Chapter 3

Artemis's POV

"Why do I have to get married?" I yelled at Apollo.

"Sis I am as pissed as you about this. Not only are you my little sister getting married," (I was so angry I didn't bother to correct him) "I will also be losing a great potential wing man for getting the ladies. Have you seen the way all the girls look at him? If he introduces them to me I'm halfway there already."

Artemis looked at him in disgust.

She saw Athena come over to her. "Athena you better have a brilliant decision as to why I have to marry this boy."

"We need a link between the two brothers. Both Hestia and I have been withdrawn from our oaths. Zeus decided it was your time to do so as well."

"I don't see you getting married sister."

Athena held up her hand. There was a ring on her ring finger. Artemis looked in shock. "Who is he?"

"Triton, for the same reason you must marry Perseus."

"I am the goddess of maidens. I show female strength." Athena looked at her squarely. "What will happen to my hunters? They cannot follow the example that is set by me if I marry, even if it is unwilling."

Someone came up behind Athena. "Is there no way you can talk to my Uncle about this Athena." Athena made a gesture and Perseus noticed both Artemis and Apollo looking at him. "uhhh, sorry gotta go."

"Artemis look father has made his choice and there is no going back, however your marriage could be like Hades' and Persephone's. Their marriage was not love based at all. Persephone could barely look at Hades until he let her come up in spring time."

"No, I am not marrying and that is the end of the story. Father cannot make me." With that I stormed off.

"Artemis, think about this, father might well take his anger out on someone that you know." I heard Athena yell after me. I flashed out.

When I arrived in the Hunter's camp Thalia came up to me. "Milady what is wrong."

I brought her and my most trusted Hunters such as Phoebe into the tent. "Father has decided that it is time that I got married." The hunters looked in shock.

"Who is it milady?" Thalia asked. "I did not know that any of the Olympians are unmarried apart from Ares and he has his affair that everyone knows about."

"You will see him tomorrow. We need to go to camp half-blood and he is the new director and the 14th Olympian."

Percy's POV

There are two things that you should remember about a sword class. Firstly do not be a legendary swordsmen as all the guys are in awe of you, secondly do not be a god of beauty as none of the girls listen to you and just stare. It is king of creepy.

I heard a war horn sound. Crap, my future murderous wife to be has arrived in the general vicinity with a bunch of girl scouts who most likely want to turn me into a giant porcupine.

I flashed out to meet them as is required. I got into step with Chiron. "we never discussed it yesterday but Perseus who will your wife be?" He asked.

I looked at him. "I would rather not say, as she is in no way inclined to get married in the next thousand years."

"Ahh, Artemis then." He said,

"Yep unfortunately. Now I will have to meet her immortal girl scouts who will probably try to kill me."

Right on cue Artemis led the Hunters down the hill. None of the Hunters recognised the strange man next to Chiron, but more than a few gave him double takes.

Artemis came to the two men waiting for her. "Chiron," she said. She then turned to Percy "Perseus," she said tersely.

"Hello Artemis welcome to the came, may I introduce our new camp director to the Hunters." Artemis nodded her consent.

"This is the new camp director Perseus Jackson. He is a new Olympian and I am sure you will have all heard of his exploits in the two recent wars. Some of you may have even fought with him." The Huntresses who knew about the marriage glared at him and he just smiled back.

Only one Huntress was an exception to this, "Percy I did not know you were alive, I thought you had died in Tartarus." Thalia said.

Percy smiled at her unintentionally making a watching driad faint.

"I welcome you to camp half-blood." Percy said to the Hunters, "do please try not to create too many injury cases on the capture the flag on Friday. He turned to Artemis; I assume you will join the Huntresses this time as I will support my domain."

"Of course Perseus" she said coldly.

He just smiled and walked back down the hill.

3rd person POV

When Friday came there was a large betting game on who would win Artemis vs Perseus. This was of course arranged by the Stoll brothers who took great pride in their 'big red book' in which the facts and figures were kept. Even the huntresses betted, of course all for Artemis.

When they were getting ready Annabeth had to twice snap the girls on the camper's team out of staring at Perseus. Even she and engaged woman we distracted at one point.

"We shall put defence all along the boundary line and will send a dummy run through the middle. The real attack will come from both sides and will meet up by the flag. Perseus you guard the flag in the centre and Hephaestus cabin guard the flanks. We shall hope Artemis goes through the middle alone."

When it started Percy waited by the flag. He saw some hunters move past and even gently dispatched one. He gently put her down and rose up to see Artemis in 18 year old form walking into the clearing. She looked at him and then at the Hunter gently put on the floor. He gave her a hand gesture that clearly said Ladies first.

Artemis came at him in a blur of silver. Previously he would never have been able to keep up but now he just calmly drew riptide and blocked every strike she tried to land.

He quickly found out that she was more agile but he was far stronger. Every strike that she made got faster and faster until the two of them were not possible to follow with the human eye. She was tiring out and had started to realise that this would not be as easy as she had previously thought. He had obviously trained as a god which she had not expected. She had thought that he would have turned out like Dionysus.

