"Who are you?"
Anndra felt like her world has been turned upside down. This couldn't be happening. "Lady Artemis! It's me, Anndra, your lieutenant, you're half sister!" Anndra turned to the Hunters, taking in their wide-eyed, worried faces. "We're your hunteresses. You have to remember us."
The goddess on the hospital bed took a look at every one of the girls. They were dressed in light, silver clothes, a bow string came around their shoulders with the curved wood fitting gently against their backs. The staffs were engraved with dozens of elegant images. Arrows were strapped over their shoulders and knives at their waist. They were all staring at the goddess, eyes wide while many of them threatening to cry. The girls in front of her looked both extremely dangerous and vulnerable at the same time. Slowly, she shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't...
Suddenly the door burst open, a frantic teenager ran into the room, his bright blue eyes held a wild expression. He was extremely tan with short sandy blonde hair, and looked much like the confused girl on the bed. Apollo looked around the room until he came to said girl. "Artemis! Artemis are you alright?
"Who are you?" Artemis repeated, she felt like she was going to use that phrase a lot.
The three words that his immortal sibling uttered in confusion were more than enough to hit the god in his theoretic heart. Apollo fell to his knees next to his older sister's bed, clutching the sterile white sheets in his hands. "It's me, Apollo, your twin brother, your little brother!" By the time he had gotten the last bit of the exclamation, tears had welled up in his eyes. It was the one of the very few times he had willingly admitted she was older than him.
The demigods and huntresses watched in shock as his form shimmered into a sobbing, beaten little boy, but just as quickly shifted back as anger erupted in his eyes. "What happened to her?" He snapped the last part at the others in the room.
"We were looking for the Nemean Lion," Phoebe spoke up, "The Lady found it first and well, Shannon can tell you." Apollo turned to the little girl holding on the the older girl's leg, staring up at him with wide eyes.
"Wa-Wady Artemis distrwacted the big puppy and I shot it in da mouth." Shannon shifted so she was fully behind Phoebe. "After dat she hit the wall and wen-wented to sleep."
Artemis watched the girl explain what happened to her from her hospital bed. She felt bad for making her cry when she couldn't recall who she was; she was very cute and the way she spoke just made her want to hold her and tell her everything was going to be alright. She felt the same way towards the boy, despite looking much older than she felt, as few tears silently rolled down his cheeks.
Her little brother? She highly doubted it but he seemed so genuinely devastated it was hard not to believe him.
Apollo nodded grimly. "Can you do anything for her?" When a man entered the room, Artemis did a double take. The top half of his body was a weathered man, but where his legs suppose to be, four white stallion legs were instead.
"Whoa, what are you?" She blurted. Everyone in the room turned to her, some surprised at her question while others including her newly acquired brother, concerned. Artemis shrunk into her bed in embarrassment.
Apollo smiled at his older sister before turning to answer the old Centaur's question. "There's honestly nothing I can do, she has amnesia, and there is no imitate cure to it. All I can do is treat the headaches that might come with it or anything else."
All the Hunters hung their heads. Apollo, upon seeing this, tried to cheer them up. "It's not necessarily permanent, and I don't know how serious her condition is, she'll get her memories back faster if you do things she normally does. Take her though her normal routine.
"Familiar faces help to, keep reminding her who you are. I'll go through some tests to see how bad her condition is, being thrown into a wall by the Nemean Lion probably doesn't help her head much." He smiled down at his sister, some of his normal spunk showing through his concern. "Ya really did it this time Arty."
Artemis frowned, she immediately disliked the nickname. How did her brother know so much about how to treat her apparent injury? And he didn't look very old, was it safe for him to run 'tests' on her? "Alright, everyone out!"
When everyone had left, Apollo set to work; checking his sister's balance, reflexes, vision and hearing, as well as testing how much she could remember about her past, how strong she was, and how long he could get her to concentrate.
