OMG. I know. I'm still alive. Who would've thought. Again, no excuses, I'm just a lazy douchebag lol. However, I've progressed a lot on my book, and so want to try (TRY) and pick up some pace with my fanfic as well. I'm going to aim at a chapter every 4-ish days, but with less 'Ctrl V & C'ing Riordan and more of Fayden POV. So I'll take longer to write each chapter.
Again, none of this will happen, and after this you won't see me again till June lol.
Apologies for any continuity errors cause at this point I can't even remember what I had planned. XD.
Fayden's POV
Fayden was absolutely, soul-crushingly knackered. He wanted nothing more than to curl up and go to sleep. As he walked, his feet felt like lead weights, pressing against the pine needles scattered across the dry grass that stretched for miles and miles. Firs, dead straight and uniform in colour dotted the landscape. His head lolled as his mind went autopilot – left, right, left, right, left, right.
He tripped over something, almost faceplanting straight into the dirt. His hands caught him just in time. Soft hands wrapped around his waist.
"Hey, hey, Fay. You okay?"
Thalia brushed her matted her away from her face. The landscape was hot and humid, and everyone was covered in sweat. Fayden was luckily blessed with shorter hair than the others.
He nodded, brushing his knees as he got to his feet. Glancing ahead, Aurelia and Artemis had crested a hill just ahead of them. Aurelia kept flickering nervously, disappearing and reappearing like a real life glitch. Artemis was walking at a sharp, purposeful pace, flicking her fingers. Different hues of fire kept erupting into her hand. By her waist, were two daggers. She had finally agreed to take Thalia's daggers – Fayden had protested, as it left Thalia with only a bow, but Thalia didn't care.
"It's okay, Thals. Just tired."
"Do you want more ambrosia?" she asked, reaching for her pack.
"No, no…it's fine."
The last thing he wanted was to waste their medical lifeline when nothing was really wrong with him. Thalia, however, wasn't having any of it. Before he could have another step, two squares had been shoved into his mouth.
"Thghia!" he muffled.
"Chew, and swallow," she ordered.
Taking a deep breath, he chewed on the squares. They melted in his mouth, and he couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh. His fingers burned slightly, and his head rushed. Wobbling, Thalia grabbed his side.
"Maybe it was a little much," she muttered, embarrassed.
"It was the rest of it, Thals."
"The others will have more. We need you to be fighting fit."
He saw no point arguing. The energy flowing through his veins like molten gold didn't help his argument. The power he felt was almost addictive. He continued on his melodic march, much faster than before, focusing on the crunch the pine needles made under his boots. They made steady progress, and after another five minutes, another black flash of lightning showed them where to go. The shadow of the Argo II was getting closer, but it appeared to have finally docked in the air.
"Hey, guys? Look!" Aurelia yelled. "Is that your friends?"
Looking at where she was pointing, which was difficult, as her finger kept vanishing, Fayden saw a wavy black line drop from the ship. A rope ladder – sure enough, a figure suddenly appeared at the top, turning to descend. Everyone quickened their pace, and Fayden saw a few more figures descend Another flash of lightning shot from the ground, spiking off into the sky. It rocked the boat, causing a small intake of breath, but nothing else seemed to happen.
He heard Artemis gasp, but before he could ask, a cold tremor shot through him. It emanated death and cold darkness. The blood seemed to rush from his face as he shuddered. Hade's temple. They were here.
Fayden found the tourists amusing. Of course there were mortals clambering over the walls of Hades' temple, completely oblivious to the death lightning or the primordial goddess' slowly forming monster army beneath their feet. A small group were also sitting on a fishing boat in the middle of the river running beside the ruins. He almost laughed.
"Hey! Piper!"
He called out just as Thalia yelled, "Jason!"
The group of demigods turned, their faces going blank with shock. Fayden watched as the process with amusement: shock, disbelief, back to shock, slow realization, joy.
"Holy crap!"
Piper yelled, catching glances from the people around her. Ignoring them, she rushed over, immediately
hugging Fayden. He laughed as her arms gripped in a death vice. Jason came jogging behind her, embracing his sister.
Behind, slightly lagging behind were Leo, Hazel and Frank. Leo grinned at Fayden,
"Couldn't stay away, could you?"
Fayden smirked in return. "Yeah, I missed the mortal danger."
Artemis, and even more so, Aurelia, stood around looking awkward, but Hazel walked over.
"Hi. We didn't get the chance to…" she frowned. "Your head just vanished."
Sure enough, Aurelia's entire head had just disappeared, leaving her body standing there with a tense, shy posture.
"Sorry," the disembodied voice said. "Hang on…"
Her head reappeared. "I can't control my powers when I'm nervous, sorry…"
Hazel smiled, "I know the feeling."
Piper approached, "Hey, it's fine. Everyone gets nervous. You just need to focus. Slow your breathing… calm… down."
