επικοινωνώ

communicate

• • •

There was something different about Annabeth; something had changed since the last time that Cameron had seen her. Which was good, of course, because she had been a wreck the last time they were together, but it scared him nonetheless. Her eyes were more grounded, looking every bit like the Annabeth that had disappeared.

But at this point, Cameron had bigger things to worry about, such as who the new trio of demigods were, and what their exact intentions with his family were. His family, and the two other people that they had picked up along the way.

To say that Cameron was starstruck in Hazel Levesque's presence was a drastic understatement; the girl was both the daughter of Hades and could control the Mist. She was insanely powerful, and could kill Cameron without even moving. And the other new member, Grover Underwood, was less popular, but Cameron had seen him around before, usually by either Percy and Annabeth's side, though he was not next to Annabeth now. He was quietly talking with Clarisse, who was still grunting in pain every few seconds due to her mostly healed but still fresh injury.

Cameron approached Annabeth, who was staring at the ocean with a wistful expression on her face. Cameron pretended not to know what that meant. "Are you okay?"

"You already asked me that," the demigod responded, the setting Sun making her hair look golden.

"Right, but I just wanted to make sure. I mean, you and Willow both disappeared, so I didn't know. . ."

Cameron was internally wincing at himself as he forced himself to end the sentence. Not that it mattered; nothing he said really made sense anymore.

"I was fine," Annabeth said, her voice almost emotionless. "She never even touched me."

"But isn't that strange?" Cameron pressed, regretting it as soon as he said it with the way Annabeth turned to face him, her face hard as steel. "I mean, it's great that you're not injured, but she had some next-level powers. Shouldn't you have gotten at least a little bit hurt?"

"It didn't seem like she wanted to kill me," Annabeth responded distantly, returning her vigilant gaze to the open ocean. "More like she just wanted me alone."

"Right," was all Cameron said.

There was a pregnant pause, and Cameron took the moment to dig his fingers deep into the sand, relishing in the coolness he found below the surface. It would be nice to be surrounding by that chill, to just let go and allow the sand to drag him deep beneath the ground--

"Oh shit," he said out loud, tearing his hand from the sand.

"What?" Annabeth asked, looking a little shocked at the sudden curse.

Cameron scrambled to his feet and took several steps from Annabeth. "It's Her. She can feel me here, and she's trying to reach me."

He tripped on his next step backwards, and Hazel was suddenly there to catch him. "Why would she try to reach you?" the girl asked.

Cameron exchanged looks with Clarisse and Drew, and it was clear what they wanted him to do, even if that meant completely betraying everyone's trust. He took in a shaky breath.

"Okay. So for the past two years, while everyone has been off hiding and forming their own 'Olympian' gangs, the four of us, Clarisse, Drew, Chris, and I, have been working undercover, serving as part of Her army."

Hazel immediately stepped away, causing Cameron to fall onto the sand. He could not blame her for the reaction; he most likely would have done the same thing.

The new fiery girl, Cameron thought her name was Daisy or Daphne, pointed a sword at him. "You're working for her?"

"Did everyone miss the part when I said undercover?" Cameron grumbled while getting to his feet. "We did it to protect ourselves and to find Annabeth. We knew someone under Her control was responsible for her disappearance, and the best way to get information was to work beneath Her. So we did, and it worked; we found Annabeth."

Cameron felt the pull again, his feet sinking into the sand. He tried to ignore it, swallowing down the panicked breaths in his throat.

"But in the process, you let Her inside your head," Hazel responded, the anger all too evident in her tone. "That's too big of a compromise; you can't be trusted."

"We did it, too," Clarisse said, someone else finally speaking up for Cameron. "She thinks we all have forsaken the gods to join her army."

"Which we haven't, if any of you were wondering," Drew added.

"But that's not good enough," Daphne argued, "if she can see inside your mind, then none of us are safe with any of you."

"That's not entirely our fault," said Cameron, "we're standing on land that isn't protecting from Her. She most likely could sense us the second we stepped onto this island."

"Then we need to leave," the other new girl, Esmerelda, said decisively. "We need to go back to our base."

"I'm gonna have to veto that one," said Hazel, crossing her arms. She was small in stature, but there was something intimidating about her figure all the same. "We need to return to Olympus, and then we'll discuss what to do from there."

"You're both wrong," Will Solace said, suddenly feeling the need to speak up.

"Where do you propose we go?" Grover asked.

Will looked up, and stared directly at Cameron, which was more than unnerving. But something that looked like understanding was written across his face. "Daphne was the one who said it. Tartarus is opening in three days. We need to go there to stop it."

