Resurrected

Charlie's POV

You have no idea how hard it is to plan against Kronos. You see, back in the old days, they called him the Crooked One, and for good reason. He constructed plans that could thwart any resistance whatsoever. It was playing chess against someone who controlled your pieces.

So there I found myself, talking with my girlfriend about how to defeat Kronos, when Nico di Angelo, Annabeth Chase and a severely wounded Percy Jackson limped past us. I realized that Percy was in some deep schist, so I said,

“I got him!”

And with that, I grabbed Percy’s limp body, which felt light in my arms, and I sprinted to the Infirmary. When I got there, I handed him over to the Apollo campers and started to calm down. I realized that my body was humming with adrenaline, but I was only alone for a moment. Annabeth and Nico sprinted over to the Infirmary, and Nico and Annabeth both said in unison,

“Thank you so much!”

I thought it was weird that Nico would be as thankful as Annabeth, but then I realized that I hadn’t seen Nico since I had died.

“Hey, Nico. It’s good to see you again, man,” I said, a smile creeping to my lips.

“Same,” He said, still looking at Percy, “but don’t thank me. You guys coming back was an act of malevolence, not of forgiveness. Kronos probably told you that you got a second chance. He was lying. He used you.”

“I see you still have that sunny disposition I always loved,” I responded glumly, and Nico grinned at me viciously,

“Just telling you the truth of death,” He said, the grin still on his face.

Just then, Silena walked in with Ethan, who was wheezing heavily, but looked all right. A thought came into my head about what some of the others had said, but I couldn’t fully form it.

“What’s up?” Silena asked as she helped Ethan through the doorway.

“Nothing much,” I said, still deep in thought, “Percy’s stable, stab wounds, but ambrosia does a lot.”

“Thankfully,” Annabeth said.

“You do realize that Luke is still fully under the influence of Kronos, right?” He asked, as if this was the most obvious statement in the world. Which it was.

“No he isn’t!” Annabeth said as her eyebrows crinkled in worry, “He’s just—”

“Acting weird?” Ethan asked, “Because that’s what you told me when you asked me to help you knock him out. Seriously, Annabeth, you need to get your priorities straight. Luke is still an enemy, and I hope you realize that.”

“He isn’t an enemy!” Annabeth shouted.

“But Kronos is!” Ethan retorted.

We were all silent after that. Of course, he was right. Kronos was obviously influencing Luke, and Ethan further convinced us by telling us his story from earlier today. He told us that Luke’s eyes had turned gold, and that nobody else would see it because Kronos was screwing with him. He told us that Kronos’ entire plot was fixed on him because Kronos thought Ethan would be the easiest to control.

“You have to believe me,” He said, wheezing a little after telling such a long story.

Then, a new voice coughed from behind us,

“It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve lied to us, Nakamura. But I believe you.”

“Percy!” Annabeth shouted.

I tasted a bitter sting on my tongue as I watched her run over to him and kiss him. I realized that I was not alone in that feeling. I saw Ethan looking very disdainfully at Annabeth and I saw him mouth the word,

Hypocrite.

I wanted to disagree with him. I really did. But with the way Annabeth had fawned over Luke when he had woken up, I just couldn’t. Then, the thought that I had had when Silena had walked in popped into my head again.

“Wait a second, that could work!” I exclaimed as I worked out the plan in my head.

“What could?” Percy asked, “I’m a little hazy, too. What exactly happened?”

“Well, what do you remember?” Annabeth asked, looking at the rest of us sheepishly.

“Well…” Percy said, “I remember tearing through the woods, looking for you because you were hanging out with Luke. Then, I was surrounded by darkness. I drew Riptide and…nothing. Everything went black. I felt like someone pinned me against a tree, and then the pain came. Then I blacked out.”

“Well, I’m just glad you’re alive, Seaweed Brain,” she responded, not even looking at us to show us how much she was hiding.

“So am I,” Percy laughed, kissing Annabeth lightly, “But I need to rest, and it’s close to dinnertime. Charlie, how about you enlighten us with whatever could work that you were talking about.”

It was amazing how much he trusted her. But that was his weakness, wasn’t it. He was so loyal that he often didn’t notice until too late that the people closest to him were often the most dangerous. Not that Annabeth would do anything to hurt Percy, but by being so close to Luke she was doing just that.

“Well,” I said, already doubting my own idea, “here goes nothing. Ethan, I’m going to need you for this one, okay?”

“Okay,” he said, brought out of his anger by me bringing him into the conversation, “no problem.”

“Look, Kronos obviously brought Luke back to fight us. He was weakened by Silena and Tommy redeeming their souls, right?”

“Right,” Silena agreed, and her smile gave me the courage to keep going. At least I had one person on my side.

“So, Luke was brought to us because Kronos knew he could weaken our defenses, get under our guard.”

“That’s impossible,” Percy said, “We know he’s Kronos’ only card. I mean, who would be stupid enough to trust him?”

Then we all were silent. Percy must have realized something close to what had happened, and his face went red with anger.

“Annabeth, are you kidding me?” He almost roared, “After all we’ve been through, all Luke did to us, all Kronos did to us, you’ll just run back to him like the good old days?”

“Percy, I thought—” She faltered.

She realized that she hadn’t been thinking at all. Luke was dangerous. His thoughts of rebellion hadn’t originally come from Kronos. They had come from within. That is why he could still be controlled by his evil side.

“Keep going, Charlie,” He spat as he glared at his girlfriend. Again, I was amazed at how loyal he was. He wouldn’t even yell at her when they were alone. I admired Percy for that.

“Well, I thought,” I explained, “if Luke is here to make Ethan get angry, especially with the Black Spot he now has, what if we reverse Ethan’s powers against Luke, specifically when he’s being controlled by Kronos?”

“Theoretically, it could work,” Ethan admitted, “but I’m in no physical shape to take on Luke Castellan by myself, especially when he’s being controlled by the Lord of Time himself.”

“Leave that part to me,” I said. I had an idea, “What if you didn’t have to fight him on land?”

“What do you mean?” Ethan asked.

“What if you could fight him in your mind?” I responded, “You described that interrogation room pretty vividly. I could get the Hypnos and Hecate cabins to work together to work some kind of aid so that we could help you fight him.”

“What? Like Inception?” Ethan asked, ‘Sorry Charlie, but I can’t a Titan in my dreams…literally.”

“Let me get something together, and we’ll see. Please, Ethan, it could work.”

He hesitated, but finally he said, “Fine. We’ll see. But for now, we all need some sleep.”

So, we all went to bed, another little handhold carved into Kronos’ plans.

Notes

WHEW! I haven't written on this one in a while, but that's because I had to plan out the last ten to fifteen chapters. So, yeah. Hope you like this one.

Enjoy,
Grafon