Cyrus ran over to where Alaric was sitting and grabbed him off of the bed by the collar on his shirt.
"I FUCKING TRUSTED YOU AND YOU MAKE OUT WITH MY BROTHER'S GIRLFRIEND?!" Cyrus asked Alaric in a yell. Annabeth just sat in silence since she knew that there wasn't anything she could say or do to justify her actions.
"Listen Cyrus. It just happened. There was no controlling it and we got caught up in the moment." Alaric tried to explain to Cyrus. Cyrus just pinned Alaric to the metal wall of the room with danger swimming in his eyes.
"I should've listened to my brother. I don't know why I even tried to befriend you. As of this moment, you are my enemy as well. Now get the hell out of here, before I change my mind." Cyrus told Alaric threateningly. He let go of the male's shirt collar and watched as the Son of Poseidon ran out of the room.
"How could you do this to Percy, Annabeth?" Grover asked his friend.
"I was just so angry at him for keeping secrets from me. Then Alaric came in trying to cheer me up and I just leaned in and kissed him." Annabeth explained. She had felt terrible for cheating on Percy, but the anger she still felt from her boyfriend hiding things from her outweighed the guilt that she had felt.
"I'm disappointed in you Annabeth." Cyrus told her. He walked out of the room and slammed the door behind him, leaving just Grover and Annabeth to talk about things.
"Seems like a lot happened after Polyphemus kidnapped me. Care to fill me in Anny?" Grover asked her. She nodded at her friend and began to tell him everything that had happened from the moment Grover contacted Percy.
"So Percy told you in a half-conscious state that Poseidon was his father? Anny. Anybody is liable to say things that aren't true when they're about to pass out." Grover told Annabeth. Annabeth crossed her arms over her chest in defense, after Grover had told her that well-known fact.
"He is hiding something from us Grover. Percy and Cyrus are hiding something from the rest of us. I want to know what it is." Annabeth told Grover.
"So you kiss Alaric and cheat on Percy to find out? That's pretty messed up." Grover told her sternly.
"It isn't like that Grover. We were just...getting to know each other and it just...happened. I didn't mean for it to happen and I am not going to try to make any excuses. I do feel bad about it, but my feelings towards Percy keeping secrets from us is kind of drowning the guilt out." Annabeth explained to Grover.
"So what are you going to do Annabeth? Cyrus is most likely going to tell Percy." Grover told her.
"I'll cross that bridge when it comes." Annabeth told Grover. Grover nodded then left his friend in the room to go see what was happening on the deck. Cyrus was angry. No, he was beyond angry. He was absolutely pissed. Of course Percy didn't like Alaric for reasons known to him, Cyrus and Chaos but Cyrus still saw Alaric as a friend. He felt personally betrayed by both Annabeth and Alaric. Especially Annabeth. He had saw her as his sister, then he walked in on her kissing the guy he thought was his friend. He walked up the stairs that led to the deck, then made his way over to where Percy was sitting down and looking at the ocean. Without missing a beat, he sat down besides his brother and looked at the ocean as well.
"Do you ever miss it? Being a Son of Poseidon I mean?" Cyrus asked Percy.
"The only thing I miss about being a Son of Poseidon was being in the water. It always helped me calm down and think." Percy explained to his little brother. He then brought his Golden eyes up to see Cyrus' face and saw that he looked angry.
"What's wrong?" Percy asked Cyrus.
"You don't want to know." Cyrus told Percy. His tone was filled with anger mixed with a little bit of confusion and sadness. Percy sat straight up and continued to look at his younger brother.
"Tell me what's wrong Cyrus. We're family. That means I'm here to help and look out for you." Percy told him.
"It's me who is looking out for you when it comes to this." Cyrus returned. Percy raised an eyebrow at Cyrus.
"Tell me what's wrong Cyrus. I've never hidden anything from you. Never. Don't you hide anything from me." Percy told Cyrus. Cyrus gave a deep sigh and rubbed the crease between his eyebrows.
