So Hello everybody! Long time, no chapters! Lol, I'm really sorry about that. I am trying my best to fit writing into my busy life right now.
About the SAO crossover idea I mentioned at the end of last chapter, I wanted to clear that up a little. (Oh and I also wanted to thank Herosassin for a couple ideas) Okay, for PJO fans the short hand explanation is that it would be a mortal AU, or they wouldn't have powers, but some plot elements might be similar. And I was thinking about trying add Kirito in that somehow, but not sure yet. AND if your reading this and totally confused, look at the Authors Note at the end of my last chapter, and that will(hopefully) explain this. Oh and to Omega Alpha Hydra I did watch the second season, it was pretty good! I loved it when Kirito was slicing the bullets, it was freaking AWESOME! But I unfortunately cant find the movie in English. Any suggestions?
A quick thing that I noticed in a review that I wanted to explain. Yes at the end of the fight Percy did use his powers to get behind Thalia, when he knocked her out. If I use words like: flashed, raced, or maybe zipped. That means he used his powers.
And when I say "Faster than the blink of an eye" or something similar I mean it literally. Percy covered the 30 feet (or give or take 9meters) that separated Thalia from him in *Does some quick math* .0681818 seconds. For the human eye to blink, it takes from anywhere between .1 and .3 seconds. So I mean it quite literally.
Okay so it seems that some people read the responses to reviews so Ill definitely try to fit them in, unless they are really going to slow down the posting of a chapter.
Okay there were some reviews on Percy beating Artemis in the archery competition. I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear, but Artemis CHOSE not to split the five arrows necessary to fit all 25 arrows in the bulls eye. She didn't think it was needed to beat Percy. Another thing just because she's the goddess of archery doesn't mean she couldn't be beat by a demigod. Artemis has flaws and can mess up, which in reality makes her a pretty crappy goddess, but that's beside the point. Percy has been shooting archery for like 3 THOUSAND years, plus he has Apollos blessing.
But all that aside, Percy is basically on par with or just below Artemis on accuracy, like think about it we have regular HUMANS, like ones in reality not fiction, that practice and can hit on or near the bulls eye pretty much every time. So imagine if they had a thousand years and not just 20 or 30 years? maybe its just me, but I would say that's pretty good odds.
Okay, no more stalling. ON WITH THE CHAPTER!
But first... Let me do a Disclaimer: Me *In a super official voice: I solemnly swear that I DO NOT *Voice crack* eh hem own any of the characters, except if I get an OC... which I will probably do... maybe, I haven't decided... but it is a possibility...*Sees Zoe glaring at him*... *In a small voice* I'm gonna shut up now...
Percy's Pov
"Overhand...Backhand...Feint left, overhand", I yelled. The somewhat rhythmic thump of the wooden sword against the practice dummies answered my calls. Nico panted as he tried to trying to keep up with the rapid pace of them. We had been training for the past few hours, well technically only for a hour, if you exclude the over active hyper child going into overdrive for the first three or four hours, and the whining I got when I told him that he was going to be training with a wooden practice sword. I had tried to get Bianca to train with Nico, but she seemed very reluctant to for whatever reason. It was unfortunate, but I am beginning to think that she is exactly...like Arianna.
I shook my head trying to forget that line of thought, though it wasn't easy. I saw Nico trying to repeat the pattern I just said, and was managing it with some success. Nico was like most Big Three kids and was fairly natural with a sword. Some like Thalia would prefer a spear, but that doesn't mean she can't use a sword. From what I could tell, Bianca similar to Thalia, and unlike Nico, didn't like the sword I had tried to hand her. She looked at it with distain, she might be a more bow person. Which ironically would fit perfectly with the Hunt.
Speaking of the Hunt, I could feel their glares burning a hole in my back. Looking over my right shoulder, they were glaring so hard I thought I was about to spontaneously combust. But I could understand why they were glaring, I mean I am a male, that is within visual distance of them. Actually scratch that I don't understand why, but its not really my problem.
