"Zoë, go get me Perseus Jackson." Artemis told her lieutenant.
Zoë nodded. She walked to the clearing where the demigods had set up cap, and where tending to Nico, who had gotten hurt with one of Thorns thorns. "It's green!" He said.
Zoë cleared her throat. "Perseus Jackson, my lady requests a word." She said.
Percy nodded and followed the lieutenant to Artemis' tent. It was warm and cozy inside, with animal pelts hanging on the walls. Silk pillows and rugs covered the floor. In the corner, a brazier was burning. The goddess sat in the middle of the tent, criss cross applesauce style. A deer with silver horns was resting its head in her lap. All in all, it felt like a tent Remiel would like, being into hunting and all. He should introduce them someday.
Percy shook himself out of his thoughts and turned to the hunting goddess, who was watching him intently. Zoë sat at her mistress' side, giving Percy a mock glare, not that Artemis knew, as she spoke. "Sorry if my hunters aren't that friendly. Boys are rarely ever allowed in here. The last one was..." She looked at Zoë.
"The one in Colorado, the one you turned into a jackalope." She said.
"Right. I quite like turning boys into jackalopes."
Percy nodded. He wasn't sure if she could turn him into a jackalope, and he wasn't eager to find out.
"Surprised by my age?" Artemis asked. It was then that he realized that Artemis was looking 12. It didn't really faze him, as his sister Azrael looked pretty young as well. So he just shrugged.
"Not really. You can look any way you want."
Artemis looked surprised, before she gestured for him to sit. "Sit."
Percy sat.
"Now, I talked to Bianca, but she is understandably confused, so I thought I would ask you. What did the manticore say exactly?"
"'You're no match for me, much less the forces that we'll have due to the stirring of monsters.'" Percy repeated the manticore's words.
"Hmm... I wonder if it has something to do with the scent." She mumbled almost inaudibly.
"The scent?" Percy and Zoë asked simultaneously.
"Prey so old, I've almost forgotten about them." She murmured. "I must go at once. Zoë, I will call Apollo and he will take you all to Camp. Try not to burn down the cabins this time."
Zoë smiled. "We'll try milady."
"Before I go, have you made your decision, Bianca?"
Percy didn't even notice that Bianca was sitting on a pillow behind him. "Decision about what?" He asked.
"They offered me.. To join the Hunt." She said.
"You would have to leave Nico."
"Yea, but I've cared for him my whole life..." She said, not finishing.
"I won't tell you what to do, but believe me, sibling betrayal hurts a lot." he said, pain barely constrained in his voice. "I'll be outside waiting for Apollo."
LINE BREAK
Apollo was late. He's lazy in the winter. Never sets his alarm. When he finally parked his car, Percy realized that it was his car, only a different color. Apollo had the sun set to a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette, only in orange. Percy liked the design, but wanted one in black. That would be his goal next time he went into the city.
Apollo was older looking than Artemis, at 17. He came out of the car with a bright smile. "Little sis! You never write, never call!"
Artemis rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, and I'm older."
"But I was born first."
"We're twins, and I helped deliver you."
"Details. So, what's up?"
'I'm in those...' Percy thought randomly.
"I need you to take my Hunters and these demigods to camp."
"Ah, I see. Well then." He said, starting to analyze everyone. "Who do we have here. A new sister, I heard you were out of that tree."
He shifted his gaze to Percy. "Percy Jackson. Been a while. Last time was what? A year and a half ago?" He asked.
Percy nodded, having met Apollo a couple millennia ago during a little vacation, and while he seemed to have mellowed out over the years, Percy still remembered the god as that thought that men and gods shouldn't ever cross paths. Ironic, as he currently had the most full cabin at camp, only behind Hermes, but that was because the gods couldn't claim their damn kids. Of course, Apollo doesn't know that, and was referring to when Percy yelled at Zeus earlier in the story.
Apollo also seemed to have a flicker of fear in his eyes as he looked into Percy's. He quickly moved on, turning to the car. "Well, this is too small, guess I'll have to change it out of sport car mode."
Apollo clicked the button on his car keys, causing the car to transform into a large bus. "Alright, in you go." He said, clapping his hands.