Fayden felt the magic even from here – Piper was getting truly powerful. Aurelia visibly exhaled, her entire body coming into view. She closed her eyes, took another breath, and nodded. Catching Piper's eye, Fayden gave a nod of appreciation.
"Guys, we really need to go."
Nico interrupted them all, strolling through, carrying a…sceptre? Nico was holding a wooden staff with a small orb lodged at the top, glowing a faint purple light. Fayden so desperately wanted to ask, but Nico was right. They needed to hurry.
The group descended into the ruins, everyone drawing their weapons. They reached a stone doorway that led straight into the side of the hill the ruins sat upon. The black lightning seemed to be originating directly above them.
Nico faced the group. "From here, it gets tough."
"Sweet," Leo said. "Cause so far, I've totally been pulling my punches."
Nico glared at him. "We'll see how long you keep your sense of humour. Remember, this is where pilgrims came to commune with dead ancestors. Underground, you may see things that are hard to look at, or hear voices trying to lead you astray in the tunnels. Frank, do you have the barley cakes?"
"What?" appeared lost in thought.
"What cakes?" Thalia asked.
Hazel paused as she reached into her jacket. "Oh crap. Do we have enough?"
Nico nodded. "You don't need the whole thing. The barley should protect you."
"From what?" Fayden asked, accepting half of what was a very dry cracker. A 'cake' this thing was not.
"The poison."
"Oh great. There's poison."
Nevertheless, he chewed on it. It tasted like sawdust.
"Yum," Piper said. Even a daughter of Aphrodite couldn't avoid making a face.
"So, when is this poison?" Aurelia asked.
"Soon enough," Nico promised. "Just stick close together, and maybe we can avoid getting lost or going insane."
On that happy note, Nico led them underground.
Frank's POV
The tunnel spiralled gently downwards; the ceiling supported by white stone arches that reminded Frank of a whale's rib cage. As they walked, Hazel ran her hands along the masonry.
"This wasn't part of a temple," she whispered. "This was… the basement for a manor house, built in later Greek times."
Frank found it eerie how Hazel could tell so much about an underground place just by being there. He'd never known her to be mistaken.
"A manor house?" he asked. "Please don't tell me we're in the wrong place."
"The House of Hades is below us," Nico assured him. "But Hazel's right, these upper levels are much newer. When the archaeologists first excavated this site, they thought they'd found the Necromanteion. Then they realized the ruins were too recent, so they decided it was the wrong spot. They were right the first time. They just didn't dig deep enough."
They turned a corner and stopped. In front of them, the tunnel ended in a huge block of stone.
"A cave-in?" Jason asked.
"A test," Nico said. "Hazel, would you do the honours?"
Hazel stepped forward. She placed her hand on the rock, and the entire boulder crumbled to dust. The tunnel shuddered. Cracks spread across the ceiling. For a terrifying moment, Frank imagined they'd all be crushed under tons of earth – a disappointing way to die, after all they'd been through.
Then the rumbling stopped. The dust settled.
A set of stairs curved deeper into the earth, the barrelled ceiling held up by more repeating arches, closer together and carved from polished black stone. The descending arches made Frank feel dizzy, as if he were looking into an endlessly reflecting mirror. The only sources of light so far was Nico's sceptre, and Diana – Artemis, who was mortal, with flaming hands. Frank still couldn't properly wrap his head around the fact that a goddess was in their presence, and she was a mortal. He didn't even want to know how she had the fire. Under the flickering light, painted on the walls, were crude pictures of black cattle marching downwards.
"I really don't like cows," Piper muttered.
"Agreed," Frank said.
"Those are the cattle of Hades," Nico said. "It's just a symbol of –"
"Hey!" Leo suddenly exclaimed.
He was staring at Artemis. "How come you have fire powers? I'm the one with fire powers!"
Artemis glared at him, but Leo looked crestfallen, as if he was jealous that his fire couldn't be different colours.
"Leo," Piper muttered. "Shut up."
Leo muttered something about, fair, my powers, but Fayden suddenly pointed ahead of them.
"Is that the poison?"
On the first step of the stairwell, a golden chalice gleamed. Frank was pretty sure it hadn't been there a moment before. The cup was full of dark-green liquid.
"Hooray," Thalia said half-heartedly. "We get to drink that."
Nico picked up the chalice. "We're standing at the ancient entrance of the Necromanteion. Odysseus came here, and dozens of other heroes, seeking advice from the dead."
"Did the dead advise them to leave immediately, like sensible little living humans?" Aurelia asked.
"I would be fine with that," Piper muttered.
Nico drank from the chalice, then offered it to Jason. "You asked me about trust, and taking a risk? Well, here you go, son of Jupiter. How much do you trust me?"
Frank wasn't sure what Nico was talking about, but Jason didn't hesitate. He took the cup and drank.
They passed it around, each taking a sip of poison. As he waited his turn, Frank tried to keep his legs from shaking and his gut from churning. He wondered what his grandmother would say if she could see him. Stupid, Fai Zhang! she would probably scold. If all your friends were drinking poison, would you do it too?
