Rage of a demigod

AN: Hello there, my dear readers. After the last chapter, I felt like I should give you at least a little more of the story. The reception I received was positive so far so I thought you deserve a bit more. I hope I don't end messing it up.

Now to reviews.

Christopherprime22: Thank you for the praise, it means a lot. And yeah, despite GoW having the most crossovers with PJO only a few seem to have true potential.

Glad to hear I could get you interested. I was afraid at first since I know that people don't really like just having a character being a stand-in for another so I'm glad to hear you stayed.

meredinoemiliano: Thank you.

zarmag: Don't you worry. You'll get it.

2 Things Aren't Looking Good

Marcus

Screaming. It always started with screaming.

Then came blood. Splattering everywhere.

The sound of blades cutting through flesh, fire surrounding him, smoke reducing visibility around him. Figures fell everywhere around him, blood streaming from their wounds.

They resisted.

It meant nothing.

He used his blades to cut through them. He needed to do this. He hardly cared.

His voice letting out a guttural sound like a snarling animal as he moved throughout the room. His blades cutting down everyone in his path.

One last person stood. He acted. He ignored the cry for mercy and struck. The scream let out by that person snapping him out of his berserker rage.

The smoke cleared, giving him the full view of the person.

He then awoke, sitting up abruptly, panting hard and his face covered in sweat. He was naked with his lower half covered by a blanket. He put his hand on his face. A nightmare. A nightmare of that day. It always came back to him. It haunted him. Taunted him.

Slight groaning could be heard beside him in the bed he was lying in. On each side was a woman, as naked as he was. Both of them were very beautiful. Light skin, curves many women would kill for, long flowing hair, one blond while the other had dark hair.

The dark-haired one woke up and rubbed the sleepiness off her eyes. She then looked at Marcus and saw what happened.

"Another nightmare?" she asked. Seeing him nod she sighed.

"Again?" the second one said while also rubbing her eyes. She sat up and wrapped her arms around Marcus. "I'm sorry, Marcus. I'm sorry we can't do more," she spoke sadly.

He sighed. "Lora, you and Zora have done more than enough for me."

Zora sat up next, mirroring Lora's action of comfort by wrapping her arms around Marcus though below his arms and around his muscular chest. "But no matter what we do you still have those nightmares. We just don't feel like we're adequate enough."

He then put his arms around their waists pulling them closer. "Don't blame yourselves. I am just cursed."

"Don't say that. Things will get better," said Lora as she slightly tightened her grip. "Come now, let's go back to bed. It's not even morning yet." She was right, the window of the room showed that it was still pretty dark.

He complied and lied down with the two women following in tow. The two cuddled with him and fell asleep quickly. The process was harder for him since the nightmare he had has jolted him awake. But slowly his eyes started to close; he hoped that at least the rest of the night would be dreamless.

Marcus, now fully awake, walked out of the Big House. Normally unclaimed half-bloods like him would stay at the Hermes cabin but his special case lets him stay in the Big House.

Once outside, he stretched his limbs with a cracking sound made by him popping his joints. He was dressed casually in a simple white shirt and blue pants.

Zora and Lora had already flashed away from the Big House.

The two of them were twin daughters of Aphrodite, minor goddesses, and they held a close relationship with Marcus for quite some time. It was one of the things Aphrodite was generous enough to grant him after he had done an errand.

However, despite all that, the nightmares have plagued him for years since that day with seemingly no way to get rid of them. Even his two lovers couldn't help in that regard. The guilt he felt ever since that day never dissipated and neither did the nightmares.

He hardly remembered a night he didn't have them, if there were any nights like that at all. No matter who he asked for guidance, how much questing he did or nights spent with Lora and Zora, nothing helped. It really seemed like a hopeless situation.

He was about to go to the training ground when he suddenly heard some rumbling not too far away from. That was followed by a sound of battle. Marcus turned towards the sound and saw some smoke coming from that area.

