Michael
_

My god, that kid is annoying. Who the fuck does he think he is, anyway, calling Katie fat? I should stick him in a fryer and see how much fat he's got on him.

I was taken out of my thoughts by a knock at the door. I was sharing Cabin 3 with Percy, which was nice of him. It beat sleeping with everyone in the Hermes cabin, that's for sure.

I sat up in my bunk and said, "Coming!" when the knocking came again.

I hurried to go open the door, not even bothering to put on a shirt. When I opened it, I was greeted by a squeak and head of dark brown hair. I smiled at her.

"Hey, Katie," I said. "What brings you over here?"

Her face was flushed red behind her hands. "You're with me, today. Percy has sword lessons all day, so he asked who would take you. After...after your incident yesterday, not many people are willing. Travis and Connor tried, but I kinda..."

"You beat them off?" I asked, almost stumbling over the phrase.

Her face turned an even brighter shade of red. "No! I mean, yes! But..." I saw an eye rake over my chest through her hands. "They're not the ones I'd like to beat off..." She shook her head violently."Ignore that. Could you put on a shirt, please? I'll wait for you out here." She reached forward and slammed the door shut.

I laughed as I went to go find a shirt. I tugged on a short sleeve shirt that was probably Percy's and joined her outside. She flushed again when she saw how tight the shirt was around me. And I wasn't wearing a bra, considering the only ones I had were too small.

"Where to first?" I asked.

"Well, you missed breakfast," she said as she started for the strawberry fields, "and on Wednesdays, the Demeter cabin works in the fields. Strawberries are the camp's main source of income."

"Weird that you need money when you're half-god," I mused aloud. "But what I'm seeing here is that you're putting me to work."

She shrugged. "More or less. I hope you don't get sunburnt easily."

"Fuck," I groaned. I stretched and felt my back pop. "You weren't kidding when you said this was back-breaking labor."

"Katie rarely ever kids," Travis said, thumping me on the back. "She's too stoic."

"Just like her mother," Connor added on my other side. Did they always have to be on either side of me?

"At least my mother does something important for the earth," Katie said, crossing her arms. "All your dad does is play pranks and gamble."

"He's good at gambling!" Travis retorted.

"Still makes him a deadbeat."

"Hey, hey," I cut in, getting in between the two. "I think my godly parent is the worst, so I don't know what you're complaining about."

Travis shrugged. "I guess. Khione did betray the Olympians in the last war, after all."

Katie, on the other hand, kept quiet. I moved closer to her while the Stolls went off to do who knows what. She was wringing her hands, an action I recognized as a nervous tick.

"He won't cause any problems with you today," I assured her. "Percy said he'd handle him."

"How did you-"

"Same location, some time." I glanced down at her. "And you seemed on edge. I only assumed what you were thinking."

"Hmph." She took a breath. "As long as he stays away from us, I'll be fine."

"He will."

We didn't have to wait long for Alex to show up. He swaggered in like he owned the place. He eyed Katie and I but backed off after I glared at him.

"So what are you going to try and teach us today?" He taunted Percy, who was busy cleaning his blade.

"We are going to have a practice match," Percy said. He looked up at Alex. "You will be my opponent."

Alex laughed. "You? Against me? What, do you want a rematch? Afraid that this camp will see you as a worthless brat that I beat without a weapon?"

Quick as lighting, Percy threw his blade. It sank into the earth where Alex's foot would've been two seconds later.

It was deathly quiet in the arena as Percy stood up. He brushed past Alex, picking up Riptide as he did.

"Choose your weapon," he said. "No armor, no powers, no cheats. You say you're so great? Then prove it!"

"I'll fucking show you," Alex grumbled as he ripped a sword out of another camper's hand. He charged Percy, sword raised, but Percy merely sidestepped his attack without even turning around.

Alex stumbled past him but quickly rallied. He swung around and tried to slash at Percy, but Percy easily deflected his strike.

Percy got inside his guard and kicked one of his legs out. Alex fell to his knees in front of Percy. His face reddened.