"Oh, that is disgusting," Fayden coughed slightly.
Frank went last. The taste of the green liquid reminded him of spoiled apple juice. It tasted very different. He drained the chalice. It turned to smoke in his hands.
Nico nodded, apparently satisfied. "Congratulations. Assuming the poison doesn't kill us, we should be able to find our way through the Necromanteion's first level."
"Just the first level?" Piper asked.
Nico turned to Hazel and gestured at the stairs. "After you, sister."
Artemis' POV
Artemis did not like following a demigod into Hades' temple. Not that she had a problem with her uncle, although come to think of it, he was a bit of prick, but her true discomfort came from her lack of memory. She should know exactly what to do, how to get to the Doors of Death, then kill everything down there.
Instead, she hadn't said a word in hours, was following a girl no older than 16, and kept worrying that if she continued to burn her Greek fire for light, she wouldn't have the strength to do anything later.
And she was definitely lost. The stairs kept splitting into multiple staircases, each of which, the daughter of Pluto easily chose the way to go, descending lower and lower into the temple. She hated being lost. As she walked, she looked around in morbid curiosity. Despite her infinite life, she had never actually been in her uncle's temple. Why would she – she is…was the patron of wild places. A cramped, damp crypt was not exactly her favourite location.
The wall was lined with niches, where bodies had undoubtedly lay. They distinct emptiness didn't help her nerves.
Nerves. That was another thing she couldn't stand. She never understood the mortal phrase, 'Butterflies in my stomach'. It was the most perfectly apt description in existence and she hated it. Who would create a human body, put it in a lot of danger, and have its reaction to said danger be the feeling of imminent vomiting. How does that help?!
The ceiling and archways they walked underneath had more pictures and mosaics. Black cows, white poplar trees, screech owls. Symbols of her uncle.
Great. She could remember that the poplar was a godly symbol of Hades, but not anything important, like, how to become a goddess, or how to understand a prophecy.
"I thought the owl was Minerva's symbol?"
The boy son of Jupiter, Jason, spoke.
"The screech owl is one of Hades' sacred animals," the son of Hades replied. "Its cry is a bad omen."
"This way," Hazel told them. "It's the only one that won't collapse on us."
"Good choice then," the son of Hephaestus seemed to like joking. He reminded her of Fayden quite a bit, but, although she hated to admit it, there were stark differences.
As they went down another slope, Artemis' eyes fell on the aforementioned demi-titan. He wasn't wearing any armour, which, as she looked around was odd. The others had at most a breastplate – the son of Jupiter wore a simple outfit, but Hazel had an almost complete roman centurion set of armour on.
Fayden's glittering katana hung by his side, his knuckles white around its handle. It was the only hint of fear on his body. His face was the picture of calm, accept the exhaustion of propelling the boat here was clearly showing, and his eyes darted everywhere, never once staying still for longer than a few seconds. She was still firm in her belief that he was an ass, but his care for everyone around him was so strong. She had never seen someone care as much as he did for Thalia, except perhaps for the son of Poseidon and Annabeth.
He would die to protect any of them, she realised. Even Frank and Hazel, who he barely knew, or Aurelia, who he met days ago. Their eyes accidently met, and he gave a small smile. Maybe it was the temple, maybe it was her, but she couldn't muster a glare.
He would die for her; despite everything she'd done or called him. He never once called on their bond, leaving her completely free to sling insults and punches at him.
Her hand clutched tightly around the grip of Thalia's dagger. The familiar grip of a hunter's dagger comforted her slightly, the other hanging losing at her side.
They had reached an archway, with the shapes of human skulls carved into the top. In the flickering light of her hand, they appear to move and grimace.
Ahead of her, Hazel told them, "This is the entrance to the second level. I'd better take a look."
Artemis watched as she traced her fingers across the carved skulls.
"No traps on the doorway, but… something is strange here. My underground sense is – is fuzzy, like someone is working against me, hiding what's ahead of us."
"The sorceress that Hecate warned you about?' the son of Jupiter guessed. 'The one Leo saw in his dream? What was her name?"
Hazel chewed her lip. "It would be safer not to say her name. But stay alert. One thing I'm sure of: from this point on, the dead are stronger than the living."
As she said it, the whispering around Artemis seemed to grow louder. She flared her hand, the flickering green flame burning aggressively on her palm. The son of Hephaestus had also created a flame.
"Where are the monsters?" Fayden wondered aloud. "I thought Gaia had an army guarding the Doors."
"Don't know," Piper replied. Her skin looked as green as the poison from the chalice. Artemis wondered if it was the light or something else. "At this point I'd almost prefer a straight-up fight."
'Please don't say that," Thalia grimaced, glancing over her shoulder.
"Personally, I'm hoping nobody's home," the son of Hephaestus said. "We walk in, find Percy and Annabeth, destroy the Doors of Death and walk out. Maybe stop at the gift shop."