But as they were all staring right at me, I couldn't help but mess with them, I have to make up for two thousand years of not being able. I turned to them and struck a pose that showed all my muscle and manliness, "Like what you see ladies?" I asked in a fake husky voice.
I already knew exactly what the reaction was going to be. The typical, "Shut up, stupid boy" or "Vile male, shut up or I will castrate you". You know your typical girl scout response.
"What?" I yelled back, "I cant hear you over how sexist you are!" That got the response I was looking for, one of the more hot-headed ones, I think her name was Pheibes? no, Phoides? Wait! I got it! Phoebe! My mental musings over, I, mentally, turned back to the argument, conversation, shouting match whatever you call it.
She stopped a few feet away and planted her feet into the ground and glared for all she's worth (Which if you're wondering isn't much), like she expected me to start begging for mercy or something, "How dare you mock us in such a manner!"
"Well, how would like me mock you then? I take requests." I was just barely able to keep my face neutral, while her face was priceless. I could hear Nico, who I guess had stopped once he heard me talking/yelling at the Hunt, absolutely dying in the back ground from laughing. "Oh would you just shut up!" I said over my shoulder to him. Nico immediately shut up and sat down red in the face.
Turning back to Phoebe, I could see the red rise in her face and the steam coming out her ears. I, actually, did see the punch coming from a mile away, but what I didn't see (figuratively anyway) was Zoe coming from behind to stop her.
"No, Phoebe. Save it for the capture the flag game tomorrow." Phoebe looked like she was about to protest, but a hard look from Zoe convinced her otherwise. "Alright everyone lets move out!" Zoe yelled herding the Hunt probably towards the archery range to kick the campers off.
As they were moving away I could see Bianca amongst the crowd, trying and failing to blend in, the lack of a silver parka made her pretty easy to spot. She tried shifting away from my gaze, treating it like the plague.
My stare was interrupted when I felt my arm being violently shaken. Looking down I saw Nico, again, laughing while trying to get my attention. Jerking my arm out of his grip I asked, "Alright alright, what do you want kid?"
Ignoring my sudden movement, Nico said giggling, "That was so funny! You really show those hunters!"
"Uh huh, yea."
I looked up towards the sun, 'Almost 5:30, dinner should be served soon', "Let's go, pint sized, its almost dinner time." He just nodded happily, and we began to walk towards the pavilion. A lull had fallen and neither one of us was talking, which I was just fine with, but the kid just had to break it.
"So...uh... mister Perseus?"
I grit my teeth slightly annoyed now, "What kid?"
"Do you know who my dad is?" I paused, the easiest route would be to lie and say no, because if I told him the truth then he wouldn't be able to keep his trap shut. He would rave about how powerful Hades was in Mythomagic (You don't want to know how exactly I found that out) and tell the whole blasted world.
I sighed, looking at him I just lied, "I have no clue, but he might claim you in time." It was convincing, and I knew it, I had lied close to two thousand years. You eventually get good at it.
"Oh, " the bummed son of Hades responded, "so what about you?"
"What do you mean?" My eyes narrowed, muscles tensed, and my voice grew suspicious and cold.
Now Nico was grinning, obviously not reading my body language, "Whose your godly parent?"
"None of your business, now just drop it." My words were colder than ice now.
"Aww, come on Mister Perseus." A pouting Nico replied.
I whipped around in an instant, "I said to DROP it!" the façade I always keep up finally cracked, everything went dead, nothing radiated from me except raw power. Nico recoiled at my outburst, paled and quickly backed away. Ironically my hands lit on fire as my powers surfaced in response to my blow up.
I turned back around, shaking my hands to rid them of the flames, and satisfied that the kid wouldn't question me again. I started back to the dinner area, Nico shuffling close behind, his olive colored skin slowly regaining its color, this time he stayed quiet
Apollo's Pov
While Percy was enjoying his time at camp, I was chilling in my palace about to eat dinner, not that we gods have to; we could go months without food, but food tastes too good not to eat it. My steak had just finished cooking, when I felt a cold chill run up my spine, causing me to shiver internally. Seconds later green smoke filled my vison, billowing from my mouth (That stuff tastes terrible btw), it surrounded me as visions invaded my mind, spikes of pain following them as each vivid image forced itself in my mind.
