So this will probably be the last chapter for the next two weeks because I need to crack down on revising for exams (unfortunately).  But I finish exams the first week they start which means I can start writing again ASAP and after the cliffhanger I'm going to leave y'all on (since I'm probably going to be pulling a total Rick here, if not the second biggest this book is going to give you), you're going to want me to write ASAP!  Okay, without further ado, the first battle begins :)

Chapter Quote:
"Don't play his game.  Play yours."
~Rachel Caine, Fall of Night
_________________________________________ 

Chapter 20: The Battle Begins

Silena

The only sound in the room was Chiron's voice telling the campers where they were to defend.  Everyone nodded and formed their groups, one by one getting onto the elevator and heading in that direction.  Argus and the parents were giving kids lifts to the tunnels and bridges with their cars with the exception of Mr. and Mrs. Winchester.  They weren't all that used to driving on the right side of the road.  They still didn't understand why America used Fahrenheit instead of Celsius, used feet instead of meters, decided to drop the 'u' out of words like 'colour' and 'favour', but decided to go with the rest of the world by driving on the right-hand side of the road.  It made no sense to them even though they laughed about it.

The pegasi that Luke, Silena, and Derek were going to be riding, along with every other pegasi from camp, were crashing on the first observation deck located on the eighty-sixth floor.  Blackjack and Ace were the leaders of them all, somehow keeping everyone in check.  The adults came down to the observation deck, causing Blackjack to go berserk with excitement from seeing Percy.

"Hey buddy," Percy laughed. "I'm happy to see you too."

"So for those of you who want to, grab a Pegasus to ride.  Roulette is mine, just for the record," Silena said.  Hearing his name, Roulette trotted up next to her, resting his head on her shoulder.  Her Pegasus was white with dark brown spots, for some reason reminding her of the actual game he was named after.

"I'll take Ace," Luke said.  The female Pegasus whinnied at her name.  She was solid white.  Sure some of the other Pegasi were white but they all had some sort of darker marking or coloring on them somewhere.  Not Ace.

"I'll take Bingo," Derek said.  The Pegasus was the smallest all of them.  He was picked on by the other ones because of his size, so Bingo typically avoided socializing.  Derek sympathized with the Pegasus.  Silena had a feeling it was because Derek remembered feeling like he didn't belong because he wasn't a child of the Big Three.  While that part had changed, he hadn't forgotten the feeling when he wasn't.

"Guido's mine.  I'm used to flying him," Annabeth remarked.

"I'm going to use Tempest," Jason said. "I'll call him before the battle begins."

"I'm using Arion," Hazel announced.

"I don't need a Pegasus to fly," Frank laughed.

"If you see a dragon in the sky, don't worry, he's on our side," Percy added when he saw the confused look on the kids' faces.

"Leo, Piper, Penn, Michael, Clarisse, Chris, Evan, Caitlin, choose whichever one you want.  We'll see you downstairs.  Fight where you think you're needed most," Annabeth ordered.  The Jacksons entered the elevator with the kids and went down to the lobby.  Campers were being transported to their designated fighting spots.  The Hephaestus cabin was handing out jars of Greek fire to cabin leaders and traps to other demigods to set for the enemies.

"Where's the Hypnos kids?" Derek asked.

"They're staying here.  We can't have them falling asleep in battle.  The Iris and Hebe cabins are also staying.  We need people to heal and cook meals and since they're not much for fighting but still want to help, they opted to stay there," Beau explained. 

"Oh crap, what about the Tyche cabin?  I completely forgot to put them at a tunnel or bridge," Luke said.

"They're joining the Hermes cabin so no worries," Beau said.  When two of the campers started to argue, the Aphrodite cabin leader headed over to them.

Luke, Silena, and Derek walked outside and whistled for their steeds.  Ace, Roulette, and Bingo swooped down to the ground.  Blackjack and Guido were there too, waiting for Percy and Annabeth.  The three demigods mounted their Pegasi and shot up into the air.  It was strange to see Manhattan from the back of a flying horse but Silena thoroughly enjoyed it.  And she wanted to see what it looked like before it was torn up by the upcoming war.

"I'm going to fly near the bridges, see if I can see Hannah's army anywhere, particularly her assassin warriors.  Silena, Derek, fly around and make sure everyone has what they need.  Then get ready for battle." Luke flew off towards the east.  Silena watched him go.  He seemed off right now.  She knew he was anxious and worried about fighting in the war but she sensed something else was bothering him.

"You okay?" Derek asked.

