Chapter Text
Chapter 31
Rallying the Troops
It took Percy a few days to draw up a formal plan. Every time he entered the library, Malcolm stared at him like some kind of parasite. He saw him whispering to Annabeth outside the Athena cabin on occasion, and she would stare at Percy with an uneasy gaze. But over time, though their glances shook his confidence somewhat, he gathered the materials he needed.
He made his way to the front door of the Aphrodite cabin. He raised a fist, staring at it hovering in the air in front of the door for a few seconds. Sighing, he began to gently rap against the oak door. As he waited, he tapped his feet nervously at the doorstep, each tap getting harder and harder. The door cracked open, and Silena peeked out, noticing first his ragged face and slow breathing. She wore a dejected look on her face, her eyes naturally gravitating towards the ground.
“You look stressed,” she said, her voice quiet and gentle.
“I need someone to talk to. Let’s take a walk. In the forest.”
Silena cocked her head sideways. “Something private?”
He held his breath a second. “Yeah.”
They walked in silence for a few minutes, finally arriving at the edge of the forest. The morning sunlight cut through the dark green canopy. He beckoned her to follow. “We’re going to head for the waterfall. It’s nice.”
“I didn’t bring a bathing suit,” she said. “You seem… different, Percy.”
Percy shook his head. “I don’t want to swim there. It’s just private. I’d prefer if no one overheard us.”
“Must be some secret.”
“Yeah. Let’s just go.”
They walked for a while. The greenery around him and the freshness of the air gave him a second wind. There was more to see than the four walls of his room, it turned out. He waved to the dryads, sitting on moss-covered rocks in some of the more populated areas of the forest, and finally arrived at the waterfall. The torrent of water crowded out the bird songs they had been listening to on their way there, leaving only an intimate space where they could hear each other.
Percy jumped onto a large rock in the center of the river, patting the spot beside himself. “Come on over.”
She looked at him suspiciously. “Percy, I can’t jump that far. I’m gonna fall in.”
A flicker of a smile crossed his face for a second. He placed the tips of his fingers gently against the surface of the water. Ice crystals rippled across the water, forming a bridge. She stepped on it tentatively, and then began to walk over. She sat down across from him.
“What’s this all about?” asked Silena. “You’re making this like some kind of ceremony.”
“I needed somewhere just the two of us could talk, completely alone,” said Percy.
Silena blushed. “Percy, I’m not really ready for-
“That’s not what I meant,” he said, glancing away. He blushed too, in spite of himself. “Um… actually, Beckendorf and I used to talk here a lot, so…
Silena blinked, and then laughed. “Oh, gods, don’t tell me you two were fooling around behind my back, Percy! There are some things I don’t need to-
“Would you… keep it serious for a minute?”
The smile faded from her face. “Oh. That bad, huh?”
He sighed, taking a deep breath. Every inch of his body was wracked with nerves. Though he tried to keep his composure, his voice, and to a lesser extent his body, began to shake. “Silena, I was worried about you after you dropped the brownies off the other night. So I… I… I just… I followed… you. Into the forest.”
Her face sank with dread, her veneer of ease disappearing. Her eyes watered a little. “You saw,” she said, her voice faint.
The hollowness of her comment hung in the air for a minute before he slowly nodded, responding. “I did.”
She hung her head, struggling to get any words out of her mouth. “I… I hated the way that Hermes trampled on Luke’s feelings. And I saw how my own mother treated me. Kronos promised to protect Luke, and then he said he could protect Charlie, and I just-
He put his hand on her back. Over the past few days, his feelings had been… confused. He wasn’t sure whether to be angry at Silena, or sad, or whatever. But seeing his friend so close, hearing the anguish in her voice… the echoes of Luke’s argument were louder, perhaps because he was closer to her. Perhaps because, much to his guilt, he cared for Silena far more. And for the first time, he began to entertain the thought that maybe a demigod revolution was not so crazy. “I’m not here to judge, Silena. I’ve lived through Olympian cruelty. But we need to keep our demigod family safe, and we do that together. I think that requires us working to change the gods. Not overthrow them.”
