Rage of a Demigod

AN: Hello there, my dear readers. Well, I finally got around updating this story. Took me longer than I would have liked, but hey better late than never. It's a bit shorter than usual, but any more and I don't think it would fit as well as it did. Hope you enjoy!

Now to reviews.

Dracus6: The good way. And you'll have to wait and see with who he will end up with.

Christopherprime22: I'm glad I was able to do that.

Fax15: Sorry, I don't speak Spanish. If you're asking who he will end up with, you'll just have to wait.

Guest: Sorry, I'm not currently open for requests. I have other stories to focus on.

trollpatrol117: Thank you.

Red Eyes B. Dragon: Thank you. And I'm sure you can tell who it will be.

emoryjmorrill: Glad you do.

5 Catching Up Can Be A Real Pain

Percy

I found myself getting slammed into the ground again face-first. I honestly lost count on how many times my lips kissed the dirt below. In fact, I think it happened so many times that the ground actually starting to like me.

I get up with a groan as I pick up my dropped Riptide. Marcus stood over me, a regular camp sword in his hand. My hand then went to my forehead as I began feeling the pain from the last hit. Damn, this guy knows how to strike with a pommel.

"You lasted longer than previously," Marcus said in a neutral tone. "This might be the longest you lasted against me.

"Yeah, maybe five seconds longer," I complained as I stopped rubbing my head.

"In battle, those seconds can make quite a difference. Take your victories where you can," he said with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, yeah."

While I did sound dismissive, it really could be considered a good feat. I mean, this is the dude who could easily tear another dude apart (not that I want to see a confirmation of that) so lasting against him for even a minute is impressive.

And this guy is really determined about his training. I was about to join a Capture the Flag session when he came and told me that I won't so he could train me. I would have protested, but trust me, you REALLY don't want Marcus glaring at you.

"Well, dinner should be coming soon. Will you be there?"

I could see him pause for a moment. Not something you would pick up, but if you spent enough time training with a guy you can sometimes see the small details.

"I have my own business," he simply replied.

I can already tell that it was a lie. No, I know the real reason why doesn't want to come to eat with others. Now, he normally doesn't do that, but lately, he's been avoiding the dining table like a plague.

I gave a sigh. "Suit yourself. But the table spot will still be open for you."

He only stared at me for a moment before nodding and walking away. "We'll train tomorrow, 8 AM sharp. Be ready."

The time for dinner came, and I was sitting at the Poseidon table munching on one of the blue snacks my mom made for me.

Then a strange thing happened, a dryad came to my table and offered me what seemed to be some soda, dried bacon, and chips.

"Um, thanks but… I didn't ask for this," I said feeling somewhat awkward as the dryad kept smiling at me.

"I know. This is a gift from the little old me," she said as she gestured towards herself. "I think it's the least our handsome young hero deserves." She winked at the end of that sentence which made me go crimson.

"Uh… th-thanks for that," I stammered which caused her to giggle and walk away with a friendly wave.

Man, that was… awkward. I know I helped save the world, but I didn't think I'd get this treatment.

"You're… Percy, right?" I heard someone say next to me and saw that it was Thalia, who looked a bit nervous.

"Yeah, that's me," I answered. "Shouldn't you be at your table?"

Her expression hardened a bit. "Yeah, just sit there with nobody else to talk to," she said sarcastically. "Sorry, not happening."

I nodded, completely understanding her sentiment. "Still, it is forbidden to sit at someone else's table. I don't want you to get in trouble."

"For your information, I'm not sitting, I'm standing," she said with an amused grin. "Look, can you tell me where Marcus is?"

I expected something like this might happen. And boy I wish Marcus didn't leave me to deal with this.

"Well, he just said that he had other business," I answered. "He never told me what that is."

Thalia then gained a downed expression, as if knowing that wasn't the case. "He's avoiding me, isn't he?"

Man, sometimes I hated being right. "Look, I'm sure it's nothing. He might come around."

She shook her head. "I wish he did, but even when we traveled together he mostly kept to himself, except for when talking to Maya." She then shook her head. "Forget it, it doesn't matter."

"If it didn't, you wouldn't have bothered," now I heard an all too familiar voice and looked at Annabeth who was behind Thalia. "Sorry for not coming earlier. I just finished eating a little while ago."

