Reyna's Pov
When the conch horn signaled that it was time for dinner all eighteen of us got up and headed to the dining pavilion. We got dinner and burned some for our godly parents. I said a little prayer to my mother Bellona when I put my food in the fire. All of us then headed back to the picnic tables and we sat down to eat dinner.
After about thirty minutes of eating and talking, Chiron walked up to the front of the pavilion. All of the campers conversations hushed and they turned to their mentor. He nodded in our direction and Jason nodded back, then he stood up from his seat and cleared his throat.
"Piper, Annabeth and I infiltrated Odysseus' Palace in Ithaca using Hazel's magic, where a gathering of evil spirits or suitors was occurring. Me, disguised as an old beggar man named Iros, was called out by Antinous who questioned why Iros was there. I covered myself by stating that I was still running messages for the suitors and attempted to get more information out of Antinous. Eurymachus, a ghost, accidentally gave away information about how Gaea was stopping the demigods from getting to the Acropolis. Eurymachus was stopped short by Antinous and was destroyed. Antinous told me that Apollo no longer had control of Delphi and that Victory was running rampant, so there was no way the demigods would win. Michael Varus, the previous Praetor of Camp Jupiter who lost the Twelfth Legion's eagle in Alaska went up to me and told me that I could not leave since someone had come to see me. My mother, Beryl Grace, appeared to me as a ghost. My mother attempted to convince me that Jupiter made her leave me at the Wolf House and that she had no choice. She unsuccessfully tried to get me to fight for Gaea, who let her out from the Underworld, and then disappeared as a spirit of insanity or mania. Since the disguise around me was broken, all the monsters and ghosts attacked. As the fight went on, I was stabbed by Michael with an Imperial Gold gladius below my rib cage. Piper rushed over, defeated the ghost of Michael and tended to my wounds. Annabeth ran to signal Leo and asked Frank to fly down and collect me. Suddenly, a crack appeared in the stone and Juno appeared to tell us that we needed to find the goddess of victory in Olympia because she was out of control and then we needed to find the twins, Artemis and Apollo who were hiding from Jupiter. Juno disappeared before her husband Jupiter found her, and then I fainted." Jason said, a look of pain on his face from remembering his wound.
"Meanwhile, Nico, Coach Hedge and I were falling from the sky with the Athena Parthenos above the volcano, Mount Vesuvius after shadow traveling. Nico was too exhausted to shadow travel again, so I helped by lending him some of my strength, which is a power of the children of Bellona. We shadow traveled one more time to Pompeii, where we laid camp for the night since Nico was unable to travel anymore. Coach Hedge took first watch as Nico and I went to sleep. I dreamed of a giant following them. Then my dreams took me to where Octavian was with the legion outside of Camp Half-Blood. Octavian personally took on the highest title, Pontifex Maximus, which no demigod has ever done. His fellow centurion, Mike Kahale, and the legion's eagle bearer Jacob were beside him, listening to Octavian reinstate Bryce Lawrence, a legacy of Orcus, who was banished from the camp for killing a centurion and other horrific crimes. Octavian had added two dozen different murderers, thieves, and traitors into the legion since I had been gone, which made Mike upset. Mike disagreed with Octavian attacking Camp Half-Blood against my orders, but Octavian was convinced that once the Greeks were eliminated the war would be over and that he would be remembered as the savior of the Romans. Mike questioned if Octavian's gift of prophecy had returned, to which Octavian defensively retaliates against. Coach Hedge woke me up since tourists had come to visit the frozen citizens of Pompeii, but luckily the mist surrounding the Athena Parthenos was strong and was able to ward off the tourists. By sunset, Nico woke up and I told him about my dreams. Nico believed the dream was about a giant and to avoid it at all costs, but Coach and I believed that fighting would be the best option. Nico considered asking Thalia for advice, but was weary to do so. I decided that I would contact my sister and the Amazons for help as well, but decided to work out the details until the next jump. Then Gaea's voice was spoken from Coach Hedge's body and multiple earthen ghosts attacked. As they attacked us, I told Nico to get Diocletian's Scepter, so that I could command the dead legionnaires since I was a praetor. I controlled the dead legionnaires, but we were still outnumbered. Nico, finally strapped in to carry the Athena Parthenos and shadow traveled us out of there." I said, a blank look on my face.
