Hello, mein friends, it me. Ill be short and sweet. I appreciate all your comments greatly, but to save space I will not reply to them here. I'm on the Emerald Library Discord, so if you want to hear me thanking you or answering questions, bounce on over there. Thats about it, hope you enjoy CH2.
Everything was too much. The morning glow streaming from between curtains blinding, the smell of sex and bacon nauseating, the sheer heat of the two bodies on either side of him overwhelming.
What in sweet Hades happened last night? He remembered… a prank? Going to a bar, some kind of bet with Aphrodite and Hermes, a shitload of drinking…
The girls on either side of him groaned in protest as Apollo lurched upright, panic burning the hangover and lingering drowsiness from his system in a heartbeat.
He scrambled over the blonde and out of the bed, clothes appearing on his form just in time for him to burst into the hallway.
Godly power filled the air, tentative and prodding as he searched for a response. Whatever state Aphrodite or Hermes were in, their domains would respond to his.
He didn't, in fact, 'find' Hermes, but the beacon of power that was Aphrodite told him where, and exactly how she spent the night.
His legs acted before his mind, carrying him across halls and stairs in a blur. They were empty, not so much as a mouse to impede his pace.
It must've been mere minutes before he was before the room she was in, and moments before he burst through the door.
Mortals. Strewn across the floor, bed, and everything in between. Most naked, though few had the modesty to put something on before passing out. With barely even a flick of his wrist they were gone, leaving only Aphrodite curled up on the bed.
He lunged like a predator descending upon prey, latching onto her shoulders in a bruising grasp and already shaking her awake.
"What in- Apollo?"
"Where is Artemis?" He blurted, no longer shaking her but pinning her to the backboard. She stared blankly as the words processed.
"You were supposed to be watching her?" She half-asked, briefly scanning the room as though he hadn't checked.
"I was drinking!" He cried incredulously.
"So was I!"
"Why in Hera's tits were you drinking? We agreed that you would watch her when we planned it out!"
"Why was I the only one on babysitting duty? Artemis hates me!"
"And she likes me more?"
"You're her brother!"
He withheld his retort, nigh biting his tongue off to a do so and letting the most minute of frustration out in a wordless hiss.
"This solves nothing, where's Hermes?"
"I think… I saw him leave the bar with triplets?" She squinted in thought, lightly nodding to herself moments later as though that was an answer.
"Great. Lovely. Put some damn clothes on, let's go." He turned on his heel, pausing at the door when he heard no movement. She didn't so much as balk at the look he gave her.
"I have better things to do. She's probably with her girlies anyway."
"Ok, I'll put this in terms you understand." He grit, the metal knob molding to his grip, "How will Zeus react if he finds out about this? Much less if something did happen?"
She paled, and was out of bed in the next heartbeat, clothes covering her with a puff of pink.
"I'll check her camp."
He didn't get another word in before she was gone, leaving him alone in the room.
"Please be okay, Arty," He whispered, slipping into the hallway once more, "please."
"Percy? You in there?" Piper called, lightly knocking on the driftwood door, "I'm coming in, so don't be naked or something."
She certainly hadn't been in the Poseidon cabin more than once, and even that was for no more than a minute. Now though, she let herself truly study the building.
The inside was very… interesting. Strange walls that shimmered every color of the rainbow in the morning light that beamed through the windows. The floor was a light, sun bleached brown. Driftwood, just like the door, if she had to guess.
She wandered through the building, even if there wasn't a whole lot to wander through, finding it empty.
He wasn't here, though the mess he left behind made it clear he had been at some point. Piles of laundry, food wrappers, bits and baubles that seemed to have come off various monsters.
"Damn Percy," She muttered "ever clean this place?"
There was no response, just a nice breeze and the crashing of waves on shore. She didn't think it should be audible from here, but magic was a strange thing.
Well next stop, loathe as she was to deal with a bitter child of Athena, was the Athena cabin itself.
Annabeth and Percy were in a bit of a spat, one that had stretched over three days at this point, if she remembered correctly. She didn't know why they were, any attempts to pry it from either were redirected or firmly blocked, but it was some of the nastiest fighting she had seen between the two.
Piper wasn't the type to interfere with it, despite her mother. There was no request or need for input from an outside perspective, she didn't have nearly enough context, and no matter how much the small part of her mind savored the drama of romance, she wouldn't make a spectacle of her friends.
What she would shove her nose into was the fact her friend was awol, and she'd take it upon herself to go find him. Biting the bullet and dealing with some unsavory conversations was the start.
So she moved with purpose, not even bothering with other campers till she was standing before the Athena cabin, and a disgruntled Malcolm.
"I need to see Annabeth."
