The Intruder

The Fight Begins

A horse made of stormy clouds shot out of the sky - literally running on air, the dragon landing behind him, and a blur raced past the dragon, before slowing. It was then that they realized the animals had riders. A stunning girl with brown, braided hair slid off the speedster-horse, blonde haired boy stepped off the cloud-horse, a dark skinned girl with golden eyes slid off the dragon. After the golden-eyed girl got off the dragon, it morphed into a Chinese boy. Finally, the sea shot upwards, depositing a black haired, tan boy in front of the animals and their riders.

"Nico!" The blackhaired boy smiled, "You're okay!"

"Perseus." Nico said with a scowl.

Perseus's smile dropped, "Aw... Neeks, you know I don't like it when my friends call me that!"

Nico held his sword up as the boy tried to approach, "Stay away. In case you've forgotten, last time we saw each other, you nearly killed me."

"I know I was a little harsh, but I didn't-"

"He had life threatening injuries!" Leo shouted, "How could you?" He turned to the blonde boy and the girl with the braided hair, "Jason! Piper! How could you? I thought you were better than that!"

Percy's gaze hardened, "Don't turn on us, Leo! What are you doing? We lost Annabeth! Nico can bring her back... Nico can make it all better, but he won't!"

"Look," Leo snapped, "We've all lost people, but Nico can't bring them back! He's already on thin ice for bringing back Hazel... do you want to get him killed?"

"I would lay my life down for -"

"You can't expect that of him. You're wrong. You may not know it, but your fatal flaw is controlling you!"

"Where does your loyalty lie, Leo?" Piper charm spoke, "Tell us the truth." The magic in her voice made everyone in the room, except Nico, sway.

Leo tried to fight it, but the magic pulled at his voice, forcing him to speak, "With Nico Di Angelo, because he is the only one I can still trust!"

The others went silent, and hurt flashed across the twisted demigods faces.

"Leo..." Hazel said quietly, "Why don't you trust us?"

"We're your friends...."

"We love you."

"Just come help us."

"It'll be okay!"

"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?" Leo screamed, "YOU TRIED TO KILL NICO, BECAUSE YOU EXPECTED HIM TO GIVE UP HIS LIFE AND AFTERLIFE FOR SOMEONE HE BARELY KNEW!"

"Leo..." Jason was abruptly cut off.

"And if you betrayed Nico... h-how do I know you won't betray me? So no, I don't trust you, and if you hurt anyone here, then I guess we were never friends to begin with."

The other demigod's eyes hardened, "Fine then. We're doing this the hard way." Percy uncapped Riptide, and charged, his sword arching downwards ... heading straight towards a defenseless Leo.