Chapter 18

Revelation

Sparta, Greece

Kratos stood at the edge of a cliff where he faced the Atlantic Ocean.

The son of Zeus was born here in the abundance of monsters. His entire life was filled with battle, it was all he knew. His battle instincts were sharpened and his skills trained properly, it was the only way to survive.

His mother and little brother were mortal but he still cared for them. Kratos protected them from anything that pursued him for being a half-blood.

But now that his father has approached him, he no longer has a place here. Kratos must find his half-brother that resides in America and prove that he is superior to him, that's the only way to gain his father's favor.

He had his two swords strapped to his back like an X.

The only thing that stood between him and his brother was the vast ocean.

"I will prove my strength to you father! I will prove that I am the better son!" Kratos dove into the water and began swimming. This journey would test his endurance as well as his will. No body of water nor Poseidon's wrath would prevent him from reaching his destination.

At the Boarding house

The Brotherhood woke up this morning to a very pissed off Mystique.

Apparently, Dean had snuck in the house last night and rescued his mother. And for some reason she was vague as to how he managed to beat Mystique. They figured that she got her ass handed to her.

The Brotherhood didn't go to school today because Mystique had them doing exercises. Probably because they screwed up and Dean took them out like they were flies.

They were all now relaxing in the lounge area trying to recover from their workout. Exercising wasn't part of their daily routine so they were always sore whenever they did do it.

"Mystique is gonna kill us one of these days yo, I can't feel ma legs" Toad complained dragging himself across the floor.

"You're talkin, I have super strength and I can barely feel my arms" Fred said rubbing his biceps.

"Let's just hope we don't run into him for a while" Pietro said.

Lance stood up, "You know what? maybe all this exercise is good for us. So next time we'll be more prepared against him and the X-geeks. Plus we're supposed to be getting help one of these days right?"

"I'm not sure exactly" said Mystique entering the room, "I haven't heard from your father Pietro, have you?"

"Hey don't look at me, he doesn't tell me anything" Pietro said.

The door suddenly opened.

They all looked to find Magneto standing there with his arms crossed over his chest.

They all stood up straight.

"Father" Pietro acknowledged him.

Magneto walked past him without saying a word to his son.

"You failed me" Magneto said to Mystique with an irritated expression.

"It's not my fault, he's more formidable that I expected—"

"You underestimated him!" Magneto shouted.

The teens stayed silent, the master of magnetism was quite intimidating when he used the full volume of his voice.

"I suggest you leave the boy alone, for I fear he will not be as merciful next time" Magneto said.

Mystique clenched her fists, she wanted to point out that it was his idea to pursue Dean but she kept quiet for her own sake.

Magneto then looked at the Brotherhood, "And you, you're not even capable of beating one of them?" he asked looking disappointed.

Pietro gulped in fear, "Y—You saw that?"

"Yes, It's been made painfully clear that this team is lacking in skill, and numbers. You've grown weak through your laziness, and I won't tolerate any more of this" Magneto said.

John and Eileen walked through the door.

"Meet your new teammates, Pyro and Phantazia" Magneto said, "From now on, Mystique will train you every day until this joke that stands before me becomes a well-oiled machine with purpose" he turned around and went to leave.

Pietro zipped in front of his father, "Dad I…" he hesitated, "I'm sorry I failed you" he looked down in shame.

Magneto looked upon his son with disgust, "Next time, and anytime, you face an opponent. Take it seriously and keep your guard up" he walked past his son without saying another word.

Pietro frowned, no matter what he did he could never get on his father's good side.

Mystique sighed, "You heard the man, get used to this"

Toad groaned, "Aw man"

At the Institute

Dean decided to gather everyone in the lounge area to reveal what he had learned yesterday. He tried to explain the best way he could without sounding crazy but it was impossible.

Scott stood up, "This is insane"

"You can say that again" Rogue said.

"I think I hit you one too many times in the head bub" Logan said.

Dean sighed, as expected. In a world full of unnatural things people still aren't ready to believe anything is possible.

"You can see how it would be difficult to believe what you're saying" Charles said.

Dean pulled up his jacket sleeves revealing the silver gauntlets he received, "When I was outside lightning hit the ground and these appeared"

Everyone got up and marveled at the beautiful craftsmanship of the metal.

"Nice bling" Kurt said.

"Yeah check out the thunderbolts on the sides" Evan said.

"But does it really mean that Greek gods exist?" Jean asked.

