Olympian Heroes

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Percy Jackson series.

AN: DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE PAIN I'M IN? I UPLOAD MY CHAPTERS WHICH I PUT MY BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS INTO (I MAY BE EXAGGERATING) AND AFTER ONE DAY, IT MOVES BACK LIKE 5 PAGES! WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE UPLOAD STORIES ON THIS FANDOM? WHY IS EVERYONE SO CREATIVE IN THIS FANDOM? HOW AM I MEANT TO GET PROMOTION IF I'M COMPETING AGAINST THIS MANY PEOPLE?

And I am downright so mad at myself. I forgot two OCs! I AM FOUR CHAPTERS IN AND I HAVEN'T NOTICED THAT I AM MISSING TWO CHARACTERS FROM THE PEOPLE I'VE LISTED. I AM SO SORRY!

Julienne Barrande – PokeSyoc

Bohai Korhonen – someone who wishes to stay anonymous

I could've sworn I mentioned you guys, but apparently not :/ anyhow, I'm extremely sorry FORGIVE ME FOR I HAVE SINNED.

I also literally sat around for three hours wondering who's POV I should write the chapter from…I settled for Ollie. Of course it doesn't mean that I'm specialising him, or being bias towards him, it's just the plot I have in mind requires a lot of things done from his POV. SO I ALSO DECIDED TO SWITCH POVs! I love you guys, and I love the people who still read this story even though they haven't got any OCs submitted, like seriously, thanks.

Chapter 4 | The fire isn't red, it's PURPLE HELP

Oliver

As soon as the spoon dropped from his hand, Maddy was over and latching onto his elbow like how a python traps its victim. His elbow banged on the table, causing few to drop their spoons, and his feet awkwardly kicked others as half his body was pulled relentlessly. Across the table, Edd, an odd boy of Hermes with big, blue, charming eyes and a smirk that never meant anything good, laughed, but didn't get up to move the blonde. In fact, no one at the table did. He was also placed at this table against his will, since no one knew his 'godly-parent'.

It was hard to believe that these people were his supposed 'siblings' (for now). All of them had this mysterious, dangerous glint in their eyes, and very quick fingers that seemed to have minds of their own, especially Edd. Every movement he made seemed to serve a purpose, such as the way his fork hit the plate, or the way he 'accidentally' bumped his elbow into someone. It was like a big gambling game, and Edd was one of those players with unbreakable poker faces and smooth lying tactics.

Before Oliver had time to say bye, or wipe his mouth clean, he was ripped off his seat and dragged away like unwanted luggage. Again, he had no idea how such a slim looking girl like Madeline had strength equivalent to a gorilla. She was quickly making her way towards a table of scary, tough looking kids. All of them were tall, loud, and hella buff. He spotted Royce, sitting and laughing at something someone said, and he surprisingly fitted in despite his soft personality and friendly voice. Suddenly, his almond eyes strayed towards their direction, and he got up when Maddy gave him a small nod. Why didn't she drag him around like how she did to Oliver? It wasn't like he was going to run anywhere, and he could still very much support himself despite her dragging him around the campus several times and doing at least six relays over the entire area. Even though she's taken him many acres, he's only been to the strawberry field and training areas. Yes, she made them walk around the strawberry field five times. He swore that those two worked out daily; they didn't even seem the tiniest bit exhausted after all that. It was like she was forcing him to exercise, under the guise of 'touring him around'. Oliver was pretty sure that he didn't have to remember the shade of the strawberries, or how much light was reflected on them.

There were loud whoops and wolf whistles as Royce left the table, and his siblings thumped him on the back or smacked the back of his head. If Oliver were in the position, he'd drown in the limbs while dying from concussions. Royce shot them all a sheepish smile. "We're just showing him around, nothing else." He said. One guy didn't get the idea, and continued hollering his lungs off. Royce shot him a glare that Oliver couldn't see from his angle, and the entire table shut up. The guy sat down slowly, laughing nervously. Madeline fidgeted worriedly.

Royce hopped over the long legs spread across the floor and the sharp elbows poking out of the side of his table as he made his way over, a big grin on his face. He was also assisting in the 'touring', and Oliver felt bad that he had to be dragged out of dinner so early just to watch them walk more laps at the strawberry field.

He joined them with a wave and toothy grin, eyes turning into pleasant crescents as he threw his full grin on display.

Never mind feeling bad, Royce looked genuinely happy.

"So what are we doing to torture him now?" He asked.

It took Oliver a while to realize that the taller boy was referring to him.

"Wait, what?" He asked, and he could feel his eyes widen involuntarily.

Royce looked at him, as if his reaction was unusual and surprising to him. "Bright Eye's been forcing you to do intense fitness this whole time, she wasn't giving you a tour…I thought that was obvious." He said, gesturing to Madeline who didn't look the least bit guilty at all. "I'm amazed that you haven't complained yet. Good job, Scrappy."

Oliver could only let his jaw hang and his expression slacken. So his superstitions were right. He glanced at Maddy who simply shrugged.

"Wait, this whole time-"

Maddy cut him off with a wave of her hand. "I showed you the fields and the training area, so technically I gave you a tour. You have no right to complain." She said, with strict authority, before pulling him off again, this time, as his heels dragged along the ground.

"Wait, I don't agree to this! Don't I get some free speech here?" Oliver allowed himself to protest, as Maddy gave his arm a hard tug.

Maddy opened her mouth to protest, but Oliver saw her gaze flicker to the right, for the shortest of seconds. "Crap, they're here, let's just walk past and hope they don't notice us." She ushered, voice low. Royce glanced over at the direction she looked at and shrugged, smiling.

"They look like they're arguing, it doesn't seem like they'll notice us anyways." He reasoned. Still, it didn't stop Maddy from putting out finger guns and tiptoeing across the pavilion, gaze sharp and ready, as she suddenly chucked a flip and landed smoothly on the grass, softly and silently.

Royce, for the first time since Oliver's met him, sighed, though it seemed to be out of amusement, and trailed after her, casually stepping on the cleanly cut grass. Oliver hopped down from the pavilion flooring and landed with a loud thump next to the taller boy. Madeline shushed him loudly, crouching down in the shadows. Oliver shot her a look that signified that she was being louder than he was, but she didn't get it and instead dragged him along by his elbow again, slowly moving down a hill.

It was when they reached the bottom that she suddenly started bolting. Oliver almost tripped again at the sudden change in speed, but Royce quickly grabbed his wrist and started running alongside them. Maddy noticed the exchange and was clearly not happy, "geez, Oliver. Can you go anywhere without tripping over air?" She hissed.

Oliver who was pissed and not in the mood to take the insults with a blissfully blank mind anymore, snapped back at her, "if you stopped stampeding everywhere like a fucking elephant, then maybe, yeah."

Suddenly, his head was pounding, and his face was growing hot. Maddy's glare didn't make him back off unlike other times. He could feel the back of his neck prickling with an uncomfortable heat, almost like something was leeching onto his neck, and he didn't want it there. Maddy, with an audible huff, took him by the elbow and started dragging him to the group that they tried to avoid. Oliver thought he spotted Edd in the gang, but he didn't have the mind to check. He was trying to pry himself out of her grip, and despite his elbow turning white from the lack of blood reaching there, he still felt his arms heating, blood pumping, heart racing, fire coursing through his veins. Before he could act on his impulses, a voice cut through his haze, and his sudden flare seemed to scamper away, as if afraid of showing itself in front of so many people.

"Maddy! Bae! What's up?" Edd waved them over, hand flying.

Maddy still didn't loosen her grip, instead, her mouth straightened into a firm line, and she stomped over, shaking him wildly, as if accusing him of committing a crime. With unspoken words seeming to hang from her mouth, she directed her glare towards the jumping person instead. Oliver wondered how he and Madeline had managed to get on such bad terms so quickly.

"Oh, hey Ollie! Is Maddy giving you a tour?" he shouted, smiling brightly as he spotted him. Oliver couldn't find it in him to return the gesture, so he nodded instead, hoping that Edd wouldn't point out his inner turmoil. "She's dragging me around and forcing me to-"

Before his sentence could be completed, the wind was knocked out of him as Maddy grabbed his wrist and snapped his arm up behind his back. There was a worried noise from Royce, and he was over and coaxing Maddy into letting go of his arm before it broke. Reluctantly, Maddy released him, and Oliver felt something popping back into place. She didn't dislocate his shoulder, did she?

