It took him over a week to find the rebellion. Filthy and exhausted, Percy entered the central tent where most of the demigods were gathered. Possessing nothing but the clothes on his back and the tusk from the Calydonian boar he'd had to kill on his way there, he wasn't the most intimidating sight. Regardless, everyone stopped and gaped at him immediately like he'd returned from the Underworld, and Annabeth walked up to him immediately with disbelief in her eyes.
For a moment, she just stood in front of him with a calculated expression on her face, as if she were trying to determine if he were real. Then she hugged him tightly and he returned the embrace happily, having missed his beloved dearly.
After several seconds that felt like an eternity to them, Annabeth pulled away and punched him in the chest. "Where have you been?" she asked angrily.
Percy just gave her a nervous smile and then turned his eyes to Luke. "You were right," he admitted. "There never were any demigod captives. I walked straight into a trap. I was only able to escape about a week ago."
"They held you captive for that long?" Annabeth said. "What did they do to you?"
"Not a whole lot, thankfully," he answered and held up the boar tusk. "The journey here was tougher than being a Roman prisoner."
"Were you able to recover your horse or your equipment?" Luke asked him.
He looked down at the ground guiltily. "No. It all belongs to Rome now."
Luke sighed. "Were you able to at least obtain any information while you were in Carthage?"
Percy looked around at all of the faces that were staring at him, trying to figure out which among them broke their promise; which one he couldn't trust. "No," he lied. "And they know I'm a demigod. It was the whole purpose of the trap, to see if there were any demigods in the rebellion. They don't know how many we have, but they suspect there's more than just me."
"Everyone leave us," Luke ordered, not taking his eyes off Percy.
Annabeth was hesitant to leave, but placed her hands on Percy's face and brought their lips together. He sank into the kiss, trying to make up for the lost time in just a few moments, but Luke's cough grabbed their attention and they were forced to pull away from each other. Annabeth gave him a sympathetic smile before leaving, and Percy regretfully turned his attention back to his strategos.
Luke was a tall, well built man with blonde hair and a deep scar over his left eye. His mother abandoned him at a young age forcing him to fend for himself for many years. He'd been at his lowest point with having to resort to theft in order to avoid starvation before he met two other demigods, Annabeth and Thalia. The group traveled together for two years before Chiron discovered them and brought them to Daedalus and the rest of the demigods, but it was already too late for Thalia who'd died of a festered injury she sustained in a battle with the same monster that gave Luke his scar.
After Daedalus died, Luke took up the mantle of leader when the demigods presented it to him, but Chiron still kept them from rebelling against Rome. It took another four years of training and preparing before Luke officially led them to war, shortly after Chiron's disappearance.
"I don't think I need to tell you how much damage you've done to us with your reckless actions," Luke reprimanded.
"I do recall getting your permission before leaving, Strategos," Percy replied firmly.
"Permission to save hostages, not get captured and hand over valuable information to our enemy."
"I knew the risks when I left and you knew them when you allowed me to go."
"And we both know that you'd have left anyway had I denied you leave, putting us in this same situation only with more for you to be punished for."
"You don't know what I would have done. Unlike some people, I keep my promises, Luke."
His eyes narrowed at not being called by his title. Confused about Percy's remark, Luke kept silent and waited for him to elaborate.
"Three deaths," Percy said. "We swore when we started this that no one needed to die."
"How do you know about that?"
"I had it used against me while I was held captive. One soldier, and two coachmen. Why are they dead?"
"They fought, we fought back," Luke stated calmly. "This is a war. Enemies die at war."
"Two coachmen were not our enemies," Percy said angrily. "Two civilians were not our enemies."
"Delivering weapons and armor to Rome hardly makes them innocent."
"That doesn't mean they deserved to die!"
"I would lower your voice," Luke warned.
Percy took a moment to calm down, baffled by the words coming out of his friend's mouth. "Who killed them?" he asked.
"It's unimportant."
"I disagree. If I had been there, we'd have taken the shipment without spilling a drop of blood. There's at least one person in our ranks I can no longer trust and I want to know who it is."
"But you weren't there. You were too busy being captured, while this person you say you can't trust fought loyally for our cause."
There was a short silence before Percy asked quietly, "are you saying you commanded it?"
"My soldiers are loyal to me. The only loyalty I'm doubting right now is yours."
Luke's scar stood out to Percy more than ever before in that moment, and he realized he didn't know the person standing before him. When Daedalus was executed, Luke had stood before them all and declared Rome would pay. That same day Percy joined the other demigods in chanting his name, electing him as their new leader. But now the man he'd called a friend had a dark gleam in his eyes. More so than angry, Percy was worried about the path Luke was beginning to walk.
"We swore a promise that —" Percy started.
"That promise was never unanimous and you were a fool to think we'll be the first in history to win a war without bloodshed."
They stared at each other in an intense silence for several moments. Percy knew in his heart for the first time that he couldn't trust his leader. Having nothing else to say to Luke, he turned and left the tent without being dismissed.
"Perce, over here," a male voice said.
Percy looked over and saw a muscular man wearing a sleeveless shirt standing by a carriage.
"Hey, Charles," Percy said as he made his way over to him.
