"Well," Annabeth started. "We already knew that Tartarus was rising, that is the 'Pit' that was mentioned in the first line-"
"How on earth did you figure that out?" Shizzle asked sarcastically.
"Shizzle," Percy growled in warning. "Let the daughter of Athena speak what she thinks she knows."
"As I was saying," Annabeth continued, ignoring Percy's disrespectful comment. "We've established that the second line is Percy coming back. The third line, To rise or destroy, Olympus will fight, means that the gods will have a civil war. It was bound to happen sometime and it just had to be while Tartarus was rising." Annabeth paused, glancing around the room.
Percy raised an eyebrow at her prolonged silence. "Do go on," he pressed, barely restraining himself from rolling his eyes. He nodded in what seemed to be agreement with the daughter of wisdom's daughter.
"Well, the last two lines could mean any number of things," she said, eyeing him carefully. "Brains is obviously Athena, Nature means Gaea and Loyalty is Percy-"
"You will call me Lord Ariston," Percy interrupted, looking up, his voice cold and unfeeling. "I do not care how I knew you before, my murderers have no right to call me something so informal."
Wow, Percy thought to himself. I'm sounding a lot like the Olympians. He could not tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Percy could tell that several of the campers in there with him gulped nervously. Poor Frank was so nervous that he turned into an iguana.
"Percy calm down," Travis called from the other side of the room.
"Yeah dude," Connor added. "You're glowing."
Percy closed his eyes and clenched his fists, taking deep breaths to calm down. "Thanks," he muttered.
"Why are you letting them call you that?" Piper asked, a completely fake look of hurt on her face.
Percy snorted quietly. "Didn't think you could be such a good actress, Piper," he said sarcastically. "We both know you don't really care about that."
Piper's hurt look immediately disappeared and turned into a scowl. "They were the ones to lead you to Olympus to die," she told him sharply. "Why are they allowed to call you that?"
"They told me what was happening and what they were tasked with doing," Percy told her, equally as sharp. "I knew exactly what was going to happen."
Phoenix coughed suddenly, drawing Percy's attention. He rolled his eyes and corrected him. "Percy, you did not know exactly what was going to happen," he told him.
Shade snorted in agreement. "When you woke up, you asked Phoenix why he was in the Fields of Punishment." At that moment, something occurred to him that he had never thought possible. Shade's head snapped up and Percy had a feeling his eyes had widened in surprise. "You believed them?" He asked in disbelief.
Percy sighed as everyone in his hunt turned to face him, the accusatory looks he felt they were shooting at him made him wince in anticipation for the lecture that was sure to come.
And it did come. It just wasn't directed at him.
"This is all your fault!" Clarisse shouted, standing up suddenly from her chair. "Annab-"
"Clarisse, careful how you finish that word," Shooter commented dryly. "There are little ears here."
"Who?" Shade asked, looking around. From the way he said it, Percy suspected he was frowning but he couldn't tell behind the hood.
Shooter turned his head to look a Shade. "You," he said.
"Shut up, I'm older than you by at least seventy years."
"As I said," Clarisse growled, gripping her spear tightly. "Annabeth, it is all your fault. You would not listen to me instead of Leif. The idiotic son of Demeter drove Percy to lose hope and faith in himself. Want to know what I say? Curse you and the rest of you to the Void! Tartarus is too good for you."
Percy took a deep breath. He reached up to rub his face. It seems they could not get along for five minutes and they had more important things to do than bicker about nothing. Percy tried blocking everything out, only for the daughter of wisdom and daughter of war to start a shouting match. This caused both Leif and Percy to jump in surprise with Leif hissing as well.
Percy absently wondered if they should have turned him into a cat.
He scowled at the ferret, Percy didn't want to change him back just yet.
He'd wait until tomorrow.
Standing up as calmly as he could, Percy cleared his throat.
Clarisse and Annabeth did not hear him but the other campers and the members of the Hunt did.
Sighing, Percy didn't bother trying for either of the girl's attention. "We are obviously not getting anywhere conversing with you lot," Percy began in his commander mode. "Shooter, wait here for Clarisse when she is done' yelling her head off. I want her there when we talk. Travis, Connor and the rest of my Hunt, come with me."
With out another word, Percy led the way to the group of tents that belonged to the Hunt.
"Come in through my tent guys, let's confuse the campers a bit," Percy smirked at Phoenix, who laughed and relayed the message to the others. The tents all looked too small to hold all nine of them.
Once inside the living room, Percy settled down to wait. "Shade, I want you to go get Casper. Dove go get two more tents."
"Why can't I go get them?" Shizzle asked, faking hurt.
"Because despite the tents being fire proof," Percy drawled, "I know you will find a way to set them on fire."
Shizzle smiled sheepishly from behind the hood while Dove and Shade left to their respective destinations and the rest settled down on one of the many sofas.
"So Stolls, you finally taking over for Casper?" Phoenix asked casually. "You know you might have to make a few tough decisions in the future."
Percy hid a smile. Phoenix did this every time there was a new leader. He wanted to make sure they knew what they were getting into.
Or at least the is what he told Percy.
Personally, Percy thought Luke liked how nervous the new leaders got, only to realize how it wasn't as hard as he made it out to be. All the leaders of the separate groups really needed to do was go where Percy told them to go and make sure people were doing what they were supposed to.
