Chapter 11
When Timothy woke up, his face was pressed against a soft pillow, one softer than the one he had in cabin five. The pillow was warm against his face, he nearly went back to sleep because of it. He was all warm and wrapped up in a silk blanket that was smooth to the touch.
He sat up and groaned, rubbing the side of his face. When his fingers touched his face, his fingers were met by a rough texture. It was sort of like sandpaper. He knew his skin was nowhere near that rough, so he withdrew his hand and tried again, but the feeling didn't go away. The feeling left him concerned, but he'd worry about that later, first he needed to figure out where he was.
He felt like shit. His shoulder had a throbbing pain that sent out waves of pain. His face felt off, like part of it was stiff. He didn't feel any pain but it did have a feeling of pressure on the side of his face.
Timothy looked around. The room he was in was a bedroom he'd never been in before. The bed wasn't his own, it was way too big, not to mention it wasn't a bunk bed like the one he had in cabin five. The nightstand next to him was made of some dark wood with gilded handles on the drawers.
Some of the paintings were odd to him, like they belonged in some sort of museum for art, not a bedroom. There was a painting of twelve people in robes standing in the foreground of some Greek landscape. The buildings were old and made of marble, like the background was a painting of ancient Greece.
A sharp pain flew up Timothy's face. He grunted, his vision blurred for a moment and a ringing started in his ears. He put a hand to his right ear, trying to steady himself so he didn't careen off the side of the bed. He couldn't help the loud groan that tore itself out of his mouth.
Not even a minute after he groaned, the door to the room opened, revealing multiple worried faces. The first person he recognized was Scarlett, whose face was pale with worry, though he didn't understand what she was so worried about. Then there was Alexander, who looked like he was pitying him, his eyes were full of sorrow. Then there was Ivy, who wore a face of pure shock, her eyes were wide and her mouth was agape as she stared at him.
Chiron and a son of Apollo walked into the room, Timothy could recognize children of Apollo pretty well by now. They tended to have really clean skin, their dad was the god of medicine so it made sense that they were hygienic and clean. Not to mention, they all had a intense fear of snakes, though he didn't know where that came from.
"Are you feeling right?" The son of Apollo asked him as he set down a brown leather bag next to his bed.
"What do you mean?" Timothy asked in a confused tone, aside from the slight pain on his face, he didn't feel like he was dying or anything.
"I mean, do you feel any intense pain or anything."
Timothy shook his head, "No. Why?"
The son of Apollo looked relieved. He turned to Chiron, "I don't think he'll need surgery." His friends looked just as relieved, though he wasn't sure if he could consider Ivy relieved.
"Woah, hold up. I won't need surgery for what?" Timothy asked.
The son of Apollo turned to him with a sorry look, "Listen, this is going to be rough, just know that we're all here for you."
"What happened damnit?!" Timothy demanded.
The son of Apollo closed his eyes before reaching over into his leather bag and pulling out a mirror. He didn't face the mirror towards him at first, instead he leaned forward and started unwrapping something from around his head. When he pulled back, he was holding a white wrap that had brown stains on it, dried blood stains.
Then he turned the mirror towards him.
A geyser of disgust flew up Timothy's stomach as he stared at himself in the mirror. He nearly vomited when he saw himself. His stomach felt like it was tumbling and his throat felt raw. Disgust and fear ravaged his brain.
In the mirror, was his face, but it wasn't normal. The left side of his face had a horrible scar. The scar was thin, but it was long. It started from his left eyebrow, went over his eye which at this point was a milky white color, and ended at his jawline. He could still see out of his left eye, but it looked horrid in the mirror. Gone was the dark green color he was accustomed to.
Then it all came back to him. Him dropping his sword in the dual against Percy, his father's anger, his argument with his father, and ultimately his father striking him with his sword.
"No…" Timothy breathed.
"We tried everything we could." The son of Apollo said, "We were able to save your vision but we can't heal the scar. Anymore ambrosia and nectar and you'll burn up, literally. I'm sorry."
Timothy clenched his fist, he was angry now. He wasn't sure who he was angry at, but he was definitely angry. He saw it in the mirror, his right eye, which was normal, was full of pure rage. His left eye seemed to stare back at him like a defiant foe, as if to tell him it wasn't going anywhere.
