Hey, friends! Thank you for clicking on my story. Just a note that this is kind of the prologue of the story, but it takes up two chapters. Also, the next two chapters are set in 1864, one year before the civil war ends, and the Romans are on the side of the south. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story!

The Attack

The clanging of hammers rang through Bunker 9. Campers pounded on swords, worked on projects, and studied maps. At a certain table, a camper was weaving wires through a large bronze sphere.

Seeming to be satisfied with her work, she fastened on the top of the sphere. She set her hand on the side of the sphere, pushing down a small button. She removed her hand, staring intently at the device while she quietly counted, "One… Two… Three… Four… Five…"

The camper's face fell as she continued to stare at the motionless device. She violently ripped open the top of the sphere, peering inside to see why it wasn't working. Upon discovering the problem, she grit her teeth.

Cassandra grunted. Sighing as she disconnected the celestial bronze wires, she turned to Jacob, who was sitting at the work table adjacent to hers.

"This isn't working. The wires can't transport enough power from the core. If we can't get enough power into it, then the kronosphere will not release the time essence."

Cassandra gestured to small vial sitting on the table next to her. The vial contained a small piece of the essence of Kronos- a giftHades gave to the camp for a quest some demigods completed for him years ago. In a fit of frustration, Cassandra threw the wires onto the steel work table and put her head in her hands.

Jacob looked up from the vial of Greek fire he had just assembled, setting it in a bin of other vials to be electrocuted, and sent her a lopsided grin. Despite the war, the son of Hephaestus managed to keep a cheery atmosphere.

"Don't worry Cass, you'll figure it out. Chiron wouldn't have asked you to work on this if he didn't think that you could do it. Besides, you're the smartest child of Athena I know. And the cutest."

Cassandra felt her cheeks grow warm as she let her long, blonde hair fall over her eyes. From behind the curtain of hair she quietly said, "But is it worth all the time and resources that I am spending here? It would be wiser for me to be doing something with better promise; something that will help our warriors now. Instead of a device that might never work in the first place."

Through strands of hair, she glanced over at Jacob. He stood up from his work table, his eyes on Cassandra as he walked over and slid onto the bench next to her. He took his large, calloused hand, and with gentleness uncommon to his size, brushed Cassandra's hair behind her ear. He leaned forward, hazel eyes boring into her stormy blue ones. Without moving his gaze, he cupped his hand under her chin, and quietly he whispered, "You will make it work, and what you are doing is so important. A non-lethal weapon to help us defeat the Romans? There is nothing more anyone out on the field of battle would ask for."

Jacob sighed as he saw the doubt continue to flow through Cassandra's eyes. Not giving up on his efforts to cheer her up, Jacob leaned back a bit.

"Tell you what, why don't you show me where the problem is, and you and I can work it out together?"

Cassandra let out a small breath, a small smile tugging at her lips. She threw her arms around Jacob in a hug.

"Gods, you really are the best boyfriend!"

"I am, aren't I?"

Cassandra let out a giggle, pulling the sphere towards them.

"You see, the wires aren't transporting enough power to the release mechanism." She pointed to parts of the sphere as she explained, "They are too small, but if we make them any bigger, they will interfere with other parts of the sphere. When we get enough power to the mechanism, it will release the confetti I put in instead of the time essence for testing. Now we need about-"

Boom!

Everyone in the cavern went silent. Screams began to echo in through the halls of the Bunker, and then the sounds of battle.

Every demigod grabbed a weapon. Jacob drew his large broadsword, and Cassandra her double daggers. Everyone was tense with anticipation as the sounds of fighting grew closer.

Suddenly a camper ran in the cavern entrance, only to be shot down by an arrow. Following closely behind the arrow, ranks upon ranks of Romans marched into the room. In the front line, a centurion help up an elaborate gold eagle. The eagle began to send tendrils of lightning into the expanse of the cavern. Screams sounded, and demigods rushed forward to battle.

Jacob swung his sword, cutting a path through the centurions, while Cassandra protected their flanks. The couple surged forward, and so did the Romans.

As Jacob knocked over a centurion with the flat of his sword, Cassandra finishing him off, she had a sudden thought. With a look of horror on her face, she turned towards the work table. The vial of time essence sat where she had left it, with Roman ranks moving steadily closer to it.

"I have to secure the time essence!"

She shouted to Jacob, sheathing one of her daggers and sprinting back towards her table. A centurion moved to block her way, but Cassandra punched his face and kept running.

