A/N

I fell too far into the mass effect genre and honestly kinda lost a lot of interest in PJO at the beginning of the summer, then as I was about to get back into it I really messed up my hand at work so typing was impossible and then slowly just moved up to really tough. I apologize for how long it's been, but this is just a hobby to me and it's been too difficult to type until about a week or two ago when I began this chapter. I jumped a little again here, but fuck it - I want to move on in books and I'm sure most of you reading this know the Nearus scene all too well.

I'm back at school, so I can't promise consistency on updates (though to be fair, when have I ever really been able to do that) but will try my best to adhere to the former bi-weekly standard I tried to set.

Now here, take your chapter before I die for 4 months again.

Chapter 13

Revelations

The Spartans continued to follow the Olympian quest after their engagement at the Hoover Dam. Naturally, their cover had been blown, and though they still stuck to the shadows they were painfully aware of the more frequent glances the quest members now shot to their surroundings. With this said, however, there was no malice or fear coming from any of the glances but rather simple curiosity. Percy couldn't blame them, were he in their position he'd be just as confused as they looked - especially his half-brother.

Over the course of their trailing spanning from the quest's encounter with Nereus to their current placement at the base of the new Mount Othrys, his fellow son of Poseidon had been constantly slipping into deep fits of contemplation. Percy knew it was likely about him, the boy undoubtedly knew he was a son of Poseidon but he knew that there was no possible way he could know who. Soon enough he would have to reveal himself to the boy and attempt to win him to their cause, but he recognized that his connections to friends would be difficult to work around. Killing children was beneath him, but if it was for the good of the war effort perhaps he could send some of the new recruits to get the job done and have his conscience clear of it. A decision for later, but an important one.

The Satyr had been dispatched back to their camp, but as Percy sat and observed the remaining quest members he pondered the options he might have in regards to the other demigods. It was unlikely the daughter of Athena would be turned, but the spawn of Zeus seemed to carry a slight begrudging in her actions that spoke of an anger to her current superiors. Percy decided he would keep an eye on her and make the call. Certainly, one thing that was blatantly obvious was that the party leader in the form of Zoe inspired no more sense of loyalty in her soldiers.

The huntress had become quite the interesting study. Since he had encountered her at the dam Percy had watched her attitude change from its formerly egotistical perch to one lacking in confidence and full of constant contemplation. He knew he was likely the cause for it, and a small part of him even hoped that maybe she had worked out who he was. If she did, then their next confrontation might be a bit more interesting - and that was something he was looking forward to.

Yet, at the thought of fighting her to the death, a weak part of him shook its head in non-compliance and he scowled at the notion. His old soft spots were getting the better of him far too often around her, and he didn't like it. He had spent generations mastering the curse of feelings, seen countless number of his closest companions fall in the name of his cause and had learned to subdue the pain. And yet he knew that unless his cause rested on it, the concept of killing this damned demi titan was one he would continue to struggle with.

Perhaps he might be able to sway her. He knew his men would hate it, but he could tell she didn't know as much as she thought she did about the hunt. He would get to the bottom of whether or not she took place in the tragedies the hunt committed towards his people, and from there he would elect which path he needed to follow with this. As the son of Poseidon watched the quest make its way into the garden of the Hesperides, however, he decided the time for thinking was over and ordered his men forward. Percy was sure he would be able to get his men up, but what they would find at the top of this mountain accompanying the titan Atlas was anyone's guess.

The Spartans made their approach to the garden of the Hesperides carefully and without sound, using hand signals to communicate in an effort to avoid detection. Unfortunately, this became slightly impossible when the Hesperides appeared seemingly from thin air in front of the prince and he ordered his men to a halt. After a quick check to make sure his weapons were all where they should be and ready to be drawn, he approached the 4 figures standing in front of him to engage in diplomacy.

"Lady Hesperides, surely you would not trouble yourselves over a few more pilgrims up this lovely mountain of yours?" The prince questioned sarcastically, his amusement at the notion prevalent on the tone of his voice even from its location buried beneath his face mask.

The confidence he seemed to carry himself with was not lost on the four demi-titans before him, and they all took pause to look at one another before the tallest among them spoke.

