A/N: Sorry for not updating yesterday, but it was my b-day! Honestly, it wasn't like I had anything written yesterday, though. I wrote this part in segments over the course of the day, so sorry if it feels kinda choppy in places. As always, please enjoy!
Disclaimer: Don't own these characters, just my OC's and the plot.
Percy felt like he was suffocating inside of his helmet, the hot and humid air plastering his hair on his forehead and the nape of his neck. His visor was pulled down over his eyes, and the only thing you could see of his face was his mouth. His armor seemed to be weighing him down, too. Heavy pieces of bronze and gold melted together in the palace's forges, completely seamless, and the familiar teardrop design engraved on the breastplate, right above where his heart was.
"Come in, Perseus. Com-check, one, two," a male voice said over the earpiece Percy had.
"Yeah, I'm here," Percy replied, glancing over at the nineteen other people on the mission with him.
Currently the twenty of them were camping across the road where the entrance to Camp Half-Blood lay. He could see Thalia's tree rising high above the crests of the other trees, its branches glistening with the fading sunlight. Through the magical borders surrounding the camp, he saw people laughing and training and doing other activities that seemed so meaningless when by the end of the night, most of them would be dead.
"Our little birdie says that the best time to move out would be around curfew. People are sleepy, and then there are the cleaning harpies to consider…we'd be able to take them by surprise."
"Rodger that. I'll tell Lila and Rico to take care of the chicken ladies." Percy looked down at his armor, cursing it for being so hot, one, and two for being so obvious. It was like Pontus wanted the Olympians to know he was still alive.
"Ha-ha, very funny, Perseus," the man, Rodger, said through the earpiece. "I'll let you know when the time is right."
"Thank you. Over and out." Percy clicked the earpiece off, before walking back towards the makeshift camp they had set up.
They didn't dare start a fire, but Pontus hadn't left them completely helpless, and gave them a camp stove instead. One of his soldiers, Ruby, had taken down a deer not too far from where they were camped out, and currently she and her sister, Olivia, were skinning the animal, and placing chunks of the meat in the pot boiling with water over the stove.
Others were gathering some herbs, both for medicinal and eating purposes. Percy saw five of the younger soldiers training and sharpening their weapons. He smiled at their prowess and moved on, needing to check on the remaining soldiers. Well, he was sure that everyone was going to obey his orders, except for Andy, who he had brought along with him for the raid.
He grabbed her by the shoulder with a gloved hand gruffly, dragging her away from the other eighteen people he had brought along. Percy raised his visor, making sure that the daughter of Ariana was completely serious about the mission, not that she would try to botch it someway.
"Cadet, I know of your past with the demigods," Percy said emotionlessly, like he had been trained to speak in times of battle. "But you mustn't let your past deter you from our mission, understood? The others don't know or don't have connections with the demigods, but you do. Can I trust you to follow my orders perfectly?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" Andy barked automatically, but something in the depths of her green eyes was unsettling for Percy. He nodded grimly, and let her return to the others. He lowered his visor again, and the images instantly appeared again, overloading his vision with stats and other important information.
Percy only left the graphs he deemed important on his display, while everything else was in a folder off to the side that he could access later. What he was left seeing was Andy's profile, and the setting that let him know whether someone was living or dead with a single glance. That app in particular was extremely helpful when he had to clean up after a battle, seeing if someone was still fighting to live, or if they were truly dead.
His microphone clicked on about an hour after Rodger had last talked to him. Percy walked out of earshot from the group, but kept watching them all with his hawk-like eyes.
"Yes?" Percy asked, glancing down at the sword sheathed at his waist. It was a replica of Riptide, but the appearance was different, with the blade being gold instead of bronze for starters, and the fact that there was the teardrop emblem right above where the hilt was. The tip was coated in silver in case he ever ran into any werewolves, seeing as Lycaon hadn't pledged his allegiance to Pontus.
"Five minutes until show time. Get your troops ready, General Perseus."
"Understood, Rodger."
As he was about to turn off his mic, he heard a strangled "Wait!" escape Rodger's lips.
"Yes, lieutenant?" Percy asked, slightly concerned as to why Rodger would sound so impatient.
