Percy POV
For a moment, I was stunned, rooted to the spot, still staring at where Artemis had been. Surely I was living in some fantasy variation of life. Surely the maiden goddess, the same one who had torn my very soul out, hadn't given herself up in order to save me. No, it was impossible. I would be waking up to reality, in the hunters camp, waiting for Artemis to summon me for the dinner I didn't want to eat.
It was Thalia who shook me out of my thoughts.
"What did you just do," the daughter of Zeus asked venomously. I tried ignoring her, but it was pointless.
"I said what did you just do!" she roared again, her tone laced with anger. I tried to ignore her, but her words hit me like a physical blow. I knew what she was implying. I had caused this. Artemis had only been trying to save me from the wrath of Gone.
"I did nothing," I spat back, my own anger starting to boil over. Thalia laughed bitterly, her eyes blazing with fury.
"Oh, so now the great god Perseus wants to talk to me-"
"No, you know what, I don't want to talk to you Thalia!" I yelled at her. Ever since joining the hunt, she had just been getting more and more on my nerves. "If I haven't made that clear enough over the last however many years, then you need to FOCUS on how people act around you." Thalia was seething red at this point. Facing me, she raised her spear, and screamed a war cry, before charging at me. I sidestepped and had Charlotte not intervened, much worse would've happened to both of us. She had always been level headed, and right now she was the only person who could keep the peace.
"Percy, Thalia, both of you shut up!" she yelled. First, she turned to face the daughter of Zeus. "Thalia, do you really think Artemis gave herself to Gone so that you and Percy could start a civil war between the hunters?" For a moment, Thalia was taken back by her attitude, not having seen Charlotte this angry in a while. The girl was usually pretty timid and chill, but today she was anything but that. In fact, today no one was acting like themself.
"Why would milady save Perseus." She said my name with such venom that I had to resist myself from freezing time and teleporting her to the top of Mount Everest. We'll see how cocky she acts there. "Perseus never did a thing for Artemis-"
"Shut your mouth!" I roared, slamming my staff down into the hard earth.
"Or what?" Thalia countered. "Are you going to kill me? Ignore me? Well I have news for you Lord Perseus. Until from the bottom of your empty, dark heart you apologies to my leader, I never want to speak to you again!" Her words were like daggers, slicing through the tension in the air. The venom in her voice made my blood boil, and I could feel my fists clenching at my sides, but I knew that I couldn't let my anger get the best of me. Not now, when we were all still reeling from what had just happened. Despite the harsh words, it had been my fault after all, hadn't it? Perhaps I should've been nicer to Artemis? At the moment I wasn't even angry with Thalia, simply angry with myself. I tried to reason with her, to explain that Artemis had saved me because she saw something in me that Thalia couldn't see, but she was beyond reason. It was Nico who intervened, stopping her from saying another word. The son of Hades was looking at me strangely, and shook his head subtly.
"Enough about who's wrong," he murmured. "The council needs to hear about this instantly." I growled, but nevertheless, eased my grip on my staff and nodded. It was then that my heart dropped six feet under. I have to inform the council, I suddenly realised. The chances of them talking it well were the same chances that I was in a dream, and judging from me still not getting up, I highly doubted that was the case.
"Charlotte, come with me" I ordered, extending my arm for her to take.
"Sophie, you are in charge until I return. Under no circumstances is anyone to leave this spot," I instructed the hunter, turning to face her. She seemed surprised that I was giving her such a big responsibility, but nodded nevertheless. I could tell that she was determined to prove herself worthy of the trust I had placed in her.
"I will, Lord Perseus," she said, her voice firm and resolute. Perhaps if I was in a good mood, I would've made a joke and told her to drop the formalities, but there was much more to worry about than whether or not I liked being called 'Lord.' With every second that passed, the god knew Artemis wasn't being treated any better.
"Nico, grab my arm," I said to the warrior beside me. He looked at me as if I was ludicrous.
"Percy, the effects of whatever dark magic Gone used on you still haven't worn out, and I'm not shadow travelling three people at once unless you guys want to visit Russia anytime soon-"
"Nico," I said tiredly, cutting him off. "I'm angry, confused and frustrated. I don't care if we end up in North Japan or South Egypt, just get us to Olympus." Muttering something along the lines of being impatient, the son of Hades quickly took our hands, before squeezing his eyes shut hard. The last thing I could see was a furious Thalia staring daggers at me before we were lost in the cold shadows.
Two trips. For Nico, that wasn't even bad. The first time we shadow travelled, we ended up in the bustling city of Dubai, standing in front of the tallest building in the world. The towering structure, with its glass and steel exterior, glittered in the bright sun, but I barely had time to admire the view before we needed to be whisked away again. Charlotte, who had never left the safety of the hunter's camp before, was understandably fascinated by the modern marvels of the city, but I had to remind her of the urgent situation at hand, which was much easier said than done. We had to find Artemis and fast. After a quick break to catch our breath and regroup, groaning and half asleep, the son of Hades weakly closed his eyes, before for the second time, they dissipated into the realm of the shadows.
