Act 2: The Huntress and the Demigod
When I returned to Camp Half-Blood after the mission to rescue Artemis, I thought my strange bond with Diana had been just another one of those fleeting encounters that characterize a demigod's life. You know, the kind where "we met while fighting monsters, almost died together a couple of times, and now we go our separate ways until the next apocalypse brings us together." The standard package.
I was wrong. And it's not the first time I've said that, nor will it be the last.
Barely two weeks after returning to camp, while training alone in the arena at that awkward hour when the sun is just beginning to warm up and most campers are still drooling on their pillows, I felt that characteristic shiver on the back of my neck that can only mean:
a) A monster is about to turn you into dog food. b) An Olympian god has decided today is a good day to ruin your life. c) Diana is watching you from the shadows.
Unfortunately for my dignity, the correct option was c.
"Your guard is still as low as your math average, Jackson," said a familiar voice from the stands.
I turned, Riptide in hand, to find her sitting comfortably as if she had been there for hours, nibbling a red apple with a bored expression. She wore the silver uniform of the huntresses, but had added a personal touch: a black leather jacket over the silver shirt that, honestly, gave her a divine rebel look that was unfairly attractive.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, lowering my sword. "Don't the huntresses have sacred deer to protect or something?"
"Oh, loads," she replied, tossing the apple core with perfect aim into a trash can ten meters away. "But it turns out I was assigned a more challenging task: preventing a certain son of Poseidon from accidentally impaling himself with his own sword."
"Very funny," I muttered, but a treacherous smile tugged at my lips. As irritating as she was, I had missed her biting comments. "What's the real reason?"
Diana jumped from the stands, landing in front of me with that supernatural grace that made gravity seem more like a suggestion than a law. Her eyes shifted from silver to amber as she studied me.
"Do I need a reason to visit an old friend?" she asked with feigned innocence.
"We're friends now? Because I specifically remember you calling me 'the biggest walking catastrophe since the Trojan Horse,' and that was one of your compliments."
A slow smile spread across her face. "What a good memory you have. That proves my teaching techniques work."
"What techniques? Simultaneously insulting and stabbing?"
"Motivation through trauma," she explained with a casual wave of her hand. "Highly effective."
Before I could respond, she unsheathed two hunting knives from her belt with a movement so fluid I could barely follow it.
"Now," she said, and her smile turned dangerous, "let's see how much you've forgotten in my absence."
Our "training sessions" quickly became a constant in my life at camp. Diana had a special gift for materializing increasingly elaborate excuses to explain her presence.
"Comparative study of freshwater nymphs versus marine nymphs," she declared one day, appearing next to the dock where I was fishing with Tyson.
"Cataloging mystical fungi that grow exclusively in the periphery of demigod camps," she claimed another time, emerging from the bushes just as Annabeth and I were discussing capture the flag strategies.
"Research on behavior patterns of cyclops hybrids in semi-controlled environments," she announced with academic solemnity, materializing at our table during dinner, causing Tyson to spill his blue soda and exclaim: "Shiny lady!"
It took Chiron exactly three days to notice Diana's recurring presence. I found him watching us with a thoughtful expression as she demonstrated (for the fifteenth time) how to disarm a larger opponent using their own momentum against them.
"Percy," he called me one afternoon after Diana mysteriously disappeared upon seeing the centaur approach. "May I ask about your... friend?"
The way he pronounced "friend" contained enough layers of meaning to make a wedding cake.
"It's Diana," I replied, trying to sound casual while picking up my sword from the ground where Diana had sent it with a particularly humiliating move. "A huntress of Artemis. She's helping me improve my technique."
Chiron raised an eyebrow with such eloquence that he could practically have given a speech. "A huntress who regularly comes to camp, alone, to train specifically with you."
"Uh-huh."
"And Lady Artemis is... aware of these... private training sessions."
It wasn't exactly a question, but I felt the need to defend Diana. "I guess. Diana mentioned something about a 'special assignment.' You know how gods are with their cryptic plans and missions."
Chiron studied me with those ancient eyes that have seen too many heroes make too many mistakes.
