Authors note
Last chapter! sorry again for the wait but i wanted to make sure that the ending was as good as i could make it, and im really happy with it now (and its twice the length of all the other chapters!)
there is a possible chance of an epilogue if theres enough interest though.
this chapter does get a bit complex at some stages so sorry if parts of it are a little hard to follow or confusing, i just wanted to make sure you were seeing exactly what i'd pictured
thanks again for being such lovely people and giving me support for the story and ideas to help move it along. ill certainly be writing another story thanks to your lovely welcome into fanfiction
once again i'm a shameless self promoter so heres my tumblr: blog/thegirlwithkaleidoscopeeyes2712 (its now )
Have fun, keep reviewing and being awesome readers, and i hope you enjoy the last chapter as much as i did!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ideas or characters in Percy Jackson and the Olympians or The Heroes of Olympus that all belongs to the amazing nerd Rick Riordan.
(and for all you chumps out there who still haven't got your heads around the metric system like the rest of the world 100 metres is about 330 feet and 110 yards, putting both here cause i have no idea what measurement you use)
A Royal Pain in the Ass Chapter 9
Annabeth never really understood the fixation most men had with going off to war to fight for their country. But when she saw Percy rallying up the troops, speaking with such ease, standing in front of tens of thousands of soldiers on the war ravaged landscape surrounding them and picking the right words for a situation that was so wrong, she understood. She saw how they all hung on his every word, their eyes transfixed and gleaming with the promise of victory. She supposed the glint in their eyes was what had driven her to stand where she was, among the soldiers, ready to fight for her newly found home Annabeth's heart swelled with the crowd, and she brought her hand up, pumping it into the air and belting out a battle cry as Percy brought his rally to a close.
Percy had tried to get her to stay in the strategists tent, but Annabeth had quickly doused his pleas with a withering glare and the reminder that Percy himself had approved her for battle after their lessons.
Olympia's army, identified by the red horsehair sprouting in a neat row from the top of their helmets, marched down the once green slope now littered with broken catapults and other machines. When the whole army was on the flat ground, a forest concealing them from the front and two hills concealing their sides. Percy and Annabeth were riding side by side up the front with their advisors.
Percy held a hand up signalling for the army to stop. This went against the plans Percy had laid out before the group set off, but Annabeth could see the reason for his hesitation. Scouts had been sent out earlier that day the spy on the enemy and allow the strategists to come up with the best plan of attack. The information that brought back was that the whole enemy army was camped at the far end of the clearing on the other side of the trees that were now concealing Olympia's army.
But not one man stood in the clearing beyond. Percy signaled a scout forward, a small boy wearing camouflage who proceeded to climb one of the trees on their side of the forest. When he reached the branches at the top he crouched down and began to scan the area beyond the tree line.
When the scout came back down and reported his findings to Percy and Annabeth.
"They're gone, all of them. Nothing but the remains of their camp left and no clues as to where they've buggered off to." Percy bit the side of his lip and turned his head to look at the ground, a confused and worried expression etched on his face. The soldiers began murmuring agitatedly. Percy's looked to his advisers but they looked back with blank faced, they didn't have a clue what to do.
Another sound started piercing its way into Annabeths ears, it was muffled and sounded as if it was coming from far away, but it was definitely there, and it definitely wasn't coming from the men surrounding her. As it continued she started to recognize it as the sound of metal hitting stone, and then everything fell into place.
"Be quiet!" Annabeth whisper yelled, and even though she was about ninety percent sure that was not going to work, everyone took one look at her imposing glare and fell silent. Percy looked to Annabeth to explain her order.
"I think the reason there's a distinct lack of opposition to this battle is that one of your little scouts isn't quite as trust worthy as he appears." Annabeth paused to let the information sink in, "and I also think that the reason there's a faint clicking sound coming from the left is that your little scout clued the enemy in and that they are now surrounding us on the other side of these hills and attempting to climb up and attack us."
Percy stopped to listen and a worried look swept across his face at the realization.
"Well it's a good thing I've got my best strategist on hand then." Percy said running a hand through his hair, "What do you propose we do about it, fiance of mine?"
Annabeth smiled up at him, "Get the man you trust the most to have a look at our surroundings like the scout did. If this place is set out like I think it is then I might just be able to save our collective ass."
