Chapter 4 - Training

-Percy POV-

I remember feeling angry and powerful. I was protecting something or someone important to me but I can't picture what or who.

I'm stiff all over; it feels like every drop of energy has been drained from my body. The effort it takes to open my eyes leaves me wanting to close them again. But I see something that stops me from doing that, a gleaming golden sword that I last saw being wielded by Hyperion.

That's when everything rushes back to me, the fight to save Artemis, the power I called forth, the blow I struck to the titan.

A sudden blush covers my cheeks as I realize something I hoped wasn't true. The mere thought of Artemis being wounded caused the same rage I felt when Annabeth cheated on me. But this time it wasn't lost love that enraged me but love in danger. I'm in love with Artemis, the maiden goddess and man hater. I am so screwed.

Ten minutes later and I was dragging myself out of the tent. Still wearing the same clothing from the day before, small holes with charred edges dotted my shirt but I didn't care. I simply walked into the lake until I was fully submerged. I sat underwater, breathing easily as I let my strength and energy come back. Any injuries I may have had healing rapidly.

When I finally came out of the lake I saw the hunters eating what I could only assume was lunch based on the position of the sun. I wasn't really in the mood for being patronised by the hunters so I headed for my tent to wait for them to finish. But before I made it there I heard a shout.

"Hey Percy I saved you a seat!" I spun around to see Mary waving her bandaged arm in the air. I walked over and sat in the empty seat next to her, first checking for traps or deadly weapons that could be hidden anywhere. Once satisfied that I wasn't going to die at lunch I took a plate of the meat the hunters were currently devouring at a rapid rate.

Throughout the meal the hunters joked and laughed and even smiled at me which confused me, a little over 24 hours ago they dumped me in the lake and laughed at me, now they smile like I was one of them. For a second I looked down to my chest to make sure I hadn't somehow woken up in the body of a girl… but no I was me.

Slowly I opened up and laughed and joked with the girls, we stayed at the makeshift table chatting and laughing until long after the food was gone. The entire time Artemis seemed to just smile and laugh, never joining the conversations.

-Artemis POV-

Perseus seemed to have finally been accepted by the hunters and I can only be thankful, their "pranks" were evolving slowly and would have eventually taken a lethal turn. Now they seemed like a family.

Mary seemed to cling to Perseus' side like he was her big brother. I guess that was the role he had assumed after the battle yesterday, even if he was unconscious. I watched as the hunters and Perseus left the makeshift table, Mary riding on Perseus' shoulders.

I had never seen the hunters so at ease around a man, it was a strange sight to see but also made me feel somewhat happy. If Perseus was to protect them, they needed to see him as a guardian and friend rather than rival or enemy.

After a while the hunters decided to test Perseus' skills with a series of challenges, each one involving a different fighting style. Phoebe fought him in a wrestling match; while both of them are physically strong Perseus had an edge thanks to his larger stature even if the difference wasn't that great. Phoebe lost and seemed a bit pissed that she was beaten by a man but she took it fairly well; only hitting Perseus once with the butt of a spear.

Next was sword fighting, an area that none of the hunters were experts in and also an area that Perseus was considered legendary. He is regarded as the hero of Olympus and the greatest swordsman in over a thousand years; I guess I should have expected his victory. He defeated April, a daughter of Ares that had been with the hunt for close to ten years now.

Up next was archery, Mary had wanted to be the one to challenge Perseus but her injuries prevented that, instead I decided to put him in his place.

Perseus and I were standing side by side in the archery range the hunters had set up for this very occasion. The first target was 30 metres away and then 5 more targets were placed evenly every 15 metres. Each target was smaller than the one before, the final target was just the bullseye.

Being the goddess of archery I decided it would be fair to let him go first, what happened next was quite comical. Perseus proceeded to miss every single target, causing the hunters to burst into uncontrollable laughter, I even giggled a bit. Perseus blushed, embarrassed by his own lack of skill.

I stifled my giggling then stepped up and started firing, each arrow found its mark with barely any effort required.

"Well I think that wraps up this little session of Percy sucks at archery, so can we move onto to something that I'm good at… Like a swimming race." Perseus asked hopefully, I shook my head and beckoned the hunters to come close to me.

"Girls we can not allow Perseus to be so pathetic at archery, archery is what we are known for and we will not be disgraced by our protectors lack of ability." I said, the girls nodded and mumbled agreement, many already thinking about how they could tease him to make him work harder.

-Percy POV-

The hunters stayed in their huddle for a while so I went to collect the arrows that had missed so horribly, I had to apologise to a few dryads who had nearly been hit in the process.

When I returned the hunters were gone but Artemis was still there, waiting.

"Now then Perseus I can't have a guardian who can't shoot if his life depended on it." She said, I blushed in embarrassment. "So I am going to train you until you can rival the girls."

We spent the next 2 hours with Artemis instructing me on how to hold a bow properly, although she didn't let me actually hold the bow so I wasn't sure how much I was actually learning.

Eventually she let me hold the bow, and as soon as I was holding it she was correcting me. Moving my hands and tightening my grip.

"Now your stance must be like this." Said Artemis as she spread her feet apart, one a little further forward than the other. "No not like that you stupid boy." She snarled.

