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Chris pulls away from Clarisse, gently running his fingertips across her face as she smiles. For a second, there is red flickering in the edge of his vision as he catches sight of what look like blood red flames dancing up his girlfriend's arms before they vanish in her hair.
“Hi.” He whispers.
“Hi.” Clarisse whispers back.
The tension drains from her shoulders as she rests her forehead on his shoulder and whispers. “Thank you. I'm… I'm glad you're here.”
She blinks and pulls away quickly. “Wait… how did you get here?! When did you get here?! Is everyone at Camp alright?!”
Chris smiles softly. “It's… a very long story. I'll explain, but where is everyone? Are they alright?”
She nods and turns around. “They were right behind me… Thalia and I went ahead when the manticore arrived…”
The sound of running footsteps grows louder as Chris looks up and sees the small group of his friends.
He sighs.
“Sorry.” He apologizes as he approaches the group. “It's really good to see that you're all ok-”
He locks eyes with a figure with his older brother's face, feathers and scales on his body, and golden-blue eyes, and freezes.
“...Kronos?!” He gasps out.
Behind him, Clarisse gasps. “Chris, wait-”
“I thought you were dead.” He spits out, glaring at the Titan possessing someone he'd looked up to for years. “How dare you?! How dare you show your face after everything you've done?!”
‘Because that's Luke's body. That's Luke's body, and Luke should be dead. How dare he? How dare the Titan of Time take my brother's body and twist it into looking like a monster?!’
He drops his bag on the ground and lunges at Kronos with Clarisse's spear. “I'll kill you myself-!”
“Chris!” Clarisse shouts. “That's Luke!”
Chris nearly trips and ends up stabbing her spear into the rock a few inches from the Titan's face.
He slowly turns to face his girlfriend. The one who got him out of his madness, the one who gave him a second chance after working for Kronos's army this entire time.
‘...she's saying that thing is Luke?’
“What?”
Clarisse holds out her hand. “I don't understand it any more than you do right now. But somehow? We are all physically years younger than we should be. We are all years away from the people we became-”
“You're saying this is Luke?” Chris demands, trying not to shake. “Our Luke? The one who didn't betray the camp and became the host to the Titan of Time?’
Clarisse stares at him.
“That's exactly what I'm saying.” She says softly.
“That's our Luke. That's Camp's Luke.”
Chris stares at his girlfriend for a minute. Then slowly turns his head to look at Luke's feather and scale covered face.
Whose golden-blue eyes are wide and staring right back at him.
Chris maintains eye contact for a just a second longer.
Then he pulls back his fist and punches Luke in the stomach as hard as he can.
His traitor brother gasps and doubles over.
Someone shrieks and he hears a younger Thalia gasp. “Both of you, calm down!” She hisses. “They're fine!”
“That's for driving me insane in the Labyrinth!” Chris spits at Luke, because that's the only thing on his mind at the moment.
He inhales, takes a step back, looks at a shocked Clarisse, then whirls around and punches Luke in the face with a right hook.
The same two people shriek again and Thalia hisses “They're fine!”
“And that's for everything else!” He spits out again, panting heavily.
‘If this is Luke, if this is my brother….’
He watches Luke rub his jaw and stagger slightly as he stands back up.
‘I want him to know how much he hurt our family. Our father, our friends, the people we care about. Thousands died because of him, and I could have been one of them!!!’
“Are you ok?” The girl who shrieked earlier asks, sounding worried.
“I'm fine.” Luke mutters, still rubbing his jaw. “I deserved that.”
“You deserve a lot worse.” Chris says angrily. “Personally, I would throw you in the Fields of Asphodel just so you fade into nothing.”
‘But what good would that do? As much as Luke betrayed everyone, he was manipulated by the same Titan that manipulated me.
…I am just as much at fault as he is.’
He glares at Luke, until he sighs and drops his shoulders in sudden emotional exhaustion. “But we were both manipulated by the same person. Only he wore your face when he did.”
Luke flinches.
Chris sighs again. “I hate you, Luke. I hate what you did to me and our home.”
‘Especially to our home. My home. Clarisse was never the same after Silena died, and that was because of you.’
He lifts his head and looks at the older teen. “But I'm willing to work with you until we figure out what's really going on here.”
‘After that… it depends on what you do. If you screw us over, I will not hesitate to strike you down right where you stand. I'm sure everyone else will join me.
…And if you don't screw us over, I might- might- even be willing to forgive you.
Not Kronos, though. That bastard can rot in Tartarus for all I care.’
“That’s fair.” Luke forces out, clearly shaken by the attack. “And yes. I'll work with you.”
