MAIN TITLE: The Keeper of Fate

WARNINGS: See first chapter for warnings.

NOTES: Thanks to Richasa, XxVivIeNnexX, TheAnnoyingOne97,chaSing b0b, angel2u, FadedSunset, Priscilla X. Silver, LSU lovePurple liveGold, Nephthys835, miramisa90212, fearless0601, FluffyDarcy-X-X-X, sexichick and erbERB for reviewing this chapter!

chaSing b0b mentioned that I should put a recap of the story in, so here it is.

Brief Summary of Keeper of Fate: Dess, a daughter of Hephaestus, is asked by Apollo to defy the Great Prophecy in order to save lives. She agrees. She grows close to Luke, and then Percy Jackson shows up. Percy exposes Luke as the lightning thief and Luke leaves Camp after asking Dess to join Kronos' army, which she refuses to do. Thalia is freed from her tree and Dess and Clarisse wander into the Labyrinth in order to get info on how to navigate it and on Luke's plans. They get separated and Dess, with the help of her mortal ex-boyfriend, finds her way out of the maze and back to Camp. Just as she is starting to readjust to Camp life, crazy stuff happens.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the PJO series. Rick Riordan does. The chapter title and the stuff about the magic school bus and Ms. Frizzle are all references to the kid's cartoon The Magic School Bus.

Chapter 28: The Hunters Ride the Magic School Bus to Camp

When Jake bursts into Cabin Nine babbling about a school bus in the canoe lake, of course Beckendorf, Zeth and I automatically assume he's trying to pull some kind of stupid prank. But he's not.

By the time he's dragged us down there against our will, all of the passengers are off the bus and on dry land. Most of these passengers are clothed in silver. Hunters.

Damn it, I inwardly curse. Never thought I'd have to see them again. But there they are. Zoë Nightshade with her silver circlet and her right-hand…well, man wouldn't be appropriate, considering Phoebe's a girl like all the rest of those sexist twits.

What are they even doing here? When they brought me to Camp years ago they refused to pass through the barrier created by Thalia's tree—they said they most likely wouldn't be welcome because their last visit had turned out to be a disaster. (Later, I heard rumours about them burning cabins down by accident. Right.)

I search the group for Artemis, but instead my eyes fall on another Greek deity. Apollo. Exuding a golden, almost blinding glow, like he's trying to counter all the silver. That must be torture for him, being surrounded by all those eternal maidens that probably despise him.

Or maybe not. Maybe he doesn't care either way. I can picture him flirting with them, but it's not like he actually wants to get in their pants. After all, despite the fact that mentally most of them are way older than I am, physically they've barely reached puberty.

It's weird, though. The Hunters here but no sign of Artemis, only her twin brother. Would she really trust her perverted, conceited brother with a bunch of pre-teen girls, even if he doesn't actually want to get lucky with them?

I'm puzzling over all this when Beckendorf wonders aloud, "What are Percy and Grover doing with them?"

Percy and Grover? Yes, there they are, standing amidst all those immortals. And not just them. Thalia, too, and some scrawny kid that's bouncing on the balls of his feet and looking around excitedly like he's in Disneyland or something. He must be a half-blood if Apollo brought him here. We'll see how long his enthusiasm lasts. Probably 'til he meets Mr. D.

The Hunters are headed in our direction and I tense, expecting some kind of confrontation (they weren't exactly fond of me when we were travelling together), but all that happens is that some of them throw scornful glances at my brothers. No one stops or acknowledges me at all.

Maybe they don't remember me, or they just didn't notice me standing there surrounded by people they consider the scum of the earth solely because those people happened to be born with a Y chromosome. (I was always pretty bad in school, but even I can remember X plus X equals female and X plus Y equals male.) Or maybe the Hunters do remember me and they did notice me, but I'm just not worth their time.

Grover is trailing along behind them and prattling on like a lovesick fool. Juniper's going to be pissed if she finds out about that, even though she's not technically dating the satyr. Percy, Thalia and the boy that looks like he's on a sugar high are still with Apollo, who calls out, "Take care, sweethearts!" after the Hunters and then looks directly at me.

I scowl at him. He grins back.

Game on, sweetheart. I recoil slightly, mostly because I didn't expect to hear Apollo's voice in my head, but also partly because he used the same endearment on me that he just used for the Hunters. Asshole.

Game on? What? I'm hoping for some clarification, but of course he turns his attention back to the black-haired trio standing of front of him. He winks at Percy and says something to him, then hops onto the bus that I assume belongs to him, because who else would own a flying school bus? Other than Ms. Frizzle. Who isn't real. Probably. Hopefully. I can handle Greek myths coming to life, but not a character from a kid's cartoon.

