Here's chapter 56. Thanks for the reviews QuillMist9674, meera huang, lunarue.13, Nichole315, percyjacksonfan135, and ZoeyMarieSnape. To meera huang, the idea of elemental mages has been used in multiple PJO and HP fics I've read. To lunarue.13, Sirius will die and Nina will be going with Harry to the Department of Mysteries. Nina won't tell Apollo or Poseidon about the detentions and she will only get one because the blood quill won't work on her. Enjoy!
Chapter Fifty Six: Fight On
Our army converged in Central Park. We were waiting for the golden Titan. As soon as I saw him, I knew who he was, Hyperion, Titan of light. Grover stood next to me, the satyrs were all gathered behind him. A fat one pushed his way through the group. "Leneus?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't act so surprised. I am the leader of the Council, and you did tell me to find Grover. Well, I found him, and I'm not going to let a mere outcast lead the satyrs without my help!" Grover made gagging motions behind Leneus' back and I rolled my eyes at him. The Athena cabin was staying with Percy as were the Hunters and Thalia. I was going with Lav, Vati, and the rest of the Aphrodite cabin to the Lincoln Tunnel. The other cabins went elsewhere.
I summoned my bow and quiver from my charm bracelet. A small army came through after the sun had completely set. How is the sun even rising and setting if Apollo can't drive the sun chariot?
We made quick work of the monsters. We waited for more. That had hardly been a challenge. I looked at Parvati, confused. She shrugged, not knowing what was going on. A roar echoed throughout the entire tunnel. A vampiric monster came crashing through the tunnel, stamping on cars and shoving them out of her way. Instead of legs, the woman had a thick, blood red snake demon hissed at us. I had never heard of anything like her. "What is that thing?" Lavender asked. I shrugged and exchanged my bow for my knife. Vati and Lav followed my lead.
The snake woman hissed and charged at us. We had to dive out of the way just to avoid being crushed. The monster was agile and twisted around. Her tail had caught a son of Aphrodite and was squeezing him much like a python would. He was slowly turning blue. Vati slashed downwards at the tail. It bounced of the thick scales, but it sure got the creatures attention. The tail dropped Mitchell and one of his siblings ran forward and dragged him out of the way. He was gasping for breath and it looked like the tail had crushed his arm.
The creature rounded on my friends and me. She hissed and lunged. I rolled out of the way and slashed Mov upwards. The monster dodged it and slithered towards Lav. My friend jumped over the tail as it lashed out at her. She slashed at the creature with her knives. "I am Lamia," snarled the creature. "You cannot defeat the ssslayer of children!"
"Watch me," Lavender growled. I had never seen her looking so fierce. Her magic was glowing around her. She slashed and hacked at Lamia and the creature recoiled. She tried to slither away but was too late. Lav swiped both her knives across Lamia's chest and she turned into dust, a few red scales were all that remained.
I picked them up and handed them to my friend. "To the victor goes the spoils," I grinned. Lav smiled at me and carefully put the 5 scales in her pocket.
"Thanks, Nina!" We turned back to keep watch over the Lincoln waited for about an hour with no signs of any monsters. I looked at my watch, it was almost one in the morning. I sheathed Mov and sat down on the hood of a Honda. Lav and Vati had resorted to playing charades. I was about to join them, when a rumbling sound thundered through the tunnel. Everyone jumped to attention. A huge army of monsters surged forwards. They seemed shocked that we were still there. They pushed us back and out of the tunnel. We were no match for them.
"Retreat!" I yelled. All around, I noticed that all our forces were retreating. The Apollo cabin merged with us as a squadron of hellhounds chased after them. Will ran next to me.
"We're no match for them!" he shouted over the chaos. "What are we going of do?"
"Retreat back to Olympus. Hold Olympus at all costs. If the Titan's get Olympus, the war will be over and we'll have lost!" Will nodded and repeated the orders to his men. He had done a good job at taking over after Michael died. Kayla and Austin had gone back to the bridge sometime during the day and found Michael's mangled body.
We met my brother and the rest of the army at the doors to the Empire State Building. I looked around. Altogether, we had about a hundred demigods, Hunters, and nature spirits. There were about a thousand monsters. 10:1, completely unfair. A horn sounded off in the distance. Great, more enemies. But, Kronos looked just as confused as the rest of us. A bunch of arrows came flying from the left. "Yeah, baby!" someone shouted. "PARTY!"
