Betrayed But Never Forgotten

Apparently I'm pretty scary

Percys pov

We walked in formation to breakfast, our steps synchronized with military precision. The familiar weight of my sword at my hip offered little comfort against the sea of faces I once considered family. We didn't have to worry about campers staring at us on the way because we were late—intentionally so. They were already there, which suited my purposes perfectly. A grand entrance for maximum impact. Let them stare. Let them wonder. Let them fear.

We walked in just as Chiron was talking, his centaur form standing tall at the head table. "-ust treat them with respect," he was saying, his ancient eyes flickering nervously to us as we approached. "Here they are now."

I nodded curtly at Chiron, not out of respect but mere acknowledgment. With a casual flick of my wrist—a display of power I knew would unsettle them—I made a table appear for us. It materialized from shadows, coalescing into dark wood with white carvings sprawling across the legs like ancient runes. The designs weren't decorative; they were wards, protections against eavesdropping and magic. Paranoia? Perhaps. But paranoia had kept me alive when trust had nearly killed me.

The campers gawked at it while we simply sat down, their whispers like the buzzing of insignificant insects. Annabeth, Luke, Piper, and I sat on one side, our backs to the majority of the pavilion. Charles, Silena, Zoe, Bianca, and Claire took seats opposite us. Positioning was everything—my most trusted warriors with their backs to the wall, watching for threats. Never again would I be caught unaware, never again would I offer my back to those who had already proven themselves capable of driving knives into it.

I conjured breakfast for the rest of the warriors with another casual gesture. For myself, I created a blue smoothie, encased in an opaque shield so none could see it. Some habits die hard, and some memories cut deeper than blades. The blue food—a reminder of my mother, of simpler times—remained my one weakness, the one connection to my former life I couldn't sever. I hated myself for it, for this lingering sentimentality that felt like a festering wound in my otherwise hardened heart.

The campers tried—key word *tried*—to talk about us without us knowing, but failed miserably. Their whispered speculations carried easily to our enhanced senses. I caught fragments: "threatening," "dangerous," "who do they think they are?" The irony wasn't lost on me—I had once saved every single one of them, and this was my reward. Forgotten deeds, faded gratitude, and now suspicion. The bitterness rose in my throat like bile.

I saw Zoe and Bianca reach for their daggers, their patience wearing thin. They were probably about to go "nicely" shut the gossipers up—Zoe's version of "nice" typically involved threatened castration for male offenders—but I held up my hand. Violence, while satisfying, would be counterproductive. For now.

I nodded at them in silent understanding, then stood, my chair scraping against the pavilion floor with deliberate loudness. The sound cut through the murmurs, and heads turned toward me. Good. I faced the campers who fell quiet under my hooded gaze.

"We can hear you, by the way," I announced, my words dripping with venom, each syllable carefully enunciated. "Either you shut up, or you get a sword down your throat and a little glimpse of what you're afraid of."

The threat hung in the air, heavy and palpable. All the campers except for Jason Grace quieted down immediately. Fear, at least, was an honest reaction—unlike the false friendship they'd once offered.

"Yeah right," Jason scoffed, the son of Jupiter as arrogant as ever. "I'm not afraid of anything."I smirked beneath my hood, a cold, humorless expression that hadn't seen genuine warmth in years. With a wave of my hand, I showed the whole camp Jason Grace's deepest fear: Me. A misty figure of myself holding Riptide, the blade gleaming with deadly promise, materialized above the Zeus table. Not just any version of me—but the true me, the one I'd become after their betrayal. The one with eyes that had seen galaxies burn and civilizations fall. The one who had faced primordial beings and watched worlds end.