The Rebirth

"This is Benji."
“Oh,” Elena said softly. She seemed unable to come up with anything remotely intelligent.
She hated herself, for that moment.
He came in awkwardly, his hands jammed in his pockets, grinning wildly, his head a crazed mess of brown curls. His eyes were this golden green, and she remembered how much they reminded her of cat eyes the first time she saw him. His hair was a little longer, his skin a much deeper tan, his body much taller and lankier, but this was definitely the same boy she met when she was twelve years old.
“Elena,” he smiled sheepishly, shifting his weight from side to side, bouncing on his toes. “So. We meet again. Though for how long, I’m not so sure. Hey, Grey, I thought we were going to hold back on the names? She’s only going to be here for a couple more days, right?”
He'd turned towards Greywyn, but kept glancing back at Elena, like he wasn’t quite sure why or how she was there. Her head pounded.
“Oh, well. Phooey to that, a hundred times over. Guests should feel welcome! It’s been ages since we’ve had any new friends come. It really has,” Greywyn added that last part to Elena, excitedly. Her eyes flickered around, back and forth, from Elena to Benji, like she could feel the awkward uncertainty between them. “I might use this occasion to bake you something. I really like to bake. I don’t know why. It doesn’t pertain to my magic in any way. Unless I use nuts! That’s funny. I might make you chocolate chip cookies with nuts in them, tonight, unless you’re allergic.”
Maybe there was some joke that Elena was supposed to catch in that, but she didn’t get it. She grasped onto anything she could grab as casual conversational material. “No, not allergic to nuts. But… what should I call you? Really?”
“Hm. Most people call me Wyn.”
“Okay. Wyn. Nice to meet you, Wyn.”
“Nice to meet you, Elena. Maybe you can meet my penguin later, when I bring cookies. I’ll try to bring some other people, too.”
It was very easy to start talking to Wyn or feel comfortable talking to Wyn but very hard to keep conversation. Elena had no idea how to continue talking and responding to that. She could feel her face wear her confusion, and she tried to mask it, but apparently not enough. Benji was laughing.
Wyn whipped towards Benji, her braid flying through the air. “What? Stop giggling, it makes me giggle, and I don’t even know what’s going on! Tell me!”
She looked back towards Elena. “What’s funny?”
There was a pause.
“Is it my penguin? Now I have to bring Tiggerius up later. You’ll see. He’s very lovely. You’ll adore him in an instant. Maybe I should get him now…”
“No, Grey-“ Benji tried to say. Elena’s heart dropped. She knew why he wanted Grey in the room. So that they wouldn’t have to be alone. Together.
But she was already out the door.
A rush of tension flooded the air. Elena suddenly also had an urge to call Greywyn back to stay, also.
“I remember you,” Benji blurted out. “Elena. I remember your name. You told me, remember? After you yelled at me for not telling you what was happening?”
“I did not yell-“ she replied, automatically, a little numbly. She couldn’t believe this was happening. After all these years, this… was happening.
He remembered her name.
“You’re different,” he went on, his long, crooked fingers twitching at his sides. Other than that, his body was relaxed, leaning against the wall, happily reminiscing the past. “Than you were before.”
Her mind began to rev again. She gently said, “That sometimes happens when you grow up.”
“Oh, no, I know. But… I mean, you seem tired.”
It was not the greatest thing to have said to you. She must really look terrible. She looked down, in slight embarrassment, before hardening her eyes and looking up again, saying with raised eyebrows and a slight smile, “I was in battle two days ago with a Sphinx that blasted my shoulder. I pass out, take some magic drugs for my bones, and wake up two days later in a hospital with chaps I don’t know talking to me. Pardon me if I’m a bit tired.”
He was taken aback, giving her a long stare before laughing again. “Sorry. Sorry. I kind of say whatever comes to mind.”
“I can see that.” But Elena was fully smiling now, looking down at her sheets. They were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
“Nice sheets. I know. They’re great. They’re this guy’s, from a long time ago, when I first came here. You’re pretty lucky, actually- Twenty-First nome. It’s the greatest.” He was getting amped up, his eyes lighting as he started talking about his home.
He was going on about crocodiles of Macadamias (?) and the magical training and the breakfast made by baboons and the long-lasting tradition of penguins ever since this one boy came here, and Elena was listening and all, but she was mainly watching. Watching him. Watching him talk, studying his movements, sneaking peeks at his eyes. It made her sound stalkerish, but it was one of the things Elena couldn’t help- she needed to know things about other people. She needed to understand them. She naturally just wanted and needed to get a feel for what people were like, even if they were complete strangers.
