The website outage
gave me time to proofread this.
There goes my excuse.
As I slowly opened my eyes to face the cold, cruel world (I'm not waxing poetic here, Artemis's apartment was like fifty degrees), I realized that it wasn't Artemis who had been keeping me company. Rather, it was her long suffering lieutenant, who was taking deep, shuddering breaths instead of snoring.
I cautiously straightened up, trying not to wake her, and tried to roll my neck. Last night had been pretty terrible, but not as terrible as waking up with a big ol' crick in my neck. Resigning myself to seeing the world tilted ninety degrees for the rest of my life, I stood up, and lumbered over to the kitchen area.
Completely forgetting my previous stealth approach, I grabbed a glass and turned on the faucet.
Naturally, the noisy water woke Thalia up, who leapt to her feet with more grace than I could ever hope to achieve. "Whossair?"
"Wanna try again, pal?" I said, getting a glass of water for her too.
Thalia blinked blearily and rubbed her eyes. "Emily? What are we doing here?"
"Well, I apparently live here now, and you were probably sent by Artemis to check on her terrible harlot of a daughter. Gods, Pheme must be having a field day with this," I handed the water to Thalia and sat on the only other piece of furniture, a cushy armchair.
Thalia's eyes twitched as she tried to gauge whether I was joking or not. "Yeah, a lot of stuff happened last night. Even I don't have a clear understanding of what went down- uh, I mean, what happened."
I chuckled and then decided to let her off the hook. "Nothing. Nothing happened. I found out Notus was just having a contest with his brother who could sleep with Aemilia or me first. Neither won, and no one had a good time. Not that my oh-so-wonderful mother would even think to ask me. No, she's already convinced herself of what happened as a part of our ever-deteriorating relationship."
Thalia frowned. "Well, I mean, it did look pretty suspect-"
"I'm sure there are other people out there with perfectly normal mothers, ones who don't threaten violence as their main problem-solving tactic. Nice mothers, who aren't deranged psychopaths, who don't ignore their daughter's feelings-" I stood up now, getting a good rant going.
Thalia tried to interrupt, but whoever speaks loudest in an argument wins, right?
"What must I have done in a past life to end up with her as my family? Maybe I was Hitler. That would be the only person I can imagine… oooh, maybe Stalin. He was like Russian Hitler, right?"
"Emily, stop," Thalia ordered, as if that ever works.
"Maybe I wasn't Hitler. I mean, gods can shapeshift, right? Artemis could turn herself into a man… but wait, he had charisma or something. Artemis is lacking that in spades, am I right?"
There was the sound of glass shattering, and I whipped around to see that Thalia had thrown her water glass against the far wall.
"Thalia, what-"
She stomped over to me (I can't decide if "thunderously" would be in good taste) and pointed to the armchair, her entire arm quivering in rage. "Sit down."
I did, realizing I had just practically called her a Nazi.
"You think you know what it's like to have a crazy mother? My mother was this glamorous movie star who got knocked up by Zeus, and then lost her mind. Forget parenting, she just wanted me there so Zeus would come and see her occasionally. When I was ten, I had a 103 degree fever for two weeks before he happened to stop by. So, yeah, I'm sure there are people out there with normal mothers. However, you and I aren't one of them, and at least your mother is present in your life. And she only overreacts because she cares, and because you would absolutely get yourself killed if left to your own devices. So, stop complaining, and stop acting like a child. Hades, I spent several years as a pine tree, but you don't hear me whining about it." She walked over to the door, and angrily yanked it open.
"Thalia, wait!" I got to my feet and walked over to her. "I just have one question for you."
She turned around slowly, as if giving me the chance to reconsider whatever it was I was about to ask.
I did not take advantage of it.
"Did people decorate you around Christmas, or…?"
Thalia walked out, slamming the door so hard I'm pretty sure it started raining over the Empire State building. That's how clouds work, right?
Artemis's room was empty, except for the clothes I had been wearing yesterday, which were clean and folded nicely on the bed. I would have attributed that kindness to her, but something (common sense) told me it was probably a maid.
I changed out of my ridiculous dress, put my hair in a ponytail, and then started to feel like an actual person again.
