Author's Note: Do I do too many author's notes? I can't help it lol.
You'd probably consider be a wanton whor- uh, needy dumbass for this, but I did need some time off. It felt good to get a month of peace from FFN, even though I've just written a total of 11 chapters to date. the year's been overwhelming.

Ironically, it's also been a really, really great month for me, and I know tons of people out there probably didn't have as happy a time, so I'm grateful for each and every second of this month. It's been wonderful for a variety of reasons that prolly wouldn't mean much to you all, so I'll savour what I have.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Trials of Apollo or any of its characters. You know who does... RICK RIORDAN!
hyped for the PJO Disney+ adaptation yayyyayyy
Now, with that done, you can get on with the chapter.
ENJOY!

Chapter 11

Battle Plan of Gods
Chiron, take a seat. NANI?!
Gods, Solace, you're late!

The cleaning up took an incredibly short time, unexpectedly. We had cleaned just the previous day at Gelos'.

I really wanted to jump into Long Island Sound for a bath, but Kayla Knowles stopped me.
Maybe she realized her father would have gladly drowned himself in the Sound. Or maybe not.

Instead, I just did a simple wipe-up and changed into camp clothes. Not surprisingly, I hadn't seen Will around, not even at archery practice, and guessed he was off with Nico by the edges of the woods.

As I waited for Meg to exit the Demeter cabin, I was pretty sure I heard some Hephaestus kid listening to BTS on a VHS. How he did it, I'm still not sure, but I believe it involves a lot of tinkering with stuff. Almost an hour later, Meg promptly walked out of her cabin donning her signature traffic light clothing.

She greeted me with a wan smile, and then we began walking down towards the Big House, ignoring the weird glances from campers. Even the naiads were being less noisy when we walked by them. Dionysus saw us approaching beforehand and walked in before us. To feed his leopard head?

As we arrived at the Big House, we noticed that it had begun looking like Dionysus' party hut again. Seymore the leopard head was purring contentedly as Mr D fed him (right once again!). The usual Pac-Man consoles were back in working condition and a carton of Diet Coke was hoarded up in the back. More astonishingly, almost all the cabin counselors were at the ping-pong table. Almost. I could have counted them individually, but I didn't need to. Will Solace and Nico di Angelo were missing. Chiron came in from the front door that moment. He closely avoided his head colliding with the door frame by ducking. He slowly cantered up to the head of the table beside Dionysus, and looked around.

'It appears that two of our number are late.' He continued, 'As a matter of fact, so was I. Now, shall we wait?'
A general shrug passed around the table. Clovis, the counselor of the Hypnos cabin, jerked awake and replied almost ten seconds late, 'Whatever Lester is planning, I'm in for it.' Clarisse La Rue sighed annoyedly.

In the ten minutes we waited for Nico and Will, an eternity of boredom seemed to pass. Malcolm Pace of Athena kept fiddling restlessly with a scrap of old papyrus, evidently bored. Clovis yawned pointedly, making me, Meg, Katie, Lou Ellen and Jake Mason yawn as well. Chiron just stood at the head looking unfocusedly, as though staring through the Mist. And, very surely, within five minutes, all the ADHD campers had begun stretching their legs or humming to themselves or making faces at each other or chewing their nails. Some were regularly tossing Snausages into Seymour's mouth. I couldn't blame them, even my mortal self without ADHD was getting weirdly attention-deficit. As I was thinking whether we should send a party to remind Will and Nico that we had a meeting, my hands sparked.

Now, I don't mean a spark as in a crush. Not a sudden twitch. Not even static electricity sparks.
No, my hands sparked with fire.

In the few seconds that it happened, my hands happened to be under the table and the only person who saw it besides me was Meg. Eyes wide, she looked at me. I subtly shook my head. It wasn't the time to discuss it. Amidst the listless activities of the demigods, my plight went unnoticed. For a second, I thought I'd seen Chiron's head turn towards me, but on looking, he was still staring as intently into thin air. Perhaps he had been looking in my general direction.

It was now that we heard steps approaching the building.

As Will and Nico burst through the porch, Dionysus grunted, 'About time, eh?'

Will started, 'We didn't know that it was time already. Doesn't look like you've started.'
He proceeded towards his seat.

Nico walked over to the Hades seat, with pursed lips and slightly red eyes, which no one seemed to have noticed.

Chiron began:
'Now that we're all here,' Clovis raised his head on the back of his palms, 'I wanted to begin with the first bit of news that we have to confirm. The death of Jason Grace.'