"Centaurs!" shouted Annabeth. The army of Party Ponies erupted into our midsts. Chiron was fighting amongst his brethren. One centaur blasted a hellhound with a paintball gun. It was a hot pink. It must have been mixed with celestial bronze because pretty soon it dissolved into dust. The Titan's army fled. The centaurs galloped off to find some root beer. Mrs. O'Leary licked Chiron's face. He wasn't too happy about that.
Chiron told us about the gods fight with Typhon. Dionysus was incapacitated somewhere in the Appalachians. Hephaestus went down so hard he created a new lake in West Virginia. We were about to excuse ourselves when we saw a blue car with hoof prints on it. "Paul's Prius," Percy gasped. We rushed over to the car and sure enough, Sal-I mean Mom and Paul were in their, fast asleep. We rattled the doors, desperate to get them out. They were locked. Chiron galloped over to see what the problem was. Percy gasped when he saw something in the back seat.
"That isn't-"Chiron gasped.
"Pandora's jar," Percy said.
"But you left it in the Plaza," I said.
"It will appear when you are weakest," Chiron explained. Of course. Percy grew angry. He punched the window and it shattered. He reached across Paul's motionless body and shifted the gear into neutral. A bunch of demigods helped us push the car out of the way. When we got back, a helicopter was landing. Annabeth climbed out of it followed by a very sick looking Rachel Dare. She was literally green. She stumbled over to us and dragged Percy to the side to talk to him quietly. Lavender was glaring at her very hard. Vati and I were trying not to giggle at our friend's obvious jealousy.
Chiron cantered up to me. "Sleep, child. You may be invulnerable in battle, but that only makes your body tire faster. I remember Achilles. Whenever he wasn't fighting, he was sleeping. There are bunks set up in Olympus. Lavender, Parvati, make sure your friend actually sleeps.
I had a demigod dream. I was outside the U.N. complex with Kronos and the one-eyed demigod, Ethan Nakamura. Kronos was telling Ethan to release the drakon. A drakon we couldn't beat. Kronos spoke of a prophecy telling that only a child of Ares could beat the drakon. We were fresh out of those. My eyes snapped open and I sat up. Lav and Vati were on the floor next to me. I shook them awake and told them my dream. Soon, we had all the demigods awake and preparing to fight a drakon.
We rushed outside. A roar echoed through the silent streets of my home. A shadow blotted out the sun and I saw a drakon slithering down the side of a skyscraper. Drakons are like giant basilisks. There gaze can paralyze you as in the oh-my-gods-that- big-snake-is- going-to-eat-me type of paralysis. They're twice as big as a basilisk and twice as poisonous. The also spit acid. I'm not sure which part is worse. The things teeth were as big as me. The enemy army was forming ranks behind the drakon. Oh great, could this day get any better?
Percy, Mrs. O'Leary, and I took the drakon. Percy managed to stab its left eye out. I hacked at the drakon, trying to break its skin. The scales were too thick. I pulled back and rounded over to where Percy was trying to stab its other eye. Mrs. O'Leary was climbing up the giant snake's back. She was thrown off the serpent's head and into the side of the Empire State Building. A rumbling filled the air as Percy and I started to retreat back to the doors. Chariot wheels were heading our way. A girl's voice yelled, "Ares!" I would recognize that voice anywhere, it was Silena! SIlena was in the lead chariot, dressed in Clarisse's armor. She tricked them, a truly Hermes move.
Six of the chariots charged the monsters army. The other six, including Lena's, charged the drakon. Two chariots went off course when the drakon's eyes paralyzed the drivers. The other four kept charging. The chariots gave our army new hope. They began to fight with renewed vigor. The Ares campers threw javelins at the drakon. It got a mouthful of them. We watched in awe as the 12 Ares warriors fought the drakon. Then, things started to go wrong.
One camper got swallowed whole by the drakon. Another was knocked to the side. He didn't get back up. A third got a spray of poison to her back, and she retreated in a panic, yanking her armor off. The poison was already seeping through to her skin. Silena charged the creature straight on. It shot poison into her face. She shrieked as she fell. Beckendorf must have recognized her voice as well because he shoved his way through the monsters to his girlfriends side. I ran forward to cover him as he picked up Silena and rushed her out of there.
Percy, the rest of the Ares cabin, and I took on the drakon, dodging its poison and acid spit. We couldn't hurt the thing. At the edge of my vision, I saw a flying chariot land behind the drakon. The drivers voice was shaking as she cried, "NO! Curse you, WHY?" Clarisse and Chris ran over from the chariot. They must have seen Silena. Clarisse grabbed her spear that Lena had dropped.
