Chapter 62 - Arrival at Camp Jupiter

Luke was still waiting outside with Alabastor when Percy and Nico left the mansion. They were sitting on the steps heading down from the entrance, deep in conversation with each other. Luke glanced towards Percy as the door opened, grimacing slightly as he did so. "We can't get word to any of the Titans about Kronos' disappearance quickly," he said worriedly. "There's no way with nothing working anymore." The frustration was clear in his voice. Percy had to hand it to Luke, the other demigod was steadfast in his loyalty to Kronos and the Titans, even after everything that had happened.

"I've even tried a way with magic," Alabastor added. "But that's not working either." Some of the scrawled runes on his clothes looked burnt and used, whilst others glowed faintly. In his hands, he fiddled with two cards with a single rune carefully drawn onto the very centre. The son of magic shifted slightly before he extended them towards Percy. "Here. It's if you need anything," Alabastor said.

Percy eyed the cards warily, immediately drawing his fingers back from the green scribble. Touching them would probably give him a horrible and painful death. "You think I'm actually going to trust anything you might give me?" He demanded, glaring at Alabastor.

"Percy, he's offering to help," Nico protested with a frown. "It sounds like we can use all the help we can get now."

Alabastor held Percy's gaze steadily, his own carefully neutral as he nodded slightly. "It will let us contact each other, so you can talk to anyone here. There's no other way to talk across distances now. You're going to find Lord Kronos, right?" He asked, his fingers still extending the cards towards Percy.

"My priority is helping Camp Half-Blood with the immortal Roman Emperor kidnapping campers and trying to burn down an old Oracle in the forest, actually," Percy said stiffly.

Shock cut across Alabastor's expression, much to Percy's vicious satisfaction. "Who?" He demanded. "Are my siblings all okay?"

And all of Percy's glee with Alabastor's horror faded. Next to them, Luke's eyes had widened. "Who's gone missing?" He asked worriedly, fear tinging his voice. "You didn't say that was the issue at camp!"

Percy's eyes flicked between the two. He was immediately reminded that whilst Luke and Alabastor had both betrayed the camp by joining the Titans in the war, both of them still cared for other demigods and their siblings still at camp. Percy sighed. "Ellis Wakefield and Sherman Yang from Ares cabin, Cecil Markowitz from Hermes'," he said, with a quick glance towards Luke, noting how the son of Hermes' gaze tightened. "Miranda Gardiner from Demeter's and Austin Lake and Kayla Knowles from Apollo's. Those are the six. Rhea said apparently Nero's kidnapped them. It's complicated," Percy added when Luke's mouth opened.

Alabastor pressed his lips together, looking uneasy as he eyed Percy. "I remember Sherman and Miranda," he said. "The others, I guess they came to camp after I left." Alabastor Torrington frowned in thought.

Luke nodded his head slightly. "They did," he said to Al. "I met the rest between Manhattan and when we left for New Rome," he added. Luke clenched his jaw, looking back to Percy. "Do me a favour, yeah? Cecil seemed like a good kid," he said. "Try to keep my brother alive for me?"

Percy blinked. "I – I will," he firmly said. "I swear it on the River Styx," Percy said. The ongoing squabble was between the gods. The demigods had to try to at least still keep an eye on each other in all the madness. If they didn't look out for each other, no one else would.

Nico looked horrified with Percy's oath on the Styx, while Luke just seemed glad and nodded slightly. Alabastor, however, looked completely surprised that Percy had just made that oath. "Not the smartest decision, Jackson," he said dryly, even as he turned and instead offered the cards to Nico. "You should probably take these instead, since he won't," he said.

Nico nodded slightly, gratefully accepting them. "Thanks," he said. He did not die a painful, horrible death. Maybe Torrington was actually genuinely wanting to help. Then again, the problem involved Kronos being in trouble and Percy knew how intensely devoted to the Titans the son of Hekate was.

Alabastor inclined his head. "You activate them by tapping it twice," Alabastor said. "Each rune can be only be used once, though. So there's one on each side." Nico flipped the cards, nodding slightly when he saw the same rune scrawled on the other sides too.

