p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strongChapter 19 /strong/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strongCamp Half-Blood/strong/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The camp was shocked into silence./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""So, how do we know if we can trust Percy?" asked Artemis, breaking the silence. \/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Easy." Shrugged Thalia. "You don't."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""What?" asked a bewildered Poseidon./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Hades nodded. "Our niece is right, brother. We can't trust Perseus. Not now, anyways."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""So we do kill him?" Asked Athena with rare excitement in her calculating eyes./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""No!" yelled Thalia. "Just... don't trust him right now."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The gods sighed while the seven plus the other campers watched in silence./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""So if we can't trust Percy, how do we win?" asked Zeus./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Seriously?" asked Thalia, gesturing to herself./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Zeus stared on blankly while Hephaestus and Hermes sniggered./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Jason finally spoke up, "What was Percy's plan before he became… unavailable?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Distress was clear in Thalia's eyes. "That's the problem. I don't emknow/em Percy's plan."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I do." Hades said grimly./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The attention turned back to the god of the underworld./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Well?" asked Zeus impatiently./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Hades avoided eye contact with Poseidon and the seven as he said, "He was planning on leading battle right into camp-"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""WHAT!?" screeched Apollo, who was then promptly thwacked by Artemis./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Hades continued on as if he wasn't just cut off by the god of prophecies who should have foreseen this in the first place. "Where the demi-gods, hunters, and amazons, would be waiting for the attack. Kronos would think the camp was asleep and non-suspecting, and then Percy had some brilliantly-not-so-brilliant plan to kill Kronos and Gaea. Of course, I don't know this 'brilliant' plan of his."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Athena nodded, "The romans, greeks, amazons, and hunters… yes that could work." She said in thought./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Well…" Leo said. "Can't we just invade their base and set it on fire?" he asked, flames dancing on the center of his palm./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Hazel rolled her eyes. "No Valdez. We can't. I think we should continue the original plan, Thalia can fill in for Percy, and then we can come up with our own brilliant plan to take down Kronos and Gaea."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"There was a number of nods from all around and then it was settles. Thalia would carry out the plan and together they would dominate./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strongMeanwhile… /strong/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Percy sat there on the ground, crumpled in a ball in the middle of the forest. His head was held in his hands as he screamed in frustration./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Finally he gave up and the remains of his will crumpled. He felt as if he had been drugged numb from head to toe. He could sense himself getting up, as he started walking through the forest, yet he couldn't feel himself moving. His sea green eyes were now solid gold./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"It was as if he were dreaming, or hallucinating. Maybe that's what it was. A mere hallucination of his imagination./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"emBut no,/em he told himself. He knew this was real. He knew that there was a possibility of this happening. And he knew that maybe this one time, he overestimated himself./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Maybe this one time, he wouldn't be the one to win. He wouldn't be the one to save the world. He wouldn't be the one to emsurvive/em./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"But he had to be. It was his destiny. Wasn't it? Wasn't it emalways/em him? Always him who had to play the hero and come out scathed by the loss of his loved ones. Always him who had to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"It was emalways/em him./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"emAlways. /em/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"It was always him who came out on top. Him, who pushed to survive. Him, who defied the odds./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Until now./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"So when Percy found himself standing on the outskirts of the city, sword in hand, and an evil, cold hearted laugh bubbling from his throat and escaping his lips, he knew, just emknew/em, that there was a difference between always, and forever./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"And always? It ends now./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strong***/strong/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strongCamp Half-Blood/strong/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The camp was shocked into silence./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""So, how do we know if we can trust Percy?" asked Artemis, breaking the silence. \/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Easy." Shrugged Thalia. "You don't."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""What?" asked a bewildered Poseidon./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Hades nodded. "Our niece is right, brother. We can't trust Perseus. Not now, anyways."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""So we do kill him?" Asked Athena with rare excitement in her calculating eyes./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""No!" yelled Thalia. "Just... don't trust him right now."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The gods sighed while the seven plus the other campers watched in silence./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""So if we can't trust Percy, how do we win?" asked Zeus./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Seriously?" asked Thalia, gesturing to herself./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Zeus stared on blankly while Hephaestus and Hermes sniggered./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Jason finally spoke up, "What was Percy's plan before he became… unavailable?"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Distress was clear in Thalia's eyes. "That's the problem. I don't emknow/em Percy's plan."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""I do." Hades said grimly./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"The attention turned back to the god of the underworld./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Well?" asked Zeus impatiently./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Hades avoided eye contact with Poseidon and the seven as he said, "He was planning on leading battle right into camp-"/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""WHAT!?" screeched Apollo, who was then promptly thwacked by Artemis./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Hades continued on as if he wasn't just cut off by the god of prophecies who should have foreseen this in the first place. "Where the demi-gods, hunters, and amazons, would be waiting for the attack. Kronos would think the camp was asleep and non-suspecting, and then Percy had some brilliantly-not-so-brilliant plan to kill Kronos and Gaea. Of course, I don't know this 'brilliant' plan of his."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Athena nodded, "The romans, greeks, amazons, and hunters… yes that could work." She said in thought./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;""Well…" Leo said. "Can't we just invade their base and set it on fire?" he asked, flames dancing on the center of his palm./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Hazel rolled her eyes. "No Valdez. We can't. I think we should continue the original plan, Thalia can fill in for Percy, and then we can come up with our own brilliant plan to take down Kronos and Gaea."/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"There was a number of nods from all around and then it was settles. Thalia would carry out the plan and together they would dominate./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strongMeanwhile… /strong/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Percy sat there on the ground, crumpled in a ball in the middle of the forest. His head was held in his hands as he screamed in frustration./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Finally he gave up and the remains of his will crumpled. He felt as if he had been drugged numb from head to toe. He could sense himself getting up, as he started walking through the forest, yet he couldn't feel himself moving. His sea green eyes were now solid gold./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"It was as if he were dreaming, or hallucinating. Maybe that's what it was. A mere hallucination of his imagination./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"emBut no,/em he told himself. He knew this was real. He knew that there was a possibility of this happening. And he knew that maybe this one time, he overestimated himself./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Maybe this one time, he wouldn't be the one to win. He wouldn't be the one to save the world. He wouldn't be the one to emsurvive/em./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"But he had to be. It was his destiny. Wasn't it? Wasn't it emalways/em him? Always him who had to play the hero and come out scathed by the loss of his loved ones. Always him who had to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"It was emalways/em him./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"emAlways. /em/p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"It was always him who came out on top. Him, who pushed to survive. Him, who defied the odds./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"Until now./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"So when Percy found himself standing on the outskirts of the city, sword in hand, and an evil, cold hearted laugh bubbling from his throat and escaping his lips, he knew, just emknew/em, that there was a difference between always, and forever./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"And always? It ends now./p
p style="margin: 20px 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"strong***/strong/p