Disclaimer: Don't own 'nything except for my drug-induced one liners.

i've been waiting (HEY!), think i wanna make a move: Dark!Sarcastic!STRAIGHT!Percy, BotL divergence. Features normal and snarky teenagers who "don't talk like it's a Renaissance fair here either," quoting some guy on this site who I forgot. Bless his soul, whoever he is. Anyways, character-driven with a lot of action (I'm trying my hand at action scenes – I know some martial arts and stuff, so I know how a lot of physical fights flow), and skating the fine line between crack and serious. Honestly, it goes back and forth depending on how sober I am.

Sorry if you don't understand the American slang. Anyways, enjoy my subpar writing. =)

Dawn

- Prologue: Part I of II -

"War does not determine who is right – only who is left."

—Bertrand Russell

"The fall of the Fifth Age was undoubtedly the biggest revolution in the history of man, and will continue to remain so possibly until the end of time. For mortals: an event analogous to this would have been a house fly overthrowing the former British Empire.

Mortals and immortals alike broke free from the bounds of oppression – the tyranny of our own deities, our supposed creators. A council of paranoid, corrupted, and prideful bigots that couldn't even keep their own family held together, much less the entire world.

This fact will lead us to segue into the main idea of this text: people are simply people, gods are simply gods. But, heroes on the other hand – what is a hero, but a God? Do you understand?

—Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Liberator of the Former Twelfth Legion, in Introduction to Hyper-Contemporary Philosophy: Mortals & Immortals, Gods and gods.

They were ten minutes behind schedule. I was annoyed.

Who's they, Percy?

Well, I can't really say, despite the fact that most of the time it's glaringly obvious. Names have power – the very first rule taught to us as demigods was to never, ever speak an immortal's name without absolute and utter reverence. And the reason why is because there's always somebody listening. The names of such powerful beings have significance, they have meaning – they're the manifestation of one's identity. Intoning such power only can – and only will – attract unwanted attention to you.

We couldn't afford said attention drawn to us for obvious reasons. Therefore, we would always refer to an immortal figure by a pronoun, by a title, by a nickname – never their name. He, she, fucker, they, them… it was a relatively confusing for a bit, but we all got used to it.

It was a bit odd if you thought about it enough: the fact that gods were really only listening if you discussed them. Such petulance – kind of like those preteen girls back at Goode High.

Anyways, keeping that in mind…

They were ten minutes late. I was still annoyed.

"Look for a green flash when the sun goes over the horizon. It'll be quick and if you blink, you'll miss it," Katie Gardner told me as she took a hit from the joint, completely unconcerned that nothing was going to plan. She pointed at the setting sun with her free hand.

Slowly, I sat up from my supine position on the grass, breathing in the rather unique scent of marijuana. I took in the sight of the sun setting over the ocean… except it was the Atlantic Ocean. That wouldn't be a problem for, say Europeans or something, except that I was on the freaking East Coast of the United States. The mortals must be having a field day looking at this… fucking Apollo.

"Drunk off his ass again," I muttered, indicating the sun. "How hard can travelling from east to west be? He already always uses the autopilot."

"Autopilot," Katie repeated incredulously, understanding my use of "he."

"Autopilot," I confirmed. "He even has some device thingy to prevent him from going any direction but west. Wonder how that thing stopped working – last time it broke there was a week-long eclipse."

Katie let out a very un-ladylike snort. "It takes a pretty significant level of retard to fuck up on the level he just did."

"Yeah, and here I was thinking I was the dumb one." I grinned. Katie blew white smoke in my face in reply, and then offered the jay to me.

I looked at her questioningly. "Uhh, you sure? Don't really think now's a good time—"

"Good a time as any," she interrupted with a carefree smile, offering to me again. "You need it anyways, you're really strung up right now. If you ask me why they're late one more fucking time I'm going to punch you."

Eleven minutes late…

Eh, to Hades with it, why not?

I grabbed it and took a deep drag. I held the smoke in my mouth, tasting the exotic flavor.

"Three, two, one," Katie counted down and right on cue, I began to cough up a lung. "Gods." She laughed. "You think you'd stop coughing like a fucking amateur every time after a couple months."

