20. Preparations

Third-person POV

That day on Olympus was hectic for Percy. As soon as he uttered the name of their enemy, chaos broke out.

He was pretty sure some of the gods even fainted.

After everyone was calm enough (it took way too long), Zeus had asked for suggestions to prepare for the upcoming war. Anyone could tell he was nervous just by his voice. Anyone would be nervous when they had just been told Night herself had waged war against them. 

Athena had suggested that they move all the demigods to one camp so that it was easier to defend against Nyx. Although there would be a higher chance of collateral damage, the demigods would have a really strong defence.

After an even longer time, the Olympian Council had decided to move all the demigods and any retired legionnaires from Camp Jupiter to Camp Half-Blood. Not only because it was closer to Olympus, but it had the magical border the Roman camp did not and one side was facing the sea, giving the campers one less front to defend against.

Ares, or rather Mars, had gone to the Camp Jupiter to inform the demigods about the new development. The Romans respected Mars so they would follow his orders without question. Lupa had come to know of the bad news as well and she and her pack would travel to the Greek camp and patrol the borders.

The Romans had chosen to make their own way east even though the gods had offered quick transportation. The two praetors had decided that they needed time for their troops to soak in the information about the enemy they were facing. They had fought against the Titan Krios on Mount Tam a few years ago and Gaia's army just after that. They weren't ready to fight against the physical form of the very night itself.

Percy was given the task to inform the demigods of Camp Half-Blood about this new war. It had to be one of the hardest things he had to do in his entire life as a demigod, right up there with when he had to burn Annabeth's shroud.

Tears were shed at the revelation, nobody was ashamed of it. Even Percy himself had cried and he wasn't one to show it in front of others. Most of the demigods were mad as well, mad at the Fates for putting them in this situation. Some of the demigods were veterans from the previous two wars and they were tired of it. Tired of fighting in, yet again, another war.

Everyone was given time to calm down, to come to terms with their fate. Surprisingly, it didn't take long for Camp Half-Blood to go all-out war preparation mode. The Athena cabin immediately started making battle plans to prepare the camp for an inevitable attack.

Nyx was coming for Percy Jackson after all.

Percy had begged, pleaded with everyone he knew to let him turn himself into Nyx, to avoid any unnecessary casualties. No matter how much he pestered them, nobody would move an inch. They would rather die than let Percy give himself up. They just got him back. They weren't going to let him go again.

The Romans took a few days to arrive at Camp Half-Blood and in all honesty, Percy was scared out of his wits. When he had arrived at camp, the other camp in San Fransisco had not been informed of his return. If the reaction of his Greek friends were anything to go by, the reception of the Romans would be just as bad, if not worse.

Percy had contemplated hiding from the legionnaires but he felt like he couldn't do that to them since he had disappeared on them in the first place. So Percy swallowed down his fear and braced himself for the almost guaranteed beating that was about to come.

He stood with his friends just outside the border where the road is, waiting for the arrival of the Roman demigods. Everyone from the welcoming party watched amused as Percy shuffled nervously where he stood as a dozen or so black SUVs pulled over. They must have gotten good drivers because the parking was flawless.

Thalia chuckled and pushed Percy out from behind her, which was slightly humourous since he was taller than her. She kept telling Percy that it was going to be okay and that he had nothing to be worried about.

Percy knew he was far from being okay.

Reyna Ramirez-Arellano was the first person to step out of the vehicle. She was soon followed by at least 200 Roman legionnaires and veterans, some of them being Percy's old friends.

Reyna was just as Percy had remembered, her volcanic black eyes and her black hair tied up in a single braid. It was the partial immortality of course but Percy was slightly surprised that Reyna decided to stay praetor instead of stepping down. 

Frank, Camp Jupiter's second praetor, came up next to Reyna and was about to go up to the group of Greek demigods to greet them when they stopped abruptly. Percy watched warily as disbelief graced the faces of all the Romans and veterans who knew him, that disbelief quickly turning anger so intense Percy wanted to run.

'Percy Jackson.' Reyna said coldly. Percy could feel the angry stares of about 100 demigods and he braced himself as best as he could.

All of the new demigods from the Legion had eyes the size of saucers. They, of course, had heard of the legendary Perseus Jackson. His extremely long story was told to any new camper by all of the older legionnaires and it made them look up to him. They knew he disappeared from the constant sullen looks of their praetors whenever his name was mentioned. To see him standing there in front of them was like a dream come true.

'Reyna, Frank.' Percy said gulping. He looked around to see a whole lot of furious faces. Clarise la Rue and Chris Rodriguez were glaring at him, along with the Stoll brothers and a lot of his old friends from Camp Half-Blood. Percy met a pair of golden eyes to see Hazel Levesque looking at him with more relief and happiness than anger. 

