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"This is all her fault!" Drew shouted, struggling to get her hand out of Percy's grip.
"You still don't get to hit her," Percy stated matter-of-factly and rather sternly. "You don't get to touch her. And none of this is her fault."
"But it is!" She pointed a finger at Piper, glaring harshly, and her manicured nail was broken and there was pink nailpolish covering only a third of the nail. "She started this whole war!"
"She doesn't start wars, she ends them," Naden snapped angrily. "Now, back up."
"And who the hell do you think you are? Little Miss Perfect must've learned to defend herself living on the streets for so long!"
"You don't talk to my crew that way!" Piper hissed, returning her glare.
"Your crew?" Drew gave a cold, hollow laugh. "Crew of what? Misfits? Wanna-be's? Losers?"
Piper's eyes settled on a cold, steel pale blue and she narrowed them dangerously. "Shut up," she ordered through hissed teeth.
"Why?" Drew put her hands on her hips and raised a perfect eyebrow. "What else can you do? You've already started a war, ruined friendships and relationships. What else could you possibly want?"
"She didn't do any of that!" Naden yelled, her sword straighter and closer to her commander's sister. "Stop talkling!"
"But she did!" Clarisse shouted from behind Drew. "She's the cause of this war!"
"The cause of this war was Zeus and only him!" Percy argued, glaring at her. Rain began to pelt down, and the lightning continued to crackle with each clap of thunder. The other campers had stood back so they could see how this would unfold, and see who was their enemy. They wanted to know why they were fighting- not just because their parents told them to, but why their parents are fighting. They wanted information since the gods didn't give it to them, just that the side they were against were bad. They wanted to know their cause, their fuel to win this war, to crush the opposite side. And damnit, if these guys had to fight before they'd talk about it, they'd watch the fight and wait. This wasn't between them, but if that brown haired chick with Percy Jackson was the cause against it, they weren't going to hesitate to fight her.
"No!" Thalia snapped angrily, a lightning bolt hitting a few feet next to Percy. "It's not my dad's fault!"
"Girls!" Chiron yelled, looking sternly at them. "Stop this!"
"It's true, Chiron! Piper needs to know the truth!" Connor shouted. "She's the reason behind all this!"
"How?" Piper demanded, feeling her stomach twist painfully. She didn't do anything to get on their wrong side. They were the ones to abandon her when she needed friends, to pretend she didn't even exist. She was the one who was the victim! They caused her to leave, and she did! She hasn't been back at Earth since that day, she didn't want to, and yet here she is. She's here to try and save the Olympians from destroying each other, and now Camp from going too far into a war that wasn't theirs. She's here to do her job: make peace. But somehow, everyone that had fought with her, friended her and then abandoned and forgot about her, was against her again. She had no part in this war, she had no part in the way they treated her. None of this was her fault. None of it. Why couldn't they see that? Why was the one to blame for everything?
"You left," Drew spat, glaring harshly at her and crossing her arms over her chest. "You left without a note or any word saying where you would go."
"Yeah? Well, that's not my fault," Piper replied, narrowing her eyes. "I left for a reason, and I honestly didn't think I needed to tell anyone."
"Yeah, well, Mom went into hysterics," Drew gritted her teeth. "She freaked out and looked everywhere for you."
"What does that have anything to do with this war?" Carl snapped, knowing that his commander didn't want to hear any of this.
"No one's talking to you, bitch," Clarisse exclaimed, holding her spear towards him.
"Shut up," Piper repeated, her jaw locked and her fists clenched at her side. "You don't call my crew anything."
"Your crew is fake!" Connor yelled, glaring at her. "If your crew knew what you did, you would be alone!"
"If you knew what she did, you'd be bowing at her feet!" Percy hissed, his eyes flashing dangerously.
"Whose side are you on, Percy?" Annabeth demanded, looking furious and a little hurt. "Are you on Camp's or are you on the traitor's?"
"She's not a traitor! She didn't cause this war!"
"She did!" Katie screamed, shaking with fury.
"While Mom was in hysterics, Ares couldn't help her, Hephaestus couldn't help her, we couldn't help her!" Drew said, her eyes slits and on Piper. "No one could help her. She was worried sick about Little Miss Perfect, the daughter who did nothing to deserve being hers!"
"Watch your mouth!" Naden warned, pushing her sword closer to her, and getting the immortals' swords pointed at her.