With a yell, he slashed at Percy. Percy raised his sword to block the strike, and the two swords clashed together. Something like thunder sounded and the entire arena shook.

Several campers shouted in alarm as the very ground cracked. I grabbed Katie and pulled her to the side as the floor beneath where she had been standing splintered.

But then, as suddenly as it had started, it faded, only to be replaced with a sea-green glow that filled the arena.

There, above Alex's head, was the following holographic image of a trident.

"Sorry, Perce," I said, hefting the box full of my stuff in my arms, "but I'm not bunking with that pedazo de mierda. I want even less to do with him than you do."

Percy sighed. "I guess that makes sense. I don't even want to be here anymore."

"...you mean in the cabin, right?"

Percy scrunched his eyebrows together. "Uh, yeah. What did you think I meant?"

I swayed slightly. "Nothing, don't worry about it. I'll be in the Hermes cabin if you ever want to join me."

"Al...right?"

I hefted the box again and walked away.

"Wait up," Katie called from where she was waiting. She ran up to me. "How'd he take it?"

I shrugged. "He understood why I was doing it. It was nice for a day and a half, but I'm not going to put up with Alex more than I have to."

"Me neither," she agreed. She clasped her hands behind her back, making her chest more pronounced. "I can't believe he's Percy's brother. They're so different."

I shrugged again. "Like different weathers. Percy is the calm, Alex is the rough."

"I never thought of it like that."

"You haven't had much of a chance to. We did show up two days ago."

"Whatever." Her expression soured as we neared the Hermes cabin. "You sure you don't want to stay in the Demeter cabin?"

I shook my head. "Not that I don't want to, it's just that Travis offered me a bed after Alex was claimed. He seemed to understand that I don't want to be sharing a cabin with him."

"So Travis is ruining something else for me?"

"No, it's not that. The Hermes cabin is the only cabin that has housed demigods of other parentage in the past, or so I hear."

"Demigods of other parentage," she muttered. "I wonder if there will ever be a cabin for ones like you."

"I told you that in confidence. Please do not speak of it in the open."

Her brown eyes widened in surprise. "Sorry! It just kinda popped into my head when you said that."

"It's fine." I loosed a breath. "I promise Travis and Connor won't ruin me. And I'll make sure their pranks aren't aimed towards the Demeter cabin."

"I guess that's all I can hope for, huh?"

"More or less."

She huffed. "Fine. Good luck in there. It's chaos."

She more or less stormed away. I watched her go, then marched into the Hermes cabin.

Right away, I was almost hit with a stray dart. It whizzed past my head and hit the door frame.

"Sorry!" Someone yelled.

"Maybe I should've joined the Demeter cabin," I muttered under my breath.

Things progressed from there. Some of it was good, some of it was not.

First on the list of good things to happen was that Percy decided to train me in swordsmanship. Apparently, I was a natural, which I didn't see, but everyone else told me so I guess it was true.

Second thing was that I met Nico. He had been in the underworld doing...whatever when I arrived here at camp. He seemed a little familiar for a reason I couldn't explain. His face seemed so familiar... Hm. Whatever. Repressed memories are repressed for a reason.

Moving on!

The third and last thing on the good list was that I managed to become friends with Travis and Connor. Best friends, maybe. And in doing so, I managed to convince them that Katie wasn't so bad and to not prank the Demeter cabin as heavily.

The bad list is a bit longer, unfortunately.

Number one starts with Alex. Since his claiming, he'd been getting more and more attention. Campers seemed to flock to him, more so every day.

As that happened, I found that fewer people wanted anything to do with me, Percy, or Katie. They seemed to be alienating us, little by little. Few remained friends, even fewer said hi when I passed by them.

I wasn't affected by this that much. I was used to being a loner, anyway. I had the few friends I needed in Katie, Percy, the Stolls, Nico, and Will. Fewer friends, fewer dramas.

Unfortunately, it affected Percy quite a bit. People he'd once called friends were suddenly cutting him off without any explanation.

