Percy's experience with the god of the sun and prophecies was…interesting to say the least.

It took a bit of time for Zoe and the other Hunters to reassure Apollo that Artemis had only teleported away for a Hunt and that nothing was wrong and that whatever she had decided to activate her True Form on was already gone. After that, he started joking around with the Hunters and trying to subtly woo them despite their very obvious attempts to brush him off. Finally, the two Hunters that had left earlier to fetch Nico and Bianca di Angelo were back with said demigods. Almost immediately, Apollo tried to flirt with the older sister, which understandably unnerved Bianca.

Finally, they all got into his…sun-mobile?...and started on their way to Camp Half-Blood, where the Hunters were instructed to stay, at least until their goddess got back to them. But the god of prophecies himself thought it was a good idea to put a barely-qualified newbie driver in the driver's seat of the literal sun. What could possibly go wrong, right?

After nearly destroying a whole town and almost causing Cape Cod to freeze over, they had finally reached Camp Half-Blood. After a short farewell, the sun god promptly disappeared along with the sun mobile.

It was snowing at Camp Half-Blood when the demigods and the Hunters got there, a fact that surprised Percy a bit. The nymphs and other demigods around in the camp were busy with their everyday activities. The arrival of the Hunters had caught the interest of some of the demigods, but not much more than that.

Nico and Bianca's interest in the Camp were apparent, though in different ways. Bianca's head turned left right left right, as if on a swivel, and her eyes were wide as saucers, though she was silent. Nico, on the other hand, was like a child who was going to an amusement park for the very first time, pointing at just about everything and asking a lot of questions. Percy had offered to bring the siblings to Chiron, but Zoe said that Bianca was going to go with the rest of the Hunters to the Artemis cabin. Thus, Percy was left with bringing only Nico to the Big House to be introduced to Chiron.

After talking with Chiron and the camp director, Dionysus, Percy and Thalia went their separate ways. Which wasn't good for Percy because that meant he had nothing to do. With Grover following the Hunters around and doing whatever satyrs did in their free time, Annabeth being gone, and Thalia giving him the cold shoulder, all he was left with was a bunch of free time he had nothing to do with. He took a stroll around the camp, then went back to the Poseidon cabin and had a short talk with his brother cyclops, Tyson. But after that, he was, once again, left with nothing to do.

As he laid in his bed, his mind drifted to what he had witnessed earlier in the day. Or more precisely, to the newfound Japanese couple, Shirou and Sakura.

Back on that cliff outside Westover Hall, the redhead teen had undoubtedly saved them from capture or even possibly getting outright killed. The son of Poseidon vividly remembered that exchange, how Shirou had moved so fast that his whole body seemed to dissolve and completely behead the manticore with a single upwards slash, all in just an instant and with another person piggyback riding him to boot.

The next time he saw them, after they had settled in the Hunters' impromptu campsite, was the moment of the redhead's confrontation with Artemis herself. The goddess must've turned to Thalia, Grover, and him for just an instant of a moment, but by then, Shirou had already managed to lop off the goddess's arm and the battle picked up again. But this time, the redhead had materialized a long, red spear out of nothing but a green explosion of sparks. Percy could tell it wasn't just a normal red spear though, because when Shirou threw at Artemis, it was like a homing red laser. And for whatever reason, when it was about to hit him, the goddess found it appropriate to activate her True Form in order to avoid it.

If they were demigods as Artemis had claimed, then Percy couldn't tell who their parents could've possibly been just from first glance. He hadn't seen abilities like that ever, nor had he ever seen a mortal or demigod attack a god or goddess with such lack of hesitation. If they could get him to join the gods' side in the war against the titans though…

Percy got up from his bed. Maybe he'd go ask Chiron about it.


When the son of Poseidon reached the Big House, he was surprised to see that the door was already open, looking as if it were haphazardly thrown open. Percy walks up to its porch and peeks his head through the doorway.

Inside of it was Chiron and Zoe, both of them looking like they were deep in conversation. Not deep enough, though, as to not acknowledge his entrance when Percy knocked against the side of the doorframe.

Zoe had looked a bit better than she had the last time Percy had seen her. The nasty bruise on the side of her head was neatly bandaged up and she looked a bit more rested up. Chiron smiled gently at Percy while Zoe just gave him her usual stoic stare. Dionysus was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah, Percy," Chiron greets. "What brings you here?"

"I just want to talk about some…demigod powers?" Percy says.

"Of course, come in and take a seat," Chiron says with a chuckle. "We were just talking about 'demigod powers,' anyhow."

