Leading the hunt through Brooklyn felt weird. On one hand it just didn't seem right for him to lead Artemis somewhere as the goddess had always known their destination and path much earlier than he did, making this uncharted territory for him. On the other hand he could feel how uncomfortable some of the girls were with actually having to enter the city. Though they at least got lucky with their disguise. Artemis manipulated the mist personally this time to make them appear like a youth group with Percy and Artemis taking adult forms and posing as supervisors to watch the kids. This way they were spared from any strange encounters with mortals which according to Artemis happened far more often than one would initially think.

In addition to the foreign dynamic in the hunt though, Percy also didn't know where he was going. He hadn't been to Brooklyn often in the first place and he also didn't know where in Brooklyn one would locate magicians. All that he had for directions was a mild pull in his gut that he was following for now. He couldn't even tell what this was, it felt different from how he detected monsters but that was all he got. Still, if it led him somewhere then it was better than running around aimlessly. As he traversed the ginormous streets and made his way through valleys between the tall buildings, he couldn't help but feel at peace. He had grown up in the city and while he didn't want to live there, visiting every once in a while gave him some serious nostalgia.

As their group slowly made their way across the town, Percy felt the sensation in his gut get stronger as if it was telling him that they were on the right path. By now it was strong and distinct enough that Percy even recognised it. It was a familiar energy, one that he had experienced before in full detail, that he was sure of but he couldn't yet put his finger on what it was exactly. Now that the weird feeling got stronger though, Percy could actively sense its source too, power shining like a giant inferno. Artemis had also noticed it, eyeing their surroundings carefully and slowly getting more and more on edge as they got closer.

Then suddenly as they rounded another corner, Percy remembered. Just as his eyes narrowed on the young girl that was radiating the overbearing power, memories flooded back into him. The power they felt, it was so eerily familiar because he had been in its presence before. He had wielded it before. They were face to face with the avatar of Nekbeth.

Artemis had also singled out the girl as the source of all that power and in turn said girl had bow narrowed her gaze at them as either she had sensed them or her patron goddess had told them of her presence. What followed was essentially a stare off between Greek and Egyptian, two pantheons with a ton of bad blood between them. Percy was just about to step forward and try to diffuse the tension that was very clearly forming between Artemis and Nekbeth when another player entered the field.

From behind a small building came a girl Percy actually recognised too. While he had only met her once before, that one time was rather memorable and so it only took a slightly closer look for him to identify Sadie Kane. Just like him, the girl also took a moment before clear recognition passed through her features and she hastily stepped between the two glaring…goddesses? Women? Percy wasn't sure if an avatar actually qualified as a goddess but he had a feeling that the grudge portrayed by said avatar came exclusively from a goddess at least.

"Calm down, both of you! Amanda, power down and lower your magic and…Artemis, I guess? Can you also power down please?" Despite her raised voice, people around them were completely ignoring them and a glowing…sign? Hieroglyph, maybe? Beneath Sadie's feet gave him the reason for that. She was already using magic. "Listen to her, please"

He only whispered to Artemis but luckily the goddess did listen, reigning her own power back in and together with her, the entire hunt relaxed their posture quite a bit. At least they hadn't drawn their weapons yet or things might have escalated even faster. Across from them, Sadie took a deep breath before looking straight at him, her eyes a blend of two different people. "Percy, you better have a good reason to come on Egyptian ground with a Greek goddess in tow…"

Percy couldn't help but chuckle, despite being glared at by the goddess of magic herself. "Yeah, about that…is Carter anywhere nearby? This is the kinda problem that concerns you both so…" Before he could even finish the explanation, Sadie cut in. "Carter is in Cairo, so no. I can tell him if it's that important and Isis can spread the word among the gods too, so spill it. What's going wrong this time?"

At least she didn't beat around the bush. "Okay, so, the Greek pantheon is kinda on the verge of an extinction level war so we wanted to ask for help. Important enough?" Sadie just looked at him for a moment before nodding her head. She seemed about as numb to these things happening as Percy was himself so she didn't even look startled. The younger girl next to her looked what Percy would carefully describe as intimidated by the news but that was about it, even she didn't say anything. "Fine, come with me. We'll talk back in our house."

