She heard her voice, heavenly and melodic. But she was startled as she heard the word the girl had uttered.
"…Thals?"
—
"Ho-who-what?"
Thalia stared at the girl in shock.
She only knew one person who would call her by the name 'Thals'…her cousin and ex-crush, Percy Jackson.
Yet in front of her lay a girl struggling to sit up who had called her by that name.
Her mind was utterly confused and disoriented. She'd seen Percy dead with her own eyes. They'd burned his shroud. And though Thalia faintly noticed the silvery wisps of smoke fly into Artemis, she had seen concrete proof that Percy, her cousin, her reason to join the hunt, was dead.
Gone.
Burned.
So how in hades did the girl know that name? And how in hell did that girl know who she was?
"Um…Thalia? You good?" The girl said, before her eyes widened. "Wait-shit!" She yelped, scrambling up and backing away. "I just gave the game away didn't I?"
Thalia stared blankly at her.
"Um, Thalia, it's good to see you and all-"
"Wait!" Thalia yelled, curious at the sudden behaviour change in the girl. "You still haven't told me who you are, and what you're doing here. As the lieutenant of Lady Artemis' hunters, it's my duty to-"
"Yes, yes, I get it…but Uh, can I explain that to you another time? This is awkward."
"No."
The girl sighed, clearly not wanting to explain. "Fine, Thals. I owe you an explanation…but, don't you dare tell this to anyone or I'll dunk you in cold water every day."
Thalia gulped. The girl's threats were all too similar to Percy's. She wondered who exactly the girl was, and what was her relation with Percy. She looked familiar, yet completely alien at the same time. Her hair, her eyes, hohe the way she spoke and interacted with everything, it was just so Percy-like. Yet, it felt all wrong, all off.
"So um, you ready Thalia? This might be a big hit on you." The girl said, and Thalia mutely nodded, having not realized she was ogling the other girl.
"Well…I'm Persia Hallie. Persia Hallie…Jackson."
Thalia stared at her, dumbfounded. "Percy had a sister? That explains why you act like him so much…but why did he never tell anyone?"
"Um, well, you see…Percy dodn't have a sister." Thalia's eyes widened, seemingly realizing where the conversation was going.
"I'm Percy."
Thalia stood still, staring at the girl, before launching herself at her with lightning cackling all around her. "PERCY JACKSON YOU PRICK! HOW DARE YOU KILL YOURSELF AND COME BACK!" Thalia cried, smashing her fists into Persia and sending both of them into the campfire. Persia grunted as she flew into the campfire, while Thalia gracefully curled into a ball, rolled, stood back up and saw Persia flying into the fire.
"Oh SHIT!" Thalia exclaimed, running over to Persia. "Um, Persia, you good?" She asked, braving the heat of the flames as she tried to pull Persia out. To her shock, the ravenette simply groaned and pushed herself up before stepping out of the fire-without as much as a single speck of soot on her.
Thalia stood there, gaping like a goldfish, and Persia smirked. "Pinecone face, what's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
"N-no," Thalia said, horribly aware of her stammering. Inside, she could feel her inner self practically screaming in relief and happiness. Here was her second chance at finding love-and this time the feelings were harder to ignore. "J-just um Per-Percy, how?"
At this, Persia's face darkened. "Well…You know the whole thing about me killing myself, so I won't elaborate. Long story short, I went a bit mad and pledged my soul to your patron before dying."
Thalia didn't think Persia could surprise her more. Somehow, she could. "But then…how are you here?"
"Uh, about that…well, I was reborn-kind of. Artemis gave my soul over to Hestia and asked me to be placed in the hearth. She made me a new flesh-and-bones body, and um, I kind of went back to camp, almost got raped, fell into a fire after hearing another great prophecy, and here I am."
Persia then looked around, ignoring the spluttering and utterly confused Thalia. "Speaking of which, where is Lady Artemis?"
—
Artemis hated council meetings. She hated leaving the hunt, fearing for their safety every moment.
Still, the news of a new great prophecy stunned her. It wasn't even a year after the last one ended, and here the council was, discussing a new great prophecy…and she had an inkling of who it referred to.
Persia.
Seeing the council members arguing amongst themselves like children, her impatience reared its head.
Silver eyes glowing brightly, she stepped off her throne and fired an arrow into the ceiling. It exploded into silver light, catching the other immortal deities' attention and shutting the whole room up.
"Listen up here," she snarled, "while you idiots decide to argue like children, I have a decent idea on whom the prophecy refers to. At least, one of the nine."
