Disclaimer:
I have no affiliation with Miraculous Ladybug or Percy Jackson and the Olympus or the Heroes of Olympus series. Also any similarities to real life events or people are unintentional unless explicitly stated.
Dear Diary,
Tonight is the last night before the Feast of Spes. There isn't much else we can do at this point, but it doesn't feel like we're ready at all. There are still people setting up our defences, and upgrading everyone's armour. At the camp meeting earlier, Chiron was running through the plan but everyone kept getting distracted by the squirrel climbing up the column. It was so cute and had the bushiest tail ever.
What was I talking about? Oh, the plan.
What if our plan fails? And if we fail, then what?
We're not just fighting for Camp Half-Blood and demigods. We're fighting Gaea for every living creature that walks the earth. If we do not defeat her, everyone's lives will be at stake. It's literally the end of the world if we do not win.
Time is running out. We still haven't solved the onager problem. Each of them has the potential to wipe us out, and they have six.
If Nico and the Roman Praetor don't bring the Athena Parthenos back in time by the time Gaea awakens, the gods won't be on our side and we won't stand a chance of surviving this.
No, that's not fair on them. Even if do bring do bring the statue in time, there's no guarantee it will turn the odds in our favour. I'm sure that they're doing everything they can to bring the Athena Parthenos here and that Percy and the others are too on their quest.
I wish I could do something more to help them, but they're across the globe. Besides, we all have our part to play in the fight against Gaea and the Romans.
I may only be a sort-of demigod of a minor goddess, definitely not someone important enough to be the topic of Great Prophecies, but even I've been trained at Camp Half-Blood to fight monsters for those who can't. There has to be a reason that it was my parents, ordinary citizens of Paris, were blessed by Tyche, and that I am here now in a position to fight and defend.
In their last letter, Papa said that they recently had a really big order of macaroons and Mama asked when I was going back home. I told them soon, but can I even keep that promise? It's difficult to plan for the future when a war is your present.
Thinking back on my life, I've been really lucky. I've met wonderful people, have had experiences that people can only dream of, and have been raised and loved by my wonderful parents.
Sure, I'd love to see my parents again and realize my dreams of attending a design school, becoming a head lining designer commissioned by royalty and having a cat. Also, I'd love to tell Adrien how I feel about him, but I've never been able to talk about my feelings as easily Piper does with Jason.
Maybe it's too late to confess now. What am I supposed to do? Go up to him just before we go into battle and tell him I love him? And then what? Whenever I try to do something romantic, it never goes as planned.
But maybe if we win this war my dreams will come true.
Good night for now, dear Diary. Wish us luck. We'll need it.
Adrien, once again, didn't get a good night sleep.
He should've been able to sleep like a log after helping out with all the preparations yesterday, but every time he drifted off to sleep his dreams would be of his encounter with Gabriel in the thrift store. He knows something about what happened to his mother.
"Don't you want to see your mother again?" Gabriel had said.
An image of his mother filled Adrien's head. She was asleep, but breathing.
"If you give me the mirror, I'll forgive you for what you did to me."
He couldn't figure out what Gabriel wanted with Aphrodite's mirror. Alya theorised that it was to capture people's soul.
That didn't really matter anyways. His mother was alive.
Adrien didn't know the first place to he didn't know where to look for her. He wouldn't be allowed out of the camp before the end of summer without a prophecy and the prophecies weren't working properly yet.
He didn't really want the prophecies to start working again though.
The bit about the clothes, mix-matching furniture and cracked glassware in a large room ended up being true, but the pegasi stampede didn't have an elephant in it so maybe the dream had diverged. He contemplated warning Marinette about the arrow, but he didn't' want to tempt fate. Besides, she was stressed enough already. She thought that the Feast of Spes was today instead of tomorrow.
It wasn't her fault though. Everyone has their off days. Once she realised her mistake, she bounced back quickly like she normally does. She was amazing. Whoever she liked would be very lucky.
