So I didn't get notified of some of my reviews for the last chap, sorry about that I wasn't ignoring them I swear. I will reply here. And I am super sorry- I'm not getting any notification of reviews at the moment so it's kinds stressful making sure I don't miss any. Also, opinions on the KC AU would be welcome for things like ships and stuff- just some context- the ships will not be happening for some time, at the start of the KC books Percy will be nine years old as I've played with timelines so that the Kane Chronicles happen before the PJO stuff. So there won't be any ships for her at all during the KC parts of the fics.
Replies:
Guest: Alabaster's been very careful while he's been undercover, he's only letting things slip a bit now because of Percy- because at this stage she is all he cares about. And As for why Bianca's not told Hazel about Juno's threat, it's partially because she's feeling incredibly guilty about everything and partially because she doesn't want Hazel to feel guilty for being used to manipulate her- it might not be logical but emotions never are.
Guest: He won't be dying quite yet- but his death will be fun and I think very fitting in the end, I have it all planned out- it will probably be quite brutal because the chapters leading up to it, based on what I'm currently got planned, are gonna be super rough.
PJ Fan 285: He's not supposed to be in the womens side but he used getting Percy's clothes as an excuse and he definitely isn't interested in actually bathing. He's interested in getting to Percy.
Undeath9087: Alabaster doesn't like Octavian at all- thank the gods because that alliance would end badly- but yeah, Octavian made the mistake of eying up Percy, and we all know Alabaster has a jealous streak. And yeah, I love the Percy, Frank and Hazel dynamic- Frank might not be the oldest but he gives off strong big brother vibes in some of the later chapters. And Hazel and Frank by the end of this are entirely ready to throw hands at anyone who dares come at Percy, and vice versa.
Weirdhead: Oh yeah- but remember the Greeks have no fucking clue that Percy is there, they're in for a hell of a surprise when they do arrive.
The Official Clarisse: The ship is undetermined yet for the Kane Chronicles one. And no, no Sally isn't Ruby's sister. She will become a Magician, though not as skilled as the kids as she started learning later in life and wasn't as passionate about it. In the Kane Chronicles AU she will eventually marry Julius, Percy is Carter and Sadie's step sister- it'll be fem again obviously. I loved that idea because A: I read a fic with Sally/Julius and it was cute but unfinished, and second, with messing with timelines Percy is the baby of the family and it's fun playing with how that affects the dynamic- especially with Sadie who is understandably going to be angry and bitter at first. And it also means that the first three stories, at least, are going to be totally different from anything I've written so far, and ships for Percy will be a fair way off since she won't even meet any Greeks until after the Kane Chronicles books have been finished and I move onto the PJO plotlines.
Atemeta: The Egyptian gods don't have demigod kids so I can't use your idea, sorry!
Jubby1905: There's a whole bunch of reasons- as another reviewer pointed out- but I would say the main ones are the fact that she's got amnesia, is incredibly vulnerable at this stage, he looks weirdly familiar for some reason, and something about him just scares this shit into her. She's not exactly her usual self at this stage because of the amnesia and everything. So she panicked and instead of fighting as she usually would she froze.
PJ Fan 285: Oh don't worry, I appreciate the concern but yeah, I'm like, seventy chapters ahead still I think, if not more. And yeah, I got some random ideas for the Kane Chronicles AU and I think because it's different with new characters to play with and such it's coming easy, and I don't want to stop writing in case I then struggle to get back into it- which has happened to me before.
Percy was willing to admit, as they headed to the war games, that she was excited.
Once they got out of camp, the Fifth Cohort formed two lines behind their centurions, Dakota and Gwen. They marched north, skirting the edge of the city, and headed to the Field of Mars—the largest, flattest part of the valley. The grass was cropped short by all the unicorns, bulls, and homeless fauns that grazed here. The earth was pitted with explosion craters and scarred with trenches from past games. At the north end of the field stood their target. The engineers had built a stone fortress with an iron portcullis, guard towers, scorpion ballistae, water cannons, and no doubt many other nasty surprises for the defenders to use.
"They did a good job today," Hazel noted. "That's bad for us."
"Wait," Percy said. "You're telling me that fortress was built today?" Percy couldn't help but feel impressed by that.
Hazel grinned. "Legionnaires are trained to build. If we had to, we could break down the entire camp and rebuild it somewhere else. Take maybe three or four days, but we
could do it."
"Let's not." Percy gave a wry smile, "It wouldn't be great. So, you attack a different fort every night?"
"Not every night," Frank said. "We have different training exercises. Sometimes death ball—um, which is like paint-ball, except with…you know, poison and acid and fire balls. Sometimes we do chariots and gladiator competitions, sometimes war games."
"Oh wow." Percy grinned, "Now that sounds like some fun games.
Hazel pointed at the fort. "Somewhere inside, the First and Second Cohorts are keeping their banners. Our job is to get inside and capture them without getting slaughtered. We do that, we win."
