I'll give you a little hint now. I deliberately changed the prophecy, (duh), to let Fayden and Percy go. But I also changed the last line, if you noticed. Why? Think about it. Also, I went back and fixed as many of the small mistakes I could find. They weren't too much of a big deal, but things like that infuriate me. If you notice any more, please tell me. I can't express how annoyed I get at tiny imperfections.
My eyes shot open. I saw my body glowing, illuminating the dark surroundings. Was I under a blanket? The glow faded as I moved to take it off. I saw Zoe and Thalia up front, whispering to each other. Out of the front window, I saw a small run down town. The desert around us seemed barren, but to be honest, the town didn't look much better. Massive black mounds of something were piled in the middle. I groaned and sat up. Both girls stopped talking and Zoe span around, Thalia looking through the rear-view mirror, keeping an eye on the road. Zoe was looking relieved, which surprised me. How long was I out? Did I wake up in alternate universe where she wasn't a man hating huntress?
"Are you ok? What happened!" came her angry voice. I blinked, shocked.
So, I did wake up in an alternate dimension. She seemed to notice what she had said.
"I mean, idiot boy."
I smiled weakly, and raised my head higher, watching Thalia. She was trying not to crash, but also looking at me as many times as possible.
"Guys, I'm fine."
Then Thalia snapped.
"No! You are not! Look at your chest!" Tears were freely pouring down her face. I glanced down, and just nodded. Too much crazy shit had happened for me to be surprised.
"Huh. I thought that was a dream."
My casual attitude did nothing to calm the situation. Both Zoe and Thalia were glaring.
"Fayden! Stop being calm! Was Kronos torturing you?!" Zoe's angry voice sounded out.
"Yeah." I seriously needed to take lessons in 'Diffusing the anger of powerful warrior girls.' It might save my life.
Thalia suddenly slammed her foot on the brake, and the car swerved to a stop. Leaning back, she punched me hard in the face. My head snapped back, and both nostrils started bleeding almost instantly. Remind me not to let Thalia sit by my bedside if I'm ever in a hospital.
"What the fu…" I cried, cradling my nose.
Zoe was holding Thalia's arms, stopping her from lashing out again.
"Stop being so calm!" the lightning daughter screamed. "Kronos was… Torturin…" she stopped, and heaved a heavy sob. Right. This girl needs emotional therapy. No number of hormones can account for these mood swings. I had no idea why I was so calm, but I guess they didn't know what happened. I kinda just owned it. Kronos didn't scare me anymore. I felt much more confident. Even thinking about the torture did nothing.
"I…" I tried to explain, but Thalia was still trying to struggle from Zoe's grip. She broke free, and pulled open her door, walking round to me. I quickly scooted as far from the boot entrance as possible. The door opened, and instead of another injury, the girl had wrapped me in a tight hug. Her heavy sobs rang throughout the car. I saw Grover, Percy, Phoebe and Bianca run over. They had noticed that we had stopped. Percy was first to arrive.
"Hey, what's going on?"
Then he saw me.
"Fayden! Oh god." He joined Thalia, giving me what he thought was probably a manly hug. Bianca and Grover looked pleased to see me not dead, while Phoebe looked indifferent. What was I expecting? A hug? Percy pulled away, and frowned,
"What happened?" Oh boy. I coughed, and quickly thought of the most plausible lie. Little bit of truth.
"Um. I was dreaming."
Percy looked confused. "Dude. No one sleeps that hard."
"I, uh. Kronos was trying to keep me from waking up. He said I was a massive pain to his plans. The Chimaera should have killed me. But I managed to wake up."
They all looked shocked, minus Zoe and Thalia.
"Kronos?" even Phoebe was too shocked to not look indifferent.
"Yeah. I mean. I think he thinks I'm more useful than I am." I was poorly attempting to diffuse the situation.
"I don't know. You beat the crap out the Nemean Lion." Curse you Percy. Stop talking. Too late.
"Yeah!" came Grover's excited response.
Zoe and Thalia had stayed quiet. Bianca suddenly reminded us,
"Uh guys. This is cool and all, but, Artemis? Deadline?"
Everyone seemed to snap out of a daze. I frowned. I had been tortured. A little more time talking about me would've been nice. But I hadn't told them that. Sigh. The things I do for selflessness.
"Yeah," muttered Phoebe, as she walked back over to the other car. I climbed into the boot of the Audi. Thalia looked like she was going to complain, but I waved my hand.