"Good morning to you too, McLean." He grumbled, blearily wiping some of the sleep from his eyes, "This couldn't wait an hour?"
"Percy didn't show up for morning training." She replied. His expression hardened slightly.
While they were on somewhat neutral terms with eachother, Percy was still far from his favorite person. Especially with this little fight going on.
"Probably slacking off somewhere, not something to wake us up over."
"Percy doesn't miss training sessions." He had barely finished his dismissal when she countered him, and he gave her a slight dirty look, "especially the morning ones."
"Fine. Doubt she'll talk to you though, she won't even tell us anything." With a sigh he slipped back into the cabin, with her hot on his heels.
She didn't study the cabin like she did Poseidon's, both out of the unexceptional feeling of it all and because she was trying to keep a sense of direction among the halls of closed doors.
"Here it is."
He didn't even fully stop at the door when they reached it, only lightly rapping the wood with his knuckle before disappearing into the only open room she'd seen.
"Thanks." She said to the open air. With that unpleasantness over with, she turned to face what would be undoubtedly worse.
The door didn't actually have a lock, now that she looked at it closer, which was strange cause the Aphrodite cabin sure as hell did. Then again, considering the difference between Athena and Aphrodite… They probably just had an unspoken rule about opening each others doors and such.
She lightly knocked, but didn't wait more than a beat before slowly opening the door.
It was quiet, and it took a second before she could pick Annabeth out of the darkness.
She was sitting on the bed, curled around a pillow and staring back at her. Eyes red and tears still staining her cheeks. The all-nighter was evident in the bags under her eyes and the pallor of her skin. Yikes.
"Hanging in there, Beth?" Her voice slipped into a soft whisper of its own accord as she lightly shut the door behind her.
Annabeth pitched back onto the bed, rolling to face the wall opposite Piper.
She suppressed a sigh, and perched on the edge of the bed. Play the nice girl, Piper.
"Look, it's not my business. You know I'm here for you if you need it." She started, tempted to reach out to her but awkwardly clasping her hands in her lap.
Silence.
"Alright, I'll leave you be. Just-uh, have you seen Percy lately? He didn't show up to teach class, it started an hour ago."
"No." Annabeth finally responded, curt as could be, and cast a baleful look her way.
"Well, where do you think he is?" She pressed, forcing the sudden flare of annoyance back down.
"I don't know! Sally's?" She snapped defensively.
Piper considered the answer, and sighed. She stood, only speaking when she stood at the door once more.
"Alright, I'll check… I'm here for you, Annabeth, you don't have to do this alone."
And just like that she was off, weaving through the crowds of drowsy campers as the conch rang out through Camp.
She hadn't even considered him actually leaving camp, but it made enough sense. Finding somewhere to cool off away from the source of the 'problem', and the fuel that was the Athena cabin.
"Piper?"
She couldn't help but stiffen at the voice, and forced herself to face Jason.
He stopped a bit too far to be normal, with the slightest twitch as though he was resisting fidgeting.
"Where-uh, where are you off to?" He asked, keeping his gaze steadily on something over her shoulder.
"Sally's," She replied. Her fingers itched to pick at her jeans, or the hem of her shirt, but she resisted, "Percy didn't show up for training this morning."
"Oh… could I come with you?"
She pursed her lips, struggling for some excuse.
"Don't you have to train the Apollo cabin today? Especially if Percy's gone awol?"
"Malcolm can cover it. He owes me a favor anyway."
"Malcolm's not as good as you are, though." She shot back, "I think Percy would prefer you train them. The last thing we need is to lose more demigods."
He visibly wilted, disappointment as clear on his face as the guilt in her chest. Still, she didn't stop him as he headed back towards the Arena, walk turning into a brisk jog as she left.
The path to Sally's was uncertain at best, and it was a bit of luck that she managed to remember and find the landmarks that led her there. Thankfully, there were no monsters to break her focus along the way, so one hitchhike and quick walk later she was staring at the door of the Jackson residence.
There was something strange in the air that made her pause. Something so palpable she was certain a mortal would notice it, even if they wouldn't comprehend what it could mean.
Katropis slipped from its sheath with a soft hiss as she tried the doorknob. Locked. With a muted curse she lightly knocked, keeping her eyes down both ends of the hall.
There was an indiscernible shout from behind the door, and only a few seconds before it was answered.
It took a second for Sally to recognize her, an instant of suspicion before it was replaced with a warm smile. Like they really knew eachother, like there was more to their relationship than seconds of conversation.
"Piper! This is a surprise, how are you?" She didn't dally in the doorway, beckoning Piper deeper into the apartment without a second to waste.
She followed, of course, yet the tension that lingered in the air had her firmly locking the door before drifting after Sally.
