Chapter Text
41-Sophie
When I got back to Havenfield there was a note on my bed. It had the same loopy writing we had found before. Lady Gisela- Keefe’s mom.
“Flori, how did this get here?”
“I’m unsure Sandor. I was guarding the property and wasn’t in the house.” Sandor murmured a few unkind words under his breath. He walked over to the bed and checked to see if there were any traps around it.
“I’m assuming you’ll want to open this Miss Foster.”
“Actually I was going to open it with my friends.”
“Of course you are.” He sighed “you better hurry before it gets dark.”
“I’ll try.” I hailed all of team valiant, Tiergan, and Fitz. Just about anybody else that needed to be there would end up here even if I didn’t hail them. Once everyone was crammed into the living room, the only person missing was Keefe. If this letter contained what I thought it did it would be better if he wasn’t here when we read it.
“Are we going to open that letter yet?” Fitz asked
“Yes, just give me a second,” I pulled out my imparter and hailed Percy Jackson.
“Who is Percy Jackson?” Tiergan asked
“He’s a demigod, long story.” I answered, “We can trust him.”
“How can we be sure he’s trustworthy?” Someone asked
“He- I already know the full story behind him. He’s been through worse than any of us. He wouldn’t betray us.” His black hair and green eyes flashed on the screen.
“Why are you calling me, it’s two in the morning?” He complained
“Sorry, this is really important.”
“It better be.”
“Oh just open the letter, Sophie,” Stina called from the other side of the room.
“Ok give me a second.” I grabbed the letter off the table and broke the wax seal.
Go to the place where time stood still and bodies lay on the ground.
Your new friend will know where and when I speak of.
Bring my son, and bring those new friends of yours
You’ll need them.
This will be the end of everything, no matter which way the battle turns I will finish Keefes Legacy and I will shatter everything.
Xoxo- Lady Gisela
“Ok, so Percy, any idea where this place is?”
“Yeah,” he swallowed like he was reliving bad memories “Manhattan.”
“Ok, I don’t want to sound dumb,” Stina said, “but am I the only one who has no clue what Manhattan is?”
“You’re not alone, I don't know either.” Dex admitted
“Neither do I,” Biana added
“Well I wouldn’t expect that you would know, it’s one of the human cities,” Alden said
“It’s actually one of the Boroughs of New York, it’s where I grew up,” Percy said.
“Ok, but why did bodies lie on the ground while time stood still or whatever the letter said?” Fitz asked
“Well during The Battle of Manhattan Kronos made sure that from an outside view, New York would be completely still and all of the mortals were asleep thanks to Morpheus.”
“Once again I have no clue what that is.”
“People from Greek mythology, Titans if I remember correctly.” I said
“That’s not our main concern right now, our main problem is that we don’t have a date. We don’t know what day or what time we need to be there.” Mr. Forkle said
“But we do,” Percy said, “this lady Gisela person said I would know when too. The battle of Manhattan lasted for a few days but I think she means one of the specific dates, "My birthday. August eighteenth.” He finished
“What about time then?”
“I wasn’t paying attention to the clocks when I was fighting to save the world. We never stopped fighting on the last day of battle we fought from the previous night until that night. And the last day of the battle was August eighteenth.”
“So then we can assume Lady Gisela has a long battle planned out for us.”
“She said to bring your new friends, who is that exactly?” Fitz raised an eyebrow at me
“That would be me,” Percy said
“Okay but Sophie you said that Percy got a prophecy that said it would basically be us and a select group of the demigods,” Dex said
“Well yeah we assumed it would be me Leo, Hazel, Frank, Annabeth, Piper, Will, Nico, and maybe Meg but I don't think so,” Percy said
“Ok, we aren’t getting anywhere arguing about who can go on the mission but can we focus on that it said to bring Keefe,” I said
“Is that even a debate though, last time we brought him look at what happened,” Fitz said
“Well we didn’t bring him, his mom gave him a different letter and he came anyway.” Biana said. Realization hit me like a brick.
“I have to go.” I snatched the letter off the table and ran out the door.
“Sophie!” Everyone yelled. I hung up on Percy and sprinted through the field.
“Sophie, where are you going!” Sandor yelled after me
“I’m going to see Keefe!” I yelled back. I sprinted and broke open the world in front of me and tumbled into the void. I envisioned splendor planes and spilled out of the void onto an unsuspecting Elwin.
“What are you doing here so late?” He asked me
“Keefe,” I said which explained everything. He nodded and let me in. I sprinted through the house until I reached his room. Without thinking I burst open the door.
