▬▬▬ CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE ▬▬▬

WHEN ESMERELDA FINISHED RECOUNTING WHAT she had learned about the paternal side of her family, Ethan was understandably troubled by it all. It was one thing to have a shitty dad that went to jail (just like his did), but it was another to be the daughter of a complete psychopath.

Esmerelda's father—Sirius Black—was a serial killer, a cultist who followed some dArK wiZaRd called Lord Voldemort (of all the gods damned names), and a traitor to his closest friends.

But aren't you a traitor too? An evil voice whispered in his head.

Ethan mentally punched the evil voice away. Sure he was technically the bad guy, but he had a good reason to be one. Olympus needed to be brought down, needed to be fixed. It wasn't fair that there were gods and goddesses that were seen as 'unimportant', wasn't fair that their children were seen as the same thing and forced to sleep on the floor of an overcrowded cabin, and it wasn't fair for the gods to abandon their own children and use them as disposable soldiers—

"You guys have a wizard Hitler?" Alabaster's bewildered voice cut him off from his thoughts.

"Seriously?" Esmerelda huffed. "I just told you my dad's a serial killer and that's all you hear?"

"How long is he locked up for?" Ethan asked. There was an edge in his voice.

Esmerelda shrugged. "I don't know. I sort of forgot to ask, but they made it sound like he'll be locked away for good."

"Let's hope so," Alabaster chirped, clapping her back. "Now can we get back to the wizard Hitler? What was his name again? Volding Mold?"

"Voldemort," she corrected, giggling. "Apparently he's supposed to be dead now, but the centaurs say otherwise."

"Better to trust the centaurs than the mortals." Alabaster advised her.

Esmerelda nodded in agreement. Centaurs were known to be a wiser race compared to humans after all. Though she did wonder how the mortals would mistake Voldemort's death. Did they not check the body right? Was there even a body found? She made a mental note to check it out later when they finally reached Camp Half Blood.

The campers working on patrol duty waved at them as they passed by, and she waved back.

"Essie, you're back!" Aiden Creed, her eight year old half-brother and the youngest child of Hecate, greeted her gleefully as she entered the rickety old cabin. He threw his arms around her and eagerly asked, "Do have any magic toys?!"

"No, sorry," she said apologetically, squeezing him back before they pulled away.

"Aww," he pouted.

"Got any cool magic tricks to show us?" Travis asked before taking a bite out of his apple.

Aiden's eyes lit up. "Do you?! He asked excitedly.

Esmerelda grinned. "Oh definitely," she thought about what to do before her eyes zeroed in on the apple Travis was holding. "Lemme borrow that for a second."

He quirked a brow, but tossed the fruit over to her nonetheless. Esmerelda was beginning to attract a crowd of her cabin-mates as she concentrated hard on the apple in her hands. Engorgio, she thought, putting as much power as she can into the little red fruit. Engorgio was a second-year spell that she had stumbled upon while looking for more offensive and defensive spells, and it was an easy charm to do.

Engorgio! She thought again, and immediately, the apple started to grow in her hands. It grew and grew, only stopping five seconds later when the apple was finally a little less than two feet tall.

Everyone was gaping at it.

Connor slowly walked forward, his expression of utmost seriousness as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup . "Think you can do the same thing with this?"

So maybe it was a bad idea to engorge a bunch of candies for demigods to eat, especially since half of those demigods were all children of Hermes and were known to be extremely mischievous and extremely hard to catch. But her younger siblings were giving her pleading looks, so how could she say no?

"Think you can do the same thing with our cabin?" Ethan asked as everyone else greedily chomped down on large pieces of candy.

"I wish," she sighed. "Our cabin's too big... I'll try searching for a spell when I get back to Hogwarts. Gods, I wish the wizarding world had Google, it'd be so much easier for me to find the spell I'm looking for..."

"Maybe you can invent a wizarding version of Google," Alabaster joked, leaning against the wall. The three of them were the only ones wise enough to not go crazy at the amount of enlarged sweets and junk food and were instead, watching the chaos unfold.