"We'll give you and your friends some time." Chiron said in a soothing tone.
Timothy watched as the son of Apollo got up, packed his stuff, and followed the Centaur out of the room. His friends shuffled over to his bedside and sat down uneasily.
"I called for help as soon as I found you." Scarlett said, "What happened? Who did this to you?"
"You don't want to know." Timothy said. He nearly flinched at his own voice, he even sounded different, he sounded like a man who'd lost everything.
"I do want to know!" Scarlett insisted, "Scarring someone during training is one thing but going out of their way to hurt you inside one of the cabins is completely different."
"It was dad!" Timothy snapped at her, "Ares did this to me."
Scarlett recoiled a little bit, it was like she was taken aback by the news that their own father would be this cruel.
"I always knew Ares was a bad guy, but scarring his own son for a mistake?" Alexander said, "How could anyone do that?"
Timothy looked away, he didn't want their pity. He wanted to get back everything he'd lost. He vaguely remembered his dad telling him that he'd have to kill Echidna to get his honor back. The thing is, Timothy didn't give a shit about his honor. Honor wouldn't rid him of the horrible scar he now was forced to bear, it wouldn't free him of the shame that he would feel when people inevitably saw his face.
No, he had another reason for wanting to complete his father's quest. Once he killed that monster, he was going to request a audience with Ares personally, then he was going to sock that fucker in the face, just to show him how it feels.
"He gave me a quest." Timothy told his friends, "He told me I had to kill Echidna to get my honor back as a son of Ares."
"You don't have to do that." Alexander said, "You're still a son of Ares, he can't take that away from you."
"Actually, he does have to do that." Scarlett said, "If everyone in the cabin finds out that dad stripped him of his honor, they might kick him out of the cabin, and that's if they're feeling nice."
"What is with you Ares kids and being so fucked up for no reason?" Ivy butted in, "Seriously, first your dad scars his own son for a honest mistake, then you guys decide to make his life that much harder?"
"You think I want to do that?!" Scarlett snapped, "I would never do anything like that to him and neither would my sisters, but my brothers would. They would see it as him losing his manhood, they'd make fun of him until he left or died, and considering the fact that my cabin is predominately filled with boys, there'll be a lot of bullying."
"So what the fuck do I do?" Timothy asked, "If I can't go back in there, then what do I do?"
Scarlett rubbed her chin, "No one besides us knows what happened. I think there's a reason why that is."
Timothy wasn't following her at all, he was certain everyone would find out eventually.
"I think this is dad showing mercy." Scarlett said, "He gave you that quest for a reason. He wants you to complete it, otherwise he'll tell everyone what happened, then you'll be forced to do the quest."
"So I have to kill Echidna regardless?" He asked.
"You'll have to if you want things to go back to normal."
Timothy had a feeling nothing would ever go back to normal. This infernal scar would still be on his face, there was no amount of monster-slaying, sparring, or laurel wreaths that could free him of it.
He resigned himself to the fact that he was going to have to kill Echidna. He knew he couldn't do it alone though, he needed help. He'd only fought the hellhound in the forest and he had a feeling that would be child's play compared to a fight against the mother of all monsters.
"Well, are you down to come help me—" He asked her, only for the door to open.
Everyone looked over and gasped. Instead of Chiron, Mr. D, or some other god, Ares was the one standing in the doorway. He wore Ancient Greek armor, except he had his helm off, revealing his cruel features. A huge sword hung from his side, the same sword that gave Timothy his scar.
A hot flash of rage came bubbling to the top. Timothy nearly lurched out of the bed at the god, but was stopped by Scarlett, Alexander, and Ivy holding him down. He thrashed against their hands as they held him down on the bed.
"Let me go!" He yelled.
"No way, bro!" Alexander exclaimed, "You attack him and you won't leave this room alive!"
"You ought to listen to your friend, son." Ares said with a mocking tone.
"You think this is funny?!" Timothy yelled at him, "If they let me go, I'll grab that sword and shove it up your—"
"Timothy, shut up!" Scarlett yelled at him, "You're not going to get anywhere by acting like this!"
Timothy desperately wanted to be free, he wanted to grab Ares by the neck so he could start wailing on him, but he knew he couldn't do anything with three demigods holding him down. He started to settle down, but his eyes still blazed with rage towards Ares.
