I've come to honestly believe that 'studying' is seriously just a contraction of 'student dying'. Studying for finals is kicking my poor ass. I think I've honestly forgotten how to study. Anywho, for those of you in school, hope studying for your upcoming exams is going much better than mine :)

Chapter Quote:

"As I grew up, one of my strongest allies has been my sister."

~Patti Smith

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Chapter 22: We Learn the Great Prophecy

Derek

The rage had subsided soon after his argument with Bryn, if he could even call it an argument considering he hadn't really let her speak. Maybe what had made his anger subside was the shock that Luke had ranted at her too. Of all people, Derek thought Luke would be the happiest to see Bryn alive and well, but he saw where the Jackson boy was coming from.

However, the willingness to forgive her was still nowhere to be found within him. How Silena managed to when she probably had the rockiest relationship with Bryn of the group was beyond him. Sure, curiosity was gnawing at him to find out why she had left them, but she'd been right: Hades' kids hold grudges, and it would take a lot to change that today.

Derek entered their new briefing room again. Bryn wasn't there anymore but he figured she'd be coming back to discuss tactics. Luke was there though and was staring intently at the map of Manhattan below him.

"Hey, where's Silena?" Luke asked.

"She's not too happy with me after... earlier," Derek explained, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Because you yelled at Bryn?"

"Yeah. She's probably not too happy with you either." There was a tic in Luke's jaw before he said, "I don't know why I yelled. I'm... thrilled she's alive, don't get me wrong. But to let us think she was dead for a year, lying to us, what excuse could ever be good enough to explain all that?"

"I don't know," Derek admitted. The boys dropped the subject to tackle one they knew they could probably answer. A few minutes later, Silena walked in. Instantly her boyfriend noticed how exhausted she'd looked, as if she'd gotten no sleep. Luke picked up on it too as he inquired, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Fine. Both of you behave when Bryn, the twins, and Hallie get here," Silena warned, giving them a glare that reminded Derek so much of Annabeth it was scary.

"I'm here!" Hallie exclaimed, walking into the room. Her hair was tied back into a pony tail and she wore her army's signature black armor, but other than that, she appeared very... unthreatening. Or at least for a few moments she did. Her eyes settled on Derek and Luke as she said, "Bryn, Bradley, and Brady will be here soon. They're finishing up some business."

"What business could they possibly have?" Luke queried. "If we're going to be allies, I think the three of us deserve to know."

Hallie, while she didn't snap, certainly did not hide the contempt in her voice when she replied, "Would you trust her if she told you?"

"Sorry we're late. Taking care of some battle plans," Bryn announced, striding into the room. Her brothers were right behind her. The minute they saw Luke, their eyes turned murderous.

"What did you say-" one began.

"To our sister?" the other finished.

"That's none of your business," Luke said.

"It is our damn business! She's our sister!" the first one snapped. Both boys lunged at the Jackson boy but Hallie and Bryn jumped in front of them, holding the two boys back.

"Brady! Bradley! Knock it off!" Bryn commanded.

"After everything you've been through with them, he didn't even give you a chance to explain! Why should we not strangle him?" Brady argued, still trying to go after Luke.

"Because he's not worth it," she said simply. "Now cool off. We have a war to fight here."

Derek glanced over at Luke, whose stare had shifted from the twins to Bryn. There was no mistake of the hurt on his face. But rather than saying anything, Luke simply put his pen back in his pocket and braced himself against the table. He was tense though, anyone and everyone could see it.

"So what's the plan?" Hallie asked, standing next to Derek. Bradley and Brady flanked Bryn who braced herself against the table opposite Luke, practically mirroring him.

"Hannah knows that we're working for the gods now so that element of surprise is gone. We need a new one, one she won't expect," Bryn said, talking more to herself than anyone else. "The Queens-Midtown Tunnel is blocked off so we'll need to reassemble the Roman troops but I'll leave that to Cora. She's already working on it with Antony."

"Wait, Cora knows you're alive?" Luke stated

"She found out a few hours ago. She took it quite well, me being alive and my reason and all. I think she's splitting the kids into three more groups, roughly. Obviously fifty-two kids isn't divisible by three so one team will be a demigod or two short. But we need to focus on our surprise."

"What were you thinking?" Bradley inquired.

"Plan Cerberus."

"Cerberus? I thought Adler was first?" Brady remarked.

