DISCLAIMER: I don't own a lot of things, such as the Percy Jackson series, a racing car and my sanity. But that doesn't matter, right? Right?

Chapter 2: The Way Things Went On

After five years...

The Hunters of Artemis were known for being subtle. You see, that is necessary for tracking and fighting monsters. However, their mistress was currently distracted with the thought of a person; the same person who had done more for their world since the Heroes of ancient past.

She sighed as she looked up. Today was the fifth ceremony of the end of the Second Titan War. She still remembered the day...

Flashback:

They had all rushed into the Throne Room, hoping to avoid the apocalypse and help Percy Jackson defeat Kronos. But all they found was the daughter of Athena, kneeling down beside the body of that traitor, Luke and staring faraway into a region. There was no sign of anyone else there. However, it was clear that who had won the war.

After much confusion (and occasional jubilant cries at hearing the battle description), the story was laid out straight. They were all confused about the disappearance of Percy Jackson, and were in darkness about the origins of that light, but order had to be maintained, and the Heroes were to be rewarded.

Annabeth was made the architect responsible for the redesigning of Olympus.

Thalia was promised by Zeus that she will have help in refilling the Hunter's Ranks, which had thinned during the war.

Tyson was made the commander of Poseidon's Cyclops Army. When Zeus asked him for a weapon of his choice, he chose a stick. That was one of the more amusing events of that day and led to quite a few chuckles.

Throughout the ceremony, Poseidon had been deathly quiet. Artemis could only imagine how hard the news of his son's disappearance had hurt Poseidon. He was his favourite son over the ages, even if he didn't admit it outright. Come to think of it; hadn't it hurt her, as well?

No, she thought, getting her thoughts in order. He had some redeemable qualities, but nothing that would make him any better.

The time had come for Him to be rewarded. Here, Zeus fumbled, unsure what to do. He would have stopped there, but suddenly Poseidon spoke up, for the first time in the meeting: "I know what my son would have wanted." Taking a deep breath, he continued, "I know the thing that had hurt him the most...we tend to create demigod sons and then forget about them. I know that my being away from his life had hurt him more than he let out. It had hurt me too. So, I propose that today, in his memory, we take an oath on the River Styx to take care, and claim any demigods we may have henceforth."

The room was deathly silent for a moment. Then Zeus looked at him and said, "Look, brother, we simply cannot..."

"Yes we bloody well can." The shout had come from Hermes, surprising everyone. He continued, in a subdued tone,"Luke;he was my pride and joy. The actions he took were inexcusable, nor I am trying to defend him. However, I cannot help but feel that I could probably have prevented this from happening. A little contact from us is all they desire. And for the record, I LIKE MY SONS", he yelled again.

"I second the motion", announced the voice of Demeter. That cabin had been hurt worst by the war.

Zeus looked around and realised that he was outvoted. With a sudden resolution and gleam in his eyes, he announced, "We, the council, swear on the River Styx to the terms Poseidon suggested. We shall keep track of our sons and daughters to the best of our ability, and claim them before they turn thirteen. So I say, so mote it be."

"But I possibly can't keep track of all my kids." Protested Apollo, and they looked down in horror as an arrow embedded itself in his throne, inches down from his manhood.

"Then keep it in your pants, you pig." She had growled.

The meeting broke up after that, leading to many hours of song and dancing. Granted, the Demigods weren't very cheerful at the fact that their leader was missing, but no news meant no bad news, as far as they were concerned. Hades had confirmed that Percy was not dead, or at the very least, his soul was nowhere in the Underworld. He had also promised to keep a lookout for him.

The things escalated a few months after that. One day, the Hunters had received a very large sign of monster activity in a location close to the house of the hero, and had rushed there to help them, mostly due to the insistence of Thalia, who was probably the most determined among them to get her cousin back, safe and alive. When they reached there, it resembled a carnage. Monster dust littered everywhere, and two disintegrated into nothingness before their very eyes. They had rushed inside to discover any living survivor, although they feared the worst. And, true to their grim thoughts, there was no one inside the house. Artemis had tried to track their scents using her skills, but it was impossible under those conditions.