"Percy," he said finally, his voice gentle but serious, "I would recommend caution. The huntresses of Artemis have very specific vows, and the consequences of breaking them can be... severe."
"What? No, it's not... we're not..." I stammered, feeling my face burn as if Apollo had decided to park his sun chariot directly over my head. "We just train."
"Of course," Chiron nodded, with an expression that clearly said he didn't believe me for a second. "Just remember that gods tend to be... territorial about their followers. And some are more territorial than others."
With that unsettling warning, he trotted away, leaving me with the uncomfortable feeling that I had just received the mythological version of "the talk."
As the weeks passed, our training sessions evolved. They weren't just combat anymore; Diana began teaching me about tracking, survival, monster history and their weaknesses. And in the process, we began to develop our own language, not just of words, but of gestures and looks.
I learned that when Diana touched her left ear, it meant "watch out on your right." When she hummed a certain melody, she was bored and about to do something unpredictable. When she frowned slightly and her right eye narrowed a millimeter more than the left, she was genuinely concerned but trying to hide it.
And she, for her part, seemed to have memorized each of my expressions. She knew how to distinguish between my genuine smile and the forced one I used when trying to hide concerns. She recognized the exact moment when my mind began to wander during her lessons on famous huntress history. She could even predict when I was about to make some sarcastic comment, sometimes before I myself knew I was going to make it.
"No," she would say, raising a finger in warning before I opened my mouth. "Whatever you're thinking, don't say it."
"How do you know I was going to say something?"
"Your left eyebrow arches slightly and that ridiculous dimple appears on your right cheek when you're about to unleash some particularly creative idiocy."
"Do you observe my dimples that much, Diana?" I asked with a deliberately provocative smile.
"Only to anticipate disasters," she responded without missing a beat, but I noticed the slight blush that colored her cheeks.
One particularly warm June night, while we were practicing night combat in the forest (which was really more "Percy stumbling in the dark while Diana laughed from the trees"), I asked her something that had been on my mind.
"Do you ever get in trouble for spending so much time here? You know, with Artemis and the other huntresses?"
Diana, who was comfortably sitting on a branch above my head, was momentarily silent. The moonlight filtered through the leaves, casting silver patterns on her face that made her seem almost ethereal.
"It's... complicated," she finally replied. "Let's say I have a certain degree of autonomy that other huntresses don't possess."
"Why?"
Her eyes gleamed with something that seemed like amusement and secrecy in equal parts. "Because I'm special, Jackson. Thinking otherwise would be an insult to my divine exceptionality."
"Divine exceptionality?" I repeated, laughing. "Is that the fancy term for 'too irritating even for the other immortal huntresses'?"
In response, Diana jumped from the branch, landing directly on my shoulders and taking me down with a lock that left me looking at the stars, literally, while she sat triumphantly on my chest.
"Take that back," she demanded, her eyes dangerously bright under the moonlight.
"Or what?" I challenged, trying not to think about how light she felt despite the superhuman strength she had just demonstrated, nor about how her silver hair fell like a cascade around her face, nor about how close our faces were.
"Or I'll make your life a particularly creative hell," she threatened, coming closer. "I'm very good at psychological torture. I can make you beg for the sweet release of high school math."
I tried to respond with something clever, I really did, but suddenly I was painfully aware of the proximity between us, of how her eyes hypnotically changed from silver to amber under the changing light, of how I could feel her breath on my cheek.
Something changed in her expression too. Her mocking smile vanished, replaced by something softer, more vulnerable. For a moment, a tense silence stretched between us, filled with something neither of us dared to name.
Then, as if she had remembered something important, Diana abruptly moved away, standing up with a fluid movement.
"Enough for today," she said, her voice strangely tense. "Tomorrow we'll work on your pathetic ability to detect ambushes."
And before I could respond, she had vanished among the trees, leaving me alone with confused thoughts and a heart beating too fast for my own good.
Our growing synchronicity was put to the test during an unofficial mission to rescue Nico di Angelo. The son of Hades, still consumed by grief and anger over the death of his sister Bianca, had fled from camp. Chiron was worried, and although he couldn't send an official quest after him, he had given me permission to search for him.
I didn't expect Diana to offer to accompany me.
