Once again, I own nothing.
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I'd ask that people make suggestions for pairings and perhaps weapons; though I've now got enough for him, I'm sure some of you could come up with better ideas regarding a few of the ones I have. I'll need them soon, though, since the confrontations are coming very soon.
Nobody has made suggestions on who should confront Annabeth, and this may well be your last chance if anyone does want to.
Anyway, read and enjoy.
When Purgatory entered Artemis' tent, the flap already standing open, he was greeted in the most unexpected manner he could comprehend.
With a hug.
From Thalia.
Had he finally snapped? Was he hallucinating? That made sense, right?
Even so, he felt his arms move, once again controlled by the other aspect in his head, and wrap around the smaller girl's back, squeezing very softly in what he guessed to be a reassuring manner.
Then, the reaction turned back to what he had expected to receive, as she let go and quickly stepped back, a glare fixed on Purgatory, which turned near-feral as she saw the differences between Purgatory and the Percy she remembered.
Luckily; Purgatory felt the odd itch that always accompanied his slight physical change, focused around his eyes, and his lips curl into an easy grin. Much easier than the psychotic aspect ever achieved, anyway. The glare softened at the familiar sea-green eyes.
"Okay, so seaweed brain's still in there, huh?"
"Yup." Purgatory popped the P.
"You're Purgatory, right?" Thalia asked, a slight edge to her voice, still, at the thought of another entity being in control of Percy.
"That's right." Purgatory responded, with a shrug. People had, so far, reacted less violently than he had expected. Even this anger was significantly less than he expected. "Hey, shouldn't you be a complete man-hater by now? Why'd you hug me?"
"Kelp-Head is the exception, of course. Not just to me, either; he's respected by just about all the hunters."
"Why is that? Most of 'em never met him." Purgatory wondered aloud, as he looked around the tent. He was in the maiden goddess' tent without the goddess herself. He imagined that any other guy would likely be murdered for this infraction. He started edging to the side as Thalia continued.
"Other than the older hunters vouching for him, you mean? Well, it's largely because of how many join after being betrayed by boys. Hearing the story of one being utterly betrayed by a girl makes them sympathetic towards him, not to mention surprised. Well, not just by her but the story tends to focus on that." Thalia turned her head slightly as she explained, hiding the betrayal in her eyes from him. She was pretty sure that Percy would still be able to see through this aspect's eyes.
"So, are you a man hater now? Before we... left, you hadn't properly adopted the hunter mentality." Thalia would have noticed he had moved to the dresser in the tent, had she been facing his direction.
"You can say that again..." Thalia smirked, reminiscing about the encounters she had had with certain males over the years.
"You're a man hater."
"Huh?"
"You're a man hater."
"I know, why are you saying that?"
"You told me to."
"...that's just a saying." Thalia was baffled by the misunderstanding.
"Really? Huh."
"What're you doing?" Thalia had turned to the man as the odd conversation continued, and now saw his left hand gripping the wrist of his right.
"I wasn't stealing anything!" Purgatory exclaimed. Thalia deduced the situation.
"And Percy stopped you?" Purgatory paled at this.
"N-No! I wasn't stealing!" He visibly gulped. "Don't tell Artemis!" He was rightly scared of the consequences.
"Why were you going to steal a... a tent peg?" Thalia growled out at Purgatory, with a slight tint of confusion at the end.
"I-I w-wanted a souvenir." The aspect stuttered.
"Why?"
"How many guys have been able to take one from Artemis' tent?" He defended. "The way I figure, any that have actually been in here were constantly watched by the goddess."
"That's true, but you still don't have any right to take something without milady's permission. I'll have to tell Lady Artemis." Thalia said with a slight smirk; she had always enjoyed pranking Percy and it seemed like it'd probably be funnier seeing Purgatory be punished. Something was very much hurt-able about him compared to Percy. Not that that had ever stopped her from messing with Percy way back when.
