The ruins were quiet when you found them. Too quiet. Broken marble pillars lay scattered across the clearing, ivy curling through cracks like veins. The air smelled of dust and something ancient, something that had watched heroes rise and fall a hundred times over.

You’d felt them coming. Seven heartbeats. Seven weapons. Seven threads of fate tightening. The Heroes of Olympus. Sent for you. You stepped out from behind a fallen column before they could surround you.

Their reactions were immediate. Weapons raised. Stances defensive. Percy’s sword gleaming in the low light. Jason’s coin flipping in his fingers, ready to strike.

Annabeth’s jaw was tight. Piper’s eyes searched your face for something she clearly wasn’t finding. Leo looked like he was trying to calculate how fast he could build something explosive if needed.

The wind picked up suddenly, tension crackling like static. You didn’t move first—but neither did they. It happened all at once. A misstep. A flicker of power. A spark of mistrust.

Steel rang out. Lightning cracked. The ground split under your feet as you countered without thinking. Instinct took over—block, deflect, push back. You weren’t trying to kill them. You were trying to survive them. Dust swirled as you knocked a blade aside. Leo stumbled back from a burst of force. Percy lunged, and you pivoted, disarming him without striking a final blow.

“Stop!” Annabeth shouted, but no one listened.

And then— Over the clash of weapons and rising chaos, one voice cut through. “We wanna know what made you so evil!?”

You froze. Not because of the accusation. Because of the certainty. The word echoed in your head. Evil. Your power faltered. The ground stilled.

The air went quiet in a way that had nothing to do with strategy. You stared at them. People thought you were evil? You hadn’t known. You’d known they feared you. Avoided you. Blamed you. But evil? Your chest tightened. “I’m not…” The words didn’t even form fully.

You looked between their faces. They weren’t confused. They weren’t unsure. They believed it. And that realization hit harder than any weapon they’d raised against you.