Chapter 10

Guardians to the Rescue!

*Third Person Point of View*

Just as Annabeth thought the camp was doomed for good, their saviours arrived. Six guardians appeared to aid them, all destroying the monsters with ease, driving back the enemy forces.

Annabeth breathed out a small sigh of relief, but quickly caught herself. The battle wasn't over just yet. "Archers! Move in!" she yelled to the Apollo cabin. "Ares cabin! To their right flank!" She continued to yell out orders and the campers helped to finish off the last of the monsters.

Once all of the monsters had turned to dust, Annabeth looked around. There were so many wounded campers and so many dead. Tears filled her eyes as she saw her fallen brothers and sisters.

"Campers, half of you collect the wounded and bring them to the infirmary. The other half, collect our fallen allies and prepare their shrouds. We shall send them up in flames tonight. May they pass into the Underworld safely," she said.

As her peers nodded to her, she gave them all a sad smile, before turning and bending down to pick up an injured daughter of Athena. Her younger sister, Mary, who had arrived at camp shortly before the guardians were summoned. She was only eleven and reminded Annabeth of herself when she had been that age.

As she carried the bleeding girl to the infirmary, Anthony jogged up to her. "Mom! Are you alright?" he asked. He had a large gash above his left eye, the blood from it dripping into his eye, partially blinding him.

"Yes, I'm fine. What about you?" she asked. Concern laced her words.

"I'm okay, mom. Don't worry," he said. Suddenly, he perked up, as if he'd remembered something. "Mom! Guess what! I killed a hydra today! Dad helped me!"

Annabeth smiled at her son's excitement. "Is that so? Congratulations. Anthony, where is your father?"

Anthony's smile dropped. "He's... uh... He's busy...tending to camp," he said.

Annabeth frowned as well. "Of course he is." She gave a sad smile. "He's always busy with one thing or another. But that's just how he is!" She sighed wistfully at the thought of her husband. He was all business, and since the war began, he's been quite busy, unlike everyone else. If anything, he was doing more to make up for the laziness of everyone around him, not even taking breaks for sleep or fun.

As she got to the infirmary, she dropped off her younger sister to be treated by the Apollo children and frowned at the sight of so many wounded campers. Apollo's guardian－Lysandra, she vaguely recalled－was present as well, checking each camper and using her special powers to heal the children with more serious injuries within seconds.

Leaving the infirmary, Annabeth sighed. When would the pointless suffering end?

***

Reyna fought like a demon. If the guardians wouldn't help them, they'd help themselves. She continued hacking and jabbing, ignoring the blood spilling from her person. She'd worry about her injuries later. For the moment, she needed to kill as many monsters as possible.

To both her left and her right, she saw her brothers and sisters in arms fall, either injured or dead, under the enemies' might. There were moments that she wanted to stop and check on them, but she forced herself to continue fighting. There was no time for that.

Suddenly, it seemed that the tides had turned. The monsters' numbers were diminishing at an intense rate, and finally, Reyna knew why. She saw six guardians push past her, forming a protective wall in front of the Romans.

Reyna smiled as she saw them easily destroy the army before them. They were going to live! She didn't take her eyes off of the fight, though, until the very last monster disintegrated.

Once that had been accomplished, she was able to tear herself away to look at the multitude of bodies that had been scattered throughout the fields of Mars. The sight brought tears to her eyes as she looked upon the still faces of her allies, never to smile again, never to fight, never to move. She saw children of Mars; she saw children of Vulcan. She saw children of Apollo and children of Ceres. She saw legacies and half-bloods alike lying wounded or worse in the mud.

"My comrades!" she called to all those who remained, "We must collect our dear friends, who gave their lives in sacrifice to the cause! We must treat our wounded, so that they may not suffer the same fate as their brethren! We shall honour them to the fullest, and fight on in their name! Senatus Populesque Romanus!"

"Senatus Populesque Romanus! Long live Olympus!" the Romans chanted, beating their shields all at once in a colossal crash before dispersing to collect their fallen friends and allies.

Reyna gave one last sad glance at the field, before heading over to where the guardians all stood, their faces solemn. "I am sorry for your loses. We should have helped sooner," the guardian of Mars told her.

'Eulalia,' Reyna thought, 'Her name is Eulalia.'

"Things would have been worse had you not come to our rescue. For that, we are in your debt," she replied.

Eulalia waved her hand in dismissal. "No need. We were merely following the Olympians' orders to protect their children. Like Percy, we will protect anyone who is important to our charge, though it is not one of the requirements laid out in our oath."

Reyna tensed as the guardian of Mars mentioned her old friend. She was shocked, for she hadn't heard Percy's name mentioned in nearly a decade. "Percy?" she asked.

Eulalia's eyes widened. A guilty expression made its way onto her face, and the faces of the other guardians as well.

"Yes. Perseus Jackson is a guardian. In fact, he is the guardian of Artemis. It was revealed to the Olympian gods - and us as well - that he had been made a guardian. We do not know how much he means to you, but from what we have heard, he was a very close friend to all back in his time," the guardian of Vulcan told her. Reyna remembered that this guardian's name was Korrina.

"I see," Reyna said quietly. "Thank you for telling me."

"I'm sorry, but I'm sure that you'll be able to speak with him soon. Just give him time. He's still dealing with all... this," Korrina told her, motioning wildly with her hands while trying to explain things to the daughter of Bellona.

"Alright. I guess I'll just have to wait for the right moment. For now, I must attend to my campers." Reyna excused herself, giving the guardians one last small smile, and left to help collect the fallen warriors.

***

Word Count: 1104

Average Words Per Chapter: 1869

Word Total: 18,590

Posted: Saturday, October 29th, 2016

Edited and Re-Posted: Monday, November 7th, 2016

~CSP2708~

*Dylan_Walts*