Disclaimer: The great and powerful Rick Riordan owns all. Any character you do not recognize are mine.
Thank you to the readers and reviewer. This chapter may not be all it's cracked up to be. My writing muse was apparently in bed already.
Last time on Only Time Will Tell:
Camp was gone. Around her grass and wild flowers wilted, and blazing trees covered the ground that used to hold the cabins. The sunset was nothing like she had seen before red, and purple, mixtures of green, and the smell it was horrible. She brought her hands up to cover her face as flames licked at her heels. "Oh shi…" And then everything went black.
Chapter 3: Independence Day
Rachel brought her hands away from her face leaning on her elbows. "And that's it."
"Very curious." Said Dionysus. "And you said the Oracle just vanished." He had put his magazine down in the middle of her story and was now walking around the room.
"It could mean numerous things." Chiron said as he cleaned his glasses out of habit.
"We're going to get four new demi-gods."
"Yes Periwinkle, Obviously." Hmpfed Dionysus, sarcastically of course.
"Percy…" Whispered Annabeth with a hand on his shoulder.
"Yes well," Chiron said placing his glasses back on. "I believe we should convene the council. Percy why don't you gather everyone and Annabeth let's get Rachel some water."
"Bah! Wine cures all!" Said Dionysus "I have the perfect specimen here a bottle of 1867 Merlot…" Dionysus stared at the bottle longingly. "Oh what the hell." he muttered as he uncorked the bottle.
"Come on Rachel let's get you some water." Annabeth said pointedly and helped her up towards the kitchen.
When Annabeth and Rachel entered the Rec room, Leo and Chris were on their second round of ping-pong. The other cabin leaders lounged on the bleachers or were playing basketball.
"Alright everyone." Announced Chiron. "it seems we have a new prophecy…"
"Seriously!" Interrupted Leo.
"LEO!" everyone else groaned.
"What? Am I not the only one that's fed up with this whole prophecy stuff?" Leo glanced around. "You all are thinking it."
"How ever right Leo might be," answered Chiron with a pointed glare at Leo. "We still have to deal with them… Rachel if you please." He gestured to the group. Rachel sighed and started from the beginning.
"It's been two hours, and we've gotten no where." Groaned Piper.
"The first half is pretty easy to understand, four demi-gods, trust, and something that could cause Gaea to rise again." Jason stated.
"And we have to be united!" Chimed in Leo who was lying underneath the ping-pong table.
"But the rest," Percy started "Maybe we should take a break."
"That's a good idea, let us reconvene in the morning." Chiron said. A majority of the group departed leaving only Annabeth, Percy, Jason, Piper, and Leo.
"Movie at my cabin?" Percy asked, nonchalantly draped his arm over Annabeth's shoulders, pulling her into his side tightly.
"Sounds good to me." Jason said. As a group they meandered down to Percy's cabin.
The group settled in Percy's living room as he went to pop popcorn and Leo headed to the DVD collection. Jason and Piper were on the love seat, Rachel in a bean bag chair, and Annabeth was sprawled out on the couch. Handing bowls of popcorn to everyone he took his place with Annabeth, Percy cuddled in behind her his head resting on her shoulder and his arm wrapped around her hips. Ever since tartarus no one had said a word about how they were always touching.
Percy wouldn't say it but with out feeling her, his heart raced in a bad way, and he would look for her, trying to find her. Annabeth's touch calmed him.
Leo jumped up and stood in the middle of the room. "Alright we have She's All That, Independence Day or..." He paused as he shuffled through other movies "or Red Pyramid… whatever that is." Leo shrugged.
"Independence day!" Piper said
"Really? Aliens?" asks Jason
"Yeah, Dad and I watched it together all the time."
"Hmm ok. Independence Day it is!" Leo proclaimed tossing the other movies aside.
"Hey man! Those are mine." Percy complained half-heartedly.
"Oops, sorry dude." Leo said. The others just rolled their eyes.
Leave it to Leo, Jason thought. He tucked a strand of Piper's hair behind her ear and kissed her head. Piper rearranged so that she was cuddled on Jason's lap. This was the life, she thought to herself.
"And Play!" Leo used the remote as a wand and off they went.
Half way into the movie Leo was asleep on the floor; Rachel was munching on popcorn, while the two couples of the night were pretending to watch the movie. As quickly as the beam in "Independence Day" was it seemed much brighter then the rest.
"Holy Shit!" Rachel yelled jumping up. That in turn woke Leo up.
"Festus? Wha…" He mumbled.
"Did you guys not see that?!" Rachel asked.
Jason, Piper, Annabeth, and Percy uncurled themselves. "I didn't see anything." Said Annabeth.
"It was on the beach! Come on!" Rachel said and took off running.
"We should probably follow her." Said Piper. The group jumped up and jogged after Rachel.
Rachel stopped. Quickly blinking a couple of times to make sure she was seeing right. Lying in front of her on the sand was a girl. Her hair was auburn brown, and she was wearing a white t-shirt tucked into royal blue shorts, her feet were bare. The girl was tan, that much Rachel could tell but the rest was obscured by the darkness.
Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Leo almost ploughed Rachel over. They stood in a semicircle besides her attempting to make sense of what happened.
There was a stranger lying on the beach.
"Freaky." Leo whispered. "Do you think she's dead?" Jason elbowed him in the gut.
"I don't think so." said Annabeth. "Her chest is moving up and down.
"Do you think this has to do with the prophecy?" asked Piper.
"Probably." Leo whispered again.
"Percy. Check her pulse." Annabeth whispered as she pushed Percy towards the figure.
"Why me?" he whispered back.
"Just do it." Snapped Annabeth.
"Ok, ok." Percy said as he moved slowly towards the girl on the beach. The rest of the group stood with bated breath. No one had ever shown up this way, an explosion of bright light, this was insane!
"What is going on?" Chiron demanded. Everyone jumped. All they could do was point. Jason looked behind him, it seemed the rest of the camp had followed Chiron out here.
Murmurs ran through out the crowd. Is that a girl? Who was this she? What was that flash of light! She would totally be in our cabin thought many of the Aphrodite kids sending those standing next to them into a vicious attack of eye rolling.
Percy had inched his way closer; he got down on his knees and brushed the hair off the girls face. There was something about the angle of her jaw that had him hesitating. It looked so familiar. Pressing his fingers to her throat, he felt a small but strong pulse.
"Smelling salts?" he asked Michael from the Apollo cabin.
"Yeah, here Percy." Michael said as he grabbed the salts out of his bag.
Percy put the smelling salts under the girl's nose.
Suddenly the girl on the beach rolled on to her side and started coughing. Percy patted her back and soon the girl wiped her mouth and moved to push her self up.
Twisting her head around the new comer finally noticed the crowd. 'Oh great' she thought to herself 'What happened? Ugh, my head! Wait… How did I get to the beach?'.
Percy had moved back, kneeling down a little ways from the new kid. His face was puzzled; something about her was familiar, like he had met her before. But he couldn't place her.
Annabeth moved towards Percy and put her hand on his shoulder. Percy puts his hand on hers. 'There's something strange about her.' She thought to herself.
The campers looked on as the stranger rotated around so that she was facing the entire group. As she scanned the crowd they noticed her eyes grew larger. Finally her eyes landed on Percy and Annabeth.
Falling back and frantically scooting away from the camp the stranger was breathing hard. Her hands flew to her eyes attempting to rub the cobwebs away. As she opened them again she was staring directly at Percy and Annabeth.
'Holy Hera' The strange girl thought to herself, and on a shaky breath she said "M-mom? D-dad?"
Thanks for reading let me know what you thought with reviews please!
-Anna Mo