I swear I did not plan to write almost five thousand words, but I got carried on with this chapter, hopefully you enjoy it.
The sun shone down at the Earth as Apollo's chariot flew through the morning sky.
But the moon herself wasn't present to see the rays of light warming the world below.
Instead, she was in a dark, humid and cold cave with an unclaimed demigoddess, both of them following a sociopath.
To be fair to him, Artemis wasn't a specialist on that matter. She wasn't Dionysus or Athena, both of which would probaly make a diagnosis on Percy sentencing him to a psychiatric hospital. Artemis didn't mean to be angry at the boy, but by Hera, did he get on her nerves. It wasn't like the clumsy and noble boy who took the sky for her, but a indomitable beast. Although his loyalty was still there, obviously, it didn't change how ruthless he had become. She saw him in action for months, slaughtering monsters like it was nothing, and always managing to escape from the Hunt at the last second, always outsmarting her. She wasn't a goddess of wisdom, but she shouldn't be outsmarted by a boy, no matter how powerful said boy was.
True, she had her tendencies to be antagonistic to men, but she didn't hate all of them. Percy's case was different. Those tendencies, for example, wouldn't prevent her from acknowledging the sins of a woman, but it was enough for her to receive the title of "man hating goddess", even by her fellow Olympians. And the Hunt didn't really help with this by how they acted around men, particularly at Camp Half-Blood, even burning cabins at times. For most of history, the Hunt was made of girls who had problems with men and this created a culture. For most of the ancient times, girls trying to run away from her fathers who wished to marry them to random, unknown men for status, money, or any sort of benefits to them and their kingdoms and lands, not to their daughters. But slowly, time had changed. Even if the Hunt was still known as the man hating squadron by most on the mythological world, most of the current roster of girls didn't really have a problem with men just because they were men.
True, they did target Percy earlier, but they were just as pissed off as her of him escaping their grasp so many times. But they did not target men simply because they were males.
And about change... Artemis remembered her oath as if she made it yesterday. She didn't take it the same day as she was born, that was Zeus being an idiot by promising anything on the Styx to a less than a day old goddess. When she did make her actual oath on the river of hatred, it was right after Hestia's own oath, motivated by her fool of a brother wishing to marry their aunt. What went through his head, she never knew until recently, for him to even conceive of such an idea, and she quickly swore not to get married and to abdicate of the company of the man right after that incident. She wasn't oblivious to the fact that many considered her one of the most beautiful goddesses in Olympus, second only to Aphrodite herself in the eyes of many, so much so that she had been afraid in the past that even Apollo would propose to her. Who knew what would happen? After all, marriage between siblings was something that happened quite a lot in the divine world since the creation of time. Hell, even many Protogenoi couples were born from the same deities. It was only after a while that Artemis and Apollo developed this brother-sister bond unlike of any god or goddess in the entire Greek (or Roman, for that matter) pantheon.
And she swore not to get married out of fear of ending up like Hera, cheated like there is no tomorrow, being consumed by grief, hatred, and pain. To not be forced into a loveless marriage that she would have been seen as an object. But she did have to admit how much times had changed. There were no girls that joined the Hunt in the last seventy to eighty years because of an arranged marriage. While she admited the change in times, she always accepted that it was probably too late to change her own mind and even if she wanted it, who knew what would happen if she actually broke her oath? Only the Fates and Styx herself, that's for sure. And she didn't really have anyone that would motivate her to do such a thing. Only one individual ever came close, and even then most people wouldn't even consider what she felt for him a "crush", or whatever mortals called a small affection. Love was probably nice to have, but the means to achieve it were simply out of her grasp and out of her schedule, she had bigger things to worry about.
But as of now, she had to content in following the aforementioned (allegedly) sociopath as they wandered through the cave.
"I hope we are not being dragged into the Labyrinth, Perseus." Artemis warned. Percy didn't even look back to address her.
"I will only go back in that place if I am a lifeless corpse. We are almost there." he stated firmly. The problem was that he had said that two times already. Who knew if his sanity was in the right place? And also, why was she tolerating such disrespect from him? Truth be told, she pardoned him for telling her "who do you think you are?" right after she stopped him from jumping from a cliff all those years ago. Then, he had an emotional excuse. But now? She could have easily turned him into a snail and Poseidon would have to just deal with it.
