A.N: I realize that there has been some confusion with Iapetus and whether or not he is Bob at this time. I apologize that I have not read 'The Demigod Files' and was not aware that Iapetus had actually been Bob by TLO. For the sake of this story, assume that Iapetus is not Bob and he will never be Bob.
Percy POV:
The next morning, I woke up in a comfortable bed with a thick blanket draped over my body. I rolled onto the floor with a groan and picked myself up. I looked down the hall and saw that Artemis' door was open. I guess she's an early riser.
After brushing my teeth and changing into slightly more presentable clothing, I padded down the stairs and into the kitchen. Artemis was sitting at the table with a plate of bacon and pancakes in front of her. She glanced up at me before setting her head down and continuing to eat her breakfast.
"Well, good morning to you as well," I said a little irritated that she had blown me off. She just grunted and stared at her plate even more intently. What's wrong with her this morning. I wonder if it had to do with what happened last night?
I decided to ignore her and grabbed a plate off the counter, plating some of the left over food that she had cooked for herself. It wasn't much, but I didn't want to waste the energy of summoning more food.
We finished breakfast in silence and I walked back up the stairs to gather my gear before we started our journey. I assembled my weapons and my armor and walked out of my room and back to the dining room. Artemis was already there with her bow slung over her shoulder and her usual hunting clothes on. When she looked up at me, I nodded to tell her that I was ready. She sat up promptly and walked briskly out the door. I didn't exactly know that she was doing, but I followed her anyways.
When we were back outside, she turned back to the tent and shouted,"μαζεύω (shrink)!" The tent immediately responded by disappearing from view. She walked over to the spot where it had been and picked something up, putting it in her pocket. I realized that the tent had shrunk to an unimaginably small size.
"We will walk towards the center of Tartarus. Hopefully we will reach it by the end of it and be done with this stupid mission," She said, finally opening her mouth and acknowledging me verbally.
"That sounds good to me."
I stayed quite as we walked, as I didn't want to annoy Artemis anymore. It wouldn't do to have her angry at me if we were in a dire situation.
(Line Break)
My legs hurt and my feet burned. I looked up and saw Artemis about ten feet ahead of me.
"Artemis!" I shouted. She paused ,"Can we rest? I don't think my body can take much more walking before I collapse again."
She looked at me a little annoyed, but nodded and stopped, letting me catch up. I sat down on the floor and lay on my back, taking in deep breaths to calm my rapid breathing. She sat down to my right and set her bow on the ground beside her.
We had been sitting like that for ten minutes when we heard a voice behind us.
"Well isn't this nice. The little goddess of the moon sitting with the hero of Olympus," Said the voice. It sounded cold and abrasive to my ears and I had the sudden urge to cover them and cower into a ball. I shuddered at the familiarity of the voice.
Artemis and I whirled around and came face to face with the one person who I had once considered a younger brother.
"Nico?" I breathed.
"Heh, I'm surprised you remember my name. After all, you did leave me on my own after the war. Didn't even visit me once," He sneered. Suddenly, I felt guilty. I had not contacted any of my friends after the war. The ones who had stood by me till the very end. The ones who I could always count on. And they couldn't even count on me. This was the consequence.
"Nico, I'm so sorry. I didn't think about what you guys were going through when I left. I was just sucked into my own world of grief. Please, don't do this, little bro," I pleaded.
"You lost the privilege to call me little brother the second you turned your back on me. You're nothing to me now," He spat. Tears fell from my eyes as I wallowed in self-loathing. I couldn't believe that I had forgotten about my friends, my family.
"Percy! Stop, he is trying to get to your head. Don't listen to him. You are a hero, a true hero," Artemis said as she tried to coax me back to reality, but it was no use. I was already too far gone. There was nothing that would bring me back from the little world of pain and guilt that I was swallowed into.
"What have you done to him?" Artemis growled at Nico.
"I've only told him the truth. This is all his fault," He said gesturing to himself,"If he hadn't forgotten about the most important people in his life, I wouldn't be here, allied with the enemy. I had always been a very loyal and truthful person, but Perseus here, broke that."
"You're wrong. Percy is the only truly good male I have ever met. You couldn't compare to him in any aspect," Artemis growled. She drew her knives and charged Nico in fury. I tried to tell her that it wasn't a good idea, but she didn't listen.
Nico just sneered and pulled out his sword. It was a beautifully crafted blade, with a black edge and a skull just above the crossguard. It had a faint glow to it that made it seem powerful and deadly.
As Artemis neared, Nico raised his right hand and a skeletal hand crawled out the ground behind her, grabbing her ankle. Artemis tripped and tumbled to the ground, only to roll back to her feet into a defensive position. Nico slowly walked towards her, his sword dragging on the ground, making a scratching noise as he neared her.
