-1Heartbreak Warfare

Chapter 4:

Never Too Late

Songs Listened to while writing this chapter:

"Don't Cry Out" by The Shiny Toy Guns

"Don't Forget" by Demi Lovato

"Put It On Yah" by Plies

"Stripped" by The Shiny Toy Guns

Percy and the group on the quest spent the next few days at the Castellan's house, attempting to piece together this quest to find the separated pieces of Luke's soul.

As Juliet was in the house talking to Luke's mother, Percy sat out on the back deck. He couldn't exactly pin point what the emotion was that he was feeling inside of him.

He was angry at Spencer, for one thing. She chose to abort her mission and go AWOL when the camp needed her. Not to mention that he still wasn't too happy over the numerous amounts of words they'd shared a few days before.

The next, he was worried. He was always worried when another camper goes missing, on a quest, or gets hurt. Tomorrow is never guaranteed for anyone, but that truth stands particularly solid for a demigod. Being the most powerful in Aphrodite, as well as having some fighting skills, who knows what could be after her.

Deep, deep, down, however, he felt a slight tinge of remorse. He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to figure everything out. He couldn't help but think he was the cause of all this.

He definitely didn't find it coincidental that the day after they had a huge fight, and she said he'd never see her again, she went missing.

His thoughts were interrupted by Juliet coming out the back door and walking up to where he was seated. She leaned back against the wooden railing of the deck and looked down at Percy.

"You're worried about that Spencer girl, aren't you?" she asked, crossing her arms over her cest.

"Not exactly." Percy looked up, "I mean, yeah, I'm worried because she's a camper, and she's missing. I'm not worried for any other reason though."

"Woah, calm down. I wasn't making an accusation," she paused briefly, "but now I think I have a reason to."

"Why is that?" he replied.

"Well, you two are always exchanging glances, and she seemed pretty angry with you yesterday after you didn't stand for her to go on this quest. You know, personally, I think she could have handled it." Juliet said.

"Well, I don't." Percy stood up and attempted to walk away.

Juliet stepped out in front of him and pushed a few strands of dark brown hair off her shoulder, "You love her."

"What?" He gasped, jumping backwards slightly.

"What's the deal anyway? I thought you were with Annabeth, or at least, that's how it seems. What are you, the world's biggest demigod player or something?" she said.

Percy shook his head furiously, "No, no, no, uh, it's a long story."

"I've got all day."

Meanwhile, the hunters were making camp in the middle of a highly wooded area. Spencer had no clue where they were, but she safely assumed they were far enough away from the camp to please her.

"Artemis said you have a group looking for you." Thalia said, pulling an arrow out of her archery bag before eyeing Spencer out of the corner of her eye.

Spencer rolled her eyes, "Doesn't surprise me. I don't want to be found, though. Especially not by them."

"Why did you up and decide to join us? Last time we saw you, you were happy, and rather adamant about your choice not to become a hunter." she said.

"Well, I changed my mind." Spencer began, "A lot of things…and people…changed, actually, not just my mind."

"I sense something in you. It's very prevalent with hunters. You have some issue against men, or a man."

"Psh, he's no man. Try a boy."

"Which boy?" Thalia said, loading her bow again, releasing it towards a tree.

Spencer debated whether it would be the best option to tell her or not. It wasn't like she could go spreading her story all over the place. They were potentially miles away from Camp Half-Blood and Percy. Plus, they were supposed to be "sisters", so naturally, they could tell each other secrets.

"Percy Jackson" Spencer sighed, sitting down against a tree.

"The son of Poseidon?" She asked.

Spencer nodded, frustration building at telling the story.

"Cute, but I see him as being rather thick and stubborn." Thalia replied.

"You and I both."

"What did he do?"

"He made us keep our relationship a secret, because he was avoiding my mother, and then he broke up with me after we had an argument and told me he never wanted to see me again." Spencer said quickly.

"Harsh" Thalia simply replied.

Spencer nodded, looking down at the bracelet where she kept her camp beads, "Yeah, I didn't exactly figure we had a future, so I came here."

"That is what a lot of our sisters have done. Bad relationships often change a young woman and make her realize there is none worth of their maidenhood other than themselves."

