Resurrected

Tommy's POV

“Don’t talk to him like that!” I shouted, feeling the warm rush of my temper flaring in my ears. Unlike when I had attacked Annabeth and Clarisse, my anger’s warmth felt different, a comforting type of warm, like a security blanket. Last time, I had felt like a searing heat was passing through me, painful and blunt.

“What?” Kronos laughed, punching Luke across the chin, making him splutter out blood, “don’t treat him like the failure he is?”

“Stop it!” I could feel the anger fully charged up now, like a solar battery under noontime heat. I shot out my hand in a pushing motion, forcing Kronos back against the cracked wall of the room.

Cool, I thought, I can use the Force. Now people can call me ‘Darth Tommy’. No, that doesn’t sound right. ‘Darth Doyle’? No, that’s a weak name too. Ah, forget it!

With my other hand, I pushed out, moving the pristine, cold metal table out of my way. Then I focused on Kronos, and in a restrained, but still angry voice, I said,

“See, Saturn? In the mortal world, you might have complete control over me, but in this realm, where I am neither living nor dead, I have control over you. Give me my body back, or I will pin you here forever. Seeing as you’re the Lord of Time, you’ll understand how long that truly is.”

I had no idea why I had said those things. One, why had I called him Saturn? I’m not Roman. Two, how did I know that I was neither living nor dead? Guess I took and educated guess off of Ethan’s information.

“Boy,” Kronos tried to laugh, but realized he couldn’t, “you have no hold over me! I am a Titan!”
“You are nothing!” I spat, silencing him, “you will give me my old body back. And you will do it now!”

Kronos went silent as I stared into his golden eyes, and out of my peripheral vision I could see Ethan leading Luke out of the room. In the back of my mind, I wondered where he was taking him.

I mean, if this room was the space between life and death, could Ethan resurrect Luke by taking him out of the room with him?

But I couldn’t worry about that. I had to keep fighting Kronos. Good thing I focused too, because in a flash, Kronos strained against my hands, which were firmly planted against his neck. I was still angry at him, which meant I could still use my curse’s powers against him. But I was losing strength. My muscles were shaking.

Then, in another push, Kronos managed to push me off of him. But, he didn’t realize what had happened to his interrogation room. See, in the interrogation room, as Ethan had silently pointed out to me, there were two doors in which one could enter. Unfortunately, I had entered from the one marked Death, seeing as Chiron had just killed me. But the other door, marked Life, was the one Ethan and Luke had left from.

As I flew backwards, I noticed that Ethan had propped open the door, Life, that he had left out of. Kronos only noticed a few seconds after I did. Even though he was the Lord of Time, he still couldn’t move fast enough. I leaped through the doorway, and found myself falling. But I wasn’t falling towards Tartarus. I was falling up.

I flipped over so that I was rising upwards on my back and saw a reflection of a Camp Half-Blood burial shrine, covering my dead face. Or, at least, my body’s dead face. Looking to my left, just before I merged with my mortal body, I saw Ethan drag the limp body of Luke, who looked like he was muttering in his sleep, away so that nobody would see him…yet.

Then, I focused on merging. I slipped into my old body like a sock, and for a moment, I felt really heavy, like I was wearing one of those lead X-ray coats. But then, my soul got used to my body, and I felt…normal. I took a couple breaths, just as I heard a lighter click on. They were ready to burn me. Just before I took the time to wonder who had given my remarks, I pushed the shroud off of my body, causing a veritable riot in the Amphitheater.

“I’m back!” I shouted in that sing-songy voice. I was smiling out of my mind, and I felt like a serial killer, or that guy from the Shining. I was high on adrenaline, and my heart rate was through the roof.

People were running out of the Amphitheater screaming, some just sat there in shock. I wasn’t supposed to be alive. Dead people were supposed to saty dead. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw Silena Beuregard, smiling as wide as she had when Charlie and she had gotten reunited. I smiled at her, still high on adrenaline.

Woah, I thought, calm down, Tommy, calm down.

So, I stood, and took a couple deep breaths. Then, I started to remember important things, like the fact that Chiron had had no pause when he had wanted to shoot me, and the fact that I had just been resurrected for the second time.

I turned around to see the old centaur himself, smiling down at me. I got so angry at his smug smile that I thrust my hand out, expecting the centaur to go flying into Long Island Sound, but nothing happened.

You’re not Darth Tommy anymore, I thought, you beat Kronos!

“Yes!” I shouted, ecstatic at my victory of the Titan.

But I was still angry at Chiron, so instead of punching his horse legs to make him fall over, or anything mean, I just walked away from him as he started to say,

“Congratulations, Tommy, you’ve done it! I can’t believe you actually beat…where are you going?”

Are you kidding me? The guy shot me with an arrow! I wasn’t going to listen to him drabble on about praising me.

Yeah, the voice said inside of me, let’s not talk to Chiron until he apologizes, eh?

So, I didn’t. I just walked over to where Ethan was hiding Luke, and, after making sure Chiron didn’t see me, I whispered,

“Do you think he’ll be okay?”

“Definitely,” Ethan replied, “I mean, look!”

He lifted up one of Luke’s eyelids while the guy was still unconscious to reveal startlingly blue eyes. No trace of gold to be found.

“Well, he’s not being controlled by him,” I said, “so do you think he’ll wake up at all?”

“Definitely,” Ethan whispered back, “but we need to get him to the Infirmary, because I can feel him stirring.”

“You got the legs?” I asked, and Ethan nodded, moving to pick up Luke by his jeans. I grabbed the unconscious guy’s biceps and we high-tailed it to the Infirmary, running behind buildings, and using the afternoon shadows for cover.

Oh crap, I realized, how long was I down there?

But that didn’t matter. As soon as we got to the Infirmary, I checked the calendar by the sick wing’s door, and it said August 20. Charlie and Ethan still had time. Then, my least favorite centaur showed up.

Chiron’s hooves on the stone landing of the Infirmary are impossible to mistake. Which is why I let out a discernibly loud groan when I heard them. But when the centaur saw Luke, he looked like he had expected the guy to be there. He looked like he was determined to talk to me.

“Tommy, I’m sorry!” The centaur shouted, like he was getting annoyed at chasing me, “okay? I know my actions were completely out of line, and that I was too emotionally involved with the situation because of the fact that Annabeth is very special to me. She’s…she’s like my daughter. Please forgive me.”

I nodded my head slowly, and then I sat down in one of the chairs which I had spent hours waiting for Ethan to wake up. I realized that Ethan seemed completely healthy today, but as a precaution, I saw Ethan climb into one of the beds, coughing softly. I told Chiron everything, and the guy was an insanely good listener. By the time I was done, I could hear a few other people running towards the Infirmary. One pair of shoes sounded like Army boots. Clarisse. The other pair sounded like Annabeth. Why Annabeth? I don’t know. I guess I could just tell.

“Oh crap,” I murmured to Ethan, who was falling fast asleep, “I’ve got some explaining to do.”

Notes

Enjoy!
-Grafon