Revenge.

10. Guilt

Jason

I looked at Reyna's closed door for a moment before sighing and walking off. Once I had exited Camp Jupiter safely without any angry Romans chasing me, I stopped and closed my eyes, praying to any God to transport me back to Camp-Half-Blood. 

Like come on, I'm not walking all the way back there. Takes too much effort, and I don't really want to give effort into anything at the moment. 

I felt my body tighten painfully and I opened my eyes to find myself standing in the middle of the silent Camp-Half-Blood. I said a mental prayer to whichever God transported me here before glancing over at Half-Blood-Hill. An image sprang into my mind: Piper lying on the grass with her head in my lap, a fatal sword wound in her chest. I remembered her last words so well, it only seemed like she had said them ten seconds ago. 

"I love you, Jason Grace. Get revenge for my death." 

I felt tears threaten to spill out of my eyes, but I blinked hastily and turned away from half-blood-hill. I knew Reyna was right. It was my fault, and everyone else's that Percy was now fighting against the Gods. It was our fault that Camp Jupiter would most likely face a brutal attack from Percy and his army. It was our fault that we all believed Adam's stupid lies about Percy being a traitor. 

I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry. I wanted to pour out all the emotions that I was keeping bottled up inside of me. But I can't. I have to stay strong for everyone else. The younger campers look up to me and the rest of the remaining Seven. We have to beat Percy. No one else that I love and care about can die. 

I heard soft footsteps approaching but I didn't turn to face the person making their way towards me. Not until they spoke did I turn and face them. Annabeth Chase stood behind me, her blond hair loose in the wind. Her stormy grey eyes analyzed me carefully, but she didn't say anything. She was waiting for me to say something first, in fear that I would break down on her. 

"Don't worry." I said, my voice coming out a bit raspy. Annabeth flinched at my voice. "I'm not going to break down on you here at this particular moment. I've already broken down in front of Reyna when I went and delivered the message about Percy." 

Annabeth stiffened when I said the name of her ex-boyfriend. She placed a hand on my shoulder, biting her lip. "I'm sorry, Jason. I never knew Percy would turn this vengeful. I never thought he would kill the people he once knew as friends." "You said so yourself. When we betrayed him and drove him out of camp, we destroyed his fatal flaw." I said bitterly. "All of this, all of the deaths and attacks, this is our doing, Annabeth. We're the ones to blame! I want so badly to go back into the past and fix everything that we've done, but we can't. We just can't." 

I was so close to having an emotional breakdown. Annabeth could tell and she hastily grabbed me and pulled me into a warm embrace. Her hair tickled my face as she just simply stood there with her arms tightly around me. 

She didn't say anything as I finally broke down once more, sobbing. Tears fell onto Annabeth's shirt but she didn't break away from the hug. She patted my back and whispered soothing words into my ear. 

I pulled away from her and Annabeth looked down at her soaked shirt and managed a wry smile. "Guess I'll have to change." I reached over and grasped her wrist gently, and she looked up at me. "I-I...... Thank you." I mumbled. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise but she nodded. 

"We're going to have to have to do something about Percy." Annabeth said as I released her arm. "He's going to kill everyone in his path, we have to stop him." "The only people strong enough to actually go against him is the Olympians themselves." I glanced at the Big House and saw that some of the lights were on. "We should take this matter to Chiron."