Hey kids!

So I'm off to college again, so updates are gonna be slow for a while. I'll do it when I have time, but it's gonna be rough. I can maybe squeeze in one more chapter before I get buried in work.

So yeah.

Read. enjoy, leave a review. Reviews are great, and since I've already prewritten a few bonus chapters, I could just send a chapter every time you review five times.

Perfection.

Britomartis was beautiful and deadly, with eyes fierce like a panther's. The very ground she stood on reacted to her presence, all living creatures fell silent in awe. She was dangerous. She was breathtaking...

She was standing with her arms crossed, amused by Apollo's singing praises.

"My," she said, "you must be truly desperate."

Apollo gave her the puppy eyes. As Britomartis had spent a great deal of time hanging around wolf pups and their domesticated cousins back when she was a Hunter, it didn't work.

"I promise not to flirt with you for a decade?"

"And why," Britomartis raised an eyebrow, "would I want that? Your flirtations are a source of entertainment."

Apollo gave a single wince. He hadn't quite recovered from the lion den, then. Britomartis hid a smirk as he struggled to come up with a response.

"...I'll flirt with you more for a decade?"

Britomartis deadpanned, "Try harder."

"Tell me what you want, then!" He cried, throwing up his arms.

Britomartis did allow herself to smirk this time, "Well, there is a thing that needed doing. It's usually a thing reserved for demigods, so it should be no problem for a big, strong god like you…"

Britomartis let him off easy this time. It was only partially intentional.

Who would have thought that Apollo would have made such a great drag queen? The younger god even looked like he was enjoying himself. Perhaps she should have gone with the snake pit after all.

Oh well, there was always next time.

"Alright," the god appeared on the ground below her, so that he was looking up at her, perched on top of some rocky ledge. "I did what you asked for," he held up a box full of griffin eggs, while looking around at any possible nets that he could have stepped in. Silly boy. As if she'd try to trap him while he was holding griffin eggs [1]. No, she'd wait until he let go of them.

He glowered at her "Are you happy now? Do I even want to know why those are in there? Or why you couldn't just get it yourself?"

A recent incident involving Greek fire explosives, she thought.

"Probably not," she said instead, sweetly. "You did wonderfully. And looked...what was that word?...Fabulous while doing it."

Apollo brightened up a little at that, before seeming to remember that he had other things to get to. "Now will you tell me what I want to know?"

"Yes, yes, alright," she sighed dramatically, as if she was the one doing him a favor. "Orion's back."

Apollo blinked, clearly not expecting a straight answer from her. "What?"

"Orion is back," she repeated, as if he were a particularly slow child. "From Tartarus."

"But how?" Apollo frowned, "I killed him."

Britomartis gave him a moment to process how meaningless that statement was in the world they occupied.

"Constellations," she explained with a vague handwave in the direction of the sky. "Evidently, the piece of his essence used to make his constellation was enough for him to use as an anchor to the surface world."

"Huh," Apollo scowled. "And what's that got to do with my sister?"

The last time Apollo had seen Artemis, it was at the winter solstice meeting. She had looked weary and on edge, not even bothering to argue with Aphrodite like she usually did. She had requested permission to allow her Hunters to spend the solstice on Olympus, and had left early when it was denied, not even bothering to attend the celebrations.

Apollo had tried to talk to her. She had brushed him off, insisting that it was none of his business, and that she was absolutely fine.

He had persisted. She had snapped. Choice words had been exchanged.

And Apollo still had no idea what was going on with her.

It took a few months to realize that if Artemis was not going to tell him, one of her minions might. It took a few more months to track down Britomartis and convince her to tell him what was going on.

For a price, of course. Britomartis knew how to barter. What was she going to do, give him vital information for free? What a laughable concept.

"Orion came back wrong," Britomartis settled on. "He's become...problematic."

"Problematic how?"

"Problematic as in, he was a homicidal maniac."

"Oh."

"Yes. Oh," Britomartis fixed him with a look that Apollo couldn't quite interpret. "He's been attacking Hunters, Amazons, and other strong women who wished to be independent. Artemis had been stretching herself thin trying to stop the damage. Literally. She had been running around trying to be everywhere at once, and that was taking a toll. Much as she insisted that she was fine, she needed help, Apollo."

