"Yeah" Katie said as they walked through suburbs to catch a bus into the centre of LA "Whatever Asha told you is not true or is a great exaggeration"

"Like what?" Travis asked, fiddling with the knife handle jabbing into his hip uncomfortably

"How much I talk about you, or me bringing pictures home, or me keeping my hair green as long as possible cause I was kind of proud that I got your attention, or late night girly conversations with her about boys and you kept coming up" Katie said, she broke into a sprint for so the bus wouldn't leave and as they sat down on the bus Travis looked at her with a raised eyebrow

"You speak about it like it actually happened?" He winked

"Maybe it did" Katie said, he voice hardening a little bit

"Is there anything wrong with that?" Travis smiled at her, his smile dropped as her face completely hardened and her eyes went cold with a small shine of sadness and she looked out of the window as the bus drove past houses and parks

"There wouldn't have been if that all wasn't followed by crying, talking about you even more, staying awake till 3am hoping and praying to Aphrodite for anything, a text, a call, an iris message. Even if it was just to say 'I don't want you', just some conformation to me, just a little stability. But no, I got nothing" her voice was low and full of steel as Travis' stomach turned to ice and all the butterflies of spending a day with Katie froze and died.

"Kates" He said, putting a hand on her shoulder and turned her around to face him, her face shone with sadness and tears welled up in the corner of her eyes. He pulled her into his shoulder and she resisted for a second, before giving in and allowing herself to be wrapped by his arms "You know what it's like for demigods, you know contact is difficult for us"

"Leo invented fucking celestial bronze monster proof mobiles, computers and tablets for fucks sake, I know you have a mobile. I saw it sticking out of our pocket, and I heard Drew boasting about getting your number in school" Katie spoke into his shoulder, he could feel her tears wetting his hoodie but he didn't really care "Was that it? Did some attractive little sket come along and wave her ass in your face and you followed it? 'Cause you kissed me back you dick. You gave me so much fucking hope, do you even have any idea how long I liked you for? Or how much I did?"

"From the reaction I'm guessing a lot for a long time?" Travis said, pulling her in a bit tighter

She pulled out of the hug "No shit Sherlock" She hissed

"Can we start over, from scratch?" Travis said, looking her in the eyes. He tried to think serious thoughts but all he could think was fuck she's beautiful, Her brown hair was flowing down her shoulders in waves, kind of curly but also not. Her round, smooth face was wet with tears and her deep green eyes were tinged red from crying but she still looked stunning. Not model stunning, she was above that, just naturally.

"What do you mean?" She said, interrupting his train of thought

"Hi I'm Travis Stoll, son of Hermes" He said holding out his hand

"Katie Gardiner" She said, laughing a little and shaking his hand "Daughter of Demeter"

"Can I comment on how pretty you look today Miss Gardiner" Travis said, putting on a slightly posh voice

"No, because 1. You'd be lying, I just got out of the shower. And 2. We're starting from scratch, which means getting to know each other again, which means no hitting on me, or acting like we know each other until we're okay again, then we can go back to normal" Katie said, smiling at him

"Yeah that's fair enough, tell you what Katie, would you do me the honour of spending the day with me so we can get to know each other" he kept the accent

"I don't see why not Travis"

"Safe" he smiled, Progress, He thought


"Here's how it's going to work" Frank Zhang said to the circle of leaders in front of an army "Hazel, you're going to lead a cavalry charge down the inner right flank, get them where they have no shields, loop around and take out their leaders and the more powerful monsters. Dakota, the fifth will lead the charge on the outer left flank, Mark, I want you to take the second and the third to follow up straight behind him. Cause serious damage to whatever's left of their units there. Fourth, you're in charge of cavalry disruption, if a charge is made at any of our ranks I want you there and waiting, testudo formation"

