Nico woke up covered in sand for the second time in as many days. The sun was barely up so the camp was quiet when as he walked back to his cabin. Kaie was no where to be seen. After changing into less sandy clothes, he walked towards the Big House.
"I wouldn't" Thalia's voice stopped him just before he reached the porch. "Hermes just went in." She sat under one of the massive trees in the shade. Nico slid down next to her. "Percy and Annabeth?" Thalia rolled her eyes. "Disappeared together last night." She made a face at the idea then turned as the door to the Big House opened.
"I'll leave in a few hours." Kaie's voice travelling the distance to the demigods in the early morning silence.
Kaie walked out onto the porch with Hermes. "Take them with you." Kaie shook her head vehemently. "You know what happens to demigods who stay around me for long." Sadness streaked across Hermes' face for a moment. "I know. But if you don't Lord Zeus will probably try to collar you again." Kaie made a disgusted face. "I'd shove it up his pompous a..." Thunder rolled threateningly across the sky. Kaie fumed silently. Tired, frustrated, and lost. She knew she had done this before but every life seemed like the first, confusing and draining.
"We can't afford the division right now. Please just do it. You owe me." Kaie grimaced at the reminder of last time and hesitated before nodding. Debts were important and she would never be the first to ignore them. "I'll take him but not all of them. Especially not him." Hermes nodded, understanding, and vanished, leaving the eavesdropping demigods confused at the extreme pronoun usage.
Kaie walked across the porch and down the steps and walked over to Nico and Thalia. Neither demigod seemed repentant about being caught eavesdropping.
"So what happens to demigods who hang around you? Nico asked with a sly grin. Kaie's heart beat wanted to speed up at the sight but she forced the impulse away. "They die horrific and gruesome deaths." Kaie mirrored his grin in an effort to subtly warn them.
"Lovely." Thalia mumbled sarcastically. "It's not like that doesn't happen anyway." She told Kaie as she stood, brushing leaves from her pants. "So who's going with you?"
"Nico." Nico almost jumped out of his skin at the idea. "No way in Hades am I going with you!"
"Aw. Nico I'm hurt." Kaie put a hand on her chest as if wounded before turning and walking towards the mess hall. Nico and Thalia looked at each other once then ran to catch up. The horn for breakfast sounding just as they moved.
"Don't worry. You weren't my first choice either." Kaie began speaking again as they pulled level with her. "Unfortunately neither one of us has a choice. You're stuck being my parole officer for the foreseeable future." Thalia and Kaie both heard his teeth grind together as he grimaced and cursed under his breath.
The redhead looked at the huntress, "Is he always like this?", ignoring the withering glare Nico threw at them both. Thalia nodded sadly. "Poor thing used to be normal. But now he's just a big void of emoness."
Nico threw up his hands in protest. "I am not emo! I just like black!" Kaie laughed, unable to resist teasing him more. "You really need to check that denial checked out Nico. Bad things could happened if you don't." Amusement sparkled in Thalia's eyes as Nico retorted. "This all coming from someone known as the Gray Lady. Not emo at all."
"So are you taking anyone else? Thalia asked diplomatically as the neared the mess hall, breaking the glare between Nico and Kaie.
Kaie shook her head. "Nah, bad enough I have to take him." She gestured to Nico with a finger. He was looking up at the sky for no apparent reason. Kaie couldn't help but remember the other children of Hades she had known. Why were they always this...she couldn't think of a word to describe it quite right but they were all so similar.
"Gray Lady." Mr.D's voice thundered from the main table as the three entered the dining hall, shaking Nico out of his drifting thoughts. The entire hall was filled with campers. It was later than he had thought. The room fell silent at the sound of the camp director's voice.
Nico glanced at Kaie. She was smiling sweetly. Too sweetly, the smile looked too perfect to be real. "Aw. You remembered my name D. It only took you a couple thousand years."
As she spoke she walked across the room, embracing the campers watching her. Hamming up her actions to the crowd. To the shock of the assembled group, she sat down on the front of the main table, grabbing Mr.D's diet coke can in the process. To add to the number of jaw bones hitting the marble floor. Mr. D did nothing. He continued eating as if nothing had changed.
"All right." Kaie turned her attention the awestruck campers. "Most of you have no clue who I am and normally I'm fine with that but unfortunately you all might be dying horrifically in the next week or so I figured you might as well go out knowing one of the better kept secrets of Olympus."
Nico leaned back against one of the columns that supported the roof and decided to watch everything explode. Maybe Zeus would end this entire mess and get him out of parole duty by incinerating Kaie in a ball of lighting.
"I'm the Gray Lady. I don't have a real name cause I keep dying. Messy thing but you get used to it. Any who, I was created by Gaia just after the Titans so yes I am older than the gods technically. The whole dying repeatedly thing makes it a tricky business. So anyway, I'm here now cause some idiot decided to open a death gate and the gods can't manage to handle it. Any questions?" The room was silent. Not even the children of Apollo said anything. "Good. That was easy. Any body know where Clarisse is? I need explosives."