Purgatory paled, opened his mouth, and paled some more before he nodded rapidly. The daughter of Zeus in the tent with him was confused by this reaction; she'd assumed he would try to barter for his safety some more. Purgatory promptly turned on his heel and walked out of the tent.
-()()-
'Another god?' Purgatory commented to his quieter self. 'Well, that gets me out of it for a little longer.'
The immortal was near the stream running through the campsite
-()-
Triton had had enough of his father. A rather frequent occurence nowadays. He needed to get away from the palace for a while. Ordinarily, he would have just gone to a mortal bar, and met some women; a habit he had picked up from his father. However, this time that wasn't an option. He had been 'convinced' to find his half brother.
"Fuck!" Triton cursed, throwing himself to the side and into the water. A bronze battleaxe was embedded in the rock he had been leant against seconds before. "Perseus! What was that for?!"
"I'm Purgatory, actually. Why're you here, Triton?" The crazed man queried as he stepped up to his weapon, sheathed in the stone, and yanked it out. "I don't remember you attacking Percy, but who knows? You might've come for a fight. Please say you have." He shouldered the large axe, and raised his eyebrow at the minor god.
"No! I came to talk. What is wrong with you?!"
"How long you got?" Purgatory asked, grinning.
Triron sighed. "Never mind. But, even so, I was sent here to bring you to see someone about a mutual problem we have."
"Oh?" A voice murmured in Purgatory's head. "I'm guessing you mean our brother, no? But, who am I going to see?"
"My mother." Triton said, deadly serious. In response, Purgatory burst out laughing.
"Man, this is weird. My 'Dad' is just about my least favourite person alive, and apparently you and your mommy, who hated Percy before all this, are my what? Allies?"
"Something like that, yes."
"Very well, brother. Lead the way." He said, grinning still.
-()()-
"...and that should be that." Apollo finished, stepping back from the prone figures of his daughters. His hands stopped glowing as he did so, and Artemis gladly noticed the change in the demigods. They obviously weren't fully recovered, but appeared well progressed on the road to recovery. However, she then turned ton glare at her younger twin.
"Why are you still here, then?" She growled at the sun god.
"I- uh, wanted to talk to them."
"Too bad. Get out of my camp."
"What?! Why?!" The Olympian was shocked at the order.
"Why do you think? You could have, at any point, informed me of their existence and I'd have gladly gone to save them. But you didn't. You have no right to be here now when you neglected them throughout their lives." Artemis spat.
"C'mon Arty, I'm still their father."
"Do. Not. Call. Me. That. And you are only their father in a biological sense. You gave up the right to be called that as soon as you neglected the basic duties of being a father." She was snarling at the man now. "You never protected them, Apollo. If you don't leave I will... I'll set Purgatory on you again."
Apollo did pale at this. He had strongly gotten the impression from the immortal that Artemis' feelings played a large factor preventing him from doing serious harm to the god of medicine.
"I don't- surely you want those two to know me?"
"No. I want to make sure they are happy. I doubt that they will ever trust someone like you." Her brother looked like he would respond, but instead just sighed, gave an apologetic look, and vanished in a gold flash.
As the light lit up the tent, she glanced at the sleeping triplets, and decided to leave them to their rest. They certainly needed it after the ordeal they had been put through.
-()()()()()-
"Lady Amphitrite." Purgatory dipped his head slightly, in an imitation of a bow. "May I ask why you have arranged this meeting?"
They were in an odd place; a small underwater village just off the coast that was built around one of Amphitrite's temples. The goddess waited for a few minutes before responding, as she judged the entity in front of her. The sea living goddess knew this was not Percy, it was well known by most that Percy had an alternate aspect now.
"I believe my son told you some of what we want to discuss."
"Well, he said that we had a "mutual enemy". I assume that is Cameron." He spat the name out, making his hate for the god clear.
"Yes, my husband's bastard. No offence." She added to the other child born out of wedlock.
"None taken. I assure you, I wish he wasn't my father."
