All rights belong to Rick Riordan

Chapter 21

Mixed Emotions

(Diana)

For the last twenty minutes I had been searching for Perseus, I was going to inform him that I was leaving for the night. The hunters always turned in early while we were out on the hunt no matter the season, well apart from those that were normally on sentry. However, with Perseus here now they wouldn't have to for the foreseeable future.

The reason I was in my Roman aspect at present was because it had a greater connection with the moon than my Greek side. After all, it was the Romans who gave me Selene's Domain once she faded... Or at least that was the story that my counterpart had propagated for the last seventeen-hundred years or so. The truth was that I had spent most nights in that time supervising the chariot and Artemis saw no reason for this not to continue, whilst she simply slept the night away in obliviousness.

From her I knew he had left our camp some time ago but I was unable to find him in or around his tent. His weapons were haphazardly discarded on the unused bed which suggested he hadn't planned on going very far.

As such, I had left the tent and began following the shamefully obvious trail he had left from it, leading towards the river. The more I followed the path the more I realised his poor ability to move with stealth was an almost personal embarrassment to me, considering we now shared the hunting domain. If I knew less, it would almost as if he had planned on digging a trench through the woods. What with how easy it was to follow the signs; I mean was it that difficult to pick both of your feet up when walking Perseus? The trail almost thankfully stopped at the river's edge alongside a pile of discarded clothes and a towel. It did not take Minerva levels of deduction for me to guess he was underwater somewhere in the vicinity.

Still with him being located I had planned on leaving him a simple note before heading to the Moon Chariot for the night. I did not want to disturb him while he was washing, if he respected our personal space, I would see to it that we respected his.

However, fate had made a sadistic choice as I leant over to place a magical note next to his clothing the situation. At the same moment I leaned down a figure jumped out of the stream and straight towards me with no way of stopping, the impact causing me to let out a brief cry of alarm before I found myself pinned to the floor beneath him.

Perseus initially seemed confused about what he had landed on, picking himself up onto his knees and left-hand straddling over me. It took a few seconds of looking about before his sea-green and gold eyes locked onto on mine. I could almost watch the realisation catching up with him over next few seconds, slowly the eyes widened in terror as they reflected his emotions and his face became white and pale.

The strangest thing was my face also seemed to react and began heating up turning red as I regarded the half-naked titan/demigod guardian mounted on top of me. Realisation now complete he suddenly jumped to his feet and backpedalled a dozen or so feet, wrapping himself in his wings to preserve some modesty.

No longer pinned down I slowly rose to my feet and brushed my clothes down. Looking up and over towards him I saw his body was now wrapped in a golden feathered cocoon. Only his head and feet remained visible above and below the interlocking wings, but even so in that brief period of time. I had seen what was underneath and could admit that for a man, he had an exquisite physique. That was not to say he had gone to the extremes in the pursuit of strength like say Atlas, Hercules or Potestas where he was basically a walking muscle.

"Art-Lady Diana, I am so sorry, I swear it was an accident, I did not see you, this is all my fault. Please don't turn me into a jackelope..." He stammered out without breathing beginning to babble on, continuing his list of apologies until I raised a hand silencing him.

"First of all, Perseus, this should be considered my fault and not yours. It was I who disturbed you and not the other way around. Secondly no matter my aspect as you were told earlier you don't need to bother with the honorifics Diana will more than do, though I would ask that you try and get it correct first time. Lastly, I don't plan on turning you into a woodland creature just yet, so long of course as no one finds out about that little incident. Do you realise how much 'paperwork' that would create for me to do?" I explained before lightly threatening for both our sakes.

I had to maintain my reputation for punishing those who disturbed or manhandled me. Besides, I didn't want my overprotective younger twin thinking something was happening between us, that would create another Orion incident. Of course, Orion had promptly taken my refusal of his advances and shown his true colours. At that point it was suddenly Apollo needing to keep me away from him.

