When the two praetors came out to greet Artemis, Percy involuntarily mirrored the reaction from Reyna, freezing up before catching himself and relaxing. He didn't recognise the other praetor but he looked to be around the age of 16 so that wasn't a surprise. It had been three years since he last set foot in Camp Jupiter.
Behind the two praetors, centurions of the legion gathered and behind them a whole crowd lined up to see the goddess that had arrived at their doorstep. Percy could instantly recognise a few faces and that recognition wasn't one-sided. Along with the centurions stood Hazel and Frank both and a mass of blonde hair was visible further back in the crowd that he could somehow still perfectly remember as Annabeth's hair. He couldn't see anyone else from his old friend group but being reintroduced like this was already bad enough.
At least the official attention was on Artemis, who had taken a few steps forward and was all but glaring down the two praetors, both of them now with their heads bowed down. Following them, almost the entire assembly of demigods and legacies lowered their heads, the only exception being the statue of Terminus that was physically unable to bow down.
Most of the gathered crowd stayed down until Artemis permitted them otherwise with a quick "You may rise", something only the most experienced demigods didn't wait for which only further clarified that it was indeed Annabeth in the crowd. Percy was so zoned out at her presence and the amount of implications it brought that he missed the entire exchange of pleasantries between Artemis and the praetors, only snapping back to it when Artemis raised her voice near the end. "...and my entire entourage, understood?"
It took him a moment to realise that Artemis had just given him what were essentially entry rights into New Rome and another moment together with a very sharp elbow from his cousin to understand that he was expected to follow the two of them. As such he trailed behind Artemis and Thalia who were in turn following Reyna and whoever her colleague was. While walking through the crowd, he was awfully aware of the stares he was receiving. Many were judgemental or straightforwardly hostile with only a few exceptions from the people he had served and fought alongside with. However none stepped up to stop him and although a small group of demigods were following them initially, they dispersed at a single hard glare from their praetor who certainly didn't tolerate any disrespect towards a goddess, much less an Olympian one.
It didn't take them long to reach the residence of the praetors where they were promptly led inside and offered a seat. The moment they sat down though, Percy could feel himself pinned by the hard stare from both praetors. Their eyes only left him when an intentionally loud cough from Thalia drew their attention away. "I don't know what's up between you but staring like someone stole your candy ain't helping it."
His cousin was blunt as always, looking every bit as disinterested and disrespectful as she sounded just to drive the point home. And she knew full well that the praetors couldn't touch her while Artemis was in the room. Thalia was a prick.
But as annoying as it was, she was a successful prick as her quib got Reyna to open her mouth. "Percy, your right to enter was removed after your attack on Camp Half-Blood. We will allow you to be here as long as Lady Diana and her hunt stay here but you will need to leave afterwards." Now technically this was already fine since he was travelling with the hunt anyways, however…
"My what now?" When had he attacked camp? He sure didn't remember doing that. Instead of an answer from the two praetors, he got one from Thalia. "After you left camp it was hit with some serious storms and people say that was you." While she said it nonchalantly, there was an edge of anger in her voice now. Or maybe it was closer to disappointment, he couldn't tell.
"Ahh, that thing. Yeah, that wasn't me." He looked flatly at Reyna, not at all bothered by the glare she was using to respond to his flippant attitude. He didn't care though. At least this time he really had nothing to prove, he was already gone by the time those storms hit and he only heard about them after reaching Alaska. Like hell he'd take the blame now.
"Perseus, there is no one beside you with a motive and the necessary power to cause storms like that, do you take us for a fool?" This time it was the other praetor who spoke up. Percy had no clue why he used his full name or for that matter what the name of the praetor was but he sure didn't seem like the pleasant type. "Sorry, who are you?"
Instead of an answer from said praetor whose face had now turned into a nasty frown, Artemis chose this point to interrupt. "That's Marcus, a legacy of my brother Mars. As for who's taking who for a fool, do you take me for one? Do you think I'm incapable of finding out whether Percy was behind those storms? Or that I would shield him if he were?"