"The former party was a small inconvenience that shall soon be dealt with, I suggest you turn back while you still can." The lead Hesperide spoke with an arrogance clearly telling of her privileged ego, and largely confident in the powers that backed her.

Percy sighed before drawing his blade and slicing it across her neck before she could blink. The garden guardian was on the ground gurgling before she could even register what had happened, her sisters quickly falling to her sides to try and aid her hopeless figure. It truly was a pity, but Percy had no time for bandying words at the moment and their banter would have taken far too much of an effort. He motioned his men forward as he sheathed his blade, not bothering to trouble himself with the other daughters of Atlas in their distraught states.

The true challenge to crossing the garden was sitting ahead of them wrapped dutifully around the tree of the golden apples of immortality that so many over the ages had tried and failed to reach. The great hundred-headed drake known as Ladon was truly a monster to behold and one whose slayer would be granted much glory, but as with the Hesperides, Percy did not have time to tangle with the creature in what would inevitably be a very long battle.

For this, he looked to Alekos and Cletus. Of the men he had brought with him they had proven themselves to be his greatest and most powerful warriors in their own right, and the chemistry their shared genes brought them was rivalled by few in the battlefield. He did not expect them to slay the creature, but simply to buy the other Spartans enough time to get around it and then regroup with them when possible. He knew the sons of Ares would die for him in a heartbeat, but no matter how much he and his morals had changed over the years he was still a leader who always wanted to get as many of his men out alive as he could.

As he placed a hand on each of their shoulders, Alekos smiled faintly and Cletus gave a solemn nod. The brothers drew their weapons in unison and awaited his final instructions.

"Hold it off for us to cross, escape and regroup when you can." He didn't wait for a reply as he walked past them both to regroup with Flavian and Baruch, but he heard their battle cries as they moved to engage the hundred-headed beast.

The remaining trio of Spartans skirted around the edges of the garden as the fight unfolded, not able to spare more than a few quick glances at the battle as the sons of Ares held their own against a beast of the highest legends. They made it to the other side in a reasonable time and proceeded to keep running up the mountain. It made Percy flinch when he heard a cry of pain echo across the garden, but he knew he couldn't stop and turn around.

The trek up the mountain was a long one, and it seemed as though the winds themselves were working against the Spartans as they continued to ascend its winding paths. Surprisingly they came across no sentries posted, which surprised the experienced soldiers greatly. Surely this must have been the lair of the Titans that most were fairly confident were rising again now, yet they had no monsters standing guard? The whole situation made the men uneasy, and Percy gave a quick order with his hand for them to be on their guard as they continued on.

Upon reaching the top, the air seemed to grow a bit thicker. While this was not uncommon at mountain tops, the cause for this change seemed to linger over them like a dark and imposing presence rather than anything the nature of the human body could describe. No, the supernatural vibes cast by this location were the weighing factors here and Percy knew it.

The members of the quest became visible as they pressed further into the mountain's top and the prince raised his hand to signal a stop.

"Spread out and take up positions as you see fit, if I engage then one of you will join the fight, if not you will do nothing. If the fight looks like a losing battle, you are to take my half brother and escort him to safety. These are your orders, go." He ordered curtly, and the remaining Spartans nodded before doing as they were bid.

Percy himself took position behind a large rock and began to strain his ears to listen in on the conversation being held in front of him.

" - not have come here, it's a trap!" He managed to make out the words of a strained female voice, though, which one he could not say. Likely Artemis, which caused him to grind his teeth in annoyance.

"She is, sadly for you, correct my little traitor." A deeper more pronounced voice came to speak up from the shadows of the mountain peak. Percy didn't need to see the man before he recognized the voice as belonging to Atlas, 'The General'.

The scrambling and drawing of weapons were clearly distinguishable following this arrival, and Percy was sure the Titan would have brought reinforcements. Sure enough as he peeked over the rock, there were a number of cyclops' and dracanea, as well as a blonde younger man who Percy recognised from the meeting he'd interrupted between Atlas and Cyrus, and finally Cyrus himself.

