A/N: Thanks to reviewers, readers and favorites. I always welcome non-hater reviews. I tried my best to figure out an original way for Perseus to leave, and this is the best I thought up.
Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan, I only own the OC's I made, which are free to copy off of.
Chapter 2 - Betrayal
Annabeth's POV
As I stomped back to the Athena cabin, is was torn between loving him and hating him for annoying me so much. As much as I hope we'll get to the sleeping phase yet, to my mind, it was weird. My analytical brain kept saying "You're cousins! This is gross!" The debate was still going on in my head after I fell into bed, remembering the other complications Aphrodite had thrown in my love life.
First was Luke Castellan, a guy I loved for years, who turned evil, then tried to kill me and my current boyfriend. He made Percy fight in an arena, made Daedalus kill himself, killed Beckondorf, Pollux, and countless other assorted demigods, satyrs, and nymphs. Not exactly Prince Charming.
Then Connor Stoll, who I had a crush on. That was spoiled by a bed full of spiders, then a plate full of them the next day. I discovered he looked a lot less attractive with spiders on his face and in his hair. In my opinion, worse then Luke.
Now Percy Jackson, who was annoying, endearing, and completely reckless/brave. As much as I tried to dislike him, he grew on me like an annoying puppy with sea-green eyes. Then he almost dies dozens of times, I actually think he dies once. We finally kiss, then get dumped in a lake. Not very romantic.
If my brain could look sad, it would right now, as I fell asleep before I got to my real problem. . .
Line Break
Percy's POV
When morning came, I was still so charged with the euphoria of kissing Annabeth last night that I was smiling through breakfast. I scraped the usual third of my food into the fire for Poseidon, then wolfed down my muffin, orange juice, and egg. Time for the rock/fire/lava wall.
As usual these days I could always climb to the top, so I challenged Grover to a race to the top.
"3 . . . . . 2 . . . . . 1 . . . . Go!" the campers chanted.
I started running up it like the Three Fates themselves were after me. It was all: Rock here! Lava falling! Geyser! Another rock! Dodge! Duck! For a while it
looked like I might win, but Grover was a mountain satyr, and beat me to the top soundly.
"Good race, Percy." he said as I reached the top, and prepared to go back down.
"Darn it, G-man, that makes it 8-0 in your favor. One of these days. . ." I called as I jumped off the side, using the water in the lake to catch me and set me down.
After that, I had Canoeing, lunch, then Archery "Practice". More like failing, I thought grimly.
Annabeth's POV
Today started off normally, but got steadily weirder and worse after the Ares camper cornered me near the stables.
"Listen Annabeth, I only want to talk." he said. What was his name? Horace? Something like that?
"Horace, you can talk without following me out here, then cornering me." I snapped, my annoyance getting to me.
"It's about Percy." Well, that shut me up quick.
"This is something that Percy would never want you see, it has all his glaringly big mistakes over the years." he said, holding out a small box.
"Why me?" I asked.
"Years ago, I was one of the Ares campers he fought in the river. He just walks in, gets favor, power, a quest, and now he's the alpha hero or something. This is
stuff he doesn't want. Stuff that shows how he isn't a hero, and the true things he's has done in the war." Horace replied, and set the box down.
I looked inside of it, and saw the perfect reasons to break up with him.
Line Break
Percy's POV
Archery sucked as usual I managed to lodge several arrows in the Big House, which was several hundred feet embehind me. Now I was walking through the woods and using me fear power to see what ants, birds and the occasional monster was afraid of. Most of the time, it was me.
"Percy?" I heard someone say behind me. I spun around, and looked into the eyes of Annabeth.
What I saw shocked me, as I saw her fears too. She loved me, I saw. In fact, it was until the Labyrinth quest. I also saw who she loved, and that was none other than Ethan Nakamura, son of Nemesis. The one who finished assembling Kronos. She was most afraid that I would find out, and punish her. My face must have betrayed my feelings.
"Percy, what's wrong?"
"You haven't loved me for over a year." I murmured, still shocked at the betrayal. Added to that, she unwittingly told Ethan where my Achilles spot was.
"What are you talking about? Of course I love you! I'm your girlfriend, after all." She said, but I could hear the note of panic in her voice.
"In the Labyrinth, you fell for Ethan Nakamura. That's why you couldn't hold him off when we were fighting Kronos on Olympus. You visited him, and you think you accidentally told him where my Achilles spot was. Why?" My face was red with rage, and my voice was cold and broken.
"I didn't want to hurt you! I still . . ." she desperately said before I cut her off.
"Like me? No you don't. If you cared, you would have told me." I snapped and literally stormed back to my cabin. My powers caused it to rain around me. The betrayal I felt was beyond words, my heart was ripped in half. On my bunk inside, I cried and cried until I fell asleep.