Grabbing an apple for the road (and then resolving to stop somewhere, because what am I, a rabbit?), I left Artemis's apartment to do some exploring. I already knew where the seedy parts of Olympus were, so I'll just go the opposite direction.
My feet led me to the arena, and I paused when I heard what sounded like footsteps echoing within the great emptiness. I pulled open the doors and walked inside, finding myself up in the stands as opposed to down in the arena. Man, I'm terrible at remembering things like simple directions.
At the bottom of the steps and running toward me was Phoebe, who was wearing black shorts and a gray shirt that had the beginning of sweat stains appearing around the armpits.
She finally got to the top, and stood next to me, panting. "What.. are you.. doing here?"
"I'm bored, so I thought I'd explore Olympus. Plus, I didn't want to be in the apartment in case Artemis came back. I think we need a little more time before we see each other, just to cool down. What made you decide to get a cardio workout this morning?"
Phoebe had regained her breath. "That is actually a good call, Emily. And this is my punishment for the whole 'trying to steal from a god, getting kidnapped, and lying about it' thing. I have to run fifteen miles either up a hill or stairs, whichever is convenient. I've already knocked off two of them."
"Wait, this is your punishment?" I was a little surprised. I had imagined something a lot more painful, not that running is anything less than terrible.
Phoebe snorted. "What, you thought we'd get forty lashes? Just how terrible do you think your mom is? And who'd be masochistic enough to join the Hunters if that were the case? And now that I think about it, you exploring Olympus alone isn't the greatest idea. Want me to come along?"
I was still reeling from the fact that Artemis had apparently evolved past using pain as a punishment and just not informed me, but exploring would be more fun with Phoebe. "Sure, that'd be fun!"
"Okay, let me finish up this last mile!"
Before I could object, she had taken off, and I sat down to wait for her.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"You've slept enough."
I had a brief second of warning before Diana pulled the blankets off me in a brusque fashion.
"Come on. It's time to face the day! I don't want it going around that I have the lazy half."
I groggily got to my feet. I was in the plaid pajamas one of the maids had picked out for me, and it was disorienting to have been awakened so suddenly. "Whass happening today?"
Diana tossed me an orange (yeah, just try to compare Emily and I). "Well, probably no event until later. From the looks of it, all of Mt. Olympus is going to be too hungover to function for a little while. That party was out of control. I knew Apollo shouldn't have made you mortals attend. After that stupid contest between Notus and Eurus, wow. I haven't seen Apollo that livid in a while. Also, kudos on not letting it go too far. I mean, you never should have let your guard down that much to start with… I mean, really? What were you thinking?"
I yawned and walked over to the kitchen. "Honestly, I was thinking 'I'd like to break this nectar glass and stab Emily in the jugular with it'. But then Eurus walked up, and he seemed nice, and we had stuff in common. It was kind of a blur. They really shouldn't let normal people drink nectar."
"You mortals are such lightweights. When I was a girl, I could drink most other gods under the table. Not that, uh... not that I advocate that lifestyle of course." Diana smiled crookedly at me.
Then, an Iris message appeared in the living room.
"What, Apollo?" Diana asked wearily. "Did you plan a brunch filled with terrible people who will try to seduce your barely-legal niece? Or is it just going to be located in a brothel? You know, cut down on traveling times?"
Apollo took a deep breath and scowled. "I thought you and Artemis would keep a better eye on your daughters! I didn't know Artemis was icing Emily out, or that you were trying to parent from an extreme distance. Where's that maternal instinct I always hear so much about? Whatever. We are having a brunch, just you two, Artemis, Emily, and I. And Thalia and Phoebe, but they most likely won't try to seduce anyone. Probably."
I chuckled but then shook my head and looked away awkwardly when Diana looked at me with disapproval.
"That's inappropriate. Whatever, what time is brunch?"
Apollo checked his bare wrist. "How does meeting at my apartment in twenty minutes sound?"
"Sounds like you have a companion from last night that you need to boot out."
He didn't even try to object, instead winking at us. "Guilty. See y'all then!"
The connection disappeared, and it left Diana shaking her head ruefully. "To think, we were at one time the same entity."
I didn't know what to say to that, so I just got up to take a shower.
After we both were ready to go to brunch, Diana grabbed my shoulder.
