AN: Hello, I hope you are having fun. The scenes here in all italics are memories. I don't understand what was on my mind when I wrote them, but they must have some kind of significant value. So whatever, I'm not editing them out. Thank you for reading, have a nice day! ~SmartzyFan

Chapter 6: Harshness Overload: Truth and Training

"I.." she gritted her teeth in frustration.

Her lieutenant raised a prying eyebrow. "Well?"

Artemis bit her lip. She felt a trickle of blood trail down her chin, and onto the boar skin carpet. It came as an ugly blotch of dirty gold. Those bright steely eyes were swallowing up her resolve. Telling her that she had to tell her trusted lieutenant the truth.

She was a goddess. So of course, she won't lose.

"Well, what?" was her short reply. She tried hard to be nonchalant.

"What about it?" her lieutenant was frowning at her, trying to figure her out. Possibly also wondering why she wanted to stray from the subject. Or stall.

"What's about what?" the moon goddess replied back with her own question, feigning ignorance. But her posture was visibly tense, and her jaw was tight. Her eyes were tainted with desperation.

Thalia furrowed her eyebrows in frustration. Her mistress obviously knows what they were talking about, and knows what's about it. She just didn't want to talk about it, and it made the daughter of Zeus want to know it more. She knew pushing the goddess to answer her question was dangerous—dangerous as in you might get turned into a shish-kebab or a horned rabbit or both. She sighed inwardly, defeated. Oh well, it'd be worth a shot.

"Why—why did you leave, back at the throne room? And you looked like—like Annabeth when she talks about Percy," she forced the words out, and she could see the effect of it all on the goddess. She was nervous, Thalia could see that, but what was there to be nervous about?

"Because.. Because.." Artemis struggled to find words. She still hadn't thought of what to say. She quickly thought it over, even if the thing to do was very, very clear. This was a daughter of Zeus, as was she. She could've told her father immediately, but she didn't and chose the son of Poseidon. Was she feeling anything; any guilt or anxiety because she didn't tell her father this? No. She chose him. Would Thalia choose him too?

Of course she would. She, Artemis, one of Zeus' most faithful daughters, even chose him over the god of lightning. What was she saying then, if she knew that Thalia, his closest friend, cousin, and sister, would do the same as her older half-sister? Perhaps, telling the truth would be ideal—

"It's a reason I'd rather not share with you," she brushed it off, rather dismissively. Not better to relent, anyway.

Thalia frowned suddenly. She had assumed that her mistress was going to give in. Her jaw was going slack and her eyes held resignation. What goes? "Why not?" she asked, gently, as to pose that she wasn't that all bothered by her response. "Why wouldn't you? What is it?"

It was as if each of her questions was a separate slap to the face. The goddess was flinching, as if it hurt. As if every question hurt.

She shook her head. "Nothing, really," she said, making a weak effort to change the subject. "I've heard that the other hunters were the first ones here. You stayed back with our new recruit. Where've you been?"

The demigod daughter of Zeus looked like she wanted to push more into the previous conversation they had, but answered back politely. "We fixed the thing between the Greeks and Romans. They're good now," she replied warily. "Now, what was it really? Did you dream something good? I swear I won't tell anyone."

Really good, Artemis thought to herself, recalling the reunion they had. It wasn't the ideal reunion that she'd imagined, but it was better than nothing at all. He had told her his secrets—secrets that were very much forbidden for the whole world to see, and only he himself was allowed to know, including the ancient gods around him. He had told her (maybe accidentally) his feelings towards the heartbreak he experienced, when he found out just then that the girl he loved had sworn off love and men. It was like he gave her his own identity that night.

It felt good to know that probably the only man you have ever loved trusted you the most, and yet he was in love with someone else. Even if he didn't mean to share his heart to you at his darkest moment. Even if he didn't know that you love him.

She drew herself from her thoughts, and looked up at her lieutenant. Her eyes were wide, and Artemis thought what had been wrong. Slowly, Thalia composed herself, and cleared her throat uneasily. "Um, never mind, Lady Artemis. If you don't like to share it, I respect your decision," she said, chuckling nervously. "I, uh, guess I'll help Annabeth familiarize in the hunt, then."

