A/N:
Yo, guys! I'm baaaaack! Did you miss me?
I know, I know, It's been like, forever. But I'm back now with a double update. Aren't I just so awesome? (don't answer that)
Right, so here's what happened. At first I had my GCSE's, and as much as I want to deny it, school does come before fanfiction, so I was studying really hard for like a month. And then after all that was over, I hit some major writer's block for this story and decided to do what I do best, which is procrastinate. And then, I went on the longest vacation of my entire fucking life. Most of which did not have very reliable wifi. I'm not even exaggerating, I think I've been to every major city on the entire Iberian Peninsula.
So… yeah. That's my lame-ass excuse but it's pretty much all I've got. Hope you enjoy!
P.S. This story is actually almost finished! Yeah! If I follow my plan, I should be done in about two or three chapters! I don't know if I'll do an epilogue yet. It all kind of depends on how exactly it ends and what you guys want.
P.P.S. Holy shit. I was just looking back through the earlier chapters that I wrote to try and get back into this story, and oh my god it's actually so horrible! I don't know how you guys read it, I was legit cringing the entire time. Thanks for sticking with me through all of this. I might rewrite it, I might not. It kind of depends. Especially because after I'm done with this I'll focus all my attention on Percy Jackson: Guardian of the Earth (That's my other story for those of you who don't know)
Okay, that is one really long author's note. I'll let you guys get to it now. Thanks for reading, my people!
By mid-morning, the fleet with the Argo II in the lead had pulled up to the shore. Percy and his father would have sooner jumped out and swam the rest of the way, but the others convinced them that it wasn't a very good idea to split up like that. However everybody was still in good spirits, especially after seeing the matching pouting faces of Poseidon and his son when they were told that 'no, they couldn't go for a swim before they saved the world'.
Now, though, as the bottom of the ship hit land and the group of demigods began to step off their various modes of transportation and onto land, the tense air returned. This wasn't helped by the fact that the entire area around them was deathly silent. There were no birds chirping, no sound of the friendly mortal tourist, no signs of life around them at all.
In fact, the only things that broke the silence at all besides the sound of their own footsteps was the distant roar that always accompanied a large group of monsters. Or in this case, an army.
Once they were on land once again, the Romans all immediately looked much more comfortable and lost the sickly pale skin tone that many of them had taken up on the open water.
The gods all gathered together at the top of the small hill, separate from the demigods and letting them organise themselves for battle. They were all wearing their various armours and carrying their weapons. Just as they had all those years ago when they overthrew their father, the three sons of Kronos stood in front of their two sisters participating in the battle, protecting them in a way. Though they would later deny that they did any such thing.
The Romans gathered themselves into ranks according to their usual cohorts, and the Greeks all just stood together in a large, heavily armed clump, looking tired, but ready for battle nevertheless. It was obvious as soon as the Seven walked a ways up the hill to get some higher ground on the rest of the army that the two should be responsible for different things.
The Romans were used to fighting as one unit, and on their own, they would most likely be slaughtered. The Greeks, however, could not close ranks with the Romans if they tried. It was simply too restraining and didn't allow them to fight as they had been taught.
There was no longer any sort of hostile tension between the two groups, but they still stood very distinctly separated, and it was painfully obvious that the current formation wasn't going to work.
The seven all turned towards Annabeth who already had an expression of intense thinking on her face as she considered the predicament.
"Okay, here's the plan—".
A piercing whistle cut through the air, and immediately the eyes of their entire ragamuffin army was on the source: Percy.
"Listen up, guys! Annabeth's going to explain the plan!", he yelled loud enough for even the gods to hear him.
Annabeth nodded in acknowledgement before continuing with her explanation.
"So, even though we are working together now, it is really obvious that the Romans and the Greeks cannot be fighting side by side. It simply won't work, the two styles are too different".
Reyna was standing slightly in front of the legion with her position of praetor. She was wearing imperial gold armour that shone in the sun, and her purple cape billowed out behind her in the wind. Her brown eyes were almost as intense as Annabeth's grey ones, and the two met for two moments before the praetor held up a hand and silenced any protests that her fellow Romans were making.
"She's right! Listen to the plan, and do not protest", she said, staring down Octavian who looked like he was about to do just that. His face looked unhealthily red, but he didn't say anything, and Reyna was able to turn back around and gesture for Annabeth to continue.