"Back on the Argo II, I was working on a secret project but was interrupted when Piper told me that there was a meeting in the mess hall.I joined the others, along with Buford the table. The seven of us discussed going towards Olympia, meeting Nike, and which ones of us should go and meet the goddess. We decided that Frank, Hazel, Percy, and I should go since we were the least competitive group that will not try to outdo each other. The four of us left to go scout the area. Percy and I searched a museum, while Frank and Hazel were looking at ruins. While waiting for Frank and Hazel to return, I felt uncomfortable around Percy since he got back from Tartarus and due to Calypso's old feelings for Percy. Before we could discuss it, Frank and Hazel got back accompanied by Arion who had appeared out of nowhere. We headed towards the ruins which were roughly five kilometers wide. We decided to walk through the ruins looking for something to pop up. Eventually, we headed toward the Temple of Zeus where an old Nike statue used to stand. Percy and I provoked her to come forth by challenging that Adidas shoes were better than Nike shoes. The goddess' Roman and Greek side, Nike and Victoria, were at war with each other trying to decide which side would be victorious. The goddess challenged the four of us to a fight to the death, with the Romans and Greeks against each other. Nike demanded for us to fight in an arena and gave us four minutes to be present. To make sure that we got there she sent four metal statues after us. Once there, we came up with a plan to get out of killing each other. We decided that Hazel needed to use her power to control the underground tunnels and the power of the Archimedes' sphere if we were to have any chance of defeating the goddess. After successfully tricking the goddess, we tied Nike up and she started shouting about how we would never get the Physician's Cure after we questioned her about which one of us would die. Frank then put a sock in her mouth and we took her to the Argo II." Leo said, a small grin on his face.
"After shadow traveling, I was knocked unconscious and started to dream of painful memories. As I was searching for Thalia's dreams, I ended up meeting Clovis, due to the Hypnos cabin's powerful dream activity. I told Clovis to tell Chiron that we were bringing the Athena Parthenos and that I needed help tracking down Thalia. Clovis showed me the war meeting we had at the Big House. Clarisse was telling the campers about the defenses that we had and blamed Rachel of not being able to warn us of the giant army outside of Camp Half-Blood. Rachel defended herself by stating that Apollo's gift of prophecy was currently out of commission and Will agreed. Ella had been too scared to mention anything about prophecies since the Romans surrounded. Clarisse demanded that we attack the Roman base, which Jake stated was better defended than our own home. Connor convinced Clarisse to wait until Reyna delivered the Athena Parthenos like Annabeth stated. Then I was suddenly woken up by Coach Hedge. After the shadow travel, the Athena Parthenos was laying sideways on the column of the Temple of Diana. I learned that I overshot and shadow traveled to Évora, Portugal instead of Spain and that I had been unconscious for almost 36 hours. A spirit had been wandering around the three of us and wanted to talk to me. The spirit took me to chapel, where my father awaited. He told me the hunter Gaea was employing was Orion. Orion already had the scent of the three of us and would not stop hunting us until we were captured. Hades told me that Hazel knew that one of the seven would die and that wolves were currently chasing after them as well. I quickly headed back to where we had set up camp and told them about being chased by wolves. Then suddenly Reyna's dogs were startled because wolves surrounded us along with Lycaon. We engaged in battle and eventually managed to shadow travel away, without a clear direction of where we were going." Nico said, his eyes lazily scanning the crowd.
