Chapter 23: Pleased To Meet You

Okay, so I've noticed a lot of reviews complaining about how the story's really focused on his children. This is a Pertemis story, and no other relationships will really be focused on, but I want a plot. Sometimes to get a plot, you can't focus on the same two people the whole time. Don't worry though, it's about this point in the story where it starts focusing on Pertemis again. Also, I wrote a lot of oneshots recently. One I had to take down because of some community guidelines rule that basically said I can't just copy paste song lyrics into it. I didn't even know that was a rule, since I've seen plenty of songfics before.

I wrote a particularly disturbing fic called Taste, which I'm thinking about updating. It is really fucked up though. It involves cannibalism, an orgy, and Pertemis. Go check it out if you want.

Chapter 23: Pleased To Meet You

Artemis P.O.V.

We flashed onto Olympus, and I hurried the Hunt to the throne room. We couldn't waste time, not with what just happened. I ran ahead, the hunters all trying to keep up with me. They were tired, having been caught off guard. I couldn't stop to make sure they were alright, I had to warn the council.

I burst into the throne room, literally charging the large metal doors with my shoulder, and approached the middle of the room panting. My father was on his throne chatting with Ganymede when he saw me. His face morphed into one of immediate concern. "Daughter, what troubles you?" He asked, seeing my hunters and the children of Sally Jackson entering the room behind me.

I didn't answer him, instead pulling out my bow and firing at the ceiling, effectively summoning the council. They all flashed in within the next minute, save for Dionysus. I don't know what happened to him, but I'm guessing he ran off. My half-brother was never much of a fighter.

Zeus broke the chatter by silencing everyone, and I went to sit down on my throne. The hunters all respectfully shut up and sat around me, but I could see they were pretty impatient. "So, Artemis, why have you summoned the Olympian council?" Zeus asked, raising an eyebrow in slight boredom.

I was still breathing heavily, the flash and running having sapped most of my energy. "The camp... there was- there were too many. They were too f-fast." I struggled with my words, feeling like I was about to have a stroke. Most of the gods paled. "Is the camp under attack?" Poseidon asked, worried.

I sat up, reaching into my pocket and pulling out a drachma. "Iris." I said, summoning her. The goddess flashed in confused, and I held out the coin. "I don't have time, so just take this and show us something." I said, and she raised a hand. "Keep it, Artemis. I work for free in person, unless I don't like you. So what do you want to see?" She asked as I pocketed the drachma.

"Show us Camp Half-Blood please." I asked, and she nodded. Iris worked her magic, and then in front of us was a misty screen. It showed a scene I did not want to see at all, and had hoped we would not see.

Camp Half-Blood was hardly intact, with many of the buildings burning. Monsters still inhabited the area, though now they weren't charging down the hill. Most of them just roamed around, adding fuel to the fire or collecting bodies.

Oh yeah, the bodies.

Dozens of demigods lay on the ground, bruised and bloodied. I couldn't tell if they were dead, but I assumed they were. Monsters wouldn't have mercy on demigods. They were collecting the bodies and bringing them all somewhere. The view changed, so we saw exactly where they were going. Right in the middle of camp, out in front of all the cabins, there was a huge hole, big enough to fit an elephant in it. You couldn't see the bottom, and all of us gulped as we guessed where it went.

"Tartarus." Athena paled, speaking most of our minds. I could only cover my mouth as the monsters continually dumped the demigods into the hole. Then, we watched as two monsters came forth, holding a conscious and struggling figure. Horse legs kicked at the Minotaur, but he didn't budge. We all gasped as the centaur was dragged closer to the pit. "Chiron!" Zeus shouted, like someone down there would hear him.

We all stared in shock as the centaur tried his best to break free, but it was no use. The Minotaur let go of him, then with one furious kick to the chest, Chiron was sent plummeting down into the depths of Tartarus.

There were two more flashes, and Jason and Piper appeared in the throne room. Piper was clutching her side in pain as Jason supported her. "The camp was overrun! Chiron's been killed, Dionysus is missing and Piper was injured!" Jason informed us, and his wife growled. "It's nothing bad. We have more important things to attend to." She said, stopping Apollo from leaving his seat.

Zeus nodded. "We know son, Artemis summoned the council and Iris has just shown us what happened." He said, and Jason glared. "Why didn't you do anything! My son is missing, he could be dead!" The son of Jupiter screamed, and tears welled in Piper's eyes. She obviously hadn't thought about that yet.