My friend looked up at the drakon with absolute hate. The monster struck, but she leaped aside. She jumped onto the creature's head. She stabbed down towards the drakon's good eye. There was so much force behind her thrust, the shaft shattered. Electricity arced throughout the creature's head causing its whole body to shudder. Smoke billowed out of the drakon's mouth and it fell to the ground as its flesh dissolved. Clarisse jumped off the head before it had finished its descent and raced towards Beck and Lena, who were situated at the entrance to Olympus. Percy, Chris, and I followed close behind her.
Vati and Lav were each holding one of their sister's hands, tears pouring down their cheeks. Beck had Lena's head in his lap and was dabbing nectar on the burns. Luckily, they had gotten the helmet off fast enough so she wouldn't die from her injuries. Lena took her hands away from her sisters as we approached. She tried to sit up, but Beck pushed her back down.
"What were you thinking?" Clarisse demanded once she was sure her best friend wouldn't die.
"Wouldn't...listen. Cabin would...only follow you."
"So you stole my armor. You waited until Chris and I went out on patrol; you stole my armor and pretended to be me." Clarisse turned to glare at her siblings who had run after us. "And NONE of you noticed?" They looked very sheepish.
"Don't blame them," Lena choked. "They wanted to believe I was you."
"You stupid Aphrodite girl. You charged a drakon? Why?"
"All my fault." Tears were pouring from SIlena's eyes. Beckendorf pulled her into a hug. ""The drakon, you almost dying, Charlie, Nina, Percy...camp endangered-"
"Stop it!" Clarisse demanded. "That's not true."
Silena pulled something from her pocket and opened her hand for us all to see. A silver bracelet with a scythe charm was resting on her palm.
"You were the spy," I whispered softly.
More tears ran down Silena's cheeks. "Before...before i liked CHarlie, Luke was nice to me. He was so...charming. Handsome." Beckendorf made a face at her words and Lav slapped him upside the head. "Later, I wanted to stop helping him, but he threatened to tell. He promised...he promised I was saving lives. Fewer people would get hurt. He told me he wouldn't hurt...Charlie. He lied to me."
Clarisse scowled and told her cabin mates to go help the centaurs. They were quick to follow the real Clarisse's orders. "You're a hero," Beckendorf whispered in Lena's ear. "Without you, we'd all be dead. C'mon, let's get you inside." Beck picked up Lena and ran into the lobby of the Empire State Building. The rest of us rejoined the battle. Clarisse and her siblings charged into the Titan army. They even inspired the centaurs to rally. Clarisse took a grappling hook and looped it through the drakon's eye sockets. She tied it to her chariot and drove towards the monsters. A red aura flickered around her, the blessing of Ares. For the moment, Clarisse was even more invincible than me. The enemy retreated and Clarisse drove in circles around 5th avenue. Chris offered to stay outside and watch over her. The rest of us ran into the lobby where we were setting up final defenses.
Percy had a mental conversation with Mrs. O'Leary and she vanished into the shadows. I ran over to Grover who was kneeling over Leneus. Leneus' lips were blue, and I wasn't sure if he saw us. There was a broken spear lodged in his stomach and both his goat legs were broken. "Grover?" he murmured.
"I'm here, Leneus," Grover said, holding back tears.
"Did...did we win?"
"Um...yes," Grover lied. "Thanks to you, Leneus. We drove the enemy away." This seemed to make Leneus happier.
"Told you. True leader. True..." The old satyr's eyes closed. I'll admit, I cried a little. Grover put his hand on Leneus' forehead and muttered something. Leneus melted until all that was left of him was a sapling in a pile of soil.
"A laurel," Grover smiled sadly. "Oh, that lucky old goat. He really proved himself out there." I nodded and helped Grover stand. He gathered the laurel sapling in his hands and went to the elevator to plant Leneus on Olympus. I followed closely behind him.
Olympus looked depressing. Grover was about to head to the Olympus gardens, but I shook my head and dragged him in the other direction. "I know a special place we can plant him." I led Grover to Apollo's personal gardens. There was a ring of delilahs that Apollo and I had planted together a year ago when I visited him. The center was empty.
"I don't know, Nina. I don't know which god this garden belongs to, and some of them can get pretty testy."