Apollo took a few minutes to tally his results while everyone else filed back in. When all the huntresses were snugly huddled into their goddess' room, he was ready and began relaying his diagnosis. "Well, I would say she has a grade three, high medium concussion," Faces and hopes fell, "But I believe her amnesia won't be permanent. She needs rest, no physical or mental exertion for about a week, then you need to surround her with familiar objects and people like I said earlier. When she's awake, visit her and make sure you tell her the myths from the past to reinstate her into our world." Apollo took a deep breath. "I'm off to Olympus to tell father. Wish me luck."
Chiron patted him on the back, "May the fates be with you boy, when you tell Athena." Apollo visibly paled.
On Olympus:
"Father!" Apollo's desperate call silenced the chatter floating around in the throne room.
"Apollo?" Zeus frowned at his son's worried and frantic expression. "What happened?"
"You might want to sit down for this."
"I am sitting down Apollo."
"...Oh yeah. Well I need to sit down then." The sun god flopped down in his throne and rubbed his temples. The Olympians in the room stayed eerily silent, they all knew Apollo loved joking and tricks, but each and every one of them immediately picked up on the major difference in his emotions and personality since he popped in.
"Apollo...?" Hera spoke after a few minutes, breaking the tense silence that had fallen over the immortals.
He looked up, seemingly surprised they were all there. "Oh, right. You know how we sent Artemis out to take care of the monsters?" Athena stiffened and leaned forward. "She was fighting the Nemean Lion and...she..." Apollo felt exhausted, placing his head in his hands.
"Apollo!" Athena cried when he trailed off, the suspense was killing her, what happened to her younger half-sister? Was it her fault? "She, what!"
"She was thrown against a wall. She has no idea who she is, who I am, or who her hunteresses are."
None of the gods said anything; no one could believe what the sun god had just said. Artemis never got hurt. Demigods yes, even Hunters at times yes, but never Artemis, she was the best; the assassin of Olympus as Apollo calls her.
Athena was the first to react, crying out, her head fell to her hands as her body shook with sobs. Hestia ran over and tried to calm her niece but not to much anvil. "I have to go see her." Athena said after she had calmed down a bit.
"She's resting." Apollo mumbled through his fingers, not bothering to meet her eyes.
Athena stood up, stubborn as ever. "I'm going anyway." "Fine," Apollo sighed, knowing an argument with her would be counter productive and not in the mood to make any jokes. "Just don't wake her up."
When Athena arrived at Camp Half-Blood, she was in the pavilion where the demigods ate. Athena swore in Greek under her breath, she had been too distracted she overshot her destination of the infirmary.
"Mother?" Athena turned to the voice, she hadn't noticed all the demigods, satyrs, nymphs. It must have been their meal time.
"Lady Athena," Chiron bowed to her. "To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"I came to see Artemis." She stated.
"She is currently asleep M'lady, but you are welcome to pass time with us." Athena nodded at the old horse and made her way over to her table.
"Good afternoon children." Athena tried her best at a smile.
"Hello mother." They chorused. She smiled at their discipline. Athena picked up her youngest daughter Aly who was eight, and sat down with her on her lap.
Athena didn't pay attention to mortal meal times, but from what she saw it was dinner. Halfway or so through, a tired figure stumbled into the pavilion. Athena seemed to be the only one to notice her.
The goddess of wisdom got up, not bothering to set her daughter down, and walked over to her best friend. "Arty," Artemis looked up at her and smiled, the same nickname her brother had called her by that irritated the goddess so badly was strangely adoring coming from the older woman. "Do you know who I am?" She asked, resting a hand gently on her shoulder.
Artemis looked at the woman in front of her. She had long black hair, intelligent gray eyes, and a young girl that looked like a mini version of her in her arms except with blond hair. Something about her seemed familiar, the woman not the girl, a loving feel; like a mother. Though she didn't seem like a mother to anyone but the girl she was holding.
"You're...my sister?" Athena's smile was bright and happy at the reticulation.
"Yes! I'm Athena, your half sister." Artemis nodded, smiling herself, proud she could conjure up the scrap of information.
"Who is this?"
"Oh, Artemis, meet my youngest daughter Aly. Say hi Aly."
"Hi Aly!" The little girl giggled at her own joke. Athena and Artemis joined her, though inside Artemis something stirred and forced her to ask her next question.
