Ch. 4: The Open Threat

Recap: The girl, too exhausted and injured, fainted on the spot. Everyone rushed towards the girl to check out her condition, with Will Solace in the lead. They got the shock of their lives when they realized the face of the girl though. They heard a few words before she slipped completely out of consciousness to leave them stunned. Lady Artemis looked the most stunned. A makeshift cot was called and the girl was pulled on it and taken to the infirmary.

Eventually, the whole camp came to know who she was and the last words she'd spoken.

The girl was none other than Thalia Grace, and the last words she'd spoken were

"Percy and Tartarus... Tried to kill me...")

Emotions, ranging from shock and disbelief to confusion were felt throughout the camp. However, most of the campers had come to the conclusion of insanity. They dared not suggest it in front of Artemis, but nothing was hidden from the Goddess. She herself seemed at a loss regarding the situation. Percy Jackson hadn't fallen prey to some monster's random weapon after all. Her father's bolt, the bolt that had the capacity to destroy the whole planet had become the cause of his death. No deity or magic could bring him back from the dead, not even Hades. And neither magic nor some element could reduce much less nullify the effect induced by the bolt. The sheer power would render any such precaution useless. And even if he somehow miraculously survived the bolt, how could he have survived the fall..?

Artemis kept on pondering the scene of his death that had enacted in front of her own eyes. She couldn't believe the boy could have lived. However, if there was one person who's sanity was trustworthy beyond a doubt, who Artemis would trust with words and actions almost as much as her own, it was her sister. Thalia Grace was an extremely reliable lieutenant, one on who's word Artemis had the habit of deciding her course of actions. The fact that a word spoken out of Thalia's mouth couldn't be relied upon was very alien to her. "Well." she kept on assuring herself whenever these thoughts clouded her mind. "It's just a matter of time before she wakes up and then everything will be clear."
Alas! She would soon learn something terrible from the Apollo cabin. Before that, however, transpired an event stranger than fiction, yet something that the Goddess of the Moon decided to downplay. Upon realizing a period of complete privacy, she created a rainbow, deposited a drachma and dialled her father to narrate the strange occurring of the day. Zeus' expressions, though, were not even remotely close to what she'd been expecting. The Lord of the skies looked unusually nervous, a bit fazed even. He composed himself almost instantaneously, but Artemis' trained eye missed no moment. She would soon realize how foolish she'd been to not further question her dad about this. She'd be a day late and a dollar short by then though, staring at a precarious situation with a cup of nectar in hand.

Leaving the IM with her dad aside, she decided to take a walk within the camp. Almost at the end of her walk, she saw Will Solace, the head counsellor is the Apollo cabin rushing towards her with mixed expressions of disbelief, worry, shock and a bit of fear. At that moment she knew that something was awfully wrong, something that had to do with Thalia. Thoughts like 'coma' and 'PTSD' started racing through her mind, but what Solace said stunned her even more than she already was, if practically possible.

"Thalia..gone...not in bed... " Will said panting.

"Breathe boy, then explain clearly," Artemis said, irritated by his demeanour.

"Thalia is gone. She's not in her bed, we checked the washrooms, we checked the baths, she was nowhere to be found."

"What do you mean nowhere to be found! Someone must've seen her! Ask the whole camp if you have to!"

"Nobody saw her escape, nobody saw her walk the camp. She suddenly disappeared, not to be found even with the hunters."

Artemis' face morphed into various expressions, the most prominent of them being confused. "Didn't you assign anyone to look after her?"
"The nurse designated to take care of her left for a moment, but apparently it was enough."

Artemis sighed in frustration. Just when she'd thought the day couldn't get any weirder, it got strange on a whole new level, even for an immortal. "What does Chiron have to say?"
"Nothing, for now. He's just as confused as you are at the moment. And as we speak, he is deploying most of the wild along with as many campers as he can to find her. She couldn't have gotten very far."
Artemis had a look of anger, the reason for that look above Will. "Where is Chiron?"
"Uhh. At the big house maybe..?" Will spoke nervously. Artemis just disappeared, only to reappear inside the big house where Chiron was just about to send search parties. The group formally bowed, but Artemis spoke without addressing the bow.

"Chiron. Stop the search."
"But. Milady, isn't Thalia missing?"
"Chiron, did you see Thalia being brought in on that cot?"
"Of course." "Did you see her show unwillingness in wanting to come to camp?"
"Uh... Not at all your honour..." Chiron replied, confused as to where Artemis was leading him with this conversation. "Did you see some monster invade camp and capture Thalia?"

"Of course not!"
"Very good. Then tell me Chiron, do you not think Thalia left camp of her own accord?"
"Yes, I agree. But she was injured, she may be at risk if she's being stubborn."

"Stubborn how?"
"We all heard what she said earlier today. Now I don't know how much of it is true, but the probability that she went to find Percy cannot be overlooked."

"Percy's dead Chiron! I saw him die."
"But that's not what Thalia believes, and she left before you could explain anything."

"So what, she'll search for him for a while, then come back! She's no prison escapee, stop trying to catch her!"
"I would, except that with Percy she spoke another word. Tartarus. I hope to death I'm wrong, but if her statement is to be believed, then Tartarus and Percy, or maybe some Percy lookalike tried to kill her. Maybe these two are working in cahoots to bring about something nefarious. And the only place she can find Tartarus or his ally is within the literal hell, Tartarus."

