PERSEUS MEANS DESTROYER

Freaks

My head is filled with parasites,

Black holes cover up my eyes.

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Annabeth stepped out of the door to Cabin One, careful moving over the slick patch in the doorway.

And then she stared.

"What...?"

Malcolm stepped out of Cabin Six, paused to rub his eyes and then promptly turned back inside, presumably to tell everyone inside about the mess outside.

One of the Apollo kids was running from cabin to cabin (Kayla, was it?), knocking on the doors and asking whoever came out if they knew what was going on.

Kids started flocking to the porches and verandas of their cabins, murmuring to each other.

"What if the barrier is broken...?" The phrase flew up and down the groups of children clustering around each of their head counsellors. Each was looking at the Athena congregation. And they in turn were looking at Annabeth.

Annabeth turned back to look into the cabin behind her. "Jason, where's Percy?"

"He... left sometime during the night. Said not to wake you."

She groaned. "Of course. Can you help me look for him?"

"Sure. I just need to..." He gestured to the spare blow up mattresses on his floor.

"Here, I can do mine, and I'll take our sheets and stuff back to his cabin."

She bundled up their bedding in her fitted sheet and slung it over her shoulder.

She stepped gingerly around the water puddles, trying to avoid the worst of the mud coating the ground.

Somehow, after holding up for as long as she'd been at camp, and decades longer than that, the barrier guarding camp had let enough rain in to turn their camp from a green field to a wash of mud and water, threatening to suck feet in if a person stood too long in one place. The suctioning feeling was uncomfortable on her feet as she walked, but more important was trying to figure out how it had happened.

Although she already had a pretty good idea.

As much as the barrier kept mortals, kept weather and monsters out, if one of those three were summoned (or allowed in) by a demigod, it would let them in.

And she only knew of two demigods with the ability to cause a storm that bad.

As much as she would have liked it to be Thalia, to be able to see her again, she knew the Huntress would never purposefully flood the camp. Not after living here for so long.

She wiped the soles of her shoes on the porch outside Percy's door, but not enough came off to stop her from tracking mud onto the stone floors inside. It didn't matter anyway; she could always come back with a mop or broom if Percy didn't wash it away himself.

"Annabeth." Jason landed just in the open doorway as she finished pulling her bedding into all the right spots. "I found him. Near Jupiter— Zeus's Fist."

She scowled. "Why would he—? We aren't meant to go in there without at least one other demigod... though, that is mainly for the new campers. Which he would know." Annabeth rolled her eyes and stepped out onto the porch.

Jason winced. "It's worse in the woods, from what I could see."

"Great. Well, while I'm doing this, could you help out with the camp activities?"

He grinned. "I'd love to."

"Awesome, because you're gonna have to."

Percy stared down at her from his spot on top of Zeus's Fist. His bad leg was stretched out in front of him, and he had wrapped his arms around his good one, tugging it close to his chest. Riptide—Anaklusmos, Annabeth's mind provided—lay uncapped at his side. And even though he had been out in the pouring rain since the early hours of the morning, he wasn't any more wet than Annabeth had been when she woke up.

"Hey. Can I come up?"

Percy nodded absently, moving Riptide to lie across his lap instead, leaving the flat spot on the rock next to him free.

She scrambled up the side of the rock pile. It was much easier than the climb up and then down into the Labyrinth a few years ago, although she was taller, and her frame—as well as most older demigods—had filled out more since then; often after coming to camp, kids would burn off all of their insulating fat, and need to up food intake diet to keep up with the camp's demanding physical routines, before starting to gain muscle definition across their body.

Once she got up to where Percy was sitting, she gently nudged his shoulder with hers. He leaned sideways into her, resting his head on top of hers. "That was quite a storm."

He hummed somewhere just within hearing range, and Annabeth felt the vibrations through his throat. "Did you sleep?"

He turned his face into her hair, which she decided to take as a no. "Percy, do you... what happened? Are you... okay?" No. Obviously not, but asking at least opened space for an answer.

She felt him shrug, mumbling something that might have been words or might have just been a noise of vague acknowledgement. "Can we go back to your cabin?"

He shrugged again.

"Alright, come on." He let her sit up after a few seconds, and followed her as she slid down the rock pile. Once they were both on the muddy ground, sinking into the wet earth slightly, she offered him her hand, and he took it. The pair wandered through the woods, heading in the general direction of the cabins. Percy's limp was a lot more pronounced than usual, and Annabeth ended up having him lean on her the further they got from Zeus's Fist, as opposed to clinging to her hand and trailing behind her like the tired teenager he was. Like they all were.

They sat on the L-shaped couch in the Big House, waiting for Chiron or Mr D to come in.

More accurately, Annabeth sat on the L-shaped couch in the Big House, and Percy lay across it, with his head in her lap, eyes closed, as she carded her fingers through his hair. She wasn't sure whether he was asleep or not, because even though he wasn't moving, Riptide was clenched tightly in his fist, resting on his chest in pen form.

Annabeth was waiting for Chiron (or Mr D) to come on so she could figure out how to lower any anxiety surrounding the storm last night. As small a thing as a storm was, the last time the barrier had even faltered was when the camp was being invaded by Gaia's—and Octavian's—forces, and the time before that had only been because Thalia's Pine had been poisoned.

Seymour the snow leopard growled lowly at her.

"Sorry, I don't have any Cheetos. And should you be eating them anyway—? Aren't cheetahs closely related to leopards?"

Seymour the snow leopard growled again.

"Yeah, sorry. I'll drop by with some later..." She wasn't exactly what she was pretending Seymour was saying, but she felt the need to fill the silence with conversation.

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First published ::: 8.11.22
First edit  ::: n/a
Wordcount ::: 1171
Chapter dedication ::: n/a

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Yours, l0v3rboy