hello everyone! good news: i figured out a way to get on wp without my parents knowing, so imma try weekly updates (or every two weeks, since each week will be the other fanfic). idk if this is gonna work, but lets see :) ON TO THE STORY >>>>>>>

"Hey, Dad," the girl, Kayla said, walking up to the glowing guy and giving him a hug.

"Hi, Kayla. How are you?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm good. Just trying to make sure Will doesn't go psychopathic." Across the field, Will was being restrained by Percy and a few other demigods. "And thanks for stopping the fire. It almost reached Camp Half-Blood."

"How did you know I was gonna stop it, anyways?" the guy asked.

"Well, you're Lester—" "I THOUGHT I SAID WE NEVER SPEAK OF THAT AGAIN!" "—and you're Apollo, so I could guess that you'd come through."

"Ah. Well. At least you convinced me . . ."

"Wait, so are you Lester, or Apollo?" a new voice interjected. It was Keefe.

Lester/Apollo laughed. "Lester was when my father sent me to earth as a mortal for punishment. Which we don't speak of. Apollo is my actual name." Apollo held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Phoebus Apollo, god of medicine, poetry, music, the sun, and much more. But you can call me Apollo." Keefe hesitantly shook his hand.

"I think I know you," I cautiously said. I remember, when I was 6 or 7, we were learning about the Greek gods in 7th grade. Ms. Tanner made us all read 372 pages of a history book containing information about the gods and such. The rest of the class struggled to get through the first page, but I finished reading it in a couple days, thanks to my photographic memory. Apparently, no one likes a 1st-grade-aged kid in 7th grade that's smarter than all of the 7th graders' IQ's combined, as I was tormented for the next few weeks—spitballs, knocking my lunch over, locking me in a bathroom stall, etc.

"You're a Greek god, right?" I asked Apollo. He nodded. "Yes, indeed I am. And who are you?"

"I'm Sophie Foster, an elf," I replied. Apollo's face paled. "Oh no . . . "

"What happened?" Annabeth asked, curious.

"I'll tell you when we're in camp," he told us. "Now where is my son . . ." His gaze traveled across the hill until he found him. "Ah. Come on, everyone." He snapped his fingers, and reappeared next to Will.

I sprinted over, asking, "How'd you do that?"

"Oh, I'm a god, so I can do whatever I want, y'know?" he said, smirking.

Actually, I snap my fingers as hard as I can, which generates enough energy to open a void, he explained, the sudden sound his voice in my mind almost making me jump.

Woah, how'd you do that?  I asked, yet again.

Oh, I'm a god, so I can do whatever I want, y'know?  He repeated. I laughed.

The others soon caught up. "What are you going to do about Will, Dad?" Kayla asked Apollo.

He sighed. "Sorry, Will. This is the only way to fix you." He proceeded to gently place his hands on Will's chest and chanted in . . . ancient Greek. Yeah. That's it. A gold aura surrounded both father and son.

Will twitched, grimaced, and grunted. The process seemed to be getting unbearable for him. "It hurts," Keefe said, pale and shaking. "It hurts, Sophie. It hurts." I looked over at my boyfriend with concern.

"Apollo, are you sure this is safe?" I asked.

"Of course it is! I should know. I'm the god of healing, after all," he replied through gritted teeth.

"Keefe and I'll be over by the tree," I told everyone. "He's an Empath, which means he can feel what others are feeling." Everyone glanced over at Will. "Call us if you need anything."

I led Keefe to the tree, making him sit down. A little color returned to his face. "How're you feeling?"

"I don't care about myself," Keefe told me, looking over at the others. "But what about Will?"

"He'll be fine," I promised. "Apollo knows what he's doing. Sure, it'll be painful, but the most important part is that Will gets healed."

Keefe sighed. "I know, Foster. But . . . he lost Nico. You know how hard it is to lose someone you love?"

My mind took a second to process that. (insert loading circle XD) "Wait . . . Will and Nico are—were—together?"

He nodded sadly. "Yeah."

"How'd you know?"

"When Nico died, the strongest emotions I could feel were Will's. I felt sadness, anger, frustration, but significantly largest, heartbreak. That's how I could tell. And to lose him . . ." Keefe shuddered. "Remember when the Neverseen abducted you?"

"Yeah. . . ." I shuddered as well, remembering the day that happened. I was just trying to have a normal day in my life with Silveny, but someone light leaped to Havenfield, gagged me, drugged me, tied me up, and light leaped back to wherever. I was sitting in that warehouse for weeks, breathing toxic sweet fumes and struggling to get out of my bonds. Every time my consciousness resurfaced, I could feel someone playing around in my head, but after I tried to kick them out, they drugged me again. Luckily, the Neverseen accidentally let down their guard and went to go investigate something outside, which was when Keefe, Dex, Biana, and Mr. Forkle showed up to rescue me. We didn't have time to see who exactly were the kidnappers, though, since the distraction seemed to have finished.

