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Luke was dead. He was sure of that, he’d plunged the blade in himself. So why did he feel so… alive?
Gingerly he opened his eyes and looked around at… his cabin? From the light filtering through the windows he could tell it was early morning, but some of the Hermes kids were up doing various things. He bolted upright, earning a few odd looks from his siblings, and immediately headed for the bathroom.
He stared in the mirror at his 19 year old face, and tried to not have a panic attack.
Holyshitholyshitholyshit! What?! How?! Ok Luke don’t panic, I need to breathe.
“Luke? You good?” he whipped his head to see the Stolls looking at him with matching expressions of concern.
“Uh…Yeah.” The Stolls turned to look at each other, clearly unconvinced.
“No offense but you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I’m just tired. It’s fine.” he muttered.
“That makes me even less convinced that you're fine.”
“What day is it?”
“June 3rd… why?”
“I just-,” he started to say but he was hit with a wave of pain.
Luke’s head felt like it was splitting in two, and as a bonus, on fire. He lost track of his surroundings as a voice unmistakable belonging to the Titan lord screamed in his head.
Luke wasn’t quite sure what he actually said but it was clear the Titan lord knew that he would betray him in the end. In fact it appeared the Titan lord was trying to kill him by possessing his body, which he should not be able to do but whatever had sent him back had decided ‘yep you're still controlled by Kronos’.
A loud guttural scream tore from Luke’s throat as he collapsed, his body looked like it was disintegrating, golden cracks appeared in his skin, Travis immediately rushed forward to try to help, but as he touched Luke’s skin Travis’ own burned and he leaped back. Luke’s eyes opened, they were glowing pure golden.
“GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” Luke let out one final scream then the gold disappeared, his eyes were normal, and he collapsed. Conner darted to Luke’s side studying the burns that now covered most of his body. His t-shirt was torn but for the most part his clothes had survived the strange golden energy.
A large group crashed through the bathroom doors. Annabeth shrieked as she saw his limp body, and she rushed to check his pulse.
“He’s alive,” she sighed in relief, but then turned on the Stolls.
“WHAT DID YOU TWO DO?!”
“Nothing! Honest! We just noticed Luke was acting weird and went to check on him! And then he… uh, how do we even explain what just happened?” Conner asked, turning to his older brother.
“Where’s Chiron?” Travis asked, ignoring his brother for the moment.
“Right here,” said the centaur as he and Mr D entered.
“The heck happened to him,” Mr D asked, clearly not concerned for Luke at all.
“Doesn’t matter! We need to get him to the infirmary!" Lee inserted as he and a couple of his siblings pushed their way through the crowd. The group parted as the Apollo kids rushed Luke away, and the rest of the crowd was finally waved away by Mr D.
Annabeth stood shaking as she watched Luke be carried away. She took a deep breath then turned her attention back on the Stolls and Chiron. The Stolls looked traumatized and she finally noticed a sizable burn on who she assumed was Travis’ hand. Chiron looked nervous, which made Annabeth feel nervous.
After finally gaining the courage she asked“What’s wrong Chiron?”
“Fate has been stirred, I sensed something before I even heard the scream.”
“Wait, you heard the scream? All the way from the big house?”
“Everyone at camp heard the scream,” Annabeth explained, gesturing to the dispersing crowd outside, then paused.
“What exactly happened?”
“Well we were up early this morning, and saw Luke wake up, and i don’t know…something was wrong he looked confused, scared almost. He rushed out of the cabin and we followed him, he looked pale and was just staring at himself in the mirror. When we tried to talk to him, he asked what day it was and then just collapsed, screaming. His skin was glowing like there were layers of molten gold underneath, cracks formed in his skin and he looked like he was… disintegrating. And well he opened his eyes, and they were gold…then he said ‘Get out of my head!’ and fell over.” he explained motioning with his hands how Luke had acted.
Annabeth and Chiron were silent, for a long moment after Travis finished the story.
“This is very bad.”
“So Luke nearly got… possessed by something?”
“It is the most likely option… but by whom I am unsure. Continue on with your days. I will talk with him once he wakes up.” Annabeth did as she was told but had a very bad feeling that Chiron knew exactly what happened.
—---------------------------------------------------------------
Luke was floating in a black void, memories would occasionally filter through the inky blackness but they just added onto his guilt. He needed a plan.
