Chapter 6

"He said what?" Annabeth asked in disbelief.

Percy and Annabeth both sat on his bunk in cabin three. They sat cross-legged across from one another, talking about what had happened after the counselor's meeting.

"He said that he was better and me and that's why so many people died when we were defending Olympus." Percy said.

Annabeth shook her head, "I can't believe he'd say something like that."

"I can't either." Percy agreed.

The truth was Percy didn't know if Jason actually meant what he said. Something seemed wrong with him before he said that. While he and Annabeth walked to his cabin, he thought back to the incident. He remembered seeing Jason twitch, like something or someone was controlling him. The fact that he walked into the Big House like a robot only added more weight to this theory.

The main issue with Percy's theory however, was that he couldn't see how Jason could be controlled by anyone.

"Well, you really shouldn't have pushed him, everyone saw that." Annabeth said, "But that's a really low blow to talk about that battle. You did everything you could, you can't save everyone."

"I know, it's just…Beckendorf." Percy faltered.

Annabeth gently grabbed his arm, her face reassuring while her touch soothed him.

Percy had felt pretty guilty about Beckendorf's death. He wasn't best friends with the guy, but they were friends nonetheless. He tried to save the son of Hephaestus but failed epically, he still had dreams about the raid, but luckily the dreams were growing increasingly rare.

"Beckendorf wouldn't want you blaming yourself for what happened." Annabeth told him, "He made his choice."

"I know, I just wish it ended differently."

"We all do, Percy." Annabeth said.

Percy looked at the war map that he and Annabeth had been working on, he desperately wanted to play, but if Jason was serious about keeping him out of the game, he wouldn't be able to do anything. The last thing he wanted to do was get into a physical fight with the son of Jupiter.

"Well, what's the plan if I can't join you during capture the flag?" Percy asked, mainly to change the subject to something more bearable.

"I won't play if you're not there." Annabeth said, "I can't ruin the fun for everyone, but I'm not going to let you sit by yourself on the sidelines."

"Nah, don't do that. Just go ahead, our team can't win if both of us are out." Percy said.

Annabeth shook her head, "No, I'm not doing that."

He sighed, Annabeth was always a stubborn girl, she didn't give up easily.

Percy got ready to argue but was surprised when Annabeth gently pushed him and climbed on top of him. She looked down at him, "I don't care what happens, I'm not leaving you behind."

Percy knew the true reason why she was acting the way she was. She was terrified of losing him, especially after that whole incident in the forest. He didn't blame her, she had just started talking to him after a few days of silence and then next thing she knows, he's in the infirmary dying in front of her. Anyone would've been shaken up by that.

"Alright." He said.

If only he knew that they wouldn't make it to capture the flag.

Ω

Percy stayed in his cabin for a few days, despite his desire to go around camp and participate in activities. He only left his cabin for chores and meals. He had to let Nico continue in teaching his sword lessons since Jason had restricted him from doing that too, apparently the chances of someone getting hurt was too high.

Percy's mood went from saddened to angered within a few days, no one else around camp was forced to be confined in their cabin.

To say Percy was bored would be a understatement. He tried keeping himself busy by cleaning his cabin or by playing video games but eventually that got boring. He'd beaten all the Assassin's creed games he had and he had slayed the Ender Dragon at least five times now. He'd cleaned everything in his cabin, from the floors to the bathroom. Things had gotten so boring that he had started doing push ups and sit ups just to pass the time.

The only thing that kept him sane was Annabeth checking up on him constantly. From what he was told, she'd managed to get herself some chores after she'd cursed Jason out in front of a bunch of campers. Percy couldn't tell her that she shouldn't have done that because he would've done the same thing.

The situation between Percy and Jason was complicated, he wasn't sure if he understood it himself. Jason restricted him to his cabin and refused to let him participate in capture the flag, yet he had his back when he was doing chores.

One example of this was when Percy was cleaning the stables alongside the Athena cabin. After some Ares campers came along and knocked over his water bucket, he'd told Jason. The son of Jupiter stormed over to cabin five on his behalf and forced the Ares campers to take over the chore for Percy and the Athena campers.