"Very well if you say so then Diana but can I kindly ask you to turn around a second? Just while I put my clothes on, I don't feel comfortable talking to you while being semi-naked. As you said people could get the wrong idea and I am sure the hunters would probably castrate me if they saw us like this despite the wings." I had to agree with his request and so I turned my back away from him and the river bank. I heard him scampering around behind me towards the pile of clothes, after an uncomfortable few minutes for the both of us there was a period of silence. As such I thought he was done and too nervous to say anything to me. Only to be met by the sight of him sitting on a rock still lacking any clothes above the waist. He seemed to be struggling to lace his boots that he now wore.

What I had seen in my brief glance before when he was above me was now confirmed as I regarded the immortal teen in front of me, he had a figure that would have been the envy of the majority of other male gods. A well-muscled chest and arms with a clearly visible six pack, his looks reminded me of some of the older more warlike gods. Such as Mars or Hercules but as I said before unlike them though he was not over-muscled and due to his greater height still retained an athletic look suggesting finesse. Unlike them also he was lacking the multitude of scars that covered the others bodies, after all having the curse of Achilles did protect him most of the time.

For the second time that evening I felt my face flush and this unconscious reaction confused me, this was by no means the first time I had seen a male in a state of undress. After all, the ancient Greeks and Romans did a lot in the nude publicly and sometimes even I had been dragged down from Olympus to watch such shows by father. However, it was the first time I had ever felt like this.

I mean sure he was handsome and strong, and this be would be sure to attract a lot of attention from a certain pink loving goddess on Olympus if she saw him like this. But I also knew deep down that Perseus was not like others and would hate the attention. However while I thinking this, I failed to realise I was still staring at him until he looked up from his now laced boot and once again our eyes met silver to gold.

(Percy)

The last few minutes had been some of the most harrowing of my life and that was saying something. I had just pinned the virgin goddess to the floor whilst half-naked and had somehow not been immediately turned into an animal. I had tried to apologize only for her to do it to me instead. Never had I been so thankful to have so many wings than at that point, I had cursed it numerous times but this time I was grateful that they could largely conceal me once folded forward.

Eventually though once I was convinced that I was not going to get riddled with arrows I asked her to turn around and wait while I got dressed to which she thankfully agreed to do so. With her looking away I dived towards the stack of clothes I had placed down earlier swiftly throwing my pants on to hide modesty before sitting down whilst setting to work on my boots. When I had finished with the first of those I looked up and observed the goddess in front of me.

It was strange to see her in her Roman aspect, sure I had briefly seen her in it back at camp but I had other things on my mind at the time to scrutinise her. She still retained the same basic features as Artemis, same-coloured eyes and same auburn hair albeit unlike Artemis who kept it up in a ponytail, Diana let it hand down over her shoulders and back. She also looked more mature than her counterpart and was around my age physically about eighteen at the most rather than as a pre-teen like the Greek.

She was altogether quite beautiful and unconsciously I began to stare at her. As I regarded her figure, she almost reminded me of Calypso, beautiful without even trying unlike Aphrodite or her children that while good looking also had to use cosmetics and make up.

As I sat there staring, I remembered I was not here to start a relationship. Hades I had sworn an oath to do the very opposite of that. Besides, she was also a maiden goddess no matter what aspect she was currently in I remembered. So, realising what I was doing, I turned my attention back to the other foot and carried on with what I was doing. Unbeknownst to me that she chose that moment to turn her head and scrutinize me.

When I had finished with the second shoe, I looked up only to find her looking at me with those beautiful silver eyes for a second we both stared at each other before we both turned our heads simultaneously in embarrassment. Although I could still somewhat see the flush on her face out of the corner of my sight.

With everything else out of the way, I quickly grabbed my shirt and threw it over my head and the magic piece of apparel fitted around the base of my wings before I finally threw my arms through the duster. Fully dressed finally I turned back towards the goddess.

"I am terribly sorry about that Milady, what did you want to discuss?" I asked apologizing again as the goddess turned back towards me, her face having seemingly returned to its normal complexion.

"You don't need to call me Milady, Perseus." She stated folding her arms across her breasts.

"And you don't need to call me Perseus, it is too formal it was bad enough on Orthrys. Please just call me Percy. I hate being reminded of my full name constantly, I mean it is my name technically but in the past only my enemies called me it." I explained wearily.