"It's Annabeth, Percy. Grover and I went to check on her and…" Cyrus began to explain. He stopped because he knew Percy was going to go off of the deep end if and when he found out.
"And what Cyrus?" Percy asked. Percy's tone was filled with fear and concern. Before Cyrus could answer Cyrus' question, Alaric walked in front of them both.
"He caught Annabeth and I making out. I am truly and sincerely sorry that it happened. I didn't mean for it to happen." Alaric told Percy. Percy's eyes widened in anger and the whole ship began to shake rather violently. He already didn't like Alaric because of the simple fact that he was a Son of Poseidon, but now Alaric wanted to make out with his girlfriend? He was now a dead demigod walking.
"Whoa Percy. Calm down." Cyrus told him. He was worried more about the safety of the others since Percy's powers were fluctuating due to his anger. Alaric took a few steps away from the Sons of Chaos in fear. That fear was brought about by two things. The first thing was the fact that he knew Percy was much more powerful than he was. The second thing was that he had no control over water in the Sea of Monsters. He was just a normal human in these waters that had dyslexia and ADHD. Percy stood up from the spot he was sitting at and began to slowly walk towards Alaric. Alaric continued to back away from the angry Son of Chaos until he felt the edge of the ship on his back.
"Look Percy we can talk about this. No need to resort to violence." Alaric told him.
"You should've thought about that before kissing my girlfriend." Percy told Alaric. With a few more steps, Percy was standing directly in front of Alaric. Fear shone brightly in Alaric's Sea Green eyes as he knew what was coming next. Without warning, Percy punched Alaric in the jaw. He put all of his anger and his power into the punch. A small smirk formed onto his face, when he heard the satisfying crunch of Alaric's jaw being broken. He wasn't going to stop there though. He was going to beat Alaric within an inch of his life. Since Alaric dropped to the ground after being hit in the jaw, he looked up at Percy.
"Did you get it all out of your system now?" Alaric asked him. It was tough for him to get the sentence out since his jaw was broken, but he still managed to get it out.
"Not even close." Percy told Alaric coldly. He was about to continue his assault when Cyrus stepped between him and Alaric.
"What are you doing Cyrus?" Percy asked him.
"Stopping you from becoming a monster. You've made your point Percy. If you continued, then you know you would've killed him. No use in trying to deny it. We both know it's true." Cyrus told Percy. Percy clenched his fist tightly then unclenched it.
"Just this once brother." Percy told Cyrus. He then looked around Cyrus, directly at Alaric's eyes.
"Don't think this is over, because it isn't. Not by a long shot." Percy told Alaric threateningly. Alaric simply nodded his head at Percy and watched as the elder Son of Chaos walked away from them both.
"Thanks for that." Alaric told Cyrus with difficulty.
"Don't thank me. I wasn't stopping him for your safety. I stopped him because I didn't want Grover, Clarisse and Annabeth to get caught in the middle." Cyrus told Alaric. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a bottle of nectar, then tossed it to Alaric before walking away from the male. Cyrus walked over to Percy, who was once again standing close to the edge of the ship and looking at the ocean.
"Thanks for stopping me Cyrus. I was going to kill him. I tolerated his existence simply because he hadn't personally done anything against me, but now….he's a dead person walking." Percy told Cyrus.
"You don't have to kill him Percy." Cyrus told his brother. "Look I know that you saw him as a friend Cyrus, but he is going to die by my hand." Percy told Cyrus.
"No he isn't." Cyrus told his brother stubbornly.
"And why in the name of Hades isn't he?" Percy asked Cyrus. Cyrus gave Percy a rather serious look that made Percy question what was about to come out of his brother's mouth.
"Because I'm going to kill him. He betrayed my trust and no one gets away with that. No one." Cyrus told Percy with a deadly tone to his voice. Percy smirked at his brother and patted his shoulder.