"Relax, Grover. This is Apollo's personal garden. Besides, this is my flower bed. There's nothing in the center. Go ahead." Grover looked at me nervously for a second before planting the sapling in the middle of my delilahs. We continued up to the throne room. Percy met up with us on our way there. We passed a lot of injured demigods. Will was covering one with the burial shroud of his cabin. I didn't want to know who was under it. "You look great," I told one camper. He grimaced at me.
"You'll be up and fighting in no time!" Percy told another.
"Leneus got turned into a shrub!" Grover told a groaning satyr. We looked at him and he shrugged. "It may have been sad watching him die, but I still don't like him." I slapped him for that comment. We passed Pollux who was propped up against a tree.
"I can still fight with my other hand," he groaned.
Percy seemed to remember something and said, "No. You've done enough. I want you to stay here and help with the wounded."
"But-"
"Promise me to stay safe. Okay? Personal favor."
He frowned but nodded. I don't blame him. Percy and him were cool and all, but they weren't close or anything. Pollux looked at me, confused, but I just shrugged. I was nearly as confused as him. We ran the rest of the way to Olympus. Rachel was there, as was Hestia. Rachel was holding Pandora's pithos. Percy made her give it back, not liking the look in her eyes. Grover went to scout out some extra supplies and Percy and I dragged Rachel over to Hestia.
"Getting colder. Harder to keep the fire going," the goddess murmured. She focused on Rachel. "Hello, my dear. You've come to our hearth at last."
"You've been expecting me?" Rachel asked, shocked.
"To claim your place at the hearth," Hestia continued, ignoring Rachel's question, "you must let go of your distractions. It is the only way you will survive."
"I...I understand," Rachel nodded. She turned to Percy. The amusement of her basically dumping my brother mixed with all the stress had me laughing my head off. Percy glared at me as Rachel left the throne room.
Percy looked at Pandora's pithos. I could see that he really wanted to open it. Grover came back into the room. "Um, should I leave again?" I shook my head and watched Percy. Percy walked up to Hestia.
"Hestia, I give this to you as an offering."
The goddess cocked her head. "I am the least of the gods. Why would you trust me with this?"
"You're the last Olympian. And the most important."
"And why is that, Percy Jackson?"
"Because Hope survives best at the hearth, and Hope is all we have left. Guard it for me, and I won't be tempted to give up again."
Lady Hestia took the pithos. The hearth glowed a little brighter. "Well done, Percy Jackson. May the gods bless you."
"We're about to find out," I said, looking up at the thrones of the gods. I walked over to my dad's. Percy and Grover lifted me up. When I was sitting, I reached over and pulled Percy up while Grover lifted him up from the ground. Grover looked really uneasy about us sitting up here. The throne began to rumble. I felt like my mind was going to explode!
"WHO DARES-" The voice stopped abruptly and the anger retreated. I officially have the worst migraine ever. "Percy, Christina," our dad's voice was still very angry. "What-exactly-are you doing on my throne?"
"Sorry Papa," I said. "We needed to get your attention."
"This was a very dangerous thing to do. Even for you two. If I hadn't looked before I blasted, you would now be a puddle of sea water."
"We're sorry," Percy repeated. "Listen, things are rough up here." Together, Percy and I told Dad everything that was going on.
"Children, what you ask is impossible."
"Dad, Kronos sent an army against you on purpose. He wants to divide you from the other gods because he knows you could tip the scales," Percy said.
"Be that as it may, he attacks my home."
"We're at your home, Olympus," I complained.
Thunder shook the throne room. Visions went through my mind of fights going on under the sea. "Is Tyson okay?" I asked as I saw five cyclopes get blasted to dust by a giant squid.
"He's fine. Doing much better than I expected. Though 'peanut butter' is a strange battle cry."
"You let him fight?" Percy asked.
"Stop changing the subject! You realize what you are asking me to do? My palace will be destroyed."
"And Olympus might be saved," I added.
"Very well! It shall be as you say. But my children, pray this works."
"We are praying. We're talking to you, right?" Percy and I said in unison.
"Oh...yes. Good point. Amphitrite-incoming!" An explosion shattered our connection. Percy and I slipped off the throne.
"Are you guys okay?" Grover asked nervously. "You turned pale and...you started smoking."
Percy and I looked at our arms in shock to see that yes, we did start smoking. The doors slammed open and Thalia burst into the room. "You've got to get down there. The enemy is advancing and Kronos is leading them." We all looked at each other before running from the throne room.