"Right. But, anyway, I will be the first to admit that I was less than fond of you when we first met. All you did was remind me that Poseidon has so little care for the sanctity of our marriage. But this boy has shown me the error of my ways. You were always respectful, to me at least, and I appreciate that. Cameron, on the other hand, is an arrogant little shit." Purgatory didn't expect her to describe him as such, even though he, and Percy, agreed wholeheartedly.
"That he is. What did he do to upset you so much?" Triton laughed bitterly at this.
"He somehow convinced my father that he deserved to be adopted properly into the royal family. Should something happen to both me and Father, he will be next in line to the throne. Though I think the citizens of Atlantis'll have something to say about that. He's racist toward mermen, and just about everything not human."
"So what are you asking from me? I assume you didn't call me here for the sake of complaining about him. Umm, this isn't about your parents, is it?" He had killed both of them, after all.
"No, it's been a long time since we have interacted. I'm sure they attacked you first." She had heard about that from Poseidon, too. "We called you here because we are quite sure that you will be confronting your brother," Purgatory made a face at the relation. "And we wanted to ask a favour..."
-()(())()-
'Well, this is new.' Purgatory commented to Percy, who was also interested in the cause of this commotion.
Purgatory was walking back to the camp, when he heard cheers and jeers coming from the hunters. It went without saying; that a hundred pre-pubescent to pubescent girls made a lot of noise when they got going, but this was off the scale.
The ruckus grew louder as he neared the centre of their camp, and his curiosity rose with it. When Purgatory arrived, the sight was an odd one. The hunters were swarming around a whole in the ground, that had a net covering it. The net had several gaps large enough to shoot through, something that several girls were taking advantage of, but otherwise seemed to very effectively trap whatever was in their. The silver seemed to glow slightly brighter than it should, and Artemis, no, wait- Diana was stood off to the side, watching amused as the hunters insulted/shot whatever was in the trap. Purgatory went to the goddess' side, and asked her.
"What unfortunate male wandered into that?" He was sure that it'd be one deserving, else they wouldn't be this harsh to the ensnared.
"Oh, you know him, and he deserves this. If you take a look at who is shooting him, you could probably guess."
Purgatory glanced over and did a double take at the unexpected figures. Of course, there was Thalia, joined by Zoe. But next to her, was a girl he had no idea was in the hunt. It'd been a long time since he saw Calypso; only briefly before he had left. Back then, she had been Percy's biggest 'what if'. Until he found out she had been in a relationship with the elf; his loyalty refused to let him have feelings for one of his friends, after all. How was she in the hunt? He wondered briefly, as she had had children with Odysseus after all. Then, he registered that she was dressed differently, without a hint of silver on her person. So maybe she was just around. She was immortal, after all.
Next to them, were about 15 girls that had similar basic features. Each had black hair and sea green eyes, and was of above average height for their ages. Percy worked out the connection quicker than his other aspect, and informed him of it.
"Sisters, huh? I see Poseidon hasn't become any more faithful to his wife, has he?"
"None of the gods are, Purgatory. It is irritating, but I doubt that they will ever change." Diana sighed.
Purgatory turned to the goddess, who appeared to be around 16 in this form, and spoke for his other aspect.
"Percy says "it's a pleasure to officially meet you, Lady Diana."" The goddess smiled at this, and said in return.
"Thank you, Perseus. I should let you both know; we are visiting the camps the day after tomorrow and the day after that." The poison eyed man perked up at that statement. "The Roman will be first, though." She hesitated after this, before speaking again. "How is Perseus' progress coming along?"
"He'll be back soon." Purgatory shrugged non-committally. "Probably around the time we go to the Roman if that's the time frame." He smirked at this. "Or when we meet Cameron. He's getting revenge on the bastard." Diana smiled back, though it was slightly strained at the eyes hers met.
"Have you guessed who is in the pit?" The goddess asked, getting back on track.