The quest members were clearly outnumbered by great odds, and if the fight ahead were to proceed as it was he knew the Olympian quest would fail. This meant that before him lay two choices, both with their own difficulties. Of course, he did not want to aid the quest in letting Artemis escape but at the same time, the Titan's were the true threat right now. His personal vendetta against the goddess of the hunt was driving him to do nothing more than observe the fight, but he knew that duty demanded he join the fight against the Titan forces.

Perhaps he could make things work out so that Artemis remained under the sky and Atlas was vanquished, but he reckoned this to be unlikely. For now, he would simply wait to hear what Atlas had to say, then he would act accordingly. As luck would have it, it was the blonde demigod who gave Percy what he needed to hear instead of the titan.

"When lord Kronos rises all will fall before him. Thalia, Annabeth, it's not too late to join us!" The demigod had weaved a tone of pleading into his voice, but Percy could tell rather quickly just how forced and fabricated it was.

"Go to Hades Luke, you damn traitor!" The daughter of Zeus was quick to respond. It seemed she had not bought it either.

One word was now the focus of Percy's thoughts, one dreaded word. Kronos, the Titan king himself. If he was rising, or had risen already, then Percy had no time to waste in mobilizing his troops. This presented great problems and made his course unfortunately clear. Artemis could wait, his focus now had to be the Titans. And who knew, as an added bonus maybe he'd finally be able to rid the world of the turncloak Cyrus for good.

Percy leaned out enough to observe the exchange he'd been blocking out slightly, and he saw a group of telekhines had now run up behind Atlas to add to what seemed like his personal monster guard. The question was, where had they come from, and why had they just joined now? The Spartan tried to look around behind them for a hidden entrance, but he could see none. He made a mental note to keep an eye out for it so as to avoid being flanked as he rose from his position and made his way out of hiding.

" - going to enjoy killing you, little traitor." He heard Atlas finish his sentence, and he decided he'd comment in humour to bolster his entrance.

"It seems this is a day for killing traitors then! Did you hear that Cyrus?" Percy called out while drawing his blade and bringing forth his shield.

Every individual on the mountain had turned to look at him then, and he laughed at the almost cheesy movie effect it seemed to cause. "Don't let me interrupt you, please, by all means, proceed with your lovely dialogue."

His amusement was only heightened when Cyrus attempted to lunge at him in rage, but the other Spartan was held back by the firm grip of the titan of endurance. Atlas had a curious look on his face, which was put in stark contrast to the deer-in-headlights look his daughter was giving the Spartan prince. Indeed she had even lowered her bow slightly when he came into vision - it seemed she finally had figured out something about him. He smirked at the thought as he looked at Atlas expectedly, awaiting a response.

"You are brave Spartan, that I shall give you. Now, however, it seems that bravery will die on this mountain alongside these Olympian pawns." The titan shook his head in apparent bewilderment before continuing. "You surprise me, why should you of all Greeks wish to work against us? You should be spearheading our cause."

Percy laughed a little and shook his head in partial agreement before responding.

"You're not wrong Atlas, but while I'd love to see Olympus fall I also recognize that the rule of the Titans would be no better. You'd have me be the forefront of a dark age the world hasn't even seen under Olympian rule, what good would that be for the people of this world, or what's left of mine?" His words were wreathed in an underlying bitter edge that intertwined with the more prevalent venom placed in the statements.

"And what of the people? Why should you care for them? Yours will be taken care of well enough I assure you, if you join our cause you will become far more than just a forgotten prince. You will ascend to heights unchallengeable, our Lord will carve a kingdom out just for you in appreciation of your assistance!" Atlas spoke with a diplomat's tongue, but it lacked the experience of a true weaver of words and was cursed to fall on deaf ears from the beginning regardless.

"I will never serve Kronos." Percy spat, his defiance clearly unwavering.

Atlas for his part looked genuinely troubled by this for a moment before he simply sighed and shook his head.

"Then it seems you are cursed to die this day Perseus of Sparta, I will take pleasure in finally being able to snuff out the line of kings from that wretched city once and for all."