Olympus was quiet when they got there… eerily quiet. It was as if the palace wanted everyone to be able to hear what Artemis had done. Because of how I couldn't do what needed to be done in the end, I thought.
"Nico, run inside and get whoever is there to call an emergency council meeting, now." I was cold and commanding. There was no time to waste, regardless of what my domains are. After all, you wouldn't hear Poseidon ever telling someone to waste water. I followed Nico, still feeling weary and dreamy from my exchange with Gone. Ten minutes later and it still seemed surreal… or perhaps I was just coping with the fact that I had lost Artemis. Regardless of what she did and didn't do for me, he would never have made her go with that monster of an immortal. Luckily for me (and Artemis), Nico had done his job properly. In the span of time it took me and Charlotte to walk from the bottom of the palace steps inside, Nico had gathered the entire council. Not a single member wasn't there and wasn't alert. Even Dinoysus was sitting up, rubbing his chin thoughtfully and trying to think why an emergency meeting had been called.
When everyone saw my face of fear and anger, slowly, theirs began to morph as well. Each god was shifting uncomfortably in their chair, looking at me with unease.
"Perseus," Zeus began, letting out a cough. "Would you like to tell us why you've summoned us all here, taking us out of our training?"
"Wait," Apollo suddenly yelled out, scanning the room with his eyes.
"Where's Artemis?" he asked, trying to look behind me as if she was hiding there. Even as the Lord of Time, I couldn't stop myself from looking down at the ground, engulfed in guilt.
"She's not with us…" I finally managed to get out. Still, I couldn't look her brother or her father in the eye. Apollo looked confused.
"Is she dead?" he finally asked, to which I lightly snorted.
"Thankfully, or unthankfully not. Last I checked, she's alive."
"Then where is my daughter?" he asked. "Did she run away from Olympus again?"
"N-no it's not that Zeus it's-"
"Just tell us already!" Athena snapped. At this, I lost it.
"Alright, you wanna know where Artemis is? Artemis is gone! Kidnapped! Teleported away!" I took a deep breath. "She's been… taken," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. As I finished talking, there was a murmur of disbelief from the council, almost as if they couldn't believe what they were hearing.
"Explain yourself!" Zeus' deep voice rumbled from his throne. Perhaps on a good day, I would've given him a lecture on how to treat others with manners, but after the stunt I'd just pulled, I wasn't sure if I deserved his manners, at least right now.
"It started yesterday when we received a visit from Demeter," I began. "She informed us that you of course required us to hunt." Zeus waved his hand as if he was motioning Percy to go faster.
"Yes yes, I know all of this Perseus. Hades said there was a strange group of monsters close to you, and why not ask the Lord of Time to battle them."
"Well what Hades didn't tell you is Gone was commanding those monsters." At the mere mention of his name, the council again froze, some staring with their mouths wide open in shock.
"Hades," Zeus growled, but the Lord of the Dead raised his hands in a surrendering motion.
"Hey, if I knew I would've told you," he snapped. "There was no reason for me to let my favourite nephew fight that… thing by himself." Zeus glared at his brother, but told me to continue.
"I was of course shocked, but it wasn't like we could back out. Then, Gone dropped one of his magic crystal balls." Apollo's eyes widened.
"You mean the ones that-"
"Yep," I nodded. To the rest of the confused council, I said, "One of Gone's abilities is he can summon these balls which, when dropped, takes every immortal's powers from them. Time wasn't in my control, and we had to go to hand-to-hand combat."
"Back to Artemis," Zeus said. I nodded.
"Near the end of the fight, I lost." Some members of the council gasped, but I fixed them with a cold glare. "Indeed it was an unfair fight, and it was a close one, but of course the god with millennia of experience beat me. Now I must emphasise here how ready I was to go as Gone's captor back to his evil realm, but Artemis stopped me." At this, Zeus raised an eyebrow. I further explained. "In order to save me, Artemis teleported me and Nico out of the clearing and into the forest. Of Course she couldn't flash herself out as well because of-"
"The laws of flashing state only one god can be flashed at a single time, unless they're extremely powerful of course," Zeus finished for me.
"So Artemis saved me by sacrificing herself, and I'm sure Gone will not delay before his next attack." When Zeus looked at me, I couldn't read any of his emotions. He was just staring, lost in his own thoughts. It was Hera who had to speak up for him.
"While the sudden disappearance of Artemis is to be grieved, and while we do need to send some people to search for her, we must continue gearing up for the next battle. Percy is right. Gone won't want to wait a second. He'll be attacking us as soon as he can, and we all need to be ready to fight. I don't want to see anyone out of the training arena until we next face Gone, and I want everyone focusing especially on fighting without their powers." I did have to give Hera some credit. She was very good at directing the council in times of dire panic and uproar.
