Chapter 4
How's it going, guys? I hereby present thee the fourth chapter, thy shall enjoy it!
Oh, there was a dude who said I should do Percabeth stuff too and um, they are the canon pairing and all that, but for me Percabeth has gotten a bit... stale, should I say? But if there is a lot of requests then I might write one.
Artemis
Transporting the demigods back to New York was easy; Hermes had them all stuffed into Argo II (which, apparently the messenger god had so much experience with packing up deliveries that he willingly volunteered) and Zeus had the wind spirits take them to Olympus, zooming away at the speed of sound.
Then came the tricky part: the gods themselves.
Olympians were going to flash themselves all the way back from the original Mount Olympus to the new Olympus, which quickly proved to be impossible as they started flickering due to the lack of reserve strength.
See, the gods had already been growing steadily weaker due to lack of support and worship over the few millenia and Olympus had just suffered through two wars in the span of less than a year.
The divine beings had used up so much of their power in the Second Titan War as is and with another war, it was starting to taking a toll on them.
Flashing all the way to a different continent might have been too much.
So they ended up with a different plan, courtesy of Athena. The Big Three, who still had relatively more energy left than other gods, would flash all of them to the neighbouring country and rest few hours to gain back their strength and repeat.
It worked for the most part except when they reached France, the Love Goddess loved the place so much that Ares had knock her out and carry her away at the end.
The Olympians slumped back into their thrones, exhausted as the Goddess of Hearth, who had been left behind to tend to the fire, greeted them happily after hearing about their hard-earned triumph.
It had taken three whole days for the gods to get back to America.
Hestia informed them that the ship which the demigods were on had crash-landed directly onto a garden on Olympus two days ago (cue a shriek from Demeter as she ran off to see the damage) and Half-bloods had gone back to their respective camps to wait for ceremony to take place.
Artemis' father sighed, seemingly knowing this ceremony was going to be nowhere as uplifting as the last one.
'How long does my brother's son have left, Apollo?' King of Gods asked.
The God of Archery rised up from his seat and headed towards Percy's bed which he had summoned next to the aquarium where the Ophiotaurus resided in. After checking on him, Apollo sent the bed back to his infirmary.
'He's burning even hotter than before. I'd say it will take about two days before his body gives out and my sister's lieutenant won't have to make a choice anymore.'
Artemis winced, knowing Thalia won't take this well. 'Um, how about we let all the demigods vote on his life? I would like my current lieutenant to last as long as my last one did, thanks.' she suggested openly, hoping to gather any supporters. Her hope quickly vanished when Athena disagreed.
'Not enough time. He might die before they all decide and even if they do, what do you think will happen? The boy is the leader for both camps, of course they will want to make him a god. We need a person who knew him personally from a relatively long time back.'
The Goddess of Hunt wanted to argue back to her fellow maiden goddess but found she couldn't. Athena's logic was flawless. She was pretty darn smart that way.
'We must not mention this to the children or they might get suspicious and could cause an uprising, thinking that we are plotting to kill their leader and we know how weak we are right now,' the Wisdom Goddess warned carefully.
'Then it's decided. Call the demigods for the ceremony and after the event we will have my daughter make up her mind. Artemis, tell her of it, and Hermes, call the demigods,' Zeus said turning to him.
The godly messenger stood and left, presumably to inform the half-bloods of the ceremony.
The Sea God stood up from his fishing seat and paced around the throne room worriedly, still in his gigantic form while his rival glared up at him, seemingly still bitter about her daughter's death.
It took a little more than an hour before the divine trickster finally returned with both camps of demigods and Hunters of Artemis at his side.
'Demigods! For your efforts and sacrifices, you shall be awarded with appropriate rewards and those who decreased in the battle will be obtain a place in the Elysium!' Zeus addressed, thunder booming in the background adding to his dramatics.
Zeus first beckoned the five of the seven of the prophecy forward and as he faced Jason, swiftly turned into his Roman espect, with the gods around him doing the same.
'You have done us great service. But the Ancient Law forbides immortalisation of more than 2 at a time. Are there anybody who disagrees that they are deserving of at least partial immortality?' Jupiter rumbled looking at each of the Roman Gods.
'Then it has been decided. They shall enter the world of semi-immortality and join their parents as their lieutenants until-' the Kings of Gods was cut off by his own son as Jason Grace bravely interrupted him.
'What about Percy Jackson, my Lord? He played a large part in defeating Gaea.'
Gods' faces paled slightly as the Lord of Skies struggled to keep a neutral tone.
'His award is to be determined after the ceremony as he currently lays in the bed of Apollo's infirmary,' the god replied being careful not to reveal too much.
They didn't question much after that as the parents of the five demigods rised up, chanting an ancient spell which bound their mortality. The semi-immortalised half-bloods joined their respective parent to stand next to their thrones.
Next up was Artemis' Lieutenant, Thalia who just wanted help in gathering more Hunters just like what she had wished before after the Second Titan War and the Lord of Skies (who had turned back into his Greek form) happily agreed.
The rest of the ceremony went buttery smooth as the rewards were given out, albeit a bit discouragingly due to the amount of half-bloods lost in the fight painfully weighing down on the demigods.
Are you ready, my lieutenant?, Artemis said to Thalia in her head which caused the latter to jump in surprise due to the sudden "sound", but the Daughter of Zeus calmed down whe she identified the owner of the voice.
No, I don't think I'm ready yet, her lieutenant replied back wearily.
The maiden goddess sighed mentally.
The council is counting on you to decide after this reward presentation, the Moon Goddess told her knowing she wouldn't like it.
But-
Just then a chilling, blood-curdling scream sounded throughout Olympus.
Olympians and demigods froze, although gods knew exactly who the scream belonged to and were wishing they were wrong.
Apollo screamed in horror and summoned Percy's "Hephaestus' Olympus Grade King-sized Bed" back into the throne room.
Demigods gaped at the Son of Sea God, not quite being able to find an appropriate response.
'Guys, remember that I said it'd take about two days? Well, that was an estimate and I was wrong,' the male side of the Twin Archers whimpered out to fellow Olympians, pulling out a pair of magical defibillators out of thin air. 'Cardiac arrest! 150 joules, charge!'
The Son of Poseidon's body shook violently for a second but remained motionless after that.
'200 joules, charge!' the God of Medicine shouted out pushing both the paddles onto the patient's chest. The attempt seemed futile though as it didn't wield the result Apollo hoped for.
'Percy!' a boy who Artemis recognised to be Bianca di Angelo's brother shouted out, running to him. 'What's wrong with him? His life force is weakening! I can feel his soul entering the Underworld!'
The Sea God summoned a giant bowl of water and threw his son into it using his godly strength.
The eternal twelve year old Hunter hopped off her throne and rushed forward, yelling at the direction of her Hunt.
'Thalia, we have no time!'
Everyone turned to the Hunter of Artemis who had a streak of tears going down a side of her cheeks.
Thalia closed her eyes tightly, looking like she'd rather be anywhere but here.
'Save him,' she whispered, her voice barely audible.
And so they did.
Eh, don't like the flow of this chapter. The scenes feel too repetitive.
Anyway, don't forget to review and tell me if you feel the same way and favourite the story if you would like more!