Hey, I'm back. I always come back.

Chapter 9: Compromises and Reunions.

Everyone in the room stared at him. Apollo was shocked, Pip was bewildered, Chiron looked grim, the blonde haired boy looked embarrased and Penelope was very scared.

"That's it. This is your problem now.", Dionysus said and promptly teleported out of the Big House back to Olympus, where he was probably going to drown the memories of this day in copious amounts of wine and Diet Coke.

Chiron spoke slowly.

"An interrogation?"

"Yes. I want to interrogate this girl."

"Why?"

"Is it not obvious?"

Chiron paused. Pip looked at Nico. He was staring directly at Penelope with his cold, dark eyes. She remembered something. A while back she had seen him and the blonde haired boy return from their mission in Tartarus. Apparently that mission had been a success and they were met with a hero's welcome. But Nico did not look that happy, he looked nervous, a little high-strung even.

From that day everyone could tell that he was worried about something. He started growing paranoid, becoming wary of every new camper that arrived in Camp Half-Blood. Eventually this paranoia died down and he relaxed a little.

But now, as he stared at Penelope, she saw panic in his eyes.

Ah, she's his target. Penelope was in deep shit now.

Apollo spoke in a concerned tone.

"Okay, maybe she did something unnatural, but is that really enough incentive for an interrogation?"

"Apollo. She's able to send things to Chaos, the realm that can literally kill gods. I think that warranties an interrogation."

"Well. Why are you interrogating her?", Pip said, "That Eric is probably more interrogation worthy than her."

Nico looked at Pip.

"You are the one who brought him here, right?"

"Y-yes.", she said, her confidence draining.

"Well, I think you are aware that he is a Son of Eris, the Goddess who is known for being unpredictable and insane. Investigating him would be a waste of time. But this girl, Penelope, on the other hand."

He looked at her.

"She is infinitely more suspicious."

Penelope did her best to hide her fear. She was failing.

"A girl with the ability to do magic by manipulating the Mist despite not being a Daughter of Hecate, wearing a strange powerful magic pendant comes out of nowhere into Camp Half-Blood. At that point she was just a curiosity. But now…There's no way around it, I have to find out what her deal is."

Pip gulped. She knew something like this would happen to her sooner or later. Someone would get curious and try to investigate. But why'd it have to be now? And why'd it have to be the scariest person in Camp?

Apollo and Chiron were looking at each other. She could see what they were thinking. If they let Nico have his way, then this could very much be a private affair. If they could make him swear to not open the results of this interrogation, then there would not be too much of a problem. Penelope would not be forced to share her secrets to the public and they could find out more about her. But would it really be worth putting her through the trauma of being interrogated by Nico? He was known for beign extremely powerful and extremely scary. And he was definitely going to play bad cop.

On the other hand, if they refused his proposal, it had the potential of creating complete chaos. The other campers would be desperate to know what happened and while Nico would not tell them, the blonde haired boy could spill the beans. Then Penelope will be under stress the likes of which would not have been seen in this Camp. There was also the scenario of Nico going vigilante and interrogating her on his own.

That would be bad.

Very bad.

Now, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. And Nico was starting to lose his patience.

Pip was contemplating taking Penelope and running away when suddenly Apollo snapped his head up.

It was as if he had sensed something.

He began to shift everyone to the side.

"Uh, Apollo?", Chiron asked, "What are you-"

"SHH! She's here."

But before he could ask who, the door slammed open. A short girl with pageboy hair and glasses wearing a teal jacket ran in, rolled youthfully and jumped high in the air.

She barreled towards Apollo as he raised his hand.

The girl raised her hand as well and the two hands came in contact with one another.

The sound of a high five filled the room as Pip engraved that image in her head. Historians will point to this moment as the high five that shook the earth. A high five so powerful and awesome that the heavens trembled from the shockwaves it sent.

Pip resisted the urge to say 'PERFECT', as did everyone else in that room, except Nico, who looked like his day had gone from bad to worse.

As Pip tried to process the awesomeness that just occurred in front of her, Apollo greeted the girl.

"Took you long enough, didn't it?"

The girl smiled, the rhinestones in her glasses shining.

"One whole month. But yes, I'm back, Lester."

Apollo chuckled before saying warmly,

"Welcome back, Meg."

Pip's stomach did a somersault.

Meg McCaffery.

THE Meg McCaffery.

The strongest Daughter of Demeter.

The demigod who took down the Triumvirate with Apollo.

The descendant of Demeter who mananged to bring the Meliai, the first dryads, back to life.