Royce walked over, and put a hand on his shoulder comfortably. "Are you okay?" He asked silently. Oliver wasn't sure if he was asking if his arm was alright, or if the earlier fiasco was safely tucked in his pocket. He nodded anyways. "Oh, Oliver," his head snapped up at the call of his name, he scanned past the new faces and looked at Edd, "you know German, right?"

Before Oliver could add in any inquiries, Edd fished out something evil, disgusting, and vile.

Thank god the 'baby' was out of the way when they decided to gather around for quick introductions. It was hidden behind the arms of Cliff, whose name Oliver just learnt. He was a hyper dude with boyish eye crinkles that came out each time he smiled. He had heavy-looking, red headphones wrapped around his neck like a substitute for a scarf. Already five minutes into meeting him, Oliver noticed a habit of him nodding his head slightly to music no one else but him heard when no one was talking. What Oliver found odd were his greyish, almost silver eyes that reflected the moon every time he laughed, or nodded rapidly, his brown hair flying with him when he did.

"Anyways, capture the flag is tomorrow, right? We gotta plan." Maddy said suddenly, glancing over at Kai, seeking permission. The girl nodded, pink lips set in a thin line, and she stood, her earlier crying feat over and forgotten just like that.

Something in Cliff's sliver eyes glinted. "Discussing plans in front of the enemy, huh?" he teased, tongue flickering over his lips.

Maddy rolled her eyes, "as if you're gonna win anyways, we've got this in the bag," she said confidently, hands reaching to pull Oliver, but realising that she didn't know who his parent was yet.

"Do you have any idea on who it might be?" she asked.

Oliver shook his head.

"A clue? A hint? A tiny lead?"

Oliver shook his head again.

Suddenly, Madeline screamed, running her hands through her long locks of blonde hair. "Why are you so frustrating? Not only do I have to drag you around the place, I don't know who your parent is so I don't know if I can take you on our team? What if you suddenly find out who your parent is in the middle of battle and that cabin happens to be on the other team?" she ran a hand down her face, "and can't you just give me a proper answer? You're always doing this," she nodded her head meekly, "or this," she shook her head wildly, hair flying, "and it drives me insane!"

Instead of Royce coming to the rescue this time, it was Jayce, the boy who introduced himself very quietly. "Maddy, I think you're going off topic here, why don't we discuss everything after the campfire?" he said, holding out his hands comfortingly, but not quite touching her. His eyes stood out a lot, even in the dark, the right one being a sharp shade of cerulean and the other such a smooth green it looked ceramic. The two colours reminded Oliver of the sea, and it was exactly like Jayce carried the burden of the entire ocean with him, since every movement he did seemed careful and calculative. The gears in his mind seemed to buzz with energy before he did anything, unlike Cliff, who seemed to say whatever that came to his mind. His teeth worried at the piercing on his lip when Maddy didn't reply.

"Fine," she breathed out, when the silence escalated to something stifling.

Oliver saw a small smile work its way up to Jayce's mouth, and the first thing he thought was 'uh oh.' The boy had dimples on the sides of his cheek, giving him a childish tint, and he had two sharp canines on the side, showing how big his smile was, despite him not grinning to his fullest extent. His teeth were white and clashed against his dark clothes, highlighting his face. Oh boy. Jayce pulls off the whole super-model thing without even trying, and this was coming from the straightest of straight dudes, Oliver.

Surprisingly, Maddy did not react the way he expected her to, by turning into a blushing mess, and instead brushed her clothes, sighing heavily. "Right, I was being irrational, let's go."

Without another word, she turned on her heel with enough flare to put runway-models to shame.

There was a collective sigh from the group that did not include Oliver, and slowly everyone stretched or dusted dirt from their clothes that wasn't there.

A cold finger tapped his shoulder, and Oliver slowly turned around, not ready at all to see his disappointed face.

Instead of a frowning Royce, Oliver was met with a smiling Royce, cheeks lifted as he grinned.

The confusion must've been obvious on his face, for the taller boy laughed, and pulled him by his elbow, "let's go."

Neriah

Neriah let her leg bounce up and down as she stared distantly at the fire. People often called her out on it as a nervous tick, but it wasn't. She did it when she was bored, sleepy, when she was eating. She tended to shake whatever chair she was sitting on, and it was particularly funny when it was a wobbly one, causing the people around her to writhe with mild annoyance at the same repetitive sound of the chair smacking the ground.

