Somewhere underneath Rome

The marble columns and ceilings shook with the tumultuous preparations for the war on Olympus by the Olympians themselves. For the moment, all the torches and lamps burned brightly in the vast underground cavern. Noises of machinery, hammers and a few minor explosions filled the place. There was no time to be lost for their onslaught on Olympus. The Summer solstice had been decided as an appropriate day to attack, and there was no time to be lost.

Percy was busy sharpening his sword skills with Katie Gardner, a daughter of Demeter - an unusual partnership, but an apt one. They had initially been cordial, but distant, each preferring to keep to themselves. But common worries and goals had brought them together - and it also gave them a much needed someone to talk to. Katie had eventually become Percy's closest friend in the last two years, filling a part of the void left in him after Annabeth's death.

'You're improving' Percy commented, parrying a quick jab to his shoulder. They circled each other cautiously.

'Oh, please.' Said Katie, smiling at him with her green eyes, 'I almost beat you the last time.'

'It was your birthday.' He grunted out, barely avoiding the surprise kick aimed at him while he was talking.

'That was low.' He said. His eyes suddenly sharpened, his whole focus shifted to the fight rather than the light bantering between them.

He feinted to the right twice and clashed swords while going to the left. He pushed hard at her and while making sure her attention was focused on defending against his sword, dropped down and swept her legs out from under her. She landed in a heap, an exclamation of surprise escaping her lips. Within seconds, Percy was beside her, his sword at her throat.

'Do you yield?' He asked, a small grin tugging at his lips. That wasn't too hard, he thought.

Katie glared at him, 'Yes, now get off me.'

Percy smiled at her good-naturedly and offered her a hand to get up which she gratefully accepted.

Katie had never been much of a sword fighter but after the war, and at Percy insistence, she had been willing to learn. Surprisingly, she turned out to be quite a natural with the blade in her hands. Her movement was flowing and with her quick thinking, she made for a formidable opponent. But even then, she never could quite get to Percy's level of fighting. Percy himself had pushed himself harder than before, practising with Poseidon in any time he could get, which was quite a lot.

'You said you didn't go easy with me on my birthday.' Katie looked at Percy accusingly.

Percy shrugged, 'Yeah, I didn't. I just let you think you could have won.'

Katie huffed in resignation. Trying to reason with Percy like trying to get a Cyclops to spell its own name. Rarely possible and almost never worth the effort.

Percy took off his sweat-drenched shirt and shouted to her that he was going to take a bath. She gave him a thumbs up, trying not look in his direction. Their relationship had always been completely platonic but Katie couldn't help but think what if. If at all, that had been the only hint of awkwardness ever between them. Katie had even not-so-subtly hinted to Percy that she was interested, but he was always distracted or thinking about other stuff. Or somebody else, Katie thought to herself. She had always assumed it was Annabeth, but now it seemed a bit extreme after so much time had passed.

In fact, it wasn't someone else that distracted Percy, but something. The guilt of so many deaths weighed down on him like a mountain of rocks. He had always assumed it was he who was the hero in the prophecy, but even though it had turned out to be Luke, he couldn't help but think what had gone wrong. It was like fate herself had rejected him, declaring him to be unworthy and hence the cause of Olympus's doom. He knew these thoughts were utter nonsense, but they came and had to be endured.

Survivor's guilt, Annabeth would have called it.

He saw Artemis just after his shower. He had just put on his clothes; his hair was still wet. He could have dried it, but he quite liked the feeling.

'Perseus.' Artemis met him as he was entering the arena, 'Poseidon requests your presence at the docks.'

She was in her eighteen year old figure. Her auburn hair hung loose around her shoulders as she looked at Percy with her piercing silver eyes. She wore the usual Hunter's outfit and white leggings accentuated by her lithe figure.
Her sudden appearance took away Percy's breathe for a moment. He inhaled the scent of the forest, entranced. She looks stunni- No! he berated himself mid-thought, pointless thoughts do not belong here.

'Yes, lady Artemis?' He asked, not quite catching what she said earlier.

'I said Poseidon wants to meet you at the docks.'

'Poseidon - Dad,' He corrected himself, 'wants to see me?'

Artemis looked at him impassively, not willing to repeat herself for the third time. It took a few moments for Percy to regain his bearings.

'Yes, yes of course. That's what you said.' He said, almost to himself. Then, with a bit more composure,

'Is there anything else, my lady?'

'Yes, there is.' She replied with a slightly irritated tone, 'Surely you do not expect me to run around doing what Poseidon asks me to do?'

Percy didn't know what to say to that, since he was half-thinking sometimes maybe to himself. But a deep rooted instinct of not wanting to turn into a furry woodland creature prevented him from voicing his thoughts out loud.

Artemis, perhaps sensing his thoughts, hurriedly continued,

'You need not answer. That was simply a rhetorical question. But there is something which father asked me to do.'

'So you listen to Zeus then?' Percy blurted out without thinking, sending his instinct into overdrive, which was now telling him to run and find cover.

Artemis's cheeks grew a pale golden colour with embarrassment and her eyes flashed with anger.

'You're lucky I do not wish for you to die, Perseus.' She said in a soft but dangerous tone, 'Father simply convinced me to do something which I eventually agreed with of my own accord.'

Percy nodded cautiously.

'I wish to help you. You will need my blessing.' She continued.

Percy was taken aback for a moment. It wasn't everyday that Artemis would want to bless a boy.

'Oh.' He said somewhat confusedly, and opened his mouth hesitantly before closing it again.

'You want to know why it isn't one of the other gods who will bless you.' Artemis guessed correctly, 'The reason is simple - you are already Poseidon's son and one of the other big three would never agree to bless you. That leaves Demeter and me, and my blessing would be more suited to your needs than hers would be. We can't have you failing to defeat Kronos because of a cold, now can we? My blessing should also hide your scent a bit from monsters and give you a small portion of my powers.'

