All rights belong to Rick Riordan

Daughter of the Dragon (Part 1)

(Percy)

As much as me and my uncle/future father-in-law's Greek aspect argued with one another. I had to accept he was a pretty decent orator. Which was a good thing because everyone's eyes were upwards at us immortals and not paying close attention to the two opposing forces directly below. One of whom had briefly disappeared from view for a split second just before Zeus finished talking.

'I must say using my brother's ability to talk as part of your strategy is pretty impressive.' Hades told me mentally with a small smile appearing on his lips as he looked up from the ground below. Below the larger formation had slowly started moving forward as one unit, the Greeks were not quite as organised as they moved at a much faster pace towards the hunters. One particular recognisable figure leading the charge.

'Well the Romans are a lot more loving of discipline and authority figures so of course they are likely to be looking at Zeus during a speech.' I replied with amusement; in fairness I had been sceptical that this would work but sure enough as soon as Zeus started talking the entire formations views has shifted skyward.

'I take it the daughter of Hecate is the one responsible, strange girl that one. The fact she won't stay dead is rather infuriating.' He guessed correctly before adding with a frown.

'What is the deal with that anyway; she just gets reborn from Hecate every time right?'

'She never makes it to the Underworld; I even deliberately killed her once myself and she still never makes it to Charon. Not once has the soul of Morgan Le Faye ever made it to judgement otherwise, she would have been in punishment a long time ago.' He explained letting out a sigh externally. I was half tempted to rebuke him on the fact that he so nonchalantly admitted to killing a mortal but in truth it was probably the only case in history where no harm, no foul could be applied to murder.

'Speaking of reincarnation how do you keep track of those who have made Elysium and chosen to be reborn? Obviously, you have to record it somehow or no-one would ever make blessed.' I asked out of curiosity.

To my surprise the god actually reached into his jacket and produced a small black leather-bound book, No larger than a small diary.

'That cannot be all the people who have ever made Elysium I hope.' I asked concerned at the implication due to the size.

'Adults for the last thousand years, you would be surprised how few actually try getting through judgement. Most just go to Asphodel too afraid to try. If it makes you feel better, I have a larger separate book for children. Unfortunately, they generally just go straight to reincarnation otherwise I would have a playschool of the blessed.' He said somewhat jokingly though it still fell somewhat flat as I considered the sad implications.

To my surprise he actually started flicking through the pages as if curious about something before snapping the book shut and looking smug at me directly. I was almost willing to bet that my name was in that book, judging by that look alone, which obviously raised so many more questions.

'Shouldn't the pair of you be focusing on the battle below?' Artemis told us disapprovingly causing me to turn my head to the other side and look at her hard enough to get potential whiplash.

"Even my idiot brothers are paying attention more than you." Artemis said with a harsher tone as I stared into her silver eyes.

"Hey I take offense to that." Hermes shouted across leaning forward. Considering a large portion of the occupants here were her brothers it was fairly understandable. Especially as he was helping us without anyone else knowing.

"I didn't specify which of you and second it was a compliment, so shut up and pay attention." Artemis snapped back leaning past me, her eyes momentarily turning gold as she stared the younger god down who cowered back into his throne.

"Speaking of which when are the hunters going to do anything? The Greeks are closing in on them, they just keep standing there. I expected more from them by now Artemis. I hope that speech was not going to be for nothing?" Zeus asked curiously.

"Relax brother not everything is as it appears, we may be in for some surprises today." Hades said as the Greeks closed in to less than fifty yards from the Hunters starting position still without any opposition.

"Dammit Clarisse, how blatant do you need a trap to be before you blunder into it!" Mars stated angrily rising to his feet. The armoured Roman god grasping the arms of his throne in a white-knuckle grip.

"Let the game begin girls." Artemis said with a grin.

(Reyna) 10 mins previously.

As I surveyed the forces in front of me, I could not help but getting a headache as I looked over the right flank. In front and to my left were sixty-five files of three legionnaires deep all neatly arranged in perfect order, divided into their five cohorts. Behind them were the combined fourteen children and legacies of Apollo acting as auxiliary archers.

These were at the rear of the formation for two reasons. One to protect them from counter-fire from the hunters and second, they were probably our most effective individuals at facing the hunters. I was quite aware obviously that a lot of the hunters were only recently recruited since the second giant war. While Artemis blessing gave a boost to their individual skill it still required considerable effort over time to become a master archer. As such in most cases except for the cases of Phoebe, Zoe and especially Atalanta the children of Apollo were likely as good if not better. The last however had both advantages along with two thousand years plus experience and was probably the greatest 'mortal' archer to ever live.

The other advantage they had was of course Thalia as a child of the big three. Experience with Percy and Jason had shown me that number often meant little against them. For Hades sake Percy annihilated half the legion when they were in the exact same formation single-handedly. And he could not fly at that point; Thalia of course could, which was a major logistical pain to deal with.

There was nothing technically stopping Thalia from sneaking into our fort overwhelming the few guards manning the ballistae and seizing it. Except maybe her own hot-blooded ego, sneaking was not really her style. She was much more forceful after all, especially last nigh-.

"That bitch." I muttered out loud causing several of the nearby archers to turn and look at me strangely.

