(c) - So annoying! Do you think I own PJO or something?

If anyone still cares about the people in the first series, read!

Traitor once betrayed
Written by Taylor

They - meaning Annabeth and him - staggered over the hill's boundaries with ease. Grover the satyr was still somewhere down the hills, backing the monsters away. It couldn't be true, could it? It should be just one huge nightmare, and if he blinked hard enough he might still be able to shake out of it.

So why does all his instincts tell him otherwise? It just WASN'T possible. It CAN'T be true. Thalia Grace CAN'T be gone. She . can't . be . gone.

"Thalia." Annabeth whispered faintly, wrapping her arms around him. "Is she...safe?"

At that moment a horse-man trotted up to them. Centaur as Grover has explained they would meet. The man studied them grimly, but they don't have the energy to care. "Hello, half-bloods. I am Chiron, the camp activities director."

"Will Thalia be alright?" He prompted.

Chiron opened this mouth to deliver the news, then thought the better of it. "She will be fine."

How could he have been so naive?

x-x-x

A few months has passed. He got claimed by Hermes, as he knew he would. Annabeth got officially claimed by Athena. It was hardly a shocker.

He visited Thalia's pine tree on a daily basis After the stormy night has passed, Zeus decided to take pity on their heroic friend. Turning her into a pine tree wasn't exactly the best way to go, but at least he could pay his respects easily.

The more he thought about everything, the more he was angry. Not particularly at Zeus, but at his own father. He let his mother go insane, and stuck him into a house with her just like that. Then he got to camp, and he stuck him into a cabin with some of the most annoying, disturbing people claiming to be his his half-siblings.

But Chiron told him otherwise.

"Luke, the gods care about you." He said. Maybe he was downright joking, but the three-thousand-year-old doesn't seem like the joking type. Besides, the words meant a lot to him. It gave him hope that he might still be a hero.

How could he have been so trusting?

x-x-x

Questing for the golden apple was one scarred quest. At first, he was honored by Hermes. Maybe Chiron was right, his father did have a soul.

But Heracles had done it before. And getting the golden apple was completely pointless. What is a seventeen-year-old demigod son of Hermes meant to do with a golden apple?

He failed anyways. The dragon guarding, Ladon, had very pointy claws. He put a scar right through him, inside and out. It made him question his father. You either care for someone or you don't, but that's not the way he rolls.

When he returned, all he got was pity. For days, it was "Poor Luke, he tried so hard".

"Your father cared enough to assign you to a quest." And the horse-man stilled tried to explain in vain. It took him a while to figure out the truth. And when he did, it was too late. Chiron. He did it. He revealed his deepest fear to his father, which was still a fear after all these years.

How could he have been so oblivious?

x-x-x'

"Annabeth, do you ever hear a voice?" He asked pressed, hoping his oldest friend still shared the same bond with him as they did back in the good old days. She was still his friend, but ever since she got to camp all the scattered pieces of her life was starting to come together. She shared the same interests and personality traits with her fellow cabin mates. His only likes to prank and steal – not his style.

They were drifting apart, further and further.

The grey-eyed girl stared at him with curiosity. "Um, no. What do you mean by voices?"

"Never mind." Despite Annabeth's protests trying to make him stay, he walked away. It's just those voices. There are no other way to explain it. Sometimes it comes at night, when his thoughts are more enhanced and clear. It would whisper all things he'd been trying to cover up, and convincing him to do something about it.

Your father never cared about you. It says, in a raspy voice creepier than the oracle's.

"He does. He gave me a quest. Chiron -" He frowned when he got to the part about his teacher.

Why don't you find out?

He should have protested against it, if it took all his might. But his feet dragged him off to the big house. Chiron was laying out a deck of cards, shuffling them around the table while sipping coke from a glass with ice cubes inside.

"Chiron, did you tell my father about what I told you?" He jumped straight into the point.

Chiron looked up with a look in his eyes. Not surprised, but pained. He should've expected it after three thousand years with heroes. "Why, what is the matter?"

Tears welled up in his eyes. To think he trusted this person, because everyone else did. Annabeth looked up to him, he thought he did too.

See? He's lying. The voice came once again.

He inched closer towards the wooden table at the corner of the room, which had a white vase with blue patterns on it – Chiron's favorite vase. Then in one swift move, he swung his blade into it and sliced it into two. Chiron stood abruptly, for once surprised about something.

"I hate you! You lied to me!" And with that, he flew out of the big house, the voice's words jumbled up into one heap all inside his brain.

How could he have been so dumb?

x-x-x

Kronos was in control, but that didn't stop him crying inside when he faced his old teacher for the final time.

"You're a teacher, not a hero." Kronos sneered. He felt pangs of anger stabbing him in the chest.

"Luke was a hero. He was a good one until you corrupted him." Said Chiron, not missing a beat.

Now he was getting really mad. In a flash, he felt Kronos's scythe weighing down his hand, the icy impact right against his skin. The tears streaming down his cheeks suddenly became colder than it had a moment before.

Let me be in control! Kronos wailed. Well, the titan lord didn't actually wail, but it sounded like one.

"FOOL!" He put all his years of pain and anger into his words, which was a lot. "You filled his head with empty promises." Ignoring the shouts of Kronos inside him, he glanced around, daring anybody to protest against him.

"You said the gods cared about me."

"You said me." Noted Chiron. And he struck during his moment of confusion.

He summoned all the power inside of him. He had a lot, from his demigod powers to his curse of Achilles to the power of the titan king. A blinding white wall heated between them, and knocked Chiron back so far he could no longer be seen. A look of agony flitted across his face.

Curse you. He spat.

Out of the blues, the teacher's face showed in front of him. It HAD to be an illusion, yet the look of guilt on his face was true. There he was, being the traitor, yet he could still remember the times he was betrayed himself.

Takes one to know one.

A/N: This is a question for people who have read SON. I just CAN'T get over it! Octivian seems to be reminding me of LUKE. Well, from the character art and the part where he reminds Percy of someone...creepy...

- Taylor