Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians
This fic would not have existed without the encouragement of Stereden, who has also done a podfic of it, which can be found in its AO3 crosspost /works/57201739 or on my tumblr tsarisfanfiction!
The reactions were mixed.
Some of them, like Pollux – gods, looking at Pollux hurt when there was an empty space next to him – and Katie winced. Jake also looked disturbed, while Percy and Annabeth leaned in, apparently scrutinising them.
Drew scoffed, got to her feet, and walked straight over to him, scraping the skin with one, pointed, fake nail. She'd lost several of them, almost certainly thanks to the battle, although her make-up remained flawless and her hair looked like it was held in place with an entire can of stiff hairspray. One was enough to scrape down the skin, and Lee winced as blood beaded in its wake.
"Not make-up," she pronounced to the room, but her dark eyes met Lee's and held them. "Explain."
It was a single word, but it was layered with the unmistakable feeling of charmspeak.
Charmspeak was a strange power, one where if the target was attracted to the speaker, they could compel them to do anything. It was a bit disturbing, if Lee thought about it too deeply. There were various degrees of it, of course. The weakest charmspeakers could just about charmspeak someone that was actively in love with them. Others could catch people that were just attracted to them, and the more powerful ones could catch people who weren't, but simply had the potential to be, in a certain context that hadn't happened.
Michael laughed in the face of it, much to Drew's frustration. So did a few other campers, the other ones that were aromantic and/or ace, or simply very much not into the gender of the speaker.
Lee, being openly bi for years, was very much a theoretical target for some of the charmspeakers in camp.
He wasn't in love with Drew. He wasn't particularly attracted to her, either. But she was pretty, and most importantly, she was powerful – the most powerful charmspeaker currently in camp, beating out even Silena.
Lee still could've tried to fight it, because recognising when you were being charmspoken did give half a chance of at least resisting it, but it was actually easier not to, he realised.
It was much, much easier to explain whilst caught in Drew's power, because then he didn't have to think too hard about it, and there was less room for doubt, either.
So he spoke. It was a similar rundown to the one he gave Clarisse, starting from the beginning when he woke up chained in a cave with no idea what had happened, through to Kronos' eventual explanation why he'd been taken, and then to being forced to listen to spy reports, although he didn't give names. He spoke about Tris, being dragged in and used as collateral, and started crying when Beckendorf's death came up, not mentioning why, but what had happened, how he'd died.
He finished by talking of how Tris had got them out of there, how he'd heard that Kronos was going for his siblings and how he made sure he got there.
By the time he was done, his throat was parched.
Under the charmspeak, he hadn't really been too aware of everyone's reactions. As it faded away, Drew releasing him and falling back into her chair with far less grace than usual, their reactions started filtering in.
Joy had a tight grip on his arm. She was white-faced, and Lee realised she hadn't heard several of those details before, especially not Beckendorf's death. He hated that she'd had to find out, especially like that.
Jake was openly crying, face buried in his hands, and Katie had an arm around his shoulders, looking a little sick. She met Lee's eyes, and there was sympathy in them.
Pollux poured a drink from the bar and walked over to him, pressing it into his hand and not letting go until he had a solid grip on it. It wasn't a soda, like the Stolls had been handing out, but juice was better anyway. Lee couldn't find words to thank the son of Dionysus, still couldn't really look at him without seeing the gaping void where his twin should be, but he drank it anyway, fumbling a little with the glass after a year of bottles.
"Kronos has been hiding his army from the gods for years," Thalia said, breaking the silence. "Artemis has been furious about it." Lee didn't need the confirmation that Apollo hadn't had any way to notice him before then, not when things had been tinged with his father ever since his first prayer since getting out, but he appreciated her saying it, anyway.
"So, to be clear," Percy said, and the son of Poseidon sounded old, and Lee remembered that despite being the youngest demigod in the room right then, it was technically his war, chosen as the leader of their side by his parentage and their opponent. "You didn't leave camp of your free will, and you didn't work for Kronos of your free will."
Lee shook his head. "I would never," he said, and despite the juice his voice was still dry. Pollux gave the glass a pointed nudge and he raised it to his lips again, managing a few more sips. It was delicious, possibly more so than it would have been if anyone else had given it to him, but after a year of nothing but bottle-tainted water, it was almost its own nectar. And like nectar, Lee could only manage it in small doses.
Pollux seemed to come to that realisation, because he ducked back around the bar, yanking open the fridge, and pulling out a bottle of spring water, twisting the cap off as he brought it over.
"Try this," he suggested, taking the glass back, and the water was cold, compared to the lukewarm stuff he'd been given by Kronos' army, but it was refreshing and much easier to drink.
"He didn't fight me," Drew reported, her voice a steel trap. They all knew charmspeak had its limitations – it didn't compel Lee to tell the truth, just to answer – but Lee hoped that meant that she still believed what he'd said. "Lee's capable enough to try, but he didn't."