Nino claims that he doesn't know who it is, but Adrien thought that it could be Leo. She was friends with him, and she stressed out when he left on his quest. He did know that she was asked to do some embroidery on his shroud, just in case. But she also did some for Jason, piper and Annabeth.
She also did talk about the demigod Percy a lot. Adrien never met him, but he knows that Percy is Annabeth's boyfriend. It could be a case of unrequited love.
Then again, it could be someone else. She was quite popular and friendly with everyone at Camp Half-Blood. Adrien had no clue.
"Why don't you just ask her?" Nino said at the last dinner. "You clearly want to."
"I can't do that!"
"Why not?"
"It would be weird."
"It can't be weirder than you are now staring at her. Just ask her out already."
Adrien looked at his friend in disbelief. "What? That wasn't the question I wanted to ask! Don't be ridiculous. We're just friends."
Nino didn't look as if he believed him. "Yeah sure, bro. As long as you're happy."
Dear Diary,
So, it turns out, the feasts day wasn't today, but tomorrow. I was so stressed that I completely missed a day and freaked out a lot of people too in the process. I was beating the drums to wake everyone up and yelling at everyone to get into their armour.
Thank goodness that Alya set me straight before I woke up Clarisse. Ares kids take a while to wake up. If she did wake up, I wouldn't be writing now. What would I do without her?
I guess this is an example of something Chiron once said. "If someone convinces themselves that a situation really has a certain meaning, regardless of whether it actually does, they will take very real actions in response."
In this case, I thought that this day was Feast's Day.
I was told to take it easy, but I couldn't sit around and do nothing.
After dinner I was chatting with Alya, Nino and Adrien, when my best friend and her boyfriend went to spend some time together leaving me alone with Adrien.
At first we were talking about about how Alya and Nino made a cute couple and then somehow we got talking about the arrow, the lyre and the honey pot incident. It was nice just chatting about random stuff, and then I had to ruin the mood by asking him about his nightmares.
He seemed surprised, but I thought it was fairly obvious from the shadows under his eyes. Most of the demigods have been having them and we're going through a fairly traumatic time.
I babbled and awkwardly tried to backpedal from a topic he didn't want to talk about, but he smiled and tried to assure me it was okay.
He really is patient and kind.
I wanted to do something for him, so I gave him my lucky charm. Hopefully that will help with his dreams. He seemed to cheer up a bit.
At that moment, I nearly mustered enough courage to tell him how I felt, but then Chloe barged in and dragged him away.
It was nice while that moment lasted.
Right now, I feel as if I'm as ready as I'll ever be. The rest of my cabin is asleep. I really have to get some rest too. We have an early and long day tomorrow.
What is all that commotion going on outside?
My gods, Alya just came in saying that Mellie's water just broke. Just our luck…. Why does it have to be NOW? How can an air spirit even have their water broken!? Where's Will?!
The sun had not yet risen, but Adrien and Camp Half-Blood were awake and ready to defend their home. Right now they were waiting on Will and his team to disable the Roman's onagers. It was risky. Only a short moment ago, Will came running up the hill announcing that Millie gave birth to a healthy satyr and that the Athena Parthenos would be arriving soon. Clarisse and Chiron tried to keep everyone quiet, but even they could hardly contain their excitement. It was the first bright news that they had in a long time. Coach Hedge even managed to make it in time for the delivery.
"That's all well and good," grumbled Clarisse, after hearing Will's news. "But we still need a way to remove the onagers."
"I volunteer as tribute!"
"You just delivered a baby."
"And that is why I want to go," Will answered. "Besides, where's there's a will there's a way!"
And so they waited. Adrien hated waiting.
The sky slowly lightened in the east. The light illuminated the hordes of monsters. There was still no sign of the statue or of Will's team yet. They were running out of time. The first light peaked above the horizon, bouncing off the Celestial bronze helmets.
There looked to be some movement in the Roman camp.
"What's going on?" asked Clarisse.
