I don't own any characters in the Percy Jackson universe which is rightfully owned by Rick Riodan. However, the Greek gods and/or other mythological figures are used in my own imagination and well you can't claim copyright on history.
Chapter 23
ARTEMIS
I had followed my hunters to attend Percy's funeral. I was upset. He promised me he'd stay safe. That he'd stay alive. I was so mad and full of sorrow that I wanted to go to the underworld, find Percy, and kill him again.
"Come on guys, shouldn't you invite me to my own funeral? I thought you knew better than that."
That stupid voice. I'd recognize it anywhere. I look up to see Percy grinning stupidly. Annabeth and Thalia rush up to him, squeezing him in a tight embrace.
"Who made this burial shroud? It looks… interesting." He says slowly.
"You didn't have any other siblings at camp so Ares cabin volunteered to make it," Annabeth replies.
Clarrise jeers at Percy. I walk out of the shadows and Percy spots me.
"Artemis is here too?"
He comes up to me. I hold out my arms for a hug. He looks around sheepishly and slowly walks forward. Just as he's in arms reach, I punch him square in the face. The entire camp and hunters gasp.
"You promised me you were going to stay alive. To be safe and now you want to come back as if nothing happened. I'll give you 30 seconds to run."
I pull out my bow and he pales. He starts running. He eventually disappears from sight and the campers stare at me, watching to see what I was going to do next. This probably was the most fun they had in a while. He ran in the direction of the woods carelessly. I was a hunter goddess and he had left behind such obvious trials. He had my powers, yet he couldn't even notice that. Trampled grass, unturned dirt, broken twigs, stones kicked aside, bugs moving away from the trail and the slight movement of the air all told me that he wasn't far. The trail led up to a tree and I took my bow and fired into the leaves. Percy comes falling down out of the tree and I caught him. He grins sheepishly.
"I thought it would work. Hi Artemis, how are you doing?"
"You are dead. That explosion didn't kill you? I will."
Suddenly he gives me a peck on my lips. I blush, and all the anger I had inside me dissolves. I dropped him and he landed on his feet.
"Tell me what happened."
He tells me everything. How he found the way to Hephestus and the mission he gave them. How they had tortured him and he somehow made the entire volcano explode. The way he landed at Ogygia and what happened there.
"You idiot. You exploded the volcano that held Typhon. He stirs as we speak."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean any of that."
He looked up at me and I could see in his eyes he really meant it. I noticed a new pink hue in his eyes.
"Explain the pink in your eyes," I tell him.
"Oh, while I was coming back here. Aphrodite decided to come and visit me." He says sheepishly.
We walked back out and the woods and the campers and hunters were arguing on whether or not they should go after us. Some of them spot us and they turn.
"Well, now that their back let's have a little celebration." Shouts Chiron.
PERCY
"Are you going to stay for a bit?" I asked Thalia.
"Well, I would like to. Let me ask Artemis if she'll allow us."
She leaves and the Ares kids decided to burn my shroud anyway because why not. I volunteered to do it myself. I took the shroud and inspected it. It was blue with a huge red LOSER painted on it. They even went as far as to put a dead face emoji on it. I walked over to the fire and threw it in. I looked as it burned and decided to climb in the fire as well. Some of the people watching started shouting, but when I walked back out perfectly fine, they just looked at me surprised. The crowd starts to leave for dinner and the hunters gather to leave as well.
"Are you going to stay or leave with us?" Artemis asks.
"I'll join you later. I have something to talk about with you as well. Same spot?"
"Yeah."
They turn to leave and I walk to Chiron and Annabeth.
"Grover and Nico are still in the maze. I have a plan."
"What would that be?" Asks Chiron.
"On the last quest, I ran into a mortal who could see through the mist. Even though demigods can see through it, we can be tricked. I figured we are going to need outside help."
"Can we trust this person?" Annabeth says.
"Pretty sure."
I leave and teleport to the hunters camp. They were getting ready to eat and turn in for the night. They spot me and point. Artemis notices and just waved towards the seat next to her.
"Dinner is served," Thalia says, appearing with food.
I taste the food and nearly gag. The hunters don't seem to mind, probably because they had eaten her food and have already built an immunity to whatever witchcraft Thalia managed to cook up.
"Come on, it's not that bad," Thalia says.
The way she said it made it seem like she was trying to convince herself. The other hunters were shaking their heads, disagreeing with Thalia's claim.
"Thalia, your food is that bad." Pipes up Bianca. "You can summon edible food."
I nod and now all the hunter's attention was turned to me. I wave and various, delicious food appears. The hunters dig in with enthusiasm, the food Thalia had served a relic of the past. After dinner, I help clear the dishes, and Artemis walks over. She helps me in silence.
"Is this the food that you guys eat every dinner?"
"For the most part. Hurry up and finish. You said you wanted to talk to me."
We finished and we decided to take a walk in the woods. We stop and she faces me.
"So what did you want to talk about."
