"I trust that jackass as far as I can throw him." Annabeth muttered, leaning in close to Chiron from across the table. Chiron sighed and leant back in his wheelchair, wheeling away from the table and toward the tea set. "Chiron, are you even listening to me?"
"Do you know the first time Perseus Jackson visited this camp?" Chiron asked, and without waiting for an answer, he continued. "Percy Jackson was seven, I believe, and he arrived a broken and beaten boy, with one eye and scars on approximately seventy percent of his body, and he left in the care of five goddesses, including your mother."
"I don't honestly give a damn!" Annabeth said. "When has my mother ever shown me support?! All I have to show for a 'mother's love' is a Yankee's cap that makes me disappear, as if that isn't telling! All she wants is for me to disappear! But look at little-perfect-Perseus in here! Five goddesses?! I can hardly get attention from the one that's supposed to love me!"
As Chiron put the teapot on the mantle to heat up, he sighed and shook his head. Perseus walked into the room at that moment and he and Chiron shared a look. Chiron rolled back toward Annabeth and took her hand, guiding her to look at Perseus who appeared to hold nothing but contempt for Annabeth. "I love Athena, she's my aunt, and I would do anything to help her."
"Annabeth, Please stop this, you as well Perseus!" Chiron tried to interrupt the two and Perseus nodded, turning to face Chiron.
"The hunters are requesting a sleeping bag for a new recruit. We have someone who's going to be sleeping in our cabin from now on." Perseus stated, looking between Chiron and Annabeth with an expression of indifference. As Perseus turned for the door, he made one last remark over his shoulder. "By the way, I was the one who delivered that hat. I like the Yankees."
"Fuck off!" Annabeth screamed as Perseus walked away. Chiron quietly poured two cups of tea and sidled over to Annabeth, placing a mug in front of her. "Have you seen his magic?"
"No." Chiron said. "However, knowing his patronage, I can only assume that it is beyond reckoning."
"Percy defeated the most skilled swordsman in the last three centuries in mere seconds, with no weapon, only magic! He should not be allowed to compete in Capture The Flag!" Annabeth yelled, her temper getting the best of her. Chiron simply took a cautious sip of his tea and nodded slowly. "So you agree?"
"No" Annabeth recoiled. "When Luke gained and upheld his record victory streak, did you plead for him to be exempted from the games for fear of his team being overpowered?"
"For that matter, your own streak is also impressive, and add to that, Thalia's natural skills and capabilities and you pose a formidable threat." Chiron finished, sighing sadly.
"Fine! Then how about we just don't let Perseus use his magic, and he can still fight?" Annabeth suggested, thinking that she had found a reasonable middle ground. "He can use his weapons and anything else, but no magic."
"If so, then you cannot utilize any magic either." Chiron countered. "All is only fair in love and war both parties know of said love or war."
As this argument volleyed back and forth between the two, Perseus stood just outside the door, listening intently to the entire argument. As he pondered the pros and cons of complying with Annabeth's demands, an idea formed in his head, rolling about, refining itself until finally, he couldn't help but giggle. With a handicap this large, Annabeth's pride would never stand for him to win, and win he shall.
"How about this?" Perseus postulated, re-entering the room. "I'll agree to not use any magic, and only one weapon, and I'll even stay on defense, alone, and if the hunters still win, you have to call me sir, for the rest of my life."
Aannabeth looked aghast for a moment before her face twisted into a Cheshire grin. "Counter proposal, you can go anywhere, and if you lose, you're my slave whenever you're at camp."
"Deal." Perseus leapt at the chance. "See you tonight, Chase."
••••••••••••••••••••••
An hour later, Perseus sat on the floor in the middle of the Artemis cabin, staring down a map and mentally charting plans of attack and retreat, lanes where the brush was thick enough to ambush campers, and areas where there were low hanging branches, perfect for perching, hiding and traps. Surrounding the map alongside him were Zoë, Phoebe, Lou, Silena, and Chamomile, a small tree nymph.
"Zoë and I will be the main attraction at center line, we'll stake out at the creek, along with five other hunters, we'll spread out so we cover the entire creek, and we'll use some tripwire and figure four traps to catch anybody sneaky enough to get through a gap." Phoebe plotted, pointing out spots on the map that ran along the creek. "What about you Percy?"
"Me and Silena are going to be west flank, we're going to sidle through their lines and avoid attention, then, when we get to the flag, Silena will take the flag and run for our side, and I'll be a distraction." Perseus said, all the while, Zoë remained silent, gazing downward with deep trepidation. "Zoë, what's wrong?"
"Nothing!" Zoë quickly looked up and planted a facade of serene grace on her face. "I was just thinking, I'm sorry, please continue."
"Anyway." Lou began, biting her lip and adjusting her glasses slowly. "That explains everything...except for why I'm here."