Luke cleared his throat. "I know that technically everyone here is exiled from Camp," he said. Even if unofficially, it had gone unspoken between the two groups of demigods. "But if you need help, just use that to contact us and we'll do what we can to help."

Percy glanced towards the cards. Slowly and reluctantly, he nodded to Luke. "Okay," he said quietly. "Tha-" In the distance behind Luke, Percy caught sight of a large white wolf slinking across the open ground, and he leant around Luke slightly to watch. His eyes narrowed when he spotted several more dozing by a bonfire in the Camp.

Luke raised an eyebrow at Percy and turned to see what had caught his attention. "What?" He asked.

Percy frowned. "Those wolves," he said, suddenly recalling the terrifying encounter with the monstrous wolf outside the limits of the Camp. "What are they?"

The son of Hermes raised an eyebrow. "That's not important."

"We met a giant wolf outside the Camp on the way in," Percy said. "Aquila dropped in and saved us."

Luke's head whipped back around to Percy's and Alabastor seemed stunned before he laughed. "Oh, him?" The son of magic grinned. "You met Fenrir, huh?"

Percy paused. "Fenrir? Who's Fenrir?" He asked.

Luke snorted. "So, it's one of those things we're not supposed to know, but Kronos doesn't care about borders and boundaries in any sense. So we all know what we're not supposed to." Percy had figured that out about Kronos months ago, he had no understanding of boundaries.

"Norse," Alabastor said to Percy. "The ground we're standing on is technically Norse. It was the result of an agreement brokered between the Greek gods and the Norse gods a few decades ago," Alabastor explained. "The Greeks had just moved over here and the Norse got… pretty annoyed about it."

"Other gods wanted to move into America," Luke continued, making Percy's head spin. "Not just the Greeks. Us Greeks just got here first. But agreements were made which handed over some regions of America to the other pantheons. The Norse gods got Alaska."

"It's why it's the land beyond the gods," Alabastor added. "Well, beyond the Greek gods anyway."

Percy gaped. "That's – there are more gods to worry about?"

Luke snorted in amusement. "Fortunately not. There's an unspoken rule that everyone keeps to their own pantheons."

"Aside from here?" Nico asked, looking like the Underworld had just been pulled out from under his feet. "I mean, you're all here right now."

"The Titans are renting the land from the Norse – Fenrir, to be specific," Alabastor explained. "Apparently the deal which handed over Alaska was more specifically between some friends of Fenrir and the Olympians. I think the Norse King of the gods doesn't know he's here?" Alabastor mused. "So Fenrir sometimes calls up blizzards to get close to intruders he's interested in, but he rarely shows himself."

Percy slowly nodded, trying to slot the new information into his head somewhere beside everything about the Greek and Roman gods he'd needed to know. "So what are the other gods? Aside from Norse?"

Luke shrugged. "That's not really important right now. We keep to our world, they tend to keep to their ones," he said. "Separation is best. The gods interact with each other sometimes, but mostly monsters and mortals of each tend to keep things between themselves."

"So we don't have to worry?" Percy asked. Nico had his free hand resting on the pommel of his sword, just in case one of the wolves decided to spring towards them and race across the open ground.

"No," Alabastor said. "Unless you do what you usually do and attack one of them without speaking to them first," he said, his tone slightly mocking. Percy shot him a sharp glare.

"Fenrir's fine though," Luke said to Percy. "He won't attack you. He knows you're with us. The Wolf was probably just curious about you since you come and go so often... and it's the first time you haven't been with Kronos while you've been here and outside the boundary."

Percy glanced back to the smaller wolves, raising an eyebrow. Alabastor rolled his eyes. "Fenrir mated with a direwolf a few decades ago," he said. "It gave rise to a new breed of wolf-monsters."

The son of Poseidon decided to accept the new information and move on. "Right," he said. "Okay." A giant wolf was actually a Norse god and was stalking around the boundary of the Titan Camp to terrify and deter any intruders. "You guys have a Norse god as a guard dog."

Luke smirked. "Kronos said the Titans would defend Fenrir if any Norse gods attacked him, if Fenrir lingered around the Camp. It was a win-win situation for them both."

Percy just nodded slightly. "Okay," he repeated. Nico was still staring in disbelief at the wolves. Percy nudged him slightly. "Did you know about the other gods?"

