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: Life has fucked me over the past couple of weeks. Health issues, my right leg bothering me, exams, etc., etc. I've gotten behind writing. Shameful, I know! I'm gonna take a few weeks to catch up on my writing, including writing the companion pieces that are supposed to go along with this, then I'll be back. I'm incredibly sorry about the break, but 1) this is also me let's be real and 2) I managed to post for...what? 30 weeks with no breaks? With multiple WIPs going on and 400k+ words written? Accomplishment achieved.

Anyways, I will be back within a couple of weeks. Until then,

TGWSI/Selene Borealis


~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 32: Camp Half-Blood's Increased Turnover Rate~


For a second, I almost thought the guy standing behind me was Chiron.

His face was almost exactly the same, and he had the same ancient look to his brown eyes. But his hair was darker and longer, pulled up into a half-up bun, and although he was a centaur as well, his coat was black.

"Uh..." I said dumbly, once we had all finished bowing down to Callie for being claimed and I'd turned around.

"Perseus Jackson," the centaur stated. I thought he might've been amused, but it was hard to get a good read on him. No matter how much he looked like Chiron, he was a stranger. His eyes flitted past me. "And Silena Beauregard. I was told we would be expecting you."

Silena, coming up to my side, gave me a questioning look, as if to say, "Who the hell is this guy?"

I shrugged. "How am I supposed to know?"

"I am Dolops," he said, answering our question. "The twin brother of Chiron. Now, come. Lord Dionysus will want to speak with you...all of you." This last part, he said while looking at Callie and Clarisse specifically.

Not knowing what else to do, we did as told, albeit with some grumbling from Clarisse.

Now, on the surface, things at camp didn't look all that different. The Big House was still there with its blue gabled roof and wraparound porch. The strawberry fields were still baking in the sun. The same white-columned Greek buildings I'd grown to love were still scattered around the valley – the amphitheater, the arena, the open-air dining pavilion, and etcetera. Nestled between the woods and the creek were the same twelve cabins, including Cabin Three. The cabin I would share with Callie now, I realized, although the thought didn't bother me too much.

In these ways, it was still like the camp I'd left last summer. It hadn't changed all that much.

But the atmosphere was completely different. Nobody was playing in the sand volleyball pit, as instead campers were stockpiling weapons in the tool shed. Dryads were armed with bows and arrows and talking nervously near the woods. The forest looked sickly, the grass in the meadow a pale yellow, and the fire marks on Half-Blood Hill stood out like grizzly scars.

Somebody had messed with my favorite place on Earth.

It didn't take three guesses to assume who it was.

But I didn't understand why.

All I could think was why why why?

I recognized a lot of the campers from last summer. There were the Stolls and Lou Ellen, the daughter of Hecate trailing after the two sons of Hermes along with the rest of Cabin Eleven, heading off to the arena. I spotted Lee Fletcher, the honey blonde-haired son of Apollo, sharpening his arrows with a grim face. Beckendorf and his only half-sister at camp, Nyssa Barrera, were standing outside the tool shed, grabbing the weapons that needed to be repaired or sharpened.

But what was terrifying was that there were a lot of campers from last summer that I didn't see. The other children of Aphrodite were to be expected – usually, Silena had told me, they all came to camp together, so her half-siblings would probably show up sometime in the next few weeks. But there was no Ethan, or Alabaster, or Chris. Indeed, there weren't many kids in the Cabin Eleven group at all. They'd gone from the most populous cabin at camp with almost twenty campers to ten of them. Of course, it was still a few weeks before most schools let out for the summer, but...

One of the campers of Cabin Eleven turned around. "Percy!" he exclaimed, waving to me with a wide, toothy grin.

I nearly collapsed on the spot. "Hey, Nico!" I shouted, waving back. I waved at Bianca, too, when she turned around to look at me.

At least the di Angelos were here at camp, (relatively) safe and sound.

When we got to the Big House, Mr. D was sitting at the patio table, as per usual. "So, the prodigal sun returns," he harrumphed, eyeing me over his game with invisible nature spirits. He peered at Callie next to me curiously. "And with his half-sister. Cleo, is it?"

"Callie," she said.

"Cleo Blowfish," he replied.

Her face reddening, Callie opened her mouth to correct him, but I grabbed her wrist warningly and minutely shook my head.

Mr. D put down his cards. "Well, I suppose I'll be called to Olympus soon enough," he bemoaned. "Between Thalia's tree and this whole mess, it's quite the start to the summer. Dolops, I trust you can show Cleo here the orientation video?"