The council inched forwards in their seats to hear who the unlucky demigod was.
"Well, daughter, who is it?"
"Persia Hallie Jackson. Daughter of Hestia, and in a way, me and uncle Poseidon as well."
The council was stunned into silence, before everything went to chaos.
Poseidon began yelling at Artemis as he didn't have a daughter. Zeus yelled at Poseidon, Hestia and Artemis for breaking their vows, Hera spat at her brother in disgust, Dionysus fell off his Horne, Ares raged at not getting a chance to bed Artemis or Hestia before they both broke their vows, Hermes confused at who exactly this 'Persia' girl was, Athena looking at her sister with disappointment, while Apollo looked at his sister, amused at the council's reaction. He had, after all, met said girl and knew the truth behind her. Hades looked at the jumble of gods acting like children with indifference from his simple black throne that was conjured up specifically for this meeting.
Frustrated, Artemis locked eyes with Hestia, and both of them yelled at the same tune, "SHUT UP!"
The council listened, and for once the bickering stopped. Of course, Zeus couldn't keep it in and began yelling,
"Daughter, how dare you break your vow! Sister, you as well! How DARE you!?" Zeus yelled, but with the combined glares of both goddesses, he shrunk back and retreated into his throne.
"Father, neither me nor my aunt have broken our vows. If you would have let us explain, you all would understand." Artemis said, glaring at Zeus. Gulping, he waved a hand at her to continue,
"First off, neither of us have broken an oath. The reason we claimed this demigod as our child is because they contain both of our immortal essences and powers, as well as some from uncle Poseidon." Artemis said, and the gods looked at each other, confused.
"How is that possible?" Athena asked, and Artemis rolled her eyes. Always the inquisitive one, she thought as she continued,
"This began yesterday. At night, I heard a pledge to me and my hunt. This demigod pledged their soul and life to me and the hunt, before killing themselves. As uncle hades explained later, I gained their soul, and it bonded with my immortal essence, just like a child would have with a godly parent. I then gave their soul to aunt Hestia, who remade them in the hearth. As such, even if you discount my role, the demigod would still be born from the hearth and therefore aunt Hestia's child."
The council was silent at this, and so Artemis continued.
"Before she was…reincarnated as Persia, she went by a different name and sex altogether." Poseidon's eves widened at this, having seemingly realized something, but didn't speak up.
"The demigod she once was is banished from camp, ousted wrongfully as a traitor by you, father."
At this, the council's members realized who the demigod she referred to was.
"You don't mean…" Athena began, but trailed off as Zeus' expression darkened.
"Daughter. Was that demigod by any chance, Perseus Jackson." He asked with a steely look on his face.
Artemis nodded.
A moment later, an angry yell exploded out int he throne room, so loud that the inhabitants of Olympus all flinched at the sound.
"HOW DARE YOU, DAUGHTER! HE WAS BANISHED! I SHALL STRIKE HIM DOWN, YOU ARE AIDING IN THE ENEMY EFFORT-"
"BROTHER!" Hestia yelled as the hearth exploded, the flames shooting higher than ever before. "You, of all people, should shut up and listen to us. I hate to do this, but Percy Jackson was WRONGLY ousted as a traitor." Hestia said, glaring at Zeus.
The council was deathly quiet. They hadn't seen Hestia this angry, not since the Second World War. Zeus shrunk back into his throne as Hestia continued.
"Like it or not, Perseus-now Persia-is Aunt Hestia's child, and the child of this prophecy. If you haven't noticed, quite a few lines refer to her. She is innocent, and she did not deserve her initial fate. Now, I'd suggest all of you to inform the camps about this new prophecy, and act your age. Especially you, brother."
Zeus gulped again, before nodding shakily. "Fine. Are there other matters to discuss?"
Taking the silence as an answer, Zeus took his master bolt out of it's holster. "Very well. If there are no other matters to discuss, COUNCIL DISMISSED!" He yelled, flashing away in a massive bolt of lightning.
Other council members also flashed out, leaving Artemis, Poseidon and Hestia in the throne room.
"Sister, niece. Care to explain how my son became your daughter?" Poseidon said, his eyes staring right at the two goddesses, jaw clenched and gaze steely.
"Ah…well, he pledged himself-"
"He pledged himself? Minotaur shit. Tell me now, what did you do to force him to become an entirely new person." Poseidon said, anger shining through visibly in his voice.
