We Capture a Flag (again)

**We Capture a Flag (again)** is the fifty-sixth chapter of The Gift of a Best Friend. It was first published on April 27th, 2018.

## Chapter

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**Annabeth's POV**
I couldn’t stop thinking about how easily Percy did the disarming technique to Luke.
I’ve been sword-fighting with him since I was seven and I’m still not able to disarm him myself, but Percy does it in just five minutes.
Jasmine argues that if I didn’t use a knife, I probably could disarm him, but that my crush on him also gets in the way.
Well, I still couldn’t disarm him even before I developed a crush on him, and I’m not using any other weapon besides my knife, and that’s final.
Anyway, it’s Friday night and there was a lot of excitement after dinner.
That’s because it was time for capture the flag.
When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.
Campers yelled and cheered as me, Jasmine, Malcolm and Steve, my brothers, ran into the pavilion carrying our silk flag.
It was ten feet long, glistening gray with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree.
On the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her siblings ran in with their banner of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar’s head, which Jasmine really didn’t like.
The teams were announced.
We had made an alliance with Apollo, which Jasmine really liked, and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. We had to trade privileges in order to win their support.
Ares had everybody else on their team: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus.
Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.
“Heroes!” he announced. “You know the rules. The creak is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!”
He spread his hands and the tables were covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields covered in metal.
We put armor on and our helmets, which had blue horsehair plume on top.
Ares and their allies had red horsehair plumes.
Jasmine didn’t put any armor on because she doesn’t like it and it weighed her down, even though she has super strength, so she was the only one that didn’t wear any armor.
But she did put on her helmet, even though she didn’t like it either since it makes her look like she has a blue mohawk, and helped everyone else put on their armor. But her powers can make her skin as tough as armor.
Toothless was allowed to join us, and he’s taking the air as a lookout and shooting his fire at any enemy that gets too close to either of us or our flag.
“Blue team, forward!” I yelled.
They cheered, shook their swords, and followed me and Jasmine down the path to the south woods.
The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.
Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Assholes.”
Percy caught up with me. “Hey.”
I kept marching.
“So what’s the plan?” he asked. “Got any magic items you can loan me?”
My hand drifted toward my pocket where I kept invisibility hat. “Just watch Clarisse’s spear. You don’t want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don’t worry. We’ll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?”
“Border patrol, whatever that means.”
“It’s easy. Stand by the creak, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan.”
I pushed ahead, leaving him behind.
Jasmine caught up and I noticed her glaring at me.
“What?” I asked.
“You know what,” she replied.
I rolled my eyes. “Jasmine, don’t.”
“Did you have to be such a bitch to him?”
“Let’s just go.”
We continued on.
The woods were dark, but I’ve navigated them enough to get around as easily as if it were daylight. Toothless can see very well through the dark.
I stationed Percy next to the creak, our two guards by our flag, and the rest of us scattered into the trees.
Jasmine, as always, stayed near me.
Far away, the conch horn blew.
I put my cap of invisibility on, Jasmine turned herself invisible, and all of us ran off to enemy territory.

After a little while, Jasmine left me alone.
“I have to go help Percy,” she said.
Toothless called down to her and said he was in trouble.
Clarisse and her siblings were beating him up, and, of course, Jasmine felt obliged to go help him. She didn’t want to leave me, but I made her. Plus, I like being on my own.
After she left, I took a quick moment to smirk. I planned that to happen with Luke.
I knew Clarisse was going to pulverize Percy for that bathroom incident this past Monday, the first day he was here, so I made a plan with Luke. But we didn’t tell Jasmine about it.
We both knew that she wouldn’t allow Percy to be set out as a target and get beat up, but it was the only strategy I could come up with to guarantee us the win unless something went wrong, which nothing has so far.
Luke and I also knew that Jasmine would figure it out very quickly after this is over and is going to be very mad at us.
We both know that, as much as we hate it when Jasmine rants to us of how wrong we are, we’re going to have to bare it.
Yes, I was able to make a plan with Luke without dying over him. I thought I was going to, so before I did, I said a prayer to my mother to keep me focused. Like I should be right now.
I put my hat back on and went to find team red’s flag.
After I got there, I was about to knockout the two campers guarding it, but Luke had already beat me to it, along with a couple of his siblings and a couple Apollo kids too.
I took my hat off and became visible.
“Well done, Luke,” I said.
He smiled at me, and it took all of my willpower not to blush. “It was all thanks to your good strategy.”
“Yeah, well, we haven’t won yet.”
“You’re right. Would you like to do the honors, captain?” He gestured to the banner.
I shook my head. “No. You got to the flag first, you should take it.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“Well, all right then. Let’s win the game.”
He picked up the flag and ran for the boundary line, his siblings and Apollo’s kids following after him.
I put my hat back on and followed as well with a smile on my face.

