Thank you for everyone who has been following or favourited this story! And also to everyone who has reviewed, I love to here feedback and your reviews keep me inspired so thank you to Raxacoricofallapatoreous, I'm so sorry for leaving this story for so long, but I have always intending to continued it and I'm so glad you like it :) Thank you to angell12345, the big reveal is coming soon so hopefully I can do it justice! :) Thank you to DarthDestroyer2, so this story diverges from cannon as Annabeth did/does love Percy, but releases she loves him like a brother. The Camps know about each other and have had contact with each other since Percy's death, however they are fighting at the moment but that will be explained later. PerLuke was just a small side pairing, I promise! ;) and I'm so glad you liked the story so far :) Thank you to Noa, it's so great to hear that you enjoy my story and all your friends as well, tell them I said hi! :) And to GhostFlame973 it's a complete inspiration to have reviews like that, thank you! :)

xXx

Chapter 14 – War but Mostly Peace

Jack froze. Stepping into the dining hall, with fingers trembling and face already lit with a deep red, the son of Venus feared whatever might happen next.

The Mercury kids were on their feet in seconds, clapping and cheering and wolf-whistling as he hurriedly made his way to one of the third cohort's tables. Burying hid head in his hands, Jack waited for the commotion to quieten down. Then risking a glance to the Huntresses', Jack flinched at the deathly glares they sent his way. Just great.

It had been nine hours since that game of capture the flag, eight hours since he had been claimed, and two hours since he had been consumed, eaten by shadows and dumped straight into the girl's changing rooms, just after training.

If this was Nico's idea of revenge, Jack didn't think he would be able to stop himself retaliating. It had become personal.

Jack slumped over the table, resting his forehead on his arms. His brothers and sisters, well mostly sisters, were much smaller in number than the children of the other Gods. He had his own room, courtesy of his mother. No longer crammed in a room meant for twelve but holding twenty, Jack felt, for the first time in a while, relieved. For one, he wasn't worried about waking up with glitter in his hair.

Yet, as the youngest son of Venus looked over to all his new friends, a strange cold feeling twisted in his chest. He had just started to fit in, and although he was glad to know his heritage, to have siblings, he felt a sense of loss at leaving the Mercury gang.

Jack listened as the children of Venus grew more alive with today's gossip. Some that interested him, some that seemed so pointless he wondered why his sisters even cared. A glance at his brothers told Jack they were all in the same boat.

He sighed gently. His had to be the most awkward day of his life. Closing his eyes, the son of Venus rubbed his temples and failed to notice as Aiden stood up and shuffled next to him. It was a tight squeeze but it was manageable.

"Judging by the fact you haven't said a word, I bet you're scared of what it can do." He half-joked, half-nodded reassuringly.

Jack turned to the stunning blond, and if it wasn't for the Camp Jupiter t-shirt, he would have mistaken him for a God.

"I was too." He continued. "Didn't talk for months, but listen it is what it is, and you have more control over your powers than you realise. You just have to keep your voice neutral. We all slip now and again. It's about how you recover and what you learn from those mistakes."

Jack bit his lip.

"It's okay, we're blood." He smiled. "Your powers cannot affect us."

"You're really my brother?" Jack whispered.

"Sure am."

"With you that makes twelve children of Venus at Camp Jupiter now. Three brothers and eight sisters I'm afraid, but hay family's family, right?"

Jack swallowed nervously.

"I've- I've always wanted siblings." He admitted with a shy grin.

"Awwww, honey. You're gonna love it. Twelve sounds like a squeeze but trust me, our section of the cohort is huge. It's great." He practically boosted.

Jack looked up at a smiling Aiden, but accidentally caught the eye of one of the daughters of Ceres who sat on the table behind. His eyes shot down to his hands immediately and his face took another shade of red, remembering her face from the many that chased him earlier.

"Hey, little bro, you feeling alright?" Aiden teased, sliding an arm round Jack's shoulder. "You seem a little distracted."

The youngest son of Venus looked at him with the best 'are you serious expression?' he could muster.

Aiden's smile grew a little brighter as he lent closer and whispered in Jack's ear.

"Don't worry, the children of Venus won't take this lying down. If Nico thinks he can just pick a fight with you alone, he's in for a wakeup call. We stick together and now he's made the first move, that son of Hades doesn't know what he's started. Plus, you've got the support of the Mercury kids, they're in this for the long run. If it's a war Nico wants, it's a war he'll get."