"Meanwhile, Frank and I were on port of Pylos looking for the poison and we were failing. We made our way down to Nestor's cave after I charmspoke a ghost into giving us directions. Frank went in and talked to a man who handed him a bottle. Frank explained that his cousins, other descendants of Periclymenus, had been living there for generations. As a parting gift, the cousins gave Frank the small vial of poison. Frank had an idea of how to find a chained god in Sparta, but would not discuss it until the others were back on the Argo II. Once on the ship, Frank stated that the chained god was Ares because the Spartans believed that if they chained him up the spirit of war would never leave them. I unsheathed my dagger after telling them of seeing visions of Annabeth and I exploring ruins. Percy told Leo that we should have been airborne since a sea serpent was checking out the ship. Leo told the crew that we should reach Sparta by tomorrow morning. I went back to my room and Jason knocked on the door. Jason was about to take night duty but decided to meet me before he left. We talked and I told him a Cherokee story. I had a dream about the Giants in Acropolis and found that a giant called Mimas was waiting for us in Sparta. The next morning I told the crew about my dreams and Percy unintentionally caused the toilets to explode." Piper said, the campers started to laugh and Percy started to blush a light pink. Then Piper continued, "He insisted on coming with us as he didn't want the giant to hurt Annabeth. Annabeth told him that we would be fine and headed off with me to find the chained god. We searched everywhere and finally took a break on a hill. We talked to each other about how we felt about our boyfriends and I tried to comfort Annabeth about Percy. Suddenly, we spotted an eruption of fire from a well looking hole down the hill. We walked down the hill to the well looking hole and found a set of three holes that spewed out fire. I decided to jump down the hole and found a bunch of bronze dragon heads situated under the holes that blew fire. I decapitated all the dragon heads and told Annabeth that it was safe to come down."
"When Piper and I descended into the Temple of Fear seeking the statue of Ares, we encountered Mimas, the bane of Hephaestus/Vulcan, who repeatedly attempted to hit us with his sledgehammer. Piper and I resorted to fighting him on pure emotion. Piper managed to slash the giant across the back of his knee with her sword, causing Mimas to bellow in outrage. As Piper and I ran from him through a tunnel, Mimas taunted us as we maneuvered through the darkness. He nearly struck me, but Piper saved me in time and retaliated by stabbing him in the knee. The wound instantly healed, and Mimas reminded us that it took two gods working together to kill him during the First Giant War. Piper faced him, telling Mimas that the statue of Ares was not to chain the spirit of war in Sparta, but rather to contain the terrible power of the makhai. While Mimas laughed at her, Piper charged at him with her blade, causing the giant to stumble backwards into a wall and he destabilized the temple. In his anger, Mimas insulted Damasen, inciting my rage. He barely managed to deflect my attack, and as he reached out to grab me, Piper sliced off Mimas' dreadlocks and his ear. Before he could recover, we ran through yet another doorway, with Mimas threatening to bring down the temple's entire chamber upon us. We ran back to Mimas, this time behind the oblivious giant, and slashed both his legs, bringing him to his knees. While I was keeping Mimas occupied, Piper released the makhai from the statue of Ares, much to the giant's outrage. When the makhai seemingly disappeared and abandoned Piper, Mimas charged her with his hammer, but was stabbed by me in the thigh. As he staggered off-balance, Piper delivered the final blow by stabbing the giant in his gut. Mimas toppled face-first into the nearest doorway and disintegrated into ash when the stone face of Phobos fell onto him, as the god apparently decided to intervene to help get rid of him after Piper sacrificed her cornucopia to get the makhai." Annabeth said, she was staring at her feet so that the campers could not see her emotion.
