her eyes. "I'm trying, Percy. I just... I need some time."
Percy turned to him, eyes wide. "My dad said that you had something that would help Mom, a choice for Mom to make."
Aaron couldn't hide his smile, turning to a very confused Sally. "He was right... I offer you the same choice I made." From within his pocket, he pulled out his talisman, restored and rejuvenated. "Learn the craft and become powerful, or do nothing and stay in a life you hate. Percy and I will not stay here with you and Gabe. Hecate reminded me, through that question, that I am selfish. I will always choose myself first and foremost when I can, when it is practical and when it is right. I will not put myself in a situation where I will be abused and used by that monster. Percy deserves better, and if you choose magic then you can choose to make this place safe for him. It is a hard choice but it is yours."
Percy frowned at them, then his eyes turned dark. "Mom, do you want Gabe gone?
"Percy, it isn't that simple. I-"
"Mom, just tell me. That jerk has been hitting you. Do you want him gone or not?"
She hesitated, then nodded almost imperceptibly. "Yes, Percy. I do. And I'm trying to get up my courage to tell him. But you can't do this for me. You can't solve my problems."
"I can do it, Aaron would probably help me... " Percy turned to him, they shared a look of trust and determination.
"I would but we'd never be able to visit her again, bar maybe dreams or IMs." He shrugged,. " I plan on living mostly in the supernatural world anyway, so I'm game. I don't mind breaking that little heroes don't kill mortals thing. I choose my own path, and if that means killing my father to protect my Stepmother I will. The Gods won't like it but I can't see them not understanding given the situation."
She looked horrified. "No, Percy," she said, stepping away. "You can't. Neither of you boys can."
"Poseidon called you a queen," Percy's voice was filled with desperation. "He said he hadn't met a woman like you in a thousand years."
Her cheeks flushed. "Percy-"
"You deserve better than this, Mom. You should go to college, get your degree. You can write your novel, meet a nice guy maybe, live in a nice house. You don't need to protect me anymore by staying with Gabe. Let me get rid of him."
She wiped a tear off her cheek. "You sound so much like your father," she said. "He offered to stop the tide for me once. He offered to build me a palace at the bottom of the sea. He thought he could solve all my problems with a wave of his hand."
"What's wrong with that?"
Her multicolored eyes dug into both of them "I think you know, Percy. I think you're enough like me to understand. If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. I can't let a god take care of me ... or my son. I have to ... find the courage on my own. Your quest has reminded me of that."
They listened to the sound of poker chips and swearing, ESPN from the living room television.
"Take the coin, I saw what Aaron could do. If he threatens you..."
She looked pale, but she nodded. "Where will you boys go?"
"Half-Blood Hill."
"For the summer ... or forever?"
"I guess that depends."
She kissed Percy's forehead. "You'll be a hero, Percy. You'll be the greatest of all." Then she hugged Aaron close, and tight. "And you'll be the kind of mortal mages they tell stories about, though not for turning men into beasts I hope."
"No promises." They shared a chuckle.
As one they marched out of the room, moving towards the front door together.
"Leaving so soon, punk?" Gabe called after me. "Good riddance...and you, so ungrateful just like your mother. "
Aaron just looked at his father, smirking a little. "I've know of you for a few hours collectively, why would I owe you anything."
That just pissed his father off, but he wasn't witty enough to say anything other then "Hey, Sally," he yelled. "What about that meat loaf, huh?"
A steely look of anger flared in Sally's eyes, and a rare hope blossomed in Aaron's eyes. He watched as she reached into her pocket, gripping tight the talisman he had given her. To his shock, a new chain formed before his eyes and he knew her choice.
"The meat loaf is coming right up, dear," she told Gabe. "Meat loaf surprise."
She looked at them both, a wink on her eye.
"""
They were the first heroes to return alive to Half-Blood Hill since Luke, so of course everybody treated them as if they'd won some reality-TV contest. According to camp tradition, they wore laurel wreaths to a big feast prepared in our honor, then led a procession down to the bonfire, where they got to burn the burial shrouds the cabins had made for them in their absence.
Annabeth's shroud was so beautiful-gray silk with embroidered owls. It radiated power, magic that Aaron could taste, magic straight from Athena herself in honor of her daughter's success.
Being the son of Poseidon, Percy only had Aaron as a cabin mate, so the Ares cabin had volunteered to make his shroud. They'd taken an old bedsheet and painted smiley faces with X'ed-out eyes around the border, and the word LOSER painted really big in the middle.
Hecate's children and his fellow Mages built his, a glorious black sheet of shadowy silk with silver keys covering it from end to end. It was beautiful and kind and it touched him to watch it burn.
However no one seemed to be that happy, the truth of Luke's actions had been revealed by Annabeth and Grover when they returned. Luke, as it turned out, had escaped on his own just hours before. They figured Kronos had told him to run and so he did. It was a terrible thing, and it cast a veil of sadness over the entire camp. The campfire and smores they had was a muted affair that left Aaron kind of sad, though not as much as the others since he had no connection to Luke.
Chiron's speech afterwards had been hard to listen to, even for Aaron.
"A great betrayal has been committed by one of our own. Luke's actions will not be forgotten but neither will out victory here. Rejoice, if not for them, then in honor of the successes of the recent days and the restoration of dangerous items to those who they belong to. The gods are at full power once more and war is no longer on the path for our future. Rejoice, my children, in that."
Oddly that just seemed to make people sadder...
Together Percy and Aaron moved back into cabin three, but it didn't feel so lonely anymore. The Demigods seemed nicer to him, they weren't running their mouth behind his back and they would even invite him to play games, train or whatever with them. He was actually asked to join Annabeth's cabin for Capture the Flag, he denied the chance kindly, deciding to continue working under Chiron as the medic.
