All's Fair In Love And War

The Last Straw

"You found him, then?"

I nodded, sitting down at the table with the others who had taken part in the search. I'd gotten back to the house in the middle of breakfast, and now plates lay abandoned on the various tables around the room. The only person still eating was Castor, who had resolutely removed himself from any drama that had gone on so far.

"Where is he then?" Will frowned.

"Sleeping off a hangover at his mom's."

Nico snorted. "Classy. But he's okay?"

I sighed. "More or less. We think Zeus is going to try to kill him."

"What?" Piper exclaimed, slamming her hands on the table. "That absolute- utter-" Words seemed to fail her and she made a sharp noise of anger. Jason put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"I know. I'm so angry, angry beyond belief." I clenched my fists. "He doesn't deserve any of this."

"Maybe we could talk him out of it...?" Jason suggested, but he sounded nervous at the idea of even trying to speak to his father.

"Tell me the last time you remember a god going back on their vows of vengeance, I'm sure we'd all love to hear it." Gwen sneered. She seemed uncharacteristically angry today... Then again, so was I.

"There has to be something we can do." Rachel frowned. "Maybe a protest?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well... protesting is a big deal. You know, picketing, protest walks, that kind of stuff. I do it all the time in New York."

"How would we protest though?" Hazel asked. 

Rachel sat back, frowning. "You guys keep talking, I'll think of something."

"This is your fault." Nico turned on Jason without any trace of hesitation. Will rested a hand on his arm gently.

"My fault?"

"Yes, your fault! We were supposed to watch over him. Make sure he didn't get in trouble, or get hurt."

"Don't act like you didn't forget about him too."

"I didn't!" Nico stood sharply, almost knocking over his chair. He leaned over the table, glaring at Jason. "The rest of you started treating him like he was part of the wallpaper, but I made sure he still had someone to talk to! I checked up on him when he seemed upset about things! I tried to make his life, which is arguably worse than anything most of us have gone through, a little less tedious!"

Piper stood too, about to retort (probably with charmspeak), but Will was faster, grabbing Nico around the waist and pulling him away from the table gently but firmly. He began to speak quietly in the son of Hades' ear, his voice calm and soothing. Jason stood slowly, taking Piper's hand and watching the other two silently.

"I'm sorry for yelling." Nico finally said after several awkward minutes. "That's all I'm apologizing for though."

Jason nodded after a moment. "Fair... you were right, after all, I guess I can't be upset about it...."

Lou and I glanced at each other. The tension was so thick, we could probably slice it with the butter knives on the table.

"I've got it!" Rachel broke the silence.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"I know how we can protest." She grinned.

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"Good evening, deities of Olympus and all our other viewers! Tonight we have an interesting installment of Love and War, we are currently missing one of our contestants. No matter though, we're going to be having some of our contestants doing a trivia game. Rachel Dare and Connor Stoll, you two are first!" Venus gave the contestants a winning smile.

Rachel glanced at me and then shot Connor a look. We had spread her idea through the contestants, and I think even Annabeth was going along with it.

"Come on now you two, don't be shy."

Rachel and Connor slowly made their way down to the front. Venus gestured for the two of them to stand in front of her.

"Alright, our first category is Rattling Skulls band member trivia... when the band was first formed, how old was Jason Grace?"

Silence.

Venus sighed. "If you don't know, feel free to guess. Or use a lifeline, each of you has one, to ask someone else in the group.

More silence.

"Alright, we'll take that as a forfeit. Jason, would you like to answer the question?"

Venus turned to look at the seating area where the band was, and gasped in surprise. "What is the meaning of this?"

While the camera was panned away from them, the band members had taken colored squares of cloth about the size of a bandana and tied them around their heads to cover the lower halves of their faces. Each person had their own unique cloth, designed specially for them.

"I'm sorry, I'm not sure what's going on here."

"I can explain for you, Lady Venus."

She turned to look at me and saw that the contestants had covered their faces with bandanas as well, standing there silently with their hands intertwined.

"Until Lord Jupiter's Greek counterpart drops the charges against one Percy Jackson and swears on the Styx, as well as the Fates themselves-" Gasps from the crew and from Venus and Cupid, "We will not speak on camera. We will not interact with you or each other, more than what we are doing now."

"Miss Ramírez-Arellano, surely you can't think something this childish will work on someone as powerful as Zeus?" Venus asked, a hint of sarcasm tinting her voice.

"I guess it never hurts to try." I calmly lifted the dark purple cloth to my face, showing the bright wave decal that ran across the front as I tied it just under my ponytail. Stepping back into line, I took Rachel and Connor's hands and calmly stared down the goddess.