"I—I thought you were dead for a really long time." Tears were leaking out of Keefe's eyes. "Then Forkle shows up, saying he's tracked the nexus that was hidden under your tunic sleeve. That at least gave me some hope. But watching your boyfriend get killed right in front of you . . . that's a new level of pain."

I leaned over and gave Keefe a big hug, wiping the tears out of his eyes.. "I'm sorry, Keefe. I would've broken out if I could."

He nodded. "I know you would've. You're Sophie Foster! But Will . . . he—"

"SOPHIE! KEEFE!" Annabeth called from where the others were sitting, interrupting our conversation. She waved her hand at us. motioning for us to come over.

I decided to try what Apollo told me earlier. I channeled all my energy into my fingers---so much that it felt like it was going to burst. I snapped as hard as I could, and BAM---the void was right in front of me, a big gaping blob of blackness.

"C'mon, Keefe," I called from in front of the void, ready to jump in. But he was too busy staring in awe at the void and me. "I'll explain later. Just come. They're calling us." I half-dragged him over and jumped in. I visualized where the others were sitting, and soon enough, we were standing right next to the others.

Annabeth, who was the closest to us, scrambled backwards. "Holy— How did you get here?!"

"I was trying something new," I said, glancing at Apollo. "And it worked!" Apollo grinned and flashed a thumbs-up.

"How's Will?" Keefe asked.

"He's calmer now," Apollo said. "I put him to sleep. He should be better when he wakes up."

"We should take him to the infirmary," Kayla said.

"Yeah, we probably should," Percy agreed. He began to pick up Will's arms. "Apollo? You gonna help, or . . ."

"Yeah. Yeah, sure," Apollo said, moving closer to take both of Will's legs.

"Actually, hold on . . ." Keefe said. "Foster?"

I sighed. "I told you, it's shaky. I can't support the entire weight of Will's body."

"But I can help!" he exclaimed.

"You're just one person, Keefe," I said. "You sure you can handle him if I have to pause?"

He pretended to flex, making me laugh. "Trust me, Foster. You don't know what I'm capable of."

Once we were ready, we counted down. "Three . . . two . . . one . . . " The others gasped as Will's body rose into the air. I closed my eyes in concentration, trying to gather all of my leftover energy—which was surprisingly a lot. I stored it into a little space in my mind and opened my eyes, ready to draw energy from my large reserve.

We walked towards camp, with Percy, Annabeth, Kayla, and Apollo leading us towards the infirmary and making sure we didn't bump into anything. Keefe and I took turns taking small breaks. Soon, we reached the infirmary. The best part? We didn't even bump into anything at all! (Ok, maybe I veered off into a tree after five minutes. But who cares?)

We carefully set Will down on a bed. Apollo pulled a blanket over him, murmuring, "Sleep well, son." The six of us walked to this thing called the "Big House", which was literally just a big blue house. Apollo knocked on the door, and this horse-man person opened the door.

"Hello, everyone. Come in, come in," he said, ushering us inside. After finding a place to settle in, I noticed Keefe was staring openmouthed at the horse-man. Horse-man noticed and chuckled. "I'm Chiron, a centaur. A centaur is half man, half horse, but you've probably already noticed that." Horse-man—Chiron—trotted to a wheelchair and sat down, but the wheelchair didn't break. Instead, it looked like he was a regular human. A disguise, I subconsciously thought.

"And who might you two be?" Chiron asked.

"We're Sophie and Keefe," I told him, pointing to each of us in turn. I looked to Annabeth for confirmation of saying the next part. She nodded. "We're elves." I waited to see how he'd take the news, but all he did was mutter, "Elves? Now? Is it time already?" Then he told the rest of us, "Excuse me. There is—um—something going on in the cabins. I'll be right back." He walked out of the wheelchair and swiftly cantered away.

"Now, what's our next plan of action?" Annabeth asked.

"Did we even have one in the beginning?" Percy joked. Everyone burst out laughing.

"Oh, shut up, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth laughed, playfully pushing Percy.

"Ok, but really, what are we going to do next?" Keefe inquired.

For a moment, everyone went quiet, thinking of what to do. But it was Percy who spoke first.

"I'm going to the Underworld."

how's that for a cliffhanger? i'm pretty sure you all can guess what happens next, or at least why he's going to the underworld. anyways, it's another school morning, so i better go before i get caught. BYE!

–╰•🌟🌟𝕒𝕟𝕠𝕟𝕪𝕞𝕠𝕦𝕤𝕕𝕠𝕝𝕡𝕙𝕚𝕟🌟🌟•╯