She rested her hand on her cheek, feeling uncharacteristically tired. People around her started surrounding the fire, their chattering loud and obnoxious, Neriah, for once, not screaming and shouting along with them. Her hair was sticking uncomfortably to her face, beaded with sweat and poking her eyes. She was staring at the world with half-lidded eyes, through the barrier of her eyelashes. Being tired was a curse. She hated that feeling of sagginess, when your feet have been reduced to nothing but jelly and bending your knees seem to bring along a likelihood of tripping and falling on your face. She literally had no energy to even lift her hand to brush her hair away and could only hope that blinking would somehow magically push the irritation away from her eyes. Suddenly, the idea of challenging her siblings to a race didn't seem so ingenious anymore.

She sucked in a deep breath of sharply, pretended that the air hadn't scraped her throat, and willed the ache in her shoulders to go away. She downed a whole bottle of water during dinner, but apparently she needed a whole carton to suffice for her throat. She could've gotten more if all her siblings hadn't started a fight for the last bottle. They were all sweaty, gross, and parched to the point of borderline dehydration. She watched as two particularly rowdy boys shoved each other while laughing breathlessly, before things started getting serious and it quickly turned into a tickle fight.

Neriah sighed. Being tired really sucked. Even the sight of people laughing and enjoying themselves didn't get her blood pumping as it would normally. Under usual circumstances, she would've joined in, and make yet more friends on this campus, which seemed to hold an endless stream of kids.

She was about to go back to staring aimlessly at the fire, something about it attracted her, the way the flames roared as the spirits of the demigods raised, when a slender girl slipped into her view, how she managed to go unnoticed until now, Neriah had no idea. She literally shone against the sea of people busy finding seats. It also took too long for Neriah to realise that she knew this girl, and that she was making her way over to her.

Neriah smiled slightly at the annoyed expression on Emerald's face (gods she was too tired to even smile) and kept her gaze on the taller girl as she picked her way past the crowd delicately, as if touching them would fracture her wrist somehow, and slumped next the her without a word, only huffing as she folded her legs. Neriah didn't say anything; she knew what was coming all too well.

"He did it again!" Emmy suddenly screeched, slamming her fists down on the grass. The shorter girl didn't say anything, and hummed slowly, ignored the gazes that were turning towards them. The wind blew gently at her bangs, and Neriah relished the feeling of the coolness that was like an icepack, before her friend started screaming heatedly again.

"Why does he think it's funny? It's clearly not!" Emmy whipped her head towards Neriah, hair flipping and almost smacking her in the face. "Do you think it's funny when someone dumps water on you? Do you, Nerry? Because I sure don't and I have no idea why he does!" The girl's eyes flared with dangerous vigour, flashing several colours Neriah still couldn't pick up on despite knowing her since she's stepped foot on campus.

She was almost too tired to bother replying, but forced the words out of her throat, just to humor her friend, lips barely moving, "and who is this dude, again?" she asked, watching with listlessness as the taller girl started picking at threads of her black sweater, which was oversized and only allowed her fingers to poke through. Her thin, untouched fingers with nails just the perfect shade of pink. Emmy rarely, if never, put on nail polish.

Neriah had to lean back slightly when the other girl broke into a loud screaming fit, "Edd! That damned Hermes kid!" she flailed her arms and smacked the ground again frustration making her face scrunch up. She reminded her of a toddler, who had their toy snatched off their cute little fingers. At the words 'damned Hermes', several angry eyes flickered over to glare at the both of them. Like some nervous tick, Neriah stopped leaning on her palm and sat cross-legged, and started twirling long strands of grass around and ripping them violently, avoiding the gaze of nearly half the campus, all the while trying to give advice to her friend, "well, maybe if you stop hitting on all his victims, he'd stop annoying you," she offered.

Emmy looked at her as if she was growing mushrooms out of her head. "Oh yeah, because he's a walking glory of hotness. No fucking way,"- Neriah cringed at the sound of such an unpleasant word escaping the mouth of someone who looked to be made of cotton candy – "he has the appeal of a pregnant cow. Also, how am I meant to know who he flirts with? Looking at him for longer than two seconds makes my head ache," she grumbled, biting on her perfectly shaped nails. Neriah was about to tell her to stop, since she would only end up complaining about it again later, but Emmy shushed her loudly before she could say anything, and clamped a hand over her mouth. Or tried to. Neriah reacted out of instinct and ducked quickly and when Emmy made another grab at her, she involuntarily dodged to the side again. They both turned into a flailing mess and Emmy looked borderline murderous.

