Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: I actually really liked this chapter when I was rewriting it, but still had to clean up a bit. So I guess I like it a lot better now? Lol

Until next week,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis


~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 27: The August Deadline Arrives~


After the Fourth of July and my date with Luke, the rest of July and first half of August passed in something of a whirlwind.

Around a week after the Fourth, a letter from my mom arrived at camp, presenting me with a hard decision I hadn't really realized I would have to make. She told me that Gabe had mysteriously disappeared off of the face of the planet, giving her a second chance at life she hadn't thought she would get – even more so because she had a feeling that, though she had reported my stepdad as missing to the police, nobody would ever find him.

But that was alright with her. Not only did it seem that Gabe was gone from her life for good, but right around the time of his disappearance, she'd sold her first (and only) life-size concrete sculpture aptly titled The Poker Player to a collector through an art gallery in Soho. She'd gotten so much money for it, she'd been able to put a deposit down for a new apartment and make payment for her first semester's tuition at NYU...as well as a year's tuition at a private secondary school called Goode High School, provided that I wanted to go.

Apparently, around the same time my mom had disposed of the "sculpting tools" I'd left her, she had run into one of the teachers there. The guy was nice, she said, and willing to give me a good recommendation provided I promised I would keep somewhat good grades and not get into too much trouble there.

And, I'm not gonna lie, the offer sounded tempting. As much as I liked camp, a part of me wanted to do nothing more than return to my mom's. It would give me privacy, and not to mention time to practice my freaky water powers so I could move water just like Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender or the lady from the Hephaestus kids' fireworks.

...Maybe even see if I did possess a vocal gift, too, although I wasn't too pressed to find that out.

However, that being said, I knew if I was going to be able to convince Luke to turn his back against Kronos, he would probably need me more than my mom would. And I know, that sounds bad.

But if he went to Zeus and told him about all he had done and swore to never do anything like it again, there was still a very real chance the king of the gods would simply decide to smite him then and there, even with Demeter's interference. And even if he didn't decide t do that, there was still the very long list of things I would have to help out Luke with: his complete lack of confidence and self-esteem, his horrible tendency to keep whatever trauma he'd previously experienced firmly locked up in a metaphorical bottle, and etcetera.

So...yeah. I had a hard decision to make when it came to my mom and Luke, even if the answer was obvious to me.

And then there was the Oracle's prophecy, which I could still sometimes hear her hissing inside my mind, telling me, "You will go west, and face the god who has turned. You will find what was stolen, and see it safely returned. You will be betrayed by one who you call more than a friend. And you will fail to save what matters most, in the end."

But I tried not to dwell too much on that. As Chiron had said, prophecies don't always mean what people think they mean. Trying to decipher what they could was practically moot and would only cause more grief.

Besides, there were plenty of other things to think about, like the last night of the summer session and the night before my birthday. On that night, all of the campers had one last meal together, which was pretty fun. All of the campers who were (knowingly) going away for the year sacrificed a larger portion than usual for the gods, since burning offerings for them in their own homes ranged from difficult to do to outright impossible. Silena just about cried when she did hers, as apparently she had now realized we (her, Katie, Alabaster, Ethan, Chris, Luke, and I) were going to be separated for nine months and it simply "wasn't fair at all!"

However, the feast wasn't anything special in comparison to the bonfire which occurred afterwards. It was apparently a tradition for the senior camp-counselors to give out end-of-summer beads and leather necklaces for the campers who didn't have any necklaces to put their beads on, like me. This year's design was a sea green one with a shiny black trident in the center on one side and a black, ancient Greek-style helmet on the other.

Many campers, myself included, looked at Luke and the other senior counselors (Annabeth, Katie, Silena, Beckendorf, and Lee Fletcher) questioningly about it. All my boyfriend said in response was, "The choice was unanimous. This bead commemorates not only the first son of the Sea God at this camp in a hundred years, and the quest he undertook to stop impending war, but also the first children of the God of the Underworld to come to this camp ever. Be proud of yourselves, Percy, Silena, Katie, Nico, and Bianca!"

When he finished, the entire camp got to their feet and cheered, even Annabeth. Nico and Bianca flushed the most at their praise, I think, since a good portion of the camp had been ostracizing them since they'd been claimed, but my two best friends and I had our fair share of blushing as well.