"Well, for starters I'm going back in the maze. We left behind 2 of our friends there. I'm also going to take a mortal female into the maze with us. But that's not what I wanted to talk about." I take a deep breath. "I wanted to talk about Calypso. It's unfair to leave her on that island for so long."
"I never imprisoned her there. She was imprisoned for a while before I was even born. If that's what bothers you talk to Zeus."
"Also uh, I sort of had sex with Calypso? It wasn't intentional. Kinda. Aphrodite was pulling strings."
She looks at me with a steely face. She mumbles something about stupid males.
"Come. We need to spar."
She leaves towards the field and I follow. Before I could even pull out my weapon, she's already attacking me. I narrowly dodge 1 dagger but the other leaves a cut on my arm. I grunt and pull out my sword. By that time she already punched me in the gut. I double over in pain and I see her foot coming in for a kick. I block with my arms but lose balance in the process. She punches me again this time the air get knocked out of my lungs. I lie down in pain.
"Alright enough. Please."
She ignores me and beats every inch of me. She suddenly collapses and hands me a vial. I open it weakly and peer inside. It was some moonwater so I drank it. I immediately feel better and full of energy. The smaller bruises already fade, larger ones shrinking. Artemis starts crying.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"Shut up and hold me." She says through her tears.
She cried for a while. Eventually, she stopped, but by that time my shirt was wet. I didn't feel that I should've used my powers. She holds me tight.
"You put me through all this worry. I really thought you died. Did you know how upset I was? And you wanted to talk to me about having sex with another girl? How stupid could you possibly be? You made me feel so stupid. To believe I ever even thought to grow attached to you. Something I so rarely do. I even kissed you, my very first kiss, and you just take it and ignore it? Throw me to the side like a used tissue? I would never have found out if you just didn't say anything."
I suddenly realized how stupid I was. I literally went to a girl and told them I had fucked someone else behind their back.
"I'm sorry, Arty. I just wanted to be honest with you."
I slowly reach to her face and wipe her tears. She looks up at me with sad silver eyes.
"I won't ever do that again. Do you forgive me?"
"I'm willing to give you a chance." She responds.
"You know, when I took nectar from Calypso, it tasted different. Usually, it tastes like my mother's homemade cookies. Now it tastes like your lips. I didn't even think that was possible."
She blushes.
"I'm supposed to be a maiden goddess, yet I can't get you off my mind. I don't know why…"
"Maybe you just haven't met the right guy before. I like you because you're so different. So modest and yet so stunning."
She smiles at me and embraces me.
"You really think so?"
"I swear on the river Styx."
We heard a clap of thunder, but I wasn't dead or suffering from a horrible curse which meant that I was telling the truth.
"Come on let's get you to your tent."
I carry her and teleport to her tent. I set her down on the tent and turn to leave.
"Stay?"
"Do you want me to?"
She nods. She asks me to turn as she changes into her sleepwear. I quickly teleport to my cabin and change as well. I reappear in the shadows inside her tent. She climbs into her bed and makes space for me as well.
"Don't do anything funny. We're only sleeping."
"Don't worry. Come on, go to sleep."
She curls up next to me and wraps her legs around me. I slowly put my arms around her and started to stroke her long, silky hair. She purrs and falls asleep. I stay up a bit longer, enjoying the moment. I was still stroking her hair in an ongoing rhythm. She was clinging to me so tightly which I found really cute. I kissed her head and slowly drifted off into sleep as well. The next day, I found her still sleeping. I slowly get her arms and legs off me. I write a quick note and walk into the shadows. I'm in my cabin and getting ready to leave. I walked over to the Big House, where Chiron and Annabeth were already waiting for me. I threw a drachma in some mist I made and contacted Rachel.
"Dad, no I don't want anything to eat. Leave me alone."
I heard the door close and she still seemed oblivious of the Iris message.
"Uh, Rachel."
She jumps and looks around trying to locate the direction where my voice came from. She eventually turns and spots me.
"You. I thought I told you to call me. Like a phone. Not this weird rainbow thing."
"We're sorry to tell you, but demigods and technology don't mix well." Says Chiron.
"Whoa, a talking centaur. Seems like you finally decided to explain to me all this crazy shit I keep seeing."
"Uh, yeah. We're on a tight schedule. Could we meet somewhere?"
"Come to Starbucks." She jots down an address and holds it up to the Iris message.
I read it and suddenly it hit me. She lived in Manhattan.
"You live in Manhattan?"
"Yes, you idiot. What you thought since I met you in the Hoover Dam, I lived there."
I just shrug. I honestly did think she lived near the Hoover Dam.
"Alright regardless, meet you there," I say as I swipe through the mist.
"Well, this is going to be a blast." Says Annabeth, clearly annoyed by Rachel.
"Good luck. Come back safe with the others." Chiron says and leaves.
"Well, we should go," I told Annabeth.
She nods and I grab her, walking into the shadows.
End of chapter 23. As always please review and thanks for reading!