Dammit, vivi-rose… SPOILERS!
Uh, I'm… I'm not planning anything mean AT ALL.
Ooh, I was trying to come up with ideas for Apocalyptic Love 'cos I randomly felt like updating that one, but nothing. I know they're Outside now (scary business that) but I forgot my idea for it and I WANT TO UPDATE IT!
I'm in a bit of a weird mood today. One minute, I'm bouncing around like crazy and arguing with anyone and then the next I'm just sitting in my chair with my head on the desk. ART HAS OFFICIALLY LOST IT!
Alvie stared at Apollo as the god talked him through the latest dilemma. The immortal seemed to age as he described the situation, becoming less of a cool, carefree teenager and more like a concerned, older uncle.
"Why?" Alvie asked as Apollo fell silent.
"Why what?"
"Why all this?" Apollo shrugged.
"The Fates are worse than us gods. We are only pawns in their games." Alvie frowned. Apollo met his gaze as calmly as possible. "I'm telling you that there is still hope. You can fix this and set things right."
"And your stupid medallion?"
"Locket." Apollo corrected. Alvie obviously didn't care. "Keep hold of it."
"Why?" The sun god gave a knowing smirk.
"You'll see."
"I don't like it."
"Yes, I know." Apollo flickered and he was seventeen again. "I won't let you break it though. Or throw or give it away. That there," Apollo pointed at Alvie's hand and the locket shimmered into existence, cold against his palm. "An extra, I guess, to your gift." Alvie dropped the locket and kicked it away before it hit the floor. Apollo remained unfazed, running a hand through his hair and looking around his temple, as if seeing it for the first time. "I know you hate it all and yes, I agree that it is really stressful and exhausting, but I knew one day that I would gift a Jackson child."
"A Jackson child? Why?" Alvie frowned. "Why me anyway? I can't fight or protect people. I'm just there." Alvie sighed. His brothers- brother did that. Tobias fought alongside his father to keep the family safe. He was a great swordsman, following in Percy's footsteps and he always made people feel better or laugh or smile. Alvie wasn't like that. He couldn't fight with a sword, much less hold it. If he made somebody laugh or smile- Crystal- he got confused as to why and then he would feel stupid when she had to explain it to him. Even then, he could barely follow.
Apollo's warm hand on his shoulder bought him from his thoughts.
"I know what you're thinking. OK, maybe sword fighting isn't your thing, but so what?" Apollo grinned. "I love those storm owl things you do. They're so cool!" The god ruffled Alvie's hair. "You are strong, just in a different way to your brothers and father." Apollo's smiled dipped slightly as he realised he had said 'brothers' and hastily continued. "You don't need muscles to be strong, dude. You can do whatever you want when you put your mind to it. Just, um, little steps at first, OK?" Apollo paused. Alvie was staring down at his feet, but he was listening. "The mind is like an elastic band. Stretch it as much as you want- you can still use it. But stretch it too much and it'll snap. You don't want that, trust me." Apollo curled his fingers under Alvie's chin and made him look up. "What's bothering you?"
"It doesn't seem right. Why would-? He's-" Alvie shook his head, drawing away from the sun god. "No." He mumbled. "Make this all stop, please." Alvie looked up at Apollo, biting his lip as his eyes stung and blurred. Apollo's expression softened.
"If I could without making things worse, I would. To change the course of your quest would be to defy the Fates and that will never be good." Alvie sighed. "I will help though, bud, as best I can, but Lord Sparky isn't so lenient."
"I want this over with. I can't… I can't do this…" Apollo grabbed him by the shoulders suddenly, startling him. He gave Alvie a slight shake; his big, sunny grin back.
"Yes! Yes you can!" Apollo's smile turned reassuring and he spoke encouragingly. "There is no-one better for the job than you!" Alvie could think of a thousand other people better for the job than him, but he held his tongue.
"Then how do I do this?" The immortal threw his hand out to the side and the medallion/locket shot to his hand in a lightning quick movement.
"You'll figure it out. Just pass the message on. Your dad knows already, but tell Louisa. She'll need to mend wounds between my kids and Hephaestus's."
"But-"
"No, no, no, she'll understand. You need to focus on getting home. Well, to Camp anyway. Talk to Crystal and get your head together. You'll know what to do after that."
"How-?" Apollo hung the locket around Alvie's neck. Alvie blinked and he was back in the sewers where they had made camp. Elsie and Alokia weren't here, but he could hear them shouting for him.
He looked down at the locket. It was still there, but it was warm, which struck Alvie as odd. It was always cold; no matter how long he held it or how long he left it in a fire. He pulled it off and stuffed it in his pack.
Shouting out for his cousins, he felt something in his pocket. It was one of Max's concealed axes, one of the sticks, warm and well-used. Alvie remembered that Max only had one axe at the… at the end… Was it this one?
Alokia stumbled around the corner first and relief washed over her expression. She stumbled forward and crushed his ribs in a hug. Alvie tensed before he gained enough wits to awkwardly pat her on the back.
"We woke up and you were gone!" Alokia exclaimed, pulling back. Her relieved smile faltered when she saw his expression. "Has something happened? Where did you go?"