“Whoa, a little warning would’ve been nice,” Keefe said
“Sorry.” My cheeks flushed red. He was sitting in his bed with wet hair and without a shirt. His scarred chest was scary looking and the small white streak from his battle with king Dimitar was nearly invisible because it was surrounded by so many more larger scars.
“I could’ve been indecent. But what’s up Foster?” He tilted his head to one side and studied me. “I can tell you’re panicked so you don’t have to lie.” I walked over and sat down on his bed. I grabbed his hand and rubbed the groves that were scars.
“I wasn’t planning on lying, it’s your mom.” His expression went cold, like he had shut down.
“What about her?” He asked coldly
“A letter.” I held it up for him to see. “Do you want to read it?” He took the letter from me and flipped it open. His eyes scanned the paper over and over again. Maybe looking for clues, maybe just hoping that it was fake. After about his seventh time reading it, he slumped his head and went still. I wrapped my arms around his waist and sat behind him. I pulled him into me. He started shaking. I gently rubbed my hands through his hair. I couldn’t tell if he was crying or if he was scared. It didn’t matter which one, I had to be there for him.
“Sophie” he had anger behind his voice “why.” The question wasn’t directed toward his mothers' actions. It was directed toward me.
“Because whatever she did to you doesn’t define you.”
“I was her spy. I put you in danger. It’s my fault. Why do you still keep me close to you?”
“Because you didn’t choose to do those things. You didn’t spy on me, she used you.”
“It’s my legacy, she wants me to shatter it.”
“You don’t know for sure that’s what she wants.”
“My legacy.” He said softly. He repeated those words to himself over and over again. Tears welled in his eyes and spilled over pouring down his face. I pulled him in closer to me and leaned into him. I whispered in his ear
“They’re only blood, she doesn’t control you.” He stopped shaking but kept crying. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. He handed it to me. His mother's loopy writing. I opened it up to read it.
Keefe, no matter what they try to do or what they say.
You will find a way to end up in that battle.
You know your duty
So do it.
-Mom
“That was what her letter before Loanmore said too, but that one had threats to you if I didn’t show. I found this on my bed this morning.” He said in wobbly tones.
“Hey,” I said softly “look at me.” I turned him around and lifted his chin to my face.”I won’t let her hurt me or anyone else. And you won’t be going with us to fight. I don’t want her to hurt you any worse.” He collapsed in a fit of dry sobs and fell into me. I gently rubbed my hand on his back while he cried into me. He held me painfully tightly but I didn’t pull away. He needed this right now. He needed me right now. Eventually, he stopped crying but he still clung to me tightly.
“Sorry.” He said quietly
“About what?” I asked calmly
“I got your shirt all wet.” He muffled his voice with my shirt. I laugh
“It’s fine.”
“Sophie, can you- stay with me tonight?”
“Of course Keefe.” I got up to go walk to my chair when he grabbed the edge of my shirt.
“No!” He said a little too loud ”I mean can you.” He gestured to the bed when words failed him. I gave him a small smile.
“Yes. Just let me change.” I walked into the bathroom which had a closet containing many patterned pajamas. I grabbed an alicorn one and quickly changed. When I exited the bathroom Keefe was still on his bed staring at nothing. He still hasn't put a shirt on. Well, that was going to make this awkward. As if he was reading my mind he addressed my concern.
“After spending so long in bandages it just feels better to not have anything on my skin.”He picks nervously at his sheets.
“Oh, it's fine.” I crawled into the bed. It wasn't small but it certainly wasn't big either. We were close enough for our legs to bump into each other but we still had enough space between us for it to be comfortable. I wanted to put as much space between us as possible but he seemed to want to do the opposite. Keefe gradually squirmed closer to me. He tapped me on the shoulder, and when I turned around he looked like a little kid begging for comfort. He was clutching Mrs. Stinkbottom and had a pleading look on his face. I scooched closer to him and wrapped my arms around him. After that he seemed to relax, his body curled into a ball with my arms around him. Soon he was snoring and peacefully asleep. I fell asleep too. No nightmares. Just perfect peaceful sleep.
Percy-42
It was two in the morning and I was peacefully sleeping in cabin three when the imparter thingy that Sophie had given me started buzzing. I open it and answer her hail. She read a letter that the main bad guy for them had delivered which said we needed to fight in Manhattan on my birthday again. She started running out of her house and hung up on me. I didn't care that she had hung up on me like that, I was tired and went back to bed.
The next morning in the mess hall I called a war council. Everyone that was present last time minus Frank and Hazel were there. I explained the situation to everyone and as per usual an argument broke out.