He lifts up his head and looks at Chris, then takes a deep breath. “This might screw us over in the long run…”
‘...wait. what?’
“Don't say it.” Clarisse spits out, now right behind Chris.
“I feel like I have to at this point.” Luke confesses.
“At least reword it?” Nico suggests.
Luke nods. “I promise I will never harm another demigod unless I have no other choice.”
Chris waits for thunder to rumble like it does back at Camp Half-Blood when swearing on the Styx, but nothing happens.
‘...He actually promised us that? Us? The people he screwed over countless times? …Has Luke… actually changed?’
“Huh.” Luke mutters.
“You didn't swear.” A younger voice speaks up.
“Obviously.” Luke runs a hand over his face. “Gods, this is-”
“Annoying.” Castor- ‘Wait, Castor?!’ voice says.
Chris finally turns to take a look at everyone in the group, seeing them all for the first time in a week. “So uh.”
‘...I might have screwed up here… but it looks like everyone is… ok? They're all alive.’
He internally winces. ‘Maybe I shouldn't have focused just on Clarisse.’
He raises his hand and gives a little wave. “Hi. I'm Chris. You all should know me from Camp Half-Blood-”
He finally catches sight of Thalia, the obviously makeshift baby harness on her chest, and the two small (clearly demigod) children looking absolutely terrified next to her. One has black hair with vibrant sea-green eyes, while the other, the girl, has blond hair and gray eyes.
‘Almost exactly like Percy and Annabeth-’
His eyes widen in recognition.
“Wait-”
“Chris, meet the Saviors of Olympus.” Clarisse says quietly.
“Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase.”
She steps to his side and turns to look in his eyes. “They are 7 years old, and the only people they know at this point in time are each other, Luke, and Thalia.”
Chris stares at her in disbelief.
“What the FUCK?!” He shouts.
Will sighs. “Clearly, we need to catch up.”
He looks Chris directly in his eyes. “What's going on back… at Camp Half-Blood?”
‘Home.’ Chris thinks. ‘They didn't say home.’
He sighs. Again. “None of you are going to like this.” He warns.
Clarisse slides her hand into his.
“Tell us what happened.” Pollux begs, holding onto a strange person who’s covered with ichor. “Please!
Is anyone looking for us?”
Chris looks around at the group, seeing that they are all alive, alive and injured and all together, just trying to keep each other alive until they figure out what is going on-
He sighs. ‘I at least owe them this much.’
“I don’t know everything.” He warns. “But this is what I do know.”
~~~
On top of a nearby tree, a lone pure white owl with gold tipped feathers listens in with wide silver-gray eyes.
~~~
“It’s been at least two or three days since you all disappeared.” He says finally. “I think. Dad- wait, before I keep going, are we using names here?”
Nico winces. “I know Castor and Pollux have.” He says with a glance to the twins. “But for some reason, no one has found us yet until they actually see us in person.”
“That’s what Nico and I got away from.” Clarisse murmurs.
“You what-?” Will whispers.
“Later.” Nico promises. “We’ll talk about that later.”
Will frowns, but doesn’t say anything.
Chris sighs. “So names are… unknown. Great. I’ll just… I’ll try a few names and see what happens.”
He clears his throat and puts all of his effort into praying to his father. “Hermes-”
The person Castor and Pollux are holding onto jerks his head up and locks eyes with Chris and he feels pure terror grip his heart.
‘...Father?’
Hermes- if that thing even is his father- eyes are bloodshot gold. His normal brown eyes, the brown eyes that Chris inherited from both his father and his mother, are gold, with the veins inside of his eyes wide and pulsing with the God's attempt to keep himself together and in one piece. Snake scales gather at the edges of his eyes, all purple and green and blue and brown, except some of them are flaking off, while others look as if something ripped them out of his face. Ichor, not blood like Chris and the demigods, actual ichor, drips and spills from open wounds and purple bruises all over his body, hitting the grass and dirt with an almost sizzling sound.
Half-feathered wings- actual wings like his father back home, flutter slowly on top of his head, while his face and lower arms are covered with green and brown snake scales that travel down to his chest and neck…
Oh Gods.
His neck is ripped open, with the wound over his throat (‘and his vocal cords’ Chris thinks for a brief second before he realizes ‘oh Gods his vocal cords) and ichor bubbles from the wound with each attempt at breathing.
His right lower arm is snapped, with the bone at a 25 degree angle, and his right hand a mangled mess, with fingers twisted in on themselves to form a sickening attempt at an Ouroboros shape. Brownish-gold ear feathers peek out from under his ichor soaked hair and when he opens his mouth to say something to his son, to a shocked Luke and Chris, his jaw hangs at an angle that shouldn't be possible. Ichor gushes like a fountain out of his mouth until it drips onto his strange shirt (and the shirt is far too big for him, it's practically covering him like a poncho, except for the obvious slashes in the white and gold designs that reveal even more ichor on his chest and Gods Above are those white and gray slivers he sees through gold and tan his ribs?!) and onto the ground.
