A/N: I own nothing. Enjoy!
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"Faster!" Percy cried out to the soldiers behind him riding on their horses.
There was still a few miles of road to the Cuoran royal castle. There was one smoke plume in the horizon. Through the spy network, Percy had received word that the aristocratic faction had planted bombs throughout the castle to cause more chaos. The information resulted in the Black Knight Order and the royal knights working closely together to locate as many of these planted bombs as possible. Unfortunately, it seemed that they had still missed one, possibly more. They were lucky there weren't more. The grey fumes looked like they came from the southernly portion of the castle, in a wing that was largely for treasure holding. Thankfully, that portion of the castle wasn't important. Treasures could be replaced, but human lives couldn't.
And so, Percy was anxious. He couldn't help but keep glancing towards the direction of his mansion. There was a fork in the road just half a mile up ahead. He could easily swerve onto the left path that led back to his house.
He gnashed his teeth. Never in his day had he thought he would have to make the terrible decision between duty and family. He swore that once this was over, he was going to tear apart every one who was a part of this rebellion.
"Third battalion, take the fork to the left. First battalion, we'll take the right fork," Percy called out.
It was the best he could do in the situation. The left fork would take his third battalion to the back of the castle, but it would have them swing by his mansion first.
Hold on, Annabeth, Percy thought. They were coming.
*****************
Jason had raised his sword to block a mercenary's swing when he felt a huge wash of magic overcome him. The spell was like an oily voice, trying to permeate through his mind. His hand hesitated. Time seemed to slow down, though Jason struggled to fight against the fascination magic. It was as if his arms were suddenly weighted down by lead and would no longer respond to his bidding.
"No!" A female voice cried out.
The voice was raw in its desperation, fear and apprehension apparent in every tone. But there was something rich in the voice, washing away the foggy magic created in Jason's mind.
And not a moment too soon. Jason just managed to twist away from the enemy sword, though not fast enough before the sword collided with his armor plated shoulder instead of his neck. Ignoring the pain, Jason let the impact of the sword carry him towards the ground where he quickly rolled away before the enemy could take another hit. Jason leapt to his feet, still clutching his sword in a defensive position.
He had been so concentrated on the soldier he had been fighting, who apparently looked like the mercenaries' leader, that he had missed the Colchis princess sneaking towards him. Jason steeled his mind and dulled the pain in his body. He had almost fallen for the Colchis princess' magic trickery again. Had it not been for the shrill cry of another woman, he had no doubt that he would suffer more than a bruised shoulder.
But who had called out to him so powerfully that he was able to overcome Princess Medea's fascination magic? Jason's heartrate plummeted as he spotted Princess Piper in the royal hall with a horrified look on her face.
How? Jason had thought she would be safe, far away from the fighting. Piper was surrounded by other royal knights who were fighting to keep enemy soldiers at bay. He could see past the enemy soldier's shoulder that Princess Medea had also discovered Piper.
But there was no more time for Jason to speculate or for him to come up with a plan to whisk Piper to a safe place. The mercenary leader had launched another attack.
Jason grimly raised his sword once again and threw himself into battle with a war cry.
*****************
The troop of enemy soldiers were fast approaching the ducal mansion. Annabeth had the knights and the mansion staff work together to make a blockade at the doors using any material they could find like wagons and furniture. But it was a temporary measure at best. The walls surrounding the ducal mansion were about three meters high but still able to be scaled. What she was worried about was if the enemies scattered around the wall, and the Black Knights and mansion staff also had to spread out in order to protect the whole mansion.
Annabeth judged the size of the mansion to be too large to be held down with merely fifty soldiers. Instead, she would have to create a much smaller perimeter of a safe and guarded area for the the Black Knights and mansion staff to hold down.
She roughly measured about eighty or ninety soldiers on horses were heading this way, though she was confused as to why the enemy troops were specifically heading towards the ducal mansion. Shouldn't they be heading towards the royal castle where the main rebellion was happening?
Annabeth calculated in her head that perhaps this was a personal vendetta against her or Percy. Who was it? Marquis Ares for opposing him and rejecting his daughter's hand? A petty revenge from Luke for breaking ties? Or perhaps this was all part of the aristocratic faction's plan to sow discord and chaos throughout Cuora. Regardless, Annabeth had no thought of abandoning her new home.
Now fully dressed in armor, Annabeth watched and waited for the soldiers to come closer. She had to catch them off guard before the soldiers could separate and make them harder to repel.
"Now!"
The windows of the ducal mansion had already been opened just enough for arrows to be fired out. The Black Knights that Percy had left to guard her comprised of mostly sword fighters, but six were expert archers. They shot out arrows with small bags of a strange substance. Annabeth raised her bow as well and shot out her arrow.