He suddenly came to a halt, examining the seemingly normal cave wall for something. Artemis was extremely skeptical about him saying that it was not the Labyrinth, because it suspiciously resembled what one would do if they were searching for a Delta. Instead, he seemed to find something that wasn't the symbol of Daedalus, and a part of the cave opened itself like a door. Percy went in without hesitation. Natalie glanced at the goddess, absolutely confused, and Artemis just shrugged. But she knew how lost the young maiden must be feeling with all of this going on.
On the inside of whatever that was, laid almost a room. Albeit, without any furniture, just random belongings. Percy was seemingly searching for clothes inside of a bag, and stopped as he took out a dark blue leather jacket. He first removed his mask, which Artemis still did not understand fully, and proceded to remove his long sleeved gray shirt, for a moment lifting his t-shirt enough for his perfect abdomen to be visible. Artemis quickly noticed the small blush in Natalie's face, and mentally facepalmed. Maybe she still knew that man in front of her, if he was still that dense to just show himself off unconsciously. Once he finally removed the long sleeved shirt, Artemis noticed how well built he was, his chest, shoulders and arms being highlighted thanks to his tight black shirt. Undoubtedly the boy worked out a lot for him to resemble the statues of old of the Olympians. The goddess could still remember when he was a scrawny fourteen year old that even then managed to hold the weight of the sky. She pondered if he would be able to do it again with less difficulty with that physique, and the answer was probably yes.
Natalie's previous small blush intensified a lot at that sight, with her trying to look at anywhere but Percy. Artemis felt like snorting right now. Natalie didn't look like a child of the Olympians, or even minor gods that she knew that had children, but the unclaimed maiden still had an aura to her. She was annoyed that she would not join the Hunt, but seeing her almost drooling over Percy Jackson, no matter how attractive he was, bothered her a lot.
Thankfully Percy solved the problem of Natalie face resembling a tomato by quickly putting his jacket on, which Artemis was more than thankful for, even if the jacket still didn't do much to hide the thickness of his arms. But should she really be bothered by that even after Natalie refused the Hunt? Probably, actually, since she was still the protector of all maidens, Hunters or not. Either way she didn't want to see the Butcher corresponding or even flirting with someone that was six years younger than him, but he didn't seem to notice Natalie's blush at all. Yeah, those rumors about him were true, even after all this time. Instead, Percy soon walked to a corner of that room. Grabbing a very long object and walking to her and Natalie. At first, she thought it was a spear, but as he approached them, she could see it was...
"Why in Hades do you have a sniper rifle?!" she questioned. The model looked threatening even to Artemis who was not a specialist in modern guns. Natalie's previous blush was replaced with widened eyes.
"M2010 Enhanced. Controlling blood takes its toll, you know, can't do that all the time. One hit to a monster with this beauty on any part of their bodies and it's like a headshot. No reason why I shouldn't have it, since I am the worst shooter with a bow that probably ever existed." he explained, but Artemis was not satisfied with this answer, even if she had seen mortal and godly weapons merging before. She found modern guns uncivilized, not even comparable to the grace of a bow. Although he was correct about being one of the worst shooters in history.
"Mind answering where did you get the rifle and celestial bronze bullets to kill monsters with, though?" Artemis demanded, and in response Percy smiled.
"Come on, Lady Artemis, do you really think Hephaestus is the only one who makes weapons around the States?" he answered with another question. Artemis knew about alternative blacksmiths and such, but this seemed like too much. "Just offer the right price, they won't ever ask who you are, what you want, or the purpose of the order. That's why I have so many toys at my disposal." As soon as he said that, he brought his hand to his head, making his mask appear once more. Artemis had to admit that the mask, made of black leather that covered his entire head, not showing anything, was unnerving, compared to his actual face, no matter if he did have a wild expression at times. Neverthelesss, what really unnerved Artemis was in how the Hades did he get money, either mortal or godly, for him to be able to order those items, that did not seem cheap at all.
"Is it rare for demigods to have modern guns?" Natalie asked with curiosity as she examined the rifle with her eyes. Percy nodded in response.