"No," Nico said. When Percy frowned at him, he firmly shook his head. "I didn't," Nico said firmly. "I only knew about the Romans."

Luke grinned. "You two should probably get going," he said then, smile falling. "Sounds like there's a mess you've got to deal with back at Camp." Luke looked slightly pained as he raised his blue eyes to look up to Aquila, whom had remained perched on the roof of the mansion. The bird tilted his head down at them and warbled before he puffed out his chest. Prideful demon. "I wish I could go with you two," he murmured tiredly.

Percy slowly nodded. But he knew that Luke wouldn't be welcomed in either Camp Jupiter or Camp Half-Blood, not after everything he'd done. Neither would Alabastor, but he didn't seem too concerned about that. "I'll do my best to keep everyone safe," Percy promised to Luke. "Everything and anything I can do."

Aquila screeched and spread his wings to the heavens before he launched himself off the mansion's roof and circled over the camp, slowly gliding down into one of the more open spaces of the camp. He tucked his giant wings into his body, the giant eagle towering over Percy and at least twice as tall as him. Aquila slowly lowered his head, offering Percy and Nico the opportunity to climb onto his back. Luke and Alabastor had shuffled away to put more distance between them and Aquila, clearly not trusting the bird which had formerly been Zeus' as they took shelter further into the mansion's porch.

"Good luck, Percy," Luke called. He side-eyed the green-eyed demigod at his side, nudging him in the ribs with an elbow.

"May the Titans be with you," Alabastor added from Luke's side as he rolled his eyes. "And watch Aquila's feathers. If you pull one out after all the grooming he does he'll probably toss you off," Alabastor warned. "I'm sure it would be hilarious to watch, but you've got to survive at least long enough to help the demigods and Kronos."

"I don't care about Kronos," Percy said.

Luke scowled at Alabastor, looking like he was chiding the other demigod for being rude. Then Luke's eyes flicked towards Percy, the older demigod seemingly knowing that Percy had just blatantly lied to them.

Nico let out a quiet laugh as he followed Percy onto Aquila's back. Percy glanced back at him, frowning slightly. "What?" He asked.

His cousin shook his head slightly. "Alabastor," he said. "I'm thinking we might be able to get along."

Percy scowled. "He's a traitor."

"And?" Nico asked. "Aren't you too?"

The son of Poseidon stilled. "No," he said firmly.

Nico only shrugged, but Percy was firmly looking ahead of them as Aquila's head lifted. Percy let out a sharp breath, his hands tightening in the eagle's bronze feathers. Aquila hissed a clear warning at him not to pull out any feathers as he spread and raised his giant wings. "Really?" Nico asked. "I mean, I don't mind. Everything's become a little blurry lately with good and evil. They're gods. The Titans, and the gods. Can a god really be good or evil?" Nico mused. "Just seems to me like you're becoming friends with everyone who's a little lost right now."

Percy's eyes furrowed slightly. His gaze flicked back to Luke and Alabastor, whom were both still watching them. Luke, standing on the grand porch suddenly looked more than mortal with how weary he looked as he raised a hand in farewell to Percy and Nico, a sad smile on his face. It reminded Percy of how Chiron would send quests off at Camp Half-Blood.

Aquila's wings thrust down to the ground in a flurry of snow and Percy yelped as he buried his face against the eagle's feathers. Nico had hurriedly buried his against Percy's back to keep the snow away. Percy glanced back towards the Titan Camp, noting the dozens of upturned faces watching Aquila swiftly disappear into the distance as he headed southeast.

"Aquila," Percy called once they'd levelled out. "Do you think you could head south? We need to head to Camp Jupiter. They need to know what's happening," he added. Aquila screeched his displeasure, but nevertheless he banked towards the south instead of southeast. "Thank you," Percy yelled over the wind in his ears. "I'll make sure you get nice, fresh and tasty immortal organs." Percy wasn't sure how he'd pay the eagle, but he was sure he'd figure it out. Maybe Prometheus would volunteer for the bird to snack on him again. Or Percy could figure out how to organise it anyway.

"You know," Nico finally shouted from behind Percy once he'd settled slightly and their flying was smoother. "It's not a bad thing to be friends with them. Otherwise, they're just left there until they all die."

