Resurrected

Tommy's POV

Charlie arrived just in time. Ethan was kind of starting to freak out, and it seemed like the closer I got to him, the more I tried to talk to him, the more he freaked out.

“I thought you said he was ready!” Beckendorf exclaimed upon seeing Ethan in his current state.

“Well…” Lou Ellen said sheepishly, “To be fair, he was calm when I left the Infirmary to call you.”

“That was fifteen seconds ago,” Charlie said, and Lou Ellen blushed a little, suddenly becoming very interested in the floorboards.

“Look,” I said, “he’s freaking out, and we need him to be calm, or else the coma won’t work like it did last time. Ethan,” I said, rubbing his back, “are you ready?”

He took a couple deep breaths, and then looked up at me. His eyes had the saddest look in them, a sadness that I could never understand. He looked like he wanted to tell me something, but couldn’t.

“Are you ready?” I repeated, and he stood up, breathing in deeply.

“I—I guess,” He replied, and I started to lead him to the sword arena. We had all agreed that that would be the best place to hold Kronos in while Charlie was fighting him.

Luke’s unconscious body was placed in a corner, and Charlie started to get ready, putting on his armor and making sure Fulcrum, his war hammer, was working perfectly. Luke was still unconscious after Annabeth had knocked him out a few days ago, and she was getting worried about him. That pissed me off, but it didn’t matter. We were going to wake him up, whether he liked it or not.

I had the worst job. I was given a microphone that Ethan slipped into his ear, and I was told to wait outside the sword arena while he went back into the dream-room to get Kronos angry enough to go into the Upper World and re-animate Luke. All I had to watch the action was a tangerine-sized porthole through the glass door. The rest of the door had been barricaded.

It won’t stop much, I thought pessimistically, If the Lord of Time's in there.

As Ethan and I walked to the sword arena, he started talking. I didn’t really know who he was talking to, but he just started moving his mouth.

“I am ready to die. Mom, I hope that I have served you well. I gave you my all; I listened to everything you said. Alex, I’m sorry for anything wrong I did to you. I know that I never was the best person, but I at least tried. Tommy—”

He stopped talking, and I stopped moving.

“Yeah, Ethan?” I asked, looking into his eyes. His eye patch was frayed and worn, and almost breaking apart. He no longer looked like the Asian pirate I had met on the Princess Andromeda. He looked like someone who had seen too much through only one eye.

He looked at me and said, “Tommy, I have to get this off my chest.”

I was confused, because he had never kept any secrets from me. We were like brothers.

“What’s wrong, Ethan?” I asked. He took a deep breath and said,

“Tommy, for the longest time, I had a crush on you. I felt extremely awkward about it, and I didn’t know what to say. When you died, I felt horrible that I had never told you anything. Now, I’m about to die, and I felt like I should tell you.”

I didn’t know what to say. I was completely shocked by this news, but I wasn’t appalled or offended. I was just amazed that he had never told me.

“Ethan—” I started, but didn’t know what to say. I took a deep breath, and continued, “Ethan, there are so many things going through my head right now. One, why didn’t you tell me this earlier? Two, who knows if you’re going to die, and three—”

Then, he kissed me. His lips were a bit salty, soft, and amazing. At first, I felt weird, like I was going to throw up, but then my stomach settled. When he pulled away, he said,

“For good luck, eh?”

“Yeah,” I said, my voice way higher than it usually was.

Then, he ran into the sword arena. Once he got settled onto a cot on the other side of the room from Luke, Chiron stuck a needle gently into his arm. He instantly fell asleep. Then, the centaur walked back to me, trying to get me to leave the arena. But I pushed past Chiron and quickly kissed Ethan on the lips. It was more like a blessing, but it still got my heart fluttering.

Chiron chuckled as I pushed past him and took my position at the door porthole, my face completely red. I asked him,

“What’s so funny?”

“You think that being in love is something to be embarrassed of. That’s what’s funny, my child.”

“I’m not in love—”

“Pardon my insistence,” Chiron said with a smile, “Tommy, but I don’t need to be from Cabin 10 to see that. You two are practically star-crossed.”

“Ethan,” I said into the microphone, staring through the porthole at his motionless body and ignoring Chiron, “can you hear me, man?”

“Yeah,” he said, his voice shaky, “you didn’t have to kiss me back, you know.”

“Shut up,” I said, blushing even harder, “and focus on the job. Are you in the room?”

“Yeah,” He said, “It’s really bad, Tommy. If only you could be here. There are sinkholes in the floor and half of the wall that’s attached to the Death door is completely gone. The mirror looks like it got shot by a firing squad, and the table is in multiple pieces. Man, it looks like there was a firefight in here!”