Nico, Coach Hedge, and I found out that we were being hunted by Orion. The giant son of Gaea who was born to oppose Artemis and Apollo and had turned bad after a giant scorpion killed him after being driven mad by a jealous Apollo. In San Juan, I got abducted by the Amazons and hunters of Artemis and I talked to my sister Hylla, queen of the Amazons, who had gotten together with Thalia to lay a trap for Orion. We received news that Orion had killed all the girls outside the base and was coming in. A battle ensued, in which some of the Hunters and Amazons were killed. To be safe, Hylla took me to our father's old house that brought back bad memories for me. Orion caught us outside the building and Hylla told him that he would fall once again at the hands of a woman. She used her strength given to her by our mother on him to give me time to get away with Nico and Coach Hedge. As we left, I saw the ghosts of my ancestors, including the famous Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresi and Captain Marion Frederic Ramirez de Arellano, a distinguished naval officer who was the first Hispanic to command a US Navy submarine, crowding the balcony of my father's old house, glaring at me and calling me a traitor and murderer. We ended up in Buford, South Carolina, a small town south of Charlotte which was the site of the Battle of Waxhaws, an American Revolution battle in which the British commander, Banastre Tarleton, also a child of Bellona, gained infamy by massacring American prisoners of war to whom he had promised quarter. Nico had managed to open up somewhat, and shared the story of a rather clumsy attempt at Hades at bonding with him, by assigning him a zombie, Jules-Albert, to drive him around. It was made clear, though not stated explicitly, elsewhere in the story that Jules-Albert was the distinguished French auto-racing pioneer Marquis Jules-Albert de Dion, who died in 1946, and that this was a chance for him to continue pursuing his passion of driving. Having loosened up, I explained about the ghosts, and why Hylla and I left San Juan and why I wanted to avoid it. My father, Julian Ramirez-Arellano, a distinguished veteran left with PTSD as a result of his Iraq War experiences, suffered a fate similar to Jason and Thalia's mother Beryl. Becoming infatuated with Bellona and wishing to claim her for himself, as Beryl Grace had become infatuated with Zeus, he deteriorated mentally, eventually turning into a maniac, and becoming violent and abusive to where Hylla and I were frequently forced to flee the house. Eventually, when I was ten, I was forced to defend Hylla from our father by stabbing him with Roberto Cofresi's saber, which I realized was Imperial gold when it killed him." I said, a solemn look upon my face.
"En route to our next stop, the Greek island Mykonos in the Aegean Sea, we encountered a violent storm, which, it turned out, was being generated by Kymopoleia, the Greek goddess of violent storms at sea, who had been tempted by an offer of power from Gaea. Jason and I descend to the sea floor to meet her at the ruins of my dad's original palace, where I was caught in a net by Polybotes, who attempted to kill me with poison. Jason pointed out to Kymopoleia that with no human beings left, no one would be around to fear her power, and told her that he and I intended to make sure she was fully honored, Kym then turned on Polybotes, killing him and freeing me from the net. Back at the ship, Jason and I resolved to make good on this promise, Jason decided to seek the Roman office of Pontifex Maximus, or high priest of all the gods, in order to continue and expand upon my work of making sure all the gods were honored so that more wars between the gods may be averted." Percy said, he had a small smile on his face.
"Bryce Lawrence, who was sent on a secret mission to find Reyna by Octavian, who intended to overthrow her altogether, and had overheard Reyna tell her story. Bryce then revealed himself, summoning a horde of undead British soldiers who had participated in the massacre of American POWs to pin down Reyna and Coach Hedge and telling her that he would force her to confess and get her executed for the crime of patricide. Bryce believed that I was too weak to defend us, but Reyna used the power of her mother to strengthen me enough to where I destroyed the undead soldiers and killed Bryce, turning him into a ghost and sending him directly to the underworld. I then collapsed, spending three days in a coma and almost insubstantial. When I emerged from my coma, I found that Coach Hedge had managed to summon pegasi, including Pegasus, the king of the flying horses, to take us and the statue the rest of the way to Camp Half-Blood." Nico said, looking down at the grass because he was embarrassed of what he did to Bryce.
