Chapter 10:

"What in the WORLD WERE YOU THINKING?!" Thalia yelled at both Reyna and Percy who were now being treated for their wounds.

When Percy and Reyna got back, their friends were unexpectedly waiting for them at the front entrance. Thalia, Monique, Carter, and Piper were all there.

"Hey, we came back didn't we?" Percy said as he winced from Carter applying some healing potion on his bullet wound.

"Sorry." Carter shrugged. "At least you're okay."

"That's not the point here!" Thalia snapped. "Why didn't you guys tell us about this?"

"Piper knew." Percy said. Thalia glared daggers at him. "Okay, because I didn't want to bring anyone else."

"You could've just told me!" Thalia argued.

"And you would've wanted to come along." Percy argued back. "Look, the point is we did it and the place is safe for a little bit longer."

"Glad that we did it as well." Reyna muttered. "They were closer than I expected. A few more days and they would've found this place."

"That doesn't sound good." Monique said as she put her hands on her waist. "Did you let anyone escape?"

Reyna and Percy exchanged looks. Reyna's expression was pleading to Percy not to tell anyone of what happened. "No, we got them all." Percy said. "I don't think anyone escaped."

Reyna looked grateful and relieved, but she did well to hide it. "Anyway, this place is not very safe. We need to either move or force them to retreat." Reyna said.

"Uh huh." Thalia crossed her arms, clearly still annoyed. "You're on probation for now."

"What?"

"You heard me." Thalia said. "No more going around behind my back. A leader of the Hunt, I'm doing this for your own good."

Reyna wanted to fight back, but she held herself back. "Fine." Reyna grumbled.

"And you," Thalia glared at Percy. "If you ever go behind my back again, I swear I will-"

"Oh come on." Percy grumbled. "It's just a small thing. You don't need to be present for every single fight I walk into."

Thalia grabbed Percy's collar, which surprised everyone. "I promised Artemis that I would help you. We promised Artemis that we would do this together." Thalia said with anger.

"But that doesn't mean we'll do every single fucking thing together." Percy retaliated as he pushed her hand away. "I did what I did to save us."

"Guys, stop." Carter tried but it was no use.

"Putting yourself in danger isn't saving us, Percy." Thalia spat. "How about you try to think about others in the first place before being so selfish."

That triggered Percy. "Selfish? Selfish?!" Percy snapped. "I have been everything but selfish! I gave my life to mortals and to the gods just to save their ass!"

"You were selfish tonight." Thalia said angrily. "You were selfish when you almost got yourself killed two weeks ago. And you were selfish when you thought Annabeth was alive!"

Percy lunged at Thalia and the two wrestled on the floor. "Guys, seriously, stop!" Carter said.

"That's enough, you two!" Reyna shouted.

But neither of them were listening. They tousled and wrestled until Thalia got on top of Percy and pinned him down. Percy tried getting her off of him, but Thalia was faster. She pinned Percy's hand under one knee and grabbed the other hand with an armlock.

"You don't care about anything! You don't care about me!" Thalia screamed in his face. Percy tried struggling, but Thalia had a strong grip on him. "Didn't you stop to think how I would feel? How would any of us feel?"

Percy gradually stopped struggling. Thalia reluctantly let him go as the two of them sat on the ground, annoyed at each other.

"Percy," Thalia said, her voice trembling. "Don't you realize that by going behind my back, it makes me think that you don't trust me?" Thalia said. "It makes me feel like you don't believe in me to have your back in battle. It makes me feel useless."

Percy could hear the sadness and disappointment in her voice and it broke Percy's heart. He thought Thalia was getting angry for him being an idiot - which was fair - but it appears that it's deeper than he realized.

Thalia wiped her tears. "I know you think you can take on the world. I know you feel you can save it yourself." Thalia said. "But dammit Percy, let me help. I don't like it when I feel useless. It just . . . It just sucks. That's all."

Everyone stood there in silence after hearing Thalia's true feelings. They sat and stood there in silence awkwardly for a good minute.

"Sorry." Percy muttered finally.

Thalia sobbed. "It's fine." She said quietly before standing up and heading back to her bedroom without saying a word.

"I will talk to her." Monique said before following Thalia.

"Guess I'll head back to bed also." Carter said. "Uh, lemme know if you need anything."

Percy nodded expressionlessly.

"Me too." Reyna said before putting a hand on his shoulder. "It's going to be okay. Thalia can be stubborn, but she's got a good heart."

Percy chuckled without humor. "Yeah." Percy muttered.

"Goodnight." Reyna said to both Percy and Piper.

Piper was sitting next to him. "She's got a point."

"What, now you're trying to make me feel like shit as well?" Percy grumbled.