"He's all yours then Cyrus." Percy told his little brother. Cyrus nodded then went back to looking at the ocean. A few hours later, Clarisse had docked the ship at Palm Beach, Florida and Cyrus created a portal that led back to Camp Half-Blood. Alaric was the first one to go through the portal since he didn't want to be waiting alongside Percy. Clarisse, who was holding the Golden Fleece, went through it next with a smug and proud smile plastered across her face. Annabeth silently walked through the portal afterwards while giving Percy sad glances. He hadn't talked to her since he, Cyrus and Clarisse went to go retrieve the Golden Fleece.
"I'll close up the portal Cyrus. You go first." Percy told his brother.
"Are you sure Perce?" Cyrus asked. Percy nodded at him and pushed his brother through the portal.
"You have ten seconds to explain to me why you are here Aphrodite." Percy told the thin air around him. The Goddess of Love appeared out of nowhere behind Percy.
"I'm sorry for what happened with Annabeth. Believe I had nothing to do with it." Aphrodite told him. Percy turned around to face Aphrodite, keeping a close look on her face. As usual, her face was composed in a neutral way. Percy frowned angrily at the Goddess of Love.
"Why should I believe you? Give me one good reason that I should believe you. Also, why shouldn't I kill you right now?" Percy asked her angrily.
"To answer your first question, because you have already threatened to kill me. Back when we first met face-to-face. To answer your second question, because that will only bring more trouble to you." Aphrodite answered. Percy reached towards his pocket, but stopped since it would be an unbelievable pain to replace the Goddess of Love.
"I don't believe you, and I'm not going to kill you. Not yet. Just leave me alone." Percy told Aphrodite. She simply vanished, leaving behind a rosy pink light. Sighing, Percy turned towards the portal and walked through it. It closed as soon as he entered.
Silence. That's all there was throughout Camp Half-Blood. Unusual and maddening silence. Percy knew where everybody was at. They were in the eastern forest where Thalia's tree was and they had just put the Golden Fleece on the lowest branch that was reachable. It was right about this time that the fleece had brought Thalia back to life. Everyone was shocked at the prospect of another child of the Big Three was in play. He made his way over to the tree and pushed past everyone, including Annabeth. Most likely, he was going to break up with her for her betrayal and remove her blood from his cabin's recognition system. After he made his way to the front next to Chiron and Cyrus, he looked into the all-too familiar blue eyes of Thalia Grace.
"Welcome back Thalia." Percy told her. She raised an eyebrow at Percy in suspension. This was her first time meeting the male, yet he seemed to know her.
"Who are you? How do you know my name?" Thalia asked Percy.
"My name is Percy Jackson. I'm a Son of Chaos. I'm friends with Grover and a former friend of Luke Castellan and Annabeth Chase. They told me the story of your bravery and it inspires me each and every day." Percy told her sincerely.
"A Son of Chaos? As in the Primordial Being?" Thalia asked in surprise.
"The very same. My brother Cyrus is a Son of Chaos as well." Percy explained to her. Thalia looked over at the male that sort of looked like Percy and nodded at him.
"Now that you've returned to us Thalia, let's get you settled into your cabin shall we?" Chiron asked her. Thalia nodded at the centaur and followed him over to Cabin One. Cyrus looked back to see that Annabeth was deeply hurt by Percy's comment, but he shrugged it off. The way he saw it was she got off easy by being unfriended. The campers quickly dispersed from the area, going about their business as usual, but only Percy, Cyrus and Annabeth remained.
"Former friend huh?" Annabeth asked Percy sadly. Percy walked right past her, but stopped at the edge of the forest.
"You made that decision for me when you kissed Alaric. Goodbye Annabeth. Never bother me again." Percy told her rather coldly. After those harsh words, Percy made his way towards his cabin. Annabeth felt the cold, wet tears fall down her cheeks. In the matter of a few hours, everything had went wrong. At this point, all of her anger was drained only to be replaced with sadness. That made the guilt she also felt intensify even more.
