AN: I just split Chapter Three into two parts, and expanded on them, as per a reviewer's request of sorts.
Chapter Four- War Games.
Percy's POV
I woke up, then stood by the door, waiting for Gwen to get up. While I was there, I struck up a conversation with Dakota.
"What should I expect today?" I asked.
"Well, Gwen will need to teach you the basics of sword-fighting, and teach you the basic legion customs, along with the history of the Fifth." said Dakota.
"Octavian mentioned something happened in the Fifth Cohort a while ago. What happened?"
"Not my place to tell. Gwen will, if she wants to. Now I've gotta meet with Jason." He went off in the direction of the Principia. A few minutes after that, Gwen walked over.
"Come with me. I need to start teaching you Roman swordsmanship." Once we were in the fields, I could see dozens of other people sparing, from ages ten to upwards of thirty.
"I got your sword from Keats." She handed me the sword. "Try attacking me."
I arched my eyebrow, and started with a slash. As soon as I started, I felt the balance of the blade to be all wrong to swing. Gwen simply leaned to the side and watched the blade do past.
"This is a Roman blade, meant for stabbing, not your Greek one. Get a shield from the pile." She gestured to a pile of shields and went over to get one herself.
"We use the shield to hit the enemies weapon to the side before stabbing them int the chest. Our swords are built for the tip for it to be extremely easy to penetrate."
I raised my eyebrow at her, "So it would be extremely easy to penetrate someone with my tip?" I asked.
"Pervert." Gwen said, punching me in the arm, "Don't even think about it."
We got back to where we were before.
"I'm going to try attacking you, use your shield to knock me sword away before trying to stab me." she said, and stabbed with exaggerated slowness at me. Moving at the same pace as her, I knocked away her sword before pointing my own at her.
"Good, you know the theory. Another few years, and you'll be a competent swordsman." She said
After a few hours, she told me to take out my other sword. I did, uncapping it behind my back, so she wouldn't see it expand.
"OK, now attack me again."
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Gwen's POV
"OK, now attack me again." I said, not really knowing what to expect, maybe some slashing, like he tried to do with his gladius. He came at me like a whirlwind, slashing so fast, I couldn't keep up. After a few minutes, he did something where he twisted his sword around mine, then wrenched downward, neatly disarming me.
"How are you that good with it?" I asked in amazement. He could probably challenge Jason or Reyna.
"I was the best fencer at my school." he said, but I saw his eyes darken. He was lying. He had a history he didn't want me to know about. He started talking quickly, changing the subject, "Dakota also said you would teach me about the Fifth."
I told him about how Jason became Praetor, the various quests he went on, and Micheal Varius's expedition to Alaska, which wiped out much of the Fifth Cohort. But when I mentioned the Prophecy of Seven, I saw his eyes widen then darken like before. So a history he doesn't mention, and he recognizes the prophecy.
Line Break
Gwen's POV
It was a few days after Percy joined and he showed Dakota and Jason how proficient with that blade he carried, Riptide. Even with the fact it was a Greek blade, and made out of bronze, the centurions let him keep it, so long as he learned how to fight like a Roman, too. Tonight was when he tested it in the war games.
I saw Percy get up, and we headed over to the sword training area. I spent enough time with him to see the sadness and hurt he carried around, but he wouldn't tell me what happened. I, along with Dakota, Jason, and Sylvia, a daughter of Vulcan, were able to make a friendship with him, but no one else was able to. Percy acted perfectly sane, but he so withdrawn, it was odd. He was not shy, and completely confident in what he did, he was just silent most of the time, unless he was talking to one of us four.
"So, how's it going, Perce?" I asked, "War games tonight."
I saw his eyes light up a that chance of fighting again. This war games, some of us were trying to capture a fort, and some were trying to defend it.
"Oh, right! Time for us to kick some podex, now that we can both . . . " He trailed off, and I saw his eyes become cold, dark, and hurting before turning back to how they usually were. That history again.