"If every demigod out there used guns, the monsters would most likely use it too, and it takes a lot of resources that we usually do not have, better to have a bow and arrows if you want range. Not that I can be that lucky." he explained while glancing over to Artemis. "So yeah, I never saw a demigod with guns before. And there are a lot of monsters in which bullets won't do anything against it, leaving the only option to be melee combat." he said, removing a pen out of his pocket and uncapping it. Artemis knew far too well about Anaklusmos and Zoë's ties to the sword, Natalie on the other hand, oblivious to the previous history of the sword, was amazed by the sight of the mighty celestial bronze weapon.
"It's beautiful." The demigoddess stated, eyeing up the sword. Percy capped the sword, making it turn into its pen form, and brought it back into his pocket.
"You might get a similar one when we reach Camp. But I would keep the dagger if I were you. As of now, that should be enough." he announced. "Let's go."
Artemis wasn't really sure why they were now all on the top a cliff next to a dirt road. Maybe she needed to stop listening to Percy.
The Butcher was sat down with sniper rifle on his hands, aiming at the road, apparently waiting for something. For some reason, he refused to talk about details, only saying that it would be an ambush. The sun shone down heavily at the three, and Artemis was almost praying to Apollo to tone it down a bit. But this could be her brother watching over her. He was still very worried about her, and with Percy by her side... she couldn't really blame him.
Natalie wiped sweat off her forehead. Even if the demigoddess was still under a tree, the heat still affected her. Artemis herself, even as a goddess, could feel how warm that day was.
"Lady Artemis?" the teenage girl called.
"Yes, Natalie?" the goddess answered.
"Who is to blame for global warming?"
Artemis blinked. She wasn't expecting that. Natalie was a curious case. She had searched for her aura multiple times, but didn't find anything familiar, at least not anything that she had witnessed recently. She was Greek, that's for sure. Artemis even considered the possibility of her being Norse, but that was definitely not the case. In terms of the person itself, Artemis heard Natalie talking to Percy about her past life. How she never knew her parents, ADHD, dyslexia, overall average things for half-bloods. Apparently Natalie wasn't traveling alone, and her companion was killed in action in Iowa. Matthew was his name. Artemis could admire the deceased boy's courage and skill, by what his living friend told. She hoped he would achieve Elysium, or at least rebirth. Artemis did not appreciate young souls being taken away to the Underworld, but that was just a life of a demigod. The moon goddess thought for a moment, trying to find an answer to Natalie's odd question.
"Only the mortals themselves, in my opinion." Artemis finally concluded. "Although we, the gods, have some fault since we are influencing them, even if subtly."
Natalie nodded, seemingly in deep thought. The maiden reminded her vaguely of past demigods. Annabeth Chase, for example, or even Percy Jackson himself.
Speaking of which, the Butcher let out a whistle, drawing the attention of both goddess and demigoddess. He motioned for them to come close, and so they did it. Far away from their position, a wagon of old pulled by two horses was approaching in a slow pace. Artemis frowned at that sight. A wagon? What was this, the 19th century?
"Three monsters inside of the wagon. Somethings tells me that they are a big deal to that monster camp that we shall be wiping out in a few days. I want to get information from them." Percy finally explained as he recharged the rifle. He waited until the wagon was roughly in front of them, firing a shot that instantly vaporized the right wheel. The horses neighed, agitated, and some rumbling could be heard inside of the fallen wagon.
Percy recharged the rifle, and gave it to Natalie, getting on his feet.
"How am I supposed to use this?!" the demigoddess asked with wide eyes.
Percy grinned. "You don't. Just stay in safe distance. Lady Artemis, shall we?" he invited the goddess, and proceded to slide down the cliff. Artemis rolled her eyes at his attitude, but followed him nonetheless. As Percy approached the wagon, the horses neighed again at him, who in response grimaced.
"Oh, shut the fuck up." he said to the animals. The horses showed their teeth to the Butcher, and Artemis noticed that instead of normal equine teeth, these horses had canines. Carnivorous horses, then.
Percy approached the wagon and drew Riptide from his pocket, uncapping it.
"To whoever is inside." he bellowed in a voice that Artemis had never heard him use ever before. The voice exhaled authority. "You have 10 seconds to come out before I burst into that wagon and send you to Tartarus the quick way!"
It didn't take long for three beings to stagger their way out of the wagon. Two dracaenae came first, with their hands in the air and swords in their belts. Percy gave a look to Artemis as if asking for her to take the swords, in which Artemis responded with a piercing glare. Percy sighed and removed the swords from the snake like monsters while pointing his own sword to their necks while doing it. A small victory for her, she supposed.