Artemis gulped. "Uncle. It was really just that. I did nothing to influence his decision-"
"STOP LYING. My son would not be willing to go and randomly pledge himself to a group of man-hating hunters." Poseidon said, ready to begin a rant, but Hestia raised a hand to cut him off.
"Brother, I know what our niece says sounds impossible, but it did happen. In his exile, he has interacted with the hunt more than he has with any of us. It is the fact that he thought of the hunt before he ended himself, and decided to make his end worthy to others."
Poseidon was stunned. "But-how-my son. He-"
"-will be treated fairly in the hunt. That I promise you, uncle." Artemis said, slightly shocked at her own words. She didn't know why she wanted to say those words-she just did.
At least Poseidon seemed to relax.
"Well then off you go back to your little group of man haters. I expect my son to be treated fairly as you just said, understood?"
Artemis mutely nodded as she glowed and flashed away.
—
Persia was waiting for her new patron to return.
Thalia had gone to sleep after she finished her lengthy explanation on her sex change and name chance. She had hoped to bunk with Thalia, but sadly her tent only had one bunk.
She looked up at the sky. 3 am. She wondered how she knew that.
Sensing a small power surge inside the big tent, she decided to test her chances and check if Artemis was inside. Knocking on the entrance supports, she heard a muffled response. That means I probably can go, she thought, and unzipped the tent flap.
Not even bothering to look, she simply pushed the tent flap open and stepped in-only to see Artemis walking towards her, having her head down as she was about to step out. Her body froze, and even though she desperately tried to move out of the way, for some reason she couldn't do that.
Persia widened as she watched Artemis' face grow close in mere moments. Everything turned into slow motion as she watched the goddess look up, widened her eyes in horror-and they collided. Their chests smashed against each other and their lips crashed into each other, both unable to halt their momentum. Persia felt her new breasts get squished against artemis' chest, and let out an involuntary moan as the new feeling sent small waves of pleasure up her body and into her mind.
In a second, it was all over. Artemis let out a yell and Persia flew backwards, out of the tent, and landed on the soft grass in front of the tent entrance. A raging Artemis sporting a tomato face stomped over and plucked her up by the collar.
"Listen here you idiot. Don't ever step into my tent unless I gave you permission to. That was uncalled for, and I'd have gladly turned you into a jackalope and hunted you down if you were a male. You got off lucky this time, now scram." She hissed, and Persia winced at the hostility in those words.
"But Lady Artemis-"
"Not a Word."
"No please, I have nowhere to sleep-" her words fell on deaf ears as Artemis had already stormed back inside her tent and zipped it shut.
She sighed.
"Guess it's back to the campfire then."
—
Artemis shook as she stood in the middle of her tent, her face heated and blushing madly as she mentally slapped herself over and over again.
She had been careless and assumed that it was her hunters outside. She had mumbled her reply, and in return she got a kiss smack-dab on the lips by that drat boy-turned-girl.
The worst part?
She felt emotions she scarcely felt before. The moment they connected, electricity surged through her lips, waves of pleasure rushing through her body. Her heart pounded as she felt her face redden, and her body was uncontrollably quivering and shaking. Her knees felt weak, her nether regions felt hot and something within itched to be released.
Artemis stumbled over to her bed and sat down heavily on the edge. She had felt this once only-back when Orion was alive and grew closer to her. Her pent-up lust had caused her to yearn for release, and in desperation she twisted her admiration for his skills into love.
Of course, it didn't work, and Artemis was disgusted at herself for falling for a rapist pig. Since then, she had silently vowed to never love again, and had ruthlessly squished any feelings that surfaced.
Well, until they surfaced again now.
This time though, no matter how hard she tried to forget the pleasure that rocked through her body, it just came back at her harder and clearer. She desperately tried to forget, but her mind and body refused.
A soft whimper escaped her lips as her hand involuntarily moved towards her crotch.
—
The hunt was shocked to find a maiden sleeping on a bench next to their campfire the next morning.
She introduced herself as Persia Hallie.
"Persia, may I ask how did you end up here?" Christine, a hunter who joined some 40 years ago, asked. Persia chuckled.
"I guess you could say I fell out of the fire."
The group of hunters were stunned.
"Fell out of the fire? But how? No one can travel through fire except demigods of Hephaestus, and from what we can see you're not one." One said.
"And those are rare too." Another hunter piped up.
Before they could continue though, the main tent flap opened and Artemis stepped out. The hunters, sensing their mistress approach, turned and looked at her.
Persia gulped as she saw the stony expression on her face.
