Have I ever expressed my distaste for travelling?

It's like when you eat too many pizzas in one day and don't want to see the thing the next.

You'd understand how for once I'd like to NOT be on a quest.

That's how it had been for the past few days. Apollo, Artemis and I travelling in relative silence towards the location of the base, and let me tell you, that travelling all over Greece on foot is no easy task.

Artemis at least seemed to be in her element. She was a psycho when it came to travel, and every time we asked her to slow down, she would grumble about 'lazy males'.

Don't get me wrong, these two gods had formed a weird friendship with me. Apollo was easier – though he wasn't the same laidback god he was the first time I saw him; he was still a pretty chill guy and easy to get along with. Artemis, well I assume from the fact that I didn't have an arrow sticking through my genitals that she accepted my presence.

The days passed us with a relatively normal routine. Artemis would run ahead (because there was no way Apollo and I could keep up with her), and she would find us a safe place to set up camp for our breaks. I guess this kind of alone time gave me some leeway into establishing a friendship with the sun god.

All of this came back to a general plan that we (read Athena) had come up with. Before we had left for our travels, Athena sat us all down and told us what we'd have to do. For now, we still had no idea of the layout of the place. It was all Hermes could do just to find out where it was. Through the still burning Hearth of Olympus, the remaining Olympians could maintain a mental link to one another.

The general plan would be that once we arrived at the stronghold, we would scout out the place, and send back mental images to Athena, where she would formulate a strategy to infiltrate the base. Not much of a plan to begin with, but it at least gave us something to focus on.

I have to be honest when I say that these travels had let my mind wander than ever before, and that was never a good thing. Having the stupid loyal brain that I had, my mind only wandered to my missing friends. Hermes had embarked on his mission only a day or two before we had left the base, but I still couldn't help but wonder. They were my friends, my comrades.

You just can't fight in a war with people and not expect there to be a bond formed. But when I had heard that they might not be there anymore? No. It was too much to bear.

I sighed. There was no point pondering over things I had no control over. If Hermes finds them, he finds them. I had my own duty to do. Leo, Jason, Piper, Haze, Frank, and…Annabeth.

I blinked back a tear when I thought of her. I missed everything about her. The way she tucked her blond curls behind her ear, the way she gave me that cold glare whenever I said something stupid, and the way she would hug me no matter what happens, because when we were together, nothing could go wrong. But something did go wrong. And that was something he would avenge.

Annabeth had searched for me for the entire time I was asleep in California. She searched day and night while I was in a peaceful sleep. And now, I was the one searching, but I had no delusions that Gaea would allow Annabeth a restful sleep, or any of the other five for that matter. The only thing I could do was push forward.

A voice broke me out of my thought as I looked to my right and found Apollo looking at me.

"What's on your mind?" he asked.

I sighed, "what do you think? Every quest I went on, I knew that the world was somewhat at stake, but I never thought that I would ever be on a quest where there already might not be a world existing to save? I guess I just miss my friends"

I didn't want to lay it on thick. Apollo himself had just been getting better over the past few days. He started to become cheery again, and I didn't want to be the one to put him back into his depressed mood.

"Aww come on Perce. You know what's gonna happen. We're gonna save all the demigods, go to Olympus, get our thrones back, and kick Gaea's butt six ways from Sunday. You know why? Cause Apollo's here!"

I facepalmed. Leave it to Apollo to make saving the world sound so easy.

As we continued walking, I saw a silver figure standing in a clearing up ahead.

Artemis looked bored as she stood there, tapping her feet in annoyance at our slow pace.

"Could you insufferable males be any slower? We will never reach the stronghold at this snail-like pace you have set for us" she snarled in annoyance.

I sighed. Though she had become relatively indifferent to Percy, there was only so much she could take when travelling with two members of the gender she hated.

"Oh, come on sis" Apollo replied, "You know we can't be as fast as you. Neither of us spent our entire lives traveling with a bunch of maidens at breakneck speed. We spent our lives being awesome!"

