THE SONG OF APOLLO

The dining room was the only place in the whole Plaza that wasn't taken by any other cabin and the Gods knew, the Apollo cabin needed their space. They'd been spending hours- after coming back half-dead and trembling from the cries of battle- running around healing their fellow Campers; their voices dancing in the low healing hymns or their hands twined around scratchy gauze and distant mortal medicine when it seemed the gifts of their father had deserted them.

It almost seemed like it had, and they felt the blow when another one of their friends shut their dirt-crusted eyes for the last time, when despite their hardest fucking efforts, their souls slipped away from them into the halls of Hades.

"We need a new leader." Kayla muttered, pressing her fingers to the purple half-moon smudges under her grey eyes.

Will Solace could feel the eyes of his half-siblings drift towards him.

The cabin didn't have an official second-in-command to Michael Yew, hadn't planned for it; they had just lost a counsellor in Lee Fletcher mere months ago during the invasion of Camp Half-Blood, they hadn't thought they would be this unlucky, this fucking cursed, to lose another one so fast, to lose another leader; to lose another sibling.

Will had been the one who spent the most time with Michael- you bet your sorry demigod ass he did, the ferrety dumbass had been his best friend- and leadership came easily to him. Huh. No wonder his siblings were looking at him. He saw their pained expressions and weary eyes and knew they needed a leader.

"I'll do it." He agreed. A mournful twang echoed off the polished strings of a guitar from the corner of the table, plucked by the calloused fingers of one his youngest siblings. Children of Apollo lived each moment with music singing in their blood.

They had been clustered at the foot of the bridge, their arrows poised taut at the swirling skies; below them the Demeter cabin was a chaotic beast in the face of the fireballs that the Army of Kronos were screaming at them.

"Get back!" Michael Yew had yelled, his eyes wild, "They'll hit you- shoot from there, shoot from THERE!"

But why the hades was he still there, a lone figure in orange standing stark against the grey of the bridge? And where did Percy Jackson appear from, hadn't he just minutes ago been mowing down a couple of Luke's monsters a block away? Will made to move forwards-

"Percy," Michael screamed, "the bridge!"

"Wait…" Kayla muttered, and then it happened. The explosion.

The world erupted in a heathen dance of cement and marble, Kayla had landed on Will's right leg, wincing he pulled both of them back up, blinking to get the dust out of his eyes.

"Where the Hades is Michael?" He heard someone scream urgently and oh Gods- he saw it, lying alone on the remaining chunk of the bridge: a single arrow illuminated by the vibrating light that danced around them and Gods, Michael-

And then Percy was pulling him by the arm, his face wet, "The rest of you search for Michael! Go!" He turned to Will, "We need you back there, Annabeth's hurt!"

Will had been too shell shocked to respond, but he was thinking, "No offence but fuck Annabeth, my best friend is gone! It's him I have to find!"

Maybe he should have, he thought with his eyes clenched. He might have been the one who found Michael Yew.

"That's suicide." Will hissed to Percy, the son of the sea-god was a few inches taller than him, but he glared into his jade-green eyes. "I'm not doing this to them."

"Will," Percy's expression was pained, "I don't want you to, but we really have to. You're the largest cabin and-"

"Go ask the Hermes kids, then!"

"They've already got a position!" Percy took a deep breath and continued, "Will, I swear man, we've got nothing else for it."

Will thought of Lee Fletcher standing with his back straight with the gleaming summer sun on his back as the club fell-

"We'll do it." He murmured. "Someone has to."

The fight had already begun anew, anytime now, the Apollo cabin were going to march into the tunnel and await Kronos's fifth division, drawing them away from the main attack by the combined forces of Hermes and the Hunters.

They would be entering the fray alone, the designated bait; and yet Percy believed they could hold their own, he was dancing on numbers alone. Will wanted desperately to believe he wasn't leading his friends on a kamikaze mission but knowing that demigods had been falling in the largest numbers since the battle had commenced yesterday, he didn't really want to hope.

Besides him, Kayla gripped her arrow, her knuckles white. She met Will's eyes defiantly. "Dad had better help us." He let his lips twist into a grin that she returned. Turning around, he noticed the various expressions of fear peppered on the faces of his siblings. He could hear the shouts coming closer, the footfalls increasing in intensity.

"We are the bravest heroes of the millennium!" Percy shouted, his sword raised, "Fight bravely and we'll win! For Olympus!"

Later Michael had said to Will, "Screw Olympus, the Gods are shit anyway."

"Who are we fighting for, then?" Will frowned.

Michael raised his eyes to the sky, the trumpet of the approaching enemy blowing, "We're fighting for all of us."

Will looked at his siblings, wondering what to tell them as the approaching sounds crashed over one another in fierce intensity. He saw their hands tighten around their bows. He noticed the proud gleam in their eyes- even if it was battling with the siren call of fear-, noticed the slight tilt of their chins.

He saw the sun-drenched strawberry farms of Camp Half-Blood; the spirits of their dead friends staring determinedly back at them. He thought he saw Michael grinning at them with two fingers across his freckled forehead. It was time to return the salute.

"For our friends." Will Solace whispered as someone at the back of the group began to hum an ancient battle hymn which the rest of them took up.

The children of Apollo straightened their backs as they walked forward to meet the enemy, greeted by the blazing summer sun.