Chapter 9

A/N: Really late I'm sorry, hopefully length makes up for the time I was away, explanation at the end. Enjoy the mixed POVs!

Samantha POV

From that day on, Samantha would never forget how good it felt to release so much pressure from within her body. The power of her fury that coursed through her body felt wonderful, and at the moment of her scream she felt every weapon in the room respond to her. Every sword, axe, dagger, spear and bow in the room burst out of their case or broke free of their display stand and swiveled towards Meneoteius and the monsters accompanying him. It felt wonderful, an almost pulsing feeling that shot through her body and made her feel unstoppable. She could almost feel the weapons on her fingertips as she brought her head back to normal level after she had thrown it back during the scream. Her grin must have been terrifying because the Laistrygonians took a step back and even Meneoteius looked uneasy. "So this is what power feels like." She mused to herself. "It feels good."

One of the giants panicked and turned to run, but with a flick of her finger a spear shot through the air from behind her and shish-kebobed the giant against the wall. That giant immediately disappeared in a shower of gold dust before the rest were also impaled and disintegrated. Samantha kept her humourless smile as she turned and advanced towards Menoetius. He backed up a step, fear showing momentarily in his eyes before he snapped his fingers. The creaking of armour from her left whipped Samantha's head around, eyes widening as the possessed suit of armour raised its hand with the dagger in it. "No!" She screamed as she thrust out a hand, the same time Jon surged upwards and shoved the suit of armour as hard as he could. Unfortunately, being a suit of armour it was extremely heavy and wasn't pushed very far, but it was far enough for a pair of swords to strike it and cleave it in half, causing it to clatter to the ground in two pieces. Jon let out a yelp as one of the swords grazed him on its pass, but twisted and hit the ground hard beside his half-sister.

Satisfied that they were safe from any immediate threat, she half-turned only to duck as Menoetius thrust his sword towards her chest. Rolling aside she swung her swords around to meet his. They grappled for a bit, shoving back and forth until the Titan kicked out and she was forced to disengage her swords and jump back. Samantha hissed quietly as a floating knife cut into her shoulder, rolling it a bit before she mentally smacked herself in the head. Oh yeah, the weapons.

Unfortunately Menoetius was in no mood to give her time to concentrate on using said weapons as he charged towards her again, their swords meeting again for a moment. Samantha knew she couldn't focus on controlling the floating weapons and fighting Menoetius, so she had to wait for an opening when they weren't fighting. She shoved his sword up and rolled underneath his guard, slashing with one of her blades as she came out on his other side. He leaned sideways and she barely grazed the side of his armour, gritting her teeth as she turned to face him again. He feinted towards her head and then slashed down towards her boots, which she barely redirected with the tip of her left sword before she slashed across his breastplate.

Menoetius stumbled backwards from the blow but retaliated with a slash that took all of Samantha's strength to block. Her arms trembled for a moment under the toll before she was thrust backwards, her back hitting a pillar a few steps behind her and then diving aside as the Titan's sword sliced through the pillar, bringing it crashing to the ground. He swung back around, cleaving down and Samantha jumped straight up as his sword drove itself into the ground. Taking advantage of his momentary disarmament as his sword was stuck, she slashed forwards, cutting into the armour of his arms on either side. Letting out a yell, he batted her swords aside with one hand and with the other pulled his sword out of the ground. He swung it in a flat arc with one hand, which Samantha rolled under and sprang back to her feet. Her blades out to the side to prepare for the follow up attack, instead she was completely unprepared as the Titan's sword was held behind him and instead his fist collided with her face.

His blow caught her across the face above the eye, sending her flying backwards and rolling across the ground. She could feel the cut above her eye and blinked blood out of her vision to see Menoetius approach Marcus, who was still on the ground eyes have shut in pain from the arrows that had impaled him earlier. He stood over him, expression one of gloating as she slowly and painfully pulled herself to her feet. "The first blood of the new war!"

He raised his sword above his head to bring it down into Marcus. Samantha knew she was too far away to stop it, but panic overwhelmed her for a moment and she could only open her mouth and scream. Her scream shook the room as every floating sword and spear shot towards Menoetius in a flurry of emotion that seemed to originate from somewhere that Samantha was not sure about. All the worry, stress from this quest, concern for her teammates, anger at the Titans, it all just flowed out of her along with something she wasn't sure of as Menoetius seemed to bring his sword down in slow motion.

