AN-Okay,thanks to my lovely reviewers, all messages taken into account. Its currently a toss up between Percy/Calypso and Percy/Nyx in my eyes, but I'll see how it goes.

Early warning, this chapter is far from my best work. Its more of an interval chapter and theres very little plot in there, but I hope you enjoy it. There is some fluff in here...okay quite a bit of fluff...admittedly too much fluff but my bunny tripped and fell through a sheep-shearer and this is the result!

Hope you like it :)

The Lambda Ship

The battle could hardly be called a success. There had been 150 completely physically fit campers at the start of the day. Now there were 23. There had been 14 deaths, 21 serious injuries, 15 campers knocked unconscious and 27 with minor injuries.

Chiron had a long burn down his left side where a Flamecat had leapt onto his back, Thalia had a chunk of rock glued to her arm, and one Athena boy had been mauled by a Fleeth after a dracaenae had hit him on the head. Umbra was trying to treat everyone, but his strength was quickly dwindling. Shades worked with manipulation of forces and the mind-they were far from healers.

Omega was still in the big house, but the shade could feel someone replenishing his energy every few minutes and it wasn't hard to guess who. Nevertheless the situation was dire. The Apollo cabin didn't know healing chants that worked on the otherworldly injuries, and had been confined only to sword cuts and broken bones. The Hippoanguis had bitten 4 campers and the venom was already taking a hold; they were shaking, sweat covered their bodies and their minds were lost in hallucinations. Unless they got proper treatment, Umbra estimated they had another hour left to live.

After many prayers the god of medicine himself had arrived, but the rarer injuries stumped even him. The other Olympians had quickly arrived after they'd heard about the Omega-is-Percy gossip. Umbra thought it didn't matter either way; he'd always be loyal to the assassin for what he'd done, and he was a generally nice guy. The 'cousins' as Sol-leks had started calling them were still kicking up a storm to go and find their lost hero and Umbra hoped that for everyone's sanity the man turned up soon or there'd be a full scale revolt.

No sooner had he thought it that the dark figure left the big house and started heading towards the temporary treatment area the shade had set up. The infirmary wasn't big enough. Omega was fully clothed in his assassin garb-including his cloak and cape-which was probably his way of making a point. Humans the shade thought.

The sea god-Poseidon-looked up and seemed to be mentally arguing whether to run and hug his son or not. He decided not; which seemed like a good idea to Umbra. As Omega reached the assessembled Olympians and children, the shade decided to speak up to break the tension. "Omega, can you contact Chronus or The Lambda? We're desperately in need of some verns."

The assassin looked over, "I've called him but I'm going to have to cut through to get them, so can you two" he pointed at Sol-leks and Viper, "come with me and Luke?" They nodded their assent, and Omega drew his black sword. Umbra could feel the power coming from it like heat. He wondered what dark magic had been mixed with the forging to cause that. The swordsman slowly drew the blade through thin air, and the earth-people gasped as a black slit appeared in the fabric of the universe.

The shade had seen this party trick before. What the blade actually did was followed your thoughts to cut through into The Void-which was everywhere, and nowhere-and then cut back out of it wherever was needed in the universe. It looked a lot better that it actually was, but nevertheless; useful. "2 minutes Umbra" the assassin said as he stepped through the gap, followed by his comrades.

True to his word he took exactly 120 seconds before he stepped out leading a demigod son that Umbra vaguely recognised as the commanderof Epsilon. Luke was leading another human but Sol-leks and Aruval had brought verns.

Verns were a silver-haired type of Mage that had exceptionally powerful healing magic bred into them. They medical genius' who could heal almost any wound and they made up the vast majority of the Epsilon group. He quickly collected Paige and Sheila-whom he'd recognised from Aether's City-and started showing them the most serious cases, which they got to work on straight away.

Apollo stepped away to give them room and turned to where Alpha stood. He let out a strangled gasp and with tears on his face, pulled the two demigod healers into a crushing hug.

"Dad, you're going to kill us a second time!" said the elder of the two.

"I've missed you so much…you're alive? Who…" he looked up at Omega who smiled, but shook his head pointing at the man next to him. The son of Hermes suddenly seemed very interested in his shoes.

"In The Alpha we have the option to chose a protégée to be reborn from the underworld or recruited to the army. Luke asked if he could forgo his right to this for the first century in the squad in return for every person that died due to the rise of Kronos to be offered the chance to serve in the army. Many refused, but there are still plenty of all of your kids flying this way as we speak on the Lambda ship." he glanced over at the blushing commander and smirked, "Luke doesn't like people talking about one of many decent things he's done. For some reason he much prefers everyone to think he's still the big bad wolf"

Luke mock-glared at Omega before replying, "Well I owed it to them…And Sol-leks is the big bad wolf"

Said wolf snorted. Umbra sighed heavily, and his for shifted-his wings retracting, his sides blurring.

"You're tired mate, go take a lie down we can handle it from here" said one of Apollo's sons-Commander Fletcher.

The shade nodded, before his form drifted into shadows completely and he disappeared into the depths of his own mind.

"Alright, You've all heard the tale in glorious detail and exaggeration to the point I have 4 heads so I'm just going to get this over with" Said Percy, slumping down onto the leather sofa he'd just selected out of his handheld computer, "Ask away."

He watched as the demigods and Olympians glanced nervously at each other before:

"Why did you leave?" asked a young daughter of Hecate.

"Straight into the hard questions? I left because there were too many painful memories here, Rome was never my territory, and Thalia and Nico had their own lives to live."

"When did you start killing people?" asked Nico with a frown.

The assassin smirked, "The first guy was this 40 year old human on Treyjar. He'd was beating his wife bloody every night and his daughters were being sold for sex with his friends," his lips curled with disgust. "I'd heard about him from a concerned woman in a pub and been keeping eye for a while.

"One day I saw his daughter running down the street with the happiest look on her face in the world. It was like she'd won the lottery, when in actual fact she'd found a dusty chunk of bread on the ground. I watched her run past the door to her house, and he charged out and screamed in her face. He knocked her to the ground and kicked her. He just left her in the road, took the bread and walked back in."

Percy felt bile rise in his throat and spat on the ground, "and she just lay there, as though she'd suddenly woken up and realised life just wasn't that fair for her. So I told her to go inside and get her mother and her sister and then I took them to the pub where the woman was, and went back. Lets just say he didn't get to eat that bread. I cut the mark on his head as a message that this was his punishment.

"It was a few times later that I realised there were some people out there that don't have the strength to defend themselves. They've just had it beaten or trained out of them, so I set out to help as many of them as I could." he sighed. Most people looked sickened by the story-it wasn't exactly a fairy tale. It was Artemis who spoke first.

"I may not respect males as a whole, but I will say that you have earned some respect for doing that. Many would just walk by and ignore it."

"Anyone else?" he asked, eager to move on.

Thalia smirked, "How in Hades did you and Luke end up so chummy?"

The assassin smiled, but Luke answered "Trovian whiskey, Lathian cigar's, non PC magazines and a kick-ass games room." For the first time since his return to camp, Percy threw back his head and laughed. Luke soon joined him and a few of the other men chuckled. Artemis looked about ready to take that respect comment back.

"You make us sound like 1980's sex fiends, Castellan" he said, "But I won't deny its probably the most normal thing we do in our warped enemies-turned-friends bromance"

They laughed again, and The Alpha smiled fondly at their leaders sense of humour. Chiron spoke next: "Where did you get your power over dark energy?"

"My blade reaps the powers of the immortals it forces to fade to the wielder of the blade. The dark energy came from the Primordial of distress, Oizys. I gained both dark energy, and the power of distress which works well in battles; but it affects everyone so my allies go through the same pain."

Aphrodite giggled before-rather foolishly-asking, "Do you have girl in your life?" she smiled mischievously.

Percy tensed and his expression turned as dark as Tartarus. Aphrodite seemed to notice her mistake but didn't seem massively put off by it. The son of Poseidon took a deep breath, before looking over at the goddess of love and replying, "The only girl of my species in my life is Zoë." he paused looking at Luke. Everyone followed his gave and noticed the commanders clenched fists and flushed neck. Percy had never been the most observant person but still… 2 + 2...

"Don't worry Romeo" he said, smirking at his friend, "she's all yours. Zoë is like a sister to me. I'd be careful though; one foot wrong and you'll end up with an arrow through your…" he raised his eyebrows meaningfully and all of the men winced. At this point, said hunter was bright red and staring at the table so intently Percy half expected it to catch fire.

"Zoë, you've got a bit of red on your face…just there" he ducked an arrow, and chuckling, stood. "Well I've got to get a message through to Chronus and find out when that damn ships' getting here, so I guess I'll leave this lovely pair to have a heart to heart"

His father looked at him, "Percy… could I…"

"Walk with me dad." he replied, and headed off towards the Pegasus stables. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you but…I'm really screwed up, there's no other way to put it."

"You're my son, you'll always be perfect in my eyes. I understand why you did it, and I hope that if we survive this war…maybe you can visit sometimes? Tyson misses you"

"I guess I could. I haven't been back here since mums funeral" he gulped. 450 years and the loss of his mother still hurt. "I'll spend sometime with you and Tyson after this-I promise." Percy stepped forwards and hugged his father, breathing in the calming scent of the sea.

The days rolled together and before long a week had passed since she'd first come back to Camp Half-Blood. Zoë found it strange being back here, especially since that awkward conversation with Luke. She couldn't help but admit that she liked the son of Hermes. He made her smile, made her laugh, made her tolerate the other men in her life better, but she was still wary. She hadn't felt like this about a male since…well, since Hercules, and that hadn't ended well for her. She found it difficult to trust the other sex, and the fact he was a son of the god of liars didn't help the issue.

What made it more complicated, is that after everyone had left, Luke had admitted to liking her. He said he'd always wanted her to be more than a friend but didn't want to make her feel like she was forced into a relationship-she had died a hunter after all. He'd said simply that he'd always like her, love her he'd said. That word scared the hunter more than the thought of liking a boy. The man said he'd let her make the decision on whether they pursued a relationship, and that he'd always be her friend no matter what. He'd given Zoë a choice-but Zoë wasn't good with choices.

She put this from her mind as she walked towards the open field where they were planning to land the ship. The meadow was at the top of one of camps surrounding hills, but was the perfect spot as it had a slow incline towards camp but was tall enough and sharp enough on the side facing out of the valley to be not only protected from attacks but at a distinct advantage in a battle.

The Romans had arrived the previous day, and had the cohorts camped to the left side of the hill where they had enough room, but were nestled into the valley and shaded by the weather boundaries. The Lambda ship was more than prepared to weather the elements on the hill. The assorted Greeks and Romans, Amazons and Hunters made a ring at the top of the hill as they watched a dark shape fly towards them.

The gods were present, as Lord Chronus had requested (although the Primordial had contacted them to say he had other matters to attend to ); however they were split between their forms. Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Hermes, Hestia and Dionysus were Greek; Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Venus, Pluto and Ceres were Roman. The Lambda Ship landed in almost silence-only a faint hiss as the stabilizers set on the ground.

High-tech as it was, the ship could change its external shape at a few clicks of a button. It sailed the treacherous seas of Hayzar as a pirate ship, flown the skies of the Angeli planet that was almost entirely air, and was now in the form of a intergalactic battleship. It was streamlined to the shape of a dragons head; with two glass half-sphere windows where the eyes would be, on either side of the cockpit. A hexagonal black tinted window sat on the front face between the two windows.

A side panel opened downwards to the floor and 8 people walked out. She instantly recognised Commander Fleetwood the Angelus, or winged human, as he walked towards the demigods with the others following behind.

"Fleetwood, its good to see you" greeted Omega, grasping the mans shoulder, "I trust you didn't have any issues?"

Zoë smiled slightly as Percy slipped easily back into leader/Chaos' Army mode.

"No problems sir, but I really think that was due to our excellant pilot"

"Well, you couldn't have a better pilot, her fancy flying has saved my skin more than once" the assassin replied, he turned to the group of assembled demigods, "This is Commander Fleetwood of the Gamma Division. He's the head of all large military operations. Don't mind the wings, he's an Angelus"

He gestured to a girl dressed in a grey pilot jumpsuit, "Our pilot, Commander Helly. She's the head of the Lambda crew and this rather fine ship here. Lieutenant Paige you met the other day, she's the 3rd in command of the Epsilon medical group. Plebra; the jaguar-shade is the second to Umbra of The Psi which is the magic and mind control group. Commander Tezar is head of The Riders of Iota, the flying division, and his better half Commander Kala is head of The Cavalry of Omicron. Lieutenant Theseus is the second to Luke in command of the Beta Platoon, which is the specialised fighters and heroes group.

"Finally Commander Garb is the head of the Sigma group, which are the 20 maintenance, repair and guards of the ship and its equipment. I'm officially warning all the sons of Mercury and Hermes not to steal anything; you don't want to get on the wrong side of them." he finished with a smile. "Follow me, I'll introduce you to the rest of the army"

He walked off into the interior of the ship, following the other commanders and the rest of The Alpha followed. Zoë looked back, and noticed nobody had moved.

"What's the problem?" she called back.

"Err, you do realise there are over 400 of us, and that ship isn't all that big…" replied Nico.

She smirked, "There's over 2,000 assorted troops in here already. Do you really think your going to make a difference? This is the most evolved technology in the universe, its bigger on the inside" she glanced back at Nico, "Come on death-boy, I've got someone I'd like you to meet." she added.

When the hunter and the Olympians reached the training hall, most of them looked up and around them in awe. Speechlessness was a common symptom of the first time one entered this room. It was about 5 times the size of the Olympian throne room, with a high roof that showed a hologram of the New Universe. She recognised Greyga, the Lupet planet as it drifted across the screen. Halfway between the floor and the ceiling was an open observation area that spread around the entire hall. One side had a set of living suits, another section beanbags, a third had hammocks etc.

Taking up half of the hall was the assembled army. Zoë had to admit, that stood as a whole, even this fraction of the army looked completely unstoppable. Her own troops, The Delta Force, stood on 2 raised platforms on the left and right. At the back was another platform, with the Lambda Crew on the left, then the Epsilon Group, The Psi, and The Sigma Team on the right. On the floor on the left stood the 1,000 Iota Riders, sitting on the backs of their mounts. And mirroring them on the right were the 3,000 Cavalry. In the centre stood 10,000 footsoldiers of the Gamma division in two spilt ranks, with 10 yards in between. Finally at the front, also split, was the Beta Platoon.

Percy-though he was in Omega mode- walked forwards and the hall silenced. The Alpha walked passed him and stood at the front of the army, and each of the other commanders joined their ranks. The Olympians and demigods stood behind the assassin by the door.

"SIGMA TEAM" he called into the hall. At once the 20 of the Sigma group stamped their feet and chanted 'Sigma'.

"LAMBDA CREW", instantly the 50 crewman picked up the call, chanting' Lambda' at the assassin.

"THE PSI", the magicians chanted 'Psi', blasting coloured sparks above themselves.

"RIDERS OF IOTA", the sound of 1,000 flying steeds beating wings, cawing, howling and stamping. 'Iota'.

"CAVALRY OF OMICRON", the cavalry thundered in the hall, the sound of hooves and paws echoing around. 'Omicron'.

"DELTA FORCE" The hunter and her group chanted 'Delta', the archers fires exploding arrows at the roof and the snipers fired blanks.

"GAMMA DIVISION" the loudest call yet, as 10,000 men bashed weapons on shields, and roared 'GAMMA!'

"BETA PLATOON" Zoë watched at the heroes each used their powers; lightning struck, the ground rumbled, hurricanes swirled, and fireballs shot at the holographic sky. 'Beta'.

"ALPHA SQUAD" The friends roared in reply, their 7 voices echoing around the room. 'Alpha' .

Percy drew Riptide and 'The Reaper', touched the tips together and held them to the roof:

"CHAOS' ARMY" he called, but his voice was drowned out. The room shook as the assassin cast a ball of power to the roof; fire, water, lightning, air, ice, light and dark exploded around the room, 20,000 troops made as much noise possible, roaring 'CHOAS' at the tops of their voices, stamping the ground with such for the room rumbled.

Slowly, the army silenced. Percy turned to look at the army once more, and asked; "What do we do when we meet our enemies on the battlefield, when they're charging towards us?"

"WE MAKE CHAOS" the army answered, as one. It was moments like this that made Zoe proud to be part of the army. The way each division had its own strengths, was responsible for one talent, but when they came together and worked as one. They were a single, living, breathing organism fighting for the cause. The whole army acted together, each person playing their part and working as a seamless team. It was empowering.

Percy smiled, and Luke shouted, "OMEGA!"

The army roared with laughter, and following suit the Olympians chuckled along nervously. The assassin had the trace of a smile on his face, but only replied with; "Shut up Castellan". The commander snorted, but took that as his permission to walk out of line and wrap an arm around Percy's shoulders.

Percy spoke calmly, forcibly to the amy; "As you know, we're here to help fight against Tartarus' Army as he threatens this-the original planet-and through it, the rest of our universe. You will fight alongside the people of this planet, and you will treat them how you would any member of your army."

His voice turned stern, threatening. "Any form of disrespect, discrimination or lack of empathy towards your fellow comrades, be they Roman, Greek, Amazon or Hunter…" he turned to the demigods, "…Human, Latharid, Trovian, Lupet, Scathre, Shade, Vern, Mage, Angelus, or any other member of my army whatever the species," he stepped back so that he was facing both groups, "will be punished severely. Is that clear?"

The army called, "YESSIR", and he nodded, turning to the demigods, "Yes?"

They nodded, though reluctantly.

He smiled, "Alright, introduce yourselves, make friends, feel free to use any of the training facilities."

The Army stood awkwardly, glancing round.

He sighed, "Demigods of the army, come forwards" he smiled. Most of the Beta, some of Delta and a few from the other groups stepped out of the ranks and walked to the centre of the room.

"Nico, come here" he asked quietly. The ghost king stepped away from the others and walked up to his cousin. The group shifted as Bianca Di Angelo forced her way unceremoniously to her brother. She tripped over someone and Theseus had to catch her. "Get out of the way!" he growled at the other demigods. They parted for her and she stepped forwards. The son of Hades froze. Percy reached behind him and had to physically push him forwards.

"Bianca" he whispered. In the silent hall it amplified; Chiron smiled and Thalia broke out grinning. Hades looked shocked. Nico fell into his sisters arms looking 10 years old again. He was shaking with silent sobs, but Bianca just wrapped her arms around him. They broke away, and she said "I've missed you Nico" as though she'd only been away on a weeks holiday".

After that, the rest of the demigods reunited with their lost loved ones. Seeing soldiers and Olympians together broke the ice. Soon the younger campers were having rides of giant falcons, Amazons and Latharid women were as thick as thieves, Ares and Mars kids were sparring with Beta's, hunters were learning to shoot crossbows and sniper-rifles, the Hephaestus and Vulcan children were inspecting the ship with the Lambda Crew, gods were trying to hook up with the non-earthen humans, and Sol-leks was flirting with Lupa. Again.

Luke came and found her as she sat in the pavilion. Everyone had mixed randomly for dinner, some inside the ship and some out here, but now most had left. It was dusk, and in the lowlight a few groups were still remained. Zoë noticed Percy was talking with some of his Camp Half-Blood friends, including Chiron-he was finally beginning to open up to them again.

"I think its gone okay today don't you?" he asked her. He was sat right next to her on the bench, and she instinctively leaned closer to his warmth.

"Better than I'd expected. If the fact that I saw Aruval throwing some of the Roman children through the air for Umbra to catch counts for anything?" she replied with a smile.

"Yeah, we're not the most normal bunch are we?" he replied, "but we work together" he added, much quieter.

It suddenly occurred to Zoë that he might not be talking about The Alpha. Panic began to erupt in her stomach. He really was very close to her. She could feel his warm breath lightly on her face, and she slowly looked up into his eyes. Even in the dark she could see the honesty in them. She swallowed. Relax, she told herself, I won't be ruled by fear.

Hesitantly, Zoë leant forwards and lightly brushed her lips to his. They were warm, her lips tingled. He leant forward slightly, and kissed back lightly. It was an invitation, a question. She lifted her hand to his chin and deepened the kiss, softly at first but with growing fervour.

Electricity that had nothing to do with the gods coursed through her body; it was exhilarating, terrifying, mind-numbingly perfect. She ran her fingers into his hair and his lightly placed a hand on her side. She sighed into the kiss, opening her mouth and feeling his tongue run along her lip. Tentatively she opened her mouth further, and when he brushed his tongue against hers -a sultry sweet taste of pleasure filling her mouth and pulling something deep in her gut- the world fell away.

Percy was sitting in the dimly lit dining pavilion, finally catching up with his old friends. Chiron had plenty of stories to tell about demigods through the ages; and sitting there laughing with Nico and Thalia, hearing some of the most ridiculous tales that made his quests look organised and successful, was really what he'd needed.

The day had gone excellently; he couldn't resist doing a full battlefield call of the army-threatening tactics-partly to show Zeus/Jupiter what strength they had. He had a bad feeling that the god was going to pull him into a stand-off at some point, and fun as it would to humiliate the god, they needed him to be fully fit and motivated for the coming battle.

It was typical of his and Luke's relationship to have the son of Hermes mock him in front of the troops, but that's how they led. Humour was a lot more endearing that orders, that's why he tried not to give them. Speaking of Luke…he looked up, blinked multiple times and then glanced back at the others.

"Guys" he whispered. Chiron stopped talking with a questioning expression. The centaur had been in the process of recalling the funniest moments of his life, and appeared insulted to be interrupted. "Slowly…glance behind me…don't shout…" he murmured.

When Thalia noticed the couple, she went through several different emotions; confusing, shock, embarrassment, and finally settled on a smiled. Chiron leaned forward and asked; "Who is it?"

"Luke and Zoë" he replied with a smile. The centaur raised his eyebrows but smirked in that I've seen everything but admittedly this is cute way.

"That I did not expect" whispered Nico.

"Really? They've been heading this was for the past 20 years, its really no surprise." replied the son of Poseidon. He was genuinely happy for them, it was about time Luke got some good luck.

AN-Another chapter down! I'm really not sure about this one, it is more of an interval chapter, but hopefully I can pick up with the plot stuff more now. Please review so I know wht you think, flames welcome-I will use them to bake blue cookies.

Forever Percy's, ChrysosArgentum xx 3