THE GOD OF DECEPTION

Chapter Sixteen: Travel to Camp

Annabeth

…

The trio followed Piper into the house, or well mansion. She had seen Piper's house in photos before, and the daughter of Aphrodite had described it to her a couple of times ("think Monticello, but modern") but as they entered, she couldn't help but look up in awe. Piper walked around nonchalantly, giving them a quick tour, pointing out photos that were adorned on the wall. Annabeth wouldn't have been surprised if a butler arrived in a golf cart to drive them to the kitchen. Tristan Mclean was famous, of course, extremely, but the grandness of this house wasn't something Annabeth could conceive of. Percy looked even more overwhelmed, which made sense, because he had always lived in a cramped apartment in Manhattan.

Grover was the only one that wasn't entirely balls out surprised. He had his hand on his stomach, looking down at it worriedly. When Piper finally stopped, and opened a door, he sighed, and smiled. "Is this the kitchen?"

"No, it's the dining room," Piper responded, looking down at her watch. "The kitchen is attached to this."

"How many rooms can you have?" Grover mumbled.

Piper shrugged. "I don't even know." She said, "Anyway, here we are." Piper opened one last door. "What do you guys want?"

"Coke and anything blue." Percy said immediately.

Piper rolled her eyes. "Well that's a surprise. Annabeth?"

"Whatever's easiest," Annabeth grimaced, and then glanced over at Piper's watch. Time was ticking, and they couldn't spend long here.

Piper nodded, and motioned to Grover. "You?"

"Beans." The Satyr responded, almost without thinking.

"I don't really know how to cook." Piper threaded her hands together.

Grover shook his head. "Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Whatever's easiest would be fine."

Piper nodded, and went to the (huge) pantry, taking a second to look around. She paused, and then brought our oreos, and three sodas. Percy was the first one to get at one, shoving it into his mouth quickly. Grover was the next, and then, Annabeth on her own time grabbed two of her own, and ate them quickly, scarfing them down. Moments later, Piper brought out a couple of apples, seeing that they still looked starved.

"I can also give you a couple things for your trip. Fruit, snacks, drinks, whatever."

"I think maybe a couple of apples," Percy said. "And water," he added.

"Of course," Piper pulled a couple more out, and Annabeth stuffed them into her pack. She noticed that the girl still looked distracted, like something was missing. Annabeth suspected it was about Jason. She could see neither of the boys had noticed, both were still taking bites of the oreos.

"Can I talk to you?" Annabeth asked, "alone?"

Piper looked up, her eyes sad. "Sure. Will you two be good?"

"Yeah," Percy with a stuffed mouth said. Annabeth got up and followed Piper into the (huge) hallway.

Once she was sure they were alone, she sighed. "What's going on Piper?"

"What do you mean?" The daughter of Aphrodite frowned.

Annabeth crossed her arms. "There's obviously something bothering you. What's going on with Jason?"

"He's been gone for a while, that's it!" Piper snapped. "And—" she paused down, "I think we might be over. Done."

Annabeth's eyes widened. She was not expecting that. Piper and Jason had always seemed so happy with each other, despite the way that they got together. "Why would you think that?"

"I think I might have ended it." She looked down. "But that doesn't matter right now. We're all in danger, especially Percy again, and you three need to stop it. Jason and I will work it out."

"What happens if we don't get out of this one? If you two don't work it out?" Annabeth hated to be a pessimist, but in times like these, it was hard not to.

Piper attempted a smile. "Then I won't have to worry about it anymore."

"Were you and Jason not working anymore? You don't have to answer that if you don't want to."

"It was perfect." Piper sighed. "Maybe too perfect. But we'll get over it, hopefully, with time. He's spending some time away for now. I don't actually know where he is. Hopefully at school. We have a way to contact each other. He's not unsafe."

"Percy was talking about equivalency." Annabeth added. "Has anything happened here? At Camp Jupiter?"

"Not that I know of. I would have sent something to camp. We're kind of trying to stay out of that stuff right now."

"I get that," She nodded. I wish I could, Annabeth thought, but then chided herself. Piper was still in a bad position. Annabeth couldn't be jealous. They lived in very different circumstances, and comparing herself to her friend wasn't going to do any good for the world.

Piper bit her lip. "I'll let you guys know if anything is wrong. For now, just keep yourselves safe. You should probably be heading off now anyway."

"Right." Annabeth grimaced. "You and Jason will make it through this."

"I sometimes don't know if I want to," Piper whispered, probably hoping Annabeth wouldn't hear her. But she did. And she felt bad. The Giant war had left everyone in different places. It looked like it had left Piper questioning her own self love. Especially since Leo was gone, her best friend. Maybe that made it harder for her and Jason. Both of them had lost a close friend.

Annabeth pretended she hadn't heard it. But after, she kind of wished she had asked more. They walked back into the kitchen, and Percy gave her a look that said, "I don't ever want to leave her."

Annabeth gave him a look that said, "we're leaving here now." Percy got up, and Grover followed him, picking up their bag, which was now full of food and other supplies. They left the mansion, and then all turned to Piper. "Thanks for helping us out," Percy said, smiling. "If you need anything, just send a message."

She patted Percy on the shoulder. "Stay safe you three. If you don't I'll be very mad." Piper laughed.

