Percy Jackson, Betrayal Starts It All

by FindADifferentUsername

AU. Perseus and Aurora were created and trained, spending most of their lives preparing to take on Chaos' mantle together upon her resignation. Unknown to most, things had been conspiring in the background, tangling together and creating a mess in the mix of it. In the aftermath of it all, Perseus was left a child in the care of five Primordials.

13. Chapter 13

I'd advise you to go back and read the end of the last chapter since you might be confused after such a long wait. Now that that's been said, get nice and comfy because this is quite a long chapter.

[Edited 12/23/18]

---

"What are you doing here?!" I hissed, looking around to make sure no one had seen her or was snooping in.

"Well, aren't you pleasant?" Hemera said, huffing and crossing her arms. She sat cross-legged on the hood of a yellow GTR. "I came here to help you," She said, standing up. "And don't worry, I made sure no one had seen me or could hear us."

"You're insane!" I whisper yelled.

"Hey! Only slightly unstable, not insane." Hemera said, narrowing her eyes.

"And you just admitted it," I said, shaking my head and turning around to see if I could find out where we were by now. "If you're here to help, what do you plan on doing?" I asked.

"Ah, that's the thing, Erebus might've come up with this whole idea. So, don't look at me like I'm insane-"

"You are."

"- when it's all Erebus' doing, okay?" She finished, sending me a glare. I scratched the back of my neck, turning back to her. She had an eyebrow raised and her arms and legs still crossed, sitting on the hood of the car. I nodded.

"Good. I need you to introduce me as your sister and say that I am here to help. They think you're Erebus' son, and they'll think that I am above the laws when you introduce me as your sister." She said, an open-mouthed smile now present on her face. I stared back, straight-faced.

"No? Okay, I'll just make it so that you'll be the only one able to see me. Seeing as my domain is Day, I can just blend into all sources of light and can bend the light around myself, they won't be seeing anything of me." She went on to explain her plan seeing as Erebus' was stupid and I couldn't help but nod.

"It would work, but what are you trying to do?" I questioned further.

"Ugh!" She threw her hands up. "Why do you ask so many questions?! You need my help dealing with the asshole that Artemis is holding up, making sure that he doesn't meet with Gaea. You don't have an ounce of your previous power, and I know that as soon as he sees you, Chaos will know everything." She explained and realization dawned on my face. I had connected all the dots upon seeing Atlas and the images that had filtered through my vision when the Oracle of Delphi had spoken the prophecy.

"You are a genius, Hemera! How could I be so stupid to not realize that?!" I exclaimed, still in a hushed voice. She flipped her platinum blond hair over one shoulder with her right hand.

"I know I am." She said with a dazzling smile.

"I'll let you have your moment, this time, Hemera," I said, walking past the car she was sitting on. She hopped off it, following me. I started heading to the floor below, whispering to her to make sure no one saw her, she nodded and I just trusted that she did so.

I saw Thalia sitting in a hot-wired Mercedes, a slightly angered face, I looked towards Hemera, seeing her raise an eyebrow to the electric blue-eyed girl.

"Don't look at me, no one can see me other than you," Hemera said, stepping back with her arms raised.

"Perfect." I breathed out. "Thanks for the help, 'sis'!" I said sarcastically. I then walked over to the car, knocking on the window. Thalia looked at me, eyes slightly narrowed, I narrowed my eyes back.

"Please? I'm bored." I asked. I saw her sigh with her head down, reaching over and unlocking the door. I got in the car, pushing Hemera away when Thalia wasn't looking. I felt a connection open up in my mind.

"I hate you~" a feminine voice growled in my mind. I put on a smile.

"Hate'cha too! I'm glad that we could come to an understanding!" I answered back in my head, now focusing my attention on the black haired girl to my left.

"What station are you trying to listen to?" I questioned, seeing her fiddle with the knobs and hearing static come through the speakers.

"Green Day, My Chemical Romance, something that's not this mainstream garbage," Thalia answered. I nodded, reaching over and turning the second knob a little to the left and letting go, Green Day now heard throughout the car. "How'd you do that?"

"I've been here before and knew the station," I answered nonchalantly, sitting back in the passenger seat.

"Where exactly are we then?" Thalia asked, sitting back as well. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Can't pinpoint it, but we should be on the edge of Arizona, about to enter New Mexico," I said.

"Great," Thalia said closing her eyes. "I forgot to thank you for the Nemean Lion pelt, by the way," Thalia said, interrupting the silence. "I kept it after getting on the train. Here," She shrugged the pelt off of her shoulders, holding it out.

"Keep it, for now, I don't have a good feeling about what's coming up next," I said, pushing her outstretched arm back to herself. "And I don't want to regret not giving it to you if it turns out this bad feeling was a warning." I finished.

Thalia had a small smile. "Whatever, thanks anyway, but don't come crying to me when you get killed." She said, sitting back again. I smirked towards her.

"Please, I have pretty good instincts," I said, brushing off my shoulder.

"And you just walking into the 'General's' meeting proves that!" Thalia added cheerfully.

"Haha, very funny," I said with no emotion. "Fine, I'll take the pelt, and then watch you get stabbed because you didn't have it."

"Fine by me," Thalia said, tossing the pelt into my lap and crossing her arms.

"I can practically taste the faith pouring from your words," I say, shaking my head and putting the pelt away. "So, to pass by time, wanna question each other back and forth?" I ask with an eyebrow raised in her direction.

There was a short pause. "Sure, go ahead, you start." was her reply.

"How'd the whole tree thing happen? I heard about it during the few times I went out of the cabin." I ask, bobbing my head to the music slightly.

"Awful luck and having Zeus as a dad."

"I'll put it together eventually. Your turn." I say, easing into the seat.

"Okay, I heard that you were sent to ensure Bianca and Nico's safety. Care you explain?" Thalia asked, turning in her seat to look at me. She's more observant than she looks.

I turned to her, as well. "Easy, it's true. My big, bad dad told me to." I said. She raised an eyebrow.

"Why, though?"

"Ah, but you didn't fully explain my question, so why should I yours?" I countered.

"So you're not gonna explain any further?" I shook my head. "How 'bout if I actually go into detail about me becoming a tree?"

"Would you really do it, though?" I questioned, an eyebrow raised.

"I will." I paused. "Deal." She smiled and motioned for me to go on.

"Hades and Erebus are 'allies'," I said, sitting back. "So I was sent to protect his kids when they were in the most danger, which happened to be then." I quickly came up with. "Now you go."

"When I was first heading into camp, I was with two other people, and with a scent as strong as mine, a bunch of monsters were bound to come after us. We were just within the camp's grasp when the monsters attacked. I sacrificed myself to save them. I was dying and Zeus made me into a pine tree to preserve my soul, made it so that I didn't go to the underworld and face Hades' wrath." I nodded, taking on a new perspective towards the girl beside me. "Your turn to ask me a question."

"What was with the whole Hunters of Artemis scene?" I asked. There were a few seconds of complete silence.

"It's a bit personal, so I won't go into too much depth. I had a run in with the Hunters before, and I didn't quite agree with them at the time. I won't say why." Thalia answered, a definite tone at the last bit.

"Well, that didn't tell me much. But then again, I did ask a personal question. Okay, you go." I say.

Thalia sat in thought for a bit before snapping her fingers. "Aha, this has been eating at me for a while, why do you seem like you're hiding something? Something big?"

"That doesn't sound good out of context."

"Shut up and answer the question."

"Fine!" I said dramatically while messing around. "I admit that I am an edgy person, plus with what has been going on involving my dad, Erebus, Hades, and his children, I do know a few things which I cannot reveal. So that's probably why I seem to act like that." I said.

"So you are hiding something?"

"Possibly," I replied, a small smile making its way onto my face. "My turn. What could I possibly ask you?" I contemplated aloud.

"Maybe for me to ask you another question, skipping your turn." Thalia offered.

"This isn't Truth or Dare."

"Damn."

"Okay, sorry in advance for the personal questions," I said before I asked her what I had thought of.

"Why am I not surprised?" Thalia muttered slightly.

"Okay! Just say 'Ask again' if you wanna skip it. Now, I have heard a lot about a guy named Luke. Who is he?" I asked.

"An old friend."

"Why're your answers so short? I think I would've preferred for you to just skip it." I said.

"Fine, ask again." Thalia gave in, looking towards me with her head down slightly.

"Not really short and cryptic-y answers?" I asked.

Thalia let out a slight laugh. "Yeah, you want me to pinkie promise?" She joked, holding out her pinkie.

"Do not tempt me," I said seriously. "Uhm, not gonna drop the subject - so, what is your connection to Luke? Or do you want me to repeat my question from before?"

"You're stubborn. Luke was a really close friend of mine before the tree incident, was Annabeth's, as well. But he, uh, changed while I was 'gone'." Thalia said.

"Thank you for answering, I won't be so confused now. Your go, you can ask me a personal question, as well. Free reign." I said, sighing slightly. That answer cleared a few things up for me.