"Yeah, just thinking.  Let's go do what Luke said," Silena answered.  They veered Roulette and Bingo towards the west.  Flying above the tunnels on that side, she could see the Romans forming their ranks and the Greeks scattered about, getting in position to fight.  In the distance, Silena could see troops marching towards the bridge: Hannah's troops.  Her stomach churned at the sight.  Hundreds of monsters were coming towards the Lincoln Tunnel.

"Duh, duh, duh, we're dead," Derek said.

Silena glanced at him. "Are you quoting Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon?"

"I was hoping you'd catch my reference.  I say we split up.  You take the Holland Tunnel.  I'll take the Lincoln Tunnel.  I love you, remember that," he said.

"I love you too." They parted ways.  Silena flew down and joined the Ares and Dionysus cabins.  Fifteen hunters were there too in their silvery outfits.  Thalia wasn't among them.  She probably had joined the Athena cabin considering she got along with them the best.

Just as Silena's watch hit eleven o'clock, she heard the drums in the distance.  They had to be war drums.  Horns joined in, followed by cries from Hannah's troops.

"Get ready!" Silena shouted, walking up to the front of the ranks to join Nicole.  When the monsters reached the entrance to the bridge on the other side, she yelled, "CHARGE!"

Demigods hollered and ran towards the monsters, clashing together in the middle of the bridge.  Silena met a group of dracanae head on.  In one swipe, she took out three.  However they got smart and backed up.  One of them lunged at her but hurriedly recoiled.  Silena missed her opportunity to kill it.  But right after that dracanae backed away, one behind Silena lunged at her.  She figured out their game pretty quickly.  The next monster that lunged at her, Silena jumped to the side, already swinging her sword at the dracanae she knew was going to try and bite her next.  The gamble paid off and that monster was destroyed.  Somehow she was going to have to destroy the other three dracanae though.

"Get away from my daughter!" A voice growled.  In one swipe, two of the dracanae were gone, leaving only a very shocked one left.  Silena stabbed it and it disappeared.  She turned to father.  His eyes were filled with rage but he looked upon her kindly. "Sorry, I got mad when I saw you surrounded.  You okay?"

"Better now.  Thank you!" she said.

"Come on, let's go kick some monster butts!" Percy hollered and ran through the monsters with his sword above his head.  Silena couldn't help but laugh at her father, but she followed nonetheless.
_________________________________________

The battle had been raging on for three hours when Luke frantically entered Silena's thoughts saying: I need your help!  We're getting pushed back at the Queens-Midtown Tunnel- we're almost to the Empire State Building!  Derek's here but we could really use your help!

I'm on my way! Silena replied.  She whistled for Roulette who landed immediately next to her.  In a few seconds, Silena was flying as fast as she could to her brother.  The streets were strangely empty until she came to the intersection of 5th and 34th street.  Luke and Derek were at the front of the battle, slashing their way through the monsters but they kept getting pushed back.  If they got pushed back any farther, the monsters would be at the Empire State Building.  Silena leapt off of Roulette, landing next to her brother.

"Glad you could join us!" Luke yelled, kicking a telekhine in the stomach.  It stunned the monster, giving Luke time to cut its head off. "This bridge had the biggest force, probably because it's closest to the Empire State building.  We've already lost a few demigods... I got here when they were at Lexington and 34th.  Derek got tere soon after.  We tried to hold them back but they keep coming out of nowhere.  They're like Hydra: take down one head, two more grow back."

"Do you have any Greek fire left?" Silena asked.

"No.  I used that right when I got here.  It bought us about ten minutes because it killed so many but then reinforcements came.  Duck!" Silena cowered briefly to the ground while Luke swung his sword above her head, decapitating whatever it was that had been behind her.

"Where are the automatons?" She queried, slashing through a rank of more telekhines.

"At other bridges.  Mom's trying to get them here since they apparently only listen to her since she's the one who activated them but they're pretty intent on destroying the enemies that they're fighting now.  We had a few gargoyles flying around and destroying enemies but they got taken down."

"We need to-" Silena never finished her sentence.  A lightning bolt struck the ground between her and the monster she was about to attack.  It blew her off her feet and back about a yard.  The bolt hadn't meant to kill or injure, but it sure did shock her.  Looking over, she saw that her brother and boyfriend and multiple other demigods were in the same predicament.  The ones who hadn't been affected ran up to the ones that were.  Facing back towards Hannah's army, Silena noticed they'd been hit too.  They were looking around in a daze.  When one tried to charge at the demigods, another bolt of lightning struck the ground in front of him, throwing him back.  Both armies fell silent.  If Silena listened closely enough, she could hear the battles raging at the other tunnels but only barely.  When the closest monster looked up in the direction of the Empire State Building and grinned, Silena felt weak.  She had a feeling of what was behind her but it wasn't like she wanted to confirm it.  However, when she saw Luke and Derek standing up, she did so as well.  All the demigods were looking up at the Empire State Building where seven figures, dressed in black armor, were on horseback, hovering in the air on solid black pegasi.  Two of the riders blew war horns twice and then fell silent.  The riders disappeared briefly behind the building only to reappear a few seconds later, this time with over a hundred riders flying down towards the demigods, with the lead rider pointing their sword directly at Luke.
_________________________________________