Sensing that something was wrong, the hunters quickly backed off and parted. Persia audibly gulped again as she watched Artemis striding towards her, her cold expression not breaking once, her piercing silver eyes staring right through her.
She shivered involuntarily.
She watched as Artemis grew close, before she halted in front of her. She saw the hunters nervously whisper amongst themselves, wondering what she had done to warrant hostility from their patron.
"Persia." Artemis spoke crisply, the single word spoken with a tone of such indifference and hostility Persia nearly recoiled.
She steadied her emotions and bowed.
"Milady. What do you require of me?"
The hunt was, quite frankly, shocked to the bone. They had never seen this maiden, yet Artemis and the maiden seemed to know each other. What was even more shocking was that Artemis seemed to openly carry hostility towards this maiden, and the maiden was behaving like a servant to their mistress.
They watched as their patron stare at Persia cooly, her silver eyes analysing Persia-who had her head down-before she opened her mouth.
"Follow me."
They watched as Persia bowed stiffly before Artemis turned on her heels and marched off back towards the camp, with Persia following meekly.
Thalia, who was slightly late to the party, swore she saw Artemis' face sport a light blush as she marched off towards the main tent.
As soon as the pair disappeared within the tent, the hunt exploded into a buzz.
"Why is Milady angry at her?" A young hunter asked.
"What the hell has she done!"
"Has she done something irresponsible!"
"Did she do something to disrespect her body?"
"Is she one of those disgusting whores that are Aphrodite's offspring?"
Thalia gritted her teeth as she heard the last comment. Her cousin associated with Aphrodite of all people? No way in Hades she'd let that happen. Still, Persia had asked her to keep her identity a secret-for now at least. She just hoped her hunters weren't going to do anything too-drastic…
But it already seemed like they would be.
Many were now agreeing that Persia had done something to tick Artemis off, whether that be her disrespecting other women, assisting in the abuse of others, or even flaunting her body and tarnishing it…and the sentiment towards Persia was generally growing worse by the minute.
Thalia couldn't take it anymore. She had to put a stop to this, right here, right now. Thinking of a way to shut her hunters up, Thalia stopped her foot on the ground hard and yelled at the hunters.
"SHUT UP!"
The chattering instantly stopped as everyone turned to stare at Thalia. Taking a deep breath, she began her explanation.
"You all are sorely mistaken in you think Persia has wronged Milady in some way."
"How would you know." A hunter challenged, and immediately regret it as Thalia glared at her.
"Because she is my cousin, and she has never done anything wrong in her life. She's been faithfully serving the Olympians before she appeared here."
Zoë then stepped up next to Thalia as she continued. "Yes, Persia is an honorable maiden, and I respect her with every fiber in my body."
The hunt stood there, stunned, before a flurry of questions erupted from the gathered hunters.
—
Persia was confused as Artemis led her towards her tent.
What did she do to get such treatment from Artemis?
Still, she had pledged her soul and life to this goddess, and had to follow every order she gave. Meekly trudging behind the goddess, she followed Artemis into her tent.
With a snap of her fingers, Artemis zipped the tent opening shut, before turning to face Persia.
She was positively quaking under Artemis' sharp gaze.
"Persia." Artemis said curtly, and Persia bowed her head. "At your service, Milady."
Artemis didn't speak as she looked Persia up and down. With her head still bowed, Persia noticed that Artemis began circling her, like a pen eagle eyeing it's prey up.
She was confused and scared.
The goddess' silver eyes bore into hers as she lifted her head to stare, and Persia quickly bowed her head again as she stared into the cold silver.
When would this be over?
"Persia." Artemis spoke again, "Look at me."
She did as instructed, raising her head to look at Artemis. "Yes, Milady."
She noticed Artemis' eyes wander all over her features, as a slight blush appeared on her face.
Wait, blush?"
Persia sucked in a breath as she noticed Artemis stepping closer, her silver eyes shining brilliantly as she stared at her face.
Her head spun as she wondered why her patron was doing this. She wanted to back away from the ever closing proximity with Artemis, but she wasn't told to move. Her body screamed at her to move, but she couldn't as she stood, her eyes desperately looking at everything but Artemis.
Of course, her patron noticed.
"Persia. Look at me."
Forcing her eyes to stare ahead, she stared into Artemis' silvery ones. Her patron locked eye contact as they stared into each other's orbs.
