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Percy was having a good day. It'd been two weeks since the prophecy of the seven had ended. Gaea was defeated. Both camps were safe. Leo hadn't shown back up yet but they'd received his transcription that he was alive, so they were no longer grieving him. There had still been deaths, more heavily on the Roman side, and a selfish part of Percy was relieved that no-one he knew well or cared for had died. He'd seen his mom and Paul. He'd caught up with all his friends at Camp Half Blood. He was still having nightmares but they were manageable. And, maybe most important, Annabeth was safe. They'd even made plans to both finish their senior year in New York and then go to college in New Rome together.
So yeah, as Percy sat eating his breakfast in the dining pavilion, despite the fact he'd just woken up, he thought it was a good day. He was happy. He didn't mind that he was eating breakfast alone, Tyson having returned to Atlantis. The fact that Nico and Jason ate at their tables alone too gave him a sense of solidarity, and truth be told he was happy not having to converse with anyone. It was peaceful just eating his food and listening to the hustle and bustle of Camp Half Blood, the place and people he'd missed so much.
Even after two weeks, many campers, especially the senior campers he'd known for years, came by and said good morning or gave him a slap on the back - or in the case of Clarisse made a rude gesture, but he knew that was just her way of saying the same things everyone else was - that they'd missed him, that they were happy to have him back, that they were reassuring themselves he was still here.
He caught Annabeth's eye and she blew him a kiss. Grover passed and gave him a fist bump, walked away a few steps then rushed back and threw his arms around him, giving him a hug to rival Tyson's. A few campers chuckled at the Saytr's antics, Percy too, but he returned the hug just as fiercely. He'd really missed his best friend but he knew it'd been even harder on Grover. First Percy had disappeared for months and not even the empathy link had helped Grover find him, then Grover had learned he and Annabeth were in Tartarus... it'd been two weeks of this, but Percy would gladly have Grover hug him like this every morning for the rest of his life if it helped ease some of his friends hurt.
Grover left and Percy returned to his breakfast, once again thinking that yeah, it was good to be home and it was a good day and he was happy.
He was just thinking about asking Annabeth to go for a walk down to the beach after breakfast and maybe have a peaceful picnic for lunch when he happened to glance around the dining pavilion. Even though it'd been two weeks since he'd returned, things at camp had been hectic so this was the first time he'd really noticed it. At first, he wasn't even sure what it was, but he felt his features morph into a frown, felt the feeling that something wasn't right and his eyes swept over the area again. That's when he realised what was wrong; the Hermes table. He'd spent his first four years at camp seeing it overcrowded and bursting with unclaimed kids, versus only four months (not all of which he'd even been at camp) seeing it the same as the other tables. He was used to seeing so many campers squeezed onto one table so at first it hadn't really struck him as out of place, but it was. There weren't supposed to be so many kids there, they were supposed to be claimed and sitting at their own tables.
It hit him with the force of a charging minotaur - the gods had gone back on their promise, they'd stopped claiming their kids. And maybe it could be explained that with the whole Greek/Roman personality thing they'd been unable, that the war with Gaia had been too much of a priority, or whatever, but the war had been over for two weeks. The campers had managed to get sorted out and as back to normal as possible during that time, the gods, with all of their power, had no reason not to aswell.
Percy felt his anger whell up inside him as hot and dangerous as the lava he'd had to drink to survive in Tartarus. Two wars. They'd made their children fight in two wars now, in as many years and they couldn't even be bothered to claim their own kids. He was standing before he knew what he was doing.
All around him, eyes fell on him at the sudden movement but he didn't care, just let his feet lead him until he his shadow fell over the Hermes table. Silence fell over the pavilion.
"How long since they've stopped claiming their kids?" he demanded, looking at Connor and Travis.
The brothers exchanged an uneasy look before shifting their gazes back to him, but it was Annabeth who answered him, rising slowly from the Athena table.
"Since a few weeks after Hera took you," she said. "Not all of them stopped claiming their kids, but many did. We kept making offerings, tried to call them out on it, but Olympus was closed and they didn't seem to care. You were gone so they weren't worried about what we'd do about it."
His mind snapped back to Akhlys. He'd promised Annabeth he'd never again do what he'd done to her, and he wouldn't, his own regret would always ensure that, but he remembered that he had that power, he had the ability to fight a god, to defeat them. Was that why the Olympians had originally agreed to his demand to claim their kids? Had they known then that he had the power to harm them? Were they afraid of him? He didn't know, but he also didn't care. They'd made a promise and he was going to hold them to it.