Ten minutes later, Casper arrived.
"Don't you believe a word he says, Stolls," he said as he walked in. "Because if you do, your scared little feelings might actually manage to convince Ariston to make me keep my position."
"It is Percy now, Casper," Percy interjected.
"What happened?" Casper asked.
"A prophesy, happened, that's what," Percy said.
"Ah," Casper nodded in understanding just as Dove came back with the tents.
The Stolls then proceeded to receive two very heavy rolls of fabric in their faces as Percy continued to explain to Casper what had happened.
By the time Percy finished telling him the events of the last day and a half, Shooter arrived, with Clarisse in tow.
"Who's this?" Casper asked as he noticed Clarisse walk in uncertainly.
Percy watched his old friend in amusement. He had never seen that expression on Clarisse before.
"This is Clarisse, daughter of Ares," Shooter introduced. "She was one of the only demigods to not betray Percy."
Casper nodded. "Why is she here?" He asked again, turning to Percy.
Before Percy could answer, he realized that he wanted all of the leaders present. He groaned, "Shade, could you go get Forge, Perseus and Goldeye? I forgot I need them too."
"No need to worry Percy," Luminous said as he came into the room with said leaders following close behind. Percy didn't even realize he had left. "I saw that you forgot and I went to go get them myself."
Percy sighed in relief, Nico would have killed him if he really had to go out again. "Thanks," he said, "Now, let's begin shall we? All in favor of appointing Connor and Travis Stoll as co-leaders of the Delta team, say aye."
"Aye," all those present said in unison.
"Welcome, Stolls, to our humble group," Percy said, with a touch of dramatic air. "Choose your code name, not that we really need them anymore."
The brothers smiled at each other and nodded, they obviously knew this was coming. Travis went first and he chose 'Theif'. Connor then chose the name of 'Lord'. Together they were the 'Thief Lord'.
"You must now take the oath," Phoenix informed them, a little more serious. "Do you remember it?"
The brothers nodded and proceeded to recite the oath, "I come to Lord Ariston, looking for a new life. I forsake the presence of women and vow to remain loyal my Lord Ariston to my last days."
Phoenix turned to Percy, who was looking at the brothers with narrowed eyes. "Does the Lord Ariston accept Travis and Connor's oath of loyalty?" He asked.
Percy remained silent at he stared at the Stolls with concentration. Eventually, he said, "I accept, welcome to the Hunt, Theif-Lord."
The rest of the Hunt that was present rose and cheered for the new members and went to congratulate them.
Percy watched Clarisse, who was in the corner, watching everything go on with a confused expression. "That's it?" She asked in disbelief.
Percy chuckled. "Yes," he told her, "I never like so much formality, and neither did Bion."
"Bion?"
Percy nodded. "The god of the Hunt before me," he clarified.
"So what did the prophesy say Percy?" Casper asked once everything had calmed down.
Percy turned to Shizzle, who was bouncing with excess energy. Percy suspected that he had snuck some Skittles out of the pantry from the kitchen. "Do you mind?"
Shizzle shook his head and took a deep breath.
"The Pit shall rise, bringing war with it
The Betrayed shall return, never to leave again,
To raise or destroy, Olympus will fight.
To Loyalty the Brains and Nature will fall,
And War shall take its place."
"Well, what does it mean?" Shade asked, turning to Percy.
Clarisse furrowed her eye brows. "Weren't you there when Annab-"
Again she was interrupted by Shooter as he said, "Remember, Clarisse, little ears."
Shooter was then assaulted by a large, white pillow thrown by Shade.
"-When Annabeth went through the prophesy earlier?" She continued as if she hadn't been interrupted.
Shade nodded, confirming what she had just said before he clarified. "What she said, while logical, is incorrect," he told her. "She has no idea what is going on."
"But-"
Shooter seemed to love interrupting Clarisse today, Percy thought, If he keeps it up, I don't think he will have a tongue to speak with.
"The idiotic spawn of Athena is no better at solving prophesies than Percy was at archery before he became a god," Shooter said.
And if he kept talking about me like that, then he won't have any fingers either.
"Then, she isn't right?" Clarisse asked, confusion written all over her features.
Percy scoffed. "Of course she isn't right, she skips the general and goes straight to the specific," he said, laughing. "She shapes the facts to fit the theories instead the theories to fit the facts."
"What does it mean, Percy?" Phoenix asked in annoyance.
Percy smiled. "She did get the first two lines right however, Tartarus is rising," he began, "The third line means sort of the same thing as my first Great Prophesy. Olympus will fight, yes, but not each other. They can finally help with the war, since the Ancient Laws have been absolved."
"Finally," Shizzle muttered under his breath.
"The last two lines," Percy continued, "It is simple really, I don't understand how she missed it, she is as paranoid as Zeus. The Brains is Annabeth herself, Nature could also mean agriculture, thus Demeter. Therefore, Leif Hamilton, son of Demeter. The last line; War shall take it's place. I have an inkling of what it could mean but I want to wait to see how it plays out."
"That was incredibly specific, Percy, are you sure you are right?" Clarisse asked.
Percy smiled. "Positive," he said. "I have been learning the patterns that the fates weave just so I am not surprised by another prophesy's meaning."