Fantasy becomes Reality (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

VI. Claimed?

     It was no surprise to me of course when there was a huge crash outside in the forum. Everyone ran out to see the Argo II blasting New Rome with its whole arsenal, which was very extensive. 

   "What the Styx?" Percy yelled over everyone's panicking. 

     I wanted to tell them what was going on, to tell them, more importantly why, and to not blame Leo. But I know that I can't, I have to let it play out like it should, and not interfere and change the whole course of the story (I learned that from Doctor Who). So, I let them panic and run out into the forum, the Romans starting to transform from confused toy soldiers to angry wolves, turning on the newest members of the pack. In this case, they were turning on Jason, Piper, Annabeth, and Percy and that was not going to be okay with me. 

Just then, my favorite Roman came down from the rope ladder of the Argo II, his gangly figure and stringy blonde hair even more repulsive in person.

"The Greeks have fired on us! Your boy Leo has trained his weapons on New Rome!" Even though I knew I should not interfere, I jumped up onto the large fountain and turned to look at the Romans.

"You will not hurt them!" I shouted over the crowd of Romans. Crap, there goes not interfering. I did not expect the Romans to actually stop what they were doing and look at me. No, they didn't just look at me, they stared at me as if transfixed in a state of horrified amazement. My confidence was draining out of me like water through a sifter. I began to feel self conscience with all the people staring at me. The camp became so quite I could hear my blood pounding through my head. After what seemed an eternity of everyone drowning in stunned silence, one of the Romans finally got over himself. 

"Wha-what-" he sputtered, his eyes wide as he looked at me, "What are you?" he whispered. I looked around at the other Romans and some were looking at me the same way, but others were averting their eyes. I looked down at myself and saw that my skin was glowing green, and when I looked above my head I saw a sign there. It was like two crescent moons connected together with a full moon in the center and a coil coming down from where the two crescents met. I looked back at the crowd, my eyes bulging, a million questions going through my head. Wait, isn't this how demigods get claimed? Oh my gods am I a demigod? No, I can't be I've never been attacked by a monster and I'm sixteen. Whose symbol is this then? Is it some god I don't know of? No, I know all of the gods. If it's not a god who's claiming me, who is? Wait, is this even a claiming?

"Blasphemy!" Octavian cried, "That is no mark of the gods-"

"Shut up Octavian, go gut your bears" I said to him, though my voice sounded weird, I couldn't put my finger on it. Octavian dropped his hand, his face void of expression and walked away without question. That's when I knew something was really wrong. Octavian didn't listen to anyone like that, not even Reyna. When the Argo II fired a volley of Greek Fire at the Senate House, everyone seemed to wake up from a trance. 

I got down from the fountain, still in shock, but a sharp pain brought me back to reality.

"You're coming with us," Annabeth said, her iron grip cutting the circulation from my arm. She dragged me over to the rope ladder leading up to the ship and I started frantically climbing it. What I saw when I got up there hit me right in the feels.

Leo was working the ballista looking like he was being controlled by something else. I felt Annabeth come up next to me and I could feel her tense as she saw what Leo was doing.

"Leo!" she screamed, "What are you doing?" 

"Destroy them . . ." he said, facing us, his eyes glazed over and his face expressionless, "Destroy them all." He continued reloading the ballista, but I felt a gust of wind as Percy surged past Annabeth and I and tackled Leo, his head making a sickening crack when it hit the deck.

Leo's landing was definitely worse than getting hit right in the feels. I was strapped below deck, the harness cutting into my shoulders and was so tight I could hardly breathe. The impact of hitting the Great Salt Lake in Utah was not so great. It flung me forward and forced the breath from my lungs. Once the ship had stopped rocking, everyone unstrapped and Annabeth looked quizzically at me, though behind her eyes I saw a hint of fear. Why would Annabeth Chase possibly be afraid of me? 

"Come on, Leila, we're going to the lounge," she said kindly, though I could tell if I didn't go willingly, I'd be forced. I simply nodded once and followed her. Once we got there, we realized there were only seven chairs, for each of the seven demigods, so I was stuck using a metal fold out chair that happened to be there as an extra. When Leo walked in, he looked so sad and dejected I just wanted to hug him and tell him it would be alright, but Annabeth reassured him for me.

"We've been talking. We agree it couldn't have been you Leo. That cold feeling you mentioned . . . I felt it too. It must have been some sort of magic, either Octavian or Gaea or one of her minions. But until we understand what happened-"

"How can we be sure it won't happen again?" Frank grunted. I wanted to defend Leo so badly, but I was about to need to defend myself.

"We can talk about what Leo did," Hazel interjected, "but what about that whole glowing thing Leila did?"

"Yeah, what kind of sign was that anyway? Definitely not one of the gods," Percy stated.

"She's too old to be a demigod, what else is there?" Frank asked discrediting the situation.

"What else could she be?" Percy questioned.

The three continued on in this manner, until Annabeth finally had enough.

"Alright, alright, alright!" Annabeth said over their arguing. "You're all right, Leila is not a demigod, but she is obviously not human, the way she controlled Octavian and the other Romans," she turned to look at me. "The sign that appeared over Leila, gods I hope I'm wrong, but that was the ancient symbol of Gaea."

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Wow look at that, I actually updated! I'm sososososo sorry for not updating, but I was in the mood for writing and I really have wanted to work on this, I've just been super busy with school and sports and all that. Hopefully I can update more frequently because I really want to just get the story going, that's mainly what this chapter was about. You like that cliff hanger? 

Anyway, comment if you have any suggestions and thanks for reading!

*Obviously I don't own any characters but Leila blablabla noobody cares :)