I'm not sure I had ever felt as happy or sad as I did that night. I had finally found a family, a small group of friends and even a boyfriend who cared about me and thought I was good a person, who cheered me on when I did something right. But now Silena would be going away in the morning, like Ethan (he was going back to his father's place in San Francisco), Alabaster (he traveled the world with his archaeologist father during the school year), and Chris (his mom was waiting for him in Texas).

In fact, out of our friend group, only Luke, Katie, and I were staying for the rest of the year – but I still hadn't told anyone of my choice yet.

...Or, rather, I hadn't until the morning after the bonfire, when I found a letter on my bedside table obviously written by Mr. D:

Dear Peter Johnson,

If you intend to stay at Camp Half-Blood year-round, you must inform the Big House by noon today. If you do not announce your intentions, we will assume you have vacated your cabin or died a horrible death. Cleaning harpies will begin their work at sundown. They will be authorized to eat any unregistered campers. All personal articles left behind will be incinerated in the lava pit.

Hoping you are well,

Mr. D (Dionysus)

Camp Director, Olympian Council #12

After I'd read the letter, I couldn't help but frown as I folded it up and put it in one of my shorts' pockets. It seemed like it was now time for me to tell Luke about my plans. Not only because it was August and Kronos had told him he'd had until now to convince me to join their side, but also, well.

I wanted my boyfriend to be the first one to know I was going to stay at camp for the rest of the year, not Mr. D or Chiron or anyone else. Can you blame me?

Thus I headed down to the one place where I knew he would be, since with the exception of him, the Stolls, the di Angelos, and a few more kids, almost everyone in his cabin was gone for the summer: the sword-training arena.

As I walked through the campgrounds, I noticed how deserted everything was, now that most of the campers were gone or soon would be. Silena had been one of the first to go, as I'd seen her off that morning before I'd walked back to my cabin and found the letter. I'd met her father, too, Jean Beauregard. He was a French guy as tall as Luke – and that was saying a lot – with wavy black hair, dark green eyes, and olive skin. I'd thought he kind of looked like my dad, but hadn't said as much while Silena had prattled on about me while introducing the two of us.

Anyways, after a few minutes' walk, I got to the sword-training arena. Luke was there like I'd thought he would be, his gym bag plopped at the edge of the stage. He was working solo, whaling on battle dummies with a sword I had never see before, much to my surprise: it was half-bronze, half-steel in color.

Abruptly, I realized the steel color had to be the actual metal, as the sword was slicing the dummies' heads right off, successfully stabbing through their straw-stuffed guts.

As he moved, I saw how my boyfriend's orange shirt was dripping with sweat – hot. His expression was intense, as if he was actually fighting for his life. Which was also hot, but...concerning, too.

I spent the next three minutes merely watching him fight, fascinated. Luke really was an incredible fighter, the best swordsman in three hundred years. And he was mine.

He was mine, and no one else's.

At long last, he saw me and stopped fighting mid-swing. "Percy!" he greeted me, grinning.

"Hey," I breathed back. I gestured to his sword. "New toy?"

"Oh, this?" he asked, swiveling the sword in his hands. "This is Backbiter. One side is celestial bronze, the other is tempered steel. Works on mortals and immortals alike."

I swallowed at the way he said "mortals." It was incredibly nonchalant, a harsh reminder of his servitude to Kronos.

"I didn't know they could make weapons like that," I said.

"Most people probably can't," he agreed. "It's one of a kind."

Luke gave me a light smile, sliding the sword into its scabbard. "You know, it's good that you got here now, 'cause I was just going to come and find you. I've got something to talk to you about...something important."

"Me too," I blurted out. I felt my face heat up something awful. "I – I mean, I have some important stuff to talk to you about, too, if that's okay."

I watched his smile falter ever so slightly for a moment, before it returned back to its bright intensity. "Great," he said. "Do you want to go to the cove to talk about it, or – ?"

"The cove's fine," I told him. We'd gone there a couple of times since the Fourth for more "mock dates," as I'd called them, and I knew it was the perfect, private place for us to have this conversation in. Because regardless of the outcome, I knew it would be life-altering.

The two of us walked down to the woods, and then through the woods to the cove. No monsters attacked us, probably because it was too hot, although I did vaguely worry it was because something more nefarious might have been at play.

Once we got to the cove, we sat down on two large rocks, and opened up some Cokes Luke had stashed into his bag, in typical son of Hermes fashion. Neither of us spoke at first, too entranced by the beauty of the cove despite it not glowing during the day like it did at night. Eventually, however, the desire to speak became too much to bear, and I cleared my throat.

