When a mounted cavalry of over one hundred demigods had turned up at the Plaza Hotel and announced they had joined sides with the campers, apparently there had been a lot of tears of relief and gladness. I strode in and was immediately set upon by Hannah and Michael who demanded to know if I was alright, noticing that I was rather scratched up and bruised but I assured them I was fine, leaning over to Percy to whisper that I was going to organise my troops and see what needed to be done before I'd then join him to see Annabeth, who was not doing great. I called out to Snowstorm who clattered into the hotel rather chirpily, having looked around and announced that she liked it here as she was classy, and asked me to remodel her stable so that looked like this once the war was over as her reward. I laughed and promised her I would, but it would be even better looking than this before reaching for her saddlebags and opened one of the satchels before then pulling out the Golden Fleece and tossed it at Percy who caught it with a stunned feeling rolling towards me. "Use that on Annabeth and whoever else needs it. Ethan got her, right? His blades are poisoned, so the Fleece should heal her up nicely."
"How…how did you…"
"No time Perce, go! Annabeth!" I reminded him so he choked back his questions and took off running with the Fleece in his arms. "Honestly, he acts so cool and heroic but sometimes he can be such a goofball." Rolling my eyes, I patted Snowstorm who was now complaining that her coat looked awful so I promised to give her a brush down if there was time later before then turning to my heroes and organising them. Since most were older and had a great deal of experience, they helped out with the wounded which thankfully so far seemed to be minor wounds, all things considered. The only problem was that pretty much everyone had some kind of injury that needed to be treated and we couldn't afford to waste the nectar and ambrosia all at once. At least there was nothing fatal other than Annabeth's poison. When I heard a call from one of the campers that he was going to raid a nearby pharmacy for supplies, I turned my head around and recognised the voice of Travis Stoll. "Hey Travis?" I called to him and I heard him trip and almost fall over when he heard me.
"Lily?! What are you…wait! What's going on?! Who're all you guys?" Travis had never exactly been the quickest person to catch onto things, however I then heard a deep rumbling voice warn Travis not to do something stupid and that I could be trusted. I knew that voice, and it made me grin.
"Beckendorf! You made it!"
"Sure, thanks to you." He grunted back at me and as I honed in on his location, I heard him tinkering with something so I assumed he was restocking supplies for everyone. Momentarily distracted, I quickly asked how Jacob and the other kids were doing. "Fine, they're fine. Glad to be together, doing pretty well with their training. They stayed behind, figured you wouldn't want them caught up in the war and told them as much though they weren't happy that they couldn't come help. You trained them well." He said to me and I smiled at his words. I was glad the others were doing okay, so my concerns were eased as I then turned back to Travis.
"You said you were going to raid a pharmacy? Great. If it's okay, I'll send some people with you to help. Julio, Rebecca and Dimitri. You guys go and help out. Kill any enemy you find and bring back anything you think will be useful. You okay with that Travis?" Although a couple people were already gathered behind Travis to go with him, he took one look at the tree demigods who stepped forwards and immediately announced he wanted them to come. It was probably more Dimitri's presence than anything he wanted along with him, because Dimitri was roughly the size and weight of a grizzly bear and packed with muscles. He made Beckendorf look like a toddler. Dimitri was a son of Cratos, god of strength and power. Anybody with Dimitri as their bodyguard would feel safe as anything. Giving Rebecca a list of things to look out for and bring back if they could be found, they joined the younger campers and all left the hotel to go raiding, though I'd handed Rebecca some mortal cash to leave behind because I felt guilty about stealing, even if it was for the sake of winning a war. Turning back to my troops, I continued to organise them, setting a few out on watch to make sure that the building was secure and to cover all entrances and exits as well as placing a few strategically around the place, some going to watch the park to make sure nothing came out of there.