That was one less person that was likely to kill him.

Percy had been pushed to the front of the welcoming party by his so-called friends and was now facing a bunch of heavily armed Romans that looked like they were about to disembowel him. He could see that they were tense, like they were about to charge at him any second. 

Reyna was unknowingly projecting her Daughter of Bellona powers, fueling the group's anger with more anger. That certainly didn't help Percy's case. The last thing he needed was angry, superpowered children of the gods coming after him.

Clarisse was the first one to make a move. She would have brained Percy if Chris hadn't held her back. She didn't really show it but she considered Percy a friend. It had hurt her that he disappeared, that too when she wasn't even at Camp Half-Blood. He had hurt everybody when he left.

'Look, Clarisse,' Percy started nervously 'I made a mistake, okay? I shouldn't have left you guys.'

'Damn right you made a mistake,' Clarisse growled 'Do you have any idea how worried we were? How hard we looked for you? And you only show up again because of another war.'

Percy stood there dumbfounded as his old friends glared at him. He knew people cared about him, that those people would do anything for him. But he had no idea his disappearance affected that much to Clarisse of all people. Sure, they had a weird friendship but he didn't think that she would care as much as other people did. 

'I'm sorry,' Percy said guiltily as he looked at the ground 'I promise, to all of you, that I'm staying after all of this. I won't leave you guys again.'

Those words did make the Romans and his old friends feel a bit better but they weren't fully satisfied yet. They still had to get him back for vanishing on them for over four years.

Reyna stepped in front of Percy and studied him. To her, he looked more or less the same as he did four years ago. The only slight change was that he was slightly taller and he had a light stubble forming on his face. Reyna couldn't help but feel tiny compared to him and the fact that he was physically five years older than her didn't help either.

Percy shuffled uncomfortably where he stood. Percy knew Reyna hadn't changed much due to the partial immortality but he had forgotten how unnerving her stare was. All of a sudden, Percy felt a sharp pain in his gut.

He doubled over and groaned in pain. Percy looked up in surprise to see Reyna standing over him with her fist outstretched. She had a smug smile on her face as she withdrew her hand.

'That's for disappearing on us.' Reyna said as she helped Percy up before crushing him in a hug 'Thanks for coming back.'

As soon as the hug started, Percy felt himself getting pulled away from Reyna as he came face to face with an emotionless Clarisse.

He was about to speak when her fist came flying into his face, surprising him and knocking him into the ground. 

'Prissy.' Clarisse muttered but she had a visible smile on her face.

Percy got up painfully with the help of Reyna and Clarisse. His nose was bleeding but he was smiling. His whole family was with him again. Now he would never leave them again.

Percy looked up to see that almost all of the Romans had gotten in a line. At first, he was confused but when the first person in the line, who was Frank, came up and punched him in the face, he kind of got the message.

'One at a time,' Percy sighed. He knew he deserved it 'And please, not the face.'

Percy watched as each Roman came up and punched him in the gut, or the arm, or literally any body part that wasn't the face. Percy didn't even mind that more than half of his bruises came from new recruits for the legion who just wanted to punch him for the fun of it. 

He was pretty sure Thalia joined the line. Twice.

By the end of it, Percy was pretty injured and he was sore all over but a short dip in the lake would fix it in no time. No need for ambrosia or nectar. One of the benefits of being a son of Poseidon. 

But that didn't matter. Percy would take three times the amount of punches for his family. He would do it any day, without hesitation. Always.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

'What are we doing here again?' Percy asked tiredly. It was early in the morning. Like, really early. Apollo hadn't even started his journey across the sky yet.

'Like I said, it's a surprise.' Reyna said dismissively for the millionth time. Percy was really starting to annoy her.

The duo were standing in the middle of camp, where the commons area was. It had barely changed for Percy. The same hearth and the same basketball courts. What was different was now there were obviously more shrines and of course, more benches here and there. It was a slight change but Percy liked it.

It was cold, really cold. Every time Percy breathed out, his breath turned into white fog. Percy was usually a little cold-resistant due to being Poseidon's son but even now he felt a bit chilly. He had no idea how Reyna was not complaining. The only thing she was wearing was the usual praetor attire and those weren't exactly warm.

'Yeah, but what's the surprise?' Percy whined. He hated surprises, mainly because most of them tries to kill him. 

'A possible reinforcement.' Reyna said finally giving in to Percy's constant pestering.

He raised an eyebrow. Reinforcements were always good in a war but who - or what - could Reyna be possibly talking about? 

And why would they come at this ridiculous hour?

'So what is the reinforcement?' Percy asked both excitedly and curiously 'Party Ponies? The Amazons? Oh, is it the Cyclops from Dad's forges?'