"I will give you one opportunity to surrender. Otherwise, you are in for the fight of your life," He said.
"Surrender Artemis! We don't have time for this!" I yelled at her. She just ignored me and glared straight ahead at Nico addressing him in a dark, cold voice.
"Like I would ever bow down to a filthy male like you."
"Well that was your chance. Now you die," Nico said as he shrugged with mock sympathy. He ran at Artemis with blinding speed and swung his sword towards her head. Sparks flew as Artemis barely managed to block his strike before she was beheaded. Nico continued his onslaught and I watched helplessly as Artemis struggled to keep up with his attacks. He seemed to wield his sword much faster than he should have been able to, given his size.
Suddenly, Artemis jumped backwards and reset her position before going on the offensive. I could barely keep up with her attacks, but Nico wasn't fazed at all, blocking ever single one of her attempts to land a strike. I knew he was good, but not this good. He didn't even look like he was really trying. Then I realized something.
His eyes did not seem normal. They were pitch black in contrary to his normal dark brown. He had an aura to him that was even more powerful than Artemis' and possibly even Hades himself. Either he got some serious upgrades, or it was something else. His voice had sounded different from when he had attacked me at my cabin.
Artemis was still on the attack. She managed to land a small slash on his arm. I gasped at the sight of his blood. Black. This was not Nico. Apollyon must have found a way to put him under his control and use his body as a puppet. Everything about him was different aside from his looks.
"Artemis! Get out of there! This isn't Nico. He's being possessed by something!" I shouted at her. The body of Nico turned it's head towards me and gave me a dark grin.
"So you finally figured it out. I'm just using this little weakling body as a tool for my own use. I can control him and make him do anything that I want," It said. That explained why Nico was so good at fighting and how his aura was so strong all of a sudden.
Artemis seemed to realize the futility of this fight and began to retreat, but Nico wasn't having it. He pressed forwards and pushed her farther and farther back raining blow after blow on her weakening defense. Finally, he seemed to get tired of toying with her and slammed his hand into her arm, making her drop both knives to cradle her injured appendage.
"Let this show you that there is nothing you little fleas can do to stop me. I will have mercy on your little goddess friend this one time, but next time, there will be no mercy," Nico said, still possessed. He looked at me before stabbing his sword into Artemis' leg. She gave a cry of pain that echoed throughout my head. He gave me one last sneer and disappeared in a flash of black light.
I wasted no time rushing to Artemis' side.
"Artemis! Stay with me. I'll get the tent and we can get heal that wound of yours," I said a little panicked. The truth was, I felt extremely guilty about it. I hadn't even helped her in the fight. I was too weak and cowardly, and now another one of my friends was hurt because it me.
Artemis just gave a whimper of pain and then went quiet. I frantically patted her down for the little cube in her pocket. I found it in the front pocket of her hunting jacket and quickly threw it onto the ground in front of us.
"Καλλιεργώ!" I shouted. Instantly, the tent enlarged, growing to the size of a camping tent. I dragged Artemis over to the opening and pulled inside. I was still a little awed about how big it was inside compared to the outside, but now was not the time to be admiring our tent. Artemis was hurt.
I didn't want to admit that it, but watching her squirm in pain was one of the hardest things I had ever had to do. Over the course of this quest, I had grown fond of her and I would never want to see her injured like this. I would never tell her this though, or else I would become a figurehead on the wall of her room back at Olympus.
I carried her up the stairs and laid her down on one of the beds in an extra room down the hall. I quickly summoned some nectar and ambrosia, before pouring some of the nectar on the wound. Nico's sword had carved a decent sized hole in her leg that would definitely take some time to heal. I guess we would be sitting in here for a couple days while she healed. I fed her some ambrosia and turned to leave.
Her hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. I turned around and saw that she was struggling to sit up. I quickly tried to push her back down to lying position, but she brushed off my hands.
"Are you sure you're alright. I don't want you to strain your leg more than you have to. It might lengthen the healing process," I said worriedly.
"Percy, I'm a god. I should be completely healed in the next day or two," She replied,"Thanks for bringing me up here and healing me." I nodded.
"Look, everything that he said was not true. You didn't turn your back on your friends, you just temporarily distanced yourself from them. If they can't accept that, then they don't deserve to be your friend," She said, looking me directly in the eye. I stared into her striking silver eyes and saw that there was nothing but sorrow and understanding there.
"But Nico wouldn't have turned over to they're side if he hadn't felt that I had forgotten about him. I know that Peitho was involved in persuading him to join their side, but she's the goddess of persuasion not compulsion. He had to have something in his mind telling him that I had abandoned him, otherwise persuasion wouldn't work on him."
"I know, but it wasn't your fault and you should accept that. Plus, it wasn't Nico who was speaking. Somebody was using his body to say those words to you and hope that you take them to heart. They're trying to weaken your mental defense and make you helpless against them," She said.