"Yay," she let out a breath of air, her cheeks puffing. "You ready for how intense this is gonna get soon?"

"Is this gonna turn into a battle for who can ask the most personal questions?"

"I sure do hope so. A lot more interesting than asking each other their favorite color." Thalia said. I grinned and she mimicked it.

"You're on," I said, leaning forward in my seat and turning my head towards her, my forearms propped against my thighs.

Thalia started, already turned toward me, as well. "So, you're fourteen, I'm fifteen-"

---

Eventually, a good hour and a half later, I was stepping out of the car, Thalia having unlocked it and was fastly nodding off. We had already said our goodbyes to each other while I closed the door.

I looked over to the car in front of Thalia's. Hemera was sat on the trunk of a black Lamborghini that I am pretty sure Grover was in. She shook her head in a disapproving matter.

"For shame. I would've gotten disowned for the stuff that was asked and answered in that car." Hemera commented.

"Everything that happened in that car stays in that car and with me and Thalia," I said, holding up a hand as a pausing gesture. "What car should I take? I need a real nap."

"Didn't you just finish sleeping?" She asked, hopping off the car.

"I wouldn't count that as sleeping because of the 'dream' that I went through," I said. Hemera opened her mouth to question me further but I beat her to it. "I'll explain more in a car, I look insane talking to myself." She nodded and motioned me to a blue 2012 Ford Mustang Boss 304. "Nice," I said, getting into the driver's seat and watching Hemera appear in the passenger's.

"Okay, first off, I know I should've told you or one of the others immediately. But I didn't think it was that important until I had that dream." I said. Hemera nodded, motioning with her hand to continue on.

"So, back, before everything happened, did me and... Aurora-"

"How'd you know her name? We never told you, only said 'your sister'?" Hemera questioned, she was on alert now. And she really jumped on that, too.

"I might have kept a... another dream or message from you guys." I said, now feeling a seed of guilt sprout in my stomach. Hemera's usually go-lucky face was now serious and agitated, it didn't fit well with her soft features and personality.

"Tell me everything, this could mean something." She said. I swear I could see her eyes burning as bright as the sun, she was furious, but there was an underlying layer of concern hidden in them.

"The first dream happened right before the quest, a girl with dark brown hair and red eyes appeared, wearing a white tailcoat, black dress shirt, pants, and boots along with a crimson red vest and tie. She acted strange, awfully kind and calm, but would occasionally twitch, almost as if in pain. She started flickering, holding her head in pain, as getting agitated quickly before trying to steel herself, telling me that she didn't have much time and that 'the plan worked' before flickering until she disappeared. But she didn't start off like that, I don't know how to phrase what she acted like in the beginning, but it wasn't happy, sad, or angry. It was more like, contemplative and calm, almost." I said, a quick, yet straight-forward summary of the dream. "Her eyes: they are what I remember most," I added, my face turning to stone.

"Tell me."

"They went from a deep, powerful, fierce red eyes - but then they changed after she had flickered. Right when she started getting agitated and began flickering in and out, it was like there were white cracks trying to spread to her pupil from the outside of her iris, and her eyes were a deep, more vibrant red," I described. I had those red, unsettling eyes imprinted in my memory. I couldn't ever forget them, especially when I had such conflicting emotions surrounding them.

I looked towards Hemera, her face was pale, eyes slightly widened. I watched as she shook her head slightly, turning to me again.

"Explain the next dream," She said this softer, not nearly as angry as she had been before. I nodded and took a deep breath, the memory of it still fresh in my mind. But I had to get a question off my chest before I could explain.

I paused, I wanted to ask about the transparent, purple ankle bracelet type thing. But I had a feeling that it wasn't the time or place to do so, despite what we were talking about, I had a feeling that the question needed to wait a bit longer.

"Shortened or full?" I asked, pulling forth all the memories of the dream I had a little bit less than two hours ago.

"Full," She said. She was faced forward, not daring to look at me. I could understand that, and I didn't feel all that good about it.

(This is just Percy reciting what happened in the previous chapter, in a shortened version. If you want to skip over it, you can. The only things you will be missing out on is a few reactions from Hemera. If you do choose to skip it over, I'll have a little-bolded mark where you can continue reading from where the recalling has ended.)

"I woke up in a red-themed room. Aurora was there. We were talking about some type of test - Physical & Mental, and Intelligence." I paused and looked towards her, her face was stony, not daring to show emotion. But I saw recognition flicker in her eyes. "We were messing with each other, me teasing her, and her saying back some witty remark. It was as if I was just being drifted through a past memory, I couldn't control anything, but I saw through my own eyes. I had gotten up and went somewhere, getting Aurora another tablet and something called a 'trial core'. After some more banter, we had left the room, going to some type of training room." I took a break to breathe and gather my thoughts again. Talking seemed real hard at the moment.

"Okay, carrying on. I had met Ouranos there, speaking to him for a few seconds and doing something stupid before Ouranos introduced me to a varying set of things, a simple metal table with four crystals, an electric chair, and other things that I can't recall." I took another look at Hemera, her face was still stony, but now tilted slightly downward, her eyebrows were scrunched up in thought, though. "After making a stupid mistake and a second of embarrassment, Aurora had gone off to watch while Ouranos told me to lay down on the metal table. I had done so and he put three crystals around my head, taking a second to tell me that I was going to be put through my own 'personal Hell' He told me to not resist, to embrace what was going to happen or I wouldn't be waking up. That had startled me. I had taken a few deep breaths, nodding to him. He had nodded and laid the crystal in the middle of my forehead, mumbling a small chant."

I took a small break, gathering my thoughts before continuing. "Everything had gone black, and I started to panic. I heard Ouranos' voice telling me to not resist, and I listened, taking a deep breath and clearing my mind. It had worked and eventually, I was given back my sight. I was in a grimy cell, the floor covered in old and new blood and bile. I had started freaking out, my mind had gone into a panic upon realizing that I was chained to the wall. My body was riddled with scars of all sizes. Then someone walked in, they were wearing a cloak which hid all of their body from view, except their mouth. I could see a twisted smile, something out of a horror movie. They said something and I had thought about what Ouranos said, that this was my own personal Hell." I paused and looked at Hemera, she had a questioning look since I had stopped.

"I'm going to go into too much detail with this bit, I don't really want to relive it, I could feel everything that went on," I told her. She nodded and I cracked my neck before continuing. "He had come over and sliced a vertical line from my wrist to my elbow. I had tried to kick him and he let go of the knife, stepping over my weak attack. The dagger had still been in my arm and had fallen out after a few seconds of not being held in place. It fell and impaled my right thigh. The man had ripped it out of my thigh and left saying that he'd be back. I had somehow gotten a dagger that hadn't been that far away in my vicinity, I had worked it up to my mouth in some time and slashed the chain connected to my left wrist. Since it wasn't that strong, it had broken. I then freed my right arm and got up with the dagger and hid by the door, waiting for the man to come back." Hemera's face was struck with realization and looked at me. "He noticed too late that I had been behind him. He was already dead by the time that he tried to turn around."

(If you skipped, you can continue on from this point.)

"I had woken up after that. Ouranos had let me take a break to gather myself, Aurora had left with me. But on the table, just after waking and sitting up, I learned about the transparent ankle bracelet that had hidden scars that I had." I finished. "I thought that would take longer to explain," I said.

"I'll be back later, I have to tell the others," Hemera said, looking at me. I couldn't pinpoint what emotion was showing on her face. "Call one of us if another one of these dreams occurs," She then leaned over and hugged me. "Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone. Sweet dreams." She whispered. I closed my eyes and felt the familiar feeling of sun on my skin. I opened my eyes and Hemera was gone.

I let out a sigh and leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes. I might as well get some sense of rest I told myself. I soon succumbed to exhaustion, but I didn't dream for once, thankfully.

---

I had been awoken by the ever-exhilarating feeling of falling out of a car. I had apparently been leaned against the car door when I was asleep, so when that baby opened, I fell right out.

There was a short laugh accompanied by the words, "I am so sorry, Percy." I looked up from my position on the ground and saw Bianca laughing with a smile hidden behind her hand.

"It's okay," I say, standing up and brushing myself off with a sigh. "Can I get a reason, though?" I asked.

"The train has stopped, we need to get going. We're in a small town in New Mexico," She told me. I nodded and closed the car door, taking her hand.

"Come on, let's go. You are now my self-proclaimed servant." I said, tugging her along.

"What?"

"Yep, this is what you get," I said, straight-faced.

"No fair! It was an accident." Bianca defended.

"Yeah, and I 'accidentally' let Grover fall out of the van the same way." I said, using air quotes on 'accidentally'. She gave me a puppy dog face, I shit you not. A puppy dog face. I considered myself immune to such things, until this day, that is.

I narrowed my eyes, her face turned even sadder. "Fine!" I exclaimed, letting go of her hand and throwing up my arms. "You win! Just don't do that again." I said.

