Chapter 5: The greater good

Lightening crashed. Thunder boomed. Rain fell in sheets soaking me to the bone.

Dozens of monsters charging out of the woods. The ever present feeling of fear and dread making me shiver.

"You guys get to camp! I'll hold them off!"

"No!"

"Thalia!"

"Let go of me! We have to help her!"

"Thalia!"

My world turned white.

I shot up with a silent scream on my lips. Once I realised it was a dream I sat there for a few minutes staring at my shaking hands waiting for my heartbeat to settle and my breathing to even out. Eventually my hands finally stopped shaking I crawled my way out of the sweat covered sleeping bag and padded across the floor as silently as I could, being careful to not step on any of the other unclaimed that littered the floor of the Hermes cabin.

I had been having dreams about that moment a few times a week for the last year. The dreams are always slightly different. They never really show the whole event, just show enough to remind me of my failure. Of how useless I was when my family needed me.

A year ago, Thalia died protecting the rest of us so that we could reach the camp. She fought off a horde of monsters while Luke dragged Annabeth and I up the hill. While she was killing monsters I was kicking and screaming at Luke to let me go. While she was facing her death like a true warrior the rest of us were fleeing like cowards. While she was fighting for our lives we were abandoning her.

I don't think I've been able to completely forgive Luke for dragging me away. I don't know if I ever can. I know I would of probably only managed to kill a few monsters with my shout ability before I was overwhelmed and killed, but at least I would have died like a hero. I would have died fighting for the first family I ever had instead of leaving a member behind like a coward. Then I would wait in Elysium for the rest of them to join me and we would be together forever after that.

It feels even worse to know that she's not actually dead. At least, not dead in the literal sense.

No. She died a hero but never got to experience the glory of Elysium. Her father, the mighty King of the Gods, decided it would be better to turn her into a tree. A tree!

Now she's just stuck there and there's nothing I can do about it.

It goes without saying that the last year sucked.

Those first few weeks after Thalia…Those first few weeks I walked around in a complete haze. I barely ate, I barely spoke, nightmares plagued my sleep and thoughts of my failure were constantly on my mind. Eventually Annabeth broke down crying in my arms. She said she was scared she was going to lose me too. That I was just fading away and she didn't know what to do. After that I tried to be better, if just for her sake.

It took two months before I spoke to Luke again. I still haven't said a word to Grover. He was supposed to be our protector, but other than tell us the location of the camp he was pretty useless. We should have just left him behind to distract the monsters so that we could escape. After all if he was supposed be a protector then wouldn't that have been doing his job? Sometimes I think he knows what's on my mind, if the way he shakes when he catches me looking at him is any indication. Everything was fine before he came along. Why couldn't he just leave us alone?

Camp turned out to be a disappointment anyway. Sure there haven't been any monster attacks since I got here but that barely makes up for all the other problems there are. I might be biased though; monsters never really attacked me when I was on my own. A lot of them actually seemed to avoid me.

I'm unclaimed. That means I have to stay in the Hermes cabin with all the other unclaimed kids and the actual children of Hermes. It's not enough that I'm stuck inside an enclosed space with 40 ADHD children; some of them are the children of the god of thieves. It makes keeping my few possessions difficult to say the least.

After getting dressed in the bathroom I went outside to get some breakfast before starting my day. The sky was still dark but I could see a glow on the horizon. At this time nobody but the nature spirits would be awake.

After enjoying a hearty breakfast I made my way to the forges. The sun was starting to peak over the horizon. The Apollo kids would be awake soon.

I let out a breath of relief when I saw that the forges where empty. I started coming here about a month after joining camp. The forge really interested me the first time I saw it. It gave me the feeling like I belonged there. It just felt natural.

I walked up to the furthest forge available. Out of the way of everyone else. While I loved the forge, I still tried to stay as far away as possible from the Hephaestus kids. Some of them looked down on me because I couldn't work with celestial bronze. No matter how much I beat it. How perfectly I copied the others. I couldn't shape the metal at all. I had a feeling only children of Hephaestus could.