"Fucking A," I gasped out. Fucking embarassing… My throat burned like Hades. "I'll never get used to that shit."

"Stop taking such big hits if you can't handle it, genius," Katie sardonically replied, reaching out with her hand and stealing the joint back. She then frowned and glared at me. "Asshole," she muttered as it began to fall apart in her hand, "you've got a talent there if you can somehow get enough of your spit on a joint in one hit to break the damn thing."

"That's like the fifth time you've done that," she continued, working herself up to pissed off. "You don't smoke with a fucking kissy face. Gods, it's like your only job in life is to spit on the jay until it falls apart."

Jeez, talk about an angry high…

"My bad," I apologized lamely, slightly stung by the sharp vitriol. I watched as she apparently decided that my damage was irreversible and extinguished the joint. She then tossed it onto the ground and grinded over it with her shoe.

When she lifted her foot off the remnants of the joint, a tiny flower could be seen sprouting in the grass. Demeter's daughter, ahah…

"That's feckin' trippy," I said eloquently, starting to feel the effects of the drug. I blinked twice rapidly and made to stand up but Katie grabbed my arm, stopping me halfway.

"Anyways, as I was saying," she continued, "the green flash is a symbol to demigods – one for conquering evil. The green is an embodiment of evil—"

"Because evil is totally always green," I interrupted. "Fucking racists." Yup, definitely feelin' it now, woooo…

Yeah, so I'm one-hit wonder. Sue me.

"Listen, Percy." Katie sighed through a grin that was threatening to break on her face. She wrenched my arm, pulling me down back to the ground in a heap. "The ray of green 'evil' flashes and then begins to expand," she continued, "but then it gets contained and crushed. Apparently by the setting sun and rising moon – forces of the gods."

I pondered that for a second with my drug-addled mind. Unlike Katie, who suddenly became philosophical and all wow-what's-the-secret-of-the-universe? whenever she was high, my brain usually just shut off. I was more inclined to stare at a wall and do nothing for two hours. This, of course led me to my eloquent response: "That's pretty fucking dumb."

"Pretty much," she agreed. "Literally it's just a demigod justification of an already-explained scientific phenomenon."

Also implying that Apollo and Artemis could ever work together…

I wasn't really smart enough to come up with an intelligent response to that, so I just nodded.

"So why bring it up if you think it's stupid?" I asked.

"Hard to crush evil when the moon and sun are always on different sides of the planet," Katie said sagely. Or highly – same difference. "Last time I checked, two objects can only crush something if they come together. Only time where this story could be true is when, well," she indicated the sun again, "he does stupid shit like this and sets the sun on the East."

I snorted. "Wonder who actually believes this crock of shit."

"I heard it all the time back when I was at camp," said Katie. "Guessing a lot of people do. Heh, you'd think the Cabin Six" – Athena – "kids would know better, being intelligent and all."

"WeirdI've never heard it at camp before."

"Too busy questing, I guess," she surmised.

"Can't believe anything unless it's properly cited, nowadays…"

Katie glanced at me from her sitting position and shook her head slightly when she realized I wasn't about to offer any more than that.

I glanced down at the scythe bracelet on my wrist, twisting it in my fingers. I was getting really worried now.

Fifteen minutes late… maybe the charm is broken?

Gods, some fucking good that weed did…

"So annoying," she finally snapped, grabbing my hand to prevent me from further fiddling with the trinket. "You're being more uptight than Reyna, and you're high as a fucking kite. Just wait like a normal person."

Who in Hades is Reyna…?

"Can't help it – it's the ADHD," I tried to explain, storing the Reyna slip-up in my mind. Not like she'd tell me if I asked, anyways… "I need more weed for the nerves, obviously."

"Yeah, your attention deficit half-wit disorder, maybe. If you didn't break the joint," she grumbled. She released my hand. Wow, tight grip – I reflexively curled my fingers to get some feeling back in my hand. "You owe me ten dollars for that, by the way."

"Wait, what?" I asked, utterly disbelieving.

"Yup. There was probably a gram in that joint you just ruined, an eighth is about three and a half grams and it's about forty dollars an eighth in New York, " she thought about it, doing the math, "yeah, about ten."

