Hey guys, I hope you enjoy this chapter- also I won't be updating tomorrow, sorry in advance.
Replies:
Undeath9087: I do try lol. And yeah, Sadie doesn't even need to speak because Percy's just there like 'This is what's happening. I have decided, I'm pulling rank.'
Simyymis: Thank you.
Guest: at this stage he's honestly not sure who's most dangerous- though he thinks Percy might be because A, she clearly started training sooner, B, she escaped magical restraints and destroyed his house, and C, she was very clearly the best fighter out of all of them. The only time Carter showed himself being stronger was when he was acting as the Eye of Horus.
There was a moment of stunned silence before Carter spoke again, "What?"
"Sadie and I are goin' to London." Percy could feel Sadie's stunned gaze on her, those wide shocked eyes.
"But-"
"It's her birthday." Percy met Carter's gaze, her eyes narrowed. "Bast's friend won't be arriving 'til tomorrow right? And Uncle Amos said it would take Desjardins some time to prepare an attack right? So there's no reason Sadie and I can't go to London." Percy felt Sadie grabbing her hand, felt a tight squeeze, the silent thank you that Sadie probably didn't feel like she could actually say.
Sadie's birthday was going about as badly as it could so far. She deserved much better as far as Percy was concerned.
And Carter was gaping at her in disbelief. "Percy- this is impor-"
"Are you really gonna tell me what's important?" Percy's eyes narrowed, "I might be littler than you or Sadie but I was worryin' about all this before you guys even knew about magic-"
"A-Are-" Carter blinked, "Are you trying to pull rank-"
"I'm the most senior magician out of the three of us. And I kick your butt in most fights."
And if it had been Sadie saying that then they would already be heading towards an actual fist fight- Carter looked angry to say the least. But this was Percy, and Carter always had and always would have a soft spot for the youngest of them. Percy was his favorite, and all three of them knew it. If anyone could get away with it, it was her. But even still, doing this in front of the trainees probably wasn't gonna make Carter want to say yes. Percy understood, she did. They were all stressed out with everything going on. So Percy pushed a bit harder, "What if it was your birthday."
"It isn't my birthday but if it was I'd do what I had to." Carter pointed out.
"You know we'd find a way to celebrate it no matter what." Percy declared stubbornly. "We always do, on your twelfth birthday we were being chased by the House of Life and we still managed to stop for a few hours to have a nice meal for the day and we did presents and cake. And Sadie's turning thirteen! She's a teenager this year that's like, a super big one."
And Carter looked away, breaking their staring contest, and as he did Percy knew that she'd won. Carter would say yes to them even if it was the very last thing he wanted to do.
"Sadie-" Amos spoke up, "Percy, both of you know that a visit to London is dangerous-"
"Of course we know." Percy cut him off, "Who here was captured by Desjardins before? Oh, that's right. It was me. But birthdays are important." she declared stubbornly. And Amos twitched slightly at that.
"As I was saying before you so abruptly interrupted Persephone, it is dangerous. But if you two feel that you must then at least promise you'll be careful." his gaze flicked between the two of them. "Sally doesn't need anything else to worry about at the moment." and Percy filed that away as 'Weird but not the time to deal with it' "I doubt that Vlad Menshikov will be ready to move against us so quickly, you're right about that at least. You two should be fine as long as you use no magic and do nothing to attract attention." he eyed Percy, "That means no blowing things up children-"
"Really?" Sadie's eyes widened and her face lit up.
"I-" Carter didn't look happy, "Fine. Fine."
"And while Sadie and Percy are gone we can begin planning. Tomorrow morning the four of you can begin your quest. I will take over your teaching duties with our trainees, and oversee the defence of Brooklyn House."
"You're the best uncle Amos!" Percy beamed at him as Sadie gave Percy's hand a tight squeeze.
"Thank you Amos."
Then Amos stood, clearly indicating that the meeting was over. "I think that's enough for one morning," he said. "The main thing is for all of you to continue your training, and don't despair. We'll need you in top shape to defend Brooklyn House. We will prevail. With the gods on our side, Ma'at will overcome Chaos, as it always has before."
The trainees still looked uneasy, but they stood and began to clear their dishes. Carter gave Percy and Sadie one more angry look, then stormed inside.
Percy winced, and Sadie squeezed Percy's hand tightly, "Don't worry Percy. He's probably more annoyed at me than he is at you." she whispered the words, "C'mon. Let's finish out breakfast and get ready to go."
As they headed out after breakfast Jaz caught up with them, a frown on her lips as she brushed her blonde braid over her shoulder. "Percy, Sadie. I- I wanted
to talk to you both."
"What about?" Sadie draped an arm around Percy's shoulder- and it was very obvious- at least to Percy, that the older girl was upset with how things had gone down over breakfast. Percy couldn't blame her for that.
"I-" Jaz faltered, thrusting out her hand- which was holding a small wax figurine. "I wanted to give you guys this. I- I get the feeling you might need it during your mission. I know it's not starting until tomorrow but I didn't want to forget-" And Percy peered at the figurine as Sadie accepted the figurine- it was familiar. A healing statue- they were used to expel sickness or curses. And it looked like- Percy blinked- it was Carter.
"What's that for?" Percy asked.
"I- you might not need it." Jaz's brows furrowed slightly as she took a small step back. "I just- I had a bad feeling so I made this a couple of days ago." she paused, "And- Happy birthday Sadie."
