Rising Heroes Book Four: The Sands of Ouroboros

Chapter Twelve: Nowhere to Hide

Disclaimer: I don't own HOO or VE

Chapter Twelve: Nowhere to Hide

There was no fooling Annabeth Chase.

Ciara knew from the moment she landed next to Annabeth in the Titan's fortress that she was onto her. So, despite being the stubborn person that she was, Ciara told her everything.

Between their shifts of holding the sky, including holding the sky together, Ciara told Annabeth everything. The demigod listened, and agreed that no one else should know so that time wouldn't be jeopardized.

"So you need a way to get home," Annabeth finally concurred.

"Yes," Ciara said. "We could try and collect all of the Immorties again, but that took a long time, and Rhea was the one who activated them in the first place."

"Are there other Immorties?" Annabeth asked.

"Maybe," Ciara said.

"If there were," Annabeth theorized, "maybe there's one for Kronos. We could use it to get you guys home."

"But it might be with him," Ciara said. "And,"

"Don't say anything to warn me of the future!" Annabeth cautioned. "It's bad enough that I've already met your future parents."

That was true, although Ciara had neglected to tell her about her own children. She just hoped that everyone else, wherever they were, were safe.

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Thankfully it was easy to hide things from Percy Jackson.

Dustin and James had appeared right as they were on the train given by Apollo. It took some explaining, and James said he was a son of Hermes (he just had so many children) and Dustin said the same.

It was when the others arrived that things got difficult.

They had just gotten to San Francisco via flying metal angels. Dustin, even though he knew what would happen in this quest, was not relishing watching things play out the way they were. But deep in his gut, he knew that if he altered anything it might lead to drastic changes that could even prevent his birth. After all, his dad had once worked for Luke- what if he stayed on the wrong side? Or worse, died?

Percy had jumped into the sea after some prophecy dude while the rest of them stood on the shore, gaping like idiots. And that's when the rest of them fell from a portal in the sky.

The first two looked almost like twins, with the same faces and bluish eyes. Then they stood, and Dustin could see that the girl had blonde hair while the boy was a pre-teen, maybe even younger, with tight red curls.

Then two others fell. The first was a girl who looked exactly like Lily save for her hazel eyes and pale brown hair. But her facial features, the hand on the hip- it was all the same. The other was also a girl, who looked strangely like... him. But she also had Ciara's dark hair and dark hooded eyes.

His heart began to pound. Was this even possible?

Zöe was looking at them strangely, and Thalia's mouth was hanging open. But before they could react, there was a thud as they turned to see Thorne, the manticore Dustin knew had taken Annabeth, land on the docks.

Percy flew out of the water, landing beside them. "I got the answer," he started to say, but stopped when he saw Thorne and a squadron of skeletons and humans behind him.

Thorne started to talk about Thalia, blah blah blah, all things Dustin had heard from CBH campfires. He turned instead to the new arrivals.

"What part of time are you from?" He asked.

"2035," the blond girl said.

2055," the girl who looked like him said. They glanced at each other.

James had launched himself into the fight, and Dustin defended himself but was still focused on the new arrivals. "Who are you?" He asked.

"Raina," the blond girl said. "This is Rudy, my brother," she gestured to the redhead.

"My cousins?" James asked. "But... how?"

Raina shrugged. She had pulled out a dagger, but James looked shocked, like she shouldn't be a Grigori. "My mom's," she said as she began battling a spartoi.

"We went to this cave!" Rudy exclaimed. "There were cool glowing stones."

Dustin flashed a quick glance at James. "You found the stones in the future," he guessed.

"I'm Zoe Francesca," the girl who looked like Lily said. "But everyone called me Chessy."

"I'm Bianca," the girl who looked like him said. "But Bia is fine."

"Who are you?" James asked.

Suddenly there was a purple glow, and the mortal and skeletons started to go crazy. Thorne disintegrated into golden ash.

"I'm wondering the same thing," Thalia said.

"We're demigods in the area," Chessy said quickly. "I'm a daughter of Hypnos. This is Bia, a daughter of..." she trailed off. "Um, daughter of Apollo."

"Hm," Zöe said. Dustin could tell she didn't really believe it, but they had bigger problems at hand.

"We need to go to Annabeth's house," Percy said. "I think we need to grab a ride."

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Annabeth's house was homey, full of clutter but also love. It reminded Dustin of the personal cabins the demigods kept at Camp- when they visited as a family, they each stayed in their own cabin so they weren't separated. The main 7 had their own little neighborhood, but of course their kids also spent a few weeks each summer in one of their grandparent's cabins.

Dustin pulled James, Raina, Rudy, Chessy, and Bia into a separate room while the others talked to Dr. Chase. "So you guys came on accident," he said, pointing to Raina and Rudy. "Why did you guys come?"

Bia and Chessy glanced at each other. "It's complicated," Bia said slowly. "Basically, in the future, bad stuff goes down. We came back in time to stop... well, to stop our parents from dying."

"You're not actually demigods?" James asked, arms crossed. The guy seemed super intense lately; it was like he was trying to decide whether to be funny and lighthearted or super grown up.

"No," Chessy said, straightening. "My name is Zoe Francesca L'Chaim. Lily and Roc are my parents. And this is Bianca Clarisse La Rue-Diangelo, daughter of,"

"Me," Dustin realized.