Renegade

Griff's POV

After breakfast, I needed to get this whole ordeal out of my head. So, when Xavier, who I had been needing to talk to, asked me to take a walk with him and talk, I gladly accepted.

“What’s up, Uncle?” I asked pointedly as we walked towards the edge of the Forest.

“About that,” Xavier said, “look, I’m really sorry that I hid everything from you for so long. I just wanted you to get into the Organization without any trouble. When I gave you your dispatch, my superior told me to keep my identity hidden so that you and Emily could get to know each other as people, and not by who your parents were.”

That caught me off guard. “You…you did that for us?” I asked tentatively.

“Yes, and we did it so that you guys wouldn’t catch onto the fact that we were sending you on a fake quest. But you did do well, I must say.”

“I have to say,” I admitted, “after all that travel, I have to know. What was in that bag Nico gave us?”

“Just some extra paperwork from the TFG offices on Olympus. There wasn’t even anything confidential, much less classified or top secret in the package.”

I sighed, and Xavier chuckled softly as we reached the Forest. He gestured for me to lead, and we started walking through the trees. The wind was soft off the Long Island Sound, and it was really peaceful. My anger towards Xavier started to fade as I realized that I really wanted to accept his apology.

“Anything else we need to get off our chests?” He asked, and I replied,

“I’m just disappointed in myself, Xavier,” I said, my voice shaking, “I could’ve saved that little kid. That’s been bugging me ever since we got off that boat in Rome.”

“Ah, that ever pesky manticore. Your dad—”

“I know,” I interrupted, “Dad fought him and went on an adventure. He did that with most of the monsters in Greek mythology, Xavier.”

“Bitterness towards Percy Jackson is something we both have felt, kid,” he said, a surprising amount of anger in his voice.

We were deep into the Forest by now, the trees surrounding us on all sides. Subconsciously, I was following the Creek to Zeus’ Fist, a central landmark in the Forest. Xavier dipped his hand into the crystal clear water as I asked,

“Uncle, what do you mean by that?”

“Ah, when I first met Percy Jackson, I was a little kid,” he responded, settling into his orator’s voice. I had heard this story a million times.

“Yeah, I know,” I said, “You were working for Kronos.”

“But I never told you how he changed my mind. He and a friend of his, Charles Beckendorf, had infiltrated the ship. I couldn’t have been more than twelve years old. He was trying to create a diversion to one side of the ship, and it was working. I heard the alarm sound, and I grabbed my sword. It was huge, and I was much clumsier back then.”

He mimicked himself as an off-balance pre-adolescent, trying desperately to keep a sword point up.

“I met him on a staircase. He disarmed me within a millisecond. You should’ve seen him, Griff. He was truly an amazing swordsman back then.”

He said ‘amazing’ with a surprising amount of bitterness and anger.

“Basically, your dad beat me up, told me that I was brainwashed. In a way, eh brainwashed me out of Kronos’ brainwashing. He snapped me out of working for one guy, and got me working for another. No real change occurred.”

“What do you mean?” I asked him incredulously, “You changed from a supporter of the Titans, of evil, to a supporter and protector of the Olympians. That’s the switch from good to bad.”

“I was viewed as a traitor!” Xavier snapped, and I shut up. Xavier almost never raised his voice. I was shocked at his tone and emotion.

“Sorry, nephew,” he amended, “but that’s the truth. Kronos saw in my eyes that I had betrayed him. He sent me the most awful dreams. Nightmares so dark, they made me dothings to myself.”

Slowly, subconsciously, he raised his left sleeve and showed me the shape of a scythe, Kronos' symbol, cut deep into the flesh of his wrist. Gingerly, my Uncle rubbed the wound, a tear dropping from one of his eyes.

“Griff, I was in a bad place,” He continued, “I was about to kill myself just to get rid of the nightmares when Percy succeeded in convincing Luke to sacrifice himself to save the Gods.”