Jack nodded, a smirk gracing his features. "What's our play?"

xXx

Mordred stood at the forest boundary as night approached. His wild eyes washed over Camp Jupiter with distain. The son of Venus, the one Adonis spoke of, had arrived only a few days before. He had quickly become friends with the son of Jupiter and made faster enemies with the son of Hades, or so Mordred had been told. His source was sketchy, to say the least, and the boy's name was about the only fact the son of Artemis knew with confidence. He gingerly rubbed his thumb over the ring on his index finger. Gaining Jack's friendship shouldn't be a demanding task.

The boy was important enough to cause Adonis concern, so Mordred had relented.

In the end, the outcome will be the same. Once he delivered the kid to that mad God, he would be given the power to obliterate the Olympians. They all deserved to burn for dissolving the Goddess of the Moon of her crimes. His was a life that shouldn't have been. Mordred clenched his fists and washed the emotions from his face.

Asking his mother to take him to the Roman camp had been an unpleasant experience, and one that descended into an argument in record time. The huntresses were allowed free passage and as the son of the hunt, he had the right to do so as well. At least, he had thought so.

Artemis had a very different opinion. He stood before Zeus and the council to argue his case. Long story short, as a child of the Moon, he was permitted to follow the hunt if he wished. It was a small victory, but one he proudly held over his mother.

Mordred brushed off those thoughts and began to walk, each step felt a little more uneasy. The battle was half-way over, he just had to succeed here first.

xXx

Jack breathed a sigh of relief as the late evening breeze ruffled his raven-kissed hair. He had escaped the dining hall unscathed and had navigated his way to a place to hide. The small, wooden pier was worn from years of use but still steady, Jack watched through salt-caked planks as gentle waves overlapped underneath.

He sat by Camp Jupiter's lake and listened to the fish as they swam past, catching glimpses of their conversations. Turns out fish have a lot to say. Jack didn't talk back lest anyone notice, but that wouldn't be the worst of his problems. He blushed once again as his mind replayed today's events. The only good part had been meeting his siblings and their faith in him at controlling his charmspeak.

The son of Venus smiled fondly at the memory as he kicked the waters with his legs. Nico was so in for it. This was going to be so much fun-

"Excuse me? Do you mind if I sit with you?"

Jack jumped as the sudden voice. Its smooth timbre sent shivers down his spine as he twisted to meet silvery eyes that caught colours from the moonlight.

"I can go if you want?" Said the older boy, his tone laced with uncertainty as he begun to turn away.

Jack had this, he just had to keep his voice even like Aiden had instructed.

"No, no it's okay." The son of Venus answered hurriedly and shuffled over to the side. "I didn't expect anyone to be out here, my sisters told me it's a good place to think."

"Well, they are well informed. I didn't expect anyone else to be here either. . .? " His voice raised a little to the end in question.

The son of Venus' eyes widened as he caught on. "Oh, Jack. I'm Jack." He offered his hand and the silver-haired boy took it in a firm handshake. "And you?"

"I'm Mordred."

"It's great to meet you." Jack exclaimed. "I'm new here, so I haven't had the chance to get to know everyone."

"You too? I only just arrived tonight."

"Guess that's one thing we have in common." Jack laughed a little nervously as Mordred sat down next to him.

"That, and I hear you aren't on the best of terms with one Nico Di Angelo."

The son of Venus looked up from the lake with shock. "How do you know Nico?"

"He and I are Greek. We've been at Camp Half-Blood until now. We don't-" Mordred struggled to find the right words. "-get along."

"Oh. . . I see." Jack replied quietly.

"What's wrong?"

"I have a friend at Camp Half-Blood, but Nico's gotten real angry with me. I don't think he will be passing my messages on to him."

Mordred nodded. "So, I've been told. It wasn't your fault, with the charmspeak I mean, you didn't know."

Jack sighed. "Doesn't change that I did it."

"I'm sure he'll come around." Mordred grimaced inside, displeasure tasting on his tongue at the notion of encouraging this kid to be friendly with the son of Hades, but he needed to play the part of kind stranger for the moment. "For the time being thou, are you planning on retaliating?"

The son of Venus parted his lips to reply when-

"JACK?! JACK?! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Mordred cursed under his breath and slid back under the protection of a high cast shadow. Just his luck that Jason Grace would interrupt them when he was making such progress. The younger boy turned from the direction of the voice, eyes searching for the son of Artemis. He frowned, noticing Mordred had distanced himself.

