Almost complete! Oh my gods! Disclaimer: I don't own PJO/HOO/TOA
The day before her birthday, and the day after she refused Prometheus' offer of surrender, Thalia woke up from yet another dream about her enemy. She nearly gutted Luke in the process, and only his lightning fast reflexes kept him from turning into 'Luke-On-A-Stick'. A nearby Hunter groaned in disappointment.
"Woah, woah!" He lifted his hands defensively. "Calm down, Thals. It's just me."
"Sorry," she panted, eyes scanning the room for threats for a moment before she relaxed. "Dream," she stated simply as an explanation. Luke nodded, an understanding look on his face.
"We have a problem," he told her. "There's-"
"An army in the park," she cut him off. "I know. That's what my dream was about. We need to hurry, Kronos said something about a surprise."
"Oh, great," Luke grimaced. "I just love surprises. I can't wait."
Thalia gave a bitter laugh as they hurried from the room. "I guess someone forgot to tell him that my birthday isn't until tomorrow," she said bitterly. Luke didn't answer, the silence feeling heavy between them for once. The deadline hovered around them with the words, the hero's soul cursed blade shall reap, dangling above them like Damocles' sword.
They passed through the reception, spotting Lena going around, touching people's shoulders to restore their strength and bravery, and then they entered the hotel's main conference room that they were using to plan out their strategies and get reports from everyone. Zoe and the other cabin leaders were already there.
"At last," Zoe snapped. "The Titans have an army coming through the park. The force is strong."
"I know," Thalia nodded, heading for the table. She studied the shield lying on the table, a deep frown growing on her face as she tried to count the opposing forces' numbers. "Damn," she muttered grimly. "And the other entrances? Knowing Kronos, he'd send a huge force to distract us, then sneak in to the mountain through a smaller one."
"I have seen nothing," Zoe admitted. "But I agree with thy's concern. We shall be forced to divide our forces. They may be overwhelmed if they art confronted with the Lord of Time."
Thalia bit her lip. "But we have no options," she sighed. "Okay, so the Hunters will come with Luke, the Athenian kids, Lena and I to Central Park. Everyone else will be split between the tunnels to defend them."
"Still doesn't give us a big enough force to deal with that amount of monsters at the park," Luke pointed out, scowling at the large force on the move in the shield's reflective surface.
"Well, we have no one else to help," Thalia shot back testily. "Unless you've got a couple phalanxes hidden up your sleeves?"
"Ahem," a voice cleared his throat. "We shall aid you in defending the home of the gods!" The three leaders turned, their eyebrows all flying up at the sight of an overweight old satyr standing in front of Grover. Through the door, Thalia felt a jolt of delight and hope at the sight of a large group of nature spirits floating around the reception.
While nature spirits were not the best when it came to anything violent, they had magic, and they were as stubborn as their trees. And any help was welcome help at this point.
"My Lord," Zoe stepped forward, wearing her typical expression of disdain. "How many warriors hast thou in thy army?"
"Ah," the satyr mopped his sweaty brow with a handkerchief, his hand shaking slightly. "About fifty nature spirits of various species. We are us all ready to defend Mount Olympus with our lives, of course."
"You have our thanks, milord," Zoe inclined her head regally. She somehow managed to give the impression that she was giving him a gift, rather than the other way around.
"You'll come with us to push them back out of the park," Thalia interrupted the satyr (Leneus according to Grover's hasty whisper in her ear) before he could start babbling on. "Let's go."
"Yes," Zoe agreed, snatching up her bow and quiver.
"May the Fates be on our sides," Luke added with a sigh as he pushed off the wall he had been leaning against in order to follow them to the door.
They heard the army before they saw it.
Later on, Luke would claim that the noise was like a cannon barrage combined with a football stadium crowd—like every Patriots fan in New England was charging the defending army with bazookas. The other survivors of the battle, in turn, would agree that it was a rather accurate comparison, but not quite loud enough.
At the north end of the reservoir, the enemy vanguard broke through the woods—a warrior in golden armor was leading a battalion of Laistrygonian giants with huge bronze axes. Hundreds of other monsters poured out behind them.
"Positions!" Malcolm yelled. His cabinmates scrambled. The idea was to make the enemy army break around the reservoir. To get to the defenders, they'd have to follow the trails, which meant they'd be marching in narrow columns on either side of the water, from where the naiads who'd joined the battle would use their powers to drown them.
At first, the plan seemed to work. The enemy divided and streamed toward the defenders along the shore. When they were halfway across, the defences kicked in. The jogging trail erupted in Greek fire, incinerating many of the monsters instantly. Others flailed around, engulfed in green flames. Athena campers threw grappling hooks around the largest giants and pulled them to the ground. Naiads sent long ropes of water out of the rivers and dragged the various monsters they caught into the waters' depths.
In the woods on the right, the Hunters began to send vollies of silver arrows into the enemy line, destroying twenty or thirty dracaenae, but more marched behind them. Thalia herself summoned a strong bolt of lightning that came crackling out of the sky and fried a Laistrygonian giant to ashes. Luke proved his reputation of 'best swordsman in decades' was well unearned, cutting down a monster with each move.