"We then proceeded to Mykonos, where Hazel, Frank, and I traveled to the sacred island of Delos nearby to meet with Apollo and Artemis, who had taken refuge from the internal conflict that incapacitated nearly all the gods at their birthplace. However, they were now trapped, unable to fight against the Giants or assist the Hunters of Artemis against Orion. Hazel, Frank, and I learned that Zeus was angry with both gods, but especially with Apollo, whom he blamed for appointing Rachel the Oracle of Delphi, revealing the Prophecy of Seven, and encouraging the war among the demigods by succumbing to the flattery of Octavian. Octavian's insubordination and lust for blood, power and glory had gone even further than Reyna had realized: he had spent most of the legion's money on powerful catapults called onagers built by Cyclopes. He had summoned hordes of centaurs, cynocephali (dog-headed men) and two-headed monsters to aid the Romans against the Greeks, and did not realize that they would turn on the Romans as soon as Camp Half-Blood was destroyed. Also, the ancient serpent Python was now coiled in the caverns of Delphi, blocking the spirit of prophecy, this was why Rachel and Octavian could no longer see the future. I gave a music-making gadget called the Valdezinator to Apollo in exchange for a daisy picked by the god from the soil of Delos, another essential ingredient in a potion called the physician's cure which I intended to obtain from Asclepius. I realized that I must fight Gaea with fire and that this might have meant my death, but The Physician's Cure would bring me back to life so that I could fulfill the oath I swore on the Styx to return to Calypso and the line in the Prophecy of Seven that goes an oath to keep with a final breath." Leo said, he was looking at Calypso, a big cheeky grin on his face.
"Our next stop was the Temple of Asclepius at Epidaurus, where Leo, Jason and I managed to get past a menacing automaton guarding Asclepius' office in order to see him. There, we brought the Pylosian mint, the daisy picked from Delos by Apollo, and the imprisoned makhai to the physician god, and convinced him to concoct The Physician's Cure for Leo and we left with it with a pair of glasses prescribed by Asclepius to treat nearsightedness which Jason had not really realized he had. Back at the ship, Leo programmed Festus with Odysseus' navigational device to take him back to Ogygia and with a syringe which would administer The Physician's Cure to him if he died in the fire he planned to unleash against Gaea. Hazel and Frank knew of his plan, but not any of the rest of us, who Leo was sure would attempt to keep him from sacrificing himself. Eventually, the seven of us reached Athens, and we were led to the Acropolis by Kekrops, the ancient half-snake king of Athens, who promptly turned on us, betraying all of us to the Giants, and we found ourselves battling for our lives. While in combat, Annabeth got a cut on her leg and her blood spills. Percy's nose bled and eventually a drop of his blood rolled down his chin in the midst of battle and spilled onto the ground as well, thereby waking Gaea, who appeared at Camp Half-Blood, intending to destroy it." Piper said, fear stricken across her face.
"Nico, Coach Hedge and I continued to Camp Half-Blood with Pegasus and the other flying horses and landed upon the deck of a yacht called the Mi Amor anchored in Long Island Sound and occupied by two mortals who, thanks to Nico, remained deeply asleep throughout the tumultuous events which followed. Immediately we were confronted by Octavian's right-hand man Michael Kahale and two other centurions, Dakota and Leila, who had been sent to arrest us, yet they seemed ambivalent about the task. Tyson showed up in a boat, and, mimicking Octavian's voice, ordered the centurions to lay down their weapons, then boarded the boat and knocked Michael unconscious. Dakota and Leila proved to be glad to help Nico and I complete the mission, Nico summoned his undead chauffeur Jules-Albert and he, Dakota and Leila returned Michael to the Roman camp, where Dakota and Leila incite a riot among Octavian's monstrous allies in order to create a diversion. Alone, I confronted Orion, aided by the power of Athena as well as Bellona, I killed him and let him and his bow sink beneath the water. Octavian attempted to attack Camp Half-Blood at dawn, but Dakota and Leila refused to allow the cohorts under their command to engage, citing Reyna's orders, and Nico, Will, Lou Ellen, the head counselor for the Hecate cabin, and Cecil, son of Hermes, tampered with the onagers so that the missiles they would fire all detonated harmlessly in midair. This, however, provoked Clarisse to issue a challenge to the Romans to withdraw or fight; however, I arrived just in the nick of time with the Athena Parthenos and I set it down by Thalia's pine tree, thereby healing the ancient breach between Greek and Roman demigods at last, and allowing the gods to come to the aid of the Seven in Athens. However, Gaea raised, and the Greeks and Romans, now united, found themselves confronting her as well as the monsters as we all sank into the earth." I said, looking directly at the campers.
