A/N: I don't own Greek mythology or any characters from Percy Jackson and the Olympians that might show up. All of the main characters are OC's.
Daman stared incomprehensibly at the girl in front of him. No. Not possible! His brain insisted. She can't be! But that's what she'd said. Daughter of Zeus. Zeus. His mother's murderer. Abruptly, he swung around, ignoring the hand that was outstretched towards him, and stalked towards the door.
"Daman?" Her surprised tone almost stopped him, but he wrenched open the door, nearly tripping over the change in floorings, anxious to get away from this place. He was on top of the hill his house was under. "Daman! What the heck is your problem?" He spun, seeing Shawn suddenly appear in front of him, looking very angry.
"Zeus?" He spat. "Your Zeus's kid?" He looked at her, disgust evident in his voice and eyes. This fresh reminder made him hear his mom's voice, her laugh, even feel the warmth of her hugs. Hurt flickered in Shawn's eyes, and he had an urge to apologize. The rational part of his mind reminded him that she didn't choose her dad. She wanted to be hated by her father just as much as he had, which is to say hadn't wanted it at all.
"Why?" Shawn spat, her hurt turning into anger, "does that bother you, Lord son-of-Hades?" That crushed any control the rational part of him had. He looked down at her and sneered.
"Are you really bringing that up? Your dad murdered my mom! You have nothing to say!" She pushed him, and although she wasn't strong enough to topple him, he staggered back.
"My mom's dead too, but you don't see me blaming people who aren't responsible for it!"
"Your dad probably killed her. He's such a heartless jerk I wouldn't be surprised. How are you still alive?" He scoffed.
"I know he killed her, okay?" she screamed, effectively shocking him. "He sent a monster after me when I was four, and she died protecting me!" They didn't realize how loud they're conversation was becoming. The students outside had seen their families off, and were chatting when they heard the distant argument. Carter and Diablo were the first to re-enter the camp, Willow following closely, but they all stopped and stared in shock. Heavy clouds were gathering over the hill, throwing the barely visible figures into dark shadows. The three of them looked at each other and started running to the hill.
"You- I- what?" Daman spluttered, having snapped out of the angry haze that he couldn't think through.
"You're right." She stated slowly, pain distinct in her eyes and expression. "My father did kill my mom. You're right. Does that make you happy?" His incomprehensible stare broke her restraint. Their three friends reached the top of the hill, where the two of them were standing a foot away from each other. Jasper was close behind them. Even the rest of the students were coming inside, curious about what was going on.
"Shawn..." Jasper gasped, surprised. The three in front of him looked at him, and he gestured to the fuming girl, figuring he didn't have to keep the secret much longer. The two boys and girl looked at Shawn, and realized Jasper was right.
"You think I wanted him to be my father?" Shawn shouted at Daman, neither of them noticing the crowd they were drawing. "You think I wanted these powers?" She flung her right arm straight out, and everyone on the hill got blasted back a foot or two from the wind.
"Shawn! Cool off! Snap out of it!" Diablo shouted, but she didn't seem to notice. Or care. He turned to Carter. "Do something!" He demanded. Carter looked at him, irritated.
"Sorry for not being able to control my powers as well as Shawn!" He snapped back, then focused on the exact middle of the space between Shawn and Daman. He had to be careful, he couldn't let it spread in this gale Shawn was creating. A flame suddenly appeared, burning small and bright at the place Carter was focusing all his attention on. Having been looking at Daman straight in the eyes, Shawn was suddenly so preoccupied by the simple little flare that she let go of the wind. The gale dissipated immediately, leaving the girl staring at the fire and the boy to finally notice his friends. The fire faded, and Shawn looked up, seeing them all looking at her.
"Oh." She said in a small voice, immensely embarrassed. "Sorry about that, guys." The boys shrugged, and Diablo came over to her.
"Shawn!" He complained, and she smiled. "Why didn't you ever tell us you were a girl? And such a cute one, too!" He ruffled her hair and she partially smoothed it down, smirking.
"You guys took too long to come around," she teased back lightly, and then glanced up, seeing the clouds and the dark shadow. As she stared, most of the clouds scattered, becoming lighter as they left, and she walked over to Daman, still somewhat frozen in shock. She coughed, then spoke, "Daman? The rest of the clouds were created from your shadow abilities. Would you mind...?" She trailed off, and he looked up, blinking them away. Before he could say anything, she blurted "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have gotten angry with you. It wasn't your fault, and I had no right to lose control of my powers." he blinked a couple of times, then burst into laughter.