"It went on for years," Drew continued, her own fists made and Percy watched her closely, ready for another surprise attack, "with her searching for you and the gods trying to calm her down. They tried everything, and nothing worked! Little Miss Perfect became more important than any of her kids!"
Piper flinched in guilt. She, of course, hadn't known that would happen. She didn't think her mom would look at it twice, her missing. But if she did, Piper thought she would've went to her dad, ask him where she was, get the answers from him. Besides, if Aphrodite cared as much as they were saying, she wouldn't have let Jason cheat on her or she wouldn't have let her kids turn their back and whisper about their sister. If Aphrodite had cared, Piper wouldn't have had a reason to leave. She was over-reacting, if what Drew said was true. She was a goddess, and the gods know everything, especially when it considers a child they love- they probably don't love all their children equal, if you really think about it. She should've kept up if she was so worried. She should've known Piper's life was hell and she wanted to get away from it all. She should've just known. But she didn't take the time to notice, so it didn't matter much, now did it?
"The goddess tried to help her," Drew went on, her pretty face now mean and cold. "Hera, Amphitrite, Artemis, everyone. And you know what happens when gods don't have their wives with them? Go on, guess, since you supposedly know all."
"I never said that," Piper hissed through gritted teeth.
Drew tssked. "Wrong answer. They go out to the mortal world, if you didn't know. And we all know what happens when gods are in the mortal world because that's how we're here right now."
"What are you getting at?" Piper snapped, her nails digging painfully into her palms.
"Poseidon and Zeus broke the pact," Drew spat, taking a step closer to Piper. "They had kids they weren't supposed to have and the wives found out about it. They tried to get the kids killed, so they had to run and hide. And that required going into the other's realms in order to get away. That's how this war started. A Poseidon kid befriended a Zeus kid on the run, and the Zeus kid got captured by a group of monsters who were sent out to search for them. She went to save him in a chariot. In the sky."
"Why didn't they come to Camp?" Piper asked, a lump in her throat, but her voice steady. "Why didn't Poseidon or Zeus help them?"
"They tried, but it's hard to help when the goddesses are watching you closely, isn't it? And every time one of them came into Camp, they were sent back out into the mortal world. For their own good. So, you see, you started this whole thing. You're at fault, and you're the reason that friendships and relationships are being broke up here. But I doubt you care because your life seems all dandy being on the run, huh? Since that's what you're used to."
"Say another word," Percy hissed through gritted teeth as he put Riptide under her chin. "I dare you."
"So you are on the traitor's side!" Annabeth yelled, outraged.
Percy's jaw locked. "Piper didn't do anything wrong. We're the ones who made her run, so it's our fault. Zeus and my dad went out and had kids, and that's their fault. They started this war, we didn't."
"She let them have kids!" Connor shouted. "Her mom needed the goddesses to comfort her because she left!"
"For a good reason!"
"It couldn't have been a good enough reason for her to stop and think how this would effect everyone!"
"I thought no one would notice!"
"Oh, is that how you saw it? When you're so hard to ignore, you thought we wouldn't notice?"
"Well, you did a pretty job ignoring me before I left!"
"We all have our own lives, Piper, we're not going to just stop around for you!"
"Children, children, stop this!"
"I didn't expect anything but a little acknowledgement!"
"Well, you got what you wanted, huh? Just like you do every time."
"Watch your mouth!"
"What are you going to do to me? Fight me? Ha, I've seen scarier looking models than you!"
"Don't talk to her like that!"
"In case you haven't noticed, honey, you're not the counselor of anyone anymore. I'm allowed to do whatever I want!"
"Drew, you stop this right now!"
"No, Piper deserves all of what she's getting!"
"I didn't do anything wrong!"
"You started a war, and you have the nerve to come back here and brainwash our hero!"
"I'm not brainwashed because I know she didn't do anything!"
"Have you not been here all this time? All of this is her fault!"
"None of it is her fault! It's Zeus's and my dad's!"
"They wouldn't have gone out if Hera and Amphirite weren't busy trying to help Aphrodite!"
"Yes they would've, and you know it, Annabeth!"
"Whose side on your on, Percy?"
"I'm on Piper's because I know this isn't her fault. I'm on the side of getting everything back to normal."
"And how are you going to do that? Be in her little, pitiful crew!"
"Don't speak like that about them!"
"I'm already apart of it, Clarisse!"
"So, that's where you've been then? You've been off with Piper, doing gods know what?"
"I've been with Piper, trying to stop this war!"
"HOW?"