I didn't let that discourage me however, as instead I used other metals. This morning I was working on making a new steel dagger. One of the Ares kids threw my last one into the lake. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of looking for it so I decided I would make a new one.

Time seemed to blur. It was like my hands were on autopilot. I completely blanked out and just worked. I never needed to think about the process. It was like I had made thousands of these daggers before and this was just one more. Before I knew it I was at the final stages of sharpening the steel dagger.

That's when Annabeth came running in. Judging by the look on her face she's pretty irritated at me.

"You missed our Ancient Greek lessons this morning!" She accused. Her eyes were narrowed piercing me with her stare. I've seen her do this before. She was studying me. Measuring my expressions against my words.

I let out a sigh. I gave up on being able to lie to Annabeth a long time ago.

I shrugged. "Didn't want to go."

Annabeth stood a little taller. I hid a wince, should have been more tactful.

"You can't just decide not to go! Our Ancient Greek lessons are important Sam. I know you struggle with the language but-"

Now I was getting a little irritated. "I don't struggle with the language."

Annabeth rolls her eyes. "Sam I've seen you try to speak it and you do struggle."

"When?"

Annabeth opens her mouth but I carry on before she can respond. I'm tired of her getting on my case about some of these pointless lessons.

"Annabeth I'm pretty much fluent at the language. Yes, I couldn't speak it when I first got to camp but I've had over a year to learn. I just don't really speak in class because there's no point and it will just give the Ares kids more reason to come after me. You know this, so why are you getting on my case?"

Annabeth frowns. "Are they still giving you trouble? I thought after the forest incident they decided to leave you alone."

Ah, yes. The forest incident. Two children of Ares a few years older than me decided I had pissed them off a little too much that day and decided to ambush me in the forest and beat me unconscious to teach me a lesson. Little did they know I had a dagger I had made hidden on me. After they took my celestial bronze dagger away from me they thought I was unarmed and let their guards down for a few seconds.

The younger of the boys would have bled out if not for the magic of the Apollo kids and Ambrosia. I stabbed him in the stomach three times before the older one got over his shock and disarmed me. I think he was going to kill me after that. I remember him holding me down with his hands wrapped around my throat. I remember gasping for air. Trying to use my ability to blow him away like I should of done from the start. Not being able to mutter a sound. Panicking and struggling. Then I remember screaming and gasping oxygen into my starving lungs and the smell of burning flesh. The boy's clothes had caught fire.

Chiron was furious after that. The two boys got punished with stable duty for weeks after they recovered. I got banned from the forges for two months. Apparently the older boys' torso might always be scarred in some places with burn marks and the younger was lucky to be alive. After ranting at Chiron that I was only defending myself he decided to make it three months and gave me an hour long lecture about excessive force and how disappointed he is. It would have had a bigger impact if he didn't look at me like I was a dangerous animal he didn't want to anger the entire time.

I sheathed the dagger and stood up. " They did for a while."

Annabeth didn't look happy." You should speak to Chiron about-"

I huffed in irritation. "Stop trying to change the subject Annabeth. Why did you want me to go to Ancient Greek classes so badly?"

She hesitated for a few seconds."….Luke was at this one."

I snorted. That explained it." Why would Luke go to Ancient Greek lessons? He can speak the language just fine and I don't think he cares about knowing it any better."

" He took some new campers for their first lesson. Listen, that's not important. Just…. It's been a year. When are you going to talk to him?"

"I do talk to him. " I walked out of the forge and started making my way to a nearby bathroom. I needed to take a shower and I prefer to do it in the relatively private shower by the forges than in the boys shower in the Hermes Cabin, in which people don't respect what a locked door for the bathroom means.

Annabeth grabs my arm and twists me around. "I don't mean greet him back when he says hello or answering him back when he asks you to do something for the cabin or in a lesson. I mean, really talk to him. Like you used to."

