The Betrayed One

Chapter 15

Reunion

Of all the things to happen to Percy, this was the last thing he could have expected. He goes ahead and tries to do the right thing. As always, the one thing that could mess up his day, that just started mind you, happened.

"H-Hey, Zo—" he tried, but she just pushed the blade closer to his throat. He could feel his blood dripping down his neck.

"Shut up." Her hand trembled as she tightened her grip. "Three years, Perseus. Three years. All that time we've—I've—been searching and where were you? Staying here with these...these campers, while your family is worried sick!"

"Th-that's not fair! She was going to kill me, Zoe. You were there and you saw it! I had to—"

"I said, SHUT UP!" She kicked him into the snow while pulling out her other knife. Angry tears slid down her face, and Percy was at a lost on what to do. He sat still as she approached him like a predator.

Thalia, who stood silent with Annabeth and Bianca, had other ideas. Aegis expanded from her wrist as she pulled her spear out from her mace can. "Hey, Zoe! I don't know what your problem is, but I'm only gonna say this once. Leave. Him. Alone."

Percy muttered a curse, he knew that wasn't the right thing to say. The way Zoe froze and turned her head slowly reminded him of horror movie trailer he's seen once. Hey eyes wide and crazy, he knew he had to get involved before someone got hurt.

Annabeth, however, readied her own self with her dagger. Bianca moved over to the side, fear in her eyes at seeing the girl she was starting to look up to look so crazy. Right before Zoe lunged, Percy got up and lurched forward.

The moment he got a hand on Zoe, she launched him into the snow with a fierce elbow. Groaning in the snow, he heard the sound of metal clashing with metal. He turned around to see Thalia and her spear meeting Zoe's hunting knives blow for blow. As well as the Daughter of Zeus was faring, Percy knew it was only a matter of time before Zoe's millennia of experience overpowered Thalia.

As he stood up, willing his own knives into existence, he noticed footprints forming in the snow. Annabeth, Percy thought. He ran towards her, pouring on his speed and managed to tackle her invisible form just before she reached his older sister. Her hat fell off, revealing her surprised face.

"Let me handle it," he asserted, answering her unasked question.

Not giving her time to respond, he jumped off of her and made his way to the dueling teenagers and made eye contact with Bianca, who was watching with trepidation. He nodded his head over to Thalia, and even though she hesitated, she nodded herself and began making her way over to the daughter of Zeus.

Percy paused for a second to get a feel of the rhythm. Just like he thought, Thalia's slowly began losing ground and her swings began to slow down. After a vicious overhead swing from Zoe that pushed Thalia back, Percy jumped in and swung his own knives. With immaculate precision, he knocked out both weapons from his sister.

The Lieutenant of the Hunt found her herself sprawled in the snow for a change of pace, though it only served to add more fuel to her fire. In a blink of an eye, she was back on her feet, but Percy was ready. Two silver knives were placed at the back and front of Zoe's throat, effectively trapping her.

"Zoe!" Percy pleaded, "Calm down. We can talk about this."

She responded with a ferocious glare that almost, almost, made him pull his knives away and shadow travel as far away as possible. Instead, he steeled his nerves and looked back with his own glare. She's never acted like this before, he reflected, gripping his knives tighter.