The real bad thing was that despite all evidence claiming that they were dead, some things didn't add up .

Why would anyone want them dead? The war was over, and there was no demigod there to attract such a large horde of monsters. It was not as if they were capable of organized thoughts and wanted revenge. Their presence therefore implied that they had been ordered to go there by someone. And, the worst part was that once again, Hades had been unable to confirm that Paul and Sally Blofis were dead; much like what had happened with Percy Jackson. Two possibilities were that either they were being held hostage, or...

Someone had exterminated the Jackson family; and apparently, he was powerful enough to hide their souls. The Council couldn't think of anyone capable of accomplishing such a feat, short of a Primordial. And that was never a good news.

The seas had been a little more restless since then.

Moreover, monster attacks were consistently increasing. This was not supposed to happen; the activity levels should have lowered down, really. Moreover, their strengths seemed to be increasing. This all indicated another uprising. Of whom, she wondered.

Moreover, there seemed to be another player on the arena. Since three years, Demigods had started appearing in Camp Half-Blood, safe and sound. They were the ones who had the worst luck; abused, bullied, or humiliated by their parents or peers. Yet, all of them seemed to carry a new confidence within them, imparted by the same man who had rescued them. They hadn't given away his name, because they apparently didn't know. All they said that he was a better warrior than they had ever seen; even after meeting some of the veterans of the Camp Half-Blood.

Zeus was incredibly paranoid about this man. He had asked them to track him down, but they had as much success as anyone else. This infuriated Artemis; her Hunters were infallible, above every reproach. They had never failed in a mission before, and they were not going to fail in this one!

A sudden clearing of throat jolted her back to the present. Thalia came before her, bowed and said, "My lady, we have tracked the monsters down. Permission to kill?"

Artemis looked over at the area where this group was located. The group wasn't large, as they had estimated. This wasn't going to be too tough. With one nod of her head, the Hunt went to work.

With a faint tug of the strings of their bows, five arrows impaled the as many unfortunate monsters. Before they could even realise what was happening, they dissolved into golden dust.

"Take your formations. Phoebe, you to the left, Vicky, you go to the right." Thalia shouted as they immediately started showering down arrows. They were confident that this would be over soon.

That was not to be. With one sudden rumble, several more monsters came to the forefront. Among them were several draceane, empousai and leading the charge was the Minotaur.

The Hunt immediately regrouped, with Artemis' mind working at a furious pace. How had they avoided being detected? She was in the midst of the battle now, and wasn't breaking much sweat, but the Hunt was getting quite overwhelmed. Silver arrows decimated through the monster ranks left and right, but their ranks were showing no signs of thinning down. Moreover, the monsters were not of low mobility. They were closing in fast, intending to cut them off from using their favourite weapons. By now, three Hunters among the five had resorted to fighting with their knives, while Artemis, Thalia and Phoebe were keeping the others away. Still, they were getting surrounded, and it wasn't an open plain for them to retreat. It was only a matter of time...

Artemis watched, horror-struck as the Minotaur charged at Thalia. She was looking at another foe, unaware of the imminent danger. Artemis was going to fire an arrow at that wretched monster, when suddenly someone beat her to it. Another arrow, but not one of her Hunters, flew through the air and pierced the Minotaur's shoulder. It would have done only so much damage if it was a normal weapon, but it instantly lit on fire and started to burn away his shoulder. Shocked, at the same time Artemis, Thalia and ironically the Minotaur, too looked at the source. What their eyes saw astonished them. For there was Percy Jackson, slightly smirking, crouched down and holding a majestic bow in his hands. It was clear as daylight that who had just saved Thalia's life.

"Hey ugly. Long time no see." taunted Percy. At the same time, he lunged backwards to decapitate another empousai who had hoped to sneak up on him. It was clear that his senses were sharp and accurate even in the midst of battle. The Minotaur, stupid as it was immediately charged at him. It all happened in a flash; Artemis had never really seem someone execute such a graceful move with a sword.

