𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄
𝒂 𝒗𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒍 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆

❛ do not act on impulse, child.
she remembered  her mother tell her
the world could use your patience. ❜

                         𝐀 𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄, 𝕬urora considered Luke to have been one of her closest friends—A worthy confidante. She'd go as far as to say that she'd considered him to be a brother-like figure to her, especially when they met so young and the world seemed too large for the seven-year-old little girl to handle on her own. With him and Thalia in her life, the shaky grasp she had on earth grew the slightest bit steady.

                         Yet, nothing could have prepared her for his betrayal, sure the signs were there, but a large part of Aurora's consciousness blamed herself for it. For looking past the ever-growing signs of his downfall this entire time— only wanting to stick with the truth that she desperately wanted to believe. Even if it would never be a reality.

She just didn't want to lose him or anyone for that matter.

So, even when she saw the signs she choose to ignore them, and now she blamed herself for the man he'd become.

"I'll go," Aurora offered while sneaking a glance toward the long corridor. "If I'll run into anyone I'll just charmspeak them away."

Percy shook his head, "We all go together or nobody goes at all."

Tyson was shaking from his spot behind Percy. "Nobody!" He voted. "Please?"

But in the end, he came along, nervously chewing on his huge fingernails.

They stopped at their cabin long enough to gather their stuff. They figured whatever happened, they would not be staying another night aboard the zombie cruise ship, even if they did have million-dollar bingo. Percy didn't want Tyson to carry everything, but he insisted, and Annabeth and Aurora told him not to worry about it. Tyson could carry four full duffel bags over his shoulder as easily as Percy could carry a backpack.

They sneaked through the corridors, following the ship's YOU ARE HERE signs toward the admiralty suite. Annabeth scouted ahead invisibly. They hid whenever someone passed by ( well it was mainly Aurora who pulled both Percy and Tyson to one side ) but most of the people they saw were just glassy-eyed zombie passengers.

As they came up the stairs to deck thirteen, where the admiralty suite was supposed to be, Annabeth hissed, "Hide!" and shoved them into a dark supply closet. Aurora fumbled inside with her back unknowingly pressed up against the wall. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Percy had a blush on his cheeks as his hands were on either side of her head, caging her in. But what made her stomach drop was how close he was too her, about an inch from her face.

Percy awkwardly coughed a light pink tint to his cheeks, "S-Sorry!"

Aurora coughed, "Right!" Before slightly pushing the boy away.

They suddenly heard a couple of guys coming down the hall causing to snap back into the mission at hand.

"You see that Aethiopian drakon in the cargo hold?" one of them said.

The other laughed. "Yeah, it's awesome."

Annabeth was still invisible, but she squeezed both Aurora's and Percy's arms hard. Aurora jumped but quickly composed herself and could only hope her best friend hadn't witnessed what happened seconds ago.

"I hear they got two more coming," the familiar voice said. "They keep arriving at this rate, oh, man-no contest!"

The voices faded down the corridor.

"That was Chris Rodriguez!" Annabeth took off her cap and turned visible. "You remember from Cabin Eleven."

"No fucking way!" Aurora frowned at the mention of her close acquaintance. She and Chris had talked on multiple occasions, mainly because she was sure he had a crush on her sister Natalie and when Aurora tried to step in and play Cupid . . . Her sister didn't hesitate to turn the poor boy down.

"It makes you wonder," She turned to Annabeth and Percy. "Who else turned."

Annabeth shook her head, clearly troubled.

They kept going down the corridor and every step further Aurora could sense something cold and unpleasant—the presence of evil.

"Percy, Rory," Annabeth stopped suddenly. "Look."

She stood in front of a glass wall looking down into the multistory canyon that ran through the middle of the ship. At the bottom was the Promenade—a mall full of shops—but that's not what had caught Annabeth's attention.

A group of monsters had assembled in front of the candy store: a dozen Laistrygonian giants like the ones who'd attacked Percy with dodge balls, two hellhounds, and a few even stranger creatures-humanoid females with twin serpent tails instead of legs.

"Scythian Dracaenae," Annabeth whispered. "Dragon women."

Aurora —being in between them— leaned closer to Annabeth, "I've never seen them this far east before, have you?"

From behind her, Percy asked, "You've seen those things before?"

