A/N: I like to apologize to everyone who has waited for this chapter. Adding on to that, I may not be able to post another chapter during July as that's when I am going to camp. However I am thankful to all you faithful readers for bearing with me through these long pauses between updates. I know I definitely have a problem with procrastination but at the same time I have the trouble of inspiration. Either I don't know how to continue on or everything that I try to get out seems like utter crap. Anyway for anyone that stuck with me through these terribly long updates I apologize. I know I made many apologies in these author notes about these long updates and these may start to feel like empty apologies but I like to assure you that I do have problems I have to deal with real life too which causes me to not be able to update and affect myself personally. I began to feel as if my writing skill has begun to lower and lower.
I'm not going to abandon this story no matter how long it takes me to update, I will finish it. I promise all of you that it will happen.
3rd Person POV
"Aunty Hestia, I don't know if I can stay in Olympus anymore." Apollo said gloomily. "Every moment, every minute I spend sitting here, I can't help but remember every memory thrown at me. When I first entered Olympus with her, when we first got crowned gods together, when she first got her hunters," Apollo wiped a tear away from his eyes. "That's when we first started to separate as siblings. She started spending more time with those hunters and less with me. Day by day I could feel our bond weakening and weakening. I tried to be there for her every time I could but did she appreciate it?"
Apollo's facial features began to turn to one of rage. "She found every moment to insult me, attack me! She began to act as if I was the worst thing that ever entered her life. Gone are the days when I used to play with her on our little island of Delos. Gone is the sweet bigger sister who was there to help me with every problem I had! Gone are the days when I got pushed around for being a worthless do-nothing god! GONE I TELL YOU!" Apollo's fists began to tremble. His symbol of power held in his hands began to splinter. Cracks began to appear in his golden bow.
Hestia's eyes began to widen as she watched her nephew's newfound display of strength. Hatred filled the sky blue eyes of Apollo. The sun outside began to glow brighter and brighter till it was sweltering hot. If one could inspect closely, they would be able to see the heat waves flow into metals or such and slowly began to melt them. Bacteria and viruses seemed to ooze out from the sun and flow down to the mortals below creating a nationwide epidemic.
"Apollo!" Hestia yelled in attempt to calm him down. "As angry as you may be, do not take it out of the innocent mortals below!" Unfortunately her words fell on deaf ears as Apollo seemed to not hear them.
"In her eyes I'm just an incompetent, immature, arrogant, useless bastard aren't I? No one would care if I were to leave right now! No one knows the stress of being the sun god! Everything under the sun I have to witness. I see demigods running for their lives without help or any sign from their godly parents. I see little children raped and abused everyday of their lives. I see children growing up without parents on the streets. I see murders of innocent people all over the world! I can barely stay sane! No wonder Helios was so eager to pass this job down before he faded."
Hestia stared at him with sad eyes, "How do you think I feel? Every day I have to sit in the throne room watching ties between family members crumble to pieces. I can only hold onto a small sliver of hope that this entire family could come back together as one."
Apollo scowled, "Aunty, staying here hardly does you any good. You were robbed of a throne for a miserable drunk. You are unappreciated, unwanted, unrecognizable, and disrespected. Why do you stay?"
Hestia sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Apollo no matter what, they are still my family. Intolerable they may be and far from perfect, many of them were born from the same mother and father that I was born from, the remaining born as my nephews and nieces."
"So? Disown them! Find a new family! No one here deserves you!" Apollo growled.
"Nephew, no matter what, I still care for them, while they may not learn to appreciate it I hardly care. Family is family and it was I was given. There is no changing it."
"I don't care," Apollo snarled. "Artemis needs to be taught a lesson. Perhaps I shall find Perseus and ask for his allegiance. Perhaps I could start anew with him and get his forgiveness for my earlier treatment. I had a taste of what he had to endure for centuries. To have one you loved hate you in the fullest."
He turned to Hestia and fell to his knees. "Please aunty, please help me find him."
Hestia stared at Apollo on his knees for a full minute before sighing. "Very well, as you may know, I can track anyone as long as they have hope in their heart. Be as it may that Percy's hope of his dream is full of darkness I can still find him nevertheless."
She closed her eyes and concentrated.
Percy POV
"You know… I was hoping your brain would be bigger…"
"Oh shut up. Who even said you could inhibit my body?" I argued with the little spirit floating around my head.
"Hey! I didn't choose to be in here, especially if I knew how cramped it would be in here!"
"Like yours is any bigger!"
"I am a spirit! And unlike you, I am an essence of massive intelligence!"
"So… are you like a floating, transparent nerd?"
Spiridion was silent before my body suddenly went rigid. I watched as my hand slowly rise before slamming right down into my lower regions.
"Sweet baby Zeus!" I squeaked as I regained control of my body.
"Ha! That will teach you to mess with me!" Spi laughed.
"I hate you…" I growled.
"Well deal with it, it looks like we are gonna be stuck together for a while buddy!"
At that moment a cocoon a fire burst in front of me revealing two occupants. I carefully grabbed my knife lying on my bedside table before approaching the cocoon.
"I think you need a bigger weapon than that," Spi snorted.
"I think I got a bigger weapon for you in my pants!" I thought back before turning beet red.
Spi was rendered speechless before she slowly spoke again. "Woah, so are you telling me you are feeling emotions for me?"
