Disclaimer: I do not own Rick Riordan, the Percy Jackson books, characters, series, movies, or anything else you may recognize.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Seeing Double

I was so sick of dreams. In this one, I saw that the Titan army had set up in the UN complex, about a mile northeast of the Empire State Building. Flagpoles were decorated with helmets and pieces of armor from campers that had been slain by them.

Monsters and enemy demigods were sharpening and repairing their weapons while Kronos paced at the top of the plaza. Ethan and Prometheus stood just far away enough that his scythe couldn't reach them.

Kronos started going on about how he hated the United Nations because it was impossible for mankind to unite. After he took Olympus, he wanted Prometheus to remind him to destroy the United Nations. Prometheus made a smart-ass remark about destroying the stables in Central Park too because Kronos hates horses so much. After some more talk, Kronos told Ethan to release the Drakon right away because he wanted Olympus destroyed by the time Typhon got there.

I jolted awake at a loud noise, which I realized was the Drakon waking.

"What was that?" Annabeth asked.

"That's the Drakon," I said, before noticing I was alone in bed. My heart started racing and I was on my feet in seconds. "Where's Andee? What's happened to her?"

"I'm right here!" Andee said, jogging into the room with her hair slightly damp. "It's okay – I'm okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you – I just couldn't sleep. Too many nightmares."

I held her tightly, letting out a sigh of relief. "I thought –"

"I know what you thought, but I'm okay, Percy," Andee whispered, kissing my shoulder. We pulled apart once I was a little calmer and took inventory of what we had left to fight.

We were doomed. The Hephaestus cabin was out of Greek fire, the Apollo cabin and the Hunters were scrounging for arrows, and most of us had ingested so much ambrosia and nectar that we'd kill ourselves if we took any more. So in total, we had about sixteen campers, fifteen Hunters, and half a dozen satyrs left that could fight. Everyone else was resting and healing on Olympus. The Party Ponies were trying to form ranks but they kept stumbling and giggling.

Rachel rode in on Chiron, which made me a little jealous. He hardly ever let people ride him, and never a mortal before. "It's a Lydian Drakon, the oldest and most dangerous kind. It has to be killed by a child of Ares."

"Already knew that and told everyone," Andee remarked. "And Silena Beauregard was sent to go get the Ares cabin."

"That's why Kronos thinks we can't beat it," I said. "Because the spy has told him that the Ares cabin won't fight with us."

So for those of you who don't know the difference between a dragon and a Drakon, I'm going to tell you. Drakons are way older than dragons, bigger and more serpent-like. They don't have wings and they can't breathe fire, but they're all extremely poisonous, their scales are harder than titanium and their eyes can paralyze with just one look.

So just a bundle of joy.

The enemy army was advancing down 5th Avenue.

"I'll take the Drakon," I said quietly, in almost a whisper. I was terrified. I knew I couldn't beat it, but someone had to try. In a much louder voice, I yelled "I'LL TAKE THE DRAKON! Everyone else, hold the line against the army! Annabeth, go direct them and make sure the line is held at all costs." Annabeth pulled on her owl helmet and rushed over to start. I turned to Andee. "Andee, I hate to ask this of you, but will you help me?"

"We're in this together," Andee said determinedly.

I still felt horrible for asking this of her. After everything that had happened, I should have sent her away so that she was safe until she learned how to use her powers with the bracelets. Of course, she never would have agreed to that, but she could easily fight the army. Just not so much the Drakon.

"I need you to get close and look for any weak links or chinks in its armor," I told her. She nodded.

I whistled and Mrs. O'Leary came bounding over. "We are going to need to talk about that," Andee said with a death look before running off, trying to get a visual on the Drakon.

The enemy army broke through the Party Ponies, breaking the line, and the Drakon immediately swallowed three Californian centaurs in one gulp. Mrs. O'Leary attacked, but as much as she scratched and bit it, it didn't cause any damage. I slashed Riptide against it, but once again, it had no effect so I stabbed it in the eye.

That really pissed it off. It reared its head and tried to attack, but I just barely missed getting shot with poison. I also had to keep reminding myself to focus on the teeth because I didn't want to end up paralyzed like some of my allies.

Andee must've found a good spot because she was now on top of the Drakon and stabbed her dagger into the chink in its armor. It reared back, roaring in pain. Andee held on, trying to dig her dagger in farther but it was no use. There was no way it would kill it.

She retrieved her dagger and came running back to me, shaking her head. "We need a child of Ares. Now."

"I am fully aware of that, but thanks for the reminder," I said as I blocked another attempt from the Drakon. I glanced over and saw that the campers were retreating to the doors of the Empire State Building. The Drakon sent Mrs. O'Leary flying off to the side and she hit a building, making it collapse in on itself. I felt horrible for Nico's pet, who I was feeling more and more fond for and ready to take as my own, but there was no point trying to help her now. I was just about to say that we could probably retreat with the others as well when I heard a huge battle cry of "ARES!"

I looked to the south and saw about a dozen war chariots flying towards battle, each waving a red banner decorated with a wild boar's head and being pulled by skeletal horses. That meant we had a total of about thirty fresh soldiers in gleaming armor with eyes full of loathing. Clarisse was in the front of the group, leading her brothers and sisters into battle.

The arrival of the Ares war chariots brought a new energy to all of the campers, nature spirits and Hunters while the enemy troops were thrown into confusion. And then things began to go wrong.