"Did you really think that I had not trained in this form." He said oblivious that was just what she had been thinking. "I wanted to keep my sword skills up to scratch and I am not one to be lazy. I thought you would know that after I held up the sky for you. I train with Ares for five hours every night. It keeps me in shape, which is actually incredibly frustrating. The stares that I am given make me uncomfortable. It is nice to have someone who doesn't stare, even if ironically they are the one I am meant to marry."

She was not sure how he had continued to keep blocking all her swipes while he had talked but he had done. He was not even sweating. For the first time she was slightly worried that she had bit off more than she could chew in fighting Perseus.

He smiled as if knowing what she was thinking. "You know, I have been trying to find a way to get out of this marriage. The only thing that I could think of is that I need find someone and propose to them. Apparently your father expects me to propose to you in the next few months." He grimaced at the thought of it.

"Why are you so against getting married to me Perseus?" Artemis said. Perseus looked at her in shock.

"Because you don't want to."

"But surely you do not want to get married to a man hating Goddess."

Perseus shrugged. "There are worse choices that your father could have made. I was worried that it was going to be Athena at one point. I was even more worried it was going to be Thalia."

"What is wrong with her?"

"She likes her life and has no need for a man. I would be a person that she would resent for taking her away from the hunt." He explained.

Artemis looked at him curiously. "You really do care don't you?"

"I care what happens to my friends and those I respect."

That was when he decided that the chat was over. He disarmed Artemis easily and left her gaping as she hit the floor. He then carefully put riptide to her neck and said "Yield Artemis, I have no wish for this to get any more violent."

Just then all the campers came to the clearing with the flag with all the hunters following. The campers gaped in awe at Artemis beaten without a scratch on Perseus. The Hunters had an array of emotions going from grudging respect to shock to hatred as they saw Perseus offer a hand to help her up. One of them shot an arrow at him. He saw at the last moment and chopped it in half before once again offering his hand to the stunned goddess.

"I believe we won." Perseus said.

The campers cheered as Chiron announced that the long winning streak had finally been broken by the campers.

Perseus then walked to Artemis, "Well fought Lady Artemis."

"You beat me fair and square after playing me for five minutes so we could talk and you say well done." Perseus just grinned.

He then flashed off. Thalia walked up to Artemis. "Did he really beat you that easily?"

"Yes as hard as it is to admit he is a good close range fighter."

"So what did you talk about Milady?"

Artemis glared at her and Thalia's eyes widened, "did you really talk about that without you turning him into a jackalope?"

"Evidently," said an angry Artemis.

It was about a month later when Zeus once again called them to Olympus.

He looked at them both. "It has recently come to my attention that you, Perseus have made no attempt to propose to my daughter."

"I believe that it is not right to propose if she is not willing to marry me."

"Nevertheless I have decided to kill about three birds with one stone. Firstly Artemis has asked me if she could have a protector or guardian for a while until the hunt is back up to strength. Dionysus has become incredibly annoying since he left his job as camp director. I have therefor decided that for the time being Perseus shall accompany the hunters. He shall be a guardian and shall be until he proposes to you. Dionysus will resume his role as camp director. No complaints are allowed."

He flashed out. "I am so sorry Artemis if I had known that he would take this kind of action would have proposed to someone on the camp, Zeus knows there would be plenty lf volunteers."

"It's not your fault Perseus. I shall expect you at noon tomorrow at camp half-blood for departure."

Artemis made as to leave. "One more thing Artemis, I will be bringing along my hound. I would appreciate it if she were not sent to Tartarus," His eyes hardened. "I would know I have been there."

A tear started to roll down his cheek as the unbidden memorys of the pain torture and horror of being in hell for three years returned for the young god.

Artemis did not know what to do. Here was her meant to be fiancé trying to hold back tears from an experience that none of them could imagine. She could not think of what must had happened to him down there and cursed herself for not thinking of it.

"Is that why you train so hard, so you don't have to sleep?" Artemis asked carefully.

He looked at her, his normal smile was gone, and the mirth that was normally in his eyes was gone. "Every day he would come."

He lifted his shirt to show her.

Her eyes widened in shock. How had no-one seen this? There was a mismatch off scars covering his chest. There were burn marks. Some of it still looked fresh. She pointed at one that looked as if it was from today.

He smiled a joyless smile. "He took his scythe and made a spell on it in the last few weeks. Every time I sleep these cuts heal. I then have dreams of being in Tartarus and the torture. He then tortures me again and I can feel it as if it is still happening. When I awake they do not hurt for an hour and then they engrave themselves into my skin once again. That is why I do not sleep, because he does it to me every time I fall asleep. That is why I train."

He got up suddenly. "But I don't want to burden you with my problems. The ones you know about are only a small fraction of what that place did to me." He looked down at the ground. He then looked at me forcing a smile. "Noon tomorrow, right."

"Right" Artemis said.