"It's getting late, I should get to bed."

Jack smiled and stepped a little closer. "Wait." His hushed voice called. "The prank's going down tonight, if you wanna join?"

Mordred nodded eagerly. He had found his way in.

"Yeah, you didn't even have to ask."

"Alright, meet outside Pluto's Cabin at midnight." Jack said with a smirk, waving goodbye and answering the son of Jupiter's calls.

xXx

Jack fingers trembled as he lifted up the paintbrush, bristles dipped with the brightest pink. Turning back to look at Michael, Jack scoffed at the devilish look plastered the son of Mercury's face.

"Go on!" He whispered encouragingly.

Gulping down a breath, Jack recoiled as the brush touched the Pluto Cabin's wall. A small cheer sounded behind as Aiden, Matt, Sam, Mordred, Harry and Michael all stepped forward to join the youngest son of Venus.

Within minutes, hearts of varying sizes and shades of pink decorated the dark walls. Aiden could no longer contain himself as they hurried back to their respective barracks, paint cans in hand and laughter racking his frame, causing him to trip up on several occasions.

Jack didn't stop until he was safely in his bedroom, heart beating a mile an hour. He looked up to see Aiden resting on the doorframe, eyes bright and alive.

"That was brilliant!" He breathed out between laughs. "I can't wait to see Nico's face in the morning. He's gonna flip."

Jack paled a little.

"Awww, bro. Don't look so worried. It's just paint, it's not the end of the world."

"I'm more concerned with what Nico might do next." The young boy answered honestly.

Aiden chuckled. "It's a little too late to be worrying about that. Come on, let's go tell everyone how it went."

xXx

The Next Morning

Breakfast was interesting. Nico had stormed in with a look of murder and the promise of pain written in his eyes as he glared over at the children of Venus. The news spread quickly through Camp, and sure enough just about everyone had laughed at some point. Jack learned quickly that the children of Mercury were like dogs with a bone. Now this had begun, it was clear they weren't going to let it go easily.

One had slipped salt into Nico's drink when she passed the ambassador of Pluto's seat, another had replaced all the folks with knifes just before the dining hall had gotten busy.

Watching Nico confused face upon seeing his table and then choking after slipping his drink, Jack laughed so much he had to spit his own back into his cup. He glanced up and caught brown eyes, the look of scarlet embarrassment had darkened the son of Hades' face. Guilt wormed its way into Jack's chest. It was cruel.

Jack sighed. Maybe it was time to call it even. The son of Venus caught Aiden's hand as the older boy went to stand up and shook his head.

"This is enough." He said quietly without meeting his older brother's eyes. "This is enough."

Aiden stared at him curiously before slowly sitting back down and signalling the others to stop.

For the rest of the morning, Jack stayed silent. Keeping to his thoughts, he spoke briefly with Hazel to apologise and couldn't believe when she throws her arms around him giggling.

"Oh, Jack. It was hilarious. Listen, I'll talk to Nico and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

And that was that. Well, sort of.

The pranks that followed were harmless, but each side took casualties to their pride. The Venus' barracks had been painted black overnight (by a small army of skeletons according to a terrified daughter of Apollo who saw them out her window). Many of Nico's clothes ended up being washed along with some very pink ones. And chaos assumed.

Over the week, Jack grew closer to Mordred. The older boy had nothing to offer but smiles and kind words. Jack swallowed down the hurt, the home sickness and heartbreak he felt when he thought of Luke. Mordred had approached him offering to take his letters to Camp Half-Blood now that Nico refused too. But Jack was yet to receive a single reply.

Jealous gripped his chest as the son of Venus wondered if Luke had replaced him with new friends. If now they were apart, he felt like he doesn't need Jack anymore. It hurts, more than he would ever admit, but if Luke had replaced Jack. Jack could replace him too.

And then, strangely, as one week became two, Jack started to talk more and more to Nico. What had begun as threats and insults turned slowly to playful banter. To such a point that whenever the sons of Love and Death crossed paths, they both parted with warm smirks on their lips.

Jason seemed to be by his side most days as well. Always eager to talk and even more eager to train alongside Jack. Yet, the son of Venus always felt the blond was hiding something. It was trapped in between the lines of what the son of Jupiter was saying and what he wanted to say. But despite everything, it was nice not to be so alone. Jack settled, and although some things weighed heavily on his heart, he hoped life would stay this way.