"Praetor?" One of the Roman legacies asked nervously.

"Nothing. Eyes front." I snapped back feeling my skin heating up in embarrassment.

Sure, Artemis had accepted our relationship but to actually use it as a means of psychological distraction was low. I had to admit it was somewhat working, now I was tired and distracted.

Shaking my head to clear the thought running through it I focused on the logistical mess that was the Greeks. If anything could remind me of what I should be focusing on it was shambles of a formation that Clarisse was leading. Considering their pedigree as a fighting force consisting of tens of thousands of soldiers in a carefully arranged phalanx. Why was it when you reduced the number, they lost all semblance of order and discipline and became a rabble?

Sure, individually they were generally superior to their Roman counterparts but if the two forces under my command were against one another, I would have bet on the Romans every time. The fact that their Hipparch was a nigh on crazy blood-knight child of Ares did not help even if I did have every respect for her personal skill.

Still apart from Clarisse and a few of her younger siblings there were not exactly any Greeks that were from combat focused Olympians. Except for the aforementioned Apollo kids the rest were a mixture of Hermes, Hephaestus and Aphrodite for the most part.

The Hermes kids were a mix match of every type of warrior imaginable. There was no form of standardised weapons or armour amongst any of them. It was like they had broken into a blacksmiths forge and stolen whatever they could get their hands on. Which considering their father being the patron of thieves was probably quite likely. Daggers, swords, spears, axes they had them all. Armour likewise was a mix match of heavy infantry armour and what looked like sports gear that had been spray painted (badly!) to look like metallic.

The Hephaestus kids could make decent shock troopers in a real battle as they were phyically strong enough to and so did wear heavier armour. But against the hunters they may as well stand still they would never be able to catch them. As such the four of them were left manning the two ballistae on the walls of fort behind me.

Aphrodite's well they were exactly as expected, standing in a circle comparing whose armour was more stylish. The only reason they had come to the city at all was so they could go out to the California beaches every so often because the East Coast was colder in winter.

The one thing I really lacked and wanted was a child of Athena to plan for them but typically the few who had come to the city had returned either Home or to Camp Half-Blood, when Thalia's incident had occurred. Therefore, they were not eligible to play even if they came back. The only one who could have had outright refused to play for personal reasons.

Which Clarisse explained afterwards was due to some of the Hunter's Octavian had killed saving his life in the Battle of Manhattan.

Two years later and the legacy of that fool was still finding ways of making things difficult for me. Unlike the Legionnaires who had actual period of mandatory service, the Greeks actually had a choice on whether they wanted to play or not so there was nothing I could do to force the issue to my frustration as the boy simply apologised and walked away.

I was broken out of my melancholy when high above Lord Zeus began his speech and I instinctively looked up at the floating podium. If I had kept looking forward, I may have noticed Thalia briefly wave before flickering from view for a fraction of a second.

With the conclusion of the speech I felt a great sense of confliction reminding me that I was technically fighting against my sister-in-arms. Yet I was also honour bound to oppose them on this occasion. Sure I knew that none of them held it against me, least not my best friend or lover I guess as we were now.

That it in itself was a strange situation I never thought I would be in. Then again, my sister Hylla was openly Bisexual having been in a relationship with Circe during our stay with her. But apart from Jason and to a much lesser though more awkward extent Percy, I was never really attracted to the opposite sex. The first one I was definitely over now in the most ironic way. The second was taken by someone well out of my league.

It had never really occurred to me, but I guess I could now appreciate how beautiful the goddess in question was since 'coming out'. However, it required a truly staggering amount of stubbornness to be able to put up with her temperamental nature.

Something I did not envy Percy for in truth, I may have sworn my loyalty to her but we hunters could all see that she was not exactly the easiest person to be with. It was sometimes hard to tell whether Percy was her Fiancé or her servant, especially as he was the more powerful of the two. Then again it was not exactly a standard relationship considering both had one or more alter-egos.

Truth was I was somewhat happier to be sworn to Diana rather Artemis, there was after all only two Huntresses and with the daughter of Aphrodite happy to stay with the general larger group of Hunters and her sister I become the de-facto leader of our smaller group. Something which allowed me greater freedom in expressing my views to the goddess.

Then again Thalia and I both agreed their fatal flaws of Artemis's arrogance and Diana's inferiority complex did not make for any chance of truly harmonious living for the time being.

Of course, I could not know that in one regard that relationship was actually reversed when it came to Percy. Unlike Thalia I actually was not interested in learning more about their private lives, though it was embarrassing to think that she actually knew everything about ours.

"Praetor the Greeks are moving, what would you have us do?" The fourth cohort Centurion next to me asked knocking me back into reality.

If I had described the Greeks as a rabble previously when they had been waiting to start, the moment they were actually released they managed to somehow get worse.

I couldn't help but feel my right eye twitch as I watched my 'fellow' commander charging at the forefront of the pack.

'Dear Olympus Clarisse, I may not actually want to win but don't go making this easy for me. You are making me look bad at commanding.' I thought to myself as I looked around at the legionnaires closest to us some of whom were looking at me expectantly awaiting orders.

