Its been some time, hasnt it? Sorry, things have been happening and I've been everywehre else. A bit of a filler chapter admittedly, but we'll be back in the action soon. Just you wait, Ill be turning a bit of focus on it hopefuily, still covering old ground from the previous version obviously, so bear with me. Cheers
One hour. Two. Five.
Iowa. South Dakota. Montana.
Piper had never had time pass so mind numbingly slow yet absurdly fast. Then again, she had rarely ever spent so much time sitting and staring at the rolling horizon.
It had been a remarkably quiet morning, considering there should be two gods aboard the Argo. Yet they were short a member of their Seven, she was on quite rocky ground with half of the rest, and there had been neither hide nor hair of Artemis or Apollo.
So she sat, ignoring the pins-and-needles in her hips and the bone deep cold that shook her body. Let her mind roll the troubles of the past week over and over until her thoughts could break it down to basics.
Percy and Annabeth had hit a 'rough patch' to put it mildly, which was likely why he had left Camp. Why that was, was beyond Piper, and would remain that way for some time. If she ever learned, that is. If it was bad enough that he left Camp though, as she suspected, then it was just as easy to believe that it could send him out to some bar.
A bar that happened to be ground zero for the stupidest prank within centuries. It was actually impressive that they had even pulled it off, and gotten Artemis drunk. What unholy amount of alcohol that took- it would probably kill a mortal, or a hundred.
Somehow, Artemis ended up in Percy's bedroom, of all places, while he ended up Hades knows where.
That didn't even begin to consider the strange winged god, or the Keres, or the strange woman in the street. All acting on some tangled web of motives. She was just as likely to start understanding them as she was to win the lottery.
Katropis found her hand, gleaming in the morning light. She hadn't used the 'mirror' since the end of the Giant War, didn't need to until now.
She stared at the surface, at her haggard features, and let her thoughts drift. Already worry had worn at her natural poise, though it did nothing to her determination.
It was almost funny. She had spent so little time with Percy, only to feel so… attached? No that wasn't it. It wasn't like Piper felt particularly close to him. There was just some way he existed that seemed to draw people in and make friends.
From what she'd seen and heard, she wasn't the only one that felt like that. There was hardly a person in Camp that didn't seem to like him, and even those few held some respect.
He was easy to like. Quick to help, or give a nice comment, or playful joke, and more than generous with advice about sparring and the like.
That almost made her feelings seem understandable, grounded in something. At least, it made more sense in her head like that.
She could almost see him in her mind's eye, face twisted in a grimace, something resembling a beard showing a neglect of his appearance. He hadn't looked that scruffy the last time she'd seen him. It never snowed in Camp either, but a blanket of white covered the forest floor. Flurries still drifted from the sky, now that she paid it mind.
Piper blinked to clear the image from her mind- the way he was hunched did nothing to soothe her worries- but the image remained. She breathed, receiving a lungful of icy air for her troubles, and assessed herself.
The Argo was gone. How long had she been standing? Where was the Argo? Where was she?
"You will die out here."
The words weren't hers, but she'd said them all the same. They probably weren't wrong. It felt far too cold for anyone to be outside wearing a hoodie and jeans.
Percy leveled a glare that made her balk, but said nothing. He looked rough, all the more apparent the longer she watched, shivering in the mounting blizzard. It didn't look like it was getting worse, but something in her knew it would be a whiteout within the hour.
"Come with me." Piper pressed. Again, though it was her voice, she hadn't meant to say it, "You need to get warm, it is dangerous for you to stay out here any longer."
He glared all the harder, and sunk further into himself. Piper let a sharp breath out through her nose.
"Will you come willingly or must I make you?"
Whether he would respond or not, the world around Piper started to fall away. Darkness replaced it all. Darkness and things that prowled within it and things that it hid. She couldn't see, but some part of her knew.
She had never experienced anything like this, couldn't seem to wrap what dull pieces of her mind that remained around it either. Something felt wrong, like a steady pinch in the very center of her existence.
Her chest did not move with breath, her eyes refused to blink. Both burned, though it was hard to notice with the pressure that squeezed her. Had it always been there? Was her first notice of it the result of a neglectful mind, skipping over 'lesser' details for those more pressing?
The darkness did not last, though, replaced by a twisting mass of colors and shapes and things and nothing and everything.
After an eternity, she managed a single gasp of air.
