Alexis
Everyone walked back to the cave to say a final goodbye. Although Alexis was glad to be leaving this place, she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness that she would never see this perfect utopia ever again. Zoe collected a few books and journals to bring with her. Juliet brought a planter with flowers from Calypso’s garden. Clary and Hans were empty-handed. To them, nothing there was worthwhile to keep.
Alexis walked down the cave into the bedroom she had shared with everyone for so long. She kneeled down in front of her trunk and popped it open. She hadn’t opened the trunk since Juliet had first shoved her dress inside. Alexis knew there was no way she could bring the whole dress with her. The sailboat was too small, and the dress was falling apart anyway. Instead, Alexis used a knife to cut off a strip of green and pink striped fabric from her skirt. She wove the piece of fabric through her braid and stood up. With a last look around Alexis walked out of the cave. Selene grabbed her hand and the whole group trouped to the sailboat in silence.
When they reached the sailboat, Hans and Alexis helped everyone climb in Hans reached out a hand to Clary, but she refused it.
“Wait,” she said. Clary knelt down and pulled six bottles from her pocket. They were barely bigger than Selene’s pinky. Each bottle had a mixture of Ogygia’s perfect white sand and blue-green water.
“I made these back when Cal left,” Clary explained. “And we all thought we were leaving.”
Everyone took the little bottle, even Zoe, who seemed ecstatic to be leaving the island. Alexis looked at her little jar for a second then zipped it into her coat’s pocket. After Hans and Alexis had climbed on the boat, everyone stood in a moment of silence.
“Let’s go,” Juliet said after a few minutes. Alexis closed her eyes and with a flick of her wrist, they were off.
The trip did not last long. Alexis didn’t know if it was because she had used her powers, or if the island had sent them right next to where she wanted to go. Either way, the sailboat soon pulled up on the shore of Long Island. The sky was dark and the only light came from the moon. For a moment Alexis was worried that Clary, Zoe, Juliet, Selene, and Hana wouldn’t be able to enter the camp, as they were technically only mortals, but they stepped on the land without a problem. Their time on the island must have given them a connection that the magic borders allowed.
Everything still felt like a dream as they all walked around. As the sky was completely dark, it made sense that everyone was inside. The camp had changed quite a bit since the last time Alexis had been there. Where the 12 cabins had once stood in a perfect U, was now a massive clump. There were probably 40 or 50 cabins now. There were many other changes to the camp, like the huge statue looming in the distance, but it still felt like the same camp half-blood Alexis had grown up with
“What do we do?” Clary asked. Everyone was looking around in amazement. Alexis realized how weird this must be for them. She had spent maybe 100 years locked away, but they had spent thousands, their only sense of progress through secondhand stories.
“We talk to Chiron,” Alexis said. Chiron. Her mood shifted as memories that Alexis had tried to forget came flooding back. He had put her away. He might be the only one who knew what was going on. Alexis couldn’t quite remember where Chiron stayed, but when she saw the big blue farmhouse, she knew it must be there. “Come with me.” She led the group to the big wrap-around porch. The light was still on, so he was probably still awake. As Alexis reached over to pull open the door, it slammed open before she could touch it. Alexis jumped back and Selene grabbed her hand.
The person who had opened the door stared at their group. Their icy blue eyes were wide behind their glasses as they stared at the people in front of them.
“Who are you?” They asked at the same time as Clary.
“You first,” demanded Alexis.
“I’m no one. I’m just leaving. What about you?” They asked and tightly crossed their arms over their chest. The person looked like they were going hunting with their combat boots and camo jacket.
“We were just going to talk to Chiron,” Alexis explained.
“Well if you’re friends with him, you can go in. I don’t want to talk to you.” They stepped out of the doorway.
“Oh, we are not friends.” Alexis started. She reached out to pull open the door again.
“Wait,” The person grabbed Alexis’ wrist, “is that?” Alexis pulled her hand back.
“It’s just a tattoo, I thought those were normal nowadays,” Alexis said.
“No, it’s...” They broke off and stared at Alexis’ face. “Alexis?”
“How…” Alexis started to say and the person thrust out their wrist. The interlocking triangle tattoo that Alexis had on her wrist stared up at her. She slowly looked up at the person's face. No. It couldn’t be. Could it? “Castiel?” She asked softly, not believing it was real.
“Yes.” They cried. “Yes, it’s me.”
“Oh, my lord.” Alexis felt tears well up in her eyes. “Is that really you?” Her voice broke and she grabbed Castiel and pulled them close. It had been decades, and Alexis thought she would never see her friend again. They held each other close, both sobbing.
“Alexis?” Selene asked softly. Alexis pulled away from Castiel and turned toward her friends.
“You remember how I told you about my best friends from before?” Alexis grabbed Castiel’s hand. “This is one of them.”
“How is that possible?” Zoe asked. There was a harshness in her voice that surprised Alexis.
“I don’t know.” Alexis turned back around to Castiel. “How are you still alive?”
“Well, for starters, I’m not alive,” Castiel told her.
“Sorry, what?”
“I’ve been trapped in Hotel Valhalla for over 150 years,” Castiel explained. “You remember when they sent me to that Norse camp? After I died I went to Valhalla.” Castiel explained to Alexis. Alexis nodded in response. She still could not believe the day she’d had.
“What about you?” Castiel asked.
“Remember that myth about Calypso, the daughter of Atlas? She was imprisoned on the island of Ogygia? I've been working as her servant this whole time.”
“You? Working as a servant?” Castiel gave a timid laugh. “How did that go?”
“Well, she did spill a drink on Hephaestus.” Clary joined in the conversation. Castiel smiled but stepped slightly closer to Alexis.