She nodded sadly. “If you saw our meeting, I should tell you why I had it. When I heard you were leading the demigods into battle, I couldn’t stomach supporting him anymore. Not if he was going to put you in danger. I want to support you however I can.”
He took a deep breath in. This was what he needed. He leaned forward, hand still on her shoulder, face close to hers. His voice was a low whisper. “Then I need you to tell me everything you know about Kronos. All of it.”
She breathed in, as if remembering a bad dream. “Well… when I first came to camp, I met Luke. I was placed in the Hermes cabin like all the other kids until I was claimed. He was incredible. Very handsome, too.” She laughed a little bit, her voice still weak. “I don’t know if Luke felt the same way, but we still talked a lot, and we shared a lot of grievances with the gods. He tried to convince me to join him when he left, but I wouldn’t go. I did promise not to tell everybody about where he was going. That was before I knew what he was going to do to you.”
“I still had a crush on Luke, and he made contact with me every once in a while. At first, he seemed unsure of himself. Kronos was cruel, and Luke was supposed to help him rise up. But then… something changed. Luke claimed that Kronos had been free of Tartarus all along and was just testing him. In fact, he said Kronos became a lot less moody after that. Still very demanding, but better somehow. That was when they approached me. Kronos found me outside of camp. In the flesh. He brought Luke along with him to convince me. They told me that this would be the last war. And I… I knew mom was never a mom. I knew Hermes would never be a dad to Luke. I mean, I looked around camp, and… we all have our own problems with the gods. I said that I’d help if they went easy on the casualties. I got the keychain communicator. And when I fell in love with Charlie, I asked Kronos to watch out for him.” She paused, frowning. “Kronos agreed. He never hesitated, never questioned it.”
“Once Charlie died, I realized he wasn’t some savior,” muttered Silena. “But I still had to think about Luke. I became a little distant, and when Luke died, I tried to cut it off completely. But when I saw the way the gods were treating you, I hesitated. Because… I figured you might need an out.”
Percy’s breath caught at her final words. “So then… why-
“Now that you have to lead Olympian forces against Kronos, I knew he couldn’t protect you. I tried to resign as you saw, and… you know the rest.”
“Silena, Kronos was more cautious with you than anyone I’ve ever seen him speak too,” said Percy. “Why does he care about you so much?”
“I might be his only spy,” said Silena. “He can’t really afford to lose me.”
“But why did he look for you specifically?”
“Maybe Luke knew that I liked him.”
“Annabeth liked him too.”
“Not in the way I did,” said Silena, a bit dismissively. Then she blushed, a little guiltily. “I don’t mean that to be competitive or anything. Annabeth’s younger, and she had a crush, but young Aphrodite campers are known for romanticizing undying love. It’s like a Romeo and Juliet thing. Really unhealthy, but I was younger, and that’s the environment. Plus, Annabeth seems to have accepted Luke had become evil. I… even now, I can’t help but empathize at times.”
“This is all very helpful,” said Percy. “But I have to ask, just as friends… didn’t you ever regret helping Kronos?” He looked at her, hand still on her back, and he felt her shift uncomfortably in his grasp. Her face seemed to have gone pale.”
“This is going to sound horrible, but… all of the campers he killed, I didn’t know them. And the campers I did know all had horrible situations with the gods. I mean, right, you used to bitch about Athena straight to me! And mom was horrible. I didn’t see how the deaths affected everyone until… until it was someone I loved. But the pain of years of abuse was real, palpable. Right here, boiling up in every cabin, every battle, every loss. To see that day after day, it gets to you.”
