Chapter Two

Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon had never seen such chaos. He had fought telekhines in the lava filled mountain, St. Helens and had blow up the St. Louis arch. Stopped an army of Luke's forces from invading Camp Half-Blood and saved Artemis from enduring Altas' curse, but this was by far worse. His friends, his family was fighting to no avail against the monsters, but it just didn't seem like enough.

And then they started dying. People he had known for years. People he had grown up with lying on the streets of New York in puddles of their own blood. "Don't just stand there, Jackson!" Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares screamed at him as she battled a dracaenae in silver armor. "Fight!"

So, he did. He slashed through empousai, stabbed a Laistrygonian and decapitated a dracaenae. Percy didn't even put a dent in Kronos’ army and then as if a miracle, the monsters started retreating.

"Percy?" a voice called from behind him. He knew the voice. He turned with relief, Bianca was still alive. "Why are they retreating?" she questioned with worry in her voice.

He was happy to see her unharmed. Bianca was his closest friend and had been on every one of his quests, saving his life more than a dozen times. If she died, he wouldn't know what to do.

He jogged over to her, as did the other standing demigods. He was glad to so many still standing. "I-." I started, but stopped and moved quickly as an arrow flew past his head. With the curse of Achilles, it was pointless to, but his instinct was smart enough to tell him to move when a blunt object came soaring at his head.

Percy and the demigods gripped their weapons and turned in the direction from which it came. He grinned to see a girl with short black hair and a silver tiara. It was Thalia, daughter of Zeus and his oldest friend. "You didn't think I'd leave hanging, did you Kelp Head?" she teased as the rest of the Hunters of Artemis appeared behind her. There were about thirty of them. She had been recruiting.

Bianca di Angelo, the dark haired daughter of Hades ran ahead of Percy to hug Thalia. He slowly followed behind when he reached them, he asked warily as he noticed her small wounds and torn clothing, "Did you cause them to retreat?" He wanted to be sure it wasn't a trick.

Thalia nodded, "Took out the Williamsburg Bridge, they're regrouping."

Letting out a sigh of relief, he said, "Can I hug you without getting impaled?"

His friend laughed and threw her arms around him in a hug. When she pulled away, she smirked at Bianca and him. "It good to see you two alive and kicking."

Percy had to agree. He hadn't heard from her in months. Before she had pledged herself to Artemis, they never left each other's side. Was it weird of him to miss her company?

"Just barely." Bianca explained with expression grim and a thick voice. She cast her eyes over the fallen campers. Some of the unharmed demigods were already moving their bodies off the streets. Percy was glad because it was not a sight he enjoyed. It was painful to see fallen friends. "We've lost twenty so far. Silena was one of them. I felt her die."

The two others froze in shock. Thalia swallowed the lump in her throat, but Percy remained unmoving. Silena Beauregard was a good friend of his. They both trained demigods to ride pegasi together. Hearing that she was gone was too unreal. Finally, he clenched his jaw and gripped his pen which transformed into his sword, Riptide. "Kronos will pay." he promised, his expression dark.

"What's the plan, Perce?" asked Thalia, her electric blue eyes filled with determination that quickly turned to confusion. "Where are all the mortals during this?"

"Asleep." Bianca answered. "We moved as many as we could away from the fight. It was Morpheus' doing."

Thalia shook her head. "This is insanity." she muttered, running a hand over her face. "There isn't enough of us, even with my Hunters."

She was right and Percy knew it, but he couldn't allow Olympus to fall. "We have to hold. Typhon has the gods subdued. We're Olympus' only hope." he declared and turned to the other demigods. They looked as if they lacked morale. "Heal the wounded and guard the Empire State Building. We have to be ready for when they come back!"

Looking more motivated, the demigods got into motion, as did the Hunters after word from Thalia. Bianca grips Percy's arm as he tried to walk off. He wasn't sure where he was going to go, just somewhere to get away from all this for a second.

"You need to sleep, have you seen yourself?" she inquired, concerned clear in her dark eyes. Bianca was like a mother in some ways, Percy admired that about her most times, but right now he just found it annoying. "That curse has its consequences."

Percy shook her off. Sleep was not an option. "Your dad still refuses to help?"

"I was going to go to the Underworld and try again." she expressed. She had the same doubts Percy did, he could just tell and he didn't make him feel any better. Worse than before, actually.

The son of Poseidon sighed and sat down on the hood of a car. "I don't know if I can do this, B."

Her expression hardened and she sheathed her Stygian Iron dagger. With the look she was giving him, he thought she looked like a true daughter of Hades. "Well, you have no choice!" she snapped at him. "I know how much sucks to see people you love die, Percy! They were my friends too, you know!" The words were like a slap to the face. "If you keep brooding and thinking we are all going to die, we'll end up doing just that! Snap out of it and win this war!"

He blinked at her in surprise. Bianca wasn't one to say anything bad about someone, let alone snap at them and he was glad for that because right now, she was terrifying. "I-I'm sorry, B." Percy apologized, still in shock. "I'm just so wrapped up in what the prophecy said and then I had this dream about Rachel-."

"You had a dream about Rachel?" she exclaimed, incredulously. Bianca looked annoyed, but he didn't know why. She never seemed to get along with Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Percy's mortal friend from Goode High-School who could see through the Mist.

His face turned red. "It was a demigod dream!" he quickly recovered. "She was painting pictures of the Empire State Building burning and it freaked me out, okay?"

Bianca to relax a bit, but didn't get to reply because Andrew Harrison, a son of Athena approached him. Percy didn't really enjoy his company because the kid was gifted by his mother to read minds. Percy didn't like the idea of Andrew in his head. "What's going on, Andrew?" he asked the blonde boy.

"Four vans are headed this way. I have no clue how they got pass Kronos and Morpheus' mojo." Andrew told them with worry in his Athenian standard issued grey eyes.

"Demigods." Bianca answered the unasked question. "They must be."

Percy bit his lip and stood up. Right now, he wasn't too worried on where they came from. "But are they friendly?" The last thing they needed was to fight their own kind.

A blur and a blast of wind blow past them, causing Bianca to jump. "What in the Hades was that?" she gasped.

"The name's Nora, sweetie!" a girl's voice rang out from their far left. The three demigods whip their heads in its direction to find a rather petite tan skinned girl with curly light brown hair and a grin. "Now, are you the good guys or the bad guys?"

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Thanks for the responses! Next chapter our characters meet, so stay tuned! Thanks for reading!

Notes