"Well normally I would think that armor doesn't fall from the sky traveling in lightning" Dean said sarcastically.

"Good point" Jean replied.

"I suppose this means you haven't gone crazy, but hopefully in the future there will be more proof" Charles said.

"Believe me Professor nobody here wants that more than me" Dean said.

"How bout we give these babies a test run, just to see how much they can take" Logan said.

Dean returned with his own, "I actually like that idea, let's go for it"

All the X-men gathered in the Danger room to test out his new gauntlets.

"Porcupine, you first" Logan said.

"Make sure you block" Evan said as spikes sprouted on his arm and he shot them.

Dean blocked each spike with his gauntlets and every spike that hit his gauntlets shattered on impact.

"That settles for basic projectiles, Storm throw some lightning at him" Logan said.

Ororo projected lightning out of her hands.

Dean blocked it with his gauntlets but the energy disappeared, like it was absorbed or something.

"Pretty good, shades you're up. Let's start out with a small one and see how that goes" Logan said.

"Got it" Scott shot a small optic blast at Dean.

Dean blocked it with one of his gauntlets and bounced off into a different direction, 'Hmm that could be useful' he thought.

"Ok now let's try an ongoing beam" Logan said.

Scott fired his optic beam.

Dean formed an X with his hands over his face to block the beam. The beam hit the gauntlets head on and it stopped traveling there. The force of Scott's optic beam started pushing Dean back.

"That's enough" Logan said and he stopped.

Dean's gauntlets were smoking a little but it cleared in seconds to reveal that the optic beam didn't even scratch them.

"Now that is some seriously tough material" Kurt said.

'Tough material?' Dean thought, he looked at his gauntlets and then at Logan, "Hey Logan, why don't you take a slash at it" he said raising his guard.

"I don't know kid, if it doesn't work you're gonna lose a hand" Logan said.

"Trust me on this one" Dean said with confidence.

"Your funeral kid" Logan said as he extended one claw.

He slashed at it and to everyone's surprise the slash was blocked.

"This is definitely the real deal" Logan said in surprise.

"Yeah" Dean said admiring his new armor pieces, "I need to go find out more. When I get back you're gonna help me use my power" he turned around and ran at top speed.

"Wait, kid, where're you going?" Logan asked.

"Long Island!" Dean shouted.

At the Boarding house

Mystique showed her two new members to their rooms.

"I'm going to need your real names" Mystique said.

"For what?" Pyro asked.

"To enroll you into Bayville High" Mystique said.

"No way, I'm done with school" Pyro said with disgust.

"I'm the principal you idiot, I can make sure you pass without doing a thing" Mystique said.

Pyro liked the idea of not doing anything, "Fine, John Allerdyce"

Mystique looked at Eileen, "And you?"

"Eileen Harsaw" she said.

The two of them went into their rooms.

Mystique watched Eileen as she unpacked her things. The blonde was indeed blessed with good looks, perhaps she could put them to good use.

"Eileen, I have a job for you" Mystique said approaching her.

"What is it?" Eileen asked.

"How experienced are you with…boys?" Mystique asked with a gleam in her eyes.

Long Island

As Dean was riding he came across a meadow of green hills. He must be getting close, he could feel it.

The breeze that blew by him smelled like strawberries.

Up ahead was a giant hill, 'I could get a good view from there' Dean thought.

He parked his chopper and walked up the hill. Dean felt something drawing him there. At the top there was a huge pine tree which looked beautiful in the sunlight.

When he got to the top Dean looked around to scout the area. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberry bushes spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills and marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance.

The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture. An open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena, a javelin range, except that they all looked brand new, their white columns sparkling in the sun.

Kids in bright orange T-shirts were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods.

'This must be the place' Dean thought.

A teen walked by wearing greek armor and holding a spear and shield.

The teen noticed Dean, "Hey you!"

Dean saw him run over and prepared himself.

He aimed his spear at Dean, "How did you get past the barrier?"

'Barrier?' Dean thought, "I don't know"

"You must be a half-blood" the teen assumed.

"That I am, a son of Zeus in fact" Dean said trying to impress.

The teen's eyes widened in fear, "Follow me" he ran down the hill with purpose.

That definitely didn't have the desired effect, "Hey wait up" Dean caught up to him with some effort. This guy was fast.

They came up to a farmhouse with a porch wrapped all the way around it. Down at the end of the porch there were two men. One sitting down and one standing.

