AN:

Hello, greetings, I am back on this story. Apologies it took so long, I was determined to finish this entire chapter and get to the part where Zoe and Percy finally meet again, but then I looked t the chapter and it was over six thousand words long, so I've had to split it into two parts. Sorry about that, I hope you enjoy what I've put up.

Zoë sat in her chair, not moving a muscle. Her head was in her hands, and she massaged her temples as she processed the information given. Many emotions clogged her brain. Confusion, as to why she wasn't told before. Fear, which came from her overwhelmingly clear understanding of their current position. Anger, aimed at whatever being they were up against, for once again putting thousands of lives in mortal danger.

But most of all, she felt an emotion that had a much more narrow target. Sorrow, for Perseus. For What he had gone through, and what he must have been going through at the present time.

She had zoned out slightly. Her job was going to e harder than she thought. Bringing a man back to a world he was just exhausted by years of service, didn't strike her as too hard. But to bring a man, whose back had been broken by tragedy back to a world that caused that pain. She couldn't imagine how to convince him, and she wouldn't, she couldn't force him to come back. She just wouldn't be able to.

Artemis was speaking to her. "I'm sorry we couldn't tell you, Zoë. My father ordered me not to until you needed to know. He's going mad with worry about this."

"No, no, I understand that," Zoë raised her head up slightly, telling a white lie. "This just… all got so big. I thought I was just bringing a man back home."

"Zoë, with luck that's all your doing. We may not need him to lead an army. We may not need to have an army. This may just be an increase in monster population, and it will go back down. It's happened before." Artemis voice was soothing as she did tried to ease Zoe's mind. "Let us worry about it for now, you just worry about your job."

Zoë took a deep breath, letting it out rather shakily. It's not everyday someone tells you your job may in fact be an important operation that could turn the tie of a potentially devastating war that no one knows enough about. Or that someone that you hadn't seen for years was probably suffering crippling depression.

But Artemis was half right, she needed to put the first part out of her head for awhile. Especially because telling Perseus the reason why he was needed back would probably not go over very well. He probably wouldn't want to be put in any position that would put any more lives in his hands.

"Alright. Thank you Artemis." The goddess smiled and Zoë returned it, though a bit weakly.

"Now, how about we move on to a less depressing topic." She said, quickly shifting gears. "When you arrive in England, you will not be landing in London. I know that's what you were told but the plan has changed slightly. You will be landing in a small airfield just a twenty minute drive from Marlborough. There's a car rental just next to the airfield. Get something decent but not ridiculous. I know you've read this part in the file but, you've got a hotel prepared in the town. Just tell them your name and you're good to go. We can't afford to leave the plane at the airfield there so you'll have to give us word when you need to be brought back. And then, unfortunately, you'll have to wait awhile."

Zoë nodded. "Alright. So I'll just have to time it."

"I'm sorry. We don't have an alternative. Zeus doesn't think it's safe to just leave untrained demigod personnel out in the world anymore."

"No, it makes sense. It's just going to make it a little inconvenient."

Artemis leaned back in her chair. "Good. Someone here will be in touch when you get back on the plane. The time you spend in England, you will be completely off the grid to make sure you have less of a chance of attracting monsters. If you need to contact anyone for any reason, it will have to be locally with a pay phone."

Zoë nodded. It was a common practice she was used to, however it didn't mean she liked it any more than the other times she'd been told to abide by it.

"Alright. Now, Zoë I suggest you get some sleep. Your leg still needs to heal, and you'll want to be well rested when dealing with the English."

"I will, thank you Artemis." Zoë said.

"Of course, Zoë. I'll talk to you in a couple of days. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

The video switched off, leaving a 'no signal' box to bounce around on the remaining black space. The monitor shut down a moment later.

Zoë shifted for a few moments, wriggling her way further back into the padding. She then reached underneath the seat and pulled the lever that lowered the seat back. Once satisfied, she lay back and shifted up even more till her head was on the top, resting on a pillow.

She rotated so that she was facing the window. They were in the middle of a cloud, the fluffed white material covering them from a angles. The plane shook slightly due to turbulence before settling as they came appeared back in the middle of the blue skies.

She let her eyes fall shut, and her mind wander. Her thoughts, as she expected, drifted back to the what Artemis had told her. About the uprising, about Olympus, about Perseus.

She lingered on him the longest. Once her thoughts hit him, they refused to leave. How was she going to approach him? She didn't know anything about how he might react. Whether he would be angry, or maybe upset to see her. Or if by some miracle he would be happy, but she severely doubted it. However, she hoped.

Would he attack me, would he lash out? She worried about that. She didn't want to fight him. He had gone through so much and provoking such a response from him just felt wrong to her.

The last thought caused a strong enough response that it derailed her entire train of thought. She chuckled softly, three years ago I would have never expected to feel such sorrow for a man. Her soft laughs turned into a long, tired sigh. How things have changed.

