CHAPTER 11: THE RIDDLE OF GODS

Whassup guys, I was on a short hiatus. Things to do and all. Now, replies:

Blitzing Riptide: I sure hope it does.
jazzybizzlerocks: Thanks!
Lmb111514: Thank you! Yes, he should. Being a pawn in someone's game makes you feel pretty used.
splendid123456789: Thanks! She seems to me as a bit playful in the books, and the type to take what she wants. So I thought I would emphasize on those parts because they weren't seen much in PJO.

Well, with nothing further to bother you about, let the story begin!

Hang on... No, people, I do not own Percy Jackson. If I did, the titles of the books would be much more interesting.

I jerked back in surprise as I noticed two important things. One, we were right at the borders of Camp half blood. The second was that all around me, hunters and campers were fighting all sorts of monsters, which were surrounding both camps. You name a monster, it was there. Hydras, cyclopes, hellhounds, and many more.

Oh boy. This was one hell of a ruckus.

Chaos' POV

Chaos was troubled. He was used to the feeling. Powerful, immortal enemies and never ending fights did that to you. It was a mystery to him, how Artemis had gotten so strong. It was troubling that he had not been aware of her jump in power. Then there was the matter of how strong Perseus was now. Perseus was ready, he felt. Without the boy's knowledge, he had altered time during his training. Percy was only training with him for a week, but he had actually been training for years. Seven years, in fact. Now, all that was holding the demigod back was his old personality. In order to shield the boy all the trauma he was experiencing, he, Chaos, had changed the hero's head a tiny bit to dampen the anguish and pain of losing his parents and being exiled from Olympus by his own father. Now, he felt the boy had the strength to keep moving forward. But to regain his old self the boy would have to search for it himself.

Suddenly, his heart constricted. He felt his breath catch. Someone powerful was headed toward the boy. He tried to look at the aura, but someone was blocking him, obscuring his view of the owner of the aura. He knew through past experiences that no matter how much he tried, he would not be able to see. Stronger than a regular Olympian champion, with a power that rivalled Zeus himself, the person holding it was charging toward Perseus like a freight train. Whatever it was, he recognized its aura immediately. He had felt traces of it cling to Artemis, almost too little to notice, but he did. He had been seeking it for the longest time. It's true owner had finally made a move. Quickly, he gave some power to Perseus. He would need it. The strongest god in greek mythology had finally shown his hand.

Percy's POV

Going into battle mode, I took a quick sweep of my surroundings. Thalia and the hunters were making a circle around the hunter's camp, trying desperately to keep the monsters at bay. She had made a lightning storm and was striking as many monsters as she could while she used her spear. Her fellow hunters took out the monsters she missed with their bows, arrows and knives. Some wolves were at their sides, reinforcing certain parts of the circle. Despite their progress, any novice fighter could see they were about to be overrun. There were just too many monsters. Camp Half Blood wasn't doing any better, either. Even with the barrier to protect them, the sheer number of monsters must have weakened the barrier, so although monsters were kept at bay, some managed to break through, giving the campers guarding the borders a bad time. I could see Nico inside, fighting. He had raised some undead, and although they disposed of some monsters, there were many more to kill. From how pale his face was, I could tell Nico couldn't raise anymore.

I jumped beside Thalia, reinforcing the position on her right. She nodded toward me in gratitude. Quickly, I asked her the question that had been bugging me since I had woken up.

"Thalia! Where is Artemis? We could really use some god power on our side."

"She's taking care of their boss, Percy." She said, not looking at me. She frowned, and another lightning bolt hit a cyclops and his friends, frying them alive.

Hades! She was getting scary!

"Where are they?"

"She lured him somewhere else to fight." She groaned, her overuse of powers starting to take its toll on her.

Then, I noticed something. Some of the campers and hunters were getting distracted, like something was bothering them. A camper shook his head as if to clear it, and almost paid for it when an empousa almost took his arm off with her claws. They were fighting, but frowning like something was in their head, taking their attention away bit by bit. Instantly, I knew this was the work of a god.

I relaxed, and made myself feel for energy. I found a tendril of energy and quickly latched on to it, following it right to its source. It was an oak, close enough to see the battle, but far enough to avoid it. Riptide carved a path of death through the demons to a tree near Camp Half Blood. Strangely, monsters saw me but refused to go near the oak. I looked around the oak, Riptide in hand.

And that was when I saw the most familiar figure. He was familiar because of his face- faces, actually. Still dressed in his long black overcoat and shiny shoes, with his black top hat on his head, he looked just the same as before. But something was off. His face- both his faces now looked even more menacing. Even his right face, which was supposed to be the jolly happy one.

"Perseus Jackson! You look well!" started his right face, grinning a smile that you could find on an alligator.

"You look horrible." his left face said, frowning.

"Janus." I nodded my head in greeting, making sure I kept my wariness out of my voice.

"Why are you here, distracting my side in their battle?"

"I choose not to answer!" his right side shouted.

"We do not answer to the likes of you, demigod." His left side snarled.

I could not see their expressions, only the sides of their heads, but from the last encounter we had, I had some idea on how to interrogate him. I decided to put it into action.

