1 Month Later

Percy and his friends lived a happy, peaceful life for a whole month. Some would say that wasn't very long, but for a demigod, it was paradise. No wars to fight and in the sevens' case, no wars to lead.

Everyone from both camps were content. Even though only a few Romans were allowed to visit at a time and vice versa, there hadn't been any fights between the Romans and Greeks which surprised many demigods.

The leaders of both camps had a strict but gentle rule that kept both camps in line. If a problem ever arose, it would be settled diplomatically and end of story. After constant fighting for many years, Percy wanted a break and would not settle for a fight breaking out. This was proven when the campers saw an angry Percy once, and they made a pact to never see it again. It resulted in pain and humiliation to the victims.

But, surprisingly to many demigods, when they looked at Percy, it was like the war didn't change him. He was always smiling and cared for the younger campers. Any camper could still see that spark in his eye and sometimes even a skip in his step. All a camper had to do was ask for help and he would drop whatever he was doing and be by their side in an instant.

Need a sword lesson? Percy was on his way. Jason needed help to settle a dispute on the Roman side? Percy was on his way. Need help with your archery lesson? Percy ... Well, they knew not to ask him for that unless they were trying to embarrass him (which happened quite a bunch to the amusement of the campers).

~~~

Percy was finally at peace. He watched his friends having a great time with their loved ones and other friends and knew it was the same with the Romans. Percy and Jason worked long and hard to keep the camps from fighting and they were finally able to relax and enjoy themselves.

As Percy stretched back into his lounge chair, he felt soft, warm hands cover his eyes when a fake, gruff voice said, "Can you guess who it is?" Percy pretended not to know who it was and felt the hands covering his eyes. He traced the memorized creases in her hands and said, "Hmmm, I'm not very wise like some people so I don't know if I can say for sure."

Annabeth laughed her sweet, hypnotizing laugh that would always and forever be his favorite sound. She uncovered his eyes and went around him to sit on his lap.

Leaning against his chest, Annabeth sighed and said, "It's nice to be able to sit and relax every once in awhile." Percy smiled up at her and simply replied, "Yes, yes it is." With that, they had a passionate kiss expressing their love without words.

The campers paused in their daily activities to watch the two lovebirds. They were happy that two of the hardest working people in their lives finally had the time to enjoy themselves and have a much needed rest, even though some of the younger campers were a little squeamish with the show of affection. Everybody owed them so much and could only express their gratitude by doing anything asked of them while wishing they could do more.

The rest of the day went by like the others in the past month with the sounds of training and the lava wall shooting out lava to try to stop the campers from reaching the top. The clang of swords connecting could be heard in the area with shouts and cheers from the campers. Soft beats of wings from the pegasus flying class was like soothing music to Percy's ears and was one of his favorite classes.

Even though it was a peaceful time. The campers had no delusion or was crazy enough to think the peace would last forever. So, while still enjoying their time, they trained long and hard to be the best that they could be. They would be prepared for future challenges and would protect their home with their lives. After seeing the camp attacked repeatedly and burned almost to the ground, the campers had a new sense of duty to protect their home. Also, they didn't like being the cleanup crew so they would do their best to prevent needing one.

Percy was also the biggest role model for all campers. Every once in awhile, his quests and adventures during the war were told at the campfire much to Percy's embarrassment. The younger campers would always exclaim that they were going to be as strong as Percy and save the camp. The more grown up campers thought (instead of exclaim) the same thing and worked twice as hard showing their dedication.

The two camps had never seen better days. With Greeks and Romans working together and teaching each other decades of knowledge, the two camps grew closer and became an unstoppable force. Monsters were being taken down with more ease than ever before and casualties dropped drastically. However, for reasons unknown, the monsters started to think before attacking so they wouldn't meet an instant demise. They could even be seen in groups. Even though they still had poor strategy skills, numbers could definitely make a difference.

The campers saw this new monster strategy as both beneficial and detrimental. Good because by taking down these bigger groups, it showed how powerful the campers had gotten working together as one unit. Not so good because the monsters were adapting and had now learned that to beat demigods, they had to plan ahead. However, it would still be a while for them to master this 'thinking before attacking' strategy since they hadn't done any of that in who knew how long.

After taking a walk on the beach, Annabeth and Percy headed off to their cabins to wish each other goodnight. Percy escorted her to her cabin and did a bow. "I shall take my leave, milady. Have a wonderful good night's sleep." Percy was just smiling like a goofball while Annabeth just shook her head.

She replied in a sweet, love-struck tone, "I shall my Perseus. Farewell and may you too have a wonderful night's sleep." Both of them chuckled before giving each other a kiss and going their separate ways. Right before Percy reached the door, he heard a scream outside the border.

He quickly sprinted up the hill to find a demigod running up the hill with two hellhounds chasing after him. The kid had black, baggy hair and had a body that didn't look like he did a lot of exercise which was probably why he was panting so hard. He looked about 15 or 16 and while looking frightened at the moment, Percy could see intelligence behind his eyes.

Percy quickly ran down the hill and stood between the hellhounds and the kid. They stared at each other for a little bit assessing each other. Percy was surprised to see a couple of scrapes on the hellhound which the dagger in the kid's hand must have done. He inwardly congratulated him and made sure to give him some props after they got back to camp.

After the hellhounds finally decided to make their first and last move, they charged foolhardy at one of the most powerful demigods the world had ever seen. The kid tried to help fight but was both times a little late only getting the golden dust splattered on him right after Percy went on to the next.

