Percy Jackson and the Four Horsemen

Chapter 4: Good Choices, Bad Choices...

PREVIOUSLY ON THE FOUR HORSEMEN:

"Guess you found me out, Perseus Jackson. But, you are still too late. I will find the Four, and when I do, you will burn, along with the rest of the world."

Leo sent a blaze of fire at the source of the voice, illuminating the room with the orange glow of flames. The oppressive darkness left the room, as the lights turned back on. The entrance of Bunker Nine was empty, except for the pile of golden dust that lay on the spot where Argus was sleeping, on the top of which lay a golden apple charm.

Percy stared at the pile of golden dust where the head of Camp Half-Blood's security once was. Of course the only thought running through his mind was "WHAT THE FUCK", but ignoring that, everything was a-ok, right? Right?

Leo and Lou Ellen were all staring dumbfounded at the pile of dust, too, until Calypso shook the two out of their stupor.

"Did… Did Argus just die?"

"WHAT THE FUCK?"

Turns out Percy and Leo had somewhat similar mindsets too, even though Leo was a tad bit more dramatic as he exploded into flames with his exclamation.

While Calypso tried to quench the flaming Latino as he flung his arms like a headless chicken and ran into the forest, Percy grabbed the charm of the golden apple.

Lou stuttered. "Do… Don't t-tamper with any of the evidence, P-Percy. Move a-away from the pile of dust, n-now."

Percy turned back to Lou, not understanding why she was so scared. He noticed the terror in her green orbs which were slowly forming tears as they fixed onto him. And then Percy realized.

He hastily capped his bronze xiphos which he had accidentally uncapped when the Bunker's light system shut down. He was also, unfortunately, the one closest to the entrance of the bunker and the site of Argus' death.

"Lou, I swear it wasn't me."

"Y-you're the most lik-likely suspect, Percy. This whole thing feels like it's been orchestrated."

"The dude who killed Argus literally called out my name."

"I-I would not put it past you to have t-thought of s-such a defense."

Percy really wouldn't have thought of such a defense, usually it was Annabeth who did the thinking, but it looked like his hero status was coming to bite him back. The person trying to frame him really was smart.

"What about the pillar of Mist? Lou, you know I couldn't have done that."

"A-all of us know you have control over Mist, and we know of your h-hate towards the Olympians for their treatment of us. I'm s-sorry, Percy, but the evidence points directly to you."

Percy had to use his last defense.

"Lou, I swear on the Styx that it was not me who did this."

As thunder rumbled, Lou almost sobbed. The camp's hero was seeming to be a mastermind who was going to turn on the gods.

"P-Percy, you were a former bearer of the Curse of the River Styx. Yo-you have a connection with her."

"Lou, that's utter bullshit."

"I-I won't tell C-Chiron if you tell me w-why, Percy… Why betray the gods?"

"I DIDN'T, LOU!"

Lou cried even more and ran out back into the forest. Percy stared at her silhouette fade into the darkness before chasing after her.

Riptide dimly illuminated the surroundings of the forest. Usually, Percy loved nature, especially forests and trees. But the forest of Camp Half-Blood was scary. Occasionnally he would hear the sound of scales slithering on the leaf-covered ground, or the snap of a twig that definitely wasn't caused by a dryad, or see giant shadows of beasts unknown.

Of course, the times when he should have seen big shadows coming towards him, he didn't. In fact, if it weren't for his godly reflexes, his head would have been inside a hellhound's mouth. Percy rolled to the side before getting up, spitting a bit of leaf from his mouth. The hellhound who pounced on Percy was huge, the size of a rhinoceros. It's eyes glowed red with the fires of Punishment. It grinned, like it knew that it had gotten dinner. The sharp triangular teeth that lined it's black maw were grimy, and desperately needed some good dental care.

Percy kicked off a nearby tree and pounced on the hellhound, who swatted away the attack, the back of it's paw slamming into Percy's abdomen and sending him flying away into another tree. As Percy groaned and grimaced, the hellhound prowled towards him. It scraped his chest with it's paw, tearing three lines through his T-shirt and into his chest. Percy tried to bring up his sword but was restricted by another paw of the hellhound. That was when Percy saw it.

A leather necklace tied around the paw on his hand with two beads. One with the Athena Parthenos carved on it, and another bead with the design of the Empire State Building and the names of dead heroes surrounding it. Percy angrily made a mental note to add to the names of the demigods who died because of him; the name of Lou Ellen Blackstone. His anger at himself was immense, a tidal wave of raw emotion. And the world responded. The earth shook with the rage of the son of Poseidon. As the hellhound lost balance, Percy kicked the beast with all his might, sending the dog off of him. The hellhound yelped as Percy barreled towards it, bringing Riptide down with the force of a tsunami. The hound sidestepped the lunge before shadow-travelling off into the void, scared for its life after seeing the murderous look on Percy's face.