She stayed awake awhile longer, but the engines of the plane were soft enough to be hypnotic. Her eyelids, though already closed, began to feel heavier and her breathing slowed. She wasn't asleep yet, but she knew that she would be soon.

Her mind hit one more topic on it's way to hibernation. Where am I going to find Perseus? Marlborough wasn't a large town, but it wasn't 'everybody knows everybody' either. The dossier hadn't given her an address, just that he lived on the west end. And it hadn't given her a workplace either. She supposed she'd just have to ask around, though that might be risky. If he somehow found out, he would be well out of there before she got near him.

She also couldn't just wait around to see if he showed up. It would be both futile, and time consuming. Even if she waited at the most frequented place in the town. There was no guarantee he would ever show up.

Her tired mind yelled at her. Come on, you were a huntress for two thousand years! You're better than this. And she should have been, but she wasn't able to see a solution. Well… maybe.

If he's still using the same name. Then I can just check the phone book. Zoë never thought she'd be more glad that those ancient, unnecessary weights of paper still existed. And, she hated to make the stereotypical statement, even to herself, but there couldn't be that many Perseus Jacksons in the phone book.

That possibility alone easer her worrying by a considerable amount Even though there was still so much that she had to get past. Though most of it was part of the main issue of 'how would he react?'

But she knew she couldn't really plan for it. She would just have to play it by ear, and adapt best to the situation. With any luck, she would eventually be on his good side, and from there she could possibly convince him to come back.

The plane rocked slightly, and somehow it managed to make the fully grown, veteran huntress, experience an exhaustion that she actually valued. She heard the noises around her grow softer, and the nerves in her body began to dull slightly. Her eyes slid to a different degree of shut, and she let out a long breath as she dropped off to sleep.

Having spent many years flying in a private plane, she didn't know how incredibly lucky she was to be able to actually fall asleep during a plane ride.

At the same time that Zoë Nightshade fell asleep, Perseus Jackson woke up.

Sunlight streamed through the windows, dulled only by the blinds which he had pulled almost all the way down, at some point in the night. He had already kicked of the blankets so he skipped that step of awakening, and sat up, throwing his legs off the bed. With a few blinks to normalize his vision, he half slid, half pushed himself off the bed and onto his feet.

The floor was cool as he stepped around the bed and to the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, he didn't like the sight anymore than he expected to. A bitter face stared back at him through a tangled beard and mess of hair.

The sight angered him. Disgust filled him as he stared into a pair of dead green eyes. His beard had grown wild, his hair was at least manageable, if he washed it and let it dry right. But with the beard he looked crazy and homeless.

There was a razor on the sink to his right, he stared at it, daring it to give him a reason why he shouldn't pick it up.

Ten minutes later, Percy walked out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, and using another one to dry his face. He discarded them and pulled clothes from his dresser, not bothering to even sort through them.

Fully dressed, he left the bedroom and walked down a flight of stairs to the first floor of his house. He had gotten an absolute steal on the place. The previous owner had been in a rush to sell, in desperate need of money. Percy was lucky enough to see the ad the day it was posted, and, as quick as he could, rushed from the apartment he was in at the time and used the money had amassed over a number of years to purchase the building.

No regrets. Well, a few. Specifically the area of the upstairs wall that had been smashed in and nobody had told him.

But it was in the spare bedroom, so he never bothered to get it fixed. It's not like he ever had anybody over.

Thankfully, he had been thinking enough that he remembered to put on a pair of socks, because normally, stepping onto his kitchen floor without them after a night with the windows open, was like stepping onto the frozen pond in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

He pulled a crinkled paper back from a cupboard above the sink, and began the quick yet overly long process of making coffee.

He let it brew as he walked out of the kitchen and to the living room. From which you could still see the former, due to an opening in the wall that was used in place of a dining table. He just set a couple of bar stool under it, and boom, an instant, if small, table.

Without thinking about it, Percy snatched a leather bound book from the top level of a bookcase as he walked past. It was one of his hobbies, while waiting for coffee, to take that book and read one paragraph from anywhere in the book. It was something he picked up from an acquaintance made in Germany. Though, the man was more into things that glittered than any sort of parchment.

This day's paragraph was quite short. In fact it was just one sentence, though it could've meant a thousand different meanings.

The penguin croaked at him, and waddled off into the darkness.

Percy frowned, his brow furrowing. And then he shrugged, slipping the book back onto the shelf, between a rare volume about the works of Imhotep, and a slightly less rare copy of The American's Guide to London: A - Z. He gave the paragraph no more thought, randomly chosen words don't always make sense.

Another few hours passed, the clock ticking over and nearing midday, during which Percy drank his coffee, and set about dealing with some bills that were looming dangerously in the foreground of his mind.

It was about at the time that he had finished the second form, that a small private jet touched down at a small airfield just twenty minutes outside the city. It was so small that, to exit the plane, Zoë had to wait for someone to bring over a ladder, because they wouldn't let her just jump off.

She supposed she could have turned into a whole sexist thing, but she knew that it was far from their intention to be that way. Besides, the pilot used it to get down too.