Percy sighed, patting her on the back and withdrawing his hand. He leaned away from her. “I know. Sometimes I even wonder why I’m helping the gods at all. I mean, most of them can be downright asses. But Hades really turned things around with Nico. And Kronos can be an ass too. So… better the devil you know than the devil you don’t.”
Silena smiled, her eyes telling a different story. “Isn’t that so insane? The only thing that separates Kronos from the gods in your eyes is that we came out of their genitalia somehow. Not even that. Like, if Kronos had his own camp and we could go there, would you feel the same?”
Percy’s eyes widened. He hadn’t thought of it like that. “I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“I’ll support whatever you do, Percy,” said Silena, shaking her head. “I can’t bear to lose you, too. What’s the plan?”
“Can you regain Kronos’s trust?” asked Percy.
“Maybe,” said Silena. “I can try.”
“We’re going to plan a large-scale scouting mission,” said Percy. “I’ll say I have some intel on where Kronos is. If you relay where we plan to search, he can organize an ambush. But then, we’ll do the same. We’ll strike the final blow. And the war will be over.”
Silena grabbed him by the back, pulling him into a hug. “Oh, Percy, if you can finally put a stop to all of this… you’ll be a real god in my eyes.”
He patted her on the back. “We’ll pull it off. Together. And after we do, I’ll get the gods to agree to treat the demigods better.”
OoOoOoOoO
Percy approached Chiron later that day and requested a meeting of the cabin leaders. They were gathered that night. Ten demigods, Silena and Annabeth included, and Grover, stood at attention, ready to listen to him.
“As some of you may know, I’ve been put in charge of the demigod forces,” said Percy. “Athena assigned me total control over leading you all in and out of battle.”
“No, we didn’t know that,” said Clarisse, crossing her arms. “In fact, no one mentioned it last I checked.”
“I hate to say it, but I agree with Clarisse here,” said Annabeth. “None of us really agreed to this. Maybe my mother gave you the position, but you’re still a demigod. You can’t just expect us to all bow to your commands.”
“Last I checked, I ‘wasn’t a demigod’ anymore,” deadpanned Percy.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Don’t be an ass about this. Chiron, isn’t there anything we can do?”
Chiron shrugged. “If Athena hasn’t made it official already, she might try to vote for it in the council. It’s possible she would lose, but I don’t think you can gather enough support right now to overturn her proposal. Though, Percy, as your mentor, I do think it wise to respect the opinions of your troops.”
“And I intend to do that,” said Percy, crossing his eyebrows with annoyance. “No one’s even heard my proposal!”
“Fine,” muttered Clarisse. “Spit it out.”
“I found some information,” said Percy. “I’ve got to protect my source, but I know where Kronos will be bringing his army within a few days. He’ll be vulnerable. We can ambush him.”
“Sounds simple enough,” said Annabeth, her eyebrows raising with suspicion. “Do you know whether the information is accurate?”
“Not for sure,” said Percy. “But I have some backup plans drawn out. I think we should be safe even if Kronos learns our position.”
“Where will he be?” asked Clarisse.
“He’s passing through a state park, a little bit east of New Haven,” said Percy. “We should be able to cross the Sound discreetly.”
“Why would he be outside of New Haven?” asked Michael Yew. “I thought Kronos was in retreat right now.”
“No one’s sure,” said Percy. “I have a guess, though. He’ll be right between us and Olympus. It’s easy to keep tabs on us and the gods from there.”
“It just makes me nervous not knowing the source,” said Annabeth. “I know that you’re trying to protect them, Percy, but… what if you can’t trust them? Do you have corroborating evidence?”
“Huh?”
“Two sources saying the same thing,” explained Annabeth, sighing. “You know, good SAT word, while we’re on the topic.”
“No,” admitted Percy. “But even then, Kronos wouldn’t do something too risky that close to Olympus. We should be fine.”
Clarisse sighed. “I’ve got respect for your insight, Annabeth, but I think we need to trust your boyfriend on this one-
Annabeth’s face grew red with anger. “He’s not my boyfriend!”