Even Annabeth had started hanging around Alex more than with Percy. She could never explain why, always spouting some "He knows a lot about architecture and is helping me with some designing" variant.

I believe it's some type of spell of the devil.

I've talked about it with Katie and Will, and both of them say that when Alex talks, it's like a fog tries to cloud their mind. It happened to Katie when she first met me, but she was able to shake it off.

I hypothesized that this 'fog' was stronger in Annabeth than most of the other campers. I've been told - and seen during capture-the-flag - that she was the brightest mind of our generation. There's no way someone with that great a brain could be manipulated by mere words and a spell. It had to be something stronger.

It was also strange that I wasn't affected at all. Neither was Percy or Nico. Katie says that she feels it occasionally but can shake it off with little more than half a thought.

The one that's had the most issue with it was Will. He said that he was constantly battling it, trying to stay rational and not believe Alex whenever he says Percy did something that he did.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that he was framing Percy?

Yeah, he keeps on doing things like vandalizing cabins and sabotaging other people's work. There have even been reports of people seeing Percy do it, but whenever I inquire about it they can never tell me more than seeing him in the act.

Surprisingly, this vandalization run is what snapped Clarisse out of her spell. I was talking to her about how she saw Percy moving the mines around the Ares cabin and cutting the barbed wire, trying to be sneaky when she realized that Percy, a) wouldn't know where the mines are, and b) wouldn't try to be sneaky cause he would take credit for pranking the Ares cabin, a feat which only the Stolls have done.

So now it's just a small handful of us against the tyranny of Alex.

And it was about to get a whole lot worse with the gods getting involved.

Months had passed by now. Four, I think. Life had been going by as smoothly as it could with Alex around. He decided he wanted to stay the whole year, a choice which I didn't like cause I had to stay the whole year, too.

Percy was staying at camp until October. Something about his mom being off at a conference with his stepdad and not coming back for a while.

Katie was also staying with me, choosing to take a gap year in between graduating high school and college.

Nico was already a year rounder, and Will normally hung around him so he was, too. Oh, and when I say hung around, I mean they're dating. Just wanted to make that clear.

It was a cloudy September day when Apollo showed up. Percy and I were training in the arena as usual, with Katie, Nico, and Will watching on the sidelines.

I was about to press my attack against Percy when a bright light appeared in the arena, making us all shield our eyes. When it died away, the god Apollo was standing in the middle of the arena.

"Dad?" Will voiced. "What are you doing here?" Apollo looked at Will, and then to me and Percy.

"I'm here to take these two to Olympus," he said solemnly.

"Why?" Nico asked. Apollo sighed.

"They've been accused of treason against Olympus," he announced sadly. "They need to be on Olympus to stand trial before us."

"For what?" Katie shouted. "They haven't done anything!"

"That's not the way the other gods see it," Apollo said. "Their minds have been clouded by some unseen force. Few of us remain clear minded, and those few of us cannot sway the vote of the majority."

"The fog," Nico summed up. "Yeah, we've had experiences with it. It must work stronger on the gods than demigods."

Apollo tilted his head. "You are...familiar with this?"

I nodded. "It's affected quite a few of our friends. The only ones who have snapped out of it fully are Clarisse, the Stolls, and Katie. Will's very good at dissuading the voice in his head, though, so he's been able to stay clear minded."

"And you three-"

"We're unaffected," Percy answered. "Don't know why, though. I would say it's because we're children of the Greek Big Three, but that's only Nico and I. We haven't been able to understand why Michael, a son of Khione, is able to resist its effects when demigods like Piper or Jason can't."

"Son of Khione?" Apollo looked at me. His blue eyes narrowed and glowed slightly before they widened and he took a step back." You...You are no son of Khione."

"Yes, he is!" Katie jumped to my defense. She ran over to stand by my side. "I promise, he's a son of Khione. I've seen him use his powers."

"Powers or no, he's no ordinary demigod," Apollo said. "He's no child of a god."

