The One-Sided Iris Message

The Day in Which They Arrived

(Had this in mind ever since I let my imagination go free back in February, 2014. 'This is War' belongs to Thirty Seconds to Mars. Onwards.)

June 5th 2005

It seemed as if Apollo was in a particularly bad mood, as the sun was ever so dim. As if the world needed another temperamental god, especially at this point in time. There were sudden and seemingly random storms popping up from Chicago to New York, and hurricanes from Australia to Florida. Camp Half Blood was seemingly unaffected by this as they continued their activities as normal. The only weather Dionysus allowed in was the nice, strong, salty ocean breeze, an aftereffect of all the typhoons.

Why would they worry? They had dealt with temperamental gods before; after all they were essentially their kids. The force field emitted by Thalia's pine blocked any unwanted weather. For all they knew, nothing would seem out of place. Few were suspicious of what was going on in the mortal world. One was the ever curious Cabin 6 counselor, Annabeth Chase. The 12 year-old had been waiting a long time for a quest and noticed things others hadn't.

Such as when the satyrs started a group chat, they'd go to a secluded spot, and if they ever caught Annabeth eavesdropping they stopped before she could fully pick up on the information. And the fact that Chiron refused to elaborate on the topic was another blow to her. Her father figure had never kept a secret in the 5 years he'd known her.

She hadn't asked Grover as he just awakened from unconsciousness, after protecting his most recent charge.

The latest gossip in camp was the unclaimed, knocked-out, and seemingly powerful demigod. The one who had bare handed, without training, defeated the Minotaur. Annabeth was slightly envious of him, she'd been hacking at training dummies for half a decade just for a chance to visit the mortal world again, and this upstart just killed the famed son of Pasiphaë. Her thoughts strayed as far as thinking that he was the one. Which in itself was highly unlikely, and she always thought that a new camper could maybe, just maybebe the one to help her enter the mortal world for the first time since Thalia's death.

She had just finished teaching Ancient Greek to Castor and Pollux, archery training under Lee Fletcher and Will Solace, and sword teaching led by her secret crush, Luke Castellan. She talked animatedly with her siblings as they walked single file to the mess hall. It had been an exhausting morning and she and the rest of the camp were ready for a bit of relaxation in the form of fraternizing with their cabin mates. But she never had the chance.

Just as everyone had sacrificed to their respected parent and sat down, ready to dig in, something appeared in the middle of all the tables. The white sunlight retracted to form a rainbow, and an ocean breeze met it and what looked like an Iris message appeared. As soon as it did the 12 Olympians and Iris herself suddenly appeared, as if alerted by the existence of a message seemingly no one created. Every camper kneeled to both Zeus and their godly parent, before returning to their tables.

"I came to you, my lord, when I felt an unauthorized message appear," Iris spoke to Zeus, "It looks like someone may want us watching something, as it is one-sided."

As Zeus was about to speak back to the rainbow goddess, the Iris-message, more like video, started playing.

Every god sat next to their children, or in Zeus, Poseidon, and Hera's case, by themselves. Iris was invited by Chiron to sit at the head table, the table of the twelfth Olympian, Dionysus. Artemis sat with her hunters, who were taking a short rest at camp, before going off to hunt the elusive Echidna. The screen was still black, but subtitles could be seen as the feminine voice started speaking.

'During the war council last winter solstice, the fates appeared to the gods.'

There were murmurs of 'liar' from the demigods who took a trip there 6 months before, and of course the gods, but the voice continued as if it had been expecting this.