Star-Crossed
A Percy Jackson and the Olympians Femmeslash

Chapter One: I Wish I Was A Tree

Thalia Grace

When I heard the hunting horn for the first time in years… well, that's when I knew I was doomed. I couldn't even appreciate that we were fighting a losing battle, and this was the help we needed to make sure I didn't wish I was still a tree. I couldn't even be happy that Dr. Manti-Thorn had just been hit by an incredibly accurate silver arrow. I couldn't even grimace when the monster man said the same thing I had just been thinking. "No. It cannot be…"

He was wailing in agony, so at least my distraction wasn't deadly. He shot poison spikes towards them, not towards my friends and I, and I knew they could take care of themselves. They'd certainly proven that they could. Thorn pulled out the arrow lodged in his shoulder, and I saw Percy try to take a swipe at him. When Thorn's tail hit him, he was knocked aside, not hurt enough to need any help, but definitely looking a bit surprised. That expression only became more pronounced when the Hunters emerged from the woods.

She was in the lead, of course. Even in front of Lady Artemis. Ugh. That girl had an ego larger than Greece.

"The Hunters!" Annabeth exclaimed. She remembered. Of course she would. Our experience with them wasn't something either of us would forget. What confused me was the sound of slight excitement in her voice, as if she were a little bit happy to see them. Granted, they just saved our butts… but we probably could have handled Thorn ourselves. Probably.

Maybe she had changed her mind about the girls. I tried not to show how horrible that idea made me feel. I couldn't resist muttering "Oh, wonderful," though.

When she stepped forward with her dark, blemish-free, coppery skin and her little silver circlet perched perfectly in her hair, I resisted the urge to gag. I had to bite my lip though, especially when she addressed Artemis, not even looking at the goddess, as if she were an Olympian herself. "Permission to kill, my lady?"

Thorn started whining about how horrible it was, how it wasn't fair. I was about to poke him with my spear and start on about how life isn't fair, I got turned into a magical tree, came back about three or four years younger than my best friend, and pretty much wished I was still topiary a few times every day- but Artemis beat me to the punch. "Not so. The hunting of all wild beasts is within my sphere. And you, foul creature, are a wild beast. Zoë, permission granted."

She smirked. She knew all along that she'd get to be the big hero. The Hunters probably rescued us just to humiliate me.

Thorn made a guttural noise with his throat, and then smiled a horrible, evil, monster grin. "If I cannot have these alive… I shall have them dead!"

He lunged at me and Percy. I didn't have time or strength to raise Aegis, and barely enough strength to close my eyes to my coming doom. And now we're gonna die, I thought. Zoë will be so pleased.

"No!"

I opened my eyes to see Annabeth charging the monster. Oh my gods. No.

"Get back, half-blood!" Zoë yelled. I could see a flicker of concern in her eyes, and decided that she probably only vaguely remembered this girl… one who was once too young to join the Hunt, dependent on me and my best friend. "Get out of the line of fire!"

Annabeth didn't listen, and if Zoë's brain worked the way I thought it did, that simple, brave action would be taken for stupidity. Zoë didn't tolerate stupidity, or anything she thought was such. That meant her next word would be… "Fire!"

I could hear Percy scream as the Hunters of Artemis let their arrows loose. All of them caught Thorn, but as he stumbled off the cliff we were standing on, promising that the Hunters would pay, her took Annabeth with him.

"Annabeth!" Percy cried, running after her. But when bullets began to rain onto the ground, he was forced to look up.

Artemis did as well. "Mortals are not allowed to witness my hunt," she stated calmly before a motion of her hand transformed a helicopter I hadn't seen into a flock of beautiful ravens. As they scattered across the dark sky, she and her followers walked towards Percy, Grover, Bianca, Nico and me. They looked dangerous, beautiful, and slightly curious. They looked exactly like I remembered them, age and all. The only difference I could even guess at was a girl I hadn't seen before, probably added in the last few years. Missing out on me wasn't such a big deal, apparently. There would always be someone ready to jump at a chance to join the Hunters.

As they got nearer to us, their eyes flickered between our group. I watched Zoë's expression warily, waiting for her smug comment. To my surprise, when she saw me, the only word she said was, "You!"