Finally, Neriah got the point and clamped her hand over her down mouth. In a hushed, irritated whisper, Emmy tilted her head across from them, gesturing at something. "Look, it's him," she said, voice almost a growl, "the devil, and he's with Cliff." Neriah rolled her eyes but glanced over anyways, and sure enough, both mentioned boys were hugging comfortably and laughing at a shared joke between them. Her mind immediately flickered towards a certain Asian boy who always stood out. If he were to chance upon such a scene…she turned to Emmy, who seemed to be too focused on murdering Edd mentally. "I never knew they were this close -hey Em, listen to me- Isn't Cliff dating Bohai or something?"

Emerald struggled visibly to tear her eyes away from Edd, hatred and murderous intent leaking out. She still seemed too out of it to completely grasp the question thrown at her, so she stared blankly at the ground to get her bearings together. Then she hopped off the grass lightly, light bulb going off over her head. "Nah, they hate each other's guts, it's not even one of those 'I act like I hate you but secretly love you and I can't admit that because I'm embarrassed' things, they actually really hate each other." She admitted, shrugging. Edd threw his head back as he started laughing, and shoved something into Cliff's hands.

"What is that?" Neriah questioned, trying to get a view of the object in Cliff's arms as the boys separated.

Immediately, Emmy had gone from covering her mouth to wrapping every fibre of her being around Neriah's head, obscuring her view. "Don't look at that thing, Edd showed it to Kai and she ended up crying non-stop for like, ten minutes," she said, voice wary. "If it's managed to make Kai cry, I don't want to see it."

Neriah was going to ask how she knew this, but decided against it, since Emmy would reply with a smirk and the ever so popular phrase, 'I have connections'.

Suddenly, as if sensing both of their discomfort, Edd glanced over at them, and by the way they were positioned, both of them staring at him directly, there was no doubt he would get the wrong idea; that they were both gossiping (good things, it's always the compliments that makes a man's heart race) about him. Judging by the way he smirked and waved at them, there was no doubt Neriah's intuition was right.

"Shit, he just looked our way, right? Don't tell me he looked our way, I must be seeing things, right, Nerry?" Emmy said, voice wavering on the edge of panic. When the shorter girl couldn't force and answer out of her mouth, for her tongue had dried up in dread, Emmy proceeded to have what people call a 'meltdown'.

"Oh fuck he's going to blackmail me tomorrow. Oh shit, fuck." She then started listing off probably every single curse word that existed in the English vocabulary. Neriah tried not to wince every time a word slipped through her mouth, and, being a good friend, sacrificing other people in return for her buds was a regular habit of hers. She searched wildly for the familiar mop of dark red hair. Finally, she spotted her, twirling said hair, absent-mindedly listening to her siblings as they sat around the fire. Unfortunately, good things come to an end because Edd was making his way over and Emmy was griping her arm so tightly that she was sure blood was no longer running in her limb. She considered calling for Fairy to come over and stop the approaching boy, but she deemed her earlier thought method to be more effective.

"Hey, Julie!" she screamed over the crowd, jumping up and dragging a terrified Emmy with her. Said girl's eyes flickered away from the ground and scanned the area, before finally connecting her eye contact. In front of them, Edd almost slipped, but quickly regained his posture, before taking a few hesitant steps, as if unsure whether he should run back, or keep walking towards them to make it look natural.

Neriah bit back the smirk that she knew was growing on her face. It was no secret that Edd had feelings for Julie, well, to her anyways. Edd lost a bet that she challenged him to on a whim, and in return, he had to offer private information. It was amusing, Neriah found, that Edd froze whenever Julie's name came up, yet he managed to shamelessly hit on possibly every guy and girl who attended this campus. "Your hair's looking amazing as always!" She yelled, and offered a grin she knew people found adorable on her. Wordlessly, she beckoned her over.

Quickly, Edd shuffled over, keeping his gaze away from where the girl was, and grabbed Neriah's arm, face trying to hold its smile. Emmy squirmed next to her, and hid behind her shoulders.

Edd almost glared at the other girl, "relax, darl, I'm not picking on you," he bit. He pulled up Neriah's arm to make her tip-toe, and hissed quietly into her ear, "Fin, what the fuck are you trying to do?"