"Valdez. He cheated on Calypso, I assume? He always annoyed the hell out of Thalia, and just about every other female he met. As a god, he'd be able to find girls, most likely willing, too." He smirked. "I imagine he'd make the mistake of flirting with Zoe, too."
"That about sums it up, yes." She fixed him with a curious gaze. "Although you missed the fact that he was one of the people that betrayed you."
"You mean Percy." Purgatory corrected. "But he's not high on our list of people to get revenge on. It'd be fun, sure, but either of us would inflict too much damage at the minute."
"What do you mean? Why would you inflict too much damage?"
"Me? I'd enjoy it." Purgatory said, like the answer was obvious. Though, now that Diana thought about it, maybe it was. "Percy's powers are probably a bit unstable for now. And no way would we avoid using them against the little elf." The goddess nodded at this, understanding perfectly the urge to hurt the cocky minor god.
"Well, if you dislike him so much, you may want to watch the show." Diana said, smiling evilly.
Purgatory turned his gaze back to the pit, and the figure of Thalia stood slightly taut. Purgatory saw why as thunder began to rumble in the sky above, as dark storm-clouds formed. Rain poured, the epicentre of the storm being the hole in the ground, containing the minor god of Building and Crafts. The falling water was immense into the hole. Obviously, Thalia had grown stronger over the centuries. As the water presumably rose, Zoe kicked one corner of the silver net into the forming trench.
"The net conducts electricity remarkably well." Diana commented as lightning began to light up the sky, as the clouds blotted out the sun.
"Sounds unpleasant." Purgatory commented, smirking.
The high pitched scream supported that, as a bolt struck the net and electrified the water below.
"I assume this isn't the first offence?" Purgatory questioned, after Percy made the query. "Otherwise, apparently, this may be an overreaction.
"Oh, he sneaks in here more than Apollo and Hermes combined. One of these times, he's going to be killed by them." She answered, voice serious and, at the end, nonchalant.
"I'm sure of it."
-()(_)()-
'Disappointing.' Purgatory commented to his other self, as they arrived back at the camp. This time, he hadn't met any significant monsters, just a couple of straggling HellHounds that died quickly by arrows the hunt shot. The frustrated aspect sighed, 'I suppose I can't get to fight every day. I'll just train for a bit.'
He quickly moved to an empty clearing in the camp. If he didn't, then he'd be too full of energy tomorrow. That state of mind, combined with a bunch of annoying demigods at the Roman camp, would result in Purgatory doing something that he... correction: Percy, would regret. Purgatory'd enjoy it, and if he met certain Romans, then Percy would hopefully let him have his fun.
Purgatory concentrated, and waved his hand in the clearing, creating the mechanised training dummies and a pile of weapons, before he picked up the first spear, and set to work.
The magical robots swarmed around the spear wielding man, and Purgatory span in a low circle, sweeping the legs out from under three of them, before stabbing the head of said weapon into the chest of each. He stood straight and kicked the nearest away, sending him back 30 feet, and threw the bronze spear into the disorientated figure.
Stepping aside, to the pile of weapons, Purgatory swept up a War-hammer, and charged the crowd, swinging the blunt weapon in wild circles. With each arch of the swings, he crushed a training dummy. Purgatory soon grew tired of the hammer and spun around, launching it like it's the sporting apparatus that shared it's name.
The flying hammer took out the remaining 3 machines, so Purgatory concentrated again, his eyes glowed gold, and the fake men repaired themselves.
Picking up a golden Gladius in each hand, Purgatory began again. In his own world, the crazed man didn't notice the audience he was gathering.
-()()-
"Holy..." Thalia murmured as she watched Purgatory fighting. "How..."
The aspect's fighting style made no sense whatsoever. Skilled, sure, but how was he avoiding the mechanics?
Purgatory span out of the way of one's sword, bringing both his up as he did so, and brought them down in a hammerblow, smashing both down on the robot's shoulders and cleaving it into 3. He kicked the remains of the crumpled machine into another, and flung a Gladius after it, the blade thudding into it, and lodging into the animated dummy's head.
