I was working on other stories, so sorry for not updating Alvie's, but I will.
A special THANK YOU to Irisa0815, who helped with ideas and recalled an old thing that I didn't even think to add, so THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Sage was awoken at some point in the early hours by a fearful cry. Sitting up, she blearily looked around and saw her mother shivering under her blankets on the next bunk over. Sage slipped down from the top bunk and crept across the cabin, dodging the squeaky floorboard. She carefully retrieved the knife from under Annabeth's pillow and then prodded her mother awake.
Annabeth's hand dived under the pillow, but Sage had her knife, holding it up and smiling apologetically. Annabeth sighed, running her hands through her hair and trying to get a control of her breathing.
"Are you OK, Mom?" Sage asked quietly.
"I'm fine."
"You were having a nightmare." Annabeth remained silent. Sage recognised that fire in her mother's eyes- Annabeth was thinking. It was best to stay quiet.
"I'm just going to go and speak with your dad." Annabeth plucked the knife from her daughter's hands. "Keep an eye on Lilly for me, OK? I'll only be a little while." Sage nodded obediently and Annabeth shooed her back to bed, looking around for her jacket, her sneakers and her cap of invisibility. She waved at Sage before vanishing. The door opened and closed quietly of its own accord, leaving Sage to listen to the soft rumbles of Athena kids snoring.
Annabeth sprinted to the Poseidon cabin, hearing a distant squawk of the harpies. The chicken ladies just left the Big House when Annabeth reached Cabin Three, hurriedly entering.
Her sons were here with her husband, as there was more room and they didn't particularly like all the books in the Athena cabin. Well, Alvie did, but he liked reading by the sea when he was at Camp.
The boys had the right side of the cabin while Louisa and her two daughters had the left side, Charlie with his father. Callum and Theo were sleeping either end of a single bunk as they were small enough to do so and it saved space.
She crept towards her husband, noticing that he still drooled in his sleep. "Seaweed Brain, wake up." Annabeth hissed, shaking him by the shoulders. Percy started, frowning at her and wiping away the line of drool on the back of his hand as he sat up straighter.
"Is everything alright?" He asked gently, his fingers brushing a loose curl behind her ear. He pulled her to sit down on his lap, his arms wrapping around her waist.
"I've had an idea." Annabeth began and went on to quietly explain her dream, checking every now and then that her sons were still asleep.
She explained how she had seen Harvey, that day he shot Leo and cast a freezing spell on her insides. She still got chills that rippled under her skin whenever she thought about it, but hurried on. "That was all before Alvie, wasn't it?" Percy nodded slowly, his face scrunched slightly in that cute way. He was trying to work out where she was going with this. "I was always getting colds and stuff after that wasn't I? I just hadn't realised, until now, that when Alvie was born, my colds stopped, didn't they?" Percy frowned, trying to remember. "Was it me or was Alvie's skin always cold?"
"Not always…"
"As a baby, I mean. His skin was cold, wasn't in?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Do you know what this means?" He pressed his lips together and looked at her expectantly. Sighing, she explained. "That curse didn't wear off, it was transferred. It's not as powerful as when it was first cast obviously, but it could explain why there's that colder version of Alvie."
"I thought that had something to do with that Miss guy…"
"That could be a contributing factor, but think about how that coldness could affect Alvie's psychic powers." Percy did, his eyes burning as he did so.
"But shouldn't it have worn off now? He's twelve years old in a few weeks."
"He's had it all his life, Percy, I just didn't know until now. It wasn't cast on him, but passed through me to him, so it's bound to him."
"Are you sure?" Percy frowned.
"Unfortunately, yes." He sighed, running a hand through his hair and glancing worriedly at Alvie, who slept soundly in the next bunk over. "I don't like it any more than you do, but now we know what's causing trouble, we could try and think of ways to act against it."
"Do we tell Alvie?"
"We could. He might be able to fight against it himself." Percy looked confused, silently questioning how that would be possible. "I was talking to Mom the other day and we figured that his psychic powers go further than what we know already."
"So… he can do what then?"
"Telekinetic and telepathic abilities, but he could be able to work something out, like… um… say there was a robbery and we found a bit of evidence, a piece of cloth maybe. If he focused, he could track what happened in a backward order, retracing tyrant footsteps." Percy looked interested. "And there's that thing with the red eyes as well- we worked out that the red eyes means he's angry, obviously, but if he looks you in the eye, he can bring forth all your worst fears and make them seem real; it can drive the victim to the edge of insanity."
