POV: Third Person
At Nico's question Percy completely tensed up. His fists clenched at his side and frost began to spread, radiating out from underneath his and climbing the walls.
Thankfully, before he could completely lose it, the sun went berserk and somewhat counteracted Percy's abilities.
All eyes turned to Apollo. After all the sun was his responsibility.
But he claimed it wouldn't listen to him.
Thankfully, before everybody melted, the sun went back to how it used to be, and everybody was able to open their eyes again.
There, facing Percy was another boy.
They were about the same height, but the similarities stopped there.
He had extremely tanned skin, and curly brown hair. He was smiling like he didn't have a care in the world, and he would have looked like a normal camper if it hadn't been for the golden wings that sprouted from his back. They were similar to Percy's but different at the same time.
Percy's were dark, sharp, and overall looked dangerous. But the feathers on the newcomer's wings were rounder and golden in colour.
He wouldn't have looked scary at all if he hadn't been casually leaning on two wickedly sharp swords.
"Hey, scarface".
All the campers held their breaths. From what they had seen from Percy today, he was really touchy on the topic of his scar. Not to mention that he still exuded a cold dark aura that would have made any self-respecting demigod run away.
Percy locked eyes with the new boy, but he didn't flinch. Instead, he raised an eyebrow.
And just like that, Percy's fists unclenched, the arena's temperature rose back up and the winds died down again.
"And he's back!", the new boy turned around and smiled at the crowd as if they were old friends that were sharing a secret joke.
When he saw that everybody was just staring back at him with blank and confused expressions, he turned back to Percy.
"Come on, man! You didn't tell them about me yet?"
And then Percy did something that surprised everybody. He smiled. A real genuine smile that made him seem not so scary after all.
"Sorry. If you haven't heard I've been a bit busy".
The other boy just rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. Chaos told me last night. You just had to be the hero didn't you. Taking on Tartarus all by yourself!".
The boy was about to continue, but Percy put a finger to his lips and shut him up as the cold ominous feeling returned.
Once it had dissipated Percy glared at him.
"What have I told you about saying people's names?!"
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. I still don't understand that stupid name magic that Chaos taught you".
Percy rolled his eyes and mumbled something under his breath about human sized snowmen before turning back to face the majority of the half-bloods at camp.
They were still staring at him in awe and confusion. And he and Percy shared a look before he began to speak.
"Hello, I have come to assist you. My name is-".
Zeus finally came to his senses, then, and interrupted whatever he was about to say.
"You address me first, boy!", thunder rumbled but he didn't seem the least bit impressed.
Instead, he turned back to face Percy.
"Is this the Olympian that you were telling me about?".
Percy looked as if he were trying to hold back laughter before he answered, "Yeah".
The boy turned around and stretched his wings.
Flying up, he hovered right in front of the lord of the sky, and grinned.
But this grin was different, it was darker, and for the first time since meeting this new boy. The demigods all around the arena got a sense of how much damage he could really do.
He held out one of his swords, mere feet away from touching Zeus' nose.
Suddenly, the blade caught fire, which quickly spread up the boy's arm where it stopped.
A gasp rippled through the crowd for the third time that day, but the boy didn't seem at all fazed.
The fire cast a weird kind of light, and it reflected in his eyes giving the brown irises an ominous glow.
"Now you listen to me, Olympian", he spit out the word as if it tasted sour in his mouth and his lips curved into a slight snarl. "I will address, whoever I wish to address first. You have no control over me whatsoever", he retracted the sword, and his wings stopped moving to that he slammed into the ground. "We are allies, but that doesn't mean I have to like you".
The fire racing up his sword and arm suddenly flickered out, and his mischievous grin returned to his face.
He scanned the row of Olympians, his eyes finally resting on Hephaestus.
At the god's feet, Leo Valdez sat, fiddling with some machinery parts from his belt.
Leo had returned to camp just a year ago with Calypso. He had explained to all of the heroes how he had used the real physician's cure to bring him back to life after the explosion, and how he had continued on to retrieve Calypso from Ogygia.
Leo did not seem to notice the new boy's stare, and only looked up when he was standing above him.
Hephaestus grumbled, "Now hold on a minute-".
But the new boy did not try to attack Leo in any way. Instead, he reached out a hand for him to shake.
"You're Leo Valdez, right?", he asked.
"Yeah?". Leo was confused, but shook his hand anyway.
The new boy smiled. "I've heard a lot about you from your friend here", he said, gesturing behind him to Percy, "Nice to meet another fire kid".
With that, he turned and walked back towards Percy in the center of the arena.
Leo and his father shared a glance, but everybody quickly relaxed. Everybody but Zeus, that is. He was still grumbling about disrespect.
