Michael's POV
The entirety of us agreed to leave on August 10th. It gave us enough time to make final preparations for our assault, and gave us some more time to train. A couple times I summoned lightning so powerful Jason said he felt it slightly being painful, from the heat, but nonetheless.
Now, in the night of August 9th, it seemed drastically mournful. I was sitting with Taylor on the top of Half-Blood Hill looking at the constellations.
"Pretty, huh?" A woman's voice asked. I instantly whipped towards the sound, and found Thalia. She was able to stay longer to help, once she asked Artemis.
"Yeah, it seems so much clearer here than in New York. Like, clearer than it should be." Taylor said.
"Yeah, I feel like the gods give us a direct streamline to see into the stars above Camp. You see that one there?" Thalia pointed to a constellation that I only started to recently see in past years.
"I've always wondered where it came from because up until recently I've never seen it." I said back.
Thalia chuckled, looking majestic gazing at the stars with her natural silver glow being accented by the moon. Her Death to Barbie shirt seemed very out of place.
"That was one of M'lady Artemis' former Lieutenant, Zöe Nightshade. She was the Lieutenant before me, and I had the pleasure of knowing her before she passed on."
Taylor and I looked at each-other, before she decided to venture.
"How'd she die?" Taylor cautiously asked.
"About four years ago, Artemis was captured along with Annabeth by the mad Titan Atlas and our old friend Luke. She willingly went on the quest, even though the prophecy said that she would die by her father's, Atlas', hand. As she was dying, Artemis turned her into the stars because she always had this stupid fascination with them." Thalia laughed slightly while brushing her tears away.
"Sorry. I never realized why Zöe had the fascination until I was made Artemis' next Lieutenant." She said.
"And what's that?" Taylor leaned further forward in interest.
"In a thousand years I'll look exactly the same. I won't of aged a day, and my voice will still work. Annabeth, Percy, Jason, everyone I care about will be dead. Hell, even some of my Hunters will be dead. One of mine, Phoebe who lived as long as Zöe since Heracles, died last year fighting Orion in the war against Gaia. But, the stars are constant. At the very least, it will take billions of years for them to die. So looking at them helps calm me down."
"You're very philosophical. Shoulda' been the next Plato instead of a Hunter." I said. Thalia and Taylor laughed, making me crack a smile.
"I hope you guys succeed. If there's something I hate it's uptight rich businessmen who have plans to take over the world. Something tells me that it would interfere with the Amazons plans, but good luck. And do me a favor." Taylor and I leaned close.
"Take care of Percy and Annabeth. Ever since Tartarus those two haven't been the same. Just... keep an eye on them." Thalia hugged the both of us, before taking off towards the bottom of the other side of her hill.
Taylor and I just watched the sun rise over the Atlantic, taking it in. I never realized my life would become so... disordered. But good still came out of the mess. The fact that I met Taylor makes up for ninety percent of everything that's happened.
"You ever think what our life would be like if we didn't have powers?" I asked out loud to Taylor. She was resting her head on my chest looking to the sea, snuggled into me. I smiled.
"Taylor?" I looked at her eyes as best as I could. I was found with her eyes closed and slow breaths coming out. I grinned and just stayed there enjoying her presence and the feeling of safety that encompassed me.
~~~
"Michael! Jesus, you take forever to wake up." I groggily sat up facing Zeus. Taylor was sitting up rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. The sun was fully over the horizon, and was shining brightly on Camp Half-Blood as if it were proud of this specific piece of Earth.
"W-What? What time is it?" I asked, sleep evident in my voice.
"It's nine, so you might want to get ready because we leave in an hour." Zeus went back down the hill leaving Taylor and me alone once again.
"I don't know about you but I'm starving." I said. My stomach growled in agreement. My tics acted up, after having them subdued for so long.
Taylor laughed. "C'mon, let's at least make ourselves presentable for everybody else to not want to claw their eyes out."
She took my hand and led me to the Big House. I thought about the forthcoming battles we would have. We've had no contact with the resistance ever since we were mistakingly captured, and it seemed pretty sad for us to not try to gain contact with them considering they got us here.
"You know, I don't know why the gods don't just snap their fingers and make him disappear." Taylor said once inside.
"I don't know either. Jason said the gods are forbidden to directly interfere in mortals dealings, which seems like a pretty lame setback for being all-powerful." I said, before standing at my door to mine and Ostin's room.
"Bye." Taylor said. She pulled me in for a kiss, and once again my heart lept and my stomach filled with butterflies. We went into our respective rooms, and I saw Ostin sitting on his bed with a bag of Cheetos.
"This place is incredible. Just the fact that that Chiron is the same one that supposedly trained all the heroes of old, is unbelievable. That would make him three-thousand years old, at least. Not to mention that he's technically Kronos' son. Wait, that means that everyone is related on the godly side." Ostin spit up what he was thinking, and I cringed at the thought of incest.
"Ostin, please shut up." I said, rubbing my head. I saw him smile out of the corner of my eye.
"They left some clothes for you on your bed. They said we're leaving by 10:30 so you should probably get ready."
I looked at the clothes spread on the bed, and just saw jeans with an orange shirt that was fitted with it. I'm no fashion master, but I don't think it would look good.
"Where's the shower?" I asked.
"Down the hall and to the left." Ostin replied. I heeded his instructions and found the shower.
I felt the hot water seep into my skin, and felt it turn me red. Steam filled the air so much, that it slightly choked me, so I turned down the hot water. I thought about a lot of things, but mainly focused on what I hope would happen after the war with Hatch. I was looking forward to owning a farm, somewhere in the mid-west, with Taylor and me, possibly Ostin and McKenna too. Everybody else of the clan visiting once in a while, and all of us happy. It gave me much needed serotonin living in my fantasy for a couple minutes.
Somebody banged on the door.
"Michael! Is that you?! We're leaving right now!" I heard Tessa's voice call out. I grumbled and shut the water off, knowing that it might be my last shower ever. I stepped out of the shower and stood in front of the mirror. My brown hair hung slightly in my blue eyes. I took pride in the fact that trying to stay alive gave me some muscle, but I was still relatively skinny. I sighed.
I changed into a set of clothes, and opened the door from the bathroom. Chiron was passing by, and it annoyed me that my freshly showered body would have horse fur on it.
"Son, you do realize we all share the same water system? And you just used up gallons upon gallons of hot water." Chiron looked at me and raised an eyebrow.
"Sorry sir, I'll be more mindful next..." My voice trailed off. There wouldn't be a next time, most likely. Chiron walked off, and I trailed behind him outside of the Big House. Everybody was there, with overnight bags in front of them. The demigods has thermos next to there bags, but I didn't think much of it.
"Heroes. I find it unfortunate that you must interfere with dealings of the mortal man, but the Oracle isn't a spirit to be trifled with. I wish you all a safe return here, and hope not too many monsters find your path. Good luck." Chiron walker off towards the archery range, with his bow slung over a shirt that read, You want to ride me?
We stood there in a grouping, awkward silence permeating the air.
"Let's get going." Annabeth said, finally breaking the silence. She trudged up the hill, with her bag over her shoulder and her thermos dangling from it. Percy followed after her, and the rest of the demigods did as well.
"Here we go." Zeus muttered under his breath, but it was loud enough for most of us to hear. We followed after the half-gods, and looked up the hill, seeing a blond surfer guy with hundreds of warts awaiting us, like he was escorting us to our funeral.