AN: I'm back my loyal Legionnaires! And now we enter the beginning of 'The Titan's Curse', and thank you for not flaming me for the last chapter.
Son of the Moon
Chapter 20
-Bianca-
It had been almost five months since she had left Percy and the Son of Artemis had vanished without a trace. Almost every camper had turned to try and find Percy after they found the clearing he destroyed, believing it had been caused by some sort of monster that only their greatest Hero could defeat until Chiron explained that the power released was from a demigod…a specific demigod. The moment Chiron had revealed that Percy was the source of the anguished scream and the waves of power Nico had grabbed her arm and dragged her off along with the rest of the remaining Septem, Thalia, and Tyson before he demanded to know what had happened.
Nothing had ever made her feel worse than when she had to explain to the others what she had the others what she had done to their friend. Tyson had been confused, not fully understanding the implications of what had happened due to him being still a baby in Cyclops standards. Will and Beckendorf looked at her with complete and utter shock that she had done what she had. Clarisse and Amanda gazed at her with looks that were a mix of anger over hurting their brother and sadness when they realized why she had done it. Nico's reaction was the second most painful, he looked at her with only pity as he pulled her into a soft embrace while she cried onto his shoulder. But it was Thalia whose reaction hurt her the most even though she knew it would happen, in the eyes of the daughter of Zeus was shock at what had happened mixed with a look of victorious glee as the daughter of the king of the gods was no doubt planning on how to win Percy's heart.
Within an hour Artemis herself had shown up at the camp and demanded to know where her son was. The group had led the goddess to the big house and explained to both her and Chiron what had happened and why. Like Nico Chiron had gazed at her with nothing but pity but Artemis was enraged and, for the first time, she was able to truly see why the gods of Olympus were feared by both man and monster. The aura the that was rolling off the moon goddess was palpable and suffocating in its power as Artemis' eye began glowing with a harsh, angry, silver while the aura pooling from the goddess shot forward and connected them. The moment the silvery aura engulfed her she felt it pervading her essence, invading her very being by pouring inside her through any opening they could get be it her mouth, her nose, or her ears as she found herself reliving everything that had happened since Thalia had been released from her tree. At first she thought this was going to be her eternal punishment from the goddess Artemis, to be forced to witness her greatest pain and what caused it over and over again till the end of time.
To her surprise the reliving ended when it caught up with the present the aura receded and, as the last wisps of Aretmis' power left her, she collapsed to her knees, sobbing at having to experience her suffering a second time, every emotion she felt as powerful as when it first occurred and only added onto her current pain. When she heard footsteps coming towards her she expected for Artemis to pass judgment, to smite her for daring to harm the son of the goddess of the hunt…but she was wrong. Artemis kneeled down next to her and pulled the sobbing and heartbroken daughter of Hades into her arms as they both shed tears over the one who meant the world to them.
By the end of the week something felt lost to all the demigods in the camp, even Annabeth, and nobody could quite place it. Eventually it was decided that the feeling was just them missing their leader, although Annabeth vehemently denied this fact, and they tried to press on with their lives albeit with changes. Every day Nico, Clarisse, and Amanda would search as far as they could, with Nico shadow traveling them back to camp when the sun set and taking them back where they left off the next morning and the trio using the evenings to regain their strength. While the triad rested Bianca and the hunt scoured the country for Percy, under Aretmis' keen gaze as she roared across the heavens on her moonlit chariot. The Hunt had been furious with her at first before Aretmis had shared with them her memory of what had happened, allowing them to understand her pain having felt every emotion she did over those few weeks. Tyson and Thalia had been kept at camp much to their anger but Chiron refused to let Tyson or Thalia leave without more training.
Gripping her bow she thought back to what had spurned on the search parties to an even greater fervor and made them even more desperate to find their leader.
-Flashback-
By now it had been two weeks since Percy had vanished and nobody had seen him, even Iris had been unable to contact the mighty hero. Right now they were on one of the highest hills in the camp at a project that Amanda, Clarisse, Tyson, and the Hephaestus cabin had been building in secret, partly as a surprise for Percy. They had decided that they wanted to honor all the children of the gods and their accomplishments so they had built a building that, with a little magical help from Hecate, could list out the demigod history of any godsborn warrior. The information had who their godly parent was, if they had been claimed, if they were a traitor or still loyal to Olympus, how many monsters they had killed, what named monsters they had killed, the first monster they had killed, the quests they had performed, their divine patrons, and even some relics of the Hero for that particular person's wing. The building started out small but expanded on the inside depending on who was being learned about. A demigod who never went on a quest or killed a monster would have a small plaque appear for them on the wall if they were searched for. A warrior like Percy had a large wing with relics from his different adventures and quests in it. At the entrance to the museum of demigods was a large book on a pedestal where a person could use its innate magic to search through the records of demigods by different factors such as number of quests, godly parents, and by name if they knew it. (AN: I have been planning that since the Minatour chapter as I think the idea is epic).