"You aren't going to throw up again, are you?" she asked, warily.
I opened my mouth, and then closed it again, unable to offer any certainties about the state of my stomach.
"Lovely."
She grabbed my arm, and we whirled through space and arrived at a spacious, luxurious apartment.
Diana eyed me cautiously, but I waved her off.
Apollo was clearly more of a fan of opulence than Diana, as his apartment was decorated with marble statues, elaborate paintings, and flat screen TVs everywhere. It all gave off a very bachelor impression, which was about as far down that rabbit trail as I want to go.
We sat down at a nice, mahogany table with seven places set. There was a variety of breads, jams, and various spreads already set out, along with some flowery placemats that I just can't picture Apollo buying.
"Where are Greek one and two?" Diana asked, carefully inspecting the food. "And where are the figs? It's not breakfast without figs!"
Apollo sighed and rubbed his head. "The fruit is on its way. And please keep your voice down. I think I personally drank ten liters of nectar last night. Also, hold on, we aren't starting without everyone else."
As if on cue, Artemis and Thalia appeared in the living room. Thalia looked a little haggard, but they both seemed to be in good spirits.
Artemis took the seat across from Diana, and Thalia sat beside her. "'Morning."
"Hey, Artemis, Thalia. Where's mini-you?" Apollo asked, checking his still-bare wrist.
Artemis shrugged. "Tartarus for all I know. I haven't seen her since your orgy last night."
I choked on my coffee, and Thalia grinned at me. "Yeah, this entire brunch is going to be M, I can tell."
"For the last time, that wasn't an orgy! You and Diana should have been watching your daughters more carefully! And why don't you know where Emily is? Haven't you learned what terrible things happen when she's left unsupervised?"
Artemis shrugged. "Whatever. She is an adult, and apparently she feels comfortable making adult decisions. She threw away whatever chance she had at a relationship with me when she went up to the roof with Notus."
"Lady Artemis, she didn't- " Thalia tried, but Artemis waved her off.
"Leave it, Thalia. This doesn't concern you. And we should just count her as out of the contest, Apollo. I'll compete separately," Artemis tore into a muffin, trying to mask the twitch of her lips.
Apollo ran his hand through his hair. "Don't be stupid. I'm going to IM her. And you two started as a team, and will finish as a team."
He walked into the living room, leaving behind an awkward silence at the table.
"Well, if Arty's eating, so am I," Diana said, grabbing a piece of toast. "Hey, anyone know where the other Hunter is?"
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"This is not the garden," I pointed out, noticing that we've descended at least 300 ft into solid ground.
Phoebe was looking around, her tongue sticking out in a way that made me doubt her navigational acumen. "I could have sworn it was right around here. Maybe it's up a ways?"
I shook my head, and we continued along the hallway. We had long since left the open, airy corridors, and now were traversing into a dark hallway with torches on the walls.
"All right, a hundred more feet before we get out of Moria here. I forgot both my staff and my death wish in Artemis's apartment," I said, half-joking, but mostly serious.
Phoebe sighed. "Yeah, you're right. Let's head back."
We turned around and saw the shadow of two people headed our way from the corner we had just rounded. There wasn't anywhere to hide, but I definitely wanted to, for some bizarre reason.
"-boarding? Come on, that's practically just giving them a shower. If you want results, you have to- Well, who do we have here?" Ares and the kid who Thalia and I bribed with Skittles stopped once they noticed us, about 10 feet away. "The Greek half and one of the Hunters. Some of my other half's finer work, if I do say so. Look at the way she's shaking."
Phoebe was indeed trembling faintly, but "the other half comment" stuck out to me. "Who-"
Ares snapped his fingers, and a strip of cloth appeared around my mouth, tightly cinched. "Nothing personal, Greek. I'm just enjoying being in control at the moment. Now, back to my point. My personal meter" oh. "stick of a successful work over is the proximity test. Observe."
Mars (most likely) motioned for his companion to stay and took several calculated steps toward Phoebe and I.
With every step he took, Phoebe's tremors grew, until I was shocked she hadn't bolted yet. I tried to move in between them, but Mars made a quick gesture and I was thrown against the wall and held there. His friend chuckled cruelly, and there was enough resemblance to make me suspect a genetic link between him and Mars.