"Pontus ordered a change in plans. He wants no prisoners. Kill them all."
Percy felt a cold sweat break out across his brow. Once again, he cursed his helmet, as it prevented him from wiping his sweat away. He was fine with fighting-he loved the adrenaline rush it provided-but he only killed when he needed to. Whenever possible he would take hostages or just simply knock them out.
But orders were orders. He had to obey them.
He swallowed a lump at the back of his throat. "I understand. Is that all?"
"One more thing," Rodger added. "The immortal demigods and Chiron, they're the only ones to be left alive. They are to be captured and brought back here."
"You said 'alive.'" Percy pointed out. "Not 'unharmed.'"
"By any means necessary we are to take them. I'm sorry, General. Over an out."
The mic went dead with static. Percy clicked his mic off, sighed once, and walked over to his soldiers to tell them the news.
Nico was feeling happier than he had in days that night at the campfire. After talking to some gods that owed him favors, and some of the souls bordering the edge of Tartarus (he had tied himself down to something with a heavy-duty, Celestial bronze rope), he had managed to find the general location of where Percy might be kept: somewhere off the coast of China and Japan, most likely situated near the Mariana Trench.
When he had told his friends, they looked at him skeptically, but indulged in what they assumed to be his fantasies. He was positive that was Percy was! But no one seemed to believe him. Not even Jason or Will did.
That still wasn't enough to dampen Nico's mood, and he allowed himself to creepily smile at times during dinner and at the campfire, causing for some of the people sitting closest to him to awkwardly scoot away, in hopes of being as far away from the son of Hades as possible.
The only one that didn't chew Nico out for believing that Percy was still alive, was his niece, Victoria Jensen. Or as she preferred to be called, Vicky. She wasn't close enough to Nico for him to call her a friend, but she definitely was one of his more enjoyable acquaintances.
Her personality was extremely varied to say the least, almost like she was bipolar (but Nico would never say that to her face, because he didn't know her well enough to make any judgements). Some days she would be a ray of sunshine, and other days she would want to punch everyone's lights out. For the most part, she was a happy medium, happy for the most part, but the second you got on her nerves, you better be halfway to Canada already.
She usually wore warrior like attire, whether it was her camo pants, or shirts that said things about being "Army Strong", while always having her combat boots laced up, and the silver tips on the toes of the boots were always polished to perfection. Her hair was always pulled back into a high-ponytail, and one of the Aphrodite girls had even dyed the tips a light blue color in honor of her father and missing uncle.
Today had been one of her broodier days, Nico noticed, as she was in deep thought during the campfire instead of dancing and singing with the other campers. When Nico had tried to talk to her (yeah, a shocker to him too), she gave him her withering glare, telling him to back off, but the shine of tears in her eyes was unmistakable.
He just brushed her tears off as bad memories coming to haunt her, and left her alone. Nico decided to sit by his friends, who were sitting on the first bench, the vibrant gold flames sending their marshmallows on fire. Leo must've been excited too, because his marshmallows were the crispiest out of everyone's. He said something about being Hot Stuff, causing for Calypso to punch him in the arm playfully.
The night passed by uneventfully, with the Apollo cabin screaming their heads off about how their grandmothers got dressed for war, when Chiron stamped his hoof on the rocks around the fireplace.
"You all know what time it is," Chiron said, a knowing smile on his lips.
There was the usual protests of the younger campers complaining that they weren't tired, but Chiron had none of it. He waved his hand once, and the fire extinguished itself.
"Off to bed!" he declared, stomping his hooves twice, before turning back towards the Big House.
Nico looked back to where Vicky had been sitting, only to see that she had disappeared. He had wanted to check up on her, for Percy's sake, but she must've been dealing with some really bad of her inner demons.
Then the screaming broke out.
Nico whirled around to see on of Demeter's sons lying on the floor, dead, an arrow through the chest. Then another demigod, one he didn't know, was also on the floor, dead as well. It didn't take the elder demigods long to realize that this was an ambush on the camp.
Nico took out his weapons, but demigods continued dropping like flies. The worst part was that no one knew where the enemy was. Then he heard someone call out, "There! In the trees!" He looked up to see about six or seven archers calmly picking off the demigods as they screamed and ran.
