DISCLAIMER: NO, I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSONOR SUPERNATURAL. IF I DID, NOTHING WOULD EVER HAPPEN OTHER THAN HUGS AND HAPPINESS FOR ALL CONCERNED. EVEN GAIA AND, LIKE, AZAZEL OR WHOEVER IS THE WORST VILLAIN IN SUPERNATURAL.

Chapter Six

Hope had never really enjoyed conflict. Sure, a good fight now and then could be fun, but this whole oh-I-believe-the-Apocalypse-is-all-my-fault-I'm-leaving crap was about a million miles out of her comfort zone.

She sat in silence as Sam and Dean did their whole emotional conversation thing (again, not her area of expertise), until Sam said she should go with Dean.

"I'm not going anywhere with either of you, do you hear me? I'll go to camp, or home to South Dakota."

"Why not?" Sam asked and she shrugged.

"Seems way too much like favouritism to me. Not to mention that I don't get why everyone's blaming you for Lucifer getting out. I mean, Dean broke the first seal, I could have mentioned that I was pretty sure something was up with the angels, Ruby and said angels were manipulating you into position. All you did was top it all off by killing Lilith."

There. She'd said it.

Several seconds of stunned staring ensued and she lifted an eyebrow. "I thought free will was kinda our thing. Doesn't that include freedom of speech?"

"I never really thought about it that way, that's all," answered Sam.

"That's because I appear to be the only one of the world, Hell, and Heaven-reclaimed Winchesters who has any common sense whatsoever," aid Hope, cocking a grin. "You should have seen me in this third-grade debate about whether or not eating one's snot turned one green. I ended it by eating some and not turning green. My audience was both impressed and revolted."

"That's just gross, Hopie," said Dean.

"Ah, third-grade me thought it was a good way to stop anyone deciding to steal someone's cookie or whatever. It worked, to be fair. Anyway, are you or are you not leaving? 'Cause if you do, I'll be wanting a lift to Bobby's."

Her stomach twisted a little from apprehension, but Sam shrugged and answered "Okay. But if I screw anything else up, I'm leaving."

"Trust me," Hope replied softly. "You've yet to screw anything up too badly so far."

And, of course, the Fates conspired to get Emma to decide to I-M her right that minute.

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"Chiron's doing what? Styx, Emma, do you understand what this means? Not only do the Olympians not like us, they now don't even trust us not to run off and join the damn Titans! Oh, the idiots, they're only going to make it worse!"

Thunder boomed in the sky and Hope yelled "I'm sure you have better stuff to be doing than threatening someone you can't kill!"

"Hope, you realise they really can kill you, right?" Emma said.

"They wouldn't dare. Look, I've kinda got stuff going on. I'll be there tomorrow. Emma, we need to keep everyone, uh, not homicidal. Tell Chiron screw his census or whatever. Also, remind him of this basic fact of psychology: Nobody likes to be oppressed. I gotta go. See you."

She cut through the Iris-message with one hand and groaned. "Well, gods are idiots, Chiron's worse, and I need to go to camp before this starts a damn riot."

"What's up at your camp?" Dean asked.

"Remember me talking about Kronos rising? Anyway, he's trying to get minor demigods to join him. Well, minor and unclaimed kids. The rejects of the Hermes cabin, I call us. So Chiron decided he needed to keep tabs on us and he's making some kind of list, which is going to fuel everyone's anger even more than the whole thing about how nobody remembers our parents or indeed, in some people's cases, that our parents don't remember us!" Blurted Hope.

"Want a lift?"

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Hope was, for once, listened to. She organized all the Hermes cabin rejects, asking them to go to the campfire and just listen, along with the Olympian cabins' counsellors.

"Okay! Okay. I'm Hope Winchester, I'm a child of Melinoe, and I get it, guys, I do. The Olympians are selfish bastards, end of story," Here she paused, waiting for the thunder to subside and the cries of outrage and agreement to quiet. "They disrespect our parents, they forget their own children. That's wrong, right? Yeah, that's a crime against the Hermes cabin rejects. Oh, yeah," Now she addressed the counsellors. "We're minor and unclaimed, not stupid. We're fully aware you don't want us. Right, guys?"

Cries of assent filled the clearing. The counsellors were reaching for weapons and looking slightly nervous by this point.

"We're demigods, though. We may be the Hermes cabin rejects, but Emma Carlisle, child of Tyche, is the best damn swordfighter I've ever met. Andrew Desser may be unclaimed, but he can use a spear with the best of 'em. I myself am a lot more than you'd like to think. My point is, we're all demigods, guys. My other point is less romantic, and that's that Kronos will massacre all his half-blood soldiers the second he's done with them, and say what you will, but I have yet to see Percy Jackson murder anyone. I ain't saying we should follow him because he's Poseidon's kid, I'm saying we should because he's better than Kronos."

Said Percy Jackson smiled, and called out "I'm not planning to kill anyone!"

Hope, who at least equalled him in predestined-ness and importance, cocked a grin and yelled "The Hermes cabin rejects will not be oppressed, and we are worthy of your trust!"

A roar of agreement followed, and the child of Melinoe breathed a sigh of relief.

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As people left, Percy Jackson walked over to Hope Winchester, and said "Thanks, kid."

To which she winked and answered "No problem, boss. Tell Chiron I sorted his problem. Make sure to say Hope Winchester. Zeus knows I don't need him to hate me any more than he already does."

"Why would Chiron hate you?"

"Not all of us are big heroes, Mr. Jackson. Some of us are a little more… unconventional."

And so it was that Hope Mary Winchester, pantheon hopper, hunter, half-blood, damn good at what she did, thank you very much, single-handedly stopped a rebellion in Camp Half-Blood and became one of the behind-the-scenes heroes of the Second Titan War, just because she'd read a psychology book once.

And maybe nobody ever mentioned the near rebellion again, but that was because a twelve-year-old managed to defuse it with ten minutes and a talent for improv.

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Short, I know, but I thought it was good. I always wondered why the unclaimed and minor demigods never just said no and ran off. I know some did, but I thought it was weird. Here's your answer!

This also marks my first major deviance from canon… EEK! IMMA SCARED!

But never fear, my vague outline for the next few chapters is here!

That really doesn't fill me with confidence.

Also, I realised I forgot a disclaimer, so that's at the top.

-threelittleclouds