Not being on Kronos’ side does a lot. Supposedly Kronos only sent himself the memory of my betrayal… and me by accident. So his plan should stay relatively the same. Par Atlas, because no one in their right mind (which i was not in) would take the burden of the sky.
He could do this, he still had stolen the bolt but no one had to know that, and…wait. Oh gods! How was he supposed to explain Kronos controlling his body? Well he was pretty sure he was waking up so time to improvise.
—------------------------------------------------------------------
Percy’s eyes drifted open wearily, the first thing he noticed was Grover sitting next to his bed still holding the half finished drink that tasted like cookies. The next thing he noticed was the blonde girl sitting on his other side back facing him.
“He’s up.” Grover offered to her.
She turned her head, and her grey eyes scrutinized him, for a moment.
“You drool in your sleep,” she turned her head back to whatever she was looking at, and Grover looked at Percy apologetically.
“C’mon Percy Chi- I mean Mr Brunner wants to see you.”
As Grover was about to lead Percy away the girl made a noise of surprise and jumped out of her chair.
“Luke!”
And Percy realized there was another person, who had just sat up. He had short blonde hair and a large scar across his eye, plus some large burn marks adorning his arms.
The guy's pale blue eyes locked with Percy's green ones for only a moment, they widened in surprise. Then he quickly turned his attention to the girl, who was yelling at him about… something, she was crying too much for Percy to make out what she said.
“Hey,” they guy, Luke, offered weakly
“THAT’S ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY!”
“Oof please be quieter, my ears hurt.”
“I’ll get Chiron to come here since you, and Luke are awake,” Grover announced to Percy as he dashed out the door.
Percy awkwardly turned to the pair “Uh hi. Luke right? Nice to meet you, I’m Percy”
“Nice to meet you Percy. And yeah I’m Luke, this is Annabeth.”
“Um if you don’t mind me asking, are you ok?” he asked studying the scars
Luke just then seemed to notice the burn marks, and grimaced,
“That’s why everything hurts.”
“You’re lucky the Apollo kids were able to heal a lot of those burns.”
“The what?”
Luke cringed, “That’s kind of hard to explain kid, we usually have an introduction video or you're told before you arrive.”
“But you’ve been unconscious for a few days, and didn’t really get the chance,” Annabeth interrupted
The trio heard the footsteps or… hoofsteps? Just then Grover showed up with Mr Brunner, but instead of a wheelchair it was the bottom half of a horse?
—--------------------------------------------
Luke internally sighed, Chiron was here, and poor Percy was looking at his horse legs with a bewildered expression. Luke felt the sudden urge to yell at Chiron, that he should have waited and not put him into shock, maybe it was the fact that he felt bad for the other timeline, maybe it was because he knew what was in store for Percy, or maybe it was just his older brother instincts kicking in, for whichever reason he wanted Percy to feel as safe as possible.
Safe to say Percy was taken away by Chiron and Grover to break the news about the Minotaur, and his mom.
Luke was released by Lee soon after, on the condition he wouldn’t push himself. It hurt a little when he grabbed the side table for stability but he’d be damned before anyone knew that. Annabeth had decided to go after Percy to see about the quest, but he knew she would be back to question him so he paused by the camp store to grab steal toiletries for Percy, and was nearly tackled to the ground by the Stolls.
“LUKE YOU’RE AWAKE!” Travis looked like he was about to faint with relief.
“Yeah, it took a minute to get Lee to let me go but I got things to do.”
“Like what?”
“There’s a new kid I got to get settled in.”
“Another new kid.”
“Relax, I met him in the infirmary and he seems like a good kid.”
“Our cabin is going to eat him alive then.”
Not if I have anything to say about it. Besides he’s not going to be there for very long. Luke thought to himself.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------
He found Percy with Annabeth already at the Hermes cabin. Luke’s cabin was ecstatic that he was alright, and therefore were in a good enough mood to not bother with the fact there was another unclaimed for their cabin. Annabeth attempted to pull Luke away to talk to him but was thankfully stopped by some of his other siblings.
“Ok everybody settle down, Percy I’m the counselor of the Hermes cabin and since you’re unclaimed you’ll stay with us.”
“What does that mean? Being claimed.”
“It means you’re godly parent is basically telling everyone you’re theirs.”
“My godly parent?” Luke paused
“Chiron didn’t tell you about that?” Percy shook his head.