"He's a confused and powerful child," she said when I looked at her in surprise. "And you have a special talent for getting into trouble. Someone has to make sure you both return alive."
We tracked Nico to a cemetery in New Orleans, where he had apparently been practicing his powers as a son of Hades. The problem was that his "practices" had attracted the attention of monsters that sensed the presence of a powerful demigod.
When we arrived, the cemetery was chaos of revived skeletons, blood-thirsty empousai, and a terrified Nico cornered against an ancient crypt.
"You go left, I'll go right," Diana said without needing further explanation. With that simple phrase, we both knew exactly what to do.
We moved as a single entity, anticipating each other's movements without the need for words. When she ducked, I attacked from above. When I rolled to the side, she already had an arrow ready for the monster trying to take advantage of my moment of vulnerability.
At one point, I found myself surrounded by three empousai. Instinctively, I shouted: "Now!"
Without hesitation, without questioning, Diana fired three arrows in rapid succession just as I threw myself to the ground. The arrows passed through the space where my head had been a second before and found their marks in the monsters, which burst into golden dust.
"Fifty points for the silver huntress!" she exclaimed with jubilant ferocity, before launching into a series of somersaults that took her to the center of a group of skeletons, which she dismantled with the mechanical efficiency of a particularly enthusiastic document shredder.
When the battle ended and we reached Nico, the boy was looking at us with a mixture of amazement and distrust.
"Who are you?" he asked, though he clearly recognized me.
"Percy Jackson," I replied, "and she is-"
"Diana," she introduced herself, bending down to the child's eye level. "A friend."
Nico studied her with those dark eyes that seemed to contain all the wisdom and sadness of the underworld. "You're not what you seem," he finally said, with that disturbing insight he possessed.
Diana tensed beside me, but maintained her serene smile. "Few things are, young son of Hades."
On the trip back to New York, while Nico slept in the back seat of the taxi we had managed to get (the driver was conveniently under the influence of the Mist to not question our disheveled appearance or the weapons), Diana and I shared one of those moments of comfortable silence that had become increasingly frequent between us.
"Did what Nico said bother you?" I finally asked, in a low voice so as not to wake the boy.
Diana looked out the window, the highway lights intermittently illuminating her profile. "Children of Hades sometimes see more than they should."
"And what did he see?"
She turned to me, and for an instant, her eyes seemed to change, becoming older, deeper. "That, Percy Jackson, is a question for another time."
When our hands met in the space between the seats, neither of us commented on it. We simply let our fingers intertwine, taking comfort in each other's presence after a difficult day.
The following spring brought new dangers: Daedalus's Labyrinth had been discovered and Kronos was planning to use it to attack the camp by surprise. My concern for Grover and his search for the god Pan mixed with nervousness about the imminent exploration of the Labyrinth with Annabeth and Tyson.
The night before leaving for the Labyrinth, while checking my backpack for the third time (a habit I had developed thanks to Diana's lessons on preparation), I felt that familiar presence behind me.
"Checking your equipment three times. I'm impressed, Jackson," Diana said, materializing from the shadows as she always did. "It seems that finally some of my common sense is rubbing off on you."
"Miracles of Olympus," I replied, unable to stop smiling. For some reason, her presence alleviated some of the anxiety I had been feeling. "Have you come to wish me luck or to enumerate all the horrible ways I could die in the Labyrinth?"
"Why limit myself to just one option?" she smiled, taking the backpack from my hands to check it herself. "Let's see... nectar, ambrosia, bandages, flashlight, extra battery... not bad. But this amount of underwear is pathetic. Seriously, Jackson? Just one change?"
"If I need more, I can wash it," I defended myself, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks.
Diana rolled her eyes in exasperation. "If you survive long enough to worry about your dirty underwear, it will be a miracle."
She moved around the cabin with familiarity, taking things from my drawers and methodically adding them to my luggage. I watched her, fascinated by the way her white hair caught the moonlight coming through the window.
"Why don't you come with us?" I asked suddenly.
Her hands stopped briefly. "I can't," she replied without looking at me. "I have... other obligations."
"With the huntresses?"
"Something like that."