Percy's eyes lit up, because that sounded very familiar. "Like capture-the-flag. I think I like capture-the-flag." she paused, she remembered laughter- a hand grabbing hers and dragging her along, the smell of vanilla and old books, the feeling of total trust in a single person.
She was yanked out of the vague memories by Franks laugh. "Yeah, well…it's harder than it sounds. We have to get past those scorpions and water cannons on the walls, fight through the inside of the fortress, find the banners, and defeat the guards, all while protecting our own banners and troops from capture. And our cohort is in competition with the other two attacking cohorts. We sort of work together, but not really. The cohort that captures the banners gets all the glory."
Percy nodded to herself as she tried to keep up- marching in rhythm just felt strange to her and she found herself stumbling.
"So why are we practicing this, anyway?" Percy asked. "Do you guys spend a lot of time laying siege to fortified cities?"
"Teamwork," Hazel said. "Quick thinking. Tactics. Battle skills. You'd be surprised what you can learn in the war games."
"Like who will stab you in the back," Frank said.
"Especially that," Hazel agreed.
"That-" Percy's brows furrowed, "That sucks. You shouldn't have to be worried about that from friends-"
"Hah." Hazel shook her head, "If only it was that simple."
They marched to the center of the Field of Mars and formed ranks. The Third and Fourth Cohorts assembled as far as possible from the Fifth. The centurions for the attacking side gathered for a conference. In the sky above them, Reyna circled on her pegasus, Scipio, ready to play referee.
Half a dozen giant eagles flew in formation behind her—prepared for ambulance airlift duty if necessary. The only person not participating in the game was Bianca, who would be watching from an observation tower about a hundred yards from the fort using binoculars.
Frank propped his pilum against his shield and Percy flushed when he turned to look at her, frowning, "You haven't put any armor on- I can help-"
"I don't need you too." Percy reached up and played with her locket, "Someting Bianca said- I wanna test it. Don't worry about me."
"Percy you could get hurt." Hazel seemed pretty concerned too- and Percy couldn't blame them. She was getting several odd looks from people all around her- but... she didn't want to be weighed down by all that armor- she had the feeling that she'd had similar conversations before.
"I can handle myself. I'll be fine-"
"You've never done war games before-"
"Maybe not but I feel like I have played capture the flag before-" she saw a flash in her mind, emerald green eyes- a hand grabbing hers- running away from a cloud of smoke and she shook herself. "Listen, I may be crazy but honestly you should just accept it." she pulled Riptide from her pocket, uncapping it and grinning as she admired it.
The bronze glow was comforting here, around so much strangeness. But Frank stared at it as if it was a loaded gun and Percy hesitated, "We can use real weapons right?"
"Yeah," Frank agreed. "For sure. I've just never seen a sword like that."
"What if I hurt somebody?"
"We heal them," Frank said. "Or try to. The legion medics are pretty good with ambrosia and nectar, and unicorn draught."
"No one dies," Hazel said. "Well, not usually. And if they do—"
Frank imitated the voice of Vitellius: "They're wimps! Backin my day, we died all the time, and we liked it!"
Hazel laughed. "Just stay with us, Percy. Chances are we'll get the worst duty and get eliminated early. They'll throw us at the walls first to soften up the defences. Then the
Third and Fourth Cohorts will march in and get the honors, if they can even breach the fort."
Horns blew. Dakota and Gwen walked back from the officers' conference, looking grim. "All right, here's the plan!" Dakota took a quick swig of Kool-Aid from his travel flask.
"They're throwing us at the walls first to soften up the defences."
The whole cohort groaned.
"I know, I know," Gwen said. "But maybe this time we'll have some luck!"
Clearly the words were supposed to be comforting, but the rest of the Cohort grumbled and complained- clearly they didn't believe in luck. "First line with Dakota," Gwen said. "Lock shields and advance in turtle formation to the main gates. Try to stay in one piece. Draw their fire. Second line—" Gwen turned to Frank, Haze and Percy's row without much enthusiasm. "You seventeen, from Bobby over, take charge of the elephant and the scaling ladders. Try a flanking attack on the western wall. Maybe we can spread the defenders too thin. Frank, Hazel, Percy…well, just do whatever. Show Percy the ropes. Try to keep her alive." She turned back to the whole cohort. "If anybody gets over the wall first, I'll make sure you get the Mural Crown. Victory for the Fifth!" The cohort cheered half heartedly and broke ranks.
Percy frowned. "'Do whatever?'"
"Yeah," Hazel sighed. "Big vote of confidence."
"What's the Mural Crown?" she asked
"Military medal," Frank said. "Big honor for the first soldier to breach an enemy fort. You'll notice nobody in the Fifth is wearing one. Usually we don't even get into the fort because we're burning or drowning or…"
He faltered, and looked at Percy. "Water cannons."