"Meeting adjourned," she said, and one by one, each god flashed out of the council, most likely returning to the training Arena where the Revenant were waiting for them. Soon enough, Calypso, Leo, Frank, Piper, and everyone else would know the story of how I, Perseus Jackson could not hold my side against Gone.
"Everything alright, my son?" came a voice from my side. I looked up wildly, relaxing when I saw who it was.
"Lady Hestia," I murmured. Perhaps under normal conditions, I would bow, but today had been anything but normal.
"How many times do I need to say, just call me 'mom'" I sighed, apologising. The council meeting had been adjourned twenty minutes ago, and still, I was here, lost in my own world, chewing the tip of my nails, something my real mother used to hate. Nico was waiting outside for me. Originally, I'd told him to go somewhere else, but he said, as the guardian of Hestia he would remain here until I was stable enough to leave, be it a couple of minutes, hours, or even days.
"So tell me son, what's wrong?" Her voice was so soft, so warm, so kind. I sighed. It was something hard to explain. Most people would laugh at me and call me crazy for thinking this, but to me, it was how the mind worked. I would get thoughts that no matter how much I hated, I had to accept that these were my thoughts and were there for a reason.
"Do you think I took it too far with Artemis?" I suddenly blurted out. Hestia looked at me with a wry smile, her eyes filled with a mix of amusement and empathy. I could sense her compassion for my predicament, and it gave me some comfort.
"She hurt you badly, Perseus, why would you feel you took it too far?" she asked, her voice soft and soothing. I shrugged, feeling the weight of my guilt pressing down on me.
"Thalia was saying the reason she let Gone kidnap her was because of how I treated her," I admitted, feeling the sting of shame as the words left my mouth. My mother let out a deep sigh, a frown etching itself onto her face.
"Didn't Apollo and I both tell you to not listen to what she says?" she asked, her voice tinged with frustration.
I nodded, feeling ashamed that I had given Thalia's words so much power over me. "You did, mother," I agreed. "But it doesn't mean she's necessarily wrong, does it?" Hestia shrugged her shoulders, her eyes scanning my face for any sign of understanding.
"You are a good man, with a good heart," she finally said, resting her hand on my shoulder. "But that doesn't mean good men don't make mistakes, and don't have flaws. Even us gods have flaws. Artemis unjustly hates a lot of men, Zeus has a head bigger than Olympus, Hades locks himself away in the Underworld all day, the list just goes on." I furrowed my eyebrows, feeling both comforted and frustrated by my mother's response. While I appreciated her honesty, I couldn't help but feel like she was avoiding the question.
"Does that mean you think I took it too far?" I asked, slightly confused. For a moment, Hestia paused, her eyes locking onto mine with a piercing intensity.
"What would you do if I said yes?" she asked, her voice low and steady. I didn't hesitate to answer.
"Rectify my mistake," I said in a heartbeat, feeling a sense of clarity wash over me. She smiled, as if someone, my real mother, had raised me right.
"And tell me, Perseus," she began softly, "what would you do if I said no?" My mind raced, trying to find an answer that felt true to my heart. After a moment of visible struggle, I opened my mouth to speak.
"I would...rectify my mistake anyway?" I said in a puzzled tone, my head cocked to the side. Hestia chuckled, her eyes gleaming with humour.
"It seems you really are as smart as they say," she said sarcastically, before grinning. "Now go do what you need to do, my son."
"NICO!" I yelled from the throne room. Not even three seconds later, the demigod was in front of me, his sword at the ready.
"Percy, what's happening?" he asked, alarm laced in his voice. I pulled my robe on, before tying back my hair and firmly grabbing my staff.
"Perseus," my mother called out to me. "Artemis is truly wounded inside. Ever since you came, her views on men have been fighting a war inside her. If you do not want to trust her, that is fine, but at least feel sympathy for her." I nodded, before giving her a quick hug and walking out of the throne room.
"I want the entire Revenant at the ready in the next ten minutes," I ordered Nico, picking up my pace.
"Percy," he said with a twinge of annoyance. "I'm still waiting for you to explain what is happening." I looked him in the eye with a grin expression.
"We're getting Artemis back, because no one deserves to suffer at the hands of a monster like Gone, regardless of what they've done." Nico smirked.
"I guess this is the official return of the old Perseus we all remember? The one who would put anyone and anything before him?" I growled.
"Just get the Revenant together."
"Two steps ahead of you Perce," he smirked, opening the throne room's door, revealing all of my friends and warriors, armed to the teeth and awaiting further instructions.
Got some really cool action coming up in the next few chapters! Hope you're enjoying it! As always, please do review!