"It still hurts knowing that Nico would think that I hadn't cared about him. Hearing his body say that was worse than any wound," I said brokenly.
"Well, if you don't stop blaming yourself, then I'll give you a wound that's worse," She said. My face paled and she smiled at my discomfort.
"Enough of this petty talk. Would you please summon some food for me. I would rather not cook for obvious reasons and I will need some energy to recover before we can start towards the center again," Artemis said.
I clapped my hands and a plate of assorted foods appeared on the table beside her along with utensils. I handed her a fork and she started scarfing down the food like it was the best thing she had ever tasted, which it quite possible may have been. I silently thanked Hestia for her blessing. At first, I hadn't thought that it would have been that useful, but now that we're here in Tartarus, I realized that it may have been the best blessing out of all the Olympian gods.
"Wait a minute, why couldn't you have just flashed us to the center of Tartarus? Why waste our time walking?" I asked.
"My godly powers seem to be nullified. I can't figure out why, but it may have to do with where we are right now. That is why I was beaten so badly by that male," She said, spitting out the word 'male'.
"About that...," I said getting ready to tease her.
"Not a word," She glared at me. I gulped. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Artemis could probably tear me apart with her bare hands even when she's incapacitated like this.
"Ok then,"I said, trying to stray away from the topic,"Will you be fine here on your own? I want to I.M my family back home. I haven't talked to them since we jumped into this pit."
She nodded, still glaring at me, and I walked back down the hall to the bathroom. I turned on the shower and used the mist to send my message.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the mist, please accept my offering and show me Poseidon, god of the Sea," I said, throwing a golden drachma into the steam. An image shimmered into existence and my father appeared in the I.M.
He was pacing in the middle of bedroom, looking distraught and anxious. I wonder what's gotten him all riled up.
"Father."
He whipped around and his eyes found the I.M.
"Perseus! I've been so worried about you! How are you doing my son?" He asked. He was clearly happy that I had called him and the he had a certain light in his eyes that hadn't been there before.
"Hey Day. I'm doing well. We figured out what we need to do to get the key," I said. I didn't want to go into much detail because he would become even more worried about me. My father had always been there for me and I wanted to make sure that he wouldn't spend too much time thinking and fretting over me.
"Well I'm happy that you're doing well on your quest. Everybody up here is very worried about you. I can tell that even Zeus holds a certain respect for you and he doesn't want to see you dead."
"That's a surprise."
He nodded,"I know you're probably on crunch time, so I'll let you go back to your mission. I'm guessing you're going to want to I.M some other people as well. I expect that you I.M me again some other time."
"Thanks Dad. I'll try to I.M you again soon," I said before swiping my hand through the mist and ending the call.
I grabbed another drachma from my bag and threw it into the mist,"Oh, Iris, goddess of the mist, please accept my offering and show me Hestia, goddess of the Hearth."
The mist shimmered once again and an 8 year old girl appeared sitting in front of a fire, prodding it with a fire poker. She seemed to sense a presence by her side and looked over to me.
"Perseus? Is that you?" Hestia asked.
"Yes, My Lady. It is me. Artemis and I are in Tartarus right now," I said.
"Are you in a house? How come you're in a bathroom right now?"
"Oh, Lady Nyx gave us a tent that is like a house on the inside," I said as nonchalantly as possible. Her eyes widened.
"Lady Nyx? Young man, tell me everything that's happened since the last time I saw you," She demanded.
"Sure, but first can you summon Athena and Hera? I think they would want to hear this too."
She nodded and waved her hand. Suddenly, there were two figures behind standing behind her. One with strawberry blonde hair cascading down her back giving her a regal look. The other with chocolate brown curls who had a more motherly look to her. Athena and Hera.
"Hestia? Why have you brought us here?" Athena asked in confusion.
"Why don't you see for yourself?" Hestia said, gesturing in my direction. They looked towards me and they gasped when they saw the I.M.
"Perseus?" Hera asked, tears in her eyes. She had become something of a mother figure in my life. During the time that I had trained with the Olympian gods, she had always been very supportive of me and I had spent a lot of my free time with her. I was surprised at first that she had wanted to make amends for what she had done towards me. She had never wanted to hurt me and was just trying to do what was right, but it didn't turn out to be the best choice.
"Hello Hera. I'm glad you seem to be doing well." I said.
"How are you faring down there Percy?" Asked Athena. Like Hera, I had developed a strong bond with her. I thought of her as my older sister. I could tell that she thought the same way and we had taken to calling each other 'Sister' and 'Brother'.
"Hey Sis," I said,"It's been pretty rough for Artemis and I. Not somewhere that I would want to travel for vacation that's for sure."
She chuckled lightly,"You're the only one who would make a joke out of Tartarus, little brother."
