Percy Jackson: The Knight of Chaos

Utter Betrayal

Troy stumbled back, his face blazing a flustered shade of red. "Father never said I had any siblings!" he exclaimed, spitting out the last part.

"Wait, you've spoken to Dad already?" I asked. A tiny twinge of jealousy rose up in me.

Troy sneered, "I grew up in his palace. My mom put me up for adoption after I was born, but Father took me underwater. He kept me secret for years from his brothers, training me and perfecting me to take on the title as Prince of the Sea."

"Prince — Prince of the Sea?!"

"Of course. As his most powerful and favourite child, I was the obvious choice for the role."

My head spun. Too much new information was overloading, and my ADHD wasn't helping.

"Where were you when first Kronos, and then Gaea, were rising?" Nico demanded.

"Father told me that I must not reveal myself until the true threat rose. Years ago, a Nereid arrived at the doorstep of his underwater palace, delivering a fateful warning of a force too strong for even the gods to defeat planning on overthrowing Mount Olympus. She died before anyone could get more information. We still don't know where she came from, why she was there, or who this menacing force is, but Father has sensed an ancient, yet deadly presence in the ocean that he has never experienced before." Troy answered.

Silence echoed throughout the entire clearing. The faces of the campers were pale white with fear, and a few of the younger kids began to shake and sob. Even Annabeth, the bold and daring daughter of Athena, had terror stricken in her eyes.

"Then you must lead us to victory, Troy, son of Poseidon!" A deep voice roared brazenly. Campers parted as Chiron strolled into the clearing.

"Chiron?" I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

"The Party Pony Convention ended a bit early, I am afraid. Though I am regretful that I missed the arrival of Camp Half-Blood's newest hero! Troy, we must discuss this mysterious force you mentioned, but first, I am curious. What were the screams? And why are you holding Percy's sword?"

"I can answer that, Chiron," I began, "I heard some screams from inside my cabin and I —"

"Ran out here, but not before I had already done so," Troy interrupted, "and when I arrived here, there was a young, helpless tree nymph being viciously attacked by the Minotaur!"

"What?!" I shouted.

"As I did not yet have a weapon, there was not much I could do. Until Percy arrived," Troy continued, an evil glint in his eye, "While I thought he would come to the nymph's rescue, he did no such thing. In fact, he laughed at the brutal attack of the nymph and threw his sword upon the ground! I knew what I had to do. I grabbed Percy's sword and decapitated the Minotaur, but not before the nymph began to fade from our world. It was too late, I'm afraid."

Annabeth stared at me, disapproval and disgust clear on her face. "Is this true, Percy?"

"No! No, he's making it all up, I promise!" I said, infuriated.

"Really? Then why am I holding your sword?" Troy slyly asked. Behind us, campers began to stir and mutter, and many of them shot furious glares my way.

Chiron began, "Percy, you should know better than to not help a spirit or camper when they are being attacked. It was your actions that resulted in our nymph being murdered. Her death is on your hands. For this, I have demoted you, and Troy will take over as head counselor of the Poseidon cabin, beginning now."

My head spun. I gaped at Chiron, disbelieving. This could not be happening. I turned to Annabeth, but she only shook her head at me, and did one thing I knew I would never forget. Annabeth, step by step, walked over to stand, united, with my half-brother. His smug face as she stood by his side enraged me.

One by one, the campers began to trickle out of the clearing, but not before shooting one more disapproving glance my way. Troy handed Riptide back to me, shaking his head. No one else but me could see the sly smile on his face. Eventually, there was no one else left but me.

"I believe you, Perce." An unexpected voice spoke. I swore, jumping half a foot into the air. Spinning around, I saw Nico standing, half-hidden by the dark shadows of the trees on the edge of the clearing.

"You do?"

"Yeah, and I know Thalia would, too."

Two people out of a hundred, I thought. But I was eternally grateful that at least one person didn't seem to despise me.

Nico said, "We need to find a way to get the other campers to believe you. I don't know what's happening with Annabeth, but it doesn't seem good. Maybe we can talk to Frank, Hazel, Jason and Reyna at Camp Jupiter and convince them to side with you, before you have two camps hating you."