And her mind fell to nothingness.
Artemis stared resolutely at the wall just over Zeus' shoulder, struggling against the anger that swirled through her body. Against the urge to gut the miserable trio that cowered at the Throne Room's center.
Hunting Apollo down after waking had been quick. Easy. He had the gall to act confused, to act as though he had done no wrong. She had only managed to strike him once before the rest of the Council joined them.
The rest of the night, and a good portion of the next day, had been spent on talk. Hollow talk, useless talk, and debate. Artemis didn't even think they needed any of the three. There was no refusing Zeus his play, though, so Artemis had to sit and hold her tongue.
Her fingers drummed against her throne, a furious beat that worked the digits on its own accord. How long had she been doing that? When had she started doing that? With far more effort than should be needed, she flattened her hands to her armrests.
"Need we sit here all day?" Ares groaned. The complaint, combined with a dramatic sprawl to drape across his throne, drew the eyes of the council.
"Ares!" Aphrodite cried, as though pushing for a end to the debate would worsen the punishment. Stupid whore. A muscle in Artemis' thigh twitched, latent energy urging her to act.
He did have a point, loathe as she was to agree with the oaf on anything. Artemis would have them done hours ago by her own wishes. A quick, efficient punishment that would sting for centuries. Unfortunately, Zeus and efficient could rarely be used in the same sentence.
Demeter was half-pitched from her throne, grains sprouting and fruiting and cracking stone with her waggling finger. She rarely cared for the arguments of the Council, but Artemis had lived long enough to see the thoughts swirling behind eyes of the same gold as wheat. That, and the lips in a pensive frown, said more than Artemis had ever heard from the woman.
Hephaestus did the same as he always did, much too deep in tinkering with his hunks of metal to participate. As long as he agreed to the punishments, Artemis didn't care what he was doing.
Athena… was always a tougher shell to crack. Her eyes darted to and fro, lingering on no particular spot, clouded with thought. She would agree with Artemis, of that there was no doubt.
That left, of those that weren't useless drunkards, Hera, Poseidon, and Zeus himself.
All three held far more 'dignified' positions than the rest, save Athena and Artemis herself, each upright in their thrones with feet on the ground.
The first, well she held the same perpetual sour expression. Some part of Artemis had expected smugness, or maybe satisfaction for the suffering of her husband's bastard child. It was not there.
Poseidon, Artemis would wager that there wasn't a muscle in his body not restraining himself. If there was any among the other Olympians near her emotions, it was him. He acted as though a slight against Perseus was a slight against himself. She wasn't sure how to feel about that.
Zeus was contemplative. His expression thunderous, eyebrows knitted, fingers threaded before his face. For the first time in a while, he had hardly said anything over the course of the 'meeting'. It was strange, like stepping back to a time just after the defeat of Kronos. Back when Olympus was young, and bore victory in its sails.
That would bring a certain hope, should the other circumstances surrounding his 'lucidity' be different. The only things that Artemis could seem to muster at the moment though were rage, and the complete lack of anything. A hollowness that she did not like for a moment, yet wore as a cloak when the anger was warded away for too long. Her fingers had started drumming again.
"I would say we are being far too hasty." Hermes offered a pathetic, placating smile with the words, hands up and away from the phone buzzing at his belt, "Drunk is drunk, and we certainly played a prank, yes, but it was none of us that took our dearest sister's vir-"
Olympus rattled, turning Hermes' features a waxy, ghastly white and ending his defense. Ares nearly fell from his throne, the others snapping into alertness, and all eyes landed on Poseidon.
The rage burned bright in his eyes, a snarl twisting his features and his fingers white upon the trident. Cries of distress echoed from the market of Olympus proper, as the floating city buzzed with the power of the sea.
"Enough, Brother!" Zeus snapped, The trio shrunk away from the fury, though dared not leave the center of the room. 'Attempting to escape' would be a surefire way to drop the full weight of Poseidon's wrath upon them, while essentially throwing Zeus' protection to the wayside. Not that Artemis intended to settle upon much better of a consequence than they would receive by the sea god's hand, but her version carried the illusion of hope.
After a long moment the shaking stopped, and the shouting and cries followed it, leaving a deafening silence to engulf them. For another moment, all eyes lingered on Poseidon.