Narrowing his eyes, he took the blades sheathed on his back and started running in that direction with impressive speed.

As he passed the trees the sounds were getting louder. When he came to a clearing he saw several half-bloods fully clad in ancient Greek armor and wielding weapons fighting a strange creature. It was bull, but it looked like a machine that was painted gold with ruby red eyes.

Not wasting any time he leaped into the fray and swung his chained blades at the mechanical beast. He got a solid hit making the beast scream slightly and other campers look at him in surprise as they didn't see that coming.

The bull then turned his attention towards him, with steam coming from its artificial nostrils. The bull then charged at him. Marcus waited until it got close enough. He jumped, dodging the attack and went over the bull. While in air Marcus started spinning with his blades outstretched, he let go of the handles so the blades followed his momentum while extending the reach. His spinning attack hit the bull in the back causing it to scream once again as the flaming blades started to slightly melt the metal.

Marcus landed on the ground behind the bull. Not wanting to give the beast any more opportunities to attack, he quickly charged and swung his blades, aiming the right leg on the front. His blades made contact and actually managed to slice off its leg.

The bull stumbled and fell down after suddenly losing one of its limbs. Marcus used the opportunity. He sheathed his blades back, ran towards the bull and grabbed him by the horns.

The mechanical beast started struggling and trashing around but Marcus held it firmly in place. He had his strength tested many times and this bull was hardly a challenge. He then used his hold on the horns to twist the bull's head. Despite its struggling, he managed to slowly turn the head around before he used more of his great strength and twisted the head over 180 degrees.

Cracking sounds were heard from the twisting of the head. The beast's struggles turned to twitches before turning to nothing as it lay down motionless.

Not wanting to take any chances, Marcus pulled on the bull's head before completely ripping it out and tossing it to the side.

"Damn it, these attacks are getting more frequent." He then turned to the bewildered campers. "Are there any more of these?" asked Marcus.

"Yes, one more," one of them answered.

"Where?" Marcus demanded.

Several campers pointed the way and Marcus went there immediately. Once again running through the forest he could hear the similar sounds to his first encounter and he followed the stench of smoke.

As he neared he saw a stream of fire coming from a single direction. He hurried there but then he heard the sound of twisting metal and metallic groaning, similar to the first bull he destroyed.

Once he arrived at the place he was met with another bull but this one was already destroyed. In front of it was a tall man with a burned shirt. He presumed that this man was the one to slay that mechanical beast.

The man then turned around causing Marcus to look a bit surprised. With a clear view of the man's face, he saw that it wasn't another half-blood. He was a Cyclops.

The Cyclops then turned towards Marcus. He blinked a bit before a smile came to his face. "Oh, hello," the Cyclops said with a small wave.

Marcus just glared causing the Cyclops to flinch before readying his blades.

He was about to charge when "WAIT!" he heard someone at the side yell. Marcus turned around and saw Percy coming to the Cyclops' side. "Tyson isn't an enemy. You don't have to attack him."

Then Annabeth came to the picture. "Look, Marcus, I know this sounds weird but Percy is telling the truth. He isn't hostile towards us and he saved us from the bull."

That caused Marcus to look at the Cyclops. He fought many of their kind before so he examined Tyson for any sign of hostility. He saw that Tyson was nervous while looking at him and he definitely wasn't making any moves against Percy or Annabeth.

Lessening his glare he sheathed the blades on his back making Tyson calm down.

"So the Cyclops destroyed that thing?" came the voice of Clarisse who wore a helmet and a shield and spear.

"Clarisse, how did those things get into camp? Isn't the barrier supposed to keep them out?" asked Percy.

"That's the problem. The tree was poisoned and the barrier isn't holding up," explained Clarisse.

This was followed by some other questions like "What do you mean poisoned?" "Who poisoned it?" "When did that happen?"

"I don't know all the details, except that the poison is really strong and that a simple contact with it can burn your skin," said Clarisse. "And what happened with the second bull?"