I snorted, "Speak for yourself Apollo. I just want to get out of this mess and live a happy normal life. Something I haven't been able to do since I was twelve"

Artemis grumbled in annoyance, "I don't care. You both know the drill. Apollo start the campfire; Perseus set up the tents, and I'll go find us some food"

I groaned, "Come on Artemis! You've told me to drop the 'Lady' nonsense, and I have. Why won't you stop calling me Perseus?"

Artemis ignored me and instead bounded into the nearby forest to catch some game.

"Give her some time Perce" Apollo said, "only reason she can stand being next to me is because I'm her twin. She wouldn't want me near her otherwise. You'll just have to get used to it"

I frowned and turned towards him, "But doesn't it effect you?" I asked, "I mean you guys are twins. Doesn't it hurt when she acts like that towards you?"

Apollo gained a far away look in his eyes, "You know, back before we joined Olympus, we lived for a while with our mother on Delos. We were as close as siblings should be. We looked after each other, and she acted like the older sister she really is, caring for me whenever mom wasn't around, and I grew to love my sister for it.

You see, when we joined Olympus, and were made Olympians, Artemis got her hunt, and I was suddenly replaced. We hardly talked anymore, and every time I came near her, just to be with my sister again, she always thought I was after her hunters. Granted I agree that I'm a huge lady's man, but it seemed like that was the only side that Arty focused on anymore"

He looked at me with saddened eyes, "I gave up after time. My sister would never see me as more than just an annoying male that she has to deal with, and I guess I'm fine with that now"

I looked at him with an expressionless face. I mean, I'm not that good with emotional stuff! I had no clue what to do. So, I just pat Apollo's back and said, "Well, whatever you need, I'm here. I'm your cousin and I'm here for you"

Sounded pretty empty to me, but Apollo just gave a small grin and said, "Aww come on. Are we really just cousins? I thought we were more than that. I thought we were bros!"

I laughed and then bumped his fist, "Yeah fine we're bros. Now let's get moving with our stuff so Artemis doesn't kick our butts for being 'derelict in our duties' again"

Once we had set up everything, and Artemis had returned, we sat quietly around the fire, eating some deer that Artemis had caught. The silence was a bit annoying, but I didn't want to say anything for fear of being cut down by the moon goddess beside me. I mean she can be one terrifying lady sometimes!

But out of nowhere, there was a slight rustling sound, and immediately, all of us had our weapons drawn. I had pulled out riptide, while Apollo and Artemis pulled out a gold and silver bow respectively. We waited in silence, until a roar was heard and eight black shadow like figures landed around us. Great black mastiffs growling at us with red beady eyes and salivating mouths – Hellhounds.

All at once, we lunged at the monsters and started to fight them. The three of us fought like a well-oiled machine, covering each other and coordinating strikes to take down our foes. I almost got slashed up by two claws, which were both blocked by a short gold sword and a silver hunting dagger, while I whirled around and slashed at another hellhound creeping up from behind and killed it.

After time, we had reduced the number of monsters, to just 2. I ran at one of them, while the archery gods behind me kept them hellhounds moving with their arrows, and beheaded one of them that wasn't paying attention to me I faced the other one, and as I was about to strike it in the head, a gold arrow latched itself to the beast's eye and it exploded into golden dust.

I glared at Apollo as he shrugged, "Can't let you have all the glory bro"

I sighed. This hadn't been a new occurrence. Granted that it didn't happen everyday it was still annoying. The only conciliation we had is that, none of the monsters were able to escape. Our supposed biggest advantage was that Gaea didn't know I was alive, and thanks to the sacrifice of the Children of Kronos, Gaea couldn't track us or keep an eye on us. We were invisible to her eye.

We went back and fixed up the camp, and as night fell upon us, we went to sleep in our respective tents, as we readied ourselves for the next day, and hoped that we could keep this all up and save the world.

Hey there guys! More of an interlude chapter, but I didn't want to rush the story too much.

Few things I thought I'd clear up. This story's main characters will be Percy, Apollo and Artemis, so there will be major character development surrounding these three as I'll be focusing on them the most.

Also, in response to a review, this will NOT be a Pertemis story. They'll just become very good friends and nothing more. Percy's significant other will still remain Annabeth.

Feel free to post you comments in a review or PM me if you have any questions

See you guys next time!