Blinded By Our Own Flaws

~Nine~

For a while, things were going okay. Percy still had to deal with Nico, but a lot of times he could just dump him on Will. Travis and Katie basically handled themselves, and Conner seemed to be handling Thalia okay enough.

"You're just adorable!" Thalia said, looking at Conner. "But like, seriously, get me a chair or something!"

Conner sighed and got her a chair, looking over at Percy with tired eyes. "Please do something."

"We have supplies, so I can get you a PB & J?" Percy tried to help, though it was clear he had no clue how to handle the giggling Thalia.

Percy left the room to make the sandwich when Conner sighed and said yes, but when he came back, it was definitely different.

Thalia had Conner basically pinned to to the wall, no one else bothering to stop her. Thalia was the same as she had been, giggling and demanding and boy crazy.

But Conner? Conner was a stuttering mess, all confidence he used to have gone. The disease had hit him too, it appeared.

Percy—knowing he needed to stop Thalia before she broke her oath even further—ran to jump in between the two, forgetting all about the sandwich in his hand.

"Woah woah woah, ease up on the Hermes kid, will you? He can't really say anything to stop you because of. . .reasons," Percy desperately wished he could handle this better.

He handed the responsibility over to his girlfriend, taking Conner into another room. Even there, the son of Hermes was a stuttering mess, different from his usual self.

"Conner? Conner, look at me. Just take a few breaths, okay? In and out, in and out. Do you know anything of what happened to you?"

"I—I uh—I was trying to get—I was trying to get Thalia to calm—calm down. Then—then I didn't know what to do. I—I lost all my confidence like—like that," Conner attempted to snap. "I—I think I was—I was hit by the disease. I—I don't know how it happened. I—I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Percy said. "At least you know who you used to be, that's a good sign. If you remember anything, tell me, okay?"

Conner only nodded.

Grover lead him out of the room and into the other, Annabeth joining Percy. The son of Poseidon looked up in desperation, "What are we gonna do? We can't stay with them and get a cure before we get the disease too."

"For once, I don't know," Annabeth joined him, sitting down next to Percy and leaning her head against the wall. "When did everything get this complicated?"

"When we found out we were demigods," Percy muttered.

"No, that wasn't complicated," Annabeth said. "This is different, it feels more confusing. The last two wars, we knew who we were fighting. This time, it just feels so much bigger, you know? There's something more going on, something more than we know."

"What do we do?"

"I don't know, Percy. But we need to figure out who started this, figure out why. Somethings not right here, I can feel it. Someone's faking it, someone doesn't actually have the disease,"

Percy was taken back. "What?"

"Someone doesn't actually have the disease, I know it. They're the traitor. We need to find them, or else we become just like them. If we don't find them in time—"

"—then we lose our flaws too,"

I JUST WANTED Learn_2_Luv TO SOCIALIZE WITH ME! IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR?