Percy kept his head in his arms, listening as the rest of Camp Half-Blood swarmed around his table. He could hear each line of campers from each cabin take their seats, sort out the individual voices that were familiar to him and the few that weren't, hear the conversations that they spoke, whether they were carefree or about the subject that was on everyone's minds.

He didn't know what to feel about Chiron getting fired. He didn't know what to feel about Tyson being here with him. He didn't know what to feel about Annabeth swearing on the River Styx for his safety, or the possibility that Luke was the one who had poisoned Thalia's tree, all under Kronos's command. All Percy knew that whoever this new camp director was, taking Chiron's place, he already didn't like him.

"Who invited that?" Percy's head jerked up at the words, and he stared, the question having come from one of the kids at the Apollo table. Tyson stood by Percy's eyes, knowing not to sit, twiddling his large thumbs with a happy expression on his face. He was oblivious to the disgusted stares, to the murmurs, to everything, and Percy was thankful for that.

Once everyone was finally sat and quiet, Percy knew it to be his cue. He stood up, gently nudging Tyson to gain his attention, and he started to walk, his strides cutting through the tense air like butter as he stopped in the middle of the pavilion, Tyson trailing behind him. He felt each pair of eyes in the eating area staring right at them both, and his hands clenched together, but he didn't give, staring at the head table.

A voice all too familiar to Percy drawled a lazy sort of greeting. "Well, well, if it isn't Peter Johnson. My millennium is complete."

Percy's hands clenched tighter, his jaw stiff. He tried to keep his voice free of irritation as he answered. "It's Percy Jackson… sir." He added that last part to save him any trouble of dealing even more with Dionysus, who only scoffed and took a drink of his Diet Coke.

"Yes, well," he dragged out, not bothering to put down his can. "As young people say these days; whatever." Percy let out a long sigh through his nose to keep himself calm, lax in his usual vacation wear, and Percy allowed himself to glance away from the god, looking over to the person beside him.

He hadn't seen this man before, and wished he never had, what with how sickly pale he was. His bones were so thin and showed through his skin, as if he had never eaten a day in his life, and he somehow made the skinny orange jumpsuit he was wearing look large. The letters 0001 were imprinted on said jumpsuit, and Percy's eyes fell to them before he looked away completely. That man sat in Chiron's chair, and it was all Percy needed to see to already dislike him.

"This boy," Dionysus started, "you need to watch. Poseidon's child, you know." Even though Percy's eyes had left the man, the man's hadn't left him. He couldn't tell their color from where he was- something dark- but he could see the emotions hung inside them, as clear as the sky on a cloudless day. Anger, sadness, hunger, all at once, all in one fractured gaze belonging to a broken looking man.

"Ahh!" The prisoner smiled, and still, he didn't look away from Percy. It was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, was making small indents of goosebumps bloom along his skin. Such was his gaze that it caused this strong of a reaction. "That one." He could tell, at least, by that answer, that they had undoubtedly been talking about him in great detail before.

When Percy raised his eyes again to meet this man, he was rewarded with a grin, one as sickening as the battling emotions trapped within his heavy stare. Percy held his breath, and he wanted to look away, but he fund it impossible. "I am Tantalus," the prisoner continued. "On special assignment here, until, well, until my Lord Dionysus says otherwise. And you, Perseus Jackson, I do expect you to refrain from causing anymore trouble."

Irritation flickered through his mind. Percy shifted his weight off to his other foot, crossing his arms. "Trouble?"

They exchanged looks to one another, the grin widening on Tantalus's lips. With a wave of Dionysus's hand, a newspaper appeared in front of him on the table. The Greek god gestured for him to come closer, to pick it up, and Percy shifted nervously once more, but he knew it wouldn't be wise to decline Dionysus's direct order, and he stepped forward, snatching a glimpse back at Tyson before looking back as he made it to the table. He moved to pick the paper up, but it flew into his hands instead ,and he took it and held it in shaking fingers.

It was from the New York Post, with Percy's yearbook photo stamped right in front of the article. His lips pursed, reading the headline, where of course, the destruction of the gymnasium had been blamed on himself. He opened his mouth to speak, wanting to contradict the article, wanting to stand up for himself and avoid being the scapegoat of something unavoidable that had fallen into his hands, but then they were already speaking again, and Percy lost the chance to argue about something that he knew he wouldn't be heard out from either way.

