A/N: Hey! I was re-reading The Lightning Thief for just about the hundredth time when I was struck by the idea of writing a fic about Luke's thoughts about Percy and the whole capture the flag ordeal. It's not a long one-shot, but it's the best I could muster. One more thing. I have read every one of the books EXCEPT Last Olympian. Please don't spoil it in the reviews for me! If you don't I'll love you forever. XD But anyway, read, review, and enjoy!
The entire ordeal started on that fateful night of Capture the Flag. Hi, my name is Luke, and I am one of, if not THE most powerful half blood in all of history. I am also the servant of Kronos, the Titan Lord and true ruler of Olympus. Up until last year, I had been attending a camp full of other weak half-bloods called Camp Half-blood. The only one who showed any true potential was one camper by the name of Perseus Jackson, Percy for short. I thought he was nothing special until he out maneuvered me during a sword lesson demonstration. Even then, I told myself it was a lucky shot. But Kronos told me otherwise. It came to me the night before capture the flag in a dream. In the dream, I was peering down into the pit of Tartarus, the jail cell for Kronos. He spoke to me, and his voice felt like icy daggers in my chest.
"Perseus will present a problem if you let him grow." His voice scolded.
"What do you suggest we do, my lord?" I asked him.
"Recruit him, or kill him. The fastest choice would be to kill him, for he will not be swayed as easily as you were."
"But, I wasn't..." I tried to argue.
"Don't praise yourself, fool!" He reprimanded coldly. "You did what I told you immediately without hesitation. I couldn't have made a golden retriever more obedient. Now, listen closely. Tomorrow during capture the flag, summon a hellhound. Kill him. If he does not fall, we will have to try to recruit him."
"Yes, my lord." I said. Then the dream dissipated. I woke up suddenly. I knew I had to wait until tomorrow night, but something told me something bad would have happened of I didn't rid myself of him now. I slowly drew my celestial bronze knife I kept in my sleeve, making sure not to make a sound. Then, being equally careful, I snuck over the multiple sleeping bags towards the black haired camper sleeping soundly. When I was standing above him, I noted he was drooling. After that, I held my knife in striking position. Before I could lower it into Percy's heart, Connor Stoll stirred. Despite my desperate hopes, he sat up in bed rubbing his eye. I quickly hid my knife from sight before he could focus his eyes.
"Luke? What are you doing?" He asked with a whisper.
I scrambled in my head for a decent answer. "I'm just you know, checking on the campers. Gotta make sure everyone's accounted for."
"You take your job as counselor too seriously, man." Connor said. "Go to sleep." Then he lay down and fell back asleep. I silently growled and decided it would be better to wait. Besides, the cabin was filled to the brim with campers. Chances were, someone would hear the sound of knife hitting flesh. It would be better to kill him in the forest. Quickly and silently being preferred.
The next day was finally capture the flag. Once everyone was done with the food, a handful of Athena cabin members, including my best friend Annabeth, ran into the dining pavilion carrying a flag with Athena's emblem painted on it. Then a couple of Ares kids ran in with the Ares flag. Then Percy started with his incessant typical newbie questions. "Those are the flags?"
Part of me wanted to say Duh! But instead, I answered "Yeah."
"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"
"Not always." I answered again. "But often."
"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do-repaint the flag?"
I smiled. "You'll see. First, we have to get one."
"Whose side are we on?" Percy asked.
I gave him a trademark Hermes sly look. I thought of a possible double meaning to that and wanted to say Kronos' side, of course! But instead I explained to him our temporary Athena alliance.
It was a perfect plan, that only a child of Athena could think of. Annabeth decided we'd station Percy on border patrol. The idiots at Ares' cabin would go after him for embarrassing their biggest and baddest cabin mate, Clarisse. By doing this, they would leave the flag completely unguarded. We decided I would go take it after that. Annabeth and I wisely refused to inform Percy of the plan. All tactics aside, I didn't really care about the plan. I wanted Percy dead. Chiron explained the rules and filled our tables with battle armor. "Whoa." I heard Percy say. "We're really supposed to use these?"
I look at him like he was crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five." I grabbed some armor. "Here-Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol." I suited Percy up and he ran ahead to catch up to Annabeth. He'd been following Annabeth like a baby following it's mother since he arrived. I slipped away from the crowd and reached a secluded area of the forest. I closed my eyes and put one hand on the ground. "I, Luke, give this hellhound from the Fields of Punishment permission to enter this camp." In front of me, a pitch black hellhound the size of a rhino rose from the ground. It seemed to separate itself from the ground. It growled before I touched it's snout. "Go, kill Percy Jackson." Then it bounded away. And no sooner had it gone out of sight had Annabeth come through the bushes.
"There you are!" She said. "Clarisse's cabin mates should be spotting Percy any second now, go get their flag."
"Roger that." I gave a mini salute and could have sworn I saw the faintest traces of a blush on her face. She suddenly seemed to gain control of herself and slammed her hat on her head and became invisible. I heard her run off and turned towards the flag. I hesitated for a moment getting lost in my thoughts. Annabeth and I had been through so much together. I touched my bead necklace, specifically, the bead with Thalia's pine tree painted on it. That was our first summer at Camp Half-blood, when our other friend Thalia sacrificed herself for us and Grover, the naive satyr. And for her sacrifice, what did her jerk of a father do? Turn her into a pine tree. It wasn't right. Anyway, since then, Annabeth and I grew closer together. Suddenly my scar hurt. I remembered what Kronos had said to me one night.