"I could see where that would be a thought."

After finishing her conversation with Thalia, and shooting a few arrows herself, Spencer went back to her tent for a few hours just to unwind and try to get that sinking feeling of missing Percy out of her head. She had laid down to go to sleep, only to be awakened about a half an hour later by a fellow huntress.

"Spencer, wake up and come out. This is highly important." she said.

"Huh?" Spencer asked as she crawled out of her tent.

She followed the huntress towards the end of their camp until she saw something she was never expecting to see: Percy and the quest group were standing their, breathing heavily, and Nico appeared to be explaining why they were there.

"Where are we?" Juliet exclaimed.

"Who knows?" Percy shrugged.

"I just transported to wherever Thalia was." Nico said.

"Oh my gods." Spencer said under her breath.

She quickly turned herself at an angle where she couldn't be seen and then pushed her hair forward slightly where her face couldn't really be made out.

"Percy, Annabeth, Nico!" Thalia ran up to the group, "How did you…Why are you?"

"It's a long story," Juliet said, "I'm Juliet, and you are?"

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus, and a hunter of Artemis."

"Cool" she replied.

"Oh, let me take you back to the main camp near the fire. We must catch up." Thalia smiled.

Spencer quickly backed up and turned away from the crowd of fellow hunters that were now surrounding the other teenagers. Panic began to swell in her stomach, she knew that tonight one of two things, if not both would happen. Either Thalia would tell Percy that she is here and ruin everything, or Percy would find out for himself some other way.

"Why does this happen to me?" she said to no one in particular.

As if like clock work, Spencer heard a very familiar voice appear in her head.

"Because, Sweetie, you elect to disobey and go against my wishes. Do not worry, you are not suffering this punishment alone."

"No…" Spencer said, shaking her head in irritation, "Mother, you did not."

"Wisdom is not a gift from the Aphrodite or Poseidon Cabin, my love."

"Great" she muttered as she tried to blend in with the other hunters as they went towards the camp fire.

When they got to the camp fire, Artemis appeared to great the camp site's visitors. Everyone bowed in her presence, except Juliet, who Spencer assumed didn't know any better.

After the teens told Artemis of their quest and why they were at her camp site, Artemis gave them tent assignments and invited them to the nightly meal.

Spencer ate silently, not wanting to look towards the end of the table, knowing she was now in full view of her ex-camp mates.

As she was finishing her dinner, someone tapped Spencer on the shoulder, sending her jumping from shock.

She stood up quickly and whirled around to see Juliet standing behind her.

Busted.

"Spencer?" Juliet asked.

"Juliet, what are you doing here?" Spencer faked a smile, and tried to sound excited to see her.

"Um, we needed to speak to Thalia." she replied, "Why are you here? I thought Aphrodite hated Artemis and the hunters?"

"Hate is a strong word!" She lied, "It's more like strongly dislikes."

"Yeah, whatever." Juliet said.

"Well, I'd began thinking about the hunters flyer I got last time they visited camp, and I decided I was sick of men." Spencer said.

Juliet's mouth dropped. Yeah, a daughter of Aphrodite being sick of men? It wasn't a usual case, but Spencer was a very unusual girl.

"I'm wonderful." Spencer added in, "I'm so happy. You and Annabeth should join. Then, we'll be sisters forever!"

"Spencer, I'm on a quest to save a boy." Juliet said.

"And let me guess, you've already fought a monster."

Juliet nodded.

"Well, it's only going to get more worse and difficult." Spencer said, "Oh, and is Percy here?"

"Yeah, he's in the tent farthest away from us." Juliet replied.

"Just wondering." she replied, tucking a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

"Hey Juliet, are you…Oh my gods."

Spencer turned towards her left and saw Annabeth walking towards the two girls.

"I should have known this is where you were! So not only are you a little harlot, you're also a Benedict Arnold who betrays your own mother's cabin!" Annabeth said, putting her hands on her hips.

"Hey, Earth to someone that's supposedly wise, I.E. you. This is the twenty-first century, be a real girl. If you're going to call me a prostitute call me a slut, Chase." Spencer said, putting her hands on her hips as well.

"You're a sorry excuse for a demigod."

