AN: Thanks for the idea of a Capture the Flag game. Also, I'll try to work on the OOCness a bit, but it will most likely get worse before it gets better. Oh, and if this chapter looks ugly, I've been having formatting issues. And now, onto the story. Yay.

Disclaimer: Don't own PJO. Never have, never will.

Life Goes On

Cold, steel grey eyes burned into mine.

"Hey Annabeth." I said cautiously. I had no idea what she thought she was doing, which worried me, as Athena's children ALWAYS had a plan. She grabbed the neck of my shirt and slowly led me towards the elevator.

Thalia was about to follow, but Annabeth whirled around, her dagger hovering at Thalia's throat.

"You! You bitch; I thought you were my friend!" Annabeth whispered murderously, her voice dangerously low.

"I am your friend." Thalia began, but was cut off by a cold, harsh, humorless laugh.

"Oh, really? Could've fooled me!" Annabeth spat out angrily.

"Yeah, I think I might have fooled myself!" Thalia retorted coolly. This was definitely NOT how I thought things were going to play out after Kronos was defeated and we, you know, saved the world, but it seemed like the Fates were determined that I would never get anything right if it didn't have to do with saving life-as-we-know-it.

The argument between Annabeth and Thalia was getting heated, and demi-gods were starting to form a ring around them, whispering amongst themselves. I even saw Travis and Connor slowly circling the small crowd, taking bets. If this fight hadn't been caused by me, albeit inadvertently, I would have smiled.

I slowly backed away though, because, as pathetic as it sounded, I was afraid of both of them right now. I'd seen enough of these things go wrong just to think it would all work out in thirty seconds.

Then, as if they read my thoughts, two angry voices rose in unison "Percy!"

Everyone in the room turned to face me. The small circle around Thalia and Annabeth shifted, making a small passage for me. I inhaled sharply, then slowly made my way to the center.

On one hand, there was Annabeth, and, on the other, Thalia. I would trust my life to either of them. Annabeth and Thalia both opened their mouths, presumably to ask me 'so who's right?' or something like that, but a flash of light burst forth in front of us, quickly subsiding to reveal the form of Apollo, his face solemn.

I looked at him, to his throne across the hall, then back to him, and then gave him a look as if to say 'was that really necessary?' He nodded at me, giving me a small quick grin.

"There's something you need to see." he said, quick but simple, grabbing my arm.

Before I could as much as blink, we vanished in flash of pale golden light, reappearing to a familiar sight.

Chiron was sitting in his wheelchair in front of us, emerald mist illuminating the interior of the Big House, which smelled suspiciously of snake.

As I turned to the source of the spectacle, Apollo quickly attended to Chiron, who instantly stood up to full height, which, as a centaur, was pretty tall.

My heart stopped beating when I saw Rachel surrounded by a pulsing ring of green mist, her fiery red hair flapping in some nonexistent wind. Her eyes seemed like they were looking somewhere far away.

My only thought after I realized what was happening; 'Oh shit.'

"Rachel! You have to stop! There's a curse-"

"I know all about the curse that Hades put on the Oracle " Rachel cut me off, her voice surprisingly calm.

I turned to Chiron "You have to stop her! She could die!" I screamed. I was NOT going to let one of my friends kill herself.

"I know what might happen Perseus, but she claims to have had a vision. Apparently the curse has been lifted." he said seriously. "Don't interrupt the ritual-it could be disastrous." he added, still serious.

Ignoring Chiron's warning, I ran towards her, but Apollo held me back, his grip strong.

Rachel turned towards me "Don't worry Percy. This is what I was meant for. I'll be fine."

That sound eerily similar to May Castellan before she had her breakdown.

I tried to shake out of Apollo's grip, but it seemed like he could crush iron, which, now that I think about it he probably could, being a god and all.

The door behind me flew open, revealing the form of the Oracle. The bandages around her body were tattered and torn.

Apollo then walked up to Rachel, and asked her if she was sure she wanted to do this and probably a lot of other stuff, but I was too worried to pay attention.

She confirmed her position on the matter, and the mummy, which had been drawing nearer to Rachel while they were talking, collapsed at her feet.

I began to walk over to her when Apollo shook his head. "This part is the most dangerous. Don't disturb her."

"What happens now?" I asked worriedly.

"Now the Spirit of Delphi takes hold...or it doesn't" he said slowly.

"If it doesn't...?" I asked him slowly.

"Let's hope that you don't need to find out." Apollo replied.

Rachel's body began to contort in some sort of spasm, her body bending in obscene ways. Her eyes glowed green, and I caught the familiar stench of snakes. She opened her mouth, and began to speak.

(we all know how this goes, so I'm not putting the Great Prophecy here.)

"The next Great Prophecy." Chiron whispered in awe.

"I think she's going to make an absolutely stunning Oracle." Apollo grinned cockily, his white teeth shining in the pale lights of the Big House.

Rachel was pale, and lay sprawled out on the floor. I ran over to her, but the color in her face was already returning, no doubt in thanks to Apollo.

The words of the prophecy kept running through my head, the ominous prophecy sent a chill down my spine. All was silent for a moment, and then I heard the voices of the other half-bloods as they entered the camp.