The truth was there was no need to go anywhere; we were the defending force after all. It was our flag the hunters had to capture not the other way around.

Yet for some bizarre reason the Centurions and Clarisse wanted to operate a show of force and fight this as a field battle.

Of course, in initial planning this had not included a goddess turning the smooth surface of the field of Mars into a recreation of Passchendaele circa. 1917. Still the odds were 10-1 in our favour so it was not entirely foolish though it would result in unnecessary casualties in all likelihood. Thankfully this was not a major issue due to the being a 'friendly' battle, however it was still annoying to consider the wastage that was likely to occur due to others pride.

If we were to operate this purely in defence of the fort it would be nigh impossible to lose, due to the numbers difference. Yet when I pointed it out, I was challenged as being weak-hearted due to our opponents. However, who was I to point out the obviousness of that point against a bunch of hot-blooded idiots seeking pride. After all most of those foolish Centurions advocating this plan were eyeing up being my replacements.

Looking across the field I found it strange that the Hunters had yet to respond to the game starting even with the Greeks rapidly now closing the distance to them. Another 30 seconds or so and they would be within bow range and yet Thalia and the rest were still stationary as if waiting for us to act.

"All cohorts maintain close formation, shields up and locked. Archer auxilia are to remain close behind." I ordered firmly noticing a frown forming on the Centurion's face.

"Is there a problem with that order?" I asked him glaring down at him.

"You would have us creep forward whilst those Greeks earn all the Glory…" The Centurion challenged angrily thrusting his sword forward to where said soldiers were now within spitting distance of the Hunters and yet there was still no opposition.

For almost a second, I thought the impossible. The Greeks had allied with the Hunters and were actually planning on fighting us together. Which would not have been too far-fetched considering their own much closer past relationships with one another as compared to us. However, Clarisse's attitude and body language assured me that they desperately longed to end the crushing history of defeats they had endured against the Hunters.

However instead of that what happened next was almost harder to describe which was what had silenced the Centurion mid-rant.

One minute the Hunters had been standing in the open and yet when the first Greek got within fifty feet of them, they all vanished into thin air.

"All Legionnaires stand to! The Hunters are in the trenches, lock shields and prepare for ranged combat." I ordered suddenly as I watched the first Greek warrior fall in the distance, a few seconds later more began to full the floor as the stragglers were picked off from concealed cover.

"Get the archers into the formation and protect them and advance slowly. Looks like we are going to have to pick up the pieces of our allies if the Hunters spare any by the time we get there. I am going to keep an eye on their movements from up top and keep an eye out for Thalia." I ordered before grabbing Scipio's reigns as he took a dozen paces forward before flapping his mighty wings and propelling us skyward.

Having to wheel about several times to gain elevation without getting too close to the battle I was forced to keep turning my head to keep an eye on the full battle situation below. It seemed that the Legion was at least slowly following my orders as they advanced at a slow pace towards the rapidly dwindling Greek formation who had all retreated into a semi-defensible circle formation with shields interlocked.

The hunters were indeed firing from the trenches surrounding them on three sides however this meant they were shooting upwards at all times barely exposing their heads and shoulders above the ground level. So as long as the Greeks kept their shields low the arrows would likewise be stopped.

However, this had a flaw, there was only thirty or less Greeks standing and the formation was not compact enough. There was nothing stopping a Hunter on one side shooting up and over one side of the formation and hitting the back of the Greek on the opposite side. Who would then drop down opening a gap through which another Hunter would place an arrow directly into the back of the original side, before the hole was plugged and the formation contracted to make up for their losses.

What however was most worrying was that this was all being done by a small portion of Hunters. From a safe height above I could only count ten Hunters suppressing and eliminating the Greeks. They just constantly moved in constant tandem with one another. They were operating in pairs in perfect synchronicity to perform the previous manoeuvre. A little too precise to be coincidental.

"The headsets of course." I cursed aloud. We had never returned them to Athena after Vegas as Artemis had realised, they were pretty useful devices. Of course, normally like cell phones they would attract monsters… except they were in the middle of New Rome with almost all of Olympus overhead and it would be instant death for any monster that tried.

It was rather ironic that they were using our own home field advantage against us so well. In the wilds or even Camp Half-Blood it would have been potentially dangerous to do such a thing. In Vegas it was due to Artemis providing over watch in case of monster attacks outside and inside we were banking on any local inhabitants avoiding Cronos out of their own fear.

However, it raised a new question where were the rest of the Hunters. Morganna was obviously behind the initial deception as she was the only one who could have created that illusion. But it meant that for some unknown amount of time the majority of the Hunters were unaccounted for.

There was little I could do here from this altitude for them below so I began to fly to turn about towards my own force whilst keeping an eye out for the rest when I heard a pained shout from below.

(Thalia)

We had hit a snag in the plan so to speak. It had all started off fairly well to be honest; three quarters of the Greeks were now incapacitated upon the field floor without any casualties or even much effort to be honest.

The ambush had worked flawlessly as per the plan, ever reliant on the obviousness of the Children of Ares to just charge into the fray without a seconds thought. All you had to do was dangle a carrot for them to chase after. Even when one did not really exist, what was extremely fortuitous was that the spell lasted as long as it did. My father's speech had been longer than we expected and used up valuable time of Morganna's Illusion.

