The Fate of Apollo

Shocks and Aftershocks...

PERCY:

After the meeting ended in the evening, Piper asked me if we could have a sleepover at my cabin with the seven. I agreed having nothing better to do.

By 7 o'clock, I, Nico, Leo, Piper, Hazel and Frank were sitting on a comfortable pile of blankets on the floor of my room. We were having a light hearted chitchat when a series of knocks resounded on the door. Opening the door revealed the Stoll brothers, Will and Malcolm. The son of Athena said, "Can we join here without anyone feeling uncomfortable?" From their faces it was more than obvious that something had happened.

I led them inside and they made themselves comfortable too. I asked, "Did something happen?" Piper used some charmspeak, "You can tell us. Don't feel afraid or uncomfortable." Travis shifted in his seat, "Most of the camp is blaming Malcolm for Annabeth's disappearance. And now he is going on a quest, so that is doing nothing but instigating more degrading rumors." "Whoa, wait a bit, Annabeth is missing!", I asked surprised. "After you guys went to serve your sentence, she became bossier than ever. She looked down upon every single soul in the camp. She even slapped Malcolm in front of the camp because he pointed out a major mistake in a design of hers. Then the summer ended and she left with her family. And this year no one saw a trace of her. She disappeared. And now everyone is blaming Malcolm for her disappearance as he had a verbal fight with her on the day she left the camp", explained Will.

Malcolm looked down and sniffed. Travis pulled the son of Athena in his arms a d whispered, "Don't cry. She is not worth your tears." Malcolm rubbed his palms over his face and looked up.

Suddenly Leo spoke, "Hey beauty queen, where's my other best friend?" Piper's face drained out of blood as she sighed dejectedly, "We found his dead body a week ago. He was on his way back to Camp Jupiter after meeting up with Hercules when he was ambushed. From the wounds, Austin guessed he was attacked by the manticore." Leo's eyes welled up with tears. "No, that can't be true! Sparky promised he would never leave me alone", the son of Hephaestus ranted as he sobbed in his boyfriend's arms. Everyone had moist eyes but I was most specifically astonished by the fact that the son of Hades who abstained from any kind of physical contact was hugging his boyfriend and rubbing circles on his back as he sobbed in order to calm him down.

"Well, a manticore is tough to deal with. The only time I met one, Lady Artemis had to interfere with her hunters and even then it escaped kidnapping Annabeth", I reminisced. Nico flinched remembering that horrible experience, what could I say, he was just 10 then and knew that Greek Gods existed in the Mythomagic game.

Nico looked as if he got an idea as his dark orbs suddenly brightened. "Do you want me to summon Jason's soul? You can then talk with him and stop being grumpy", Nico offered. "You can do that?", Leo looked at his boyfriend with wondering and adoring eyes. The son of Hades rolled his eyes and huffed, "I am not called Ghost King for nothing." Leo smiled and pecked Nico's lips and the latter smiled so wide that I could bet my life that his jaws hurt.

Nico turned to Piper and offered his condolences, "I am sorry that you had to lose your boyfriend. Is the manticore still on loose?" Piper sighed, "I and Jason broke up a few days before his death. Actually I dumped him to be true. He figured that he was gay and liked me only as a friend and I figured that I am asexual. We would never be together if not for Jason's altered memories and my bitch of a mother's interference. And for your second question, yes, the Hunt is trying to find the beast but it is still on loose. And another good news is I am joining the Hunt this Saturnalia." Leo shrieked so loud that Connor whined, "Firefly, do you want to burst our eardrums?" But the said fire user paid him no attention as he screamed with his nose on fire, "What! Jason fucking Grace was gay and you are fucking asexual! I never realized that! And you are freaking joining the Hunt! It's so cool, Beauty Queen!" "Whoa, calm down Leo. Your nose is on fire and I would hate it if you would burn down such a beautiful cabin of Percy's. I am a daughter of Aphrodite and I myself had no idea. Now Nico, if you would, please summon Jason's soul", Piper mused. Leo hurriedly rubbed his nose and mumbled a sorry sheepishly to me. I just ruffled his hair to let him know it was okay and to be truthful, my head hurt with all the information that I have received – Annabeth disappearing, Malcolm becoming an ugly duckling, and not to mention Jason and Piper's relationship and finally Jason's death.

It hardly took Nico ten minutes to summon Jason's soul using a happy meal and a bottle of coke. But when the son of Zeus arrived, he looked disheveled. He was frowning and his hair was stuck in different directions and foremost, his lips were swollen and puffy, even his bottom up shirt was wrinkled and had the first four buttons opened. "What happened?", Jason asked uninterested. Leo pouted playfully, "No hi, no hello to your bestie I see." "Well, should I not be irritated that you guys are cock blocking me?", Jason raised an eyebrow.

We were dumbfounded by his reply. "Hey, what crawled up your ass and died, huh! We are here only because we wanted to know how you are in the Underworld", I pouted. "Well I am as good as someone whose date you have sabotaged", the son of Jupiter huffed like a brat. "Who are you dating Superman?", Leo asked. And that was when Jason dropped the nuclear bomb, smirking, "The one and only Luke Castellan."

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hi, I am alive and did you get the shock in this chapter? To be truthful, I was shocked as it was unplanned and I never intended to make Jason and Luke a couple but the story wanted it, so I had nothing to do. I may be updating irregularly as my exams are starting soon. But be sure there will be a grand Christmas update.

Please read, vote, share and comment.

Until next time. Hope to upload soon.