I blinked. We have an orientation video?

"Yes, milord," Dolops answered.

"Good," Mr. D snapped. He nodded to me. "Peter, Sidonie, Chiron wants to see you two before he leaves. I suggest you hurry."

With that, he stood up from the table, grabbed his can of Coke, and headed off towards the strawberry fields, which surprisingly seemed to be empty.

"Percy," Callie whispered.

I patted her arm. "I'll come find you later, trust me. We're...siblings. That means we share a cabin."

She still looked freaked out, and I felt bad about that, but if Chiron was really leaving, I wasn't going to bypass the opportunity to see him for one last time.

Heading into the Big House, Silena and I found Chiron in his apartment, listening to 1960s lounge music while he packed his saddlebags.

"Chiron," I called out. My voice cracked halfway through.

Immediately, he turned around. "Percy, you've grown over the year!" he exclaimed. He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "And Silena. It's so good to see you two."

I winced. "Mr. D said you were...you were..."

"Fired." His eyes glinted with dark humor. "Yes, I'm afraid it's true. Someone had to take the blame. Or, someones. Argus was fired, too. Lord Zeus was most upset. The tree he'd created from the spirit of his daughter, poisoned! Mr. D had to punish someone."

This was news to Silena as much as it was to me, I could tell. She'd known about Luke doing the poisoning, but not this.

Luke.

"But didn't...Luke poison Thalia?" I asked.

"Yes," Chiron answered grimly. "Annabeth witnessed it, unfortunately. But you will find, Percy, just as there is blame to be had in doing an action, there can also be blame in those who did not try preventing it enough."

Oh, Gods. I didn't like Annabeth, but I knew she'd come to camp with Luke and Thalia. I could only imagine how awful watching Luke poison Thalia must've been.

"What about the poison?" Silena queried. "There has to be something that Will or – "

She stopped.

Because of course, Katie wasn't at camp right now.

Chiron shook his head. "The poison used on Thalia's pine is something from the Underworld. Some venom I have never seen before. It must have come from a monster quite deep in the pits of Tartarus."

Kronos.

"And as for Katie," he continued. "I'm afraid she left camp the night after Thalia's tree was poisoned, not that there would be anything she could do. The entire valley has become sick with the poison. The camp itself is dying. It would take more children of Demeter than just her to even hope of healing it all, or..."

"Or what?" I questioned.

"There is one source of magic that could heal Thalia, but it was lost centuries ago." Chiron closed his saddlebag and pressed a button on his boombox, turning it off. He gazed at me, and somehow he seemed even older than the millennia I knew him to be. "There is also something you should know, Percy. You too, Silena. Katie is not the only person to have disappeared from camp, or their homes. A few days ago, I received calls from Mr. Nakamura and Ms. Rodriguez. They – "

I felt like I had been struck. "No," I whispered.

Chiron placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry," he spoke. "But Ethan and Chris ran away from their homes. They have not come to camp. Which can only mean..."

I couldn't believe it. Ethan and Chris couldn't have joined Kronos with Luke. They were my friends. Not my best friends like Silena and Katie were, sure, but still my friends.

...Had Katie joined the titan, too? It pained me to even think about it – because I remembered how she had acted last summer after Luke had betrayed us, and she wouldn't. She wouldn't. But she had left the day after Thalia had been poisoned. Maybe she had decided to –

No, I wouldn't think about that.

I couldn't.

"What about Alabaster?" Silena asked, her lower lip trembling.

Chiron sighed. "Mr. Torrington has not called me," he admitted. "But he and Alabaster travel often. I was going to Iris Message them, but alas."

Silena clamped a hand to her mouth, stifling a sob.

Chiron squeezed my shoulder. "Percy, I understand this is all hard to hear, but I must have you promise me that you will not act rashly. I told your mother I did not want you to come here at all this summer, because it is much too dangerous. But, from what I have heard, the situation is out of both of our hands. And now that you are here, stay here. Train hard. Learn to fight. Get to know your sister. But do not leave."

I scoffed. "But I have to do something! I can't just let the camp's borders fail! The whole camp will be – "

"Overrun by monsters," he acknowledged. "Yes, I fear so. But remember what happened to you last summer, Percy. Your life was almost taken. And if anything were to happen to you..."

I didn't think he knew I knew about the Great Prophecy, but I understood his implication. If something happened to me and I died, then the next child of the Big Three in line would be Callie. Then Bianca, then Nico.