"You know, there was some damage on Olympus when the titans attacked a while back, and Lady Hera needs doors to replace the broken ones."

I immediately saw his right face flinch, and his left face twitch.

"They're running out of trees to cut and may need to use transformed doors to make up for-"

"Lady Hera will be gone and faded very soon." Uttered Janus' left face, in a voice mixed with menace and hatred.

The sudden change of tone made me think someone else had said it and had almost made me look around. Janus did not give me a chance to ask him what he meant. Turns out I didn't need to.

Janus right face started giggling hysterically, shouting "Yes! Yes! Faded!". The laugh sent shivers down my spine. He sounded exactly like smeagol from that ring movie.

I took a step back, involuntarily.

"That's right, Perseus. You have every right to be scared." Janus' left face spoke, smiling.

" This time, the Olympians fight an enemy they can never win. Settle your affairs, demigod. Your days are numbered."

Janus' turned his left face to me, his right face still laughing madly. I saw Janus' left face, full on. It was a face in a deep snarl, with eyes that radiated evil intent.

"I was never respected much. Now, I will have your fear in compensation!"

Janus started giving off a sinister aura. A powerful one. One a minor god should not have. Fear bottled in my stomach, but I clamped it down.

"Who gave you this power?" I half asked, half shouted.

A golden portal appeared in front of him. I realized what he was about to do. I quickly stepped forward, but he was too quick. Snarling some words at me, he disappeared into it. What? I didn't even have time to stop him.

Turning around, I quickly recovered and turned my attention back to the monsters. With Janus gone, they seemed to start coming toward where I was. With some time elapsed, I saw that the crowd of monsters were getting lesser, but there were still a large number.

However, Janus' last words echoed in my head. I am not the only god with two faces, godling.

I portaled back to the hunters, and made my way to Thalia.

The circle of hunters around camp had not been broken, but it was just a matter of time. I looked at the entire campsite. I figured I could portal the tents, wolves and the hunters into Camp Half Blood, but I knew it would seriously drain me.

I did a little test run. Concentrating, I created a giant horizontal black portal over the tents, then sent it crashing down. The tents disappeared under the portal, to somewhere I hoped was Camp Half Blood. I felt a second portal open up above where the campfire was when I was a camper, and deposit the tents there.

"Thalia!"

"A bit busy now, Perce."

"I noticed. Look, I can portal you guys to Camp Half Blood.

"Are you sure? What about the wolves?" Thalia asked.

"They can come, but we need to hurry."

I opened a sphere black portal the size of a cabinet where the tents used to be and told Thalia to make the circle smaller until all we could jump into it without exposing our backs for too long.

Slowly, painfully, we drew backwards, until we were a mere few inches in the portal. When the last hunter jumped in, I fell into my own portal, seeing the inky blackness of a dark tunnel, and finally emerging out into Camp Half Blood, falling flat on my face on a tent. Gahhhhhhhhhh. Bad luck Perseus.

I got up, alone, on a pile of tents. The moment the hunters had dropped here, they must've rushed to reinforce the borders. By now, there was like, what, a hundred monsters left? I flashed to the border, right beside Thalia, who yelped when she saw me. Then I realised I had landed right between Nico and Thalia. Nico glared at me while Thalia frowned and opened her mouth to say something. What she was gonna say, I'll never know.

A blinding golden energy hit the wave of monsters. From the force of the impact, I was sure the hooligans were dead. The energy scorched the ground black, making a small crater in the middle. As the golden glow disappeared, I tried to inspect the aftermath. The smell of sulphur was suffocating. The ground was charred black and radiated the golden, energy. The gold energy looked innocent but there was a sort of sinister aura about it. Then a golden portal appeared. It looked exactly like the one Janus had stepped escaped in. But it was not Janus who stepped out.

It was a figure somewhat familiar, but he was definitely not an Olympian. I was about to thank him for saving our sorry arses, when I realised there was someone lying in the crater. Not just anyone. Artemis.

Fear exploded in my belly. Flashing toward the crater, I tried to see how badly she was injured. Her eyes were shut, and her pale skin a bit burnt. Her auburn hair was in in messed up, and she was not moving. My heart dropped. Suddenly, her eyes opened wide, and the next thing I knew, she was already standing.

"Artemis! Are you okay?"

I was vaguely aware that the hunters were already around her, along with some campers.

"I am. Be ready!" She shouted to her hunters, drawing her knives out of nowhere and turning to face somebody. The hunters turned and readied themselves, while I looked at who she was turning to. In my worry, I had neglected the figure.

Finally, it hit me. The energy blast had not been intended for the monsters, but Artemis.

Now, with the figure walking closer, I could finally see his face. One I never thought I would see again. He had died in the war against Kronos, and I thought I had given him some peace.

Despite the fact that he was supposed to be dead, he looked well. Some deep cuts covered his body, but otherwise, he looked fine.

His eyes gave off a slight gold light, and his body radiated a gold aura. It felt like the same energy Janus had, but even more. So much of the power radiated off him, giving off an immensely sinister energy. I felt like I just wanted to curl up and die. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw some campers and hunters frown, like they wanted to do the same.

"I-" I tried to begin. I could only manage a stutter.

"E- Ethan?"