“Good,” I said after he kept describing things, keeping me in the loop, “Where are you?”

“I’m in the Northeast corner, close to the Life door. Kronos isn’t here—”

He stopped talking, and I looked at his body. All his muscles were tensed, and his face was screwed into looking like he was trying to listen to something.

“What?” I asked, “Ethan, talk to me!”

“He’s here,” he whispered.

I made a circling motion with my finger, and Chiron nodded, getting the message.

Get ready, because the storm’s coming.

“All right, get to work then,” I said, silently offering a prayer to my mother, the goddess of victory.

“Kronos!” Ethan said, “how…annoying to see you! How’s your plan going? I mean, you can’t stop us!”

“Shut up, fool. You think that it’s this easy for me to risk my only human host? Please. But, since you humans are so…insistent, I’ll play along. I’ll show you how stupid you truly are.”

Then, all Hades broke loose.

“AAAAARGH!” Ethan shouted in pain, and I could see his mouth open all the way in a silent scream, his face contorted in pain.

Charlie was suddenly flung backwards, hit by something that wasn’t Luke. He swung the hammer, but hit nothing. I started to open the door, but Chiron grabbed my shoulder.

“No! You’ll be killed and let Kronos escape!”

But I wasn’t listening to the centaur. I flung open the door and slammed it behind me. Chiron braced his weight against the barricades, and for a second, we locked eyes through the porthole.

“I’m sorry,” I mouthed, and he nodded sadly. Then, I got to work. I realized what had to happen, seeing as Kronos couldn’t bee seen or hit.

“Charlie, don’t attack Kronos, attack Luke!” I shouted as I ran towards Ethan, trying to protect him.

“What?” He asked, shocked.

“Hit Luke!” I shouted, reaching Ethan’s cot. He was still contorted in pain, his eyes still shut closed.

Charlie raised the hammer, but when he tried to bring it down on Luke’s head, the hammer stopped, like it had hit solid rock. I rushed over and tried to punch Luke, but nothing happened.

“Get back!” Charlie shouted, “This is my fight!”

Then, he got angry.

“AARGH!” He shouted, trying again to bring down the hammer on Luke. Again, it was stopped. But this time, a black and gold shape, almost humanoid, like a ghost, appeared in front of Luke’s body. It was like a cloud of half-golden gnats.

“Now!” I screamed, and thanks the Gods Charlie knew what I meant. He shouted,

“You want to see angry, Kronos? Well, here’s angry!”

Then, he dropped the hammer and reached both of his hands into the center of the apparition. They went straight through and stuck, like he was reaching his hands into pancake batter.
Kronos screamed in pain, and the cloud seemed to sink to its knees. A jolt went through Charlie’ body like he had been hit by a tazer. Then, he flew back two or three feet, landing awkwardly. I shouted in glee as he looked at me and smiled,

“He’s gone! I can feel it.”

But then, the cloud got back onto its feet. It knocked Charlie back into the wall, and then advanced on me. I was already free from Kronos. I couldn’t hurt him. But that didn’t matter. I had to protect Ethan. I drew my sword and charged the cloud, but when I slashed, it just flicked its wrist. I fell back, punched in the gut by an unknown fist.

The cloud advanced on Ethan, who was now looking calm, his mouth closed and his eyes peacefully shut. The cloud didn’t punch him, stab him, or shoot him. It just reached out a single finger, and touched Ethan’s Black Spot.

As soon as the cloud made contact with him, Ethan’s eyes opened, and he shouted in pain, more pain than I had ever seen him in. To my shock, Luke did the same, his eyes completely golden. Ethan’s eyes were flushed black, like his retinas had been filled with squid ink. The cloud didn’t pay me any attention, just watching Ethan. I rushed over to Ethan, and I saw that his veins and arteries were also completely black. It was a scene from a horror movie.

When he finally did open his mouth, his voice was fighting for control with something inside him. But when he spoke, I didn’t hear any trace of Kronos’ voice.

“Tommy,” He croaked out, clutching at the bedsheets like he was being ripped apart, “Run.”

As soon as Ethan finished speaking, the cloud condensed into a vapor trail darker than Nyx, and flew into Luke’s still open mouth. Ethan looked over, and when he saw that, he croaked again,

“Run!”

Notes

So, Charlie Beckendorf becomes the third person to redeem himself. All that's left is Ethan. However, he has just been turned into something, and Luke's awake with that something inside of him. Styx. Also, I'm sorry if I described the 'cloud' thing like a demon from Supernatural; I marathoned season 2 today. Also, did Ethan and Tommy kiss!? TWICE!?

Enjoy,
Grafon