"What?" Percy asked.
"The cannons on the walls," Frank said, "they draw water from the aqueduct. There's a pump system—heck, I don't know how they work, but they're under a lot of pressure. If you could control them, like you controlled the river—"
"Frank!" Hazel beamed. "That's brilliant!"
Percy blinked, a thoughtful look on her face, "I'm not even sure how I did that but I can try." she said slowly, "But I think I'd need to be closer."
"We'll get you closer." Frank pointed to the eastern wall of the fort, where the Fifth Cohort wouldn't be attacking. "That's where the defence will be weakest. They'll never take three kids seriously. I think we can sneak up pretty close before they see us."
"Sneak up how?" Percy asked.
Frank turned to Hazel. "Can you do that thing again?"
She punched him in the chest. "You said you wouldn't tell anybody!"
"If it helps I don't think I'm classed as anyone- I'm a Nobody-" her lips twitched- and for some reason it felt like she was telling a joke that no one else would understand except she wasn't even sure she understood.
Hazel relaxed slightly, looking at Percy, "Bianca did tell me I could trust you so... it's fine I guess. Percy, he's talking about the trenches.
The Field of Mars is riddled with tunnels from over the years. Some are collapsed, or buried deep, but a lot of them are still passable. I'm pretty good at finding them and
using them. I can even collapse them if I have to."
"Like you did with the gorgons," Percy said, "to slow them down."
Frank nodded approvingly. "I told you Pluto was cool. He's the god of everything under the earth. Hazel can find caves, tunnels, trapdoors—"
"And it was our secret," she grumbled.
Frank blushed at that, and Percy grinned slightly as he said, "Yeah, sorry. But if we can get close-"
"And if I can knock out the water cannons-" Percy grinned widely, "What then?"
Frank checked his quiver at Percy's question- she wondered what he was planning.
"The rest is up to me." he said, "Let's go."
Hazel found them the tunnel really quickly- Percy was honestly super impressed, and she led the way, Percy just beside her, her sword glowing faintly in the dark, lighting the way, as Frank took up the rear.
They could hear the sounds of the battle up above, kids shouting, Hannibal the elephant bellowing with glee, scorpion bolts exploding and water cannons firing. The tunnel shook and dirt rained down on them, but Percy felt perfectly safe with Hazel leading the way until the younger girl stopped.
"There's an opening just ahead," Hazel announced. "We'll come up ten feet from the east wall."
"How can you tell?" Percy couldn't help but be curious.
"I don't know," she said. "But I'm sure."
"Could we tunnel straight under the wall?" Frank asked.
"No," Hazel said. "The engineers were smart. They built the walls on old foundations that go down to bedrock. And don't ask how I know. I just do."
"How-" Percy shut her mouth at the look Hazel gave her, but she didn't hide the grin on her lips, and Hazel looked like she was considering laughing when Frank stumbled
over something and cursed.
Percy brought her sword around to see what he'd tripped over and she raised an eyebrow- whatever it was he'd tripped over was gleaming silver and she watch Frank crouch down, only for Hazel to almost yell; "Don't touch it!" and Frank paused, turning his head to look at Hazel.
"It's massive. Silver?"
"Platinum." Hazel sounded scared out of her wits. "It'll go away in a second. Please don't touch it. It's dangerous."
Percy raised an eyebrow- she remembered Hazels reaction to Don and the gold earlier. Something was up. But Frank listened and he straightened up and they watched the chunk of metal sinking into the ground.
"How did you know?" Frank looked confused, almost curious as he looked at Hazel, and in the ghost of Percy's blade Hazel looked as ghostly as a Lar. "I'll explain later," she promised.
Another explosion rocked the tunnel, and they forged ahead.
They popped out of a hole just where Hazel had predicted. In front of them, the fort's east wall loomed. Off to their left, Percy could see the main line of the Fifth Cohort advancing in turtle formation, shields forming a shell over their heads and sides. They were trying to reach the main gates, but the defenders above pelted them with rocks and shot flaming bolts from the scorpions, blasting craters around their feet. A water cannon discharged with a jaw-rattling THRUM, and a jet of liquid carved a trench in the dirt right in front of the cohort.
Percy whistled lowly, "That's a lot of pressure." she could feel it, could sense it. She'd be able to bend the water to her will she was sure of it.
She felt Frank tense beside her as Hazel shook her head, "Look at them-" there was anger in her voice, and Percy focused and her eyes narrowed as she saw what her new friends had.
The Third and Fourth Cohorts weren't even advancing. They stood back and laughed, watching their "allies" get beat up. The defenders clustered on the wall above the gates, yelling insults at the tortoise formation as it staggered back and forth. War games had deteriorated into "beat up the Fifth."
Percy's fingers curled into fists. "You guys, I don't know about you, but I'm about ready to cause some chaos." she glanced at Frank and Hazel, and frank nodded.
"Let's shake things up."