A/N: Hey guys! I seriously am sorry for slowing down with the updates…that too when the story is just picking up pace! A lot of stuff is going on, but I will still try my best to keep this story going, for the sake of anyone and everyone who is reading it! J

And that reminds me, shoutout to sortofbored for his constant encouragement! Thanks a lot! I am glad to know that you are reading my story and liking to so far! I'll surely try my best to improve, and I am sure you'll love the direction this story is going to take. ;)

Anyway, now onwards to chapter 10!

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own the series, only my OCs (who are pretty cool by the way…probably) and definitely not Uncle Rick!

UPDATE: Th site has been messing with me a lot, lately, not allowing me to post my chapters (it just hangs :( ), and when I finally succeeded in posting it, half of the code got visible, messing up the entire chapter. I am posting this, and hopefully, it will be okay this time.

PERCY'S P.O.V.

We jumped over the school walls and were inside, and thankfully, weren't noticed by anyone. It was recess and the place was in chaos, so it helped in providing us with ample cover too. But we knew that we didn't have much time, as firstly, we had seen the monsters already inside the school; they had probably decided to strike early, secondly, I wasn't sure if anybody would believe if I told them that I was in middle school.

Arjun was using his super-phone (that's what we decided to call it!) to pinpoint the location of the daughter of Hermes, but I realised that it was unneeded. I saw around 5 empousai and 2 Scythian dracanae making their way towards the opposite side of the school grounds, where very few kids were hanging around. Nodding towards Arjun, I raced directly towards the monsters, but still staying hidden in the crowd, to have the element of surprise when we are ready to attack them and rescue the girl. The monsters seemed to walk faster as we edged closer, and then disappeared behind one of the buildings of the school. I realised that we needed to act fast. The girl wouldn't be able to hold against so many monsters at once. It surprised me that such size of monster groups could form, just to hunt down a single demigod. I guess after the two wars, they preferred to stay a bit more on guard. Nice thinking on their part, but I certainly didn't appreciate it.

Arjun tapped my shoulder, and then with each of his two index fingers, he made a semicircle in the air, gesturing that we should split up with me attacking the monsters from the back, while he would go around the building and face them from the front, and maybe rescue the kid we were sent to find. I nodded and he ran to his side, as we were just a few feet away now. Just as he went out of my sight, I ran ahead, and went behind the building, and met a horrific sight.

The monsters had cornered the girl, who was gagged so that she couldn't scream for help. On closer inspection, I realised that there was a sixth empousai there, and by her dress, she seemed to have disguised as a teacher. Just as they were going to cut off her head with their talons, I jumped in, slicing the now iridescent blue blade of Riptide through both the dracanae, and the nearest empousai, turning them to dust. The monsters had been caught by surprise, as they were too focused on the kid to notice me. They couldn't "smell" me either (I still take offense to that, I mean, it seems like I have hygiene issues or something!), thanks to the uniforms given to Arjun and I by the devas. The remaining 5 empousai gnashed their teeth in frustration.

"Who dares to challenge us?" screamed the leader, the one dressed like a teacher, as she hobbled on her mismatched legs with her hair blazing with fire and talons outstretched. The other four had now surrounded me, and left the girl, which was good, but she couldn't move away. I saw that her ankle was swollen and she probably had a sprain, if not a fracture. I hoped it wasn't the latter one. I turned my focus to the monsters that were closing on me, trying to attack from all sides to overwhelm me.

Anytime now Fire-kid. I thought and gritted my teeth, glancing at the monsters warily. Right on cue, three of the empousai wailed and were dispatched to Tartarus, one being sliced through the back, and the other two being burnt to crisp. The latter one was the closest to the girl, who screamed through her gags and wriggled out of the way a bit, as she gazed at us with a mix of terror and fascination. I decided it was time to end it quickly. People would surely hear the commotion, and we needed to be out before anyone arrived. Nodding to Arjun, I pushed back the empousai that jumped to attack me for avenging the death of her sisters, as the other one tried to make a run for the girl, probably to take her hostage. Emphasis on tried.

I sent a concentrated crack through the ground, effectively trapping her donkey leg, as I drove riptide through the one that was attacking me. Just as the dust of the empousai closer to me cleared, I saw Arjun wrap up the business by killing the last empousai.

We then jogged to the girl, and I gently took off her gag and handed her a piece of ambrosia, urging her to eat it, as she stared at us wide-eyed.

"W-Who are you guys? Why did Mrs. Em turn into th-that…" she whimpered and began asking, as she slowly gained some energy from the godly food.

