𝗚𝗢𝗟𝗗𝗜𝗘! 𝙥. 𝙟𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨𝙤𝙣 ¹

Suicide Squad

CHAPTER FIVE: LYDIA

The next morning, Chiron moved Percy to cabin three.

He was absolutely miserable. He'd been separated out as if he had some rare disease. And since he was all alone in his cabin he practically only had Lydia to spend his time with.

Lydia didn't care much about his parentage. He was her friend before of all this. It wasn't going to change much for her, and it didn't.

Nobody outright mentioned the hellhound in front of Percy, but when he wasn't around it was the only thing they talked about. The attack had scared everybody.

No one spoke about Lydia's heroic act either, just about how: one, that Percy was the son of the Sea God; and two, monsters would stop at nothing to kill him. They would even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.

The other campers steered clear of him as much as possible.

Lydia tried really hard to make him feel better but his spirits were always down there with Hades no matter what she did.

When Lydia wasn't with Percy, she was with Annabeth, but she was always distracted and muttering to herself: "Quest...Poseidon?...Dirty rotten...Got to make a plan..."

Eventually, Lydia had enough of it.

She'd found her sitting in the arena stands, engrossed in her jumbled notebook. There were sticky notes sticking up between the pages, papers torn out and haphazardly glued back in and the spine was cracked and hardly holding itself together.

The pages had run out, probably, several years ago, so Annabeth opted to reduce her handwriting to the size of a flea and squeeze in what she needed to write on any microscopic empty spot she could find. You couldn't understand a thing in that book even if you had Daedalus' brains.

"Spit it out, Annie." Lydia demanded, sitting down by her side.

"What? It's nothing." Annabeth brushed her off, going back to her messy notebook.

"It's not nothing. Just tell me!" Lydia snatched the notebook from her hands. "You're driving both of us insane with all your mumbling."

Annabeth spat it out.

She explained the quest Chiron was going to send Percy on. She explained the lightning bolt fiasco, and the summer solstice deadline that was in eleven days.

Lydia took it all in with a pale face and a slackened jaw.

"Um, okay. This is fine." Lydia gulped. "So, you want to go?"

"This is it, Lyd." Annabeth nodded. "This is all I've ever wanted."

"You do know how dangerous this is, right?" Lydia asked. "Life terminatingly dangerous."

"That's not a word." Annabeth said, a hint of a smile on her face. "But, yes, I know. And I want you to come with us."

It was now Lydia's turn to look at her like she'd grown several heads. "You know, I'd only slow you down, right? I'm not good at using my sickles or my powers or anything. What could I possibly be good for?"

"Did you forget what you did during capture the flag?"

"It was just good luck! Percy would have died."

"You're more of an idiot than I thought you were." Annabeth snorted.

"Hey!" Lydia pouted.

Annabeth's grey eyes curved into crescents as she laughed. "You don't give yourself enough credit, Lydia. Your quick thinking saved Percy's life." She placed a hand on Lydia's cheek. "I'm the smartest person you know and I'm positive you'd be a vital part of our team."