"I-" Sadie stared at the figurine in her hand before she tucked it safely into her pocket, giving a slightly strained smile, "Thanks Jaz. I'll look after it."
"Good. I'll see you guys soon." Jaz gave a small smile, "I've got to go now- I told Walt I'd talk to him this morning-" and Percy felt Sadie stiffen as Jaz whirled around and rushed off.
And sure, Percy was young, and she didn't always pick up on these things yet- but she knew that look on Sadie's face very well. She'd been on the receiving end of that look a lot when she'd been younger. That was Sadie's jealous look. And Percy was starting to have a better understanding of relationships- after all she'd watched Carter and Zia dance around each other enough since the Red Pyramid.
After that the two girls headed to Percy's room, she needed a jacket after all- and Percy lit up when she saw her mom walking towards them, clearly headed for the girls rooms. "Ah, Percy, Sadie. I was looking for you girls-"
"Mom!" Percy pulled away from Sadie to rush her mom, hugging her, "Are you okay? Why weren't you at breakfast?"
"I've been feeling a bit sick lately." Sally pressed her lips to the top of Percy's head, giving Sadie a warm smile, "Happy birthday Sadie. I ran into Amos when he was on his way down to breakfast, he said you'd already had some cake." there was a twinkle in her eyes and Sadie laughed, smiling.
"Yeah, Percy baked me the best cake ever."
"I learned from the best." Percy spoke up with a proud voice.
"That you did honey." Sally smiled, pulling a small package out of her pocket. "Sadie I know you planned on going out today so I wanted to catch you before
you go. I have your present-"
"Ah." Percy blinked, "Uh, Mom I was kinda hoping to go with Sadie-"
"You-" Sally paused, a worried frown on her lips as she glanced between the two girls before she sighed, "I suppose if I can trust you kids to save the world I can trust you to go to England for a few hours." she said slowly, reluctantly, "Sadie, honey-"
"I'll look after Percy." Sadie said quickly, "Don't worry-"
"And look after yourself too." Sally reached out, pressing her hand to Sadie's cheek, "Be good you two okay?"
"We always are." Percy paused at the look her mom gave her and shrugged "Okay, okay so maybe we're not. But we will be this time."
Sally laughed at that, a bright bubbly laughter as she shook her head fondly, kissing Sadie's forehead before kissing Percy's. "Honestly you two. What am I going to do with you?"
"Love us despite our many flaws?" Sadie didn't miss a beat, "After all we are your wonderful children right?"
"Hmmm." Sally pretended to consider that, "I'm not sure I'd use the term wonderful-"
"MOM!"
"Okay okay!" Sally held up her hands, "I'll go, I wanted to try and catch Bast before she heads out, just to check something with her. Sadie, sweetheart-" Sally handed her the small package, "Your birthday present."
"Right. Thank you Sally." Sadie gave a small grin as she took the little package and unwrapped it carefully, revealing a small square shaped jewellery box. And Sadie's breath caught when she opened it, her eyes going wide.
"Sally-"
"Look inside." And Percy craned her head to see as Sadie carefully lifted a delicate gold chain out of the box- it was a locket, a little oval shaped thing with a
little diamond on the front in the middle of an embossed tyet. And when Sadie carefully opened it Percy saw that there were two pictures inside of it. One of the photo's was an older one, Sadie was just a baby in it, cradled in Ruby Kane's arms, with Julius stood just behind Ruby, Carter in his arms, both of the adults smiling softly down at the little baby.
The second one was a more recent picture- Percy recognised it. Zia had taken it for them the day Percy had woken up after the Red Pyramid thing. They were all squeezed up together in the kitchen, Percy was squished between Carter and Sadie munching on a slice of pizza, and Sally was stood behind the three kids, laughing as Carter tried to play keep away with his pizza and Sadie tried to snatch it from him over Percy's head.
"Sally-" Sadie's voice was barely more than a whisper and she looked close to tears, "I- thank you."
"Don't thank me honey." Sally's voice was soft, fond, "It's your birthday present. I assume you like it?"
"I love it." Sadie swallowed hard, blinking rapidly as she unclasped the locket and put it around her neck, so that it was around her neck, glinting next to her tyet amulet. "I love it so much mu-Sally." And Percy blinked, her eyes flicking between Sally and Sadie- was it just her or had Sadie almost just- but Sadie's face was going red- and Sally managed to hide her shock quickly.
"Good. Now," Sally was clearly trying not to smile too much- clearly Sadie's near slip had meant a lot to her. "go you two, before something happens that stops you from going. You both deserve a break before things get bad again."
"At least you get it." Sadie let out a huff, "Carter doesn't-"
"Your brothers stressed and worried too honey." Sally smiled sadly, "This isn't easy on any of us." Sally shook her head. "Your brother's taking a lot of the responsibility on himself. I'll try and talk to him when I get the chance." she promised. "Now shoo, off with you both before I change my mind and say you have to stay here so I can smother you both-"
"C'mon Percy!" Sadie let out a laugh, grabbing Percy's hand quickly, "Before she changes her mind!"
And just like that Sadie was dragging Percy away, and Percy laughed loudly as they took off, heading straight up to the roof.
It was where they kept their relic for opening portals- they'd made sure they had these days- it was a lot easier than having to take trips to find a relic to portal anywhere- so they now had a stone sphinx from the ruins of Heliopolis.
When they reached the roof they stopped running, both of them still giggling- right up until Percy spotted Carter stood at the other end of the roof.