Disclaimer: I own nothing. Any mistakes are apologized for ahead of time: I did this on my iPod very early in the morning.
Percy was confused. And thrilled. He didn't know when Piper became his girlfriend, but she didn't know how much pressure she just took off his shoulders. He wouldn't have to worry about all this feelings stuff and then asking her out; they were already going out. But...That didn't make any sense. Why would she be his girlfriend when she's done nothing by cry in his arms and he hadn't asked her out. He knew they haven't kissed or anything that would really define it, but did holding hands count? They did a lot of that, maybe she thought that was was what defined them. He wasn't complaining either way. Why would he? He was just in the progress of getting enough courage to tell her how he feels; he can defeat a Titan head on, kill giants and go into Tartarus, and yet he can't ask a pretty girl out.
But Piper was different. She wasn't just a pretty girl. She was powerful even she didn't speak, she was beyond beautiful when she didn't even try, and she was an amazing person. She cared for her friends and people she didn't even know; why else would she be doing this, this peacekeeping and peacemaking? She's nice, she's caring, she's loving, she's everything that he had ever wanted in a girl and everything people should be. She may not think it, but he kind of, sort of, maybe thought she was perfect in every way possible.
Before he could process any more of what was going on since the stupid kid stopped trying to cut off his head, Piper had taken advantage of Annabeth's shock and grabbed his arm, darting away with Naden shooting after them. The mini tornado she had set up spread to a very large, very deadly tornado that might actually start pulling the nearby trees up from the ground. The people were trying and failing to hold onto the trees, and they were being thrown like ragdolls around. It was hard to see through it, but Percy could hear the screams and shouts for help coming from inside which worried him enough to the point
where he almost called out for Piper to stop so that no one got hurt too much. But she knew what she was doing...She knew when to stop...Right?
"Hurry!" Piper called in front of him as they weaved speedily through the trees and the tornado behind them slowly fell out of sight, but Percy could swear he heard the roots of a tree come out of the ground. Piper was going to get it from the dryads. "They're almost at our flag!"
Percy cast a look behind them. "Uh, Piper..." he said nervously. "We have a problem."
It was a big problem, too. Not only did they have a wave of very angry demigods after them, but there was the biggest hellhound Percy has ever seen rampaging towards them. He had no idea how they'd make it to the flag and get it back with only three of them. They still had a lot of ground to cover.
"I see the creek!" Naden cried. "Percy, start working your magic!"
"We'll get the flag!" Piper yelled. "Just keep them back long enough to break through the defenses!"
"What if I can't?" he shouted, though he was pretty confident.
"We'll cross that when we get there!" Piper replied. "Just do it! We'll try to be as quick as we can!"
Percy nodded and turned around, being in front of it and in enemy territory. He took a deep breath and waited for the splashes of his comrades running over it to the flag. The angry demigods looked even more mad to see him there while the others got the flag. Annabeth looked the most pissed and there were twigs, leaves in their hair that was puffy and knotted; their clothes were wrinkled and some people were missing shoes. People in the back were calling for others because they picked up the wrong weapon.
Percy gulped. Wrong choice of power to use against these guys. Still, he stood strong and closed his eyes to further control the water the way he wanted to; he had trained with his father on his powers a couple years back for a while so he was somewhat of a pro. The enhancements Chaos had added on helped as well with making him more powerful. He needed to be powerful to keep these guys away from Piper and Naden long enough for them to get the flag- gods know how, the Camp never leaves their flag unattended and with the Hephateus cabin with them, there was bound to be traps among traps everywhere in them. He just hoped they kept it somewhat safe so that Piper and Naden wouldn't get too hurt.
The tug was harsh but not painful in his gut. Water rose as walls on either side of him, as far left and right as the eye could see. His head pounded as he focused on shaking the earth under the feet of the campers but not in the area of the flag. A vine crept up his ankle and up his calf. The wall molded so that he was on the flag side and it roared over the camper like a terrifying tsunamis. A hundred icicles came down and hit the hell hound that had barked like a puppy and fell to the ground with the earthquake. They all hit vital spots, and in seconds, the hell hound was just monster dust that got stepped on by campers moving around and more of them coming in.
The campers shook and tried to keep their balance with the earthquake. They stood in awe of their not-exactly-identified-by-him-but-everyone-else leader and the powers he had; the sun shined perfectly down on the water wall making it somewhat transparent but enough opaque that it created a large shadow on the ground and over their head; the fish and seaweed and other various things carried on as if nothing had happened, but the naiads were standing in front of the wall with rocks in their hand and they looked ready to fight the campers for Percy.
