Betrayal

18

Perseus left the meeting and quickly fled the compound. He could feel the hunger of the monster he had become starting to rear it's ugly head. He needed to feed. He headed for the largest city nearby, or was a large city.

After quite sometime of flying, despite his fast speed; he saw the vestiges of Kansas City on the horizon. Even as he closed in he could smell and sense the aura of a powerful monster. Maybe not powerful to him anymore, but one that would at least fill him. No mere demigod would stand a chance against the old named monsters any more. But to him, if they didn't come from before the era of Titans, they didn't matter to him. And even then, most of the fodder from before that age were of little concern to him as well. He decided to hurry this up. He didn't want to be out too long, especially if a majority of everyone would be going to the Pit.

-/-

"Reyna, do you really trust him? He's...not the same. He's not the Percy we knew before," Frank said.

Reyna nodded in understanding. "You're right. He's not. He's much, much stronger. You can consider him a Primordial. Imagine the power of Gaia, as she was still waking up. That's roughly where he's at right now. And even then, that's a fraction of her power. Nyx is older than Gaia, and so too is Chaos. Do you understand the pressure he's under?

"It's not about just winning. Making sure we survive is also a big deal to him. He may not show it well, but he still cares deeply for everyone. Even Annabeth, despite his hatred for her. If he didn't, he wouldn't be here. And, he's right. Wiping every living soul here off the face of the planet wouldn't even cause him to break a sweat, including the gods. This feeling of never wanting to be the strongest, now he knows he has to be. How do you think you'd feel?

"Plus, you're forgetting, him and I, we've lived multiple lifetimes. We know what's to come. The horrors you are dealing with now...they are nothing compared to later. If...no... when, they released those beasts, even he will have a hard time as he is now. He knows he must grow stronger, but he can't do that until then, so all he can do is train and try to keep all of you alive.

"All this, while on top of that, keeping his monstrous side in check to not hurt you all. He's under more pressure than you could possibly fathom. He's had to make radical changes to his nature to accomodate all of this, and yet he's still here trying to help. The least you could do is not antagonize him by asking if he's truely here to help."

Frank gave all this a long thought. "All right. I'll do my best. Just...can you please ask him to stop threatening everyone. He just got back and now the entire demigod population fears him."

"I can try. Do you know what his biggest worry was when he realized how much his thoughts were changing?" Frank shook his head. "His thought was, 'How am I going to be their hero if I am turning into a monster?' None of us had the answer to that. His conclusion is what you saw. He became the villain they needed. He can't be nice all the time and keep the innate monster instincts in check. So he decided to be cruel so as to balance it out. He is everything we can possibly get for this fight, but he can't also be a nice person.

"A good one yes, but not nice." Frank was puzzled. Without letting him ask the obvious question, Reyna answered, "A nice person will tell you what you want to hear. A good person will tell you what you need to hear. Right now, the entire demigod population down here, has become so demoralized, that they don't care about who is in charge. They are lucky he's letting us remain Praetor's, because his nature now is just to do everything.

"Honestly, I wouldn't care if he did, but I know it'll actually be a hindrance. He won't be able to move as freely if he takes charge, and right now, we need him to stir up problems without interferrance while the rest of you get stronger."

"You say that like you don't need to?" Frank said questioningly.

Reyna laughed wildly. "Get stronger? Frank...you couldn't beat me in a fair fight now, even using every power at your disposal. You couldn't even best me in an unfair fight in your advantage. And that goes for Zoë and Bianca too. Theres a side affect that we didn't disclose in the meeting. Athena hasn't realized it yet because he only just came back.

"The longer we girls are around him, the stronger we get. And when he gets stronger, so do we. I have a leg up on the others, but not by much. And I'm still not able to beat Styx, as she's one of the five oldest nymphs, and has been around Percy almost as long as I have after his change. So, no Frank, I don't have to get stronger.

"I'll be going with you all to the Pit because you will need me to become accustomed to living down there. But then, we girls will rotate who stays down there to assist and oversee your training. I'm just the first one because you all know me, and Rome had more survivors than Greek."

Frank was stunned. He'd just assumed that Percy had done everything to get stronger and the girls at his side were still the same. But, without even asking, he could tell they had also been training their powers down there hard enough, and long enough to realize they were also passively becoming stronger due to Percy. He felt dumb for thinking they had just been lazing about while Percy worked. It was Reyna, after all. She couldn't sit still longer than five minutes if she wasn't working.