Chapter 8: Operation Moon and Tides

"Those old ladies have to have it out for me. There's no other way that I go three for three as a target in a big prophecy. The Fates are explicitly out to get me."

Percy both laughed and groaned as his mind raced through the words of the prophecy. He breathed deeply as he asked Artemis to repeat it. She nodded.

"Drifting along a divergent path,

Chosen to quell the Dark One's wrath,

A champion born of holy bind,

A burden held in search to find,

A stand against Darkness, to die by the blade,

The ascension of Hell with Mountains an aide,

A choice will come that may end his days,

An Olympian stands, preserved or raised"

Percy shook his head again.

"That last part sounds just like the one about the Second Titan War," he said.

"Yes. But now it has to do with a sole Olympian, instead of Olympus itself. I believe that Olympian to be your father, but I do not know what it could mean by preserving or raising him. The final word is different as well."

Percy's mind wandered from the prophecy as he thought about having to go back to Camp Half-Blood. For all the good memories he had there, they felt overshadowed by the awful, more recent ones. But he knew Cameron was gone. Artemis wouldn't go into detail, but he was grateful to find out that the situation was handled, and that everyone at camp was safe. But the demigod wasn't sure if he wanted to, or even could, face everyone back at camp.

Artemis seemed to read his mind as his expression became distressed. She didn't even feel her hand move on top of his as she turned to him.

"Percy. I know you do not wish to go back there, but the council deems it the right move, as do I. But there is still time; we have a month before we are due to report at the camp," she reassured him.

Artemis was also reassuring herself. She knew it was particularly Annabeth on his mind when it came to his apprehension. And that festered an ugly feeling within the goddess. The one-month deadline had been set by Artemis herself at the most recent meeting on Olympus; the council had originally wanted them to head to camp right away. She planned to use that month to handle whatever her foreign emotions were.

Percy made sure not to meet Artemis' eyes while she spoke, absolutely certain his face would give away his heart beating out of his chest from her hand on his. The demigod cleared his throat.

"Um, yeah. You're right, Milady, and a month should be enough time to learn more about my new powers" he stumbled, trying to change the subject and have the heat in his face subside.

Artemis finally noticed her hand and quickly retracted it before speaking.

"Yes, your new powers. What have you been calling that blue lightning from your hands again?"

"My Fist of Havoc," he revealed dramatically, making Artemis laugh, "It looks a little like Zeus' lightning, so I have to at least name it something as flamboyant as your dad can get."

Percy looked down at his fist and closed his eyes, concentrating. He opened them again when a shock arced up his forearm. His closed fist glowed bright blue, exuding power while electricity danced up and down his arm. The new ability was something he'd developed over the past several weeks fighting alongside the hunters.

Artemis stared intently at the blue glow. Its aura felt completely foreign to her, likely having originated from somewhere that wasn't Earth. Percy had first fully unearthed the power a week ago, and it'd silenced the entire valley they were fighting in. With his glowing hand, he'd punched a cyclops in the eye. The impact had released what Artemis could only describe as immense condensed energy in every direction around the demigod. The wave had incinerated every monster in a ten-foot radius and left the ones further away convulsing from the lightning shock.

Since that day, Percy had been practicing calling it on his own accord instead of waiting for it to randomly spark during battle. He discovered that he could only use it periodically because rebuilding that amount of energy took time, though fighting with his fists sped up the process.

Percy's hands drifted to the dagger at his belt. He'd learned that the powers Chaos mentioned would just manifest over time as his strength increased, but he still didn't have the slightest clue about the significance of the dagger. The demigod twirled the simple blade between his fingers. It was bare of inscription and any defining traits, making it an even stranger weapon to allegedly be so dangerous. Artemis pulled him out of his thoughts.

"It is getting late, Percy. Time to head back to camp," she said as she stood.

Percy nodded, and she tapped his shoulder, sending them back to the rest of the hunters.