"You're mad about a gram when you can use your voodoo green thumb and grow an entire pound in a day, and you're mad about a gram."

"Hey, you're the guy who said not to mess with a stoner's weed. And it's the principle of the thing. You already got the dickhead discount anyways, stop complaining."

My lips twitched with amusement. "Ass."

Katie didn't reply. I left her to her thoughts, leaning back and enjoying my drug-induced euphoria. Could use some music, though…

We sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments before the charm suddenly heated up. I sat up – they were ready.

"Don't even fucking say—"

"Fucking finally," I all but shouted, annoyed all over again.

Katie punched me.

Footsteps approached us. Katie and I stood up and brushed the grass off our clothes; I nodded warily to the newcomer, who was already clad in full Greek battle armor. He didn't look very thrilled.

"You've been wearing that all day?" Katie greeted him. "It's the middle of August."

Ethan Nakamura gave her a simple nod. He sniffed the air, frowned, looked into our eyes, and if even possible frowned even deeper.

Heh, I guess the odor was rather distinct…

"I'm a swimmer," I explained, seeing the unasked question form on his lips. "I spend all day in the pool, that's why my eyes are so red."

"Nice save," Ethan muttered. He tossed each of us a small bottle filled with amber liquid. "Drink it."

I brought it up to my face to scrutinize. "This better be alcohol of some sort," I stated, twisting it slowly in the soft light. "Whiskey? Beer?"

"No."

"Oh. I'm good then. Thanks, though."

I was funny, I swear.

Katie rolled her eyes at our exchange. "What is it?"

"Sobriety potion," said Ethan. "The master thought you might need it – as you already know, he does not approve of your drug habit. He commissioned one of our Hecate children to make this for you."

"Just for me, huh," she said, at a loss for words. Well, it's not every day that you have evil, immortal deities making personal allowances for you—

"And him," Ethan clarified, pointing at me.

—unless you're me, of course.

"Drink it," he said. "We need to talk shop – w-we have a problem."

To that, he sounded a bit scared and unsure of what to do.

Poor Ethan, in way over his head – knew it was stupid to let him take point on this.

I exchanged a glance with Katie. She shrugged, perplexed. "Well, cheers to that," I said, clinking bottles with her. I uncapped it, tilted my head back and threw the liquid into my mouth, swallowing it like a shot of vodka. It burned like vodka as well, searing my throat. I felt my drug-induced haze vanish like waking up from a good dream. I cleared my throat.

"There, hope you're happy," I grumbled. "Such a waste of good weed."

"Maybe you shouldn't smoke before an operation," Ethan retorted.

"Maybe everybody shouldn't be fifteen minutes behind schedule. Then we wouldn't need to smoke to pass the time."

"We're late," Ethan stressed, "because we're fucked. Pretty sure we just lost the Princess Andromeda – communications can't reach them, mortal or magical."

My good mood evaporated like water in the desert.

"Wait, what?" I asked impulsively. "How the fuck does that even happen?"

"Dunno," Ethan said, scratching his head. "It was as hidden to them as a large, conspicuous cruise ship could be. It was invisible, the older sea gods were protecting it from your father, it was hidden even to us – honestly, we have no idea how they could have found it."

"We think it was the blacksmith's kid, Charles Beckendork or something," Ethan continued. "Spies reported he left camp unauthorized this morning – mortal news said something about a terrorist bombing off the coast today – that must have been it. If the attack had been done with any magical means, we would have noticed. He's the only person who would have been able to track the ship as well."

I frowned, thinking. Katie didn't react visibly at all but it was obvious she was annoyed as well – probably for different reasons than mine. But the Andromeda had been absolutely necessary, planted right off the coast to provide another front as well as preventing their only escape by sea. This changed everything – our chances of success just took a huge blow.

"Maybe we should hold off," I started slowly.

"We can't," Ethan said immediately. "Chiron and Argus return from Olympus tomorrow. It has to be tonight."

"The cruise ship was in place to prevent some Dunkirk evacuation. If we can't them off by sea then there's no poi—"

"We could do a pincer movement," Ethan said. "Encircle them."

"That only works well if they advance on us," I pointed out. "We can't guarantee that at all."

