AN: Hey, I'm zwx214. This is my second attempt at a piece of writing longer than a one-shot (The first attempt shall not be named). This story IS an Assassin of Chaos story, but screw all heroic and nice Percy. Doesn't make sense an assassin to not work for money.
One thing I would like to apologise in advance for is that whilst I will 100% complete this story, there will be no scheduled updates. I am a student finishing Year 12 or Senior Year in America (I think?) and I've a bunch of stuff going on and whilst this story is important to me, it's not my top priority.
The second is that I am from Australia and that all my writing will be using British English, so bear with me here.
Enjoy!
The moonlight passed through the clouds, bathing the Pisgah and Nantahala National Forest with none of its gentle, soothing light.
The bushes rustled as sea-green eyes snapped open, its owner uncapping a pen which transformed into a leaf-shaped xiphos whilst rolling to the side as an arrow slammed into the spot on which he'd been sleeping a second before.
Percy's eyes glanced up at the silver-clad shape that stepped from the shadows, another arrow notched and aimed at him. "Hey Pinecone Face," he grinned and flicked aside the second arrow that flew towards him, "I see you still haven't gotten in your daily dose of killing Percy in his sleep yet!"
A scow made its way onto Thalia's face and she snarled, "No, I'd prefer if you were awake and screaming when I kill you, Perseus Jackson." Percy rolled his eyes, anticipating the familiar accusations.
"For Hades' sake Thalia, I told you it wasn't me-"
"But the bodies don't lie. They died because of a lack of blood circulation. Annabeth told me what you did in Tartarus, how you could manipulate blood." His shattered heart broke a little bit more. "No one else can pull that off and whilst you're a treacherous little shit, you are the most powerful demigod the world has ever seen."
"That makes it all the more unreasonable for you to hunt me alone, Thals." Percy sassily retorted before his eyes narrowed, "But not if the Olympians finally decided to get off their asses, deciding that they can now finally directly meddle with mortals. How are you, Lady Artemis?"
The air behind the demigod rippled, being the only warning for him to duck the thrown dagger that would've embedded itself straight in the back of his skull as he twisted, Anaklusomos slamming the second dagger away from his body before delivering a harsh kick that sent the off-balanced goddess past him before tumbling to a stop next to her half-sister, pools of silver trained on him like crosshairs on a target as she raised her head to regard him.
"I'll have your head, boy," Artemis declared flatly as she got back up, the silver hunting knife reappeared in her hand, "and break you into several pieces, one for each hunter you've killed." Percy chuckled.
"Well, I very much like having myself in a single piece, preferably with my head." The smirk was strained, but the two huntresses either didn't take notice or simply didn't care. The silence held for another moment until the wind began to blow again, akin to the silent drums of war and all hell broke loose.
Artemis lunged forwards alongside Thali's arrow, racing towards the son of Poseidon, who sidestepped, feeling the wind being split by the arrow that passed an inch away from his ear before Artemis bore down on him, hacking and slashing with those wicked hunting knives, seeking to tear apart his defences in a deadly dance of blades. Thunder rumbled above them and Percy threw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding the bolt of lightning that created a small crater in the clearing before rolling to avoid a spear through his stomach.
Percy snuck a quick glance at the size of the crater, grimacing, "Really not going to make it easy huh, Pinecone Face? Two can play that game."
The huntresses frowned as Percy stomped down, causing a tremor to run through the ground with cracks spreading like shattered ice from his foot and a light drizzle had begun to fall. "Stombringer, Earthshaker. Son of Poseidon at your service."
This time, Percy charged towards the two, covering the distance between them in a second, leaping aside in order to narrowly avoid Thalia's spear before flicking the spear shaft to the side and threw a hard kick into her shield, causing the Celestial Bronze to crumble as the daughter of Zeus was lifted off her feet and hurtled towards a tree with a painful collision, knocking her out cold.
Artemis had reacted a millisecond later, leaping forwards in the form of a deer before reverting back to her twelve-year-old form with a hunting knife aimed to plunge into Percy's heart. His quick footwork was the only thing that saved him from certain death as he danced just outside of Artemis' reach before swinging his sword in deadly arcs at a speed that had the goddess of the hunt backpedalling away from the grasping claws of death, wincing the force between each blow that rained down upon her by the demigod. The ground shock again as Artemis lost her footing, allowing Percy to swat both of her hunting knives away from her body before the flat of the blade whirled around and slammed into Artemis' side in a hard blow that knocked the air from her lungs as she met the ground in a resounding crash. Before she could rise again, Percy quickly stepped forwards and hit her on the side of the head with the hilt of Riptide, ensuring that she wouldn't get up and attack him again.
His shoulders visibly sagged as he ran a hand through the flop of raven-black hair and a sigh escaping his lips, his legs continued to carry him away from the wrecked clearing. His mind travelled back to why he was out in a national forest instead of the comforts of Cabin Three back at Camp. Things started, two years after the end of the Second Gigantomachy, with the arrival of a new demigod, a child of Hecate whom Percy didn't even know well enough to recall his name, who had framed the son of Poseidon for some ill-designed pranks or making a snarky comment here and there about him.
