Chapter 5: I capture a flag

POV: Percy

The next few days passed surprisingly fast.

I was rotated through different activities most of the day. I did not do too bad with anything, except archery, which didn't surprise me in the least. I had tried to tell Chiron that it was a waste of time. He only agreed after my first arrow hit the bull's eye. The thing was, it was not my own target and it wasn't even in front of me but on the side somewhere to my right.

Everyone was really surprised how good I did on my first tries – except archery that is. The wood-nymph instructors praised the way I moved through the forest and told me if I got a bit more stamina, even I could run away from lovesick gods soon. I'm pretty sure they were joking around, but it did give me a shiver, thinking about it.

I held my word to Clarisse. I can't remember how often I got to taste the arena floor because she never got tired of fighting against me. I was hardly able to put up a fight after she caught me, I was just physically too weak, but she had trouble getting a hold of me and she had to use all her strength to stop my struggling to escape. I could tell that I had surprised her. She wanted to fight with weapons too, but Chiron forbade it until I had attended at least a few lessons in it.

I wondered if Chiron was really trying to hide who I was because flying lessons on the Pegasi were the one thing, he did not assign me. I'm sure it would have been difficult to stop the Pegasi from surrounding me and wanting to introduce themselves. My father was the one to create horses and the ancestor of these Pegasi was technically my half-brother, so they, like most other sea animals, saw me as some kind of prince.

Everybody was watching me, trying to figure out who my parent was. I swear, it was worse than last time. I obviously didn't show any skills associated with any of the other gods who had children here, but this time I had shown enough potential to make quite a few people really consider me as being a child of one of the Big Three. They were wondering what would happen if I had trained for a while.

This was especially true after what happened during our first sword-fighting lesson.

I had thought about hiding my abilities to trick Luke but didn't think I could pull it through without giving myself away at some point, which would most likely be even worse than him knowing I could fight. There still weren't any swords that were balanced right for me, I guess it was the fact that they were not of sea origin that made them incompatible with me, but after all the sword fighting I had done, the only thing it did was tire me out a bit faster.

When we moved on to duel in pairs, my greatest problem was that I was unused to my shorter reach (I couldn't believe I really had been this tiny). Even so, I put up a good fight against Luke, I had enough experience fighting against him after all. By the end of it, I had even repeated the disarming trick and Luke was looking at me with great interest, but also a hint of anger and annoyance when somebody joked that I might end up better than he was.

Luke gave me the creeps. The entire time I had been here, he was actively seeking me out, and I got the feeling he was somehow trying to get even closer to me than last time. It gave me a hard time acting as if nothing was wrong.

Luckily, I could give at least the excuse of me being overwhelmed by all this and he seemed to believe me. He explained his behavior as wanting to be friends with somebody Annabeth had approved of so quickly. I didn't believe him of course, but I learned what it really was about during one of the talks we had.

"Heard you got into trouble with Mr. D?" he had begun.

It got me by surprise because I mean, there had been only five people there, so how had he heard?

He seemed to have mistaken my look of surprise with one of guilt because he went on. "Don't fret it, you were totally right. They always act like this. Interfere for their own gain, making your life as difficult as possible. Then they send monsters after you, try to kill you, and let the people you love die. They don't care, and then they act all high and mighty in front of you. What I want to say is, it hasn't to be like this. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."

By the end of his speech, all I wanted to do was punch him in the face. Family doesn't betray each other, doesn't try to kill any of its members for not sharing your opinion, I wanted to scream at him, but I could see what he was trying to do. He was trying to recruit me to Kronos, against the gods.

The thing was, I could see why so many campers had joined him. He was extremely good at exploiting people's doubts and fears and if this had happened the last time if it had played out differently? I wasn't sure I wouldn't have believed him.

At least until I would have learned about his plans. Was that how it went? They joined him and when they realized what it really was about, they were too afraid of what would happen if they returned?

Luckily for me, I already knew better than to believe him, knew he wouldn't mind killing all of us for his own goals. And I would find a way to make everyone else learn the truth too before it was too late.

Luke wasn't the only one I talked to. I spent a lot of time with the other children, especially those in cabin eleven. I got a good feeling about how they felt, and I spent my free time thinking about how we could help them, how we could make sure they didn't feel the need to join Luke and leave camp.