"Yeah..." Esmerelda trailed off as she watched the scene. Something about this was bugging her.

She knew how many campers resided in Cabin 11. She had been keeping count of them even while she was away since she would always be informed of a new resident. The amount of campers now was... smaller. She noted that some people were missing. A handful of Hermes children were gone, and all of the unclaimed except for Ethan were gone too. Even some of the children of minor gods weren't here...

Including a few of her own siblings.

Lyra, Ursula, Alan, Brigette, Lysander, Sabrina, Blair, and the Novak twins were missing. It made something sink in her gut, so she tried desperately to tell herself that their summer vacation probably hadn't started yet.

But then she realized that half of them were year-rounders.

"...Hey Alabaster, where's the rest of our siblings at?" She found herself asking.

Ethan and Alabaster tensed up beside her, no longer finding entertainment in watching their cabin-mates indulge themselves in over-sized treats.

"School hasn't ended for them yet," Alabaster answered, almost too carefully.

"Lyra, Alan, Sabrina, and the Novak twins are year-rounders." She said, her voice turning sharp.

Alabaster opened his mouth to explain but was cut off by Aiden, who sprinted over to his older half-sister and started tugging on her arm. When she wasn't looking, Alabaster and Ethan released sighs of relief.

"Can you make candy appear out of thin air?" Aiden, who managed to capture Esmerelda's sole attention, asked with a wide grin.

"Nope, sorry," she replied. His face fell, and she quickly appeased him by saying, "But! I'll make sure to learn when I come back to Hogwarts."

He giggled. "That's a funny name. I wanna go there when I grow up."

She patted him on the head, "Maybe one day I can bring you." From what she remembered, her old schools would host fairs and festivals—events were the students could bring their friends and family. She wondered if Hogwarts do something similar. But then again, one demigod was enough to attract monsters to the place, so bringing her siblings there probably wouldn't be a good idea...

"What else did you learn from Hogwarts?" Travis asked curiously, his mouth covered with chocolate residue.

She lit up like a light bulb. "Oh! Well, apparently, there's this thing called an Animagus where you can turn into an animal!"

"You can turn into an animal?!" Serenity Winchester, a daughter of Harmonia, gawked.

Esmerelda shook her head and clarified, "No, no. Well... not yet, at least. It's a really, really long process, and I gotta put a leaf in my mouth for a whole month—"

"—Do you have a leaf in your mouth now?" Connor asked, actually stepping forward to grab her jaws.

She swatted his hands away. "Not now, but I'm planning on starting the process soon." She had the potion ingredients ready and a good supply of mandrake leaves she stole from Professor Sprout's greenhouse prepared for her.

"What animal are you going to turn into?" Travis asked.

"I like puppies," Aiden said.

She shrugged, "It's completely random. Er, well, not really. You don't get to pick what animal you get, it's completely based off of your personality, but I'm aiming for a really big animal that could—hopefully—scare off any monster threats?"

One of her half-sister's, Marnie, snorted. "I wish you luck with that."

Her half-brother, Cyrus, grinned at her. "Aw, have some hope Marnie. I'm sure Essie would make a really scary... hamster."

The whole cabin snickered.

Esmerelda was undeterred, and rolled her eyes at their immaturity. "Laugh all you want now, but once I've fully become an Animagus, I'll be gnawing on your bones as if they were chew toys."

They erupted into full-blown laughter this time, leaving her fuming.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

Esmerelda stared up at the darkening sky, contemplating on when to start the Animagus process with the baggie full of stolen mandrake leaves in hand. She needed to keep one of the leaves in her mouth for an annoyingly long amount of time before using it to make the Animagus potion on a full moon specifically. Then, she needed to keep the potion away from sunlight for a week, and so forth.

She also needed a storm... which New York was full of due to Zeus' rage. Perhaps she should start the process now?

Just before she could open the baggie and pop a leaf into her mouth, a snide voice came up from behind her. "You're back..."