"I don't think Zoe would appreciate me sitting on her lap, Thalia. I don't mind."
Zoe's face was priceless. I wish I had my phone. Wait! I did! I fished it out and snapped a pic. The clicking noise brought her back. Her face was furious, but her cheeks were bright red.
"Give me that phone!"
I ducked behind the seats, out of reach of her groping arms.
"Give it!"
"Nope!"
Thalia was laughing hard, her head drooped onto the steering wheel. Zoe's face was now a mixture of pure embarrassment and annoyance. She knew she couldn't reach me.
"If you show that to anyone, I swear to the gods…" she threatened. Laughing, I made a big show of typing something in. I wasn't, but it was a perfect opportunity to wind up the Lieutenant. I muttered under my breath,
"On my way save the goddess Artemis. Immortal man-hating hunter questioning vows. #Ladysman."
The look Zoe gave me was amazing. I think she actually managed to poke a hole in me with her eyes. Her face had gone even deeper red, if possible. Thalia was laughing so hard, she struggled to keep the car straight. Before Zoe could stab me, the car in front stopped, forcing Thalia to brake. We all got out, and approached the small collection of buildings. I then realised the tall piles of stuff in the distance were massive stacks of scrap metal. As we wandered around the small broken-down huts, I couldn't keep my eyes off them. The metal seemed dangerous, even from a distance. I was surprised when Zoe caught up with me and Thalia, who was sticking close to me ever since the Kronos accident. I raised an eyebrow and she told me to go away in a very colourful way. Grover was leaning over his acorns again, explaining to the rest of the group about where they had to go. I wasn't listening, but I had a feeling I knew already. That junkyard. The rest of the group decided to camp for the night, before traveling there tomorrow. We all camped down, lying in the sand as Grover and Zoe got a fire lit. Then she walked to the exact opposite side of where I was lying. Hmm. I'm not buying it. Thalia was lying next to me, with Percy a few metres away, next to Grover. The three hunters were gazing at the sky, talking about stars and bears. I wasn't listening. While everyone was lying on their backs, I had propped myself up on my elbows, gazing at the fire. I knew it was risky, but I wanted to try something. I focused on the fire, imagining it to be sluggish and thick. With my arms propping me up, I couldn't use them to make magical looking movements, but it still worked. The syrup-y feeling returned and my eyes grew uncomfortably hot. The flames slowed down, swaying from side to side much slower. I could make out the movements of each flame, following them with my gaze. It was rather hypnotic. I soon fell asleep gazing at the measured flames, and it took a while for them to speed up again.
Zoe's POV
I watched as Fayden slowed the flames down, eyes narrowed. I knew what Kronos had done, and what he carved on his chest, but still had a hard time believing. A Half-blood Son of Kronos?! But as I watched his glowing gold eyes shut, it was getting harder to disprove.
Fayden's POV
I slowly blinked as my eyes opened. Everyone seemed to already be awake and properly awake, not just walking around like a zombie. I groaned, cursing my brain. I always slept in when I shouldn't. Then woke up early when I shouldn't. If I get injured on this quest, I can guarantee that I'll wake up early during the healing process. Anyway, I sat up, rubbing my eyes. Glancing around, I noticed Phoebe and Bianca strapping their quivers to their backs. Zoe was fiddling with her hunters knife, watching me with a strange look. I gulped and looked away. I wasn't in the mood to be filleted. Hopefully, I'll never be in the mood. Percy was tossing his pen up in the air and catching it, Grover was chewing on a stick, and Thalia was fiddling with her mace cannister/magic spear.
"Cheery company, you lot," I grumbled, standing. Grover carried on munching his twig. Thalia laughed, but all the hunters just rolled their eyes and started talking between themselves. Great.
"Well. We're not dead yet, so I say well done. Shall we go test our record?" I pointed at the junkyard. This time, Percy snorted, but it wasn't a happy laugh. Grover started eating his branch faster. I glanced at the acorns by his legs. I frowned. I didn't like how there was only six acorns representing our group.
Before we could start walking, a blinding light fill all our eyes. A painfully white limousine appeared, pulling to a stop in front. My eyes cleared, but it looked like no one else's had. A man dressed in a leather biker outfit was holding a sword under Percy's throat. His shades were a weird red, as if his eyes were burning, but I immediately felt angry. I knew who this was. I rushed forward and knocked Ares' sword away with my own. He looked shocked, then angry, before settling on dangerously amused.
"Hmm. You. Fayden right? Yeah, you are the talk of Olympus. I wonder what your friends think?"
