Chapter Five: The Strangers
Thalia's POV
"They're suppose to be here," Thalia said, her electric blue eyes gleaming with annoyance.
"Who?" Annabeth asked. Her whole demeanor screamed, tell me!
"You weren't told," Thalia muttered under her breath. She looked up at her friend. "Lady Artemis told me the Olympians had asked for help in the war."
"What? When? Where?" Once a daughter of Athena, always a daughter of Athena. Thalia might as well help her friend out before she exploded or something.
"I don't know everything, Annabeth." She reminded her. "But a week ago, at least, the Olympians asked for help, from an outside force."
"Do you know who?"
"No," Thalia shook her head. "That's all I know."
"Thalia!" a familiar voice called, before Annabeth could reply.
Thalia turned to see a fellow Hunter, Phoebe, donned in silver, her bow notched and ready in her hands approach them. "Her army. They're coming. We've slowed them down some. They're too strong."
Thalia clenched her teeth together, making her bow appear in her hands and a quiver on her back. She flashed Annabeth a serious glance, saying: "Request backup. ASAP."
And she and Phoebe were off. They ran like the wind, literally, dodging trees, leaping over fallen branches and logs. Shades of green reflected off her blue eyes as she and her friend through the woods. The two Hunters were like streaks of silver.
"Not much further," she heard Phoebe say.
And she was right. Nimble figures donned in silver hid among the trees, firing hundreds of arrows at hellhounds, telekhines, dracaena, and a couple giants- all assortments of different shapes and sizes.
Thalia knew the Hunters were failing by how things looked. She notched an arrow, letting it fly and decapitate the nearest monster, now a golden pile of dust spread on the ground.
She didn't pause in her actions, not even a moment, notching another arrow and letting it go.
The Hunters struck back with renewed force. Hundreds of arrows flew to pierce the air in seconds. Monsters were turning into dust like a thunderstorm. But some other lucky ones remained- the ones that wore full body armor, deadly weapons at their waists. They didn't seem at all phased by the arrows, or Hunters alike. It seemed they only ignored the maidens, pushing the arrows aside. Thalia growled at the sight.
She would show them. She brought out her old spear, raising it high above her head.
"Zeus!" she yelled, a lightning bolt flashing out of the sky, and bouncing off her spear. It struck an armored dracaena, pushing it back a few feet. It lay still on the ground, like it was dead.
The bolt killed it? No; it didn't turn into dust.
The dracaena hissed, a low, melodic sound, getting up off the ground. It resumed its place among the giants. The other monsters followed suit.
There was a clear, piercing sound in the air: the call of a hunting horn. Thalia recognized it immediately.
She and the other Hunters drew back from the gaining monsters as two flames of light flew through the sky right toward them. One a pure green, the other a darker shade of the same color, almost black.
No... It couldn't be.
The streaks of light crashed into the ground with a reverberating force of energy that commanded every living being draw back from them. Thalia wasn't scared of much, but she found herself stepping back from the figures, not because of fear, but because of the amount of power they possessed. It was inhumane, even for some of the gods.
The auras didn't completely fade from the figures. It stuck to them like a second skin, some of it evaporating in waves and into the air, like it was too much for their bodies to hold.
The taller figure, male, was lean and muscular in frame. His face was unreadable, for the first time in Thalia's life. He had black-as-night hair and eyes that seemed to calculate your every move. He was donned not with the casual jeans and t-shirt, but with a black cape that blew silently behind him even though there was no wind. He had pants made out of a dark material not recognizable and what looked like (you guessed it) black combat boots. He held two wicked knives in his hands.
The second figure, shorter than the first, had the same slender frame, but clearly female. Both figures shared the ebony colored hair, but the female's reached to the middle of her back. Her eyes weren't the same kind of calculating, like the male's, but they were still, well, calculating. She was donned with, what Thalia could see, assassin's clothes. Like the male, she wore combat boots. At her waist was a sword Thalia had never seen before: three feet of shining silver metal that matched beautifully with the hilt, a truly one of a kind inky hold. Thalia could tell it was handcrafted only for the female. The workmanship was simply exquisite.
Time seemed to speed up. The male muttered something along the lines of, "Go ahead," and the female was gone.
Thalia might have wondered where she went but, luckily, she didn't have to. She could see the female, a blur at how fast she was going, attack the army of monsters. Her fighting style, Thalia noticed, was unlike anything she had ever seen. No matter what the female didn't stop moving; she didn't take one incorrect step as she fought. The female struck every monster in the correct chink, turning it to golden dust right on the spot, even the hellhounds. Thalia didn't even know hellhounds could turn to dust. They would always escape into the shadows before she could finish them off.
In what seemed like mere seconds, the performance was over. The female sheathed her sword and made her way back to the male.
"One minute, twenty-nine seconds," the male told her. "Congratulations, Artemis."
Artemis? This 'Artemis' didn't look anything like Lady Artemis. It wasn't possible.
'Artemis' frowned. "Could be better," she decided, completely ignoring the gaping Hunters.
It was now or never. Thalia voiced the question everyone must have been thinking. "Who are you?"
The figures turned to look at Thalia. "Who are we?" the male mused in interest. "Well, that's what we all want to know, isn't it?
"We are part of the First Creator, Lord Chaos's force. We bring peace within the galaxies. And we have been sent as allies, not enemies, for aid in the war," he finished, hastily adding: "You may put your bows down."
