AN: I spent plenty of time with my mortal brother, but not enough time with my Olympian mother.

Artemis did the same thing I always did when a teacher asked me a question that I didn't want to answer: she chuckled nervously and said "What?"

"Can I join your Hunters?" I repeated, more excited this time. "Think about it! It makes sense. That way, you could go on with your normal activities and I would be close enough for you to keep an eye on me!"

She frowned. "But why would you want join my Hunters? Didn't they kidnap you at some

point?"

I smiled. "Ah, the good old days. Yeah, they may have kidnapped me, but that was your fault for ignoring them. You can't just ignore a problem to make it go away."

She snorted. "Trust me, I know."

Ouch.

"So," I continued, ignoring the insult "think about it. It makes sense. Plus, I'm pretty sure I get immortality in the bargain.

As soon as the word passed my lips, I knew I had made a terrible mistake.

"I-immortality?" she stammered, looking more panicked than I had ever seen her look. "You'd live forever? You would always be there, making sarcastic comments and constantly getting into bad situations that I have to bail you out of? No. Never. I would rather spend a year in the Fields of Punishment."

"What?" I half-chuckled, nothing but fiery rage in my eyes. "You want me to die?"

Her hesitation was all the answer I needed. I flexed my arm, didn't feel any pain, and lunged at her.

Now kids, I can look back and identify the four worst decisions in my life so far.

1- In second grade, I traded my shiny Charizard pokemon card to a kid for an ice cream

from the school's cafeteria.

2- My dad let me borrow his iPhone and I let one of my friends (yes, I do (did?) have friends) play with it. They dropped it, shattering the screen.

3- Not moving or dodging when Artemis had the arrow pointed at me.

4- What happened next.

She had been caught off guard, so she couldn't vaporize me immediately, but she was still a trained fighter with centuries upon centuries of practice.

Jumping up from her chair, she watched as I crashed into the chair in which she had been sitting. Pain burst from my chin as I whacked it against the wooden back of the chair.

"Emily, stop. You have to admit that you don't exactly make my life easy!" she tried (and failed) to defend herself.

Getting up gingerly, I didn't yell at her or flip her off. I did something much more idiotic.

I ran at her again.

Over the course of the last few weeks, Artemis and I had been clashing time and time again. She got her frustration out by, well, mauling me with a sword, but this was my therapy session.

I rammed into her, and immediately agreed with Ward when he said it was like charging into a brick wall. She looked down at me with pity in her eyes, and it drove me insane.

"Why. Do. You. Have. To. Be. So. Freaking. Strong?" I yelled, accentuating each word with a fruitless attempt to knock her down.

Finally, exhausted, I collapsed on the bed. After I had calmed down, she walked up to my side.

"So it's decided. You can't join the Hunters. If you had a lapse of control like that in a battle, you'd get yourself seriously hurt, and maybe even someone else. I can't take that risk." she said, shaking her head.

I sat up angrily, but also slightly sleepily "You can't be serious! I'll- I'll tell the mortal race about you!"

Her eyes darkened dangerously. "I'll have you locked in an insane asylum faster than you can cough."

I paled slightly. "So, you've made your final decision?" She nodded. "Fine."

And I stood up, and walked out the door.

For some reason, Artemis didn't try to stop me, so I just followed the path Apollo had carried me down after the explosion.

Even the hallways of Olympus were majestic, with beautiful tapestries adorning almost every square inch of the walls. I noticed a water fountain that looked rather out of place until I saw someone drink a golden liquid from it.

Finally, I got to the huge double-doors that led into the throne room. On the wall next to them read this sign:

"For the preservation of this room for the long years of your reign (let them be many) please refrain from using your true forms, and/or exploding. Thank you for your courtesy."

And I walked inside, and beheld a curious scene.

"But daddy, I hate her! She's been nothing but mean to me ever since she was born! And now that daughter of hers goes out of her way to embarrass me! It's not fair!"

I around one of the large thrones, and saw Aphrodite sitting on Zeus's lap, sobbing into his shoulder.

Zeus, to his credit, looked bored and slightly annoyed at the complaining, so I gathered the courage and walked out where they could see me.

"My lord and my lady," I said, bowing down respectfully just to mess with Aphrodite. "I apologize for intruding on you in this insolent manner, but I have a request to make in the behalf of lord Zeus."

