Chapter 1 - The Massacre
published: Wednesday, 2 January 2018

[ 3 days later ]

"Any news?" Annabeth asked again. It was her third day of her pestering Chiron. She'd be surprised if he didn't roundhouse kick her soon.

Chiron shook his head soberly. "Sorry, Annabeth. None of our scouts have transmitted back any information."

She sighed exasperatedly, running a hand through her tangled blonde hair. A few days more and she'd be balding. "No word at all? Even the smallest clue?"

"Unfortunately no, child. There hasn't been any sign of Percy. It's as if he's disappeared-"

"-off the face of the Earth," Annabeth finished glumly. She'd expected as much anyway. "I just-" she hesitated. "-I guess I was just hoping."

Her mentor gave her a sympathetic look, placing a hand on her shoulder for reassurance. "If there's any word at all," he promised. "I'll send for you immediately."

"Thank you," Annabeth said gratefully.

"Now run along," he shooed. "In times of distress, I find the training dummies particularly inviting."

They exchanged the usual farewells, and Annabeth tramped out of the Big House with her head hanging disappointedly.

It had been three days since the mysterious disappearance of demigod hero, Percy Jackson. A leader to many, friend to all, and the world to Annabeth.

Well, used to be.

Shuffling through the stack of papers in her hand, Annabeth skimmed over the words again. Not a sign of any certain demigod sons of Poseidon. Reyna and Frank had been working together with her to get the message of distress across all the ex-legionnaire demigods over the globe from Camp Jupiter.

Suddenly remembering the daily Iris-Message schedule she had fixed with the leaders of Camp Jupiter, Annabeth glanced at her watch, swearing lightly under her breath. She'd missed the time by fifteen minutes, after Reyna had specifically reminded her not to be a second late.

Digging through her pockets without any luck, Annabeth ran over the nearest passing demigod. It was Nico, the son of Hades, and as he had reluctantly relayed to her a few weeks before, who was going out with Will Solace.

"Any drachmas?" she demanded breathlessly. "I need to IM Reyna and Frank. I'm late and you know how Reyna gets when people aren't on time."

Nico pulled a face. "She gets all RARA," he said understandingly. "Pun intended," he added. He placed a drachma from his pocket in Annabeth's open palm. "I'll go with you."

Not too mindful of the company, Annabeth headed in the direction of the shore with Nico trailing alongside her. "No news of Percy yet?" he questioned.

She shook her head miserably. "I've asked Chiron. Clovis is searching dreams, and Rachel's trying to do whatever the heck awakens the creepy Oracle spirit in her. If I ask her again, she might murder me with her blue hairbrush."

"I've seen that thing injure a Titan," Nico assured her with an expression of dead seriousness. "I am sufficiently afraid."

Annabeth laughed at that. She peered into the distance. They were already past the pavilion, almost to the sea. Hopefully no one else was using the community spray guns.

"Hey, do you know when's the next time Hazel's visi-" Nico doubled over with an agonizing groan mid-sentence, sending Annabeth into emergency mode.

He doubled over, wrapping his arms around himself and shivering endlessly. Alarmed, Annabeth sunk to her knees beside him, stroking his back reassuringly.

"Get help!" she shouted to a passing group of campers who'd paused at the commotion. One of the girls nodded and raced off in the direction of the infirmary. "Nico," Annabeth urged fearfully. "What is it?"

He was panting. "Death," Nico choked out. "Camp Jupiter..." He groaned, but staggered to his feet.

Annabeth could feel her heart pounding at his words. At his insistance, she hauled him to his feet, and the two of them straggled to the shore like a duo of drunken demigods.

"What's wrong? Nico, what is it?" she practically screamed at him.

"Camp Jupiter," he told her through gritted teeth. "Something's wrong, I don't understand why. There's so much death—" He interrupted himself again with another groan.

Annabeth dived for the spray gun lying aimlessly on the beach, and she pumped it up with water quickly. "Oh, Iris, almighty goddess of rainbows, please show me Reyna at Camp Jupiter," she stumbled over her words, fumbling to dish the sparkling coin into the spray of mist.

"Reyna! Reyna!" Annabeth called frantically into the blurry image that was just starting to take focus. "What's going on down there?"

Her mind whirled with panic. Oh gods, Jason, Hazel, Frank and Reyna were all there...if anything happened to them—

Her panicked mantra was broken by the sound of metal against metal. Screams pierced the air, and Annabeth couldn't help wincing at the blood-curdling sound.

"Annabeth!" Reyna came into the mist image, her voice shaky and trembling, instead of the steady and unfaltering tone Annabeth was used to. "Thank the gods!"

"What's happening? Nico said something was off, and—" Annabeth was interrupted by another figure coming into the image. A monster, deadly sword swiping and parrying Reyna's blades. Her dogs, Aurum and Augentum, were taking turns leaping onto the shell of the monster, only to be flung off.