Until a few weeks after his first game of capture the flag. . .

The youngest son of Venus caught a glimpse of Nico hovering around the dining hall entrance as he ate lunch with his siblings. His hair looked wind-swept and his eyes darted around anxiously. Nico seemed to be hesitating on whether to enter or not and then. . . the unthinkable. The son of Hades stalked his way over to the children of Venus ignoring the curious, questioning glances from campers.

Jack watched as Nico sucked in a heavy breath. "So maybe, just maybe, I kind of just slightly. . ."

The boy mumbled each word as he stood procrastinating at the end of the table, cheeks flustered and refusing to look anyone directly in the eye.

"Just spit it out Di Angelo." Ellie practically sung, enjoying watching the son of Hades squirm.

"I overreacted and I'm sorry, okay? I didn't believe you had no control over your. . . gift."

Jack smiled. Like this, Nico could possibly be considered cute. With new found confidence and after having spent the better part of the last three weeks relentlessly practicing his charmspeak (with his siblings' guidance) Jack felt safe enough to reply.

"It's alright, and I'm sorry too. But I thought it was fun. Perhaps we can have a proper fight soon?" He grinned. "Without you wanting to kill me this time."

Nico looked shocked for a moment before an even, cool demeanour took hold. "I'll think about it, kid. Don't get so happy go lucky, it won't happen again." He promised before marching over to his seat next to Hazel.

"Having fun?" The daughter of Pluto teased.

"I don't know what you mean." Nico replied airily.

Hazel laughed softly. "It's nice to see you finally making friends."

"It's not that." The son of Hades huffed and shook his head.

"Then. . . lovers?" She guessed playfully.

"Gods no, Hazel if you love me than stop talking." Nico groaned.

"Sucks that I don't!" She chuckled and took to pointing at the group of Venus children. "So, which one is it then? Daniel? Aiden? Theo?"

"No, it's not-"

"-Wait, Jack? He's a bit young for you, Nico. But I can't fault your taste, he's gonna be hot when he grows up and-"

"-Hazel, no. Please drop it, can we talk about something else?"

"Okay, okay don't get so hormonal, Neeks. I'm just teasing."

Nico rolled his eyes and Hazel caught a glimpse of shadows twisting under the influence of her brother's emotions. The daughter of Pluto smiled but kept a neutral expression when Nico turned back to ask her about her day.

xXx

Jack didn't see Nico for the rest of the afternoon.

The sky changed from blue then darker and then black as he trained alongside the son of Jupiter and the son of Artemis. Afterwards, Mordred disappeared with the promise of returning so the son of Venus waited and parted ways with Jason as he headed for the dining hall.

Jack smiled seeing Mordred trekking back up the dirt path and gratefully took the drink the silver-eyed boy offered. Briefly Jack pressed the glass to his forehead, thankful for the coolness that spread over his warm skin.

"Gods, it's hot." The son of Artemis complained, dropping down next to Jack. "I wouldn't even mind if the Anemoi show up."

The son of Venus smiled and sipped the iced hot chocolate, catching Mordred staring at him from the corner of his eye.

"What?"

Mordred shook his head.

"Nothing." He sighed.

"No, seriously." Jack giggled lightly. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?"

"No. No." The son of the Moon laughed.

"Then what?" Jack asked, the coldness from the glass in his hand beginning to numb his fingers.

"It's just. . . We're friends, right? And you trust me?"

"Yeah, of course." Jack said without hesitation and took another gulp of his drink. "You trust me too?"

Mordred nodded.

"Is that it?" The son of Venus smiled. "Is that what you were worried about?"

"I have. . . a stigma, surrounding my birth, many avoid me for it." He confessed. "I was born from a broken vow."

"It only means something if you let it." Jack frowned and tried to stifle a yawn that stole the end of his sentence. He attempted to drink the rest but only managed to half-empty the glass. "I think. . . I think being the son of the Hunt is pretty-" He broke away with another yawn and rubbed his eyes. "-pretty cool."

Mordred stared at Jack with shock lacing his sharp features, but his attention quickly turned to the glass as it started to slip through the son of Venus' fingers. Catching the drink before it had the chance to hit the ground, Mordred rested it carefully on the bench.

Jack slumped against the son of Artemis' side, eyes glossing over and breaths evening out. Mordred waited until the younger boy's heavy eyelids drifted more permanently shut and smiled. He slowly moved to crouch, sliding Jack into his arms and headed for the third cohort.

xXx