Broken And Betrayed

THIRTY-ONE

New chapter! And good news! Well, kinda good, kinda bad. Here in Scotland, they're putting us into like the highest tier lockdown there is, so schools are gonna be shut till like February. Obviously, that's not so good, but it does mean I'll have more time to write than I would on a normal school day so also good! Anyway, read and hopefully enjoy, everyone!

Percy grinned at them after he finished scowling at Mrs O'Leary. "I was gonna jump scare Nico! Unfair. Whassup, guys?"

They all stared at him in wonder, apart from Nico, who rolled his eyes and muttered, "My dad is the god of fear. I don't get jump scares."

Percy grinned at him. "Tell that to yourself a few minutes ago when I snuck up behind you." The son of Poseidon laughed, and Nico huffed and went to go introduce himself to Alex.

Percy turned to the rest of them, who were still standing slack jawed. "Close your mouths, you'll catch flies." Several mouths audibly snapped shut and he smiled again. "It's good to see you guys. Camp treating you well?"

At this they looked down sadly. "Nah. Since we never agreed that you two were guilty, everyone kinda just left us out of everything. But they could only do so much, since, you know, we're all head counselors." Connor said, looking in awe at Oscar and Sadie, who were easily the height of his chest. "What in Hades did these dogs eat," he muttered under his breath.

Percy started to get angry. "So pushing me out wasn't enough, they had to shun anyone who took my side as well?" He murmured furiously.

Nico looked at him warily. "Pretty much, yeah. Would you care for a piece of good news in these trying times?"

"Please."

"Well," the son of Hades started, "everyone in Camp Jupiter still thinks you're the best. A couple of the Olympians -I think Hermes and Apollo as Mercury and... well, Apollo- went and told them the real story, since they were on your side. Then, when Athena showed up to explain things in her Roman form, nobody really changed their minds because let's be honest, who respects Minerva?" He laughed. Percy grinned too.

"So everyone there is fine with me, huh? I'm guessing Jason and Piper are there too?" He said, glad of the fact that at least the other Camp he'd led had stayed loyal to him.

"Yep, they're there," said Travis, reaching out and fondling Oscar's head cautiously. Oscar turned and leapt on him, knocking him over, and the son of Hermes screamed, expecting to be eaten. But Oscar just proceeded to give him the O'Leary treatment, giving his face a thorough licking while everyone else doubled over laughing.

Nico turned back to Percy. "Camp Jupiter even cut themselves off from Camp Half-Blood because of it. Well, not cut off completely, else Zeus would get suspicious, but the camps barely ever communicate, and when they do? Dam, the Romans are so cold and formal to them it makes even me shiver. Also, when you get to the camp, please restrain yourself. There's going to be someone there you'll very much want to hit." The son of Hades said, as the group started to make their way down towards the camp.

Someone he'd want to hit? As if there weren't enough of those anyway. Who the Hades could it be, Percy wondered.

Soon, they reached the service tunnel, where quite a few of the campers and hunters were already standing. There were only a few left to come, Percy estimated. He wondered what any mortals that happened on this gathering of heavily armed kids would see.

Soon, Artemis came through with the last couple of hunters, Celyn and one of her friends, and the guards at the tunnel let them in. They all went in, and found quite a number of Romans waiting when they got to the main camp.