With a small wave, the lieutenant left the tent hurriedly. The goddess of the hunt didn't seem to find this unusual; maybe her lieutenant was really into showing her best friend the life of a Hunter of Artemis. She sighed in relief, thankful that her suspicious half-sister had guessed that she wasn't into talking about it.

Speaking of it, she wondered what he was doing right now..

Percy emerged from the meditation room, completely exhausted. That... thing he'd done, surprisingly took a lot out of him, when he thought it would only pass him out.

Yeah, he thinks like that.

He walked, rather stumbled, to the elemental training room, also called Geo-Simulator. Whatever the last word means; all he knows that geo meant 'earth', so naturally he expected Gaea to be the one in charge of it. And he expected that the training room was some kind of forest or mountain or tundra, since, you know, every landform has its own elements within it. Well, typically, he didn't know what a tundra was.

What he didn't expect was that the room was really a room. A blank, with smooth white walls, hospital room with absolutely nothing in it. There was no opening around him, so he wondered how he could still breathe properly and not suffocate on his own saliva when someone spoke behind him.

"Finally you're here," the voice yawned, and he turned around to see a familiar god.

He was dark-haired, with green eyes so bright it was almost yellow. It reminded Percy of the waters near some beaches, where they were not polluted with any kind of filth whatsoever. He wore a dark blue muscle shirt which showed his muscular abs that made Percy envious despite himself.

But while the top half was bare, he'd wanted to admit that his lower half was intimidating. His jeans looked so heavy that he wondered how it held up like that, in spite of not having a belt to lock it in place. Hanging on the belt loops were sheathed twin swords, and both hummed with power. On the length of the pant legs, daggers and throwing knives were littered like jewel decorations. Some chains surrounded them, as though locking them in place, but even they looked... movable. Across his back was a... a spear, only the head looked strange. It was like a cross of a trident and a scythe. And of course, his all-powerful trident. How could he forget.

"Lord Pontus," he greeted, bowing respectfully. This was the real god of the sea. Although neither of them liked bowing, Percy had to—he felt like he had to. The guy could probably toss him around the room using only hand gestures. How awesome is that?

"Oh cut the crap Percy, we both know that you and I hate that thing," the sea god grinned, and pulled the son of Poseidon to his feet. "I should be the one bowing to you, 'cause, you know, even Lady Chaos says so that she would if only you'd allow her." He shrugged as if it was no biggie, but Percy went wide-eyed at the statement. "And you're going to be our new Lord of the Universe! Ain't that awesome?"

The heir nodded numbly, unable to speak. Was he that worthy of a hero? That even the creator—the Creator would want to bow to him? As if reading his mind, Pontus clapped him in the back, shaking his head.

"Come on, Perce, you should know better than that," he chided light-heartedly. "Of course you're worthy! Heck, you even stole the heart of—"

He stopped abruptly, cursing himself silently for saying too much. Oh, why ruin the fun? The boy was too oblivious for his own good. It would be rather amusing to watch. He was so excited to train this boy; he had so much potential. And when he comes back, BAM! He'll meet her again, and what'll happen? She slaps him, hurts him, and then admit to him what she felt. Then he'd be there, seeing the boy's face. It would be perfect blackmail material.

He almost forgot that the boy was still in front of him. Percy didn't seem to notice the slip; thank Chaos he was dense. But soon he got over his shock and looked at the god. "Alright, so how do we train?" Before he could answer, he added, "And can we train a little bit later? I'm exhausted."

Pontus rolled his eyes. "Fine. While I explain to you how we train, you could sit and rest." Before he could even blink, the son of Poseidon was on his back, eagle-spread. He was groaning as you hear his neck crack from the stiffness. He then sighed. "Better. Now," he lifted his head to look up at him, as he was still where he was before. "How do we train in," he gestured around the blank room. "This place?"

He had asked that before his head dropped back to the floor with a thud, resulting a small 'ow'. Pontus stared at his lying form pointedly. "I told you to sit, not lay down."

The son of Poseidon shrugged his shoulders. "Doesn't matter."

The sea god sighed in defeat. "I'm gonna have to get used to you," he grumbled under his breath, which, thankfully, the teenager didn't hear. "What were you doing, anyway?"

"I talked to someone in their mind. Who was in a place a biiiiiillion light years from here," he replied, dragging out the word. "It was cool. I thought I was gonna pass out."

"You'll get used to it eventually," the god replied. "Now, about how we train.." he trailed off for some reason.

"Yeah?"

When he didn't reply, Percy sat up grumbling, and turned his head around. He saw that Pontus was muttering inaudible things to himself while messing with some kind of console that appeared out of nowhere. Then again, he thought everything solid here appears out of nowhere.

"What's that?" he asked, but was silenced when the blank room suddenly turned into a white sand beach. He looked behind him, and saw the transparent ocean waves lapping over the shore. The sand was as white as it could be. Out of sheer delight, he slid down the beach, feeling the soft sand over his toes. He touched the warm water, instantly invigorated.

"Ain't she awesome?" the sea god said from behind him. Percy could only nod. Then he stood up, forgetting his exhaustion, and spun on his heel to face the sea god. "So how do we train?"

Pontus smiled; the boy really did want to get this over with to come back as soon as possible. Let's just see what happens to his enthusiasm when they start.

"Now, we train with this," he said, taking off the spear on his back and tossing it to him. The son of Poseidon caught it with two hands. And as though his reactions were too slow, he almost dropped it to the ground after a second. "Gods of the Void!" he exclaimed without thinking.

He froze. "Wait. Where'd that come from?"

Pontus grinned, showing off his pearly white teeth. "Awesome; you're getting used to Void-speak, Percy," he praised. "In no time, you'll be speaking like you came from another planet. Literally."

The son of the sea god stared at him, looking a bit incredulous and fearful. "So I'll get to speak alien?" He made a face.

The god shrugged carelessly. "Maybe. But Chaos'll teach you that soon enough," he brushed it off and turned to look at the son of Poseidon seriously. "Now, do you know what kind of weapon that is?" He was gesturing to the strange-looking spear.

"Um," Percy looked down at the heavy weight in his hands. Up close, he could see that another spear tip fashioned into an L-shape was protruding from the scythe-blade. "A two-tipped scythe-trident?"

"Yes. To put it lightly," Pontus answered. "But technically, the correct term is fauchard."

The son of Poseidon planted the bottom of the shaft in the sand. It stuck like a flag on the moon. "It sounds.." He glanced at the sharp, glinting tips of the blade. He gulped. "And looks violent."

The god nodded, looking at the upright blade appraisingly. "It is. Wicked show you'd put once you master that."

The heir grinned at the blade, and tried to yank the shaft out whilst the sea god was saying something. "Alright now, take that out and I'll teach you how to use it." Just as he was finished speaking, the heir was able to pull out the blade, but with its powerful momentum, he was sent flying with it. He fell with a thud on his back, the wicked blade almost chopping his face in half.

Percy gulped. "Let's."

Approximately five hours later...

A human figure was seen crawling around the Courtyard of Ouranus. People and creatures pointed to it, but were ignored by the figure. It was wearing a dark sea green cloak, blue shirt, and jeans. Its breathing was labored as it reached the front door of the sky god's palace, and promptly collapsed into a heap.

Its cloak lifted a little, and the tip of a spear could be seen underneath. Now, if normal people saw that, they'd think that this person was hiding some firearm to eliminate someone. But no, these people knew what it was for.

A man in a white suit emerged from the palace doors. He looked down at the drained figure of the boy in the sea green cloak. His eyebrows furrowed in worry as he looked around his palace for someone. And then he saw him.

"Pontus!" he called. The sea god approached him grinning, before looking down at the boy and his grin faded. "Ah, I see he reached your front doors in good shape. Could you let him rest here? After all, you're his next teacher."

The man nodded and the sea god turned to leave, before spinning back around. "I'll take this." He bent down to get the weapon underneath the cloak. Although it looked the same, judging on what came of the boy, the fauchard had increased weight temporarily. Pontus gave a little wave and vanished into sea breeze with the weapon.

The man snapped his fingers and they transported into a wide archery range. He looked down at the boy. He was unconscious. Not thinking of anything else to do, he conjured up a bed for the boy and sat down. He waited.