Percy stopped the earthquake a minute later to stop the pounding in his head and to give the campers a break from falling off their feet today. He would be back with it in order to give Piper and Naden more time. But right now, he was going to have to deal with these guys with only the water.
The campers gained their balance, gathered themselves, gave a battle cry and charged at the water wall. After all, that's all it was, right? A water wall made of water that can easily be penetrated and then they would be able to go after the traitor and her friend, win their flag back, and win this Capture the Flag in order to get rid of her.
They were wrong.
As soon as they got close enough, they were bombarded with rocks that surprising hit the only places that were covered with armor and hurt enough to leave bruises and bumps; luckily enough, the naiads were nice enough to not aim for the head and rather only their feet and legs- sometime their arms if you cursed and threatened them (no surprise that that happened quite a bit since these campers were in a bad enough mood with that stupid tornado and finding out their leader is dating the enemy).
When they tried to hit the wall, if they were lucky enough to get passed the naiads and their rocks, whip-like strands darted out and smacked their arms and wrists har enough to leave a mark and sometimes making them bleed. If the camper was lucky enough to dodge it and slice it in half, a more solid version came out and battled with their swords with the skill of Percy who was nearly impossible to beat. They all ended up on their backs, groaning in pain and cursing in frustration and anger.
Percy was concentrating, somehow, on every battle the campers were putting them into and not hurting any of them and keeping the naiads in line and safe. It was draining him for this was a lot of power in each strike and there were a lot of campers he was striking. Not to mention holding back the power the water wanted to show in order to keep them safe. It was insanely complex to keep track of and he didn't know how exactly he was doing it, but he gave most of the credit to his father and Chaos.
The campers got back up everytime they fell and fought their hardest in order to win and get through, but this was Percy Jackson and he won all of their wars for them and made living possible as well as getting more attention from their parents.
Only one camper was brave enough to head directly towards the place where his body was and that was only because she trained with him since the very beginning. "Perseus Adam Jackson!" she yelled in fury as he shoved her back with a huge column of three quarters ice and the rest water that still didn't hurt her. "Get out here and fight me yourself! Don't you dare back down after you betray me in every way possible!"
His eyebrows furrowing as he tried to stay up with everything at once, sweat poured down his body from the effort. "Perseus!" Annabeth screamed as she stomped and threw her dagger at him and it was only tossed carelessly back at her. "Fight me! Now!"
Breathing in the smell of the water, he suddenly flew to one knee and planted his hand with such a hard thud in front of him that the grass shuddered in fear. The earth shook horribly before the wall of water collapsed an the campers were raised 30 feet in the air with blocks of earth under them. They gasped and stopped fighting in order to look down and around to try and find a way down that wouldn't break their legs and kill them. Some just stopped to watchthe fight below since Annabeth was the only one who was still there.
Feeling good about himself that he was able to do that the first time he tried with only Chaos's directions to feel the earth around you and use the fact that you know all the parts of the surroundings, he stood up straight and panted heavily. His vision swam because that took a whole lot more out of him then he imagined. He clutched his forehead to try and keep the pounding from being there even though he wasn't doing any earthquakes.
He just got his bearings at the right moment because Annabeth charged him. Just barely, he caught her wrist and twisted it behind her back making her hiss in pain. "You don't charge a man before he's ready to begin," he snapped tiredly in her ear. "That's the move of a coward."
"Look who's talking," she shot back. "You leave without warning for weeks and then come back with the traitor who caused all this grief and war, and you take her side in everything she says!"
He pushed her away from him. Taking out Riptide, his ever trusty sword, he glared at her. "How does that make me a coward? Piper was not a traitor, she didn't cause any of this war. You know Piper, why would she want that?"
"For attention," she replied bitterly and she lunged at him with her dagger.
"She hates attention!" he told her as their swords clashed and sparks erupted from their force; they didn't have to go easy on each other because they were that well trained all together and with each other. "You know that! I wouldn't be taking her side if I know it wasn't for the right reasons; you know me, Annabeth, why would I do that if I knew it wasn't the right choice? She's trying to stop this war! She wants to make things better between the Olympians! She didn't even want to be here in the first place!"
"I'm sure she only said that because she didn't want to see the outcomes of what she caused! And I don't even believe she led in the first place!"