"Yes!" She exclaimed, giving me a smug look and walking past me.

"Oh, she did not just do that," I said out loud, forcing myself to not look back. "You're stronger than this, Percy. Move on." I said to myself, turning around and getting off the train. I saw Bianca walking over to the others. They looked angry, staring at the ground. I soon joined them.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Grover's using spirit magic," Thalia said.

"Huh?"

"See these acorns? These are us." Grover said, pointing to a group of five acorns with a stick.

"Which one am I?"

"Does it matter?" Zoë asked, looking at me with her arms crossed.

"Obviously, if I asked," I answered sarcastically, shaking my head. She glared at me while looking back at the group of acorns.

"I bet you're the cracked and deformed one," Thalia commented with a smile sent my way. Zoë snorted and Bianca laughed. I closed my fist, making it look like the wind simply moved one of the acorns towards me. I stepped on it, moving my foot away to see it crushed.

"And you're the one I just smashed," I said, a crooked smile on my face. Her eyes narrowed in challenge. Screw the bonding that had gone on last night. This is going down.

"You wanna do this?"

"Oh, I really wanna do this."

"Come on, darkness boy, let's go," Thalia said, fingers crackling with electricity.

"STOP!" Zoë's voice interrupted us, we both stood at attention. Zoë looked at the both of us, onyx eyes narrowed. "You're acting like children and we have an Olympian to save. You can fight all you want, but don't let it get in the way of what's important." Zoë said, sending us a furious look.

"Yes, ma'am." Both Thalia and I said right after. Zoë let out a breath and nodded, looking back towards the group of acorns that she had been focused on before. There was a deep silence that was interrupted by Bianca asking a question.

"Grover, can you continue on? I didn't really get the whole gist of it since I had to wake up Percy. Grover?" Bianca reached over to shake Grover when he shot up, Bianca's arm shooting back to her person.

"He's here! I felt it!" Grover screeched, looking around wildly. I walked up to Grover, making him face me and holding him in place.

"Grover, who's here?" I ask, looking him in the eye.

"Pan, the Lord of the Wild." He whispered to me. I stared at him for a few seconds before pushing him away lightly and stepping back, turning to the girls.

"He's lost it," I say, shaking my head sadly and looking at the girls.

"I did! I felt his presence, you've got to believe me, Perce! You're the son of Erebus, you must've felt it as well!" Grover encouraged, grabbing my arm and making me face him.

"Maybe it's just a satyr thing, 'cause I didn't feel anything," I said, giving him a little bit of hope that maybe what he felt was real.

He nodded, looking off. "Yeah, must be," I turned my head, looking behind me and seeing the startled looks of Bianca and Thalia, and Zoë's confused look. I shook my head and mouthed 'Help' Zoë nodded, taking the cue and walking towards Grover.

"Satyr, maybe you should go get drinks and food from the cafe. Clear your head." Zoë proposed. Grover nodded his head.

"Yeah, I'll be right back guys!" He said, running off to the cafe.

I sent Thalia a questioning look since she had been particularly close to the satyr. Thalia shook her head in a way that said, 'I have no clue.'

"I thought that Pan had faded?" Bianca more so questioned.

"That's what everyone thinks. But the satyrs think that Pan's still out there somewhere, waiting to be found." I explained. She nodded and looked at the acorns, turning around shortly after and walking towards the forest not far off. I didn't think much of it at the time and focused my attention on Zoë. "Thanks," I said.

"It was nothing, I've seen other satyrs do similar things," Zoë she responded. I nodded in understanding.

"Hopefully, he gets it out of his system, I didn't like the look in his eye," Thalia commented.

"Seemed like he had a few loose-" I was cut off as Bianca came running up to us.

"Spartai!" She said, running past us and grabbing her bag off the ground and taking out her twin daggers. "They're coming." Zoë immediately took out a dagger and had a hand prepped for her bow, Thalia quickly took out her spear and I had Revenge in my right hand, staring at the woods.

"How many are out there and where are they coming in from?" Zoë asked Bianca.

"I ran up to you guys as soon as I spotted them, there were quite a few. They're coming from the woods." As soon as Bianca finished, a Spartai emerged from the brush wearing a blue New Mexico State Police uniform, shooting off a bullet towards us. Sorry, I said 'us'? I mean 'me'. I jumped back, the bullet whizzing straight by.

"Great," I commented flatly, looking and seeing three more Spartai following the one with a trigger-happy finger. "I'll sneak around back behind them. If you get wounded, back off and try to pick them off from a safe location." I say, stepping back and into a shadow, disappearing and reappearing in one of the shadows of the trees behind the Spartai. I narrowed my eyes and didn't bother hiding my scent. The Spartai at the back turned around, facing me and clattering his teeth together, his gray skin and yellow eyes staring into mine. He raised a walkie-talkie up to his mouth, making more clattering noises. I assumed that meant that he was calling reinforcements, there had definitely been more than four Spartai at the museum. I quickly walked forward, jumping left when the Spartai raised his gun and shot at me. I feinted a slash to his neck and went for his abdomen, he blocked and shot off another bullet which ricocheted off my sword and into the ankle of one of the other Spartai, the Spartai who had been shot fell and then got back up, now walking over to me. Well, at least the three of them only have to deal with two Spartai I thought to myself. I quickly dodged a kick aimed for my leg and slashed downwards, the Spartai's leg falling to the ground along with the rest of them. But they just grabbed the leg, shoved it into their stump and stood up, their clattering teeth now sounding more angered somehow.

"Oh, that's not right..." I said, shaking my head at the sight and stepping back. It came at me again, but now with another at its side, shooting at me. I was dodging its hand to hand attacks, and its friend's bullets now. I somersaulted back, dodging a bullet and a punch. I swung Revenge, decapitating the first Spartai who threw a punch, watching it collapse into a pile of bones. I quickly ran towards its partner. I looked ahead and saw the barrel of a gun pointed directly at me and dropped down, narrowly missing the shot aimed for me. I quickly got up, throwing my arm up and blocking the punch sent my way. "Gods, you guys suck," I commented, feeling the force applied to the punch I had blocked. I threw a punch with my left arm aimed for the Spartai's face, but my arm got pulled back by someone else. I quickly elbowed whoever had touched me, feeling bones crunch beneath my elbow, and jumped back. The Spartai who I had decapitated just a few moments earlier stood there, a hand to its 'nose'. The second one advancing towards me. I cursed in my head and stabbed the one advancing towards me in the gut, quickly turning into a pile of bones. I ducked a blow aimed towards my head and kicked the one still standing down and stabbed him, running towards the girls, knowing I only had a few minutes at most before they would rebuild themselves.

I ran up to them, seeing Bianca get up close and stab one. I wanted to warn them about what happens, but the Spartai didn't collapse into a pile of bones, it went up in flames. I skidded to a halt before continuing.

"How'd you do that?" I heard Thalia ask Bianca.

"I don't know, honestly," Bianca answered. Zoë shot the one who was advancing towards them in its legs, immobilizing it.

"Well, hopefully, you can do it again!"

"We can't keep fighting them if they're just going to keep reassembling themselves. We're eventually gonna wear down, they aren't." I say, joining them. I looked back and saw the two I had taken down advancing towards us, quickly going to join their pal who was ripping the arrows out of their legs and going to stand up.

"Hey, guys! I've got hot chocolate and scones! I didn't kno-" Grover cut himself off mid-sentence when he finally looked at us and saw what was happening. He promptly got dreamy-eyed, "It's near~"

"Now is not the time, Grover!" I shouted.

"The gift of the Wild, it's near!" He dropped the little bag he had been holding, now staring intently at the cups in his arms. The little birds and animals which decorated them flew off the cups, now actual animals. Grover started swooning, dropping the cups to the ground, as well. I turned around, raising my sword and blocking another bullet. I will deal with this later, I told myself, walking towards the Spartai and running the nearest one through with my sword, stepping back and watching it reform quicker than it had before. I did the same to the other one, slicing it in half and chopping off its arm at the elbow. I stepped forward to dismember the final one and saw that it wasn't there. I turned around in time to see a bullet slice through the air from the Spartai who stood to the left of the group, Thalia quickly shooting it back with a bolt of lightning from her spear. I didn't have time to move when it hit me in the middle of my chest. I was sent on my ass by the force that it hit me at. I felt skeletal hands grab me, they must've reformed already. The skeletal hands slackened their hold, and I looked up to see it fall apart, an arrow through its eye. I laid limp on the ground, the pelt had actually saved me from getting shot, but damn, did it hurt!

I felt small hands help me up and stood up, thanking Bianca and wincing in pain. The others soon joined us and we were cornered with our backs to the mountain wall. We were about to all separate, bar me holding Grover up while he was spouting nonsense when a stupidly loud, "Reeeeeeeeeet!" echoed from the forest and a huge pig emerged from the forest. It's huge tusks flinging the Spartai at the mountain wall with one sweep, the Spartai came apart, bones going everywhere.