Thalia went out of the tent, still in disbelief. Too late for not mentioning it now, she thought.

As she looked around the camp, Annabeth spotted her. She excused herself from the other hunters, thanking them for the warm welcome and went over to her. She sat down beside the daughter of Zeus just as she got comfortable.

Annabeth looked over her curiously. "You look pale," she noticed. "Is there something bothering you?" She didn't answer. The daughter of Athena tilted her head. "Is it something about what you talked about?"

"No!" she replied quickly, making the girl in front of her raise an eyebrow. "No—I mean, no, nothing. Really. I just need to think about something," by now she was mumbling almost incomprehensively that Annabeth had to lean in to hear her. "Nothing, really, Annie. But thanks for your concern."

At the word 'Annie', she huffed and sat back. "I was just asking what's wrong."

"Of course you were," Thalia agreed, suddenly apologetic. "Sorry. If only I could think straight. It's just really... mind-blowing."

Annabeth perked up. "What is it?"

The daughter of Zeus turned away. "It's something you don't want to know," she mumbled guiltily. She stood up and hurried to her tent before the wisdom's daughter could catch up to her. "Set her up a tent!" she managed to call out before she zipped her tent door locked.

Pounding came away at her door. Good thing too, that the lock was always from the inside. Thalia fell back on her bed, her arms spread like an eagle's. Her hair was sprawled messily on the pillow, looking like a mop of black. She stared at the ceiling, a contemplative look on her face.

Sometimes she hated curiosity. It always hits her head. Truly, curiosity kills the cat. She felt so stupid for not thinking of that. Now she had to suffer about these floating words in her head up until she couldn't sleep. Just great.

But was it the thing that Artemis was so reluctant to say? It wasn't very big news.. Okay, it is. She assumed that she's just used to him attracting many females. She even got attracted to him at one point, but—she shivered. Never mind her saying that the lieutenant of the girls who've sworn off love got attracted to him. Anyway, back to the subject.

Was it really the big news Artemis didn't want to say? Sure, of course, everyone would be denying that they have that feeling on someone. She crossed the reason out. Besides, for that simple reason, her mistress won't let a single, important meeting pass, right?

Right?

Whatever. She didn't even know what it felt like to... love. The word sent a shiver up her spine. Something she didn't like. Does that really cause people to think irrationally? It seemed ridiculous. She thought love was just a bunch of phrases and expressions. At least, that's what she knows when Percy and Annabeth are around. They always do those—ugh—lovey dovey expressions that made her want to vomit.

Does it affect their decisions? Percy—well, he always does something without even thinking of the consequences. It's a child of the Big Three thing; she was also like that. But Annabeth.. She took a poisoned dagger for him. She could've just blocked it off with her own dagger, or perhaps push Percy out of its way, not take it. And daughters of Athena weren't people who do things without thinking. They always plan.

But if she were in her shoes, Thalia reckoned, what would she do? Let's say that she also did what Annabeth had done, out of sheer compassion for her cousin. It's not love, right? Or at least, not the same type of love. Cousinly love. That, she believed, was what makes people think irrationally.

Yet again, well, that phrase didn't exactly have a lot of meanings. Heck, even she already knew what it meant when she heard it. So maybe it was true.

Was it even legal? She made the oath for a reason.

Does she deem it true? She said it. She thinks so. Maybe she really does.

Okay then. She does. It's the reason why she left. Now she was left with one last question.. "What made her so happy when he's already dead?" she muttered to herself.

Percy knocked on the humongous doors of the room. Nothing much was nearby, except for the occasional god that passed by to say hi. Much expectedly, the doors were as grand as the inside, he guessed. It was like a whole galaxy was on it.

The doors parted to reveal the throne room. Although it was not like what he guessed, it still seemed like the most beautiful place he had ever been to. The walls were all full of moving pictures of different galaxies; and the Milky Way Galaxy, where he's from, was in the form of a model at the very center. It must've been the creator's personal favorite.

He looked toward the other end of the throne room, which was not that hard to do. The room was not like Zeus', who thought that the bigger the throne room, the stronger the beings it housed. There sat the Creator of the Universe, gazing at the model in front of her. He saw moving comets and satellites surrounding a particular planet—a planet he knew all too well. Earth.