Percy glanced behind him to look back at Nico. His cousin shrugged slightly at Percy, looking slightly queasy with flying on a temperamental giant golden eagle. "You're a good person, Percy," Nico said seriously. "You've made mistakes, but so have they. So have I," he added, and Percy recalled how Nico had betrayed him just before the battle for Manhattan against Kronos' army and how Hades had tried to trap Percy in the Underworld.

"Yeah, you have." The son of Poseidon remained silent for several long moments. Nico seemed uneasy with showing this kind of emotion, and if Percy were honest it was making him squirm too. "Try not to throw up all over my back," Percy said to Nico.

Nico cracked a weak smile. "Aquila would probably throw us both off then," he agreed.

Aquila was a quick flyer. Clearly, the magical bird also had the same travelling abilities as the centaurs did. Percy figured he shouldn't be too surprised. As Zeus' lightning-bolt carrying bird, Aquila would've had to be capable of moving at the same pace as the god.

It would be a bit useless if Zeus had to wait around for hours for Aquila to arrive with his lightning bolts every time Zeus wanted to take some pot shots at a town or one of his enemies.

Still, Percy was surprised when Aquila descended through the evening haze and smoke-filled sky down towards Camp Jupiter only a few minutes after he'd taken off at the Titan Camp. Screeches lifted from New Rome as Aquila descended when the Roman Eagles cried their alarm at his presence. Half a dozen eagles took off and rose to meet them, but Aquila spread his celestial bronze talons below him in a firm warning that he could and would tear the other eagles apart if he wished.

Percy noted then with Aquila now so close to the Roman eagles that Aquila's main body was three times the size of the Roman eagles. A true predator of the skies gliding through New Rome's flock of eagles, wingspan stretching wide, Aquila released his own shriek at the other eagles that made Percy's head ring and briefly caused chaos amongst the eagles before they realised Aquila hadn't dove down at them and grouped together.

He could hear Nico muttering under his breath behind him, and Percy glanced back at him. "You good?" He asked, feeling a little sick. The Romans in New Rome below them were scattering, clearly unsure about Aquila's presence. Percy hoped they wouldn't open fire on his eagle.

Nico looked even worse than Percy felt. "I will be when we're on the ground."

"Not over Aquila's feathers," Percy warned. "And maybe not on the heads of the Romans either."

Nico snorted, and then covered his mouth quickly. "Please don't make me laugh," he groaned. "You'll make me throw up then." Percy snickered, turning back around to face in front of them. "How aren't you nearly throwing up?" Nico demanded.

Percy considered it for a few moments as a cross-wind hit Aquila's wings and momentarily swept them to the side. He grimaced slightly and tightened his grip on the feathers, much to Aquila's obvious displeasure from the warning warble he made. The Roman eagles around them drifted further away at the threatening sound, clearly concerned that the prideful creature was unhappy with them. "Flying with Kronos was so, so much worse than this," Percy said as he recalled the rushed, dizzying turns that Kronos had been so fond of through Manhattan's skyscrapers. "Oh my gods, it was so much worse." Aquila warbled, the noise sounding eerily similar to a mocking laugh.

Lightning rumbled over their heads, but Aquila seemed entirely unconcerned. Percy tapped Aquila's back. "We're not all lightning-proof," Percy warned Aquila.

Aquila squawked in response, suddenly banking so hard to the side that his wings were vertical. Percy let out a startled shout, hearing Nico yell from behind him, but the lightning flickering over their heads died out.

The bird remained circling, Roman eagles crowding the airspace beneath him. Percy raised an eyebrow at the figure rising through their midst, grinning and raising a hand in greeting. "Jason!" He exclaimed.

Nico poked his head out to the side so he could peer down past Aquila's wings to their cousin rising up to meet them. A smile spread across his lips. "Hey, Jason," Nico called.

Jason looked completely baffled. His eyes flicked from Aquila, whom chirped a greeting at him, to Percy and Nico peering over the top of Aquila's back. "You two are lucky we spotted you on Aquila's back."

"I mean, your lightning wouldn't have done anything to him," Percy pointed out with a smile. "We good to land?" He asked.