"Yeah," she mocked. "That'll happen."
The tunnel shook. Rubble rained down from the ceiling. Artemis noticed Thalia and Fayden grasp each other. Actually, only the son of Hephaestus hadn't suddenly sought the comfort of someone else. She found that thought rather amusing, then sad. She shook her head. He was a male, and an annoying one. No wonder he's alone.
So are you.
Artemis grimaced. Hers was by choice. But she couldn't help but suddenly miss the comfort of the people she loved – Zoe, Phoebe, her irritating brother.
She shook her head. Wow. The magic of this place had her missing Apollo. She needed to focus.
"The Doors of Death just opened again," the son of Hades said.
"It's happening like every fifteen minutes," Piper noted.
"Every twelve," he corrected, though he didn't explain how he knew. "We'd better hurry. Percy and Annabeth are close. They're in danger. I can sense it."
Fayden's POV
The corridors were finally widening. The ceiling was approaching, five or six metres, decorated with more elaborate paintings – cows, dead branches, the screech owls. Fayden wished Hades could stop decorating his home with bad omens. What would be the downside to a room filled with images of golden apples and magical butterflies?
Something about the tunnels scared Fayden more than he would let on. He was walking closer and closer to Tartarus. Something bad was rapidly approaching, so close it cackled in his ear. But he marched on. Annabeth and Percy needed saving.
A thought popped into his head. His dad had been down here. In agonizing pain, trapped at the bottom of this pit into hell for thousands of years. He almost felt bad, but his chest twinged in memory, and he pushed the thought aside. But he couldn't help but think of Annabeth and Percy. Kronos had managed it sure, how could they? Last he knew, they were alive, but in Tartarus? They could've been ambushed by an army of monsters the second he woke from his dream. He walked side by side with Thalia, his free hand clutching hers. Neither spoke, but every so often, they exchanged a small smile, or glance, as if to reassure each other that they were fine. It wasn't helping. All Fayden was thinking of was that deep, horribly evil force reverberating through his mind: I WELCOME YOU, SON OF KRONOS. I WELCOME YOU.
Every bone in his body told him to explode in a golden light, and zoom straight back out the way they'd come. But he kept walking.
His feet clinked against something. Looking down, he saw a silver coin dart of, pinging of the tip of his shoe. Glancing around, shards of pottery and more coins were littering the floor.
"Offerings?" Piper asked?
"Yes," Nico said. "If you wanted your ancestors to appear, you had to make an offering."
"Let's not make an offering," Jason suggested.
"No complaints here," Fayden muttered.
He bumped into something. Springing back, he brought his sword up, but it was Frank. He'd stopped moving.
"You okay?"
Frank didn't answer.
"Frank?" Jason whispered. "Hazel, hold up a second. Frank, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Frank murmured. "I just…"
Frank suddenly froze. Fayden wasn't sure if it was a trick of the light, but he swore Frank's face had just gone really dark, shrouded in shadow. For a split second a rush of wind covered the roman demigod, then it passed.
"Frank, don't move." Hazel sounded alarmed.
Fayden looked down, and saw that Frank had almost stepped onto what was clearly a very rotten piece of wood.
"Lead where?" Frank ignored Hazel, talking into the gloom.
"Uh, big guy?" Leo said. "Could you not freak out on us? Please and thank you."
As if snapped from a trance, he looked around.
"I'm okay," he managed. "Just… a voice."
Nico nodded. "I did warn you. It'll only get worse. We should…"
Hazel held up her hand for silence. "Wait here, everybody."
A voice. Maybe that's all Fayden was hearing. The House of Hades playing tricks on him. He doubted it.
"Scary room ahead," Hazel warned. "Don't panic."
"Those two things don't go together," Leo murmured.
But they followed Hazel into the cavern. The place was like a circular cathedral, with a ceiling so high it was lost in the gloom. Dozens of other tunnels led off in different directions, each echoing with ghostly voices. The thing that made Fayden grip his sword even tighter, was the floor. It was a gruesome mosaic of bones and gems – human femurs, hip bones and ribs twisted and fused together into a smooth surface, dotted with diamonds and rubies. The bones formed patterns, like skeletal contortionists tumbling together, curling to protect the precious stones – a dance of death and riches.
"Touch nothing," Hazel said.
"Wasn't planning on it," Leo muttered.
Jason scanned the exits. "Which way now?"
For once, Nico looked uncertain. "This should be the room where the priests invoked the most powerful spirits. One of these passages leads deeper into the temple, to the third level and the altar of Hades himself. But which…?"
"That one." Frank had pointed at a doorway at the opposite end of the room.
Fayden glanced around. Nothing seemed different about that one.
Hazel frowned. "Why?"
"You don't see the ghost?" Frank asked.
"Ghost?" Nico asked.
Frank looked sheepish, but suddenly, his eyes grew wide. "We need to get to that exit," he said. 'Now!"
