I woke up, feeling like a truck had run over me, backed up, then ran me over again. I was laying on a bed in an unfamiliar place. The lights were off, save for a single lamp in the corner.

I could hear voices coming from the other side of the door. I strained my ears to listen.

“He isn’t ready to take Kronos on!” it was coming from Annabeth.

“He is though, he has the strength,” said a calm female voice. It sounded vaguely familiar, I just couldn’t place where I had heard it before. “He just needs the right coaxing to unleash the power hidden within him. My oracle has seen it. On the blood moon, Kronos will be destroyed by Percy’s hand.”

I heard Annabeth groan, “Did you see how close to death he was? Had he gotten here five minutes later, or if Will hadn’t already been here already waiting, there wouldn’t be a Percy Jackson anymore.”

The other woman spoke with a harsh edge to her voice, “Do not speak to me in that way, angel. Need I remind you, that you are in my home, with many demons on my side and only two angels to help you.”

I finally recognized the other voice. It was Hazel, the witch. I was in her house, but I couldn’t figure out why.

There was a pause, when Annabeth spoke her voice momentarily shook, “I did not mean to offend, it’s just that…”

Hazel’s voice was calmer the next time she spoke, “You are upset because of the vessel took. And you are concerned for your friend in there.”

“Percy isn’t my friend, he is merely an accomplice on this mission.”

Hearing Annabeth say that hurt my feelings a little bit, though I wasn’t quite sure why.

A chuckle came from Hazel, “An accomplice who saved and protected you when it would have been advantageous to let you die. I think there is more to you two than either of you know.”

Silence returned, after about 30 seconds, Hazel broke it, “I should get back to my family, they are uneasy with all the angels being here. Go, check on Percy.”

I quickly closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep. I heard the door open and then close. After a few minutes of silence, Annabeth said, “I know you are awake, you can’t fake sleeping Percy Jackson.”

As I opened my eyes, I saw her looking at me with a smile. Almost as if she was thinking, “what an idiot.”

“How can you tell? I thought that I was pretty convincing.”

She shook her head and walked to a chair that was sitting beside my bed. “You weren’t drooling. That was the dead giveaway.”

As she sat in the dim light that the lamp let up, I noticed, just how beautiful she was. Her tan skin put off a bronze glow, her blonde curls rested on her shoulders, making her look like a fairy tale princess. Then I realized where my mind was going, quickly I stopped that train of thought.

I shrugged, and quickly winced from the pain that came from the motion.

Annabeth put a hand on my arm, “Careful, you broke almost every one of your ribs. My associate, Will, needs a few more healing sessions with you.”

“What do you mean, your associate?”

“He is a medic in the Angelic Army. He is the best healer that I know, that’s why I brought him.”

“Wait, there are more angels here? I thought you were doing this mission with just me?”

“My commanding officer, Athena always has a back-up plan. And then back-up plans for the back-up plan. There are two angels here on earth with me. A medic, Will, and my Lieutenant Frank.”

I started feeling a little angry, it would have been nice to have some help, rather than have my butt kicked. “Why didn’t they come with us? Haven’t you ever heard that there is no such thing as over-kill?”

She shook her head, “That’s not how Athena works. The first run with just us, that was mostly to gather intelligence on the size and layout of the enemy. We needed to know exactly what we are going up against and how to prepare against it. We have more than angels to help us. We have had to ally with some unlikely people.”

“Hazel, and her clan,” I said. “I overheard you two talking in the hallway.” I decided to ignore the part where I got beat up for no real reason. There was no point in bringing it up, at least not right now.

A serious look came over her face. I could tell that she didn’t like the idea of teaming up with demons and devils.

“It’s only a temporary alliance. Athena thinks that some demons aren’t so bad, maybe we can learn to work together well enough to end this long, bloody war we have with each other.”

I nodded in agreement. “I know that I’m sick of all the fighting. Every time that I kill someone, my insides churn. It feels like my soul is at war with itself. I’ve never enjoyed fighting, although, I still plan on getting you back for taking that cheap shot on me.” I give her a small chuckle, along with a grin.

“We will have to see about that,” she says with a playful smile and a chuckle. The sound of her laugh was actually quite pleasant. It must’ve been some angelic magic or something, no other girl has had this kind of effect on me.

