Chapter 1: The New Arrivals
AN: This is like my first ever story, well, I gave up on the last one but I definitely won't on this one. Promise. Hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own HP or PJ.
Camp Half-Blood, New York.
Percy P.O.V.
The floor was littered with bodies, luckily, most of them were just injured, and the ones that were dead, were mostly on the other side. The worst injuries were just stab wounds, doesn't mean they didn't hurt though. Most of my close friends were okay though, even if half of them were left unconscious. Annabeth, was checking on Thalia and Piper over by the honorary Artemis cabin, so I went over to Leo, Jason, and Nico, who were laid out over by the Apollo cabin. Coincidence? I think so. Thanks to my Achilles Heel, I was the greatest warrior out there, I also didn't feel any pain, except for a few shadows tickling me here and there. I checked them out, and no, not like that guys, get your head out of the gutter. Anyways, Leo seemed to be the one who took the most damage, a slash across his chest that seemed pretty deep, the other two didn't worry me nearly as much, Jason just had a bruise on his shoulder, while Nico had just taken a hard hit to his head, knocking him unconscious. I picked up Leo like a baby, even if all the strength came from the Achilles Heel, I carried him over to the Apollo cabin, where Will Solace and some of his cabin mates were taking in the injured.
"Aye Will, can you heal Leo here? He has a nasty wound across his chest." I told him.
"Yeah, take him into the cabin, I'll be right there." He responded.
I just nodded at him and made my way into the solid gold cabin that was crowded with people, in almost every direction there seemed to be a person covered in blood, the sight was highly repulsive. I laid down my curly headed friend on one of the unused beds, and waited for Will to come, as soon as he got there I quickly left the cabin to check up on my other friends.
As soon as I exited the cabin, I spotted Jason running over to his girlfriend. I have to admit, his girlfriend is hot as shit, but don't tell him I said that, he'll stick a dagger down my throat. The thought itself scared me, as I rubbed my Adams Apple as I made my way to him. I noticed that he also had a couple of injuries, but nothing major. His girlfriend Piper on the other hand, had a dagger stuck in her right thigh. I knew that could be healed, why is he so worried? Eh, teenagers. I went over to my gorgeous girlfriend Annabeth, her long flowy blonde hair was beautiful, even if it was filled with mud and twigs from around the camp grounds. She was kneeling over Thalia, and picking her up from the ground. Thalia didn't seem so hurt either, just a few bloody scratches here and there.
"Hey Pinecone Face, you alright?" I asked her.
"Shut up, Seaweed Brain. Not like you came out much better." She responded, Annabeth just looked on with an amused look on her face.
"Actually, you forget I have the Achilles Heel, so therefore, yes, yes I did come out much better." I smirked at her. She just stuck out her tongue at me and walked away from us.
"You're so special Fish Face." Annabeth told me. I smiled.
"Thanks, but I'm your special Fish Face." I winked at her, she just rolled her eyes.
"So, how was the battle for you?" I asked her.
"I'm okay, but what in Hades were those things?" She asked which really surprised me.
"So Ms. Know-It-All doesn't know something huh? Surprising." I remarked with a raised eyebrow.
She just gave me a death glare, while I turned away and snickered. We walked over to the Big House to talk with Chiron about what could have possibly happened. Apparently, we weren't the only ones with that idea; the Big House was packed with demigods, from the tree huggers in the Demeter cabin, to the breathing supercomputers in the Athena cabin. Ever since I made the agreement with the gods to start claiming all their children, well, let's just say that those gods have way too many hormones for their own good. There is literally, hundreds of kids in camp, some cabins even needed another floor added on, the demigods ages ranged from seven years old to eighteen or nineteen. The camp counselors had already taken their seats around the ping pong table, while the rest of the campers were just standing around their friends. I went over to take my seat, standing next to my beloved Thalia of course, who had just so happened to take my seat next to Annabeth.
"Aye, Air Head, you're sitting in my seat." I told her as I motioned to the seat.
"Sorry Seaweed Brain, but I got here first."
