Commander Alpha

Chapter 7

Bianca's POV

As soon as we got back to our cabin, I dragged Emma into my room and closed the door behind us. I sat down on my bed, pulling her down with me.
"So, Hestia" I said.
"Well, I've got a bunch of stuff to do so I'll deal with that later"
I nodded, and Emma walked out of my room, closing the door behind her. I flopped back on my bed. I couldn't wait to reveal my identity. I missed Nico so much that it sometimes physically hurt. He had grown up so much since I had died. He seemed less enthusiastic about everything and pretty much less happy in general. Hopefully, after I revealed myself, he would be happier. Of course, he might be mad at me, and I couldn't blame him. Anyway, I was just so excited to finally see my little brother.
I smiled to myself, and got up, grabbing my bow and quiver from where they were hanging on a hook near my door. I went into the basement where the training center was and over to the archery range. I shot a target, getting a perfect bullseye. I had had a lot of time to improve in the 500 years I'd been with Chaos. After shooting arrows for a while, I took a warm shower and went to my room to unpack. One thing about me- I always over pack. Whenever I'm teased by the other warriors about it, I always remind them, 'it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it'. Also, when you have a magic space-warping bag, why not pack everything you own? When I was just about done, there was a knock on my door. I opened it to see a nervous looking Emma.
"Well," she started, "It's 5:50 and that means that dinner is in ten minutes. I want to go reveal myself to Hestia before the campers head to the dining pavilion. Do you think... Do you think you can come with me for moral support? I mean, I'm not sure if she's going to be mad, or if she's even going to believe me, you know what, nevermind, this is a stupid plan, I shouldn't-" I cut Emma off before she could talk herself out of revealing herself to Hestia.
"No, we are going, I'm coming with." I demanded, grabbing her shoulders, I turned her around, and pushed her towards the door that led out of the cabin. "Bye!" I called over my shoulder. "Emma is revealing herself to her goddess BFF. We'll be back soon."
"Tell Hestia that we say hi." Percy yelled back. I smiled, and pushed Emma out to where the hearth in the middle of the cabins was being tended to by a little girl in a brown dress.
When we were standing only a few feet behind the fire pit, Hestia still hadn't noticed us. She seemed to be deep in thought. I pushed Emma towards Hestia.
She let out a little surprised "Umph!" That caught Hestia's attention. She looked behind her with a confused look on her face.
"What do you guys want?" Hestia asked with a bit of a hard edge to her voice. I cringed. That was not something I was used to hearing come out of the always kind goddess of the hearth. Guessing by the look on Emma's face, she wasn't used to it either.
"Um, we would like to have a private talk with you about the daughter of Athena that you gave your blessing to. We have some information on her well being." Emma stuttered. Hestia seemed to perk up at this. She stood up from her seat at the hearth.
"Sure. Where would you like to talk." She asked a little bit warily. I looked around for a more secluded place.
"How about in your cabin? You have no children, so it should be deserted." I decided. Hestia nodded and led the way. In a matter of seconds, we arrived at Hestia's cabin that was more honorary than anything else. It was on fire, but not like the kind of blazing scary fire, but a warm, inviting fire. Hestia opened the door and we walked in. When the door was shut I looked over at Hestia. Her eyebrows scrunched up.
"You were the one that lit fire over your hand?" She asked Emma.
"That is correct." Emma answered.
"And you are a demigod, but not a child of Hephaestus."
"Also correct. I'm pretty sure you already know who I am but I'll do this anyway." Emma pulled off her hood and Hestia's eyes widened and filled with tears. She took a large step towards Emma who was also crying. They both reached out and hugged each other
They hugged for a while before Emma stepped back, wiping tears from her eyes.
"I can't believe it!" Hestia exclaimed joyfully. Her expression darkened a little bit. "But... You died! I tried to save you but I couldn't! You were dead!"
"Chaos brought me back from the dead to serve in his army." Emma explained. Hestia turned to face me.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"You'll find out at the campfire. Four Chaos warriors are planning on revealing our identities, including me." I heard the conch horn blow for dinner. "I'll leave you two here to catch up. I'm starving, so I'm going to head to the pavilion." Emma nodded and her and Hestia started talking again. I walked out of the Hestia cabin, received some strange looks from campers, and joined up with the rest of the warriors walking from the cabin.
"Where's Emma?" Percy asked.
"In the Hestia cabin catching up with Hestia."
"Oh." The rest of the walk up to the dining pavilion was silent, everyone lost in their own thoughts. Chiron looked surprised when we walked in.
"Oh, I, uh, didn't think you guys would be coming, so we don't have an extra table." He said apologetically.
"It's fine." With a wave of his hand, Percy conjured a table that was more or less the same as the other tables. We all sat down. There were two empty seats, one at the head of the table for Chaos if he ever decided to visit, and one between Zoë and I for Emma.
We started eating and there were whispers could hear, "To the gods?", "Why didn't they...", "Sacrifices...". Luke started laughing, understanding what the campers were so confused about.