(Line Break)

Over the next few days, Thalia began to notice some strange things going on between Percy and Artemis. As the Hunt's Lieutenant, she spent most of the day watching people. The demigod would keep track of the hunters to make sure they weren't getting into anything too dangerous. She'd also ensure Percy didn't accidentally wander off as he tended to do. And she'd have multiple check-ins a day with Artemis for any orderly updates. Her primary job was going as smoothly as it always did, but it was Parties 2 and 3 that she had some concerns about.

More than a dozen times a day, she'd find Artemis or Percy staring at the other before they quickly looked away right before getting caught. When Percy wasn't hanging out with Thalia or Anna, the daughter of Zeus would notice him finding any excuse to hover around the Goddess of the Hunt. While traveling between missions, she'd often find him next to Artemis, asking her to talk about archery or how to chart the stars to travel using them.

Percy hates archery, and astronavigation is Camp Half-Blood 101. What's he asking about those for? Thalia would think to herself.

The Hunt was situated in the Midwest, moving towards a particularly nasty group of drakons they'd been assigned to exterminate. Thalia soldiered towards Artemis' tent after being called for her evening report. Ducking into the magical tent, she found the ever familiar scene of Artemis at her simple wooden desk. What Thalia still wasn't used to, however, was her new habit of always being in her adult form.

Thalia hadn't seen the goddess' 20-year-old form more than a handful of times in all of the years she'd been in the Hunt, but it was all she'd seen in the past month or so ever since…

Since Percy joined, the demigod considered.

She brushed off the thought as a coincidence, laughing internally at the alternative. The demigod quickly bowed and belted out her report. Afterwards, Artemis nodded and thanked her. But the goddess stopped her Lieutenant as she turned to leave.

"Thalia, could you send for Percy?"

The daughter of Zeus was the most observant of all of the hunters; her eyes never missed anything. She noticed the side of Artemis' lips curl for just a moment when she said his name. She caught that the goddess sat up a little straighter than her already perfect posture. Thalia didn't even need to account for the goddess' nearly imperceptible glance into a mirror on her desk before the realization hit her like a semi-truck.

"Oh my gods, you like him!" she shout-whispered, pointing at her mistress.

Artemis stared at her Lieutenant, stunned, but recovered quickly. She stood with eyes narrowed as she leaned over her desk.

"What? I do no–," she paused, her face heating up, "You know what? Out. Dismissed!"

Thalia's eyes widened further, and both hands flew to her mouth to stifle a scream. She nearly started running in circles inside the tent before she regained her composure. The daughter of Zeus gave Artemis an evil smirk before giggling like a middle schooler and dashing out of her quarters. The goddess' glare faltered, and she slumped back into her chair, her head in her hands. But she was smiling. As uncomfortable as the feeling was, she couldn't avoid her relief that someone she trusted knew her secret.

Past camp borders, a still-giddy Thalia found Percy hanging his feet off of the edge of a high telephone pole.

"Hey, Kelp Head, get down here!"

"Ask me nicely, Pinecone Face," he shot back.

"I'm going to tell Artemis you like her if you don't come down."

Thalia braced herself as Percy thudded to the earth, sprawled at her feet after tipping from his perch too quickly. He stood up as fast as possible, rambling.

"Wha-what-what made you say that? Liking Artemis? Me? Liking Artemis? Artemis?"

He realized he was just saying her name over and over, which definitely didn't help his case. Thalia smiled widely as she fist pumped the air. She'd just needed to be certain that it was mutual before she could enact the schemes she'd instantly brewed up. Thalia laughed as she sprinted away from the demigod, who started peppering her with questions about why she, rightfully, assumed he liked her.

Percy didn't pursue her for long, instead taking a seat on the ground while he tried to wipe the grin off of his face. He didn't want to have those feelings for someone that would never reciprocate, but he couldn't help but smile like an idiot when he thought about them.