"Relax. Don't worry. We are here to help you find the place where you'll be safe from all these monsters. Now tell me, what's your name?" I smiled and slowly helped her stand up, as Arjun bent down and wrapped a bandage on her injured foot.

"I am Eva…and thank you for your help! But what are your names? Why are both of your faces hidden under hoods? Why—"

"Woah Eva!" Arjun smirked and continued, "Reign in those questions. First we need to get out of here. Besides, I really want to check this out as soon as possible!" as he showed his super-phone from his pocket and I understood. I held Eva's left hand and Arjun held the other, as with his other hand, he manually clicked a button on the phone, and within a second, we were gone.

We rematerialized at the last place where I wanted to be. I could recognize the road. We were about half a mile from…Camp Half-Blood.

"Dude! Why here?" I whispered to Arjun, who calmly replied, "We need to ensure she reaches camp safely, so this was inevitable."

I nodded, as the girl who was wonderstruck by what just happened shook me by my hand and yelled, "Where am I? What did your friend do?"

"Calm down, Eva. We have teleported to the place where you'll be safe from all those monsters. There would be people there who would look after you. Don't worry; it's only half a mile from here." I assured her, smiling sincerely.

She calmed down, and then snorted and asked, "Where exactly is 'here' anyway?"

Arjun smirked and stated, "Long Island." hearing which the girl's jaw dropped, but she regained her composure and asked again, "But who are you guys? Why are you helping me?"

"We have been assigned to help people like you, who are attacked by monsters and stuff like that, As for who we are—" Arjun stared at me, wanting to know what he should say next. I briefly shook my head, and I hoped he understood what I meant.

He sighed and continued, "You can call me Kalki. My friend will introduce himself." He looked at me apologetically, as I guess he expected that I would have wanted him to give me an alias name too. But I had already planned mine.

"You can call me Aphosius." I stated.

"Why does it seem like those aren't your real names?" the girl narrowed her eyes.

"Because you are a smart girl." I laughed a bit and replied.

"Alright, be all secretive if you want. I won't tell about my suspicions to anyone at this place you're sending me, as I guess that is probably what you're trying to avoid." Eva smirked slyly, but then unexpectedly hugged me tightly. "Thank you though. For saving me." She then hugged Arjun, and I could easily tell that he was blushing a deep shade of crimson under his hood.

About half an hour later, we were just at the base of the small hill, on which stood Thalia's tree, hidden among the bushes. I sighed, as I caught sight of Peleus napping peacefully. The place that I called home till just a few months ago was basking in the soothing warm light of the sunset. All I wanted right now was to run up and go back, but I knew it wasn't possible. Even if I did return, the campers just might attack me, because only Zeus knows what more lies had been circulated amongst them by Alex, regarding Arjun and I, when we weren't around. Besides, we both were supposed to be dead. Returning would mean that Zeus would soon be notified, and then Hades, who had helped us so much, would be in trouble. I did not want that, and there was also the fact that this time Zeus might personally decide to kill us, which was something neither Arjun nor I would like. Obviously dying isn't fun, but dying while Zeus gets a chance to mock us for crimes we did not commit? It isn't too high on my bucket list.

"Eva, run straight up to that tree, and then over to the largest house you'd see. It is painted in blue, and is hard to miss." I instructed the girl, as she nodded, but then her eyes widened when she saw the tree.

"What about the dragon? Would he…allow me to pass?" she asked, bewildered by the size Peleus had become by now. He was just a bit smaller than Festus now, and at this rate, might soon become even larger than him.

Arjun smiled and assured her, "Don't worry, that dragon's job is to protect something that's on the tree. And he would know that you don't want to cause any harm. But if it still scares you, just make a run for it to the house." He laughed, as the girl narrowed her eyes, trying to understand if he was joking or not. After a few moments, she nodded and started jogging up the hill. Her foot was almost healed, due to the ambrosia that we had given her. Once she crossed the border, I mentally activated my teleporter, and took the both of us to the outskirts of the city of Westport, Connecticut. I do not know why we ended up there, but I recognized the place. Nico had brought me here to meet Luke's mom before my almost fatal dip in the Styx River. I hoped that we didn't have to meet her again. Besides, I did not want to relive my memories regarding the curse of Achilles. It would remind me of…Annabeth, and I did not want that right now.

"Hey! You should have at least given a warning. We could have stayed there for a couple of more minutes…you know, maybe catch sight of someone." Arjun protested.