Clarisse blushed. “Oh, sorry. Must be out of the loop. Well, Percy’s got a good sense for battle, and he’s right about Kronos being weak. He’d have to pull off some serious surprises for this to be too dangerous, especially if we’ve got the same Jackson who beat your mother on our side.”
Annabeth sighed. “Yes, unfortunately, we do.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Annabeth,” said Percy, avoiding her gaze. “So you’re all behind me on this?”
All the campers in the room raised their hands, save Annabeth. She finally relented. “There’s no use fighting about it if everyone else is willing. The Athena campers will fight by your side.”
“It’s decided, then,” said Percy.
“Right,” said Chiron. “How many days do you have to prepare?”
“We’ve got about three,” said Percy.
“And I believe you’ll need a second-in-command to support you,” said Chiron.
“Oh, yeah,” said Percy. He instinctively turned to Annabeth, then caught himself. “Uh… how’s your brother doing, wise girl?”
She crossed her arms. “Hell no. If you want an Athena camper to be your second-in-command, I’m doing it. That’s non-negotiable.”
“We both know that’s a bad idea,” said Percy. “You’re clearly mad at me. It’s not going to end well.”
“I can see past that,” said Annabeth. “And you should be mature enough to do the same. Look, regardless of the state of our relationship, you know how well we work together. We’re a natural team, seaweed brain! It would be idiotic to ignore that.”
“Fine, then I’m an idiot,” said Percy, rolling his eyes. “Maybe I’m not mature enough to look past it.”
“Percy, if you can’t do that, how are you mature enough to lead a demigod army?” asked Annabeth, approaching him slowly. “Come on, take me as second-in-command. It’ll work out fine.”
“No, and that’s final,” he said. “I’m too distracted right now to worry about it.” He looked at Clarisse. “So-
“I’ll do it, Percy,” said Silena. “You said you needed some help. So, I’ll do it.”
Percy hesitated. “Silena, I don’t mean to be rude, but…
“She’s trained with me enough times to have a good battle sense,” said Clarisse. “If you’ve got the chemistry, and gods know we certainly don’t, she’d make a decent second-in-command for you, Jackson.”
Silena flashed Percy a smile. “You may be a god, but up until you became one, you rarely beat my ass in combat. Don’t underestimate me!”
He smiled. “Alright, fair enough. Let’s reconvene tomorrow to plan out the invasion. Silena and I will discuss the agenda later tonight.”
OoOoOoOoO
Silena and Percy met in his room, which he had carefully prepared with magical spells to ward off unsuspecting listeners. “And it looks like we have nothing to hide from the gods, right?” he said to Silena, offering her a seat. “Because we’re just protecting the conversation like generals would normally do. Foolproof.”
“Close to it,” admitted Silena. “So, I’ll find some maps of Long Island and the Sound. Do you have an idea of how far inland the attack will be?”
“I’ve found a good point where we can fight with him,” said Percy. “Daedalus left me some maps that are incredibly useful. There’s this area in the park where Kronos would have to pass through in order to reach us. There are two cliffs overlooking him from either side. Very light canopy. It’ll be perfect for an ambush. The best part is, it doesn’t show up on many commercial maps or on satellite imagery very well. He won’t know any better.”
“Look at you!” said Silena, smirking. “Really thinking like a big-time general here!”
“Well, I’m apparently a god now,” he said. “I’ve got big expectations to live up to. Anyways, there’s only one thing left to do: see if it works.” He paused. “Do you have the communicator?”
She pulled out the scythe, dangling it in front of him. “I’ve been dreading this for a long time now.”
“It’s just one more time,” said Percy. He put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it tightly. “And I’ll be here with you. All you need to tell him is that we’ll be a bit north of Chester, Connecticut. When the day comes, we’ll organize some way to get his attention.”