Well, Lee had been capable of trying to fight her charmspeak off years ago, when they were younger and she was less powerful. In his current state, and with Drew's increase in power as she'd got older, he wasn't sure he would've had any success trying now, if he'd wanted to.
"I don't like the timing," Annabeth said, and she was scrutinising Lee like he was her newest puzzle. He probably was. "And… Luke. I can't believe he'd sell you out to Kronos like that."
"I can," Travis muttered darkly. "That's the one bit of this I do believe."
"And that," Connor continued, "brings me to my next question." He stood up and stalked over to Lee, the ever-present playful glint in his eye gone. "If Lee is a human lie detector, then why did he never tell anyone that Luke was planning to betray us all? If you're so good that Kronos was willing to go that far to get hold of you – you can't have missed the signs. The lies."
Lee wasn't sure if he was glad or not that Michael wasn't in the meeting right then. Michael was the only one there that already knew the answer to that, had seen the state Lee had ended up in when Luke's betrayal was revealed.
It was how Michael had worked out about his ability, after all.
But also, Michael would've started a fight at the accusation in Connor's words, in Travis' eyes. Annabeth looked more hurt than anything, and Percy was wavering, too.
It was a good point, Lee could admit that easily. It was a question he'd asked himself many, many, times until Silena pointed it out to him in flat words exactly how she and Luke had got past his ability, and he still hated that particular limitation.
He took another drink from the bottle, wetting his throat for the explanation. Neither Joy nor Clarisse had asked that question, and they didn't know the answer, either. He could feel their eyes on him, too, the same as everyone else's.
"Truth… is personal," he said. "It's grounded in what the speaker believes to be true. If it's a truth to the speaker… I don't pick up a lie. Because it's not one." He tried for a self-depreciating smile but could feel it only partially settling on his face, drooping before it finished forming. "This ability of mine is pretty useless when it comes to the important things."
"And Luke knew about your ability," Thalia said. "If he found a loophole like that… he'd use it." She sounded bitterly fond, like she didn't want to remember Luke well but that their time together before they made it to camp still left its mark. "He was always good at finding loopholes."
The daughter of Zeus walked into the centre of the gathering, lazy confidence in her movement. "There are daughters of Apollo in the Hunt," she told them all. "Apollo himself visits us not infrequently." She gestured at both Lee and Joy. "I've never met a single child of Apollo that didn't, despite everything, still believe in their father when it counted. Not one. My sisters in the Hunt have never mentioned any, either. If Kronos wanted to frame someone as a spy, he couldn't manage a worse pick than a child of Apollo."
Lee hadn't known he had sisters in the Hunt, although he supposed it made sense. There were a couple he'd met over the years that, with that information in mind, he could start suspecting, too.
Not everyone seemed convinced by her speech. The Stolls still had their arms crossed defensively, and Annabeth was still looking at him like a puzzle to solve.
"I have one question," Jake said, finally raising his head. His eyes were red-rimmed. Lee's insides churned, because of course it was going to be about Beckendorf – he'd all but confessed that Beckendorf had died because he'd revealed the spy's lies, which meant it was his fault and Jake was fully within his rights to hate him for that- "The spy. Lee, if you were hearing the reports, then you know who it is." His look was intense, and his tone went dark. " Who."
The water in the bottle started sloshing, and Lee wondered why Percy was doing it, before realising it was his hand that was shaking.
Everyone else leaned in at that, even the Stolls and Annabeth. Some of them glanced at each other, warily. Lee had to tell them, he had to. But that… telling them was…
Clarisse scoffed. "Isn't it obvious?" she said, and her own voice wasn't steady, either. That was unusual for the daughter of Ares, unusual enough to get everyone's attention, eyes leaving Lee to focus on her, and Lee was so, so grateful to Clarisse for taking over there. "If Beckendorf was a punishment for lying… who the fuck do you think it was?"
Drew's nails clacked suddenly against the arm of the chair she was perched in. "She wouldn't," she hissed, but the uncertainty, the edge of a lie, twinged against Lee's spine. Like most children of Aphrodite, she was smarter than she got credit for, too many people falling for the idea of fashion obsessed teenagers being dumb. "That's why you called me for this instead of waiting until she came back."
Lee could see her heart breaking in real time, even as the rest of the room caught on.
"No," Annabeth said. "It can't- Silena wouldn't."
"Clarisse, I know you're a bitch, but isn't Silena someone you actually think is a friend?" Travis challenged. "Friends don't typically accuse each other of spying for titans. Pick another target. We all know you hate Michael."
She snorted. "If you think that bastard would betray the camp to Kronos then you don't know him at all. I know him better than that, even if I can't stand him."
"That's what I don't get," Katie said. "Why would Silena..?"
"I don't know," Drew said, "and I intend on asking." Her hands were balled into fists, nails digging into her palm and knuckles white. "She's been secretive for a while. We thought she was just sneaking out with Beckendorf after curfew, all romantic, so we left her alone…" She glanced over at Jake, meaningfully, and the son of Hephaestus swallowed.
"Beckendorf never went out after hours," he said. "He'd come back in from the forge late, but he always took forge safety seriously. No-one in there alone, and it was always one of us. They didn't do late night dates."