"The blessing from the Wild," Grover said, throwing his hands up to the pig. "It's here!"

"This is such bullshit..." I said, shaking my head and staring at it.

Thalia prepped to stab at the pig, her shield, Aegis, braced against her side. "Don't kill it!" Grover shouted, throwing his hands up at Thalia now.

"That's the Erymanthian Boar," Zoë said. "I don't believe we can kill it."

"It's a blessing from the Wild! A gift!" Grover shouted out again. The boar squealed and launched towards us, Zoë and Bianca dived out of the way, I had to push Grover down with me so that he didn't get skewered.

"I'm really feeling the love!" I shouted at Grover.

We got up and ran in different directions, and for a moment, the boar was confused.

"It wants to kill us, Grover!" Thalia yelled.

"Duh, it's wild!" Was Grover's response.

"Then how is it a blessing?" Bianca asked, staring at Grover like he was crazy.

Apparently, the boar didn't like that and charged at Bianca. She was fast and rolled out of the way of it, coming up behind it. It had lashed out with its tusks, destroying the WELCOME TO CLOUDCROFT sign. So that was the name of this place.

"Keep moving!" Zoë yelled. She and Bianca ran in different directions. Thalia and I stayed together while Grover danced around the damn thing, playing his pipes while it tried to kill him. But low and behold! It turned towards us and Thalia raised Aegis in defense. The sight of the Medusa head made the boar squeal and charge us. Yeah, we ran.

We managed to stay ahead of it because we went uphill, dodging the trees in our path while it had to plow through them all. On the other side, I saw an old pair of train tracks covered in snow. I tugged Thalia's arm, nodding towards the tracks, she nodded and we ran along the rails. The boar roared and struggled to navigate the hillside, its body wasn't made for this.

I saw a covered tunnel not that far away, past that, an old bridge which spanned a gorge. I cursed myself over and over and ran for it, Thalia hesitating but following behind. We both ran through the tunnel and came out the other side, hearing the boar behind us, smashing trees and crushing boulders underfoot.

"No!" Thalia screamed, stopping. She was as white as the snow that we stood on. We were at the edge of the bridge. The mountain dropped seventy feet down and into a snow-filled gorge.

I didn't like it either, but the boar was right behind us.

"Come on," I said, taking her hand. "It'll hold our weight!"

"I can't!" Thalia's eyes were wide with fear.

Just then, the boar smashed through the entrance of the covered tunnel, ripping through it.

"Now!" I said, tugging her hand. But she stood, wide-eyed and staring at the drop. I saw the boar about to break through the end of the tunnel and to the edge of the bridge in just a few seconds. We didn't have the time and began I cursed myself over and over.

I tackled Thalia off the edge of the cliff, using Aegis as a makeshift sled. I held her close, her eyes clamped shut and gripping onto my jacket while we raced down the mountainside, over rocks, mud, and snow. The boar hadn't been as fortunate, it couldn't turn and ended up throwing all of its weight onto the tiny, unstable trestle which buckled under its weight. The boar free-fell into the gorge with a squeal, landing in a snowdrift with a POOF!

Thalia and I skidded to a stop. We were both breathing hard. I was cut up and bleeding. Thalia only had a few stray pine needles in her hair. The boar was stuck struggling in the snow just next to us. It was wedged completely in the snow. It didn't seem hurt, but it wasn't going anywhere, either.

I looked down at Thalia who was still in my grasp, tightly clutching my jacket. "You're afraid of heights."

Her head shot up and she looked away with the angry look which she usually held in her eyes. "Don't be stupid."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Kinda need something to make sure everything that happened last night stays between us." I said. She sent me a slight glare but didn't move. "If it makes you feel better, I was probably just as scared as you were, if not, more so," I said.

Her eyebrows scrunched up. "Really?"

"Yeah, have been ever since I was a child," I said, standing up and pulling her up as well, she was now looking at me. "This will be our secret," I said, sending her a small smile. Her face flushed red and she looked away again. "Besides, now we both have something to hold against each other for blackmail," I added jokingly. Thalia laughed and nodded, stepping away and brushing herself off.

"But seriously, if either of tells on each other-" I was cut off mid-threat.

"No, no. If you keep mine to yourself, I'll keep yours to myself as well." Thalia reassured.

I nodded, smiling lightly and thought that this was the perfect opportunity to lighten the mood. "I never would've thought that a daughter of Zeus would be afraid of heights, though. I mean, he is the god of the sky, after all-"

"Oh, shut up!" Thalia said, shoving me down. "I never would've thought that the son of a Primordial would be afraid of such a petty thing such as heights since childhood, but look at us now!"

I laughed along with her, only stopping when Grover's voice called down to us. "Helloooooo?"

"Down here!" I shouted up.

A few minutes later, Zoë, Bianca, and Grover joined us down at the bottom.

"Welcome! We have snow, more snow, and a wild Erymanthian Boar!" I said upon their arrival. They scoffed and we all stood, watching the boar struggle in the snow.

"A blessing of the Wild," Grover said, but now looking more agitated than before.

"Oh, so now you're angry..." I mumbled to myself.

"I agree," Zoë said. "We must use it."

"Wait," Thalia said holding up a hand. "Why are so you sure that this pig is a blessing?" She asked Grover.

He looked over, distracted. "It's our ride west. Do you have any idea how fast this thing can travel?"

"Fun..." I said sadly, understanding what Grover was getting at.

"We need to get around. I wish I had more time to look around. But it's gone now." Grover said, ending it with slight sadness.

"What is?" Bianca questioned. But he just seemed to ignore her. She looked at me with questioning eyes, I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders.

Grover headed over to the boar and jumped onto its back. The boar had already made some headway through the snowdrift. Once it broke free, there'd be no stopping it. Grover took out his pipes and started playing a snappy tune, tossing an apple in front of the boar. Where did he get that? I asked myself, narrowing my eyes. The apple floated, spinning itself right above the boar's nose. The boar had gone nuts, straining to get it.

"Great." Thalia murmured from beside me.

She trudged over and jumped on behind Grover, which still left plenty of room for everyone else.

I sighed. "I'll take up the rear, you two go ahead," I said. Zoë nodded to me and got on behind Thalia, Bianca thanked me and got on after her. I followed right behind them.

---

We had ridden the boar until sunset. Everyone was in a bad mood by then. It sucked. Riding boars suck. They're rough as sandpaper. Imagine sitting on that for hours.

After riding many miles, the terrain eventually shifted, being replaced by miles of flat, dry land. Eventually, we were just riding across the desert.

Soon night came, and the boar stopped by a creek bed to eat. We took this as a chance to get off since Grover told us that was as far as it was going. The boar stopped drinking from the creek and eating nearby cactus to snort, turning away from the creek and back towards where we had come from. It had then proceeded to kick some sand towards us and take off towards the mountains.

Thalia and I both collapsed on the ground, me flailing out and groaning. "My ass hurts."

"'Cause everyone wanted to know that!" Thalia commented, doing the same.

"Get up, you two can take a break after we get everything sorted through," Zoë said, kicking my side.

"Aren't you a ray of sunshine..." I mumbled, getting up a few seconds later.

"Oh, and you are?" Bianca questioned, arms crossed and with a bag slung over one of her shoulders.

"Nope, the opposite. If you want, I could pretend to be." I said, walking towards her. Her eyes narrowed slightly in a confused manner.

"I don't know what that would look like, and don't want to find out. So my answer will be 'no'." Bianca said, turning away from me and joining Zoë who was walking towards what looked like an abandoned taco shop.

"Where are we?" Thalia asked.

I looked around. There was the taco shop, a post office which looked like it hadn't been opened up in years, and a rundown house, and beyond that, were what looked like mountains. But upon closer inspection, it was just huge mounds of junk - old cars, scrap metal, stuff like that. I looked towards the post office and saw that the crooked sign above the place said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA.

"Gila Claw, Arizona," I answered, kicking aside a stray piece of sheet metal with my shoe.

"Huh, I don't think we're gonna find any rentable transportation here. You got any more tricks up your sleeves, Grover?" Thalia asked.

"Haha, very funny. I don't trust this place, I'm going to give the acorns another shot." Grover answered, tossing several acorns onto the dirt and playing a tune on his pipes. They rearranged themselves and all I saw were several acorns, but now in a different pattern.

"I don't get it," I said.

"It's okay, your poor, deformed acorn doesn't either," Thalia commented, sending me a pitying look.

"Oh, shut up," I said, shaking my head slightly.

"That group right there, that's trouble," Grover said, pointing to the left.

"What the hell are you pointing at?" I asked, looking from him to the empty space he was pointing at. Grover then pushed an acorn into the place he was pointing at.

"There, I forgot you guys couldn't see it," Grover said. I nodded and tilted my head slightly.

"Monster?" Bianca questioned, eyebrows scrunched up and observing the array of acorns.

"I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense. But they have never lied-"

"What about the Spartai mishap just a few hours ago?"

"Okay, they have never lied, bar one mishap."