Aurora glanced down towards the Scythian Dracaenae, trying hard not to pay any mind to their snake-like tails, "Scythian Dracaenae are common for demigods who live in the west because of its hot climate. Being in Malibu myself, I've run into them a couple of times."

"So how do you kill them?"

"Like how you kill any monster . . . Aim for the head."

The monsters soon made a semicircle around a young boy in Greek armor who was hacking on a straw dummy. Aurora's eyes turned big when she realized the dummy was wearing an orange Camp HalfBlood T-shirt—she'd recognize that nauseating orange-colored shirt anywhere.

As they watched, the guy in armor stabbed the dummy through its belly and ripped upward. Straw flew everywhere. The monsters cheered and howled as if the battle were real . . .

As if the boy had actually managed to kill a camper.

Aurora felt sick to her stomach, "What the hell?"

"Come on," Percy told her, though she too knew he was a bit shaky himself. "The sooner we find Luke the better."

At the end of the hallway were double oak doors that looked like they must lead somewhere important. When they were thirty feet away, Tyson stopped. "Voices inside."

"You can hear that far?" Percy asked.

Tyson closed his eye like he was concentrating hard. Then his voice changed, becoming a husky approximation of Luke's. "-the prophecy ourselves. The fools won't know which way to turn."

Before any of them could react, Tyson's voice changed again, becoming deeper and gruffer, like the other guy they'd heard talking to Luke outside the cafeteria. "You really think the old horseman is gone for good?"

Tyson laughed Luke's laugh. "They can't trust him. Not with the skeletons in his closet. The poisoning of the tree was the final straw."

Aurora whispered. "Chiron," she turned to Tyson and gave him a small pat on the back. The latter practically preening at the appreciation.

Annabeth, on the other hand, shivered. "Stop that, Tyson! How do you do that? It's creepy."

Tyson opened his eye and looked puzzled. "Just listening."

"Keep going," Percy said. "What else are they saying?"

Tyson closed his eye again. He hissed in the gruff man's voice: "Quiet!"

Then Luke's voice, whispering: "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Tyson said in a gruff voice. "Right outside."

"Shit!" Aurora panicked.

"Run!"

Before they could take a step, the doors of the stateroom burst open and there was Luke, flanked by two hairy giants armed with javelins, their bronze tips aimed right at their chests.

"Well," Luke said with a crooked smile. "If it isn't my three favorite cousins. Come right in."

The stateroom was beautiful, and it was horrible. The beautiful part: Huge windows curved along the back wall, looking out over the stern of the ship. The green sea and blue sky stretched all the way to the horizon. A Persian rug covered the floor. Two plush sofas occupied the middle of the room, with a canopied bed in one corner and a mahogany dining table in the other. The table was loaded with food pizza boxes, bottles of soda, and a stack of roast beef sandwiches on a silver platter.

The horrible part: On a velvet dais at the back of the room lay a ten-foot-long golden casket. A sarcophagus, engraved with Ancient Greek scenes of cities in flames and heroes dying grisly deaths. Despite the sunlight streaming through the windows, the casket made the whole room feel cold.

"Well," Luke said, spreading his arms proudly. "A little nicer than Cabin Eleven, huh?"

Aurora spared no other glance at their surroundings. Her stern and sharp chocolate eyes were glaring straight at him. The emotion swimming in the depths of her eyes was so unlike her, usually they'd be full of mischief almost exactly like her fathers. No instead, it was darker. Full of hurt, anger, and sadness all cocooned in single emotion breeding nothing but disaster.

Yet, she couldn't help but notice his difference. Instead of Bermuda shorts and a T-shirt, he wore a button-down shirt, khaki pants, and leather loafers. His sandy hair, which used to be so unruly, was now clipped short.

He still had the scar under his eye-a jagged white line from his battle with a dragon. And propped against the sofa was his magical sword, Backbiter, glinting strangely with its half-steel, half-Celestial bronze blade that could kill both mortals and monsters.

"Sit," he told them. He waved his hand and four dining chairs scooted themselves into the center of the room.

None of them sat.

Luke's large friends were still pointing their javelins at them. They looked like twins, but they weren't human. They stood about eight feet tall, for one thing, and wore only blue jeans, probably because their enormous chests were already shag-carpeted with thick brown fur. They had claws for fingernails, feet like paws. Their noses were snout-like, and their teeth were all pointed canines.

