Chapter 4
MEG POV
(A/N Rick owns all his characters, I own mine.)
As Meg walked across the green from the Big House, Clarisse hurried up to her. "Slow down girlie. What do you mean summon Apollo? Have the rules of immortals changed since I've been gone?" Meg laughed.
"Not exactly. Were you aware of the fact that communication between demigods was down a couple years ago?"
"You mean after the second Giant War?" Clarisse thought for a moment. "I left for college that summer with Chris, so I didn't expect much. Chris, you remember anything abnormal?" By now Chris had caught up to them.
"Not exactly. I remember Rachel's oracle powers being a bit unreliable, but I figured that was because we had just won a war and massively changed the future. Speaking of, is she still the Oracle here?" Meg laughed again.
"Yeah, she's still living in her cave, doing oracle-y stuff."
"Hold on a second. Can we rewind to the part where you have Apollo on speed-dial? Clarisse still looked confused. Meg shrugged.
"S'pose I should fill you in. The winter after the Giant war, Apollo was turned mortal by Zeus, something about-" Meg then recounted the story of her and Apollo's journey to restore his immortality. After, the two older demigods stood in silence for a moment.
"Wow. We've really been out of the loop then. Worst we've had to deal with was those Leontes and some assorted monsters in Phoenix."
Chris shook his head. "No kidding. How many oracles are there now?" Meg started listing them off on her fingers.
"Well me and Apollo freed Delphi from Python's control, so we've got Rachel back. Then we have the Grove of Dodona in the woods, but that's a back-up. Trust me, you don't want to go in there without wind chimes or at least industrial grade ear defenders. Apollo blew up the Cave of Trophonius in Indiana. Leo Valdez is back by the way, rescued Calypso from her island. They're both in Indianapolis. The Erythraean Sibyl is in South California, protected by the Meliaeds. The Cumaean Sibyl, you know, the one who wrote the Sibylline Books? She died, but her books were memorised by a harpy, who is at Camp Jupiter. And that's all of them." Clarisse nodded.
"So, three questions. How is this summoning thing going to work, what are you going to do once you get Apollo here, and also how long is it going to take.
Kinda want to go check in with my old siblings, make sure they haven't done anything too crazy." Meg shrugged.
"Yeah, sure. I think Ellis is Head Counsellor. Sherman and Miranda left last year to go to college. You know, the first time I came here, I kicked Sherman in the crotch." Clarisse and Chris stared at her for a second, then burst out into laughter.
"Oh my gods, thats amazing." Meg looked at her. "Yang was always on the stricter side. Good in battle, but always trying to take the cabin for 'exercise' runs at ungodly times in the morning. He probably deserved the kick to the nuts." Clarisse raised her fist to Meg. "Put'er there, Meg. You're not half bad." Meg obliged. "So," the older girl continued, "I'll go check in with Ares, you two round up some Apollo musicians, and then we'll summon a god. That the gist of it? Meg nodded.
"Pretty much."
"Nice. See you two later." She raised her fist to Meg's again, kissed Chris on the cheek, and ran off towards Cabin Five. Meg looked at Chris questioningly.
"So, whats up with you and her?" Chris rubbed his neck, seemingly embarrassed.
"Long story. You heard about how Annabeth got to camp?" Meg shrugged again.
"Bits and pieces. I know about Luke turning evil, and Thalia being revived from the tree and then becoming a hunter. What else is there?" Chris seemed to pale at 'Luke turning evil' but his face was normal a second later, so Meg decided it was probably a trick of the light.
"There's more to the story. Before they came to camp, Thalia and Luke had been roaming around the US for two years on their own before they found Annabeth and Grover and came to camp. What people don't know is the same thing happened to me, Clarisse and a third demigod, a kid called Mary. We were in Arizona, getting supplies from Clarisse's mom's house-she knew about the gods and all that stuff, so we could get godly supplies fine-when we were attacked. A satyr called Gleeson Hedge had found us, but so had a Leonte. Those monsters outside the barrier, they came after us not just because of us being three demigods together and having a really powerful scent, but because me and Clarisse had history with them. We managed to send it back to Tartarus, but at the cost of Mary's life. She stabbed it through the leg with a dagger, but she was mauled to death. Clarisse went into a blood rage, gained the blessing of Ares, and strangled the thing. Thats when she got claimed. Hedge did some nature magic, got us to camp and boom. Recreation of what happened several years prior." Meg nodded her head.
