Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Nico POV
I walked down a long white marble corridor with a massive monster at each side, trying to savor the silence, but unfortunately as I moved the jingling sound of my cuffs ruined it for me. The, high celling, corridor had various large timeworn windows that let abundant amounts of light in, and that light efficiently reflected off the, golden, crescent moon banners opposite to them.
The Royal Army's Brigadier General, Ciera Maxwell, walked a few feet in front of me and the monsters. She was my age, which is 16 by the way, and had chestnut brown hair. She was shorter than me by at least three inches, but had an extra 30 feet of cocky attitude crammed inside. You may be wondering how someone so young can reach such a high position in the army, well the answer is one word: connections. Nevertheless, aside from being the daughter of the male titan of intellect and heavens, Koeus, she was individually skilled and strong, possibly able to lay waste to a small city alone.
The sound of our footsteps bounced off the walls, creating a seriously annoying echo. Thankfully, we reached the end of the corridor, and came face to face with a 15 foot tall two piece wooden door. I took a slow and deep breath as the monsters pushed the door open, revealing a large court room full of shady figures. The room was about twice the size of college auditorium; it had a rectangular shape, though unlike the exceptionally lit corridor the room's light was moderately filtered by fancy purple curtains, which had the familiar golden crescent moon knit into them.
As soon as I entered the court room, all eyes turned to me. The two monsters stood back in the corridor and quietly closed the wooden door behind us. Ciera, escorted me forward through the room; which had an extravagant, tall, golden ceiling, decorated in extensive foreign patterns, and from that fancy ceiling hung three enormous chandeliers. The rooms left wall was basically a horde of contiguous wooden archways, also complexly decorated, that either had a 15 foot tall banner or door, while the wall on the right was covered with expensive looking windows and purple curtains.
Even though the room was large and had at least 200 seats for spectators, there were only a handful of people spread throughout the room. I recognized a few faces, while others remained hidden in the shadows. I picked out Major General Mark Aurelius, a friend of mine, from the crowed but didn't bother greeting him and he didn't greet me. I kept walking, with my eyes directly ahead, under the piercing gazes of the high ranking Royal Army officers. Theoretically, this place would be packed with curious and flabbergasted military officials but the higher ups decided that only the exceptionally powerful and high ranking could attend. Meaning that everyone in the stands was at least a one star, Brigadier, General.
I finally passed all the spectator's chairs and reached a, cutoff, opener area that only had a few places to sit. Off to my right a little high up on the wall was the Jury's Box, which was packed with, yes you guessed, the Jury. In front of the Jury's Box still to my right, was a sizable table with a few comfy looking chairs though they were occupied by 3 normal people, and two monsters; one dracaena and one telekline. In front of me loomed the Judges' Bench which had nine human looking characters, though I was sure that 2/3's of them were not. The "Judges' Bench" was the proper name, but the place where the nine dudes where sitting did not look like a bench, more like a long curving table that was close off on one side.
As I had moved through the rectangular room I had evidently gone down, because now I was boxed in by high wooden platforms all around me. There were a few other things in the cutoff section of the room but none of them were really important, so I walked off to my left and casually sat down... at the defendant's table. Yes, I was being sued.
Ciera took out a small golden key and slipped them in my cuffs. In the rooms eerie silence she discreetly grabbed my hands while unshackling me and as I looked up she gave me one of her sincerely sad looks. With out a word she walked away with my cuffs in her hand. I slowly rubbed my wrists and looked up at the judges before me. There were a total of nine, and supposedly this was the country's Supreme Court, so quite a few were bound to be 'descendants', meaning someone who is both the child of a human and a titan. The man at the middle of the nine judges was probably in his late fifties, since he had greyish brown hair and a few wrinkles, but didn't look to old. He also had a pair of beady dark brown eyes that watched me carefully.
"With the defendant present, we will now begin session" he stated with a pound of the gavel.
I sighed in pity of myself and awkwardly nodded to whatever came out of the judges' mouth's as I efficiently drifted off.
"General Di Angelo your 'affidavit' please" The middle judge asked bring me out of my light daze.
"Oh, of course" I stood up quickly, accidentally kneeing the table I was sitting at, and said what I had rehearse, "I swear that all statements I make today are the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
The judge calmly nodded to me and I quickly sat back down.
"Thank you, now we will proceed to the briefing" The middle judge informed just as a short formally dressed man, with black hair and black rimed glasses, stepped up to a podium at the base of the 'Judges' Bench' and began talking into a small microphone.
"The 16 year old Major General Nico Di Angelo is here by being tried for the series of crimes that he committed on September 25th after operation 'La Plata Seige', which was conducted by 37 year old Major General James Morris O'Conell in Argentina. Di Angelo is being sued for treason towards the empire, insubordination towards the Army, and the felony murder of both a fellow and senior Army officers; the Major General James Morris O'Conell, son of Menoetius; the titan of anger, violence and rash action, and 23 year old Lieutenant General Edgar Melanus, son of Themis; the titan of law and order."
At the sound of the two generals names a flashback knocked me out of the present and into the past. I vividly remembered the event before the incidents that got me here.
It was a stormy grey day in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina and I was leaning up against the American Consulate's main building, which had become the Army's eastern headquarters. My troops had made excellent progress overnight and had pushed back opposition forces a good 30 blocks with minimal casualties.
Even though our enemies didn't live in the city, the fact that I was in charge of capturing a country's capitol proved my greatness. Still no matter how big of an honor it was 3 weeks of nonstop urban warfare was wearing me out.