"And what if they catch sight of us? We need to stay in the shadows, Arjun. Yes, we'll help those kids reach camp, but we're not letting the campers know who we are. Because as soon as the rescued kids reveal that they had been personally escorted here, the campers would be out looking for us, to find us. And we can't let them do that. They hated us, and we, according to them, died. They're happy now. We cannot burden them with the fact of our existence." I explained, as I whipped out my super-phone and looked for our next mission. Philadelphia. About 150 miles if we took the most direct route, but that would mean crossing New York. We could just teleport, but I wanted to check the extent of the super-phone's teleporter by increasing the distance bit by bit, rather than making big jumps in one go.

I saw Arjun nod in silent agreement as he checked his phone too. This time we were rescuing a son of Apollo. Something told me that this was probably not the last kid of his that we would be rescuing.

JASON'S P.O.V.

Piper held Annabeth in her arms, comforting the blonde as she cried. Annabeth had begun to behave quite erratically, going from times when she would hate Percy for what he had become before his death and condemn any mention of him, while praising Alex, to times like this. Only Chiron, Piper and I had been aware of her breakdowns. She would ramble about having to hurt Percy when she knew he might very well be innocent, which struck me odd. I mean, even though I would hate to admit it, I had begun to doubt whether Percy had been saying the truth after all, when he said someone had framed him. The evidence was incredibly against his favor, and Annabeth, the wisest child of Athena that I had ever had the fortune to meet, deciding to go against reason…it, to say the very least, unsettled me. And given what happened earlier today, I had begun to doubt my own conviction regarding Percy being guilty.

~~~~Flashback~~~~

"You're still loyal to him? The traitor? The self-centered jerk that committed petty crimes just for attention? Who tried to protect a son of some random savage god, who might have been a threat to the stability of Olympus? The very guy who tried to kill me, the son of Zeus, and the only demigod deemed worthy enough for the 'Blessing of Olympus' bestowed on me by the king of the gods himself?" Alex bellowed, as Annabeth silently sobbed while hiding her face in Piper's shoulders.

Chiron had decided to inform Alex, hoping that he might be able to help, and it was his right to know if his girlfriend was still in love with her dead ex. But the way he reacted made me flinch. He should have tried to understand. Percy and Annabeth shared too many memories; she couldn't just forget him in a flash. But it had been almost 6 months now, since his…death. Besides, it also worried me that Alex seemed to consider himself the worthiest demigod, just because of the blessing, although Zeus had admitted that he had given it to him for protecting him. Such pride did not bode well for his future.

"Calm down, Alexander. I understand your feelings, but right now, we need to help Annabeth feel better. From what Malcolm had informed me, her nightmares are getting worse, and we need to find a way to make her forget about the painful memories and concentrate on her future." Chiron calmly advised.

"Are you suggesting that we make her…forget Percy somehow?" I narrowed my eyes and enquired.

Chiron's eyes darkened as he stared off to the distance. "Di immortales, no! I cannot do that. It would be unfair to her, and even to…Percy." He said his favorite student's name with a sigh. For him, Percy was always innocent, and a victim of the meddling of the gods.

"So what are you suggesting then, Chiron? If I may so ask?" Piper asked as she gently patted Annabeth's back.

Chiron wiped his forehead with a napkin, and then started apprehensively, "Alexander here has the powers of all the Olympians. So I want him to use the power of Aphrodite, and amplifying the feeling of love that Annabeth has for him, to suppress these…outbursts." He concluded his idea quickly, not meeting the eyes of any one of us.

Alex nodded, understanding what he meant, as he ran a hand through his blond and purple highlighted raven hair, and he asked, "Annabeth, should I do it now? I will try my best, and I promise it won't hurt you."

Annabeth remained quiet, but Piper replied, "Do it. If it can help her, then do it. Please." I realized that it pained my Piper to see her best friend in so much suffering.

Alex gave a curt nod to Chiron and me, and then placed his arms in front of him, and closed his eyes. Soon, tendrils of deep pink energy swirled around his arms, and then shot straight at Annabeth, but then something really incredible happened.

The energy bounced back, and hit Alex in the chest, knocking him across the room. Chiron gasped in surprise, as Annabeth looked up, confused. Piper then pointed out something that made the day even weirder. A bright dot had appeared right in front of us, and it swirled in a frenzy, and with a brilliant flash of light, came out the goddess we least expected to arrive: Aphrodite.

"Alexander Steele." She spat, and it was perhaps the first time that I heard her speak so venomously.

"I do not care whether you have my powers or not, but I will NOT allow you to force Annabeth to love you, when her heart holds no such feelings for you!" She proclaimed, and I looked at her, flabbergasted.

"Mom, Annabeth is dating him now. He just wanted to help increase her feelings towards him—"Piper began, but Aphrodite raised her palm, making her stop.

"I know what he had actually tried. And I disapprove of it. I know of Annabeth's true love, and I can feel the love is still possible, so I will not allow this! Consider yourself warned, son of Zeus!" she declared and left the room with another flash, as we barely had time to cover our eyes.

For a few moments, no one said a thing.

Then Alex got up and walked over to Annabeth, and yelled, "Really? No feelings for me, eh? Love your dead traitor of a lover if you want to so much. Still possible? Ha! Newsflash, Percy Jackson is dead. And he will remain dead. And guess what? It's over. I am breaking up with you."

I expected Annabeth to cry, but she looked him straight in the eye, and for a moment, I saw our old Annabeth, with the determined grey eyes. "Fine. I have no problem with that!" she retorted. For the love of Zeus, the day was going positively crazy. I really did not know what to expect next.