Percy grinned as he held Riptide in his hand, anticipating the Minotaur's trademark move. He ducked down and with the first swipe of his sword removed the Minotaur's right arm. It howled in agony, and tried to close in again, but Percy was too fast. He feinted to the left and pushed his sword right into his midsection. It dissolved with another scream.

"That's for trying to hurt my favourite cousin...and also because you're ugly." Percy quipped. He turned to the battle scene with a critical eye and said, "Thalia, will you please tell your group of merry women to duck down?"

Thalia looked too shocked to act and immediately sputtered out, "P...Percy? Kelp Head? Is that really you?"

"No, it's Santa Claus. I came here to wish a Merry Christmas to the Hunt. Yes, it's me. Now, I would love to talk more, but I don't think we have much time.'

Thalia looked around and immediately realised that his words were true. She commanded, "All members of the Hunt: This is your lieutenant speaking. Duck." They immediately complied.

Percy closed his eyes and seemed to chant a prayer in a foreign language. For some reason, that prayer made Artemis shiver a little. It seemed... so ancient.

Percy's sword disappeared to be replaced by the bow. With a feral grin, he unleashed three arrows, one after one. While still, airborne, they multiplied to become easily a hundred each. The arrow wave decimated the monster ranks in one go. Within seconds, there were no more monsters standing alive. Suddenly, Percy seemed to stumble, but before he could fall, he was caught by Thalia.

"Thanks, Thals. That took a lot more energy than I thought." Percy said with a groan.

"What did you do to them anyway?" Thalia asked, gaping like a fish.

"That is something I would also like to hear", Artemis said, approaching the duo. Seeing him, Percy immediately straightened up, bowed and said, "Um...I killed the monsters because they were becoming too much for your Hunt."

Artemis narrowed her eyes. She didn't like the fact that someone was talking about her Hunt in a negative manner, even if it was true; especially if it was true.

"Where have you been all this time?" She tried again, using a milder tone. Diplomacy is good, right?

"I would tell you, but it would actually be a very long tale, and I am sure that all the Olympians would

also like to hear all about it. So I think it would be of greater use if I were to tell my tale in front of all of them."

"You are quite full of your importance, aren't you?" she sneered.

"Not at all. We can call it being well informed about the internal affairs of Olympus and leave it at that." He replied, quite calmly.

"I could just kill you for making such demands. Don't you know that?"

"Yes, you could. Go ahead if you like. I have seen a fair share of the evil in this world and wouldn't mind too much being sundered from it."

Artemis was beyond infuriated by this point. However, before she could do anything, another golden light shimmered into existence in front of them, and Hestia materialized from it.

"Tut, tut Perseus. You are taking too much fun in this conversation. You should show the proper respect to an Olympian goddess." She said with a small smile

"Yes, my Lady." Percy quickly bowed, turned back and said, "Lady Artemis, I apologise for my previous words..."

Artemis was, however, looking at Hestia in shock. She seemed to have known where Percy was all these years. Why had she not chosen to tell the Council then? And by the appearance of things, she had also taken Perseus as her champion. That would be a first, but it would also explain the flaming arrows...where the Hades had he learned such archery, anyway? She remembered some of the demigods talking about his archery being so poor that he couldn't shoot a target to save his life.

Artemis came back to the present and immediately reddened. It looked as if Perseus was finished with his apology, and was looking at her for a reply. She sighed, "Yes, Perseus...You are forgiven."

"So, let's be off to the Council Meeting, shall we?" Hestia held out her hand, as Percy grabbed it. As Artemis and they shimmered away from the spot, Percy looked at Thalia's murderous glare and with a chuckle, shouted, "Sorry Thals...explanations later." The Hunters looked at the spot from where the trio had disappeared and wondered that what exactly had transpired over the last few moments.

A/N: If you're confused, then let's make this clear. Percy didn't vanish for five years after the defeat of Kronos. He came back sometime later, but not in the notice of Gods other than Hestia. Why? You'll see in the next chapter. Many questions will be answered, while others will remain. Don't we all love a little mystery? Yes we do.