The creator looked up, and seeing him, she straightened and waved her hand at the model, which vanished completely like a dust caught in the wind. She stood up and gestured for him to come closer. He did as she commanded.

"What are you doing here, Percy?" she asked him, genuinely curious. "Our training is not supposed to start until later."

He pursed his lips, pondering if he should say it or not. He thought that it would probably need some kind of power before he could do it. Nevertheless, he spoke, "Can I talk to people in their mind?"

She tilted her head, as if she was amused by his question. "Why would you ask that?"

He thought that she said no. Perhaps she forbade him to communicate with anyone? But, then again, he had asked Gaea if he could talk to people in dreams, and she'd told him how, without any hesitance. Perhaps she'd only said it to get him in trouble? It was most likely; he did not wholly trust her yet.

But was the creator really that strict as to forbid him from communicating with someone? He agreed to stay here and train, grudgingly, and yet she has her rules? That's why he hates rules. He was never one to follow any of them, whatever the kind.

Maybe she would give him a slip. "I was just asking. Do I need some power to do it, anyway?"

She smirked, as if sensing what he was up to. "Yes, you can. But you don't need any power. You are fully capable of it. Haven't you tried it before?"

He froze. He couldn't decide. Will he tell her? It seemed that Gaea didn't tell her what he asked. She might make a trustworthy friend, after all. So will he—

"No. Not yet. I haven't tried it yet," he lied, praying to all the gods that look over impossibilities that she won't see through it. Thankfully, she didn't. He stood there for a few seconds, bowed, and turned to leave. As he walked back to the entrance, he heard her mumble.

"You can. You always can, because you are my son." He felt stronger for some reason as the doors shut close.

Percy woke up with an aching head. He tried to remember what happened.

Fauchard. Heavy. Uggghhhhhh.

"Well. You're awake," a voice said oh-so obviously. He turned. There was a man in a white suit that reminded him of Zeus. "I know what you're thinking; I'm not Zeus."

"Who are you then—oh," he mumbled as his mind made a click again. "You're Ouranos, the primordial god of the sky."

The sky god smiled and nodded. "That's me."

Percy looked confused. "Then why am I here? I thought I'm going to learn.." he shivered suddenly. "Archery."

The god raised an eyebrow. "You just thought of that right now instead of on your way here?"

The son of Poseidon blushed, nodding stupidly. Ouranos gave a little laugh. "It's fine. I knew you were going to say that," he laughed more when the boy blushed deeper. "Truth be told, you were actually scheduled now for Nyx. But since she's so nice and she gave me a slip, I'll take over her time. And before you ask," he added when the heir was opening his mouth. "You slept for roughly five hours."

Percy flushed again, feeling embarrassed. He finally was able to gain his dignity left and spoke. "So.. Why am I here if I'm training for archery?"

Ouranos blinked, as if he only remembered it now. "Oh, yes. Well.." he broke off, looking somewhere.

"Well, why?" Percy asked, sitting up and looking to where the god was looking. Before he knew it, a familiar smirking face was in front of him so fast it made him yelp back, only to fall off the bed he was on. An angelic laugh filled the air. It made him raise an eyebrow in spite of his position.

"Boys—always so clumsy," the voice—a female—drawled, amusement coating her words. Oh. The voice was familiar; come to think of it, everything about that statement was familiar. He scrambled to sit upright.

He looked up. There she was, immortally dangerously beautiful. She looked like the last time he saw her: coppery skin, her stern dark brown eyes and the silver circlet braided into the top of her long dark hair; it seems that she hasn't changed much. She still looked stern and regal, but you could see the underlying amusement beneath her features. He relaxed when he recognized his old friend.

"Zoë!" He sprang up and surged forward. He engulfed her in a hug, which made the girl stiffen in surprise and... well, disdain. Her reddening face—not because of rage, you guessed—told otherwise, though, but fortunately, he didn't see it. "It's so great to see you again!" he exclaimed happily as he pulled away from the hug.

Zoë nodded tersely, still shocked at the action. "Yes.. It's great to see you too."