She turned around, her face falling when she recognized the speaker as Caleb Warring from the Ares cabin. He was just as ugly as ever, and mean as ever too judging from all the letters she received complaining about him.

"Um, yeah... Hi." She said lamely, already bracing herself for whatever insult he'd throw at her.

He smiled instead, which made her a hundred times more worried. "Funny, I thought you would've joined the rest of them."

She was afraid to ask, but did so anyways. "'Them'?"

He nodded, as if they were having some sort of friendly, peaceful conversation. "Yeah, the others who left camp. Like your siblings."

Everything froze. It took a while for Esmerelda to find her voice again.

"What are you talking about?"

He shot her an amused look. "Are you blind or something? Your siblings and cabin-mates are disappearing one by one, it's not just a coincidence. They're leaving to join Luke's army! They've betrayed the camp! You're related to a bunch of traitors! I won't be surprised if you followed them! You and whatever's left of your siblings... and that unclaimed loser too. I heard he's the only one left? Sucks he didn't go. How much you wanna bet he leaves tomorrow?"

Esmerelda looked away from him, her eyes darting around as if to search for an answer, and explanation, or something to help her make sense of this.

She shook her head in denial. "They're not... My siblings aren't stupid enough to betray the camp." Betray the gods, she meant to say. Because betraying camp by joining Luke's army was the same thing as betraying the gods. She had seen their power first hand. They killed Merlin because they thought he was a threat. Imagine what they would do to her other siblings for choosing to side with the titan lord Kronos?

Caleb shrugged. "Apparently they are. So when're you joining them?"

She shook her head again. "I wouldn't join them!"

His faux friendly face was replaced by his usual sneer. "You will," he said with conviction. "And guess what? You're all gonna lose and the gods'll kill you—"

Esmerelda let out an angered scream. She swatted her hand at his direction, and his body was enveloped in a green glow before he was suddenly thrown to the side by an invisible force. His body rammed against a tree that shook powerfully from the collision. He crumpled to the ground, motionless.

She didn't bother to check on his condition before she stormed away, her mind buzzing like crazy. Caleb's words kept taunting her in her head, and now she couldn't stop seeing her siblings in the same position as Merlin was before the gods decided to blast him to smithereens.

Her siblings... the rest of her cabin-mates... had they really gone to join Luke? Luke, who was doing who-knows-what with Kronos.

No, no, no, she thought, leaning against a tree as she steadied her breathing. They would know better than that. They had too. Hadn't they learned from what nearly happened to her? To Merlin?

She stayed at the forest, the monsters miraculously never reaching her, until it was time for dinner. Now that everyone was together at their respective tables, it was much more obvious to her that there were less people in the Hermes cabin than usual. There was actually sitting space now, which should've been a good thing had it not been for the reason why.

She was tense the whole time, and barely said anything when anyone spoke to her. After they all dumped a portion of their meals into the fire and returned to their seats, Chiron came forward with an unknown man at his side and stomped once on his hoof to silence them all.

"Campers!" He called out. "I have an announcement to make. Several, in fact..."

Everyone perked up. At first Esmerelda thought it was good news, but the grim expression on his face told her otherwise.

"Argus, our dear head of security, has just been fired through Zeus' order." He stated, and all hell broke lose.

"What?!"

"Why'd he fire Argus for?!"

"His wife's gonna be so pissed," someone from the Ares table muttered. Esmerelda glanced over there and saw Caleb. He was perfectly fine, save for the bandaged head and disgruntled look he wore. He seemed to be avoiding her gaze too, so she hoped he would stop bothering her and her friends now.

The man beside Chiron scowled in annoyance at all the chatter. Chiron raised his hand and they all quieted down once more. "There is another thing... I too have been fired—"

That caused everyone to burst in outrage.

"WHAT?!" Most of the campers screamed in horror.

"You can't leave!"

"But Chiron, you've been training heroes for thousands of years!"

