So, this is kind of a filler chapter designed to give Roy's backstory, but I do hope you guys enjoy it anyway.

Jinero: Indeed.

Guest 2.0: I never said Roy was the one to greet them. I said he was the head councilor of the Hermes cabin when Luke and Annabeth arrived at camp.

Guest: Aside from those in canon and those who have already been mentioned as demigods, Roy is the last character I plan to have as a demigod at the moment.

Lian Yu

Afternoon

In the Argus prison under the island, Roy sat on a crate as he held his hands under his face, visibly tormented. Roy almost didn't hear the footsteps approach from behind. But he had been trained, for years at Camp Half-Blood and then by Oliver. He could hear those steps in his sleep.

"You just gonna stand there?" Roy asked after a few moments of silence.

"Wasn't really sure what to say," Thea said as she walked over, standing awkwardly before speaking. "Son of Hermes huh? Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Would you have believed me?" Roy asked pointedly.

"I don't know," Thea admitted after a moment.

"Which is why I didn't tell you," Roy said with a sigh as he got to his feet. "The only thing worse than telling my story is no one believing me. I've tried telling people before; they always thought I was crazy."

"So tell me now," Thea implored.

Roy was silent for a long moment. Thea was beginning to wonder if he had decided not to tell her when he finally spoke.

"I was seven," Roy started lowly. "I woke up when I heard a crash. A Hell Hound had broken into the house, crashed right through the door. It killed my mom right in front of me. Would have killed me to, but I had someone looking out for me that day: my father. He was in the area on business when he sensed the danger. He didn't get there in time for my mom, but he swept me away to camp. That's when he and Chiron told me everything."

"That you were a demigod," Thea noted and he nodded.

"Spent the next nine years training at camp as more and more kids came. The thing about cabin eleven is that it's where the unclaimed kids end up. You see, the gods don't always give a crap about their mortal kids. Sometimes, the kids at camp don't know who their parents are," Roy said, resentment creeping into his voice. "So they ended up at the Herms cabin, wondering why their parents don't love them. Imagine seeing that for nine years and you get what my life was like until I met Luke and Annabeth."

"I'm sorry," Thea said lamely, not sure what else to say.

"It's not your fault," Roy said with a sigh. "Luke and Annabeth had been traveling with Thalia, a daughter of Zeus."

"I've met her," Thea said and Roy nodded.

"Well, Hades let the worst monsters out of the Underworld to hunt her down. A satyr had found the three of them and was taking them to camp when the monsters found them. At the edge of camp, Thalia made her final stand to protect Luke and Annabeth. As she lay, dying, Zeus turned her into a tree."

"A tree," Thea deadpanned and Roy nodded. "I've seen Thalia, she's not a tree."

"She was. A little murky on the details, but she came back six years ago, somehow,. Never got the whole story on that," Roy mused before looking back at Thea. "You know how hard it is to tell your little brother that it's all gonna be okay after he sees his best friend turned into a pine tree because her all powerful father couldn't bother to come down and protect her?"

"I can't even imagine," Thea said after a moment, only able to imagine the kind of Hell that had been for Roy.

"Well, that was my reality. I had to be strong for Luke, to be his rock, just like I had to be strong for all my little brothers and sisters. And I guess for Annabeth to," Roy added as an afterthought.

"What's the deal with you two? She seems to hate you and love you at the same time," Thea pointed out and Roy flashed a smile that was more like a grimace.

"She really clung to Luke and he kind of latched onto me, especially right after he got to camp. I promised her that I would never leave her or Luke. But I did," Roy said with self-loathing. "About three years after they got to camp, I kept having this securing nightmare that always ended the same: me, leaving camp and walking towards a dark voice. I realize now that it was Kronos trying to get in my head, the way he got in Luke's. He saw the resentment I had towards the gods and tried to exploit it."

"But it didn't work," Thea said and Roy shook his head.

"I went to talk to Chiron, told him about my dreams, and he sent me to talk to the Oracle. Usually when you talk to the Oracle, you get a prophecy that scares the crap out of you. I would have preferred that," Roy said with a bitter laugh. "I got a splitting headache and some visions that gave me nightmares for years afterwards."

"What did you see?" Thea asked after a moment, realizing whatever he saw was still weighing on him.

"Death. Demigods and mortals, dying all around me. And I knew I was the cause of it, somehow, that I had helped him rise," Roy said lowly and it didn't take long for Thea to figure out who 'he' was.

"Kronos," she almost whispered and Roy nodded.

"It wasn't until I heard about Luke that I realized it wasn't my future that I was seeing…it was his. The Oracle showed me Luke's future. But at the time, I thought I was going to cause all of that. So I ran. I packed my stuff and ran as far as I could. I ran back to Starling City," Roy said with a weary sigh. "I still had nightmares for a few months after I left, then they stopped. When I heard about Luke…I realized they stopped because Kronos turned his attention on Luke instead of me."

