Who I Truly Am

Ch. 21 *Edited*

Jason POV:

Piper and I walk hand in hand along the beach. Things are looking up right now, for the first time since the Fleece was stolen. Abby, the girl I brought back with me, has settled in nicely in the Hestia cabin. She still hasn't been claimed yet, but with a war coming up I'm sure her father is just busy. Whoever he is.

Thalia left with the hunters a few days ago, but she said that; she was coming back soon with the war coming up.

We've found monsters scouting around Camp, but other than that. it's been quiet. Almost too quiet. Almost as if on cue, the horn sounds thrice. An attack. Piper and I run to Half-Blood Hill.

The army is small; we outnumber them twice over. I unsheath my gladius and prepare for battle.

"Archers!" Annabeth stands at the front of our group. "Aim!"

The monsters don't look like they're prepared for battle.

"Hold!"

A figure pushes past their front lines. A demigod.

"Hold!"

She reaches into her pocket and starts to pull something out of it. I hear Annabeth inhale.

"Fire!"

Arrows fly through the sky, each one hitting close or on its mark.

"For Olympus!" Annabeth cries out and then runs into battle. We chase her, ready to defeat this small group that Tartarus sent to harm us.

/\/\/\/\/\/

The battle was over quickly. The only casualties on the enemies' side, we were ruthless. I tried not to kill the demigods, just knock them out. The older campers stay on the hill to take care of the bodies, while the younger campers have free time. I walk over to the first body, the demigod that pushed her way to the front.

There was an arrow in her shoulder, leg, and stomach, just below her heart. A pool of blood was around her neck, a slit throat. Her eyes stare blankly at the sky. I close them for her and carry her to the infirmary, where I set her down on a bed.

"Why?" I sit down by the bed.

"Why, what?" Piper places a hand on my shoulder.

"Why are we killing demigods? They come from similar backgrounds; some of them may have just been misled by the enemy," I look Piper in the eyes. We share the same expression. She sits down next to me and stares at the dead demigod. "We don't even know who these people are."

Piper reaches over and pulls something out of the girls' pocket, a flag. A white flag, the flag of truce, now half-soaked a deep crimson liquid. Piper looks at me with wide eyes. "They were trying to meet under a truce, and we attacked before they had the chance."

"We didn't even think of that as an option. We just attacked."

"Here," Piper hands me a few drachmas, "the least we can do for them is let them into the Underworld."

I look over the other bodies and stand up. As I give a drachma to each person I check for weapons on them but don't find any. What I do find are multiple flags. A solid red out of a boy's pocket, a spotted reddish-brown one from another. None of the flags were a solid white anymore like they would've been. And these deaths, all these deaths are now on all of us.

Order POV:

The next morning soldiers climb aboard the Argo with everything they deem necessary to bring. Reyna and Frank bring up the rear before I follow them up the rope ladder. Leo does a count down, then takes off, lifting the ship higher before moving forward, back to New York. Grover arrived at Camp Jupiter last night.