"Oh, we can," Ethan said. "They'll do anything to protect their home and their first instinct will be to fight back, odds be damned. The issue is the monsters – even with their numbers, they'd never be able to break through their line fast enough, if at all. They'll realize what we're doing and get out before they can be fully trapped."

I nodded – that sounded about right. "How many actual men do we have? Not monsters."

"Give or take thirty demigods; that would only enough for one side of the pinch."

"Only thirty?" I queried, annoyed. That seemed ridiculously low. Demigods were supposed to be the actual brunt of an army – monsters were just useful for their numbers and ability to be cannon fodder.

"All of our attack plans had the Andromeda factored in," Ethan defended himself. "We were only supposed to be half of the invading force. We have to work with it."

"I could join the demigod unit and we cut toward the coast line. If we just got close enough, I could probably singlehandedly stop them from using the sea at all, let alone escape on it."

Katie finally interjected. "No, not an option. You're our biggest asset only as long as they don't know your allegiance. Any control over water will give you away, or at least create some semblance of doubt."

"I'm not a feckin' spy, Katie," I said, emphasizing the last word.

She glared at me, no doubt understanding the meaning behind my words. "No, you're not – but to them, you're aligned with them. It's simply not worth it to show them your true loyalty for this attack. Don't be a dumbass."

"Jeez, just an idea," I muttered, slightly put out. Somebody's mad about her lack of intoxication… "Who's being uptight now? You just said semblance."

"We'll do the pincer," Katie finally decided with a nod of approval towards Ethan, ignoring my comment. "Either way, by the end of tonight, we'll have neutered their ability to guard the Eastern seaboard – and Olympus – with the loss of their East Coast base of operations. It won't matter if we can't fully block an evacuation. We'll focus on the chain of command instead – after all, an army is useless without leaders. I have people who can handle that."

Now it was my turn to what she meant. She couldn't be serious…

"When's go time?" Katie finished, cutting me off before I could get the words out of my mouth. Her tone made it clear that she wasn't going to waste any more time arguing about it either.

"Ten minutes," Ethan said, apparently realizing this as well. "I need to go brief everybody else. Doubt you guys would listen to me if I told you to come with—" you're damn right about that, "—so just be ready. You know your jobs?"

"Yes."

"Then good luck," Ethan said. He offered his hand and I shook it. He did the same to Katie, who just raised an eyebrow in return, eyeing his proffered hand disdainfully. Damn, rejected… "I'll see you two soon," he said, face burning from embarrassment.

We watched him walk away. Once I was sure he was out of earshot, I turned to Katie. "No."

Katie didn't seem to hear me. She was staring at something behind me.

"Something's going—" Her eyes widened, and she quickly pulled me down onto the grass into a prone position. She tapped our scythe charms once, and I felt a cold shiver run through my body as the charm rendered us completely invisible.

"Never use the invisibility charm unless it is an absolute emergency," the master had said in a caveat to all who had been rewarded with one. "it uses your life force to power the charm – five minutes maximum before you start to feel symptoms of exhaustion, within ten minutes you'll be dead. Because vanishing from the eyes of the gods themselves can never be achieved without a price."

"Katie, what the fu—"

She cut me off, shaking her head rapidly. I scratched my head tiredly and followed her gaze to look at the hill leading towards Half-Blood Hill. Thalia's tree could be seen in the distance, leaves rocking back and forth in the slight breeze. Under it laid the Golden Fleece, shimmering in all its glory. And then there was Puff – I mean Peleus, the magic dragon, hidden beneath an invisibility charm not unlike ours. And behind it was the camp – today's target.

In the pale orange sky, it all looked rather ominous.

Then I saw what got Katie so worried. A group of people could be seen walking along the border. There haven't been any patrols larger than two people since Peleus… what in Hades is going on? Katie tensed next to me, slowly drawing her dagger from its sheath.

The patrol scanned the hill, allowing me to get a better look from this distance. They were dressed in silvery-gray garb, had long hair, and seemed to flicker with silver light in the soft light of the sun…

These better not fucking be…

As if responding to my thought, one of the figures barked an order to the others, and they spread out to man a post right along the border. A bow materialized in each of their hands, and they each looked plenty menacing.