"So," I began, once I had my boyfriend's attention. "I just...I was wanting you to know Mr. D was wondering about whether or not i was going to stay for the rest of the year...and I intend to say yes. I'm going to stay, for you. For us."

"...Really?" Luke asked, disbelief coloring his voice.

I nodded. "Yeah, really...at least, if you want me to, anyways. Do you want me to?"

"Of course I want you to, Percy," he replied. But then, his expression lowered. "It's just...not that simple."

I pretended to not know what he was talking about. I'd known this was coming, but I knew – I hoped – I could change his mind. We were so close now, I was almost certain I could change his –

"Why not?"

His look darkened even further, as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. "I've lived here at Camp Half-Blood year-round since I was twelve," he said, "as you know. But, what you don't know – what I haven't told you, is that I was one of the demigods who came to camp with...Thalia Grace, the daughter of Zeus. I...watched her die right in front of me, along with Annabeth, who was also with us, and there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing. Only Zeus had the power to do that, but he turned her into a pine tree, instead of allowing her to live or at least die with dignity."

Suddenly, he crumpled up his Coke can and threw it into the cove's water, which really shocked me. One of the first things you learn at camp is to not litter for any reason, unless you wanted the nymphs and naiads to get even with you by filling your bedsheets with centipedes, water snails, and mud.

"Ever since Thalia," he continued. "Ever since her, I've trained, and trained, and trained, both to honor her memory and make sure that what happened to her would never happen to me. I never got to be a normal teenager like you and Silena, out there in the real world. I just didn't. The one opportunity I got to was on my quest, which I fucked up...badly."

"Whatever it was," I tried to soothe, "it wasn't your fault."

He laughed bitterly, only to let out a short sob. "But it was, Percy. You weren't there, so you don't understand. I had a choice, like you, about who I wanted to bring on my quest...and I was so cocky, so wanting to please my dad, like you – " well, that was about as far from the truth as you could possibly get, but I wasn't about to interrupt him to say as much – " that I only brought one person with me, instead of two like is tradition. And he was...well, he was special to me, special like you. But because of my mistake by only bringing him along, I doomed the two of us. I got my scar, and he got a death no one deserves. He literally died in my arms, and there was nothing I could do about it, just like with Thalia.

"But you know who could've done something about it?" he questioned me.

I jerked in surprise. "Err...?"

"Aphrodite could've done something about it," he snapped. "Or my dad, or any of the Olympians. They all could've dome something to spare Thalia, to spare Al – to spare him. But they didn't – not because they are bound by the Ancient Laws, but because we're their pawns. They don't think of us as anything more than that."

"That's not true!" I protested.

"Isn't it, though?" he snorted. "Your dad had a choice when the accusations of him having you steal the master lightning bolt and the helm of darkness came out, and it was not to involve you in the fight. But, he did. He made you go on that quest for him, and for what? A pat on the head and some words of encouragement when you got back? He's using you, Percy. All of the gods are using you, using us – it's their way, the way of Western civilization, and it's killing the world. The only way to stop it is to burn it all to the ground and start over with something more honest."

I hid a grimace. Guess it was time to let the cat out of the bag.

"You mean something like Kronos' rule?" I inquired.

He stiffened. "You know?"

"Yeah, I know," I sighed. "I've known since I went to the Underworld, when I talked with the Lady Styx – " thunder boomed at the mention of her name, despite it being a bright and sunny day – "herself. She told me all about Kronos' plans, and about the Great Prophecy, too. You know, the one that's the real reason why the Big Three swore not to have any more mortal children? And...I figured it out from there. So yeah, I know Kronos is trying to take over the world, and I know you helped him. But you don't have to keep helping him, Luke. You don't. You're better than that."

"No," he responded, "I'm better than bowing down to the gods, like everyone else here does."

"The gods aren't that bad, Luke."

"They are!" he hissed, glaring. "I've seen them for their lies, and that's exactly why I'm leaving this place while I still can. I want you to come with me, Percy, please. Don't be the pawn they want you to be. Come with me, and the two of us, along with a few others, we can work together to bring a new golden age into the world. It'll be one where demigods like you and me don't have to be slaves, where we're safe from all sorts of monsters."

In an alternate universe, one where I was perhaps more bitter and hadn't pledged my loyalty to Demeter, I might've considered what he was saying. However, as it was, I could only stare at him disbelievingly, and plead with him to reconsider.

"Please, Luke," I begged. "Don't do this! The gods might not be good rulers, but they're our parents. They can still change, even if they don't want to. We just have to convince them to change in other ways which don't involve changing one tyrant out for another."

