Here we go with Chapter 11

This story is making much faster progress than I had originally envisioned. Hopefully I can keep up at this pace, but if not, I will update at least once a week, probably more.

The main reason I don't promise daily updates isn't because of time, it's just that some days, I don't feel like writing. Trying to force myself to write would just lead to a lower quality story so don't be surprised if I take a day or three off sometimes. I only do it to assure the highest quality writing I can put out.

Anyways, here goes.

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or the associated books.

Zoë POV

I had terrible nightmares. Phobetor, a son of Nyx and the personification of nightmares, visited my dreams and made me see terrible things.

I saw Percy. He had metal poles entering the soles of his feet and exciting through his shoulders. The poles were stuck in the ground and Percy was screaming in pain. I tried to help him, but I couldn't move. I was forced to watch as a fire was started below him and he slowly burned to death, screaming in agony the whole time, staring into my eyes.

The dream changed and showed me Artemis. She was slowly running through the forest. She had ball weights attached to her ankles, slowing her down. Eventually, she tired and collapsed on the ground and I could see what was chasing her. Several of the vilest men that I had helped her hunt down while I worked with her caught up with her. They did terrible things to her that will probably never leave me. Once again, I could only watch as this happened, while Artemis stared into my eyes.

Finally, the scene faded away and in front of me was Phobetor. He told me that I could save the people I cared about from these cruel fates. All I had to do was join with my mother instead of fighting against her. She would spare my friends and give me power. I refused to join my mother and he sent me back to my nightmares. Finally, after I don't know how long, I awoke.

I tried to sit up, but the pain in my stomach as well as someone's strong arms, kept me lying down. I opened my eyes and tried to take in my surroundings. I was lying on soft ground in a forest. It appeared to be daytime; I wasn't sure what time though. Before I could take in more about my surroundings, I saw Percy. It was such a relief to see he him alive and well after my nightmares, that I ignored his protests, sat up and hugged him.

I didn't want to admit it, but Phobetor had really gotten to me. The things he had shown me were terrible. I was so relieved that it really had just been a terrible dream that a few tears of joy slipped out. I could tell Percy was worried, but I didn't care. I held him tight and promised to never let him suffer the way I had been shown. The fact was, the threat of hurting Percy just made me want to destroy Nyx and prevent her rise even more.

After a minute or two had passed, I was able to speak again. "Percy, I'm glad you're okay."

He pulled away from me and looked at me funny, "You're glad I'M okay? I woke up and found you almost dead at the feet of Hyperion and YOU'RE glad that I'M okay? You scared me Zoë. I was worried sick about you and I must say, I'm glad that YOU are okay. It was a close call also, if Apollo hadn't been around, you would probably have died."

I was a little surprised by his outburst. I tried to think back on what had happened and I vaguely remembered the sun rising and a tree exploding. Then I remembered that it was Hyperion's tree. Oh gods. No wonder Percy was so worried about me. Then I thought about what he had said. "Wait. What happened to Hyperion? And what do you meant when you say it was lucky Apollo was around? What happened?"

Percy grinned at me, "Well, it's good to see you're feeling better now. As for what happened, I woke up to an explosion, went to check it out, and saw you injured with Hyperion about to kill you. That made me mad, so I kicked Hyperion's sorry butt, saw how badly injured you were, and freaked out because I thought you were going to die. Then I realized that the sun had just risen so Apollo would be around. I allowed him to feel my presence and called him down. He agreed to heal you if I answered some of his questions, so now he knows who we are, what our job is, and that Nyx is rising. He healed you and looked like he was going to bombard you with questions as soon as you awoke, so I teleported us away from him before he could get a chance."

By watching him as he told me what had happened, I could tell he had been really scared for me and that made me feel bad. I couldn't believe I had gotten so distracted I didn't notice Hyperion's tree was about to explode. My worrying about Nyx had nearly gotten me killed and broken Percy all over again. That made me feel terrible.

Percy seemed to notice I was feeling guilty, because he gave me another hug and whispered soothing words to calm me down. I mostly tuned out his talking because I was completely distracted by his hug. I realized that I was really falling on love with him. The thought scared me, but at the same time it comforted me. I knew that Percy would never hurt me the way Hercules had. Percy knew what betrayal feels like and I know he would never inflict such pain upon another, what me was the fact that I had no clue how he really felt about me. I didn't want to push him and risk losing him. He was probably more wary about love than I was.

I looked into his eyes and was mesmerized. I felt like I could stare into them forever. Eventually, I remembered that we had been having a conversation about how much I had worried him. "I'm sorry Percy. I didn't mean to worry you." I looked down, but he still held me.

"No, no. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made you feel bad and ranted about how worried I was. When we first got here, you woke up for a few seconds before passing out again. This time though, it seemed you were having nightmares. You kept crying out, but I couldn't understand what you were saying. I was afraid you weren't going to wake up though, and I couldn't stand that thought."