…Hunters.

"Well, this is a problem," Katie muttered.

At least they didn't bring their freaking wolves with them.

Katie and I didn't move a muscle, for good reason. Less than fifty yards away were the most dangerous pre-pubescent girls on the planet. We were pinned in place – we didn't have any ranged weapons, and they'd hear us if we moved. They were that good.

Twice, their roaming eyes had already passed over our hiding spot in the grass.

…five, six, seven of them, I counted. Just an envoy, it seems...

"There probably aren't any more in the camp," I whispered to Katie. "I know how Thalia operates, she likes a large show of force to discourage any attacks. So if they're patrolling with only seven hunters – which is a weird number for a patrol anyways – it means that they'll only have seven total."

That wasn't the main problem though. The Hunter patrol is going to ruin any element of surprise tonight, I thought to myself – it was essentially impossible to take seven of them out in one fell swoop. From next to me, I knew Katie was thinking the same thing.

"Take the camp at all costs," the master had said. We weren't changing anything, despite the fact that we would now lose at least twice the manpower. Hunters were that good. Now I was happy Ethan was in charge – I wouldn't want to take responsibility for our losses.

"That's good, I guess," she replied absently. I could hear her fiddling with her bracelet to let Ethan know about the most recent development. We'd have to move our timetable up so Katie and I didn't exhaust ourselves to death sustaining the invisibility charm – hopefully Ethan could be competent for once and be ready in five minutes. Or else the Titan's Army would have lost two of its most valuable leaders.f

"Do you think they're here for us…?" I began, fearing the worst.

"Whaddaya mean?" she asked, still observing them closely.

"Like, do they know about the attack? We should have known about the attack on the Andromeda, our spies—"

"If you say one more word, I won't hesitate to hurt you," Katie interrupted. "Very, very badly."

I bit down the witty retort forming on my lips. "What? The possibility of betrayal is pretty high," I said instead, confused.

"She didn't betray us, Percy. She's one of the most loyal people we've ever met; she would never do that to us. You're friends with her – how could you even say something like that?"

I raised an eyebrow at that, but then realized she couldn't even see me since we were all invisible and stuff. "One plus one is two, Katie – I know how to godsdamn add. First no intel on the Andromeda, now this patrol?"

She ignored my reference. "There were two captured Hunters on the Andromeda."

"And?"

Katie gave me an exasperated look. "Don't be dense, Percy – it doesn't suit you. Beckendorf would have extracted them. The Hunters are here for them, no doubt."

"And the fact we never learned about the attack before it happened?"

"Beckendorf's paranoid about spies. We already know the operation was unsanctioned – he didn't tell anyone except for his crew, and we don't have a Cabin Nine spy."

"We have his girlfriend, Katie. He would have told his girlfriend, don't you think?"

Katie laughed bitterly. "You've got some nerve saying that," she said coldly. "A girl doesn't always know what her boyfriend does. I know that, you know that – hah, you know that better than anybody, don't you?"

A pregnant pause followed. Katie couldn't see the look on my face, but she must have known it was there. "Sorry," she suddenly said, and she sounded sincere. "That was way out of line. But Percy, we know Beckendorf is the worst fucking boyfriend in the history of ever. There's a good chance he didn't tell her. He even forgot their anniversary."

"Gee, what a heinous crime," I muttered. But Katie was right. I simply couldn't throw away months of trust away based off of one setback, but fuck, I was pissed. But if anybody deserved the benefit of the doubt, it was her.

"Just stop seeing the worst in people, okay?" I swear I heard Katie frown. "Cynicism is pathetic."

I scoffed. "It's preparing for the worst. And we should be prepared for the worst."

"Quoting me to me… smooth."

I ignored her light jibe. I thought about what Katie had said earlier about focusing on the chain of command. The fact that I found something wrong with systematically eliminating the enemy leadership honestly scared me.

"We need to use her tonight, right? For the counselors?" I continued, ignoring the quiet whispering of my conscience. I'd come too far and fought too fucking hard to back away now. "What are you going to do on the off chance that she actually did betray us?"