"Now, as I was saying before being rudely interrupted, what deity would have children such as those two?" Zoe asks, turning back to Chiron. "The boy has abilities that seem similar to those that Hephaestus would possess, yet forming a weapon from nothing at all is unlike anything I have ever seen before. But then there is the girl with such a massive, yet foreign darkness inside of her. Her strength rivaled that of a deity's and I am sure that had my Lady not been an Olympian, she would have been swallowed."

"Well, Zoe, very powerful demigods are born at least once every few millennia," Chiron says. "I'm sure you know of the London Fire of 1666? How that was caused by a son of-"

"Hephaestus, I am aware," Zoe says. "And I am aware that sometimes, unusually powerful demigods are occasionally born. Yet for two of them to appear at the same time and place? And they are very, very powerful, even compared to them."

"Births where both gods and mortals are involved are unpredictable," Chiron says. "It may just be that these two are born much closer to the divine side than usual."

Percy thinks back to the dream he had not long before, when he was in Artemis's camp.

"Shirou Emiya and Matou Sakura. Two mortals with abilities unlike anything the world has seen before…

"The conclusion of this war will be brought because of these two, and victory, to whomever can win their allegiance."

No matter how Percy restated it in his head, he couldn't help but find the statement to be almost impossible to believe. Mortals with abilities unlike the world has seen before? Heck, he hadn't even heard of demigods being capable of what he had seen the red-haired Japanese do. How could a mortal be capable of it?

"Percy?" he hears Chiron call out, snapping him out of his thoughts. The centaur was looking at him with a concerned look. Meanwhile, Zoe was looking at him annoyedly as if nonverbally blaming him for wasting her time. "Is everything alright?"

"Ah, yeah," Percy says. "Just…thinking about stuff."

Should I tell them about my dream? But what if I sound like a lunatic? Chiron would never call me out for something like that…

"Hurry up, boy," Zoe says, visibly irritated this time. "You're wasting time."

Zoe definitely would though.

"Don't hurry him, Zoe," Chiron says soothingly. "We have an abundance of time on our hands."

"No, I'm sorry for bothering the two of you," Percy says. "I'll be going now."

"Are you sure, Percy?" Chiron asks. "You sounded as if you had something rather troubling to ask me…"

"Oh no, nothing all too important," Percy says with a wave of his hand, trying to sound as casual as he possibly could. "I'll just go…train or something."

Chiron regards him with a questioning glance, but just nods as Percy turns to leave the Big House.

He starts his way back towards the Poseidon cabin, but stops.

I'll have nothing to do there anyway. Maybe I actually should go train.

With that, he turns around and makes his way towards the colosseum.


"Ready to go, Blackjack?"

Whenever you are, boss!

"Please stop calling me that."

Whatever you say, boss!

Percy just sighs, resettling onto the saddle of the black Pegasus he was currently sitting on for comfort.

A lot had happened in the last couple of days. The demigods of Camp Half-Blood faced off against the Hunters in a game of Capture the Flag the day after their arrival, when Chiron was sure that they were healthy enough to fight again. During said game, Thalia and Percy both offered to lead the camp members, though that just ended in disaster. Just as they had started fighting though, the Oracle had come down from the Big House's attic and spouted out the next prophecy.

At that exact moment, the demigods and the Hunters had begun to prepare for their next quest, forming a four-man group of Thalia, Grover, Zoe, and Bianca after a long, drawn-out argument between both sides. Just a few hours prior, said group had left to begin their quest, one that consisted of two separate goals: 1) finding the "bane of Olympus" the prophecy had stated," and 2) rescuing Annabeth, who both Zoe and Percy had seen alive in dreams, though in captivity of a mysterious figure.

It was because of that second goal that the fact that Percy wasn't allowed to participate on the quest really got onto his nerves. It only irritated Percy further when Chiron attempted to get him to go back home with his mother, at least for that summer.

If anybody were to rescue Annabeth, it should be him. He even had a dream about her captivity! Unfortunately, there wasn't exactly anything he could do about that. Even if he went against orders and went questing, without anybody to provide him any intel, he had no idea where to go or what to do.

Thus, he was stuck in his cabin, full of conflicting thoughts and emotions and with nothing to do about them. At least until Blackjack had appeared at his doorstep.

After a short greeting conversation with the black pegasus, Blackjack had brought him to the ocean, telling him of a sea creature that he and some hippocampus found trapped in a fishing net under the water. Percy quickly found said sea creature, a strange fusion between a cow and serpent, and quickly freed it. It took him a few minutes to get it to stop following him, but soon, he and the black pegasus were on their way back to the Camp.

He was just about to go back to his cabin, either to sleep in or sulk more, whatever came to mind, until he saw a curious sight: Nico di Angelo hiding behind one of the pillars in the mess hall and watching…something.

The son of Poseidon was just about to call him out for it until he lowered Blackjack to the ground and saw what Nico was watching.