I finally got an opportunity to talk with Grover again too, and it made me really relieved. My actions hadn't changed the outcome of Grover's chance to gain a searchers license. Sadly, that still meant he had to complete a quest with me.

Despite all of this, I had a good time. I was surprised myself, how quickly I got used to this life again.

But in the end, none of it was what really got my full attention.

That was reserved for the mornings I spent with Annabeth. And it wasn't for the reason (not only for that reason) that I got to spent time with her. Officially she was to teach me about the gods and how to read and write in ancient Greek, but what we really did was talk about what we should change, mostly concerning our upcoming quest.

"Do we really have to go all the way to Los Angeles?" I asked. "I mean there is an entrance in Central Park, The Door of Orpheus."

It would be nice if we could just skip our entire tour, even if I knew it wasn't possible. But I figured asking wouldn't hurt, and who knew, maybe Annabeth had figured something out. But my hopes were for nothing, she didn't.

"Thought as much," I said. "How about the shoes?"

"I would say we take them, there would be no reason not to after all and we don't want to tip-off that we don't trust Luke. They were useful multiple times," Annabeth answered. "We just have to make sure nobody wears them as long as we're in the Underworld."

No kidding. I mean they were rather useful in theory, but shoes that drop you into Tartarus were not something that was high on my To-Buy list. Of course, were shoes that gave you the ability to fly not high on that list, to begin with. I liked myself better non vaporized after all.

"What do you think about the monsters we had to fight?"

"Well, the Furies and Echidna were sent by Hades and Zeus respectively, so I don't think it would be a good idea to try to hide from them."

I nodded. "Yeah, I don't really want to get hunted by them the entire way. As for Medusa- " I trailed off. I didn't really want to meet her again, but I remembered that Kronos would have liked for her to join him, so it might be better to kill her right now that we knew where she was. And that was without taking into consideration, that both her and Crusty were killing innocent people right now. And there was the thing with my mom. If we didn't kill Medusa…

Annabeth clearly understood herself. "This is ridiculous, we know what will happen and still decide to face the monster again," she said, shaking her head in self-ridicule. " Well, at least Procrustes is practically next door to the Underworld, so we might as well kill him. Have to pay him back for last time anyway."

"Nico and Bianca should be in the Lotus Casino right now," I said. "Do you think we could…?"

"That's dangerous, but…" she was tracing her finger through the sand, drawing a battle plan. "It should be possible, but we have to be careful. We can't split up inside, as long as we stay close to each other and make sure nobody gets distracted, maybe… At least, it would be a good thing to get them out now."

That was what I thought as well. Who knew what could change if we didn't? There was no way, I would let Kronos get his hands on them, and they deserved better than to waste away in a hotel where time doesn't really flow.

And it would be interesting to see Hades' reaction to us bringing his children for a visit. I wondered, would that allow us to simply walk into the Underworld? I asked Annabeth, but she wasn't sure either. At least it couldn't hurt.

"Most important is our talk with Ares, how we act on Olympus when we return the bolt, and what we are going to do with Luke," Annabeth said.

She had explained to me her idea about getting information out of Ares. According to Annabeth, if we were careful how we worded our quest with him, we might possibly be able to trick him into telling us. If not, I would just have to beat it out of him. I didn't mind either way.

More difficult was Luke. We couldn't find a completely safe method to deal with him. Should we try to kill him ourselves? Let the gods do it or let him get away? It were all things we discussed, but all had their own share of problems.

"Let's first look at how the quest works out, before we decide," I said. "We can decide when the time comes with what works best considering the circumstances."

It wasn't really the events that happened that took up our minds though, it was clear to both of us what had to be changed and what were the most dangerous events. No, the difficult questions were the stuff in between. What actions we could do that would make the overall situation of Camp better? What would stop the others from leaving?

"Repayment," I decided. "If we can find something we could get as repayment, something that would help the entirety of camp. It would go a long way to secure their trust in the gods again."

It was easier said than done. Not only did we need to find something that would be useful for us, but we had to get Zeus to grant it to us too. And somehow, I had the feeling returning his master bolt was not enough to ask for something like granting every god or goddess their own cabin.

"What exactly were the consequences for divine interference during our quest anyway?" I asked. "During the quest, you said, that nothing comes free. What was the price we paid for the pearls for example?

I could tell Annabeth had thought about this question already. I had too, but I hadn't really come to a satisfactory answer.

"Do you remember what Hades said when you asked him about what monster he had sent?"