"I'm not going to Tartarus," Esmerelda announced, casually flipping a knife and easily catching it. Cameron added a mental side-note to never say a mean thing towards her.

"I don't think that's what he meant," Cameron said, "and I think Will's right. We can send a message back to both of your bases or camps or whatever you want to call them, and tell them to meet us there. Stopping Tartarus from opening isn't going to be easy; we're going to need all the help that we can get."

"I'm not sure if everyone will just drop everything and march to Tartarus," Clarisse weakly argued.

"It would take more than three days to actively deploy all of our warriors," agreed Esmerelda, "and that's excluding the ones who would refuse to assist us."

"Some of us can go back to Olympus; on Arion, it will take just a few minutes," Hazel said, sounding almost desperate. Her horse, despite being a horse, seemed to glare at everyone for not listening to his master.

"No," Annabeth said, suddenly breaking her silence. "Will is right; we have to stop Tartarus from opening."

"Annabeth," Hazel pleaded in a pained tone, " it would be better if everyone stuck together, and we can best do that back home, at Olympus."

"I don't think we're strong enough to fight, anyways," Clarisse agreed. Cameron could throttle her; for the past two years, she had picked every fight that she could, yet now when there was a real fight, she was cowering. "We have Annabeth back, but Percy's still missing."

"No, he isn't," Daphne said, staring directly at Annabeth. "His presence was felt earlier; he's most likely at Olympus right now."

Annabeth's expression did not change, and Cameron felt horrible, but more than that, he felt relieved.

"How would you know that?" Grover demanded, his voice sounding suddenly reedy.

"One of our own, Rowan Castellaño, felt his power return," Esmerelda explained, sharing a hesitant look with Daphne while doing so. "We can only assume that he found his way to Olympus."

"Wait," Hazel frowned, "Rowan Castellaño? She's one of Thalia's Hunters. She can't be one of yours."

"Well, she can be both," Esmerelda responded, a triumphant gleam in her eyes. "Rowan has been a Huntress for decades, but she joined the Last Olympians when the gods fell. She visits us whenever she can, and she relays any information back to us, and any of our information back to the Hunters. That's how they were able to search so effectively for two years; they had our combined information."

Hazel looked annoyed at the other girl's snarky tone, but she said nothing about it. "Okay, so you use spies. But if Percy has returned, then we need to get him to fight. He has a large role in this."

"But if we go back to get him, then we'll need to get Piper and Jason and N--and the others," Will argued. "I don't think your chariot is big enough for all of them, Hazel."

If Hazel was not a hero of Olympus, Cameron reckoned she would stomp her foot right about now. "We have to do something to let them know!"

"And we will," said Annabeth, her voice cool and even. "Do you have a way of sending a message back to them?"

Hazel frowned, but she nodded slowly.

"And is that way different than stabbing yourself and hoping that Nico hears you?" asked Will. Cameron almost laughed, but there was something on Will's face that told him it was not a joke.

"I can use the Mist," assured Hazel. "But it's going to take a lot of energy."

"Then do it," Daphne nodded before casting a suspicious glance towards the rapidly setting Sun. "Our time is running out."

Cameron followed her gaze, and his heart plummeted from despair. So not only was Percy Jackson back in the mix (which should have been great news, but left Cameron feeling like shit), but Tartarus was opening up in less than three days, given the approaching nightfall. If everything looked hopeless before, it looked absolutely dismal now.

"Wait!" Chris called after Hazel. The girl stopped and looked over her shoulder at him, clearly waiting for a follow up. "Why are you so adamant about getting Percy."

Hazel sighed, and her young age was suddenly shocking. Cameron was at least a couple years older than her, but she had been thrown into this at such a young age, even younger than Cameron had. This young, and she already was entrusted to save the world. That kind of pressure would have sent Cameron into multiple mental breakdowns.

"Our Oracle decided to share some new prophecies," Hazel admitted, not quite looking anyone in the eye. "And it's up to Percy to decide whether or not Olympus is destroyed."

Grover suddenly looked pale, and he opened his mouth to speak, but Annabeth beat him to it. "Olympus to preserve or raze?" she asked, looking almost confused, as if she had not been aware that she was going to speak.

"Yeah," frowned Hazel, "how did you know--"

"That was the Great Prophecy," Grover answered, glancing over at Annabeth, who was frowning so hard at the sand that Cameron was surprise it did not catch on fire. "The one with the titans."

"I never attended Camp Half-Blood, so I don't know how the old prophecy went, but this one is 'a half-blood of the fallen gods shall find the lost against all odds and forget the promises meant to keep, the hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. A single choice shall end his days; Olympus to preserve or raze."

