Nostalgia: Heroes of Olympus

○ R E B E C C A ○

I was pissed. Arlene thought I was helpless. It was the reason she saved me from that empousa. I was holding my own just fine, and I had a plan, but no, she just had to have the honor of killing her. I stomped up the mountain side, the cold having no effect on me. I'm not saying I wasn't cold, it was more like I was absorbing the cold. It must have been one of my crazy powers that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"What's wrong?" Nico asked, looking at anything but me. It hurt that he couldn't look me in the eyes, but I couldn't bring myself to mention it.

"Nothing," I mumbled, staring at the snow crunching under my sneaker-clad feet as I countinued to climb. He, being who he is, didn't give up.

"Seriously Becky, if you don't talk to me, I won't know how to help you," the use of my nickname made me want to smile through the tears that had begun to pool in my eyes. The look on his face made my heart melt and ache in one weird, elegant dance. The words spilled out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"I feel like you live Arlene more than you like me. I feel like this entire quest was doomed to fail from the beggining. And there is the stupid prophecy that says that I'm going to bring eternal night upon the world after Arlene sets it on fire. And then there is you. You're too nice and don't tell at me when I'm mad and don't yell at me when you're mad, and..." he silenced me with a hard, passionate kiss.

"I love you," he stated once he had pulled away, no doubt or question in his eyes. I was amazed that he could answer all of my questions with one, three word phrase. I nodded my head, tears filling my eyes. He leaned in and kissed me again. Without any hesitation, I kissed him back.

"Get a room!" Arlene teased, pulling a laugh from my mouth. Immediatly, all the doubt and tension was realsed from my shoulders. I could breathe again.

"Hey, we're almost to the top," I pointed out. The excitement on Arlene's face was indescribable. We raced to the top, everyone of us falling more than we would admit (I'm looking at you Arlene). The veiw was breathtaking. There was a certain joy in seeing the world spreading out below you. It was an other worldly feeling.

Arlene's breathing became labored and she backed away from the edge. I remebered that she was afraid of heights and went to console her. Her breathing slowed when my arm was put around her. I whispered reassurances in her ear while Nico scouted around for other possible enemies.

"So, what now?" I asked when Nico returned. Arlene had calmed down enough to move around, but the fear was still evident. No one had an answer. In the end, we decided to wait until we got an idea of what to do. We set up camp with a veiw of, well, everything below us. I was hoping that someone would say something to pull us out of this silence. No one did.

I wandered off, consumed by my thoughts and needing a place where my tears couldn't be seen or heard. The prophecy rang in my head on a continuous loop, making me want to claw it out of my brain. According to this damn prophecy, Arlene was going to set the sky on fire and I was going to cause an eternal night. With our luck, we would probably even raise Ourano without him having to possess a body.

A small sigh escaped my lips, but it was wisked away by the bitter wind. I looked over the side of the mountain. If I were to jump, would that end everything. The prophecy wouldn't come true, and Ouranos would have to find some other obsession. I quickly shook the thoughts from my head. I had depression, but I wasn't going to be suicidal. I turned to move even further from camp, but an ear-splitting scream made me sprint back.

I was forming a plan in my mind on how best to fend off attackers when a line of fire shot up into the sky. I rounded the last turn, but came to a stumbling halt. Standing next to an unconscious Arlene was Leo. Nico was smoking by a rock a few feet away.

"What the hell is happening!" I demanded, warily eyeing the line of fire that was coming from my sister and heading towards the sky.

"I don't know! I woke up here and your sister randomly combusted into flames!" Leo cried, cradling Arlene's head in his lap. A boom filled the air as the line of fire connected with the sky. Faster than I would have thought possible, it spread, consuming the entire sky untimely the sun blended in with the dangerous masterpiece.

"You have to stop it!" Leo yelled. I felt fear spread through my veins. This was too much responsibility for me. I could hardly lead the line in a hallway, how could I be expected to save the world. Closing my eyes, I steady my breathing. I opened them, finally confident when I noticed something wrong.

"Leo what happened to her arm?" Ibwailed, looking at the empty cavity where Arlene's arm used to be. Leo's face turned ashen and he muttered a curse under his breath. A collapsed to the ground in body wrenching tears. I couldn't focus on this. Why save the world when it had never done anything but bring me pain and misery.