"That's what he meant when he said not to blame yourself. You blame yourself for what happened to him," Thea realized.

"I was the big brother; I was supposed to protect him. I should have talked to Chiron about what I saw, not run like a coward. Maybe if I had…" Roy trailed off but Thea knew what he was going to say.

"You heard Luke. Nothing you did was going to save him. He had his own path to follow, just like you," Thea pointed out.

"You don't know that. You don't know him," Roy snapped as he tried to walk passed her.

"But I know you," Thea said fiercely, stopping him by grabbing his face. "And I know that if you could have saved him, if you could have taken his place, you would have. But Luke made his own choices, just like you chose to run rather than destroy the world. No one forced it on him, but he still chose to side with Kronos. You didn't make him. At a certain point, we are all responsible for our own choices."

Above ground, in the tent they had arrived in, Annabeth was looking over the schematics of the device on the tablet Luke had provided for her. Percy was in the corner, watching her concerned.

"I can here you thinking from here," Annabeth muttered.

"Just trying to figure out wat to say," Percy said as he walked over. "Are you okay?"

"I really don't know. Seeing Luke…it was hard," Annabeth said after a moment.

"It was hard for me. Can't imagine what you're going through," Percy said as he sat down next to her and it was silent for a moment. "Why didn't you ever tell me you knew Roy Harper?"

"You know me well enough to know that I don't talk about the panful parts of my past. He's just someone who let me down a long time ago. I haven't even thought about him in years," Annabeth admitted before pausing. "The prophecy…its coming true."

"So you noticed it to huh? Percy said and she nodded.

"'Old friends will aid when danger is at its peak.' Barry, Slade, Thalia, Thea, even Talia, they've all helped us on this quest," Annabeth pointed out.

"'Mortals and Demigods must unite in the perilous land.' If this place is as bad as Luke and Oliver make it sound, seems kind of fitting that this is a 'perilous land'," Percy noted.

"It's the last line of the prophecy that scares me," Annabeth said quietly. "'And a hero will make his final stand.'"

"Doesn't exactly leave much room for interpretation," Percy noted.

"Prophecies are never what they seem, you know that better than anyone," Annabeth pointed out.

"Still…someone is going to die. And we can't stop it," Percy said as he thought it over. "Can't be Oliver, he still has to do his part in the Prophecy of the seven. And Anatoly is mortal. Which leaves me, Slade, and Roy. One of us is gonna die."

Outside the tent, on the shore, Oliver was staring at the spot where, eight years earlier, he had put what was intended as a memorial to Slade when he thought the man dead. Slade walked up behind him, looking over at where Oliver was staring.

"Brings back memories, huh kid?" Slade noted.

"None of them good," Oliver agreed.

"That's not what's bothering you though, is it? It's Mr. Harper," Slade noted.

"Why didn't he ever tell me who he was? What he was?" Oliver finally asked after a few moments.

"Likely the same reason you didn't tell him about the things you endured here. We prefer to bury our painful pasts," Slade pointed out and Oliver had to concede his point. "Your sister and I here together…it cannot end well."

"Thea can put aside her issues with you long enough to work with you. Its Anatoly I'm worried about," Oliver said and Slade nodded.

"When he last saw me, I was a monster. He is right to fear me. But my true concern is Mr. Harper and the daughter of Athena. They have a history together. And the appearance of this Pariah has unsettled them both," Slade noted.

"We're like a ticking time bomb. Why would Mar Novu bring us all together?" Oliver asked in frustration.

"I do not know. But, if what you have told me is true, he must have a reason for it," Slade pointed out.

"Oliver," the pair turned around to see Percy had walked out of the tent. "That Turner guy is trying to get in contact over the radio."

Oliver and Slade walked with Percy back into the tent as they heard Turner's voice over the radio.

"Oliver, this is Ben Turner, do you copy?" Turner's voice was saying as Oliver picked up the radio.

"I copy Turner. What's your status?" Oliver said as they all heard the roar of a plane.

"I'm five miles south and inbound for landing, over," Turner said.

"We'll see you at the airstrip, over," Oliver said.

"No winds to speak of; should be a smooth landing," Turner said before pausing. "What is that?"

"Turner?" Oliver asked but only got a bunch of static. "Something's wrong."

The four of them walked out of the tent to hear the roar of a rocket. They watched in horror as a missile flew towards the plane and struck. It knocked the wing off and the plane plummeted to the island below.

"Luke was right, the island is fighting back," Annabeth muttered as Oliver and Slade exchanged an unsettled glance.

"History is repeating itself kid," Slade muttered. "In more ways than one."

Hope I did okay on Roy's backstory and explaining why there is tension between him and Annabeth.