Then another ten dropped out of the trees, armed to the teeth, as they ran into the crowds with their blades out, cutting everything and everyone that moved out of their way. Nico ran to meet one of the armored assailants, and caught a blow that would've killed the young girl behind him.
"Run!" he told the girl, and she obeyed, running as far as her little legs would carry her. But in his heart, he knew that the girl would soon be dead. He had only saved her from one soldier, while there were at least another sixteen waiting to kill her off.
The soldier he was fighting with scoffed, and in an unorthodox move slammed Nico's sword arm aside with his iron covered shoulder, and tackled him. A brass-knuckled fist was brought down on his face multiple times, and he felt his blood trailing down his face and chin as the attacker continued to beat him up.
He saw Annabeth come up from behind, before she put on her Yankees cap and disappeared. With inhumane like speed, the soldier kicked Nico off to the side, attacked what appeared to be thin air, and finished holding an unconscious Annabeth in their arms.
"Who are you?" Nico shouted, using the reprieve Annabeth gave him to get his sword, though his arm was in a whole world of hurt. "What do you want?"
The soldier didn't reply, instead dropping Annabeth to the floor. They stabbed two more demigods than ran past, before tilting their helmeted head at them in what appeared to be pity. They reached to take their helmet off, and the familiar blue dyed tips and black hair greeted Nico.
"Vicky?!"
"Shut up!" she hissed, kicking Nico flat on his back, holding her sword above his unprotected chest. Tears were streaming down her face, but her grip was steady…almost like she had been trained for situations like these. "Things will go so much smoother if you just follow me."
"No," Nico coughed out, blood still leaking from his mouth. "I would never betray Olympus, and I will never join you!"
"Have it your way," Vicky said solemnly, putting on her helmet once more, before hitting Nico square in the temples with the hilt of her sword, sending him into the blissful darkness.
Percy was an arc of destruction, cutting down everything in his path, blood violently spraying upwards, splattering over his visor. He had shut out all his emotions, considering that he already had been uneasy about this mission since he had been given it. He had to get the job done.
All of his forces that he had brought with him had been deployed, and the sounds of demigods dying reached his ears. He grimaced at the high pitched scream the younger kids would scream when a blade entered their body. His visor had been keeping count of how many dead there were, and right now, they were reaching over eighty out of the two-hundred campers that were here for the summer.
Right now, Percy found himself fighting one of the immortal demigods-Leo, he believed his name was. Fire kept getting lobbed at him, but after Pontus had blessed him along with Helios, he was completely fire-resistant, and could even summon fire himself.
Two can play that way, Percy thought grimly, letting fire run up the length of his blade.
The Hispanic boy looked in shock at the fire, and a sort of nervousness was evident in his brown eyes. Leo pulled out a hammer from his tool-belt, but Percy knew the fight was one-sided to begin with. He surged forward, wrenched the hammer out of his hands, and used Leo's own weapon against him, slamming it into his temples, letting the son of Hephaestus crumple to the ground in an undignified heap.
He clicked on his mic, while stabbing an older camper in the back with his still flaming sword. "Ruby and Olivia, I need you two to start dragging the immortal demigods out of here."
"Sir, yes, sir!" the two sisters replied, and he watched as the two of them hopped out of their archery posts in the tree, jumping right into the fray. The next time he looked over there, five of the nine immortal demigods in the world were all bound and gagged by the army. The other three, Hazel, Frank, and Reyna were in Camp Jupiter, which would be hit in a few hours by another group of soldiers led by Helios.
The last immortal demigod still fighting was Jason Grace, but he was already battered, bleeding, and looking worse for wear. Better yet, it was Andy who was fighting against him. Percy continued making his way through the fray, but by now it was mostly experienced fighters still standing their ground while most of the younglings were already dead.
Percy sent a command to Julian, another one of his soldiers that he trusted, to watch Andy, making sure she didn't let Jason go or kill him. He had one last person he needed to abduct before the massacre could really come to an end.
Percy was going to kidnap Chiron.
Chiron galloped around the camp with his armor covering his human half, and a bow and quiver strung over his back. He had aimed at the archers in the trees, hitting two in what he hoped to be their arms, yet they didn't even flinch as his arrow hit them dead on.
For a few seconds, Chiron was baffled, until he realized they must've had armor and vambraces and gauntlets alike on, making them nearly impenetrable. And from the destruction going on by the fire pit with the armored soldiers, the only places one could actually hope to catch a blow on them was the slight opening in their helmets, or near their ankles.
Chiron aimed again, this time at a soldier that had just cut the throat of a young daughter of Nemesis, and hit the soldier in the Achilles tendon. The soldier fell to their knees, but simply broke the shaft of the arrow and pulled the head out. They then waved a hand over their injury and was instantly healed.
Great, now they had healing powers as well.
As Chiron was about to knock another arrow onto his bow, he felt a knife press into the base of his throat hard enough for him to bleed, but not to the point of cutting any major arteries. He froze, waiting to see what would happen to him.
"Drop the bow and quiver, now!" the soldier demanded, and by the sound of their voice, it was a male.
He complied, dropping his bow and almost full quiver at the boy's feet. The soldier deftly kicked the weapons off to the side, but the knife still stayed pressed against his throat.
"The daggers too, old man!"
How in Hades did the soldier know he had daggers hidden in his armor? Did one of the campers betray them all, again? Chiron reached into the pockets behind his breastplate, and threw the four daggers he had concealed in there to the floor as well.
"What do you want?" Chiron asked, taking only shallow breaths, so that the knife wouldn't cut his jugular.
"I need you to come with me," the soldier demanded. "In human form, I may add," he said, nodding in the direction of the wheelchair on the porch of the Big House, which was over ninety feet away. The soldier jumped onto Chiron's flank without his permission, keeping the knife steady as Chiron trotted over the bodies of fallen demigods, most of which still had their eyes open and unfocused on the night sky.
It sent a pang of pain through his heart to see so many children, whom he considered his children, to be bloodied and unmoving on what had been such a peaceful summer night. But he knew the peace wasn't going to last. Three years since the Giant War, there had been peace, and it was a wonderful three years, but war was always going to rear its ugly head once more.
And it appeared that it had begun.
Percy felt a sense of guilt as he kept the dagger trained on Chiron's neck as he rode over all the fallen bodies towards the Big House. Many of the demigods were under the age of fifteen-much too young to have done anything fruitful with their lives, and now the chance had been violently ripped away from them.
Why was he feeling such guilt? He had killed before and never felt an inkling of remorse, yet this seemed to be as if someone was slowly devouring a piece of his soul. He barked at the centaur to get into his wheelchair, all while making sure none of his soldiers were badly wounded and that no one was coming after him.
He sensed an arrow get shot in his direction, to which he stopped by freezing it midair with a shadow. He then sent the arrow back to the shooter, wincing at the shout of pain he heard in response.
"You don't like this," Chiron said, adjusting the blanket over his fake legs. "You didn't want these people to die. Not like this, at least."
"You know nothing about me," Percy said in a deadly tone, the knife cutting slightly deeper into Chiron's throat. He winced under the blade, blood pouring onto his neck. "You're lucky my master wants you alive, or you'd already be dead."
"Sometimes," said Chiron, "it's better to be dead than alive."
"Truer words have never been spoken," Percy agreed, before taking a semblance of pity on the kindly old centaur, and forcing a sleeping pill down his throat instead of hitting his temples with his knife. Chiron looked dazed for a few seconds before completely lying slack in his chair.
Percy clicked on his mic once more. "Nathan, come get the centaur. Andy, how are we doing on Jason?"
He got Andy's reply first. "Kinda busy right now, General. But I should be able to take him down."
Percy narrowed his eyes even though Andy was in the middle of the fray, a good hundred feet away from him. "Not should, cadet. You will take him down, or I will send Julian in to finish the job."
"That's not necessary, sir."
He ignored her, still not sure where her loyalties lie. "Julian, move in."
"Sir, yes, sir!"
"No!" Andy protested, to which Percy just raised an eyebrow.
"Cadet Nevers, are you refusing an order from your superior?"
"You were never my superior to begin with!"
Percy's eyes widened with shock, but he had already been expecting her betrayal at one point. She was probably one of those Special Ops from Olympus.
