Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson

Chapter 5: The Summer Everything Changed


One year later…

When Christina spotted her best friend running across camp towards her, she was expecting her to ask if she wanted to spar, or maybe go climb the climbing wall, not what came out of her mouth.

"Christina, Luke is going on a quest. He leaves in two hours!" Annabeth gasped out, exhausted from running from either the Big House or the Hermes cabin.

Christina stared at her in shock. "What? What do you mean?"

"Just come with me." Annabeth told her, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her towards the Hermes cabin.

As they got closer to the cabin, Christina spotted most of the Hermes cabin gathered outside. Travis and Connor Stoll, who had somehow become the seconds in command when Luke was unavailable in the past year, paced back and forth, muttering to each other. Annabeth dragged Christina towards the steps, the crowd parting around them and making no attempt to stop them. As Annabeth pushed open the door, Luke, who was on the floor next to his bunk packing one of the Camp Half-Blood backpacks, looked up at them.

"So, it's true." Christina said, crossing her arms. "You're leaving us."

Luke stood up, shouldering the backpack, before walking over to the two girls. "It's not like that, but I was offered the chance to get out into the world, so I took it. I know both of you would do the same."

"You couldn't have at least given us a heads up?" Christina fired back. "I had to find out from Annabeth. What if she hadn't known? Would you just have left without telling us?"

Luke sighed. "I would have told you. I wouldn't have just left, you two are like my little sisters, you mean too much to me to do that. But it all happened so fast. One minute I was running sparing practice for the Hermes cabin, the next I was being called to the Big House by Chiron to receive my prophecy."

"So, who are you taking with you?" Christina finally asked. "Anyone we know?"

Luke shook his head. "Liam O'Neil from the Apollo cabin, and Rebecca Sanders from the Aphrodite cabin. I'm not sure how familiar you are with them."

"When are you leaving?" Annabeth, who had been silent for most of the conversation, spoke up.

Luke started towards the door, turning towards them. "Now. I was going to leave after I packed my bag and found you two, and Grover, but you found me first. I would go find Grover, but I don't want to keep Chiron waiting any longer. Will you tell him I'm sorry for leaving without saying goodbye?"

"We will Luke." Christina told him, nodding.

The three of them exited the Hermes cabin, the group of demigods parting around them. Luke turned towards the Stoll brothers, who each had their arms around two younger half-bloods, only half of whom were Hermes kids.

"Will you watch over the cabin while I'm gone?" Luke asked them. "I need someone I can trust to be the temporary counselors."

Connor and Travis glanced at each other, seemingly having a conversation with their eyes, before turning back to Luke. "We will." Connor promised.

"You can count on us." Travis finished.

Luke nodded, before turning and setting off for the Big House, giving one last wave to the gathered crowd of his siblings, unclaimed demigods, Travis, Connor, Christina, and Annabeth. As he disappeared out of sight, Christina turned to Annabeth.

"Let's go find Grover. We did promise Luke that we would tell him what happened."


Two weeks later…

The news that Luke had arrived back at Camp Half-Blood spread around like wildfire, since he was the most recent demigod in almost anyone's memory, except for Christina, Castor, Pollux, and a few others, which had returned from a quest. Across the camp, half-bloods whispered to each other, all watching Luke as he walked towards the Hermes cabin, a beaten backpack slung across his back, a fresh new scar over his eye, and a defeated look on his face.

The news itself reached Christina just as she was showing the newest demigod the archery range. He was about eight years old, and was tall with shaggy blond hair, blue eyes, and an athletic build, named Will Solace. She suspected he was an Apollo child, but it was not confirmed.

"Christina!" A voice called, causing the girl in question to look up.

Chris Rodriguez, an unclaimed demigod who had arrived at camp about two days before Luke left, came running down the hill towards the archery range.

"What's going on Chris?" Christina asked, confused.