Without bothering to explain any further, the hieroglyph beneath Sadie disappeared and she bolted off, not caring to check if she was being followed or not. After taking a moment of pause, Percy snapped out of his stupor and followed her and from the corner of his eyes he could see the hunt, Artemis and the avatar of Nekbeth do the same just a little bit later. They marched through the city once more but this time their journey was shorter as they soon arrived on an empty roof. Except it wasn't really empty. The moment Sadie got close enough, a mansion shimmered into existence before them and their entire group made their way into the giant building.

As they walked through the mansion, it was surprisingly empty. They didn't come across a single soul all the way until they reached a giant pool. In said pool, there were two crocodiles and a dude. Worse, Percy recognised one crocodile as one that had tried to kill him before. Though the other crocodile was both, unnaturally large and an albino so that was cool.

The man swimming in the pool with the crocodiles on the other hand got out the moment they approached, a similar aura to that of Sadie radiating from him all of a sudden. However he didn't come any closer, instead just watching them as Sadie had them take seats around a table. "So, I heard the short story, now tell me the long one. What's going on with world ending events?" She looked at him expectantly before suddenly switching to an abashed look. "Right, before I forget. Isis will be listening in directly."

After that, Sadie's eyes changed once more as the presence of the goddess of magic returned. Percy took another breath before focusing on the avatar before him. "The Greek primordial Tartarus is slowly waking up and he's trying to root out humanity to weaken the Greek gods decisively. That's why I came here to ask for your help in protecting the mortals."

He didn't say any more and even stopped himself from making any sarcastic remarks. He didn't know how the Egyptian deity would take those though Isis seemed to have understood how dire the situation was at the very least as her booming voice filled the room. "I know Tartarus, the Greek abyss. The Egyptian mages don't have the power to combat him and neither do we have the tools to seal him. What do you want us to do?"

Despite seeming helpful, Isis' tone was warning and dangerous. She very clearly wasn't about to let Sadie run into danger for another pantheon. "Don't worry, you don't need to fight him. I just wanted to warn you about all this and maybe let you take out some of the monsters he sends up. Is that alright?" Percy was again more careful than he would normally be. He needed this to go well.

For a moment, Isis didn't answer. Instead, her face went through different stages of change and eventually Percy realised that Isis and Sadie were having a discussion with each other. That discussion was cut short when another goddess joined the conversation. "We will only protect our people, yours will have to fend for themselves. That is already more mercy than you deserve!"

The other avatar, whose name Percy actually still didn't know, was glaring daggers at Artemis, something Percy was sure traced back to some old history between them and their pantheons. Should he even ask? Nekbeth wasn't exactly the most understanding goddess anyways so he doubted she could be convinced by appealing to her conscience. However it seemed that right now, Isis and Sadie had finished coming to their agreement and their word held more weight than anyone else's here.

"We will help protect the mortals and those belonging to other pantheons. However we will not be fighting actively or come to the aid of the Greek pantheon beyond that. That is the most we are willing to offer you." It was brief and clearly Isis talking right now, giving a hard edge on their negotiation. Percy could understand her too. Ultimately, this didn't involve the Egyptian pantheon and therefore simply wasn't their war.

At this point Percy finally looked around again, finding the entire hunt asleep in their respective seats while Artemis was glaring daggers at the man in the pool. He really should have just asked for their names. Before he could do that though, he remembered one more thing Isis might be able to help him with. "Thank you, that's more than enough. We'll take care of Tartarus on our own so you don't need to worry. On that note, how high are my chances of reaching the sea of Chaos?"

Despite being what he thought was an innocent question, the air in the room seemed to get ten degrees colder in an instant. All three avatars were looking at him with mixtures of surprise, annoyance and ridicule. "How do you know that place?"

This time it was the male avatar that spoke up, power laced with his every word. "Did you show him this?" Isis' voice was also more powerful now, directed at the avatar of Nekbeth. Said avatar shrunk backwards, bringing distance between herself and the angry goddess of magic. "He might have seen some of my memories when I browsed through his, nothing big though. I swear, Isis!"

This wasn't even the avatar talking, this was just Nekbeth. The sea of Chaos seemed to be a rather sensitive topic for the Egyptian gods. After a moment though, Isis composed herself, probably due to Sadie's influence to some degree. "Fine, it doesn't matter. To reach the sea of Chaos, you'd need to cross the entire Duat, the heart of our pantheon. Not to mention the sea itself is immensely dangerous and could reduce you to nothingness if you so much as touch it. Walt, lower your magic."