Mars smiled faintly as he came ever closer to Phoebe, until they were less than a foot away, and Phoebe's knees were quaking. "See?"
He lifted his hand, and Phoebe flinched, and I desperately tried to find any tiny thread of the link that once existed between Artemis and me.
Mars leaned in, and whispered something into Phoebe's ear, something that made her nod her head in a quick, jerky motion. He then turned around to face his companion. "Often, laying the foundation is the tedious part. Once you get to this point, the bulk of work is done merely by the anticipation."
The sultry way he said that word made me even more uncomfortable.
He jerked his hand back just a little, but Phoebe quailed nonetheless. He merely brushed some of her hair out of her face, relishing in the flinch that evoked, turned to his companion, and pointed at Phoebe with his thumb.
"Case in point. I thank you for your assistance in demonstrating my point, Hunter. Now, you and the Greek run along. Our next encounter may be more prolonged."
Wow, he had the threatening emphasis down to a science.
His companion walked over to him, and they continued down the hallway, resuming their Geneva-unapproved conversation. I slumped to the ground, pulled down my gag, and took a deep, shuddering breath before looking up at Phoebe, who was frozen in place.
I got up and walked over to her, concerned. "Phoebe? Phoebe, they're gone."
No response.
"Uh, Phoebe, we need to get out of here. You'll be okay. Come on, let's go."
She took a few faltering steps, then looked around, the fear slowly dissipating from her eyes. She wouldn't look at me though, which was troublesome. "He's… gone?"
"Yeah," I considered putting my hand on her shoulder, but Willow informed me that people found that "patronizing" and "the worst". Also, her shirt was now entirely drenched in sweat. "Here, we'll head back to Artemis's apartment."
She took another step and then bolted, much faster than I could run in my wildest dreams.
I jogged after her but quickly lost her. As soon as I entered the open air again, an IM appeared, filled with Apollo's worried face.
"Emily, where are you? We've all been worried sick!"
I heard a burp from the background. "I wasn't."
My mother, ladies and gentlemen. (But probably ladies… I don't really know what the ratio of female to male readers is.)
I rolled my eyes. "Real nice, mom. I was down in this cave thing with Phoebe, now I'm at the entrance. Can you come get me and help me find her?"
"Yeah, sure, I'm on my way. Thalia, wanna tag along?" Apollo asked, and the message disappeared.
I metaphorically and literally twiddled my thumbs until Apollo and Thalia appeared beside me.
"Which direction did she go?" Thalia asked, looking around rapidly. "And what are you doing with your hands?"
I shrugged. "No idea to both. She took off after we ran into Mars."
"Oh gods," Thalia blasphemed, looking stricken.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
There was silence at the half-empty brunch table.
"Odds that your half said or did something stupid and put them both in mortal danger?" Diana posed, looking disinterested.
Artemis pursed her lips and glanced up toward the ceiling for a second. "Pretty high."
The silence resumed.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"She went this way," Thalia announced, revealing her apparent bloodhound lineage.
We all headed toward the arena, and Apollo opened the door cautiously.
Phoebe was back to running her laps, and she looked startled to see us.
"He- hey, dad!" She panted, which nicely disguised any potential tremor remaining in her voice. "What are you doing here?"
Apollo walked over to her, and he put his hand on Phoebe's shoulder, definitely noticing her flinch, because even I did. "Are you okay? Do we need to talk? I could arrange a visit with Lethe, if you wanted."
Phoebe paused for a moment, but she then shook her head. "It's fine, dad. I just need to be more careful. Now, is there somewhere I need to be?"
"I'm having the Greeks and Romans over to my place for a brunch and to discuss things. You are welcome and encouraged to come along, but if you need to be alone, that's okay too."
Phoebe looked at her thoroughly-drenched shirt. "Sure, I'll come, but I may need to change first."
"I'm sure I have some women's clothes in my apartment that will fit you," Apollo said, waving his hand casually.
Thalia, Phoebe, and I grimaced. "Gross."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
The awkward silence around the brunch table was shattered by the appearance of Apollo, Thalia, and Emily.
"-clearly not what I meant, ya perverts." Apollo was grumbling, but he perked up when he saw those of us at the table. "Now the gang's all here! Have a seat, have a seat!"