One of the men who worked out on the airfield, drove her across the tarmac and to a bus station. Saving her a considerable amount of time that would have otherwise been spent walking and mumbling curses. It was quite nice of him.

She paid the man a small sum for his inconvenience, and then sat and waited for the bus to arrive. The only bench was metal, and rigid so that it was, of course, incredibly uncomfortable to sit on. But after you'd spent a week in a Romanian political prison, comfort is something you can manage to find in everything.

To bypass the time, Zoë bent down, unzipped her bag, and pulled out a miniature phone book that she had swiped from the man's car when he wasn't looking.

It was when Percy was cleaning up a slight accident involving a glass of iced water, that Percy got the phone call.

He looked up from his position on the floor, where he was shoving a towel under the oven on order to get the last of the spill, he struggled to his feet, partially because the floor was wet, and partially because the opening between the bottom of the stove and the ground was not very wide.

Walking over to the vibrating box of electronics and coding, Percy realized something. He absolutely hated his ringtone.

He hit respond and brought the phone up to his head. "Hello?" He said

"Hey, Jack."

"Hey, Kate." Percy sat down in one of the chairs around the sitting table. "What's up?"

"I was just realizing, we never actually set a time or place for lunch today." She said, spiritedly as she always was.

"Well, hang on what time is it now?" Perseus pulled the phone away from his ear and tapped the screen. "twelve fifteen, how in the world did that happen…? Does quarter till one work for you?"

"Yes, that should be fine," she said. "I was thinking we could go to Ray's. You know, the place right on down the block from old Toolan's place?"

Percy recalled the building. "Oh yeah, yeah that's a nice place. Been there a couple times. Didn't they used to have live music on the weekends.

"They still do. Or will, after he's finished redoing the stage. But it shouldn't get in the way of getting a cup of coffee." He could practically see her smile, and a small one of his own pulled at the corner of his lips.

"Alright. I'm looking forward to it." He wasn't lying. Which surprised him. These days, lying was about seventy percent of what he did.

"Me too," she paused for a moment on the other end of the line. A faint static trickling in. "Alright, I've got to go, the repair man just got here. Finally going to take a look at my furnace. It won't heat anymore."

"Good thing this happened in the summer. Hopefully it gets fixed."

"I definitely agree," she laughed. "Alright, goodbye, Jack."

"Bye. See you there." Percy put his phone back in his pocket.

He stood up and walked back into the kitchen, and finished wiping up the spill of water from earlier. When he finished, he threw the rag over the handle of the oven and waked to the front door.

Donning a light jacket and a wide brimmed hat, Percy stepped outside and pulled the door closed behind him. He didn't bother to lock it. No one did in the neighborhood. It was a small town, and everybody, especially around here, knew everybody.

His car was parked out on the street since he kept a fencing dummy strapped to a post in the garage. He felt no use in letting certain old habits die. The car door opened with a tug at the handle, and he slid in, turning the key in the ignition.

The guitar whined and settled down into an average purr. He pulled back, careful to avoid his neighbor's saloon car, and drove down the road.

Within minutes he was downtown and looking around. There was a old music shop, and locally owned, nationwide renowned book store just next to it. He planned to duck in there for awhile before going to meet Kate at Ray's. If there was time to spare, he'd walk down the road and stop briefly at the police station and say a quick hello to Morse. He hadn't seen the man in a while, and the inspector was in town visiting from Cambridge. But that thought was for later.

He parked in the parking spaces that went all the way down the middle of High Street. Exiting the car, he quickly looked to his left and right before jogging across the roadway.

The music store was small, but well stocked. Instruments lined the walls, and there were different rooms devoted to records, CD's, and even several recording studios. Which the owner, and Irishman named Gallagher, had let Percy use when he wanted to record any guitar he picked up. It was a small payment for help with an issue involving some stolen items of a similar nature.

Gallagher gave a nod and a hello when Percy walked in, well at least a mass of brown hair on top of a head nodded hello, and the demigod returned it briskly, making sure not to interrupt the man while he was in the middle of what might become a sale.

Stepping around a man coming out of one of the back rooms, Percy's eyes were met with rows and shelves of CD cases.

His eyes fitted around the room, the bookstore could wait till after coffee, he would be in here for quite awhile.

AN:

I know I promised you that Zoe and Percy would have a confrontation in this chapter, and they were going to. But, like I said above, the chapter was just way to long to be single chapter so I split it into. I hope you don't hate me, but honestly it doesn't matter. Because if you hate me so much for delaying the story, you'll be back for the next chapter. Probably...

Updates may be a little slower for a bit, I've got a lot of stuff going on, but I promise to get at least one chapter up per week. Maybe more if I have time.

As always, leave a reveiw, tell me what you think, and leave a favorite if you enjoyed it, and of course, follow for more. The next time you see me may be on an entirely new story, but who knows with me.

Until next time, this is Hemlock Stones signing off.