"Let go of all your feelings for her. They will just get in your way." Despite his orders, I found it difficult to let go of her. We had been through so much together and I couldn't just... I shook the thoughts out of my head and with a sigh, headed towards Ares' flag.
It was an easy victory. I grabbed the flag with only two or three kids trying to stop me. I outmaneuvered them without breaking a sweat and bolted to the flag. I grabbed it and ran to the creek. I was eager to see who killed Percy first, the hell hound or the Ares campers. A couple of other Hermes kids helped cover me, because I was so anxious to see what happened I paid no attention to the enemies trying to take me down. I bounded over the creek and to my surprise, Percy wasn't dead, but standing straight in the creek, with five Ares warriors struggling to get up at his feet. Clarisse muttered something, but it was drowned out by the cheers as the flag in my hand switched from Ares' emblem to that of my jerk father, Hermes. I stopped and looked at what looked like a deep sword wound on Percy's arm healing. By itself!
Annabeth made Percy step out of the creek and he crippled against her the second his foot left the water. Then Annabeth said exactly what I was thinking. "Oh, Styx. This is not good." Then, she added something I wasn't thinking. "I didn't want...I assumed it would be Zeus..." Suddenly, the cheers of campers died to be replaced by a low growl. There it was, on a rock staring directly at Percy, was my hellhound. The world drowned away. For a minute, it was just me and the hound. I tried not to smile. As usual, Lord Kronos' plan worked perfectly. The hellhound pounced and took Percy down. It was a split second away from ripping his heart out when a dozen arrows sprouted from it's neck. It fell over dead while I tried not to look disappointed. I dropped the flag and walked over to inspect Percy's wound. We watched the hellhound melt back into the ground and Annabeth spoke up.
"You're wounded Percy. Quick, get into the water."
"I'm okay." The idiot insisted.
"No you're not." Annabeth argued. "Chiron, watch this."
Percy hesitantly stepped in and a green light appeared over his head. Everyone gasped at the holographic image of a trident over Percy's head. I bit my lip. Percy finally saw what we were staring at, and a look of utter bewilderment crossed his face.
"It is determined." Chiron said in his "I'm mightier than you" voice. Percy stuttered out a few dumb words as all the campers bowed. I bowed as well, despite my silent cursing of my luck. "Poseidon, Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."
The next few weeks sucked, to say the least. I got severely reprimanded by Kronos, Percy got moved out of the Hermes cabin, and I still had to train the twerp in sword fighting. Kronos told me to train him if he wanted to join our cause, but not to train him to a point where he's more powerful than me. I told him that wouldn't happen, but he doubted me after a failed murder attempt. I couldn't try to recruit him, because I couldn't reveal my plans before the Princess Andromeda was finished. I decided to send him the message someone didn't want him at the camp, so I grabbed an issue of the New York Daily News that had an article explaining his and his mom's "mysterious" disappearance. I circled the number to call and plopped it on the front step of Poseidon's cabin. That night, Kronos spoke to me yet again. His voice again emanating from the depths of Tartarus
"I have a new plan that is foolproof, so even you could pull it off." He scolded.
"Speak it, and it shall be done." I said humbly.
"Chiron and Dionysus will send Perseus on a quest. They believe Hades somehow procured the bolt you so graciously picked up for me. On his way, Ares will give him the enchanted sheath to the Master Bolt and send him off to the underworld."
"But, what will it help, giving him what he needs?" I asked.
"The Master Bolt won't appear in the backpack until he gets to the underworld. Here's where you come in. Give him the pair of flying sneakers your father gave you. I cursed them so that when he arrives at the underworld, the sneakers will carry the boy and the Bolt to me, thus making my rise certain." He chuckled.
"I understand master." I bowed. Brilliant. A plan worthy, no, better than those of Athena herself. I smiled. "You're comeback will be pulled off without a hitch, master."
"It had better, for your sake." Kronos' voice whispered to me in a menacing tone that almost made me faint from the coldness. Then the dream washed away and I was back in my cabin. Two days later, Percy was off on his quest. And to my despair, he picked my best friend to take with him. Annabeth had wanted a quest, but I couldn't send her to her doom. Percy, on the other hand, I could kill him and not lose a minute's sleep over it at this point. I met him at the pine tree with the magical sneakers and explained how to use them. I bid farewell, accenting it with a hug for Annabeth, and sent them off. Chiron raised his bow in salute and I walked back to the Hermes cabin. Now, without Percy occupying my time, I could forge Backbiter, the half celestial bronze, half steel weapon Kronos told me to make. Too bad Percy would never be able to taste it, for his first quest, would also be his last...
Or, so I thought.
A/N: So there you have it. A (Fan)fictional look into the mind of Luke, our favorite traitor! Remember, no Last Olympian spoilers in the reviews PLEASE! Anyway, after you review, I'll leave you alone. Good day!