Part of Lee had wondered how Silena had got away with her reports. Now he knew, and he hated it.
"I want to hear it from Lee," Annabeth said. "This… doesn't sound good for Silena, but Clarisse isn't the one that's been listening to the reports. Apparently, that was Lee, so, Lee. Talk."
He nodded. "It was Silena," he confirmed. "She… we talked, sometimes. She said she was trying to keep you safe, that demigods didn't need to be killed while Kronos took down the gods."
The worst part of that, he was realising, seeing it dawn on everyone's faces, was that it was believable. It would never have worked, and Beckendorf had been the proof for that, too late to actually change anything, but trying to keep the campers away from the worst of the war – that was something that did fit with what everyone knew about Silena.
"She's gone to fetch the Ares cabin," Percy said, and eyes fell to Clarisse.
"I know," she said. "Ellis called me when she showed up. They know she's the spy. If she brings them here, then great. If she tries to take them elsewhere… they'll do something about it."
"So you are fighting after all?" Connor asked, faux-sweetly, and she growled. "Why are you here, anyway?"
"Lee called me," she said. "If it was someone pretending to be him, I owed them a punch in the face, and a spear through their stomach."
Several eyes glanced between Clarisse and Lee, the other demigods in the room clearly suddenly remembering that despite the current apparent feud between the Apollo cabin and Clarisse, the two of them got on.
Lee loved Michael, he did, but if he'd still been in camp, he'd have done whatever he could to stop this particular feud from taking root, and it was nice to see that realisation washing across the faces of the others.
"Regardless of circumstance," Annabeth said, "Clarisse and the Ares cabin coming now means we can change our tactics. We took too many hits last night." She sent an apologetic glance to Percy. "We're not going to be able to keep Kronos out of the city. But we can still keep him out of Olympus."
"So what's the new plan?" Katie asked. "We've more or less blocked off the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. A few more plants and we could collapse the whole thing."
"Williamsburg Bridge is destroyed," Percy added. "Kronos tried that route."
There were several worried glances at Joy, who nodded. "We survived," she signed, but there wasn't much enthusiasm in the thumbs' up at the end of the sign, not this time.
"Michael?" Jake asked, seemingly only just realising that the Apollo head counsellor was absent for a reason.
"Michael and Nathan can't keep fighting," Lee said. "They'll live, but don't count on their archery for the rest of the war." Michael could, at a pinch, shoot, against all medical advice. Lee would be surprised – and more worried – if he didn't at least try . But he shouldn't, and Lee was going to keep him away from the weapon if he had any say in the matter.
He got some unhappy looks from the Stolls for speaking up, but they didn't tell him to get lost, so Lee decided to take that as enough of a good sign, for now. Although they weren't going to like what else he had to say.
"Kronos targeted my siblings deliberately," he said. "The Apollo cabin are your healers, and with two of our best archers down, we're not a good bet to keep in the thick of the fighting. There are injured now. Leave them to us. We'll find a place behind the lines for the field hospital and keep that defended."
"It's a good plan," Annabeth said, before either Stoll could make the complaint that Lee could see in their eyes. "We almost lost our healers last night; if it wasn't for Michael calling for reinforcements when the Minotaur showed up…" She trailed off, and everyone blanched as they realised how close Kronos had come to wiping out Lee's entire cabin.
Lee felt sick at the thought. If Kronos hadn't been baiting Percy, too, if he'd been the first wave of attack instead of the second…
None of them would've stood a chance.
"When the Ares cabin get here, they'll be our front line," the daughter of Athena continued. "We'll hold the block around Olympus, keep our forces closer together. We can make the Empire State Building the emergency hospital; if need be, they can retreat up to Olympus itself."
"Put the worst in Olympus straight away," Clarisse countered. "Anyone that can't be moved easily. Least combatant medics with them. Apollo's archers can hold the foyer."
Joy nodded in agreement, and Annabeth acquiesced.
"We'll harass them from behind," Thalia said. "Most of the routes into Manhattan are blocked now, we can channel them through the route we want them to take. The nature spirits will work with us on that. No offence, but the Hunt works best alone."
Most of the campers snorted that that. "We'd noticed," Travis said.
"Anything you can pick off before it reaches us will help," Percy agreed.
"We need to rest," Katie said. "We didn't all fight a titan, but we're all tired, and if we've got until sundown we need to make the most of it."
"I'm taking over leadership of Cabin Ten," Drew said suddenly. "If Silena comes back… we'll deal with her. She's lost the right to command us." She sounded angry, and no-one blamed her. No-one looked comfortable at the idea of confronting her, either.
There were no arguments.
Percy sighed. "Okay then," he said. "We rest now, take advantage of the hotel before we leave it. Then… I guess it's back to war again."
Sorry about the gap in updates; I had a pretty major irl event going on and didn't have the energy to crosspost (I always post to AO3 first). Posting the next four chapters all at once to catch up!
Thanks for reading!
Tsari