Son Of None

Lucky Stars

[A/N uh yeah the K word that Wattpad doesn't like is being said a lot this chapter so

yeah

Also Tantien kinda goes off the rails and has a pretty morbid monologue]

Tantien took a slow step forward, trying to intimidate Jeannie into backing off. She narrowed her eyes at him and shifted her grip on her sword.

"You don't know how to control it." He smiled slowly. "You're bluffing."

"Flip a drachma, we'll see who guesses the outcome." Jeannie replied.

"Jean-" Percy groaned. "Don't."

"Listen to your crush, kiddo. I can outfight everyone in this camp except him, I'll take you out easily."

Jeannie tipped her head. "Take me out like you did to Lucian Maverick?"

Tantien froze. "That was an accident-"

"Was it? I remember what you did when Marco died. That wasn't nearly the same reaction as how you reacted when Chiron told us that Lucian had died."

"Shut up Jeannie-"

"Did you lose sight of him on purpose? He was good at magic and he was a nice guy, he'd never had problems with monsters before." Jeannie stood her ground. She wasn't going to let Tantien get Percy and she was determined to get an answer out of him. One of their half-sisters had been dating the son of Hecate when he died on a small mission out with the redhead.

"It was the power!" Tantien finally snapped. "I couldn't do anything about it and I didn't want people to blame me so I kept my mouth shut."

"Your power is knowing how to cheat to win things." Jeannie said flatly.

"Yes, and cheating was burning the building down. So I did what I did and I didn't realize that Lucian was still inside." Tantien growled, ticked. He was getting tired of his little sister, bond or not.

Jeannie shrugged. "If you say so."

The thing about twelve-year-olds is that they can be extraordinarily mean when they want to. They always know just the right thing to say to push someone over the edge.

Tantien's resolve broke and he lunged at Jeannie with a yell of anger and frustration.

Percy slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, rubbing his head and trying to get his vision to clear. He could see the two children of Nike dueling, but everything was swimming and he wouldn't have been any help even if he could find Riptide. Wincing at every crash of their blades, he tried to figure out what was going on.

Jeannie was holding her own very well. Much better than a twelve year old should against her seventeen year old brother.

"You're actually doing it..." Tantien sounded in awe as he dodged a sideswipe. "How?"

"Lots of practice." Jeannie grinned. "I'd have offered to show you, if you hadn't been so distant lately."

Her brother shook his head. "Regardless, Jeannie, luck can only get you so far."

It took Percy almost two minutes to comprehend that, but finally it clicked.

There were some children of Nike who had powers in the aspects of winning. Certain powers that connected to ways that a win could happen, as it were. Tantien was a cheater. Even unintentionally, his brain just always provided him with the right way to pull of a scam so that he would come out on top.

Jeannie, it seemed, was a lucky kid. She had the power of everything going her way when it really mattered, and she seemed to know how to use it to outfight Tantien.

Percy began to subtly scoot towards his sword when his vision was finally clear. Yes, Jeannie was lucky, but Tantien was right. Luck only went so far.

Just as he felt Riptide's handle against his fingertips, Tantien knocked Jeannie sideways harshly. She hit the ground and didn't move, and the other child of Nike turned on Percy with a maniac glint in his eye.

"I've given up too much to lose this, Jackson." He picked up the knife and stalked forward. Percy did his best to look concussed and out of it.

"I don't care what she says, I don't care what you say. I don't care what anyone says. I-am-going-to-kill-you. I'm going to stab you in the chest and this knife is going to soak up your blood, and then I'm going to use it to raise Tartarus, and he'll kill every idiot on Olympus and in this camp. And there's nothing you can do to stop it."

He brought the knife up and Percy snatched blindly for Riptide. He intercepted Tantien's wild stroke down, but he knew he couldn't keep it up with the son of Nike standing over him.

There was a wild scream.