“Oh this is Clary, Hans, Zoe, Juliet, and Selene.” Alexis pointed at each person respectively. As they were waving and saying hi to one another, the farmhouse door burst open once again. An old man wheeled through the doorway.
“What’s going on here?” He asked. When he realized everyone who was standing around he looked confused.
“You.” Alexis sneered, completely forgetting her conversation with Castiel. “How could you!” She started to yell. “What kind of person does that? You separated me from the only people I’ve ever loved. My friends and family are long dead. I will never get to see them again. I will never get to go back to my home. I’ve lost my childhood memories and I don’t know my own culture!”
Castiel had first looked worried at the screaming, but Alexis’ words seemed to bring up memories and they joined in. “Yep. We were still kids. If you thought we were dangerous you should have trained us. Taught us to control our power.”
“I thought he was the right thing to do. It was never my intention to hurt you.” He tried to defend himself.
“The road to Hades is lined with good intentions.” Alexis spat at him.
“Hey, hey what’s going on out here?” Alexis looked up. Two people were standing in the doorway. The person who spoke seemed to be about 18 or 19. He was tall with black hair. His eyes were sea green, a similar color to the water on Ogygia. He held a pen in one hand. The person standing next to him seemed to be of the same age. She had long blonde hair that was pulled into a ponytail. She wore an orange t-shirt that read Camp Halfblood. In her hand, she clutched a dagger.
“Why don’t we go inside and talk.” Chiron offered, looking worriedly at Alexis and Castiel.
Inside everyone settled in. Hans, Juliet, and Clary sat together on one couch. Zoe and Castiel sat apart from one another on the other couch. Alexis stayed standing with Selene. The girl and guy also stood facing everyone. Chiron sat in his wheelchair in the middle.
Juliet kept giving the guy funny looks and suddenly she exclaimed, “You’re Percy, aren’t you?”
“Percy, Percy?” Clary asked Juliet.
She nodded, ”I think so.”
“Of course. No wonder you’re friends with him.” Alexis nodded toward Chiron. She didn’t bother to mask the disgust in her voice.
“I’m sorry, do I know you?” Percy asked. He looked around the room, “Why is everyone glaring at me.”
“We don’t like people who hurt our friends,” Selene said.
“Speak for yourselves,” Zoe said. “I think she deserved that.”
“How could you say that.” Juliet cried. “You know better than anyone what it means to lose someone you love.”
“We were there because of her. If she had denounced her damn father, none of this would have happened, and maybe if she had taken us with her we would have left that place sooner.” Zoe argued back.
“You guys, this is not the time, and Zoe, come on. What if we had stayed invisible? Would a few years really be worth it? Cal thought we were free.” Hans pointed out.
“Cal? As in Calypso” Percy spoke. “You know Calypso?” His face was slightly red.
“Do we ever,” Zoe said.
“Who do you think made your bed every day? Who cooked your meals? If you had paid more attention, dear brother, you might have noticed us.” Alexis said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Dear brother?” Annabeth spoke. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m Alexis Ricci. Daughter of Poseidon, nice to meet you.”
“Daughter of Poseidon? You have a sister Percy?” Annabeth exclaimed.
“Of course Chiron didn’t tell you.” Alexis rolled her eyes.
“Alright, alright.” Chiron held up a few hands. “Everyone, please. We are going to wake up the campers. I know you all want answers, but could we wait until tomorrow morning?”
Alexis wanted to argue, but she felt Selene lean against her. Looking over at her friends, she could tell they were tired too. It had been the most exciting day in over a thousand years for them. They were clearly exhausted.
“Fine,” Alexis gave in. “But first thing tomorrow morning we finish this.”
“Yes,” Chiron assured them grimly.
**
Alexis helped Percy set up bed rolls for everyone to spend the night on. Castiel looked annoyed that they had to stay. Apparently, they had been in the middle of running away when they'd bumped into Alexis.
“Good night, sleep tight.” Alexis finished tucking in Selene and stood up. Alexis tucked her hands into the pocket of a sweatshirt that Annabeth had let her borrow to sleep in.
“Hey, Alexis?” Percy called out to her. “Can we talk?” She nodded and followed him outside where he stood on the porch.
“What?” She asked.
“Ok, listen. I know we got off on the wrong foot and I still don’t understand where you came from, but if you really are my sister, I want to be friends with you.” He said.
“Ok. I guess maybe... maybe I can give you another chance,” Alexis admitted.
“It’s kind of cool to have a sister you know. I mean I have one, but she’s still a baby. The only other brother I had is a Cyclops. The baby is my mom’s, so you aren’t siblings.” He clarified.
“And the cyclops?”
“Oh, he’s your brother.”
“Great. Thanks, Poseidon.”
“Don’t worry. He’s really amazing.” Percy assured her. “You’ll love him.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“I’ll take you to visit him. He works at Poseidon's palace.”
“I’ll pass.” Alexis crossed her arms.
“What?” He looked confused.
“I’m not exactly a fan of our father,” Alexis told him. “If you haven’t noticed, he’s a dick.”
“He can be not the greatest sometimes, but he cares.” Percy tried to defend him.
“Maybe he cares about you, but he certainly doesn’t care about me,” Alexis said. “Listen, it’s late. I should get to bed. I’ll explain everything tomorrow.” With that, Alexis walked inside and curled up on her mattress. She rolled over to face Castiel. They offered her a small smile and Alexis melted. She had a lot of built-up anger, but she couldn’t stay mad when she saw Castiel’s smile. Alexis thought she might never get to see their face again, yet here she was. Falling asleep next to one another, just like all those years ago.