Hey guys, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, in which they make some plans, and Artemis and Luke are kinda like cats that hate one another, and Percy is so done.
Replies:
Old Bert: It will certainly be interesting :D
Undeath9087: Straight to Mykonos, Percy wants to get there as fast as they can given the time limit and the fact that they don't know how long it'll take to get the Scythe. Also Alina could easily order monsters to gather at all potential portal places in Manhattan to prevent them from leaving if they do go to Brookyn House.
Guest: Artemis suspects that Percy is indeed a demigod, and she also sorta suspects the Poseidon link but she doesn't know for sure. And a lot of your questions will be answered in coming chapters.
Guest: I'm up to around 32 :D
Krypon Joy Writes: I honestly don't tend to check my PMS after some bad experiences. Sorry!
Guest: Oh yeah, the Scythe is very important in this lol.
Wisestriker: I live to please!
It was Artemis who spoke first after Percy's announcement, directing a raised eyebrow at her. "How exactly do you know that? I mean certainly Mykonos is where Kronos and the gods had their final battle but you seem certain."
"I didn't even know that." Luke admitted, "And I thought he'd told me a lot." that did make sense- Kronos would have had to pretend to trust Luke to gain Luke's trust. Gods above but it was so gross. It was essentially grooming and Percy most definitely didn't want to know how long ago it had started or she might just go all chaos on Kronos' ass. Though maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing.
"I've been there before." Percy spoke as she focused, "My family travels a lot. Mykonos is one of my favorite places to go on holiday, I know the island pretty well and I spent a lot of time exploring the caves and stuff. When I went in one of them I felt-" she faltered, trying to figure out how to explain it- "It just felt like I shouldn't be in there, like there was something telling me I had to turn around and leave. Since my mom and my siblings were waiting for me I did. I was only down there like, five, ten minutes but... but when I came out my mom was frantic. She told me I'd been gone for hours."
"Time warping." Artemis' expression was serious, "That certainly sounds like something that would happen around the Scythe. Do you remember how to get to that cave?"
"I do."
"Well we know where we're going at least." Luke snorted, "Now how do we get there? It's not like she-" he pointed at Artemis, "Can just zap us there. She's not a god anymore."
"And that does beg the question why did they drain Artemis but we'll figure that out once we've sorted all this." Percy spoke firmly, "And- if you give me a couple of hours to sleep and rest I can probably open a portal. I know where to go to do it in San Francisco." she'd done her research so that she'd be able to take Annabeth back and forth.
Gods Annabeth and Piper were somewhere in the city- Percy knew the address even if she wasn't sure how exactly to get there. And a part of her longed to rush down and find them. To knock on the door and see them both open it. But that wouldn't be fair with Luke with her. Annabeth deserved to decide when she was ready to face her surrogate older brother figure. And Percy didn't want them in the sort of danger they'd be in doing this. Because there was no doubt that they'd be hunted. Atlas and Alina would try to track them down and either kill them or drag them back to Mount Tam, and Percy wasn't sure which option would be worse.
"A portal?" Luke shook his head, "Gods but I'm going to have to get used to the weird shit you can do Kane."
"Egyptian magic is... useful." Artemis admitted, "Are you sure though? A fire is one thing but a portal?"
"It might drain me a bit but I can do it." she'd left the perfect anchor point in Mykonos on one of their earlier holidays, tucked away safe and secure where no one would find it. Well, no one other than her, her siblings and their most trusted friends and partners.
"Then you will rest." Artemis nodded, "But before that we must consider the other parts of the prophecy."
"And return to face the foes and vengeance bring."
"That's easy enough." Luke pointed out. "We have to go back to face our enemies- and the vengeance line-"
"That's between me and Alina." Percy's expression darkened. "Once I'll back to full strength I'll make sure that there's not even anything left for the afterlife." after all she was capable of it. She was Chaos incarnate and when Chaos destroyed something there was nothing left at all.
"Or it could mean that I get vengeance for what they did to me and my brother." Artemis pointed out, "Prophecies are often complicated with hidden meanings. It would do us well not to assume we know what it means." there was a chiding note in her voice, and Percy resisted the urge to roll her eyes as Luke added.
"It could even be me getting revenge on Kronos for manipulating me. As much as I hate it Artemis is right. Though your prophecy does seem unfairly simple. All the prophecy's I've heard have been a lot harder to figure out."
"Maybe it's because of my Egyptian blood." Percy gave a small shrug, "That's probably not the most important part right now." she shifted slightly closer to the small fire. "Now for the last line, the revival delayed by the prophesied's swing."
"I don't like the sound of that." Artemis' eyebrows drew together, a scowl forming on her lips as she leaned forward slightly, "Swing perhaps implies a blow from some kind of weapon but what revival could be delayed? And the prophesied's? Who is it referring to."
"Could be me. It's my prophecy."
"Possibly." Artemis nodded "But that doesn't answer the question of what revival-"
"Kronos'." Luke answered, his expression serious. "It's Alina, it's her plan. I- at first I thought I should be relieved when she told Kronos that she could bring him back with a body of his own but- but I wasn't."
