Chapter Title: I Find Myself Face To Face With My Stalker

(A/N: As of right now, only ten more chapters of this arc remain. Obviously, I'm not going to really do all of the stuff that happened in between when the heroes leave for the quest to save Hera and actually rescuing Hera herself because, let's be real.. even though there are new characters added in here, basically in a general sense, that whole quest up until the end is basically going to play out the same way as in countless other fanfics. So since this fanfic is more towards Camp Half Blood for now and also Kayton, I don't think it would make sense to do the entire quest as well. Probably going to include at least a summary of what went down on the quest in the next Jason POV chapter. With that out of the way, on to this chapter.)

Bryce couldn't sleep.

No really, he couldn't sleep at all currently.

No matter much he tossed and turned in his bed in the Hermes Cabin, he just couldn't right now honestly. He didn't exactly know why, but he knew he couldn't really sleep at this moment in time.

It wasn't because of the snoring from some of his newfound siblings in the Hermes Cabin, mind you. Bryce honestly couldn't blame that, even if he wanted to if he had to be honest here. It was something else, something that he couldn't bring his mind to understand what it was at the moment.

Whatever the reason he couldn't really sleep that night was truly, Bryce decided that he needed some fresh air outdoors. Besides, it was hard to sleep in there anyway when it smelled gods knows what from the massive pile of stolen stuff in one corner of the cabin. So quietly, he slipped out of the Hermes Cabin, making sure not to wake up anyone as he went outside. Outside, he had to admit.. Camp Half Blood at nighttime looked like he was a whole different planet when compared to daytime.

The way that the Apollo Cabin simply looked like a glowing fire from all the lights illuminating it, how the Ares Cabin was lit up as if the cabin itself was a red stone torch from Minecraft, the way that the Typhon Cabin despite looking all normal had a visible glow to it in the dark that only made that much more creepy.. it was amazing really.

Bryce had honestly never seen anything like it before. It was bewildering if he had to be honest here.

Then again, he had a feeling that he wasn't the first person to feel like this at nighttime here and probably not the last person to feel like this either. Even so, the fact that this somehow was the only safe space for demigods like the ones he was with here seemed only more unbelievable the more he found out about this place.

Bryce stood there, close to the edge of the clearing nearby, looking at all the cabins. He honestly felt fortunate that he could even do this when he wanted to. Originally, he had heard that there was a curfew in place where if you weren't in your cabin by a certain time when night fell, that the cleaning harpies would eat you. Bryce didn't know for certain whether that had been true or not, but if it had, he definitely felt lucky that it wasn't the case now.

His mind drifted then towards the ones that were missing from camp right now, beings that seemed hard to believe even existed. He wouldn't lie, the amount of shit that these four demigods had been through — and the batshit insane feats and powers some of them had — were absolutely insane.

Of all of them, Colton was definitely at the top of that list if Bryce had to be honest. Sure, Percy Jackson had accomplished some crazy feats too — killing a Minotaur with nothing but your bare hands and its horn when you are twelve years old and don't even have a clue about the Gods is insanely impressive in and of itself — but defending your family from an insanely massive and deadly flock of man-eating birds and for the most part, single-handily beating them.. that was a feat of impossible odds, Bryce would admit. He would most likely be dead before he even replicated that feat that Colton did, in Bryce's own opinion.

Perhaps the insane-ness of their feats was why, Bryce thought, that Colton and Percy happened to be "rivals" with each other. Bryce had to admit, that the dynamic of this rivalry was very odd, even with it being between demigods of batshit insane caliber. In his mind, he just found it odd that one side of this would just back away from a fight with the other because he really didn't want to do it — while the other side of it had a bone to pick with Percy, even now, simply over getting knocked off the number four spot of who was the most powerful demigod in camp.

It just didn't seem right to him. There had to be something more to it than just that. The fact that no one actually knew what had been said between these two during the conversation that kicked off this whole rivalry between them only furthered strengthened this in Bryce's mind. There was just no way it could be over something as simple as that. It just couldn't at all.

His mind now shifted to Luke, and to be honest, if he had to say what his opinion on Luke was, he would say that Luke was essentially Darth Vader if Vader got a new lease on life as a fully organic being and then some. To be fair, Bryce's mind really could never understand the absolute mental gymnastics the gods probably had to do in not only sparing Luke's life with no punishments at all, but then make him a member of the Hunters Of Artemis just so he could be with the one that was in love with him. There was no way in hell that in a million years that Bryce in his own opinion could ever understand the logic behind that decision.

Given that Luke hadn't betrayed Olympus since then, it was safe to assume in his mind, as Bryce saw it, that despite the illogical-ness of the decision, it had worked. For whatever reason that Bryce could not even begin to try to comprehend, doing that had worked.

Lastly, there was Michael, a guy who for all intents and purposes, might as well have been Apollo's anger issues personified. I mean, being a honorary child of the God whose son — one of many, mind you — just so happens to be his best friend definitely helped with that, if Bryce were to be honest here. Bryce had to wonder exactly what Michael had gone through for him to be described, in Percy's own words given what others had said of him talking about Michael, as "four foot six with an extra two feet of attitude". Bryce really wondered a lot about that part.