Thalia was speechless, to say the least. Why would someone name their daughter Artemis? And more importantly, why would the Olympians ask for help? They were too proud to admit anything, these days...
"Uh, Artemis?" Thalia asked, grabbing the female's attention. "Why's your name the same as-"
"The Olympian Artemis?" Artemis interrupted. Thalia nodded.
Artemis looked up at the male. In return he only shook his head. Artemis caught Thalia's eyes. "You'll know eventually."
"We're to meet with the others," the male said. "At your camp, Camp Half-Blood."
"It's not our camp," a Hunter protested. "We don't associate with those males." There was a chorus of "yeah!" and heads nodding.
The male, in turn, seemed not at all mad by their behavior. "My apologies," he said humbly. "Their camp, Camp Half-Blood."
"Indeed," a soft glow of silver light revealed the goddess of the Hunt, Artemis. She was in her twelve-year-old form, a silver bow in her hands. She looked at Thalia. "We'll escort them to Camp."
"As you wish, my Lady," Thalia replied. She turned to the rest of the Hunters. "Let's go."
The Hunters, in Thalia's opinion, were inhumanly fast, since they had received Lady Artemis's blessing, of course. But 'Artemis' and the male kept up just fine. Fine meaning their breaths didn't even come out labored. If anything, they weren't putting any real effort into it. It reminded Thalia of that Leo Valdez many, many years ago. He was the exact opposite of them.
But seriously, how did they keep up? It just wasn't possible. Yet, so many things weren't today.
Beyond the trees appeared a small hill, and Thalia's pine. Well, her pine. And beyond that stood Camp Half-Blood. They passed through the boundary, Thalia could feel it, before stopping in their pace.
The campers began to surround them. In the back of the crowd stood two other figures, one male and the other female, each as mysterious as the male and 'Artemis'. They too had on distinguished black garb and combat boots.
Some of the males were staring at the Hunters with expressions that made Thalia want to kick them where the sun didn't shine. Idiots...
The male and Artemis stood talking to the other figures. It was silent, really, from them.
Annabeth met with Thalia. "They came with you?"
"Yeah," Thalia answered. "Didn't catch the male's name. Female's is Artemis."
"The goddess?" Annabeth was puzzled.
"No," Thalia took a deep breath. "As crazy as it sounds, someone decided to name their child Artemis."
Annabeth nodded her head at the other two figures. "They wouldn't say their names. Only what their job is."
"They're part of Lord Chaos's force."
Annabeth looked at the four figures for a moment. "They're all so serious," she commented.
"They're prodigies in battle."
"Like... Luke prodigy?"
"Better."
Before Annabeth could respond, the twelve Olympians appeared in all their glory. All the talking between the campers and Hunters was silenced as they stared at the mortal-sized gods before them.
Zeus was the first to talk. "We thank you again for aid in the war against Gaea."
"Please," the male spoke with a hint of jarring poison weaved through his words. "Spare the thanks for our master. We're widely aware of your selfish actions. We don't need you to act with fake kindness while we're around."
"But we're not acting with fake kindness-" Lord Poseidon was cut off again by the same male.
"Save it, Poseidon," he said, obvious hate in his eyes. "We know exactly what you did." Why wasn't he getting punished for back-talking to and interrupting the gods?
Poseidon stayed quiet after that. How could a person will the God of the Seas quiet like that?
"At least tell us your names." Zeus said, changing the subject.
"We cannot," the male replied. Thalia was beginning to think he was leader or something. "Lord Chaos has ordered us not."
"So we can remember the war," Lord Hades suggested. "Properly."
"Lord Chaos has ordered," the male repeated his words. "I'm not one to defy his orders."
"Indeed," a man stepped out of a swirling portal. He wore a cape similar to the figures' leader's. A powerful dark aura rolled off of him in waves.
Thalia saw the four figures instantly kneel, their weapons forgotten on the ground in front of them. Their voices joined into one as they spoke: "My Lord Chaos."
Chaos nodded absently in their direction. "I am known as the First Creator, the Father of the Universe, the All-Knowing, The Eternal, the-" he sighed. "Well, you get the gist of it. I am Chaos."
Thalia's father seemed actually scared. "The Chaos?" He sputtered out.
Chaos nodded. "Correct. That Chaos."
Thalia couldn't help but think they had done something terribly wrong to offend Chaos and his mysterious warriors. If this was the Chaos, then he could make someone violently explode with a single snap of his fingers. He had created entire galaxies, this Chaos. The least Thalia could do was show some respect to him.
Even though it felt wrong, she sunk down to one knee. She could almost feel Lord Chaos's eyes staring at her. This position felt foreign to her, but she remained tall and still. She didn't want Lord Chaos to get the wrong impression of Camp Half-Blood, and especially of the Hunters.
In the tense silence, she could hear weapons being thrust down. She didn't have to turn around to see what was going on; she already knew. The campers and Hunters had followed Thalia's example. The silence grew after that.
Chaos looked at the gods, frowning. "You almost started a war within your only-responding ally. May I remind you: without us, you'd be nothing. Choose wisely what words come out of your mouth, as I cannot control my soldiers as firmly as you your own children."
Not even the gods dared speak. Chaos's form flickered for a moment, almost like a bad frequency. "I cannot stay any longer. My presence is affecting your Earth."
And just like that, without any flashy tricks, Chaos was gone.