"What are you talking about, Apollo?" Percy asked, eyeing me and Katie cautiously.

"I swear, I don't know what he's talking about," I tried, but Apollo continued.

"He's the child of a Titan," Apollo said. "My sister's predecessor. Selene."

"Wait," Percy said, making an X with his arms. "How can Selene be his mother? Didn't she fade? And if she's his mother, how does he have ice powers?"

"Perhaps some small part of her remained," Apollo said, "and sired him. As for his abilities, it comes from his mortal side. There is something else there, something that had been dormant in his bloodline but showed itself when his blood was mixed with a god's."

Katie and I shared a look and Will said, "Wait, you knew. You two knew!"

Katie looked up at me before sighing. "Yeah, I knew. He told me the day after he showed up after I asked him about it."

"I've known for almost a year," I said. I rubbed my face. "I didn't mean for it to be revealed like this. I don't want to be judged because of my parentage."

That seemed to get to the son of Hades. He faced Apollo and said, " Wasn't Selene an ally of the gods? Why would his parentage be a problem?"

I sent him a grateful look, to which he just blinked.

"That is not for me to decide, unfortunately," Apollo said. "I can see he means no harm, but my father will be the one to decide." He faced me again. "We must go now. You and Percy are to be tried on Olympus."

He snapped his fingers and I felt my body dissolve and shoot towards the sky. When my body was put back together, I tripped and fell. I caught myself before I hit the ground, but it was still foolish. Luckily, no one laughed, but that might've been because there were more serious things to talk about.

"Perseus Jackson," Zeus boomed from his throne. His salt and pepper hair and beard had electricity flowing through them, which I thought was cool yet dramatic. "Michaela Triest-"

"Michael, actually," I corrected. Percy gave me an odd look but I ignored him.

Zeus looked mildly caught off guard but quickly recomposed himself.

"Michael Triest. Do you two know why you are here?"

"We were told we were being put on trial," Percy said, finally looking away from me.

"Unless you changed your plans to having a dance...what's the word for fiesta?"

Hermes snickered. "Party is the word you're looking for."

"Thank you."

"No, we have not," Zeus said dismissively. "You two are here to stand trial for treason against Olympus."

"What are the charges?" Percy asked accusingly. A list appeared in Athena's hand.

"Vandalizing the Zeus cabin," she started. I snorted. "Vandalizing the Hera cabin." I snorted again and it was barely contained. Athena eyed me while she kept reading. "Mocking Ares, cursing Poseidon, abusing your powers, aiding our enemies-"

"Which ones?" I asked haphazardly.

"Cool your tongue," Demeter ordered. "Your silver tongue is not needed here."

"A tu hija parece gustarle," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

Demeter's hand gripped her arm rests so tightly small cracks appeared. Before she could turn me into a plant, Hera said, "Do not let him taunt you. He is skillful with his tongue."

"In more ways than one," I breathed, trying to hide my smirk. No one seemed to hear me that time so Athena went on.

"Provoking an Olympian," she continued. "Destroying camp property, and trying to break the alliance between Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter."

"Looks like we've been busy, haven't we Percy?" I asked him. He shrugged.

"I don't remember any of it," he answered with a shrug. "Maybe we have, maybe we haven't. What's the sentence?"

"Death!" Ares roared. My eyes widened in surprise.

"¿Qué mierda?" I asked incredulously. No translation needed as I think I got my point across. "¿Muerte? ¡Porque! ¡Esto no es justo! ¡Me presentaron al mundo griego hace un mes y medio!"

"Michael, English." Percy encouraged. "And calm down. You rant in Spanish when you are mad." I took a few deep breaths.

"I'd rather not die," I said once I was calmer.

"Agreed," said a booming voice. It seemed to bounce around the room, coming from everywhere. "If you don't mind, Olympians, I'll be taking these two now."

A mist began emitting from the floor around us, rising up our legs.

"¿Qué coño, qué coño, qué coño?" The mist wrapped around my head. "¡Qué coño es esto!"

Then everything went dark.