It was a complicated word. There was an outer layer of hatred, anger, betrayal, distaste. But I could hear deeper. I could hear statements, like, I never thought I would see you again, and You have… changed, and Since when do you, Thalia Grace, need help?

I shoved the complicated answers to these complicated unsaid questions back. "Zoë Nightshade," I said as evenly as I could, but even I could hear my voice quivering. "Perfect timing, as usual."

She didn't answer… it was as if she couldn't hear me. "Four half bloods and a satyr, my lady," she said in a monotonous voice, as if she were discussing the weather.

Artemis nodded. "Yes, some of Chiron's campers, I see."

Percy, who had been standing in confusion, seemed to regain some nerve. "Annabeth. You have to let us save her!"

Artemis turned to face him. "I'm sorry, Percy Jackson. But your friend is beyond help." He tried to run to the edge of the cliff anyway… stupid Percy… but Phoebe and Chrysanthe held him down. "You are in no condition to be hurling yourself off cliffs," the goddess continued, in an admonishing tone.

"Let me go!" he screamed. "Who do you think you are?"

I saw Zoë move towards him, her hand raised, and I lost the last bit of respect I had for her. Did she really have no sense of the grief he was feeling? Had losing everyone she had ever had that sort or feelings for made her as cold and heartless as she looked? Her name might have meant life, but looking at her, about to hit Percy, I knew that she didn't know anything about life, anything at all.

"No," Artemis ordered, and Zoë put her arm down, a look of disgust on her pretty little face. "I sense no disrespect, Zoë- he is simply distraught, he does not understand." She turned to look at Percy, who looked pathetic and small stretched onto the ground, restrained by two immortal girls. "I am Artemis, goddess of the Hunt."

"Um… okay?" he said, voice weak.

I heard a squee of delight that couldn't have come from him, and I glanced over my shoulder to where Grover was kneeling. "Thank you, Lady Artemis!" he babbled. "You're so… you're so… wow!"

I glared at him. "Get up, Goat Boy," I said in a tone harsher than I meant to. Zoë had that affect on me. "We have other things to worry about. Annabeth is gone!"

"Whoa, hold up, time out."

I looked in the direction of the voice. Bianca di Angelo had her mouth hanging open, her fingers moving like she was trying to figure out what was happening and it was some sort of equation. "Who… who are you people?"

"It might be a better question, my dear girl, to ask who are you? Who are your parents?" Artemis has visibly softened, was trying to be kind and make it easy on Bianca, but I still had to resist the urge to bump the goddess out of the way. Bianca didn't know. She couldn't know. That's why we were here. It was the job of the heroes to break the "one of your parents is an immortal Greek god" news. The Hunters… they just were there to annoy the crap out of people and look pretty. Hence why Zoë was second in command- she did excellently at both.

As I predicted, Bianca glanced around nervously, then said, "Our parents are dead. We're orphans. There's a bank trust that pays for our school, but… what? I'm telling the truth."

I guess nobody really looked that trusting.

Artemis and I opened our mouths at the same time, likely both intending to break the news gently. But before either of us could, Zoë said, "You are a half-blood. One of thy parents was mortal. The other was an Olympian."

"An Olympian… athlete?" I bit my lip so I didn't say something I regretted. Something that would drive Bianca to the side of the Hunters.

"No," Zoë said, a slight smug undertone to her voice. She knows she's winning this. "One of the gods."

"Cool!" yelled Nico. I had almost forgotten he was there.

Bianca's voice quavered, and I could see her eyes beginning to water. "No. This is not cool."

Nico went off on a tangent about some stupid game, and Bianca began to yell at him… a typical argument between an older sister and a younger brother. I felt a sharp pang at that, but put it out of my mind. Instead, I concentrated on my goal. I had to win Bianca over. I couldn't let another girl fall to Zoë and her supernatural charms, and I definitely couldn't do it if it meant that another family would be split up. The whole situation was too close to my heart. I felt myself about to cry, so I took a few deep breaths, tried to regain my cool. That wasn't easy, being a daughter of Zeus and all, but I achieved it. "Bianca," I said, "I know it's hard to believe. But the gods are still around. Trust me. They're immortal. And whenever they have kids with regular humans, kids like us, well… our lives are dangerous."

