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They explained everything to him. Hadrian played along as if he knew nothing. He didn't like people calling him stupid, but sometimes it was for the best, then he could surprise them by being two steps ahead.

In december, Percy Jackson had gone missing.

The name had fallen on all of them like a blanket of whispers. Perseus Jackson, best of the greeks. In Ancient Greece, he may as well have been called Aristos Achaion. Even at sixteen, he had been quite the force. He was something of a legend among all of the demigods, Hadrian could feel their admiration.

Hadrian's personal experiences with Jackson hadn't been quite so pleasant, but that might have something to do with the fact that they had been on opposite sides of the war. He remembered one particular instance in vivid clarity.

The moment Percy had struck his blade into the bridge, cracks streaking across. Before anyone knew what was happening, the bridge groaned and collapsed. Hadrian had turned around in frustration, wanting to rant about Kronos and his stupid plans.

He was searching for her. His eyes scanned his surroundings. Red hair should have been easy to notice. But when he finally saw them, they weren't where he expected them to be.

Tons of concrete and metal collapsed with a deafening roar, Kronos' army had retreated. But it seemed like some were too late.

Hadrian forced himself to breathe. He would get her back. He would. He'd do anything for them.

For now he had to play the part and dupe these idiots.

It was best if they all thought he was some new player, a demigod they had never met before.

After they had searched for Percy to no avail, Annabeth had received a vision from Hera who had led her to Jason and Leo- the head counsellor of Hephaestus cabin (he had waved in greeting).

The two had gone on a quest with a satyr they called Hedge to save the Queen of Olympus. At the mention of the goddess' name, Annabeth's expression had turned sour. Blah, blah, blah... Something about the doors of death being opened, all the monsters they had encountered that had come back to life with special permission from Gaea.

So it really was possible. Kira could come back.

Jason narrated it mostly and Leo added in information where he forgot. Leo seemed to fit in perfectly among all the demigods, fidgety fingers, a wild crazed look in his eyes. He reminded Hadrian of a mix of Willy Wonka and Ironman- a mad scientist. Though he looked unassuming otherwise- a scrawny build, soot on his clothes, restless and impatient, there was no way Hadrian was going to undermine him.

They went on to explain how they saved Hera from a cage she had been imprisoned in. They succeeded in doing both- saving her and killing a giant. And just as she teleported them back to Camp Half-blood, she had mentioned something about a red haired boy- the last piece.

Hadrian didn't like being referred to as a piece. It made this whole thing sound like a puzzle. But the truth was, the gods never knew what was going on, they weren't the masterminds behind this, and none of this made any sense.

"So, to conclude- There is an evil primordial of the earth who wants to overthrow the Olympians and rule again so she opened the doors of death, letting any and all dead monsters, people and heroes come back alive and the only way to stop her is the prophecy of the seven you think I might be a part of"

Annabeth looked like she wanted to add something else but shrugged eventually, "Yeah, that's pretty much it"

As much as Hadrian absolutely did not want to be involved in this, he nodded. "So, what are we waiting for? When will the ship you're building get finished?"

"Hold your horses" Annabeth glared, her hostility and mistrust was written plain on her face and Hadrian could read it even with his dyslexia. "I know I said he has to be the missing piece, but are we sure? He just popped up out of nowhere, we don't even know who his godly parent is, how are we sure her royal majesty didn't make a mistake"

"Annabeth" the man in the wheelchair spoke for the first time. His words were calming, almost like charmspeak, but not quite. Hadrian got the feeling he was the man all of these demigods looked up to. He was their guide, keeping teenagers in line and making sure they didn't do dumb shit. "I understand your hostility-"

"Hera's the one who kidnapped Percy in the first place and now we're trusting her?"

Hadrian could practically feel her emotions, years of frustration against the gods, and something else... for a certain son of Poseidon. Oh gods, teenagers and their stupid crushes. If nothing else, Hadrian could bond with Annabeth over that- crushes. They always made you so embarrassing, so pathetic. And no matter how many times he swore he wouldn't like someone else because of how it ended the last time, he always managed to get attached to someone else.

"Uh- Annabeth," Leo said suddenly, his metal project that he was working on fell out of his hands and landed on the table with a clunk, "If your problem was with the fact that Hadrian was unclaimed... I think you're going to have to turn around" 

Immediately, all eyes had turned to the boy in question. He loved the attention, but this time it wasn't something positive. Annabeth whirled around and her eyes widened at something over Hadrian's head.

The warm yellow glow of the lights inside the room had been overtaken by a red light, washing Annabeth's face in blood red- the color of Hadrian's hair. Every single person stopped what they were doing, just gaping at the symbol above his head.

"What?" Hadrian swatted at the space above him, he even tried to look up but all he could see were red spectral arrows flying around his head like he was a cartoon character. That was weird. He was fairly certain that hadn't happened before. "What the fuck is that?"

"Language" said the man with the wheelchair absentmindedly, but all of them tracked the arrows as they came to rest in the shape of a valentine's heart over Hadrian's head.

"Shit, so I am a child of Aphrodite?"

"No" Drew, the dark haired girl from earlier shook her head. Her mouth was half open, but her eyebrows were drawn together in a look of confusion, "That's not my mom's symbol"

"Yes, Drew" The middle aged man stood up from his wheelchair. Hadrian knew a lot of people who used wheelchairs could stand, but this was something completely different. A horse's back half seemed to appear out of nowhere when the man stood up. It was physically impossible to fit the entire body of a horse inside the wheelchair, but somehow he was now faced with the man who had the lower half of a white stallion.

A centaur.

Chiron. Annabeth had called him Chiron. The greatest teacher of heroes. The one who trained Achilles, Heracles, the original Jason.

"Hail, Hadrian Allaire" Said Chiron, "Son of Eros"

𝐂œ𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐬é𝐬  [Percy Jackson]Where stories live. Discover now