I THINK I SCREWED WITH THE CHAPTERS, SO I AM REPOSTING IT; TW: Self-harm/suicide mentioning, but should I really do TWs in a M rated story? Anyway, there you have it. And to MegaRayquaza8121, no, the reference was the "unanimously" bit where Stalin's inner circle would have this moment a lot of times during the movie, and instead of having someone opposing the idea of putting Percy on Artemis's side, they would just have to deal with it and agree.
As soon they flashed away, Percy was sure he was going to receive a god tier slap to his face. Thankfully it did not happen, but the moon goddess was still pissed at him.
"The nerve of you to not reveal who you were for months! Do you know how much time we actually lost hunting you? And I honestly don't know how you do it." Artemis complained to Percy. As soon as they arrived at the Hunters camp, multiple Hunters that were placed to guard the place pointed arrows at him, but lowered their bows, although reluctantly, when Artemis raised one hand, as if saying don't shoot him. Not yet.
"Do what?" Percy asked, smiling underneath the mask. Artemis motioned him to follow her, and follow her, he did.
Artemis snorted as they walked. "How do you manage to make us fear for our lives. We are not even mortal! Even if it is you, and all of your feats that come with that knowledge..." she complained some more, not fully believing how scared the Olympians showed themselves to be when faced by a single demigod, albeit, a powerful one. And one who had been the demise of several immortals and countless monsters, even before his disappearence.
Percy was silent for a brief moment before coming with an answer. Artemis looked at him, but it was particularly difficult to decipher someone wearing a mask covering the entirety of their face.
"Have you ever read The Art of War?" he asked after some time.
"What?" Artemis replied, confused.
"Have you?" he insisted.
"No, do I look like a war goddess to you?"
The Butcher chuckled.
"Sometimes. And you should read things out of your expertise, also." Artemis glared at him after that particular comment. "There is a statement in the book that really defines this situation. Appear weak when you are strong, and appear strong when you are weak".
"You do not look weak to me. At all." Artemis affirmed, earning another chuckle of Percy.
"That's because I'm not. But I am punching above my weight here, I probably would have difficulty beating every Olympian out there at once."
Once again Artemis snorted in annoyance, right when they had reached her tent. Said tent was significantly larger than a normal tent, even on the outside.
"Probably?!" she yelled loudly as they entered it. "You have been more humble in the past, Percy Jackson."
"WHAT?!" another person yelled even louder inside of the quite large tent, making a second individual fall out of a couch with an ugly thump. The latter moaned in pain on the ground, but the former, a blue eyed daughter of Zeus, was on her feet, glaring at her mistress and the Butcher.
"Yes, Thalia?" Artemis asked her fuming sister.
Thalia shook her head, as to wipe her head clear of a possible thought.
"Sorry, milady, I thought you called this guy who we've been tracking for months now and that for some reason is still alive and here at camp P-Per..." Just like her father earlier that day, Thalia stopped talking as the Butcher removed his mask. Artemis noted that his eyes were much more friendlier than they were previously at the Throne Room.
"Hello, Thalia." Percy greeted as if the cousins had just seen each other the day before. Thalia stared at him in shock for a few seconds, perhaps deciding if it was an illusion or actually real, before jumping in his direction, tackling him with a strong embrace.
"You're alive?!" she looked directly at his eyes with tears forming on her own. Percy simply nodded. "You didn't know how much I mourned you and h-her... Right after I learned of Jason's death..."
"What?" he suddenly asked. His expression had hardened. His jaw was clenched, and his eyes had lost the friendly bright.
"W-what's wrong?" Thalia inquired.
"Jason is dead?" he questioned in a very low tone, almost a whisper.
"He... he is." the lieutenant responded, her tone also becoming less friendly, the tears hiding themselves in the confusion that took over the daughter of Zeus.
Percy let go of the hug and sat at the couch with his head on his hands. Artemis glared at him, Thalia kept staring in confusion and Natalie, now on her feet, was looking at him with fear, backing off away from the couch.
"How did he die?" Percy asked in an actual whisper.
"What?" Thalia asked.
"How did he die?" he repeated, only this time louder enough for her to listen.
"He... He got killed by one of the emperors, nearly at the same time as Annabeth and... you." Thalia explained, also in a very low voice.
Percy sat for a few seconds in silence, with the three women present at the tent staring at him without knowing what do at that sight. Outside, the winds were clearly more violent than before, and this did not go unnoticed by Artemis. She knew his father's titles, specially the "stormbringer" part.
"Jackson, calm down before you destroy the camp and us with it!" she yelled at the Butcher, who responded by taking a heavy breath. Slowly, the winds returned to the normality of the cold night.
"Sorry." he apologized in a hoarse voice. He looked over to Natalie who once again backed off, fear evident in her expression. He cleared his throat before speaking. "How are you, Natalie?"
