Resurrected

Ethan's POV

When Tommy Doyle and Charles Beckendorf walk together, without any quarrel or indication of anger towards each other, one of two things has happened. One, they have just reconciled all differences between them, or two, they have a plan. Standing outside Cabin 16, I knew that they had a plan for me. A plan I was inevitably not going to like.

“What’s up?” I asked, the gloom already apparent in my voice.

“Are you kidding me?” Tommy said with a smile, “it’s like you think we have a plan for you or something.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking,” I said, and both of them laughed.

“It’s not that bad,” Charlie said, “It might not even work. But we need your permission first.”

“Permission to do what?” I asked, and they looked at each other. Then, Tommy started to explain. When he was done, I said,

“No.”

“Seriously?” Tommy asked, trying to not let the anger creep into his voice.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked, the anger rising quickly, “you want me to go back to the place where Kronos has dominion over me, and try to get him angry? On purpose? Do you guys know how crazy you sound?”

“Pretty much,” Charlie said, “Look, we know it’s risky, but it’s the only way to get Kronos to possess Luke again, which will let me reverse my powers on Luke. Then Kronos will be weak and—”

“Oh, I see!” I said in mock amazement, the anger rising even more, “You’re just thinking of yourselves, aren’t you? Just throw the son of the minor goddess under the bus again, eh?”

“Hey!” Tommy said, offended, but I didn’t care. Part of my mind was scrambling, trying to think of Alex, of her peaceful face, trying to get me to calm down. But after I had freaked out and lost control, almost killing her, thinking of her wasn’t really working.

“Oh, shut up, Tommy!” I roared, “At least you got a peaceful death!”

I regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth. Tommy’s lower law just sat, wide open as he stared at me in a mixture of disbelief, anger, and sadness.

“Both of you, knock it off!” shouted Charlie. We both flinched at his loudness. He almost never raised his voice.

Tommy looked away from me, and I realized that I had actually hurt him, something I had never, ever wanted to do. Once we were both quiet, and the anger had receded in my breathing, Charlie stood saying,

“I’m sorry, Ethan. We never should have approached you with this plan. Tommy, you can stay if you two want to work out your differences, but I’m going to go talk with Silena. If I’m going to die, I want to have no regrets.”

We both looked at him when he said that, and we were doubly shocked. First, we both noticed that Charlie had silent tears in his eyes, sparkling against his cocoa skin. Second, we were shocked by what he had said. He was preparing to die.

But for some reason, my voice abandoned me. I was supposed to man up, set my jaw, and accept their ludicrous plan. I was supposed to grin and bear it, to be the hero of the day. But my voice abandoned me. Maybe my voice realized it didn’t want to die. Tommy got up, but before he left, he looked at me one more time, and that look destroyed me. His look said,

I trusted you. You weren’t supposed to hurt me. You were supposed to be my big brother. You were supposed to get me through this.

I felt my throat choking up as I looked into his blue eyes, the eyes that I had once wondered, and did again now, if I was attracted to them. I felt pulled towards the fractured look in his eyes, feeling an irrational need to comfort Tommy. I realized that I cared for him far more than I realized.

But then, Tommy left. I was suddenly alone at the picnic table, sitting without anyone to talk to in the middle of the Dining Pavilion. I cursed under my breath as I realized just how badly I had messed things up. I thought it couldn’t get worse. Boy, was I wrong.

“Ethan Nakamura, you disappoint me!” Said a strikingly familiar female voice.

“Alex?” I called, not sure where she was.

“Seriously?” She asked, walking out from behind me. I turned, and saw her face contorted in a frown like I had let her down, “I thought that you had more courage than that?”

“Courage?” I asked, “You call that courage? I call that blind, complete, and utter trust, despite the fact that it’ll most likely get me killed!”

“Exactly!” Alex said, looking deep into my eyes, “That’s as near as perfect for the definition of the word courage for us demigods.”

“You’re impossible!” I growled, but she didn’t seem fazed.

“You’re unsure,” she noticed, “I saw how you looked at Tommy. Tell me, Ethan, did you ever feel attracted to him?”

The question caught me by surprise as it was so out in the open. I had been wondering about it for so long, now I realized that I didn’t have an answer to it.

“I—” I tried, but nothing else came out. Alex was still looking at me with those piercing green eyes. I realized now why most people felt intimidated by her.

“Look, Ethan, if we are going to be anything, I need you to have courage. I need you to have blind trust in me. I’m not trying to be selfish when I say that. I’m just saying that without a little faith, relationships can never work. So, do you have faith in me?”

More than you could ever imagine, I wanted to say with all my heart. But I couldn’t. My voice abandoned me.

But I said nothing. And in saying nothing, I seemed to confirm some of Alex’s worst fears. Suddenly, her piercing stare turned into horror and disbelief. I knew what to say, Hades, I even knew hot to say it. But my voice abandoned me.

“Ethan—” She started, but her voice choked up. That was the last straw. I pushed, straining to win the fight in my rain. I realized the Kronos was suppressing my urge to say anything. Then, Alex got up, leaving me alone at the picnic table again. I could hear her sobbing as she stormed towards Cabin 18.

That was the last straw. I swallowed hard and stood up, feeling like I was pushing against someone who was forcing my shoulders down.

Kronos, I thought. I realized that he was pushing me down, and that gave me confidence. He was afraid that this plan would work. I walked towards Charlie, who was leaving the Aphrodite cabin after not finding Silena.

“Charlie,” I forced out, fighting for control of my vocal chords, “I accept your plan. Let’s do this.”

“Uh, okay,” He said, “But Tommy’s not going to want to—”

“It’ll be fine,” I said, “Can you do it without him?”

“Yeah, but—”

“Look,” I said, rushing my words, “I’ll talk to him later, okay? He’ll be fine. He's my friend. Everything will go fine, right? I mean, what could go wrong?”

“Ethan,” Charlie said, looking into my eyes and grabbing my shoulders, “deep breaths. I need to find someone from Hecate, and someone from Hypnos. I’ll get Clovis from Hypnos. Can you find Lou Ellen from Hecate? Cabin 20?”

“Yeah,” I said, taking a deep breath, “let’s do this.”

I have nothing else to lose, I thought, I mean, I've lost my best friend and girlfriend, what else could go wrong?

Notes

This is a kind of part 2 to "I Have a Tricky Idea." Hope you like.

Enjoy,
Grafon