Chapter 3, Death in the Family and Diverging Fates
Shortly After The Crash, Camp Half-Blood ~
Chiron sat at the pinochle table with Mr. D. Having beaten the God at the game twice now and he was about to win again before they were interrupted by one of their charges. A daughter of Hermes ran into the room, Jennifer Barnes if Chiron remembered correctly, she was panting hard as if she ran at full sprint to the Big House. Mr. D threw his hand of cards down in exasperation before turning his gaze to the Demigoddess just as Chiron had.
"Mr. Chiron sir, there was a car crash near the border! A drakon attacked a truck, only to die to one of the two people in it!" Jennifer panted out before catching her breath and continuing, "I think one of them is a Demigod and they are both hurt badly!"
Chiron shot up without a word while even Mr. D looked surprised, though he would later say it was because he had never heard of a drakon that hunted a Demigod new to the life and failed, Chiron ran full speed to the crest of Half-Blood Hill and gazed down at the sight in front of him. He watched as the body of the drakon slowly turned to nothing but dust and bone and saw Tom, obviously injured immensely, drag someone out of the wrecked truck.
Before Chiron could gallop down he was joined by Jennifer and a group of Apollo's children who were equipped with a stretcher and medical supplies. As a group they all ran towards the two collapsed people. The sight was worse than any of them could imagine, the other person was an elderly man who had multiple life threatening wounds all over his body, Tom wasn't as injured so Chiron made a crucial decision.
"Put the elder on the stretcher and rush him to the infirmary!" Chiron said firmly as he motioned to Jennifer to lift Tom onto his back, "The rules on mortals be damned! I will not let this boy lose his only family!" Chiron then rushed off with Tom secured to his back.
After both injured individuals were placed properly in the infirmary and under medical watch, Chiron finally let out a sigh of relief…
The Next Day, The Cabin, Montauk ~
Percy was woken by the loud crash of thunder and a knocking on the cabin door. He glanced at his mother who was still removing the sleep from her eyes and stood up slowly. Percy opened the door only to be greeted by Grover…Who wasn't wearing any pants….And his legs looked like goats legs.
"Are you a satyr?" Percy asked half-heartedly. Grover just looked at him in shock at guessing the truth before Sally walked over.
"What are you doing here Grover!" She hissed at the goat at the door.
"I'm sorry Ms. Jackson but after what happened at Yancy I thought it was time for him to go to Camp." Grover said hurriedly, "Also something powerful has been lurking in this area so we need to go now!"
Sally grabbed her jacket and pushed both boys towards Gabe's Camaro, then they set off towards the Camp.
"What happened at Yancy Percy?" Sally asked as she sped down the rain splattered road.
"Something that was pretending to be a teacher attacked Tom and I before we killed it." Percy started, "The teacher, Dodds, turned into a demonic bat which I now know thanks to Tom was a Fury and attacked us. I even have the scars to prove it."
His mother gasped in shock as Grover went pale in the backseat.
"You mean it hurt you? Where? Are you okay?" Sally rambled out question after question.
"I'm fine mom, Tom managed to bandage it and we had the school nurse look at it." Percy explained quickly before Sally swerved out of the way of something and a loud bang was heard, then his vision went black. When he finally opened his eyes, Percy noticed the car was flipped over and his mother and friend were dangling limply. As Percy maneuvered his way out of the car and helped his slowly waking mother out. The two Jacksons then pulled the sleeping goat out of the car and supported his weight as they ran towards the hill his mother pointed out.
A loud snort broke through the stormy silence.
As the rain continued to pour down on the trio Percy finally laid eyes on the monster chasing them.
The large horned form of the Minotaur snorted again as it slowly drew its hoof across the ground throwing up mud behind it.
"Percy! If it charges you, jump to the side at the last second!" His mother exclaimed, "It can't hear or see very well!" The mortal woman finished as the Minotaur bellowed out and lowered it's head. Percy handed Grover to his mother and stepped towards the Minotaur with a composed expression, his brain already planning several ways to fight the dumb beast due to his brain being hard-wired for combat.
However, before he could enact any of his plans the Minotaur turned towards his mother and Grover and charged them. Sally threw Grover to the side and tried to side step the beast but the Minotaur was counting on this, it grabbed Sally and squeezed until she turned into a golden dust. Percy blinded by rage didn't even think about what that could mean and charged the Minotaur as water coalesced on his hands from the rain.
Once he reached the beast he leaped and punched it across the face and watched as the strength behind his fist, and unknowingly being boosted by his control of water, not only knocked teeth out of the Minotaur's mouth but broke its jaw and forced it backwards.
