I apologize guys. I have been slightly neglecting this story, as well as a couple others, so even though I write for whatever story I have inspiration for, I will attempt to spread them out. I recently started to second guess myself about the length of my chapters, until i saw a 125 chapter 117k story that was extremely successful. I think that someone already mentioned this in a review, but this is just to quell any future questions. Percy is not abandoning everyone. He is just abandoning the gods and the demigods. He is actively protecting the mortals, so don't worry. And what a nice guy he is, he even gave the gods and DG's another chance. The ones that did not take him up, well... Lets just say it won't end well. So when they are dying don't expect Percy to save them. They had their chance. Oh, what follows is a bit of a blatant plee for attention. I like to think I do okay with this story, but I really haven't gotten a lot of support recently. If you guys could please tell me what you think, I would really appreciate it. Oh, and I am actively betaing for Thayes2014, starting from where he gives me a notice at the beginning of a chapter, so if you guys could check it out that would be great. It is his first attempt at writing and mine at betaing so don't be too harsh. I notice that some of the older faces here have also already reviewed for him. Great job on trying to spread encouragement to starting authors. To the reviewer who asked about LOTR, yes, I did that on purpose. I love it, and thought that I could show something a bit more out of the ordinary than the standard monsters and cannon fodder.

Camp Half-Blood was preparing for battle. The forges roared, the armory clattered, the healers were dashing around, trying to get supplies together. Yet the camp seemed slightly empty. The forges were not the happy go lucky area from before. With the Hephaestus kids gone, it fell to others to try to replicate their work. The Athena cabin had done their best to come up with a plan, as the bags under their eyes attested, but in the end had bowed aside to Annabeth and her, quote "superior wisdom". She refused to inform anyone of the whole plan, telling information on a need to know basis, claiming that it reduced the amount of errors.

The amount of troops they had to work with was severely reduced with the loss of the largest cabin in camp, the Hermes cabin. Aphrodite kids were not much of a loss overall, but the Dionysus kids were good fighters, even with the very small number of them. Dionysus had, surprisingly, been one of the most faithful gods to his wife. The cabin heads all gathered in the big House for a meeting, called by Annabeth. She called the meeting to order, rapping her hand down hard on the table several times to gain attention.

"Scouts have reported a monster army close by, who will be here in about two hours. I will set up the defense. Any questions?"

Clarisse stood up, thrusting her chair back. "Yes. I have a question. Just because you are immortal and a kid of Athena's gives you permission to take over this camp? I talked with some of the Apollo kids, and what the Hades are you thinking? Leaving the archers on flat ground protected by the Demeter kids? The heck Annabeth!"

Annabeth stood up as well, eyes flashing. "I know best! Not some punk kid of Ares! You have no idea what I have planned. So stay out of it."

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"I said no. I may be no tactician, but it almost seems as if you are leaving us as bait and expecting something else to hit the monsters while they slaughter us! Isolating the Ares kids, your best soldiers, leaving the archers in the open, protected by kids who grow plants! Either something is wrong or-" She found a dagger to her throat as Annabeth gripped the hilt tightly, staring into her eyes. The table exploded, with counselors leaping to their feet in alarm. The most obvious change was in Chiron. He drew himself to his full height and his voice thundered above the others, instantly drawing all attention.

"Stop! What are you doing Annabeth?" The daughter of Athena sneered, not taking her eyes off Clarisse.

"Dealing with a mutineer."

"She just asked a question. Nothing close to provoking this response." Annabeth withdrew her dagger and sheathed it slowly, before closing he eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Sorry. I don't know why I did that."

Clarisse turned her back contemptuously. "You can be sorry all you like girly, but we are through. You will fight this without the aid of our cabin." She left and the crowd was stunned into silence. Then all eyes turned to glare at Annabeth. She did her best to ignore them, shrugging.

"We don't need the likes of them to deal with the monsters. Whose with me?" Dead silence met her declaration. Several heads of the smaller cabins talked together for a minute before one of them stood forward to answer the blond girl.

"We are not. You just got rid of our best fighters! Who do you think you are? If they are not good enough than neither are we. We will stand and fight, but only because we do not wish to abandon our brethren. Otherwise, we would be out the door already. Watch your words you blond bimbo, because one more slip up and we are gone. Choose your next words carefully."

Annabeth sighed, before turning on her heel, the squeaking noise loud in the silence, before shrugging. "All right. Lets go set up."