Suddenly I felt my mind rush out of my body, I stood... or floated above what looked like Mount Othrys, but that's impossible, it was destroyed ages ago! I shook my head filing the observation away for later, glancing around I saw a sight that shocked my core.
Artemis laying in chains near the peak of the mountain. She appeared to be in an out cove, with a hard packed dirt floor, and a path lead to the ruins of what looked like a palace that was just a little ways off. Next to where Artemis' chains were bolted to the ground was an area that had been really packed in, making it kinda unofficially marked off. Inside the area were three young girls, all crouched down and heaving upward as if holding a massive weight.
Just as I finished observing the surroundings, Artemis began to wake up, groaning she reached for her head, "What happened?" She muttered.
I chuckled silently, despite the situation, as her normally pristine uniform and rigid hair was now ruffled and scattered all over the place, some even sticking to the side of her mouth because of a little drool that had leaked out.
I watched as she rubbed her head, probably where she got hit when they knocked her out, and quickly gathered her bearings, seeing the girls, she tried to stand only to find her hands and feet shackled to... nothing? 'Wait,' I thought, 'wasn't she chained to the ground just a second ago?'. Something felt very wrong, I tried to take a step forward, but I couldn't move and my voice didn't work as I tried to call out to my sister. I watched helpless as she approached the three girls. The latter begged for her to help them, but Artemis hesitated, and I felt a spark of hope that she might have the same uneasiness about the situation.
But the spark was quickly doused when she said, "I sense all of you are still maidens, so yes I will help you."
'Go figure,' I thought to myself, since I couldn't speak to myself, voice still didn't work, 'Artemis saves them not because they are in trouble, but because they are maidens... typical'
Stepping into the circle, Artemis crouched down and lifted an invisible weight off the girls, 'the weight of the sky', I thought, 'I wonder how heavy it really is?', but then panic surged through my body. 'Wait! There is supposed to be a Titan holding the sky? Umm it was At-something.'
My thoughts were interrupted by the trio of girls, who were panting just outside the unofficial ring, one stepped back from Artemis, she had bright blond hair and a strange scar that ran down the right cheek.
"Everything went to plan General." But the voice that came from her lips was no longer feminine, but rather that of a teenage male.
Suddenly a man with a massive, bulky form appear next to the trio. Power rolled off him in waves, it was power exceeding even my father!
"Excellent", he said, his deep voice matching his hulking features.
The blonde girl curtsied toward the being saying, "My pleasure". The voice still a creepy male.
Turning to his left, the being, rumbling to an unseen person, "Drop the illusion it's starting to give me a headache."
A feminine form wearing a slim, form fitting, purple ball gown appeared similar to the 'General's' sudden appearance, "Awww, but milord", she purred swaying her hips and leaning over to the blonde girl, "They look so cute like this".
The 'General' glared at the feminine figure, "Hecate...", he said threateningly.
Hecate huffed, waving her hand and quickly chanted, "Διαλύσει ξόρκι" (Spell dissipate, for those of you who don't know Greek). The girls surrounding the two beings began to shimmer and shake like the heat waves that radiate from a hot road on a summer day. Then there was a slightly audible pop sound and where the three girls had been standing was a guy and 2 empousai, the guy formerly being the blonde girl.
Bending at her waist, Hecate curtsied in the 'General's' direction. "Is it to your standards Lord Atlas?"
The Titan Atlas narrowed his eyes on the sarcastic goddess, "Watch yourself goddess", the Titan said with venom, "remember who is in charge." And with a flippant wave of his hand he said, "Now go and take your seductive wiles somewhere else."
The goddess of magic pouted, but with a small flash she was gone.
Turning toward the now captive goddess of the Hunt, Atlas gave a cold chuckle, "Make sure not to strain your back, Milady." He said as reached out and raised her chin.