“Should we Im Frank and Hazel?” Annabeth shouted over everyone.
“Yeah, I think they should definitely know about a quest that involves them,” Leo said
“Ok, then we call Frank and Hazel and tell them ‘Oh by the way we have another quest where somebody might die and you're kind of involved in it but hey at least we know what day it's happening,” Nico said with sarcasm
“Well I mean they have a right to know,” Will said
“Ok we message them and tell them and we still have almost a month to prepare it's fine,” I said
“Yeah, fair point but what are we fighting, a foe we've never met before? Someone we know nothing about. What are we preparing for?” Piper asked
“I'll ask Sophie, so we have time to figure it out.”
“I feel like there's nothing else to talk about other than sharpen up on your fighting skills if you're involved.” Annabeth shot a quick glance at Will and Leo. It wasn't a judgmental look, she just wanted to make sure we could take care of ourselves.
“That's set then, who wants to call Frank and Hazel?” I asked
“I'll take care of it.” Piper said
“Should we contact Sophie now or later?” Annabth asked me with an edge to her voice when she said Sophie.
“Now, I mean it's better to know now than later.” I pulled the Imparter out of my pocket and said her name. Within a few seconds her face was being displayed on the screen. She was in a bed in a place I didn't recognize with the boy from before, what was his name? Keefe. He was asleep in the bed next to her and she looked like she had just woken up.
“What do you need?” She spoke in a hushed tone like she didn't want to wake up Keefe.
“What kind of enemies are we fighting? We kinda need to know because if its something we've never fought before we need to know what to do.”
“Oh, so some of them are elves and some of them are ogres and some of them are dwarves.”
“Do we know if celestial bronze works on any of these monsters?” Piper asked
“What's celestial bronze?”
“It's a specialized material that our weapons are made of that only harms monsters and not mortals.”
“Well seeing as we aren't technically mortals it might work.”
“I'm not willing to take a maybe because the last time we took a maybe I died. Sure it worked but damn that hurt.” Leo said
“Then how are you-you know what I don't want to know.” Sophie looked confused ”A maybe is the best we have.”
“Well then what are your weapons made of?” Annabeth asked
“Umm, I'm not sure but most are either bronze or silver.”
“Then we should be set. We use bronze weapons.”
“Percy,” Annabeth chided me “we can't just assume that it will work normally. Most likely these enemies won't die at one swipe of a sword. They won't just crumble to dust, maybe we actually have to kill people.” Leave it to Annabeth to make a good point. I shuddered remembering the curses from the arai from all the monsters I killed over the years.
“It's fine, we've killed before and we can do it again.”
“Ok glad you're okay with killing but at the same time there are some people we need alive.”
“Who?”
“Lady Gisela, she's the leader of the Neverseen and Keefes mom. I want to kill her myself but we won't until Keefe gets to talk to her.”
“Ok that's doable.” In the background of her video Keefe started to stir.
“Sophie.” He said softly.
“Shh it's fine to go back to bed. I gotta go, but um good luck preparing.”
“Wait-” Annabeth started but Sophie ended the call. “Well that was mildly helpful.”
“It was more than we knew before, so it was a little helpful. Okay Wise Girl can you research that for me.”
“On it.”
“Leo, can we make sure that our weapons are all in good condition ?”
“On it.”
“Piper make that call to Frank and Hazel as soon as possible.”
“Got it.”
“Nico can you teach Will some basics of sword fighting.” There was some arguing from Will ``Come on man I know fighting isn't your thing but we all need to be able to defend ourselves.”
“Come one sunshine boy, it'll be fun.” Nico said as he dragged him out of the room.
“You wanna help me research Seaweed brain?”
“Yep.” As I left the big house I heard grumbling from Leo about love birds. “Man you got Calypso don't complain.” I yelled back to him.
“But she's at band camp.” He complained. I continued walking to the Athena cabin with Annabeth. Hopefully the minimal information given to us by Sophie would help. If not we were going into battle blind.
43-Keefe
After the night I had, crying and sleeping with Sophie I felt like crap. Absolute crap. I woke up to Sophie talking to someone in hushed tones no doubt trying to keep her voice down for me.
“Sophie?” I said softly
“Go back to bed.” She told me. She was talking to Percy about something then ended the call and turned to me. “It's too early to be awake, go back to sleep, Keefe.” She insisted
“But you’re up.” I protested. Truthfully I didn't want to go back to sleep. I was having nightmares and that was why I woke up.
“Yeah because Percy hailed me, not because I wanted to be up this early.” I reached for her hand and she took mine.