"Enough of this. I want to know what's happened so far," Hestia interjected.
I proceeded to animatedly tell them about our journey to the center, acting out every little detail. They listened intently the whole time, not once interrupting my incredible story. Once I had finished, there was a good minute of silence before Athena spoke up.
"Wow, I wish I could have been there to beat up that kid Nico for you."
"He wasn't in his right mind. Someone was controlling him using his body. I'm not sure who it was, but I have a pretty good idea."
"I'm sorry that you have to do this. Once this is all over, I think you should stop going on quests to save everybody. You've already done enough for us already," Hera said.
"I will think about it," I said sincerely,"In the meantime, I need to send one more I.M. I will try to call you another time."
They nodded and waved goodbye, before Hestia reached forwards and swiped her little 8 year old hand through the mist, ending the call. I just sat there for a minute, staring and the steam where they had been. I really hoped that I would be able to make it out of here and see those faces again.
I pulled out one final drachma and threw it into the mist (Sorry if this seems repetitive) to contact the one person who I loved more than anything in the world.
"Oh, Iris goddess of the mist, please accept my offering and show my, Sally Jackson."
The mist once again shimmered. And the face of a little girl showed up in the image.
"It's Percy! Hi Percy!" Ashley shouted.
I smiled with affection at my little sister. Even though she was my sister in blood, I had started thinking of her as more of a daughter.
"Hey Ashley. I hope you're doing alright."
"Percy?" I hear in the background before Ashley is gently lifted away from the image and was replaced by my mom. She had tears in her eyes and a large smile plastered onto her face.
"Oh, my baby! You're alright! I was so worried that something had happened to you." She said tearfully.
"Hey Mom. Yeah, I'm alright, just wanted to stop by and say hi, make sure everything was good up there."
"Well, it's not the same without you around, but we are doing fine."
"Ok, well, glad everything's ok. I need to get back to tending to Artemis. She was hurt in a fight." She looked a little worried at this. Good thing I hadn't gone into to any details, otherwise she would have probably fainted by now. She nodded in understanding, but I could still see the concern behind her eyes.
"Don't worry, we'll be fine," I reassured her.
"If you say so. Go, baby, make your mother proud," She said, tears flooding into her eyes. My own eyes were starting to get a little wet. I blew her a kiss and swiped my hand through the mist. A single tear fell down my cheek and rolled down my chin, dropping onto the floor with a plop.
I wiped my face and splashed it with water to hide any trace of tears. I didn't want to look weak in front of Artemis. I strode back to her room and opened the door to see her still in the same sitting position I had left her in.
"How did it go?" She asked.
"Fine, I was able to I.M everybody that I wanted to without bursting into tears," I replied,"Anyways, I've been meaning to ask you something, but didn't get the chance today."
"And what might that be?"
"Can I ask you why you were so distant this morning. You didn't say a word to me all morning."
She looked guiltily at the floor and bowed her head.
"You have to understand that I've been against the male gender for pretty much my entire life. Now you come along and you're making me question my views on men. I was trying to distance myself from you so that I wouldn't have to make an exception. So that you would hate me and I could go back to hating you," She said softly.
I placed my hand under her chin and raised her head so that she was forced to look me in the eyes.
"Artemis, you don't have to make an exception for me. You can hate me if you want, but please at least try to see the good in me. You don't have to like me, but I ask that you tolerate me. After this quest is over, if you still hate me, then you don't have to ever speak with me again. For the rest of this mission, just try to see that I am worthy of your friendship because I really hope that I am."
"That's the thing Percy, you are worthy of my friendship. The only male on this planet who is so. I was just to naive to see it. From now on, I'll try to be more friendly towards you. I can assure you that you are the greatest male to ever walk the earth and I definitely don't hate you. Thank you for that," She said. She leaned forwards and kissed my cheek softly. I could feel her lush auburn hair brushing softly against my cheek and her warm breath on my face. As soon as it came, the feeling vanished and she was back leaning against the headboard of the bed.
By the time I had recovered from my shock, she was snoring softly, her head lolling to the side as she slept peacefully.
I blushed and placed my hand on my face where she had kissed me. Wow.
(End of Chapter 16)
the guy who loves all gunpla: Thanks! I'm glad you like it.
Axccel: I wish! But no, I don't want their relationship to grow that fast xD
siqdaqlotay07: I'm not sure about that. I don't know if I want to give Percy powers that may be a little unrealistic.
ghostchilli666: There may be a way to do it some other way. I'll P.M you with more details. Thanks for the review!
A.N: This chapter's a little longer than normal for you guys who wanted longer chapters. Please tell me if you guys think that the Pertemis relationship is moving too fast. Make sure you do so in this next chapter because after that, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to slow it down very easily. Just keep in mind that this story is probably about half way done or maybe a little more. I personally think that it's going pretty well though.