Chris stopped in front of her, pausing a bit to catch his breath. "Luke's back, he just got back about ten minutes ago. But neither Liam nor Rebecca are with him, he seems completely different, and he's got a scar over his eye. He won't talk to anyone, but Chiron pulled the Apollo and Aphrodite counselors aside. I figured maybe you could get through to him."

"Who's Luke? What's going on?" Will asked confused, glancing back and forth between Chris and Christina.

Christina turned to Chris. "Can you finish giving Will the tour? I'm going to go find Luke."

"Sure." Chris said, nodding, and Christina took the opportunity to take off towards the direction of the Hermes cabin.

When she arrived outside the cabin, the scene looked very similar to two weeks prior, when Annabeth had dragged her there. This time, there was no Annabeth, but the Stoll brothers, who had taken their jobs as temporary co-counselors very seriously in the past few weeks, were attempting to control the Hermes cabin, who were gathered around the open door of their cabin, trying to peer in.

"Christina!" Travis called in relief, spotting her. "Can you figure out what's going on? Luke went inside ten minutes ago, and won't come out. Everyone wants to know what happened on the quest."

Christina nodded. "Chris told me, that's what I came to do. You and Connor try and get everyone away from the cabin, and I'll talk to Luke."

Pushing through the crowd of demigods, she finally reached the door to the cabin and opened it, quickly shutting it behind her, before one of the half-bloods could squeeze through. When she turned around, she spotted Luke on the floor next to his bunk in the corner, his beaten-up backpack next to him and his head in his hands.

"Go away Travis." He whispered. "I don't want to talk about it."

Christina walked closer to him, her footsteps quiet. "Well, I'm not Travis. So maybe you'll talk to me."

"I don't want to burden this with you, Christina." He finally said, looking up. "You're too young, you won't understand."

Christina stepped in front of Luke, sitting down on the floor across from him. "I know I'm only nine, but I'm a demigod, Luke. One who has grown up at this camp, has been here longer than anyone except Mr. D and Chiron. You know I'm no ordinary nine-year-old."

"Chiron isn't going to allow anymore quests." Luke told her. "Not for a very, long time."

Christina stared at him in confusion. "But why not? Did your quest really go so badly?"

"It does when only one of the questing members comes back alive." Luke revealed, before standing up and walking out the door of the Hermes cabin.

Christina followed him in utter shock, finally reaching the door where she looked out at the crowd. Most of the Hermes kids had turned to watch Luke stalk towards the sparing ring, his sword, which she hadn't notice prior, already out. But Travis and Connor, now with Will and Chris turned to look at her. She shook her head slowly, and the four boys stared back, realizing what she meant, apart from Will, who still looked around concerned.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Will Solace." Christina thought bitterly. "Hope you enjoy your time here."


Three days later…

In hindsight, Christina should probably have realized that Will was going to get claimed rather quickly, since all the other new half-bloods that she had personally been involved with showing around the past two years had been claimed quickly. But in her defense, she was still nine, and had several other things to worry about.

But unlike all the unusually fast claimings over the past two years, this one had merit for the demigod being claimed when they were. Christina, Will, Annabeth, Grover, Travis, Connor, Katie, Miranda, Beckendorf, Silena, Clarisse, and Chris were all down at the beach that afternoon, trying to put their minds off Luke's failed quest, and Liam and Rebecca's deaths. Silena particularly was torn up, since Rebecca had been her sister.

The group of demigods, plus one satyr, had been hoping for a normal, relaxing day at the beach, when it happened. But honestly, what did they expect? They were demigods, bad luck practically followed them around, even at Camp Half-Blood. Christina was engaged in a splash battle with Annabeth and Grover, with Annabeth claiming it was cheating if she used her water powers, when a scream echoed off to the side.

Miranda, who had been fooling around in the water with Katie and the Stolls, had gone out too far from shore and had been caught by a rip current. The Stolls had pulled Katie back, afraid that the other Demeter girl would get caught as well, with how much she was struggling to get to her sister.

"I'll get her!" Christina yelled to the Stolls and Katie, before turning back to Miranda. "Miranda, hold on! I'm coming!"