He had to be real here, it just seemed impossible that someone who had been rivals with his best friend's own older sister could just be best friends with his current best friend, who along with himself happened to be missing. Just like how there were so many things about this camp that just really seemed unbelievable to even be real, in Bryce's own opinion. To him, Camp Half Blood might as well as have been breaking the laws of physics, nature, reality, as well as probably every other book of laws in existence.

Bryce didn't exactly have many more words in his vocabulary to describe how in all likelihood, Camp Half Blood was the impossible becoming reality in his own opinion. He really did not.

And so, as he stood there just observing the cabins in the darkness of night outside, he just simply gazed at this part of camp in awe, wondering had the cabins always been like this or was there more to the story of this place than those who were here had already told him. Of course he knew the part about how there were originally twelve cabins instead of the expanding number there was now, but even Bryce couldn't help but wonder was there even more history to that than this?

He was shaken from his thoughts — more like pulled away from them — when he felt a familiar presence watching him. Bryce turned around and had to clamp his hand over his own mouth to prevent himself from screaming and waking up the whole camp when he found himself face to face with the same pure white eyed figure from earlier when he had finished turning around.

Bryce couldn't move. He wanted to run, he really did, but his own body seemed to be completely frozen and paralyzed with fear and terror. It seemed like a miracle that he wasn't shitting his pants right now. He didn't care at all now if he was eaten by one of the harpies or something at this point. All he wanted to do was to just get the fuck away from whatever or whoever the hell was staring at him right now silently.

I hate this, I fucking hate this so much, Bryce thought to himself. Why did I have to be a demigod?

Then, the mysterious figure spoke, and Bryce went from terrified to simply outright confused in a mere instant. It was that quick of a switch.

You do not have to be afraid, Legacy Of Ares.. you do not have to be afraid of who I truly am.

Bryce's mind was performing gymnastics now. The fuck? Legacy Of Ares? Is this.. thing insane or something? He thought to himself.

I'm not the one you should fear, Bryce Harper, the figure said to him, and Bryce now found that he could move himself again. He lowered his hand off of his mouth.

"Why shouldn't I fear you?" Bryce quietly asked the figure.

Because we fight on the same side, the figure replied. For the Gods. It wasn't always this way. A lot of the wielders of my power usually fought against the Gods. Only a select few fought for the Gods, with my latest wielder being the latest example of this.

"Wielders? What? Who even are you?" Bryce asked, even more confused now. He really was having a hard time making sense of any of this, and this figure wasn't making it any easier for him honestly.

Only when you find Hera will you find out who I truly am, the figure said back to Bryce.

"Okay.. good to know.." Bryce muttered reluctantly. It wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, but it was still an answer nonetheless honestly. It was better than nothing really, as Bryce saw it.

Believe me when I say, I too am lost without my current wielder. I am something that my wielder doesn't know about and that only a few had been able to see. Soon however.. the figure continued. ..everyone will know that I exist, and that I will keep existing until my wielder wakes up.

Bryce was simply dumbfounded at this point. He hadn't had the slightest idea as to what this figure was talking about. "What? What the hell do you mean?" Bryce asked. He was becoming really annoyed with the vague and cryptic kind of stuff that the figure in front of him was saying right now.

You will find out soon enough, Bryce Harper.

Bryce just found it absolutely creepy that this.. whatever was talking to him right now knew his name somehow. It was unsettling if he had to be honest here. Nothing else, not even that bully who turned out to be a monster back at the Wilderness School, was creepier than this thing. He really wished that this would just end soon.

He just wanted to go to sleep right now, god damn it. He didn't ask for shit like this.

"Soon enough then, huh?" Bryce muttered, albeit very reluctantly. He didn't really blame himself for it all. He really did not know what exactly to say either.

Soon enough indeed, my friend. Once you reach Hera, only then will you find out exactly who I truly am. I do have faith that you and your friends will live to see it, the figure finished and then simply disappeared like a ghost right in front of Bryce's very eyes.

He blinked.

Once, and then twice, wondering if he just seen what he had seen. If the entire conversation he had just had was basically him not really knowing what to even think at all, this was just the peak of it. He had no idea whether he should just run, scream, or just do.. anything at this point.

Eventually, he just decided to go back to sleep because at this point, he figured he was just going crazy at this point. So he did, quietly stepping back into the Hermes Cabin and trying to go to sleep again. This time, he was successful.

As he did, he had no clue that the figure was watching him from a distance outside of the Hermes Cabin, through the window next to his bed. The figure simply let out a familiar, bone-chilling laugh that no one in Camp Half Blood seemed to hear.

Soon.. the mythological world will finally realize just how dangerous the past wielders of this power had made it to be! Soon.. they will find out how to the enemies that seek this power.. you can run, but you can't hide!