Resurrected

Silena's POV

The next morning, I woke up in a dream. Or at least, it must’ve been a dream because Charlie was standing over me, and I was comfortably in bed.

“Hey,” he said, in his voice that I had come to love so much.

“Hey,” I said back weakly, my voice soft.

We just stared at each other for a couple seconds, taking in the fact that we were both alive. Then Charlie started to smile, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I sat up, and reached down and took me in his arms. I started to cry, silent tears of relief and joy as I felt the strength in his arms once more.

We were back together, finally.

He released me from his arms and kissed me, which felt better than taking any ambrosia or nectar.

“I missed you,” he said softly, still smiling. I noticed quickly that he too had tears in his eyes, but he would never let me know that. He wiped his eyes quickly and kissed me again, and I wanted to stay wrapped up in his embrace for the rest of time. But I couldn’t indulge myself.

“Charlie,” I said, “how? I mean, did you guys find her?”

“Yeah,” Alex’s voice said, “they did. Calypso and Leo are currently cuddling somewhere, kissing more than I've ever seen anyone kiss before, and talking about an auto shop. Weird. PErcy and Annabeth are walking on the beach, and this whole Camp is starting to get way too sappy for me.”

Both of us turned to face her, with her wild red hair blowing softly in the morning breeze.

Wait, I thought, the morning breeze.

“Charlie, what time is it? More importantly, what day is it?” I asked frantically.

He responded, “It’s 10:30 on the 21st, why?”

Then Alex interjected, “It’s like no one even notices me anymore!”

“Sorry,” Charlie and I said in unison, but Alex just laughed softly,

“You two are too cute together. Ugh, it makes me want to write a song. Anyways, the date is important because, as Charlie will explain, Kronos was using the number three as a bluff in both your dreams. We know it only took the Argo II three hours to return to Camp Half-Blood, but we think that there could be another meaning for the number three.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said, “we just haven’t figured it out yet. Look, Silena, I’m sorry. I didn’t figure out how to beat Kronos on that quest. I just…”

“It’s okay,” I said as I took his hand, “we’re going to be fine, okay? We just have to think through how to beat that stupid Titan.”

Then, Alex surprised me by saying, “Actually, Charlie, if you don’t mind, and no offense to you of course, but I kinda wanted some girl time with Silena. She is a daughter of Aphrodite, you know.”

“Oh,” Charlie said, “uh, yeah, no problem.”

Charlie’s face started to turn red, but not as red as in the past. Maybe coming back from the dead had taken some of his social awkwardness. After he left, I asked Alex,

“What’s up? Did you and Ethan hit it off, or…”

“Save the awkwardness, matchmaker, we did!” She responded giddily, “He seems to like me a lot, and that’s a relief because I think he’s really cute. But that’s not why I came to talk to you. Ethan had a lot of ideas about redeeming himself and how Charlie might be able to. I wanted to run them by you to see if you’re okay with them, without Charlie being all brave and saying ‘he’ll do whatever it takes’.”

“What did Ethan say?” I asked, sitting up even more.

“His idea was to draw Kronos out in the form of Luke, and then use his powers, along with Charlie’s and Tommy’s, against Kronos to send him back to Tartarus.”

“No,” I said, my eyes going out of focus as I stared down, “that won’t work.”

“Why?” Alex asked, her voice starting to sound a bit panicky, “why not? Kronos gave him those powers, so why can’t he just kill Kronos?”

I noticed how Alex said ‘him’ instead of ‘them’. I noticed how she was starting to sound pouty, like a stubborn child. She wanted Ethan to live a lot more than she was letting on.

“Calm down, Alex,” I said, snapping my eyes back in focus, “you need to think this through. Why do you think Kronos gave us these powers? Just to get angry and use them against him? No, he’d be expecting that. We need to fight against our own curses to redeem our souls. I know it sounds a bit corny, but us four need to forgive our demons in order to set them free.”

“Forgive our demons…” Alex echoed, her voice a soft shell of what it normally was.

“Yes!” I said, encouraging her, “For example, I forgave Charlie when he didn’t remember me at first! I forgave all of the people who had betrayed me, and I apologized to all of the people I had betrayed, and when Kronos tried to latch onto me, I broke free of his grip. That is how I redeemed myself. Charlie, Tommy, and Ethan need to do the same.”

“But how is Ethan—” She started.

“Are they—” I corrected.

“—going to forgive their demons? I mean, Charlie doesn’t have any demons. From what I hear, he was the nicest guy at Camp!”

“Demons aren’t always things or people you need to forgive,” A new voice said, gravelly and deep.

“Chiron?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m here,” the friendly centaur said at the Infirmary door, “It’s good to see you awake, my child. But as to your point, demons aren’t always faults in a persons morals. They could be fears, doubts, or any other personal worry. But I, too never saw Charlie struggling with any of those. Silena, you knew him best. Did he have any of these?”

I wanted to say ‘No. Charlie was amazing and awesome and fearless,’ but I knew I was wrong. Charlie had one fear.

“Kronos,” he said, “his one true fear was Kronos. Which means—”

“All he has to do to redeem himself,” Chiron took over, “is forgive Kronos.”

We were all silent after that. I suddenly felt extremely bad for Charlie, seeing as that task would be harder than any other person’s for a very long time. I realized that I was the one who was going to have to tell Charlie what he has to do to redeem his soul, so I slumped out of bed, and said goodbye to Chiron and Alex, who was now checking up on the sleeping Ethan in the bed next to me. But I couldn't watch them for long. I had a boyfriend to find.

Notes

Finally I update this thing. Ugh, it's been forever, but here it is. Next chapter soon.

Enjoy,
Grafon