"This is the plan— the Romans will charge in a protective formation and make as large a dent in the army as you can. The greeks will follow up behind them, and cut through the remaining army until we reach the center of the horde. From there, the individual fighters of the Greeks will split up and protect the gods and their selective children who will be fighting the giants. The Romans will have then retreated to the border along the outside of the group and attack from the outside in. The two groups will work towards each other until all the monsters are gone. After that the fight with the giants should be over as well, and then we can treat the wounded, collect the dead and go home".
The group sat silent and determined as they listened to the plan, and Reyna had to admit that it was a good one. But at the end of the plan, when she talked about them all going home, a large cheer went up from somewhere in the Greek ranks, and soon the entire army joined in until it was a large war cry that resounded around the hills.
Looking back on it, it probably wasn't a good idea for them to make that much noise. But neither Percy or any of the others were in any position to try and quiet them down. After all, it was this fire that would keep them alive and fighting.
With that determination burning inside of all of them, the entire army turned and followed the Seven and the Olympians as they made their way up and over the hill straight towards Gaea's army. With any luck, the entire plan would go off without a hitch and the entire fiasco would be over and done with by sundown.
But then again, when had that ever happened?
As soon as they Olympian army crested the hill and became visible by the monster army waiting down below, the battle began.
A deafening war cry made up of various monster roars and screeches went out, and they charged.
Reyna could be heard from somewhere ahead of Percy and the rest of the Seven yelling out various commands to the legion behind her in Latin as they ran forward to meet the charge.
As one, the Romans lowered their pilums and charged. Centurions yelled out commands, and the legion split sharply into five distinct groups, each working together to make a sort of v-formation that would be perfect for punching through a solid wall of monsters.
Behind them ran the Greeks in a sort of… disorganised gaggle, all yelling, screaming, and cursing bloody murder while waving various deadly objects in their hands. The only exception to this general rule were the Apollo campers who stayed back and shot arrows from afar, using the higher ground to their advantage.
The two armies collided in an explosive shower of golden powder which momentarily blinded the Greeks who were running slightly behind their Roman brothers and sisters. When the dust cleared, they were able to make out the forms of the fighting legion among the sea of monsters surrounding them. The plan seemed to be working. The legion ran forward in their v-formation, cutting down any monster that got in their way and clearing the way for the Greeks to reach the inside of the circle of monsters and allowing them access to the larger foes, the giants, beyond.
A small gap opened up, and they took full advantage, flooding the inside of the monster's defences and streaming in through a rather inefficient bottle-neck (at least in Reyna's humble opinion).
It soon became apparent, however, that the human wall the Roman legion had formed would not hold for long. The first legionnaire went down somewhere over to their right, screaming in agony as his chest was raked open by a hellhound, it's claws tearing through his chest plate like wet tissue paper. The beast was soon killed and exploded into dust while a few of the Roman Apollo campers in the field serving as medics dragged the unlucky boy away. But the damage had been done, the line had been broken, and slowly, inch by inch, the legion was forced into a retreat.
Percy forced himself to look away, not wanting to continue watching as more of the legionnaires he had grown rather fond of during his short stay in their camp were maimed and killed. Blood soon coated the ground, the sticky red substance soaking into their clothes and shoes, staining their skin to serve forever as a reminder of what had happened.
As soon as the last Greek camper had made it through the bottle neck, the line the Romans had been holding at the expense of their lives collapsed and they retreated, running back up the way they had come to regroup and attack in a more organised fashion.
When the Greeks arrived through the first line of defences to where the giants were, the gods were already engaged in battle, having flashed themselves directly there rather than go through the wall of monsters with their children.
Through some unspoken command, their forces split, cabin leaders and the Seven going to help their respective parents, and the rest of the forces turning right back around again and attacking the backside of the monsters forces.
Annabeth and Percy met each others eyes across the blood-soaked battlefield, storming sea-green meeting determined and steely grey as they made a unspoken agreement.
Never again.
Never again would they let themselves be separated. They would always be together, whether that be in life… or death.
With that confirmed in each of their determined expressions, Percy turned away and ran towards where he could here the yelling and sounds of water splashing from where his father was busy fighting his bane, Polybotes.
Well. Looks like I have to go and kill Poly-whatever… again.