The one standing was a middle aged guy with thinning hair, a scruffy beard, and a huge white stallion for a bottom half. A centaur.

The man sitting was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He wore a tiger-pattern Hawaiian shirt.

The teen stopped in front of them, "Chiron!"

The centaur took note of the teen "Richie what brings you here?" Chiron said to him before looking at Dean.

"I found an outsider, says he's a half-blood" Richie said.

Chiron stared at Dean, "You don't have a protector?"

"Am I supposed to?" Dean asked.

"Yes those tend to protect you" The porky man said as if it were obvious.

"Protect me from what?" Dean asked.

"You obviously must not be very important if you didn't need protection" The porky man said with a smug look.

"How do you know what you are, or how to find this place?" Chiron asked.

"Well a person claiming to be my parent told me...in my head" Dean said.

"I knew it!" The porky man said, "They're getting so dumb we actually have to tell them where to go so they don't die" he laughed.

Dean glared at the porky man, he was a real asshole.

Chiron ignored the porky man, "What's your name boy?"

"Dean" he said.

"I am Chiron" the centaur said.

Dean looked at him in silence for a moment, "As in the Chiron? The trainer of heroes?"

Dean was actually quite educated in greek mythology. It always seemed to interest him in school, at least now he knows why.

"Yes, yes, whatever and I am Mr. D the camp director" the porky man said trying to steal the spotlight.

"What's the D stand for?" Dean asked, 'Probably dick'

"He's—" Richie went to say.

"Let's see if he can guess" Mr. D interrupted Richie.

He had to be the camp director for a reason. Dean considered what he knew about him already. Rude, self-absorbed, attention freak. He must be a god. A giant beer belly and bloodshot eyes? It was obvious.

"Dionysus. Why would you be in charge of a camp like this? Doesn't seem like your style" Dean said.

"A long story, one I'd rather not repeat" Mr. D said.

"Moving on" Chiron said, "You must have plenty of questions. Like who your parent is"

"Actually I already know" Dean pulled down his jacket sleeve to reveal his gauntlet.

Chiron eyed the armor piece, especially the lightning bolt symbol.

"It can't be" Chiron said not believing it.

Mr. D laughed, "And so begins the apocalypse"

"I thought Thalia was the one" Chiron said to Mr. D.

Dean didn't know what they were talking about, "Who's Thalia?"

"Our father has a greater appetite than even I gave him credit for" Mr. D said to Dean.

Dean put two and two together, "Thalia is my sister"

"At least this one is brighter than the other one. Oh what's his name again? Parker Jameson?" Mr. D said.

Mr. D always mixed up Percy's name.

"I'll take care of this Richie, you can go" Chiron said.

Richie nodded and eyed Dean as he left.

"Dean come with me" Chiron said leaving the porch.

Dean walked beside him.

"You said your father spoke to you. That is most unusual of a god, what did he tell you?" Chiron asked.

"He didn't say much. He wanted me to come here and learn what I can. He told me that an old enemy is coming back and that he needs a champion to represent him. That me and my brother would have to compete against each other to see who is worthy" Dean said.

Chiron nodded, "You must be overwhelmed"

"I am. A couple of days ago I was still searching for what I was. Then finally my father decides to show himself...I didn't expect our first conversation to be so serious" Dean said.

"You must understand, the gods of Olympus are not known for being very affectionate. Even towards their children. Especially for the big three" Chiron said.

"Big three?" Dean asked.

"When I say big three, I mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos" Chiron said.

"Oh...well I guess it's understandable, gods must live busy lives" Dean said.

"They do. The most a demigod can do for their parent's attention is to do what they ask. Unfortunately" Chiron said.

"I'm not doing this for him, to impress him. I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do" Dean said.

Chiron stared at the son of Zeus. Most half-bloods desire to be accepted by their god parent, to feel wanted. This one was different for some reason.

"I'm going to need your help to become a true warrior. Will you train me like you did with the heroes of old?" Dean asked.

"I have little choice in the matter but thank you for asking anyways" Chiron said with a smirk.

Dean felt cheerful, for a moment, "You mentioned Thalia before"

Chiron grew a sad face, "You need not concern yourself with her, she is no longer of this world"

"Oh" Dean frowned, "What happened to her?"

"She died defending her comrades in battle" Chiron said.

"There're worse ways to go" Dean admitted.

"Enough about the past, let's focus on the here and now" Chiron said.

