Percy studied the man lying on the couch inside the Big House. He had seen a lot of weird things since learning he was a demigod, monsters, Titans, Furies disguised as math teachers, and even a god turning into a dolphin during a particularly heated game of pinochle. That was a weird day, to be honest. Compared to all that, a guy flying out of the Labyrinth and carving a fifty-yard trench through the woods shouldn't have been at the top of the list, yet it was somehow.
There was something profoundly "wrong" about the stranger's presence. Percy leaned against the wall, staring at the unconscious man. For some reason, he felt an odd, twitchy urge to punch the guy right in the jaw.
It was a strange, buzzing instinct. He'd never met the man, but his gut kept whispering: Hit him. Hit him now while he's down. Percy frowned, rubbing his knuckles.
"Yeah… that's not suspicious at all," Percy muttered. Something was definitely not right with this person.
Things at Camp Half-Blood had been tense for a while. With the confirmation that Kronos was back and inhabiting Luke's body, the literal death of the god Pan, and Percy's sixteenth birthday, and the Great Prophecy, inching closer every second, everyone was on edge.
Now, a mysterious adult exploding out of the Labyrinth was the last thing they needed. It felt like another omen.
Percy glanced at Chiron. The centaur's face was a mask of deep-seated concern. He had already admitted he didn't recognize the man, which was bad news. Chiron knew almost every demigod to ever set foot in Camp half blood, so that meant that this man had never been in Camp.
Grover, meanwhile, was sniffing the air near the couch, looking confused and slightly ill. He'd whispered that the man "smelt" like a demigod, but the scent was… heavy. It was weird, different from other smells.
It definitely had that demigod smell, but also not, it was confusing to the satyr.
"I say we tie him up. He could be one of Luke's recruits," Clarisse growled, her hand white-knuckled around the shaft of her spear.
"I agree with her," Annabeth said, her grey eyes narrowed at the man. "We don't know who he is or why he came out of the Labyrinth. If he's working with the Titans, it would be better to restrain him."
"If he's with Luke, shouldn't we have someone watch him?" Travis Stoll suggested.
"Yeah," Katie Gardner added. "It would be stupid to leave him here like this. Who knows when he'll wake up?"
Just as the debate peaked, Percy saw the man shift. His body instantly tensed, his hand dropping toward Riptide in his pocket. "He's waking up."
Inside his mind, Harry felt like he was floating in a dark sea. He was aware of the voices, muffled. He somehow knew he wasnt awake, but his consciousness was slowly returning back to him.
The memory of what happened was coming back, too, the crimson eye and the pain, everything. He could still feel the oily, necrotic cold of the Outer God's touch.
He slowly opened his eyes, staring at a ceiling that definitely wasn't his bedroom or a palace in Westeros. He tried to sit up, but a bolt of agony shot through his entire frame.
"Arg!" he groaned, slamming back down onto the cushions as his vision swirled.
A blond boy approached cautiously with a cup of nectar. "Here, drink this. It should help with the injuries."
Harry took a few sips, feeling the warmth of the nectar begin to knit his broken ribs together. But it still wasn't enough. Before the boy could react, Harry's hand shot up with speed, snatching the cup and draining it in a single gulp.
"Wait! Not that much—!" the boy shouted, horrified that the man's body might explode from the "overdose," but he just ignored them. The nectar helped, but it still wasn't enough to purge the "cold" the Outer God had left behind in his body. The pain lessened, sure, but it hadn't gone.
Wincing, Harry sat up and reached into the empty air. With a flick of his wrist, a glass bottle filled with a swirling, Golden liquid appeared in his hand out of thin air. The campers in the room scrambled back, weapons clearing scabbards, but Harry ignored them. He uncorked the bottle and drank deeply.
The "Cure-All," he'd spent years saving up was being drained down just like that, do you know how long he had spend uring sunlight into this, nearly every single day since he got that authority, he always made sure he had it just incase the time ever came that he needed super healing and it seems that day was today, as he gulped down the potion harry couldnt help but feel a little annoyed that he was using it, sure that was the purpose but he always though that when he used it it would be going into a fight fully knowing he was going to need it, not a surprised ambush by chutulu's unlce.
As the liquid hit his system, the pain vanished, replaced by a dull, manageable ache. He sighed, looking at the nearly empty bottle with a small growl of annoyance.
He sent the bottle back to his personal space and finally looked at the people in the room.
He didn't even need to really try hard to know where he was at the moment, as His eyes trailed over the bright orange shirts. Camp Half-Blood. "Hello," he said, flashing a small, tired smile.