"Well, of course you'd know the criteria for that, wouldn't you."

"You, you…"

"Cat got your tongue, because last time I checked, it wasn't being used for anything important, if you get what I'm saying."

"Hey, hey!" Juliet interrupted, "This is ridiculous. Spencer obviously had a reason to join the hunters, just move on!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "I have quest related stuff to do. I'll talk to you two later."

"Bye" Spencer said harshly.

After talking to Juliet for a little while longer, Spencer casually walked towards the end of the camp where Juliet said Percy's tent was. She hated her utter lack of self control when it came to Percy, but she had to know if he knew yet.

She walked toward some of the tents. Some had a light showing through them, a candle shining. There was one tent, however, in the middle that did not.

She looked over towards that specific tent before someone's voice spooked her.

"Can I help you?"

Spencer turned around quickly to see a now floored looking pair of sea green eyes staring back at her out of the darkness.

"Spencer?" Percy's mouth fell slightly.

Spencer nodded, not looking directly at him.

"What the?…What the?…How?" He stuttered/

"Uh, yeah…" Spencer trailed off, "I'm a hunter now."

"Why?" he asked.

Spencer replied the only way she knew she could, and be completely truthful.

"You"

"Me?"

"I wanted to be far away from you after you hurt me, and this was the only way I could, and I hate it, because I think about you a lot. I, I, I've said too much…"

She turned away from him and ran in the opposite direction, only to hear a set of footsteps running behind her.

"Spencer, don't."

Percy's hand grasped on to her bare shoulder, the side of her white dress without a strap. The touch sent a chill down her spine, but she refused to turn around to face him.

"Get…your…hand…off." she said slowly, anger rising again.

"Can we talk?"

That's all it took, Spencer turned around sharply, withdrawing a dagger out of her belt with her right hand, grabbing a fist full of his jacket with her left. She held the dagger up to his throat, a gasp falling from his lips as he began to tremble.

"Woah, Spence, calm down." he said.

"Never…tell…a…girl…to…calm…down." She grabbed on tighter.

"Okay, okay, look, I'm sorry. If you'll just let me go, we'll talk about this."

"You never wanted to talk until now!" she spat.

"I didn't realize how much I would miss you."

"Lies"

"No, I swear." he held his hands up in defense, "I thought it out tonight. It was stupid. I'm sorry."

"I don't think I'll ever be able to believe you!" she said.

She watched Percy take a deep breath before uttering something carefully.

"I love you."

Spencer dropped the small knife to the grass in what seemed like slow motion out of shock. She didn't expect that to happen at all, and she wasn't quite sure she believed him.

Her gaze softened as she let him go, backing up with her head hung.

"I'm sorry." she said.

Percy shoved his hands into his pockets, "It's fine. I can understand why you'd be mad at me."

"Why is that?" she said, curious to hear his response.

"I messed up. I don't know what I was thinking." he sighed, "I guess I wasn't really thinking."

"What made you draw up this conclusion?" Spencer asked, picking up the dagger.

"A lot of thought, plus help from Juliet, because there were no lakes where we've been." he said, a joking tone to his voice.

Spencer half-smiled and nodded, "Well, that's good."

"Are you really happy here?" Percy asked.

"I can't get out." She simply stated.

"Why is that?" he asked.

"I took the oath."

Percy walked close to Spencer, putting a hand on her elbow, feeling completely lost to the moment.

"Do you really want out?" he breathed, close enough to her where she could rest her hands on his chest.

Her heart began to race in her chest. She hadn't been this close to him in a while. Her brown eyes locked with his blue green ones, an intense moment.

"Will you stay with me for good?" Spencer asked quietly.

Percy nodded, not saying a word, but edging closer to her.

"Yes" she whispered.

"Follow my lead."

With that, Percy leaned in and kissed her passionately. As the kiss deepened, Spencer wrapped her arms around Percy's neck and hitched her leg around the back of his leg.

"Come on." Percy mumbled against her lips.

She nodded as he pulled her in the direction of the tent. They fell back against the makeshift bed that was made for Percy, still exchanging kisses the whole way down.

Percy held himself above her as he let his hands roam her body until the kiss broke.

"Are you sure?"

"Get me out of here."