Chapter 12: Bringing the troops
By noon the next day they were assembled. Apollo and Thalia were not quite satisfied with the turnout, but they decided that it was not worth the effort to convince anymore. They had spent all day yesterday asking half-bloods for their help with Artemis predicament and had at last decided they had as many as they could convince.
They stood ready next to Apollo's sun car, which had been transformed into a more suitable transportation vehicle. They had gained the help from both Annabeth and Percy, as well as Grover, who was jumping up and down at the thought of helping Artemis. The Stoll brothers were there as well as Katie Garder had come. Will Solace and two other Apollo campers had volunteered, eager to help their Aunt. And after Percy's little heckling, Clarisse La Rune had come, though she was only coming for the big fight she hoped woould occur, and no other Ares campers would volunteer, being very unfond of the hunters. And they had not even aproached the Aphrodite campers, knowing that was truly a waste of their time. Chris Rodriguez had come along as well, in order to protect Clarisse, which she rolled her eyes at.
Their bags packed and their weapons stored within, Apollo opened the bus door and the gathered group entered, taking their seats along the bus in varied intervals. The Stoll brothers were still trying to get it with Katie, as they always were. Annabeth and Percy were sitting next to each other in the middle of the bus, holding hands and whispering to one another. Clarisse and Chris were a little ways behind them, holding hands but not speaking to one another, as though they could already tell what was on the other's mind. The Apollo campers were in the front, chatting with their father, whom they had not seen for quite a while.
"Campers!" Chiron called out from outside the bus.
The campers stood up and looked out the window. Chiron stood there in centaur form with most of the cabins around him.
"I wish you all good luck and urge you to stay safe. If Apollo's words are true, then these people you will face are merciless fighters, and you should expect none from them. Be careful and look out for each other. May the gods be with you!"
The bus's engine flared to life as Chiron finished speaking. Campers all around them waved good-bye from outside, and Apollo lifted the bus into the sky, many of the campers outside turning their heads at the bright light. The bus reached a higher altitude and the group inside could see the terrain below them with perfect clarity. Camp soon vanished behind them as they soared toward the camp of the hunters. Apollo turned to Thalia, who was sitting in the first seat on the left, messing with a strand of her hair.
"Hey Thalia, want to drive?" He asked with a smirk.
Thalia gasped and shook her head profusely, still remembering her disaster several years ago, when she nearly crashed it going to Camp. Apollo drove it smoothly as ever as they crossed over mountains and streams. The forsets looked dark below them, despite the sun going right over them. Finally, Percy spoke to break the ice of silence over them.
"Hey Apollo, do you know why Orion would hate Artemis so much?"
Apollo's mood seemed to darken at the question. He looked down at his lap and brooded for a slient moment. The group behind him stared in silent tension, waiting for his answer. He finally looked up and gently sighed, flipping on the atuo-pilot, which they had no idea the vehicle had. He got up effortlessly in the movingf vehicle and took several steps back, slipping into one of the seats behind the driver seat. The newly raised group of campers got up and moved closer to his current seat, eager to listen for what the answer was. .
"Yes Percy...I think I do..."
He looked them in the eyes and began to speak.
"Do you all know exactly what happened between Artemis and Orion?"
There were some nods.
"Artemis killed Orion while he was out at sea, right?" Percy asked.
Apollo nodded, but continued.
"What you probably don't know is just why she did...it's haunted me for a while, and now...it's all my fault..."
-Boys camp-
Artemis felt herself being dragged down the path, the boys laughing and jeering all the way. How could she have been so foolish, so unaware of what my happen? Was the fact that she was an immortal goddess drowning out her caution? Artemis had always been one of the more skillfull goddess's of Olympus, but to be captured by a pack of mere boys, it was just unimaginable.
Several of the boys were having fun by poking her with their swords. Artemis gritted her teeth and refused to give a cry for them to stop or for mercy. She took courage from Lisa, who was now uncoiuncess and being brought back to the boy's camp, her body flung over the shoulder of one of the boys as he walked. If Lisa could endure all those pains that the boys inflicted on her, then Artemis, as her mistress, would follow that example. Her heart broke for Lisa, but at the very least, the boys had knocked her out and she felt nothing that was being dealt on Artemis's bare flesh.
She heard the sounds of a camp nearby, and she finally was dragged to the border of it. Boys all around her were in various activites, from cleaning their weapons to sparring to taking exercise. But all that soon stopped.
The leader of the party that captured her yelled out in a deep voice, the perfect voice for command.
"Brothers, we have success. We have captured Artemis herself!"
The boys broke from their activities and swarmed her, yelling and jostling, and each spitting or shoving her with their booted feet. Artemis endured it all without a single complaint by voice or sound, and allowed herself to be dragged into a dark tent without struggle. Artemis felt them pick her up and throw her in, probably just for show. She let out a grunt as she hit the dirt floor, and waited for them to throw in Lisa, which they did shortly afterward.
