Ch. 2
Thalia pulled her parka tight around her as the wind whipped hard and the cold night air sent a shiver down her body. December in New England wasn't the place she envisioned spending her weekend… And yet, here she was, standing in the middle of Maine, shivering as the wind blistered her red cheeks.
She glanced to her left where Luke was trying to shake the cold out of his body as well.
Two years had passed since they found their way to Camp Half Blood.
That was an experience, she remembered less than fondly.
All three kindly ones and a pack of Hellhounds on their trail, useless Grover leaving them half way up Half Blood Hill and three inexperienced half-bloods barely armed against and Hades' minions was not her idea of a good time.
Then there was that mysterious guy, er, god, er, whatever he was. He called her little sis, which only made her more confused about the whole thing. Whoever or whatever he was, he was powerful. She'd met a couple Olympians and he felt, well, different. Powerful, probably more powerful than most gods she'd met, maybe outside of her father, but also different. She got a certain vibe from the Olympians she'd met, that guy was different.
She'd hoped to find out more about him but away from Luke and Annabeth, she hadn't been able to even mention it. Chiron had made it very clear on their first night that mentioning him and what happened would not end well. He refused to elaborate or tell her who he was, claiming he wasn't sure, but she could tell he was lying. He knew who he was, or at least, had a pretty good idea. But having gotten to know Chiron, anyone who made him that uneasy was probably not someone she wanted to know anything about anyway.
Though when they were alone, Luke and she talked about him a lot, debating who he might be… She thought he might be a Titan but couldn't be sure. For one, she had no idea what a Titan was supposed to look like but that was the best conjecture she could come up with. Luke didn't have a better answer so she decided to go with that for now.
Now wasn't the time to think about such things though. They had a job to do and it certainly wasn't getting done daydreaming in the middle of winter in upstate Maine. Chiron had sent them here to help Grover, who had sent a distress call about two powerful half-bloods in danger. As they made their way up to the door, she realized they hadn't come up with anything close to a plan.
Before she had a chance to stop him, Luke opened the door to the Westover Hall School Gymnasium, revealing what seemed like a pretty lame dance. Balloons and decorations littered the basketball court. The lights were slightly dimmed and a multicolored strobe light gave Thalia an almost instant headache. She tried not to vomit when she heard Britney Spears playing loudly from the speakers set up next to a douchey looking DJ on the other side of the room. The boys and girls seemed to be on different sides of the gym trying to get as far away from each other as humanly possible.
Barf, she thought morosely… A boy/girl dance with middle school kids was about the last place she ever wanted to be.
Before they had a chance to even look for Grover, two people seemed to materialize right in front of them. The first was an older looking woman; she had a grey hair and thick glasses. She looked at the duo suspiciously.
The other was a younger but stranger looking man. He had one of those thin mustaches that curled around his lip. His golden slicked back hair looked almost unnatural. It wasn't blonde, nor was it red. It was golden, like the color of a lion's fur which looked really weird on his pale face. He wore a dark suit and looked at them with the strangest pair of eyes she'd ever seen. One of them was green, the other was sky blue… Not that different than the color of her own eyes.
"Can we help you?" He asked in a heavy, maybe Eastern European accent.
Thalia groaned mentally as she drew a blank, cursing herself for not thinking up a backstory for them. Luke though, just snapped his fingers twice between the two adults and stepped back smiling.
"What do you mean?" He asked sounding genuinely confused. "We go to school here, remember? Thalia and Luke… We're here for the dance."
The woman's eyes glazed over and she slowly started to nod. Thalia was looking at her, trying to figure out what just happened. The man though, just narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Do you know these two, Ms. Gottschalk?" He asked looking at them skeptically.
She continued to nod her head, "Of course Dr. Thorn," her voice sounded a little dreamy, like she was in a daze. "This is Thalia and Luke… They're here for the dance."
Ms. Gottschalk? Thalia mused, trying not to smile despite their situation. Was there seriously a teacher called Ms. Gottschalk?