Thalia couldn't help but smile. "Hey there, Annabeth," she said. "I have to admit it's weird to see you so… well, bigger."

Annabeth laughed at that. "Well, I was seven the last time you saw me."

"Yeah, that's true." Thalia's smile wavered. "I honestly can't believe that so much time passed. And from what I hear, Luke is traitor, Maya is… gone." Her voice began to crack. "And now, Marcus is even more of a recluse than before." She let out a dry chuckle. "Look at us. We've really come far, haven't we?"

This time Thalia began tearing up, clearly not able to handle the situation anymore.

Annabeth immediately went to comfort her by putting her arm around her shoulders. I wasn't sure if it was my place, but I got and also went to comfort her.

"It's alright, Thalia," Annabeth whispered softly. "It'll be fine, trust me."

Thalia then looked at her with teary eyes but forced a smile. "Well, I suppose if those words come from a daughter of Athena, they should hold some weight."

Annabeth couldn't help but chuckle at the joke. "Come on, Thalia. Let's get you some food."

"Hey, you can take mine," I said while presenting her the food that the dryad from before gave me. "I'm already stuffed, and I hardly need these."

"Oh… thank you, Percy," Thalia said as she took the food. "That's very… nice of you."

I just gave a shrug. "Just helping a fellow camper out."

"Oh really?" Annabeth said with her arms crossed. "Would you be as kind to the Ares kids?"

We let out a group laugh. I can safely say that Thalia's mood has improved.

So, we ate together (no rules against standing really helped with that). Thalia wondered why the muffins were blue, and I explained that I usually prefer to have my food blue. She laughed at the prospect and told me she hasn't seen anyone weirder so I replied "At least I don't dress like punk rock reject." She was silent for a moment and she had that stern gaze.

And then she laughed again. Man, I wish I knew more people like her.

"Ok, seaweed brain," Annabeth said. "I totally expected you to get toasted."

Thalia elbowed her lightly. "Come on, you know me better than that." Then she seemed to suddenly remember something. "You know, why wasn't Marcus at today's Capture the Flag? I thought he'd be there."

Annabeth suddenly got an uncomfortable look on her face. "Yeah, well… he doesn't participate in Capture the Flag."

Then that reminded me of something.

"Yeah, I remember Chiron mentioning that Marcus isn't a part of Capture the Flag because the team he would be on would have an unfair advantage."

"That is one of the reasons, but note the only one," Annabeth said. "You see, there was an incident involving Marcus at his first Capture the Flag contest."

I already didn't like what I was hearing.

"Annabeth," Thalia said. "What happened?"

Annabeth then gave a sigh. "Well, I wasn't there in person, but from what they told me…"

Marcus was running through the woods at a fast pace, completely ignoring the shouts of his teammates for him to come back.

It wasn't too long after they were accepted in the camp that they had to attend the Capture the Flag, with Marcus and Maya being put on the same team. They were equipped with a helmet and shield, with a spear as a primary weapon and sword as a backup.

The first several minutes of the contest went smoothly, they discussed strategies and negotiated positions, with Marcus not really happy with the idea of being separated from Maya but with the insistence of his teammates and Maya herself he relented.

They ended up engaged in battle with several demigods from the opposing team, but something ended up wrong at they hadn't heard from Maya's group. Not wasting any time, Marcus disengaged and went searching for his sister.

He covered a lot of ground before he heard something. He went to investigate and saw something that made his blood boil. He recognized several children of Ares, boys mostly, who now had Maya's group literally pinned to the ground, with one of them standing over Maya herself who looked horrified.

"We'd say sorry about this, but that'd be lying," one of them said. "We like showing the newbies their place in this camp."

"Wh-why are you-?"

"Oh, please, spare us the pleading," one of the other Ares kids said.

But Marcus had enough. His breathing became heavy, his vision becoming red. He dropped the shield and spear before running at them with a roar.

This got the attention of everyone, and one of the Ares children tried to get in his way but was quickly swatted aside and sent flying into a tree, actually BENDING it a little. The others were surprised but went in his way, only to find themselves pushed aside with similar ease. Seeing someone throwing people who are a head taller than he was would be amusing, but with the way things were going, it was just disturbing.