Luke

Luke had been wondering where Hannah's freaky assassin warriors were, silently hoping they wouldn't show up.  However, when they did, he was glad to only see seven.  That happiness rapidly decreased when he saw their numbers.  They had well over one hundred warriors.  What really took the cake was their leader who was riding towards the ground at a breakneck speed with their sword aimed straight at Luke's heart.  He readied his shield and sword, waiting for the impending attack.  Some of the riders drew their bows and fired arrows.  Either their archery was seriously horrible, or they'd purposefully shot over the demigods and into the ranks of monsters.  The leader jumped off their Pegasus.  Luke ducked as he thought they were aiming for him, but they simply flipped over Luke in front of the closest monsters.  In one swift move, they eliminated five monsters.  The arrows that had been fired exploded when they hit the ground, instantly vaporizing any monsters nearby.  Silena, Derek, Luke, and the Romans stood in stunned silence as half the ninja warrior assassins leapt off their rides and onto the ground, scattering the ranks of monsters.  Luke had never seen such fierce fighters.  And while the other demigods were terrifying in the fighting style, their leader couldn't be touched.  Their fighting style was unprecedented.  The minute the person finished one monster, they were already onto the next.  Soon the monsters were running away but that did not halt the assassin-like demigods from continuing to fire arrows and pretty much slaughter Hannah's army.  Luke and the other demigods followed the newcomers when they were halfway down 34th street.  They continued following when the monsters scrambled for the entrance to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.  The leader halted their army, kneeled, and drew their bow.  Eight soldiers followed in suit while the others stood behind them with the swords and bows ready in case any other attackers appeared.  When all the monsters had entered the tunnel, the assassin demigods fired their arrows.  At first Luke wondered why they'd even fired at all because the arrows weren't close to hitting any monsters.  Then the explosions took place and the tunnels collapsed, essentially sealing off that route for the enemy army to come through.

"Archers, fly to the other entrances and exits of this tunnel and seal them off with more explosive arrows and then join your groups where-" the commander was interrupted by the sounds of horns.

"What is that?" a kid asked.

"War horns calling off the attack.  Congratulations everyone, you survived your first battle," a girl said, taking off her helmet.  Silena held back a startled gasp.  Hallie ran her hands through her hair. "Sorry for the dramatic, late entrance.  We were trying to figure out where we were needed most.  Y'all okay?"

"Told you that you could trust us, Jackson," a guy said, taking off his helmet.  Silena did a double-take when she saw the Winchester twins grinning at them.

"Wait, you were on our side the whole time?" Luke demanded.

"Yep.  Sorry we couldn't tell you.  We needed to throw suspicion off of us as much as we could.  Didn't want to tip Hannah off about our ultimate plan," a twin said.

"Looks like it turned out pretty well.  Seems we had everyone fooled.  Oh, by the way, I'm Bradley." He looked around. "You lost campers?"

Luke nodded solemnly. "Yeah, mostly in the tunnel though."

"Leave that to me," Hallie said. "Vanessa, Prerana, Ana, with me.  We're going to go get the bodies.  How many do you think there were?"

"Five or six at most.  It wasn't a lot but..." Derek trailed off.

"Y'all were outnumbered.  Don't blame that on yourselves.  We'll be back," she assured.  Grabbing onto each other's hands, the four girls vanished into thin air.
_________________________________________

Silena 

"Soldiers, fly to your designated spots and help clean up, heal the wounded, and carry the dead back to the Empire State Building," a girl called out.  She was flying high above the rest of them.  Her voice oozed authority and Silena figured that was their ultimate leader.  Dark brown hair fell out under her black helmet.  Instantly Silena though it was the mysterious Penn, but she pushed that thought out of her head almost as fast as it'd come.  Penn was Bryn, and Bryn was dead.  So who was she?

However, she pushed all thoughts about the mystery leader out of her head and focused on helping the campers walk back to the Empire State Building.  Derek was limping but when she asked him about it, he simply told her he twisted his ankle a little.  Luke appeared unscathed.