"Shawn!" He managed, "It was my fault! I shouldn't have freaked out when you told me your dad was Zeus. I should be the one apologizing!" Three sighs came from behind Shawn and they both looked, seeing their friends exasperatedly shaking their heads.
"What are we going to do with you two?" Willow asked, smiling. A snort came from next to her.
"Don't you mean: 'What are we going to do with the three of them?'?. Seriously, Willow. Now we're the only ones who don't have awesome powers!" Diablo whined, and Carter rolled his eyes.
"Idiot." He muttered, and they all broke into laughter.
"Wait." Willow said suddenly, looking back. "Where's everyone else? Better yet, where's Jasper?" They all looked around for a moment, not seeing a single person, until-
"Hey!" Shawn gasped, pointing, "Why is everyone over at the pseudo corral?" It was pseudo because they had no equestrians around to ride it in yet, but Shawn was right; it seemed everyone was there.
"Let's go." Carter and Daman said it at the same time. Daman had a feeling, like something was poking around inside his head, telling him that he should know what was going. They started heading over; not walking, but not full out sprinting, either. A figure broke away from the huge group ahead and ran over to meet them. It was late afternoon, and the sun was blinding them.
"Guys," the girl gasped, indicating she had reached their group. They stopped and she barked out, "No you idiots, don't stop! They won't listen to me, and I know you guys are important around here, so you need to stop that asinine McHenry!" They started jogging again, the girl joining them, and they saw who she was.
"Alexa!" Shawn exclaimed, surprise emanating from her voice. Daman knew what she meant. Alexa never involved herself in something she thought didn't associate itself with her. "What do you mean, stop them? What are they doing?" But Daman had a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"Just hurry!" Alexa snapped, accelerating their pace. Diablo slowed down, breathing heavily, and Willow joined him, looking at them with a confused expression.
"No." It wasn't Daman, although that's exactly what he felt like saying. The snarl had come from Shawn, who, even though they were still about fifty feet away, seemed to be able to see exactly what was going on. Then, in a flash, she was going much faster than he'd ever seen a human run, using her wind power to give her an extra boost of speed. Daman, Carter, and Alexa sped up once more, Alexa panting more heavily than the other two. She fell back.
"Stop them! You're the only ones who can!" She shouted after them, but they were almost to the corral and her voice was drowned out by the rest of their peers. As they pushed through, some people stepped aside.
"You have to stop him. Stop them. They're terrible." That was Mika, tears trickling down her face.
Kathy and Jenna were standing next to each other, staring at the fence, horrorstruck.
"Hurry." Kathy said hysterically. Jenna nodded, clutching the other girl's arm, and the two boys forged through, pushing their classmates out of the way. Bella looked stricken, but Ryan was the first to seem like he was enjoying whatever was going on. Rhea stood by the fence, watching the scene almost smugly. Incoherent shouts came from the corral, but Daman and Carter froze, not believing what they were seeing.
In the middle of the corral, tied to the post, was a satyr. A satyr that Daman recognized, as his dream from last night resurfaced. The satyr- Grover- was unconscious, a bloody lump on his head and a cut on his neck. Conrad stood there with a sword in hand, the tiny smear of blood on the tip of his sword glinting malevolently in the red evening light. And there stood Shawn, furious and shouting at Conrad, her hair caught up in a slight whirlwind her temper was obviously creating, her hat firmly on her head, but she had craned her head upward to glare straight at the boy in the corral, the red lights in her eyes blazing.
"Don't just stand there!" A voice snapped them from their shock, and they turned to see Jasper advancing quickly. He yanked open the door to the fenced off area, and dragged them to the front of the now open fence. "He didn't stop for anyone until Shawn came, but I'm sure she could use some help!" As he shoved them inside, they could suddenly understand every word that was literally screamed.
"What are you playing at, Conrad?" Shawn demanded, ignoring the two boys whom had just entered. "Don't spout that 'self-defense' nonsense that you were proclaiming earlier! You know as well as I do that satyrs-"
"What?" He spat, "What am I supposed to know that miss-know-it-all assumes I-"
"Satyrs. Don't. Attack. Without. Provocation!" She shrieked, and the three boys flinched, the wind magnifying her volume.
