Chapter Four

"It was a mistake", you said. But the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you.

–David Levithan

Fortunately and unfortunately for me, I didn't appear on the Ares table. Crushing their food underneath my boots would have likely resulted in a very violent welcoming from the demigods that I was more than happy to go without. With that being said, I would've taken the violent welcoming if it meant I didn't land on the Athena table.

But, of course, the fates hate me, so I landed right in Malcolm Pace's food.

His innocent grey eyes widened in shock as he stared at my black boots that were crushing his burger.

Because of my entrance, suddenly I had all of Athena kids looking up at me with their beady, grey eyes that reminded me of ruined happy memories. I wasn't alone, however. At another table, Luke was in a similar situation to mine. The only difference is that the victims of Luke's shoes were his half-siblings.

The rest of the army appeared right next to the tables instead of on them. Needless to say, I envied them.

Dozens of stormy gray eyes still were on me. Some angry, some confused, some upset I had ruined their dinner. However, among those semi-familiar grey eyes, I didn't see Annabeth's. I almost sighed in relief.

Chiron rose from his wheelchair and into centaur form. He hadn't changed much during the time I was gone, being immortal and all that. The only difference I could find was the more prominent bags under his eyes.

"Would you," he cleared his throat, "get down from tables? As kind as Athena's children try to be, they can kill you in several different ways only using a chicken wing. As for the Hermes cabin, they are relatively harmless, but they will pick your pockets."

After stepping down from Athena's table without issue, I looked over to Luke to see how he was doing. I watched as he held out his palm to one of the Hermes kids I recognized as an older Connor Stoll. Reluctantly, Connor pulled Luke's wallet from his pocket and rested it back in Luke's hand.

Before my mind could get distracted from the sudden nostalgia from being back at camp, I mind messaged the army to get into formation. The formation had the shape of a pyramid and composed of me in front, Luke and Bianca in the middle row, and Silena, Zoë, and Beckendorf in the back.

We looked badass, by the way.

"I'm assuming the six of you are the warriors the gods requested Chaos to send to assist us in the war?" Chiron asked tiredly in a calm manner, like the idea of war was a cancer that just kept coming back. A terrible tragedy, but no longer surprising. By the end of his sentence, every single one of the campers' heads snapped in our direction.

They were not nearly as calm.

"War?" Someone called out in panic. The campers began to freak out. Many of the cabin counselors tried to get the younger campers to calm down, but their own panic caused the effort to be in vain.

The only camper who remained completely calm was a kid at a table alone, still chowing down on the food in front of him. His back faced my direction so I couldn't see his face, only a mop of messy black hair. But judging from the back, he looked to be a young teen. Maybe thirteen or fourteen years old. He wore the signature orange camp t-shirt and a pair of black running shorts.

"I take it that the gods asked you to withhold this information from the campers?" Zoë inquired as she looked around at the growing chaos around them. The important thing was that everyone stayed calm.

"No," Chiron answered, surprising me and the rest of my army. "They iris-messaged me moments ago. I was about to talk about the war and about warriors coming to help us before ah- before we were interrupted. Can I presume that six of you are the warriors sent here to help us?"

The chaos settled and the pavilion went silent, their attention once again focused on us. When no one responded, I realized my army was waiting for me to explain. Instead of doing the mature thing and addressing the question, I grumbled something under my breath about someone explaining.

I didn't want to be here, I didn't want to help, and I sure as hell didn't want to calm the fears of the people who betrayed me. I owed them nothing. Despite that, I had to be here and I had to help. But that didn't mean I had to be a good sport about it.

With that realization, I turned on my heel and walked into the forest to set up my army's base for the next few miserable weeks.

"What is wrong him?" I heard Chiron ask from a distance. My back turned to them. I walked further and further until their voices were soundless whispers.

3rd Person POV

"What's up with that guy?" One of the campers asked after Omega walked away. The centaur didn't say anything to add to the camper's question, but he did give a look to the remaining members of the army that said, "well? What are you waiting for? Answer the question?"

Alpha, or Luke, suddenly felt like he was bare. Without Percy here to act as commander, eyes fell on him, and so did the pressure. But thanks to his own previous relationship with the camp, he felt he needed to be very cautious around the campers and Chiron. He knew from Percy that they had forgiven him for serving Kronos, however, it didn't stop his guilt.

Most of the times, the group tended to switch off with what they were saying; one person would say one thing, and someone else would say another. This way of communicating with the planets started from Chaos's love for theatrics. As second and first in command, Alpha and Omega did the majority of the speaking. Zoë often handled in the more sensitive details- her modern English significantly improved in her 125 years on Chaos's planet. The rest of the members jumped in whenever.

But they quickly realized the possibility of some of  the older campers recognizing some of the members' voices. That and Percy's exit, their normal method of communication suddenly didn't seem like the best idea.

Realizing her position as the best person for the job, Zoë cleared her throat to gain everyone's attention and looked at the centaur. "Commander isn't exactly the most sociable person. He tends to be more closed off, so try not to take his hostility personally. His duty brought him here, he's not here by choice. Anyway, moving on, yes we are Chaos's warriors. Highest division, Elite section."

"I see," Chiron said. "What are your names?"

Luke cleared his throat, gaining Chiron's attention. "In time, you will learn our codenames. We prefer not to go by our true names. It's nothing personal, but until you've earned our trust and we earned yours in return, it must stay this way."

"Trust," the boy with the messy black hair scoffed. His back still faced the army. "How am I gonna earn your trust if I don't even know your name? What kind of bullshit logic you got going on where you're from?"

"We do not speak that way to visitors. We will respect their wishes." Chiron scolded the black haired boy. The teenaged boy turned to Chiron with a troublemaker-smirk on this face. The rest of the army chuckled at the bluntness from the boy.

"I like this kid! The bluntness is appreciated, " Luke said with humor and slight smile. He walked over to the boy and looked right into his stormy gray eyes. "What's your name, kid?"

The boy flashed Luke a lopsided grin. One so similar to how Percy's used to be, you would've thought it was Percy's reincarnate.

"The name's Parker. What's yours?"

***

A/N: I don't know what to put here.

Count Word: 1367 words