"Maybe someday but at the moment you are still Perseus, I have a reputation to uphold after all. Remember this is only your first day with us and the girls still remain wary of you. You gain there trust then maybe someday I will call you Percy." She explained stiffly and I was almost glad for the additional challenge.

"Very well then Lady Diana. I look forward to that happening Milady." I replied making sure to emphasize the titles. Two could play that game then, at my words I watched her develop a cute frown as her eyes narrowed (cute what the hades is wrong with me) before she ultimately brushed it off.

"I simply came to tell you that I would be leaving for the night and you are now responsible for safety of the hunt. Any problems I want to be notified when I return, if anything major happens I expect to be notified immediately by Iris Message. The hunters are already asleep in their tents so if you need to, then flying should not be a problem. Remember though I can see you from up there and I will be watching occasionally Perseus. Also meet me back here when I return with Nemea and we can use the occasion to cover up her transformation." The goddess instructed.

"Very well then I look forward to your return in the morning Milady." I said to her before doing a slight bow. Raising my head back up I could see the frown return on her face before she disappeared in a mixed flash of silver and gold back to her chariot I guessed.

Grabbing the towel, I had largely not had a chance to use, I began the short walk back to my tent where I simply gathered my weapons before leaving my new home and taking flight over the small camp. I held my spear and shield at the ready, the combo gave me both a ranged and melee option as well as first strike potential. Also, the sound created by the impact if I threw the weapon would also act as one hell of an alarm amongst the largely quiet forest.

I was able to control the flames around the weapon so while they were still present, they did not give off any additional visual light. It was bad enough having obvious golden wings, I didn't want the spears glow being reflected off them turning me into a giant beacon and highlighting my presence for miles around, that I would have trouble explaining if I was caught.

As time passed and the darkening evening turned into true night, I thought about what happened today. The hunters to be truthful had taken to my presence better than I expected. I had been expecting them all to feel threatened by me and openly hostile to my presence and apart from Tania there had been little of it so far. The daughter of Ares attitude was a problem I had to solve, both for the group's cohesiveness and because I wanted to now wanted to win the bet with the goddess.

I thought back to the 'archery' contest and thought there was nothing I could have done differently, if I had let her win, she would have taken it as a failing on my part and undermined my effectiveness as their guardian. While as it stood, she was jealous and embarrassed by the loss. I guess it was no surprise but she reminded me of Clarisse when we first met years ago. She had her sister's open hostility to others and I guessed that to get her to open up it was a similar issue, she had to be treated respectfully but also needed to be shown that I would take no crap from her or the others but on the flip side nor would I let them come to any harm either.

Oh how I almost wished Phobos and Deimos would show up now, the fear brothers would last maybe a few seconds in a fight if we had one now.

Thinking back, I thought about my practicing with Thalia and knew she would hold me to my promise of getting her a sword, now if I planned to keep it. I would most likely need to talk with Hephaestus or Leo to get one made something I was pretty sure either would do for me. The metal though I had no idea about after all, she wanted something silver. Celestial Bronze and Imperial Gold were obviously out, Stygian iron was practically black and besides she would not be able to use it. Mortal steel could be almost silver but would be ineffective against immortals and monsters, only useful on mortals and demigods which was the type of weapon I hoped she would never need; perhaps either of the gods could recommend a suitable metal.

That of course left my embarrassing 'meeting' with the Roman goddess Diana. I was still surprised I was still relatively human in nature and not running around Shenandoah as a deer being hunted by a pack of wolves. Instead, we had both acted embarrassed around one another until the predicament was resolved with more embarrassment on her part. The thing that confused me was the sensation I felt around the goddess, it almost reminded me of Annabeth and how she was always able to calm me down. When I became reckless and lost in the flurry of battle, Annabeth was able to get me to chill out with only a few words.

Diana likewise had done the same after I mentally destroyed Octavian and I didn't know why. Why would she care about me enough to stop me? At the time I had not cared what had happened with me afterwards, I thought I had nothing to lose at that point but she had seen what it was doing to me as well as my victim. True I may have helped rescue her and helped win the two wars but they had been a group effort. The only one I could take credit for single-handedly defeating was Gaia and even then, Nemea helped. So why me? Yes, I helped those in need and asked for nothing in return and that was why I was here now. But was that enough to earn special treatment from the goddess?