Willing the water to carry her over towards the younger demigod, Christina shot through the water towards Miranda, praying to her father that she would make it on time. After what seemed like far too long, although it most likely wasn't, Christina reached her, although Miranda had seemingly gone limp in the water, causing her breath to catch in her throat. Shooting through the water with Miranda in her arms, Christina finally reached the shore and laid the younger girl down on the sand.

"She's not breathing." Katie gasped, checking her sister's pulse. "No, she can't be dead. I can't lose her too."

Will pushed through the crowd around Miranda. "Let me try. I lived along a river growing up, I have experience with this sort of thing."

He placed his hands on top of Miranda, about to do chest compressions, when his hands suddenly started glowing and the younger girl began to cough water up. Will jumped, nearly moving out of the way, when Christina held onto his elbow to steady him.

"Don't move." She told the blond. "Whatever you're doing is working. Keep doing it."

Will nodded in shock, before turning his concentration back to Miranda, who kept coughing up water. After about twenty seconds, she opened her eyes, letting out a few small coughs, and Will pulled his hands away, the glowing stopping.

"What happened?" She asked weakly.

Katie gasped, throwing her arms around her sister. "You're okay! Will and Christina saved you, that's what happened."

"Look!" Grover pointed, and the entire group's eyes followed him to the spot above Will's head, at the floating symbol of a lyre.

Will looked around at them in shock. "What's going on? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Apollo," Christina started in surprise. "Healer, Oracle, Singer. Hail, Will Solace, son of the Sun God."

Will's eyebrows shot up. "You mean I've just been claimed?"

"Yeah." Christina told him. "We need to find Chiron, and tell him what happened, and get Miranda to the infirmary. She still looks a little weak from nearly drowning."

Katie and Silena put their arms around Miranda's shoulders, helping the younger girl up, while the rest of the group walked in pace with them, Christina using her powers to dry everyone off. As they reached the main part of camp, Chiron came galloping over to them.

"What happened?" He asked, staring in concern at the still weak Miranda.

Christina cleared her throat. "Miranda got caught in a rip current, but I was able to get her out. When I brought her back to shore, she wasn't breathing, and Will went to help her. That's when his hands started glowing and he healed her. Then, Apollo claimed him right after."

"Let's get Miranda to the infirmary." He instructed them. "And Will, you can go grab your belongings from the Hermes cabin and move them into the Apollo cabin. I'm sure you know how to get there. I will go inform the Apollo counselor of this new development."

As Chiron galloped off, Christina glanced around at her friends, Silena and Katie helping Miranda to the infirmary, Will, Chris, Travis, and Connor, walking back towards the Hermes cabin, Beckendorf and Clarisse heading off to their own cabins, and Grover and Annabeth standing next to her. But even though Will's claiming made more sense than all the others, Christina couldn't shake the feeling that there was something she missed, something that tied them all together.

So, I'm really excited with the direction I plan on taking this series. I even have a scene I wrote for the Mark of Athena inspired book, even though it is going to be a while until we get there, because I couldn't get it out of my head.

And look, we finally have a chapter count! Mainly because I finally adjusted my outline to account for what I wanted to include, but still.

I started my camp necklace for my cosplay of Christina from this AU and I'm proud of it so far, especially my Thalia's tree bead. Although I did learn it is hard to paint on beads. If y'all want, I can post a photo of the necklace when it is done. Not the cosplay though, because I don't want to post my face on here.

I didn't include it in here, because there was no good time to mention it, but Sherman Yang also arrived this summer.

I'm considering creating a small side story that goes along with this about all of the beads and the stories behind them from the summers before The Lightning Thief, so comment if you want that, and I'll write those. For this particular chapter, the bead event is included, so I'll write them deciding what goes on the bead, same with the summer Annabeth, Thalia, and Luke arrive, but for the rest, I'll put the story of what happened, as well as them deciding what goes on the bead.

Please review. I love reviews.