"Of course."

"Continuing on," Grover cleared his throat. "Our next challenge is that." He said, pointing straight towards the junkyard. My mind had a sudden lapse of memory and I knew exactly what it was. Terrific!

We decided to camp for the night, going to try the junkyard in the morning. Who would be stupid enough to go there in the middle of the night - oh, wait... that would probably be me.

We had gotten dry wood from the house and built a fire since it had gotten cold fast. Zoë produced sleeping bags from her bag in a matter of seconds. Don't ask. Pretty soon, we had a nice little camp going... in the middle of a rundown ghost town. Who wouldn't love that?

"The stars, they're out," Zoë said.

I looked up and saw millions of them out. It was a weird sight since I was used to the view from the city or no view at all.

"Amazing, I've never seen as many as these out before," Bianca commented.

"This is nothing," Zoë said. "Back in the old days, there were more. But whole constellations have disappeared because of the human light pollution."

"Wow, you just completely made this beautiful moment into something depressing," I said, staring straight into the night sky with a slight smile.

"I am a Hunter. I actually care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for you?"

Before I could put my say in, I was interrupted by Grover. "If only Pan were here, he would set things right."

Zoë nodded sadly, I could see a small frown adorning her face.

I asked Grover why he thought Pan was still out there, I knew the usual reasoning, but I wanted his take on it.

"He sent us help. I don't know how or why. But his presence was there, I felt it. After this quest, I'm going to continue on my path to find Pan. More determined than ever." Grover said, his voice filled to the brim with determination. Okay, then.

"What I want to know is how Percy isn't hurt after taking a bullet to the chest, and how Bianca actually killed one of those things," Thalia said, sitting up from her laid down position.

"No comment."

"No comment."

"... That's such bullshit what you two did just now." Thalia said, sending Bianca and I a glare.

"Well, I have no clue. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames," Bianca said, shaking her head.

"Maybe it was your dagger. It looks specially made." Grover suggested.

"Possibly, but I don't think that's the case," Bianca said.

"Maybe due to the fact that your father is Hades?" Thalia suggested.

"Possibly, but like I've said before: I don't know," Bianca said.

"We'll leave it be, our best guess is that it has something to do with you being Hades' child. Now onto the other matter at hand," Zoë said, gesturing towards me at the end.

"Yeah, what happened when you were shot?" Grover questioned, Thalia and Bianca nodding to his question and looking towards me.

"Thalia, you literally gave me the lion pelt just last night," I said, throwing my arms up slightly.

"I thought it was in your bag!" Thalia defended. "Is it in your bag now?" she asked.

"No! I've been wearing it this entire time!" I said.

"Wait, how? I don't even see it." Bianca asked, looking towards me with her head tilted.

"Really?" I asked, slightly miffed. I had brought my jacket with me and shrugged it off, soon taking the pelt off as well. I gave them all a look.

"It was really well hidden," Zoë said, breaking the silence.

"Unbelievable, why would I - you know what, I don't care," I said, tossing the pelt to the side of my bag.

"At least that was put to rest," Grover said. "If you hadn't taken off your jacket, I never would've known you had the pelt on." I nodded my head slightly, breathing out through my nose.

"Continuing on," Zoë said, joining in. "We need to settle our next move for after we get through the junkyard. We should continue west, find a road, and then hitchhike to the nearest city. I am pretty sure that would be Las Vegas.

"No! Not there!" Bianca protested.

"Why?' Zoë asked with a frown adorning her face.

Bianca took a shaky breath. "Nico and I... I think we stayed there for a while. When we were traveling. And then, I don't remember much else..."

I started having really bad thoughts after she said that. Oh, he freaking didn't. Please, tell me I'm wrong.

"Bianca, the hotel that you stayed at. Was it called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"

Her eyes widened. "How'd you know that?"

Grover explained that he, Annabeth, and Marcus had gotten trapped there. That it was designed so that you never wanted to leave. That he, Annabeth, and Marcus had been there for an hour, but when they left, five days had already passed. It makes time speed up.

"No," Bianca said, eyes wide. "That's not possible."

I stayed silent, feeling a sense of guilt since Chronos was my father. The place was of his followers' creation.

Zoë sat forward, her eyebrows knit with concern. "You said that Washington D.C. had changed when you went back last summer. You didn't remember the subway being there."

"Yes, but-"

"Bianca, can you tell me the name of the president of the United States right now?"

"Don't be silly," Bianca replied, telling us the correct name.

"And who was the president before that?"

Bianca thought for a while. "Roosevelt." Dammit, Chronos! Why did you not tell me this?! I yelled in my head. I had felt something off about Nico and Bianca since I had first met them. Something connecting them to my father; and of course, this was the case!

Zoë swallowed. "Franklin or Theodore?"

"Franklin, F.D.R."

"Bianca, F.D.R. was not the last president. That was about seventy years ago."

Bianca sat right next to me, staring at her hands with tears appearing in the corner of her eyes. Please, don't cry. I will break if you cry... Damn you, emotions!

"But that's impossible. I can't be that old," She stared at her hands as if making sure they weren't wrinkled.

Thalia's eyes had turned sad. She knew how it felt to be pulled out of time. "It's okay, Bianca. The important thing is you and Nico are safe. You guys made it out."

Grover asked how she escaped, he had only been there for an hour and just barely got out. Before Bianca could answer, a blazing light caught our attention from down the road. They were headlights. We all leaned away as a white limousine pulled up right in front of us. I was about to approach the car, already on my knees, when the side door opened and a sword was at my neck. Zoë and Bianca had taken out their weapons and trained it on the man who stood on the other end of the sword held against me.

"If you don't remove this from my neck in the next three seconds, I will take it, beat you with it, then melt it down and feed it to you," I said, staring straight into the pit of fire eyes of Ares, the God of War.

"Ooh, the dog has got a bark," Ares said, a smirk making its way onto his face. "At ease."

Ares snapped his fingers and everyone's weapons fell to the ground.

"This is a friendly meeting," Ares said.

"Mhm, and your sword held at my neck makes that statement just that much more believable," I commented lazily.

"Hmph, I'd love to take your head for a trophy, but someone would like to see you. Besides, I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

"Who are you talking about?" Thalia asked.

Ares looked over at her with a raised eyebrow. "Well, well. I heard you were back." Ares lowered his sword and tried to push me away with it. His effort was fruitless and I stayed in my place, not budging a bit. I think he got the message when he cleared his throat and looked towards Thalia again. I took this opportunity to stand upright.

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus. You're not hanging out with very good company." Ares proceeded to try to take a step closer and I responded by stepping in his way.

"What's your business? Who's in the car?" Thalia asked.

"That's none of your concern, she only wants to meet with Percy here, after all," Ares said. "Why don't you all get tacos while you wait? It'll only take us a few minutes to get all of this sorted out."

"We can't do that, Lord Ares," Zoë said.

"Either way, the taco place is closed," Grover added. Ares snapped his fingers and the lights flickered on, the taco shop now running. "That... that works, too..."

"Go on, I can handle myself," I told the others.

"You heard him," Ares said. "He's big and powerful, he's got everything under control."

The others reluctantly left, leaving me with Ares and whoever was in the limousine. Ares made sure that the others were far enough away before opening the side door as a chauffeur would.

"Get inside," he said. "And mind your manners. She's not as forgiving of rudeness as I am." I scoffed in my head and stepped inside.

Oh, great. 'Cause this is just what I need. I thought to myself, sitting across from the Goddess of Love.

"Oh, there you are, Perseus. I am Aphrodite." No shit.

"It's a pleasure," I replied, taking the hand that she held out to me and kissing the back of it. She smiled and pulled her hand back, taking out a compact mirror and holding it in front of her, checking her makeup. I'd be lying if I didn't say she looked beautiful, but I knew that she only appeared as everything that you desired in a woman, physically, that was. For example, your favorite actress, she would look like her mixed with your crush or something. It depended on the person.

"Do you know why you're here?" the goddess asked.

"Not in the slightest," I answered, crossing my arms over my chest. Her face took on a seductive smile.

"Oh, dear, you still don't know?"

"Still don't know what?"

"Sweetie, I am much smarter than I look. I know exactly who you are," Aphrodite said.

"And I have no clue what you're talking about."

"Oh, really?" Aphrodite said, closing the compact mirror and leaning forward. "Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon. Mother and stepfather killed at age six-"

"Stop," I said, interrupting her and holding up a hand. "I give. Now why am I here?" I asked.

"Simple, one of my major domains is love. So it must have something to do with that." Aphrodite said, crossing her legs and smiling. "You're on this quest to save Artemis, but you learned recently that a Roman girl was used to lure her in. I think you're smart enough to have realized that by now."

I nodded and motioned for her to continue. "But that changed recently, that Roman girl has been replaced by Annabeth."

"Huh?" I asked, not believing what I was hearing.