**Jasmine’s POV**
I ran to Percy’s aid.
I knew that Clarisse was going to get back at him tonight for the bathroom incident the other day because she really knows how to hold a grudge.
But I still left him alone, and, of course, she brought her siblings as back up.
When I reached Percy at the boundary line, I didn’t change in to help at first. I watched from next to a tree about thirty feet away.
He managed to hold his own against Clarisse and her siblings, at least for now. That is, until, they surrounded him, and Clarisse thrust at him with her electric spear. He deflected it with his shield, but like I said, her spear is electric, so it still shocked him, and he fell back.
Clarisse’s brother, Victor, slammed Percy in the chest with the butt of his sword and he hit the dirt.
They all laughed.
I gritted my teeth.
Toothless came next to me.
*Now?* he asked.
I nodded. “Now.”
I unsheathed my dual blades and got ready to charge.
*Wait*, my powers told me in my head. *Watch.*
*Watch?* I argued back. *He’s getting beat up!*
*Watch. He’ll get out of this himself.*
I doubt it.
I sighed angrily. My powers know everything, even the future, so I had to listen to them whether I wanted to or not. But I held my dual blades ready.
“Give him a haircut,” Clarisse said. “Grab his hair.”
Percy managed to get to his feet.
He raised his sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew.
“Oh, wow,” she said. “I’m scared of this guy. Really scared.”
“The flag is that way,” Percy told her, exhausted.
“Yeah,” Clarisse’s sister, Babette, said. “But see, we don’t care about the flag. We care about the guy who made our cabin look stupid.”
“You do that without my help.”
I laughed, luckily, not loud enough for them to hear me. “That’s so true.”
I’m starting to like Percy more and more.
Two of them came at him.
He backed up toward the creak, tried to raise his sword, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear struck him straight in the ribs. Luckily, he was wearing armor. Kevin slashed his sword across his arm, leaving a good size cut.
It was really hard to watch and not do anything to stop it, even though I myself have also stabbed someone who was defenseless. I’m not proud that it had to go that far now, even though I enjoyed it then.
But watching Percy was hard, and my powers insisted that I don’t interfere, nor will they let me use them. Unfortunately, they control me. I don’t control them.
Percy looked pale from the cut on his arm.
“No maiming,” he managed to say.
“Oops,” Kevin said. “Guess I lost my dessert privilege.”
He pushed Percy into the creek and he landed with a splash. They all laughed.
I gritted my teeth even more, if that were even possible.
But then something amazing happened.
Clarisse and her siblings went into the creek to get him, but he miraculously stood to meet them.
He swung the flat of his sword against Victor’s head and knocked his helmet clean off. He hit him so hard, I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.
Babette and Kevin went at him.
He slammed Babette in the face with his shield and used his sword to shear off Kevin’s horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick.
Trevor, probably the smartest one of them, didn’t look anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept going, the point of her spear crackling with energy.
As soon as she thrust, Percy caught the shaft between the edge of his shield and sword, and he snapped it like a twig.
“Ah!” she screamed. “You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!”
What the hell is a corpse-breath worm?
She probably would’ve said worse, but Percy smacked her between the eyes with his sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.
“Damn,” I said.
I have never enjoyed watching someone be beat up and that person beat up his attackers along with her siblings instead.
Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team’s banner lifted high.
He was flanked by a couple of his brothers, covering his retreat, and a few Apollo’s behind him, fighting off the Hephaestus kids.
Wow. That was fast, even for our team.
The Ares kids got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.
“A trick!” she shouted. “It was a trick.”
“A trick?” I mused. Then I gasped when I realized that this was a trick, too, and I was pretty sure of whose idea it was. “That bitch.”
They staggered after Luke, but it was too late.
Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory.
Our side exploded into cheers, except for me. I mean, I’m happy that we won, but I’m also mad at how we won.
The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of Hermes.
Everyone on our team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders, which I don’t really like, and honestly, in that case, I find it to be kind of gay.
Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.
The game was over. We won.
I felt a very familiar presence near Percy, who was still standing in the creek.
“Not bad, hero,” Annabeth said. “Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?”
The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding her Yankees baseball cap.