"I've been better, need to figure some stuff out. How are you?"
"Just keeping busy, you know how it is." Piper supposed she did, in some sense, "Need anything? Breakfast, water…?"
"Well I was really coming over to see if Percy was here," She admitted, "He didn't show up to training this morning, which isn't really like him."
There was a beat of silence following her admission, one that held hesitation, for some reason. She didn't have to wait long.
"He's in his room. Was out pretty late last night." Sally leveled her a strange look, "He hasn't been doing well over the past couple days. He and Annabeth are having a fight."
She nodded, struggling to figure out exactly what a drunk Percy would be like. Not important right now, though, Piper. One step at a time.
"Do you mind if I?" She gestured towards his room with a thumb over her shoulder.
"Go easy on him," Sally responded, not unkindly, "and keep it down please. Estelle hasn't woken up yet."
She nodded, tamping down the feeling of trepidation that welled up when she turned to the door.
Every step felt harder than the last, like the air was thickening to pea soup the closer she got. Something was definitely up.
Her knuckles tapped the wood, clear enough it felt like it echoed, with a seconds pause before she slowly pushed the door open.
For Percy's sake she left the light off. The cracked door and morning glow beaming from behind the curtains let her see more than enough.
Like the clothes strewn about the room, however many days of dirty laundry spaced into various piles.
She carefully picked across the floor, keeping a steady eye on the floor that both kept her upright and avoid stepping on any clothes.
A flash of white among the piles caught her eye in an instant, stark against the blues and blacks that made up most of his wardrobe. In fact, she had never seen him wear anything not blue, save for the shirts Camp gave out.
It was probably nothing, yet she couldn't seem to cast the strange suspicion aside. Maybe it was just the tension that engulfed the building, but still…
Suppressing the slight disgust over sweaty, old clothes, she gently grabbed it and pulled it to the open air.
It took a second to fully process the sight of a bra on her hands, but when she did it, and her stomach, dropped.
It could be Annabeth's, but the chances? She was positively militant about clean laundry, Percy had even made jokes about it before. Everything clean, folded, and in its proper drawer, not to mention she had never seen Annabeth wear silver anything, save maybe a bracelet.
Her eyes shot to the bed of their own accord, easily picking the human shaped lump out despite the sheets and pillows being strewn about. A figure far too small to be Percy, now that she thought about it.
Despite the mounting dread, she slid towards the bed, no longer watching the clothes on the ground and not looking away from the form.
The air was still, with only the soft breathing on the bed to break the silence.
She was by the foot of the bed when her first clue came, in the form of a few strands of red hair. A deep auburn color that stood out among the blue that covered his bed.
It wasn't her business. Had nothing to do with her. She should leave it for them to sort out together.
Her hand lightly pulled at the sheet, revealing more and more of that red mop.
It was an intrusion. Breaking some unsaid promise to keep her nose out of his business.
She was met with a blank stare, although it seemed more incidental than anything else that she was in the line of sight.
The woman- girl really, she looked around Piper's age, was gorgeous. Pale, rounded features, plush pink lips, and eyes that seemed to glow an almost unnatural gray-ish the longer she looked at them.
She didn't react, so Piper did. Wordlessly, with all the faux calm she could muster, she retreated back to whence she came.
Her breath left her in a sharp puff, door creaking but holding against her weight as her mind ran.
Percy had a strange girl in his bed, a strange naked girl that wasn't Annabeth that- she forced herself to calm.
First issue, Percy still wasn't in there. Which means he either didn't make it home last night or she had just missed him or- just that Percy was awol.
She took in a few more calming breaths of air before pushing off, only managing a few steps before coming to a stop in shock.
"Mom?"
It wasn't anything special, the building he found himself standing before. Clean for New York, and probably some sort of happy medium between cost and quality. A family building too, considering he hadn't seen anyone enter or leave without someone on their arm or a ring on their finger.
"Are you sure this is the place, Apollo?" Aphrodite finally asked.
He carefully probed the air with his power, and the traces of his sister's presence responded. It was weak, but it was there. Like she was… sleeping maybe, or maybe it was just the hints of the trail she left.
His response was to march right in, with an iron grip on the growing feeling of her power.
Not the lobby, yet he could feel something of a trail that led him to the stairs, and up.
"Hey! I asked a question!" His companion shouted, and just like the last he ignored it. Up, up, here!
He shoved through the door, only now getting the presence in the air he expected to. The presence she should have.
The door he came to a stop at was no more eye catching than the rest of the building. Didn't change that the power oozed from behind it.
"She's here." He whispered, sword in his palm with a thought and the flick of his wrist. The longer he stood here the more there was a difference in the energy. A slow, almost pulsing quality to it, that he hadn't quite felt before.