They looked about ready to bounce any moment, yet their undivided attention was on Aurora.

"Where are my manners?" Luke said smoothly. "These are my assistants, Agrius and Oreius. Perhaps you've heard of them."

Agrius and Oreius.

The names made her eyes turn wide in surprise causing her to share a glance with Annabeth who instantly clicked it together as well.
Now she understood why they seemed more interested in her rather than her friends . . . because of what her mother did to theirs.

Luke turned to Percy with a smirk as he saw the boy's fist clench into tight fists. "You don't know Agrius and Oreius's story?" Luke asked. "Their mother . . . well, it's sad, really. Aphrodite," he pointed at Aurora at the mention of her mother, and out of shame Aurora dropped her head to look to the ground. "Aurora's mother, as you know, ordered a young woman to fall in love. She refused and ran to Artemis for help. Artemis let her become one of her maiden huntresses, but Aphrodite got her revenge. She bewitched the young woman into falling in love with a bear. When Artemis found out, she abandoned the girl in disgust. Typical of the gods, wouldn't you say? They fight with one another and the poor humans get caught in the middle. The girl's twin sons here, Agrius and Oreius, have no love for Olympus. They like half-bloods well enough, though . . . "

"For lunch," Agrius growled. Aurora didn't need to look up to know they were staring at her.

"Hehe! Hehe!" His brother Oreius laughed, licking his fur-lined lips. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until Luke and Agrius both stared at him.

"Shut up, you idiot!" Agrius growled. "Go punish yourself!"

Oreius whimpered. He trudged over to the corner of the room, slumped onto a stool, and banged his forehead against the dining table, making the silver plates rattle. Luke acted like this was perfectly normal behavior. He made himself comfortable on the sofa and propped his feet up on the coffee table.

"Well, Percy, we let you survive another year. I hope you appreciated it. How's your mom? How's school?"

"You poisoned Thalia's tree."

Luke sighed. "Right to the point, eh? Okay, sure I poisoned the tree. So what?"

"How could you?" Annabeth sounded so angry Aurora thought she'd explode. "Thalia saved your life! Our lives! How could you dishonor her-"

"I didn't dishonor her!" Luke snapped. "The gods dishonored her, Annabeth! If Thalia were alive, she'd be on my side."

That made Aurora's head snap up in anger. Thalia might not have been a fan of the gods—much like Aurora— but that never meant she'd stand against them for a war that could lead to many innocent lives lost.

She knew Thalia enough to know that much. "No, she wouldn't!" Aurora snarled. "And you know this!"

"If you both knew what was coming, you'd understand-"

"I understand you want to destroy the camp!" Annabeth yelled. Her eyes were wide with her top lip curled back into a snarl. "You're a monster!"

Luke shook his head. "The gods have blinded you. They blinded both of you. Can't you imagine a world without them, Annabeth? Aurora? What good is that ancient history you study? Three thousand years of baggage! The West is rotten to the core. It has to be destroyed. Join me! We can start the world anew. We could use both your intelligence"

Aurora scoffed. "Over my dead body."

"Because you have none of your own!"

His eyes narrowed. "I know you, Annabeth. You deserve better than tagging along on some hopeless quest to save the camp," he turned to Aurora. "And you, with word going through the grapevine that you hold something worthy against the gods, you know you deserve more. With me, you'll have everything Aurora. That and more."

Word going through the grapevine? Was he talking about Nate?

Aurora only turned her head away from him in spite, "I can't even stand the sight of you let alone stomach your presence."

"Really, Stark," he punctuated the Stark like an insult. "Is that how you want to play it?"

"Hey!" Percy called from behind her. "You heard her! She said no."

Luke took a look at Percy and then Aurora, then smirked as if he knew something they didn't.

Ignoring Percy's outburst, he said, "Really? You want to be on a losing team . . . with company like this?" Luke pointed at Tyson.

"Hey!" Percy said.

"Traveling with a Cyclops," Luke chided. "Talk about dishonoring Thalia's memory! I'm surprised at both of you. You both of all people-"

"Stop it!" Aurora shouted.

                         She could tell his words were hitting home. Especially with the look on Annabeth's face. She looked queasy as if the words made a bitter taste in her mouth.

"Leave them alone," Percy said. "And leave Tyson out of this."

Luke laughed. "Oh, yeah, I heard. Your father claimed him."