Yeah, definitely Sadie. He didn't remember any Egyptian god named Walt that Isis could be talking to right now. Immediately he felt a weight lift off his shoulders that he hadn't even known to be there before. The looks he was receiving from the gods were still very much scrutinizing and slightly suspicious but he could live with that.

"There is really no way?" He didn't want to give up just yet, though he had a feeling he might have to. "What do you need from there anyways?" That was still Sadie talking and not her noticeably more menacing patron goddess, even if their curiosity probably aligned on this question. "Well, since the water is so powerful I thought I could use it to hurt Tartarus…"

He couldn't really specify how since he hadn't figured that out yet, but it was the best plan he had so far. And apparently it was an impossible plan too given the answer coming from Sadie. "The power of the sea of Chaos could probably kill Tartarus but that is only if you can control it. The water there is twisted and cursed far beyond the control of any single deity, including even the mightiest of Egyptian gods. The only one who can touch it unharmed is a being just as twisted as the sea itself, the demon Apophis."

That name rang a bell at least, though it wasn't a good one. Apophis had been to Carter what Kronos was to him: a mortal enemy with whom there was no middle ground. That pretty much crushed the idea of weaponizing the ancient sea of Chaos. He just nodded, his gaze dropping in disappointment. "I understand…that idea is a bust then."

Sadie, or Isis maybe, nodded across from him. "The water could definitely hurt him but there is no way for you to transport it or easily reach the shores of the sea of Chaos. Was that your only plan?"

Percy shook his head slowly. "It could've just been a nice shortcut if it had worked so I figured I'd at least ask about it. Is that a sensitive topic?"

This time the answer came without a pause and also without the overbearing presence behind it. "The sea of Chaos is where Apophis resides. He's the greatest enemy of Egypt so anyone getting close to him and potentially being used by him is a terrifying possibility to every magician and god out there. Also I just don't want to go through the trouble of fighting him again."

"Didn't you guys seal him though? Shouldn't he be dead for a while then?" Percy did remember hearing that story from Carter so he was a little surprised that there was even just a possibility for the gargantuan snake to return. "We did but Apophis is too large for that. We kicked him out of this world but even with everything, his seal is only temporary. He will heal in the sea of Chaos and someday return and no one here wants to take the risk of having that happen earlier than it needs to."

Percy looked at her for another moment. Carter had told him that the seal was eternal but maybe they just learned about this belatedly to begin with? Either way, he could understand why having your greatest enemy's location known across pantheons could be very bad in the long run. Kronos had also been able to manipulate people into following him despite being a murderous tyrant so Apophis probably had similar tricks.

"I understand, I guess I wouldn't want people sniffing around Kronos's prison either, even if they have nothing to do with him…" He trailed off at the end but his point got across regardless of that. A subtle change in atmosphere indicated that Isis had joined the conversation again right after as she fixed her gaze on him once more. "Is that all you came here for then?"

Sadie seemed somewhat pissed at how abrupt her patron was trying to end the conversation as her face turned into a grimace just to unturn itself right after. From the looks of it Isis had good reason to end things. "Percy, Isis says that having long interactions between pantheons is a cause of chaos and ill-advised so she wants you to leave now. If you want them we can meet up when you get your situation sorted out since there will be less of a problem then. I can also ask Carter to come for that if you bring Annabeth along. I kinda miss her, she kicks ass."

From memory he recalled that Annabeth and Sadie had fought together before and leaving a badass impression sounded very much like something Annabeth would do in that situation. Meeting up really did sound good too, so he agreed without further thinking it over. Annabeth had also gotten along well with Sadie so he didn't think she'd have any complaints. "Yeah, that sounds good honestly…you wouldn't happen to have a way to communicate without a phone, right?"

He remembered at the last second that he probably couldn't Iris message her when she was in the magic mansion. And she couldn't text him because he didn't have a phone. "You can just come here and leave a note or something. Walt or me are around most of the time and if we aren't then Alice is." There was something ironic about the avatar of Nekbeth being named Alice but he wouldn't dwell on it. He's heard weirder coincidences before.

"That's settled then, I'll be telling Annabeth too. I guess we'll get going then?" Percy threw a glance at Artemis, the goddess wearing a mask of indifference as she just nodded, getting up and looking at the boy by the pool. Was that Walt? "Could you release my hunters now?"