"You done throwing your little temper tantrum, boy?" Ares asked.
"Fuck-you." Timothy growled through gritted teeth.
Ares laughed at his disrespect, "Keep that rage, you'll need it."
"Why are you here, dad?" Scarlett asked.
Ares smiled at her, "Not to fight, not yet anyways. I'm just here to set up some ground rules."
Timothy watched as he walked back and forth in the room.
"First things first, I won't let you tarnish any of your siblings' honor with your quest, so you aren't allowed to bring any of your siblings." He pointed to Scarlett, "That includes you, Scarlett, don't follow him or you'll suffer alongside him."
"But dad!" She protested, "He doesn't have any experience, I do!"
"Doesn't matter." Ares said simply, "Second rule, if you come back to camp without killing Echidna, I will make sure you wish you never came back. If you start this quest, you will finish it, or die trying."
Timothy wanted to tear Ares apart right then and there, he didn't care that he was the war god or that he was his father, he hated him more than anyone else on the planet.
"Last rule, you must kill Echidna. You can bring two friends with you on your little quest, but if any one of them kills her, your honor is forfeit and I'll make sure you don't have a place in cabin five. This is your burden to bear."
Timothy and his friends watched as the war god grinned at them before turning and walking out of the room. His footsteps sounded like bombs as his boots hit the floor. His armor clinked and his sword swung back and forth. The door slammed behind him.
As soon as he was gone, all the rage Timothy had suddenly drained out of his body. He fell on his back and wheezed, he was exhausted. His friends slowly let go of him. They sat back with relieved looks on their faces.
"Do you guys mind if I say that guy is a dick?" Alexander asked, nodding his head towards the door where Ares had left.
"Nope, that's Ares for you." Ivy said, "I'm surprised they didn't make him the god of being a asshole."
Scarlett looked the angriest out of all of them, "How can he just do that? You have almost no experience fighting monsters, you'll get slaughtered out there!"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence." Timothy grumbled.
"I'm serious!" She exclaimed, "You need to bring people who have experience. Don't even think about going this alone."
Timothy knew that was easier said than done, he didn't have many friends at camp, at least not many outside his cabin. He'd be hard-pressed to find someone who was willing to join him.
"I'll come with you." Alexander volunteered. Scarlett and Ivy looked at him with skeptical looks. He looked at them, "What?"
"I'm sorry, but didn't Malcolm go out of his way to never send you to the mortal world after you stole a school bus?" Ivy asked.
"That was one time, and it was to save the half-blood on it!" He defended.
Scarlett sighed, "Well, he has experience."
"I don't care if he stole the fucking declaration of independence." Timothy said, "You can come with me if you want."
Alexander gave him a thankful look.
"If he's going, then I'm coming too." Ivy said, "Someone needs to stop you two from tearing half the country apart before you even get to Echidna. Plus, you'll need someone who can service your sword and I don't think mister bus-stealer here knows a thing about metal work."
"We are not calling me mister bus-stealer." Alexander said.
"Live with it."
"Okay, but do you guys know where Echidna even is?" Scarlett asked, "I mean, she could be anywhere in the country. If you think you'll just waltz your way into her lair, you guys won't."
"Well, Percy found her by complete accident, remember?" Alexander said.
"Yeah, and neither of you are Percy." Scarlett pointed out, "You guys need to take this seriously. My dad isn't big on second chances."
"I figured that." Alexander said as he got up, "I'll do some looking around my cabin, there's gotta be something that'll point us in the right direction."
Everyone watched as he left the room. The second the door closed behind him, Timothy heard him let out a shout of excitement before running down the hall.
"He's a moron." Ivy concluded.
"But he's a smart moron." Scarlett said.
"That doesn't exist."
"Well, he's proof."
"Yeah, he's a walking paradox." Ivy said.
Scarlett chuckled. She turned to Timothy and laid a hand on his shoulder, "I'll go get your bag ready. You might want to leave as soon as Alexander finds out where Echidna is."
When she left the room, that left him and Ivy as the only ones in the room. Timothy was going to be honest, he wasn't sure if he wanted Ivy along. Sure, she tolerated his presence, but that didn't mean she liked him at all. He couldn't imagine being in a room with her for more than two hours, nonetheless entire days, he'd be surprised if they didn't kill each other.