Aurora glanced at Percy who looked surprised, this made Luke smile. "Yes, Percy, I know all about that. And about your plan to find the Fleece. What were those coordinates, again . . . 30, 31, 75, 12? You see, I still have friends at camp who keep me posted."

"Spies, you mean."

He shrugged. "How many insults from your father can you stand, Percy? You think he's grateful to you? You think Poseidon cares for you any more than he cares for this monster?"

Tyson clenched his fists and made a rumbling sound down in his throat.

Luke just chuckled. "The gods are so using you, Percy. Do you have any idea what's in store for you if you reach your sixteenth birthday? Has Chiron even told you the prophecy?"

Aurora's eyes widened.

"I know what I need to know," he managed. "Like, who my enemies are."

"Then you're a fool."

Tyson smashed the nearest dining chair into splinters. "Percy is not a fool!"

Before Aurora or Percy could stop him, he charged Luke. His fists came down toward Luke's head-a double overhead blow that would've knocked a hole in titanium-but the bear twins intercepted. They each caught one of Tyson's arms and stopped him cold. They pushed him back and Tyson stumbled. He fell to the carpet so hard the deck shook.

"Too bad, Cyclops," Luke said. "Looks like my grizzly friends together are more than a match for your strength. Maybe I should let them-"

"Luke," Percy cut in. "Listen to me. Your father sent us."

His face turned red, "Don't-even- mention him."

"He told us to take this boat. I thought it was just for a ride, but he sent us here to find you. He told me he won't give up on you, no matter how angry you are."

"Angry?" Luke roared. "Give up on me? He abandoned me, Percy! I want Olympus destroyed! Every throne crushed to rubble! You tell Hermes it's going to happen, too. Each time a half-blood joins us, the Olympians grow weaker and we grow stronger. He grows stronger."

Luke pointed to the gold sarcophagus.

That's where the darkness Aurora had sensed came from. The plan Luke had to destroy Olympus was to resurrect the enemies of all enemies. The being capable of dismantling not only Olympus but the world.

"So?" Percy demanded. "What's so special . . . "

"You can't!" Aurora argued. "You have no idea what you're dealing with!"

"Oh gods! You can't be serious!" Annabeth cried.

Percy glanced at the two girls before it finally clicked in his head, "Whoa, you don't mean-"

"He is re-forming," Luke said. "Little by little, we're calling his life force out of the pit. With every recruit who pledges our cause, another small piece appears—"

"That's disgusting!" Annabeth said.

Luke sneered at her, "Your mother was born from Zeus's split skull, Annabeth. I wouldn't talk. Soon there will be enough of the Titan lord so that we can make him whole again. We will piece together a new body for him, a work worthy of the forges of Hephaestus."

"You're insane," Annabeth said.

"Join us and you'll be rewarded. We have powerful friends, sponsors rich enough to buy this cruise ship and much more. Percy, your mother will never have to work again. You can buy her a mansion. You can have power, fame-whatever you want. Annabeth, you can realize your dream of being an architect. You can build a monument to last a thousand years. A temple to the lords of the next age! Aurora," he turned to her. "this is your chance to give the world the change you've always wanted. Everyone will thrive with your work whether it be inventions or science, you can have it all."

All Aurora ever wanted was to change the world—for the better with her work. That's what pushed her so hard when it came to her studies. To help those who couldn't help themselves. To slowly but surely make an impact in their midst of chaos.

She shared a glance with the others before turning to look, "Say I join you, will you guarantee my father's safety?"

The sounds of protest from the others filled the room.

"Rory, no!"

"You can't be serious!"

Luke only grinned, but it wasn't a usual grin. It was one she'd seen on his face when they were younger and she'd offer him a piece of her chocolate, where he'd only ruffle her hair send her that very same grin, and tell her to share with Annabeth. It was a kind of grin that reached your eyes as if the world was finally aligning in your favor.

It almost pained her to do what she did next.

She took cautious steps towards him until she was a foot away from him, "Can you?"

Luke grinned and all Aurora saw was his fourteen-year-old self, "I can do that and more."

Before any of them could react, Aurora wiped out a knife and swung at Luke.

CLANG!

The sound of metal on metal filled the room.

Aurora's eyes widen, he had anticipated her attack. Now when she looked at him, all she saw was rage. The boy she had once considered a brother was gone. Instead, a being full of resentment took his place.