A soft sigh escaped his lips as he backed away from the table, listening to both of the men tried to drink something from his glass between the conversation, and Percy got to watch a great show of the drink flying out of his cup to escape him. When he went to take a bite out of his barbecue. The food simply leaped right into the flames of the campfire, and Percy heard Tyson unsuccessfully stifle his laughter behind him.

As Dionysus patted his friend's back and gave him words bathed in false sympathy, it finally clicked for Percy. "You're that spirit that stands in the Fields of Punishment," he murmured. "The one who stands in the lake with the fruit tree hanging over you, but can't eat or drink."

He inwardly winced at the sneer her recieved, Tantalus's tortured eyes burning holes into his head. "A real scholar, aren't you, boy?"

Percy, however, wasn't dismayed, didn't allow himself to be. "You must've done something really horrible when you were alive." His sea-green eyes gleamed, and he could catch the satyrs behind the table shaking their heads furiously at him. Percy wasn't afraid. "What was it?" His grin was larger than Tantalus's, and didn't look like an abomination on his face unlike the prisoner before him.

His eyes narrowed. "I'll be watching you. Don't think I haven't heard what they say. Don't think I plan to lower my guard around you."

He crossed his arms over his chest, looking as if it were ought to be a more intimidating pose, but truly, it was to give himself a secret hug for comfort that he needed to keep going. "What they say?" He repeated the words Tantalus had spoken, and a frown tried to tug down on the corners of his mouth, but he kept it away. "What do they say?" He wanted to be a smartass, and was tempted to continue on with that train of thought, but his curiosity to hear what the answer to his question made him hold his tongue.

Another sneer. "Talking of a boy who has powers he shouldn't. The power to call lightning from the skies, to make the Earth tremble below you. Storms and earthquakes are well within your father's sphere of power just as much as the sea. It shouldn't raise as much suspicion as it does, but when the gods themselves feel something is stirring, when someone as undeveloped and unsynced with his powers as you demonstrates abilities far out of what should be your limits…" He trailed off, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth to creature a sharp sound as he chuckled. "And then, when the Fates have taken special interest in you as well… mystery surrounds you, and I can only imagine the trouble you'll stir in my camp. Ain't that right, Lord Dionysus?"

Dionysus gave an empty shrug, swirling the Diet Coke around in his can and watching as little bubbling sounds of carbonation came from the opening of the drink at his actions. It showed how boring this was to him all, if a simple mortal drink could attract his attention better than anything Tantalus had to say, but he took it in stride. It wasn't the same for the rest of the campers, Percy knew. He could feel their stares burning holes in his back.

"Your camp already has problems, sir." Percy's voice was short. Even so, the rest of what he would have said was heavily implied in his scornful gaze. And I'm looking at one of them.

Tantalus scoffed, and Dionysus finally looked up from his coke can to give his input. "Oh, go sit down, Johnson. I believe your table is the empty one over there. The one where no one else wants to sit."

At that, his face burned. He had to bite his tongue down to keep it from spewing any kind of snarky reply, as much as he wished he didn't have to hold himself back. Smart mouthing a god wasn't the thing he wanted to die for, after all. Percy stiffly nodded. "Come on, Tyson."

Tantalus interrupted him before he could go. "Oh, no. The monster stays here. We must decide what to do with it."

Both fear and anger shot a hot spike right through his heart, and Percy's teeth clenched. "Him," Percy snapped. "His name is Tyson."

All he got in response was a raised eyebrow, so he continued hotly. "Tyson saved the camp. He pounded those bronze bulls. Otherwise they would have burned down this whole place."

"Yes, and what a pity that would have been." Tantalus said the words forlornly with a dramatic sigh, earning a snicker from the god beside him. "Leave us while we decide this creature's fate."

As much as Percy tried to protest, each objection he could have made was cut down, and finally, with a regretful look towards Tyson, he trudged back to his plate full of food. He paid no mind as the entirety of the camp watched him, and instead of scraping a small amount of his plate as an offering to the gods, he dump the entirety of his dinner into the flames, watching as they swallowed it up hungrily and released a great puff of smoke into the air.