The Hunters went first. Zoë picked up her hunting equipment, only for Apollo to try and intervene. "Let me help you out sweetheart."
Percy allowed a small smirk to grace his face as he watched Zoë pull out a dagger from her pants and place it right under Apollos chin, faster than a human eye can see. "Touch me and you'll say goodbye to your dick."
Percy could also say that she was hot whenever she got all violent on people.
"Alright, who wants to drive?" Apollo asked.
No one wanted to, so Percy hesitantly put his hand up.
Apollo looked at him. "No, too young."
'Bitch, I'm older than your grandma.' Percy thought.
Apollo turned to Grover. "Too furry."
He then turned to Thalia. "Ah, sister. Daughter of Zeus, perfect!"
Thalia's eyes widened in panic. "No, I'm good." She said hastily.
"Nonsense! This is gonna go beautifully." Apollo said.
It did not go beautifully. It ended up with part of the U.S. on fire, an evaporated lake, and a hundred dead fish.
It started off well enough. Thalia drove the sun for a good moment before she started having a panic attack. Then she caused the sun to get too close to the Earth, setting fire to the entire New England area, and then promptly crashing into the Camp Half-Blood lake. The temperature of the literal sun evaporated the lake in an instant, while also cooking the entire fish population. Guess what they had for dinner that night.
Now, Percy had never been to camp during the winter, so the snow surprised him. The barrier kept out any unwanted weather, but it looked like Dionysus wanted some snowy weather.
In all honesty, the light snowfall reminded Percy of Hell. If the snow was a little grayer, it would look like the falling ash back home. He wondered if Zoë thought the same. Based on the nostalgia in her dark eyes, he would assume yes.
He had noticed that Bianca had been a part of the Hunters group when they got on the bus, sporting the silver parka to boot. Someone had to tell Nico, and it would probably be Percy. At least he had experience with sibling betrayal.
Percy brought Nico with him to Chiron. The centaur was sitting in his wheelchair, playing cards with Dionysus in the parlor of the big house. It looked like his hair and beard had grown curlier. He was wearing a sweater with hoof prints on it, and he also had a blanket that nearly covered his entire wheelchair.
"Ah, Percy! And this must be-"
"Nico. Nico di Angelo."
"Ah, Angel of the dead. Ominous." Chiron said, laughing.
Grover rushed in. "The hunters are all moved in." He said.
Chiron raised an eyebrow. "The Hunters?"
Percy recounted what happened at Westover leaving out the part about him killing the Manticore.
"Well, it seems like we have a lot to discuss. Grover, why don't you take this angel to see the orientation film.
LINE BREAK
When they were done, Chiron let Percy go. He decided to brush up on his knife throwing skills. It was weird, before his rebirth, he had amazing accuracy for everything. Now, after it, he still had it for most things, but he was impossibly bad with a bow. It may have something to do with Apollo and curses, but he wasn't certain. He was pretty sure a demon revolt was happening around the time that Artemis was almost raped by Orion. (He was also pretty sure that Orion ended up in Hell, but he would have to check.)
Anyways, he decided to brush up on those, as he was trying to figure out a way to fix his archery. Didn't want another incident.
Thalia walked up to him. "Hey, we need to talk about that capture the flag game tomorrow."
"You be captain, I'll do my own thing. Have fun." He said, distracted. He was going to do his own thing, no matter what anybody told him. Dad himself could tell him not to do it, and he wouldn't give a damn.
"Um... Okay." Thalia said, clearly not expecting that answer. "Can you go tell everyone about it?"
"Yeah, sure." Percy said.
Besides a quick spat with an Ares kid, telling everyone went very well. He walked into his cabin and looked at his makeshift beach, where his pet sea turtle, Shelby, was swimming. Yes, that was her name.
He took Shelby and placed her on the piano. He made sure to keep her in a sphere of water, making sure she wouldn't die due to dehydration. He started to play a couple of notes, not singing. Just going with the flow. Eventually, he looked in the corner, where a new fountain had appeared.
He walked over to it, and saw that the bottom was covered in golden coins- drachma. He picked one up and threw it into the spray. "Show me Tyson, the cyclops forges."
