Resurrected

Tommy's POV

After Beckendorf had pitched his idea for Ethan to draw out Kronos so Charlie could reverse his powers on him, an idea had sparked in my mind. I realized what I had to do, even though Ethan thought that it was kind of stupid.

Ethan had made a back-handed remark, saying,

“What? Like Inception?”

That’s what got me thinking. I knew now how to beat Kronos. It would be a bit tricky, well, more than a bit tricky, but it could be done. So, all I had to do was find Charlie.

I walked towards Cabin 9, and even before I got there, I heard a voice from inside the cabin saying,

“Leo, you can’t tell anyone. I’ve been working on this since we left, and it’s almost done.”

I recognized the voice as Charlie’s, and that puzzled me, because what would he have to hide?

So, I kept walking towards the Hephaestus cabin, but more stealthily. I didn’t know whether I was trying to conceal myself, but I was too curious. I wanted to know what Charlie wanted kept secret.
But when I knocked on the door, Charlie opened it with a huge smile on his face. A big, cheek to cheek, genuine smile.

“What’s up, Tommy?” He asked me cheerfully.

“I have an idea,” I said, breathing in and waiting for him to respond.

“An idea for—” He started asking, and then realized what I was talking about, “Oh.”

His face was grim, but ready. He knew what he had to do, and he must’ve felt bad for asking such a big favor of Ethan.

“What’s your plan?” He asked. I breathed out a sigh of relief, and said,

“It’d be better to sit down. This might take a while.”

We walked over to one of the picnic tables, and I began explaining it all.

“So, you know how Ethan mind of brushed off the idea of fighting Kronos in his mind?” I asked him once we had sat down.

“Yeah,” he responded, nodding his head.

“Well, what if that was actually possible? When Chiron kind of…killed me, I went into this dream-room—”

“Wait, Chiron killed you?” Charlie asked in awe, “And you came back? Again?”

“Uh, yeah,” I said sheepishly, “I guess so.”

“Tommy?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah?” I asked him.

“Remind me never to ever piss you off.”

“No problem, boss,” I said, and we both laughed.

“So,” he continued, “back to the plan.”

“Yeah,” I said, getting back into it, “anyways, when I was dead, I showed up in this dream-room. It looked like a normal interrogation room on TV.”

I told him the whole story, and when I was finished, I said,

“So, we get Ethan to go back into the room, but we get the Hecate cabin or the Hypnos cabin to keep him fully awake while he’s in there.”

“What service would that serve?” Charlie asked, “I can’t fight Kronos for Ethan.”

“That’s the million-drachma question, isn’t it?” I told him, “That’s it. We don’t have Ethan fight Kronos, we have Kronos chase Ethan. He can draw Kronos out in the form of Luke. Then, you turn your powers on Luke, and—”

“Woah, Tommy,” Charlie said, frowning and developing a thousand-yard stare, his eyes out of focus, “you’re asking me to kill my friend here.”

“Is he really your friend?” I asked, trying to be gentle, “He got you killed. He got your girlfriend killed. He got a lot of other innocent campers and nature spirits and mortals and others killed. I know how he operates. Hades, he trained me! Charlie, that kid is evil to the core. He is messed up!”

I saw Charlie’s face, reflecting his brain trying to fight against me, but realizing that I was right. Luke didn’t deserve leniency. He didn’t deserve compassion. He deserved a painful death. Slowly, I felt some of the old anger rising, but I was free from Kronos’ control, so I forced it down and told myself to think logically.

“Look, Tommy,” Charlie said, “I respect the idea, but I just…I don’t know. Something feels wrong about it.”

“You still don’t want to kill him?” I asked, knowing that he would say yes.

“Yeah,” he sighed, “It just feels wrong.”

“Look,” I said, holding my hand out like I was asking for something, and said, “Hand me your war-hammer.”

“How do you know about it?” He asked, my question taking him by surprise.

“Percy told me the story from you guys on Ogygia,” I admitted, and he nodded. He brought out a Leatherman multi-tool and opened the pliers. When they locked in place, the tool grew and transformed into a huge, five-foot war hammer.

“Charlie, you’ve probably destroyed hundreds of monsters with this tool of destruction. You most likely didn’t lose any sleep over it. So why lose sleep over another enemy vanquished? Anyways,” I said, looking him in the eye, “That’s one route we could take, once Kronos has possessed Luke. Also, you wouldn’t even need to kill Luke! You just need to reverse your powers. I saw your…accident with Leo. You wouldn’t kill Luke, you would just make him see his worst fears. With Luke blind, Kronos would be rendered useless. Kill two birds with one stone.”

Charlie seemed to be thinking over the idea, and after a while, he nodded in agreement.

“All right,” He said, and I said,

“Yes! Now all I have to do is find some people from the Heacate and Hypnos cabins—”

“No!” He said in a warning, “We have to convince Ethan first. If he doesn’t like it, the plan is screwed.”

“I know,” I said, not phased, “But I can convince him. I’m sure of it.”

Notes

So, a bit shorter chapter, but I hope you like it.

Enjoy,
Grafon