Nico had to stop himself from laughing as Kaie walked towards him a grin on her face. As Nico watched, the grin disappeared, a earth crushing sadness taking over her face for a moment before the grin reappeared as Clarisse walked over.
"Explosives?" Kaie turned back at the sound of Clarisse's voice and nodded once. "Armory." Clarisse gestured with her head and lead Kaie nodded and followed the daughter of Ares' out of the mess hall. "Nico pack. We're leaving right after this." She yelled over her shoulder.
"Nico's going with you?" Clarisse let out a laugh as Kaie rolled her eyes. "Unfortunately the gods decided he was my shadow till this was all over. Not that I don't think he'll be useful, I just work better by myself."
"Nico might surprise you." Kaie stopped in confusion. A child of Ares giving a compliment to someone else was a rare thing. "Don't give me that look. He's a punk but he's got skill." Kaie laughed and began walking again.
"So why do you need explosives? I thought you had a bunch of magic god skills or something." Clarisse took a ring of bronze keys from her belt and unlocked the massive stone door to the armory.
"I normally do but I'm not taking my second chip out yet. Things would end very very badly if I did."
"How so? Clarisse's curiosity was piqued.
Kaie shrugged and followed her into the armory, waiting as the lights slowly came on. "All my other lives I've had years to work with my talents. They're different every life so it takes time. I don't even know what gifts I would get. Every time I'm reborn its a Russian Roulette of choices. If I took the chip out now, who the hell knows how much damage I could do. Now that I've got to take care of something it would be more trouble than its worth." Kaie watched the lights glint off the weapons and storage cases. She felt slightly better for the first time since hearing about Zoe's death. Lethal weaponry always helped make a girl feel better.
She walked down the main isle, perusing the selection to either side. "Can I ask a question?" Kaie looked back at Clarisse who was still by the door. "You just did but feel free to have another." A bandolier of grenades looked promising.
"Why do you need other weapons when you have a God Killer? Chiron said something about it could change into any weapon."
"It can but only when I'm born. Every life, a new weapon." Kaie ran a hand along one of the cases, the smooth steel sliding under her fingertips
"How is it chosen?" Clarisse moved down one of the other aisles as she spoke.
"Subliminal choice. Necessity. Yada yada. Blah. I wasn't listening that day."
"Would plastic explosives work?" Clarisse pulled a pale green block out of a metal box.
"Messing with detonators would be too much of a hassle."
Clarisse shrugged and put it back. "So what weapons has it been?"
"Basic sword the first couple times. Nice battle ax once or twice. Sai last time. That was interesting. I can't remember most of it's past forms though."
Clarisse looked up, confused. "How come?"
Kaie tapped her head with a finger as she eyed a case of napalm. "Purely human mind. I can't remember most things from my past lives."
"What do you remember then?"
Kaie looked away from Clarisse as the memories came crashing down around her. "Blood. Fire. Death. People dying. The types of things that stick with you."
Faces were through up from her memories. Rachelle daughter of Athena. Jacob son of Hephaestus. William son of Ares. Liz daughter of Iris. Cole son of Dionysus. So many faces pushed forward from behind the mental walls she had created years ago. Guilt gnawed at her heart before she could forced it away again.
She grabbed a bandolier of flash grenades. Better to go nonlethal sense they would be moving fast and probably dealing with cops at some point.
Kaie's feet moved of their own accord, dragging her out of the armory, leaving a confused but understanding Clarisse behind her. Nico was by the door. The look in his eyes told her he had heard. "Let's go." Her voice was cold even to her own ears.
Nico followed her back up the big house. Chiron handed Kaie two sets of keys, one of which she tossed to him. Nico grinned when he saw the Yamaha logo. Chiron said nothing, catching on to Kaie's mood and simply nodded as they headed to the garage that very few campers knew about. Nico had only been in it once.
The door of the plain single level cabin slid open. Two Yamaha YZF-R1's sat alone, waiting. Each one had full helmet with a tinted visor and a properly sized jacket on the seat. "Helmets have radio." Kaie told him before sliding her's on and straddling the bike. She gunned the engine and shot out of the garage, leaving Nico to follow.
Thank you to everyone how has read the story. I really appreciated it and it means a lot. That being said, I'm not going to upload again until I get some reviews. I know people are reading the story but the lack of specifics doesn't tell me what people like or dislike about it. Anything is helpful.
Last chapter I mentioned the time period that Kaie last lived in. I'm curious to see if anyone can figure out what historical event/disaster she was involved in. If you get it right, you get to pick one of the monsters Kaie and Nico fight in a later chapter. (Yes the violence in the story is increasing soon.)
Please Read and Review!