The words that came afterwards were murmured, but just as well, he knew the whole camp could hear them. "Poseidon, accept my offering."

And send me some help while you're at it.

He walked back to his empty table with an empty plate, his heart following the theme of the arrangement, and once again, his head was laid down in his arms. The silence slowly lifted as Tantalus and Dionysus both went on, and he barely heard what they spoke of. Percy's attention was slightly caught when the continuation of chariot races was mentioned, but only because it brought murmurs from all around the camp, and his heart sank even lower. Didn't they have better things to be doing with their time? Bigger things to worry about? Was everyone just going to pretend Thalia's poisoned tree wasn't an issue? He could only imagined how terrified Tyson must feel, standing in the center of all these intimidating warriors, under the haunted gaze of their new activities director and the bored stare of a Greek god.

Percy wished he could have been there with him.

Finally, his attention was caught as Tantalus spoke again, and Percy raised his head from his arms to meet what was happening with a worried gaze. "And now, before we proceed to the campfire and sing-along, one slight housekeeping issue. Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase have seen fit, for some reason, to bring this here." Tantalus waved a hand at Tyson, and Percy fought back an angry retort. He knew it wouldn't be heard, he knew it wouldn't help.

His words caused nervous murmurs to wash over the camp, and Percy ignored the sideways glances cast at himself. He wanted to murder Tantalus. He wanted Chiron back. "Now, of course," he went on, "Cyclopes have a reputation for being bloodthirsty monsters with a very small brain capacity. Under normal circumstances, I would release this beast out into the woods and have you hunt it down with torches and pointed sticks." Percy bristled with anger. "But who knows? Perhaps this Cyclops is not as horrible as most of its brethren. Until it proves worthy of destruction, we need a place to keep it! I've thought about the stables, but that will make the horses nervous. Hermes's cabin, possibly?"

At that, Percy's anger turned to relief. He had lived in the Hermes cabin for a short time, with- with Luke, and all the other kids there, unclaimed or belonging to the god himself. He remembered all the cramped yet cozy feel to it, the relief he had felt to belong to a cabin and not face this camp along, memories of him and Luke, back when everything had been okay. Well, not okay, when he had thought his mother to be dead and the whole of reality had been coming down on him and crushing the normal life he had lived. But it had been better than this.

Maybe he just missed Luke.

His relief didn't last long as the proposal was only met with silence. After a moment of thought, Percy's shoulders slumped. He couldn't blame them. He knew how cluttered and cramped it was. Tyson would be too huge to fit in with the crowded campers.

"Come now," Tantalus tutted. "The monster may be able to do some menial chores. Any ideas to where such a beast should be kenneled?"

Before Percy could snap and break his personal vow of silence, everyone gasped, and when Percy glanced around to see the reason for, Percy couldn't help but gasp with them. Above his head was a sight that Percy had been greeted by once before. A glowing green trident, bringing an awed silence with it, everyone staring on with the greatest surprise they could muster.

And then, it was broken. Last year, when the same sight had greeted Percy he had been rewarded with reverent kneels and respect. This time, Tantalus bellowed a hearty laugh right from the absence of his gut, and everyone followed suit in an instant. It made hot shame crawl down Percy's neck in the way of second hand embarrassment for his poor friend, but Tyson was oblivious to the jeers, the cruel way of the people around him, trying to swat at the symbol of light over his head as his eye gleamed with wonder.

"Well, I think we know where to put the beast now!" He roared with laughter over the rest of the campers with only Annabeth and a few of Percy's close friends as an exception. Percy's stomach was sick with disgust. "By the gods, I can see the family resemblance!"

Finally, at that, Percy stood from his seat. He ignored the rest around them, ignored his own hatred for their actions, for their teasing, for the genuine hurt it caused him, even as relieved as he was that Tyson was as good as blind to it all. With a heavier heart, he took Tyson by the arm, and started to lead his new brother on an early start to his new home.

Starting to do that thing again where I skip over parts of the book or skim over events that won't really be affected by the slow plot changes I'm weaving into this fic. I hope you guys don't mind the gaps, and remember the books well enough to keep up! If there's any confusion onto what's happened in things I left out, shoot me a PM or a review and I'll clear that right up! Otherwise, how's the sequel so far? Thank you for taking your time to read, hope you have a great Friday/weekend!