There was a brief pause, one that Cameron utilized to look at everyone's faces. Clarisse and Grover both looked as if they had seen the same ghost. Daphne and Esmerelda wore matching hardened expressions, and it appeared as if Chris were attempting to replicate it. Hazel looked exhausted, Drew looked pained, Will looked scared, and Annabeth. . .Annabeth looked as if she were standing at a crossroads, unsure as to which way she should go.

"That's almost identical to the last one," Grover stammered.

"A little bit too similar," agreed Clarisse.

"Rachel--our Oracle--shared many prophecies with us. I'll write them down for everyone later; maybe someone will have a different take on them."

With that, Hazel walked away, undoubtedly to attempt to communicate with the inhabitants of Olympus. Which left Cameron alone to wonder if that was really what he wanted, or if he wanted to take his family and get as far away from these people and from the threat of Tartarus that he could. But that was wishful thinking, and wishes did not belong in a war.

His feet sunk deeper into the sand, and Clarisse frowned at him. "Maybe you should try to tell her some bullshit to get her off your case," she advised.

"What a great idea," muttered Cameron, "except if I let her in, then she's going to find out about Annabeth and everyone else."

"Willow was just here, and I bet she works for her," Drew pointed out. "She's going to report back, which means we'll all be in big trouble. You might as well try to spin it, like you're spying against all of us."

"Right." Cameron struggled to take in a calming breath. He had been lying to the most powerful being in the universe for two years; what was another lie?

He relaxed, slowly, and he let the Earth goddess into his mind.

You and your team have failed to report back to me, the voice said instantly, and Cameron could feel her grip on his mind.

"My apologies, my Queen; we have found an opportunity."

The one called Annabeth Chase has escaped her prison, Gaea hissed.

So that proved how much she really knew. "That's where we are; we have found her, but one of the Olympians, Hazel Levesque, has also found her. We are pretending to be allies in order to gain their trust into Olympus, where we will invite you."

In the depths of his mind, Cameron prayed to any remaining gods that Gaea bought it. But prayers were unnecessary, and Gaea swiftly left his mind with a warning: deliver me results daily.

Cameron opened his eyes and began to dig himself out of the sand, which had been in the process of swallowing him whole. Drew quickly started to help him, and Cameron barely noticed when his wrist twinged with pain.

"It worked," Cameron announced, feeling only slightly uneasy at how well it worked.

Nobody looked particularly thrilled, but they looked slightly less displeased than they had a few minutes ago. Cameron frowned, and grabbed at the medallion around his neck

I don't know if I trust the new guys, he said through it, allowing Chris, Clarisse, Drew, and Annabeth to hear his thought.

I'd rather trust them than die, Drew immediately responded, the only physical indication that she had received his message being the single eyebrow that she raised at him.

Strength comes in numbers, agreed Chris, and if we stay with them, they'll most likely protect us.

Or kill us faster. But Cameron did not voice that thought with the others; some concerns were best left unspoken. Concerns like why Annabeth was currently standing at the edge of a rock, staring intensely at the sharp rocks below her.

• • •

Nico felt a sudden burning sensation on his wrist. It was a small bit of pain, but it belonged to him, which was relatively rare. He frowned, and turned his wrist over, bringing it closer to his face so that he could see it in the moonlight that reached through the canvas of his tent. It was a small Greek letter, the one for omega, etched into his skin.

"What is it?" Piper asked, her watchful gaze catching his movement.

"Turn on a light," Nico commanded with a frown.

A few seconds later, and Piper obliged, bringing a lit candle over to where he was laying (alone in the bed that belonged to Will, but he didn't have time to register that).

"Do you see this?" he asked her, bringing his wrist closer to the light.

Piper leaned in to look at it, but she hissed in pain, almost dropping the candle.

"What is it?" Nico asked immediately, the urge to heal coming over him stronger than he expected.

"It's nothing, candle wax must have dripped--"

But her sentence ended suddenly as she started down at her own wrist. Nico grabbed it, and brought her arm to the light. An omega sign written in white had appeared in the exact same place that it had on Nico.

"What does this mean?" Piper whispered, their eyes meeting through the candlelight.

Nico did not want to know, but he doubted that he would remain oblivious for much longer.

Eleven other marks appeared over the course of the night, awaking each recipient with a painful burn. The pain did not last long, but no matter what, the mark did not fade away.

• • •

author's note

shoutout to @hjs_52 for having the first comment last chapter! i was listening to the be more chill soundtrack while writing this and wow this book does not match be more chill's mood at all so maybe i shouldn't do that again (but i most likely will). also, if you don't remember the whole omega mark on the wrist thing, then i advise reading chapter iv.