It was great that I knew this city, because it made it far easier to know where everything was and how best to utilise everyone so that we had a good watch set up. Next to come down from upstairs was Silena, who shrieked when she saw me and tackled me with a hug. "Lily! Oh it's so great to see you, I've been so worried! Thank you for saving Charlie, we owe you everything!" She sobbed into me as I staggered but then managed to catch her, holding her upright and return her hug. She smelled fresh and fragrant as always, but her hair felt like it was in a mess and I couldn't smell or feel any product on her face, like lipstick or gloss when she started peppering my face with kisses. "I'm heading back to camp to try and convince Clarisse to join us. She's so stubborn, but I'm certain I can talk her round. There was a disagreement between the Ares and Apollo cabins…oh I'll tell you later, now's not the time I have to get going." She caught herself, tackling me with a hug again before whispering into my ear. "I know you told Charlie about how I…was spying on everyone. Please don't tell Percy, they don't know yet. Charlie and I talked…I've stopped giving reports, I'm going to make this right."
"Silena don't think that you have anything to make up for. You were tricked, that's all. We've all been there at some point or other." I said to her kindly and giving her a smile to try and settle her since she was still sniffling and crying. "I won't say anything about it, not until you're ready to come forward. Fly carefully, get high above the city before heading for camp since Kronos will have flying monsters guarding the air wherever he's camped." Thanking me for the warning, Silena then ran to Beckendorf in order to hug and kiss him goodbye, the two of them murmuring softly together and I smiled to myself before turning away. With all my orders given, I then headed upstairs with someone leading the way for me so that I could find Percy. There was a lot we needed to discuss. I was brought to one of the suites which I imagined to be expensively furnished, however when I was brought to the living room I heard somebody chomping down on the furniture like it was a snack bar, though with a clop of hooves something suddenly came rushing at me.
"Lily!" A loud bleating sound hit my ears and before I knew it, something curly and fuzzy was strangling me with a hug, chest covered in what I could only describe as tree bark.
"Grover?!" He was taller than I remembered, he must have gained at least a couple of inches since Polyphemus's island. "Grover! Oh man it is so good to hear your voice again! How're things going Mr Clip-Clop?" He gave his goat-like laugh as he started to gush, wanting to tell me everything at once as Percy was fetched. It was a jumbled mess of him searching for Pan, meeting him, and almost getting exiled by the Elders. None of it made sense, so I planted my hand on Grover's shoulder and told him to chill, that we'd get plenty of time to talk later and he could fill me in on all the details because it sounded like quite a tale. "I'm so glad you're here Grover, it sounds like you've really come into your own. Even your presence is different than before, that's why I didn't recognise you at first." I said to him as I grinned. "I get the feeling you've grown up a lot." He sniffed and tried not to cry, so I laughed and gave him another hug. Okay, so maybe not fully grown up, but he didn't feel as jittery or nervous as before. Though, he was still nervous enough to continue eating the furniture and when Percy came in, he pointed out that we were only borrowing the hotel, meaning we shouldn't be eating everything.
"Blah-ha-ha! Sorry, Percy. It's just…Louis fifteenth furniture. Delicious. Plus I always eat furniture when I get…"
"When you're nervous. Yeah, I know. So what's up?" Before making his report, Grover shifted on his hooves anxiously and asked about Annabeth, though Percy assured her that she was fine and resting. The Fleece had clearly done its job.
"That's good." He sighed in relief before starting his report. "I've mobilised most of the nature spirits in the city – well, the ones that will listen to me, anyway. I had no idea acorns could hurt so much. Anyway, we're helping out as much as we can." I then listened closely to what Grover had to say and felt sad when I heard the long list of the deaths of satyrs, nymphs and dryads. Uptown seemed to be largely left to them, and there were a lot of rather nasty monsters spread out that way according to the battle plan Kronos had finalised and I had memorised. I was so engrossed with Grover's speaking that I almost didn't realise that someone else had entered the room, however when I got a tingling feeling like static suddenly shoot up my arm and down the back of my neck I turned my head and stared at the girl who had come in. I'd bet any amount of drachma this was Thalia. She didn't linger, going straight past us all probably to check on Annabeth, making sure she was alright before coming back, flanked by two more girls who had a rather pure energy around them. Like moonlight. "We lost twenty satyrs against some giants at Fort Washington. Almost half my kinsmen. River spirits drowned the giants in the end, but…"
"Percy, Kronos's forces are still gathering at every bridge and tunnel. And Kronos isn't the only Titan. One of my Hunters spotted a huge man in golden armour mustering an army on the Jersey shore. I'm not sure who he is, but he radiates power like only a Titan or god." Thalia finally spoke and I quickly focused on the sound, picking up on her tone and inflections, memorising it so that I would be able to pick her out in a crowd.