"I took care of it. Then I came here and saw that the Cyclops took care of this one here," said Marcus as he pointed towards the Cyclops who rubbed his head in slight embarrassment. "Go help your cabin mates. I'll take these three to Chiron."

Clarisse nodded. "Right, I'll do that."

'Man, I've never thought I'd see Clarisse bossed around like this,' thought Percy.

"Come on, you three. Follow me," said Marcus.

"Why exactly are you going to Chiron? Don't you already know the situation?" asked Annabeth.

"I'm also charged to report what's going on since I live in the Main house. Right now Chiron needs to be informed about those bulls. While he's still here, that is."

"While he's still here?" asked Annabeth. "What do you mean?" Marcus didn't reply and just continued to walk.

After a bit of a walk, they came to Chiron's residence. Marcus opened the door and entered. They were greeted with a sight of Chiron packing his things.

"Pony!" exclaimed Tyson making Marcus slightly flinch since he yelled right next to his ear.

That got Chiron's attention and he turned towards them. "My young Cyclops, I'm a centaur, not a pony!"

"What's going on Chiron? Why are you packing?" asked Annabeth.

He explained that after what happened, someone needed to take the blame for poisoning the tree and that put Chiron under suspicion. So as punishment he was pretty much fired and someone else would take his place.

Personally, Marcus would have put the blame on Dionysus, since he was the more obvious choice due to his dislike for the camp or lack of any concern towards any of the campers but gods in their boundless wisdom, of course, made a different decision.

Even if Dionysus wasn't to blame it would still, at least give him some sort comeuppance.

"Well, I must be off. I'll be visiting some of my fellow kin. I hope your stay here this summer will be good," said Chiron somewhat sadly.

After saying their goodbyes, Marcus less so than others, even Tyson seemed sadder about the whole thing, Chiron left.

Annabeth and Tyson were actually in tears while Percy only had a sad expression.

Percy then turned to Marcus to see his reaction but was surprised to see that he was actually looking at the crying Annabeth with an expression that looked like worry. He was further surprised when Marcus actually reached out with his hand and seemingly planning to put it on Annabeth's shoulder as if he wanted to comfort her.

Percy was surprised to see this side of the tattooed demigod.

However, Marcus' hand came to a sudden stop and he stood like that for a few moments before pulling his hand back to his side.

Percy was saddened that Marcus' attempt at comfort didn't go thought but he could at least see he cared, he just had trouble expressing it.

So Percy took it upon himself to comfort a crying Annabeth by giving her a hug. She didn't complain.

Percy

Marcus said I should meet him at a clearing on the west part of the camp where we would begin our training. I honestly almost forgot about it considering the time I was away from here. But I was still glad to have Marcus training me.

Once I arrived at the clearing I saw Marcus standing there, still dressed in his casual clothes with two swords in his hands and a backpack near his feet.

"So, you'll help me improve my swordsmanship?" I asked trying to guess the purpose of the swords.

"In a way," he answered. "But not in a way you might expect." He then threw one of the swords at my feet. "Pick it up."

I then crouched and reached for the sword with my right hand. "The other hand." I was stopped by Marcus' voice.

I looked at him in confusion. "But I'm right-handed."

"I know, so am I. Which is why I'm going to teach you how to fight with a sword in your left hand, so you will be able to use Riptide with both hands," he explained.

"But why?"

"What if your right hand was injured? How will you be able to use a sword then? You won't. I'm training you for that possibility. Now pick it up."

"I'm not sure that's necessary, Marcus. It honestly seems like a waste of time."

Marcus now looked irritated which I didn't take for a good sign. "It doesn't matter what you think. You asked me for training, and this is what I'm training you. Now either pick up the sword or I'm calling the whole training off. Your choice."

Now I was shocked. He would call off the entire training just for that? Man, this guy isn't joking around. He's completely different from my current teachers.

Sighing, I picked up the sword with my left hand. It felt weird, actually. Like 'trying to write with your non-dominant hand' weird, but with a sword. I'm not sure how long I would have to get used to this.