(Like Break)

Thalia had carefully weighed her options about getting other hunters on board with Operation Moon and Tides, what she'd dubbed her mission of getting the two to admit their feelings for each other. First, she'd spent a few days just gauging everyones' opinions on Percy. To her surprise, she received almost exclusively positive responses. It wasn't like he had superfans, besides Anna of course, but nearly all of the hunters had taken a liking to their new Guardian and accepted him as a part of the Hunt, some more reluctantly than others. Phoebe was the only holdout, calling him as an unnecessary addition and still a man regardless of how different he pretended to be.

Thalia disregarded Phoebe's input as an outlier and moved on to her next phase of carefully asking if the hunters could see Artemis having feelings for someone. Unanimously, the girls laughed off the notion. Some of the older and more traditional hunters even said it would end the Hunt, because it would ruin what the group stood for. Dejected, Thalia scrapped the idea of letting them in on her plan. But she did have a partner in crime in Anna, who was fully on board.

The pair schemed in secret, creating a week's worth of romantic situations to shove Percy and Artemis into. Thalia's favorite was actually Anna's idea, which they decided to use a few days into the operation.

Anna pulled Percy aside and asked him to make her some food. She listed off everything she wanted, telling him it was for her and Thalia. After Percy made it for her, she ran to the daughter of Zeus with the basket he'd given her.

When night fell, the time for the young huntress' routine training of her powers, she dragged Percy to her tent instead.

"What's going on, Anna? We normally train out in a field."

Anna just pointed at her tent and asked him to go get her quiver first. Percy raised an eyebrow at her, but obliged. Inside, he found a beautiful quilt laid out across the floor. On it sat a dozen lit candles and an array of the food that Percy had cooked earlier, neatly organized in a way for two people to eat dinner together.

As Percy had ducked in, Thalia had arrived with Artemis, the scheming Lieutenant feigning a look of worry with her back to the tent.

"Yeah, I don't know what's been going on with Anna. She hasn't left her tent all day, and I think I heard her crying. You may need to talk to her," Thalia said, lacing her voice with concern.

The worry that flashed over Artemis was quickly replaced by disbelief.

"Is that so? Then, why do I see her peering at us from behind Atalanta's tent?"

Thalia turned around to find Anna peeking with a mischievous grin plastered across her face. When the young huntress realized she'd been spotted, she dove behind the tent. Thalia rolled her eyes and laughed before turning back towards the goddess.

"I'm sorry, Milady," she said before pushing her through the entrance and shutting the flaps behind her.

Artemis had known it was coming but let it happen out of sheer curiosity as to why her Lieutenant was lying to her. She got her answer when she lunged straight into Percy's back while he was still looking at the spread before him. He caught himself, barely sidestepping an open flame, and turned around.

"Oh. Hi, Artemis. What are you doing here?" he asked, already a little flustered.

Artemis noticed the ready dinner and raised an eyebrow at the demigod.

"Did you do this?" she asked.

"No. Or yes. No and yes. I made the food, but it was for Anna and Thalia, but then Anna asked me to get her bow. And then I walked in and found it like this. And then you walked in."

Percy knew his blathering explanation sounded odd, and was surprised when Artemis shrugged.

"For all of their effort, it would be wrong not to enjoy the food."

The two sat across from each other and had the meal themselves. Thalia and Anna stood outside of the tent, giggling and high-fiving as they watched the silhouettes of Percy and Artemis talk and laugh over their candlelit dinner.

The schemes continued as the days went on. As her magnum opus, Thalia successfully tricked Percy into asking Artemis for archery lessons, a skill he was abysmal at. When he'd finally caught on, the demigod wanted to protest until he realized it was just another chance to spend time with the goddess.

He definitely didn't regret his decision when Artemis was teaching him proper form, the goddess standing behind him, her hands firm on his arms, speaking into his ear with her chest pressed against his back. Of course, he learned nothing from the training itself.

An unexpected effect of Thalia's operation was that the other hunters had started to take notice of the interactions between the two. Thalia just shrugged it off, figuring it would nudge them towards liking Percy more and maybe even make it more acceptable for him to be with Artemis. Her assumption backfired when she didn't take her outlier, Phoebe, into account.

