"Percy, come on!" Artemis said, crossing her arms.
They had walked away from camp so Percy could practice his archery in peace, because if the rest of the hunters were anywhere close, they would be able to smell the terrible bow skills.
He adjusted his stance. "I'm trying, ok? I've always sucked at this."
He let the arrow fly, and it hit the ground directly under the target. Percy sighed and let his arms drop. He turned to Artemis, who was looking at him, disappointed.
"You have to learn how to use the bow," she said. "You are part of the Hunt now."
"The only time I've ever hit a shot with a bow was when Hera answered a prayer," Percy said. "It is literally my worst weapon. I'm pretty sure I'm cursed."
Artemis rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Just... get back into position."
With a shrug, Percy entered stance again, stringing the arrow back. He aimed, and then...
"Stop and hold that position," Artemis said.
She walked forward and started correcting his position with her hands.
"Hand goes up, chin down, don't lean back, and for Zeus's sake, don't angle your foot like th -"
"Hey Arty?" Percy asked.
Artemis immediately froze, slowly looking up in Percy's eyes, a glare on her face.
"What did I tell you about that nickname?" She asked threateningly.
Percy gulped. "Not to use it, else you would add to the rabbit population. It's just... you're really close."
Artemis backed away from him, realizing that she had been too close, suspiciously so.
A light blush adorned her features. "Right, my bad. Uhm... fire the shot."
Percy looked back at the target and fired. The arrow flew closer and closer and closer and... whiffed.
"WHAT?" Artemis cried. "That was- that was perfect! How did -"
Percy shrugged. "Guess I need more practice."
Artemis stomped to him and grabbed the bow. "Not today. If you're actually cursed, like it seems you are, I don't want you using my bow."
Percy stared at the bow with wide eyes. "That's YOUR bow?"
"Of course it- uh," Artemis said, realizing her mistake.
Percy grinned. "You let me, a man, of all people, use your godly symbol to practice with?"
"It- I- Don't read into it!" Artemis said, beginning to blush again.
"Is the man-hater starting to actually like me?" Percy teased.
Artemis huffed. "I told you when you joined I didn't have problems with you, why is this so funny to you?"
Percy chuckled. "Who knows. It just is."
Artemis lightly punched him on the shoulder. "Besides, even if I did want you to continue training, it's almost dinner."
Percy smiled as they began to walk back towards camp. "Can't wait for my cooking?"
Artemis smiled. "As a matter of fact, no, I cannot."
That night, Artemis lay in her bed, staring at the roof of the tent. These feelings... she wasn't supposed to have them. She had always rejected the premise, but now that she had it upon her, she... she wanted to welcome it.
She wanted to have it, and keep it, forever. But because of her domains, her past, and who exactly she was attracted to, she didn't think she would ever admit it it.
Something ached in her heart, a part she could barely recognize. Turning over, she closed her eyes. But... just because she wouldn't say she was in love, didn't mean she couldn't be. Right?
She smiled.
----------------------------------------------------------
Percy headed towards the facility, a wave carrying him, Leo, and Reyna into the lake and to it. As they got closer, they could see more of the inside. Red hot metal and jagged scraps floated in the water near it while desecrated rooms sank to the bottom.
As they neared the massive opening, the wave stopped moving, staying in one place and just lifting them. Percy looked over the facility, eventually pointing at a hanging catwalk far up.
"That's our entrance," he said.
Reyna looked up, squinting her eyes. "How are we supposed to -"
Percy threw his hands up, and they flew upwards, the water under them pushing them up. Reyna's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, and Leo smiled under his mask. When they reached the catwalk, Percy looked at Leo.
"Could you straighten it out?" He asked.
"Uh," Leo said. "I can try?"
He extended a hand at the hanging catwalk, and it slowly moved up, eventually straightening out.
"Nice job," Percy said as he walked onto it. "Come on."
As Leo and Reyna walked onto the catwalk, the water behind them fell back down and rejoined the lake.
Reyna frowned. "Is that our only exit?"
Percy shook his head. "No. Now, be careful and stick with me. This is important. We're not quite in the facility yet. This would have just been the receptionist area. The next door should be the real entrance."
They walked on the catwalk until they came to a white, circular door. Percy let his hand rest on it for a second and then turned to Leo.
"If you would be so willing?"
Leo extended a hand, and the door slid open. The three of them walked through it and gasped.
"It's... massive," Reyna said.
The inside of the cube was almost hollow. Below them was a maze of catwalks and hallways, all going through the open space of the middle of the cube. Some hallways had chunks missing, so you could see the inside, and some catwalks were gone, destroyed or twisted.
