Allies and Enemies

Chapter Four: Camps and Mount Olympus

I hopped through the entrance of Camp Jupiter and came up on the river. It was bone dry. What the... I thought, running a hand over the bank. Not a single drop of water. The bank wasn't even scorched.

"Not Everblaze," I said to myself. "Magic." Great. Now the Wizarding World was involved, though I had absolutely no idea how. I walked across the bank and came up on Camp Jupiter. I gasped with horror. Bodies littered the streets. Imperial gold weapons were everywhere. I ran down and took a closer look, and realized the swords and knives were cut cleanly in half. What... how? Imperial gold was pretty darn hard to cut in half, and I knew that by experience. I ran a finger over the cut-off edge. Taking a look at a slain demigod next to me, I knew exactly who had massacred them. Sith. So many worlds were involved, and I had absolutely no freaking idea how. I ran around the camp, checking homes and temples, hoping there were a couple of people who survived. Wait a minute... I whirled around and narrowly avoided getting my head chopped off. I recognized the girl who attacked me.

"Reyna," I said in relief. "Thank the gods you're alive." Reyna pressed her attack.

"Reyna, stop it!" I yelled. "Expelliarmus!" I shouted, wanting to preserve her sword, considering the fact that so many were unusable now.

"Why weren't you here?" she snarled. "WHY? Why could you not stop the massacre of us? You could have stopped it!"

"Reyna, I had absolutely no idea this would happen!" I ducked and blocked her punches. She slammed me down against the sidewalk. I groaned slightly, then launched myself off and pinned her down.

"This is work of people like you!" she yelled. "So many people dying."

"Reyna, they were Sith. Enemies of my friends. I still have no idea how they came here," I said, releasing her. "Nobody can travel between worlds. Nobody."

"Are you sure about that?" Reyna asked.

"Yes."

"Then why were these Sith holding blue and green lightsabers?" Those words were like a punch to my gut. I stumbled back and sat down in shock.

"What?" I asked, my voice so quiet it sounded like an echo.

"Blue and green lasers killed us," Reyna said. "Sounds like these friends of yours aren't really friends, are they?"

"They would never. I know them. You're wrong," I said, trying to defend them, even though I didn't really know anymore who I was defending.

"Do you?" she asked.

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After Rowan teleported Reyna to the portal room, much to her reluctance, I gave the demigods there a ceremonial burning. They deserved much more than to be left in the streets. I had watched it from afar, and after I made sure it would go out eventually, I went to Camp Half-Blood. I ran up the hill. Peleus was dead, and he was a darn dragon. I checked his body for marks. There were none. Either someone had Force-choked him or... I knew it. His windpipe wasn't crushed. It was the work of the Killing Curse. More magic. The Golden Fleece was still there, so obviously the wizards who had come here had been stupid enough not to take it. I snapped my fingers, and the Fleece disappeared into the void. I ran down the hill, and to my dismay, it was the same situation as Camp Jupiter. I checked each body, and they were all killed by the Killing Curse. Death Eaters. I thought. I reached the cabin of Athena and gasped. Annabeth was there, gone. I could tell she had gone down fighting, because the body of a Death Eater was right next to her. I ran around to the Hades cabin. It was empty. Interesting. I thought. Something shuffled. I whirled around.

"Who's there?" I shouted. I tiptoed around to the Poseidon cabin, and there was someone in the bed, under the covers. The sheets ruffled. I creeped up to the bed, pulled out my wand silently, and quickly threw back the sheets. I fell back with shock. Percy had been mutilated, killed after he was Stunned. I had seen his wounds, huge gashes in his face, arms, and legs. I had seen the words written with his blood on his chest. Prepare for war, Skywalker.

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I gave them a burning too, though I burned any bodies of Death Eaters in a separate pile. No way the demigods' ashes would be mixed with Death Eaters. Afterward, I took a cab to the Empire State Building. I could have easily jumped off of the climbing wall to teleport, but I wanted to see if Mist was still working. Thank goodness the cab driver was willing to talk. Apparently, Mist was still over their eyes.

"Yeah, weird incident at that strawberry farm," he remarked. "Some malfunction with a machine, killed a bunch of people. You have family?"

"Of a sort," I replied quietly. He apologized, and I rode the rest of the way in silence. I thought about what I had seen, Percy's mutilated body. I was almost afraid to go to the Lost Cities. The taxi driver dropped me off at the Empire State Building, and I thanked and paid him. As I walked in, people didn't so much as glance at me. Mist clouded my appearance as well, I suppose. I headed straight for the elevator heading to Mount Olympus. No guards were there. Curious. I looked around, then used the Force to jump over the metal detector. I didn't want to go through the annoying process of removing my lightsabers, belt, comm, wrist datapad, or my various power cells hidden all over my outfit. As I entered the elevator and pressed Floor 600, the classic elevator music started playing. I sighed. It was a decent break, and for a second, I could forget everything I had seen. As soon as I exited the elevator, that break was over. I ran into the gods' meeting room and they were there, watching me run in. I knelt in the center of the room, something I had always hated, but was forced to do.

"Really? Nothing to say?" I asked, incredulous. I walked up to Hades. "Please, Father, do something!" Nothing. In fact, he was still staring at the center of the room. I hesitated, then waved my hand energetically in front of his face. Still nothing. I tried to slap his knee... but my hand went right through. What? I went back to the center of the room and felt around. I pried up a loose floorboard and found a hologram emitter in it. I picked it up and smashed it with my foot. The gods disappeared. I knew they weren't dead. Gods were immortal. Which means... they were captured.

"Who could have done this?" I whispered to myself. I didn't know... but I was sure of something: the Lost Cities were most certainly, or already, in danger. 

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*evil laugh for cliffhanger* Don't worry, there'll be another chapter out soon!

-KS