Artemis was transfixed by Persia's heterochromatic eyes. The left one was sea green, swirling with power and irregular patterns, signifying her previous lineage with Poseidon. Her right eye glowed crimson, a hidden fire burning beneath, equally glowing with power and warmth. Silvery flakes were present in both eyes, as well as a prominent outer ring of silver in her sea green left eye.
They were attractive, beautiful.
Artemis found herself transfixed by the eyes of her new servant.
A tingling feeling began spreading through her body, as her thoughts began to cloud and her lips felt hot. She felt her face heat up, and her heartbeat begin to pound in her ears.
Meanwhile, Persia was losing herself in Artemis' silver orbs. They glowed silver with a hint of yellow, brimming with confidence and power. They didn't swirl or shine in any pattern, but the plain silvery orbs were enough to attract Persia's attention.
Artemis' Heart pounded while her face heated up as she unconsciously stepped forwards. Persia's eyes were still locked into hers as she stood there, stock-still, mesmerized by her eyes.
She aged into her 16 year old form, matching Persia's age as she grew to a greater height. She was taller than Persia in this form, but just barely. Their eyes were almost level as Artemis took another step…
Her heart was bouncing around in her rib cage now, and a fluttering feeling grew in her stomach. She felt limbs tingle and her eyes began to close as she stepped right up to Persia. The other girl's warm breath fanned her face as a slight blush began to spread on her face.
Artemis was already blushing, and she couldn't deny that Persia's blush made her look cute and adorable.
Without realizing it, Artemis closed the distance between her and Persia, and planted a kiss right on her lips.
Electricity coursed through the pair as Persia's hands flew up to Artemis' cheeks, while Artemis grasped her waist.
And then Artemis' mind cleared.
In an instant, it was all over. Artemis shoved Persia away and she fell on her back as she furiously smacked herself and wiped her lips. She yelled in fury at her tent roof as Persia sat on the ground, her mind attempting to wrap around the sudden kiss Artemis gave her.
Artemis was shocked at what she just did, kissing Persia out of the blue. She didn't know WHY she did it, and she was frustrated beyond belief.
Her frustration grew as she stared at Persia's shocked and confused expression, which irritated her beyond belief. She tried to form words, but her mind was still sluggish and off. This resulted in her yelling at the poor girl.
"You-you're-GAH! DISMISSED!" Artemis yelled at Persia, but the girl just sat there in shock.
"I, SAID, DISMISSED!" Artemis yelled, stomping over and hauling her up by her collar. Snapping her fingers, she threw the girl out of the tent before zipping the tent shut. Only then did she break down and begin hyperventilating, unable to come to terms with what just happened.
She didn't know why she kissed Persia. She didn't know what happened. She did know one thing though-she was in Aphrodite's clutches again. And this time, it seemed like there was no escape.
She screamed.
Outside, hunters gathered around the stunned girl who was slowly sitting up. Persia seemed confounded as she slowly moved, her motions sluggish as she tried to stand, her head spinning as she tried to understand what happened.
One moment, Artemis was mad at her. In the next, she was kissed-her first kiss, and all of a sudden she found herself tossed out of the tent like a sack of potatoes.
What was going on?
—
A/N: and that's another chapter in this new series.
I'm not really happy with this chapter, since I wrote it in like 6 parts (I got carried away with IRL stuff). If you guys have any recommendations or advice on how to improve/rewrite this chapter, let me know.
Anyway, we got a hate review! It's apparently deleted since I can't find it, but I'll show it to you nonetheless, and reply to it. (never mind, they reposted it.)
Libhater on chapter 1: this is actually just pure garbage
Now I'm not against negative reviews. But this is…something else. If you want to hate on me, I'm fine-after all, I'm not the best writer, and in my opinion I simply output slop that I enjoy writing. So, you aren't incorrect in a sense, and I am happy that someone agrees with me.
HOWEVER, if you're here to hate on me, you should also state how I can improve or suggest how it can be changed for the better, not just "oh fuck you this sucks" and leave it at that. I'm fine with constructive criticism because it helps me improve. I'm not fine with outright hate reviews.
Anyway, we have another review:
JimmySG0: thank you. I'm still planning out the details, but I won't attempt to rush anything except the Artemis x Persia part because I did say I'm planning to make it rushed (in a sense). Hope you enjoy my work.
That's all for this chapter- thank you for the great amount of support, 1.5 (almost 6) thousand views and 41 favourites (not to mention the people who follow/are interested in future updates). Thank you for your support and I'll see you next chapter!
(Don't be afraid to leave reviews by the way! Guest reviews are also welcome.)