Dr. Thorn continued to stare at them with doubt but nodded his head nonetheless and stepped aside, allowing them inside. Thalia watched him as they passed. His eyes remained narrowed until they were past him. After that, he turned and strode away, a quick little hop in his step like he was hurrying to the bathroom after one too many glasses of punch.
Once they were out of earshot, Thalia elbowed Luke in the ribs.
"What was that?"
He groaned at the less than light jab, "Manipulated the mist… Hasn't Chiron showed you that?"
She frowned; a little miffed that Chiron hadn't taught her how to do that and that Luke hadn't mentioned he knew how to do it until a moment before.
"No," she grumbled. "But I don't think it worked on Dr. Thorn back there, did you see the way he looked at us?"
Luke just shrugged, "He let us in. Who knows, maybe he's the monster Grover warned us about. It only works on mortals."
Before Thalia had a chance to respond, Grover came running up to them, his face pale and expression worried.
"Guys! You made it!" His tone was relieved but Thalia could tell he was still nervous. He seriously had to be the lamest satyr in existence. She loved Grover, they were good friends but when it came to danger, she would have felt safer with a straw dummy protecting demigods than Grover.
Luke smiled at his satyr friend, "Yeah Grover, what's up?"
"Two powerful demigods," Grover replied before flinching at the scowl Thalia sent his way.
"For the love of the gods," she hissed quietly, "can you please be a little more discreet before everyone here knows we're looking for half-bloods?"
"Sorry," Grover said apologetically. Luke shot Thalia a look but she just rolled her eyes knowing she was right and a little tough love might do their friend some good.
"Where are they?" Luke said as he looked around for signs of demigodishness… And yes, that was a word of his own creation.
Grover pointed towards the bleachers but then paused, a look of confusion on his face. He scanned the crowds of students, his face losing more and more color as he tried to locate them.
"The half-bloods," he whispered. "I was watching them but they're gone now! They were over on those bleachers not two minutes ago."
Thalia looked over where Grover was pointing and saw a floppy white hat laying on the floor, along with a mess of some kind of cards scattered over the bleachers.
"Hades, goat boy," Thalia hissed. "How did you already lose them?"
"I… I… I…" Grover stuttered nervously. "I swear I was just with them before I saw you guys walk…k…k…k in." He bleated, a telltale sign that he was about to: A) start crying or B) Saw someone walk by with an enticing snack, like a tin can or cheese enchilada.
Before Grover break down, Luke pointed to the other side the room where they saw Dr. Thorn basically dragging two kids out a side entrance of the gym.
"There," he said quickly. "That Dr. Thorn guy has them."
Thalia noticed the way Grover seemed to go a little more pale.
"That's why I called camp," he said anxiously. "I don't know what he is, but that guy has a really strong scent. Definitely a monster."
Thalia shook her head, "Great, I was hoping this would be as difficult as possible."
Without wasting another minute, Luke and Thalia charged off in the direction Thorn had made off with the demigods. By the time they caught up with him, he was in a clearing outside the school, seemingly walking himself into a trap with cliffs ahead of him and the two demigods behind.
"Hey!" Luke yelled. "Drop those two right now and we'll make this quick for you."
Thorn stopped and turned back to them, an evil smile spreading across his face.
"Ah, Luke Castellan and Thalia Grace, how pleasant of you to come see me off. The general will be quite pleased when I return with two extra demigods, a daughter of Zeus no less."
Thalia flinched when she heard her last name. It was not something many people knew and definitely not something she liked to be called, let alone by some monster scum.
Luke unsheathed his sword and stepped closer, closing the distance between him and the monster. Before he had a chance to react, he was suddenly knocked off his sweet, a cry of pain filling the previously silent night.
"Luke!" Thalia screamed. She tried to run towards him but had to roll aside as a projectile was launched in her direction. She slapped her wrist and Aegis sprang to life, blocking the next couple volleys.
"It's a manticore," Grover said nervously running up beside them, careful to stay safely behind Thalia and her shield. "Thalia, be careful."
She grit her teeth, "Help Luke, I've got this clown."