Line Break
Annabeth's POV
As I watched him storm off, I thought: I might as well say he dumped me, and release all the stuff that Ares camper, Horace, gave me. I made a dozen copies on my Daedalus computer, then sent a copy to everyone in camp who had a computer or phone. If my world is crumbling, I might as well destroy his for being such a jerk.
Line Break
Percy's POV
"Percy! Get your ass out the door right now!" I woke up to hear Clarisse, and most of the other counselors shouting at me. I got out of bed and walked over with red rimmed eyes. the door revealed exactly who I heard. Clarisse, Travis, Connor, Jake, Will, Castor, Malcolm, Katie, and Drew. Some of my closest friends, the other counselors.
"What?" I said bleary.
"What? You ask what ? You dumped Annabeth yesterday, and now we this?" Clarisse pointed to a video on a phone, "After that, you ask us what?!"
"I didn't dump Annabeth, she was cheating on me for over a year now! If anything she dumped me!" I yelled back.
"Yeah, sure, Jackson. You're just saying that. Annabeth would never cheat on anybody." Jake, the Hephaestus Consular, yelled back.
"I swear on the River Styx that over a year ago, after she fraking kissed me, she cheated on me with Ethan Nakamura! And she told him where Achilles spot is." I said, glaring at my former friends, who now were looking more shocked than angry.
"That still doesn't excuse you for when you killed three mostly innocent Empousai that were trying to live without killing people! You just killed them without listening!" It was Will, another person who I thought was a friend. It was the same video as on the phone, most likely a security camera.
"I didn't need to talk to them. Do you know what you probably didn't see? A bloody corpse that the Empousai were snacking on. Killing an innocent mortal is as bad as killing one of us! Where did you find that anyways?" Most of the campers were surprised at the sheer volume at which I shouted.
"Erm . . . from Annabeth." Katie, daughter of Demeter, muttered.
"Since you have so little faith in me, I'm leaving this shit-hole." I shouted, still angry. After I grabbed the Minotaur horn, some clothes, drachmas, and food, I ran out. My emotions a mess, my heart shredded, any loyalty or friendships, gone.
"If you were truly my friends, you should know me too well to believe this." I called over my shoulder, leaving them shocked as I just walked away from my home for the past four years.
Line Break
Percy's POV
After four years, they still believe that bitch without a second thought. Without hesitation, my former friends turned on me, and now I had no friends left. I was completely alone. Out of the camp borders, I saw the first monsters, a trio of Cyclopes, clubs in hand, but no armor. I dodged the first club and deflected the second, but the third caught me square in the chest, sending me flying. If I hadn't had the Curse of Achilles, I would be dead. I lunged forward with my sword in front, skewering the first Cyclops, then yanked the sword out. I hid behind the third Cyclops, making the second hit him, dazing him. I jumped off of his body and stabbed the other Cyclops straight through the eye, then calmly sliced the last Cyclops's head off. Now I was covered in golden dust as the monsters went straight back to Tartaurus.
I stalked through New York, rage making me kill every monster that I saw. After hours of reckless slaying, I realized that I had to get away from camp. emFar away. So I bought a ticket to San Francisco, where the Titan's power, would hide my scent. I barely got off the plane when the first monsters started to attack me. This may hide my scent to the gods, but the monsters sure knew exactly where I was, I thought. I finally found a good hotel that was cheap enough that I could sleep in, and sleep I did.
Line Break
After I awoke, I quickly left the hotel, and started to bury memories of Annabeth's betrayal. Then I heard,
"Cyclops! Behind you!" It sounded like several people, fighting a battle against a few dozen monsters. I ran towards the sound, and gaped when I saw the scene. About fifteen to twenty older demigods formed a battle line against more then seventy monsters. I wasn't going to miss this.
I charged their lines from behind, beheading a Telkhine and kicking another away before the monsters saw me. Then I started burrowing into their ranks, stabbing, slashing and cutting. Monsters started to dissolve, but I wouldn't stop hacking and killing. Soon, though, the remaining monsters fled. It started with a tickle, then they were running, about seventeen left after we were done with them. I turned to see that the demigods were all older than twenty-five, and in their thirties.
"Good job, kid. That attack gave us the distraction we needed to reform and push them back." congratulated one of them. He looked like the leader, with brown eyes and dark brown hair. "you look a little young to be out of the Legion, though. A quest?"
"What's the legion?" I asked, completely confused, also realizing that they carried golden weapons, that looked like Roman swords from Gladiator or Pompeii .
"You don't know about the Legion? How did you survive?" The leader asked.