"No, not yet. Besides, we're missing three key elements for that plan right now."

"Right."

"Are they speaking English?" Derek whispered to Luke. The latter replied with, "Certainly not Russian."

"What's plan Cerberus?" Silena asked.

"With the name Cerberus, the guard dog of the Underworld, I'm going to assume it's dealing with the two children of Hades present," Derek said.

"You'd be right. Hannah knows about me, but she doesn't know about you being a son of Hades, which we can use to our advantage," Hallie said.

"What exactly are we going to do?"

"Part of it involves creating a sinkhole in New York City. We should do so near the Queensboro Bridge or the Lincoln tunnel."

"Why not both? It'll force the monsters to go around the sink hole, giving our troops to fire them before they cross," Luke suggested.

"Exactly. Hallie, Derek you two decide which place you want to take. It should be done simultaneously to give our troops a better chance of surviving this battle. We should also pair up. Hallie, Bradley, you two go together. Silena, would you mind working with Brady?" Bryn asked softly. "I know you don't know him well but-"

"Count me in. Brady, we should take a bridge. I can control water after all. I can maybe sweep a few monsters off with a wave or something," Silena said with a grin.

"I like your style," he laughed.

"Derek, Luke, you two work together. I'd put you with my brothers but that altercation from a few minutes ago has made me think otherwise," Bryn said.

"What about you? You said we should pair up. You're alone," Luke pointed out.

Without looking at him, she replied, "And alone is how I'll stay. I've gotten good at fighting alone this past year."

"No, it's not safe," Luke protested.

"And you care about my safety since when?" she responded, still staring at the map.

He hesitated in his answer. Whether that was because the twins were staring at him murderously or because he genuinely didn't know what to say, Derek didn't know. "You're another commander, and a good one. I'm watching out for my investment."

"And what exactly have you invested in me? Because it's certainly not trust," Bryn remarked stoically.

"Faith in your fighting. There's no denying you're a phenomenal fighter. We need you," he told her.

"I admire the sentiment but that's not changing the fact that I'm fighting alone."

"You either fight with me and Derek or you don't fight at all then. I'm not letting you go out there alone."

"I'm fully capable of handling myself out there. I've proved that on multiple occasions."

"I'm agreeing with Luke on this one. You shouldn't be by yourself out there," Derek joined in. "I know we're not getting along but sacrifices need to be made in war."

At this, Bryn's head snapped up. "What did you say about sacrifices?"

"That sacrifices need to be made in war?" he repeated, looking at her curiously.

"I don't think they've heard the Great Prophecy," Hallie whispered.

"What prophecy?" Silena asked.

"That answers that. Who wants to be the one to repeat it?" Brady queried, rocking back and forth on his heels.

Bryn took a deep breath before:

"Seven children of the Big Three,

Will fight for the free.

A sacrifice above all,

For which one must fall.

To defeat Hell,

Four must they dispel."

Silence fell on the room. No one wanted to talk about the fourth line which pretty much one of them in the room was going to die.

"That doesn't sound very... Great Prophecy. I mean you think it'd be longer," Luke remarked. His sister rolled her eyes.

"Why did Chiron not tell us this?" Silena questioned, finally breaking the silence.

"Sometimes it's not always a good thing to know your future," Bryn replied gently. "The prophecy pretty much says one of us is going to die. He most likely didn't want you three fretting about it."

"Now the question is: which one of us is going to die?"

"Maybe it's talking about Hannah," Bradley suggested. When everyone gave him dubious stares, he muttered, "Just trying to lighten the mood."

"Now you see why I... acted the way I did when you said sacrifices. It reminded me of the line in the prophecy, that's all."

"Sacrifice or not, you're still not going out there by yourself. You forget I knew you since we were eight years old. You wanted the change in topic to make everyone forget that Luke and I were saying that we weren't going to let you fight by yourself," Derek pointed out.

"And I have a promise to keep to you Bryn. Friends or not, I told you I'd protect you to the best of my ability," Luke added. "And now that you're back, I can."

"Then let me relieve you of that promise," Bryn responded angrily.

Bradley sighed. "Sis, I hate to say this but these two Greeks are right."

The daughter of Zeus had a staring contest with her brothers, having an obvious silent conversation, one that she must've been losing or not been agreeing with by the way she was fiddling with her thumbs and the multiple tics in her jaw.