Thalia tried to step towards the monster but she had to keep dodging and blocking spikes being launched continuously. She managed to get within ten feet when Thorn tossed the two half-bloods behind him and changed form. From an awkward looking man, he still had the face of a man but the body of a lion, a deadly looking scorpion tail rounding out his truly horrible form.
Before she could react, he lunged at her, flying ten feet with the speed and grace of a true lion. Thalia barely managed to roll aside. The monster hit her shield and glanced off, tumbling a few times before regaining his feet and getting low, ready to pounce again. He fired a few more spikes that kept Thalia on the defensive but as he made to lunge, the monster cried out in pain.
Thalia expected to see Luke with his sword in the monster, grinning like an idiot for saving the day. What she found was almost as annoying and easily her second choice to Luke being a tool.
A silver arrow sprouted from Thorn's backside. He roared in pain and turned to find twenty young girls emerging from the woods, garbed in silver parkas, black camo pants and combat boots.
The hunters, Thalia thought, unsure if she was pleased or angered by this.
"Argh," Thorn growled and backed up towards the two terror stricken paralyzed demigods. When he identified his attackers, an even uglier look appeared on his face. "You have no right to be here! This is direct interference!" He bellowed at the hunters though Thalia wasn't sure if he knew which one he was talking to.
An auburn haired girl about twelve years old stepped forward; her yellowy silver eyes making her appear different than the other adolescent girls.
"Not so." She said evenly. "The hunting of all wild beasts is in my domain. And you, foul creature, are free game for me and my hunters."
Thorn growled ferociously and launched a volley of spikes at the hunters. They all nimbly dodged but the move bought him enough time to snatch Thalia in his grip, holding her in front of him like a shield.
"You have no business here, goddess. Leave and I won't spill the blood of these half-bloods."
The goddess' eyes narrowed a little and a silver bow appeared in her hand, an arrow already notched and ready to take the beast down in an instant.
Before she could loose an arrow, the manticore suddenly cried out in pain. He dropped Thalia who immediately rolled aside and looked up at the rigid body of the monster. A sword poked out the front of his body as a man materialized behind the monster.
Thalia's first thought was that this was the mysterious man who appeared on half-blood hill two years earlier and saved her life. But as the monster began to dissolve, she saw the face of the man was covered by a silver mask and a hood cast a shadow over his eyes, stopping her from getting much of a look at all. The figure's apparel was similar to that of the hunters and had he not been at least six and half feet tall, she would have guessed it were a hunter.
The mysterious figure shook the dust off his sword and sheathed it at his waist. Without even a passing glance at Thalia or the hunters, it turned its attention to the two demigods the manticore had tried to make off with.
Before he could take his first step, a silver arrow whizzed up his head. It might have hit him had he not tilted his head to the side at the last second and the arrow sailed over the cliff and into the waiting sea below.
His rigid form almost made Thalia shiver. The way he straightened and his body went stiff told her that whoever this was wasn't just mad about that arrow, he was absolutely pissed.
He seemed to try and ignore it and took another step towards the two frightened demigods who huddled together near the cliff's edge. The girl tucked her younger brother beneath her in an almost motherly protective gesture.
A second arrow flew through the periphery of Thalia's vison. She followed its path and felt her mouth drop a little at what she saw. Almost like she was seeing it in slow motion, the man spun around just before the arrow found its mark in his back. His fist came around in what looked like a haymaker of a punch and connected with the arrow just before it would have impaled him.
Looking back, it shouldn't have even been possible. But when his fist hit the arrow's deadly point, it wasn't the man crying out in pain. Instead the arrow exploded in a shower of silver sparks that illuminated the dark air all around the man. Though she couldn't see his face, she could only imagine the look of anger that was there.
The more she watched, the more she was convinced, this was in fact the same man who had showed up and saved her life on Half-Blood Hill two years earlier.
"Do that again, and I will end this fight before it starts, little goddess." He spat the words little goddess like they were poison.
The small girl Thalia recognized as Artemis looked momentarily stunned before her previously beautiful features were marred by a look of absolute fury.