Annabeth's eyes widened is astonishment. The monster wasn't anything she'd ever seen - or read about - before. It was like an evil version of the teenage mutant ninja turtles.

The monster had a changing face, swirling rapids of a water current, its eyes made of empty holes in the water. There was a monstrous sneer on its face (was the water the face?), and its body was blocked from Annabeth's sight by a large earthen shell wrapping it in a cocoon, similar to a turtle's shell.

"Reyna," Nico shouted from behind Annabeth. "Where's Hazel? And Jason? And Frank? What's going on?"

"They're attacking us," Reyna told us, eyes concentrated on the monster. "These aren't regular monsters, they're something we've never seen before. We aren't making a dent and the civilians are being slaughtered by the hundreds!" He voice cracked towards the end. "I couldn't save them," Reyna said miserably.

She started to say something, but her voice was drowned out by the calm sound of a woman's voice, "Please insert another drachma to continue the call."

It repeated the blaring message and Annabeth turned her pockets inside out, looking desperately to Nico.

Nico struggled to his feet, yanking Annabeth back by the shoulder. "We're coming, Reyna," he shouted to the dissolving image.

Without any sound from the didappearing message, Annabeth could only read her lips; "Hurry."

"We have to go," Nico was muttering under his breath. "We have to go." He turned to Annabeth. "I'll shadow travel us there," he said shakily. "It won't be the most stable ride, but I've toned out the deaths so we probably shouldn't be lost in oblivion."

He reached for Annabeth's shoulder to step into a palm tree's shadow when she halted him sharply.

"Nico, you heard Reyna. None of our weapons work on them, and that thing that Reyna was fighting will match any mortal weapon," Annabeth reminded, slapping some sense into Nico.

He threw his hands in the air. "So? We can't leave them there, Annabeth, I'm going with or without you-"

"Just calm down," she said irritatedly. "I'm saying that we should use a weapon that they can't match."

Nico stopped his rant mid-sentence. "Leo," he whispered, echoing her exact thought.

^^^^

"Get them!" Annabeth shouted as they landed in Camp Jupiter.

Nico's eyebrows shot skyward. "Holy Hades! What are those?"

The monsters attacking Camp Jupiter weren't anything Annabeth had ever seen before. They had rock-hard, earthen shells, and swirling current of water inside. Their long arms and hands were made from rocks and held earthworm swords nearly as tall as Annabeth. The creature stood to around seven feet and thundered through the camp, cutting down civilians by the dozen.

"Gah!" Leo blasted the first creature he saw in alarm. "They're teenage mutant ninja turtles!"

That reminded Annabeth of Percy. He'd always loved that show. She pushed him out of her mind and forced herself to focus.

Annabeth scanned the field. Legionnaires were defending as well as they could, but civilians were armed only with household objects. Screams and the rusty odour of blood filled the air, blocking Annabeth's air track and making her nauseous.

"Protect the civilians!" Annabeth yelled over the commotion. "That's our priority! We need to get them out of here!"

Nico nodded. "I'll shadow-travel back to camp and bring over reinforcements. Piper's already on her way with the Pegasi and chariots."

The ground shook and unbalanced them as a one of the massive creatures stomped towards them.

"We'll cover you!" Annabeth told Nico. "Go!"

She drew her sword and readied her stance.

Nico faded into the shadows just as the creature's sword came down. Annabeth ducked and rolled away, springing back to her feet and partying away another strike.

She jumped out of the way with a yelp, and the creature's foot quickly imprinted itself just where she'd been standing before.

Her mind whirled with strategies and tactics. The creature's size was its advantage, but that would slow it down.

Annabeth slid under and between the creature's legs and slashed upwards. The water inside the creates started pouring out do the whole, but soil started to grow up the creature's leg and quickly sealed the cut.

"That makes it harder," Annabeth murmured to herself.

She slashed cleanly through the creature's legs, then impaled it through the gut. Her stance wobbled due to her lack of experience with fighting with a long blade, but she managed to floor the creature.

Annabeth drove her sword into the creature's body and created a large hole. A fireball came out of nowhere and blasted the creature right in the hole.

The water evaporated from the heat, leaving an empty earthen shell on the ground.

Annabeth glanced behind to see Leo, who shot her a grin and a thumbs-up.

In that instant, a bright light was cast on the ground. Annabeth glanced up to see a line of purple sparks overhead, like someone had cut a slit into the sky.

The line expanded into a circle, and a whole line of Pegasi zoomed through.

Piper was leading the charge and sitting atop the first pegasus. She landed her pegasus and chariot on the ground, then sprinted over to Annabeth.

Piper wrapped her in a hug. "Gods, Annabeth! I was so worried!" She withdrew. "Butch said Nico stumbled into the stables and started yelling at everyone to get to Camp Jupiter. Gods, I thought the worst when I heard."