That Meg McCaffery.

She was revered among the dryads and satyrs. She was practically a celebrity!

And she was standing right in front of her.

"Oh my Gods! You're Meg McCaffery?"

Meg turned to her.

"Why yes, that's who I am.", she said smugly.

"Huh, funny. I thought you'd be bigger."

"Yeah.", she said, her eye twitching, "Funny how that works."

Meg turned to Apollo.

"So what did I miss?"

"Oh nothing, really. We just got two new campers."

"Cool."

"One of them is standing right next to you."

Meg turned to Penelope.

"Oh, hi! Name's Meg. Welcome to Camp.", She held out her hand.

"Oh, uh, thanks." She said, shaking it.

"And Nico wants to interrogate her."

Meg turned to Nico, squinting.

"Nickelodeon Man!"

"Didn't I tell you to not call me that?"

"Okay, Apollo, tell me what's happening."

They explained the current situation to her. Chiron made sure that 'the Pull' wasn't mentioned. Penelope was still processing that after all.

After they finished, she narrowed her eyes at Nico.

"So you're telling me that the reason why you're trying to interrogate her is because she has a super scary power."

"…I guess you could say that."

"Don't you have super scary powers?"

Nico sighed.

"Look, I get where you're coming from. But I don't think my powers are anywhere near dragging people to Chaos."

"Chaos Schmaos, it doesn't change the fact that you sound hypocritical and paranoid."

Nico fell silent.

"Huh, she's got a point, you know?", the blonde guy said.

"Shut up, Will."

Penelope looked relieved, maybe she wasn't going to get interrogated today.

"But, you do have a point."

Meg turned to Penelope.

"No offence, but you are kinda suspicious."

Penelope was startled.

"S-so what's going to happen to me?"

"Well, you're not going to get interrogated."

Penelope breathed a sigh of relief.

"Instead, we're going to put you on trial!"

"Wh-What?!"

Everyone looked at her.

"A trial? Trial for what?", Apollo said.

"A trial to determine whether she's cool or drool!

"…Okay that was a bad one."

"Well, while this is a valid way of approaching it, wouldn't it be too public?", Apollo said.

"Hmm, you're right. Therefore, this trial shall have no Jury!"

"This is starting to sound like a kangaroo court.", Penelope remarked.

"Hey! Kangaroo courts are some of the least corrupt courts in the world!", Pip retorted.

"So.", Meg pointed at Penelope, "You're the defendant."

"I guess so."

"Nico is the prosecutor."

"I have to agree to this, don't I?"

"Will is the prosecutor's counsel."

"Haven't got a problem with that."

"I'm going to be the lawyer and the satyress will be my counsel."

"Uh, Miss McCaffery, you do know how court works right-"

"And Chiron can be the Judge."

"I guess I should go find those grey robes I had, then."

"And what about me, The Great Apollo?"

"You can be the Bailiff, I guess."

Apollo simply locked his arms together and sulked.

"The Courtroom can be the Hades Cabin and the time should be tomorrow at ten o clock in the morning. Does everyone agree with these conditions?"

Everyone, including Nico and Apollo, hesitantly said yes.

"Now then, let's just go to sleep, man. It's been a long journey here."

"Yes, I agree.", Chiron said, "Let us rest, for today has been an eventful day."

Pip and the demigods went out of the Big House. Nico and Will walked together to the cabin site. Meg gave Penelope a thumbs up and a 'Good luck' before leaving.

Now it was just Penelope and Pip.

"Well, I guess that's that. See you at the trial."

Penelope was looking down at the ground. She seemed to want to say something.

Pip was going to ask her what she wanted to say when she said nervously,

"D-do you think I'm an enemy?"

"What?"

"Th-that boy Nico, the look in his eyes, he thought I was going to do something bad, right? Do you think-"

But before she could say anything else, Pip walked up to her, put her hands on her shoulders, brought her close and said to her face,

"No."

"Wh-why?"

"Because I know you're a good person. And nothing that anyone says will change that."

"P-Pip…", She looked at her with those amber eyes, filled with gratitude and relief unimaginable. They were pretty close now. She smelled of tulips.

Pip then realized what she did and backed away, blushing furiously.

"Uh, um. I'll…be going to my sleeping quarters. The place where I sleep. On a bed. S-see you at the trial tomorrow!"

"S-see you."

And so Pip ran back to her living quarters in the Camp's forests, still blushing and still extremely flustered.

Lesbian rights. –AlbusTheMage