~~~Flashback end~~~

As we slowly headed out of the Big House, after Annabeth had calmed down, I noticed a girl running down the hill of Thalia's tree. I realised quickly that she wasn't one of the campers, so she probably was only just arriving. Breaking into a sprint, I ran up to her, expecting her to be chased by monsters, as is what normally happened, but surprisingly, it didn't seem like she was being chased.

"Hey kid. Who are you?" I enquired.

She gave me a suspicious look, but I smiled sincerely, which made her feel a bit more at ease. "I am Eva, I am 12, and from Phoenix. Two guys saved me from some monsters that were attacking me, and then brought me here. They told me to go to that big house over there." She said, pointing to the…well, Big House.

But I was intrigued. She mentioned two guys saving her. I did not remember any camper being sent to Arizona for a rescue mission lately. Before I could ask her anything else, a shining silver caduceus appeared over her head. Hermes had claimed her, as she looked at the symbol in astonishment.

After taking her for the orientation movie, I informed Annabeth and Piper of what she had told me. Chiron was there too, and he seemed confused, which was startling, considering the fact that he had eons of knowledge. Alex was nowhere to be found, so we decided to continue our investigations without him. When the girl returned, Annabeth, who seemed to have calmed down a bit now, asked her, "Eva, who were those two guys who saved you?"

Annabeth waited for her reply curiously. Finally she had found some mystery that she could devote her time solving, rather than wallowing in the loss of Percy.

Eva frowned, as if trying to remember, but then shrugged and replied, "They had hooded jackets on. Even in the heat of Phoenix, they kept their hoods on, so I couldn't see their faces."

I frowned and glanced at Piper. We both had arrived at the same conclusion. Whoever were the mystery rescuers, they intended to stay incognito.

"Hmm…did they give any names?" Annabeth enquired, not losing hope.

Eva seemed to hesitate for a second, and then said, "Yes. One said his name was Aphosius, the other one was named Kalki."

Those were some weird names. I tried to think about my knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology, trying to find if they were the names of some minor gods, but I drew a blank.

"Chiron, do you know of anyone of such names?" Annabeth now turned to the centaur.

Chiron frowned and tried to avoid her gaze. After several moments, he replied, "No, Annabeth. My entire life, I have never met anyone with these names." But his expression said that he did have some suspicions. But one thing that I had come to know about the wise old centaur was that he never revealed anything that might worry us, unless he's sure about it.

"Alright then. Well, thank you, Eva, for the information. Now, Piper here will take you to your cabin. I hope you enjoy your stay here. Do you have any questions of your own?" Annabeth finally said.

The 12-year-old girl just snorted, and said, "Seriously? After all that happened today, the film was the most believable thing for me. And it pretty much answered most of my questions, so nope."

Annabeth smiled, perhaps for the first time in several months. "That's great then." then turning to Piper, she added, "Now, Piper, take her to her cabin, and later show her around, please." Piper nodded and went off with the girl, as I decided to think about what all had happened today. I wanted to ask Annabeth what had Aphrodite meant, but she had immediately run off to her cabin, and I knew she needed some time alone.

As I walked back to the shrines being constructed on the far side of the camp, I asked myself, "Could today get any weirder?"

Unfortunately, the answer was: Yes.

Just as everyone finished lunch, we heard Peleus, the huge golden dragon literally whelp in alarm. Festus wasn't around, he had been taken to the Cabin 9 cave in the forest, and so, it surely wasn't him pranking the other dragon. Instead, it was a certain goddess. Who was mad. Really, really mad. At all of us.