Some of the arrows collided with the enemy soldiers, but most were sliced down, which was exactly what Annabeth intended. The bags attached to the arrows were split open, releasing their foul odor and material. She wasn't particularly tuned with archery, but her goal was not to hit the troops but just to cause disorder among the enemies. Annabeth had joined the mansion staff in filling the bags with whatever foul material they could find like spoiled fish, rotten meat, and animal waste that the stable boys were particularly enthusiastic to use.
Meanwhile, the mansion staff were also busy in launching homemade missiles of flour, more oil, and other materials using arrows and bows found in the ducal mansion armory storage. Apparently, Travis and Conner were somehow experts in creating agents of chaos.
Though flour would not hurt the enemies in the slightest, the flour missiles created miniature fogs of white powder that obscured the enemies' vision and concentration. Annabeth smiled as she saw the enemies' coordination break as their horses began to panic. The Jackson mansion didn't have smoke bombs, but they could produce their own powder bombs using flour straight from the kitchen. There had been thoughts of using gunpowder and oil for the bags attached to the arrows, but Annabeth had feared causing a fire or explosion so close to the mansion.
Annabeth observed from the balcony with a sharp gaze. Most of the enemy soldiers were unharmed. Many began getting off their horses and attempting to scale the walls.
"Keep them back at bay as much as possible!" Annabeth ordered.
She had to stall for time as much possible. Now the archers began picking off the distraught enemies one by one. But she knew that the adversaries could easily regroup after overcoming such surprising but ultimately harmless guerilla tactics. If the Black Knight archers were able to cut down on the numbers somewhat, then there would be fewer people to fight for the sword fighters to counter once the enemy did break through the blockade.
"Keep at it!" Annabeth encouraged as she fired shot after shot. Most missed, but here and there, foul wastes were still being spilled.
They were causing less havoc now. The enemies were beginning to chip away at the blockade, pounding and scaling on the metal gate that was barely holding on.
Annabeth gritted her teeth. This was as much time as they could afford.
Most of the Black Knights were gathered near the gate, their weapons at the ready for when the enemies broke through. The archers would try to hit those who tried to break off of the main group and force them to be crowded near the gate. Other mansion staff were there on backup with emergency medicine and other odd bits of weapons.
Abandoning her bow, Annabeth took out her sword and prepared to fight.
*****************
The entrance of Piper and her escort knights had attracted attention from both the royal knights and the enemies. Piper's heart pounded, but she had made her resolve not to run away.
"Sir Leo. Get me close to Princess Medea." Piper ordered.
"Pardon me, Princess, but shouldn't we be going the opposite direction?" Leo grunted as he whacked away a White Knight who was attempting a spear attack.
"This rebellion won't end soon if we don't get rid of her!" Piper was adamant. "She's controlling the soldiers to do what she wants."
She had recognized the source of the fascination magic holding many of the enchanted royal knights. The White Knights were most likely doing the aristocratic faction's bidding anyways, but to overturn the tide, the spellbound royal knights had to be released. Every time Piper used her own fascination magic to counter someone charmed by Medea, the Colchis princess seemed to enchant three more.
"Got it! Stay close to me. It's going to be rough from here on!"
Perhaps Leo had been convinced by seeing Piper undo whatever sorcery Princess Medea had on the enchanted royal knights. To him, Piper was like a saintess.
Taking Leo's words to heart, Piper stayed close to Leo, though all she wanted to do was run across the room and tackle down the Colchis princess. Then, it would be for sure a one way road to hell with all the enemies closing in. Fortunately, her cry earlier had saved Prince Jason. Piper had seen how the prince's body had frozen for a split moment as the soldier he had been fighting raised his weapon towards the Cuoran prince. With her cry, Jason seemed to snap out of the haze and reacted before he could be killed. But she had still seen how that sword had slammed into his shoulder. Thankfully, the prince's armor had held.
All around her were more fighting. Piper frowned as she saw the numbers of brainwashed royal knights. It was hard for a fascinating magic user to bewitch so many people at once. Princess Medea seemed to have something more up her sleeve, and Piper was sure she knew what it was.
The onyx ring that Princess Medea wore every time seemed to be the culprit. Not only did the accessory seem too inconspicuous for the Colchis princess who favored flashier jewels and dresses, Medea seemed to rub the ring whenever Piper suspected a case of fascinating magic being used. Piper was now sure that the onyx ring was a magic stone that amplified Medea's fascination magic. One way or another, Piper had to get that ring off of Medea somehow. If Medea's onyx ring was a magic stone, then the playing field was heavily tipped towards Medea.
Medea was also walking quickly towards Piper with a group of White Knights, her eyes narrowed. As suspected, Medea was rubbing her onyx ring and muttering under her breath.