There was always something evasive in her answers when I asked her about her duties as a huntress. As if she feared revealing too much.
"Does Artemis have you working overtime?" I joked, trying to lighten the mood.
A strange smile crossed her face. "You could say that. Let's say my relationship with Artemis is... complicated."
"More complicated than ours?" The words escaped before I could stop them.
Diana looked at me then, her changing eyes fixed on mine with an intensity that left me breathless.
"That, Percy Jackson, is impossible," she finally replied, with a smile I couldn't interpret.
Before leaving, Diana took a small package from her pocket and placed it in my hand.
"For you," she said, with a note of shyness I had never heard in her voice.
I unwrapped the package to find a hunting knife with a silver handle, so perfectly balanced that it seemed an extension of my hand. The blade gleamed with a strange glow, as if it had trapped a moonbeam inside the metal.
"It's... beautiful," I said, genuinely impressed. Weapons gifted by Artemis's huntresses weren't exactly common.
"It's for when you find yourself in spaces too narrow for Riptide," Diana explained, avoiding my gaze. "The Labyrinth has passages that make a closet seem spacious. Also..." she hesitated, and then added in a lower voice, "it's enchanted. It will help you find your way back."
"Back to camp?"
Diana looked at me then, and there was something in her eyes that I couldn't decipher. "Back to me," she replied simply.
Before I could respond, she came closer and, to my complete surprise, placed a soft kiss on my cheek. It was so quick, so light, that I could almost have imagined it, except for the warmth it left on my skin.
"Don't die down there, Seaweed Brain," she whispered. "It would be very inconvenient to have to go down to the Underworld just to kick your butt for your incompetence."
And with that, she disappeared into the night, leaving me with an enchanted knife, a tingling cheek, and an inexplicably accelerated heart.
During my journey through the Labyrinth, that knife saved my life on more than one occasion. And every time I used it, I felt as if Diana was there with me, guiding my hand.
One of the biggest surprises came when, after finding Nico again and confronting the spirit of Minos, we ventured into the depths of the Labyrinth. In a particularly dark passage, a figure materialized in front of us.
"By the gods!" shouted Annabeth, wielding her dagger.
But I recognized that silhouette immediately. "Diana?"
"The same," she replied, emerging from the shadows. "I've been following your trail since you entered."
"How...?" I began, but she interrupted me.
"The Labyrinth is connected to ancient places, to Olympus, to everything that signifies power in the mythical world," she explained quickly. "I have my ways of navigating it."
Annabeth looked at her with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion. "You're a huntress of Artemis? I don't recall seeing you before."
"Not all huntresses show ourselves at official meetings," Diana replied with a calmness that surprised me. "Some of us prefer to work... from the shadows."
"Convenient," Annabeth muttered, but she didn't press the issue further.
Diana guided us through passages that seemed to change around her, as if the Labyrinth itself moved out of her way. When we reached a fork, she stopped.
"This is as far as I can accompany you," she announced. "You have to continue alone from here."
"What? Why?" I asked, feeling an inexplicable anxiety at the idea of separating.
Diana looked at me with that expression she reserved for when I said something particularly stupid. "Because there are certain laws, Jackson, even for those of us who live on the margins. I cannot directly interfere in your quest."
Before I could protest, she came closer and, to my complete surprise and Annabeth's (whose eyebrows rose so high they almost disappeared into her hair), she hugged me. It was brief but intense, and when she pulled away, she seemed as surprised as I was by her impulse.
"Don't do anything stupid," she said, quickly recovering her composure. "Well, nothing stupider than normal."
And then she disappeared, leaving us with the feeling that the Labyrinth suddenly became much colder and lonelier.
What followed was a whirlwind of events: Hephaestus's forge, Geryon's ranch, Antaeus's arena, and finally, Daedalus's workshop. It all culminated at Mount Saint Helens, where I faced telekhines who were working on something sinister for Kronos.
When the situation became desperate, I did the only thing I could think of: release all my energy in an explosion that unleashed the power of the volcano. The last thing I remember before losing consciousness was a cry of anguish that sounded strangely familiar, as if Diana had been there, watching.