"You dare threaten a goddess? An Olympian?" She growled back and even though the words came from the mouth of a twelve year old girl, they still made Thalia gulp.
The man seemed unaffected by her threat and turned back towards the two unknown half-bloods.
Before he could get more than two steps, a volley of silver arrows, coming from the bows of every hunter, sailed towards him
What happened next, Thalia never could really explain in words. It was like she was watching it on video and had the control set to super slow motion. She knew how quickly it was happening and had no idea how she was able to comprehend it.
She felt the ground beneath her disappear and fell with a thump, landing in front of the two demigods they had come to Maine to rescue.
Her head turned just in time to find the man, who she assumed was this Perseus guy, especially when a pure black bow appeared in his own hand.
Instead of rolling aside, he lunged straight towards the incoming barrage of arrows. He swung his bow like a baseball bat, crushing the closest arrow to dust and spun around, grasping at the string on his own bow, a pitch black arrow appearing on the string before he fired it right back at a hunter who was still watching the trajectory of her last shot. A shaft of pure darkness, nothing more than a blur seen in the light of the moon and stars flew back in the direction of the hunters. It was too quick for her eyes to follow but she knew what happened a split second later when the huntress cried out, a black arrow protruding from her right thigh.
Thalia's eyes darted back to the man who had already fired a trio of additional arrows, the clouds of silver dust still in the air from the other huntress' strikes. She didn't even have a chance to look when she heard more hunters crying out, all of them keeling over with arrows sticking out of their own thighs, one took an arrow in the knee and literally knocked her feet out from under her, making her face plant into the frozen earth beneath her.
In a matter of seconds, every hunter was sprawled out on the floor of the forest, arrows protruding from different appendages. None of the wounds were fatal but all hit precise spots that incapacitated the hunters until they could receive medical help.
Artemis stood in her spot. She and another hunter that Thalia annoyingly recognized as Zoë Nightshade were the ones left unharmed. The look on the goddess' face wasn't what Thalia expected. She'd expected to see anger, rage and maybe worry for her hunters. But instead, her eyes were locked on the masked man. A myriad of emotions could be seen. Her mouth was slightly agape, a look of utter disbelief mixed with worry, fear and almost panic. The last two confused Thalia because she was an Olympian Goddess; she wasn't supposed to get scared.
"No," she mumbled, seeming to be in shock.
But before she had a chance to recover her wits, Thalia thought she was about to be incinerated because the man's body seemed to explode. Thalia thought he had taken his true form but the light wasn't bright. It was like an explosion of pure darkness. She saw Zoë shield her own eyes and figured she had thought what she had been thinking. But before she could realize her error, Zoë was blasted backwards, flying through the air and landing roughly on the ground almost twenty feet from the goddess.
Suddenly he was right in front of Artemis. His bow had been replaced by that wicked looking black sword of his. Had she not been the goddess of the hunt and probably the most agile being in existence, her head would have been cleaved right off.
Her survival instincts kicked in and she fell straight backwards, the blade passing so close to her face, she could have kissed the metal as it went by. Her hunting knives appeared in her hands and she immediately put them in front of her, blocking a second strike that too would have cut her in half.
She kicked his legs, knocking him back a step and allowing her to jump back to her feet. She seemed to hesitate though and didn't go on the offensive.
The feeling, whatever it was, clearly wasn't mutual as he lunged at the goddess.
He was a blur of darkness in the night, hard to follow but unmistakable as he moved. His body seemed to change forms as he attacked. One minute he was just a man with a sword, the next he was a panther, then the leopard, a Black Bear… Thalia's eyes were taking in more information than her brain could comprehend.
Artemis' form disappeared as he attacked… She was a blur of silver as she fought him off. Her own body seemed to change, almost like she was following his lead… She was a lion, then a tiger, a gazelle; every change seemed to save her from certain death. They battle looked like a synergetic dance, black and silver, a yin and yang battling it out for dominance.
