War Mantle (Dancing with Death part 3)

Distractions

Her lungs burned as the dark water surrounded her. She could barely see her hand in front of her face as she wandered blindly through the inky cloud. Instinctively, she knew it was poison. She was swimming through a massive cloud of poison. She walked across the sandy ground, her legs moving heavily, like her shoes were full of lead.

She almost tripped over something. She steadied herself and looked down to find Percy curled in a ball, his chest convulsing as he struggled to breathe.

"No!" Her voice was muffled in the water. Bubbles geysered from her mouth and the poison rushed in.

Immediately, pain ripped through her body and she couldn't breathe. She tried to hack up the water, but more poured in with every cough. She dropped to her knees, her chest tight with pain.

She struggled forward, trying to reach Percy. If she could just get to him... what? What would she do? Die with him? She could barely move. Her whole body was going numb. Each breath was torture, pushing her closer to death.

She'd imagined herself dying in so many ways. She'd never thought she'd drown in poisoned water.

Percy lay there helplessly. His body jerked around as if he were drowning.

She felt tears spring to her eyes. Tears that mixed with the venomous water, burning her skin as they drifted away, joining the thick dark lake. She'd only ever seen him like that once - when he'd lost his power and almost drowned. She wanted to call out to him, let him know he wasn't alone, but the acidic water tore at her throat, making any noise impossible.

Suddenly, the current changed, pulling at her. She tried to fight it, but it was too strong. The water plucked her from the ocean floor and dragged her away from Percy. She tried to swim to scream, anything to escape the power of the water, but she was helpless. Percy faded out of sight until her surroundings became completely black.

Ali jolted awake, throwing her blankets off her body and almost falling out of bed. She could breathe again, but she still felt the poison burning in her throat.

"Ali!" Meg, who was sitting by the window talking to a squirrel, rushed over. "What happened?"

It took Ali a moment to realize she could speak again. Even then, she could only manage one word. "Percy."

Meg sat on the bed beside her. She didn't say anything. She just wrapped her arms around her sister and hugged her tightly, as if she were trying to hold Ali together.
                                     *   *   *
"You seem distracted." Tyler's voice drew Ali out of her thoughts.

She locked eyes with him. "You don't know anything about me."

"That's not entirely true." He crossed his arms. "Based on what I've overheard, your name is Ali, you basically run the camp right now, and you have 'scary good' aim."

She raised an eyebrow. "'Scary good'?"

Tyler shrugged. "Their words, not mine."

Ali gave him a knowing look. "Well, it looks like someone hasn't just been sitting around."

"I'm a Roman." He reminded her. "'Sitting around' isn't exactly what we do."

"Oh, that's right." She replied. "I forgot. You're always looking for a fight."

"That's not true." Tyler defended his legion.

"Then why are you here?" She challenged. "No one at this camp did anything to you. The Greek responsible for firing on your city is thousands of miles away in the Ancient Lands and I don't believe he did it of his own free will. They went to Camp Jupiter in peace. They never intended to start a war. Whatever happened with Leo on that trireme was not his fault. You can't take out your anger for one demigod on all of us." She felt tears stinging her eyes, but she blinked them back.

Tyler just stood there, speechless. He opened his mouth to say something once, twice, three times before he gave up and hung his head. "I'm sorry. I never wanted a war either." He met her gaze. "I went along with Octavian because,with all our praetors gone, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know who was in charge so I let Octavian choose my path for me." He drew a deep breath. "When Percy showed up at camp, I realized that Greek demigods were still around... and they weren't all that bad. Then, you showed up and... I thought maybe there was a chance to mend this... centuries old rivalry."

Ali chuckled. "More like millennia."

Tyler gave her a slightly annoyed look. "I'm trying to apologize here."

Ali couldn't help but smile. "Apology accepted."

"Just like that?" Tyler met her gaze in disbelief.

Her grin widened. "Yep." Her smile fell. "Almost two years ago I made a huge mistake. I joined the wrong side of a fight for the... stupidest reason. It didn't take me long to realize I'd screwed up.
"When it came down to it, I tried to make things right - to protect the people I'd betrayed, to try and help them. I didn't think they would ever forgive me, no matter how many times I apologized... but they did. They gave me a second chance when I didn't deserve one. The least I can do is the same for you." She locked eye with each of the guards, stepped forward and opened the gate. "So, Tyler, you wanna see my world?"

A/N
I apologize for the chapter title. I literally couldn't think of anything good. 🙄
Anyway, hope you enjoyed.
-Cheshire