The Drakon ate an Ares camper, knocked aside another one, and sprayed poison at a third who sprinted away in panic as his armor began to melt off of him.

I knew we needed more help, but I glanced over at Mrs. O'Leary and she tried to limp over, one of her paws leaving bloody prints as she went. "Stay, girl." She let herself lay down on the pavement, swiping at the occasional monster with her good paw.

"Come on, Clarisse! You can do it!" I shouted to my fellow camper in red armor. For a moment, she glanced over at me and I saw two things I had never seen on Clarisse before. Number one, fear in her eyes. She looked terrified. Number two, her normally brown eyes were blue.

After a quick glance in my direction, she went charging straight at the Drakon like someone with a death wish. The Drakon spat poison right in her face and with a shrill scream, she went tumbling to the ground.

Everyone went running to her aid while her brothers and sisters tried to fend her. I was so worried about Clarisse that I barely noticed the war chariot speeding towards us on 5th. "NO! Curse you, why?" the driver of the chariot screamed as she sprinted towards the group of us surrounding the fallen camper.

"Get the helmet off! NOW!" Annabeth ordered, trying to help a few of the Ares campers unfasten the helmet, but the poison had melted it into a weird shape. The girl from the chariot kneeled beside Clarisse and…wait, it was Clarisse? How could there be two Clarisse's?

Andee reached over and took the fallen camper's hand tightly in hers, a few tears streaming down her face.

"What is going on?" I asked just as Annabeth and the Ares campers managed to rip off the helmet. The fake Clarisse had been Silena all along.

The real Clarisse was seething. Not at her friend, but at the Drakon. She stood and turned on the creature before screaming, "You want death? WELL COME ON!"

Without any armor or shield, she charged the Drakon. She was much faster than the ancient beast and within seconds, she had stabbed her electric spear into the Drakon's good eye with so much force that it actually shattered the shaft, Electricity arced through the Drakon's body, making it shudder for a moment before the flesh dissolved and all that was left was the hollow scaly armor.

Clarisse didn't seem to care that she had just done the impossible, and immediately came running back to Silena, taking her other hand. Then something triggered my memory.

A trick that ends in death.

This was the trick. And a horrible feeling filled the pit of my stomach when I realized that the death would be Silena's.

"The…the only way the cabin would come is if Clarisse was leading them," Silena said hoarsely. "I stole her armor while Chris and Clarisse were on patrol. They wanted to believe it was you."

"You stupid Aphrodite girl," Clarisse cried, tears dropping from her eyes onto Silena's armor, "why did you charge a Drakon? Why?"

"It's all my fault," she whispered. "The Drakon, Charlie's death, Andee's kidnapping, camp endangered –"

"Don't say that!"

Silena opened the hand Andee had previously been holding to reveal the silver bracelet with a scythe charm, the symbol of Kronos.

"You were the spy," I said quietly, not having ever suspected her. I glanced over at Andee and she had a weird look on her face like…guilt.

"Before I ever like Charlie, Luke was so handsome and so nice to me. I wanted to stop, I really did, but he threatened to tell everyone. He promised me…he promised me that I was going to save lives. Fewer people would get hurt, and that Charlie would be safe…he lied to me."

"Help the centaurs and protect the doors!" Clarisse roared at her cabinmates, who immediate obeyed.

"Forgive me…"

"You're not dying," Clarisse said sternly.

"Charlie…I can see Charlie…"

Her body became lifeless and we all realized that we had just witnessed one of our friends die. Annabeth tearfully closed Silena's eyes. "We – we have to fight. She gave her life to help us and we have to honor that."

"She was a hero, understand? A hero," Clarisse said, as if we all hadn't already figured that out.

Chris led Clarisse off, muttering about how she was going to take revenge on Kronos the first chance she got.

Andee gently touched Silena's cheek one last time before moving away from the body, hastily wiping away the tears in her eyes. "You knew, didn't you?" I asked her quietly.

"I saw…I saw her when Kronos had me," Andee said, starting to cry again. "I knew she was the spy, Perce, but I knew she never meant to hurt anyone. When she saw me with my dagger to my hair and was helping me, I told her that I remembered and she asked me to help her. That's why I sent her to camp to get the Ares campers – so that she wouldn't hear any more of our planning and to give her a second chance to do whatever she could to redeem herself. I couldn't let something happen to her with everyone thinking she was this horrible traitor because she wasn't. She fell for Luke's charms just like we all have."

"Andee, you make me fall in love with you more and more everyday," I told her and she laughed a little as I wiped a few stray tears away. "If Silena had had more time, I know she would have thanked you. I think everyone here is thankful for what you did."

She nodded and leaned into me for a quick moment before we both realized that we were still in the middle of a battle. But when we turned to start fighting again, Clarisse was driving the army away all on her own, without armor or a spear. She was so inspiring that even the centaurs were starting to rally.

She was practically glowing.

"She has the blessing of Ares," Andee said quietly, watching her in awe. "I've actually never seen him give it to anyone before."

I remembered reading something about the blessing of Ares a while ago, and for the time being, Clarisse would be invincible. No one could harm her and the enemy didn't take too long to pick up on that before turning tail and running.

Even after they were long gone, Clarisse was still shouting and racing around in circles in her chariot, pulling the Drakon carcass behind her. She demanded that Kronos show his face and fight her. I didn't want to leave her like this, but Chris assured us that once she tired, he'd bring her in.

I was good with that.