I see Marcus with a sword in his left hand taking a stance. "Get ready," he said. I tried to take a stance I have when I use my right hand but the awkward feeling was still there and my direction was a bit off.

Marcus then swung his sword at me. His speed caught me a bit off guard and I quickly brought my sword to parry. After the blow connected I another one followed soon after causing me to block again but the third one pushed my sword aside and I found myself with a sword touching my neck.

"Again," he said drawing his sword back and regaining his stance and I regained mine.

He once again charged at me. The second time ended similar to the first one, me only blocking two blows before finding a sword to my neck.

"Again," he said and repeated the same action.

This went on fifteen more humiliating times. Though, I was able to block four blows last time instead of two. That's an improvement, I guess. But that still didn't stop the blade from finding its way to my neck.

"Again," Marcus said once again. That word was quickly becoming one of my least favourite.

This time it went parry, parry, block, parry before I once again found a sword at my neck.

"Again." That blew the fuse.

"Ugh, Marcus this isn't working!" I said. "We aren't getting anywhere with this."

Marcus narrowed his gaze at me. "I thought our agreement was that I won't get any complaints from you," he said in an irritated tone. Now that I remember he did say no complaining all those months back when I asked for training.

"Yeah, yeah, I know that. But I'm hardly making any progress."

Marcus shook his head. "And how did you expect this would go? I train you for a single day and suddenly you're good at this? Percy, these things take time. Of course, the progress would be slow, but believe me, it pays off."

"Ugh, look, Marcus, it's just-"

I was interrupted when Marcus swung his sword, incredibly fast; I wasn't able to react before I felt the sword strike against my cheek. I winced in pain before putting my hand on the scratched cheek. I intended to look at Marcus disapprovingly before I saw him having the same glare he had when I first met him, the same one that made me freeze in place.

"Listen, Percy," he said in a low tone that made my blood freeze further. If I was being honest I would rather deal with Mrs. Dodds right now. "I told you that I didn't want to hear you complaining. Did I?" I could only give a small nod. "Then stop complaining. I decide how this training regimen goes and that's final." He then turned back and reached into the backpack.

I wondered what he was doing but he swiftly turned around, suddenly water was splashing against my face. I felt energized and the cut on my hand quickly healed. Good thing I could actually control water so I didn't get wet. I saw Marcus turned back to me with a water bottle in his hand.

"Now, as I was saying," Marcus began as he got back in his original stance. "Again."

We trained until sunset when the sky was painted a beautiful orange color, which I couldn't appreciate since I was lying on the grass panting and sweaty as Hell. Or Hades or whatever.

If I'm being honest I did make some improvement. It took Marcus a bit longer to pummel me. I received several cuts and bruises but Marcus would splash me with some water and heal me up. I couldn't tell if the gesture was supposed to be nice or rude.

Marcus then put the swords away and sat next to me. "You're improving. You really do have a natural talent for a sword."

"Oh… uh… thanks for that," I said between pants before rising up. It honestly almost made me forget that he slashed my cheek with a sword to keep me quiet. "You aren't that… bad either, to say… the least. Definitely the most skilled swordfighter."

"I'm not," Marcus said surprising me. "In fact, I would argue that Luke is the better swordfighter than I am." I looked at him confused before he noticed it and went to elaborate. "You see, while Luke could be more skilled, I more than make up for it in strength and speed. In that way, I'm a more effective fighter, not the more skilled one."

"Oh, I see. That makes sense I suppose." One thought then entered my head. "Tell me, can Luke use both hands for his sword."

That seemed to get Marcus thinking for a bit. "As far as I recall, no. I doubt he learned something like that. I didn't know how to fight with both when we traveled together."

That seemed to come up again, him traveling together with Luke. From the dream I had before, all I know of Marcus' life was that he was homeless with his sister before they were found by Luke. I was curious to know more.

I was about to trudge on some dangerous fields. But I really wanted to know.