"That's not what I'm saying." Piper said. "I'm saying that you can't take every fight alone."

Percy wanted to argue, but he found that he couldn't.

"I know that you want to protect us. But please," Piper put a hand on Percy's hand. "We can protect you as well."

Percy sighed. "I know. I'm just afraid of losing my friends."

"Then let's make sure that doesn't happen." Piper said with a smile. "Together."

Percy managed a small smile. "Thanks."

"Anytime." Piper said. "Don't forget to apologize to Thalia later."

"I said sorry."

"Nu uh," Piper said. "A proper apology."

"Fine." Percy rolled his eyes.

Line Break

The next few weeks went in a blur. Percy half expected the Crusaders to retaliate immediately and they would have their hands full in battling for their lives.

But instead, they got some peace and quiet. Well, as much peace and quiet you can have with Crusaders breathing down on your neck.

"This feels wrong." Reyna said during one of their sparring sessions. Over the last few weeks, Reyna was determined to get better no matter what. She's been spending most of her time in the training room due to that. But part of it is also thanks to her probation period that Thalia put on her. "They're never this silent."

"Maybe they're preparing for a full on siege." Piper said.

"I've had scouts monitor around the perimeter within fifty miles. If the Crusaders are coming, we would know." Reyna said. "Are you up for another session?"

"Nah." Percy admitted. As much as he wanted to train, his leg was still healing. "I'm gonna head to the showers."

"I'm up for one more." Piper said. Reyna's expression brightened as Percy headed towards the showers.

After having a nice hot bath, Percy made his way to Rachel. When Percy entered her office, she was in a conversation with Monique.

"-out of here before sundown." Monique said. "If we don't, we'll all be-" Then she noticed Percy. "Oh, Percy darling. Didn't notice you came in."

"Uh, am I interrupting?" Percy asked.

"No, not at all." Monique said. Rachel looked like she wanted to argue, but Monique shot her an appointed look. "I was just about to leave." She turned towards Rachel. "Excuse me, Miss Dare." She said as she was walking through the exit. Monique flashed Percy a smile before she exited the room, leaving Percy with Rachel.

"You okay?" Percy asked.

"I'm not the one with a hole in his leg." Rachel managed a smile before sitting down. "What brings you here?"

Percy sat down. "I wanna ask something." Percy said. "Regarding the gods."

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Not sure if I can help you, but sure."

"So, Artemis explained that the gods are getting weak because of faith." Percy explained. "Because not enough people believe in them. And since demigods are being killed at a fast rate, the number of people who have faith in them are decreasing bit by bit."

"Yeah?"

"If the problem is people not believing in them, why not just tell everybody the truth? That the Greek gods exist?"

Rachel sighed. "It's not that easy, Percy." Rachel said. "Believing the gods exist is one thing. But having faith is another."

"What do you mean?"

"Let me put it to you this way. Even if everyone in the world suddenly believes that Greek gods, Egyptian gods, or any of these mythological beings exist, that wouldn't change a thing. The gods will still be weakened."

"Why?"

"Because they simply believe in their existence." Rachel said sadly. "Faith is different. Faith is believing that the gods are divine beings, all powerful and mighty. That gives them power."

"So you're telling me that these mortals do not believe in the power of the gods."

Rachel shook her head. "They believe that the gods have power. They just don't believe that the Greek gods are all powerful divine beings. I don't dare to dabble in religion too much, but I figure each religion has their own all powerful God, with a capital G. These people believe in their own God to be all powerful. Their faith is in their God, and not our gods."

"I guess I get it." Percy said. "But how do we change the minds of these people? How do we change their faith?"

Rachel chuckled. "We don't need to change people's faith, Percy." Rachel said. "We, well I say 'we' but I actually mean 'you'." Rachel muttered. "You guys have done well without changing the faith of anyone. What we need to do is to save these demigods from genocide and discrimination."

Percy nodded. He was clueless before, but now he got it. "Give them hope."

"Exactly." Rachel said. "And coincidentally that you're here, I have a proposal."

"What is it?"

Rachel pulled a map from one of her shelves. She laid it across the table. "It's similar to the stunt you and Reyna pulled a few weeks ago."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "I thought you were against that."

"Times have changed." Rachel said grimly. "I have new intel."

"What do you mean?"

Rachel circled one part of the map. "This is the mansion area." Rachel said. "In two days, we're gonna have Crusaders being deployed here, here, here, here, and here." Rachel marked the spots where she said the Crusaders were gonna drop. Judging from where she marked, the Crusaders were dangerously close. "As you can see, we are surrounded."

Percy frowned. "Reyna told me that there were no Crusaders within fifty miles. How can they be that close?"

