I changed my mind, I'm too invested in this to stop even without a computer. Hope you enjoy the chapter!
The Fates, as usual, must have heard his prayers and screamed "HA!".
Here he was again, at the Bunker. This time, he could not see Kelli at all. In fact the place was considerably empty, with no one in sight.
The halls of the place, constructed like a cave system, created almost a feeling that Percy was at a maze. Even in his dream, it sent shivers down his spine of just how much it resembled the Labyrinth in its atmosphere.
He started to wander around, occasionally looking at open rooms that, like the main halls, were absent of any living beings. Was this how the Bunker actually was at the moment? Or was this an illusion?
He suddenly heard a door being closed abruptly in the distance. He could see one of his least favorite monsters (second only to the Minotaur) approaching him very quickly.
"Kelli?"
The empousa stopped as soon as she heard his voice. She looked around her for a bit, until fixating her blood red eyes on him, or whatever she saw. Undoubtedly Kelli knew that he was infact her, since she made a signal with her finger for him to follow her, and he did as such.
The monster brought him to one of those weird empty rooms. He could see weapons splattered all over the place. It reminded him of his small cave.
"Hi." She greeted coldly, in a tone not matching her blazing hair.
Percy tried to frown, but he seemed a bit incorporeal at the moment.
"What's wrong?" He questioned.
Kelli just sighed and leaned on the wall of the room.
"I was... trying to look for the demigod that the big boss brought today."
"Big boss?" The Butcher this time remember to frown mentally. Or something like that. The situation seemed comical enough. "Is that how you are calling her?"
"Just me. Can you imagine the entire army calling her that?" Kelli snickered, but it quickly faded away. "And what do you mean by her?"
"I saw your boss yesterday. She kidnapped my friend. The demigod that has arrived today. And since you are already looking for her without my warning..."
Kelli widened her eyes in fear and straightened her posture. "Look, we all gotta survive, okay? Surely you understand me here-"
She interrupted herself when Percy approached her. He didn't actually know if she could feel his aura or something, but apparently that was enough to intimidate the empousa enough for her to shut up.
"Careful with your words." He warned. "I am not a monster with a lust for blood like you."
Kelli grimaced, but tried to oppose him by showing her fangs. "Aren't you, Percy? Aren't you just as a monster as I am? Have you ever had mercy, even before this phase of yours? How many of us have you actually killed throughout these years?"
Percy was undeterred by this. "I could ask you the same thing. You were born to kill and maim. We are not. I was not. I didn't ask for her to die, and monsters appeared either way. Since day one, you were all after me. So do not compare myself to you. I don't kill for sport."
Kelli still glared daggers at him, clearly fuming in rage. "Whatever. You are gonna see it with time."
"Quiet." Percy commanded, and Kelli did just that. Wonderful. "The Hunt and I are gonna try to rescue that demigod that you were searching, while bringing down this structure. I need to know if there are any entrances to here that we can use."
Kelli smirked at his question, the rage replaced by her usual arrogant expression. "Oh, but there is. Surely you have felt the dread of this place. The unnerving aura. Even in your dreams, Percy. You know what this is."
Percy was more angry than shocked. He really did hate the Labyrinth. "The entire complex is part of the maze?"
"Oh, no, just a part of it. Makes me wonder how they tamed it... But if you do want to get in, in secret, the Labyrinth is gonna be your best shot. The main entrance is very well guarded and the boss is instantly gonna know."
Percy tried to nod, but it didn't really work. "Fine. Thanks. Also, try to find Natalie. Teenager, messy long brown hair, the one that you were already looking for. But do not drink her blood. Or kill her. Or hurt her. Understood?"
Kelli snorted. "Fine. Whatever." With that, she suddenly attacked him with her claws. Percy barely got any time to react before the image of the empousa was torn away from his sight. Instead, he opened his eyes to see two electric blue eyes, instead of red ones, staring at him from above.