"Mhm, the gray-eyed daughter of Athena somehow got herself captured. The Roman daughter of Ceres wasn't strong enough to hold the weight of the sky and thus had to be replaced. Annabeth just happened to be the perfect replacement."

"What happened to the Roman?" I asked.

"Died, sadly. The weight was too much for her and she died shortly after the weight was taken from her. So they had instead used Annabeth to lure in Artemis since the first lure had died," Aphrodite explained.

"So now she's imprisoned there as well?"

"Indeed, and you're going to be her knight in shining armor."

"Hell, no," I say, eyes wide.

"Yes, I have your tragic love life all planned out. It's going to be talked about for millennia to come!" If only she knew that only Eros had control over mine, and he doesn't even know that yet.

"Wow, I thought this was going to be something huge - and it was, up until the point you just gave out that statement," I exclaimed.

"Please, it really is. I'm keeping your secret after all and telling you so much, you can't expect this all to come with no cost. This is the cost, Perseus." Aphrodite said, smiling. Chaos, that smile. I wanted to destroy it just as much as I wanted to keep staring at it.

"You're unbelievable. But I guess I should thank you for the information." I said, knowing that I could do nothing about it at this moment.

"Aww, that's adorable. I wish one of my girls could break the heart of a boy like you!" Aphrodite said excitedly. Fantastic. "Now, you'd better go. And do be careful in my husband's territory, Percy. Don't take anything. He is awfully fussy about all of his trinkets and trash. And I'd hate if a face as perfect as yours were to be ruined." And it just got even better.

The car door opened and Ares pulled me out and into the cold air of the desert night. My audience with the goddess was over.

Ares had then gone on to explain his reason for not killing me. I hadn't even done anything to the guy... yet, at least. He had ended his rant with a 'Get lost.' and snapped his fingers, him and the limousine disappearing.

---

"What did she want with you?" Bianca asked. I had just gotten done telling them about Aphrodite, but not the conversation I had had with her.

"Well, Thalia, you're good friends with Annabeth, right?" I questioned, leaning my weight onto the table that everyone sat at in the taco shop that hadn't been opened before.

"Yeah, why?" Was her response.

"Well, Aphrodite told me that she had been captured, she was the lure that had gotten Artemis trapped under the sky," I said. There was a silence that reigned over the group for a few seconds. I realized what I had said a few seconds later, they hadn't known where Artemis was trapped. I opened my mouth and Zoë held up a hand. "Don't bother, I've already told them." She quickly said.

"You're lying," Thalia accused, standing up.

"I thought the same about Aphrodite, but she had explained further and gave me no reason to believe she was lying, bar a few moments," I said. "But that's not what's most important at this point in time, what is is getting through that junkyard."

"So what? We just walk through it and get started west again, right?" Thalia asked, her eyes holding a fierce edge to them.

"It's not that simple, you see," Zoë started off, clearing her throat. "That junkyard is the Junkyard of the Gods. Everything there is usually horribly cursed, it's a huge death trap. You can not take anything. If you aren't killed by the curses that riddle most things there, then Hephaestus' creations surely will."

"She's right. The junkyard was one of the things Aphrodite warned me about," I added. "When we go through there, we can not take anything from it. No matter how alluring or tempting it is."

"While you were away, we finished our plan for what we do next," Zoë said, motioning for me to sit down so that I could listen.

---

The next morning, we were up and ready to go through the junkyard, having already prepared all of our stuff before going to sleep last night.

We all approached the junkyard, all seeming hesitant. We were about to enter when I felt a tap on my shoulder and a slight feeling of sunlight concentrate on my cheek.

"I'll join you guys in a few minutes. I forgot to use the restroom before this," I said, coming up with a quick excuse.

Zoë looked at me with mild frustration and a frown made its way onto her face. "Go. You better join us soon after." I nodded and headed off in the opposite direction.

Once I knew that they had gone in and I couldn't be seen, I turned around with an eyebrow raised.

"What do you have?"

"Not much that I can explain to you as of yet. But I still have permission to tell you a few things," Hemera responded.

"First things first, at the current moment, we're all still trying to decipher was exactly the first 'dream' was. We don't know much of what that one is about. And for the second, we think that it's either something triggered you to have flashbacks of your past life's memories; or some outside force is making you see them. After reading your power levels, it shows that some force has been focusing quite a lot of energy towards the memory section of your mind."

"Okay? So it's some other deity, do you know who?"

"That's what has us all confused. The energy source is coming from you. It is recognized as that of a being's, but it's coming straight from your person. That is why we're all so confused at the current moment," Hemera explained, causing me to nod my head in understanding. "So, have you had any other dreams or visions that we don't know about?" She asked.

"No, but I have something else. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, knows who I am and whose child I am," I told her. Her eyes shot open.

"How?"

"I have no clue, but she does and she's using it to her advantage. You guys should look into it more, I don't understand how she knows," I said.

Hemera nodded then opened her mouth. "I'll tell them when I get back, but for now, I'll be staying with you. Now go back before the rest of your group starts getting restless."

I nodded and walked back to the junkyard, knowing that Hemera was right by my side, keeping herself hidden. I soon joined up with them, they were all just by the entrance waiting for me.

"About time," Thalia commented, standing up and brushing off her pants.

"Did I make the princess wait? So sorry for that." I said sarcastically while bowing.

"Hmph," was Thalia's remark while turning her head away.

Zoë narrowed her eyes at me before shaking her head in a dismissive manner. "Let's go," she said, walking into the junkyard and motioning for us to follow.

"Woah, some of this looks real," I heard Bianca murmur. There were huge mounds of junk and scrap machines, sheet metal and discarded ore, and along with that, jeweled weapons and treasures.

Thalia bent down to pick up a silver necklace to have her hand slapped by Zoë. "Ow."

"Do not touch anything," Zoë said. Thalia looked affronted while staring at the Huntress, holding her slapped hand with her other.

"Why?" Bianca questioned.

"All of these items are here for a reason, very few things here aren't cursed. That's why all these valuables are here: beautiful jewelry, weapons, and such." I said, walking forward and towards a sword that was implanted into the ground. Guess they needed a refresher of last night.

"He is right," Zoë said. "And even if some things aren't and just ended up here by chance, it's just like Aphrodite said: Hephaestus cares greatly for this junkyard, and his creations that are here will kill you if you take anything."

"I didn't think that applied to the little things. I thought it only applied to, like, weapons and the huge things." Thalia admitted.

"Sadly not," I said. "Now, let's just get this over with. I don't feel like fighting at the current moment."

"I agree, let's just get through this and carry on west," Zoë said, beginning to walk.

I followed along, looking around and taking in everything around me. Something seemed off. I paused and looked at the others, it was quiet. Grover was fiddling with his pipes and staring at the mounds of scrapped creations. Thalia was up ahead of me now, talking to Zoë quietly. And then there was Bianca, taking up the back of the group, she was staring downwards, her foot tapping every now and then as we walked.

"She looks suspicious." I heard a female voice whisper. I cleared my throat to tell her to open up a link in my head. "Better?"

"Better. Now can you stop?"

"Whatever are you talking about? I am simply speaking my thoughts." Hemera replied. I swear I could hear the smirk in her voice.

"Nevermind," I said, sighing mentally. "What exactly does she look suspicious of, Hemera?" I asked.

"Hmm," I heard her drawl out. "She has a guilty man's expression."

"And what do you want me to do?"

"Get her to talk," Hemera said. "I want to know what's weighing down upon her consciousness."

"Great," I said sarcastically. "I'm not gonna pry into it. If she wants to talk about it, I'd rather wait for her to come to me."

"Funny, you didn't seem to mind prying when talking to Thalia on the train ride."

"You're truly something, you know that? That was different, and our purpose was to pry. I'm fully awake and can think rationally right now, so I know that that is a stupid idea." I said.

"Ugh, fine, but when she turns to you and shanks you, don't come crying to me!"

"Shanks me, really?" I questioned.

"Shut up." I heard before the link ended and I was left to my own thoughts. I let loose an audible sigh and Bianca gave raised an eyebrow at me. I shook my head dismissively in her direction and continued walking.

"Look at that," I heard Grover say. The whole group paused and looked at where he was pointing. It was a mass of celestial bronze, and it was a lot bigger than the other bits of discarded metal that we had seen. "It looks like a toe!" Upon closer inspection, Grover was right.

"And there's more," I added, pointing at four other ones right by the first.

"Just a single foot?" Thalia questioned, a hand on her hip and staring at the metal toes.

"No, there's another foot over there," Bianca said pointing towards another metal foot that stood out to the left.

"Then there must be more of it. The two feet have to be connected to something else." Zoë added. I didn't like the sounds of that.

I walked towards the foot and climbed up onto the big toe. The foot had been blocking our view, we could see nothing beyond it from down there, that was how big it was. And what I saw put a bad feeling in my stomach.

"Well, there's certainly something that the feet are connected to," I called down. I saw Zoë hand Thalia her bow and arrows before climbing up on top of the foot with me. No one could hear me from up here unless I yelled, the same goes for down there. "You know what this is?"

