Again, this is based off of works created by Rick Riordan and Oda Eiichiro. Citations in MLA are on the first chapter.

So, I just can't portray most of the campers. That was one of the main reasons this took so long, actually. Sadly Grover isn't in this chapter as much. People interacting in groups isn't my strong point.

Oh, and I have a poll. I finally figured out how to do it, so go to my account/profile/whatever-it-is and vote on all the universes that characters will be going to.

Chapter 7

It was a Friday at Camp Halfblood, and that meant Capture the Flag. Normally, the Hermes cabin would have teamed up with the Athena cabin, but Luke had a newfound respect for Clarisse and his two newest cabin members, even though they had only been around for a few days.

Annabeth had overlooked Zoro and Percy, and didn't really get along with Clarisse. Which was fine, except he knew she was smarter than that. He also didn't want her getting caught up in the beatdown that was going to happen sooner or later, mostly because she was like his little sister and he didn't want her to be hurt.

And so, because of the fact that Hermes really wanted the flag(and wanted to keep Zoro away from fighting in an environment less like a spar against the Ares kids, the idea of which was a terrifying prospect), they had decided to team up with Ares this time around. The Hephaestus and Dionysus kids were really the only other ones on their side, the Athena cabin taking offense at the Ares and Hermes cabin teaming up and getting everyone else on their side by hook or by crook.

But Luke was fairly certain that whoever was on Zoro's side would end up winning regardless of any other circumstance the camp could create. The guy was just that good. He held more experience than anyone that Luke had ever seen besides Chiron, and held back in his every fight with them. He always kept himself one step ahead of their level, coaching them to be better to try and best him, in the short time Zoro had been here Luke and Clarisse(because for some reason Zoro seemed to take them on as some sort of apprentice Percy had explained) had jumped ahead in their skill level by a truly astonishing amount.

Which was why he knew that before he made any other move he'd have to see where Zoro stood, no matter how angry Kronos got at him. No matter, it wasn't like the Titan was in his mind, the most he could do was send him the occasional dream. And Luke had checked, because he wouldn't be a very good thief if he didn't have a good way out.

Okay, and maybe stealing the Master Bolt and the Helm had been a little reckless, and maybe Titans were just as bad as gods, but he wanted change. He wanted the gods to feel as helpless as he did. Perhaps that made him a bad person.

Perhaps simply a flawed one.

All that Luke Castellan had ever wanted was a family, friends that would stand by him, and instead all that he had gotten was people leaving him. Oh, he didn't blame Thalia, but Annabeth barely talked to him anymore and disliked people for very little reason or because her mother had a grudge against their parents. He was the authority of his cabin, so few had actually became his friend even loosely, his mother cared more for stupid unimportant things than her own son, and his dad had abandoned him with a crazy facade of a mother.

Kronos, he knew, was not the answer. Neither were the gods. But before, inciting a change by opening a few eyes was the best he could do. Now, though, there were a few new players in the game.

The question was, however, if Zoro Okubo and Percy Jackson would play for keeps, and if they would want him if he helped.

Deep in the pits of Tartarus, the King Titan took note of the new players and the fact that his greatest pawn seemed reluctant to go against them, before commanding one of the others to test them during the war game the children played.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

The strategy meeting for the Ares team was going oddly. Normally only the lead cabin and maybe the other cabin leaders would be a part of it, but Zoro had told everyone to meet in the basement of the big house, which Clarisse hadn't even taken offense to. When asked why, he'd told them that making a strategy where invisible spies couldn't go was a smart idea. All of the campers looked contemplative before Zoro mentioned that they could only do this because Castor and Pollux's dad was allowing it.

When everyone who wasn't Percy or Zoro looked at the twins contemplatively they merely smiled and said in creepy unison, "A lot of people underestimate us because of Dad, but they forget parts of his domain."

"That is pretty cool," Conner told them.

"Would you be able to teach us how to do that," Travis wondered.

"Why haven't we ever teamed up with you before, I mean double the twins double the awesome, Right?"