She struggled to maintain her balance as Luke was much stronger, "Stand down!" Her voice came out alluring like a siren. "Stand down and don't move."

Before she could even blink, Luke sidestepped and sliced at her arm causing her to release her knife . . . but he wasn't done. He placed the tip of her knife to her throat, his face burning with newfound hatred.

"Do you play me for a fool?" He bellowed. "I'm a step ahead of you, Stark. And I always will be."

Aurora could only cover her newfound cut in order to stop the bleeding. This was when she realized Luke wasn't Luke instead he was a vessel to enact destruction in the act of revenge.

Aurora could only glare, "Fuck you."

He picked up something that looked like a TV remote and pressed a red button. Within seconds the door of the stateroom opened and two uniformed crew members came in, armed with nightsticks. They had the same glassy-eyed look as the other mortals the group had seen, but they had a feeling this Wouldnt make them any less dangerous in a fight.

"Ah, good, security," Luke said, "I'm afraid we have some stowaways."

"Yes, sir," they said dreamily.

Luke turned to Oreius. "It's time to feed the Aethiopian drakon. Take these fools below and show them how it's done."

Oreius grinned stupidly. "Hehe! Hehe!"

"Let me go, too," Agrius grumbled. "My brother is worthless. That Cyclops-"

"Is no threat," Luke said. He glanced back at the golden casket as if something were troubling him. "Agrius, stay here. We have important matters to discuss."

"But-"

"Oreius, don't fail me. Stay in the hold to make sure the drakon is properly fed," he sent one final glance to Aurora to winced in pain at her cut. "Make sure you don't poke Aurora, we wouldn't want her protector to make a mess."

                         Ah, so he was talking about Nate.

Oreius prodded them with his javelin and herded them out of the stateroom, followed by the two human security guards. As Percy walked down the corridor with Oreius's javelin poking him in the back, he glanced at Aurora who looked ill.

She tied a piece of her shirt over her open wound. Begging Nate not to come out as it would leave her incapacitated in a fight after he came through for a mere ten seconds. It wasn't a logical plan.

But as Percy sent her a glance, she knew he had a plan and after her last one went to crap, she'd listen to anyone at this point.

Percy looked at Tyson and said, "Now."

Tyson turned and smacked Oreius thirty feet back into the swimming pool, right into the middle of the zombie tourist family.

"Ah!" the kids yelled in unison. "We are not having a blast in the pool!"

One of the security guards drew his nightstick, but Annabeth knocked the wind out of him with a well-placed kick. The one next to Aurora lunged at her but Aurora was faster she kicked him in the stomach and delivered a hard punch to his face knocking him on his ass.

The other guard ran for the nearest alarm box.

"Stop him!" Annabeth yelled, but it was too late.

Just before Percy banged him on the head with a deck chair, he hit the alarm. Red lights flashed. Sirens wailed.

"Lifeboat!" Percy yelled. They ran for the nearest one as the crowd behind them began growing.

Laistrygonian archers assembled on the deck above them, notching arrows in their enormous bows.

"How do you launch this thing?" screamed Annabeth.

A hellhound leaped at Percy, but Tyson slammed it aside with a fire extinguisher.

"Get in!" Percy yelled.

Aurora climbed in and yelled, "Thruster!" Her signature gold thruster appeared in her right arm and in her left her usual shield gauntlet appeared. She stood in front of her friends and blasted her thruster toward the arrows coming their way.

"Hold on!" Percy yelled, and he cut the ropes. Aurora didn't have time to hold on, but it was Percy who pulled her back and wrapped an arm around her waist while they held on for dear life onto the lifeboat. A shower of arrows whistled over their heads as they free-fell toward the ocean.

Aurora took aim and blasted every single arrow to pieces on their way down.

— NAT TALKS !

So like, Aurora is my baby but what I have planned for her will make you guys mad at me fr 😔 for my OG readers, it's much more brutal this time around. 😭

question of the update: what are you excited for?

❛ allure me. ❜ ༢ ͎۪۫ ༊*·˚ ╱
❪ the prodigy, 𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒂𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 book. ❫
༢ ͎۪۫ ༊ ❛ ©CELESTIALAPHRODITE 2023. ❜ ¨. ༢ ͎۪۫ ｡𖤐
❪ 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 ❫ ©CELESTIALAPHRODITE, 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆𝒅.