Again, Merry Christmas Eve, and here's your chapter.

11/

Annabeth's POV

"Everyone remember the plan?" I asked.

"Like we could forget," Will Solace scoffed. "We're not that dumb, Chase."

I smiled. My armor clinked as I followed Will out of the tent. "Take your positions!" I shouted.

Will, Shawn Spencer, Madyson Montague, and Maggie Collins went to take their places; one archer on each hill. Everyone else crouched below one of the hills, murmuring to each other. I made a quick head-count. Eighteen. I could use a dozen more of them, but they would have to do.

"Scared?"

"No," I kept my face composed when I answered my brother Malcolm. I moved ahead, pulling my hat out of my pocket. I thought I heard him say something like, "Only a fool goes into battle fearless", but Malcolm wasn't stupid enough to give me my own advice. I ignored him.

"Remember!" I called. "If anyone falls, pull them back behind the lines as best you can! Can't help them if you get wounded too!"

Hayden Marsh came scampering down one of the hills, changing quickly from the shape of an empousa to herself. "They're getting ready," she announced breathlessly. "I barely got out of there."

In case you didn't know, Hayden's mother is Leto, goddess of disguises. That means Hayden can take on whatever appearance she wants at will. I nodded at her. "Good work." She saluted me, then ran off.

"Aaron, Hermione, go," I ordered.

At my command, Aaron, son of Boreas, and Hermione, daughter of Herse [A/N: The goddess of dew/mist], stepped forward and raised their hands. Quickly a heavy mist spread over the camp, making almost impossible to see, and hail the size of tennis balls fell from the clouds Thalia'd already created. We ignored the pings and gongs as they bounced off our armor.

"Marpessa."

The daughter of Persephone waved her hand. Bushes, thorns, vines, every kind of hostile plant you could imagine spread over the terrain, providing good defense and cover.

"Annabeth."

I barely glanced. "What, Nico?"

Nico looked tired, but he took a bite of ambrosia and seemed fine. "Just checking on you. Percy asked me to."

My stomach did a backflip at his name. "I don't need checking on," I snapped.

Nico just looked at me, making me feel guilty suddenly. "Okay," was all he said before shadow-traveling away.

Malcolm studied me. "Something's up with you."

"No," I said shortly. I marched to the line, pulling my knife. I turned to my team: Jake, Leena, Eric, Owen, Malcolm, Hayden, Phoebe, Eddie, Parker, Marpessa, Gus, Diana, Kayla, Jamie, Aaron, Buzz. I raised my voice. "Remember who we're doing this for. Remember who we're fighting against. And maybe we can win this."

I put my hat on my head. "Let's go."

Our plan was simple: wait till Damien and Megan's army was unsuspecting, sneak into their camp, kill as many monsters as we can, and hopefully burn down the whole camp. Hopefully.

It was easy to crawl through the rugged field Marpessa had provided; the bushes and thorny plants moved out of our way silently and slowly. It helped that I was invisible.

I took down the first empousa I saw, followed by a dracaena, then a hellhound. They all exploded into either shadow or dust. A bird cooing behind me; Malcolm's signal to take off my hat.

Of course, it would've been better had I been invisible. But when no one can see you, neither can your teammates. They had to be able to see me or this wouldn't work.

All of us were dressed in camouflage to match the terrain—and the dark. A flash of black appeared next to me as I crept up to the command tent; Eddie Carlyle, son of Hermes, with his flying sneakers.

"Ready?" he whispered under his breath. He held up a lighter.

I shook my head. "Postpone." He looked puzzled, but he turned and made a loud clicking noise. "Wait for me here," I murmured. "I'm going to poke around."

"You have two minutes, then I'm burning this thing to the ground."

I nodded, slipped on my hat, and ducked inside. I found it empty. The floor was strewn with a combination of papers, pillows, and what looked like the pieces of a chair. I didn't have much time. I went over to the desk in the center of the room and started digging through the papers.

Yes! Attack plans, battle maps, tasks for the Order, messages from and to Hecate, exactly what we needed. I did an invisible fist pump.

"Hey, hurry up in there," Eddie's voice snapped at me from outside. "I'm lighting it up in here in three seconds."

I agreed silently; I grabbed as many papers as possible and ran out the door, hissing, "Now!"

Eddie flicked open the lighter, grinning in that son-of-Hermes way. Pretty soon flames were eating away at the command tent. Eddie whooped.

I sliced through a couple of empousai. "We have to move!"

"YOU!"

I whirled around, my hat falling off my head, just in time to block Damien Morneau's sword from cutting me in half with a wild, pure instinctive, slice.

He snarled down on me. "You little bitch. I should've killed you when I had the chance."

"Go to Tartarus, Damien," I snapped. He only smirked. Our blades clashed. I heard a scream somewhere as the Order's camp caught up in flames, starting with the command tent. That only seemed to make him angrier. His strikes got fiercer, harsher, more precise. It made me scared…but not just for me.

Even without looking I knew he was using his Phobos-inherited powers through his eyes. If I looked into the glowing red eyes, I knew I would be sucked into whatever nightmare he imagined for me.

My hands shook as the pressure on my knife increased. I forced myself to focus on anything but his eyes. His nose? Flared with fury. Forehead? Wrinkled with concentration. Teeth? Bared.

He growled suddenly, shoving against my knife so hard I skidded back; I could feel the heels of my Vans scraping against the sand. So much for keeping those.

Eddie and Malcolm ran over, swords ready, to help me, but I shot them my signature Athena-kid glare. "No!" I yelled. "He's mine."

Damien's mouth curled into a disgusting sneer. "Bring it on, bird."

"Shut up and fight me, you British bastard."

I don't know how long I fought Damien off. I got plenty of wounds: a gash on my shoulder, a cut on my cheek, a pretty bad rib fracture from his knee in my chest. I got in some pretty good licks too, but I was losing.

The thought drove me harder; no daughter of Athena can afford to lose. Not when she can do something about it. Of course, that was only a thought.

Only when Damien broke that fractured rib did I fall, and NOT willingly. I would've gotten back up, but his foot on my back shoved my face into the mud.

The air was thinning; somehow the fires were still burning. My team was fanning it, killing any dracaenae, empousai, etc. before any of them could put out the flames. Eddie and Malcolm were nowhere to be seen. I wished I'd let them help me.

The literal pressure on me was too much. I was getting scared that it would actually break my spine or something.

"DAMIEN!" I recognized the voice of Megan Morgan from a tent away, fighting off Aaron, Marpessa, and Parker at the same time. "We have to MOVE! We're going down!"

"Almost finished, here, love!" How did he keep that slimy British voice on him?

Anger surged through me, increased tenfold by the company of adrenaline. My life was starting to suck. First I get pregnant (I still get nauseous when I think about that), then I break my boyfriend's heart, doing so to my own in the process, and now this evil, slimy, British, DISGUSTING son of a f***ing BITCH was going to kill me. I am not doing this anymore. No. F***ing. Way.

I shoved my knife clean through his calf, somehow ignoring the sharp pain in my chest as I jumped up, and punched him in the face as hard as I possibly could, even harder than when I broke Connor Stoll's nose a couple years back.

I felt something crack; two things. My hand, check. Damien's face? Hopefully check. I could hear someone yelling at me to retreat, we'd done enough, we were going to screw it all up if we stayed any longer, but my fist connecting with Damien's face felt so good I went one better: I grabbed the nearest object and stabbed him in the chest with it.

"Annabeth, LET'S GO!" It took me a second to register Eddie's voice. Then a pair of arms circled around me and jerked me into the air. I yelled.

"What?" he was flying me back toward the lines. "No thank you?"

The pain got to me then; my seeping cuts, my broken ribs, my fractured-possibly-also-broken hand. My head lolled, my eyelids dropped, and I drifted off into black.

Thalia's POV

I growled. Gods, I wished I was on Annabeth's team. It would be so much easier to work. But nooooo, I got stuck with Clarisse La Poo. Grr.

We butted heads over everything. Who the archers were, where we should charge, should we burn down the camp, or just kill everyone there, should we save our strength or go at it like a crazed bull, what should we have for lunch? It was enough to drive anyone insane. Lucky I'm superior intellectually. I think.

Katie Gardner tugged on my arm; something surprising, 'cause she'd never had the guts to talk to me before. Still, she shrunk as Clarisse and I both rounded on her.

"Thalia, Clarisse, stop," she insisted. "We need to focus. Nico's just dropped by; the other raids have already started."

"As much as it hurts to say it," Clarisse growled, "Demeter kid's right."

I eyed her, but I silently agreed. "Fine."

After lots more arguing, dodging spears, burning eyebrows, and accidentally knocking Katie Gardner unconscious (earning us a promising glare from Travis Stoll), we finally came up with a plan: take no prisoners.

I'm not one for killing—I mean, only with monsters, and that doesn't even count as killing. But the Order had already murdered Laura and Rebecca in cold blood. Right in front of me. And who knows who else they're killing now? They weren't going to get away with this.

I stood next to my tree. Peleus sat there, ever alert, his eyes flicking everywhere at once, steam blowing out his nose like a warning. Our eyes met. Suddenly I knew he was thinking firmly: he would guard my tree even if it meant him dying. He promised.

I stared down into his eyes very seriously. "Keep that promise." From the look in the yellow orbs, he agreed with me.

I had to do one last thing before Clarisse made the charge. I placed my hand on my tree, feeling a surge of energy as my palm connected with the bark. I breathed in, with my eyes closed, like I could inhale more of the delicious power.

"You better get your butt over to HTV and watch this battle, Dad," I muttered. Then I joined my team for battle.

Clarisse stood on one of the hills, decked out in armor, holding her spear high. She let out something like a war cry, then charged down into the Order camp, which raised arms to mutilate her. The cavalry followed after her. The shouts and clangs of the sudden battle sounded impressive in the early morning, but I knew we would have to work hard to even stand a chance.

I hovered near my tree, my spear extending from my Mace can and Aegis spiraling from my bracelet. I thrust my spear in the air, enjoying the thunder almost too much. Lightning struck. I felt more of that adrenaline-like power surging through me. I felt supreme.

I fried a Laistrygonian giant to a crisp on the spot, the familiar crackling smell of ozone sharpening my senses even more. I must've looked pretty amazing or something, because someone in the battle yelled, "GO THALIA!" Connor, maybe Travis.

I rammed into the fight.

Looking back, I can't remember exactly what I did. All I can remember is being shocked at myself. I mean, I know I'm awesome (everyone does—or SHOULD), but this was different.

Empousai lost their freaky legs. Dracaenae heads rolled. Hellhounds melted into shadow.

Everything I saw was pretty much a blur. If I got wounded at all, I didn't notice. I was so focused my brain eventually went into autopilot. Slash, dodge, flip, duck, stab, it went on and on, almost like a dance.

I was vaguely aware of my teammates around me, fighting (basically) for their lives. I might've saved a few people.

Next thing I knew, I found myself back-to-back with Clarisse, her yelling in my ear bringing me back to earth: "Grace! She's getting too strong! GO!"

Without thinking I ducked past her, destroyed a few more monsters, and tackled the evil magical bitch turning people into dogs.

I shocked her so hard she had a momentary seizure. But somehow that didn't stop her. Her eyes—even the whites—were completely black when she turned to glare at me. Her hand glowed suddenly, and a beam of energy shot towards me.

It seemed cheesy, like a bad video game, but I threw my hand out at the same time. Lightning erupted from my palm, crashing into the black with an explosion of sound.

Again, it's a blur, but the last thing I remember is flying backwards fifteen feet, crashing into some people behind me, and watching with pleasure as Anastasia did the same.

Alice's POV

Bethany's bird call echoed toward us.

Eleanor's eyes flashed to mine; we both knew that sound. The pitch signaled that the predators were already creeping through the trees. Hunters were trained to send each other signals and messages with complex animal sounds. I myself haven't learned the entire system—yet.

Marie's hunting knife knocking on the tree bark, almost exactly like a woodpecker's beak, told us the intruders were on the west side of the woods. The pitch of the knocking changed; Marie's question. Attack when?

I held my hand up, waiting. The Hunters were poised in the trees, all of us. Bethany, Eleanor, Marie, Spencer, Mina, Lisa, Molly, Tina, Lauren, and so on. Nico di Angelo had shadow-traveled to check on us ten minutes ago. According to him, all the other raids had begun. Only ours was waiting.

Eleanor tapped out a message on my knee: How long? Getting restless.

It took me a few moments to understand the Morse code. But I tapped back slowly: Wait. We need surprise on our side.

The plan could change. The Fates are restless..

I know.

I had my hand raised. I knew the Hunters were jumpy, almost as ADHD as me. They were eager to leap into the fight. They were getting impatient. But, like I said, we needed the element of surprise.

A sudden flash of movement captured my attention: a hiss, the flick of a reptilian tail. My hand dropped.

Miranda's POV

I felt like I was at a million places at once. Too many people were hurt. I had Annabeth Chase with multiple broken bones, Thalia Grace covered in cuts, Shawn Spencer with an arrow through his shoulder, a non-English-speaking Hunter with a chunk of leg cut out of her, and Jake Mason with blunt head trauma. And that wasn't even half of it.

I picked up the Hunter's chart. "Brandi, how are you feeling?"

"Laat me hier uit! Ik moet weer terug naar de strijd!"

"Uh-huh. Mark, go take care of her."

"Take Shawn," Mark said as we switched places.

"He stabilized?"

"Yeah."

"Crap," I groaned. "Means he's awake."

I went over to my brother. His blonde hair was a mess. His hands were tied down to his bed; he was still struggling to get up. His shoulder was patched up around the arrow. "Took ya so long?" he groaned. "Take this godsdamn thing outta my gamimeno shoulder!"

"Language, lil bro!" I scolded, smacking the back of his head.

"OW! Somebody call the cops! Assault!"