So the Stoll brothers turned to the only two Dionysus campers with a mischievous grin, and the rest of the room felt the dread go up their spine when they were answered with an entirely too creepy grin.

"Why are we here anyway," Lou Ellen, determined of Hecate, asked, "I mean doesn't the lead cabin usually decide the plan? And, aren't satyrs normally neutral?" Everyone turned to look at Grover, who bleated nervously at the attention.

"Grover is here because we trust him, and he's pretty smart. Plus, none of you guys really know each other's strength and weaknesses anyways," Percy told them, " I've been told that Annabeth is very good at strategy, and we wouldn't know the best places to put everyone to beat her if she is. They outnumber us, so we have to think outside of the box to beat them."

"Hephaestus cabin can build anything that's necessary," Beckendorf offered, "As well as repair anything broken."

"Not just what a cabin's good at," Zoro cut in, "What each person is good at, the weapon they specialize in, what type of terrain they know the best, skills. We need to know what everyone can do to make sure that we win."

Luke nodded, "That's a good idea, there are a lot of kids in the Hermes cabin that aren't children of Hermes. They don't have the same strengths and weaknesses as us, but generally we are all put into one group."

Percy smiled at the gathered room before saying, "How about we separate the already determined into their own categories, and then have the undetermined tell us what they're good at by themselves." He then started passing out some paper to each group, making sure that the leader had paper and a pen.

"Alright, listen up," Carisse barked out, causing half the room to jump, "Everyone will write the names and skills of all the people in their group down, afterwards we will present them and figure out a plan to crush that know-it-all once and for all."

"Don't be mean to Annabeth," Luke admonished, "She's not that bad."

"Well, how did you know exactly who I meant, then?"

"Guys," Percy said, "Let's just get started."

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

In the end, they turned out to have a pretty diverse skill-set. There were more close combat specialists than anything else, but that was to be expected. And, while the plan wasn't some masterful moving of chess pieces that some tacticians enjoyed, it put the right people in the right spots for their skill.

No one fought alone, but instead had at least one other person watching their backs. Anyone who had a skill lent to trapping(such as certain members of the Hephaestus and Hermes cabins) were to turn the forest into the proverbial minefield. Distractions would ensue, via the recently teamed up twin group, the heavy hitters would charge in and engage the enemy, and a thief would steal the flag while everyone was distracted.

It had a decent chance of working because the usual tactics of the Ares cabin were to fight their way to the flag through brute force, and there was no reason for anyone to assume they would do otherwise. Of course, to keep the other side from being able to react properly they had to find Annabeth and take her prisoner.

It had somewhat surprised everyone except for Percy that Zoro could find anyone within a certain range even though he got lost ridiculously easily, which he had promised covered the entire forest, so he was to neutralize the enemy captain.

And so the game was on.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Annabeth heard the sound of fighting begin in the forest behind her. That was to be expected, what with her enemy for the night being the Ares cabin. They were fairly predictable that way.

It was odd that Luke had decided to team up with them, normally he sided with her.

Though, she had taken into account the skill that the Hermes cabin had at… liberating things. It made it a bit harder to ensure the safety of her flag, but Annabeth was certain that she could take the Ares flag before they got to hers.

Knowing Clarisse, she probably put a couple strong fighters on the flag, to defeat anyone who came near.

Still, they wouldn't be able to see her, so by the time they realized she was taking their flag it would be too late. Normally she would give this job to someone else, but the alliances had shifted quickly. Yes, Annabeth had the advantage in numbers, but with Hermes cabin on the other side it was not a sure victory.

Luke was very smart, and knew her better than just about anyone. If someone would be able to figure out what she was doing it was him. Of course, invisibility would help, but demigods had pretty good instincts.

She had to hurry, then. The longer this went on, the more likely that something would happen to tip it in the favor of one side or the other.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Annabeth froze, hearing the sound of footsteps. If she stayed silent, then whoever it was would undoubtedly just walk away. Most people ignored what they couldn't see with their own eyes, and most people forgot about her hat.

Looking around she tried to figure out who it was, before pausing. That new kid with the green hair, Zoro she believed his name was, had out several swords as he walked through the forest seemingly looking for something.

