Apollo's Hunt

Wrong

"Well," Annabeth started. "We already knew that Tartarus was rising, that is the 'Pit' that was mentioned in the first line-"

"How on earth did you figure that out?" Shizzle asked sarcastically.

"Shizzle," Percy growled in warning. "Let the daughter of Athena speak what she thinks she knows."

"As I was saying," Annabeth continued, ignoring Percy's disrespectful comment. "We've established that the second line is Percy coming back. The third line, To rise or destroy, Olympus will fight, means that the gods will have a civil war. It was bound to happen sometime and it just had to be while Tartarus was rising." Annabeth paused, glancing around the room.

Percy raised an eyebrow at her prolonged silence. "Do go on," he pressed, barely restraining himself from rolling his eyes. He nodded in what seemed to be agreement with the daughter of wisdom's daughter.

"Well, the last two lines could mean any number of things," she said, eyeing him carefully. "Brains is obviously Athena, Nature means Gaea and Loyalty is Percy-"

"You will call me Lord Ariston," Percy interrupted, looking up, his voice cold and unfeeling. "I do not care how I knew you before, my murderers have no right to call me something so informal."

Wow, Percy thought to himself. I'm sounding a lot like the Olympians. He could not tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Percy could tell that several of the campers in there with him gulped nervously. Poor Frank was so nervous that he turned into an iguana.

"Percy calm down," Travis called from the other side of the room.

"Yeah dude," Connor added. "You're glowing."

Percy closed his eyes and clenched his fists, taking deep breaths to calm down. "Thanks," he muttered.

"Why are you letting them call you that?" Piper asked, a completely fake look of hurt on her face.

Percy snorted quietly. "Didn't think you could be such a good actress, Piper," he said sarcastically. "We both know you don't really care about that."

Piper's hurt look immediately disappeared and turned into a scowl. "They were the ones to lead you to Olympus to die," she told him sharply. "Why are they allowed to call you that?"

"They told me what was happening and what they were tasked with doing," Percy told her, equally as sharp. "I knew exactly what was going to happen."

Phoenix coughed suddenly, drawing Percy's attention. He rolled his eyes and corrected him. "Percy, you did not know exactly what was going to happen," he told him.

Shade snorted in agreement. "When you woke up, you asked Phoenix why he was in the Fields of Punishment." At that moment, something occurred to him that he had never thought possible. Shade's head snapped up and Percy had a feeling his eyes had widened in surprise. "You believed them?" He asked in disbelief.

Percy sighed as everyone in his hunt turned to face him, the accusatory looks he felt they were shooting at him made him wince in anticipation for the lecture that was sure to come.

And it did come. It just wasn't directed at him.

"This is all your fault!" Clarisse shouted, standing up suddenly from her chair. "Annab-"

"Clarisse, careful how you finish that word," Shooter commented dryly. "There are little ears here."

"Who?" Shade asked, looking around. From the way he said it, Percy suspected he was frowning but he couldn't tell behind the hood.