"The unlikely off chance," I added before Katie could eviscerate me with her words.

"I may be optimistic, Percy, but I'm not stupid. I'll send somebody in with her, and they'll incapacitate the counselors all out on the escape yacht. If she betrays us, the person will just take her down with everyone else."

"And you have somebody good enough for that?" I queried. Taking out the counselors was an impressive feat, especially if she turned out to be a traitor – heh, a traitor to being a traitor – and the person had to do it alone. I could definitely do it – Katie as well, possibly, but I've never known anybody else with that sort of combat proficiency.

"Yes" was her simple response.

"Who is this person? Do I know him?" I asked in curiosity.

"One of our operatives in California. And she's the best there is, a girl of many talents. She'll be able to get on the yacht without arousing suspicion. And no, I don't think you know her. But she knows you – not very fond of you, either. Something to do with you ruining her life?"

"Why is it always something I did when it comes to the ladies…" I grumbled rhetorically. "'dya know what I did to her?"

"Never bothered asking, to be honest."

There's a lie if I ever heard one… three minutes until my life force slowly starts to drain away… I need more weed…

"Hmm," I said noncommittally, turning my head again to observe the Hunters.

"Wondering if Ethan can get everything ready in three minutes," Katie wondered aloud, changing the subject with extreme guile. Just kidding. "I don't fancy dying."

"Katie," I then said, my conscience finally getting the better of me. I hated being pure of heart. "What are you going to do with the counselors?"

I heard her sigh from next to me – I could tell she was expecting me to say something like this. Katie and I's moral disparity often elicited heated arguments. Her ruthless pragmatism was something that I would never be able to understand.

"Well, I'm guessing you wouldn't like it if I had them all killed," she started.

"No," I agreed.

"So I convinced the master that um, the disposing of any more of the demigod population than we already have just would not suffice. We'll only kill the campers if necessary – the camp is their best shot at protecting Olympus. Without it, we could probably take Olympus without killing too much immortal blood."

I breathed in relief.

"However, the counselors are a different story – we need to neuter them enough to eliminate the campers as a fighting force," Katie finished.

My breath stuck in my throat. Shoulda let her finish…

"Katie," I whispered frantically, "you can't just kill the counselors. Please, there's got to be another way."

She sighed, again having expected me to say something like this. "What would you have me do, then?"

"I don't know," I admitted quietly. "But there's always another way. Katie, these people are our friends."

"Only you would say something like that." She scoffed. "These people were our friends. We made our choice, they made theirs. And there's no going back."

"Katie—"

"Shut up, Percy. Stop being such a hypocrite. You were perfectly okay with killing some nameless campers like you always have until we brought up the counselors."

"We can't afford to give them small mercies," she continued. "War is brutal, and they'd do the same thing to us if they could. Look at the Andromeda – there were at least fifty demigods on that ship."

"Fighting fire with fire doesn't make it right," I said quietly. I fucking hate war…

"Grow some balls," she said simply, not wanting to repeat the same argument we've been having for months. Then again, neither did I. "You joined us to make the world a better place, right? Well, right now it's a shithole. We're going to make it better, but we need to drag it just through a little more shit first."

She was half-joking, half-not – but as crude and nonsensical as that statement was, I couldn't help but believe it.

"Tear it down," I whispered.

"And build it up better," she finished for me.

Well, there's a cliché saying if I ever heard one…

"Do what you have to do, then," I finally conceded. I wouldn't be sleeping at night for a while. "Just promise me one thing."

"Name it."

"Don't kill Annabeth."

Katie sighed again. "Do you still like her, Percy?" There was no jealousy in her tone, only genuine curiosity as for why I would want to spare her. We had moved past the jealousy stage in our… relationship? Friendship? Neither of those words really described us accurately at all.

"I don't know," I replied honestly. "Probably. I… I just can't lose somebody else."

Annabeth and I had been through too much – tempered by the hottest flame, forged by the Fates and less than ideal circumstances… it was honestly hard to say what I felt for her. For anybody, really – I was really bad when it came to my emotions. The point was, I just couldn't let her die. Not after Grover. Tyson. Juniper. So many…

Katie heard the hitch in my voice. I thought I knew what she was thinking – pussy. But to my surprise, she reached over and squeezed my hand. "Okay, Percy. Okay."