"Sleeping Beauty awakens. It's literally 1 PM already. Artemis is gonna kill you." Thalia said with a chuckle.
In response, Percy just sighed.
"This is stupid."
Artemis just stared at him in response.
"What?" Percy asked, confused at her stare.
"I thought you were gonna like the name." She said.
"Blueberry? Really?"
Most of the Hunt was present in a makeshift command tent. It was just Artemis's usual tent but extended so everyone could fit in. Percy was sat on her left, with Thalia on her right. Some snacks were served, which made the meeting have a casual feel to it. But Artemis already knew that it wouldn't last long.
"It was my idea, to be fair." The demigod daughter of Zeus said while putting a handful of potato chips on her mouth.
"It figures then." He replied, which made Thalia try to slap him from her chair. He managed to hold her arm before she could land the blow.
"Can you two stop?!" Artemis pleaded. The two of them had been fighting since Percy woke up. True, Thalia was the one instigating the fights, with Percy just defending himself, but occasionally making a spicy comment that drove her sister insane and only made it escalate more.
Thalia just grunted, crossing her arms and sitting down. Percy kept his silence, looking at the goddess. It reminded her of how he kept staring at her when she appeared older at that gas station. Not like she appeared for any reason, it was just because she did not want to have to explain herself to any mortals who would see her as a child. At least that's what she had formulated on her head as an excuse to appear as older than usual.
His stare did make her a bit uncomfortable, but not exactly in a bad way. It was just so difficult to look back at those eyes of his. Maybe it was a decade of fighting monsters and being a war veteran, or simply the three years in the wild, but he gave off a different feel to her. Perhaps uncomfortable wasn't the best word to describe how she felt. However she has not found a substitute for it yet.
"What's the plan, then?" Reyna questioned.
"There are two plans, actually." Artemis corrected, in a higher voice so all Hunters would hear it. Sure enough, all chatting died down when she spoke. "Operation Moonlace. The Hunt will infiltrate the Bunker to rescue Natalie."
"Pardon, Lady Artemis, but how are we gonna infiltrate the Bunker?" Claire, one of the Hunters that was recruited after the Titanomachy and who survived Puerto Rico, asked.
Artemis sighed. Percy had talked about his dream earlier and it almost made her smite him so the problem would go away. "The Labyrinth shall take us there."
Immediately this got some reactions by the more experienced Hunters, especially Thalia.
"I'm sorry, what?" her sister complained loudly.
"It is the only way to get inside apart from the main entrance." Percy replied coldly.
"Oh, of course you are not going in, right." Thalia mocked her cousin. "Because you just got so traumatized even when you had a damn guide, how terrible for you! Not to mention the o' so traumatizing deed of having to clean horse sh-"
"That's enough!" Percy got up from his chair and punched the table, and the wood actually cracked by the impact. Thalia stopped talking immediately. Many Hunters pointed arrows straight at Percy's head. The Butcher looked around until he caught up the glare that Artemis was giving to him.
To be honest, Artemis was afraid of a confrontation. She knew that Percy could claim just as many lives as Orion did in Puerto Rico, or even more, but she knew the man was not like Orion at all, even in this still unknown state that Artemis was yet to fully discover. However, when he looked directly into her eyes, he seemed to calm down just enough to sit down.
"I'm sorry." He said in a raspy voice, but he seemed genuine. "Artemis, please explain the second plan."
Artemis once again let out a sigh. "Fine. The second one is codenamed Operation Blueberry, courtesy of Thalia." Artemis tried to joke with Thalia's naming of the operation to lighten the mood, but her sister seemed to not be in the right place, looking directly at Percy with fear on her eyes. Some Hunters still held their bows in their hands in case anything happened. "A direct assault by Percy and myself against the main entrance of the Bunker. A distraction, so the rest of you can successfully get in, retrieve Natalie, and get out. With luck, we can capture the titan behind this."
Silence remained after she explained the plan to the group. Many Hunters nodded, but many still seemed skeptical of the dangers that the plan presented.