Everyone was protesting against this, even Esmerelda. Chiron was like everyone's second father and he was the best trainer ever! Without him, they'd all either be dead or miserable.

Chiron raised his hand again and everyone slowly fell silent. "I've been suspected of poisoning Thalia's Tree—"

"—That's crazy!" A few campers blurted out.

Chiron smiled sadly. "Lord Zeus has ordered for my leave, effective immediately. Tomorrow I will be gone..."

"But where will you go?!" A young camper practically wailed, looking close to tears.

Chiron cleared his throat awkwardly. "Ah, well, I will venture off to the Everglades to join my brethren, the Party Ponies."

Esmerelda nearly choked. "The Party what now...?" She whispered under her breath.

"Hopefully they might know a cure to the poison," Chiron murmured before giving the campers a warm smile. "But not to worry, campers. I won't be leaving you with just Mr. D. He will be joined by this... erm, fine man here." He motioned to the man who had been silently standing beside him the whole time.

Esmerelda looked over at the mystery person and didn't feel very comforted. He was pale and thin with very prominent blue shadows under his eyes. He was picking at his dirty fingernails before running a hand through his badly cut gray hair. Even worse, he was wearing an orange prisoner's jumpsuit.

"This is... Tantalus." Chiron finished with a forced smile. "He will be your new activities director."

Murmurs of recognition lit up in the dining pavilion.

"Tantalus? Isn't he supposed to be rotting in Tartarus for feeding the gods his kids?" One of the Hermes children whispered.

"He's gonna be in charge of us?!"

"This camp is doomed." Ethan muttered.

Malcolm Pace, second-in-command of the Athena cabin, raised his hand as if he was in school. "But sir, why him?"

Tantalus rose a thin brow. "Care to repeat that to my face you wretched—"

Chiron cut in. "—He was handpicked by Lady Hera herself."

That didn't make anyone feel better.

"Lady Hera who's famously known to hate all demigods?" Someone asked dryly. Above them, lightning struck but they could all care less about that.

Chiron tried not to grimace. He cleared his throat and tried to look happy for everyone's sake. It wasn't working. He opened his mouth to speak but Tantalus stopped him by resting a hand on his shoulder.

"I was handpicked by Lady Hera because of my great experience with children—"

Someone snorted.

"—so I promise to take great care of all of you and this... wonderful camp of yours." He said, smiling thinly.

"We're all gonna die." Esmerelda sighed miserably.

╞═════𖠁𐂃𖠁═════╡

With Caleb's words still haunting her mind, the truth she could see in them, and Chiron's discharge, Esmerelda was unable to fall asleep that night. Which was a good thing too because her ears picked up the sound of someone moving around.

Quickly, she closed her eyes and feigned sleep. Who was awake? And what were they doing? She remembered Caleb's words and her heart drummed faster. They weren't planning on leaving to join Luke, were they?

Her heart nearly stopped when she heard them spoke.

"Theodora. Theodora, wake up."

"Mmgh...? Alabaster? What are—... Are we leaving now?"

"Yeah. Help me wake the others up."

"And Essie? Is she coming with us?"

There was a brief pause, and then: "No... Not yet. She'll come later. But right now the rest of us have to go. Luke's been waiting long enough."

There was some rustling before Theodora replied, "Okay."

Esmerelda listened as her remaining siblings woke up one by one. Caleb was right. They were leaving. They were really leaving.

Suddenly she heard someone groan and the whole room fell silent.

"Shit," Alabaster cursed under his breath before muttering a spell in Latin. Esmerelda's eyelids felt heavy, and she felt drowsy. She then realized that her brother had cast a sleeping spell on all of them and instantly fought against it, desperate to stay awake. When she heard the door close—signaling that her siblings had just left—she forced herself to get up and chased after them.

"Don't do it!" She cried out once she made it passed the doors.

All of her siblings jumped in surprise and whirled around to face her. Alabaster was the most shocked of all.

"Essie, what are you—" He gritted his teeth in frustration. "Of course you would be the one to break free..."

