My second update for the day just as I told you. I hope you all enjoy this one- and as always please do read and review. Also- prepare for tomorrows chapter, it's a buttload of hurt and comfort all rolled into one.
Percy hadn't actually summoned water from inside of herself since Mount St Helens, she hadn't even considered it- but she knew the lake was too far away, she wouldn't have the time she needed to get the water from there to the stables, so she just pulled, and the felt the tugging feeling in the pit of her stomach as water burst up from the ground around them, knocking everyone other than Percy off her feet, especially the girl right in front of her, who was sent flying from the force of the water- and Percy took off out of the stables, the water following her- and she saw the enemy demigod dragging the kicking and struggling girl along with him, and the water swirled around Percy's feet as she used her hands to direct it, sending it shooting towards the two demigods, trapping the boys feet, which gave Lou Ellen the chance to elbow him in the stomach and yank herself free, rushing towards Percy, tears pouring down her pale cheeks, black smudges from eyeliner tracing the tear tracks, "Help me!"
Percy half caught the girl when she crashed into her, wrapping an arm around the clearly terrified girl protectively, glancing backwards at Annabeth and Rachel as they staggered out of the stables, looking rather wet and worse for wear but uninjured.
"Let's go!" Annabeth was grabbing Rachel's hand and Percy half dragged Lou Ellen with her as they took off, sprinting away from the currently out of commission enemies.
They didn't stop until they reached the lake, and Lou Ellen let out a great heaving breath as she pulled away from Percy, stumbling slightly.
"They were going to kidnap me-"
"Yeah, yeah they do that." Annabeth looked at the girl curiously, "You're Lou Ellen Blackstone right-"
"How do you know my name?"
"Ash- he's a Satyr-"
"I- like the myths? My mom- she's reached out to me in my dreams I know she's a god- and they- she wants me to join those guys-"
"Oh that is not good-"
"I don't want to fight in some stupid war I don't know anything about-"
"It's okay-" Percy stepped forward, holding up her hands- "We won't force you to fight like they would. I'm Percy Jackson, this is Annabeth Chase, and that's Rachel Dare. We're from Camp Half-blood."
"What is that?"
"It's a camp for Demigods like you- like Percy and I." Annabeth said quickly, "Those guys back there? They're working for the Titans who want to overthrow the gods. There's a war going on and they're getting as many other Demigods as they can. Willing or not apparently."
"I don't want to fight-"
"If you come with us you won't have to." Percy promised quickly, "Listen no one in camp will be forced to fight- there will be fighting when the time comes but- you can just stay out of it. You could stay in camp and help fixing people up or whatever. But I think you should at least come with us because those guys aren't going to stop-"
"How can I trust you?" Lou Ellen wrapped her arms around herself, backing away from them, and Percy felt herself soften.
"Because I would never force anyone to do something they didn't want to." her voice was quiet, "But you don't want to end up with them believe me- I've been there, done that-" that made the girls eyes widen, and Percy noticed them for the first time, a striking, familiar shade of green. "It-" her voice caught, "Uh- it wasn't nice."
"Percy?" Rachel had noticed her hesitation and Percy could feel her girlfriends hand gentle on her shoulder, "Is everything okay."
"It- it's fine I just- Lou. You said your mom wanted to join them. Do- do you know who-"
"Oh." Annabeth sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh..."
"Hecate." Lou glanced between the three others, a worried look on her face as she tensed up defensively, "Why, what does it matter? I don't wanna fight with them-"
"It-" Percy swallowed hard, "You eyes just reminded me of your brothers-"
"I have a brother?"
"Yeah, maybe more than one I just don't know." Percy admitted quietly. "But you have at least one-"
"Well fuck." Rachel breathed out, "That- was unexpected."
"What's going on?" the girl frowned, "I don't understand."
"Your brother-" Annabeth's voice was hesitant, "He's the one who's been behind a lot of bad stuff, he's our enemy."
"Oh." Lou Ellen's shoulder's seemed to slump slightly, "Right-" and Percy winced- because yeah that would have to be hard to process, "Where should I go then? To be safe-"
"Camp." Percy didn't hesitate despite the twisting feeling in her gut when she looked the younger girl in the eyes. Lou Ellen wasn't her brother- being a kid of Hecate didn't mean that she was evil it just meant she was really unlucky in the sibling department. "You can still come to camp. Just because you're related to Alabaster doesn't mean you're anything like him." and she felt the warmth of Annabeth's hand sliding into hers and squeezing gently as Rachel gave her a soft, reassuring smile.
"I guess that's my brothers name then." Lou Ellen hesitated, "There's something more isn't there. More personal."
"Yeah, there's some history between me and him." Percy admitted, watching the younger girl carefully, "And not the good kind. But like I said, you're not Alabaster."
"If he's so bad then people aren't going to want me around-"
"I'll handle that." Percy stated firmly, brushing her hair out of her face- it had started growing out somewhat now, it still wasn't long but it did get in her face more now than it had when she'd first had it cut. "I won't let anyone judge you for what he did."
"What- what did he actually do?" the girl was incredibly hesitant, not that Percy could blame her- and thankfully Annabeth cut in quickly.