It never reached Marcus, who had thrown his hands up in a futile attempt to stop the sword as it came down towards his chest. His eyes had been squeezed shut, but he opened one eye carefully to see why he hadn't been impaled by the sword and immediately widened his eyes at what he saw.

The Titan now crudely resembled a porcupine with the sheer number of weapons sticking out of his body. Swords and spears were driven right through him and his armour, creating large holes from which cracks began to spread. Golden Ichor, the blood of immortals, also began to leak out of all the holes as his hands trembled and the sword clattered to the ground beside Marcus. Menoetius sneered as his body began to shake. "It has only just begun girl. My brethren rise, and this time Olympus will meet its end!"

With that he began to dissolve until only the empty shell of his armour left. That also began to transform until it was a wisp of red smoke that lazily floated away until it disappeared, leaving behind a floating cluster of weapons.

Samantha finally let everything go, the weapons crashing and clattering to the floor around her as she swayed unsteadily on her feet, her vision swimming. Feeling blackness ebbing away at the corners of her vision she sank to her knees before tipping over, barely aware of Marcus calling her name and a hand reaching out to her before blackness claimed her.

Marcus

Marcus barely managed to lunge forward to get his hand underneath Samantha's head as she tipped over, preventing another head-bashing injury that none of them could afford to sustain right now. He managed to pull himself upright while keeping his hand underneath her head and cradled it, checking for other injuries but it seemed to only be bruising and the cut she suffered above her left eye.

Jon meanwhile had limped up the steps to the throne and thrown aside the dark curtains that had obscured their view before, revealing the small cage that held the daughter of Hades captive. Marcus's mouth dropped open

From the expression on Jon's face, it was also far worse than what he saw in his dream. Her clothes had slashes through then in innumerable places and she simply hung in her chains within the cage. Jon pulled his penknife out and cut through the lock and the chains holding Leah inside before beginning to gently shuffling her out of the cage. Grayson bit her lip for a moment before she stumbled over to help as they slowly shuffled her out of the cage and onto the steps. They slowly helped her out but she didn't seem to be moving under her own power and they carefully carried her a few feet from the cage and set her down on the steps leading up to the throne. Leah had yet to open her eyes, but Marcus let his eyes wander over her. Deep gashes were cut through her skin, leaking blood and clear fluid through the rips in her clothes. Her face was devoid of emotion and she appeared unconscious, but as Alex approached her with her medical supplies Marcus returned his attention to the unconscious Samantha. Her face no longer contained any of the rage he had seen from her only a few minutes ago. Instead it was almost peaceful, reminding him of when he first came to camp.

At the time, she was this small Asian girl with two beads on her necklace and a chip in her shoulder because of her father and cabinmates showing him around his new home. He'd thought she was fairly innocent and very out of place, since he didn't understand how someone like her was a child of Ares the war god.

Then she broke the nose of one of her half-brothers and all doubts immediately vanished.

From what he heard after the incident, it had been one of her newly claimed brothers trying to climb the ladder within the cabin and figured she made a good target. He'd learned rather quickly what the rest of the cabin already knew: don't mess with Sam. When the guy had approached, eyes like a pitbull and a very aggressive stance, Marcus had moved to put himself in front of Samantha but she had shoved him aside. "I can handle him on my own Brooke stay out of it."

It was over quick, the guy basically charged her and took her fist straight between the eyes and went down with her on top. From that point on, Marcus swore to never underestimate her ever again, she may not always seem intimidating but she could probably take down anyone in the entire camp. They became the best of friends from then on, sharing many memories, promises and formed one of the strongest friendships within the entire camp, but Marcus never forgot how it started.

Now looking down at the peacefulness of her face besides the blood, he was reminded of the way she had seemed before she had taken down her half-brother in front of him. It was almost like looking at a puppy sleep, very innocent and very cute. Meanwhile Jon waved his hand in front of Leah's face but her eyes just didn't seem to focus on anything. "Leah? Leah can you hear me? Leah? Please respond!"

Jon's voice became increasingly desperate but she still failed to show any sign of hearing or seeing anything and hadn't made a sound since she was removed from her cage. She sat supported on the steps staring into nothingness as Jon glanced helplessly at Marcus. "I don't know what's wrong." He said in an almost strangled voice.

Alex finally finished bandaging up Leah and handed a flask of nectar to Jon before she approached Marcus. Marcus began to stand up to give Alex space but she shook her head. "You stay right where you are, you're more injured than she is right now."