"Go and celebrate for now Percy, we'll discuss this later." said Chiron. "And don't worry about Miss Dare. She's just most certainly tired. It was her first prophecy, after all." Chiron added.

Giving one last glance at Rachel, I walked out of the Big House, and headed up towards the large group of demi-gods.

I could hear them speaking excitedly to one another. Through the crowd, I saw Grover walking off to the right. I ran over to catch up to him.

"Hey G-Man! How does it feel to be a Lord of the Wild?" I asked.

"This is great Percy! I mean, me, Lord of Wild? I can't believe it. Especially because of how long it took to get my License. His face darkened for a few seconds, as he remembered his failure.

"It's okay Grover. What matters is that we won. It would have been impossible without you recruiting all those spirits."

"Thanks Percy." Grover said. "It's just hard to forget. But I've been put in charge of the seekers too! There's gonna be a lot of new half-bloods showing up and at least twenty new Satyrs have been put into my group..." Grover kept talking, and the more I heard, the more I knew that guy deserved it.

I told him I'd see him later, then I started talking to other campers, congratulating and thanking them for their work in the battle. They thanked me, then went on their way again.

As I finished chatting with a pair of kids from the Hermes cabin, Thalia walked up from behind me.

"You may have beaten Kronos, but he was distracted. How 'bout we go down to the arena and you get your ass kicked."

I raised a quizzical eyebrow. "And you expect to beat me...how? Achilles curse, remember?" I grimaced. I was starting to wonder if I could get rid of the curse, now that I had defeated Kronos and all, live a normal life, instead of all the prophesied agony it would certainly bring. Well, as normal as a half-blood could live.

Thalia's face reflected her obvious annoyance at my curse. "Disarm only then." she grumbled.

"Sounds good." I chuckled under my breath. She may be great at archery, but no one was going to beat me at swordplay. Nobody.

When we got to the arena, however, Conner Stoll told us that Chiron was calling all the campers.

We walked over to the amphitheater, where everyone was looking at me. "Oh great. I save Olympus, and now I'm a celebrity." I muttered sarcastically.

"Well Seaweed Brain, you really do need to associate with us humans now that you're a...wait, I almost forgot, you're still a human." Thalia said dryly, her spiky black hair dancing in the wind. "Yes, the fact that you turned down immortality was the most sane decision you ever made."

"Hey, not cool Thal."

"I wasn't joking about that last bit." she said earnestly. " If you would have chosen to become a god, I would have stabbed you so much you would have died from loss of ichor.

"I don't think that's even possible." I said.

"You would have been the first to know." she joked, though her face was solemn. When all the campers were accounted for, Chiron began to speak.

"Firstly, you have the rest of the week off. You deserve it; after all you have just saved Olympus." A series of cheers rang up, lasting for several minutes, the loudest of which seemed to be coming from the Hermes cabin, with Connor leading the bandwagon.

Chiron smiled, and held up his hand signaling for the cheering to quiet down. "However, you will return to normal schedules on Sunday. Also, a Capture the Flag game will be held this Saturday. I trust four days will prove sufficient time to prepare alliances. The two teams are Athena, and Zeus."

A tremor ran through the crowd at the words.

Not a good choice. I thought worriedly. People in the crowd began to whisper amongst themselves, possibly thinking the same thing I was.

"What about Percy?" a camper from the Hephaestus cabin asked.

Well, I guess not everyone. I thought

"He's basically a one man army." All the campers began to nod their heads in agreement. It felt really weird to be singled out like that, but they had a point.

"Percy has a few choices." Chiron began. "He can choose to participate in another exercise, or he may choose to play, either alone, or with one ally. Should he choose this, only one of them may be on offense."

Now the chatter of the rest of the small group of demi-gods was deafening.

Chiron raised his hand once more, signaling for silence.

"If he chooses to play with an ally, he must alert the camp of his plans and of his partner, and one of the teams must agree to give their position up to him. However, if it is deemed that the game is still...unfair, his options will be reconsidered once more."

The Hephaestus boy nodded and the campers began to file out until only Thalia and I were left.

"Sooooo..." Thalia began, her electric blue eyes sparkling.

"Any idea who you're gonna try to ally with?" I asked.

"Hmm." Thalia put on a seemingly thoughtful expression. "Let's see...how 'bout you?" she deadpanned. "You seriously thought that you wouldn't be on my team? You're the best fighter, besides me of course, and you know, we're sorta together now." She punched my arm lightly. "So how 'bout it?" She asked, but it didn't really sound like a question.

"Um...okay." I said stupidly. My face felt like it had just been put on the grill, and I'm sure I was redder than a sirloin cooked rare.

"C'mon, I still have to prove to you that I'm a better fighter than you." Thalia said smugly.

"You're so going down." I laughed, before jumping to my feet. "Race you to the arena!"

The ending here isn't really that great, I know, but I just wanted to get that chapter out there.

I did a bit of editing here and there to try to make it flow a bit better…

Thanks for all the reviews! If you guys have any ideas on this should go, go ahead and review!