He turned back to the new campers, forcing his expression to relax into his usual carefree grin so as not to scare them. He knew they'd all heard way too many stories about him from the other campers and already in the two weeks he'd been back their reactions to him had been either awe and worship or fear. He'd been making a good effort to get to know all the campers who'd arrived since he'd been gone, to give them a belated welcome, check in how they were getting on. He'd even resumed teaching sword fighting and pegasus riding. And for the most part, they'd relaxed around him, but they still looked at him with that mix of reverence and caution. It reminded him of the way he'd once looked at the gods... well okay, not him because he'd always been impertinent but the way he'd seen others look at the gods.
"I'm really sorry, guys," he began, "when you come to camp you're supposed to be claimed really quickly, and especially by the time you're thirteen. The thing is, the gods aren't the most reliable parents." He felt bad telling them this, especially the ones looking up at him with so much hope and trust, like they'd heard about all his feats and had utter faith in the fact he'd always protect them and this camp. But he knew that if he didn't tell them, they'd find out the hard way when the gods let them down. He'd rather it come from him. "Don't worry though, you're all going to get claimed really soon."
Some of them nodded or smiled at him in thanks, but most of them just kept staring at him in awe.
"Um, Percy... how?" Connor asked, but he ignored him, instead turning towards the one god present.
He looked at Mr. D, ignoring Chirons wary gaze from where he stood beside the god.
"Are any of them yours?" He asked. He hoped the answer was no. As much as he and the god had always bumped heads, since the battle of Manhattan they'd come to some level of mutual respect, not that either would ever admit it. He didn't want that to crumble if the god answered in the affirmative.
"No," Dionysus said, "I claim my children."
Percy nodded. Then, aware but uncaring of the stares of all the campers, he glared at the sky.
"You've made a vow on the river Styx," he said, not exactly shouting, but allowing a little of his anger to bleed into his words, "you swore to claim you're children. You have ten minutes."
Some of the newer campers gasped at that, and even the campers who knew him well, knew that one of Percy Jackson's biggest talents was disrespecting the gods, shifted uneasily. Who was he to give them such an order? To make this demand, without even an 'or else's? What would he do if they refused?
But before they could contimplate this for very long, their attention was drawn to the Hermes table.
Above one of the campers was a holographic dove. Cheers rang out as the Hermes table pushed the boy to his feet and in the direction of his new siblings but the Aphrodite kid had barely stood when a glowing scythe appeared above anothers head. One by one, many of the campers were claimed. By the time things calmed down, only four unclaimed kids remained.
Most of the campers cheered but that wasn't good enough for Percy. He looked at them closely, trying to figure out who their parents might be. For three, he couldn't tell but one was unmistakably an Ares kid.
"Ares," he shouted, "you have a choice. Claim your child. Or we can have a rematch."
Dead silence. The campers held their breath. A sign appeared above the child's head.
The Ares cabin cheered breaking the silence and as they warmly welcomed their new sibling with punches and death threats, he met Clarisse's gaze. Where once she would've sneered at him or fought him over his disrespect for her father, now she gave him a respectful nod, and even the hint of a grateful smile.
The energy around the camp was higher than it'd been in months. The campers stared at him with disbelief, with delight. There was a hint of fear there too, even in the older campers who knew him well (they couldn't help but think just what he was capable to make the gods so terrified of him) but only a hint, because they knew Percy was powerful, but more importantly they knew he was loyal, so it didn't really matter what he could do, they had an unshakable knowledge he'd always be on their side, so they didn't have to worry.
Still, there was three left. Percy started to walk away from the dining pavilion, only stopping when Jason asked where he was going.
"To Olympus," Percy answered, turning to glance back at the three remaining unclaimed kids. "You'll be claimed by tonight," he promised.
"We had to fight a war because of the gods lack of care for their kids, a war against our own. We fought for the gods because they were the lesser evil, but they didn't deserve it. Afterwards, we made them promise not to make the same mistakes again. They obviously don't care, but we will. We'll keep reminding them because we lost friends and loved ones during that war, and just because we've had a second one doesn't mean we'll forget the first, or those who fought in it. Every camper will still be claimed," he told the older campers.
No one tried to stop him when he left. Some of the campers glanced at Annabeth, wondering if she would go after him, she'd always been his voice of reason, after all. But Annabeth just smiled. She'd only ever stopped him so that he didn't end up smited. She didn't think she had to worry about that anymore.
The three kids were claimed that night. After that, new campers barely made it past the boundary line before they were were claimed.