Resurrected

Seeing Percy getting wailed upon like that by Ethan, and with my memories, or at least some of them, having come back to me, I rushed to pull the kid away from my friend. Just because we had come back from Tartarus together doesn’t mean you can hurt my friends. I sprinted towards Ethan, but when I got about five feet from him, I slammed into something and sat down hard. I looked up, but Ethan hadn’t hit me. It was like an invisible wall had placed itself around his body to protect him from any other fighters. I realized that Ethan was soon going to kill Percy, but I couldn’t do anything. I realized this is how Percy must have felt on the Princess Andromeda, watching me die. Why had I done that again? Oh yeah, to blow up the boat. I had wanted to see…someone afterwards. I couldn’t remember who now. But that didn’t matter, because I needed to help Percy. I looked back at Tommy, who was still crying (He was kind of emotional, I have to say). After Ethan had gotten in another seven good kicks, Tommy looked like he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Stop, Ethan! Stop! Don’t kill him!” He wailed in pleading, his lower lip trembling.

Ethan looked up at him and saw something in his eyes that made him stop. Then, he collapsed, face first, into the dirt. A yellow light that I hadn’t noticed faded from around his body, maybe his forcefield. Chiron had a look of astonishment on his face as he knelt his horse legs down and traced his fingers through the remains of his arrow. Annabeth ran forward, crying, and started to raise her dagger to kill Ethan, a murderous look in her eyes. But Clarisse stopped her, a look of gentle protectiveness on her face, mixed with distaste. She didn’t want to stop her, but didn’t want anyone killed today.

Annabeth struggled against the big girl, but she couldn’t do much. Then, she looked at Percy and realized how injured he was. She desperately tried to drape his hand into the water in the well, but it didn’t heal him. Maybe Ethan had disabled Percy’s water powers permanently. Chiron rushed forward and with the help of the girls and got Percy on his back. They followed the centaur as he galloped towards the infirmary, where an Apollo camper was already waiting.

The group, upon another girl’s insistence, dispersed, and only a few stuck around to meet us, the returned souls. The group consisted of the other girl, who had a white feather braid in her hair, a wiry Hispanic kid with grease stains and a tool belt across his chest, Nico di Angelo, with his leather jacket and skull ring, Malcolm, who was there presumably for Annabeth, a big Asian kid, with a quiver across his shoulder, holding hands with a black girl who looked about fourteen, with golden eyes.

The first to speak was the wiry kid, who was staring at my shirt. I hadn’t realized I was wearing my old mechanic’s uniform, and the kid said,

“Charles? Wait, are you like the Charles? Like Charles Beckendorf?”

Looking around sarcastically, I said, “Unless you’ve come across another Charles Beckendorf, I think I would be the only one. Who would you be, my friend?”

“Whoa, no way! Oh gods, this is awkward. Well, my name’s Leo, I’m also a son of Hephaestus. I’m kind of head counselor now, and Jake Mason kind of gave me your bed…”

His voice trailed off, and I must have been giving him an evil look, because he looked scared.

“He did what?” I asked, indignantly confused.

“Yeah, I know. Like I said, awkward.”

Then, the big Asian kid asked, “Wait, you came back from the dead?”

“Yes,” I responded calmly. Personally, I was still trying to get to grips with that, so it hadn’t really hit me yet.

“I’m back. I died about…” My voice died off. How long had I been dead?

“Two years ago,” The white-feather-braid girl answered, “My name’s Piper by the way. But if you’re the real Beckendorf, then you’re…you’re…”

Her voice died down as we locked eyes. She had beautiful eyes. They were multicolored, and they seemed to sparkle with hints of every color in the rainbow. She had dark tan skin, smooth and attractive, and her hair was done up perfect. I admit it, I had a serious crush on her. We held our gaze for a little too long, and she dropped her gaze, blushing heavily.

“We’ll worry about what to call me and what I was later,” I said, smiling, “For now, I’d like to get to point where I describe myself as ‘I am’, not ‘I was’.”

Nico, who hadn’t said anything, spoke up then, “Wait, Ethan’s controller, and I know it was someone controlling him, said, ‘son of mine’ to Chiron. So Kronos is behind this, which definitely isn’t good. Charlie, we need to talk…later. For now, I think you guys should just take in the camp again. It’s been awhile.”

I realized I hadn’t even introduced Tommy or Silena, and I looked back towards them and beckoned them forward. They introduced themselves, and we all started to walk towards the Cabins. After a while, I found myself alone, walking towards the Hephaestus cabin. I needed to have a talk with Jake Mason, but I was stopped by a tap on my shoulder, followed by soft sobs. Silena was right behind me, trying to silence her tears, but she wasn’t doing a good job of it.

“Hey, Silena,” I said gently, “What’s wrong?”

She looked straight into my eyes, and I felt a tugging sensation in my gut, pulling something from behind my mind. But, she didn’t find what was she looking for, because she started to cry, weeping,

“Do you remember me? Who I was? Who I was to you?”

“No,” I said flatly. As far as I was concerned, I had never met Silena in my whole life. But I didn’t remember much, so I might have been wrong. She started crying again and ran off, but for some reason, I didn’t chase after her. I hadn’t said anything hurtful, had I? I didn’t remember anything.
I continued walking towards the Hephaestus cabin, where Jake was waiting for me.

“Hey, you’re back!” He shouted. He ran towards me, and memories started flooding back to me. I remembered training him as a blacksmith, teaching him the names of each tool. He opened his arms and I embraced him. We released and he continued,

“So, we have some things to clear up.”

“Yeah,” I said, “Like the twig kid sleeping in my bed. What’s up with that?”

“Well, no offense, but,” Jake said, like he was trying not to be insensitive, “Since we didn’t plan on you, uh, coming back, we gave Leo your bunk. He fixed the broken fridge and made it more compact, actually. But, it can be yours again, if you want it.”

“Nah, it’s okay. Why did you give him your post? Head counselor, I mean?”

“You won’t believe this,” He started, “But the kid fixed the bronze dragon. Then, he went on a quest with Piper—”

“Met her already,” I said.

“—and Jason, a Roman son of Jupiter. By the way, there’s a Roman Camp Half-Blood called Camp Jupiter.”

“What?” I asked, my head spinning.

“I know, right?” He agreed, “Confusing as heck. Anyways, the bronze dragon, whom Leo named Festus, died during the quest, and Dad kind of…repurposed him. Festus’ head was used as a masthead on the Argo II, a ship that sailed across the ocean on this huge quest to save the world from Gaea, and what not. Long story. But, Leo was the navigator on that ship, and they succeeded, so I didn’t feel I had to challenge him for head counselor or anything because he proved himself in battle.”

I was dizzy from confusion, I asked, “All done?”

“With the story? Yeah,” He said, just noticing my face turning green.

“I think I need a nap,” I said, “To clear my mind.”

“No problem,” Jake assured, “I’ll put you in Bunk 2C for now, it’s unoccupied.”

Walking into the Cabin, it hadn’t changed at all. I was starting to like this Leo kid. He hadn’t changed anything, had kept it old-school. Except for, you know, taking my bed. But that could be forgiven. I slumped onto 2C, and fell into blissful sleep. The last thing that crossed my mind was vision of Silena's face, younger, and happier, as if from a past time. I felt a warm sense of recognition, like this was something I remembered, or at least, was supposed to remember. But then, the darkness of sleep came over me, and the vision dissolved.

Notes

UGH, sorry I'm late on this one, but I will fill my weekend quota of three more chapters, and they should be good. Enjoy!