"Thallllllliiiiiaaaaaaa!" I heard shouted from behind me almost as if I was being hunted by some sort of berserk monster, motivating me to run a little faster through the trench.

You see there was one thing none of us had accounted for, something that threw a massive spanner in the works well around 6'8" to be precise.

Clarisse still had the blessing of Ares.

The dozen arrows that had pinged harmlessly off her over the last minute only confirmed what the red aura surrounding had suggested.

What was really annoying was in the last game against us at the camp she had clearly not had it. Making us forget about this little bit of information as a one-time affair back in the Battle of Manhattan. The real problem was I did not have a frost giant on hand to 'cool' her down. In fact, the only thing I had on my side was… a head start.

You see the plan had been to take out the stragglers first before whittling down the rest of the force once they regrouped. Which had been going fine too, until the wrong person got hit by an arrow meant for Clarisse herself.

Instead of hitting her directly in the back as intended, she had instead been knocked aside by the guy next to her who took it in the collar and dropped like a rock. Now initially this had not seemed so bad she had become distracted for a few seconds with the fallen guy and we had taken out two more Greeks. All the while she had been holding the guys hand and calling the name Chris a few times.

Then she became a very angry red flashlight, tanked a dozen arrows, tossed aside her shield, grabbed his sword and jumped into the nearest trench. Where yours truly had unfortunately been closest.

And so, began a game of cat and mouse. I would say I was prepared to stand and fight but I would be lying. I was not particularly a fan of my odds against Clarisse in a straight fight anyway, give her invulnerability and increased strength. No thanks I do not want any of that, please leave me alone.

"The rest are retreating through the opening, can anyone assist?" Phoebe's voice came through my ear piece.

"Let them go, do not endanger yourself by over-extending." Zoe ordered in my stead. Truth was she was not with our group because she did not have a bow she could safely use without a) breaking under her own strength or b) being powerful enough to blow a hole through an armoured demigod if it could.

However, I sure as hades wished she was at this given point in time. Because at this rate the only way I was going to beat Clarisse was if she had been neglecting cardiovascular exercises.

To compound my issues, I happened to be on the closest side to the slowly encroaching Roman force which had archers preventing me from just flying to safety though that was sure as hell looking as the lesser of two evils.

Reaching the intersection of two trenches I looked over my shoulder hoping that she was far enough behind that she would not see which turn I took, but unfortunately no such luck as if anything the taller armoured girl had actually closed the distance. Which told me one of two things rage was a hell of a motivator or that blessing was bullshit.

As I took the turning to the right, I almost ran straight into another Hunter heading the other way.

"Watch out!" I shouted narrowly darting around the other silver figure who looked almost excited.

I would like to say I stopped and helped my fellow sister but the truth was upon recognising Tania I decided to appreciate her sacrifice by running quicker and making a series of turns. Still didn't stop the sound of a wooden spear shattering a scream and a sickening thud coming through the headpiece though.

(Reyna)

I would like to reconsider one of my previous statements where I said I respected Clarisse's personal combat skills.

I was a pretty good fighter, Thalia even more so than me. Tania was not that far behind in truth.

So, to watch Thalia running away as fast as inhumanly possible from the seeming force of nature bearing down on her was almost comically fascinating. However, to then see the other girl come in to try and save her was well… morbidly so.

Clarisse had discarded here shield so she was defenceless apart from her breastplate. But that was one layer too many all things considered. Tania's otherwise deadly thrust to her gut simply resulted in a jarred arm as the spear point bounced off as if she had hit Abrams tank. What followed next was Clarisse dropping her own spear and grabbing her half-sisters and swinging her against the wall of the trench hard enough for the shaft to crack against her ribs.

However despite having the air knocked out of her lungs, Tania still tried to pull the sword out of the back of her shield only for Clarisse to grab the whole shield and pull it away forcefully whilst planting her boot against the smaller girls gut using it as leverage as Tania's shoulder was dislocated before the shield came loose.

This of course caused her to cry out in pain for a split second before an armoured fist crashed into the side of her head knocking her out cold and breaking her jaw in one blow.

Clarisse La Rue was simply put terrifyingly Badass. To compare the sisters that had just fought was like putting Mike Tyson against the Incredible Hulk.

However, in the short few seconds that the fight had taken Thalia had thankfully got away and the rest of the visible hunters had likewise. A dozen or so Greeks had likewise used the distraction caused by Clarisse's rampage to retreat back the way they had come to the relative safety of the Legion force's close proximity. Pulling Scipio into a dive I landed him near to where Clarisse was now standing over the fallen Hunter.

"Clarisse?" I called down to her nervously. To my surprise she actually bent down and checked Tania's neck for a pulse before grabbing her discarded spear. I took the fact she did not run her though with it as being that she had calmed down enough to see reason or that Tania was already dead. However, the blood bubbling out the side of her ruined mouth showed she was still alive albeit barely.

"He was not supposed to be playing; I told him I didn't want him in this foolish waste of time. And yet he would not listen and once again someone else is taking one for me." She growled out clenching the spear hard enough to hear it cracking.

"He is not dead."