'Like your hunters.' Percy ventured.

'Yes.' Artemis's jaws tightened. The hunters had been a sore spot for her ever since she had lost so many in the war. Barely a dozen remained.

'Like my hunters. But without the oath' She agreed.

Artemis then lightly placed her hand on Percy forearm and muttered a few words. A faint silver glow surrounded Percy and suddenly a plethora of sensations overcame him. The smell of freshly fallen leaves in the forest, the rush of the hunt and an unexplainable wild feeling assaulted his senses. And then, just as suddenly, the feeling was gone. A lightheaded sensation overcame him. He slightly swayed on his feet but then suddenly felt Artemis's arm around his shoulders steady him. It was gone in an instant.

'I'm sorry, Perseus. It's just that I'm not used to boys.' She said.

Percy felt that she was more sorry that she hadn't been properly able to achieve exactly what she wanted than because he felt a bit dizzy. But still, it was a nice gesture.

'I'm fine.' Percy said, 'Thanks for... that thing you did. I better go and find dad now .'
He hesitantly walked in the direction of the docks, still unbalanced, and missed the side of the stone wall by inches in his haste.

The moon goddess simply shook her head, a small smile gracing her lips.

The Underworld

A lone titan treaded slowly through what had been the home of Hades. Once orderly and well managed, it had now been thrown into disarray. Ghosts milled around as they chose, some even escaping the underworld. The place had always been dark and gloomy, but now an aura of evil has ascended over it - uncontrolled and malevolent. Charon had disappeared as soon as Olympus was overthrown, leaving nobody to ferry across the dead. Krios noticed Cerebrus, the three headed hound of Hades, toss up five ghosts at once and snap them up in his jaws.

Well, at least someone's enjoying themselves, he thought wryly.

He walked cautiously past the guard dog, trying not to draw attention to himself. It was kind of hard considering that all the ghosts were giving him a wide berth. They parted in front of him as he walked, somehow repelled by the faint light of his armour. Krios had just walked a few steps more when he felt something approaching from behind.

His sword came out in a swinging ark as he turned and slashed at what should have, and in fact was there a few moments ago.

A light chuckle came from behind him. He turned around once again, ready to strike.

'Grandfather.' The woman in front of him greeted him, her light green eyes shining palely through the glow of the greek fire from the two torches held in her hands. She was dressed in dark robes and her black hair cascaded down her back.

'It's you, is it?' Krios said as if he wasn't surprised at all by her appearance. He surreptitiously took up a casual battle stance, ready to attack at a moment's provocation.

'Yes, it's me.' Hecate said, 'I come in peace.' She looked at Krios thoughtfully for a moment and raised her eyebrow, 'That's what you want too, don't you grandfather?'

Krios growled, 'I don't know what you're talking about. Always up to your tricks, you. I never did like them.'

'I'm not up to any tricks this time.' Her eyes narrowed and she defiantly threw her torches down near Krios's feet, where they slowly extinguished themselves. To most, it would have been a sign of good faith and sincerity. But to Krios, it was a sign of weakness.

You left yourself unguarded - that was foolish, he thought distastefully.

He slowly advanced towards Hecate, fully prepared to exploit his advantage. He had a strong distrust towards the goddess, despite anything what Kronos might say to the contrary. She had been a slippery one for millennia and nothing was ever going to change that. Long ago, he had strongly advised Perses, his son and Hecate's father to imprison her before she grew too powerful. But it seemed that Hecate had got to him before he had.
And now he was fully determined to correct that mistake.

'Well, if you must know, releasing the monsters of Tartarus is not something I would prefer to do.' He started, 'Call that wanting peace, if you must. But my loyalties lie with Kronos.'

As soon he finished speaking he was onto Hecate with a leap, only to see his sword pass harmlessly through her body. It suddenly vanished into millions of colourful tiny particles. A sudden instinct made him look to his right.

Hecate stood there with a mirthless smile, holding her torches aloft, which shone with a brighter blaze than ever.

'You deceitful goddess!' Krios bellowed with rage at having fallen for her act, 'I knew you were up to something!'

'Yes, indeed.' Hecate said flatly, 'But now I'm curious. Why did you attack me? I thought we were on the same side.'

The enraged titan did not deign to reply. He charged towards Hecate but suddenly found himself running into a wall. He stopped dead in his tracks.

Hecate was behind him once again,

'Goddess of magic, at your service.' Hecate gave the titan a mock bow, 'Accept it, Krios. You can never defeat me in the underworld.'

The titan of stars and constellations wearily pointed his sword at her again. He knew she was upto something. Sweat dripped from his brow from the harsh atmosphere of the underworld. The sky was far away.

But despite that, something felt wrong. He suddenly became aware of a slight tugging sensation at his heels. He would recognise that feeling anywhere. A slight chill crept up his spine as he realised that by some trick of fate they had come right to the edge of where Tartarus was located in the underworld. But for the first time, he felt he had the upper hand.

I know something you don't, dear goddess.

'Well?' Demanded Hecate arrogantly, 'What do you have against me?'

The Titan quickly looked around and calculated exactly where he was near Tartarus and shuffled a bit to the right.

Perfect, he thought to himself.

Outwardly Krios grinned at the goddess evilly, took a cautious step backwards, slipped on a loose rock and let himself fall into Tartarus.

A/N: Thanks for the response everybody. Here's a (literal) cliffhanger for your(*my) enjoyment. I've more or less decided on Pertemis for now, as mentioned earlier.
A review is always helpful. Next chapter will probably be up in a week. That's all for now.