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Chapter 1: Infiltration

IT'S OVERWHELMING. Having the thing I'd been preparing for my whole life suddenly upon me in a moment. This far away goal that didn't seem possible. A dream, now finally—suddenly—a reality. It didn't feel like it was really going to happen until yesterday when my father had said those three words that changed everything.

"You leave tomorrow."

Gee, maybe a weeks notice would have been nice, thanks for the heads up Dad.

My heart beat like a drum in my chest and the butterflies in my stomach were having a free for all battle royal. But at least I wasn't making the journey to Camp Half-Blood alone. Iapetus the Titian had been traveling with me, the strong hulking body of someone I had looked up to in my late childhood was a calming reassurance to my jumbled nerves.

But soon he would be gone too, leaving me to travel the rest of the way to Camp Half-Blood where I would truly be alone in a sea of enemies.

Alone.

That was the thing that scared me the most, the fact that if I got in trouble, if I let one little detail slip... no one would save me. No one could save me.

"Don't worry, young Perseus. This is your destiny." Iapetus said.

I looked ahead at the twisting muddy path that we followed through the dense forest.

If you could even call it a path.

Branches filled with leaves covering it completely in some places, the grey thundering clouds above leaving everything in a cold light. I strained my eyes to look farther down the path, to the end. To my destiny.

"Right." I replied. "I've lived my whole life for this moment. It's time to go make it."

I looked up to Iapetus, he gave a slight nod of approval back. "Remember your heritage, whatever they say to you remember that you are better. It's in our blood."

I was the son of the King of Hell. Better than them.

"And don't fall for their compassion. If they ever find out who you really are, they won't hesitate to kill you." Iapetus said coldly.

"Thanks, I feel so much better now." I replied sarcastically.

"I will not defile the gravity of the situation. If you fail, we may lose the war and with it our vision of a grand new world. But I truly believe you are capable of succeeding, you will not be found, and you will bring us to victory." He placed a firm, reassuring hand on my shoulder. "And if you ever doubt, remember your mother."

We walked in silence most of the way after that. I was lost in my thoughts and he just wasn't the talking type. My boots squished in the mud and my clothes brushed the leaves of plants as we walked through the thick undergrowth. The air was thick and humid and the dark green forest buzzed with insects. The stormy grey clouds peeked from behind the canopy of tall trees, the warm summer air coating my body in a thin layer of water, as if I was walking in a giant sauna.

Soon, Iapetus turned off of the main path. He stepped through a gap in the bushes and pushed a branch away from his head, ducking under it. I followed him as he held the branch away for me as well. Walking became even more difficult through the woods and soon I was wishing for the path again. At least it had been something, now I was stepping through bushes, over fallen trees and pushing away branches at my face.

"We're almost there." Iapetus pointed forward to... more woods.

"How can you tell? Everything looks the same." I huffed a breath in exasperation.

"Our directions were very clear. I've been watching for all the landmarks and have been turning at the correct places. We will be at the dead tree soon." Iapetus said as he pulled a piece of paper out from his pocket. He turned it over in his hands and squinted at the words written on it. The directions.

I sighed. "Please just admit that we're lost."

"I will admit it when it happens. I know exactly where we are." Iapetus folded the paper and put it back in his pocket.

"And where exactly are we?" I asked

"In the forest." He said as if it was obvious.

"Wow, amazing. Forgive me, your sense of direction is impeccable."

Iapetus just grumbled in response. He continued forward through the thick undergrowth and I, stupidly, followed him. Leaves rustled to our left as a squirrel scampered up a tree from the ground. My shirt got caught on a branch and I was force to stop and pull it out. There was a short ripping noise as my shirt was pulled free.

I just groaned and examined the damage, accepting the fact that there was nothing I could do now. There was a long tear on the back of my T-shirt but in all honesty, it wasn't that bad. I shrugged my shoulders and continued to follow the large body of Iapetus.

"There it is. I knew where we were the whole time." Iapetus boasted, pointing at a dead tree. The tree stood alone in the middle of a small clearing, it's black ashy bark in sharp contrast to the green lush woodland surrounding it. It looked as if it had been stuck by lighting and had caught on fire in the process. But because it had grown up alone the fire hadn't been able to spread to the trees around it. The thin black pointy branches looked like the claws of a great beast, the tree trunk an arm reaching up to the cloud covered sun.

"So this is our meeting point?" I asked.

Iapetus nodded. "On the last day of every week, you shall exit camp and meet me or another and tell them of what you have learned. In return they shall tell you of your objective, or focus, to learn of in the following week. As of right now your objective is to gain the trust of the campers."

"Ok." I shook my arms and legs out. "I'm ready."