This just led to an argument that involved lots and lots of shouting. After receiving another glare from Annabeth, I just took a seat next to Nico and pouted.
"Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the sea." Leo, who was sitting on my other side slyly remarked.
"Oh shut up Leo, you know damn well that nobody ever wins arguments against that Princess of the Sky." I said as I glared over at her.
She just gave me the most fake innocent smile that almost made me jump all twelve feet of the table to smack her, but I kept my cool. I looked over at Nico.
"You all good from that battle?" I asked him. He looked over at me.
"Yeah, but damn those shadows really gave me the creeps, kinda makes me feel that it has something to do with my father." He replied sadly.
"Hey man, cheer up. I'm almost positive it didn't have anything to do with Hades." I smiled at him. Ever since the war ended, Hades had changed so much, he was probably one of the friendly gods now.
"My uncle isn't a complete idiot." I said while he just chuckled as the ground shook.
"Okay, sorryyy." I said in an exaggerated voice, which just made Leo and Jason join in on the laughing. I smiled at the fact that Nico seemed to be satisfied, ever since Bianca died, well, he hasn't exactly been the happiest teenager in the world, and that could be an understatement. Luckily, he didn't blame me for her death anymore, even if I still did. Things I could have done to save her popped into my head constantly. Just then Chiron walked into the room and the demigods cleared a way for him to walk by. He took a seat, or well, you know what I mean. As soon as he cleared his throat the mumbling and murmuring around the room vanished. It was easy to see all the respect that Chiron had gathered at camp. His hind legs might have a part in the matter too though, although I doubt it, his aim with that bow though, now that was scary.
"Hello kids, we've gathered today for obvious reasons, the attack on camp was unexpected, that much is certain. Our one true desire in this meeting is an answer. Who let in the monsters? And why?" He asked with a calm resolve, much so, that you wouldn't even think that we had just participated in a gruesome battle that many of us would never forget.
Everyone looked over at the Ares cabin, them always being the first suspects.
"Hey! All you are making me pissed thinking that it's always one of us. If anything, it's that Hermes cabin, they always hold the traitors." Clarisse, the Ares cabin counselor snarled at all of us.
"No, not this time. Luke isn't here anymore…." Travis, co-counselor of the Hermes cabin remarked. Everyone who knew him looked down at the floor in sadness. I saw that Annabeth, and Thalia, were the most affected. Both looking like they would burst into tears at any moment.
"Guys, let's get to the matter at hand, Luke is in the past, we need to focus on the present." Nico, one of the youngest in the room, said. This kind of woke everyone out of their daze.
"Thank you Nico, now, does anybody here, know specifically who did it?" Chiron asked.
"Well, half their army was filled with shadows, maybe it is that Hades kid. Nico." A random camper yelled out.
"Aye, get off his case, he didn't do anything. He was one of our greatest warriors out there. So lay off." I yelled at them.
"Alright, let's all calm down now. We'll start another battle on camp with all this turmoil." Chiron commanded.
"Now I'm guessing that none of you know anything about the attack, so everyone except the cabin counselors may go back to their respective cabins." The movement was instant, and the murmurs and mumbles came right back into action as all of the campers left the Big House. All that was left was the 20 cabin counselors; Jason, Thalia, Me, Katie, Clarisse, Annabeth, Will, Leo, Piper, Travis and Conner, Ben, Nico, Amanda, Seth, Tanner, Dean, Janny, Ty, and Lue Ellen. We were already seated, so we just sat and waited for Chiron to speak.
"Alright then, now that it's more private. I have news to give, bad news." Chiron stated.
"What's the problem?" Amanda asked in her sweet and innocent voice. Amanda was one of our newer campers, a strong demigod, good at archery and control over the colors. Not to mention that she was a very pretty girl, with bushy hair that reached all the way to her waist, she also had eyes that were always changing colors. She was also the Iris cabin counselor. One of the newly built cabins.
"Well, it's a warning, I might as well show you while we're here." He stood up, and headed to one of the office rooms.
"I wonder what's going on…" Annabeth said. At that Chiron came back into the room holding a bright red envelope.
