Hello everyone! How are you? Well, I hope! Well the new chapter is finally here and I am very sorry for the delay. A lot of things happened but now I am ready to continue this story!
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*changes*
Bob
"I said hello to the stars," Percy simply said.
The stars. I missed them so much. But I had a plan to execute and too little time.
"Thank you," I said and meant it with all my heart. I felt a feeling starting to rise in me, a feeling I had almost forgotten. Hope. And it gave me a new wave of power and determination to help Percy.
"What are his intentions?" Percy asked. The answer took me out of my thoughts.
"He wants to kill you at the right time to show to the gods and their children that he is unstoppable and to crush their spirits. His plan will start by attacking the camps. He hopes to capture all the demigods and then capture the Gods. Then he will kill them one by one, starting with you."
The more I talked the more I saw the light vanish from his eyes.
"But there is a way to stop him." I tried to sound confident, but as I thought about my plan I started having doubts.
It will work. It has to, I reassured myself.
"Tell me. What do I have to do?"
"You may not approve of it, but it is the only way."
He looked at me, almost pleading for an answer.
"And it might hurt," I added.
He looked almost horrified. But i had to continue so i explained my plan.
"But-" he tried to say but stoped and tensed.
I knew why too,I sensed Tartarus coming close.
"He is coming. Prepare yourself." I whispered and picked up a new batch of tools, as if I was about to start a new rund of torture.
The primordial looked at me. pleased with my actions. At last, I had truly earned his trust.
"Perseus Jackson. Your time is coming to a close. As we speak your camp is about to be overrun by monsters. I only hope they like the little present I have created for them. And you can't do anything to help them. Enjoy the show; the Romans will get their turn afterward." he smirked.
He summoned black smoke from his hand, which morphed into a ball. The colors on the surface swirled and started to change.
And then we were seeing a small image of a hill with a big tree, a dragon and a statue dedicated to the goddess of Wisdom.
The valley was quiet, as everyone was sleeping. They would be caught completely off guard.
I saw a small team walking around and secretly I hoped they saw the danger early.
The image changed and we saw a big army of monsters. Hellhounds, dracaena, earthborn and others.
"TARTARUS. I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Percy yelled at Tartarus, staring in horror at the army about to overrun his home.
The primordial laughed and stared at him.
I turned to Percy to find him silently sobbing and praying.
Tartarus took out his sword and hit him in the head with the hilt, sending him to the realm of unconsciousness.
"Unchain him," he ordered me. What were his intentions? I began to fear the integrity of my play.
Which, right now, was the only option. And if it worked I might never have the opportunity to give the greetings I wanted to.
Artemis
I decided I had to inform the rest of the Gods of the possibility of Arianna's treason.
As I flashed to the throne room I requested for an emergency meeting and all the gods appeared.
"What happened,daughter? Do we have any news?" asked Zeus.
"There might be a way to find about what Tartarus is planning." I simply stated and my words had an impact. All of the gods turned their full attention to me. This upcoming war seemed to have a very big impact on them all.
"Go on. We might even have a chance of saving Percy?" Poseidon exclaimed. Hope was an unstable force, even for us.
I turned towards Apollo who for once acted like a mature man, or god.
"Thalia gave me this idea who I've been working on and she might be right. Since we know Tartarus is our enemy and can use abilities too powerful for us, like with Anna…" he stopped for a moment for the gods to process his line of thinking.
"I might have been mistaken about Arianna's sayings being truthful since he can manipulate her in a way that what she says is the truth for her…but not in general."
"You call my daughter a traitor?" said Ares, unsheathing his sword. Rage was evident on his face.
"Don't speak, because if that is the case and my son dies I will hunt you down and end you as a god," snarled Poseidon, his trident appearing in his hand. "Peace," said Hestia, putting herself between the two gods.
"We will deal with those matters after we survive the war that is upon us. Right now we have to think and act in a way for our own good." Athena said trying to be the voice of logic.
"And our children's." Hestia noted. And that was a below the belt hit for Poseidon.
"I have warned you," he said through gritted teeth towards Ares and sat down.
"Is there any way to see if this accusation is right?" asked Zeus, glaring at Ares and Poseidon.
"Well…I might find a way but I will need help from Athena and Dionysus."
The two gods nodded, well after Poseidon cleared his throat for Dionysus, and then they all flashed out.
"Anything more?" asked Zeus. When nobody said anything he flashed himself and Hera out, after giving me a nod of approval, alongside most of the gods.
And of course Aphrodite was left behind.