The new boy now addressed the crowd of demigods again. "As I was saying", he threw a pointed glance over his shoulder at Zeus, "I am the other warrior that Chaos has recruited to help with this threat. My name is Xavier, my last name is not important. I am half-blood as well, but I am not half god. I am half titan".
At the mention of their old enemies, everybody in the crowd tensed, some automatically grabbing for their weapons.
"I was bred specifically to oppose you demigods during the Titan War, and I can now crush most of you easily. I will not hesitate to do so if any of you get in my way. I no longer work for the Titans, after they lost the war, my father Hyperion, punished me, and finally I ran away. I was picked up by Chaos and now I serve her. Any questions?".
His aura had now reduced to one of warm comfort, so the demigods were less hesitant to ask him questions.
"Why do both of you have wings?"
"I have domain over all things hot; the sun, fire, the southern winds. Percy, here, has domain over all things cold; blizzards, ice, snow, the northern winds. We both have wings so that we can control the wind and wind spirits. Without them they would never take us seriously"
The demigod who had asked the question nodded, apparently satisfied, and Xavier moved on.
"Anybody else?".
"I never got an answer for my last question". It was Nico, and he was studying Percy carefully.
"What was you question?", Xavier turned to face Nico, grinning. But his expression changed as he saw how Percy was reacting.
"Where was Percy in those two years before Chaos picked him up?".
All conversation stopped and the arena became silent as all the demigods watched Percy.
Frost began to spread along the ground like menacing spider webs, and Percy's fists clenched again.
Xavier looked at Percy with a calculating gaze before turning back to face Nico.
"He was being-", Xavier was interrupted by Percy, who uncapped the pen that he had been fiddling with in his hands and hit the fully formed trident against the ground.
A shock wave travelled out from it and made the earth shake slightly, "No".
Xavier stared at him in shock. "Percy-".
"That is for me to tell".
"You can't bundle up your feelings inside of you like that. These people fought too, they'll understand". Ice cracked under his feet as Xavier stepped closer to Percy and put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, we don't need another toilet incident".
Xavier smiled slightly, and stepped back when Percy relaxed.
"Fine", Percy said. His voice was clipped off and cold, but Xavier smiled anyway.
Percy took a deep breath before he spoke, "I don't know if you all know what happened in Tartarus, so I'll tell you. When we reached the doors, Gaea's army was right behind us, our crew worked together to close them from both sides. What only Nico and I knew, was that the doors had to be closed from both sides at the same time. One person would have to stay behind. I volunteered, but I knew that Annabeth would never leave if she knew what I was planning, so just before the doors closed I shoved her through", he took another deep breath and shared a long look with Annabeth.
"Shortly after the army overcame me, but they didn't kill me. Tartarus came, he's the one who gave me this", he pointed to the scar on his cheek, "After that, I was taken to this place, I was kept in a dungeon and tortured by the remaining spirits of Kronos and Gaea. For two years I was kept in that dungeon. They tortured me with fire, and lava, and whips, and let all sorts of monsters attack me. When Chaos found me, I was just about to die, I wanted to die. She healed me, gave me a second chance, and now I'm here".
He looked around the room and met many disbelieving faces, so he continued, "I suppose it would be easier to just show you".
With that he took off his cloak and shirt, and made his wings go back into his tattoo on his back.
There was silence, total and complete silence as they all took in what they saw.
His entire body seemed to be covered in scars. Claw marks, burns, whip lash marks, they were all there. The skin on his back and chest was bumpy and uneven from scar tissue, and his chest was covered with smaller, deeper slashes that people recognised as marks from knives.
His entire body shook, it was very plainly obvious how big of a deal it was for him to show them this, but all they could do was stare.
Finally, a noise broke the silence. It was a gasp, a hiccuping gasp and it came from Annabeth who had a hand over her mouth with tears running down her face.
Poseidon had a similar reaction, he tried to stay stoic and strong but it was impossible in the face of something as horrible as that. And he didn't try to stop the tears that silently made their way down his cheeks.
Percy grasped the handle of his trident as if it were his lifeline. The area around it was frozen solid, but luckily the metal it was made out of was resistant to the cold.
He turned to face the Olympians, building up the courage and then looking his father in the eyes. He held his gaze for at least a few minutes before moving.
He knelt in front of his father, the metal of his trident swirling wildly like a blizzard as it stood tall in front of its master. It was turned so that the words that were carved into the handle were clearly visible. The writing was in ancient Greek. It spelled, 'Anaklusmos', or Riptide.
Standing back up, he walked back over and put his shirt and cloak back on. He turned, looking the son of Hades in the eye, "That's where I've been".