Hera was surprisingly the one to calm him down. "We will send a search party out to look for any who may have escaped, Jason. He might make his way here, too. I doubt your son would just wander around in the woods forever, he's got more common sense than that. He'd try and find a place he knows you'll be. Just be patient, we have other matters to discuss." She said, calming him down a bit.

Jason quieted, and then Zeus turned back to the council. "So... any ideas?" He asked, at a loss for words. Camp Half-Blood had been invaded many times through the centuries, but it had always held strong. The enemy had never actually won. Zeus looked at Athena in particular.

The goddess rubbed her temples in frustration. "I don't know what to tell you, Zeus. Half of our army has just been wiped out in such a short amount of time. I fear that this isn't just a random act of monster aggression. This was planned, very carefully. I think something else is at play, another immortal that wants to destroy Olympus." She said, and the whole room went silent.

Seriously, what was it with Olympus and random immortals trying to take over with their huge monster armies. I mean, we had Kronos, Gaea and Erebus all try the exact same shit in the last 25 years. Of course, we beat them all, but...

"And we don't have Perseus to cover our asses." Ares said, making all our hearts sink as we realised he was right. It was commonly accepted among anyone who didn't have their heads so far up their ass that Percy Jackson was the main reason we won the last three wars. My husband was a very valuable weapon, and now we didn't have him.

"So what's our next course of action?" Poseidon asked, and Athena thought for a moment. "I suppose if this really is war, then we should treat it as such. Get everyone prepared for battle at a minute's notice. We need to warn the Romans. It only makes sense that they'd be the next target, since they're the second half of our army. Whoever this is will likely leave Olympus as the last target, since our defenses are toughest up here." She said.

Suddenly, the door burst open, and Dionysus walked in with a girl. Zeus' face turned red. "Where the hades were you!? You do realise that the camp has just been taken over by monsters, don't you?! It was your job to prevent things like this, Dionysus!" Zeus screamed in frustration, but the god of wine merely rolled his eyes.

He pushed the girl forward, who I then realised was handcuffed and gagged. This infuriated me at first, until I heard what he had to say. "I was apprehending this little delinquent, who seemed to be on very good terms with the monsters. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing her around camp before, which seems really suspicious." He explained, and our eyes widened.

"Are you saying she was a part of this?" Zeus asked, infuriated, and Dionysus nodded, bringing her forward. As she passed, the girl looked at me, her hard eyes softening for a second. She had jet black hair, with a silver streak dyed into it. It reminded me a bit of Percy's grey streak that he had from lifting the sky. From saving me.

The teen girl's strangely silver eyes disconnected from my own, and she was brought into the center of the room, where Dionysus removed her gag and returned to his throne. "Yeuck!" She gagged, trying to get the taste of the rope out of her mouth. Zeus frowned, leaning forward.

"Who are you, girl?" He asked, narrowing his eyes. The girl smirked, closing her eyes and turning her head. "No one important. I'm just a drifter." She said, making my father glare at her. "Do not lie to me, girl. This is a serious matter. Now tell us, did you have anything to do with the attack on Camp Half-Blood?" He asked seriously.

The girl crossed her arms and made a thinking expression, clearly over exaggerating it. After about twenty seconds, her face formed a very fake confused expression as she said. "I don't know, did I?" The girl laughed.

My father was fuming now, and he gripped the armrests of his throne tightly. "Dammit, girl! I know you had something to do with this! Who do you work for!" He yelled, and I knew he was about 10 seconds of sass away from committing murder.

The girl smirked, checking her watch in boredom. "I never said I worked for anyone." She said, looking around the room as her mind looked for something to pay attention to. I found myself reminded of Percy as I looked at her. They definitely resembled each other. Her behaviour was much the same as well, with the words coming out of her mouth being 99% sass.

I shook the thoughts of my husband out as Zeus got more and more infuriated. "If you don't give me some answers right now, I'm going to blow you to Hades!" He shouted, firing up his bolt in preparation. The girl smirked, her eyes drifting to the window as she bit her lip while smiling. "You want an answer?"

Zeus nodded, and we all leaned forward in anticipation. The girl cracked a lopsided grin, and dropped the bomb. "This whole time I've just been a distraction so you didn't notice the army surrounding the throne room, nor my dad getting ready to bust open those doors." She said, pointing towards the main entrance.

Right on cue, the two large doors burst open, and four men walked in. Immediately, the gods all sprung into action, reaching for our weapons, but they were prepared for that. We were dangerously unprepared for this. Large, earthen tendrils appeared from the ground, rising up as if they were organic. They wrapped around our thrones, pulling us back down into them and ensnaring us all. My hunters and the daughters of Sally Jackson shouted in surprise, but they were ensnared as well.