One thing that confused everyone, even Clarisse and Amanda who had designed the museum, was that when they summoned Percy's wing, on the large plaque that held some of his accomplishments was a strange glowing symbol that made Chiron and the attending gods pale in fear. "What is it?" she asked, turning to Artemis, a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach when she saw how pale the goddess had become.
"I-it is an ancient spell," Zeus chocked out and, to her shock, she saw the king of the gods was trying not to cry "normally used when a demigod had committed serious enough crimes that earned banishment. It takes the demigod scent from every demigod in the world and gives it to that individual until they die or an Olympian removes it.".
At those words she dropped to her knees in disbelief, realizing that the feeling of something lost that had pervaded the camp had been their demigod scent…it was now all within Percy. "Where is he?" she cried out desperately, not expecting an answer.
"The spell allows an Olympian to track him with the permission of Zeus…" Apollo began before being cut off by the thunder god.
"DO IT!" Zeus commanded, the very ground shaking with the strength of his thunderous voice.
Quickly, the sun god rushed over to the glowing symbol and placed a finger on it before paling even further and saying a single world "Alaska.".
-End flashback-
The gods had explained to them how Alaska was the land beyond the gods…a land they could not step foot upon nor could methods of magical travel reach the icy tundra. The Campers wanted to go after Percy by plane or train or some other mortal means of travel but the gods had shot it down. Every monster in the world was swarming the icy state and it was agreed that Percy was the only one who had a chance of surviving up there for the time being as they had managed to weaken the spell enough that it would only work once on Percy and would wear off within six months of it being cast rather than lasting for life or removal. The gods explained how, even though their own powers would not work in Alaska, the powers of a demigod would function fully unless it involved entering the state through magic.
Every day she had watched Percy's wing in the museum and every day it had grown larger and his monster count grew higher. It was during the third month that Percy once again did something beyond incredible when his achievements now listed the slaying of one of the ten most dangerous monsters in the world. Every time one was destroyed a new one would take its place on the list. The list when Percy first joined the camp had read: Typhon, Cetus (AN: The beast the original Perseus killed with Medusa's head), the three elder Cyclopes (AN: The ones that were born to Gaea), Briares, Kampe, Ladon, Charybdis, and Scylla. After Percy had slain Scylla its spot had been taken by Sciron's giant turtle but the tenth slot had been opened again when Percy somehow slew the beast. The tenth slot was filled by a Lydian Drakon that could only be slain by a child of Ares.
Now though she was with Nico, Clarisse, and Amanda as they were trying to find two demigods at a military school called Westover Hall, apparently Satyrs could still find demigods even without their scent. Unfortunately there was a monster at the school as well that had its ability to track demigod scent blocked by one of the Titans and placed with a Satyr that had gone rogue for recruitment. It hadn't taken that long to find the demigods, a couple of children of Apollo by the look of them. They didn't know the protector that had contacted them but Clarisse recognized the Satyr that had gone rogue, a large and surprisingly muscular satyr by the name of Ichneutae (AN: The Satyr from the second movie) who had brought Clarisse to camp. The traitor had the gall to smirk at them before gesturing for a large man, who they assumed was the monster, to grab the two children as the four quickly left, the two demigods clearly unwilling.
They had rushed after them and caught up with the quartet at the edge of a cliff leading to the ocean where they engaged the monster while the two demigods were pulled behind them by their protector. "Well hello little demigods," Ichneutae sneered at them "I had hoped you would come. My friend here has been getting quite…hungry as of late. And what better snack than a few of Olympus' most loyal?".
Before any of them could respond the monster revealed its true form of a manticore and for once she didn't protest her brothers cursing as she felt the same. While not a top ten the manticore was still an incredibly dangerous monster that stood a chance of beating them if it got lucky and had the help of Ichneutae, who Clarisse told them was actually accomplished as a fighter. Before either of their opponents could charge though a cyclone of water appeared between the two groups before fading and revealing Percy, glaring at the duo with a cold gaze as the wind whipped around them.
She saw the man she still loved shot forward and engage Ichneutae and the manticore slashing at the two with almost lazy movements, as if the two weren't worth his time. Before she could rush over to help she felt a hand grab her as she screamed into it and turned to see a Cyclops grab her while the others received identical treatment. That muffled scream was enough for Percy though as he spun around, cutting his opponents in half with one quick movement, and saw what was going on as he charged in, shooting spikes of ice from the frozen ground at the beasts restraining them. Most hit their mark…but two were blocked by armor appearing on the beasts…the ones holding her and her brother. Before she could try to escape the Cyclops pulled out a disk and she felt herself vanish, in a flash of light.
AN: So yeah, Nico and Bianca are the ones being taken instead of Annabeth and yes there IS a good reason which ties in with the story.