The rest of the summer Alexa opted to spend at Camp. Percy was treated like a real hero after his arrival, with cheers and slaps on the back. A feast was prepared, shrouds were burned, nothing could've been better.
For the remainder of the summer Alexa spent the majority of her time with her brothers and sisters in the forges, teaching the younger ones lessons she had learned the hard way from crushing her fingers or burning her palms. The cabin was alight with laughter as she told all of them stories of her misadventures in blacksmithing. During one particular story involving grinding her own finger prints off with an edge grinder, the new head counselor, Charles Beckendorf laughed so hard he could hardly stand, and the deep booms of his laughter convinced the rest of the camp that Cabin 9 was about to explode.
That's not to say she spent all the time with her siblings; she spent about half of her time instilling discipline onto the sullen children of Ares. An obstacle course and 1v1 combat training was just what the doctor ordered to get their minds off what the quest had uncovered about their dad. And of course she spent plenty of time with the three kids she had grown fond of over the last few days.
About a week into their stay, Percy announced that his step-dad had 'Mysteriously disappeared', and in totally unrelated and coincidental news Sally had sold a full sized sculpture to an art collector, with enough from the sale to put a down payment on a new apartment.
"That's great!" Alexa said happily. "But I gotta say I'm kinda disappointed. I only got to beat him once."
"Ah well." Percy chuckled.
"There's always the next one." Grover pointed out with a slight smirk.
"Eh, Sally's a good lady. I don't wanna give an aneurysm to someone she actually likes." That got a laugh out of the group and they carried on with their day a little happier.
A few days after, Grover announced that he'd be leaving. His searcher's license had been approved and he wanted to get a jump on hunting down the wild god as soon as he could. The three demigods would hear none of that, and insisted on sending him off properly. They had dinner together that night, and Alexa made him a new set of sneakers as a going away present.
"No wings, sadly, but I can guarantee they won't come off unless you want them to, and they're good traction on everything short of an oil slick." She explained as the Satyr slipped them on over his hooves. There was that faint, annoying buzz of some sort of issue in the back of her mind, but once again she pushed it away for the present.
"Thanks Alexa!" Grover said as he straightened up.
"You got enough cans for the journey?" Annabeth asked.
"All set." Grover assured her.
"And your reed pipes?" Alexa asked.
"Jeeze, you both sound like nanny goats!' Grover laughed.
"So where're you headed first?" Percy asked.
"Top secret, can't tell ya. Only thing I can say is I'll be getting a bit of sun! Who knows, I may come out of it all with a decent tan!" The group laughed and Grover gave each of them a quick hug. He turned and headed for the tree line. As he approached the trees appeared to swallow him whole.
The rest of the summer went as it usually would; the firework display, the summer festival, the pranks, the games, until the end started to wind down and halfbloods started to trickle back home.
The last day of the summer session found Alexa right where she felt most at home, with her siblings in the forges. It was mid afternoon, and she was hammering on a piece of red hot metal that would, very soon, be a shield that a girl from cabin ten had commissioned. In all likelihood it'd probably end up being used as a hand mirror but that wasn't Alexa's business. What was her business was when she saw Percy and Luke headed for the woods. She lifted her hammer and waved. Percy waved back but Luke hardly seemed to notice.
She smiled and returned to her work, glad that Percy had someone as experienced as Luke to look after him. Now, with nothing to stop it, that irritating itch in her brain where Luke was concerned came back with a vengeance.
Her hammer started to slow as her mind began to race, and all the interactions she had had with Luke played before her mind's eye. She remembered her last big meeting with the pride of Hermes, just before she and Luna had taken off for Washington.
"I wonder if the gods even care about us. They just kinda treat us like tools, playthings. Do you really think they care what happens to us?" Those words, at the time, curdled the newly bubbling feelings she had had for him, but now they had a far worse connotation. He hadn't been pleased by her answer and, days after she had found Luna had been poisoned with lead. Could this not have been the exact moment?
As she thought the other clues fell into place; Luke was at camp during the theft, he was skilled enough to pull it off, it was his enchanted shoes that had nearly dragged Grover to his death, he even had a motive, stewing in his mind for years!
The metal disk dropped from Alexa's anvil, setting some of the dust on fire. She took off running, peeling off her work apron and gloves as she sprinted to catch up with Percy and Luke. She jammed the metal dog whistle into her mouth and blew hard. Luna dashed from Cabin 9 where she had been napping, catching up to her owner in a matter of seconds.
"Get Chiron!" She yelled just before she disappeared into the woods. She fought her way through branches and brambles, trying her best to follow the same path Percy and Luke had taken.
How they had gotten so far ahead of her she'd never know, but before too long she began to hear the conversation ahead of her.
"Sorry Percy." She heard Luke chuckle. "But a new golden age is coming whether you like it or not. You should've joined when you had the chance."
