A/N: Hey guys! This is AK again, here with the latest chapter of the new arc of WIR! Hope you like it!
And, um, if you're wondering why I didn't update on Wednesday, it's because of something kind of traumatic. See, I have a younger sister. She's cute and nice and she likes hugs. She's a bit of a brat at times, but who isn't? But what happened was that... well.
She bit me.
On my forehead.
I'm still a bit shocked because she legit- yeah.
(I later came to know that it was my fault- I ate the cookies that she was saving for later. But still.)
Sigh.
Well anyways, don't let it get you down.
This chapter deals with the all too famous Campers vs. Hunters showdown.
But with the addition of the strategic wizard Annabeth, will Camp stand a better chance?
Book One
Third Arc: Creating Cross-Currents
Chapter 11: All's Fair in Love and War...
It was early afternoon, soon after lunch.
All the campers huddled around the camp fire, and Nico was no exception.
A hat, a scarf and a pair of gloves kept his extremities 'toasty-warm'.
They were a set, striped red and black, that he had borrowed from an older Camper.
Nico liked their soft, well worn feel.
It, coupled with the dancing hearth, brought to his mind the equally precious and fleeting memories of his mother's warmth.
He noticed a sweet looking girl by the fire.
Her hair was a mousy brown and her eyes a cozy red.
It was Hestia, and she was tending the flames.
He gave her a smile of gratitude.
The Goddess of Hearth and Home looked back at him fondly and tilted her head.
Following her direction, Nico turned to see Annabeth and Thalia calling for attention.
The other campers soon copied his action, and a hush fell over the fireside like snow on the lake.
Oh.
It was time.
"Okay, so now that we're all here, let's talk about today's Capture the flag," said Thalia, taking the lead.
"There are seventeen Hunters participating, so only seventeen of us will participate," continued Annabeth.
Varied noises of protest arose from the other campers.
The daughter of Zeus simply rolled her eyes and said,
"Yes, yes, we all want to get even with the Hunters, but rules are rules."
"The Athena Cabin will sit this one out, along with any of the others who want to be a part of the strategizing," said Annabeth.
"Those who are a part of this group will nominate the participants, but can't nominate themselves. I shall act as Captain. The meeting will start in an hour, anyone who'd like to attend, be there. Does everyone understand?" asked Thalia.
A general murmur of consent was heard and the crowd dispersed.
Nico wondered if he should stay back and strategize.
But after weighing pros and cons, he decided he didn't need to.
It was more organized than the last time.
And no one would pick the rookie.
At least, not this time.
Annabeth was more than capable of choosing the right members.
'And now,' thought Nico with a grin, 'lazy evening, here I come!'
But.
Nico had forgotten the fact that he had been picked the last time.
And that even though the timeline had been altered, it would take a greater effort to permanently change the weave of fate.
Nevertheless, we shall leave him to his delusions and observe the strategy meeting.
A strange sight could be seen that day in Camp Half Blood.
A weird, motley assortment of all the cabins came together to strategize.
As soon as everyone settled, Mariana, the Aphrodite representative, set her hands on the table and spoke up,
"Silena demands that the Aphrodite cabin should participate in this game. Directly."
Annabeth nodded once.
She understood that certain limits had been crossed.
The children of Love had a vendetta to carry out.
A personal vendetta.
May Olympus help those who get in their way.
"We will see what we can do. But rest assured. There will be at least one participating member from Aphrodite."
Mariana nodded, appeased, and sat back.
"Why don't we start with the nominees? Who do we take from Ares?"
"I propose we take the top three fighters."
The names were quickly given and jotted down after much discussion.
Percy's and Charles's names soon followed.
Silena was chosen as the representative from Aphrodite.
It was partly because she was the Councilor for Aphrodite.
But mostly, it was because she had the most potent charm speak in Camp.
One other camper from Hephaestus was also added to the list, followed shortly by the Stoll brothers.
Drew too was added, followed by two Apollo campers and one from Demeter.
"The three remaining slots are left open for nomination," declared Thalia.