As for Sally, she had a chance at a new life. Her letter arrived a week after they got back to camp. She told them that Gabe had left her, deciding to up and leave for no real reason but was unfortunately hit by a car. Her new lucky coin had apparently given her a lot of luck, making the bad man just vanish, like Mist... right into the street. The insurance policy she had been given from his death had come in handy, She'd gotten so much money from it, she'd put a deposit down on a new apartment and made a payment on her first semester's tuition at NYU.
Aaron was proud of her and thankful that Hecate had allowed her the power to make that choice. He offered a sacrifice in the Goddess' honor as thanks.
She left a P.S. On the bottom of the note.
"Percy, Aaron I've found a good private school here in the city. I've put a deposit down to hold you both a spot, in case you want to enroll for seventh and eighth grade. You could live at home. But if you want to go year-round at Half-Blood Hill, I'll understand.
Aaron, I filed for total custody and was granted it, it happened very quickly, like a miracle. If you plan on going to school you are going to need to test into eighth grade since you'd missed so much school. Two years are a big deal...
On the Fourth of July, the whole camp gathered at the beach for a fireworks display by cabin nine. Being Hephaestus's kids, they weren't going to settle for a few lame red-white-and-blue explosions. They'd anchored a barge offshore and loaded it with rockets the size of Patriot missiles. According to Annabeth, who'd seen the show before, the blasts would be sequenced so tightly they'd look like frames of animation across the sky. The finale was sup-posed to be a couple of hundred-foot-tall Spartan warriors who would crackle to life above the ocean, fight a battle, then explode into a million colors.
As Annabeth, Aaron and Percy sat at the beach spreading a picnic blanket, Grover showed up to tell them good-bye. He was dressed in his usual jeans and T-shirt and sneakers, but in the last few weeks he'd started to look older, almost high-school age. His goatee had gotten thicker. He'd put on weight. His horns had grown at least an inch, so he now had to wear his rasta cap all the time to pass as human. Aaron could finally feel his magic, a thin veil of something that felt like a warm summer day just oozing off of him.
It was magical what confidence did for power.
"I'm off," he said. "I just came to say ... well, you know."
Percy looked pained, but Aaron managed to hug his almost friend and handed him something. "Please, take this..." It was a dagger, sheer white and crafted by Charles Beckendorf. "I had Beckendorf make it for me yesterday, Hades was right I can hold weapons. I figure that this will help you."
Grover put it in on his side, smiling with confidence. "I remember our talk, I was going to get a cudgel but this might be better. Thanks."
Annabeth gave him a hug as well. She told him to keep his fake feet on.
Percy asked him where he was going to search first.
"Kind of a secret," he said, looking embarrassed. "I wish you could come with me, guys, but humans and Pan ..."
"We understand," Annabeth said. "You got enough tin cans for the trip?"
"Yeah."
"And you remembered your reed pipes?"
"Jeez, Annabeth," he grumbled. "You're like an old mama goat."
But he didn't really sound annoyed.
He gripped his walking stick and slung a backpack over his shoulder. He looked like any hitchhiker you might see on an American highway-nothing like the little runty boy he had on their quest.
"Well," he said, "wish me luck."
He gave Annabeth another hug. He clapped Percy on the shoulder, hugged Aaron again, then headed back through the dunes.
Fireworks exploded to life overhead: Hercules killing the Nemean lion, Artemis chasing the boar, George Washington (who, by the way, was a son of Athena) crossing the Delaware.
"Hey, Grover," Percy called.
He turned at the edge of the woods.
"Wherever you're going-I hope they make good enchiladas."
Grover grinned, and then he was gone, the trees closing around him.
"We'll see him again," Annabeth said.
Aaron just chuckled. "Unlike the others, he actually has a weapon, so maybe it will help."
"""
July passed.
Aaron spent his time apprenticing under Chiron and working with Alabaster. He learned a lot and actually managed to make his first potion, a burn salve, all on his own. He also worked with Beckendorf to create a weapon, one that would allow him to channel his power and work for a mere human. They ended up, after a lot of debate, deciding on a trident in honor of his sort of stepfather. Forged from bone, a once living material, it would allow him to channel his powers for greater spells and effects. His own blood was added into the mixture, binding it to him and making it a perfect weapon.
From it's creation, he spent a portion of each day learning to wield it. It wasn't easy, especially with a buckler on his other arm, but he was slowly getting it.
The campers had one last meal together. They burned part of our dinner for the gods. At the bonfire, the senior counselors awarded the end-of-summer beads.
To his shock, Aaron actually got his own leather necklace, and The design was pitch black, with a sea-green trident crisscrossing with a silver key shimmering in the center.
"The choice was unanimous," Chiron announced. "This bead commemorates the first Son of the Sea God at this camp, and the powerful new Acolyte of Hecate and the quest they undertook into the darkest part of the Underworld to stop a war!"
The entire camp got to their feet and cheered. Even Ares's cabin felt obliged to stand. Athena's cabin steered Annabeth to the front so she could share in the applause. Aaron almost choked as he was shoved, by Alabaster himself, to stand in the front.
He flushed a deep red at that action, laughing with the rest of them. A feeling of home and happiness in his heart.
He didn't want to leave.
Of course, nothing could last... and sadly, neither would his happiness.
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
This was powerful, simple, fun and epic and we are up to seventy thousand words! That is epic and I am so proud of this story!
It is one of my all time best, I cannot believe how epic and fun it is and has become.
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.