Disclaimer: I don't own PJO/HOO. I do own Akantha, and I'm delighted that she's so popular. I hope that everybody enjoyed their Christmas and New Years!
After the mess that was their attack on the House of the Hades, the last thing that Lena wanted to do was deal with more evil spirits. Her already-bad mood was made even worse by the fact that she had been forced (along with Thalia, who looked like she was on the verge of skinning the next person to dare and glance in her direction) to dress like an Ancient Greek serving-maiden. Lena preferred to avoid dresses and skirts completely.
It was almost impossible to fight in them without tripping (she had no idea how the Aphrodite girls managed, and even they only wore skirts on special occasions that required dressing up.) and a half-blood's luck meant that she was practically guaranteed to be attacked while impractically dressed.
Still, at least she could move without her hands shaking from arthritis, and walk at a steady pace without needing to pause and gasp for breath. Poor Jason wasn't so lucky.
"This was an awful idea," he wheezed, pausing again to catch his breath. "Hazel's spell is too strong. I'll never be able to fight like this."
"We're not going to fight," Lena insisted, silently hoping that she hadn't just jinxed their little side-mission. "We're going in, getting the info, and getting out. Easy."
"Touch wood," Thalia huffed, grimacing as she tugged at her long white dress. She looked as awkward as Lena felt in the clothing. With the white shift and the gold hair ribbons and make up (who knew Hazel was so talented? Though, she was an artist. Lena supposed it made sense she knew how to make people look beautiful as well.) Thalia looked a bit like an angel. Frankly, Lena didn't think that it suited her.
Absently, Lena rubbed a thumb across the cornucopia that was hanging from her leather belt, like it was her sword. It wasn't remotely as comforting as touching her beloved weapon, but a sword would have ruined the disguise, and its' bracelet form was too modern looking as well. Lena had been forced to make do with strapping a knife under her skirt, as had Thalia. Jason was the only one of them able to carry a sword, and Lena doubted that he would even be able to lift it, let alone fight with it if it came to that. And it probably would.
Below where they rested near the peak of one of Ithaca's mountains, Afales Bay glittered, the water so blue it might've been dyed. A few hundred yards offshore, the Argo II rested at anchor. Its' white sails looked no bigger than postage stamps, its' ninety oars like toothpicks. Looking at it, no one would guess that it carried the best hope for the survival of Western Civilization.
"Stupid Ithaca," Jason grumbled as he at last gave in and sat down a rock to catch his breath. Lena raised an eyebrow at him, then looked down at the island. Personally, she thought it was a rather beautiful place. If she hadn't been a demigod that attracted monsters like bees to honey, she would have liked to visit here on vacation.
A spine of forested hills twisted down its' centre. Chalky white slopes plunged into the sea. Inlets formed rocky beaches and harbours where red-roofed houses and white stucco churches nestled against the shoreline. The hills were dotted with poppies, crocuses and wild cherry trees. The breeze smelled of blooming myrtle. It was definitely one of the prettiest places that Lena had ever seen. The temperature was about a hundred and five degrees, something Lena revelled in, though Jason and Thalia had both complained about it.
Her sole complaint was that the air was as steamy as a Roman bathhouse. It hampered her ability to see, something that made her tense on instinct.
"You sure that this is the right hill?" Jason asked, finally seeming to have gotten back to normal. So to speak. "Seems kind of – I don't know – quiet."
Lena glanced at him, giving a short nod. "Yup," she promised. "It's definitely the place that I saw in my dream. And remember what Hazel said? It has-"
"The biggest gathering of evil spirits I've ever sensed," Jason repeated, cutting her off. "Yes, I remember." His tone said what he felt about the statement, and frankly, Lena agreed with the sentiment. It completely ruined her liking for the island.
"Sounds like the perfect place to visit," Thalia inserted wryly. When Lena looked at her, her sarcastic smile didn't reach her eyes. Lena bit her lip, returning to her study of the landscape to disguise the fact that she was worrying for her friend, not the mission.
It hadn't been long since Thalia and Luke had escaped Tartarus. Given the fact that they had literally gone through hell, Lena probably would have been worried if she thought that they were fine. But that still didn't help her suppress the nagging desire to fix everything. Then again, that had always been her problem. She tried to keep everything together, to the point that it destroyed her. It was her fatal flaw.
"I hope that our disguises hold up," Thalia commented, crossing her arms and tapping her foot. "The suitors were nasty customers when they were alive. If they find out we're demigods –"
"Hazel's magic will work," Lena replied firmly. "We have to have faith in her. She's made a lot of progress with her powers."
"But she's still very unpractised with them," Thalia pointed out with a grimace. "I'm not trying to be unfair. But we all know that new powers drain you quicker and harder to sustain."
"Then we should hurry up and meet the suitors, shouldn't we?" Lena asked knowingly. She picked up her things and began walking forward again.
Akantha had not been to Greece in several centuries. Not since the early thirteenth century at least. It was hard for her to go, as every time she went, she was hit with memories of Ancient Greece and her youth. Although the lands had changed with the times, she could still easily see the country she had grown up in whenever she was there. The last time she had been here, she had taken Thomas Anderson the Third, Lysander's reincarnation, to live there with her.