I felt so bad for Xavier. He had never told me the full story, and now I felt like I was forcing the guy to tears. I wanted to give my Uncle a hug.

“For a while, I wanted to have no connection to wither side of the war,” He said, “I wanted to disappear. But after laying low for two years, after Percy’s quest to stop Gaea, I told myself to approach him once more. I found him at your parents’ wedding, actually. Percy looked so shocked to see me that he almost dropped his champagne.”

We both chuckled softly, and Xavier smiled, bringing me in close. He hugged me with one arm, softly ruffling my hair. It felt good to finally be able to relate, to sympathize with my Uncle.

“And the rest,” he said, releasing me and looking into my eyes, “as they say, is history. I started working for TFG a year after your parents got married, and Percy adopted me as his honorary brother after I got promoted to the officer’s rank I am now. A year after that, you were born. I thought that your parents were a bit young, at 19, but I couldn’t talk. I was 15. Now I’m 30, and you’re my age.”

We reached Zeus’ Fist, and sat down on some of the lower rocks that made up the landmark.

“Gods of Olympus, Uncle,” I marveled, “how did you ever come to like this place. I mean, you must have hated Percy for causing you that pain, right?”

I was trying to find the source of his anger, the reason he had told me his real story, the one thing that kept him ticking. I was scared to actually find out what that source was, but at the same time, I had to find it.

“It took time. I still don’t really call this Camp home, or even the good guys. I was so bitter, Griff, that I never really recovered. In a way, I still hate this place very deeply.”

“Really?” I asked, but Xavier didn’t respond. He just subconsciously nodded his head, a sort of nod that he didn’t seem to want to admit.

I realized that I was starting to feel worried about Xavier’s anger, when a voice, Emily’s voice, called out through the trees.

“Griff, you out here?” She was far enough away that she couldn’t hear Xavier and I if we talked at a normal volume.

“She’s a good fighter,” Xavier remarked, “you chose well.”

“What do you mean?” I scoffed, “you’re the one who whose her as my partner. Youchose well.”

“Why, thank you,” he chuckled. In that moment, I realized that he knew I would have a crush on Emily when I met her, and he knew she would do the same for me.

“Did you—” I stuttered, “On purpose?”

He winked and said, “I knew you two would be perfect together.”

Then, he got up and put his hoodie on, melting into the shadows and walking back towards the Cabins.

“Griff?” Emily called again, her voice to my left.

“Here!” I called back. Then, I saw her. She had changed, showered and was now wearing a pair of cut-off jeans and a Camp t-shirt. She looked like a million golden drachmas, and I must have been staring, because she smirked,

“You’re lucky to have me, you know.”

“I know,” I said, wrapping my arms around her waist, “but do I have you yet? Are we actually official?”

“That’s what I came out here to ask you, actually,” she responded, “We are alone, after all. No chance of our parents finding us out here.”

“Good point,” I said, looking around, “so, what did you want to ask me?”

“Well,” she said, “I wanted to ask you out on a date.”

I smiled, leaning down and kissing her softly.

“Of course, I accept your offer, Emily Grace.”

“Well then, Griffin Jackson,” she said, “where would you like this date to be?”

“Beach,” I responded, “tomorrow night at seven.”

“No dinner date?” She asked, a bit surprised, “then again, it always is a romantic beach date with you sea-god types.”

“Has a beach date ever not been romantic?” I asked.

“Good point,” she said, and I laughed, kissing her again.

We walked back to the Cabins, making sure to not hold hands, and I thought about Xavier. He had seemed so angry at the gods, at Camp, at Percy, that it had unnerved me. I was worried about the guy. But that would have to be a matter for a later day. I had a date to plan.

Notes

And Griff and Emily are now official. Also, this chapter got kind of emotional, didn't it? Anyways, this chapter is SO important to Xavier's character development, which needed to happen.

Enjoy,
Grafon