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The camp pretty much dissolved into chaos when it was known that Clarisse was back. Then everyone tried to call her a traitor for bringing Luke with her. The only thing going for them was the fact that Dionysus wasn't there. Both doubted that they would have even been given a chance to explain if he had been around. Mr. D would have just turned them both to ash and been done with it.
Thankfully Chiron and Annabeth were able to talk the others into letting them try and explain what had happened during Clarisse's captivity. The ones that were the easiest to win over were Castor, Pollux, Connor, and Travis. Though they had been the ones closest to Luke before he went off the rails, and they knew when he was lying, and when he wasn't.
Annabeth also believed them, well, Luke really, but Clarisse wasn't sure if it was because she actually believed them, or if she just wanted to. Not that she was ever going to say any of that out loud. She knew better than to make any mention of Annabeth's crush on Luke, and thankfully she had learned that lesson by watching Percy make that mistake over and over. Clarisse wondered why that boy never seemed to learn that lesson.
Percy though, wasn't around, and she and Luke both knew better than to just assume that he'd be okay with everything that had happened. They thankfully had time to get the other senior counselors on their side before he came back to camp.
*~C~*
Clarisse found it hard to adjust back to life at camp. She found it hard to sleep in a room with other people in it again, and she tried to tell herself that it was because she had gotten used to being on her own, but it wasn't true. The truth was that she had grown too paranoid to be able to sleep with other people in the same room as her.
Maybe the Titans's army hadn't tortured her, but waiting for it to begin was just as psychologically damaging. She could barely trust her siblings in the first place, but now she found that the only person she even felt remotely comfortable around was Luke. The second boy she had rescued, and the one who had saved her in return.
The one who had gotten so deep in the in the other side that he knew every single plan that was currently in play. Like the Labyrinth, and Kronos needing to possess a body. Before Clarisse had been captured, it had been Luke that Kronos was going to possess, but now neither of them were quite sure who was going to take his place.
Clarisse thought that it was going to be Chris. Luke disagreed, and said Ethan. Both wanted to be wrong.
They told Chiron about the plans for the Labyrinth, but kept the other bit to themselves. They had no way of knowing when it would happen anyway, so they agreed to stay quiet.
*~C~*
Percy flipped when he saw Luke back at camp.
Luke took his rage calmly, but the others didn't, Clarisse least of all.
"He came back," she spat when Percy paused for a breath during his rant, "He helped me escape, and he knows pretty much all of their plans, and is willing to, and actually is doing everything he can to help us! Don't you think you should maybe listen to what he has to say before condemning him?"
"He doesn't have to trust me," Luke said softly.
"He doesn't," Clarisse agreed, "But he should trust me." She glared at Percy, "I have never given you a reason not to," she said, "I'll grant you that I never gave you a reason to like me, but I never gave you a reason to not trust me."
Percy glowered at her, but she refused to back down. She might have lost Chris and a few of her siblings to Kronos, but she wasn't going to lose Luke, not after getting him to leave. She knew that if he joined Kronos again, he'd die. She wasn't in the mood to watch another person she cared about chose the wrong side again, and she certainly didn't want to watch him die because of a wrong choice.
"Fine," Percy ground out, "I'll hear you out."
So they told him everything, well, almost everything. They still kept the body possession to themselves. It wasn't like knowing about it was going to stop it anyway. It was all still going to boil down to a fight with Kronos, and this was the only way it was going to happen.
*~C~*
The Battle of the Labyrinth happened. Lee and Castor and the other kids whose lives were too short still died. Kronos still took possession of a body, and Clarisse was upset to learn that she was right. It was Chris. Luke blamed himself for his brother choosing that path. He said that if he hadn't been so angry, and so weak to let Kronos in his head, then none of this would have happened.
It took Percy saying that Kronos had been watching them all for years, and that if the pitch had been made at the right moment, then no one would have been able to resist. Luke still blamed himself, but he blamed himself a little less after that.
*~C~*
When the Battle of Manhattan came Clarisse wouldn't fight. Too many times she had had to defend Luke to the other campers, and too many times had they dragged them in for information or help, but then turned around and said that it wasn't good enough. She wasn't angry enough to fight against them, and neither was Luke, hell, he still wanted to fight, but she wouldn't do it. Her cabin followed her lead, and Luke stayed behind as well to try and convince her, but it wasn't until Silena stole her armor that she knew that she needed to get to the city.
She and Luke ended up in the throne room at the end with Percy, Annabeth, and Grover. She was the one to get through to Chris by reminding him of the promises that they had made to each other years ago when she had brought him to camp. She was unashamed to cry when he died. He had died a hero just like Silena had, and he had stopped Kronos before he could kill them all and destroy western civilization.
Clarisse was proud of Chris. He'd made mistakes, and he'd hurt her, but he had done the right thing in the end. She knew that Luke was proud of his brother as well. He and Percy had traded looks when Chris had told them to not let anything like this happen again, and she knew that they were going to do everything in their power to make his last request happen.
*~C~*
"You saved both of my sons," Hermes said after all was said and done.
(Oaths on the River Styx included.)
Clarisse wasn't sure what she should say to that. "I loved them both," she said. It was all she really could say. "Will always love them both," she added.
He nodded at her, and then disappeared. She kind of hoped that that meant that he was okay with her and Luke, because she wasn't letting him go. They weren't the brave heroes of the story, and they were only brave with each other, and she wasn't going to try and go back to the way things were before she had him in her life.
Things were better with Luke. She had a reason to fight when she had Luke.
"We are the brave," she whispered to herself. It was true too. When people were in love, they were braver than if they were facing down a drakon with only an electric spear and no armor.
Clarisse could live with that, and she knew Luke could too.