"That will be Hyperion, Titan of Light. He's a bit of an asshole really…very full of himself." I spoke up with a scowl, having met Hyperion once and not been keen to repeat the experience. He didn't like mortals at all, and demigods even less since we were beneath him. "You have to be careful with him. He likes to set himself on fire." I could feel several eyes turn on me, and Thalia's were dark and stormy. I guess it fits.
"And why should we believe anything you say. You're Lily Jackson, right? Percy told me about you. You've been on Kronos's side all this time, haven't you?"
"Oh please, stop sparking everywhere you're making my teeth vibrate. Calm down." I snapped at her, getting a little tired of explaining to people that I had been a double agent this entire time. "You're Thalia, right? You're part of the Hunters of Artemis? Well, I've fought with your mistress, and she's even spoken to me before to help me out with something. She trusts me, so you should too. Plus Percy knows I'd never turn my back on him. I'm on your side and, if you hadn't noticed, I've brought a hundred or so other demigods to help out so now your ranks aren't so thin looking. Pack it in, daughter of Zeus. We're allies here." My tongue was so quick and sharp that I sensed her step back in surprise before recovering herself, muttering under her breath but didn't question me again. "As I was saying, Hyperion is going to be a challenge. We should watch his movements carefully. He'll have a mixture of giants and dracaenae with him as his command. He would have had half-bloods too but I brought pretty much all of them into one army. Those that didn't join us are with Kronos himself, so we don't have to worry about them for the time being."
"Great. Any good news?" Percy asked dryly because after such a list of bad, something cheerful was direly needed.
"We've sealed off the subway tunnels into Manhattan. My best trappers took care of it. Also, it seems like the enemy is waiting for tonight to attack. I think Luke…I mean Kronos needs time to regenerate after each fight. He's still not comfortable with his new form. It's taking a lot of his power to slow time around the city." Thalia said, which was pretty much the only good news we had with Grover making the point that most of his forces would be more powerful at night and that they would be back after sundown. It was a battle tactic, and an effective one. Make your army fight at full strength in their preferred conditions. I listened as Percy thought for a moment, assessing the information before asking if there was any word from the gods.
"I know Lady Artemis would be here if she could. Athena too. But Zeus has ordered them to stay at his side. The last I heard, Typhon was destroying the Ohio River Valley. He should reach the Appalachian Mountains by midday." In the back of my mind, the words of the Oracle suddenly sprang back up like this was an important moment to mention it. Speaking softly, I asked if we could move to where Annabeth was because I wanted her opinion on something, so we all went to where she was resting. The Golden Fleece was gone, I couldn't sense it's magic so I assumed it was being used on other injured campers, however Annabeth seemed to be much better than before. She even called my name with a sound of brightness, managing to get up and give me a firm embrace which I happily returned but had her sit back down in order to rest and recover.
"So I kind of stole the Fleece from camp when I went there to visit the Oracle. I got there after you guys left, because there was some answers I wanted to try and find, but the Oracle only gave me a prophecy of my own." Everybody started in surprise, a ripple of energy causing the air to taste kind of fizzy on my tongue. "Don't worry, I'll put the Fleece back when this is all over, but I figured we would need it more than the camp, seeing as if we don't make it, there's no point in protecting the camp since we'd all be gone. Anyway, I want to hear what you guys think about the prophecy, because I can't really make heads or tails of it." And so I told them, reciting the verse and I could practically feel Annabeth intently ripping apart the words to try and understanding their meaning in her head. Even Thalia snorted.
"That's rather vague. She didn't say anything else?"
