Faeborn (Sequel)

Ambassadors

Honestly, the worst part of teleporting was the aftermath. The actual process was akin to breaking apart a tower of blocks- except the blocks were your organs and bones- and then reassembling yourself together. Alkaios had taken apart enough people to intimately know the ins and outs of human anatomy, but all of this rebuilding takes a toll.

When he stumbled out of the haze that teleporting left him in, Alkaios swore that he could feel his organs knitting back together. This is why he stumbled into Chaos's office instead of stepping out casually- at least that's what he told himself.

Chaos's raised eyebrow went purposefully unnoticed as Alkaios straightened and brushed off his cloak with an awkward cough. He felt a strange sense of deja vu, as if maybe in his other life he had been clumsy like this- but he swept it away quickly.

Thinking about his old life always put him off, which is probably why he didn't notice the other presence until she coughed.

"Some things never change, it seems." A voice like honey and a scent like lemons- it really seemed like some things never changed- was all it took for Alkaios's hackles to raise, and for his guard to go up.

"Don't," he said instinctively, without thinking, "speak to me so familiarly. You don't know me anymore." He turned around to look at the woman who he knew would be standing there and his stomach dropped as he took in the steel gray eyes and honey blonde curls of the person that he thought he had left back on Earth.

He was kicking himself internally, but his outer features were a cool mask. Then he really registered what was going on. All of his friends told him that something in the synapses in his brain was off as a joke, because he couldn't possibly be as clueless as he seemed, but sometimes he had to wonder about himself too.

"Chaos," he said, his voice low, "how in Hades is she here?" He winced as the old slang accidentally slipped off of his tongue and past his lips. He hadn't meant to bring up any more of his past, but it almost seemed unavoidable as of late. He didn't know what was going on.

He knew he was being uncordial, impolite, and pretty much just an edgy teenager, but he couldn't help it. Honestly, you don't know me anymore, could he have said anything more cliche?

Chaos put his head in his hands. "This is what I was trying to avoid, if only you'd ever read your mission briefs and status updates."

The stars scattered on his suit twisted agitatedly, as he rubbed his eyes. "Honestly, the pair of you," Alkaios didn't know if he meant Era and himself, or even Annabeth and himself- "need to work out your issues." He still wasn't sure.

Despite her earlier lapse, Annabeth, who was the other presence in the office, suddenly came forward coolly and professionally, her gray eyes covered in a sheet of ice. "Pleased to meet your acquaintance again, Alkaios." She held out her hand. "I'm the new ambassador to the Chaos planet, on the behalf of Camp Half-blood."

A brief pause.

"What the f-"

"Ah, ah, ah," Chaos chided. "Language. You wouldn't have been so surprised if you didn't fall asleep during important meetings and actually read your files instead of burning them- yes, I know about that- and maybe you would have been more prepared. Annabeth was chosen to be the ambassador between our two groups, as Camp Half-Blood felt it was in the best interests of both of our factions to keep in touch, and, perhaps, even work together. You know we have a lot of demigods here, Alkaios, and not all of them have the same feelings as you towards their former home."

Logically, Alkaios knew that it made a lot of sense. Annabeth was whip-smart and a good speaker. She was eloquent and decisive, and would probably be a good politician on some of the more democratic planets that he had visited, and was one of the immortal demigods back from his time. She was perhaps the best choice to be an ambassador, and the whole system made sense as well. He knew a few demigods who had grown homesick, despite the reasons that had driven them to join Chaos's Army in the first place, and no doubt this alliance would benefit both sides of the equation.

That didn't mean he had to like it. Maybe he did need to stop sleeping through mission briefs.

Annabeth coughed and put down her hand. "Thank you for seeing me, and for flying me here, Your Greatness." Chaos raised another eyebrow at the honorific. Annabeth smoothly continued on. "I've been told that my quarters are in the northwest wing?"

"Yes, and the quarters of your companions as well," Chaos nodded.

Alkaios latched onto the word, but bit his tongue.

"I'll be going then, as I've cleared everything that I wanted to discuss." Annabeth shuffles the files he hadn't noticed she had been holding, and turned on her heel, her blonde curls sweeping down behind her. "I'll see you around, Alkaios."

Hopefully not.

He kept his questions down until the door swung shut behind her, but then he whirled around and almost exploded the room with the magic that came rushing out of his supply. He couldn't help it.

"I'm only going to say this once," Chaos spoke abruptly. "I don't care what they did to you, though I do sympathize to an extent- you will be polite and respectful to the ambassadors. You will set an example. You are one of the most influential people here- I will not have this project ruined because of your emotions and or need for vengeance. Your feud with them happened a hundred years ago. You can be civil."

Alkaios tamped down on his power and raked a hand through his perpetually messy hair. "Fine," he bit out. He still wasn't happy about her being here, but he understood that whatever was going on- he still wasn't sure what exactly was happening or why she was exactly here, everything happened in a blur- but he knew that just her presence would help a lot of the other people here, and those people were his friends. He would never do something to purposely hurt his friends.

It just seemed like she just appeared in the office, and swept out again, right after upturning everything in his life. Again. He still couldn't process it. He needed a cold shower. His head started to pound just by reliving the entire scenario.

"Now that that's out of the way," Chaos looked at him. "You had something you wanted to tell me, information from the bartering planet, I assume?"

At the mention of what he learned, the wind went out of Alkaios's sails, and he slumped down into one of the oak-backed chairs that Chaos had in his office.

"I found a way to get to Era's home planet."

IM SORRY. PLEASE DONT KILL ME. I KNOW ITS BEEN A YEAR SORRYSORRY. I'm not going to make promises I can't keep, so I don't know when the next chapter is coming out (possibly soon) but I tried not to leave you on a cliffhanger? Kind of? Thank you to all of you who stuck with this story, and with me, for so long. I appreciate you all for more than you could possibly know.

Haha how do you like Annabeth showing up? Who do you think the other ambassadors are? Sorry for the lack of Era in this chapter, but she'll be coming back soon.