I do not own Percy Jackson or any of the characters.
Assembly
I watch Annabeth as she listens to the message. Percy's gone. He disappeared after he and Nico took Mrs. O'Leary for a walk, and no one saw where they went. Annabeth's been in a panic for the last couple of days, terrified Kronos captured him, or worse, and that she won't ever be able to see him again, or make up with him over their argument. Thalia and I have been trying to calm her down, but it's not easy. However, finally, Percy's made contact. He's also broken a very important rule. He used a cellphone to call Annabeth's.
"What'd he say?" I ask Annabeth as she lowers the phone, suddenly pale.
"He said Kronos is going to attack within the next day," Annabeth says. "He's asked us to meet him at the Empire State Building to defend it."
I nod. "Then we're going to do exactly that. And when you see your boyfriend again, you can slap the shit out of him for scaring you half to death."
Annabeth nods, smiling slightly. "I'll go tell Chiron."
"I'll pass the message to everyone else," I say.
Annabeth turns and runs off and I glance at Thalia, who nods and runs off toward the stables to get the other Archers. I head for the cabins, stopping at the beginning of them before inhaling.
"Everyone get out here!" I shout.
After a moment, everyone's out of their cabins. It's not everyone at the camp, but it's good enough to start with.
"Kronos is marching on New York!" I shout. "Gear up! We're going to defend Olympus!"
It's a mad dash instantly. Everyone's scrambling to grab their gear and weapons. As they do, I head to the Hephaestus cabin, finding Charles stepping out of it with his gear almost before everyone else. He holds out the gift I asked him to make and I accept it, smiling slightly as I stare. It's good. Just like I knew it would be if I let Silena tell Charles how to make it. The object is a Celestial Bronze armband, not the kind of jewelry I had had in mind, but it worked. The design was fairly plain, the only thing that decorated it being three lightning bolts connected to a ball of what I assume is lightning. However, the design is definitely not the part I care about. I look up at Charles.
"The magic?" I ask.
"Well, you never actually told us what you want, but Silena said she knew," Charles says, then briefly explains what kind of magic it has.
"It's perfect," I nod. "Thank you. And thank Silena for me too, would you?"
Charles nods and I turn, heading toward the archery range and climbing wall, arriving just as Thalia finishes passing the order to the last of the campers there. I slow to a stop and quickly use an arrow head to cut my thumb open, squeezing a drop of blood onto the inside of the armband, which absorbs it instantly, then hold it out to Thalia. She raises an eyebrow before doing the same. Once it absorbs her blood, she slips it onto her right bicep, just below her shoulder and looks at me expectantly.
"What's this one do?" Thalia asks.
"Grants me peace of mind," I say. "While you're wearing it, any injuries you receive, I'll suffer. Meanwhile, any I receive remain with me."
Thalia gasps harshly and yanks it off again. "I'm not wearing that!"
"Yes you are!" I say sternly. "I am going to take whatever precautions I can to ensure your safety. If that means that I have to suffer whatever injuries you'd have had, I'll happily accept that. This also means that neither of us have to worry about my oath being broken."
"I'm not wearing it!" Thalia growls.
I sigh, nodding, and Thalia walks toward the Big House. I follow and she drops the armband into the brazier on the way by as an offering to Zeus . Then, we find Chiron and Annabeth, both in full combat gear, leaving the Big House.
"The camp is ready," I say. "We just need to get vehicles."
Chiron nodded. "Gather everyone at Half-Blood Hill."
I nod and turn, whistling three times loudly. The other Archers all repeat the call and begin gathering everyone to head to the barrier. The air begins to grow tense as we gather. Everyone's suddenly feeling all of the anxiety of going to war. Not to say we weren't stressed before, but now the full reality is starting to hit. A lot of the people we know are going to die.
As we pile into the camp's vehicles, barely having enough for everyone, I clasp my hands and begin to pray. For myself. For Thalia. For the others. For strength and for survival. I open my eyes, seeing Thalia also praying, eyes watering, then look around at the other occupants of out emptied out van. We've got the big white one, and all the seats have been moved out to make room for spare gear. We're with Argus in the first vehicle, and were packed in. All of the counselors are in the van with us. Thalia is to my left, Annabeth directly across from us, beside her is Clarisse, then Chris Rodriguez beside her. Charles is sitting to me and Annabeth's right, his back pressed to the center console of the van, Silena seated in his lap. To Thalia's other side is Lee Fletcher, then Pollux from Dionysus's cabin, then Katie Gardner from the Demeter cabin, and the Stoll Brothers are seated back to back in the middle of the van.
"You tricked me," Thalia says finally.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"You know damn well what I mean!" Thalia snapped. "That armband wasn't the source of the magic and you know it! It just transferred it to me! That spell's not going to go away until you die!"
I sigh, nodding. "You're right. But I knew you'd refuse, so I didn't have a choice but to do it. I told you, Thalia. I'm going to take whatever precaution I need in order to make sure you're safe."
"God damn you Adam!" Thalia swears. "I didn't want this!"
"I know," I say, pulling her into a hug, Thalia crying into my shoulder and everyone pretending not to see or hear us. "I'm sorry."
After multiple hours of riding, we finally roll to a stop sometime in late afternoon and all pile out instantly. Percy looks relieved to see the entirety of our camp present. However, Annabeth wastes no time going to slap him. However, when she does, even though his head snaps to the side, she winces and shakes her hand, staring at him, wide-eyed. I suddenly recall my blade bouncing off of Kronos's skin and I have a sneaking suspicion it might bounce off Percy too, now. However, now's not the time for that. We have almost eighty campers gathered together. We need to get off the street before we kick off the war early by attracting every monster in New England.
"Something bad is going to happen tonight," Percy is saying. "Some kind of trap. We need to get an audience with Zeus and warn him about it before it's too late. And we can't take no for an answer."
I look up at Olympus, then walk forward, stopping beside Percy so I can speak quietly. "We can't summon the Gods back here, Percy. I told you, they have to fight Typhon together to defeat him. All of them. Once he's dead, they can come back to Olympus. We don't need an audience with Zeus. You need to get your father to help them."
"He's fighting his own war," Percy argues.
"And win or lose, the moment Olympus is destroyed he's dead anyway!" I hiss. "This isn't an argument we can have here anyway. Let's head upstairs, then continue it."
Percy nods and we all head inside. Percy walks over to the secretary, who looks over us in silence for a moment.
"School trip, eh?" the guy asks. "Sorry, we're about to close up."
Percy shakes his head. "No. Six hundredth floor."
The guy stares at him for a moment. "There is no six hundredth floor."
Percy rolls his eyes and leans forward. "Eighty demigods attract an awful lot of monsters. You really want us hanging out in your lobby?"
"Make it quick," the guy says after a moment.
"You don't want us going through the metal detectors," Percy adds.
"No," the guy agrees. "Elevator on the right. I guess you know the way."
Percy nods and we begin to cram campers into the elevator, sending up as many as we can at a time, the counselors all waiting to go last. As we wait, Thalia slips her hand into mine.
"If you're taking damage for both of us, you're not allowed on the front lines," Thalia says. "You're staying in back with me."
"That's fine," I smile. "I'm an archer."
Thalia smiles as well and nods, kissing me. Then, it's out turn to ride up and we all cram inside the elevator.
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