Indigo Eyes

Chapter 67

The party was winding down as Annabeth, Thalia and Cressida were dancing together before Percy pulled Cressida aside.

"Pretty Girl!" Tyson beamed when the Iris message connected, Percy keeping it a surprise.

"Hi Tyson," she smiled as she waved. "We miss you."

"I miss you too," he replied before they told him all about their adventures - Tyson wanting to hear every detail about the cute baby cow serpent - and assuring him that Annabeth was safe. Percy also mentioned that the shield he made was damaged in the Manticore attack.

"Yay!" Tyson said. "That means it was good! It saved your life!"

"It sure did, big guy," Percy said. "But now it's ruined."

"Not ruined!" Tyson promised. "I will visit and fix it next summer."

"You're coming home?" Cressida asked with a hopeful smile.

"Seriously?" Percy questioned. "They'll let you take time off?"

"Yes! I have made two thousand seven hundred and forty-one magic swords," Tyson said proudly, showing them the newest blade. "The boss says 'good work!' He will let me take the whole summer off. I will visit camp!"

"Oh! I'll get fresh sheets for your bunk, and I'll have some grapes and that brisket thing you really liked ready for you -"

"Ok, you already won over my pegasus, I don't need you winning over my brother as well," Percy interrupted and Cressida scoffed.

"Have you met you? I don't need to win anyone over, they naturally like me better."

"Agree to disagree," he replied as Cressida stuck her tongue out at him before they launched into more tales about the war preparations Poseidon was implementing for the fight with the old sea gods. They also talked about all the things they could do next summer but then Tyson's boss started yelling at him and he had to get back to work.

They'd waved goodbye and Tyson blushed when Cressida blew him a kiss as he always did, and Percy then dug out his last drachma to call him mom. Cressida gave him privacy for that call, reminding him to take it easy on Paul if he was there because his mother deserved to be happy.

She was right of course because Paul was there, and his mother deserved to be happy - not that he'd tell her because that would definitely go straight to her head.

They left to camp soon after that, Argus coming to pick them up from the Empire State Building.

And as they trudged back up Half-Blood Hill, they half-expected to see Thalia waiting for them but she was already long gone with Artemis and the rest of the Hunters, off on their next adventure.

The second Cressida reached the peak of the hill she started bolting down the other side, straight into the arms of Castor as he grabbed her and spun her around before she was ripped out of his arms by Pollux as he repeated the motion and then both brothers squashed her in a hug.

And even from the top of the hill, Percy could hear the yelling when her brothers saw her hair and then heard the explanation as to what happened. But Cressida's smile didn't falter once - she was more confident in herself, and he was really proud of her for it.

The twins then escorted them to the Big House where Chiron greeted them with hot chocolates and toasted cheese sandwiches.

Grover went off with his satyr friends to spread the word about our strange encounter with the magic of Pan. Within an hour, the satyrs were all running around agitated, asking where the nearest espresso bar was.

The three demigods sat with the activities director and some of the other senior campers - Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard and the Stoll brothers. Even Clarisse was sitting there, back from her secretive mission and she definitely wasn't the same. She didn't even try to antagonize Percy and she had a new scar on her chin and her dirty blonde hair looked as if someone had hacked at it with a pair of safety scissors.

"I got news," she mumbled uneasily. "Bad news. Lynn, I'm going to need your help."

"Anything you need," Cressida promised her, knowing that Clarisse wouldn't ask for help in public unless it was something truly dire.

"I'll fill you in later," Chiron said with forced cheerfulness. "The important thing is that you have prevailed. And you saved Annabeth!"

Annabeth smiled gratefully at her friends as Cressida reached for her hand and Percy was reminded of the Hoover Dam and of the girl he met, Rachel Elizabeth Dare. He was also reminded of something he'd put into Cressida's bag for safekeeping.

They then plunged into a bit more of a depressing conversation as Percy revealed what Poseidon told him about Luke being alive - that he's survived his fall.

"Well," Annabeth shifted uncomfortably in her chair. "If the final battle does come when Percy is sixteen, at least we have two more years to figure something out."

"What's to figure out?" Cressida asked from where she sat perched on the large flat armrests of the two chairs her brothers had pushed together, Castor and Pollux in the chairs and their sister on the armrests as she popped open a can of Diet Coke. "Kronos has an army, the only way you stop an army is to fight them."

"Two years may seem like a long time," Chiron said, speaking from experience seeing as Kronos was his father. "But it is the blink of an eye. I still hope you are not the child of the prophecy, Percy. But, if you are, then the second Titan war is almost upon us. Kronos's first strike will be here."

"How do you know?" Percy asked. "Why would he care about camp?"

"Because the gods use heroes as their tools," Chiron said simply. "Destroy the tools, and the gods will be crippled. Luke's forces will come here. Mortal, demigod, monstrous... We must be prepared. Clarisse's news may give us a clue as to how they will attack, but –"

There was a knock on the door, and Nico di Angelo came huffing into the parlour, his cheeks bright red from the cold. He was smiling, but he looked around anxiously.

"Hey! Where's... where's my sister?"

Dead silence - actually that was a bad way to describe it. But the Coke can fell from Cressida's hand and it spilled on the floor. No one had told him. They'd been waiting for them to arrive to tell Nico in person.

"Hey Nico," Percy said as he stood. "Let's take a walk, ok? We need to talk."

"Percy-"

"I got this, Cress," he replied and she shot him a supportive smile before he walked out and Cressida's heart broke for both of them.