Unlike Reyna and Marcus, Artemis' glare was much more threatening and scary, partially because her eyes were shining with power whenever she was agitated and Percy only managed to sit still because he wasn't on the receiving end of it. Both Reyna and Marcus on the other hand visibly shrank back from the goddess, neither knowing how to appease her. They weren't given the chance either. "Olympus has discussed those storms in detail and we have determined that they were caused by an immortal which Percy wasn't at that point in time. Understood?"
It was only the second time that she used his nickname that Percy noticed at all. She was really angry this time. That was something that both praetors also noticed and they were eager to somehow appease the goddess as a result. "Yes, Lady Diana. We will remove all sanctions against Percy as soon as anyhow possible!"
Reyna sounded like she was receiving orders which in a way she actually was right now. Her panic did apparently draw pity from Artemis though, at least to some degree. "We will be staying on the fields of Mars for the duration of our hunt and will set up our camp until sundown. Tomorrow I will join you to hear what information you have gathered about our prey. At ease, praetor!"
Percy wasn't sure whether this was now Diana talking or not but it's effect was immediate as Reyna gave a salute to the goddess while Marcus rushed to open the door for them, letting them out with an uncomfortably deep bow. Only when they were already halfway outside the building did Artemis add a quick note. "I expect there to be an announcement detailing our conversation until tomorrow."
Percy didn't check how Reyna reacted to the order but he had a feeling she had mostly resigned herself already. The daughter of Bellona was well-versed in dealing with gods and she knew to just bow her head sometimes. To his surprise though, Percy didn't feel good at all leaving the house. Sure, he just got proven innocent and it felt nice to get Artemis' support in such a strong fashion, but at the same time being on the receiving end of Reyna's ire had made him feel rather…hollow. He just wasn't feeling all too great.
"So when did Perseus turn into Percy, m'lady?" Of course she noticed. Percy had to wrestle down a tired groan at the realization that she'd keep reminding them of this for at least the next few days. It seemed like Artemis was also aware of that and to his dismay she seemed to resign herself to that fate too. At least she didn't find any clever rebuttal to her lieutenant's words. "It seems it did so today, no?"
A deep breath was all the indication given to the fact that Artemis was at all annoyed by this and maybe it was indeed not a bother to her. At least it wasn't enough of a bother for her to do anything more about it. Artemis just marched ahead and so Percy and Thalia just followed her with the latter actually looking dejected that she didn't get any reaction out of her mistress. It didn't take long however before Percy realized another problem of his: Where would he stay? New Rome wasn't particularly welcoming of him right now but Zeus had not released news of his engagement either so staying with the hunt might piss off his uncle. He was about to ask his question out loud when they were intercepted by none other than Annabeth herself.
From the looks of it, she had been searching for them and once she spotted their group she hurried over immediately. Not forgetting a second quick bow of respect to the Olympian, Annabeth was quick to tackle Thalia into a hug, almost knocking her over in the process. Then she turned to him with a look that did make him back away. There was hurt and confusion in there and he saw it morph into anger in real time. "Percy, where have you been? It's been so long…"
Normally this would be a rather standard question but her sickly sweet voice bubbling with concealed anger was sending shivers down Percy's spine. Man, Annabeth could be a menace if she wanted. "So, haha, you see…" He was backing away from her subconsciously until his back hit Thalia's outstretched arm, cutting off his escape route. "So, I was in Alaska?"
He honestly sounded like he was answering some quiz show question and was about to win the grand prize with how uncertain he was right now. And apparently he had answered wrong because Annabeth did not look any more peaceful than before his answer, instead walking up to him and poking him square in the chest. "You owe me an explanation, Percy!"
There was little he could do other than just nod and before he really knew it, he was being dragged away by Annabeth only to be stopped when Thalia grabbed his other arm and yanked him back. "Wait up, Annie, don't leave me out of that."
And here he had thought his cousin might actually help him. Turns out she just wanted to watch him squirm and suffer. In the heat of the moment, all three of them had managed to forget the literal goddess standing just a few feet from them and they were only reminded of her presence when she made herself known again, causing all three demigods to freeze, each for different reasons.
