CHAPTER 1: My Choice Changes History

(PERCY)

Well the war against Mother Earth finally ended but I didn't feel like celebrating our victory. In the days leading up to the final battle, I had discovered something. Something that would change me.

(Flashback)

Finally being back on the Argo II after Tartarus was the best thing I could've experienced in weeks. I was finally able to sleep in my own bed and be able to relax without having the fear of someone or something trying to kill me every 2 seconds. Well as relaxed as a demigod could get on a flying celestial bronze boat with a mechanical dragon as the masthead.

At some point during that night, I had another nightmare of Tartarus. Waking up, I decided to take a little walk around the ship to try and shake my thoughts on the place and those bad experiences. As I walked up onto the deck and was about to breathe some fresh air, I saw it. Or more accurately, them. Annabeth, my current girlfriend at the time, the one I fell into Tartarus for. The one I loved with all my heart was making out with the son of Jupiter, Jason Grace.

The moment I saw them, I stood there like a fool. In shock, not being able to process what I was seeing in front of me. My girlfriend or well, my ex-girlfriend was making out with one of my friends. Time seemed to come to a stand still. I felt hurt and betrayed. My fatal flaw being loyalty didn't help the matter. I stood there frozen in the doorway until I felt a hand pull me off to the side into another door. I was gonna yelp but before I got the chance to, a hand flew to my mouth and a familiar face appeared in my vision with an equally familiar pair of kaleidoscope eyes staring back at me.

Piper had pulled me to the side and put a finger to her mouth, signaling for me to stay quiet with tears streaking her face. She had been crying, only finding out about the cheaters only minutes before I had. Still in shock, I stood there as she dragged me to her room, careful to avoid Coach Hedge. She pushed me through her doorway and onto her bed as quickly as possible before spinning it around and locking it. She put her back to the door and slowly sank down to a sitting position, tears still streaming down her face.

When I hit the bed, it knocked some sense into me. With the shock wearing off, I realized that I was in an unfamiliar room and I could hear the sound of sobs from where the door was. Since the lights weren't on, I couldn't really tell where Piper was but I knew that I needed to comfort her. She had dedicated everything she had to Jason, going against every stereotype that a child of Aphrodite usually brought along with them and Jason went ahead and broke her heart by cheating on her. I started making my way to Piper as quickly as I could, sensing that she was on the floor, I crouched down as I reached her approximate location. I reached out to her and hugged her, putting her head on my shoulders as she sobbed. I started to think. Thinking about the past. What I could've done wrong when my thoughts were interrupted by the brunette beside me.

"It was never your fault Percy," she sobbed. "I've had my suspicions about them for weeks now but I didn't have any proof…well until now." That statement had my mind running. She had basically known about them for weeks but didn't say anything. The paranoia must have been eating away at her.

As I looked over, her sobs got worse and her whole body was trembling. I proceeded to rub her back and try to calm her down.

"Can you?stay with me tonight?" she whispered. "I don't want to be alone"

"I'm not going anywhere," I muttered back.

I ended up staying with Piper into the early morning, unable to sleep, just comforting her. After that night, I wasn't the same anymore. I was a broken man, my loyalty betrayed, for reasons I wouldn't know for weeks to come.

With the war over and with time to process all that had happened on the quest, I had realized that I needed time away from it all. The world of gods and monsters. A time to breathe. With fighting the second Titan War to being kidnapped right after and then having to save the Romans by bringing back Twelfth Legion's Eagle and driving back the invaders. Then there was the last one. The most recent war against Gaea. I had been fighting for the gods for the past 6 years of my life and I felt like just taking a break. As I made my decision to let everyone know that I wanted to take a break, I felt someone stab me in the back. I went to turn around and all I could see were those stormy gray eyes that I used to love so much oh so long ago looking right back at me.

"I'm sorry Percy, but this has to happen, I love Jason more than I ever loved you," she said with no remorse.

I was losing blood fast as she dragged me somewhere. My senses were starting to leave me. The cold, seeping in. Before my world went black, I could feel her lift me up and then throw me over a cliff and all I saw as I fell before I hit the water was the night sky and the constellation of the Huntress looking down on me…