The Legion was gearing up once again to go to battle, giving Percy and Thalia some time alone. "So, we're going to be parents," Percy said as they were watching the forces mobilize for battle.
"Sounds like it," Thalia sighed while subconsciously rubbing her stomach.
"How are you feeling?" Percy asked after another moment of awkward silence.
"I'm fine," she replied. "It's only been a few days, so I haven't been feeling sick or anything."
"That's not what I meant," Percy said with a pointed look. "Are you ready for this? I know we never talked about it."
"I'm, I'm fine," Thalia tried to say, but her voice cracked and she started sobbing. Immediately, Percy wrapped his arms around her and started whispering sweet nothings to calm her down. "I'm scared," Thalia whispered after a few moments. "I don't feel ready for this. What if something goes wrong? What if I'm a bad mom? What if I turn out like my mom?"
"I'm scared too," Percy said as he rocked her back and forth in his arms while they stood in the hug. "But I know you'll be a great mom. We'll figure this out, together."
# # #
Annabeth, with her honor guard of demigods and monsters, stood in the inner sanctum of the fort. A black pit about ten feet in diameter lay at her feet, a trail of black most emerging from it and going through a hole in the ceiling. Suddenly, the door burst open and a messenger rushed in. "What is it?" an annoyed Annabeth demanded as she turned around.
The demigod gulped nervously. "I apologize for the intrusion M'Lady," he gulped. "But our attack. . . has failed."
"What?" Annabeth asked in a dangerously quiet voice.
"Our forces almost overran the Romans, as you said they would, but then out of nowhere reinforcements appeared and pushed us back."
"Reinforcements?"
The guy gulped once again to steady himself. "yes," he said shakily. "Their forces nearly doubled in size at the appearance of multiple cohorts of Roman troops and a herd of soldiers dressed in Greek armor."
"Curious," Annabeth said thoughtfully. "Where did they come from?"
"No idea," the demigod confessed. "One second we were winning, and the next our lines were charged by fresh troops."
"I see," Annabeth replied, the wheels spinning in her head. "What of Piper and Jason?"
"Captured," he said meekly.
"Captured?" Annabeth questioned, a dangerous edge entering her voice.
"Unfortunately. Jason was defeated in a duel against Thalia Grace, and Piper's troops mutinied and turned on her for some unknown reason."
"Acceptable losses," Annabeth declared before motioning for the Son of Apollo to join her next to the pit. Turning back around to face the pit the mastermind started speaking again. "Luckily, the ritual is almost complete, we just need one more ingredient. You." With that, she shoves the unsuspecting demigod into the pit where he fell for about twenty feet. before before dissolving in a flash of purple light.
# # #
Hannah and Clara stood watching as Jacob, along with his fellow centurion they now knew as Alice, were preparing their cohort for battle. His cohort was manning a siege tower and a set of ladders, and would be one of the first to breach the walls. This worried the two girls because Jake insisted that he be in the squad that initially cleared the wall for the rest of the forces saying, 'I won't risk the lives of my troops if I can do it myself'. Naturally, the two girls protested, and when that didn't work insisted on going with him. "He's really determined not to let anything happen to you guys," a voice said from behind the pair, causing them to jump slightly before turning around. They could now see that it was Luke who had spoken, and that Ethan was standing slightly behind him. "Hi," he waved nervously before crouching down to Clara's level. "And you must be the famous Clara that I've heard so much about. I'm Luke."
"Luke?" Clara said like she recognized the name, but couldn't figure out where she knew it from. "Oh, Luke! Uncle Percy told me about you!"
"Oh he did, did he?" Luke grinned. "Only good things, I hope," he finished with a wink.
"He told me that you made some mistakes, but you learned and were a hero in the end. He said that's the best any of us could do."
"And he's right, kiddo," Luke said as he ruffled Clara's hair. "The best any of us can do is learn from our mistakes and become better people." He then stood up and looked Hannah right in the eyes. "I'm so sorry, for everything."
"I forgive you, I understand," Hannah said with a small smile.
Luke looked like he was going to say something else, but then Ethan interrupted. "What's up with those two?" he asked, pointing to where Percy and Thalia were standing a good ways away from everyone else wrapped in a hug.
"Ya, I was wondering the same thing," Jacob said as he walked over to the small group.
"As was I," Zoë added as she also walked over.
"I'm not sure if I should say," Hannah said hesitantly.
"Oh, come on, you can tell us," Luke said, a mischievous gleam in his eye.
Hannah thought for a moment, and then took a deep breath. "They got married, and now Thalia's pregnant," she all but whispered.
"They what?" Luke roared before turning and stalking towards the newlyweds. "That's it, I need to have a talk with my sister and her husband."