It took everything Luke had to not march down to the big house and give the centaur a piece of his mind. Instead he facepalmed, “Annabeth can you-”
“Yeah” she said, stepping forward, grabbing Percy by the back of his shirt and dragging him away, causing him to nearly drop the minotaur horn.
After assuring his siblings he was alright he decided to go check on Percy, he was unclaimed right now, so therefore Luke could go with the idea of ‘I’m in charge of him’.
When Luke found Percy, Clarisse was dragging him into the girls bathroom by the neck while Annabeth just watched. He was about to go after them but quickly had to decide against it, since it was the girls bathroom, he decided to wait nearby. Suddenly the door flew open and the group of Ares kids were thrown out by dirty water, a few seconds later Percy and Annabeth left the bathroom as well.
—----------------------------------------------------------
Clarisse glared daggers at Percy “You are dead new boy! You are totally dead!”
“You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth.”
As Clarisse was dragged away by her siblings, he noticed Luke, who had doubled over shoulders shaking, and decided to ignore the look Annabeth was giving him. Percy headed towards him, Annabeth following close behind.
“You ok?”
He looked up, then burst out laughing,” Oh my gods that was amazing to witness!” The tension evaporated from him, as he sighed in relief,
“So I’m not in trouble?”
“Oh absolutely not, that was spectacular.”
—----------------------------------------------------------
Luke sent the pair off claiming it was to help Percy get a feel for the area but he was really helping Annabeth. He knew at this point in time she was desperate for a quest and an answer to what was going on in Olympus and Percy was the key to that even if she didn’t know it.
Eventually Percy returned heading to his spot so like last time Luke went over to him “Found you a sleeping bag,” he said. “And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store.”
“Thanks.” “No prob.” Luke sat down next to Percy and pushed his back against the wall.
“Tough first day?”
“I don’t belong here, I don’t even believe in gods.”
“Yeah,” Luke acknowledged, thinking about his own first days at camp. “That’s how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn’t get any easier.” he said reciting this conversation from memory, no less bitterness in his voice.
“So your dad is Hermes?”
“Yeah. Hermes.”
“The wing-footed messenger guy.”
“That’s him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. He takes in unclaimed kids like you.”
He gave Percy a half-hearted smile “Listen I know everything is really confusing, but I promise you, you do belong. There are good people at camp, and I’ll help take care of you.” Percy looked like he was about to cry.
“That’s probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me.”
They both went quiet for a moment.
“Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being ‘Big Three’ material. Then Annabeth . . . twice, she said I might be ‘the one.’ She said I should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?”
Luke sighed ““Let’s just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn’t allowed any more quests. Annabeth’s been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He’d had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn’t tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn’t destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until . . . somebody special came to the camp.” Again Luke felt the same bitterness grow in his chest but he squashed it down for Percy’s sake.
“Somebody special?”
“Don’t worry about it, kid,” Luke said. “Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she’s been waiting for. Now, come on, it’s dinnertime.” He really wanted Percy to have at least one nice day here before his life went to shit.
Luke then called the cabin to order and all 20ish of them headed down to dinner. It went well Luke taught Percy about their dinner rules and hung out with him during the fire. Finally when it was time for bed, he quickly fell asleep.
The next thing he knew he was on mount olympus, but it was different rubble covered the ground, things were on fire and screaming could be heard from below.
He felt something grab his ankle
“Family Luke, you promised.”
She was bleeding from huge gashes on her body. He looked up, not able to bear watching her bleed out for another minute, and saw Percy, sliced nearly in half, he turned his head, Thalia, dead, Grover, dead, Travis and Conner, dead. Everywhere he looked he saw new bodies all people he knew all people he cared about, finally he just slammed his eyes shut and fell to his knees
My fault, this is all my fault
“Luke. This is what shall happen to all your friends now that you’ve betrayed me.”
“NO!”
And then he woke up.
He was gasping for air, the tears blurred his vision, he quickly got up and rushed out of the cabin. It was dark, almost midnight as Luke made his way down to the training grounds, he needed to not think for a while.
But other than the chronic nightmares and lack of sleep everything was fine, Percy settled in (kind of) the only thing he was particularly good at right now was canoeing, but Luke knew he would become a dangerous opponent on the battlefield.
Before he knew it it was Friday, and capture the flag was about to begin.