Chapter Title: We Return To Find Camp Under Attack

(A/N: A bit of a change of POV for a bit. Mostly been Colton, Lavinia, and Michael up until now — now is the time for a switchback to Luke. Also an early release.)

Four hours.

That's how long it took the fastest horse on the planet to get from Alaska to San Francisco Bay, heading straight over the water down the Northwest Coast. Like, talk about a underwhelming performance.

It was absolute horseshit — no pun intended — if I had to be brutally honest here.

That's also how long it took for me and Percy's memories to return completely. Believe me when I say, I felt really guilty when the memories of all the bad stuff I did in the name of Kronos in the past fully came back. I wish I could take it all back. I really did.

Either way, I was really annoyed with Hera — or Juno, whichever name you want to use for her — for what she had done, the same reason as for why Percy was also annoyed with her.

Eight months of his — and also mine — life stolen. Eight. Fucking. Months.

I thought my dad giving me a repeat quest sucked. But this, however, was far worse. Like, this made that look like mere child's play in comparison. None of the grievances that I had against the Olympians back then, regardless of how Kronos manipulated me on them, could have ever measured up to this.

I actually shuddered then and there because when I thought about it, if I was annoyed at all of this, then it was likely that Colton and Michael — might be ticking time bombs of rage on this matter. If either or both of them knew the truth now..

Especially because I felt sick to my stomach —not just because of that thought, but also because of how crazy Thalia must be without me. Like believe me, Zeus may hate my ass for what I did in the past, but I love his daughter with all of my damn heart. Not as much as Colton does for Kayla — I could never possibly come close to the level he goes to sometimes, but something close to it — that was for sure. Next time I saw Hera, I was definitely going to give her a few choice words, possibly in front of Zeus to boot. Like, I now understand why Annie hates her so much now, why camp hates her.

And I'll be honest, it's completely understandable. It was just that inexcusable in my own opinion. But hey, this — as extreme as it was — happened to be sometimes what you got when you were a servant of the gods.

Either way, I couldn't help but imagine that our friends and family must be going out of their minds. If Camp Jupiter was in such bad trouble, I didn't really even want to guess what Camp Half-Blood must be facing without us. That thought honestly hurt more than the rest. I really didn't not want to think about that at all.

Even worse: Saving both camps would be only the beginning. According to Alcyoneus, the real war would happen far away, in the homeland of the gods. The giants intended to attack the original Mount Olympus and destroy the gods forever — at least that's what he said. I don't exactly know how you're supposed to destroy the gods when Olympus is currently somewhere else, but I wasn't really asking questions all that much at this point.

Nor did I really have time to ask those kinds of questions right now.

Percy and I both knew that giants couldn't die unless demigods and gods fought them together. Nico had told us all that. Colton, Kelli, and Kayla had all mentioned it too back in August as well — on the subject of those three, I'm still surprised honestly — even when I was working for Kronos — that Kelli had actually been a double agent all along. That threw me for a loop, that's for sure.

Then of course, there was the loophole that was Colton's Monster King faction.

In a sense then, Juno's plan was incredibly simple: Unite the Roman and Greek demigods to create an elite team of heroes, then somehow convince the gods to fight alongside them — with the assistance of the Monster King faction of course. But first, we had to save Camp Jupiter. Hopefully, Colton, Michael, Lavinia would probably already be back or be close to being back to camp by now. Which would be really nice, since we could use their help indeed.

The coastline began to look familiar. We raced past the Mendocino lighthouse. Shortly afterward, Mount Tam and the Marin headlands loomed out of the fog. Arion shot straight under the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay. Believe me, I have never seen all the sights of this city go by so fast at all until now.

We tore through Berkeley and into the Oakland Hills. When they reached the hilltop above the Caldecott Tunnel, Arion shuddered like a broken car and came to a stop, his chest heaving.

Hazel patted his sides lovingly. "You did great, Arion."

As I jumped off Arion, I couldn't help but look at him. The horse just looked too tired even to cuss, and just stared at her with a look that said: Of course I did great. What did you expect?

Percy and Frank jumped off the chariot. Percy wished there'd been comfortable seats or an in-flight meal. His legs were wobbly. His joints were so stiff, he could barely walk. If he went into battle like this, the enemy would call him Old Man Jackson.

Frank didn't look much better. He hobbled to the top of the hill and peered down at the camp. "Guys...you need to see this." The way he said that, I instantly had a bad feeling about what was going on over the other side of the hill.

The sounds didn't help much either.

When we looked over the top of the hill, my heart sank. The battle had begun, and it wasn't going well. The Twelfth Legion was arrayed on the Field of Mars, trying to protect the city. Scorpions fired into the ranks of the Earthborn. Hannibal the elephant plowed down monsters right and left, but the defenders were badly outnumbered.

On her pegasus Scipio, Reyna flew around the giant Polybotes, trying to keep him occupied. The Lares had formed shimmering purple lines against a mob of black, vaporous shades in ancient armor. Veteran demigods from the city had joined the battle, and were pushing their shield wall against an onslaught of wild centaurs. Giant eagles circled the battlefield, doing aerial combat with two snake-haired ladies in green Bargain Mart vests—Stheno and Euryale, the same ones Colton had killed.

The legion itself was taking the brunt of the attack, but their formation was breaking. Each cohort was an island in a sea of enemies. The Cyclopes' siege tower shot glowing green cannonballs into the city, blasting craters in the forum, reducing houses to ruins. As we all stood there and watched, a cannonball hit the Senate House and the dome partially collapsed.

"We're too late," Hazel said.

"No," Percy said. "They're still fighting. We can do this."

"Where's Lupa?" Frank asked, desperation creeping into his voice. "She and the wolves...they should be here."