Reyna chuckled. It was amusing to see that even at the age of twenty-one, Percy Jackson still had that childish side of him.

'Nope,' Reyna said smiling 'You'll just have to see.'

He was about to protest even more when the temperature suddenly went up, the small layer of frost on Percy's sweatshirt melting almost instantly. Both Percy and Reyna shivered slightly at the sudden increase of temperature. 

Reyna grabbed a fistful of Percy's shirt and pulled him back. Even with the enhanced strength that came with the partial immortality, Percy was still a bit hard to move. It was only until he complied that Reyna was able to move him and herself out of the impact zone.

Percy stumbled backwards and nearly tripped had Reyna not been holding him. The heat was extremely intense now, making Percy's sweatshirt wet with his sweat in a matter of seconds. 

He stumbled once again as a large tremor shook the ground, a large dark shape landing on the ground violently a few feet away.

Percy's battle instincts kicked in. He held onto Reyna as he rolled backwards, making sure to keep himself between Reyna and the...thing.

Due to the momentum of the backwards roll, Reyna stumbled backwards away from the large figure, hopefully into safety. Percy instinctively twisted the ring on his left hand and immediately drew back the string after the bow materialised in his hand. He aimed the arrow at the figure but when he saw who, or rather what it was, he nearly dropped his bow.

A loud roar echoed through Camp Half-Blood, unfortunately waking up everyone from their fitful sleep. Percy, being so close to the thing, had to drop his bow and cover his ears. 

'Gods damn it!' a voice shouted from somewhere above Percy 'Now people are going to complain again!'

Something about the voice sounded familiar to Percy. He was on the verge of recognising the voice when Percy heard a voice somewhere to his right start screaming.

'How many times do I have to tell you to not wake everyone up!' Piper screamed as she stormed out of the Aphrodite cabin, her hair messy and a jacket over her pyjamas.

'Sorry, Pipes!' the voice squeaked 'Didn't mean to! Honest!'

'He's right, Piper,' an amused female voice spoke up from around the same direction as the first voice 'He didn't do it this time.'

Now that his ears weren't ringing, Percy realised that the familiar voice he had been hearing was indeed on top of the large figure. 

That large figure was a giant bronze dragon. Festus, the giant bronze dragon.

Percy stood next to the dragon in shock. The last time he had seen the dragon, it had been...it had been...

Slowly, Percy tilted his head up to where people would usually sit on top of Festus. He felt like his heart almost stop when he saw who was riding the mechanical dragon. 

Atop the dragon were two people, both of them Percy recognised. One of them was someone he had forgotten about, and that made him a little guilty. Percy came back to Camp Half-Blood and he couldn't believe he had forgotten about the person that helped him all those years ago.

The second person was one of his friends. One of his friends that he had thought had gone to the Underworld. 

The person riding in front of Calypso was Leo Valdez.

Percy was so awestruck he didn't even move out of the way when Festus started moving forwards. Festus, being the smart dragon he is, stopped and creaked what sounded like a message for Leo.

'Hey man, you might want to-' Leo stopped mid-sentence when his eyes fell on the person he was about to trample 'Percy?'

'Percy? Where?' Calypso asked frantically while looking around.

'Right there, Sunshine,' Leo said pointing at the still shocked Percy 'He's here. He's finally back.'

'Leo...' Percy started before he turned angry 'What the Hades, man? Everyone thought you died! Don't you ever do anything stupid like that again!'

Percy then turned to the gathered crowd of groggy demigods, 'And why didn't any of you tell me he was still alive?'

'We wanted to keep it a surprise,' Reyna said smirking 'And also it was payback for not coming back sooner.'

Percy's anger immediately deflated as he thought back to the worst decision he had ever made once again. Trying to ignore the guilt inside him, Percy turned towards Leo who had finally gotten off his giant metal dragon.

'And where have you been? How are you even alive?' Percy asked curiously.

'Uh, long story,' Leo said chuckling 'And you? Where have you been all these years. We've been looking for you for ages.'

Percy was about to answer when his head suddenly jerked sideways.

Percy looked back towards Leo to see a fuming Calypso next to him about to deliver another slap.

'You better have a good excuse for disappearing on us, Perseus Jackson.' she growled angrily.

Percy gulped, knowing full well he didn't have an excuse. He turned back to Leo trying to get the certain beating the former titaness was going to give him later out of his mind.

'As for where I've been,' Percy said 'Well...it's also a long story. Why don't we go inside? It's freezing.'

A/N: Sorry for the late chapter, people. Some sort of writer's block.

By the looks of things, I kind of accepted the fact that I can't finish this by the end of the year. I will try my best though.

But still, 1.2k views? That's kind of insane.

Thanks for getting this far into the fanfic. I'll see you in the next chapter, folks.

~Sacai2005