"Yes, and I presume you know, as well?" Zoë asked. I nodded and cast a look at the head of the animatronic. "It's too small to be the actual one."

"It's most likely a prototype," I told her. "But now it's a guardian of this place."

"Let's hope it never awakens," Zoë said, getting ready to climb back down.

"Do we tell the rest of them?" I ask, getting ready, as well.

Zoë shook her head. "Don't tell them what all it's capable of, we don't want them to worry. But anything other than that is fine," I nodded and began climbing down.

"What did you see?" Thalia asked once we had gotten down and Zoë had gotten her stuff back.

I shook my head. "Just the rest of the body, it doesn't look like it'll be getting up anytime soon," I say.

"Thank Zeus, I'd rather not fight a huge robot at the current moment," Thalia said, turning and getting ready to start walking again.

"Let's go, this place is giving me the heebie-jeebies," Bianca said, nodding for us to keep walking.

"Heebie-jeebies?"

"With what I have found out about my age, I would warn you to not," was Bianca's reply. I took a step back.

"Ooh, she's got you whipped~" I heard Hemera say from behind me.

"Okay, let's go," I said, the others nodding.

We continued on walking for a straight ten minutes before anything went wrong, Bianca and Zoë walked beside each other, talking, Grover and Thalia grouped up too, pointing and talking about things that they saw. I kept to myself in silence, looking around, something didn't feel right. A little seed of doubt had planted itself inside me, spreading anxiety throughout my body. So I kept quiet, watching everything around me, paranoid in all my movements. Then we saw black asphalt ahead, power lines running the length of a highway. We had made it to the end.

Then it happened. A loud ear bleeding sound rang out throughout the junkyard, like nails grinding on a chalkboard, but metal grinding against metal. Everyone stopped, Grover and Thalia skidding slightly. I turned straight around, back where we had first started, Zoë had too.

And there it was, beginning to sit up and then stand. The Talos prototype. Built bronze body the size of skyscrapers, clad in full Greek battle armor, half of his face was partially melted off. Dead eyes staring straight at us. Fucking hell.

Zoë's head snapped back, staring at me, I shook my head. She nodded and tugged on Bianca's arm, getting her to follow her as she took off to get at a greater distance to the hulking piece of metal. I went over to Thalia, she stood there, mouth agape staring at the thing slowly rising, metal and trash falling off of it as it rose.

"What the hell is that?!" She yelled, looking towards me.

"Talos! A prototype created by Hephaestus, that is!" I had to yell over the sound of the things rusted joints trying to move normally. It bent at the waist, picking up an equally bent and messed up blade. Just by the size of it, you could tell it didn't need to be sharp to kill. Being hit by it would like being hit by a freight train.

I looked back, Zoë had taken cover behind a rusted car, already starting to prep her bow. Bianca was beside her, pressed against the side of the car as if about to run, I saw her turn her head to Zoë and Zoë nodded. Bianca then came over, joining us.

"Someone took something!" I said, looking at all three of them. They were the only ones who could've, I knew I didn't and that Zoë wasn't foolish enough to.

"Don't look at me, Zoë slapped my hand away at the only thing I tried to take!" Thalia yelled back, eyes quickly looking from the quickly readying Talos then back to me in a panic.

"It wasn't me!" Grover shouted, arms up and backing up quickly towards where Zoë was.

Bianca's eyes were quickly going back and forth, looking at us and then at Talos. I had taken my attention off it for too long. I looked back to see Talos swing its sword going for a low sweep to hit us. I booked it jumping and running off, Bianca quickly following me, Thalia and Grover going in a different direction.

Bianca and I ducked down behind a thick piece of metal. I peeked my head over the edge, seeing Talos begin to make his way over to us with loud and shaking steps, smashing all the metal underfoot.

It swung at Thalia, she was up on the highway, shield raised as she ran. The swing took out some of the power lines that lined the road, sending sparks in Thalia's path, she skidded to a halt going off to the side instead. Talos made to follow her movements before it was hit in the head by an arrow. It took a step back, head turning with a screech as it looked at where Zoë was at. It then turned its entire body, making its way to her.

I turned to Bianca. "You took something!" I said, her head snapped to me, she had been watching Talos too. Her eyes were wide.

"She has a guilty man's expression," Those words played over in my head.

"What did you take?" I asked, looking over the side and seeing how far it was from Zoë. Less than a minute and it would be right on her.

"S-something for Nico..." Was her response, her gaze pointed at the ground. I blew out a breath. "Doesn't matter now, we just have to make sure no one's hurt, okay?" I said. She nodded, her head still pointed downwards. I couldn't consult her right now, we were all in too much danger.

"Follow my lead, we need to get it away from Zoë," I say, pulling her up and making sure she was following me as I made my way out and into clear sight. I breathed out a deep and calm breath, right eye twitching slightly as the shadows shifted and the ground shook. Talos paused in its movements, its head turning to the source of the minor earthquake. It saw us and it turned its entire body, sword swinging out and going down in an arch for us. Bianca and I both jumped in opposite directions, avoiding the sword as it implanted itself deeply into the ground. Talos used both hands, trying to pull the blade free.

Thalia took this moment to run behind Talos, going for more free room to run and avoid attacks from it. Its head followed her, it paused in its movements to lift up its foot and stomp down where Thalia had been moments before. Thalia noticeably ran faster.

"Hey, Talos!" Grover shouted, coming out from where he had been hiding. Talos' head snapped to the right, jerking his sword out of the ground finally and slashing at Grover. Grover easily danced out of the sword's reach, eyes watching Talos' legs, he then played a tune. The power lines shook, lashing out and attaching to Talos' legs, sending a shock up the things back. It convulsed, making its way over to Grover now.

"It was the only statue he didn't have," I heard. My head snapped to Bianca, she now had a tiny Mythomagic statue held in her hands, tears appearing in her eyes.

"Bianca, now is not the time. We can deal with this later, for now, forget about it." I said, placing my hands on her shoulders and looking her in the eyes. She nodded, her eyes going back to the statue held in her hands. I looked around, removing my hands and thinking of how we could take it down, disable it or something.

Then I saw it, it lifted its foot to try and stomp on Grover when I saw a flap on its foot hanging open. FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY was written on the flap.

Thalia came in, sending electricity at Talos and getting it angered enough to slash at her before continuing on for Grover, brushing off all of Zoë's arrows. It all just served to anger him, make him more reckless and agitated.

"I've got an idea! There's a maintenance hatch, that means there's got to be a control room or something inside it to control the thing! Switches and levers!" I say, turning to Bianca. Her eyes were wide, watching Talos as he raised his foot and tried to step on Thalia.

"How will you get to it? You'll be crushed trying!" She said, seeing where it was located.

"Distract it and I'll figure that out!" I answer, eyes wide with a small, insane smile playing on my face.

She was not happy with that. "No, I'll go!"

"The hell you will!" I say, stopping her as her face took on one of defiance.

"I caused this and it's my job to fix it, Percy," Bianca says back, looking me right in the eyes.

"Not if I'm here to do it, keeping you from putting your life in needless danger!" I countered.

"You're putting your life in danger, too! Let me go, yours matters more than mine does, anyway!" She said. My lips pulled back in a sneer.

"Think rationally! I can't let you die like this!"

"I'm not going to die!"

"But you might and I can't let that happen!" I say, pushing her back as she took a step forward. She paused, seeing Grover barely dodge a slash from Talos and fall to the ground, crawling out of sight. I saw something change in her eyes, I couldn't tell what it was, but I didn't like it.

"Fine, I'm going to help Thalia, we can both distract it for you." She said, taking a deep breath and looking back to me.

"Okay, signal me and I'll make a break for it," I said. She nodded and took off running to Thalia. I watched as she quickly reached Thalia, seeing them both talk quickly back and forth as they dodged Talos' multiple attacks. I saw an arrow fly out, Thalia quickly throwing up a hand and you could see the arrow begin to have electricity come off it. It hit Talos and his arm shot out, lashing out at where the arrow hit. Thalia nodded, sending a burst of electricity at Talos, catching his attention for a moment.

I heard Thalia yell, "Grover!" and the grass grew, vines coming and wrapping around one of his legs. Talos, paused, lifting up the other leg to steady itself.

Then Bianca ran straight for the foot.

And so did I.

I was quicker than her, but I had been at a farther distance than she had been. We both met right under its foot, not even being given enough time before it came down way too fast for either of us. Right on us.

I grabbed Bianca, keeping her under me as it came down too quick for either of us to get out of its way, my back kept straight to the foot. I felt the weight of it press against my back. I also felt the earth bend around us, pushing us deeper, weakening my power and taking the pressure off my back a minuscule amount. I could hear a distant scream from Thalia, but it was soon drowned out by the sound of my pulse in my ears. My breathing got heavier as I made sure we kept going down, the foot never easing up.

"Ngh," Came from my mouth as the earth stopped moving around us and the foot stopped pushing. It was completely dark. Why hadn't it moved its foot yet? Why was it so quiet?