Percy frowned, noticing something slightly different in her. He shrugged it off and regarded the ex-hunter with a bright smile. "So what are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought I was going to—"

He broke off, and the huntress' face lit up with an evil smile. He blinked at her and gulped. "Um, yeah, that's what I was saying," he mumbled, looking anywhere but her. "I'm going to be trained; uh, I'll be trained—no no; I'll train myself archery; yeah, that's right. I'm pretty sure I'll do fine." He tried to make a run out of there, but Zoë was quicker. Her hand shot out and held onto the back of his shirt. He kept running, but it was like he was running on a treadmill.

"Oh no you don't," she grinned at him devilishly, which made him want to get away from her more. "You are training with me, boy."

Walking with light, easy steps, he poured some nectar on his hands. The bleeding had stopped immediately. He sighed in relief and took the flask away. The effect of the nectar wasn't with the burning feeling like before. It was like he was already a god.

But gods know how to do archery. He had trained determinedly for five hours straight that his fingers bled. The huntress knew how to train someone, that's for sure; she really pushed him so hard so that he'd get to learn. Going easy on someone with a skill level as his would get to nothing. So at least he made some progress. A bit.

He looked over his shoulder. An ornate bow and a quiver of black arrows were slung across his back. He can't deny that it looked cool. The bow looked like anything else, because he was still a newbie and he might snap the weapon—which would be a bad thing if it was made out of expensive materials. And when he meant expensive, it wasn't in terms of money; it was the quality and power that came with it.

The arrows, on the other hand, were the real ones. The heads were made out of some metal that he hadn't identified yet; Zoë also didn't know what it was—she just said that it was reserved for him. But even if he didn't know the thing, he could tell it was powerful.

Percy reached the doors and knocked. Normally he would've just barged in, but he really had no interest to become a pile of ashes. Sure, he'd dared before, but this was another god they were talking about.

"Come in," the creator called from the inside. He pushed the doors open. Instead of the usual room with a single all-powerful seat in the middle, there was a glowing circle drawn on the ground. Chaos was standing inside the circle.

She gestured for him with her hands. "Well? Come on."

He conceded. He cautiously stepped into the circle across from her, and stared, waiting for orders. She smiled dryly. "Now, before we start, let me tell you that you're late."

He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. He eventually regained his voice. "But—but it was Zoë's fault!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh? How is it her fault?" she asked, and Percy got the feeling that she was playing him.

"Um, uh.." he swallowed. "She didn't teach me that well so I had to stay a little to teach myself better!" Even he thought that it was a ridiculous excuse.

"Really?" He nodded, just going along with it. "Then why is it that you're earlier than the time you should be here? I'd say that she let you out at the right time, and by then your fingers were bleeding. You had to slow down in walking to clean it properly, right?" She was smiling creepily at him, as if daring him to lie to her.

He didn't need to. He was a Fish-boy for a reason.

Chaos chuckled. "That is what I'm going to teach you today."

Percy looked up, interested. "What is it?"

"Portals."

"Ugh. I. Can't. Freaking. Do it!" he said, stressing each word with a thrust of the hand, trying in vain to make a portal. He withdrew his hands, and thrust out with concentrated power within them. A small vortex opened in front of him, as big as a golf ball in size. It vanished after about five seconds.

"Ugh!" he stomped his feet in frustration, activating a small tremor. The woman in front of him spread her hands, and the trembling of the earth stopped. She looked at him, disappointed. He looked down at his feet in shame.

"I can't do it. I'm sorry," he said miserably. Archery wasn't as frustrating as this, but still frustrating nonetheless. Things just don't attend to his cause.

"Don't be," she said gently. "It is your first time. It's natural that you couldn't do it. But when you get the hang of using those powers, the other lessons will be a piece of cake." The statement she told him really relaxed him. He sensed that she was going to say something more. He looked up.

The creator smiled kindly. She rested her hand on his shoulder, squeezing it to calm him down. As she did, he noticed the surroundings fade. "The thing is to control your emotions."

He looked at her, confused. "As a creator, there is only one thing you can't control. Sure, you can control just about everything. But remember," she added, and he leaned in anxiously, feeling a pull tugging him away as her figure began to blur. "Your emotions control you; and therefore, it controls anything and everything you do. Emotions control the world."

He tried to thank her, but she was already gone.