I could see the fire in her silver eyes as she tried to bite his hand. "You will regret this!" She shouted at him.
Having yanked back his hand before she could sink her teeth in, Atlas just gave a heartless laugh, "Let's see if you still have that fire after you watch this world and your hunters BURN!" At the last word he quickly teleported away, leaving my sister to struggle under the weight of the sky.
I could feel the vision ending and my conscious being whisked back to my body. When I arrived back at my body, the terrible taste of green smoke still lingered in my mouth. Trying to get rid of it, I reached for my steak only to find it cold. Bummed that my hard work had been for nothing, I snapped my fingers and it disappeared, while a soda appeared in place of it.
Taking a long drink the horrific flavor finally left my mouth, and I began to think about what I saw. I mean I probably need to get the oracle to send a quest to get my sister, but how will this affect Percy and his complicated situation? Mulling over my options I decided to sleep on it and figure it out in the morning. Visions such as the one I just had typically left me drained, usually more emotionally than anything else. Glancing at the clock as I laid in the bed, my barely open eyes made out 6:05 on its digital face before I slipped into a undisturbed sleep.
Zach Hersher POV
Today had been a total rollercoaster of emotions, from the excitement of the rescue mission this morning, to Thalia's loss to the mysterious Perseus, and especially his and the Hunt's arrivals definitely spiced up the gossip around camp. It was just after dinner, one of the most quiet and awkward things I have ever witnessed, while most everyone had gone to the nightly camp fire, I had already decided to track down Perseus and fix a wrong.
The wrong being how I acted toward Perseus after he had saved Annabeth and Bianca (What did you think I was going to have them fight? How childish do you think I am?-_-). I had tried to follow him straight after dinner, so I could join the end of the songs and S'mores, but he just seemed to vanish into thin air as soon as dinner was over. And for the past 30 minutes, I have scoured almost the whole camp before I got an idea. I changed course from the searching the area around the cabins a second time, to the Big house to see if Chiron knew where the elusive guy was.
Bounding up the Big house stairs, I turned the corner to Chiron's Office, the door was slightly ajar and there were muffled voices coming from the room. But I completely ignored those small indicators and burst into the office.
"Hey Chiron do yo...", my voice slowly died out as I saw Chiron seated in his wheelchair behind his desk, looking slightly exasperated. But what actually made me pause was who he was exasperated with. Perseus, the mystery man of the hour, was standing off to the side of Chiron, but still in front of the desk.
Chiron glanced in my direction and said, "I'll be with you in a minute Zach, as soon as I finish up with Perseus."
I just nodded and found a chair in the corner to sit as they wrapped whatever they were doing up.
Chiron looked back toward Perseus, "What if I ask for that favor you owe me from Kitezch?"
"Psssh", Perseus responded, "that would barely cover the initial fee."
"What!" Chiron exclaimed, "I saved Cynthia's life." His normally gentle, fatherly face now appeared to be frustrated.
"No, you gave me the bow that I USED to save... her life." Perseus hesitantly shot back.
Chiron's frustrated face changed to one of guilt, "I'm sorry, Percy, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories..."
That's when I looked back to Perseus, his whole demeanor had changed. His face, just a second ago, was full of frustration and annoyance, now there was... nothing. Just nothing, no annoyance or aggravation, like a blank sheet of paper. It was extremely eerie, with his body completely rigged and unmoving he could have been mistaken for a statue, I could scarcely see his chest moving from his breathing.
"The price for my help is 10 thousand now, 20 after the job is done. That's final." And with that he was gone, like straight up disappeared, I whipped my head around trying to find where he went, 'His power better be teleportation otherwise I'm gonna lose that bet with Annabeth'. I thought, wait not why I was here, stupid ADHD!
Looking towards Chiron, I saw him face in his hands letting out a deep, long, loud sigh.
"Everything alright?" I asked.
He jumped, probably forgetting I was there, "Y-yes Zach, now what did you want to ask me about?"