I thought back. "He told us he only sent the Furies, right?"

Annabeth nodded. "There was no reason to lie for him, so that means the Minotaur wasn't sent by him. Since Medusa knew about you too probably means that it was most likely sent by Kronos. But he wanted you to drop into Tartarus, so there would be no reason to capture your mother. No, he wanted her dead or the Minotaur would have just ignored her."

It was not that surprising. Making me believe the gods are responsible for my misery and then recruit me. Wasn't that the same thing Luke was trying to do? But what was Annabeth trying to get to?

"What are you trying to say?" I asked.

She sighed. "That may sound strange, but I don't think Hades was really trying to kill you or hinder us from coming to the Underworld. And he wasn't particularly keen on keeping us there."

I looked at her incredulous. "I got almost killed by a Fury! And then he sent all three after us. Does sound to me like he was trying quite hard."

"You look like your father and then there was Grover and Chiron watching you," Annabeth stated. "You had no idea about the mythological world, and when she attacked you, she must have realized that herself. Well, if she hadn't already before, she watched you for months after all. Hades helped you in exchange for sending her when he took your mother."

"Kidnapping somebody is supposed to be helpful?"

"Instead of her dying? Yes," she said, and I couldn't disagree with her. "Later Hades sent the three Furies after us. They are supposed to be one of the stronger monsters, but they were the easiest part of our quest. I remember how aggressive they were against Thalia, how many monsters there were. And that was only in revenge for Zeus killing Nico's mother. If he had really thought you had his symbol of power? I don't think you would have survived. They were acting more like they had been instructed not to hurt us. And then, we got three pearls from your father, Percy. He knew about your mother, so why did he give us only three?"

I finally realized what she was going on about.

"They were in exchange for the Furies attacking us. That's why there were three, why Hades knew we had them. He didn't mind because he thought he could have the lightning bolt in exchange for letting my mum go again. That would give him leverage over Zeus and letting us go would clear him from any problems with my father. He only reacted when he realized I was leaving her behind."

"Exactly."

"Then what about Echidna? She was sent by Zeus after all?" I thought about it and answered the question myself. "The warning, right? My father sent the Nereid right after she attacked me. Great, so we have to fight the Furies again, just so we get a ticket out of the Underworld again."

We spent the next few days in similar conversations.

When Friday drew near, we talked about our plan for capture the flag now that we regrettably – I didn't regret a thing – couldn't use me as bait again. I was surprised when Annabeth told me her new idea, but I was quite happy with it.

Friday night after dinner, it was finally time. It was like so often a game of Athena against Ares, and the Hermes cabin I was a temporary part of, was of course on Athena's side.

This time we had allied ourselves with the Hephaestus and the Aphrodite cabin, with everyone else supporting Ares. If I hadn't helped planning, I would have wondered why Annabeth would have wanted them as allies, as there were only four Hephaestus children and those of Aphrodite were not especially aggressive. Her reasoning was pretty obvious when she appointed both cabins to defend, and Beckendorf and Silena just happened to be the two responsible for guarding our flag.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

I picked the equipment Annabeth had chosen for the special role I would be playing. I looked as ridiculous as I did last time with the giant shield. I couldn't wait for my growth spurt. At least I was more used to carry them, so I had an easier time moving this time. I could see Luke watching me out of the corner of my eyes. He had been unhappy about the plan, which made it only better in my opinion and if I would have to guess, Annabeth's too. This time he wouldn't be the one playing the main role.

I fell in step next to Annabeth when we headed down the path to the south woods. The situation made me remember the past.

"Got any magic items you can loan me?" I joked.

She only rolled her eyes at me.

"Don't mess up and get yourselves killed, Seaweed Brain."

I knew she wasn't talking about the other campers, but rather the Hellhound that had been summoned last time. We weren't sure it would appear again but didn't plan on taking any risks.

The plan was quite simple, in addition to the Aphrodite and Hephaestus cabin, Annabeth would lead her cabin to take center, pulling the Ares cabin's attention. After what she said to Clarisse, there was no way Clarisse wouldn't respond to the challenge. The Hermes cabin's role was to perform a pincer attack from both flanks.

That left only me. When I was on my position right behind the Athena cabin, I dropped my shield and my specially chosen armor – specially chosen for being able to easily get rid of, that is. I pulled out a Yankees Cap and put it on. As soon as I had the hat on, I was invisible. It didn't feel any different, but I couldn't see myself anymore.