After a few quick stabs, slashes, and dodges, the battle was over. The kid was covered in dust while Percy just returned his sword to pen just as clean as when he started. Percy looked over the kid and was about to ask if he was okay when a few other campers with battle armor crested the hill and walked down to see them. The kid stood up straighter and looked himself over and apparently came up with a plan based on his smirk towards Percy.

When the campers reached them, the kid said, "You guys are a little late to the party just like this guy, I don't know what those dog things were but they know not to mess with me anymore." The campers gave him a once over and a glance at Percy's confused expression and they all knew the kid was lying.

Annabeth walked up to the kid and said, "Well let's take the hound slaying demigod to the big house to get you cleaned up and educate yourself on what those beasts are." For a second, Percy thought Annabeth believed him but as she was leading the kid away, she sent a wink Percy's way which made him sigh in relief. He didn't know why he even doubted her.

A couple of campers asked what really happened and he just replied that it was a couple of hellhounds and nothing to worry about. Okay with the simple explanation, each headed off back to their cabins or border patrol the same as ever. Not knowing how much their views would change over time.

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Camp life went on like nothing happened. The kid, named Nathan, turned out to be a son of Morpheus which explained his physique and was introduced to his other, tired cabin mates. He seemed to fit in with all the others but he spent most of his time doing physical activities unlike his cabin mates who slept more than worked.

Campers would sometimes find him meditating in a quiet place or in his cabin (which the only noise in there would be the occasional snore). People just went along with his meditation instead of actually sleeping like a son of Morpheus and guessed meditation was, in a way, sleeping if the campers didn't think about it too hard.

However, Nathan was doing far more than meditating. After figuring out he was a child of Morpheus, he worked on his demigod abilities. He didn't have any physical fighting powers like some of the Olympians so he had to work really hard to get himself noticed. His favorite and most practiced power was the ability to enter someone's dreams and add/manipulate any dream they had. He wasn't able to change the person's feelings but the added events he put into their heads could.

What many people overlook is that the mind was the most important part of who someone was. While it wasn't obvious on the outside with muscle and beauty in the way, the mind decided how to use what everyone saw. Nathan could argue all day that his ability was one of the most powerful should he be given time. Of course, he would lose in a physical fight with just about any camper. Though if he could manipulate someone's mind before it got physical, then he would be guaranteed the win.

He started practicing on his fellow cabin mates since they were always sleeping, and after a few months of practice, he was able to add events such as someone stealing their pillow while Nathan was the actual thief.

He was quite proud of his power but knew he needed to keep it a secret for what he planned to do. He knew that the campers didn't believe him when he claimed to kill the hellhounds. He saw how the campers always looked to Percy with awe and respect that he craved. They were following him like a love-struck fool, well, the Aphrodite campers really were love-struck fools.

He tried to learn the fighting skills other demigods learned to get some attention but his body was not built for that type of training. He had to resort to his wits and demigod abilities if he wanted fame. And, he knew, that the first thing he needed to get rid of was the sole focus of attention, Percy Jackson.

He started out adding dreams into his cabin mates' minds about Percy messing with them and even destroying their favorite pillows, which was a huge deal to his cabin mates. At first, they were just a little annoyed that Percy would do something like that but grew to disgust when their pillows were destroyed.

Accomplished with his own cabin, he started to manipulate the other campers. He started with the minor god cabins and one by one they all started to hate Percy. Most stayed away from him and shunned him so nobody really noticed the amount of hate growing for Percy.

After successfully manipulating half the camp, he started to move into the big leagues, Percy's friends. Not his best friends for they were going to be the hardest and final blow to Percy. Well, actually the gods would take the most time but he had already been influencing them when they came to camp.

See, ever since the end of the war, the gods decided they should spend more time with their children. Not really interfering with their lives which would be against their laws, but just talking to them and making sure their children knew they loved them so another war didn't break out with their own children against them.

Nathan started with Ares since he just had respect for Percy but didn't necessarily like him. It took about 3 days of adding bits and pieces of thoughts in his head for him to put a full idea of Percy messing up his favorite bike.

Right before Ares went to yell at Percy, Percy started to notice how the camp didn't really ask for help anymore or even talk to him for the matter. Every time Percy went up to the campers, they would give him a glare and have one word answers until Percy left confused. When Ares did come to yell at Percy for messing with his bike, Ares got even angrier with Percy saying he didn't do it when Ares clearly saw him doing it.

Percy grew more and more confused and a little worried at what was happening to the camp. He didn't want to involve his friends as to not add worry into their lives so he looked more into it without involving them. He found that pretty much every minor god child openly hated him which left Percy wondering what he unknowingly did to deserve their hate. He couldn't think of one idea even after reviewing his past few weeks at camp.

Nathan was on a role. After convincing Ares, he decided to work on his children since they were all hot headed just like their father. One by one, he manipulated all the Ares kids except for Clarisse because she would know for sure that Percy wouldn't do something to make her hate him. At first, Nathan saw Clarisse constantly picking on Percy and thought about how easy it would be to manipulate her. However, when he looked more into it, he saw how it was just friendly banter and saw in their eyes the trust they put into each other. He then decided not to mess with her until everybody else hated him. He then manipulated the other gods and their children until pretty much everyone but Percy's close friends hated him.

