The Ghosts of Millennia

Annabeth's Army is Fashionably Late

"No!" Cho cried. She tried to charge, but Annabeth pulled her back.

"You can't kill them. You'll die if you go in there."

A loud horn sounded. Angelos's laughs turned to fury. "No! It's impossible!"

A teen Romani girl appeared on the balcony. "Where there are foul creatures to be hunted, we shall hunt. In our Lady's name!"

Thirty arrows hit thirty ghosts, incapacitating them. Five wolves jumped over the ledge at their mistress's command and burrowed their way to the center of the crowd, ripping to shreds anyone who stood in their way. A path was finally open to retreat. Annabeth led the others out of the circle of ghosts. "Guard the stairwells!" Annabeth told Cho and Hermione. Then, she dashed up to the balcony.

"Roszí? I am so glad to see you."

Roszí gave a curt nod. "Yasmina brought the Hunters south, as Thalia instructed. A child of Hecate brought us to our sisters at Thalia's request." She paused. "Thou shalt command better than I. The rescue of Hazel Levesque requires precision. I go."

Without another word, Roszí crouched like a cat on top of the guardrail and surveyed her surroundings. Narrow eyes zeroed in on Ron. Then, she was off. Six hunters showered arrows so closely around Roszí that Annabeth was sure they'd hit her, but, of course, they only incapacitated her enemies. Roszí fought with nothing but her hunting knife, twisting, turning, diving, ducking, jumping, avoiding every obstacle with superhuman reflexes. She made one final grab, and Ron was in her arms, beaten, but all right.

Roszí threw Ron out of the crowd. Ianthe, waiting just in front of the stairwell, caught him. Four ghosts charged, but Ianthe dashed through the followers of Hecate's defensive line well before they could catch her. Hermione shouted "Protego!" and the air hardened in front of her. The four ghosts slammed into their shield and fell to the ground, out cold.

Corporeal bodies go both ways.

"The ghosts are a distraction!" Annabeth shouted. "Focus your arrows on Angelos!" Roszí fought valiantly in the center of the ghosts, but it was clear not even she could last forever. "Your three best hand-to-hand fighters, go rescue Roszí!" she commanded the Hunters. Three girls leaped off the ledge in unison and landed inches from Roszí. Together, the four of them began to clear a path back to their allies.

But, not even the Hunters could hold their own against a goddess forever. Black orbs like Bludgers appeared in the sky and rammed into a young girl, no older than eleven. Her skin turned white, and she fell to the ground, dead. "Yasmina!" Roszí shouted. But there was no time to avenge her fallen comrade; Yasmina's death only proved that even the immortals were fighting for their lives.

If Percy or Harry Potter were there, they'd do something rash, like charge Angelos. Well, they weren't there... so Cho did it instead.

____________________CHO____________________

Cho seized the opportunity to finally join the battle. She was a Ravenclaw, not a Gryffindor--Annabeth shouldn't have held her back, she should've known that the odds would be in her favor. Cho was their best chance. She ran from her spot by the stairwell and into the mess of ghosts, banking on the fact that the King and Queen of the Underworld had marked her as their own, so the ghosts would be confused, maybe hesitate to fight her.

She got through to Yasmina's frozen body. She grabbed the hunting knife off the dead Hunter, then charged towards the center. When a ghost got in her way, she stabbed.

It turned out they could kill a spirit after all.

"Call off your ghosts!" Cho shouted to Angelos. The goddess turned, pure hatred in her all-black eyes.