Pjo Connor Stoll - Tumblr Posts

Whumptober Day 3: Set up for Failure

Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Warnings: Multiple character deaths, violence, and strong language.

Summary: What if after The Battle of Manhatten, the Gods decided that the half-bloods were too dangerous to be left alive? Even after winning the war, they could fail to keep their lives.

    No one tells what you are supposed to do after you win a war, especially when you have been preparing for it your whole teenage life. Percy stared at the water. The battle had been over for two days now. Everything was settling down.

    It was noon by the time anyone realized something was wrong. Dionysus was pacing on the deck of the big house. It wasn't uncommon to see him distressed since Caster died. The god had taken it harder than expected. He seemed to be arguing with someone that was just out of sight.

    Annabeth walked down to the beach to meet Percy. They sat together and watched the waves get higher and higher. "Is that normal?"

    "Not really." Percy said uneasy. "Maybe Dad's upset about something?" Lightning flashed in the sky. "That's familiar."

    Looking at each other, Annabeth and Percy felt the need to go back into camp. They stood and ran back as the waves started to rise higher.

    Inside camp, things were a mess. Not that they hadn't been anyway. There were people grieving and weapons that needed to be put away. Funerals were still being planned for some and for others, send offs with no body.

    The sky darkened. Travis walked by Annabeth and Percy. "Did Mr. D give up on the weather or something?"

    "Something's wrong." Annabeth said matter of factly. The two stopped walking as the grass around the Demeter cabin started to rapidly grow.

    "You can't do this!" Dionysus yelled. His voice was loud but still far away. "It's not fair to the kids! They fought our war, leave them alone! You can't just break your own rules!" Anger seemed to motivate the tone of his voice as well as heartbreak.

    Looking at the big house, Travis, Annabeth, and Percy froze. "What the hell?" Travis whispered.

    Grape vines grew on the deck of the big house. Chiron left from the front door and started to make his way to the Demeter cabin. At the same time, the door was being overgrown with plants. Connor had been nearby and ran to the cabin. "What's happening?"

    "I don't know! I can't stop them!" Katie yelled back. "Get to the window!"

    The two cabin leads went to a back window where they started to evacuate the building. Chiron said something to them when he got to them. Tears fell down Katie's face and Connor looked betrayed. "Come on!" He yelled to Katie as she got the last kid out of her cabin.

    "We need to help them!" Percy started to run to the cabin. As the three half-bloods ran, the cabin started to crack.

    "Take my hand!" And Katie tried. Vines grew around her ankles and legs. She screamed as they overtook her body. As the cabin was completely taken over by sharp vines, Conner tried one last time to reach her. His hand touched her arm before he fell back into the ground.

    It took a moment for Connor to process what happened. Chiron dragged him away from the cabin as he tried to go back to Katie. The boy looked down to see a large amount of blood in the grass. Looking for the cause, Connor realized his hand was tangled in the weeds. "My hand." He said breathless.

    "Connor!" Travis screamed. "Where the fuck is your hand!?"

    Slowly Conner looked down and realized his right hand had been cut off by the overgrown vines. Trying to process everything that happened, he just stared blankly where he hand should have been. Quickly Chiron pulled off his jacket and tore off a sleeve. After that he handed the torn sleeve to Percy and gave the jacket to Connor. "Tie that around his arm as tightly as you can." He told Percy. "Travis, get your brother to the hospital."

    "Why not the infirmary?"

    "Camp is no longer safe for you. The Gods," the Centaur looked pained as he spoke. "The gods believe the demigods are too dangerous to be left alive after the war. They believe that you might try to rise against them."

    The teens looked at each other. "You mean to tell me that we won their war for them and now they want to kill us!?" Percy yelled.

    "Oh so they can kill us but not help us?!" Annabeth shouted. She felt betrayed. After so long of trying to defend the gods, they decided to stab the demigods in the back.

    Trying to move the demigods away from the Demeter cabin, Chiron continued. "It's unfair, yes, but nothing can be done about it right now. They kept Dionysus and I away from the conversation or we would have fought for you."

    The ground shifted as Percy fished tying Chiron's shirt sleeve to Connor's arm to make a tourniquet. Connor hadn't stopped watching the Demeter cabin. Quick and thick vines snapped to the top of the wooden cabin. It snapped under the pressure, sending pieces of wood flying through the air. The remains started to be pulled under the ground.