The mist swirled into a picture, showing Tyson hammering a red hot sword. "Tyson!" Percy said.
The cyclops turned around, his face breaking into a giant smile. "Percy!"
He put the hammer down, and tried to hug the iris message, only for it to get blurry, and he retreated, as he realized that he couldn't physically hug Percy. "So, what do you need?"
"Have you talked to Poseidon recently?"
"No. Daddy is busy. He is worried about the war."
"What do you mean?"
"Old sea spirits are rising. Oceanus, Aigios, those guys. They're protecting the boat."
"The Princess Andromeda?"
"Mm-Hmm. Make it hard to find. They make storms less effective. Otherwise daddy would sink it. But don't worry, it's away from you now. It's near the Panama Canal!"
Percy frowned. 'Why would they be there?' He thought.
A voice yelled something about getting back to work in an older language. Percy was distracted otherwise he would've understood it perfectly. Tyson swiped through the mist instantly.
LINE BREAK
Percy looked into the 'bottomless pit'. He heard voices that would be too quiet for a normal mortal, or even demigod, to hear. One was very clearly Kronos. The other was definitely feminine.
"Come on, baby! We can overthrow the treacherous gods together!"
"WHAT IN YOUR RIGHT MIND MAKES YOU THINK I WOULD WANT TO DO THAT?! THE FACT THAT YOU FORCED ME TO MARRY YOU MILLENIA AGO?! I'M DONE WITH YOU, KRONOS. I WILL NOT HELP YOU FIGHT OUR CHILDREN THAT YOU ATE!"
"But, honey-poo. We have a vessel for you. That Castellan boy's girlfriend."
"Fuck you Kronos."
Percy woke up laughing. Zoë would kill him if he called her 'honey-poo'. That's why he stuck to calling her either Zoë in private and Mazikeen in public. Very rarely, he would call her 'His Star' as a pet name, in which she would mock glare, but blush nonetheless. (It was a reference to him creating the stars for his father, but she was his star, not God's. He had to explain it the 1st time.) Less is more, my friends.
At breakfast, he told Grover about his dream.
"That's weird, Kronos actually said that?"
Percy just nodded, still laughing.
"That's weird, I wonder if it has something to do with what Zoë dreamed."
"Zoë dreamed something? Do you know what it was?"
"I don't know. She just showed up at the big house, saying she had to talk to Chiron."
"Wait, how do you know this?" Percy asked.
Grover blushed. "I was going to do something in the woods, and I just saw it happen from there."
"Are you hiding something from me G-man? A girlfriend, perhaps?"
"No, of course not."
"Mm-hmm."
LINE BREAK
Percy was squatting next to Nico, making sure all the straps on his armor. This was a serious game, and Percy knew that the Hunters would not hesitate to kill a 10 year old boy. He made sure that the son of Hades was protected in all the ways that mattered. The vital organs, the skull, his testicles, etc.
"Alright, everyone knows their positions?" Thalia asked.
Everyone on the camp's team nodded. Thalia turned to Percy. "What are you going to do?"
Percy grinned, but put a finger up to his lips. "Shh, it's a secret."
She narrowed her eyes, but left the subject alone. It was about 30 seconds before the horn sounded, signaling the start of the game. The group went to their positions; Nico to guard duty with Beckendorf, while Silena took Laurel and Jason to distract the Hunters.
Thalia rushed into the woods to try to get the Hunter's flag. However, the Hunter's would probably have Zoë guarding their flag. Now, here is where Percy could kill 2 birds with one stone. He gets to see his wife again, and distract her enough for Thalia to steal the flag and get it back. And by Dad, did he want to hold that over her head.
He creeped along the edge of the forest, coming to the clearing where the silver flag was standing. No one was guarding the flag, and he knew that Thalia was caught up with a Hunter at the moment. So either, the Hunters were arrogant enough that they left their flag unguarded, or...
Cue Mrs. Morningstar jumping down from the trees.
A/N. HAHAHAHA. I'm evil. I wanted to include the reunion, but I underestimated how much stuff happens between the 2 events. I also saw a chance and took it. But don't worry, Perzoë reunion 1st thing next chapter.