Annabeth's Yankees cap. She never lent it to anyone, not even Luke was allowed to have it. But I was. It made me feel smug.

I stepped beside Annabeth.

"See you later, Wise Girl," I whispered in her ear.

The conch horn blew, announcing the start of the game. Annabeth and her siblings stormed forward and met with the Ares cabin that had gathered at the other side of the creek.

I moved sideways, dodging the fighting, and went the way the Ares cabin had come from, disappearing into enemy territory. All around me I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. From what I could tell, the other side had gone all out in their attack, meaning there should be almost no one on defense left.

I found the clearing the flag was in without problems.

It was big enough that the guards could stay at the edge without breaking the ten yards rule. Their positioning was rather good too. They could see each other, as well as when somebody was approaching the clearing. Their positions were so good in fact, they would never see this coming.

I just strolled past them and picked up the flag.

It disappeared the moment I pulled it out of the ground. The flag had to be displayed for all to see by the defenders, but there was no rule against hiding it after it was picked up by the attackers. I reached the edge of the clearing without them even realizing that their flag was gone. They had been so vigilant, that nobody would have been able to pass them. Except if they were invisible like me of course, but with Annabeth making no secret that she was in the center, nobody would be on guard against it.

I stopped and carefully picked up a stone. I threw it into the woods to my left, where it loudly rebounded from multiple trees, drawing their attention. I started running the way I came from.

I could hear their shouts behind me, realizing their flag was gone, and them running in the direction of my distraction.

I had a peaceful time on my way back. I couldn't remember a time where I hadn't fought a single battle during capture the flag. Everyone always puts special attention on me and Annabeth when we teamed up, and we teamed up almost always.

When I returned to the creek the Athena cabin had already been pushed back into our side of it, the Ares cabin pushing after them.

"What's the matter, you already tired? Told you we would crush you!"

I could see Clarisse and Annabeth fighting. Clarisse was taunting her, seemingly having the upper hand, but I could see Annabeth was just playing with her. She had made them think they were winning; it was part of our strategy to keep them occupied and give me a clear path to cross.

When I set food over the creek, the flag shimmered and turned silver. The boar and spear getting replaced by a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. I stabbed the flag into the ground and let go, the flag turning visible again.

Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

I could hear Annabeth's smug answer. "What are you talking about? We already won."

Everyone turned to the flag standing alone on our side of the creek. I pulled Annabeth's cap from my head, appearing right next to it. The other team looked gobsmacked. Our side started cheering, surrounding me, picking me up, and carrying me on their shoulders.

The game was over. We'd won.

Annabeth was standing off to the side, our eyes met and both of us smirked.

I was about to call her over when I got a bad feeling. My eyes fell on the forest over Annabeth's head. There was a movement behind her. I saw it only thanks to my elated position. A cold feeling spread in my chest.

"DUCK!" I screamed.

Annabeth was already moving the moment I had begun my warning. She must have seen my face change when my eyes moved onto something behind her. There was no hesitation in her movement when she made a role sidewards, toward the water. We were so used to being in danger and giving warnings to each other. If somebody shouts duck, you don't ask where. You duck and then keep on killing your enemies.

A howl ripped through the forest and a hellhound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers ripped through the place Annabeth had stood a moment ago, crashing into the ground. Annabeth had already come to a stop in a crouched position and turned around again, her dagger raised.

Everyone was whirling around in shock. I could hear Chiron shouting for his bow, but I was faster. I jumped down into the creek landing in a crouch, I turned sideways to face the hellhound. My arm moved through the water, I could feel it respond to me, the familiar tug in my stomach, and with a single fluid movement it followed my outstretched arm, past Annabeth straight at the hellhound.

I only realized what I had done when a large icicle sprouted from its chest. I didn't stop though, I jumped forward, the water catapulting me straight next to Annabeth, my blade raised in defense.

Nobody said anything. We watched as the Hellhound melted into shadow, soaking the ground until it disappeared, leaving only the icicle, impaled in the ground.

I could feel Annabeth's hand at my shoulder, and I lowered my sword. Everybody turned to us. Some of the campers gasped.

I knew what had to be happening above my head, I could see the same thing happening on the flag after all. The silver flag turned green, the Caduceus turning into a trident.

My father had claimed me.

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even Luke, though I could see surprise and anger in his face.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."