"Thalia, I will allow your absence for today. Make sure you and Percy return in time for our briefing, we will set out early tomorrow to hunt. I will talk to the praetors on my own." She nodded her head to signal that they were free to go, something Thalia took immediate advantage of, bolting ahead while dragging Annabeth along for directions and leaving Percy to chase after them.
Racing through the streets of New Rome felt awfully reminiscent of their younger days when Thalia had just awoken from her days as a tree. Because of all the trouble Percy and Thalia caused mainly to each other, they had ended up in similar situations repeatedly before Thalia chose to join the hunt. It was nice to be able to have a chaotic moment like this even years later.
That said they arrived at their destination very quickly, finding themselves in front of one of the official lodgings for retired veterans. Unlike how Percy initially assumed though, this wasn't Annabeth's house as the door opened to reveal a slightly older Frank and Hazel. He couldn't even pinpoint what was causing it but they had an air of…maturity around them. To be fair, they had never been nearly as chaotic and trouble-loving as the greek trio they just invited inside so in that sense they had always been more mature but that was a little self-incriminating to admit.
Despite any physical or emotional growth he may have had however, Frank was quick to crush Percy in a powerful hug upon seeing his old friend. Although Hazel was much less bone-crushing, she also went to hug Percy right after before finally letting them enter. The inside looked about the same as Percy remembered roman residences from his short stay in one. Though the furniture was a little more modern than what he had previously seen. They had roman couches however and it didn't take long before said couches were filled with demigods.
Unfortunately for him, Annabeth had decided to sit opposite of him and had gone back to grilling him with her look. She was now joined by both Hazel and Frank who to be fair didn't look like they were waiting for a reason to murder him but they still looked curious enough where it was difficult to ignore. "Okay, okay, ask away, I'll answer."
Yeah, he wouldn't bother trying to withhold anything from an angry Annabeth. "How about 'where were you', Percy?" A very angry Annabeth. Apparently it would have been the right call to just start explaining right away.
"Soo…long story really but…after I left camp I went to live with my dad and well, politics happened and it turns out I can't do that so I went to Alaska instead because there godly politics are paused?"
Not a good explanation and he was aware of that but he was also not allowed to talk about his engagement and that had been the entire reason he had gone to Alaska and not tried anywhere else first. Sadly, Annabeth also knew that his was a very bad reasoning and wasn't going to let it go so easily. "What do you mean by politics? What did they do?"
And now she stopped being angry and sounded like a blend of concerned and inquisitive. She would definitely not let this go…but did she need to? Artemis had told her hunt and granted, she was an Olympian, she had special rights but if his friends kept it a secret, why shouldn't he tell them? He was sure that none of them would tell a single soul if he asked them not to.
"So…apparently Thals old man found plenty of ways to kill half-siblings of mine over the years and one was to put Thals mistress up to kill them. The way he motivated that was by facilitating an engagement between them and when dad heard about that he got me to leave the country…well, go to Alaska."
He was trying his best to avoid any names even though he was fairly sure Artemis would find out one way or another anyways. Thalia was right next to them and she had just received news that her mistress could be trying to kill her cousin. "Wait, so you're traveling with Art…the hunt while they try to kill you?"
Only Frank and his quick reflexes prevented the goddess's name from being uttered by Hazel. Lucky for them, he really didn't want to have someone interrupt right now. "No, I ate a golden apple so I'm fine either way, it's just that…after I left our uncle kinda lost control over the situation and he failed to undo the engagement so…"
This got about exactly the reaction he expected, namely silence. Thalia even joined in because she was still contemplating how her mistress had apparently been trying to kill him. Percy just hoped that she wasn't overthinking anything, he didn't want to be a source of discord. The others looked between a frankly ridiculous dumbstruck from Frank to just shocked from Hazel and finally to Annabeth who was wearing what he called her 'war face'. She was trying to think of a solution while looking just a tiny bit murderous.
