She looked surprised as she saw me wake up. It was kind of amusing.

As I looked closely, I realised that it was the same girl from Camp Half-Blood who came with the rest of the year rounders. Her curly blonde hair was unkept and she looked pretty tired from where I was sitting (or lying should I say). She wore a white jumper and blue skinny jeans, which would've made her look older despite that she was no more than twelve and her eyes still looked the same startling grey as before.

I started sitting up, which proved to be difficult because my back felt so numb. I winced that got the girls attention - she immediately placed a hand on my back and chest, pushing me upwards and helped me rest my back against the pillows and headboard. I closed my eyes as I felt the stinging pain on my midriff area, making me remember the arrow wound I received in my fight with the lightning thief; my hand went straight to it, but I noticed that the wound was dressed up with bandages as well as my arm which was wrapped up from my forearm to the middle of my humerus muscle.

The girl who helped me up looked at me for a moment before deciding to speak. "Why shouldn't I be holding your sword?"

I chuckled slightly. "The blade is made of Ice Silver - it's forged in the deepest depths of the ocean in the heart of Atlantis and can only be held by children of Poseidon and the gods themselves. Any other person or demigod who holds or touches it freezes all over from holding it too long. Trust me when I say that if you hold it any longer, your skin is just gonna get frostbite."

She looked down at Riptide, which continued to burn with it's blue aura of power. She held onto it for another five seconds - then she passed it on to me. As soon as her hand let go of the hilt, I noticed that her hand was as white as snow; she noticed this and tucked her hand inside her sleeve. I deactivated Riptide and placed it back on top of my cloak, next to Omega's spear.

"You're a Guardian aren't you?" the girl asked, sitting back down and placing her hands on her knees. "You wear their uniform, just like the girl who crashed next to you."

That got my attention. I looked at her with my eyes wide open. "Girl? What - Calliope? Where is she?"

The girl nodded her head to my left, which made me follow her gaze. On the bed next to me lay Calliope, who was sound asleep. She didn't look too bad - there was no sign of any burns or injuries that I know of. She looked as if she hadn't been in any recent battle and the only people in this room who thought otherwise was me.

"She's alright," the blonde hair girl assured me. "You two had some pretty nasty injuries but they've been treated. She's still asleep but don't worry - you're both safe."

I sighed in deep relief. "Thank god."

Then, to the girls most obvious shock, I started climbing out of bed. She tried protesting but I didn't listen. I soon got to my feet, though I did have difficulty in doing so because I almost fell over. If the girl hadn't caught me, I would've gotton yet another bruise on my face. I must've been either very weak or she must've been very strong, because she ended up supporting me with one of my arms slunged over her shoulders.

"You ain't strong enough to stand up yet," she grunted, so I must've been heavier than I thought. "You need to rest."

"I can't," I groaned as I took a step forward towards the door. "I need to get back to Olympus."

"You've got nothing to worry about Perseus."

I turned my head to look at Chiron the centaur. His white stallion body had his coffee scented jacket spread out on it and in one of his hands he carried a book the size of a dinner placemat. His beard was shaven slightly and his eyes looked as if he hadn't slept in a while.

"I've got word from Olympus," he told me. "And I've gotton instructions from Zeus - you are to stay here and wait until further notice."

I riased one eyebrow upwards sceptically. "Zeus said that? What about the battle? Don't they need me for something?"

Chiron shook his head. "The battle had been won by the Olympians, but they said it was too late. It's already been taken."

Now what was I suppose to do?

=========

I found myself walking outside the infirmary and hiking up a massive hill with the blonde haired girl, where I stopped and started looking at Camp Half-Blood for the first time in my life.

The size of the place was hard to describe because it was pretty spacious from where I was looking. In front of me, there were hundreds of demigods just wondering around the whole place doing whatever they were set to do. Most of them looked fit and well healthy and they were roaming the whole camp with an air of dignity surrounding them. I saw a training arena from where I was standing, and it was filled with demigods practicing their combat skills with bows; spears; swords...you name it. A saw a rock climbing wall that spewed lava down the sides and as I looked even further I saw a couple of campers taking care of a herd of pegasi. I smelt the scent of strawberries in the air and I knew we were close to a farm somewhere if I could smell those kind of fruits.

I stood there taking the view of the camp in. It was snowing since it was mid winter, though I was warm in my newly sewed up cloak which someone must've fixed. I didn't have my hood up as I wanted to feel the cold on my face. The only kind of place where I wanted to feel the sun was at the little hutt I made for myself on the east coast of Japan years ago...