But things quickly took a turn for the worse when Susanna Westwater, a daughter of Aphrodite, was found dead with her body washed ashore on Long Island Sound. When the Apollo kids examined the body, there cause of death was deducted to be drowning. However, these are simply a list of facts until a few of Susanna's siblings testified that the girl had a huge crush on the Twice-Saviour of Olympus and was last seen going for a walk on the beach where Percy was supposed to be. However, Percy was called away by a naiad in order to free a shark that was caught underneath a sunken ship. The same naiad had vouched for Percy's innocence when a cloud of perfume alongside half the Ares' campers turned up outside of Cabin Three, demanding for an explanation for Susanna's death. Despite his ultimately revealed innocence, no amounts of blue coke or blue pancakes were able to wash down the bitterness in Percy's mouth or warm the slight cold that had settled in his heart at the thought that his friends, his brothers and sisters in arms, had turned on him in such a rapid manner.
Following the muffled apologies from his fellow campers, the Hunters of Artemis arrived at camp and for a while, Percy was overjoyed at the thought of seeing Thalia again and getting away from all the campers who had assumed the worst of him within a heartbeat.
After getting their asses kicked by the Hunters (For the seventy-second time, but who's counting?), Annabeth had gone to bed early after a quick good-night kiss with Percy, so the son of Poseidon and Thalia went for a evening stroll on Long Island Sound. The huntress' bare feet kicked the sand as she trudged along, "You have to move on, Kelp Brain. Half of them have barely been there for two months! They've just found a safe haven from the monsters that's been on their asses for the past decade and suddenly - BAM! Someone dies where there was supposedly meant to be no danger."
"It's not about them," Percy muttered, bitterness seeping into his voice, "It's the others. Malcom, Travis, Connor, Clarisse. For Zeus' sake Thalia, Clarisse looked like she was ready to execute me on the spot!" His shoulder slumped, "I just don't know how they could think that of me."
Thalia's hopped over, resting a hand on his shoulder, "Hey Perce, it'll be fine. We'll get through it, we always have."
But of course, the fates weren't on his side.
The next morning, he woke up, just as usual, before heading down to the beach for a quick swim. Just as he passed the Artemis cabin, a scream emerged from the silver cabin. Within seconds, all the cabins erupted into action as demigods clambered out of their beds and struggled out of their cabins. Percy stared at the Artemis cabin, briefly wondering what caused that scream when neither the titan war or the giant war had caused anything more than a pained grunt, but these thoughts were put to a stop when the door to the Artemis cabin opened, through which stepped the goddess herself in her eighteen year old form, followed by her lieutenant. But the change in forms wasn't the focus of the gathered demigods; no, it was the visible aura of silvery light pulsing around her slim figure.
Her silver eyes scanned through the crowd of awkwardly shifting demigods before focusing on Percy's face. "Someone," her glare harsh enough to melt the strongest of metals, "has killed my hunters." Gasps rang out in the clearing before not-so-contained whisperings began to cloud the clearing.
"SILENCE!" The goddess roared, her form flickering as she struggled to contain her divine form from being released in her vengeful rage. "My hunters had been murdered when my lieutenant and I were required by Lord Zeus. We returned this morning, only to find that all of them had died within their sleep."
Her silver eyes scanned through the crowd again before continuing, "Whilst I'm not as proficient in medicine as my brother, I was able to come to the conclusion that they had died due to a lack of oxygen caused by blocked circulation."
Percy felt his stomach turn with an ominous feeling as Artemis returned her furious gaze onto his face, hissing out the words, "Blood contains water and you, son of Poseidon are the only one in this camp manipulate water to such an extent".
Thalia had raised her head in shock, her electric blue eyes wide as she stared at her brother in all but blood as the demigods began retreating from the son of Poseidon, some drawing their weapons. Percy couldn't blame them, not really, not when an Olympian goddess had basically condemned his guilt of murder. What really did hurt was that Thalia's look of disbelief quickly morphed into one of downright fury as sparks began to radiate from her body. The daughter of Zeus tapped on her disguised cannister and raised her spear with a scream as a lightning bolt fell towards Percy.
In that moment, the son of Poseidon could have sworn that Kronos had frozen time. He could make out the tears trailing down the side of Thalia's face, the distinct smell of ozone and the crawling of static in the air. His eyes glanced around the clearing, seeing the blonde shape of Annabeth standing in front of her siblings, grey eyes flashing in scornful anger. His vision blurred as he tried to contain his own tears from raining down. Time resumed as he vanished into vapour, disappearing just as the bolt of lightning landed and blasted all nearby demigods off their feet.
The snap of the branch he stepped on pulled Percy from his memories as he shook his head, attempting to clear out his muddled mind. Three years has passed since his unofficial exile from the Greek world with five , not-so-friendly encounters with Artemis and Thalia. He hasn't made willing contact with the Greek or Roman world outside of that. Hell, he hasn't made any human contact during his exile.
The trail eventually opened up to a small river, cutting across the demigod's path. This didn't bother Percy at all as he jumped straight into the cold, flowing waters and letting it rejuvenate him with energy. His thoughts traced back to his mother, a constant worry for her, his stepfather and his little sister. How were they? Were they worried that he had disappeared again, this time for three years? Were they happy that monsters wouldn't - no.
He grimaced, refusing to go down that particular train of thought, but instead focusing on the water of the river and letting it carry him further downstream as he closed his eyes, losing himself to the realm of Morpheus.