Two of the three were quickly filled with crowd favorites.
"I'd suggest we set someone as bait in the defense group," started Annabeth.
"If so, I recommend Nico di Angelo," said Malcolm suddenly.
He got some startled looks at the wildcard entry.
"The new kid?" asked an Apollo kid, sounding skeptical.
"Yeah," confirmed a Hermes kid, "Are you sure, though? He's a midget. He looks like he'd get crushed by the Hunters."
"I remember training him today," Put in one of the Ares children, "He was pretty good with the bow for his age. I say we could give him a shot."
"Yeah. And it's not like Malcolm to open his mouth fer nothin'. Kid must have somethin' good."
"But do you really think we should pit him against the Hunters first off?"
"Yes, I think he'll do well," said Annabeth with a gleam in her eye, "The boy has a good eye for detail. It could come in handy this evening. The Hunters specialize in stealth and the forest is their home turf. I think we should put him on defense."
"Does the nomination hold?" called Thalia.
A general sound of assent was made, though some grumbles were not unheard.
"So is it settled, Nico di Angelo for seventeenth spot."
"Now for the battle plan…"
The names of the participants were given out a few hours before the game.
Along with the names of the teams themselves.
Nico was surprised that he was chosen until Annabeth had taken him to the side.
She gave him a few pointers, told him not to overthink it and that he should just have fun.
So.
Fun it is.
Fun.
...
Nico observed the participating campers arranging themselves into their respective teams.
He supposed that the Aphrodite members, Silena and Drew, were put together because of their charm speaking capacity.
It sure wasn't because of their ability to work seamlessly with each other.
But since Annabeth was going with them, they would probably be alright.
They were on team Pigmy-puff, along with a few others.
Thalia was the head of team Jabberwocky.
She had Archers from the Apollo and the Ares Cabin with her.
They sat to one side now, fiddling with their bows.
They looked nervous, but that was understandable.
Team Quicksilver consisted of the fastest sprinters.
Nico recognized a few by their faces, but not by their names...
On Team Watch Tower, apart from him, were the Stolls, Percy and Charles.
Percy was about to protest about being in defense, but withdrew his case relatively quickly when Annabeth glared at him.
Nico spotted Percy as the latter sulked in a corner.
Nico had to admit that he felt a bit ridiculous.
A chest plate several sizes too big settled heavily on his shoulders.
His helmet was more of a hindrance than help, the plume tickling his nose uncomfortably.
Nevertheless, he walked up to the Son of Poseidon- he wanted to reenact a certain historic moment.
"Percy, this is awesome!" Nico exclaimed, hefting his heavy sword up, not without effort.
Percy looked at him and blinked.
Maybe it was a trick of the light, but for a second, Nico was sure that the corners of Percy's mouth tilted up just a little bit.
He dutifully squashed the little skeletal butterflies in his stomach.
"Do we get to kill the other team?"
"Well… no,"
Okay, that was definitely a smile.
"But the Hunters are immortal right?"
"That's only if they don't fall in battle. Besides-"
What?
Why was he smiling?
Was he secretly a psychopath the whole time?
(A/N: now, wouldn't that be a twist...)
"It would be awesome if we just, like, resurrected as soon as we were killed, so we could keep fighting, and-"
"Nico, this is serious. Real swords. These can hurt."
Nico looked at him with disappointment flooding his features.
And three... Two... One…
Percy's face crumpled.
Right on schedule, Nico smiled to himself.
Percy awkwardly patted Nico on the shoulder.
Thankfully, it was the Percy he knew.
And not a psychopath.
"Hey, it's cool. Just follow the team. Stay out of Zoë's way. We'll have a blast."
Chiron's hooves thundered on the pavilion floor.
He gave the rules of the game in a loud booming voice, commanding the attention of the entire camp.
"Sweet," Nico whispered on cue, "What kind of magic items? Do I get one?"
"Blue team, follow me!" called Thalia.
Nico allowed himself to fall behind in the mad scramble to get in position.
Percy tripped on one of the campers' shields in his haste to catch up to the rest of the team.