"What," Carter said, effectively stopping whatever Conrad was about to say, "the heck did we miss?" The other two spun to look at him, then glared at each other again.
"I'll tell you what happened!" Shawn hissed.
When Alexa came to get us, I knew we were in trouble. She only comes when things are serious, which is pretty rare. She told us that we needed to hurry, to stop Conrad. Of course, that just spoke danger and all that came with it. If whatever was happening was because Conrad was involved, that made the situation even worse. Since we were still running, almost immediately after Diablo and Willow stopped to catch their breath, I could see what was going on. Conrad- stupid, senseless male- was looming over a tied up satyr! A satyr! Of course, I'd only ever seen them in dreams, but I knew enough to figure out that whatever Conrad was doing was totally wrong. I sped up and pushed passed everyone in my way, pushing my way into the corral. By the time I was inside, I recognized the satyr with terrible clarity; it was Grover Underwood, recently made Lord of the Wild, and Conrad had his sword pointed under his chin.
"Conrad, put your sword down! He's no threat!" I told the idiot, but he just turned to look at me, letting his sword loosen a bit in his hand and cut Grover. The satyr whimpered, and Conrad whirled, whacking him on the head, which knocked Grover out.
"Stupid goat-man," Conrad had muttered, then turned to glare at me. He didn't recognize me at first, but when he saw my hat the idiot figured it out. "You- Shawn- girl- what-" He'd spluttered, but I wasn't in the mood to be patient.
"What the Tartarus, Conrad?" I demanded at him, moving toward the unconscious Grover, but he stopped me.
"Don't get near the prisoner, girl." He warned. Like I was scared of him. I narrowed my eyes.
"What did you just call me, Conrad?" I asked in a deadly whisper, turning my full attention on him, causing him to shudder.
"Girl." He insisted stubbornly. "The satyr is dangerous." I scoffed at that.
"How in the hell did you come to the conclusion satyrs are dangerous? Why did you hurt him?" I demanded, losing my temper a bit.
"I acted in self-defense." He responded, reacting to the winds I'd accidentally summoned in anger.
"Self defense?" I retorted derisively, "He's tied up to a post. What's he gonna do, use telekinesis to pick up a stick and whack you on the back of your head with it? Last I checked, satyrs can't use telekinesis. Nor do they have the ability of mind-control. So how the flying flip can you try to justify what you did as 'self-defense'?" Vague shouts came from outside, but I didn't pay attention.
"Satyrs can be very dangerous." He declared. "You should leave before it wakes up. It might try to attack you." Some almost distant sound of a gate opening and closing made itself known, but I was too caught up in my fury.
"What are you playing at, Conrad?" I demanded, "don't spout that 'self-defense' nonsense that you were proclaiming earlier! You know as well as I do that satyrs-"
"What?" The idiot spat, "What am I supposed to know that miss-know-it-all assumes I-" That drastically decreased my already feeble control of my temper.
"Satyrs. Don't. Attack. Without. Provocation!" I shrieked at him, effectively shutting him up. Then I heard Carter's voice.
"And that's it." Shawn finished. She walked straight over to the unconscious satyr, not even stopping when Conrad stepped in front of her. She made an impatient gesture, like she was swatting a fly in front of her face, and Conrad was sent flying. She looked over the satyr, but it didn't look like she knew what to do. She glanced back at her friends.
"Carter? Daman? I don't suppose you guys know what to do?" They shook their heads. "Of course..." she grumbled.
"It's not our faults!" Daman exclaimed, a little bit hurt. She looked at him, surprised.
"I'm not mad at either of you. Of course I'm not! I'm kind of mad at me, though. I, in no way, saw this coming." But Daman had. He remembered now.
"Guys." He said quickly, before he forgot again. "He's not by himself. He came to investigate, but he didn't know what this place was until he got here. He requested back-up, and they were supposed to come and help him a.s.a.p.." He looked at them, and noticed both of their full attentions were on him. Shawn looked frozen, almost like she'd seen this too, but had either just remembered or had been brushing it off. Carter, however, was clueless to the danger they were about to be in.
"Daman," Carter prompted, "what else? Who's the back-up?" Daman and Shawn looked at eachother, then spoke in unison.
"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, and Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena are his back-up." Even as Daman stopped, Shawn continued with the worst part yet.
"And we have their best friend unconscious in our corral. They won't stop to listen to what we have to say. They'll probably try to kill us the second they see this."