Percy heard a loud gasp coming from the direction of the Olympian party when his name was given as well as a scream of 'impossible', but he didn't have time for that right now. Atlas had made ready his weapons and was looking at the demigod Spartan expectantly.

"Fight me if you dare boy, perhaps you'll be able to give me a small challenge." The titan mocked.

Percy looked around the area once to ensure Baruch and Flavian were in position, then charged before anyone else could say a word.

~Zoe POV~

Since talking with the hooded rogue leader at the Hoover Dam Zoe had begun to heighten in her suspicions and had lost sleep many nights pondering the multitude of 'what ifs' that plagued her already troubled thoughts. What if it was him? The man that had saved her in more ways than one all those years ago that she had so recklessly abandoned in favour of the sisterhood that was the hunt. Was it possible that he was still alive?

She had until now come to the conclusion that no, it couldn't be him, but rather perhaps a descendant. She had berated herself for getting lost in such false hope so ridiculously, reminding herself that Artemis had told her that Hades had confirmed the prince to be dead long ago. She had then proceeded to try to convince herself that hope should not have been the thought in her head, as the only man she had ever cared for had also gone on to become one of Olympus' most hated enemies of the past.

Her emotion had been at war with her discipline, and following the heated exchange that raged across all fronts of her mindset the conflict's resultant effect had simply turned to sadness and regret. She regretted not staying with Perseus all those years ago, but she also knew she loved her life in the hunt, and she couldn't have had one without the other. She had finally been able to put down this silly conflict in her mind with the reasoning of the past being the past triumphing over the plethora of other rampant thoughts more recently, that is until she had just heard her father call the man in front of her Perseus of Sparta, last of the line of kings.

She couldn't help the clearly audible gasp that escaped her mouth when she heard it, it simply couldn't be possible and yet now that it was confirmed it all made too much sense. A million emotions rushed to her at once - these ones ten times more strengthened than before, but she was snapped out of it by the strained scream of 'impossible' that echoed from a voice that could only belong to her mistress.

Zoe, you must do everything in your power to kill the Spartan! She felt her mistress cry urgently out into her mind, but she didn't have time to respond before she saw Perseus charge into battle with Atlas.

She blinked once, not really believing anybody to be so reckless, then quickly made ready for the battle the prince had likely just kicked off. Within seconds the monsters in the room had begun to charge forward along with the blonde demigod that had spoken before and the man Perseus had addressed as Cyrus. Zoe fired off a rapid stream of arrows into the mix, each finding their targets in the foreheads and torsos at least 3 dracanea and 1 cyclops. As the monsters struck collapsed into golden dust she set her sites on the battles of her allies to see where she could help.

Annabeth was slowly being backed into a corner, her knife doing little to stop some of the telekhines that had begun pouring out seemingly from the walls of the mountain. Theseus was handling himself well enough in the face of a number of dracanea and a cyclops but it was clear that eventually he would be overwhelmed. Thalia was putting up the greatest fight of her survivors but the traitor luke castellan had chosen to engage her and because of this she seemed far too distracted. Things were looking grim for the Olympian quest, and try as she may Zoe simply couldn't think of a way out of this mess.

Then suddenly like a gift from the gods themselves arrows began to take monsters out one by one in rapid succession all over the demigods giving them a chance to breathe. Zoe turned to look for the archer and didn't know if she was relieved or on edge at the fact that they were, in fact, two of Perseus' hooded soldiers coming out from the shadows. One was clearly the archer while the other carried a spear and bronze shield bearing what looked to be a red lambda on its front.

There was no denying it, they were Spartans. Zoe had so many questions, but she had no time to ponder them for the minute the two Spartans jumped into the battle the monsters had regrouped and were coming back at them in force. Zoe engaged the nearest monsters she could see, one unlucky telekhine and a dracanea, but looked off to watch Perseus' fight for a moment.

The demigod son of Sparta and Titan of endurance were a blur of motion as they went blow for blow with each other in their great battle. At one point it would seem like the Spartan held the edge somehow, then quickly it would shift to Atlas. It was clear Perseus had expanded his skills over the years, but she knew even in her own immortal age she could not stand for long with a titan. The performance was extraordinary.