Silena nodded, and then she pressed the button. She took a deep breath in, her voice getting more serious as she spoke. “Kronos? Are you there?”
For a minute, they sat in silence. And then another voice came up on the other end of the line. “Agent Moon, I read you.”
“I’ve thought about what you said,” she began. “And about Luke’s dream for the Olympians. The truth is… I always cared about it. But Percy will be leading the Olympian forces. I just want to keep him safe.”
Kronos sighed. “That is troublesome. I can’t promise that he won’t get hurt. But he’s a god, so he’s pretty durable, as I’m sure you’re now aware. If I can capture him, I can keep him safe. But I’ll need you to help me. This will be the turning point of the war.”
She wiped a tear from her eye, practically crying with joy. She gave Percy a big smile. “Yes, I’ve waited for that so long!”
“I think Percy will buy into it eventually,” said Kronos. “He’s seen firsthand how cruel the gods can be.”
“I know,” said Silena, her heart racing now. “I’ve watched him struggle with it. I just… I couldn’t bear it any longer.”
Kronos laughed. “Moon, you are the sweetest girl I have ever met. That sense of loyalty is what makes you incredible. Never let it go.”
She blinked in surprise. “That’s… that’s very kind of you to say.”
“I’ve heard over the years how much you loved both Luke and Charlie. And I’m sorry that I couldn’t save them. But generations of heroes will never have to suffer because of your actions.”
“Kronos, there’s an upcoming search party,” said Silena. “I was thinking you could move on the campers then. But you have to be cautious about casualties. Promise me.”
“I’ll do everything I can,” said Kronos. “If you say the proper spells on Percy when we’re in battle, it’ll be easy. Where is the party going to be searching?”
“Around New Haven,” said Silena. “We’ll be camping a little north of Chester in about two days.”
The line was blank for a moment. “Yes, okay. I see it on my map. Two more days. Just two more days until victory is assured for us. Then this all will end.”
She hesitated. “Kronos, how can the war end so quickly?”
“It won’t, in truth,” said Kronos. “But the demigods won’t have to fight anymore. Once I have Percy, we can play the long game. It may take a few years, but when he has reached maturity, he can destroy the gods in battle.”
Silena looked at Percy in alarm. “Surely you’re joking?”
“Absolutely not,” said Kronos. “Percy is fulfilling an old, ancient prophecy. The oldest of them all. He is bound for greatness. And when the war is over, he will be able to take the Olympian throne.”
Silena fumbled for words. “I… that sounds… practically divine.”
“Yes, well, I can’t be expected to do it,” said Kronos. “Far too much work. But Percy is young and popular enough with the demigods. He’ll be able to change things. Goodbye, Moon. I’ll be in contact the day of to finally put this plan in place.”
She let go of the button, wrapping the scythe charm in a bundle of clothes as quickly as she could. “What is he, insane?”
“He’s been saying the same thing all along,” said Percy. “Even when Beckendorf and I went to meet him, he seemed convinced that I was destined to control Olympus or something. I don’t really know what he means. Ouranos said I would be quite powerful, but… never anything beyond that. Maybe I can beat the info out of Kronos when we face him.”
“I don’t know,” said Silena. “Just be careful. But, I guess things really will work out after all.”
“Yeah,” said Percy, smiling. “We’ll finally be through all of this shit. Okay, I’m going to get things arranged and head to bed. You should do the same.”
Silena nodded, heading for the door. She turned to say goodbye to Percy one last time, and for a few seconds she watched him silently as he stared up at the ceiling. He looked absolutely exhausted; his eyes drooping, hair practically like a porcupine. He was thin, too- abnormally so. She frowned. “Percy.”
He looked up at her. “Huh?”
She hesitated, her heart pounding, and then smiled. “Good night!”
He smiled back. “Good night, Silena.”
She shut the door behind her, hesitating once more on the doorstep. Then, she sighed, heading back to her cabin.