Aphrodite immediately made her face look normal (aka not all red and puffy with crying) and jumped down from his lap. "Your request is denied. Get out of my sight before I curse you." she snarled, walking up to me.

I stayed where I was. "Respectfully, my lady, I was speaking to lord Zeus."

She turned bright red and stalked off, not leaving like I thought she would, but rather sitting in her throne like a sulky 9 year-old.

Zeus looked amused. "Please continue."

I took a deep breath. "You are aware, of course, that my mother has a band of girls that follow her? Well, I want to join, but she won't accept me for no good reason. Please, convince her to be reasonable."

"Now why would I do that, little one? Artemis is already mad enough that I ordered her not to kill you. This will just push her over the edge, where she has a pretty permanent residence." Zeus said, shaking his head. Normally, I would have reacted to the "little one" comment, but even I know better than to mess with Zeus.

"But, this makes sense. If I'm immortal, then Artemis doesn't have to keep saving me, so she would complain less. And, if I was always on missions with Artemis, I wouldn't harass Aphrodite as much! And, Artemis couldn't kill me, even if she tried! It works for everyone!" I explained eagerly, coming up with reasons as I spoke.

Zeus frowned. "She could still kill you. It's only if you don't die in battle that the immortality kicks in. You don't age and you can't get sick, but she can still maim you. And you guys always fight with each other. Why would you want to spend more time with her?"

"Well, immortality and super strength." I didn't really have better reasons than those. Immortality is pretty pronking sweet.

Zeus laughed. "You'll regret this. But you deserve to be able to make your own mistakes. Artemis."

He said the name normally, but Artemis seemed to hear him wherever she was, and she appeared in the room.

She took one look at me and her aura turned a bright, angry silver.

"Yes?" she asked, and I could feel her anger and suspicion through our link.

"Your daughter here has brought something to my attention. You are not letting her join your hunters?"

Artemis turned to look at me, gaping. "YOU TOLD MY DAD ON ME? You spoiled, insolent, obnoxious, tattle-taling, low-life-"

"Artemis!"

She blushed. "Sorry father. And I don't know why she bothered you with this small problem. This was something that should have been settled between us. If you'll excuse us, I'll take care of it in private."

I snorted. "You can try. Everything you do to me, you feel. But, yeah. Go nuts."

Artemis growled, and started to blur around the edges.

Zeus's eyes flashed. "Artemis. Control yourself in my presence, or I will become angry."

Artemis immediately stopped blurring, and I could see how hard it was for her to control herself.

"Good. Now, I command you to allow Emily to join your hunters. If you refuse, I will be severely displeased."

Artemis's lip twitched, but she lowered her head respectfully. "As you wish, sir."

Zeus frowned, but nodded. "Excellent. You two, dismissed."

Artemis gripped my shoulder and dragged me out before I could thank Zeus. As I was pulled out, I noticed Aphrodite smiling faintly.

What was Aphrodite up to? Some evil new plan involving the hunters?

I was jolted out of my contemplative mood by Artemis throwing me into a nearby wall.

"What the (Ancient Greek mean words) were you thinking? That I wouldn't figure out that you had gone behind my back? To my father? You're lucky that I haven't killed you yet!" she roared, standing over me as I slowly got to my feet.

"Well, I'm sick of always being the victim! It's ridiculous! This way, when Ares or someone tries to mess with me, I can send them back where they came from. Please, just give me a chance."

She didn't speak, and I could feel her indecision and still-large amount of anger through our bond.

Finally, "You can't go through initiation until the two months are over. Bones will be broken, and I don't want to have to put up with that. You will refer to me as Lady Artemis or other respectful titles. Call me mom or anything like it and I will throw you into a lake. You may be my daughter, but Thalia is my lieutenant and you will listen to her. Any questions?"

I was wondering about the initiation she mentioned, but now didn't seem like the time to ask. "Nope. I'm ready."

"Good." she said, and for some reason she teleported us to a park instead of a camp. "Before you go in, you need a brief history. The titan's latest revolution changed a lot of things. Before, I accepted any maiden who vowed to forsake men. Now, my standards have gotten stricter. You must pass a series of trials, designed to see if you are worthy. My father may have forced me to let you join, but I will make your life a living underworld" Wait, isn't that impossible? "if you don't take this seriously. And if you reveal our link to anyone, I'll viciously maim them and you. So, your first test is to find the camp. Good luck."