"Yeah — I don't see Colton, Michael, or Lavinia either.." I said. That was bad, because of Colton being the Monster King and all. His forces really could be useful here.

"She did what she could," Percy said. "She slowed down the army on its way south. Now it's up to us. We've got to get the gold eagle and these weapons to the legion."

"But Arion is out of steam!" Hazel said. "We can't haul this stuff ourselves."

"Maybe we don't have to." Percy scanned the hilltops.

He then whistled as loud as he could—a good New York cab whistle that would've been heard all the way from Times Square to Central Park.

Shadows rippled in the trees. A huge black shape bounded out of nowhere— a very familiar one at that. Hey there, Ms. O' Leary.

"Hellhound!" Frank scrambled backward.

"It's okay!" Percy grinned. "These are friends."

"Yep.. old friends indeed.." I muttered.

"Brother!" Tyson climbed off and ran toward Percy. Percy tried to brace himself, but Tyson just slammed into him and smothered him in a hug. Then Tyson let go and laughed with delight, looking Percy over with that massive baby brown eye. Seeing me, his smile lessened a little.

"Yeah.. I'm still alive too.." I said to him. "Colton.. Michael.. both of them should be coming back from a different quest."

He nodded, and then turned to Percy. "You are not dead!" he said. "I like it when you are not dead! Both of you, that is!"

At least he cares a bit about me despite what I've done, I thought to myself.

Ella fluttered to the ground and began preening her feathers. "Ella found a dog," she announced. "A large dog. And a Cyclops."

Was she blushing? It was hard to tell honestly. Ms. O' Leary now pounced on Percy, knocking him to the ground and barking so loudly that even Arion backed up.

"Hey, Mrs. O'Leary," Percy said. "Yeah, I love you too, girl. Good dog."

Hazel made a squeaking sound. "You have a hellhound named Mrs. O'Leary?"

"Long story." Percy managed to get to his feet and wipe off the dog slobber. "You can ask your brother..."

"Yeah.. it's a long story that I unintentionally started and helped with.." I muttered.

My voice wavered when I saw Hazel's expression. I almost forgot that Nico di Angelo was missing.

Hazel had told him what Thanatos had said about searching for the Doors of Death in Rome, and Percy looked like he wanted to wring the kid's neck for having pretended he didn't know him — or any of us for that matter — when we first came to camp. Honestly, I was just annoyed over that stunt more than anything else.

Still, he was Hazel's brother, and finding him was a conversation for another time. Because right now, we had bigger fish to fry.

"Sorry," he said. "But yeah, this is my dog, Mrs. O'Leary. Tyson—these are our friends, Frank and Hazel."

Percy turned to Ella, who was counting all the barbs in one of her feathers.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "We were worried about you."

"Ella is not strong," she said. "Cyclopes are strong. Tyson found Ella. Tyson took care of Ella."

That was nice.

Percy raised his eyebrows. Ella was blushing.

"Tyson," he said, "you big charmer, you."

Tyson turned the same color as Ella's plumage. "Um...No." He leaned down and whispered nervously, loud enough for all the others to hear: "She is pretty."

Tyson and Ella.. I ship it.

Frank tapped his head like he was afraid his brain had short-circuited. "Anyway, there's this battle happening."

Oh yeah, fuck.. forgot about that.

"Right," Percy agreed. "Tyson, where's Annabeth? Is any other help coming?"

Tyson pouted. His big brown eye got misty. "The big ship is not ready. Leo says tomorrow, maybe two days. Then they will come."

Wait, who the fuck is Leo? Ah forget it, I thought to myself. Camp Jupiter's in danger. It's killing time now.

"We don't have two minutes," Percy said. "Okay, here's the plan."

As quickly as possible, he pointed out which were the good guys and the bad guys on the battlefield. Tyson was alarmed to learn that bad Cyclopes and bad centaurs were in the giant's army. "I have to hit pony-men?"

"Yeah.. sorry buddy.." I muttered to him. He just nodded. I really felt bad for him.

"Just scare them away," Percy promised.

"Um, Percy?" Frank looked at Tyson with trepidation. "I just...don't want our friend here getting hurt. Is Tyson a fighter?"

Percy smiled. "Is he a fighter?"

I chimed in. "Frank, I'm the fucking reason Tyson is a general in the Olympian Army."

Frank just looked shocked. "And by the way, Tyson, Frank is a descendant of Poseidon.." Percy added.

"Brother!" Tyson crushed Frank in a hug.

Percy stifled a laugh. "Actually he's more like a great-great-...Oh, never mind. Yeah, he's your brother."

"Thanks," Frank mumbled through a mouthful of flannel. "But if the legion mistakes Tyson for an enemy—"

I shuddered. I really did not want to think about what would happen if that occurred.

"I've got it!" Hazel ran to the chariot and dug out the biggest Roman helmet she could find, plus an old Roman banner embroidered with SPQR.

I forgot about that. This was pure genius.

She handed them to Tyson. "Put those on, big guy. Then our friends will know you're on our team."

"Yay!" Tyson said. "I'm on your team!"

The helmet was ridiculously small, and he put the cape on backward, like a SPQR baby bib.

"It'll do," Percy said. "Ella, just stay here. Stay safe."

"Safe," Ella repeated. "Ella likes being safe. Safety in numbers. Safety deposit boxes. Ella will go with Tyson."

"What?" Percy said. "Oh...fine. Whatever. Just don't get hurt. And Mrs. O'Leary—"

"ROOOF!"

"How do you feel about pulling a chariot?"

I pulled out Backbiter II. Oh well, I thought to myself. Time to get dirty.

Hopefully, Colton and the others would show up soon. We could sure use their help. Oh well, either we saved camp.. or die trying at this point. Either way, the Great Prophecy was progressing forward today one way or another.