Nico thought it was adorable.
They set the flag high up in Zeus' fist.
After Thalia gave a quick recap of the plan, the first team - Silena's decoy group - went their way.
The other teams took off in quick succession.
Finally, Thalia went in with her campers.
And so, the guard group was alone.
After a while, Nico noticed that Percy was getting a bit restless.
Percy had started to climb up the pile of rocks.
Nico started to climb up after him.
"Uh, Nico. I'm not entirely sure that's safe…"
"Yeah, I guess not. But it's not like it has lava pouring down from it so I think I'll be fine."
Percy was silent for a while as he tried to ignore him, but ultimately failed.
"You- Can you please stop that," he said finally.
Nico gave him an icy look in reply.
Yeah, he was pathetic.
He would have cried if he hadn't discovered this early on.
As it was, he was getting seriously frustrated.
And Percy wasn't helping matters.
So.
Target number one.
Locked on.
"I want to come too," said Nico, dead serious.
"Yeah, I get that, but-"
"I want to come too."
Percy looked surprised at his vehemence.
"Nico, no. It isn't safe-"
"I don't care," he full-out wailed, "I want to come too."
Nico had this feeling that Percy had never been on the receiving end of a temper tantrum before.
Looks like he was right.
(It was a strange to see the doting brother of Estelle so inexperienced with children-
It was almost as strange as thinking of himself as a child.)
The son of Poseidon looked at the other three guards for help.
They wisely stayed out of it.
Finally, Percy managed to form a coherent plan and said,
"Look kid, I really don't think it's the best idea-"
"I want to- *hic* I want to too!"
Percy balked at the sign of tears.
On the inside, Nico was laughing until tears came out.
Seems like the guy hadn't seen crocodile tears ever before.
He started to flounder about, trying to appease him and dissuade him at the same time.
Nico just looked at him and waited him to cave.
Three… two… one.
"Fine. You can come too… if you can manage to climb up."
Percy actually looked smug.
As if something as simple as that could thwart him.
Nico smirked inwardly.
He turned to the Stoll brothers.
Targets two and three.
Acquired.
He widened his eyes in anticipation.
His lower lip trembled with the promise of tears should he not get what he wanted.
The two grinned at each other.
They grabbed each of his arms and hauled him up.
Soon, Nico stood next to Percy with a cheek splitting grin.
Percy was staring aghast at the two whom he'd assumed, without asking, were his allies.
But then his bafflement melted into seriousness as he surveyed the forest.
Nico followed his lead.
Nico caught a glimpse of team Quicksilver, the scouts.
They were being scouted by three of the Hunters themselves.
(He wondered how long it would take for them to notice...)
He caught sight of Team Pygmy-puff while they were running through a clearing.
Seven of the Hunters ran after them.
They were led deep into the woods and away from Thalia.
At least that plan seemed to be working.
He spotted another clump of Hunters heading to the right, bows pointing towards the trees.
Whoops, they must have caught sight of Thalia.
But they were only a third of the remaining Hunters.
Thalia's group outnumbered the Hunters.
They should be able to hold their own.
Nico was able to make out the Hunters flag and the people guarding it.
Nico slowly did the Math.
Unless he missed one or two of them…
There were four Hunters who were about to ambush them.
Meanwhile, Percy looked at Charles and asked,
"Can you guys hold the fort?"
Charles snorted, "Of course."
"No, we can't," Nico found himself saying.
Charles looked confused.
"What do you mean?"
"Something's wrong. Crunching the numbers, there are four Hunters that are AWOL," Nico frowned,
"Of course, I may be wrong and maybe I just missed them in the forest- but one of them is Zoë Nightshade, and I don't think I'd like to take the chance,
My guess is that they're going to ambush us. I'm a novice, so they'd overpower me in a heartbeat. And not even Beckendorf can take them two to one. To make things grimmer, they specialize in teamwork. Sorry Jackson but we need you here."
The other three campers at the foot of the rocks looked rather impressed at his little speech.
"Whoa, little Guy! When did you get so good at strategizing?"