This plan, if Annabeth may say so herself, was pretty ingenious. She had almost jumped with joy when Jason, Percy's trusted man, had come back and confirmed her theory about the set out of the soon to be battle field.
A line of trees, about ten thick, surrounded the perimeter of a large grassy rectangle. The rectangle was about seventy meters wide and a hundred long, and they were standing on one of the short sides. Each side seemed to have a clearing behind the line of trees, much like the one they were standing in, and hills, like the ones on either side of them, were scattered across the clearings behind the trees, each hill about 15 meters high. A large, dirt wall, this one about twenty meters high and ten thick, obscured the whole far side of the rectangle except for a ten meter gap which lead out onto what Jason assumed to be a long stretch of marshlands.
Annabeth's plan was fairly simple, but depended greatly on the achievement of a certain group. Percy's army consisted of a thousand men, not the entirety of Olympia's army as the larger force was participating in a bigger but less important battle. About half of the thousand men were perched and concealed up high in the trees waiting for Annabeth's plan to unfold. The other half were on the ground arranged in ten groups of about 50 preparing to carry out the hardest part of Annabeth's plan, the part that, if it failed, would bring the whole scheme crashing down around them and almost certainly result in their defeat.
Annabeth, Percy and a few other soldiers were on the ground helping the groups to form rectangles and lock their shields together, creating massive blocks, completely covered by shields. The idea was that the groups would rush out, screaming battles cries to the tardy opposition, causing the enemy to show themselves and start shooting. This would reveal their whereabouts to Olympia's army who would then drop from the trees and attack while the other half of the army reached the other side and attacked from there.
Gods of Olympus she hoped this worked. It wasn't like they had another way out though, she supposed, it was this or run out into the clearing, swords blazing and hope for the best.
When Annabeth was happy that the rectangles were completely covered by shields she began to climb up the nearest tree, the other soldiers following her lead and crouching at the top of the ones surrounding her. Percy followed Annabeth up the same tree and crouched behind her, leaning forward to whisper in her ear
"God I hope this works." Annabeth muttered to herself.
"It will." Percy replied, "You're gonna go down in history as the legendary Annabeth chase who saved Olympia with her kick ass battle strategy." Annabeth smiled at him and he grinned back before he turned and nodded at Jason who had given him the signal that the archers concealed in the front row of trees were ready.
Percy held up the red flag in his hand from where he and Annabeth crouched in the second row of trees behind the archers, signalling to the others in the same row of trees to do the same. When they were all looking at Annabeth, flags held high and flapping in the wind, she brought her hand up and swung it down in a large movement, once. Twice. Three times. And on the last swing all the red flags were dropped and the battle cry went up as the forces on the ground took their cue and ran into the clearing, shields locked.
Fire came from all sides almost immediately, and Annabeth felt herself lose hope as she realized just how out numbered they were. Arrows came flying out of the trees from right and left, but they just thunked into the Olympians shields, sticking out like some weird imitation of an echidna. As she had guessed, no soldiers came out from the cover of the trees, preferring to let the archers do all the work in what they thought was a one sided battle
Annabeth stood up slightly, still concealed by the trees, and looked out over the top, confirming that all of the rival fighters were behind the cover of the trees on the sides of the rectangle, but not at the far edge. She gave Percy a thumbs up and he smiled at her.
"You're brilliant you know?" he said, leaning forward to give her a kiss on the cheek. He then turned to Jason and gave him a thumbs up, telling him to prepare the archers.
"Archers light up!" Percy yelled, not needing to be quiet now that the sounds of battle rang out across the valley, drowning him out. Annabeth heard the whooshing sound of fifty arrowheads catching fire, and stood up again to watch her plan unfold.
She looked out at the shield-covered groups and saw that they were almost three quarters of the way there. The archers shots needed to be timed perfectly, the arrows let loose when the attacking groups reached the three quarter point so that the enemy was too distracted trying not to get burnt alive to realize that they were being attacked on the ground as well. As they neared that point, Annabeth brought her hand down, signaling Percy.
"Fire!" he commanded, and fifty flaming arrows shot out towards the tree lines on the sides. The trees burst into flames and the opposing soldiers began screaming and running up the sides of the hills behind them in search of refuge.
"Go!" Percy yelled and the soldiers dropped from the trees, running up the hills to meet the enemy as they tried to escape the flames. The soldiers who had now reached the other side of the rectangle were disbanding their shield fortresses and doing the same.