"Okay, spill, why do you want to come along?" He said, "I know you aren't coming with me because you like me."
"You're right." She admitted, "I don't like you, but I do feel bad for you. You're the only person in a long while who actually let me work on their weapon, then this happens to you. I'm not about to let my only customer run off to die, not if I have something to say about it."
"Fine, I can live with that." Timothy nodded, "But before we go, I want to make sure you aren't going to try to kill me."
"Like I said, you're my only customer, it gets boring working on self-projects."
"Alright then, it's settled." Timothy said, "We'll go together."
Ω
The second Timothy walked through the door of cabin five, Scarlett was waiting for him. She tossed him a black backpack, which he caught, and nearly dropped when he realized how heavy it was. It was no bigger than a typical high-schooler's backpack, but it was way heavier. The strap had a claw mark from something, and the zippers looked like they'd been replaced a bunch of times.
"What's this?" He asked, slowly setting it down.
"A old quest bag." Scarlett said, "I packed it with everything you might need for your quest."
Timothy gave her a thankful look before unzipping the bag. He peered inside and was taken aback by all the stuff inside. He pulled out a green canteen and shook it, sloshing sounds coming from inside.
"That's nectar." Scarlett clarified, "It'll help you if you get hurt. Don't drink it like it's water though, too much and you'll burn up. Same with the ambrosia squares."
Timothy looked into the bag and pulled out a Ziploc bag of squares that looked to him like Graham crackers. The bag was full of them. He set them down next to the canteen and started searching through the rest of the bag.
The further he got into the bag, the more he realized that some of the stuff in there was his. He'd pulled out his red Ares cabin hoodie, a couple of pairs of jeans, two camp shirts that were his size, and some socks. Then there was stuff that he knew he didn't own, like the black dented hydro flask of water or the rolls of cash, he hadn't shown up to camp with any money. Then he picked up a small sack, the sound of something metal inside jingled. When he opened it, he found himself staring at a dozen or so gold coins.
"Those are drachmas, you might want to save those. You never know who you might have to bribe to get somewhere." Scarlett said. She explained everything like she had experience, Timothy reckoned she probably did.
As he started putting everything back, she started to say, "Listen, I really wish I could come with—"
"It's fine, Scarlett." He said, "None of this is your fault, dad made it clear that you're not allowed to come with me."
Scarlett gave him a sad yet frustrated look. He knew the real reason why she was so adamant on coming with him. Out of all the brothers she had, he'd been nice to her on day one. He figured the other guys probably gave her a hard time or something. Now she was basically being forced to watch him march off to go fight some monster.
In a way, he was kind of irritated she wasn't able to come with him either. She'd been more of a sister to him than his stepsister had. He'd come to rely on her sometimes, now he was being forced to go without her.
"Just make sure to take things slow when you're out there, don't do anything you might regret." She said, "And remember everything we taught you, I promise it'll help."
He shouldered the backpack and smiled, "Thanks."
He turned and left the cabin, leaving Scarlett standing in the middle of the cabin with a worried look on her face.
Once he was outside the cabin, he found Ivy waiting for him. She had a bag over her shoulder, but it wasn't anything like his. It was more like a duffle bag than a normal backpack. She had a brown toolkit wrapped around her waist along with a satchel that hung at her side. Her tomahawk hung from her belt, the metal point glinting against the sunlight.
"You don't think you're bringing a little too much?" He asked as he walked over to her.
"Nope, all this stuff is useful." She said as she walked alongside him, "I have everything we need: cash, medicine, clothes. All this other stuff is meant for me."
He looked at her toolkit, it had everything from a lockpick to a screwdriver. He wondered what else she was bringing but he didn't ask since it really wasn't any of his business, she could be bringing a nuclear bomb and he probably wouldn't have cared as much.
"So I checked up with Chiron." She said.
"Yeah? What did he say?" He asked.
"He's got Argus ready to give us a ride. He can get us as far as Manhattan but that's about it."
He nodded, if they were lucky, they wouldn't even have to leave New York. From what he had learned around camp, monsters moved around a lot, so there was a chance that she could be very close by. There was also a chance that she could be across the country. He really hoped Echidna wasn't somewhere like Alaska.