"Running, and trying to fight off any monsters who attack me." I had a strong feeling not to tell them about Camp Half-Blood. The leader turned back to his friends and said,
"Get your letters of reference. We're sending him to Camp." He said, making me even more confused. Letters of reference? Another Camp?
Line Break
Percy's POV
A few minutes later, they gave me a bunch of thick sheafs of paper, and told me to go to the Caldecott Tunnel. It about five miles south of Berkeley Hills, they said, and gave me directions.
"It is the only truly safe place for people like us." The leader, John Brown, said.
"Then why aren't you there?" I asked.
"Ha! We like the challenge."
Line Break
I walked across the city, gradually making my way to the tunnel. It was well after eleven when I arrived, but there was still enough light to see two people that looked like a Roman legionnaire crossed with a modern teenager. They had golden swords and spears, with iron breastplates and plumed helmets. Under that, they had purple t-shirts and jeans.
"Who are you?" One of them asked roughly.
"Percy Jackson. Some people I met told me to go here. They said I'd be safe from monsters." I replied, trying too look innocent and scared.
"Gwen, take him to camp, and bring him to Reyna or Jason." the same man ordered.
"What is this place? And why do you look like Gladiator extras?" I asked, keeping up my facade.
"Answer his questions too." He said.
The other demigod, Gwen, nodded and started walking through the tunnel.
"Come with me, and I'll give you an overview." Gwen said, her voice surprisingly soft after the other guy's voice. "Okay, get ready for a shock. You know Greek gods, like Zeus and Hades? They exist, but only as we, the Romans, worshiped them. As their sons and daughters, we inherited some of the power. This is the base of the Twelfth Legion, the only place safe for demigods like you or me."
"Wasn't Rome destroyed like, ten million years ago?" I asked.
"Yes, but we went underground to keep Rome alive." she replied. "Now we take in demigods to help defend New Rome and help the gods."
"New Rome?"
"Yep, our own little city where you can retire and live, provided you serve in the legion. And here we are." The end of the tunnel opened to a valley with a river, a lake, a militaristic looking camp, an aqueduct, and most stunning, a lively looking city. That city was filled with gabled roofs and a house that looks suspiciously like the Capitol Building in DC.
"So this is Rome." I stated, my mouth falling open.
"Pretty much." She smirked as she looked at my face.
"Wow, it's big."
"Yes, it is. Do you want to start walking again, or gawk here all night?"
She started walking down to the camp, on a road called Via Praetoria, it stopped in front of building that said "Principia" which also happened to be the grandest building around. She took me inside, saying this was standard procedure for anyone who arrived. It was to take them to the Praetors and let them decide whether to keep me or not.
Line Break
Gwen's POV
As I led him inside, I thought: this isn't normal, he shouldn't be alive at sixteen. He was alone.
I saw my two Praetors, Reyna and Jason, standing over a map where they were discussing battle tactics and the defenses of each side of the valley. I cleared my throat loudly and waited for them to notice us.
"A new demigod? He looks old." Reyna stated, looking Percy over.
"He has a powerful aura." Jason commented, "And probably a powerful scent, too. How did he survive?"
"I fought," Percy spoke up, shocking the Praetors. They were expecting the classic story -being trained by Lupa and walking to camp.
"How'd you know to get here?" Jason asked.
"A group of people told me to go here." Percy said.
"And I don't suppose you have any proof?"
"No—wait, I do." Percy surprised everyone again. He took out more than a dozen letters from his coat. "The people said these were letters of reference, and I should give them to you."
He tossed them on the table. The Praetors, who looked a bit startled, started looking through them.
"Who gave them to you?" Jason asked.
"A thirty something man called John Brown, along with his friends."
"John? I replaced him as Praetor." Jason said. "Hold on, it says for courage and skill in battle. Did you fight them?"
"No. John and sixteen others were fighting group of seventy plus monsters. I attacked them on the side and started distracting them. Then John started pushing them back. In the end, only a few monsters escaped."
"John's word alone carries a lot of weight in camp. With all the other letters, you would get instant membership of the legion, along with a choice of cohort to join." Reyna stated, looking surprised, and almost in awe of me.
"Gwen, take him back to the Fifth and find him a place to sleep tonight. There's going to be a meeting between the centurions tomorrow, and you to both need to attend. Two o' clock, room four." Jason ordered, and so we headed to the section of buildings with a large five over them. I was put in a bunk two down and three to the right of Gwen's.
A/N: I had to include Camp Jupiter, because I need him to 1). have the marks, 2). know where it is/make friends there and 3). leave. I would rather not have a flashback about how he came to Camp Jupiter. Sorry about the cliché Annabeth dumping thing. I tried to make it different, but betrayal is betrayal
I can't believe I ever wrote this after editing it now.
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