"Lou..." Perseus began, his scarred face breaking into a smile. "What do you know about statuary?"
•••••••••••••••••••••
Capture the flag was about to begin, the forest had been divided, the teams had finished their cheering and jeering, and it was time for the real show to begin. The hunters made quick work of the half mile run from the mess hall to the forest, Annabeth catching Perseus' eye with a malicious smirk as he left.
The campers, however, felt no need to rush and decided instead to save their energy for the fight to come. Their slow pace would cost them the entire battle, because as the campers were making their way to the forest, the hunters were setting up traps, trip wires, and a special surprise on defense.
Finally, the flags were planted, the teams arrayed, and the battle lines drawn, it was time for the conch to sound. As the shell's call enveloped the forest, the sound of yelling campers and whooping hunters permeated the air as the whiz of arrows and the clashing of blades began.
Percy and Silena slunk through the forest, their footsteps were barely whispers as they passed camper after camper, nearly invisible in the brush.
Zoë and Phoebe, however, we're facing much more action. Zoë herself was being congregated upon by the same seven Ares campers that Perseus had shot the other day. She stood her ground with just her bow for a while before even that was knocked aside by a thrown shield.
"Ha! Why don't you call over your little boy slave and we'll let you off the hook, eh slut?" One of the Ares campers sneered, grinning lecherously at Zoë's lithe form.
"I won't need Perseus, I think I'll be fine with just a knife." Zoë's smirk sent shivers up the spines of the surrounding campers.
I'm afraid the next ten minutes of horror are beyond my contractually defined rights to reveal as an author, though I can say that Zoë lost her dessert privileges for the rest of eternity, and also got the last shower time slot for the next three millennia.
"Well boys, this was fun, maybe next time you could wear your big boy pants?" Zoë growled in mock amusement. "Who's next?"
The nearby brush rustled with fleeing opponents, all clutching their manhood, just making sure it hadn't been removed.
Fifty yards to the north of the forest, two figures were creeping closer to the camper's flag. One figure signaled over her shoulder and gestured twice at the clearing where there stood an imposing daughter of Zeus, the banner stood mere feet from the goth warrior.
"I'll take Thalia, while I distract her, you can go for the flag and run for it." Perseus smirked at Silena and she kissed him on the cheek.
"Kick ass and don't die."
"Have I ever died before?" Percy asked smiling before he leapt from his perch in the underbrush and rammed his shoulder into Thalia, knocking her away from her shield. Thalia rolled to a stop, her instincts kicking in. Before Perseus could approach again, she launched a forked bolt of lightning in Percy's direction, sending him leaping to the side to avoid being deep fried.
Perseus continued to run around Thalia, keeping a small distance, drawing her to face away from the flag. As soon as he saw Silena grab the flag and sprint across the glade he went in for close combat, drawing a pair of hatchets from his belt. Thalia lifted her shield and blocked his first blow, deflecting it away from her body, but Perseus' second blade hooked on the rim of her shield and pulled it up above her head, kicking her in the calf and launching himself away from her in one smooth movement. Thalia fell to the ground, she had pulled three muscles in her shield arm, she felt like she had pulled her hip out of joint and she could still feel some throbbing in her ribs.
Perseus walked over to her and stuck out his hand. "You have two options. Take my hand and keep fighting, or surrender."
Thalia took his hand.
••••••••••••••••••••••••
On defense, Lou was sweating, standing beside Chamomile who poised calmly with her bow drawn. Lou had never held an important role in capture the flag, and even when she saw battle, her skills were always misused, but magic...magic was something Lou was good at.
Perseus was a genius, no one would admit it to him, but his time with Athena still shined through his brusque and rebellious nature. Using a statue that he and Lou formed together (a rough copy of Perseus's body type), Perseus planned to draw the main offensive force to direct confrontation with a doll, a doll that would replicate Perseus' stone skin.
"Well, you decided to stay on defense after all?" Luke asked, clutching not only his sword, but a morning star, hoping to catch Perseus with blunt force if stabbing didn't work. "Annabeth told me that you couldn't use your magic, this time, you're mine."
The Perseus doll remained silent, but his arms rose in a stiff fighting stance. Lou was controlling him from a few meters behind the flag, her eyes closed tight as she focused on keeping the Perseus doll away from the morning star and keeping the campers away from the flag.
"What's wrong little Percy-wercy, are you scared?" Luke asked conceitedly, and he actually looked like he thought he could win.
Lou cleared her throat and said in the deepest voice she could manage: "Prepare to die."
Chamomile stepped out of the brush and began to fire a volley of arrows into the group of campers, striking a trio of Apollo campers before they could draw their bows back.