"No, that's everything." Under her breath, Annabeth was muttering the lines over and over. "But I did hope that maybe it meant that there might be a way to save the hero of the Great Prophecy, the one who gets his soul reaped by a cursed blade. Maybe I can save you Percy, that's why I brought the fleece." I turned to him and I sensed him feel a crash of emotion that made him sink slowly into a chair. Poor kid, he must be exhausted, and now with another prophecy probably holding his life in the balance, there was a lot more going on in his head.
"I think you're right. The 'golden raiment' could well refer to the Fleece, though often prophecies have double meanings. At the very least it'll be useful here, though I'm surprised you managed to get it from Peleus." I blushed slightly, admitting that Snowstorm had flown between Peleus's head and the branch for me to grab the Fleece. Since Peleus hadn't expected anyone to take it from within the borders of the camp, he'd been unprepared, though sounded pretty mad after we escaped. "I see. We'll explain things to him when we take it back and hopefully he won't burn you to ash on the spot." Here's hoping. "So that could be the golden raiment, but mortal's breath, I have no idea unless it is literal. You save someone with the Fleece and the breath of a mortal." I sensed her shoot a glare at Percy who reacted with bashfulness, making me think I was missing something there. "The first line at least is clear, you've already made some kind of choice, do you know what it is?"
"Could be many things. I've chosen to betray Kronos, to stand with Percy, to fight to try and save the world, I chose to wear my hair up…I make hundreds of choices a day. It could be any of them." I pointed out so even though this part was rather obvious, it didn't help us recognise which choice was obvious. The love part was uncertain, because it could refer to many things such as my love for someone, love in general, or even a reference to Aphrodite herself, though I had no idea how we'd end up tangled together. I rather hoped we wouldn't.
"Only through forgiveness will she meet her foe…that part is clear. You need to forgive someone, and there's a foe that you need to face yourself. Stand amongst those she would refuse to know…anybody you refuse to know, Lily?" I grit my teeth and muttered my dad. "I see. So this part could mean that you need to stand alongside your father and face his foe, but I get the feeling that's not it. The prophecy specifically says 'those', meaning more than one." She puzzled it a little longer, but I started to realise what the words were trying to tell me. It was so obvious yet ambiguous at the same time, yet it made me clench my jaw and scowl deeper than any scowl I had ever shown before. "What do you guys think?"
"I think that there's a foe out there that only you can face." Thalia announced, growing serious and thinking deeply as she tapped something metallic on her wrists. "However we decide to respond to this prophecy could be the shift of the war to either victory or defeat. Clearly you have a role in this, though what that role is we can't tell. It's your prophecy. What does your gut tell you?" I was afraid someone was going to ask me that. I slouched against the wall and folded my arms, feeling rather stubborn and spiteful but I knew that this was a desperate moment in time and I couldn't afford to hold onto my resentment.
"My fatal flaw is denial." I revealed to everyone after taking a long, deliberate breath. "That's what the Sirens told me when I heard them sing with you, Annabeth. I deny my true self, my godly heritage, because I refuse to admit that I am descended from those selfish jerks who are responsible for all this mess. I hate them. I hate what they stand for and how they act. I want nothing to do with them." Twitching angrily I began to fiddle with my bracelets on my wrist. The charms on my magic bracelet dangled from their loop, but I ignored them. This time I fiddled with the single bead that was wrapped around the band that I wore, my Camp Half-Blood necklace that I had turned into a bracelet. Now that I had openly switched sides, I could wear it again. I thought of the campers, the kids who I had helped get to safety, I thought of Chiron and all the dryads and naiads. Thinking about that place always calmed me down, settling my temper as I took another deep but shorter breath. "I think that's what the prophecy means. I have to stand beside them. Fight with them. Which means I'll have to go and face Typhon."
"No!" Percy immediately refused, leaping up again with a surge from his seat as Grover bleated nervously. "No that can't be right. You can't go and fight Typhon, Lily. Practically all the gods are there and they can barely slow him down. How are you going to help?" I shot him a look, offended at the insinuation that I would be useless but didn't pick him up on it as he seemed to be immediately guilty. "I mean…I just don't think that's what you're meant to do." But even as he said it, I felt certain that this was the correct assumption. Like the Fates were guiding me towards it.
