||PJatO||The Nightfall||PJatO||

Title: The Nightfall

Fandoms: Percy Jackson and the Olympians/the Heroes of Olympus

Disclaimer: All rights PJO/HOO related reserved for Rick Riordan, however I do own the characters of the hunters Dina and Kainda. No money is made with this, though reviews are very welcome.

Warnings: Strong language, violence, death

Summary: Percy Jackson's gone for good. He's a traitor to Olympus, or at least that's what the world believes. But once you've killed, cheated and run away, can you ever be a hero again? And when a mysterious deity from Tartarus is influencing your innermost thoughts, how can you even trust yourself? A word of warning: the Apocalypse is closing in.

The Nightfall

Part 2: The Dawn of a Dark Age

Chapter 21: Hunters versus Warriors

Suddenly the whole world was the arena for Thalia. It was huge and deadly and inescapable, and every other sound was trampled under the clamorous howl of Romans.

'HYLLA!' The huntress had never before struggled so much to make herself heard, 'Stop this! We can't fight each other here-'

'Oh can't we, huntress?'

Something wasn't right. The whites of Hylla's eyes were black, and her smile was cold and frigid.

In a flurry of sparking blades, the Amazon Queen had Thalia fighting for her life.

'No!' Kainda cried, jumping to her defence, 'thy must meet myself in combat before crossing blades with Thalia!'

Scowling, Hylla charged the other hunter, but Thalia barely had a moment to catch her breath before a voice ushered uncomfortably close to her ear: 'You should watch your back, kid.'

In a heartbeat Thalia was punched in the gut by a second, auburn-haired warrior. It took her by surprise, as she hadn't expected the petite, nymph-like girl to be so physical. She chided herself for judging her so poorly.

Parrying, slicing, deflecting. The fight fell into a natural rhythm. Thalia almost felt relief as she experienced the familiar need to attack and maim her enemies. Just like old times.

Knocking the nymph off her feet with a swift jab, Thalia quickly dodged a slaughter of oncoming arrows from the third warrior who had slipped past Dina.

'Aegis!' she yelled, her shield emblazoned with the head of Medusa springing to life from her bracelet. It ricocheted several arrows back to the Amazonian, who was shocked by both the sudden appearance of a shield and the revolting image carved into it. Sure enough, she was struck in the chest and fell dizzily to the floor.

'Young are the demigods, fallen from Grace.'

Someone in the crowd was calling out the prophecy, and it was strangely distracting.

Just then, a sharp cry of pain pierced the huntresses' thoughts.

The second lieutenant wailed, down on her knees and choking on blood.

'Kainda!' Thalia gripped her sword tighter. 'I'm coming!'

A little way off, Dina had taken up arms with the archer, who had somehow gotten back on her feet and pulled out a dagger. Dina was a natural with close-range combat, so hopefully it wouldn't be much of a battle.

'What are you doing? We're supposed to be on the same side.' Thalia lifted her blade in the air.

'Think about what happened to Percy! You see how the Gods treat us like animals. We have to be different from them!'

Hylla's eyes flashed like stars, distrustful of the moon.

'You loved Percy Jackson?'

'Young are the demigods, fallen from Grace.'

She heard it again, louder this time. The words called to her from the crowd, from the sword in her hand, from inside her own head.

But no one else seemed to be hearing it.

Thalia's heavy glare intensified, every hair on her arms standing on edge. 'He was my friend. And he was a hero. He only killed Reyna under the influence of dark magic.'

The Amazon leader visibly flinched at the mention of her sister. While her guard was down, Thalia made her move. Unfortunately, Hylla parried easily and kept the lieutenant on her toes.

'I don't care for your excuses, huntress. There is no justification for the way he murdered my sister in her own court of justice!'

'You're the one who turned him in, aren't you? I bet you knew all along they weren't going to save him. You're a traitor!'

'I'm the traitor?!' Hylla rounded on her in a terrible rage, 'I fight for justice! He fought for darkness. I did what was right, lieutenant.'

Thalia spared a moment to look back as she noticed Kainda choke violently behind her, and that was all it took for Hylla to knock her off her feet.

'Stay down, hunting-dog!' The daughter of Bellona scowled mockingly at the girl in silver. 'Didn't your treacherous hero Perseus teach you to never look back at the ones you used to love?'

'Young are the demigods, fallen from Grace.'

It came again and again and it was loud. Too loud. Louder than anything she'd ever heard before.

She would not die like this. She swore by all the Gods and their mothers and the rivers in Hades. Rome would burn again before she'd die like this.

Then suddenly there was nothing.

All she could see was white, and all she could feel was a burning shock. It engulfed her, it consumed her. She could smell the electric singe in the air.

And then much, much later...

After so much silence she could have screamed,

She heard the thunder.

A/N: First of all, I'm so sorry about the super long hiatus! I had exams and after that I sort of lost all my motivation to do anything. But I'm back on board with this now and I'm determined to finish it!
I hope you guys aren't too upset that I ditched you all for so long. I promise that won't happen again :(
Anyway, if anyone has any ideas for where they want the plotline to be heading, feel free to review! I'd really like some inspiration, and I don't want to write something everyone hates, you know?
Please go ahead and follow/favourite or leave a review sometime.
~cold clouds~