Sitting on opposite sides of the mess hall table were two Hunters, the two that were just about to embark on the quest planned for just a bit later into that day: Bianca and Zoe.

The son of Poseidon put on the invisibility cap that Annabeth had left behind and snooped in on their conversation, learning a few pieces of crucial information: that 1) apparently, one of the Hunters that were assigned to go onto the quest had fallen ill due to a prank played by some of the Hermes kids and that there was no way she could go on the quest and that 2) Zoe, as the impromptu leader of the group, was unwilling to have her replaced with anyone, whether that be a fellow demigod or a Hunter.

Absolutely perfect. That meant there was an open slot in the group he could insert himself into. Now, all he had to do was sneak out of the camp unnoticed and follow the now-four-member group to…wherever they were going.

A short conversation with Nico, obviously and understandably concerned for his sister's quest, all but steadied his resolve.

With that, Percy started making plans to tail the group.


A lot happened in the past week.

Percy had managed to catch up to the group, alerting them to and helping them deal with an attack from the Nemean Lion. Then for pretty much all the time after that, they had to somehow proceed with their quest while on the run from eleven undying skeletons, spartoi as Zoe called them, just barely getting themselves out of a near-death experience with some of them due to a "chance" encounter with the Erymanthian Boar, which tried to kill them at first but then gave them a free ride to a desert out in the middle of nowhere right outside a large junkyard. There, Percy ran into Ares and Aphrodite with the latter of the two wanting to talk to him. After that, the group of five started their trek through the junkyard, where an accidental encounter with the giant, Talos, would cause them to lose Bianca.

After finally making their way out of the desert, the party continued on their way, traveling down a river until they ran into the Hoover Dam. With no other choice but to go around it, the questing group decided to stay for a bit and rest up for the next segment of their journey.

That was at least until Percy found out that the spartoi had somehow managed to catch up to them. A chance encounter with a mortal who could somehow see through the Mist, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, bought him a bit of time, just enough to allow him to regroup with his groupmates, but soon, the four of them were trapped in by them, all of them minus the one Bianca had somehow killed during their first encounter.

That was how they now found themselves in this situation, completely surrounded by the rest of the skeleton warriors.

"Nine against four, and they're unkillable," Zoe notes.

"Wait, nine?" Thalia repeats. "I thought there were eleven at first. What happened to one of them?"

"Well, I don't mind," Percy says, his eyes going from one spartoi to the other. "So, guys, what're we gonna do next?"

Neither Zoe nor Thalia gives a response. Grover just lets out a frightened bleat.

The son of Poseidon's eyes peel off of the spartoi and towards the environment around him.

By now, all of the mortals had fled. They were trapped in, with the mountains at their backs and the spartoi at their fronts. Percy wondered how far the four of them would get if they turned around and attempted to climb up the mountain, but even he knew that if they tried that, his three companions would get shot down like clay pigeons before they could manage to get anywhere meaningful.

"Well, at least we go down fighting, right?" Percy asks.

"This is definitely not how I had imagined I'd die," Zoe says. "I'd rather it be in the preference of my fellow Hunters. Now my body won't even get a proper burial."

"Stop whining, will you?" Thalia asks. "It's not like I want you around when I die either."

"Well, thy snark is as sharp as ever, even now," Zoe says.

The spartoi all aimed their guns at the four of them. Percy moved to the front, hoping to cover the three of them as best as he could. Though it was highly unlikely that they'll make it past the first barrage uninjured, or even alive.

The three demigods held their weapons in front of them, preparing for their final battle while Grover hid behind Percy and closed his eyes, looking to be praying intensely. The son of Poseidon found it unlikely that a chance blessing from the nature god will happen again.

Zoe and Thalia, against Percy's expectations, were the first to attack, both the Hunter and the daughter of Zeus launching themselves at the nearest spartoi with their weapons in hand. Zoe sinks her hunting knife into one of the spartoi's necks before then grabbing it by the shoulder and twisting it around in front of her just as the other spartoi fired at them, causing the bullets to hit the captive skeleton warrior. Thalia swings her spear around in an arc, stabbing it into one of the spartoi's necks and side kicking it into another spartoi before spinning around and swinging the spear blade at one of the spartoi's necks hard enough to cleave right through its bony neck.

The shock attack did well enough to break the spartois' formation, but it was very temporary. Soon, the nine of them were able to regain their bearings and counterattack.

The spartoi Zoe had managed to capture pushed her off and forced her to jump back. Thalia mercilessly stabbed her spear into one of the spartoi but after seeing that it had no effect, she stopped. Soon, the group of four were right back to where they had began, their backs to each other and surrounded by nine very angry, immortal skeleton warriors.