When he finished talking, he looked nervous for some reason. He had appeared worried most of the time, but as soon as he finished, he was suddenly nervous. "What is it Percy? What aren't you telling me? I can tell you are holding something back." When I said that, he blushed.

He tried to look away and tell me it was nothing, but when he blushed, I had gotten excited and wondered if maybe, just maybe, he liked me as much as I liked him. So I pushed him.

He was still blushing and trying to look away, but he did respond, "It's just that, there is uh, something I need to tell you and I was um, worried I might not ever get the chance to tell you…" He trailed off and I couldn't hear him anymore.

I grabbed his head and made him look at me, "Percy, I can't understand you when you stutter and trail off. Look at me when you are talking to me, and tell me what you need to say." I was getting a little impatient and demanding, but I needed to know what he was trying to say.

He blushed even more at that and tried to talk, but didn't have much success. He stuttered and mumbled and nothing came out. I groaned in frustration, "Our with it already!" I demanded.

He looked at me and sighed. He seemed to be gathering his courage to speak and trying to figure out how to say what he wanted to say. Finally, he took a deep breath, looked me right in the eye and said, "Zoë, I think I love you."

Percy POV

Crap, I thought. I had just told Zoë that I loved her. I mean, yeah, she practically forced me to say it, but I had no clue how she would react. She had spent 2000 years hating all men because of Hercules, and although she liked me, I was scared I had overstepped our friendship with my confession. Now, she was just sitting there staring at me with wide eyes. I figured she was going to blow up and start yelling at me about how men were terrible creatures and such, but instead she just sat there stunned.

After about a minute though, a smile spread across her gorgeous face. "Really?" She asked me. I just nodded, not trusting myself to speak. Suddenly, she tackled me with a hug, catching me completely off guard. I fell onto my back with her lying on top of me.

I blushed at our position and smiled sheepishly at her as she stared at me. She then leaned down and gave me a kiss.

Stars exploded in my mind and I stopped being able to think. I just lay there with my arms around her and her face resting on mine.

She lifted her head up a little and said, "I love you too, Percy. I never thought I would be able to love again, and to be honest it still scares me, but after you helped me come back to life, I realized that I really do love you."

I grinned at her and hugged her tighter. I kissed her and we lay there on the ground for who knows how long, just enjoying being with each other. After a while, I realized that she had fallen asleep again.

Thalia POV

It was early morning. We were camped out in the woods of northern part of New York. While we were eating breakfast, lady Artemis had been up on Olympus, trying to se if anybody had any information that might be useful to us in our search for signs of a primordial rising.

Just as we were finishing breakfast, Lady Artemis flashed in. She looked like she had learned something of use for our search, but the panicked and confused look worried me a little. After several seconds, she looked at us all and spoke, "No hunting today. Just stick around and train. Tomorrow I will be gone to Olympus for another meeting. Thalia, you will be in charge of then hunters while I am gone. No demigods are allowed at this meeting." She then walked slowly away towards the forest.

The other hunters appeared to be a little confused about Artemis's behavior, so I cleared my throat to get their attention and spoke, "You heard our mistress. Clean up breakfast and go train. As for me, I will go talk to Artemis and see what I can learn." I then walked out and headed towards where I had last seen Artemis walking.

Several minutes into my walk, I came into a clearing. I looked around and saw Artemis sitting on a log near the boundary of the clearing. I walked over to her and sat down.

Without looking at me, she spoke, "Thalia, I believe I told you all to train, so why are you here?"

I sighed, "My lady, I can tell that something is wrong. What did you learn on Olympus and what is tomorrow's meeting about? As a huntress and your lieutenant, it is my duty to serve you and help you, I can't do either of those properly if you are not willing to tell me what troubles you."
She looked around the clearing. Making sure there were no other listeners before turning to me, "Fine. I will tell you what happened, but first you must swear not to tell anyone else."

I swore on the Styx not to tell anyone. Artemis then told me what Apollo had told my father. The story surprised me. I guess after watching the two people fight off Kampê and an army of monsters, I thought they were indestructible. To hear that one of them almost died was rather shocking.

It also made me wonder, "Lady Artemis, did Apollo give you any hints as to who the people are? You said that he knows who they are but wouldn't tell. Did he happen to drop any hints as to their identities? And are they really trustworthy? Just because they claim that Nyx is rising, that doesn't mean it's true, does it?"

After asking my questions, she looked a little bit guilty for some reason. After several minutes had passed, she answered me, "The two are trustworthy. If they claim that Nyx is rising, I believe them. As for who they are, Apollo pulled me aside after the short meeting and informed of their identities. Once he told me who they were, I understood why they wanted to have it remain a secret."