The Percy doll charged forward, ramming through the two Dionysus boys and a Demeter girl before grinding to a halt and turning on his toe to charge through the crowd again, knocking down an Athena child and a Hephaestus teen. Finally, Luke regained his wit and jumped into the fray, swinging his sword with wild yet calculated swipes that should have cut anyone else to bits, but Percy jr. Simply brought up a fist and rammed it into Luke's Morningstar hand, causing Luke to drop the large blunt weapon.
"Yes!" Lou whisper yelled, congratulating herself on the successful disarming of Luke Castellan, until she felt the cold edge of a blade on her neck and gulped.
"Lou Ellen...stand up and come with me." Annabeth Chase growled, her eyes narrowed. "Perseus! You voided our deal, you're now my slave!"
Lou began to stand, her eyes still closed, and her mind still focused on the Percy-doll. She stood up and instantly stumbled as she brought Perseus' arms up to block one of Luke's blows. Annabeth's knife dug into her side as she searched the terrain with her feet, stumbling and tripping occasionally.
"What the Hades is wrong with you?!" Annabeth inquired, her voice strained.
"I'm sorry! I don't have my glasses." Lou lied smoothly, her face still away from Annabeth and her eyes still closed. "Perseus let me stay back here when I told him that I couldn't fight without my glasses."
Annabeth continued pushing Lou forward until a hollow thunking sound was heard and Lou saw Luke fall to the floor, unconscious. Lou stopped and smiled proudly, opening her eyes for the first time during capture the flag. The game was practically won. Then she heard the horn blow and she smiled.
"Did we win?" Annabeth asked, looking around the glen for the flag and finding it: in the hand of an unconscious son of Hermes at the tree line, flat on his face, with Zoë's boot clad foot resting firmly on his spine.
Zoë gave Annabeth a smirk and then sauntered off into the woods, whistling The William Tell Overture. Annabeth was quick to follow and soon was sprinting toward the border.
There, laughing loudly with Thalia was Perseus, his hands gesturing wildly as he told some crazy story. Silena stood on his other side, laughing at his story while Thalia interjected in mock anger.
"No! No way! You were at the flag! You were there! You were stone and you knocked out Luke, and you-... how?" Annabeth just stood there stunned, her jaw hanging as she saw Perseus share a look with Zoë.
"Your conditions were that I was not allowed to use magic, and in exchange, neither would your team." Perseus began and Annabeth shook her head, already understanding.
"Lou Ellen." Annabeth muttered, rubbing her brow angrily.
"Lou was pretty wonderful wasn't she. I helped Lou make the statue, and she brought it to life. You considered me so dangerous that you ignored my team." Percy smiled as he finished with a flourish, and then came the wind. The gale force winds began with whispers brushing along people's spines and tall maples, but they continued until they were hurricanes scattering the assembled shields of the campers and sending loose arrows flying.
"Bane of Fate! Beware Delphi!" A voice screamed out, but only one person heard it, the rest of the campers and hunters simply heard a screech cut through the night.
"Approach seeker and ask." Rasped a voice from behind the crowd. Immediately, Zoë perked up and marched toward the mummified corpse, bowing before the hippie horror.
"How shall I find my lady?"
"Five shall go west to the goddess in chains-" The Oracle suddenly stopped and began to change colors, turning from green to gold. "One shall be found in the land without rain-" Here the Oracle changed back. "The bane of Olympus shows the trail, campers and hunters combined prevail, the Titan's Curse must one withstand-". Again the Oracle changed colors, but less thoroughly this time. "Or one shall perish by a parent's hand."
This time, the Oracle turned to Percy and stood tall, pointing eerily. "You must die for all to live."
As the Oracle collapse to the ground, a new bead necklace appeared on it's chest, a braid of large beads with a skull resting squarely on the center of the chest.
"Well...that was morbid." Percy deadpanned, his eyes becoming dead.
"We need to hold a counselors meeting." Chiron said calmly, stroking his beard with his arms across his armored chest.
"I need a fifth of Gin." Dionysus remarked from the back of the group, surprising everyone. "Percy Jackson, you are hereby requested by the council, I'd suggest wearing your fancy pants, because nobody likes you."
•••••••••••••••••
Percy Jackson was having a nervous breakdown. Never before had he been this nervous.
"Should I really dress up?" Percy asked Zoë, nervously fidgeting on his bed. "I mean, I've never met my father before, so should I try to make a good impression? Should I just: 'be me'? What about Aunt Thena and Mom and Aunt Aphrodite and Hestia?"
"I think you're overthinking this." Zoë sighed, pulling a dark brown shirt out of his bag, before seeing a patch of gray on the corner and realizing that the shirt was covered in blood, upon said discovery, she sighed and threw the shirt over her shoulder and kept looking for a clean shirt, finally finding a gray one, only to realize that the shirt had a very accurate representation of what happened to a human head when it was shot with a small caliber bullet. "At least it's clean."