"Percy, why are we going to Long Island?"

He looked at her, continuing to walk backwards as he did. "Because of two things. First, the camp will be destroyed soon, plus I have a feeling some people are deserting them. Also someone asked to talk to me, though I already know what my answer will be." Zoe walked with him, and the pair hurried on ahead, eager to get this out of the way. They climbed Half-Blood hill and Percy crossed his arms, scowling. "What is it Annabeth?"

"Okay, so here is the plan. The monsters will attack, and you and your group will strike them from behind. Sure, we will have a lot of casualties, but it will crush them easily."

He shook his head, disappointed and unhappy. "Where do you get off? We already said we will not help. That answer still stands. I cannot believe you will sacrifice demigods for this. Not that it matters, you will all be dead before an hour is up. Good luck. You will need it. May Hades have mercy on your soul."

Annabeth stared, stunned, at Perseus. Her entire plan had been forgotten. She had been more rattled than she admitted by Percy, and his stark assessment of CHB chances had not helped. She had been even more shocked when he would not help the demigods, even with his fatal flaw. All this combined led to her continuing to stare blankly at him, to the exclusion of all else. Malcolm kept shaking her shoulder, and shouting something at her. She slowly felt herself go numb as she realized the magnitude of her mistakes. She continued to look straight ahead, ignoring Malcolm. That spelled the end for the demigods. With no cohesive plan known and their leader out of comission, the monsters butchered them. It was a massacre. Many monsters fell, but wave after endless wave continued to swarm forward. The line fractured into small groups, each facing overwhelming odds. Each group slowly was cut to pieces as archers stood off at a distance and shot them apart. A few fighters managed to band together and fight their way into the woods, but they were few and far between.


Piper bent over for a moment, clutching her side as she heaved in air. She was doing her best to lead the Demeter kids to protect the archers, but they were getting overwhelmed. She spun and lashed out, catching a empousa in the side before ducking under a sword thrust and lunging forward... And that was it. The line had been broken and she was dragged further into the heaving mass of monsters as some hellhounds capitalized on the opening and surged forward, dragging down the nearest campers, opening a gap in the lines that was instantly swarmed, and the archers were doomed. A few, mostly Apollo kids and a Demeter child or two, were able to break away and sprint for the safety of the woods, but when the ground was again visible underneath the attacking army, not one demigod was left standing.


Despite their mother abandoning the Olympians, the cabin decided to stay and support their friends. The Aphrodite cabin had been tapped for support duty, seeing as they were mostly useless in a straight up confrontation. Ironically, when they rushed to the rescue of some of the lesser known half-bloods, they were the cabin to give the best account of themselves. Piper had gone to assist the Demeter cabin and left Lacy and Mitchell in charge. (Remember them?) Lacy deferred to Mitchell, as he had greater knowledge of war. He winced as he saw the archers go down, and he knew it was over. He ordered a tactical withdrawal in good order, sending some of the campers to fight a rear guard action. They were the only cabin to suffer minimal casualties.


Malcolm desperately tried to get Annabeth to wake up to the outside world, but was unsuccessful. He was forced to drag her away to get back to their fellow siblings before being cut off. As the whole cabin was pushed up against the smoking remains of the big house, he cast a desperate gaze to the top of Half-Blood hill. What he saw gave him hope. The Ares cabin, fully decked out and equipped, stood in ranks at the top of the hill, in the back of the monster army. He waved his hand in the air and shouted desperately to get their attention. Clarisse saw him and grimaced. She raise her hand to give a signal, before hesitating. Conflicting emotions played across her face before her shoulder slumped and she turned away, leading her followers away. Fear, shock, and resignation ran through him in short order. He heard a noise and glanced at Annabeth out of the corner of his eye. She was still staring at Percy, who, true to his word, was keeping out of the fight. He saw her whisper quietly. "I'm sorry." Then a laestrygonian threw a fiery cannonball at the place where she was standing and blew the surrounding area to bits. As the remaining demigods broke and started to run, he took on a one man stall tactic, sacrificing himself to allow the others to escape.


Percy shook his head looking over the battlefield below. "So much senseless slaughter. They never stood a chance." He turned away and walked away slowly, thinking of what he should do next. Malcolm had caught his attention, perhaps he was redeemable, even if he was a child of Athena. Food for thought.