At the nod of his head, something shifted in the air and the girls slowly stirred from their magical slumber. Honestly, Percy wasn't even sure why he didn't react to them falling asleep in the first place but he had the growing suspicion that the three gods present with them right now had something to do with that. As the hunters were still trying to grasp why they were all asleep on a table though, Artemis got up and went straight towards the door giving nothing but a quick command for everyone to follow her. Somehow Percy had the feeling she was mad.

And somehow this feeling was reinforced when Artemis essentially sprinted back to the hunters camp, hurrying through the city by taking the actual rooftops. Needless to say Percy couldn't follow her due to a lack of agility and it was the same for most hunters so they just ended up arriving back at the camp long after the goddess and as if to underline that she was mad, it took just a few seconds for him to be called to Artemis's tent.

As soon as he entered, he knew that he was in trouble. Artemis was glaring at him and he didn't even need to hear the order before he took a seat in front of her. "Percy, when exactly were you planning to tell me that your allies were the Egyptian gods? Not to mention Isis of all gods?" Her voice was tainted with anger and Percy couldn't help but shift uncomfortably under it. He wasn't sure what to answer since he just assumed it was no big deal. After all Annabeth even had a blood relative from another pantheon. "You do realise that we invaded them in the past, right? I'm personally responsible for the death of five of Isis's avatars not to mention the centuries of war and bloodshed between the pantheons themselves!"

At that Percy had nothing to respond with other than a regretful silence. He hadn't expected this to be so serious though he should have probably done so. This wasn't the first time he got to experience war between pantheons given how terrible the relations between Rome and Greece had been. He didn't even dare to look at Artemis right now, a seed of guilt growing in him. This had been much more reckless than he thought and he frankly had no excuse.

Across from him, Artemis also recognised the look of regret Percy wore, melting part of her anger. She knew better than to go hard on him when he was already feeling down, there was just no point to it. She was disappointed that Percy didn't think to inform her of this but Olympus had also long since kept quiet about its conflicts with other pantheons so it was likely he didn't even know about it. Not to mention that even outside of Isis, whose avatar clearly knew Percy, none of the other gods showed hostility to her or her hunters either. She didn't know how it happened but Percy seemed to really be on good terms with the Egyptian gods, good enough to make Isis overlook her presence in spite of their terrible history together.

Artemis took a deep breath to calm herself and closed her eyes for a moment, letting her frustration seep out of her. "Alright, it's fine. There's no use crying over spilled milk so let's move on. How did you meet the Egyptians anyways? We agreed to avoid each other long ago…"

At this Percy managed a nervous chuckle, although his voice was still more sombre than usually. "Well, that's kind of a long story so…" He trailed off at the end and Artemis was just about to demand that he tell it anyway when she remembered that she had just marched into her tent without even properly telling her hunt what had happened. "Then tell me later. I'll talk to my hunters and explain what happened for now and you'll come back to my tent later, alright?"

Hey, this is another chapter done. This time I actually wanted to explain something that I don't think I ever mentioned specifically before. So, I got feedback that the first real conversation between Artemis and Percy was well-written (thank you for that btw!) and felt real. As you may have noticed, there wasn't a single conversation afterwards that felt the same though. The reason for that is how I imagine godly consciousness to work.

Simply put, gods think faster because they are divine and have multiple aspects between which they can split thinking effort. With that they can also adapt more quickly to situations or hide their emotions better by relegating their struggle to another aspect. The reason why Percy and Artemis had an honest to heart conversation early on is because Artemis was so distraught she just couldn't shove all that onto just one aspect. The same never happened again since (it will in the future, just not yet). At the same time, just like humans, I'd imagine gods don't like showing themselves vulnerable when they can avoid it which is why Percy and Artemis may have conversations and a certain trust between each other but there is little emotional depth in their interaction.

In general this understanding of mine makes many interactions more cold and impersonal since many of the characters showing up are immortals and often godly in some sense of the word. Basically to keep it short, the divine characters only show their emotions under truly extreme duress or pain.

I hope that explains at least a little bit of why some scenes went the way they did. That aside, the Egyptians are here because it would make no sense for them to just ignore something like this. Further they won't play a major part because they have their pwm stuff to deal with and don't like Olympus all that much either. Plus given how powerful Ra in particular is, I'd imagine they would be fine pushing Tartarus back if he ever tried to reach outside the Greek pantheon.

Now, I hope you like the new chapter and as always leave feedback if you have any. See you next week!

-M