"Come on, let's take a walk." Ivy suggested, "When Alexander finished finding out where Echidna is, I'm sure he'll find us."
Timothy nodded and walked alongside her. He kept a reasonable distance from her, not because he was scared of her or anything, he just didn't want anyone thinking they were more than just friends, he wasn't sure if they were even truly friends yet.
"So, you've been at camp for a while, right?" He asked as they walked.
Ivy nodded, "Yeah, about two years. Why do you ask?"
"Well, I was wondering if what's happening to me has happened to anyone else around here." He said.
Ivy bit her lip, "It probably has, but I've never seen this type of thing happen to a Ares kid before. I mean, I knew Ares was a harsh guy but this feels like too much, even for him."
"Great." He said dejectedly.
"I mean, he's probably this mad because he gave you those swords and you just didn't live up to his expectations." She said, "Gods hate being wrong. A lot of times, they'll try to blame someone else for their issues or they end up taking their anger out of anyone besides themselves. Athena and Hera have a pretty bad habit of doing that themselves."
"What do you mean?"
Ivy looked off towards cabin six, "Athena created Arachne because Arachne said she was better at weaving than her, said she didn't get her skills from her and she still produced better work. Athena heard about this and got pissed, next thing you know, Arachne is a monster and Athena goes on about her life."
"What about Hera?" Timothy asked.
"Oh, she's even worse. She's gone after any woman that Zeus sleeps with, and it's not like these women forced him to sleep with them, Zeus has a habit of not asking for consent sometimes." Ivy said with a disgusted face, "Regardless, Hera still curses them. Lamia is a great example of that. Hera killed all her kids and turned her into a monster, it's really fucked up."
Timothy was in awe, it seemed like all the gods had a knack for doing fucked up shit.
"But this is the first time I think I've ever seen a god harm one of their own kids though." Ivy said, "The only thing I don't get is why he gave you those swords."
"Are you saying I don't deserve them?" Timothy asked with a offended tone.
"I never said that." Ivy defended, "It's just that you're new, you weren't in any immediate danger, so there was really no reason for him to gift you a weapon. Something about you caught his attention, I don't know what but I'm sure we'll find out."
Timothy didn't know what she was talking about, he wasn't special in any way. He had a fucked up home life, but there were so many other campers who had it even worse than he did. He was a son of Ares, yet there was a whole cabin of guys and girls just like him. Nothing about him screamed legendary hero in the making.
He was about to ask something else when he heard someone yelling. Their voice echoed as they shouted. He looked over and found Alexander charging towards them, a backpack hanging loosely off his shoulder.
"What is this moron doing?" Ivy asked dumbfoundedly.
Timothy watched as Alexander tripped over himself and ate a bunch of dirt. He snickered and looked over at Ivy, who was laughing behind her hand.
"I'm here!" Alexander said as he arrived, "I'm not late, am I?!"
"No, not really." Timothy said.
"Phew!" Alexander said while he leaned down, "I thought you guys left without me for a second."
"Why would we leave?" Ivy asked, "We don't even know where we're going. That's why we were waiting on you."
"Right." He said, "Well, I have good news and bad news."
"For fucks sake." Ivy said while Timothy groaned.
Alexander pulled out a crumpled map from his pocket, it had a few tears along the edges. He uncrumpled it and showed it to them, Timothy could barely read any of the words on the map.
"So I looked through some records, mainly news articles, newspapers, and satyr reports." Alexander explained, "I took notes on every incident that might be connected to Echidna. We have a possible sighting in Detroit, someone said they saw a snake woman there. Then we have a attack from two weeks ago in Oklahoma City, some satyr said they saw the Chimera burn down a alleyway trying to catch a half-blood. Then there's a panicked message from a dryad in Portland that mentioned the Chimera, I couldn't find a date for that but I figured we'd want to know."
"Are you sure you didn't miss anything?" Ivy asked, looking from the map to him.
"I mean, I'm 75% confident about this. I only picked things that weren't any older than a month."
"You're telling me you read everything in just a hour?" Timothy asked with a skeptical tone.
"I'm a fast reader." Alexander said, "Now come on! We can't waste time!"
