Chapter Text
The day had not gone as Piper had planned. She had assumed that she would have had a mediocre day at the Grand Canyon, hopefully sneaking away from her partner, Dylan, and his crowd and hanging out with her amazingly perfect boyfriend and hyperactive best friend. They would mess around near the edge, probably nearly falling in, but she would have to finish the worksheet with Dylan and that part would really suck.
What had actually happened involved her teacher, or whatever it was that Wilderness School qualified as a teacher, being some sort of goat man, her boyfriend getting amnesia and apparently being able to fly, and Dylan being a literal monster. However, despite the fact that she should probably be scared out of her mind, all Piper could feel was dread.
It was just like her dream had said. It was all starting.
Somehow, the flying chariot was one of the more dangerous parts of her day. There was a distinct lack of seatbelts and Leo was being reckless as hell, which to be fair was not much different from his normal behaviour. He spat a pegasus feather out of his mouth, leaning over the edge. Piper shuddered. Even with Jason apparently able to catch her if she fell, she would never feel comfortable just hanging out over open air.
Especially if she was in a flying chariot that was on fire and careening downward toward a lake, like she currently was. That certainly didn’t help matters in the slightest.
Annabeth was shouting something and the chariot was nearing the surface of the water at an astonishing rate. The last thought that flashed behind Piper’s eyes was an old fact that her father had told her- that hitting water from up high being just as bad as hitting cement.
And then they hit the water with a something that sounded way too close to the sound of one of Leo’s dumb experiements exploding for comfort.
This would be a stupid way to die, she thought as she floated, weightless and disoriented, in the water. Then faces appeared in front of her out of the murky water, long black hair suspended around their glowing yellow eyes. Their smiles seemed more like smirks as Piper felt herself being grabbed by the shoulders and hauled to the surface.
She was flung, shivering violently, to the shore where a team of campers was waiting with what looked like giant leaf blowers that blasted Piper with hot air and miraculously dried her off in about 2 seconds. While her clothes were perfectly fine after the encounter, her hair had certainly seen better days and Piper sincerely doubted she would ever have hair that wasn’t tangled ever again.
There were people of all ages milling around the lake with the same orange t-shirts as Butch and Annabeth, throwing occasional glances at the newcomers but mainly sticking to their own conversations. All but a guy with a bow and quiver sprinted out of the crowd with an exasperated look on his face. “Annabeth!” he called. “I said you could borrow the chariot, not destroy it!”
He scowled down at the remains of the chariot that had apparently been thrown out of the lake after her by the lake ladies.
“Will, I’m sorry,” Annabeth sighed. “I’ll get it fixed, I promise.”
Will scowled at the lightly smoking remains of what Piper assumed was his chariot. Then he looked up and Piper found herself looking downward to avoid his gaze.
“These are the ones? Way older than thirteen. Why haven’t they been claimed already?”
“Claimed?” Leo interjected.
Annabeth opened her mouth to explain, but Will interrupted before she could. “Any sign of Percy?”
Percy? Piper wondered as Annabeth growled out a negative. She had no idea who this Percy guy was, but his apparent disappearance seemed to be a big deal if the other campers beginning to pay attention and starting to mumble amongst themselves meant anything.
Another girl stepped forward, looking like the peak of perfection. She was tall, Asian, had the perfect accessories, the perfect hair, and the perfect makeup. Somehow, she made the same orange t-shirt and jeans that every single other camper was wearing look glamorous. She fixed her eyes on Jason, on Piper’s boyfriend , and got an appreciative gleam in her eye as though he were the only one in the group worthy of any attention. Leo didn’t seem to draw her gaze in the slightest and the only glance that Piper herself got was one of disdain, like she was some week-old burrito that had been sitting in a dumpster outside her local Walmart.
Piper knew this girl’s type. She had dealt with much of the same at Wilderness
School and every other school she had ever been sent to for her supposed “kleptomaniac tendencies.” Her father’s assistant’s words, not her’s. Piper instantly knew that she and this new girl were going to be enemies.
“Well,” the girl said, with a hair flip that would put her father in that one movie when he had grown out his hair to shame. “I hope they’re worth the trouble.”
Leo snorted. “What are we, your new pets?”
“No kidding,” Jason said. “How about some answers before you start judging us?” He took a deep breath before listing off questions at rapid speed. “What is this place, why are we here, how long do we have to stay?”
Piper had the same questions, but a wave of anxiety washed over her. Worth the trouble … If they knew about her dream, they wouldn’t even be giving her a chance.
“Jason,” Annabeth said, “I promise we’ll answer your questions. And Drew.” She fixed the girl with a frown that made the little monster living in Piper’s brain very happy.”All demigods are worth saving.” She sighed. “But, I’ll admit, the trip didn’t accomplish what I hoped.”
“Hey!” Piper exclaimed, feeling like she had to defend their honor or something. “We didn’t ask to be brought here.”
The glamour girl, who’s name was apparently Drew, sniffed. “And nobody wants you, hon. Does your hair always look like a dead badger?”