Thomas had been a mortal, and one of the closest childhood friends of Richard the Lionheart of England. She had met him while he was helping Richard in the Third Crusade. They had left with the king's blessing and gone to live in Greece as husband and wife, Akantha using her powers to get them land and to make herself appear to age. They had spent three wonderful decades together, having three sons and a daughter before his second death in twelve twenty-six.
Hades had promised that she would be informed should her late husband be reincarnated again, but to her knowledge he was still in Elysium. She supposed it was for the best. She thought that losing him for a third time might kill her spirit, if not her physical form.
She shook her head, suppressing any thoughts of Lysander/Thomas and focused on the task at hand. She scurried through the thick undergrowth in the shape of a mouse until she could see the clearing with the only pine tree on Delos, under which the Twin Archers had been born. Wind whipped at her fur, making her it fly in the air.
Crouching in the bush, Artemis was holding her bow tightly, scanning the clearing with her silver eyes narrowed. She didn't spare a glance for Akantha as the goddess of loyalty scampered up to her and morphed back into her human form.
"The archaeologists?" the goddess of the hunt asked her in a low tone.
"I dealt with them," Akantha whispered back. "I used the Mist to convince them to take the day off. They all went over to Mykonos and took the boat with them. And there are no tour groups coming this week. I checked."
"And Apollo has gone to deal with the pathetic guards that Krios has guarding the edges of the island," Artemis smiled viciously. "They're stuck here, at our mercy." Her expression had a vengeful cast to it, and Akantha couldn't say that she was surprised by it.
Neither of the Twins ever took well to anybody threatening or insulting their mother. Queen Niobe and her children were strong proof of that.
The attack of the giants on their beloved island of Delos, and the subsequent capture of Lady Leto had infuriated them both, and they were both screaming for revenge against those who had dared to capture their mother and trespass on their territory.
"I'm back," Apollo announced, slipping in to join them in the brushes. Akantha gave him a soft smile and reached out to touch his hand briefly to comfort him before pulling back and focusing again. As the sole member of their group who wasn't currently at least partially blinded by anger at the giants, it was her responsibility to keep a clear head and stop the Twins doing anything foolish in their mother's name.
"They're holding her in the ruins of the old temple where your statue used to be," she reported. "As we suspected, Krios is there along with about a hundred monsters. She doesn't appear to be harmed, but she is bound in both Imperial Gold and Celestial Bronze chains that are fused together somehow."
"Bastards must have stolen them when they attacked Hephaestus' forge in Hawaii," Apollo spat bitterly, looking even angrier.
"Probably," Akantha murmured in agreement. Mimas, the Bane of Hephaestus, only ever copied things. He was completely incapable of actually coming up with his own ideas, let alone putting them into practice.
"Come on," Artemis urged, rising slightly so she could begin running, without being seen. "We must hurry."
They nodded and copied her actions, racing through the ruins of the ancient city. The biggest ruins in Europe, untouched by modern life save for the archaeologists and tour groups that came and went. As she hurried through, Akantha spared a moment to feel a bit of fond awe for the place.
It spoke to the mutual idiocy shared by all monsters that none of the group guarding Leto noticed them (granted, all three of them had turned into foxes, but still. They should have realized the only animals around were birds, and even they had scattered at the arrival of the monsters.).
But Akantha couldn't really bring herself to complain, as it meant that they were all taken completely by surprise when she jumped onto Krios' back (still in fox form) and used her sharp canines to bite into Krios' neck, cutting his speech to Leto on why she should join Gaia short and turning it into a bloody gurgle.
She jumped back down, expanding into her regular form, sword raised, in the process, and didn't give the Titan a chance to react before she leapt at him, Anaklusmos flashing. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Leto crouching to avoid her children's arrows. The sharp gold and silver projectiles flashed through the air, sticking each of the monsters in various lethal points and making them burst into clouds of gold.
Akantha, pushed the Twins and the monsters to the back of her mind and concentrated on Krios. While he didn't come close to being the toughest or best fighter she had ever engaged with, he was durable, and strong. Even the best fighter could be killed if they were unlucky and tripped at the wrong moment. And she was conscious of the fact that Nike was out of control in Olympia.
Hopefully, the Seven knew about that by now and were headed to deal with it. The Gigantes couldn't be defeated without Nike on their side. Thankfully, Akantha didn't need to outright win this fight. She merely needed to delay Krios long enough for the Twins to release their mother and escape with her.
She stepped back and spun her sword in a half-circle, intercepting Krios' own weapon. They held that position for several moments, each of them straining to hold the other back, before Krios yelled and yanked out of the deadlock. He stepped back, the strength of his footsteps making the ground shiver slightly, and Akantha quickly darted after him.
She went for the neck, just managing to slice him slightly before he moved away and struck her arm. She cried out in pain, the sound covering the noise of Apollo's arrow flying through the air.
The Twins had finished defeating the monsters, and in turn had released their mother. Artemis had then fled with her, while Apollo stayed behind to help Akantha, who was too engaged in the fight to realize that she could leave.
Krios yelled in pain as the arrow found a weak point in his armour, going through the leather strap and burying itself deep in the Titan's left shoulder.
"Let's go, Akantha!" Apollo yelled to her. She nodded, and they both began to glow as they flashed away, leaving Krios alone on Delos, enraged and screaming.