"Piper!"

Both girls turned around to see Jason sprinting towards them with his sword in hand. He slashed at a creature and ran up to them, panting rapidly.

"What's happening? Are you okay? Are you injured?" Piper bombarded, checking Jason for cuts.

He gave her a quick kiss. "I'm fine, Pipes. But the invicta are slaughtering us."

"Invicta?" Annabeth repeated. "Latin for invincible. I see you've come up with a name for them."

The ground to their right exploded, and Annabeth instinctively shielded her face.

A dragon with shining red scales landed with a crash. Amidst its tuck and tumble, the dragon turned into a very red Frank.

"Is it hot in here?" Frank said frantically, fanning his face.

"I think it's because you're breathing fire," Jason told him.

Frank sighed. "All part of a praetor's day."

A blur of white circled the group and came to stop by Annabeth. Hazel dismounted Arion and gave her a hug. "Guys! I haven't seen you in ages!"

The others seemed to realise that this was their first reunion in a couple of weeks, and hugs were exchanged.

"What's the plan?" Leo popped up between Jason and Piper, scaring Frank.

"Watch it, man," Frank grumbled.

"Piper, Jason, Hazel, get the people out," Annabeth instructed. "The rest of us are going on defence. Frank, you're great, but I kind of need the dragon right now."

Frank frowned. "Fine." He slowly morphed into a dragon and roared into the air, spitting up a column of flames.

"Show off," Leo muttered.

"Go! Go!" Piper urged them.

Annabeth drew her sword and started ushering any stragglers towards her other friends.

"Get out of here!" she told a Roman demigod with a clumsy attack. Annabeth pushed through the crowds, trying to ignore the dead bodies, the faces she recognised, and the ones she didn't.

"Oh gods," Annabeth gasped as she caught a staggering demigod.

It was Dakota, one of Jason's old legion members who was addicted to Kool-Aid.

"Annabeth?" Dakota said in confusion, before his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell slack in her arms.

Annabeth nearly dropped him when she finally noticed the longsword sticking grotesquely out of his stomach.

"Rest in peace," Annabeth choked out, setting him down gently and closing his eyes. She didn't know Dakota that well, but he had fought bravely against Gaia.

She forced herself to leave him and move on.

Annabeth passed more dead bodies. Even the statue of Terminus was shattered and splintered, lying abandoned on the ground.

The creatures seemed to have retreated, and only a few were left. Annabeth didn't want to engage with any more, but she spotted a lone figure facing off an invictus.

She took of into the air with a flying leap and landed on this invictus' shoulders. Annabeth held the creature back as she shout at the demigod to make a run for it.

He dropped his sword and started racing towards the Pegasi.

The invictus bucked and Annabeth was thrown off. She landed on the ground with a thud and felt pain shooting up her left ankle.

Cursing under her breath, Annabeth slowly stood up, wincing when she put weight on her leg.

The swirling water of the invictus seemed to form a smirking face.

Annabeth stared up at it defiantly, bracing herself for a final blow.

Then it did something that surprised her even more.

It spoke.

"You'll never find Percy Jackson," it rasped.

Annabeth stumbled backwards like she'd just been punched in the stomach.

Those words alone were enough to send her back.

His fingers tugging at her red curls and her hands wrapped around his neck. Annabeth watched in horror as Percy withdrew from Rachel and murmured, "I love you."

Annabeth felt welling up in her eyes. She furiously blinked them away.

But her split second of distraction was enough.

The invictus struck her across the shoulders. Fortunately, the sword was turned, and the flat of the blade sent Annabeth sprawling to the ground.

Her head smashed against the soil and sent her into a daze. Annabeth heard shouting, but everything sounded so faraway, like she was underwater.

A blazing ball of fire knocked the invictus flat. A huge dragon landed on its chest and started ripping its shell to shreds.

For a second, Annabeth thought she was hallucinating.

Then her ears started to ring, and her he's stared to clear, and Annabeth quickly realised her friends had come to her aid.

"Annabeth!" It was Leo. He was pulling her up, kneeling down to check on her. His eyebrows knitted in concern. "Annabeth! What happened? You froze!"

Annabeth swallowed. "I just–I got distracted."

She glanced back at the invictus' remains.

You'll never find Percy Jackson.

Annabeth struggled to her feet.

"What happened?" Leo demanded.

Annabeth gave a "drop it" look. "Please, let's just go."

Leo reluctantly dropped the subject. "We're the last ones here. Piper practically had to pull Reyna away, kicking and screaming." He studied her face. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Annabeth plastered on the best fake smile she could muster. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

She swung a leg over Frank the dragon's back and Leo hopped on behind her.

They took off into the sky, leaving the field of dead bodies and burning buildings behind.

Camp Jupiter was destroyed.