As I continued to fly circles overhead, I kept thinking the point over and over again as I regarded the forest below and still it persisted in confusing me. Why did we both seem embarrassed around each other? Why was I having strange sensations as I looked at the goddess? I had not felt like this ever since Annabeth died not even Calypso when she visited Orthrys.

Was it even possible even if I was right, we had both sworn oaths and mine was certainly unbreakable, I didn't want to die anytime soon. All I knew was that if this was one of Aphrodite's little games then she could leave me out, love brought pain and loss and I was not eager to handle them both again.

Hours went by with little movement below but that of the reflection off of Nemea's coat as she lay sleeping by the ever blazing camp fire. I had landed a few times to awaken the rest of my limbs that became cramped after long periods flying. Always landing at the edge of the camp and doing a circuit around the tents to ensure all was alright before leaving out the way I came in and returning to the air. The only sign of my passing apart from the signs of my footsteps was Nemea's purring as I stroked her head on the way past as she slept.

Finally, the twilight hours began to change as Apollo's chariot started to rise above the distant horizon and I landed for the last time and sitting by the fire Nemea's head in my lap. Weapons lay by my side as I looked up at the fading stars as they were quickly overshadowed by his brighter light rising from the east. In the past I knew only the basic constellations and a few of the other's names. Now thanks to Krios's domain I knew them all and even had some level of control over their brightness in the sky. As I focused on the fading familiar figure of what had once been Zoe Nightshade, an idea came to me.

I picked my shield up and held it before me in both hands and began to focus on it and the stars represented on its face. As I focused my energies into the adamantium shield, it became completely dark as the image was changed, gone was the figure of Orion and Scorpius who had previously adorned the face since I had retrieved it. In their place was the figure of the Huntress but the strange thing was it was not as it was in the sky above me. In place of the five stars that composed the bow in the sky, the image of a crescent moon was superimposed over them as if the moon itself was the limbs of her weapon. I hadn't meant to do this but deciding it looked cool I left it as it was.

As I regarded the shields new look, I felt the arrival of a nearby immortal inside the camp and looked up to see the moon had finally dropped below the opposite horizon.

(Diana)

What was happening to me? What were these sensations I had been feeling all evening? All night I had sat there pondering the issue over and over and still I had nothing. All I did know after hours of thinking it over was the cause of the problem.

Perseus

No correction Percy

I may have objected to calling him to his face but I already preferred it. Truthfully, I had to agree with him, his full name was too formal and could be associated with my long-dead half-brother. However, the original's accomplishments paled in comparison to Percy's. Perseus was more suited as a name that went with titles and he had more than enough of them as it stood. Hades I only had the one pre-nom Phoebe Artemis and I hated that so much that everyone had learned not to even mention it around me. Not that I was telling Phoebe the hunter or my now freed Titan grandmother.

Of course, he had taken my refusal as a challenge to be fulfilled and had made it harder for me instead, by giving me titles again which infuriated me again. Why was this Man so much of an enigma?

It was as if he took great pleasure in breaking every known feeling I had towards the male side. He had all their strengths but none of their weaknesses. He did not lust after power or wealth; he was not selfish instead being the opposite. He was a great ally to have and an unstoppable destroyer to his enemies. He took loyalty to new heights even if meant it would kill him. He was admittedly good-looking without being narcissistic and it didn't look like he meant to be. He had power and yet only sought to use it to help others.

His only clear downsides were his constant use of sarcasm and reckless enthusiasm to save others that could be almost self-destructive.

