AN: I know, I know! You've all been expecting a new chapter! I'm really sorry, it took so long. I've just been busy, and I got sick with the most terrible disease; Writers Block! Ugh! But I'm better now! I have overcome the disease and have received inspiration!

I was also blocked a bit by all the studying I have to do. But now its the weekend, so expect possibly two chapter! I'm enjoying writing for you guys, and if you enjoy reading, I'll update as often as I can.

A huge thanks to AlaskaSwimmerGirl for being the main inspiration for this chapter and for her awesome comment, "This is REALLY cool! Could you do some Travis? Please update soon! I love it!" Thanks AlaskaSwimmerGirl!!!

I'm rambling, aren't I? You don't wanna listen to me talk, you wanna read! So, here's chapter 9 ...

Chapter 9: Play Fighting and a Figure - Percy's POV

Once I'd finished chasing Clarisse and Luke around Camp for not helping when the Chaos warriors jumped on me, we went down to the beach and traded stories.

Luke told us about his conversation with Poseidon, and I told them about my dream of Destruction.

'The whole point was to kill me,' I said glumly.

'But it didn't succeed,' Luke pointed out while Clarisse nodded.

I smiled gratefully and we all looked out at the ocean, the suns rays making the surface dance and sparkle like diamonds. We stayed there for some time. I did notice that Luke and Clarisse sat rather close together, and I chuckled too soft for them to hear.

Then we heard some running towards us over the sand dunes. I unsheathed Current, Clarrise grabbed her sword and Luke pointed his knife at the intruder.

They stumbled over the hill; Leo.

We all gave a sigh of relief while Leo bent double, panting.

'Meeting ... sword arena ... Chiron,' he puffed.

Without another word, we took off for the Sword Arena with Leo trailing behind. We walked in and sat down next to Annabeth and Chiron.

'-don't know when they'll attack again,'' Chiron was saying, 'We're still not sure how or why they attacked so fast.'

'To kill me,' I interrupted bluntly, 'They wanted to kill me.'

All heads turned to me. I stood up a little straighter and told them about my dream.

'So the whole point of that attack,' I finished, 'was to get me out of the picture.'

'How do we know you're not tricking us?'

Typically, that came from Xavier. He stood up on the other side of the arena. He glared at me from a distance and I held his gaze. He continued being an idiot.

'How do we know that you're not actually the enemy?'

'And why,' my voice was dangerously calm, 'would we be here if we were the enemy?'

'As spies,' he spat, 'You're all no good as fighters so they used you as spies. Even if you weren't, you're still pathetic fighters. Chaos' most expendable division. I could beat all of you. I would be such a better Commander.'

I took a deep, silent breath to control my anger. I had gotten better at that,  since the last time I almost blew up a planet.

Around me, I could feel my warriors stir. Some took out their weapons, but I held up my hand and they sheathed them.

'Ok, Xavier,' I said quietly, 'I'll make you a deal; you can chose one of my warriors to battle. Anyone you want, your choice completely, and we'll see who wins.'

He smirked and examined my ranks. I wasn't really concerned. I was pretty confident that some of the warriors from the other squads could beat him. Even 6 year old Toby from the Junior Squad would have a fair chance against this idiot.

'Him,' Xavier pointed at one of my soldiers who stood and walked into the arena.

Travis. My confidence wavered.

Travis was a great fighter, but he could get incredibly anxious when he had a lot of pressure on him. I was worried that he would be too nervous to hold his sword straight.

As it turned out, I had no reason to worry.

Travis' POV

'Be careful, Bandit.'

I could hear the concern in Percy's voice. He thought that I might not be able to beat Xavier. He knew better than anyone that grace under pressure was not one of my virtues.

But at this point, I was way too mad to be nervous. That moron had insulted the army of Chaos and, by extension, Percy himself. No one in the universe was a match for Percy. Except for Chaos, of course.

I waited patiently. Xavier sneered and tried to look cool by jumping the wall to get into the arena. Emphasis on tried. His foot caught on the wall and he tripped, falling to the dirt and succeeding only in making a fool of himself. Ignoring the snickers from the Chaos warriors, he cover his fumble up with an ugly smirk.

He pulled a small, red stick out of his pocket. I almost laughed, but then he flicked his wrist and it expanded into a 4 foot long, celestial bronze sword, it's edge glittering viciously in the afternoon light.