A shiver passed around. Will's eyes wandered over to Nico, who gulped drily. Even Clarisse's macho attitude seemed to burn away at the mention. Having known that this would've happened didn't make it any easier.

I began with the Waystation. Just to put the amount of damage into perspective.
By the time I was talking about Caligula, I had achieved a certain flow. It was easier to keep going now. All the counselors were staring avidly at me, but Meg was looking down at the ping-pong table. The room seemed to be holding its breath for something.
About a quarter of an hour after I had begun, I reached the part about Caligula's yachts. My throat was getting parched was beginning to constrict. I took Drew's untouched glass of water. Drew didn't even seem to notice, which was most unlike Drew's bossy nature, but I accepted it without question. I talked fine enough, until the shoes of Terpsichore.

Then, my voice began wavering just slightly. I kept narrating, somehow. I spoke of the fight against Caligula and his talking steed. And how Tempest arrived and Jason rode him into battle. But then my voice broke down completely, and it had absolutely nothing to do with a parched throat.

Meg decided to take over from there.
'Then, Jason began taking out everyone. He made Lester promise to remember how it is to be human. Then, he got speared.'
For a second, I was taken aback by the amount of bluntness with which she'd talked of Jason's death. Then I noticed her eyes shimmering with tears, but she was making a conscious attempt to hold it back. She carried on:
'Tempest carried him back to mainland…'

I sat there, and let the words flow over me. Nico was sitting loosely on his chair and his face looked paler than snow. If I hadn't known that it was him sitting there, I would have mistaken him for a vampire. Drew Tanaka of Aphrodite also looked deathly pale, and I guessed she might have had a crush on him. Will was sitting with his face in his arms and Travis Stoll looked as though he was undergoing some painful internal struggle beyond words.

Chiron sighed, 'We have lost another hero to monsters. May his spirit rest in Elysium. Now, Apollo, you talk of an attack on the Roman camp? I have been unable to reach Lupa yet. I'll let Meg fill us in.'

But soon Meg switched to our arrival at Camp Jupiter. Everyone at the table still looked aghast, but they had regained some material curiosity. I let Meg carry on with how we made friends with Lavinia, how we found Peaches and the Sybil. Then I took over to explain the importance of the prophecy and how we had to lose a god in order to weaken the emperors. Not long after, I found myself hurrying to finish the tale and just get the meet over with.

Within minutes, I was narrating my near-death experience and moments of hysteria with the Arrow of Dodona, and how Artemis, I mean, Diana arrived to save us and of the resurrection of Frank Zhang and Reyna joining the Hunters.

A few moments later, we had narrated everything up to the present. An unusual silence followed, where the only sound was that of wind rustling through the woods. It felt as though all the campers were silent.

Dionysus broke the ice with a deep sigh.
'Just another demigod lost. Father always bore attention-seekers.'
Everyone looked at him.
'Excluding me.'

Oh no, mostly including you, brother. And me.

All eyes slowly turned back to Chiron.

'I believe neither you nor Meg have any sure idea of what to do next.'

'Yes, we do,' I interjected, 'Not sure, but we do have a plan.'

Meg looked at me like what the Tartarus are you saying? I gave her a meaningful half-look.
Meaningful, my butt. I had no idea what I was talking about.

'All we need is where Nero's keeping his tower this time. We need prophetic help to proceed, but I think if we destroy his source of power, his fasces, we'll be able to take him in a fight. The millions of guards he'll have is another minor problem.'

Chiron looked considerate. He opened his mouth to reply, but it was Clarisse who spoke first.
'You won't be able to take a Roman emperor yourself. He'll have defenses set up. If there's anything I know about guarding your base, I know that he'll use his tower as monster headquarters.' She hit the table with her fist, and I was secretly glad my face wasn't the table.
'You'll need a whole armada to take him, and I don't think Camp Half-Blood alone would suffice. We don't have Annabeth and Percy, and we couldn't ask Camp Jupiter for help when they're still rebuilding.'

Nico spoke up, 'I-I know someone. I'll need to call Percy somehow, but we might have backup. And no, we're not going to be disturbing the Romans, I… just need an Iris message or something.'

Dionysus suddenly voiced, 'In case you haven't noticed, young man, Iris messages aren't working unless you can somehow destroy Nero's fasces, and still have enough time to call for backup.'