"Who dares?" she thundered as she swung a…torch? But it certainly was no ordinary torch, as Peleus whimpered in fear. Why she would need to keep it lit in daytime was beyond me though. But I recognized the goddess, as she marched to the table where Chiron stood alarmed, and slammed another torch on it, cracking it into two. Hecate. The goddess of magic and the controller of the Mist.

Two godly visits in one day? Today was probably the day I should have stayed in my cabin. It was evident that neither of the two goddesses had come to camp to chitchat. Although most campers were unaware of Aphrodite's visit, chaos would ensue if anyone came to know what she had said. I really hoped that Hecate was mad for anything, maybe her kids were getting bullied, or maybe she didn't like the food that was burnt as offering to her; anything, except for any subject related to Percy. But I guess today wasn't my lucky day.

"The Mist is not to be played around with you fools! No puny demigod can go around thinking they can control it to their will! I am the goddess of the Mist, and only I have the right to manipulate it at such large scales!" the goddess of magic thundered.

"Lady Hecate" Chiron calmly addressed the fuming goddess, as he trotted up to her and bowed, followed by all of the campers who had been too stunned to react earlier. "Can you please elaborate on the reasons for your displeasure? It seems like you believe one of the demigods here might have tinkered with the Mist a bit—"

"Tinkered would be too small a word for what has happened Chiron! If my suspicions are correct, the gods have never been so wrong. They have committed a grave blunder! Not one, but two innocents died because of what has happened. It is a shame I could not realize this earlier, I could have stopped this from happening!"

Hecate ranted as we all gave her confused looks, as she still wasn't being specific.

"With all due respect my lady, what exactly happened regarding the Mist that could have caused this blunder, if I may ask?" Annabeth asked the goddess in a neutral tone, but her stormy eyes revealed that she was thinking furiously and the conjectures she was reaching to were alarming her beyond belief.

"You of all persons should have figured this out all those months ago daughter of Athena! How could you be so blind?" Hecate spat, as her eyes glowed with flames, which somehow reminded me of Arjun, the guy no one talked about. He was dead too, but nobody cared. Zeus wanted his existence to be forgotten, so that his connection with another pantheon would not affect the Greeks and the Romans. People rarely mentioned him now, and the only people who did were Nico, Leo, and sometimes the Stoll brothers.

"Look, if you want to hurl allegations, first state the crime. Then we will proceed with trying to find out who did it." Alex snapped at Hecate, unfazed by the fact that he was talking back to a goddess.

The goddess of magic sneered. "So this is the famed Alexander Steele, the one who bears the 'Blessing of Olympus'? Seems like yet another snobby son of Zeus to me. And you have made him your leader, isn't it demigods? Tsk, what a downfall. From the righteous son of Poseidon to…this." She said the last word with utter disgust, looking at Alex, whose face burned with fury. "Righteous? That Percy Jackson was long gone. He had become an attention seeking criminal, ignorant goddess! He—"

Hecate swung her torch and suddenly, a band of shining white energy sprung from it, and wrapped around Alex's mouth, effectively shutting him up.

"I cannot kill you, only because of Zeus, but I can make you shut your trap, demigod. And for Percy being held guilty for all those crimes, and not just Percy, even Arjun, the poor kid whose only experience with the Greeks was hatred, discrimination, and finally death, I have proof that all the so called eye witnesses were wrong. Someone had been manipulating the Mist, to make Percy's and Arjun's figures appear whenever there were witnesses, so that they could conveniently be blamed. One of you demigods is a traitor! That demigod has led to the death of not only a child who could have worked along side the Greeks despite his origins, but also the Hero of Olympus, the greatest of all heroes, Perseus Jackson!"

For a couple of moments, no one said a word. Everyone was stunned. Then the yelling, screaming and crying began.

Things seemed to be falling into place. And suddenly, it seemed as if a thick veil that had clouded my mind had been lifted off. No, torn away, by the sheer force of the truth. Not only me, but also it seemed Piper, Leo and Calypso had realised it too. Annabeth looked shocked, but somehow, it now seemed more like she had finally stumbled upon a clue that she had been looking for since ages. Nico frowned and glared at us in contempt, as I hung my head in shame. He had been right all along. I was blinded by my belief in the witnesses, and had been pushed to believe that Percy's reaction that fateful day had been intentionally done to try and kill Alex, which, I always knew, wasn't the case. It almost felt like something inside me had urged me to hate Percy, and that thought scared me. The only good thing was, that the urge had waned, and now had been completely destroyed by this revelation.

