In which Bianca is thoughtful and impressed, and I do love Kayla, just saying. And I am sorry for the huge delay in updating I am trying to sort myself out but it's not easy I'm struggling right now, specifically with this fic which is not a great feeling.
Replies:
Ant-death: she definitely deserved more than she got I know that much- she's a complicated character if you actually consider things- she does love Nico but her desire to escape from the pressure of raising him is understandable and I wanted to give her a better chance.
Undeath9087: They both have a lot of stuff that needs saying but hasn't been. And yeah, yeah Nico is a terror compared to Bianca- and Kayla is very used to him and is sorta looking at Bianca like 'Hm, my best friends sister, who is now younger than us. Guess I have to be responsible for her too.
Guest: I have a few- the Roman one of course, and I'm writing the KC one. And someone did ask about a possible HP crossover but I am not going to get ahead of myself too much lol.

Making it to the onager wasn't too hard, much to Bianca's surprise, but as they reached the first one chaos was breaking loose in the legion.

On the far end of the line, cries went up from the Fifth Cohort. Legionnaires scattered and dropped their pila. A dozen centaurs barrelled through the ranks, yelling and waving their clubs, followed by a horde of two-headed men banging on trash-can lids.

"What's going on down there?" Lou Ellen asked.

And Bianca couldn't help the smile that flitted across her lips. It seemed like Leila and Dakota had come through after all. Maybe she could start trusting people a little bit more.

Only a little bit though.

"That." Bianca pushed down her smile, "Is our distraction. Come on you three."

All the guards had clustered on the right side of the onager, trying to see what was going on down the ranks, which gave Bianca and the others a clear shot to the left. They passed within a few feet of the nearest Roman, but the legionnaire didn't notice them. Lou Ellen's Mist magic seemed to be working.

They jumped the spiked trench and reached the machine.

"I brought some Greek fire," Cecil whispered.

"Too obvious." Kayla spoke up before Bianca could, "Right? You want to destroy as many as possible right Bianca?"

"Yeah." Bianca nodded, "We don't want them to notice before we've had the chance to take down as many of them as we possibly can." she bit her lip, trapping a sliver of skin between her teeth as she considered the options before- "Can you recalibrate the aim. Like, towards the other onagers' firing lines?"

Cecil grinned at that, "Oh I like the way you think. They sent me because I excel at messing things up- I remember one time Nico and I-"

"Cecil." Kayla's voice was exasperated, "We don't need to hear about your exploits with my best friend. I heard more than enough about that from Will-" and Cecil's expression instantly turned embarrassed and sheepish.

"Right. Right sorry!" He gave Bianca a slightly panicked look before rushing towards the onager and getting to work.

And since there wasn't much else for them to do, Bianca, Kayla and Lou Ellen stood guard.

Meanwhile the Fifth Cohort was brawling with the two-headed men. The Fourth Cohort moved in to help. The other three cohorts held their positions, but the officers were having trouble keeping order.

"All right," Cecil announced. "Let's move."

They shuffled across the hillside towards the next onager.

This time the Mist didn't work so well. One of the onager guards yelled, "Hey!"

And Bianca was impressed- Kayla could give any of the hunters a run for their money. She didn't even have time to raise her sword before Kayla had let an arrow fly through the guards shoulder, and then another two- and Bianca realised that there was something special about those arrows because while a shoulder wound was certainly serious it wasn't usually something that would completely knock a person out- but it did. And At Bianca's curious glance Kayla remarked, "Present from Will for my last birthday, knock out drugs on the tips."

Bianca blinked and then- "Cool." of course- taking down three that quickly was very good- and Kayla could probably take down three more at least before the guards reached them, but that would still leave six of them. Six Romans advancing on them- and Bianca knew she likely wouldn't be able to do that much good, at least not with her powers anyway.

Luckily she didn't need to because Lou Ellen was emerging from the Mist and she let out a yell of; "Hey! Catch!"

She lobbed a white ball the size of an apple. The Roman in the middle caught it instinctively. A twenty-foot sphere of powder exploded outwards. When the dust settled, all nine conscious Romans were squealing pink piglets.

"Uh- wow." Bianca blinked, "Now that is impressive-"

"She really is!" Cecil declared, a goofy grin on his lips- and Bianca had never understood the term 'heart eyes' before, but he was definitely giving Lou Ellen heart eyes- and she was practically preening under his adoring gaze, though her cheeks did flush somewhat.

"Well, it's the only pig ball I have so you better not ask for an encore."

"I'll keep that in mind." Bianca swung her gaze to Cecil, who gave a quick nod and darted towards the now unguarded onager, quickly getting to work on sabotaging it. And as soon as he finished they were moving on again- and Bianca felt a thrill of pride running through her veins.

Truthfully she knew she'd have never done it on her own. Oh she'd have tried, and maybe managed to destroy one or two, but she wouldn't have been able to sabotage them to subtly, the damage Cecil was doing was likely a lot better than what she could have done- especially since she'd have been caught out and they'd have known what she was doing if it had been just her.

It felt good- working with the three other demigods. After leaving the hunt she'd convinced herself she was better alone, that it was what she deserved. Now though... she thought about the others- on the Argo II. Of Hedge and Calypso, who she could confidently call friends. It wasn't like when she'd been a hunter- when they'd been sisters- oh she'd been friends with them, but she wasn't sure they'd have been friends if she hadn't been a hunter, other than Zoe.

And it wasn't like with Nico and Hazel, who she felt were obligated to be at least somewhat welcoming to her through their blood connections.

There was Jason too- who had accepted her, had helped her cope after Cupid.

And of Reyna of course. Reyna who was so much more than a friend, who made Bianca feel bright and hopeful in a way she couldn't ever remember feeling. Who made the pain and grief and guilt of her past almost fade into a forgettable ache in the background.

