Commander Alpha

Chapter 14

Percy's POV

    I mulled over Artemis's words as I portaled to Camp Half-Blood followed by the Hunters and Zoë.  Initially, I had been angry with Zoë for revealing my identity, but it had ended working out well.   I had no idea how much my disappearance had affected Thalia.  Annabeth also seemed horrible.  The light had left her beautiful grey eyes.
     'I knew it!' A voice shrieked in my head. 
     'What?' I questioned, annoyed.
     'You're not over Annabeth!' The voice, who I now recognized as Silena exclaimed.  'And guess what?' I didn't respond.  It was taking all of my energy to not blow up.  'She's not over you either!'  I stopped walking.  The world stopped spinning.  Everything stopped.  She still loved me.  'Percabeth is my OTP, besides Charles and I of course.  PERCABETH FOREVER.' Silena shouted in my head.  My heart thudded and I had a headache, and I wasn't sure if it was from Silena's information or her shouting in my head.  I figured it was a mixture of both.  I practically skipped back to the cabin.  I opened the door, greeted by the Warriors all seated on the couch.
     "What the hell was that Percy?" Luke demands.  "You get furious, almost blow up, portal away, don't show for two hours, and no explanation." I shrug, about to say something when I'm interrupted. 
     "What's that ridiculous smile for?" Castor questions, pointing out the huge grin I hadn't even noticed I'd been sporting.  Silena squeals, a knowing smile on her face.
     "OTP." She mouthed at me.
     "Nothing."  I say in delayed response to Castor's question, quickly heading to my room.  "By the way," I shout over my shoulder.  "Three way capture the flag tonight, us versus campers and Hunters."  This is met by cheers, and my smile grows even bigger as I close my door. 
     There's a chance I can be with Annabeth again.  There's a chance everything can go back to norm- Wait.  There isn't.  Annabeth cheated on me with that Poseidon spawn Brendan (who'd been hiding with his tail between his legs since his battle with Zoë), and speaking of Poseidon, why was he so depressed?  I admitted I felt bad that he was fading and it is partially my fault, but still, it was his choice to disown me. 
     I was sure that whatever Artemis wanted me to ask about pertained to me being betrayed.  I decide that whatever 'explanation' they had would decide if I revealed myself or not.  Coming to this conclusion, I decide to resolve something that had been bugging me.  I walk back into the living room. 
     "I've got to go do something."  I call.  I heard muffled replies between the noises of the video games the Warriors were playing.  I rolled my eyes at their immature antics, and headed out the door.  I went straight to the cave where I knew a certain red-haired oracle resided.
     "Knock knock."  I said, as there wasn't a door.  Rachel jumped and knocked a can of paint on herself.  She whips to the entrance of her cave.  When she sees me, her happy expression darkens.
     "Per-Alpha." She catches.  I look down guiltily. 
     "Yeah, about that..." I conjured a chair across from where she was sitting next to an easel.  As I sat down, I snapped my fingers.  The paint picked itself off of Rachel and the floor and back into its can, that righted itself back where it originally rested near the bottom of the easel.  Rachel looked very surprised at this display of power.  "Look, Rachel, I'm really sorry about how I acted when you confronted me.  It was just, well, I wasn't ready to come back to Earth and face my past, and I was just planning on getting out of here as soon as I could, and not revealing myself to anyone.  But, when you recognized me, I knew that wouldn't work, and it scared me.  I'm sorry I took it out on you, seeing as you never turned on me, and I hope you can forgive me."  I looked down, ashamed of my actions.  Rachel jumped out of her chair, knocking over the paint can that I had just picked up, and hugged me.  I hugged her back. 
'Man,' ,I thought to myself, 'A lot of hugging has been going on lately.'  After a minute, she returned to her chair.  Her face was back to its normal smile.
     "Of course I forgive you!" She chirped.  I smiled, and I felt as though a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. 
     "So, how've you been these past 500 years?" I ask, eager to catch up now that I'd made amends.  Rachel looked surprised.
     "500?"  I realized my mistake.
     "Oops, Chaos time runs different than Earth time.  Let me rephrase my question: How've you been these past 5 years?" I asked.  Rachel laughed, but then turned somber.
     "Okay, but it really got worse after you disappeared."
      "Artemis said something about me needing to know something.  Do you know what it is?"  I questioned.  Rachel smiled.