I laughed. "Stop complaining!"

"Only if you stop—not—getting this thing out!" Shawn glared at me, eyeing my hand as I stuck a needle in his IV. "Randy, don't you dare put…" He blinked slowly. "…put me…under."

I ruffled his hair. "Don't move, bro."

"F***…you…Sis…" He dropped off.

"Hey, Miranda! Come fix me!" I groaned. Thalia was awake.

She eyed me as I ran over. "What's goin' on?"

"Nothing much," I grinned. "Except now I have to save you."

"Shut up," she growled. "I'm not dying."

"Not yet," I clarified. "What's up?"

"This," she grimaced, pulling away the gauze on her stomach.

"Okay!" I pressed the gauze back, mopping up the wave of blood with the sheets. "I'll stitch that for you—"

"Miranda! Miranda!" The door banged open, and a crowd of people crashed into the infirmary, with seven-year-old Ashley Richmond on a gurney and my sister Hannah performing CPR.

"Casey, take Thalia!" I yelled. "What do we got?"

Hannah blew her hair out of her face. "Pulse is jumpy, 120 at a tweaked rate, BP of 90 over 55, GCF 12, shattered radius, fractured tib-fib, possible bruised spinal cord, infection of venom—"

"—kind?"

"Hydra—"

"—okay, grab the saline from the back, ice it, Boone, drop an NP line. Move, move, move!" I shoved Hannah out of the way, jumped on the gurney, and took over CPR. "Stay with us, Ash," I muttered.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Annabeth Chase was awake, trying to get to us, but Nico di Angelo was holding her back. Thank you.

"I don't know," I murmured. "She's got multiple traumas—"

Boone appeared. "Miranda, I got it—"

"Good," I snatched the bag of saline. "Ashley, your spinal cord's been bruised. I'm gonna have to put you in hypothermia to stop the swelling."

Ashley's gray eyes stared up at me in confusion. "Hypothermia," she muttered, blinking hard while I jabbed an IV into the crook of her arm. "Medical journal, July 25—Damn, that's COLD!" she yelled.

"Sorry," I said. "It's gonna get worse before it gets better. Just tell me if you start getting sleepy."

"Miranda, don't let her die!" Annabeth shouted, still trying to reach me. Nico literally picked her up and threw her back down on her bed. I held in a laugh.

"She's not going anywhere on my watch!" I yelled. Ashley started crying. "I know, I know," I said through my teeth. "I'm sorry." Her head whipped around for no reason. I grabbed her hand to get her to stop. "Hey, I'm literally running ice water through your veins, okay? Try not to move so much."

"Miranda! Brandi!"

I turned. "BOONE! Take over!" I let my brother take my place and ran over to Brandi the Hunter, having a serious seizure. "Hannah, grab some restraints!" Brandi's eyes were going through what looked like REM. I shone a flashlight on them, frowned, and prodded her stomach.

"What is it?" Joe grunted, shooting Brandi a glare as she punched him in the face.

"Hot belly," I breathed. "Joe, go prep an ER. Now."

He looked at me in surprise. "Randy, we don't have an ER."

"Go make one!"

He ran off, yelling, "Tracey! Glenn!"

"Hang in there, Brandi," I said under my breath.

A hand clenched my arm suddenly. "What?" I snapped.

"Where's Thalia?"

"Nico, this is not the time!"

"Seriously, Miranda!"

I pointed furiously at Thalia's bed. "Now get out of my way!" He vanished. "Gods!" I swore. "Joe! Scalpel! I'm doing it now!"

I caught the scalpel my brother threw. "Sorry, Brandi." I made an incision in the left side of her belly, ignoring her shout of pain. "Whoa! Suction!" Blood flooded the surgical field. Joe stuck in the tube.

"Okay," I swiped my hand across my forehead. "Where's all this bleeding coming from?"

"Appendix?" Joe suggested.

"Can't be," I muttered. "Spleen?"

"No, the bleeding's localized…" Joe trailed off. Brandi's monitor beeped rapidly; the warning siren started wailing at me to hurry up. I rushed to stop the bleeding. I pulled aside her appendix and—

"Crap," I growled. "Torn vena cava."

"Crap," Joe echoed. "Stitch her up?"

"Gonna have to," I said. I blinked. "Okay, let's do this." I closed my eyes and wiped my forehead.

"Clamp."

There you are. Annabeth's attack was successful (of course, no one expected anything less from a daughter of Athena), but painful, Thalia's was definitely awesome, and so on. The bit on Miranda Bowman was pretty random, and slightly pointless, except I just wanted you guys to see the damage that's really happening during this, because, I don't know about you, but it's usually difficult to assess.

You can count on two more chapters tomorrow (as a present from me), so all you have to do is be patient. Right?