"But if this was real yes, he would be, so don't even try and sugar coat it. I know you and the rest think I am some sort of battle fanatic, even my own siblings laugh about it. The sad truth is though that I have nothing else. The one time I didn't want to fight I lost my best friend; she lost her life so I could gain this blessing. When I saw Chris get hit, I thought I was back on that street in Manhattan watching Selena die again and I snapped." Clarisse said bitterly grabbing the horse haired plume of her helmet and pulling it off her head.

To my surprise there was actually tears running down her face.

"What sort of older sister beats their sibling to near death over a game?" She said angrily tossing the helmet away.

"An Olympian one normally." Someone said jokingly from off to our side.

"Jackson." Clarisse growled turning towards the voice only to freeze mid-turn.

"Sorry Clarisse but I am not here for you today." Percy said simply walking past her, his eyes pure gold as he used his domain to restrict her.

Instead he jumped down into the trench and bent down and grabbed the fallen Tania in his arms. If she was awake, she would probably kill him for carrying her bridal style.

"Right then carry on, and try not to maim anyone else." He said before disappearing into shadows as Clarisse regained the ability to move.

"Why is it no matter how hard I work and what blessing I gain he is always better than me?" She spat angrily after making sure that he was gone. However, in doing so she spotted something else on the floor and picked it up.

"Let's see how well they do when someone knows what they doing." Clarisse said sinisterly as she placed the ear piece in her own ear.

(Percy)

"She is still unconscious but she will be alright."

After dropping Tania off at the Hunter's house and reversing the damage Clarisse had inflicted. The less time between me fixing it and it happening reduced the inconvenience caused upon her. The fact she was unconscious actually made it easier because there were no breaks in her memories. I had gone straight back to my seat to see if anything had happened in my short absence.

"You know that healing people like that is bullshit right?" Apollo complained as I merely shrugged and grinned back at him. Before looking back down at the game to see what I had missed.

'We have a problem.' Artemis told me mentally sounding extremely worried.

'Can't be that bad can it?' I said curiously.

'Clarisse found the ear piece and is using it to find the rest of the hunters. And I cannot tell them not to.' Artemis explained and I noticed that the bulk of the Legion had begun to move in a different direction. The first cohort taking the lead with the others following behind straight towards one corner of the field away from where the previous battle took place. Only the fifth cohort remained relatively close to the fort with Reyna flying circles over it. This meant the Hunters would be prevented from attacking from the flank whilst she remained on overwatch.

The main issue was there was only a long deep trench in the area in front of the main legion force, where a large group of amazons and a few of the hunters involved in the previous fight were grouped. It was this group that had inadvertently revealed where they were going and that Clarisse had decided to pursue.

If the legion got in the trench, they would be able to flush the hunters into the open field.

'This is my fault, if I had not…'

'No, you made the right decision, as much as she frustrates me sometimes Tania is still one of my hunters. And I would not wish serious injury on any of them. The girls are smart they will figure it out before long, I just hope it is not too late when they do.' She explained cutting me off, though whether she was trying to reassure me or herself was open for severe consideration.

(Marina)

"Marina just run, don't worry about us." Phoebe shouted across at me as I stood there frozen watching her parry a spear thrust with a hunting knife before slashing down the third legionnaire to come against her.

I wanted to help and yet I could bring myself to release an arrow at another demigod. Sure, I knew in the back of my head that these were non-lethal arrows but putting that into practice was another matter. I was terrified pure and simple. We had been caught in a trap and I panicked.

"We are leaving, whether you like it or not." I heard before I found myself being dragged backwards.

"Let me go Morganna, I can help." I said struggling to pull my arm free from the older girl. Her other arm was limply hanging down stained with blood after taking a slash able to draw blood.

"No, you cannot, the least you can do is acknowledge their sacrifice and get away from here." She said scornfully as I managed another look before a ring of Legionnaires blocked Phoebe and the last few hunters of from my view.

"Gods damn it, get over here you." She said angrily pushing me against the edge of the trench wall before putting herself in front of me. She then began to chant in an unknown language rapidly, verse after verse she pronounced with practised ease.

"Spread out and find out if there are any more of them." I heard a girl shout out loudly nearby before the sound of armoured footsteps began to get closer.

I was forced to silently panic as they could clearly be heard getting closer. And yet Morganna did not move or react except to keep chanting under her breath even as one was directly behind her. And yet even when he looked directly at us briefly, he carried on walking past.

"How is it that we can take out a dozen of them now and yet there still seems to be plenty of them left talking to one another. There were only twenty-one of them when we started the game." The girl I had heard earlier came into view towering over the both of us surrounded by a terrifying crimson aura. What was most worrying however was the earpiece she was wearing, barely visible beneath her brown hair.

There had not been enough for everyone so I did not have one of my own though Morganna did. That explained how they had found us so easily I guessed.

Still it did not help us get out of the predicament we were in. It was only now I began to notice the beads of sweat building up on Morganna forehead as she continued to chant.

"Decanu- Hipparch. There is no sign of any further opposition over hear. However, some of those we defeated are clearly not Hunters. They appear to be…"

"Amazons I know, unless you know of any other queens they could be talking about. Regroup the formation use what is left of the first cohort to bolster the rest, which will teach the idiots for charging in ahead of the rest." She said gruffly before walking back the way she had come before the Centurion could respond. He hurriedly followed after the bigger girl leaving the two of us alone at last.