      "I do know what she was referring to, but I'm afraid I can't tell you.  You have to ask Jason, Leo, Piper, Nico, Annabeth, Hazel or Frank, although I believe that she already told you that."  I nod, groaning.  What do people have against telling me things?  "Also, there are several people you need to go see.  Namely, Grover, Blackjack, and your mom."  My eyes widen.  I'd spent so long blocking the people I care about on Earth from my memory that I'd forgotten to check on them now that I was here.  "One more thing, Beta, or Luke, he hosted Kronos, right?"
     "Yeah." I confirmed.
     "Was he the one I hit with a hairbrush?" I nod, laughing. 
     "I still make fun of him for that."  Now Rachel was laughing too. 
     "Here." I conjured a blue plastic hairbrush identical to the one that she'd thrown all those years ago and handed it to her.  "Throw this at Beta when you see him." I instructed.
     "I will." Rachel giggled.  "Now, you owe a certain Pegasus five years worth of doughnuts."  I smiled, but quickly felt it fade away.  "What's the matter?" Rachel asked.
      "Poseidon disowned me.  I can't talk to horses anymore." I sighed, making Rachel frown.
      "Isn't Chaos the creator of the universe?"
      "Yeah."
      "Couldn't you just ask him to give you back the power to talk to horses?" She prompts.  Now I felt like an idiot.
      "Yeah... guess I didn't think of that." I muttered.
      "Yeah, guess you didn't." I hugged her again.
      "It's been great catching up."
      "See ya 'round Perce."  I exited the cave, and quickly portaled to Chaos's realm.
     I appeared in Chaos's throne room, where he was sideways in his throne playing Flappy Bird.  I watched as he died in the game.
     "No!" He shouted and threw his tablet at the wall, where it bounced, not breaking.  I cleared my throat.  Chaos jumped, thinking he was alone.
     "Who- oh, hey Percy." Chaos relaxed when he saw it was me. 
     "Hi, I was wondering if you could give me the ability to talk to horses again so I can say hi to Blackjack?" I asked. 
     "Sure." Chaos said.  He formed a small ball of black energy and flicks it at me.  The pain isn't too bad, it just made my eyes water a little bit.
     "Thanks." I said before going back to Camp Half-Blood.
• • •
     When I entered the stables, the horses all whiny apprehensively and back to the corner of their stalls farthest from me.
     'Don't like.... scary... hide...' I heard from the horses' thoughts.  I guessed that's yet another side affect of being a disowned child of Poseidon.  I tried to ignore them as I search for one horse in particular.  I find him in the stall farthest from the door.  He looked horrible, his ribs jutting out like he hadn't been fed since I left.  He was laying in the middle of the floor, and unlike the other horses, doesn't move at all when I entered.  The only sign that he was alive was the shallow movement of his chest.
     "Blackjack?" I asked aloud.  At the sound of my voice, the Pegasus picks up its head and stares at me.
     'Boss?' He sounded weak, and like he could hardly believe what he was seeing.
     'Yeah it's me.'  I paused.  'Can I come in?'
     'Of course, boss.  It's been so long!' Blackjack didn't sound nearly as enthusiastic as he used to and it made me sad.  I opened the gate to his stall and quietly slipped through.  Blackjack made a face.  'You smell weird.'  I laughed.
     'I know.  You probably didn't know this, but the day I left, Poseidon disowned me.'  I could feel the shock rolling off of Blackjack.
     'But why, boss?' I shrugged.
     'I guess a misunderstanding on his part would be the best way to describe it.  I work for Chaos now.'
     'Is that why you're wearing the weird cloak getup?' I chuckled.
     'Yeah.  I had to ask him for the ability to talk to horses back.'
     'Say, boss, you wouldn't happen to have any doughnuts, would you?' He asked hopefully.  I grinned.
     'I was hoping you'd ask that.'  I conjured up a large box of a hundred doughnuts and placed them in front of Blackjack.
     'Wow boss, that was really cool.  Unlimited doughnuts!' He declared before digging in.  I zoned out for what couldn't have been more than a minute, but when I snapped back to reality, the box was empty and Blackjack was staring at me expectantly.
     'Woah, what was that?'
     'Not eating for five years makes a Pegasus hungry, boss!'  I stopped.
     'Five... years?'
     'Yeah... I guess.' Blackjack shuffled his hooves nervously. 
     'How are you not dead?' I marveled.
     'The annoying sun guy-'
      'Apollo.' I suggested.
      'Yeah, him, he keeps me alive.  Since us two were so close, he didn't want my death pushing Poseidon over the edge.'  I sat for a minute until I heard the signal for the start of Capture the Flag.  I summoned a couple hundred more doughnuts for Blackjack.
     'I'm so sorry.' I said, but he was too busy eating jelly doughnuts to respond.