One of the spartoi started chattering its teeth, pointing at them with its rifle. The other eight followed suit, lifting their weapons and aiming them at the four. Percy prepared for the end, wondering how long it would take for a shot to find its way lodged into his head.

But then, yet another miracle happened. But it didn't have anything to do with nature.

"Man, why's there so much immortal crap around here?"

At that, a familiar figure suddenly appears behind one of the spartoi. The skeleton, obviously startled, whipped around to face the figure, but before it could even make the full turn, its head was already falling to the ground.

The headless skeleton body fell to the ground, burning away just as how the first spartoi had when Bianca killed it, though the flame that enveloped it was more a golden-white color. As it fell forward, it revealed a familiar teenage figure with short, scruffy red hair, golden eyes, and a distinctly Japanese face. Gripped tightly in both of his hands was what looked like a medieval broadsword with a long, thick steel blade and a white gem embedded in the middle of its pommel.

Percy's eyes widened at the figure, as did Thalia's, Zoe's, and Grover's.

The other spartoi immediately turned their weapons on him, firing at the redhead. Before the bullets had been fired though, the redhead had dissolved into a blur. Two more spartoi bodies fell to the ground, their heads having been sliced off. The redhead comes to a stop for just a moment, but is almost immediately on the move once again before the remaining spartoi could even register his location. The sound of gunshots peppering the air resounds throughout the landscape, but the bullets hit nothing but air.

It wouldn't take long before almost all the spartoi were wiped out. Six more heads rolled to the ground, one after the other, faster than the son of Poseidon could process. Their bodies, one after the other, fell to the ground and burned away until only one spartoi was left.

This spartoi, knowing the futility of attempting to take down its attacker, instead turned its weapon on Percy, the barrel of its rifle pointed at his head. A flash of light explodes from the gun's barrel for just an instant.

The son of Poseidon blinked. The next thing he knew, he found himself on the ground, as if pushed onto his side. Shirou was standing in front of the final spartoi, its head falling to the ground with a thud as its body fell onto its back, catching alight in a bright, white flame and disappearing completely just a second later.

Percy was unable to do anything more than just stare wide-eyed at the redhead. He was sure that Thalia and Zoe were very much in the same condition as he was.

Nine immortal skeletons, all gone in the span of less than a minute. A threat that should've brought their end was snuffed out in an instant.

The redhead turns around to face the party of four, a cheeky look on his face. Percy's gaze is drawn to the teen's left arm, which looked very obviously tan in comparison to the boy's actual skin color and more muscular than what should be possible for a teenager. Jagged lines of glowing green energy ran down the teen's face and arm.

"Shirou?" Percy says.

"What is thou doing here?" Zoe asks venomously, her hunting knife still held protectively in front of her.

"Yo, Percy," Shirou greets, waving the broadsword in the air. "Thalia, Grover. And, um, I forgot which Hunter you were."

Zoe just hissed at that.

"What in Olympus are you doing here?" Percy asks. "Where's Sakura?"

The broadsword in his hand suddenly disperses into a bunch of glowing green particles, rising into the air and disappearing into the sunlight above. The jagged energy running along his body dimmed before then disappearing altogether.

"To answer your first question, I spent the last couple of days tracking you down," Shirou replies. He reaches into the pocket of his jeans, pulling out a folded up rectangle of red fabric. He lets it unfurl itself, revealing a long, red scarf-like piece of clothing before then beginning to wrap it around his tanned left arm with his free hand. Curiously enough, the red fabric seemed to stick lightly to his skin, as if drawn to it magnetically. "For a hunter goddess, Artemis is terrible at describing locations."

That prompted another hiss from Zoe.

"To answer your second question, let's just say she's...my motivational factor for being here in the first place. I'll go into the details later."

"Wait, thee has spoken with Lady Artemis?" the Hunter lieutenant asks. "Where is she?"

"Luckily for you, I'm here to take you to her," Shirou says. "We don't have long, so we've gotta hustle. Now…does the name 'Mount Tam' ring a bell to anyone?"


A/N: This felt like a bit of a filler chapter to fill in a large gap in the timeline. Next chapter's going to be contain a lot of flashbacks with the focus going back to Shirou and Sakura. Just thought I'd crowd the events of the Titan's Curse into this chapter and slot Shirou into the chain of events here where they're supposed to be saved by the Zeus statues. Don't expect the next chapters to come out as quickly as this one did. Anyways, thanks for reading!

Also, the sword that Shirou uses in this chapter is Durandal.

Unrelated A/N: My bets are on France winning the World Cup. Messi's 35 and Mbappe is 23. But it's still a toss-up cuz Argentina's got Alvarez. Plus, Mbappe's way too hot-headed. Anyways, regardless of whoever wins, the match is going to be very fun to watch.