"To use my son as a scapegoat for your foolishness," He started, tone low and quiet, "is unwise. Should you wish your children remain safe within that Camp, I would suggest you think before you speak."
"We act too quickly. Lady Night is powerful, knowledgeable, but she possesses a motive to challenge the will of her daughters as such," Athena interrupted. Ever a bold one, to draw the eyes of her rival in the tides of his anger, "Apollo could just as well be the bearer of such information were we to be privy to it. Night bears a motive, I fear it may hinge upon leaving Perseus to wander."
Her statement was a cocktail of uncomfortable memories and troubling fact. The vision still soured Artemis' tongue, burned against the back of her eyes, haunted her thoughts. She had been the purveyor, the executioner, the wrongdoer, the monster that she heralded against.
Memories of her girls came in turn. Battered, bruised, untrusting, recoiling from touch, afraid of the world that had so callously used them. Perseus had no Hunt-
"With that in mind, we are back to where we began. Finding Perseus, as not only our most reliable source but a hinge of the machinations of Night, should become our utmost priority."
"And you suggest what, that nothing becomes of these before us who provided the opportunity for this to go so terribly?" The challenge in Poseidon's tone was dangerous, a thrumming undertone of power.
"Not at all," Athena responded, "I am not impartial. My daughter has and will continue to suffer due to this foolishness for many years to come. Should we focus on what harm is to be done to these fools as opposed to the bigger picture behind it all, though, I do not think it an exaggeration to suggest we would be stepping out upon thin ice."
It was sound logic, even with the anger that stained her voice. Artemis did get amusement from these verbal dances sometimes, or rather the way Athena worked within them. Artemis didn't like it, even if she was forced to agree.
"I suggest a temporary punishment. Until Perseus is retrieved, upon which a befitting one can be decided. Temporary mortality."
The room processes Athena's words, those in the thrones each nodding in turn, though Ares and Dionysus clearly did so to simply get the meeting through.
"Father!" Apollo protested. He separated from the other two, mindful to come up short of the stairs that led to the dias to address the Council upon, "This is- you can't- I don't-"
"Enough, Apollo,"
"-please!"
Thunder resounded in the surrounding sky, crisp with warning, Apollo's mouth shut with an audible clack.
They'd wasted enough time on this stupid deliberation already- demigods hunting or not, her presence was a valuable boon.
"As has been decided by the Council of Olympus, Apollo, Aphrodite, and Hermes shall join the quest, and shall remain mortal until it is seen through."
Silence filled the space. Aphrodite looked akin to a ghost, composure broken, stunned. Hermes sat with the levity of a man before his noose, gaze bleak.
"No."
Pale-faced, sweaty Apollo whipped this way and that, meeting the eyes of each Olympian in turn. Whatever he was seeking, he did not find it. His eyes stayed on her.
"Artemis. Sister. Please."
She didn't let her expression waver, didn't let the most genuine plea Apollo had given in centuries beneath her skin. She met his gaze with deliberate, stony eyes, then looked to Zeus.
Light flashed, the trio screamed, and she drifted into the quiet musings of her thoughts.
Artemis' tracking would be far more efficient without demanding she take the demigods along, of course, which made it only natural that Zeus and Poseidon, agreeing for the first time over the course of the meeting, roundly forbade such actions. The latter had even made a not so veiled threat to her hunters, who were evidently on a fairground not so far from a lake. She'd tried not to let her nerves show, when he'd said that.
That also meant her journey would be plagued by the other members of the seven, and the freshly made mortals before her.
Piper McLean, eyes narrowed and hostile, flashed through Artemis' mind. Had the girl known somehow, days before Artemis herself did? That was troubling, though not as much as the fact she'd been correct.
The light faded, leaving three unconscious mortals in its wake.
Apollo and Hermes looked almost the same, save an odd pimple or blemish. Maybe a touch younger, a bit less 'fit', but certainly copies of the gods she knew. Aphrodite, however, was not.
In place of the tall, curvy blonde, was a short girl. Remarkably short, actually, with a tangle of brown hair that hung about her head like a static infused cloud. She'd been given far more mercy than the others, but had a lithe frame not too different from Artemis.
"Daughter, you will take them back to the demigods." It was said as a suggestion, and was anything but. Zeus did not 'suggest' a course of action. Dutifully, she nodded in assent.