He went for the disabling move Luke taught him, but Annabeth anticipated this and slid to the right, jamming the hilt of her dagger into his shoulder- with just his luck, it was the shoulder that was shot the day before. It had healed pretty well, but there was still a bruise that hurt like hell. He groaned and kicked her legs out so she was on her back and he was looking down at her with the tip of his sword at her neck. "So you don't believe in Chaos, is that it? You think Piper and everyone with her, including me, is lying about him?
You saw him with your own eyes!"
"I didn't know who it was! It could've been anyone that she Charmspoke!"
"Enough!" he said angrily and he spun around to miss her slash and grabbed the wrist that was still going after him before flipping her over his shoulder so that she was laying on her back. "Piper did not cause this war, it was Aphrodite's fault for not realizing her daughter needed her before she left, it was our fault for not being good friends to notice something was wrong, and it was that bastard Jason's fault for cheating on her and leading her on! Chaos rules the galaxies and makes peace wherever need be, and Piper is his second in command, which is why she's even here in the first place. We're going to fix things and I'm going to stick by her side because when has she ever done anything to show us that we're wrong in assuming she's on the good side of this war?"
"Is that why you're dating her?" Annabeth spat from the ground, sounding angry, but in her stormy grey eyes, there was pain and hurt. "You think she's some kind of saint sent from the heavens?"
His face softened from the anger that was just there, that had just been incredibly fierce and made him look ready to kill his ex-girlfriend and major best friend. "No," he replied quietly. "I'm dating her because she's kind and she doesn't hold a grudge and forgives people even when they treated her aboslutely horribly. She wants peace in the world and she loves her friends and family and will do anything for them. I'm dating her because she's amazing in every way possible and she hasn't changed a bit since we had been best friends in the Giant War."
"What about us?" Annabeth whimpered and she sat up on her elbows to look at him better. "We were good together, we had something special and important."
He held out his hand to help her up with a sigh. "That was all past tense. Things change; people change. War does that. I don't want to be a demigod anymore and fight to survive, I just want to sit back and settle down and have a family. You want to make the gods proud and work to achieve your dreams that are so much bigger and better than mine. You deserve someone better, Annabeth; someone smart and can keep up with all you say. I'm not that guy."
"But I want you to be!" she cried as she took his hand and pulled herself up and stood close to him. "I love Percy and I can give you what you want."
He shook his head. "You can't, Annabeth. You want big things that are actually important to the world and life. I want to be in the shadows and not worry about anything but bills. We're too different now, Annabeth."
Tears welled up in her eyes. "So that's it? You're not going to give us another try? You're just going to walk away?"
He sighed. "I think I am, Wise Girl. No need to build something that won't please anyone or keep stable, yeah?"
"Percy, we've got it!" Piper yelled as she darted past him with Naden following, and the combination of all the signs of the cabins seemed to glow in the sunlight as they flew back. "Hurry! They're almost at our boundary!" she called and Percy gave Annabeth a sad smile and a kiss on the cheek before he darted after them to help out wherever he was needed. He kicked up some dirt as he left and the walls of dirt collapsed gently once it reached 10 feet.
There were no campers but the ones following and screaming after Travis Stoll who had the Chaos flag raised high in the air. It didn't even seen to faze them when they saw Piper coming with their flag. It was a race against two fast runners who could both make it, but Piper made the wind push her the slightest with a whistle and they both crossed into each other's territory at the halfway mark at the same time. Chiron, who was waiting for the winner and monitoring the game like usual, stood stunned for a second as everyone quieted down and looked at each other. Everyone seemed to be breathing hard and Percy
was dizzy and tired and his shoulder burned something fierce.
Finally, Chiron spoke up with awe in his voice. "I had never seen anything like this in my entire lifetime; i had thought it was
impossible, but it was never right to assume anything. It's a tie. The winner is Camp Half-Blood and the commanders of Chaos."
Okay, I know I'm an ass for not updating this long and I truely feel bad about it. I really like this story and all the people who have reviewed and followed and favorited and you guys are amazing and a whole lot better than me. But I gave you a confrontation of Annabeth and Percy and some powers from Percy, and I'm hoping that while my friend plays Carbon:Most Wanted and cleans tomorrow that I'll type another chapter on my iPod like I did today.
The reason for me not updating, if you want to know, is that before, I lost inspiration and ideas for this, and then I just got piled on with homework from IB classes and everything with school so I had literally
no time left to write anything. Finals came up, and surprisingly I did really well on all of them and I finished the semester with a 4.8 GPA. Christmas came and passed and I was with family and everything, but I
have finally got it done and here it is at 3 in the morning at my best friend's place while we take turns playing video games.
Merry late Christmas, Happy late Holidays, and Happy early New Year's!
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