Cabin 13

3| Attack of the Blood-Sucking Cheerleaders

Nico had decided to skip breakfast and head right to the sword arena. After he'd seen Percy and Annabeth together, he had thought he'd be better off taking out his emotions on a dummy instead of... well, anything else.

Percy and Annabeth were on guard duty together. Percy laying in Annabeth's lap as she read her latest book on Greek battle tactics. Clarisse and John Blake, a more recent addition to the Ares' Cabin, stood watch with them, both a little more focused on guarding the border.

No one had seen any monsters since the war with Gaea, it had been eerily quiet. But, Chiron suspected they would all be reborn soon and come for revenge.

Chiron was right...

''Get down!'' Clarisse shouted, a line of arrows falling from an unseen attacker above and a group of monsters charging in from the treeline.

At the sound of battle, Percy grabbed Annabeth by the shoulders, throwing them both into the ditch behind the tree they'd been leaning against, narrowly missing arrows flying in from the treeline.

They hit the ground hard, Percy pinned atop Annabeth as if protecting her like a shield.

Monsters erupted from the forest. Empousai, blood-sucking monsters who look to be teenage girls with some Frankenstein modifications: white skin, flaming hair, fangs, with fitting red eyes, and their infamous mismatched legs. One a bronze prosthetic-type leg, and the other a donkey leg, complete with the hooves and all.

But the monsters seemed to encompass more teenage girl than donkey considering they were most commonly found in cheerleader outfits infiltrating high schools looking for prey.

Percy instantly peeked over their hiding spot looking for a familiar Empousa he had the displeasure of running into a time or two, but Kelli was nowhere to be seen. Good riddance, he thought, hopefully, she was still stuck down in Tartarus somewhere reforming.

"Are you alright?" he asked, the wind knocked out of him from the tumble.

"I'm fine, Seaweed Brain," a small smirk appeared on her face, "may I remind you I've been doing this far longer than you have."

"In which you were just waiting for me to show up."

She just rolled her eyes, "Oh, just get off of me so we can actually defend ourselves," she spoke fast, "I count... five, and at least one archer must be hiding somewhere in the treetops. I'll help Clarisse and John with the others if you focus on finding the archer."

Percy nodded as they got ready to dive into the battle, "It's kinda weird to see an organized attack from Empousai, or really any monster at all."

"We'll focus on that later," she unsheathed her dagger before leaning over, giving Percy an intimate kiss. Then without another word, she charged two Empousai tag-teaming John.

Percy, uncapping Riptide, smirked as he admired his girlfriend's fearlessness. Then he raised Riptide, running into the tree line to find the archer hiding somewhere above.

Finding the blonde wearing a bright cheerleader's uniform wasn't too hard, but the feat of getting to her was the current problem.

She perched up in an oak tree, firing arrows at speeds that barely gave Percy enough time to dodge. He took to deflecting and swatting them down with his sword, giving him more opportunity to advance, although he wasn't sure how he would get up the tree while simultaneously defending himself.

"How the heck did you climb up that tree with a donkey leg?" he yelled up at her, half teasing and half actually puzzled.

She snarled, letting loose another arrow, knocking Percy's sword clean out of his hand. Throwing Riptide down the hill behind him, towards the camp.

''Shoot,'' Percy cursed as he watched his sword fall out of reach, muttering something about how he just needs to super glue his sword to his hand. He sighed, looked back at the Empousa, who let out a disturbingly girly laugh.

Back in the clearing, John had just finished his cheerleader, reducing her figure to dust.

Clarisse yelled to him as she continued the fight, ''Go! Alert the others!'' John nodded before running back towards the camp.

Percy couldn't get close enough to the archer to do any damage, all he could do was throw rocks and try and keep her attention away from his friends. She shot an arrow that Percy easily dodged, but when he looked back the archer smiled in victory.

Percy slowly turned around, Clarisse and Annabeth must just have defeated the last Empousa and been approaching him to help with the archer. Annabeth had been right behind him.

Now there was an arrow lodged in her chest.

Her face shocked and in pain.

Percy screamed, ''Annabeth!''

All his worries about the Empousa vanished as he ran to her. Nothing else mattered anymore.

She fell into his arms, ''Annabeth, can you hear me!?''

Clarisse charged the archer, swatting down arrow after arrow. As she got to the base of the tree, the archer reached into her quiver realizing too late she was out of arrows. Clarisse aimed her spear straight for the blonde's head.

The Empousa, in a cowardice way of escape, burst into flames. Leaving nothing behind as she disappeared. But they all knew who had won the battle. Monsters could be reborn, demigods didn't have the luxury. 

Clarisse kneeled next to Percy, looking down at Annabeth, whose breaths were shallow and labored.

Percy's eyes were wild and frantic, ''Clarisse! What do we do?!''

But all she could do was look at him in pity, she knew all too well the arrow was too close to her heart. They couldn't pull it out, but she would die if they left it.

Percy grunted, trying to think. He set her down on the ground, Percy quickly stood up, taking off his shirt. He kneeled next to Annabeth, using his shirt to soak up her blood.

''You're gonna be fine,'' he said shakily, obviously trying to convince himself.

Annabeth smiled weakly, ''Percy--'' not being able to finish, she gasped in pain.

Then the light left her eyes and her pulse stopped. Percy screamed.

Annabeth's body glowed in his arms for a split second, then disappeared. Perhaps Athena took pity on her daughter, reincarnating Annabeth in a lesser form.

But all that was left was her Camp Half-Blood necklace.

''Annabeth!'' Percy howled, cradling her necklace.