Will Solace was tending to the beds at the infirmary of Camp Half-Blood, early in the morning. He, of course, was accompanied by his boyfriend, Nico di Angelo.

"So, Mr. Ghost King, are you just gonna sit there and watch me do all this work or are you gonna help?"

Nico whined, "But I like watching you work!"

"Is that all I am to you, a hot piece of ass?"

"William, I will send you to Father for that."

"You're still weak as Styx, Nico. You almost killed yourself when you shadow-travelled us into and then away from a pot of cheese fondue."

"Hmph."

The two were interrupted by the bloody face of Perseus Jackson opening the door, his black hair matted with twigs and mud, his camp tee tattered with a claw scratch on his chest and bruises on his sword hand, which lay limply at his side. In fact, he looked quite like the corpses Will had seen during the Battle of the Camps last year, and before that the Battle of New York and the Battle of the Labyrinth. Unlike the dead, however, Percy Jackson's eyes were open and stormy green. He sat on the bed without a word.

"Uh…" Will looked at Nico, not really sure what to do.

Nico didn't either, it appeared, as he shrugged. Being the extrovert in the trio of demigods, Will asked "You good, bro? That's a nasty scratch there. Mind if you take care of it?"

Percy just continued staring, or rather, glaring, into the void. Will glanced at Nico, confused. Nico just blankly looked back at him.

"Yo, Percy, would you mind lying on the bed?"

Wordlessly, Percy stretched his legs, now lying on the bed, staring straight up at the ceiling. What Will and Nico didn't see was the dried trails of tears that were hidden with the grime and dust from the night's events.

With yet another glance at Nico, this time just worried with no confusion, Will said "I may need you to take your shirt off too, Percy." While Nico grumbled quite loudly, Percy just tore his shirt off, already ruined. Will began to clean and stitch up the wound while Nico stared intently at the process (Will had no idea whether it was himself that Nico was staring at or the shirtless half-god in the bed in front of him.)

After a few sips of nectar, a bite of ambrosia and a newly-dressed wound, Percy immediately walked out of the infirmary, leaving Will and Nico without a word.

"Should we follow him?"

Nico replied,"Nah, Annabeth'll be back soon. Also, we're alone."

Will, despite the clear emotional stuff going on in Percy's head, couldn't help but smirk. "Nico, I already told you, we're not having our first kiss in the infirmary of all the places!" (although Will was very tempted to do just that after the pouty face that Nico made).

"Yeah, Argus just died, Chiron. What the Hades else do you want me to do? Bring you his dust?"

Percy heard the ongoing conversation between Leo, Calypso and Chiron, followed by some quick mutterings that sounded a lot like prayers in some dusty language and a loud sigh and a "Don't diss the dead like that, Leo."

"Sorry Chiron."

A long pause.

"..and Calypso."

Percy chose that time to walk into the Big House's living room, where he saw Chiron, Leo and Calypso; Dionysus seeming to have poofed off to Zeus-knows-where.

"Percy, my boy." Chiron said. "Is it true that Argus has been… incapacitated?"

Percy thought 'incapacitated' was a nice way to put it – even though it was technically true.

"Yes, Chiron. Argus was killed."

Calypso, who was looking behind Percy, asked, "Where's Lou, Percy?"

Percy was thinking about how to answer this question from the moment he began to stop hyperventilating, which, in his defense, was barely a few minutes ago. Yeah, he was thinking. Don't be surprised. All of his possible answers were pretty incriminating, though. Even if he was completely honest about the argument, it would still be extremely suspicious that the person who suspected him was killed by a hellhound that shadow-travelled away.

Of course, that meant if he wanted to stay alive – as he was sure the death of Argus, if not the most powerful daughter of Hecate (which as Percy was going through his mind, would definitely not be bothered about much by the gods) – he would probably have to lie to them about the argument, which wasn't something he was too happy about, but he had to be smart about this. It was either choosing a 50-50 chance of death by the master bolt or getting away safe but lying to his friends, his family.

Percy took a deep breath.

Welcome, welcome. It hasn't been that long, I swear. Life caught up with me, as it usually does in the first few months of the year. Here's the fourth chapter, a tad bit shorter than the others but I felt this was a good place to stop. I hope you enjoy, and thanks for the 1000 views I somehow got?

There is one thing I want to talk about, which is probably relevant to the coming chapters. I've seen a lot of people romanticize some of the more... controversial scenes between Percabeth. I'm well aware that this is not an unpopular opinion but I don't think any healthy relationship would ever involve one of the persons attacking their S.O., especially if they haven't seen each other in 9 months. So, if any of you like reading a Percabeth interaction like that, this is not the book for you.

On another note, thanks for reading. You guys are great.

-Scythe7137