Even so it was still another minute before Morganna finally stopped chanting and almost collapsed against me as I hurriedly placed myself under her arm and held her upright against the wall of the trench.

"That girl she has one of the ear pieces she can hear what we tell each other, we need to warn the others." I said almost panicking.

"Not just yet we can't, if we tell them straight away, they will know that some of us are still over hear and come looking and I need a while before I can move properly let alone use magic."

"But…"

"Marina no! At the moment neither of us is any use, Thalia, Zoe and the others will have to get by on their own for a few minutes. Besides the Legion do not manoeuvre very quickly and this will have made them cautious. They may now know about the Amazons but they don't know how many or what they are capable of. As it stands, we are still about equal in terms of losses proportionately."

"I can protect you whilst we escape…" I began to say only for her to start laughing.

"If you can protect me, then what are we doing here because last I checked I was the one protecting you." She ridiculed standing up straighter and looking down into my face.

"I am not going to say that you could have prevented this from happening, because no one short of your uncle could fight the Legion and win singlehandedly. But the fact is you panicked and couldn't make the shot, despite what it may feel like this is not a life or death situation no one is going to die. Look up there, do you really think they are going to let this get out of hand?" She explained pointing to one of the floating platforms high above, sure enough that fact did actually remind me that this was supposed to be a game. Albeit an extremely realistic violent one compared to those I was used to playing.

"How is your arm, you won't be able to shoot with one arm?" I asked looking at the blood-stained limb.

"It is already healed; I will be fine." She said bluntly pulling the damaged sleeve down and sure enough where I expected to see a deep cut was perfectly smooth even if a little crimson-stained still.

"Did you use magic to heal that as well?" I asked surprised.

"No. Now come on let's get out of here." She said firmly her face turning almost scary for a second before taking weary steps towards where the main battle here had taken place.

The only thing stopping the whole scene being rather macabre was the fact no one was actually dead. Everyone was still breathing albeit unconscious. Whilst the vast majority of those fallen on the floor belonged to the Legion, they were still interlaced with the occasional fallen silver garbed figures of Hunters and Amazons.

The greatest concentration of fallen however was where Phoebe, Atlanta and a pair of Amazons had made a final stand. The Hunter's quivers empty and knives still grasped in hand as they had fallen back to back. A ring of fifteen fallen Legionnaires around them.

However, to my surprise Morganna headed towards a fallen Legionnaire before picking up his sword and rubbing the tip of the blade against her thumb breaking the skin. For a second the look of fury on her face suggested she was going to stab the guy with it. However instead she settled for kicking him somewhere… vulnerable.

Almost immediately I was surprised when someone flashed into being behind her.

"Lord Mars I suggest you keep an eye on your forces in future, or the next person hurt won't be so forgiving. Come on Marina." She said firmly tossing the Gladius to the god before turning away without waiting for any response.

However, to my surprise the god did not seem particularly annoyed at the disrespect he was being shown by the Daughter of Hecate and instead turned his glare towards the fallen boy as I hurriedly walked past to catch up with the now faster moving Morganna.

When I turned around the Legionnaire and the god were both gone.

"All Hunters some Legionnaires still have sharpened weapons, so be careful... Also, Clarisse stop listening, no one likes a spy." I heard her say before she turned to me with a rare smile.

"Now we run." She said before turning tail and running down the trench. How someone who was exhausted and injured one minute then easily outrunning me the next I had no idea; I was too busy cursing my shorter legs as I looked at her back as her raven hair trailing behind her whilst I desperately tried to keep up.

(Artemis)

"I'm sorry, I swear it was an accident, I must have forgot to hand over my gladius." The boy screamed in an unnaturally high tone considering he was in his late teens. Whether that was due to Morganna's impromptu punishment or the fact he was being held upside down seven-hundred feet in the air was up for debate.

"You know you really should stop flailing about or I may lose my grip." Percy teased with amusement as he held his ankle. He almost seemed to take delight in playing the bad guy for this sudden trial, after all the majority of the Romans didn't like him now anyway, plus as the only one here who was not a god, he didn't get thought the less of.

"I would say I am inclined to believe you. However, I am not a fool, nor is anyone sitting here. (The one standing was another matter) Now tell the truth boy before I lose patience." Jupiter said sitting forward and glaring at the suspended figure who recoiled in fear as much as was actually possible considering his situation. The air beginning to taste decidedly like ozone increasing the pressure on the boy.

"And I do not appreciate having lying children, sure some of you are not the sharpest but at least they are honest." Mars added with a sigh.

"I swear on the River Styx, I reported in to get the enchantment with everyone else before the game but then… I remember being told I was all done and ready to go, but come to think of it I never actually handed them over to anyone." He explained with sudden clarity; I actually almost felt some sincerity from the boy.

'I actually believe that story.' Diana said almost mirroring my thoughts.

'Doesn't explain anything though does it?"