"This is goodbye then. The camp is a quarter mile past those trees, if you run straight you'll be there in no time." Iapetus put his hand in a fist and laid it over his chest in a salute. "Good luck Perseus, I hope to see you again in the future."

"Me too." I put my fist over my chest, then raised my fingers to my mouth and let out a loud piercing whistle.

I waited for a few moments, then, out of the shadows of the forest a large hellhound jumped out. It's eyes as black as coal.

"Hey girl. It's time." I patted the top of her head and she gave me a big sloppy lick on my hand. "I'm gonna have to take control, you ready Mrs. O Leary?"

She only panted and looked at me with happy black eyes in response. "You may look like a big scary monster to some, but I know your really just a big softy aren't you Mrs O Leary." I patted her side. "But it's time to be the monster now."

I snapped my fingers, the sound seeming to echo throughout the forest. Mrs O Leary stilled, her eyes turned a vibrant glowing red as she came under my control. I could simply think of an action and she would preform it.

I couldn't control more than 70 monsters at a time and even then, I would be feeling so overwhelmed that the only thing I would be able to do would be to make them stop. I also couldn't control Titian's or Giants, they were immune to my strange power.

I gave one last look to Iapetus, who watched in silence, before turning on my heels and running into the forest to the direction of Camp Half-Blood. To my destiny. Mrs O Leary was hot on my trail, obediently following my will.

With every step closer to camp I felt a great pressure building up in my chest in anticipation of what was to come. My heart was in my throat, my feet pounded into the slippery mud to the beat of it's thumps. The bottoms of my jeans were coated in heavy brown mud, little brown spots sprayed up from the impact of my feet on the ground and dotted my upper pant legs.

Soon my breathing became labored as I did my best to run through the woods with the mud underneath. Eventually, the forest started to thin out and it became much easier to run. No longer having to clamber my way through bushes I was able to sprint.

The thick humid air whisked by my body as I avoided trees and found a clear path through the woodland. I made Mrs. O Leary growl behind me. We had almost made it to camp.

I didn't necessarily like controlling Mrs O Leary, or any monster for that matter, but it was a necessity. It just didn't feel right, forcing them to follow my will, leaving no room for freedom. It was like I was holding them prisoner in their own mind, shackling them to my ideas.

I pushed the thought from my mind, now wasn't the time.

I scanned the edge of the woodland for anything that could look like Camp Half-Blood. Tree... tree... another tree... bushes... Person holding dagger... tree...

Person holding dagger! I redoubled my efforts, urging Mrs O Leary to do the same. She growled menacingly, bounding forward in great strides closing the distance between us leaving only a few feet of separation.

"Help! Someone please help!" I yelled with all my might.

The camper looked over, she had long sandy blond hair that fell down her shoulders in princess curls. Her stormy grey eyes seemed to calculate the situation in milliseconds, and then she was running towards me, metallic golden dagger gleaming in the cold white light. She let out a war cry and suddenly, I realized that if I didn't do anything, Mrs. O Leary would die.

I knew the boarder to camp was just ahead, all I had to do was cross that line and Mrs O Leary wouldn't be able to cross, she would leave in the shadows and everything would be fine.

Simple: only one problem. I recognized the tree that symbolized the boarder into camp from our directions and that stupid blond girl would reach us before we could cross it. It would be a close call but she would.

I cursed under my breath.

Time for one of my brilliant plans—if only I could come up with one.

She ran in easy athleticism over the slippery surface of the mud. Please fall, please just fall. But of course, she didn't. A tree root, the mud, anything to slow her down.

Suddenly, the idea of her falling gave me an idea. We were almost upon each other now, in a few moments she would try to stab her blade through Mrs. O Leary's heart. Her fierce gaze was locked on the hellhound, she crossed the boarder.

Then, when we were only a few steps away from each other, I opened my arms and slammed into her, tackling her back across the boarder. Her breath left her in a loud—OOMPH— her body jarring with the impact. I was heavier than her so I had believed that my momentum would be able to win in a battle of collision. I had been right.

Behind me, I made Mrs O Leary jump into a shadow and disappear to a safe place. I let out a sigh of relief, she would be ok.

The girl gasped for breath underneath my body. She squirmed to break loose from my hold. I crawled off of her, looking into those startling grey eyes all the while. Her chest fell up and down with her heavy breaths.

"You're welcome." I said, breathing hard as well.

She looked at me incredulously, "What—"

"I saved you from that..." I looked at the place where Mrs O Leary had disappeared to. "Monster."

"No—"

"Don't worry, there's no need to thank me." I continued, not letting her get a word in.