"Mythomagic."
"Of course," Travis snorted.
"Of course!" Nico beamed.
"Well, good going."
"You've got a good head on your shoulders," said Beckendorf with a huge grin.
He gave Nico a hearty pat on the back as he slid to the ground.
Nico suddenly found his feet extremely interesting as he felt his blood rush to his ears.
"But the flag-" Percy protested weakly.
Nico felt his patience swiftly deteriorating.
"But I just-"
"C'mon, Perce. Do you want to risk getting zapped by Thalia?"
"Or getting screamed at by Annabeth?"
"Or getting creamed by the Hunters?"
"But- c'mon guys! It's a golden opportunity!" Percy ran a hand through his hair in frustration.
"Don't you believe in yourselves? I'm sure that you can handle one extra Hunter, don't you think? If we pull this of... just think! We'll get one up on the Huntresses and make Camp history! And you're just gonna let it slip away 'cause a twelve-year-old kid just-"
Nico saw red.
"A twelve-year-old kid just what?" he cut in.
An uneasy silence settled between a brow-knit Nico and a white-lipped Percy.
"…Nico, why don't you go instead?" said Connor.
"Yeah...You said it yourself- you're the only one whose absence won't make a difference in man-power," backed up Travis.
Nico looked at them in disbelief.
Beckendorf seemed to pick up on his anger.
"Guys, that was mean-"
But Nico wasn't listening.
He huffed.
"Fine. If you insist, I'll go."
He glared over his team mates.
"After all, I'm just a liability here."
"Aw, c'mon Neeks," said Connor with a wince.
Travis too realized his mistake and said, "We didn't mean it like that..."
But Nico wasn't looking at them.
He was looking at Percy.
Percy who looked upset, but said nothing.
And so, Nico found himself in the woods.
Nico was running as fast as his legs could carry him.
He felt horrible.
He cursed himself and his inability to say no to a certain son of Poseidon.
He leapt over the creek into the Hunter's territory.
Here, he slowed down a bit, ducking under the heavy foliage.
While his smaller self dismayed him regularly, here, it provided him with an edge.
He glanced through the shadows noiselessly, not unlike a shadow himself.
All the while, he kept an eye out for patrolling Hunters.
Nico spotted the Hunters' silver flag up ahead of him.
He slowed down and crept up to the ring of trees surrounding the small clearing which contained the Hunter's flag.
There was only one of the two guards whom he had spotted.
And as he came closer to the flag, he recognized who the guard was.
Bianca.
He could clearly tell that it was his sister, even though she had her back to him.
Luckily, she hadn't done the same.
He stayed where he was, crouching in the shadows of a large bush.
Hm, what to do, what to do...
His head snapped up to see Thalia came crashing into the clearing- slamming straight into a startled Bianca.
It made a frightening din.
Nico took advantage of it.
He immediately shot out of his hiding place and ripped the silver flag down from the tree that it was snagged on.
He started running, with both Thalia and Bianca staring at him, equally startled.
"I got the flag! Let's go," he screamed at Thalia over his shoulder.
She immediately scrambled onto her feet and ran.
"How-"
"Percy insisted. No time to explain, I'll tell you about it after the game."
Thalia nodded curtly and they both dashed into the forest, taking advantage of Bianca's shock at her little brother's sudden appearance.
They managed to run a whole fifteen yards before Bianca regained her voice and yelled for back up.
The sound of an object rippling through air was all Nico heard before he found himself on top of Thalia, who in turn had fallen face first on the snow.
"What happened?" Nico asked as he scrambled to his feet.
"It was a trip wire fired from an arrow!" snarled Thalia.
Ah.
So that's where the other guard had run off to.
Another arrow flew by Thalia's cheek, and exploded at her feet.
The pungent smell of sulphur overpowered his senses and he fell to the ground, coughing and gagging.
"Fart arrows are unsportsmanlike!" shouted Thalia, though her eyes were watering from the stench.
The creek was only a few yards away.
Nico could see Percy and Charles chasing Zoe Nightshade as she made deftly her way past the campers.