Marcus started to protest but the glare Alex gave him basically said shut up and let me do my job, I'm not in the mood. While it wasn't as terrifying as Sam's glare, Marcus just nodded and stayed on the ground to let Alex patch him up. "Besides," She teased quietly. "If Sam found out that I patched her up before you with those injuries she would kill me."

Alex handed him a square of ambrosia to eat as she bandaged his leg. He popped it into his mouth, tasting his mom's moist and filling carrot cake, and the pain in his body faded a bit. As Alex moved to bandaging his shoulder Marcus turned his attention towards Leah, who was still being supported by a concerned Jon and Grayson. She was still fully unresponsive and Marcus was really beginning to worry. What were they going to do with her? She wasn't seemingly able to move in this state, much less fight. He then mentally banged his head against the wall. You're making her sound like a deadweight. He scolded himself. Normally Leah was anything but. Strong, confident and independent with an attitude and some nasty capabilities with any weapon, but this was only a fragment of the Leah that he knew. He flexed his shoulder as Alex finished bandaging it and shrugged off the thought. It was something they would deal with in the morning after they recollected everything. "Thanks a lot."

Alex nodded and quickly bandaged Samantha's facial cut before she stood up to go back to figure out what was wrong with Leah. Now they had to figure out what their next steps were. As good as the mist was he knew it wouldn't hide the fact that there were six kids in a museum room after hours where it looked like a bomb had gone off to the mortal police. He vocalized his thoughts and everyone prepared to start moving despite Alex's scolding that they weren't able to do much in terms of motion with their injuries. "You'll all tear yourselves apart with the injuries you just sustained if you start moving." She complained, but eventually relented because they were in no state to deal with any form of authorities.

Marcus gently laid Samantha's head back down on the ground. He slowly swung his legs away from her body and shakily forced himself to his feet. Once standing, he swayed for a moment before he shook his head to clear it and bent back down, wincing from pain shooting through his right leg, and prepared to slip his hands underneath Samantha's unconscious form. Glancing to his right, he noticed the large red and black sword that remained after the defeat of Menoetius and decided to strap it to his belt before straightening up with Samantha in his arms. It had been a long time since he had to carry her, and he forgot she was fairly light, although being injured did balance it out a bit as he stumbled towards Jon. Getting closer to them and getting Jon's attention, Marcus pointed his chin towards the emergency exit that had been forced open during the battle. "There's woods out behind the museum, we can camp out in there overnight and rest before figuring out our next move."

No one argued, although Marcus suspected that they didn't care what happened next as long as there wasn't much in terms of fighting and they got rest. Grayson took point and she was the first out the door, signaling all clear. Marcus soon followed her out the door, still carrying the unconscious Samantha and careful to not have her bang into anything. The sword at his side unbalanced him a bit but he managed to stumble outside without falling over, and more importantly without dropping Sam. Alex and Jon soon followed, half carrying a semi-conscious Leah with an arm around each of their shoulders as Alex continued to re-bandage and press cloths against her wounds.

Marcus's chest hurt as he took another look at Leah and her condition, but they had to keep moving and get her proper medical attention soon. They moved through the woods, approximately a few hundred meters before Marcus called out, "this should be fine. Just set up here and we can rest."

Lit only by the glow of the moonlight they set up a small camp with the sole tent that they had. Leah fell unconscious while Alex was tending to her wounds and they decided to transfer the two unconscious girls inside the tent to sleep. As Grayson and Alex moved Leah inside the tent, Marcus caught Jon staring after them as the flap drifted closed behind them. "Hey, you ok?"

Jon glanced down. "I'm not sure what I'm witnessing anymore, or just what happened to her. She's in a sort of comatose state where she's actually awake but not really awake."

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "How about yourself?"

Jon sighed as he unraveled his sleeping bag. "Rattled to say the least. Basically, how would you feel if Samantha was tortured to the point of unresponsiveness?"

Marcus was taken a back by the bitter tone in Jon's voice. He knew for certain those two were nowhere near as close as him and Sam, but he seemed to be taking it very personally. Jon was hurt, but in more ways that one apparently. Not wanting to press it, Marcus just nodded. "Alright, just get some rest, I'll take first watch."

Jon nodded his head and lay down, shifting in his sleeping bag and turning away as Marcus stood up and headed to the tent. He raised his hand to rap on the flap as it opened and Grayson and Alex emerged. Alex raised her eyes at Marcus's raised fist. "Oh, hey!"

Marcus backed up a step then indicated the two remaining sleeping bags. "Grab those and get some sleep, I'll take first watch and wake one of you guys up for the next round, Jon doesn't seem so good and I want to let him sleep the night."