"Are you gonna be fine with him?" One of the newest recruits, Mary, asked Artemis. The goddess stared at the teenager, and then onto Percy, who had one hand on his forehead while he stared at the broken table.
"There is no need to worry about that. You are all excused. Prepare to move very soon." She announced, while looking at Percy first and then Thalia, so the two would stay.
Most of the Hunters left, including Reyna, albeit she gave the trio still sat at the table a last glance before leaving as well. That left Artemis alone with the two cousins.
"Percy, I-" Thalia started, but with a raise of a hand by Percy, she stopped.
"It's okay. I understand your point. I know you are gonna say you are sorry, but I should apologize, I lost control in my anger, I shouldn't have done that."
Artemis once more sighed. Maybe the situation just demanded of her to do it a lot of times. She just couldn't understand family drama in that capacity. At least he was sorry for his actions. It was more expected of the average man. "Just please calm down. Both of you."
Thalia nodded. "Just know that I am sorry, Percy."
This time the son of Poseidon was the one to sigh. "Me too. I do not want to make you afraid of me." He
Thalia managed to smile. "Me? Afraid of you? In your dreams, kelp head." She joked, clearly trying to lighten the mood just as Artemis had tried before.
This time, even Percy smirked a bit. "Yeah, imagine." He looked from the crack on the table, to Thalia, and finally setting his eyes on Artemis. "I have an idea. Hear me out."
The goddess raised one eyebrow.
Safe to say, she wasn't expecting that big of a storm.
It was late afternoon, but it might as well be late night by how dark it was, with Apollo's Chariot entirely covered out by dark blue and grey clouds. They were on top of a hill, with Percy a little bit ahead of her, his eyes closed, and taking deep breaths, almost if meditating. Thalia was by his side, also trying to help with the storm, althought not in such a... passionate matter as Percy? She didn't know how to describe his antics. But either way, it seemingly going quite well for them.
Ahead of them, a legion of monsters was present, stationed at small barracks. If Percy was indeed correct, this was the entrance of the Bunker. Artemis couldn't understand how this was managed to be built so close to the gods' home. Perhaps Apollo was lying and he didn't actually see everything.
"So, Percy, what's up with all of this?" Her lieutenant asked. Artemis herself wasn't quite sure what was the point of that when Thalia could be already inside the Labyrinth assisting the rest of the Hunt.
He did not respond for a brief time, before turning to her sister and opening his eyes. Artemis was shocked to see how much they radiated power. The sea green color that pigmented his irises had a soft glow to it.
"Concentration. Training. All of that. Come closer." He signaled for Artemis, who already had a lost of questions and doubts popping up on her head.
"How do you actually do this? I have never seen a demigod show such power in normal circumstances." She questioned, looking at the sky. Thunder resonated and some lightning flashed.
"Gods are beings of immense power, Lady Artemis." Percy started. "Most demigods can only access their true potential when emotionally affected, or in life or death situations. What I do is simply... trying to focus on my power without being angry or about to die. It still takes a lot of me, of course." Artemis could clearly see drops of sweat in his head, even though the day was fairly cold, a lot of that thanks to the current weather. "Did Grover tell you about the hurricane that I made against Hyperion?" He directed himself to Thalia.
"He did." She confirmed. "And also, you and Jason made a storm together that was absolutely terrifying to look at when escaping the Romans, apparently..."
Percy smirked. "Glad you get the point. I think you can feel it already, right?"
Even Artemis could sense something coming up. She was a daughter of Zeus, of course, but just like every godly offspring of the god of the skies, she didn't really inherit the lightning powers like demigods always did. But even still, she could feel the clouds almost calling for her. The electricity building up. Craving for it to be unleashed upon the horde.
"I do." Thalia confirmed. Artemis could see that Thalia's whole body was flickering with lightning all of a sudden. Her blue eyes had actual electricity on then, and they started to radiate just as much power as Percy's.
"Good." Percy turned to the goddess. "Could you draw their attention?"