"Who are you?" Annabeth, he assumed, stepped forward, her hand on her knife. She looked exactly like the descriptions in the book, blonde hair, startling grey eyes, and a look that suggested she was currently calculating ten different ways to kill him.
"Are you with Luke?" Percy, and he was sure it was Percy, asked, his sea-green eyes narrowing.
Harry didn't answer immediately. He was busy matching faces to his knowledge of this world. Annabeth, Percy, the boys who somewhat look alike but not twins, the Stolls, Clarisse, the angry looking girl.
He turned his gaze toward the doorway as the rhythmic clop-clop of hooves echoed on the wood. Chiron stepped forward, his horse-half dwarfing the teenagers, his bow slung over his shoulder.
"What are you?" the centaur asked, his voice gravelly with caution.
"Oh, I don't understand what you mean," Harry replied smoothly.
"He's lying!" the Stoll twins called out in unison, their voices perfectly synced. Harry smirked. You'd expected the children of Apollo to be the ones to call you out on your lie, not the sons of the God of Thieves.
"You are not a demigod," Chiron continued, his eyes narrowing. "You are no mortal either. And you are certainly no god I have seen. So who are you?"
"Oh? And you've met all the gods out there?" Harry emphasized the words 'out there,' tilting his head with a mocking curiosity.
Chiron's expression shifted. He understood the implication immediately. Harry was implying he was an outsider, someone from another pantheon.
"If that is true," Chiron said, his hand twitching toward his arrow quiver, "then your presence here is against the laws. You should not be here."
Harry stood up, stretching his limbs. His clothes were torn and stained with blood, but his presence was beginning to fill the room, making the air feel thick and electric. "You're right. But honestly, it wasn't my choice. I appreciate the hospitality, but I've got to go."
Harry needed to get back to his world before the time dilation caused decades to pass in his absence. He focused on his power, preparing to rip a hole back to the pathway. But as he reached for the fabric of reality, he felt a cold shiver down his spine.
He felt a presence on the other side.
Ever stand at a door and know someone is on the other side just waiting for you? That's what it felt like at the moment.
The Outer God was still there, lurking in the void between worlds, waiting for him to reappear so it could finish the job.
'Son of a…' Harry thought bitterly. The bastard was camping his exit.
He let the power fade and turned back to the demigods with a much friendlier, much more forced smile. "You know what? I think I'm still not feeling all right. You guys don't mind hosting a guest for a while, do you? I'm great at campfire stories."
Annabeth's suspicion reached a boiling point. She didn't know what he and Chiron were talking about, but every instinct told her this man was suspicious. Before she could speak, Harry's head snapped to the side. A black dagger appeared in his hand instantly.
Annabeth was about to jump into action, ready to fight, when the room was suddenly flooded with golden, purple-tinted light. The air grew thick with the smell of sour grapes and expensive wine.
Dionysus stood in the doorway. But he didn't look like the bored, grumpy camp director. They all knew. He looked serious. Terrifyingly serious. Golden divine power rolled off him in visible waves, and the faint, low growl of leopards echoed through the room.
"Who are you?" the god growled, his voice vibrating with the power of the vine.
Harry didn't look intimidated. If anything, he looked slightly crazed, his eyes glowing a vibrant, emerald green that matched the intensity of the wine-god's purple.
"Answer me, boy, before I make you regret ever setting foot in my domain," Dionysus threatened, his fingers twitching as if ready to turn Harry into a grape arbor.
"Oh, I dare you to try, godly," Harry shot back, the word dripping with condescension.
The air shifted. The pressure in the room tripled. Annabeth watched in shock as Harry's black hair whipped around him in a non-existent wind. For a split second with her ADHD brain, she saw a similarity between the stranger and Percy, the same reckless defiance, the same green eyes, and the same suicidal stupidity of challenging a god to his face.
Percy, being Percy, decided to jump into the middle of the two clearly gods. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let's just calm down, okay? No need to turn anyone into a shrubbery! Mr. D, he's just..."
"Peter," Dionysus said coldly, not taking his eyes off Harry. "Move aside so I may remove this abomination from my camp."
"Come on, Mr. D," Percy pleaded, his hands out. "We don't even know who he is!"
"Exactly. I can feel it in my ichor. Whatever this THING is, it is an affront to the natural order. It should not be allowed to breathe our air."
"Then give it your best shot," Harry said, his voice dropping to a cold, emotionless chill. "But whatever happens next is on your head. So try it."
Dionysus waved a hand, and a blast of purple energy sent Percy flying across the room. The other campers were shoved back, too. As Dionysus stepped closer, Harry braced himself, his own aura beginning to flare with power.
'Guess I get to kill another god today,' Harry thought, a certain feeling of excitement rushing through him. Oh, it's been months since his last god battle.
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