A fallen soldier lay nearby. Piper quickly scooped up a knife about the length of her forearm.
"Sir Leo, do you think you could get me just a few seconds of time with the White Knights away from Medea?" Piper asked.
Leo panted, as he batted away a spear. "I'll try, but it won't be easy." He whistled, and Piper's escort knights gathered closer towards the White Knights surrounding Medea.
Both princesses stared the other down, unwilling to back down. It would be a battle of their magic and voices.
Before Princess Medea could utter the first word, Piper began to sing loudly and powerfully. The sound waves seemed to wash over through the royal hall.
Medea retaliated with her own fascination magic, but all Piper needed was a few seconds for the White Knights to be frozen. Piper pushed past her escort knights to their chagrin and zipped by the White Knights. Medea tried to take a step back, clearly startled.
But it was not Medea's throat that Piper was aiming for. As Medea raised her palms up and yelled "Stop", she had lifted her hand in perfect position. That is, in perfect position for Piper to raise her knife.
A earsplitting shriek filled the room as Medea looked horrified at her hand, now missing two fingers. Piper had cut the ring with its finger right off.
Piper felt an immense wash of magic release throughout the room. The fascination magic enchantment had been broken the moment the ring had been severed from its owner.
But although the enchanted royal knights were freed, the White Knights were still enemies in the first place. The few seconds of time Piper had managed to buy with her song were now over. Out of the corner of her eye, Piper saw a blade of metal swing towards her.
Clang!
Someone forcibly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her out of the way. Piper's back met somebody's hard armored chest before she was roughly pushed behind the person.
"Prince Jason?" She looked up and met Jason's blue eyes. There was anger, but directed towards the White Knight who had nearly killed her, but relief that she was safe.
At that moment, horns and trumpets bellowed outside of the royal hall. It was the sound of the Order of the Black Knights. The backup had arrived. This surely meant that Marquis Ares had been taken care of.
Princess Medea stared at her hand in stupefaction. It was clear that she was apparently so much in shock that she forgot to use her fascination magic in the last opportunity to escape. The Colchis princess was quickly taken down, and a rag shoved in her mouth so she could no longer use her magic.
The tides had turned.
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The mercenaries had been expecting a mansion full of scared and powerless people, not well trained soldiers and a household staff willing to resort to cheap trickery to protect themselves. They had been promised gold and women, with a chest of gold given to the one who conquered the lady of the house. Never had they imagined that the lady of the mansion would be on the frontlines themselves.
"Come now," one mercenary crowed. "Give up the fight, and we'll let you live! Of course, not before we get a taste of your-oof!"
"Get a taste of this," Annabeth growled as she slashed at the attacker's face with her knife. She had lost her sword in the battle and had resorted to taking out her hidden knife. He talked too much, she felt. The mercenary cursed and stumbled backwards before a Black Knight finished him off.
Annabeth ignored the body and nimbly launched into another fight. The guerilla tactics they had put up had decreased the enemies into nearly equal numbers of the Black Knights guarding the mansion. If they could just hold on for a moment longer...
"More people approach!"
Annabeth's heart filled with dread. Were more enemies approaching?
Suddenly, the enemies were shouting, trying to run into the mansion. No, not shouting with renewed triumph as one might when more forced arrived, but in fear and desperation.
"It's the third battalion!" One of the Black Knights cried in joy.
A whole battalion of troops charged towards the mansion.
"Take them all down!" The leader was heard.
But it wasn't Percy, and the voice seemed to belong to a female. Annabeth grinned. Though Percy wasn't there leading the troops, something told her that he was safe and sound.
"Don't back down!" Annabeth also commanded as she raised her sword once more.
Their energy and hope recharged, the addition of the new forces quickly overcame the enemy soldiers. Those still alive were taken prisoners and secured.
"Oh, the castle!"
Annabeth looked up alarmed. Had they lost the rebellion?
Half expecting to see white flags on the castle or smoke columns from the towers, Annabeth saw the distinct glow of lit torches just illuminating bright red Cuoran flags flying proudly in the evening sky.
They had won.
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As soon as the situation had been cleared up and all enemy troops were taken as prisoners, Percy left the castle immediately for Annabeth. Riding on a fresh horse, Percy felt that the distance from the castle to his home had never felt so long.
He was jumping off the horse as soon as he entered the gate, not even bothering to pull his horse to a full stop. There was some sort of foul smell lingering around and the ground was littered with the trace of a battle with broken spears and arrows, but Percy ignored everything. Nothing mattered to him as he saw Annabeth come flying out of the mansion.
He met her half way, catching her as she cried and jumped into his arms. She was safe and unharmed. Percy tightened his hug, smelling the soft lemon smell of her hair, clutching at her warmth.
"I'm home," he said.