"Don't worry Percy. This is my prophecy and I have to follow it, just as you have to follow yours." I pulled him into another hug, holding him close. "And I promise, I'll be with you when the moment counts. Even if I have to wrestle you back from Hades himself, I'll do it. Trust me. I need you to trust me Percy, and have some faith in your big sister." I waited, trying to appear serene and sure of myself but inwardly, I was already starting to crumble. It were as if Percy seemed to perceive something in my voice, a slight desperation to have his belief because if Percy thought I could do something, then there was no way I was going to let him down. From the way it spoke, it sounded like it was causing him physical pain to do so, but he finally agreed.
"Alright. I know you got this Lils. Just don't do anything stupid." Sighing softly, I then knuckled his head just for old times' sake.
"You mean like you, dumb-dumb?" None of us were particularly cheerful, but my mind was settled. Thalia had mentioned where she'd last heard of Typhon's presence so I decided to head there and hopefully, I'd see if I was right about the prophecy's meaning. I didn't point out to Percy that the prophecy hadn't actually say that I'd live if I challenged the foe, because that wasn't something he needed to worry about right now. Annabeth, however, clever as she was, did realise the omission of a promise that I'd be back and seemed to hug me tightly because of it, whispering to me to be careful. Even Thalia shook my hand before I left, wishing me luck so I smiled to her and said that we should take some time to get to know one another properly once this was all over. Providing we were all still alive. I put my hopes in the fact that the prophecy had said that I might be able to save someone, someone who was destined to die, and hoped that this meant that I'd at least survive my foe even if I didn't defeat him. Something that gnawed at me more than anything, however, was the fact that in order to do anything, I had to forgive the gods for all their wrongdoings. I hated it. Still, I still had time before I actually reached them, so I could stew and boil over it.
Before leaving I told Michael – my Michael, not Michael Yew – what I needed to do and that I was leaving everyone in his capable hands, telling him that uptown needed some reinforcements because the satyrs and nature spirits were struggling on their own. "You going to be okay? Will you be coming back?" He asked me with worry so I smiled to him like I didn't have a care in the world, like I was only going for a quick job around the block before I'd be back.
"If I can, I'll be back. But don't worry Michael, everyone respects you. You're a good leader, I know you'll do great. My brother Percy is leading the other campers, so if you wouldn't mind just conferring with him to let him know what you're doing, that'd be great." Something in Michael's presence told me that he knew that wherever I was going was not somewhere safe, and probably even more dangerous than here. I offered him my arm and Michael clasped it firmly, strengthening our bond of brotherhood before I then turned in order to address everyone who remained. They understood I needed to go even without requiring a full explanation. They wished me luck and told me to hurry back, because they still wanted to see me kick butt and go crazy with my giant fork. Laughing with them, I said some personal goodbyes to my closer friends, giving hugs and smiles before I then went to where Snowstorm was waiting. "You sure you want to do this? This'll be rough flying even before we get to Typhon. He'll be affecting the wind currents." I said to her as I stroked her face, feeling the smooth and silky coat underneath my palm and fingers. "Truthfully I don't know if we'd even be able to get anywhere near him."
'I am not afraid. I will not abandon you now, my lady. I stand beside you, and I shall fly you wherever you need to go. Your destiny is as good as mine.' Overcome with emotion, a stray tear rolled down my cheek as I then kissed her velvet nose, taking a few deep breaths to try and calm my nerves before mountain up.
"Okay." I said finally as Snow turned herself around and beat the air, preparing to take off and charge. I sent a quick prayer to the wind gods and once again I felt the air shift around us, preparing to launch us forwards. Weaving my fingers through Snow's mane, I gripped on tightly and lowered myself over her neck, breathing in sync with her as she pawed at the ground, psyching herself up ready for the flight and battle. In a final heartbeat, I was ready. "Let's fly."