The four men casually walked into the room, and we all struggled to escape our imprisonment. Ares was the one to speak. "Who the Hades are you!?" My uncle frowned, but didn't say anything. The largest man turned his head to stare at the god of war, his expression unknown through the helmet.

He was big, probably a head taller than even Zeus. His body was completely covered with a grey armor, sleek and sharp one every plate. On his head was a helmet made of the same metal, though it had black eye holes and five large horns protruding out of the top. A long black cape billowed behind him as he reached the center of the room.

The other three men were all unmasked, and I noticed they all looked quite similar to the girl in the middle. One of them had auburn hair, but other than that they looked really similar. The large man turned his head away from Ares, towards the tallest of the other men. "Achilles, go free your sister." He said, pointing at the girl.

The most bulky of the three other men nodded, and he walked over to his apparent sister. They looked similar enough. Same jet black hair, same skin tone, I even noticed that they shared glint in their eyes that basically said 'don't fuck with me.' The man raised a weapon up, which I realised was a familiar golden axe, though I couldn't quite place where I'd seen it before.

The girl held out her chained hands, spreading them as far apart as she could, and after he took a moment to aim it up, he brought the axe down upon the chains. The handcuffs broke apart and she stood up and walked towards the armored man. The man unsheathed a golden sword and handed it to her, and it was then that I realised where I'd seen those weapons before.

"Hey! That's Percy's sword! Those are our weapons! You're the ones who stole them?!" I yelled from my immobile spot on my throne. The man's head snapped to me, and I instantly regretted opening my mouth. He walked over to my throne, and I leaned back as far as I could as he towered over me.

The man stood there, not saying anything as he stood over me. Then I shivered as I heard a cold laugh come out of the helmet. "Maybe we did." He said cryptically, moving away back into the middle of the throne room.

"I suppose you'd like an explanation to... all this." He said, gesturing to him and the other people around him. A few of the Olympians nodded, and he laughed again. After coughing, the man turned his head back to us, and the black voids that the helmet had for eyes stared us down.

"Well, where do I start? I... am your new king. These are my children. The army currently surrounding the throne room and awaiting orders to torch Olympus is mine. Basically, this whole operation..." He said, holding his arms out and spinning around in laughter. "...Is mine." The man said.

Something about the man felt familiar. The way he could be so intimidating and radiate so much power yet act so goofy at the same time. It reminded me of a certain someone, someone I hadn't seen in 17 years. But it couldn't be, I couldn't get my hopes up.

"Why am I doing this, you may ask? Well I was once a peaceful little deity, who'd sit down and shut up while you all pranced around doing your godly things. No, that wasn't true. I was well known for being quite a disturbance." My heartbeat increased as I was reminded once again of a certain someone.

"Over time I opened my eyes... and I realised how fucking horrible you people are. I mean, come on! Rape, murder, terrorism, bullying, assault, I mean seriously! The list of your crimes is endless! You are all nothing but tyrants, and I'm here to end your reign." He said so nonchalantly, which actually made me even more scared.

This man had us right where he wanted us. He could give the order and we'd all be put to death. Who knows, he might actually do that. The man turned his head towards me, and my whole body froze in terror. "Of course, not all of you are like this. There are a certain three that shall be exempt from this, but the rest of you will no doubt be punished for all you've done." He said.

We all squirmed. "Who are they?" Hermes asked, and I noticed his fingers were crossed. The man looked around for a second, pausing for a moment on a few people. "Hestia, Hephaestus and Artemis. They will not be punished." The rest of the Olympus visibly tensed, and I noticed a few were panicking.

"Who are you!?" Poseidon shouted, trying to act as if he had any authority in this situation. I noticed the three younger men were trying to stifle their laughter while the large man stared at Poseidon. "I think you of all people should know who I am, Poseidon."

He turned around, walking towards the door. "Let's play Guess Who. Here's your hints, very easy hints if I'm being honest. I am a son of Poseidon. I was a very famous hero. I knew most of you personally, some of us were even friends. I fought many of your wars and killed many of your enemies. Then, I died while doing so, and now I'm back. Any ideas?" He asked, reaching the doors and standing so he was facing us all.

I gulped as tears reached my eyes, and I almost broke down right there. "Percy?..." I said quietly, making his, uh, children look at me with grins on their faces. The armored man chuckled, reaching up for his helmet.

We watched with bated breath as he pulled the helmet over his head and held it in his hands. I almost fainted as I saw the familiar lopsided smirk and messy black hair, with sea-green eyes staring into mine. They looked the same as the day he'd died, but now they had less excitement in them. "Ding, ding, ding. You got it." He spoke, and I choked on my words.