"Luke!" Ethan called as he ran after his friend. "Calm down, don't do anything rash!" Exchanging looks, everyone else ran after Luke as well. They couldn't have him murdering their mutual friend after all.
"Explain yourself, Jackson!" Luke thundered as he neared him.
"Explain what?" an extremely confused Percy asked as he discreetly put himself in between the angry Luke and his wife.
"You corrupted my little sister!"
"Stop it Luke!" Thalia yelled as she shoved Percy out of the way and got in his face. "He did no such thing, I love him!"
It was at that point Luke couldn't hold it in anymore, he burst out laughing. "You should have seen your face!" he wheezed in between fits of laughter.
"Wait, you're not mad?" Percy asked. Still laughing, Luke could only shake his head.
"Luke Castellan!" Thalia thundered as lightning sparked between her fingertips. "I'll kill you!"
She then made a move to grab the Son of Hermes, but Percy grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "Whoa, calm down, Pineneedle," Percy soothed. "It was just a joke." With a nod, Thalia calmed herself down by taking a few deep breaths.
"Congrats you guys, looks to me like you took my advice," Jacob said with a wink. "And I hear you also have a little one on the way! I know you guys will be amazing parents!" Everyone else then followed suit, congratulating the couple and reassuring them that they'll do great.
# # #
It was the midafternoon now, and the army was ready for the final assault. Annabeth's forces had been cut to barely a third of the original strength due to the monster's slain and a large portion of her demigods defecting to Percy's side. Victory was assured, but casualties would still be sustained. Inside the siege tower stood Percy, Thalia, Jacob, Hannah, Luke, Zoë, Ethan, Clara, and a few other legionnaires. Distantly, Caesar could be heard shouting, "Forward!" and horns relaying the order up and down the lines. Almost immediately, the tower lurched forward as it started moving under their feet. All around the enemy fort, the other five towers would be doing the same. Working with Caesar, Malcolm had come up with a great plan. The Greek forces and the Hunt would attack the gate with Festus that had been modified into a battering ram with half a dozen ladders manned by Romans to back them up.The other three walls would also simultaneously be attacked by Romans manning two siege towers and another half a dozen ladders. The goal was to take the walls quickly through overwhelming force and then move inward.
After a few minutes the tower lurched to a stop, they were at the wall. "Everyone ready?" Jacob asked. Stern nods were given, they were ready. With his own nod Jacob donned his helmet, readied his shield, and drew the gladius at his side. Then, using the pommel of his sword Jacob hit the lever to drop the ramp. "For Percy!" he cried as he ran down the ramp and jumped into the middle of a group of blemmyae that had massed at the food of the ramp to stop them.
With similar battle cries everyone else followed, Clara and Zoë staging on the ramp to provide archer support wherever possible. Needless to say, the monsters didn't stand a chance. These were some of the most skilled demigods of their generation, and they had a job to do. It would take the gods themselves interfering to stop them at this point. With the immediate threat cleared Jacob sheathed his sword and drew the bow that he had slung across his back. Jacob drew back his bow, but seeing as he had no arrows he used what little sunlight was leaking through the clouds to fashion one. He set his sights on a squad of Greeks that were running his way, but before he had a chance to do anything they surrendered. They had seen what they were facing when the ramp had dropped, and they weren't willing to face it. The same thing happened up and down the wall as Jacob's cohort cleared it. The group was prepared to move into the inner sanctum where the black mist was coming from, so Jacob signalled Alice to take the troops and move them to ground level. Then, following Percy and Thalia, the small party moved down as well.
The group of demigods burst through the door of the inner sanctum, cutting down the dracaena standing guard. Annabeth whirled around from where she stood in the center of the room where the shadows were rising from a pit. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw who was there, but she quickly composed herself. "Well, well, well, look who it is. Percy Jackson and Thalia Grace," she sneered, putting extra emphasis on the surname because she knew Thalia hated it.
Annabeth then went to say something else, but Thalia interrupted. "That's not my name," she said, not bothered at all by hearing the surname she so hated.
"What?" a perplexed Annabeth questioned.
"That's not my name anymore," Thalia persisted.
Not one to be made a fool of, Annabeth couldn't help but satisfy her curiosity. "Then what is?" she asked.
"Thalia, Thalia Jackson," she smirked.
Everybody wished that they had a camera for what happened next. Annabeth's face grew red with rage and you could practically see steam coming from her ears. "How dare you take him from me!" she roared.
"Me, take him from you?" Thalia yelled back, now also red with anger. "Last I checked you left him. You were the one that betrayed him, you were the one that tried to kill him, you were the one that broke him!"
"And my plan would have worked if it weren't for you and the rest of his stupid friends!" Annabeth shouted before her face softened. "You understand, don't you Luke?" she said softly. "You know what I'm doing is right."
