Chapter 12: Fanatics Fall, Unity Rises (Rewritten)

Piper POV

Percy...where are you? I hope you're safe, Hotshot. Meanwhile, I'm stuck on colossus watch with some of the other First Cohort guys. Pretty boring job if you think about it. Scratch that. It is VERY, VERY, VERY BORING. I was twirling Blue Rose on my hand while looking at the colossus. It's been still for an entire hour, until Hazel suddenly ran up to me.

"Piper, meeting at the Principia, now." she told me.

I nodded boringly and jogged all the way to the meeting. Everyone was there, including Thalia and, except for Octavian, as usual. Only this time, I saw some new people. The kicker, they were wearing GREEK ARMOR. My jaw hit the ground as if I couldn't hold them up.

"Hey, Piper!" Jason greeted, coming over to me with Reyna. My jaw remained dropped.

"Why did you just-"

"Invite Greeks? We need all the help we can get. Besides, I think it's time we ended this old feud." Reyna interrupted me. "And don't worry. The gods have made a decision to let them come here."

"So...who are they?" I asked. Only this time, Thalia answered for me.

"Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares, Connor and Travis Stoll, twin sons of Hermes, Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter, Will Solace, son of Apollo, Jake Mason, son of Hephaestus, and Lou Ellen, daughter of Hecate. Another one of our friends will arrive a little later."

"Are you sure abou-"

"Don't worry. They'll help us hold the line until Kelp Head comes back." Thalia assured me.

Suddenly, a figure appeared from the shadows. It was a black haired, olive skinned young boy wearing an aviator jacket, black t shirt with a skull and crossbones on it, jeans, and shoes. Strapped onto his belt was a black sword. He was emanating an aura of darkness.

"And THIS, my friend, is Nico di Angelo, son of Hades." Thalia introduced.

"Made it just in time, I guess. Who's the Native American looking girl?" he asked, pointing his thumb at me.

"This is Piper McLean, daughter of Venus/Aphrodite, and Percy's current girlfriend."

Nico's jaw dropped like he saw a lookalike of himself wearing female clothes.

"Wait...what?" he asked Thalia.

"Don't worry. She's not like Drew." she told the son of Pluto before letting out a disgusting sound. Whoever this "Drew" is, I don't want to meet him/her.

"Uh...hi, I guess." I greeted sheepishly.

"Okay...why are we here again?" Nico asked.

"Didn't I tell you about it through an Iris Message?" Thalia asked with disbelief.

"Oh right. But still, I didn't expect HER to be like this, attacking another demigod camp just because they're different." the graecus muttered, anger palpable in his tone and words.

"Nero knows how to defeat them. We just need to give him more time." Jason said.

"I hope we can trust you gu-"

"Will, Jason is my brother and I trust him a lot." Thalia interrupted, shocking the Greeks.

"We both have a common enemy. You want to bring her down for being like this, we want her down for threatening to destroy our home." Jason told them.

"Still doesn't mean we can't stay allies. Greece and Rome have a bad history together, you know." Clarisse said. She was pretty big for a girl her age. In her hands was a bronze spear.

"I don't care about Greece and Rome's bad history." Frank countered. "This is a secret that can't be kept forever."

Silence struck and the air was quiet. No one said a word at what he said, until Nico spoke up.

"Then let's get started."

We tried our best to get them ready, show them some of our formations and tactics and hide their true heritage from Octavian at the same time. They were hospitable, which was great. I hope nothing goes too wrong as we wait for Percy to get back. Thalia told Jason, Reyna, and I a lot about them. Clarisse was like your typical high school jock, Connor and Travis were trouble makers (as I expected from immature children of Mercury), Katie was a typical goody-two-shoes, Will is actually...bisexual (Sorry), and Jake and Lou seem pretty normal to me. They told us a lot about the old Percy, along with some embarrassing baby stories about him courtesy of Thalia (I hope he doesn't find out about this.). Meanwhile, I decided to go to the colosseum to learn how to use Red Queen. I wasn't like my boyfriend, so this was SO DAMN DIFFICULT.

"Hey, Beauty Queen!" I heard a familiar voice.

I saw him, with his white hair, blazing orange eyes, purple coat, golden hoodie, cowboy boots, and camo pants. Nero Redgrave a.k.a. Percy Jackson, was talking to me. No one was around, though.

"Nero!" I screamed happily. I saw boxes being moved around in the background. Then, another girl came into the picture. She looked much like...Reyna?

"And this one here, is Hylla, Reyna's sister."

"You better not have-" I started, but he interrupted me.

"No! I wasn't cheating on you! Look, I'm on my way back. Gotta go now! Love you!"

With that, he slashed down the mist, and the image disappeared. I hope he wasn't cheating on me...

Jason POV

So far, so good. If only Percy can come back. If only we know where he is. Right now, I'm stuck on colossus watch for the second time until I heard screaming and turned to that direction.

"Jason! He's coming back!" Piper yelled at me.