"Amazing isn't it?" the girl next to me said. She had her hood up so very quickly it started getting covered with snow. Her eyes looked almost black in the dim light of the sky.

I nodded to her answer. The camp did look pretty impressive, but I didn't know what to think about the place - this was my first official time here inside the camp and it did take my breath away for a moment.

"I didn't catch your name before," I told her finally, deciding that it was time that I should learn her name. I couldn't go calling her the blonde hair girl forever - that would just be embarrassing.

She held out her hand. "Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, head counsellor of the Athena Cabin."

I accepted her hand and shook it firmly. "Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, leader of the Guardians and Champion of Olympus."

She frowned slightly. "You prefer to be called Percy rather than Perseus?"

"I only go by the name 'Perseus' when I'm in Olympus," I admitted. "Its kind of my formal name there. Though my sister Calliope started calling me 'Percy' when I started my life as a Guardian. My uncle Zeus calls me it every time as well as most of the gods, though not my father and Ares for that matter."

Annabeth nodded in understanding. Then she crossed her arms. "How did you get those injuries? Chiron knows what happened, but he refuses to tell me so I thought I might find out from you. You said something about a battle?"

I smiled at her stubbornness. If there was one thing that I learnt from her already was that she seemed stubborn when she held Riptide in the infirmary. "I get the impression that you're one of those people who doesn't like being left in the dark all the time."

She nodded. "Its one of those silly little things that just sets me off."

I thought that it wouldn't hurt telling her - I had a soft spot for people who are left in the dark. I sighed and knelt down on one knee, drawing in the dirt with a small stick. Annabeth knelt down with me and I started talking, using the pictures to tell the story of what happened.

"I just went to sleep in the house that I shared with Calliope and my friend Omega when the battle erupted," I explained. "I rushed out the house and saw that every monster we kept for training had been released from their cells. Amongst those annoying creatures was a cloaked figure, who according to my sister had stolen Zeus's Master Bolt and Hades's Helm of Darkness. Now I knew it wasn't a god who stole them because that was against the Ancient Rules, so my theory is that it was a demigod who stole them because they can do stuff like that if they wanted. Only problem was that the thief was masked, so I can't tell who it was because of that"

I then drew what the Master Bolt looked like in it's cylinder form when not in use, and the Helm of Darkness. Annabeth paid close attention to what I was saying, clearly impressed by my art of telling and drawing the story. I had done art work before, though my heart wasn't into it so I gave up long ago - apparently, I still had the nack for it because I drew a perfect picture of the two weapons and the thief who stole them.

"He tried getting away but the gods managed to step into the battle, leaving me focused on the thief while Calliope and Omega helped the Olympians. I have to admit that the thief was clearly trained well in sword fighting because he was just as good as me. I had difficulty in fighting him because I was handling him and fighting monsters at the same time. He managed to escape for ten minutes or so before Calliope, Omega and I caught up with him at the gateway leading to New York."

"So that was what that storm was about," she said to herself. She looked at me. "You were battling him on the bridge and he was using the Master Bolt against you."

I grimaced, remembering the fight on the bridge. "He didn't use it at first. He managed to beat me and Calliope, but Omega stepped in front and battled him - he managed to disarm the thief and was about to kill him...but...um...the thief brought out Zeus's bolt and..."

My voice broke, leaving it somehow impossible for me to speak. Omega...my best friend had been murdered right in front of my eyes and it nearly caused me to cry. I've seen brave men die all around me for years whenever it meant a battle, but Omega's murder was a whole new level of grief; I've known him ever since we started training together to become Guardians which was way over three hundred years now. I knew he was dead - no one could survive a stab like that from the Master Bolt...it just makes you turn to dust when you get slashed or stabbed from it.

Annabeth knew what I was about to say - I saw it in her eyes. She placed a hand on my shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

I took a deep breath and started finishing my story. "Calliope and I got up and tried to defeat him but he just blasted us off the bridge with the Master Bolt and next thing I knew we're hurtling towards the earth, coming down like a freaking meteorite. That's how we ended up here."

I look upwards towards the black sky. The moon shone brightly and I knew anytime soon that Apollo would be driving his chariot across the sky, bringing the sun with him which symbolized the coming of day. I never really thought much of the daytime because I normally spend most of my time awake at night; maybe it was because I was born at night. According to my dad I was born on the longest of nights ever recorded in mortal history and the fact that I'm one of many to be born on that day. I knew he didn't like talking about that particular day because...it was the day that my mother died giving birth to me and Calliope.