Luke's face was set in a grim line as he tightened his grip on his sword. "No, it's not. I may not like the gods, but destruction isn't the answer. I don't know who you are, but you're not the Annie that we rescued all those years ago."
Annabeth scowled as Luke rejected her, so she then turned to Zoë. "Come back for more, dying once wasn't enough for you?" she sneered.
"I hath returned to help a friend," Zoë growled.
"You still don't get it, do you?" Annabeth laughed. "I killed you that night on Mount Tam." Zoë looked confused at this statement. "Nobody was watching when Atlas slammed you into those rocks, so it was an easy matter to sneak over and insert a dagger between the ribs. It's a shame, you would have survived otherwise," she said innocently.
"How dare you!" Percy yelled, extremely red in the face. "How dare you harm Zoë!" He then wanted to charge the stupid Spawn of Athena, but something deep down told him not to. He had a feeling this was a part of her plan.
Annabeth then turned her attention to Jacob. "And you," Annabeth said menacingly with eyes narrowed. "I killed you."
"Sorry, just couldn't rest down there with all this scheming happening up here," Jacob responded, golden-yellow eye gleaming.
"No matter," Annabeth stated coldly. "You died once, you can die again."
Upon hearing that Hannah jumped forward, causing Jacob to grab her and hold her back. "Let me go!" she shrieked. "I'll kill her!" This statement just seemed to make the cold smile on Annabeth's face widen.
"Don't," Jacob whispered in Hannah's ear. "She's not worth it."
With a frown, Annabeth realized that they weren't going to come to her. So, with a simple hand gesture, she sent her honor guard of demigods and dracaena rushing forwards to deal with the heroes. Everyone immediately lept into action. Zoë, Clara, and Jacob stood in the back providing Archer support while Hannah covered them, Percy and Thalia went to the right and started carving a path towards Annabeth, and Luke and Ethan went to the left.
The monsters fell quickly, but the demigods were more of a challenge. These were older campers, and veterans of the wars. "Why hello, dear sister," Lou Ellen spat as she marched towards Hannah, hands glowing with magical power. Clara went to take her down with an arrow, but Hannah waved it off.
"Come to be humiliated again?" Hannah replied sweetly, causing Lou Ellen to scowl.
"You got lucky last time," she growled. "I'll show you who mom's strongest child is." Then, without warning, Lou Ellen sent a beam of green magic towards Hannah. Barely having time to react, she threw up a wall of shadow in front of her to absorb the attack. Power then swirled around both girl's as they circled one another. Hannah's eyes glowed purple and had a combination of purple and black swirling around her as Lou Ellen had sickly green energy swirling around her. With a cry, the two sisters attacked one another. The fight was hard to track as Hannah darkened the area immediately around them, making it so that all you could see were flashes of green and purple within the darkness. After nearly five minutes of intense fighting the darkness dissipated, revealing an exhausted Hannah and a Lou Ellen bound head to toe in shadows.
# # #
"This ends here!" Percy growled as he marched towards Annabeth, Riptide gripped tightly.
"Yes it does," Annabeth smirked as she drew her own sword. "King Ixion will be here soon, and then Olympus will be ours."
"Not if I have anything to say about it." Both demigods then rushed forward, swords meeting and kicking off an intense battle.
From the instant it started, Annabeth knew she was outclassed. Percy was just too strong and too skilled with a sword, it was only a matter of time before he defeated her. Annabeth was going to have to fight dirty. Knowing that the pit to Tartarus was slightly behind her and to her left, Annabeth let Percy push her backwards. Once they were on the edge, she tried to circle to get his back to the pit, but he would have none of it. Every time she tried to flank Percy, but every time she did he was there. After another few minutes of intense fighting Percy finally found an opening, a flaw in Annabeth's technique. So, he exploited it. Next time she made the mistake Percy was there, and he performed the disarming technique Luke had taught him all those years ago.
The sword flew from Annabeth's grip and clattered to the ground on her right. "Yield," Percy growled as he thrust his sword under her chin.
Glaring defiantly Annabeth made a lunge to the right in order to escape, but found Thalia standing right there. "Don't even think about it," Thalia threatened.
Looking around Annabeth could see that she was the only one left, all the monsters had been reduced to dust and her guards were being tied up in the corner by Zoë, Hannah, Jacob and Clara. However, Annabeth then saw a sight behind Percy that made her smirk. "It's not over yet," she said menacingly.
A/N: Annabeth is a schemer, but when it comes to a fight with Percy she doesn't stand a chance. Nobody can best him with a sword, but props to her for trying. She did last longer than most do. Anyways, I'm working on the next chapter and then the Epilogue should be out after that!
Have a great day!