Epsilon (A Percy Jackson/Chaos fanfic)

~6~

~6~

϶ Annabeth ϵ

Epsilon, commander of the E-team, champion of Chaos. He was a strange man. If I hadn't found out that he was from Earth, than I would've thought that he was an extraterrestrial. He had traveled across the Universe, gotten an arm bitten off only for it to be replaced by Chaos iron. He was stronger, faster, smarter. He didn't bow down to anyone and I knew from when I first met the team, he didn't even bow down to Chaos. It also seemed that he wasn't that sensitive to pain since he was still standing after pulling a spear out of his abdomen.

His team ran up to him, yelling his name. "Epsilon!" Beta screamed and steadied him as he started to sway. They went quiet and shared looks.

"Are you okay?" I asked, then felt really stupid, which was uncommon for a child of Athena. They all look at me. Silena raised an brow—well maybe the others did too, but I couldn't see their faces—at me. "Sorry, stupid question."

Will ran up and stopped, "How are you still conscience?"

Epsilon laughed nervously like he was caught doing something he wasn't supposed to, "I'm special?" Stumbling slightly, Alpha helped hold him up.

Alpha chuckled, "Let's get you to the infirmary." Beta held him up and they made their way to their destination.

"Strange fellow," a familiar voice said from behind me, one that was absent during the battle.

Startled, I turned around quickly and then smiled to see Thalia standing there. "Don't scare me like that!"

"Sorry, Annie. I just got from IM with Artemis. The next army is getting closer and might be on us any day now. I'm worried, you know, especially after the last war..." she let the sentence trail off, not needing to finish the sentence. We lost so many people in the last war. Phoebe, Leo...the latter returned through, which was nice in a very annoying way. This war though, I don't even want to think about what's going to happen.

"We're going to win, Thalia," I encouraged, "And the backup that came will help."

Thalia nodded and looked up at the sun while shading her eyes. "I just hope that it will actually help. Artemis says that it is almost as large as Gaea's army, maybe even larger." Silence fell upon us until she shook her head and slung her arm over my shoulder. "Well, we haven't had that much time to catch up, how bout we go for a nice, calming walk? Eh?" I nodded and was dragged towards the beach.

It was nearing dinner when it happened.

"Annabeth!" An Aphrodite child yelled, "Come quick!" Thalia and I looked at each other and then followed the camper to the arena. She pointed to a black hole that was slowly shrinking.

"What in Hades?" Thalia asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

The Aphrodite camper gulped, "Me and my cabin were just coming into the arena when there was a shriek. We all ran in to help, but it was to late, three of our campers were sucked into the hole. Piper sent me to go find you right after that." We nodded and went to go find Piper. She was sitting in the stands, her head in her hands. And Claire—another Aphrodite camper—was patting her on the back.

"Piper," I asked quietly and she looked up and motioned for us to sit beside her, "What happened?"

"I assume Niki has already told you what happened before she left, right?" We nodded, "It stopped sucking in people—five in total—and pit scorpions came out of the hole." The time when Percy was stung by one ran through my head making a shiver go down my spine. "Some people got stung and were sent to Chiron. The scorpions were killed luckily. Then a message was displayed above the arena," she recited what the message said and then sniffled. "Why does this always happen to us Annabeth? Why can't we just be normal people, with normal lives?"

"I don't know Pipes, I don't know," I said, patting her on the back. Piper stood up and hugged me.

"I have to go and see how some of my siblings are doing. See ya Annabeth," she turned and walked out of the arena. Thalia sat down beside me and we stared at the place Piper went to.

Thalia was the first to speak, "She's going to get over it. She strong willed, just like when we first met her," she said, looking at me, "We're gonna win like you said Annabeth, just to prove them wrong."

I nodded, "I hope so."

I sat down at my table with Thalia beside me. "Aren't you supposed to not sit at this table?" I asked her and she shrugged.

"Never been the one to follow rules unless Artemis tells me to follow them," Thalia said and started to eat. I laughed and followed her example. We ate in silence, lost in our own thoughts. The sound of foot falls, brang me out of my thoughts. Thalia and I looked up just in time for us to see Epsilon walking into the pavilion.

Thalia leaned closer to me, "How is that guy walking? He was just skewered." She asked me and I shrugged.

"I have no clue," I answered.

Chiron walked up to the front of the pavilion and stamped his hoof. The whole place quieted down. "Please welcome Reyna, praetor of Rome." Reyna walked up and waited for some people to quiet down.

"Hello, campers of Camp Half-Blood. I am Reyna, praetor of Rome, daughter of Bellona," Reyna said. "I have come to announce that more reinforcements from New Rome are on their way here right as we speak. Thank you for your time and attention, you may go back to eating." Cue noise. People went back to talking, the sound of cutlery on the plates and oddly some music filled the pavilion.

I started to think. How are we going to win? Everything seems to be against us. All the forces of nature just want us to die. We have survived many eons, but how many more can we keep on fighting? We're going to have to give up sometime, right? I sighed. Stop thinking those things, Annabeth, we're going to win and we're going survive the next thousand years.

Until Next Time