"But there's gotta be something we can do, no? If both your dad and the king of Olympus agree on something then how can it not pass the council?" She was only halfway talking to him, mumbling the questions while clearly still deep in thought. "There's nothing. I asked dad and he also came up blank and now that it's been passed once, only the Queen can annul it because it's her domain…"
Annabeth's nod was absentmindedly, barely acknowledging that he said anything at all. Her musing was only cut short when Thalia stopped it by loudly clapping her hands together, gathering their attention on herself. "Well, no use overthinking it right now! Come on, we meet so rarely that we shouldn't waste it on just depressing topics! Annie, what have you been up to since last year?"
While she looked reluctant to drop the topic, Annabeth ultimately did so when she realised that the girl in front of her was every bit as stubborn as she herself was. So their conversation shifted and in a bit of karmic payback, Thalia had to now suffer through a lecture on chinese architecture because Annabeth had taken a class in it and had gained a new passion. It was like she had been switched out completely, quickly going from brooding to an excited fangirl.
This was only made worse when Frank and Hazel butted in and added that they had been to China not long ago and had seen some of the traditional buildings firsthand. They had gone about a year ago to visit the city that Frank's family originated from and it was only then that they decided to tell him that that had been their honeymoon. Yeah, they had married a little more than a year ago. He was lucky that his late congratulations weren't joined with congratulations for becoming parents which was apparently the next step they were considering taking.
Honestly, Percy was suddenly feeling overwhelmed by all the things he had missed and he felt terrible for not being there on arguably the most special day of their lives. This only got worse when he was told that Jason and Piper had followed their footsteps and gotten engaged though they had postponed their marriage for now. Since all of them received word that they were being considered for immortality the couple was waiting for that to pass before getting a ceremony.
Following from there stories were exchanged all around. Annabeth had spent a lot of time studying and furthering her knowledge and had a lot of things she could share with them, sometimes against their will. Frank and Hazel had been on a travelling spree and had seen ten different countries in just two years while also getting married and Thalia had seen more variety of their mythological world. Oh and Annabeth also started hanging out with her dead viking cousin more regularly so she now had connections to that pantheon.
She had also kept her connection to the Kanes so Annabeth was perhaps the most well-connected person across the mythological pantheons by now which provided a few more entertaining stories about things that happened in viking heaven and in egypt. It was fun to hear about at least, probably less fun to be there when a dragon goes mad and tries to eat the entire hotel outside of battle hours. Vikings were weird.
It was just great to catch up with everyone and because of how long they had not seen each other, there were tons of stories to be told and they didn't run out until late into the night. Or maybe morning by now. In addition Percy also discovered that none of his old friends were actually angry with him, most were just worried and unlike so many others they did know that he had not attacked camp. They were just told to keep that to themselves because they were to be immortal soon and no one actually knew who the culprit was.
It made things much easier for Percy now that he at least didn't need to convince any of his friends of his innocence. By the time he and Thalia excited the house, they could just about see the first rays of sunshine over the horizon coating the scenery in a tinge of red. Seems like they were just in time to not get in trouble for missing anything.
As if on cue, the moon goddess appeared in the centre of her camp, sparing the incoming duo but a glance before marching off towards New Rome, presumably headed for the residence of Reyna. She seemed a little brisk in her walk but maybe Percy was just seeing things. On the bright side, he really didn't seem to be needing sleep anymore after turning immortal. Despite not having slept in literal days, he was feeling just fine.
It was completely unbeknownst to Percy that while he was eating a comparably peaceful breakfast with the hunters, Artemis and Reyna were planning the greatest hunt since the end of the Giant War and another uproar met the legion when Marcus announced Percy's innocence during their breakfast. Finally, the large figure that was waiting for him just outside of Artemis's detection range was still a mystery too, crowded by a pack of monsters of all kinds. They were all problems for later.
Hey, I'm back. Hope everyone had a great holiday and I hope the chapter doesn't feel to rushed either. As always, all feedback is appreciated and until next time!
-M