The Chiavin twins and Will wince.
“Please don’t try to say anything, Lord Hermes.” Castor begs. “I promise we’ll explain later.”
The broken God frowns and bows his head, his brief moment of clarity gone and replaced by pain and anguish.
Chris shakingly inhales. “Well.” He forces out. “I… uh…”
‘Dad, what happened to you?’
“Take a minute.” Luke says quietly.
“Shut up.” He grumbles.
He still takes a second to breathe, to get himself over that little moment.
“I…”
He hears Castor and Pollux whispering faintly, about how Hermes could hear Chris because he was right there in front of them, and why could he hear Chris’s effort to prayer when their father couldn’t hear their prayers.
‘What is going on? Is something blocking our prayers?’
“Okay.” He says aloud and claps his hands together, startling Percy and Annabeth.
“Look, clearly the Gods can hear us now. I don’t know why they couldn’t earlier, but they can now.”
“Maybe it’s the monsters.” Annabeth grumbles.”Maybe we’re being blocked.”
“I-” he frowns.
He didn't remember monsters being able to outright block prayers.
‘Unless something else is blocking us… but what?’
“Back on topic.” He says finally. “After you all disappeared, Wine ordered for all of us to stay in the Big House until he could figure out what’s going on. Which means we couldn't look for you, even when our parents arrived.”
Clarisse frowns. “Why weren’t you looking for us?”
He winces. “Well…. We all got scared after you all disappeared. Then our parents show up, then your father-” he directs it to Clarisse. “-fought your father-” he gestures to the twins. “-which scared the hell out of us, by the way, we thought they were going to kill each other- but then Dad shows up, brings this kid from… well. Actually I don't know where he's from, and I still don't know where he's from because our father, thinking he's protecting us, kept us under a lullaby call.”
“HE WHAT?!” Luke shouts.
His voice rings off of the mountainside, causing everyone else to flinch.
“Look, they have changed!” Chris protests, all too aware of the irony. “They've been actively looking for you all this whole time! We all just…
We didn't know where you were.”
Castor nods. “That's… fair. We didn't know where we were either.”
Chris sighs. “A lot of other stuff happened, I don't know everything but…”
Here, he hesitates. He has no idea how anyone will react once they learn about this. But Luke and Castor are both here, alive despite their deaths, and he knows that his friends want the truth more than anything.
“Whatever entity that took you took Jason.” He says finally.
Thalia tightens her grip on the bundle on her chest that is clearly her baby brother.
He steels himself for the explosion.
“...And it brought Beckendorf, Michael, and Silena back from the dead.”
“...What?” Nico croaks out.
Clarisse’s hand on his shoulder loosens. “...Silena’s alive again?” She breathes.
He looks at his girlfriend and sees small tears forming in her eyes.
He nods. “Yeah. She is.”
“How?” She mouths. “Why…?”
‘Why them?’ She doesn't say. ‘Why her?’
He has no answer for her.
“Do we know anything about the entity that took us?”
Chris sighs. “Michael, Beckendorf, and Silena are convinced that it wants to save us from our parents by promising us a better life. At least, that’s what Michael said to his siblings. I didn’t really speak to Silena because… well. Healing, Love, and Forge would not leave them alone until they got out of the infirmary. And even then, they wouldn’t leave their kids alone. It took two cabins praying to Dad for him to let us out of that lullaby call, and Healing made a deal with Dad for them to watch over both of our cabins.
And I don't even know what Dad is thinking now that I'm here, because usually, they want nothing to do with us!”
“Do you think they care?” Thalia whispers. “Or are they that desperate for everything to go back to normal?”
Once again, he has no answer. Luke takes his silence as all the confirmation he needs.
“I thought you said they changed.” Luke growls. “Clearly, they haven’t changed at all.”
The group falls into silence.
“So what do we do now?” Thalia asks.
“We've got to get to the nearest town before we all collapse.” Nico side eyes Hermes again.
Chris winces. “I'm sorry. We should definitely start moving. I can try and find somewhere nearby…”
He trails off, because all of his senses practically scream in warning, that there is nowhere safe nearby, that there are several eyes on them, and they have to leave now-
~~~
The pure white owl with gold tipped feathers and silver gray eyes bends its body forward, listening to everything the boy says.
Wisdom has always had time to think.
And as the group tenses in apprehension, as multiple gazes above and below turn to their area, it decides now is the time to act.