'Actually, I think it explains a lot of things, tell Percy to let him go. He has nothing to do with this, someone convinced him that he was alright to go, when he wasn't. Now who could possibly convince someone of something and does not like us.' She explained as I automatically rotated my head to the right at the distant figure of Venus who was filing her nails not paying any attention whatsoever. If she was guilty, she was doing a very good example of being nonchalant about the situation.

'Actually, I can think of someone else that fits the bill.' I told her as I turned my head back to the smaller row of seats in front of our own, and one girl in particular who was paying particular attention to the game below.

"Percy let him go." I said surprising him as he looked back to me in puzzlement.

"Artemis- "

"Father it was my Hunter that was injured and she has given the boy a punishment already. Besides it is clear that this was not his own choice. Someone or something convinced him to do it against his will I am more interested in finding out who that was. So, let him go."

"Ok." Percy said and did just that with a smile as the armoured Legionnaire plummeted screaming.

"Perseus." My father groaned as the idiot jumped over the side, wings appearing behind him as he swooped in to catch him at the last second before dumping the traumatised kid in a huddle ball and shadow travelling back up in the space of a few seconds.

"Who remembers when Percy Jackson was that kind of annoying, show off kid we got to do things for us every summer." Hermes joked.

"Who remembers when you were more powerful than me." He commented sitting back down causing a lot of groans along the entire line.

"Remember who got captured by an insane Primordial and needed rescuing recently, because I do, you remember that as well don't you Minerva." I retorted playfully causing him to simultaneously sulk back into his chair with his arms folded as many of my brothers started laughing loudly. To be fair even the generally stoic goddess of Wisdom cracked a rare smile.

"Enough. We are not here to make jokes." Jupiter said bringing his fist down on his armrest as thunder boomed overhead.

"To be fair dad, we all decided we wanted to be here on our own. Unlike the Solstice meetings we can actually do as we want right and have fun. Besides if you are worried about the mortal's perception of us, you probably should have commented before we interrogated one of them upside down before tossing him off the edge." Apollo retorted sarcastically and sure enough after a few seconds my father too crossed his arms and sulked into his throne.

'Wow who says father and Percy don't have much in common.' Diana quipped as I looked between the pair on either side of me and their matching positions.

'Yeah but I won't do this with Father.' I told her before leaning to my left and pulling Percy's face towards mine. I had the mental image of Diana folding her arms in annoyance causing me to enjoy the action even more as Percy's surprise quickly gave way to returning the gesture as his hand wrapped around the back of my neck.

Despite the fact I could almost feel my father's gaze boring into the back of my head along with a lot of others, I did not care instead enjoying the moment. For months we had hid this relationship and I was damned if I was going to let others get between us again. Even if we were spotted by the hundreds of mortals I did not care, this was who I was now and if they did not like it well… they could all go straight to hades.

(Reyna)

Despite the fact that we had managed to ambush the group of hunters in the trench we had still managed to lose almost an entire cohort in the process. The fools in the first had broken ranks and charged in without support and not only given away their presence prematurely but taken far more casualties than they should have.

Fortunately, their centurion had been one of the casualties so I did not have to listen to his explanation for his own stupidity. Besides once this battle was over, I would never have to hear it from any of them ever again.

"Damn it." Clarisse muttered in annoyance as she hurriedly pulled the ear piece out of her ear as she did, I could hear the loud wailing noise come from the item and I was a few feet away.

"I take it they worked it out then." I told her as she stomped on it a few times before it eventually went silence.

In a twisted sense of irony, it took a few seconds longer for Clarisse longer to deal with the small electrical item than it had with its original owner.

"Movement detected back west, two hunters fleeing south." One of the archers reported as the pair of us looked back in the direction the previous battle had taken place. Sure, enough two girls could be seen running in the open in trying to keep as much distance between themselves and us. The shorter black haired one was obviously Marina as compared to the rest of the hunters she was tiny being the youngest by far. The other was impossible to tell from here, unfortunately a number of the hunters had black hair. However, we could tell she did not have bow so that was something.

"Sherman take a squad of archers and some Hermes kids and hunt those two down." Clarisse shouted across to one of her siblings she had introduced before the game and one of the three of them remaining.

"They are all down already, Clar-Hipparch." Sherman replied back correcting himself.

"You two go with him and grab three Legionnaires from the second. I don't care if you can't catch them just do not let them regroup with the rest. Try and keep your distance, one of them is only new and the other is missing a bow so you should have no excuses." I told the Roman Apollo kid and her sibling who had initially reported the girls who simply saluted back and ran towards the second cohort.

The Greek, Sherman looked at Clarisse who merely shrugged before chasing after them. Unlike a lot of his siblings he had only equipped a breastplate, leather greaves and bracers allowing him to be fast enough to catch up with the other two by the time they had reached the second cohort. After a short conversation with the Centurion the small squad was complete and rapidly on their way to intercept the hunter pair.

Even so it was still almost 150 legionnaires and campers left under my command against an unknown number of hunters and to my surprise Amazons. That my sister was taking part was a surprise in and of itself, as obviously she was not a hunter in any way, shape or form.

"We need someone to keep an eye on them from above again." I told her as almost simultaneously an archer fell to the floor after being struck by an arrow from above in the shoulder.