Alya put her binoculars on. "Chaos. There are two-headed men fighting with one of the cohorts. The Romans were naive to think that they could trust those monsters. One of the other Cohorts are trying to help, but another group of monsters are getting restless.
"I see something white at one of the onagers. I think that's Will. Why on Gaea did he bother putting on those black clothes if he didn't cover his white blond hair? It looks as if he's arguing with someone – is that Nico? And – oh – stop fighting! Otherwise the monsters will – well now you're in trouble. Will and the others surrounded by monsters. Skeletons have clawed their way from the ground. It must be Nico."
Word spread quickly about Nico, but they were quickly silenced by a glare from Clarisse.
"There's a Roman in purple robes carrying a golden eagle standard, approaching Will and Nico flanked by dog warriors. The dog warriors are down, clutching their ears. And the Roman is raising the golden eagle standard and no! NO! Everybody, look out!"
Even without the binoculars, Adrien could see all six of the onagers launching however, they all collided to each other in mid-air. The heat from the explosion warmed his face.
It didn't hit them, but Clarisse was not happy.
"The Romans have fired the first shot! Camp Half-Blood! Attack!"
Clarisse La Rue charged ahead on a red chariot pulled by metal horses, closely followed by the Ares Cabin. After a brief moment of confusion, Adrien and all the demigods, satyrs, nature spirits, Cyclopes and Chiron headed towards the Roman troops. They would not let the Romans win.
Clarisse yelled, "Romans, you have fired on our camp! Withdraw or be destroyed!"
The Roman demigod in purple robes and a sickly complexion addressed his forces. "You see? It was a trick! They divided us so they could launch a surprise attack. Legion, cuneum formate! CHARGE!"
A horrible, piercing, off-pitch whistle caused Adrian to flinch and nearly drop his sword at the sound. He searched for Will, the only person capable of that horrid noise.
"DON'T BE STUPID!" He yelled, pointing north. "LOOK!"
Adrien stood with the others, dumbfounded, as a forty-foot-tall gold and ivory statue suspended by cables carried by six pegasi and Roman eagles flew towards them. On one of the Pegasi rode a Roman demigod, her sword held high. Her Imperial Purple cloak shimmered in the morning light.
"GREEK DEMIGODS!" She announced. "Behold your most sacred statue, the Athena Parthenos, wrongly taken by the Romans. I return it to you now as a gesture of peace!"
The statue was placed on the crest of the hill, near Thalia's pine tree and emitted a strong pulse of gold light. It rippled across the ground into the valley of Camp Half-Blood and down the opposite side through the Roman ranks. Adrien felt warm and safe like he was in his mother's embrace. He felt as if the gods were there watching over him.
"Romans!" Reyna yelled. "I do this for the good of the Legion, for the good of Rome. We must stand together with our Greek brethren!"
"Listen to her!" Everyone turned their attention to Nico. He strode between the battle lines and held his black sword in the air. "Reyna risked her life for all of you! We brought this statue halfway across the world, Roman and Greek working together, because we must join forces. Gaea is rising. If we don't work together –"
YOU WILL DIE.
Adrien could see the earth rippling with the sound of Gaea's voice. The feeling of peace and safety from the Athena Parthenos vanished.
A FUTILE GESTURE. BUT, IF IT MAKES YOU HAPPY, YOU MAY DIE TOGETHER.
The sickly looking Roman stumbled backwards and ran away, disappearing into the sea of monsters.
"CLOSE RANKS!" Reyna yelled.
All Greeks and Romans moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other. Nino was on his left. Marinette was on his right. They were surrounded by monsters on all sides but they were the children of gods and goddesses, and they would fight. They would win.
The earth rumbled and cracked beneath them. Gaea was waking up and it didn't sound as if she was a morning goddess.
Author's Note:
This chapter was partially inspired by the time I thought that my holiday was the next day when it was actually the week after and I managed to freak out my friends about by saying that we probably shouldn't go because the weather was currently insane. Turns out the weather wasn't the one insane.
Anyways, are you ready for the last chapter?