A Dark Cloud Over the Future Ch 11

Chapter 11: A Shocking Discovery
All the head counselors were gathered in one room around a ping-pong table. Thalia and Nico were at one end of the table and tried to bring the meeting to order while several of the campers were playing pranks on each other or arguing over some small matter.

“Quiet!” Chiron yelled over the noise of the other campers. AS everyone turned their heads to look at him, he raised his hand up to his mouth and let out a small cough as if to readjust the volume of his voice. “We have important matters to discuss,” he said in a calm voice. “Beckendorf, tell us about what happened on the ship.”

Everyone looked at the Hephaestus leader and he began to tell everyone what had happened, how the plan fell apart, and how Travis had died. He even mentioned the fact that there could be a spy among their ranks.

“We had known there could be a spy in our ranks for years, but we never had any proof or leads as to who it could be,” said Michael Yew of the Apollo cabin.

“Well, now we do,” said Beckendorf as he pulled a small silver chain out of his pocket and tossed it onto the table. “Travis slipped this into my pocket before he died. Must have stolen it off Kronos.”

Thalia picked up the small charm and looked at the shape of the charm, that of a small scythe. She gripped it in her hand and slammed her fist on the table.

“This isn’t right!” Thalia screamed.

“This isn’t right,” came a small echo from someplace else in the room. Everyone looked around as if trying to figure out if anyone else heard what they had.

“Did anyone else hear that?” Michael said still looking around the room.

Thalia looked at the charm again and gripped it in her hand, bringing it closer to her mouth this time.

“Hello?” she said into it

“Hello?” came her voice from the other side of the room. Everyone followed the sound until everyone was looking at Selina, who was hiding her left wrist with her right hand.

“We’re going to need to see your wrist,” said Michael as one of his hands started to reach for an arrow in his quiver. She noticed this and uncovered her wrist. Just like all the other Aphrodite campers, she had an assortment of jewelry on her wrists, including a small charm bracelet with an even smaller scythe charm hanging on it that was hidden by several other charms hanging from it.

“Selina…no,” Beckendorf said as his eyes lowered a bit toward the ground. Then, everyone saw several small tears fall from his face, hidden by his hair. Selina saw this and started to cry as well. No one was really sure what to do, until Michael called in two of his fellow campers and they grabbed her, carrying her away to who knows were.

“Where are you taking her?!” Clarisse yelled at Michael, who turned around to face her down. He was almost a foot shorter, but he made up for it with another two feet in attitude.

“She’s a traitor, and traitor’s need to be punished. We’re going to put her in a cell,” he said in a matter of fact way. This seemed to just make Clarisse angrier as she started yelling back, showing a bit of attitude herself.

“You didn’t even let her explain!” she scowled. “There could have been a good reason for why she was passing along information!”

“Ya, she wanted to get us all killed,” Michael said back.

“She deserves a chance to explain herself at least!” Clarisse said back at him.

“And she will, after we defeat Kronos,” he retorted. The argument only got worse from there with the other cabins looking at each other, trying to figure out what side to pick. While it was true that Selina has giving information to the Titans, she should at least be allowed to explain herself. However, they were in the middle of a war and couldn’t risk the lives of the demigod campers, as their numbers had become smaller and smaller over time.

“She should be allowed to speak,” Clarisse said. “Who agrees with me?”

As she looked around the room at the faces of the head councilors, no one was looking right back at her. Connor’s brother was killed because of her and Beckendorf’s heart could still be seen on the dirt floor of Bunker 9. Thalia and Nico didn’t know what to say as they watched the events unfold in front of them.

“Fine, be like that,” Clarisse huffed as she turned her back to them. “Fight this war without Ares. Until she gets a fair trial, we won’t light another finger to help,” and she stormed off to meet her cabin mates. Several of the other groups of campers had only seen Selina get carried off and had no idea what was actually happening.

“Good riddance,” Michael said as he crossed his arms and took his seat back at the table.

“What are you talking about?!” Katie Gardner of the Demeter cabin asked. “This is a disaster!”

“And I have more bad news I’m afraid,” Chiron said as he pulled out a bottle of water and held it up to the light, making a small rainbow.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering," he said as he tossed a golden drachma into the rainbow. “Show us the threat.”

An image formed in the rainbow and before anyone could grasp what they were looking at, they all looked on in panic as a huge monster broke free from under his prison at Mount Saint Helen.

“What is that?” Nico asked, not sure of what he was looking at.

“Typhon,” Chiron replied. “Father of all monsters.”

Darkcloud1111 ~Fastest Hero Alive  03:47, August 23, 2011 (UTC)