Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize.

Warnings: Violence. Expletives. Blood.

Lost In Darkness

Chapter III

Reyna stared blankly at the centaur. "Pardon?" she croaked, her hands digging into her brother's forearm. "Are you sure you're not making a mistake?" she inquired politely, sounding calm—while, in truth, she was boiling with emotional turmoil. "Percy and I are siblings—"

"Same mother," Her brother interrupted. "different fathers."

The moment he said that, Reyna wished he hadn't.

They were in different grades, so she didn't know whether he was bullied and teased or not in school by his schoolmates but by how he made such remarks casually, and how intimidating he was, she doubted he was every bullied.

Reyna received the treatment from those mean girls in her school. They called her mother a whore, having two children who were completely different in terms of looks and personality, and said she slept with two men.

Now, Chiron was just confirming her worst fears and Percy was making everyone realize it.

Camp Half-Blood wouldn't be any different: they'd say her mother was a whore and all those horrible things about her mother.

She hated Drew on first glance and from where she sat, she saw the daughter of Aphrodite's eyes glinted with malice—having some leverage over the so-called daughter of Poseidon.

"Come on," Percy spoke, breaking the silence. "We have to make sure you're completely heal." He turned, waving to an Apollo camper forward. Reyna dimly recognized him as Lee Fletcher, the counselor of the Apollo Cabin.

The son of Apollo looked mildly ill to be so close to the son of Hades but seeing as he couldn't go against some sort of must-heal-every-injured-demigod policy, he approached them. His hands glowed bright yellow as he examined her though Reyna couldn't see how one tell by just sparking his hands in front of her face.

Then he moved on to Percy who pulled away.

Lee gulped; obviously, he thought Percy was intimidating. "Dude, you sure you want to walk around with a wound like that?" He gestured to the wound of Percy's thigh. "The process isn't painful at all, if that's what you're scared of."

"No," Percy said firmly.

"Brother." The children of the Big Three traded glares, but Percy relented.

"...Fine."

xXx

The following days were hectic—to put it nicely.

As she'd expected, Reyna was teased by the Aphrodite girls. She wished Clarisse and her siblings would come and challenge her instead. But the Ares cabin stayed far, far away after their defeat by the creek.

Her brother, the son of Hades went ignored—no, avoided—by everyone.

No one liked Death's child.

To be truthful, Reyna wasn't even sure she wanted to be close to her distant brother these days. Actually, she couldn't even get close to him. He avoided everyone and the only times she saw him was when they were in the dining pavilion and they weren't even at the same table.

She had Poseidon's cabin all to herself, she wanted her brother there but Chiron was firm and adamant in saying no.

Stupid centaur; she couldn't see why Percy considered him his favorite teacher. Her brother really needed to rethink his likes and dislikes.

Speak of the devil, Reyna thought when she saw her older brother leaning by Cabin's Three doorway. She broke into a sprint when she saw him, worried that he'd leave when he saw her and she hurried to catch up.

But even when Percy saw her, he didn't move; he allowed her to tackle him into a hug, ignoring everyone's odd glances and stalking stares at the mismatched siblings.

"Why're you avoiding me?" Reyna demanded, her voice muffled.

"I had been thinking," Percy admitted, sounding guilty as he pushed her away and into the cabin. He made no move to enter Poseidon's cabin but he glanced about, slightly wistful. "Thinking that I should leave."

"What!"

Percy placed a finger to his lips, commanding her silence. "I'm sure you've noticed the odd weather."

Reyna pursed her lips in thought. "It's been drizzling this morning," she agreed. "even though the clouds are supposed to bypass this valley. Do you know why?"

"Zeus is angry," Percy answered offhandedly. "at us actually. He thought we were conspiring with Poseidon to overthrow him, which, ridiculous."

"Zeus is crazy," Reyna agreed, scowling when thunder rumbled above. "So, does that explain why you want to leave?"

"Your father framed my father," Percy said, seeming troubled. "I can't just stand by and watch, can I? Besides, I believe mom isn't dead. Father has her."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go—"

"I know what you're thinking," Percy said, wrapping his arms around her, silencing her effectively. "But I'm going alone. Only I can face father's wrath and brave the dangers of the Underworld. I will retrieve the Bolt and return it to Zeus. I promise I won't let anything happen to you."

Reyna hesitated. "You're going to leave me here."

Percy flinched. "...Yes." Reyna's hand tightened on him but he looked sorry. "Sorry," he whispered and the next thing Reyna knew, she was clutching onto wisps of shadows.

xXx

Chiron knew what the daughter of Poseidon wanted from him the moment she stormed into the Big House.

