Resurrected

Ethan's POV

Clarisse. Well, she’s got either a whole lot of courage or a ton of stupidity, maybe a mixture of both. After watching ten Romans get butchered like that, only an Ares-child could muster up that kind of courage.

“C’mon!” Clarisse urged impatiently, “Alex’s situation is definitely not improving, I can guarantee that much!”

So, reluctant and yet anxious, we stepped out of the pillboxes. But Cato didn’t seem to care. He just kept walking, the massive gates barely starting to close. We picked up speed, and I could see the worry in Clarisse and Tommy’s faces when we started running.

When we were a hundred yards from the gates, Cato slipped through, the gates closing behind him were halfway shut. That’s when we started really running. But when I heard a scream of pain, high-pitched, and familiar, that’s when I started sprinting for my life.

“That’s Alex!” I panted, and Clarisse and Tommy took off after me. You’d think we’d be slow in full battle armor, but you’d be surprised what adrenaline gives you. We all got to the gate within twelve seconds, just as it was about to close. Clarisse got there first, slipping through the gate. Tommy got there next, and just as I was about to jump through I tripped.

I landed on my face, discombobulated. When I looked up, the gate was just wide enough for a human, only a few feet away. I tried to stumble through it, but I knew I wasn’t going to be quick enough. That’s when Tommy did something incredibly stupid. He pushed on the massive gate, slowing it down just enough for me to slip through.

I collapsed on the ground, breathing hard and still dazed. Suddenly, Tommy started moaning in pain. I looked over at him, clutching his arm, and almost threw up. As he had pushed the gate, his arm must have slipped, because he had a purple-black bruise welling up on his forearm. The gate must have closed on his arm before he could pull it out.

“Oh, gods,” Clarisse said, “Tommy, don’t move. I need to put something on it. Here, take the ambrosia.”

Tommy chomped down on the square of godly food, and the bruise started to recede. But then, he cried out in pain and clutched his arm again, his entire face scrunched in torture.

“No, no, it’s broken. Do either of you have any of Apollo’s liquid concrete stuff?”

He grimaced the words out like he was forcing them out of his throat. Clarisse rummaged around in her pack, which she had somehow kept on, and brought out a roll of cloth in a cup of grey water.

“Gimme a second, Tommy,” Clarisse said, wrapping the bandages around his arm. Once they hit his skin, they contracted, hardening like concrete. Tommy groaned again, but with the cast on, at least he could put his shield on.

We started to look around the compound, and realized that it looked like a normal medieval castle. The central courtyard was just ahead, opened by an archway. That’s when we all saw her.

“Alex,” I murmured, in shock.

Alexandra Rodriguez was seated in the middle of the open courtyard, chained by her wrists and ankles to the chair with barbed wire. Her legs had multiple blade-cuts, her mid-section was exposed and bruised, with more cuts. Her Camp Half-Blood shirt had been turned brown by all the blood that had dried in the cloth. Her hair was dirty and jaggedly cut, covering her face, which was hanging down like she couldn’t keep it upright.

We all rushed forwards, not realizing that we weren’t looking for enemies. We just had to get to her. But once Clarisse touched her chair, we realized we were screwed. WE were in the middle of a courtyard, surrounded on all four sides by walkways. We were in the middle of a firing pit. They had the high ground, we had no way to defend ourselves.

“Work fast,” I whispered, “Cut her free, Clarisse. Tommy, be on the lookout for anyone. We have to get Alex out of the palace and onto the mountain where Nico can pick us up. Go!”
Tommy’s eyes moved so fast, I couldn’t follow. He scanned every parapet, nook and cranny, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Clarisse snapped the chains on Alex, and told her,

“C’mon girl, we’re getting you out of here.”

But Alex simply moaned, “No. Not…worth it. They’ll kill you. Just…just leave me. I’ll be fine. Get out of here.”

“Not a chance,” Tommy said, keeping his eyes on the fortifications above and around us, “we’re not leaving without you.”

Suddenly, a voice, dark and familiar, said, “Who said you were leaving?”

We all whipped around to see where the voice had come from, and saw Cato standing in front of the archway we had come in from.

“Great,” I said, “Clarisse? What’s the take here?”

“We kill him,” Clarisse snarled. Even to me it sounded flat. Cato laughed lightly, and said,

“I commend your bravery, Greek, but as you witnessed with the Romans, I am more than capable of killing all of you without breaking a sweat. So,” he said, drawing his sword, “I call your bluff. Kill me if you can.”