"Right, show me around" Dean said.

He saw the archery range, the canoeing lake, the stables (which had horses and Pegasi), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, the arena (where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights), the armory, the mess hall (which was the outdoor pavilion), and finally they reached the cabins he saw before. Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door they looked absolutely nothing alike.

They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops. In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit.

There were 11 cabins placed in a reverse U.

"What're these?" Dean asked.

"Cabins, each for a different god of Olympus" Chiron said.

Dean looked skeptical, "There's only 11, but there are 12 main gods"

"True. There's no cabin for Hades" Chiron said.

"Why not?" Dean asked.

"Same reason he's not accepted on the council of the gods. The lord of the underworld is greatly feared and his dark presence is unwanted by most" Chiron said.

'That doesn't seem right' Dean thought, family should be treated fairly.

There were a bunch of teens about doing various things. Some looked like they were Dean's age and some were younger. Most wearing bright orange T-shirts that said "CAMP HALF-BLOOD". And there weren't just regular kids, there were satyrs too.

"I don't see that many people around. And this place looks like you can train an army" Dean said.

"The ones you see now live here all year round. All the others come during the summer" Chiron said.

They stopped in front of cabin one. It was the biggest and bulkiest of the eleven. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them.

"This cabin is yours" Chiron said.

"Hmmm, Chiron I have to be honest with you. This place intrigues me" Dean said with a smile.

"I'm pleased to hear that" Chiron said.

"But I can't stay here all year round, I have a life to live" Dean said.

"So you'll return in the summer then" Chiron assumed.

"No, how bout I come over for weekends?" Dean offered.

Chiron thought about it, "I suppose it's better than waiting a few months to start"

"Exactly, multitasking is a beautiful thing my four legged teacher" Dean said with a smirk.

Chiron laughed lightly, "Very well, be ready to train when you get here"

"You got it" Dean said before he left.

At the institute

Dean was on the roof. He returned to his old habit, when he had a lot on his mind.

He laid on his back, staring into the night sky. Back home the sky was never clear, Manhattan was too crowded with lights to see anything. But Bayville was smaller. Which meant Dean could see the stars clearly. It was a beautiful view.

Dean heard something. He looked over to his right and saw a pair of hands trying to climb up.

Dean got up and walked over, it was Rogue. He knelt, "What're you doing?"

"Looking for you" Rogue said struggling to get up.

Dean grabbed her arm and lifted her up until they were face to face, "Well you found me, during my alone time"

"Since you keep on interrupting mine I'll barge in on yours" Rogue said with a little sass.

Dean looked down, "I could drop you" he joked.

"You won't" Rogue said confidently.

"How do you know?" Dean brought her closer till their faces were inches apart, "Maybe I'll just let you absorb me first so the fall won't hurt"

Rogue was a little curious, Dean wasn't entirely human. Would her power even work on him?

"Go ahead, see what happens" Rogue dared him with a smirk.

Dean wanted to but it didn't feel right. He set her down next to him, "I'll save you the trouble of having another voice in your head" he sat down where he was before.

Rogue sat next to him, "So, you like to go on the roof to be alone?"

"Yeah" Dean said.

"Why?" Rogue wanted to understand his reasoning.

Dean looked at the sky, "I like to be alone with my thoughts, away from all the noise inside the house. I used to go on the roof all the time at my house. I'd look at the sky and wonder if the answer was out there, why I'm different. At least now I know I was looking in the right direction, seeing as how my father is the lord of the sky"

Rogue nodded in silence.

Dean looked at her, "You still don't believe me?"

"At first I didn't, like the others. But then the more I thought about it the more I started to believe. There's nothing else that makes sense right now" Rogue said optimistically.

"This means you're the first one to believe me" Dean stared at her with a happy expression, "Thank you"

As Rogue looked into his blue eyes she briefly wondered why of all people to be nice to she chose him.

"So what about you? When you're alone I always find you reading" Dean said.

"I like reading because it's my way of escaping reality. I get so into the story that I forget about all my problems" Rogue admitted.

And Rogue's biggest hobby is reading. Deep inside she must be hurting.

"One day in the future, you won't have to escape reality to be happy" Dean said.

"I can only hope" Rogue said with a sad face.

Author's note: Wrapping up any loose ends. Kratos is coming, and is our young demigod prepared to face him? We'll see how he fares at Camp. I wonder what Mystique wants with Eileen? What could it be...