Blaze of Glory - a PJO fanfiction

2. Scars

"Don't scare him," Luke told me. "He'll be fine. There's no killing or maiming allowed, and plus..." He leaned in to whisper in my ear. "He's the bait." I nodded in understanding.

"Smart," I said, "Annabeth's idea?" He chuckled.

"You know it-" He was cut off by a shout.

"Blue team, forward!" Annabeth yelled, and we all cheered and started down the path towards the south woods. I saw Percy run up to Annabeth, miraculously without tripping over himself, before I nodded at Luke, and ran off to prime my tripwires.

- Mini time skip brought to you by Percy's over-sized armour -

The woods were dark by the time the conch blew. I sat alone in a tree near the border, bow at the ready as the last drops of sunlight trickled over the horizon. I felt my power fade to a spark as the last rays disappeared. My power wasn't infinite, and I needed some light to work with, if only to get it going. Normally, during the day I'd have an infinite power source, but I had an hour till the moon rose, which meant that I could barely make a hand glow until then. I guess it's because the moon's light is reflected off the sun or something, but I could use it as an alternate power source at night. The more full the moon was, the easier it was to draw power from it.

I heard a scream as a trap went off somewhere behind me, but I hadn't seen any Ares kids yet, which was odd. I climbed down the tree 45 minutes later, as I saw a light go off on the other side of the woods, indicating that one of the Apollo kids sent over there had been taken down by a Cabin 9 specialty trap. I sprinted across the boundary line, bow separating into my 2 daggers as I scanned the woods for any enemies. I heard a light click, and the ground beneath me shifted, pulling me up into a net probably 20 feet off the ground.

"Fuck!" I swore,dropping my daggers. I shifted myself in the net so as to face the shadowy silhouettes of the campers approaching me.

"Language," a voice I recognized as Christopher spoke, as he and another camper approached me, probably smirking.

"Dang Krys," the other camper, who I now knew was Nyssa, said. " I didn't think you'd fall for such a basic trap. Are you losing your touch?"

"No, Nyss, I just can't see shit, because it's night." I glanced up to see a little bit of light shining from the east. I smirked, coming up with a last minute, half-baked plan. "So Christopher, Nyss, was this the best you could come up with? It's pretty unoriginal, not gonna lie." C'mon... almost there.

"It caught you, didn't it?" Chris argued. I smiled as the edge of the moon peaked above Long Island Sound.

"Not for long." I said, fire forming in my hands. I grabbed the net, lighting it on fire. It only took a second for the shock to register on my friends' faces before I started plummeting the 20 feet to the ground. I landed hard, dropping and rolling to avoid breaking anything. I stood triumphantly, only for my expression to drop once I realized I was facing two buff, hammer holding, older than me Hephaestus campers with no backup, and my weapons were on the ground behind them ten feet away. In my defense I did say this plan was half baked. "Go easy on me?" I asked sheepishly, raising my fists.

"Nope, all's fair in war Krys." Nyssa said, before charging at me with her hammer raised. I managed to duck the first swing, only to be hit on the side of the head with Chris' hammer. I saw stars, flying across the clearing until I was right next to my daggers. I quickly grabbed them, standing against the dizziness that wracked my head. I raised my daggers, taking note of exactly where they were.

"So we all know that I can't see in the dark... but can you guys?" I pulled on my power, manipulating the moonlight so that the clearing was completely dark. I've been fighting alongside my friends for years, so I know for a fact that they like to stand their ground, so they'll be in the same spot. I slice my dagger across the forearm of Chris' dominant arm, I hear a thud as his hammer drops to the ground. I duck under a swing from Nyss that I knew would come, and sliced her shoulder on her hammer arm, causing the hammer to go flying at Chris, knocking him unconscious. I returned light to the clearing as I ran towards the red team's flag, climbing a tree and transforming my daggers once again into a bow.

"Krys!" I heard a shout from below, looking down to see Luke running with the red team's flag in his grip. "Cover me!" I looked back to see that he was being chased by Castor and Pollux, the twin sons of our very own camp director, Dionysus. They were pretty fast, but my arrows were faster. They barely had time to look up before I had fired an arrow at Castor, the tip glowing with heat. It cut his calf pretty badly, but ultimately ended up hitting a rock behind him. He fell to the ground, holding his leg.

I quickly climbed down from the tree as Luke sprinted away, Pollux in pursuit. I quickly dropped the last 5 feet to the ground, crouching on impact. A cheer can be heard in the distance as I sprint towards the creek, getting there just in time to see the banner change from red to silver, bearing the image of a Caduceus, the symbol of Hermes. Chiron blew the conch, and the game was over.

A howl ripped through the forest, startling everyone. Chiron shouted for his bow. The hellhound Luke had summoned was here, and it was staring straight at Percy. Even though I had known this was going to happen, I couldn't help the irrational fear that coursed through me as I looked into its blood-red eyes. No one moved, except Annabeth.

"Percy, Run!" she yelled at him, drawing her sword. She went to stand in front of Percy, but the hellhound simply jumped over her, its claws ripping into Percy's armour. A dozen arrows whistled through the air, and the hellhound dropped dead.

"Di immortales!" I heard Annabeth say. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't... they're not supposed to..."

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp." I stiffened where I stood, meeting Luke's eyes for a moment. They couldn't possibly have known, right?

Clarisse yelled something about Percy that I couldn't make out over the pounding in my ears, but Chiron shut her up quickly. The body of the hellhound melted into a shadow, and I felt a hand on my shoulder, snapping me out of whatever trance I'd been in. I raised my fist and spun around to hit whatever had startled me, but my hand was caught in Nyssa's larger one.

"Gods Krys, are you ok?" She asked, concern in her eyes.

"Yea... Yea I'm fine. I think Chris might've given me a concussion though" I tell her, though I notice she's not looking at me, but at something behind me. "Nyss?" I wave my hand in front of her face. "Earth to Nyss. What are you looking at."

"That," she says, pointing behind me. I turn to see Percy standing in the creek, his wound healing, and a glowing trident over his head.

"It is determined," Chiron said, and I kneeled along with the other campers, looking down so they couldn't see the expression of pure anger and hatred on my face. "Poseidon. Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses." How dare the gods. How fucking dare they. "Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

I've been here for 5 gods damned years and not a single sign, and now this kid comes in here and he's claimed within the week.

I swear. I swear to every god that has ignored me and done nothing for me, that I will make them pay. They will all pay.