"So, Artemis, are you ready to face your feelings?" she asked me.
"Well, as you saw I accepted the fact that Arianna might be a traitor." I said, trying too hard to not let any emotion show.
"And what about the other feelings you have?" she continued pressing me.
"Well I…" I started saying only to be interrupted.
"Artemis, I might be able to give you a helping hand," said Hestia who had heard our conversation and approached us. I was glad she saved me from Aphrodite.
"How? I am afraid the emotion will cloud my judgment. So I will deal with it after the war." I said determined. And that was the truth. Well part of it anyway. I was afraid. I was rarely afraid, and I would rather be dead than confess it.
"Let me take us somewhere" Hestia said, and flashed us away.
We appeared in a cave, and for a strange reason I could not sense the exact location. But I could feel a third presence. Something ancient and powerful, like a Titan. But I also felt comfortable and somewhat familiar with these feeling.
I looked at Hestia but before I could ask anything a voice was heard.
"Artemis, is that you?"
I was speechless. "How?"
"Percy's wish actually. All peaceful Titans to be freed. I will leave you." Hestia answered me and flashed away.
I couldn't believe it.
"Mother?" I said in a small voice, as if I thought if I spoke too loud she would vanish.
She appeared around the corner, with her blond beautiful hair loose on her shoulders, wearing her usual golden ancient Greek robe, with hints of white.
I bowed to her.
"Raise my child." she said in a caring voice.
"I am sorry for not coming to see you." I said apologizing. "I really am. With all the things that happened this somehow slipped my mind."
She just hugged me and I melted into her embrace. I had missed this. Her warm feeling and her scent.
"At least Apollo came after I was release by that man, Perseus Jackson," she said after I left her embrace.
My chin was now touching my chest She lifted it with her hand."You have feelings for him. Don't you?" she asked softly.
I couldn't lie. And she was the only one that could really help me.
"I don't know. Maybe. I am not sure. I haven't felt like this for anyone. First I respected him and he was the only hero I approved of."
She simply waited. We both knew I had a lot more burdens to let off my shoulders.
"Now I learn that he declined immortality and with his wish he freed you. Then he did all those things and didn't want anything from the gods. And he saved the hunt. And respects women. And…"
If my mother let me I could go on for hours. He had done so many things a man by my standards wouldn't.
"He is unique. I can sense that much." She said smiling.
"He is. But he has been captured by Tartarus and I may not see him ever again." I answered miserably, like a fifteen year old teen.
"Have faith in him my daughter. He is too powerful to die imprisoned. He will find a way. The fact is what will you do when you see him?" She asked the right question. She always had a way to help me out of any dead end.
"I do not know mother. I fear he may not feel attraction to me. He lost his love a while back. I will wait for him to heal and be ready to move on,with any woman he wants. If that one is me I will accept and embrace my feelings and him."
"Wise choice." She said. "But I approve him for you Artemis. I want you to know that"
"Thank you mother."
"Now go, you have a war to win and a certain demigod to keep alive."
I bowed one more time and flashed myself to help the Hunt for any upcoming attack, which was sooner than I had expected.
Thalia
We had just finished creating defensive plans and setting traps when we spotted the monster army.
Our scouts had warned us in the right time, so that we would prepare under the new circumstances. But they told us something I didn't like at all.
They spoke of a man like figure, with armor that seemed to feed off of the darkness, that was leading the attack. And I was afraid that it would be like Kronos' story from the beginning. Could demigods join Tartarus' forces?
We expected an attack but not on this scale. We were more outnumbered than we had planned so we had to use other techniques if we wanted to have the slightest chance of surviving.
We calculated that they would attack at the night so we used this on our made sure that it seemed like the whole camp was sleeping and that the only ones awake were the patrol.
Our scouts reported that it seemed to work.
We were all ready-as ready as we could be given the time we had and the number of the opponent army.
Mostly Greek demigods, some Roman, us and satyrs, nymphs and others; not nearly enough to face them.I prayed that Artemis would show up. An Olympian goddess would somehow even the odds. And Percy would certainly out even them. For us.
We had to leave thoughts of his imprisonment behind and hope he can survive in order to focus on our task ahead.
I looked around myself. We were all in hiding, waiting for the right time.
After a while the monsters started moving, with their leader up in the front. And for a weird reason I got a weird uncomfortable feeling when I was looking at him.
Just as Peleus noticed them, Festus appeared from the sky and started breathing fire, destroying monsters, just as Peleus did.