"She'll agree if she gets to call the shots," Brady finally said.

"And if you say I've made some crappy calls recently-" she began.

"We're not," Derek interrupted. "And as long as the shots you call don't get yourself killed, then yes, you can call the shots."

"Fine. Be ready in thirty minutes. I need to go talk to my troops, get them sorted out. We'll meet on the observation deck." Bryn left the room without another word. Brady, Bradley, and Hallie were quick to follow. Luke told Derek and Silena he was going to go put on his armor, quickly leaving the room.

"So, do you still love me?" Derek asked, leaning against the wall while Silena made some marks on the map.

"Yes. Why?" she replied.

"First of all, I know you're mad at how I talked to Bryn when I first found out she was alive although I am glad you stopped me from killing her. Second, you haven't really spoken to me since then," he remarked.

"It's... not you. Look, two years ago you told me that Bryn would do anything she thought was best for the people she loved, whether she right in her decision or not and whether it killed her or not. That's why I found out her reason about why she left and it's bad, because I remember what you said. Her reason... it's not bad as in it's not excusable because I get it, I totally get it, it's that its... I promised her I wouldn't tell anyone else and I'm going to keep that and I know that her brothers and Hallie know but I need someone else to know what it is because I need someone I'm close with to understand this. I'm not strong enough to deal with this by myself." By now Silena was choking in her speech. Derek pulled her into a hug. "She refuses to tell Luke because after the way he talked to her, she thinks he won't care about what her reason is and nothing I said could convince her that he would; I know he would because it's her. I know why he blew up at her but I also know that he still loves her and that he would want to know. Then she's terrified that you hate her, that she pushed you too far this time because she knows she's never been the easiest person to be friends with but you or Luke, one of you needs to talk to her because you two were closer to her than I was. I know talking to me helped her but she was closest to you two, so she needs one of you to hear her out so she can believe that at least one of you doesn't hate her."

"Does-does she really think that I hate her?" Derek asked, in shock.

Silena nodded, wiping tears off her face. "Like I said Bryn thinks she pushed you too far this time."

"You go get ready for battle. I'll go see Bryn and talk to her, okay?" Silena nodded again. After giving him a kiss, she went upstairs to go get ready. Derek tried to figure out where Bryn would be but nothing was coming to him. He didn't even know where her army was staying. But he'd had a strong bond with her before, so strong that they'd actually been able to talk in their minds to each other. Perhaps the two had been separated for a year, but maybe that bond still existed strongly enough that he could reach her, or at least figure out where she was. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on Bryn, trying as hard as he could to contact her.

"Derek?" He opened his eyes to find Bryn holding her sword as his throat but appearing quite perplexed as to why he was in her room. He must've shadow-travelled without realizing it...

"I'm not going to kill you, I swear," he promised, holding up his hands. I just came to talk."

"Last time we talked, you yelled at me and said you didn't trust me. Why do you suddenly want to talk now?" she inquired, lowering her sword. Bryn didn't sound angry, or even snappish, just cautious.

"A couple of reasons. One, Silena's a wreck and while she didn't tell me what you told her, she told me a couple things that lead into my next reason. My second reason is that she reminded me of something I told her a couple years ago about you. Third, she said you thought I hated you, or pushed me too far this time." He took a few steps towards her. "Do you really think I could ever hate you?"

Bryn bit her lip. "What I did to you, to Luke, to Silena, it... it was the hardest thing I've ever done. So when you yelled at me and when I saw the look in your eyes, yes, I thought you hated me. If you don't hate me, and I'm also assuming I haven't pushed you too far this time, then I'm afraid- no I'm terrified that if you find out what I've done, what I've really done, that it really will push you too far this time and I don't know if I can handle losing you to that. I've already lost so much of you... what did you tell Silena about me?"

"I told her that you will do whatever you think is best for your friends whether it kills you or not and whether you're right or not. When she reminded me of that, I remembered how fiercely loyal you are which told me whatever reason you have for leaving, it's a good one. And I'm all ears. I don't hate you Bryn. Biologically, we are not siblings, but you're still my sister and I will always see you as my sister."

"You might... want to take a seat. Silena practically collapsed when she listened."

"I'll take your word."

"Really?"

Derek smiled. "I trust you."

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Now Derek is about to find out. Funnily enough, none of you know still although maybe some of you might be figuring it out. Review please :)