Percy blinked- that had been one of the biggest cards in her hand when it came to Luke, preventing his possession. It was startling- in a good way, that he'd chosen to defect from Kronos despite the fact that that threat was no longer hanging over his head.
"But that's not possible." Artemis sounded horrified, "Kronos- he cannot be so far along-"
"She mentioned some ritual." Luke interrupted, "Using the grace of a god-"
"Mine-" Artemis' color drained from her face, "Using my godhood-"
"And a sacrifice at the right time along with the right spell- she said it would be powerful enough for him to manifest his own body years before he could do it otherwise and as the power of the sacrifice and the god flowed into him he'd regain his full strength within half an hour."
"Oh that sounds bad." Percy grimaced, "When you say about the sacrifice-"
"Pretty sure it was meant to be you." Luke nodded, and Percy pulled a face.
"I'm not surprised but still, dick move of her." she grumbled the words. And that sort of magic was very advanced- it was possible it was a spell Alina had come up with but Percy was inclined to think that it was one of Setnes, in which case it could almost certainly do what Luke seemed to think it could. Not good for them in the slightest, "So what else do you know? You said about the right time? You know when that is?"
"Sunrise of the Winter Solstice- well she said either Solstice would work but the Winter Solstice is closest." Luke explained. And yeah, yeah that made sense.
"Okay, so we need to get to Mykonos, get the scythe, get back to Mount Tam and stop the ritual before sunrise on-" Percy paused, "The winter solstice is the 21st of December right?"
Artemis nodded, "Yes." her expression was tight with worry, very serious "That's no easy task. Who knows how long it will take us to find the Scythe?"
"Well it's the 16th now." Luke pointed out, "That gives us five full days. With your portals-" he focused on Percy, "The distance shouldn't be such a problem right?"
"To a point." Percy bit her lip, "Once we're in Greece we'll be there for at least twelve hours- my anchor point is going to need a cool down period of that long."
"Still, better than if we had to get planes at least." Luke was frowning, "Where do we need to go to open one of your portals?"
"I'd say our best bet is the Transamerica Pyramid." Percy decided, "It's the tallest building here, it should work."
"It will still take us hours to reach it." Artemis pointed out, "Hours that we can hardly afford. Especially since you need to rest before we can even set off."
"We don't have much choice." Percy gave a strained smile, "I don't like it any more than either of you- if we're lucky once we're off the mountain we'll be able to hitch a ride which might cut down our journey time."
"This is infuriating." Artemis ground out, "If I was still a god-"
"If you were still a god we wouldn't have this problem. But you're not." Luke snapped the words, "Welcome to the problems of mortals. Maybe you can learn something-"
"Listen to me boy if you keep-"
"You two-" Percy's voice was sharp, "Do I have to fucking banish you both to either side of this bathroom because I will and neither of you want that because you'll be freezing and neither of you are even completely dry. The situation is fucked yes but we're doing what we " the fire had started drying them but they were still damp, and Luke and Artemis both scowled at that before nodding.
"You are right." Artemis nodded, "Now isn't the time for us to fight or to complain too much. We must deal with the cards we've been dealt."
"Right." Luke crossed his arms, shoulders hunching slightly as he did. "We'll play nice while you're asleep I guess." he paused, "How long do you need to sleep for?"
"At least two hours." Percy said after a moment of thought, "The storm, the light and the fire have really taken it out of me." not to mention the cold- as beautiful as her dress was it was not designed for this sort of weather. Sure San Francisco wasn't as cold as New York in Winter but still, they were high enough that it was still unpleasantly cold.
"We'll need a way to monitor the time then." Artemis pointed out.
"Of course." Percy blinked, "I actually forgot." she quickly unfastened the watch from around her wrist, holding it out to Luke, who blinked.
"Right, I let you have my watch." he shook his head, clearly trying to clear his mind as he took it back and looked at it, "Okay so it's- he winced, "2:50am." he hesitated, "I hate to admit it but Artemis and I probably need some sleep too."
"You sleep now then." Artemis spoke up, "I will be fine for two hours at least. I can sleep for two hours after you two have had your sleep and you can keep watch whilst I sleep."
"Makes sense." Percy nodded, "And I should be able to summon up an even warmer fire then." she paused, "This one-" she pointed to the small fire, "Should last for at least two more hours before it fades. It's not perfect but it's a lot better than nothing and it should keep us at least a little warm."
"It will be enough." Artemis spoke up. "Sleep now Percy." and so Percy shifted, doing her best to get comfortable on the stone floor beneath her- it was cold to touch- annoying but Percy could deal with that, she could feel the warmth from the small ball of fire, and she could hear and feel Luke muttering something, a shuffling- and Percy assumed that Luke was giving Artemis his watch to keep track of the time, before she heard him settling down on the floor close to her- close enough that she could feel some warmth from the heat of his body.
She took a deep breath as she tucked an arm beneath her head and closed her eyes.
Usually after so much stress and with so much on Percy's mind it would be near impossible for her to sleep. But thankfully this time the exhaustion was enough, and Percy felt herself drifting away within minutes of closing her eyes.