But for the rest of the demigods, the realization wasn't so quick. You see, the Greeks love complacency. Give them something to believe in, and once they're convinced, they would believe it and defend it until thoroughly defeated. Thus, the furor that began in the pavilion started with the demigods blaming Hecate of lies and untruths, just to destabilize their unity. Alex yelled, as soon as his light-strap was removed, "Why didn't you find this earlier then, oh goddess of the Mist? And why didn't any of your children detect this, are you intending to say they were not capable enough to detect magic at such large scales? Are you belittling your own children, in this feeble attempt to defend the son of Poseidon?" he taunted.

Saying that the goddess grew all the more angrier would have been an understatement. She literally bristled with fury, with an aura of multicolored lights streaming around her, but Alex stood his ground. "Dealing with the Mist is a tricky business, boy. I deeply regret that I could not deviate my attention from my work to check what was happening here. Who would have guessed? One of you, betraying your best hero! And it was done really skillfully too, I admit, if it had even escaped the notice of my own children." Her eyes narrowed, as the demigods still continued to protest, accusing her of siding with Percy just because he and the rest of us had saved her once before, at Epirus. But before she could say anything, a voice clear and loud cut across the crowd.

"STOP!"

Annabeth stood with her head held high, with her eyes burning with determination. Alex tried to say something, but she cut him off. "No, you shut up first, Alexander. Enough is enough!"

This confused the rest of the demigods even more. Weren't they both in love? Why are they fighting? Didn't Annabeth herself say that Percy was no more a hero? Why is she siding with someone who is supporting that self-centered jerk? That guy, who played nasty tricks on us with the help of that freak, Arjun, just for the sake of attention? The same guy, who got jealous of Alex and attacked him?

The whispers grew, until they started making me feel extremely uncomfortable, as Chiron pounded his hoof on the rocky floor, making everyone quiet again.

"Enough campers!" this time Chiron spoke up. He then turned to the incensed goddess and bowed, "We thank you for the information, Lady Hecate. We will try to get to the bottom of this matter as soon as possible."

"Percy's innocence will be proved. There seems more at play here than what we initially imagined." Annabeth added, only to have the goddess look at her with suspicion, and the rest of the campers in utter confusion.

"And the kid, Arjun. He died because of all of you. The first time the Greeks have a chance to form pacts with other pantheons, and we destroy it. I do not know how this ends, but for me, everyone present here is a murderer. Murderers of Arjun Armstrong and Perseus Jackson. It wasn't the hellhounds, it was all of you." And with another angry glare, the goddess of Magic disappeared in a poof of smoke.

Amidst the chaos, I realized one thing. And that was that maybe, I had been too quick to judge Percy…and Arjun. The Roman in me had made me believe in the evidence provided, but now it seems all the evidence against them was fabricated. Someone wanted Percy gone, and that someone perhaps also hated Arjun. And it seemed, that their plan had succeeded. It confused me that even after such a realization, a part of my brain still urged me to hate Percy and Arjun, but I decided to ignore it. I needed to find the truth, and for that I would have to step away from prejudice. As I hugged Piper, who had had a hard time making her siblings calm down and continue with their activities, I gazed at my brother, under whose leadership the camp had rallied. His first impression of Percy had been that of a wrong doer, so I couldn't blame him for not believing this. But then again, he had made Annabeth cheat on my best friend; although at that time I had somehow wanted to support him, but with these new allegations, I knew what I had to do.

Alexander Steele, you are suspect number one, on my list. I said to myself, still baffled by myself, as Alex had always tried to help the campers in their development, and had most of the time been a really good guy, except for times like this, where he prided himself to be better than Percy, not only in power, but also as a person. Maybe I was too quick to judge him. Ugh! I was too confused.

Today had been a long day. And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, a horn rang across the hill, signaling the last person who I wanted to face, was here.

My elder sister, Thalia Grace, lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis. Why I didn't want to meet her?

Simple.

Because…she doesn't know that Percy died.