Percy stood in front of me, alive.

Thump

Percy cried out in pain and lurched forward, clutching the back of his head. He spun around as his children drew their weapons. His children. Does that mean... Wait, I can move! When Percy was hit over the head, the ensnaring tendrils shattered into many little pieces, and we could all stand up again.

"Wait, Percy?" Jason asked, lowering his Imperial Gold sword for a moment with a raised eyebrow. Percy hissed in pain, glaring at his friend. "What the hell, Jason?!" He yelled in frustration. The blond didn't care, as he dropped his sword to the floor and leapt forward to give the son of Poseidon a hug.

Percy dodged it, fury in his eyes, and he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a horn, carved from some type of bone with many different markings on it. Glaring at everyone in the room but a select few, he brought the horn to his mouth and blew it. Our hearts sank as we heard a loud boom, and lots of screaming outside.

Hermes ran outside to see what was going on, and many of us followed. The only ones who remained in the room were Zeus, Poseidon, Hestia, Percy, Selena, his children and I. Percy placed a hand on the back of his head and then looked at it, checking for blood. He raised a hand, pointing towards the door. "Olympus is lost to you. Now go."

We didn't hesitate to follow his orders.

Zeus fled the room in a hurry, and after looking at each other for a few seconds, everyone else followed. My head turned to Percy, planning on saying something, but he was gone. I heard an explosion in the distance and remembered my hunters, immediately panicking and running off to find him.

I ran around a burning Olympus for ten minutes, watching in horror as my home was destroyed in front of me. I faintly recognised many piles of rubble as buildings I knew. Houses, shops, even just landmarks were all being destroyed by the army of monsters running around. As I looked on in horror, I wondered how Perseus, the Hero of Olympus, could do something like this.

That man was not the one I married.

"Mom!" I heard the familiar cry of my daughter ring out, and my head turned as she clutched onto my arm. "Mom, we have to go! I got separated from the Hunters, but they were heading with the crowd. We have to go now!" She said, tugging on my arm. I stood frozen as citizens ran in terror all around me. Somewhere in amongst all this chaos were my hunters.

"They'll be fine. Thalia will lead them to safety. Let's just hope the Hunt has Ari and Estelle with them. Come on." I told her, grabbing her hand and flashing us out.

We arrived in a forest, somewhere in Oregon to be precise. Selena let go of my arm and bent over, spewing her lunch all over the forest floor. I swallowed what little saliva my dry mouth contained and walked over to her, grabbing her hair and holding it away from her face considerately.

When she was done, she thanked me and pulled me into a hug. I frowned as I felt the wetness of her tears staining my silver shirt. I rubbed the back of her head in a soothing way, and after a few minutes her shivering calmed down a bit and she looked up at me.

"Mom.... Was that really Dad?" She asked, her eyes red. I swallowed again, expecting that kind of question. To be honest, I wasn't sure. "I hope not, Selena. That was not the Perseus I knew." I told her. My daughter nodded, staying in my arms for a few more seconds.

During that time, I heard a stick break, and I let go of Selena. She made to question me, but I shushed her and crept forward. The woods were dead silent, not a single sound could be heard. Not even the normal bird noises that you usually paid no mind were there.

As I took another silent step forward, I felt my stomach lurch as my foot became caught in something and my whole body was flipped upside down. A snare trap. Damn, I should've thought about traps before I started moving forward, or I should've at least kept my eyes on the forest floor.

Selena screamed, and I turned my body around with force. My eyes widened as I saw a man holding his hand to my daughter's mouth, and after a few seconds she slumped into unconsciousness. I screamed out, distraught and angry, and the man carefully placed Selena's body on the floor.

As he approached me, my heart raced as I began to think it was Perseus. Quite tall with black messy hair and a grin on his face. I thought for a second that it was truly my husband, not the imposter I'd seen on Olympus. That was, until he reached me and I stared into the familiar celestial bronze eyes.

My old hunting partner, Orion, stood in front of me, grinning menacingly.

Okay, I'm gonna be honest with y'all, I'm not really happy with this chapter. Mainly the part where Percy reveals himself, that part felt pretty rushed and unattended, and I feel like I should've put more attention on that scene. It doesn't matter, I'll just post this so you guys have something to ready. Thankfully, Percy and Artemis have been reunited, and now it'll start being Pertemis again. I might put a lemon in the next chapter or the one after, depending on how big the next chapter gets.

Who's your favourite nazi? Mines either Rommel, Goering or Heydrich.

Word Count: 3978