I came out from behind the tree and marched right up to her. “You bitch.”
Annabeth sighed. “Hello, Jasmine.”
“Don’t you dare act innocent, Annabeth.”
“You set me up,” Percy said, realizing what she did too, and not even fazed by the fact that she’d just been invisible, since he had never seen that before now. “You put me here because you know Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out.”
I was really impressed that he realized her exact plan, even though he doesn’t know her as well as I do.
Annabeth just shrugged. “I told you. Athena always, always has a plan.”
“A plan to get me pulverized.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“I knew that Jasmine would come to your rescue,” Annabeth said. “At least, I thought she would.”
“I wanted to,” I admitted. “But my powers insisted that I don’t intervene, and, even though I hated it, I’m actually kind of glad I didn’t, because, seriously Percy, that was awesome what you did.”
“Thanks,” he said.
Annabeth seemed to finally notice the wound on Percy’s arm. “How did you do that?”
“Sword cut,” he replied. “What do you think?”
“Yeah?” I argued.
“No,” Annabeth said. “It *was* a sword cut. Look at it.”
He and I both did, and we realized what she meant.
The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. It turned into a small scar, and disappeared.
“Damn,” I said.
“I—I don’t get it,” Percy said.
Annabeth was thinking hard, like she always does at unexplainable moments.
She looked down at his feet, then at Clarisse’s broken spear. She looked at me. We made eye contact, and I could tell that we were both thinking the same thing.
Percy was standing in the creek, the water, when he got his newfound strength.
But only one way to find out.
“Step out of the water, Percy,” Annabeth said.
“What—”
“Just do it.”
He did as she told him, and he looked so worn out after doing so, he almost fell over.
Annabeth and I steadied him. She and I made eye contact again, and we both came to the same conclusion.
“Oh, Styx,” Annabeth cursed. “This is *not* good. I didn’t want . . . I assumed it would be Zeus . . .”
“Everyone probably did,” I said.
Then I felt an unrecognizable presence nearby and breathed in hard.
“What is it, Jasmine?” Annabeth asked.
To answer her question, we heard a growling sound. A howl ripped through the forest.
The campers’ cheering stopped instantly.
Chiron shouted in Ancient Greek, “Stand ready! My bow!”
Annabeth drew her knife, but I sheathed my dual blades. Toothless growled in challenge.
I sensed the unknown animal on the rocks just above our heads. Everyone noticed it too.
It was a black hound the size of a rhino (I would know, because I’ve ridden one before), with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.
Since it was an animal, I could feel what it’s feeling. But even if I couldn’t, I could still definitely tell that it was looking straight at Percy.
Annabeth realized that too.
“Percy, run!” she yelled.
She and I tried to step in front of him, but the hellhound was too fast.
It leaped over us and it hit Percy.
Chiron shot a lot of arrows at the hellhound’s neck. It fell dead at our feet.
Percy was still alive, but the hellhound had cut into his armor and he was bleeding bad.
“Di Immortales!” Annabeth said. “That’s a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don’t . . . they’re not supposed to . . .”
“Someone summoned it,” Chiron said. “Someone inside the camp.”
Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.
If I were him, I wouldn’t care, I’d just be glad that someone didn’t die after I won.
“It’s all Percy’s fault!” Clarisse yelled. “Percy summoned it!”
That made me mad.
“Oh, yeah,” I said sarcastically. “Percy summoned it to have it kill him. Shut up, Clarisse.”
“Be quiet, children,” Chiron told us.
We watched the body of the hellhound melt into darkness, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.
“You’re wounded,” Annabeth told Percy. “Quick, Percy, get in the water.”
“I’m okay,” he said.
“No, you’re not,” I said.
“Chiron, watch this,” Annabeth said.
Percy stepped back into the creek, and the whole camp gathered around him.
We watched the cuts on his chest close up. Some of the campers gasped.
“Look, I—I don’t know why,” Percy said, trying to apologize, though I don’t understand why. “I’m sorry . . .”
Then we saw what we were waiting for above his head.
“Percy,” Annabeth said, pointing at it. “Umm . . .”
He looked up and saw the sign.
It was a hologram of a green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.
“Your father,” Annabeth murmured. “This is *really* not good.”
“It is determined,” Chiron announced.
We all started kneeling, even the Ares kids, though I could tell they weren’t happy about it.
“My father?” Percy asked, looking completely bewildered.
“Poseidon,” Chiron said. “Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, son of the Sea God.”

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## Character Appearances

### Main Characters

* Annabeth Chase
* Jasmine Saturday
* Percy Jackson

### Minor Characters

* Luke Castellan
* Clarisse
* Chiron
* Victor
* Barette