I wondered what made him hurt so much what would make him so. . . broken however much he tried to hide it.
Then was dinner, Roman style, with wind spirits throwing food around at dangerous velocities while all the legionnaires laughed and talked. I saw Percy with a slice of cheese pizza and some blue drink in his hand. Every meal, something was blue, and he never said anything about it.
"Hey, Percy!" I shouted with my table of friends, including Dakota, Jason, Sylvia, Larry, and Hank. "Come join us."
He made his way over, ducking and dodging flying food, and made his way over to us.
"So, what are we talking about?" he asked.
"You know, strategy. With war games tonight, we want to get as much info out of other centurions as we can, while feeding then misinformation, hence Larry and Hank.
"So what do you think of the fort tonight?" I asked.
"Well the defenses of the east side are weak. You should attack there." Hank started. Yeah, sure. There was also the Little Tiber right up against the wall. Wait . . . son of Neptune. . .
My thought were interrupted when Nico, the so called "Ambassador of Pluto" came up.
"Hey, meet Nico, Ambassador to Pluto."
He turned around slowly, while putting his hood up and saying, "Nico who?"
"Nico di Angelo." Nico said, extending his hand which the Percy warily took. "I haven't seen you here before."
"I'm new." When Nico withdrew his hand, I saw a little strip of paper.
Line Break
Percy's POV
How is he here? He wasn't among the crowd of angry campers outside my cabin, so he's still my friend, I think.
"I'm new." as I shook his hand, I pressed a little slip of paper that said "I need to talk to you outside, five minutes." a piece of paper that Jason gave me earlier today.
"I need to go, Gwen." I said.
"Where?"
"Bathroom." Lying came easily the last few days. I walked outside and started watching the doors.
Line Break
The slip of paper in my hand said "I need to talk to you outside, five minutes." so when the five minutes were up, I made my excuses, and left. As soon as I walked out, I saw the hooded guy.
"Follow me." he said, and I had no clue who he was, just an idea to obey him. When he stopped, he said,
"I didn't expect to see you here, Nico." He turned around and lowered his hood, and I saw a familiar face with black hair and sea-green eyes.
"P-percy?" I stuttered. "I thought you were dead! After you left camp, well, no one could survive in the wild, alone for over a week!"
"Yes, I am alive, and you have to swear not to say anything about this to anyone, monster or god." That was an odd request.
"Why?"
"I left camp for a reason." His eyes flashed red as he looked me over, "And I can tell you don't know. You would have to be a little afraid if you knew."
"Knew what?"
"First, swear."
"Fine, I swear on the River Styx not to tell anybody about you, ar your being here of what you are about to say, to anyone who doesn't know, and until you release me from this oath." I hear thunder in the distance, "Good enough?"
"Yes. Anyways, I left camp because Annabeth was cheating on me for over a year with Ethan Nakamura, then when he died, it looked like she never cared for me again. When I found out and asked her, she told the campers I dumped her for no reason, and released a bunch of stuff showing me in the worst possible light. That got the consolers almost breaking my door down. I left after that, and traveled to San Fransisco, where they wouldn't look for me. Now, here I am, with a new life and new friends." He explained it all.
"Annabeth? She? That bitch! And the campers just automatically believed her?" I shouted in outrage.
"Yes, but now I have new, and better friends. No people are as loyal as Romans."
I was about to reply when I heard the horn call for the war games tonight.
Line Break
Percy's POV
I felt slightly guilty at using my Phobos powers on Nico, but I had to know if he knew what happened. Now we headed back to the street to see all the legionnaires going into the armory to get gear for tonights games.
"Percy! After you get your armor, meet me at the barracks!" Gwen yelled, and I nodded acknowledgment.
"Are you playing?" I asked Nico.
"No, my shadow traveling makes this a bit unfair."
