Who I Truly Am

Ch. 18 *Edited*

Frank POV:

"Okay, you are going to pop up in California about a mile away from Camp Jupiter," Coeus points at a map laid out in front of us.

"We're hoping you reach Camp Jupiter by mid-day," Rhea puts a hand on my shoulder. Her hand was cold against my skin. I take a deep breath and nod.

"You'll leave your backpack down here," Kronos says.

"Why?"

"Because we have scouts claiming that your ship is heading towards California. We want it to be believable."

"Okay, but how am I getting out of Tartarus, exactly?"

"By using this," Kronos hands me a black bracelet, each bead engraved with different what looks like Greek letters. "It will keep you in contact with us, and if you need to, visit Tartarus. When you're ready, press the bead engraved with the omega. To contact us press the theta."

"The omega is the horseshoe one, and the theta is the O with a line," Grover notices my confusion. I nod in thanks.

"See you soon?" I ask Grover.

"Yep."

I press the horseshoe. I feel like I'm spinning until I land on solid ground. I stay on the grass for a minute, regaining my composure. I take a few deep breaths, enjoying the fresh air. I stand up and walk through the trees. After walking a while, I start to think I'm lost, but then I hear growling behind me. Hellhounds. I must be close enough to camp for them to start chasing me. I start running, my bare feet hurt against the ground. All of my weapons are still in Tartarus.

I've been running for a while now; I think my feet have started to bleed. Why did I agree to this? I finally catch sight of the camp's borders, where two people are standing guard. I think that was more than a mile from Camp.

"A little help?" I ask them. They start attacking the hellhounds, easily killing them.

"Praetor Zhang, I thought you were in New York?"

"I was, a lot of things have happened since then. I need to go speak to Reyna. Do you know where she is?" Praetor mode activated.

"In her office, most likely."

"Can you grab me a shirt? I kind of had to use my only one as a bandage," I gesture towards my Camp shirt around my nasty cut, which is now soaked in blood. Yeah, I need to get that fixed before it gets infected or something.

"Yeah, we'll send a healer with your shirt."

I walk to our offices, which are nice and tidy. Which is a weird sight when you're used to the mess at Camp Half-Blood. I mean everyone there seems to know where everything is, but it's messy. Reyna stares down at her desk, deep in thought. Her dogs sit on either side of the desk.

"Hey, Reyna," Reyna jumps.

"Zhang? What are you doing back, and so beat up? If it was those Graecus-"

"Don't worry, the Greeks didn't do this," I take a seat across from her.

"Then how did this happen?"

"It's a long story."

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"So you're saying the gods are liars?"

"Yes," I look at Reyna, who looks at her dogs.

"Well, the dogs haven't killed you, so you must be telling the truth, or have been severely misled to beleive all this," Reyna looks me in the eyes like she's trying to figure out how I got past the dogs. There's a knock at the door. Reyna sends me a look telling me that this conversation isn't over. "Come in."