And once she knows, I am pretty sure I'll be dead too.

~~~~~Two months later~~~~~

PERCY'S P.O.V.

We had been actively rescuing demigods now. That kid of Apollo? He was the first in the list of seven demigods that we rescued till now, after Eva. And guess what, including him, we found 2 other kids of Apollo. That dude was really…"active" in the art of having demigod children. The other four were a good mix: A son of Nemesis, a daughter of Ares (she reminded me of Clarisse, but luckily, she wasn't as annoying as her!), a son of Demeter, and lastly, the kid we were just sending across, was Samantha, a daughter of Aphrodite. She wasn't like your typical Aphrodite girl, nor was she like the tomboyish persona that Piper had, she was just simple, and seemed cute, and definitely much more humble and caring than the likes of Drew.

As we sent her off and then teleported back to our camp, which was currently situated near Chicago, I tried to think about all that had happened.

Arjun's birthday had come and gone, he prided himself to be 16 now, and dared me not to call him a kid again, which was funny. Varuna gifted him a pendant of the shape of a guitar, which could turn into a life size one whenever he felt like playing it. Surya gave him a blessing, the words for which were only known to Arjun, and he told me that I would know about it when the time was right.

Besides the happy stuff, there were also the memories, which seemed to resurface every now and then. Being so close to the camp, but yet so far, was perhaps a torture worthy of the Fields of Punishment.

In a few days, it would be the summer solstice, one of the important days, apart from the winter solstice in my Greek demigod life. Word had spread about us two "guardians" saving demigods whom satyrs hadn't reached to, and both the camps were trying to track us down. But we didn't want to be found, so we weren't going to be. Even the hunters were notified, but they couldn't find us.

Once a search team of Roman demigods almost stumbled on our camp, purely out of luck I guess, but we teleported away before they could discover us. We had help, of course, Zelus, who I knew to be one of the four siblings that were like the honor guard of Zeus, and the brother of the crazed goddess Nike, was our inside man. He helped us out of situations, although he was a bit annoying too, as he loved to brag about it whenever he got the chance. Yet, he hadn't revealed which "entity" we served, but till now, the entity seemed like a good person, as it had guided us only to help demigods. But I knew that gods always have selfish reasons, so I wouldn't be surprised if this entity turned out to be doing this only for some sort of a personal gain.

"Hey Percy, what did you think about those evil centaurs?" Arjun asked me, bringing me out of my thoughts.

'Hmm?" He was referring to the ones from whom we had rescued Samantha, they were like the centaurs I had fought against in Camp Jupiter, with long horns and reptilian eyes.

"It didn't seem like all of them had just gotten together to eat her. I mean, come to think of it. All these demigods were attacked by groups of monsters much larger than we presumed would come together to target single demigods. And the last of the centaurs mentioned something about his mission failing… do you think it means anything?"

I nodded in agreement. It definitely struck me odd. "I agree, there seems to be some foul play going on. But right now, all we can do is speculate. I would rather hope to continue doing what our mission is, than worry about the centaurs' mission. But still, we'll keep an eye open for what he could have possibly meant, or more specifically, who could have given him that mission."

Arjun gave me an odd look, but then nodded in agreement, as he lit the fire for our camp with a flick of his fingers.

I knew why he had looked at me that way. You see, I had become much more thoughtful and serious over the last few months, although I did have times when my old self returned, but I honestly tried to stop it from resurfacing, as it brought back memories, which in turn, brought back the pain of betrayal. From the ones I loved, cared and fought for, and of course, Annabeth. Would I be able to forgive her? I don't know. There was nothing left to forgive for. I was gone, and life had moved on. Life, I realized, cares for none, it keeps moving. And given the fact that she and everybody else already hated me, it would have been all the more easier for her.

"Hey Perce, quit making that long face! Here, have some pancakes!" Arjun cheerily handed me some, from one of these baskets that Zelus had gifted us recently, telling us that it was from the entity. You see, our tents, food, water, and other needs like that were well cared for, due to the magic items he had provided, which were to ensure that our speed and stealth remained top notch. The basket was a source of seemingly limitless food; we had to just think about what we wanted, and it appeared. The tents were able to setup on themselves, and were bigger on the inside, with a bedroom, bathroom, and a living room to relax in. They even could be folded right to the size of a penny, and Arjun had the bright idea of keeping the basket inside our tents, before folding them up, which helped us by not having to carry the basket around either.

I smiled and munched on the pancakes, and looked at Arjun, who smiled and then went back to studying about our next mission on his super-phone.

"Hey, dude."

"Yeah?" he looked at me curiously.

"You never told me though, why are you doing this with such dedication? What happened earlier in your life that makes you so loyal to people who hated you and tried to kill you? It seems like your fatal flaw might be loyalty too." I said the last part with a smirk. Athena was right. It truly was a flaw. A fatal flaw. It would have killed me, in my anguish over my loss, but this entity had given me a purpose to keep going.

"Umm… I dunno Percy. Seems like a good thing to do. So, why not? Besides, in the end, they are your family. And they did accept me as one of them initially, so they are as close to a family as I could have, barring those weird devas." Arjun smiled and said, as he fiddled with his phone.

I knew there was more to it than he let on, but I decided to let the matter go, as I nodded.

"I will take first watch, you go take rest." I told him warmly, gesturing towards his tent.

"You better wake me up for my watch. Me not waking up to my alarm clock is no reason for you to stay awake all night bro!" He complained, but then headed into his tent. "Yeah, yeah. Go to sleep, kid." I said jokingly, only to receive a yell of exasperation from the Indo-American boy, who threw his smelly socks at me, but then came out grumbling to retrieve them.

As the camp fell silent, I stared into the dying flames thinking of what my life had become. In a couple of months, it would be my birthday again, the time when I left camp. I ran away, and made everyone believe that I was dead. Did I really do the right thing? Maybe it could have been better if I had stayed back and reasoned with Zeus. But I knew, Zeus was definitely not the god of understanding, nor was he, a god of intelligence. Uncle Hades had given me the best opportunity to escape, and I had to take it, for the sake of my life. But what kind of life is this? When there would be no more demigods to rescue, what would I do? Should I try returning to camp?

No. They hated me. Annabeth hated me, and Alex…I guess he was a good guy; he just wanted me gone. He wanted recognition; I guess staying in the shadows all your life does that to you. I just hope he and Annabeth were getting along…I wanted Annabeth to be happy, something that I had myself been unable to make possible.

But all my pain made me think of Arjun. Sure, they hated him and wanted him dead, so his running away was a bit obvious. But he seemed to be unfazed by the hate, even when he was at camp, and his reason for trying to help them now was that…they were family. I really didn't know what went on in the boy's head. I hoped, he would be able to trust me soon to tell me more about his past, because I was sure there must be something that might have caused him to become what he is today.