Jason sighed and nodded. "Yes. Just follow me down," he said before he dropped back through the flock of eagles.

Aquila let out an eager squawk before he abruptly tucked in his wings, rolled to the side and dove straight down. The Roman eagles all released shrieks of alarm and scattered in all directions as Aquila tucked in his wings and dove into their midst. Percy could hear Nico screaming behind him as he buried his own face into Aquila's feathers to shield his face from the wind. Percy would refuse to acknowledge his own scream.

Still, when Aquila's talons landed in the Field of Mars they couldn't clamber off him soon enough. Both Percy and Nico threw up over the mud. Percy wiped his mouth, grimacing as he spat out. "Urgh. Nasty," he said. There was a low warble in front of him, and Percy raised his eyes. Aquila's head was lowered down to him, celestial bronze beak dangerously close to Percy's head. The golden eagle slowly blinked intelligent, gleeful amber eyes at Percy, a look of sheer pride over his avian face.

Percy bristled. "You did that on purpose," he accused Aquila. Still, Percy figured he knew why. He reached out a hand to Aquila's beak. "Don't tell Kronos, but I'll tell you that I'm sure your flying is suitably terrifying and incredible," Percy said, laying on the flattery extremely thickly. "But Kronos flew me through the skyscrapers of Manhattan and those twists and turns are terrifying. I'm sure my heart nearly stopped a dozen times in a minute when Kronos did it." Aquila warbled his offence at Percy, so Percy gravely nodded his head at the bird. "Yes, I know," he said. "To get a good comparison, clearly you will need to fly me through the skyscrapers too. Then I will gladly tell you that you are the better flyer." Aquila seemed satisfied at that, but Percy had the horrible feeling he'd just given the bird an idea that Percy wouldn't like. "And immortal organs, of course. Lots of organs."

Aquila chirped, his beak nudging against Percy's hand slightly before the golden eagle took off in a flurry of feathers and a rush of wind.

"Have you thought about where you're getting those from?" Nico asked from behind Percy, having finished throwing up.

"I'll figure it out," Percy said. "Even if I have to trick Prometheus. He'll get his organs as a reward for not killing us and being so helpful. I think at this point if I didn't follow through he'd take mine as payment instead."

Nico grimaced at the thought, his eyes flickering to the side. Jason strolled up to them, the Spear of Achilles settled diagonally across his back. Jason nodded to them both, his blue eyes dancing with humour. "Nice dive," he said.

Percy groaned. "Aquila did that on purpose, the stupid bird."

"He'd been far too helpful until then," Nico muttered. Together, the three of them watched as the eagle settled on top of the Temple of Jupiter on Temple Hill and began to pluck out loose feathers. The number of Temples had at least doubled since Percy had last been at Camp Jupiter.

"Nice spear," Percy said to Jason.

Jason's scar twitched as he withheld a smile. His eyes flicked over Percy's and Nico's faces, a faint frown marring his amusement. "Is something wrong at Camp Half-Blood?" He asked.

Percy let out a long breath. "Yeah," he said. "Are Reyna and Frank around? Would be best if we only have to say this once to everyone."

Jason nodded his head slowly. "Okay," he said, clearly recognising the worry in Percy and Nico and realising it was something serious going on. "Come on," Jason said. "I'll take you two to them."

Would anyone be interested in a discord server for my fics? Where I can drop in extra details and HCs I might have, along with sneak peaks of upcoming/planned fics and next chapters for ongoing fics? (It'll also help me a lot with motivation to keep writing the next chapters XD.)

Next chapter will be from Nico's POV, since I figure it's been a while since we've had any other POVs than Percy. I'm also anticipating as this arc progresses there will be a few Jason ones (part of his adventure with Piper in the Burning Maze for one etc).

I'll also throw in a Kronos POV at some point in the next few chapters now that everyone knows where he is and see what he's up to with the Triumvirate, especially because Kronos POVs are always fun.

Thatgremlinbitch: LMAO, yup! Rhea willingly stepping forward to help out anyone involved with Kronos means stuff is serious. She also maybe realises that the Titan Camp is a safe space for her to shelter whilst her Grove is under attack XD. That's good to hear! Gotta try to keep everyone on their toes when all this starts kicking off hehe.