I ripped my arm away from her and snarled. "Things are not like they used to be. Things won't ever go back to the way they used to be! Thalia is dead! She's dead and here you two are pretending like it never happened. Like Luke didn't leave her to die! But he did! He could have saved her but he was a coward!"

Annabeth slapped me. I could see the rage in her eyes. Violent and stormy. I was so shocked after the slap I could only stare at her while she shouted. "That's not fair and you know it! I miss Thalia! I think about her all the time. So does Luke. Just because we didn't turn into jerks like you did when she died doesn't mean we don't care!"

She then turned away from me. I could see her shaking slightly. It wasn't until I heard her sob that I realised that she was crying.

"Annabeth…"

"Don't." She said. Her voice cracked slightly. "Just…don't." With those parting words she rushed away. Leaving me standing there feeling like the biggest asshole in the world.

Line break

It wasn't until later that day at the capture the flag game that I saw Annabeth again.

Athena was paired up with Hermes and Aphrodite against the Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Dionysus cabins. There were a lot of kids in the Hermes cabin so it was seen as pretty evenly matched in numbers. I think we had a pretty good chance of winning if we used the right tactics. Each of us had about 20 fighters. Difference is I don't think they would have very good teamwork.

The Ares kids would probably just rush in, confident in their ability to win in confrontations. Generally they should be. Michael Silver was amongst the strongest demigods in camp. At 13 years old he was probably older than most kids in the camp. But that doesn't take away the fact that children of Ares seem to just naturally know how to wield any weapon and they are also ridiculously strong. Some are better than others of course but children of Ares dominate most close quarters fights in the camp. Michael is the strongest child of Ares in camp. He also hates me. I did burn his chest. Might want to avoid him for my first capture the flag game. 'Considering Chiron didn't even want to let me play.'

Actually come to think of it. He will probably be out to get me.

We could use that.

I need to speak to Marlene. Marlene was the head of the Athena Cabin. At 15 years old she was the oldest demigod in camp. That meant that she makes the plans.

Our team was gathered around our flag which was placed next to a small stream. Meaning that the enemy team could only approach from three directions. Two of them had a lot of trees and in one was small clearing that the flag was placed at the end of..

'Smart, trees will limit Apollo kids. Might even funnel one or two into the clearing to try get a better shot.'

I found her right next to the flag. She was with Annabeth, Luke and a few other Hermes kids. A blond boy named Jack and girl my age named Drew represented Aphrodite.

"-thena kids should stay back to defend. Aphrodite should stay with them while Hermes goes forward to capture the flag."

"Woah, We're going alone?" Luke asked. "There are twelve of us, sure, but we will probably run into the Ares cabin first and then those of us they don't take out will run into the traps from Hephaestus and Apollo! We need some back up."

"I disagree." Everyone turned to look at me. Luke looked like he was getting a bit mad so I continued. "With the plan that is."

Marlene scoffed. "A nine year old boy who's never played before. It doesn't matter if you agree or not."

I glared at her. "Don't you think you should hear my plan before treating me like an idiot?"

She started smirking. "Fine. What's your plan then?"

"A few months ago I burned Michael's chest pretty badly. Since this is the first capture the flag game Chiron is allowing me to play he will probably be out for revenge. The Apollo and Hephaestus kids will stay back and defend their flag. They will probably assume I'm going to stay guarding the flag since this is my first game. I won't be. If I run into them with a group of maybe four others who don't mind fighting then a few insults to Michael and he will start getting angry. We will fight and try and beat them if the group is small enough. If not I will run and he will follow with hopefully most of the group deciding to leave me to him and go after the flag. I can then lead him to you and Luke who can take Michael out. Maybe have a few others there in case he follows me with more people than I expect. Then leave all the Aphrodite kids and the rest of the Hermes and Athena kids back to defend the flag. That way they should outnumber most groups. Hopefully with the Ares kids taken out we can sweep through their defence with superior numbers."