Great. Artemis knew who they were, but wasn't telling me. I really wanted to know, but I didn't want to anger her. I was curious though. She said that she trusted them both, not just the woman. I wasn't aware of any boys who she would trust though. I finally decided to ask her, if she got mad at me, hopefully it wouldn't be too bad. "My lady, by any chance, could you tell me who the two are? I would rather like to know, especially since you seem to trust the man."

When I mentioned her trust in the man, she got a panicked look on her face, as if I had trapped her or something. After a little bit she sighed, "I cannot tell you the identity of the man because Apollo made me swear on the Styx not to tell anyone. As for who the woman is, I do not know if I should tell you, it might just cause problems. However, I can tell from your face that you won't let me go unless I tell you, so if you really want to know, then I will inform you of who she is."

I grinned when she said that she would tell me who the woman is, although the idea that it might just cause problems was a little worrisome. "Please, My Lady, tell me. I would like to know."

She sighed and responded, "Zoë Nightshade."

I gasped and nearly fell off the log in shock. "Wha- bu- but, that's impossible!" I cried out, "She died. I was there when it happened, and as you said, as long as her constellation is in the sky, so is her spirit. How can the woman be Zoë?"

Artemis looked down and said, "I do not know how she came back to life, but Apollo said that in order to prevent people from worrying, she asked that her constellation remain in the sky after she was revived. And I do know that she died. I was also there when it happened. Now she is back though, and travelling the world with a man. I have a feeling that she may be in love with him. Before you ask, remember that I cannot tell you who he is. If you really want to know, ask my obnoxious brother."

I couldn't believe this. Zoë was alive again, and on top of that, she was with a man whom Artemis believes she loves. None of this was making sense. No wonder Artemis appeared to be out of it. This all left me more curious about whom the man was, though. I needed to find out. Someway, somehow, I would figure out who he was.

Zak POV (one of the demigods that Percy saved)

I couldn't believe it. I always knew that the man who had saved me was strong, but when the immortal counselors told us what he had done to Kampê and her army, I was amazed. Ever since I had gotten to camp and learned that I was a son of Enyo, a minor war goddess, I had trained to be as strong as the guy that had saved me. He was my hero. Everyone else looked up to the Percy Jackson dude, who I guess was cool enough and all, but the guy who saved me and brought me to camp, I just knew he was even cooler than Percy.

Anyways, I had gotten so strong since I came to camp that when they were talking about checking up on titan prisons and such, I was one of the campers who got to go help check out some of them. The immortal campers separated into three groups. My group was going to check out the eastern half of the country. Our first stop was to go check out the maple tree Hyperion was trapped in. Apparently Percy had worn him down and weakened him so much that the satyr's had been able to imprison him. That was cool, but the guy who had saved me could probably have beaten him without the help of the satyr's.

Well, you can imagine our surprise when we finally got to the park only to find a massive crater where the tree was supposed to be. This must have been a recent event because it was right below Olympus and they would have told us if they had known that Hyperion had been freed. We were about to send a message up to the gods when one of the gods flashed down in front of us.

I looked and it was Apollo. We all bowed and our groups leader, Annabeth, started telling Apollo what we had found here. Before she could get too far into her story though, he raised his hand to silence her.

"Yeah, yeah, Hyperion was freed. We know. He was also defeated so don't worry. He is now in Tartarus. You see,

The cloaked man beat him

To save his pretty girlfriend

And now he is gone

See, I even wrote a haiku about it." We all clapped so we wouldn't offend the god, but his haiku sucked.

Annabeth spoke up, "When you say the cloaked man beat him, do you mean the mystery man we have been wondering about?"

Apollo raised an eyebrow, "Yes I do mean him. The tree exploded injuring his girlfriend, so he battled Hyperion and sent him to Tartarus. He then sent me a message and I healed his girlfriend in exchange for information."

That was great. I always knew the guy was strong, and now he had defeated a titan that not even Percy had beaten alone. This guy was AWESOME. I was practically jumping with excitement. I really wanted to meet him again so I could thank him and ask him to give me some tips on fighting and getting stronger.

After that, Apollo left without giving us any more information. That annoyed Annabeth, but she couldn't do anything against the gods, so we moved on to our next destination.

Finished. That took me a while to type. I took a day off from writing this story and had a bit of trouble writing this. Hopefully it was good.

I will try to post at least one more chapter this week, but if not I will have one posted by Sunday at the latest.

Somebody asked me about writing more stories. I do not currently have any other stories planned. If I get inspiration for another story, I will write one, but I will also probably limit myself to one story at a time. Once I finish this story, I will see how I feel about writing another.

If you have suggestions for another story, send me a message.

If you want to let me know how I did with this chapter, give me suggestions for future chapters, or tell me POV's you want in this story, leave a review or PM me.

Thank you all for reading.