"Oh shut up," I thought before turning my full attention of the fire cocoon.
I hesitantly poked it with my knife. As soon as the tip of my knife touched the cocoon, a wave of fire burst from it, launching me across the room and into the wall. "That was a bad idea," I groaned.
"Jeez, I think you forget I feel every injury you get, next time don't do something that stupid again." Spi groaned. I just responded by smacking the side of my head before yelping, realizing I had a bruise forming there already from it being slammed into the wall not to mention that the room was spinning in circles.
From the fire cocoon, I watched as two figures emerged, Hestia and Apollo before my vision went black.
Line Break
I woke up feeling as if my head was thundering like Zeus's master bolt was being thrown against it repeatedly while resting on something comfortable underneath me.
"Do you think he will be alright?" I heard a feminine voice ask.
"I believe so, he doesn't have a concussion but it looks like he would have a Hades of a headache.
"Ugh, wuzz going on?" My voice slurred as I slowly opened my eyes. My eyes slowly adjusted to the light or rather the brightness of Apollo's teeth. "How did you guys find me?" I groaned, before pointing to Apollo and asking "Whaddya want?"
"Well nephew, I'm here to help you take down my bitch of a sister."
Hestia frowned at Apollo's choice of words but didn't comment.
"Why, what could possibly make you want to go against your sister? I thought you cared about her?" I asked distrustfully.
"How could I possibly care about someone who doesn't care about me at all?" Apollo asked. "She robbed me of my gratitude, appreciation, and respect. I have been blinded by my older sister. No child should have to go through what you went through. I know I didn't help when you had to struggle your way through your aging years but I came here to ask for your forgiveness.
"You know, a Olympian would be of great assistance, especially one that grew up with her. He would know which buttons to press to piss her off." Spi told me.
I thought about her words before realizing she was correct. This would make things ten times easier. Artemis would no doubt throw me to the wolves the first chance she got but Apollo she trusted somewhat.
"Apollo… if you really want to help me than I have to know you are being completely honest. Swear on the Styx that you would help me, that you will help me take down Artemis.
Apollo nodded, "I swear on the River Styx by your terms."
Even from within the realm of Nyx, you could hear thunder that sealed the oath. Wind howled and blew through the room despite there being no windows. I smiled, "I hope you know what you got yourself into Apollo because there is no turning back now."
3rd Person POV
Artemis dashed through the forest, the wind blowing through her hair. Something was wrong, all over the world, mortals wondered about the missing appearance of the sun. For almost a week there was no sign of Apollo. Night ruled the earth twenty-four/seven. Crops withered and died. Car accidents happened nearly every five minutes and Olympus was in a uproar. A massive search party was released in order to find the missing god and bring him back. Last anyone have seen of him was on Olympus with a half melted golden mansion as proof.
All around Artemis, the tress were withering, plants were dying and millions of species were becoming endangered by the lack of plants to feed the primary consumers all over the world. The world was at an imbalance.
Apollo's chariot was also missing so there was no way that they could bring daylight to the mortals themselves. The mortal world quickly became hellhound territory, giving the hellhounds infinite shadows to leap and disappear from. Never has the world been in more chaos than it was now.
Nyx, Perseus and Apollo watched from the sidelines. Prayers and pleas rang throughout Apollo's head to bring the sun back but he pushed them away. This was just the first step of their carefully crafted plan.
Artemis leaped, rolled and sprinted her way through the thicket of darkness in hopes in reaching the Pacific Ocean where she tracked down the Ophiotaurus. "It draws near," She whispered to herself. In the distance a faint moo could be heard. Artemis's eyes widened before she broke into a sprint toward the direction it came from.
After a few minutes, she burst through the tree line into a clearing with a shimmering lake in the center. She slowly edged her way to the lake, bow at the ready. When she looked into the lake, she saw nothing but the bottom of the lake where a few tiny fish swam around.
Just then a howl originated behind her, followed by multiple howls all around the forest. Hellhounds slowly began to ooze out from all over the forest, surrounding her. Snarls could be heard all around.
In front of her a massive figure walked out from the tree line. "Hello Artemis, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Artemis nearly dropped her bow in shock, "You… you should be trapped, there should have been no way that you could have escaped!"
"I'm so glad you care Artemis," The man said. Two Cyclops walked out from behind the man. "Chain her and bring her back to Mount Othrys, I have a few questions I need answered about her missing brother."
"And after that, she may have the pleasure of bearing my curse."
A/N: Not much of a cliffhanger but eh. We can all guess who that man is. Anyway my Beta is currently AWOL so yea, I'm guessing he is probably busy at the current time so I don't blame him. Please tell me what you think and don't be afraid to leave suggestions for me on what I should do, I'm open to anything. And this chapter is dedicated to all you fans out there that wanted Apollo to join Percy. Now for the pairing we finally have Hestia over with Percy so they can have a casual discussion and have it build up from there. Keep in mind that it may be slow hehe.
As for the little spirit in Percy, I thought it would be fun to have a little rebellious spirit in his head, annoying at first but then eventually they become friends or something like that.
Anyway hopefully my Beta would be able to help me and be in contact for the next chapter. Again thank you all for waiting patiently for this chapter and motivating me to get off my ass and do get another chapter done.