"Hey Ground Beef! Over here you overgrown cow!" Percy taunted the beast angrily as he prepared his stance for something dumb. The Minotaur released a bellow before stampeding towards the young Demigod who grinned sadistically. Percy sidestepped the beast who embedded its horns into the massive tree behind Percy. Percy then jumped on its back, locked his water powered arms around one of the horns and pulled hard.
A loud snap was heard as the Minotaur roared in pain.
The Minotaur then shook its head rapidly and threw Percy off of it who's head landed on a rock, concussing the poor boy. Percy, who was still unknowingly being fueled by the hard rain pelting the area, stood up and gripped the broken horn in his hand like a 6 inch dagger. Both raging powers ran at each other in sync, Percy stabbed up into its rib cage as its remaining horn embedded itself into his shoulder.
As it slowly decomposed into dust Percy saw something change in its frenzied eyes and the beast spoke to him in broken English.
"Th—ank y—-o—-u." It breathed out before completely dissolving into gold sand. Not giving himself time to think on that weird event, Percy stumbled towards Grover, hauled him up, and slowly walked to the border of the Camp before fainting at the base of the massive pine tree at the top of the camp.
3 Days Later, Camp Half-Blood ~
Percy woke a few times before he passed out again.
The first time he awoke a blonde girl was tending to his injuries before noticing he was awake and started asking him a bunch of questions.
"Who are you? What is happening on Olympus? Did you take it? Are you the one?" She rambled out quickly.
"Wh—a–t." Percy shakily responded before passing out again.
The second time he awoke it was to Mr. Brunner sitting next to his bed in his wheelchair and reading a book on physics. Before he noticed Percy was awake, the boy had already passed out again.
When Percy finally regained his strength and woke up without passing out, Grover was there waiting for him. The goat handed him a glass of apple juice after he coughed due to his dry throat. Percy chugged the apple juice only for it to taste like his mom's homemade blue cookies. Then he remembered what happened. His mom was gone, seemingly forever.
Wait.
If Greek myth is real, Hades is real. Maybe he can make a bargain for his mother's life!
Grover interrupted his rapidly darkening mindset by speaking.
"How are you feeling, Perce?" The goat asked. Before Percy could respond however, there was some muted yelling from the next room.
"What do you mean he's dead Chiron!" Someone who sounded like Tom yelled angrily. Who died? "That man was the only family I had left, my own grandfather!" This yelling was accompanied by the sound of a door slamming.
"I feel just fine Grover, my moms gone and it sounds like Tom just lost his only family as well." The sarcastic teen replied before standing and exiting the building to find Tom, ignoring Grover's cry about his injuries. Percy walked out of the room he was healed in only to be stopped by Mr. Brunner. Only it wasn't him because this Brunner had a horse's body from the torso down.
"So you must be Chiron then, not Mr. Brunner." Percy stated as he inspected the white stallion body his old Latin teacher has. The old centaur, much older than the old crippled Latin teacher he played, sighed as he seemed to think on what to say next.
"It is good to see you up and well Percy, welcome to Camp Half-Blood." Chiron said with a weary sigh escaping his lips. "I'll have Grover give you the tour and if you could see Thomas do try and help him reign his temper in."
"I overheard Tom say his grandfather died, is this true Chiron?" Percy asked in concern for his best friend. When Chiron simply nodded Percy let out a weary sigh of his own and followed Grover who had been waiting nearby out the door.
As Percy followed Grover he couldn't help but let his thoughts run wild on making plans on how to seek out the Underworld. Firstly, he needs to train more and learn what abilities his Godly blood grants him. During the tour given by Grover, which Percy really wasn't paying attention to, they ran into Tom who was fighting against a somewhat burly girl in the arena, sword vs spear.
Tom was wearing a black tank top with equally as black khaki shorts followed up by his black running shoes. The girl he was sparring with was dressed similarly. She has light brown hair kept out of her face by a red bandana and her ponytail, she's wearing a red tank top with normal khaki shorts with black running shoes.
Watching the two fight was like watching a dance, for each strike Tom threw out the girl responded with a parry and vice versa, neither were able to land a hit on each other. Tom's crazy scissor looking curved sword that Percy had never seen before against the broad bronze spear of the girl, only it seemed like the blade on her spear would crackle with electricity in random intervals.
Percy was entranced by the fight, so much so that he didn't hear Grover until the satyr elbowed him.
