GUESS WHAAATT! I got the Son of Neptune on the fifth! ONLY A DAY AFTER IT CAME OUT! I am soooooo happy!
ALRIGHT. On a more serious note, you guys haven't been reviewing much of late. Sooo...I want ten reviews for this chapter before I post the next one. I've done it before! It's not that hard! Until then, your chapter, good people... (Sorry, saw that in an old movie and I just wanted to try it :P)
PERCY POV:
I couldn't BELIEVE the new guy! As soon as he shot Celaeno I knew he was screwed. Normally, if someone shot the leader it was a good thing. But he's a new guy, and so he shouldn't have. Apparently no one told him that only an experienced camper was allowed to kill the important ones, because the important ones are the most dangerous ones.
So of course, one of the stupid birds said something I didn't like and I had to go in there and politely tell them to shove it. Politely...
As soon as they were all dead, I stormed off mortified. I could not believe those ancient harpies had called me evil. I WASN'T! I just hadn't been completely perfect through my years...
"Percy! Wait up!" I was storming down the hallway when I hear Thalia call me. I slowed so she could catch up. She looked like she had been running, her hair was windblown and her cheeks were tinted pink as she breathed hard.
"Hey Thalia." I said. My voice sounded foreign. She looked at me with an angry expression.
"'Hey Thalia'? WTH? You just killed three ancient all powerful monsters and stormed off because they called you names? What's wrong Percy?" she said the last part sadly.
"They didn't just call me names Thalia, they were spot on. I am evil. I shouldn't be alive." I said darkly, my self-esteem lower than my feet.
She looked at me skeptically.
"Come on Percy! We all know not to take you seriously because you have NO self-esteem what-so-EVER! Don't talk crap about yourself, Percy, or we'll start believing you." She said hardly. But I knew she wasn't being mean, she was just trying to help.
I smiled and hugged her. "Thanks babe. Couldn't do anything without you. But, I'm serious. I am evil. I've done things I shouldn't have." By now we were outside the door to my room.
"Well, then. Tell me all about inside your room." She said simply. I sighed. I could never win with her.
We walked in and I sat on my bed. She skipped over and sat beside me, sitting on her knees and turning to face me so I knew I had her full attention.
"No interrupting now, Thalia! " I said in a fake stern voice. She made a gesture of locking her lips and putting the key down her shirt.
"Begin." She said. I rolled my eyes but let it go.
"Well, let's start with how I became Chaos's assassin. After...everything, I was just wandering the streets by myself." I said the next thing so soft it was almost a whisper. "I had lost everything."
"So", I continued, "Chaos came and offered me a choice. Live this hell I had been in for weeks, or join him and be at the top of the universe forever." I chuckled softly. "I, of course, chose the latter."
"I trained for years in the arena in his palace. I got better and better, and the curse of Achilles was definitely a plus. It helped me in battle. Then, one day, chaos strode in on one of my lessons. He asked if I would like to be his personal assassin."
I remembered the day perfectly.
FLASHBACK TIME LADIES AND GENTELMEN!
I had been with Chaos for a few years now, but he had made me immortal at sixteen; so I still looked and acted the same. I just finished my lesson and was wiping the sweat off my face with my shirt when the double doors burst open and Chaos strode in. I immediately fell to my knees.
"My lord, to what do I owe for the pleasure of this visit?" I said respectfully, like I saw some of the other soldiers do.
"Now, now, Perseus. If you accept my offer you will never need to address me so formally again." He said mysteriously.
"My lord?" I said confused.
"Would you do me the honor of being my personal assassin, young Perseus?" I was even more stooped. What was the difference? I voiced my question.
"My, my! There is a HUGE difference between a soldier and an assassin. Soldiers fight in numbers, assassins fight alone. Soldiers fight mass quantities of enemies, while assassins pick their enemies off one by one. Soldiers are brute and burly, and assassins are graceful and deadly. They are faster than Boreas's wind, more dangerous than Thanatos (death) himself. Soldiers are forces of mass destruction, whilst assassins are destruction themselves; in only a quieter form."
Apparently I decided to be stupid that day, and asked, "Sooo...like a ninja?" Chaos face palmed, which looked a little odd on the creator of the universe.
"Yes, Perseus, like a ninja. Do you accept or not?" he said in a tired voice, like I was wearing him down with my stupidity.
"HELL YES! Who wouldn't wanna be a ninja?" I screamed with joy. Chaos smiled.
"First, you will need to learn to control your emotions." He said sarcastically. I instantly stopped my happy dance. My face was burning.
He chuckled warmly at me. "It is okay to be excited Perseus, any other soldier would love to be in your position." That made me pause.
"My Lord, if I may, why me?" I said curiously.
"Because, you are the best fighter I have, and the most experienced, and the most talented and powerful soldier of all of them; and you've only been here a few years! I have never seen such a soldier as you."
I blushed with the many compliments, my face probably resembling a tomato.
"But Perseus," I looked up, concerned with his grave tone of voice. "Not all assassins fight for good. You will not be one. You will kill off my enemies, or some that especially annoy me."