The girls nodded and moved to grab the sleeping bags before setting them up. Marcus yawned for a moment before scolding himself. Now's not the time to get tired when you have half a night of watch ahead of you. He moved several yards away from the camp into another small clearing, staring up at the moon as he drew the sword he had taken from the battle after Meneoteius had disappeared. It was beautiful, he had to admit, but it was very different from what he was used to. He shrugged and set it down beside him as he rested his head against the trunk of the tree behind him, wondering what was going in Samantha's mind as she lay in the tent unconscious.

Samantha

Samantha dreamt she was in a harbor, a rather large on in a hot climate area. Looking to her left, she spotted a long white trapezoid out on the water. With a start, she realized she was in Pearl Harbour, the location that sparked the Pacific conflict of WWII with Japan.

"It was a good offensive. Very well planned and executed except for one thing."

Samantha turned at the sound of a grudgingly admiring voice. A man stood to her right, tall, well built dressed in the fatigues of a U.S. marine, complete with an m-16 held across his chest. As her eyes traveled up she reached his well-scarred face, red wraparound shades and oily crew cut.

Her eyes widened. "Father?"

Ares snapped his fingers and suddenly the air was filled with the screaming engines of diving planes and sound of gunfire and explosions. Samantha flinched briefly from a nearby explosion and her eyes widened as a battleship suddenly towered over her. "This was Pearl Harbour. The Japanese performed everything well, had their planning, strategy and proper execution. Unfortunately for the Japanese, their primary objective was absent from the battle.

He snapped his fingers again and the scene faded to the solemn memorial of the USS Arizona. "I warn you not to fall into the same situation. Always be wary of what you are looking for, and what could be the consequences. The aircraft carriers weren't in Pearl Harbour, the consequence for failing their objective? Japan lost the war. Remember that, on your quest failure could lead to the downfall of Olympus."

His severe expression softened to more of a smirk. "But I must congratulate you on your use of your ability. I have never seen it controlled to that extent before, and on your first try! Most impressive."

She looked down at her hands and moved her fingers. "What is this ability? It never appeared before and I've never heard of it in the history of Ares children."

Ares shrugged as he fingered a grenade on his utility belt. "It is an extremely rare ability that my children can be born with. They have the ability to change the course of a battle by taking control of the weapons, as you have found out by now. Those who have this ability much reach a decision on their own when the time comes, on how you wish to use this ability. I personally love and encourage bloodshed, but it is up to you to decide how you will impact the battlefield."

Samantha's eyes narrowed. "But the backlash of the ability takes its toll. Is it a good tactical decision to use such an ability?"

Ares shrugged. "You're the tactician, unlike your siblings. It another thing that makes you different. You're almost unique among my children because of what you represent. Instead of brute force, physical size and strength you embody the mind of strategy and fighting spirit, the elements of battle often over looked. You should know them well, your swords are named after them."

Samantha raised her hands and looked at the ring on each of her middle fingers. Mind and Intuition, the non-physical elements of battle. "Not every person becomes a soldier by just possessing strength, they need to have the mind to be able to use it and know how to react in situations where people count on them heavily." Ares smirked for a moment. "I'm not known for my brainpower when it comes to what I do, but that's what your mother gave to you."

He stared out across the water. "You'll have some difficult fights ahead Samantha. I don't find my kid's battles, but you're a fine warrior. Learn to use your emotions properly, as you saw what you become when overcome with rage and anger. Fight well."

Samantha, who had been staring out across the water as well glanced towards her father's face. She knew from stories he didn't have eyes behind the shades, but his smirk was almost comforting as her dream faded to black.

A/N: I'm a terrible person. I sat here at my desk before Christmas thinking to myself "wow a train I have so much time to write my stories on it" and such. Well that didn't happen as I became so drained from entering the workforce I don't do much except sleep on the train. So this chapter has been in the works since before I posted the last one but I ran into a number of blocks and wasn't sure how I was going to fit this chapter together. I'm working on ideas for the next one but honestly it may take some time despite all this time I have to think about it.

Right now I really hope you guys enjoy how this story is going. I really enjoy creating it and might add some appearances from other characters in the future, but for now please read and review, let me know what you love or hate! I guess since I didn't uphold my end of the bargain I can't promise shorter wait times because it's been over a month since my last update, but I really hope I can get another chapter out within the next month. Most likely not as long as this one, but hopefully you guys will enjoy it! Until next time!

-angelfirecho