I immediately knew what he was saying, and I backed down.
"That's right, welp. Percy here needs a talk with the missus."
As he turned, I threw a stone at the back of his head, furious at his threat. Everyone, who had suddenly started seeing again, stared at me. Ares stopped, rubbing his head, before laughing. Without even turning around he called out,
"I like you kid. You got spunk." I glowered.
Percy looked rather scared, but didn't have a choice, and climbed into the limo. Ares shut the door, and stood guard outside, like an annoying, immortal bouncer. That I wanted to hit. Again. Everyone sat in silence, while I glowered at Ares. Zoe seemed to be trying to articulate a polite way of asking what Percy was doing, but I butted in.
"What do you want?"
Ares seemed to be getting annoyed.
"Kid, you're getting less 'rebellious', and more frustrating. Stop talking. One warning."
"Or what?" It wasn't a shout, rather, a cheeky, 'Come at me', daring him to make a threat. I really should shut up, but something made me want to draw my sword. Thalia grabbed my arm and turned me to face her.
"What are you doing?!" she whisper-yelled.
"He's pissing me off!"
"He's an immortal!"
"So?"
"You're not moron!"
Ares suddenly smirked and laughed. "Listen to your girlfriend little kid."
I turned, and gave him finger, doing a stupid mock imitation of what he just said, before walking off. I could feel everyone's eyes on me.
About ten minute later, I heard the limo door open and Percy talking. Then Ares materialised next to me.
"You. She wants to talk to you."
He grabbed my shoulder, but I shoved it off, walking towards the limo. I pulled open the door and sat in the shotgun. I'd already figured out who 'she' was and I was right. The goddess Aphrodite was gazing at me, with a look of mild interest, as if I was a book, one she hadn't decided if she wanted to read. As I looked at her, I felt as if I should be gazing starstruck, but I was too pissed at the immortal moron outside to start drooling.
"You know," came her sickly-sweet voice. "Pissing off Ares is not a good idea."
Her voice made me gag. As she turned back to me, her features flickered. They finally settled into only one look, something that seemed to surprise her. It took me a few seconds to recognise who she looked like. But it was all wrong. The spiky hair had settled, the freckles gone. Her electric blue eyes were fuller and sexier. It looked like a perfect Thalia, and I grimaced. It was weird. Thalia looked cute because of her freckles, and glaring eyes. I noticed how Aphrodite seemed to frown, annoyed at why she had no effect on me.
"How…" but I cut her off. I really should learn some manners, but I honestly couldn't care less.
"You don't look as pretty as I thought."
She looked as though I'd just run her through with my sword.
Spluttering, she glared.
"How dare yo… What?!"
I shrugged. "What? You're trying to look like who I find pretty. Your obsession with perfection makes it look weird. She doesn't look like that."
Aphrodite had stopped looking flustered. She was still glaring.
"I was going to explain how you were a mystery to me, and I'd be giving you tips and stuff, but now…you can…" I interrupted her, not letting her set the conversation.
"We're done? Cool. Bye," I finished in a pretty good imitation of her awfully sweet voice. As I got out the limo, I turned, and saw both gods looking like they might smite me. Everyone noticed. As the limo vanished, Thalia rounded on me.
"What did you say?"
I looked amused. "I told her she wasn't pretty."
Zoe choked, and Percy's jaw fell open. Thalia was staring at me like I was on the psych ward.
"You told. The goddess of love and beauty. That she wasn't pretty?" she repeated through gritted teeth. I nodded. Zoe and Phoebe had burst out laughing. Thalia had thrown her hands in the air.
"Unbelievable. Your dead. Great."
"Ahh, you'll miss me?" attempting to tease her. It didn't work. She frowned, before replying,
"Uh, yeah? Duh. You're my best friend."
I stopped smirking.
"Damn. I don't have a witty comeback to sincerity."
Bianca stepped forward.
"Uh, guys? Junkyard? Focus on how Fayden's toast later?"
We all nodded, walking over to the first pile of scrap metal.
Tut tut. Fayden is in trouble. Dudududhehe, I'm sorry. I'll stop teasing you with Fayzoe. I promise my next fanfic will be a Zoe romance. I think I might use the same OC, just with different settings, like a multiverse. I love writing Fayden being disrespectful to gods, cause I always thought they were annoying and self-centred. Just wait till the Council meeting at the end of the 'book'. Taking a break for a few hours (If you reading as it comes out). I have homework. Uh.