Equilibrium

Chapter 42: Luka's POV

"You must get to camp before she does, with all the relics. Save the camps Luka Del Rosso, save them. Either way, whatever you do , there will be a battle. You must find Equilibrium or else you will perish. You will all perish."
I jolted awake, unaware of where I was.
After a quick survey I realized that I was still in the bus on my way to Iowa. How fun. That dream was not a fun one, whose voice was that? And who do I have to beat to camp? I'm rather confused to be completely honest. At least I hadn't been attacked by any monsters again, that would not be a vibe and honestly at this point I don't have the motivation to fight any off. There was still a lot of time till the bus was supposed to reach my destination, so I decided to do a little planning first.
The voice in my dream said that I had to get all the relics back to camp. That means I have to contact Percy and Leo. I also have to contact Chiron, because the lady said that there would be a battle no matter what.
And then there's Jackie.
"You must find Equilibrium or you will perish. You will all perish."
She left. She freaking left. She let her emotions take over, and now we were going to fail. I need to try as hard as I can to contact her and get her to forgive me for whatever horrible thing she thinks I did.
Rummaging through my bag I found about six drachmas that I could use to get in touch with the people I needed to contact. Frank had taught me all about Iris messages before we left Camp Jupiter, and I was planning on doing just that.
There was a bathroom at the back of the bus since it was for long trips and they couldn't be constantly stopping the bus for the dumb old people to empty their already failing bladers. There were not a lot of people wanting to go to Iowa it seemed, because the bus was not even half full. I picked up my drachmas and headed into the bathroom, planning on using the sink.
Thankfully no one was taking a piss so I slipped in and set my coins on the small counter space. What was it I had to say again? Oh yeah, I remember now.
Turning the knob of the tap on,I took a flashlight and small mirror out of Jackie's backpack. That girl seriously packed everything with her.
It took me a couple minutes but eventually I managed to position the flashlight and mirror in a spot that made a rainbow in the mist that was coming from the heavy flow of the tap water. First I would contact Chiron, then Percy, Leo, and finally, our lord and saviour the queen Jackie.
Throwing the first coin into the mist I recited the words that Frank had told me to, "Oh Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering."
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, an image started to form in the mist. I could see the big house, it was midday and Chiron was sitting in his wheelchair staring out into the distance, watching all the campers go about their daily routines.
"Chiron!" I exclaimed, excited that the Iris message had gone through. His head snapped my way, and the expression on his face turned from a life isn't that bad to an oh no we're all doomed.
He wasn't wrong.
"Luka, is everything ok?" He asked with a sense of urgency. I almost laughed at that because things were so far from ok that it was literally going to destroy us all.
I shook my head, "Look I don't have more than a minute, I have to contact a few other people, but whatever happens, if we succeed on our quest or don't, there's still going to be a big battle at camp. You need to get everyone ready, and I'll be there as soon as I can."
Chiron didn't seem overly surprised, just sad. The poor guy had probably seen a lot of death in his lifetime.
"Very well Luka, do what you must and we'll be ready." And with that, he waved his hand through his side of the mist and disappeared.
One down three to go.
Next was Percy, and when the image came up on him he was sitting on the beach with Annabeth. They looked like they were having a good time, good thing I was here to mess that up! The couple were flirting and kissing here and there and I felt highly uncomfortable having to interrupt them.
"UhHh guys?" I said, so awkwardly I felt like dying on the freaking spot. Annabeth's head shot in my direction and she gave me the dirtiest look I had ever been given. So much fun.
Percy looked at me confused, "Um, hi Luka, you good?"
You know what, I'm just going to keep this short and sweet.
"You. need to get your sword to camp as soon as possible and get ready for battle. I've already contacted Chiron, but you need to hurry."
Annabeth nodded grimly and Percy looked like he was about to cry. "Mooooore monstersss? He groaned burying his face into his hands. His girlfriend put her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek, "Hey it's ok, we'll get through it. Like always." She mumbled into him.
I wanted that. I wanted that someone to tell me it was going to be ok.
I'd never find them though. She didn't exist.
"Where's Jackie?" Annabeth asked, turning in my direction again. Uh oh, time to lie.
"Um, she's sleeping right now." I said, keeping on my poker face. She seemed to buy it because she nodded her head.
I smiled at them both one more time before waving their image out of the mist.
Contacting Leo went pretty much the same. I told him he needed to get to camp with his toolbelt asap and he just cracked a couple jokes, asking where Jackie was. Again I lied, feeling even worse. They couldn't find out just yet. I needed to give them false hope, just in case. Leo agreed to get to Camp Half Blood as soon as he could.
Now it's Jackie's turn.
She can't keep letting her emotions get the better of her. We NEED to complete this quest successfully, and she knows that.
"Oh Iris, Goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering." I recited again, throwing another coin into the mist.
Nothing happened. I waited, but still nothing happened.
She didn't want to be found. The stupid girl didn't want to be found.
I sighed, Jackie and I really did just get ourselves into a fat pickle, that's for sure. Collecting my remaining two drachmas, flashlight, mirror, and Jackie's bag, I turned the tap off and made my way out of the small bathroom back to my seat. One thing I'd realized was that Jackie had put some kind of spell, I don't even know what, on her bag, because it was like the thing had an endless amount of space. It was like Mary Poppins' bag, or the bag that Hermione from Harry Potter used in the last book. Somehow, I stuffed my backpack into Jackie's so all I had to carry was the one bag and my bow and quiver.
I was just in time too because we had finally reached Iowa. Damn I really must have slept a long time because we crossed at least one state's border I think.
Time to get the Aphrodite relic.
On my own.
Yippee.