Despite this justified act, there was still tension between Jason and Percy. Percy couldn't help but think there was something wrong that day when he and Jason had that argument in front of the Big House. Jason didn't seem in control of himself, it was like someone was pulling the strings in that argument and it wasn't him. Then there was the whole text message Jason had made about Annabeth, Percy was starting to become really skeptical about the whole thing, mainly because of the fact that such a text made no sense at all. Jason already had Piper, Percy just couldn't see him throwing their relationship away over that.

A knock at the door caused Percy to sit up in his bed. He'd been watching some random movies that he'd been given by Annabeth, mainly to soothe his boredom. He thought they'd all be history documentaries and the like, but turns out she had good tastes in movies. She'd given him everything from Night At The Museum to Halloween.

He climbed out of his bunk and started making his way towards the door. When he opened it, he was somewhat surprised to find Jason with a clipboard in his hands.

"Hey, what's up?" Percy asked.

"Hey, Percy, sorry to bother you with this but can you do cabin inspection? I was going to have Travis do it but he's been ducking me." Jason said.

Percy was more than happy to do cabin inspection, it gave him a chance to do something other than sit in his cabin.

"Sure, I'll do it." Percy took the clipboard, "No one else was available?"

"Nah, they either were busy or turned it down." Jason said.

Percy nodded and slid past him. He looked down at the clipboard, all he had to do was inspect the male cabins.

After so many cabins were built Chiron and Mr. D had decided to split cabin inspections into two different lists, so that way the results were more readable.

After about maybe twenty minutes, Percy ended up in front of cabin nine. He walked up to the door, which wasn't a normal door, instead this door was circular shaped with a knob that controlled the gear mechanisms that moved the door. He knocked on the door instead of twisting the knob, the last thing he wanted to do was to walk in and get blasted by some crazy project.

The door opened after a few minutes. Leo stood in the doorway, grease all over his face while his hands were stained with oil. His shirt had a few scorch marks while a small cut was on the right shoulder. His signature toolbelt hung around his waist.

"What's up, Perce?" He asked.

"Cabin inspection." Percy said.

"Wasn't Travis supposed to be doing that?" Leo said as he moved aside.

"Yeah, but he's been dragging his feet." Percy said while he walked in, "I won't take long."

Percy looked around the cabin, he wasn't impressed. The weapons storage area was messy, with swords laying out of the sword rack while spears jutted out, ready to poke someone. A couple shields were lazily hanging off their hooks.

Leo sheepishly chuckled, "We, uh, got distracted."

"I have to take a point off, you guys should really get those spears put away before one of you gets hurt." Percy advised.

He moved onto the armory, which was a completely different area compared to the personal weapons storage area in the main part of the cabin. Percy hadn't been in the armory in a while, but last time he was there, the armory housed stockpiles of swords, spears, shields, daggers, and even axes.

Leo put his thumb to the biometric scanner that secured the armory. A high-pitched beep was followed by a hissing noise as the vault door moved out of the way.

Percy stepped into the armory. He was surprised by how modern the armory looked. The white LED lights reminded him of a top-secret armory. The stockpiles of weapons were there, but there was more now. After the Romans had arrived, a few of their sons of Vulcan had helped the Hephaestus campers design heavy weapons. Now cabin nine was decked out with mortars and bombs. He was sure there was more in Bunker 9 but cabin inspection was relegated to cabins only.

Goosebumps ran up Percy's arm as he walked around the armory. The armory was always cold, which he figured had something to do with the weapons stored inside. He liked what he saw in the armory, everything was neatly and securely stored. He even found their blueprints for future weapons which were rolled up and inserted into a bunch of glass tubes stored inside a circular tube storage system.

"Alright, everything looks good here!" Percy said brightly, not marking off a point as he started to leave the armory.

Percy went on to inspect the workshop, which aside from some messes left behind by current projects, was pretty clean. There were tools left out and scraps laid on the table, but Percy didn't mark the cabin off on that because he did come in while Leo and his cabin mates were in the middle of working.

The bunks were as Percy expected, neat and made. They were rarely ever messed up since the Hephaestus campers were usually in the workshop or in their secret rooms instead of their bunks.

"4/5." Percy told Leo, "I didn't mark a point off for the workshop since I came at a bad time."

Leo smiled, "Thanks, man."