"This was sent in by owl from an unknown location." He said.
"An owl? Is that even possible?" Janny asked. Another one of the new campers, also one of the hottest at camp overall. She was of Asian descent, but doesn't look like your regular Thai. Sure, she had the eyes, but her lips were so full and she always wore bright red lipstick.
"Of course it is, owls are very intelligent creatures, the main reason they are my mother's sacred animal." Annabeth smartly remarked.
"Anyways, I don't have to tell you the news this 'Howler' will tell you itself." Chiron said as he opened the envelope.
A booming deep voice surged out of the seemingly small envelope. "THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING, WE ARE USING THIS HOWLER TO WARN YOU. MORE ATTACKS WILL COME, EVEN STRONGER THAN THE LAST. PREPARE YOURSELF IF YOU WANT TO LIVE." The voice finished before it started fading away.
"What in Hades was that about?" Nico pondered.
"Well, one thing is for certain, we need to start training. The threat is imminent." Will, the Apollo counselor stated.
"You're right, but we can't tell any of the other campers about this, they'll panic. We need everyone to be ready to face this threat." Jason wisely remarked.
"Good Jason, you can now understand why I sent all the other campers away, we can't have any of them losing their heads before the actual battle, that wouldn't be good at all." Chiron said.
"Well, first thing I want to know is, what the Hades were those things? They are not a monster from the Greek stories, not that I know of at least." I remarked.
A golden light suddenly struck the room, forcing everyone to shut their eyes. Once the light faded, a young man was standing there, probably early twenties, wearing a plain white v-neck t-shirt, faded blue jeans, and beach sandals. Hanging on his back was a golden bow, and a quiver full of arrows. He had the whitest and shiniest smile on anyone I've ever seen.
"Apollo." I said as everyone kneeled down in front of him, even Chiron got as close to kneeling as he possibly could.
"Alright everyone up now, quit all that silly crap. I don't need that, I'm not nearly as air-headed as some other gods." He stated, as thunder rumbled in the sky.
"Sorry dad, sheesh, take a joke." He chuckled as even more thunder rumbled in the sky.
"Let's get down to business. I see that you have a question to be answered." He said.
"Well, yeah, we want to know what those shadow looking monsters are." Thalia remarked. Apollo all of a sudden got a very serious look on his face, one that many of us didn't even know existed on his mischievous and goofy persona.
"I know you said that those monsters have never been heard of in any of the Greek myths, and that is true. Doesn't change the fact that they exist though. You see, hundreds and hundreds of years ago, after the First Titan War, and a year or two before the First Giant War, Artemis and I were looking for any surviving monsters, some of the more dangerous ones at least. While searching along the mountain where the final battle took place we came across the same creatures you just fought against. If you want to call them creatures that is. They are very unique no doubt about that, and powerful as well. They are what we have come to call, well, their most common name is a Shadowling. Bland name if I may say so myself, I prefer to call them Shadow Spirits." He said, before Nico interrupted him.
"Shadow Spirits? That kinda sounds familiar.." He remarked with a thoughtful voice.
"You of everyone here should know what they are." Apollo answered him. "Why is that?" Janny questioned, suspicion towards Nico in her voice.
"Don't take that wrong, um, what's your name? You must be new here." He said the last part in a flirtatious voice, then winked at her.
"Apollo!" Half the room shouted out, he just laughed.
"Back on topic then, you see the reason that Nico should know something about them is because they have quite a bit to do with the dead."
This didn't clear up the suspicion of the people that thought Nico had something to do with the attack.