There were way too many emotional vibes – way too many fucking feels – going through the air for my tastes.

Oh yeah, and there was a minute left before I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Death by exhaustion or death by arrow.

Fun.

My bracelet heated up in anticipation, breaking up the shitty atmosphere. It was a signal for us to get ready. Three.

"Maybe Ethan isn't completely useless after all. Four minutes and thirty seconds."

I stood up with Katie at my side, staring at Camp Half-Blood. I couldn't see her, but I could feel her empowering presence by my side. I stored the picturesque view of the camp in my mind – it would never look like this ever again.

It heated up again, warmer this time. It burned my skin. Two.

I uncapped my sword, comforted by the presence of the familiar object. It wasn't Riptide, but it'd have to do. Despite me not being able to see it, I could feel its soft bronze glow, shining with promise. Katie reached over and gave me a one-armed hug, and we stood unmoving.

"You want this," she said. "We're going to make the world a better place. This is the first step towards the Sixth Age."

That quashed the last bit of my conscience. I gripped my sword tighter in anticipation.

The charm heated up yet again. I definitely would need some burn ointment after this. One.

Katie and I flipped up the hoods of our jackets, each charmed with some face-concealing magic mumbo jumbo. After all, it wouldn't do us any good to have our secret identities revealed. Heh, superheroes.

I stopped, having just thought of something.

"Hey." I faced the air where Katie was with a grin. "Since this is like a military op type-o-deal, don't we get one of those cool operation names as well? Like Operation Barbarossa?"

I'm not sure, but I think I just used Hitler as an example of something cool…

"Well, since Ethan's in charge, technically it's his choice... but yeah man, Operation Percy's Retarded has now been commenced. Satisfied?"

"That's classified." I paused. "Damn, I've never gotten to say that before."

Katie laughed.

We hadn't bothered keeping our voices down so close to go time, so the Hunters' keen ears picked us up, even from well over a hundred feet away. Several stepped forward outside the boundary, trying to pinpoint the source of the noise. An easy ruse.

My bracelet glowed one final time, with a heat so intense that I was positive I'd have a scythe image branded into my wrist the next time I saw it. Execute.

Arrows whistled over my head, slamming into the Hunters that had stepped over the property line. Katie squeezed me with genuine affection one last time, and then together we severed the invisibility charm.

An army – our army, my army – appeared out of nowhere and stormed the hill. I could only but smile and join them in the glorious battle.

no, baby show me how to love you (tell me your name…): Part I of a two part prologue, mostly dialogue (sorry, it's a setup for the second part). The prologue is basically a really long glimpse into the future (character development and tone for the most part, along with the endgame of the first arc) – in the end, the thing was at least five freaking thousand words longer than planned (it wasn't even supposed to be split). Anyways, don't worry if you don't understand the hints because they'll be explained further in the story. The second part is mostly written – it's about 7500 words of Annabeth POV sequencing the battle – more fast-paced than this part, I swear. I'll finish it up sometime this week something. If anybody wants to beta it as well, that'd be dope because since I only write while intoxicated, I don't actually proof anything.

Cheers.

Prologue II Preview:

The Apollo cabin reacted first. They had been practicing archery along the lake edge, and thus were the closest to the action when it began. The air shimmered as the sky suddenly exploded with Apollo's magical arsenal – sonic, incendiary, and other arrows of all kind were unleashed at the enemy to devastating effect in a never-ending stream of rainbow color.

What was left of the Hunter envoy joined them a second later.

Ares's flying chariot flew overhead, pelting the enemy with Greek firebombs. Green fire rocked the world as monsters and men alike burned alive on the ground in the intense green flame, fusing together in a grotesque art display of body parts.

The rest of the cabins soon followed. Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of demigods – many of which were barely able to get any armor on – came running from the cabins like a dysfunctional riot. They met Kronos's army with all the heroism a half-blood could ever ask for, in a whirlwind of bronze and a battle cry that would make even Ares jealous.

Annabeth felt invigorated despite herself.

Grammar Polish: 06 November 2014. Credit - Tinkling Shards.