Neriah wasn't bothered by his barely veiled irritated tone and instead let the smug grin fill her face, "would you like to stay with us?"

Edd hissed, and dropped her arm, before he threw an extremely sugary smile at Emmy, so sweet it could make teeth rot within seconds. "It's not nice to gossip about people, Emmy dearest," he said. Sadly (happily), he was not fast enough to leave them, and Julienne was by their side, hair loose in her chignon to the point where it looked like she hadn't even tied it in the first place. She had her eyebrow raised at Edd, who was about to make a hasty retreat.

"Leaving already, Edd?" She drawled, accent heavy, as she seemed too tired to fix it. Said boy blinked owlishly, before nodding. "Yup, have fun with the girls, Jules," he waved a hand absent-mindedly, and made his way past the people sitting down, back to where he was before.

Neriah was tempted, so close to laughing at his expense and offering him to stay longer, but she was a good kid. Meanwhile, the girl had her forehead scrunched, and was moving her arms around, as if trying to pluck words from the air. "He reminds me of…"

"A chicken's ass?" Emmy finished.

Julie furrowed her brows and shook her head. "No, like…"

"Leonardo Di Caprio?" Neriah offered.

"No! Let me finish!" Julie said, albeit angrily, "my goldfish, off-handed and hasty."

Silence enveloped them within seconds after she finished her sentence.

"Shoot me if I'm wrong, but Julie, did you just refer to him as your goldfish?" Neriah was surprised at the own words leaving her mouth.

Julie nodded affirmably, seeing no wrong in her observation.

"That's a little odd, Jules," Neriah shrugged.

"In what way?" Julie asked, twisting her hair.

Before Neriah could offer another shrug that would no doubt make the other girl angry, Chiron came trotting in, and everyone started finding seats if they haven't done so in the past twenty minutes. There was a loud hustle, and a few kids tripped over logs. Laughter and giggling was still lingering in the air when everyone was seated.

Oliver

It was official. Oliver could not, did not, and will not ever participate in singing. When the whole camp broke into festive 'la, la, la' s, he wanted to bury his head in his hands and maybe make a new living underground. It didn't help that he was hastily shoved into the seat next to Madeline's, so his arm was prickling from being so close to her despite what happened earlier. Judging by the way he was tense during the whole thing too, he probably developed enough muscles to take Royce down with his finger. Not really, he hopes he'd never have to do something like that.

So while Oliver was busy sitting there, ridged like an icicle, (his thoughts are filled with cold things, he isn't sure if he's traumatised), and the fire turns purple. Yeah. Fucking purple. This ridiculous story has dragged on too far to be a dream, and Oliver isn't sure if he's that creative, even in his sleep. And seeing fire change colour right before his fucking eyeballs makes him screech. Not really. He's more dignified than that. He just startles like he's been shot, effectively bumping into both Maddy and Royce, who are too distracted to give a damn about him, and is prepped to faint when he sees a girl sitting right next to the fire, or maybe she's inside the fire. Oliver doesn't know – he blinks and she's gone.

The sudden melodious cheering of the campers turn into low, morose mumbling, and the fire is almost as black as the sky. Suddenly, the loud, boisterous singing isn't as embarrassing. Everyone mumbled with sunken faces, cheeks hollow, drifting eyes.

Oliver wants the happiness back.

Chiron claps. The sound rings. Everyone's snapped out of it, whatever mist they've sunken into.

"Now listen, everyone, I know we're all going through some tough times because of the disappearance of our dearest friend, Percy."

Oliver was keen on listening to Chiron, but nothing really goes the way he wants it to, because before he can even see Chiron open his mouth again, he's ripped out of his seat, this violent motion done so many times that he no longer trips or flails around in any way, injuring those around him. Okay, he can't lie; he might've kicked the head of the boy in front of him. And he might've screeched a little, and that sound might've crushed his pride a little, just by the tiniest bit.

The yank was too hard to be Maddy's because he flies through the air, no kidding, and plus she was sitting on his left hand side. The offender, Royce, doesn't have it in him to apologise and Maddy doesn't even ask if he's okay or traumatised, and no one stops them from dragging him away and Oliver's getting worked up over everything and he's about to scream-

He wills himself to calm down before that thing happens again. Nothing scares him more than that blinding anger. It's like he's selling his soul to the devil every time that happens, because it's a state of being a puppet filled with explosives and way too much stuffing and everything feels clouded.

