CHAPTER FIVE

S H A P E  W I T H O U T  F O R M

The sunlight was bright and beautiful, but it was fading fast. They had been walking long enough for the Sun to begin its descent, and the girl was anxiously awaiting for it to sink out of sight altogether. They must have been walking for hours, but Drew showed no sign of stopping the relentless pace.

"It's not much farther," Drew promised for the seventh time. The girl had believed her the first four times, but after that, she had begun to completely disregard her comments. It was hard to determine what "farther" meant when they seemed to be completely lost in a deep forest.

She squeezed Esperanza's hand, and the younger girl returned the gesture with a beaming smile. The girl couldn't pretend that she was somewhat scared of Esperanza, after watching her render Willow completely helpless with nothing more than a thought. But she had spent a very long time protecting her, and that loyalty overpowered her fear.

"Where are we going?" Esperanza asked sweetly, her bare feet stepping over sticks and rocks like it was second nature.

Drew glanced back at them, anxiety running rampant in her dark eyes. "A safe place. That's all I can tell you; it's not safe to talk out here."

Her anxious eyes scanned the trees, as if expecting them to grow ears. The girl wanted to roll her eyes or protest in some form, but she was beyond grateful to Drew for rescuing her and Esperanza; she would happily follow her anywhere that wasn't the cellar, even if it took hours to walk there.

The girl found herself stealing glimpses at the sky as they continued their walk. Esperanza seemed completely unbothered by the beauty that surrounded them, but the girl was enamored by it. It had been so long since she had seen anything other than dirty stone and metal; the blue of the sky was the most color she could remember seeing. She wanted to stare at it forever.

Spots decorated her vision as she tore her gaze away from the sky. She shook her head, as if that would erase the colored spots. Drew noticed her motion, and frowned.

"What's wrong?" she asked, hand reaching for the knife that hung from her belt.

Her left ear seemed to be hearing from underwater. She shook her head again. "I feel...strange," was all she could think to say.

Drew's frown deepened. "Shit. When's the last time you ate?"

The girl tried to remember, but the world began to spin around her. The colors, the beautiful colors she had tried to memorize, swam together in a cacophonous routine, seemingly mocking her. The ground was wet beneath her knees, but when had she fallen? She tried to stand, but her body felt like it was a thousand miles away, and a distant part of her realized that she was now lying on the forest floor.

A distant voice spoke, and the girl strained to listen. It sounded like Esperanza said "let me help," but the words blurred together as the girl's eyelids fell closed.

• • •

The girl opened her eyes, and found herself standing on an empty beach. Waves crashed lazily against the golden shore, and the setting Sun cast a romantic glow on the world. The girl felt herself smile as she took a step on the soft sand, enjoying the cool sensation. The world was silent and serene, and she began to debate if walking into the ocean would continue to be relaxing.

"I am afraid that we are severely lacking in time; I advise that you relax when you can afford to," a sharp voice said.

The girl jumped and spun around to find a woman standing on the beach beside her. The woman smiled, but it was devoid of warmth. Her chocolate-colored hair was braided in plaits that were tied off with golden ribbon, and the white dress that she wore seemed to ripple in the breeze.

"So," the woman said, "we meet again, daughter of Athena."

The girl frowned, but remained silent. The woman laughed softly, and the breeze seemed to echo her laughter. "You do not remember me, correct?"

The girl nodded slowly, rapidly realizing that she should be afraid of this woman. Her feet felt cemented in the sand as the woman slowly approached her until she was close enough that the girl could smell jasmine rain radiating from the regal woman's form.

"That complicates things somewhat," the woman sighed, "but I have grown accustomed to my heroes possessing no memories, although that has been done on my own account in the past. No matter."

The woman seemed to look her over smugly, and she nodded to herself as if something about the girl satisfied her. "There is a new prophecy, Annabeth Chase, and I fear that you will once again play a part in it. We do not have enough time for me to tell you everything you should know, but know this: the gods are dying. We are the old gods, and we should have faded eons ago. But we did not, and have since repopulated the Earth with children that are young and powerful, capable of so much more than we are. You must reunite my Seven, and thus create the Fourteen."

"I don't even know who you are, or I am!" the girl protested. The waves seemed to crash louder, and the woman glanced at them nervously. But her sharp eyes quickly darted back to bore holes into the girl.

"I have already told you who you are, Annabeth Chase. We have a history, you and I. But because you seem set on repressing your memories, I shall tell you my name: Hera. I can restore all your memories; I have done it before. But I will only do this if you do what I say. Do you understand?"

The girl wanted to throw sand at Hera, or maybe drag her into the sea and drown her, but she gritted her teeth and nodded.

"Good. You must make your way to Olympus, as quickly as you can. The Fourteen shall be reunited there, and only then can you finish the war. Only then will you be strong enough to defeat Her. We shall assist you when you are ready; we have already begun the process of selecting heirs. But you, Annabeth Chase, need to willing to lead. Are you?"

Words escaped the girl as her brain tried to process everything that was said. "I don't understand-" she began to say.