She rested her hand on my shoulder for a brief second, and I could see that she meant good luck in general. Either that or she had something in her eye.

She disappeared, leaving me alone on a park bench, regretting my decision for the first time (this chapter). The sun was setting, and I sat there, enjoying the peaceful moment.

Until I realized that I had no idea of where the pronking camp was.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-

"Apollo?" I said nervously into the Iris cam. "Are you there?" It was totally dark, and I didn't think that was normal.

I heard a low groan and a ball of white-hot flames appeared, searing my retinas.

"Oh satyr. Sorry Emily! Are you okay?" I heard Apollo ask apologetically.

"Yeah, I'm fine. My eye will heal." I said, rubbing my poor, tortured sockets. "I need some help, if you aren't too busy."

"Sure. Need some poetry to win your man over? Need me to 'accidentally' wound him so you have to nurse him back to health? Need me to-"

I chuckled. "Nothing like that. Actually, the opposite. I'm joining Artemis's hunters, and I can't find the camp." The black spots went away gradually, just in time for me to see Apollo gaping at me in horror.

"Why on earth would you do that? You wouldn't be able to see Ward anymore! Are you really willing to give up men forever? Some of them are almost as hot as I am!" he said insistently.

I frowned. "Well, I can just quit later on, when I'm ready to get married. Can you please tell me how to get there?"

Apollo sighed and put his head in his hands. His golden hair was messy, and I could see his blue bed sheets in the light of the much more reasonable flame he made float beside him.

"Isn't that your first task? Just release your inner power and reach out for her. Sorry I can't help you more, but you'll have enough trouble getting the girls to like you without adding this too."

Wait, what?

"What do you mean I'll have trouble getting the girls to like me? Once I'm in, I'm in, right?" I asked, positive he was going to smile and admit that he was joking.

Apollo shook his head. "They will make your life miserable until you gain their acceptance. Trust me, I'm the god of prophecy. I know these things. But I won't send you in defenseless. Here. Take this," A simple gold ring appeared on the ground, and I reached down to pick it up. "Wear it. Turn it on your finger 3 times and I'll come get you, no matter where you are. It only works once so don't waste it. Well, I need some sleep. Good luck, Emily."

And he swiped his hand through the IM, dissolving it into little wisps.

I put the ring on, and it felt warm an powerful. Knowing that it was probably frowned upon, I decided to not tell anyone about my precious...

Back to my mission.

Normally I tried to repress my new influx of Artemis's emotions, but now I delved into them to try to locate the source.

Suddenly, I felt confident and powerful. I knew these were Artemis's feelings, but our bond was pretty strong, so the line between what was hers and what was mine started to blur a little bit.

With my eyes still closed, I took off running towards the source of the strength.

I quickly realized that running with my eyes shut is the stupidest idea I have had in a while.

One bruised ego and a short run later, the emotions were getting more and more powerful.

I knew I was close to camp, so I stopped by a little creek and splashed some water on my face, doubting I would get the chance later.

Leaning down to drink some water, I almost didn't notice the huge, white wolf steadily padding towards me.

Needless to say, I screamed something like "Cousin Abby, why?" (Get it? We are both Wolfs... Ehh never mind)" and took off sprinting into the forest, with the wolf (who was mist definitely not my favorite cousin) snapping at my heels.

Thinking quickly, I lunged to the left and scaled a large pine tree to get away from the wolf's sharp fangs.

I realized that maybe this wasn't the best choice when my arms were drenched in tree sap, and small scratches covered my arms and face. The large white wolf (who I shall not bother to name) sat at the base if the tree and howled up at me, to my dismay.

Perching on a branch of dubious strength, I settled in to wait for the beast to leave, which I assumed would be in a couple minutes.

Minutes turned into hours, and my patience started to run thin.

Just when I was ready to jump and land on the dog, however, it sniffed once and then ran away.

I heard a sharp twang and the next thing I knew, I was tumbling through the tree, hitting branch after branch after branch.

It seemed the branches had slowed my fall enough to not instantly kill me, but it still hurt like Hades to get up and stumble towards the new emotion, one I was in too much pain to recognize.