Annabeth moved to jump out of the tree but Percy grabbed her arm.
"Wait." He said and Annabeth gave him a confused look. Then he rushed forward pacing one hand on the side of her neck and kissing her rervently. She wasted no time kissing him back, moving closer to him, wanting to lock this moment away in her mind to give her hope in the coming fight.
They pulled apart and Percy grinned at her before he jumped out of the tree and she followed suit.
The sounds of clashing swords, horrific screams and battles orders were piercing Annabeths ears. She fought vigorously, Percy at her back, both of them moving together like a well-oiled machine. They had been fighting for hours now and there had been losses on both sides, but their surprise attack had worked, and where the Olympians were previously outnumbered, there was now only one opponent left for each soldier.
Annabeth had been so caught up in her own fight that she hadn't noticed Percy's taking him away for his place at her back. She ran her sword through the chest of her opponent and he fell finally, spluttering to the ground. Her eyes searched frantically for Percy. She saw him at the top of the hill, sword locked with a burly man as he clutched his left arm to his chest, blood pouring from a long gash underneath. Percy glowered at the man, a grimace behind his eyes as he began to lose ground.
Annabeth sprinted to his aid, but she wasn't going to be fast enough, she could see she wouldn't make it. Percy stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, his sword skittering way in the process. The burley man lifted his sword above his head, going for the kill. Percy brought his arms up and covered his face.
With nothing left that she could do, Annabeth threw her dagger, impaling the offender in the arm and causing him to cry out. He turned and began to move towards her with a murderous glint in his eyes. Percy, who had looked up by this point, swung his leg and caught the mans feet as he ran forward, causing him to topple over.
Annabeth rushed forwards and helped Percy up, sending his gash a worried glance.
"Its not as bad as it looks." He said waving a hand at her but wincing despite his words. She gave him a look that said 'really?' but it soon faded to horror as she looked behind him.
The burly man had picked himself up off the ground and was now running towards Percy, sword drawn and a deadly look in his eyes.
"Percy No!" She screeched and pushed him out of the way, diving in front of the sword at the last second and stabbing the man in the chest with her dagger.
Time seemed to slow down as the sword pushed into her gut, crushing all the air from her lungs. The mans eyes rolled up into his head and he fell backwards as Annabeth groggily looked down at the sword buried in her stomach. She grasped the handle and pulled it out stumbling as she did so.
"Annabeth, Annabeth no, no!" Percy's words reached her ears slightly muted, as if he was underwater, his panicked face swinging before her. He caught her as she began to sway backwards, and he lowered her to the ground placing her in his lap, his arms cradling her head and knees.
Percy's eyes welled up with tears, a helpless and scared shitless look on his face, as he frantically ran his eyes over her, trying and failing to find a way to help her. Her breath began to come in short puffs, and the edge of her vision went fuzzy as she looked up, only able to focus on his eyes. His beautiful sea green eyes.
"Annabeth," Percy spluttered out, gasping in a sob, "come on stay awake, stay with me." Her eyes started to droop but she forced them open as Jason ran up beside Percy, his face draining of colour when he saw Annabeth.
"A medic, Jason, get a medic." Percy told his best friend who promptly ran off. Annabeth's eyes started to close again,"Hey, hey! Annabeth come on. Think about something else you gotta stay awake."
"What should I think about?" She breathed out, gasping in a breath with the effort of the sentence. He smiled a small, watery smile down at her,
"Good things." He said, "Remember that time I set up that elaborate plan to make you fall in the pond, but you took so long to walk into it that I forgot, and fell in my self?"
Annabeth gasped out a laugh as Percy smiled, and then whimpered in pain as a sharp ache washed through her. She closed her eyes tightly and screwed her face up in pain as she felt a medic rush down beside her. She was starting to loose consciousness and everything was going patchy, only a few of the things happening around her were seeping through the haze.
"-Stretcher now!" the medic yelled. And then she was no longer cradled in Percy's arms, the rough material of the stretcher beneath her playing as a poor substitute for Percy's comforting warmth. She felt him grab her hand as she drifted off into the void.
The warm pressure of his hand the only thing tying her to the mortal world. And his voice, soft and reassuring, as it spoke to her in promises.
And she believed him, he was here, and everything was gonna be alright.
Finished! every chapter has now been updated. There will be another chapter or two as an epilogy type thing for those of you wondering, so stay tuned.