Percy gave him a reassuring smile before making his way out of the cabin. He passed a few of Leo's siblings, who smiled at him. Percy felt good, it was about time he was around people who didn't hate his guts or think he'd do something to them. He knew some campers really let the accusations get to their heads and now they didn't trust him at all.

Percy walked towards the Big House, he looked down at the clipboard in his hands. His cabin got a 3/5, he was tempted to give himself a 4/5 but Annabeth was with him and forced him to be honest with cabin inspection. If she hadn't been in his cabin, he would've definitely went ahead and gave himself a extra point.

When Percy made it to the Big House, he placed the clipboard on the hanger in the main hallway. That's where it usually was and he figured Jason would come looking for it. Technically, he was in charge of handing out the rewards and punishments that came with cabin scores.

As much as Percy wished Chiron had picked two people to lead camp instead of just throwing everything onto Jason, he certainly didn't envy Jason in that regard. The guy would have to some really boring paperwork and skipping it wasn't the option.

The clipboard hung off the hanger as Percy left the Big House. If only he knew what leaving the clipboard out in the open would cause.

Ω

Annabeth shrieked with laughter as Percy tickled her sides. The daughter of Athena writhed and twisted in the sheets of Percy's bed. Her face was pink as she gasped for air, tears leaked out of her eyes due to her hysterical laughing. Her blonde hair spilled all over Percy's bed while she rolled around.

Percy wore a huge grin as he continued torturing her, his own laughter was just as loud as Annabeth's. Her laughter was contagious.

Annabeth kicked her legs in the air. Percy dodged her kicking legs, the last thing he wanted was to get kicked in the jaw by Annabeth. He knew how strong Annabeth was, if she kicked him, she'd knock him off the bed.

"Stop, you jerk!" Annabeth shrieked.

"You didn't say please!" Percy taunted, continuing his tickle torture.

Before Annabeth could roll herself off the bed, a knock at the door caused Percy to stop. He climbed off the bed and looked to the door. Annabeth sat up, her breathing was heavy and her cheeks were pink. She looked to the door just like him.

"I'll be back but this isn't over." Percy told her with a smile.

Annabeth stuck her tongue out at him as he walked over to the door. When he opened it, he was met by a red-faced Leo.

"The fuck, Percy?" Leo asked angrily as soon as Percy opened the door.

"What?" Percy was confused, he hadn't done anything in the past few hours beside make out with Annabeth.

Leo's eyes were fiery and full of rage. His orange camp shirt was wrinkled and scorched from his project in cabin nine while his toolbelt clinked around because of his constant shifting. His fists were clenched, Percy could make out the veins in his fists.

"I thought you said you gave us a 4/5!" Leo demanded, "Why the hell did Jason come to my cabin and give us KP for a week?"

Now Percy knew this wasn't a problem on his end, he knew he'd marked cabin nine correctly. There was no way he marked them wrong, he'd even double checked before he turned the clipboard in. There was no reason cabin nine should've been punished, cabins were only punished if they scored below a 2/5.

"Dude, I didn't change your score, I gave you a 4/5 for sure." Percy promised.

"Bullshit!" Leo said angrily, "Jason showed me the clipboard. You're lying to me."

"I swear I'm not!"

"You are!"

"What's all this about?" Annabeth asked as she moved in next to Percy. She placed her hand on the small of his back in a reassuring manner.

"Percy's fucking lying to me, that's what." Leo exclaimed, "He said he gave my cabin a 4/5, he gave us a damn 1/5 and now we have KP for a week! We won't be able to work on our projects."

"I didn't change your score!" Percy nearly yelled. Before Leo could say anything to refute him, he said, "Listen, if you want to accuse me of this shit, then you and me can go to Jason right now and work this out."

"Forget it!" Leo shouted as he spun on his heels, "I can't stand you right now!"

"Leo!" Percy called, "Don't walk away!"

Percy could only sigh as Leo stormed off towards cabin nine. Chasing after him would be pointless, especially if Leo stayed in his current state. All chasing after him would do would just cause a shouting match and the last thing Percy wanted to do was get into a shouting match with Leo.

"I can't believe him," Annabeth said as she started to steer him back into his cabin, "He couldn't be bothered to at least try to work with you."

Percy shook his head as he trudged towards his bunk.