I unsheathed my own sword. It didn't transform into anything cool, but it was still powerful. It was shorter than Xavier's, wicked sharp and made of celestial black. It was darker than most of the other weapons made from that metal, so I named it Shadow.

'Rules!' Chiron yelled, 'All powers and magical items are allowed, try to avoid maiming or killing, fight until the other is disarmed or unable to continue. Begin!'

At Chiron signal, Xavier charged. I just stood there, my sword dangling, a hidden smile under my hood. I could see his eyes, though, and they looked triumphant.

When he was 2 feet from me, I concentrated and dissipated into darkness. I reappeared behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. I could have disarmed him then, but I wanted to have some fun.

I chuckled to myself when he spun around wildly. His look of surprise quickly gave way to anger. He charged at me again, but I teleported to the other side of the arena, leaving him confused.

I took the moment to play a little game.

Closing my eyes and  balling my hand into a fist, I concentrated on my power. I was both a warrior of Chaos with all those powers, but I was also a demigod son of Hermes, god of thieves.

I opened my eyes. I felt my hand grow hot, and opened it. In the middle of my palm sat a silver ring. Instinctively knowing what it was, I put it on and waited until Xavier spotted me.

Then he charged, yet again. Man, how stupid was this guy?

I intercepted his charge and turned it to my advantage. I pressed him hard, landing blow after blow, again and again, giving him no opportunity to land a blow of him own. He was forced to play only defense while I went on a vicious offence. Shadow was a deadly arc of force and darkness.

Finally, Xavier backed up, snarled at me and smacked him hand.

Nothing happened.

He smacked his hand again, still not looking down. Still, nothing. So he slapped it once more, now looking. His snarl turned into a mask of shock.

'Looking for this?' I held up my hand, revealing his ring on my index finger.

I hit it and it expanded. Metal ropes lashed out, encircling my finger and curling down my arm to stop just above my elbow. The ring face itself enlarged until it was a huge, celestial bronze shield with an imprint of a crossed spear and sword across the front. It shone in the light of the late afternoon sun, almost blinding me if it hadn't been for my enchanted cloak.

The look on Xavier's face was beyond anger, it was pure fury and rage. And it was those feelings that made him reckless, wanting to take me down and punish me for humiliating him, not that he needed my help. But he looked downright murderous.

But I couldn't let that happen, could I?

As he charged once more, I performed the disarming maneuver I saw Luke perform on Percy, oh, so many years ago. I twisted, and his sword was suddenly in the dirt behind me. The tip of my blade was pressed against his throat. If he moved, the tip would plunge through his skin.

I leaned over slightly.

'I believe, that game belongs to me,' I said, quietly and calmly.

I removed Shadow from his throat and sheathed it. I turned away and started walking back to the stands.

That was my big mistake.

I should've known that Xavier would've tried to regain some of what little pride he ever had. I was naive to think the game was over.

Halfway back to the stands, a piercing pain erupted in my back. I had only a moment to think before I fell face first into the dirt and into unconsciousness.

And my last thought?

Xavier.

Percy's POV

Energy flared up inside me.

A storm of power and blind rage.

The skies suddenly darkened and the waves of the beach reared up, responding to my anger. I tried to breath and control my temper. Drowning the camp would do none of us any good.

As my warriors scrambled down the stairs to get in the arena to strangle the idiot son of Ares, I briskly jumped the wall (with a lot more grace and success that Xavier had, I might add) and strode over to Travis.

I quickly pulled out the bronze knife that stuck out from between his shoulder blades and examined the wound. The knife was thrown with a lot of force, and been driven in fairly deep. He was losing a lot of blood, but if treated right, he would be survive.

I ripped off a strip of my cloak and tied it around Travis, ensuring the no more blood would spill. Then I picked him up, careful to avoid aggravating the injury, and teleported to the Chaos cabin. I quickly laid him face down on his bed. I fed him some ambrosia and teleported back to the arena where World War III was brewing.

The last thing anyone would want, would be to face 14 angry Chaos warriors and their very angry commander.

But thats exactly what Xavier had got.

When I got there, Bianca and Zoë had already had him pinned to the ground. Leo and Luke were both advancing. Luke had his knife pointed at the son of Ares, and in Leo's palm was a ball of white hot fire.

'How DARE you hurt our brother!' Clarisse screamed.

Zoë drew back her fist and struck. Xavier tried to recoil, but was held down by Bianca's steel-like grip. Zoë drew back to strike again.

'Huntress, stand down,' I called.