"Let me explain a little bit more if you still don't believe me. Every person has an aura, an aura being what defines a person. You all have an aura yourself, even the gods do. An aura defines whether you are gonna be someone with a pure heart that does nothing but good, most of you demigods are like that; a neutral heart that doesn't follow a specific way of being, most humans are like that; or you can be a dark aura that does everything that is seen as bad, most monsters are this. Now, what this has to do with the Shadow Spirits is this. When you die, your soul completely goes to the Underworld, but not your whole being does, your aura stays behind in an invisible form that can either help others, or hurt them. Pure hearted auras are what modern people might call their good luck, they might push you to do something that is good, might pop into your head and help you throughout your life. Neutral auras are what you might call karma, as you should know many people believe that there is a good karma just as there is a bad one, neutral beings present this to us, if you do something good, they might use the 'good karma' and help you and vice versa. They also have an invisible form. Now, the cold hearted auras, they aren't anything in particular, just full out awful is what they are. They can do many things that will have bad results, they might invade your mind and put an idea in there, some of the reasons people turn insane. These bad auras if you may, aren't completely invisible. They can undertake the form of a shadow, but this takes them many years of effort, and it sometimes completely drains their powers making them fade into nothing. These are the very beings you fought against. Do you understand now?" Apollo finished. Everyone was left in stunned silence, well some of us anyways.
"Wait a minute, why were there so many of them today though, there were at least a hundred of them, if it's so hard to become physical for them, then why were there so many?" Annabeth asked.
Apollo got a serious look on his face again. "That question is up for debate even by us the gods, why there were so many of them is very hard to answer. Not to mention the fact that they were all together and fighting alongside the regular monsters of the myths. It's a very rare occurrence for even one shadow to do that, you see, Shadow Spirits never make allies, they go up against anything they see. So really, for hundreds of the Shadow Spirits to be focused on just fighting you demigods, well that is just peculiar." Apollo remarked.
"As if it wasn't already peculiar when we saw dozens of these shadow thingys coming at us. Now it's just downright creepy." Travis Stoll said seriously, something new on him. Apollo just nodded. Annabeth's head perked up.
"There's only one option. Apollo, did these things show up during the First Giant War?" She asked.
"They did indeed, but they were not nearly as controlled as they were today. The Shadow Spirits that we fought against in the First Giant War were erratic to say the least. Many of them attacked other monsters, some even fought each other. They were on the Giants side for sure though." Apollo answered.
"Then that can only mean one thing, the giants are rising once again." Annabeth remarked with a look of terror.
Apollo's expression just saddened. "It's understandable that you would come up with that idea, Athena herself did as well, many of us gods have come to that horrible conclusion as well. Nothing is for certain though. Even if that is the most likely alternative, there could be something else completely new this time. It's peculiar how it could possibly happen during this time as well, it can't be anything good at all." He dreamily replied.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Oh nothing, the time for that will come later on." Apollo replied.
None of us decided to pursue whatever it was that he was talking about. I pondered everything that he had talked about. Shadow Spirits? Giants rising again? None of this is going to be easy on us demigods, that much is certain. We all just sat there thinking about what could possibly come from everything that we just discussed, most of the counselors from the newer cabins seemed terrified, which was understandable, they weren't used to these things that were bound to happen.
"Looks like my time here is up, you know us gods can't have much to do with you demigods. Sorry guys." Apollo said sheepishly.
"Oh, and I'm proud of you Will, you've grown to be a great leader for our cabin." He remarked. Will just smiled.
"Close your eyes guys." He said as we all felt him turn to his true form in a bright light then disappear.
"Wow. Just wow." Conner said.
We all just sat there in silence waiting for Chiron to say something. "Now that all that is over with, I think it'd be best if you all went to get some rest. We are starting training first thing tomorrow morning, make sure your cabins are prepared."
He said as we all stood up. We walked out of the Big House in disturbing silence. We just went through one war, now another? The life of a demigod is harsh, that's for certain.
I sighed. "I'm going to bed guys, we have very tough times coming to us. Night." I said as I went over and gave Annabeth a kiss. Travis and Conner, even through all the seriousness, still managed to wolf whistle at us, I just rolled my eyes. We all dispatched and went to our respective cabins. I couldn't sleep at all that night, nightmares of the Shadow Spirits haunted me the whole time. I rolled out of bed and looked out the window as I felt the ground shaking. The vibrations just increased bit by bit. Before I knew what was going on a bright white light shone throughout camp that forced me to shut my eyes. The vibrations still increasing to the point I was leaning back against the wall, as objects from around the cabin fell and shattered.