The colour drained from Artemis' face. She chastised herself for her slow thinking, apologized to Chiron for questioning his abilities and for delaying the search party. Leaving the room hastily, she hurried off towards her cabin. Just when she was about to reach, she realized her hunters would be having a ton load of questions for her, the answers to which were unknown to her. Not in the mood to deflect questions or showcase lack of knowledge, she decided to leave camp, go to some mortal restaurant and have some nectar. The nectar looked like a cup of tea to the mortals, so she didn't have to worry about that. The mist took care of everything. She was worried sick, hoping, praying to herself that Chiron's anticipation was wrong. She entered a mortal restaurant, snapped her fingers and a cup of nectar appeared in front of her. Just when she was about to take the first sip, a figure clad in a hoodie with sunglasses caught her attention. The figure was walking right towards her. Alert, she put the cup down, in case she needed her hands to fight off what or whoever the figure was. The figure came right in front of her and spoke. "Your hunter escaped before I could take her to Tartarus. Then she came back herself as if I were some kind of magnet. Now we have her." The voice sounded vaguely familiar, but Artemis couldn't quite place it.

She growled "Who are you? How dare you talk to me like that! And where is Thalia?"

"Who am I? WHO AM I?" the figure whisper-shouted. "I am the one. The one that Zeus killed without cause, the one that was wrongfully convicted, the one that was murdered in cold blood. By Zeus. By the Council. By you! My Lord Tartarus saved me then. Helped me regain my memories. You all played with my life. You said I was some son of that Sea God when in truth I was the son of Kronos! Tartarus has shown me every facet of the truth, you can't fool me now." The figure growled back.

Artemis seemed speechless now, having finally placed the voice and the sea green eyes with the actual identity of the figure. His words, however, made no sense. A son of a Titan? Wrongfully murdered? Artemis realized that Percy somehow survived the bolt, but lost his memories. Then Tartarus got his hands on him and brainwashed him into seeking vengeance against the Gods. How he managed to survive Zeus' master bolt, Artemis didn't know. But what she knew was, if Percy Jackson calls Tartarus his 'master', he cannot be trusted. She couldn't believe she was having a reunion with the same man that had taken the weight of the sky for her. What a woeful reunion! As of now though, she needed Thalia back, so she was helpless to attack him. Maybe he realized this as well, hence this meeting. Artemis was smart, she decided on a negotiation approach to ensure Thalia's safety.

"You hold us accountable for multiple crimes. Maybe we did, maybe we didn't commit them. But that's not why you've come all the way here, to accuse us. What do you want?"

"You are smart. Straight to the point. Okay then, I'll be blunt. I'll tell you what's gonna happen soon, and what we need you to do. As you'd have figured out by now, there's gonna be a war. We, meaning me and Tartarus will destroy Olympus and the camps. What we need you to do is make our task easier and less time-consuming."

"Be precise, what is it exactly that you want?" Artemis asked, narrowing her eyes.

"I want you to spy for us. Give us every bit of information on the happenings of the war. The preparations, the army strategy, the numbers. In exchange, we grant amnesty to you and Thalia Grace."

"You must be crazy if you think I'd do that! You wanna kill Thalia, go right ahead. I'm sure she will understand. There are gonna be many heroes who'll put their lives on the line for their home during the course of this war. Thalia will be remembered as the first of them."

Percy hadn't expected this at all. He'd assumed Artemis would care. 'But of course, I was wrong' he thought bitterly. The Gods cared about no one. Or so he thought. Only Artemis knew how she'd turned her heart into stone to make this decision. She knew the risks, but somewhere deep within, her mind couldn't wrap itself around the idea of Percy hurting Thalia. "Where was this feeling when he was being executed?" She wondered.

Percy just sat up and was about to leave, but just before departing, he whispered a few words that sent a chill down Artemis' spine

"She won't be sacrificed Artemis. Trust me, there are worse things than death. If you ever doubt that in the slightest, come to visit me in Tartarus and you'll witness your worst fears come to life. As to this war, Tartarus is no joke. He emanates raw power, and our Army isn't exactly peanut sized. Go warn Olympus in that Solstice meeting you have. Do everything you can in your power. Yet, we will decimate you, annihilate you. Because no matter what you believe, we'll always have you right where we want you - beneath us."

Artemis just sat there stunned while she saw the back of Perseus Jackson retreat. She couldn't comprehend the transpired events. Percy Jackson was alive, and he was on the other side. The guy made toilets explode just when he was a bit nervous. Now to think that Percy would be actually villainous... She needed to talk to her dad about this. In fact, she needed a whole Council meeting in presence of demigods. Screw the solstice, this was an emergency. Everything needed to be out in the open. She rushed to Mt. Olympus to call for a meeting.

Meanwhile somewhere deep in some forest, a mechanical dragon had crash landed, the two riders - one girl and one boy, both unconscious. An army of monsters surrounded the duo, a hooded man in front of the group contemplating what to do with them.

"We could kill the boy, he's a powerful demigod. But the woman, she's a titan by blood and I can't kill her without master's permission. Leaving one alive will raise suspicion, though. Hmm, what to do, what to do... Oh yeah, I have a plan." the man who was clearly their leader smirked devilishly. He took out a syringe and injected it in the girl's veins, knowing the boy's technical background was strong enough to detect something wrong in his system. The content from the syringe entered through the veins, and the army left, just like that, not laying a scratch on either of them.

Percy Jackson had just injected the girl with a micro tracker and an audio device that would transmit audio within a range of 50 metres of the girl directly into the device connected to Percy's ear. Also, the girl's location would be available to him just at a tap of his fingers.

He knelt down and whispered in the boy's ear "Welcome home Leo Valdez, we're gonna have a lot of fun with your Oggygia Princess here. We have a score to settle, apparently, she likes to curse people a lot." Percy spoke bitterly, remembering all but that he'd suffered at the hands of the arai because of Calypso. Talk about partial memory... What exactly had Tartarus done to the hero of Olympus?

(A/N: PLEASE REVIEW. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS WELCOME.)