"Do I have a daughter?"
"Artemis, I'm sorry, you don't." Athena smiled sadly at her.
"Why not?" She asked curiously.
"Well because you swore to be an eternal virgin, just like our aunt Hestia and myself."
Artemis frowned. "But if you have a daughter, why can't I?"
"Well, being the goddess of wisdom, and considering my past and how I was brought into the world myself, I can do something special that allows me to have children without breaking the oath."
Artemis took in what her sister had told her before she voiced her next thought. "Then I should be able to do something special as well?"
Athena shrugged. "Possibly..." She studied Artemis, never seeing such determination in her eyes before. "We'll work on it once we get some Ambrosia and Nectar into you. How about it?"
Artemis smiled and followed her to the main table where Dionysus loaded a plate up for her, not even commenting, which surprised Athena but she didn't say anything either.
"Aly, darling, why don't you get aunty Artemis a clean goblet." She whispered to her daughter and set her off. Athena led Artemis to her table, the Hunters gladly made room for their patron. Aly came right after with a fresh goblet and Athena filled it with nectar with a snap of her fingers. "Aly, would you like to sit with mommy and aunt Artemis or go back with your siblings?" Athena asked the little girl clinging to her leg.
"I wanna sit with you mumma!" Athena smiled and picked her up, setting her on her lap. Aly's plate appeared in front of her and the eight year old Brit began munching on her fish sticks once more.
Immediately after the young girl sat down, Artemis felt a specially emotional set of eyes fall on her. When she looked over, the small girl that had been there when she got thrown at the wall was glaring at her sister's daughter.
Artemis watched as she stabbed her food a little more violently than necessary. "Make sure you eat your vegetables." The goddess reminded the girl who hadn't touched the green tree like food despite her rampage with the other food groups on her plate. Her voice seemed to startle the young huntress who looked up with wide eyes.
When she realized what Artemis told her, she smiled shyly, gently poking her fork into the veggie and tilting her head down. However, the goddess could feel how much happier the simple statement of reconigation made her.
"So Artemis, I was thinking about this child idea you had." Athena announced a week later causing her half sister looked up from the bow she was fiddling with. The two of them were at the beach by the edge of the woods sitting on a cluster of flat rocks. Artemis was re-teaching herself to use her archery equipment and how to shoot; although it was an innate ability the goddess had and was quickly getting back into the swing of things, it was still a process.
She had been picking up on lots of her old ways the longer Athena and the huntresses spent with her; even her surprised reaction to seeing Chiron was far behind her as she reacquainted herself amongst the 'myths' of the past. "I might be onto something."
The Moon's patron stopped her work on the bow, draping it across her lap, and leaned forward. "Let me hear it."
"Ok, so your sacred animal, the stag; the connection you share is so pure, the animal can hold the life of a child for you. A doe would be able to carry a female infant, but the catch is the animal would die. After she's born, the child would have to stay in the forest long enough for both souls to settle with the loss of one to give life to another and maintain the balance.
"The animal's spirit will protect her as she grows in the mortal world but when the time comes, the exchange will happen in reverse; your daughter will die and revert back into the young doe that sacrificed its life to give hers." The wisdom goddess paused in her long winded explination. "You can't make her a huntress to save her Artemis, you have to let her die when the time comes."
Artemis took a deep breath, process all the information her sister had rambled off. "That's great Athena, a little girl is exactly what I was hoping for...I know it will be painful to let her go but you know, something sparked inside me when I saw your littlest one; a want. I don't know how long it's been there, but I know it's strong.
"It is easy for me to say I will be ok when the time comes like you said, but I have to experiance pain in order to love. Thank you, so much for helping me, but I think it'll be better to try when I regain my memories before we try anything."
The goddess of wisdom nodded, placing a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder. "I was thinking the same thing." She stood. "Well I really must be getting back to Olympus, Arty."
"When do I get to visit Olympus 'Thena?" Artemis whined, the weight of their conversation melting away just a little.
Athena winked. "When Apollo comes and teaches you how to use your powers." With that she disappeared, leaving only the smell of old books as any indicator she was there.