She glared at him, her gaze smoldering but Chiron wasn't the least bit intimidated, having been on the receiving end of deadly glares from deities and the demigoddess' glare was like a baby's pout before them all.

"Is there something you need, Reyna?" he inquired kindly. Even though he wanted to rub away the growing migraine.

"I want to go on a quest," she said. He wasn't surprised at her request, but he was mildly surprised that it had took her three days to decide what she had to do. Maybe she wasn't as bright as he originally thought...

Chiron hesitated before choosing to rise to his full height.

Reyna tensed, thinking that he was about to attack her. But Chiron merely strode past her. "There is something you must learn, child. I have been hiding this for a few days ever since your brother left, and it is troubling me."

Reyna came to a stop by the hill, by her cousin's tree. "What about this pine tree? It looks perfectly healthy to me. It's not even autumn yet."

Chiron was already shaking his head even as she spoke. "No, watch closely. Don't let the Mist fool you."

Reyna frowned, but she squinted at the tree, imagining herself pushing away a curtain of mist—and she gasped. The tree she had thought to be healthy was wilting, the green of the leaves receeding to yellow.

"What happened?" she asked. "Is it because of the Minotaur battle?"

"No," Chiron said, as troubled as she was. "Camp's borders are weakening, the only thing keeping them away is Lord Dionysus' presence and he'd be leaving soon, this is no good."

"It's been poisoned," Reyna said unnecessarily. Then, she blinked. "Wait, you're showing me this because you want me to go find a cure?" She stomped her foot. "No!" she protested. "I don't want to! I want to go get the Bolt—"

"This is a quest only you can brave, Reyna Jackson," Chiron interrupted, silencing her. "You're a daughter of Poseidon, only you can brave the Sea of Monsters with the highest chance of survival."

"Alone?" Sure, she was Poseidon's daughter, but she was pretty sure defeating sea monsters alone with a flick of her fingers didn't come with being the sea god's kid.

"No, you are free to chose two others to join you."

"My brother went on his quest alone," Reyna stressed, sarcasm leaking. "Why can't we go together anyway?"

"Don't you see, child of Poseidon?" Reyna frowned, turning to look at Chiron. "This is to divert everyone's attention. The gods will be split into two sides while our real enemy waits and watch as we tear one another apart. Zeus will be furious, imploring the gods to war, and camp will be attacked by our real enemy and once the gods' avatars, the demigods, are defeated..."

"You're saying I have to go if I don't want the world to end." Reyna frowned at the tree. "This tree can protect us, you say?"

"Essentially," Chiron agreed.

"What do I have to retrieve?"

Chiron's eyes twinkled. "Who have sailed the Sea of Monsters before, on Argo?"

"Jason," Reyna replied, recalling all the Greek myths. "and he did it for the... Golden Fleece..." Her eyes widened. "It still exists?"

"Yes," Chiron nodded. He glanced behind her. "I believe your questmates are here."

She turned and promptly scowled. "A daughter of Aphrodite and a daughter of Ares," she observed, then, deadpanned, "We're going to die."

Clarisse sneered. "Don't be cocky just because you're ten and leading a quest already, you little brat."

"Please do try to get along," Silena inserted softly.

"Why do I get only them?" Reyna griped. "Who went with my brother?"

Chiron smiled. "People who can keep him in place."

xXx

"I've been had," Percy grumbled moodily as he trudged after Annabeth and Grover.

The daughter of Athena threw him a scathing glare (he could feel it but couldn't see it); she was guiding him, having tied his hand and hers together, with a long celestial bronze-made string.

"We're sorry, Percy, but orders are orders," Grover said. "you can't even see where you're going. You really need us."

"Grover," Percy said. "I left you at Camp to watch over my sister, not watch over me."

"Your sister," Annabeth said, "may be a child of Poseidon, but she has way more sense than you. If I were you, I'd be worrying about myself."

"Can't help I'm so selfless," Percy remarked snidely; and the next thing the son of Hades knew, he had ran face first into a tree.

He peeled his face off, rubbing his throbbing nose.

"Ugh."

Maybe he should've brought his sister along.

A.N:
I've decided to push TLT and SOM together to quicken the story. I'm sure everyone will be bored if they keep reading the same things that happened from the book so I decided to mash those two quests together. It also saves me from boredom. I hope everyone will be more open-minded about this idea, as I'm sure it won't affect the overall plot.

I've just read HOH, so I'm pretty much burning with inspiration so expect more PJO updates from me. So...

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