And...how convenient. But hey, GREAT!

"Really? How'd you know?" I heard Reyna ask.

"I saw some kind of mist...and he was with your sister."

"Hylla?"

Reyna has a sister?! My sister spoke next.

"He probably Iris Messaged you." she explained. That's when I started talking.

"We're so winning this war!"

"AHHH!"

Oh, crap. Something totally went wrong. That was probably Katie if I remember right. Wait...DON'T TELL ME...

"Katie!" Thalia screamed, running to the source of the sound. I followed with Reyna. We followed her to...Octavian's augury house. Holy, freaking crap. Freaking out, I drew my coin/spear. Thalia and Reyna brought out theirs as well. I saw Phoebe, Leo, and Frank following us as well. We ran inside. Stuffing was everywhere and the screaming was getting louder. A few seconds later, we saw Katie and...Octavian and some of his goons were holding her hostage.

Piper POV

"What the hell are you doing?!" Reyna demanded.

"Why is this graecus here?!" he asked snidely.

"She's not a graecus!" I tried to lie but it's Octavian so obviously, it didn't work.

"Then where are her legion tattoos?"

"Obviously, she hasn't joined yet!" Leo yelled.

"Oh really? I asked her if she knew Latin and she said no!"

"Octavian, we need her help!" Jason tried to reason with him.

"The help of a graecus?! Never!"

His group of supporters started cheering. How are we supposed to help Katie at this rate?

"Why are you always like this, Octavian?!" Reyna demanded.

"I will not allow Rome's legacy to be soiled by the presence of Greeks!"

"They're not trying to hurt us, Octavian!" I yelled at him.

"Didn't you say it yourself that a Greek has brought that giant to our borders?!"

"That's not what I meant, teddy bear hater!"

"Enough! Make one more move and I'll slit her throat!" Octavian screamed, tightening his grip on Katie.

"H...Help..." she tried to yell.

What's a hero to do? Goons, knife on Katie's throat, too far away, Octavian's sharp reflexes, THIS IS SO BAD. It's going to take a miracle to save her. Why did I suggest this? I was about to give up until...

"AHHH!"

An arrow out of nowhere pierced Octavian's knife holding hand, causing him to scream in pain, drop the weapon, and release Katie. She ran towards us but Octavian's group lunged at her. Thalia, Phoebe and I shot them and they fell on the ground in pain. Jason grabbed Katie to prevent them from reaching her.

"You could have told us about this guy." she said.

"Sorry. We thought he would listen." Jason replied sheepishly.

We tied up Octavian and his goons with vines (thank the daughter of Ceres/Demeter) then I prayed to Apollo. He came down and he burst out laughing when he saw the tied up auger.

"What just happened?" he asked, grinning.

"Read his memories." Thalia replied.

Confused, Apollo read Octavian's memories by touching his forehead. A few seconds later, he was fuming mad.

"You dare try to threaten an innocent demigod, insolent fool?!" he roared. Everyone else looked on.

"She was a graecus!"

"Fun fact: Nero was a graecus too."

Octavian was shocked and looked down in embarrassment.

"I'll let Jupiter decide your fate."

With that, they all flashed out to Mount Olympus. He is SOOOO DEAD.

"Who shot that arrow?" I thought loudly.

"That was me!" I heard a familiar voice. Not Percy, but Frank.

"Nice shot, Frank!" Reyna remarked. Jason gave him a thumbs up and a grin, but it fell when the colossus started moving again. This time, not only were there animated armors but also, there were monsters. Seriously? What kind of Minerva spawn recruits monsters to her cause? Those two are like Greek versions of Octavian.

"That. Is. A. Lot."

Thalia closed her eyes and did a thinking face. A few seconds later,

"The Olympians are a little busy somewhere else. We're on our own here. Apollo had to have Nemesis and Hecate watch Octavian." she said.

"Then, defend Rome!" Reyna ordered.

We entered our formations as quickly as our legs could carry. The enemy army thundered across the field as the colossus started blasting our formations, disorienting us. I considered shooting as their forms slowly walked through the smoke, until something caught me in the shoulder.

Jason POV

One second, smoke was everywhere. The next, Piper was gone! She dropped Red Queen on the ground. Nero's going to kill me for this. I frantically tried to find her through the carnage, slicing and stabbing left and right. When I got to the front, it hit me. A karpoi had snuck into our formation and took Piper. I wish I could follow but it's too fast.

"Piper!" Reyna screamed, smashing an armor with her spear.

The karpoi didn't stop flying. It flew to...the top of the colossus's head. I saw THEM, with what looked like torture tools. Oh, crap. Percy, I hope you forgive me.

Third Person POV

"Slow down, will you!" Hylla yelled from her forklift, trying to keep up with Percy's Robocop motorcycle with the rest of the Amazons.

"I would but I'm worried about everyone!" the son of Vesta replied.

"But still, slow down!"

"PIPER!"