"Yes boss" The centurions said, Frank looked at Percy

"Alright Greek demigods and miscellaneous" Percy said "Travis, Connor, Katie I want you guys to take your cabins and Aphrodite cabin, charge straight up the middle of the left flank and completely destroy whatever's in from of you. Leo, you're taking the Athena cabin and Hephaestus campers on a mission to destroy there siege equipment and heavy weaponry, once you're done you do whatever you do and we'll reassign the campers" Percy looked at Annabeth for reassurance that he'd got it all correct and she laughed and nodded

"You two" She said, pointing to Clarisse and Octavian "One of you needs to take a defensive role, and the other is going up the inner left to attack their hardest units, decide amongst each other"

They looked at each other and both said "We'll take offence"

"You can't both take offence" Percy said

"I know" Clarisse said, glaring at him then turning to Octavian " That is why the Ares cabin will take the inner left flank, and scrawny shithead here will hold the defensive line. If we even trust him to do that"

"The first cohort is the most superior in the roman army, we are the only unit suitable for the job, you take your nice little phalanx full of unintelligent and undisciplined poor soldiers and hold defence" Octavian smiled fakely

"Remember how I almost killed you on half blood hill animal boy, you want that to happen again?"

"You cannot even comprehend true leadership you dirty Greek barbarian"

"What? Hiding behind lines of soldiers? You tried that when you attacked camp, but we found you and you cried and begged for mercy with my spear point pressed against your neck like a tall scrawny blond rat in the paws of a cat. Yeah real roman of you"

"BLASPHEMY AND LIES" Octavian screeched, Clarisse clamped a hand over his mouth

"Ares will take the inner left, those monsters will taste Spartan steel. Cunt-rag here will hold the defence" she smiled and Annabeth nodded at her

"Apollo and the hunters" She said, addressing Thalia and Will, "cause as much distruption as possible and fire volleys until we're in close quarters"

"Saaaffe" Will smiled

"Anyone we haven't mentioned is going down the middle with us and the rest of the seven, Nico, take the undead soldiers and go up the middle right flank and the outer. Reyna is in charge of the Romans and Clarisse is in charge of the Greeks. Play nicely you two"

"Tonight Ladies and Gents" Percy addressed the group "We dine in Elysium"


Travis, Katie and Connor ran over to their campers, Katie and Connor went straight into the ranks and told the demigods the plan. Travis stayed out front and watched as teenagers uneasily shifted their armour about and looked shakily at lines of monsters infront of them. Travis stood a little straighter, better make a speech he thought, grumbling to himself

"We're all going to die" He shouted at the ranks

"Great job Stoll"

"No shit"

"Wow, your powers of deduction amaze me" People shouted back at him

"What? Death is a path that we all must take. But it doesn't have to be today. Today, you are the masters of death, you control who dies. Because brothers and sisters, there is something different between us and them" He gestured towards the giants line "They're willing to die for their cause, to die for Gaea. And yeah, I'm sure you're all willing to die for Olympus, but is there much point? I want you to focus on something, someone, that is worth dying for" His eyes locked with Katies "And know that you don't need to die for them, why die for them? Why die for Olympus? When you can do so much better, you can live for them. Now you're all afraid of death. But there is nothing to fear, because here, on this ground, you are immortal, for we are already in hell" Travis roared and the demigods roared back

"A year ago a set of demigods fought and gave their lives so you could stand here, many were brothers and siblings to us. They are the heroes of Olympus, and they always shall be. Now here demigods, is your chance to enshrine yourself in their ranks." Travis turned to face the enemy across the plain "FOR LUKE CASTELLEAN, AND THE BRAVE HEROES OF OLYMPUS, FOR VICTORRY" He roared and charged, and was seconds later followed by the contingent of demigods he was in charge of, crying a terrible battle cry.

Connor woke up shivering "Fucks sake" He whispered to himself and reached into his drawer, grabbed some sleeping pills and did them in one, he went back to sleep.


SOOOORRRRYYYYYYYY, I've had exams and this is the first chance i've had to write since them, i'll try and update more, and it's late at night so this one probably isn't as good as previous chapters cause I'm tired