~~~~~Unknown location~~~~~~

"This is blasphemy! Unacceptable! The Lord of the Dead has played a trick, if this is true!" A voice thundered, as a figure, which stood in front of the entity to which the voice belonged, visibly flinched.

"By what that love goddess was heard saying, it seems Percy being alive is a plausible situation, as she said that Athena spawn's love for him was still possible…but I wouldn't jump to conclusions until we have more evidence. Haven't you been able to detect him if he's alive, your Highness?" The figure said respectfully.

"He has been invisible to me, as if he isn't on the Earth's surface, but it could very well be that someone is hiding him from me. Both him, and that wretched son of the stupid fire deity, who I presume must be alive, if the sea spawn is not dead…yet."

The figure nodded, and added, "We need to be extra careful from now on though, your Highness. The goddess of magic has discovered one of our tricks. The campers are still not willing to believe it, thanks to the magic of Eris, but for those most loyal to Perseus, the magic is wearing off. Also, our monster hordes targeted specifically to kill off demigods, whom the camp hadn't detected, were defeated, and the demigods claim to have been rescued by some guardians. We need to know who they are and track them down."

"I agree. Our offers to possible allies for a joint attack have already been sent, and we will soon launch an investigation against those blasted guardians. The hunters have been forced to move to camp, by the army of Moros, which made Artemis take a solo run in, hoping to stop them. She won't know them to be any different than a slightly larger group of rag-tag monsters, of course, due to Apate's skills, but soon they will be ready to attack Camp Half-Blood. Without their precious leader Perseus Jackson, it will fall, and then, we march to Olympus." The entity's voice laughed, a rough, feminine laughter, which would have been enchanting, if it hadn't been the waves of evil that it radiated.

"I hope I will get my rightful reward too, after our victory, Lady Nyx?"

"Of course, child. But only after a complete victory."

~~~~DUN DUN DUN!~~~~~~

A/N: So sorry for this long wait! I had (and still have, a lot of stuff going on in life), which range from disappointments, happiness, confusion, to downright craziness. Please forgive me for that, and to make up for it, I wrote this chapter to be quite long and filled it with revelations, especially of our main (see the stress on "main"?) villain, that is, Nyx!

Things will finally spiral down to much more craziness, and nope, this isn't a CHAOS STORY!

But yeah, if you guys will like it, I might put a Chaos cameo, doing some fun stuff, relating it to something like, "should we follow the cliché Chaos storyline? Nah, let's watch these puny demigods (Mainly Percy and Arjun) struggle to get to the level of power that they require and get their butts kicked in the process, again and again!"

Anyway, reviews will be appreciated, and do let me know if you want something to be added to the story, or maybe if I made some mistake, because this plot is literally all over the place.

And those worrying about the Romans need not fear. They will play a major role soon too!

By the way, next chapter is surely going to be explosive, as Thalia is going to be really, REALLY mad.

Anyway, until next time, take care and stay safe!