"Marcus, may I ask you something?"

He turned to me, his expression neutral. "What is it?"

"I was wondering, where did you live before?" I tried to keep the question to the point but not too personal. At least I hope it wasn't personal.

He only stared at me for a moment. I could his eyebrows slightly twitch, which I hoped wasn't in irritation.

"Fine," he said, breaking the silence. "Before all this stuff with gods, monsters, and whatnot, I used to live in the state of Ohio. I lived a simple life with my mother, stepfather, and… my sister," he said, I could hear him hesitate when he spoke about her.

"Maya," I finished, my mouth once again faster than my brain, my eyes widening just know when I realized what I said.

Marcus also had a shocked look on his face as he turned. "How did you-?" he was about to ask but regained his composure. "It doesn't matter. It's not like it's a secret here. Knowing your curiosity you could have asked anyone."

A let out a small sigh in relief. I was hesitant to tell him I had a dream of him killing some demigods and… well, I didn't want to jump to conclusions.

"Who were your parents?" I asked, thinking he was more comfortable about answering it.

"My mother, Justine Addams, was a simple shop worker, while my stepfather, James Addams, worked in a phone company. Our lives were good," he said though I could sense a 'but' coming. "That is, until my stepdad grew suspicious, seeing some clues that Maya and I might not have been his. He secretly took a blood test, and he returned home."

I actually felt tense when he said that part. I could guess what happened next.

"My dad was normally a calm man, but he was so angry during that time. Shouting at my mother, about betraying him and…" I swore I heard him growl for a moment. "My sister and I were shocked since we didn't know either. To find it in such a way was… shocking to say the least. I remember my mother trying to explain it, I couldn't hear the details, but my stepfather's rage reached a boiling point and he lashed out. He struck my mother, her head hit the table and her neck snapped."

My eyes grew wide when I heard that and my mouth stood open. His adopted father killed his mother? I was at a loss for words.

"After that, all was a blur, and when I came to, I saw my father lying down the floor next to my mother, bloodied and beaten. It didn't take me long to figure out it was I who did it. After that, we escaped and lived in the streets for a while. Then monsters came attacking. I was able to fend them off for a while before we were found by Luke and Thalia."

Once again I just stood and stared at him, I could see the emotions going through him. Anger, regret, even some sadness. It would take a monster not to feel sympathy for him.

"Marcus, I… I'm sorry to hear that," was all I could. I honestly didn't know what else to say at that point.

"Don't be," was his simple response before he rose from his seating position. "That's enough for today. I'll see you tomorrow."

As sundown came, I walked back to my cabin. I honestly had nothing better to do. I had a lot of time to think about what I heard while I walked back.

The day seemed to be full of bad news today. Thalia's tree being poisoned, monsters coming to the camp, Chiron being fired from his position in the camp, and us getting a maniac instead. Just great.

And now to hear what Marcus has been through, I honestly feel like a jerk for complaining that I had it bad.

Still, the dream I had about Grover, he is definitely in some kind of trouble. I need to find a way to get to him. Who knows, maybe Marcus will help me since he traveled with Grover back to the camp.

I then saw Annabeth walking nearby, a seemingly distant look in her grey eyes. I wanted to call out to her but she noticed me first.

"Oh, hey there, Percy," she said, and not all that cheerfully.

"Hi, Annabeth," I said. "Man, what a rough day."

"Yeah, really rough," she said before she seemed to notice something. "Speaking of which, you look roughed up yourself. What happened?"

"Oh, that. I was actually training with Marcus."

The moment I said her expression seemed to say 'Wait, what now?'

"You… trained with Marcus?" she asked in disbelief. "How did you get him to train you?"

I shrugged. "I just asked him."

"You… just asked him," she said like she couldn't believe that it was just that simple. "Wow, I… that's great. I'm sure that he is a great teacher."

"Oh, he's very… determined when it comes to teaching," I said vaguely. "But he is effective."

"Oh, yeah. Well, good luck with that."