Annabeth gave Piper a tight hug, and then nodded at her. "Everything will sort itself out. It always does." She said. Piper forced another smile, Annabeth could tell, and waved as they all walked away from the Mansion. There was a fairly large field of area in front of them, so they walked as far away from civilization as they could, just to be cautious. The mist would distort anything mortals saw, but Annabeth wasn't worried about that side of things. She was worried about monsters. Dolos.

The thing was, Dolos seemed to only attack in certain situations. In fact, he only came when it was convenient. For him, and for Annabeth, Percy and Grover. He only came when they were in trouble, to lead them into more trouble. It made her angry that that always happened, but it was a pattern. And a sign that if they wanted to avoid him, they would have to stay out of trouble.

Now that was something Annabeth could try to do. Succeeding though? As a demigod. That was a whole other struggle.

They stopped near a collection of trees, and Percy squeezed her hand, before whistling out to call Blackjack. Annabeth closed her eyes for a minute, then two, and when she opened her eyes, a black stallion stood in front of them. Percy grinned at the horse, and then frowned. "He's asking for donut's again. Can't he see that we're in trouble?"

Grover chuckled, and pulled out an apple. "I think this'll work better."

"He doesn't like apples that much," the son of Poseidon said just as Blackjack took a big bite of the apple. "Or well, he doesn't like when I give them to him."

"Did you tell him where we're headed?"

Percy shrugged. "He knows. Hopefully." He rubbed the Pegasus's nose. Blackjack sniffed.

They all squeezed onto Blackjack, but Percy assured them that the horse was strong and it wouldn't bother him. Then, they took off, heading to camp, the eastside of America. Which usually took hours on a plane, but Blackjack was magical, and that was reasoning for everything in Annabeth's life.

"Do you think Piper's okay?" Percy asked out of the blue, ten minutes into the ride.

Annabeth looked down. Piper had told her her problems in secret, so Annabeth didn't think she should share. "All of us are having a hard time," she instead said.

"She just looked sad. And Jason wasn't there."

"Her happiness doesn't thrive on Jason, Percy." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

Percy held his hands up. "Sorry, I was just asking. I know Leo being missing must not be great."

"Yeah."

Grover coughed. "I don't know any of these people very well, but I do know that everyone is affected in a different way. After the Titan War, I focused more on the wilderness. Some people get like that, others don't. Maybe she needs to figure out who she is on her own before being with someone else."

"That's actually really smart Grover."

Grover poked her. "'Actually?'" He said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean."

"I'm glad to have you two. Even if Grover hasn't been around for a while," Percy added. "There's no one else I would choose to quest with me."

Annabeth smiled at that, and leaned against her boyfriend's shoulder. But she was still worrying about Piper. If there was something that she wasn't sharing. Annabeth worried that something more was going on, but it wasn't her place to ask. If Piper had wanted to share she would.

Annabeth just really hoped her friend was okay. All of her friends. Over the last month, where all of them were getting adjusted back to normal life, she hadn't reached out as much as she had wanted to. Hazel and Frank had Iris messaged a couple of times, and so had she with Piper, but communications were pretty slim. Coach Hedge and Mellie were doing well with their new born baby, and on paper, everyone seemed well. Annabeth herself had thought she was the only one with these problems. But they were all wounded from the war. That was an undeniable fact. It was one that was really hard to face.

All Annabeth hoped for was that she could have a normal life, but that would never happen. Now she just had to do this whole thing over again.

While thinking, they somehow traveled the rest of the way, and before Annabeth knew it, they were just by the entrance of camp. As they entered, Annabeth held a deep breath, knowing what they would face when they got in. Gone for a two weeks, returning with a so-called "traitor," it wasn't a good look.

It was time to push those thoughts away. They had Olympus to save once more. Those gods were annoying, but they were their parents, and it was time to do their own dirty business.

Annabeth swore to the gods though, next time this happened she was going to implement an alert system. Or at least a way to keep all of this in check. She was tired of all of the gods' problems being thrusted into demigods' lives. In that sense, a part of her agreed with her old friend Luke. It's not like they could just confront the gods about it. They didn't care.

Or maybe they did. Annabeth didn't know. There was no way of telling whether or not her mother actually was concerned with her well-being. At times, they weren't even grateful for the demigod's actions. If Annabeth were a lord of the universe, she would try to care. Think about the people around her.

With a sigh, they walked through the camp boulder. Annabeth continued to hold her breath, as they neared the main part of camp. And soon enough, campers were near. Their eyes were wide, trained on Percy. This was the part that she was dreading. Where the convincing had to be done.

…

disclaimer: RR job is to write and yeah that's something I wish, but not something that's real.

a/n: hey, so I've made the decision to only update on Saturdays. I'm really sorry about this, but school is taking over my life right now and I don't have much other time. I wish I could update the same amount that I used to, but things change and school gets annoying. I want to give you guys actual quality writing and I can't do that if I'm rushing, so I hope you all understand. If I get better adjusted to this all, I promise to you all I'll start updating more frequently. In better news, The Tower of Nero came out, which is super exciting. No spoilers please, I haven't read it yet, but am going to soon! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Leave a review, lmk what you think! Stay safe and healthy! Until the next chapter!

—TheLil'Lion