Apollo went through several emotions in a few short minutes. Triumph, as he had been right about Orion being bad news. Anger, because nobody messed with his sister like that. Hurt, because Artemis didn't think to confide in her own twin brother. Frustration, because his sister was too stubborn to ask for help.

"And you're saying you want me to help," he guessed. "And that's why you're telling me all of this."

Britomartis shrugged, "Well, somebody needs to, who has the power and is trustworthy enough. That narrows down the pool significantly, don't you think?"

Apollo decided to take that as a compliment. "So if you want me to help, why make it so difficult for me to?"

"Fun, mostly. You looked great in drag."

"You made me retrieve griffin eggs because you thought it was fun?!"

"Hush now, Apollo," she smiled sweetly at him. "You're just complaining because you don't like doing fetch quests. Now, if you don't mind, I have business elsewhere." She leapt down from the ledge on which she was perched, swiping the box of griffin eggs from Apollo's hands. "And you didn't hear it from me!"

Apollo let himself relax after Britomartis's departure. Beautiful as she was, she had always managed to set him on edge.

That girl's name had been horribly misleading. [2].

Why hadn't Artemis said anything? Things must have been bad if even Britomartis thought that Artemis needed help from him. When had their relationship gotten so distant, that Artemis didn't confide in him anymore?

Well, that was fine. Apollo knew what was going on now. He'd just have to go up to her, tell her that he knew, kill Orion for her, and save his little sister from the big, bad giant. Not necessarily in that order. And then they'll hug, Apollo would tell her that he forgave her, and everything would be back to normal again.

Yes, that would turn out perfectly. There would be absolutely no chance that he'd be shot at with arrows and rejected instead. Absolutely none.

Apollo took a step towards where he knew his sister to be...and stepped on the trap.

He discovered his talent as a countertenor as the net lifted him clean off the ground.

He cursed, "Britomartis, I swear-!"

Artemis stared at the box of griffin eggs that Britomartis held close to her chest. "I thought you were banned from the Amazon stronghold after you set off one of your bombs 'for fun.'"

"Oh, I was," Britomartis said cheerfully. "I found a loophole."

"Of course you did," Artemis muttered. "Are you up to the task?"

"Oh, yeah," Britomartis was rubbing her hands together in an excellent impression of a mad scientist. All that was missing was the Mwahahahahahaha. Not that anyone knew what a mad scientist was yet. But if they did, they would agree. "This is the biggest task I've been given in a while. I'm going to have fun doing this."

"Glad to know you'll be enjoying yourself," Artemis gave her half-sister a smile. "Take your time, and let me know when you're done."

"Yeah, sure," Britomartis paused on her way out of Artemis's tent. "I talked to Apollo today."

"Oh?"

"He knows," she answered the unspoken question. "He didn't say anything like, 'I told you so,' though he might have been saving it for when you two meet again. I think he wants to help."

A pause. Then, "Britomartis-"

"You need help, my lady," she insisted. "You're going to end up hurting yourself at this rate, and that wouldn't help anybody. You might be a goddess, and you might be more powerful than I am, but even you have limits."

"Thank you, Britomartis," Artemis said finally. Her tone said that she was dismissed.

Britomartis bowed and left, because she knew that Artemis was thinking it over. She turned back to her current project.

A hidden sanctuary, that could expand as needed...something like that needed a name.

Something after herself, perhaps. She was the creator, after all: she was allowed to take pride in her own creation. Also, apparently, "TARDIS" had already been taken.

Stupid time traveling brats.

A "House of Nets" seemed appropriate. She was going to make it out of nets, after all [3]. They were her specialty and everything! With a name like that, she was going to make it the best project ever. Artemis was going to be pleased.

[1] Griffins were Britomartis's sacred animal.

[2] Britomartis's name translates to "sweet maiden," apparently. She is, in fact, not sweet.

[3] And that is the beginning of the Waystation that showed up in the Dark Prophecy.

And that's it for the author's notes. I'm sorry if this chapter was shorter than what you're used to, but I've really been busy.

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