Alexa ripped the charm from her bracelet and burst through the brush as the sword extended. She pointed the blade forward and let a bolt fly. Luke hastily dodged the electrical assault, drawing his own blade. He stared at the daughter of Hephaestus, his wild blue eyes staring into the molten pools of fury Alexa sported.
"Suppose that just shows you suck as a recruiter." Alexa growled, bringing her sword up. Luke didn't respond verbally, instead he slashed a tree branch from above. Alexa hacked it in half but it gave Luke enough time to jam a hand in his pocket. The next thing Alexa felt was an intense pain in her eyes, followed immediately by a pain in her heel.
"Pocket sand, taken right from the banks of the Acheron. Not very honorable I know but effective at blinding nosey heroes. You should've just died when I poisoned your mutt." Luke jeered as he pulled his sword from Alexa's foot. She could only just see, everything was a mess of tears, blood, and enchanted sand. The blob that was Luke stepped closer, a light shining from one of extended limbs. A baying sound from where she had come from stilled his hand. Luke cursed under his breath and sheathed his sword.
"Be seeing you both" With that the orange blob that was Luke disappeared into the green of the woods. She felt, rather than saw, Percy move. He let out a strangled hiss.
"Scorpion…" A new blob, this one orange with a smaller black blob atop it, came into her vision. She heard splashing, he had gone to the water. She couldn't tell if it had worked or not, but she did feel his hand on her shoulder, trying to ease her up.
"Come on…we got to…" Percy's voice was weak, but still he struggled to push her to her feet. Alexa, instead, reached into her pocket and pulled out the dog whistle. The moment she blew it the baying and barking grew louder. The metal dog crashed through the foliage and almost steamrolled over the pair of demigods. Following behind her was most of the advanced archery class led by Chiron himself.
The moment the centaur saw the two he lowered himself down.
"Archer, Kevin, Mary, spread out and search the area. Will, tend to Alexa. Where's- oh good, there's Sarah." Another blob, this one brown, began to fill her vision. She felt a pair of fingers on her face gently prying her right eye open. She could hear him wince, sucking in a slight breath through his pressed lips.
"This is going to hurt." Warned a boy's voice above her, presumably Will. She nodded her head and a gentle spray of liquid struck her eyeball. It didn't really hurt at first, but then her vision was flooded with red and the pain multiplied tenfold. She let out a scream so loud that her throat felt like it was ripping in half. When the pain faded she found Luna's familiar metal body pressed down on her body, pinning her to the ground.
"Sorry…an eyewash with a nectar chaser is the only way to fix the damage." Will apologized, pressing a cotton ball into her eye. He affixed the cotton with a bit of gauze before moving onto the other eye. The left eye was only slightly less painful than the right, but she felt worlds better now that both had been taken care of. Will wrapped the top most part of her head in gauze, ten or more layers to keep her eyes covered.
"You're going to be okay, but the eyes have to be covered for the next week. After that we can check to see how they're doing, but there shouldn't be any permanent damage." As he spoke he helped her up into a sitting position with her back against a tree.
"How's Percy?" She managed to croak.
"He'll be fine." Answered Chiron from somewhere off to her left. "He passed out just after we got here but the scorpion's venom didn't make it far into his system. His arm will be swollen and sore for a week or two, but nothing more than that. Will, how's her foot?"
It wasn't until that moment that Alexa realized that someone had taken her shoe off during one of her screaming fits. She grimaced as she felt fingers gently probing at the wound, then wrapped it with gauze.
"It's not terrible, but I can't properly treat her here. Is Percy safe to move?" Will asked. The answer Chiron gave was not verbal but she could only assume he had nodded. Will and Luna helped the older camper hobble along on her good foot, maneuvering their blinded companion around bushes and shrubs along the trail. All the while she explained to Chiron what had happened, how she had been experiencing odd foreboding feelings whenever someone brought up Luke on their quest, how she had put all the pieces together when she had seen Percy and Luke heading into the woods, and how she had caught up with them.
"Chiron…he said he was going to help bring on a new Golden Age…he…didn't mean what I think he did, did he?" Alexa asked. The centaur was silent for a few hoof beats.
"I don't know, my dear. I pray it doesn't, but his failed plot and the things that you all have experienced are too brazen to ignore. Even if Luke has gone mad and is simply delusional, his delusion could be detrimental to both himself and others. I will send a message to Olympus the moment we get you two to the infirmary." Despite what he tried to sound like, both of them knew the reality of the situation. The gods would do little to combat this threat unless they were forced to…or they had an extremely effective person to do the dirty work for them…
"The moment I can." Alexa said gravely. "I'll go to Olympus myself and I'll ask Hera for help."
She felt a shift in temperature and a derisive snort somewhere off to one side and only then realized they had reached The Big House.
"Oh, I'm sure that'll go well." Mr. D snorted again.