She sighed in exasperation. "Fine. But how did you know it couldn't cross the boarder." Her eyes narrowed, I shuddered under that gaze.

"My father told me about this place." Not a lie. "He said it was the only place for someone like me."

The girl nodded, apparently satisfied with my answer.

She's smart, too smart. I'll have to stay away from her.

"So you know what you are then."

I gave a small nod. My cover story was that I had lived with my father my whole life and that he had taught me about Greek mythology, which was almost completely true. I had moved to Tartarus when my mother had died. I had been six years old.

It was perfect because it allowed me to be able to use my knowledge about the Greek world and all the campers would think that my mother was an immortal, not my father. Further hiding me from prying eyes.

"Annabeth! Are you alright?!" A voice called from the direction of camp.

I turned to see a man with the legs of a goat running towards us. A satyr. The goat man had curly brown hair and wispy facial hair, his strange galloping stride made it look like he was aggressively limping.

"I'm fine Grover!" Newly named Annabeth called back. "No thanks to this guy." She mumbled that last part under her breath. I pretended not to have heard it.

Grover slowed to a stop in front of us. "Hey new guy." He gave me a welcoming smile.

"Hi, nice to meet you." I smiled back.

Grover turned to look at where Annabeth lay in the mud, "Geez Annabeth, what happened to you? Did you fight a mud monster or something?"

The entire back side of Annabeth's body was covered in dark slimy mud. She gave me a sly glance, "This guy happened." She jerked her thumb in my direction.

I had stayed relatively clean because I had, you know, landed on top of her. Only my arms and legs were caked in mud.

Grover looked at me strangely. "What did you do?"

"Saved her life." I replied with a smile on my face.

Annabeth scoffed. "I was about to kill a hellhound that was trying to kill him, when he tackled me." Her grey eyes looked deep into my red ones. "There was no saving involved."

I held her stare for a few moments, then raised my eyebrow in a way that said, really?

She looked away.

"Aren't you supposed to be leaving on your search for Pan, Grover?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah, I was actually about to leave, just coming to say goodbye to you before I left." Grover said. He looked out into the wilderness. "He's out there. I know it."

He took a deep breath of the fresh air. His eyebrows furrowed down in confusion. "Why do I smell a monster?"

I froze.

My blood ran cold and a shudder went through my body. Annabeth looked out into the forest, her eyes scanning the shadows of the trees.

But Grover looked at me. His confusion was evident.

"Oh, sorry guys. That's probably me." I said, my voice somehow not shaking.

Now both of them were staring at me. My muscles tensed, ready for a fight if this went wrong.

"There was another Hellhound that had been chasing me earlier. I killed it and it's dust got all over me." I lied calmly, even though I was anything but calm. "Look." I pointed to the long tear in my shirt. "It almost got me right here."

Annabeth stared at me with her steel grey eyes, "How'd you kill it?"

"I got lucky. It didn't." I said it in a tone that left no room for further questions. My senses were working on overdrive and I was aware of everything around me, I held my breath as I waited for an answer.

She nodded and looked away, turning to Grover once again. "Good luck. If anyone were to find Pan, it would be you Grover."

She stood up and pulled Grover into a hug.

"Thanks Annabeth. You're a good friend." Grover let Annabeth go and started to walk into the forest, giving one last wave over his shoulder. He didn't look back.

(But one thing neither of us knew at the time was that he would find something much darker than Pan.)

I stood up, watching the place where Grover had disappeared to in relief. I would have to stay away from satyrs as well, if they could smell the difference between me and a normal demigod... well, I would have a hard time staying hidden. Hopefully I would never see Grover again.

Annabeth turned to me, I noticed there was bit of sadness in her eyes but it soon steeled over into the gaze of a battle hardened warrior.

"Well I suppose introductions are in order. Nice to meet you, I'm Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena." She held out her hand.

I shook it, a small grin on my mouth. "It's good to meet you too. I'm Percy Jackson."

I was in.

So, I hoped you liked the first chapter. Please tell me what you thought!

I am going to start updating this story at the end of summer/beginning of school year.

Only reason I gave you this chapter now what to tell you that. So you guys would know when to look for updates.

Leave a star/favorite the story if you enjoyed it, I can't wait to start this adventure with you. I've pretty much planned out the whole story now, just some minor details and such that I'll come up with on the way.

I plan to update pretty frequently when I start updating, cause I'm gonna get really far ahead on chapters. This story will have a completely original plot, just one overlapping event between Rick and My story. You'll know it when you read it.

And in case you couldn't tell, it will also be Percabeth. It'll be a slow burner, just like in the real books. Sort of enemies to friends to more. I've got a lot planned for this story, hope you enjoy!

Favorite and Review!

-CreativeMode