"Dangerous like the girl who fell." Bianca's eyes challenged me to disagree, to tell her that it was only a trick of the light, even though we both knew it wasn't. I couldn't take it. I looked away.

"Do not despair for Annabeth," Artemis said kindly. "She was a brave maiden. If she can be found, I shall find her."

"Then why won't you let us go look for her?" Percy demanded.

"She is gone. Can't you sense it, Son of Poseidon? Some magic is at work. I do not know exactly how or why, but your friend has vanished."

I could see that Percy didn't like it, but he believed it. He finally calmed some.

"Oooooooh!" Nico said, raising his hand as if this were school. "What about Dr. Thorn? That was awesome how you shot him with arrows! Is he dead?"

"He was a manticore," the goddess explained. "Hopefully he is destroyed for now, but monsters never truly die. They reform over and over again... and they must be hunted whenever they appear."

I nodded. "Or they'll hunt us." Maybe if Bianca knows there are ways monsters can be prevented from hunting demigods, maybe then she'll trust me.

The new demigod girl shivered. "That explains..." and the siblings were off, talking about all the odd sightings they had. Again, I felt a twinge in my stomach. They were so lucky, and they didn't even know.

"That's why Grover has been watching you," Percy cut in. "To keep you safe, if you turned out to be half-bloods."

"Grover?" Bianca looked at him as if she was seeing him for the first time. "You're a demigod."

"Well, a satyr, actually."

When he took his shoes off, I thought Bianca was going to cry. The only thing that kept me from laughing was that I needed her on my side. "Grover, put your shoes back on, you're freaking her out."

"Hey, my hooves are clean!"

Percy smiled, then grew serious again, as if he remembered what happened to Annabeth. "Bianca, we came here to help you. You and Nico need training to survive. Dr. Thorn won't be the last monster you meet. You need to come to camp."

"Camp?" Bianca asked.

"Camp Half-Blood. It's where half-bloods learn to survive and stuff. You can join us... stay there year-round, if you like."

"Sweet!" Nico cried. "Let's go!"

But Bianca hesitated, unsure. Oh gods, it's starting, I thought miserably. They have her.

Zoë's smugness became a tad more pronounced. "There is another option..." she hinted.

I could feel myself growing angry. "No!" I insisted. "There isn't!"

Zoë stared at me, her eyes challenging me. Do you want to go that route? they asked. And you know what? I did. I wanted to pull her hair like I was five years old and stick out my tongue. I wanted her to charge at me, even though I knew she wouldn't. Not in front of her precious Lady Artemis.

"We've burdened these children enough," Artemis decided. "Zoë, we will rest here for a few hours." The smug girl broke our staring match as she turned to face the goddess. "Raise the tents, treat the wounded. Retrieve our guests' belongings at the school," she ordered.

"Yes, my lady," Zoë agreed, though it seemed she couldn't resist a hateful glance back at me.

"And Bianca," Artemis continued, "come with me. I would like to speak with you."

My mind went blank. I knew this would happen. But knowing didn't take the edge off, not one bit. This was the last time I'd see a normal Bianca. Without me in there, or someone who knew the dangers of the Hunters, Bianca would easily accept their offer to become one of them. I mean, it seemed like a great package deal. Immortality. Sisterhood. Nobody to break your heart.

But that was the thing. That's how it was on paper. That's how it was if you were official. And it never said anything about breaking the hearts of other people.

It didn't stop Zoë from ripping my heart to shreds.

Author's Note: Welcome! If you don't know me, I'm Tabby, and I like writing and Nightgrace. So I thought I'd combine them! ^^

Anyway, this is my first time solo writing for PJO... I'm doing a crossover collab with my friend Jenny... and besides that, it's unlike any other fanfic I have ever done. I am effectively rewriting The Titan's Curse, but the viewpoint switches from Thalia to Zoë. There will be a lot of original content, but the dialogue will be mostly the same. It's mainly my interpretation.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy! See you in a while for the next chapter!