All of a sudden, those parapets above and around us that we had thought were empty sprung up with twenty archers, their black arrows protruding. But they seemed to be waiting for Cato. Cato stepped forward, and behind him materialized four more warriors, all of them not exactly human, more like fragments of shadow, jaggedly shaped and the color of nightmares.

We were screwed. But just then, one of the archers fell, screaming his death-cry. A silver arrow was protruding from his chest. A single, pure note of music seemed to spill over the courtyard, and suddenly, five more of the archers dropped to the ground.

“No way!” Tommy marveled, “the Hunters of Artemis!”

I looked up as well, and saw fifteen pegasi, each with its own teenage girl, raining silver arrows from the sky. Thalia, daughter of Zeus, blew her conch horn again, and the pegasi kept flying, relocating to a better firing position

But it seemed that we hadn’t given those archers enough credit. Without regard for their own bodies, they turned and fired. With every shot, they either connected with the head of a pegasi or a Hunter. They were flawless. Thalia and her Hunters tried to return fire, but already a few Hunters had fallen.

I saw Thalia wave her arm frantically, calling for a retreat. They must have not been used to receiving return fire that accurate. Cato grumbled in mild annoyance, shouting,

“Go after them! Bring me back that stupid horn and the lieutenant, I don’t care whether she’s dead or not.”

With that, the archers melted into the ground, disappearing as they chased after the Hunters. Everything was happening so suddenly, I didn’t know how to react. I only snapped out of it when Cato snarled,

“You killed my archers, Nakamura. You killed an entire legion of skeleton-warriors. You killed Luke. It is more than fair that I return the favor. Or maybe I should kill your boy-toy, Doyle.”

Tommy growled at that, brandishing his sword. Cato drew his two black xiphoi and pointed forward. The four warriors behind him charged. Clarisse put Alex lightly down on the chair and stood in front of her, making her order clear.

Protect Alex at all costs.

The first two warriors charged at Clarisse, and she fought with such ferocity that I didn’t realize she was losing, badly. The third warrior charged at me, and I realized why Clarisse was having to work so hard just to stay alive. The shadow-like warriors carried no weapons. To attack, a black shard of obsidian seemed to protrude from their midsection, like a sea urchin. Except a million times faster.

I blocked spikes with both of my swords, and it was a full thirty seconds before I got the first strike of my own in. I connected solidly with the middle of the monster, but it just absorbed my sword into its essence. It was about to launch a spike at my head, when Cato said,

“Alive! I want them to watch this.”

So the monster held me down with multiple spikes through my shirt and pants, literally pinning me to the ground. I looked around, and saw that Clarisse had been knocked unconscious. But there was a pool of black sludge, like tar, at her feet. She had managed to kill one of those things. Tommy was standing, grimacing in pain, but still at the foot of a tar pile as well.

He stood more straight up, and raised his sword feebly up. Cato looked at him for a second, drew one of his swords and whacked Tommy’s sword so hard it knocked it out his hand, sending it clattering to the ground. Then, Cato stabbed his sword through Tommy’s right shoulder. Tommy didn’t even wince in pain. He just fell to the ground, limp and unmoving.

“NO!” I screamed, my brain being flooded with fear, making me light-headed. I realized that there was nothing I could do to save him. I strained against my bonds, but I couldn’t get up. Cato slowly walked up to Alex, and drew his other sword. He pointed it to the shadow-monster guarding Clarisse, and said,

“Wake her up, she has to witness this.”

The monster sent a spike though the cartilage of Clarisse’s ear, and she woke with a start, screaming in pain, but breathing through it just as quickly. Cato slammed his sword against the stone floor, causing sparks to fly, and Clarisse whipped her head around to see what was going on. Then, Cato turned his attention back to me.

“See this, Nakamura?” He asked, “This is what failure looks like. You, have failed, as I have, to save the ones you care about. Luke mentored me, he basically raised me. And this girl, she cut off his head. But hers is too pretty to separate from her body. So I’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”

Then, he stabbed both of his black swords through Alex’s chest. She coughed up blood, covering her shirt completely. Cato retracted his swords from her body and let her slump to the stone floor.

Alex was dead.

Notes

Ugh, please don't kill me for this chapter. I had to write a different ending than "Happily Ever After." So, this is the beginning of an extended ending, which should be about ten more chapters. Also, if you have trouble visualizing the courtyard and you are a gamer, the courtyard is like the map "Showdown" on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Enjoy,
Grafon