“What, may I ask, is so damn funny?”

“A devil not enjoying killing is a nice change of pace from what I’ve experience lately. All the other devils I’ve come across greet me by holding a blade to my throat.”

I give her a charming smile, “Well, I’m glad that I could give you a positive devil experience. I aim to please,” I finished the sentence with a playful smile and a wink. Her expression was hilarious, she had a look of shock and the color on her face flushed pink. I have to say, in the dim glow of the room, it only made her look more beautiful.

She quickly looked away, then she said, “It’s getting late, I should let you get some more rest. Will is going to come in a few times during the night to heal you some more. Tomorrow we are going to start training and re-planning our assault.”

I nodded, “Good night Annabeth,” and with that she stood up and left the room. Pausing at the door to look back at me before she left the room.

“I’m glad you weren’t destroyed Percy,” then walked out the door and shut it behind her.

≈

When I woke up, I felt more rested than I had in a long time. The only weird thing about my sleep, was the dream I had. I had been embracing Annabeth. Not just in a friendly way, but we had been cuddling. What was even more off, was that I didn’t find the thought repulsing. It actually seemed… nice.

But she was my enemy, I shouldn’t be dreaming about cuddling with her. Being around her had me feeling differently. Calmer, nice, less devilish, I’m not sure how I felt about that.

As we gathered around the table in the main room, I looked at the force that had amassed to battle Kronos. There were three angels, three humans, and three devils, including myself. Not exactly encouraging when we were looking at confronting a couple hundred devils. One of whom was stronger than anything I’d ever felt and another who was my master, also extremely strong.

It felt extremely weird being in the same room with angels. My very nature made me want to kill them, my instincts made me want to rip their heads off. But these people are my allies now, I can’t just go and rip their heads off. So in my head I kept repeating “friends, friends, friends.”

My first instinct when I walked into the room was to take in my surroundings. Surveying the exits, the people, possible weapons that I could use to defend myself. The main thing that I noticed in the room was the large table covered in breakfast foods. Normally I’d jump right into the food, but I still wasn’t sure about these people yet.

Rather than linger on the food and possibly give in and start eating food I decided to shift my focus on the people around me. New people don’t normally bother me, but so many in a short amount of time make me uneasy. Looking around, I see my comrades in arms.

There was Hazel’s group of demons of Jason, and Leo Valdez. Leo was an elf looking kid with black curly hair and a look that screamed delinquent. He and Jason were very good friends and right now they were hanging out in the corner talking and laughing with each other.

There was a new girl sitting next to Hazel, a girl with frizzy red hair and drawings all over her clothes. I wondered if this was the oracle that I heard Hazel talking about earlier. She had a similar energy that Hazel did. One that wasn’t demonic or angelic; it was just a pure magic energy aura. The two girls were deep in conversation with very serious looks on their faces.

On the opposite side of the table stood Annabeth the angels and another girl. One angel was a really big guy who looked to be of Asian descent. He had short black hair and somewhat of a baby face. He was so big that he looked like he could make an NFL Linebacker whimper for his mommy.

The other guy had shaggy blond hair and an athletic build. He looked like he could be Annabeth’s brother, the California surfer type guy. He had a messenger pack on his side with a red cross on it. This must be Will the medic.

The girl however felt different, she didn’t radiate any power, angelic or demonic. She didn’t even give off a magic energy like Hazel or the other girl. She looked to be Native American, with black choppy hair and feathers braided in.


As I walked up to the middle of the table to start loading up my plate with a little bit of food, I look to everyone, nodding in acknowledgment. But when I get to Annabeth, I couldn’t keep eye contact without thinking about my dream. I had to look away to hide my blushing, while clearing my throat.

“So um, who are the new people? Can’t say that I know all of you guys,” I say. I genuinely want to get to know them. If I’m going to be fighting with them, I should know at least their names. But also, if I have to fight against them later, I need to know what I will be up against.

Hazel looks up to me, “Percy Jackson, meet Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She is a new addition to my clan, she is the weapon that you’ve heard rumors about. She is mortal, but she has certain abilities like myself.”