I woke up on the island of Ogygia, where the beautiful and lonely Calypso cared for me until my wounds healed. During my time there, despite Calypso's gentleness and obvious attraction, my thoughts constantly returned to a huntress with changing eyes and a mocking smile.
When I finally decided to leave, Calypso looked at me with resigned understanding.
"Your heart already belongs to someone else," she said softly. "I see it in your eyes when you look at the horizon."
I didn't contradict her. I wasn't even surprised she had noticed. Perhaps because, by that point, I had begun to accept the inevitable myself.
Upon returning to Camp Half-Blood, I discovered that two weeks had passed and everyone had given me up for dead. They had burned my shroud, and my friends were devastated. But nothing prepared me for Diana's reaction.
I found her on the beach, looking out at the ocean as if she could force it to reveal my secrets.
"Well, the dead has been resurrected," she commented with a coldness that froze the blood. "How considerate of you to rejoin us mortals."
"Diana, I-"
"Two weeks, Jackson," she interrupted me, and for the first time since I had known her, I detected real pain beneath her fury. "Two weeks in which everyone gave you up for dead. In which they burned your shroud."
"It wasn't my intention-"
"Where were you?" she demanded, coming so close that I could see the golden flecks in her amber eyes. "And don't you dare lie to me."
I swallowed. There was something in her tone that told me she already suspected the answer, but wanted to hear it from my lips.
"In Ogygia," I finally admitted. "With Calypso."
A sepulchral silence fell between us, broken only by the soft murmur of the waves. For an instant, I swore I saw a silver glow surround Diana, like a divine aura barely contained.
"Calypso," she repeated in a controlled voice. "The daughter of Atlas. The immortal seductress."
"It's not how it sounds," I rushed to clarify. "She's trapped there, alone. Her island is a prison."
"Oh, poor thing," the sarcasm in her voice could have cut diamonds. "Trapped in a tropical paradise with a handsome hero every few centuries. What a tragic existence."
I was as surprised by the venom in her words as by the fact that she considered me "handsome." Before I could process that, she continued:
"And I suppose she offered you to stay? Immortality, eternal love, blah, blah, blah?" Her hand instinctively closed around the handle of her knife. "The same package she offers to all her 'heroes.'"
"Yes, but-"
"But what, Percy?" It was the first time she used my first name, and somehow that made the conversation feel more intimate, more painful. "Why didn't you accept? A paradise island, a beautiful goddess in love, immortality... sounds like any man's dream."
There was a real question under her accusatory tone, a vulnerability I had never seen in her before. And suddenly I understood that her reaction wasn't simple anger: she was hurt. Hurt because I had disappeared, hurt because another woman had offered me to stay with her, perhaps even hurt because I had considered, if only for a moment, accepting Calypso's offer.
"I don't belong there," I answered honestly. "My life is here. My friends, my family..." I paused, gathering courage. "The people I care about are here."
Our eyes met, and for a moment, all the barriers between us seemed to vanish. We were no longer a demigod and a mysterious huntress, but simply Percy and Diana, two people caught in an attraction neither of us fully understood.
The moment was interrupted by the sound of voices approaching. Diana blinked, as if waking from a trance, and stepped back.
"Well, I'm glad you decided to return, Jackson," she said, her tone returning to the usual mix of sarcasm and amusement, though now I detected something more, something deeper. "Someone has to make sure you don't get killed in some spectacularly stupid way."
"I thought that was your favorite hobby," I replied, trying to lighten the mood.
A reluctant smile curved her lips. "One of them," she conceded. Then, more seriously: "Don't disappear like that again, you hear me? Next time you decide to take a vacation on a paradise island with a goddess, at least leave me a note."
"So you can come rescue me?"
"So I can come kick your butt personally," she corrected, but her smile softened. "Though maybe I'd rescue you first. Probably."
It was during that summer when Diana finally met my mother. I hadn't planned to introduce them; in fact, I was pretty sure that would break some unwritten rule of the universe. But fate had other plans.
I had gone home for a quick visit, to make sure my mother was okay and to enjoy a day of normalcy before everything blew up. What I didn't expect was to find Diana comfortably sitting in our living room, chatting with my mother as if they were old friends.