"Thaliaaaa!" Clarisse shouted in annoyance into the sky where two hundred feet above the girl was floating, only moving a few inches to avoid a flurry of arrows fired back, however firing against gravity at a ninety-degree angle was difficult even for master archers. Especially when you had to worry about the arrows falling down onto your own forces.

She had no such issues as another Apollo kid dropped like a log swiftly followed by the same centurion from less than a minute ago.

Ducking down I narrowly avoided getting hit myself as the shaft buried itself in my shield I hastily raised above my own and Scipio's head.

"Testudo!" I shouted glad to see that some of the remaining centurions had already worked out what to do next. The remaining archers ducking into the formations before they sealed shut.

The only person not trying to protect themselves was hurling profanities at the girl in the air and stomping her feet in annoyance at not being able to do anything.

"Reyna get the fuck up there and deal with her, or better yet knock her down here." Clarisse screamed in frustration losing all semblance of formality. It was quite clear that my girlfriend had firmly wedged her berserk button down I thought to myself as I pressed my heels into Scipio's flank as he hurriedly leapt forward before flapping his wings and taking flight as we hurriedly gained altitude.

However, Thalia was not going to let me just ascend uncontested as Scipio and I were forced to weave all over the air to avoid the next half dozen shafts and even then, I still found three arrows imbedded in the front of my shield. Despite the fact she preferred close combat it was easy to forget that Thalia was a good archer, she was just eclipsed like the rest of us by our resident daughter of Apollo.

The other issue was that the higher I climbed she would also increase her own altitude and maintain the distance. A Pegasus climbed vertically as it moved horizontally, Thalia could simply move up and down however she wanted whilst still firing at me. In the space of a few minutes of this one-sided assault we had gained enough altitude that even the gods floating platform was several hundred meters below us.

Eventually even the low winter clouds began to slow obscure us from sight, with only the occasional clear patch allowing us to see the ground below.

Unfortunately, this also meant that the clouds could obscure us from each other, as I now found myself unsure of her current location as I frantically searched left and right for the silver garbed girl who was a lot more camouflaged than me in gold and purple up here in the grey winter clouds.

"So how is your morning going?" I suddenly heard her ask in amusement nearby only to find her actually sitting behind me on Scipio with a large grin on her face. How she had got there so suddenly I had no idea as before I could react, she had grabbed my sword arm and twisted it behind my back forcing me to grab the reigns with my shield arm.

"How did you manage to sneak up on me?" I asked in frustration as I tried to free my arm to no success. Her grasp wasn't strong enough to be painful but enough to incapacitate me for the time being.

"My dad is the Lord of the Sky; I can see through this with perfect vision." She said matter-of-factly and it was rather obvious that she should be able to in hindsight. I had fallen into this trap quite readily, but then again, I had not expected to win a battle up here anyway but I still expected to be able to at least put up a fight.

"Not that I need it to find my way to you." She whispered softly into my ear.

"Now is really not the time, besides if you can see up here then I sure imagine your father can as well. So, hurry up and knock me out so I can forget this whole charade and go home."

"So, what if my dad sees us? He will probably get jealous of his own daughter for taking you away from those horrible men." She said trying to sound huskily and failing but it was still endearing to be treated like so. Well it would have been if she was not in danger of dislocating my arm.

"Besides you don't get off that easy I need someone who can reign Clarisse in, now that she has gone all invincible again otherwise, she is going to be a pain in the ass to deal with."

"Reign her in? That girl is like Artemis on a very bad day at the best of times, and you managed to actually piss her off more by taking out her boyfriend. I would have an easier job reigning in a rampaging rhino." I told her joking.

"You what!" Thalia suddenly shouted letting go off my arm and holding her finger in her ear obviously listening to a message from one of the other Hunters.

"Everything OK at your end?" I asked curiously.

"When the hades did you get a War Elephant!" She said looking down in shock.

"We don't, Hannibal has an injured hip and is at San Francisco Zoo for treatment." I told her honestly. It had been a major blow to our fighting strength, or a boon to the Hunters either way I wanted to look at it.

"Then what the hell is that then?" She said pointing down through a gap in the clouds a slow-moving grey shape could be seen lumbering across the battlefield from the direction of our fort.

"Nice as this has been, I have bigger worries to deal with, don't get knocked out in the meantime." She said before quickly kissing my cheek and rolling off the back of the Pegasus before free-falling back below to earth laughing before disappearing below as I flew into another cloud before beginning a much gentler descent.

Though I was in no major rush to get back into the battle, there was no denying I was curious about this most recent development. There was no way that Hannibal was ready to take part in a battle and he sure as hades had not been in the fort this morning when I had been in there last.

So where had the elephant come from?

Authors note: Well err. that took longer than expected and generally became longer than I was expecting. So much so that I have decided to split it up or else this will never come out. Still I hope it is enough to tie you all over a little bit longer. should be plenty of little bits here and there to hint what is really happening and what is coming up.

Where did Hannibal come from?

What is up with Morganna?

How do you take down Clarisse?

Will our couple finally GTFO of New Rome.

Will Piper ever stop being a bitch... The answer is no and will always be no. Fuck Piper.

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Dear gods will we please get these bloody kids at some point?