The Animal Within

Chapter 54 - Peace

Percy sent his mother a cursory Iris Message to let her know he was fine once it was 9am in New York. He didn't want her to worry about him, so didn't exactly tell her where he was, only that he was fine and she shouldn't worry about him. Sally hadn't been happy, but there was little she could do with him already gone.

Despite Percy having his books that Kronos had subtly retrieved for him, when the Titans had offered to give Percy a tour around the Camp he leapt at the chance.

One thing that stood out to him was the surprising number of occupants. The Camp was bigger than Camp Half-Blood, approaching the expanse of Camp Jupiter and New Rome. Percy was surprised when he spotted Luke in the distance, walking alongside Alabastor Torrington. Percy glared in the latter's direction. Luke he didn't mind so much, he definitely knew now why he had turned to the Titans. But Alabastor had just repeatedly angered Percy.

"Glare any fiercer and you will turn him into seaweed," Kronos observed, not even glancing back towards Percy.

"I don't like him."

"I do not care," Kronos said mildly. "He is loyal. He lives here."

Percy picked out several other faces who'd formerly been Kronos' army and returned to Camp - and then disappeared again without a word. "So - demigods, how many are there here?"

"Several dozen," Kronos said. "But they do not make up the majority of the half-bloods here."

Percy's eyes furrowed slightly. "What?"

Kronos nodded across the Camp, towards where a hearth was blazing with Greek fire. "There," he said.

It was quite some distance, difficult for Percy to make out, but he noticed one kid was sitting in the flames. He raised an eyebrow. "Reminds me of Leo," he said.

Kronos chuckled. "I think that demigod would struggle with Greek fire." He glanced back towards the hearth. "A son of Hyperion," he said.

Percy gaped open-mouthed. "What would that be? A demititan?" He asked, baffled. "I've never met one before, didn't even know they existed."

Kronos nodded slightly. "You don't expect my brethren to not enjoy the time they have out of Tartarus, do you? Just because we have only recently made our presence known does not mean we have not been here for decades. Just Atlas alone bred four bastards of his own in the short few months he was loose from under the Sky, and the terrors now run loose around this Camp," Kronos elaborated. "When you have been stuck somewhere for centuries, it is easy to want the pretence of comfort from another."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Pretence?" He echoed.

Kronos chuckled. "Mortals like their one-night stands," he said. Percy hoped Kronos hadn't joined the other Titans in their apparent fuckery. "I did not," Kronos affirmed.

"Could you maybe not read my mind?" Percy asked. "Boundaries."

"I didn't think we had any at this point," Kronos said, looking rather surprised.

Percy just shook his head slightly. "How can you pretend that none of it happened?" He demanded, stopping in his tracks. Kronos didn't seem too happy at his sudden question, but Percy pushed on. "You stabbed me and kidnapped me, repeatedly lied to me about everything, fucked Porphyrion of all creatures, sat back and-"

"He had a bigger cock than yours," Kronos interjected flatly.

"Fuck off," Percy said, barely pausing. "You sat back and let shit happen without interfering despite how much I asked for your help, and despite that – on top of all of it, you don't even seem to care in the slightest that the gods had to cut your stomach open because Porphyrion killed-"