"Is that good or bad?"
"That depends on who the victim is, really." He nodded again, catching a yawn in his hand. Annabeth glanced at the clock. "Oh gods, Percy… sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up early."
"No, it's OK. It was important." He smiled reassuringly.
"I've got to get back to Sage and Lilly. I'll go and think about this and we'll talk more at breakfast."
"Sounds like a plan." He grinned. She kissed him, lingering for a few seconds as an apology for waking him up early and presenting seemingly bad news. "Love you, Wise-girl."
"Love you too, Seaweed Brain." She slipped her cap back on and left quietly.
Alvie picked at his breakfast, not really hungry.
He had overhead some of his parents' conversation last night. The bit about the powers he did have and could have. There could be more to it, but his mother hadn't elaborated that far, allowing her husband to go back to sleep.
Could he really do that? Could he drive people insane? Not insane as in Crystal-insane, but insane to the point of strait jackets and rubber rooms.
He couldn't do that, surely! He was Alvie, the odd one out. If anyone could drive somebody insane, it was Tobias just being himself, not Alvie.
He felt eyes on him and glanced up, meeting Crystal's gaze across the room. She smiled coyly at him, returning to her breakfast. Nico was dropping the required sacrificial food into the brazier, so he didn't notice a silent exchange between his daughter and his adoptive nephew.
Alvie was distracted by somebody dumping a trio of pancakes on a spare plate and pushing aside his bowl of cornflakes. Tobias smiled kindly at him, pushing the plate towards him.
"Pancakes are better than soggy old cornflakes, bro." He gently nudged Alvie with his shoulder. "Eat something." Tobias insisted.
Alvie ate half of the present pancakes, before leaving. He rambled outside, walking towards the Poseidon cabin absentmindedly, his thoughts focused on Crystal.
He didn't entirely recall what had happened when she came to see him the other day. He vaguely remembered storm clouds everywhere, but that was pretty much it.
The cabin was empty, the beds still unmade. Alvie padded to his bed and knelt on the floor, studying the neat line of books in size and series order. He had finished every book on his Kindle and was yet to buy more for it, so he had to resort to his back-up supply of books. Tobias often joked that Alvie could open up his own book store, but Alvie didn't like getting rid of books for good, so Tobias had changed his mind to a library.
A knock on the door pulled him from his book search. He sat up and looked over his shoulder.
"Alvie, are you in there?" Crystal called. She waited a few seconds before peering around the door curiously. "How are you doing?" He just looked at her. "I take it you're still not talking?" She sighed. "I'm going to come in and sit there," She pointed at his bunk, "So don't freak out or anything. I'm not going to cause trouble, for once."
She felt the weight of his wary gaze on her as she carefully made her way over to his bunk and sat on the edge. "About the other day, Alvie… um," She licked her lips nervously, her fingers twisting into the blanket. "OK, it was a bit weird, but… have we sorted things out now? You're not still angry at me, are you?" He looked at her and she was relieved to see that, despite being dull and emotionless, his eyes were the usual grey.
Sighing, Crystal looked down at her feet, chewing her lip nervously. "I… I guess you deserve the full story. See, a… a few days before… that, I… I got a phone call. I didn't know who it was until that very shoddy excuse of my first quest, but that Strike guy- he rang me somehow and told me if I didn't end it with you… cut all ties, he would kill my family and your family. I really didn't want to, Alvie, I swear." She drew her cell phone and held it out to him. "He keeps calling me, telling me that the threat still counts. I don't know what to do." She choked. "Please help me."
He took the phone from her after a moment's hesitation, turning it over in his hands. "Can you help me?"
"I can drive people insane with my mind. I'm pretty sure I can help you."
His voice was cold and monotonous, but Crystal barely noticed, marvelling that he had talked and concerned about what he had said first.
"We've got catching up to do." She told him, sliding down from the bed and sitting in front of him. "And I'm sorry." He looked up at that. "I never wanted to hurt you and I will never forget that look you had when I… when I called it off. I can understand if you don't want to, but… I… I miss my bookworm psychic boyfriend." His eyes flickered down to her phone and then back to her eyes.
Then he did something very un-Alvie-like.
He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers.
Are we good now? IT'S A NICE CHAPTER THAT PERSONIFIES HOW NICE I AM!
And I'm going to do my idea in the next chapter. It might not be so nice, I'm not sure yet.