-Half-Blood Hill, Camp Half-Blood; Before Dawn the Next Morning-

~Piper's Point of View~

Later in the night after Malantha revealed herself to be Bianca di Angelo, Nico's dead sister, I couldn't sleep so I volunteered for night patrol. Not much was said since the small gathering in the woods when the shock that came from a dead demigod was a unit leader in Chaos' Army wore off. Although Nyke did say that he had to report what happened to Chaos.

Annabeth and Thalia are the only ones who knew Bianca before she died. Nico and Hazel confessed that they knew who Malantha was earlier that day. The other unit leaders and even Nyke were surprised by her identity too. The Chaos Army runs on complete secrecy of every members' past before they joined the army.

It seems the army is based on trusting Chaos' judgment on who he asks to join. No one knows each other's identities, only that Chaos picked them for a reason. At least that's what was explained to us before we went our separate ways for the night.

The sun started to light up the sky in shades of pink and blue. It looked like Apollo was going faster than normal.

"Sunrises are beautiful, aren't they? Like watching a new beginning." Charis walked up to me, staring at the sky with a smile.

"Yeah," I agreed. "It makes the camp more magical."

"That's what I miss most about this place." She commented, nonchalantly.

"Earth?" I asked, wondering if she's been here before.

"No," The unit leader shook her head, still smiling. "Camp Half-Blood. I really miss being here."

"You were a demigod?" I was surprised by two unit leaders being demigods.

"I still am." She smiled more. "Daughter of Aphrodite." Charis was proud of her statement.

"You're my half-sister." I was shocked. There weren't many well-known children of Aphrodite who are fighters. I remember hearing the story of a brave daughter of Aphrodite during the Titan War. Her name was-

"My name is Silena Beauregard. It's nice to officially meet you, Piper McLean."

"Are you allowed to tell me that?" I asked, surprised she would tell me who she used to be. "Wait, you know who I am?"

"Of course I know who you are!" Silena exclaimed with excitement. "You became the head counselor of the Aphrodite cabin after you went on a quest to save Hera from Gaea. You also have charmspeak."

"How do you know that? You died before I came to camp." I don't know how things worked in the army but- "Malantha - Bianca - in the meeting said she was with the army for two thousand years, but she died a few years ago. How does that work?" Chaos' Army was full of mysteries. From how the Olympians have reacted to their presence it didn't seem like they knew of the army. Even Annabeth didn't know about an army that belonged to Chaos.

She smiled. "Time works differently for us. A year for you is about a thousand. Malantha has been with the army for over two thousand years as it's been more than two years since she died. I didn't really know Bianca when she was alive. I do remember when Annabeth was kidnapped and Percy was, well, he reacted to the news like an idiot in love and followed those who went on the quest to save her."

I frowned, her words tugging at something that I heard when I was still new at Camp Half-Blood. "Annabeth was kidnapped?"

Silena sighed. "Yeah, it was a big quest." That was all she said on the matter.

Silence fell between the two of us as we watched our surroundings for any threats.

"Won't there be consequences for you? Since you revealed your identity to me." I asked, wondering what would happen to her and Bianca.

Silena laughed. "According to Nyke, Chaos won't be punishing us. It seems like he was expecting this to happen."

"Chaos was expecting you to reveal yourselves?" I questioned.

My half-sister laughed again. "Yeah, it seems like it." She smiled softly. We eventually let the silence overtake the conversation.

-The Beach, Camp Half-Blood; Before Breakfast-

~Charis' (Silena's) Point of View~

"Charis?" Vernandos' confused voice brought me out of my reminiscing. "You wanted to talk to me?"

I smiled, turning to him. "Yeah! After Malantha revealed herself, I couldn't help but think that I wanted to do the same. And then Chaos didn't punish her, so I wanted to ask you." I took a deep breath, preparing myself for his answer. "Are you Charles Beckendorf? Are you my Charlie?"

The unit 3 leader looked taken back. "Silena?" He whispered, sounding hopeful and pained.

"Yeah," I nodded, smiling as I started to tear up. He quickly hugged me. I laughed as he picked me up and spun us around.

"I missed you." I said in a whisper. "It felt so wrong to fall in love with someone else. I thought I was cheating on you when I fell in love with Vernandos. Every time I saw you, I would picture Charlie and feel so sad. I felt like a traitor all over again." I smiled through my tears.

"I'm sorry." Charlie said, leaning his forehead on mine. "I had to go. I needed to help Percy..."