Artemis trained her eyes in the dim light and saw Lisa stir. But Artemis was scared for the girls sanity, so she willed her to sleep instead, to be lost in a hrmless state. Reality was already a nightmare, and Lisa would simply be waking up to something far worse. To Artemis relief, Lisa did not stir anymore, and lay gently breathing on the ground, the fresh blow whare one of the boys had knocked her out sill purpely fresh.
Artemis closed her eyes, desperate to reach out to her brother, but to her dismay, the celestial bronze net forbid her from using her powers. She growled in frustration and pondered what her options were, and found that they clearly were not many. She closed her eyes and waited for a new moment, for something else to present itself, for it was all she could do.
Her thoughts were interupted by footsteps and the light of day flooding into the tent. In entered two boys. Artemis recognizeed one as the leader of the party that took her, and the other she could not identify. They both stared at her with amusment.
"Just think Mikhail, of how many little boys, whose only crime was happening to spot her camp and be captured, where turned into prey animals for her enjoyment."
Mikhail, bulky boy of about fourteen, grinned down at her without a single ounce of pity.
"Yeah, I know Jason. She deserves to be torn apart and tossed into the deepest pits of Tartarus, like the rest of her little girls."
Artemis hissed in rage at that comment. Mikhail's eyebrows rasied in mock surprise.
"Oh, you disagree do you?"
"I would have the same thing done to you boys. You are all a rabble of miscreant little welps who deserve no pity or mercy when my hunters come for you!"
The two boys howled with laughter.
"Oh yeah, those little wenches. You actually think that they stand a chance against us? It would be like taking candy from a baby!"
Jason frowned.
"Kind of cliched there, Mikhail."
"I couldn't think of anything else..."
Artemis felt her rage bubble within her.
"Were you so scared of me, that you had to use a trap to capture me, instead of honorable combat? Are you boys that big of cowards?"
Jason's hand flashed forward and delivered a savage backhand blow to Artemis's cheek. She recoiled but kept her glare. Jason almost was trembling with anger.
"Don't you try to call us cowards, you miserable little bitch. You seduced Lord Orion, then waited for him to turn his back on you. And when he took exercise, the thoughts of you in his head, you killed him. If that is not cowardice, then I don't know what is. If you wanted him dead, then you should have fought him in frontal combat, the honorable way. But you struck a coward's blow."
Artemis refused to let them see the effect that comment had. Her heart strained itself under the memory of that day, but she refused to let itr show on her face. She would get Orion back, but if these boys got in her way...
Maybe there was a chance of reasoning with them however. Artemis seriously doubted it, but with her chained up and helpless, it was all she could do...
"What you are hearing of me, killing Orion, is greatly exaggerated."
Jason''s eyes flashed murderously. Mikhail took a step closer, as if he were preparing to deliver a kick to her face.
"You killed Orion when you confessed you loved him, and he returned it. Don't you try to decive us, you harpy." Jason's snarled.
"I did kill Orion, that much is true. But I did not do it deliberately."
"Oh really? So you just shot Orion through the head and thought crap, my bad!"
"No, I did not. I was tricked by my brother. I love Orion. I would not have hurt him in any way. Wasn't it you who was there at the battle recently, when you ambushed us? Jason is your name, is it not? That is what Orion called you."
"Yes Artemis that was me. It was me who defended our Lord when you were about to send him back to Hades."
"No, Jason, I was not. I was going to show him what happened, what really occured. If you had allowed me not ten more seconds, all of this would have been over with. The killing could have been over."
Jason's eyes narrowed and he put his hand on Mikhail's shoulder, pulling him back from his threatening position. He bore his eyes into Artemis's and Artemis could see into this boy, for just a moment. Artemis felt that he had been abused by someone in his life, probably a female parent, based on what he was now.
"Why would you be so interested in stoping the killing, Artemis? Sure you'd want to stop us from ripping your beloved harlots to shreds, but you say yourself you would want to see us burn in Hades."
Artemis softened her gaze, which surprised Jason.
"I spoke out of anger. I dislike men, you probably know that. But I love Orion. I would not want to see him harmed. And if you are...boy hunters...with him, then I would be inclined to allow you to leave in peace."
Mikhail snorted.
"Yeah, as jackalopes."
"No Mikhail, as perfectly normal boys. If you allow me an audience with Orion, and convince him to let me show him what happened, all of you will be allowed to go unharmed. If Orion has taken you as his brothers, then I will not harm you. But I cannot say the same for my hunters. And so I will make this appeal once. Allow me to show Orion the truth, and my hunters and myself will not harm you, should you swear not to trouble us ever again. But if you do not, then I will have no choice..."
"You are not one to be making ultimatums, considering your present state," Mikhail answered.