"Yeah."

Deciding not to make this any more awkward I decided to tuck in for the night.

"Well, see you tomorrow, Annabeth," I said before going to my cabin. "Good night."

"Good night, Percy."

Marcus

It's been several days since Percy came to Camp Half-blood, and several days he trained with Marcus, who had to admit that the kid was good.

Percy was actually able to prolong the fight when using two blades, so Marcus went to teach him some moves to use when switching between hands. He was actually impressed.

That also got attention form other half-bloods, seeing Percy train with Marcus was quite shocking for most of them. though Marcus hardly cared.

Still, there were other matters going on.

Marcus was less than impressed with Chiron's replacement. The gods, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the best replacement is a person they themselves put to eternal torture for trying to feed them his own son when they had dinner with him.

He was, of course, talking about Tantalus. And Marcus despised him the moment he saw him. He appeared to have an even worse opinion of the camp than Dionysus. Which is probably why the two seemed made for each other.

Currently, there was a chariot race happening where all the campers would have to make their own chariots to compete against each other. Marcus refused to participate, which was something Tantalus was more than glad to call out, but after Marcus gave him a stern talk he relented, fearing too much for his own life to anger the demigod.

When the race started Marcus was away from the racing track, not really interested in the event.

Then he heard some peculiar sounds. It seemed like cawing of birds. Normally that wouldn't be anything special but Marcus was already in enough monster battles to differentiate the monster sounds from regular animals'.

He turned to the source of the sounds. He saw a huge flock of birds a good distance away. But from experience, he could immediately tell those weren't normal birds.

Those were Stymphalian birds.

And they were headed towards the arena where the chariot races were being held.

Marcus grumbled and immediately ran towards the arena. Those birds were dangerous, pretty durable with beaks so strong they can pierce armor. Everyone in the arena would be unprepared for them.

The birds arrived at the arena before Marcus could. He could hear the panicked voices of other campers, the cawing of birds and sounds of battle.

He came to a part of the circular wall of the arena, pulled out his blades and started climbing the wall of the arena. He needed to get to some high altitude because on the ground he would be very limited in fighting aerial enemies.

He made it to the top and saw the campers either running around trying to not get attacked or attacking the birds.

Marcus then swung his blades in the air, the chain connecting them to his forearms helping him gain reach, the flames on his blades burning away several birds to ash. He continued swinging his blades at impressive speeds, every time finding the mark and burning away a large number of birds. At the altitude he was in there were plenty of birds making it actually hard not to hit them.

This started to gain the attention of some other birds. The went to attack him directly but Marcus either cut them down before they got to him and when some of them did he either blocked it or avoided it, but not before destroying them as well.

One of them even tried attacking him from the back while he was distracted. The bird flew at him with the intention of cutting him open with its beak. Much to its surprise Marcus moved away but not before grabbing the bird, slamming it down on the floor and reducing it to golden dust with a mighty stomp.

This continued for a little while before some strange music was heard, and a loud one at that. Due to the sensitive hearing of the birds, they panicked and flew around confused.

Marcus looked down and saw that it was Annabeth who was using Chiron's portable stereo. He had to admit, even he couldn't stand the noise.

The Apollo cabin then used their archery skills to take out the birds. The threat has passed.

Marcus sheathed his blades on his back and walked down to where Annabeth, Percy, and Tyson were. Marcus walked down towards them and the three noticed his arrival and stopped talking.

"Good work, Annabeth. Using the stereo against the birds, very creative thinking," complimented Marcus causing the young girl to look down with a flush on her cheeks.

"Oh, it was nothing, really. I am a child of Athena after all," she said somewhat shyly, not being complimented by Marcus in a long while.

"And here we have a winner!" exclaimed a very familiar voice and the four of them turned to see Tantalus holding up Clarisse's hand. "Here's our chariot racing champion!"

Marcus couldn't believe what he was seeing. Was this man brain dead or something? The race stopped and chariots were in a wreck. What was the point of proclaiming a winner?