Artemis came and stood behind me, reached around my back and moved my hands around until they were in the right places. Next she used her feet to shuffle mine into position.

As we stood there, Artemis' arms still around me, I turned to look at her to tease her about it. As I turned my head, our eyes met for a second. In that moment I was sure of it, I was in love with her.

We both quickly looked away and Artemis stepped back.

"Now shoot, every arrow that misses the target will be an hour of chores around the campsite." She said, I scoffed, I would be forced to do it all anyway.

To my shock and Artemis' I got every arrow in the target, and even one bullseye. My grin spread from ear to ear until Artemis took it upon herself to one-up me again and get ten consecutive bullseyes in the span of 5 seconds. My grin didn't leave though.

"Jealous of my progress Arty?" I questioned jokingly, she glared at me before tackling me to the ground. We spent the next few minutes rolling on the ground, both of us trying to gain dominance to prove which of us was better. After a while Artemis was straddling my waist as I was laying in the dirt, our faces were inches apart, we both leaned closer until Artemis suddenly jumped up and started walking away.

"Clean up the archery range Percy" she called over her shoulder. I was blushing madly but also grinning, she finally called me Percy.

-Artemis POV-

As I walked back to my tent I couldn't help but blush, it had felt so good to muck around with Percy, to be close to him, to almost kiss him. I couldn't help myself, he's unlike any other man I have ever met.

Aphrodite must be messing with me, I can't be falling for a man I'm a maiden. A voice rang out in her head.

'I told you once Arty, I'm only observing. I don't need to interfere for love to build here. I think both of you deserve some happiness in the area of love anyway' said Aphrodite as she withdrew her mental presence.

As I reached my tent thunder crashed through the sky, signalling a council meeting. I sighed before flashing to Olympus.

I wasn't expecting Zeus to look so frightened. It appears he had been thinking about the upcoming war.

-No ones POV-

"I am closing off Mount Olympus!" Bellowed Zeus once all the Olympians had arrived, we gasped in shock.

"If we do not interact with the mortals or our demigods then this threat will die down, we do not need to bring the children into this nor do we need them." He continued. Many gods looked like they were about to protest when someone cleared their throat.

"I believe that would be a bad choice my Lord." The voice stepped out of the shadow to reveal the god they had to come to know as Gallifreous. "Trust me without helping the demigods things will get bad real quick."

"Gallifreous what are you doing here?" Questioned Hera before her husband could jeopardise a chance for help.

"I'm glad you asked my Lady. I am here to tell you that the camps need to meet." He said calmly.

The room exploded into noise as the Olympians started to argue and yell about why the camps had to stay apart. Athena looked enraged and ready to destroy anything that got in her way if Rome was mentioned more than needed, her wisdom and tactical skills were disregarded, pushed to the side by her hatred of the romans.

"I know none of you like this but it is irrelevant. The prophecy of seven is about Greek and Roman demigods. You will have no hope if the camps are kept apart. If you do close off Olympus Zeus then your fate is sealed, you know better than the others that it takes a god and a demigod working together to kill a giant and with the aid of the titans the demigods will be slaughtered in seconds." Gallifreous explained.

The god of time looked to each of them in turn as they grudgingly agreed with him.

"Now you must set in motion a few things to ensure that the camps will work together harmoniously." He threw a scroll to Hera who opened it and her eyes widened almost comically.

"This is genius, but some of these steps would have needed to have happened years ago. He winked before suddenly disappearing, Hera sat bolt upright as new memories entered her mind. She looked down at the scroll in her hands before pulling an identical scroll from inside her throne, the contents memorised perfectly.

Gallifreous reappeared and winked at Hera who bowed to him deeply before sitting up straight. The other Olympians looked at her in shock as they realised what had happened.

"It is done my Lord." Said Hera with reverence.

"I've told you this before Lady Hera, you out rank me." He said, he sounded embarrassed, he looked at his staff and realised the hourglass was running out.

"Well I'll be going now, it's always nice talking to you lot but I have somewhere, or rather when, to be." With a mock salute he disappeared in a golden flash.

"Well that was interesting…" Stated Poseidon as he got up to leave, the other gods shook themselves out of their stupor and left one at a time.

-Future, No POV-

Percy collapsed on the floor of his palace; Artemis rushed to his side and helped him up.

"That was a lot of back and forth… remind me to take breaks between long time travels." He groaned, Artemis kissed his cheek and helped him over to the couch.

"You missed us almost kissing." She said, Percy pouted before a remote appeared in his hand and he pressed rewind, causing the TV screen showing their younger selves to rewind. He watched the wrestling that almost turned to a kiss and laughed.

"We are so cute, don't you think Arty?" He questioned, he looked over to where she had been sitting but she was no longer there.

Suddenly he was tackled onto the floor, his armour disappearing as he fell. The result was a bout of rolling on the floor, very similar to the situation their younger selves had been in.

After a minute Percy gave up and let Artemis straddle him, she giggled and leaned down before kissing him gently.

A/N And that's a wrap… this is meant to be my triumphant return to writing and updating. Well I guess I'll have to see how long my excess free time lasts before my schoolwork piles up again. I hope you enjoyed this and there should be more updates from me soon.

Thanks Trigger2332 out!