Pass on the message, Apollo had said. Elsie joined them, ruffling Alvie's hair in greeting. She wasn't one for hugs, like Alvie, and that suited him fine.
Sighing, he told them, as best he could, what Apollo had told him.
"OK, so what did you and Mom talk about?"
"No, that's secret until we've worked it out."
"Oh, come on! Tell me!"
"No." Nico laughed. He had found a basketball and they were shooting hoops, one on one. Crystal wasn't the best shot, but she was having fun all the same. Besides, it gave her time to talk to Nico about what he talked about with Joy last night.
"Please tell me."
"The 'please' has no effect on me."
"Ugh, you're annoying."
"Where'd you think you got it from?" He grinned, scoring a three-pointer easily. "OK, I'll tell you one thing. Your mom's filing for divorce."
"Really?" Nico nodded.
"And she's pressing charges about domestic abuse."
"William is so going down." Nico nodded in agreement, smiling at her enthusiasm. He passed the ball to her. "OK, so what did you have to tell Percy?" His smile faded almost as quickly as it had appeared.
"That's for him to tell you."
"Aw, what? No, you tell me!" Crystal threw the ball, but it got stuck between the board and the rim. "Stupid ball…" She grumbled. "Has it got anything to do with Alvie?"
"To a certain extent."
"What is it then?" Nico just shook his head, drawing his sword and flipping the blade in his hand as he walked forward. He pushed the hilt of the sword at the ball and it dropped through the hoop. He caught it in his free hand and passed it back to her. "Why won't you tell me?"
"'Cos you'll probably do something stupid."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. What qualifies as stupid in Crystal-Cuckoo-Land?" She glared at him. Nico smiled grimly, his sword disappearing.
"Stupid in Crystal-Cuckoo-Land is idiots that don't talk when they're told to." Nico looked behind him before looking at her. A mock look of surprise crossed his features and he pointed at himself. She lobbed the ball at him. He hit it away casually, smirking triumphantly. "What's it like on Dull, Dark and Depressing?"
"Um… dull, dark and depressing…" Nico said with as much hint at the obvious and as sass as possible. Crystal glowered at him. "You're just like your mother."
"Which reminds me- tell me what you were talking about."
"She's going to divorce William."
"No, she would have told me that so I could've started the celebration party and your wedding arrangements." Nico stared at her as if she was truly from Crystal-Cuckoo-Land. "Hey, here's hoping." She cheekily saluted him. "Now, excuse me, I'm going to IM Alvie."
"You like this IM stuff, don't you?"
"It's so cool!" Crystal beamed. She waved at Nico and headed back to the Hades cabin.
She got a bit of a shock to see Tobias sat on the steps of the Hades cabin, Madam fluttering about his feet and squawking in annoyance.
"Tobias?" He looked up. There were shadows under his eyes and his hair was more tousled than ever. "Wh-?"
"Where's Nico?"
"Um, the basketball courts. Why?" He had already got up and left. "Tobias!" She called. Was it really so hard to answer a simple question!?
Grumbling to herself, she opened the door to the cabin. Madam settled on her shoulder, which was new. Crystal had always thought Madam's claws would dig into the shoulder, but that wasn't the case. "Why won't they tell me what's going on, Madam?" The bird cooed indignantly, as if understanding. "I mean, OK, cool, Mom's divorcing William, about bloody time, but if Alvie's in trouble or something, I want to help somehow." Madam ruffled her feathers and gave a caw of disagreement. "Oh, shush." Crystal waved Madam away and set up her IM message.
"…and he's somewhere, but he doesn't know who he is or anything." Alvie was saying.
"Do you know where he is?" Alokia asked gently.
"Are you sure this is real?" Elsie asked at the same time. Alvie stared at them for a few seconds and they watched him carefully.
Elsie spotted the IM. Crystal waved, offering a tentative smile. "Alvie." Elsie pointed. Alvie turned, looking at Crystal. He appeared even more exhausted than when she last talked to him, pale with shadows under his eyes, just like Tobias.
"I take it you know what's going on as well then?" He frowned in confusion. Crystal waved it away. "What's wrong? You look… you look terrible. No offense or anything." She added quickly. "But you need to come home and have some blue cookies or something." Alvie shook his head. "No? You never turn blue cookies down. What's happened?"
Sighing, Alvie told her. As the tale progressed, Crystal became more and more horrified. She could understand why this was playing on Alvie's mind- so close, yet so far to something dear to him. He also told her about Apollo's little medallion/locket trick, but he skimmed over most it, she could tell. He only told her a brief description of the instructions Apollo had given him and it was obviously the same thing he had told Alokia and Elsie as they were talking to each other in low tones and not entirely paying attention.
"You better come here then." Crystal said quietly, still trying to wrap her mind around this cruel twist. "And quick. I saw Tobias earlier and he looked really freaked and was asking for Nico." Alvie just nodded, turning to his cousins. They fell silent as they noticed his gaze on him. "Um… good thing about today though- Mom's arranging to divorce William." Alvie gave a small smile at that and looked back at her.
"That's good."
Ooh, what am I up to this time? There's like three new things I've got going here so try and guess! Obviously I won't tell you if you get anything right as NO SPOILERS! :D