Percy didn't know what was happening. Almost all the campers started yelling at him telling him to 'back off' or 'how could he do this to them?' He was even more surprised when god after god came down to yell at him too. Apparently, Percy lost Katie when he flooded her garden and killed all her plants when some were a gift from her mother. He lost the Stolls when he prevented one of their best pranks from happening and saying it was a stupid prank to begin with. Especially when they planned it for months and even got help from their dad.

Just like that, he lost all his friends. Soon, Annabeth and the friends he had left started to notice something was wrong with Percy when they started to see him sulk and lose some of the spark in his eyes he used to have. But, Percy being Percy, said he was fine and kept pushing forward.

Soon, Nathan was able to start picking off his close friends which he knew would devastate Percy. After 5 months of hard work, Nathan was able to accomplish changing everybody close to him except Hestia and Hades (who never really visited camp), Poseidon (who he was saving for the second to last blow), Annabeth, Grover, Nico (who was never at camp just like his father),, and Thaila (who was too busy recruiting to build up the Hunters former ranks). Chiron was off helping the Romans so he couldn't help defend Percy, and Nathan doubted he could manipulate Percy's half-brother since he was an oaf and always at the forge.

Percy was an emotional wreck. He couldn't comprehend why the campers claimed they saw him do these things but Percy couldn't think straight with all his emotions getting in the way. The more aggressive campers would sometimes corner him and beat him up. Of course, he wouldn't fight back because he knew he would hurt them and just accepted the punishment that he apparently deserved, but for the life of him he couldn't understand. He gained a good amount of scars from their small little torture sessions that just added to the already startling amount he had hidden under his clothes from Tartarus.

Percy lost Grover when he apparently burned Juniper's tree and almost killed her. It was only made even more painful when at night he felt his empathy link slowly dull and painfully break. He cried well into the night before falling into a restless sleep.

All Percy had left was his father and girlfriend. He did his best to hold on but Percy's luck was never good. Thus, during one of the campfires, he lost another.

Percy was sulking in front of the campfire where he could feel the glares of all the campers. The only comfort he had was a confused Annabeth's arm around him. She didn't know why all the campers all of the sudden hated Percy and she glared back at them.

All of the sudden, Poseidon flashed in looking like all the other gods before him, furious. "Percy! Why would you do this!?!" Percy looked at his father in fear of knowing what was about to come. Again, he apparently did something and every god turned on him. Percy knew he wouldn't be able to cope with losing his father too.

Percy said full of tears while Annabeth looked on the verge too with confusion as to what was happening to her boyfriend, "Father, you have to believe me! I didn't do anything." Poseidon looked at the campers around him and say many scoffs and eye rolls at Percy's plead which only enraged Poseidon further that his son ... no ... his former son would lie to him.

Poseidon's face became stoic as he stared at the boy's tear streaked face and said, "I, Poseidon, god of sea, earthquakes, and horses, renounce you as my son." Poseidon would have taken all his ties away from this boy but that was impossible so he would just have to make due with making him officially an orphan.

Nathan was smart enough to manipulate Percy's mother and stepfather too so now they didn't want Percy anywhere near their newborn baby, and they wanted their baby to be kept away from the mythological world.

Percy stared at his father in shock with more tears streaming down his face until Poseidon flashed out. Many mutters were heard around the campfire such as 'he deserved it, serves him right, finally,' and other such phrases.

Percy stormed out of the campfire towards his cabin trying not to completely burst with Annabeth following right behind him. When she was about to enter Percy's cabin, she was shutout when he went into his former fathers cabin. She could hear him crying and tried to get in but Percy never responded, too depressed to do anything.

She sighed confused as to why this was happening. She decided that a good night's sleep would help her focus so she went back to her cabin. Most campers already were in bed after the little show and Annabeth was given some halfhearted glares for still supporting Percy.

She heard that Percy did a whole bunch of cruel things to them but she just couldn't see Percy doing any of those things. He was the kindest person she had ever met and didn't have a single ounce of cruelty in him. She fell asleep still as confused as ever until she 'remembered' Percy talking to a camper from the first war and laughing about Luke's death saying he was worthless.

The camper remarked saying, "How could you say that. What about Annabeth? She would be crushed if she heard you say that!" Percy just openly laughed and said, "So what? I'm just her boyfriend to be able to say I'm Olympus' architect's husband. Who wouldn't want to be her husband?" The girl stared at Percy in shock and said, "What do you mean, husband?"

Percy smirked and said, "I plan to ask her to marry me in a little bit so she will be stuck with me. I'll pretend to love her and we can be the most famous couple in the history of Greek mythology. Of course, why stay faithful with someone you don't love. I already have a real girlfriend so I can publicly have a famous girlfriend and secretly have a loving girlfriend." The last thing she remembered was the girl slapping Percy before she left.

She remembered running back to her cabin balling her eyes out when she ran into Nathan. He comforted her by saying he heard what Percy said and he would never cheat on someone as smart and beautiful as her. She remembered clinging to him as a lifeline and him giving her a shoulder to cry on.

She remembered thinking how caring he was unlike Percy. She didn't know what overcame herself but she kissed him. She thought he would reject her but was surprised when he tilted her chin up and smashed his lips onto hers. She remembered thinking this was the best kiss she had ever had and only wanted to be wrapped up in his arms which he gladly accepted her wish.

Her eyes snapped open. She couldn't believe it. She wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. She woke up crying and her cabin mates comforted her when they heard what Percy said. She could now see why the campers hated that lying, cheating bastard. But she knew one thing, he would regret cheating on her.