"No!" I sobbed. " I'm sorry. I'm sorry for thinking that Luke was right. That the only way to solve our problems as demigods was to side with Kronos. I'm sorry for putting you and everyone else in danger. I'm sorry for thinking I could trust Kronos to keep you safe. I was wrong."

"Oh, Silena." He brushed my cheek softly with his fingers. "I saw how you died. You may have made mistakes, but you made up for it. You died righting your wrongs. I'm sorry for leaving you. I'm happy that you are here. I was hurting too thinking that I had fallen in love with someone else while still loving you."

I sobbed again, feeling a weight being lifted off of my chest. My heart was free again. I had my Charlie back. Coming back to Earth, to Camp Half-Blood was better than I thought it would be.

-The Dining Pavilion, Camp Half-Blood; Breakfast-

~Jason's Point of View~

The one thing that I will never get used to at Camp Half-Blood is that each cabin gets their own table. It's against the rules to sit at another cabin's table. Although that never stopped Percy. After the war against Gaea when I decided to stay here instead of Camp Jupiter, it didn't feel right sitting at the Zeus' cabin table by myself. Percy invited me over to his saying that his dad wouldn't mind.

He even invited Frank to the table claiming since he's related to Poseidon, he deserves to be there as well. Frank looked so relieved to be away from the Ares cabin. They can be overwhelming at times.

This was much worse than the rowdy Ares cabin. For the past few days, since the Olympians appeared after the Demeter's cabin was attacked and decided to stay, meals have been awkward. Sitting with the Greek version of my father was not how I wanted to spend my time eating.

He looked uncomfortable as well. We hardly speak, only sitting in silence as conversations happen around us. Zeus tried to invite Thalia to eat with us. That ended in disaster and Thalia won't go near the table again.

"Jason-" There he goes starting another awkward and uncomfortable conversation that ends poorly.

"FOR LOVE! FOR PEACE! FOR FOOD!" The war cry echoed through the camp. Silence covered the pavilion as we all turned to the Chaos soldier who spoke.

Nyke stood up and cleared his throat. "Apologizes." He bowed. "One of the unit 5 soldiers can be...enthusiastic." He smiled politely under his hood.

"Stop looking at me like that." Milos grumbled, glaring at the other unit leaders. "At least my unit isn't the one who flooded the cafeteria."

"It was one time!" Charis cried out. "Hesper's unit is the one who exploded several ships during training several hundred years ago." she pointed to the unit leader in question.

"That training exercise went wrong after Malantha's unit-"

"Hesper! Vernandos' unit was to blame for that situation." Malantha - Bianca, Nico's sister - interrupted Hesper.

"Huh?" Vernandos lifted up his head from some papers that were laying down on the table next to his plate. "Which training exercise? We had many that went wrong."

The unit leaders stared at him. Nyke sighed, holding his face in his hands. "I don't get paid enough for this."

"Head Commander." Kosmos suddenly greeted, appearing at the entrance of the dining pavilion. Many were startled by the assassin.

"Kosmos!" Nyke yelled, clutching his chest. "Stop doing that!"

He tilted his head. "My apologies."

"Sometimes I think you find us jumping at your voice funny." Milos said not so quietly.

"Xander!" The Demeter camper, Kasey, yelled out with a grin.

"Kasey," Demeter looked at her daughter with uncertainty. "Who are you talking to?"

Kasey opened her mouth to respond. She stopped, closed her mouth as her face went pale. "Uh..."

"It's alright." Kosmos said, drawing everyone's attention to him. "It was an accident. Lord Chaos did say this day would come."

"What are you talking about?" Nyke asked, looking confused. Or as confused someone can look when they wear a hood that covers half of their face.

"My apologies, Head Commander." The assassin bowed. "I go by Kosmos as an assassin. My name is Xander."

Another reveal from Chaos' Army. First Malantha being Bianca and now Kosmos reveals his name? Who was next? What will the next reveals bring to Camp Half-Blood?

What will come out of this war?

Chapter 18 kicked my butt. After about six hours of writing 800 words, the next chapter will be a shorter one. I have already started one chapter 19 to prepare for next week as I will be busy all day on Saturday. 

This past week was not an easy one when it came to writing. I am losing motivation for this book again and I have no idea what I am doing anymore. 

Well, I will try to publish chapter 18 on Saturday. If not, it will come out on Sunday. 

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I loved that I was able to bring back the chant from the early chapters again. 

Until next time.

~MsPenguingirl1234.

Published: May 13th, 2023.