Sliding to the ground to use her table for cover, she quickly reached up and grabbed the vial. She rolled away as a bolt of lightning struck the table behind her, coming to a standing position in front of Jacob's table.

A sword swung towards her face. Cassandra ducked beneath it, slicing the stomach of the wielder. As she straightened up she heard Jacob shout to her.

"Cassie!"

Cassandra turned her head towards the work table, the box of unfinished vials of Greek fire still sitting on its surface. Her eyes widened as a tendril of lightning struck the box, completing the fire and bursting all of the vials.

As an explosion of green began to expand from the table, Cassandra turned her head to look at Jacob one last time. She stared into his panicked eyes as her body was consumed with pain, and her vision went black.

X X X

Cassandra's back throbbed. She felt that she was laying on many small objects, which we digging into her spine.

Cassandra slowly opened her eyes. High above her, she saw assortments of catwalks and cages, all of which were blackened and burned. She was still in Bunker 9.

Despite the numbness in her arms, she pushed herself up. It was then she noticed that she was laying in a pile of blackened rocks. Those were what had been digging into her back.

As her senses came back to her, Cassandra noticed she could hear a faint conversation. Testing her strength, she let her feet find the floor, and stood up. She swayed on her feet, but still began to walk toward the noise, and she saw just how much destruction the Greek fire had done.

Tables were misshapen, with tools and weapons melted onto their surfaces. The table where the vials had been was a puddle of cooled steel, and anything within a ten foot radius had been turned pitch black. The explosion had travelled up the walls, leaving vertical streaks of ash, and even causing some of the walls to collapse. This left large piles of rubble all over the cavern, like the ones Cassandra had been lying on.

As she came out from one such pile, walking towards the hallway entrance to the cavern, she saw two figures through the hazy air. The first was the grim faced centaur, Chiron, whose white horse flank shone like a beacon to Cassandra against the ashen greys and blacks of everything else. The second figure was a camper, Hayden, from Apollo cabin, she recognized as she came closer. She continued to stumble forward until she could make out what they were saying.

"-no survivors." Hayden softly said.

"Could you identify any of the bodies?" Chiron inquired.

"Not many, but we did find Lisa Franks, Charles Wood, and Jacob Haley of Hephaestus cabin, and from-"

Cassandra's returning senses instantly numbed again. She let out a loud sob, and with tears welling in her eyes she hugged her stomach and fell to her knees. Near hysteria, she mumbled, "No. Jacob can't be dead. He can't be gone. He can't leave me!" She was in denial. She had just seen him moments before. Moments before an explosion of Greek fire decimated the room.

Cassandra's thoughts were interrupted when she heard Chiron speak her name.

"And what of Cassandra?" Chiron asked, seeming to fear the worst.

Hayden sighed, "We have no confirmed body for her, though she could be one of the more… gruesome ones. However, we do have reports from her cabinmates that she was leaving for the Bunker to work on the kronosphere about an hour before, and no reports of her return."

Chiron let out a long breath, his eyes looking to the floor as his worst fears were confirmed.

Cassandra stood up, thoughts suddenly working clearly. They should have noticed her by now, especially with her tearful outburst. Standing up, Cassandra began walking towards the pair.

"Chiron, I am right here."

Neither of the two showed any signs of hearing her.

"Chiron?"

Reaching them, Cassandra stepped between the two, waving her arms.

"Hello?!?!"

"They can't see or hear you," a cool, flowing voice answered.

Cassandra whirled around to see who had spoken to her, but instead found herself right in front of Chiron. He seemed to stare directly through her as he said, "We should head back, the camp will need to be addressed."

Without any hesitation, Chiron proceeded to walk through Cassandra. She hugged her stomach in horror feeling as if a warm wind had just blown through her insides. She turned to watch the Chiron and Hayden walking down the cavern hallway, and took a step to run after them.

"There is no use trying to follow them."

Cassandra turned slowly this time, searching for the velvety voice which had spoken. When she found the source, she was in awe.

The speaker's hair was black, his skin clear and pale, and his face was nothing short of handsome. He wore an ink black toga, and flowing, feathered black wings rose from his shoulder blades. His eyes swirled like midnight, and his entire body shone like the moon glinting softly as falls beneath the horizon.

"Who are you?" Cassandra whispered.

"I am Thanatos, the god of death."

Hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Feel free to comment your likes and dislikes. The next chapter will come as soon as possible!