A/N: Hello, everyone. Hope you enjoy chapter 7. I think there will only be one chapter after this.
Colt set the radio up on the coffee table. She had her salt gun and iron crowbar on either side of her, ready for action.
Percy sat at attention on the other side of her crowbar. He held himself stiffly. It was worrying that he was so tense and bordering on upset to the point she considered sending him to his room like a scolded child because he was making her tense just looking at him. But then she realized, he had never seen the ghost before. In fact, he hadn't even known about the ghost until this morning. A ghost that had been harassing his mom (rather politely compared to other ghosts Colt had met) for nearly a month.
Yeah, she'd have been tense too.
That was no excuse for butchering this hunt though. Good hunters knew to detach themselves from these family situations or to get another hunter they trusted to handle it.
But Percy wasn't a hunter he was a warrior. Sometimes Colt forgot that the only monsters Percy had ever really fought before meeting her were the Greek and Roman ones from mythology (that were not actually myths, but she couldn't think of any other way to define them). She began feeling that little tendril of guilt in her stomach again about dragging him into this life with her, but she quickly clamped that down. She was in the middle of a hunt. She could dwell on it later.
Colt fiddled with the tuning dial. The volume was cranked up as far as they could make it. "What do you think is the preferred radio station of ghosts?" she asked him.
Percy shrugged. "Probably something with Boo-tiful music." He sent her a lopsided grin as she groaned at the horrible joke.
"That joke died long ago" she informed him. "No more jokes or puns or you will be sent to your room."
"Like you didn't just make a joke too." Percy pouted. "That's not fair."
"My hunt, my rules."
"My house," Percy argued, "my rules."
"Do you want to go to your room, young man?"
"Are you my mummy?"
"Percy."
"Fine," he huffed. "I'm sorry."
"Good." She smiled at him before turning her focus to spinning the dial to various stations listening for any voice that could possibly be that ghost boy's.
"P-Percy…Jack..son," a voice croaked. Colt's hand froze. She swiftly removed her hand from the dial, so she didn't risk the chance of bumping into it and losing the voice altogether.
"Hello?" the demigod beside her greeted, staring at the radio.
"Percy… Jackson," the voice repeated.
"Yes," Percy confirmed. "That's me."
"Ask him who he is and if he can show himself," Colt ordered Percy quietly.
"Who are you?" Percy asked. "What's your name?"
"Danny. Percy Jackson." The voice became clearer the longer they spoke.
"Where are you? Can you show yourself?"
"Percy Jackson."
The boy appeared on the other side of the table. Despite all her training, Colt jumped just as much as the demigod beside her, hands gripping the salt gun to her left.
"Ask him why he's here," Colt said to the demigod as she got her heart's rapid beating under control.
Percy didn't move though. He seemed frozen to the spot after his initial jump at the ghost's abrupt entrance. His eyes roamed the boy's blood and mud spattered, torn clothes.
"Percy," Colt hissed, feeling like a jerk for making him do this, but needing to do it anyway. "Ask him why he's here. We can figure out how to help him if we know."
"Why-" Percy's voice cracked. He cleared his throat. "Why are you here?"
"Percy Jackson. Warning." It was weird to actually hear words to go along with the boy's—Danny's—moving mouth.
"What is he talking about?" Percy asked Colt desperately, unable to take his gaze off the boy. He vaguely recognized him as one of the demigods who had died during the Second Titan War, but this made no sense. "He died in the Second Titan's War. Why is he here? Why now?"
"I'm not sure," Colt murmured, laying a comforting hand on Percy's back. She rubbed small circles on his back lightly for a moment before saying, "I think he needs to tell you something. If he tells you, it may put his soul to rest."
"Yeah," Percy said. He shook his head, straightening up in his seat. Colt's hand dropped from his back. She watched as he turned his "I'm the Leader" voice on. "What's your warning, Danny?"
"Percy Jackson," Danny croaked "Kronos has…a draken…need…Clarisse…to come… with the other Ares…children…only way…I must…warn you."
"You've warned me and I thank you for it," Percy told the young boy. "You have done your father Hermes proud in delivering this message. You helped us greatly."
Danny looked even younger and almost alive with the bright smile lighting up his face. "Thank you… Percy Jackson…for saving us."
Percy didn't say anything, just tipped his head with a watery smile.
By the time Colt tore her gaze away from the unusually vulnerable son of Poseidon, Danny had disappeared again, though Colt had a feeling deep in her gut that it was for the last time.
Colt leaned over, turning off the radio. The room was eerily silent without the static from the radio to fill it. Colt slipped her salt gun and crow bar back into her bag, leaving it in a lump under the coffee table. She turned to the unmoving boy at her side, gathering him into a hug.
"Who was he?" Colt asked after a bit. Her head was propped up against the back of his neck as she hugged him from the side as they continued to sit on the couch.
"Son of Hermes," Percy mumbled. "He was a scout who, on the way back to report, got caught in one of the battles and died, I think." He took a shuttering breath. "Why did he tell me this now? Why not earlier? Why at all?"
Colt contemplated carefully for a moment. "Well, I think he really believes in you and what you guys were fighting for, so he was going to deliver his warning to you in order to protect everyone he loved." She stroked Percy's hair. "As to why it took so long, sometimes it takes ghosts a while to build up the power to do small things like making the room cold or nudging a glass a centimeter to the left. I'd imagine it took him all this time to gain enough energy so he could deliver the warning and help save everyone."
"It's not fair." Percy said. "He shouldn't have died. None of them should have."
"Sh," Colt soothed because there was really nothing she could say to make this better.