Hera quickly cut her off, and her dress moved like oil as she stalked even closer. "If we all understood exactly what was told to us, we would never achieve anything on our own. You are the last hope of Olympus, and this title means something to all the hopeless demigods and gods alike. You were presumed dead two years ago, but you survived. That means something. I will return all your memories when the time is right, if you are not able to do it yourself, but you must be the one to restart this war."

A loud crack of thunder echoed, and Hera, though regal, looked startled. "I believe that is my cue that we have run out of time. But I will find you again, once the time is right. Goodbye for now, Annabeth Chase."

"Wait," the girl said quickly, ignoring the raised eyebrow Hera gave her. "How am I supposed to reunite people if I don't know who they are?"

Hera smiled. "I would ask if you are familiar with the mark of Athena, but that would be cruel. Look for the mark of Hera; those are the people you should trust."

The girl opened her mouth to say something, maybe beg for clear answers, but before she could say anything, a large wave rose so tall that it blacked out the Sun. For a moment, the girl stared at it in fear and awe. Then, faster than she could blink, the wave crashed over her, drowning her in its midnight depths.

• • •

The girl awoke with a gasp, expecting to feel saltwater fill her lungs, expecting to drown. She could feel herself thrashing, trying to swim. Her legs were tangled in something, and she tried to kick it away.

"Shit! Hey, hey, it's okay! You're okay! Annabeth, you're okay!"

Air flooded her lungs, not water. The girl felt her eyes peel open, and the ceiling greeted her, not the depths of the ocean floor. She took several hesitant sips of air, uncertain of where she was. A blank white ceiling stared down at her, not the open sky that she had been expecting. Her legs were tangled in a blanket, not seaweed.

"Are you okay?" asked a voice. The girl blinked, and forced herself to turn her head, ignoring the way that it pounded. A man stood at the side of her bed, eyebrows knitted in concern. His dark hair fell into his eyes, but he didn't seem to care; he was only looking at the girl.

"I-I'm fine," the girl said, surprised to find her voice to be hoarse and sore. "Where's Esperanza?"

The man gave a hesitant yet relieved smile. "She's with Drew and the others. She's safe, don't worry. You're both safe. You're at our safe house, after Drew brought you back. How do you feel?"

The girl blinked slowly, becoming aware of how much everything hurt; even her bones screamed in agony. Sunlight beamed into the room through a window, and the girl's eyes ached at its relentless shine. But she sat up nonetheless, ignoring the way her head swam at the motion.

"I feel fine," she lied. "Who are you?"

The boy ignored her question and instead poured an amber colored liquid into a glass. He dropped three ice cubes into it before gingerly handing it to the girl.

She regarded it suspiciously. "What is it?"

"Nectar," he said like that answered anything. "Just drink it; you'll feel better."

The girl didn't know if she could trust him, but his dark eyes were gentle, if a little nervous. She lifted the glass to her mouth, and took a hesitant sip. The liquid was completely tasteless. She felt fine, so she finished the glass.

The man eyed her as he plucked the empty glass from her hand. "What did it taste like?"

She blinked twice at the question. "It tasted like nothing."

"Oh." An unknown emotion flashed across his face, but it disappeared just as fast, and was replaced with a bland smile. "Do you want to see Esperanza?"

She did, more than anything. Her heart yearned for it, but something was wrong. Her head stopped pounding, and her body felt completely fine, despite being in pain mere seconds earlier. The man looked at her like she had hung the Sun in the sky, and it all felt horrifically wrong.

"Who are you?" she asked again.

"Right, forgot about the whole 'forgetting everything' thing. We've met before, but I doubt you remember."

She regarded him once again, as if she would miraculously remember him, but nothing about him felt familiar. She shook her head, and he gave her a sad smile in return.

"Yeah, thought so. I'm Cameron Skyes; we've met before, back at the Battle of Manhattan and then after at Camp. It's fine that you don't remember; I didn't really expect you to."

The girl nodded absently, ignoring the way that his eyes seemed attached to her. "Where's Esperanza?"

Wordlessly, he extended a hand to her. She took it, using it to extract herself from the tangled blanket on the bed. Cameron was careful to avoid touching the scars on her arms, and part of the girl was grateful to him. Every other part of her did not trust him.

Blood rushed to her head as she stood up, but she ignored it, and instead chose to follow Cameron out of the room. He led her into a narrow hallway, and the sound of voices echoed down the hall. Drew's laugh was loud and distinctive, and though the girl had not known her for very long, she was relieved to hear her. Drew had quickly grown to mean safety in a world fraught with dangers.

Sunlight streamed into both the girl's eyes and the room, and it was almost overwhelming. Four figures stood in the room, and as soon as the girl and Cameron walked in, their heads turned to face them. The girl found Esperanza first, and the small girl wordlessly threaded through the other three people to hug her. Tears pricked at the girl's eyes, for an unknown reason, as she squeezed the girl.

"Nice to see you awake!" Drew said peppily, giving her a beaming smile over Esperanza's head. "I was worried when you passed out two days ago, but you look fine now!"

