In which Percy proves that while yes, she is capable of great immaturity and ridiculousness, she is also a real great leader and would make a scary politician. Heheheh.
Replies:
Zephyr0f8: Percy: Listen girls, I love you. And what would love be without the chance torment you gently.
Wisestriker: Oh she's struggling lol.
Krypton Writes: Hint time. Or, multiple hints. Stymphalian birds. Uncle H. Big brothers, Manticore. Serpopards. Fredrick.
Undeath9087: Oh the quest is gonna be very interesting :D:D
Guest: She's just sort of imagining possibilities for the future. And she does know she can talk to horses- no way would she reach fourteen without ever coming close to one lol. And it's still in this fic.
Yazins: Percy and Annabeth are fourteen, Piper is thirteen. And if you're curious Thalia and Bianca are both twelve at this stage though Thalia is very close to thirteen.
Guest: It would end with Octavian cowering in a corner clutching his stuffed teddies while Percy cackles maniacally.
The rest of the tour went well enough- up until the point when they reached the Big House again- and Percy had some ideas in mind for that lava climbing wall she'd spotted. She could have some real fun there if she got the chance she was sure. The mere thought of it made her want to cackle wildly. Annabeth would not approve if she knew any of the ideas Percy was entertaining. Piper would probably cheer her on.
In any case, all three of the girls were smiling and relaxed- until they arrived at the Big House and saw several Demigods gathered outside, clearly looking unhappy.
There were a group of girls in silver parka's as well but they were off to the side a little and Artemis was talking to them so Percy could only assume that the girls were her hunters, especially since the parka's were the same as Zoe's.
They weren't causing any trouble so Percy mentally set them aside for a moment. The demigods were a bigger concern.
None of them looked happy. She could see Chiron stood on the porch, clearly trying to placate them, and Thalia was stood there with him too. Behind him- ah. Well that made sense, it was easy enough to understand why people wouldn't be too happy about Luke's presence. He was stood just in the doorway, looking somewhat uncomfortable, and Bianca was stood just in front of him, looking ready to step in if she had to. Percy would rather avoid that if she could so she exchanged looks with Annabeth and Piper, and Annabeth let out a long suffering sigh.
"Things are never simple." The daughter of Athena sighed, a long suffering sigh that made Percy's lips twitch, "Go on Princess."
"You're the one who they all know-"
"Yeah but I'm not the one who's officially taken responsibility for him." Annabeth snickered, "Like he's some kind of naughty puppy-"
"I- shut up." Percy tried not to laugh as they drew closer- and it was louder as they got closer, voices speaking over one another. "Pipes, I'd rather not shout can you…"
"Of course." Piper's grin was devilish, and once they were close enough she took a deep breath before bellowing;
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" and it really was entertaining watching every ones mouths snap shut mid yell.
Of course everyone turned to look at them- a few people pointing to Annabeth, and a few gesturing to Percy.
"Thanks Pipes." Percy kissed Piper's cheek- and she really was loving being able to do that- before she moved forward, so that she was stood between the crowd of displeased campers and the porch of the Big House. "Let me guess what's going on here. You guys aren't happy that Luke's back in your camp right?"
"Of course we aren't!" that came from a blond boy, "He's a traitor." and Annabeth was at her side a moment later and whispered.
"Travis Stoll. Son of Hermes, the boy next to him is Connor." And okay. Luke's brothers. Hell they were the younger siblings as well. The betrayal had probably stung extra hard to them. She couldn't imagine how it would feel if Carter or Sadie had pulled something like that. Anger was understandable.
"Well I won't deny that." Percy remarked, "He is a traitor, he betrayed you. Which sucks for sure. What he did was bad. And I personally know that because we have actually fought more than once. He tried to choke me out one time-"
"And I'm feeling the urge to do it again now." Luke groaned the words, "You're not helping Kane-"
"Shut it Luke." Percy shot him an amused look over her shoulder before she turned her gaze to the crowd of campers.
"Aren't you just some actress?" that came from another kid, one who Annabeth didn't seem to recognise since she gave a very small shrug.
"Just some actress-" Percy gave a mock offended huff, "Excuse you I am not just some actress I am Percy Kane, darling of the big screen. Also- the Blake adventures books are actually loosely based on my life. To a degree." She didn't want to freak anyone out too much- and hah! She had to force herself to keep a straight face when she spotted Silena, who looked kinda like she was about to faint.
"We know who you are." That came from Connor, "Annabeth was always obsessed with you-"
"Still is." Piper managed to duck the blow that Annabeth aimed at the back of her head, a smug grin on her lips.
"Not the point right now." Percy really needed not to get sidetracked. But it was so hard sometimes. "Luke made several, what I like to call, dick moves. Boy fucked up big time-" Chiron was closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.
"He was also being brainwashed and manipulated for years by Kronos while no one noticed so there is a teeny bit of slack to cut there- do not give me that look Luke I didn't say the word-" Thalia snorted, clearly remembering Luke's reaction when Percy had pointed out that he was groomed. "He has understandable anger. Doesn't make the shit he's done okay, and he definitely deserves some level of proportional punishment. Which Imma be honest here I don't think Zeus will give him." She took a deep breath.