"Percy!" exclaimed my mother upon seeing me frozen in the doorway. "Good thing you arrived! Diana and I were talking about you."
"Of course you were," I muttered, dropping my backpack. "How...?"
"Oh, Diana knocked on the door half an hour ago," my mother explained with a smile that immediately put me on alert. It was her "this is going to be fun for me and mortifying for you" smile. "She said she was... how did you put it, dear?"
"Patrolling the perimeter," Diana replied with perfect seriousness. "To ensure there were no mythical threats nearby."
"Of course," my mother nodded, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "And while patrolling, she thought about having some tea. Isn't that kind?"
I collapsed in the armchair across from them, still processing the surreal scene. "Very kind," I muttered.
"Your mother was showing me your baby pictures," Diana continued, her eyes gleaming with malice. "You were adorably chubby, Jackson."
"Mom!" I protested, feeling the heat rise to my cheeks.
"Oh, come on, Percy," my mother laughed. "It's what mothers do when their son brings someone special home for the first time."
"She's not-" I began, but Diana interrupted me.
"I'm not special, Jackson?" she asked, arching a silver eyebrow. "After all our adventures together, you wound me."
My mother watched us with a knowing smile that made me want to sink into the armchair and disappear. "So you're Diana," she said with that expression that means trouble. The same one she uses when she's about to embarrass me in front of someone. "Percy has told me a lot about you."
"Has he?" Diana arched a silver eyebrow, looking at me with amusement.
"Mom..." I warned, but it was already too late.
"Oh, yes. 'Diana this, Diana that.' Sometimes I wonder if my son has any other topic of conversation," my mother continued, completely ignoring my growing mortification. "It's wonderful to finally meet the girl who has captured all his attention."
"It's not like that!" I protested, though my face was burning so much I could probably have fried eggs on my cheeks.
Diana, to my surprise and horror, didn't deny anything. She simply smiled enigmatically and accepted the cup of blue hot chocolate my mother offered her.
"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mrs. Jackson. Now I understand where Percy inherited his warmth... and his cooking talent."
"Oh, please call me Sally!" insisted my mother, beaming. "Will you stay for dinner? Paul will be here soon and I'm sure he'll love to meet you."
"I'd love to," Diana accepted with a politeness I had never seen her use with me.
And that's how I ended up sitting at the table with my mother, my stepfather, and an immortal huntress who pretended to be a normal teenager while devouring my mother's special blue lasagna.
"So, Diana," Paul began, always the teacher, "Percy mentioned that you two met at some kind of... special camp?"
Diana gave me a quick look before answering. "Something like that. Let's say our paths crossed during an... extracurricular activity."
"Diana is an expert in archery," I added, trying to keep the explanations as close to the truth as possible.
"Fascinating!" exclaimed Paul. "Do you compete professionally?"
"I only hunt what I need," Diana replied with an enigmatic smile.
"Diana is also an excellent tracker," my mother intervened, saving us from more dangerous questions. "And Percy says she knows the forest better than anyone."
"I've spent a lot of time in nature," Diana replied, and for a moment, she seemed almost nostalgic. "It's where I feel most... myself."
The evening continued with shared anecdotes (carefully edited to avoid mentioning gods, monsters, or mortal dangers), laughter, and a level of domestic comfort I never would have imagined possible with someone like Diana.
When it finally got late and Diana announced she had to leave, my mother hugged her as if she were part of the family.
"Come back whenever you want," she told her with genuine affection. "Our home is always open to you."
"Thank you, Sally," Diana replied with a surprisingly soft smile. "It's been... it's been wonderful."
I walked her to the door, unsure of what to say after such a surreal night.
"Your family is special, Jackson," Diana finally said, looking toward the apartment with something like longing. "Now I better understand why you are the way you are."
"A walking disaster with a tendency to irritate immortal gods?"
"No," she replied, and her voice completely lacked its usual mocking tone. "Someone worth knowing."
Before I could respond, she leaned in and placed a quick kiss on my cheek, so light that I almost doubted whether it had really happened.
"Good night, Percy," she whispered, and then disappeared into the night, leaving me staring at the empty space where she had been, my cheek tingling as if it had been touched by moonlight.