"I'd give you advice, but my brother and I aren't the type to forgive easily. You should know this by now." Cyrus told Annabeth. He too made his way back to the cabin, leaving Annabeth alone and in tears in the forest. Grover couldn't attend with the others to put the Golden Fleece on Thalia's Tree, because the Council of Cloven Elders had called an emergency meeting to all Satyrs. He was wondering what was so important that he couldn't be with his friends, then his jaw dropped when he saw the Lord of the Wild was at Camp Half-Blood.
"What? How? Why?" Grover muttered out loud.
"You must be Grover Underwood. You're friends with Percy Jackson yes? He found me and sent me here." Pan told Grover with a smile.
"He was laying in the Labyrinth slowly dying." Silenus explained to Grover.
"The Labyrinth? I thought no one could find the Labyrinth entrance? How did Percy find it?" Grover asked the council.
"We do not know, Mr. Underwood. Perhaps you should ask him yourself?" Maron told Grover. Grover's face contorted into a frown. Annabeth had told him on the ship that Percy was hiding things from them, but at the time he thought she was just making an excuse for being caught with Alaric. Now that the Council of Cloven Elders had told him that they didn't know how Percy knew what he knew, it was just making Percy much more suspicious.
"I will ask him. Some things just aren't adding up." he told the elders worriedly. With that, he headed to Percy's cabin with determination replacing the frown on his face.
Upon arriving at Percy's cabin, Grover opened the door since Percy already added his blood to the recognition system. He saw Percy pouring something down the sink in the kitchen when he entered.
"Can I ask you something Percy?" Grover asked his friend. Percy turned around to look at Grover and nodded his head. Grover almost felt bad for what he was about to ask after he saw the look of sadness on Percy's face. The whole Alaric-Annabeth situation must've been bothering him more than he had thought it was.
"How did you find the entrance to the Labyrinth? Also, how did you manage to navigate it without getting lost?" Grover asked him. Percy went and took a seat on the leather couch right next to Cyrus, who was watching an action film called Blood and Bone with some actor named Michael Jai White.
"My father told me how to find it and how to navigate me. He told me that the entrance was at Zeus' Fist and to navigate it I would either need a clear-sighted mortal or Ariadne's string. He provided me with the address of a clear-sighted mortal and I went and asked for her help after explaining to her about how the Greek Gods and monsters were real." Percy explained to Grover. While Percy was giving his explanation, Grover was determining whether or not his friend was telling the truth. Satyrs could easily sense that kind of thing.
"Why did you even go to the Labyrinth in the first place?" Grover asked.
"To find Daedalus, so I could ask him if he would be the new God of Wisdom. He graciously accepted it and I found Pan along the way as well. He is slowly dying and I thought the best place for him to be was here at Camp Half-Blood with all of the other Satyrs. He came after I told him that I had a best friend who was a Satyr." Percy told Grover. All the while, Cyrus was too engrossed in the movie to hear the conversation. Grover, however, determined that Percy was telling the truth. Nobody in the world could calmly give out reasonable explanations while they were lying without giving themselves away. It was pretty much impossible to do. Especially for a demigod. Or in Percy and Cyrus' case, a demi-primordial being.
"Well I'm going to go check on Thalia. Are you going to be okay?" Grover asked Percy. Percy simply nodded, but there was no emotion behind it. Just plain and deep emptiness. Grover made his way toward the door, when someone started knocking on it. Since Grover was the closest to the door, he opened it to reveal Thalia standing outside of it. Closely behind her was Annabeth. Percy looked over to the door and saw Annabeth, then his face hardened and he clenched his jaw.
"Thalia can come in, but Annabeth isn't allowed in here anymore." Percy said loud enough for everyone to hear.
"I'm not coming in without her then. She is my best friend after all." Thalia told Percy stubbornly. Percy groaned as Thalia just gave him a silent ultimatum.
"Fine. Make it quick though." Percy told them through clenched teeth. Thalia and Annabeth walked in and Grover just stayed next to the door. It was as if he sensed something bad was going to happen. Thalia and Annabeth sat on the other side of the couch, while looking at Percy.
"What do you want?" Percy asked them simply.
"I just came over to thank you for your part in my return. I also came over to ask something." Thalia told him.