"Ohh, uhh, I actually wanted to apologize to Perseus."
"Okay I understand", Chiron nodded, "But for what?" He asked.
I sighed, "Just for the way I acted on the quest and after the fight with the Manticore."
Chiron nodded again, "I can pass it along next time I see him, if you like." He suggested.
I readily agreed, and thanked Chiron for the help. Leaving his office I ran to try to catch the tail end of the s'mores and campfire songs.
3rd Person with Hestia
Hestia was not having a good day, Apollo was still acting the fool, Zoran was dealing with political anarchy on Asgard, and Perseus... Perseus was worse than she had expected.
Her constant worry was interrupted by a familiar woosh sound that always followed one of the two speedsters. She turned to see Zoran, his battle armor morphing back into a bracelet just like Percy's.
She rushed over, transforming from 8 to 30 year old in the couple steps it took. They embraced with Zoran rubbing circles on her back while she sobbed. Finally after a few minutes she pulled back, "How is he?" Zoran asked softly.
Hestia sniffled, "Not good." She said teary eyed. She fingered the ring on her finger, for all intents and purposes she and Zoran were married. It had happened after they adopted Percy, to give him a sense of a more unified family. She and Zoran still slept in different beds and hadn't done anything naughty, (I can already see the comments now-_-) so Hestia still was a virgin goddess. "He's still the same, the Percy we raised is gone!"
"Oh come now", Zoran said, "that's no way for the goddess of hope to talk, now is it?" Hestia just gave him a swift kick in the shins.
"OW! OW!" Zoran yelped, "And I was told you were non-violent." He joked.
"Zoran this is serious! Hestia exclaimed, "Percy hasn't been the same since Alexander died and was devastated beyond almost beyond repair when... Becky died." She broke down in tears again.
Zoran just nodded, "But I still don't see why he insists on the mask he keeps on, he's not fooling us or Apollo.
"I don't think he's trying, it just a habit after all his assassin work. No body gets close to someone who shows no emotion, so he fakes it."
Eventually Hestia stopped crying and walked to the kitchen to sit down, with Zoran taking the chair next to her, "I don't know what to do, Percy just won't let me in to help fix whatever is broken."
"I think that might be the problem", Hestia looked at him confused, "even Percy doesn't know what's broken, so he just covers it in layers of walls so he doesn't have to fix it because..." Hestia looked for Zoran to finish, but Zoran paused, wanted Hestia to put it together herself. After a long time Zoran gave up and leaned forward, "He's not fixing it because he's not planning on living after he fulfils his promise to her, right?"
Hestia turned toward him again not in shock, but very with grief and a distraught conscious , "Yeah", she said, her voice wavering, "and that's what worries me."
Holy cow that took waaaaaaaaayyyyyy longer that it should have, and for that I apologize. I don't really have an excuse other than laziness, so sorry!
But I wasn't just sitting around doing nothing, I've thought long and hard about where I want this story to go and how its going to get there. I'm not going to reveal to much, but be ready for an extremely slow burn and some seriously tough decisions. I'm not going to make a bad guy bad for no reason, like how Zach isn't just a complete jerk, but wanted to apologize and correct his mistake.
For the poll and any shipping that is to be done, Im making the executive decision to make my own choice and not follow the poll, because like I've been trying to tell you Pertemis shippers extremely nicely for the past 4 chapters, IT WONT WORK, THEY HATE EACH OTHER!
So anyways I'm scrapping the poll and going solo, you might have seen a few hints at what I'm going for if you paid a little attention.
But Anyways I will answer reviews hopefully next chapter, They really do help motivate me to write, but not the ones that say, "Pls update", that's just annoying. Give my a like about the story, give me a dislike about the story, something I can improve on. Those really show there are people who enjoy the work I put into these chapters.
I know recently I haven't really done that, but I will try my best now that summer travel lacrosse is over and I am not aching all over from 9am to 10pm everyday.
Yall all have a great day
Hasta la vista! Im outie!