Artemis pointedly avoided Emily's gaze as she looked for a place to sit, and I shook my head at the middle-school-ness of it all. I personally did Emily the favor of glaring at her and twirling my butter knife between my fingers.
Hey, someone should be upfront with her.
Emily sighed audibly, and went to sit at the far end of the table, where there were empty seats to either side of her. Apollo motioned for Phoebe to follow him into one of the back rooms, and he returned a second later to take his seat. "So, how's everyone doing?"
We all muttered indistinctly, producing the grumpiest susurrus you've ever head.
Phoebe emerged with a new shirt and sat on Emily's left, and I could smell her from a good meter away. Thalia regained her seat next to Artemis.
Apollo sat at the head of the table, directly across from Emily. "Now that we are all here, this brunch can begin!" He rang the golden bell that was next to his plate, the kitchen door swung open, and servants carrying bowls of fruit emerged. There were more fruits on this table than Emily had ever eaten in our life, and it was truly amazing.
Have a specific one in mind? It was on this table.
Everyone was ravenous, and silence again reigned as we all loaded their plates.
Everyone, except for Emily, that is. She was too busy looking around at all of the unnecessary clutter filling Apollo's decidedly opulent living quarters.
"Hey, Apollo. Is this a replica of a Bernini statue?" she asked, looking behind her at a rather large marble statue.
Apollo swallowed the grapes he had been eagerly ingesting. "'A replica'? Heh, please. That was a present for me from my son. The copy down in Italy is a replica. A good one, but it still doesn't capture the majesty of this one."
"It's, uh, a weird gift to give you of all people. I mean, it's you and Daphne, and you aren't exactly the hero of that story," Emily eyed him doubtfully. "Like, you get that, right?"
There was tenseness in the air as we waited for Apollo's response.
Luckily for Emily, he handled it with good humor.
"Time has dulled the pain and embarrassment about this little episode, little one. But let us talk of cheerier things. How do you feel the contest is going?"
There was a chorus of murmurs, which clearly wasn't what Apollo was hoping for.
"Let's go around in a circle. Feel free to offer suggestions about how to make the next game flow more smoothly. I'm nothing if not amenable. Diana, you start," Apollo suggested looking curious.
Diana took a long swallow of her coffee. "Well, aside from the unnecessary drama from the Greeks, I think it's gone swimmingly. As soon as my half and I win these next two events, things'll settle down, and we can go back to life as normal. I do wish the Greeks had been punished for their flagrant cheating in the maze competition, or that my half hadn't been so careless as to turn her back on her armed opponent, but I am content overall."
She settled back in her chair and began peeling a rambutan, apparently finished speaking.
Apollo gestured at me to speak, so I took a deep breath.
"Aside from seeing what a sniveling coward that my other half is, it's been a delight to participate in the games," I said, choosing to keep it short and sweet.
Emily leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table like she was raised by wolves. (heh heh heh heh). "It's funny, I don't remember you calling me a coward after I broke into Ares' house to rescue you and Phoebe. If it weren't for me, you'd both be dead, or worse. So, yeah, call me the cowardly half. But make sure you remember that you owe me." Emily finally reached for some fruit and popped a blueberry in her mouth, staring at me with a smirk.
Phoebe put her piece of toast down. "I think we should postpone the contest until we can settle all the interpersonal conflicts. Maybe this contest isn't the right way to solve this problem!."
"Hear, hear," Thalia chimed in, spooning some applesauce into her mouth.
"Well, we could have probably been finished by now if Emily hadn't made such a scene after the stupid picture contest," Artemis said, still averting her gaze from her daughter.
Emily looked away from out little staring contest and focused her eyes on Artemis. "Huh, it's almost like people don't like being called mistakes! Fancy that. You know, I didn't exactly ask for any of this to happen."
"I fail to see how it's my fault that you can't take a joke," Artemis stated, matter-of-factly.
Emily stood up. "Well, it's a 'joke' you've told before. Whatever, this was a bad idea. I'm leaving."
Artemis also sprang to her feet, and Thalia rested her head in her hands with a sigh. "You just can't handle someone else being the alpha wolf! I know you were spoiled growing up, but your problem with authority isn't my fault!"