"But the thing is, he's here. Right now he's here. I was captured, locked up on Mount Orthys. Luke had every reason to hate me, had every reason to keep me locked up there. My best selling point to try and get him to change sides? Yeah I lost that. So Luke deciding to go against Kronos wasn't just a self-serving attempt to save himself. Which it could have been, easily. No he chose to go against Kronos because he had doubts, which given years of brainwashing is impressive. He chose to risk everything to help Artemis and I escape. And when I got hurt he didn't even hesitate to bring me here to try and save my life. A place he knew was filled with people who almost certainly hated him. To save the life of a girl he once tried to kill because right now, I may be the only one with access to the weapon which can, at least temporarily, stop Kronos' rise. Which I mean, it's your choice what you think of that but it tells me that he's serious about turning his back on Kronos. I'm not saying you have to forgive the dude. But this-" she waved a hand at the gathered crowds, "This isn't exactly a good look. What did you guys expect to happen when you all decided to head down here? Did you think Chiron would toss him out to you? And what would you do if he did-"
"We'd kick him out." Travis sounded almost uncertain, and there were more uncertain murmurs.
"With a bit of a beating on the way?" Percy raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't really seem like a good idea to me."
"Come on. And you Chase-" that came from a bigger girl, stringy brown hair, dark eyes. Percy instantly noted her as a fighter from the way she was stood. "You're on his side? What a shock-"
"Don't try and make everything black and white." Annabeth snapped the words. "You don't have any idea of how things went down Clarisse. You guys have no clue how much you owe Percy and Piper. They stopped Luke's plans a year and a half ago. And six months ago when I had dreams that camp was in danger they came with me to find the Golden Fleece." That caused a ripple of whispers to spread through the group. "Without them I'd have never made it there and back. And Camp would have fallen, Thalia's tree would have died-" Percy saw Luke wincing out of the corner of her eye, and Thalia was scowling at those words. "So I clearly haven't been on his side Clarisse. If there is anyone here who has a reason to be really, really personally angry with Luke, it's me-" another wince from Luke."
"Oh bullshit." Clarisse scoffed, "You always had that stupid crush on him. Just because you're with your celebrity crush now or whatever-"
"I followed him. When Luke left camp I followed him to try and find out what was going on." Annabeth cut off Clarisse. "When I found him and I found out what was going on I made a choice- I told him I was telling people and I paid the price." She pulled her right hand from her pocket, another wave of gasps and whispers at the sight of the limp hand.
"Luke summoned up a Pit Scorpion which stung me. If Percy hadn't been as quick as she was then I would have died. So when I say that I have every reason to be angry with Luke I mean it. You have no idea how hard I had to struggle in the aftermath of what happened." Her voice was tight with emotion- but Percy knew Annabeth wouldn't want her to reach out, not right now. She had to be strong, and Piper clearly knew as well because she gripped Percy tightly, clearly stopping herself from moving over to their Wise girl to offer her support. "But knowing everything I know, I have chosen to give him a chance to prove that he's trying to fix his screw ups. Like Percy said no one has to forgive him. I'm not sure I can ever really forgive him, I'm not asking any of you to. But he is important and he is trying to fix his screw ups so how about we don't screw things up even more by tossing him out and sending him running straight back to Kronos because he has nowhere else to go okay? Everyone deserves a second chance if they're willing to admit where they fucked up and seize the chance."
There was a long moment of hushed whispers and exchanged looks as people considered Annabeth's words- and gods above but Percy just wanted to hug the other girl.
Eventually Travis spoke again.
"We want an apology." His voice was clipped, "A genuine apology. For what he did for Camp. Not for the other stuff so much but- but for putting camp in danger. For putting us in danger."
Percy nodded slowly, her gaze turning to Luke, who was staring at Annabeth with a wounded look on his face at the reminder of everything that had happened, but he did managed to shake enough sense into himself to focus on the crowd, looking suddenly very uncomfortable at all of the attention.
Still it was the least he could do under the circumstances Percy decided. He had fucked up massively and while an apology wasn't exactly redemption it would be a start.
"I'm sorry." Luke took a deep breath, "I- I'm sorry. For abandoning you guys. For listening to him. I was stupid and angry and I wanted someone to blame I needed someone to blame so that I could stop blaming my-" he cut himself off almost skilfully enough that you wouldn't notice the near slip. "I am sorry for listening to him. I should have talked to someone about the dreams. But that's not- not the important part I guess. And I am sorry for what I did to Camp. I justified it to myself, I let Kronos convince me that people would just come to us rather than stay here in danger. I listened to him when I should have listened to myself. It's one of the two things that I regret most in my life." His eyes flicked to Annabeth and then to Thalia.
And that made sense, he'd hurt everyone by poisoning Thalia's tree, but it had been far more personal to him than it would be to most of the campers. "I never should have done it. I never should have done any of it. And If I could I'd go back and change it but I can't. And sorry isn't enough. It doesn't fix things, I'm not sure anything can." Luke shook his head, and his regretful expression definitely came across as genuine. "But I'll try. Starting by helping Percy get to Mount Orthys and at the very least help her slow down Kronos' rise. It's all I can do."
And Percy watched the gathered campers carefully, eyes searching for their reactions to Luke's words.
Not everyone was happy- she hadn't ever expected them to be honestly, but there were some small nods, glances exchanged, and she knew that at the very least they wouldn't be forcing Luke out of the camp at weapon point. Not for now anyway, and really that was the most they could hope for under the circumstances.