"If you guys are wondering why we're not sacrificing food, well, I'll show you."
"Beta... you know how he gets..." Zoë warned. Luke shrugged it off and carried his food over to the fire pit. The rest of the campers had went silent, curious about what was going to happen. Luke threw all of his food into the fire.
"To Chaos." He said with a smirk. He walked back to his seat, and less than a second later, Chaos appeared, holding his nose.
"What is that awful smell? It's like something died!" Chaos looked at our table and we were all staring at Luke who was averting his eyes, whistling innocently. The rest of the campers seemed to be holding their breath, terrified looks on their faces. Chaos grimaced, pulled a bottle of what looked like perfume out of the air, and sprayed Luke with it. I heard a few gasps coming from the campers. Chaos disappeared right before the smell hit. It was like someone took thousand year old sweaty socks that had been sitting in a oven full of rotting meat, washed them in a tub of skunk spray, and filled them with moldy cheese. Luke looked like he was on the verge of passing out, and the rest of the Chaos Warriors were either holding their noses, fanning the air away from their faces, gagging, or all three.
"Get out of here! Go take a shower!" Percy gagged.
"More like five showers." I corrected.
"It burns!" Castor yelled, holding his throat and pretending to pass out. Percy and Beckendorf pushed Luke off of his seat. Luke sprinted towards the cabin.
"He's going to stink up the cabin you know." Silena reminded them, her eyes watering.
"That's what we have tents for." Percy decided. Emma walked up the hill and as soon as she got close to our table, she pinched her nose.
"Did Beta sacrifice his food to Chaos again?" She asked, noting Luke's empty chair and empty plate along with the smell. A few warriors nodded. She sighed. "How long will it take that guy to learn? It's been 500 years!" The campers gasped at the number 500. They had been doing a lot of gasping lately. Emma ignored them and sat down in her spot. We continued eating, and the campers eventually started whispering again, then talking, and after what felt like forever, the dining hall was back at its usual dull roar. A few minutes later, Chiron stood up and made his way to the front.
"As you all know, the warriors of Chaos have come to help us in the upcoming war, and I would suggest getting to the campfire early, as they have a very special announcement for us." Chiron said. The campers hurriedly finished their food and headed down to the campfire. The warriors took their time finishing and walked down to where the campers were waiting impatiently. Silena, Beckendorf, Castor, and I all gathered atop the stage. Silena and I pushed Castor forward.
"Uh... Well, as you guys know, we're warriors of Chaos. And... uh... The warriors that are on the stage, and only the warriors that are on the stage, wish to reveal their identities. And I talked so I'm not going first." Castor stepped back. There was a nervous buzz in the crowd of demigods, all of them wondering who, or what, we could possibly be. Silena whispered something to Beckendorf, and Beckendorf stepped forward.
"My codename is Forge, but my real name is Charles Beckendorf." He pulled down his hood. For a moment the camp was dead silent. Then, a Hephaestus camper sprinted over to him and gave him the mother of all bear hugs. Then another, then another. After a minute, almost the whole camp was up and hugging their dead friend.
'Help... I'm dying... Squeezed to death...' Charles groaned. I laughed. After about twenty minutes, we finally managed to get all of the campers to sit back down. Beckendorf, with Silena's approval, sat down with the rest of the Hephaestus cabin.
'This is going to take forever if we continue like this. Why don't the rest of you just go down the line and say your code names, and then go back down the line and reveal yourselves.' Percy suggested.
'Good plan.' Silena agreed. Silena, Michael, Castor, and I lined up on the stage.
"My codename is Beauty." Silena said.
"My codename is Vines."
"My codename is Angel." We all pulled down our hoods.
"I'm Silena Beauregard."
"I'm Castor."
"And I'm Bianca Di Angelo." After a moment of stunned silence, there was mass chaos, no pun intended, as people ran towards their 'dead' friends, but there was only one person I wanted to see. I looked around, until I finally saw him. He was still sitting on the steps, his eyes wide with shock. I pushed my way through the crowd and walked over to Nico.
"Hey." I whispered. I wasn't sure what to say, I mean, what would you say to someone after this kind of situation. 'Hey, how's it goin? I'm sorry I died and lied about going to rebirth.' Thankfully, I didn't need to say anything. Nico recovered from his shock and launched himself at me. I wasn't sure if he was going to hit me or hug me, and I don't think he knew either. I tensed. He wrapped his arms around me tightly, like he was afraid that he was going to lose me again. I hugged him back the same way. I was crying, so happy to finally be with my brother. Something wet hit my shoulder. I looked up at Nico. He was crying. The son of death was crying. Well, that wasn't too weird, I'm pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye in the whole Amphitheater, not including the warriors or, of course, Brendan. I let go and frowned at Nico.
"You're taller than me." I pouted.
"You're still 14." He pointed out. I put my arm tightly around his waist and lead him over to the other demigods. "Hey, does this mean I can call you my little sister?" I rolled my eyes.
"Don't even think about it."