That was until the blur's stopped altogether, and in their place stood atlas with his spear having pierced Perseus' lower abdomen. The prince looked surprised for a minute, it was clear he had not expected the blow and had been caught unprepared, but he stayed standing nonetheless staring up defiantly at the titan as the immortal twisted his spear.

Zoe didn't know why, as her mistress had instructed her to kill the demigod herself, but all the guilt she'd felt over the centuries for leaving the man seemed to come crashing into her and all she could feel was fear, fear that the man who had saved her so long ago from a fate worse than death, the man that had taken her in when he had no business to, the man who she had cared, was about to die. It was a primal feeling of protectiveness that took over, and with a battle cry she killed both the monsters in front of her before cutting a path through the battlefield until she was within shooting range. With all the haste she could muster she fired a volley of relentless arrows at her immortal father before he could finish Perseus off.

The immortal growled in annoyance and while ripping the arrows out of his chest that had struck true he searched for the source of the inconvenience. He ripped his spear out of Perseus and kicked him to the side where the Spartan prince lay unmoving. Zoe would try to get to him later if she survived, but right now her only focus could be on keeping herself alive.

Atlas leapt across the hordes of monsters that only seemed to keep growing and until he was standing in front of his daughter, a sneer on his face.

"My little traitor, why, do you not realize that you have simply just sealed your fate alongside the Spartan's?" The Titan mocked her with a tsk-tsk coming out oh his mouth after his words. "Should you not be fighting the man, as your Olympians are sure to have commanded by now?"

The huntress did nothing but bare her teeth in a snarl before unleashing another rapid volley of silver arrows at her Atlas, but the effects this time seemed to be far less effective as the titan swatted the arrows away one by one before lunging at her with inhuman speeds. It was all Zoe could do to draw her daggers rapidly and throw up a defensive stance. She was a skilled and experienced fighter, but the minute her hunter knives met Atlas' spear she knew she wouldn't be able to keep this fight up long. He was much faster than her, and the range his spear gave him made it so Zoe had to attempt to get within his guard to strike at him - a near impossible feat.

All too soon Zoe found herself on the backpedal, frantically scrambling to meet the flurry of motion that was her father's spear. She didn't have time to look around, but from the sound of it, her allies were beginning to waiver against the monster forces as well. Step by step she was pushed back until finally to her horror she felt a wall pressed against her back signalling an end to her mobile defence. Zoe knew she had to do something, but as she tried to lunge at her father to force more space for herself she felt her hunting knives be knocked from her grip and watched in dismay as they flew beyond her reach. As her head turned a heavy force that seemed to be a boot hit her in the chest and she found herself flying backwards only to crumble as she hit the wall once more, this time with much more force.

As she looked up to see her father approaching with an evil smirk, she knew her life was coming to an end. She sent a quick prayer of apology for her failure to Artemis, but rather than pray to the other Olympian gods her mind then turned to the man she had just discovered to still be alive after all these years.

"I wish we had more time, I'm sorry.." She spoke to the apparition of Perseus that had manifested itself in her mind, the one man alive on that earth that could break her cold exterior and pierce the identity she had created for herself over the centuries and a lone tear fell down her face.

She looked down as she heard Atlas laugh and prepare to finish her off, but at the clang of a sword against his spear she quickly looked up to find that there was now a beautifully engraved blade holding back Atlas' killing blow.

"Plenty more time left in this fight Zoe Nightshade." She heard the strained voice but still found it hard to believe as Perseus stood above her protectively, the blade that had saved her life belonging to him. "But I may need you to get up and aid me if we wish to succeed."

She certainly didn't need to be told twice, and quickly scrambled to her feet to prepare for round two.

A/N

Aight, was gonna write more for this but said I'd get it out today so had to stop there. Next chapter will hopefully be out within the next 2 weeks, I post updates on my profile a few days before it's about to come out so check in there in about a week or so if ya want.

I hope the chapter has helped to bring some of you back to the story, it's not my best work but I need to get back into the swing of things.

As always I hope you all enjoyed. Much love and gods guide you, for the night is dark and full of terrors,

Chrome