Next, he stepped left, a spear running through the space he had been in a second before, attempting to catch him from behind, and punched out, fist slamming into the bronze "man's" head. The metal caved in as his knuckles punched into it.
With a trio of cuts, he hacked down three more of the enemies, leaving his sword in the last of them. Tilting his head to the side, he avoided a jab of a sword. Purgatory turned and seized the next figure's head. The aspect tore the head off and kicked the body into a rock. Turning wildly, eyes ablaze, he searched for the next enemy, only to see that he had finished with the 7.
"Amazing." Purgatory hadn't been touched once in the fight, even though he at no point made a move to defend himself. Thalia had to agree to her sister's assessment of the demonstration. She noted the wide eyed looks on each hunter present, as Purgatory cleared up his mess, and wandered back toward the camp, whistling a merry tune as he went.
-()(_)()-
"Wow, this has changed, hasn't it?" Purgatory commented, jollily . The camp seemed to have adapted to the Greek's existence. Still much more formal than their counterparts, but not as much as before. Fauns were walking free, appearing to be unsuppressed, unlike the last time Percy was here, and the people appeared to be mingling with each other far more freely than previous. Not in keeping with the divisions that were firmly established before.
As the hunters arrived in New Rome, Purgatory saw that this, too had grown. Apparently the gods had kicked it up a notch when it came to shagging mortals.
Percy supposed that the general population must have grown over the 300 years too, though. So at least it wasn't too out of proportion. It was probably a good thing to have such large numbers of foot soldiers, but accompanying it came an increase in monsters.
Not that the more psychotic aspect would complain. No, he was thrilled that he had the chance to kill more without the troublesome repercussions that would come from people dying, not to mention the fact that Percy would refuse to allow that... for the most part. Hopefully some day Purgatory may change his opinion regarding that.
"Lady Diana, we weren't expecting you." A male Praetor stated, coming to stand in front of the hunt with a 'greeting party' of 40 Romans, presumably in an attempt to intimidate the other group. Obviously, this failed spectacularly. Purgatory snickered at the thought from his place to the left of Diana.
As the sound carried to the Roman leader, he turned his gaze, in a glare, to the sole male in the company.
"May I ask why a male is in accompanying your hunt, Lady Diana?"
"No, you may not. We do not need assistance to find our residence, you are dismissed." Diana said, dismissing the male with the words and a wave of her hand. The Praetor's eyes narrowed at this.
"You all will need to surrender your weapons before entering the city." He replied to the goddess.
"To you?"
"Of course not." The unnamed Praetor responded through gritted teeth. "To Terminus, as is tradition."
"I think you shall find that my authority supersedes your god of boundaries. As such, I and my hunters, do not have to surrender anything to you."
"Lady Diana, I'm afraid that I won't be able to allow you entry if you do not obey." By this point the majority of hunters' hands were twitching, wanting desperately to shoot him full of arrows.
"Wow, you're a dumbass aren't you?" Purgatory commented, smirking at the foolish statement. He turned his head slightly to get sight of the goddess of he hunt's reaction.
"What did you say?!" The Praetor yelled at him.
""Wow, you're a dumbass aren't you?""
"How dare you?!"
"How dare I what?"
"How dare you insult me?! I'm a Praetor! I could have you executed!" He just about screamed.
"Is that a threat, little man?" Purgatory asked the angry Roman, grinning.
"It's a promise." The boy growled out at him, his fellow demigods nodding along behind him. "I am your superi-Gahh!"" He was interrupted as a hand clamped around his throat, and he was raised into the air, feet dangling. As the Praetor looked down, he met a poisonous gaze, above a snarling mouth.
"YOU'RE MY SUPERIOR?!" Purgatory roared, tightening his grip around the smaller boy's throat. He tossed the boy onto the dusty ground, and two Gladius appeared in his hands. He flicked his wrist and one of them stuck in the ground in front of his would be opponent. "Prove it, then."