But Jason looked into her eyes, and Artemis responded. They stared into each other like two wolves other a dead rabbit, each one daring each other to make a move. And then Artemis saw something in Jason's eyes, something uncomprehinsible. Her lips slightly parted in understanding, and her eyes actually showed a moment of sympathy.
"You have been abused in your life, haven't you Jason."
Jason's eyes shot open at the revealed information. But he held Artemis's steely gaze firmly, and Artemis was impressed by the power of this boy's gaze, how he refused to back down from the power of her eyes. There was a hidden strength in this boy, something she understood as well...for she had seen it in her old liuetenant, her huntress in the stars, Zoe.
Mikhail noticed the flow of understanding begining to gather in the room, and laid a hand on Jason's shoulder. Jason did not acknowledge until Mikhail gently shook him.
"Jason man, you still with us?"
Jason broke his gaze with Artemis and gave Mikhail a little half-grin.
"Yeah, mikhail, I'm still very much with ya'. Go tell Lord Orion Artemis is ready to be seen whenever he's ready."
Mikhail nodded and gave a final glare at Artemis. Then he turned and walked out, the tent flapping behind him.
Jason returened his eyes to the captured goddess beneath him. Artemis stared into him for a moment longer.
"It was your mother, wasn't it?"
"That is not your concern, Artemis! What you should be concerned about is what Lord Orion will do to you."
"I do not fear Orion, I think I have made that quite clear. Now tell me, was it your mother that hurt you?"
Jason took a deep breathe. He did not like to be familirizing with a POW, but Artemis was pressing some sore wounds with a pointed tounge.
"Yes, it was my mother. And my older sister."
"And that is why you joined Lord Orion, to take revenge on the female gender for their injustice?"
Jason's eyes flashed their fierce glare.
"I joined Orion because he gave us a brotherhood. We are a family Artemis, something you would not understand."
"I quite understand Jason. I am the same way with the hunters."
"Oh sure you are. A bunch of little girls playing hunter. You would not understand what a bond between brother or sister is if it rammed itself up your ass with a ten pound hammer."
Artemis frowned at the launguage, but continued.
"No, Jason, I am quite aware of it. And I am the same way with the hunters, Jason. Our two groups are not as different from each other as you think."
Jason's eyes narrowed.
"We shall see. Orion will have you now, in due time."
He left, leaving Artemis to ponder just what the future may hold.
-Hunters Camp-
The hunters shielded their eyes from the sudden burst of light. When the rumbling stopped, they could see the sun-chariot as a large bus. The door opened and Apollo walked out, smiling at the hunters.
"Howdy there girls. I told you I would bring help."
There was no reply of rejoicing for the one bit of good news that had come to them that day. Thalia exited with Percy and Annabeth behind her. The rest of the rienforements came out afterward. Thalia looked around, scanning for Artemis.
"Where is Lady Artemis?" she asked.
There was a collective slience around her. Apollo also noticed the lack of a little sister and looked around as well. But she was nowhere in the immediate area.
"Where is Artemis?" he asked, a little more forcefully then Thalia.
"We do not know Lord Apollo. She went to retrieve a captured sister that our scouts discovered in a small camp of the boys. She said she would be back and left, but she has not returned."
Apollo's face darkened, and his eyes seemed to glow with rage. He shook from anger, and he looked around at the assorted hunters, all cringing away and begining to back up.
"She left...and NONE of you went with her!" He cried. The girls jumped back.
"She said that she would do it alone...please Lord Apollo, she told us to stay here," the hunter pleaded, her fear at Apollo's anger apparent.
Apollo seemed to calm down slightly.
"Sorry, child."
Percy and Annabeth ran up to Thalia, who explained the situation. Percy made a remark that he did not like it, as Artemis had been captured before.
"Apollo, can't you see her?" one of the hunters asked.
Apollo closed his eyes and focused, scanning for any sign of his sister. He was lord of the sun. He saw everything. But when he looked for his sister, he found nothing, as if something was shielding her from his gaze.
He roared in fury as his eyes shot open, and he turned back to his god appearence, the greek style clothing. He then began to sparkle, threatening to turn "god" on them. Then he turned back to the group.
"I must bring this up to the council. If I do not return soon, then you all are to find the camp of the boys on your own initative. And you are to free my sister, and take care of the boys in any way you see fit...do you hear me Thalia!"
Thalia gave a frienzied nod. Apollo nodded and vanished, leaving an afterimage in the minds of all who saw.
Well, the group of reinforcements have arrived and Artemis may have possibly gotten through to Jason...somewhat. Will the hunters and campers uncover the camp of Orion and free Artemis? Will Artemis free Orion of the lies he has been fed by an unkown source? We will have to wait and see...Remember to review! And any ideas you all have that you would like to tell are quite welcomed!