Artemis frowned. "Shouldn't we do a surprise attack?"
In response, the Butcher just shrugged. "I just feel like it's better. Plus, there are too few monsters for this to be justified."
"Fine, I guess." Artemis reluctantly got one of those special arrows that Apollo insisted that she should have on her. She fired it to the sky and it exploded into golden fireworks. It just figures, Artemis supposed.
Immediately monsters started to appear from underground to join their comrades in the surface, in order to investigate what the noise was, and sure enough, they saw the three of them standing there at the hill, almost if asking for the horde to come after them. In a few moments, an army of hundreds of monsters was marching to meet them. Just how strong was this place? Do they have every monster in existence under them?
Percy then put one hand on Thalia's shoulder and brought his head close to her ear. "Can you fly yet?" He asked in a low voice, but loud enough for Artemis to hear it.
Thalia's lightning hesitated, just like she did once she heard his question. "Uh... No?"
Percy just brought one hand to his face. "Eh. Forget it. It would just look so much cooler. Anyway. Just... look, you know the funny thing about our fathers' domains?" He asked, changing the subject.
"What's that?" Thalia seemed to calm down a bit, her lightning rate returning to normal. Artemis found that very intriguing.
"They intertwine." Percy simply said, extending one hand forward, making the winds blow faster. "A storm will rarely appear without lightning, and a lightning cannot appear normally without a storm. There's barely a separation between the seas and the skies. As such..."
"Yeah, I think I get it." Thalia too raised her hand, small lightning rods coursing through it like it.
"Then unleash the biggest bolt this world has ever seen on those fuckers." Percy said with that wild grin of him, making Artemis actually shiver.
A lot of things subsequently happened.
Thunder rumbled like crazy, a sound that was almost deafening. A bright light shone as multiple lightning bolts flashed at the same time up in the skies.
All around them, the winds started to make shape, circling around the three. Artemis could feel the center of it to be Percy. Leaves and even small animals gravitated around the man, who was still grinning like before.
Even through the sound of the thunders, Artemis could hear Thalia's cry as a gigantic bolt, that could rival even her father's, brought chaos to the monsters' ranks, obliterating a good portion of the coming army. Down the hill, fire could be seen, along with the distant screams of the remaining beasts that were lucky enough to survive.
Eventually, the winds calmed down considerably, but the dark clouds were still present, along with lightning still cutting the sky apart. Thalia had her eyes widened, the electricity in her also toning down.
"Just... wow!" She exclaimed with a smile.
All throughout the attack, the grin on Percy's face never went away. "See? I guess you don't use your godly powers that much anymore, right?" He glanced over to Artemis, who in return grimaced.
"Don't look at me, I don't forbid her of doing... whatever that was. We are going to discuss that later. I just don't want my Hunters to become dependant of powers."
"Yeah, yeah, wouldn't expect less of you, and all, but it's quite useful." He commented as he changed his gaze over to the now miniscule and retreating monster army. "We might be able to get them if we follow closely. See you soon." Without warning, he jumped down the hill, getting Riptide from his pocket and uncapping it mid-air as he ran down in pursue of the monsters.
"You know how to get to the rest of the Hunt, right?" Artemis asked Thalia, not taking her eyes off the shrinking figure of Percy in the distance.
"Of course, milady." Thalia responded between deep breaths. Maybe that move did a number on her, like Apollo would say.
Did he actually say that? Maybe. She couldn't remember.
"Take a sip of nectar and meet the girls. I will..." She took her eyes off the son of Poseidon in the distance and onto her sister. "Take care of him."
In the distance, she could already hear metal clashing and even more screams. Rain finally started to fall.
And we're done. I wanted to explore the potential of a big three kid, on how both of them could make the other more powerful, along with something I've read in a Perlia one shot (specific, I know) that Zeus and Poseidon's domains didn't have a separation. Hope you enjoyed it, feel free to review, and a Merry Christmas to you!