Royce turns around and smiles, and suddenly everything's alright. Maddy's by his side, and she rarely ever leaves, so it's reassuring in a way. He shouldn't be so mad at both of them. They surely have good intentions, apart from torturing him but he decides to ignore that, and he shouldn't take them for granted, but he can barely see the ground and everything in his head is rushing by so quickly, he can barely keep up with his own thoughts, why the hell is everything going by so fast, and suddenly Maddy is telling Royce to stop, and there's lots of movement he can't pick up on, and he's panicking, he doesn't know why. He's broken into cold sweat he can feel it on his face.

Royce has fifty thousand questions on his face, and even Maddy looks concerned. Meanwhile Oliver is sweating like the Nigeria Falls, and his eyes can't stop flickering around, and why are these attacks becoming more frequent they should be decreasing. He wonders again, vaguely, under the haze that's quickly settling on his brain, if his dead father really is cursing him, finding a way to make him miserable even after he's been wiped off the face of earth.

He can hear footsteps; lots of them, there are a lot of people rushing over. Oh god, oh god he can hear the screaming, he hears the screaming, it's distant but it's getting louder, and he's panicking even more now and Maddy's screaming about how something didn't work, but he can't pick up anything. It's like he's dead to the world, and oh god the devil's here to pick him up. He shouldn't describe it as something as morbid as that but he's in a very simple state of mind and only simple words are getting through his head and he's pretty sure he's not breathing but he can't do anything about it and it's only making him more pissed but oh god, he shouldn't be getting pissed.

There's an 'Ollie, breathe mate,' and it sounds like Edd, and how did he get here? Is everyone here? There's a reassuring hand on his back and it feels like Jayce but he can't be sure because nothing is moving oh god he can't move, and he needs a grounding.

But there's nothing.

It hits Oliver that there's literally nothing he feels a deep connection to. His father's dead, and was never really the idealistic man, and his mother never showed her face to him.

There's a distressed scream and Oliver's not sure if it's coming from his head, or from outside. He can't bring himself to care, and he can't lift his head to look.

His father was a horrible, horrible, man and Oliver hates him so much and he doesn't know why every single day he ends up thinking about him and turns a little sad when he realizes he's dead and no, his father was a horrible man and he deserved to die, but why is he so sad? Why doesn't he have any personal connections to the world around him? It's like Oliver's a wandering ghost and is he really living, is he the one who doesn't deserve to live, and these thoughts are whizzing by before he can stop them and he shouldn't be so negative just because he doesn't have a grounding.

Oliver can't see out of his eyes and oh boy he's really panicking now because he's fucking blind or something, and holy shit that's cold. It takes Oliver a moment, which is too long, to realize that there are hands on his arms gripping him tightly and shaking him and fuck those hands are cold.

Oliver is relieved to the point where he might cry, because the black is clearing up in patches, and he thinks he's breathing. Words aren't shoving themselves down his throat a mile a minute, and he can hear the frantic screaming of people around him, especially Maddy's when she almost wails in relief when he starts blinking.

The cold is gone from his arms, and the hands pat his shoulders, "you okay?" and Oliver recognises the voice, oh wow it's Gale, is everyone here? He's pretty sure everyone he's met by far is here; their breathing's heavy and most of them are patting each other on the back.

Oliver feels like he's vomited, or something, because the haze doesn't go away completely, it just lingers there, and suddenly it hits him again that he has no grounding. Suddenly he's been thrust into a world of dizziness and he's whirling and he just want's this all to stop.

But there are arms around him, hands on his shoulders, comforting phrases and suddenly, he's okay. He almost doesn't notice the red glow above his head until Maddy's screaming.

At first it sounds like a load of blabber and incoherent mumbling, but he soon realized that she was happily repeating the same phrase and jumping around.

"Oliver's the son of Nemesis!"

"FUCK!" That scream was Cliff's, definitely his.

"That means he's on MY TEAM FOR CAPTURE THE FLAG! HA!"

AN: HAHAHA I BET YOU THOUGHT THERE WAS GOING TO BE SAPPY ROMANCE, THAT'S OK I DID TOO, but things took a different turn and I was thrown out of the car, rolled down a cliff, landed myself in a blueberry bush and sat on by a deer, so I conjured up this mess.