She froze mid swing.

I walked slowly up to the figure cowering on the ground. I stared coldly, my gaze icy and enraged. He just lay there, whimpering. My soldiers gathered behind me, each with a look of fire in their eyes. I stopped 2 feet from him.

I coud kill him.

The thought came to me. I could end his life. He could've killed Travis, I could repay the favour. I could make him pay for everything he did to me. For driving Annabeth away from me, for being a huge-

'What are you going to me, Commander?' Xavier's voice interrupted my train of thought, 'Are you going to kill me?'

He tried to look mad, but it was clear that his face stung from Zoë's punch and fear was evident in his eyes. He spoke through gritted teeth.

I looked up and picked out Annabeth among the spectators. Her expression was unreadable. What would she and the rest of the camp think if I killed one of the campers? Most likely, it wouldn't make a good impression.

I looked back down at Xavier and motioned for Zoë and Bianca to back off. I crouched down next to him. He sat up, his face level with mine.

'Next time you try to kill one of my own,' I said, my voice deep, quiet and very menacing, 'You will receive more than a couple of punches from Huntress. Flames will burn you to the ground, Angel will set her minions on you, and I myself will not rest until you are nothing but dust.'

Leo and Bianca, behind me, took their cues. Leo once again summoned two balls of fire in his hands and Bianca clicked her fingers, making two skeleton warriors erupt from the ground by her side.

At least Xavier had the sense to look scared. I stood up, Leo extinguished his fire and Bianca let her skeletons sink back into the earth.

I turned on my heel and marched away, the Chaos warriors close behind. We headed back to the Chaos cabin to check up on Travis. We were nearly there when-

'Commander Epsilon!'

I froze in my tracks and faced Annabeth. She was winded from her run after me, but she managed to straighten and examine me with those stormy grey eyes that I use to think were so beautiful when we were dating.

I thought she was going to say something about Xavier, but that wasn't it.

'We have more allies for the war,' she explained breathlessly, 'From the other camp; Camp Jupiter.'

My blood ran cold. Camp Jupiter. Once upon a time, so many years ago, Hera had sent me there and wiped my memory, save for the name Annabeth. But all-in-all, the place was great. I wondered who was here.

'Who has come to help?' I asked her.

In response, she pointed some distance away. Five figures were approaching; two at the front, two in the middle and one other trailing behind.

As they got closer, I could see that the front two were Hazel and Frank. After the meeting with the gods, they must've returned to Camp Jupiter.

The two in the middle turned out to be Reyna and Octavian. At the end of the Giant War, Octavian had finally accepted that the Greeks and Romans could get along. We've all been good enough friends since. The two of them must've recieved immortality after I left.

The last figure was wearing a blue, hooded cloak like that of my warriors. Because of it, I couldn't see who they were, but their stance indicated that they were female.

I tensed as they got closer, which was silly, I know. They were all my friends, except for the hooded girl. She made me nervous, curious as to who she was.

They stopped in front of Annabeth and me, the rest of my army hanging back.

Reyna and Octavian stepped out and introduced themselves, since we already knew Hazel and Frank.

I bowed my head in respect, 'It is a pleasure indeed to meet you.'

Reyna nodded and smile.

'But I must ask,' I said, frowning, 'who is your companion?'

Reyna looked back, 'Do not worry, she is a friend. She is a mortal that helps Octavian. She can see through the mist and often understands things that we fail to. The gods granted her immortality a long time ago, the same as all of us. She is-well, I'll let her introduce herself.'

The figure stepped forward.

'It is wonderful to meet you, Commander Epsilon,' she said sincerely.

Then she threw back her hood and I stopped breathing. I couldn't speak nor move nor do anything. I was too shocked to do anything but stand and stare. I knew it could give me away, but I couldn't help it.

Before me stood the one person I knew I could never fool.

AN: Do you hate me? I bet you hate me! I've always wanted to create a cliff hanger like that. Mwah ha ha! I feel so evil!

Anyway, sorry again that it took so long. I wrote, like, half of it, then stupid wattpad deleted it! Grrr! It took me ages to write it all up again. Then my laptop was confiscated because I was writing so late at night. The things I do for you guys.

I also created a cast list (took me forever). But its also got the main Chaos warriors code names, just in case you don't know who is who when I use them.

Ending note: please vote and comment. I love receiving ideas, so please feel free to give them. You might even get yourself a dedication. So, yeah. That's all I have to say. Until next time! :D