Dakota

"Welcome to the Percy, party...Party, Percy. Whatever."

- -Dakota, welcoming Percy into the Fifth Cohort in The Son of Neptune

Dakota is a Roman demigod son of Bacchus and the senior centurion of the Fifth Cohort.

The Lost Hero
Jason Grace lists Dakota as one of his friends from Camp Jupiter.

The Son of Neptune
Dakota is introduced as the commanding officer of the Fifth Cohort and accepts Percy Jackson into the group. He sits with Percy, Hazel Levesque, and Frank Zhang and tells Percy the back story about their cohort's bad reputation, including losing the eagle and some things about Jason. Due to his odd behavior, Percy asks Hazel if he is "always like that". Hazel replies that being the son of Bacchus, the wine god, Dakota had a "drinking problem". Alarmed, Percy asks her disbelievingly if they let him drink wine. Hazel, slightly taken aback, replies that Dakota could not drink wine, as he was underage, and if the camp let him, there would be more than a few "problems". Therefore, he drinks red Kool-Aid, but with triple the amount of sugar, and his ADHD and dyslexia, he seems drunk. Hazel also believes that "one of these days, Dakota's head will explode".

Dakota appears again during the battle against Polybotes' army at Camp Jupiter. Percy hands him the retrieved eagle, which he uses to destroy the monsters and lead the Legion into battle. He also becomes much more serious once handed the eagle, because of how important it is.

The Mark of Athena
Dakota is called forward when Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano demands all Centurions stand by her when Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, and Annabeth Chase arrive in the Argo II. Later in Charleston, Jason hits him over the head with his gladius and knocks him out, although it is shown that Jason was sorry about it.

The House of Hades
Dakota appears in Jason's dream when the Roman's meet up with Rachel Elizabeth Dare and Grover Underwood on the Empire State Building.

The Blood of Olympus
Dakota is mentioned by Octavian when he puts Bryce Lawrence in the Fifth Cohort. When Nico, Reyna and Hedge come to camp, he, Leila, and Michael Kahale arrive in a boat to arrest Reyna and Nico for treason. He kept winking at Reyna. Suddenly Octavian appears and orders every one to drop their weapons. As they do so, it is revealed to be Tyson and Ella who knock out Michael and almost knocked out the others two before Reyna stopped him. They said they were going to switch sides and declare their loyalty to her. They tell her Octavian's "reinforcements" outnumbered the legion. She sends them and Nico to stop Octavian from attacking the camp. The three of them dock and drag Kahale to shore. Nico summons Jules-Albert to drive the three demigods to the Roman base camp. Along the way see the monsters Octavian recruited. They arrive and the centurions try to recruit their cohorts. Dakota arrives with the Fifth and declares his loyalty to Reyna. The Athena Parthenos is delivered shortly after Gaea wakes. He, his cohort and the Greeks fight their way through monsters to rescue three cohorts. After the battle he is seen with his Greek half siblings enjoying Kool-Aid. He returns to Camp Jupiter a few days later with the rest of the Romans.

Personality
Dakota has an addiction to red Kool-aid, which he drinks with three times the normal amount of sugar. Combined with his ADHD, his hyperactive behavior causes people to believe he is drunk, being a son of Bacchus. He cares for his fellow legionnaires and sits down with Percy during dinner to welcome him to the camp. He has a deep respect for his comrades and is a well chosen commander of the Fifth Cohort.

Appearance
He is described as being tall and buff, with curly black hair. However, his mouth is almost always vampire red (according to Percy), due to his Kool-Aid addiction. Also, his eyes are blue and don't quite line up, so everyone who looks at him feels as though the world is leaning, as put by Hazel.

Abilities

 * ADHD: He has natural battle reflexes.
 * Fighting Skills: As he is co-centurion of his cohort, he is presumed to be a skilled fighter.

Demigod Abilities

 * Chlorokinesis: Dakota presumably has control over plants, namely vines.
 * Madness: As a son of Bacchus, he is likely to be able to cause or cure madness.

Etymology
Dakota, a name of Native American origin, means "friend" and "ally." It may also mean "forever smiling."

Trivia

 * He shares his father's addiction to drinking, although he drinks Kool-Aid instead of wine or Diet Pepsi.
 * Dakota and Luke both share a love for Kool-Aid.
 * He always drinks red Kool-Aid with three times the normal sugar. According to Hazel, this makes him go crazy because of his ADHD.
 * He is the only centurion in the Fifth Cohort to maintain the rank throughout The Heroes of Olympus series.
 * As revealed in The Blood of Olympus, he is seventeen years old, but does not have a drivers license.

Dakota