Why I outta … Piper stepped forward, ready to smack her, but Annabeth stopped her. And so Piper stopped. Drew didn’t scare her in the slightest, having dealt with the same sort of girls in the past, but Annabeth seemed like she could be useful as an ally and deadly as an enemy.
“We need to make our new arrivals feel welcome,” Annabeth said, with another pointed look at Drew. “We’ll assign them each a guide, give them a tour of camp. Hopefully by the campfire tonight, they’ll be claimed.”
“Would somebody please tell me what claimed means?” Piper asked, exasperated that Leo’s question still hadn’t been answered.
Annabeth finally spared Piper a glance. “Claiming is when your godly parent, either your mom or dad, sends a sign that appears above your head and marks you as theirs.” She rolled her eyes, seemingly ready to continue on with her much more important conversations or something, but Leo had other plans.
“What exactly will the sign look like?” he questioned. “Will I be able to touch it? Will it happen soon?”
Piper vaguely noticed that he had been fiddling with something that she assumed had previously been in pieces in his pocket. He accidentally released the surprisingly complex item and it zipped straight upward, disappearing into the clouds. He looked surprised, mouth forming a perfect O, before shrugging and pulling another pipe cleaner out of his pocket.
He seemed to practically forget that he had asked any questions to begin with, instead focusing in on the new task at hand.
And so Annabeth’s attention returned to Jason, her sharp eagle-like eyes narrowing in on him and studying him like he were some particularly interesting blueprint. Normally, Piper would be getting ready to fight at the sight of some other girl checking out her boyfriend, but she got the feeling that Annabeth was doing it for some other reason than him being a good-looking guy.
“Hold out your wrist,” Annabeth suddenly instructed and Piper’s heart dropped to somewhere near her ankles as her eyes zeroed in on Jason’s apparent tattoo that she had never seen before to her knowledge.
“Woah dude,” Leo said, quickly moving over to Jason’s side and examining his wrist. “Sick tattoo! Where’d you get it? Is that how you get all the ladies? Would I be more desirable if I got a tattoo?” He moved off to the side, mumbling something about wanting a dragon tattoo somewhere on his face.
Piper, on the other hand, was still having a minor mental breakdown. How did her boyfriend have a tattoo she didn’t know about? It couldn’t have just appeared!
“I’ve never seen marks like this,” Annabeth said slowly. “Where did you get them?”
Jason appeared flustered. “I’m getting really tired of saying this,” he said exasperatedly. “But I have no clue where it came from. I have no clue where I came from, why do you expect me to know what this is, let alone where it came from?”
Piper started to calm down. Of course Jason had so much more reason to be freaked out than her. She had to be strong. For him.
“The marks look burned into your skin,” Annabeth noticed.
“They were,” Jason replied. Then he shook his head like his ears were ringing. “I mean… I think so. I don’t remember.”
Oh Jason, Piper thought. You have no idea how absolutely suspicious you sound right about now. But no one said anything. It was very clear that everyone saw Annabeth as their leader and they would wait for her verdict on the situation at hand.
“He needs to go straight to Chiron,” Annabeth decided. “Drew, would you-”
“Absolutely.” Drew laced her arm through Jason’s. “This way, sweetie. I’ll introduce you to our director. He’s…an interesting guy.” She flashed Piper a smug look and led Jason toward the big blue house on the hill.
Will stepped forward toward Leo. “It seems like you might be interested in seeing the facilities our camp has to offer, specifically the forges.”
Leo perked up immediately. “Big forge? I can make whatever?”
Will laughed. “Come on, Inventor boy. I’ll show you around.” He placed his hand on Leo’s shoulder and led him away toward the buildings that Piper could see in the near distance.
The rest of the crowd began to disperse, until only Annabeth and Piper were left.
“Who’s Chiron?” Piper asked. “Is Jason in some kind of trouble?”
Annabeth hesitated. “Good question, Piper. Come on, I’ll give you a tour. We need to talk.”
Far away, in the fun and funky Mount Olympus, sat two of the almighty Greek gods. If you were to see two such gods together, you would likely expect to see them talking about regal, godly things. Not true in this scenario. Instead, you would see Hephaestus and Poseidon conspiring like giggling school girls. Their heads were leaned in close together and huge grins seemed like they were permanently situated on their faces.
Apparently, the gods were bored. Sitting up in Mount Olympus with very minimal interaction with the outside world due to the orders on Zeus was not the most fun situation they had found themselves in during the past several centuries.
They knew that some plan was going on, based on the fact that Poseidon confided in Hephaestus that he couldn’t sense where his son was anymore. He knew he was alive, but had no clue as to his whereabouts. Thus, they knew that something important was happening, but they were powerless to stop it. (And let me tell you, gods do not appreciate being powerless.)
As such, the pair decided that messing with their children would be the best course of action. Not enough that any important upcoming quests could be messed up, but certainly enough that the demigod in question, Leo, would be minorly traumatized.
Unfortunately for Leo, none of the gods, not even his own father, thought of him as much more than a plaything, a pawn to be used in their plans.