The Roman staggered to his feet, grabbing the sword as he did so, and, red in the face from anger, lunged at the stranger, stabbing in the taught fashion. With a step to the side, Purgatory avoided the blade, before he stepped past, and whacked his opponent on the back of the head with the flat of his blade, and kicked the stumbling boy's legs out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground. Purgatory kicked the arrogant boy in the ribs, lifting him into the air and throwing him several feet.
"You're persistent, at least." Purgatory commented as the not yet named Praetor stood up once more. The hybrid lunged forward and swiped his sword across the decorative armour that the Roman was wearing for the greeting. The Imperial gold Gladius cut through the bronze and sliced a long cut into the flesh below. Next, the unarmed fist of the powerful man slammed into the un-helmeted face of his opponent, smashing the nose and sending him back to the ground he had just risen from.
Purgatory slammed his foot onto the gold greave of the Praetor bending the metal and breaking the bone in his lower leg, and placed the tip of his Roman-style sword against the beaten man's throat.
He frowned visibly, and looked over to the watching goddess.
"Milady? What should I do with him?" He asked, to the surprise of Diana.
"Why do you ask me?"
"Percy told me to." Purgatory sighed, disappointed. "He," He gestured to the groaning boy pinned under the blade. "Disrespected you. Percy says that's why he wanted me to hurt him a bit, and that his fate's up to you."
"Well..." Diana was shocked, and internally pleased, that Percy took her opinion into consideration so much. "Ordinarily I would tell you to kill him, but it'd probably cause problems if a Praetor was killed. He's adequately humiliated by now, at least."
"Fine." Purgatory sighed yet again, and stepped back, kicking the whimpering figure once as he did, with a sad expression on his face. "Are we going in, then?" He asked, gesturing to the city.
"Of course." The goddess responded, walking towards the cohorts' barracks to begin the assessment they were here for.
-()(_)(_)()-
"Pathetic." Purgatory commented loudly as he watched yet another overly confident boy step up to fight a hunter. Each one so far had been easily beaten, left bruised and humiliated at the end.
"Shut up! Why aren't you participating anyway?!" One sitting off to the side, nursing twin black eyes courtesy of Thalia, commented. "Are you scared you can't keep up with us?!"
"DO YOU WANT TO SEE ME FIGHT?!" An Orthratic silver Falchion appeared in his right hand as he strode toward the angry Roman.
"Purgatory!" Diana called, from across the field they were training in. "Please don't. He's just upset that his attempts against Thalia were so terrible." The boy was apparently smart enough not to snap at the man-hating goddess, and she spoke to him. "And you, if you want to judge Purgatory's skills with a sword, look no further than your Praetor. That was his handiwork."
"W-What?!" The male exclaimed, in a slightly high pitched voice.
"Yes. Isn't that right, Purgatory?" She asked. "Purgatory?" She continued when he did not respond. When she turned to check why, she found the man glaring at a blonde haired, blue eyed young man in the distance. "Ah. My brother's arrived, has he?"
Thanks Hans50 (Check out his stories Monster shifter, and betrayed son of the sea by the way), fillnow21, Fallen Angel Of Olympus, NeverForgiveOrForget, Sophia the daughter of Nyx, Darknightblade, waterboy3441, Achilles Risen, Snarky-Teen, and awesomeness-rocks for reviewing since last update.
So far I've had 2 suggestions for pairings; I think I'd struggle to write Percy/Fates, so sorry fillnow21 but unless I get a hell of a lot of people suggesting that, I probably won't have that pairing. The same thing goes for the hunt as a whole, as there are roughly 100 in it at the moment and it would be difficult to incorporate, so sorry to both fillnow21 and Rider-84.
Both have suggested Artemis as one of the girls Percy is paired with, and I am pretty sure that she will be one of his girls. I have an idea for the others, too, but would like to wait until I get more suggestions to finalise it.