"I overheard you, and I know that you're going to join Luke," she began. Her eyes started darting towards each of her siblings faces. They all looked apprehensive. "You can't do it you guys, please don't join him. Betraying the gods... Do you have any idea how crazy that is?! Joining him is a death sentence!"

"Not if we win," Alabaster snapped at her. "Do you know who Luke has on his side, Esmerelda? It's not just monsters, not just demigods, but he has Kronos. Do you know who he is? How powerful he is?"

"He's in Tartarus."

"Not for long, I promise you." He said seriously before his face crumbled. He began to beg with her. "You can't seriously ally yourself to the gods. Not after what they've done. They killed our brother—they tried to kill you!"

"You don't think I know that?! I was there for both trials! I dreamt of what happened to Merlin... How easy it was to kill him. I don't want the same thing to happen to all of you!" She cried out hoarsely.

Their screaming match was drawing the attention of the harpies, but neither of them noticed. Their other siblings, however, did.

"Ally... Essie..." Cyrus whimpered, looking around fearfully. "The Harpies..."

"They won't know we're here." Alabaster said, his eyes not leaving Esmerelda's matching ones. He probably hid them all with the Mist. Despite the situation, she couldn't help but feel envious of his powers.

"Why?" Esmerelda's voice broke. "Why leave? Isn't camp your home?"

Alabaster scowled darkly. "This isn't 'home', Essie, and you know it. Do you know why we're stuck sleeping on the floor of the Hermes cabin? It's because the Olympians don't think our mother is as important as them. Despite everything she's done... She sided with the gods rather than the titans—her own people—and she barely got anything in return! She served those damn Olympians for eons but they still refuse her a seat in their Hall! She was a Titan, a being more ancient than the Gods but was demoted to a minor goddess!" He sneered. "Mother deserves better, and so do we. Kronos is going to give us exactly that."

"You can't really like it here, Essie," Marnie spoke up, equally as pleading. "After everything that's happened to you? The Olympians want you dead! Don't you hate them?"

Esmerelda flinched. Because Marnie was wrong. She didn't hate them—she feared them. And with good reason too...

"Come with us, please..." Aiden's eyes started to water as he stared up at her. "Luke promised to keep you safe! He said that Lord Kronos really likes you!"

She shuddered, shaking her head. "No... I'm sorry, but... no."

Alabaster's expression hardened. "So that's it huh? You're not coming with us..."

"Please don't go. I'm begging you." She said, looking at each of them with desperation. "The gods will kill you all. I can't let you... I don't want any of you to die for this." She swallowed thickly before saying:

        "Alabaster, I'm begging you not to do this. You're going to lead our siblings to their deaths! You'll..." Her voice trailed off. For some odd reason, her mind was growing fuzzy...

Alabaster walked towards her, a regretful look on his face. His green eyes were watery. "I'm sorry, Essie." He said, his voice shaky as her eyelids flutter shut. She nearly fell to the ground had it not been for him catching her.

"W-what happened to her?" Morgana asked worriedly.

"I put her to sleep," Alabaster answered, looking down at Esmerelda with sorrowful eyes. "I also erased her memories of this conversation... I thought it'd be better if our last moments together would be of us not arguing..."

"S-so we're really gonna leave her here...?" Clara's eyes widened.

He shook his head. "No. Another reason I erased her memories was for us to get another chance. Another chance to persuade her to come to us."

"But how're we gonna do that if we're all the way at the ship?" She demanded.

Alabaster tried to smile, but it was full of bitterness and hints of uncertainty. "Ethan is still here. If anyone can get her to switch sides, it'd be him."

His younger half-siblings looked at him anxiously, unsure of his statement.

"Don't worry," he told them. "Ethan can do it... He has to... He's gonna bring Essie back to us."

— author's note —

And now Essie is the last child of Hecate left in camp... Awww D: First day of summer vacation and things have gone to shit already, huh

And about the gif... Yeah, Caleb's supposed to be Madison/Zoe in there lol while Essie's Fiona