It was only 7 in the morning but with the thick storm clouds above, abundant amounts smoke and air plagued soot and ash it was dark enough to be 7 in the evening. Bags had formed under my eyes, my black hair was a mess, and the camouflaged army suit I was wearing had more than just a few visible coffee stains.
"General" someone calmly called behind me, "you're needed at command."
I sighed and turned to see the familiar, brown haired 34 year old, Major, that had been assigned to me for this operation, smoking one of his cheap cigarettes. He followed my gaze to the cigarette in his mouth and pulled out a box.
"Want one?" he asked comically, waving the box full of cigarettes in my face.
"No" I answered bitterly and pushed past him into the stairwell. I descended three flights of stairs before reaching a high tech underground bunker. Four armed dracaena stepped away from the entrance and saluted me as I walked in. The commands main room was about the size of hotel lobby, though it had a low ceiling. White florescent lights illumined the room which contained at least 350 people.
"Major General Mark Aurelius wants to speak to you about the latest military report on the war's development." The Major said behind me. I continued to walk through the bunker silently checking a touch screen pad that the he had handed me. All around me officers worked feverishly; a lot of them were speaking the military gibberish into their headset while checking the city maps on their monitors. Others hurried from corner to corner with digital notebooks or cups of coffee. Aside from all the high-tech monitors along the walls there was a large table in the center of the room with a huge 3 dimensional holographic map of the city. Miniature soldiers moved across the map representing the real ones' actual movements on the actual battlefield.
"Did he say specify why he'd want to do that?" I asked the Major, while inspecting the 3D map.
"No, sir" The Major stated and after a pause went on, "General, he scheduled a conference call with you for 06-20"
I stopped looking at the map for a second and uncomfortably checked my watch. 6:27. I sighed, and turned towards my personal quarters which was in the back of the bunker.
"Send air support to the company of basilisks, and order the scorpion faction to secure a 200 meter perimeter around that northern mall." I said to the Major as I walked off, towards my office.
I reached a medium sized room which was cutoff from the main one by a thick wall and a large bullet proof window. The wall opposite to the door was covered by a monitor its length, and on that monitor was an oversized projection of an annoyed looking Mark Aurelius. As soon as he saw me he started his rant.
"Did you know to keep these conference calls safe it costs 25 dollars a second!" He yelled, "and it already been 7, so that's" he started mumbling but stated yelling soon after, "that's 10 and a half grand already!"
"Calm down, you're wasting more money" I pacified.
Mark huffed but straitened his suit and changed his expression from angry to serious. Mark was 19 years old, was a skilled fighter, and though you couldn't see it because of his long sleeved army suit, he had really defined muscles. He was a Royal Army Major General like me, and was the son of Metis; titan of planning, advise, crafts and wisdom. Titles and ancestors aside he was a nice guy; he didn't discriminate against demigods like other officials and always knew what to say to help. In the military life there wasn't much time for young Generals to have fun, especially since our country was at war, but from time to time Mark always showed me and a few others a way. He was sitting in his own office in an expensive looking chair.
"Why did you call?" I asked as I plopped down in my simple rolling chair. Mark studied me in silence for a while; his body immobile, eyes racing.
"No reason" He clearly lied. There was something definitely up since he had been complaining about my lateness and made a big fuss about cash but didn't just cut the connection. I tried to think about what it might be.
"I just called hear how the siege is going, form you" He said trying to cover up his tracks.
"Oh it's going good, you know, few casualties, civilians staying out of our way, progress on the streets. It should be in the report" I said suddenly remembering why he called me.
"You wanted to talk about the report, right?" I asked
"No not really" he answered in an easy going voice, while shaking his head.
"I think I might read it this time" I stated, baiting him for a reaction. As it turned out the bait worked.
"Why would you do that?" he asked a bit too weirdly.
"Is there something in the report?" I asked suspiciously letting him know that I had caught on.
"You didn't happen to read it, did you?" He asked seriously.
"No" I assured him good naturedly. Mark expression darkened and his mood took a darker turn.
"Then don't" he growled from his office, leaving me confused. I didn't exactly understand why he was acting up, but with each word he said I became more interested in the report.
"Why shouldn't I?" I asked rebelliously, "You don't really have any authority over me"
"Nico it's for your own good" he promised angrily. This was weird, Mark seemed angry but I saw serious concern in his eyes. I had never seen him this worked up. Even in my confused state I knew something serious had happened.
I rolled up to the monitor, on my chair, where Mark's face was projected and pulled up a digital keyboard. I quickly began typing in codes and looking for the latest South American war report.
"What are you doing!" Mark asked furiously, partially hidden by a few programs I had just opened. After another 2 seconds I found the report, and only had to read the first three lines before my mind went into turmoil.
I brought up another program on the screen and pressed a red digital button.
"Sir?" I heard the Majors voice ask.
"Prepare a helicopter for me" I ordered harshly and then cut the line. Mark had his hands on his head and looked torn.
"You don't have to do this" he said weakly. I looked him up and down, trying my best to hide all my emotions.
"General Aurelius, don't try to stop me" I ordered, suddenly all formal, before walking out. At that moment I could barely think strait, my anger spiked and my ability to think rationally plunged. What I read in the report undoubtedly changed my life.
"Di Angelo" The middle judge warned, slowly bringing me back to the present. My flashback ended and I once again found myself back in the fancy court.
Sorry for the delay. School started. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It's a little different from the previous ones but I like it. Tell me what you think.