Chapter 18
CLARISSE POV
(A/N I own the plot, Robin, and almost nothing else. Not even the idea of celestial bronze guns, there's a Mossberg 500 sitting in Athena's weapon shed.)
As soon as Clarisse saw Meg and Robin come down the stairs, she knew something was up. Meg looked… calmer, with a more peaceful expression on her face, instead of the undercurrent of alertness Clarisse had gotten used to. Her train of thought was interrupted by Chris speaking about them needing to head off. "Mrs Clifton, thank you for letting us stay, but now we need to go. Robin, you got your stuff?" The kid winked and spun the two pistols he had gotten from his mom (Clarisse still didn't understand why anyone preferred using ranged weapons to up-close fighting, but she supposed the noob has to keep his distance) in his hands, quickly transforming them into nickels which he stuck in his pockets.
"My backpack is upstairs, I'll grab some toiletries." Mrs Clifton muttered and followed him.
"You wouldn't know toiletries if it kicked you in the crotch." As soon as she left, Clarisse quickly looked at Chris, who nodded, having noticed the change as well and turned to Meg.
"Dish. What's between you and newbie?" Meg's expression immediately turned guarded, but Clarisse thought she saw a hint of colour in the girl's cheeks.
"Are you two doing stuff now?" Meg blushed harder and muttered a defensive 'No'. Clarisse grinned and pressed on. "You sure? You were looking pretty at ease with him there." Meg's expression hardened, (albeit while being coloured crimson) and she gave them a vague description.
"I needed to get some stuff off my chest, and I trusted Robin to help me. That's all that happened. Now, we need to go on the Amtrak line to get to Miami, right?" Clarisse was still slightly suspicious of her younger companion's relationship, but she respected her want of privacy.
"Yeah, it's a short enough walk from here. We can get tickets to Miami, hope to Zeus we don't meet any 'friends' on the trip, then we have to figure out how to navigate the Sea of Monsters." Meg laughed.
"So the usual nine-to-five of a demigod then?" Clarisse cracked a smile.
"Yup. Hey, Fireboy!" She shouted up the stairs. "Got your stuff yet?" Robin came down the stairs with a backpack over his shoulder.
"Ready. Let's hit the road."
—
After a good half-hour walk, they finally found the station and booked tickets on the train to Miami. "From there," Chris explained, "We can take a boat into the Bermuda Triangle, and find the 'living foe' of Percy. Still don't get why you won't tell us who it is, Clarisse. Wouldn't make it any harder." Clarisse tensed, and gave an evasive response.
"Truthfully, I'm hoping we're going the wrong way. This isn't just a foe Percy couldn't kill. He, Annabeth, Grover, me and a cyclops all worked together and we still couldn't beat him, we barely blinded him as is." Chris seemed to consider this, and responded.
"So, if I had gone back and looked at their quests, I would find what we're going to face?" Clarisse let out a mirthless laugh.
"Nope. Ironically, it was one of the most important quests a camper ever undertook, but it was never counted as official. The only one of us that was supposed to be there was me, and it got wiped from my record as it was given by an imposter director."
"Tantalus." Meg looked surprised, like she hadn't meant to say that out loud, but Clarisse nodded appraisingly.
"Exactly right. Technically, the only quest I ever went on was into the labyrinth, and I didn't even get a prophecy for that one. It was just go and check out Luke's army." At this Chris flinched and Clarisse cursed herself for so carelessly mentioning that. "Eimai anoitos, I shouldn't have mentioned that." Chris shook it off and grinned.
"Nah, it's all good. Hey, Johnny. What'd you hear of that?" Robin audibly groaned at that nickname.
"I'm never going to hear the end of Human Torch jokes, am I? Do you mean the stuff about the labyrinth, or the unintelligible greek?" Chris furrowed his eyebrows.
"Unintelligible? Like you didn't understand it?" Robin shook his head.
"Huh. Strange. Usually, because our minds are hardwired for greek, we can understand it fairly easy. That's why some of us have dyslexia, it interferes with reading english and other stuff." Meg piped up with an answer.
"Maybe it's cause his dad is Adranus. His main temple wasn't anywhere near Greece, it was Italy, or Spain or somewhere."
"Latera haec omnia." Clarisse suddenly spoke in Latin. Robin looked nonplussed. "Worth a shot. You should be able to speak something." A honk sounded from inside the station and they all cursed in various languages. "The train!"