They had started to change her- and now- they weren't friends of course, but she'd admit that the four of them made a damn good team. And she couldn't have done any of this without them. But with them? They were going to pull this off.

Meanwhile, in the legion ranks, everything was still in chaos, but the officers were starting to reassert control. The Fifth and Fourth Cohorts regrouped while the Second and Third acted as riot police, shoving centaurs and cynocephali and two-headed men back into their respective camps. The First Cohort stood closest to the onager – a little too close for Bianca's comfort – but they seemed occupied by a couple of officers parading in front of them, shouting orders.

They were going to pull this off- they just had to sneak up and redirect the onager and they stood a chance- they could save camp.

Unfortunately, the guards spotted them from twenty yards away. One yelled, "There!"

Lou Ellen cursed. "They're expecting an attack now. The Mist doesn't work well against alert enemies. Do we run?"

"No." Bianca shook her head, fingers curling into fists. They couldn't run now. They weren't finished yet. They were so close. "I'll handle this."

She focused her powers, opening her fists and spreading her hands. In front of the Romans the ground erupted. Five skeletons clawed out of the earth.

Cecil and Lou Ellen charged in to help the skeletons- and Bianca made as if to follow before a hand caught her shoulder and yanked her backwards and she spun- which made her stumble, almost collapsing into Kayla's waiting arms. "You're as bad as Nico." Kayla almost snarled the words, a furious look on her face. "You're going to kill yourself! Gods you Hades kids infuriate me!" and Bianca would have had a smark come back she was sure.

She just needed to give herself a second to stop seeing two Kayla's. And thank the gods Reyna wasn't here because the daughter of Bellona would undoubtedly be furious with her right now if she was.

"I'm fine." even to Bianca's ears she knew she did not sound convincing.

"You're a fucking idiot." Kayla's voice was annoyed but there was no rancor there, "By all the gods I think you might actually be as bad or worse than Nico. And I didn't think that was possible- and you don't have a Will to reign you in."

"My Will isn't here right now." and wow- wow Bianca realised she was very dizzy and giddy because she would not have said that otherwise. Her cheeks flamed a bright red as Kayla snickered and quirked an eyebrow.

"I'm going to be merciful and not ask what you meant by that."

"Thank-"

"For now. I have to wait for Nico to be here."

"... I hate you."

"Uh huh." Kayla looked smug and she shoved a square of ambrosia into Bianca's mouth before she could protest- which made her nearly choke and she glared balefully as she managed to stop herself from choking and chewed on the ambrosia before swallowing, a gentle warmth flowing through her from the magic food, pushing away the cold, dialling back the exhaustion- she was no longer so exhausted that she couldn't stand- so she took the chance to straighten up, though she noticed Kayla watching her, a gleam in her eyes.

And Bianca was startled to recognise that look- she'd given it to Nico thousands of times, though not since he'd officially become older than her. And she'd seen Luke give it to Percy, seen Percy give it to Nico.

But then Apollo had lots of kids didn't he? He was known for sleeping around, so Kayla had probably had lots of practice giving the 'My baby sibling is a dumbass look'. Especially since she was now the second oldest wasn't she?

Bianca felt herself blushing and she looked away quickly.

It felt very weird to have one of her baby brothers best friends looking at her as if she was a recalcitrant little sister in need of a careful eye.

And this was the girl who'd tipped cereal over her brother and tried to demand piggy backs from Nico the first time she'd seen her.

It was strange, realising how much everyone else had aged around her- even people who had just been in the background had grown up whilst she'd been stuck in a sort of limbo of her own making.

And- it also felt a little bit nice, though she'd never say that out loud. Bianca always tried so hard to be the responsible one. She'd been brought up knowing she was the big sister- she had to look after Nico and then when she'd met Hazel even if the other girl was older she'd tried to step up.

So yeah, okay maybe it felt kind of nice to be on the other end of that protectiveness. Just a little bit.

Unfortunately she didn't have time to dwell on those thoughts because Cecil and Lou Ellen yanked her out of them unceremoniously.

"Hey!" Cecil was limping over looking like he'd pulled a muscle or something. "You guys kind of missed the fight."

Lou Ellen was a few steps behind, grinning.

Behind the two demigods all the Roman guards were tangled in a weird assortment of ropes and bones.

"Thanks for the skeletons," she said. "Great trick."

"Which as our Hades kid expert I am decreeing she won't be doing again." Kayla announced, giving Bianca a warning look.

"Just because you're one of my brothers best friends doesn't mean you get to tell me what to do."

"I'm sorry, are you the girl who just nearly passed out and would be in a heap on the floor without me?"

"I-" Bianca desperately sought for words.

"Oooh, and there we are." Kayla gestured dramatically, "The silence says it all."

"I- fuck you."

"That is literally one of the weakest arguments ever made you know that right?"

"You're not the boss of-"

"Di Angelo I have met your father and I will tell him how much of a dumbass you are-"

"Uh- you guys-" Lou Ellen cleared her throat- and Bianca suddenly noticed her looking anxious.

And she had a good reason too based on the call that came less than a second later.

"Drop your weapons!"

And Bianca turned slowly, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

The fight at the third onager hadn't gone unnoticed it seemed.

The entire First Cohort was advancing on them, spears levelled, shields locked. In front of them marched Octavian, purple robes over his armour, Imperial gold jewellery glittering on his neck and arms, and a crown of laurels on his head as if he'd already won the battle. Next to him was the legion's standard-bearer, Jacob, holding the golden eagle, and six huge cynocephali, their canine teeth bared, their swords glowing red.

"Well," Octavian snarled, "Graecus saboteurs." He turned to his dog-headed warriors. "Tear them apart."