"If you're going to ask me what Annabeth asked me, then you can save your breath. I have no need to tell her anything after what she pulled." Percy told Thalia. Thalia looked at Annabeth with a questioning glance, but Annabeth just looked down at the ground.
"What did she do?" Thalia asked.
"We used to date fairly recently. Until Grover and Cyrus walked in on her making out with the Son of Poseidon." Percy explained coldly. Thalia turned her head to Annabeth with a growing anger on her face.
"Is this true Annabeth?" Thalia asked her best friend. Annabeth couldn't manage to find her voice or make a head movement. Thalia took this as a silent yes and shook her head in disappointment. She had known Annabeth for a long time and that wasn't like her at all.
"We are going to talk about this later. You can trust and believe that." Thalia told Annabeth sternly.
"As for you, I will still expect an explanation." Thalia told Percy.
"Like I said. I have no need nor do I want to tell you anything. Now, if you two will take your leave. Annabeth has long outstayed her welcome." Percy told Thalia. Without waiting for a response, Percy got up from the couch and walked to his room. He closed the door behind him, leaving the four in the living room. He'd apologize for the way he treated Thalia sooner or later, but now he just wanted to be left alone. Alone and playing Call of Duty: Ghosts in his room. The perfect anger outlet by shooting down his enemies, while losing himself in a new environment. He picked up the controller from the entertainment system, turned on his Xbox One and flopped onto his bed. Using the remote on his nightstand, he turned the tv on. Afterwards, he just lost himself in his game.
Two hours later, someone was knocking on Percy's door. He growled because he was in the middle of finding a care package and racking up his kill streak. Pausing the game, he got up and opened the door to see Cyrus and Grover.
"What is it? Anything wrong?" he asked the two.
"Nothing is wrong Perce. We were just wondering if you wanted to go with us to dinner in an hour." Cyrus told Percy.
"It's better than staying in your room all day." Grover added with hope in his voice.
"If she is going to be there, then I'll pass. I don't want to be anywhere near her." Percy told them bluntly. Grover's head went down in defeat, as he walked back to the living room. Cyrus, however, walked into Percy's room and closed the door behind him. He wanted to talk to Percy about their mission to destroy and rebuild Olympus, but he knew for a fact that the rooms weren't soundproof.
"Sometime when we are both alone, we need to talk about the mission Dad gave us." Cyrus told Percy.
"What about it? You can talk about it. Almost everyone knows that I plan to raze Olympus and rebuild it. Even the Titans." Percy told Cyrus. Cyrus took a seat on the chair that was by Percy's desk.
"How do you know that the Titans know about our mission?" he asked his older brother. Percy had honestly forgotten that he hadn't told Cyrus about his dream conversation with Kronos. He then spent the next ten minutes telling Cyrus about how he told the Titan Time Lord that he had no interest in helping him.
"You're either really badass or you're finally starting to lose your mind. Telling Kronos that you're coming after him so boldly." Cyrus commented.
"Don't remind me. So how do you plan on killing Alaric? Painfully or mercifully?" Percy asked Cyrus.
"The next quest that he goes on, I'll simply follow him and cut his head off. I figure if Dad also teaches me how to control time, then I can do it so quickly that the Gods wouldn't be able to see it. Slow down time to 1/10,000th of a second and one swift stroke from my sword will result in one dead Alaric." Cyrus explained to Percy. Percy chuckled at the ingenuity of his little brother, before unpausing his game and continuing what he was doing.
"Be warned now Cyrus. Controlling time is not as easy as you think it is. I'm still struggling on turning back time. At the moment, I can only freeze and unfreeze it." Percy told him. Cyrus got up from his seat and walked over to the door. Before he opened it though, he turned towards Percy.
"Won't know until I try. See you at dinner. That's not optional for you." he told Percy. Percy couldn't even get a word in when Cyrus quickly walked out of the room and shut the door behind him. Percy simply turned off his game and his tv, before laying down on the bed. He was lying on his back, so he could look up at the ceiling for the next hour of freedom that he had.