"I'll explain on the journey home, you'd have to ride with one of us anyway-"
"Ride what-" and then they heard a yell in the distance and Percy cursed under her breath, "We need to get out of here now." she let out a loud whistle- and less than a minute later Blackjack, Porkpie and Guido were flying down from where they'd been circling in the clouds- she heard Lou Ellen gasp but she didn't waste time- Annabeth would look after her- and Percy glanced back over her shoulder as they all mounted their Pegasi, Annabeth pulling Lou Ellen on so that she was sat in front of her and Annabeth could make sure she didn't fall, and Percy glanced over her shoulder as they took off- she spotted one of the other Demigods slinging a bow from his shoulder and she grimaced, leaning low over Blackjacks back as they surged forward- and when the arrow came it fell short by some distance and Percy felt a flood of relief, shoulders slumping even as Rachel got Porkpie to fly closer to her and Blackjack- Annabeth was leading the way with Lou Ellen on Guido, undoubtedly explaining things to the young demigod.
"Are you okay?" Rachel's voice was low, worried.
"I'm fine." Percy gave her girlfriend a tight little smile "I was just- her eyes are just like his- it took me by surprise is all."
"Do you need to take a break when we get back to camp?" Rachel's voice was concerned, "We could go to the beach."
"I should be fine- I wasn't... I told her I'd make sure she didn't have any issues- it's not her fault that her brother was a creepy asshole." as always when she thought about Alabaster she had to force back the memories of her time as his prisoner, and Rachel must have seen the look on her face because she guided Porkpie closer, close enough that she could reach out and catch Percy's hand.
"I'm here." her voice was quiet, "I'm here and you're safe Percy."
"I know." Percy exhaled slowly, "I'm not going to get caught in a flashback right now." She promised, "And it's sure as Hades not going to be because Alabaster has a little sister who's eyes are ridiculously like his- I guess it's a common thing for children of Hecate to have eyes so green. Circe did too. I can handle it."
"You have a therapy session tomorrow?"
"Ugh." Percy groaned "Yeah, yeah I do." she admitted. "And I mean, I appreciate it I really do, but Mr. D..." she snorted, "I mean, I know he does kinda care- kinda. Deep down."
"Very deep down." Rachel grinned, "He does like me though-"
"Yes, because you gave him a painting of himself turning a bunch of sailors into dolphins-"
"What can I say, I enjoyed the story so much I just had to paint it." Rachel smirked slightly. "At least he uses my name-"
"You are literally the only person who he doesn't come up with stupid names for- what was it he called me last weekend?"
"Primrose Junebug." Rachel grinned, "It was pretty bad-"
"I swear it has to take more effort to come up with such ridiculous names than it would just to call us our normal names."
"Yeah, but we both know he does it to annoy people- a sort of 'If I have to be miserable then so do you'." Rachel pointed out.
"I know." Percy huffed before she hesitated, "Are you okay? That was your first real fight."
"I didn't get hurt." Rachel's voice was reassuring, "I saw one of them catch your arm though, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Percy gave a faint grin despite herself, "I gotta admit Rache, seeing you fighting like that was... it was something else." she could feel her cheeks flushing and
Rachel grinned slowly, a smirk crossing her lips.
"You have a thing for girls who can kick butt, don't you?"
"I really do. It's why I like watching you and Annabeth training."
"Maybe you should train me-"
"Hah." Percy couldn't help the laugh that slipped past her lips, "Do you want to make my brain melt 'cause I'm pretty sure my brain would melt. It's hard enough when I spar with Annabeth- I dunno what I was thinking getting with two pretty girls who can both kick butt and take names."
"Percy if you'd had to do any of the thinking I'd still be pining away for you and Annabeth." Rachel scoffed, "I love you but you didn't even realize that I had feelings for you until Annabeth kissed me-"
"I didn't even realize that I had feelings for you until you threw a blue plastic hairbrush at Kronos-"
"I was pretty badass." Rachel admitted, nodding her head slightly, "Not many people can say they nailed the king of the Titans in the eye."
"I still can't believe you did it." Percy admitted with a laugh, "It was- I'd never seen anything so ridiculous and yet it worked-"
"What can I say, I didn't want him touching the girl I had feelings for- it's bad enough that you were held prisoner I wasn't letting that creep kidnap you again." And the fierce
note to Rachel's voice made Percy feel warm, protected and loved. It was a nice feeling, knowing just how much her two girlfriends loved her, just what they'd do to protect her if they ever needed to- it had taken her a while to come to terms with the fact that it wasn't up to her to protect everyone else all of the time, and that she should let other people protect her- though Mr. D had phrased it very differently than that during their sessions.
The important thing wasn't that she needed the protection but that they cared about her safety and that meant that if she didn't let them at least try to protect her then it would hurt them- that had helped her process it at least.
She was drawn out of those thoughts by Rachel's voice again some time later.
"Home sweet home." and Percy focused, looking forward, smiling when she saw Camp- the sky was starting to turn darker now, but it was still light enough that she could see people moving around below them as they flew down and landed, dismounting smoothly as Percy told the Pegasi to go and take a break in the stables before they turned to the others, "Now. Off to the Big house. Right?"