Red Skies at Morning | Clarisse La Rue x OC | Percy Jackson AU

Getting Stabbed in the Back (and Other Fun Camp Activities)

Author's note: Hey, I just realized there are almost ten thousand words in this chapter and it takes like 40 minutes to read. Would it be better to cut this chapter and make it two or three chapters instead? The reason I kept it all in one chapter was that at the time it was posted the story was taking a long to time get set up and I wanted to get all the background out of the way before the real story started. Now that the other chapters have been posted I could make this into several chapters instead if that made the reading experience more enjoyable.

So, I think it's time I shed some light on why finding out that Percy's father is Posideon isn't exactly great news. 

About sixty years ago, the Oracle, some hippy-looking mummy we keep in the Big House attic (don't ask), made a prophecy that everyone calls "The Great Prophecy." The campers don't know the prophecy word for word, since technically we're not supposed to know about it at all, but we know enough to understand what it means.

The generally accepted interpretation of the prophecy is that a child of the "eldest gods"(Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades) would be the one to "preserve or raze" Olympus when they turn sixteen. Because of the prophecy and some other stuff about World War II or something, the Big Three had all sworn on the River Styx not to have any more demigod children. 

So yeah, cool, no children of the eldest gods means no chance of Olympus being in danger. Well, Zeus had broken that oath a while ago, but that was also fine because the half-blood that he'd sired had been turned into a tree. 

Again, don't ask. It's a long story. The point is, there was still no longer a half-blood around to fulfill the prophecy and maybe kill us all, so we were in the clear. Or so we assumed, but now Poseidon also couldn't keep it in his pants and the kid was still alive so he was currently the most likely candidate to bring the end of the world.

Said harbinger happens to be my new cabinmate, who woulda thought? I mean, it's not that I think Percy will intentionally try to bring the fall of Olympus, but he's the only child of the Big Three that isn't half dead and turned into a tree so that's enough to cause concern. 

So yeah, you can see now why Percy had a big chance of being the single most dangerous person at camp. Though, Chiron seemed to be pretty optimistic that he'd be doing the "preserving" of Olympus instead of the razing. At least, I assume so since he didn't kill him on the spot when he was claimed.

Not to mention, trouble had been brewing for some time now. Most campers only knew that it was because something was stolen from Zeus during the winter solstice. The details were confidential and campers weren't supposed to know, but I'd heard the counselors talking about it during a meeting when I was bringing drinks. Perks of being an "assistance counselor" (which still isn't a real thing). 

Despite that, I didn't know everything, but I'd heard enough to know it was Zeus's master bolt that was stolen. The master bold was Zeus's symbol of power, the archetype that all lightning bolts were framed after, and the first and most powerful weapon of the gods. Zeus had accused Poseidon of being the thief. Gods can't actually steal each other's symbols of power, so Poseidon was able to deny the accusation easily, but Zeus wasn't convinced. 

Now Poseidon's son had just shown up at camp, not only making him the second of the Big Three to have officially broken his oath but also providing the perfect explanation for how Poseidon could be responsible for the theft. 

Percy was accused of being the lightning thief, and there wasn't really anything anyone could do to convince Zeus otherwise. Zeus had given Poseidon until the summer solstice to return the bolt, or there would be war among the gods and Poseidon was still claiming that he hadn't taken it.

The thing about trouble with the gods is that it always had an effect on the mortal world. Every kind of awful historic event you can think of was probably caused by a conflict between the gods or their children, natural disasters were caused when a god was upset, and WWII had basically been a quarrel between the Big Three and their children. Safe to say, nothing good could come if a war broke out between the gods.