Finally, I stumbled into a clearing, and I heard a sharp whistle and about a dozen teenage girls jumped out of the surrounding trees, all of them armed with bows of various colors.

It was pretty dark, and most of them were wearing a dark gray so it was kinda hard to see who everybody was.

I recognized Thalia (who was wearing her silver circlet) and she gave me a brief smile before scowling and ordering me to get on my knees with my hands above my head.

Gritting my teeth, I did so, wincing when I bent over.

Then Artemis walked out of the woods from behind Thalia and said "That will do. Thank you. And look who we have here girls. Our newest recruit. About time she got here, don't you think?" Artemis said, obviously poking fun at me for their cruel amusement.

The other girls laughed, and I realized just how hard it would be for me to make friends here.

She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, so I said, "I am sorry for the inconvenience.

There was a slight altercation with a large white wolf, and that took up some time."

For some reason, snickers and giggles exploded on every side.

"A white wolf you say? Huh. That sure is strange, isn't it girls?" Artemis said, and I could feel her amusement building up through our link. "I wonder how it found her."

Then it hit me. Thalia was looking at me with a mixture of amusement and pity, and Artemis was blatantly grinning at me.

"You sent a wolf after me? Why the... flip would you do that?" At my words everyone burst into laughter, and Artemis waved her hand, making a screen appear in mid air.

I got to see myself sprint away and up a tree, to the demonic giggles of the other girls.

Now, I think I had handled everything so far extremely well for someone who has always had trouble controlling herself, but, for some reason, this was too much.

I leapt to my feet with murder in my eyes. My aura started glowing an angry silver but I had only taken one step towards Artemis before a burst if electricity hit me in the skull.

Weird pinks and greens appeared in my mind and my vision went blurry.

I could distantly feel myself fall to the ground, and I heard Artemis order someone to carry me to... And then I passed out.

-/-

I awoke sometime later to a pounding, pulsing headache in my forehead and the inability to move.

"Wha?" I asked, still in my sleepy time fog. I could see a fuzzy object in front of me, and my vision cleared and revealed that Phoebe was once again my captor.

"Morning." she said from her chair. I looked around and remembered what had happened last night, with the fury and embarrassment I had been forced to undergo and the lightning bolt to my head.

"Let me up. Now." I ordered Phoebe, try to escape the ropes that tied me to the cot.

My hands were tied to the side of the bed, and my feet were tied together, so it didn't really work.

"Sorry. Artemis told me to wait for her. Plus, if you were to take one step outside, you'd have so many arrows in you that you'd probably be mistaken for a porcupine.

I sighed in defeat. "Fine. When can I leave then?"

"Whenever Artemis comes. That's our policy with potential threats. She'll come interrogate you, and then you'll go free."

"Any chance you are allowed to feed me?" I asked hopefully, my stomach growling at that precise instant.

She shook her head, and I leaned back and waited.

And waited and waited.

Finally, just when I was going to say something, Phoebe leapt to her feet and bowed as Artemis and Thalia strolled in, chatting between themselves.

"Well, well. What have we here? Phoebe, Thalia, leave us." Without a word, they left, bowing low.

Which left me burning with hatred at the goddess who was in the tent.

"You have to learn to control yourself better. I can't let them know about our link. That outburst of yours was poorly planned and potentially disastrous. If anyone had noticed, you know what I would have had to do."

For a brief second, I was speechless with fury. "'Control myself better'? You sent a freaking wolf after me just so your little band of girl scouts would forget that fact that you ditched them for me! I can't believe you would do that to me. Actually, I can. It's just up your alley."

She gave me a leveled look.

"It was either that or let them kill you. See? Do you see why I didn't want you to join? You don't belong here!"

And with that icy stake driven into my soul, she walked out of the room, leaving me alone and unable to leave.

I slouched back into the cot angrily, and didn't even hear Thalia enter until she asked, "What link?"

Oh. Oh dearie me.

AN2: So, instead of my usual "I hope you enjoyed this chapter" spiel, I have a question for you. What is your favorite part of the story? What do you read the story for? And no, this isn't just a little ego-boost for me (but it is that too haha). Tell me in a review, or PM me, whatever. Thanks for sticking to my story through all the ups and downs. Happy New Years! PS: 186