Chapter 5: The Reinforcements

Destroy everything in their path

Reporters stood at the sidelines, waiting for what was to come. After that fated press-conference - that would forever be remembered - the media had been anxious to get more information out of the politicians. When the news was leaked out that the minister of Home Affairs had stormed out of the Conference Room, nearly half an hour ago, journalists were crawling all over the place, much to every minister's displease.

They were yet to know about the arrival of the Demigod Army and minister Harthfield honestly didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing. With all the commotion the demigods had caused with them coming to DC - and they hadn't even arrived yet! - and with all the ministers just standing there in from of the House of Parliament, it was only logical that it had attracted the journalists to come there too.

And there was much for them to see, Harthfield realised. The sheer amount of ministers glaring at him angrily and agents securing them, was enough to hit the front pages of the Washington Times. When the demigods would come, the news was enough to reach the outskirts of the earth.

Walter Harthfield, as the representative of the agreement, waited patiently for all the ruckus that was to come. He wanted it all to be over with as soon as possible. What frustrated him, though, was that no one gave him information about the amount of reinforcement they would get. Hell, it wasn't even certain who would lead them yet.

The main problem was the trust between the two sides, though. Too much had happened between the humans and the demigods, since the so called 'Apocalypse' two years ago. He still remembered the enormous hurricane above New York City, a few weeks after, that had caused many humans to die, including the president since his private jet flew over the city when it happened and crashed into one of the skyscrapers in Manhattan. He hadn't known what had happened back then, but he had known it was too big and too sudden for a natural hurricane.

Now, everyone already knew that it was the doing of the demigods - later on, they had showed the humans exactly that they had the power to do so - and that didn't help with the relationship between the two sides. Things had gone worse after that disaster and it had escalated into a full fledged war, which would already been won by the Mortal Forces if it hadn't been for those monsters.

At first, analysts had said that they attacked in groups not larger than 20 - depending on the monsters - which wasn't too difficult for the humans to take care off (after stealing weapons made of 'godly' metal, of course). But the amount of monsters had grown frantically over the months that followed, attacking both the humans and the demigods.

They became more organized, more as an actual army, and because of their numbers - and the inability of the Mortal Force to kill them with their own weapons - they had become more of a threat to the humans than the demigods, according to Walter. Only if the demigods had more numbers, they would become the bigger threat.

He knew that in the back of their minds the others knew that too, but they were too arrogant and too clouded with anger that they didn't want to admit it. And now, they were all angry at him and it was a miracle that he still maintained his position as minister of Home Affairs, one of the most important positions nowadays. After all, there hadn't been a president of the USA in almost two years.

He shut his eyes as a flash of light almost blinded him. When he opened them again, he saw a journalist, who had clearly slipped through the police to make a photo, being carried away by three policemen. Even if that was the case, the man still grinned since he got a good picture to show his boss, Harthfield guessed, not knowing he would miss the opportunity to photograph something far more important.

The sounds of vehicles approaching them filled the streets of the capital. Normally, that wouldn't be that unusual, but since the streets around the Parliament were under a lock-down, these sounds surprised most of the people around them. Harthfield looked in the distance and found what he was looking for. Trucks, escorted by the police's motorcycles, rode toward the Parliament and stopped around 120 ft before the building.

Around 50-75 people walked out of the trucks, which made Harthfield raise an eyebrow since he had expected more, and walked toward the Parliament. Already, reporters were going crazy when they saw them. Each had Greek- and Roman-like armor and either a sword, a spear or other ancient weapons with them. Walter could also see older men and woman walking among the younger demigods - most were around 16 years old. Humans. Good choice.

He could see their faces clearly now and they were definitively not pleased to be here. As he looked around him, he knew that the others felt the same way. Sighing, Harthfield walked forward and stood before the small Demigod Army. "Welcome to Washington, everyone", some grunts were heard in the crowd, but most made a respective bow with their heads as a sign of recognition. "Where is your superior?", he asked eventually.

A girl around 16 years old walked forward. She too had a Greek-like armor and a bronze sword on her hips. She also had a smaller sheath, though, which contained a large knife. The dark-tanned skinned girl had brown hair and her eyes changed from blue to green as he looked at them. Braided in her hair were thin strands that reached her shoulders.

Just when Harthfield opened his mouth to introduce himself, the girl held up her hand and smiled. "I'm sorry, but our leader had a slight delay. A small army of monsters had followed us to the city and he left behind to take care of it. I hope you understand."

He was surprised by this, but he nodded nevertheless. He understood why their superior would show up late at such an important meeting. He saw the others nodding as well in the corner of his eyes, since they surprisingly understood too. "How much time until he gets here?"

The girl seemed to think about that for a moment. "Well, it's hard to tell... I guess he'll be here anytime -", she was interrupted by the sound of hooves landing on the streets. The girl grinned. "Now", she finished.

Harthfield looked at the figures behind her and what he saw shocked him. In the middle of the streets stood a pitched black stallion, but that wasn't what surprised the minister. There were black eagle-like wings on each side of the horse. That's when he realised this was a pegasus.