"But when did…" Meg gestured to the retreating form of Clarisse, then to Chris, then prodded two fingers together. Chris winced.
"Kid, can you keep a secret? It's the whole story of how me and Clarisse found each other again."
Meg made a 'time out' gesture with her hands. "What do you mean again?" Chris winced for a second time.
"After we got to camp, I got put in the Hermes cabin. You know, back then there wasn't all of this." He swept his hand around the green. Hebe wasn't recognised, so I didn't get claimed, so I got put with Hermes. The reject cabin." Chris laughed, a small dry laugh, empty of humour. "A year or so after I got here, Luke went on a quest. He came back a failure, his other quest members didn't come back at all. He started talking with me and the other unclaimed. Ethan Nakamura, Alabaster Torrington. He started saying stuff about Kronos, how it was our time to take a turn. At first I didn't believe him, but he got in our head. Convinced us to follow him. After that year when Percy brought the Master Bolt back to Zeus and exposed Luke as a traitor, he left camp. Some of us followed. We sailed around on Luke's ship for a bit. But then he discovered the Labyrinth. He was convinced that was the way into camp, the way we would strike at the gods. He sent parties into the maze, trying to figure out how to safely navigate it. I was one of those parties." Here Chris closed his eyes and a small sneer appeared on his face. "The things I saw down there… The Labyrinth is evil, Meg. Pure evil. I went mad, full on insane wandering down there. I don't remember much, only small chunks. Apparently I found the surface again, somewhere in Arizona. All I remember was heat, and thirst. Clarisse told me she brought me to her mom's house and tried to nurse me back to health. I spent half a year there, before Clarisse could get me to camp in the summer. I don't remember how she got us back, only the fact that it got dark again. I thought I was back in the labyrinth again. It wasn't though. I spent a month in the cellar of the Big House, before Mr D. came back to camp and healed my mind. Clarisse stayed with me almost the entire time. When I came back-mentally-I almost didn't want to. I was so ashamed of what I had done. Clarisse convinced me it didn't matter what I had done, it mattered what I would do. I asked her out to the fireworks that summer, and we've been together ever since. In fact…" Chris brought out a small box from his pocket and opened it. Inside was a thin bronze ring, decorated with a small tourmaline stone. "In Arizona, we found another adult half-blood, working at a jewellers. Son of Hephaestus. I had him make this for me before we left. Was going to ask after we left college, but then we got preoccupied with getting to camp." Meg looked at the ring.
"Why not do it here? The place where you got together?"
Chris nodded thoughtfully. I was thinking that, but I'm not sure. This is where we got together-gods, that was seven years ago-but it's got good and bad memories. I'm not sure if I can. I mean, I'm effectively a traitor to the gods. What if she doesn't want me?"
Meg stared at him. "If a girl is willing to stay with you for seven years, I think they would want the person they stayed with. Just get up and do it at the campfire tonight before you lose the courage entirely."
Chris took a deep breath. "Maybe you're right. Thanks, Meg. This felt good to get off my chest."
Meg shrugged again. "We've all done stuff we aren't proud of. Percy blew up Mt St Helens and displaced half a million people. Apollo had his girlfriend assassinated for cheating on him. Heck, I served in the Imperial Household of Nero for a few years. Point is, it doesn't matter if you've done bad stuff. You just gotta do more good stuff."
Chris looked at Meg with newfound respect. "Are you sure you're not a child of Aphrodite? You seem to be pretty good at the whole 'empathetic talk' stuff."
Meg snorted. "Could a child of Aphrodite call up giant tree roots? Nope, Child of Demeter, through and through. Now we've got your self-confidence issues sorted out, lets go make some noise." With that Meg walked off towards Cabin 7.
(A/N I'm probably more proud than I should be at this, but I always felt like Chris was a character with a great backstory but one with barely any detail. Also, those of you who have not read the A/N's in previous chapters, we never get told who Chris's parent is. He's in Cabin 11 bc he was unclaimed. So shaddap. And don't come crawling to me with the excuse of 'movie canon'. This story has been explicitly marked as a 'Book canon' story. Sorry to those who read this explanation in earlier chapters, but there's always going to be the people who skip over the author's note.)
