THE GOD OF DECEPTION

Chapter Seventeen: Prophecies Never Lie

Percy

…

The minute Blackjack told Percy, boss, there's going to be some trouble, he knew something was up with camp. Sure, Annabeth and Grover had filled him in with all the details, but Percy really hadn't imagined what the experience would be like. As they neared a group of counselors, they looked up, eyes widening. "Percy?" One of them stuttered, "Percy Jackson?"

Annabeth stepped out in front of him, staring daggers at the campers. "We need to get to Chiron. Where is he?"

"Why should we trust you?" A braver one said.

Annabeth glared even harder. Her trademark deadly gaze. The camper's silently pointed towards the big house. So the three of them walked towards the building, and swung open the doors to see Clarisse, Rachel, Will and Nico all sitting at a table with Chiron. Clarisse was the first to speak. "What are you doing here?"

"I think the better question is what's going on with you guys?" Annabeth shot back, glaring.

"Percy betrayed us!"

"That's what they want you to think."

Rachel perked up at that. "Who is 'they'?"

"You don't remember?" Grover cocked his head. "We left you a note. Trickery, Deception. The god of Deception. Dolos."

"I don't remember a note," Rachel looked to Percy, but it wasn't with the same tension as it had been with Clarisse. Closer to confusion, not as much anger. "You three shouldn't be here."

Percy groaned. "Can we see Chiron?" He looked Clarisse straight in the eye, unflinchingly. She stared him down right back. The last time they had gotten into a staring contest, Percy's life wasn't on the line. This time, it was almost deadly.

"Fine." Clarisse snapped back, averting her eyes. She pointed to a door with her thumb, and then crossed her arms. Mr. D's old office. Percy walked, Annabeth and Grover staying in their positions behind him.

"I got this," He told them, and then opened the door. Inside, was Chiron, this time in his wheelchair. He looked up from the desk, and didn't seem surprised at all to see Percy. He guessed that if you were a multi-millenia old centaur, not a lot of things fazed you. "What's going on Chiron?" Was the first thing he said.

Chiron eyes looked tired and sad. "You shouldn't be here."

"I get that a lot." Percy bit his lip. "Something is going on. We've learned a lot about it. You're under the influence of spirits called the Pseudologi, lying spirits." What was explaining going to do? Was this honestly the best approach? Percy didn't have an answer.

"You think I don't know that?" Chiron said, to Percy's surprise. "Percy, I've lived a millennia. This happens every so often, though it's never much covered. The god's don't like it when another god is able to overtake them. Dolos is that god. It's always covered up. They lock Dolos away, then he comes back another couple centuries with a new plan. Some hero always has to stop him, because the gods themselves can't. It's you this time."

"Why were we never told this?"

"The god's wouldn't like it."

"They don't ever get involved with Demigod lives." Percy threw his hands up. "Why is this so important?"

Chiron clicked his tongue against the rough of his mouth. "Reputation is perhaps what the gods see as most important."

"Some gods," Percy grumbled, "they already have stellar resumes. If you know so much about this, then tell me, why was I the one to be trapped in the Labyrinth with Kampe?"

"Everything's always a little different, but some things stay the same. Dolos, as you know, was dear Prometheus's apprentice. When he finds out about prophecies, he takes one of those main involved, and in a way to avenge his mentor, models a punishment."

"Stuck with Kampe everyday," Percy realized, "noon to night, day to night. That makes sense. It has some blurred lines, but it makes sense." He turned around, and looked back at the door, thinking about those behind it. "If you know all of this, then why is camp turned against me?"

Chiron looked down. "Pseudologi aren't the type to just fade away. I've tried, but it doesn't work. The veil of ignorance always comes back over, no matter what. "

"Is there a way to stop it?"

"Deceive deception, I suppose." Chiron looked at the son of Poseidon up and down. "If that means anything to you."

Percy's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"

Chiron's image flickered in front of Percy, turning into something he dreaded. Was this the end? Truly, and really? "Did you think you found something Perseues?" Dolos said, a smile widening. "It looks like you did. Sad for you, I suppose. Good for me."

Another one of those measly evil smiles. "You can't trust anyone."

Dolos vanished again.

Why did this always have to happen? Percy raced out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Both sides looked startled, Annabeth's eyes wide. "Quick," he said to Annabeth, "what was the first thing you ever said to me?"

Annabeth stuttered, "You drool when you sleep?"

He sighed. "Grover, what was the name of our demon pre-algebra teacher?"

"Ms. Dodds?" Grover sounded confused. "May I ask what this is for?"

Percy waved him off. "Rachel, before you kissed me when we were driving to the beach and Bekendorf picked me up, what did you say?"

Rachel's cheeks went bright red. Annabeth looked startled. "Something like, slay some monsters for me halfblood?"

He waved his hand in the air. "Good enough. Clarisse, when I first met you—"

"Toilets." Clarisse stared him in the eye. "You blew up the toilets."

"How did you know?"

Clarisse rolled her eyes. "It was obvious you were going to ask that."

"Wait, wait," Annabeth said, "back up, you kissed Percy?"

Rachel was still red. "It was before you two were dating."

"And you never told me about this?" Annabeth accused.

Percy held his hands in the air. "Never felt the need to bring it up. But don't we have important matters to attend to? Dolos was posing as Chiron I think, so I needed to make sure that none of you were him, okay? Please, you don't have any reason to trust me now, but when I tell you all of this, you might." He looked straight at Clarisse, who was the most doubtful. "You can knock me out if I try anything. I give you permission."