"So the thief is still out there, with the Bolt and Helmet?" Annabeth asked. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know," I muttered, feeling my anger levels rise up as I remembered the last words Omega told me. "But one thing is for sure: when I do find him, I'm gonna make him wish that his mother had kept her legs closed and I'm gonna make him pay for killing Omega."

=========

Annabeth kept close by my side but making sure she kept her distance as well as we made our way back to the infirmary so I could check up on my sister. 

Before I even got close to the infirmary, a husky voice called out from behind: "Hey, Owl Head!"

We both turned around to see a tall brown haired girl stalk up to us. She was maybe six feet tall and she wore an XXXL orange Camp Half-Blood T-Shirt underneath her bronze armour. Behind her stood several other demigods the same height as her and all with the same sneering smile as the girl in front. Her eyes kind've reminded me of a wild boar because they were an ugly shade of brown and amber, sort of like mud overflowing with dirty water.

"I'm not in the mood Clarisse," Annabeth grumbled. "Leave me alone."

"Oh, sure," Clarisse smirked. "Go ahead to your cabin, so you can figure out how best to avoid getting skewered by my spear. Let's see you make a brilliant plan out of that."

"Errete es korakas," Annabeth snapped. I immediately caught the Greek in her accent, and I knew she said 'Go to the crows'. "You don't stand a chance against us in Capture the Flag on Friday evening."

"We'll see about that," Clarisse said, though she looked unsure about what to say next. Then she looked at me as if remembered I was there which to be fair was kind of insulting. "Who's the punk?"

It took all my willpower not to crash my fist into her skull. Punk...that was the nickname I got from Ares, whenever me and him talk to each other. A few years ago I came back from a quest in Rome and let's just say that Ares and I had not got on well afterwords because he said one too many things about me and my father.

"Percy this is Clarisse La Rue," Annabeth introduced us, sounding like she had better things to do. "Daughter of Ares, the God of War."

I groaned. "That explains it all - no wonder why she acted like that asshole."

Clarisse looked offended. "I don't know who you are, but I suggest that you take that back before I kick you where the sun don't shine."

"I won't be taking anything back girl," I told her, my voice laced with venom. "I meant what I said - now back off."

She turned a bright red. "We've got an initiation here at Camp for newbies punk. Come on, let me show you."

I turned around, looking at Annabeth. She was shaking her head and she mouthed something like: "Bad idea - don't follow her."

I knew what she meant - I had enough information to know that Clarisse and her siblings were bullies and if there was one thing that I hated more than anything it was bullies. I've dealt with a few in my time and I was not going to tolerate it. Without her noticing, I unhooked Riptide from my belt and held it in my right hand ready to activate it.

"What's wrong newbie?" Clarisse taunted. "Scared?"

That set me off. I turned in a circle so that I was facing the daughter of Ares and activated Riptide, which exploded into its shining blue aura silver blade. The hilt and blade hummed with live energy and my whole body was shrouded in the same aura as it has done for many yyears.

Clarisse's siblings backed away while Clarisse stood, shocked that I actually had a weapon. She must've thought that since I was new around here, I wouldn't have had a weapon in the first place. She was now starting to realise that I wasn't what she thought. She unsheathed her sword from her belt and held it in front of her.

Bad idea - I swept Riptide outwards and sliced through her sword like it was made of paper. The broken blade flew to one side and landed in the dirt. Clarisse was shocked and a little ticked off that her weapon had been broken. She unhooked another sword from her belt and charged at me. I went into action, deflecting her sword whenever she tried to bring it down in me. I proved to be too fast for her as I quickly took advantage of her tiredness. I swept her sword sideways and created a telekinetic blast that sent her backwards into a nearby building. She slammed into the side of the little building and fell face first into the snow.

Her siblings looked at me in fear and backed away when I walked forwards towards Clarisse, who struggled to get up. When I stopped in front of her, I knelt down and looked at her  directly in the eyes.

"Don't mess with me again," I snarled. "Otherwise it will be the last thing you ever do."

I walked back to Annabeth, who was looking at me in awe. Apparently, Clarisse doesn't get her ass whooped often. Her blonde hair blew in the wind, obscuring her face in some parts.

"Sorry about that," I said, straightening my cloak and throwing my hood over my head. "She was starting to get on my nerves." She was still looking at me and I could almost see the gears turning in her eyes, like she was thinking a million miles an hour. I frowned warily at her. "What's wrong?"

"I think," she said, "that I want you on my team in Capture the Flag."