"Percy?" Was the first thing I heard. Bianca sounded terrified. "Are we dead?"

"No," I said, breathing heavily, struggling under the weight and pain.

"How? What's happening?" She asked.

"I'll explain it all later. In way too much pain to explain it at the moment." I told her.

"Where-" Bianca started but whatever she was saying got drowned out at the foot pressing us into the earth began to lift, slowly. Each second I could feel more and more energy entering my body as I was given more room. Then light entered the little hole that was made.

Bianca had dirt on her face, staring up with wide and confused eyes. I was above her, arms braced around her and slowly sitting up in the hole, her body moving with mine.

"Like I said, I can't have you dying," I said, removing my arms from her body and quickly going to remove my jacket, grabbing and pulling off the lion pelt from my shoulders. I fell back in the hole, feeling my muscles brace and strain. "Next time I ask you to do something, can you actually do it?" I ask her. "'Cause this sucked ass."

She nodded, just staring at me. There was a scream from above, and then you could see Talos step over our hole and backwards, his chest had a black burn mark from where electricity had hit him, sparks dancing off of his chest piece. Thalia wasn't happy.

"Okay," I said, taking a deep breath and readying myself, putting back on both the pelt and the jacket. "When I say, you're going to jump out and go to Zoë, okay? Please stay there and allow me to do what I do best." She nodded silently, getting on her knees, crouched. "Which is risking my life in cruel and unusual manners," I added. Standing up fully, a third of my body being visible from the hole.

"Go," I say, helping Bianca out of the hole and watching her quickly run to where Zoë was. I jumped up and out of the hole, narrowly dodging a stomp from Talos.

Thalia stood in shock, Grover a couple yards away with his pipes on the ground, mouth agape.

"Wh-what? How? I thought you two died!" Thalia shouted, starting out confused and sad, now angry.

"I'll explain later, just distract it, we're gonna try the plan again!" I told her, stomping down with my foot and causing a slight quake, Talos quickly turned his sights on me, then straight to Thalia. Good.

"Fine!" Thalia, shouted, running around Talos, close enough that he would be able to step on her. He lifted his foot, the flap hanging open once again, and as his right foot came down, I came in from the right, jumping right in.

Scariest thing I've ever done. Probably won't stay that way for long.

I grabbed the hatch, jerking up and down as the foot moved, moving the handle so that it locked itself. I let out a deep breath, looked at the extremely unstable and tall ladder, grabbed the first bar, then started climbing with a defeated sigh.

---

That fucking idiot.

She stood and stared at the hole where he and the daughter of Hades had been. Her head looked to the right leg of the guardian, mentally taking notice of where Perseus probably was in the leg, slowly making his way up. At least he was smart enough to protect both himself and the girl as they were smashed. Still stupid enough to go back and try again, though.

She sighed as she turned and looked towards where the huntress and the daughter of Hades were, both of them shooting arrows at it to take its attention away from the satyr and Zeus' daughter.

She stepped back as Talos' blade swept past, blowing her platinum blonde hair to the right as it was just barely a foot away from touching her.

They were going to have a few words after all this was over.

She ran a hand through her hair, her eyes moving up Talos' body slowly, waiting for some sort of sign that Percy had made it up.

A minute passed, Talos prepped to swing at the daughter of Zeus when its arms jerked, carrying its momentum fully through and missing Thalia by such a great distance you'd think it had to be drunk. Its momentum sent it throwing itself to the ground as it spun with the sword, landing in a painfully loud heap.

She could already picture Percy going, "Shit!" as he was sent flying into a wall of the guardian's torso where everything was controlled, and desperately tried to gain control of it again.

She stepped back, smiling as the animatronic stood, right arm coming up and punching itself repeatedly while clumsily stepping closer to the road, away from the other questers. Then something caught her attention as everything started turning up for the five questers. A slight spark.

Her smile dropped from her face immediately as Talos walked right into a transformer and power lines.

Its movements stopped. This was different from lines attaching to the back of the legs, that was just two or three. This was a lot more and it was constantly feeding into the animatronic. Her hands flew to her mouth at the prototype of Talos fell, taking all the active power lines with it, the robot in a constant state of convulsions, as if the electricity flow never stopped. Then there was a shake in the earth as the guardian hit the ground, the head beginning to smoke. She heard a scream, too shocked to make out who the scream came from. The head popped, smoke and now direct electricity coming from the melted bit. Then there was a second of silence before the entire thing blew apart, the head flying away from the body as it all separated. The electricity stopping and lines snaking around before finally coming to a stop.

There was complete silence before the remaining four members of the questing group ran from their places, going straight for where the torso of the animatronic laid, a massive sizzling heap.

Hemera slowly removed her hands from her mouth, taking a deep, shaky breath before teleporting to where it landed. Desperately praying for him to somehow be alright.

---

"You're not that bright, are you?" I heard a voice say while my mind was still groggy from the bright light and pain that I had just gone through.

"I have been saving up power for fourteen years - FOURTEEN!" The person sounded angry, I tried desperately to open my eyes, now being able to feel the gravel below me. "Just for it all to go down the godsdamned drain! I was going to give us all our memories back - but no! I instead had to waste all that power to save your ass from fading. I was screaming at you to not do it, that lightning and electricity is one of our greatest weaknesses. But you still did it!" I could hear the voice clearer, it sounded familiar.

"Oh, get the hell up!" I felt myself being grabbed and hoisted up, gasping when I felt new found energy fuel me. My sea green eyes shot open and stared into a pair of blue ones. The other person's eyes were narrowed, and suddenly they shifted to sea green, the same shade of my own. I took a long look at the face of the angry person who now stood with a snarl and narrowed eyes, pushing away from me.

I was looking at myself.

---

Ah, I'm fucking sick. You guys don't know how happy I am right now. I've had this whole last bit stuck in my Ideas Doc for what feels like a year! I am so happy with how it turned out! I do apologize for the exceptionally long wait, and I feel that naming off excuses would be pointless seeing how many I have used thus far. So I'll just promise that no matter how long it takes, I am not ditching this story, I intend to finish it.

I've got those creative juices flowing after six straight hours of writing, gonna go ahead and start the next chapter, plan it out and hopefully get that out in less than a month. No promises, though.

Now onto review responses. Haven't done this in a while. Like always, I won't be directly doing the pairing ones that distictly say who they want, instead replying to the others.

goliath (Guest) - Great story it was pure aaaaaawwwwwwweeeeeeesssssssoooooommmmeeeeeeeee.

Thank you, I appreciate it. The chapter was something I came up with because I couldn't get this one out, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Guest - Just do Thalia man, the poller's are smoking crack.

Dude, I've been fighting myself trying to not go back on the poll results. I really wanted to do Thalia at one point, and still really do.

Acorbe - It would be a real curve ball if you decided to pair Percy with a random hunter, there are very few of those stories out there

"Oh, you all wanted this chick Hemera? Well then, let me introduce you to Phoebe!" I actually thought about this at one point, couldn't bring myself to do it.

Moon's Son. Reborn - Update this story soon, dude! It is an interesting story(in my opinion). I also don't have any criticism, and I usually do; so you can tell this story is great. I bet I'm going to love the Percy/Hemera pairing. I usually am one for Pertemis(kind of obvious because my name is MoonlightShallPrevail, regarding Artemis getting Percy) but I am usually down for anything. Do your best, dude! Till next time,

—MSP

I updated it, shockingly ;D. Okay, I'll stop. Anyway, I am really happy you liked the story so far and hope I can live up to the pairing's expectations. Thanks and I appreciate the positive review.

thetrueboss0 - Great story i wouldve liked perzoe but then again the plot is still awsome so i dont care. Plz kill markus and throw in annabeth getting hurt for defending markuz. Also ereubus kills ares for attacking percy and im set. Thank u for the story

I am estatic someone enjoys the plot, I wanted to make a Chaos' son story but more original, a different take. And I don't get why you people hate Markus and Annabeth so much, I mean, they're not that bad. But, I might put in a few words and have a few people killed, maybe. Anyways, thanks for the review, I appreciate all the kind words.

Guest - This is great! I haven't come across many Percy X Hemera stories, but they are great! Add a bit more "fluff", can you? Thanks!

Sincerely,
Da One Alpha

Thanks, I can't remember what story I had originally gotten the Percy x Hemera idea from, but I remember seeing it and falling in love, 'cause I am one of those people. I'll try my best to add more fluff, but it might have to come in later chapters since I am more of an action person, but I'll try my best. Thanks for the review!

And lastly,

Guest - EVERYONE VOTE FOR ARTEMIS PLEASE!

CAREFUL! WE'VE GOT A REBEL SHIPPER!

My day always brightens when I read reviews, it just makes you feel happy when people like what you write. Anyways, favorites, follows, and reviews are always greatly appreciated, I try my best to reply to reviews below the Author's note every chapter. With that, I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next chapter.