"Unless anyone has anything else to mention, I believe this will bring our meeting to an end." A beat of silence, then Zeus nodded, "I will summon you when our next meeting is to take place."
The crack of thunder signified his departure and their dismissal, followed almost instantly by Hera. Ares, Dionysus, and Hephaestus took no longer, gone before anyone could think to approach.
"Niece."
Artemis looked to Demeter, who finally turned from the growth.
"Thistle, if handled brashly, will draw blood. Not a dangerous amount of course, but it will cause pain. One must handle it with caution, with care, lest blood be spilled or the thistle crushed."
Then she was gone, no longer a part of the ever dwindling number of inhabitants. Artemis wasn't dull enough to miss the implication, but had neither a response nor the time to speak it.
No matter. Demeter was not her least favorite family member by any means, that would be a feat with Dionysus or Ares around, but some veiled warning about this hunt was of little value. At that moment very little seemed to be, in the face of what had come to pass, save for her girls.
Again, her thoughts went to the Hunt. Their faces, histories, reactions. Would this ruin her relationship with them? The bond? Would they leave? She wanted to deny the notion outright. Her mind wouldn't let her.
"Artemis."
The air buzzed with her name. A low, dangerous call that sucked the air from the room and replaced it with pure, volatile tension.
Poseidon stood before her throne, looming impossibly tall over her, a storming tempest in his eyes. Condensation poured down the trident in his fist, and the wind pulled gently at her hair.
"Uncle."
Were it any other being, or even some other context, she may not have bowed her head in deference. Were she not guilty, perhaps there would not be a nervous twitch across the muscle of her back.
"You intend to return to the quest." He stated. The hand about his trident tightened its hold, knuckles whitening with the effort of a forced casual tone, "Audacious of you."
"Time is of the essence. Wasting it by leaving the hunt to demigods would not be in the best interests of Olympus."
"Olympus and her interests have nothing to do with this hunt!" The heat in his words, the first signs of failing composure, put Artemis flat to her throne. Their proximity made his power swirl about as a whirlpool, battering against what energy she could muster. Her power hadn't been forthright as of late, and in the wake of an Elder Olympian's power it was a candles flame, "You will not harm my son for the sake of your sins!"
Her response caught in her throat.
The thought had crossed her mind, more than once. Her wrongdoings buried beneath the ashes of the funeral pyre. No need to tell her girls. No need to let this nightmare see the light any longer than the blink of a god's eye. Poseidon shouldn't know that. Had he figured it out, somehow? No, no, paranoia would not be the end of her, he was just jumping to conclusions.
"The moon, the tides, they are connected." He leaned forward, tone a whisper yet far more venomous, "You will find that you are not out of my reach, girl. Watch yourself."
Even as he dissolved, returning to Atlantis, his power whipped in a silent maelstrom. An unfiltered malevolence that lingered only a few moments after he vanished. Air returned to her lungs.
Poseidon's threats were rarely directed at Olympians, and never hollow. Artemis had never been stupid enough to warrant one, but Apollo and his children had faced more than a few consequences for his foolishness.
Two threats, upon herself and her girls, within a single meeting was worrying. A metaphorical crack of the ice, alerting her just how close they were to plunging beneath and into the frigid depths.
"I almost thought I would have to intercede." Athena commented dryly, "He acts as though I am not here to see it."
"Or he does not care should you see it or not, Sister." Artemis muttered. That pride of Athena's was nothing new of course, but sometimes it was-
A droning hum caught her ear, drowning Athena's comment within itself. A wind beyond the throne room filled her ears, whistling with the intensity of a storming gale.
Artemis blinked, watched her sister's lips move and waited to feel the breeze on her skin. It never came, but the sound didn't stop. Athena lurched forward, said something.
Faster than it had come, the sounds fell away, replaced by the deafening silence she had left behind.
"Artemis? Are you alright?"
The words were strange in her ears, but Artemis nodded slowly. Athena didn't look convinced.
"Just worried of what is to come."
"When it comes to Perseus? Nothing good. 'Savior' or otherwise, the boy makes things worse before he makes them passable."
"I feel that is an understatement for where we find ourselves."
Athena hummed an acknowledgement, nodded a silent farewell, and vanished.
Artemis didn't dwell on the sounds, didn't let herself. There was much to be done, and with no time. She looked up, stared at the star filled ceiling above, traced the constellations.
Indeed, with no time at all.