I gathered my standard issue armor, delivered by Keats a few yesterday, and ran to the barracks while putting it on.
"Percy, get in here!" I heard Dakota yell. I walked in and saw Gwen, Dakota, and Jason were all huddled around a map of the fort
"Gwen, let's hear your plan." Jason said
"Well, you know how the Little Tiber runs right up next to the wall?"
"Yes?"
"Well, now that we have a son on Neptune, he can lift us all on the water, right up to the top. Then we charge on even ground with them."
"I can do it, but I need to be at the front." I said confidently.
"OK. Dakota, you take charge of that. I'll work with everyone else to provide distraction."
Line Break
"Teams are: Second and Fifth attacking, First, Third, and Fourth are defending." Reyna said, acting as the judge, which apparently she and Jason switched off as.
Dakota took twenty of our cohort, including Gwen and I, to the west side of the fort, where the Little Tiber was. Then a horn called, signaling the start of the game.
After the Second and other half of the Fifth cohort attacked, we charged, me in the lead, Dakota and Gwen on either side of me. Just like old times.
When my feet touched the water, I could feel something leave me, and my skin felt more sensitive. The Curse of Achilles must be gone. Why? I raised and solidified the water, and with the twenty best fighters of the Fifth behind me, we stepped off the river and onto the wall. Everyone was on the other three sides, and no one had noticed.
"Charge!" Dakota shouted, and we quickly disarmed the shocked legionnaires on the North and South walls, and sent ladders down to our friends and the Second cohort, allowing the reinforcements to take the West wall.
"Dakota! Percy! Come with me." Jason ordered, and we followed him into the fort, in the direction of the keep, where the standards had to be kept.
We entered a room to find ten legionaries with locked shields in front of the flags of the First, Third and Fourth cohort.
"Surrender, you aint't gettin' past us." One of them, a centurion, said with a Southern accent.
"I beg to differ." I said, and we all put our shields in front of us when we ran, forming battering rams. We hit with a solid thunk managed to break their lines. Now we were surrounded by the ten of them, who all had their weapons out. I was three to one, but I had a Praetor and a Centurion on my side.
I dodged the first stab, got nicked on the arm by the second, but shield bashed my third attacker. To my surprise, the sword did manage to cut my skin. So the curse did leave me. . . . I grabbed the bashed guy and threw him at my second attacker, a girl, who had to either catch him, or get slammed into. I turned to the last one, blocked a poorly aimed slash (not a real Roman sword-fighting move) and punched him in the helm so hard, it rang like a gong. He crumpled to the floor, just as the girl was getting up. I walked over, held my sword to her throat.
"Yield?"
"Yes . . ." I looked around just in time to see Jason knock out the Centurion, and Dakota disarm the his third attacker.
"Anyone escape? I got four." asked Jason.
"I got three." I replied.
"Me too. That makes ten. Now lets get these standards, and get out of here." Dakota took the Third cohorts standards, tossed the First's to Jason, and the Fourth's to me.
As soon as we walked out, we were escorted to the front gates by the Fifth cohort, or the twenty or so that didn't surrender.
"The Game is won! Assemble for the honors!" Reyna called over the tumult of congratulations. Soon after, I heard someone yell, "I need a medic! Now!"
I ran over to see Gwen, with a spear from the First cohort through her chest. She had been speared from behind. By the time I got there, medics were already giving her ambrosia and pouring nectar onto the wound.
"Will she make it?" asked Jason.
"No, her life force is fading. I can see it." Nico said from next to him.
I spun around, beyond furious, raging. There was only one person from the First cohort without a spear. . . . .
Octavian
AN: Mwah ha ha! Will he kill Octavian? Will I decide to let Gwen come back? Will Percy try to kill himself? This chapter was over 6k words originally, then I split it into two
I won't update this quickly in the future, I just needed to get the plot moving.
Remember: If/when I conduct a poll, reviewers votes count triple.