That alone had him tempted to blast the door down, and take whoever else was in there with it, yet instead he lightly tapped the door.
"Seriously? Knocking?"
"Artemis' state can decide the mortal's fate." He replied, "I would not damn her savior, should she be alright."
She hummed just as the door opened, and he took a second to process then inhabitant.
The woman was rather pretty, with brown hair that framed pretty blue eyes with the beginnings of wrinkles in the corners.
"Can I help you?" The woman asked. Her eyes narrowed, and shot to whatever the Mist disguised his sword as.
"Yes, sorry to bother you, I'm looking for my sister. Her phone is saying she's in your apartment, did you have any guests last night?"
She blinked, surprise flashing through her eyes, and the suspicion returned twofold.
"No, I didn't. Is there anything else?"
"Ah, yes, just one more thing. Sorry to hold you from what you were doing." With the end of his apology he lunged, finger pressing to her forehead and…
He caught her before she hit the ground, scooping her into his arms and pushing into the apartment.
Aphrodite didn't have anything to add to that, finally, and just shut the door behind herself.
It was a cozy apartment, really, not one that he would expect kidnappers or any other unsavory characters to reside in. Full of little knickknacks and children's drawings and family pictures.
"We start with the bedrooms, and tear the damn walls down if we have to." He unceremoniously dropped the woman on the couch and pushed down the hall, practically lunging for the first door he saw.
Room one was an office, with bookshelves and a desk and an honest to gods typewriter. Those things were out of style, last he checked. No Artemis, though, so he gently slipped back out the door.
Room two was about as aggressively pastel pink as the color could be, with toys strewn across the floor and a tiny figure bundled in blankets on the bed.
He gave her a little peek, just to make sure, and just found an ordinary mortal, sleeping sound as could be. They were just as quick to slip out of there as the last room.
Unlike when they entered the rooms, the hall now had someone in it. A very awake someone, that seemed equally stunned to see them as they her.
"Mom?"
Piper stood opposite them, Katropis in hand, a strange mirror to Aphrodite, whose appearance seemed to warp just a bit more till they were closer to her daughters features.
"What are you doing here?" Piper hissed. She slipped Katropis back into its sheath, and they followed suit, weapons dissolving into nothing.
"What are you doing here?"
"I asked first!"
"I'm your mother!"
"Ok, both of you, stop." He finally interjected, quieting both of them and staring at the demigod, "Why are you here?"
She gave him a hard look, like she was debating arguing it further, before she sighed.
"I was looking for Percy, he didn't show up to training this morning."
"This is Percy's house?" His gut churned with both dread and relief, "Was he out last night?"
"Yeah, why didn't you ask his mom? She did let you in, didn't she?" Piper's face twisted into something of incredulity when they didn't respond, "You didn't just break in, right?"
"She wasn't going to let us in!" He defended, "Not important. Percy's in there? Is he alone?"
He knew damn well he wouldn't be. The power was clear as day, palpable in the air and coming from behind that door.
"He's not in there." She replied, "Just some girl that was probably too drunk to get home last night."
"Move out of the way." He commanded, only managing a few steps before coming to a stop so he didn't crash into her.
"I'm not letting you terrorize some poor girl, Apollo. Why are you here? Your turn."
"We don't have— fine." He snapped, only conceding with Aphrodite's silent warning, "We are looking for Artemis. She was here last night, the city if not this apartment."
Piper blinked, and he could practically see dozens of questions come to mind. His hands twitched.
"What does she… look like?"
"We don't have time for this! I'm not going to harass her, just let us through!"
"Red hair, usually." He whipped around to give Aphrodite a short glare, one that she ignored, "Pale as the dead, just short of Hades that is, silvery-gray eyes? Ring any bells?"
Piper's face paled as she spoke, expression a firm 'oh shit' even if she never said anything. That was enough for him.
He shoved her to the side, ignoring whatever squawks or protests the girls made, all but knocking the third door down.
Power flooded into the hall behind him like a balmy heat, almost burning his nose with the scent of cold, fresh air and pine. Still, it only took moments for him to slip through the room till he was staring her in the face.
She was still, didn't so much as twitch at the sight of him. His heart twisted violently in his chest.
As though he were touching the finest of porcelain, his hands gently disentangled one of hers from the comforter, guilt swirling in his throat with the listless way it rolled in his grasp.
She was there, but she wasn't there. In her own little world, much too deep in it for him to reach her.
He did this, half of his mind whispered, with all the vicious accusation it could muster. Emotion swirled, shifting so fast he could barely keep up.
Yet it argued against itself, rage burning away what guilt there was and pinning the blame all at once.
Percy did this.