Upon arriving to their destination, the other campers seemed to be in shock and awe at the black-armored warriors who had come to their rescue.

"People who need their injuries to be looked at by a healer, stay down here.  For those of you who just need some ambrosia or nectar, go upstairs to the floor you are staying on.  Some of my comrades will be up there to greet you with what you need!" Scott shouted.  Surprisingly, everyone listened to him and were rather orderly about it.

"Where's mom and dad?" Luke asked.

"Don't worry, your parents are meeting Chiron upstairs.  He said he needed to talk to them in private," a hulking guy said.  He was wearing black armor.  His blonde hair was pulled back into a pony tail.

"Who are you?"

"Name's Thor.  I'm a son of Iris.  I overheard what you were asking.  That's all," the guy responded.

"Your name is Thor?" Luke said.

"Yes."

"As in the Norse god of thunder?"

"Yes."

"Please tell me you're a son of Zeus."

"No.  That would be the Winchesters.  I must get back to helping." Thor walked off, leaving Luke grinning like a little kid.

"I've never met a guy named Thor," he remarked.

"Well now you have.  We should head upstairs, help out with the wounded," Derek said.  The other two agreed.  They made their way up to the ninety-ninth floor.  It was pretty crowded which made Silena happy.  That meant not too many campers had been injured severely, or worse, killed.

"Luke, we need to use the room next door as something other than a briefing room.  We've chosen to put the severely wounded in there so they're closer to the ambrosia and nectar.  Are you okay with that?" Nicole asked, suddenly appearing in front of the trio.

"Yeah, we'll move a few floors down.  How are you?" Luke queried.

"Unhurt but worn out.  I can't wait to go to sleep." With that, she left them alone.

"I'll go four floors down and find a good room to set up for a briefing room and then move our stuff down there.  Why don't you two stay up here and help?" Derek suggested.  Silena and Luke agreed.  They went about talking to campers, asking what they needed.  Most wanted food or water, some hadn't received nectar or ambrosia yet.  The siblings made sure that those who needed the latter two got them as soon as possible. 

Two hours later, most of the campers were asleep.  Those who weren't were finishing off their meal.  Luke collapsed into his bed but while his eyes were closed, Silena knew he wasn't asleep.  Wondering how Derek was doing, she got up and went to the ninety-fifth floor.  It was a bunch of office rooms on this floor so Silena was going to have a hard time figuring out which one Derek was using.  She started walking down the corridor, opening each door and poking her head in.  All the rooms she entered were dark.  She turned the corner just in time to see a black-armored soldier walk into one of the rooms.  Noticing that no other sounds were coming from any other rooms, Silena assumed the warrior was alone.  She started walking towards them room but broke out into a run when she heard a startled cry.  When she skidded to a halt in front of the doorway, Silena saw Derek with his knee in the warrior's back and his arm wrapped around the girl's neck.  The girl was thrashing and trying to pry his arm away from her neck but it wasn't doing much good.  The girl's terror-filled eyes rested on Silena.

"Si-Silena... please help me... pl-please help," the girl croaked.

Recognition hit the Jackson girl like a ton of bricks.  She ordered, "Derek let her go." When he didn't listen and only gave her a 'what the hell' expression, she barked, "Let her go!"

Derek released his hold on the warrior who fell to the ground on all fours in a coughing fit.

"What in Hades' name are you thinking Silena?" Derek questioned.

"I was thinking that I didn't want her choked to death!" she snapped.  Kneeling next to the girl, she asked, "You okay?"

After coughing, the girl replied, "I'll live.  I forgot how strong Derek was.  It's been a while."

"What do you mean you forgot how strong I was?  Do I know you?" he demanded.

The girl nodded and leaned against the sofa in the room.  She slowly pulled off her helmet.  While Silena had thought it was her when the girl had pleaded with her to get Derek to stop, to actually realize it was true, that was a whole other experience.

Derek had turned ashen, so white to the point Silena thought he was going to pass out.  The girl ran her hand through her long blonde hair before massaging her neck.  Turning to Derek, she said, "I'm sorry I frightened you.  I guess coming into the room unannounced in full armor was a bad idea."  When he didn't say anything back, she added, "Derek, are you all right?"

All he could do was shake his head and say, "Bryn?"
_________________________________________

BRYN IS BACK SHE'S BACK I'M SO HAPPY TO HAVE HER BACK!  It's weird to be writing about her again but I'm glad I am!  And I know you Lukyn shippers are probably glad to have her back as well :P Anywho, please review and I'm sorry in advance if I don't get any more chapters up for a while although I did warn you I was going to pull a Rick and leave you on a cliffhanger...