Annabeth placed her hands on his shoulders, "Listen, ignore whatever Leo said, he's a idiot."

"I'm not mad about what he said." Percy said, "I'm mad about the score. I know I gave his cabin a 4/5, there's no way I failed him."

Annabeth sat next to him, "Someone probably changed the score as a prank or something."

Percy punched his pillow, "I'm tired of that! This is like the third or fourth time that someone has gotten me screwed over!"

"Percy, I don't think they—"

"It's like people here want me to get in trouble." Percy said, "It's so annoying. It ruins my whole damn week!"

"I know, Percy, I know." Annabeth assured him, "It's going to be okay."

"No, it's not!" Percy exclaimed as he flopped onto his back, "I'm getting sick and tired of people accusing me of shit I didn't do!"

Annabeth sighed, "Don't sweat it. Just try to move past it, if you let it eat at you, you'll end up feeling worse."

Percy grunted, he knew this was going to spread around camp. He was going to be known as the guy who lied about cabin inspection to Leo's face. The worst part of the whole thing was that Leo was actually well-liked around camp. When people had issues with their cabins or gear, Leo was the guy for the job.

"We'll work through this, Percy." Annabeth promised him.

Ω

Percy tossed and turned in his bunk, irritated grunts filled the cabin as he struggled to get comfortable. Sleep eluded him, but it wasn't because he wasn't tired. No, the reason he couldn't sleep was because he was too busy worrying about how everything around him seemed to be getting worse, he didn't think that was even possible.

Word had spread around camp about Leo and his cabin's score. Leo's side of the story spread like wildfire and now everyone was looking at Percy like he was the bad guy, like he'd lied to Leo's face about the score. Very few people around camp believed him, the only ones who did believe him were Annabeth and her siblings. Yet even then, some Athena campers opted to stay neutral until they knew more, which Percy didn't really mind.

Percy had went straight to cabin one after Leo yelled at him to try to figure out what had went wrong. Jason barely helped him, he said he had went and got the list and did what he was supposed to do. Percy tried to get Jason to change the punishments but when he saw the list, he was appalled the fact that the score for cabin nine was indeed 1/5.

Whoever changed it had done their homework because the ink was even the same. Unlike other campers, Percy used Riptide to write stuff down, which mean the ink would've been a glowing celestial bronze, not the typical black or blue ink you'd find in any store. Percy had nothing but his word to go off of, which meant he really had nothing because no one believed him anyways.

After that whole shitshow, Percy trudged back to his cabin and spent yet another day isolated from everyone. He only upside to staying in his cabin all day was that he didn't have to see the judgmental looks of the campers. Other than that, he was utterly miserable. If he wanted to stay in one place all day, he'd just go to his mom's apartment.

Annabeth dropped by every now and then, but she was busy with her own stuff. She was still drafting blueprints for Olympus and she still had chores to do. She tried to give him as much of her time as she could. Percy couldn't fault her for that.

When sleep finally found Percy, it didn't bring anything good.

Percy's dream was back in the rec room of the Big House. All the chairs surrounding the pool table were empty, the room was dark save for the small slivers of moonlight coming through the windows. A solitary eight ball rolled across the table as two figures talked, their faces were covered by the dark.

"Man, this is way too easy, I thought this would be harder." One of the figures said.

"You might wanna wipe that grin off your face because from here on, it's going to get a lot harder." The other figure said.

"Harder how?"

"Well, first off, look at everything we came here with. We're going through our magic items like they're fucking candy. Zena isn't going to send us anymore, even if we do manage to find a way to ask her."

Percy couldn't help but think one of the shadows' voices was painfully familiar. He tried to remember who it was but he just couldn't.

The figure continued, "That shit we pulled at the Big House, that was our last possession scroll and the damn thing nearly didn't work. I kind of wish Zena would've told us that parentage matters."

Percy was starting to really wonder who this Zena person was. He had a feeling these two shadows were involved with Jason's odd behavior in front of the Big House.

"So what do we do then?"

Percy could hear the smile in the other figure's voice as he spoke, "We wait."

A/N: This chapter took a bit to put out. Kind of hard to maintain a consistent schedule when you're working on three different stories, which is what happens when you get too excited over a idea and decide to post a story before it's completed. Yeah, i made a totally idiotic move but it is what it is. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!