The first wave was easily defeated but the dracaena started using their bows, so Festus had to land and hold the hill with Peleus.
And that was the right moment of our attack.
I gave the signal and all the Hunters together, accompanied with the Apollo kids, started shooting arrows, all with pinpoint accuracy, with some of them hiding surprises.
The good news was that our hiding place took them completely by surprise, giving the fact that they came from different directions since we were hiding in the trees around the clearance around the hill.
The dracaena were destroyed and now our army marched from the base of the hill, where they were hidden. This hit the monsters hard because they had changed their focus from the hill to the trees to find us.
As the monsters were disoriented; I commanded the Hunters to drop to the ground and fight their way to the main troops while the Apollo guys stayed there and help us.
As I got down I sliced down an earthborn and then the armored guy was in front of me.
He was around my height, with black full body armor and a helmet, which had blood red and sea green tints on its horsehair crest. He was holding a weird sword, all black but it wasn't Stygian Iron. It was a metal I was seeing for the first time.
And he stood before me almost unharmed, with only a few dents on his armor plate though he survived two major attacks from our forces.
"I will end you," he said and threw himself at me.
But I was stunned by his voice.
It was Percy's.
And I would be dead hadn't been for Artemis.
She must have teleported herself somewhere near and was coming to my aid.
She had shot an arrow to the man before me, which pierced through his right wrist, stopping him from stabbing me with his sword.
He simply threw his sword to his other arm to continue his attack as if he wasn't injured.
"Move Thalia," Artemis yelled and I was back to the battlefield.
His next attack was blocked by my bow, which he snapped with his injured hand with a move too quickly for me to stop. With the hit he even snapped the arrow in half and now he could use both his hands.
I took out my spear but before I could summon my shield he pitched me into a tree behind me. His sword only being stopped inches away from my neck by my spear.
We were face to face and I could see some of his facial features.
And I was sure it was Percy, but his eyes were gold. Like when Luke was possessed by Kronos.
He wasn't himself. And he was determined to kill me.
He head-butted me and threw me to the ground.
He kicked my spear out of my hand but before he gave me the final blow he froze.
I saw for a moment his eyes flashed blue.
"Help me," he managed and his eyes turned golden again. I was too stunned to do anything.
It's the second friend I would lose to an immortal entity.
But before he could go for the final blow, or I could even try to call for lighting two arrows came, and hit him right on his chest, sending him five meters away, into a tree.
I turned to see Artemis with a smile on her face. She had saved me.
She'd saved me, by shooting Percy.
"No!" I yelled and ran to the fallen hero.
Artemis saw something was wrong and came right behind me.
Percy was trying to take in some air. It was only a matter of moments before he would take his last breath.
I took off his helmet. I heard a gasp from Artemis and a sob.
I turned to see her. She had covered her mouth and her eyes were full of tears. She bent down beside me, reaching out as if to touch him, but pulling her hand back at the last second.
His eyes starting losing their color. He tried to speak but he lacked the touched his face.
"I am sorry," she managed to say before the great Perseus Jackson took a shuddering breath and was still. He was dead.
Artemis suddenly stand up, "Heroes, cover your eyes!" she yelled and turned into her divine form, incinerating every monster on the field.
The next time I opened them I was before the Olympian council, with Artemis at my side.
"What happened my daughters" Zeus asked us both.
Artemis turned to me. "I will let you tell the story," and sat to her throne, leaving me alone to deal with the council.
"The news is not good. There was a battle in the camp half blood." I started.
How could I possibly tell them? How could I tell them that Percy was dead. And that Artemis killed him.
"The monster army started to gather around the hill but we were early informed by our scouts and got ready in time." I said and I saw Athena being happy with her children's plans.
"But reports showed that someone with a black armor was leading them. After our first attacks we went on close combat with the monsters. But the strange warrior was still alive and I personally fought him."
Now everybody was waiting for me to finish my narration, while I saw Artemis was trying to hold back her tears.
"I was badly cornered but Artemis saved me by killing him." I saw Zeus finally relax and turn to Artemis, only to see her silently crying.
"The fact is that I couldn't kill that man, and I was too stunned to even fight him. Because I knew him. I saw him as we were face to face. And Artemis didn't know. That's why she did what she did to save me."
I turned to were streaming down her face.
"I killed Percy," she breathed, as if she couldn't quite believe it herself.
And a Chaos broke loose.
Well! That's it! I don't know if I got this too far.
Well…there is more to be seen as you understand.
Please don't hate me about this cliffhanger! Please!
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