Thalia caught glimpses of them in their human forms; Artemis jumping back as the black blade sliced across her arm sending ichor pouring from the wound; a hunting knife grazing his leg before being batted aside.
Thalia had no doubt this was both the most horrifying and the most epic thing she had ever seen. A battle of immortals, the divine unleashing their true power and strength as they collided again and again, sparks flying whenever their weapons met. It looked like the dark figure was the stronger fighter; he dictated the fight and Artemis was simply trying to stay alive.
As he continued his assault, his movements slowed ever so slightly, likely from fatigue and it gave Artemis an opening at last. She feinted a blow low that the man seemed to buy. He went to dodge when she spun around, catching him across the face with the back of her left hand. The blow was glancing and not even enough to stun the male god but it did knock the silver mask from his face, revealing what Thalia had already assumed: It was the Perseus being that had saved her life years earlier.
While Artemis didn't look shocked like she had first been, the sight of his face did make her pause.
That only seemed to make him angry through. He threw a punch at her face. When she made to block, he used the flat of his blade to smack the back of her leg hard enough to knock her off her feet. He raised his blade and Thalia had no doubt the goddess was about to visit Tartarus the hard way.
Before he could deliver the blow, a small silver form jumped on his back from behind. While it did save the goddess, at least for the moment, it clearly did not go the way she had originally envisioned.
In the blink of an eye, Perseus had Zoë Nightshade in the air by her throat. He needed only to squeeze and she would be gone from this world. Something, Thalia wasn't sure if it was surprise or maybe mercy, made Perseus pause though when he looked at the huntress.
Artemis launched herself at his legs, trying to tackle him to the ground but he seemed to know it was coming. A huge booted foot knocked the goddess out of the air, midflight, and she rolled on the ground towards Thalia.
"Enough!" Perseus snapped. "Move again and I'll snap her in half!" It was clear there was no bluff in his threat and Artemis seemed to know it as well. She crouched on the ground in front of her, looking more like a wounded and scared animal than an Olympian Goddess.
Zoë's legs kicked frantically as she struggled to her air past his iron grip. He noticed and to Thalia's surprise, his grip seemed to loosen, ever so slightly, enough for her to breath with some difficulty.
"P…P…" Artemis started to say but when his body straightened and his grip on Zoë's throat tightened, she went silent again. It was hard to tell from her angle but Thalia thought she saw tears running down the goddess' cheeks.
"What do you want?" She finally managed to croak out.
The question made Perseus pause for a just a second. He glared murderously down at the goddess before glancing at the struggling Zoë in his grasp. His shoulders seemed to relax for just a moment before he tossed the hunter at the goddess' feet. Zoë landed roughly and her hands went to her throat and she coughed and sucked oxygen into her lungs frantically.
"I want many things but her life is not one of them." He spat coldly. He looked like he was about to say something else when thunder boomed overhead. A golden light appeared beside Artemis and the wide eyed form of the second of the twin archers appeared next to his sister. He stared up at Perseus with the same mixture of worry, shock and fear that Artemis had.
Before Apollo could say anything, Thalia felt the same sensation of the ground disappearing beneath her. She reappeared, along with the other two demigods beside Perseus. She felt her stomach drop when she saw the golden shackles around the necks of the other two demigods. She reached up and found one around hers as well, all connected to a chain gripped firmly in his grasp.
Perseus looked at the two Olympians and spit on the ground in front of them.
"What do I want you ask? I want it all and I shall have it! Just you wait; I will be back for all of you!"
Then Thalia, the two demigods and Perseus were engulfed by a wall of darkness and vanished from the edge of the cliffs. The last thing Thalia heard before everything went dark was a single word muttered in Ancient Greek from Apollo's mouth.
"Brother."
A.N: Look at that, two chapters in two days. I don't make updating schedules anymore. I write when I feel like it and right now I feel like it. I do want to go finish up other stories but I'm just going to go with what my little brain picks for me.
And next chapter, some things will be explained. Some of you will know some of it, but from reviews, some of you have no idea.
Thanks for reading and let me know what you thought.