The distance between the Hunter and the creek was rapidly decreasing.
"Nico, the flag, give me the flag," Thalia said urgently.
"What? Why?"
"Just give it!"
Thalia tilted her spear at him and told him to hold it while she fiddled with a corner of the cloth.
Nico realized what she was about to do.
"Hold," she ordered, thrusting the handle of the spear at him.
His hands trembled with nerves and excitement as she secured the silver flag onto the spear.
Thalia measured the distance with her eyes.
She would be able to throw the necessary distance.
But would he be able to...?
Welp, only one way to find out.
"Percy, catch!"
Thalia let the spear fly.
It seemed as if time slowed down as the weapon cut through the air.
It whizzing past a startled Zoe Nightshade and right into the hands of -
An equally shocked Percy Jackson.
Percy blinked once with surprise as he looked down at the spear in his hands.
He had caught it instinctively.
It had passed in between his left side and arm - a mere inch away from slicing through his stomach.
There was complete silence for one long moment before the forest erupted into cheers.
"Camp Half Blood wins!" announced Chiron happily, clip clopping his feet on the ground.
"For the first of fifty five times," the old centaur muttered to himself gleefully.
The Campers cheered as both sides converged on the creek.
Percy and Thalia each were hoisted up onto the shoulders of the campers.
All the Campers were grinning broadly and cheering loudly.
The Hunters, on the other hand, looked glum.
They were huddled up and were whispering among themselves.
One of the Hunters- the one who'd fired the arrows, if he wasn't wrong- said something while pointing at his sister.
She seemed pretty angry.
Nico noted Bianca hanging her head apologetically as she said something.
He frowned for a fleeting second.
If the Hunters were blaming Bianca for their loss…
It wasn't her fault that they left a rookie in charge of guarding the flag alone.
But before he made up his mind to do something, Zoë had her hand on his sister's shoulder.
She was shaking her head while saying something in a stern tone to the other Hunter who looked abashed.
She then turned to his sister.
Nico assumed she said something nice, as Bianca looked up rather bashfully and nodded.
She smiled shyly and Zoë returned it, along with a regal inclination of her head.
Nico whipped his head around when Thalia scoffed, her eyes trained on the duo as well.
The scowl on her face was obvious to all.
Nico was about to ask her what her problem was when a sudden silence fell on the clearing, like a wave crashing onto the shore.
From his vantage point between the shoulders of two campers, Nico couldn't get clear view of what had caused the hush that had fallen on the group.
But one thing was clear.
Someone, or rather something, was coming towards them.
It was a humanoid figure, shrouded in a poisonous green mist.
As it came closer, Nico could see it was wrapped up in bandages like a mummy.
As far as he could tell, it was possessed, but not against the consent of the host.
Nor did it have any malicious intent towards him or the other campers.
Even though it wasn't a threat to any of them… something about the figure seemed… familiar.
It was only when he heard Chiron's whispered words, did his mind catch up with the situation.
"Impossible," whispered Chiron disbelievingly, "It… she has never left the attic… ever."
It was strange to see 'it' like this.
He associated 'it' with freckles, paint smears and fiery red hair.
But there was no mistaking 'it'.
'It' was the Oracle of Delphi.
The mummified girl dragged itself near the Hunters, stopping in front of one.
She opened her mouth, green smoke pouring out.
"Approach, Seeker, and ask."
No.
Bianca.
Preview:
A seven year old girl clutched her safety blanket to her chest.
...A minute passed. Then ten.
...She got up and shook herself free, her face pale.
...There was nothing that could be done until dawn...
...But she was missing something…
...But the curiousness lay elsewhere.
...And the Hunters, oh the Hunters.
...Annabeth wasn't sure why she was surprised.
..."What are you doing here?"
..."She said something about barriers, land without rain and losing things."
..."If I'm not wrong, Phoebe is a tracker..."
..."Good luck," he added, almost as an afterthought.
A/N: Oh, and here's a quick question:
Who do you think is the Harbinger?
(Hint: You know the character)