Children of War take long-needed revenge and talk about wars.

Mortals plan.

|Chapter 10| War Born

The day went wrong for Frank Zhang when his half-sister Clarisse La Rue had barged into his second-period math class and told him that they had a monster to hunt.

It wasn't that he particularly hated monster hunting, it was just that he didn't appreciate his cover being blown. But despite that, he had turned into Frank the Eagle and flown after his sister.

Frank flew higher, trying to see the beast. His father Mars, or Ares, whatever, had asked him and Clarisse to kill the thing for him. No problem right?

Wrong.

The monster, whatever it was, was good. They kept on hearing roars, which they assumed to be the blasted creature their father had wanted them to kill. But once they got there, even with the speed of gods, the thing was gone.

Frank could tell Clarisse was growing frustrated. She weaved between mortals with a grim face, and her spear clutched tightly in her hand. A faint red glow, the blessing of Ares, was surrounding her.

Frank knew from first-hand experience that the blessing of the War God reacted to the receiver's emotions. Strong emotions related to him, whether that be anger, frustration, or even adrenaline, tended to flare up the blessing.

It was good sometimes because it could help you understand what the person was feeling, and maybe even help you diffuse the situation. But, it was also a pain in the ass when you were trying to be emotionless.

Another roar sounded, barely a block away.

The two of them rushed to the sound, entering a large square as they did. Frank, still in eagle form, recognised where they were; the 9/11 memorial. The memorial, like always, was overrun with people, but they were all focused on the beast.

The beast was over two hundred feet long, with yellow eyes that reminded Frank of flashlights. It had no legs, and unfortunately Frank knew exactly what monster they were dealing with.

The Lydian Drakon.

Frank started to understand why the War God had sent him and Clarisse to defeat it. The Lydian Drakon could only be killed by a child of his. And not only were he and Clarisse his most battle-hardened kids, but Clarisse had already slain it.

And speaking of his half-sister, she was obviously angry. Her eyes were starting to glow, and her body was trembling in anger. Frank remembered that this monster had also been the thing to take the life of Silena Beauregard, Clarisse's closest friend.

Clarisse had avenged her death once and looked more than ready to do it again.

Frank morphed into a human, landed on a tree branch, then jumped down. He briefly made eye contact with Clarisse, and he understood perfectly what was going to happen now.

Clarisse would take the monster, while Frank got the civilians out of the area. He started to tell the mortals how to get out of the area safely when something caught his eye.

A group of mortals was shielding an unconscious young boy, who was holding a bronze sword and shield. Frank immediately knew that he was a demigod. He was also likely what the beast had been tailing.

Frank looked at the mortals surrounding him. They were protecting him, keeping him out of harm's way as best they could. A man was giving first aid to the boy, who seemed to have broken his leg.

Gratitude washed over Frank. Many mortals had been cold, wary, sometimes even aggressive to demigods. But seeing this, seeing regular civilians protecting an injured and unconscious demigod, restored his faith in mortals.

Frank continued to herd the mortals out, glancing at his sister every so often. Normally, a god would show their true form, and kill the monster quickly. But Frank had a feeling there were two reasons Clarisse had chosen not to.

Reason one was a simple one; it would kill the mortals. There was no way to not have someone killed by doing that, not when there were so many people around. And Clarisse was smart enough to know that.

The second reason was less obvious, and more of a hunch than a fact. Frank had a feeling that Clarisse didn't want to give the beast that had slain her best friend an easy death.

Seeing a gods true form burned you up immediately, making it an easy, relatively painless death. But Clarisse wanted this thing to suffer. She kept kicking the beast's own acid up, wounding it.

Death by dragon acid was a notoriously painful death. Clarisse wanted the beast to suffer, wanted it to die in pain. There would be no quick death for the monster that killed Silena Beauregard.

Clarisse would never allow it.

Frank had finished herding the mortals away and moved to the group surrounding the demigod. They turned to see him and immediately backed off. Frank crouched next to the boy, and after summoning some nectar and ambrosia, glanced at them again.

They were looking at him with worry on their faces. Frank felt a lump grow in his throat. These mortals had risked their lives to help a child of the gods. He smiled at them, gave a choked-up thanks, and said they could go.

The group smiled at him and left the area quickly.

As Frank cleaned up his wounds, bandaged some cuts, and made sure his bone had been properly set. He turned to see that his sister was stalking toward him, gold dust on her boots and the edge of her pants.

She sat on the ground beside Frank, breathing heavily. He filled her in on what the mortals had done for the boy, while he sent a prayer to Annabeth, asking if she could send out a retrieval team.

That had become one of Annabeth's jobs. She was helping more at Camp Half-Blood, and Chiron had put her in charge of retrieval teams. This meant she was the one assigning Satyrs to retrieve demigods, sending pegasi and chariots to pick up those who needed one.

He made sure to highlight the need for a doctor, and Annabeth assured him that a team was on the way.

Frank leaned against the bronze parapets of the memorial. Clarisse sat next to him, her eyes closed, and her hand clutching at a bead on her leather necklace.

They sat like that for a moment, the only sound being their breathing and the falling water. But Clarisse broke the silence by saying something unexpected, "Did you know my mom saw the towers get hit?"

Frank turned to her, surprised. "No."

"Yeah, she was on her honeymoon with my stepdad. They were heading somewhere, I can't quite remember where, when the plane hit. They also saw the towers collapse, albeit from their hotel room."

"Oh."

"She's told me once that because she saw it, she returned to the military to fight in Afghanistan."

Frank looked away. Both he and Clarisse's moms had met their father in the battlefield, and both had fought in Afghanistan. Only one of them though had made it back home.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry Frank. Your mom-"

"It's fine Clarisse."

"No, it's not fine Frank. I should have remembered." she hesitated for a moment. "Sometimes I'll be walking in Manhattan and I'll pass the area where Silena died. The first time I walked by it after her...death, I almost had a panic attack. I wonder if that's how the people who saw the planes hit, or saw the towers fall, or were in the towers, or even those who lost someone, I wonder if that's how they feel when they pass here."

"I bet they do."

Frank saw a dot growing on the horizon and realised it was the retrieval team Annabeth had sent. He sat up and offered a hand out to Clarisse, who gratefully took it.

The chariot swoops down in front of them. A camper that Frank doesn't recognise is at the reigns and Will Solace is also in the chariot. Will and Frank move the unconscious demigod into the chariot.

Frank and Clarisse embark and they take off. While they fly home, they recount the story, and Will heals the boy further.

After a ten minute flight, they touch down at Camp Half-Blood. Two other Apollo Campers are waiting for them, a stretcher ready. The demigod, who Frank learned was a son of Hebe, was carried off to the infirmary.

Frank and Clarisse exchange goodbyes and he sets off to the portal that will take him back to Camp Jupiter.

Somewhere in New York City, a group of mortals planned.

These mortals were the opposites of the mortals who had shielded the demigod from earlier. Not a drop of sympathy for the children of the gods could be found in their body.

And they wanted them gone. They wanted to crush demigods under their thumbs, swat them out, douse their flame with sand. They wanted the demigod race to be eradicated.

They were driven by the belief that half-humans were below them. That they had the right to snuff them out, take control of them.

But for now, they planned.