All the other 'men' I had met previously both immortal and mortal were completely different. Sure, some would have some of those qualities at one time or another but all had ultimately fallen prey to the vices that afflicted man except him. I had seen him first back when he was but a boy, only fourteen and willing to take the sky from me to help, he simply understood that if that was needed to stop Atlas then he was willing to trust me. He had even managed to gain Zoe's trust which after Heracles's treachery was almost impossible or so I thought. I heard of his apparent sacrifice to destroy the Titan's forge at Mount St Helens and had been briefly saddened by the fact of his death only for him to reappear. Then came his heroic defence with the other Greek campers and my hunters that managed to save Olympus. It was him that got Poseidon to abandon his kingdom and save us from Typhon and he who offered Castellan the ultimate choice to defeat Kronos.

After everything he did and all those he had saved what did he really receive as a reward. Nothing, he was too selfless to want anything, twice. Twice he had been offered anything and instead he used the chance to better Olympus. Sure, he had become immortal and a Titan as well but that wasn't us, even our sworn enemy could see he was worthy. Instead, my father immediately saw him as a threat and tried to kill him until he swore allegiance. The only thing he had truly gained that mattered to him was a broken heart, when his late-girlfriend Annabeth had died.

As I pondered these things I regarded the world beneath me, I could see everything that was hit by the light of the moon. I watched him patiently flying over my camp only taking the occasional break to patrol the ground before returning to the sky. As long as he maintained this level of vigilance, I was happy. Although I feared the day he was caught actually flying and how the hunters would react to the deception of his true nature. That was part of the reason I wanted him to gain their trust. Unfortunately, every time I returned my gaze to the camp I would look at the flying figure and there I began thinking about him again.

I had only ever trusted one male with being with the hunt while I was away and Orion had betrayed it spectacularly as I learned shortly before his death by Gaia of all people. Ironically, he was also Percy's brother but the similarities stopped there. They both looked completely different apart from the eyes and even then, Percy had unique eyes now as far as Poseidon's children went. Orion was a good hunter, skilled with a bow, stealthy. Percy was awful at hiding, abysmal with a bow and despite being the Titan of the Hunt knew nothing of what that entailed. Orion was deceitful and cruel as well as a rapist. Percy wore his heart on his sleeve and would never intentionally hurt an innocent.

It was as if The Fates had made a man specially to break my perception of what a 'man' was. While he had been with Athena's daughter, I had sat back and watched his actions with increasing respect but now I was getting these strange reactions around him and they terrified me.

I am a goddess known to be feared amongst the entire male kind and yet now I am afraid of one of them not through threat of violence but possibly love.

"WHAT IN HADES IS WRONG WITH ME!" I screamed into the sky in frustration.

My only answer was silence to which I was thankful. The only thing I did know was I needed to have a serious word with my pink rival, if this was her or her daughter's fault. I would not be afraid to introduce the pair to my bow.

The last few hours of night drifted away swiftly to which I was thankful it was summer at least as it meant shorter nights and that I could return earlier. When Apollo had risen on the opposite side of the horizon, I placed the chariot on auto before flashing back to camp while changing aspects. Artemis could deal with this situation, I wanted to go to sleep and hope not to think about this anymore

(Artemis)

I returned to the camp in my traditional form of a younger girl as befitting the hunters which apart from Jacqueline who was nine were all between twelve and seventeen in Morganna's case. So, I was reflected as the median of a fourteen year old. I returned to find Perseus sitting in the camp with the lioness's head on his lap staring at the spot I was standing on while clutching his shield in both hands facing towards him.

"Hello Lady Di-Artemis, how was your evening as you can see the camp and hunters are still here in one piece." He reported with a smile and I wasn't sure if the slip up with my aspect was deliberate or not. Though Diana was in control at that point of our body I was still conscious of what was going on at the stream. I would need to have a word with my counterpart regarding her conduct. Her staring at him like an awed schoolgirl was not exactly how I wanted this working relationship to start.

"We will see what it is like in a few weeks before you start counting your good luck." I remarked looking at the man in front of me. Strangely as I looked at him, I did not feel my body reacting as strongly as Diana had before and for this I was thankful. I could do without blushing every time I saw the son of Poseidon.

"I look forward to them milady, as you can see Nemea here is awake and we can give her your 'blessing'.'' He said highlighting the last word using air quotes. Although he did have to nudge the drowsy Lion with his knee so she woke up and stretched.

