Breaking Point

revealed

"Update, you dumb bitch." - your mindvoice probably. (Definitely)

***
*4 days after Nico's confrontation, when Annabeth is in search of Magnus*

"Is that a telivision floating behind her?" Someone whispered.

"No, you idiot. That's a board?" Another voice said.

"How is it floating though? Wait a minute, that's a carpet?" The first voice said again.

Annabeth smiled, immediately knowing what the mortals were talking about. She turned around and waited for the Iris Message to form.

"What's up?" She asked with a smile, but it fell when she noticed Hazel's ashen expression.

"Annabeth." Hazel swallowed the lump in her throat. her voice was fuzzy over the Iris Message. "You gotta come back."

"Why, what's wrong!? Did something happen?" Annabeth asked.

Hazel seemed to understand Annabeth panic because she rushed to explain.

"Nothing bad happened to anyo- or atleast-" her voice cracked. "Just come back, please?"

***
*A few hours ago*

Percy swallowed a lump in his throat, as he stood with his arms crossed, watching the younger campers spar. He sighed for the nth time as the kid tried to do the disarming manevour and almost gut himself.

"I thought I said that the disarming manevour was not for beginners. We'll start slowly, just stick with the basics-" he started tiredly, but was interrupted.

"But Perceeeeeee-" the kid whined. "That's boring!" Percy resisted to hit his head on a tree.

"Look, I know you guys are super talented, but your sword sometimes appear bigger than you. You're still young, you have years to learn." He told patiently, but the kid started pouting and pulled out his puppy eyes.

"Pleaseee, Percy! I was told you did this your first try!" He whined, and Percy glared at the six older campers who stood there.

"It was beginners luck, kid-" he started, but someone among the older campers snorted.

"Luck my ass." Clarisse laughed. "Just teach the punk, Percy. We'll have some fun watching him fail horribly." She said, and some of the others laughed. By now, Percy knew that Clarisse meant no harm, but the kid seemed to take offense.

"Hey!" He cried out.

"Step aside." He sighed, and took the kid's place. Usually he was very patient. But now. He was just very, very tired. He felt drained, both physically and emotionally. And having to keep his secret wasn't helping at all. The stress was making his head pound.

"See, you have to twist- you see- twist the hilt of the opponent's sword with the flat of your sword, you see?" He asked, and demonstrated the movement extremely slowly. "You have to twist it, you shouldn't try to pull it towards you, got it? You'd end up stabbing yourself."

"Yes! Can I try? Please, Percy? Pleasee!" He jumped, but Percy shook his head.

"As much as I want you to master that trick, I don't want you to end up injured. You first perfect yourself with the lunge and back method, okay?" He asked, and the kid reluctantly agreed.

"Good, continue!" He said and stepped aside. Sweat beaded his forehead. Never had he got so tired by doing absolutely nothing.

He deemed something was wrong when his vision blurred. He blinked. The kids that were sparring were looking at him with wide eyes, looking for some approval. He nodded tightly.