"That girl Tom's fighting is Clarisse La Rue, a daughter of the War God, Ares. Somehow I would not be surprised if they were siblings." Grover said, shaking his head in false exasperation. Percy laughed as he focused back on the fight.
- 15 Minutes ago, Arena, Camp Half-Blood ~
Clarisse was surprised when a random camper she had never seen before walked into the arena with an angry look on his face and dressed to train. He was wearing a black tank top and shorts that showed off his surprisingly good looking physique. He seemed to scan the arena before locking eyes with her, his eyes were a deep ruby red and seemed to pierce through her very being. As he started to approach her, she continued to examine him and instantly compared his black hair and dark complexion to that of the Egyptian pharaohs she used to see pictures of in museums with her mom.
"You look like the only one here that actually wants to fight, would you be willing to spar with me?" The somewhat cute mysterious kid asked Clarisse. She was taken aback by the bluntness in his tone and the very slight Arabic accent his words were laced with.
"Sure, I'll spar with you. You better make this worth my time though" Clarisse responded as she took a hair pin out of her hair that elongated into her spear, Maimer. "I don't think I have seen you around here, what's your name?"
"My name is Thomas Badawi and I really need to let off some steam, may I know the name of my combatant?" The guy, Thomas, seemed to be about to burst with adrenaline for some reason so Clarisse decided to just start their spar.
"I'll tell you if you beat me" Clarisse cheekily snarked as she readied her stance, as she got battle ready Thomas pulled something on his bracelet before a silver curved blade, a shamshir if her memory was correct, appeared in his hand as he too prepared his stance.
The two battle ready warriors stared at each other, hazel brown vs ruby red, before they both lunged at each other in sync. The shamshir was shorter than her spear and Thomas used that to his advantage. He was quickly within her guard landing slash after arced slash upon the shaft of Maimer, after taking a barrage of attacks from the glinting curved sword Clarisse responded with locking the blade of the the offending sword on the short stubbed wings of her spear, forcing him to retreat and putting him firmly in range of her spear.
Taking two quick swipes with the cutting edges of her spear blade, Clarisse moved forwards with a stab. Thomas swirled around the side of the spear and swung quickly towards her torso forcing her to redraw the spear and use its shaft to redirect the blow away from her, she followed up this parry by slamming the blunt end of her spear into his shin. Before he could regain his balance Clarisse swung the sharpened edge of the spear and landed a light gash across Thomas' chest that slowly bled.
This light wound she caused was reciprocated by Thomas as he landed a light cut on her right forearm as she pulled her weapon back. After nearly 15 minutes of rapid clashing their sparring session came to an end, with both warriors covered in minor gashes. Both Clarisse and Thomas were breathing quite heavily as they dismissed their weapons and leaned on each other.
"Clarisse," She finally breathed out. Noticing his look of confusion she repeated herself. "My name is Clarisse La Rue."
"Nice to meet you La Rue." Thomas coughed out as they both heard clapping coming from the side of the arena. Looking over Clarisse saw some lanky kid with black hair and Grover clapping.
Present Time, The Arena, Camp Half-Blood ~
Percy and Grover clapped at the finish of the spar. As the two fighters regained their breath, Tom approached them.
"What's up guys?" Tom asked as Clarisse walked up with him. Percy and Grover shared a look as Percy placed his hand upon his hurting friend's shoulder.
"Well I heard what you said when you blew up at Chiron earlier," Percy began as Tom's expression dimmed. "I'm sorry you lost your grandfather Tom, we know what he meant to you."
Not only did Tom take on a saddened expression but the girl he was fighting, Clarisse, if Percy remembered what Grover called her correctly, gained a somewhat clouded expression that he could barely tell was pity.
"I'd rather not speak about him right now, care if I join your little tour I'm sure Grover is taking you on?" Tom asked as he changed what the conversation was about. The trio of friends turned to walk off and have Grover finish their tour however they paused for a second as Clarisse called out to Tom one last time.
"We should spar again sometime Thomas!" She called out as she turned to return to her training.
"You bet Clarisse!" Tom replied with a smirk as Grover started to point out different locations around the camp.
And that's a wrap on this chapter! While I did touch on how Rami's death affected Tom a little bit from the perspective of others, it will be something that he struggles with throughout the story. I have some plans for a close friendship between Tom and Clarisse and will introduce Annabeth in the next chapter. However I do want to reiterate that this story takes place in an Alternate Universe and several characters will be slightly OOC. I will keep aspects of the original character content from Uncle Rick's amazing books but I will also deviate as there are some characters I wish to have act differently than canon.
Ye-Olde-Erebus, Signing off