The Chaos Twins

Chapter One

(Percy)

The Greeks and Romans have finally made peace. It was a year after the Giant War, and I was glad to finally be back home. Camp Half-blood and Camp Jupiter have combined, using CHB for training and CJ for college and homes for us half-bloods. Some people weren't happy with this arrangement (*cough* Octavian *cough*), but I loved it. Things have calmed down a lot, except for the constant stream of new kids, and the occasional monster. But then again, that was part of being a half-blood.

But my day was about to be really messed up, really, REALLY messed up.

Two black clothed figures stood on the hill, by Thalia's pine tree. Naturally, everybody wanted me to go see whether or not they were monsters wanting to kill us. Yay.

So I dressed in my armor and started walking up the tall hill. I was pleased to find that Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Nico, Frank, Hazel, and Leo fell in step behind me as I trekked. Once a team, always a team, and I was glad they we still could work together after the war without too many problems. Half way up, I pulled out Riptide, my handy sword, and I heard the others sliding their weapons out of their sheaths. Glancing back, and seeing the looks on their faces, well… let's just say I'm glad they were on my side.

The shorter hooded person rested their hand on the hilt of a sword strapped to their waist. A moment after that, the taller one grabbed the hilt of their weapon too, but they made no move to attack. They were starting to make me nervous. By now I could tell that they looked human, the shorter one female, and the taller one male. They wore black hooded cloaks that covered their faces and feet. A flash of silver underneath the hem of the hoods led me to believe they were wearing masks.

On the top of the hill, I stopped about three feet away from the pair, on the other side of the magical barrier. "Can we help you?" I asked, carefully keeping my tone level. "If not, well let's show you the way out of here. It can be the painless way, or the not-so-painless way. You decide."

(Nota)

I warily watched the armed entourage make its way up Half-Blood Hill, and laid my hand on the hilt of my sword, Angelusmortem in Latin, or Άγγελοςθανάτου in Greek, or Angeldeath in the common tongue. I knew these people, and they should have been dead a long time ago. The last time I saw them was almost five hundred centuries past.

My brother, Animosus, shifted his weight next to me, and put his hand on his own sword, Nocteanimam, or νύχταψυχή, or Nightsoul.

"Ani, I don't think tha -" I started.

"We have our orders Nota," Animosus cut me off. "We are here to help them, but we will have to hide our identities, unlike originally planned."

He was right, of course. After almost 5 centuries of training, our leader decided that Animosus and I were ready for our first assignment on earth. We had our orders, and were expected to follow them.

This is the first time we have dealt with anything more intelligent than talking cows, and from what I hear about most humans, the cows are a close second on the intelligence meter. Sure, there were smarter life forms than that, like the living robots in the Andromeda Galaxy, or the flesh-eating panda Pillowpets© in the UDFj-39546284 Galaxy. I've never been to either of those places, for there was no reason to. Their societies were too sophisticated to allow a corrupt politician that needed discreetly killed into office, or a rampaging serial killer that needed to disappear wander around their cities. But nobody expected Percy, Annabeth, and Nico to still be alive. That was something that nobody could plan for. Not me, not Ani, not the gods, not even Him.

There were a bunch of new faces with them too. More potential enemies.

I've been told that I get angry pretty easily… so you shouldn't be surprised that when Percy not-so-subtly threatened me and my brother, it took a lot of will power not to separate his body from his head.

Ani laid one of his hands on my shoulder. "Nota…" He warned.

The blond boy stiffened. "Kind?" he questioned. Oh, he can speak Latin. Maybe he was one of the Romans that He had told us about. They combined camps shortly after Ani and I left.

"Sed hoc est quod significat nomen meum. Nota mihi nomen est, hoc est, ipse meus frater, et Animosus. Unum te puto Romanorum?" I said.

The boy nodded and replied, "Ita sum. Et est nomen meum Jason Grace. Et qui mecum sunt, Perseus Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Piper McLean, Frank Zhang, Leo Valdez, Hazel Lévesque, Nico Di Angelo." He pointed to each of the people as he said their names. I knew most of them, but there were some new faces.

Annabeth was rubbing her temples like she had a headache. "Not all of us can speak fluent Latin Jason," she said. "Let's go back to English, okay?"

"Sorry," Jason smiled. "Habit. But who are you? Why are you here?"

"We were sent by the gods," Ani said. "For now, we are inspectors. Later we might be trainers, teachers or even warriors."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Piper spoke up. Charmspeak flowed through her words, trying to convince me to spill all of my secrets (an act that would take many years), but the magic had no effect on me. Being impervious to most magic was one of the upsides to my job.

"Save your voice Piper," I scolded in a cold voice, hiding my smile. "You should know not to tip your hand until your opponent will be affected."

There was an awkward silence, in which we stared each other down, two against eight. I didn't like their chances.

"But I'll soothe your fears," I smirked. "Apollo!"

There was a flash of golden light, and the god appeared.

"I was napping Nota," he yawned. "So this better be important."

"We just need you to verify us," Ani said.

"I hereby declare that Animosus and Nota were sent to help you, as a god I allow them access into both camps, thunder boom, yada yada yada, did I get everything?"

"Yes, go back to where ever you were," I replied and waved. Apollo was one of my favorites, even though he was lazy and slightly annoying.

Another flash of light and Apollo was gone. Ani and I stepped past the magical camp border, and moved closer to the group.

"So now that we're all so chummy," Leo proposed, "Why don't you show us your faces? I'd like to know who I am working with."

I scowled. "That wouldn't be a very good idea."

"Why not?"

"How do we put this…?" Ani thought for a moment. "We don't have faces. It could very possibly make you go insane."

"These aren't our physical bodies," I simplified. "Just think of a remote controlled faceless mannequin."

And that of course, was a lie. If anyone knew who we really were... let's just say that would be really bad.

Animosus and I were twin assassins. We killed for the good of the people, assassinating tyrants, making murderers disappear. We've been all over the universe, trying to keep the balance between good and evil. And now it was Earth's turn. We haven't set foot on this soil for over 5 hundred years. Everyone we knew should have been dead.

We were once campers here at Camp Half-blood, a very long time ago during the second Titan war. But after a series of accidents, we were taken somewhere safe by an immensely powerful man. This same man made us immortal and trained us to be professional killers, numbing all our emotions except anger, and helping us see our victims as objects so we would feel no mercy towards them. After that we went around the universe doing his works.

We were here because there was a spy in the camp, and Animosus and I were to get rid of them in the cleanest and safest way possible.

Turns out that was going to be harder than any of us thought.