"I can cover it up with a sweater." Perseus muttered, rolling his shoulders. "But we need to talk."
"If it's about Lou-". Zoë began, but Percy cut her off.
"It's about the dreams you've been having, and Artemis." Perseus stated with finality.
Zoë sighed and looked down at her hands as they began to shake. Zoe sat down on her bunk and fell back, staring up at the constellation dotted ceiling. "I don't want to die Perseus."
"You won't." Perseus stated without hesitation, without an ounce of comforting elegance. He said it as if he were stating a fact.
"Do you even fucking care?!" Zoe yelled, sitting up and approaching Perseus. Perseus turned and she saw why he could say it so easily. His voice had a tendency to grow cold when he cried. Zoe sighed again (she was getting tired of sighing). "I'm sorry."
"I don't want to think about you dying." Perseus whispered. "I- I think I-..." Suddenly there was a bright flash and a loud bang.
"Percy?" Athena asked, accidentally dropping in, facing the wrong way. When Percy cleared his throat, Athena turned around and saw that Perseus was standing awkwardly beside Zoe, grasping her hand tight. "Ah, I should warn you, Zeus wants to ki- shit, Dionysus is coming, good luck!"
"Get dressed, I'll stall." Zoe said to Perseus, forgetting all about his almost confession. Perseus closed his eyes tight and then began to dress. After pulling his boots on and slipping into his sweater, Perseus stepped out of the cabin and followed Dionysus to the borders of the camp. When they reached the top of the hill, Perseus caught a glance of a limousine before he felt a blow to the back of the head and his vision darkened. I'm definitely going to have brain damage from this.
"Mother-" Perseus began, his lips already forming the 'f' when he heard someone clear their throat. He opened his eyes and saw that with him in the limousine was his aunt Aphrodite. "Hey...auntie…"
"Hello to you too Perseus." Aphrodite smirked, allowing a brief smile to cross her lips before she adopted a cold persona again, remembering to discourage foul language. She looked him up and down, swallowing down a gag at his choice of clothing. A gray t-shirt, camo cargo pants and a black sweater (one of her few allowed contributions to Perseus' wardrobe). "You look like you just walked out of a duffel bag."
"Only my clothes did Auntie, though I could really use something for my eye." Perseus whispered, pulling his hair away from his empty eye socket. Aphrodite bit her lip. She still couldn't understand how Perseus had survived that horrendous childhood, she wished she could go back and take him and his mother and just...hide them from the world...they were too precious to be exposed to this horrible place. "Have I ever told you how much I love you?"
"Yes, and I love you too." Perseus said, smiling broadly. Aphrodite almost cried. Emotions were her thing. Every emotion was based on love, and Perseus was practically bursting with emotions, especially- oh...this was interesting indeed.
"You have a crush…" Aphrodite gasped, her eyes wide as she covered her mouth with her hand. She snapped her fingers and a simple leather eyepatch was wrapped around the crown of Perseus' head. Perseus quickly began to blush, pushing all of his thoughts to something- anything else. "No way! You almost confessed!"
"You can't tell anyone! Especially not Zoe or Artemis! I know you like your gossip! But I'm begging you!" Perseus said, his eyes were wide in desperation. "Please auntie."
"You are adorable...and for that I will keep your secret, but I will interrogate this possible girlfriend." Aphrodite said firmly, causing Perseus to sigh and slump in his seat. Aphrodite sobered up as Perseus felt a speed bump. "Remember all of your etiquette lessons, but this time, don't speak until you are spoken to, and when you are, you speak loudly enough so that you can be heard, but you don't yell, keep eye contact only long enough to show interest and respect, otherwise smile kindly an-"
"Auntie, I remember, don't worry. I remember everything you taught me." Perseus smiled, his eyes confident and his demeanor changed, instead of having his chin angled down, his eyes wreathed in shadows, his chin was up and his shoulders were squared, giving him a confident air of authority. When the car came to a stop, Perseus gestured toward Aphrodite to stay in her seat and quickly opened Aphrodite's door for her, taking her hand and helping her out of the car. As they rode the elevator up, Aphrodite stood behind Perseus, examining his posture, and his stature. He had grown in the last month, he was almost six feet tall and he still had a few years to go before he reached his full height. He also was extremely toned.
"You have a nice butt." Aphrodite noticed calmly, her lips pursed in appreciation. Perseus turned around and with a raised eyebrow unbuckled his belt and turned, mooning Aphrodite. "It's even nicer without pants."
Perseus readjusted himself and turned to face Aphrodite again, and with a completely serious face, he commented dryly. "I really can't bring myself to be fazed by that comment, I've been around you too long." The elevator dinged and Perseus took Aphrodite's arm and linked it with his as he walked the winding road to the doors that would determine his fate...