“Don't make me go back to bed, I'm tired of the nightmares.” I told her pleadingly
“Keefe, I get it. The constant nightmares. The sleepless nights. But you need rest.” Sophie insisted
“I know, I'm tired, I really am. But can we just stay up for tonight or this morning? I don't even know what time it is. I'll get some sleep tomorrow but today can it just be us?” She shifted in the sheets to face me.
“Alright Keefe. What’dya want to do?” She asked me. I wanted to say so badly. Anything would be perfect as long as I’m with you but I was afraid she wouldn’t appreciate that.
“Can we work on walking? Like I can do it but not for long.”
“Sure.” She hopped down from the bed with such ease it made me jealous. I hauled myself to the edge of the bed and planted my feet on the floor. I wasn’t nearly as wobbly as I was at the beginning of the week but I was still shaky on my feet. “Do you want my help?” She asked me
“No, I think I’ve got it.” I demonstrated my point by nearly tripping over my own feet and struggling to regain my balance.
“I know you don’t want my help but I’m going to hold your hand. It’ll give you a better sense of balance.” Sophie said as she gripped my hand in hers. Her emotions didn’t slam against me like they normally did, I didn’t mind that. The next few steps were easier and after a little while I got the hang of it.
“Good job Keefe.” Sophie told me after we completed three laps around my room.
“Kind of hard to take you seriously when it’s that way for you.”
“I’m serious, I remember how hard it was when I started walking after Umber's attack.”
“Yeah but she also didn’t target your legs.”
“I also remember that time I got my inflicting reset.”
“Did your room really have to be that hot?”
“It wasn't comfy for me either.” She complained
“When your heart stopped-that was scary, don't scare me like that again foster.”
“If I recall correctly you were the only one petitioning for me to take the red pill.”
“No, I was petitioning for you to take whatever you wanted to take, and if I was that might've been the reason I stayed with you for those three days.”
“Wow Ro was right.”
“What do you mean?” I said even though I knew exactly where this was going.
“The great Foster Oblivion, every single time you cut her off around me, I really was Oblivious and you are so obvious about it too.”
“Wait. . .where is Ro?” I asked. Guilt poured over me, with everything going on I hadn't even thought of my overbearing bodyguard.
“We don't know, after you went missing she said there was something she needed to look for. She said don't try to contact her until we found you but when I sent the message she didn't respond or come back.”
“But it's been, what” I counted in my head ”A month and a half since you sent her the message.”
“Yeah, we started to think-”
“No, she's going to come back. Ro is tough, she wont let someone get the better of her.” I wasn't just saying it as a statement, I was reassuring myself.
“I want to agree with you but we have to remember it's a possibility-”
“No. It's not.” I said forcefully
“Maybe you're right, it's not.'' Why was Sophie agreeing with me that quickly? She didn't change her mind quickly but just three quick words had changed her mind in a matter of seconds ``Wait, what did I say?”
“You were agreeing with me.” I told her
“No, I was talking about how it's a possibility that Ro might not be coming back but you had cut me off,” A sudden sense of dread settled into me. What if? No not possible, it's not possible. Not even she would be capable of that. But what if I'm wrong? Only one way to find out. No even if I could, I wasn't testing this on Foster. “What's wrong you just went really pale?” She studied me with a look of concern.
“I'm fine really, just tired from being up for so long.” She didn't look convinced but she helped me walk over to the bed. The second I sat down I realized just how tired I actually was. I had walked for longer than I had in the last two weeks without it hurting too bad. This made me happy because it meant I was getting better. My mom didn’t break me after all.
“So,” she said, “how are you holding up?”
“Fine, considering.” I gestured to myself
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Oh, you mean-“
“Yes.” Truthfully I didn’t know what I thought about my moms letters to Sophie and to me. I didn’t want to show up to the battle, what if she broke me once and for all? What if my legacy was something horrible? What if whatever she did to me three months ago is finally revealed? What if it’s what I think it is? There were so many what ifs and no answers. There were so many questions I had and so many concerns.
“I’m not going to the battle, I don’t care what my mother does, I can’t go. Whatever she wants me to shatter. Whatever my legacy consists of. It won’t come true.”
“Good.” She grabbed my hands when I started to nervously wring them. “Whatever your mom is planning to do, we won’t let it happen. We have this under control.”
“Thanks Foster.” But I left what I was really thinking unsaid. You don’t have this under control, none of us know what she’s really planning, we don’t know and we can never be sure. No matter how many months or years we have to plan in advance she’s had this planned for longer, so much longer.