Celestial Flames (Percy Jackson Universe)

The After Effects

The night before the end of winter break, Chiron made an announcement at the campfire. "Heroes," He called. "A great night once more. Before you all depart for the rest of your school year, we have news to share."

Jason stood up. He faced the crowd away from the campfire, dipping the one side of his face in shadows. "As you all know, me, Piper and Leo returned from a quest to free the queen of the gods only a week ago. But on that quest we learned something much bigger is happening as well. The giants from the old myths are rising with the intent to destroy the gods."

There was stunned silence as everyone tried to process that. Giants. Why did they sound worse than Titans? The word meant huge, big. How big were these monsters?

"That's not all," Jason continued. "We also learned that other demigods exist, and another Camp for them exist."

"What kind of demigods?" Malcolm called.

"Roman," the blond confirmed. His voice was low, but clear over the ampitheatre. "Roman demigods." He pulled up his sleeve to reveal his tattoo. "Like me. My name is Jason Grace, I'm the son of Jupiter, Roman god of the sky."

There was silence for a moment once more. Then there was noise. I heard questions, how did we not know about them? Was this real? He's a spy! Throw him out.

"Everyone calm down!" Piper yelled. A hush fell over the crowd. "We know this is a shock to you all. The gods kept the two groups apart because everytime they met, they fought. So they used Mist, wove it tightly that you forgot about meeting them if you ran into each other. They believed they were saving their children."

"Why are we just learning about this now?" Holly Victor yelled.

"Because the Roman and Greeks now have to work together," Jason answered. "It's not just the giants that are rising. It's their mother too. Gaea, the Earth goddess."

"Thought that was Demeter," Travis muttered.

"Gaea a primordial goddess," Piper began. "She's so old and so powerful, that usually she's asleep. But she's stirring and causing all kinds of trouble. She has chained the Doors of Death, allowing monsters to reform quicker than possible and the dead to walk the Earth once more. She wants to wipe out all the demigods, a.k.a. us and the Romans. Given the wording of the Great Prophecy, we believe that Romans and Greeks must work together to find the Doors of Death, release them, and stop Gaea."

"So what is the plan?" Yara asked. Her voice was accented with a harshness from her Russian background. "What do we do right now?"

"The giant king, Porphyrion, is planning to destroy the gods in Greece," Jason informed. "So we need to get there." 

Leo stood up in the middle of his cabin. "Me and my siblings are already working on a ship that'll take us overseas," he spoke up. Everyone turned to the new Cabin Nine counselor as he spoke. "It'll take a lot of work and a lot of help. But it's gonna be awesome. We're calling it the Argo II."

"Like the Argo in the myths," I recalled. "The one the original Jason sailed on to find the Golden Fleece."

"Exactly," Leo said. "We'll sail to Greece and find the giants. We'll kill them too."

"How long is this ship gonna take to build?" Pollux asked.

"Realistically it would take a few years," Leo answered. "But since we're demigods, we're sailing out on the summer solstice in six months. So, we need a lot of help. Who's in?"

I still believe it was impossible to count all the hands that went up.

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