Her eyes widened and she stepped away from him.
Leila just glared.
"Who?".
He ignored her, eyes trained on Thalia.
Blue eyes met green ones and she physically flinched.
"Percy?".
Her voice sounded smaller, more like the 15 year old girl she still looked like.
"Who is Percy Jackson?", Leila turned to Thalia, now. And for the first time Thalia seemed to realise that she was asking a question.
"He's my… he's my cousin. He went missing three years ago. Nobody knew where he was, even Lady Artemis couldn't track him".
The shock in her eyes morphed into anger and she stormed over and slapped him across the face.
"Perseus Jackson! You went missing for three years!".
He chuckled and then she slapped him again.
"And then you come here and freeze five of my hunters!".
All five still captured hunters on the ground glared at him.
He hadn't even realised that they were still frozen.
He waved a hand and the ice disappeared.
"Better?", he asked sarcastically.
"Much", she turned back around and tended to her sisters, but none of them were hurt so she quickly turned back around.
"I think you owe quite a few people an apology, Thalia", Percy said, tauntingly.
"Oh yeah? And why's that?". Her face gave away nothing, but her eyes twinkled with just the smallest amount of amusement.
"Well, for starters, you tried to kill me, Xavier, Frank, Hazel, Piper, Jason, Annabeth, Nico, and Leo".
She winced. "Yeah… Sorry about that. I'll be right down to explain".
Percy got a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
"No need…".
Before she could say anything or try to get away, Percy stepped forward, grabbed her under the arms and opened his wings, gliding down to camp with a screaming Thalia underneath him.
The campers who had gathered for the spectacle had all dissipated, but when Percy and Thalia got within hearing range everybody looked up at the sky again.
"I'm going to kill you, Kelp Head!".
"You already tried that, remember? It didn't work". He laughed as he set her back down on the ground in front of his friends.
"Look who I found stalking us in the woods?".
Annabeth looked at Thalia incredulously. "Why were you hunting us, Thalia?".
Once she had recovered her wits, Thalia stood back up in front of the group and held out her hands to placate them.
"Okay… So this was all just some big understanding. We were hunting a strong evil force and tracked it all the way here. We get here, and see some dark figure in a hood tailing you guys and figure we found our person".
The group seemed to relax, and Leo laughed.
As everybody relaxed, Thalia seemed to notice Xavier standing at the edge of the group for the first time.
"Who are you?".
Xavier ignored her question and looked at Percy with mock anger.
"You didn't tell her? You never tell your friends who I am. I drop in the first time from a majestic sun ray and start to joke around, only to find that you are about to flash freeze everybody, and they still don't know who I am".
Percy grinned and shrugged his shoulders, and Xavier turned back to face Thalia.
"I'm Xavier. I work with this idiot".
"Kelp head?".
"Seaweed Brain?".
Everybody offered Xavier nicknames to call Percy while he rolled his eyes.
"So what are you? Hot, and he's cold".
She was just joking, but Xavier nodded.
"Exactly. I think you're the first person to get that".
Thalia walked with them through camp as they made their way towards the gates of camp.
They explained the quest to her as they walked, and when they finally reached the gates she was all caught up.
Reyna was waiting for them when they arrived. She looked like she was about to say something, but then she saw Thalia.
"Thalia? When did you get here?".
"She tried to kill me and then I pinned her to a tree with Anaklumos until she calmed down".
Reyna looked at them, trying to figure out if they were joking or not. They weren't, and Reyna next pinned her gaze on Thalia.
"Why?".
"I thought he was the dark entity that we have been tracking. You have to admit, he does look pretty suspicious with that hood up".
They all laughed and Reyna just looked on at them with confusion in her eyes.
"Hazel, Frank. You're going on this quest with them?".
The laughter subsided and they nodded their heads.
"You will be okay without me for a little while?", Frank asked Reyna.
"Yes, yes. Camp Jupiter will be fine in your absence. As long as you don't bring a war back with you". She smiled good-naturedly, but there was an element of truth to her words.
Frank cast a questioning look around him at all of the Roman campers milling about their usual daily activities.
"Don't worry. I will explain to them where you have gone. Now go. You don't have much time".
Frank nodded, giving Camp Jupiter one last glance before turning and running from the camp along with the rest of the crew.
The exited the camp in a more normal way than they had entered, and soon found themselves walking along the road that the exit tunnel had let out on.
A bird call came from the forest nearby, and Thalia looked over to see Leila and the rest of her hunters waving to her from the trees nearby.
She sighed and turned to Percy, hugging him tightly.
"See you Kelp Head".
She held on to Percy for just a little bit longer than everybody else, and as she trudged up the hill to join her sisters, she couldn't help but look back and pray quietly to the gods that they would be all right.
The group continued on walking in no particular direction down the road.
"If I remember right there should be a bus stop up here", Annabeth said, looking around.
"We can take the bus to Los Angeles in a couple of hours".
"That sounds much better than walking all day", Leo agreed, stretching his legs.
Percy nodded along, and soon the bus stop came into view in front of them.