The still unclaimed demigod blinked thrice, trying to comprehend his sudden change of tone, back to a much friendlier one, and overall, the random, seemingly out of nowhere question.
"I-I'm fine. So, your name is Percy?" Natalie asked, in which Percy responded with a nod. She once again turned to Thalia.
"Is she staying?" he questioned his cousin.
"Uh... Natalie, what did you think of the idea of joining the Hunt?" Thalia asked the demigoddess, who seemed to think for a bit about said idea. She glanced over to Artemis, as if she was nervous to annoy the goddess depending on what decision she makes.
"Young one, whatever your decision may be, I'm not going to smite you for it." The moon goddess reassured her, and Natalie seemed to relax a bit.
"In that case... I think I would like to go to Camp Half-Blood. Is that what it's called?" she asked to Thalia, who nodded. "Yeah, I think I will go to Camp."
Artemis sighed, but nodded. "I understand your wishes. I will make sure to contact a satyr to pick you up..."
"I will take her there." Percy interjected, getting up from the couch.
"What?" Artemis questioned, once again getting angry at the nerve of that boy.
"Problem?" he answered sarcastically, clearly not threatened by Artemis's tone.
"You've heard the Council. You wish to oppose the will of the gods?" She said, getting in front of him. However the intended effect of intimidation didn't really work. Maybe when he was still fourteen, emotionally shaken after Annabeth fell of a cliff by the hands of Dr. Thorn. But not now, when he was more than one foot taller than her at her twelve year old form. Even with his height advantage and what most (including Natalie) would consider an intimidating semblant just by how he looked, he did not gloat about it, maintaining a neutral expression in his face.
"Then let this be our first... mission, for a lack of a better term, together." The Butcher suggested, his face still impassive.
Artemis thought for a second. But before she could answer, a groggy Reyna burst into the tent.
"Hey, Milady, is Thalia here...?" just like so other many others on that day before her, she ceased whatever conversation she had began when she noticed Percy standing right there, confronting Lady Artemis herself.
"Yes, Reyna, what is it?" Thalia promptly asked. In response, the daughter of Bellona pinched the bridge of her nose, shooking her head.
"If this a dream, I hope I wake up. If it's not, I will talk with you - both," she said as she glared at Percy. "later." And that was that. She left the tent without saying another word. Artemis coughed loudly.
"Anyway, fine, we can go with that suggestion. Thalia, you are in command until we come back from Long Island. We are departing by sunrise." she announced, but Percy managed to defy her once again.
"I don't think so, we should leave right now." he argued.
Artemis's glare felt like a dagger, even for Natalie and Thalia who were not the focus of it.
"I don't even know why am I tolerating such disrespect. Most gods would have turned you into a slimy blob by now. Do you have any good reason of why we should leave in the middle of the night, since it's going to be group consisting of a goddess, an extremely powerful demigod and another demigod traveling across more than two states? It will be quite literally a shining beacon for monsters to ramp up on us and get you and Natalie killed!"
Percy did not flinch at the glare, her angry retort, and much less at the proposition of being turned into a blob.
"There is a monster camp near Pittsburgh. That cannot ever be a good thing. I suspect they are going to attack Camp, the reasons behind it are still unknown to me. And if I recall correctly in our first meeting, you proclaimed that "the hunting of all wild beasts is under your domain". How about you, goddess of hunting, and I, monster's number one nightmare, go there and wipe them out before they become a problem? After that, we can bring Mrs. Lawrence here to Camp, safe and sound. Do we have a deal?" The Butcher suggested with a wide grin, waving one hand to Natalie.
"He kinda has a point." Thalia commented.
"Alright, FINE!" Artemis accepted. "We leave in ten, one minute late and I swear to Zeus I will turn you into a pile of dust! Gods!" With that, she stormed out of the tent. Percy mock-bowed after she left, and turned to Thalia. Natalie herself soon left the cousins alone at Percy's signal.
"I'm sorry for the reaction earlier. It's just that... it's another person I couldn't save." Percy's seemingly cocky and arrogant attitude soon disappeared as he got overwhelmed by the guilt again.
"It's not your fault, don't blame yourself for Jason's death, he made his choice by what Apollo told me, I couldn't even blame him, and he was there when it happened." Thalia argued.
Percy shook his head, but not in a way to undermine what Thalia had just said.
"I simply can't believe how short our lives are. One blow, and you're gone, even if there is more after." he stated, his voice failing many times as he said those words. "Sometimes I just wish to end it all to see her again, but I made a promise to her at her last moments, to not be my own demise. It is so difficult to keep this promise, Thalia, you don't know how much it is."