Also, Benji’s eyes were very, very pretty.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts.
“So… you don’t like the idea of Iceberg Friday?”
“What? Oh. Sorry. I wasn’t disagreeing with anything. Iceberg Friday sounds… great.”
She grinned hesitantly, keeping her eyes at her sheets. The Teenage Mutant Ninjas reminded her of something, somewhat. Benji was talking, but she wasn’t really listening anymore. Her grin faded, and she realized that she used to have cartoon bedsheets once upon a time back home, in London.
“My parents.” What had Greywyn said? They tried to contact her family? “They must be going insane.”
“Yeah. We didn’t know how to call them. Your phone was dead, and nobody around had a charger for it. It’s a little-“
“Ancient. Yes, I heard. And I know. The more high-tech phones always seemed to-“
“Attract more monsters? They do. That’s why we have masks. As in, electronic masks. You can do that with magic, you know. We’ve recently been figuring that out.”
“Silly me. How could I forget to use my magic?” she gave him a look.
“Oh…”
“You probably should tell me what was going on. With the Sphinx. And all this. What do you guys do, as magicians, exactly?”
“That’s kind of a loaded question.”
“Guys,” Greywyn said, bursting into the room. Her face was still bright, bubbly, but her eyes were hard. It was a very odd mixture. Her auburn hair was half out of her braid.
“No penguin?” Benji joked, and Grey didn’t laugh, for once. She just gave everyone a bright look and stated, “Break in. Such fun. Let me get my toothbrush.”
With that cleared up, they followed each other out the door.
Giving Elena no choice but to wait until they left the room and secretly follow along.
***
Osiris. Egyptian God of Rebirth.
It was so simple.
It was right there. Right there in front of him this whole time. And it took him sixteen years to figure it out, even with the answer hinting at him the whole time.
He just needed information. A look up. The magical equivalent to a Google Search.
And Percy happened to know a guy.
“What type of guy, exactly?” Nico wanted to know. “A mermaid guy? A Cyclopes guy? What should I expect here?”
“Regular guy guy?” Percy shrugged. He wasn’t all for Nico trying to get Bianca back. After all, he’d been there when Bianca herself told Nico to let go of the past. He thought searching for her pretty much applied exactly how Nico SHOULDN’T act.
He and Annabeth were expecting a baby around now. He was pretty stressed, and nervous, and jittery, not really bothering to comb his hair anymore, sometimes forgetting to shave the stubble off his lower cheeks, and constantly reading up on all these parenting books. He really didn’t want to make the same mistakes the gods made, but considering that Percy wasn’t a god, Nico really couldn’t see how that could happen.
Anyways, it was giving him sort of an edge. Like now.
“A regular guy? You mean a mortal?”
“Not exactly…”
They were walking down to the sea on one of Nico’s least favorite days. A blinding blue one. Both the sky and the intensity of the white-crystal sea hurt his eyes. Maybe that was a bad sign.
“You’re feeling really straightforward today, huh?” he grumbled. Percy sighed.
“Sorry. I just don’t really know how to tell you this, about Bianca. But I don’t think this’ll work out.”
“You and about the rest of the world.”
“I’m not sure it should work out.”
“Again- you and the rest of the world. I’m good.”
“I just think it’s a bad idea.”
“Noted. Now who’s the guy?”
Percy let out a kind of half-mumble groan, but he seemed to take it. “Okay. Okay. He actually should be coming through the weird Egpytian portals around now. His name is Carter.”
The air around them seemed to shimmer, and an invisible door slid open into a space of nothingness.
“This would be him?”
“That would be him.”
But no “him” came out. Instead, a tall woman with spiky caramel hair just above her shoulders came forwards, decked in a navy jacket and jeans. Her eyes glared a very, very deep blue, like the color of the darkest part of the ocean on a cloudier day. She raised her eyebrows.
“Sorry to disappoint,” her voice had a tinge of a British accent, just the slightest. “But I assure you- there’s nothing to be disappointed about. Who needs a Carter when you could have a Sadie?”
Percy laughed. “You’ve grown up.”
She shrugged. “The others will be coming up later. But now that I’m here…” This ‘Sadie’ found Nico’s dark gaze and held it. She began to grin. “Is this the one who’d like to meet my dad?”
***

Notes