"You know," Emily said with a wry smile "it's funny you compared yourself to a female dog, because I was about to do the same thing."
Thalia sprang to her feet, her lieutenant instincts clearly warring with her misplaced affection for my Greek half. "Emily-"
"At least I made it more than 18 years before sleeping with a stranger," Artemis said, looking at Emily with pure disgust.
Apollo motioned for Thalia to sit down, as he rightly figured that they needed to settle this themselves.
Emily stared at Artemis for a second with her mouth open, and then she rolled her eyes.
"It's always something with you, isn't it? I honestly think you are just looking for excuses to be mad at me. And why is that, Artemis? Why are you so afraid of us having a normal relationship? What are you scared of?"
Artemis's jaw twitched. "I'm not scared of you or anything you could do."
Emily narrowed her eyes and then leant on the table with both hands. "I know you aren't afraid of me. You're afraid of yourself. You are afraid of becoming the kind of person to tell her daughter bedtime stories. You think that getting emotionally attached will be like making your mistake official. If you don't see me as a daughter, you think it doesn't count. That's why you constantly blow up at little things. You're constantly looking for a way to undo what you did 18 years ago. At least Diana had the balls to try to kill me."
"Like you need more of a martyr complex," Artemis muttered, but it was weak.
Emily sat back down. "Do your worst, Artemis. I'm done pounding my head against the brick wall that constitutes our relationship."
She propped her feet on the table, obviously trying to seem nonchalant.
Artemis was still staring at her, but even I could see the miniscule changes in her face and posture as Emily's words started to resonate within her. "I- I am leaving. Emily, let's finish this conversation in private."
"Gladly."
Artemis walked over to where Emily was sitting, placed a hand on her shoulder, and the two of them disappeared.
"A shame," Apollo mused. "Their drama was great for selling tickets, if nothing else."
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
We materialized in Artemis's apartment, and she staggered over to the couch wearily. I sat on the armchair, noticing that Thalia's broken glass had been cleaned up.
"I'm tired, Emily." Artemis said, and I saw that she was resting her head in her hands. "I am just bone-tired of always being at-odds with you."
I sighed, and rested my head back. "Me too, Artemis, me too."
There was an almost-comfortable silence.
"Can we agree not to fight in public anymore?" she asked, extending what appeared to be a sadly wilted olive branch.
I looked at her. "Fine by me. Are we good for now? Or at least less terrible?"
She looked up at me and offered me a tired smile. "We are. Now, I'm going to sleep off this hangover. Please try to stay away from murderous Romans, at least for the next couple hours."
"I would love to promise that, but alas, I can't in good faith."
Artemis chuckled, and she rose and walked to her room.
I laid my head back and tried not to think about anything.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
"Greetings, ladies and gentlemen!" Apollo's voice boomed, and I wiped the sleepies out of my eyes. Not that going through this for the seventh time wasn't fascinating, but…wait, yeah, exactly that. "As you can see, Team Python is back together and stronger than ever. This is good, because this next challenge will require both teams to work together as one."
Both Artemis and I muttered "Oh, gods" at the same time, so that was kind of super cute.
"This next challenge is going to be an obstacle course. Now, only one member from each team will actually undergo the course-"
"I guess I'll be the moral support…" I muttered, trying to remember the catchy cheers I had come up with during softball and conveniently repressing the groans they had elicited from my teammates.
The arena was empty in the middle, but there was a thick runner's lane around the perimeter. In the lane were probably many obstacles, but I couldn't see over the wall.
Apollo sighed and looked at me. "I'm glad you're back to normal. Now, zip it. As I was saying, only one person from each team will be actually running the course. To ensure teamwork, that person will run the course blind, relying on their partner's vocal guidance."
There were murmurs from the crowd, and I looked around to see if Wipeout was sponsoring this event.
I didn't see any banners (, but who knows who writes my author's checks?).
"The two teams will now decide who will be the runner, and who will be the communicator."
Artemis and I looked at each other. We had literally just gotten to the point where we can make eye contact, so the whole trusting thing would be rough.