I couldn't let that responsibility fall on any of their shoulders. Callie had just found out she was a demigod, Nico was a kid, and...this was my burden to bear. Luke was my ex-boyfriend, who I had failed to convert back to the gods in the end.

This was all my fault.

Chiron brushed a tear from Silena's cheek. "Stay with Percy, child," he told her. "Keep him safe."

She sniffled. "I – I will."

"Good." He seemed to relax a little. "Perhaps my name will be cleared and I shall return. Until then, I go to visit my wild kinsmen in the Everglades. Perhaps they will know of some cure for the poisoned tree that I have forgotten. If not..." Trailing off, his visage became wistful. "It has been some time since I have been to Mount Pelion. My brother has said my wife and children are well, but I would like to see them for myself. In any event, I will stay exiled until this situation is resolved...one way or another."


"Silena, wait!" I called after my best friend as she marched out of the Big House off towards the arena, a golden drachma clutched in her hands.

"Go away, Percy," she huffed at me, staring strictly ahead. "Go help Callie get settled in. She needs you."

"You need me too," I argued back. "Come on, Silly, please – "

To my surprise, she stopped in her step and let out a scream of frustration. Whirling around, I saw that her eyes were shining. "Don't you understand?" she shouted at me. A few campers walking by, new campers by the looks of them, gawked at her, up until Malcolm Pace, the son of Athena, motioned for them to follow him. "Ethan, Chris, and Ally were my friends before they were yours! Who do you think consoled me after Alan died? Who do you think told me that everything was going to be alright, that promised me they would always be here for me? Who do you think broke that fucking promise?"

I flinched back.

Seeing my reaction, she rolled her eyes and started walking again.

I followed after her, but this time I didn't try to stop her. She entered the arena like she was on a mission – because she was. The Stolls, who were trying to instruct some newbies and not doing nearly as good of a job as Luke had, stopped their ministrations at the sound of our arrival. "Silena, Percy," Travis said. "What are you – ?"

He didn't get a chance to finish.

Silena strode up to the one child of Iris at camp, a tall guy with shaved blonde hair and a face like bricks. "Butch," she said. "Summon a rainbow."

Butch frowned. "Silena – ?"

"Just do it," she snapped at him. "I need to IM somebody. Right now."

After making sure with the Stolls he could do it, Butch dropped his sword on the ground. Stepping back away from the other Cabin Eleven kids, including Nico and Bianca, he waved his hands. The beginning of a rainbow promptly appeared, or the end of one, depending on how you looked at it."

"O' goddess Iris," Silena began, plopping her coin into the rainbow. I heard one of the three new campers gasp at how it disappeared. "Accept my offering."

A beat passed.

My best friend sucked in a deep breath, to steady herself. She wiped at her face with one of her hands. "Show me Alabaster Torrington," she spoke.

Like with the first time I had seen an IM last summer, nothing immediately happened. Except this time, as the colors of the rainbow swirled, nothing continued to happen. Silena made a choked noise, her hands clenching themselves into fists, as at long last a woman's voice said, "We're sorry, but your call cannot be connected at this time. Please try again later."

I was stunned into disbelief, and I wasn't the only one. The Stolls' mouths dropped open, and Bianca and Nico shared a look. Lou Ellen only appeared sad. Sad, but not surprised.

IMs weren't supposed to fail. So the fact that one did...

Silena didn't grab the drachma as it popped back out of the rainbow. Instead, pivoting on her foot, she ran out of the arena. We all heard her starting to sob as she left, a wail which tore at the edges of my heart.

I moved to run after her, but was stopped by Lou Ellen. "Percy, no," she spoke. Her tenor was not unkind, but it was firm. It contained no room for argument, not unless I wanted to suddenly grow antlers. "Let me and Bia deal with this."

I tried anyways. The daughter of Hecate was only twelve, which might not seem like that much of an age gap now, but at the time felt like we were entire generations apart. "Lou, I have to – "

"No," she repeated. Her misty green eyes flashed with magic. "Bia and I can handle it. If we need you, we'll get you." Seeing my doubt creep onto my face, she added, "I know Alabaster's your friend, but he's my brother. Right now, Silena needs someone who knows him better than you do, and that's me."

I gave up. She was right.

But in the aftermath, as Lou Ellen and Bianca hurried out of the arena, I felt my heart break into a million pieces. First Luke, now Ethan, Chris, Alabaster, and maybe Katie –

How many more people was I going to lose?


Callie found me hours later at the beach.

I was standing shin-deep in the Sound, a pile of skipping stones next to my feet. Picking them up one at a time, I was tossing them, watching them skid along the water as far as the eye could see – as a child of the sea, I was a natural pro at this.