"We have the power of Chaos on our side, and he knows Piper can do this!"
"Chaos is not real! She's ruining you, Percy!"
"Don't you dare speak like that!"
"I'm not doing anything, Annabeth! I didn't ask him to come and help me!"
"So he just stumbled upon you in a bar then?"
"Why you!"
"It's the most likely place someone can be in order to keep living on the streets and survive!"
"I have not been living on the streets!"
"Oh, so you have different places you spend the night at? Looks like Little Miss Perfect is Little Miss Whore."
Everyone gasped as Naden took Drew's arm, twisted it painfully behind her back, kicked out her knees and sat on her. "No one speaks about my commander like that," she hissed in Drew's ear after she groaned.
"How dare you?" Katie screamed, all of them shaking.
This time the lightning bolt didn't miss its target.
"Naden!" Piper yelled as her crew member and friend flew back from where she was starting to get up. She fell and hit the burnt tree that, thankfully, was only charred and stable. Naden's body hit the trunk painfully before falling to the base of it, unconsicious.
Piper knew she shouldn't fight. She knew that she was a peace maker, and she was rarely ever violent, but that was her friend, and they had been through hell and back together. Naden would willing give her life for Piper and it was time for Piper to do the same. "Carl, go!" she ordered and he shot her a look of incredulity before running over to her. Piper started to see red, and her nails cut through the skin on her palm.
"Can't take a little heat now that it's only you, can you?" Thalia teased, a trumpihant smirk on her dirt covered face.
"Try it again," Piper demanded, her eyes a harsh, cold blue grey. "Try and hit me."
"Piper, are you crazy?" Percy said, grabbing her hand.
"Stand away," she snapped, pushing him away and taking her hand back. "Do it, Thalia, I dare you."
Thalia grinned. "Gladly, princess," she replied and with the black hair of hers sticking to her face from the rain, held up her spear and everyone watched as a lightning bolt connected with it and a clap of thunder boomed overhead, making their ears ring. She pointed the spear at Piper and they all waited with beated breaths- some thinking it was what deserved and others thinking it wasn't enough- as the lightning bolt flew straight at Piper. Percy stared in horror from his position where he stumbled a few feet away from her as the white electricity hit her straight in the chest.
There was a cloud of smoke afterwards.
Everyone waited with wide eyes.
And then it happened:
Thalia Grace flew straight back the way she came.
Everyone screamed, and looked at the fallen girl who was on the ground, also unconsicious. Never had she been hit with lightning because she can control it, because it's her element, and it's in her genes. But as the smoke cleared and Piper stood totally unscathed, it was clear that somehow, the daughter of Aphrodite had redirected the lightning back to the one who directed it first.
Percy felt a surge of great relief through him. What would he had done if she had been hit with the lightning, if she was hurt and he could've stopped it and taken it himself? How would he live with himself knowing he had one job- keep Piper safe- and he hadn't done it? But none of that mattered because she was okay and she proved herself to be the powerful person she is. One thing did matter, though: Percy was going to yell at her for doing something so stupid, so terrifying.
And that's how Percy found out how much he cared for his boss- and it's not in the professional way, either.
Piper calmly walked over to where Carl was holding Naden in his arms and Percy numbly followed, engulfed with shock, relief, realizations with his care for her, and pride because that was fucking awesome. She had to teach him that. He'd tell her that after he yelled at her.
"Is she okay?" Piper asked, looking at the soot on Naden's face- whether from the tree or the lightning strike, she didn't know.
"Still breathing, Commander," Carl replied, in shock himself.
"Let's go back to the cabin. We need a new approach."
She then walked away, leaving the others to share a worried, incredious glance before following after her, forgetting about the stunned-to-silence campers and immortals staring after at her.
Piper McLean was not someone you wanted to mess with.
It's not the much, and the unidentified talking is supposed to be like that so you can understand how everyone was talking and make a little game to guess who was saying what, even though some of it is pretty clear.
I hope I did Drew's character right. I'm not used to writing mean people, but I can always guess, and if I need to improve at it, please tell me. I love help.
As for Annabeth and Percy, they'll be explained the next chapter. I swear on my life. And as for not updating on the weekend, I overslept and had to do a bunch of stuff, so my time for writing was cut short, and then my computer crashed on me yesterday when I was writing. But I wanted all three my stories updated on the same day, which didn't happen sadly, but two of them were. Or at least, this is going to be very early.
So...this chapter, did you...
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