"With the Giants defeated, Zeus decreed that Apollo must pay for the war, and sent him to Olympus to await a punishment which was not revealed to us, then the remaining Olympians, together with Nike, and the seven of us, conferred on what to do next. Gaea had risen, she had to be dealt with immediately, and the only way for the seven of us to get back to Camp Half-Blood in time was for Zeus to literally slap the ship back to Long Island. The Argo II disintegrated upon arrival at Camp Half-Blood, but Leo mounted Festus and engaged Gaea, along with Jason and Piper. Jason summoned the winds and lifted himself and Piper into the air as Leo lifted Gaea off the ground in Festus' claws, Jason used storm winds to keep Gaea away from the earth, her source of power, and Piper used her charmspeak to lull Gaea to sleep, as Leo sent a blast of fire against her. Meanwhile, on the ground, Octavian reloaded one of the onagers, not realizing that his robes had snagged in the mechanism so that triggering the onager would launch him to his death as well, Will, seeing this, attempted to dissuade Octavian from triggering the device, but Nico, and Michael, who had appeared on the scene, realized that we could not stop Octavian and that in fact, it was desirable, even necessary, that he should die. Michael interposed himself between the onager and the two Greek demigods, drew his sword, and deliberately allowed Octavian to launch himself to his own death along with the onager's explosive payload, which hit Gaea just as Leo blasted her with fire, doubling the fireball's destructive force and rendering Gaea, like her husband Ouranos, permanently dispersed and powerless." Frank said, he was looking at the camper with a blank stare on his face.
"With Gaea finished, the combined Greek and Roman forces dispatched and scattered the monsters, incurring heavy casualties. Nico told me his secret and earned himself my confusion and a high-five from Annabeth. Jason decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood with Piper but with frequent trips to Camp Jupiter. Annabeth and I decided to finish our senior year of high school in New York City and go to college in New Rome. At the end it is also revealed that Leo died in the explosion, but was brought back to life using the Physician's Cure. He landed in Ogygia with Festus, picked up Calypso, and flew off into the unknown." Percy said, a smile on his face.
"Wait if Leo flew into the unknown how is he here?" Asked a male camper from the back of the pavilion.
"Well you see, once I picked Calypso up it took around three months to get back to Camp." Leo said, a grin on his face.
"So Octavian just went mental in the end?" Asked an older camper.
"Yeah pretty much, he let power get to him and he eventually got too power hungry that he killed himself." I said nonchalantly.
"What happened to Apollo?" Another camper from the front row asked.
"We have no clue, we have not heard from him in about six ish months." Will said, counting the months that he had not heard from his dad on his fingers.
"Well campers that is the last quest to be explained. Now I assume that the fates will be here so that you can go back to your own timeline soon." Chiron said, emerging from behind the crowd of campers.
"I would tend to agree. I think that we are going to try to clean up dad's cabin before they get here because Big Z, the main drama queen, would not like it if we left his cabin very messy." Thalia said, a smirk on her face. Suddenly, lightning flashed across the sky and the campers shrieked in fear. The boys and Thalia immediately started cracking up.
"Alright, now please Thalia don't piss off your father too much. He is already dealing with Apollo right now. Chiron said, a stern look on his face.
"Ok, we will be headed off to clean now," Thalia said in response. And all eighteen of us headed back to the Zeus cabin to tidy it up before the fates came back to retrieve us.
Authors note-
Hi, I hope you like the chapter. The word count is 5009 words. Also there will only be one more chapter after this one which is kind of sad because I started this book over six months ago and it has just grown so much. Thank you for all of your support and I hope that you have enjoyed this whole book. I am hoping to add the last chapter in the next month but no promises because second semester just started for me so my school life is going to be chaotic. I love you all very much and have an amazing day. Bye my amazing Cupcakes!
-Kate ☀️ 🍄