As a kid, in fact, I'd beaten my mom every time at it whenever we'd gone to Montauk. She had laughed, calling me her "little prodigy," and saying how proud she was of my abilities.

The memories weren't nearly as happy now, though, as they usually were.

"Hey," Callie said. Without any further dialogue, she reached down and picked up a rock, throwing it. She was just as good as I was at it.

The thought made guilt twinge in my stomach. "Hey," I responded. And exhaled softly. "'Sorry about ditching you earlier. I know I said – "

She bumped my arm with hers. "It's fine. Clarisse gave me a tour of the camp when orientation was over, and told me why you and your friend would be so upset. I get it."

I made a face. "Clarisse gave you a tour of camp?"

"Yeah, she's nice." At my snort of disbelief, she punched me in the arm. "What? She is! She's nicer than Annabeth, anyways. That girl was glaring at me when we came across her again on the tour. Told Clarisse to 'go to the crows,'whatever that means."

Despite how awful I felt, I laughed. "Yeah, when you put it like that, Clarisse is pretty damn nice." I juggled a stone in my palm, appreciating its smooth texture. "So...how does it feel to be a daughter of Poseidon?"

I couldn't look at her as I asked that question, casting my gaze out at the horizon. The wind abruptly blew past us, carrying the scent of the sea. There was little doubt in my mind that it was from my – our father. It felt like how my mom sometimes liked to brush her hand up against my cheek, an attempt at comforting us.

Any other time, I think, I would've been angry at the action. I mean, my half-sister had been by my side for an entire school year, and neither he or Demeter had felt like giving me a head's up about it? But right now, I didn't have the energy to be.

I felt like a washcloth after the water had been wrung out of it.

Angry. Sad. Hollow.

"Well, I never expected that the reason why my dad never talked about my mom would be because I don't have one," Callie deadpanned. The comment caught me off guard; I'd been in the middle of trying to skip a stone, and we both had the pleasure of watching it sink into the Sound after four kids. "Or do I? I don't exactly know how this works. Did Poseidon grow a womb to spawn me into existence, or did he make my dad gro – "

My eyes watered, but not with tears of sadness. "Cal – Callie," I spluttered. "You can't just say that."

"Why not? Which one of my dads was my mom? And if it was my mortal one, how did that even work? Inquiring minds want to – "

The imagery made me shudder. Actually shudder. I didn't know a lot about pregnancy, and as a gay guy, I didn't really want to. Childbirth freaked me out. The idea that a woman could make a tiny human grow inside her for nine months and then give birth – blegh.

"Okay, okay," I groaned. "Thank you, Callie. I really didn't need to picture that."

"You're welcome," she said smugly.

Playfully, I hit her back in the arm. "You know," I remarked. "For a half-sister, you're not all that bad."

"For a half-brother, you aren't, either."

A second later, the conch horn blew, signaling dinner. It was yet another thing that hadn't changed, and I was glad for it. Walking out of the Sound, I showed Callie how to will herself to dry, her first act of intentional magic. Afterwards, together we made our way toward the dining pavilion, the sun setting behind us.

It did not escape my notice that night, as the two of us dined at the same table during what was surprisingly an otherwise boring night, how most of the other cabins had decreased in size. Cabin 6, Athena's Cabin, hadn't lost any campers, nor had Cabin Twelve since it was only home to the twins Castor and Pollux, but the others...

Cabin Five, Ares', had lost two. So had Cabin Nine, Hephaestus'. Cabin Seven, Apollo's, three. Cabin Eleven, as far as we could tell, at least four, the other for sure one being a son of Enyo named Jeremiah. But Dolops was still trying to contact the families of the other campers that weren't year-round.

And then, there was Cabin Four, Demeter's. Katie.

That night, after I'd helped Callie move her stuff (not that she had anything of note, just her clothes. Everything else had been left behind in our rush to escape) to the bunk across from mine, I laid in bed with the lights turned out, wide awake.

Maybe, I tried to convince myself. Maybe this summer won't be that bad.

I didn't have a boyfriend, and most of my friends were gone. But I did have Silena, and a half-sister, and I was Demeter's champion, despite not really having been able to do anything with the latter yet. And there was always a chance Katie could come back, if she really had joined Kronos for some unfathomable reason. I'd had a dream about her, whereas Silena hadn't been able to IM Alabaster. That had to count for something.

Maybe we'll be fine.


Oh, how wrong I was.


Word Count: 3,581

Next Chapter Title: Demon Crows Attack