A boy around 18 or 19 years of age jumped off the pegasus' back and whispered something in its ear. As if knowing what the boy said, the pegasus seemed to nod and flew away.

Now, Walter could take a better look at the boy, who was already walking toward them. He had messy raven black hair that was surprisingly long and behind his right ear was a black-green pen. His sea green eyes held a mixture of authority and sadness, which made Harthfield think that the boy had seen more than anyone of his age should see.

Just like the other demigods, he wore a Greek armor and he had a belt strapped around his hips. On that belt was a sheath with a sword inside which, Harthfield realised, was made of steel. Why he didn't have a 'godly' weapon, the minister didn't know. He could see hints of an orange shirt under his armor and the necklace with beads around his neck.

The girl bowed respectfully to the boy and walked back to the rest of the demigods, which made the black haired boy roll his eyes and turn to Harthfield. He gave the minister a small smile and held out his hand. Walter took it and smiled. "Walter Harthfield. Welcome..."

"Percy", he introduced, "Percy Jackson."

Nico panted as exhaustion stuck him. He had clearly used too much of his powers, but it was definitively worth it. Thanks to his skeletons, the Human Forces' numbers were almost reduced to none - for now. It was strange though, it didn't really seem like they really tried. Most of them had just retreated out of the city.

"Nico!", Nico turned and saw Reyna running toward him with her hounds following her. He gave her a ghostly smile and sheathed his Stygian Iron sword. When they had been returning the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood, they had opened up to each other. Eventually, when they had shared each others stories, they had realised how similar their problems were.

Thanks to that, Reyna hadn't reacted to his unrequited love for Percy as Jason did. In fact, she hadn't brought it up after that at all or given him strange looks, which Nico was grateful for. The only reason why they had shared their stories with each other, was because both needed to talk about it.

Nico had planned to just leave everybody behind forever when it was all over, but Reyna had stopped him. Saying he needed to sort out his feelings, like she did, and come back with his head up high, like a true Roman. He rolled his eyes at the memory, but he had still followed her advise.

In the first year of the war - when things weren't as desperate as it was now - he had only been in the Underworld. Since his father, Persephone, Demeter and all the other gods in the Underworld had disappeared, he had been given his father's task. The joy. But because of that, the dead's loyalty to him had become even greater than at first. With some proper training, he had improved immensely.

But not only that. During is time in the Underworld, he had talked with people in the Fields of Asphodel who had had rather interesting love-stories. To make a long story short, he had realised that self-pity wouldn't get him anywhere. So, he had let go of his feelings and returned to Camp Jupiter to check on Hazel, only to see the camp and New Rome in ashes.

Saying he was worried would be the understatement of the year. Knowing that his half-sister wasn't dead - he would've felt it if she were - he had shadow-traveled to Camp Half-Blood. There, they had explained him what had happened the last year and had wanted him to help in the war against the mortals and the monsters. Hades, Percy had even tried to make him their leader, but Nico hadn't wanted that.

After meeting with Hazel and thanking Reyna, he had returned to the Underworld to train some more and make sure that the demigods who had died were given a proper judgment in the Underworld. Sometimes, he had even helped the others in the war. With his head up high.

"Reyna", he nodded when Reyna had reached him. "Is there something wrong?"

She shook her head and gave him one of her rare smiles. "I just wanted to thank you for your help. The battle is over, now."

Nico nodded and made his skeletons disappear after thanking them mentally. Sweat covered his forehead, but he was already used to the exhaustion using his powers gave him. He figured he would have just enough power to shadow-travel two times, before collapsing. "You're welcome, but I guess I'll be going then."

Reyna nodded and opened her mouth to say something. But before she could talk, the ground shook. Nico could grab her and push her in the shadows just in time, before the fire of the explosion reached them and devoured anything in its path.

[A/N]: Here's chapter 5! I hope you liked the cliffy :P I'm sorry about the late update, but I did say I would be updating this once a week ;P Though, I've published a new story (check my profile for that ;)) and hadn't much inspiration for this story. BUT this weekend I had and this is the result ;P

So, some background about Nico and the arrival of the demigods! I hope it met your expectations ;) Oh! Oh! Oh! 3000 views :D Love you guys :)

To Diana B: ;P Hey Di :D I'm glad you liked it and I hope that when you wake up, this chapter will make you happy too ;). I look forward to talking with you again ;).

To The Goddamn Dark Knight (and Percabeth Jackson-Chase): You're both asking the right question :D But I won't spoil it to you, since it's one of the main mysteries of this story :)

To awesomeness: Do you think Oceanus was a good choice? I hope it was ;) To be honest, I've never really thought about why they haven't dropped a nuclear bomb... But let's just say I have ;P Well, there will always be people who will vote against it. The radiation that a nuclear bomb would leave behind would kill a lot of humans and make the area unlivable. ;)

To remember-remember: Thank youuu ;D I hope you liked this chapter ;)

'Till next time ^^

Xx Anny