"I would knock you out anyway," Clarisse mumbled.

Percy shrugged. "Good enough for me." He looked back and forth. "We need to get somewhere safer. Stay close to me."

"Where is the real Chiron anyway?"

He bit his lip. He was prepared to believe the worst, but hoped that his old teacher would be okay. There was a pause in conversation, and no one spoke. Clarisse finally looked up, the brave one, "that doesn't matter right now. He's okay." She sounded like she was convincing herself, despite putting up a brave face.

They all walked to Rachel's cave, keeping close to each other. Clarisse waved off curious campers, and even a couple of angry ones. They passed Will and Nico, who were looking rather intimate, and luckily didn't question the group of five. After around ten minutes, they arrived at Rachel's cave, and settled down.

"Now tell us," Rachel looked earnest, but not entirely swayed, "what's going on?"

Annabeth explained the situation, with interruptions from Grover and Percy. Grover, adding how hungry he was, and Percy, saying what was happening on his side. It took a lot of time, especially since a lot had happened in the past days. "So basically," Annabeth finished, "we can't trust anyone. Even ourselves, because the Pseudologi so far seem pretty ruthless."

"That is certainly a situation you've got yourself in," Clarisse said. "But how can we believe you?"

Percy bit his lip. "She mentioned the Pseu—" he struggled to pronounce it, "the Pseudologi right?"

Rachel looked at them thoughtfully. "I suppose you aren't much of a threat against all of camp." Percy felt affrontated. Rachel looked over to Clarisse. "I think we should trust them. But stay cautious."

Clarisse, always doubtful, rolled her eyes and crossed her hands. "I was going to say that," she grumbled. "Fine. What do you need us to do?"

"Rachel, do you remember the prophecy you spouted?" Percy asked. If she didn't remember seeing the note Annabeth had left, then could she recall anything about that day?

Rachel wrinkled her nose. "I don't think so. I vaguely remember you all coming in, but not much after that. I just remember waking up in a chair with a blank spotx, I guess."

"Why do all the gods have to be interested in memory wiping?" Percy grumbled to himself. "This is all so inconvenient."

Annabeth laughed. "You're preaching to the choir, Seaweed Brain." Her face turned serious. "Let's look back at the prophecy." She had it written down on a piece of paper. "Let's review."

"Mischief's around the corner, that's trickery," Grover said, pointing down at it. "The maze is the Labyrinth, and the son of the sea and the next line with Kampe have to do with Percy. I assume those will come back to haunt us sometimes."

Percy read the next line. "From noon till light— sorry, night," the other demigods looked at him in sympathy, "from noon till night, he must fight, that's again about the Kampe thing. And the final line, the confusing one is only once trickery is deceived, will the gods be freed. Dolos knows about that line." Percy looked around. "He's probably watching us now, or something. He doesn't want to be deceived. So we have to plan this out in a way he won't understand."

"Is there a place, easy access, we can go, that the gods can't detect?"

Rachel shrugged. "The underworld is the only place I can think of, but we don't have much time and that's a bit of a far trip."

"Right. Theoretically, camp, but that obviously isn't true based on what we've seen." Annabeth added.

Clarisse spoke. "The closest place to the underworld is the Hades cabin here. It gives everyone bad energy. I think that's probably the safest, but then again you know, nothing's foolproof. Plus, he's probably listening now, so we shouldn't go there." She spoke with her eyes next, moving them up and down. Percy first cocked his head, confused, and then realized what she was saying. Deceiving deception. Of course, this wouldn't do anything to him now, but just so they could plan, this was a foolproof idea. Okay, well, not the most foolproof, but it was definitely on his top two hundred list.

"Yeah," Percy said in the most wooden voice ever. "We shouldn't go there."

Annabeth, a little more composed added on. "It'd just be a bad idea."

"Let's head somewhere else." Grover finally said, and in agreement, all of them got out.

Percy dug into his pocket, and pulled out a whistle, blowing on it tightly. Seconds later, Mrs. O'Leary was bounding over towards them, a big smile on her face. "Hey girl," Percy whispered into her ear. He told her where she needed to take them. Mrs. O'Leary nodded, licked Percy again, and then he motioned for them to get on. Clarisse, surprisingly, was the most cautious. A flash later, and basically what was an underworld roller coaster ride, they popped into the Hades cabin.

Luckily, for what seemed the first time, Nico was not inside in the darkness, probably because he was outside with Will Solace. Mrs. O'Leary immediately knocked over a vase, and Percy told her to settle down a bit. Now, it was time to do the most important thing: planning. And they had one master strategist, a girl with a love of knives, the lord of the wild, and an oracle. Plus a multiple time Hero of Olympus. After all, this was the easy part. The hard part would be going on.

For now, they could talk through and worry about this. Hopefully there would be a later and they could actually go through with these plans.

…

disclaimer: how could I have written Tower of Nero if I haven't even read it yet?

a/n: another chapter! Yay, this one honestly took a while especially because of homework and all of that stuff. Hopefully this workload will get easier, I was planning to post a big one-shot for my one year fanfiction anniversary, but idk if that's going to happen. I may have to post it a little bit late. It's going to be a good one though, currently, it's over 22k words. The worst part is going to be editing, but it'll be coming soon! I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, I think a lot happened here. Thanks so much for reading! Remember: I'm updating on Saturday's now, so don't expect a chapter on Wednesday. Leave a review, lmk what you think! Stay safe and healthy! Until the next chapter!

—TheLil'Lion