"Well, I should be the runner, probably," Artemis suggested, with obvious reluctance in her tone. "Not that you wouldn't do a fine job, but…"
She trailed off, and I realized that we had apparently regressed to the polite stage of acquaintanceship. "Yeah, if you think that's best." I turned to Apollo. "We decided-"
He waved his hand. "No need to announce it. Olympian senses, remember?"
I scowled and rubbed my eyebrows. "Yeah, I remember."
Apollo turned to face the audience. "The coordinators will stand on the floating platforms, while the runners race through the obstacles. And contestants, don't even think about trying to mentally communicate. I'm always watching. Let the games begin!"
I was lifted through the air by some winged creatures that Apollo really should have warned me about, until I reached the platforms. Aemilia was right next to me, so I guessed the Romans had adopted the same game plan as us.
Artemis and Diana walked up to their entrances to the lane, and they turned to run it in opposite directions. Throughout the course I noticed that some of the obstacles were faintly glowing.
Apollo's voice wafted up to us. "The runners are now blind, with their reluctant cooperation. Another extra piece of incentive to give good directions is that certain obstacles are electrified, and will immobilize the runner for a random amount of time. May the best team win! On your marks, get set, go!"
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Diana and I had agreed that she would be the runner, due to her increased endurance. However, that left all of the blame of our potential failure for me. I tried not to let that freak me out as I told her to run full-pelt ahead.
The first obstacle was a simple log to jump over, but I realized that yelling "Jump!" out of the blue was not a good strategy, as the split second it took her to analyze my command was too long, and she crashed into the log at full speed, which looked painful.
Her voice apparently felt the need to compensate for her blindness, as I could hear her swearing from up here on my platform. She got to her feet, and I saw that one of her pant legs was torn.
She started running again, but with a slight limp, and I knew we'd have a "discussion" about that later.
The next challenge was a series of punching bags that were sticking out of the ground.
"Okay, you are going to zigzag soon. Go the direction I tell you, a second after I tell you. Here we go, left! Right! Left! Left! Right!"
We actually got through that one, and I was glad that I wasn't running, because Emily's (and mine by extension) ankles would have completely shattered, like they always did when she tried to round the bases in softball.
Emily tried the same strategy next to us, but she got different results, or so I gathered from her "Okay, go left! And left! Oh, I meant right! Oh, shit. Yikes! Ouch! Slow down! Yeah, that's right! No, don't go right! Aw hell."
The next obstacles were four huge swinging axes that looked like something out of Scooby Doo, and I worried that Apollo wasn't actually over the whole Daphne thing. "Okay, slow down. When I say 'Go!' sprint forward exactly two meters. Now, go! And go! Go!"
Diana got through the first three axes all right, but she overshot the last one, and smacked her face solidly into the broad side of the axe, which produced a lovely ringing sound.
Now, if I had to hit some part of an axe, I would choose the side, but I could tell she was less than pleased. The laughter from the audience didn't help any as she got to her feet and rolled to avoid the final swinging blade.
To my surprise, Emily had gotten Artemis past the blades much faster, and they were actually in the lead.
A small tunnel blocked the way next, but that was relatively easy to overcome.
I thought things would get dicey when there was a three meter tall wall, until I said jump, and Diana sprang easily ten meters into the air.
Freaking Olympians, man.
Diana was fast approaching an area with little mounds of upturned dirt. I slowed her to a walk to carefully navigate around them.
My way was proved superior when Emily didn't slow Artemis down, and she unwittingly stepped on one of the mounds.
The buried explosive blasted Artemis into a wall, where she slid down and triggered another mound. This explosion propelled her into another, and another, and I couldn't drag my eyes away. Emily was just staring in awed silence at the chaos, and I did not envy her in the slightest.
Unfortunately, Diana had continued to sprint ahead, and I hadn't warned her about the long, horizontal pole that preceded a net for her to climb.
Zeus must have had to summon one Hades of a thunderstorm to cover the clang that ensued.
"Will you pay some fucking attention?!" Diana roared (it was more of a wheeze, actually), and I refocused on the race before us.
-/-/-/-/-/-/-
Artemis took a second to recover from the explosion chain, but she soon regained her previous pace, with a noticeable wobble. We eventually fell into a nice pattern, and we slowly caught up and eventually overtook Diana and Aemilia, who was being too conservative with her instructions. It was kind of Apollo to organize an event that would let me use my natural talent at video games.