"Fifty miles isn't that large when you consider that they are a government-sponsored military force." Rachel said. "This means they have air transportation."

Dread filled Percy's body. "So they can reach us just like that."

"Just like that." Rachel said. "That's what Monique and I were arguing just now. Monique wanted to evacuate everyone but I suggested we defend the area."

Percy studied the map. There wasn't really a safe way out of the area, unless they leave now. Even though it would be trivially easy for the Crusaders to catch up.

"Does your intel have any info on the enemy? Like how many there are, what weapons they have, et cetera."

Rachel shook her head. "He can't find out any more without getting caught. Even getting this information was risking it."

Percy stared blankly at the map. He tried working for solutions. Percy would like to battle and fight against the Crusader army, but he has to think of the safety of the people here. This is one of the few, if not the only, safe haven for demigods. Percy studied Rachel's face and saw an expression that he didn't expect to see in her eyes.

Determination.

Rachel was determined on making this work.

"You think this will work?" Percy asked.

Rachel took a deep breath. "It will work. Besides, I have another piece of info . . ."

Line Break

Percy wasn't surprised when Monique called for a full meeting. Everybody was confused and nervous since these types of meetings were only called if they needed to announce something important.

"Greetings." Monique said in a confident voice. The chattering died down immediately. "I have called this meeting for an urgent matter."

To his left was Thalia, who looked uninterested as usual. Percy still get tense when talking to Thalia even after apologizing. After their little scuffle, it's been awkward between the two.

To his right was Piper who looked nervous as everyone in the meeting room. Only Percy and Rachel knew what the meeting was about.

Monique took a deep breath. "It is my belief that the Crusaders will deploy troops and surround our home during the day after tomorrow."

There was a moment of silence when Monique made that announcement. Reyna stood up. "Impossible. Our best scouts have scouted the perimeter. They are nowhere near us."

Rachel stood up. "Yes, but even in long distances they can still engage us. They are a military force. They will have air transports and land transport. A large distance will not be of any relevance to them."

Reyna wanted to argue, but she knew that Rachel was right.

"My intel has informed me that the Crusaders plan to surround us in two days. They have found out where we are and they're planning their plan of action as we speak." Rachel said.

"So what do we do?"

"There's two options." Rachel said. "Monique believes that we can get away safely, leave the area without being noticed and rebuild somewhere else. But we have to leave now."

There were murmurings of agreement among the crowd.

"The other one, is a proposal of my own." Rachel said. "If they're sending vehicles out into the forest to take us down, that means their base of operations is near. Which means, when they attack us, their base will be open for taking."

More excited murmurings. It seems the crowd is leaning towards Rachel's proposal.

"Need I remind you," Monique said. "That you will be facing against Crusaders. The chances of your survival will be minimal."

"But if we succeed," Rachel countered. "We can finally make our statement. We are not people who can be pushed around and killed at people's whim."

That made them excited. They started to agree more on Rachel's plan. The idea of making a statement sits well within them.

"You guys must remember." Thalia suddenly stood up. "If we go through with this, some of you will have to get your hands bloody. Remember what Percy told you weeks ago. It is not something so easily dealt with."

The chattering got quiet as they pondered on Thalia's statement.

"To anyone who wants to leave and build a new life, you are welcomed to follow Monique who will be leaving this evening." Rachel said. "There will be no hard feelings. We understand and we will try our best to distract them for as long as we can."

"And for those of you who want to fight, stay. Train and be ready for your battle. We will wish and pray for your success." Monique announced. "Dismiss!"

After the meeting, Percy met up with Thalia. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing fine." Thalia asked as she fiddled with her bowstring. "I'm just nervous."

"So you're staying?"

Thalia raised an eyebrow. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"Come on, guys." Piper stepped in between them. "Save it for the battle."

"You may not like it, Percy." Thalia stood up. "But I can fight."

"I know you can fight. That's not what I-" Percy tried explaining but Thalia was already leaving. "God she's impossible."

"That goes for both of you." Piper sighed. "Don't worry. She's just being hard on herself. She doesn't feel like she's doing Artemis proud, which is why she's eager to prove herself."

"Being less of a jerk would help." Percy said.

"Hey, go easy on her." Piper said. "Wanna grab a bite?"

"Sure." Percy smiled at Piper. He didn't know what had happened, but he and Piper had gotten really close together. Not as in, close friends. As in, really, really close.

"Careful." Reyna said as she walked past Percy.

"What, you jealous?" Percy grinned.

"Dude, I'm a Hunter." Reyna said. "I can't like you. I'm just saying be careful."

"Why?"

Reyna stared at Percy for one moment before shrugging. "Nevermind."

What the hell was that about?