'He seems to at least know what he's doing… maybe he's the child of some minor war god? That would fit, maybe there's one with green hair, I'll research it later…' before she froze up even more as he started getting closer to her.

As he passed by, she mentally let go of the breath that she was holding. Her relaxation only lasted a moment before the pommel of a blade lashed out at her head before she could react. Annabeth's last thought before the blackness overtook her was the hope that the secondary team to acquire the flag would succeed.

Athena always has a plan, and Annabeth wasn't so arrogant as to make one without a backup.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Zoro grumbled slightly as he shouldered the younger blond girl and stuck her hat into his pocket. Yes, he was probably the best person for this particular job, but that didn't mean that he didn't want to fight. At least, if he dropped her off to be imprisoned for the duration of the game quickly he might be able to fight some before it ended.

Though, it was odd that he could find anyone, haki or no haki. It was helpful finding people when the world started moving around, but he wasn't quite sure why he could find people without haki. It was different, almost like he was recognizing some part of them that wasn't usually seen.

Everyone had a unique… Tint… to their aura, and for some reason it even told him their full name. Weird, but it didn't seem to be harmful so Zoro had ignored it. Zoro ignored the reason behind a lot of new things pertaining to himself so long as they worked and didn't get in the way of his dream.

"You got her," came the gruff but friendly voice of Beckendorf, "That's good. She probably had a backup plan, but they're never really as good at getting the flag as her first plan is."

Zoro nodded at Beckendorf before turning and walking back the way he came.

"Hey," yelled out one of the Hermes campers that had been set as a guard for prisoners, "Where are you going?"

"To fight," Zoro grumbled out, obviously already annoyed at not being in the midst of it.

Zoro wouldn't get to fight the campers as he wanted, the game ending before he could.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

A trio of campers ran across the ground, the blue team not realizing until it was too late that the group had their flag. Some of the blue team tried to stop them, but were quickly dispatched by either Percy's sword, or Lou Ellen's magic. Luke, who was easily one of the best thieves in the camp, had the flag. Just as he got it to cross the boundary and ripple into his cabin's emblem, Zoro came out of the forest grumbling.

"You caught her, then," Luke yelled out to the guy that even though he was a little younger than him just seemed older.

"Yeah, she was nearly at the flag when I caught her," Zoro said, still looking disappointed at the lack of fighting before he eyed Luke a bit, "Let's spar."

"After dinner," Luke said easily, "Or maybe a melee tomorrow instead? Then you could fight everyone at the same time, give us all a chance to make you work harder for your victory than normal."

"Fine," he said with an almost proud look before walking off towards Clarisse(presumably to see if she wanted to fight with him in a more immediate way).

"Good job on the Zoro wrangling," Percy told him with amusement.

"Eh, He's similar enough to Clarisse when it comes to fighting," Luke said with resignation, "And being the only person in camp that can truly challenge her in a straight up fight, I got to be her regular sparring partner. Under duress. Well, at least before you guys came, now she has other targets."

"We can easily convince them to amuse each other," Percy mused, "If we want a little free time that has no relation to fighting…. Or stealing," Percy hastily added seeing his new friends look. Okay, yeah, he definitely must have inherited a truly mind-boggling amount of sanity from his mom. Everyone related to the gods seemed to have some kind of crazy except for him(Percy did to, but his was mostly water related and wouldn't be found out until later).

"Are you sure he isn't the kid of some war god?" Luke asked a short while later when watching Clarisse and Zoro go head to head in a 'friendly' manner.

"Clarisse said he wasn't one of her siblings," Percy said slowly, "And while Zoro loves fighting, I think he gets a lot of that from his mom."

"Who do you think it might be, then," Luke asked with curiosity, after all, while both boys were undetermined Luke was positive that Percy's father was a god relating to water, and from his power it was fairly obvious that there was only one real candidate. But Zoro was an enigma, no one could get a proper read on him. But maybe his best friend would have some insight(Luke really wanted to win the betting pool, which only lasted until someone was claimed).