"You doing alright?"
Percy sighed. "As good as I can be."
"You said you didn't have your sword anymore."
"Sadly not."
Charles reached into the carriage and pulled out a sword and held it out to him.
"That's the closest thing to your old one," he said as Percy took it and give it a few swings. "But it's not perfect. I think I can remember how you prefer your weight and balance, if you want me to work this one for you."
Percy handed the sword back to Charles. "Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks."
"It won't take too long. I'll let you know when it's ready." He placed the sword back on the carriage and realized Percy hadn't left yet. "Something else on your mind?"
"Yeah," he answered, having been thinking back on his conversation with Luke. "The shipment interception. Three people died. What do you know about it?"
Charles's face tightened and he glanced around as if to make sure no one else heard. "You'll want to be careful when bringing that up. A lot of people were mad about it, but others were indifferent. Luke managed to calm everyone done before a fight broke out, but it's still a touchy subject."
"Who killed them?"
"I don't know. Honestly. You know I'm not much of a fighter, so I wasn't there to see who did it."
"Someone had to have seen it."
"But not me. I want to know who too, but asking would bring up a whole mess of trouble that I don't want to deal with."
Percy looked around at his allies, attempting to eye down which of them was a murderer. He'd known everyone here for so long, but he'd only grown close to a handful of them. Could more than one person be capable of killing civilians just because they rode a Roman carriage?
"Let me know as soon as the sword is done," he said.
Charles nodded and Percy made his way through the camp until he found Annabeth.
Immediately after he found her she punched him again and Percy just smiled, happy to see her.
Before Chiron vanished, the demigods had a permanent camp set up a little ways away from Alexandria. Whenever Daedalus or Chiron found a new demigod abandoned by the world, that's where they'd take them.
Annabeth had already been at the camp for about a year when Percy arrived. Annabeth was a quiet girl who often followed Luke around. She had run away from home before being found by Luke and Thalia. She'd seen them as her heroes, but Thalia's death severely affected her. That coupled with not knowing who her mother was, she was timid when Percy met her.
Over time, the girl with blonde hair and grey eyes warmed up to him and they became friends. She started to become more vocal and be less defined by her past. Even though she never showed any powers that could identify which goddess was her mother, she was the smartest and strongest person Percy knew. It didn't take him long to start to fall for her, but it wasn't until a few years later that he and his best friend finally got together, and another few years before they agreed to marry once the war was over.
"You were gone for so long!" she said. "Do you know how terrified I was? I thought you might not come back!"
"I told you I'll always come back," he said. "If I could have escaped sooner, I would have. I missed you."
"I missed you too," she said, stepping closer to him. "Don't leave me like that again."
"Never."
Annabeth kissed him again and there was no Luke to interrupt them this time, but Percy pulled away after several seconds.
"Who killed those men?" he asked her.
"That's what you want to talk about right now?"
"Who was it?" he repeated.
Annabeth looked uncomfortable and turned away from him. "I didn't see it myself. There was so much going on with the horses freaking out and us fighting half a dozen soldiers, only a select few witnessed it, and no one's been too forthcoming with who did it."
Percy turned away, frustrated at how little information he was getting on the incident.
"All I heard was that they attacked and died in combat," Annabeth said.
"They could have easily been disarmed and left alive," Percy said.
"I know, it's terrible. It's —" she sighed and paused for a moment. "It's a casualty of war I'll always regret."
"Who led the ambush?"
"Luke did, but he wasn't the one who killed them."
Percy was silent. My soldiers are loyal to me, was what Luke had said. He needed to talk to someone about his doubts, but knew Annabeth would be furious with him to suggest Luke was becoming a different person.
"Percy, let this go," Annabeth said, gently placing her hand on his arm.
"Let it go?" Percy said, turning to face her with disbelief in his eyes.
"The past is in the past. We need to move forward now."
"No one was supposed to die!" he said angrily, causing Annabeth to take a step back. "We swore we'd be better than them. If we allow the murder of innocents to go unpunished, how can we honestly claim that we are? How do you expect me to go on believing what we're doing is just?"
"What's gotten into you? Nothing has changed, Percy. Rome is still the enemy. How could you suggest that we're the ones in the wrong after they held you prisoner for so long?"
"It's not so simple, Annabeth. It used to be as cut and dry as we're the good guys and they're the bad guys, but now our side has killed civilians."
"What about Daedalus? What about Nico and Bianca? Are you going to continue to say Rome is innocent after the people they've taken from us?"
"I never said Rome was innocent. And I never said I'm going to stop fighting."
"Then what are you saying?"
Percy was silent. He didn't know what he was trying to say. Rome was still the enemy. They've done way more to Greece than kill three people. Percy still wasn't ready to continue calling a murderer his ally, whomever they may be.
"Percy?" Annabeth said.
"I don't know," he answered. "I'm confused. I just . . . I need some time to think."
He turned and walked away before Annabeth could say anything else.
A/N: I wanted to fit more into this chapter, but I decided I'd rather get it out sooner for you so I'm saving it for the next chapter. I still don't know whether you all want shorter chapters but more frequently or longer chapters but less frequently. Let me know in a review, please, and how you're feeling about the story so far.