"I gave her nectar," Cameron explained, apparently oblivious to the shock that the girl felt. Two days had passed? How was that possible? But the questions in the room ceased as the girl noticed a mean-looking girl was staring at her in shock.

"Annabeth," she gasped.

There was, apparently, an unlimited amount of people that wanted to gasp out this name. The girl plastered a blank smile onto her face, staring back at the more muscular girl.

"She doesn't remember you," Drew whispered softly, but that did nothing to erase the look of shock on the other girl's face. "She doesn't remember any of us."

The man standing by the window stepped closer, a warm smile on his face. He held his hand out and said, "Hi, Annabeth. I'm Chris Rodriguez. It's nice to see you again."

She reached out to shake his hand, and her hand felt small and cold inside his larger grip. It was difficult to ignore the various shocked gasps that echoed as her skinny, scarred arm was exposed. Esperanza's hand squeezed her other arm twice.

"Are you feeling better, Annabeth?" asked Chris tentatively.

All she could produce was a small nod, but that gesture did not convey her confusion at why she felt so fine. She felt overwhelmed and uncertain and so tired. But the five people staring at her seemed just as out of place and confused as she felt.

"Are you hungry?" Drew asked with a wide smile, the warm scent of cinnamon wafting off her.

The girl found that she was hungry, so she nodded hesitantly, unconsciously holding Esperanza closer to her body.

"So it's true?" asked the mean-looking girl, finally uncrossing her arms, "you really don't remember anything?"

"I remember the cellar," she said, "and everything that happened there. But nothing else."

Drew's eyes were dark and sad as she handed an apple to the girl. "We'll catch you up to speed." It sounded like a promise.

"Tell them about your dream," Esperanza said suddenly, wide eyes alit with a foreign gleam. The girl paused halfway through biting the skin of the apple (it was sweet, almost sickeningly so. Had apples always been this sweet?).

"What dream?" asked Cameron, with an expression akin to hunger written across his face.

The girl frowned, and lowered the apple away from her mouth. The mean-looking girl eyed Esperanza distrustfully, her thin eyebrows raising higher. "Annabeth didn't say anything about a dream."

The room's other occupants eyed Esperanza as a collective unit, but this wasn't strange to the girl; Esperanza always seemed to possess an uncanny amount of knowledge about things that she had no way of knowing. The girl had simply grown accustomed to it over the years.

"It was strange," she said aloud, watching as the gazes went from Esperanza to her, "I was speaking to a woman."

Cameron and Drew exchanged a glance. "What did she look like?" Drew asked cautiously.

"Dark hair," the girl supplied while taking another bite of the apple; her hunger was howling like a wolf deep within her, and the thought of lasting another second without food was painful. "White dress. I didn't trust her."

She took another bite, letting the crunch reverberate. Cameron took half a step closer to her, but before he could say or do anything, Esperanza asked "what did she tell you?"

The others seemed taken aback, but this felt normal, in a strange way. She swallowed the apple bite before hesitantly speaking. "She said to find the heirs and make my way to Olympus. There was something about a new prophecy and the fourteen, and to look for the mark of Hera."

The name seemed to create a collective sigh of relief. Esperanza seemed content with the answer as she sat back down on the large, plush sofa.

"So she doesn't know yet," Chris concluded, as if those words were supposed to mean something obvious.

"But we don't know how long that will last," argued the mean girl, "we're living on borrowed time."

"That's the name of the game we've been playing for years," Drew retorted with a flashy wink. The girl scowled back at her, but it soon dissolved into something much warmer.

"We can stay here for awhile," said Cameron, and the girl did not fail to recognize the way everyone swiveled their heads at the sound of his voice. He was their leader, for some reason, and they all looked up to him. "Allow Annabeth to recover. But then, we need to find Olympus and find whatever heirs Hera wants us to."

"But what's the mark of Hera?" asked Chris, frowning thoughtfully. "I've never heard of anything like that."

The girl was torn from watching the conversation by a sudden stinging sensation on her left wrist. She released a hiss of pain before staring at the scarred skin. There was a myriad of scars, but there was a new one, one that had not been there mere moments ago. An omega symbol, no larger than a fingernail, was etched into her skin, burning bright white.

Esperanza was watching her with a slight smile on her face. And then, several things happened at once. Four identical gasps of pain echoed, and four pairs of eyes turned to look at their wrists. A large hum echoed from something hanging from Cameron's neck, and his face paled. Esperanza stood up and latched onto the girl's arm, pulling her away from the others.

"We have to hide," she whispered, as if the walls had ears.

The girl was about to protest, but Drew nodded, and waved her arms in a shooing motion. So, she followed Esperanza down the hall, back to the room she had recently vacated, leaving her four saviors to face whatever had scared Cameron.

As she pulled the door shut, she heard the words "she wants to see me" echo down the hall. And some deep, forgotten, mortal part of her felt fear.

Some deep, forgotten, mortal part of her began to wake up.

• • •

author's note:
the election is stressing me out, so i thought i'd release an update! i hope everyone is staying safe (and trying to stay sane)!