The one threatening Maya, looked in horror as Marcus then approached him, but didn't have the protect himself as Marcus pounced on him and sent him down on the ground. Marcus then removed his helmet and began punching him repeatedly in the head, blacking out any pleas of mercy.

Maya on the side looked horrified at how animalistic her brother was behaving. She knew he could be overprotective but this was… wrong.

Before Marcus could land another punch he was lifted into the air.

"Marcus, stop it! You'll kill him!" Marcus heard someone yell and saw that it was Chiron who was also the one holding him up by his arm. "For gods' sakes, why would you do something like this!"

Marcus let out some labored breathing, before looking down. He saw the one demigod he was beating up and found the damage he did to his face made him look barely recognizable.

Some dryads appeared and picked him up. "Hurry! He'll need treatment!" Chiron ordered as he let go of Marcus and went with the dryads.

Marcus' breathing calmed down as he looked at his sister, who still looked unsettled.

"Are you alright?" Marcus asked.

"Am I alright? Am I alright?!" Maya exclaimed. "Did you see what you've done to him?"

"B-but he was-"

"Whatever he was doing it wasn't worth you beating him to near death!"

Marcus only looked down in shame. Once again, he tried to protect his sister but only ended up making it worse.

He wondered, just what was wrong with him?

I wasn't sure what to feel. Should I be disturbed about what Marcus did to that guy, or should I feel impressed he went so far to save someone he cared about? When I look at Thalia's expression I could tell she had similar thoughts.

"Oh, I…" Thalia began unsurely. "Well, at least he had his heart in the right place. What happened to that demigod?"

"They were able to heal him, though it wasn't easy. To say Marcus did a number on him would be an understatement," Annabeth answered. "There was another one whose spine Marcus damaged so he had to be fixed as well. After all that, other campers kept their distance and were very careful not to anger him. And trust me; you REALLY don't want him glaring at you."

I'm not sure if this was appropriate, but while on the outside I was more casual, on the inside I was grinning like an idiot. I liked how smart girl voiced my thoughts, even though not knowing she did it.

Thalia rubbed the back of her head. "Annabeth, that was a feeling I got when he traveled with us." She sighed. "It's a real shame it barely changed over the years."

"Well, he ain't so bad once you get to know him," I said. "I mean, I did get him to train me just by asking. I'm sure you could just do that."

Thalia raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you serious? How exactly am I supposed to do that? I was searching all over the camp for him."

And right now I realized how dumb what I said sounded. So I quickly tried to recover. "Well… What I mean is…"

After the dinner was over, Thalia walked away from her table while Annabeth approached me with a grin on her face.

"I have to say," she said. "For a seaweed brain, you were pretty clever back then, even if you probably needed to save your own behind."

As demeaning as that sounded, I couldn't help but grin. "Thanks."

"Though, I'm not sure if this will turn out great."

"Hey, that's something Thalia needs."

"I wasn't talking about her, Percy."

Marcus

It was the middle of the night when Marcus returned to the camp. He decided to go out of the camp for some clarity, which he didn't really find. So with a sigh, he walked towards the Big House and opened the door.

Then the lights turned on, catching him by surprise and making him go for one of the chained blades, but saw that it was Thalia who stood there, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, a serious look on her face.

"Thalia? I didn't…" he mumbled before composing himself. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at Zeus cabin by now?" His voice was stern, but Thalia appeared uncaring.

"Oh you would like that, wouldn't you?" she said with irritation softly dripping in her voice. "You would once again just ignore me, avoid me, go out of the camp and return after curfew so you can be sure that you don't speak to me, like you did for the past few days.

"Well, that won't cut it. I spoke to Chiron and he allowed me to be here for tonight, so you have no excuse to avoid any longer."

Marcus stood there speechless. He really wasn't ready to have this conversation right now. What could he say anyway?

"Why?" she continued as she walked in front of him, her glare intensifying. "Why would you leave me alone? Didn't all five of us promise we would stick together, that no monster or catastrophe would separate us? I know that I'm not Maya, so I don't mean as much to you, but we were still friends, even if you didn't see it that way."

Marcus then began to turn, but Thalia grabbed him by the arm. "No, you will look at me directly! Why would you let me find out about Maya's death from others, even about Luke's betrayal?!" Her voice then began to crack. "Why would you leave me to mourn alone?!"