His hood was still up, shrouding his face in shadows. Like he had told the others earlier, the Mist didn't hide or distort scars, they would look just as ugly and gruesome to the mortals as they did to anybody else.
Despite the dangerous and potentially world threatening quest looming ahead of them, the group was in a good mood, laughing and joking around with each other as they waited for the bus in the station.
Even Nico spared a small smile every once and a while.
The other mortals at the station looked at them with annoyed expressions on their face.
Percy didn't know what they were seeing instead of nine teenagers with battle armory and very dangerous weapons strapped to their hips, but whatever it was must have been annoying.
He still joked around with his friends, but he couldn't help but he tense.
Something wasn't right here, and the mortals kept throwing him dirty looks.
Finally, the bus pulled up and there was a sarcastic cheer from the group as they stood up.
Percy was the closest to where the bus had pulled up, so he went to get on first.
"Hold on there, son".
He looked up at the bus driver, confused.
The driver was squinting his eyes suspiciously at him.
"Why don't you take that hood off before you get on".
Percy froze.
"Why?".
His face was covered by his hood, but the driver could definitely feel his cold glare even from beneath it.
"We can't be having any suspicious people on the bus, I would feel better if I could see your face".
Percy took a deep breath, trying to keep a hold on his frustration, even as frost slowly began to spread from where his foot was on the bottom step.
"I don't think that that's a good idea. My face would just scare you".
Percy's friends were silent behind him, watching the exchange.
The driver smiled slightly at his comment.
"You can't be that bad, son. I've seen some ugly people in my day".
"No. Trust me, sir. It would be better for everyone if I could just get on the bus and move on".
The driver smiled down at them kindly, but his next words were anything but.
"Well, son, if you don't take that hood down then I'm afraid I can't let you or your friends on this bus".
Percy tensed, his eyes growing dark under the hood.
This guy has no idea what he's getting in the way of right now.
"Fine".
He put as much of his frustration into the word as he possibly could, and was satisfied when he saw him flinch.
He took his hand off the rail and reached up, flicking the hood down so it rested on his back.
The driver's eyes widened, and ice now covered the entire bottom step of the stairs.
"What is that. Some kind of gang symbol or something?".
He was still staring at the trident carved into Percy's cheek, but when his eyes met Percy's again, he flinched back even more at the darkness and anger in them.
"No. No. You're part of some gang! You can't come on this bus. No, I'm sorry".
With that he closed the doors and drove off. Leaving the group of demigods behind at the bus stop with no other way to get there than to walk.
Percy glared after the bus, pulling his hood back up and shrouding his face in shadows after some mortals walked by and stared at him.
"Annabeth, do you know how to walk to Los Angeles from here?".
His voice was quiet and restrained, like he was holding back his feelings.
"Ye-yeah. If we get a map I think that I could get us there".
He took a deep breath, flexing and unflexing his fists in an attempt to calm down, before he gave a small smile and nodded to the rest of the group.
"Let's get going, then. We have a long walk ahead of us".
The others looked at him warily, but started walking anyway.
He walked at the back of the pack, not in the mood to talk to anyone even as the mood among the rest of them picked up and started joking around again.
His stupid scar.
"Hey, Percy. You okay?".
Piper had floated to the back of the group and was now walking next to him.
His hands were in front of him, fiddling with Anaklumos in pen form like he tended to do when he was anxious about something.
"I'm fine", his voice was quiet and didn't hold any anger towards her, but he made it clear that they were done talking about the topic.
He seemed closed off, like he was lost in his own thoughts, so she drifted back up to walk with the rest of the group and left him alone.
"Hey, Xavier".
"Hey!".
He was so perky like a child of Apollo. Sometimes she forgot where he came from and just how powerful he was.
"I'm worried about Percy".
He frowned slightly and asked her to explain.
"I was just back there asking him how he was, but he seemed distant. I think he's really ashamed of that scar".
He nodded. He had noticed that too.
"Yeah, he was always like that. Even in the palace he always wore around that hood. Lady Chaos and I always had to bribe him to get him to take it off".
"Oh, yeah! You lived in Chaos' palace! How was that? How was she?".
The topic moved on, and Xavier happily told her about the palace and about how Lady Chaos really wasn't as scary as some people thought she was.
Percy continued to brood at the back of the pack, and as the day wore on others tried to come back and ask him if he was okay.
But he wasn't. He wasn't okay.
Finally, when Jason came back to where he was walking to ask if he was "sure he was fine", Percy snapped.
"You know what? No! I'm not okay! I will never be okay".
Jason took a step back in surprise and the rest of the group stopped walking and turned around to face him at his outburst.
He ripped down his hood.
"This… this thing is just a reminder of all that I've lost. I've lost everything! Everything I've ever loved. I can't even go out in public anymore without being stared at and pegged as a gang leader".
His skin began to steam, and seemed to grow a shade paler as his body temperature dropped at an alarming rate.
"Everything…", his voice was quieter now, but he was by no means calming down.
