SEA GREEN [PERCY JACKSON X HARRY POTTER]

#31

"Annabeth," Luke acknowledged. His voice was strained, like he was trying to sound polite even though he didn't feel like it.

"How? How are you here?" Percy demanded, his voice cracking.

"I knew you guys were in trouble, so I wanted to help. Silena and I... we escaped Elysium so that we could aid you in your quest," Luke confessed. From behind him, Silena nodded solemnly. Her eyes were filled with guilt, though no one else knew why.

The demigods stared at the two heroes- who were supposed to be dead- in disbelief. Even Luna looked incredulous, having heard of the death of Luke Castellan and Silena Beauregard, her former friends.

Shocked beyond words, the demigods ran up and embraced their past allies, tears stinging their eyes.

Annabeth had ran to hug Luke, and even though Percy wanted to do the same, he knew he had to give some space between them, for they had been the closest, so he and the others went up to Silena.

Percy wrapped his arms around Silena. "I- I can't believe it! Is Charles here? I didn't get to say goodbye to him properly."

"He isn't, Percy. I told him not to come. He already risked his life once before. I'm sorry," Silena said. She watched as his excited grin faltered. "One more thing."

The demigods' heads perked up. Silena took a deep breath and glanced cautiously at Luke. "Luke... he isn't actually here to help you."

"What?"

"He wanted to make amends. He escaped the Underworld, and I came along with him. The both of us wanted to give proper apologies to all of you. But Luke found out about you-" she pointed at Percy, "-and Annabeth. I'm afraid he specifically wanted to make up with her, and be more than friends, but seeing the two of you together made him angry."

"That can't be true," Travis frowned. He didn't like the idea of his half-brother betraying them again. He and the rest of the members of Cabin Eleven had to endure being suspected as 'spies' ever since Luke was revealed as one. Being the head-counsellor, not only did Travis want the best for him and his half-siblings, but discovering that Luke had yet again chose to go against them made him disappointed. He wanted to trust Luke again, but from Silena's words, he realised that he couldn't. He only had one question in his mind, repeating over and over again: why? Why, Luke?

"Yeah. Why would he be here, then?" Percy countered, though his voice was losing its confidence rapidly. He couldn't say that he didn't think Luke would do that. Luke had done a lot of unexpected things in the past. But that was that. It was in the past. Things with Luke had ended on a good note, and Percy felt saddened to find out that Luke wasn't genuine when it came down to helping them.

"He wants to kill you all," Silena explained. Her lips were quivering.

"And how can we be sure that you're not lying?" Luna inquired curiously. "I'm not accusing you of lying, of course, I just want to know."

"Love," Silena answered thoughtfully. "That's what made Luke and I determined to come back. I wanted to apologise to Clarisse, and he wanted to make amends with Annabeth. But Luke got jealous. I did not. He is motivated to kill you because that's what he thinks will make it work out between Annabeth and him. As a daughter of Aphrodite, I can tell you that that is not true love."

She fixed her eyes on Percy, and went on, "What you and Annabeth have? That's love. But Luke will never get to experience that again if he doesn't stop his plan. That's why I'm telling you this. We need to stop him."

"Why can't we just kill him?" Percy asked bluntly. It hurt him to even consider having to kill Luke, but for Annabeth and his friends' sake, he was willing to. Normally, he'd want to compromise so that both sides could stay alive, but just like in the Titan War, Luke was on the bad side, and to end it all and to keep others from harm, Percy knew he had to make sure Luke would be gone permanently- at least, more permanently than the last time.

"He has reinforcements," Katie guessed.

Silena nodded. "He is also keeping Nico hostage, so not only will back-up kill you, they'll kill Nico, who is absolutely defenceless."

"We have to tell Annabeth," Percy growled. He couldn't stand the thought of Nico getting hurt because they had neglected to check up on him that morning. Perhaps if he'd decided to speak to Nico earlier, then Nico wouldn't have been kidnaped in the first place.

"We can't," Silena said. Her expression was filled with empathy. "Luke will be by her side at all times. He doesn't know that I'm on your side, but he's careful. He'll do anything in his power to keep Annabeth from knowing that he's the bad guy. He'll make your deaths seem like an accident."

"Then what do we do?" Katie asked desperately.

"We free Nico. Then we'll see what happens," Silena told them. "If Luke decides to fight, we have no choice but to fight back."

"How about them?" Travis brought their attention to the five wizards who were standing not far away. Harry, Hermione and Ron were staring at Luke and Annabeth, the latter of the two crying. Ginny and Neville were looking quizzically at Percy, Travis, Katie, Luna and Silena. Once they caught Ginny and Neville's eyes, they gestured for them to come over. They followed their instructions, dragging the Golden Trio along with them.

Ron's eyes lingered on Luke for a moment more before shifting to Silena. "What's up?"

"We have a plan."

"You're really here," Annabeth breathed.

Luke smiled ruefully. "I am."

"Do you think Hades noticed that you and Silena left? If he did, you'd face really serious punishment," Annabeth said.

"Seeing as I'm coming back to help and not cause chaos, I think I'll be fine," Luke grinned. "So how have you been?"

Annabeth sniffled. Her nose was pink at the tip from the cold. "You've just come back from the dead, and you're asking me how I've been? You'll never change, Luke Castellan."

Luke said nothing, only giving her a sheepish smile. She continued, "I made new friends. Hera- I swear she's horrible- kidnaped Percy and this other kid, Jason, and made them switch camps. There's a Roman camp called Camp Jupiter. Pretty cool, huh? A mixture of both camps were formed into a group of seven- Percy, me, Jason Grace, Leo Valdez, Piper McLean, Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang. We also had a few others help us- Reyna Ramírez-Arellano, Nico and a satyr named Gleeson Hedge. Together we saved the world."

"Ah," Luke said halfheartedly. "I heard you and Percy went to Tartarus?"

Annabeth's expression darkened. "Yeah. We fell in halfway through the quest, but we got out. Sorry, I don't really like talking about it."

"That's fine," Luke assured, though he couldn't help but feel bitter. Throughout Annabeth's summary of her life while he was gone, she had mentioned Percy nonstop.

It was always about Percy Jackson, the only living demigod of Poseidon. One of the most powerful demigods of their generation. Slayer of so many monsters, Luke lost count. Survivor of the Labyrinth. Survivor of Tartarus. Twice the Hero of Olympus.

He made the decision that Percy Jackson must be removed from the picture, unaware that the boy was thinking just that.

"Well, that's it I guess. My life so far. Woohoo," Annabeth said dryly. "And obviously I'm also on a quest to help Hecate's domain, the wizards. That's why we're here in the first place, to 'destroy the new threat that is arising'."

"And that's also the reason why Silena and I are here," Luke reminded. His eyes glittered with malice, but Annabeth didn't notice.

Annabeth took one last long look at Luke. "I'm glad you're back."

"Me too," Luke said. Then he outstretched his hand. "I also have something to show you."

"What is it?"

"You have to follow me."

Annabeth's brows furrowed, slowly taking Luke's hand. "Is it okay if we just leave the others here?"

"Yeah, we'll be back before you know it."