The Spirit Of Chaos | ✔

Facing the Past - I

JASON

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Over my entire lifetime, I had seen numerous things that had shocked me. I had witnessed unsounded events throughout my entire life. I had seen talking statues and flying ships. I had seen a Goddesses true divine form. I had seen the entrance to Tartarus itself. I had seen the Olympians ride to our rescue against the Giants. I had seen a God being reduced to a mortal, and so I was pretty sure that there was nothing left for me to see that would faze me.

Although, when I reached Camp Half-Blood, my belief crumbled. The entire camp was in disarray, and by the looks of it, they were looking for something or someone.

Perce had called me back from Camp Jupiter, and since we didn't have Hazel's supersonic horse, I tried calling Tempest, and he was there, to carry me again. From the sky, I could see older campers spread out in every direction, frantically looking for something. I could also feel Will's excitement to get back on solid land. He was terrified that Tempest would dissolve in thin air, and we would plummet to our deaths.

After about 20 minutes of explaining to him that Tempest is not a gust of wind (well, technically, he is...) and he won't vanish into thin air, and about 20 minutes of threatening to leave him alone if he whines anymore, we were headed towards Camp Half-Blood.

Once we finally set down on Half-Blood hill, Will leaped from tempest's back like it was a hot plate. I got down and let Tempest free. As we descended the hill, some Hecate camper came up to us and literally screamed at us.

"Have you guys seen Luke? He is missing since the war council!" When she mentioned Luke, I got confused.

"Uh, I don't think I know a Luke that goes to this camp," apart from Luke Castellan, of course, but I doubted that he had revealed himself.

The kid ran away, probably to continue the search for this Luke kid.

I went to find Percy and found him sitting on the porch of the Big House. He was lost in thought, staring away towards the cabins.

I snapped my fingers in front of his face and his head snapped towards me so fast, I thought he would get a whiplash.

"Thank God you're finally here!" Percy exclaimed as soon as he saw me.

"Jeez, don't tell me you missed this piece of meat so much!" I replied, pointing to my body, to which I earned a smack at the back of my head.

"Jason, we know who we are facing and there is a lot of things going on right now, so please, stop acting like an imbecile and listen to what I have to say."

Woah! Percy was angry. He had never talked to me like that.

"Okay," I said stretching out the word. "I am all ears."

"No, not here, let's go to our cabin first."

He got up and lead me to the Poseidon cabin, where we sat on his bed.

"Jason, we have found out who we are facing. It is the Titan Oceanus. Remember you were not able to reach me using telepathy? That was because they had captured me and Jay. We were, or at least I was, held in such a place that I could not use my powers. I discovered a few things about who we were facing. When I wasn't unconscious, I had heard a conversation between them. One of the voices belonged to the Titan Atlas and the other belonged to Perses..."

Percy explained each and every event that trespassed since he went missing until today morning. For some reason, he seemed hesitant to tell me about the war council that was supposed to be held today.

"Perce, did something go wrong during the war council?" I finally asked.

He looked up, and I could see traces of guilt in his eyes, that was suppressed by anger.

"I... um... I revealed Luke's true identity," Percy whispered. "I- we were discussing about how Oceanus was able to go past the camp borders and take my place. As the topic about weakening camp borders was raised, unintentionally, Luke started speaking things about the factors that could have weakened the borders. He entered a sort of trance in which he was spewing everything he knew about the poison he had used on Thalia's pine tree, and then one thing lead to another and then Annabeth accused Luke of being a spy for Oceanus. Due to his past mistakes, being accused as a traitor sort of triggers something in him. He hears all these voices in his head that start reminding him of his past faults and send him into a state where he can do nothing but accept those accusations." He lowered his voice once again and continued. " The same thing had happened to me. They had blamed me and had exiled me from the camp. I couldn't bear to lose Luke to the campers' foolishness. What made it worse was that the campers had crossed a line and I couldn't hold back anymore. I completely ignored Luke's decision to remain incognito and I basically slammed the news in their faces." Percy finished and looked up from his lap, to my confused expression.

"So, you're saying that the campers are searching for our Luke?" I concluded. "And what do you mean by 'his past mistakes'? Did something go wrong in the past," I asked but it came out as a statement.

"I think I will be able to explain that much better than him." A third voice interrupted us and I looked up to see Luke standing by the door.

"Luke? If you are here, why are the campers looking for you like Zeus lost his pants and is throwing a tantrum?"

Luke just smirked and sat down beside Percy, making him scoot over onto the center of the bed.

"Well, it's my way of punishing them for accusing me."

"And," I said stretching the word out. "They didn't think of checking this cabin."

"Jeez, Jase, I didn't know you thought so less of me. I am the son of the God of thieves! I am hiding in the Mist here. Anyhow, facing more important matters..."

"It was around 8 years back when it all started. It was Percy's first year at camp, he was twelve and I was nineteen."

"Luke..." Percy quietly mumbles while placing a hand on Luke's shoulder.

"It's okay, Perce, I need to get beyond all these matters. I have to get over my fears, so please..."

Percy smiled and I could swear they had an hour conversation with their eyes within a minute.

"I had this burning hatred against my father-Hermes. I kind of blamed the Gods for a few things that happened to me in the past. I felt rejected by my own father. It all had started when my mom, who was a clear-sighted mortal. She had thought that she was destined to be the next oracle, so she came here at camp, and tried to take up the Spirit Of Delphi..." Luke stopped and looked at Percy who continued without missing a heartbeat.

"... But, due to a curse placed upon the spirit of Delphi by Hades. Neither Hermes nor Apollo knew about this. They only knew that the oracle wasn't able to exit her body to a new host, and even after Hermes opposed her decision, she went through with it. When May, Luke's mom, tried to inhibit the spirit, she went insane. She was plagued with fits and shattered glimpses of Luke's future. This took place way before Luke ran away and reached camp."

Luke continued again.

"I couldn't handle seeing her so weak, so I decided to run away. I was nine at that time. That's when I met your sister and Annabeth. When I was seventeen, Hermes gave me a quest to retrieve a Golden Apple from the garden of the Hesperides. I was beyond honored to undertake such a quest, but on the quest, I came to know that Heracles or Hercules, had already completed this quest. I started losing faith in myself. I didn't want to second someone. This scar," He traced the faint line that ran down his right cheek. "Was a result of fighting the Guardian dragon, Ladon. I failed. When I returned, the campers started having pity on me and my grudge against my father and the Olympians flared like never before. Kronos knew I was at my lowest and so when he approached me, I agreed to help him. I became the host for his body, and before that, I made Percy's life a hell. He had to go on 4 deadly quests because of me. These were my mistakes..."

"Oookay, but what did you do that revealed you today?" I asked, thoroughly confused.