    "No no." Connor whispered. "No, Katie!" Struggling to get to his feet, the boy tried to go to his friend's cabin. Percy grabbed him and pulled him into a trap hug. "Katie!" The demigod yelled, his voice breaking. "Katie!" Pulling him to the ground, Percy tried to calm him down. "We are supposed to go to college after this! Percy let me go, I need to help her!"

    "She's gone buddy." Travis fell to his knees, trying to comfort his brother. "We need to get out of here. Someone has to take care of you."

    "Please no." Connor sobbed. "She was the only one left. We were supposed to go to college. We were-." The boy could no longer talk. Instead he fell into his brother, sobbing uncontrollably.

    "Annabeth, go grab some wood. We need to make the tourniquet tighter." Chiron helped Connor off the ground as the girl found a piece of the Demeter cabin to tighten the tourniquet with.

    "Here." Travis took the wood from Annabeth and then grabbed his brother.

    "Come on. I'll get you out of here." Travis took Connor into his arms. "Percy, take care of our cabin please. I'll try to get him somewhere safe and come back to help."

    That was the first time the group decided to look around. The stray pieces of cabin and stuck campers. Many of them were Demeter's own children and most of them had been killed. Annabeth tried not to cry. After so long, you would think the demigods would just be used to this.

    "What are we going to do?" Percy turned to Chiron. Annabeth ran over to one of the surviving Demeter kids and helped her.

    "Evacuate camp."

    "But then we have to fight gods and monsters!" The son of Poseidon argued.

    "Not all the gods believe you should die. They will protect you. Lady Artemis has offered the assistance of her Huntresses and you have the fun support of Dionysus."

    "Great." Sighing, Percy looked around. "We should split up." Chiron nodded then went to meet Annabeth.

    On the deck of the big house, Dionysus looked over camp. The yelling had subsided. A crack of lightning  pushed the god up against the railing. He fell to his knees as he was struck by the unkind hand of his father, Zeus.

    Anger filled Percy but he knew he couldn't do anything for him. He watched as Dionysus tried to get up but was met with another strike of lightning. Then the God didn't move. The quick thought of Mr. D being killed crossed Percy's mind but gods can't be killed.

    Clarisse sent her cabin member out of the cabin. One of them approached Percy and asked where any of the Apollo kids were. "I'm not sure. We need to find them."

    As if the gods had heard them, the Apollo cabin caught fire. There was screaming from the cabin but it didn't last long. One after another, the Ares and Hephaestus cabins also caught fire. The fire in the Ares cabin spread the slowest while the other two cabins were engulfed in seconds.

    Young Will Solace came running from the infirmary to see his cabin in flames. "No!" He screamed out in terror. Like his older brothers would have, he ran towards his cabin. Grover, who had just come from the infirmary for a nail in his hoof, caught Will before he could get too close. "Austin and Kayla are still inside! They went to get some blankets!"

    Grover pulled him into his arms and away from the building. "It's okay. It will be okay."

    In the Ares cabin, Clarisse tried to get her brother away from the wall as the fire spread. He had been leaning against the wall when he was implied by debris from the Demeter cabin. It had come through the wooden walls of the cabin and pinned him to the wall.

    "I'll get you out of here." Clarisse started to cough as smoke filled her lungs. The fire crept closer and closer to them.

    "It's okay. You should go." The teen struggled to talk.

    "No. I'm not just going to leave you here to die." The cabin leader's voice shook.

    "If you can't get me out safely, just pull me off the wall."

    "That's crazy. It'll kill you!"

    "So will the fire."

    Taking a second to make her decision, Clarisse sighed. "Alright, let's do this."

    Outside of the cabin, Percy helped any injured Hephaestus kids. "We need to get the infirmary evacuated!"

    As Annabeth and Percy ran to the building, there was an explosion inside it. The blast knocked the two back. They could hear Will's distress. People had left their cabin by now to see what was going on. Helping each other up, the demigods looked at each other for a moment.

    "Is this really happening?" Annabeth said with tears in her eyes. Had they been set up for failure by their parents.

    "Maybe Luke had a point." Annabeth didn't seem very amused by Percy's comment. Looking at the fire, Percy dragged them away from the infirmary.

    Grover tried to keep from crying. Will didn't need that. As soon as the boy had seen the fire that engulfed the infirmary, his knees gave. The satyr lowered him to the ground as the boy screamed.