Then it all stopped and there was an eerie silence around camp, before I heard Nico's voice. "What the Hades was that?!" He shouted.
The campers started pouring out of their cabins, all in their pj's. This made me laugh on the inside. Leo came out holding a fluffy pink bear, that was what made me start barking with laughter.
"What? It's not mine, it's Nyssa's." He blushed as he gave it to Nyssa, who just glared at him and threw it back in the cabin.
I heard a bunch of loud gasps, as I looked over to the center of the camp, where right next to Hestia's hearth was a gaping dent, it must have been at least thirty feet across. Nobody dared go see what was at the center of the hole, where there was still a bright light that went straight up, all the way into outer space. Nico and I gave each other a glance before coming to a silent agreement to go check out the hole. We slowly walked over to the hole before looking over.
"Holy Zeus!" Nico grunted.
There lying in the center of the pit, which must have been another thirty feet deep, were lying two teenage kids. Probably no older than fifteen years old. A girl and a boy were laying there, seemingly unconscious, when suddenly the boy gave a very loud growl before putting his arm around the girl. That was when the rest of the demigods decided to go and see what was going on. Annabeth and Thalia came and stood next to me; Piper, Leo, and Jason went and stood on the other side, next to Nico.
"Oh my!" One camper shouted.
"Who are they?" Another asked.
I looked over at Jason, he just nodded and came over to me, grabbed my arm before we jumped into the pit. Nico disappeared into the shadows before appearing next to them as we were still falling, Jason suddenly pulled on my arm before we landed, using his flying powers to soften the fall. Nico was kneeling over the girl as we went and stood over the guy. They were clearly unconscious. Nico grabbed them both by the arm and disappeared into the shadows again, before reappearing next to the others. He had gotten really used to Shadow Traveling lately, he could do it and lose the minimum of energy from it. He liked to call it Instantaneous Shadow Traveling, that little DBZ nerd. Even though he had changed a lot after Bianca's death, he still had that childish side in him, the side that still loved kid shows and action figures. Jason came over and grabbed my arm before flying back to the top of the pit. We, as in; Jason, Leo, Nico, and I had this way of communicating that didn't need speech. We just understood each other that well. We landed by the girls, before walking back over to Nico and the two strangers.
"Hey Willy, can you come over here a minute?" Leo, who had reached them before us, called at him.
Will just snarled at the name, while he reluctantly walked over to us.
"Could you see if there is anything wrong with them?" Nico asked.
"Um, sure." He said hesitantly.
He walked over, first laid a hand on the guys chest, as his hand radiated a bright light.
"Next time I need a flashlight, I'll call you over." Leo joked, even though he had an uneasy look on his face. Will ignored him this time. He just continued with his work as everyone stared in anticipation.
"Who could they be?"
"Where did they come from?"
The murmurs could be heard from all around.
The light then disappeared. "They seem to be in a case of deep sleep. Very deep to be honest." Will finished with a sigh.
"Any idea of what could have caused it?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
"Nope, nothing." He answered. Another eerie silence.
"Valeria…" The guy said in his sleep, as he again put his arm over the girl.
"Well, yanno, the regular way of waking someone up is by shaking them. Nothing special is really needed." I snorted at Leo's comment.
He then walked over, kneeled down, and gently started shaking the girl.
She started moaning over and over. "Alexis… baby…" She moaned.
Leo immediately backed off. "Um, Leo? What was that about?" Nico asked.
Leo blushed. "That guy is very scary looking, and I think this is his girlfriend, I'd rather not be seen even touching her." He said as everyone just snickered at him.
All of a sudden, the girl's head perked up. "Alexis? ALEXIS!" She shouted as she started shaking the guy.
"See what I mean?.." Leo mumbled, as I just chuckled at him.
I then walked over to her. I put a hand on her shoulder, that was when she noticed all the demigods standing around her.
"Who are you people? And what have you done to my boyfriend?" She asked angrily.
That was when the guy, Alexis I'm guessing, gave a moan.