"Attention all soldiers! If you're not doing anything right now, take down Andromeda Nevers! That is a direct order!" Percy commanded.
"Sir, yes, sir!" was the reply, and instantly, about eight or nine soldiers surged the daughter of Ariana.
Percy sprinted back to the fray, while Nathan began wheeling Chiron into the aircraft that had carried them here. Ruby and Olivia were dragging the limp bodies of the immortals into the aircraft as well. He got there just in time to see Jason drop unconscious from Julian beating him with brass knuckles across the face for far too long.
Then there was a burst of color, blinding all within a five-foot radius of the explosion. A heavy feeling of guilt and depression seemed to fall on Percy, and looking at the dead bodies made him want to curl up into a ball and cry for the destruction he caused.
But the rational part of his brain argued. That was her control over emotions! he thought. Her mom is goddess of colors and emotions! If she wants to guilt trip you, she can, and she did! Snap out of it!
It took him about thirty seconds to shake off the effects of Andy's powers, but by then, four of his soldiers were sniveling messes. He groaned and ordered for four others to drag the sobbing soldiers back onto the ship.
Percy heard Rodger's voice through the mic. "Is it done?" he asked, guilt evident in his voice.
"Yes," Percy said numbly. "We've got everyone we need."
"And survivors?"
"About thirty-five escaped, the rest are dead."
"Good. I'll let our master know."
"And one more thing, Rodger. Tell him that Andromeda Nevers has gone rogue."
"Yes, sir."
Percy finally threw his helmet off his head, tucking it under his arm as he sheathed his red-stained sword in its sheath. All his soldiers were accounted for, and he was the last one on the aircraft.
Those that weren't crying their eyes out, kneeled in his presence, praising his command, until he told them to get cleaned up and find something to do to pass the time. Percy tossed his helmet onto one of the plush seats that one could find in all of Pontus's aircraft. Which was ironic, seeing as Pontus was the primordial of the seas, and he had such a good taste in air transportation.
He told the pilot to take them home.
Once they were airborne, Percy personally watched as they dragged the prisoners into the holding cells underneath the main floors. But before they were chained to the walls, the resident daughter of Hecate that was there, Melissa, put a special leather cuff on all of them, even the ones without supernatural abilities. Apparently, it prevented them from using their powers at all, meaning that they wouldn't need to be worried about falling out of the sky because of Jason or Leo. (A/N: If you've ever seen Once Upon A Time, you know what I'm talking about.)
"Other than restraining them," Melissa said, "what do you want me to do?"
"Blind them," commanded Percy. "We don't need them to see any of this or where we're situated. Don't gag them, though; I want to know when they're awake."
"And their injuries?"
Percy surveyed the prisoners. Many of them were bleeding from various different places, nasty bruises adorned their skin, and there was even a bone sticking out of their body for Will and Piper.
"Set the broken bones, and stop the bleeding, but leave all other injuries to heal like mortals do."
"Yes, sir." Melissa called over her brother, Howard, and together the both of them began to fix up the wounded prisoners.
Percy ran a hand through his sweaty hair, and made his way to the strategy room aboard the ship, a room only generals and their lieutenants could enter. He tapped the teardrop emblem three times, and his armor collapsed into a simple gold chain with the teardrop charm dangling at the end. He tied the chain around his neck, and collapsed into the nearest seat.
He swiveled around in the seat, facing the virtual map the room had, and watched the little blue dot that was the ship move closer to the big red line on the map, which was the Mariana Trench. As for the exact location, only the generals, their lieutenants, and the pilots knew-no one else.
According to the screen, they would arrive home in roughly four hours. Percy sighed one more time, before dimming the lights, and getting some well deserved rest.
A/N: Personally, I think I suck at writing fighting scenes. Oh, well, I liked how this battle turned out at least. Honestly, I have no clue what's in store the next few chapters, whether there will be fights or fluff or filler stuff-I only have a faint idea where this is going, but I know how I want this to end. Thanks for reading, Sparks! As always, feel free to leave a review if you liked, and if you didn't, tell me what I could do better. No flames though! See ya Sparks soon! ~RainbowSpark18