"Good then follow me." I said ignoring his quip leading the way out of the camp.

"Milady Artemis, I have something to show you." He said from behind me, flipping the shield over as I turned around so the face was now towards me and I gasped at the sight.

Before me emblazoned on the face of the shield was the familiar figure of Zoe as she now appeared in the night sky, with the only difference being that the moon in place of the bow. The stars as they appeared on the shield were much more vibrant than in reality, as they were not obscured by the corruption man had put into the Earth's atmosphere over the last two hundred years. It had saddened me when she died but at least I could remember her both mentally and physically by looking at the stars above. Though it is a sad fact that they are overshadowed during the daylight and what was left of my greatest huntress and friend were hidden for most of the day.

But now before me was a permanent reminder that would never fade, I could still see her no matter what. I had seen the shield before and saw with distaste that Orion was on it though happily so was Scorpius, though it had been a creation of Gaia I had used it as my eternal punishment for the deceitful hunter. Now the shield was greatly improved by the change and helped reflect the better side of the hunt, rather than those bad memories.

"It is beautiful Perseus; Zoe would be grateful that you remembered her, the moon too is fitting we were always close." I said happily, a golden tear dropping from my eye as I remembered the old days of the hunt. The golden droplet staining the ground beneath my feet.

"I only knew her for a short time but even in that time I understood that she was a true hero, she should always be remembered. She helped make me who I am, it was only fitting to make the change and I now I think about it, I don't think you or your hunters liked seeing him anyway. Not Scorpius he was fine, the other one." He said before joking.

"I have always told them the truth of what he was like, none not even Atlanta was in the hunt at the time that Orion was. I hide little from them without reason which is why I want you to understand that it is unusual for me to safeguard your secrets Perseus. I will say though, that Phoebe and Atlanta at least will appreciate the gesture. They did speak to some of their predecessors who did know him and the words were not exactly positive." I replied.

We continued to walk to the hidden clearing from earlier, before we both looked at the figure of the young lioness between us who was looking at Perseus with expectant eyes. I watched in wonder as the gold in his iris's expanded outwards until the whole pupil had become golden and the Lioness in front of me began to glow golden as well. The light was too bright for me to witness what was happening however. I was barely able to see the source of light was expanding and so took a few steps backwards to accommodate its rapid growth. Finally, it stopped growing and the light faded and I was before the now enormous figure that towered over me, now obscuring Perseus from my sight. Looking up at the back of Nemea's head I saw as he walked around the golden beast the turned to follow him and soon, I found myself level with the golden eyes of the Lioness. Who despite laying back down and having her head on the floor was still able to maintain eye contact with me. Its head was almost as big as I was in this form. Suddenly the story of how Perseus was able to escape the exploding ship by jumping in her mouth made sense and he was a lot larger than me. She could probably eat a normal size person in a bite or two if she wanted.

"So do you think you will have any problems with monsters now? I think between the three of us we shouldn't have any problems for a while." Percy joked slapping the side of an enormous golden paw like he was a used car sale lot dealer.

"Short of an army, you may be right Perseus. You can stand down now and get some rest but I want you ready to train by ten AM. You have much to learn and I will make sure you know one end of the bow from the other by the end of it. Also, you need to learn how to move with more stealth. Even the most junior of my hunters would be able to track your movements during the night by the destruction you left in your wake. Your knee can articulate high enough to lift your feet off the floor." I said sarcastically.

"I wasn't exactly trying to hide myself and am telling you I doubt I can even hold the bow properly. You are wasting your time on that; I promise you I have tried." He whined back with a frown and a pout.

"I will be the judge of that Perseus, now I suggest you get some rest I plan on making this difficult for you." I said hoping the task of breaking and remoulding him into a capable archer would distract me from any new feelings I had around him.

"Wonderful I am looking forward to it, not." Percy replied sarcastically before heading back towards his own tent for some rest while I returned to the main camp accompanied by the heavy footsteps of the Lioness behind me. Reaching the campsite, she returned to the fireside and I looked behind at the way from which we had come and sighed at what I saw. The lioness easily weighed around three tonnes and yet was still stealthier than Percy.