After the archery lesson, she'd had enough. The training hadn't taken place very far from camp, and, because of the Midwest's flat plains, it'd been openly visible to any of the hunters. Glaring accusingly, Phoebe thundered towards Percy as he and Artemis walked back into the main camp.

"I know what you're doing, boy! Your sob story and your virtuous act might have fooled everybody else, but not me. You're just like the rest of these men. You've fallen for Lady Artemis and are trying to seduce her. Do you think we don't see the way you've been acting? You believe the Goddess of Maidenhood will want you?" she verbally tore at him, "No, I understand now. You wish revenge on that daughter of Athena, and believe you can get it by chasing a goddess!"

Percy didn't grant a response while he looked at Phoebe with a pained expression. Several feelings swirled inside him. Both indignation from the huntress' constant hate and hurt from yet another dig regarding Annabeth ranked near the top. But above even them, the demigod felt a deep anxiety towards how Artemis would react.

"Look how he isn't denying it, Milady," the huntress sneered, "You must do to him what you have always done to men like him; turn him into an animal and be done with it."

"Do not tell me what I must do, Phoebe," the goddess said in a dangerous tone, "And Perseus. Go to my tent, now."

"Understood, Milady," Percy said, bowing before he stiffly walked to the tent at the furthest end of camp.

Artemis gave Phoebe a steely look before following Percy's route. The goddess entered her tent to find him standing rigidly in the center of it. She took a deep breath as he looked at her apprehensively, the demigod half-expecting to be turned into a jackalope. Closing the gap between them until there nearly wasn't one, Artemis tilted her head up to meet his eyes.

Percy held her gaze as well as his breath. Her striking silver eyes seemed to see right through him, and he couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful they were. The goddess' auburn hair nearly glowed in the candlelit tent, and Percy noticed the candles behind her were the same ones from their dinner just days ago. He couldn't look away from her pursed lips before she asked her question.

"Is she telling the truth, Perseus? Do you have feelings for me?"

The demigod heard no indication in her tone about the answer she wanted to hear. Part of his mind told him to lie, to say Phoebe made it up so he didn't have to risk not only death, but also losing Artemis as a friend. But a much larger voice in him knew he couldn't lie to her, and the truth spilled out all at once.

"I do. I'm sorry, but yes, I have feelings for you. I know I'm risking actually dying, but I have to tell you anyway. You're unlike anyone I've ever met. I feel better just talking to you. You're so insightful, and strong, and you make me want to love and trust and be genuinely happy again. I know this means I can't be part of the Hunt anymore, and–"

She silenced his rant with her lips on his. For that moment, the rest of the world fell away and left only them behind. The kiss wasn't a conscious choice by the goddess, more accurately a decision that felt so right that her body was compelled to move. It only lasted a few seconds, but Percy felt each one stretch into forever, unwilling to let their perfect moment end.

They pulled away from each other, both already breathless. Percy's eyes were still closed while he held onto the ephemeral feeling as long as he could. Artemis laughed quietly with a hand on her forehead.

"I-I am required on Olympus. But, Perseus, I believe I do too."

The goddess' voice faded to a whisper before she flashed out of the room, but Percy had heard her loud and clear. He leaned against the tent's support beam, still not completely understanding what had just happened, but he looked up towards the heavens as he thanked every god he could recall for letting it.

The demigod was suddenly jerked from his perfect world to the present by a scream from outside. He tore through the entrance of the tent and back towards where all of the hunters were. The scene shook him to his core. Thalia was hunched over Anna with her arms outstretched, shielding the young huntress. From the daughter of Zeus' midsection poked the tip of an arrow that had run through her back.

She slumped over, breathing shallowly while every hunter instantly readied their bows and whirled towards the attacker. The group faltered for a moment in the face of the sea charging towards them: over a hundred lesser monsters, three drakons, and a hydra. Percy bared his teeth as he readied Riptide and charged the incoming enemy. It'd have to be over his dead body that he let them reach Thalia.