Now the tears were well on their way out of Percy's eyes. It had been years since he had a proper conversation with anyone, and specially not this type of conversation, speaking about Annabeth and the overwhelming guilt that always begged to take over his soul. Even after all this time, the grief was still there. Thalia herself had tears on her own eyes.
"Percy, I know what you've been through. And how hard it is for you to keep this promise. When I heard of Jason's death, I tried to keep my composure, because he had chosen his path, overcoming his fatal flaw, Apollo told me all the details. His fatal flaw was indecision, and he marched to his death without hesitation to save a disgraced god. But when I received the news from Lady Artemis herself... that you and Annabeth..." Thalia's voice faltered. "I had a rope in my hands. I wanted so bad to tie one tip to a tree, the other tip around my neck, but Reyna found me. She talked sense into me. I couldn't end myself, even after losing so many important people. And you faced the same. You have always mattered a lot to me, Percy. When I woke up at Half-Blood Hill, remembering the day that I was supposed to die as a distant dream, you stepped forward and came to my aid, even if our fathers were rivals and my father treated you like shit even after you rescued his bolt. And to know I will outlast every single person that I've known and cared for, apart from the the Hunt and the gods, specially Lady Artemis... Hell, Zoë was probably even older than Artemis herself, imagine how much she saw and lost! There are times that I regret my decision of joining the Hunt, not because of romance or anything like it, but just because I am bound to outlive everyone I know outside the Hunt. To see everyone live, age, die, and I will still be here, same as always."
Percy was shocked, to say the least. He had never expected Thalia, so courageous, brave, defiant, to have such thoughts, but he could understand that. And for her to regret joining the Hunt at times... He could always understand that too. He rejected immortality because of his mother, Paul, Thalia, Nico, Grover and specially Annabeth. He could even understand Dionysus's bitterness at times, the only Olympian born as a demigod. The fear of outliving everyone you know, and if he was a god, bound to laws that prevented him from having anything apart from one night stands. Without warning, he hugged her once again. The feelings that were always hidden inside of Percy for so much time, now free to course through him.
"Thalia, I am glad that you are still here. If you had... ended yourself..." his own voice faltered this time. "I don't know what I would do, honestly. You're one of the few people that I can consider family, even if you are still immortal." He looked straight into Thalia's face. The face that hadn't changed an inch even after all those years. The face that reminded him of the fight that they had after a game of Capture the Flag. The face that grieved Bianca and Zoë along with him. Forever would Thalia stay this way, as long as she was alive, and it brought old memories back to the surface of his mind. Simpler times, even if they were in the middle of a war. "You are not just a godly cousin, much less a rival, you are my family. We lost too much throughout these years. And I'm sorry for disappearing... I just couldn't even bear to look my face at the mirror, much less to see more familiar faces that only made me remember her and my mother. I won't try to justify it, maybe I made unwise decisions, but I hope you understand."
The two kept the embrace for a few minutes, not ashamed to let the tears fall out of their eyes. After a while, Percy finally let go.
"I should get going, otherwise your mistress might still smite me." he said with a tiny smirk.
"Probably, Kelp Head." Thalia agreed, also with a small smile. "Don't die out there. And I understand what you said. People grieve in different ways. But don't do that again, I beg that of you."
"I will try not to." he said, finally leaving Artemis's tent, putting his mask once more. As he wandered around, on his way to the camp's limits, the few hunters that were awake glared at him, probably not happy that he wasn't going to be target practice. It wasn't long until he found Artemis and Natalie, with the goddess tapping her left foot to the grass, clearly impatient.
"Took you long enough." said the maiden goddess. "I was about to go search for you just to smite you off the Earth."
"Jeez." Percy said, grimacing behind the mask. "Just because I allegedly threatened you and the rest of the Olympians does not mean you should be this angry."
Artemis grimaced.
"Whatever, Jackson. Hopefully you won't keep being this insufferable." the goddess grumbled, and began walkinkg in the direction of the woods. The Butcher turned to very confused demigoddess at his side.
"Seriously, is saying that I could control their ich... blood, their blood, enough to cause that much anger?" he asked, earning a worried and also shocked look by Natalie. "Anyway, do you mind telling me your story as we walk, miss Lawrence?"
Natalie sighed, but she didn't seemed annoyed. In fact it was a relief for the unclaimed demigoddess to talk about herself instead of spectating people that she didn't really know talking about very emotional things that happened in the past.
"That I can do." she answered with a smile, as they followed Artemis through the cold night into the forest, the moon shining down slightly at them.
Not much to say to be honest, apart from the fact that Artemis will not stay angry and being mean all the time, that's just because of Percy's little show off at Olympus, otherwise it would become very annoying and drive you guys of the story which I do not want. Leave a review if you want to suggest anything or just to share your view of the story. Farewell!