Hazel almost had to tackle him to restrain him. "Wait, Frank! This floor is not stable, and underneath… well, I'm not sure what's underneath. I need to scout a safe path."
"Hurry, then," he urged.
Frank drew his bow and herded Hazel along as fast as he dared. Artemis and Leo kept as close to the middle as possible, keeping their light sources where everyone could see them. Keeping Aurelia and Thalia in front of him, Fayden brought up the rear.
Suddenly, the cavern reverberated with monstrous roars – dozens, maybe hundreds of enemies coming from every direction. Fayden recognized the throaty bellow of the Earthborn, the screech of gryphons, the guttural war cries of Cyclopes. His hand flashed, preparing to freeze anything that charged at them.
"Hazel, don't stop!" Nico ordered, raising his wooden sceptre. Piper and Jason both drew their swords. Thalia readied her bow. Then monsters poured into the room at every angle.
A vanguard of six-armed Earthborn threw a volley of stones that shattered the bone-and-jewel floor like ice. A fissure spread across the centre of the room, coming straight towards Leo and Hazel. Frank dived at them, pushing them towards the doorway he had chosen.
He heard cries of 'Go', but an earthborn and lumbered towards him. It's entire body suddenly froze solid, and with a flash of his katana, it crumbled into mud. Another two immediately made him their target. One got three arrows to the face – the other was engulfed in Greek fire. They both melted.
More and more earthborn piled into the room. Three gryphons flew over them, screeching as they circled. Fayden charged, darting in and out of the many stone arms swinging at him. As he passed an earthborn, it flashed golden, then crumbled into dirt. Four dropped. Five. Suddenly his shoulder exploded with pain. Crying out as he spun, he saw another rock come sailing towards him, but it exploded in a flash of green fire as Artemis twirled away. Her entire arm seemed to be wreathed in the deadly flames, as she was lobbing explosions at the monsters that continued to rush into the cavern. The earthborn attacking him melted, without cause. The air beside it shimmered as its friend died just as suddenly. A dagger materialised out of thin air, aimed with pinpoint accuracy at a gryphon. The bird shrieked and fell. Fayden rushed for the dagger, grabbing it and turning. Aurelia appeared for a second, and caught the thrown dagger, before vanishing again, like the wind.
Pushing himself back into the fight, he saw two Cyclopes had entered the room. The cavern was slowly degrading away, a fifteen-feet chasm now carved into the centre of it. On the other side, Jason, Piper and Nico were surrounded by Hellhounds and more Cyclopes.
He ran forward as Cyclops swung his club. Stopping it in mid-air, Fayden leapt, pushing off the club, then the Cyclops' eye, before diving across the giant rift in the floor. Just making it, he swung his legs, catching an earthborn and sweeping it behind him. It screamed as it fell. He ran into Frank, and they both seemed to have the exact same thought. The chasm had separated them. Artemis, Thalia and Aurelia couldn't reach the tunnel, and even if Jason flew, he couldn't get Piper and Nico there without being shot out of the sky by archers.
"Nico!" Frank called above the chaos. "The sceptre!"
Nico raised the staff, and suddenly the air grew purple. Ghosts seeped out of the walls, clawing from the stone and up from the floor. They were all dressed in roman armour. An entire legion of warrior ghosts. But Fayden could see Nico already starting to sweat.
The ghosts began taking on physical form, like walking corpses, but they seemed confused. Jason yelled in Latin, ordering them to form ranks and attack. The undead just shuffled among the monsters, causing momentary confusion, but that wouldn't last.
Frank turned to Hazel and Leo. "You two keep going."
Hazel's eyes widened. "What? No!"
"You have to. Find the Doors. Save Annabeth and Percy."
"But…" Leo glanced over Frank's shoulder. "Hit the deck!"
Fayden dived for cover as a volley of rocks slammed overhead. When he managed to get up, coughing and covered in dust, the entrance to the tunnel was gone. An entire section of wall had collapsed, leaving a slope of smoking rubble.
"Holy sh…" Fayden cried out as he saw Frank turn to face the monsters, a look of anger he'd never seen before. The son of Mars bellowed and charged the monster army.
Frank's POV
Frank was no expert on ghosts, but the dead legionnaires must have all been demigods, because they were totally ADHD.
They clawed their way out of the pit, then milled about aimlessly, chest-bumping each other for no apparent reason, pushing one another back into the chasm, shooting arrows into the air as if trying to kill flies and occasionally, out of sheer luck, throwing a javelin, a sword or an ally in the direction of the enemy.
Meanwhile, the army of monsters got thicker and angrier. Earthborn threw volleys of stones that ploughed into the zombie legionnaires, crushing them like paper. Female demons with mismatched legs and fiery hair (Frank guessed they were empousai) gnashed their fangs and shouted orders at the other monsters. A dozen Cyclopes advanced on the crumbling bridges, while seal-shaped humanoids – telkhines, like Frank had seen in Atlanta – lobbed vials of Greek fire across the chasm. There were even some wild centaurs in the mix, shooting flaming arrows and trampling their smaller allies under hoof. In fact, most of the enemy seemed to be armed with some kind of fiery weapon. Despite his new fireproof pouch, Frank found that extremely uncool.
He pushed through the crowd of dead Romans, shooting down monsters until his arrows were spent, slowly making his way towards his friends.
A little late, he realized – duh – he should turn into something big and powerful, like a bear or a dragon. As soon as the thought occurred, pain flared in his arm. He stumbled, looked down and was astonished to find an arrow shaft protruding from his left biceps. His sleeve was soaked with blood.
The sight made him dizzy. Mostly it made him angry. He tried to turn into a dragon, with no luck. The pain made it too hard to focus. Maybe he couldn't change shape while wounded. Great, he thought. Now I find that out.
He dropped his bow and picked up a sword from a fallen… well, he actually wasn't sure what it was – some sort of reptilian lady warrior with snake trunks instead of legs. He slashed his way forward, trying to ignore the pain and the blood dripping down his arm.
Beside him, Fayden was a blurred demon. Frank had never seen someone so fast. As he watched, a contingent of seven earthborn barrelled towards Fayden. They froze, held in place by a shimmering golden light. A flash of silver, and all seven collapsed in piles of wet mud. Fayden had moved on, flinging his sword at a gryphon that was flying as if through treacle. With an outstretched hand, Fayden's sword flew back to his hand in time to deflect an arrow from the empousai a few feet away. Fayden darted towards her.
About five metres ahead, Nico was swinging his black sword with one hand, holding the sceptre of Diocletian aloft with the other. He kept shouting orders at the legionnaires, but they paid him no attention. Of course not, Frank thought. He's Greek.
Jason and Piper stood at Nico's back. Jason summoned gusts of wind to blast aside javelins and arrows. He deflected a vial of Greek fire right up the throat of a gryphon, which burst into flames and spiralled into the pit. Piper put her new sword to good use, while spraying food from the cornucopia in her other hand – using hams, chickens, apples and oranges as interceptor missiles. The air above the chasm turned into a fireworks show of flaming projectiles, exploding rocks and fresh produce.
Still, Frank's friends couldn't hold out forever. Jason's face was already beaded with sweat. He kept shouting in Latin: 'Form ranks!' But the dead legionnaires wouldn't listen to him, either. Some of the zombies were helpful just by standing in the way, blocking monsters and taking fire. If they kept getting mowed down, though, there wouldn't be enough of them left to organize.
"Make way!" Frank shouted. To his surprise, the dead legionnaires parted for him. The closest ones turned and stared at him with blank eyes, as if waiting for further orders.
"Oh, great…" Frank mumbled.
In Venice, Mars had warned him that his true test of leadership was coming. Frank's ghostly ancestor had urged him to take charge. But, if these dead Romans wouldn't listen to Jason, why should they listen to him? Because he was a child of Mars, or maybe because… The truth hit him. Jason wasn't quite Roman any more. His time at Camp Half-Blood had changed him. Reyna had recognized that. Apparently, so did the undead legionnaires. If Jason no longer gave off the right sort of vibe or aura of a Roman leader…
Frank made it to his friends as a wave of Cyclopes crashed into them. He lifted his sword to parry a Cyclops's club, then stabbed the monster in the leg, sending him backwards into the pit. Another one charged. Frank managed to impale him, but blood loss was making him weak. His vision blurred. His ears rang.
He was dimly aware of Jason on his left flank, deflecting the incoming missiles with wind; Piper on his right, yelling charmspeak commands – encouraging the monsters to attack each other or take a refreshing jump into the chasm.
"It'll be fun!" she promised.
A few listened, but across the pit the empousai were countering her orders. Apparently, they had charmspeak too. The monsters crowded so thickly around Frank that he could barely use his sword. The stench of their breath and body odour was almost enough to knock him out, even without the arrow throbbing in his arm.
What was Frank supposed to do? He'd had a plan, but his thoughts were getting fuzzy.
"Stupid ghosts!" Nico shouted.
"They won't listen!" Jason agreed.
That was it. Frank had to make the ghosts listen.
He summoned all his strength and yelled, "Cohorts – lock shields!"
The zombies around him stirred. They lined up in front of Frank, putting their shields together in a ragged defensive formation. But they were moving too slowly, like sleepwalkers, and only a few had responded to his voice.
"Frank, how did you do that?" Jason yelled.
Frank's head swam with pain. He forced himself not to pass out. "I'm the ranking Roman officer," he said. "They – uh, they don't recognize you. Sorry."
Jason grimaced, but he didn't look particularly surprised. "How can we help?"
Frank wished he had an answer. A gryphon soared overhead, almost decapitating him with its talons. Nico smacked it with the sceptre of Diocletian, and the monster veered into a wall.
"Orbem formate!" Frank ordered.
About two dozen zombies obeyed, struggling to form a defensive ring around Frank and his friends. It was enough to give the demigods a little respite, but there were too many enemies pressing forward. Most of the ghostly legionnaires were still wandering around in a daze.
"My rank," Frank realized.
"All these monsters are rank!" Piper yelled, stabbing a wild centaur.
"No," Frank said. "I'm only a centurion."
A Cyclops exploded in a ball of Greek fire as Jason cursed in Latin.
"He means he can't control a whole legion. He's not of high enough rank."
Nico swung his black sword at another gryphon. "Well, then, promote him!"
Frank's mind was sluggish. He didn't understand what Nico was saying. Promote him? How?
Jason shouted in his best drill-sergeant voice: "Frank Zhang! I, Jason Grace, praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata, give you my final order: I resign my post and give you emergency field promotion to praetor, with the full powers of that rank. Take command of this legion!"
Frank felt as if a door had opened somewhere in the House of Hades, letting in a blast of fresh air that swept through the tunnels. The arrow in his arm suddenly didn't matter. His thoughts cleared. His eyesight sharpened. The voices of Mars and Ares spoke in his mind, strong and unified: Break them!
Frank hardly recognized his own voice when he yelled: "Legion, agmen formate!"
Instantly, every dead legionnaire in the cavern drew his sword and raised his shield. They scrambled towards Frank's position, pushing and hacking monsters out of their way until they stood shoulder to shoulder with the comrades, arranging themselves in a square formation. Stones, javelins and fire rained down, but now Frank had a disciplined defensive line sheltering them behind a wall of bronze and leather.
"Archers!" Frank yelled. "Eiaculare flammas!"
He didn't hold out much hope the command would work. The zombies' bows couldn't be in good shape. But, to his surprise, several dozen ghostly skirmishers nocked arrows in unison. Their arrowheads caught fire spontaneously and a flaming wave of death arced over the legion's line, straight into the enemy. Cyclopes fell. Centaurs stumbled. A telkhine shrieked and ran in circles with a burning arrow impaled in his forehead.
Frank heard a laugh behind him. He glanced back and couldn't believe what he saw. Nico di Angelo was actually smiling.
"That's more like it," Nico said. "Let's turn this tide!"
"Cuneum formate!" Frank yelled. "Advance with pila!"
The zombie line thickened in the centre, forming a wedge designed to break through the enemy host. They lowered their spears in a bristling row and pushed forward. Earthborn wailed and threw boulders. Cyclopes smashed their fists and clubs against the locked shields, but the zombie legionnaires were no longer paper targets. They had inhuman strength, hardly wavering under the fiercest attacks. Soon the floor was covered with monster dust. The line of javelins chewed through the enemy like a set of giant teeth, felling ogres and snake women and hellhounds. Frank's archers shot gryphons out of the air and caused chaos in the main body of the monster army across the chasm.
Frank's forces began to take control of their side of the cavern. One of the stone bridges collapsed, but more monsters kept pouring over the other one. Frank saw Dia… Artemis and Jason's sister fighting for their lives across the chasm, and cursed.
"Jason," he called, "can you fly a few legionnaires across the pit? Your sister!"
Jason's face contorted into a look of utmost concentration as he noticed Thalia being backed into a wall. Yells from Fayden were barely heard over the roar, but he seem couldn't find a way across.
Three dead Romans rose into the air and flew across the chasm. Then three more joined them.
"Jason!" Fayden called.
Jason himself finally rose into the air, catching Fayden with a powerful gust of wind. The demi-titan landed with a loud bang as waves of golden energy enveloped the monsters. The slowed, their movements slothful and weak. Explosions of Greek fire and bursts of white flames, turned groups of Cyclopes to dust.
Frank's undead squad began cutting through some very surprised-looking Telkhines, spreading more fear through the enemy's ranks. Fayden had managed to fight his way to Thalia, and him and the other girl, who had reappeared, her easily beating back the sluggish army.
"Nico," Frank said, "keep trying to raise the dead. We need more numbers."
"On it." Nico lifted the sceptre of Diocletian, which glowed even darker purple. More ghostly Romans seeped from the walls to join the fight.
Across the chasm, empousai shouted commands in a language Frank didn't know, but the gist was obvious. They were trying to shore up their allies and keep them charging across the bridge.
"Piper!" Frank yelled. "Counter those empousai! We need some chaos."
"Thought you'd never ask." She started catcalling at the female demons: "Your makeup is smeared! Your friend called you ugly! That one is making a face behind your back!"
Soon the vampire ladies were too busy fighting one another to shout any commands. The legionnaires moved forward, keeping up the pressure. They had to take the bridge before Jason and the others that side got overwhelmed, as more and more kept replacing every one that fell, and less were slowing down, the golden light surrounding Fayden dimming.
"Time to lead from the front," Frank decided. He raised his borrowed sword and called for a charge.
