Percy Jackson and The Council's Army

21. The One With The Plan

"They've gone to the training arena commander." A nurse told me.

"Training arena? Now?"

"Lady Skylar suggested that they blow off some steam and for tomorrow simultaneously." She said.

"Oh, okay. I think I'll be joining them. I need to blow off some steam too." I said, and proceeded towards the training arena.
Upon reaching there I saw them ferociously attacking each other. It was like everyone could attack anyone. Defend yourself from the other two while attacking one of them. That's how it was. And Skylar was doing pretty good due to her practice and parentage, but the girls weren't so bad themselves. In a few minutes, the duel ended with Skylar's blade pointed at Annabeth and Thalia's neck; while Thalia's spear was pressed against Skylar's stomach and Annabeth's dagger was pressed against Thalia's stomach. Interesting. They pulled a draw. They were all panting. I clapped.
"Pretty good. A draw. But now you look tired. I was hoping for at least a bit of a fight before winning, maybe I'll come back later." I mocked.

They immediately raised their weapons.

"Bring it on Jackson. You're so gonna regret saying this." Skylar challenged. The battle was actually all of them against me. I may have gone a bit overboard with that mocking.
We fought to a draw, but I still claim I'd marginally beaten them all.
Exhausted and panting, we decided to check up on Reyna once then retire for the rest of the night.
Reyna's condition hadn't improved. But it had also not degraded, so that was something.

"Good night Annabeth, good night Thalia. Tomorrow Kronos is gonna attack at the same time he did today. Evening, as soon as the sun sets. We'll prepare a bit, plan a bit and join the battle a while after we have confirmation that the camp is under attack, so that we catch them off guard." I said. They nodded and wished me good night in return, then walked off to their respective rooms.
I looked at Sky. And I kept staring.
"What? Is something wrong?" She asked.
"No Sky. In fact nothing could be more right. I never thought I'd see this day or say these words in my life after camp, but I can't resist. Skylar Void, I love you . I officially propose you to be my girlfriend. Will you do me that honour?" I asked, kneeling down on one knee.
She smiled in retun and said "Yes Percy. I'll be delighted to."
I rose up and kissed her on the lips.
"I never imagined I'd do that you know." I said.
"I know Percy. Even I didn't, but it feels good." She smiled.
"But now we should sleep." She continued.
"You're right. Tomorrow's gonna be a long day." I kissed her goodnight and we went off to our rooms, anxious about the upcoming suspense thriller of a day that was going to be tomorrow.

The next day when I woke up and saw the clock, at first I thought somebody had pulled a prank on me and tried to scare me. Then I went out, and realized it was no prank. I'd slept through breakfast! Yeah I know, you must be wondering, so what's the big deal. All of us sometimes do. But not all of us have a habit of waking up 3 hours earlier than breakfast is even served. All of us aren't in the middle of a war. I am. Not wasting more time, I immediately showered, freshened up and ran to the control room where to where I'd hoped I'd find the girls. The infirmary. Indeed they were there.
"Sorry. I overslept." I said as I rushed inside.
"It's okay Percy. No need to be embarrassed. We all oversleep sometimes." Thalia stated, a bit amused at me for reacting like this to a common thing such as oversleeping.

"But I'm the Commander thals! What will the juniors, my subordinates learn from me! And what will Lord Chaos think?"
Annabeth just rolled her eyes.
"I don't care that we aren't together anymore, I'm still calling you seaweed brain. You haven't changed one bit." She said while sighing, as if I was giving her a headache.
"Yeah, and I'm still calling you kelp for brains. You're still so immatured. Stop making a fuss, it's alright."

"Yeah Perce, and don't worry about dad. He's the one who insisted we let you sleep. You've been working your pants off. You needed some rest." Skylar added.
I just stared at them.
"Okay I guess." I shrugged.
"How's she?" I continued looking at Reyna.
"The same." Thalia said.
I sighed. "I guess we'll have to be patient."

"Yeah. Anyways, is there any plan for today? Kronos should start the attack in a few hours."

"Not yet. We'll need to see their numbers and ours before doing anything." I said. They nodded.

"So until then what do we do?" Annabeth asked.

"We bid our time. Get a bit of training in if you'd like."

"I'd rather not train with a big fight so close. Good forbid if I sustained some injury neither the camp nor Lady Artemis will be able to afford that." Thalia said.

"Hmm. You're right." Annabeth agreed.

So we didn't train. We just sat there in the infirmary and talked about our lives. I was once upon a time as close to them as one could ever be, and this conversation covered the distance we'd created among ourselves while I was away. Thalia confessesed that at first she'd been pissed off at Chiron, Annabeth and the Romans. She had nowhere to go post the war, and when she came back to camp, she realized even I was gone. It was only once the Gods returned and scolded the demigods on what they'd done and resumed contact with them that Artemis helped her overcome her grief and begin again. And all because I had gone, when she had lost all her sisters and I wasn't there for here when she needed me. She was always there, but I let her down.

"I'm so sorry thals. I had no idea you were going through so much. I was so slefish. I ran away trying to escape my pain, not even thinking about yours."

"You made the right choice Percy. Sometimes, it's okay to live for yourself." She said warmly smiling and holding my hand.

"We're all fine now, and that's what matters. Besides, you have no right to blame yourself. Whatever happened was my fault. I was incapable of handling the Romans. Instead I ended up kicking out the one person who mattered the most not only to me but to the entire camp. Camp was never the same after you left Percy." Annabeth said sadly, looking down with guilt and shame.

"Enough with this blame me game people. I know its not my story and I don't have the right to interrupt, but I'd like to point out that in the end all turned out well for all of us." Skylar said.

"Yeah, you're right. We may have lost something in the process, but we sure as hell gained at least a much of not more. We found new friendships, we remade oueselves, we changed for good, and it was a change that the world appreciated. And as of this point in time, we're here like the old times, we have a war just like the old times and like cherry on top of a cake we even have the enemy from our old times! I said.

"Yeah you're damn right we do."
Annabeth and Thalia laughed.

Time passed, we became a close group, Skylar included. Soon it was time to get ready.

"Alright, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna see their numbers, their strengths and assess the situation first. No going in blind. Then instead of attacking together, we'll go one by one. We'll draw away the enemy completely from the area where they're dealing most damage." I said.

"Draw them away? How do you propose we do that? The only way we can do that is if we attack together and scare the crap out of them in that area, and you just said we won't ne doing that." Annabeth said.

"You're partly correct. We're gonna scare them, but not by attacking together. By attacking individually with so much force that Kronos gets scared and does something rash."

"What exactly are you planning Percy? Tell us clearly." Skylar said.
So I laid out my whole plan.

"Percy. If this doesn't work, we lose the element of surprise, Kronos comes to know who you are before you have the chance to tell the campers and the plan backfires completely." Thalia said worriedly.

"And if we don't do this then I'm telling you thals, their army is going to be so damn huge that even if we attack them together and destroy a major chunk of their army, it'll not even be like a clink in an armour. They'll just keep coming. By then we'll have lost the element of surprise, the campers will have known Reyna is injured. Kronos will rub it off on their faces, and they'll lose their morales, making them easy targets. Game over then and there, and End won't even have to step in."

"Well, when you put it they way, I guess we don't have much of a choice." Annabeth gulped nervously.

(A/N: PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT, CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS APPRECIATED.)