Soon enough, the bus has transformed into some red car that has all my brothers practically drooling, and then Apollo and his magic school bus/apparently drool-worthy red car vanish into the sunlight.

I'm practically dying of curiosity—this whole situation is just so strange, and where's Annabeth?—but Beckendorf just shrugs his shoulders and heads to the outdoor forge by the Armoury. Zeth mutters something inaudible under his breath and then slinks back to the cabins. Jake wiggles his eyebrows at me in a 'let's-go-cause-complete-and-utter-chaos' sort of way.

I'm not really in the mood to pull a prank, but when I tell Jake that he says, "Not even on the Hunters?" and I suddenly find myself very much in the mood to wreak havoc.

Even though Jake and I must have done the 'rig-the-showerhead-with-a-substance-that-is-mildly-offensive-to-the-victim' thing at least twice before, that's the prank we pull on the Hunters. We use a really strong-smelling alcohol that we get from an Apollo camper who is old enough to drink. Most of the Hunters are ridiculously uptight and abstain from anything remotely enjoyable, not just sex, so being sprayed with booze will annoy them to no end. Plus Dionysus is going to be super pissed at them when they show up for breakfast or lunch or dinner smelling like his own personal forbidden fruit.

After we've prepared everything there's really nothing for us to do except wait for our prank to unfold, so we head back to our cabin where we find Zeth and Beckendorf, who informs us that tomorrow we're all playing Capture-the-Flag—Campers vs. Hunters.

I really, really don't want us to lose to them for like fiftieth-plus time, but apparently Jackson and Thalia are co-captaining our team. Which just spells disaster, if you ask me. I mean, they're friends, and they get along well enough. But sometimes they're so similar that they just—clash, I guess.

Though maybe I'm wrong. It's not like I've seen the two of them interacting with each other that often. Despite the fact that we've been going to the same Camp for two summers, I haven't spent much time in Percy's presence. If he wasn't like, famous or whatever, he'd just be another random stupid kid whose face I recognized, but whose name I didn't. And I'm pretty sure that's how he knows me. By sight, not name. I prefer it that way, though, so it really doesn't matter.

Half an hour later, after I've constructed a laser pointer out of various materials found in the cabin and have started flashing the beam all over the place out of lack of anything better to do, someone knocks on the door.

My brothers and I all look at each other. The boys are all busy doing something that's actually productive instead of just killing time, so it should really be my responsibility to answer the knock. I suddenly feel Gareth's absence very strongly, because no one barks at me to get off my lazy ass and walk the few feet to the door to open it.

I start to get up, but then reconsider. "Gah, forget that, it's too far."

Zeth lets out an exasperated sigh, Beckendorf rolls his eyes, and Jake laughs at me.

"Dess, you're awful."

"Maybe so," I reply, shrugging, "but I'm still not answering that door."

Muttering profanities under his breath, Zeth puts down his latest project, strides across the room and yanks the door open.

It's Thalia. She peers around Zeth's hulking form and stares at me pointedly, like I should've somehow instinctively known that she was looking for me.

"All right, all right, I'm getting up," I grumble. I pocket my laser pointer, grimace at my brothers, and follow Thalia until she comes to a stop at her tree.

She sits down at the base and gestures for me to do the same, so I plop down beside her and ask her what she wants.

As it turns out, she wants to exchange information. I tell her about the weeks I spent in the Labyrinth, and she'll tell me what the Hades is going on with the Hunters and Apollo and that weird hyper kid.

I give her a general summary of my quest, leaving out anything I don't want her to know, and she looks relieved to hear that I didn't off Luke despite having encountered him twice. I still can't believe she thinks I'm capable of that—actually, physically ending someone's life, and actually defeating Luke in battle. She's got a lot of misplaced confidence in my fighting ability.

Then she tells me about her day so far, and it's all so insane that I'm not sure I believe a word she's saying.

"Let me get this straight," I say when she's finished her explanation. "Grover had you, Percy and Annabeth join him for some military school dance because he'd found two half-blood siblings that were being watched by some creepy vice-principal that was actually a manticore, the Hunters showed up and saved your butts, and Annabeth fell off a cliff and vanished? And then the sister—Bianca, did you say her name was?—joined the Hunt, and Artemis ran off to chase some ominous beast and had Apollo bring you guys to Camp?"

"Yeah, that's basically it," she says.

I stare at her, then shake my head. "That's crazy. So how old are those new kids?"

"Bianca's twelve—not that that matters anymore, considering she's never going to age. Nico's ten, I think."

"Ten?" I echo. Styx, I'm a decade older than the kid. "And his sister just left him and joined the Hunt? Just like that?"