He rolled his eyes. "Kronos won't be a tyrant."

"But he will," I retorted. "Don't you see? Kronos is using you just like how you think the gods have used us – it's in his nature. He's called 'the Crooked One' for a reason, isn't he? And I know you know it's not because of his scythe or a crooked nose or something. It's because he's more corrupt, more evil than almost all of the deities who came before or after him."

"How can you be so sure of that?" he demanded. "The gods – our parents, as you call them – created that reputation, because they feared what would happen if we found out how life really was back in the original Golden Age. They weren't hunted down like we are, they lived in peace and prosperity! All you have to do is ask any of the olde gods – Hecate, Nike, Nemesis – to realize that."

Suddenly, Luke stood up. He leaned over me to the point where our noses were nearly touching. Shakily, he cupped my face with his hand. "Please, Percy," he murmured. "Come with me. I – well, I love you, and I don't want to lose you. I don't want us to be enemies. We can even bring your mom with us, if that's what you would want. I know how much she means to you, and I'd love to meet her myself. I already know how much of a good mom she is by knowing you, you have no idea."

My eyes began to water. Luke loved me. He loved me, and yet he was about to all but sell his soul away to the devil, and my attempts to stop him weren't working. None of it was working.

I felt like such a failure, in that moment. More than I had ever felt, even with everything Gabe had done to me.

"Please, Percy," my boyfriend pleaded with me, his glacier-like eyes as watery as my own.

"I – I can't!" I sobbed, tearing away from his grasp. "You don't understand, Luke! I've known you've been working for Kronos, I've known all this time, and I've done things to protect you because of it! Things that no one else has done!"

"Like what?" he questioned, still pleading.

"I became Demeter's champion!" I cried.

The effect was instantaneous. Immediately, his face slackened with surprise and he stumbled back, as if I had burned him or slapped him in the face. I watched as all of the color drained from seemingly every aspect of his body and he wordlessly mouthed the words I had already spoken.

"I love you too, Luke," I sniffled. "I love you with every single fiber of my being – do you know that? I haven't told you as much, but I do. And I've done everything that I can to protect you, to save you, because I love you. Would Kronos do that for you? Huh? Would he?"

He didn't immediately answer me. Instead, he stood up from where he had fallen and dusted off his shorts, as if we were having the most casual conversation in the world. "You're...too far gone," he said quietly. "I should've realized this. Maybe if I had, I could have saved you before you pledged your allegiance to Deme – to them."

There was a dangerous glint to his eyes.

For the first time, I felt fear around him.

"L – Luke? Luke, what are you doing?"

"I love you, Percy," he said, his visage hardening. "I love you so much that I have to let you go. I have to – "

Suddenly, his lips were on mine, but this kiss wasn't anything like our previous ones had been. It was hot and searing; it burned me to the very depths of my soul, to places inside myself I had never been to before, to –

My side, I thought with abject horror as Luke pulled away from my kiss. My side, it hurts! Luke, he –

Luke had stabbed me, right on my left side.

"Luke!" I gasped.

"I'm sorry, Percy." He looked at me as if I was already dead, grievingly and longingly. "But I can't let the gods corrupt you anymore, I can't. But, don't worry. When all of this is said and done, I'll come get you from the Underworld, and we'll live in a new Golden Age together – forever."

He pulled his new half-celestial bronze, half-steel sword from out of its scabbard. Then, he slashed the air in front of him into an arc and disappeared into a ripple of darkness, just like that.

He was gone.

"Luke!" I sobbed, though I knew he wouldn't be able to hear me.

My vision was going foggy. Even so, I blindly reached out for where he had been, arms outstretched. But I was so weak from the poison which had to have been dripping from his dagger and was now quickly spreading through my body, all I managed to do was collapse in the sand.

But, that was okay with me. I was so heartbroken, I didn't want to move, didn't want to breathe, didn't want to be alive.

The last thing I saw was two naiads appearing out of the glowing water from the cove, looking frightened. Quickly, they grabbed me by the arms and legs, both of them whispering sweet nothings to me as they told me everything would be alright and they would get me to Chiron in no time.

I opened my mouth to tell them the first thing wasn't true, that nothing was "alright" and never would be again. However, before I could, my world suddenly turned black. I knew no more.

...And that was perfectly fine with me.


Word Count: 3,998

Next Chapter Title: I Talk Things Over With Chiron