Frank didn't notice that he was glowing. Later Jason told him that the blessing of Mars had shrouded him in red light, like it had in Venice. Javelins couldn't touch him. Rocks somehow got deflected. Even with an arrow sticking out of his left biceps, Frank had never felt so full of energy. The first Cyclops he met went down so quickly it was almost a joke. Frank sliced him in half from shoulder to waist. The big guy exploded into dust. The next Cyclops backed up nervously, so Frank cut his legs out from under him and sent him into the pit.
The remaining monsters on their side of the chasm tried to retreat, but the legion cut them down.
"Testudo formation!" Frank shouted. "Single file, advance!"
Frank was the first one across the bridge. The dead followed, their shields locked on either side and over their heads, deflecting all attacks. As the last of the zombies crossed, the stone bridge crumbled into the darkness, but by then it didn't matter. Nico kept summoning more legionnaires to join the fight. Over the history of the empire, thousands of Romans had served and died in Greece. Now they were back, answering the call of Diocletian's sceptre.
Frank waded forward, destroying everything in his path.
"I will burn you!" a Telkhine squeaked, desperately waving a vial of Greek fire. "I have fire!"
An arrow pierced the vial, and it exploded. The Telkhine shrieked and fell. An empousa raked her claws across Frank's chest, but Frank felt nothing. He sliced the demon into dust and kept moving. Pain was unimportant. Failure was unthinkable.
He was a leader of the legion now, doing what he was born to do – fighting the enemies of Rome, upholding its legacy, protecting the lives of his friends and comrades. He was Praetor Frank Zhang.
His forces swept the enemy away, breaking their every attempt to regroup. Jason and Piper fought at his side, yelling defiantly. Nico waded through the last group of Earthborn, slashing them into mounds of wet clay with his black Stygian sword. Ahead of him, Fayden and Artemis were fighting towards him, Fayden's sword unseeable as it sliced through monsters like butter. Artemis' daggers were both out, her fire extinguished, but she was still fast enough to dodge in and out of attacks with the grace of a cheetah. Aurelia appeared beside Frank, causing him to swing. She yelped, jumping back and vanishing, before reappearing with a glare.
"Sorry!" he yelled.
Thalia was making her way forward, but her bow was hindering her. She couldn't get close. Swinging it over her shoulder, she charged. Sliding under an earthborn, she brought an arrow up. Frank winced as he himself dodged a sword swipe, slashing the empousai in half. Thalia leaped over the head of a Telkhine, jumping from head to head like Legolas from Lord of the Rings. The monsters fell as she jumped, cut down by Fayden and Artemis. All three of them reached Frank as Piper chopped through the last empousa, who vaporized with an anguished wail.
There was an eery silence. Only the heavy breathing of his friends could be heard.
"Frank," Jason said, "you're on fire."
He looked down. A few drops of oil must have splattered on his trousers, because they were starting to smoulder. Frank batted at them until they stopped smoking, but he wasn't particularly worried. Thanks to Leo, he no longer had to fear fire.
Nico cleared his throat. "Uh… you also have an arrow sticking through your arm."
"I know." Frank snapped off the point of the arrow and pulled out the shaft by the tail. He felt only a warm tugging sensation. "I'll be fine."
Piper made him eat a piece of ambrosia. As she bandaged his wound, she said, "Frank, you were amazing. Completely terrifying, but amazing."
Frank had trouble processing her words. Terrifying couldn't apply to him. He was just Frank. His adrenaline drained away. He looked around him, wondering where all the enemies had gone. The only monsters left were his own undead Romans, standing in a stupor with their weapons lowered.
Nico held up his sceptre, its orb dark and dormant. "The dead won't stay much longer, now that the battle is over."
Frank faced his troops. "Legion!"
The zombie soldiers snapped to attention.
"You fought well," Frank told them. "Now you may rest. Dismissed."
They crumbled into piles of bones, armour, shields and weapons. Then even those disintegrated. Frank felt as if he might crumble too. Despite the ambrosia, his wounded arm began to throb. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion. The blessing of Mars faded, leaving him depleted. But his work wasn't done yet.
"Hazel and Leo," he said. "We need to find them."
His friends peered across the chasm. At the other end of the cavern, the tunnel Hazel and Leo had entered was buried under tons of rubble.
"We can't go that way," Nico said. "Maybe…"
Suddenly he staggered. He would have fallen if Jason hadn't caught him.
"Nico!" Piper said. "What is it?"
"The Doors," Nico said. "Something's happening. Percy and Annabeth… we need to go now."
"But how?" Jason said. "That tunnel is gone."
Frank clenched his jaw. He hadn't come this far to stand around helplessly while his friends were in trouble. "It won't be fun," he said, "but there's another way."
So. I loved this chapter. I've got dramatic fantasy music playing and I always love describing Fayden kicking ass. Hopefully more original work is better. It feels like it's better than my other chapters. And, I did it two hours, so maybe it won't take me days to write chapters – I just need to stop being so lazy. Enjoy!