He Who Rose From the Ashes

Prologue

    Broken and betrayed. Those were the words that would be used to describe me right now. I'm making my way to the Empire State building to ask a favor of the gods. I want them to end this suffering, I want them to kill me.

    Why? Let me explain;

~Flashback~

    I had just woken up when I heard the conch horn signaling an attack on the camp. Within seconds I had my armor on and Riptide grasped firmly in my hand, my legs carrying me towards the border with all the speed and grace one would expect from a veteran of two prophetic wars.

    I was met with the sight of a hydra, an empousa, and the minotaur barreling towards a kid about my age. He screamed and I dashed in front of him, redirecting the minotaur's horns with a swift kick to the jaw, slicing the legs off of the hydra, and lopping the head off of the empousa in one fell swoop.

    The empousa disintegrated leaving behind a not-so-happy-meal and a roaring, over-grown, mutated lizard. The minotaur was charging at me on one side and the hydra was spitting acid at me from the other, and I felt a light bulb flick on over my head. Sending a quick thanks to Athena, I ran closer to the hydra and waited.

    "OI! MEAT-HEAD! OVER HERE!!!" I shouted, riling him up even more. He charged faster as I heard the Hydra start to cough up more acid to spit at me and just as it did, I jumped out of the way. The minotaur was hit by the sizzling green glob and burst into dust upon impact.

    I turned to face the hydra once more and was relieved to see that Clarisse had arrived and was already cauterizing one of the now headless stumps. She looked to me and we both nodded, we knew what the other was planning. I ran forward and jumped onto the snapping snout of another head and sliced it off in one swing, Clarisse taking care of the rest. As the beast did its dust-ifying-thing I turned away to sheathe Riptide and check on the kid from earlier.

    "Hey, you alright?" I asked, helping him stand up. At his cautious nod I sent him a comforting smile, "What's your name?"

    "Jonathan Turner." he said, confidence rising in his eyes. "Who the hell are you?"

    'Rude much?' I thought as I replied, "Percy Jackson. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Jonathan." I said this with as nice of a voice as I could, but he just scoffed and turned to Chiron who was galloping up the hill toward us.

    "Hello, I am Chiron, one of the councilors here. What happened to you my boy?" he asked, bending down to inspect the new kid.

    "I was attacked by an empousa, a hydra, and the minotaur and that guy with the black hair just stood there and watched! He didn't even try to help me and that girl with the spear!" he pointed an accusing finger in my direction and Chiron looked at me with so much disappointment I felt my heart clench in my chest.

    "That's not true! Chiron, you don't actually believe him do you?" He said nothing, just turning away and leading the lying bastard to the room with the orientation video. Clarrisse joined me by the border's tree and pat me on the back, her way of being comforting I suppose.

    'I need to find Annabeth. She'll calm me down.' I thought, heading to my cabin to change and shower.

*20 minutes later*

    I couldn't find her anywhere and decided to just work off my frustration by killing some monsters in the forest by Zeus's Fist. I had killed two hellhounds by the time I reached the pile of rocks and I decided to sit in a tree and rest. I climbed up into the branches, hidden by leaves when I heard voices approaching.

    "Where are we going, beautiful?" the first one asked. 'Sounds like Jonathan. How'd he get a girl so fast?! Smarmy bastard.'

    "It's called Zeus's Fist. We won't be interrupted here!" the other responded breathily, trying to sound seductive. 'Wh-what? That can't be Annabeth...' My heart pounded in my chest as I peeked through the foliage to see a head of blond princess curls being tugged on by a slightly tan hand. They were kissing intensely, their hands roaming each other's bodies heatedly.