Percy frowned and gripped the railing. "This is the observation bay. We- what is that."
He looked down near the bottom of the cube, sensing very, very bad energy coming from the direction. All he could see was stacked boxes at the bottom, but there was a lot of them. He looked around the cube again, his eyes widening. The boxes were all around, hanging from chains or stuck to walls.
"How did I not -" Percy began to say before the boxes disappeared.
"Oh," he said. "That explains it."
"Explains what?" Leo asked.
"Those boxes have some of Erebus's influence, meaning that they can 'shadow' themselves, which just means turn invisible," Percy responded.
"Thankfully, the area seems empty," he continued. "Which means we can-"
His third eye snapped to one of the broken hallways as green gas began to spill out of it.
"Scratch that," Percy said, pointing at the hallway. "We're figuring out what that is."
"And how do we get down there?" Reyna asked. "It's not like you can just teleport."
Percy smirked and grabbed both of his friends arms, teleporting down to the hallway opening. Reyna clutched her stomach and threw up over the opening.
The vomit fell all the way down the cube until it it one of the boxes. Leo just shuddered. "Weird."
"Ugh," Reyna said, a little green. "Why -"
She wrinkled her nose. "What's the smell?"
"The gas," Percy said, looking at it as it slowly drifted past his feet and out the opening. "It's mixed with blood."
"How do you- nevermind," Reyna said. "Why are we checking it out?"
"Ouranus always has the same layout for every ship and facility," Percy explained as they began to walk through the hallway. "It saves money."
"And this area is?" Leo asked.
"Most important prisoner," Percy said.
As they walked through the hallway, the green gas rose higher and higher until they came to a normal door.
Percy waved his hand, and all three of them were covered in a bubble.
"Just in case," he said.
He opened the door, and a massive amount of green gas swept past them, acting like a flood. It would have swept them off their feet if Percy hadn't summoned the bubbles. Percy walked forward into the room first, the other two following him. A small, broken light occasionally flashed red in the room, but the worrying part was the connected room.
The room was quite simple. A chair with some buttons on it, some file cabinets, and a see-through glass wall were the only things within. A part of the glass wall was cracked, and green gas seeped through it.
"What's it there?" Leo asked.
The room through the glass was chock full of green gas, so thick you could barely see through it. Barely. Percy narrowed his third eye. In the smoke was the silhouette of a person, slumped sideways in a chair. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted.
"Finally, have come to let me out?" A voice spoke before laughing. "Of course you haven't. Are you at least going to let me see you?"
Reyna immediately pulled out her sword. "I know that voice."
"So do I," Percy said, troubled. "I killed him."
Reyna looked at Percy. "You what?"
The figure in the smoke moved, slowly lifting its head. "Hello? Ouranus? Are you going to talk, or are you actually here to let me go?"
Leo narrowed his eyes. "Of course it's him. Why wouldn't it be."
Percy walked up to the glass. "Octavian? Is that you?"
Octavian was silent for a moment.
"Percy?" He asked.
"PERCY?" Reyna yelled, looking at Hope. "YOU'RE PERCY?"
Percy sighed and took off his mask. "Yeah, Reyna, I am. Now, can we focus on the task at hand?"
She stared at him. "You can't be serious. No, we have to talk about this right -"
"Percy," Octavian interrupted. "How are you here?"
"This facility crashed into Camp Half-Blood's lake," Percy answered as he put his mask back on.
"Oh," Octavian said. "That... explains why there was screaming and blaring lights. Where's Ouranus?"
"I don't know," Percy said. "I didn't feel his energy anywhere near here."
"Hold on," Leo said. "Are we going to skip over the fact that Octavian is LIVING?"
Octavian laughed. "I wouldn't say that. I might be alive, but I'm not living."
Reyna walked forward and pounded on the glass. "And you won't be once you're out of there, you traitorous -"
Octavian burst into laughter. "Oh gods, yes, please end my life!"
"I- what?" Reyna asked.
"I've been tortured in this exact room since Erebus plucked me from almost fading," Octavian said.
"You almost faded?" Leo asked, confused.
Octavian laughed. "Oh yeah. Ask Percy here."
Leo looked at Percy. "What does he mean?"
"When I found my trident, I also found Octavian," Percy explained. "Erebus had brought him out of the fields of punishment and was forcing him into service. I gave Octavian a choice, and he decided to die permanently."
Octavian laughed again. "And look how that worked out. Not only am I still alive, but half of me is just a black humanoid blob."
"I- I don't know how to feel about this," Reyna said.