Annabeth even verbally proclaimed Marcus' thoughts but Tantalus just dismissed her. Marcus wondered if the gods really went insane to place this man as the new activities director.

"The camp's borders are failing. If we don't do something to heal Thalia's tree, we're all done for," said Annabeth.

"Curing the poison would require a source of nature magic that is not easily come by," responded Tantalus dismissively.

Percy then seemed to remember something. "Annabeth! Remember the dream I had about Grover? Well, I had another one last night," he said. "Though, in this one, he was talking to me. He said it was an 'empathy link'. He was wearing a dress too but that's beside the point."

Marcus actually blinked at that. Did Percy just say that Grover was wearing a dress?

Percy continued. "He said he is trapped on an island, an island with some source of nature magic so strong he mistook it for Pan."

"It can't be…" Annabeth said. "Percy, what else did he tell you?"

"He was held prisoner by someone named… Poly… Polynomial? No, that's not right. Poly… Poly…" Percy said trying to remember the name.

"Polyphemus?" asked Annabeth.

"Bingo!"

"That means that the source of that magic must be the Golden Fleece. Polyphemus must have it on his island in the Sea of Monsters."

That got a discussion on having a quest. Tantalus wasn't impressed since the Sea of Monsters wasn't an exact location but Percy revealed that the Gray Sisters gave him sailing coordinates. Annabeth even loudly spoke to other campers how they needed the quest. That retrieving the Golden Fleece was the only hope they had if they wished to survive.

Soon enough a very large number of half-bloods started demanding that they have a quest, annoying Tantalus further.

He made a grumble of annoyance before turning to them. "Fine then, you brats! If you want the quest then I'll give it to you!" said Tantalus making other campers look more cheerful. "And for the person who will go on the quest, I can't imagine anyone more qualified than our champion, Clarisse!" with that exclamation almost everyone's expression turned to the one of surprise, even Clarisse's. "She has shown to be the most capable and most reliable out of all of you. So, Clarisse will be the one to consult the Oracle."

Clarisse got over her surprise and got a determined look. "I accept."

Marcus couldn't believe what he was hearing. Tantalus was really full of nonsense that Marcus was certain he was doing it purposely to have the camp destroyed since even he couldn't be that stupid. Sometimes he wondered if the gods wanted them destroyed as well. Perhaps that's why they sent this madman, to begin with.

Then he saw Tantalus turn to him. "And I have another person for the quest who I'm sure will ensure its success. Who better, than the supposedly strongest warrior in the entire camp, Marcus!"

The people were actually stunned when they heard what words came from Tantalus' mouth. No one actually proposed Marcus for a quest in years.

Marcus was about to reject but then he remembered something. His thoughts went back to the day he and others first arrived at the camp. He remembered the monsters attacking and being so concerned about his sister he prioritized her over everyone else.

He remembered his sister pleading him to stop and turn back so he could help Thalia. He knew he could help her but he wanted to be absolutely certain his sister would be safe. When he did leave Maya, he ran back to help but it was too late. Thalia was mortally injured in the battle causing Zeus to turn her into a tree which in a way saved her life while also creating a barrier around the camp to repel monsters.

And now he actually had the chance to fix that. He couldn't save Thalia but he could make sure her tree isn't destroyed. He could make up on the previous failure to save Thalia.

"I accept," said Marcus.

There was dead silence across the area. Nobody moved. No one even twitched.

Then, suddenly, everyone erupted into cheers, overjoyed over the fact that Marcus was willing to embark on a quest that will save the camp. Even Marcus was caught off-guard at the reaction, not really being used to people cheering at him.

Even Clarisse gave a smile at that.

AN: And that is all for now. We are currently in the Sea of Monsters arc and Marcus will be more involved in it than he was in the previous one. And we also got a little backstory on him, hope it wasn't boring to read.

Don't forget to check out my other stories. Leave a review, they are great motivators for uploading.

See you next time!