    "Nice of you to join." Percy said sarcasticly as Thaila came out of the woods.

    "What the hell happened?" The huntress started to run with them.

    "The gods never intended for us to survive past the war!" Percy yelled. "If we lost, we died and if we won, we died."

    "I'll get the girls to help." Thaila said.

    "Thank you." Annabeth started. "Percy, where are we going?"

    "Chiron said Mr. D was on our side. Thaila, your dad just did a number on him. We need to see if he could help or if his still laid out in the deck."

    "Alright."

    "I think Percy and I handle that. Thaila, can you go help them." Desperation filled Annabeth's voice. Camp had been her home and she had trusted the gods.

    "Okay." Thaila ran off as the Athena and Hermes cabins started to be overwhelmed by vines. The Poseidon cabin was stuck by lightning, setting it on fire.

    "That was personal." Percy joked.

    "Come on, let's go."

    The fires started to spread to the ground and the woods. Clarisse and another Ares kid came out of their cabin. Blood poured to the ground. The cabin leaders got her brother to the ground. "I need a medic!" She yelled. Then she looked around. Almost every cabin was on fire. The infirmary had gone up in flames and so did her hope of saving her bother. "Damn it!"

    Looking back, Percy tried to distance himself from the situation. Most people had left their cabin when the buildings started to catch fire. As the Aphrodite cabin caught fire, the last person who needed.to leave the cabin came out with blankets and some kind of medicine. It was like someone had been protecting him from the fire.

    Camp half-blood was in chaos. Kids were running everywhere, just trying to survive. Percy looked back at the deck of the big house. Mr. D was nowhere to be seen. The thought that he had left them invaded his mind.

    "Pollux!" A pained voice yelled out.  

    Percy looked to see Dionysus leaning against a tree. It looked like he had been crying. The demigod knew the god had a responsibility to his own child first and he had to respect that. "Come on, we gotta help everyone else."

    "Pollux, come here!" Dionysus screamed, just hoping he would be heard. In the midst of all the chaos, he reached out for his child. The teen raised his head when he heard his name.

    "Dad!" He yelled out. Then he stopped running and looked for his father. When he found him, he sprinted to him. Wrapping his arms around him, Dionysus grabbed his son. The two looked at camp as tears fell down Pollux's face. Not letting him go the god pulled his son away from the battle, letting him bury his face in his shoulder.

    No one could blame them. After all, they were all tired of fighting.

    "Dave." Clarisse spoke. "Just hang on."

    "It's getting cold. Clarisse, you can let me die. I'm tired it's okay."

    Tears attacked her eyes. "Dave."

    Reaching his up to her face, he sighed. "You did everything you could." His breathing started to slow. It wasn't long before he was gone.

    Standing, Clarisse joined Percy and Annabeth. "Are you okay?" Percy said, concerned.

    "Fine." She spoke harshly. Annabeth stopped running and Percy and Clarisse stopped. They scanned camp. "Is everyone out?"

    "Maybe. Camp just got way too quiet that fast." Percy was talking quickly.

Travis startled them when he walked up to them. "I'm back. I got two of my brothers to help Connor." Thaila joined them as well.

"The girls are ready to help if need be. Lady Artemis says she'll take anyone she can."

"Okay. We need to get out of here." Clarisse to few steps forwards. She turned to face the others. Grabbing Annabeth's hand, she pulled the two being a tree and to the ground. "Get down!" The others ducked as lightning went over their heads.

"Oh come on!" Percy yelled.

"Let me talk to him." Thaila tried. "You need to get out of here."

"I'm not doing that again." Annabeth said. "I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself again."

Sighing, Thaila pushed her sister into Percy's arms. "I'll distract him."

"No, we stand together." Clarisse grabbed her sword.

Pushing the sword down, Percy sighed. "How about we run together instead? That works too."

"Fine."

"This way." Annabeth took Percy's hand and guided them out of camp. After all, she knew the camp the best of all of them. The group grabbed Grover and Will, who had hidden in the woods near Thalia's tree.

"Where do we go?" Clarisse asked.

"My home. We can figure it out from there. I'm sure Mom won't mind that much." He looked back at camp. The boy saved the Gods for their children and this is what they get? The first real safe place Percy had, gone. Most of the people he cares about are gone. Percy sighed and started to lead the way to his home.

Part 2: soon