I saw Marlene's smile had dropped. She stared hard at me. She looked like she was actually taking me a bit more serious now. Then her mouth twitched. "Not bad kid. One problem though. How are you going to make sure you run into Michael's group?"

"He will look for me so all I've got to do is make enough noise. If I shout it should get his attention." Everyone in camp knew what I could do. When I first arrived I asked Chiron what god or goddess could do what I could. I had to demonstrate it and afterword's he was so fascinated he had me test it in all sorts of ways. What happens if you only say one word? What happens if you use two? Can I vary the effect? That was the one thing he had me trying to do for a long time. He said I just needed to use different words. Problem is I didn't know them.

"I thought it didn't do anything to demigods?"

Wasn't that disappointing? Not only was I weaker and slower than most demigods my age but my special ability didn't work on them properly. It did work. Just not as well as on other things. They seemed resistant to whatever it was. Chiron told me demigods are naturally highly resistant to magic. What that meant is that three words would probably only knock them off their feet. I wouldn't know. Chiron never let me use more than two on a camper. Even that only made Luke slide back a little.

"It works a little and he might think I'm desperate."

She slowly nodded. "Alright we will give it a shot. Might just work. Everyone! Hey Jamie, come here! Gather round-"

While she started explaining the plans to the group I grabbed Annabeth's hand and started pulling her away. She resisted for a second before following me.

Once we were alone I turned to her. "I'm sorry about earlier. I have no excuse. I just….When I think about Thalia…I just…" I was struggling to find the words to apologise to her. To explain how angry I get when I think of her death. Anger at the gods, at Luke, at myself. Sometimes it's like all I feel is anger.

She must see how much I'm struggling so she moves in to hug me. "It's okay. I know her death affected us in different ways. Just…don't push away the people who are still here."

I consider her words for a second. "I'll try and forgive Luke."

She pulls away from me. Judging by the smile on her face I said the right thing. "When will you talk to him?"

I smile back. Maybe I should try and push away my anger more. "After capture the flag."

An hour later and four children from the Hermes cabin and I were walking through the forest about halfway between our flag and the stream that divides cuts through the midway point of the map.

Once I was satisfied we were close enough to the border I stopped.

"FUS RO DAH!"

We didn't even have to wait a minute for them to show up. The only problem is that there were a lot more of them than I thought there would be. There must have been at least a dozen that came out of the woods. At the head of them was Michael.

He grinned at me.

That's when I decided it was time to go. "Run!" I shouted.

I took off into the woods behind me as fast as I could. I saw an arrow pierce a tree next to my head and I heard some clashing and shouting behind me. I chanced a glance back and saw that there were only three people chasing me. The rest of them were attacking the group I came here with. I didn't expect them to last very long but they would at least distract them for a bit.

I grinned. The plan was working.

I eventually ran into the clearing that Marlene chose to spring the trap. I smiled at my success for a second before I felt excruciating pain shoot through my left calf. I let out a scream before I fell onto the floor.

Once I stopped rolling I looked down at my leg and found an arrow sticking out of my calf. Damn that hurt.

"Look what we caught boys!" Michael shouted as he came stalking into the clearing.

"We caught ourselves a rat!" I unsheathed my dagger while struggling to control my panic.

'Where are they?'

Deciding to take some initiative I climbed unsteadily onto my feet and moved my knife into a reverse grip and crouching as much as I could while keeping weight off my hurt leg.

When they were a few feet from me Michael started smiling as he waved his sword in my face. "This is going to be fun. This one's mine boys, you go look for the flag."

With that he sprung at me with a slash. Deciding I should try and keep my space I quickly took a step back. He didn't let it faze him at all and opted to swing for me again. Once again I stepped back but I felt the sword just barely swing past my nose. He then went into another attack. It was all I could do to keep backpedalling and dodging. He was pure relentless aggression. There was only so long I could dodge.

