Anti-Hero || Leo Valdez

38 - *Prophesizes Your Death in Snake*

"You're sure you're all ready to go?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, I think that's everything," Via said. "Oh — no, wait. Shit. We still have to load Festus."

"Ugh."

Both girls shared an equally reluctant look, then burst into laughter. Neither of them wanted to have to lift the heavy dragon, who was currently in suitcase mode, onto the bed of Pat's truck, which was currently parked atop Half-Blood Hill, just before the boundary Thalia's tree provided.

Via had offered to pack Leo's stuff for him so he could say goodbye to his siblings, and Annabeth had seen her with her hands full and offered to help out. Pat was nowhere to be found; after finding Leo and Via cuddled up in the Bunker and ranting at them for about five minutes in front of the entire Hephaestus cabin, he'd claimed he needed a bagel "for stress," and had stormed out in the direction of the dining pavilion. Via hadn't seen him since, but that was only fifteen minutes ago and she wasn't too worried about it.

"Okay, let's do it," Via sighed. She took one end, and Annabeth grabbed the other, and they both pulled.

"Remember to lift with your knees and not your back," Annabeth said.

"Yep," Via strained. They got one edge on the lip of the truck bed, and pushed it with all her might so it would slide snugly into the corner. Then she fastened it to the floor of the bed with a bungee cord.

"Good job," Annabeth said, patting Festus's dormant form. "That sucker's not going anywhere."

Via heard someone say her name, and she whipped around in time to see Rachel Dare, looking at her with an urgent expression.

"Hi, Rachel," Annabeth said, looking confused.

Via had barely started to say, "Hey, are you o—" when smoke started pouring out of Rachel's mouth. "Oh, okay, here we go."

Via and Annabeth rushed to steady Rachel as she swooned, knowing that the redhead was issuing a prophecy. Via wondered how this was possible since Python, her father's nemesis, was currently squatting in the Oracle of Delphi and had yet to receive an eviction notice. The smoke changed from green to a sulfurous yellow, and Via realized it wasn't the Oracle giving her the prophecy. It was Python.

The two blondes gently lowered Rachel down to the grass, propped against the side of Pat's red truck as she began to speak the prophecy in a raspy voice.

"Go west to your hometown, Wrath of the Sun,

There awaits you the mother of none.

Fight if you will, but you face your doom,

For by the queen of snakes you shall be consumed."

Annabeth and Via stared in utter shock as the stream of yellow smoke ended abruptly and Rachel blinked, her eyes returning to normal.

"Why did that sound like both a prophecy and a message?" Annabeth wondered.

"Probably because it is," Via said. "From Python, right?"

"Yes," Rachel agreed. "That was definitely Python."

"So Python and Lamia are working together," Via said. "I guess it makes sense. They're both psycho snakes who have it out for Apollo and his kids."

"What did he say?" Rachel asked.

Via recited the prophecy she'd just been given. She always wondered how people managed to remember their prophecies after only hearing it once, but after getting her own, she understood. It was hard to forget a poem telling you how you're going to die. When she finished telling Rachel the prophecy, the redhead's expression grew darker.