Finally, there were only two obstacles keeping us from the finish line.
"Okay, Artemis, almost there! Now, you have to dive into the pool in front of you and swim through the hole halfway through!"
Artemis skidded to a halt right before the pool. "What?"
Diana was catching up. "Come on, Artemis! What would Jerry do?!" I yelled, forgetting that I didn't have to yell but apparently remembering obscure short stories that I had read in English class three years ago.
She dove into the water, and I felt for her. I personally worry about drowning more than any rational person should. If I had been the runner, we would have lost right here.
Diana sprang into the water without any hesitation, and I knew the final result would be close again.
The final obstacle was a wall of fire with a narrow opening.
"Now, Artemis, take a step to your right, and run forward." I commanded, heart racing at the prospect of winning it all and decisively at that.
She hesitated. "I know there's fire, I can feel the heat."
"I know, I can see it. You're going to have to trust me! Go, now!"
She didn't move.
"Go, Artemis, go!" I shouted. "You have to go now!"
Artemis took a deep breath, and took a step-
-just as Diana crossed the finish line, which was fewer than two feet from where Artemis was.
They apparently regained their sight, and Artemis saw that I had indeed been giving her the correct directions, but it was too late.
Apollo quickly extinguished the fire wall before it could incinerate Diana,
The cheers of the Romans nearly deafened me, along with the boos from the Greeks. I just stood there, looking at the physical evidence that my relationship with Artemis had completely deteriorated.
Apollo snapped, and we four contestants headed back to the golden platform. "We have our winners! Congratulations to the Romans, who started off rocky, but proved that occasionally tortoises can win the race. I'll see you all tomorrow for the thrilling finale to our contest!"
The crowd slowly disappeared, and Artemis and Diana looked at Apollo, both looking slightly (okay, majorly in Artemis's case) singed. Both of them had scorch marks on their faces, and their clothing was torn in various places.
Apollo looked at them, and he had the audacity to grin. "Good thing you didn't choose to have your daughters run, eh?"
He then disappeared before Artemis or Diana could attack him.
Heck, I wanted to take a swing.
"Can't believe he-"
"What on earth-"
"Of all the irresponsible-"
"Outrageous-"
Diana and Artemis showed no signs of completing a sentence anytime soon, so I hopped off the platform and walked to Artemis's apartment, which was either permanently unlocked, or just knew me. I'm not sure which one would be weirder.
I opened the door, and I heard a shattering sound.
Really not in the mood for robbers, I wearily poked my head inside, only to see Phoebe standing there frozen, like, figuratively.
"Phoebe?"
She apparently regained mobility, and I saw a broken vase at her feet. Her hands were bleeding.
"What happened?"
Phoebe took a deep, shuddering breath. "I'm sorry, I just, I just- I'm sorry."
I shut the door and walked over to the kitchen to a dishtowel, which I then ran under some cold water for a couple seconds.
Carefully avoiding the pieces of broken glass, I walked over to Phoebe and handed her the towel. She sat down in the armchair, and I switched it up by sitting on the couch.
I didn't say anything, just waited for her to speak (which shows I'm growing as a person. Who's reasonable now, Aemilia?!).
She wrapped her left hand. "I- I thought you… I thought you were…"
Phoebe trailed off, but my not-inactive imagination filled in the rest.
"Ares?" She nodded. "Oh, Phoebe. We have to talk."
Phoebe looked at me, and I realized that I wasn't the victim of the story.
AN: Hey, everyone! This chapter was light on the action, so, sorry about that. I hope you liked my clumsy efforts at characterization. Sorry again about the delay, but I don't even have time to read haha. Thanks to all of you who review, it means a lot, and encourages me to get off my lazy butt. For those of you having trouble imagining how the arena looked for this chapter, yeah, I don't blame you. I don't think FFN lets me put in straight links, but if you go to imgur and add "mLCf9gf" to the end, you'll see my painstaking attempt to draw it out. So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you thought, if you're so inclined. I'll update as as close to 62 reviews as I can, and it won't be a long wait!
P.S. Maybe don't go look at the picture, because it may just be terrible enough to ruin HWGA for you forever. And maybe Artemis's mistake. And possibly life in general.