That's when it happened. After I stepped to the side to avoid an overhead strike I buckled on my injured leg and I was kicked hard in the sternum. I went flying off my feet and landed hard on my back gasping for air.

Michael used the opportunity to kick me in the side again.

I felt a crack as I was launched back metres from the kick before coming to a stop.

I was gasping for air. Gasps quickly lead to coughs and when my hands came away from my mouth they were covered in blood. I was still staring at my hands when I was kicked in the face. My vision went white for a second and when I came to Michael was fading into and out of focus. He was saying something to me but I couldn't hear what.

He bent over me before sneering and stamping down with his foot. I felt the bones in my right arm snap. I tried to scream but it came out as more of a rasp.

I felt like I was dying. He was going to kill me. I was going to die.

The thought filled me with rage. I wouldn't die to someone as pathetic as this. With rage came a moment of clarity. A moment when I thought fuck the consequences. This insect was trying to kill me! How dare he!

"Do you hear me asshole? You should have learned t-"

"Hrrk." He thought I was completely out of it. Not considering me a threat he leaned over my body and decided to gloat. It put him in range of my spare knife. Maybe he didn't think I had time to make a new one since he threw my last one in the lake, or maybe he didn't learn his lesson from the last time him and one of his brothers ambushed me. Either way, not taking the extra knife he should've known I had would be his last mistake. With a grunt I pulled the knife from his neck. Blood spurted onto my face but I ignored that in favour of watching as his hands went to his throat and his eyes widened in panic. I watched as he grew pale and still. Only when his glassy lifeless eyes were staring at the sky did I force myself to my feet. After a few moments to take in what I did I threw up against a nearby tree.

That's how Chiron and the rest of the campers found me. My eyes slid over the absolutely shocked look on Annabeth's face to the flag in Luke's hand to the wide eyed stare he fixed me with. That's when it clicked.

They left me as bait. They used me to distract Michael and other campers. My shout most of the enemy that went looking for our flag. While they were busy with me Luke, Marlene and a few others rushed the enemy flag. Luke knew Michael hated me. He knew but he left me to him anyway. I couldn't bring myself to look at his face for another second.

I moved my eyes to Chiron. He looked angry. Extremely so.

"Jack. Collect your brother's body please. We will arrange for his funeral. Caleb please take Sam for medical treatment then bring him to the big house."

"Sir, you have to do something about him! He killed Michael!"

"Chiron please, it's not Sam's fault! "That was Annabeth.

"The hell it's not! He stabbed Michael in the neck! " Jack snarled at her.

Annabeth's face started getting red." It's obvious he was attacked."

"It's capture the fla-"

"Enough!" Chiron shouted while stamping his hooves.

"Caleb take Sam to get healing and then bring him to the big house where I will handle his punishment!" It was obvious to everyone that Chiron was angry so people started moving to obey. Caleb grabbed my arm and started pulling me. Deciding it was for the best I limped along with him.

I felt someone grab my other arm and pull me around." I…Sam I'm sorry we had an opportunity to get the flag and Marlene convinced me to go along with it. I… I'm sorry Sam. "

The whole time Luke apologised I was thinking of how this proves I was right about him. He threw me to the wolves the first time it could benefit him. I felt Annabeth's gaze on my face and I turned to meet her watery eyes. She looks upset but at the same time hopeful. She believes I'm going to forgive him. I turned my gaze back to Luke for a second. He looked remorseful but when I looked in his eyes I remembered the moment I realised he left me to someone he knew hated me. Knew would try and hurt me. All so he could win at a stupid game!

Very deliberately I turned away from him and started my way towards the healing tent.

Quite a time jump between this chapter and the last one. Some things in this story will go the same way as cannon and unfortunately Thalia's fate is one of them. I'm not interested in writing what happened in cannon so there will be multiple time jumps over this story skipping some of cannon. At least until things start getting into the main story.