"For what it's worth, Praetor, I do regret my actions," Octavian said. "I was a misguided idiot that caused the deaths of many."
"Yeah, you were," Percy said. "But you can change."
"I have changed," Octavian said. "I just haven't atoned, and I don't think I ever can."
Leo put his head in his hands. "Why do I feel bad for you?"
Octavian shrugged. "Who knows. You're probably just a better person than me, which is why you're out there, and I'm in here."
"Well, that's about to change," Reyna said. "You're going to repent, and you're going to help us in our war."
"Please," Octavian said. "No one will give me a chance. Besides, getting me out of here is too dangerous."
She looked at Percy. "He's coming with us and atoning, right?"
Percy shrugged. "Atoning is his choice. But yeah, we are getting him out."
He summoned his trident and reared it back. Octavian realized what they were doing and began to yell.
"WAIT I SAID THE FACILITY WAS ON LOCKDOWN DON'T-"
Percy's trident shattered the glass, and the facility began to blare with noise.
"YOU IDIOT!" Octavian yelled as the green gas spilled out of the shattered glass wall. He reached up and tore some of the tubes out of his body, falling out of the chair onto his knees.
"Holy crap," Leo whispered as he looked at Octavian.
His skin was pale, the half of his body that was constructed of a black substance writhed as if was alive, liquids leaked out of holes in his body from where the tubes disconnected, and green gas spilled from his mouth.
A voice blared throughout the facility.
"Prisoner freed. Supplies being detonated, as of code 341 of suicide level lockdown. Detonation in 5."
Reyna looked around. "What? What's being detonated?"
"Get. Out. Of. Here," Octavian managed to say. "Ouranus was making supplies to kill immortals. What do you think will happen when it blows up?"
"4."
"Supplies to kill immortals?" Reyna asked.
"3."
Octavian looked up at Percy. "Get out of here!"
"2."
Percy rushed forward and grabbed Octavian, lifting him up with an arm and turning around.
"1."
Percy rushed forward between Reyna and Leo. "Get ready!"
"0."
----------------------------------------------------------
"So... what are they doing in there?" Silena asked.
Bellerophon shrugged. "Hope just said they were scouting."
"And nothing else?" Jason asked.
The strike force and some campers stood at the shore of the beach, staring at the facility.
"What even is it?" Clarisse asked.
"Hope said it was a facility," Bellerophon answered.
"Why did he take Reyna?" Annabeth asked.
"I dunno, he just did," Bellerophon said.
Jason opened his mouth to ask another question but was interrupted by the facility exploding in a black flash. Everyone covered their eyes, and Icarus looked into the sky.
"There's no debris," he said. "How is there no debris?"
"Then what's that?" Luke asked, pointing at the sky.
An orange, fiery ball was sailing through the sky towards them at worrying speeds.
Bianca squinted her eyes. "Is that Hope?"
The ball slammed into the beach in front of them, sending them flying back. When they looked up, the area it had landed was glass, and four people lay in a pile. Leo took a mask out of his cloak and put it on Octavian's face.
"Ugh," Reyna groaned, managing to stand up and crawl out of the glass crater. "Still better than teleporting."
Leo dragged Octavian out of the crater, collapsing on the ground. "Ow."
"Who is that?" Annabeth asked, pointing at Octavian. Her hair still a sandy mess.
"Nobody important," Leo answered.
"Bullcrap!" Jonathan, who was also there, yelled. "He's wearing a mask like the rest of your team!"
Leo shrugged. "I'm new to this, how am I supposed to know?"
Jonathan growled. "Gods above Leo, you traitorous, pathetic idiot! You leave camp, you turn your back on it, and you can't even -"
Silena grabbed the back of Jonathan's neck.
"Shut up and go bash your head into a pillar," she said, using charmspeak.
Jonathan walked away in a daze, heading to the Amphitheatre. Leo looked at her.
"Thanks. I was about to set him on fire," he said.
She laughed. "No problem."
Percy groaned. "Ow."
Luke walked to the side of the crater and looked over the edge. "You good?"
Percy looked up at him. "No, I'm not. Something went really wrong."
"Yeah, you idiot," Octavian mumbled. "You didn't leave fast enough. If there's something that kills gods, and you don't get killed by it but still damaged, what do you think it'll do?"
"Take away some power?" Percy guessed.
Octavian laughed. "No, even worse. It'll transfer it. And do you remember who I said the supplies were built for?"
"Oh," Percy said.
Octavian laughed. "Yeah, you idiot. Should've left me behind."
Percy slammed his head into the ground.
"Shit."