"Yes," Thalia says grimly. "Nico might look all happy-go-lucky right now, but trust me, he was really upset when she joined. I'm sure he still is."

"No kidding," I murmur. "Talk about betrayal, just up-and-abandoning her brother like that… But it's none of our business," I suddenly recall. "What about Annabeth, where do you think she is?"

"If I knew, I'd be on my way there right now," Thalia answers, her electric eyes flashing, and I don't doubt her for a moment.

Thalia and I eventually go to the dining pavilion for dinner, and before we split up to sit at our respective tables, Thalia points out Bianca to me.

When I'm seated at table nine I glance back-and-forth between the newest Hunter and her brother. I can definitely see the resemblance. Black hair, olive skin, dark eyes. Bianca's smile looks really different, though. Maybe because it's genuine, whereas Nico is probably just faking for the Stoll brothers. How could he possibly smile for real when his sister's not sitting there with him?

Anyway, what do I know? I've never even talked to either of them.

It's weird and more than a little annoying to have the Hunters here. The pavilion was practically empty yesterday, because so many campers go home during the school year. It was just me, my brothers, Silena, Cheryl, two other Aphrodite kids (I think their names are Jason and Lauren or something), Mark, Sherman, Isabel, and three campers from the Hermes cabin (Travis, Connor and Althea, a young girl that arrived at camp a few years ago and still hasn't been claimed) which is a ridiculously low number for them.

Now we have to sit here and listen to the Hunters apparently having the time of their lives while the rest of us are either sulking or bored out of our minds. Both options apply to me.

Afterwards, Chiron welcomes the eternal maidens and announces the Capture-the-Flag game that will take place tomorrow night. Not so excited about the Hunters being here, but the chance to finally beat them makes up for it. Provided Percy and Thalia aren't too busy arguing with each other to lead us to victory.

I notice Isabel, sitting in her wheelchair at the Ares table with her brothers, looks a little wistful. She won't be participating. She can't anymore.

Finally, Chiron dismisses us and we all head back to our cabins. I slip downstairs to my underground room and crawl under the covers, tossing and turning until I finally manage to shake off the phantom warmth of my former lover stretched out beside me.

I dream that I'm standing on a balcony, and when I turn around I find myself face to face with Luke and a man sitting in throne-like chair in the shadows. I freeze, terrified, but they're frozen, too, like statues. I back up until I feel the cool metal of the balcony railing pressed up against my back.

Who is this man? What's wrong with Luke, why is he so pale and why does his scar look as though it's recently been reopened? What are they waiting for? I know they're waiting for something. I am, too, but I have no idea what.

The railing behind me abruptly vanishes, and then I'm falling backward, tumbling through open air. When I land I feel nothing. No impact, no pain.

I pick myself up off the ground and glance up at the balcony. Luke and the other man are still motionless, but I'm afraid they might spring to life at a moment's notice, so I hurry to the exit door. I wander through corridors and exhibits—I'm in a museum? What is Luke doing in a museum?—until I end up in room with the remains of a T-Rex.

I used to go on field trips to the Royal Ontario Museum sometimes when I was in school, and no matter what grade I was in someone in the class always insisted on going to see the dinosaur exhibits. While I was never as fascinated by dinosaur bones as the other kids (wow, really old bones, big deal), I certainly wasn't afraid of them.

But now as I stare at the T-Rex's sharp teeth, I'm filled with overwhelming dread. There's something wrong. Those aren't normal dinosaur teeth. For reasons I can't explain, they remind me of death.

The next thing I know I'm racing to find the museum's exit. I burst into the sunlight and sprint down the museum steps. I've already crossed the street by the time it occurs to me that I have no idea where I am.

I wander aimlessly like I'm back in the Labyrinth and eventually come to a stop when I reach a huge building labeled: NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM.

I still don't know where I am, but I do know that I don't like this city. Too many museums. Those field trips to the ROM always bored me to tears.

I wonder if I'm going to have to go inside, but before I can take even one step closer, I wake up.

I'm tangled in the bed sheets and sweating like crazy. I keep my eyes closed. You know how when you stare at the sun or a really bright light for too long, you get little spots on the inside of your eyelids? Well I have those right now, but the spots are grouping together to form a word.

Smithsonian.

I don't even know what that is. That word is not in my vocabulary, but it's burning bright on the inside of my eyelids.

I know Apollo has something to do with this. Game on, he said yesterday.

I still don't know what he meant, and I don't know what Smithsonian means, but I know that I'm going to have to find out what city those two museums were in.

That, I'm absolutely certain, is where the game begins.

Author's Note: Reviews are appreciated.