"It's not a war god, I don't think. Something that would help you be able to find people, to intuitively grasp what he does, even make people instinctively fear or ignore you. To be honest it sounds kind of like…" just then Percy was interrupted by the blowing of a horn, which caused everyone to pause, and then a loud growling roar, which caused everyone to get on guard.

"Heroes, To me!" Chiron shouted as he peered into the woods looking almost afraid, not for himself but for his students(He was limited as to what aid he could give unless one of them were in mortal danger, and by the time they were it was almost always too late).

"I don't like the sound of that beastie," Beckendorf mumbled in his low bass, "do you know what it is?"

"Pray that no one has set this monster upon the camp," Chiron told him gravely, "And that I am wrong."

Just then, from out of the woods came a creature far stronger than most of the monsters the demigods had fought. The Named One(as the Okubo clan put it) known simply as the Nemean Lion. Fur impervious to all bladed attacks, insanely strong and fast, claws ably to slice through metal like a knife through warm butter, quick healing, its weak spots were hard to reach or took literally Herculean level strength to exploit.

To be honest, only three people in the camp would be able to take it down in an honest fight, and two of those were bound not to interfere. Zoro was the only other one, and when the creature raced out of the woods he was too far away to reach the Lion's first intentional victim before it did.

Percy was good, but with his weapon being ineffective, not having the time to figure out a way to defeat it, and the Lion having the advantage of environment, it sliced through his torso, only not killing him because he'd managed to redirect the claws enough with his sword(Riptide was mad that someone was doing this to his wielder when he was powerless to help).

Then Zoro reached the monster. Proving the insane amount of skill, the shear level he was on as compared to the others his sword(turning black for a single moment) sliced straight through the lion's neck with a bright ringing sound. The fur was not that much tougher than sea stone, Zoro decided, before the monster turned into dust, leaving behind only the pelt.

A sobbing noise came from behind him, but he wasn't sure who it belonged to. But Zoro did look at his friend, his student, and felt a growl welling up in his throat. He wished he could kill that lion again, because Percy was dying and he could do nothing to stop it. If he'd have trained the kid harder, been closer, but no. And now whoever had caused this was going to pay(At the back of the crowd, a black-haired kid with somewhat asian features jerked back as though hit and then stared at Zoro in awe).

Percy was lying on the ground, chest practically torn entirely open, and Zoro knew he was going to die. Knew it with the same certainty and rightness he got when he swung his swords, and that scared him a little because he didn't used to be able to do that, know that, not the way he did now.

His best friend in the entire world, one of the few he'd truly taken on as a student of the blade and not simply helped learn how to fight was going to die. Unless…

A voice whispered gently to put Percy in the water, that the water would save him. And Zoro knew that voice did not come from him, but he trusted it like an old companion. And the presence laughed, and left with the impression that they would be speaking soon.

Zoro scooped Percy up, unheeding of the people that attempted to stop him, and put him in the water. And the wounds began to rapidly heal. Chiron paled, knowing that so obvious a sign could mean grave and terrible things, especially for the child.

And Percy sat up with a gasp, looking around wildly until he felt Zoro's comforting, insanely strong presence and relaxed before standing up.

That, of course, was when almost everyone looked at the two with awe and not a little bit of fear, and when Percy looked confused(Because he was standing just in front of Zoro as well as being shorter) and it was Luke who mutely gestured above his head, looking vaguely contemplative(as well as having quite a bit growing loyalty and camaraderie to the point where he was trying to figure out how to make Kronos, and he knew it was Kronos who'd done this, pay).

And Percy looked up to see the faded image of a trident above his own head, and the image of an inverted torch wreathed with poppies above Zoro's.

"Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God, The Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Zoro Okubo, Son of the God of Death, Lieutenant of Hades, Reaper of Souls," said Chiron gravely as everyone slowly bowed.

:So, in case you don't realize, Thanatos is Zoro's father. Don't worry, it will all be explained in the next chapter. The part about revealing his heritage was actually a lot of fun. Getting reviews that will undoubtedly be mad will be even more fun. Thanatos is... fun.