Lastly, an empousa, who looked more numb than the two dracaenae, finally came out. When she laid her eyes on the Butcher, Artemis could see the terror that took over her face. They must have surely met each other before.
"W-what do you want from me?" The empousa asked in a low voice.
"Well, Kelli, you will either spit out everything that you know or we will have to repeat our incident at Dallas."
If the empousa's face wasn't already pure white, Artemis knew that the monster would have paled by now.
"What happened in Dallas, Perseus?" Artemis asked, and Percy actually facepalmed. She didn't care for his secrecy, to be honest.
"I swear to God." he complained. Kelli seemed to have some understanding in her blood red eyes. Artemis on the other hand was curious as why had he said "God", with the capital "G".
"Are you actually kidding me?!" she yelled loudly. "You?"
Percy removed his mask, revealing his face to the monsters. Artemis wondered when was the last time monsters ever saw his face.
"Me." he agreed. "So, how is it gonna be?"
"Come on, Percy, why do you fight for them?" she nodded in the direction of the moon goddess, who tried to control herself from putting an arrow between the empousa's eyes. "You know your raw power. Your strenght. How about you kill this stupid virgin goddess and let us free? Perhaps I would even give you a piece of myself, just so I can you for myself as well." she spoke seductively, the charmspeaking enlacing her words like an anaconda strangling its prey. For one moment, Artemis was actually afraid that Percy would succumb to the very powerful charmspeak that the monsters had in her arsenal. His eyes seemed a bit numb, as if he was indeed charmed. She held her bow tightly, but Percy never turned to attack her. Instead, he kept staring at Kelly, his eyes changing from numbness to anger. He approached her, his figure standing tall even against the monster.
"It won't ever be easy with you, will it?" Artemis noticed that he had closed his hand, making Kelli go still. She had seen that before multiple times aloof, but the process from close by was terrifying to see, the goddess had to admit. Kelli convulsed and fell to the ground, dark blood coming out of her eyes and nose, and against her attempts, she was soon crying in pain. "I wonder how many souls have you claimed. Just like how we've done this before, let's see how you like your own blood being sucked out of your veins." he growled in a low tone, a tone that resembled more an animal than a human. Even the dracaenae looked horrified by what they were witnessing.
"Percy." Artemis called in a surprisingly soft tone, even to herself. Specially to herself. Her voice wasn't very loud, but it brought Percy's attention immediatly. He turned to her abruptly. His eyes looked more than ever like the ones of a beast. If not for the sea green color, they wouldn't look out of place in a hellhound. "Percy, if we are doing this, we need her alive." Artemis spoke in a rougher tone, and it made Percy shook his head. He let go of the grip that he had over Kelli's blood, and the empousa fell to the ground, panting heavily.
"Sorry." he apologized, although only half-heartedly, and turned to Kelli. "Go on." he demanded. She kept taking heavy breaths for while, unable to do much. Reluctantly, Artemis, who had some powers over healing, tried to mend off her internal injuries. Slowly, the monster composed herself enough for her to speak.
"I..." she said between heavy breaths. "I was going to..." she stopped for a second again, only this time it wasn't to catch her breath, but apparently to be engulfed in thought for a moment. "where the monsters are stationed. I've been called there for my... skills or something. I don't know what's going on, I just know that there is something happening, being organized by a titan. That's all I know!"
Percy was silent for a few moments. His jaw was clenched, with his face not revealing any emotions.
"You are hiding the name of the place." he concluded after a while.
Kelli managed to smirk slightly.
"Guess you are not as dense as you were when you were fifteen." she replied.
"Tell me." he demanded in his animalistic voice, ignoring her comment. Kelli couldn't help but flinch.
"They call it the Bunker. Because it's mostly underground."
Percy nodded and turned to Artemis. His eyes still held the previous glow, but not as much as before.
"A titan."
Artemis nodded. "Do you really think this is a good idea?"
Percy laughed bitterly.
"No, I don't. But if they are positioned there, we would have flash to Long Island, land routes will be blocked, even air routes perhaps. And you can't flash me and Natalie, it would be counted as direct interference by them. For Natalie and other demigods to arrive at Camp safely, this Bunker has to be brought down."
