The Broken Hero Book One: Betrayed

Revealing Myself

"Okay, boy, let's go," Artemis said. She flashed herself, the Hunters, and me to Olympus.

~*~

I stood in front of the thrones of the gods. Artemis had called for a council and she called Hades and Hestia there too. Hades and Hestia were the last ones there. Hades looked grumpy and annoyed until he saw me. Then he smiled, ran over and hugged me.

Hestia hugged me too. All the gods looked confused because, as a general rule, Hades doesn't hug anybody.

"Artemis, what is this meeting about?" Zeus asked.

"This boy, father," she replied.

"What about him?" Zeus asked.

"He is powerful," Artemis answered. "I think he's masking his aura. He was shot by ten arrows to the stomach and he didn't even bleed. He killed a monster by looking at it. And when my Hunters wouldn't stop scaring, he glared. That glare is scary."

"Well, it can't have been that bad," I said. "It's not like I was trying very hard."

"I agree with you. It couldn't have been that scary. He's a kid!" Ares shouted. I glared at him, and I made sure no one else could see the glare. He immediately paled and fainted.

"What did you do?" Zeus asked.

"Just glared at him. He fainted. He should wake up on a week. The thing is, I still wasn't doing my scariest glare. Who else wants me to glare at them?" I asked. No one answered.

"Hmmm," I said, "it might be scarier if I take of my mask... I haven't taken it off in so long. Oh, and by the way, I have technically grown up thousands of years only ten."

"Are you masking your aura?" Zeus asked impatiently.

"Yes..." I replied, but I didn't move to do anything about it.

"Can you unmask your aura?" Zeus asked.

"Of course," I replied. I did it, and everyone, even Hades and Hestia, looked surprised. When I was being tortured, they forced me to mask my aura, that way no one would know I was down there. I hadn't released it for Hades or Hestia yet.

It was an aura to rival Zeus's.

"Who are you? Unmask yourself!" Zeus asked.

I unmasked myself and everyone -excluding Hades and Hestia of course- gasped.

"Percy?" My dad whispered.

"Hi dad." I came the closest the smiling as I ever had since I left Tartarus.

"You are way too powerful. You must die!" Zeus thundered.

"Drama Queen," I mumbled at the same time as Hades, Poseidon, and Hestia yelled "Brother, no!"

He through his master bolt and everyone started screaming, and some were on the verge of crying.

"Relax, guys," I said when the smoke cleared. "I'm fine."

"W-what?" Zeus asked. "How did you survive?"

"You missed, Drama Queen," I replied, pointing to the place on the wall behind me that had been hit.

Zeus growled again and shot at me again. Once again I was fine.

He shot it over and over again and every time it struck the wall behind me, the flood in front of me, or something else like that. Finally, he said, "Enough! I didn't miss."

"You're right. I used magic to make you miss," I told him.

"How?" He asked. "You don't have power over lightning!"

"You're right about that. But I do have control over water. I'm simply using the water molecules in the air to redirect the bolt. I could fly too, but I'm not going to do that."

"You are way too powerful, but if I can't kill you using lightning, I'll have to find another way." He started thinking.

"Wait," I said. "First of all, you have to talk with the council before you kill people. Second of all, I have also become better at archery. Third of all, don't you remember my fatal flaw? It is loyalty. That means that I'd use my powers against the enemy, not Olympus."

"Okay..." Zeus said. "I guess we won't kill you. But when Ares wakes up, I want you too to have a sword fight. I want to see if you can beat the war god."

"I already have," I grumbled, but Zeus heard.

"What?" He asked.

"I beat him in my first year. Well, technically I didn't and he was working for Kronos and Kronos interfered, but still."

"Well, since Percy's here," Dad said, "maybe Apollo should give him a checkup. You know, he's been missing for ten years. He might've been hurt."

"Oh, I was hurt all right," I replied, my eyes darkening. All the gods involuntarily shivered.

"What?" Dad panicked.

"Oh, nothing," I said, pretending I'd never said anything.

They started talking amongst themselves, and I got bored in about five minutes. I crossed my arms, fell straight back and landed with a thud. Everyone stopped talking and looked over at me.

"Are you okay?" Dad asked.

"I think you really do need a checkup." Apollo suggested.

"Why'd you do that?" Artemis asked.

"I'm okay," I answered. "I don't need one I don't think but you could give me one anyway. And I did it because I didn't want to stand up anymore."

"He does that all the time," Hades mumbled. Everyone looked at him.

"You've seen him?" Dad asked. "And you didn't tell us?" Hestia sighed.

"Ummmm." Hades looked at me. I nodded, giving him permission to tell them.

"Yeah... five years ago..." he said. The gods looked outraged.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Dad yelled.

"Because Percy made me swear on the River Styx not to tell you." The gods all looked at me.

"Hey, if you guys knew where I was for five years, you would freak out. You still might, actually." I stood up quickly and dusted myself off.

"Now, Apollo," I turned to the god, "are you going to give me a check up or not?"