His fist clenched, and he began to bite his lip so hard that it began bleeding. His eyes were clenched shut, either from sadness, shame, fear, frustration, all of those? He didn't know.

"It was my fault," he simply said.

Thalia blinked at his response. "What did you say?"

"It was my fault," he repeated, emotion more noticeable in his voice as he looked at Thalia. "Your 'death' was my fault. I left you behind so I could protect Maya, and in the end, it didn't matter. I could have stayed and helped you, but I decided not to. And in the end, I ended up delivering the finishing blow to Maya.

"So I ask you, Thalia, how can you see me as any source of comfort? Look at me." He then took off his shirt, to show the rest of the tattoos which went across the left side of his chest, before taking the blades from his back and throwing them on the floor which made those chains appear. "I'm covered in my failures. This tattoo, this ash on my skin, these… things bound to my arms. Despite all my strength, I'm a failure, a slave."

His head then dropped. "I'm not even a proper camper, I'm a glorified servant. Obeying a war god based on his whims. A demigod never claimed by my godly parent. So tell me, Thalia, why would you ever want anything to do with me?"

Out of nowhere, she hugged him, making him slightly gasp in surprise. He heard her sniffling and felt her shake. "That doesn't matter right now. What matters is that you're alive, and you're here. And I really hope that you actually stay here." Her grip on him tightened.

He still wasn't sure how to respond. He would have hugged her but doubt still held his hand. And he wasn't proud of it.

"You don't have to be alone, you don't have to be a failure," she said as she looked up to him with teary eyes. "You have people that care for you. You have Annabeth, you have me, and even Percy. It's because of you that they are still alive, and because of you that I'm even here. You helped them in the quest, you helped them bring the fleece back.

"Don't sell yourself short, you did protect the people you care for," she said before retracting from him and wiping her tears. "So don't leave them hanging. And don't hate yourself anymore."

Once again, he was speechless.

"Just think about it for a moment," she said before going towards the door. Before going out she looked back at him with a smile. "It was thanks to Percy that I got motivated to confront you, unlike how it usually was. So I have to thank him for that, and you should too. Well, I better get going, don't want to have the harpies bite. See you tomorrow."

She was able to see him give a ghost of a smile before closing the door.

"Aw, that was very sweet," said a deep mocking voice which made Marcus' smile vanish. He turned around and was greeted by none other than Ares, the god of war, dressed in his usual biker outfit. "If Aphrodite was here, she would gush all over about this little scene."

"Anything you need, Lord Ares?" Marcus said in a neutral tone which he practiced for whenever the war god came.

"Oh, nothing much, just checking out on my favorite demigod," Ares said, an arrogant grin adorning his face. "And why did you mention being a 'glorified servant'? I thought working for me is very beneficial. I mean look at all the trinkets you have in Aphrodite's pouch. Not to mention her daughters."

"So will you have me punished?"

Ares let out a small laugh. "No, not at all. As I said, I was just checking on you," he said before passing Marcus and looking at the wild boar head that was put on the wall. "And I found something really interesting. That girl, she seems awfully close to you." He turned back and pushed his shades up, showing his fiery eyes. "I hope that she too doesn't become a distraction."

Marcus got a sudden look of shock on his face which quickly morphed into the one of anger. "You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I?" He walked over and gave Marcus a pat on the shoulder. "Well, I certainly hope nothing bad happens. Well, even if it does then Zeus could turn her into a tree again, though that's not very likely to repeat. But I'm sure nothing like that would happen."

Ares then moved backwards, that smile never leaving his face. "Why don't you 'just think about it for a moment'?" And with a chuckle, he flashed away.

Marcus stood glaring at the spot where disappeared from. His fist and teeth were clenched in anger at his words.

He walked over to a table before loudly grunting and hitting it with enough force that it was split in two and crashed down.

The god of war angered the red-eyed demigod so much. He made sure to make his life hell. That was apparent during the last quest and he didn't need any verbal confirmation from Clarisse to know she was ordered by her father to ignore his suggestions.

But wasn't going to let Ares have the satisfaction. He was going to protect those he cared about at any cost, Ares' wishes or not. He wasn't going to fail them.

Not again.

AN: And that is it for now! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and that it was worth the wait.

And please check out some of my other stories, they're worth it. And leave a review, they are great motivators.

See you next time!