The steam began to come off of him in thicker clouds, drawing a few curious stares from mortals around them. Though what they saw the group didn't know, or care for that matter.
Annabeth stepped forward.
"That's not true Percy. You haven't lost everything. We're still here, your friends, Camp Half-Blood, me. We're all still here and we all still love you".
Their friends nodded in agreement, but her words just riled Percy up again.
The ground began to shake slightly, and they looked around nervously.
"You don't get it, do you? I can never have that life again. Those two years… down there. It changed me. That person that you guys knew doesn't exist anymore. I can go to Camp Half-Blood but I can never return, I can love you, but I can never be with you". He looked away as his voice cracked, tears gathered in his eyes and threatened to fall. And even in the middle of summer in Los Angeles ice coated the ground around their feet.
"So no. I'm not fine. I will never be fine. So just stop asking".
His steely tone of voice returned, and the tears were gone from his eyes as he looked up and met the gaze of all his friends.
Annabeth's eyes were misty with unshed tears. Mind still dwelling on a part of his words.
"I love you but we can never be together".
She opened her mouth and was about to say something when an arrow flew over their heads.
At first she thought it was the hunters again and she furrowed her brow in confusion.
But the arrow was different, black where the hunters' had been silver.
More rained down from the sky, and they looked around for something to use as cover but there wasn't anything.
They were in California, the only bush or tree around them right now was either dead or dying.
Thankfully, they didn't have very good aim, and the arrows seemed to land all around them.
She looked up and saw an arrow flying straight towards her.
It would have skewered her through the eye, but a silvery white blade caught it and deflected it away.
The cold that radiated off of it left her with no doubt who had saved her.
She turned to Percy, "Thank you".
But he wasn't paying attention, his gazed was trained to something behind her, and as she turned around she saw what it was.
A large group of monsters was making their way towards them.
They should have expected it, after all nine half-bloods (two of them being children of the big three) together was bound to attract some attention.
Anger and frustration and whole host of other emotions still radiated off of Percy in waves, and they seemed to multiple and become stronger as his eyes settled on the wave of monsters.
He charged, not waiting for the rest of the group to get their bearings.
Anaklusmos was already extended, and his wings opened as he took to the air.
The crew drew their weapons, intent on following him on foot, but Xavier stopped them by standing in front of the group and holding out a hand.
"What are you doing? Move! We have to go help him!", Annabeth said, stepping forward and attempting to shove him out of the way.
But he was firmly planted and wouldn't budge.
"Don't. He needs to work off some steam".
"Work off some steam?! That's practically an army! You don't just take on an army by yourself to work off some steam".
Jason too stepped forward, and judging by the looks in the others' eyes they all felt the same way.
But Xavier just smiled.
"Trust me. He needs this".
They just shook their head and pushed him out of the way, but stopped once they saw what Percy was doing.
His trident was whipping around him so fast it was just a blur around him. He stabbed and swiped, using both ends as the deadly weapons that they were. A trail of monster dust followed him as he cut through the crowd of monsters like they were nothing.
The entire group just stared at him, shocked. Drawn weapons forgotten in their hands they did as Xavier asked and let him handle it.
Percy threw his trident across the field where they had been fighting, skewering the last monster as it tried to run away back where it had come from.
As it crumbled to dust, the trident returned to his hand and he stood there, in the middle of a field of monster dust.
Finally he decided to walk back over and join the rest of the group.
"Do you feel better now?", Xavier teased, but there was a hint of sincerity in his voice.
Percy nodded, twirling his trident between his fingers.
"Sorry, guys", he muttered.
"What was that? I couldn't hear you", Xavier cupped a hand to his ear and leaned in dramatically close.
"I said I'm sorry for not being able to control my emotions!", Percy yelled into it, making Xavier flinch and him smirk.
Xavier rubbed his ear and backed away. "Let's just go now".
They walked out of the field, now filled with significantly more sand than before, and back onto the main road.
Percy could tell they wanted to talk about him, so a few minutes after they reached the road and continued on, he muttered something about checking the location of the entrance and took to the air.
After he had flown away, the rest of the seven turned to Xavier.
"Why are we here?", Jason asked, frustration shown on his normally impassive face.
"What do you mean? To go on the quest, to defeat Tartarus by destroying his source of power. I thought we went over this?", Xavier threw them a grin but nobody seemed to notice.
"Percy just defeated half an army of monsters by himself, to blow off some steam. Why does he even need us for this? With both of you here we don't need to be here too".
The others nodded in saddened agreement, but Xavier just shook his head.
"I don't think you understand. We're going to the Unruled. There are more than just monsters down there. Even being Chaos champions, if only the two of us went down there we'd never be seen again".
"So were going because there's safety in numbers", Piper clarified, although she didn't look all too thrilled about it.
"No and yes. Each of you is strong in your own right. You're each powerful demigods, and you'll each be invaluable to the quest".
They seemed appeased at that, but they still tilted their heads up to look at where Percy could still be seen far away, flying on winter winds with his dark angel wings.