I couldn't believe it. He wanted me to be evil! But then I thought about Camp Half Blood, and how EVERYONE in that damned camp is evil. If they can do it, so can I.
"I'll do it!" I said with an edge to my voice. Chaos smiled darkly, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. I heard, "Good, Perseus, good..." before the darkness enveloped me.
FLASHBACK ENDS HERE, LADIES AND GENTS! SORRY!
Thalia was shocked, but she remained quiet, as I hadn't even gotten to the main part of the story yet.
"And so, I was made assassin of Chaos. My first job was to kill a group of mortals that had been discovering too much of Chaos's realm. They were space scientists, and they were about to have a major breakthrough. Chaos wants mortals in the dark about the Universe, so he sent me to fix the problem."
Thalia's eyes started watering, and I saw her slightly shake her head, as if she couldn't believe I would do such a thing.
"They were innocent." My voice broke on the last word. I sucked in a big breath and continued. "But, it had to be done. They were too close to discovering Chaos's palace in space. After they were...done, Chaos decided to move his palace to Earth. And that is where it has been ever since. This was one hundred and fifty-two years ago."
I couldn't sit still any longer, not with those looks of pity and... Was that disgust? I got up and walked over to the window, resting my hands on the sill and looking out.
I continued, "The rest of my jobs were similar, if not worse. Some were dangerous, and some were just too easy. I found myself getting better and better over the years."
I didn't look at Thalia, but I waited for her words. I was sure she was going to break up with me. (A/N hey Thalia might be a little ooc!)
"AWWWW PERCYYYY!" I was shocked when she came up behind me, turning me around and capturing me in a death grip she calls 'hugging'.
"Can't...breathe..." I choked out. She pulled back with an, "Oops!"
I took a deep breath. "Sooo, you don't hate me for being evil?" I said timidly.
"You're NOT evil Percy. That I am sure of." She smiled and gave me a softer hug. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her close. Then she turned back into that Thalia that I knew.
"But if you EVER do anything like that to someone I know I will chop off your—"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. You'll mutilate my manhood. I got it." I smiled as she did.
"And don't you forget it, Kelp Head. I love ya." I kissed her head and told her that I loved her too. We stayed this way for a while, 'till we heard another horn. We instantly broke apart and ran out the door. It wasn't the bell of an attack, but one of reaching our destination.
We raced out to the front of the ship, and everyone else was close behind. I saw Dillon run out but stay close to the door, as if he was afraid he would mess something up by getting too close.
Beckendorf ran out of the control room. "WE HAVE LANDED IN GREECE! I REPEAT, THE EAGLE HAS LANDED!" he screamed that about ten times until one of his cabin mates told him to shut up, that we saw.
And it was amazing. We all felt a rush of power, being in our homeland. I felt at the top of the world. But we couldn't stand there in our euphoria all day, we had to get moving. Tomorrow we would start preparing for war. Today, we would set up camp.
"Hey, I'll be back." I told Thalia. She nodded and I walked over to Beckendorf.
"Dude, can I have a bull horn?" he got one from a Hephaestus cabin girl and handed it to me. I nodded in thanks and climbed up to the watch tower so the crowd could see me. I raised the bullhorn to my lips.
"PEOPLE!" that got their attention. They all looked up to me, it was silent. "We have to set up camp! We will make two rings! Soldiers on the outside so they can protect, campers on the inside so they can hold up the forces! BREAK!" everyone ran off to get things set up. I tossed Beckendorf the bullhorn and climbed down.
I went over to my second, Zak. "Hey man, make sure they do their job right, kay?"
"Yes sir!" he said. I rolled my eyes and he laughed, knowing I hated it when he called me 'sir'.
"Shut up, dumba**! Or I'll tell Keera that you hate her parents!" a pretty girl with brown hair and eyes came over. She was kind of short, but you could tell she was fierce.
"Tell Keera what?" she said mockingly, looking at Zak with suspicion. He gulped loudly.
"N-nothing babe!" he ran off and Keera and I laughed loudly. I went off to help soldiers set up, and afterwards we just sat around and talked. It was six o'clock, and time for dinner.
We all sat on the inside around a big fire, except for about twenty soldiers who were sent out to guard. I don't know who made the food, but it was great. No one offered any food to the gods, since they were here with us. They looked a little grumpy but didn't object. After we ate we had Apollo and his children sing songs. They weren't happy songs, but melancholy ones, as no one was in a very happy mood at the moment. We were scared what the next few days would bring. In only forty eight hours we would face Gaia's army of giants, and the Aphrodite cabin would have it bad too. They would be the ones to charmspeak Gaia back to sleep. We were all confident they could do it, but they were a little nervous.
Thalia sat on my lap. I looked over and saw Annabeth sitting with Dillon, and Grover sitting with Juniper. (She hadn't died because she's a nymph). Many of the campers and soldiers were paired with their loved ones, cherishing their last moments. We all knew not everyone would make it through, we just didn't know who would and who wouldn't. That was what scared us the most.