Grover raised his pipes and played a quick tune. A roar went up from the woods on both sides as every tree, rock, and bush seemed to sprout a spirit. Dryads and satyrs raised their clubs and charged. The trees wrapped around the monsters, strangling them. Grass grew around the feet of the enemy archers. Stones flew up and hit dracaenae in the faces.
The enemy slogged forward. Giants smashed through the trees, and naiads faded as their life sources were destroyed. Hellhounds lunged at the timber wolves, knocking them aside. Enemy archers returned fire, and a Hunter fell from a high branch.
"Thalia!" Lena yelled as she pointed at the reservoir. The Titan in the gold armor wasn't waiting for his forces to advance around the sides. He was charging toward the main line of defence, walking straight over the top of the lake.
A Greek firebomb exploded right on top of him, but he raised his palm and sucked the flames out of the air.
" It's Hyperion," Malcom warned with a mix of fear and awe in his voice. "The lord of light. Titan of the east. Next to Atlas, he's the greatest Titan warrior. In the old days, four Titans controlled the four corners of the world. Hyperion was the east—the most powerful. He was the father of Helios, the first sun god."
Thalia fixed her gaze on him and tightened her jaw, hefting her spear and shield. "I'll deal with him," she decided.
"Thalia, even you can't—" Luke began to argue. Lena, however, simply muttered a blessing while she touched the daughter of Zeus' shoulder gently. Thalia gasped as she felt her strength be restored, her worry growing as she noticed the weakness it had cost Lena.
"Lena," she started to say. The daughter of Akantha shook her head, dismissing it.
"Go," she insisted, shoving a piece of ambrosia into her mouth. "Quickly!"
"Good luck," Luke added grimly as Thalia turned to rush toward Hyperion. She hovered slightly, making it seem as if she too was running over the top of the water.
When they were twenty feet away from each other, Hyperion raised his sword. His eyes were as gold as Kronos's but brighter, like miniature suns.
"Zeus' latest brat," he mused. "Well, this should be fun."
"Yeah," Thalia agreed. "I'll enjoy tell everyone how badly I kicked your ass."
Hyperion snarled and raised his sword, beginning to glow brightly. Thalia prayed to Akantha to grant her the strength and courage she needed for this battle.
On the other side of the country, Camp Jupiter was moving out. They had all climbed into ten large, canvas-covered trucks, with twenty legionnaires in each of them. Several Lares were also coming, grouped in ghostly chariots and wearing expressions as grim as their living counterparts.
The trucks carrying the First, Third and Fourth Cohorts were all heading for the more obvious entrance to Mount Othrys. The others, carrying the recalled soldiers and the Second and Fifth Cohorts, under Hank, Reyna, Jason and Gwen's joint command, headed around to the back of the mountain.
Once they had all disembarked and fallen into line, the four centurions exchanged quick nods and began leading the way up the mountain. The road they were taking was sparsely patrolled, and Eleanor Lyric, a daughter of Apollo from the Second Cohort who held the title of quickest archer in the camp, shot each of them before they could make an attempt to sound the alarm or attack the invading army of heroes.
As they came closer to the dark, sinister-looking fortress, the sound of battle reached their ears. Jason winced, a headache starting to form as he listened to the loud noise of metal clashing, orders being yelled, cursing and other fight-related sounds.
'Whoever said war was a good thing' he thought bitterly. 'Clearly had no idea what they were talking about.'
They entered the fortress to find that the lines had not yet broken, as they had hoped and planned for. Instead of individual fights and broken ranks making it difficult to either support their comrades or identify which demigods were with or against them, there were nothing but enemies facing away from them.
At the other side of the army, Jason could see the golden armour and purple cloak of Praetor Nikki as she led the demigods' side of the battle. He turned and nodded at the other centurions. They nodded back, and Jason raised his sword high in the air to attract his soldiers' attention.
"Heroes advance!" he yelled. "FOR OLYMPUS!"
"FOR OLYMPUS!" They all echoed him before they crashed into the backs of the shocked defending monsters, many of whom died in the initial attack.
Jason forced his mind not to become distracted by the battle, concentrating on his assigned task. 'The throne' he reminded himself as he continually cut through what seemed to be a never-ending stream of enemies. 'I need to find the throne and destroy it. It's the only way to weaken Saturn enough for the gods to defeat him.'
Poseidon hated to do it. Not only was it a sharp blow to his pride to abandon his city, his centre of power, to the invading enemy, but many of his army had sacrificed their mortal lives to defend Atlantis. By leaving, it felt as if their sacrifice was being wasted.
Despite that, Poseidon knew that he had no other (acceptable) option. If he stayed, then the only thing he would achieve would be the loss of his family, the city, and his army. By retreating, and going to aid his fellow Olympians instead, he would only lose his city. Then he could help destroy Typhon, and they could go to Olympus to reinforce the struggling demigods before they were defeated. And perhaps Poseidon would even get to defeat Athena at last.
He very much wanted revenge for his lovers' suffering at her hands, and for sweet Pallas' death. Though the mortals had written it was an accidental death, Poseidon knew the truth. Athena had killed his young granddaughter to make him suffer. He would get justice for Pallas however. The time had come and her ichor called for vengeance.