Commander Alpha

Chapter 9

Piper's POV

     I lay in the pitch black Aphrodite cabin, unable to fall asleep even though I was extremely tired.  I didn't know any of the Chaos warriors who had revealed themselves, but had hugged all of them anyway.  My heart had swelled with disappointment when one of the faces on the stage didn't turn out to be Percy.  Then, the possibility of Percy being one of the oddly familiar Warriors who didn't reveal themselves came into my mind, and I felt hope for the first time in a long time.
     I swear, I'm not lying!" The Percy in my dream yelled.  "It wasn't me!" He looked close to tears. 
     "Liar!" Jason yelled, holding up his broken sword.  "It was found under YOUR bed!"
     "I swear on the River Styx it wasn't me!  You know me!  I would never do that!"
     "I don't believe you."
    Something flew through the air and hit Percy on the face.  Than another in the chest.  I turned around, and there was Brendan along with about twenty campers, all with large piles of rocks at their feet, smiling deviously.  There was a flood of rocks flying through the air.  Jason and I got down so none hit us, but Percy wasn't so lucky.  Bloody welts opened on his skin. 
     "I'm sorry." I mumbled, unable to bring my voice above a whisper.  "I'm sorry.  I'm sorry."
     "What are you sorry about?" A voice asked.  I was jolted awake and saw Dylan, one of the newer campers, standing above me.
     "Nothing, sorry, I must have been talking in me sleep."  He frowned, but walked away.  I sighed, looking out the window closest to my bed.  I slowly stretched, yawned, and got up following my usual routine for getting ready in the morning.  I headed outside and met a thoughtful looking Annabeth outside of her cabin. 
     "So, I was thinking-" she started.  I cut her off. 
     "Maybe we should discuss this in a place more... private." I decided.  She nodded.  We walked up to Zeus's First and sat down. 
     "Wouldn't his fatal flaw force him to reveal himself?" Annabeth asked.
     "Well, I guess... But didn't one of the warriors say something about it being 500 years that, uh, Beta had been in the army?"
     "I don't think that either of them revealed themselves, so they may be immortal, or even from a different planet, so that's not much to go on."  We both sat there silently until the horn for breakfast sounded.  We silently stood up and walked to camp. 
     Once there, we walked over to the table sort of off to the side for the immortal campers, although none of us ever used it unless we had to talk about something important.  I was pretty sure this qualified.  As soon as the rest of the remaining seven (plus Nico) saw us there, they came and sat with us. 
     "Piper had an idea.  What if Percy is in Chaos's Army." Annabeth started. 
     "What!  That's imp- wait.  Some of the Warriors that didn't reveal themselves seemed familiar.  Did you guys feel the same way?" Nico asked.  Everyone nodded.
     "Nico, did you and your dad ever find Percy's soul in the underworld?" Leo asked. 
     Nico shook his head.  "Nope."
     "It is possible, but why wouldn't he reveal himself?" Frank pondered.  Annabeth, Nico, Jason, Leo, and I exchanged guilty looks. 
     "What?  What is it?" Hazel asked nervously.  Frank and Hazel spent most of their time at Camp Jupiter, and they knew that Percy was being bullied, but they didn't know that the rest of the seven had a part in it.
     "Well.." I started timidly "When Brendan first came saying that Percy had left him fighting an army of monsters, of course we didn't believe him.  It was after a couple of weeks that weird thing started happening. Someone had broken Jason's glasses, hid in Annabeth's laptop, trashed Hades' cabin, things like that.  Whoever was doing this left the evidence in places where Percy was sure to be blamed.  Soon, everyone at camp except for Nico, Rachel, and Grover blamed him.  We did... horrible things.  Spreading rumors, hitting him, throwing rocks.  Brendan challenged Percy to a duel and called on Poseidon after he had been disarmed and made it look as though Percy had been fighting him when he was unarmed.  Long story short, Poseidon ended up disowning Percy, Percy hid in the woods, caught Annabeth cheating on him, and ran away.  All we ever found was a lot of blood and Riptide.  It turned out that Brendan had actually teamed up with a Hecate camper to manipulate the mist, and Annabeth had been given a love potion.... but we never got to tell him that."
     "He didn't even do anything to us." Annabeth said quietly, her head hanging low.  "It was all Brendan.  He just blamed Percy for it... and... We believed him."
     Hazel and Frank both looked at everyone with pity.
     "What do you think we should do about Percy?" Jason asked quietly.
     "Let's just be forward with it, one, or all of us can go up to the Chaos table during lunch and demand to know if Percy is in their army or if they know where he is."  Annabeth suggested, wiping tears from her eyes.  It was decided.