His head perked up and looked at us. "Where am I?" He asked.
"Oh, you're okay!" The girl said as she ran over and put his head on her lap.
"You guys are at Camp Half-Blood. We want to know where you came from though. Gave us quite the scare there." Jason remarked.
They both acknowledged us then. "Camp Halfwha?" Alexis asked with a confused look on his face.
"We'll explain all that later if needed. Right now we want to know where you came from, who you are, and what you are doing here." I said.
Chiron seemed awfully quiet the whole time we were here, I wonder what's up with him.
"Um well, to be honest, I don't even know what I'm doing here, do you Valeria?" He turned towards the girl. She also got a confused look on her face.
"No, last I remember is being in that movie theater with you, before a bright light came over us and now we're here. I don't know what could have possibly happened." She replied.
"Well, I think that we should all go to bed, except you two. Come with me." Chiron said. "Percy, Jason, Nico, Leo, Annabeth, Piper, and Thalia. You all come with me as well please." He said as we were all already turning to walk over to our cabins.
I yawned. "Come on guys, we might be needed." Annabeth said.
We followed her and Chiron back towards the Big House, the two strangers right behind Chiron. In the dark it was hard to make out their features, the only thing I could really make out was their height, the girl seemed to be about five foot' four, while the guy was probably about six feet, maybe a bit taller. He seemed on the skinny side, probably not very strong. Never underestimate someone by their looks though, that's something I have come to learn over time. I could actually feel the energy and power surging from around him, he had power that could probably rival Nico, and that's something. The girl seemed powerful as well, have to keep an eye on those two for sure.
We walked into the Big House as Chiron turned on the lights. I finally got a good look at them. The girl had long black hair that went mid back, she had a bit of a tan, and she has sea green eyes. She wore faded black skinny jeans, white converse sneakers, a blue spaghetti top, with a white pullover sweater. She was definitely very pretty, I obviously wasn't the only one who thought that, the other guys were staring at her too. Then I looked at the guy, sure he may be on the skinny side, but I could tell what Leo saw in him being scary. He had shaggy raven colored hair, but the tips were purple for some reason, he had olive skin and a scar that went from his right eyebrow to a couple centimeters under his eye, it looked painful. He was dressed in khaki colored skinnys, black converse high tops, and a plain white v-neck. The most astonishing part about him, was the fact that he has purple eyes. Scary to be honest. He didn't look like the type of person I would want to be friends with, that is, until he looked at the girl and gave her one of the greatest smiles I've ever seen, it was obvious that he had great feelings for her. The shine in their eyes when she smiled back made even Nico smile, and that's something.
Anyway, we all took a seat around the ping pong table again, me sitting next to Annabeth this time. Nico was sitting on my other side. We were facing the two strangers, who sat between Thalia and Jason, Piper on his other side with Leo next to her. Chiron stood over up by the door.
"Okay, now that everyone is settled down, we'd like to know about you guys." Chiron said to the two kids.
"I'd like to know what the hell this place is first." The guy growled at us. Everyone seemed uncomfortable at his aggression. He definitely didn't seem like the type to mess with.
"We will tell you after, can you at least tell us your names?" Jason asked. The guy sighed, immediately dropping the 'don't fucking mess with me' attitude.
"Fine, my name is Alexis Reus." He said hesitantly.
"And you?" Thalia asked the girl.
She seemed more uncomfortable than Alexis, until he looked at her and nodded his head. "My name is Valeria Torres." She said even more reluctantly than the guy.
As soon as she said that though, a sea green light shone above her head. I smirked at this, knowing what was coming next. After the light wore off there was a symbol floating above her head. Everyone was staring it in awe, but then something else happened. A dark purple light shone across the room, Nico's eyes widened at this, because shining above Alexis' was another symbol. Everyone's eyes widened even more at this new installment.
"Hail Alexis Reus, son of Hades. Hail Valeria Torres, daughter of Poseidon."
A.N: Hey guys, I hope you liked the first chapter in my story. I'm sorry if I get anything wrong in them. I'm on vacation and I don't have many references. But yeah, review!