On the other end of the table, Annabeth held her had towards the other girl. “This is Piper McLean, she is mortal with no magical ability, but she is a member of the church sent here by Athena to help us with spirits and lore that we are unfamiliar with. She went to college to study different religions and mythologies. Her specialty is Cherokee spirits.”

“Cherokee huh? Why is that?”

Piper absentmindedly played with the feather in her hair. “My grandfather told me the stories every time I went to visit him on the reservation.”

“Oh, that sounds cool, nice to meet you,” I said with a small wave. My inner devil was yelling at me to run at her and kill her right then. She was from the church, she was probably trained in how to kill devils like me. But I pushed that fear deep down, I have to trust these people.

Then Annabeth motioned to the big guy next to her, “This is Frank, he is our weapons expert. He has been trained in every type of weapon that we know about, both angelic and demonic.”

Frank could pose a serious threat, I’ll have to watch- Stop! I had to catch myself in my thoughts again. This was going to be a lot harder than I originally thought

Then the blonde guy gave a small wave. “I’m Will, I’m a medic. I’ve met you before, but I don’t think that you were awake. How are the ribs feeling?”

“Sore, but doing alright. Thanks for asking.”

His concern felt weird, not many people in my short devil life had expressed actual interest in my well-being just to be kind. Victoria would only ask how I was doing if she was wondering if I could go out on another mission.

Hazel stood and leaned out onto the table, “We are glad to see you are doing well Percy. You were asleep for three days.”

“Three days huh? That almost beat my record, guess I’ll just have to try harder next time. Anyway, I’m ready to kick butt!” I said, trying to hide my unease with my smile. I couldn’t let anyone see how freaked out I was. “So what is our plan of attack?”

Annabeth cleared her throat, “I’m glad you asked. Our plan is pretty simple, but it should be effective. Let’s begin.”

≈

I stared at Annabeth after she explained our plan of attack.

“Alright, so let me go over this again so I make sure that I’m not missing anything,” I say rubbing my temples.

“Go for it,” Annabeth said.

“We are going to wait three months, for the blood moon, and go to the woods right outside of the mansion. Then we are supposed to take out any and all patrols that we run across. After that we are going to sneak into the mansion through the mansion and take out everyone by surprise. And once we do all that we will kill and or capture Kronos.”

“Pretty much yes,” Annabeth says.

“This is absolutely insane, you know that right?”

“Yes,” replied Annabeth.”

“And each and every one of us could die, if one of the million things that could go wrong does.”

“Correct again.”

“So remind me again why we are doing all of this? I’m not sure if any of you realize how tough this guy is. I felt it first-hand, I’m not in any big hurry to go back to another ass kicking.”

Hazel then turned to the red haired girl, “Rachel, go ahead and tell him.”

I looked around to everyone, “Tell me what?”

Rachel stood up. “I have foreseen Kronos’ doom. You are the one who is destined to defeat him. We have some time to train everyone, I have foreseen you standing over Kronos in victory with the blood moon to your back. The next blood moon will be three months from now. And the next one after that will not be before Kronos rises to power and destroys every other devil and angel in existence. He may even be powerful enough to destroy Lucifer and God completely.”

“You’ve foreseen it? How is that even possible?”

“I am an Oracle, one who can see the future and those who may impact it greatly. I have seen a devil who has great power and has suffered great hardships throughout their entire existence, both human and devil.”

Hope fluttered in my chest when she mentioned my human life. “But I don’t remember my human existence. What do you know about my human life?”

“I’m sorry Percy, but I can’t tell you about that yet. I just know that you’ve had a hard life. I know that it’s hard to accept, but I have seen you standing over Kronos in victory with the blood moon behind you. But be warned, it will not be easy. You will have to face things that go against your very nature. If you can persevere against the trials, you will emerge victorious.”

The room fell silent. Tension began creeping into the room until it became so thick that a butter knife would cut through it.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “Well then! I guess if anyone wants out, speak now, or forever hold your peace!”

As I looked around in everyone’s eyes. I saw everyone’s fear, it was unsettling. But no one was backing down. They all knew the risks, but they also knew that they had to do this.

Finally I nodded, and said, “Alright, let’s get this started.”

Notes