Nico frowned. 'Yes, but I think if we have about an hour after destroying the fasces, we might stand a chance. You see, I'll be having actual backup, unlike your sorry self.'

The campers were watching this exchange with interest, and awkward giggles were emanating from outside the Big House. Will tensed.

'I will not take cheek from you, son of Hades!' Dionysus stood up, 'I could turn you into orchids before you could say another word! Why do you think I returned to camp?'

'Because Zeus reminded you that you had had too long a vacation?'

'Partly, yes; but I also didn't, you know, want all the demigods to poof away. It is clear that you'd lose without godly help.'

This time, I was taken aback. 'You care about the demigods?'

'No, Lester. I care about the Greek blood in their veins.' He snapped and a Diet Coke appeared in his hands. 'And you're not much of godly help, are you, Apollo, in your current state? It'd be great if you could beat the dirty snake soon. I miss you at the Council,' he said as nonchalantly as possible, but I sensed something genuine in what he said.

Nico, despite the look of severe loss he'd held moments before, looked very menacing now.
'Well, I'll be sure to bring back Persephone's pomegranates for you, Dionysus. You'd learn a thing or two about humility.'

Dionysus yawned unflinchingly, popped his Coke, and left as though he hadn't just had a quarrel with one of the strongest demigods at camp. Yes, Nico was really strong, he could probably have taken on Percy Jackson.

Chiron tried to restore order, 'Now, people, just calm down. I would play you all Dean Martin, but-.'

'NO!'
'Okay.'

All the head counselors turned to look at me. I frowned, 'No?'

Meg tried to stomp on my foot, only she smashed her toes against my calves.

Will was trying to get Nico to sit back down. I hadn't even seen him rise.
'Sit down, di Angelo. Doctor's orders.'

Chiron continued, 'Alright, now that you're all back in conscience, Lester, Argus can escort you to Rachel Dare. Clarisse, the Ares cabin will organize defensive and offensive fronts along with Hermes and Hephaestus cabins, in case of a direct assault on camp.'

'Nico, if the prophecy is true, Apollo will require you on his quest. Malcolm, inform Athena cabin of the situation, but be subtle. Too much information wouldn't be good, yet I daresay they'll find out all about it themselves. We may need your stock of weapons.'

'Everyone else except Lester, Meg, Nico and Will, go back to your activities.'

Everybody got up slowly and departed, while the four of us remained in our seats, and Chiron remained standing.
Chiron resumed, 'Now, Will, as usual, this will a quest for three, and Apollo and Meg will need Nico's help, which means a missing head counselor for Hades. Usually, it wouldn't be much of an issue, but at Nico's permission, you may keep the cabin from, er- going to hell.'

'Yeah, alright,' said Nico.

'Very well,' said Chiron, 'Apollo, I'll let you three talk over the specifics yourself. I don't want to be buzzkill, but the part about the cavern-runners sounds dodgy to me.'

And with that, he cantered out the front door, ducking in time to avoid the doorframe.

Nico looked at me, deadpan.

'What've you got up your sleeve this time, Lester? I hope for your sake that there's a good idea which you didn't tell Chiron. As to the cavern-runners, I think I know what the prophecy means.'

I grunted. I did have a better idea.

A/N: WHAT?! Lester has a better secret plan? Wowwww!
And about Nico's backup... you'd better go read every book by Rick Riordan before I reach the end of my story, or else some parts won't make sense. You'll see. Btw, I've been watching a ton of anime recently, and my language might sound a bit off from that of Uncle Rick's. If so, plz excuse this chapter.
I wanted it to be longer, but I had exams in November. If I hadn't had them, maybe you'd be seeing a 3000-word chapter before November ended, but *sigh* there's nothing I can do now.

Just out of curiosity, is it a good idea for me to do an AU series? I have nothing in mind for now, but maybe you could help me via reviews or PMs. And, yes, I might just break up your favourite ships, SORRY! It isn't even headcanon, so don't take it seriously. And if you don't want me to do an AU, again, tell me.
WAS THIS CHAPTER A BIT MORE CRUDE IN LANGUAGE? WELL, IT DOES HAVE A T-RATING. IK RICK WOULDN'T EVEN USE THE WORD 'BUTT', BUT I DID IT. jkjdsfkhfdhfjdlfhklfsfhdakldds

cool, now i feel better.
If you enjoyed the chapter, consider giving this story a FOLLOW or a FAV. A REVIEW is most highly appreciated even if it's criticism. Thx.
I'll see y'all in the next one!
RomanArt74