Collision

3. The Battle

The snow started sticking to the ground and it was close to time for the battle. We were near the battlefield, we were going to spend the night in the woods so that we wouldn't have to travel far in the morning. Jacob finishes gathering wood to make a fire even though few people here needed the warmth.

The kid I assumed was named Benjamin lit up his fingers and threw the fire at the wood. "That's what I'm talking about," Jacob laughs. "A little pre-battle bonfire. Telling war stories. Or just standing there like frickin' statues," he comments looking at some of the vampires.

One of the vampires flashes over to the fire, "Name any American battle. I was there," Garrett tells us. I look at the other two and we laugh. Technically it was a Greek battle but was fought on American soil, but he wasn't at The Battle of Manhattan.

"Little Bighorn," Jacob says, testing him.

"I came this close to biting Custer, but the Indians got him first.

"Try oleg's assault on Constantinople," Kate says, coming over and sitting on Garrett's leg. "He didn't win that one on his own."

"If you're talking battles, you're talking the Eleven Years' War," Another says. "No one does rebellion like the Irish."

"You lost the Eleven Years' War," Garrett comments.

"Aye, but it was one hell of a rebellion."

"When we ruled, everything came to us. Prey, diplomats, favor seekers. Such was our power. But we never put on white hats and called ourselves saints," one of the draculas says.

"We were honest about what we were," the other one says.

"We sat still for a very long time. We didn't notice we were beginning to petrify. Perhaps the Volturi did us a favor when they burned our castles."

"We've been waiting 1,500 years to return that favor."

"Now, if we really want to talk about an interesting battle we should talk about The Battle of Manhattan," Percy smirks.

"What Battle of Manhattan?" Garrett asks. "There hasn't been one since maybe the Revolutionary War and I doubt y'all are old enough to have been there."
"Actually you're wrong," I tell him. "The Battle of Manhattan happened about maybe a year and a half ago." I look at Nico and Percy for confirmation and they nod at me. "Nico and I were 14 and Percy had just turned 16 against all odds," I smirk at him reciting part of the prophecy.

"You don't know about it because Morpheus put everyone to sleep and Kronos slowed time during the battle. It lasted two days. Which doesn't seem long for most battles, but this was being fought entirely by kids from the ages of 12 to some of the oldest being maybe 18-19," Percy states sadly. Nico and I look at him and decide to let him talk about it since he knows the story the best. "We had been planning for the attack for the past year. We had known about it since the forties and it was finally here. We had campers turn to the other side. A lot of whom we trusted. We lost a lot of good friends because of it."

"While they were on the first day of battle Nico and I were in the underworld trying to convince our father to help with the war," I told him.

"He kept refusing until we were finally able to convince him at the last second," Nico adds. "Then we came in with an undead army," we both high-five.

"I ultimately had to kill the first friend I made when I came to camp and the practical brother of my girlfriend," Percy finishes. "But we won and that's what matters."

"Until about 3 months later when Percy goes missing, being kidnapped by a goddess starting a whole new prophecy where we have to go against the literal Earth," I say looking over at him.