"And me traveling with you and Natalie by foot doesn't already count as interference already?" Artemis argued.
The Butcher shrugged. "It's our mission. You're not a goddess here, but simply a hunter, even if the most skilled one at that." he added as she glared at him. "If you want to flash us there, sure, it won't do much for you, probably. But let you conscious live with the knowledge that me and Natalie will be the ones actually affected by your transgression."
Artemis glared never left him, only intensifying. But he was most likely right, to her annoyance. This could still count as mission as a hunter, but doing things like flashing demigods to locations could either potentially be a transgression of the Ancient Laws, and even if it technically wasn't, Zeus would not be happy with her actions. And then a lot would actually happen to her.
"Fine." she conceded. She looked down to Kelli, still on the ground. "What is to be done with her?"
Percy crouched in front of the empousa. "Indeed, Kelli, what is to be done with you?"
The monster did not respond at first, eyeing him up with her bright crimson eyes.
"Don't send me to Tartarus. Please do not send me to reform again." was what she finally muttered. Mercy, was all she pursued.
"Tell me one reason why not."
"I can help you. I can be a spy, or whatever you want." Artemis noted that she tried to add charmspeak to her last words, perhaps trying to seduce him out of his murderous state, but failed miserably out of fear for the Butcher.
Percy kept staring at the monster. Ruthless sea green eyes gazing inhuman red ones. He glanced over to Artemis and seemed to have an idea.
"Swear your loyalty. On the Styx." he said.
Kelli's eyes widened at the proposition.
"What?"
The Butcher was silent for a moment. Kelli's expression became rigid once more.
"The clock is ticking. Slower than your heartbeats. Much slower, in fact."
"Alright!" the empousa cried. "I swear my loyalty to Percy Jackson on the River Styx!"
As the familiar thunder rumbled above, Artemis couldn't believe how he had done it. It made she wonder what had Percy done to Kelli in Dallas for her to be willing to swear loyalty out of fear instead of reforming in Tartarus. True, she didn't know how monsters and immortals reformed, and hoped to never find out. Even more monsters, Tartarus was probably a bad place to be, to say the least. Percy just gave a mischievous smile and apparently released his grip on the empousa's veins.
"Good." he turned to the dracaenae that were still spectating the scene. "You two have a choice. Unless you want to test fate."
The snake-women quickly hissed oaths of their own, more thunder above them signaling the legitimacy of their oaths. Percy motioned for the dracaenae to get Kelli on her feet, which they did, awaiting for more instructions.
"You three will infiltrate the place as we go there. Give me a layout, defenses, who is in there, etc. Failure is one thing, but ever think of betraying me on your own free will and I will hunt you all the way up to Night's territory in Tartarus if necessary, before Styx can even know you broke your oath. tUnderstood?" the three monsters nodded, with fear present in their faces. "Kelli, you have seen me in dreams before, notify me if necessary. Artemis," he turned to the moon goddess, who was expecting him to try to order her to do things. Maybe then she would have an excuse to turn him into a snail. Instead, he spoke in a much more friendlier and gentle tone. "Could you please fix the wheel of the wagon so they can get going?"
Artemis did as such, snapping her fingers which made the previously destroyed wheel appear once more like the sniper shot had never happened. She stared at his face, crossing her arms, trying to decipher what actually happened inside of his mind.
"Thank you. Get going." he said to the three monsters who nodded once more, getting inside of the wagon. Kelli glanced at him one last time before getting inside. He looked over to the horses and apparently said something to them telepathically, because the horses soon started moving, much faster than before, soon disappearing out of their view. That left Artemis and Percy alone in the dirt road. She wasn't exactly regreting inviting Percy to be her companion, but this was going to be more difficult than she had expected it to be. He was harder to understand than any demigod that she had ever seen, but was at least still likeable, despite his unorthodox methods. The Butcher signaled for them to go back to the cliff, and the moon goddess followed him, back to where Natalie was. This was going to be an interesting journey for Artemis.
Just a thing, this monster threat will not be the main focus of the story, it's not centered around it, it won't escalate into a primordial war or something, since it could easily morph into something potentially bad. More of it will be revealed throughout the story. Also, if there are any minor spelling mistakes, you can notify them. As I said to someone recently, they wither my soul away. Leave a review if you want, and I'll see you guys soon, probably.