The Fall of Percy Jackson

Even the Mightiest Heroes can Fall

Annabeth's PoV:

It was finally Friday, meaning Capture the Flag was tonight. I was so excited. Even though we were against the Hunters and two children of Zeus, I wasn't afraid, because I have Percy. He just... completes me. I lay there in his bed, his arm around me, and felt him breathe softly against my neck. I was going to ask Chiron if we could have a room in the Big House with a king size bed. I was getting tired of sleeping in his cabin, and Malcolm embarrassing me in front of my siblings.

Anyway, we had prepared all Wednesday and Thursday, setting traps, going over strategy, and the best way of defending against archers. We were going to have a huge bulk of our force, particularly Ares, Athena, and Hephaestus cabins in Testudo formation, which is Latin for tortoise. True, we were "borrowing" it from the Romans and Camp Jupiter campers who taught it to us. Basically, we were all going to link shields in a 7 person by 6 person formation, with the inner people's shields on top, blocking arrows from above, those on the side blocking arrows coming in from our flank, and those in the front blocking head on attacks.

(AN: look it up if you don't understand, it's pretty cool. . .)

While they were distracting the main force of their archers, Me, Percy, Clarisse, Timmy Jones and Layla Jones (both twin siblings of mine), and Steven Schmidt (an Ares camper), were all going along the right flank of the forest, where we would search for the flag and hope to remain undetected. We had the best warriors in this group, who knew their way around a battle, just in case we ran into enemy troops (Thalia especially.) She was a handful in battle, and a superb fighter. It was not fun going up against her. Plus she had her Zeus lightning powers (making her even scarier).

No matter though, we had a demigod just at powerful as her, probably even more powerful, who has saved the world countless times, and he just happened to be my boyfriend. I could feel Percy mumble something as he began to wake up, and our eyes locked, causing him to smile. I smiled back.

"You ready for tonight, Wise Girl?" he teased, and he stroked my hair behind my ear with his hand. I punched him playfully.

"Is that even a question, Seaweed Brain?" He laughed as we both got up and got dressed. I hugged him goodbye, as we headed towards the dining area. It was breakfast time, and I was starving. "I'll catch you later," he said, walking over to sit with Zade. I nodded, and walked over to the Athena table, greeted by a grinning Malcolm holding back laughter. I punched him in the arm, and that shut him up.

"You guys remember the plan for tonight, right?" I asked. My siblings nodded, exchanging smiles between them. I knew they couldn't wait. I couldn't wait. I started digging in to some pancakes and bacon as Chiron walked up to the front of the eating area. Everyone stopped eating and turned towards him.

"Tonight, is capture the flag!" The whole camp roared and cheered, anxious for the night to come. "I am well aware of the eagerness inside you all. Just remember to play fair, and follow the rules. And if I catch any one of you cheating, and trying to learn the other team's strategy, you will forfeit by default. Are we clear?" He raised his eyebrows, making eye contact with each camper. There were a lot more campers nowadays, due to the promise Percy made the gods take.

Everyone in the camp nodded. "Good," he said, "and with that, have a great day everyone." I was so anxious yet so nervous. What did Thalia and Zade have in store for us?

Thalia's PoV:

After Chiron addressed the camp, the hunters and I went back to our cabin, with Zade and the other counselors, to review our battle strategy. We had a really good idea, spreading our archers along the border between each side. That way they couldn't get around us. We were also having Pollux and Phoebe guarding the flag, which was placed at Zeus' fist. The Demeter cabin was going to make a makeshift jungle along the banks of the river, while Zade, Michael, Katie and I ran around the left flank. I had a feeling where Percy was going to have the flag; he generally put it as far away as possibly, near the ant hill he showed me a while back.