Betrayed To Frosting Point

Chapter Nine - Names

The campers, under the training of Percy and Piper, had become excellent warriors. They had been training every day, and every day, there were breakthroughs and progress. All of the campers were doing great, all except for one. Annabeth continued to be problematic. It seemed as if all she wanted to do was sabotage all efforts that were put forth by Percy and Piper to train the campers. She would steal weapons; make sure that people couldn't make it to the training on time, and among other things, just being generally problematic. After one specific training session, Annabeth took it to far. Polaris and Ivory had just dismissed the class, and told everybody to go get lunch. Instead of leaving like all of the other campers, she stayed, and un-announced to Polaris and Ivory, she stood behind Polaris, and managed to take a disguised riptide out of Polaris's pocket.

Riptide had taken an appearance to match its master. It seemed to have been encrusted with ice, even though it was still smooth and sharp. Over the five years that Percy and Piper had been gone, the sword had changed to a point where it was beyond recognition. The trident that was embedded in the hilt was no longer green, but it was now an icy blue, and the golden studs that were riveted into the hilt had changed to be blue ruby's, that shown with an almost with a kaleidoscope effect. Annabeth didn't recognize it, especially since it wasn't in pen form anymore. Percy almost always had it in a sheathed, but somehow, Annabeth still managed to steal it, that is until she almost dropped it when she touched the blade.

Polaris turned around and glared at Annabeth.

"What, Annabeth, do you think you are doing?" He asked in a deadly tone. Annabeth just smirked.

"Trying to figure out what in hades you are doing here. First you show up with the hunters, then you take control of the camp, and now you think you can go and train all of my campers." Annabeth didn't seem to see the look in Polaris's eyes.

"And why do you think that you need to run this camp?"

"I carried this camp from the moment I came here. Then that Percy Jackson came and took all the credit for what I had done. Then we find that he was a traitor. Who else should run the camp? Who else?" She screamed! She was nearing tears at the moment. Percy stood there, shaking in what Piper could only assume to be anger, but she couldn't see Percy snap. Instead she reached forward and took the blade out of Annabeth's hand, gave it to a still shaking Percy, and turned to Annabeth.

"Annabeth, you do not know what we face now, or what we have faced in the past. You put words in our mouth that you don't know about, and you blame an innocent man for destroying your life. Leave now, and go to your cabin and leave this be." Pipers voice was laced with charm speak, so instead of arguing, Annabeth nodded and turned to the exit and left before anything further could happen. Piper turned to Percy, who looked like breaking glass. His eyes were glassy, and broken, just like they had been the day they had ran from camp. His body was sagging, and he seemed sick. Piper felt a pang in her heart when she looked into his eyes, and as she continued to look, it continued to break her heart. She looked back down at riptide, and then back to Percy, where she noticed silent tears streaming down his face. And it shattered her heart.

Even though she was a daughter of Aphrodite, Piper had never felt like she did right then. She noticed that he was totally broken, and she noticed that she could not stand to see him like that. For the first time in her life, she knew that she felt true love, the love that never ends, and the love that drives a person to stand by another when the other is truly broken.

She then did something that she had never done before. She stepped up onto her toes and kissed him. She put all of her hopes and emotions into that kiss, conveying the love that she felt into the kiss. Percy immediately tensed, causing Piper to worry if she had done the right thing or not, but after a moment, he relaxed, and Piper could tell that he was back to his normal self. Piper pulled back and looked at Percy.