—
After a mad scramble to get on the train, Clarisse managed to find four seats, two sets of two facing each other, perpendicular to the window. Robin and Chris were sitting on the window side, and next to them were Meg and Clarisse respectively. "Try to sleep. We'll keep watch." Clarisse had advised the younger demigods. Meg had taken her advice straight away, and was sitting back with her mouth slightly open. Robin had taken a longer time to drift off, but now followed Meg's example, head turned slightly towards the daughter of Demeter. Chris grinned. "Oh no. You've got that 'mischief maker' look in your eyes." Chris held up a finger to his mouth and got up, crossing the space between him and the teenagers. As Clarisse watched, he rearranged their limbs into a different position. (A/N Ha, ha. Get your jokes out now.) Now, Meg's head was resting on Robin's shoulder, with his head resting on hers, and her hand was placed on his knee, with his covering it. Sitting back down next to Clarisse, she shook her head in exasperation. "What am I going to do with you? How did you do that without waking them up?" Chris chuckled.
"Being friends with sons of Hermes has its upsides. Connor used to do this all the time with Katie and Travis. Afterwards he'd be tied up with vines hanging outside the cabin till someone took pity on him." Clarisse nodded appreciatively.
"Getting what he deserves. Never did get him back for painting Cabin 5 bright yellow." The two adults lapsed into comfortable silence for a while, only to be interrupted by a waitress who started to speak up, then noticed the teens sleeping comfortably, then smiled and whispered. "Would you like anything to eat or drink? I can save something for your friends, if you would like?" Chris smiled and waved her off.
"No thank you, these guys take in anything else, their heads'll blow off." She nodded and moved off. Clarisse looked over at her companion. Chris noticed her studying him. "What? I got something on my face?" Clarisse laughed quietly.
"No. I just like looking at you." He laughed, and took her hand.
"Consider it mutual." He leaned over in his seat and kissed Clarisse on the cheek, not a probing or suggestive kiss, but one of comfort, of a promise of home. She placed her head onto his shoulder, and dropped into slumber.
—
Clarisse's dreams were as turbulent as they were confusing. She always saw Silena, even with Nico's assurance that she was happy with Beckendorf in Elysium, Clarisse felt the guilt of her death constantly. She saw herself, looking like a war demon, leaping into the air and stabbing Maimer into the eye of the drakon. She remembered fighting on Half-Blood Hill, the greeks and romans together, in a throng of monsters and quite literally, on enemy ground. Cutting down a cenocephali here, a wild centaur there, leaving a trail of spoils of war and yellow powder in her wake. She saw Chris, insane and hiding in the basement of the Big House. Then she saw him being healed, Dionysus touching his head and bringing him back to his senses. She remembered hanging around the campfire after everyone had gone, and being so relieved that Chris was back, that she kissed him. A completely spontaneous kiss, and he kissed back. She looked over Chris's shoulder and saw Silena wink, then walk off into the darkness. Their relationship was a testament to Silena's memory, and Clarisse wanted to keep it that way. The darkness crept in and the images started changing, becoming less familiar. A giant man in a cave sat alone, seemingly talking to himself. "Beat Polyphemus? Ha! Let them come. I will make soup of their skin and bread of their bones." A tremor ran through Clarisse. Even after eight years, the voice of that cyclops still spooked her. A female voice, higher pitched, spoke up.
"You'll never win, cousin! The demigods will find me, and you will be killed, once and for all." The giant (or as Clarisse knew, cyclops) got up and looked at his captive. Clarisse willed her dream perspective to move around Polyphemus, and it did. She saw a young woman, maybe twenty to twenty-five, dressed in doctor's scrubs, and shackled to a stalagmite. (A/N Yes, doctor, not nurse. I'm not one of those people who think nurse is the feminine form of doctor. Also stalagmites are the ones coming out the ground, stalactites are the ones coming down from the ceiling.) She was bound in celestial bronze chains, running across her wrists, her arms and chest, down her legs and looping around her ankles. Polyphemus chuckled to himself.
"Ha. Wife is funny." Clarisse almost tripped over her own feet. Wife? Thankfully the woman spoke up again.
"Not yet, cousin. The demigods will free me, and you will never attain immortality!" The dream faded, and Clarisse found herself in complete blackness. A woman's voice sounded out, breaking the tranquility.
"Find my daughter, girl. Save her, before Polyphemus marries her and gains the power to destroy us!"
(A/N Well, well, well. Ever hear the tale of three rivers? Jokes aside, please review telling me your guesses at what you think is happening? A gold Drachma to whoever guesses correct. I honestly do love writing Chrisse, partly because it's left so vague I have a lot of freedom, but also because their stories are so compelling. Chris is the misguided friend at the beginning, who then reforms along the way, and Clarisse is the person that pushes everyone away for fear of hurting them but eventually opens their heart. These reasons are why I like Knockout and Arcee in Transformers: Prime. Which is a good show btw, sadly Netflix got rid of seasons two and three last year, which makes the whole thing pretty unwatchable cause of cliffhangers. Anyone finds a way to watch that, please let me know.)
Vaya con Queso,
DamaSENDhimafriend