~~~

The next day, Percy woke up and decided he was going to propose to Annabeth so he wouldn't lose the last thing he loved in life. He got dressed in his best camp half-blood shirt (since he didn't have a suit) and walked out confident that she would say yes and his life would be okay. As long as he had her, he could deal with everybody else hating him. He thought about if she denied and he had nothing left ... no, he couldn't think like that.

He walked around camp trying to find Annabeth but not willing to ask the hateful campers in fear of more rejection. He heard cheering off in the distance and his curiosity won out. He strolled over to see what was getting everybody all riled up since he was still the leader of camp, albeit, a hated one.

What he saw made what was left of his heart shatter. Annabeth and Nathan were in the middle of the crowd kissing each other fervently. Percy could only stare and watch in confusion. Just last night Annabeth was comforting Percy saying she would always love him even if everyone else hated him.

He pulled out a box and opened it up. Inside was a ring fit for the gods, well, a god did help make it. It was a golden band with intricate swirl indentions engraved on it. Pure silver was poured into the swirls and added an unearthly glow to it that would have attracted any eye. Two bright, sea green stones that matched his eyes were on each side of a slightly bigger, greyish silver gem with an owl sketched inside. The sea green stones used to swirl with pure love for the wearer but now were only a dark sea green that resembled sick waters and no longer matched the ring. It had an inscription saying My Wise Girl in a very beautiful script.

He dropped the box with the ring inside before walking away without anybody noticing. He slowly made his way to his cabin and looked inside of his home thinking back to the times when everything was perfect.

All Percy could think before he burst into tears was, "What happened?"

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